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Post by Calenture on Mar 7, 2008 21:06:28 GMT
Tonight, 12:35 on BBC2, Ian Bannen and Judy Geeson investigate bizarre mutations and madness on a Scottish island in this ahead-of-its-time eco-thriller.
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Post by dem bones on Mar 7, 2008 22:07:20 GMT
Thanks for the reminder, Rog! I love Doomwatch! Deformed locals hidden away in attics (or is it basements?) and the most supremely hostile pub crowd this side of The Bull regulars in The Slime Beast! It just doesn't get any better than this!
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Post by Calenture on Mar 8, 2008 12:47:21 GMT
Thanks for the reminder, Rog! I love Doomwatch! Deformed locals hidden away in attics (or is it basements?) and the most supremely hostile pub crowd this side of The Bull regulars in The Slime Beast! It just doesn't get any better than this! I feel a traitor saying this, but the pedestrian direction left me straining to keep my eyes open, last night. Mind you, the fact that it was going on for 2:00 a.m. Friday night/Saturday morning and I'd been up since dawn and by now was celebrating the weekend probably had something to do with the heavy eyes. I trust that setting the video didn't play hell with your arm. At times like this, Chrissie must come in useful. It did seem a pity that Ian Bannen had been wheeled in to replace Simon Oates, who played the young Dr Ridge in the TV series. I have a strong memory of the two-part concluding episode in which Ridge has a breakdown and threatens humanity with phial of superbugs stolen from a germ-warfare lab. "Will Ridge Destroy the World?" screamed the Radio Times headline! White knuckles that night. Oates might have made better chemistry with Judy Geeson, whose schoolteacher had been gathering dust on an island surrounded by males with a collective IQ of about 70. No wonder she was grumpy! Then Bannen arrives, looking like her dad! Never mind. On with the next one, which is also set on a remote island. Now I'm not a big Agatha Christie fan, but if memory serves me, this is about as good as it gets for films of her stories: And Then There Were None, 1945, directed by René Clair. Clair had a sort of affinity with the dusty Gothic mood. He directed Robert Donat in The Ghost Goes West (1935) - the one about the Scottish ghost who moves to the States when a rich American buys his ancestral castle home and moves it there. And in 1942 he directed the brilliant I Married a Witch, with drop-dead gorgeous Veronica Lake and Frederic March. This page gives more titles, but most in his native French, of course, so can't tell you much more (I'm sure he made at least one more ghostly comedy in the thirties, remade recently with Peter O'Toole as High Spirits) René Clair's filmsAnd Then There Were None (also known as Ten Little Indians - and by another title which this board's profanity screeners won't permit) - starts with a small boat crossing a nightmare sea and the atmosphere just builds from there. It's on BBC2 at 2:20 p.m. today.
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Post by sean on Mar 8, 2008 14:09:12 GMT
Yep, 'And Then There Were None' is a pretty good film. Also enjoyed the book (which I bought first hand in the early 80s still with the n-word title), which to my mind is the best one Agatha Christie wrote.
As for the title change, political correctness or just common courtesy? tricky one.
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Post by Calenture on Mar 8, 2008 19:51:57 GMT
Yep, 'And Then There Were None' is a pretty good film. Also enjoyed the book (which I bought first hand in the early 80s still with the n-word title), which to my mind is the best one Agatha Christie wrote. As for the title change, political correctness or just common courtesy? tricky one. I've read this one, and it certainly didn't bore me or leave me feeling cheated - I can't remember what title it had for my copy. I didn't think I'd be doing so many TV posts in a row, but tonight on BBC1 at 12:30, Christina Ricci stars in a Wes Craven werewolf film from 2005 - Cursed. "On a moonlit night in Los Angeles, something darting out of the shadows causes siblings Ellie (Christina Ricci) and Jimmy (Jesse Eisenberg) to suddenly swerve their car off the road and plunge into a ravine. They escape with their lives, but are forever changed by the accident. Suddenly, the career driven Ellie and scrawny Jimmy find themselves blessed with increased physical strength, heightened sensibilities, and undeniable allure to everyone around them. "But what happened to them that night wasn't just an accident and what seemed like fate was really something more. New impulses are taking over them, and Ellie and Jimmy can no longer control their newfound powers. They must solve the mystery and break the curse before it completely consumes everything in its path." That's not too cliched then. Total TV describes it as "entertaining" and Ricci's fun, so that's good enough for me.
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Post by Calenture on Mar 14, 2008 11:32:45 GMT
The Survivor, tonight at 2:30 a.m., on BBC1, with Robert Powell and Jenny Agutter. A pilot is discovered wandering among the wreckage of his plane after it explodes just before take-off. He finds himself dogged by increasingly strange events. I saw this once, but too long ago to remember anything about it. I have a feeling it might be based on the book of the same title by James Herbert, but if anyone knows different, please speak up. In fact if anyone knows anything about it... Tomorrow on BBC2 (regions vary) Hitchcock's Strangers on a Train at 2:00 p.m. Also tomorrow on BBC1 at 11:40 p.m., Below is about about a WWII submarine forced to stay submerged on a long mission - and how the claustrophobic environment plays havoc with the crew. Their captain has apparently disappeared but now haunts the ship, and ghostly noises attract a German destroyer. Not sure if I've seen this one either. Sunday BBC2 12:45 a.m., Nastasia Kinski in the remake of Cat People (1982) if you need a soporific... Wednesday, A GOOD ONE: Roman Polanski's first feature film Knife in the Water (1961) was remade as Dead Calm, but this is the better version, I think. Freeview being the crap it is, I'll probably have to get a friend with satellite TV to record it. That's ITV4 1:35 a.m. (scenes from various Polanski films shown)
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Post by killercrab on Mar 14, 2008 16:17:32 GMT
I saw this once, but too long ago to remember anything about it. I have a feeling it might be based on the book of the same title by James Herbert, but if anyone knows different, please speak up. In fact if anyone knows anything about it... >.
Yep based on the Herbert book - directed by David Hammings. My tv guide gives it one star - personally I'd plunk down 3 - I liked it alot on the last watch. Incidently it's Joseph Cotton's last film.
Sunday BBC2 12:45 a.m., Nastasia Kinski in the remake of Cat People (1982) if you need a soporific...>>
LOVE this film ! I first saw it on release and have the dvd 'natch. Malcom McDowall is *purrfect* and Kinski does cat really well. Particularly like the desert dream sequences - so typically 1980's video...
ade
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Post by Calenture on Mar 18, 2008 21:24:29 GMT
Sorry about this late notice, but I just noticed that one of my fave Amicus films is showing tonight, Paul Annett's pretty faithful adaptation of the James Blish short story There Shall Be No Darkness. The TV paper has it listed as The Beast, but the synopsis makes it obvious which film it is. Calvin Lockhart as the millionaire hunter who invites a mixed bunch of people to his country house for the weekend, determined to find which one is the werewolf. ITVV4, 10:00 p.m. I don't usually like posting on one-off programmes not on analogue, but we don't get enough of these films.
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Post by Calenture on Mar 18, 2008 21:58:15 GMT
Oh pox take it! I just checked the EPG on Freeview, and despite the synopsis of The Beast Must Die in the paper, the film showing according to EPG is a Nineteen-Eighties thing starring two actors I never heard of. I think it's actually a war film. Bang goes my evening in front of the telly. Just lit the fire for nothing. How embarrassing! Sorry! P.S. Dem, stop laughing.
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Post by Calenture on Apr 12, 2008 21:36:26 GMT
BBC1, 11:50 tonight Total TV only gives it 2 stars, but here's someone else's synopsis: Theres something in this house... Something ancient and dark that remains still, hidden and silent. It can only wait, having been concealed in the shadows for years. In fact, its milieu is darkness. Only in it can it show itself and move. It even takes its name: DARKNESS.
It's lived here since someone tried to call it, more than forty years ago. Because this house hides a secret, a terrible past, an inconceivably evil act Seven children, faceless people, a circle that must be completed. And blood, lots of blood But something went wrong. One of the children got away. The circle wasnt completed. Thats why what lives here isn't finished.
It's just waiting It tries to carry out what it couldn't before, making plans in the shadows, to become complete, to be, to exist
A new family has just moved into the house. A small child. An unstable father capable of losing his temper at any time. A perfect target. The right place at the right time. The pieces only have to be put in place. And then wait... Synopsis by Anna Oms from this IMDb page. And here's some opinions: "I hate to be so overwhelmingly positive, but I honestly think this film is as close to flawless as they come. I can’t think of anything negative to write except that a couple of the Spanish accents are so thick it’s a bit hard to understand. ... Best horror film I’ve seen in the last two years at least. Bar none." --Mike Skinner (Diabolical-Dominion.com) -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- "I will warn you, though -- if you're not a fan of plot points being revealed through crayon drawings, this one won't be for you. "Darkness" does cash in a heap of spooky ghost movie cliches (scary storms, old pictures, exploring the dark house with candles), which some people will no doubt find annoying." --Brian Juergans (Bloody-Disgusting.com) -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- " Darkness does start out pretty slow like most ghost stories do but once it gets going you’re in for one hell of a trip. Some of the plot comes across as pretty ambiguous but that may improve with repeated viewings. Wait until you see the ending, it’s so good I can’t praise it enough." --BQueen (HorrorWatch.com) -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- "A good movie, but very similar to the director's previous film The Nameless. Worth a look for a good story and creepy scenes, but don't expect too much. 6/10" --FrighT MasteR (UHM) -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- From Mo viees
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Post by bradstevens on Apr 12, 2008 23:01:10 GMT
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Post by sean on Apr 13, 2008 11:51:50 GMT
'Darkness' is a superb little horror film, with a lovely downbeat ending.
Can't say much more at the mo (see other thread)
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Post by Calenture on Apr 22, 2008 9:41:40 GMT
BBC4 is one of the few Freeview channels I can usually get. I don't remember anything about this series - it's not up to Night Stalker standards, I gather. Anyway, I found a detailed review here at Moria. Here's part of it - it's the pilot show for a series put together by Gene Rodenberry - and almost inevitably (and promisingly, I would have thought) James Villiers is up to dirty occult dealings... "Spectre came at the tail end of a cycle of occult films in the 1970s that had been created by huge hits like Rosemary’s Baby (1968), The Exorcist (1973) and The Omen (1976) and numerous imitators of each of these. This occult fad was copied on television, albeit somewhat more watered down than their cinematic counterparts. Amid this, there was also a micro-fad for occult investigator films with the likes of Daughter of the Mind (1969), The Norliss Tapes (1973) and most successfully The Night Stalker (1972) and its follow-up The Night Strangler (1973) and the tv series Kolchak: The Night Stalker (1974). Although what one suspects really inspired Gene Roddenberry here was Hammer’s Dennis Wheatley adaptation The Devil Rides Out/The Devil’s Bride (1968), which Spectre has a good many similarities to, not the least of which is the similarities between the central occult investigator savants of Robert Culp’s William Sebastian and Christopher Lee’s Duc de Richlieu." 10:30 p.m. BBC 4, tonight.
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Post by Johnlprobert on Apr 22, 2008 10:04:57 GMT
I think it was a made for TV movie that got released in cinemas over here - they did that quite a bit at the time with stuff like Battlestar Galactica & Buck Rogers
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Post by Johnlprobert on Apr 22, 2008 17:20:07 GMT
Tomorrow night (Wednesday) at 9pm there's a medieval comedy called HEIST, which may be of interest to certain members here, if only because Radio Times readers are advised to 'avoid like the plague' because 'its junior school poo gags, comedy accents and endless innuendo are more like On the Buses'.
Surely a recommendation to some?
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