I'm a mercenary soldier and we all look the same
I screamed in dismay in the middle of the night because I had just seen the news that Kenneth Colley died.
I saw him in roles beyond the megafamous one, of course, and he was everything from inevitable to excellent in them, but it happens that last week![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
spatch and I took the excuse of a genuinely fun fact to rewatch Return of the Jedi (1983) and at home on my own couch I cheered his typically controlled and almost imperceptibly nervy appearance aboard the Executor, which by the actor's own account was exactly how he had gotten this assignment stationed off the sanctuary moon of Endor in the first place, the only Imperial officer to reprise his role by popular demand. In hindsight of more ground-level explorations of the Empire like Rogue One (2016) and Andor (2022–25), Admiral Piett looks like the parent and original of their careerists and idealists, all too human in their sunk cost loyalties to a regime to which they are interchangeably disposable, but just the slight shock-stillness of his face as he swallows his promotion from frying pan to fire would have kept an audience rooting for him against their own moral alignment so long as they had ever once held a job. It didn't hurt that he never looked like he'd gotten a good night's sleep in his life, not even when he was younger and turning up as randomly as an ill-fated Teddy-boy trickster on The Avengers (1961–69) or one of the lights of the impeccably awful am-dram Hammer send-up that is the best scene in The Blood Beast Terror (1968). Years before I saw the film it came from, a still of him and his haunted face in I Hired a Contract Killer (1990)—smoking in bed, stretched out all in black on the white sheets like a catafalque—crossbred with a nightmare of mine into a poem. Out of sincere curiosity, I'll take a time machine ticket for his 1979 Benedick for the RSC.
He played Hitler for Ken Russell and Jesus for the Pythons: I am not in danger of having nothing to watch for his memory, as ever it's just the memory that's the kicker. No actor or artist or writer of importance to me has yet turned out to be immortal, but I resent the interference of COVID-19 in this one. In the haphazard way that I collected character actors, he would have been one of the earlier, almost certainly tapping in his glass-darkly fashion into my longstanding soft spot for harried functionaries of all flavors even when actual bureaucracy has done its best for most of my life to kill me. I am glad he was still in the world the last time I saw him. A friend no longer on LJ/DW already wrote him the best eulogy.
I saw him in roles beyond the megafamous one, of course, and he was everything from inevitable to excellent in them, but it happens that last week
spatch and I took the excuse of a genuinely fun fact to rewatch Return of the Jedi (1983) and at home on my own couch I cheered his typically controlled and almost imperceptibly nervy appearance aboard the Executor, which by the actor's own account was exactly how he had gotten this assignment stationed off the sanctuary moon of Endor in the first place, the only Imperial officer to reprise his role by popular demand. In hindsight of more ground-level explorations of the Empire like Rogue One (2016) and Andor (2022–25), Admiral Piett looks like the parent and original of their careerists and idealists, all too human in their sunk cost loyalties to a regime to which they are interchangeably disposable, but just the slight shock-stillness of his face as he swallows his promotion from frying pan to fire would have kept an audience rooting for him against their own moral alignment so long as they had ever once held a job. It didn't hurt that he never looked like he'd gotten a good night's sleep in his life, not even when he was younger and turning up as randomly as an ill-fated Teddy-boy trickster on The Avengers (1961–69) or one of the lights of the impeccably awful am-dram Hammer send-up that is the best scene in The Blood Beast Terror (1968). Years before I saw the film it came from, a still of him and his haunted face in I Hired a Contract Killer (1990)—smoking in bed, stretched out all in black on the white sheets like a catafalque—crossbred with a nightmare of mine into a poem. Out of sincere curiosity, I'll take a time machine ticket for his 1979 Benedick for the RSC.He played Hitler for Ken Russell and Jesus for the Pythons: I am not in danger of having nothing to watch for his memory, as ever it's just the memory that's the kicker. No actor or artist or writer of importance to me has yet turned out to be immortal, but I resent the interference of COVID-19 in this one. In the haphazard way that I collected character actors, he would have been one of the earlier, almost certainly tapping in his glass-darkly fashion into my longstanding soft spot for harried functionaries of all flavors even when actual bureaucracy has done its best for most of my life to kill me. I am glad he was still in the world the last time I saw him. A friend no longer on LJ/DW already wrote him the best eulogy.
no subject
no subject
Thank you! He always made me happy to find in anything.
no subject
no subject
I'm pretty sure Mahler was where I last newly saw him. He worked almost as often with Ken Russell as Murray Melvin. I also seem to keep forgetting he was in Performance (1970).
no subject
no subject
Right: I cannot promise that I will write in any meaningful sense about it because I am having incredible difficulty writing about anything, but I will watch it.
no subject
no subject
Such waste. Such unforgivable quiet waste.
no subject
BITE.
*hugs*
no subject
no subject
I am glad to know that there are people who still discuss it as such as opposed to an unavoidable acceptable risk.
no subject
I knew him best as the Duke in the BBC Measure for Measure, a role he played as a sympathetic trickster more than a deeply dodgy manipulator. But I was always pleased to spot him amongst a cast, as is the way with favourite character actors.
no subject
*hugs*
I knew him best as the Duke in the BBC Measure for Measure, a role he played as a sympathetic trickster more than a deeply dodgy manipulator. But I was always pleased to spot him amongst a cast, as is the way with favourite character actors.
Yes! And he could turn up in just about anything—art films, historicals, random television. I had been going to complain that the internet has never vouchsafed me more than clips of that Measure for Measure except all of a sudden it's on Kanopy. The universe seems to be assembling me a watchlist.
(I did in fact watch a film for his memory tonight, but how fast/whether I write about it depends on whether I become any more functional/have any more free time this week than last week, jury still out.)
no subject
Anyway, yes, he was marvellous! I noticed him first in the BBC Shakespeare Measure For Measure as the Duke and I can see I'm not alone; it's one of the earlier less-liked BBC Shakespeare's but one of my favourites of the series. (It's the one that also has Jacqueline Pearce as Mariana so Tim Piggott-Smith's Angelo will definitely be eviscerated after the credits roll. XD)
He turned up several times in my old telly viewing after that and was always so great - I'm forgetting which ones without going to look, but he was definitely in a couple of episodes of Fall of Eagles as a wild priest of some kind that I watched not long after - very different to the duke but as good as ever.
<3
Btw, probably of less interest to you, and who knows I may manage a post today or tomorrow, but just in case: Gerald Harper, aka Adam Adamant, has also left us, so it was not the week for elderly Brit character actors.
no subject
Thank you. I am no longer on FB and no one on my friendlist mentioned it on DW: I found out randomly and to my displeasure.
Anyway, yes, he was marvellous! I noticed him first in the BBC Shakespeare Measure For Measure as the Duke and I can see I'm not alone; it's one of the earlier less-liked BBC Shakespeare's but one of my favourites of the series. (It's the one that also has Jacqueline Pearce as Mariana so Tim Piggott-Smith's Angelo will definitely be eviscerated after the credits roll. XD)
You'll have seen that I finally have a line on that production, then, and while the chances of a review are minimal to catatonic, I will at least let you know when I've seen it!
He turned up several times in my old telly viewing after that and was always so great - I'm forgetting which ones without going to look, but he was definitely in a couple of episodes of Fall of Eagles as a wild priest of some kind that I watched not long after - very different to the duke but as good as ever.
I never warmed to Ian Carmichael as Wimsey, but in the 1974 The Nine Tailors Kenneth Colley was an ideal Potty Peake.
Btw, probably of less interest to you, and who knows I may manage a post today or tomorrow, but just in case: Gerald Harper, aka Adam Adamant, has also left us, so it was not the week for elderly Brit character actors.
I did see the news about him. I thought of you. I'm sorry. I am currently living in paranoia about Colin Jeavons.
*hugs*
no subject
Aw, cool! It's from the early run of episodes that people tend to be more down on, but I'm extremely fond of it. (And, btw, if I mention a thing, I don't expect you to watch, and even when I'm hopping and down and reccing stuff wildly (as I, ahem, do from time to time), I still only hope that maybe you will watch it, just maybe, and, fingers crossed enjoy it, and that's all that matters. <3
(Which is not to say, of course, that those days when you happen to review something I like aren't times of great rejoicing in my little household of me. :D And obv, may you have the spoons for all the writing you want as soon as possible!!)
but in the 1974 The Nine Tailors Kenneth Colley was an ideal Potty Peake.
I've still never seen any of those. He never looked right to even to me. But noted, and mariocki on tumblr reminded me that one of the other places I enjoyed his performance was in an ep or two of The Rivals of Sherlock Holmes.
Btw, have you ever seen The Halfway House (1944)? I mean to write up at least a little about what I've been watching lately, including it, but idk when and if, and while I can't make up my mind whether I enjoyed it more or less than it deserved for various reasons (mainly didactic plot stuff probably forgivable because WWII), it absolutely goes in the box of forerunners of Sapphire and Steel in certain aspects.
ETA: Btw, downstairs film watching is muchly slowed by the TV showing baffling amounts of TV I Like all at once, but guess what film I snagged unexpected on TPTV a few weeks ago? The Stone Tape!
no subject
I never feel that recommendations are assignments! I'd go out of my mind. I was mostly thinking it would be fun to talk about it with you. I have seen two local productions of Measure for Measure, but never this particular one, mostly because it was totally inaccessible from the time I found out about it.
And obv, may you have the spoons for all the writing you want as soon as possible!!
Thank you! Both my own health and an ongoing situation in my family have been sapping most of my time and attention. It is frustrating.
I've still never seen any of those. He never looked right to even to me. But noted, and mariocki on tumblr reminded me that one of the other places I enjoyed his performance was in an ep or two of The Rivals of Sherlock Holmes.
I have enjoyed Ian Carmichael several places where he wasn't supposed to be Wimsey! And actually enjoyed him as Wimsey in the 1975 BBC Radio 4 version of The Unpleasantness of the Bellona Club, i.e. the one with Martin Jarvis—but he absolutely does not have the right kind of face or the affect for any the Harriet Vane quartet, which is why my mother showed me Edward Petherbridge. My father for some reason likes Carmichael.
Btw, have you ever seen The Halfway House (1944)? I mean to write up at least a little about what I've been watching lately, including it, but idk when and if, and while I can't make up my mind whether I enjoyed it more or less than it deserved for various reasons (mainly didactic plot stuff probably forgivable because WWII), it absolutely goes in the box of forerunners of Sapphire and Steel in certain aspects.
Ironically, it's been on my list of movies to write about for several months now and while I kind of don't care about the human details except for the conductor, the fact that J. B. Priestley didn't write this one is deeply weird. I also linked it instantly with Sapphire & Steel because how not? Susan Cooper as well, but unlike in the case of They Came to a City, I have no way of proving a causal link.
ETA: Btw, downstairs film watching is muchly slowed by the TV showing baffling amounts of TV I Like all at once, but guess what film I snagged unexpected on TPTV a few weeks ago? The Stone Tape!
Most excellent TV! What else has it been giving you that you like?
no subject
Aww. <3<3<3 It will, then, I hope!
Thank you! Both my own health and an ongoing situation in my family have been sapping most of my time and attention. It is frustrating.
*hugs*
but he absolutely does not have the right kind of face
They had some old tie-in covers in my library when I was first reading and I used to look at them and go NOPE NOPE, NOT YOU SIR.
Ironically, it's been on my list of movies to write about for several months now and while I kind of don't care about the human details except for the conductor,
Oh, how funny! I watched it in two sittings (which is quite speedy going for me) and in the first half I actually liked pretty much everyone, as there were all these gratuitously good touches to the script, but then when I came back for the second half they all got sorted out so relentlessly I had to deduct several thousand minus points from them and the film while trying to allow for WWII, and would have been so disappointed by that - but the ghost-place and people were also so fascinating and elementalish at the same time!! I kind of was deeply frustrated by the reality and loved a lot of the concept all at the same time. ("It's really not that good, can I get my own copy?!")
I was thinking (because obviously) would I rec this to
the fact that J. B. Priestley didn't write this one is deeply weird. I also linked it instantly with Sapphire & Steel because how not?
Exactly! It is weird that it's not a J. B. Priestley time play. It would, I think have been less relentlessly WWII-didactic if it had been. An odd one, in that it lets down so much potential, but also so fascinating in other ways.
Most excellent TV! What else has it been giving you that you like?
They've been showing not only the usual panel shows, Taskmaster and WDYTYA hot on each other's heels, various channels then delivered two new cosies I had to try and finally showed up with Miss Scarlet S2 (&, I hope, S3), which I'd loved S1 of, but given up on ever turning up anywhere outside of wherever it is it's streaming, S6a of Malory Towers on the iPlayer just as I caught up, plus a six part biopic about the Mitford sisters called Outrageous which is hugely enjoyable so far. And Sister Boniface hasn't even shown up yet and she is due! Oh, and Shardlake made it to a regular channel as well, so I hope to try that.
no subject
I mean, as explained ad infinitum, my ideal Wimsey looks like Leslie Howard, but I accepted Edward Petherbridge, speaking of people I will blow a fuse when something happens to. Kenneth Colley's timing was terrible: I had already after showing
I was thinking (because obviously) would I rec this to sovay? And then I was: well, they would like the Esmond Knight part anyway, there is that. So, lol, glad to see that was correct!!
The Esmond Knight factor is not to be discounted, but also the way that David Davies himself becomes a kind of ghost in the past year's present broadcast at the same time that he is travelling toward the event horizon of his own death, acknowledged by Gwyneth so matter-of-factly: "Because you're coming our way." He's the human character who is most tangled up with time, which in addition to his problem being the most resonant (and the oldest: life or kleos) makes him the most interesting of the group to me.
It is weird that it's not a J. B. Priestley time play. It would, I think have been less relentlessly WWII-didactic if it had been.
We have proof it would! The Halfway House and They Came to a City came out the same summer of 1944 and I have no idea what anyone made of Ealing's output at that time.
Oh, and Shardlake made it to a regular channel as well, so I hope to try that.
I have another friend who's really enjoying that one! I look forward to your thoughts if you write them. The rest sounds like a bonanza.
no subject
Oh, yes, it was his storyline I meant; I just remembered the actor's name over the character's at this distance. Because, yes, indeed, clearly. That was what I meant, but in no way so beautifully encapsulated! <3
("See you in the morning.")
In the category of gratuitous but good little touches, though, I did like the little bit with the black marketeer at the start, with the man who looked a lot like Arthur Lowe whom he'd just uncovered as being a local Councillor instead of an ex-con.
We have proof it would! The Halfway House and They Came to a City came out the same summer of 1944 and I have no idea what anyone made of Ealing's output at that time.
Ha, yes, true! I mean, they were just really into "random group of strangers get stranded somewhere weird"* maybe?
I have another friend who's really enjoying that one! I look forward to your thoughts if you write them. The rest sounds like a bonanza.
I read the first three books; I just found them a bit too dark, almost horror-esque, as they went on for me to cope with. I think as TV it should be easier, but then again, I have less cope downstairs than upstairs, which is ridiculous, but so often thing. We shall see!
* ETA: Not that I can speak: this was the third 1940s film I recorded almost entirely because I read the summary as "group of random strangers get stranded somewhere" so if Ealing had just made nothing but that, I probably would have watched them all anyway!!
no subject
Thank you! The Esmond Knight factor is real, though: he was one of Powell and Pressburger's talismans and I have always been glad to see him especially in a role like David Davies or a movie like The River (1951), although the chances are incredibly good that along with almost everyone else in that miniseries, I saw him first in I, Claudius (1976).
In the category of gratuitous but good little touches, though, I did like the little bit with the black marketeer at the start, with the man who looked a lot like Arthur Lowe whom he'd just uncovered as being a local Councillor instead of an ex-con.
Yes! And until the plot overtakes them, I like that every one of the teenager's stratagems to get her separating parents back together fail because that sort of thing never works except in the movies.
I read the first three books; I just found them a bit too dark, almost horror-esque, as they went on for me to cope with. I think as TV it should be easier, but then again, I have less cope downstairs than upstairs, which is ridiculous, but so often thing. We shall see!
I hope they work out for you! And if not, it sounds like there's no dearth of things you can cope with.
* ETA: Not that I can speak: this was the third 1940s film I recorded almost entirely because I read the summary as "group of random strangers get stranded somewhere" so if Ealing had just made nothing but that, I probably would have watched them all anyway!!
Fair enough! What were the others, if one of them wasn't They Came to a City?
no subject
Ah, cool. I have seen him in some things when he was older (which must include I, Claudius, since I've watched that as well), although never in something when he was so young, as he was peripherally part of James Maxwell's group, no doubt due to his daughter Rosalind being one of the core members (she married Michael Elliott) so he was in a few of their theatre productions & things in the 50s and 60s.
And until the plot overtakes them, I like that every one of the teenager's stratagems to get her separating parents back together fail because that sort of thing never works except in the movies.
That plot was so relentless. I was fairly amused also that she managed to nearly drown the naval Captain in the course of her efforts too, which as backfiring goes, was quite something.
Fair enough! What were the others, if one of them wasn't They Came to a City?
They Came To A City was one, and then I watched The Ghost Train pretty much straight after, which was the other one, but I wrote about that at the same time anyway. (Although I think I also recorded a 1950s B-movie with everybody stuck at a railway station too, for Barbara Murray, but that was very 1950s and sexist and duff.)
no subject
Rosalind even got in on the Powell and Pressburger, since her first appearance on film was an uncredited bit in Gone to Earth (1950) where not only was her father playing the protagonist's father, on the production side her great-uncle the falconer and his own daughter, her father's cousin Jean, were responsible for the plot-essential tame fox. I admire this angle of theirs to the normal weirdness of theatrical dynasties and have always appreciated this comprehensive fansite which seems to have been retooled since the last time I looked at it. I've almost strictly seen Esmond in things when he was younger. His other really famous part from that time would be Fluellen in Olivier's Henry V (1944).
[edit] I first heard of C. W. R. Knight and his golden eagle Mr. Ramshaw because they feature in Powell and Pressburger's I Know Where I'm Going! (1945).
I was fairly amused also that she managed to nearly drown the naval Captain in the course of her efforts too, which as backfiring goes, was quite something.
Seriously.
(Although I think I also recorded a 1950s B-movie with everybody stuck at a railway station too, for Barbara Murray, but that was very 1950s and sexist and duff.)
If that was Mystery Junction (1951), I remember its phenomenally cop-out ending but not much else about it. If she was stuck in another not very good B-movie at a railway station, she has my condolences.
no subject
That does look like a good site! And since I have seen Henry V when I was doing A-Level - twice, I think - then I have seen him when he was younger, but not since I've been watching old films and taking notes of names!
If that was Mystery Junction (1951), I remember its phenomenally cop-out ending but not much else about it. If she was stuck in another not very good B-movie at a railway station, she has my condolences.
No, that was the one! I'm very impressed that you knew its name even! (My long time to reply is only due to Summer As Usual). I don't really remember enough about it to comment either, which I think says it all. Just not very good and disappointing re. Barbara Murray, who always deserves better. I also watched the little B-Movie called something like Murder Goes To School after that, with her and Gordon Jackson & that was much more rewarding.
no subject
As may have become obvious, I highly recommend him!
I also watched the little B-Movie called something like Murder Goes To School after that, with her and Gordon Jackson & that was much more rewarding.
I have not seen that one, but I'm glad to hear about it. Barbara Murray does deserve better.
no subject
(Also: wait. The Star Wars universe has an Endor and an Andor? Does it also have Indor, Undor, and Ondor? maybe Yndor?)
no subject
Thank you! It is a desperately recognizable trait. And in fairness it runs as a theme through The Empire Strikes Back (1980), which takes care to individuate its Imperial officers beyond their functions as antagonists, a space-opera study in the banality of evil—the other showcase is Michael Culver's memorably brief turn as Captain Needa, who rather than bluster through his failures like Piett's late unlamented superior, assumes full responsibility for the loss of the Millennium Falcon and gets fatally Force-choked for his honorable pains. What's he doing aboard a Star Destroyer with that sense of duty that isn't fanaticism, as if his deranged Emperor and the whole genocidal machinery of his Empire were worth his fealty? Just following orders. Piett lives the longest and his orders still get him in the end.
(Also: wait. The Star Wars universe has an Endor and an Andor? Does it also have Indor, Undor, and Ondor? maybe Yndor?)
(It may well. I'm pretty sure it's got some planets that are just vowels.)
no subject
no subject
Everyone needs more megafauna in their lives.