Tony Britton, Sylvia Syms and Geoffrey Keen star in this BAFTA-nominated drama focusing on a man whose life is turned upside down by the far-reaching repercussions of an ill-judged action. The Birthday Present has been shown recently on Talking Pictures

Returning from a business trip, toy salesman Simon Scott is caught attempting to smuggle a wristwatch – bought for his wife’s birthday – through Customs. He is arrested and, due to a bungled defence by his solicitor, obliged to serve a three-month prison sentence. It is only the beginning of his woes; his employer, Colonel Wilson, is understanding, but he is ultimately forced to sack Simon, who discovers that finding another job under such circumstances is extremely difficult. But Colonel Wilson is determined to help his former employee find a solution…

THE BIRTHDAY PRESENT is a very interesting British crime drama of 1957. Tony Britton who seemed to be on Television a lot at that time often in Francis Durbridge serials starred.

Tony Britton had also been in about Ten of the BBC Sunday Night Theatre productions for Television from 1952 and right through the fifties

Not that many years ago we saw him on stage in a tour of ‘And Then There Were None’ the famous Agatha Christie play. A lot of years before this he had played Professor Higgins in the West End in ‘My Fair Lady’

Back to ‘The Birthday Present’ and it is a quite gripping story.

The supporting cast is very good and includes Geoffrey Keen as his sympathetic employer, plus more minor parts for Ian Bannen, Thorley Walters, and Harry Fowler. .

I always loved it when we were give a chance to see TWO ‘big’ pictures – often an older one with a fairly new film OR a Horror film paring which happened quite often in those days, when they were really popular – we just loved to be scared

ABOVE – ‘Horrors of the Black Museum’ is a well known ‘horror’ film with Michael Gough giving a great performance.

As for ‘Wicked Wicked’ in the ‘new process’ of Duo-Vision – I have not heard of it – or the film process – although it does come to us from MGM – the biggest of the film studios

However I have just come across this :-

In 1973, writer/director Richard L. Bare (best known for the “Joe McDoakes” shorts of the ’40s/’50s and for directing most episodes of “Green Acres“) set out to create a new way of making movies.  Called “Duo-Vision,” today this technique is most commonly referred to as “split-screen” — though the gimmick was that the films were to be presented in split-screen from start to finish.  For the first film, Bare revised an unsold screenplay titled “The Squirrel.”  The result was “Wicked, Wicked,” a campy horror-schlocker openly derived from “The Phantom of the Opera,” heavily influenced by Alfred Hitchcock’s “Psycho” and with the sensibilities of a ’60s sitcom.  Unfortunately, it wasn’t a hit, plans for subsequent Duo-Vision films were scrapped and, because the film couldn’t be cropped for TV/home video, it was basically forgotten.

ABOVE – ‘The Wizard of Oz’ seemed to be released or re-leased periodically and here it is alongside ‘Tom Thumb’

These are very much more recognisable and lovely family films

ABOVE – I remember seeing ‘Johnny Dark’ at the cinema when on holiday in St.Albans – quite a good car racing story. As for ‘Man Without a Star’ it may have been good but it wasn’t a film that would have pulled me in at all

Just two articles ago, we had ‘Springtime in the Sierras’ – a Roy Rogers film – and soon afterwards I came across this. These are all Roy Rogers films with Republic Pictures

The odd one out ABOVE seems to be ‘Son of Paleface’ although it is a Roy Rogers picture but with Bob Hope in brilliant form

ABOVE – Some more from Republic Pictures including some really good films – for instance ‘Come Next Spring’ with Steve Cochran and Ann Sheridan, is a lovely heart warming story and it is a film that seems to be more appreciated now than it ever has been

Another one ‘A Man Alone’ had Ray Milland directing the film in which he also starred

‘Fair Wind to Java’ we have featured before.

I remember ‘Flame of the Islands’ because as youngster the title appealed to me as it conjured up visions of adventures in the South Seas. It was very much an escapist fantasy shot in gleaming Trucolor in which Yvonne De Carlo wanders around those islands which probably seldom left the studio set – but as is often the case – it still looked good.

I love the Trucolor process after only fully appreciating it very recently

Stanley Baker was born in in the Rhondda Valley in South Wales, the son of a miner – he wanted to be an actor from his earliest years.

A perceptive teacher at his school noticed the boy’s talent, gave him elocution lessons and the chance to perform in school plays.

He was leaving school at 14 years old and by a stroke of luck in the audience of his very last school play was Producer Sergei Nolbandov who was impressed by the young Stanley Baker and offered him a screen test for the part of a youngster in the film ‘Undercover’ to be made at Ealing Film Studios. – then 15 he was offered and took the part

The following year he joined the Birmingham Repertory Company but soon afterwards he received his call up papers. After two years in the forces he was back, but couldn’t seem to make any headway with his acting career and then out of the blue he managed to get a part in the play ‘A Sleep of Prisoners’ by Christopher Fry which was performed in London and New York.

Not too long after that he applied for a key role in ‘The Cruel Sea’ and this was followed by tough guy roles in ‘The Red Beret’ with Alan Ladd, ‘Hell Below Zero’ with Alan again, ‘A Hill in Korea’ and ‘Checkpoint’

Stanley Baker then gravitated on to parts where he played the policeman – he did really well in Blind Date and ‘Hell is a City’ in which he played the role of Detective Inspector Martineau

ABOVE – he looks into the camera lens whilst on location in Manchester for ‘Hell is a City’

Later roles came in ‘Hell Drivers’ and ‘Yesterday’s Enemy’

ABOVE – Stanley Baker was a friend of Billy Smart the circus owner and once spent a weekend performing under the Big Top – actually appearing in the circus ring.

ABOVE – Stanley Baker is also a keen boxer and his mantelpiece at home has quite a few trophies.

ABOVE – He is pictured outside his home in Wimbledon where he lives with his wife Ellen Martell.

ABOVE – Stanley Baker is also a keen cine photographer – looks like a 16 mm camera – I often wonder what has happened to all the cine film that these stars have taken – it would be fascinating to see them. They must be somewhere

Roy Rogers starred in Nineteen Trucolor films for Republic Pictures from 1947 up to 1950 but for whatever reason, even as early as 1952, some of these were re-issued in Black and White.

The market for B Westerns pretty much came to an end at the cinema in the mid fifties, so these were released in Black and White mainly to save costs.

A number of Roy Rogers films were sold to TV in 1956 but with some cuts to the running time. That sadly meant that a lot of the original footage was discarded

Showing on Talking Pictures over this weekend was a really good one – ‘Springtime in the Sierras’ from 1947 and this one had a much bigger budget. It was in colour – this time Trucolor – but it did give the film a good look. The outdoor shots of Roy on Trigger were impressive – Trigger’s colour seemed ideally suited to Trucolor.

The film had been restored to it’s original length I am pleased to say

Some of the studio sets also were very good indeed – just look at the pictures BELOW

The film was directed by William Witney

At the end of the film, in the last few frames, I saw something that I have never seen in a film before. In the Theatre we are used to seeing the end of the play and then the actors appear before us to take the applause and take a bow.

Well – at the end of this film the actors do a similar thing and walk towards the camera and all stand in a line smiling towards us the audience.
Very effective I thought – and original

Jane Frazee was Roy Roger’s leading lady in ‘Springtime in the Sierras’ as she was in a total of Five films with him for Republic Pictures – I think that they were all in Trucolor too.

Jane Frazee ABOVE

This film had reliable sidekick Andy Devine looking very young – he was good as usual and gave us that bit of humour needed – and there was also Bob Nolan and The Sons of the Pioneers – Roy Roger’s backing group for years

Andy Devine as we all know, had a very lengthy and successful career and in the early fifties became well known playing his usual role in ‘The Adventure of Wild Bill Hickock’ which ran from 1951 to 1958 and Andy played in 112 episodes

Later in 1960 he was in one that I liked ‘The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn’ which also starred famous boxer Archie Moore as Jim – he was very good too.

Andy Devine was also surprised and became the subject of ‘This is Your Life’ on 2 February 1955

Andy Devine with his two boys on the set of ‘Canyon Passage’ which I think they were all played in this film. ABOVE

Back in the day there were quite a few child stars and here is a selection :

ABOVE – Tommy Rettig – he was in ‘River of No Return’ with Marilyn Monroe – lucky boy

ABOVE : Gary Gray and Flame in ‘Return of Flame’

This must have been one of the RKO short films with a running time of 20 minutes but I can only find them with ‘Pal’ in the title. Mind you Flame did play Pal, so maybe this caption just refers to his return – I think that that must be the case.

The Wonder Kid was actually released here in 1952.   David Raynor, who often provides very welcome and interesting comments of this Blog, is an expert on Bobby Henrey and has kindly agreed to let me post below the comments he has made on imdb :-

We have actually printed this before :-

While not in the same league as that in “The Fallen Idol”, Bobby Henrey’s performance in his second and last film, “The Wonder Kid”, is just as charming and fascinating to watch. He is totally convincing and often very touching as Sebastian Giro, a ten years old French boy and child musical prodigy found in an orphanage by Mr Gorik (Elwyn Brook-Jones) who exploits the youngster’s talent as a classical pianist and turns him into an international celebrity. He even tells everyone that the boy is only seven years old in order to make the boy wonder’s talent seem all the more remarkable. But Gorik is also a crook who embezzles the takings so that he has almost all the money and Sebastian gets hardly any. Coupled with that, Gorik won’t allow Sebastian to enjoy the simple pleasures of being a little boy, like having a pet dog or playing with other boys or even reading comic books, because, when Sebastian isn’t performing, Gorik isn’t making any money out of him. He works the over tired boy like a slave who must continually practise on the piano. Sebastian’s elderly English governess, Miss Frisbie (Muriel Aked) is very concerned about the boy and confronts Gorik about his crooked activities. But he dismisses her from her post. Miss Frisbie then pays a gang of junior league crooks to “kidnap” Sebastian and take him to stay in a remote lodge in the Austrian Tyrol and Gorik won’t get him back until he’s paid over a huge ransom which is, in effect, all the money he has stolen from the boy. It is here, in this beautiful setting, that the boy finds a freedom and a happiness he has never known and just wants to stay there forever with those who have become his friends. But trouble is on the horizon for him…

This now unjustly forgotten little film is thoroughly entertaining and wonderful to watch.  Apart from the truly picturesque scenery, Bobby Henrey’s performance as the cruelly exploited child prodigy who moves from misery to happiness is just wonderful. Highly recommended.

This film ‘The Mudlark’ went very well at the Box Office here in England. Irene Dunne played Queen Victoria and Alec Guinness was Disraeli

ABOVE – Bobby Driscoll in England to star as Jim Hawkins in ‘Treasure Island’ – this must have been taken in the summer of 1949.

He came to a very sad end a few years later.

I cannot recall much about this child star – Bobby Hyatt or Robert Hyatt as he became known as.

Here he is with a very young Natalie Wood

He acted in quite a lot of films as a child star and beyond but he also became a Film Director, Producer, Writer even Composer for films.

He was a very well respected person in the film industry with a vast experience of all aspects of film making.

Robert Hyatt as a Film Director ABOVE

This looks a really good adventure film – I don’t remember much about it at the time though

Directed by William Castle
Starring Lex Barker, Patricia Medina

Duel On The Mississippi (1955) is not really a Western.

It’s one of those Louisiana riverboat type adventures – set in that area of the USA famous for Huckleberry Finn, and there is plenty of action.

The story centres around a series of plantation raids carried out by vicious bayou killers.

Plantation owner Andre Tulane (Lex Barker) finds himself in debt to the gambler Lili Scarlet (Patricia Medina) and the two are at each other’s throats until one day when Tulane comes to her rescue and soon they are teaming up against pirates.

Lex Barker has just finished with Tarzan – I can’t think why he ever packed it in – and Patricia Medina is beautiful as always – a few years since Botany Bay – one of my favourites, and John Dehner is always terrific.

The Technicolor cinematography is excellent.

This young lady was born in Weymouth and started her acting career on stage and then quickly in Television having a leading part in the BBC Production of ‘Little Women’ which ran mid December – in six parts from before Christmas 1950 and through into 1951

She had studied acting at RADA

She played alongside Bill Travers in ‘Geordie’ a few years later in 1955 and it was a very successful Technicolor film, but it seems that she never really capitalised on this

GEORDIE 1955

This is a classic story of a small boy who is tired of being small and sends off for a “HE-MAN” mail order course… He then trains and dedicates himself to strength training and eventually grows to become an Olympic champion in the Hammer Throw, one of the Olympic strong man events.

Bill Travers, Norah Gorsen and Alistair Sim star

Those lucky enough to see an original Technicolor print are lucky indeed for the colour cinematography was one of the best things about that film.

The film did well at the Box Office

A year or two after this she had a role in the TV Series of ‘Ivanhoe’ with Roger Moore

She had also appeared on stage in Pantomime along with Donald Wolfit and Pat Kirkwood at the Scala Theatre in 1953, where she played the part of Wendy in ‘Peter Pan’

She later appeared in Dixon of Dock Green playing Gorge Dixon’s daughter

Here she is ABOVE with Jack Warner and Marjorie Fielding

Birth Name: Norah Ethal Gaussen
Date of Birth: 22 November 1931
Place of Birth: Weymouth, Dorset, England
Stage Name: Norah Gorsen

Norah Gorsen was born on November 22, 1931 in Weymouth, Dorset, England as Norah Ethal Gaussen. She studied for the stage at R.A.D.A. and became an actress, known for Geordie (1955), The Great Detective (1953) and Personal Affair (1953).
Spouses:
(1) Ronald G. Lewis, born 11 December 1928, in Port Talbot, West Glamorgan, Wales. Married 1953 in Hampstead, London, and later divorced. He was an actor. He died on 11 January 1982, in Pimlico, London, England.
(2) Michael Henry St. George Ashe, married in 1960, and later divorced. She had a son with her second hsuband
(3) Russell Taylor, married in 1965 in Chelsea, London.

Although I cannot be sure, I have seen a report that she died in the South of France in April this year, 2020 aged 88 years.

This is not reported on the imdb site though

Norah Gorsen’s son by her second marriage – in fact her only child – was James – some details as follows :-

Extract from England and Wales Birth Registration Index
Name: Thomas J. S. Ashe
Birth Registered: Oct-Dec 1960 at Southwark, London, England
Mother’s Maiden Name: Gaussen

Born 55 years ago (5 August 1960).

After the excellent 1952 film version, we had in 1955 on ITV – in the Theatre Royal series of 34 plays – a play entitled ‘Bardell v Pickwick’

This wasn’t exactly The Pickwick Papers but an episode from it.

This was the first production in the Theatre Royal series going out on 25 th September 1955 – probably going out ‘live’ in those days.

It featured Roddy Hughes as Mr Pickwick and Donald Wolfit as Sergeant Buzfuz.

Sam Kidd reprised the role of Sam Weller

Television dramatisation of an episode from Charles Dickens’ “Pickwick Papers”, in which Mr Pickwick is taken to court by his landlady Mrs Bardell. She accuses him of breach of promise after she believed he was offering her a proposal of marriage when he had been talking about getting a manservant.

ABOVE – It seems that in this scene Donald Wolfit is strongly making a point

The amusing law courts scene from the famous masterpiece was one of the highlights of this production

This television play was produced by Harry Alan Towers – Harry Towers who later moved into making feature films – two of the first he did – and filmed in Africa both starred Richard Todd in ‘Death Drums Along the River’ and a follow up ‘Coast of Skeletons’

In fact would you believe it, Harry Towers later produced this same story ‘Bardell v Pickwick’ under the same name in 1959 in the Armchair Theatre Series – this time John Salew played Mr Pickwick

Now back to an actor featured above –

Sir Donald Wolfit was without doubt one of the greatest Shakespearean actors of the last century. He was not appreciated by the likes of the pompous Laurence Olivier and his contemporaries, mainly because, in my view, Sir Donald came from a working class background and scaled those dizzy heights like no other had done.

He was the last of the Actor-Managers who brought Shakespeare to the masses – and saw that as his mission – all over the world

ABOVE – Sir Donald Wolfit , Lady Wolfit and their daughter

I only came across this film when I was looking into the career of the multi talented and famous Felix Felton – featured in the very last article

The film was made at the Brighton Film Studios and was from a novel by Douglas Baber

My Death is a Mockery (1952) is a dark tale of smuggling, murder and capital punishment. The film has been shown in recent years

This film stars Bill Kerr (Hancock’s Half Hour) in a rare dramatic role, Donald Houston and Kathleen Byron.

Kathleen Byron – five years or so after her great performance as Sister Ruth in ‘Black Narcissuss’

Donald Houston – not long after he had been out to Fiji with Jean Simmons for ‘The Blue Lagoon’

Liam Gaffney as Father Matthews – ABOVE – he was also in ‘Street of Shadows’ another film, like this one, made at the Brighton Films Studios

The film had a rare screening in London again – last year in May 2019. It can be acquired on DVD but not easily – still if you are determined to get it you will

This is a bleak and bullet-spattered sea-smuggling crime drama and tells the story of a ‘down-on-his-luck’ fisherman (British star Donald Houston) who is tempted into a dangerous but more lucrative line in black-market booze at the urging of his wayward wife (Kathleen Byron) after a brief bar-room liaison with a small-time spiv played by Bill Kerr, in a rare serious role.

This Adelphi FIlms’ crime drama was caught up in controversy upon its release, after it was reportedly the film Christopher Craig saw shortly before killing policeman Sidney Miles and apart from a single 1960 TV screening it has been largely unseen since.

DOUGLAS BABER – the Author

As mentioned before in this article, the film comes from a novel written by Douglas Baber and on the imdb site there is this comment from the novelist’s daughter – I hope she doesn’t mind me re-printing this from 2006 :-

‘This film was from a book of my fathers but I never saw it being too young! has anyone a copy? I never knew it existed only the book. Is it being re run? If you saw it anywhere please let me know as I am interested. This has to run for 10 lines so what can I say about something that is important. My father was a POW for some years and later found that the the family who took him in when he was shot down in Belgium were assassinated. This and the Prison Camp added stress to an already sensitive nature. He wrote some books under another name John Riston. He died in 1963 leaving just the one child – myself. He was a man of deep thoughts and reacted to these in a difficult way, perhaps that is why he wrote so well. I have all his books, and my favourite is The Slender Thread.‘

The above detail we would never know but for this comment which is quite sad to read, but it shows what people endured during those dark wartime days. Her father Douglas Baber was obviously a brave and heroic man

Books by Douglas Baber : BELOW

BRIGHTON FILM STUDIOS

 Between 1949 and 1964 at least a dozen feature films—mainly crime and thrillers and usually released as B features, supporting more prestigious productions—were made by Brighton Film Studios and a number of others made use of the facilities. It was also used to shoot television commercials in the early days of ITV.

The Studios were situated on St Nicholas Road, Brighton.

It became an auction house after the studio closed and was later converted into flats.