PRIMITIVE SCREWHEADS

The Riverside Murder 1935

The Riverside Murder is a 1935 British crime film that was based on Les Six Hommes Morts by Stanislas-André Steeman. Selwyn Jepson wrote the screenplay and Albert Parker directed. I picked up a used copy of the DVD when I saw it had Alastair Sim on the cover. It's his first film role and while it's not a lead part, he's got a fair bit of screen time. He plays Sergeant Mac McKay, a bit dim but eager, and he works for Inspector Winton, who's played by Basil Sydney.

Basil had a fairly long career, his first role was back in 1920 and the last 44 years later. You might recognize him from the 1950 film Treasure Island where he played Captain Smollet. He was also in The Hands Of Orlac, the 1948 Hamlet and The 3 Worlds Of Gulliver. I am more interested in his 1959 appearance on The Flying Doctor. It's my holy grail of TV shows. I sure would love to see it again.

Inspector Winton is usually a good bit ahead of Sergeant McKay and there's often a bit of a laugh that goes long with that. They're investigating the death of a rich guy, part of a group of 5 financiers, soon after a second man is murdered. There's plenty of talking as the detectives dig into the lives of the people involved. It was fairly enjoyable and had plenty of fun bits. You can see a copy on YouTube.

One Wild Oat 1951

One Wild Oat is a 1951 British comedy that was based on the play One Wild Oat by Vernon Sylvaine, he co-wrote the screenplay with Lawrence Huntington, the director was Charles Saunders.

It stars Robertson Hare and Stanley Holloway, that's them above, Stanley is the guy with glasses. Robertson is a bit of snooty barrister, he has a daughter, Stanley has a son, The kids want to marry but Robertson doesn't like the son so much, he wants to tell his daughter about the young man's shady past and put an end to things. Stanley tells Robertson that he'll reveal Robertson's shady past if he blabs the son's past. They spend the rest of the movie bouncing around in typical farce activity.

Audrey Hepburn has a small role as a hotel receptionist, she had been in a TV movie and three episodes of a TV revue show, this is her first feature film role. I thought the movie was about average, I got a few laughs but it's nothing special.

There Was A Crooked Man 1960

There Was A Crooked Man is a better than average Norman Wisdom movie from 1960. It's based on a play called The Odd Legend of Schultz by James Bride, the screenplay is by Reuben Ship, the director is Stuart Burge. Norman made the film on his own to try to show his range as an actor. The film didn't do well, the viewers wanted his normally stupid character, and there were American objections about Norman's portrayal of a pushy US General taking British land for the US Air Force.

Norman plays an ex-British military explosives expert who gets forced to blow open a bank vault for a gang of bank robbers. Norman gets caught and goes to jail for 7 years. When he gets out he finds the crooks waiting for him but he's more interested in going straight. He finds the town government corrupt and enlists the crooks to blow up the town. There's a lot that happens between finding the mayor and his cronies are corrupt and the town's explosive end.

Lucky for me, there were some good jokes there. I'm just not that big a fan of Norman's stupid character that much. He's often so stupid, I can't watch him. Sadly, people seemed to like that guy. Oh, well, I would watch this again and I can't say that about most of Norman's work.

The Ghost Goes West 1935

The Ghost Goes West is about a haunted castle that's moved from Scotland to Florida. It came out in 1935 and director René Clair co-wrote the thing with Eric Keown, Geoffrey Kerr and Robert E Sherwood. Robert Donat plays Murdoch Glourie, he owns the haunted castle, and Donald Glourie, the ghost of his long dead ancestor. Robert is joined in the cast by Jean Parker, Eugene Pallette, Elsa Lanchester, Terry Thomas and more I didn't know.

Eugene plays a rich American and Jean plays his daughter. She talks him into buying the haunted castle. They move the whole thing to Florida and the ghost goes with them. Donald had died as a coward and he can't find rest until he gets a descendant of the Clan MacClaggan to admit that 1 Glourie is worth 50 MacClaggans. It takes a while to work that out and there's plenty of yelling and running about.

The movie was voted the best British film of 1936 and it was the 13th most popular box office hit in the 1935-6 season. I enjoyed it, there are some fun bits and a few good jokes with a bit of romance that's hardly bothersome. You can test drive it in the link in the title above.

John And Julie 1955

I decided to watch John And Julie because I noticed Sid James was in it. It's a 1955 comedy about the adventures of two preteens who head for London to see Elizabeth's coronation. William Fairchild wrote and directed. I'd just watched his film Value For Money the other day and I'd seen The Extra Day not too long ago. He wrote some episodes of The Four Just Men, I recently purchased the DVD set but they are, as of yet, unseen. I saw the show when I was a teenager and remember liking them.

John and Julie are two kids who live in Dorset, it's about 120 miles to London. Julie is bummed she can't go see the coronation, she enlists John's help to travel to London. They take a horse to the train station, buy tickets, and hop on board the train. John looses his ticket and gets taken off the train by the conductor. Wilfred Hyde-White comes to their rescue and puts them up in his house overnight.

They run off before the family is up. They get briefly separated, Julie gets a short ride on a bus and John steals a bike from a shop, but are soon together again. John's parents are Sid James and Megs Jenkins, they have called in the police who have already found out about the bike. Peter Sellers plays the police man that let's Sid sleep in his jail until the late train comes. Noelle Middleton plays the teacher at the school where Julie is living. She's sent after the child and she hooks up with Sid and Megs.

The kids get a number of helping hands along the way. They finally wind up at the barracks of the guards who are readying themselves to ride with the royal carriage. John's Uncle Ben is one of the guards. It's turns out Wilfred Hyde-White is there to lead them. They get a chance to see the royal carriage from a choice spot. Kids and guardians are re-united.

The movie gets a lot of stock footage shot at the coronation pumped into it near the end. I thought it was entertaining. I looked at Amazon UK to see if there's a DVD, the version on YouTube (link in title above) was a bit fuzzy, and there are a couple. AUK says they are putting shipping DVDs on low priority to my area, so any orders will be belayed. I put the cheap DVD in my queue to remind me but I might never order it, there's plenty on that list that I would like first. I've had some trouble with recent orders from Amazon UK not arriving, so I'm going to wait a while before ordering anything.

The Fast Lady 1962

I was disappointed in The Fast Lady and mostly with Stanley Baxter. He's the lead actor and I just didn't like his character very much. He's kind of a weak jerk who becomes a stupid, and dangerous, asshole behind the wheel of a car. It all kind of ruined the movie for me. Keble Howard gets "by" credit on the IMDb, so I'm assuming that's a story credit. Jack Davies and Henry Blyth wrote the screenplay and Ken Annakin is the director. Wish they had done better. I'm only keeping it for the brief cameo by Frankie Howerd. Would have been better to have downloaded it for free. Too late now.

Friday Night Movies 783

An Alligator Named Daisy is a 1955 British comedy with Diana Dors. It's part of a two movie DVD set from VCI that includes the other movie I watched tonight. The movie is based on a novel of the same name by Charles Terrot, Jack Davies wrote the screenplay and J Lee Thompson is the director. Besides Diana the cast I knew were Donald Sinden, James Robertson Justice, Stanley Holloway, Roland Culver, Margaret Rutherford, Avice Landone, Stephen Boyd, Richard Wattis, Michael Shepley, Patrick Cargill, Joan Hickson, Frankie Howerd, Maurice Kaufman, Nickolas Parsons, and Martin Miller. Most of the roles are smaller ones but it was nice to see the actors I like.

During a short boat trip Donald is left an alligator called Daisy by an old seaman who's wife has given him the old, "me or the beast" ultimatum. Now that Donald's stuck with the critter he wants to get rid of it. Jeannie Carson plays a zookeeper, she sees Donald trying to slip Daisy into the sea, she stops him. He tries to give it to her but she doesn't want it, neither does her zoo. Donald takes a liking to the feisty zookeeper and that causes some problems. Don't be like Donald.

Donald is engaged to Diana, that's her and Donald on the left, with Jeannie on the bed with Daisy. James Robertson Justice plays Diana's father, he's a pompous rich wind bag. He has a big engagement party out at his house. Of course, Donald brings Daisy because he can't find anywhere to leave the beast. Her appearance causes all sorts of havoc but not that many jokes. Frankie Howerd appears in the party scenes, he's on stage, part of the entertainment, he's on briefly and gone. They could have used a lot more Frankie.

 

There's a whole subplot about Donald's family being without a bean but it just isn't important. It could have been removed and more jokes put in. That would have made the movie more fun. I didn't much care for the music either. The whole thing is barely average for me. Too bad.

Value For Money is a 1955 British film that was a bit funnier than the first movie. It's based on the Derrick Boothroyd novel of the same name. RF Delderfield and William Fairchild wrote the screenplay and Ken Annakin directed.

 

John Gregson and Susan Stephen have a vague understanding, he's the son of a rich rag and bone man who's just died, she works on the local newspaper. John now has a nice bit of cash but he's nearly as cheap as his stingy father. His father speaks to him during the movie, especially the parts where John is being careless with his money.

John goes to London with some locals, they take in a show with scantily clad ladies, one of whom is Diana Dors. John takes a liking to her and thoughts of Susan are pushed out of his tiny brain. John takes Diana out but she's not impressed with his cheap ways.

Back home, John tries to get involved with local politics, by donating some land. He really wants to make himself more impressive for Diana. Using the opening of a new playground and community center as a draw he asks if she would appear at the opening. Finding out John really has some readies, Diana tries to put a ring on his finger but she overdoes it and John dumps her. She's got the looks but not the brains.

The two women in John's life get drunk together and things work out in the end. Lucky for me there were less songs in the movie. There were a few more jokes and that was good. I'd watch both of these over but there are many other titles ahead of them at this point.

Someone At The Door 1936

Someone At The Door is a 1936 British comedy thriller that's based on the play of the same name by Campbell Christie and his wife Dorothy Christie. Campbell worked with Jack Davis Jr and Marjorie Deans on the screenplay, Herbert Brenon did all the directing by himself.

A broke brother and sister move back into their childhood home. The country manor house is rundown and unbeknownst to them the location of some stolen loot. The brother and sister hatch a plan to fake her murder with him taking the blame. She'd show up in court and he'd go free. Of course that kind of stupid plan goes awry. The jewel thieves show up looking to get at their loot.

There's a fair bit of activity, a few jokes, and a fairly decent cast. It was enjoyable and something I would watch again.

What A Whopper! 1961

What A Whopper! is a 1961 British film I found on YouTube. Trevor Peacock and Jeremy Lloyd came up with the idea, Terry Nation wrote the script, Gilbert Gunn is the director. Jeremy I'd run across before, most recently as the creator and writer behind Whodunnit?. He'd also wrote a lot of British and American comedy shows like The Harry Secombe Show, Rowan & Martin's Laugh-In, Are You Being Served? and 'Allo 'Allo.

Trevor Peacock didn't write a lot of stuff, he's more an actor, that career started in 1961 and his last credit was in 2015. He might be best known as Jim Trott on The Vicar Of Dibley. He shows up on some of my favorite series, Jonathan Creek, Kingdom, Midsomer Murders and The Famous Five. Terry Nation you might know from Doctor Who. Gilbert Gunn only directed a few movies, I've seen Operation Bullshine and I have a copy of The Strange World of Planet X or as it was known in the US, Cosmic Monsters.

Adam Faith, Terence Longdon and Carole Lesley are all pals who live in a house with Charles Hawtrey and Lloyd Reckord. Lloyd is working on a huge figure that punches through three floors ending with a two fingered salute on the fourth floor.

The rent's past due and Adam has just had his Loch Ness Monster novel rejected by a publisher. With no money in sight, and an eviction notice pending, they decide to fake a monster, take a photo to stir up some media attention. Maybe Adam's book could get sold. Adam and Terence build a beast and photo it in the Serpentine in Hyde Park.

Adam, Carole and Terence head for Scotland to help sell the sighting, on the road they pick up a pretty French gal, played by Marie-France, who decides to lend a helping hand. They stay at the Loch Ness Inn, run by Sidney James, one of my favorite Brit actors. To stir up the locals Adam and Terence hide a big speaker in a ruin, to make a monster roar they use the sounds from an electronic music making machine. The whole plan doesn't go so well. There's a lot of interruptions, the local plod have an idea that Sid and his pal are poaching salmon, they are, and Carole's drunken dad shows up looking for his daughter. The salmon get hid in his room, his car and then disappear for a while. They turn up later.

The locals get stirred up by all the activity, the pictorial evidence disappears for a while, it's noisy and there's plenty of running about too. Occasionally there's a joke but I thought it could have certainly been funnier. I blame Terry Nation, he's just not much of a comedy writer. The actors are fine, plenty of my favorites appear; Clive Dunn, Freddie Frinton, Spike Milligan, Wilfred Brambell, Terry Scott and Lance Percival all have smallish parts. I watched it off YouTube and while there is a DVD available it seems to be out of print and over 20 bucks most places. That's more than I want to pay, I'll be happy with the YouTube copy I downloaded.

Have I Got News For You Series 59 Episode 1

Have I Got News For You starts it's 59th series with a social distancing show.

Steph McGovern hosts the show, she's a TV presenter who has hosted the show a few times. Each episode has a different host, it's been that way since the regular host left after some personal choices he made became public.

The comical news quiz started back in 1990 and this is the 516th episode. Ian Hislop, editor of Private Eye magazine, is one of the team regulars and he's not missed an episode yet. He even checked himself out of the hospital before his appendix operation, did the show, went back to the hospital and had the operation.

Comedian Paul Merton is the other team regular, he's missed a good few episodes even though he was there from the beginning.

 

They are joined by journalist Helen Lewis and comedian Miles Jupp. It's not as polished looking as a studio episode, everyone has to do their own hair and make up, but there were some entertaining things said.