Actor who starred in films of the 1950s and 60s including Ice Cold in Alex and went on to a long career in supporting roles
Although Sylvia Syms, who has died aged 89, emerged as an actor during the decade from 1956 to 1966 that saw British cinema changing radically, she seemed to belong to an earlier stiff-upper-lip tradition of British films rather than “kitchen sink” drama. Nevertheless, the ethereal Syms starred in a wide variety of films during that period before she developed in later years into a fine supporting actor.
She was nominated for a Bafta for her performance in J Lee Thompson’s Woman in a Dressing Gown (1957), which had Syms playing the “other woman” for whom Anthony Quayle wants to leave his wife (Yvonne Mitchell). Based on a play by Ted Willis, this candid social drama heralded a new dawn in gritty British film-making. However, the same director-writer team...
Although Sylvia Syms, who has died aged 89, emerged as an actor during the decade from 1956 to 1966 that saw British cinema changing radically, she seemed to belong to an earlier stiff-upper-lip tradition of British films rather than “kitchen sink” drama. Nevertheless, the ethereal Syms starred in a wide variety of films during that period before she developed in later years into a fine supporting actor.
She was nominated for a Bafta for her performance in J Lee Thompson’s Woman in a Dressing Gown (1957), which had Syms playing the “other woman” for whom Anthony Quayle wants to leave his wife (Yvonne Mitchell). Based on a play by Ted Willis, this candid social drama heralded a new dawn in gritty British film-making. However, the same director-writer team...
- 1/27/2023
- by Ronald Bergan
- The Guardian - Film News
To mark the release of Queen of Spades on 23rd January, we’ve been given Blu-ray copies to give away to 2 winners.
St. Petersburg, 1806. Army officer Herman Suvorin (Anton Walbrook) has become obsessed with playing cards, particularly the game of Faro, where the Queen of Spades is considered an unlucky card.
On stumbling upon a mysterious book about the secrets of a notorious Count, Herman becomes convinced that the elderly Countess Ranevskaya (Edith Evans) possesses the secret of winning every game. Desperate to learn the secret for himself, Herman devises a plan to gain access to her house by seducing her young Ward, Lizaveta (Yvonne Mitchell). The plan goes awry when Herman accidently startles the Countess, leading to her death.
At the Countess’s funeral, Herman comes to pay his respects, but when he leans over her open coffin, her eyes open and he lets out a howl of fear.
St. Petersburg, 1806. Army officer Herman Suvorin (Anton Walbrook) has become obsessed with playing cards, particularly the game of Faro, where the Queen of Spades is considered an unlucky card.
On stumbling upon a mysterious book about the secrets of a notorious Count, Herman becomes convinced that the elderly Countess Ranevskaya (Edith Evans) possesses the secret of winning every game. Desperate to learn the secret for himself, Herman devises a plan to gain access to her house by seducing her young Ward, Lizaveta (Yvonne Mitchell). The plan goes awry when Herman accidently startles the Countess, leading to her death.
At the Countess’s funeral, Herman comes to pay his respects, but when he leans over her open coffin, her eyes open and he lets out a howl of fear.
- 1/16/2023
- by Competitions
- HeyUGuys.co.uk
Normal 0 false false false En-us X-none X-none
Nineteen Eighty-four
Peter Cushing, André Morell, Yvonne Mitchell, Donald Pleasence in a new restoration of
Nigel Kneale’s 1954 adaptation of the George Orwell classic
Cinema Retro has received the following press release from the BFI:
BFI Blu-ray/DVD, iTunes and Amazon Prime release on 11 April 2022
George Orwell’s enduring dystopian masterpiece is brought vividly to life in this celebrated BBC production. Adapted by Nigel Kneale (The Quatermass Experiment), Nineteen Eighty-four (directed by Rudolf Cartier) broke new ground for television drama when first broadcast in 1954. On 11 April, tying in with a Nigel Kneale season at BFI Southbank, the BFI brings this classic production to Blu-ray and DVD in a Dual Format Edition, and to Dto via iTunes and Amazon Prime. Experience Orwell’s haunting vision of a society dominated by relentless tyranny and the subversion of truth – a world in which Big Brother is always watching you.
Nineteen Eighty-four
Peter Cushing, André Morell, Yvonne Mitchell, Donald Pleasence in a new restoration of
Nigel Kneale’s 1954 adaptation of the George Orwell classic
Cinema Retro has received the following press release from the BFI:
BFI Blu-ray/DVD, iTunes and Amazon Prime release on 11 April 2022
George Orwell’s enduring dystopian masterpiece is brought vividly to life in this celebrated BBC production. Adapted by Nigel Kneale (The Quatermass Experiment), Nineteen Eighty-four (directed by Rudolf Cartier) broke new ground for television drama when first broadcast in 1954. On 11 April, tying in with a Nigel Kneale season at BFI Southbank, the BFI brings this classic production to Blu-ray and DVD in a Dual Format Edition, and to Dto via iTunes and Amazon Prime. Experience Orwell’s haunting vision of a society dominated by relentless tyranny and the subversion of truth – a world in which Big Brother is always watching you.
- 3/16/2022
- by nospam@example.com (Cinema Retro)
- Cinemaretro.com
Normal 0 false false false En-us X-none X-none
“Card Tricks”
By Raymond Benson
This British gem was considered a lost film until a print was somehow discovered a little over ten years ago and re-released in art houses and on home video. The Queen of Spades, from 1949, was one of only nine pictures helmed by Thorold Dickinson, a Norwegian director who worked mostly in the UK but also in Europe and Africa. He was perhaps most known for directing the original British version of Gaslight (1940), which George Cukor and MGM suppressed when they remade it as a Hollywood movie in 1944 (with Ingrid Bergman). There are some who believe Dickinson’s Gaslight is the better of the two.
Dickinson has been re-appraised in recent years by the likes of filmmakers such as Martin Scorsese and Wes Anderson, and by critics with a taste for genuine style and substance in their movies. The Queen of Spades...
“Card Tricks”
By Raymond Benson
This British gem was considered a lost film until a print was somehow discovered a little over ten years ago and re-released in art houses and on home video. The Queen of Spades, from 1949, was one of only nine pictures helmed by Thorold Dickinson, a Norwegian director who worked mostly in the UK but also in Europe and Africa. He was perhaps most known for directing the original British version of Gaslight (1940), which George Cukor and MGM suppressed when they remade it as a Hollywood movie in 1944 (with Ingrid Bergman). There are some who believe Dickinson’s Gaslight is the better of the two.
Dickinson has been re-appraised in recent years by the likes of filmmakers such as Martin Scorsese and Wes Anderson, and by critics with a taste for genuine style and substance in their movies. The Queen of Spades...
- 7/29/2020
- by nospam@example.com (Cinema Retro)
- Cinemaretro.com
The Queen of Spades
Blu ray
Kino Lorber
1949/ 1.33:1 / 95 min.
Starring Anton Walbrook, Edith Evans
Directed by Throld Dickinson
One of the pleasures of discovering 1949’s The Queen of Spades is also discovering its director, Thorold Dickinson. Born and educated in Bristol, he abandoned Oxford for London to concentrate on the fine art of film editing and soon found himself behind the camera.
Dickinson made waves with 1940’s Gaslight but Queen was something of a critical flashpoint for the diligent director – called in as a last minute replacement, the project would cement his reputation as an artist whose portentous visual style said as much about his characters as any screenplay. Not coincidentally, those qualities were shared by the film’s associate producer, Jack Clayton.
Based on Alexander Pushkin’s 1834 short story, the film is set in a snowbound St. Petersburg enclave in 1803, a gothic inversion of one of Ernst Lubitsch‘s fairy tale villages.
Blu ray
Kino Lorber
1949/ 1.33:1 / 95 min.
Starring Anton Walbrook, Edith Evans
Directed by Throld Dickinson
One of the pleasures of discovering 1949’s The Queen of Spades is also discovering its director, Thorold Dickinson. Born and educated in Bristol, he abandoned Oxford for London to concentrate on the fine art of film editing and soon found himself behind the camera.
Dickinson made waves with 1940’s Gaslight but Queen was something of a critical flashpoint for the diligent director – called in as a last minute replacement, the project would cement his reputation as an artist whose portentous visual style said as much about his characters as any screenplay. Not coincidentally, those qualities were shared by the film’s associate producer, Jack Clayton.
Based on Alexander Pushkin’s 1834 short story, the film is set in a snowbound St. Petersburg enclave in 1803, a gothic inversion of one of Ernst Lubitsch‘s fairy tale villages.
- 10/22/2019
- by Charlie Largent
- Trailers from Hell
April 10th is going to be a momentous day to be a cult genre fan, as we have a bevy of home media releases that folks are surely going to want to add to their Blu-ray and DVD collections. Arrow Video’s two-disc limited edition set for Dario Argento’s Deep Red looks absolutely incredible, and Scream Factory is keeping busy with a few releases of their own, including Larry Cohen’s Full Moon High, Crucible of Horror, and Superbeast. And as if all that wasn’t enough, Kino Classics is resurrecting The Psychopath in HD as well (which I personally cannot wait to revisit myself).
We also have several new genre-related movies coming our way, too: Ted Geoghegan’s Mohawk, My Friend Dahmer, Are We Not Cats, and Us & Them. Other notable releases for Tuesday, April 10th include Braven, Grindsploitation Trilogy, Disembodied and Enigma Rosso/Red Rings of Fear.
We also have several new genre-related movies coming our way, too: Ted Geoghegan’s Mohawk, My Friend Dahmer, Are We Not Cats, and Us & Them. Other notable releases for Tuesday, April 10th include Braven, Grindsploitation Trilogy, Disembodied and Enigma Rosso/Red Rings of Fear.
- 4/10/2018
- by Heather Wixson
- DailyDead
Death by murder doesn't come easily in Crucible of Horror (also known as The Corpse), and with the 1971 British fright flick coming to Blu-ray on April 10th from the fine folks at Scream Factory, we've been provided with three copies (featuring a fresh HD master) to give away to lucky Daily Dead readers!
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Prize Details: (3) Winners will receive (1) Blu-ray copy of Crucible of Horror.
How to Enter: We're giving Daily Dead readers multiple chances to enter and win:
1. Instagram: Following us on Instagram during the contest period will give you an automatic contest entry. Make sure to follow us at:
https://www.instagram.com/dailydead/
2. Email: For a chance to win via email, send an email to contest@dailydead.com with the subject “Crucible of Horror Contest”. Be sure to include your name and mailing address.
Entry Details: The contest will end at 12:01am Est on April 16th.
---------
Prize Details: (3) Winners will receive (1) Blu-ray copy of Crucible of Horror.
How to Enter: We're giving Daily Dead readers multiple chances to enter and win:
1. Instagram: Following us on Instagram during the contest period will give you an automatic contest entry. Make sure to follow us at:
https://www.instagram.com/dailydead/
2. Email: For a chance to win via email, send an email to contest@dailydead.com with the subject “Crucible of Horror Contest”. Be sure to include your name and mailing address.
Entry Details: The contest will end at 12:01am Est on April 16th.
- 4/9/2018
- by Derek Anderson
- DailyDead
New year, same wonderful deep cuts from Scream Factory! This April, Scream Factory will unearth Crucible of Horror (1971), Daughters of Satan (1972), Superbeast (1972), and Full Moon High (1981) on Blu-ray, and we have a look at the initial release details and cover art:
From Scream Factory: “This April we have a horrifying handful of obscure hidden gems to bring to the Blu-ray format for the first time ever! Our colorful assortment includes:
Crucible Of Horror (1971) - This horrifying film tells the story of Edith (Yvonne Mitchell, Nineteen Eighty-Four), a terrorized wife, who, along with her daughter, plots to kill her husband, Walter (Michael Gough, Batman, Sleepy Hollow), to end his abusive treatment of them. They poison him and make his death look like a suicide. But they didn't count on one thing: Walter isn't ready to die...
Street Date: April 10th but get it shipped two weeks early directly from us @ https://www.
From Scream Factory: “This April we have a horrifying handful of obscure hidden gems to bring to the Blu-ray format for the first time ever! Our colorful assortment includes:
Crucible Of Horror (1971) - This horrifying film tells the story of Edith (Yvonne Mitchell, Nineteen Eighty-Four), a terrorized wife, who, along with her daughter, plots to kill her husband, Walter (Michael Gough, Batman, Sleepy Hollow), to end his abusive treatment of them. They poison him and make his death look like a suicide. But they didn't count on one thing: Walter isn't ready to die...
Street Date: April 10th but get it shipped two weeks early directly from us @ https://www.
- 1/22/2018
- by Tamika Jones
- DailyDead
Here's a brief look – to be expanded – at Turner Classic Movies' June 2017 European Vacation Movie Series this evening, June 23. Tonight's destination of choice is Italy. Starring Suzanne Pleshette and Troy Donahue as the opposite of Ugly Americans who find romance and heartbreak in the Italian capital, Delmer Daves' Rome Adventure (1962) was one of the key romantic movies of the 1960s. Angie Dickinson and Rossano Brazzi co-star. In all, Rome Adventure is the sort of movie that should please fans of Daves' Technicolor melodramas like A Summer Place, Parrish, and Susan Slade. Fans of his poetic Westerns – e.g., 3:10 to Yuma, The Hanging Tree – may (or may not) be disappointed with this particular Daves effort. As an aside, Rome Adventure was, for whatever reason, a sizable hit in … Brazil. Who knows, maybe that's why Rome Adventure co-star Brazzi would find himself playing a Brazilian – a macho, traditionalist coffee plantation owner,...
- 6/24/2017
- by Andre Soares
- Alt Film Guide
Cinematographer on the first Star Wars film who worked with the Boulting Brothers, Hitchcock and Polanski
The British cinematographer Gilbert Taylor, who has died aged 99, was best known for his camerawork on the first Star Wars movie (1977). Though its special effects and set designs somewhat stole his thunder, it was Taylor who set the visual tone of George Lucas's six-part space opera.
"I wanted to give it a unique visual style that would distinguish it from other films in the science-fiction genre," Taylor declared. "I wanted Star Wars to have clarity because I don't think space is out of focus … I thought the look of the film should be absolutely clean … But George [Lucas] saw it differently … For example, he asked to set up one shot on the robots with a 300mm camera lens and the sand and sky of the Tunisian desert just meshed together. I told him it wouldn't work,...
The British cinematographer Gilbert Taylor, who has died aged 99, was best known for his camerawork on the first Star Wars movie (1977). Though its special effects and set designs somewhat stole his thunder, it was Taylor who set the visual tone of George Lucas's six-part space opera.
"I wanted to give it a unique visual style that would distinguish it from other films in the science-fiction genre," Taylor declared. "I wanted Star Wars to have clarity because I don't think space is out of focus … I thought the look of the film should be absolutely clean … But George [Lucas] saw it differently … For example, he asked to set up one shot on the robots with a 300mm camera lens and the sand and sky of the Tunisian desert just meshed together. I told him it wouldn't work,...
- 8/25/2013
- by Ronald Bergan
- The Guardian - Film News
Dr Seuss' The Lorax (U)
(Chris Renauld, Kyle Balda, 2012, Us) Zac Efron, Taylor Swift, Ed Helms, Danny DeVito. 86 mins.
Dr Seuss's most environmentally minded story was a natural choice for movie treatment, but as with so many others (How The Grinch Stole Christmas, Horton Hears A Who!), the temptation to "expand" on the original runs out of control. Seuss's elegant tale of a land where they paved paradise and cut down all the Truffula trees has been injected with all the compulsory gags, subplots, musical numbers and painfully bright landscapes that family animation is now deemed to require, making for an eco-tale that's packed with artificial additives.
Searching For Sugar Man (12A)
(Malik Bendjelloul, 2012, Swe/UK) 86 mins.
An inspiring documentary that successfully rehabilitates the reputation (and perhaps more) of Sixto Rodriguez, a 1970s Detroit troubadour who never found fame at home but unwittingly became huge in South Africa – where his...
(Chris Renauld, Kyle Balda, 2012, Us) Zac Efron, Taylor Swift, Ed Helms, Danny DeVito. 86 mins.
Dr Seuss's most environmentally minded story was a natural choice for movie treatment, but as with so many others (How The Grinch Stole Christmas, Horton Hears A Who!), the temptation to "expand" on the original runs out of control. Seuss's elegant tale of a land where they paved paradise and cut down all the Truffula trees has been injected with all the compulsory gags, subplots, musical numbers and painfully bright landscapes that family animation is now deemed to require, making for an eco-tale that's packed with artificial additives.
Searching For Sugar Man (12A)
(Malik Bendjelloul, 2012, Swe/UK) 86 mins.
An inspiring documentary that successfully rehabilitates the reputation (and perhaps more) of Sixto Rodriguez, a 1970s Detroit troubadour who never found fame at home but unwittingly became huge in South Africa – where his...
- 7/27/2012
- by Steve Rose
- The Guardian - Film News
J Lee Thompson's unmissable proto-kitchen-sink drama goes all the way where Brief Encounter loitered hesitantly
Terence Davies's recent film The Deep Blue Sea returned audiences to Britain's lost postwar world of dingy flats, unhappy marriages and sing-songs in smoky pubs where adulterous couples are to be seen hunched in corners staring silently into their drinks. The rerelease of this brilliant proto-realist kitchen-sink drama from 1957, written by Ted Willis and directed by J Lee Thompson, is from just this world. Anthony Quayle and Yvonne Mitchell are Jim and Amy, a married couple: they are middle-aged, though modern audiences might find their mannerisms much older. The stars were respectively 44 and 42 years old. Amy is a superficially cheerful chatterbox, and Jim seems tolerant of her scatterbrained inability to keep the flat tidy, her habit of leaving things burning on the stove and often never getting out of her dressing-gown all day. Amy...
Terence Davies's recent film The Deep Blue Sea returned audiences to Britain's lost postwar world of dingy flats, unhappy marriages and sing-songs in smoky pubs where adulterous couples are to be seen hunched in corners staring silently into their drinks. The rerelease of this brilliant proto-realist kitchen-sink drama from 1957, written by Ted Willis and directed by J Lee Thompson, is from just this world. Anthony Quayle and Yvonne Mitchell are Jim and Amy, a married couple: they are middle-aged, though modern audiences might find their mannerisms much older. The stars were respectively 44 and 42 years old. Amy is a superficially cheerful chatterbox, and Jim seems tolerant of her scatterbrained inability to keep the flat tidy, her habit of leaving things burning on the stove and often never getting out of her dressing-gown all day. Amy...
- 7/27/2012
- by Peter Bradshaw
- The Guardian - Film News
★★★★☆ Available to own on DVD for the first time since its cinematic release back in 1957, J. Lee Thompson's Woman in a Dressing Gown hints at what was to come from the British New Wave of the 1960s, with its realistic portrait of the breakdown of a marriage on a post-war London council estate. Amy (Yvonne Mitchell) is a hopelessly lost house wife, whilst her husband Jim (Anthony Quail), frustrated with his spouse, falls in love with his secretary Georgie (Sylvia Syms). When Amy discovers the affair her world falls apart and she attempts to win back Jim's heart.
Read more »...
Read more »...
- 7/26/2012
- by CineVue UK
- CineVue
Asif Kapadia on shooting his London Olympics film, and Sylvia Syms on a neglected 50s classic
As if by magic
My favourite of the official Olympics films is by Asif Kapadia. His The Odyssey examines London from the skies against a backdrop of Olympian expectation and politics, like these two were fighting it out to be the prevailing winds over the city. A panoply of voices give their Olympics memories and London thoughts, but just as in his award-winning doc Senna we don't see their faces: they could be media personalities (Richard Williams, Robert Elms, Lord Coe) or boys or elderly ladies interviewed on the street.
The film includes social comment on the closure of council leisure facilities and the shock of the 7/7 bombings. I hear now that Asif is developing his themes into a feature film. "Even though we shot in a very short time, there was still a...
As if by magic
My favourite of the official Olympics films is by Asif Kapadia. His The Odyssey examines London from the skies against a backdrop of Olympian expectation and politics, like these two were fighting it out to be the prevailing winds over the city. A panoply of voices give their Olympics memories and London thoughts, but just as in his award-winning doc Senna we don't see their faces: they could be media personalities (Richard Williams, Robert Elms, Lord Coe) or boys or elderly ladies interviewed on the street.
The film includes social comment on the closure of council leisure facilities and the shock of the 7/7 bombings. I hear now that Asif is developing his themes into a feature film. "Even though we shot in a very short time, there was still a...
- 7/21/2012
- by Jason Solomons
- The Guardian - Film News
The 78-year-old Britsh actor, whose 1957 film Woman in a Dressing Gown is being re-released, talks about her rebellious past, why she's not dame material – and what she'd love to do next
Sylvia Syms sits in her lovely flat in west London explaining how she avoided being treated as a piece of meat in the 1950s. There was an "assumption that because you were blond and an actress, you were available," she says. Determined not to be "pretty, available and treated like shit", she took inspiration from Dame Sybil Thorndike.
"I thought, that's what I want," says Syms, who seems to have worked with every British screen legend – from Dirk Bogarde to Michael Caine – during her seven decades in film, TV and theatre. "I want to go on working when I'm an old lady and have that kind of jolliness and respect, which she had. She was just incredible."
Syms turns on me like a hawk.
Sylvia Syms sits in her lovely flat in west London explaining how she avoided being treated as a piece of meat in the 1950s. There was an "assumption that because you were blond and an actress, you were available," she says. Determined not to be "pretty, available and treated like shit", she took inspiration from Dame Sybil Thorndike.
"I thought, that's what I want," says Syms, who seems to have worked with every British screen legend – from Dirk Bogarde to Michael Caine – during her seven decades in film, TV and theatre. "I want to go on working when I'm an old lady and have that kind of jolliness and respect, which she had. She was just incredible."
Syms turns on me like a hawk.
- 7/20/2012
- by Patrick Barkham
- The Guardian - Film News
I’m sure by now most of you have already read or heard the fascinating news from the BBC. Apparently a very, very early draft version of Doctor Who has surfaced. How early? 1956, making it a full seven years before the series actually aired.
From what it sounds like, this idea never really made it past the concept stage. They never did any filming or casting, though they had some people in mind, and never wrote any stories, but they did have some outlines. The series was to go into production in 1957, in an effort to capitalize on the success of The Quatermass Experiment. BBC budget cutbacks early that year prevented this from happening, which was for the best, as you’ll see. The BBC article is quite long, so I’ll summarize it for you tl;dr people.
The series appears to have been the creation two low-level BBC...
From what it sounds like, this idea never really made it past the concept stage. They never did any filming or casting, though they had some people in mind, and never wrote any stories, but they did have some outlines. The series was to go into production in 1957, in an effort to capitalize on the success of The Quatermass Experiment. BBC budget cutbacks early that year prevented this from happening, which was for the best, as you’ll see. The BBC article is quite long, so I’ll summarize it for you tl;dr people.
The series appears to have been the creation two low-level BBC...
- 4/1/2012
- by Chris Swanson
- Obsessed with Film
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