Escape from Alcatraz (1979)

Escape from Alcatraz is a 1979 American thriller directed by Don Siegel and starred Clint Eastwood. It dramatizes the only possible successful escape attempt on Alcatraz Island. The film co-stars Fred Ward, and also features Patrick McGoohan as the suspicious, vindictive warden, and features the film debut of Danny Glover.

Frank Morris is sent to the prison on Alcatraz. There, he meets his old friends, brothers John and Clarence Anglin and also makes the acquaintance of the prisoner in the cell next to his, Charlie Butts. After a series of negative experiences involving the warden of Alcatraz, Morris decides to escape and persuades the other three men to join him.

The inmates dig through the walls of their cells with spoons, make Papier-machier dummies to act as decoys, and construct a raft out of raincoats. On the night of their escape, Butts gets frightened and does not go with the others. Morris and the Anglin brothers make it out of the prison and paddle their raft towards the mainland, never to be seen again. Still, there is some hint at the end of the film that they made it to shore.

Screenwriter Richard Tuggle spent six months researching and writing a screenplay based on the 1963 non-fiction account by J. Campbell Bruce. He went to the Writers Guild and received a list of literary agents who would accept unsolicited manuscripts. He submitted a copy to each, and also to anybody else in the business that he could cajole into reading it. Everyone rejected it, saying it had poor dialogue and characters, lacked a love interest, and that the public was not interested in prison stories. Tuggle decided to bypass producers and executives and deal directly with filmmakers. He called the agent for director Don Siegel and lied, saying he had met Siegel at a party and the director had expressed interest in reading his script. The agent forwarded the script to Siegel, who read it, liked it, and passed it on to Clint Eastwood.

Eastwood was drawn to the role as ringleader Frank Morris and agreed to star, providing Siegel direct under the Malpaso banner. However, Siegel insisted that it be a Don Siegel film and out-maneuvered Clint by purchasing the rights to the film for $100,000. This created a rift between the two friends. Although Siegel eventually agreed for it to be a Malpaso-Siegel production, Siegel went to Paramount Pictures, a rival studio and never directed an Eastwood picture again.

The Moomins - Part One

The Moomins (Polish: Opowiadania Muminków, German: Die Mumins) is a animated childrens' television series based on the Tove Jansson's Moomin series of books which was originally produced by Se-Ma-Fo and Jupiter Film between the years 1977–1982, originally for Polish, Austrian and German television. The series was later on sold to other countries including the UK. The British version was adapted by Anne Wood at Film Fair and first broadcast in the UK in 1983 on CITV and was repeated until 1989, and was narrated by British actor Richard Murdoch.

This series was often referred to as the Fuzzy Felt Moomins, due to the appearance of the characters. It was the third series to be made based on the Moomin books, with two more made since then. Nonetheless, it is one of the two best known Moomin series, along with Moomin (1990). This version has at times been criticised for being scary in places and rather dark in tone for the young audience at which it was aimed. It is, in contrast to the 1990s series, widely believed to be by far the most faithful TV adaptation of Tove Jansson's stories, and much closer to her vision.

The scripts for each episode were translated from Polish into Finnish and sent to Tove and Lars Jansson, who, if they felt that anything needed to be changed, would correct the script, expand or rewrite its parts; afterwards, the scripts were sent back and only then would production of the particular episode begin.

Randall & Hopkirk (Deceased) - Episode Seven: Murder Ain't What it Used To Be

Murder Ain't What it Used to Be is the seventh episode of the classic 1969 Series, Randall & Hopkirk (Deceased) starring Mike Pratt, Kenneth Cope and Annette Andre. The episode was first broadcast on 2 November 1969 on ITV. The episode was Directed by Jeremy Summers.

Crime boss Paul Kirstner flies over to England from New York to attend to "business" in London. Behind most of the rackets in Chicago, he hires Jeff to protect his daughter from any of his enemies whilst in London. However, Kirstner is being haunted by the white suited Bugsy "Smiler" Spanio (closely modelled on Al Capone), a man he double-crossed and murdered after they stole a million dollars worth of alcohol before they ended prohibition.

Knowing that Jeff is being hired by Kirstner, Bugsy contacts Marty and begins to terrorise Jeannie unless Jeff kills Kirstner for him. His trademark cigar, white hat and raucous laughter is stereotypical of a Chicago gangster of the 1920s, and he appears in the mirror several times to taunt Jeannie as she is taking care of her appearance.

With Jeff constantly stalling, Bugsy changes his tactics and asks Jeff to dial a number on the telephone and tell the person on the other end that if there are any messages for Kirstner then he's with his daughter. Unbeknownst to Jeff, the man on the other end of the line is Jack Lacey, a rival criminal who also wants Kirstner dead. Lacey and his henchmen arrive at Kirstner's retreat, and they force entry and wait for Paul Kirstner to return at night fall. Shortly before he arrives, Jeff encourages Marty to make Bugsy mad by hitting him and throwing objects at him, so that Bugsy's attack on the property will distract Lacey and his armed henchman. After he does so, Kirstner arrives and gains the upper hand of the surprised enemies and leads them both outside in the dark to be murdered, planting a gun on Lacey and telling him he'll claim to the police it was self-defence. However, Kirstner is distracted by the ghost Bugsy, that only he can see and he finally gets his revenge on Kirstner by allowing Lacey to kill him.

THE BEATLES The Second Book Of 50 Hit Songs (1967)

THE BEATLES: The Second Book Of 50 Hit Songs was printed way back in 1967 and was a 144 page sheet music book containing songs drawn predominantly from Help!, Rubber Soul, Revolver & Sgt. Pepper, with a few single releases thrown in for good measure, great picture cover.

Cloppa Castle - Episode Four: A Champion for Tizzibel.

The King is furious at how much Princess Tizzibel is costing him. He decides that she should be married off. A tournament of Knightly competitions is thus planned. Unbeknown to the Byegones, Beosweyne and his right hand man Hench, are planning to enter the tournament.

A mysterious black knight appears and defeats all who go up against him. He eventually wins the tournament and then to the horror of all watching, he reveals himself to be Beosweyne. He demands to be moved into the castle with his servant in order to go ahead with the wedding.

ceremony the next morning.

Later that night, Cue-ee-dee and Orbright try to frighten him out of the castle but they are foiled when the bed collapses. The next morning, the wedding is almost complete when Cue-ee-dee and albrite save the day by showing up with Beosweyne's wife. She beats him about the head and escorts him out of the castle.

Record Mirror - Donny Osmond (1973)

Record Mirror was a 28 page Newspaper style music magazine. This particular edition was issued on 1st September 1973 and features a great cover of Donny Osmond.

Tony Curtis on Picturegoer.

Tony Curtis gracing the cover of Picturegoer dates back to 1953.

It's 1958 and Tony Curtis again graces the cover!

Tony Hancock is "The Rebel!" (1960)

A downtrodden office worker and amateur painter and sculptor rebels against his complacent bourgeois existence and moves to Paris, where he attempts to be taken seriously as an artist.

This was the first big screen work for Hancock's Half-Hour (BBC, 1956-60) writers Galton & Simpson, with Tony Hancock as usual playing a character called Hancock. The trio's shared TV and radio work allows his established persona to inform the film, so there are some classic comic scenes and lines, developing anti-intellectual themes Hancock had worked with before. Many of the jokes about 'modern' (or abstract) art seem less funny now, and there is an air of comic stereotype cliché about them, but they remind us that one way of dealing with the unfamiliar or intellectual is to mock.

The opening gag, where Hancock gets his train seat by sneaking aboard from the wrong side via a train on the other platform, sets him up as a rebel, and his subsequent run-ins with representatives of authority (the boss, his landlady) continue this theme. Like many rebels, though, when confronted with more serious issues - such as the loss of his ticket to Paris, the moral question of unwittingly passing off painting as his own, or coping with unwanted advances from the shipping magnate's wife - he wants to do the right thing, and in attempting to extricate himself gives depth to the comedy.

Hancock's outfits signal what is happening: as frustrated artist he wears smock and beret; as city worker brolly, bowler and suit; as rich (con-)artist: cigarette-holder, homburg, cape and cravat are the emperor's new clothes. Finally he's in casual mode, the true rebel who has rejected it all for his 'art'.

In this film, comic rebellion places artists as the antithesis of workers and there is a kind of lazy shorthand at work that conflates artists with Paris, existentialism, angry young men, beatniks and beat poets. Cod philosophical discussions of what art is about permeate the film, but this reflects the times accurately and allows Hancock to get in his "You're all raving mad" catchphrase as he quits the exhibition and its phony artists, artworks and monied hangers-on. The coda has him remaining true to himself, re-creating the Aphrodite statue once more, now with Irene Handl as his model. In an absurdist echo down the years, Aphrodite and the other works seen in the film were re-created by the London Institute of Pataphysics in 2002. Hancock would have loved the irony.

THE

MONTHLY FILM BULLETIN

Published by

THE BRITISH FILM INSTITUTE

Volume 28,No.326,March 1961,pages 33-4

REBEL, THE (1960)

Feeling that England has nothing to offer him, that his landlady misunderstands him and office routine is crushing his spirit, Hancock moves to Paris to pursue his career as a painter. His work is childishly terrible, but a bogus intellectual set takes him up and confirms his confidence in his genius. He becomes so patronising to Paul, the unsuccessful painter with whom he shares a studio, that the latter goes dejectedly back to England, leaving his paintings behind. Sir Charles Brouard, art critic and dealer, sees Paul's paintings, takes them for Hancock's, and promotes a highly successful exhibition. Suspicion only creeps in when Hancock, commissioned to sculpt a bust of a rich patron's wife, produces a work as hideous as it is deplorable. Sir Charles has organised a London show for Hancock, who calls on Paul in the hope that he can produce the necessary paintings. Paul, who is now painting in the Hancock manner, is acclaimed as a brilliant artist after a confession scene at the gallery; and Hancock returns to his landlady, his favourite statue, and his conviction that one day his talent will be recognised.

Tony Hancock, the funniest of the television comedians, has made the dangerous transition to the larger screen rather more happily than most. The script, by his TV writers, keeps the element of brave fantasy, the conviction of unrecognised grandeur; and Hancock at work, chipping away at his appalling statue, squirting paint with bland optimism over his action painting, is a fine figure. One misses, though, his anchor-man, the astringent Sidney James, and the whole background of down-at-heel respectability. The more prosaic the setting, the funnier Hancock seems; transplanted into a conventionally silly screen art world, he is submerged among the other grotesques. The Rebel gives its hero some agreeably deflationary dialogue; but the director, Robert Day, lacks the confidence to allow humour to take its time in developing and continually tries to force it by over-emphasis. The scene of office routine and the beatnik party in Paris are cases of thin material made to look thinner by the handling. All the same, enough of Hancock's gloomy truculence and shabby splendour come through; he makes his paint-crazed insurance clerk very likeable.

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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.

Corrie on the TV-Times (1961)

This classic TV Times cover dates back to 1961 and features the classic characters, Ena Sharples, Elsie Tanner & Martha Longhurst.

Sons and Daughters - Episode Nine

A police car pulls up outside the Rembrandt Hotel. John is not inside, though; he is actually watching proceedings from nearby. Four policemen get out of the car and one of them notices John. He shouts, "Hey, you!" John immediately panics and starts to run. As the policeman chases him, John climbs over a fence, darts into a shop and out again and eventually manages to lose his pursuer.

David shows Susan another newspaper article about John. Susan tells her father that Beryl saw her son at the market. David says John is acting as if he's guilty. Susan points out a car outside the house on the opposite side of the road and says she's sure it's the police keeping watch.

John 'phones Fiona and tells her about the police. Fiona gives John the address of some friends of hers in Beach Street, East Bentley, where he can go and stay in safety until she arrives in Melbourne on the first flight from Sydney the next morning. Fiona says somehow or other, she'll get John out.

Fiona duly arrives the next morning and tells John that she's hired a car to get them back to Sydney. John can't work out who dobbed him in, saying that Bill was the only person who knew where he was. He can't believe Bill would call the police, though, and decides it must have been the hotel owner. Fiona says Bill must have done it; John says Bill had no reason to.

Nora Todd points out the newspaper article to her son. She says "John was here, wasn't he?" She tells Bill she heard John's voice, but Bill denies it was his best mate, saying it was another mate, Andrew Blaxland, whose voice she heard. Nora tells Bill that she doesn't like his secretiveness and wants to know why she had to tell people Bill was with her when Selmar was killed. Bill won't talk, though, and says there's nothing to worry about.

Wayne shows Patricia a picture of her in the newspaper from a social party she attended. Angela is in a bad mood - Gordon asks if it's because of "Scott". As Wayne stands in the doorway of Gordon's office, Angela tells her father she's never been so unhappy. Gordon instructs Wayne to leave him and Angela alone; Wayne immediately goes and tells his mother that Gordon gave him the evil eye when he was only trying to be sociable. Gordon tells Angela he still liked "Scott". Angela says "Scott" humiliated her because he knew Jill was pregnant when they were having fun on the beach the other day. Angela asks her father not to tell Patricia or Wayne what she'd just said. When Angela leaves the office, Wayne enters and asks his father for $50 for dinner at the yacht club. Gordon wants to know where all Wayne's money has gone. He also tells his son that his timing was lousy over Angela.

Fiona and John get back to the boarding house. They look in the Sydney newspaper, but there is only a very small article about a man evading capture in Melbourne; there is no name or picture.

Wayne tells Patricia he asked Gordon for money, and says he feels like a schoolkid who has to ask for pocket money. Wayne says Gordon should give him his grandad's trust fund money. Patricia tells Wayne he'll get the money when he's 25, but Wayne says that's another two years off yet. Wayne asks Patricia for $100 and she gives it to him. Patricia goes and asks Gordon about the trust fund. Gordon tells his wife that Wayne is immature and the money will be frittered away. He says Wayne has no concept of the value of money.

John tells Fiona that things don't make sense, and says he needs a good night's sleep.

Patricia is freezing out Gordon. He apologises for earlier and says he credits Patricia for a lot of his business success. Gordon tells his wife that he wonders how things would have turned out if they'd never left Woombai. Patricia tells Gordon he's a country boy at heart. Gordon says he remembers the first time he saw Patricia at Manly Terrace, holding Angela and trying to stop her crying. Patricia says "You always have to spoil it!"

John pores over a set of newspaper clippings Fiona has kept. He tells Fiona that Bill told him Sam was on the 'phone when he was attacked. The only way he could have known this was if he was the attacker. John then realises that Bill could have been told by the police or by Mrs. Selmar. Fiona asks if Bill was mad at Selmar too. John says Bill had a very bad temper, to which Fiona replies that Bill is as guilty as hell. John says he thought Bill was his mate. He suddenly realises Susan can't marry Bill, and immediately 'phones home. The line is engaged, however.

David is on the 'phone, talking to his father who's trying to find out if the wedding is still on. After the call, David tells Susan he shouldn't have told his father the wedding was on. The 'phone rings again and Susan answers. This time, John has got through, and tells Susan to call off the wedding. Susan tells John he's gone round the bend, but John says he knows Bill is trying to cover things up and Susan mustn't marry him. Susan tells John to go away and leave them alone.

Susan goes round to Bill's. As he comforts her, he tells his fiancée, "We know the rumours are not true." Bill tells Susan not to repeat to anyone, what John said. Nora is standing in the doorway and overhears the conversation. Bill cuddles Susan, with a very guilty look on his face.

Cockleshell Bay: Episode Five - Happy Birthday Gran Routy

The Cockles and Gran Routy are finishing off their coffee and tea. Mrs. Cockle then asks Gran if she would do the bedrooms as she wants to use the kitchen. Gran is a little puzzled as bedroom day is normally tomorrow but she goes and gets on with her work. It turns out that it is Gran's birthday and the Cockles plan a surprise. Mrs. Cockle is making a special birthday tea. The children go outside.

Rosie has a small bag with some ingredients in it. They head to Mr. Ship's yard. Mr. ship helps them but soon leaves as he has some shopping to do. Gran arrives at the party and brings a cake she had made just as Mrs. Cockle brings out the cake she made, just as Mr. Ship brings out the cake he went shopping for, just as the twins bring out the cake they had made.