Reviews

This was one of my FAVOURITE shows when I was about 7. Basically it's about two eleven year olds - Pixie and Molly - who loathe each other and can't wait to finish grade 6 so that they can go their separate ways and never see the other again. Living in a small country town, their entire school is in the one room and once they graduate, Pixie hopes to go to a private school in the city with her equally snobby friend, while Molly wants to quit altogether and work on the farm. However their parents have a different idea altogether, and Pixie and Molly are shipped off to live with Pixie's grandmother - together, in the same room, and attend the same high school. Of course the girls do eventually grow to like each other, but overall the show is a gorgeous portrayal of Australia in the 1920s and full of wonderful moments such as their first Valentino movie, first sighting of a plane, first trip in a motor-car, etc.

Having read the book of Kipps I knew what happened which was lucky because at times it doesn't seem as likely to happen as in the book - what am I on about? The romance of course. Young Artie has a choice - snobbish Helen who won't let him be himself ("there ARE H's, you know") or dear Ann the maid who has been his friend since they were children, and the longer he takes to make up his mind, the more idiotic he makes himself look!

Briefly, Kipps is a young draper's assistant who comes into money the very day he leaves his job. He thinks that the money will solve all his problems, but how wrong he is! And suddenly everyone he meets is either in society or trying to impress, and he is almost forbidden from talking to his old friends. Ann the maid is the only real character in the entire story, the only one who likes just to be herself, in a nice simple house, with a nice homely lifestyle.

This was my 19th Phyllis Calvert film, and I must say I'm very impressed with her cockney accent! I'm hoping that another one might pop up somewhere in what I'm still to see, but I somehow doubt it.

As a big devotee of the original 'Love Affair' I recorded this one mainly out of morbid curiosity, with the intention of pulling it to pieces once I was done. I have *never* seen a good remake of a classic film (Sweet November anyone? *throws up*) but I must say, grudgingly, this one was good. Not great, not a patch on the original, but good nontheless, and worth seeing at least once. Possibly the best thing is that in remaking it, they simply re-cast the film, changed only a few minor details, managed to keep all of the good scenes intact, and did not need to throw in a lot of sex. For a change. And so, that rates it a few more points from me, because there's honestly nothing worse than remaking a classic and throwing in lots of sex, when the original did perfectly fine without it. This 'Love Affair' was in that respect definitely more mature than many recent films. It's a simple delight for everyone of all ages and in another fifty years I wouldn't mind calling this one a classic.

Well, that might be pushing it a little.

Katharine Hepburn was brilliant as always and although I've never seen Beatty or Bening before in any films, I can't find anything wrong in their casting (thank god it wasn't Adam Sandler or Keanu!). Beatty is of course no Boyer or Cary Grant but he handled the closing scene superbly, and I must say if anything of Bening's ever pops up on tv again, I might give it a look. She has to be a pretty good actress for me to stop glaring at her because she's not Irene Dunne! And I liked the scene where she was singing the Beatles' song as well, there should have been a full performance of that.

I'd give this a 7/10, because I can't help but compare it to the original. I would say to watch it because I liked it, but only if you watch the original first! And that's an order.

'Mad About Men' is every bit as good as 'Miranda', although it doesn't pick up the pace until at least a third in. Caroline Trewella has gone to stay at her Cornish cottage for a few days when she meets her distant cousin, Miranda. Miranda wants to go back on land, so Caroline agrees to let her take her place whilst she goes out cycling with a friend. And the first thing Miranda does is to decide that Caroline needs a better fiancee!

The colour looks a bit garish on Glynis Johns but Anne Crawford and Donald Sinden look lovely. Dora Bryan is also hilarious as Miranda's annoying little companion, who upsets the applecart on every possible occasion. The basics are the same as in 'Miranda' although the ending is definitely a little neater. 9/10

Having never seen the other 'Inspector Hornleigh' flicks I was unsure what to expect here, which sure made it all the more exciting. Harker was splendid as the droll Hornleigh but definite kudos go to Sim, his side-kick Bingham, who blunders his way through to heroics each time. The plot is your average war-spy-drama - who is sending the secret code to the Germans and how are they doing it? - but this is easily one of the better of the genre. It was also fascinating to see sweet little Phyllis Calvert playing an out-and-out bad girl. It's a shame she didn't get to play more of the same type of role!

'The Man In Grey' was the first film in the cycle of Gainsborough costume melodramas (which ended in 1948 with 'The Bad Lord Byron') and it's easily one of the very best. At the time, it was the pairing of a superstar (Lockwood), a star (Mason), a rising star (Calvert) and a newcomer (Granger), a combination which catapulted all four to the top of their profession, and made them the four names most associated with the costume. It's a pity that the four never made another movie all together!

Margaret Lockwood as Hesther was just pure evil - a cold, calculating woman. One does get the idea that there is a small glimmer of kindness inside her, but she squashes it pretty quickly. Phyllis Calvert was as sweet as honey, as usual the beloved heroine. Her Clarissa is the main character of the tale - married off to Lord Rohan (Mason) because he desires an heir, she soon tires of his indifference and falls for traveling player Rokeby (Granger). Hesther (Lockwood) in turn falls for Rohan and he for her. And of course you know that's set for trouble. A hint of how much trouble? THIS is the film with the infamous horse-whip thrashing scene.

What's also interesting is the whole story is told in flashback, when Calvert and Granger, descendents of the Rohan and Rokeby families, meet at an auction of the Rohan estate. Nice to see a bit of modern dress for a change!

Peter meets old flame Carol at the train station where he's off for a pleasant weekend with wife, Barbara. Only he misses the train and while Barbara is whisked away, he's left stranded with Carol.

Somehow everything gets mixed up and they end up sharing a hotel room while Barbara has since gone home and told her parents, who immediately start off after the 'adulterous' pair.

The whole scene in the hotel would work marvelously as a stage play. It's fantastic to see poor Peter looking so befuddled and embarrassed as Carol waltzes around in a silk negligee. Many of the hilarious moments are supplied by Carol's dog, Kichi, albeit unintentionally. It's a wonder poor Kay Kendall was able to give such a fine performance with that little devil squirming in her arms every thirty seconds!

I probably say each Askey comedy is the "best one so far" so if I said it now it wouldn't carry any weight.

But it is.

It's the teaming of him and Googie Withers that does it, and it's interesting to see her both very young and very dark. I know she was a natural brunette in any case but I've gotten so used to seeing her as a blonde in her late 30's roles!

Askey was the guy who does the pips in the hour so that everyone can set their watches. Although this job doesn't bode too well with his girlfriend (Joyce Howard) so he makes a mockery of it one night and somehow gets a new job - relegated to watching over a lighthouse on a deserted island where apparently some evil mermaid haunts. He's glad to be there if only to be away from women at last but this changes when Googie's boat is torpeedoed and she's stranded there with him, and then about seven more of her girlfriends make it to land after her. The movie takes a decidedly more mysterious turn when they all start disappearing without a trace.

I'd give this one a 10 and put it up with other great laughs such as "The Ghost Train", "Charley's Big-Hearted Aunt" and "Bees In Paradise".

I generally love Will Hay but this has to be the most trying of his movies - though it has its moments, it's a bit overlong in general and plays on too few jokes. Will is Benjamin Twist (again!) and is a ship porter who ends up a passenger when the passenger he is tending, a runaway crook, drugs him and swaps places with Twist. Twist doesn't awake until he's far at sea, past the point of no return. He joins up with another stowaway and both end up getting off the ship with a herd of cows (their fake cow suit is actually pretty impressive) before they are caught.

In the US, Twist ends up tutor to a disgusting little twerp of a child, while his friend ends up in the ring that kidnaps said child - only neither knows the other's profession.

In the end, you can't help feeling that the parents would have been better off letting the criminals keep the child ;)

The Magic Bow is usually known as the "worst" of the Gainsborough costumers - to call it that shows how very good all the others are, because this one is by no means poor, though the ending falls a little short. The actresses, who apparently hated the whole thing, don't let a bit of that show, although Stewart Granger looks a bit uncomfortable at times - perhaps the daggy long hair? The main three assume almost identical roles to those in Madonna Of The Seven Moons - Stewart Granger is perfectly content with his mistress Jean Kent until beautiful Phyllis Calvert comes on the scene - then it's watch out Bianchi! In this, he's a poor violinist and she's a noblewoman who falls for him, but is unfortunately betrothed to another, and can not get out of the situation. The whole thing is filled with some very lovely music, and is terribly romantic, probably more so than most of the other costumers. But, the plot is pretty thin, and Granger's performance is a little tired. 9/10 - raised an extra point by both the girls who really give it their all.

"Imagine - they say I'm aged 25-30!" scoffs 28 year old Jean Kent in the role of 16 year old Gwen Rawlings. Without knowing her real age, you'd scoff too. If a 30 year old Patricia Roc can play an 18 year old ingenue, all sweetness and honey, then an almost 30 year old Jean Kent is the ideal for a teenage runaway. A young Diana Dors also features in the film, as the recipient of Flora Robson's warning tale. Though ten years younger than Ms. Kent, they easily both pass for being the same age, without any stretch of the imagination.

I'd watch Ms. Kent read the phone book so I am openly admitting that I am terribly biased towards her, but I do believe that she sure gave one of her best performances in Good Time Girl. The character is almost an extension of some of her bit parts - what might happen to them if Phyllis Calvert or Margaret Lockwood were out of the picture, and she was given the film.

Poor Gwen is a victim of circumstance if ever there was one. First she borrows a brooch from work and is caught returning it. Since she won't sleep with the manager to keep him quiet, and he won't believe the truth, she is fired and in turn beaten by her father when he discovers this. She leaves home to stay at a boarding house and gets a new job through another man there, who also has designs on her. At this point, Gwen is still a sensible young lady and she pushes him away until he beats her up in a fit of rage - and it's her black eye that gets him fired. Vowing revenge, he leaves for a time but then returns briefly enough to frame her for a petty crime, and Gwen is sent to a reform school for three years. You really have to feel sorry for her because she's not at all a bad seed, just rebellious and headstrong. She doesn't get on the wrong side of the tracks until nearly the end of the movie, when all the bad types she's been hanging around with finally rub off on her and she joins a small crime ring. Alas, it is this one change of heart that ultimately ends in tragedy for Gwen.

Good Time Girl is an absolutely harrowing story and certainly one of the most gripping movies I've ever seen. 10/10

The Mandy of the title truly is the star of the film, as almost all of the adults underplay their scenes with her to help her shine brighter.

When Mandy's parents find out she is deaf, they have differing ideas on what to do next. Mother, Christine, wants to send Mandy to a special school for deaf children so she can learn to read and write - and perhaps speak - and be as much like other children as possible. But her father, Harry, is somewhat ashamed of his daughter and would rather keep Mandy hidden away at his parents' house with only a governess to teach her the finger alphabet. After seeing how she reacts with other children, Christine realises that for Mandy's sake she must get her to the school, and leaves Harry. Watching Mandy's progress in the school provides some fascinating insight into ways of teaching and, contrary to Harry's thoughts, she does progress, with help from headmaster Searle. A second storyline is developed here as people increasingly believe that Christine is having an affair with Searle, when in fact they are both only interested in the good of the child.

A real "four tissue" movie, 10/10.

This is probably one of the better Huggett films, very fast paced and with an interesting storyline. Mr. Huggett with the help of Pet writes a letter to the paper about turning some spare land into a "lido" and the letter actually gets printed. Well, next thing you know, he's running for council! Turns out the land is government owned apart from one block, right in the middle, which belongs to Mrs. Huggett and cousin Diana, and nothing can be done without that, so all their opposition are trying to buy. Diana is all for selling, but Mrs. Huggett won't hear of it.

The best scene has to be where Susan and Peter figure out what's going on and set about fixing it - AND trapping Susan's womanizing boss at the same time. Hilarious!

This is basically a revamp of Lassie Come Home. James Stewart is forced into giving up the family pet when a sly neighbour says she belongs to him. He takes the dog from California all the way to Colorado but naturally she escapes and makes her way home, just as Stewart's grandson runs away to find her. It's all one big cross country adventure that just doesn't come off as well as LCH. The young boy is annoying, the songs are awful, and Mickey Rooney's cameo with a wrestler friend is just downright strange. But, James Stewart is a treat as usual, really the perfect grandfather. 7/10

Daybreak is totally fascinating - the kind of movie you can stare at, open mouthed, for the full hour and a half. Ann Todd as always is wonderful, but this has to be one of her best performances by far. Apparently a lot of the movie was cut by the censors upon its release leaving gaps in the story, and you do get this sense at least with Todd's character - there's a slight hint that she may have been a prostitute but this isn't followed through and is just forgotten.

Without spoiling the ending - and don't read the plot summary before you see the film! - this is one of the most heartbreaking shows of misunderstanding ever. Todd lives with husband Eric Portman on a barge and his business sends him away for long periods of time, leaving her along with the very seedy Norwegian "Olaf", and leaving it up to the audience to guess what he does to her. One night she begs her husband to stay, or take her with him, but he can't, and yet she won't tell him why. He comes home and finds Olaf present, but unfortunately gets the wrong idea about why he is there.

It's a shame so much was cut from this fine film, but what is left is sufficient to garner it a 10/10. The scene especially where Todd and Portman meet is an utter delight!

My 10th Kay Kendall film and, my word, she just keeps getting better and better. Lady Sybil Wren has to be tied with Rosalind (Genevieve) as Kay's best role - both sparklingly for their drunk scenes. Whether it's singing opera and hunting for tea-cups, or getting up to play the trumpet, drunk Kay is guffaw inducing.

As for the other girls - eh. I didn't like Elg from that ghastly 39 Steps remake and have never seen Gaynor before, though she reminded me a little of Vera-Ellen. They were adequate but not as good as say Cyd Charisse (who was offered Gaynor's role but turned it down to do Silk Stockings) and maybe Leslie Caron could have been. And I'm not even a Caron fan.

At least there was Gene Kelly. Good old delicious Gene, to brighten up things when Kay wasn't present. A nice film, but I wouldn't have stuck with it if not for Kay.

I missed the first few minutes of this (and somehow entirely missed the entire of Kathleen Byron's part unfortunately!) but was able to pick up the main plot line - Ralph Richardson is a Dutchman in charge of a shipyard who plays up to the Nazis to win their trust, but garners himself a bad reputation in the anti-Nazi community, which bodes poorly for his small son who gets beat up at school, and his wife, Googie Withers (the only reason I recorded this film!) who can't buy groceries anymore because no one will serve her. It's ultimately a very sad story but equally engrossing and you'll never guess who Piet Helm is!

This early Gainsborough flick is truly a lost treasure, and easily one of the most daring and risque films ever made. At least half a dozen different tales seem to be going on at once, all finally meeting in the end. The story starts in the Lido hotel where our "Pickles" remarks upon the fact that everyone in the register is called Smith. He's trying to chat up Mimi so she'll split up with her boyfriend as her boyfriend's uncle has other plans for his nephew - alas what no one knows is that he and Mimi have already been married for a few months, on the sly! The best scenes in the movie were Mimi's, if you like Anne Crawford you'll like this actress, she's a real gem.

To appreciate the humour of Charley's Big-Hearted Aunt, I suppose you have to be an Askey fan, and used to his types of jokes - for example, plenty of dress-ups! I found this to be one of the funniest Askey comedies I have ever seen. And it was lovely to see Phyllis Calvert in an early role, before she became typecast as the perennial Lady. Here she was perfect as a young college student - a real goody-goody at times, and as cheeky as the boys at others. I'd recommend anyone who's a fan of either (or both), or who's just after an easy laugh, to give this a go. There's some real laugh out loud and "oh no!" moments and the whole thing works wonderfully well. 10/10

I once read an article which stated that Phyllis Calvert and Peter Murray-Hill would have been "Britain's Nick and Nora" had they made more films together. On seeing them act separately in films, I took that commentary to be a bit too hopeful. Then, I saw "They Were Sisters". And - move over Myrna and Bill! When together, Phyl and Peter did not seem at all like they were acting, they were just a happily married couple bantering, teasing the other lightly and ad-libbing as if they were not in a movie at all, but just out for a weekend picnic. Their scenes together were by far the movie's best.

At the other end of the scale is James Mason and Pamela Kellino (later Pamela Mason). They were playing father and daughter in the movie, and if you hadn't known about their off-screen relationship, seeing the way they interacted on the screen would have been a bit worrying.

With the wrong actors, "They Were Sisters" could have easily been a ridiculous farce, and at times it does begin to stray towards over-acting. But with the right actors, including the three youngest children, it comes across perfectly and is a movie well worth watching. 10/10

No Dirk Bogarde?! Well this Doctor installment is doomed before it even begins. No Sparrow, no Joy - Burke and Hare are adequate, but it's not the same calibre as the last films. Though James Robertson Justice is wonderful, his Lancelot Spratt seems to get better as they go along. His performance in this, as he is about to go under the knife himself, is indescribable, and not to be missed. Priceless comedy! Almost makes up for the silliness of the rest. Another great moment is when he and two young strippers (who have luckily not yet stripped!) burst through a screen showing a great ape and into an auditorium, full of stately old gentleman; who all seem pretty pleased at the disturbance. 6/10

I recorded this just to see one of my favourite actresses, Miss Lilli Palmer. The delightful little lady, always so proper, so stiff-upper-lip, so serene...and suddenly she's in a low cut dress with a tight bodice, a blonde wig, hanging around a cheap bar. The town floozy. And to her credit, she absolutely pulls it off, like Jean Kent's reversal from The Reluctant Widow back to The Wicked Lady. If this had been an American production, I daresay Palmer would have gotten an Oscar nomination for her superb playing. But, enough of that. This isn't JUST "the building of the Canadian Pacific Railroad", that makes it sound dull. Sure, that's what it's centered on - finding a pass through the Rockies to complete the rail - but it's so much more. A couple of card sharks start the action by coming to town; not to work, but to win. But they end up working anyway, after a fight at the saloon finds them in court, without money for bail, and with a full prison cell. The movies shows how they both take to their fate, and the many obstacles, some of them romantic, in their way. This is real, and it's not a happy ending for some. Great movie overall, 9/10.

We were first introduced to the Huggett family in the wonderful movie Holiday Camp, and now, with a little recasting, they're back. This installment is pretty fair as movies go, but still quite interesting. Some lovely singing from Petula Clark, some hilarious moments from Kathleen Harrison when the family gets a telephone, but the standout performance is from Diana Dors (before she was bleached) as the Huggetts "little" cousin Diana - who certainly has grown up a LOT since she last visited! A nice sign of the times, including a trip out to see the royal wedding.

Not as good as the first (Doctor In The House), but easily better than the second, Doctor At Sea, and it's great to see Joy (Muriel Pavlow) make a welcome return. James Robertson Justice is at his acerbic best in this installment, and the predicaments Dirk Bogarde gets himself into in the rural practitioners are hilarious. 7.5/10.

This is no masterpiece, but it's not as bad as I was expecting. The story is quite compelling and you have to stay watching to see how it all turns out - an outcome you certainly can not guess because these characters have more guises than the Mission Impossible 2 team! Good if you like these types of 60s British films, or if you're just a curious Cyd Charisse fan. Though she's not playing a beautiful young dancer, but a still beautiful and still very young-looking fashion editor, who doubles as a jewel thief in her spare time.