Change Your Image
Muswellmedia
Ratings
Most Recently Rated
Reviews
The Smut Peddler (1965)
Not quite so rare
The trailer for this movie generated a great deal of interest in this film when it was included in a compilation by Johnny Legend distributed in the UK on VHS as "Psychomania" if memory serves. According to legend only one copy of the complete film survives but as is often the case that's not quite true. Another copy exists and has been shown here in Groovy London Town. In the grand tradition of movie showmanship the trailer promises more than the film delivers which is not to say the film doesn't have its moments. This is not hardcore but if you can settle for nudity and suggestion it's pretty good at delivering the goods cloaked in a moral message, "this is what happens to bad girls", sort of way. I enjoyed it but it's not so different from any number of the films being made in New York in that era, titles like "The Taming" come to mind. The late great Joe Sarno was putting out a higher calibre of smut at the time and his films have withstood the change of moral climate better I feel. As neither of the copies that are known to exist are likely to turn up on disc it will remain difficult to see, but unless you are a completist don't sweat it.
Side by Side (2012)
Slow fade to Black ???
Side by Side is a useful overview of the development and incursion of digital technology in filmmaking it explores the pro's and cons of digital film production via interviews with many involved in Hollywood style movie-making.So is of interest and value for anyone with a love of the movies. One of the heavyweights on the pro digital side is George Lucas and you have to admire the way his films have improved since he adopted digital technology. The Star wars films just get better and better, don't they ?.............. Lucas in fact seems seems a strange choice of champion as he has in fact thrown in the towel as a filmmaker in every sense and sold off the franchise that ruined cinema to Disney,which is at least an honest admission that he has nothing of cinematic value to offer. Also in the heavyweight corner for digital alongside Lucas is James Cameron but one glaring omission is the absence of Steven Spielberg who trumps both Cameron and Lucas in commercial terms and is I am told pro film.I would like to say the pro digital lobby were the baddies and the pro film lobby were the artists who will stifle crass capitalism but on the evidence of the film that would mean Christopher Nolan is a better filmmaker than Danny Boyle when in fact I see nothing to choose between them. Martin Scorcese sadly does not prove to be the champion of film that he should be. So the pro celluloid camp are mainly represented by the Cinematographers except Danny Boyles cameraman who seems to be the only one excited about taking snaps with consumer digital cameras instead of "painting with light". The central question for me is can something that does not originate on film be truly "cinema" and so far I would say on the evidence here the answer is "maybe but probably not". Digital it seems always has to be excused as a special case and as far as I can tell from the examples given in "Side by Side" only "Collateral" by Michael Mann needed to be made on digital for aesthetic reasons. Robert Rodriguez fails to convince me that "Sin City" needed to be made digitally as it is so close to animation that it feels like a cartoon to me. It's no surprise that there is no real answer to the question "Is digital as good as photo chemical?" Which is a bit like saying are apples better than oranges. The question "Will digital replace film?" will I think be decided for corporate rather than aesthetic reasons, which have more clear cut criteria. An audience happy to watch movies on smart phones probably won't know the difference. For me digital would have to be superior to film in more important ways than the claims being made for it here and it clearly isn't. I remain hopeful that real celluloid will remain for now as I am aware that synthesisers have not replaced instruments let alone rivalled the Stradivarius, and vinyl still sounds better than CD's.. So maybe people will patronise real cinemas showing real films and save the day. But maybe the parade will pass by.
Tonite Let's All Make Love in London (1967)
less than the sum of its parts
Director Peter Whitehead was something of a one man band as a film maker making news items and what we now call pop promos. So what we get here is a number of the kind of films he was producing at the time joined together, collage like, rather than a rounded supposedly complete vision. But hey thats what it was like, there was no simple straight line narrative knitting it all together. Personally I think this makes it more honest and valuable as a document of the time and the reason why TV programmes are still using this material to illustrate programmes about the period.
My favourite moment features the Stones playing the Royal Albert Hall and whipping the audience up into a rioting mob that flood the stage with Brian Jones laughing his head off at the chaos. Also Lee Marvin and Michael Caine define cool while Vanessa Redgrave sings out of tune.
The Perils of Mandy (1980)
Unwanted Artefact
To understand why a film as poor as this even exists you need to know that at the time this was produced it was possible for British producers who would not be welcome in Hollywood to make cheap British films that made money being shown in British cinemas that couldn't afford Disney product. This was because apart from favourable tax breaks there was a scheme called the "Eady Levy" that ensured that a portion of the box office made its way back to the producers. Consequently there was an undercurrent of low budget film making which didn't need to be any good. It would be nice to say that a wealth of talent got their break in that climate and there are gems to unearth but Michael Winner stands out as one of the few and probably the most successful film maker to emerge from that scene. Even by the standards of the time this "Perils" is one of the more inept examples of cinema to appear from that era. The title refers to the famous silent serial "Perils of Pauline" and "Mandy" has a cliffhanger ending with the titular heroine tied to a railway line as apparently there was a series intended, which thankfully did not appear. If the film has any appeal at all it is as a vehicle for Gloria Brittain an attractive and popular nude model of the time who appeared in top shelf mens magazines, stag loops and the few other titles listed here on her IMDb profile. Unfortunately the whole enterprise is so inept that it does her no favours. In any case I don't know if Gloria could act but here she just doesn't . The film starts with her feeding the birds in Green Park and then cuts to her wandering around Soho. This sequence is quite puzzling as it was obviously shot over several days as Gloria changes clothes and hairdo's from location to location. When the plot kicks in she is introduced as a schoolgirl in a boarding school with a yen to act. Several sequences which appear to have no relation to the plot occur before she ends up on the railroad track. Some films are so bad they're good this is so bad it's unintelligible . So unless you are of a certain age and a Gloria Brittain completist ,she does get her clothes off but it really isn't worth sitting through the longest forty minutes of your life for, this is one to leave undiscovered. The full credits include one Toni Muldoon as Executive Producer whose name is now associated with various time share schemes operated from the Costa del Sol so maybe this film did make a fortune.
Public Nuisance No. 1 (1936)
A bit of whimsy
The stand out section of this musical movie is Frances Day's song about a lost dog. A scene which has nothing to do with the plot such as it is but that is in keeping with the somewhat wacky atmosphere. The whole piece is studio bound although it supposedly takes place in London and Nice. There is no exterior filming and even a couple of transitional establishing shots are toy cars in front of what looks like picture postcards which adds to the theatricality. There are a number of gags when the Arthur Riscoe character directs the camera to move and refers to the watching audience and finally speaks "The End" credit an effect that predates Orson Welles use of spoken credits for "Ambersons" by many years.
All in all Marcel Varnel's direction keeps up a good pace and it's a pleasant way to pass the time savouring the more innocent era of pre-war Britain.
Women Without Men (1956)
Hammer without Horror
The original British version is an unpretentious example of what might be called "Brit Noir". Elmo Williams who is best known for his Oscar winning editing role on "High Noon" had a varied career in movies which included another Oscar nomination for editing "20,000 leagues under the sea" makes a workmanlike Directorial debut with this film while Beverley Michaels stars in what was her last film. A Hammer production from before the studio became synonymous with horror films. Hammer co-produced many of their films like this one with American partners in an attempt to gain access to the US market. Hence the American star and director. Obviously this only half worked as the film was extensively reworked gaining several more US cast members and a different plot before its release as "Blonde Bait" in America.
In the British version the story opens with Angie, the Beverly Michaels character in jail explaining via narration and a flashback how she arrived there. She is serving seven months for an assault on her agent who tried to rape her. She has a date to meet her fiancé at a hotel on New Years Eve but will be in jail. Life in the prison and the various characters take up most of the show until Angie gets to put on a Xmas entertainment for the other inmates.She teams up with the ever reliable Thora Hird to break out. She gets to the rendezvous hotel and finds it out of business, but will the fiancé turn up? The usual business of WIP movies is handled in a polite British manner. The exterior shooting allows a nostalgic look at '50's Britain.So while not as salacious as the Women in Prison movies that were to follow in the '60's it's entertaining enough for anyone who enjoys the atmosphere of a gentler era.
Psychomontage (1963)
Interesting Failure
Despite having little and currently no distribution this film may still be on a few peoples radar. The two things which might bring this film to your attention are the facts that it was produced by Grove Press and has a credit to Antony Balch , information that is missing from this IMDb entry but which appears in the film credits. These two are linked via William Burroughs who's work was published by Grove Press and who was a friend of Balch. Burroughs also collaborated with Balch on a number of films and the pair at one time lived in the same building in London. Balch has a cult cinema rep both for his work with Burroughs and in his own right as the Director of two cult features "Secrets of Sex" aka "Bizarre" and "Horror Hospital". Grove Press has a 60 year history of publishing experimental literature and campaigning for free speech in artistic expression. Balch's contribution to "Psychomontage" is credited as additional photography along with one Harold Greene so its not clear what material he might have been involved in and what Mr Greenes input was. The film is constructed from stock elements, that is film materials originally made for other productions. The backbone of the piece is a film called "La Petite Morte" this provides the narrative elements of "Psychomontage". This shows a girl who is spied on as she walks her dog undresses bathes and so on. In it's original form it is a comment on voyeurism but this element doesn't entirely translate here. Into this other material which shows animals interacting, a building being demolished, lava flows, planes flying, sporting events and microscopic life amongst other things is inter cut in an" Eisensteinian" manner. The sound design is at times naturalistic seeming to belong to the images and at other times asynchronous and atmospheric. Apart from the obviously erotic nature of much of what we see and hear I wouldn't care to hazard a guess as to what it might be saying. It is suggested in the previous review that the piece was conceived by the Kronhausen's as a psychological test so presumably the meaning one perceives is intended to reveal something about the observer. 1963 is given as the year of production and the Grove/Burroughs/Balch connections place this in the beat experimental underground culture of the period so what may seem obscure or juvenile film making today was probably a genuine attempt to expand the use of cinema in it's time. The full title is "Psychomontage No1" so presumably a series was intended perhaps this was not successful enough to warrant further episodes. Though not for everybody those with an interest in art and avant garde cinema should be interested in this. As a little sidelight silent 8mm copies were sold via Grove Press' Evergreen Review magazine, an early attempt at expanded multi media publishing and marketing the underground.
The Roads to Freedom (1970)
Doesn't disappoint
In common with may other posters I remember this series during its original broadcast as being an example of the kind of TV that before home video and time shifting one would stay home to watch and look forward to. I was disappointed when it was over and there was no more. Even the theme tune haunted me and I have been looking for a copy for years. The excellent casting period atmosphere and tone are sustained throughout the series. Contrary to some posters memory this was produced in colour although that is difficult to tell from the opening credits over a shot of Rodin's "Thinker" which lacks colour. I am less pessimistic about the availability of source material for a DVD release than some others but suspect that the difficulty and expense of negotiating the many rights involved in a re-issue would prove prohibitive. Sadly it would be inconceivable for the BBC to produce something with the same scale and ambition today. Not just because of the costs but because it is a work that is a, Foreign and b, about ideas. We can only hope that the new markets for DVD Internet broadcast and niche channels will eventually make it worthwhile remastering this forgotten masterpiece. In the meanwhile and in the absence of the opportunity to see the series I have re-read the books several times over the years always imagining Michael Bryant as Mathieu.
The Voodoo Factor (1959)
Arachnophobia!!!
I remember seeing this as a child. It must have been the first fantasy show that I followed all the way through its run, definitely a must see. I remember that it was set on a ship which became a floating hospital as the infection or curse turned people into spiders, Just that idea scared me silly. I dare say that this would look as creaky and old as some of the other stuff from that era that I have managed to review if I could see it now but the image of a giant spider that was once a human lying on its back on a hospital bed has stayed with me since seeing it way back then. Couldn't say the same about anything I have watched on TV this year, and I have a good memory.So I rate it highly for that reason. There seemed to be a golden age of fantasy and science fiction on British TV through the fifties and sixties with many great series, mostly sadly lost now. Very few of the ones that do exist have made it to DVD.
Deep Inside (1968)
Not lost just unloved
Deep Inside-viewed at a private screening at BFI London. For those who may have difficulty viewing this film the plot is roughly as follows, A group of girlfriends arrive at Fire Island a New York resort for an annual reunion. Millicent played as a magnificent malcontent in the Iago mould by Peggy Steffans engineers discord amongst her venal coterie until they realise her schemes and turn away from her. Sarno's repertory company of the time give committed performances in material that would not have been out of place in Douglas Sirks canon. The result is superior entertainment in any genre overlooked or ignored because of its place in the Grindhouse circuit, the success of Sarno's output amongst the raincoat brigade suggests that they have qualities of discernment they are not generally granted with. The mystery is why Sarno's work went unsung during the cineaste 70's and is only now being discovered by a few aficionados. Seek it out where you can!