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By words that just hang in the air and stories that aren't going anywhere
I cannot say that I am going to town on the free channels of the Roku, because as of late I have been so exhausted that I am watching fewer movies than usual, but I am fascinated by TVTime because it gives me access to a remarkable number of British films which have been otherwise difficult to impossible to find—noirs, musical comedies, the aforementioned quota quickies—so long as I am willing to watch them at a quality that gives pirated media a bad name. It reminds me of the early days of Netflix and YouTube and I keep expecting to discover one evening that it's all been pulled on grounds of massive rights sketchiness, but in the meantime it's enabling me to pursue several avenues of exploration that until now had obliged me to wait on the hazards of Criterion and TCM and once upon a time the local arthouses. I am still out of luck on a couple of particular titles, of course, and I am dead out of luck when it comes to finding a couple of source novels in my local library, which would be less annoying if I could find them on my local internet. I'm not entirely sure what I'm researching and am not asking for suggestions, but I'll report back if it resolves into anything more complicated than comparative literature. If nothing else, I had never thought of John Mills as a noir-identified actor like Eric Portman or James Mason, but I've just seen him in a second example after The October Man (1947) and there's at least a third on my radar. I suppose when you are a national archetype, it's an unavoidable phase.
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(I would totally rec you more Alfred Burke but as I've said before, all I've seen are mostly dull/bad films with him in!)
Random other recs - I know you were doing Carry Ons a while back: do watch Cabby if you ever can! (Kitchen sink Carry On of my heart. ♥)
For JM-related reasons, this means I have also watched films by Casper Wrede and other people featuring Tom Courtenay and these are all definitely interesting/good in different ways!
Otley (1968) - did you watch this already? idk, it is a spy-comedy that has dated pretty well & stars Tom Courtenay & just about everyone else from 1968, including JM, who is married to Phyllida Law in it and she looks so like Emma my brain kept breaking all the time. Leonard Rossiter turned up for 15 minutes and stole everything, but there are some other good cameos and I enjoyed the driving test section a lot.
Casper Wrede things (Casper was part of JM's group and they were very intense and earnest and intellectual and definitely slightly weird and I find I like the stuff I've found by him so far. They are sometimes slow but I feel a better persopn inside for having watched them after, if you know what I mean! It's all obscure and thinky, but they worked for me. And they mostly have Tom Courtenay in, so...)
Private Potter (1962) - this is not very long and, as I said, was based on a TV play from the previous year, starring Tom Courtney as a soldier who claims an action that is seen as cowardice is because he had a vision of God, and everyone tries to react to that. (Including JM in fake eyebrows. /weeps).
(There's also A Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich (1970) but I have not yet actually watched it, because I think a person has to be in the right mood for watching stuff set in grim prison camps, also because I am saving a last bit of JM, so I can't entirely recommend it, but it is supposed to be very good and is another Casper Wrede thing starring Tom Courtenay - and it also has Alfred Burke. they apparently all learned how to ski in Norway in between making it.) (Both of these aren't very available, though - if your new source has them, watch them! They are otherwise only available on YT if someone has them up at time of looking.)
Ransom (1975) - the last of these, which has no Tom Courtenay, sorry. It gets slated as being a not-good-thriller, but I really liked it, probably because I knew by now to expect it to be a thinky piece above anything else, and it is. Ian McShane is the terrorist & is v young & v good, and Sean Connery is a Scandinavian police officer trying to stop him in nice pullies and a scary moustache & I like what it does with its twist. (It does also have JM in; he is a minister who gets in people's way, but Casper shoots him very prettily, which I suppose is what friends are for - I like the cinematography generally in it.)
I expect you have also seen most of my Margaret Lockwood films I've watched, but if you haven't already watched Bank Holiday (1938), I love it, and it's a Carol Reed film.
Of her others, there's Love Story (1944) which is about a romance between a pianist who's terminally ill (Lockwood) and a pilot who's probably going blind (Stewart Granger), and is exactly how that sounds, except for the fact that Granger has a childhood friend & tomboy who also loves him played by Patricia Roc, who spends the whole thing wandering round in trousers and being femslashy with Margaret Lockwood and I recommend the experience. (I think the others in that set you've definitely already seen!)
(I'm going to end this comment while I look to see if there were any others.)
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I regret to report I can absolutely watch that one on the Roku, because one of the free channels is constantly trying to suggest it to me. I don't know what I did to it.
(I would totally rec you more Alfred Burke but as I've said before, all I've seen are mostly dull/bad films with him in!)
I don't believe he's prominent in it, but he is in The Small World of Sammy Lee (1963), which is supposed to be very good and which I have been looking for ever since running across it in discussion of Expresso Bongo (1959). Opinions not objected to, if you have seen it and have them.
I know you were doing Carry Ons a while back: do watch Cabby if you ever can! (Kitchen sink Carry On of my heart. ♥)
We saw that one! It was wonderful! My favorites are currently standing at Cleo, Screaming, Cabby, and Cowboy, with Spying and Regardless as strong honorable mentions. After that we either hit a wall or couldn't find Up the Khyber and took a break.
Otley (1968) - did you watch this already?
No, I think I have just seen your amazing gif of James Maxwell clutching an unexplained barometer.
Casper Wrede things
All sound of interest to me, with or without Tom Courtenay. I keep not being emotionally up for a day in the life of Ivan Denisovich, but I have wanted to see it for some time just for the cast.
I expect you have also seen most of my Margaret Lockwood films I've watched, but if you haven't already watched Bank Holiday (1938), I love it, and it's a Carol Reed film.
I have not already seen it, but I found it on TVTime while looking for A Girl Must Live, so it is likely to happen sooner rather than later!
except for the fact that Granger has a childhood friend & tomboy who also loves him played by Patricia Roc, who spends the whole thing wandering round in trousers and being femslashy with Margaret Lockwood and I recommend the experience.
I should definitely see that.
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It is one of life's ironies that this is totally one of the more available things I've watched for old TV people. But my TV guide I get sometimes keeps giving it 3 stars! Maybe I misjudged it! /side-eyes that magazine hard.
We saw that one! It was wonderful! My favorites are currently standing at Cleo, Screaming, Cabby, and Cowboy, with Spying and Regardless as strong honorable mentions.
That is a good list! I would absolutely concur! I forgot to ask if you'd seen any more, but yes. I do have a soft spot for those pre-Talbot Rothwell 60s ones (Constable, Teacher, Cruising, Regardless), but yes. I once did a thing about 1950s comedy that involved me rewatching Cabby a lot, and I'm still very fond of it. It was Hattie's favourite, as well. I have a feeling Joan liked Cowboy best, also unsurprisingly.
It's not a bad place to stop, though, either, if you had to, although I hope your source comes through, if only for some of the set-pieces, like the big comedy sword fight in Don't Lose Your Head and Joan Sims getting her delivery of "My brother, the comte," past the censor, as well as the Khyber dinner party.
OK, I have watched Carry Ons far too much, my life is just misspent, lol! They were a childhood staple.
No, I think I have just seen your amazing gif of James Maxwell clutching an unexplained barometer.
It is not much more explained in the film! It's a fun one, as I said.
I keep not being emotionally up for a day in the life of Ivan Denisovich,
One day things will either get bad enough or good enough and we'll both be there. *nods* *fist!bumps*
I have not already seen it, but I found it on TVTime while looking for A Girl Must Live, so it is likely to happen sooner rather than later!
I wasn't entirely sure what to make of it the first time, but it's become the 30s film I'm most likely to rewatch after TLV.
Also, btw, I don't know if you have seen this, but I am currently watching a thing off Talking Pictures called The Assassination Bureau and it has Diana Rigg trying to stop the Assassination Bureau by hiring them to assassinate their own chairman, Oliver Reed, and then she has to tail him to report on it & they have basically been running all over early 1900s Europe blowing everything up behind them and accidentally starting WWI in the middle. Anyway, if you have not watched this, unless it does something horrible in the remaining 20 minutes, it seems to be very enjoyably absurd and I'm still not sure how I feel about the Athos/Emma Peel ship, but it is a thing apparently. 0_o
(It has no JM in it. I just saw the title and then saw the cast and pressed the button.)
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Your TV guide has unique tastes.
I once did a thing about 1950s comedy that involved me rewatching Cabby a lot, and I'm still very fond of it.
It's the most human, which we were not expecting, and it was a battle of the sexes from 1963 that didn't flame out in misogyny, which was perhaps even more of a surprise. It felt like an outlier within the cycle to me, but extremely worth being fond of.
Also, btw, I don't know if you have seen this, but I am currently watching a thing off Talking Pictures called The Assassination Bureau and it has Diana Rigg trying to stop the Assassination Bureau by hiring them to assassinate their own chairman, Oliver Reed, and then she has to tail him to report on it & they have basically been running all over early 1900s Europe blowing everything up behind them and accidentally starting WWI in the middle.
I've heard of it, actually, because it was one of the last collaborations of Basil Dearden and Michael Relph, but I never have seen it! Did it survive the last twenty minutes?
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Yes, exactly. Once the 70s get all contemporary again, there are some echoes of it scattered through them, but only Cabby goes full on kitchen sink. But, then, that was Britain in 1963 for you! XD It is the only battle of the sexes thing I will watch! XD
I've heard of it, actually, because it was one of the last collaborations of Basil Dearden and Michael Relph, but I never have seen it! Did it survive the last twenty minutes?
THERE WAS AN AIRSHIP!
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Right; I must see this.
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