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Frenzy (1972)
The Beige Age
I Finally got round to seeing Hitchcock's penultimate film, Frenzy (1972) last night. It happened to be on Sky when I ended the night on my brother's sofa after a curry. It's one of those films I've always had half an interest in checking out (if only to see how Hitchcock got his only 18 certificate) but had just never been motivated enough to bother.
Strangely, although I wasn't that impressed, it did keep me watching til the end (which I had no intention of getting to) and I had one of those bizarre epiphanies one only gets whilst belching p_issed on a sofa at 3am. I realised the early 70's looked like another world. I can watch an early 80's film (The Long Good Friday, set in the same city a decade later, is one of my favourite films) and it will still look like a world I recognise and remember- but in 1972 everything was either brown or orange.
Seriously- sofas, lampshades, carpets, cars, jackets, beards. The lot. It was like the Beige Age. And it was this rather than the grim subject matter (suspiciously sideburned Jack The Ripper type rapes and strangles his way round Covent Garden) that gave Frenzy a pretty stale kind of atmosphere. You could almost smell the relentless fags and shots of whiskey almost every character had in almost every scene! Maybe it was the performances that dated it too though- most of the parts were played by British BBC sitcom actors (Hitch really did end things a long way from Jimmy Stewart and Grace Kelly in that New York apartment block he built) and the almost Sun- style way the characters seemed thrilled by the excitingly racy nature of the killings was very of it's time.
Sex scandals and swearing (which every actor seems to be relishing being allowed to do) were obviously popular pastimes in 70's Britain. At times, it was like watching a hyper- violent episode of Eastenders , had the occasional technical innovation (a camera pulls out of a flat, down the stairs and out into the street somehow instead of showing the second murder the audience know is going to occur inside) reminded me why I was watching it, I can't say it was anything special.
Being born in '82, The only things I did recognise from my own early memories were the blue Chinese plates the detective's wife served him the dodgy French gourmet dinners on and the ubiquitous Suzie Wong "Green Woman" paintings- which a friend of my Grandmother's (she had one) once remarked they "Churn out like copies of the b_loody Daily Mirror".
Pink Floyd: Delicate Sound of Thunder (1989)
Massively underrated performance
Having owned the Delicate Sound album for several years I've found it's always one you return to for the Momentary Lapse of Reason tracks- most of which weren't played live again on the Division Bell tour. Although I'm a fan of Roger Waters- era Pink Floyd and his solo work, being 25 my introduction to Floyd was through the David Gilmour- led last days of the band and I still count Momentary Lapse, Delicate Sound, Division Bell and Pulse among my favourite records.
This video should certainly be rereleased properly on DVD (it's currently only available on DVD in a very pricey and hard to find box set also including the CD's), perhaps remastered with some new extra features. Actually as I've just spent £30 on an 18- year old VHS tape EMI will probably release it next week!
Obviously, the main reason people will be interested in this title is for the tracks you can't get on video anywhere else (On The Turning Away, Dogs of War, etc.) but as with Pulse there are a few differences between the album and video tracklistings. The biggest disappointment is that Yet Another Movie and Round and Around are left off but instead you get Signs of Life and One Slip. Shine On is actually only the intro of the song rather then even the shortened "Concert Version" on Pulse but then it is a track Floyd played a lot and you can get it live anywhere (apparently Echoes was also occasionally used as the opener instead on this tour which would have made a much more interesting inclusion). Money is also absent but considering it's on the Pulse video as well as Waters' live In The Flesh DVD that's no great loss and the less overplayed On The Run replaces it anyway.
The style of the concert film (in an American arena rather than Earl's Court) is very different to Pulse too, directed as it is by Wayne Isham- anyone familiar with his flashy live DVD's for Metallica and Def Leppard will be familiar with the director's style- which is often more like watching a music video (some sounds and images intentionally don't match up- although that's not as bad as it sounds) than a live show. But at this point in their career Floyd seemed to be trying to get back to Meddle- era anonymity after The Wall tour so that's probably exactly what they were going for. There's no friendly talking to the audience like in the Pulse video, the band are backed by a massive cast of additional musicians (including a spectacularly mulleted saxophonist) and there's much more emphasis on the light show and some inspired Storm Thorgerson images on the video screen. It's also cool to see Gilmour, Rick Wright and Nick Mason looking so much younger. Also look out for the brilliant p*ss- take credit the band give an R. Waters for "Original Pig Concept" at the end!
Considering there is now a visual record of every other era of Pink Floyd (the '60's Syd Barrett days with the Live in London DVD, the experimental Meddle era with Live in Pompeii, the Waters years with The Wall film and Gilmour's version of the band with this and Pulse) it would be truly great if somebody could unearth some concert footage from the band's truly greatest (and democratic) years between Dark Side of the Moon in '73 and Animals in '77 when Waters and Gilmour worked so brilliantly together and even let the other two write the occasional song. Numerous sources have said over the years that at least audio recordings probably exist from that time so how about a massive, officially released CD/DVD live box of stuff from the golden age?
The Likely Lads (1976)
An OK ending but not up to the standard of the TV series
Whatever Happened to The Likely Lads? is a classic TV series. I bought this film as it is the equivalent of three further episodes as well as being Terry and Bob's final appearance. Unfortunately, it doesn't work quite so well as any of the TV episodes. A lot of the jokes are recycled from the series (and writers Dick Clement and Ian La Frenais' other works) and the story feels a bit directionless.
Personally, I think Clement and La Frenais learnt a lot from this picture though. A few years later they made probably the best ever TV sitcom to movie transfer with the Porridge film- which actually has an effective plot to provide it's humour. The Likely Lads film is interesting to see what finally became of the lads. There are some great moments- Terry announcing "The end is nigh, Ferris!" and "Not my fault" on the megaphone, Bob and Thelma's last very public row, Terry getting hit by the vase thrown from his flat window and the cinema format allowed more classic comedy swearing than the BBC would have.
As I say though, the whole thing just seems kind of forced and aimless. But it's still worth seeing for completists and- like all of the writers' work- is valuable as a great document of British social history. Interestingly, they again end with someone leaving the country for an uncertain future- just as in the original '60's Likely Lads series, the first ending of Auf Wiedersehen Pet and the ending of the recent Auf Pet revival. For the best of Terry Collier and Bob Ferris though, get the "Whatever Happened To" series on DVD.
Going Straight (1978)
The Missing Link
Having just seen Going Straight for the first time on DVD, I'd have to say it's terribly underrated. A sequel to Porridge that was so different (being set "On the outside" and with most of the Slade prison supporting cast gone) was always going to divide audiences. There are some brilliant episodes and moments though- including Fletch bumping into Mr. MacKay on the train home (in one of their best ever scenes together they part company getting drunk together and even shake hands).
A pr Only Fools And Horses Nicholas Lyndhurst is excellent as Fletch's vague son, Raymond too. Most interestingly though, along with the Porridge film, Going Straight represents a kind of missing link between the gentler '70's writing of Clement and La Frenais with series like The Likely Lads and the earthier, more realistic style of Auf Wiedersehen Pet and The Commitments.
The main attraction for most people though, should be to find out what became of Fletcher in the end (although it was made later the Porridge film is obviously set before this).
Whilst it's still mainly broad, old school sitcom humour, Going Straight has several more serious moments as Fletch and his family struggle to make their way without him having to return to crime. The episode in which he helps a cynical teenage thief to change her ways is particularly poignant.
The looming threat of Thatcherism hangs over this series like some huge dark shadow about to turn the British working class into the underclass and unscrupulous, upwardly mobile "Greed is good" types- as the writers would go on to explore with Auf Wiedersehen in the '80's.
Clement and La Frenais have done an incredible job, not just with their almost unbeatable comedy writing (only John Sullivan comes close as far as I'm concerned), they have also left us these brilliant documents of British social history over the past forty years. Going Straight is just as much a valid part of this as Porridge, The Likely Lads and Auf Wiedersehen.