filmlover
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> {quote:title=BingFan wrote: }{quote}*Blithe Spirit* (never on TCM; not on DVD; very enjoyable version of Noel Coward's comedy with the great Margaret Rutherford as the medium)
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> (If I'm wrong about the Region 1 DVD unavailability, please let me know -- I'd be very glad to learn that some of these films are on DVD!)
Before I go for the evening, been meaning to mention...
Hi, BingFan, you're not wrong about Region 1 but Blithe Spirit is available on DVD from the UK. And it is beautifully restored by the BFI. It's worth getting an all-region DVD player.
And anyone interested in it, you can find it with other restored David Lean films in this set (be sure to get THIS set, not the other David Lean set out there because that doesn't have the restored films)
It's a treasure trove of ten great films for about $27 US (including shipping) from Amazon.uk!
Includes:
In Which We Serve
This Happy Breed
Blithe Spirit
Brief Encounter
Great Expectations
Oliver Twist
The Passionate Friends
Madeleine
The Sound Barrier
Hobson's Choice
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ThelmaTodd, thanks for the list. I think I might have to include links to YouTube films sometime soon. The trouble is things get yanked from there so quickly.
Speaking of Korda, I was lucky enough to get the Criterion Paul Robeson: Portraits set a few days ago for $30, and it has Sanders of the River on it. I saw this as a kid on TV, and enjoyed it. Okay, today, it is hardly p.c. but you gotta love Robeson singing.
And I am looking forward to see what Criterion does with their DVD set of Sabu films. Three Kordas: Elephant Boy, The Drum, and The Jungle Book.
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It was the early Thirties. While America had new sound stars that caught their delight, so too did Great Britain. Two of the very brightest English stars that the public loved were *Jessie Matthews* and *Anna Neagle* (never to be confused with Anna Nagel).
(You were never anybody until you appeared on a cigarette card.)
Jessie Matthews
Jessie Matthews had a face that made you smile. Waif-like, she looked like a combination of Loretta Young, Janet Gaynor, and Luise Rainer. From within came an effervescence of a kind you very seldom find. The kind of girl you wanted to bring home to meet your parents.
She could dance (Fred Astaire had wanted her for his partner). She could sing. And acting...well, it wasn't always out of the ballpark, but you liked her. And she did have gorgeous legs.
People went into a Jessie Matthews film to have fun. One such delight was "First A Girl" (1935), a remake of the German film, "Viktor and Viktoria"; yes, which became much later, "Victor/Victoria" with Julie Andrews.
Among her other wonderful films are "It's Love Again" and the delightful "Evergreen" (the latter will be on TCM on Sept. 24th; be sure to catch it!)
You can also catch her in later years in "Tom Thumb" as Tom's mother, showing Sept. 8th on TCM.
Anna Neagle
Anna Neagle was a very beautiful woman and talented actress, a good dancer and a nice singer...
...and, yes, you could also bring her home but, depending on the role she played, not to your parents' home. She could play Nell Gwyn, a king's saucy mistress, and yet you loved her.
She could also play the opposite end of the spectrum, Queen Victoria (twice). On stage, she even played Peter Pan!
Neagle had a career in the United States, too, appearing as "Nurse Edith Clavell" (1939), about the British heroine shot by Germans who accused her of spying.
Among her other U.S. films were "Irene," and "No, No, Nanette." You can also find her costarring with Errol Flynn in two films, "Lilacs in the Spring" (US title "Let's Make Up") and "King's Rhapsody."
Among her last works was appearing as the Fairy Godmother in a stage production of "Cinderella."
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Tuesday, Sept. 6th, 1939
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Even the mention of Gracie Fields causes me a disheartened sigh. I'd like to cover her - maybe, just maybe later - but I am working on a post at the moment about Jessie Mathews and Anna Neagle for tomorrow night. And still adding to tonight's post, which may be around midnight my time. (Oops, gotta rush to get in today's 1939 articles in the 1939 thread.) (Remind me, again, people are supposed to get out and enjoy the Labor Day weekend, right? ; )
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Old Mother Riley takes getting used to. Even Monty Python didn't prepare me for that. In retrospect, I could get get used to an Oriental like Charlie Chan being played by a Caucasian much faster than a man in a female role for a whole series of films. LOL, every once in a while, I would think of Basil Rathbone as Sherlock Holmes when he was in a disguise, how he would suddenly straighten up from playing, say, a bookseller, and say, "That's your man, Inspector." Well, I would wait with old Mother Riley but...
Hey, I have an idea. I am so swamped with all the daily themes for this thread marked out on my calendar for the rest of the month, that I think people would love to see you add in an illustrated post about the Riley series. It isn't on my schedule, and, regretably, there will be many at the end of the month I will say, "Arghh! I should have done this or that." One thing I want this thread to do is to introduce films that people on this side of the pond know nothing or little about. I will definitely be getting into that with mainstream stars like James Mason. And, in the line of Riley, I will be covering the Carry On series. But at the moment, I am in the midst of doing the historical context of UK film history, which is overwhelming to say the least! So if you could introduce a fun post here with Old Mother Riley, that would be absolutely great.
*P.S. -- Hi, if anyone else has an idea for a piece on British film history you feel you know very well and would like to contribute to this thread, send me a PM so I can check my own calendar just to make sure it doesn't conflict with an idea I am working on. I will get back to you. We could make this a great community-contribution thread!*
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Thanks, ThelmaTodd.
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ThelmaTodd,
Thank you very much for your post. I was just beginning to feel no one was reading this thread.
And that's a great link you provided. While watching the opening of "Lydia," I was reminded that Miklos Rozsa's first film score was for a Korda film, "Knight Without Armor."
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Continuing on...
It was in the early 1930s that England found its own David O. Selznick, a man who would raise the British film to an art form and gain wide recognition for the UK film industry. The man was Alexander Korda. He had been a Hungarian immigrant, who at one point came to Hollywood, but never really had continuing success with the film industry here, so he returned, this time though stopping in England.
He formed a picture company called London Films, and you probably know the opening for their films very well...an image of Big Ben tolling the hours.
Many stars emerged through his films, among them Laurence Olivier, Vivien Leigh, Flora Robson, Merle Oberon, and Sabu.
Now, right here is where I had planned going into much more text and his films, and I have stockpiled hundreds of illustrations to accompany that text...but in looking at just how long this post would be, I realized that you just seeing the film posters he either produced, directed, or wrote (sometimes all three) would tell you more about his career than I could. So, sit back...it's time to get out the popcorn...and these are just films from his producing in the UK!!!
"The Rise of Catherine the Great"
"The Ghost Goes West"
"The Drum"
"The Spy In Black"
"The Lion Has Wings"
"The Thief of Bagdad" began filming in England, but the outbreak of WWII they moved the blanace production to Hollywood.
For a few years, he did a couple of films in the U.S. (mentioned at the bottom), but then it was back to Great Britain after the war.
UK title for the follwiong was "Perfect Strangers"
"An Ideal Husband"
"The Third Man"
"Summer Madness" aka "Summertime"
And then, his last production, 1955's "Richard III"
He died in 1956.
In the few years during WWII that he was in Hollywood, he produced the following:
and tonight's late show on TCM:
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Sorry for the delay in getting in the post for today (Saturday). Been working for many hours getting the pictures below.
I wanted to discuss today, briefly, the start of cinema in the UK. Surprisingly enough, early inventors from Britain were responsible for the early days of movies for all of us. William George Horner created the modern version of the Zoetrope, the device in which different pictures of a figure moving were placed inside a circular drum, and when someone looked through the slits provided in the drum while the drum was at a fast speed, would tend to feel the figure was showing genuine movement.
Another important person in the development of what would become the motion picture industry was photographer Eadweard Muybridge, who had come from England. In 1878, in California, he set up a series of cameras to record the galloping motions of a horse.
Further along the years came William Friese-Greene, a British inventor, called sometimes the inventor of cinematography. Though there have been some debunking reports, he may have invented the motion picture camera about the same time as Thomas Editon (one story goes that Friese-Greene submitted his idea to Edison but never heard back from him). In his mid-Sixties, he attended a lecture in 1921 about the poor state of the British film industry. He got up and started speaking, but much he began to become incomprehensible. He was helped to sit down again...and died. In 1951, there was a movie made about him, with Robert Donat as Friese-Greene.
William Friese-Greene:
Jumping ahead...much like the United States, England would improve on the invention and develop their own film indistry.
Below are some the stars and films of the silent days of UK cinema.
May Clark in a 1903 version of Alice in Wonderland:
"Rescued by Rover", a 1905 film that cost less than 8 pounds to film, including cast.
The first British Sherlock Holmes movie, "A Study in Scarlet"
On the below early Alfred Hitchcock film, the still photographer would go on to be one of the greatest directors of British cinema...Michael Powell.
Ivor Novello and Mabel Poulton in "The Constant Nymph"
Alma Taylor (venter) and Ronald Colman
Violet Hopson
Poppy Wyndham:
And things started to improve, so much so they could even import a couple of U.S. Film stars:
Dorothy Gish as "Nell Gwyn"
Gish and Will Rogers in "Tip Toes"
Betty Compson and Clive Brook in "Woman to Woman", a film that predates "The White Shadow" as Alfred Hitchcock's first film as Assistant Director.
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Jim Dale is good, but if one thinks of the films from the Sixties, one invariably thinks of Barbara Windsor. LOL, she and the Carry On films were made for each other.
I'd love to see her on TCM. If they can't do it now with her, I'd love to see Robert talking with her at a later date.
But, of course, to me the real star was Sidney James, who got started with the series in the last one they are showing, Carry On Constable.
My favorite of all the Carry On films was Carry On, Cleo. For that film, they used costumes and sets left over from the Taylor-Burton Cleopatra.
By thy way, I will be doing a piece on the Carry On films in this thread the day they are on.
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What a marvelous film "Goodbye, Mr. Chips" is. And such a great performance by Robert Donat.
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Today on TCM:
Though *To Sir With Love* was not a British film per se, it is still one of the most influential films of the period and quite a striking look at the England of the Sixties. These are kids from homes in the less refined districts, not a Young Winston among them. While some may look at “To Sir With Love” as a remake of “Blackboard Jungle” or a continuation of the character Sidney Poitier played in that film, TSWL is wonderful in its own way, presenting the old story gimmick of a fish out of water. Poitier is , in my opinion, the actor who should have taken home an Oscar in that year. That year, he was in TSWL, “Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner,” and “In the Heat of the Night,” yet was not even nominated for any of them! TSWL also boasts an excellent supporting cast, from the rebellious students played by Christian Roberts, Judy Geeson, and Lulu (whose rendition of the title song is played just a bit too many times in the film), to the adults of the film (British TV stalwarts such as Suzy Kendall, Ann Bell, Faith Brooks, among others).
A scene that didn't make the final film:
Another film about a teacher, this time a genuine British production (though through the UK picture-making facilities of MGM), was the heartwarming *Goodbye, Mr. Chips*. Robet Donat walked away with the Best Actor Oscar that many thought should go to Clark Gable for “Gone With The Wind”, but Donat definitely deserved his win. Donat was a major British star, once considered by WB for the title role of “Captain Blood” (but he turned it down due to health problems), could be seen in British films such as Hitchcock’s “The 39 Steps,” “Knight Without Armor,” “The Citadel” (for which he was Oscar nominated), and the Hollywood production of “The Count of Monte Cristo.” In “Goodbye Mr. Chips,” he goes from being a nervous and disliked young teacher, into a much-beloved older man because of being transformed by the love of Greer Garson. “Goodbye, Mr. Chips” was the last UK production for the MGM unit there due to World War II.
Not being shown today on TCM, there was a remake of GMC as a UK-made musical starring Peter O’Toole and Petula Clark.
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Later tonight, you have the opportunity to see Glynis Johns in two films she made in Great Britain, both as a mermaid, *Miranda* and its sequel *Mad About Men*. If ever there was an English actress who deserved the expression “bloody marvelous,” it is Johns. Her throaty voice could tug at your heart, while hey wide eyes could either make a man fall in love or fill him with lust, depending on which emotion she chose to solicit. You can see her at times on TCM in films such as “The Court Jester” and “No Highway In The Sky.” She was Oscar-nominated for her role in “The Sundowners.”
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Piece of trivia: in the 1936 London stage production of “The Children’s Hour,” she was the nasty girl who caused all the problems. And here is a British poster of another film of Glynis Johns, not looking very saintly. Makes you want to see the movie, doesn’t it?
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Kyle is right. Robert Osborne is TCM, and a nicer gentleman you could not hope to meet. We all miss him, but I certainly can not find anything wrong in him taking some time off after surgery and for a vacation. He's 79 years old and he has more energy than I have at nearly 25 years his junior.
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It's not even worth mentioning, but I will. WarnerArchive.com is having a 20% off Labor Day sale on select sets. Since a number of their sets are too high, anyway, 20% doesn't do much good.
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It played a 3D festival at the Egyptian in Hollywood a few years ago but I was unable to go. I have kicked myself ever since.
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What a wonderful month September is going to be. Thank you, TCM Programmer. In addition to great nights with Kirk Douglas, The Telluride Film Festival, and the Library of Congress Film Archive, it is a special month of films from the British Empire from many decades past to the present day. Not just Merchant Ivory, which became very famous for their lush productions of British literature, there are also a number of other moments in the month, including a tribute to the early Carry On films (thanks, Charlie!)
I admit to an admiration of the British film industry, as those who know me will tell you. I have been blessed having been born and raised in Canada because my youth was exposed to the classics and the latest American releases, as well as those of the United Kingdom.
I'd like to spend this month looking at some of these films that will appear on TCM, and many that aren't yet. British films are remarkable in that theirs is a rich history that is completely their very own, from the level of royalty and all the way down to the street buskers. Yet, here is a language that is English, akin to our own most of the time (LOL, though at times subtitles would help), and stars some of which we know from only their appearances in American films, but in so many films released there that we have never heard of.
I hope that all of you will contribute to this thread with your own feelings of British films.
So, tally ho and all that rot, the game's afoot.
A poster from a salute to a Merchant Ivory festival
Edited by: TCMWebAdmin on Oct 3, 2011 2:52 PM to change the title per poster's request.
Edited by: TCMWebAdmin on Oct 3, 2011 7:23 PM
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Thursday, Aug. 31st, 1939
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johnbabe, check your keyboard, you're stuck in caps and that is the equivalent of shouting in all your posts.
My opinion of Lucy was forever soured during an awards show where Groucho Marx was having trouble with a cuecard, and she basically pushed him aside to read it.
As far as picking a favorite film, for some reason I have trouble picking any film of hers that I really liked. When I see there is a classic film on and see her name in the cast, I kinda feel let down because I feel she takes away from the film of it had a different person in her place.
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Wed., Aug. 30th, 1939
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My Fair Lady Blu cover
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Especially after the TCMAdmin told him to keep his comments about TCM and Veidt in that first link.
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Sunday, August 27th, 1939
Regular articles and ads will return tomorrow. In the meantime, here are several items from a 1939 movie magazine...
You think you are clever, you think you know movies, so let's see how you do on this puzzle. Which of you will be the first to scan and post his or her competed puzzle? I will post the correct answers in a few days.
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Kino announced both Birth of A Nation and Way Down East on Blu for 11/22. Both are from director D.W. Griffith.
Birth of a Nation:
http://www.classicflix.com/birth-nat...y-p-11633.html
Way Down East:
[B]1939: HOLLYWOOD'S GREATEST YEAR - DAY BY DAY - as it happens!!![/B]
in Your Favorites
Posted
Thurs., Sept. 7th, 1939