PRIMITIVE SCREWHEADS

Hot Enough For June 1964

Hot Enough For June is a 1964 British film that was released as Agent 8 3/4 in the US. It's based on a book called The Night Of Wenceslas by Lionel Davidson. I hadn't heard of the book but it's a thriller and I'm not a thriller fancier so it's pretty unlikely I would have read it. I did read the synopsis on the Wikipedia and it seems the book is more serious. The main character is forced into the work, unlike the movie character, who's really tricked into the job. Betty E Box is the producer, Lukas Heller wrote the screenplay and Ralph Thomas directed.

Dirk Bogarde plays a young writer on the dole, he gets a job slip and pops around to a glass company to try not to get a job as a management trainee. Robert Morley is the man in charge and John Le Mesurier is his second in command. Robert offers Dirk a huge salary, it's jumped at and Dirk is hired on the spot. Before he's even been shown to a desk Robert sends him off to Prague that very same afternoon. Dirk has to meet someone at a glass factory but they can't tell him who, there will be a password exchange to ID the guy. Dirk will get a secret message to bring back. Dirk seems a bit dim as he goes along with the highly unlikely story that involves sneaking about behind the Iron Curtain. That's a ding, ding, ding moment to me.

Sylva Koscina plays the government driver that's been assigned to Dirk, they fall for each other. Her father is Leo McKern, he plays the head of the secret police. Everyone is keeping an eye on Dirk and he's the only one who doesn't know he's a spy. When Leo comes to get a confession out of Dirk for being a spy it finally dawns on him and he's a bit surprised. Leo has an offer, confession or a plunge out of his hotel window. Dirk throws things and goes on the run. Eventually he'll get to the British Embassy. There's a bit of a fairy tale ending as Dirk and Sylva head off to the UK arm in arm.

It started off fairly nicely during the getting up to speed part of the story, then it plonked down for a bit of a slog through the streets of Prague part, the last third or so picks up for a bit with a chase and then winds down as they wrap it up. I have a hard time liking a hero who's so easily duped, accidental spy stories have certainly been better. It's still better than average and I would watch it again someday.

Friday Night Movies 764

Turbo Kid was fun the second time around. I liked the movie so much I ordered the 3 disc Blu-ray and DVD set. We watched the Blu-ray, it looks very nice.

Fantômas Vs Scotland Yard is the third of the Fantômas trilogy and it came out in 1967. It's directed by André Hunebelle and the screenplay is by Jean Halain and Pierre Foucaud. The trilogy is based on a series of novels by Pierre Souvestre and Marcel Allain. I've read the first two Fantômas novels and they were entertaining enough. The books have more complicated stories and Inspector Juve is a much more intelligent and capable character. The third movie has Inspector Juve acting even more like an idiot than the first two films. I got tired of him about half way in.

Fantômas has decided the tax the rich. He'll kill them if they don't pay up. I didn't think there was anything much wrong about that plan. We wouldn't miss any of the rich and when Fantômas decided to add criminals to the mix, I didn't see that as a problem. The criminals and the rich sure did. Since Fantômas is a master of disguise he can be right under your nose without you suspecting anything. Sure enough, both groups spill the beans right to the heavily disguised super villain.

Juve travels to Scotland with Fandor and his girlfriend Hélène and Juve's assistant Bertrand. Lord MacRashley is being threatened by our villain and he's called together a lot of his rich friends who are in the same predicament. They plan to capture Fantômas so they don't have to pay his tax.

 

The criminals get together after they are told they too need to cough up some of their ill gotten gains. Their plan is to capture Fantômas, kill him, and pretend he's still alive so they can still collect the tax from the rich. Great plan. Too bad, they just told it to a disguised Fantômas. Now they need to get punished. Our super villain is a harsh man. If I ignored the Juve nattering the movie was watchable but less interesting than the previous two. It's too bad but I'd still watch the trilogy again.

Inspector Hornleigh On Holiday 1939

Inspector Hornleigh On Holiday is the second of the trilogy of Inspector Hornleigh films. It came out in 1939 and Gordon Harker and Alastair Sim return as Inspector Hornleigh and Sergeant Bingham. The movie opens with the pair on the last days of their two weeks at the seaside. It's been cold, wet and miserable so a nice murder warms things up a bit. It turns out that the dead man isn't the dead man. So who is he? You can find out on YouTube.

I hadn't read any of the novels by Leo Grex, he also wrote under his real name, Leonard Gribble, and 6 other pseudonyms. I doubt I'm going to go looking for them at this stage. The movie was written by Sidney Gilliat, Frank Launder and JOC Orton. Walter Forde is the director. They all provide an entertaining story and some laughs.

In The Doghouse 1961

In The Doghouse is a 1961 British film that was written by Michael Pertwee. Michael is brother to Jon Pertwee, cousin of Bill Pertwee, uncle of Sean Pertwee. I've only seen a couple of Michael's films but I have a couple more queued up. The director is Darcy Conyers, I've also got a couple more of his films of to watch.

 

Leslie Phillips is a newly taught vet, he buys a man's practice but it's a struggle to make a quid. Peggy Cummins is the romantic interest, James Booth is his veterinarian rival. It was the last film for Peggy, you might remember her from Gun Crazy or Night Of The Demon, both worth a look.

Hattie Jacques, Dick Bentley, Colin Gordon, Esma Cannon, Fenella Fielding, Joan Hickson, Peggy Thorpe-Bates, Patsy Rowlands, and Harry Locke are the cast members I knew. It's got some jokes, plenty of animals, a bit of a mystery and some running about. I enjoyed it but I do like a lot of the people involved. It's another in The British Film from Network. I'd watch it again.

Masterchef Junior Season 2

Masterchef Junior Season 2 aired the end of 2014 and there were 7 episodes. The three judges are Gordon Ramsay, Joe Bastianich and Graham Elliot. Sixteen kids from 8 to 12 started the first episode, they were whittled down over the season. Plenty of food I wouldn't eat, some fun bits, some sad bits, some gooey bits. I'm enjoying the show and plan to check out the rest of the series.

Let's Be Happy 1957

Vera-Ellen stars in Let's Be Happy, it came out in 1957 and it was her 14th and last picture. I've seen her in the Red Skelton picture Three Little Word and Love Happy with the Marx Brothers, I might have seen her in On The Town with Frank Sinatra and Gene Kelly but I can't remember if I've seen it.

Let's Be Happy is based on a play called Jeannie by Aimée Stuart, the screenplay was by Diana Morgan and Dorothy Cooper with Frederic Gotfurt as scenario supervisor, Henry Levin is the director. Henry directed some interesting films, his first picture was Cry Of The Werewolf for Columbia in 1944. I don't recognize much of his work through the 40s and 50s but I have seen a few of his later films: The Ambushers, Murders' Row, Come Fly With Me, The Wonderful World Of The Brothers Grimm, The Wonders Of Aladdin and Where The Boys Are.

There's plenty of singing and dancing with some comedy and romance. Pretty standard stuff. Vera-Ellen is a young woman who inherits just under 5 grand. She takes it and blows it on a trip to Paris and London. She meets up with an American business man played by Tony Martin and and English Lord played by Robert Flemying. It's more charming than humorous and I found I wasn't too keen on the musical numbers. I have it, it's part of The British Film series from Network, so I might watch it again. I bet I'd be fast forwarding through those songs.

Hotel Hell Season 1

I stumbled on a YouTube channel with the three seasons of Hotel Hell on it. I've watched the first season so far and it was entertaining. I had seen a few random episodes of The Hotel Inspector fairly recently and enjoyed them. Gordon does the same thing but with a bit more swearing and nudity. Luckily Gordon's ass is blurred out.

It's really quite sad that some of these people are in charge of a hotel, they have no idea on how to make a go of it, yet they are often arrogant to their guests and demoralizing to their employees. Gordon knocks several levels of piss out of them, the ladies on The Hotel Inspector aren't quite as forceful and they don't swear as much. Sometimes Gordon's help saves the hotel. There are fan sites that follow up with what happened after the show. All of Gordon's shows seem to have them. Some places stayed open, some closed or were sold to others. I wouldn't want to be in the food or lodging trade and that was before I watched these shows.

Masterchef Junior Season 1

I really enjoyed Masterchef Junior Season 1. It's noisy and the kids were fun, they cook great dishes most of the time. It's a bit sad when contestants have to leave the show but the other kids rally around with hugs. There's 12 kids at the start, with a couple of them being eliminated each episode of the 7 episode run. The kids age 9 to 12 and they can sure cook better than I can. Gordon Ramsay, Christina Tosi and Aarón Sanchez are the judges for the season, I see that they will change over the seasons. I'll be glad to get to the next season soon. I found the first 7 seasons on YouTube.

Coast Of Skeletons 1965

 

Coast Of Skeletons came out in 1965, it's vaguely based on the Edgar Wallace story Sanders Of The River. Harry Alan Towers wrote the story under his regular non de plume Peter Wellbeck, Anthony Scott Veitch wrote the screenplay, Robert Lynn directed. Harry has 60 writing credits and double that in producing credits. I've seen quite a few of his films, he tends to make the genre's that I like, horror, action, adventure, crime, the good stuff. Not all his works are great but they often entertain. Robert directed 13 other movies and a good number of TV episodes. I have seen the 6 episodes of Captain Scarlet And The Mysterons he directed but little of his other TV work. I saw the two movies that he directed just before this one, Mozambique and Code 7, Victim 5. This movie is a sequel to the 1963 film Death Drums Along The River, which I haven't seen. Richard Todd is an insurance investigator who gets involved with diamond dredging, a lost ship and Nazi gold. Dale Robertson and Heinz Drache were the only other cast members I recognized. The story was adequate and I liked the locations in South Africa and Namibia but the whole movie was only about average. I bought the British DVD but I see there's an American one too. I wouldn't necessarily think anyone would need it.

Inspector Hornleigh 1938

Inspector Hornleigh is the first of the Inspector Hornleigh films, it came out in 1938, it was followed by two sequels. The character was created by John P Wynn, writing under the name Hans Wolfgang Priwin. for the BBC radio program Monday Night At Seven. It was one segment in the 50 minute long show and it ran from 1937 to 1940. The movie is written by Gerald Elliott, Richard Llewellyn and Bryan Edgar Wallace with Eugene Ford directing. They've made the radio series over and the movies are much more comedic. Gordon Harker plays Inspector Hornleigh and Alastair Sim plays Sergeant Bingham. It was Alastair that prompted me to pick up a copy of the trilogy but I have gotten to like Gordon quite a bit. They work well together, the actors, not the characters. The Inspector is a sharp cookie and the poor Sergeant is the comic relief machine. He's often out of his depth and easily bamboozled, especially by a pretty face.

The main plot concerns someone stealing the nation's budget for a sneaky peak before it's announced. Someone could make some money out of the knowledge. A man is found murdered in his room at a boarding house. The Inspector is called in, he soon finds a link to the man with the nation's budget. Our heroes interview some suspects and do some detecting. Eventually he solves the case.

There's murder and merriment, just like I like. I thought it was a good story, plenty of suspects and good dialog, I got a few laughs out of it. I bought the DVD that's available from Amazon, it's the same DVD available here as in the UK, it's not marked with any region code and there's nothing on the DVD or the printed case insert to tell you who put out the DVD. It's got a DVDr instead of a pressed DVD. The quality is fair to good, sound is good. The link in the title of the film  has all three films processed into a block. It's too bad as that's the best copy on YouTube. Worth a look for both comedy and mystery fans.