Eighties nights ...

The Jewel In The Crown / Your Cheatin' Heart / Wish Me Luck

How did I ever miss THE JEWEL IN THE CROWN back in 1984? Well, I was moving around and out a lot .... This 14 part series is one of the best British television productions ever, up there with BRIDSHEAD REVISITED. It is a fascinating saga of the British in India in the 1940s, as adapted from Paul Scott's four novels "The Raj Quartet". 

The British Raj: though their position seems secure, thoughtful English men and women know that "their" time in India is coming to an end. The story begins with an unjust arrest for rape, and the consequences of this echo through the series. Questions of identity and personal responsibility are explored against a background of war and personal intrigue.

Television moved at a slower pace then, long scenes unfold, which would be edited quickly now, and we have time to take in all the details of the many strands of narrative and all that fascinating scenery. The first two-hour episode draws one in, as one wants to see what develops between Daphne Manners, new in India and local boy Hari Kumar (Susan Wooldridge and Art Malik) and that rather sadistic army man Ronald Merrick (superlative Tim-Pigott Smith, who died recently).  After episode three, the story changes gear and we follow the aftermath. The casting again is the thing here. with a great array of British thespians: 

Peggy Ashcroft superb as ever as Barbie, Geraldine James, Judy Parfitt (in superbitch mode), wonderful Fabia Drake and Rachel Kempson, Anna Cropper, Rosemary Leach, Wendy Morgan, and good to see veteran Marne Maitland too, from all those 1950s films. plus Charles Dance, Warren Clarke and Eric Porter among the huge cast. 

We are now half-way through this 14-episode saga, seeing an episode a night. Bring them on, Directed by Christopher Morahan and Jim O'Brien.

More India coming up too: I never saw Lean's A PASSAGE TO INDIA then either, I can record it tonight - more Dame Peggy and Malik and that great cast in Lean's Indian epic, which has to be seen finally. 

YOUR CHEATIN' HEART: We loved this six-episode series back in 1990, its quirky and off the wall. Super to get it on dvd now, as we return to that late 80s country music scene in Scotland, with a young Tilda Swinton and John Gordon Sinclair, with great music from Eddi Reader. Ken Stott shines too, as we follow the misadventures of Cissie Crouch (Tilda) and Frank McClusky as they go on the run from some weird gangsters .... its full of Scottish humour, as written by John Byrne and directed by Michael Whyte.

WISH ME LUCK. More conventional stuff - another series of wartime resistance in Occupied France, as the plucky Brits parachute in female volunteers to help the Allies defeat the Hun. This ran from 1987 to 1990, three series. Cool Kate Bufffery is marvellous the main character Liz, with rather annoying Susannah Hamilton as the annoying Matty, 

Jane Asher is perfect of course as Faith Ashley, running the department back in London, with Julian Glover, and another agent is young Jeremy Northam. Warren Clarke is the German commandant who begins to suspect ......  We get thrill and spills as the agents try to keep ahead of the Germans, as the those radio broadcasts have to get made .... who will get caught? The 40s period flavour is well done,.

The Longest Day, 1962

THE LONGEST DAY was one of the big ones in that great year 1962. I was 16 at the time but did not see it then, though have seen bits of it over the years, so it was finally interesting to sit down and see it properly. It it is of course 20th Century Fox's retelling, in crisp black and white, of the Normandy landing in 1944 done in an almost documentary style. This was producer Darryl F Zanuck's brainchild, and it is quite impressive. covering the events of D-Day, told on a grand scale from both the Allied and German points of view.

The British had spent the 1950s re-fighting World War Two with all those films (DUNKIRK, THE CRUEL SEA,  THE DAM BUSTERS, THE SEA SHALL NOT HAVE THEM, SEA OF SAND, ICE COLD IN ALEX, REACH FOR THE SKY etc etc) keeping the likes of John Mills, Richard Todd, Kenneth More, Bogarde, Attenborough, Baker etc busy), then the all-star spectacular started arriving in the '60s, a mere 18 years after those D-Day battles, starting with THE LONGEST DAY and followed in 1963 by Carl Foreman's equally starry but downbeat THE VICTORS showing how war degrades everybody, then MGM's all-star OPERATION CROSSBOW and Rene Clement's French all-star IS PARIS BURNING? (roping in the likes of Delon, Belmondo, Montand, Signoret, Welles and visiting Americans), then the later THE BATTLE OF BRITAIN, OH WHAT A LOVELY WAR and A BRIDGE TOO FAR, as well as all the gung-ho actioners.

THE LONGEST DAY from Cornelius Ryan's book is a bit bitty, introducing us to all those guest stars for a moment or two, then we return to them later to see how they fare in the events ... the military are led by John Wayne, Mitchum, Robert Ryan and Henry Fonda looks in, and the personnel include all the young actors on the lot: Jeff Hunter, Robert Wagner, Fabian, Richard Beymer, Tom Tryon, Ray Danton etc. The British get  look in too: Welsh boys Richard Burton (on a break from CLEOPATRA) and Donald Houston, John Gregson as the padre, Todd and More, Sean Connery etc. The Germans are led by weary Curt Jurgens who cannot wake up The Fuhrer as he has taken a sleeping pill, and the French resistance seem to be led by Irina Demick (Zanuck's ladyfriend of the time). At least the German scenes are in German, and directed by German Bernhard Wicki. Ken Annakin and Andrew Morton handle the rest of the action sequences. It was a big achievement at the time, but rather unsatisfactory as there are no main characters to identify with, as we dash around seeing what all the guest stars are up to ...as the three hour running time zips by, The beach landings are not as graphic as SAVING PRIVATE RYAN.

Glenda in Yanks ???

Idly watching John Schlesinger's 1979 wartime romance YANKS again on television, I was suddenly caught by this one shot from that emotional climax at the railway station as the GIs pull out and all the womenfolk are crowding the station to say goodbye. The female stars of the film are Vanessa Redgrave and Lisa Eichorn and Rachel Roberts, but surely this is Glenda Jackson, among the crowded extras, she had starred in Schlesinger's SUNDAY BLOODY SUNDAY in 1971. Does anyone else think its our Glenda ?

Till The End Of Time, 1946

Here's a doozy - another 1940s dream factory product - see SINCE YOU WENT AWAY below - and also featuring Guy Madison, here in the lead (as opposed to the minute or two of his debut as the marine in SINCE YOU WENT AWAY in 1944). This one, by Edward Dmytryk, is another about soldiers returning from the war and settling into civilian life, but is a lighter version of THE BEST YEARS OF OUR LIVES, also 1946

Three former marines have a hard time readjusting to civilian life. Perry can't deal with the loss of the use of his legs. William is in trouble with bad debts. And Cliff can't decide what he wants to do with his life, although he gets encouragement from war widow Pat Ruscomb.

Here we have Guy, Robert Mitchum and Bill Williams (sans legs). I like that perfectly Californian Spanish style home Guy returns to, showing that comfy Forties California middle-class milieu - dig those automobilies!- and the film focuses on him a lot - we see him in bed quite a bit, he jitterbugs with the girl next door, and tries to help his buddies, though his parents get annoyed at his lack of direction and choosing a career to settle in, but hey, he's a young hunky ex-marine. 

Dorothy McGuire is ideal (apart from smoking a lot) as the war widow he falls for. She was later the perfect wife and mother in FRIENDLY PERSUASION, SWISS FAMILY ROBINSON, THE DARK AT THE TOP OF THE STAIRS, A SUMMER PLACE, SUSAN SLADE etc). Mitch doesn't have much to do here. More Guy at label. 
As a 2003 review on IMDB put it: I would make the case that Guy Madison may be the best-looking young man to ever star in a feature film, and this is his best one. There are moments where his totally unselfconscious looks are just jaw-dropping. His acting, on the other hand, can be described charitably as "natural"; but I wasn't expecting Lawrence Olivier. Guy was an early find of legendary Hollywood agent Henry Willson, who would later "discover" a tall young man whom he renamed Rock Hudson.

Since You Went Away, 1944

This perfect wartime drama was never on my radar or never showed up on television in the decades I have been watching, so seeing it or the first time is rather good now. Another perfect 1940s Hollywood Dream Factory creation, by producer David Selznick and directed by John Cromwell, shot by Lee Garmes and music score by Max Steiner; it really showcases Jennifer Jones (soon to be Mrs Selznick) after her success in THE SONG OF BERNADETTE in 1943. 

Like MRS MINIVER in '42 about those plucky Brits, this one focuses on the American home front and those women left at home (it starts with a closeup of those home fires burning) while their menfolk are overseas, some will not return ....

Plucky wife Claudette Colbert tries to hold it all together for her daughters Jennifer and teenage Shirley Temple (rather endearing here). 
Of course she has the requisite large comfy home (as in A LETTER TO THREE WIVES) and the married folk have single beds, and a devoted black maid/housekeeper/cook - yes, its Hattie McDaniel. Theres Agnes Moorehead as a bitchy neighbour - a stretch for Agnes - and the great silent star Nazimova too. The grumpy paying guest is none other than Monty Woolley (THE MAN WHO CAME TO DINNER) and sterling Joseph Cotton is the family friend and ex-beau of Claudette's Anne. No extra-marital shenanigans here! 

Two young guys stand out: Robert Walker plays Monty's nephew who is shipped overseas and has a lot of screen time with Jennifer (they were married then..., their son Robert Walker Jr became an actor too, popular for a while in the 1960s)  and just for a minute or two, Guy Madison - a real marine - as a marine here who certainly makes an impression, it launched his career after the war. (See my main post on him, below, or at label). 

Walker went on to that other perfect '40s  wartime romance, Minnelli's THE CLOCK with Judy, in 1945; his other standout role being Bruno in Hitchcock's STRANGERS ON A TRAIN in 1951 (the year he died aged 32, one of Hollywood's sadder stories,).      .

Its emotional and compelling and overlong, and you may require a hanky to wipe away a tear or two - there may be rather too many lush close-ups of Jennifer (one of the few stars who did not appeal to me). Its a great Hollywood creation from that Golden Age, up there with MRS MINIVER and MEET ME IN ST LOUIS.  I liked the cutaway shots of the two cats watching the humans too. 
What is fascinating now is how these wartime dream factory creations create such a cosy glow at a terrible time where dreadful things were happening in Europe with the concentration camps in full swing .....

Suite Francaise

Today's guest reviewer is my good pal Jerry, another IMDB regular - we meet every few months for an afternoon of drinks, chat, gossip and swops and lends of obscure dvds ..... I am actually seeing him again this Saturday, as we had to postpone our Christmas meeting. Here is his take on SUITE FRANCAISE which he enjoyed a lot .... it ticked a lot of boxes for him, liking Kristin and Matthias as he does ...

"SUITE FRANCAISE, 2014 - Would you let a hot Nazi occupy your back parlour? is the probing ethical dilemma at the heart of this lush,smooth, well mounted and extremely silly but engaging tale of forbidden love. Michelle Williams is our heroine - living in occupied France in a small village - her husband a POW in Germany. Billeted with her is Bruno, a nice Nazi (hunk du jour Matthias Schoenaerts) - we know he is nice because he plays the piano, minds his Ps and Qs - and doesn't much like executing the villagers. Before you can say "Vive la Difference" Michelle loses her scruples and her knickers and they are at it all over the manor house. Will Michelle's mother in law (Kristin Scott Thomas in full frosty bitch mode) get wind of their romance? Will Matthias' superiors discover their illicit liaison? Will love build a bridge or lead to the firing squad ? - Good range of supporting villagers - at the top of the social spectrum are Lambert Wilson & Harriet Walter as the Mayor and his wife - (unluckily made an example of) .. at the bottom are dirt poor farmers Sam Riley & Ruth Wilson - and somewhere in between with her legs in the air is village bike Margot Robbie, who figures the German soldiers are fit and horny and therefore fair game (and I'm with her all the way on that one - the scene of the Soldiers performing their ablutions in the village square look like out takes from the Night of the Long Knives in Visconti's THE DAMNED ). It's all very old fashioned and tense towards the end as Riley kills the nasty Nazi who is after Wilson and hides out in KT's attic, and Matthias finds his loyalties tested . It ends a bit abruptly - the source being an unfinished manuscript by a holocaust victim discovered years after the event. Williams , who I admired greatly in TAKE THIS WALTZ and the MARILYN film - is very variable here - and KST could do this sort of part in her sleep - and whilst Schoenaerts is good I think he looks better with a beard (see FAR FROM THE MADDING CROWD) Wilson seems like a star in the making - highly recommended to anyone who likes old school romances of a VERBOTEN nature - don't let the lukewarm reviews - "Mon Dieu!" said The Standard  - and absence of any other support put you off. Directed by one Saul Dibb." 

Yup, its an ideal treat for a wet afternoon, with some chocs to hand ..... don't let those snooty movie buffs who only see important films put you off. A Trash Classic or superior B-Movie in the making then. 

Those "hostesses" in wartime Hawaii ...

First, that electric moment when club "hostess" Donna Reed catches the attention of Montgomery Clift in FROM HERE TO ETERNITY, Zinnemann's classic from 1953. Donna - an actress who did not impinge on me much elsewhere, is terrific here as Lorene, and has that great scene at the climax where she and Deborah Kerr are on that ship going back to America.

Then there is Jane Russell as Mamie Stover, a harboiled dame and the chief "hostess" in Agnes Moorehead's bar/brothel in Fox's 1956 THE REVOLT OF MAMIE STOVER, one of our favourite Trash Classics here ..... Agnes goes blonde here and Jane is as ever easy on the eye and absolutely terrific as her tough dame buys up cheap land in Hawaii as the Japanese arrive ...

VE day - 70 years ago

It is the 70th anniversary of VE Day, when the Second World War in Europe came to an end, and London is celebrating, with that rather good concert at Horseguards Parade - not just a patriotic singalong but showing quite serious stuff about the war and how it affected people then. I heard all this at first hand as my mother was in London during the Blitz - as she spent 8 years in London from 1934 (when she was 16) to 1942 and she was a Land Girl and trainee hairdresser, so we grew up hearing all about rationing, the blackouts, the doodlebugs, sleeping in air raid shelters and down in the underground stations etc. It affected her nerves really, so she was sent back to Ireland, and resumed her hairdressing, lodged at the guesthouse my father's family ran, and once she met him there was no going back to England .... they married and I came along at the very end of December 1945 - a war baby then! Quentin Crisp on the other hand, as per his memoirs, had a great time in the blitz with those visiting Yanks and the threat of imminent death hanging over everyone - the things that went on in the blackout! 

Celebrations continue on Sunday, but the concert was a fun show, capturing a lot of that wartime experience, and made a change from the other big event of the week - the general election and all the fallout from that as the chattering classes went into overdrive ...

Here at the Projector, we like that 1940s ambience, and those classic British movies made then, capturing it all: I KNOW WHERE I'M GOING, A MATTER OF LIFE AND DEATH, THIS HAPPY BREED, THE WAY TO THE STARS, IN WHICH WE SERVE, 2000 WOMEN, etc. and those 50s war films about it all: THE CRUEL SEA, ICE COLD IN ALEX, SEA OF SAND, DUNKIRK, SEVEN THUNDERS, and Leacock's 1962 REACH FOR GLORY caught the Home Front nicely and the frustrations of teenagers watching the war from home - its from a book I liked as a teenager, John Rae's "The Custard Boys". . Later films like John Schlesinger's YANKS in 1979 got that 1940s wartime period just right too, whereas Hollywood shoot-em-ups like OPERATION CROSSBOW or the venerable THE GREAT ESCAPE or BATTLE OF BRITAIN did not bother much with period detail, but were engrossing just the same. 

Life during wartime ...

Here in England the Sunday night period drama slot (where one relaxes with a gin and tonic) lately successfully filled by POLDARK (see TV label), has been nicely filled by another easy on the eye period drama: HOME FIRES, set in the early days of World War Two, in a small village and dealing mainly with the women of the Womens' Institute as they fight over leadership of the group and the assorted dramas of the various women ... low key stuff perhaps, but it does what it says on the tin, as one admires the period detail and assorted dramas. One just knows the abused wife will find solace with another woman as we await her hissable husband to get his comeuppance. The two queen bees fighting to take over the Women's Institute are Francesca Annis and Samantha Bond, so posh girls to the fore and let battle commence. Wartime drama serials are a regular tv staple here (FOYLE'S WAR); we fondly remember WISH ME LUCK (female British agents parachuted into France) among others. This new one, while no great shakes, ticks the boxes. Surely they could have found a role for Jane Asher?

Benedict cracks the Oscar code ?

THE IMITATION GAME, 2014. Benedict Cumberbatch makes his Oscar bid as the persecuted gay mathematician Alan Turing, whose obsessive efforts in cracking the Enigma code, and hastening the end of World War Two, were met with chilling ingratitude by the British government. Morten Tyldum's widescreen film has a handsome sheen, a great cast and Keira Knightley on spry form (and looking nicely in period in those Forties fashions, even if maybe too young and too pretty) as Joan Clarke, a crossword whiz who becomes Turing's colleague - the only woman it seems cracking codes, but it might have delved further into his private conflict, and what it meant to him, particularly after the war. He and Joan do get engaged for a while, but it not built up as a romance. 

Cumberbatch - is it his first leading role after all those appearances in films like WAR HORSE and 12 YEARS A SLAVE, TINKER TAILOR SOLIDER SPY and of course his SHERLOCK for the BBC - catches Turing perfectly, but we see nothing of his private life, or that robbery that gets the police involved in the first place - as we never see him with a pick-up or involved with any man. We only get those flashbacks to his schooldays and that friendship with fellow pupil Christopher - the name he gives to his code-breaking machine. But how does this machine work? Well, it is a film, not a documentary .... and it certainly knocks 2001's ENIGMA into a cocked hat, with its fictional hero Tom Jericho, and where Turing is not mentioned at all - Jericho being the heterosexual version of him served up by novelist Robert Harris - no friend of the gays in his novels (not even in the Ancient Rome of his "Pompeii"). 

Charles Dance and Mark Strong score as the Bletchley Park overseers, while Matthew Goode and DOWNTON's Allen Leech are effective as part of the code-breaking team. We see Turing's eccentricities and inability to tell a joke or mix in with the others and their growing respect for him. Rory Kinnear is the dogged detective (in the '50s scenes) looking for the real story on Turing whose classification documents have disappeared and he thinks he is tracking down a spy, not a naive homosexual who goes to the police after being robbed, back in that bleak early Fifties time for gays.

As a true story fictionalised for the cinema (it could be this year's THE KING'S SPEECH, another prestige film, which I didn't actually like) it is effective, and we get nice snippets of the war going on away from these Bletchley huts, and the end credits fill us in on Turing's fate (his suicide in 1954 after chemical castration instead of a prison sentence) and how his prototype computers helped end the war, and his eventual Royal Pardon ....  More on Turing at label.

Next Award season is hotting up, not only Cumberbatch as Turing but Eddie Redmayne as Stephen Hawking (THE THEORY OF EVERYTHING - caught the trailer for that today), a career-best from Jake Gyllenhaal and maybe Tom Hardy (THE DROP), and Timothy Spall as MR TURNER and thats just for starters - there's also Channing's FOXCATCHER. Cumberbatch has already worked on 10 projects since completing his Alan Turing saga. Sir Derek Jacobi too of course had one of his biggest stage successes playing Turing in the play BREAKING THE CODE (they missed a trick not including him somewhere here), its a story that will continue to fascinate us.

R for Remembrance

The 11th November is the annual Remembrance Day here in the UK and is also known as Armistice Day, Remembrance Day or Poppy Day. This year takes on added significance as it is the centenary of the outbreak of the First World War: 1914-1918.

This year, a major artistic installation entitled 'Blood Swept Lands and Seas of Red' sees the Tower of London's famous dry moat filled with over 800,400 ceramic poppies to create a powerful visual commemoration for the First World War Centenary. This has proved to be a major event for Londoners and so far over four million have visited it. It is visually impressive and very emotional. particularly for those who have relatives who perished in the Great War. One just is moved by the vastness and enormity of it all and all those who did not survive that war. Each poppy represents a life lost in that war. 

The Second World War is the one I relate to, being a war baby born at the end of 1945 and growing up in the '50s. Hard to believe the First World War was only 20 years earlier - but seems like another world now, with the primitive filming of the time (when Silent Cinema was in its infancy). 

Even at night the poppies are lit up. These ceramic poppies have all been sold, with a percentage going to charities, and the installation will be taken down after the 11th November, though there has been public demand for the exhibition to remain at the Tower. The installation is the work of ceramic artist Paul Cummins, from Derbyshire.

Forgotten '60s movies: 36 Hours

36 HOURS, 1965. 1944. US army officer Major Pike (James Garner) attends a vital meeting in Lisbon days before the D-day landings in Normandy, so he is one of the few people who know the plans for the invasion. The Germans who have been following him know he knows and manage to kidnap him .... the drugged Garner eventually wakes up in a US military hospital in Bavaria, Germany, in the company of Anna, his nurse, and he is astounded to find it is 6 years later in 1950, and that the war is over, Germany lost, and he has had amnesia for years with frequent blackouts when he does not remember anything. He is a resident of the base, with his family photos and objects he had with him on display. He stares at himself in the mirror in astonishment, as he indeed looks older. He checks the newspapers provided and listens to the radio, yes indeed it is 1950 and the war is long over. Anna proves helpful and Rod Taylor as Major Gerber the officer in charge of his case also aids his memory along, asking him to remember what he can of his last movements. Garner can remember that meeting he attended and the invasion details at the various Normandy beaches which he recites in detail, but does not mention the date. His new friends do not rush him but will talk again later .....

Then eating his dinner he spills some salt which aggravates that paper cut which nicked his finger at that meeting in Lisbon when he touched the edge of a map ....... that couldn't be still there after 6 years, could it? Suddenly the scales fall from his eyes - he forces Anna to tell him the real date and realises how he has been duped. Taylor masterminds this operation where people with information are led to believe they are in an Amercan hospital, all carefully faked, with everyone speaking perfect English. Anna is a former concentration camp victim who has been chosen on account of her perfect English and she is so desperate not to be returned there that she will do anything to avoid that - this is another perfect role for Eva Marie Saint, while Garner and  Taylor - those amaible '60s leading men - are ideal here too. Taylor is the good German, dedicated to his case records and research methods, exasperated with his superiors, like the hissable villain Werner Peters who is waiting for Gerber's scheme to fail, so he can use his torture methods to get the information on D-day, which the Germans think will be at Calais.,and they only have 36 hours to get the vital information ...

Pike and Anna go on the run, aided by Gerber, now under arrest - will they get to the border in time, however the villain catches up with them but there is a neat resolution, and Anna  is finally able to cry again - her tears had all been used up at the concentration camp. There is no romance as such between Pike and Anna but its a nice conclusion. This is a fascinating little thriller, in black and white widescreen,  from the Perlberg-Seaton production team (like their 1962 THE COUNTERFEIT TRAITOR)., scripted and directed by /George Seaton from a Roald Dahl story, score by Dimitri Tompkin, starring three people we like. The film though was tossed away here in the UK as a supporting feature, which is where I previously saw it, back in 1965. Its still quite engrossing and entertaining..

British trio 2: Dirk, Sophia, Asquith ....

A trio from director Anthony Asquith, and producer Anatole de Grunwald, showcasing Dirk Bogarde and Sophia Loren .... 

THE DOCTOR’S DILEMMA, 1958. A plush production of a Shaw play by Anthony Asquith and produced by Anatole de Grunwald. I remember seeing this as a kid but found it too talky. It is still too talky now but has other redeeming features. The play is about a Harley Street specialist who can cure tuberculosis, so artist’s wife Leslie Caron calls to see him to see if he can help her husband who is wasting away. The stuffy medical man  Sir Colenso (John Robinson) is resistant but the wife has her charms, particularly as kitted out in fetching Cecil Beaton creations. 

Caron by Beaton, 
click image to enlarge

Dirk Bogarde as Louis Dubedat initially charms the doctor and his colleagues who include Robert Morley and Alistair Sim, so at least witty conversation is the order of the day, but the artist is revealed to be an immoral wastrel and it turns out he and Caron are even bigamously married. The surgeons debate the ethics of saving such a man or one of their own, an exceedingly good modest fellow. Bogarde gets a hilariously overlong deathbed scene, and there follows a nice scene at the gallery showing his work, as Sir Colenso and the supposed Mrs Dubedat meet a final time …

LIBEL, 1959. Much more entertaining is this 1959 courtroom drama, also by Asquith and de Grunwald. Dirk Bogarde again is the lead, playing a double – even a triple – role as the baronet accused of being an imposter by visiting Canadian Paul Massie, who shared a wartime prison camp with Mark Lodden and another soldier Frank who was able to impersonate him, as they looked rather alike. Massie now thinks Lodden is an imposter, played by Frank, and is determined to expose him. A sleazy newspaper with a grudge against Lodden pubishes the libel, and we are off to court. Lodden though has memory problems since their wartime escape and even his devoted wife Olivia De Havilland has her doubts as to his real identity as the case proceeds, as she often feels he is not the same man as he was before the war …. Opposing barristers are Robert Morley and Wilfrid Hyde White with Richard Wattis as judge, so a satisfying case is unveiled. ‘Number 15’ is also brought in, a brain-damaged solider who may be either Frank or Lodden. Olivia sees the look of horror on her husband’s face and believes he is guilty. 

It turns out that Frank tried to kill Lodden during their escape to take over his identity, but Lodden left Frank brain-dead as he fought back. Lodden now remembers a medal Olivia gave him and which is hidden in the jacket Nr 15 was found in, which is Lodden’s jacket. It is now revealed that Lodden is the real baronet, and Mr 15 the vegetable-like Frank. Apologies all round and Lodden forgives his wife who could not confirm his identity in the witness box …. An agreeable time-waster for a wet afternoon then

THE MILLIONAIRESS, 1960. Anthony Asquith’s film of Shaw’s play is given the full 20^th Century Fox treatment but seems forgotten these days, but I recall it being quite popular at the time  - in fact when it played for 2 nights at my small town cinema I was back the second night too, 
as to the 13 year old me Sophia Loren here seemed the most stunning creature I had ever seen, even more so than in her earlier films. Epifania of course was played on stage by Edith Evans and Katharine Hepburn (when touring Australia) but Fox were going for glamour here and Sophia certainly provides it. 
She dazzles, in a riot of Balmain outfits and hats, whether jumping into the Thames (that London skyline is so different now...) or having temper fits as she sets her hat at Indian doctor Peter Sellers.
 Sellers and Loren did a record album too with several amusing sketches, and even had a popular top ten hit with “Goodness Gracious Me”. “Banger and Mash” and “I Married A Englishman” are still brilliantly funny …. The film though is an odd concoction but has several amusing moments with sterling support from Alistair Sim, Vittorio De Sica (in his umpteenth film with Sophia), Dennis Price, Gary Raymond and Miram Karlin.


Anthony Asquith (1902-1968) son of Prime Minister Asquith, was nicknamed Puffin, and became one of the sterling British directors, up there with David Lean and Michael Powell or Carol Reed. 
His 1938 PYGMALION is still a classic, and I love his 1945 war classic THE WAY TO THE STARS (reviewed here, War label), and his perfect THE BROWNING VERSION in '51, and THE IMPORTANCE OF BEING EARNEST in 1952. 
The perfect director for Rattigan or Shaw or Wilde then. He continued into the '60s with those 2 hit all-star confections THE VIPs (with The Burtons and scene-stealers Maggie Smith, Margaret Rutherford, Orson Welles and more, and its quaint fog-bound 'London Airport'!) and THE YELLOW ROLLS ROYCE which I remember seeing at its first run at the huge, plush Empire in Leicester Square, in 1965 when I was 19. It was a treat to see a big movie like that then at its first run plush cinema. Such fun to see Moreau pouting as Rex discovers her infidelity; Ingrid Bergman enjoying herself with Omar and Joyce Grenfell; and Delon scoring in one of his first English roles. 

British double bill

THE ANGRY SILENCE. One 1960 British film I had not seen before from that 'kitchen-sink' era, but I remember it well as it attracted a lot of publicity at the time, when I was 14. About a wildcat strike at a midlands factory and the motives of the various people involved, it plays like a serious version of I’M ALL RIGHT JACK and it’s a riveting view now, capturing as it does that lost world of busy factories, workers arriving on the bicycles, the furnished rooms and apartments they live in. Richard Attenborough is a dependable guy, married to Italian Pier Angeli, and Michael Craig lodges with them. (I remember having that "Picture Show" magazine, above).
Then unrest at the factory begins, as we see that stranger (Alfred Burke) arrive in town, is he perhaps there to stir up trouble?, we also see his leaving at the end, job done. Bernard Lee is the pushy union man looking for any opportunity to strike, Geoffrey Keen and Laurence Naismith the worried but decent factory bosses. Young Oliver Reed and Brian Bedford are among the young layabouts wanting to cause trouble.
 Attenborough gets sent to Coventry by his former workmates and friends as he refuses to join their strike, so no one will talk to him. This leads to tragedy, his son too is bullied at school, as his wife Anne gets more and more frantic. 

Pier Angeli (above) is a stand-out here, in maybe her best role. (She and Attenborough were in the 1959 programmer SOS PACIFIC (review at Pier Angeli label), which maybe led to her casting her). Craig is reliable as usual, the film is scripted by Bryan Forbes (who also appears) from an idea by Craig and his brother Richard Gregson (who went on to marry Natalie Wood). It remains a riveting slice of life from that era. Directed by Guy Green (that ace cinematographer on Lean's GREAT EXPECTATIONS, who became a director).

KING & COUNTRY. The one Joseph Losey film which never made any money, I had not seen it since its release in 1964 and it never cropped up since (outside of Losey retrospectives at the BFI),  but there it was on late night television, along with BILLY LIAR and THE ANGRY SILENCE, on a minor cable channel.

During World War I, an army private is accused of desertion during battle. The officer assigned to defend him at his court-martial finds out there is more to the case than meets the eye.

This, from a play “Hamp” scripted by Evan Jones, and it seems star Dirk Bogarde (back with Losey after THE SERVANT) also had a hand in it. It is the downbeat story of a private in the First World War, tried for desertion and executed, as he simply walked away from the guns and carnage, obviously shell-shocked. Confined to one set, we are in the muddy trenches with the common soldiers (Jeremy Spencer and gang) as officers Dirk Bogarde, Leo McKern, James Villiers prepare their case against Private Hamp – 
Tom Courtenay in another sterling performance as the innocent who does not realise the enormity of what he did and what will happen to him, in this brutal system. 
This was an ‘X Certificate’ film at the time, I cannot see why now. It is strong stuff though, bleak and unrelenting, particularly that climax when Bogarde puts the injured soldier out of his misery. Made in 18 days and for not very much money, it is certainly one rare item it is good to see again, and how it fits into the Losey canon between THE SERVANT and MODESTY BLAISE and ACCIDENT. 
KING & COUNTRY is now available on dvd, and, for UK viewers, is being screened again by Film4 this time, next Tuesday afternoon, 15th, and will be repeated the following week.