vogun-17563

I thoroughly enjoyed this movie. No plot breakdown here (see elsewhere), but if you like 1960's hokum, then, this is for you. It looks like this is not so much a "B" movie, more of a "double bill" film, as it is of good quality, including (some) actors, the location set, sound track, film print and even the camera work is decent.

It reminds me of the Giallo films of Italy, or are the Italians copying these type of films? Sure it is cheap, exploitative, too much colour at times perhaps, with even with the obligatory wild 60's party and a couple of trippy scenes in as well (it was the psychedelic period, after all) and is decorated with sexy women often scantily clothed, all on a tight budget and moves along at a decent pace. What's not to like? Very much of the time and I loved it.

After being told it's so good, I watched too many episodes and I just can't see the enjoyment here. It's the same gags every week and they were not funny in the first place (squirrel, salt etc).

The only kernel of hope is Mark Heap's brief appearance each week and that is the only good thing I can say about the show.

I'm bewildered as to why it is so popular with so many. The cast have all been in better shows, so why does this fail for me?

I can only put it down to it being too constricted within the boundaries of one house and almost one room. It must be hard to come up with something you haven't said or done before, so they didn't bother.

It is certainly not The Young Ones or Absolutely Fabulous, who did manage it with good scripts. Sadly, they never received the invites for dinner here.

If repetition is your thing, then you'll love it, if not give it a wide berth.

This is one excellent film and not to be missed.

What makes the film is the director, as it is a dazzling display of cinematography, pulling out numerous tricks, and to me, it's comparable with Citizen Kane in what Ewald André Dupont achieves.

It shows London as it's last roar of the 1920's with the nightlife high life and low life. Whether it is in a posh club (The Piccadilly) or a seedy East End pub in Limehouse and must admit I thoroughly enjoyed the pub scene. The film also shows the difference between the have and have nots including ethnic people (in the East End). It even touches upon the race situation at the time, with Chinese in Limehouse and in a pub, where a happy black man enjoying himself is thrown out for dancing with a white woman and the woman is castigated.

This is not one of those clunky silent films, and although the plot is now a familiar one, but don't let that put anyone off, as it is shown with such style that it rolls along very nicely. There are even humorous moments as well.

The director lingers on faces and the actors are very comfortable with this and there are not the "silent film eye rolls", but plenty of subtle expression provided by the very competent actors.

Obviously Anna May Wong is the story, and she also gives a terrific performance which is very steamy at times. I thought Gilda Gray was also very good (one scene could have been cut or shorter, but that's splitting hairs). Jameson Thomas played the slightly sleazy owner of the Piccadilly with aplomb.

The copy I saw was a tinted version, which did not detract and maybe have added something. I still would have liked to have seen a black & white version though.

Finally, there was a soundtrack to the version I saw, and it was jazz, and not that old, but sympathetic to the jazz age setting (thankfully not trad jazz), which must have been written specifically, as I spotted top UK session player Henry Lowther on Trumpet.

I thoroughly enjoyed this film and f you like Silent Films this is a must see.