PRIMITIVE SCREWHEADS

The Arthur Askey Collection

   

The Arthur Askey Collection has 6 Arthur Askey films from the early 1940s. Band Waggon is Arthur's second film, it was followed by 7 more films released through the war years. The last of the 8, Bees In Paradise, came out in 1944 and there was a 10 year gap before Arthur's next film. Some speculate that Arthur was too associated with the war by the time it ended and people were tired of the war.

Arthur made 4 films in the last half of the 1950s and a couple in the 1970s, Arthur also worked in TV in the 1950s and 1960s. The six films in this set came from the 8 made in the 1940s. This was the period when Arthur was at the height of his popularity. The two films released after Band Waggon aren't included, Charley's (Big-Hearted) Aunt from 1940 and The Ghost Train from 1941. TGT is one of my favorite of Arthur's films. It has no musical numbers.

 

Band Waggon 1940 Written by John Wyatt, Harry S Pepper, Gordon Crier, Vernon Harris, JOC Orton, Val Guest, Marriott Edgar and Robert Edmunds, directed by Marcel Varnel.

Arthur and his pal are squatting in an empty room in the attic of the BBC's Broadcasting House. They had applied for a job there, were told to wait, and never left. When they're rumbled they're kicked out. Arthur schemes up a £3 rental in a haunted castle where they find a full TV studio hidden in the dungeons. They use the equipment to broadcast a show. It attracts the attention of the Nazis who set the studio up. Lucky for Arthur and his pals Scotland Yard arrives to save the day.

Pretty silly and filled with activity, there's a bit more singing and dancing than I care for but the gags are fast and furious.

I Thank You 1941 Original story by Howard Irving Young, screenplay by Marriott Edgar and Val Guest, directed by Marcel Varnel.

Arthur and his pal are out of work. They want to raise money for a show. They're plan is to sneak into a rich show backer's house as servants and get some backing. Arthur dresses as a woman cook even though he can't cook. Because it's a movie it actually works out for the guys in the end.

There's plenty of gags but not a much singing as the last film. It's was nice to see Moore Marriott and Graham Moffatt again. They made a few films with Will Hays. Kathleen Harris plays the poor cook next door, Arthur keeps stealing stuff from her.

 

Back-Room Boy 1942 Story by JOC Orton, screenplay by Edgar Marriott, Val Guest and JOC Orton, directed by Herbert Mason. Sadly, there doesn't seem to be much by way of posters for these movies available on the internet. Even the DVDs use screen captures and promo photos for their covers.

Arthur is the guy who makes the pips on BBC radio. He has to do it every hour on the hour and his girlfriend doesn't like the constant interruptions to their love life. After she dumps him, Arthur tells his bosses he wants a position where he won't seen any women. They plonk him down in a lighthouse on an island way out in the sea north of Scotland.

Of course Arthur gets visited by many women, first a young girl who's headed to the next island to visit her uncle. Vera Frances plays the young girl, it was her first film, she made 5 more for Gainsborough Pictures. She's drolly sarcastic and a good foil for Arthur, she would appear in another of Arthur's films. I wish she'd gone onto make films as an adult.

Googie Withers arrives next, followed by a boat filled with theater gals. Moore Marriott and Graham Moffatt are a couple of sailors that were crew on the ship that sank. Things are noisy until the Nazis turn up. They've got a secret hideout in a cave in the cliff below the lighthouse. Arthur and pals battle the Nazis and protect the shipping lane the sub was worrying.

I found it quite entertaining even after I've seen it a couple of times already.

King Arthur Was A Gentleman 1942 Written by Edgar Marriott and Val Guest, directed by Marcel Varnel. One of many films made at Lime Grove Studios in Shepherd's Bush West London. The BBC later bought the studio and used it for making TV shows. Many episodes of Doctor Who were shot there. The commentaries for the episodes of DW have many complaints about having to work in such a tiny and hot studio.

Arthur wants to go fight the Nazis but he's a bit on the scrawny side. Arthur's got a big thing for King Arthur and the round table. His pals find a sword in a field and trick Arthur into thinking it's King Arthur's sword. A change comes over to him and he becomes quite the man. He demands to be sent to the front and the top brass send him to Germany. He has some adventures, gets a bit of romance, and causes a a helluva lot of property damage.

There's more music than I care for but the basic story is fun enough and there's all that destruction.

 

Miss London Ltd 1943 Written by Marriott Edgar and Val Guest, directed by Val Guest.

Arthur inherits half an escort agency from his mother, Evelyn Dall inherited the other half. Most of the movie is everyone singing and dancing. The agency tries to make some cash so they can donate some to the war effort. There's a good number of gags and plenty of pretty girls.

Bees In Paradise 1944 Written by Marriott Edgar and Val Guest, directed by Val Guest.

One of the weirdest of Arthur's films. He's part of a bomber crew who have to bail out, four of them wash up on the beach of an island in the Atlantic. Paradise Island is a matriarchy run like a bee hive. The Queen is worried about the lack of births of late, part of the problem is their rules on marriage, especially the one where they execute the groom two months after the marriage date.

Arthur and the guys can't believe their luck, an island filled with women who want to marry them. Wow! They'll soon find out what's up and try to survive. There's a good number of jokes and it's a bit risqué.

A nice collection and one I'll try to watch again. It's a UK region 2 DVD and won't play without an all region DVD player or VLC Player on your PC.

A Royal Scandal 1945

A Royal Scandal 1945 It's a remake of Lubitsch's 1924 silent film Forbidden Paradise. Bruno Frank adapted it and Producer Ernst Lubitsch worked with Edwin Justus Mayer on the screenplay. Lubitsch did all the pre-production and rehearsals but became ill as they were starting to shoot the film, he hired Otto Preminger to finish the job. It was the third last film Lubitsch would make, he died in 1947.

Catherine the Great has dumped her lover, the Captain of the Guards. General Ronsky wants to connect her to his nephew. He's got a plan to depose Catherine and take over. The Chancellor has his own plan, he's got a treaty with France to work on. A rando soldier comes to see Catherine and manages to get past the layers of court. She falls for him and they start a romance.

Good cast, Tallulah Bankhead, Charles Coburn, Anne Baxter, Vincent Price, Mischa Auer, Sig Ruman and a lot of people I didn't know. Good script, plenty of jokes, plenty of running about. I hadn't seen it before, at least that I remember, I really enjoyed it. You can see a copy on YouTube, link in the title.

A Night Of Magic 1944

A Night Of Magic 1944 Script by Eversley Bracken under the name Ewesley Bracken, directed by Herbert Wynne. A short British comedy musical about the 3000 year old mummy of Egyptian Princess Raviola being found alive in her sarcophagus. Her coffin arrives at the apartment of a young upper class man who gets over his surprise quickly, it's a short film, no time to waste. He takes her out to the hairdresser and shopping for modern clothes. He dumps his fiance and plans to marry her. There's a sucky surprise ending and some songs by a guy playing the ukulele. He's no George Formby. Fun enough but below average.

A Man's Affair 1949

A Man's Affair 1949 Written by Jay Lewis and Harold Stewart, directed by Jay Lewis. Jay started started directing documentary shorts in 1940, he started the Verity Film Company with Sidney Box. He only directed three other feature films, none of which I've seen. Sadly, I could find no poster for this movie.

A romantic comedy set in and around the seaside town of Ramsgate in Kent. Two gals on holiday meet a couple of coal miners and there's romance ahead.  The picture on the left shows our coal miners, Hamish Menzies and Cliff Gordon, the picture of the right shows our visiting ladies, Diana Decker in the scarf and Joyce Linden on her left. They'll soon to be happy couples and other than for the usual movie pitfalls it's safe to say things will work out fine in the end. There's a few laughs but it isn't much better than average. You can check it out on YouTube, link in the usual place.

Whiskey Galore! 1949

Whiskey Galore! 1949 Compton MacKenzie wrote the novel and co-wrote the screenplay with Angus MacPhail, the director is Alexander Mackendrick. In the US Whiskey Galore! was called Tight Little Island. After this film Mackendrick directed The Man In The White Suit, his other well known films include The Ladykillers, The Sweet Smell Of Success and A Boy Ten Feet Tall. Angus MacPhail has 70 writing credits listed on the IMDb, starting with a scenario credit for the 1928 film Balaclava, and I've seen a few of them. One of the earliest films I've seen is the 1931 version of The Ghost Train, a film I've come to like a good bit. He wrote Trouble Brewing and To Hell With Hitler for George Formby and The Ghost Of St Michaels, The Black Sheep Of Whitehall, The Goose Steps Out, Go To Blazes and My Learned Friend all for Will Hay.

Basil Radford is Captain Waggett of the Home Guard. He's one of the few English people on the island of Todday in the Outer Hebrides. The town is made up but the basic story is based on a real incident.

In 1941 a ship floundered on the rocks near Eriskay in the Outer Hebrides, before it sank the islanders took some cases of single malt whiskey off of the ship. The Wikipedia says there were 22,000 plus cases of whiskey on the ship and the locals saved 7,000. The locals in the film didn't seem to save that many.

It's a small island with not too many people, nothing much goes on. When the movie starts life has turned dour as they've drunk all the whiskey and none has come with the ship from the mainland. Captain Waggett has his work in the Home Guard to keep a few of them busy. When the ship flounders the towns people so want to rush out there to salvage what they can but it's the Sabbath and that's a no go. At midnight they rush out to get what they can, not knowing that the Captain has been onto the Customs and Excise. A special boat full of agents arrives on the island to find the ship sunk and all the cargo lost. The local barman is upset as it's cutting into his business so he rats them out. It's a scramble to save what whiskey they can.

There's plenty of action once the whiskey arrives and there's a fair number of gentle guffaws to be had. I was entertained and would want to watch it again. I didn't see any copies on YouTube. I ordered a DVD from the UK and it turned out to be a DVDr from the company that shall not be named. I've been seeing a lot of their DVDs of late.

Candles At Nine 1944

Candles At Nine 1944 Director John Harlow wrote the screenplay with Basil Mason. It's based on a novel called The Mouse Who Wouldn't Play Ball by Anthony Gilbert. Jessie Matthews plays a showgirl who inherits a rich man's estate. She's got to stay in his mansion for a month to get the moola. His other family isn't too happy about that, they are more happy that the estate goes to them if Jessie leaves the house, or dies,  before the month is up. They aren't fussy, either way. John Stuart is a detective who helps her out. It's more a comedy than a mystery, there's a bit of danger but there are more gags. I found it about average, I might watch it again someday, but not likely. You can check it out in the link in the title above. That's where I saw it. I have a few other Jessie Matthews movies to watch at a future date, some of here films are picks in The British Film series from Network. I need to get back to that series again. So many things struggling to get viewed.

Blithe Spirit 1945

Blithe Spirit is a 1945 British comedy directed by David Lean. It's based on Noël Coward's play of the same name, the screenplay is by David Lean, Ronald Neame and Anthony Havelock-Allan.

It's got Rex Harrison, Constance Cummings, Kay Hammond, Margaret Rutherford, Hugh Wakefield and Noël Coward as the narrator.

Rex is a crime novelist, he invites a medium, played by Margaret, over to the house, he's got research in mind for a novel. Unfortunately she brings the ghost of his dead wife to the house and she causes all sorts of issues. Rex and his current wife end up dead by the end of the film and it made me glad ghosts aren't real. It's kind of funny but not Topper funny, I didn't laugh at all the jokes anyway. It's not going to be one of my favorite ghost stories that's for sure. I'd still watch it again sometime. Who can say when. Too bad there aren't liars fortune tellers to let me know when that would be happening.

John Mills Collection

John Mills Collection has four movies, each film on it's own DVD, from VCI Video. I found the set at Hamilton Books last year for a ten spot, it's currently $25 on Amazon. Worth the money for me, pushing it at $25, especially since I had a copy of The History Of Mr Polly already. It's still cheaper to buy the set than the individual DVDs.

Morning Departure 1950 Based on a play of the same name by Kenneth Wollard, screenplay by William Fairchild, directed by Roy Ward Baker. Morbid story of a submarine that gets sent to the bottom by a mine left over from the war. They have to pick lots to see who stays and who goes, there aren't enough diving suits for everyone, some were damaged in the accident. Fade to black on the last men in the sub. Not one I might want to readily watch again, though it's a fairly well told story, it's still pretty much a downer.

Tiara Tahiti 1962 Based on a a novel by Geoffrey Cotterell, he co-wrote the screenplay with Ivan Foxwell, the director is Ted Kotcheff. John Mills and James Mason knew each other during the war, John was a black market profiteer, James was responsible for getting him kicked out of the regiment. Years pass and John is living the life of leisure in Tahiti, he's got a beautiful girlfriend Rosenda Monteros. James comes to the island, he's director of a chain of hotels, he's looking to build there. Their paths cross and there's some amusement. I'd watch it again.

The Long Memory 1953 Based on a novel by Howard Clewes, screenplay by Robert Hamer and Frank Harvey, directed by Robert Hamer. John gets framed for murder in this one, he gets 12 years in prison for killing a guy named Boyd, when he gets out he goes looking for the witnesses who lied. Problem is, one of the witnesses is married to a police detective now, the other witness is dead. John sets up housekeeping on an abandoned barge, he makes friends with an old coot who lives on the next abandoned barge, he finds a bit of companionship in a traumatized war refugee named Ilsa. John's presence stirs up the witness, her hubby and Boyd. The crooked guy had used the witnesses to lie and say it was his body in the boat, the police were onto him and being dead is a good get out of jail free card. With the help of the Ilsa and old coot things turn out rather better than expected for John. I found it more entertaining than the first two films and would watch it again.

The History Of Mr Polly 1949 Based on the novel by H G Wells, written and directed by Anthony Pélissier. It's Edwardian England and John is a man of 20 when the movie starts, he marries a woman and sets up shop at an outfitter. In the second act some years have passed, John's none to happy, he tries to commit suicide but it goes wrong and he becomes a hero and makes a pile on his insurance. He runs off with the money, leaving the wife he hates so much. The third act we spend with a much happier man as an assistant innkeeper. It's a bit dark but still funny. Id watch it again.

Three re-watchable films, not bad for a tenner.

A Letter For Evie Marshall 1946

A Letter For Evie Marshall is a 1946 comedy directed by Jules Dassin. It's based on a story by Blanche Brace called The Adventure Of A Ready Letter Writer. Devallon Scott and Alan Friedman wrote the screenplay. Jules previous picture was The Canterville Ghost with Charles Laughton. I've always liked that movie. I know I've seen The Naked City, Rafifi and Topkapi but none of his other 20 films. A Letter For Evie Marshall is a romance with a bit of comedy. A lonely woman puts a note into shirt for a soldier, he throws the note away, his wimpy pal starts writing to her. Of course the guy is stupid and he uses the pals picture and makes up an exciting life. Nothing like complicating a simple thing, huh. The tougher pal decides he likes the woman and he drops into to see her. It gets all complicated until it's not complicated anymore. A decent film but I just didn't find it as amusing as I hoped.

 

Enemy Agents Meet Ellery Queen 1942

Enemy Agents Meet Ellery Queen came out in 1942 and it's the last of the Ellery Queen movies from Columbia. Eric Taylor wrote the screenplay, with additional dialog by Arthur Strawn, the director was James P Hogan. Sadly, James Hogan died the following year at age 53.

William Gargan plays Ellery one last time, same for Margaret Lindsay as Nikki Porter, Charley Grapewin as Ellery's Dad Inspector Queen, and James Burke as Sergeant Velie. Guest stars are Gale Sondergaard, Ernest Deutsch, Gilbert Roland, Sig Ruman and others I didn't recognize.

Ellery and Nikki help Sergeant Velie get his prisoner back from some diamond smuggling Nazi scum. Sig is running a health club as a cover. There's the usual goings on and a joke or two. About the same as the previous couple, entertaining for the most part. I'm now done and those can go on the hard drive for some later re-watching.