Monday, October 25, 2010

NEW FILM ONLINE: "The Entertainer"

Year: 1960

Stars: Laurence Olivier, Joan Plowright, Alan Bates, Albert Finney

Director: Tony Richardson

Locations: Morecambe, Heysham, Lancs

Plot: Archie Rice, a pathetic music hall comic, plagued by debts, manipulates those around him in a defiant and selfish attempt to survive against improbable odds. He drinks, makes crude philosophical jokes about sex and politics and humiliates his lamenting, gin-soaked wife.

Number of Stills: 20
Number of 'Now' Shots: 14

NEW FILM ONLINE: "No Highway"

Year: 1951

Stars: James Stewart, Marlene Dietrich, Jack Hawkins, Glynis Johns

Director: Henry Koster

Locations: Farnborough, Farnham, Gander

Plot: James Stewart is an absent minded American aeronautical engineer working on his theory that planes are susceptible to metal fatigue after a specific amount of time in the air. He boards a plane that is approaching that time and begins to enact incidences of sabotage to keep the planes on the ground, regardless of whether he is right or wrong. Eventually he is proved right.

Number of Stills: 11
Number of 'Now' Shots: 0

Wednesday, October 06, 2010

NEW FILM ONLINE: "Don Camillo"

Year: 1952 - 1983

Stars: Fernandel, Gino Cervi, Terence Hill

Director: Julien Duvivier, Mario Camerini, Terence Hill

Locations: Brescello, Boretto, Gualtieri, Pomponesco, Emilia-Romagna and Lombardia, the Vatican, Roma, Italy

Plot: An ongoing "war" between the Communist mayor and the Catholic priest, humour, pathos, and reality combine with human emotions to make the first five films world classics.

Number of Stills: 20
Number of 'Now' Shots: 12

NEW FILM ONLINE: "Personal Affair"

Year: 1953

Stars: Gene Tierney, Leo Genn, Glynis Johns, Pamela Brown

Director: Anthony Pelissier

Locations: Bedford, London

Plot: Teenage girl (Johns) becomes infatuated with teacher (Genn) in small English town. When girl disappears, teacher is suspect, and hunt begins for the girl. Despite lack of evidence, teacher is accused of many lurid crimes, and his marriage and career nearly ruined until girl returns three days later and clears him.

Number of Stills: 18
Number of 'Now' Shots: 0

Friday, October 01, 2010

I Know Where I'm Going

Boys' County School, Harrow, Middlesex

The subject of the film from which the 1960 shot was taken was Remembrance Day (in November) and the two frames show the Guard of Honour made up of boys in the Combined Cadet Force of the school, at the War Memorial during the laying of wreaths. The War Memorial is directly opposite the school which can be seen in the background.

The Boys' school (now known as Harrow High School) celebrates its Centenary next year. The film from which the frames were taken was one of eight films made during the 1960's of various school events, functions and activities. The films 'disappeared' when the master retired in 1975, but in 2006, a couple of years after he had died, they were handed over the archivist of the Old Boys Association.

In preparation for the Centenary the films have been transferred to a digital format and I worked on them to 'tidy' them up and improve the sound tracks. The films will be available to Old Boys next year on DVD.

More information on the school can be found at www.jeffreymaynard.com/Harrow_County/

Dave Buckley

Look Back in Anger

All the external shots around the Porters' flat were filmed in Harvist Road
in North London, the scenes where the children rush out of the school
immediately after Ma Tanner's death as the film company did not
have access to the disused school, they simply squashed the youngsters
against the closed gate and told them to run away, and then tracked them as
they ran down Harvist Road towards Hornsey Road. Also the scene where
Alison's father nearly ran down Jimmy in the road when collecting her.

Mike Griffin