For any British kid growing up in the 70s, Dr Who was a TV touchstone. I first came across the Jon Pertwee iteration of the Doctor, then Tom Baker’s flamboyant, scarf-wearing version. Some of the episodes I remember as being relatively scary for young kids, not least those featuring the Doctor’s most famous adversaries –…
The Italian Job
The Italian Job has so many great moments, its one of the most memorable British films of the 60s, I reckon. Who doesn’t love the endlessly quotable dialogue (“You’re only supposed to blow the bloody doors off!”), or cheeky thief Michael Caine and his gang’s escape from a gridlocked Turin in a fleet of Mini…
Chariots Of Fire
“The British are coming!” So claimed the screenwriter rather arrogantly onstage after winning his Oscar for Chariots Of Fire. Actually, they weren’t. Goldcrest, the UK studio which produced Chariots Of Fire subsequently lost a ton of money on director Hugh Hudson’s unmitigated disaster follow-up Revolution, starring Al Pacino. As a 20 year old I actually…
Bolero
I think I may have sat through Bolero back in my days of reviewing movies for my university magazine. (That’s how this still came into my possession, I’m sure). I remember nothing about it, other than it was a piece of crap. But I am posting it here a). because it gives me a reason…
Theatre Of Blood
Theatre Of Blood is my all-time favourite horror comedy and my favourite Vincent Price movie by a mile. The movie has a delightfully vicious premise. Price (so often over the top) is perfect as the hammy stage actor humiliated after being denied a best actor gong by the Critic’s Circle. Presumed dead from suicide, he…
Cat On A Hot Tin Roof
This is one of those classic movies which I don’t recall ever seeing. I’ve certainly read Tennessee Williams’ play, as I studied it at university. He’s undoubtedly one of the all-time great American playwrights. The movie pairs Elizabeth Taylor as Maggie “the Cat” and Paul Newman as her husband Brick, with Burl Ives as his…
Werewolf Of London
1935’s Werewolf Of London has the distinction of being the world’s very first full-length werewolf movie. Strangely, it never came up on TV when I was a kid in the 70s, when I saw most of the Universal horrors from the period, so I have never seen it. It was originally intended to star Boris…
The Killing Fields
Uniquely, I saw The Killing Fields in the presence of the producer, director and writer! Back when I was reviewing movies for my university newspaper, the producers of The Killing Fields hit upon what I still think was a clever marketing ploy: they invited student journalists from universities and colleges around the country to a…
Barbarella
I honestly do not know what to make of Barbarella. I only have vague memories of having seen it once on TV and I recall it was very campy, silly and not particularly funny. Yet it has a status now as something of an influential cult classic, so maybe I was just too young to…
Risky Business
f you can get past the very dubious morality of its story, Risky Business is a lot of fun. Basically, the plot has a teen over-achiever fall for a hooker and turn his parents’ house into a brothel (the ‘risky business’ of the title). But this satire is delivered with a lot of charm, thanks…