PRIMITIVE SCREWHEADS

Don't Bother To Knock 1961

Don't Bother To Knock is a 1961 British film that's based on Clifford Hanley's 1959 novel of the same name. It was titled Why Bother To Knock in the US. The screenplay is by Denis Cannan and Frederic Gotfurt, additional dialog is by Frederic Raphael, the director is Cyril Frankel.

Richard Todd is a travel agent who's always on the pull. When he loses his key a friend gives him a bunch of copies with name tags. Richard hands them out on his trip around Europe. After he gets home all those ladies start showing up at his flat. Elke Sommer is one of the ladies, Nicole Maurey is another, June Thorburn is Richard's girlfriend. John Le Mesurier is the only other actor I knew. He's always enjoyable to watch.

It's kind of funny but there are no big laughs, at least for me. I'm also not much of a Richard Todd fan, this isn't make me like him any more than I did. I might watch it again.

Bottoms Up 1960

Bottoms Up is a 1960 British comedy with Jimmy Edwards playing Professor Jim Edwards from his TV show Whack-O! He's the head of Chiselbury School but he's due to get the sack unless he improve the student's grades. He hits upon the idea of getting a prince from some foreign country to impress other rich people into bringing their kids there. Unable to get a real prince he decides to fake one using the son of a bookmaker. It all goes wrong one way or another but there's a fairly happy ending. I had a few laughs, some of the physical comedy was entertaining.

It's written by Michael Pertwee with additional dialog from Frank Muir and Denis Norden. Mario Zampi is the director. Michael is the elder brother of Jon Pertwee and other Pertwee's in the biz. His first credit was in 1938 and he continued writing films and TV programs until his death in 1991. I don't know much of anything of his earlier work, I have a couple of his films to watch. Just before this he worked on the 1959 TV show The Invisible Man and right after Bottoms Up he wrote Make Mine Mink. He worked on Danger Man, Adventures In Paradise, Secret Agent, The World Of Wooster, The Saint and many more.

Friday Night Movies 754

The Headless Ghost is a 1959 British comedy set in a castle filled with ghosts. There's plenty of ghosts but not so much by way of jokes. Aben Kandel and Herman Cohen wrote both the story and the screenplay, Peter Graham Scott is the director. Sadly their movie doesn't live up to the poster. I read on the Wikipedia that the movie was written in two weeks and shot in three for a budget of £35,000.

It was filmed in Dyaliscope, a French widescreen process at 2.35:1 aspect ratio. It looks pretty good. The sets from Horror Of The Black Museum were used for the filming. It was released in the US as part of a double bill with HOTBM.

Richard Lyon and David Rose are American students in the UK, Liliane Sottane is a Danish student in the same school. They've come on a bus trip to a haunted castle. Richard thinks he'll get a story about the ghosts out of the trip. He wants to get published and make a name for himself. It's him who suggests they sneak back into the castle and spend the night. They encounter a ghost pretty quick and it turns out he's got a mission for them. They need to find a bag of ashes, then say an incantation and toss the ashes on the headless ghost's portrait. It will end his 400 year search for his noggin and the ghosts can leave the castle for good. There's one ghost who liked the nightly parties and he tries to put a stop to the plan.

There's plenty of running about and yelling but the movie is lacking in laughs. Still, it's not so awful we couldn't get to the end. I bought a copy so I might watch it again. You can check it out, there's a link in the title above. You might like it more, or less, who knows.

Our second feature was Nature Calls, a mad journey into the woods with some Boy Scouts and some crazy men. It's a comedy and it sure had some jokes. They might not be the jokes my mom would like but I found them funny. Todd Rohal wrote and directed the film. Patton Oswalt, Johnny Knoxville, Patrice O'Neal and Rob Riggle star.

Patton is a scout leader of a tiny troop that's shrinking. The few scouts decide to go to a sleepover at Patton's brother Johnny Knoxville's house instead of camping in the local park. The mom's of the scouts are really against any sort of dangerous activity. The kids get all hyper on multi-media, swearing and sugar. Patton talks them into going into the woods and they go. They have a great time and lots of weird stuff happens. There's plenty of swearing and bad behavior. It sure looks like they had a great time, even though Grandpa got blown up. He wanted to go into the woods to die anyway. It seems to have fans and haters, I enjoyed the hell out of it. I even put the BR on my wish list.

Whodunnit? Series 3

They upped the episode count for the 3rd series of Whodunnit? to ten and they aired July to September 1975. The three discs for series 3 start with the 1974 Christmas Special. The series was created by Jeremy Lloyd and Lance Percival, they also write the mysteries. They'll keep changing the number of episodes each series until the end. Dennis Kirkland and Robert Reed are the directors.

Jon Pertwee is still the host and he's joined each week by regulars Patrick Mower and Anouska Hempel. There are two guest panelists each week and four members of the audience are selected to guess Whodunnit?

Celebrity guests include Jackie Collins, Norman Bowler, Aimi MacDonald, Alfred Marks, Richard O'Sullivan, Paula Wilcox, Magnus Pike, Polly James, Nina Baden-Semper, Jack Smethurst, Diana Dors, William Franklyn, Rodney Bewes, Julie Ege, Dilys Lane, Terry Scott, Honor Blackman, Leslie Crowther, Nierys Hughes, Rosemary Leach and Jimmy Jewel. Like last series I didn't recognize a lot of them.

The guest actors include a few names I knew: Gerald Flood, Gillian McCutcheon, Robert Lindsay, Robin Stewart, George A Cooper, Michael Culver, Richard Greene, Burt Kwouk, Frank Thornton, Christopher Biggins, Edward Hardwicke, Ferdy Mayne, Katy Manning, Victor Spinetti, Geoffrey Palmer and Brian Wilde. There were many more I didn't know.

I'm finding I'm less interested in the mystery and more interested in who's in the episode. I'm also fascinated at the fashions of the day, some are OK, others less so. I'll keep at it, only 6 more discs to go. 

It's That Man Again 1943

It's That Man Again is a 1943 British film. It's directed by Walter Forde, the screenplay is by Ted Kavanagh and Howard Irving Young. It's based on a radio show. Tommy Handley is the mayor of a town, he gambles with the town's treasury, he wins a bombed out theater. He tries to run the theater school that existed there before he won what's left of the building. He tries to put on a play and there's lots of problems. It's kind of entertaining but there's always that nagging idea, that mayor is real shit bag. He's affable and he persuades people around him to do things bit he's still a crook. I thought he should have been punished more. One of the least interesting of the DVDs that are part of The British Film series.

Dylan Moran - What It Is - Live 2009

Dylan Moran stand up show What It Is - Live came out on DVD in 2009. It's the same sort of thing. I enjoy his observations even if I don't get a big laugh out of them. You can check it out on YouTube in the link above. You might enjoy it, maybe you'll laugh some.

Where's That Fire 1940

Where's That Fire is a 1940 Will Hay movie. It's written by Marriott Edgar, Val Guest and JOC Orton. Marcel Varnel is the director. Will is joined for the last time by Moore Marriott and Graham Moffatt. The only other cast member I knew was Charles Hawtrey.

Will is the head of an incompetant fire brigade. One day they can't find the fire and then they let the town hall burn down. The townies give them one more chance to put out a fire. Will and the boys head for London to look at a real fire station.

Will tries some of his own ideas to improve the service, most of them result in chaos, but he does invent a good fire suppression foam. In another subplot, some criminals try to hire the stations fire engine, an old horse drawn cart type, they want to use it to steal the crown jewels. It's similar to the Tower Of London fire engine.

There's plenty of noise and collateral damage. The trio at the fire station are the most destructive bunch but they do foil the robbery in the end. There's a bunch of jokes and some are funny, that's augmented with some slapstick and hitting. It was fun to watch, I laughed. The film was thought to be lost until the BBC discovered a copy in 1975. It's in the public domain and though it's not had an official release there are DVDs available.

Those Were The Days 1934

Those Were The Days is a 1934 Will Hay film that is part of The British Film series from Network. I hadn't seen it before and as I'm interested in getting all of Will's films I ordered one. I paid $6.12 less than a month ago and it's now $7.24 from the Amazon Global Store. That's Amazon US selling stuff that's shipped from Amazon UK. Sometimes it's cheaper to go through the AUS site but usually I wind up looking there because AUK isn't shipping that DVD to the US. Without proof, it seems that there are more titles that ship to the US than not, I rarely find one listed as not available for shipping to the US, usually an Amazon partner will sell it and ship it from their location.

Those Were The Days is a farce that started out as a play called The Magistrate. It was written by Arthur Wing Pinero. Four writers: Jack Jordan, Frank Launder, Frank Miller and Fred Thompson, worked on getting it to the screen. I'm a big fan of Frank Launder and seek out his films. I suspect most of the 21 films he wrote before this one are going to be hard to find on DVD. I actually have seen Josser In The Army and didn't care that much for it, mostly because of the main star of the picture Ernest Lotinga, he didn't appeal to me.

Thomas Bently is the director. Most of Thomas's films were silent, he started directing in 1912 and worked until 1941. I haven't seen much of his other work. I know I've seen his 1937 film Murder At The Baskervilles with Arthur Wontner as Sherlock Holmes and I did like his 1934 crime film The Scotland Yard Mystery.

In Those Were The Days Will is a strict magistrate who has a son that's a bit of a tearaway. Will's married to a wife with a secret, she lied about her age and her 15 year old son is really 20. John Mills plays the son. He gets Will to go with him to the music hall where we see some of the acts of the era. Nice that some of these acts got committed to film so people can see what passed for entertainment at the time.

There's plenty of noise as more of the family show up at the music hall. A fight breaks out and the mom and her sister are arrested. They get sentenced to 7 days in the pokey by Will. He didn't recognize them as they were heavily veiled. They won't have to serve any time as the whole story comes out in the end. It's a good reminder not to lie to your spouse, it always seems to catch up to people at the most inopportune time. I enjoyed it and would watch it again.

Jack Dee Live At The Duke Of York Theatre 1992

Jack Dee Live At The Duke Of York Theatre is a 1992 stand up show. It's Jack's earliest recorded show. He had been on stage since 1986 but really didn't break out nationally until he won the Best Stage Newcomer award in 1991. He got his own TV show the following year. The DVD isn't part of the box set that I picked up recently. It's alright but I find I like Jack better in panel shows. I never laughed out loud at the show but snickered once in a while. There are other stand up DVDs that I'll return to before this one.

Dylan Moran - Like, Totally 2006

Dylan Moran - Like, Totally is Dylan's stand up DVD from 2006. It's his second DVD after Monster - Live. It's about the same sort of stuff, Dylan shambles about the stage and goes on about what bothers him like the country, American stupid people, motorists, religion, children and more. I laughed a little bit but I don't find him as funny as some of the other comedians I like. I still wouldn't toss the DVD out, I'll get around to it sometime in the future. You can see the show in the link above.