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He’s mean, he’s nasty, he carries a razor and he’s dating your sister! Cosh Boy was front & center in 1953 debates about ‘what’s wrong with the British cinema.’ It holds up well, if not as PC social comment, then as solid exploitation fare, with our verminous hero putting the moves on tough-but-vulnerable local girl Joan Collins. The entire cast will want to stand in line to get revenge against Roy Walsh, the punk who steals from his own mum and lets his criminal gang do the dirty work. Take it from me, he’s a dirty rat.

The Slasher (Cosh Boy)

Blu-ray

Kl Studio Classics

1953 / B&w / 1:37 Academy / 75 min. / Street Date January 7, 2019 / available through Kino Lorber / 19.95

Starring: James Kenney, Joan Collins, Betty Ann Davies, Robert Ayres, Hermione Baddeley, Hermione Gingold, Nancy Roberts, Laurence Naismith, Ian Whittaker, Stanley Escane, Michael McKeag, Sean Lynch, Johnny Briggs, Nosher Powell.

Over the past seven years, Marvel fans have become accustomed to sticking around as the entire credit sequence rolls, for a sneak peek at either an upcoming Marvel Cinematic Universe project, or sometimes just a fun bonus scene. Many might not even know what shawarma is had it not been for the memorable end credits scene in 2012's Marvel's The Avengers, but sitting through the credits also gives one a sense of just how many people need to come together on movies of this sort of magnitude. Many of these men and women aren't household names like the actors who play Earth's Mightiest Heroes, but they are just as vital to the success of the film as the actors or writer-director Joss Whedon. Before Avengers: Age of Ultron debuts on Blu-ray 3D, Blu-ray and DVD, I recently had a chance to speak with one of these unsung crew members, stunt coordinator Greg Powell,...

The following is an expanded article Clothes on Film editor Chris Laverty wrote for men’s style resource Mr Porter analysing Michael Caine’s suits in The Italian Job. This post covers all the costumes he wore during the film.

If The Italian Job (1969) needs any introduction at all it might be possible you’ve been in a coma for the past 40 years. It’s so well known and so well loved that were it not for the fact that no-one has really delved into the sartorial details of Michael Caine’s suits there would be nothing left to talk about. As it happens we have spent time studying and researching The Italian Job for this very purpose; we even got in touch with Caine’s original tailor for the film, Douglas Hayward (now just ‘Hayward’ since he sadly died in 2008) to confirm the particulars on those scalpel sharp suits that still make us drool.

Heavyweight boxer, James Bond stuntman and bodyguard to Hollywood stars

The abiding memory that millions around the world will have of Nosher Powell, who has died aged 84, is of him fighting in vain to save his aeroplane after it had been attacked by a seagull in Those Magnificent Men in their Flying Machines (1965). Gert Fröbe may have been the German officer in charge of the plane but it was Powell who, as the stuntman and double, ended up in the water.

Powell's first appearance as a stuntman was in Laurence Olivier's Henry V (1944). He also had small roles in David Lean's Oliver Twist (1948) and Cosh Boy (1953), with Joan Collins. In 1952 he was a boxer in Emergency Call, in which he fought the former world champion Freddie Mills. Powell had a decent if not outstanding boxing career himself, reaching No 3 in the British heavyweight rankings.

George Frederick Bernard Powell was born in Camberwell,...

Heavyweight boxer, James Bond stuntman and bodyguard to Hollywood stars

The abiding memory that millions around the world will have of Nosher Powell, who has died aged 84, is of him fighting in vain to save his aeroplane after it had been attacked by a seagull in Those Magnificent Men in their Flying Machines (1965). Gert Fröbe may have been the German officer in charge of the plane but it was Powell who, as the stuntman and double, ended up in the water.

Powell's first appearance as a stuntman was in Laurence Olivier's Henry V (1944). He also had small roles in David Lean's Oliver Twist (1948) and Cosh Boy (1953), with Joan Collins. In 1952 he was a boxer in Emergency Call, in which he fought the former world champion Freddie Mills. Powell had a decent if not outstanding boxing career himself, reaching No 3 in the British heavyweight rankings.

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There's a pernicious misapprehension afoot that the Brits are the polite ones while Yanks are inclined to brusqueness or brashness, but a comparison of the varied reactions to the deaths of Ronald Reagan and Margaret Thatcher would seem to give the lie to this. While "The Great Communicator" was hailed for ending the Cold War (something surely Mr. Gorbachev deserves some credit for), with little mention of his disastrous economic policies and illegal covert wars, Thatcher has received her due as a "divisive" figure, even on the BBC. And, as I write this, there is a genuine chance that "Ding Dong, The Witch is Dead," will reach number one in the UK charts.

Nor were the British uniformly polite about her when she was alive. The Tories gave no encouragement to the art of cinema, or most of the other arts. Invited to talk about her favorite works of art on television,...