PRIMITIVE SCREWHEADS

Man About The House Series 1

Back in the mid to late 1970's I was a big fan of the British series Man About The House. It played on the CBC when it was new and we watched it as often as it was on, even the repeats. I think I saw some of the episodes on PBS in the early 1980s but I can't be sure. It's pretty much a typical sitcom, you might have see the American version, Three's Company. I didn't like that show as much. I liked the characters in the original better. Man About The House was created and written by Brian Cooke and Johnnie Mortimer. They worked as a team and were responsible for many TV series over their careers. MATH show was voted the 69th Best British Show in 2004. I got the DVD from England as there is no complete set here in the US. You can see some of series 4-6 on YouTube.

It stars Richard O'Sullivan, Sally Thomsett, Paula Wilcox, Yootha Joyce and Brian Murphy. That's Richard, Sally and Paula above. Richard and Sally dated when they were making the series. The first series aired from August 15 to September 26 1973 and it had 7 episodes. There were 5 more series through 1976 with a total of 39 episodes. There was a 1974 theatrical film that cost £40 on Amazon UK so I probably won't be seeing that anytime soon.

That's Yootha Joyce and Brian Murphy above. They play Mildred and George Roper. They went on to star in a spin off series called George And Mildred. That program ended after 5 series when Yootha died in 1980. I'm tempted to get that and the other spin-off series from the UK. Here's a bit from the Wikipedia.

The format of Man About the House was sold internationally, and it was remade in the United States as Three's Company in 1976; in the Netherlands as Sam Sam in 1994; in Sweden as En fyra för tre in 1996; in Norway as Tre på toppen in 1997; in Poland as Lokatorzy in 2000; in Portugal as Camilo, o penduramin 2002; in Russia as Troe sverhy in 2006; in Ecuador as El hombre de la casa and in Chile as Tres son multitud, both in 2007.

The American Three's Company also spawned the same spin-offs as Man About the House had: Three's a Crowd and The Ropers, based upon Robin's Nest and George and Mildred, respectively.

Paula is Chrissy, Richard is Robin and Sally is Jo. The two girls live in a flat in a house with the Roper's living below. Mr Roper's the caretaker but it's a rather ill defined part of his character. In the opening scene Chrissy finds Robin sleeping in the bathtub after a party and nearly drowns him. While his clothes are drying Robin makes them breakfast and they ask him to replace the roommate that just moved out. Robin goes to cooking school and they really like his cooking. Mr Roper isn't liking the idea of the combination but they tell him Robin is gay. Robin moves in and there's all sorts of situational comedy based on their character traits. Robin's a good bit goofy, Chrissy is more normal and Jo is a ditzy girl who surprises you once in a while.

I really enjoyed watching the series again. The actors are all really great as their characters and I enjoyed spending time with them. It was like seeing an old friend. The plot's are simple, the gags are the fun bit, and there are plenty of jokes. Many made me laugh out loud. I'll be watching the rest of the series as quick as I can get to them.

Science Fiction Sunday 352

Project London is a low budget SF movie about a guy who joins up with a rebel underground to fight the controlling and some what fascist powers that be and stop an experiment that turns people into monsters. It's set a bit into the future and there are plenty of robot battle suits that look like they jumped out of a manga or anime. There's plenty of noisy robot battle action and the CGI, most of which was designed on small platforms by volunteers, looks pretty good for the most part. The acting is poor to average and the story not much better. I saw it on YouTube this morning and I'm glad I didn't waste a Netflix pick on it.

Noah is another film that I watched on YouTube. It had what I believe were Vietnamese subtitles. It's a 2014 film co-written, with Ari Handel, and directed by Darren Aronofsky. He's not a film maker I watch normally. I did see Pi when it came to DVD but I haven't wanted to see it again and I haven't wanted to see any of his other films. After seeing his re-imagining of the Noah story I'm not much interested in seeing that again either.

Mock Up On Mu is my hat trick of un-interesting films I watched today. It's a fake documentary with all sort of clips that are more meaningful to the film maker than me. It's about L Ron Hubbard and some bullshit that I couldn't get into so I abandoned it about 20 minutes into the film. I wouldn't recommend it.

Cover Girl Killer 1959

Cover Girl Killer is a 1959 British film about the murder of some models. It's written and directed by Terry Bishop who directed several films that I haven't seen and much TV that I have. He directed episodes of Sir Frances Drake, which I had just seen a while back, Danger Man, which I really have to watch again soon, The Adventures Of Robin Hood, which I found quite entertaining, The Buccaneers and William Tell. The assistant director on the film is Peter Yates who would go on to direct Bullitt and several episodes of The Saint.

A man is killing the cover girl models that appeared on Wow Magazine. The police are investigating and they have their suspect in the man with the coke bottle bottom glasses and bad toupee. He's elusive though many have seen him. They set a trap. Will they get there to save their bait? You can find out over at the Internet Archive. They've just posted a batch of films, over 200, of all sorts. This is the one I watched today. It's only an hour and it fairly well done. There's a good solid crime story with a pretty good cast. I was glad to have seen it. You can watch it at the IA or download it for free. The big stack of new films they've just added are unfortunately poorly named. The titles have been abbreviated and it's often impossible to guess the title. Still there are some good films in there.

Friday Night Movies 543

We watched Robot Overlords which I had already seen on YouTube. I thought it was a bit better than last time but I still can't give it more than an average for a score. It gets a 4.6 on the IMDb and that's still not much lower than I would rate it.

Chopping Mall was our second feature. It's a 1986 film directed by Jim Wynorski who co-wrote it with Steve Mitchell. This was Wynorski's second job at directing after The Lost Empire. He continues to make low-budget films of dubious quality. I have not see many of them, especially when it comes to his soft-core work. The movie was produced by Roger Corman's wife Julie. It's rather short, 77 minutes, and there was a longer version that was released originally. There's a TV version that has some more material than this DVD version. The shopping mall in the film is the Sherman Oaks Galleria which was one of the hangouts for what became Valley Girl culture and it's been used in a dozen films including Fast Times At Ridgemont High, Night Of The Comet and Valley Girl. In the 21st century it has been rebuilt and turned into office space. The movie was originally released as Killbots. It did poorly at the box office under that title but did much better when re-released as Chopping Mall.

The stories pretty simple, some robots are guarding the mall at night and some young couples decide to have a party at the furniture store Tony O'Dell's uncle's owns. Tony has no girlfriend so the other three couples hook him up with a young woman from the pizza place, played by Kelli Maroney. Lightning hits the building and it affects the computer system. The robots kill the security guards, one of which is played by Gerrit Graham Later the 3 couples are all getting rumpy pumpy and Tony and Kelli are watching a movie on TV.  Since it's an 80's horror movie and they aren't getting any you can guess who has a better chance of surviving. The robots are tracked units that have lasers, tasers and tranquilizer guns. Their claws can crush a man's throat. After the security guards are killed the robots go off into the mall to keep an eye on things. Poor Dick Miller is a janitor and he's next to go. Then the young couples get picked off one at a time while they run about the mall. The security doors on the mall are locked until early in the morning so they have to wait it out.

It's about average, there's nothing too special about it, bit of nudity or two. Barbara Crampton plays one of the young ladies who doffs her top. Sadly she doesn't make it out of the mall at dawn. Paul Bartelt and Mary Woronov have a brief cameo as Paul and Mary Bland, their characters from Eating Raoul. It was worth a look and I borrowed the DVD to listen to the commentary by Jim Wynorski and Steve Mitchell.

Dad's Army Series 5

Series 5 has another 13 episodes and they started airing May 26 1972. Things are exciting as the war continues intruding on life in Walmington-on-Sea. All the usual guys are in their places in the ranks being lead by Captain Mainwaring. They get trapped in a bombed pumping station, locked in a room with rapidly rising water. The men all try to look younger to keep from getting transferred to the ARP. No one likes the git that runs that group. A bomb falls on the bank and Captain Mainwaring has to keep the money safe until it's transferred. Trouble is, they're sitting with an unexploded bomb and can't move. Some of the men have accidentally gotten set up in the wrong barn while on maneuvers. It's slated to be bombed as part of the program. Jones looses £500 that he was supposed to deposit for the servicemen's canteen. The platoon is selected to help test a new radio controlled explosive wheel. Pike and Walker are listening to the radio and that that's causing much interference so the wheel gets out of control. A German pilot has parachuted out of his damaged plane and is hanging off the town hall clock. The men attempt a rescue. That German probably should have stayed home but they finally get him down in one piece. That's only about half the stories, the rest are about as entertaining and the series is still maintaining a fair level of consistency. There's always a few good jokes, a few bad jokes, some slapstick and the usual amount of yelling. I'll eventually get onto the rest of the series but there always seems to be something new in the offing.

Rumpole Of The Bailey Series 3

There's six 93 minute long episodes in the 3nd Series and they aired in October and November of 1983. That was almost three years after the December 1980 movie Rumpole's Return and just over 4 years since Series 2 came and went. Rumpole has his days in court and there's a nice variety of criminals to defend. In the first story Rumpole's Head Of Chambers has been appointed a judge. Rumpole's art forgery case comes up before him. That had a lot of interesting characters in it. Next Rumpole's off to Central Africa to defend a government official of killing a clergyman. The official wanted Rumpole, he knew him from College, but he's underestimated the barrister and he pays the ultimate price for his stupidity.

In the third story a nice old couple is busted for running a brothel that catered to the gentry. Then they get charged for blackmail. Rumpole discovers a secret plot going on and exposes the real villain. Someone's framed and grassed up one of the Timson men in the fourth episode. They're a family of criminals that were introduced in the first episode. Rumpole finds the real criminal and in a separate story element he works to get Fiona, a woman lawyer, admitted to Chambers. In the story after that he reluctantly agrees to defend Fiona's sister in the shooting death of her husband. Rumpole's wife Hilda, whom Rumpole calls She Who Must Be Obeyed, wants to move to the countryside but Rumpole manages to talk her out of it. In the last episode Rumpole fakes his own death to collect a debt from a shifty solicitor and then he comes back from the dead to defend a man who runs a vacation service.

The stories are a nice mix of drama and humor and the former doesn't dominate.  Rumpole makes snarky comments, both aloud and in his head, about things going on around him and that makes me laugh. There's a bit of social commentary about life, politics and the work place but it's not preachy. The plot moves along nicely and there's usually something happening to keep my interest. I can see why the show was so popular. I'm going to have the library send more Rumpole my way.  

Rumpole Of The Bailey Series 1 & 2

For some reason I had an interest in seeing Rumpole Of The Bailey. The library had the set so I got them to loan me the first couple of series. The first series aired in April and May of 1978 and there were six 50 minute long episodes. The 2nd series had the same number of episodes and they aired May to July in 1979. The program is created and written by the British writer and barrister John Mortimer. He introduces each episode with a brief bit of info on why he wrote the story. Leo McKern plays Horace Rumpole, a barrister who mostly practices law at the Old Bailey. He always takes the defense cases, not liking the prosecution side at all. An interesting thing about the system there is that Rumpole could be defending a criminal and someone else from the same group of barristers could be the prosecution. That's different than the US. Once they get into the courtroom that's kind of the same. Rumpole isn't as smooth as Perry Mason, he's more blustery, but he's got a sharp mind and some good tricks up his sleeve.

The first series takes Rumpole from 1967 to 1977, each episode jumping ahead a year or two. The 2nd series dropped that concept and they set the stories in the time the show was aired. In each episode we get some new clients each with a different legal trouble. The show doesn't lack variety, the first episode introduces us to a family of crooks that will return again in a later episode. One of the younger members is in a spot of trouble. In the second Rumpole defends a young woman, who lives at a commune, on drug charges. In the third an Honourable Member has been charged with rape. Usually Rumpole wins but this time the man fesses up while in the witness box and gets 5 years. A later show puts Rumpole into the world of the theater and the following one has him defending a fascist. He reminds us that all men are due counsel.

In the last show of the second series Rumpole retires. In the 1980 TV movie, Rumpole Returns, a bonus on the 4th disc, Rumpole returns. After that it would be nearly three years before the 3rd series aired. I'm enjoying the series much more than I thought I might. The stories are interesting enough, there's plenty of people yakking and Rumpole's narration is nicely sarcastic. There's a good bit of humor and I got plenty of laughs out of the stories. If you were innocent when you got done for murder you'd want Rumpole on your side. I'm going to have to watch the rest of the series. I have them on my queue as well as the pilot movie that was out when I requested it.

Hold That Ghost 1941

Hold That Ghost is Abbott and Costello's 4th film for Universal. It's the 3rd film they made in 1941 and the 3rd for director Arthur Lubin. It's written by Robert Lees, Fred Rinaldo and John Grant. The film was started right after Buck Privates. They filmed in January and February of 1941 with a budget of $190,000. The movie was originally called Oh Charlie and the story was slightly different. Tests of the near finished film got a lot of comments about the lack of The Andrew Sisters. The studio went back and shot a new opening and closing scenes in the nightclub and re-shot some other scenes to match the changes in the script. All the new footage cost and addition $200,000.

Bud and Lou are working at a gas station and because of that they get stuck in gangster Moose Mattson's car during a car chase. Moose is killed and his will leaves the money to the person who's there with him when he dies. The guys wind up with a broken down tavern. Moose's lawyer gives the guys a hand in form of Marc Lawrence who arranges a bus ride to the rural tavern. It's a dark and stormy night and they get stranded at the tavern with Richard Carlson, Joan Davis and Evelyn Ankers. Moose is famous for saying he's hidden his loot in his head and a bunch of gangsters are after the money. Marc is secretly looking for the cash for himself and the lawyer. He doesn't last too long, some hands pop out of the furnace, grab him, and the next time we see Marc, he's dead.

There's plenty of running about and yelling as the two groups clash through the night. It's all pretty silly and I got a few laughs out of it. I'm going to slowly work my way through the Universal collection and gets some more laughs.

In The Navy 1941

In the Navy was the third film that Bud Abbott and Lou Costello made at Universal and the second they made in 1941. It was the second Abbott and Costello film for The Andrews Sisters and director Arthur Lubin. The screenplay was written by Arthur T Horman and John Grant. This movie was filmed after the guys shot Hold That Ghost. The popularity of Buck Privates caused the studio to fast track another service comedy for Bud and Lou while they did some reshoots for Hold That Ghost. They shot In The Navy from April 8 to May 7 and it was released May 27. In The Navy became another big hit for the guys and it was the 6th most popular film of the year. It grossed a cool $2 million on a cost of just under $400,000. Besides The Andrews Sisters the cast includes Dick Powell, Claire Dodd, Dick Foran and Shemp Howard.

Dick is a radio crooner who decides to join the navy under his real name. The newspapers wonder where he's disappeared too. Claire is a news reporter who finds out that Dick has gone to sea and tries repeatedly to get an exclusive picture of him in uniform. Bud and Lou are already sailors and they help Dick thwart Claire's plans. There's plenty of singing and several comedy bits by Bud and Lou. There's a bit of romance as Lou hits on Patty Andrews and a thing develops between Dick and Claire. I got a few laughs and enjoyed the movie. Now onto Hold That Ghost.

The Mystery Of A Hansom Cab

The library had the DVD of The Mystery Of A Hansom Cab sitting on the shelf. It's based on a 1886 novel by English writer Fergus Hume. I didn't know anything about either the book or the Australian TV movie when I saw it but I took it home anyway. It's a murder mystery, a man is murdered in a hansom cab and the police's suspect is the dead man's rival for a woman. The suspect won't say where he was, so his lawyer and fiancé investigate. Before they find out enough the action moves to the courtroom and the man is found not guilty. More things happen as the lawyer continues to look for the murderer. There's plenty of time spent in both the cultured parlours and the seamy underworld of Melbourne. It was an average production. I was kept interested for the most part but I wouldn't need to see it again.