Reviews

This film,based on a stage play was co written by R C Sherrif,of Journeys End game.

Kynaston Reeves is President and Captain of the cricket club. Garry Marsh is the chairman. They are always arguing.

However Laurence Naismith's property company has the area marked out for residential development. He makes a recce of the village. The village are playing their closest rivals at the weekend.

The villagers make known their opposition to the plans.

The fast bowler,who is a carpenter injures his hand so cannot play. So Naismith is asked and agrees provided he can leave by 5.30.

The rivals make 83. The village are on 77for 9 and it is past 5.30. However Naismith agrees to delay his journey and goes in to bat. He is just supposed to hold his end down but scampers a quick single first ball. He is now facing the fast bowler. He contrives nearly every way to get out but survives. Then on the last ball he hits a tremendous six to win the game,and announces that the redevelopment plans are abandoned.

Very entertaining particularly if you are a cricket fan.

It can be viewed at the Reubens library at the BFI South Bank.

This is a thriller from Merton Park Studios. It contains many of the cliches redolent of the genre but nonetheless it is entertaining. After all when you have Martin Benson in the cast it is always a bonus,as you know from the start who is the villain. He is generally calm and assured till the last reel.

There are two blonde sisters in this film.,One is bad and dangerous to know. The other is sweetness and light and puts herself out to help Spencer Teakle who is in a peculiar way the hero,trying to recover and keep the jewels that he stole.

In these days of films with a running time of over three hours watching films of this length are a delight.

Leslie Banks is a respected industrialist who can't remember his past. A newspaper prints an article claiming that he was a notorious crook. So Banks takes the paper to court. Amongst witnesses at the trial are a former lover and Wilfred Lawson,who turns out to be a blackmailer.

Banks wins his case but comes to realise he was the crook. So Lawson decided to take advantage of this situation to blackmail him.

Banks life's Lawson to his office with the intention of killing him. However Lawson turns the tables on Banks,knocks him out,and makes off with money from the safe.

Lawson meets up with the former lover and they shoot each other,not before the lover makes a full confession to the police.

Very much a routine quota quickie.

This film is based on a play and shows its origins.

Fred Duprez is a rich American who is coming to this country to make Henry Kendall the manager of a branch of his business. This is welcome for Kendall and his wife as they have just lost all their money in a failed gold mine.

However when Duprez arrived at the flat he assumes that Garry Marsh's wife is Kendalls,so they go along with him.

All 5 then go down to a country cottage. An inmate of a lunatic asylum has escaped to add to the plots comtrivances.

Duprez discovers the deception and leaves,supposedly giving a cheque to Kendall,only it turns out to be a voucher.

I do not understand why there isn't a decent biography of Carl Laemmle,a true giant among pygmies. I have read the 1930 biography,and that's all there is.

So till someone decided to correct this omission,this documentary will have to do.

He was a founding fathers of the American film industry. However his greatest legacy was the saving of over300 families when American anti Semites tried to block the way. This is a great documentary with living recollections by members of his family,and film executives,who recognise what a tower of strength this diminutive figure was. Furthermore his legacy lives on in the families of those that he saved.

A very reasonable Children's Film Foundation film. They manage to keep up the suspense,despite the fact that this is a OFF film and therefore the children have to emerge victorious at the end.

The children get accidentally locked in British Home Stores,which is next to a Trustee Bank,which the villains are hoping to Rob overnight. There's two names that no longer appear in the High Street.

There are lots of high jinks on an adjacent high rise building site. Though it is stretching belief a bit when one of the children starts operating a crane on the site.

One big plus is the number of cameos by very familiar actors of the period.

This Children's Film Foundation film may be in unusual territory but it is on familiar ground.

The salmon poachers are using dynamite to catch salmon. The net result seems to be a stunned salmon floating down the river,rather than masses of dead fish on the surface.

As usual the adults are slow to catch on,but Jeremy Bullish heard the explosion and knows precisely what is going on.

So in usual OFF fashion it is up to our young heroes to trap the gang and put them in the back of a van to await the adults to catch up with them.

So all very much to plan. The children are better actors than the adults. It is a simple film,but sometimes simplicity is a virtue.

There was a problem viewing the print. It ran for 48 minutes as against the original run time of 71 minutes. So great chunks had been hacked out. At one significant point I virtually lost the plot.

Anyway Elliot Markham is a bank manager and a severely hen pecked husband. His daughter,a very young Dinah Sheridan becomes heir to £5000,but as she is 19,her mother is appointed trustee till she reaches 21.

Along comes a con artist with fake bonds trying to get the mother to invest the money in a dodgy scheme.

The film reaches a predictable finale when the con man is arrested and Markham finally has the upper over his wife.

A very young Michael Ripper features as a journalist.

Moderately Amusing.

In 2022 Derren Nesbitt appeared at the Talking Pictures show in Christchurch. He told a story connected with this film.

Sinatra had problems with the press. The journalists came to Nesbitt and asked him to dish the dirt,which he refused to do. Sinatra learned about this. He arranged for Nesbitt and his wife to have a free holiday and each day there was delivered to him and envelope containing hundreds of pounds.

That story is far more interesting than anything in this dull overcomplicated spy thriller.

I was never impressed with Sinatra's acting or his overwhelming ego. My favourite was always Nesbitt who is such a marvellous villain.

Arthur Tracy was a very popular singer on both sides of the Atlantic. He did make a few films in the United Kingdom which were rather formulaic.

He gives up his job in a factory to become a singer on stage..Whilst he and the show are successful the theatre has been sold for redeployment,so the show is closed down.

Tracy goes back to the street to sing,where he is rediscovered. He proves to be a big success and he is reunited with his girlfriend.

Marta,his theme song is featured.

The production numbers are fairly average.

There is a minstrel number which could prove offensive to audiences nowadays and may be the cause of it not appearing on tv.

I will never forget the episode of That's Life,when unkown to. Winton the audience was comprised of the children that he saved. It moved me to tears then and still had that power. Furthermore the fact that there are now 6000 people who would not be alive were it.not for his efforts makes his achievements all the greater.

The film tells this story in a fairly straightforward manner,though I could have done with fewer flashbacks of Winton littering about the house.

Sir Anthony Hopkins is a great actor and is superb as Winton. I would be surprised if he weren't nominated for a BAFTA or Oscar in the forthcoming awards season.