All those British crime films once deemed undesirable for the National Image are beginning to get the attention they deserve. This story of a single day in a working class section of London has plenty of criminal activity but blends it in with the everyday crimes of desperation and boredom. The Sandigate girls are flirting with trouble but Googie Withers’ Rose Sandigate has gone much further: she’s hiding an escaped fugitive who was once her lover in the vain hope of recapturing her lost youth. Director Robert Hamer examines a dozen distinctive characters on the edge of respectability, in one of the most original ‘Brit noirs’ we’ve seen to date.
It Always Rains on Sunday
Blu-ray
Kl Studio Classics
1947 / B&w / 1:37 Academy / 92 min. / Street Date November 5, 2019 / available through Kino Lorber / 24.95
Starring: Googie Withers, John McCallum, Jack Warner, Edward Chapman, Susan Shaw, Patricia Plunkett, Nigel Stock, David Lines, Sydney Tafler,...
It Always Rains on Sunday
Blu-ray
Kl Studio Classics
1947 / B&w / 1:37 Academy / 92 min. / Street Date November 5, 2019 / available through Kino Lorber / 24.95
Starring: Googie Withers, John McCallum, Jack Warner, Edward Chapman, Susan Shaw, Patricia Plunkett, Nigel Stock, David Lines, Sydney Tafler,...
- 12/10/2022
- by Glenn Erickson
- Trailers from Hell
No one goes to the circus anymore. Outdated, antiquated, and cruel, it houses and mistreats animals for our amusement; I’d sure like to see the people running it tortured instead of the animals. Speaking of which, Circus of Horrors (1960) does just that; the circus is an ideal setting for shadowed deaths and “unforeseen” accidents, and this film provides plenty while still retaining a solid focus on its characters.
Released by American International stateside in August, with a slight earlier date (late June) by Anglo-Amalgamated on its home turf of the UK, Circus of Horrors was well received by some critics, who praised its sturdy direction, potent atmosphere, and strong performances. Audiences dug it too, especially in the states, where it double billed with The Angry Red Planet and did quite well. Even if it hadn’t performed, it’s still a fast-paced thrill ride through the grimy and tattered tents of the big top.
Released by American International stateside in August, with a slight earlier date (late June) by Anglo-Amalgamated on its home turf of the UK, Circus of Horrors was well received by some critics, who praised its sturdy direction, potent atmosphere, and strong performances. Audiences dug it too, especially in the states, where it double billed with The Angry Red Planet and did quite well. Even if it hadn’t performed, it’s still a fast-paced thrill ride through the grimy and tattered tents of the big top.
- 10/3/2020
- by Scott Drebit
- DailyDead
Much of Ealing Studios’ core appeal begins right here, with T.E.B. Clarke’s astute look at the character of pragmatic, energetic Londoners, who in this fantasy face an outrageous situation with spirit, pluck, and a determination not to be cheated. What happens when a few square blocks of London discover that they’re no longer even part of the British Empire? A classic of wartime ‘adjustments,’ the ensemble comedy even begins with a Tex Avery- like ode to rationing.
Passport to Pimlico
Blu-ray
Film Movement Classics
1949 / B&w / 1:37 Academy / 84 min. / Street Date December 20, 2019 / 29.95
Starring: Stanley Holloway, Hermione Baddeley, Margaret Rutherford, Sydney Tafler, Betty Warren, Barbara Murray, Paul Dupuis, John Slater, Jane Hylton, Raymond Huntley, Philip Stainton, Roy Carr, Nancy Gabrielle, Malcolm Knight, Roy Gladdish, Frederick Piper, Charles Hawtrey, Stuart Lindsell, Naunton Wayne, Basil Radford, Gilbert Davis, Michael Hordern, Arthur Howard, Bill Shine, Harry Locke, Sam Kydd.
Cinematography: Lionel...
Passport to Pimlico
Blu-ray
Film Movement Classics
1949 / B&w / 1:37 Academy / 84 min. / Street Date December 20, 2019 / 29.95
Starring: Stanley Holloway, Hermione Baddeley, Margaret Rutherford, Sydney Tafler, Betty Warren, Barbara Murray, Paul Dupuis, John Slater, Jane Hylton, Raymond Huntley, Philip Stainton, Roy Carr, Nancy Gabrielle, Malcolm Knight, Roy Gladdish, Frederick Piper, Charles Hawtrey, Stuart Lindsell, Naunton Wayne, Basil Radford, Gilbert Davis, Michael Hordern, Arthur Howard, Bill Shine, Harry Locke, Sam Kydd.
Cinematography: Lionel...
- 12/31/2019
- by Glenn Erickson
- Trailers from Hell
Four out of five psychologists agree that something rotten is alive and well between the sawdust and the high wire in the delirious Circus of Horrors. Lame big-top horror pix are common enough, but this fiendishly entertaining delight would inspire the voyeur-sadist in MisterRogers. Anton Diffring is the steely-eyed medical maniac with a mission to populate an insane circus exclusively with cosmetically-enhanced prostitutes and criminals. And I won’t turn that into a White House joke.
Circus of Horrors
Blu-ray
Scream Factory
1960 / Color / 1:78 anamorphic 16:9 / 88/92m. / Phantom of the Circus / Street Date September 10, 2019 / 29.95
Starring: Anton Diffring, Jane Hylton, Kenneth Griffith, Erika Remberg, Conrad Phillips, Yvonne Monlaur, Donald Pleasence, Colette Wilde, Vanda Hudson, Yvonne Romain, John Merivale, Carla Challoner.
Cinematography: Douglas Slocombe
Film Editor: Reginald Mills
Makeup: Trevor Crole-Rees
Art Direction: Jack Shampan
Original Music: Muir Mathieson, Franz Reizenstein
Written by George Baxt
Produced by Leslie Parkyn, Julian Wintle
Directed...
Circus of Horrors
Blu-ray
Scream Factory
1960 / Color / 1:78 anamorphic 16:9 / 88/92m. / Phantom of the Circus / Street Date September 10, 2019 / 29.95
Starring: Anton Diffring, Jane Hylton, Kenneth Griffith, Erika Remberg, Conrad Phillips, Yvonne Monlaur, Donald Pleasence, Colette Wilde, Vanda Hudson, Yvonne Romain, John Merivale, Carla Challoner.
Cinematography: Douglas Slocombe
Film Editor: Reginald Mills
Makeup: Trevor Crole-Rees
Art Direction: Jack Shampan
Original Music: Muir Mathieson, Franz Reizenstein
Written by George Baxt
Produced by Leslie Parkyn, Julian Wintle
Directed...
- 9/14/2019
- by Glenn Erickson
- Trailers from Hell
I love wordplay, and portmanteaus are my favourite. Come on over and I’ll tell you about The Manster (1959), part man, part monster, all good B movie madness. Two-headed Americans abroad in Japan is a very specific sub-genre, and underappreciated at that.
Originally released in Japan in July but not released stateside until March of ’62, United Artist Japan’s production was filmed there, and they spared every expense by using the same cardboard sets, flimsy, sparse labs and restaged hotel rooms as their American counterparts. (Papier mache volcano included.) But the mix of Japanese, British, and American actors gives The Manster (Aka The Split) a distinct flavor beyond the two pronged noggin. Oh, and the eyeball in the shoulder. Have I mentioned the caged sister with the melting face?
Our film opens on that mountainside by that gurgling volcano at the secret lab of Dr. Robert Suzuki (Tetsu Nakamura – The Last Dinosaur...
Originally released in Japan in July but not released stateside until March of ’62, United Artist Japan’s production was filmed there, and they spared every expense by using the same cardboard sets, flimsy, sparse labs and restaged hotel rooms as their American counterparts. (Papier mache volcano included.) But the mix of Japanese, British, and American actors gives The Manster (Aka The Split) a distinct flavor beyond the two pronged noggin. Oh, and the eyeball in the shoulder. Have I mentioned the caged sister with the melting face?
Our film opens on that mountainside by that gurgling volcano at the secret lab of Dr. Robert Suzuki (Tetsu Nakamura – The Last Dinosaur...
- 11/11/2017
- by Scott Drebit
- DailyDead
(Charles Crichton, 1950; StudioCanal, PG)
Made during Ealing Studios's peak period from the early 40s to the mid-1950s, Dance Hall is virtually the only movie produced by that male-dominated studio that might be considered a feminist work. Co-scripted by Diana Morgan, the sole woman admitted by Ealing boss Michael Balcon to his elite creative team, it looks at the world from the point of view of four young working-class women (Natasha Parry, Petula Clark, Jane Hylton and Diana Dors). They live in council flats, work in the same west London factory, and find romance and an escape from their drab lives at the local dance hall. Except for the middle-class accents, the film presents an honest, down-to-earth portrait of Britain in the postwar age of austerity. Typically for its time, Parry (future wife of the director Peter Brook) is torn between glamorous sports car-driving spiv Bonar Colleano and dull,...
Made during Ealing Studios's peak period from the early 40s to the mid-1950s, Dance Hall is virtually the only movie produced by that male-dominated studio that might be considered a feminist work. Co-scripted by Diana Morgan, the sole woman admitted by Ealing boss Michael Balcon to his elite creative team, it looks at the world from the point of view of four young working-class women (Natasha Parry, Petula Clark, Jane Hylton and Diana Dors). They live in council flats, work in the same west London factory, and find romance and an escape from their drab lives at the local dance hall. Except for the middle-class accents, the film presents an honest, down-to-earth portrait of Britain in the postwar age of austerity. Typically for its time, Parry (future wife of the director Peter Brook) is torn between glamorous sports car-driving spiv Bonar Colleano and dull,...
- 4/22/2013
- by Philip French
- The Guardian - Film News
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