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In the Middle (2022)
I know the feeling I was a referee
For 22 years I was a referee and so I can empathise with referees featured in this film. I was a class 3 referee and so most of my games were on local parks. I was never assaulted or spat at in my time.
I admire the class 3 referees shown in this film, without them games could not go ahead.
I never had much time for senior referees,I thought they were cliquey and rather patronised class 3.
I was once a 4th official at Chelsea,and all the officials talked about was how much money they were going to make particularly on mid week matches. Premier League referees are on an ego trip.
Referees like Ron are pure gold.
90 Minutes (2019)
Wish I could understand the dialogue
I was a referee for twenty two years, mostly on the parks. Thankfully I only referred once at Hackney Marshes. A cold and uninviting place. The referees had their own room and if you didn't belong to their association they wouldn't let you in.
Dozens of games going on side by side. To me it was the worst possible atmosphere.
I don't remember too many games like the one shown in this film. Everybody shouting at each other. The only words I could understand were the four letter variety.
The film was concentrating on the characters surrounding the pitch more than what was going on on the pitch. I would show it a red card.
Matthews (2017)
I saw Matthews play.
I saw Stanley Matthews play twice,both times at my club, Arsenal.
The first time was in 1953, Arsenal winning 3-1. I have little memory of this.
The second time was in 1961,his last year with Blackpool. He had a quiet game and Arsenal won 2-0.
The film did a good job of his playing career. It hardly mentioned his unsuccessful as a manager with Port Vale.
There was rather too much of the film spent on his coaching career in South Africa.
Perhaps too many talking heads,but this is probably a consequence of how few matches were actually filmed during the period that he was active. So we have to rely mainly on newsreels of his international career.
Guns of Loos (1928)
Dreadful musical accompaniement
Funnily enough I was watching Dark Angel ,a 1935 Sam Goldwyn film. In it 2 men love the same woman. When they go away to war Frederic March is blinded and ends up in a pow camp. So Merle Oberon turns to Herbert Marshall,and is about to marry him till they discover where March island March hides his blindness till the fadeout in Oberon's arms.
I wonder if they borrowed the plot of this film.
It is rather slow, despite effective battle scenes. I had to play the film slightly faster to avoid having to hear the cacophonous musical accompaniement which seems like a modern addition.
This film was made at the Stoll Studios in Cricklewood,just a couple of miles from me.
Lilli Marlene (1950)
Typical B film from Monarch
Monarch film productions was a typical producer of films for the bottom half of a bill,with a few exceptions. They were on the same rung of the ladder as the likes of Butchers, Mancunian and Eros. So to expect a enlivening experience is being rather too optimistic.
The narrative is totally fictitious. The song,Lili Marleen,was introduced by Swede Lala Andersen in 1937. Originally sung in German. Taken up by the Allied troops in the North African desert. It took on a whole new life when sung by Marlene Dietrich. She sang it at her concerts for the rest of her life.
So if you are expecting any of that story to appear in this film forget it. Strictly B feature stuff.
Circus Friends (1956)
The Carry On team made this CFF film
This film was made by Peter Rogers and Gerald Thomas one year before they launched into the Carry On series.
Lots of familiar faces on view. The first who comes into view is Sam Kydd,a farm labourer,who goes to warn the farmer that the circus are going into his land. Seems they had an unsuccessful season previously but notwithstanding this decide to use the same place. The farmer will only agree if he puts up the circus as surety. However the circus is a flop,so the farmer takes the talented pony Pinto. However the children take Pinto back and hide him. Carol White is the lead in an early role.
Eventually the pony is taken back to the circus and the performance is so successful that they can pay the farmer his money. Fairly routine stuff.
The Phoenix and the Magic Carpet (1995)
Only worth watching for the voice of Peter Ustinov
I was always a great fan of Peter Ustinov and only watched this film because of his vocal contributions.
This is basically a children's film though heaven knows what age group.
T
The film relies to a great extent on its special effects which are almost amateurish. It is difficult to believe that the Director won an oscar for his special effects on a Superman film.
There are a number of flying carpet sequence s and they are so obviously blue screen effects. The Phoenix,voiced by Ustinov looks more like a hand glove puppet.
The screenplay
The acting of the three principal children is competent.
The screenplay seems to be an amalgamation of different story lines.
The Flamingo Affair (1948)
Routine Quota Quickie
Dennis Webb is a former army officer who is now a garage mechanic. He goes to a nightclub to tell his story of woe. He has become infatuated with a glamorous blonde,Collette Melville. He steals a cigarette case from her var,and returns it to her to introduce himself. She has a number of wealthy mentioned who help sustain her lifestyle. She is also involved with a gang of crooks. She persuades Webb to help in the robbery of his bosses safe. However he has an attack of conscience and tours the gang. When the police arrive he tells them she is just a customer.
Behind the bar there is the motif of a spider in a we.b,at the end the web crumbles!
The film is directed by Horace Shepherd,maker of many musical shorts. So we get musical interludes from Eugene Pin I and Stefan Grapelli. Ray Ellington can be spotted playing the drums.
Baby and large fairly tame stuff.
Blackmailed (1951)
Unseen Bogarde film
So far as i know this film has not been shown on tv at all so it is largely unknown.
It has a strong cast Mai Zetterling has the lead above a young Dirk Bogarde.
A young woman is knocked over whilst ctcling by an Essoldon cinema. She is taken to a hospital where Fay Compton is the Almoner. Fay decides to deliver the parcel she was carrying..It turns out that the receipient,James robertson Justice,is a blackmailer. Mai Zetterling is pleading with him to let her have £50. When Compton realises that the cash in the package is a payoff she demands a receipy. Justice refuses and turns nasty. Compton,grabs a handy gun and shoots him dead. Also hanging around are Robert Flemyng who is being blackmailed and Dirk Bogarde,who is a deserter,and was buying fresh identity papers and a passport.
The film does turn a bit noveletish when Flemyng and Zetterling have a brief romance. Everything works out quite neatly with Bogarde falling to his death when chased by policeman Bruce Seton,,Zetterling reunited with her ailing husband,a youthful Michael Gough,and Compton confessing to the murder. Routine but entertaining.
The Limbo Line (1968)
Sun par Bond imitation
James Bond has a lot to answer for. His success is responsible for dire films such as this. Craig Stevens is the American parachuted in to the lead. He was strictly a B movie and television actor,who at age 50 was a bit long in the tooth for such roles. He like much of the cast have the vocal dexterity of a speak your weight machine. The direction is poor and predictable.
As for the plot,by the time this film was made the plots were interchangeable,invariably,as in this case,involving a dastardly plot by the Russian,with a sultry woman doing her best to seduce and slay our dashing over age hero. You can watch in You Tube if you are that desperate.
Murder in the Family (1938)
Lots of famous names behind and in front of the camers
Behind the camera is future Hollywood director Ronald Neame and cameraman Issue Morris.
On the acting side there is future Oscar winner and Evelyn Ankers,destined with Tandy to go to Hollywood.
The children of the family are played by Toddy McDowell and Glynis Johns.
A police sergeant is played by W. Simpson(Bill)Fraser and an Estate Agent by Wilfred Hyde White.
This was one of the last films made under the 1928 Quota legislation.
The problem is that we see the murder of the rich aunt so there is not much tension. In fact the denouement is rather anti climactic. However it is a reasonably entertaining film,seen by a sold out audience at the BFI Southbank.
After Dark (1932)
A young Hugh Williams
This is a quota quickie made by Fox British pictures at Nettlefold Studios,presumably to support on of their American films. Fox in fact subsequently acquired Wembley Studios for production of their films. This studio was subsequently used for the first television productions by Associated Redifusion tv in 1955.
The leading man is a very young Hugh Williams,who became a leading man from the thirties through to the fifties.
The director,So Parker,was an American,who made many films in the UK till the financial crash of 1938 and then became an agent.
Like many quota quickie this was based on a stage play,so obviously they didn't solve the problem of shoehorning a 3act play into a 45 minutes film.
Almost a Honeymoon (1930)
Uncinematic version of stageplay
Monty Banks has quite a reputation as a performer and director. However this film is virtually a version filmed from the stalls.
Clifford Mollison plays aan impecunious man,who has a butler,superbly played by Donald Calthorpe. He is offered a job in the colonnied if he is married. So firstly he lets his flats and then goes looking for a wife. Numerous prospects fail. He gets drunk and goes back to his flat where the female tenant is getting ready for bed amd marriage the next day. For some reason she seems to get excited over Cliffords photo.
As there are double beds in the bedroom they dont realise they are sleeping in the same bedroom.
In the morning she decides she doesnt want to marry and would prefer Clifford.
A solicitor whom Clifford has been evading finally catches up with him to announce that his uncle left him £250000 and he is now a boronet.
Most scenes go on a long time and there are just a handful of sets,the flat in glorious art deco. The first 20 minutes are bright enough but after that it is a job to keep interested in the plot.
Starlight Serenade (1944)
An untypical Harold Bain featurette
This was recently shown by Talking Pictures tv as part of their Harold Bain season. Instead of fire travelogues we get an uninspired variety review. It is hosted by Brian Minchie with Bonar Colleano trying and failing to be a comedian. Meryl Davis sings with Oscar Rabins band. Howevrr,for me,the highlight of this film was Wilson,Betty and Keppel. They have two featured dpots,One with Betty and the other their inimitable sand dance.
The setting is supposedly s dress rehearsal in a theztre,and there is no plot to speak of.
Clearly made as the bottom half of a double bill. The version shown by Talking Pictures lasted 33 minutes it has had 10 minutes but out.
The Black Rider (1954)
Whatever happened to Jimmy Hanleys film career
Jimmy Hanley was a Tank contract actor in the forties and early foggiest he then had 3 barren years till he made this film in 1954. Presumably he was a victim of the axe wielded by John Davis to stave off the company's bankruptcy.
Hanley career never regained traction till television came to his rescue.
This is a fairly standard smuggling yarn with a twist which involves atomic sabotage.
Lionel Jeffries gives us a suave villain,and Roma Anderson is a typical fifties heroine.
Leslie Dwyer is the newspaper editor.
There is nothing particularly original about the story but it is competently made with no aspirations for a bottom of the bill film.
Kentucky Minstrels (1934)
Radio spin off
This film is a spin off of a radio show. There are two main points of interest. Firstly this Directed by John Baxter for Julius Hagen at Twickenham. Secondly this would appear to be the frst with black performers in the leading roles.
The story,as you might expect is on the thin side. Scott and Whaley are in a minstrel show. An agent wants to put them on the music halls,but they refuse as they don't think the show will end. However when it closed they are ill prepared. They form their own show but it is a flop. They are reduced to busking. Due to illness they have to break up. However,by chance,they meet up at a travelling show. They end up at a farm where they help gather in the harvest. However the agent wants them for a big London show. He looks for and finds them. The last minute finds them doing their song and dance act. The film ends abruptly having lost 19minutes of its running time.
This is a typical John Baxter film. Full of sentimentality,countryside themes and putting on a show. So it is worth a viewing.
The Four Feathers (1978)
Spot the stock shots in this lifeless remake
It is easy to spot the stock shots from the 1939 epic of Empire. This film having been shot in Technicolor Monaco whereas the original was shot in Frisco and gives a completely different quality.
Everything about this remake is inferior to the original. The worst problem is the casting of Beau Bridges in the lead.
They have truncated and abridged the story taking out the tension and most exciting elements of the original.
The climactic fight looks as if shot on a beach in Spain. You almost expect Terry Jones to stagger on and say"and now for something completely different". At least that would add entertainment to this poor and pointless remake.
Leave It to Me (1933)
Comedy lacks laughs
Gene Gerrard made 18 films in the 1930s. He was a sort of second rate Jack Buchanan.
It is difficult to realise that this film is based on a successful play based in turn on a P. G. Wodehouse book However there are very few laughs to be had.
Gerrard plays a helping hand who goes down to his aunt's country house to try and prevent her jewels being stolen.
There are a pair of crooks who speak to each other.in what can only be called America slang of the time.
At the climax of the film Gerrard tries to get off a moving boat by a rope. In a sailing down it he makes contact with the head of a man.looking out of a porthole which looks very much like director Monty Banks.
The Valiant (1962)
Reviewing the Italian version
As mentioned by another reviewer,this film is an Anglo Italian production. For some reason this film is only available in it's Italian dubbed version. Now this might be an insurmountable obstacle if this were a romantic comedy,but this is a war film, based on real events.
So this is a battle of wills between the Italian divers and the Royal Navy. Most of the film is devoted to the efforts of John Mills and Robert Shaw to find out the location of the mines laid by the submariners.
Lots of familiar English character actors on view even if they seem a bit unfamiliar dubbed into Italian. Probably one of the few Italian successes of the Second World War.
The Wedding of Lilli Marlene (1953)
Not an original thought in sight
It's all very well deciding to make a sequel to a successful film,you have to come up with a good narrative to sustain it. This the producers have failed to find.
You have to be grateful for small mercies. Such as Wally Patch doing a tango. Irene Handel doing a little Europe accent as a dresser and Dandy Nicholls as a char.
The musical numbers and are staged in a theatrical manner and are totally unmemorable.
The finale is totally cringe worthy. Danielly has a great success but decides to give the the theatre up to get married. Can you imagine Judy Dench or Maggie Smith doing likewise. That presumably is what woman were supposed to.
Badger's Green (1949)
Howzat
This film,based on a stage play was co written by R C Sherrif,of Journeys End game.
Kynaston Reeves is President and Captain of the cricket club. Garry Marsh is the chairman. They are always arguing.
However Laurence Naismith's property company has the area marked out for residential development. He makes a recce of the village. The village are playing their closest rivals at the weekend.
The villagers make known their opposition to the plans.
The fast bowler,who is a carpenter injures his hand so cannot play. So Naismith is asked and agrees provided he can leave by 5.30.
The rivals make 83. The village are on 77for 9 and it is past 5.30. However Naismith agrees to delay his journey and goes in to bat. He is just supposed to hold his end down but scampers a quick single first ball. He is now facing the fast bowler. He contrives nearly every way to get out but survives. Then on the last ball he hits a tremendous six to win the game,and announces that the redevelopment plans are abandoned.
Very entertaining particularly if you are a cricket fan.
It can be viewed at the Reubens library at the BFI South Bank.
The Best House in London (1969)
What a mess
For some unfathomable reason Dennis Borden seemed incapable of writing a decent film script. When he came to radio and tv he seemed rather more in his element.
This film was made towards the end of Hollywood's infatuation with the British film industry. One year after this film was made MGM closed their Borehamwood film studios and were in some danger of going into insolvency.
This film rather highlights the indulgence shown to British films at this period. I got to around 30minutes Mark at which time I just couldn't fathom.what on earth was happening. David Jennings was already on his decline when this film was made.
The Gentle Trap (1960)
Cliched but amiable
This is a thriller from Merton Park Studios. It contains many of the cliches redolent of the genre but nonetheless it is entertaining. After all when you have Martin Benson in the cast it is always a bonus,as you know from the start who is the villain. He is generally calm and assured till the last reel.
There are two blonde sisters in this film.,One is bad and dangerous to know. The other is sweetness and light and puts herself out to help Spencer Teakle who is in a peculiar way the hero,trying to recover and keep the jewels that he stole.
In these days of films with a running time of over three hours watching films of this length are a delight.
Dead Man's Shoes (1940)
Unremarkable quota quickie
Leslie Banks is a respected industrialist who can't remember his past. A newspaper prints an article claiming that he was a notorious crook. So Banks takes the paper to court. Amongst witnesses at the trial are a former lover and Wilfred Lawson,who turns out to be a blackmailer.
Banks wins his case but comes to realise he was the crook. So Lawson decided to take advantage of this situation to blackmail him.
Banks life's Lawson to his office with the intention of killing him. However Lawson turns the tables on Banks,knocks him out,and makes off with money from the safe.
Lawson meets up with the former lover and they shoot each other,not before the lover makes a full confession to the police.
Very much a routine quota quickie.
The Amorous Milkman (1975)
Makes the Confession series look like Citizen Kane
This film gives a good idea as to the parlous state of the British film industry in the 1970s.
The fact that it features so many familiar faces is indicative of how little film work was available to them in this period.
It is good to get a glimpse of such favourites as Bill Fraser,Sam Kydd,Arnold Ridley and Fred Emney. However this cannot be said of Diana Dors who was rapidly becoming a caricature of her former glamorous self.
This farrago was written,produced and directed by my favourite screen villain of the period, Derren Nesbitt. Its a pitty that he couldn't find one funny line in the overlong 90 minutes running time.