Classic Movies on Sky Arts Series 2 Episode 2 - The Story of - Whisky Galore

 

From Ealing Studios comes another little classic from 1949, Whisky Galore. A film set in the second world war but miles away from it's impact. The island of Barra in the Outer Hebrides stands in for the fictional Todday and Ian Nathan is there to describe how it came into being. Based on the book of the same title and adapted by the author Comptom Mackenzie, it recalls something that actually happened. The little island has run out of whisky and this catastrophe effects the whole population. We are shown clips of the distraught population including one man who takes to his bed and stays there.

But there is a light at the end of the tunnel when a ship runs aground off the coast and as luck would have it, there were 50,000 cases of whisky on board. The undercover salvage operation by the delighted islanders is filmed mainly at night. But one person is not impressed. Captain Waggot, the Englishman who is the commander of the local home guard. Played by Basil Radford, Ian Nathan tells us he is unique in Ealing films, being the villain in a far larger role that usual but at the same time a quite likeable character, almost the most charming of all the others. So somewhat contradictory in that he becomes a sympathetic role. Steven Armstrong tells us that it "gives him humanity". He goes on to say that the film is made in almost documentary style with it being nearly all shot on the island and that the cast are shown as "real islanders". So a very long way from the suburbs of London where nearly all other Ealing movies were made. 

We hear about director Alexander McKendrick, this is his debut feature film. His background was in propaganda films and it seemed that every other director was not available. He was the last choice. He  included some sub plots with two very different romances and one wedding. Obviously with bagpipes. His scene where the bottles are hidden was superb. Ian Nathan adds it is a "comedy of observational character". But it came as no surprise that filming was interrupted by lots of rainy days. Producer Charles Balcombe was apoplectic with shooting overrunning. a five week schedule to became ten.  So it ended up well over budget. Balcombe was very disappointed with the results. He thought it was very amateurish. Where are the jokes? He wanted it more like an Ealing comedy. He cut the running time down to an hour before it was restored by way of Charles Crighton who was parachuted in to make it better. He filmed some additional scenes in the studio which pacified the producers. 

The only two actors I recognised were Gordon Jackson and James Robertson Justice. In the end, the film received excellent reviews on it's release. The critics found it's concentration on character over plot worked very well. At the BAFTA's it was up against Passport to Pimlico and Kind Hearts and Coronets from Ealing as well as The Third Man. Ian Nathan summed it up with the words that it was unique for a British film. In the aftermath of WW2, it had an echo of Britishness that brought audiences flocking to see it.

The Wren, The Wren, Suspects and The Lock-Up

 

As with all the previously novels by Anne Enright that I have read, it's the prose that really stands out. Sometimes her most recent books do drift away from the main theme with too much introspection, and I sometimes lost the thread as the story jumps around the main characters Carmel and daughter Nell. But the family here are always interesting. Nell has finished Uni and is back home with her mother Carmel. She needs to get away. But when she does, she meets Felim, the writer spends time telling us how she feels at the beginning of an affair. Now that was good.

A visit home for Nell and a superb conversation between the two, except, "I never tell me my mother anything, I'm not that stupid". But I'm not sure if she is the most reliable narrator. Not like her mother whose story revolves around her father, the famous poet. Not a nice man, although he could be. At his funeral Carmel's mother and her other daughter Imelda "were draped in matching black mantillas under which they plied little handkerchiefs with embroidered corners, while Carmel stuck to a packet of Kleenex and the truth. She was surrounded by hypocrites". Some of the chapters later on go off piste with Nell at nine years old, and a rogue chapter for Phil the poet. The book must be designed for you to read it again. And again.

I thought that this was the least successful of the five books about cinema by David Thomson that I have read. Probably because he mixed fiction with fact in his eighty five very short potted histories of some of the most iconic characters of the silver screen. It certainly helps if you are familiar with the old movies in which they appear. There were many I didn't know.

There are links between some of the characters, especially as they sometimes appear in the same movie. Jake Gittes (played by Jack Nicholson in Chinatown) is followed by Noah Cross (John Huston) where the author introduces William Mullholland who gave his name to that famous Drive. Most of the back stories are pretty boring except, for instance, that for Joe Gillis (William Holden in Sunset Boulevard) where he needed some history given his demise in the movie. His co star Gloria Swanson plays Norma Desmond gives the author the excuse to talk about old Hollywood stars who started in silent films and then struggled with the coming of the talkies. How Norma comes to meet Noah Cross who cast her in his movie and bought her the mansion on that iconic road, is pure fantasy and does the book no favours.

Three characters from Double Indemnity include a back story for Harry Lime. But a lot better was that for Kay Corleone played by Diane Keaton in The Godfather, except where there is the most stupid and diabolical conceit. Then a nice imagining of Jack Torrance (Jack Nicholson in The Shining) and that for LB Jeffries (James Stewart in Rear Window). Similarly Walker in Point Blank (Lee Marvin) and, of course, a longer piece for Richard (Rick) Blaine played by Humphrey Bogart in Casablanca. Norman Bates (Anthony Perkins in Psycho) gets a long back story and later there are four characters from Citizen Kane. But by then I was a bit fed up with it all.

When I checked my reviews for the previous two books in the Strafford and Quirke crime series, it was only the second (April in Spain) that encouraged me to try this one. I was not impressed with Snow, the first of this trilogy. John Banville's prose was always his strength in his earlier novels, but in detective fiction it is all plot, so no literary acrobatics here. But the writing does flow off the page so I read it quite fast.

In Dublin in the 1950's, Detective Inspector Strafford and Doctor Quirke the pathologist, do not get on, but are forced together to investigate the death of Rosa Jacobs, a young Jewish woman in a catholic country. What follows is basically a series of interviews with people who might have a connection with Rosa. And of course the catholic church is involved. The background to the crime is resolved in the end. Almost.

Classic Movies on Sky Arts Series 2 Episode 1- The Story of - Brief Encounter

 

Hurrah, the gang's back together for a new series of Classic Movies starting with Brief Encounter. Ian Nathan, Christina Newland, Stephen Armstrong and Neil Norman give their views on this great film. Written in 1936 by Noel Coward but set in the late 30's, the writer formed a huge partnership with director David Lean to make a series of classic British movies. 

Ian Nathan takes us to Carnforth Station, now a heritage centre in Lancashire, that in the film stood in for a suburban London stop. Here he tells us of two ordinary people, but definitely middle class, who meet by chance in the station buffet. And only because Laura Jesson (Celia Johnson) gets smuts in her eye on the platform and Trevor Howard is the doctor (Alec Harvey who attends to her. We see this classic scene all the way through. These are not young people, they have children growing up, but strike up this friendship. Neil Norman says it's "the truth of these performances" that sets it apart. Especially that from Celia Johnson that is "unmatched in British cinema".

Stephen Armstrong describes the background of the film in World War 2. He also likes the fact that these are two ordinary people "being part of the movie". He goes on to tell us about the director David Lean (see my post 2nd April 2020) who started a an editor. When Coward pitched him the story, Lean was not impressed, but found it worked when he turned it around to put the ending first, and showing the story from Laura's perspective as she narrates from her memory.

Neil Norman takes over to talk about what was once a Noel Coward twenty minute play called Still Life , set in a station café and how most of the dialogue from that play finds it's way into the film. Ian Nathan shows us how they shared that first table and how a random encounter turns into deliberate meetings. Apparently Celia Johnson hated making films, but here her face shows all the emotion in close up. So much of the film studies her face and her eyes and we are shown the visible moment when, listening to him, she falls in love.  Christina thinks she "holds the film together". 

At the time, Trevor Howard was not that well known. He takes her to the cinema to see the film Flame of Passion. Ian Nathan adds it's about "the madness of falling in love" but more so because of their ages. There is also that clever comparison with the working class porter played by Stanley Holloway and the café  worker Myrtle Bagot.  Neil Norman like the cinematography by Robert Krasker with so much filmed at night. And the music by Rachmaninov's Concerto No 2. The film also connected with audiences in America and all over the world. It was nominated for a number of Oscars. Christina added something about it being "melancholy" while  Ian Nathan concluded  "it was years ahead of it's time", that it made David Lean famous and how it became an "epic of the human heart".

Wendover Woods Circular Walk

 

I had not been on Garmin Connect since January, but today I charged my Garmin Forerunner watch and set off for a circuit of Wendover Woods. This starts near where we used to live and a paved track takes you to a very short uphill path that now has a handrail. Hurrah! I can then turn right or left for a path that stays at fairly low level before it starts to head up this part of the Chiltern Ridge. Today I had turned right and the path up the hill reaches the Wendover Woods parkrun course. Turning left here would be a short cut, but instead today a right turn still makes it's way uphill. 

This route then follows the parkrun course (in it's opposite direction) for nearly three quarters of it's distance, eventually going past the café. Further on I leave the route to start a long haul back down to the low level near the RAF Halton barracks. A path under the trees takes me back to the start.

Garmin Connect tells me it was 4.70 miles in a time of 1 hour 41 minutes. An average of 21.22 minutes per mile with 647 feet of climbing. The weather was fine, chilly at the start but some sun later on. Not having been on Garmon Connect for a long time, it took a while for all the updates. But I could copy the route as the photo above. I will take my watch out again for my future walks.

Trap, Alien: Romulus and Touch

 

I very rarely miss a M Night Shyamalan movie. They are not always great, but most are. From The Sixth Sense, Unbreakable, The Village to The Happening, The Village, Signs, Knock at the Cabin, Split, Glass and Old. He creates original screenplays (rare these days) and always directs with flair. Trap starts with a big set. A pop concert with apparently, a big star, perfect for Cooper (a hot wired Josh Hartnett) to take his his daughter Riley (Ariel Donoghue) who is a big fan. But Cooper realises something is wrong., especially finding huge security back stage. Someone is trapped. The crowd scenes are impeccably staged and the atmosphere is tense from beginning to end. Hayley Mills pops up as a profiler, but really we follow Cooper nearly the whole time. Original and compelling as usual.

Alien: Romulus is a decent addition to the cannon. It is not that scary, thank goodness, as I avoid those sorts of films these days. Cailee Spaeny holds the movie together. I realised I had seen her in quite a few movies, from Bad Times at the El Royale, to On the Basis of Sex, Vice, Priscilla (where she was excellent) and Civil War. This film is quite claustrophobic as nearly all is in the spacecraft. Sometimes you wanted to go back to dry land. It certainly didn't last the two hours.  But towering above all the sub-plots is, typically, the character of the humanoid. Starting off as a quiet, hesitant and almost useless helper, to the opposite when his memory stick is swopped. He becomes a thrilling, positive, genius of a leader. It did make me smile.

From Iceland to London to Japan, Touch is obviously a quest for the elderly Kristopher s he  leaves his home country for the UK about to experience Covid lockdown. However most of the first part of the movie travels back in time to the sixties when, as a young man, he takes a job in a Japanese restaurant.  He becomes friends with the owner's daughter Miko. The link between the two stories is well constructed and the editing between the two works fine. In his home country we know he had a wife and children so we need to know what happened at the restaurant. The final part is quite sad but uplifting at the same time. I'm glad I found it. 

BFI National Archive - Heritage Open Day

 

The BFI National Archive in Berkhamsted have an open day once a year and you have to book early for tickets. On Sunday we made our way to The John Paul Getty Jr Conservation Centre on the outskirts of the  town. We were given this map to find our way around.

We were just in time for a tour of the Film Vault. We had not been able to reserve a place but were first in line for a standby and we were lucky to join the group. Our guide was very informative about the storage of films (180,000) and tv programmes. And how most are stored in optimum conditions at the Master Film Store in Gaydon, Warwickshire.

There were other displays on the ground floor including this old printer.

I found this plaque dedicated to the founder.

There is much more to see upstairs where we first found seats for a short talk and video about the centre. 

However, the highlight for me was the large room for Film Inspection and Conservation. 

We were able to have a long chat with one of the restorers who painstakingly inspects old footage  frame by frame and repairs any faults. 

It helped that we got onto talking about foreign films that we both see at The Rex cinema. There were others that gave us more information about their work there. Here is Angelo from parkrun who had previously told us about the BFI's  Sight and Sound magazine.

We were there for two hours and the time went so quickly. The archive also has a collection of filmmakers papers, stills, posters (many were beautifully framed on the walls, I looked at them all) designs, scripts, books and other material. At the end of the tour, a young lady told us about BFI Replay where all libraries in Buckinghamshire have access to to this free-to-access digital archive. Video, tv programmes and pictures are available to us all. I will have to study what is there before I go.

Outside there was tea and cake and we found a table that we shared and chatted with other visitors. A memorable day.

The Garden in September

 

I'm so glad I bought these bedding Dahlias to replace those that were eaten by the snails. They are probably at their best in August and September when, for instance, the Verbena bedding plants are on their way out. 

The main border below is just about OK, especially the new dark pink Echinacea. And the geraniums look as if they might flower again.

The Hydrangea below that was given to Alison is strangely in flower again. Apparently it is not in the right place, but it does not seem to care.

The only roses left flowering is this one in the rose border and those two further down the garden.

One of which is now inside as they cannot be seen from the house.

We are bringing in more flowers from the garden to go on the window cill.

The campanula is flowering again after being cut back in July.

The bushes under the trees have been pruned as they were growing over the lawn.

The far round border is in need of a major overhaul next year with some of the plants being removed completely. The remains of the one on the top left looks like an invasive species. But I will keep the yellow Rudbeckia that flowers late in the summer.

Some of the Astrantia are once again in flower. 

At the front, the shrubs in the joint border have all been pruned. The Geraniums in the front bed were pruned a couple of weeks ago and are now really healthy and starting to flower again. The white Impatiens in the pots and hanging baskets have been a reasonable success. Maybe a different colour next year.

And finally a view to the end of the garden. The lawn looks quire reasonable coming into autumn.

Movies at Home: Suspicion, Nowhere Boy and Carlito's Way

 

Suspicion is a Hitchcock movie from 1941 that is really showing it's age. An RKO Pictures production set in England. I was too distracted by the scenery, all exteriors shot in the studio with awful painted scenery. Here are young Cary Grant and Joan Fontaine. Not sure how she came to win the best actress Oscar. It's all very hammy thanks to a pretty pathetic script. 

For some reason I always thought Nowhere Boy would such a boring movie. But I was wrong. There are some wonderful performances from Kristin Scott Thomas as John's mother Mimi (all pent up emotion), Anne Marie Duff as his mother and an incredibly subdued David Morrisey as his step-father. At the British Academy Film Awards, there were nominations for Thomas and Duff for best supporting actress (the former deserved to win) and for best director for Sam Taylor-Wood in her debut feature. 

John does not get his first guitar until well into the film, and only meets Paul halfway through. It seemed that Paul and George were far better musicians although less charismatic as John, a born leader. Good to see representations of those early gigs and that eventual recording session which includes Paul's first composition In Spite of all the Danger. The film leaves John saying goodbye to Mimi on his way to Hamburg. Exactly as it should. An interesting soundtrack of early sixties songs and some that were replicated by The Quarrymen. 

In between the first two in age comes Carlito's Way from 1993. Definitely of it's time. Al Pacino and Sean Penn on the wrong side of the law in Brian de Palma's crime drama. What was most interesting for me was the lead actress. I cannot remember Penelope Ann Miller in anything, but here she was nominated for a Golden Globe. Her early career was all on stage, winning a Tony nomination for 1988/89's Our Town which obviously brought her to the attention of the big studios. 

Expletives Deleted by Angela Carter

 

I'm not a huge fan of Angela Carter, I find her prose too obscure on occasions. I never made it past 100 pages of "Nights at the Circus" (weird and fantastical) but "The Magic Toyshop" (full of lightness and wit) was much better. I loved the stage adaptation of "Wise Children" but avoided the book. However a search for some non fiction took me to this collection of (mostly book) reviews chosen by the author. I thought I might find some interesting fiction. In her introduction, she tells us "we were the only family in our class at school who didn't have a television set". Her parents were far more interested in books. She also says "I like to write about writers who give me pleasure. Pleasure has always had a bad press in Britain. I'm all for pleasure. I wish there was more of it around".

TELL ME A STORY
The thirty five book reviews have all been published in newspapers and other publications. Here are my notes on just a few. Reading the first five obscure books, I wondered what I had let myself in for. But then number six was a review of "Once in Europa" by John Berger published in the Washington Post in 1989. Her opening page is a glorious evocation of the changes to the countryside: "the final divorce of human beings from the land" caused by its deruralisation.

A couple of reviews of books by William Burroughs then out of the blue J.G. Ballard's "Empire of the Sun" published in Time Out in 1984. We get a marvelous background of the author especially his weird sci fi stuff such as "Crash" and "High Rise" (both of which made fine movies). Burroughs was born in China and lived in Shanghai as a child and this was the basis for his biggest novel. Burroughs also live in Lunghua Camp where his young hero finds himself. An incredible review of a book that is "a rich, complex, heartrending novel".

TOMATO WOMAN
"An Omelette and a Glass of Wine" (by Elizabeth David) and other dishes (by other writers) . All in various publications. An odd sort of review. But what was most interesting were the letters in response: "A puritanical contempt for decently prepared food".

"The History and Social Influence of the Potato" by Redcliffe Salaman in London Review of Books 1986. Carter tells us "potato eating is also a history of poverty". It's history in the UK was interesting, of course the Irish famine gets a mention, but so does Max Miller!

"Food in Vogue: Six Decades of Cooking and Entertaining" edited by Barbara Tims in New Society May 1977. Something more than a cookery book, these recipes are more "food as an aspect of style".
But why "read as the concretisation of a consensus wish fulfillment fantasy about the nature of stylish living". This is Carter at her most obscure. I have no idea what she is talking about.

"English Bread and Yeast Cookery" by Elizabeth David in New Society 1987. Over four pages our reviewer considers the types of bread now available and their benefits or otherwise. She harps on about "the soft bland and flabby" white loaf.

"Honey from the Weed" by Patience Gray in London Review of Books 1987. "Part recipes, part travel book, part self-revelation, part art-object". " A book replete with recondite erudition and assembled on the principle of free association". WHY AM I READING THIS STUFF!

HOME
"The Buddha of Suburbia" by Hanif Kureishi in The Guardian 1990. A farce, a three part tv series and now a play. Carter reveals it is "continually tasty, interesting and full of glee". Lots of interesting characters with humour everywhere. His very first novel is wonderful, funny and all heart. No wonder Emma Rice has chosen this as her latest production, hopefully in London soon.

Some other reviews of no interest to me.

AMERIKA
"A Night at the Moves" by Robert Coover in The Guardian 1987. A collection of twelve stories with cinema as their guide. A Western, a comedy, a romance, a weekly serial, some shorts, a cartoon, a musical interlude and a travelogue. Maybe a book to look out for?

"Hollywood". A summary of the Classical Hollywood Cinema, Film Styles to 1960 and others.

LA PETITE DIFFERENCE
"Charlotte Bronte: Jane Eyre". This is Carter's introduction for a re-issue of the book by Virago in 1990. This, for me, was by far the most interesting piece in the whole book, just about worth persevering to find this near the end. "The emotional intelligence of the writer, and the exceptional sophistication of her heart" shows how she loves this book, even if it is "one of the oddest novels ever written". Whilst Carter agrees it is "wild, wonderful, thrilling", it is also "angry, sexy, a little crazy". We get a potted history of the Bronte's, and much about Charlotte's upbringing. On to Rochester and St John Rivers, she calls them different kinds of sadists. But although the book "veers towards trash" Carter loves it as a conundrum

The Garden in Late August

 

I already posted pictures of the main border at the end of August, but here are some in the rest of the garden taken last week. First up the lawn. Considering the lack of rain in July and August, it's not looking too bad. The ProKleen granular feed helped in the Spring, but cannot be used when the lawn is so dry. I have used a cheap Tesco liquid feed and that has helped.

The verbena in the bedding border have been a disappointment, but the odd dwarf dahlia that survived the snails, together with six more I bought from the garden centre, are now at their best. See below. Note for next year: if bought online in a tray, pot on in the conservatory and do not plant out until the end of June.

I previously posted pictures of the astrantia and roses that are in flower for the second time. So here are two photos near the conservatory.