I have recently been asked about a British TV Series which was, it seems, also shown in the USA.

Peter asks and describes the opening sequence and I think this could be the series ‘ Fabian of Scotland Yard’

So here we go again

Who could forget this excellent BBC Television series in the mid 1950s – Bruce Seton was Fabian  in our eyes – such was the impact of the show.

I must admit I loved this series – particularly the Opening Sequence – when Bruce Seton as Fabian, sitting in the back seat of a speeding Humber Hawk said in a terse voice ‘This is Fabian – Of Scotland Yard’

Great stuff !!

ABOVE – Bruce Seton as Fabian of Scotland Yard

ABOVE – Bruce Seton in Scenes from an episode of  Fabian of Scotland Yard

Beautiful RUTH ROMAN  was a versatile actress

In two of her most famous films: The Window (1949), she plays a murderer and in  Strangers On A Train (1951), as FARLEY GRANGER’s fiancée, she is high-class and elegant.  

I remember her in ‘Lightning Strikes Twice’ with Richard Todd – not a particularly good film and maybe not the best of parts for Ruth

RUTH ROMAN was born Norma Roman on December 22, 1922, in Lynn, Massachusetts, Nr Boston. Ruth’s father died when she was eight, and her mother was forced to move her and her two sisters, Ann and Eve, to Boston’s West End tenement district. Mrs. Roman took on menial jobs to keep the family afloat. They moved often because they couldn’t afford the rent.

Mrs. Roman created a loving home for her girls, and as Ruth would later say, “It wasn’t dreary at all. When you start out poor, you don’t know what you’re missing. I’ve never met a family, rich or poor, who had a happier life than we did together.”

Ruth started acting at school. She knew this was her destiny. After two years of high school, she dropped out to pursue her career full-time.

She worked as a Cinema usherette during the day while working at the New England Repertory Company at night. For three years, she appeared in small roles and worked as a stagehand.

Ruth was determined to learn  

Ruth then set out to try her luck on Broadway but she struggled there for three years with no luck.

In the meantime, she paid the rent by working as a waitress, babysitter, salesgirl, and other odd jobs. She then got a break in 1942 when she won a small role in the musical film Stage Door Canteen (1943), which was filmed in New York.

Everyone of note seemed to be in this film. With the money she made for her four days of filming, Ruth bought herself a one-way ticket to Hollywood, where her luck would change. 

ABOVE – One of her first breaks – this time in a Serial with her in the title role – ‘Jungle Queen’

Some time later Ruth got a good part – the title role in the lively western Belle Starr’s Daughter (1948), in which she arrives in a rough town to avenge her mother’s murder.

However, her real breakthrough came when producer Stanley Kramer cast her as Kirk Douglas’s wife in Mark Robson’s Champion (1949).

A Warner Bros contract followed, and the Studio immediately cast her in three 1950 Westerns, opposite Randolph Scott (Colt ’45), Gary Cooper (Dallas) and Dane Clark (Barricade).

Ruth was also in a favourite of mine ‘ Tanganyika’ – a film that doesn’t often see the light of day unfortunately but it is a good action packed adventure

Van Heflin and Ruth Roman star. Ruth Roman looks very beautiful in those African locations – in fact the locations were Studio Sets on the backlot of Universal in Hollywood with some location work in the US plus stock footage – but to me, it all works pretty well.

In 1956 Roman had the most exciting role of her life; she and her three year old son were returning from Italy aboard the luxury liner Andrea Doria when it was struck by another ship and sunk.

She became separated from her son =- they ended up in different lifeboats, and she and her child were finally among the 760 survivors of the disaster in which 50 people drowned.

In the late 1950s, Ruth Roman gradually scaled down her work. After appearing with Curt Jurgens and Richard Burton in Bitter Victory (1958), she started to appear more often in television shows such as Naked City, Route 66, The Defenders and Dr Kildare, and later in the 1975 mini-series The Long Hot Summer.

Ruth Roman, disliked the trappings of stardom – she claimed that her only extravagance was a collection of 35 pairs of Indian moccasins.

TANGANYIKA 1954

Van Heflin and Ruth Roman star but there seems little chemistry between them although Ruth Roman looks very beautiful in those African locations – in fact the locations were Studio Sets on the backlot of Universal in Hollywood with some location work in the US plus stock footage – but to me, it all works pretty well.

I must have said this before, but again this is a film I saw many years ago in St. Albans where we always holidayed and stayed with my Mother’s family. So it would be shown at either The Odeon on London Road, The Gaumont or The Chequers – the Odeon is now the wonderful Odyssey Cinema after being saved from extinction by the local hard working community

The film made in Hollywood by Universal Pictures, TANGANYIKA (1954) takes place in 1903 in the territory of East Africa

The story is of a hunt for a fugitive white man who’s stirred up the a tribe of natives into making raids on white settlements. Directing the hunt is John Gale (Van Heflin) who leads a group of native porters from East Africa into Tanganyika.

On the way he picks up Peggy Marion (Ruth Roman), a schoolteacher from Canada, and her young niece and nephew (Noreen Corcoran, Gregory Marshall), after rescuing them from a native attack that killed Peggy’s brother. He also picks up a wounded white man, Dan Harder (Howard Duff) who, we learn early on, is the brother of the renegade white man, although he keeps that little fact a secret.

This film I remember well although I always thought that it was in Colour which it isn’t.

Directed by Anthony Mann

Cast: James Stewart (Lin McAdam), Shelley Winters (Lola Manners), Dan Duryea (Waco Johnny Dean), Stephen McNally (Dutch Henry Brown), Millard Mitchell (High-Spade Frankie Wilson), Charles Drake (Steve Miller), John McIntire (Joe Lamont), Will Geer (Wyatt Earp), Jay C. Flippen (Sergeant Wilkes), Rock Hudson (Young Bull)

Winchester ’73 is the first of Anothony Mann’s pictures with James Stewart, The film was a big hit, and James Stewart’s deal was very good for him financially. After this others followed suit, which ultimately helped bring to an end the Studio system.

Anthony Mann and James Stewart would make four more Westerns together in one of Hollywood’s most significant director-star collaborations.

The prize rifle of (James Stewart) is stolen by (Stephen McNally), apprehended by a gun-trader (John McIntire), involved in a cavalry vs. Indian clash, and ends up in the hands of a man who struggles with cowardice (Charles Drake) before being taken by outlaw (Dan Duryea). Meanwhile Lin McAdam ( James Stewart) searches and chases to get the rifle back

Although “Winchester ’73” (1950) was shot Black and White, it’s an action-packed Western with a strong cast, which also includes Will Geer and Shelley Winters. Look out for Rock Hudson as the brave Young Bull and Tony Curtis as a cavalry trooper.

.

Anthony Mann keeps us on edge throughout Winchester ’73.. 

For some reason I always thought that this film was in Technicolor but it was not. The later ones like ‘Where the River Bends’ certainly is I am happy to say

Where the River Bends 1952

Where the River Bends 1952

Julie Adams – then Julia Adams  – starred alongside   James Stewart in  Where The River Bends (1952), William Powell in The Treasure of Lost Canyon (1952), Rock Hudson in The Lawless Breed (1953) and Van Heflin in Wings of the Hawk (1953).

As a publicity stunt, Universal Studios once declared her legs “the most perfectly symmetrical in the world” and insured them for $125,000. And in “The Case of the Deadly Verdict,” a 1963 episode of Perry Mason, Adams’ character had the notable distinction of being one of the lawyer’s few clients to be found guilty.

Then the actress was offered the role that assured her a place in monster-movie history.

Featured in yesterday’s article, we now have more scenes from the film

The Creeping Flesh is a Tigon picture with Peter Cushing and Christopher Lee, directed by Freddie Francis.

It has been released on DVD some time ago in a Tr[ple Bill – However ‘The Creeping Flesh’ is the best one.

A scientist comes back from Papua New Guinea with some bones. They get wet and flesh forms around them again — with slimy, murderous result

The Creeping Flesh

The Creeping Flesh

The Creeping Flesh

The Creeping Flesh

This film was produced by a small company (World Film Services, started by John Heyman), but had major stars with Peter Cushing and Christopher Lee. This one isn’t as well-known as most

A knock at the door startles the elderly gentleman that is painting, and a young man walks in, and the old man tells him that he needs him to listen to what he has to say, because no one else will. Professor Emmanuel Hildern (Peter Cushing) begins to tell the young doctor a story about a time, three years ago, when he had just returned from New Guinea (flashback to three years earlier)…

At a sprawling estate, Professor Hildern returns to his home, and with the skeleton of a Neanderthal-type man. He’s greeted at the front door by his daughter, Penelope (Lorna Heilbron), and a colleague, Professor Waterlow (George Benson). Two men, one of them named Carter (Michael Ripper), then bring in a large box, and in it, is the skeleton. The two men pry it open, and Waterlow is stunned by the behemoth. Penelope was hoping to have breakfast with her father, but the excitement of the skeleton has him only thinking of its possibilities. She’s quite disappointed by this development. He eventually relents from his work, and joins her. She tells her father that she had to dismiss the help because they can’t afford them anymore. He assures her that things are going to change very soon because of this new discovery.

Penelope believes that her mother died a few years ago, but in reality, she was committed to an insane asylum, run by her uncle, and Professor Hildern’s brother, Dr. James Hildern (Christopher Lee). Professor Hildern receives a letter that his wife died in the asylum, so he departs to see what happened. James tells his brother that she died while he was away, and that he’ll apparently be stopping the financial help he was giving him to help his research. It’s quite an awkward moment, and Emmanuel leaves feeling unsettled, and almost betrayed.

Back at the house, Emmanuel reprimands Penelope for going into her mother’s room. He has forbidden her from even mentioning her name. He then retreats to his laboratory, and inspects the skeleton further.

He gets some water and begins to clean the skeleton, but within seconds finds out that the skeleton reacts to water in such a way that’s astounding. Wherever water touches the skeleton, flesh begins to appear. One finger completely regenerates, and Professor Hildern quickly cuts it off. Over at the asylum, Dr. Hildern and his associates are conducting Frankenstein-like experiments on the patients, and we see what true horror is.

One of the patients attacks him, and grabs the keys, but the doctor pulls out a pistol and shoots him dead. One of the patients actually manages to escape, and now the police are helping with the search.

Professor Hildern begins to read up on the folklore of the native people of New Guinea, and then understands that this skeleton is the personification of evil, and the water will restore it to life. Waterlow is befuddled by all of this, and Hildern begins to talk of playing God, and wiping evil off the face of the Earth. He then looks at the blood from the finger he cut off of the skeleton under a microscope, and then compares it to his own. Next, he mixes the two together and discovers that he could stop “evil” from spreading by an inoculation.

Meanwhile, Penelope has stolen her fathers keys, and heads into her mother’s bedroom (a place she’s been strictly forbidden to enter). She rummages through her mother’s things for a while, but then discovers a newspaper article that tells of her mother’s mental illness.

Back in the lab, the two doctors are experimenting on monkey with the blood of the skeleton. It’s getting late, so the two men pack it in for the night. The blood under the microscope however is yielding results contradictory to what Professor Hildern originally saw when he tested it. He then heads upstairs and sees that someone is in his wife’s room. He freaks out about it, and then he and Penelope get into an argument. He begins to have a flashback of when his wife was still alive and was a “dancer” who went insane

The next morning, Professor Hildern decides to use his new serum on his daughter, suspecting that her mother’s mental disorder may be hereditary. We then check in on the escaped patient from the insane asylum, as he’s wandered into a local pub. He thrashes most of the male customers, and then makes his way out.

The next day, Waterlow calls to Hildern and both men see that the serum has driven the monkey mad. Hildern runs upstairs to see Penelope, but she’s already gone. We see her, as she travels through the seedy parts of London, but so is the escaped patient.

Hildern is making his way there as well, but it’s like trying to find a needle in a haystack. A young man sees Penelope at the bar and starts buying her drinks. Eventually, they go upstairs, – the man tries to force himself on her, but finds out how sharp her nails are after she rips part of his face off!

She then heads downstairs, and begins to dance around for the crowd. One sailor gets so aroused that he grabs her. She grabs a bottle, breaks off the top, and slashes the guy’s throat!  They chase her out of the pub, and through the streets. She goes into a warehouse and bars the door.

As the police and crowd are trying to break the door down, Penelope runs into the escaped patient, Lenny. As the police search the place, Lenny tries to help her escape. They go to the top of the building, but there’s no escape. Lenny looks over the edge and the people below see him. Penelope goes completely off her rocker, and grabs a plank of wood, and cracks Lenny over the head, and it sends him plummeting to the ground to his death. A few seconds later, the police surround and capture Penelope.

Of course, she’s labelled insane, and taken to her uncle’s asylum. He sees a sample of her blood, and sees the foreign agent that was introduced by her father.

Uncle James realises he has his brother cornered, and once he sees the skeleton, he forces his brother into an alliance. Emmanuel doesn’t want to do it, but he has no choice.

For a horror film, this one is more suspense than anything until the end.

Peter Cushing and Christoher Lee are their normal selves.

Peter Cushing is torn between morality and his love of science.

Christopher Lee is a villain in this one.

Lovely actress Lorna Heilbron did give some good moments before and after her insanity took hold.

Also in the cast are Hammer stalwarts, Michael Ripper and Duncan Lamont (Evil of Frankenstein- 1964 and Frankenstein Created Woman– 1967).

This film is well worth viewing, if for no other reason than it was one of the last films that Peter Cushing and Christopher Lee did together, and it holds up very well indeed

This film comes a little after the Fifties but it does seem to be in the Hammer style of that era.

The film satrs Peter Cushing and Christopher Lee and the very lovely Lorne Heilbron.

The story goes – In the late 19th century, scientist Emmanuel Hildern (Peter Cushing) returns home to London with a prehistoric skeleton that he acquired in Papua New Guinea. While cleaning the skeleton, he learns that water triggers a horrific reaction – reanimation. He slices off the finger, now covered in flesh, and preserves it for later experiments.

While having breakfast with his daughter, Penelope (the lovely Lorna Heilbron), Emmanuel reads a letter informing him of his wife’s death.

Penelope has no idea that her mother has been in an insane asylum since she was a little girl. Fearful that his wife’s mental illness may be hereditary, Emmanuel has sheltered his daughter at their estate with only the servants to keep her company. She’s not allowed outside, except for short walks within the gated premises.

Emmanuel travels to the institution where his wife died. He meets up with his half-brother, James (Christopher Lee), who happens to be the insane asylum’s director and a competing scientist. Emmanuel was always the favorite of the two siblings, the one destined to achieve greatness, so it’s with great pleasure that James tells him that he is in the running for the prestigious Richter Award. In addition, he will no longer fund Emmanuel’s transcontinental trips.

The climax is truly a frightening one full of suspense. Christopher Lee and Peter Cushing are great but it’s the beautiful Heilbron who steals the show. I want to watch more films she stars in.

We seem to be on a run of mysterious strangers – here is another one. The mysterious stranger this time is Conrad Veidt who takes up residence in a non too pleasant area of London in a boarding house whose residents are a mixture of sad, lonely and poor people.

Terrorised by an evil landlord, the inhabitants of a shabby London boarding house exist precariously on the edge of disaster and despair. But when a new, rather strange lodger (Conrad Veidt) arrives, things seem to mysteriously take a turn for the better.

Rene Ray plays one such resident and she really takes to the stranger whose quiet dignity and strength inspires her to survive in those tough times with his spiritual air

Conrad Veidt is impressive in this role.

This is a really interesting film, based on a Victorian play by Jerome K. Jerome.

Its director, Viertel, had left Germany for England, where he made several films. The Stranger is played by Conrad Veidt, famous for his roles in Dr. Caligari, and Casablanca.

It is an allegory of the struggle between good and evil. I especially enjoyed the performances of Conrad Veidt and Mary Clare, and Rene Ray 

This one of Conrad Veidt’s best portrayals, which says a lot, especially if you consider the parts he played particularly in The Thief of Bagdad, The Spy in Black and Casablanca.

This was a favourite film of my Dad’s – and it is certainly one of mine

Conrad Veidt gives a superlative performance as the Stranger who works to redeem the varied collection of inhabitants of the run-down boarding house 

The cast is all good – Sara Allgood as Mrs de Hooley. Rene Ray is appealing as the maid ‘Stasia, a rehabilitated juvenile delinquent, who is mistreated by Mrs Sharpe (Mary Clare), the owner of the house.

Shooting was planned for six weeks at Gainsborough Studios, Shepherd’s Bush, London, using a limited number of sets, and with just the single scene of the seaside visit to Margate shot outside the studio.

The film was released on 15 December 1935.

This is Director Viertel’s second British film after Little Friend (1934). He made just one more film, Rhodes of Africa (1936 )

The Passing of the Third Floor Back is directed by Berthold Viertel, runs 90 minutes, is made by Gaumont British Picture Corporation, is released by Gaumont British Distributors (UK) and Gaumont British Picture Corporation of America (US), is written by Michael Hogan and Alma Reville, based on a play and short story by Jerome K Jerome, is shot in black and white by Curt Courant, is produced by Ivor Montagu, and is scored by Hubert Bath and Louis Levy.

Rene Ray starred in the London stage production, playing the central role nearly 450 times In 1951–52 before reprising her performance in the film version. Born Irene Lilian Creese, and becoming by marriage Irene Lilian Brodrick, Countess of Midleton, she signed her name Rène not René.

I have heard this one as a Radio play which is available and seena Television version from 1982. It is a play I like.

This J B Priestley play is, in a way, not unlike ‘An Inspector Calls’ where a mysterious stranger comes into the lives of people staying at a small holiday cottage in Yorkshire.

Herbert Lom plays the stranger Dr Gortler who it seems has been sent on a mission to meet these people and influence the rest of their lives in a very dramatic way. There is a man, Walter Ormund and his wife Janet, who are unhappy in their lives , and another single man, Oliver Farrant, a teacher, who is travelling alone and it seems. pretty much alone in life.

ABOVE – Herbert Lom excellent as Dr Gortler

Dr Gortler has been sent to this cottage knowing that he will meet the three and also knowing the scenario – an unhappy marriage of two very decent people and a young man who is on his own.

The young man and Janet Ormund seem not to like one another and in fact do their very best to avoid meeting or being in the same room. This scene below is when Janet asks the teacher why he does not like her as he moves to leave the room. Gradually he opens up and says that, far from not liking her, he is actually drawn to her very forcefully and has been from the first time they met.

She admits that she feels – and has felt – the same and they rush to embrace.

They know that they must be together.

However they are worried about Walter and what he might do

Dr Gortler knows that in the scenario he has Walter would kill himself and leave the two lovers torn by guilt and struggling but he also is sure that he can change this.

ABOVE – Sam Shipley’s daughter Sally Pratt – who seeing what is happening is very concerned for her son who attends Walter Ormund’s school and she fears what would happen if the school closed due to this

ABOVE – Sam Shipley played by Leslie Sands

ABOVE Dr Gortler talks with Walter Ormund for some time and Walter decides not to stand in the way of the two lovers saying that his wife deserves the happiness he always wanted for her – and that there will be no scandal

Walter chats to the owner of the cottage and realises just how content he is. Played of course by Leslie Sands who we all well remember as ‘Cluff’ in the TV series.

Anthony Valentine is excellent as Walter Ormund. We probably remember him best for ‘Colditz’ but he was in so many productions in film and mainly Television.

Looking him up I see that he actually married in 1982 the year that he payed in this drama

In the last two weeks, I have watch the 2015 version of An Inspector Calls and this one had David Thewliss as the Inspector – and then yesterday my wife and I settled down to the 1954 version with Alistair Sim in the role.

The 2015 BBC production was very good as was the casting but I did think that David Thewliss’ acting was just a bit on the wooden side and this was a key role. The rest of the cast though we’re very good indeed.

On the other hand, Alistair Sim was wonderful in the earlier version

RE Guy Hamilton’s film version of J. B. Priestley’s An Inspector Calls 1954 film is based on the 1945 stage play and is a mostly faithful adaptation. Gut Hamilton did a splendid job focusing on the family drama as it unfolds, although we, the audience – and the Birling family – don’t initially have any idea what is coming. It is 1912 and the wealthy and upper class Birling family are having a family celebration when the mysterious Inspector Poole arrives out of the blue to tell them the news of a young woman named Eva Smith (played by the lovely Jane Wenham) who has apparently died from poison that day in the infirmary. Alastair Sim, known mostly for comic roles and for his definitive Scrooge, plays Inspector Poole who, like someone peeling a banana, each time he carefully questions a member of the family, takes off a layer and draws them individually into revealing their involvement with the dead girl. As is soon revealed, the patriarch and matriarch of the Birlings (played by Arthur Young and Olga Lindo), their daughter Sheila (Eileen Moore), their alcoholic and rebellious son Bryan Forbes, qnd Sheila’s fiance played by Gerald Croft (Brian Worth), all had dealings with the young woman prior to her death. As the film goes on, Inspector Poole carefully and deliberately persuades each participant to tell his or her story about Eva. Eva has in her life been forced to use different names, so some of the family don’t at first respond to the name Eva Smith, but when another name is given – Daisy Renton, by the Inspector, there is a visible jolt for Gerald Croft – who instantly realises that he has been involved with her. What a story this is – first rate There is, on tour in the UK at the moment, a theatrical version which we had planned to see but events took over and we failed to make it

Well, I was brought up watching those sprawling Biblical Epics of the eerly to mid fifties – from ‘Samson and Delilah’ to ‘Ben Hur’ and later ‘Barabbas’ so going to see Gladiator 2 at the Lobethal Cinema in South Australia in January, I was pretty well prepared – but was this to be something New – maybe a New angle.

The way CHI is used these days – maybe over-used – we are certainly able to see things on a mega scale with fearsome animals fighting people in the arena and spectacular sea battles and invasions

However in terms of storyline and plot Gladiator 2 certainly borrowed from these older films – a deranged Caesar – similar but not in the same league as Peter Ustinov in ‘Quo Vadis’, classic fights in the arena, and so on.

A few new things were added – a Centurion riding a gigantic Rhino against the hapless victims and a ‘flooded’ arena with sharks – that certainly stretched believability but it was so well done.

Ridley Scott directed and at his age, he would well remember these ‘big’ films of the fifties – so I am quite sure that he was influenced by them

ABOVE – Gladiator 2

ABOVE – A sadistic and cruel Jack Palance in Barabbas.

Clearly deranged and totally mad, Peter Ustinov in ‘Quo Vadis’ seen here with Patricia Laffan who plays malicious Empress Poppaea, sardonic and disdainful in her delivery, at times running close to overshadowing even the great Peter Ustinov in his most famous role as Nero

Yes I see many similarities in the plot of Gladiator 2 to these classics. I have to say I didn’t enjoy it anything like as much – maybe I am just much older and not viewing through youthful eyes.