PRIMITIVE SCREWHEADS

I Only Arsked 1958

I Only Arsked 1958 Screenplay by Sid Colin and Jack Davies, directed by Montgomery Tully. A Hammer-Granada production that was based on the TV series The Army Game.

Bernard Bresslaw, Michael Medwin, Alfie Bass, David Lodge, Norman Rossington and Charles Hawtrey are useless army soldiers who are sent to the Middle East to help a King and his oil fields. They get stuck in the middle of coup but bumble their way to a happy ending.

It's a pretty simple and familiar tale with a few jokes, mostly of the physical sort. I liked it well enough but couldn't give it more than a 5 on the IMDb. You can see a copy on YouTube, see link above.

Friday Night Movies 941

Slaughterhouse Rules 2018 Screenplay by Henry Fitzherbert and Crispian Mills, directed by Crispian Mills. First production from Stolen Picture, a company formed by Simon Pegg and Nick Frost.

Simon Pegg is is Mr Houseman, a teacher at a fancy upscale private school. Michael Sheen is the greedy head of school. He's made a deal with frackers to drill for oil shale out in the woods. He bans the students from the woods.

Finn Cole plays a Northern working class student called Donald. His mother signs him up for the school without his knowing about it. Donald's not happy going there, it's a stereotypical English boarding school with secrets, class and bullying.

A giant sinkhole opens in the woods. The fracking also releases methane gas. It makes a nice green flame when lit. It turns out there's something down there and it's come up for a look. Most of the students are lucky, they've gone home for the weekend. Poor Donald has to stay and be bullied by his house Prefect.

I enjoyed the heck out of it. I enjoyed the in-jokes referring to other famous school films. There's plenty of comedy and some gory bits. It gets a 5.3 on the IMDb, I gave it a 6 because it's better than a 5. I bought the DVD from Hamilton Books sight unseen, glad I did, I'd watch it again sometime.

Polterheist 2018 Written by David Gilbank, Gemma Head and Paul Renhard, directed by David Gilbank.

Boxy and Tariq are a couple of lowlifes that work for Frank. They collect money from the gang's drug dealers, money Frank has been stealing. Frank's boss Uday wants that money, he's going to kill Boxy and Tariq if they don't show up with the cash in four days. The problem is Boxy just killed Frank, he was holding Frank's head underwater to make him spill where the money is and things got out of hand.

The pair get the idea to kidnap a medium who can supposedly talk to the dead. She can find out from Frank where the money is. Frank takes over the woman's body and leads the pair on a chase for the cash. It doesn't go so well for Boxy and Tariq but the medium gets away with a nice payout.

It's violent and humorous. I thought it was better than the 4.2 it gets on the IMDb. That's been screwed with by the voters, 16% voted it a 10 and 18% voted it a 1. There's complaints in the comments about the reviews. I'd watch it again.

Assignment Redhead 1956

Assignment Redhead 1956 Written and directed by Maclean Rogers. A British film that was released in the US as Million Dollar Manhunt.

Richard Denning is Major Keen, he working with British Intelligence. Carole Matthews plays Hedy the redhead, sadly the film is in B&W so there's no way to tell is she's really a redhead.

Ronald Adam plays the villain Dumetrius and Danny Green plays his henchman Yotti. Dumetrius is a document forger, counterfeiter and part time murderer. He takes a trip to the UK in disguise as a Major in the British Army. Demetrius kills the real major and frames another soldier for the job. The framed guy hides with the help of a cigarette girl from a nightclub.

 

Richard falls for Hedy who turns out to be involved with Dumetrius. That's a doomed relationship for sure.

There's nothing much special about it. Strictly average. You can see it on YouTube.

The Canterville Ghost 1997

The Canterville Ghost 1997 Story by Oscar Wilde, screenplay by Olivia Hetreed, directed by Crispin Reece.

A British TV adaptation of the Oscar Wilde story. An American family moves into a big manor house and has to contend with the ghost. I've seen several adaptations of the story. This isn't going to be a favorite adaptation to me. It's a bit annoying. I was most interested in seeing Rik Mayall, he's got a smallish part as a reverend who comes to preform an exorcism. He doesn't stand a chance against Ian Richardson's ghost. You can watch a poor copy on YouTube. Better though you watch the more entertaining 1944 version with Charles Laughton. The 1996 version with Neve Campbell and Patrick Stewart is slightly less entertaining than the 1944 version but still fun.

 

Flame In The Streets 1961

Flame In The Streets 1961 Based on the 1958 play Hot Summer Night by Ted Willis, screenplay by Ted Willis, directed by Roy Ward Baker. Interracial romance in 1960 Britain.

John Mills is Jacko Palmer, a union leader who fights for the rights of black workers just like he does for his white coworkers. At home things are a mess, he's just found out his daughter plans to marry a black man from the West Indies. He tells her he's worried about how hard it will be for a mixed race couple. Jacko's wife is just an out and out racist. There are some tough scenes with racist characters making racist comments.

Sylvia Sims plays Jacko's daughter, Brende De Banzie plays the wife. I knew some of the other actors from watching 60s British TV and movies: Earl Cameron, Johnny Sekka, Wilfred Brambell, Guy Houston, Gretchen Franklin, Harry Baird and Cyril Chamberlain. That's Earl Cameron and Ann Lynn above. He's works at the same company that Jacko does.

A good film, I enjoyed it, despite it being a drama. I'm not keen on them, I watched it because it was directed by Roy Ward Baker.

Pit of Darkness 1961

Pit of Darkness 1961 Based on the Hugh McCutcheon novel To Dusty Death, screenplay by Lance Comfort and Hugh McCutcheon, directed by Lance Comfort. I'd recently enjoyed Comfort's 1962 film Tomorrow At Ten and his 1964 film Blind Corner.

Richard Logan is a safe designer who wakes in the middle of some waste land, he doesn't know how he got there or what happened the day before. He heads for home and wife Julie only to find he's been missing for three weeks. Richard is played by William Franklyn and Moira Redmond plays Julie. One of Richard's nearly unbreakable safes has been broken into. Julie had hired a detective to find him but that guy got killed.

Richard and Julie try to break into his memories to figure out what happened. They get a few breaks and flashes of memory help solve the puzzle. He gets involved with criminals and there's some jeopardy. It's a decent story with a good cast. I enjoyed it. I'd watch it again. You can try it out on YouTube, links for three of Lance's films above.

Endless Night 1972

Endless Night 1972 Based on the Agatha Christie novel Endless Night, written, directed and produced by Sidney Gilliat, Frank Launder, Sidney's long time partner, was was also the producer. It was the last film Sidney directed, he produced one more film and wrote a couple more before he retired.

Earlier in his career Sidney wrote The Lady Vanishes for Alfred Hitchcock  to direct, in the middle of his career he wrote Green For Danger for himself to direct, near the end of his career he wrote the St Trinian's Girl School pictures. There were a few other good films mixed in there too. He's one of my favorite film makers and he often worked with Frank Launder.

Endless Night is the story of a working glass guy, played by Hywel Bennett, who aspires to be rich. He likes the finer things in life, art, architecture and women. Hayley Mills plays an American who takes a liking too him, they marry pretty quickly on.

Turns out Hayley is rich, she buys the sea side plot Hywel wants, despite being warned that the place is cursed, and she arranges for the famous architect to design the house. Things happen for a bit and Hayley dies while out on a horse ride. The autopsy says natural causes but Hywel isn't sure. Hywel inherits Hayley's fortune. Things go downhill for Hywel after that.

When it was done I wasn't much impressed, it's about average, there's hardly anyone to root for but in the end there's some punishment metered out. I liked that part better. I bought a cheap DVD that I'll keep, I might get around to it again someday. Agatha herself didn't care for the film much, especially the nudity near the end of the movie. It did poorly in the UK and didn't get a US release.

A Matter Of Choice 1963

A Matter Of Choice 1963 Story by Derren Nesbitt and Vernon Sewell, screenplay by Paul Ryder, directed by Vernon Sewell.

 

A couple of guys go out for drinks and wind up knocking a police man into the street where he gets hit by a car. The woman driving the car has been out cheating on her husband with another man. The other man gives chase to the guys and one of them hits the man with a brick. The pair hide the body in the garage of the woman without her knowing about it. 

It was fairly good. I enjoyed the story well enough. You can check it out at YouTube.

Sherlock Holmes And The Masks Of Death 1984

Sherlock Holmes And The Masks Of Death 1984 Story by John Elder, screenplay by Anthony Hinds, N J Crisp, directed by Roy Ward Baker.

Peter Cushing is Holmes, John Mills is Watson, and Anne Baxter is Irene Adler.It's Peter Cushing's last turn as Holmes, his ill health kept him from being able to appear in a sequel.

Inspector MacDonald asks Holmes for help with the three dead bodies in the East End. Before he gets going on that, the Home Secretary shows up with a German diplomat who has lost one of his envoys, a German Prince, who has disappeared right out of his house in Buckinghamshire. Could get serious between England and German if the guy isn't found.

There's a fairly good script that pokes a bit of fun at Sherlock's age. He's not quite as sharp as he used to be, it takes a while for him to get going and figure things out. Not a top notch film but entertaining for the most part. You can see it on YouTube. Link above.

Torment 1950

Torment 1950 Written and directed by John Guillermin. It was John's first solo directing job. It was released in the US with the title Paper Gallows.

Twin brothers, Cliff and Jim Brandon, are murder mystery writers. They're both interested in their secretary Joan but she's only got eyes for one of them. The unwanted brother kills someone and frames Joan for the murder. The good brother has to keep her off the gallows and marry her before the end of the movie.

Dermot Walsh plays Cliff, Rona Anderson plays Joan and John Bentley plays Jim. It's an OK movie but not much above average. It's short and quickly paced, I was entertained.