PRIMITIVE SCREWHEADS

Gideon Of Scotland Yard 1958

Gideon Of Scotland Yard 1958 Based on Gideon's Day by John Creasey, screenplay by T E B Clark, directed by John Ford. Yep, the same John Ford you're thinking of, John Wayne and Stagecoach. According to the Wikipedia the film was poorly promoted and released in B&W despite being shot in color. It lost money but not too much. I watched the film on YouTube, it's a nice copy under the original British title of Gideon's Day. It was released in the US as Gideon Of Scotland Yard.

Jack Hawkins plays Detective Chief Inspector George Gideon of the Metropolitan Police. It's a long day for DCI Gideon, he's got a lot of family obligations, then there's all those crooks clambering for his attention. He's got a bent copper, visitors for tea, an escaped mental patient, his daughter's violin recital, a young woman is murdered, his bent copper gets run down and the tire tracks are from the same car that used in recent payroll thefts. He ends the day catching some rich socialites robbing a safety deposit company.

It's a good movie, the script is pretty solid and the cast is even better. Some of my favorite British actors are on the case: Jack Hawkins, Cyril Cusack, Ronald Howard, Howard Marion-Crawford, Laurence Naismith, Anna Lee, Derek Bond, John LeMesurier and Miles Malleson.

I enjoyed it beginning to end. I'd watch it again sometime.

The Big Switch 1968

The Big Switch 1968 Written and directed by Pete Walker. The second film by Pete, it was shot on location in Brighton. He only made 16 films between 1967 and 1983. They're mostly low budget exploitation crime and horror films. Usually there's plenty of violence and sex. This film is set amongst the strip clubs of Birmingham and there's plenty of ladies getting their kit off.

Some sleazy crooks have developed a plan to smuggle an old gangster back into England. They frame a low level crook for the murder of a woman, they beat him up a bit and force him to pose for pictures with nude women. The pictures are of a rough and sadistic nature. That's just the icing on the poisonous cake. He's going to be the corpse when the gangster is supposedly burned up in an accident. The old gangster will assume his identity after some plastic surgery.

 

It's a  not a good plan for our guy. Lucky for him the criminals keeping an eye on him are pretty dumb and he escapes taking a woman with him, she was slated to die in the accident too. There's usually something happening and the scenery is entertaining to me. Between the talking  bits there's a bit of a punch up and later the action ratchets up a notch with a decent shoot out, it starts in an arcade and spills over onto the Ghost Train ride. Not bad for the most part, I'll give it a bit of a bump up for all those naked ladies running about. You can see a nice enough copy on the Internet Archive, link in the title.

The Calendar 1948

The Calendar 1948 Based on the 1929 Edgar Wallace play The Calendar and the novel of the same name, screenplay by Geoffrey Kerr, directed by Arthur Crabtree. I keep finding films based on Edgar Wallace stories and I watch them even if they're dramas set in the world of British horse racing. There's a 1931 film version of the story that I haven't seen.

John McCallum is Captain Garry Anson, he's a racehorse owner who loses some of his money at the track. His fiancee dumps him and marries a rich guy. Greta Gynt plays the sister of the rich guy, she works for Garry training his horses. The plot revolves around something stupid that Garry does and it takes ages to fix that boner up.

It's not as interesting as most Wallace adaptations but they usually involve more interesting characters and murder.

The Mummy's Shroud 1967

The Mummy's Shroud 1967 Written by John Gilling and Anthony Hinds, directed by John Gilling. A Hammer film that I don't ever remember seeing in the past. It's not on my watched movie list but that only goes back to 1989.

An archaeologist and a rich guy find a tomb thought to be home to the boy Pharaoh Kah-To-Bey. A flashback tells us of the overthrow of Kah-To-Bey's father and the boy's escape into the desert with his father's servant Prem. The boy dies and Prem takes the boy's medallion. When they open the tomb and find the mummy, it's the medallion that makes them think it's Kah-To-Bey in the tomb. The mummified body is put on display at the Cairo Museum. The scene above is after they've found the grave of Kah-To-Bey, it's Prem propped up in the sarcophagus and the boy Pharaoh in the foreground.

The archaeologist and the rich guy are warned off before they open the tomb but they don't listen. A secret society resurrects the mummy and sure enough it starts killing people. The rich guy takes advantage of the archaeologist and puts him in a mental asylum while he's a bit sick from snake bite. The rich guy wants all the credit for the expedition. The archaeologist escapes the asylum and is killed by the mummy shortly after. Even the rich guy can't escape the creature, it just keeps on coming.

A fairly decent mummy film but no where near as good as The Mummy, the first of the Universal Mummy films. Hammer's film is in color and it looks fine. It's a bit low budget but most of it works well enough. I'd still watch it again. You can see a decent copy on YouTube. Link above.

London Entertains 1951

London Entertains 1951 Written by Jimmy Grafton and directed by E J Fancey.

Some gals set up an agency called At Your Service after graduating from a Swiss finishing school. Hire them and they'll show you around London and the sites of the Festival of Britain for 1951. You'll also get some entertainment with your tour. The gals get some help from BBC radio presenter Eamonn Andrews. Looking for places to take their customers the gals see variety shows at the Windmill Theatre and Grafton's public house. The later place is owned by film writer Jimmy Grafton. The movie is a mix of travelogue and comedy with musical numbers. There's even a Busby Berkeley sort of number. We meet some singers and comedians. There's even a sketch by The Goons who were known as Crazy People then. The gals in the agency were played by members of the Eastbourne Girls Choir. It's fairly entertaining, despite all the songs, but it's only about average.

The Diamond Wizard 1954

The Diamond Wizard 1954 Based on the novel Rich Is The Treasure by Maurice Procter, screenplay by John C Higgins, directed by Montgomery Tully. A British crime film that was originally called The Diamond. It was the first 3D film in Britain but it was only shown once in 3D and that was in 2006 in Hollywood.

US Treasury Agent Joe Dennison is in London on the trail of some crooks who stole one million dollars in newly minted money. The crooks are part of a bigger gang that is producing counterfeiting diamonds. They got the help of a scientist they've got locked up in an old castle. His diamonds are so good experts have a hard time telling them apart from the real thing. Dennis O'Keefe plays the Treasury Agent and Margaret Sheridan plays the scientist's worried daughter.

It's a fairly decent film with OK 3D effects. It's presented in BD3D Polarized and Anaglyphic red/cyan versions. You need a D Blu-ray and TV to make the first version work. I watched the Anaglyphic version and it was quite nice looking. Like the other 3D movie I watched a couple of days before the Blu-ray only comes with 1 set of glasses. No matter, I wouldn't want to watch it with a group anyway, the 3d is going to look better from straight on and I'd rather sit in front of my TV so I get the best picture. There's also a 2D version. The extras include a short on restoring the film in 3D, a slideshow presentation on the film, a trailer, alternate opening credits.

Be My Guest 1965

Be My Guest 1965 Story and screenplay by Lyn Fairhurst, produced and directed by Lance Comfort. A British film shot at Pinewood Studios and was released as a the B movie for the Morecambe and Wise film The Intelligence Men. It was the sequel to Live It Up! 

David  Hemmings is in a band with his mate Steve Marriott. David's parents have inherited a seaside hotel. The band helps get customers to stay at the hotel. That's pretty much the plot, the rest of the movie is filled with musical numbers by a diverse group of musicians.

It was fun and breezy. I skipped up through a few of  the musical numbers. Others might like them more.

The Black Windmill 1974

The Black Windmill 1974 Based on the 1973 Clive Egleton novel Seven Days To A Killing, screenplay by Leigh Vance, direction by Don Siegel. I picked up the Kino Lorber Blu-ray during a recent sale. Not for any reason really, I like Michael Cane and several people in the cast: Donald Pleasence, John Vernon, Clive Revill, Catherine Schell, Edward Hardwicke, Derek Newark, Patrick Barr and John Rhys-Davies. 

Michael Caine's son and a second boy are kidnapped at an abandoned airbase by men posing as RAF men. Micheal is a British intelligence officer who's on an undercover operation investigating arms smugglers. Michael's wife calls to tell him she got a call from someone telling her their son has been kidnapped. The couple have recently separated.

Michael takes the kidnappers second call, they want big packet of diamonds worth £517,057 or they'll kill his son. Michael's boss just happens to have a packet of diamonds in his safe that's worth exactly that much, it's meant for another mission. Michael tells his boss what's going on. His boss wonders how the kidnappers knew about that packet of diamonds and whether there's a bad apple in MI6. At first he suspects Michael of organizing the kidnapping and ransom, he sets some men to investigate him.

Michael spends the rest of the movie running after the baddie. There's a fair bit of talking but a good bit of action. Eventually things work out for Michael and there's a happy ending.

It's a fairly decent spy thriller but nothing really exceptional. I gave it a 6 on the IMDb, it's average is 6.3, and I didn't quite think it was a 7. I'm betting it's going to be a while before I get back to it again. I have other Michael Caine films I want to watch before this one.

There's a good commentary by filmmaker and film historian Mike Siegel. No relation to Don. There's also an interview with cinematographer Ousame Rawi, 6 radio spots, and animated image gallery, some new cover art for the Blu-ray cover and a trailer. I don't like a lot of the new art that some of the companies put on their releases. I prefer the original poster in most cases.

The Angel Who Pawned Her Harp 1954

The Angel Who Pawned Her Harp 1954 Based on The Angel Who Pawned Her Harp by Charles Terrot, screenplay by Sidney Cole and Charles Terrot, directed by Alan Bromly. There was a 30 min adaptation on the BBC in 1951 and a 1959 German film.

An angel is sent down to help some people in Inslington. She pawns her harp with a local pawnbroker to raise a bit of cash to get a room. She interacts with several people and helps them along their way.

It's very charming and quite entertaining. I enjoyed it. I'd watch it again. You can see a decent copy on YouTube. Link above.

 

Devil's Bait 1959

Devil's Bait 1959 Written by Peter Johnston and Diana Watson, directed by Peter Graham Scott.

A baker has a rat problem and the council rat catchers are on honeymoon. A phone operator gives him the name of Mr Love, a man who had done some rat catching in the past but mostly drinks nowadays. Mr Love comes by to kill some rats and prepares his poison in a broken bread loaf pan. He doesn't throwaway the loaf pan or even clean it and it gets used to make a loaf of bread.

Love pays the supreme price for his carelessness, he's killed in an accident on the way home. The police learn of his job at the bakery and head on over. Mr Frisby lies  and says he doesn't know anything. He later discovers the broken tin and smells the cyanide. He tries to find the loaf before someone eats it.

It's a bit dry but there's a decent story and a fairly good level of tension. I enjoyed it and would watch it again.