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I don't have the time of day to tell you what I want to hear
I am still fighting off a sinus infection and have spent most of the day after an intense weekend flattened. I am not looking forward to leaving the house for appointments. My most sustained achievement seems to have involved running a mild fever and passing out on the couch.
I thought at first that the actor was nicely eliding his start in quota quickies, but it could be true that John Clements got his first screen acting job on Things to Come (1936), since it was in production from 1934. He's one of the most human parts of its inexorable march of progress, the downed enemy airman coughing out his life in the clouds of his own poison gas and blackly rueful amazement at his reflex of chivalry toward a child in the midst of total war: "I dropped the gas on her. Maybe I've killed her father and mother. Maybe I've killed her whole family. And then I go and give up my mask to save her. That's funny. That's a joke." Even with the semi-German accent, the bit looks forward to his equally self-sacrificing, even more scene-stealing turn in Knight Without Armour (1937), the clever young commissar with his demure cigarette papers and his explosive tears. It's incredible to me that I thought him bland in the early stages of The Four Feathers (1939) except that he was still hiding how much of that stolidity was his character's own mask, forcing himself into the tin soldier mold of his family's traditions until they compressed him past endurance and all at once he came visible as that live, wry, brazen and shamefaced, "difficult" hero per C. A. Lejeune who pulled me through his film's mélange of wickedly deconstructed and uncritical imperialism. Impelled by this train of thought to look for notes on what happened betwen the book and the film of South Riding (1938) to produce a screen transfer that is acceptably faithful right up until it fix-its the ending in a fashion demanded by none of the novel's fans, I found instead this review which answered none of my questions but planted its flag so firmly for Team Astell that I was delighted. With or without a hurt/comfort complex, what's not to love about the consumptive local socialist? It worked on me as far back as Westmark's Keller. I am picking on Once in a New Moon (1934), but casting Clements in a role without scope for humor might as well have settled for any other actor at the studio: it's one of his most attractive assets. He had such an odd floruit in the middle of the '30's and '40's. I can read multiple agreements that he just that much preferred stage to screen, but without a time machine it does me no good. "Well, you wanted to blow off steam." – "Yes, you're doing the blowing. I'm getting the wind up."
Chernaya Rechka's "Romance" (2023) and Heartworms' "Extraordinary Wings" (2025) both make miniature weird tales of their music videos, the one a haunting of modern urbex, the other a hazard in the wartime land. Joanne Borts doing "Fifty-Fifty" (2007) does not have a music video, but this ludicrously catchy song from a 1917 American Yiddish musical that escaped containment has run on and off in my head for a full month now. A nickel far zey, a nickel far mir, indeed.
I thought at first that the actor was nicely eliding his start in quota quickies, but it could be true that John Clements got his first screen acting job on Things to Come (1936), since it was in production from 1934. He's one of the most human parts of its inexorable march of progress, the downed enemy airman coughing out his life in the clouds of his own poison gas and blackly rueful amazement at his reflex of chivalry toward a child in the midst of total war: "I dropped the gas on her. Maybe I've killed her father and mother. Maybe I've killed her whole family. And then I go and give up my mask to save her. That's funny. That's a joke." Even with the semi-German accent, the bit looks forward to his equally self-sacrificing, even more scene-stealing turn in Knight Without Armour (1937), the clever young commissar with his demure cigarette papers and his explosive tears. It's incredible to me that I thought him bland in the early stages of The Four Feathers (1939) except that he was still hiding how much of that stolidity was his character's own mask, forcing himself into the tin soldier mold of his family's traditions until they compressed him past endurance and all at once he came visible as that live, wry, brazen and shamefaced, "difficult" hero per C. A. Lejeune who pulled me through his film's mélange of wickedly deconstructed and uncritical imperialism. Impelled by this train of thought to look for notes on what happened betwen the book and the film of South Riding (1938) to produce a screen transfer that is acceptably faithful right up until it fix-its the ending in a fashion demanded by none of the novel's fans, I found instead this review which answered none of my questions but planted its flag so firmly for Team Astell that I was delighted. With or without a hurt/comfort complex, what's not to love about the consumptive local socialist? It worked on me as far back as Westmark's Keller. I am picking on Once in a New Moon (1934), but casting Clements in a role without scope for humor might as well have settled for any other actor at the studio: it's one of his most attractive assets. He had such an odd floruit in the middle of the '30's and '40's. I can read multiple agreements that he just that much preferred stage to screen, but without a time machine it does me no good. "Well, you wanted to blow off steam." – "Yes, you're doing the blowing. I'm getting the wind up."
Chernaya Rechka's "Romance" (2023) and Heartworms' "Extraordinary Wings" (2025) both make miniature weird tales of their music videos, the one a haunting of modern urbex, the other a hazard in the wartime land. Joanne Borts doing "Fifty-Fifty" (2007) does not have a music video, but this ludicrously catchy song from a 1917 American Yiddish musical that escaped containment has run on and off in my head for a full month now. A nickel far zey, a nickel far mir, indeed.
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We can put them on the bus out of town.
*hugs*
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Thank you! I like John Clements. Some of his filmography is everywhere and some of it is elusive—there's so little footprint for his other quota quickie Ticket of Leave (1936) that I can't even tell if it survived. Please sing out if you ever see it on Talking Pictures. Once in a New Moon finally turned up on Tubi courtesy of Renown. (I see they put it in the same box set as The Night Caller. It may not have known what to do with John Clements, but I'm not sure that was fair!)
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I also love the description of this transformation: "he was still hiding how much of that stolidity was his character's own mask, forcing himself into the tin soldier mold of his family's traditions until they compressed him past endurance and all at once he came visible as that live, wry, brazen and shamefaced, "difficult" hero." --You're describing a transformation of an actor/character in a particular film, but it's so recognizable as a thing that can happen more broadly: compression, compression, compression, EXPLOSION.
So glad for your music recs--will check them out!
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Canonically, unfortunately, but I still think he should be imagined.
I also love the description of this transformation: "he was still hiding how much of that stolidity was his character's own mask, forcing himself into the tin soldier mold of his family's traditions until they compressed him past endurance and all at once he came visible as that live, wry, brazen and shamefaced, "difficult" hero." --You're describing a transformation of an actor/character in a particular film, but it's so recognizable as a thing that can happen more broadly: compression, compression, compression, EXPLOSION.
It is! It's very like meeting a person rather than a character in that respect. (And the first time through I did not actually know the story of the film despite its British classic status, so I had no idea where Harry Faversham was going once I met him.)
So glad for your music recs--will check them out!
Enjoy! Paradoxically now that I have my archive back, I am listening to so much more new music.
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It is always the way! He has a great face, and I like the sound of some of those. He looks quite familiar, but I can't see anything on his IMBD I've watched aside from being pretty sure I saw Gandhi with Mum a very long time ago.
quota quickie Ticket of Leave (1936) that I can't even tell if it survived. Please sing out if you ever see it on Talking Pictures.
LOL, if it does, I will probably just be vaguely... do I know that name from somewhere??? But otherwise, I will!
I see they put it in the same box set as The Night Caller. It may not have known what to do with John Clements, but I'm not sure that was fair!
"An intelligent, restrained, moody and highly effective film. "
OMG!! Well, someone didn't attempt to watch the infamous and random semi-colorised edition, did they? That casts doubt on whoever wrote those descriptions. I mean, it DOES look quite nice and it gives good Alfie and I wasn't bored, but it did veer between being three separate films, one of which was pretty sexist IMO (and it's not as if I hadn't watched an awful lot of 60s TV at that point.)
I did like the Bikini Girl advertising plot, though, and especially Alfie having to contend with it.
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I'm glad! I found them both spellbinding. And "Fifty-Fifty" is still on and off in my head.
Heartworms/Josephine Orme reminded me of PJ Harvey, too. I had not heard her before this song.
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If it helps, I too saw Gandhi with my mother at some point in the past and can't remember him in it at all.
(Of course it's on TCM right now. The arc of the universe bends temporarily toward John Clements. I could refresh my memory and give myself future shock.)
OMG!! Well, someone didn't attempt to watch the infamous and random semi-colorised edition, did they? That casts doubt on whoever wrote those descriptions. I mean, it DOES look quite nice and it gives good Alfie and I wasn't bored, but it did veer between being three separate films, one of which was pretty sexist IMO (and it's not as if I hadn't watched an awful lot of 60s TV at that point.)
Everyone has their problematic fave!
I did like the Bikini Girl advertising plot, though, and especially Alfie having to contend with it.
I am sorry the film did not just stick to his investigations resolving unexpectedly in sci-fi. I would have leapt on that film years ago.
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Not if they've tried to watch the semi-colourised version of it! XD
(Of course it's on TCM right now. The arc of the universe bends temporarily toward John Clements. I could refresh my memory and give myself future shock.)
It does! I realised just recorded They Came to a City (1944) off TalkingPictures on a whim a few days ago, because the blurb sounded interesting and it had Googie Withers, but it turns out it also stars John Clements and was from a play by J B Priestley. I shall see how it goes, although at the moment I am being bad at watching stuff downstairs; it got too tiring for ages and I've started about ten things and not finished any of them, but it is improving a bit lately, I think.
But anyway: \o/ My policy I am trying to do where I just record the thing and look it up later to see if I want to watch it has paid off for once.
(I don't know if it'll be any good, but at least it isn't about aliens abducting girls from Soho via carefully placed magazine ads, which is fine apparently, if it's only women and it's for science. /not my problematic fave, no, lol)
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It's wonderful. Or at least I love it. I actually showed it to
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I'm so glad! Thank you for telling me.