1960 !

A thread on The Internet Movie Database (IMDb) on 1960 unleashed a torrent of memories:

1960 - what a year to have been 14 and "deeper into movies". Looking at it retrospectively now I am firmly in the PSYCHO and L'AVVENTURA camp (though I did not see the latter until years later) as the two most important films of the year, ushering in the new modern world (both of course feature a woman who goes missing and the people searching for her....)



So the major ones that year for me are: The 10 Big Ones:

PSYCHO
L'AVVENTURA
LA DOLCE VITA
ROCCO AND HIS BROTHERS
PLEIN SOLEIL [I was entranced by that cool European style, and Delon and Laforet]
WILD RIVER [ditto Lee Remick]
THE APARTMENT
SPARTACUS
A BOUT DE SOUFFLE (BREATHLESS)
PEEPING TOM.

Lots of solid middlebrow entertainment:

SONS AND LOVERS
TWO WOMEN [Sophia at her peak]
NEVER ON SUNDAY
ELMER GANTRY
LETS MAKE LOVE
THE UNFORGIVEN
EXODUS
NORTH TO ALASKA [a favourite!]
THE MAGNIFICENT SEVEN
WHERE THE BOYS ARE
THE CROWDED SKY
THE TIME MACHINE
SWISS FAMILY ROBINSON [great fun]
POLLYANNA [how we loved that in Ireland!]
BUTTERFIELD 8
THE FALL OF THE HOUSE OF USHER
BRIDES OF DRACULA
SINK THE BISMARCK
THE ENTERTAINER
SATURDAY NIGHT AND SUNDAY MORNING
TUNES OF GLORY
THE LEAGUE OF GENTLEMEN
THE SUNDOWNERS [Mitch and Kerr were so ideally perfect here, again]
THE GRASS IS GREENER
CIMARRON
THE LOST WORLD.

I suppose THE ALAMO should be included too among the year's hits, and I also liked Blake Edwards' HIGH TIME where rich Bing Crosby goes back to college, and rooms with Fabian, Richard Beymer and Tuesday Weld!

It was certainly the year for call girls - apart from Elizabeth and Melina (NEVER ON SUNDAY) there were also

Gina Lollobrigida - GO NAKED IN THE WORLD (high class call girl falls for Tony Franciosa but his powerful father - Ernest Borgnine, an ex-client of hers, has other ideas...)

Nancy Kwan - THE WORLD OF SUZIE WONG

Anne Francis - GIRL OF THE NIGHT (downbeat indie film)

and award-winning Shirley Jones in ELMER GANTRY.

Adultery in suburbia was covered in Quine's STRANGERS WHEN WE MEET, with Kim Novak at her zenith.

It may have been Sophia Loren's best year: apart from the success of TWO WOMEN, she was also in Cukor's charming western HELLER IN PINK TIGHTS, plus THE MILLIONAIRESS with Peter Sellers' Indian doctor, with Gable in his second last film IT STARTED IN NAPLES which is still a charmer, and the under-rated A BREATH OF SCANDAL which I liked a lot.

Brigitte Bardot acted in LA VERITE, and Ingmar Bergman provided the austere THE VIRGIN SPRING, while Stanley Kramer inflicted the ponderous INHERIT THE WIND on us, and John Ford provided a good late western SERGEANT RUTLEDGE.

Donen's ONCE MORE WITH FEELING showcased Kay Kendall in her last role, she had died in 1959.

There were 2 Minnelli's: another hothouse melodrama HOME FROM THE HILL, and the under-rated musical BELLS ARE RINGING, Judy Holliday's last appearance.

Elvis was back from the army in GI BLUES and FLAMING STAR.

For those who like that kind of thing: Jerry Lewis as THE BELLBOY.

Some ghastly musicals were Fox's CAN-CAN and Columbia's all-star PEPE, and the Rat Pack played around in OCEAN'S 11.

One that did not work at all was Lumet's too highbrow THE FUGITIVE KIND, though Brando, Magnani and Woodward should have generated some box office .... despite playing what seemed like caricatures of themselves.

and for Trash you can't beat MGM and Arthur Freed for THE SUBTERRANEANS, their sanitised version of Jack Kerouac and the beat generation as depicted by Leslie Caron, George Peppard and Roddy McDowell - followed by the star quartet of Natalie, RJ Wagner, Susan Kohner and George Hamilton tearing each other apart in ALL THE FINE YOUNG CANNIBALS, plus the afore-mentioned GO NAKED IN THE WORLD. Lurid melodrama doesn't get much better... though there were also two Burton starrers: THE BRAMBLE BUSH and ICE PALACE; while THE DARK AT THE TOP OF THE STAIRS and FROM THE TERRACE were also contenders.

Some other delirious treats - not Trash, but Guilty Pleasures - were two Ross Hunter extravaganzas: Lana, Sandra and Quinn in PORTRAIT IN BLACK and Doris and Rex in MIDNIGHT LACE, and Dirk Bogarde as Lizst in SONG WITHOUT END, plus Fox's biblical: THE STORY OF RUTH, while Gordon Scott was Tarzan and Belinda Lee and Steve Reeves headed the Italian sword-and-sandal movies.

Lots of these are covered at the Trash label.

Dirk Bogarde double bill: those '50s British war movies...

Life during wartime back in the '50s - including a brace of early Bogardes.

THE SEA SHALL NOT HAVE THEM. I saw this 1954 war drama as a kid, and it still involves now as it almost plays like a documentary on the wartime air rescue service, who went out in their boats in all weathers to rescue crews from downed planes. Here a plane ditches in the North Sea as Michael Redgrave (carrying a briefcase of military secrets), Dirk Bogarde, Bonar Colleano and Jack Watling spend the film in a dinghy in the Shepperton tank. The rescue boat 2561 is headed by Nigel Patrick and Anthony Steel (in regulation duffel coats and polo neck sweaters) and the lower orders below deck include all the familiar faces: Sidney Tafler, Victor Maddern, Michael Ripper. The men in the dinghy start to deteriorate in adverse weather, a rescue plane also has to ditch and picks up a German, (Anton Diffring of course), while back on land posh wife (Rachel Kempson, Mrs Redgrave) and working class one (young Joan Sims) get a scene each, and there is also a middle-class girlfriend waiting, so class distinctions are as rigid as in IN WHICH WE SERVE. It is all directed at a brisk pace by Lewis Gilbert. Certainly one of the best war movies of the ‘50s.

APPOINTMENT IN LONDON. A marvellous early Dirk Bogarde film I had not seen before, this 1953 film, sensitively directed by Philip Leacock, is one of the better war films of the ‘50s. It seems to be a realistic depiction of Bomber Command, flying their Lancasters on those nightly bombing raids. Bogarde is the Wing Commander who has done more than his share of night flights but wants to continue, he is grounded though by his superiors who feel that fatigue has set in. Bryan Forbes is the young flyer who disobeys orders by letting his girl (secretly his wife) know he is safe after flights, much to Bogarde’s annoyance. Later Dirk has to confront the wife, Anne Leon. Lots of regulars are among the ranks: Richard Wattis, Sam Kydd, Terence Longdon, William Slyvester. Dinah Sheridan is perfect again as the naval officer and her romance with Bogarde, who gets his opportunity to fly again, nicely depicted. As it THE WAY TO THE STARS there is also that bar and hotel next to the airfield. In all, a pleasant surprise. Leacock directed some interesting little films like this, THE SPANISH GARDENER and REACH FOR GLORY (both reviewed here , Bodarde, war labels) before going over to American television directing series like “The Waltons”, “Dynasty” and “Falcon Crest”.



SEA OF SAND. One of those British war movies they turned out a lot in the ‘50s, this 1958 one is rather a companion piece to ICE COLD IN ALEX. Here our motley crew are behind enemy lines tasked to destroy a German petrol dump as part of the North Africa campaign, in 1942. Guy Green keeps it moving nicely and the desert is like an ocean of sand with that crisp black and white photography. John Gregson and Michael Craig lead our men, with Richard Attenborough as one of the squaddies. The usual conflicts arise and sacrifices are made; surprisingly the young 21 year old who confides that his wife had a son a week earlier manages to survive – I had him down as a goner! It is an under-rated, well-made example of the war genre with some splendid moments, and a nice coda at the end.

Back in the '40s during the war those films like IN WHICH WE SERVE, THE WAY TO THE STARS, THE GENTLE SEX, 2000 WOMEN and THE DAY WILL DAWN are still very affecting and were just the ticket then - then came those expensive '60s re-creations like BATTLE OF BRITAIN, OH WHAT A LOVELY WAR and no end of stuff like OPERATION CROSSBOW or WHERE EAGLES DARE!

People We Like: the great dependables ...

Jack Hawkins [1910-1973]. No wonder when Howard Hawks was casting LAND OF THE PHAROAHS in ’55, he chose Jack for his Pharoah, he has the required natural authority here to be a very commanding Egyptian king. No wonder when William Wyler was casting BEN-HUR he chose Jack for the part of the Roman admiral Quintus Arrius. Again, Jack was perfect here, and no wonder when John Ford was casting his GIDEON OF SCOTLAND YARD in ’58 Jack was the obvious choice for the police commander – which led to all those cop dramas on television. Hawkins it seems always had that natural authority which made him ideal for military men in war dramas and costumers. Odd to think that when young he and Jessica Tandy were married to each other. Other great Hawkins roles of course include his Allenby in LAWRENCE OF ARABIA (below), THE CRUEL SEA, ZULU, THE BRIDGE ON THE RIVER KWAI, with Loren in JUDITH, with Ty Power in THE BLACK ROSE (1950), MANDY, THE MALTA STORY, LORD JIM, WATERLOO and he is perfect as the leader of THE LEAGUE OF GENTLEMEN in 1960. I won't mention the dreadful SHALAKO or GREAT CATHERINE in '68!
An aside: a lot has been written about the supposed "gay subtext" inserted by Gore Vidal in BEN HUR, concerning Boyd and Heston, but I wonder if they did not have a word with Jack too, as although his hobby is training fighting men in Rome, he practically slavers when he sees the hunky Ben at the oars, and that whole scene and the ones following are all about Hawkins and his attraction to Heston. Is it just me or is that whole "ramming scene" very suggestive .... later Ben is like his hunky boyfriend when they arrive in Rome and Hawkins then "adopts" him, giving Ben his signet ring - it's almost like a civil partnership ceremony! Hawkins though lost his voice in 1966 but continued acting with a voice box and being dubbed (usually by Charles Gray). A brave man indeed.



Trevor Howard [1913-1988]. Trevor was a star and a leading man for a long time, and then like Hawkins and James Mason had a good run in the 60s in strong supporting parts and kept busy right until the end. One always knew one was going to enjoy any movie with Trevor. He was married to actress Helen Cherry and seems to have been a bit of a hell-raiser in his time, but what an actor. I like him as the young leading man in THE GOLDEN SALAMANDER, ’49 with the teenage Anouk Aimee, and THE CLOUDED YELLOW, in 1950 with Jean Simmons, after his breakthrough roles in BRIEF ENCOUNTER (he is just right as Alec Harvey), GREEN FOR DANGER, THE WAY TO THE STARS, THE THIRD MAN and for Lean, his lover coming back into the life of married Ann Todd in THE PASSIONATE FRIENDS in 1948 (a recent discovery, and several of Howards are reviewed here, as per label). THE HEART OF THE MATTER and OUTCAST OF THE ISLANDS are also key roles, as are his African roles in THE ROOTS OF HEAVEN for Zanuck by Huston, and Jack Cardiff’s THE LION in 1962, where his gruff manner is perfect. I like RUN FOR THE SUN with Jane Greer and Widmark in ’56, where he is he Nazi holed up in the jungle, and his evil villain in INTERPOL with Anita Ekberg and Vic Mature in ’57. Then there were Carol Reed’s THE KEY with Loren and Holden, and of course SONS AND LOVERS for Cardiff where he and Wendy Hiller are ideal as the warring parents. He crops up in OPERATION CROSSBOW, is ideal in THE CHARGE OF THE LIGHT BRIGADE (top with Harry Andrews), and BATTLE OF BRITAIN, and of course back with Lean in Ireland for that priest in RYAN’S DAUGHTER. He was re-united with Celia Johnson for that nice telefilm STAYING ON in 1980. Then there was Wagner for Visconti in LUDWIG in ’72 with Silvano Mangano as Mrs Wagner, Losey’s A DOLL’S HOUSE as Dr Rank, STEVIE with Glenda Jackson, and a schmaltzy Christmas movie CHRISTMAS EVE with Loretta Young in ’86. These are just a few in a long and varied career – and of course his Captain Bligh opposite Brando in the ’62 MUTINY ON THE BOUNTY. They don’t really make them like Trevor any more.



Nigel Patrick [1913-1981]. Nigel was a dapper gent, very insouciant, bred in the theatre and had a some good movie roles in the ‘50s and ‘60s. He is ideal as the teacher who regrets carrying on with Michael Redgrave’s wife in Rattigan’s THE BROWNING VERSION in 1951, and the test pilot who marries Ann Todd in Lean’s THE SOUND BARRIER in ’52, as well as Mr Jingle in THE PICKWICK PAPERS, young Audrey Hepburn’s husband in YOUNG WIVE’S TALE in ’51, and the test driver who wrecks his racing car for love of Ava Gardner in PANDORA AND THE FLYING DUTCHMAN. He pops up in RAINTREE COUNTY in ’57, and that year stars in and directs a droll black comedy HOW TO MURDER A RICH UNCLE, which is too little known now. He is ideal as the police superintendent solving the mystery of SAPPHIRE, a race drama from 1959, and he is the defence council who defends Peter Finch’s Oscar Wilde in THE TRIALS OF OSCAR WILDE in 1960, a splendid performance, as is his turn with Jack Hawkins in THE LEAGUE OF GENTLEMEN in 1960. Other roles of note were in ALL FOR MARY in ’56 and THE SEA SHALL NOT HAVE THEM, BATTLE OF BRITAIN as well as lots of theatre and television. We like Nigel a lot.

HOW TO MURDER A RICH UNCLE - Having also recently seen Charles Coburn again in GENTLEMEN PREFER BLONDES, Nigel Patrick in THE BROWNING VERSION and THE SOUND BARRIER, and Wendy Hiller again in I KNOW WHERE I’M GOING, it was a pleasure to see them together in the 1957 British comedy HOW TO MURDER A RICH UNCLE, directed by Patrick, who also plays the lead and is as splendidly insouciant as ever. He and wife Wendy are the impoverished aristocrats trying to bump off their American relation – Coburn – but every attempt goes wrong, leading to members of the family being bumped off instead. It is low key but nicely droll and should be a much better known black comedy. Supporting players are those wonderful eccentrics Athene Seyler and Katie Johnson (from THE LADYKILLERS), with a young Anthony Newley and an almost silent Michael Caine in one of his first bit parts. A Warwick film which Columbia used to distribute.



Harry Andrews [1911-1989]. Like Anthony Quayle Harry is another ‘great dependable’, equally at home as military men in any war film, or in costume in those ‘50s epics like his Persian king Darius in Rossen’s ALEXANDER THE GREAT in ’56, Balthor the advisor to Gina Lollobrigida’s queen in SOLOMON AND SHEBA, or Hector in the best film about HELEN OF TROY, in 55. He excels of course in ICE COLD IN ALEX, Lumet’s THE HILL, and again like the others here had a very prolific progidious career. He is just right too as the brother of Beryl Reid in the 1970 film of Orton’s ENTERTAINING MR SLOANE eager to get his hands on that enterprising young man. Then there were his roles in Huston’s MOBY DICK, Preminger’s SAINT JOAN, war films like A HILL IN KOREA, a little film I like REACH FOR GLORY with Kay Walsh in 1962 (I must report back on that one), Nick Ray’s 55 DAYS AT PEKING, NOTHING BUT THE BEST, Lumet’s THE DEADLY AFFAIR, THE JOKERS and so many others, BATTLE OF BRITAIN of course, Losey's MODESTY BLAISE with Vitti, and his Lord Lucan in Richardson’s THE CHARGE OF THE LIGHT BRIGADE in ’68. Harry kept going until the end of the 80s. He was certainly a trouper.
An enduring memory of the ‘80s is an edition of “This Is Your Life” which was devoted to Harry – and to his, and our, astonishment, out walked Gina Lollobrigida in full Queen of Sheba dress, including that hair ornament, to thank Harry for helping her with her English during the shoot of SOLOMON AND SHEBA. Then she sat down next to a bemused Beryl Reid. Pity I didn’t get to video that…. His IMDB profile lists lots of theatre work with Gielgud and Olivier. I think Harry was what was mentioned then as a “confirmed bachelor” – it is always a pleasure to see him in any role, large or small.

Next: some great female dependables and a couple of dames!

A Rattigan double bill

A terrific early '50s double bill of Terence Rattigan adaptations - I thought I would steal a march on the London NFT (National Film Theatre) with their mini-Rattigan season in April, it being Rattigan's centenary year (as it is also Tennessee Williams]. Several Rattigan productions are already on their way to being staged here - a new version of FLARE PATH opens shortly by Trevor Nunn (this was the basis for the great 1945 THE WAY TO THE STARS) [my review of this favourite is at War label], and there is also a new production of CAUSE CELEBRE and Terence Davies has made a new version of THE DEEP BLUE SEA (the 1955 Vivien Leigh film being curiously unavailable for years [though I did source a copy last year]. So it seems Rattigan is back being in favour again. I saw him give a lecture back at the NFT in the early '70s when he was as spry and dapper as ever. His great successes of the '50s and those scripts he turned out in the '60s for films like THE VIPS, THE YELLOW ROLLS ROYCE and that remake of GOODBYE MR CHIPS had all been quite successful, though his type of well made plays had temporarily gone out of fashion with the arrival of the 'kitchen sink' dramatists.

I had not seen THE SOUND BARRIER before and it is a revelation. Totally engrossing and marvellously filmed by David Lean, as meticulous as ever, with great depths of controlled feeling and emotion, depicting the breaking of the sound barrier. This may have been done by pilot Chuck Yeager back in 1947 (as shown in THE RIGHT STUFF), but this drama excels as driven industrialist Ralph Richardson and his equally driven test pilots Nigel Patrick and then John Justin take the controls of those aircraft. We get great aerial photography, no obvious process shots, and those aircraft like the Comet are lovingly filmed. Ann Todd (Mrs Lean at the time) excels here, as she does in Lean's 1948 THE PASSIONATE FRIENDS (another great discovery recently) as Richardson's daughter who has already seen her brother (Denholm Elliot) die in a plane crash trying to please his father, and now her husband is also going to try to smash the sound barrier. That excellent actor John Justin is the other pilot - with that ideal home life with Dinah Sheridan to whom Todd flees when she can no longer stay with her tyrant (or is he?) father. The drama is nicely resolved and there is a nice detour with a trip to Egypt - quite a novelty then I imagine. It is just a perfect early 50s British film, with those actors like Richardson, Patrick and Todd at the top of their game, as of course was Lean and Rattigan.

THE BROWNING VERSION is Anthony Asquith's sterling 1951 film of Rattigan's play, again superbly cast with Michael Redgrave in perhaps his best film role (along with Losey's TIME WITHOUT PITY in 1957) as the schoolmaster Crocker-Brown, with Jean Kent as his unfaithful wife and Nigel Patrick again (as insouciant as ever) as her lover.
Once a brilliant teacher, Redgrave has turned into a desiccated, unfeeling pedant, despised by his colleagues and feared by his pupils, apart from young Taplow. Ill-health has prompted his early retirement, but it is apparent that his departure will go unmourned, in contrast to that of his attractive wife (Jean Kent). Dismissed as outdated and irrelevant after the Angry Young Men of the mid '50s rendered his middle-class scenarios unfashionable, Rattigan was a master technician of drama, and his dialogue and pacing are faultless. I like that long terrific scene with Redgrave and Patrick where the latter regrets his affair with the spiteful wife and tries to make amends, but Redgrave knows well how unsatisfied his wife is and how it is his fault. There is so much restraint and control here it is quite affecting. There was a 1994 remake but like those lightweight recent remakes of Wilde's THE IMPORTANCE OF BEING EARNEST and AN IDEAL HUSBAND they are just not in the same league as the 1952 and 1947 originals.

More British '50s rare pleasures...

Some more eclectic British films of the ‘50s before we zoom off to the ‘60s (and lots more ‘People We Like’)!

AN ALLIGATOR NAMED DAISY, a delicious 1955 Rank comedy starring Donald Sinden and Jeannie Carson, and Stephen Boyd [the essence of '50s beefcake here] teamed with Diana Dors – both of them going places. Sinden has to look after the alligator and chaos ensues. [This was a childhood favourite of mine and I bought the Donald Sinden box set purely for this still enjoyable comedy..]. James Robertson Justice, Richard Wattis, and - wonderfully - Margaret Rutherford (in one scene as a pet shop owner who can talk to the alligator) are all blissfully funny. Another by J Lee Thompson!

HOW TO MURDER A RICH UNCLE - a long-forgotten 1957 comedy, rather like a new Ealing production, featuring a ramshackle rich family now down on its luck, trying to bump off the rich uncle of the title, but killing each other insead. Its quirky and funny, directed by and starring Nigel Patrick, with Wendy Hiller and dear Katie Johnson of THE LADYKILLERS. Charles Coburn is the wealthy uncle whose relatives are dropping like flies around him...

WOMAN IN A DRESSING GOWN – one of several here featuring Yvonne Mitchell, this 1957 melodrama by Ted Willis and directed by the astonishingly versatile J Lee Thompson was a hit at the time. Mitchell is the slovenly wife, forever in that dressing gown, whose middle management husband Anthony Quayle is being lured away by bright young thing Sylvia Syms. It captures the mood of the late ‘50s with those modern new offices and the rising middle class. Carole Lesley, a starlet of the time, also features. Yvonne as usual makes it very compelling.

SAPPHIRE. Hardly ever seen now, this is a vivid childhood memory. Basil Dearden’s 1959 thriller is very colourful as it depicts late ‘50s Britain and the racial tensions of the time, with the arrival of those immigrants from Jamaica and Trinidad who were encouraged to move to England and better themselves, but were usually working on buses and trains. Sapphire is the girl found murdered on Hampstead Heath as detectives Nigel Patrick (dependable as ever) and Michael Craig look for clues. Yvonne Mitchell scores as the sister of Sapphire’s boyfriend, as it is revealed that the murdered girl was a half-caste who was passing as white. As in Dearden’s following VICTIM, attitudes are revealed among the suspects and its intriguingly worked out. A vivid scene set in a nightclub shows Craig’s reaction while watching a blond girl absorbed in the music as the owner tells the police that the girls passing for white always give themselves away when they hear that funky beat…. FLAME IN THE STREETS in 1961 is another set in this era as John Mills’ daughter (Sylvia Syms again) wants to marry an ordinary black man (not a Sidney Poitier superhero, as in Kramer's 1967 film) thus testing his liberal attitudes, while his wife, splendid Brenda de Banzie, is violently opposed to the union. This is also by Ted Willis.

THE TRIALS OF OSCAR WILDE is a fascinating and intelligent working of the Wilde story and for a movie made in 1960 about as frank as it could be. Peter Finch was a magnificent Wilde capturing the facets of the writer knowingly facing his destiny, and winning a BAFTA award. Yvonne Mitchell was the perfect Constance, and John Fraser as petulant a Bosie as Jude Law in the 90s Stephen Fry film. There was another version of the Wilde story made at the same time in 1960 by Gregory Ratoff with Robert Morley (playing Wilde as Robert Morley), but the Finch version directed by Ken Hughes won hands down, with handsome period detail and in scope and colour. James Mason and Nigel Patrick shone as opposing barristers and Lionel Jeffries was a malevolent if not insane Marquis of Queensbury. The film still holds up perfectly today. The Stephen Fry version may have been franker in 1997 but this one is just as good if not better and more nuanced.
Marketing Oscar in 1960: Click image to enlarge

The other version had the tagline: "Theirs was a relationship that the world could not, would not tolerate"!

CONSPIRACY OF HEARTS in 1960 from the Rank Organisation remains a superior tearjerker, where Lilli Palmer is the very elegant Mother Superior of a convent in Italy where the nuns save Jewish children from the Germans. Add in young Sylvia Syms, Yvonne Mitchell as the crotchety nun, David Kossoff as a rabbi and Albert Lieven and Peter Arne as dastardly Germans, plus Roland Lewis as a partisan. Experty put together by Ralph Thomas. Lilli is perfect as head nun squaring up to those Nazis.

NORTH WEST FRONTIER is a terrific adventure movie in scope and colour by J Lee Thompson in 1959 and it remains a television staple to this day as its screened at least once a year here in the UK. Thompson also made TIGER BAY that year as well as other ‘50s sterling titles like NO TREES IN THE STREET, YIELD TO THE NIGHT, THE WEAK AND WICKED, ICE COLD IN ALEX before going on to the likes of THE GUNS OF NAVARONE and CAPE FEAR. Here we are in India during the Victorian Raj era, Kenneth More has to guide a train through bandit country while protecting the young Prince whom a lot of people, including someone on the train, want to see dead. Lauren Bacall is the governess, Herbert Lom a shady character and Wilfrid Hyde White one of these decent English chaps. Its great fun to watch anytime.

UPSTAIRS AND DOWNSTAIRS – a very typical Rank Organisation comedy from 1960, with fascinating décor to see now, at the dawn of the new ’60s era. Michael Craig and Anne Heywood are the young marrieds who simply must have a domestic help to do their chores and look after their house. Their trials and tribulations make up the plot as they cope with bank robbers, a drunk Joan Hickson, Welsh girl Blodwyn (a hilarious young Joan Sims) who has never left Wales – Craig has a hilarious scene on a train with her – and Claudia Cardinale as a continental sexpot with men calling to the house at all times [5 years later Craig would be supporting Cardinale in Visconti’s SANDRA, of which more later]. French Mylene Demongeot plays the Swedish girl and its all jolly good fun and so typical of the era, also by Ralph Thomas.