The man with eyebrows that can kill! Not really, but that’s the impression given by the poster illustration. The Baker/Berman producing team gave their Hammer/Terence Fisher imitation a decent production — good color, autopsy-grade gore, female victims in low-cut gowns — but neither Jimmy Sangster’s script nor the flat direction bring it to life. Donald Wolfit is the resurrected mad doctor stealing transfusion blood and committing murders with the help of his deformed servant Victor Maddern but the highlight is the strong performance from favorite scream queen Barbara Shelley. Artus’ fancy special edition Blu is Region A friendly, although the DVD is Pal and all the extras are French-only.
Blood of the Vampire
Blu-ray + DVD
Artus Films
1958 / Color / 1:66 widescreen / 87 min. / Le Sang du Vampire / Street Date April 6, 2021 / Available from Amazon.fr / 29.99 €
Starring: Donald Wolfit, Vincent Ball, Barbara Shelley, Victor Maddern, William Devlin, Andrew Faulds, John Le Mesurier, Bryan Coleman,...
Blood of the Vampire
Blu-ray + DVD
Artus Films
1958 / Color / 1:66 widescreen / 87 min. / Le Sang du Vampire / Street Date April 6, 2021 / Available from Amazon.fr / 29.99 €
Starring: Donald Wolfit, Vincent Ball, Barbara Shelley, Victor Maddern, William Devlin, Andrew Faulds, John Le Mesurier, Bryan Coleman,...
- 5/25/2021
- by Glenn Erickson
- Trailers from Hell
Epics — everybody wants to make them but the studios are naturally wary. Richard Attenborough’s ode to the youthful ambitions of Sir Winston Churchill was a big hit in England but didn’t make a dent here. Although a dead ringer for the young Winston, Simon Ward didn’t take off as a star either, leaving Anne Bancroft and Robert Shaw in a sidebar drama that will mostly be remembered for an Std. Correspondent-soldier Churchill sees action in India, The Sudan and South Africa, thanks to the intervention of his socially adept mother. It’s a beautiful, ‘safe’ production with plenty of national pride. Its American premiere served as the Grand opening screening for the second Filmex film festival.
Young Winston
Blu-ray
Powerhouse Indicator
1972 / Color / 2:35 widescreen / 154 min. / Street Date October 28, 2019 / available from Powerhouse Films UK / £15.99
Starring: Simon Ward, Robert Shaw, Anne Bancroft, Jack Hawkins, Patrick Magee, Edward Woodward, John Mills,...
Young Winston
Blu-ray
Powerhouse Indicator
1972 / Color / 2:35 widescreen / 154 min. / Street Date October 28, 2019 / available from Powerhouse Films UK / £15.99
Starring: Simon Ward, Robert Shaw, Anne Bancroft, Jack Hawkins, Patrick Magee, Edward Woodward, John Mills,...
- 1/11/2020
- by Glenn Erickson
- Trailers from Hell
Chicago – Another wondrous pleasure about director Orson Welles – as if he needed something else on his resume – is the discovery of his film career after the “Citizen Kane”/studio system/boy wonder period of the 1940s. Facing difficulties cobbling together financing for his evolving vision, he resorted to overseas money, international casts and more-for-less. One of the prime examples is “Chimes at Midnight” (1965), a Shakespeare amalgamation that is just another example of Wellesian audacity and yes, genius.
Rating: 5.0/5.0
The script takes the text from five Shakespeare plays and is narrated by British actor Ralph Richardson. Orson Welles plays the scalawag John Falstaff, an entourage member of the Prince of Wales, and the focus of the story. The film has a kinetic energy that is exciting, it always seems in motion. Welles is at the top of his game portraying one of his favorite characters (he had previously mounted a similar...
Rating: 5.0/5.0
The script takes the text from five Shakespeare plays and is narrated by British actor Ralph Richardson. Orson Welles plays the scalawag John Falstaff, an entourage member of the Prince of Wales, and the focus of the story. The film has a kinetic energy that is exciting, it always seems in motion. Welles is at the top of his game portraying one of his favorite characters (he had previously mounted a similar...
- 3/19/2016
- by adam@hollywoodchicago.com (Adam Fendelman)
- HollywoodChicago.com
BBC radio producer who created the serial Journey into Space
The BBC radio producer and writer Charles Chilton, who has died aged 95, created a classic radio serial, Journey into Space, various series exploring the America of the past, and the one-off programme that eventually took to stage and screen as Oh! What a Lovely War. At the start of his career, radio could still attract audiences greater than those for television, and as well as producing popular comedy series such as The Goon Show and Take It from Here, Chilton devised some of its most distinctive material.
The first series of Journey into Space, broadcast in 1953, was described as "groundbreaking". "Well, it has to be," Chilton laughed in response. It took Captain Jet Morgan, played by the future MP Andrew Faulds, and his crew to the moon. They went on to Mars in the remaining two parts of the trilogy,...
The BBC radio producer and writer Charles Chilton, who has died aged 95, created a classic radio serial, Journey into Space, various series exploring the America of the past, and the one-off programme that eventually took to stage and screen as Oh! What a Lovely War. At the start of his career, radio could still attract audiences greater than those for television, and as well as producing popular comedy series such as The Goon Show and Take It from Here, Chilton devised some of its most distinctive material.
The first series of Journey into Space, broadcast in 1953, was described as "groundbreaking". "Well, it has to be," Chilton laughed in response. It took Captain Jet Morgan, played by the future MP Andrew Faulds, and his crew to the moon. They went on to Mars in the remaining two parts of the trilogy,...
- 1/14/2013
- by David Rayvern Allen
- The Guardian - Film News
Actor with great stage presence who found his metier in comic and satirical roles
There was something extra-terrestrial about the character actor Graham Crowden, who has died aged 87 – a mix of the ethereal eccentricity of Ralph Richardson and the Scottish lunacy and skewiff authoritarianism of Alastair Sim. He specialised in portraying doctors, lawyers or teachers in a satirical way.
Crowden was a tall, red-haired, serious and sometimes professionally diffident man – he turned down the opportunity of succeeding Jon Pertwee as the fourth Doctor Who, remarking that working with a lot of Daleks did not sound like much fun. He had a tremendous stage presence, always moving with an emphatic, loping gait.
Despite his eminence in plays at the Royal Court and the National Theatre, where he introduced roles in works by Nf Simpson and Tom Stoppard, and in films directed by Lindsay Anderson, he did not become widely familiar until...
There was something extra-terrestrial about the character actor Graham Crowden, who has died aged 87 – a mix of the ethereal eccentricity of Ralph Richardson and the Scottish lunacy and skewiff authoritarianism of Alastair Sim. He specialised in portraying doctors, lawyers or teachers in a satirical way.
Crowden was a tall, red-haired, serious and sometimes professionally diffident man – he turned down the opportunity of succeeding Jon Pertwee as the fourth Doctor Who, remarking that working with a lot of Daleks did not sound like much fun. He had a tremendous stage presence, always moving with an emphatic, loping gait.
Despite his eminence in plays at the Royal Court and the National Theatre, where he introduced roles in works by Nf Simpson and Tom Stoppard, and in films directed by Lindsay Anderson, he did not become widely familiar until...
- 10/22/2010
- by Michael Coveney
- The Guardian - Film News
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