The Kenneth More Collection has 4 films from the 50s. I first saw Kenneth in The 39 Steps when I was a boy and that version remains a favorite of mine to this day. It was while looking for a copy of Genevieve that I noticed this 4 pack of films. It was only a couple of bucks more than the single DVD and there were two other movies I didn't have. I had already had a copy of The 39 Steps, the exact same one as in the 4 pack. All of the movies in the 4 pack had been released separately.
Genevieve 1953 William Rose wrote the story and the screenplay, Henry Cornelius is the director. William also wrote The Lady Killers, It's A Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World, The Russians Are Coming, The Russians Are Coming and Guess Who's Coming To Dinner. Henry only directed 4 other films, Next To No Time, I Am A Camera, The Galloping Major and Passport To Pimlico. I seen all of those, except for TGM but I'll watch the copy on YouTube sometime soon. Seems like I might like it.
Kenneth and John Gregson are car enthusiasts, old classic car enthusiasts, it's 1953 and they are driving cars from 1904 and 1905 in the London to Brighton Veteran Car Run. In the movie John's married to Dinah Sheridan and Kenneth is dating Kay Kendall. He's taking her on her first cross country motor rally. Something I would rather watch in a movie or documentary than go on. Especially in a car with no windscreen and a large St Bernard in the back seat.
The run to Brighton goes good for Kenneth but John has troubles along the way. The pair come up with a bet to see who can get across Westminster Bridge first. The bet is for their cars.
It's a nice low key comedy with plenty of driving and scenery. The jokes are OK and the cast is fine. I've seen this 3 or 4 times already and still enjoy it.
Reach For The Sky 1953 The movie is based on the book by Paul Brickhill, the screenplay is by director Lewis Gilbert with additional scenes by Vernon Harris. Lewis had a few good films in his career, Alfie, The Spy Who Loved Me, Moonraker, You Only Live Twice, Sink The Bismark! and Cast A Dark Shadow.
I really like the above advert for the film. You can see from it that the movie is the story of Douglas Bader. He was a real pilot, he joined the RAF in 1928, in 1930 he crashed and had both his legs amputated. He recovered and was certified to fly a plane but the RAF discharged him.
Bader returned to the RAF when WW2 started, fought in the Battle Of Britain and many other missions. He was shot down in 1941, he survived but was captured. He tried escaping and was transferred from one POW camp to another, finally he wound up in Colditz Castle where he stayed until it was liberated in 1945. He lead the 300 plane fly over of London in June 1945.
I saw this film when I was a teenager and liked it then. It's still a good biopic and and an entertaining story. Great cast. I know I'll watch it again some time.
Flame Over India 1957 The title of the film in the UK is North West Frontier. The title change makes sense, the US public hardly knew where India was back in 1950s, they are unlikely to have knowledge of a province within what's now Pakistan. The British public knew about it, they'd been mucking about in India for ages. If I read the IMDb right, Frank S Nugent wrote a screenplay that was adapted from, Patrick Ford and Will Price wrote the story and Robin Estridge wrote the screenplay we see in the film.
Here's an interesting bit from the IMDb trivia page:
"DVD Talk" said of this film that it " . . . has a lot in common with John Ford's Stagecoach (1939) in that it's essentially a tale of a motley mix of Anglos confined in a train car, racing across an Indian plain trying to evade 'bloodthirsty savages'. It may be a blatant reworking of Stagecoach (1939), as the original story was co-written by John Ford (I)'s son Patrick Ford and Maureen O'Hara's husband Will Price. The final screenplay was adapted from a script by screenwriter Frank S Nugent, the writer of 11 Ford films."
It's a rousing adventure film mostly set on an ancient steam train. It's 1905 and Kenneth More is Captain Scott of the British Army. He's asked by the maharajah to take his young son to safety in Delhi. They miss the last train out of Haserabad and the area is filled with rebels. Luckily there's an ancient train called the Empress Of India that they can use to make their escape. They find the earlier train and all the passengers are dead except for a baby. They take it along.
That's the cast that escapes on the Empress, except for Herbert Lom. Besides Herbert and Kenneth there's Lauren Bacall, Wilfred Hyde-White, I S Johar, Ursula Jeans, Eugene Decker, Ian Hunter, Howard Marion-Crawford, Jack Gwillim, Frank Olegario and more I didn't know.
It's touch and go as the rebels attack, there's plenty of action, with a bit of double dealing intrigue on top of that. One of the people on the train has no love for the prince.
The 39 Steps 1959 It's based on the John Buchan novel of the same name, Frank Harvey wrote the screenplay, Ralph Thomas directed. I read the book when I was a teen and I saw this movie about the same time. Frank wrote I'm Alright Jack after this film. I've seen one of his earlier films, Saloon Bar, but I don't recognize any of his other works.
Kenneth gets caught up in the middle of a mystery that has some deadly dicks after him. He helps a nanny who was nearly run over, they meet at the theater and go to his flat. She tells him she''s a spy and she needs to go to Scotland. Before she can leave some dicks kill her. Kenneth takes over her mission to Scotland. He meets Taina Elg on the train but she gives him away to the police. He escapes.
There's all sorts of spy activity going on, Kenneth runs about, gets caught, escapes again. Sid James plays a trucker who helps him out. Others are not so nice. He escapes from the head of the spies, then is captured again, Taina is captured with him. They escape and hide in a bed and breakfast posing as a newly married couple running away from her father. Eventually everything works out for Kenneth and the spies are caught or dead.
I enjoyed it when I first saw it and each time it shows up in front of me. I'll be glad to watch it again some day. All in all a pretty good lot of films.
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