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Reviews
Calling All Cars (1954)
Jollity and fun and much more
"Calling All Cars" is an interesting and unusual little film. There is little by way of a plot as it was actually a promotional film for the Dover Harbour Board's new ferry terminal, and as such, the film is merely, if you will excuse the pun, a vehicle for publicising the introduction of roll-on, roll-off ferries, or RO RO ferries, but don't let that put you off.
It is actually a pleasant bit of light comedy, not hilariously funny, but light-hearted and jolly enough with some witty dialogue. One or two of the jokes are rather corny ("Liechtenstein, how the heck do you spell that?", "Ten licks and a stein") but it's not trying to be sophisticated, it's just fun.
The plot, what there is of a plot, can be told in a few words. Reggie and Freddie, trying to make the acquaintance of two attractive women, follow them as they drive down to Dover and board the ferry to France.
So it falls into the category of a "road" film, with some of the events along the way being an unusual stop at a petrol station where the pals are attended to by what certain newspapers today would refer to as "a bevy of beauties".
Reggie and Freddie foil an attempted robbery at a jewellers and then they pull a bit of a prank to delay the women in the hope that it will give them the chance to talk to them.
So with not much of a plot to analyse, let's take a look at its plus points to see what makes it worth watching.
Since it is basically a "road" film, let's talk about the roads - and what a contrast with today's crowded highways. Today's drivers can watch this and dream of the open road with very little traffic. With so few vehicles on the road, motoring was surely a more pleasurable experience back then.
Stopping for petrol also had a sort-of elegance and ease that it lacks today. These were the days before self-service petrol stations and drivers didn't even need to get out of the car to put petrol in - an attendant would do it - but I doubt that you would have had the attention of half a dozen young ladies as we see in this mirth-making scene. Had this been a musical comedy, the chorus line would have provided the chance to bring on the showgirls to delight the eye, and this scene is a rather clever way of slotting them in here. It's played for laughs, but I suspect that whoever wrote that scene was indulging in a little fantasy and expressing his desire of how he'd like it to be.
The next attraction of this film must be the Jaguar cars. The stunning designs with sleek curves that are unmistakably Jaguar certainly turned heads, and not only the heads of sports car enthusiasts. Anyone with an eye for beauty and classic style can understand why they made Jaguar a world famous name and why the makers of this film chose Jaguar over other brands.
Next comes the the acting of Adrienne Scott and Pauline Olsen. Their natural, authentic and unpretentious style of acting, plus good looks, adds greatly to the charm of this film. Unfortunately we don't see enough of them. They don't have a lot of dialogue, which is why I gave them second billing after the Jaguars.
I'll give a brief mention to Margot Bryant as Mrs Flit. She would later go on to be a star of Coronation Street, appearing in many episodes.
As well as the attractions of this film, the negative aspects need to be discussed. What might put off some people?
I'll begin with the fact that it has a few short documentary sections which are very much like the old public information films, the Railway Transport Films or the Rank Organisation's "Look At Life" series of short films which cinema-goers of the 1960s will remember very well, as they were shown before the main feature.
Hopefully it will be a very small minority who are put off by these short documentary sections. They make up only a few short parts of the film and don't take up a lot of time and perhaps the majority will be fascinated to see the old method of cars being hoisted on to the ferry by means of a crane and will marvel at the construction scenes. In its day, the new RO RO terminal was an impressive piece of engineering and worthy of publicity. For a better view of cars being loaded on to the ferry by a crane, see Diplomatic Passport (1954).
I found the scene with the boy causing a hold up on the zebra crossing rather dull and I wonder how today's audiences would take the scene with Reggie and Freddie dressed as schoolboys, but that schoolboy outfit was part of Cardew Robinson's stage act and audiences of the 1950s would have laughed on seeing it just as audiences do on hearing a comedian's catchphrase.
There is a bit of narration by Spike Milligan talking, in one of his silly voices, as the voice of the car. Milligan was one of a team of comedians known as "The Goons", very popular in their day and the addition of Milligan to "Calling All Cars" was to attract bigger audiences, but this is another aspect that has me wondering about the reaction of modern audiences. Still though, modern audiences flock to see Joe Pasquale with his silly voice, so perhaps Milligan's buffoonery won't put them off.
In terms of cinematic production it borders on cinéma-vérité or direct cinema, so although some might see it as amateurish, others will see it as refreshing and having the "spontaneity and flavour of the real event" to quote Karel Reisz.
To sum up, it is stylistically different, quirky if you like, but fun and full of jollity, somewhat reminiscent of a saucy seaside postcard, not too taxing on the intellect, but with a few witty wisecracks dropped in, so be on the alert for them.
It is ideal for winding down after a hard day, delightful for its charming innocence. Just sit back and enjoy the clowning around, the scenes of a country that once was England and the sophisticated curves of the Jaguar cars.
Something to Hide (1972)
Something To Regret
"Something To Hide"? A better title would be "Something To Regret" as that would accurately describe how I felt after watching it.
This is the director, Alastair Reid, trying his hand at the French style of cinema, and he has proved that French cinema is an art-form best left to the French. It is a craft that needs to be learned from masters of the art.
They know how to use strange camera angles, close ups of random objects, long, slow pans and short scenes using un-connected, incidental characters to produce atmosphere, build interest and intrigue, and hold attention. I'm afraid Reid's attempts are a flop.
His close ups (a boiled egg, a typewriter, an eyeball and many other objects), his long, slow pans (one being totally out of focus), the random shots of people on a beach, children playing, frequent shots of a mechanical digger cleaning the beach, noisy old women in a shop are meant to be atmospheric and evocative, but they are perfect examples of how to get things not-quite-right when an un-trained hand tries to copy a style.
Had those techniques worked as they should, then the music would have been right too, but playing behind such bland and uninteresting scenes, the accompanying music - "Concerto For Harry" played by The Royal Philharmonic Orchestra no less - simply seems pretentious.
I'm sure Reid was strongly influenced by Jean-Luc Godard's Week end (1967), "Something To Hide" even has a scene where Harry is stuck in a traffic queue caused by a car accident ahead, as does Weekend. I'm afraid that even fans of French cinema will feel let down by this attempt. Just as you don't want a dentist trying his hand at heart surgery, you don't want a British director trying his hand at French cinema.
But perhaps the plot can uplift this film into something worth watching. Sadly, no, as it doesn't really have a plot, it is just a series of events, as is Godard's Weekend, that lead up to a climactic ending.
Harry Field (Peter Finch) is a man with a drink problem and something to hide, and having something to hide, he constantly covers up, makes excuses and lies, very much like the character he played twenty-three years earlier in Train of Events (1949).
The opening scenes are of Harry and his wife, Gabby, (Shelley Winters) spending an evening together and having dinner. It is the energy and charisma of Winters that makes these scenes worthwhile. She could have delivered her lines to a shop window mannequin or even an empty chair with equal success, such is her performance. Finch need not have been present.
Then, Shelley Winters was gone and we were left with the unbearably cheerless and grumpy Harry going about his life, and this was where the tedium set in as we followed Harry's domestic routine.
He gets up, shaves, goes to work, or some days doesn't go to work because he has a hangover, he cooks a meal and it is all mundane and dismal until he gives a lift to a young woman, Lorelei (Linda Hayden) who coerces him into putting her up for a few days. She disturbs his domestic routine and is thoroughly troublesome.
Then lots more of the French style - a man lighting a bonfire, long, sweeping shots of the outside of the house and later, one like that but at night, people building a huge sandcastle, a close up of the knobs on the stereo system - Reid must have thought these shots were interesting additions to his building the relationship between Harry and Lorelei, but they just slowed things down so much that it was hard to sit through.
This was too slow, too much time-wasting, no actual plot, just happenings, unlikeable characters and by the time it got to the climactic ending, I didn't really care, and so the emotional impact was lost on me.
When it got to the end, I wished that I hadn't wasted my time. I've seen films before that I didn't enjoy, but I'd never before seen one that was so utterly devoid of anything to make it worth watching. If ever there was film that wasn't worth watching, this is it, a total waste of time. See Jean-Luc Godard's Weekend to see how it should be done.
Harry Field had a drink problem, and trying to sit through this was such hard work,it almost drove me to drink.
Dire. Avoid! Harsh words, but deserved.
Heartbeat: Something of Value (1996)
Wine theft and gambling debts
Pollards has been robbed of £10,000 worth of wine. Alf Ventress is in debt through gambling and he asks Nick Rowan to help him. Lord Ashfordly has a problem of intruders on the Ashfordly estate at night. Lord Ashfordly catches Greengrass poaching on the estate (Greengrass claims that a pheasant flew into a tree and dropped at his feet) and Ashfordly tells Greengrass that he won't prosecute him if he agrees to patrol the estate at night, for no payment. Jo tells Nick that he shouldn't be satisfied with being just a village Bobby. Ventress asks Nick to lend him £1,200. Nick says, "That's nearly two years wages". Due to Ashfordly putting a stop to Greengrass' poaching, he can't supply the game to the Aidensfield Arms that George Ward was expecting. Two boys are exploring on the Ashfordly estate and they find the stolen wine in an old lodge. They take a few bottles. Greengrass catches them and he confiscates the wine and tells them not to tell anyone about the wine. He goes to the lodge and on seeing the huge pile of crates of wine bottles, he says, "By heck Alfred, there's a few headaches in here." Nick conjures up a way to catch the wine thief and at the same time, get Ventress free from his gambling debts. Music in this episode includes "Hang On Sloopy", "Apache" by The Shadows and "Gimme Shelter".
Recoil (1953)
Crime drama or love story?
A woman seeks revenge for the death of her father. She tracks down the murderer and when she falls for the murderer's brother, she can't reveal her true feelings as she has to pretend to be in love with the murderer until she gets the evidence that can convict him of his crime. Some quite emotionally powerful scenes when she, by necessity, gets romantic with the murderer but we know her true feelings and we fear her losing the other brother.
At 42 mins - Sellars turns on the sex appeal that made her a star - the sultry looks, the silky voice, the gorgeous clothes, the sheer femininity - she could be red hot without needing to take off her clothes. See her purring in "The Broken Horseshoe".
Recoil (1953)
Crime drama or love story?
A woman seeks revenge for the death of her father. She tracks down the murderer and when she falls for the murderer's brother, she can't reveal her true feelings as she has to pretend to be in love with the murderer until she gets the evidence that can convict him of his crime. Some quite emotionally powerful scenes when she, by necessity, gets romantic with the murderer but we know her true feelings and we fear her losing the other brother.
At 42 mins - Sellars turns on the sex appeal that made her a star - the sultry looks, the silky voice, the gorgeous clothes, the sheer femininity - she could be red hot without needing to take off her clothes. See her purring in "The Broken Horseshoe".
Saints and Sinners (1949)
Not so simple minded
It is a bit slow to get started, but it soon drew me in and it turns out to be quite witty. It's not as simple minded as some people might think it is. Once you pick up on the humour, the hidden depths will be revealed. The way the priest chastises certain members of the congregation amused me. I won't talk about the ending, so as not to give it away, but I wonder how many people will work it out before the end. I found it a charming film with some good performances by the cast of players and I wasn't sure whether to give it a 7 or an 8. It is a film I could watch again and I'm sure I would enjoy it again.
Sparrows Can't Sing (1963)
"Awful stuff, Painful to sit through" - in agreement.
"Awful stuff, Painful to sit through" - I agree. This has nothing to make it worth watching other than a few period details, such as the prices on the fruit and veg stall, the the outside lavatory (Roy Kinnear uses it) and the streets, although people of a certain generation who enjoyed "On The Buses", "Man About The House" and George & Mildred" might like seeing the early work of the actors who appeared in those television series.