A bunch of British comedies from 1955
Simon & Laura (Box / 6/10)
Josephine and Men (Boulting / 5/10)One Good Turn (Carstairs / 5/10)
As Long as They’re Happy (Thompson / 5/10)
Man of the Moment (Carstairs / 5/10)
Doctor at Sea (Thomas / 6/10)
The Ladykillers (MacKendrick / 10/10)
Banger
Some 1955 noirs. Mostly standard stuff but with one stand out exception.
Killer’s Kiss (Kubrick / 5/10)
Kiss Me Deadly (Aldrich / 7/10)
5 Against the House (Karlson / 6/10)
Chicago Syndicate (Sears / 5/10)
Rififi (Dassin / 10/10)
I saw it as an Indonesian SW and, as such, was very impressed. I thought it stood on its own as just a good movie to watch, irrespective of liking SWs. And yeah, the final scene is as SW as it gets.
Watched that again the other day as well, what a lovely movie. When I saw it as a child (I guess I was 8 or 9 years old) I played ‘Peter Sellers’ for days. I guess that how my love for bad guys started.
Yesterday I (re)watched Hard Boiled. What a movie…
Watching it on the big screen in the early 90’s was amazing… met the star Chow Yun Fat shortly after too…great guy… incredible movie
Agatha Christie’s Seven Dials
A new adaptation – a Netflix production – of Agatha Christie’s 1929 adventure/espionage novel. The central character is not Hercule Poirot or Miss Marple, but a young girl called Lady Eileen ‘Bundle’ Brent, a character Agatha Christie only used a couple of times, during her first period as an author of crime novels. She wasn’t too fond of the character herself but in retrospect it’s one of her best creations.
A party at Bundle’s home ends in disaster: Her fiancé is found dead in his bed the next morning. The doctor, alerted to the case, attributes it to natural causes (a combination of alcohol and a sleeping potion), but Bundle is not satisfied with this explanation and sets out to investigate. Soon, she finds herself embroiled in an international espionage case with far-reaching consequences for the security of her homeland, good old England.
Although the familiar puzzle element is certainly present (the question remains: who is the criminal mastermind?), the story gains more colour and depth thanks to the setting during the interwar period, featuring all the typical characteristics of that era, such as the fear of a new international conflict, the decline of the British aristocracy (who are no longer able to maintain the grand country houses), and the discovery of new weapons that could give the course of history a dramatic turn.
This new adaptation is not perfect, some story elements (the formula! The secret society!) sound a bit over-simplistic and not all the jokes land (the tone is occasionally quite light-hearted), but costumes, sets and especially the acting are outstanding: the relatively unknown Mia McKenna-Bruce is endearing and she receives excellent support from experienced professionals such as Helena Bonham Carter and Martin Freeman.
**** out of 5
Have watched this also on Netflix. Nice entertainment though I could see the conclusion coming miles away
That usually the case in those Agatha Christie thrillers, isn’t it? But in this particular case I was surprised: I read the book decades ago, and if I’m not mistaken, they added a another twist to the conclusion. Since it is so long ago that I read the book, I might be wrong though.
Another handful of British films from 1955
I am a Camera (Cornelius / 7/10)
The Dam Busters (Anderson / 7/10)
Footsteps in the Fog (Lubin / 6/10)
John & Julie (Fairchild / 4/10)
The Colditz Story (Hamilton / 6/10)
Cast a Dark Shadow (Gilbert / 7/10)
I saw The Dam Busters in cinema back in the late ‘60s or early ‘70s. Although it’s from 1955, the year I was born, it was shown around that time in cinemas in Holland. I remember that I liked it a lot. I must have been about 15 years old and the movie looked quite spectacular. Don’t know if it would have the same effect on me today, but overall I like old movies better than the new ones, even if the special effects look dated.
Crime 101. That was pretty darn solid.
The Paris Sex Murders (1971) - on the Forgotten Gialli Volume 2 box set from Vinegar Syndrome, VS have gone the extra mile in getting pristine blu rays of these trash films. This one is quite weird, not least for the presence of Robert Sacchi, a Humphrey Bogart lookalike, who plays the detective investigating various murders connected to an upper class brothel. Sacchi plays the detective as Bogart, wearing a trenchcoat and adapting all the actor’s mannerisms and everyone in the cast ignores this and acts as if he is normal. Some laughably silly decapitations and other gory killings plus nudity. The cast includes Anita Ekberg, Rosalba Neri, Barbara Bouchet, Peter Martel and Howard Vernon as a mad scientist who cuts up an eye on-screen. A limp first half hour but gets better and sillier.
It is a little dated in parts and the special effects are hit and miss but still very enjoyable and something of a cultural classic in the UK.
Thougt so, see if I can find a copy somewhere
I live nearby one of the lakes of which the dam was blown. Many died then.
I’ve always been very thankful that I have lived in a time of peace and friendships in Europe. My parents and grandparents were not so fortunate. I hope the next generation are as lucky as us.
Me too, especially as at the moment guys like Putin, Trump, Xi are playing dangerous games. The first time in my life that I’m a bit pessimistic for the future.
Wake up world …
Personally I’m more afraid of internal tensions. When I was young, political movements were rivals, and the followers did not like each other, far from it, but they did not hate each other to the core. There were violent movements, such as the various left-wing and right-wing urban militias in Italy and Germany, but all in all, they were still limited in size. Today, people hate each other, and there are various far-right and far-left groups that are much larger in size and all are willing to use violence. And I haven’t even mentioned the greatest danger yet: Jihadism. No, I am not at ease about that.
