TPTV Films Page 46

Hell Is a City (1960)

When you see a film title like this, it usually means it's a pile of shit they've tarted up with a come and watch me word like "Hell" in the title, but like Hell Drivers, in which Stanley Baker also stars, this is a bloody good film, which I thoroughly enjoyed.

Vicious hard man murderer/jewel thief (played by American John Crawford) escapes from jail, murdering a prison warder along the way, and sets out to recover a hoard of jewels he hid somewhere in Manchester (not London, for a change!), and also kill the policeman who put him away, played by Stanley Baker.

He calls on all his old crook friends/girlfriends to help him hide and plan a street heist of money, in which a young girl carrying the money gets killed, and so develops a fast-paced cops and robbers chase in the classic style.

Excellent 10/10

Journey to the Seventh Planet (1962)

I'm a sucker for these early space/horror films, just to see how bloody awful they were, and this one doesn't disappoint!

But maybe we can be a bit kind as it seems to have been made primarily in Denmark, with American actors, which maybe explains the slapdash use of stock footage and going from B&W to colour and back, with stilted acting, toe-curling dialogue and wonky scenery.
Yes, worthy of a (that's minus) -10 out of 10

Oh, and the Yanks have taught me another pronunciation of Uranus, on top of Your Anus or Urenus - we now also have Urarnus. Take yer pick.?

Assassin for Hire (1951)

Didn't expect much, but turned out to be a very good film, AND starring Sydhey Tafler! No bit parts for him here (also just happened to watched him in The Larkins on DVD)

So, with an Italian accent, he subsidises his life style as a dealer in stamps and to support his kid brother to become a maestro of the violin, by killing people to order, cheap and quick.

The police know it is him, but can never pin anything on him UNTIL.............and here is a neat twist at the end that I didn't see coming, but I reckon a number of TPTV viewers might not have been happy with them hinting at what happens in the end. Fortunately, I hadn't read their synopsis; but naughty, naughty TPTV!!!!!

Yes, good film and well done Mr Tafler! Oh, and there's one of your mates again - Sam Kydd in a small part.

Blood Orange (1956) Yank title Three Stops to Murder

Pretty mundane jewel theft, multiple murders cover-up, with George Sanders' brother again as super sleuth Tom Conway, which unusually is his actual name - can't think of any other film that has happened in(?)

Anyway, filmed all around London with some great cars, which was about the most interesting thing about the film, as the hour and sixteen minutes seemed to go on forever, in a confusing plot set in a fashion that I rapidly lost interest in.

3/10

Confession (1955) Yank title The Deadliest Sin

Token American (Charlie Chaplin's son Sydney) takes flight to the UK with $250,000 and has his partner in crime on his tail, ironically Patrick Allen with American accent, whereas Sydney Chaplin is supposed to be English, and visits his family of suspicious father and sister who thinks the sun shines out of his proverbial, even after he kills her boyfriend, which she doesn't believe.

Throw in Scotland Yard, who have been warned and you have quite a good film, as Chaplin thinks the boyfriend told a priest of what happened, and so Chaplin has to also kill the priest.

I could see a nice twist coming, but it didn't happen, and instead we had YET AGAIN a chase up the stairs of a very high warehouse, and you know exactly what that is leading to....................AAAARRRRGGGGHHHHH! Thump

Good film, poor end.

Once again thanks to Herc for searching out the diamonds in the dogshit!

Quote: beaky @ 22nd July 2022, 10:39 AM

Once again thanks to Herc for searching out the diamonds in the dogshit!

View original

Thank you. It's a trial, but someone has to do it. I'm bearing up, and pearls do come along occasionally.

Dick Barton Strikes Back (1949)

Only watched this because my Dad and me were avid listeners of Dick Barton on the radio, in which he managed to scrape through, with Snowy White, his faithful sidekick, as they rid the world of some maniac trying to blow it up - a sort of super-duper James Bond.
And the only connection between this load of tat and the radio series, was they used the same theme music "The Devil's Gallop", which immediately sucked you into the ongoing gripping tale that Dick and Snowy had got themselves into, where each week they would have to extricate themselves from some impossible certain death situation.

The only thing that had me interested was the fabulous Allard sports job he drove around in - what a beautiful looking car. (see below)
Apparently, Peter Wyngarde was in it as an uncredited soldier, and sobering trivia was that in real life, Don Stannard (Dick Barton) was killed in a car crash just after the release of this film and so the "franchise" was lost, and of course, we then got James Bond. Stannard was driving the car, and the passenger was Sebastian Cabot, who played the villain Fouracada in the film, and survived the crash.

Dick Barton: Special Agent (1948)

Shown out of order by TPTV, and much the same as previous, only this time those dastardly Germans are intending to poison the London water system with tiny bombs of Cholera.

The action and fight scenes are laughable, but at least Hammer Films, who made this rubbish, went on to better things.

Sign of the times, which wouldn't make it in a film now, unless as a deliberate joke :-

Horrified old spinster............
Jean Hunter: "It's no use Betsy, I can't stand it any longer. I'm going out to look for Dick"

Face the Music (1954) Yank title "The Black Glove", and yet again WHY?!?

Another British film, with American hunk to sell it to the States, but it's messy, and in the big reveal at the end you don't care anyway.
Our usual stock American is the Canadian Paul Carpenter, and he is in it, but in a minor role.

So this American jazz trumpeter gets involved in the London/Soho underworld after he's attracted to a night club singer who then gets murdered.

Scotland Yard get involved, and yet again decide to let the Yank sort it out, so that in the final scene the American gathers police and suspects together, as he does an Agatha Christie summing up a la Hercule Parrot.

The only good thing to come out of it, is to see Kenny Baker's Dozen Jazz Band

Phantom from Space (1953)

Another hour and a quarter of hokum, but just about worth it for the laughs - ironically these sorts of films used to scare me shitless when I watched them in the cinema, after getting a 'nice man' to pretend he was my father so I could get into these "Under 15s, MUST be accompanied by an adult" films.

Anyway, some sort of craft crashes out of control and the alien spaceman can only survive with his suit on, AND to add the thrills, he is invisible without it. He is clearly dying, but "we" try to save him.

Murder by Proxy (1954) Yank title Blackout, which in this instance I think is better and more applicable. - never thought I'd hear myself saying that!

So, token Yank, this time played by Dane Clark, gets tangled with gorgeous rich girl Belinda Lee (who tragically was killed in car crash aged only 25) as she sets him up for murder, but then the plot gets unhinged and they appear to have not had any idea of where it was going, with red herrings galore. I lost track and interest, and only kept watching because of the cars and London scenes - another thing that occurs to me seeing these 1950s films set in London is not only the lack of traffic, but also people at night - it's like they've all gone home to get to bed early, even in London!!

3/10

The Hills of Donegal (1947)

Absolutely not my type of film at all, especially when it started in a theatre with a musical going on and those shrill voices they all seemed to have in that period, but stuck with it because Irene Handl and Moore Marriott were in it, and it turned out to be a pleasant 1½ hours, with a dark ending.

Also starred Dinah Sheridan, who is always worth a watch, and John Bentley, who is usually the good egg, but here was the villain.

4/10

The Glass Cage (1955) Yank title The Glass Tomb

Both titles apply to a sideshow (actually a small glazed room within a tent) where the gullible public pay 1/- (5p) to gawp at a fat man (B movie regular Eric Pohlmann) not eat for 70 days, and all makes for a film that is bloody ridiculous and another load of toss from the early days of Hammer.

Token Yank (Canadian) John Ireland is the man who puts on the show, courtesy of big business man Sid James. Throw in Honor Blackman and decent parts for B movie regulars Sam Kydd and Sydney Tafler, and an unrecognisable Bernard Bresslaw as Ivan the Terrible Cossack (say no more), a couple of murders and a very laid back Irish Scotland Yard detective, and..................I've lost interest.
2/10

The Last Page (1952) Yank title, the unsophisticated "Man Bait"

Mainly watched this because the gorgeous!!!! 21-year-old Diana Dors was in a lead part, and My Godshe looked HOT in this - I came over all unnecessary.

I even forgave the film for having one of my least fave actors Peter Reynolds in it, but give him his due, he can play evil well.
So, you have everything in this - hot passion, blackmail and murder, making for a very good film.

Even Harry Fowler as a good lad young geezer had a part, but nothing for Sam Kydd in this one - perhaps he was on holiday when they were casting.

The Weapon (1956)

This would have been more enjoyable if they hadn't had George Cole in the part of the villain (no spoiler - it's manifest early on), because with his "Flash Harry" tash, I couldn't get out of my head the picture of him as the inept boss of a gang in the very good comedy "Two Many Crooks".

So, kid(s) find hand gun on bomb site and while wrestling ownership between them, one gets shot and the shooter goes on the run, thinking he has killed his friend. If you like to see London as it was then - this is the film! The shots of the boy running through various bits of the city are manifold.

Big hunt on for the kid, for obvious reasons, but also it turns out the gun was used in a murder mystery some 10 years previous of an American GI in the war that Cole was involved in, so now everyone is trying to find this kid, who won't give himself up for fear of being hanged for murder. And so we have a token Yank who flies over to help the police find the person who owned the gun.
Good film actually, apart from the George Cole part.

Oh, and for ISIHAC fans, the boy's mother lives in Mornington Crescent.