Stardust (1974)

Saw this many years ago, and as TPTV had recently shown its prequel "That'll Be The Day" that I reviewed on this thread, I wanted to see what happened to David Essex's budding pop star Jim MacLaine.

With the likes of Adam Faith as the group roadie/manager, Marty Wilde as the promoter and Larry Hagman as the American promoter who takes it all to the world stage, it was a good story of a man on the path to self destruction, with a fair bit of drugs and naughty sex on the way.

In Essex's band The Stray Cats was also Paul Nicholas, Karl Howman, Dave Edmunds and Keith Moon, and a cameo appearance of a blast from the past as a U.S. TV interviewer in the shape of Edd Byrnes who played Kookie in the TV series "77 Sunset Strip", which was a must see for us fledgling teenage lotharios, as we tried to get our hair quiffs like his.

Quote: Hercules Grytpype Thynne @ 12th January 2021, 9:06 AM

... a cameo appearance of a blast from the past as a U.S. TV interviewer in the shape of Edd Byrnes who played Kookie in the TV series "77 Sunset Strip", which was a must see for us fledgling teenage lotharios, as we tried to get our hair quiffs like his.

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Kookie, Kookie, lend me your comb...

Quote: Billy Bunter @ 12th January 2021, 10:05 AM

Kookie, Kookie, lend me your comb...

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THEN, he was so cool, Man.

For some reason that escapes me, they don't make songs like that anymore.

Life was so much simpler then.

The Captain's Table (1936)

What can I say?

Not a bad murder mystery as various passengers get bumped off, with not one famous face in it, and a touch of humour here and there. At an hour long, well worth a look.

If you want to know more, here's the IMDb link :-

https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0028690/?ref_=nv_sr_srsg_1

The New Lot (1943)

A sort of Army recruitment film made by the Army Kinematograph Service and apparently thought lost until a copy was found in India, and being so successful, was later made into a film via Ealing Studios called "The Way Ahead", about a motley crew of conscripts, none of whom want to be there for various reasons, and how they are whipped into shape.

However, here is the original with a host of stars in it - Bernard Miles, John Laurie, Raymond Huntley, Geoffrey Keen, Bernard Lee, Kathleen Harrison, John Slater and a surprisingly uncredited (considering he played a main part) Peter Ustinov.................and a bit part for Robert Donat in a spoof war film at the local cinema the crew went to see.

I enjoyed it, if only to see these stars when they were so young.

The Crooked Sky (1957)

You couldn't make a drama/thriller less thrilling. "All Hell Breaks Loose" proclaims the film poster.........er, I don't think so.

Someone is flooding the UK with forged £1 notes (remember them?) and it seems the paper is made in the USA, and so deductions indicate the forged notes come from there too, but who is smuggling them in? Two radio operators on US/UK cargo planes are murdered and so the chase is on to find the connection.

Bring in ace investigator Wayne Morris, who I'd seen before as the token Yank as he comes up against everyone's favourite Nazi, Anton Diffring, but in this instance he's a night club owner in London with a side line in forged notes.

How I stuck this to the bitter end I don't know. One big yawn.

Highly Dangerous (1950)

Far fetched thriller starring Margaret Lockwood as entomologist asked to go on a deadly mission behind the Iron Curtain to obtain some insects that are thought being developed to carry disease, but despite the ridiculous plot it's quite a good film with even some comedy thrown in. As soon as she gets there her contact is murdered and so she is on her own until an American reporter in the form of Dane Clark foolishly decides to help her out.

Quite a number of faces - Anton Diffring (again!)this time as a communist guard, oh and look, there's our mate Sam Kydd as an uncredited Customs man. Also had in it a heavily made up, barely recognisable Marius Goring as the local chief of police/interrogator, Naunton Wayne (without his mate Basil Radford), Wilfrid Hyde-White as the British Consul, with Michael Hordern and Dinah Sheridan briefly.

Not a bad film, but not as good as some of the IMDb reviewers claim it is - 10/10? I don't think so.

Some cracking large cars of the period though, and thanks to the IMDCB for identifying them :- 1945 Austin Sixteen, 1933 Buick Series 50, 1948 Ford V8 Pilot, 1949 Hillman Minx Phase IV, 1935 McLaughlin-Buick Series 50, 1936 Mercedes-Benz 500 K Cabriolet, 1936 Rover 10, 1939 Standard Flying Eight Tourer and Lockwood's car, a glorious 1948 Sunbeam-Talbot 80 Drophead Coupé.

They Were Sisters (1945)

What would have been called then a film for the ladies, but as I'm a sucker for any film James Mason is in, I had to see it and glad I did! It was riveting.

Three close sisters who eventually marry to men of totally different character, with one getting the short straw of Mason at his most menacing psychologically as he mentally destroys his wife, with the other two sisters feeling helpless to do anything about it.
They do in the end of course, as Mason gets his comeuppance.

Very good film, with a few faces, such as Phyllis Calvert and tiny Edie Martin from The Ladykillers

The Girl in the Picture (1957)

Not a fan of Donald Houston, but he was good in this as a newspaper reporter who has an old competition photo in his newspaper pointed out to him as having a car in it that was involved in the unsolved murder of a policeman 4 years previous, and so the search is on with the oft used plot of reporter trying to stay one step ahead of the police, who subsequently get involved.

Dodgy nightclub owner Maurice Kaufmann is summat to do with it, via an "artistic models" magazine. The only other people of note in it are James Booth as a young goofy office boy and Michael Medwin (who I didn't recognise!) as a young car mechanic.

Good film.

Three Steps to the Gallows (1953) Yank title "White Fire" - why the f**k they called it that, I've NO idea as 'white' and 'fire' have NOTHING to do with this film

So, American Scott Brady lands in London off a cargo ship to find his brother has been framed for a murder and is due to be hung in 4 days, and off he sets to find the truth with the help of all and sundry, most of whom are involved in the frame up and conspiracy.
The Major from Fawlty Towers (Ballard Berkeley) is the police inspector again and the whole thing gets quite tense as Brady runs out of "friends".

Very good thriller.

Dual Alibi (1947)

Well this was weird in many ways. An excellent film of twin trapeze artists, both played by Herbert Lom and very well considering the technical side of it and the lack of expertise/effects the film makers had at their disposal compared to now - you couldn't see the join!

Lom was superb as the twins who win the French lottery but get cheated out of it by a floozie and her boyfriend, and so it becomes a murder mystery as to which twin did the evil revenge deed, with a couple of nice weird twists at the end.

A weird aspect also, is that the floozie was played by pretty Phyllis Dixey who only made two films, including this one - making her fortune with a rival to the famous Windmill theatre, the Whitehall Theatre in London; but eventually went bankrupt and when she died aged only 50, was working as a cook.

Her boyfriend in the film Terence de Marney, who did the dirty deed by cheating the twins, died aged only 63 when he fell under a tube train at Kensington High Street Station in 1971.

Very good film and well worth a look if you see it on'telly.

Frail Women (1932)

Dunno why I watched this, perhaps it was because my wife wanted to, otherwise it was stilted performances all round, on a couple of clonky, wobbly stage sets, about a woman who has an illegitimate child during WWI, which is taken in by a rich benefactor, then shoot forward 18 years to 1932 to see child, mother, benefactor and soldier father reunited, and how they get out of the tangled mess.

Thank heavens it was short. I knew no one in it except a bald as a coot Miles Malleson.

Tiger by the Tail (1954) Cross-Up Yank title

Token American in the shape of Larry Parks, who I'd never seen before, but that maybe not surprising as his career took a nose dive not long after this when he admitted Communist sympathies to the Un-American Activities Committee. Maybe the film was jinxed as apparently leading lady Constance Smith also had a troubled life, finishing up as an alcoholic cleaner and dying on a street in London.

However, good thriller when reporter (yawn - again tries to solve it all without telling the police) Parks gets mixed up with a mysterious international counterfeit gang, one of which was the sadly typecast Friar Tuck (Alexander Gauge) from The Adventures of Robin Hood TV series and a thick hoodlum played by Ronan O'Casey from The Larkins TV series.

Also bit parts for Thora Hird, playing it slightly for laughs as a farmer and Doris Hare - Mum from On the Buses - as a nurse. No one else of any note, but a good film I thought and well worth a watch.