Neil Diamond - The Jazz Singer (1980)

The Jazz Singer is a 1980 American musical remake of the 1927 classic The Jazz Singer. It starred Neil Diamond, Sir Laurence Olivier, and Lucie Arnaz and was co-directed by Richard Fleischer and Sidney J Furie.

The film received mixed reviews and is often considered a flop ($27 million in grosses), even though it made more money at the box office than other contemporary films which became eventual Academy Award nominees such as Raging Bull ($22 million), The Elephant Man ,American Gigolo or Tess. Diamond earned a nomination for a Golden Globe Award for Best Actor although he was given the Razzie Award for the Worst Actor. The soundtrack was enormously successful, eventually reaching multi-platinum status and becoming Diamond's most successful album to date. It resulted in three hit songs, "America", "Love On the Rocks" and "Hello Again".

The League of Gentlemen (1960)

Something of an update on the Ealing tradition, The League of Gentlemen marked the debut release of the consortium Allied Film Makers (AFM), combining the former Ealing producer/director partnership Michael Relph and Basil Dearden, as well as Richard Attenborough, Bryan Forbes, Jack Hawkins and his brother. Almost all the AFM partners had a hand in the film, with Relph producing and Dearden directing, while Forbes wrote the script and acted alongside Hawkins and Attenborough. The National Provincial Bank, along with the Rank Organisation, provided much of the group's backing, which is rewarded in the film with an in-joke: contemplating his leader ex-Colonel Hyde's bank-robbing plan, ex-Major Race worries, "I do hope he hasn't the National Provincial in mind. They're being awfully decent to me at the moment."

With a star-studded cast and witty script, the film was a huge box office success, but beneath the comic caper's surface humour lay a subversive vision of disillusioned ex-officers prepared to steal a just reward for serving their country - a theme not dissimilar to that of Dearden and Relph's earlier postwar drama, The Ship that Died of Shame (1955), which also starred Richard Attenborough. As Hyde wryly comments on their redundant military training, "...I think it's a crying shame for so much public money to be wasted. I intend to put it to some practical peace-time use." More akin to a band of crooks than a League of Gentlemen, their pretence of respectability masks a more dubious, avaricious nature, yet they remain sympathetic, with the League granting a new sense of purpose, albeit a dishonest one, to their fractured lives.

Despite the dark comic tone, sometimes bitter dialogue and the parody of army conventions, the film's resolution conforms to the moral status quo, with the League's members each falling prey to the police. As in Ealing's, The Lavender Hill Mob (d. Charles Crichton, 1951), however, there is little sense of justice having been done; our sympathies lie with the rogues, not the police. The League, ultimately, is less a malevolent criminal force than a boys' club, with its own rules and sense of camaraderie. When, at the end, Hyde sees his League accomplices waiting in the police van, ex-Major Race offers the respect society has withheld, saluting and informing the ex-Colonel "All present and correct, Sir."

THE

MONTHLY FILM BULLETIN

Published by

THE BRITISH FILM INSTITUTE

Volume 27, No.316, May 1960, page 65

LEAGUE OF GENTLEMEN, THE (1960)

Embittered by his enforced retirement after 25 years Army service, ex-Lieut. Col. Hyde conceives a daring plan to rob a bank of one million pounds. After consulting Army records, he contacts seven more ex-officers - Race, Mycroft, Lexy, Porthill, Stevens, Rupert and Weaver - whose post-war careers have become as shady as their service records. But Hyde knows that they are all experts in their various crafts and, after agreeing to plan the raid as if it were a military operation, they repair to Hyde's house for intensive preparation and rehearsals. Phase one consists of raiding an army supply depot for arms and ammunition; Phase Two includes the making of smoke bombs and the renovation of several vehicles. At last, all is ready and the League of Gentlemen assault the unsuspecting bank and make off with their booty. Returning to Hyde's home, their triumphant celebrations arc interrupted by an old Army colleague of Hyde's and a 'phone call from a police inspector. A small, unforeseen factor has brought about their betrayal.

Given a slightly different approach, this film might have developed into an ironic study of the decline of the officer class in peacetime; a valid enough subject, especially when one considers the varying shifts in social status to be encountered in the post-war British scene. Instead, the film concentrates on suspense rather than character investigation. Each of the Gentlemen is introduced by a little establishing scene, after which the script fails to develop their idiosyncrasies and, in fact, weakens its own possibilities by making them all basically shady characters. Bryan Forbes (as in his script for The Angry Silence) brings a lively surface edge to the dialogue, but tends to overdo the slick, ripe repartee as well as imposing on his characters a variety of fashionable perversions. As a study of a certain strata of society, then, the film lacks a strong centre and a firm point of view - one is never quite sure how seriously the parody of the officer code is intended, especially in the ambiguous, obligatorily moral ending.

Judged as a thriller, it is more successful: the two big set-pieces (the army camp robbery and the raid itself) are quite skilfully put together, although the former suffers from an overdose of tired Army humour. The handling of these scenes and the extensive location shooting suggest that, for Basil Dearden, the film's interest (and challenge) was mainly a technical one. In any case, it is his sharpest, most alive film for several years with rather less of his customary, mechanical shock-cutting. The players, on the other hand, are often forced by the script's limitations to fall back on familiar mannerisms - Jack Hawkins is altogether too smooth and heavy and Nigel Patrick's oily bounder brings no revelation. Roger Livesey has some dry moments as a spurious officer doing the rounds whilst Robert Coote's drunken intervention enlivens the somewhat anti-climactic climax.

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The Monthly Film Bulletin was published by the British Film Institute between 1934 and 1991. Initially aimed at distributors and exhibitors as well as filmgoers, it carried reviews and details of all UK film releases. In 1991, the Bulletin was absorbed by Sight and Sound magazine.

1972 New Holland Tractor

1972 New Holland 8 h.p. riding lawn tractor original advertisement. "The new garden tractor that's a lot like a sports car and strong as a brute"

Sons and Daughters - Episode Six

Patricia continues her attempts to make "Scott" feel out-of-place at the dinner party. Conversation at the table reveals the fact that Wayne hopes to take part in the Sydney to Hobart yacht race later in the year. "Scott" and Gordon hit it off well, much to Patricia's annoyance - Gordon even offers "Scott" a lift home, although he declines in favour of the bus. Patricia is angry at Gordon for inviting "Scott" to the Hamiltons' stud when she had made it quite clear she didn't want Angela to see him. She tells her husband to put "Scott" off, but Gordon asks Patricia to give "Scott" a chance.

At the Palmers', Kevin shows Beryl the article he wrote for the school newspaper, defending John. Kevin tells his mother he didn't get the school's permission to write the piece, but Beryl says she'll kick up a fuss if the headmaster (Mr. Wood) kicks up a fuss.

When John gets back to the boarding house, he tells Fiona that Patricia is a snob, and doesn't approve of him. He says that Gordon's a nice guy, though. The next morning, Fiona is woken by Jill, who tells her landlady that "Scott" has gone to the Hamiltons' stud. Fiona hadn't been aware of this...

John joins Gordon, Angela and Wayne at the stud, and is impressed by the horses. Wayne explains about breaking-in the horses. "Scott" apologises to Wayne for taking up his time, but Wayne says he likes to keep his sister happy! He also says Patricia only rides for its snob appeal, and then tells "Scott" that Angela is only after one thing from a 'guy like him', not realising that Angela is listening close-by.

Back at the the Hamiltons', Angela slaps Wayne and tells him she's not interested in a one night stand with "Scott". She adds that "Scott" is important to her, and tells Wayne that if he says anything else, she'll tell Gordon his son is ripping him off.

Fiona confronts John about not taking things slowly as he had promised. John tells his aunt that she wouldn't have been able to sleep if he'd told her about the planned visit to the stud. Fiona makes John promise not to make any more calls to Angela before the end of the week. Fiona then tells John that she's made up a history for him: "Scott Edwards" has been working for the past two years in Woop Woop, building a dam. His employer was Allied Constructions, and "Scott" was an unskilled labourer. The job has now finished, and "Scott" is on holiday in Sydney. Fiona says she's having dinner with her friend from Allied Constructions that evening, and will make sure his story becomes rock solid.

John tells Fiona that Beryl is nothing like her. He reminisces a bit, but Fiona tells him it's no good wishing he was back there. John says "Unless things get lucky, I don't think I'll ever get back there."

In Melbourne, Kevin tells Beryl he's been taken off the paper, but adds that it was worth it. He also says he was nearly expelled. Beryl says she'll see Mr Wood to sort the problem out, but when she goes to the school, the headmaster tells her that Kevin broke the rules and had to be punished. Beryl asks Mr Wood if he would stand by and do nothing if people called his brother a murderer. The headmaster says John should have stayed and faced the music if he was innocent. Beryl is furious.

Back at home, Beryl picks up a photo of John and looks at it sadly. She goes to talk to Kevin in his bedroom, and her son apologises for the headmaster giving her such a hard time. Beryl says that at least she tried; she just wished it had done some good.

At Fiona's, Jill tries to get "Scott" interested in going out raging, but he doesn't even feel up to a game of Scrabble. When Jill leaves, John picks up the telephone handset and dials a number. The 'phone rings at Beryl's - she is overjoyed when she realises who's calling. John won't tell her where he is, though - he just says he's OK. Beryl asks him when he's coming home, and tells him he has to clear his name - she says she knows he'll find a way to do it. When the call ends, Beryl starts crying uncontrollably.

The Saturday Evening Post (1972)

This front cover is from a 1972 edition of the Saturday Evening Post. The cover features the 37th President of the United States - Richard M Nixon.

The Carry On Legacy - Carry on Teacher: 1959

Carry On Teacher was the third Carry On film, released in 1959. It features Ted Ray in his only Carry On role, alongside series regulars; Kenneth Connor, Charles Hawtrey, Kenneth Williams and Hattie Jacques. Leslie Philips and Joan Sims make their second appearances in the series here, having made their debuts in the previous entry, Carry On Nurse. A young Richard O'Sullivan and a young Larry Dann - making the first of his four Carry On appearances - turn up as pupils.

During the current term at Maudlin Street Secondary Modern School, William Wakefield (Ted Ray) - who has been at the school for 20 years - is acting headmaster. He spots an advertisement for a headmaster of a brand new school near where he was born and decides to apply for the post.

Because of an coinciding visit by a Ministry of Education Inspector (Miss Wheeler, played by Rosalind Knight) and the noted child psychiatrist Alistair Grigg (Leslie Phillips), he decides to enlist the help of his staff to ensure that the school routine runs smoothly during their visit.

While in conference with his teaching staff (including Gregory Adams (Kenneth Connor), science master; Edwin Milton (Kenneth Williams), English master; Michael Bean (Charles Hawtrey), music teacher; Sarah Allcock (Joan Sims), gym mistress and Grace Short (Hattie Jacques), maths teacher); a senior pupil (Robin Stevens, played by Richard O'Sullivan) overhears that Wakefield is planning to leave at the end of term. The pupils are fond of the venerable teacher and Stevens immediately rushes this information to his schoolmates. They plan to sabotage every endeavour that might earn Wakefield praise, which would set him on the road to his new post.

On arrival, Grigg and Miss Wheeler are escorted by Wakefield on a tour of inspection and the pupils go out of their way to misbehave in each class they visit. However Griggs' tour has not been in vain: he has taken a shine to Sarah Allcock, the gym mistress and it is obvious the feeling is mutual.

Miss Wheeler is disgusted at the behaviour of the children towards the teachers, but is softened when she visits the science master's class, where she feels an instinctive maternal affection for the charm of the nervous science master, Adams.

Wakefield realises his position as headmaster of the new school is in jeopardy and, on seeing Miss Wheeler’s interest in Adams, enlists his help. He asks Adams to make advances to Miss Wheeler to win her over. Adams is aghast at the thought, but eventually agrees to do his best. After many unsuccessful attempts to tell Miss Wheeler of his love, Adams finds an untruth has become truth and finally finds enough courage to declare his love.

The pupils meanwhile, have been doing everything in their power to make things go wrong, and on the last day of term are caught trying to sabotage the prizegiving. They are told to report to Wakefield’s study and after much cross-examination he learns the reason for the week's events - the pupils simply did not want to see him leave. Wakefield - deeply moved - tells the children he won't leave and will see them all next term.

Miss Wheeler, softened by her newfound love, announces that she intends to tell the Ministry that staff-pupil relationships at the school are excellent.

A Novel Idea - The Partridge Family.

Remember the Partridge Family from the 1970s? Of course you do. Like most shows from this period The Partridge Family spawned a succession of novels based on the popular series.

Think better - Work better! 1953 Coffee....

Check out this 1953 Coffee original vintage advertisement. Endorsed by lengendary comedy team George Burns & Gracie Allen. Sponsored by the Pan American Coffee Bureau. "Think better! Work Better! Feel Better!"

Forever Autumn (1978)

"Forever Autumn" is a song by Jeff Wayne, Gary Osborne and Paul Vigrass. The original melody was written by Wayne in 1969 as a jingle for a Lego commercial. Vigrass and Osborne, the performers of the original jingle, added lyrics to the song and recorded it for inclusion on their 1972 album Queues. Their interpretation was also released as a single and gained moderate commercial success in Japan, selling more than 100,000 copies and becoming a top-20 hit on the country's record chart.

The best-known version is the recording by Justin Hayward from the album Jeff Wayne's musical version of War of the Worlds. Wayne wanted to include a love song on the album that sounded like "Forever Autumn", and he decided that the best course of action was to simply use the original song. Hayward, of The Moody Blues, was hand-picked by Wayne to sing it (because, Wayne said, he "wanted that voice from 'Nights in White Satin'"), and it was recorded at London's Advision Studios in 1976. The song reached No5 on the UK Singles Chart in July 1978.

Coca Cola - It's the real thing (1971)

1971 Coca Cola original vintage advertisement. Sponsoring a rare television special featuring Paul Newman in "Once Upon a Wheel". The top names in racing, television and motion pictures in thrilling competition.

Fabulous 208 (October 7th 1967)

This classic edition of the sixties fanzine Fabulous 208 was released on 7th October 1967 and features as its front cover John Lennon. Pin-ups inside the mag - The Monkees, Tom Jones, Sandie Shaw, The Tremeloes, Engelbert Humperdinck, Scott McKenzie (double page)

The Angry Silence (1961)

Richard Attenborough had been a memorably noxious capitalist in I'm All Right, Jack (1959), the Boulting Brothers' plague-on-both-your-houses satire of labour relations; a year later, he found himself on the other side of the management/worker divide in this engrossing, if somewhat hysterical, account of workplace conflict.

Written and co-produced (with Attenborough) by Bryan Forbes as the first release of his production venture, Beaver Films, the film has more than a touch of On the Waterfront (US, 1954) about it, notably in the factory gates denouement. But the milieu is distinctly British, with the flavour of the emerging British New Wave, sharing its Northern industrial landscape with the likes of Karel Reisz's Saturday Night and Sunday Morning, released later the same year.

The film's evocation of turn-of-the-1960s working-class life remains its strongest suit, particularly in the scenes on the factory floor (which, asSight and Sound's Penelope Houston commented, "looks like a place where something might really get made") and in the claustrophobic top-floor flat shared by Tom (Attenborough), his Italian wife Anna (Pier Angeli), their two kids and the lodger, the perpetually fence-sitting Joe (Michael Craig - also co-credited for the original story). Both Attenborough and Angeli bring real dignity to their roles, and their bewilderment in the face of Tom's unfair treatment at the hands of his colleagues is affecting.

The film's politics, however, are less convincing. The script tries hard to inject some balance, making clear that the industrial action lacks official union support, and demonstrating that the attitude of the factory manager Martindale (Laurence Naismith) is every bit as callous and unprincipled as that of shop steward Connolly (Bernard Lee). But Forbes chooses not to make the workers' concerns clear - the only demand we hear is for more toilet roll - with the effect that we are unable to determine the justice of their grievances. Similarly, we are left entirely in the dark about the deeper motivations of either Alfred Burke's shady agent provocateur, Travers, or his unseen London cohorts. Most troubling is the film's representation of Curtis's fellow workers, who appear as little more than sheep, readily manipulated by the none-too-bright Connolly, who is in turn the puppet of the altogether shrewder Travers. The result is an unbalanced and ultimately unsatisfying film, though one which remains fascinating for the way it signals the growing anti-union paranoia of the following two decades.

THE

MONTHLY FILM BULLETIN

Published by

THE BRITISH FILM INSTITUTE

Volume 27, No.315, April 1960, page 49

ANGRY SILENCE, THE (1960)

Travers, a political agitator, comes to Martindale's, a factory in Melsham, and forms a works committee with Connolly, a hitherto unobtrusive employee, as mouthpiece. Connolly and Davis, the works' manager, are soon at loggerheads and an unofficial strike is called. Tom Curtis, a young family man, and a dozen others refuse to stop work, but calculated acts of violence quickly bring the others out. When the strike ends, Tom is sent to Coventry and even his lodger and best friend, Joe, ignores him. Travers suggests that Tom should be taught a stiffer lesson. Shortly afterwards, Tom's small son, failing to return home from school, is found by his mother shut in a lavatory, tarred and feathered. Travers now instigates another strike, and again Tom stands firm. This time he is worked over himself and ends up in hospital. On learning that Tom has lost an eye, Joe tracks down the culprit, a Teddy boy, beats him up and drags him back to a works meeting to confront the men with their own shame. Travers quietly leaves town.

The first film of a new production company, The Angry Silence bears striking witness to the effect Room at the Top has had on British cinema. One notes its forthright dialogue, contemporary awareness and air of controversy, its energy and its ambition. Too much ambition, perhaps: the film has several themes - mob law, TUC weakness, bad industrial relations, the right to dissent - whose admixture and thorough working out, possible in a novel, are less ideally suited to the cinema. To cover them all successfully would demand a grasp that is as yet beyond Bryan Forbes', the scriptwriter's, capacities.

To their credit, the producers, Forbes and Richard Attenborough, have taken evident pains to achieve a surface authenticity. The relationship between Tom and his wife well played by Pier Angeli) is convincing, and some of the incidental detail shows observation - Joe's failed seduction of a factory girl; the bored and utterly fatuous board-room director (Norman Shelley). But as the film proceeds, the hollow schematism of the script grows more apparent. With Tom's battle out in the open, the necessity to give his opponents equal dramatic weight becomes paramount. Yet they remain virtually unidentifiable: shadowy Communist agitator, managing director with an arbitrary mistrust of lone wolves, spineless works committee at the beck and call of a spokesman (Bernard Lee) about whom we, and apparently his fellows, know nothing other than that he is vaguely embittered.

What in fact seems to be emerging is a sort of Fritz Lang study in mob mentality (hero versus fate and a faceless society). It is the last section of the film, however, which most betrays a fundamental weakness in Guy Green's direction. Having already discouraged any attempt to reflect along the way, Green switches from brusque linking shots and shock effects (for instance, Joe is generally identified by a boot on a kick-starter) to the immediacy of arrant emotionalism. From the finding of Tom's son to the pursuit by motor-cycle, the battering of the Teddy boy and the final public expiation at the factory gates, the film's On the Waterfront reminiscences are unmistakable. But a last minute act of double violence cannot compensate for a tangible build-up of cumulative strain, just as the sudden dramatic emergence of four conveniently placed Teddy boys can be no substitute for an investigation into mob psychology - at this stage the film's most highlighted item of unfinished business. One suspects, in fact, that mob rule is the essential subject of the film. But there is really no knowing; neither cogent grasp nor, in the Lang manner, abstract orchestration. Evasiveness wins the day; belief is lost. A matter for genuine regret, because the eye for realism is there.

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The Monthly Film Bulletin was published by the British Film Institute between 1934 and 1991. Initially aimed at distributors and exhibitors as well as filmgoers, it carried reviews and details of all UK film releases. In 1991, the Bulletin was absorbed by Sight and Sound magazine.

TV Forecast (1951)

TV Forecast was a magazine produced back in the United States which featured TV listings, not too dissimilar to Radio Times. This particular edition was for Christmas 1951.

The Frank Sinatra Timex Show (1959)

When Frank Sinatra's 1957-58 series was cancelled, he still had two years to go on his exclusive contract with ABC. He sat out the next season but came back the following year with a more leisurely series of four almost bi-monthly specials, this time sponsored by Timex. Many of the guests - Bing Crosby, Dean Martin, Sammy Davis Jr., Joey Bishop, Ella Fitzgerald, Nancy Sinatra - had appeared on his previous show.

The ever-present Nelson Riddle was back again as musical director. There were a few new and notable guests - Lena Horne, Mitzi Gaynor, Peter Lawford, Hermione Gingold, and Frank's then-girlfriend Juliet Prowse (in two separate appearances). Even Eleanor Roosevelt showed up. But The Frank Sinatra Timex Show will always be remembered as the vehicle for the triumphant return of one of show business's brightest stars - Mr. Elvis Presley himself.

The King of Rock 'n' Roll had just returned from a stint in the Army and Sinatra agreed to host a televised homecoming party for him. Of course, Frank was no fan of Elvis's brand of music and had had a few choice words to say about it in the past. But whatever the reason - ratings ploy or simply to placate his teenage daughter - Sinatra was feeling gracious enough to invite Presley to join him on his show.

It's too bad the result wasn't more satisfying. Frank and Elvis both shine when performing individually. But when they team up for a duet at show's end, it's a bit of a dud. Someone had come up with the bright idea that they should sing each other's hits, but neither is comfortable in the other's genre.

According to Nancy Sinatra, who appeared on the same bill, both show biz legends were nervous. It's obvious from the very beginning, when Elvis comes out, still dressed in his Army uniform, snapping his fingers on the first and third beat of each bar - a remarkably unhip mannerism, even for a rock 'n' roller unfamiliar with Sinatra's music. (He corrects himself when he returns at the end of the show.)

But whatever the program's musical merits, it was an important event in pop music history, the only public pairing of two different generations' biggest teen idols. The other specials have their highlights - duets with Ella Fitzgerald, Lena Horne, Bing Crosby, and Dean Martin, and Frank soloing on some of his greatest 1950s hits, to name only a few. The Timex shows still hold up today as solid entertainment.