I don’t know why but I quite often think of this film title – particularly when crossing a rail line or even on a train journey.   Funny because I have never seen the film – and it is NOT widely known these days.

Maybe it is just the that title intrigues me. Who knows.

This is a rarity, an obscure colour film starring Claude Rains late in his career – he was 63 when it was made.           He plays a quiet and respectable Chief Clerk of a Dutch manufacturing firm which is owned by Herbert Lom and his aged father.     Unknown to everyone, Lom has been obsessed for some time by a scheming and criminal Parisian prostitute  played  by Marta Toren.     He has looted the company of all of its cash and left it a bankrupt shell  prior to running off to Paris to a new life with his beloved.

This is discovered at the last minute by Rains, who has sunk his entire family’s savings in the company, and hence lost everything.   Rains snaps and turns on Lom, pushing him into a canal in a rage, where Lom drowns. Rains takes Lom’s suitcase containing all the company’s remaining cash and runs off to Paris, which he has always wanted to visit. He has been a train-spotter all his life, and for years has been noting the passage of the Paris Express.    Now at last he is on it.

Marius Goring is a Dutch policeman who suspects Lom, and now trails Rains. When he arrives in Paris,   Rains wants to find Marta Toren and he asks directions of a young prostitute in the street  played by the 20 year-old Anouk Aimée.      Eventually, Rains meets up with Toren, who at first laughs at him as a ridiculous old man and throws him out. Her attitude towards him changes however when she realizes he has Lom’s money.   Things go from bad to worse  as Rains sinks deeper and deeper into delusion and intrigue. 

The performance of Claude Rains is masterful, and truly makes something out of nothing.

Admirers of Claude Rains will like watching this.

Rains served in World War One  in the London Scottish Regiment with  fellow actors Basil Rathbone, Ronald Colman  and Herbert Marshall.   He was involved in a gas attack that left him nearly blind in one eye for the rest of his life. However, the war did aid his social advancement and, by its end, he had risen to the rank of Captain.

From his glitteringly successful film career I can think back to a colour version of The Phantom of The Opera 1943 – before I could remember BUT sometimes seen on TV.

Very Good Version too.

This must be  one of Elvis Presley’s best films – although that might not say much.   Colonel Tom Parker his manager had cleverly moved to get Elvis into films because this was the only way at the time to capitalise on his worldwide  potential.  In those days there was no satellite TV or video tape – not even a colour TV – so this was the only route forward and it proved a very successful one. The early films such as Love Me Tender, Loving You and this one  gave Elvis good roles but it was King Creole  that to me gave him the best storyline and certainly ths strongest cast of co players.

The  Colonel in a master stroke got him Michael Curtiz as  director and a top flight supporting cast consisting of Oscar winners like Dean Jagger as his father and Walter Matthau as the villain of the piece.  The other top rate players were  Carolyn Jones, Vic Morrow, Paul Stewart, and Dolores Hart.

Elvis plays Danny Fisher a troubled youth searching for himself a role that  James Dean excelled with in East of Eden. To spport his family, Elvis has to go to work because his father has been unable to hold down a job ever since the death of his wife.  He gets a break in Walter Matthau’s club with an impromptu audition, but it is rival owner Paul Stewart who hires Elvis. That sets the stage for a lot of the action to come.

Walter Matthau plays  an exceptionally nasty character in King Creole.

Dolores Hart was here in her second film with Elvis having starred with him in Loving You in 1957 . She has been the subject of much speculation over the years about her relationship with Elvis. In one interview during her movie career she was often asked, “What is it like kissing Elvis?” She chuckled a bit at the memory, “I think the limit for a screen kiss back then was something like 15 seconds. That one has lasted 40 years.”

Her last film role was in 1963  and for whatever reason at that time she made up her mind to leave the film industry, and after breaking off her engagement to Don Robinson, the 24-year-old actress became a Roman Catholic nun in Bethlehem Connecticut.

So ended the film career of this very attractive young girl who left the world of glamour and has since led a very different life although probably much more fulfilling.

  She has recently been interviewed about those now far off days.

The title song became one of Elvis’s early best sellers and it is also the name of the club Matthau owns in the New Orleans French Quarter. Presley has some other good numbers in this film as well.

King Creole also was one of the first of Harold Robbins’s novels to be made into a film.

In order to make this film Elvis had to defer  beginning his military service from January to March 1958. 

Crowds wait for a glimpse of Elvis during filming

Filming waswas delayed several times on location by crowds of fans attracted by the apperarance of Elvis on to the location set. The film was released by Paramount Pictures on July 2, 1958, to both critical and commercial success. The critics were unanimous in their praise of Presley’s performance.

When I take a look at this sort of advertisement from the ‘Sub Standard Film Magazine’ of 1951, I try to assess how many films I know and have seen and there always seem to be such a lot that I don’t know and have never heard of.

On the ABOVE advertisement, quite unusually I seem to know them all. I just love ‘So Long at the Fair’ and remember the first time I saw it along with my daughter who was, like me, baffled as the story unfolded and then came to that surprising ending. It was the whole way that this was done though – and the final moment when Dirk Bogarde managed to locate and break in, to that room that had been hidden – as it turned out for very good reasons.

I really like this film and love the story !!!

It took two directors, Antony Darnborough and Terence Fisher, to create SO LONG AT THE FAIR in 1950.  This romantic mystery starred Jean Simmons, Dirk Bogarde, Honor Blackman, and David Tomlinson.  Jean Simmons looked stunning as a visitor to Paris searching for her missing brother. It really was a mystery because he had just simply disappeared and no-one in the hotel seemed to remember that he had ever been there.

So Long At The Fair – The Story.  –

Vicky Barton (Jean Simmons) and her brother Johnny (David Tomlinson) arrive in Paris to attend the Great Exhibition of 1889 and enjoy a night on the town before returning to separate rooms at their hotel. The following morning Vicky discovers her brother is missing. Not only is there no record of his registration at the front desk but his room doesn’t exist either. No one on the hotel staff recalls ever seeing him and in desperation Vicky goes to both the British consul and the local police chief but neither one believes her story. Determined to unravel the mystery of her brother’s disappearance, Vicky enlists the help of a sympathetic stranger, British artist George Hathaway (Dirk Bogarde), and their valiant efforts eventually uncover the truth. Based on a novel by Anthony Thorne, So Long at the Fair (1950) has a premise that bears similarities with Alfred Hitchcock’s The Lady Vanishes (1938) but also looks forward to the “missing person” plot devices of Bunny Lake Is Missing (1965), Flightplan (2005) and other suspense films. Though leisurely paced, the intriguing narrative holds one’s interest through the unexpected but plausible resolution and the authentic period detail, lavish art direction and impeccable performances by the main principals help suspend disbelief. The directorial duties were shared by Antony Darnborough and Terence Fisher who displayed  who would eventually attain cult status for his stylish period horror films for Hammer Studios such as Horror of Dracula [1958], The Mummy [1959] and The Curse of the Werewolf [1961]. Both Jean Simmons and Dirk Bogarde were rising young stars in the British film industry when they appeared in So Long at the Fair.

Bogarde and Simmons had never appeared in a film together before (and never would again) but they enjoyed a close working relationship on So Long at the Fair. Bogarde recalled, ‘Jean is about the sweetest girl you could wish to meet and all you read about her being natural and unsophisticated is absolutely true. She has a great sense of fun, and one of these days I would like to do a comedy with her.’ Simmons was equally complimentary saying, “He was such fun – a great giggler. I loved Dirk, and was hoping that perhaps we would be married one day; but I was dreaming, I was fantasising…I never really knew him. I didn’t realise he was gay – in those days people didn’t talk about it.”

In another interview, Dirk Bogarde confessed that he actually didn’t care for So Long at the Fair, adding “but I had to do it, and at that point, I was very much in love with Jean Simmons.

Rank thought it was a great idea to encourage their two juvenile stars and we were given this film which was supposed to launch our engagement. Unfortunately, by the time the film was finished Jean had fallen in love with Stewart Granger, thereby ruining the publicity effort.”

Regardless of Dirk Bogarde’s own opinion of So Long at the Fair, , it did help advance his career. One of the film’s producers, Betty E. Box, was so impressed with his performance that she thought of him for the lead in Doctor in the House (1954), the romantic comedy that catapulted him to major stardom in England and led to numerous sequels, two of which also starred Dirk Bogarde (Doctor at Sea [1955], Doctor at Large [1957]).
The critical notices for So Long at the Fair were generally positive, with many noting that the incident that sets the plot in motion was inspired by a reputedly famous disappearance case which had taken on the mythic proportions of an urban myth.

The New York Times also commented that directors Darnborough and Fisher “have chosen to have their cast speak quite a bit of dialogue in French, a circumstance which may confuse American audiences. But they have also taken the trouble to set that cast, charmingly attired in Victorian bustles and top hats, in authentically bustling, carefree  Parisian locales.”

We all remember going into the cinema – most looking like this. These pictures are taken from a Television show recently which I had recorded and seeing this struck me because this seemed to me to be just as it was !!

‘Strangers on a Train’ was released in 1951

We all remember going into the cinema – most looking like this

We all remember going into the cinema – most looking like this

ABOVE – We just loved an ice cream usually between the films – after the supporting film and before the main event

ABOVE – An even earlier photograph and from the film advertised on the giatnt bill board probably 1948

Back to Strangers on a Train

“Strangers on a Train” is one of the most cinematically suspenseful films in history. #

It is an astonishing example of filmmaking used to invoke uneasiness.

The story, which begins when two strangers meet on a train, is so entertaining you sometimes forget it’s about murder.

This is one of Hitchcock’s best films

A truly Hitchockian film, “Strangers On a Train” cleverly plays with two of Hitchcock’s favourite themes (murder and the “wrong man”),

In many of his films, he contrasts dramatic events with familiar places, this time using an amusement park as a place for terror. It also features one of the most entertaining and creepiest villains ever put on-screen. Everything is framed by camera angles, lighting, and sound.

I can’t imagine a magazine title like this today – the very name ‘Sub Standard’ would just have no appeal I would have thought.

However thinking about it, back in 1950 that description probably covered films, only a year or two old, that had been on General Release and now were issued on 16 mm reels – probably to be shown at smaller cinemas or Village Halls.

As we all remember, at that time films were very popular – after all there was little else – television had barely got going then

This really is a fascinating magazine – the more I read the more interesting it gets..

In 1950 quite a lot of smaller 16mm commerical kinemas were popping up all over the country and this article in the magazine concentrates on two that had recently opened in July of that year – one at Sandy Bedfordshire and One at Lavenham in Suffolk

ABOVE – The Auditorium at Sandy, Bedfordshire

ABOVE Inside the Ideal Cinema in Lavenham, Suffolk

ABOVE – More releases that year – not many I know though

ABOVE Lana Morris at the opening of the Albany Cinema, in Sandy along with John Blye and Mr M.H.Whitworth.

John Blythe and Lana Morris represented The Rank Organisation at the opening of the Albany – and Rank also supplied the film ‘Trottie True’ to be shown that night – this would be on the 16 mm format and would be in Technicolor. The film was only a couple of years old then.

Mr A H Whitworth was a very keen 16 mm Cinema enthusiast very much behind the Sandy Cinema Project – he had his own equipment and had been someone who travelled around showing these feature films at Village and Town Halls around that area. He had made a superb job of equipping the Albany and must have been a very proud man on this occasion. Credit due to him

These pictures were taken after Treasure Island when they were back in Hollywood and maybe two to three years later

Walt Disney and Bobby Driscoll

Walt Disney and Bobby Driscoll

One of Bobby’s notable roles was as Peter Pan in 1953. Although he was approaching his teen years, he was perfect as Peter Pan in Walt Disney’s eyes, as Peter Pan would have been the same age.

Bobby had many qualities that matched Pete Pan. Although a fictional character from our childhood and means a lot to a whole generation.

Despite Peter Pan being his most successful role, his career quickly declined after this.

Not long after this film, he was dropped from his contract at Disney and left jobless. Bobby could no longer play the cute and charming little boy. He moved schools, started going by the name Robert, and started a new life.

A new life that was heavily influenced by drugs.

He did pick up a few more roles here and there, but away from Walt Disney he didn’t seem to have much appeal to other studios

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In 1966, Hammer studios gave the world its cave-girl classic One Million Years B.C., which featured fur bikini-clad girls, including Raquel Welch and Martine Beswick

The next year they also made ‘Prehistoric Women’ ( Slave Girls), a jungle adventure which saw Martine Beswick back again this time once again playing a wildcat with a nasty streak.

The plot doesn’t make a lot of sense (how exactly the “legend of the white rhinoceros” is tied to the rest of the story is never made clear), Michael Latimer is a bland lead and the pace is padded with lots of tribal dancing.

Written and directed by Michael Carreras, ‘Prehistoric Women’ is technically one of Hammer’s weakest efforts. However, it is also one of those rare films that manages to be entertaining thanks to its awfulness.

Michael Latimer plays David Marchand, a jungle guide who is taken captive by savage, white rhinoceros worshipping natives who intend to sacrifice him to their god. Just as he is about to be killed, David touches their sacred rhino statue, which freezes time and opens a doorway into a kingdom where a tribe of girls, led by the heartless Queen Kari (Beswick), have enslaved a different tribe of other girls

After falling for a slave girl named Saria (Edina Ronay), David vows to help the women overthrow their oppressors, a task made all the more difficult when he is clapped in irons for spurning Kari’s sexual advance

Then film includes loads of native song and dance numbers to pad out the action (including a solo routine from Martine Beswick, the occasional cat-fight, a jungle battle, and a surprise ending that makes no sense whatsoever.

The film is sheer nonsense from start to finish – but it is also great fun

Despite its American retitling, Prehistoric Women, Michael Carreras’ Slave Girls doesn’t really belong to that run of cavemen films that Hammer Films made around the same time (One Million Years B.C. (1966), When Dinosaurs Ruled the Earth (1969) and Creatures the World Forgot (1971)). It’s more of a “lost world” story with an adventurer stumbling across a society secreted away in the heart of Africa and it’s a pretty awful one to boot.

It had been decided that in order to save money Hammer would shoot the whole thing on sound stages at Elstree Studios. One Million Years B.C. had cost Hammer a small fortune by their standards so sets and costumes were recycled and where the prehistorics set sail for exotic climes like the Canary Islands and Namibia, Slave Girls stayed studio bound. Art director Robert Jones does his best, even going so far as building a waterfall set.

I personally thought that the studio sets were pretty impressive and very colourful

In the UK ‘Slave Girls’ was first released on a double bill with one of Hammer’s  The Devil Rides Out (1968) 

A film entitled ‘Prehistoric Women’ was released in 1950 – a Cinecolor Production – showing at the above cinema in Amsterdam

Earlier than this in 1950 we had a similarly titled film – apparently ‘Prehistoric Women’ was put out in the USA on a Double Bill with ‘Man Beast’ itself an Ultra Cheap Production.

This still I took from the Newsreel footage of the event – I was so interested to see ‘Brigadoon’ advertised – a Show and a Film I really like, maybe because where I worked a lot of years ago, some of the girls from the Offices were in a local production of this. It was big news for us at the time – although a good few years after this film came out

The world premiere of ‘The Dam Busters’: an Associated British picture, was held at The Empire Theatre, Leicester Square… Monday, May 16th 1955

A wonderful story – about a village in Scotland that only comes to life for one day in a hundred years. Two travellers from the USA come across this village – the village of BRIGADOON – and one of the men Gene Kelly falls in love with one of the villagers Cyd Charisse but he soon realises that she will never be able to leave the village and so he must stay there forever.

Brigadoon was a Broadway musical that ran for over 12,000 performances both in the United States and England. In 1954 it was made into a movie musical starring Gene Kelly, Van Johnson, Cyd Charisse, and Virginia Bosler.

As far as musicals go what made Brigadoon interesting was that the storyline was unique.

MGM decided to make the film in the studios which meant enormous studio sets of the Scottish Highlands. The film is and Colour and Cinemascope Scotland looked magnificent – as it always does !!!