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The Edgar Wallace Mystery Theatre (1959)
Classic films showing early 1960's Britain
The Edgar Wallace mysteries series of TV programs shot by Merton Park films was much in the vein of the classic 'B' movies of the time.
That said, they are first class productions with many new actors coming through into the big time that would go on to greater things in the cast.
Michael Caine, John Thaw and many others would start here and become well known later in the decade and beyond.
The films fit a lot in to the hour duration and they are well worth watching for all the background scenery too, giving us a view of the nation at the time, now long gone. The scripts are well written and thought out.
Watch the background scenes and interior shots of the buildings to see how much these have changed in the last 60 years!
At the time of filming, the death penalty was still in force and it is surprising that like in real life, did not seem the deterrent that it should have been - reflected in the high body count overall in these films overall!
The catchy theme tune 'Man of mystery by Michael Carr, recorded by the Shadows in 1960, is used as the theme music for the films, although not performed by the Shadows and there are about 4 different versions of the music, the 3 guitar based ones are more in the Shadows style than the first.
You'll notice once you've seen a few of the films a lot of the same cars appearing in later episodes!
The films convey a Britain in the first modern decade after WW2, that would go on to change British society perhaps more than any since.
A great bit of nostalgia and well worth watching.
Bergerac (1981)
Bergerac TV Series 1981
I enjoyed the Shoestring TV Series which was also written by Robert Banks Stewart also with a theme tune by George Fenton.
When Shoestring abruptly ceased, Bergerac came into being. The iconic Sweeney TV series on ITV had just need after 4 years and Bergerac was likely being brought to television to fill the BBC's slot with the recent demise of its own Z Cars Police drama series.
Bergerac was quite different, the scripts were tight and the drama was good. With great acting, scripts, cast and crew in a location unused in a long term Police drama, it became an instant hit.
The Z Cars series had been around since 1963 and Bergerac was a breath of fresh air. The series had future length Christmas special episodes in some series and these were really good.
Sometime there would be guest actors such as David Schofield who appeared as different characters in different episodes, Schofield in two episodes and played the criminal mastermind in Second time around, a Christmas Special where he had a larger role.
Watching any of the episodes across the collection, you'll fid some really top drawer household name actors as well as players who would find greater fame in years to come.
Like the Sweeney, Bergerac was around 45 minutes per episode and the story and drama was fast moving, tightly acted, well written and had a great variety of storylines.
Its no wonder that it is still something that I can go back to again and again to watch, like any classic and well made television.
Later episodes perhaps suffered towards the end of the run of programs, but it is likely after a decade that some of the players wanted to move on to other roles, as John Nettles did to Midsomer Murders, again he stayed in this series for some years.
Some of the film quality may look a bit grainy now, in the days of 4K HD filming, but the backdrops, locations and now old fashions and vehicles are interesting to look out for.
I don't think you would be disappointed in watching any of the episodes some 30+ years after the last was made.
Inspector Morse: The Secret of Bay 5B (1989)
Another great from writer Alma Cullen
The secret of Bay 5B is one of the Morse cannon you can watch time and again.
It is an intriguing story with many twists and turns and is a clever story by Alma Cullen, who also wrote another favourite the way through the woods.
The story contains the usual Morse rebuffs and love life disappointments but the story is more than just elements of the familiar and is a very good, involved tale.
Mel Martin as Rosemary Henderson gives a great performance, it might seem understated but she is the key to the whole structure. The apparent suicide of her husband George who has taken to the drink again, is a clever aspect that suggests more than what it really is. Rosemary Henderson does not feature in every scene but her presence is part of the production and influences what is done and how.
The fact is that the sub plots are what is really going on, the bent architect, the affairs, Gifford's control agenda - all these major ingredients sit bubbling away until Morse serves out the main course.
As is evidenced in the end scenes. This is quality television at its best which many of the modern Police and crime shows haven't got - which often are just going through the motions, never really having anything new to use as a unique proposition - we know how things work.
There are exceptions - life on Mars was very well written and acted for example, the Poirot and Miss Marple adaptions too, Foyle and Foyles War for example are unique and work even though they are of fairly modern creation, but based in the past.
I personally thought Line of Duty was a ridiculous premise - there cannot these days be that amount of corruption in an arena where people are naturally suspicious.
Most of the crime dramas now are just too formulaic and they just don't seem to have the lasting quality of Morse or Inspector Dalgleish for example.
The Morse team of actors and those behind the camera was top quality and this is ultimately reflected in the end result. Ted Childs from the Sweeney days continues to work to perfection Morse too.
It is always great to see the old world as it was pre-internet and this shows us how things were back then in the late 80's and early 90's.
The use of a raft of different writers on the original Morse films does give the films variety and although they stick to the familiar Morse traits, the screen play always delivers something good, quality and different because the writers bring new and different ideas, to fit inside the existing framework.
Although the Lewis series of programs was good, there was too much box ticking going on to my mind and it never managed to capture the same feeling as Morse, even though the Lewis episodes were well acted.
John Thaw was such a great actor, if you watch Regan, the pilot that was to become the Sweeney, you can then watch any Sweeney episode and see how little removed Thaw's Regan was versus the pilot. He just got it all right at the beginning and the same quality ensued throughout.
If you are looking to write a crime story, looking at Morse is all you need to see in terms of how to structure it and write a top screenplay.
The Traitors (1962)
The Traitors 1962
Although some may find the film slow to get going, this is often the way of real life counter intelligence work.
My copy was paired with the Wind of change film, I have watched Trtitors a few times and it is a pacey film, a few of the 'faces' from the 60's and 70's turn up, actors like Geoffrey Segal and Patrick Allen for example.
The black and white does give the air of 'old' film and does lend atmosphere to the mainly London locations. It is an intelligently scripted film, directed by Robert Tronson, later to direct Bergerac episodes for TV.
If you've not seen the Portland Spies film, then that is also another great film in the same type of interest, Portland being based on a true story.
All things considered, budget, script and behind the camera this is a good film.
UFO (1970)
UFO - out of this world for the era.
Following on from the successes of the Supermarionation series from Fireball XL5, Supercar, Stingray, Captain Scarlet and Thunderbirds, UFO was a departure into live human action sci-fi for Gerry Anderson.
The Gerry and (then wife) Syliva Anderson team certainly had a measure of success with their marionettes, I know one of the model makers who worked on the Thunderbirds models and the models in Scarlet and Thunderbirds are well done.
UFO broke the mould by becoming the Anderson's first foray into using purely human actors, later they would go on to Space 1999 another successful venture.
UFO featured Ed Bishop in the lead role, this was a smart move, allowing the series to be sold to America, a big potential market, although it would be likely judged against their own recent series such as Star Trek and The Invaders. It appears that UFO didn't do well in the US, perhaps due to poor distribution.
Although some of the sets look dated 50 years on, with tape reels (but hey, retro is back in vogue, vinyl is rising in popularity!) whizzing round, the program intro states '1980' a mere ten years from when it was filmed, (sadly we were still wearing the same gawky and dodgy fashions in 1980 (some were)) rather than Sylvia Anderson's slickly designed couture.
The premise is likely covered by other reviewers - but lets say that it is a classic 'aliens wanting to take over Earth scenario'. The sets are very good though, besides having to second-guess what 1980 would look like, Derek Meddings was still about from the Thunderbirds era and Barry Gray delivered another great theme tune.
The models though are really well made and used, they upped their game from the slightly 'Tonka toy' Thunderbirds era and likely usied early radio control on some of the models such as the SHADO mobiles, the models look convincing as they have managed to get the lighting more realistic rather than harsh, studio lights.
To the players, some well known actors of the time such as George Sewell (Sweeney, Special Branch etc), Patrick Mower (as before), Gabrielle Drake, Richard Vernon, Philip Latham, Philip Madoc (2 episodes in UFO), Susan Jameson, Stephanie Beacham, Peter Gordeno (met him!) appeared.
There was if compared to Star Trek, a multi racial crew, a new departure for the UK in many ways as it showed non-white actors in prominent roles, as it also did for women, with Moonbase run by women.
This was quite a new thing for women to not only to be seen to be operating state of the art technology, but as competently as men, in an era when women were more likely to be relegated to making the tea.
This was quite progressive for the times and society didn't catch up until the 1976 equal opportunities legislation, although this took some years for the results to really be seen, particularly in pay parity and job status.
As with the US series 'The Invaders', the 'alien' theme is established early on and continues through the whole canon. There are common themes in both series and you wonder where the inspiration came from, were storylines and technology seeded by military contacts to become commonplace or common knowledge?
As with Star Trek, many of the devices and technologies shown although just fictional props, have come to pass, the USB type data cards, etc.
UFO's models looked very good and in HD they almost hit the virtual reality level, if they had been able to have CGI then, it would have been the icing on the cake.
UFO was really a Thunderbirds for adults, but the younger people loved it too, likely having seen Thunderbirds. UFO came a few years too early for me to have seen it first time around as I was too young, but watching it now in retrospect as I did with The Invaders, I liked them. I saw a few episodes in the 90's on the BBC channels and even in pre-digital TV, it looked good.
So when I got a chance to get it in Blu-ray HD I had to!
Both series have great pace, Blakes 7, a later series by the BBC I found rather stilted and bogged down, in contrast to UFO, UFO showed a clear threat and danger which kept it pacy and although some of the scenes look a bit dragged out in retrospect, they do work in the round.
The writing was very good too, with a number of writers contributing screenplay. Judged on its own merits as a science fiction series from almost half a century ago based on what was then cutting edge space technology and a bit of guesswork, it seems to still hold up.
CGI has since come to the fore and modern technology now makes some of the technology in the series look dated, but overall, the series delivers a good viewing experience. Well worth a view.
Wild Geese II (1985)
Wild Geese 2
I have long been interested in the then divided Germany and particularly the ravaged Eastern sector of Berlin which retained to a degree damaged the last war.
Wild Geese 2 is a film that isn't that easy to find and unlike the original film hasn't been subject of a free giveaway DVD with Sunday newspapers.
This is a fair story, about the plan to abduct Rudolf Hess from Spandau prison in Berlin, where he was held as a prisoner after the Nuremburg trials in 1946. Its a good pot-boiler premise of a thriller and was set to star Sir Richard Burton, unfortunately he died before filming commenced.
Edward Fox stepped into the role Burton would have taken and he does a great job in that part.
The Hammer films actress Ingrid Pitt makes a brief appearance in the film - she escaped from the East Berlin sector by swimming the River Spree in 1962 after the wall had gone up and was picked up by a patrol of American soldiers.
Ingrid Pitt did a few film appearances in Berlin, a situation she wasn't easy with having had to escape from the city in 1962, her filming was done before the wall came down in 1989
It was a shame that Ingrid Pitt didn't feature more in the film, when you look at Who dares wins from the same year (1982), she put in a good performance as Helga, a big wheel in the People's Lobby movement in that film.
Had Ingrid Pitt's character been used to exert influence over Barbra Carrera's character for instance, it might have given the film a more dynamic effect and put Ingrid Pitt higher up the credits too, she was sadly underused in this film.
Wild Geese 2 is much like Where Eagles dare in a general sense, it is laced with danger and double cross throughout and up to the end there is no certainty that the mission objective will be successful.
A good film overall, but I think more could have been made of some of the character's performances, especially Laurence Olivier, he only appears mainly towards the end, they could have wrought more out of his back story in the script I think.
Perhaps the screenplay was cut short, for instance, how Scot Glenn's character manages to become equipped for the job, how Edward Fox's character does too, more detail in the film would have been worthwhile.
Overall a watchable film.
The Spy Who Came in from the Cold (1965)
A tour de force in monochrome
One of my girlfriends was from the Welsh Valleys and a fan of Richard Burton, she also served in the RAF in Germany in the cold war.
I have long had a fascination for the divided Germany and have friends from what was either side of the wall, hearing their stories of the divided era interests me. Particularly from the East, where the Germans there were controlled by the Soviet political machine.
So, when I saw the Spy who came in from the cold, I was drawn to see the great locations, as in Funeral in Berlin too. Richard Burton as Alec Leamas is understated but carries the whole film.
'Spy' for me shows Richard Burton in a magnificent performance, but you should also look at the people around him in the film and what they stood for, Ash played by Michael Horden who tries to recruit Leamas, a young Robert Hardy acts as the go-between with the Warsaw pact espionage network that Leamas has been fighting against before his enforced retirement from the secret service.
Claire Bloom plays the love interest and had played opposite to Burton a couple of times previously, it is interesting how Leamas turns on her and rails against all that she stands for, her attempts at justifying her left leanings enrages Leamas who knows what happens in the Soviet bloc in addition to the agents that had been betrayed and killed.
Although only a few years earlier than 'Funeral in Berlin' with Michael Caine, playing a polar opposite of Burton's Leamas, the monochrome of 'Spy' does give the film a lot of atmosphere.
Written by John Le Carre, the story for the film comes from someone with 'industry experience' and when you watch the film, watch it for the sub plots going on beneath, as Leamas is aware that ultimately there is little difference to which side you are on in this game.
In retrospect, the film is complete for what it does, but like Michael Caine's Harry Palmer, you can see that perhaps a couple of future outings could have been made. The reason is that Richard Burton commanded the film, he is like a good musician, what you don't play is just as important as what you do play, the same is on show here.
In the scenes in the corner shop, Leamas is playing as a man on the edge of survival, haunted, living on adrenaline and little money, when his credit is refused he gives a very Shakespearean oratory, short as it is. Quality acting.
The background and locations used in the film are worth looking at in their own right too.
Villain (1971)
Richard Burton and Michael Caine's parallel films - VIllain and Get Carter
Looking at the career of Burton and Caine, one sees certain parallel films they made around the same time, from the spy that came in from the cold v Funeral in Berlin, Villain v Get carter and Where Eagles Dare v The Eagle has landed.
Both actors came from impoverished backgrounds and changed their names prior to finding success.
Villain, although one of Burton's lesser films should not be entirely written off. Here, Richard Burton played against type, having to adopt a very different persona from his normal performance. Some might say it was a tour de force that has yet to be discovered for what it achieved.
Burton played very much against type here as a London crime lord and homosexual, violent and calculating. From my perspective, I can see him drawing on his experience, notably from Shakespearean roles and using this to create the persona of Vic Dakin, the role he played here.
In Get Carter, Michael Caine was very much in a fish out of water role, gone was the suave and cocky cockney and in place was a cold calculating avenger who did not have any qualms about dishing out violence.
Both Burton and Caine in their gangster roles are vicious psychopaths and egomaniacs - they do not care what happens or who gets hurt, as long as they get what they want.
Returning to Villain, Vic Dakin makes the classic mistake, of not sticking to what you know. He ventures out into branch of crime which is risky and the risk is amplified when he has to work with half of a local 'firm' on whose 'turf' (or should that be 'Manor'?), operates.
I won't spoil the outcome further, see the film and decide.
There's a great swathe of actors in this film, Edward Davenport, Colin Welland, Ian McShane, plus a number of 'faces' - the actors that pop up in films of the time you can often know but not readily put a name to.
This film is shot on a lovely 60's looking colour stock and the soft but vibrant colours lend a lot to the visual result. Many of the locations have now changed immeasurably, so watch the film once just to concentrate on the backdrops and not the main feature.
Whilst perhaps not Burton at his finest, we should not write this film off. It was such a different project from anything else he had done, that he has to be commended for the end product.
It is indeed exciting to watch, some scenes have been cut but overall it provides a good film.