Kudos to Powerhouse Indicator for releasing this dramatic propaganda piece based on an actual German churchman imprisoned for refusing to kowtow to the Nazi authorities. It’s a primer on fascist power from early in the war, one of the first features by the Boulting Brothers. Pi’s extras package enlarges our interest ten-fold: the pastor’s objection to the Nazis was grossly misrepresented and the politics of his incarceration were very different. An added bonus are other wartime short subjects by Roy Boulting, from the Imperial War Museum.
Pastor Hall
Region Free Blu-ray
Powerhouse Indicator
1940 / B&w / 1:37 Academy / 95 min. / Street Date June 27, 2022 / Available from Powerhouse / £15.99
Starring: Wilfrid Lawson, Nova Pilbeam, Seymour Hicks, Marius Goring, Brian Worth, Percy Walsh, Lina Barrie, Eliot Makeham, Hay Petrie, Bernard Miles.
Cinematography: Mutz Greenbaum
Art Director: James Carter
Film Editor: Roy Boulting
Original Music: Charles Brill, Mac Adams
Screen Story and Screenplay by Leslie Arliss,...
Pastor Hall
Region Free Blu-ray
Powerhouse Indicator
1940 / B&w / 1:37 Academy / 95 min. / Street Date June 27, 2022 / Available from Powerhouse / £15.99
Starring: Wilfrid Lawson, Nova Pilbeam, Seymour Hicks, Marius Goring, Brian Worth, Percy Walsh, Lina Barrie, Eliot Makeham, Hay Petrie, Bernard Miles.
Cinematography: Mutz Greenbaum
Art Director: James Carter
Film Editor: Roy Boulting
Original Music: Charles Brill, Mac Adams
Screen Story and Screenplay by Leslie Arliss,...
- 6/18/2022
- by Glenn Erickson
- Trailers from Hell
Showbiz in Soho is artificial, gaudy and vulgar, but Laurence Harvey’s slick promoter-con man thinks he can cheat at the pop music game. Cliff Richard is his new discovery, a teen crooner who digs the bongo drums. Wolf Mankowitz’s portrait of talent, glitz, and double-dealing in music and TV showbiz also stars Sylvia Syms as a Soho stripper and Yolande Donlan as a singing star trying to make a comeback. The disc contains director Val Guest’s uncut original version.
Expresso Bongo
Blu-ray
Cohen / Kino Lorber
1959 / B&w / 2:35 widescreen / 111 106 min. / Street Date January 18, 2022 / Available from Kino Lorber / 29.95
Starring: Laurence Harvey, Sylvia Syms, Yolande Donlan, Cliff Richard, Meier Tzelniker, Ambrosine Phillpotts, Eric Pohlmann, Gilbert Harding, Hermione Baddeley, Reginald Beckwith, Avis Bunnage, Sally Geeson, Kenneth Griffith, Burt Kwouk, Wilfrid Lawson, Patricia Lewis, Barry Lowe, Martin Miller, Susan Hampshire, Peter Myers, Lisa Peake, The Shadows.
Cinematography: John Wilcox
Art Director:...
Expresso Bongo
Blu-ray
Cohen / Kino Lorber
1959 / B&w / 2:35 widescreen / 111 106 min. / Street Date January 18, 2022 / Available from Kino Lorber / 29.95
Starring: Laurence Harvey, Sylvia Syms, Yolande Donlan, Cliff Richard, Meier Tzelniker, Ambrosine Phillpotts, Eric Pohlmann, Gilbert Harding, Hermione Baddeley, Reginald Beckwith, Avis Bunnage, Sally Geeson, Kenneth Griffith, Burt Kwouk, Wilfrid Lawson, Patricia Lewis, Barry Lowe, Martin Miller, Susan Hampshire, Peter Myers, Lisa Peake, The Shadows.
Cinematography: John Wilcox
Art Director:...
- 3/5/2022
- by Glenn Erickson
- Trailers from Hell
One of the first ‘kitchen sink realist’ films of the British New Wave is also one of the best English films ever — believable, absorbing, and emotionally moving. The adaptation of John Braine’s novel launched Laurence Harvey as a major star, and English films were suddenly touted as being just as adult as their continental counterparts. It attracted a bushel of awards, especially for the luminous Simone Signoret. Unlike the average Angry Young Man, Joe Lampton’s struggle feels universal — bad things happen when ambition seeks a way through the class ceiling, ‘to get to the money,’ as says Donald Wolfit’s character.
Room at the Top
Blu-ray
Kl Studio Classics
1959 / B&W / 1:66 widescreen / 115 min. / Street Date January 14, 2020 / available through Kino Lorber / 29.95
Starring: Laurence Harvey, Simone Signoret, Heather Sears, Ambrosine Phillpotts, Donald Wolfit, Donald Houston, Hermione Baddeley, Allan Cuthbertson, Raymond Huntley, John Westbrook, Richard Pasco, Ian Hendry, April Olrich,...
Room at the Top
Blu-ray
Kl Studio Classics
1959 / B&W / 1:66 widescreen / 115 min. / Street Date January 14, 2020 / available through Kino Lorber / 29.95
Starring: Laurence Harvey, Simone Signoret, Heather Sears, Ambrosine Phillpotts, Donald Wolfit, Donald Houston, Hermione Baddeley, Allan Cuthbertson, Raymond Huntley, John Westbrook, Richard Pasco, Ian Hendry, April Olrich,...
- 1/28/2020
- by Glenn Erickson
- Trailers from Hell
Alec Guinness transfers an acting challenge from the stage to the screen, in this account of a Cardinal forced to knuckle under to a Communist regime — instead of extracting a confession with torture, Jack Hawkins’ Inquisitor uses psychology to find his prisoner’s weakness. The picture is uneven but its key performances are choice, with a special assist from Wilfrid Lawson as a jailer.
The Prisoner
Blu-ray
Arrow Academy
1955 / B&W / 1:85 widescreen / 95 min. / Street Date March 12, 2019 / 39.95
Starring: Alec Guinness, Jack Hawkins, Wilfrid Lawson, Kenneth Griffith, Jeanette Sterke, Ronald Lewis, Raymond Huntley, Percy Herbert.
Cinematography: Reginald Wyer
Film Editor: Frederick Wilson
Original Music: Benjamin Frankel
Written by Bridget Boland from her play
Produced by Vivian Cox
Directed by Peter Glenville
Is this an anti-Communist piece, or simply a story about human convictions and human weakness? Believe it or not, some interpreted it as anti-Catholic in 1955. European film festivals may have...
The Prisoner
Blu-ray
Arrow Academy
1955 / B&W / 1:85 widescreen / 95 min. / Street Date March 12, 2019 / 39.95
Starring: Alec Guinness, Jack Hawkins, Wilfrid Lawson, Kenneth Griffith, Jeanette Sterke, Ronald Lewis, Raymond Huntley, Percy Herbert.
Cinematography: Reginald Wyer
Film Editor: Frederick Wilson
Original Music: Benjamin Frankel
Written by Bridget Boland from her play
Produced by Vivian Cox
Directed by Peter Glenville
Is this an anti-Communist piece, or simply a story about human convictions and human weakness? Believe it or not, some interpreted it as anti-Catholic in 1955. European film festivals may have...
- 4/20/2019
- by Glenn Erickson
- Trailers from Hell
Director Bryan Forbes tries his hand at comedy. His nostalgic Victorian farce features an eclectic choice of Brit stars — established greats John Mills & Ralph Richardson, the freshly-minted Michael Caine, reigning jester Peter Sellers and even a debut for the collegiate pranksters Peter Cook & Dudley Moore. It’s a beaut of a production with a charming John Barry music score… but the result yields more indulgent smiles than out-and-out laughs.
The Wrong Box
Region A+B Blu-ray
Powerhouse Indicator
1966 / Color / 1:75 widescreen / 105 min. / Street Date November 23, 2018 / available from Amazon UK / £14.99
Starring: John Mills, Ralph Richardson, Michael Caine, Peter Cook, Dudley Moore, Nanette Newman, Tony Hancock, Peter Sellers, Wilfrid Lawson, Thorley Walters, Gerald Sim, Irene Handl, Norman Bird, John Le Mesurier, Norman Rossington, Diane Clare, Tutte Lemkow, Charles Bird, Vanda Godsell, Jeremy Lloyd, James Villiers, Graham Stark, Dick Gregory, Valentine Dyall, Leonard Rossiter, André Morell, Temperance Seven, Andrea Allan, Juliet Mills.
Cinematography:...
The Wrong Box
Region A+B Blu-ray
Powerhouse Indicator
1966 / Color / 1:75 widescreen / 105 min. / Street Date November 23, 2018 / available from Amazon UK / £14.99
Starring: John Mills, Ralph Richardson, Michael Caine, Peter Cook, Dudley Moore, Nanette Newman, Tony Hancock, Peter Sellers, Wilfrid Lawson, Thorley Walters, Gerald Sim, Irene Handl, Norman Bird, John Le Mesurier, Norman Rossington, Diane Clare, Tutte Lemkow, Charles Bird, Vanda Godsell, Jeremy Lloyd, James Villiers, Graham Stark, Dick Gregory, Valentine Dyall, Leonard Rossiter, André Morell, Temperance Seven, Andrea Allan, Juliet Mills.
Cinematography:...
- 2/16/2019
- by Glenn Erickson
- Trailers from Hell
Welsh character actor Bernard Fox died of heart failure at the Valley Presbyterian Hospital in Van Nuys, California, on Wednesday. He was 89. Fox was best known for playing Dr. Bombay on the cult 1960s comedy “Bewitched,” and as the naive, bumbling Colonel Crittendon on “Hogan’s Heroes” along side Bob Crane. He also appeared in the 1997 disaster epic “Titantic” as Col. Archibald Gracie, and as Captain Winston Havlock in “The Mummy.” Also Read: Leonardo DiCaprio Pays Tribute to 'Growing Pains' Co-Star Alan Thicke: 'I Miss Him Already' Born in Port Talbot, Glamorgan, Wales, to stage-actor parents, Fox was a fifth-generation performer.
- 12/15/2016
- by Debbie Emery
- The Wrap
Network Distributing is pleased to announce the next batch of titles within “The British Film” range which will be available in the UK later this year. Each feature once again benefits from a new transfer, an instant play facility and will be presented in special slim-line space-saving packaging. Some of the highlights from October are a documentary about the body narrated by Vanessa Redgrave with music from Roger Waters, more gems from the vaults from Ealing Studios, classic horror, British musicals and a courtroom drama starring Richard Attenborough.
7 October
The Body £9.99
Vanessa Redgrave and Frank Finlay narrate an intimate and innovative documentary from the seventies about the human body cut to music from Pink Floyd’s Roger Waters. Commentary by poet and playwright Adrian Mitchell.
The Final Programme £9.99
Cult director Robert Fuest’s dystopian sci-fi thriller. Robert Finch stars as Jerry Cornelius, a Nobel Prize winning physicist and playboy who...
7 October
The Body £9.99
Vanessa Redgrave and Frank Finlay narrate an intimate and innovative documentary from the seventies about the human body cut to music from Pink Floyd’s Roger Waters. Commentary by poet and playwright Adrian Mitchell.
The Final Programme £9.99
Cult director Robert Fuest’s dystopian sci-fi thriller. Robert Finch stars as Jerry Cornelius, a Nobel Prize winning physicist and playboy who...
- 10/28/2013
- by nospam@example.com (Cinema Retro)
- Cinemaretro.com
I feel like Sergeant Pepper slipped me some acid. Director Jonathan Miller found an underlying melancholy in the Alice stories by Lewis Carroll. He brought that into a haunting, surreal, dream-like, Victorian adaptation of the story for the BBC. Oh what a curiouser and curiouser trip it.s been. Alice (Anne-Marie Mallik) is spending the day with her sisters in the sunny fields. She appears to nap, but spies a Victorian gentleman White Rabbit (Wilfrid Brambell) and follows him into a tunnel. She finds herself in Wonderland, encountering the Duchess (Leo McKern), growing, shrinking, at a mad tea party with the Mad Hatter (Peter Cook), March Hare (Michael Gough) and Dormouse (Wilfred Lawson), poetry from the Caterpillar (Sir Michael...
- 3/3/2010
- by Jeff Swindoll
- Monsters and Critics
Unlike some directors who give up on a bad script or else send it up, one senses that you always try to play fair; but in some of those early British films, one also sense a kind of irony behind their worst excesses. Is this so?
"There was, but it was a desperate irony because I was so badly in need of work and under such extreme pressure. This can be dangerous, because Tennessee Williams, for instance, had been told by all sorts of people who are not qualified to comment—people with whom I've never worked and who therefore don't know how I work—that I'm death on writers, that I cut ruthlessly, that I have no respect for a script. This couldn't be more untrue. Of course if I get a script which is a piece of nonsense, I will say that I'll do it only if it...
"There was, but it was a desperate irony because I was so badly in need of work and under such extreme pressure. This can be dangerous, because Tennessee Williams, for instance, had been told by all sorts of people who are not qualified to comment—people with whom I've never worked and who therefore don't know how I work—that I'm death on writers, that I cut ruthlessly, that I have no respect for a script. This couldn't be more untrue. Of course if I get a script which is a piece of nonsense, I will say that I'll do it only if it...
- 1/5/2010
- MUBI
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