Reviews

Jack Buchanan was as they used to say,a star of stage and screen He had a stellar career prior to 1940. Like many actors of his generation his screen career came to a full stop with the begining of World War 2. There was a 13 year gap till he made what was essentially his valedictory film,The Band Waggon. He obviously chose this film as he was in the stage play upon which the film is based. An unwise choice as it turned out. He does a lot of mugging, probably because he realises just how unfunny the script was.

The spoof of Johnny Ray just doesn't work. At times it is just boring.

It's a pity that Diana Dors was able to take the female lead,it might have enlivened proceedings.

Jack Buchanan had just two films left before his untimely passing.

One of the many sixties films that seem to have disappeared from view. I was however able to acquire a 16mm print.

It is of course the Terry Thomas show from begining to end. He is in charge of the Barbery Apes on Gibraltar. Unfortunately the sole male dies so Thomas is put in charge of the mission to locate and bring to Gibraltar a male ape.

The film has numerous sub plots which tend to Peter out. As a result the film is rather longer than the story can bear.

There is a really excellent cast,which includes Warren Mitchell in ABIT part,Lee Montague and James Villiers. Thomas is ably supported by George Sanders and Lionel Jeffries. This is an amusing father than a laugh out loud film.

For a start this wasn't made in the UK but at Ardmore Studios in Ireland.

This purports to show the events and actual events leading to the battle. The East End of London comes across as the Wild West rather than the poorer part of London.

The film starts with an attempted robbery by anarchists which probably had no connection with the battle. However by inserting Kieran Moore into both incidents it makes the link between the two.

The ironic thing in this is that nobody was actually convicted for murders and other sundry offences. Two unidentified bodies in the fire,so who was responsible remains a mystery to this day.

Keith Chegwin plays a young Robin Hood. Maurice Kauffman plays the bad baron and Andrew Sachs plays a friar.

A young Lady Marion is told by her villainous uncle that her father has died in the Crusades. He actually arranged the poisoning of the father. He is plotting to get the castle and lands for himself.

Lady Marion is helped to escape from the castle by the Court Jester. However Robins brother is subsequently taken prisoner and of course Robin and his band have to break into the castle to rescue him. At this point the father returns and the Baron is vanquished.

From the documentary on the DVD it would appear that the young actors performed their own stunts without appropriate safety precautions.

This B feature was produced by an independent producer for distribution by Anglo Amalgamated.

Cameron Mitchell is the parachuted in American fading star.

His boy is kidnapped by a gang featuring a pre Step toe Harry H Corbett and Kenneth Cope.

Mitchell decides to sow disention among the gang by paying double the amount asked for. This it does as one of the gang is murdered.

However, instead of taking the money and running they decide to ask for more.

As in this genre it is invariably the father who takes control of the situation rather than the police.

Having found the gangs hiding place he fights off two of the gang and then toats Corbett, literally. Pases 67 minutes reasonably.

Ask with probably had the best known bum courtesy of the Confessions series. Here we have to believe that he is a prisoner on the loose with dangerous criminal,Ray Barrett. The later has injured his leg escaping from prisons. They eventually make their way to a farm house where three children have been left alone. We then get all the usual plot lines associated with this type of film. A doctor is called to attend to Barrett. Askwith takes his car and is caught at the locals railways station.

Barrett's tea is doctored with sleeping pills. When the parents return he takes the car and a son in their car. Eventually falling asleep a desperate chase follows.

Quite an effective film from the CFF.

Film makers seemed to enjoy shooting climactic fights in the dark. This was alright for cinema audiences as they were able to see in the dark. However watching this on television makes it incomprehensible,much like Dane Clarke's character.

For a start he is an ex con and would be let nowhere near a club licence.

He aspires to mix with the upper classes,despite being rooked by one. Then allowing himself to be conned by another.

He also allows himself to be pushed around by gangster Eric Pohlman.

So he really doesn't have a lot going for him.

All considered this a rather feeble and confused attempt to make a tough film noir.

Cafe proprietor Max Bacon was a drummer in the band of Ambrose.

Six children are playing with a model plane. It flies into the top of a tower. The restaurant of the film is devoted to their efforts to recover the plane. They get a rope to climb up but the rope is thrown into the same opening.

So the next idea is to get a ladder,which is the longest ladder you could ever imagine. Naturally it gets involved in numerous farcical situations. It is not long enough. So they buy a fireman's ladder at an auction .Getting it to the tower proves to be an extremely daunting task.. However as they are disrupting traffic the police drive them near to the tower. When they finally get to the top of the tower a donkey walks off with the ladder and the rope. However the donkey finds the way in so they can get out.

Too many jokes are repeated,and general lack of inventiveness.

Nice to see Peter Butterworth and Michael Balfour.

Dane Clarke was a star with Warner Brothers in the nineteen forties. However with the end of the studio era,actors such as Clarke had to freelance. So from starring with the likes of Bette Davis,Ida Lupino and Cary Grant he moved on down to this type of B feature. I don't think his presence lends anything to this film.

The main problem is the script which is totally inept. Paul Carpenter is supposed to be blackmailed into killing Clarke otherwise Clarke will send a letter to the authorities about a killing by Carpenter in a South American country, where he had already been acquitted in a trial. So no big deal about that.

A bomb is planted in Clarke's desk with Clarke and his secretary standing beside it. It goes off but neither is hurt.

The ending is predictable. Not one of Hammers better efforts.

The film starts off promisingly in a night club with an unsuccessful attempt at murder .So one thinks this maybe an attempt at a James Bond rip off. There is a lot of running about Trieste.

Then the action switches to Africa in a hunt for treasure. Lots of shots of animals. So you don't really know what genre of film you are supposed to be watching. I can only suppose that the writers must have literally lost the plot. The longer this goes on the more difficult it becomes to follow.

This is the last film of John Bentley. He had had a reasonable career. He was to go on to appear in 255 episodes of that Midlands saga Crossroads.

Bebe Daniels made her first film in 1910. She appeared in RKOs first musical,Rio Rita,in 1929. She was outstanding in 42ndStreet. She subsequently came to London in the thirties. Her husband Ben also had a long career. He jokes about his appearance in Hells Angels.

The couple started in ,Hi Gang on radio in the war Subsequently appearing and co writing Life With the Lyons on Radio.

Val Guest wrote the screenplay for this extremely unfunny film. It actually feels like 3 TV episodes strung together. Moving into a house,planning a water feature,and daughters planned marriage. It has to be said that the acting and direction do not help matters.

I just found this film tobe such a ludicrous misrepresentation of the era that I left after one hour. The storyline,such as it is makes no sense. A boy is sent on his own to a safe place in the country. Wrong they were sent in a group.. He doesn't want to go,opens the carriage door and jumps off a moving train,unhurt.

Then he jumps on a goods train where there are other evacuees. They are chased at the goods yard,bit like Wild Boys Of The Road.

In London he is wandering around a shopping arcade with it's lights blazing,in the middle of the blitz.

It looks like the director wants to impose his views of the era on this dreadful film.

At this time in their existence Hammer were concentrating on filming radio series. This was based on a BBC character called Celia. She agrees to help out a private detective who believes that an old lady is being gaslighted by her toy boy husband. So she agrees to go and be the cleaner at the couples house for £50,so she can buy a hat. It would appear that that is now worth in current money £4400. So obviously a good hat.

The toy boy is blackmailing a doctor to give her harmful pills so she will think that she is sleepwalking at night .

It is an entertaining film despite familiar narratives and lasting just over an hour. There are 4 credited writers one of whom is Roy Plomley of desert island discs fame.

An American journalist,dressed mainly in a trenchcoat blunders around London trying to find the killer of the brother of his girlfriend. Caesar Romero,is the journalist. He finds the killer more by accident than design.

There are so many laughable moments, unintentional,in this film. Romero is hiding behind a curtain in the murdered man's room,the police, Campbell Singer,and Romero sticks his hand out to retrieve an item. The hotel receptionist who goes gaga at the sight of Romero and Romero accidentally breaking Singers pipe on numerous occasions.

The murderer is revealed at 1.06.

Finally the climactic shootout is hilarious and dirty cheap for Hammer as it was shot in a sound stage.

Totally forget able.

Robert Donat was a fine actor. However due to his preference for the stage and his ill health he only made 31 films compared to 88 for Laurence Olivier.

This film betrays it's stage origins, with only a little attempt to open it out.

It's all a rather obvious type of farce. After all Dora Bryan does her best to make her character as nasty as possible. After all why would Donat have ever proposed to her in the first place.

On the other hand Renee Ashersons character is so sweet and understanding,he would be mad not to marry her.

Made by Alexander Korda when he was running and bankrupting British Lion.