Movie review - "The Sound Barrier" (1952) ***

After two flops with Ann Todd, David Lean restored his commercial record with this flyer tale. Todd's in this too but it's a 'girl' part so she can't do too much damage - I'm being mean about Todd but she wasn't very good, one of the least lively British female stars of her era. She plays the daughter of Ralph Richardson, a northern plane manufacturer developing jets. Her husband is a test pilot, played by Nigel Patrick - who briefly became a sort of star (Kenneth More soon cornered the market in cocky pilots but he hadn't broken through yet). Denholm Elliot (very effective) is Todd's weak brother - he and More were going to play pilots Alcock and Brown in a film that got pulled when Korda went bankrupt.

This benefits from a decent script from Terence Rattigan (who knew planes, having served in the RAF). It's beautifully shot ,like all Lean films - carefully composed shots, lots of love and care. There's plenty of stiff upper lip as Richardson loses his son and Todd loses Patrick (who is a bit of an annoying twit - I can see why he didn't stay a big star), and they worry as John Justin (who was a real pilot) takes up the charge via some third act "lets cross the streams" science dodginess.

So you can mock it, the Brits being noble and middle class, for all Richardson's northern accent (it is quite touching at the end when he indirectly asks Todd to stick around). There's a white haired engineer inventor type who seems to be waiting for Alistair Sim to play him.

Todd is annoying but she gets the film's best scene: visiting the crash site where her husband crashed and seeing them scrape out what's left of him. 

Almost two hours long so be warned.

Book review - "Happy Go Lucky" by Kenneth More (1959)

 More wrote a very likeable memoir in the late 70s, More or Less, which got him sued by Danny Angel. Thing is he already wrote a book about his life back in 1959 which was premature I guess, written at his peak, but he had packed in. And because it was fresher off the press if there's less bitching there's more detail about his life and early films - he does take a swipe at Scott of the Antarctic. I assume More wrote this himself - he's a lively writer, smart too.

I read this an unusual way - it was serialised in a newspaper and I read bits in the newspaper.

Play review - "Peace in Our Time" by Noel Coward (1947)

 This play isn't as revived as much as other Coward works despite the high concept -it's set in an alternative London where the Germans won the war. Maybe this came out too soon after the war, when people didn't want to think about it. Kenneth More was in the original production.

I really liked this. I recognise its flaws - too many characters (could've done with a rewrite), perhaps too long a period of time when shorted may have been more effective (I acknowledge Coward wanted the war to end). Depiction of a Nazi occupied England very believable - fair weather journos, woman sleeping with enemy, Churchill shot, royals in Canada, everything a bit shabby. (Strategy wise I'm not sure how invasion would've worked from the west. From Africa through France I guess.)

Powerful scenes like a daughter being taken away to be tortured. Tough stuff. Needed another draft but easily one of his best post war works.

Movie review - "Brandy for the Parson" (1952) **

 A Group 3 movie which means location photography, technical polish,  forced sense of fun. James Donald and Jean Lodge are on a yachting holiday when they come across Kenneth More who is a smuggler. Everyone can act; More is simply more charismatic than Donald. It's a shame they didn't push a love triangle. I liked Lodge she was very pretty. It's a dull movie though. Nice location work. And at least the actors are on the boat - no back projection.

Movie review - "Never Let Go" (1953) **

The sort of film that one senses just would've been more fun in the 1930s under Louis B. Mayer's MGM rather than Dore Schary's. Clark Gable is a journo in Mosco who falls (too quickly) for Gene Tierney, a ballerina. Another expat Richard Haydn marries a Russian too played by Belita. Both women are stuck at home. Then the boys go rescue.

Lacking in suspense and even romance - the courtship is rapid. Instead we get a long unfunny scene where Haydn out-drinks a Russian. The plan isn't that clever. Kenneth More brightens things up as a British journalist who helps the couple.

It's not in colour. I mean, it's okay.

Movie review - "We Joined the Navy" (1962) **

 Producer Danny Angel probably thought this was a sure thing - Kenneth More in a Doctor in the House style comedy set in the Navy. Only he was too old to play a youngster, so the three young parts go to skinny other actors one of whom is Derek Fowlds, and More plays the James Robertson Justice type role, only he's more of a cheeky officer cynical about the navy who tells the truth too often.

This is why it's weird he and the three midshipmen are sent to the South of France to work with an American ship, captained by Lloyd Nolan, alongside nurse Joan O'Brien. There's a bit of clash but no culture clash - the Americans are here just to appeal to Americans but not much thought has been put into it. Here the Americans are the sticklers for the rules and the Brits are incompetent. 

There's a series of unfunny adventures - though I did smile when they hired dancers from the follies berges. The film never seems to quite know how to pitch its tone. It really needed to be about jolly japes from the youngsters but then they distort it by casting More and having to give him screen time. And his romance with O'Brien is underwhelming. He didn't have much luck with his American co-stars.

There's nice colour photography and location work in the south of France. The film throws in some old school racism with the navy having to rescue a captured American from a fictitious town - I don't mind the idea, but it's dumbly played here, with the Brits being hugely incompetent and More unrealistically saving the day. Mischa Auer plays a double role. 

This is one of those early 60s British comedies which still pretended it was the 60s eg A Pair of Briefs.

The best bit is the cameo from Dirk Bogarde as Simon Sparrow. He offers such a jolt of charisma and professionalism that he makes you wish that Bogarde and More had been reunited on a project. Or More had taken over the Doctor role when Bogarde didn't want to do it.

Movie review - "Genevieve" (1953) ****

 Probably Rank's best comedy even if at heart it's an Ealing comedy - Henry Cornelius had left that studio. William Rose is the MVP here, with a very funny script. There's too much whining from Dinah Sheridan admittedly - she's fine, the right, age, just a whinger. John Gregson is charming in his knockabout way. Both are overshone by Kenneth More and Kay Kendall, who shine as the smug, pleased, bumptuous Ambrose and the leggy, trumpet playing model.

I know it was accidental this film was so good but it does work. The cast, the concept, the footage of the chats while driving the cars (i.e no back projection), the clever scripting of the final race (which takes up over half an hour), the music, the colour. Kendall has a very funny drunk scene playing the trumpet, there's nice support cast.

The four protagonists things works too. Like it did for Gone with the Wind and the Gainsborough melodramas. A good couple and a bad couple. Here, because it's comedy, the "badness" is muted - but More and Kendall are different, a lot more flashy. Why didn't they use this method more? I know Gainsborough changed it, foolishly. Maybe they didn't understand it.

Play review - "The Deep Blue Sea" by Terence Rattigan

 Wonderful play, Rattigan at his peak, exploring an area he knows well - the passionate versus the respectible. Hesther, she of the high sex drive, as married low sex drive Bill Collyer, and thrown it all away to run of with high sex drive Freddie Page, who doesn't really love her. There is a neighbour, Mr Miller, a former doctor struck off for an unmentioned scandal, possibly homosexuality.

Rattigan writes with a great deal of warmth and empathy for all his characters, even Freddie. He depicts the shabby world with its bookies, and seen it all landlady, with tremendous insight. It's great theatre with its cramped setting. The incompetence of the Vivien Leigh film version annoys me after reading this.

Movie review - "The Comedy Man" (1963) ***

 At its heart this is a Tv play but a very good one about a struggling actor. Well, I mean it's about a struggling actor which isn't that interesting but it does capture the life - the humiliation, boozing, jealousy, waiting, rejection, camaraderie, loneliness, compromises.

He has a successful friend (Edmund Purdom!), a fuck buddy (Billie Whitelaw), a young woman (Angela Douglas) who sleeps with him but then goes for his agent (Denis Price), an old colleague (Cecil Parker),

There's a party where two blokes dance - that's quite striking. (They're all listening to Chubby Checker).

Written by Aussie Peter Yeldham.

Movie review - "Some People" (1962) **

 Kenneth More's top billed but the film is really a film about teens including Ray Brooks (familiar face) and David Hemmings who are sort of teddy boys in Bristol who wind up at a club. They play some instruments, sing songs only it's not really a musical. More is the local... choirmaster, I think, who helps the kids. A little. His daughter Angela Douglas falls for Hemmings. More and Douglas started an affair during filming.

More looks old in this film, wearing a cardigan and sipping tea and playing the dad of a grown daughter. He was old. Clive Donner directed. The colour photography is lovely and it was all shot on location in Bristol. Everyone donated their fees because it was for the Duke of Edinburgh scheme which I associate with camping and orienteering but there's none of that here.

It's not bad. Like a social realist version of a Cliff Richard movie.

Movie review - "Next to No Time" (1958) **

 The last film from Henry Cornelius who had a big hit with Kenneth More in Genevieve but can't do it here. The basic idea isn't very good - a shy engineer discovers that after a certain time of day he's capable of being bold - but it has potential. A worm turns story, okay that can work - I mean what is Superman I guess, if not that. Cinderella.

But they don't really exploit that angle. And it's sunk bu casting. Kenneth More is naturally warm, and amicable - you never believe him to be socially awkward so when he "loosens up" there's no real change, It's just like he's had a few drinks. 

This really needed someone more obviously shy like Alec Guinness, Peter Sellers or Norman Wisdom. Or you could do it with a girl.

He befriends an American star on the liner and in that role they miscast Betsy Drake, who is nice and pretty but just seems to be nice and pretty. Someone more obviously "starry" would've been better. I think they should've reteamed More with Jayne Mansfield, that worked well in Sheriff of Fractured Jaw but surely there were other girls available. Diana Dors would've been great, even if they wanted an American. Mamie Van Doren.

And why not romance? They give him a girlfriend at home - boring. Why not make him single and have him romance a girl?

Nicely shot by Freddie Francis and fun turns from people like Sid James. I enjoyed it being set on an ocean liner.

But it's not funny. Miscast.

Movie review - "The Greenage Summer" (1961) ***

 Interesting Lewis Gilbert directed drama with pretty French locations. Part of the 1950s and 1960s British genre of young person falls in love with/comes under the influence of a criminal that started I guess with The Fallen Idol and Oliver Twist. This and Tiger Bay and Whistle Down the Wind were female versions. Here the girl is Susannah York in an eye catching early role. Her mum is sick on holiday so she's in charge of her two siblings, one played by Jane Asher. She becomes infatuated with the dashing boyfriend (Kenneth More) of the woman running the hotel.

Gilbert felt More's role needed someone more handsome like Dirk Bogarde. I think he's right - Bogarde or someone like Michael Craig or a French actor like Alan Delon. Still, it's interesting to see More in this sort of role. He can handle the change from cheery chap to someone with a darker side. He's not quite well cast but he is an amiable star. And he doesn't have a lechery sex vibe - even when he kisses York at the end, because he's kind of sexless it's not as dodgy as if say Michael Craig had done it.

The story is simple but logically thought out - his bond with the kids, the reveal that the guy has a past.

Movie review - "The Deep Blue Sea" (1955) **

 I can see why Alex Korda thought Vivien Leigh would be ideal in the lead. She'd just won an Oscar playing a woman who goes crazy in part due to her lust for a younger man, in real life she had a breakdown over her love for Peter Finch despite being married to Laurence Olivier. She was a big star.

And yet... She doesn't work here. Kenneth More felt she was too pretty. Or at least was once pretty. I don't think that's the issue so much as she simply didn't nail the role. I didn't believe her. She has no chemistry with More.  She didn't really act needy. Anatole Litvak didn't nail it. I kept trying to imagine it with Laurence Olivier and Peter Finch - that could've worked as a film. But it's not the story. The Deep Blue Sea is basically about a woman who falls in love for the first time only thing is she's married and the object of her affection is not her husband.

Would Olivia de Havilland have done better? It's all very well to say "get Peggy Ashcroft" but I understand they needed a star. I think Korda only kept on Kenneth More because he had More under contract.

CinemaScope doesn't help but I'm not sure that's the fault as much as opening it up - setting scenes at air shows, and bars and ski resorts. Black and white Cinema Scope using the cramped world of the apartments would've been fine.

Emlyn William doesn't quite work as the husband, nor does Eric Portman as the man in the building.  It's all a bit... off.

Movie review - "Raising a Riot" (1955) **

 A big hit in Britain. This was attributed to Kenneth More at his popular peak but I think the central concept played a part - man raising three kids without his partner - hahahah. Men raising kids was a surefire formula for many years eg Three Men and a Baby, Kindergarten Cop, Three Godfathers.

It is amiable. There is colour, cute kids, American neighbours, a cute house (a windmill), a girl flirts with More (might've been a better film to make him widowed and have a romance),  a little bit of feminism with More's speech at the end about the job women do. It was directed  by a woman, Wendy Toye.

British Box Office 1955

 Kinematograph from December 1955

The big hits of the year: 

1) The Dam Busters 

2) Doctor at Sea 

3) White Christmas.

Other hits of the year included several British movies:

* Above Us the Waves

* Cast a Dark Shadow

* The Colditz Story

*The Constant Husband

*Footsteps in the Fog

*Geordie

*I am a Camera

*John and Julie

*A Kid for Two Farthings

*The Love Match

*Man of the Moment

*One Good Turn

*Prize of Gold

*Raising a Riot

*The Sea Shall Not Have Them

*Touch and Go

Interesting to see what worked. War movies of course (Colditz, Above Us the Waves, The Sea Shall Not Have Them), but also thrillers (Cast a Dark Shadow, Footsteps in the Fog), star vehicle comedies (Man of the Moment and One Good Turn with Norman Wisdom, Raising a Riot with Kenneth More, Touch and Go with Jim Hawkins, The Constant Husband with Rex Harrison, The Love Match with Arthur Askey). Geordie was a comedy without a star. There's also action-y pieces (Prize of Gold).

Some are more random. Kid for Two Farthings and John and Julie had child protagonists. I am a Camera  was drama, albeit based on a well known book.

Birmhingham Gazette 29 Dec 1955

British Box Office 1959

Kinematograph Weekly

Biggest hits of the Year

1) Carry on Nurse

2) I'm Alright Jack

3) The Inn of Sixth Happiness.

A good vote for British comedy!

Other better than average offerings that were British:

* The Bridal Path

*The Captain's Table

*Carry on Teacher

*Darby O'Gill and the Little People

*The Doctor's Dilemma

*Horrors in the Black Museum

*The Hound of the Baskervilles

*I Only Arsked

*Jack the Ripper

*Left Right and Centre

*Look Back in Anger

*North West Frontier

*Operation Bullshine

*The Rough and the Smooth

*Sapphire

*Serious Charge

*The Sheriff of Fractured Jaw

*The Square Peg

*Tarzan's Greatest Adventure

*The 39 Steps 

*Tiger Bay

*Tom Thumb

 Interesting to analyse what was popular. Comedies of course (I'm Alright Jackl, Operation Bullshine, The Bridal Path, Left Right and Centre, The Captain's Table). Franchises (Carry on, Tarzan, Norman Wisdom comedies). Kenneth More vehicles (39 Steps, Northwest Frontier, Fractured Jaw). Films with kid protagonists. Musical adaptations (Serious Charge). Low budget thrillers (Rough and the Smooth). Horror (Black Museum, Hound of the Baskerville, Jack the Ripper) Only two dramas (Sapphire, Doctor's Dilemma).

British Box Office 1960

The big hits of the year - Doctor in Love (they don't need Dirk Bogarde!), Sink the Bismark (Kenneth More draws them in) and Carry On Constable.

All three films very "British". Two of them "franchises".

Other British money makers:

* Battle of the Sexes

* Brides of Dracula

* Conspiracy of Hearts

* Dentist in the Chair (what is that film?)

* Expresso Bongo

* Follow a Star

* A French Mistress

*Kidnapped

*The League of Gentlemen

*Light Up the Sky

*Make Mine Mink

*The Millionairess

*Our Man in Havana

*Please Turn Over

*Sands of the Desert

*The Savage Innocents

*School for Scoundrels

*Sons and Lovers

* A Touch of Larceny

*the Trials of Oscar Wilde

*Two Way Stretch

*Village of the Damned

*Watch Your Stern

So what can be learned?

The British public still liked a good war movie (Bismark, Conspiracy of Hearts) and loved a star vehicle for Peter Sellers (Battle of Sexes, Millionairess, Two Way Stretch), Terry Thomas (School for Scoundrels, Make Mine Mink), Norman Wisdom (Follow a Star) and the Carry On gang (Watch Your Stern). Alec Guiness still worked in a comedy (Havana). They liked random comedies with stars from other mediums (Dentist in the Chair with Bob Monkhouse,  Please Turn Over with Ted Ray, Sands of the Desert with Charlie Drake, Boutling comedies (A French Mistress), heist comedies  (League of Gentlemen), war comedies (Light Up the Sky). Expresso Bongo was a musical. Kidnapped a classic novel adaptation.

Horror was a new earner (Brides of Dracula, Village of the Damned). Some heavy drama got through eg Sons and Lovers, Trials of Oscar Wilde.

But 26 British films...  over half were comedies.
 

Movie review - "Northwest Frontier" (1959) **** (re-watching)

 Rank's attempt to conquer the world markets were much mocked but it did result in some of that studio's best movies - this and A Night to Remember are among the best.

This gives Kenneth More one of his best roles, a cheery engineer in 1905 India. He is a bit patronising and refers to the natives as children. There's a lot of defensive paternalism going on here - saying the British are needed to keep Muslim and Hindu tearing each other apart, etc.

I enjoyed his romance with Lauren Bacall - she's a sensible no-nonsense governess, a little wry about the British. But they are both sensible and respect each other.

I.S. Johar is full of life and energy as the train driver, though he's required to say "I feel like banging my people's heads together". The rest of the support cast is strong - Herbert Lom, Wilfrid Hyde White, Ursula Jean etc.

I liked the Macguffin of the kid (dubbed voice). I wish the death toll had been higher - surely that arms dealer could've gone? And the crew could have used a second traitor. Or someone other than a half-caste Muslim.

The location filming is spectacular - CinemaScope is well used. Production values are splendid. It starts with a bang - maybe a mistake to then go to the safety of the British cantonment (or that should've been wiped out). Has some very solid action sequences, and a suspenseful walk across the rail tracks.

Rousing music score.

Movie review - "The Yellow Balloon" (1952) **

J. Lee Thompson was clearly a natural director - look at his visual command. Good with actors too (or, at least, casting). Andrew Ray is an excellent young lead and the support can't be faulted - William Sylvester, Kenneth More (dad), Kathleen Ryan.

Some tremendous moments - the death of Ray's friend. The terror of the final chase. Ray befriending a nice prostitute. This got an X which caused much criticism but it is an adult kids film.

I didn't like it much, have to say. It didn't make sense that Sylvester would put in so much effort to grooming Ray. Does he need an Oliver Twist that much? If Ray had witnessed a crime or knew something - sure. But Ray was part of kids mucking around which led one to die.

Also the relationship between Ray and Sylvester lacks much weight. It's grooming under blackmail. There's no genuine friendship/family stuff like in Treasure Island or Hunted or Moonfleet.

Maybe if Sylvester and More had swapped parts - Sylvester is menacing, More has that breezy charm. I also feel these movies work better when there isn't a dad figure around.

Watching this I wish Thompson had done a version of Treasure Island.

Movie review - "Dark of the Sun" (1968) ****1/2

Have seen this film a bunch of times but it was a pleasure to view it again. Some thoughts:
* How stunning does it look? The photography, the location work in Jamaica, the sets...
* It has an intense atmosphere. Even the "settled" city at the beginning is a war zone, with cars overturned and armed soldiers everywhere. Every corner has danger. A night or two alone and you risk desk.
* I think the fact director Jack Cardiff was British helped him have more a feel for Africa - he gets the rough nuances of say Belgian administration in the way that an American director mightn't. It's a very colonial view though - the local Africans are very savage. (There are two nice black characters, Jim Brown and Bloke Modisane)
* The script is first rate. For the most part. It sets up brilliantly and efficiently - the lead characters, the mission, the ticking clock. The characters are distinctive and richly drawn. There are good twists, like the safe having a time, and the train rolling back to the Simbas.
* There are some script flaws. The girl part (Yvette Mimieux) is nothing. She starts of memorably, running from a massacre, but then just sort of hangs around. She's not even kidnapped at the end. I think she's mostly in the film to prove Taylor is straight even though the crux of the film is his love for Brown.
* The Bloke Modisane character becomes all important at the end but isn't in it much at the start. His part could've been beefed up more - or had his stuff given to the Olivier Despax character.
* The theme is muddled. The big fight between Taylor and Brown feels confusing. Like, Taylor is cynical and Brown scolds him for not thinking that Kenneth More was brave for dying, but Brown trusts Taylor with the diamonds and... um...? I get what they were going for - Brown's concern that Taylor stood for nothing - but it feels as though these scenes had been "worked" on and didn't quite fit in with the whole.
* It's a bleak film. They're going the mission for a black guy, admittedly, but Calvin Lockhart seems pretty ruthless. Two kids talk to the mercenaries then are shot by Peter Carsten. The nicest character, Jim Brown, is stabbed in the back. Nuns are raped. Kenneth More stays to help a mother give birth and they're all killed - so it was for nothing. Taylor kills Carsten, on entirely reasonable grounds (the guy deserves to die) but then he turns himself in. (It's a different ending - I always assume he'll change his mind).
* The acting is very good. Kenneth More, Brown, Taylor - it's perhaps Taylor's best performance.
* The action is great. There's two Taylor-Carsten fights - one with chain saws one on rivers which ends with Taylor breaking Carten's arms and stabbing him. The Simba attack is exciting, as is the final raid. It's one of the great sixties action films.