Change Your Image
swallin
Reviews
Mr Pye (1986)
A morality tale
Excellent film, but not made by, or for, the BBC , but for Channel Four, which may explain the other reviewers problems in tracing it. CH4 has shown repeats etc. A strange and wonderful story, full of mystery,and of course somewhat unresolved, which was what Peake intended in his morality tale. His other work has not been well filmed, the BBC did try, but failed. Derek Jacobi was sublime in the lead role as Mr Pye, a role he carried in the face of the unusual story context set in the idyllic Channel Island of Sark. Judy Parfitt was the perfect foil for his character, a masterly piece of acting to match Derek Jacobi's leading role.
Radio Parade of 1935 (1934)
Pure nostalgia
Radio Parade of 1934 is somewhat dated, as in Historic, but the film is a lexicon of the Variety and Radio stars in the UK during the 1930's, and great fun to view the range of 1930 stars of the Radio and stage.
Will Hay is a bit underused in the film and the structure is a bit poor as will most compendium style musical films, the plot is very thin. but it is the glimpse of long forgotten acts and performers that makes the film one of the very best of it's type.
It was written to pock fun at the BBC, and also Television, which for the Folks in the USA, was a UK invention, and well known in the early 1930's, and they were about to open the worlds first TV station at the BBC. Experimental TV broadcasts were common in the UK from 1930, especially to outside or store broadcast demonstrations. The character of the TV inventor was directly aimed at John Logie Baird, the TV pioneer from Scotland.
The Art Deco style of the NBG Studios was a direct pastiche of the then brand new BBC Broadcasting House, complete with identical fittings!! Many of the stars in the film worked for the BBC, but perhaps less after the film. Will Hay himself had a prickly relationship with radio, a top star though, as the others were in their day.
The final colour sequence was a British Colour Process from Dufay, which worked, but had problems with multiple copies, DVD copies often have a poor rip off version. The Prints come from a unique faded copy found at Denham Studios, which was massively restored in the 1990's. Dufay colour worked well for stills, but full movies proved beyond the system.
A delightful period piece, well made and worth viewing, but US viewers may be a bit bemused by the details being so very British.
Come to Dinner (1934)
Superb parody
A great surprise to see this simply delightful comedy parody of MGM's Dinner at Eight, done by Warner Brothers Vitaphone, carefully by passing copyright of course. Once listed as missing presumed lost, but listed in Halliwell's Guides, I had long tried to see the film, but it never surfaced till now, and it is a delight to those who know the original MGM film so well. Even the sets are duplicated, along with the most famous scenes.
The Actors are superb, the Carlotta character rivalling Marie Dressler..and the actor doing John Barrymore is so accurate, along with Lionel Barrymore's impersonation, to the life. Dated in some ways, a viewer who comes on this cold, will dismiss the comedy, as they may not know the real version at all. I suspect that Billie Burke winced a bit at the interpretation of stage voice, but I hope the originals all saw the joke. The talented, but uncredited actors are a revelation, all could have held down Hollywood careers, but were in the main Broadway stage performers.
I expect the origins of the film lay in the war between Louis Meyer, and Jack Warner, with many films as efforts to be one up on each other, as with the Musical films of the late twenties and early thirties.
Dinner at Eight (1933)
Classic Hollywood
Can you really get more classic than this movie, an all star cast of real Hollywood stars, in a well directed, written and performed play. Yes it is staged, but what of it, the performances shine through. Marie Dressler steals her scenes, to great effect, and is perfect up against Jean Harlow, with the famous reading a book double take at the end of the movie, for which this film is usually remembered. Billie Burke's performance is somewhat overlooked, but is a comedy masterpiece. They simply do not make films like this any more, enjoyable, thoughtful, and very funny. It helped to have so many Stars under contract to MGM at the time, in this film they had the pick of the bunch.