memorable-name

I don't usually watch romantic films but with the added attraction of a 'who done it' plot, the trailer had me interested.

A gentle story of murder may sound like a contradiction but it is just that as the plot of a feral girl who has grown up on the fringes of society and is then thrust into the public glare after a murder she is implicated in makes the headlines, is only part of the movie's charm.

A good cast, none that I was familiar with but will be looking out for in the future, picturesque settings and a satisfying ending all add up to a good film that should keep you entertained for a few hours.

The film Ghost Train isn't about a scary funfair ride nor is it really a horror film despite being labelled as one, what it is, is a 1941 comedy starring Arthur Askey an English actor who first made his name on radio and in Music Hall performances and whether you enjoy the film or not will largely depend on whether you enjoy his brand of slapstick comedy.

A group of passengers embark on a train journey to the South West of England, however thanks to one little man they miss their connecting train and have to spend a damp, dark night in a waiting room. Arthur Askey's character sets about entertaining and annoying the hapless group of passengers, until the guard tells them a ghost story of something that happened along the line many years ago leaving the station haunted. An emotionally unbalanced woman arrives hoping to see this haunting but no one believes her story until...

The end plot twist is perhaps a little bit of a let down but the journey there is fun and full of one liners, each character is played well by the supporting cast especially the prim and not so proper Kathleen Harrison and it should provide at least a few laughs for the viewer. The runtime is quite short and the setting is limited but the film maintains it's speed just long enough to keep you entertained throughout.

If you are not a fan of slapstick comedy then maybe this film won't be for you but if you are, put your feet up, sit back and travel back on a nostalgic black and white trip to an England now mostly forgotten.

Sun, sea, sex and sand who could want more from a vacation? But how about lost, wet luggage, mystery tour mayhem, nosey neighbours, exploding toilets and perhaps the luckiest middle aged men ever, you get all this and more when you take a holiday on the buses.

The 1970's for the British film industry wasn't a great decade, horror films, sex comedies and TV spin offs made up the most of the nation's cinematic output, amongst all these films there were a few diamonds in the rough but by and large most have now been forgotten, much to the delight of those stars still alive today, Joanna Lumley may be absolutely fabulous now but back then was stripping down for the camera. The 1960's had seen sweeping changes in values and social trends and by the end of that decade it seemed we were living in a far more promiscuous society (no safe sex campaigns back then), into this new era came attitudes that today we may cringe at, feminism to many was a joke, sexual preference was still something that could be poked fun at, as was racism, watch certain TV series' from this era and some would probably gasp at what they heard, with language that many would find offensive, it's not that the writers were trying to shock or be crude its just that 'it was a different time' when people had thicker skin, or were less sensitive to others, depending on your point of view but that is a whole different topic that I wont go into here!

From this era came the programme On The Buses, a comedy about the staff at a bus station and those around them. The series had begun in 1969 and became so popular that a film version was made in 1971, this followed a film version of another 60's tv comedy series, Till Death Us Do Part which had begun several years earlier in 1965 and by 1969 had also produced a movie spin off, this film, using the same title as the series would go on to become the third biggest hit of the year at the UK box office behind Carry On Camping and Carry On Up The Khyber. The film version of On The Buses, again using the same title as it's series went one step further and became the biggest box office hit of 1971, signalling the start of a wave of tv series spin off movies, Steptoe & Son, Dad's Army, Are You Being Served? and many, many more all tried to capitalise on their television success. The On The Buses (movie) script told of female bus drivers (oh the thought of it) taking on their male counterparts when staff shortages occur at the depot. After the success of the first film a second was released the following year, Mutiny On The Buses and after the success of this second film a third was released a year later, Holiday On The Buses, this film rounded out the film series and was shown six months after the tv series had ended.

Personally my favourite of the three films is Holiday On The Buses, Stan our bus buddy now works at a Pontins Holiday Camp after he gets the sack from the bus depot (I wont tell you why), once there he invites his family, mom Mabel, sister Olive, brother in law Arthur and not forgetting nephew little Arthur to visit much to his embarrassment and dismay, even getting to the North Wales holiday camp, Prestatyn to be precise is a bit of an adventure for them and that is just the start of their troubles.

His friend Jack continues to chase virtually any young woman in a tight skirt, just how these two middle aged men manage to 'pull' female 'talent' remains a mystery, would a young woman really fancy a cross between Worzle Gummidge and the Pied Piper? (a bit harsh perhaps but you judge for yourself) this perhaps provides some of the comedy and indeed hope to men of a certain age everywhere, if these two are able to go round sleeping with young women, you are in for a chance too! All this activity comes under the watchful eye of inspector Blakey who now has the position of Head Of Security. I have always found the supporting characters in On The Buses funnier than the leads and this film is no exception, Olive get's herself into all sorts of trouble from wading through a river to mistakenly repaint the bedroom she even engages in a bit of bed hopping herself. Mable has a holiday romance with a familiar and rather cleaner than usual faced character from another famous sitcom of the era and tries her hand at ballroom dancing (watching her first attempt should provide a giggle or two) Arthur however it seems is not destined get much relaxation at all in their North Wales Pontins paradise as every time his offspring creates mayhem it is left to him to literallyclean up the mess. Blakey also has love on the cards and even marriage with the local nurse (can you just imagine a baby Blakey?), this however doesn't seem to stop Jack from showing his true selfish colours by having a last minute affair with her, one last fling before she ties the knot, charming, when you think about it, if she's that fed up with him what she marrying him for in the first place? (I never have liked Jack and have often thought he is the villain of the films ) Still, just bite your tongue and remember it was a different time and it's only a film! Stars of the 1970's Queenie Watts (whom an older friend of mine once met at a party, she called him gorgeous and yes she was drunk) and Arthur Mallard turn up as neighbours in the next door chalet which appears to have very thin walls and in a funny example of 'pot calling the kettle black' Queenie announces upon their arrival they're bleedin common' in her most regal of cockney tones.

So is the film any good? It certainly has, like it's 'parent' series come in for criticism over the years, due largely to the sexism of the lead characters, well if you are going to watch the film you must remember as said before it is from a different time and is in similar vein to the 'Carry On' films released in the early 1970's and although hints at sex, apart from a brief shot of a woman exposing her breasts the film thankfully doesn't show more than undressing and kissing (can you imagine any of the cast in sex scenes? This is a comedy not a horror remember), there is one homosexual slur when Blakey gets called a 'fairy', a bleedin fairy at that, by Arthur Mallards character. The continuing chasing of women does get a bit repetitive well before the end of the film and although their antics are probably no different to many young men on a Saturday night, I feel if only they had toned it down it could of been a lot better, saying that however there are plenty of funny moments, mainly from the supporting cast to keep the film entertaining enough for its 1 hr 25 min length and as a result I found the film quite enjoyable.

Carry On Nurse was the second in the long line of Carry On comedies that started in the late 1950s, continued throughout the 1960s and ended in the late 1970s. After the surprise success of Carry On Sergeant in 1958 the team behind and in front of the film were brought back for what would be the most successful of all Carry On Films, Carry On Nurse, becoming the most successful film at the British Box Office in 1959 proving that laughter really is the best medicine with over 10.4 million tickets sold.

Among the returning actors were Charles Hawtrey, Kenneth Williams, Kenneth Conner and Hattie Jacques, while in supporting roles were Leslie Phillips, Joan Hickson and Terence Longdon, blonde bombshell Shirley Eaton also returned for her second of three Carry On Films, while Carry On Queen Joan Sims made her Carry On Debut.

The plot, although thin is substantial enough to keep the film moving at a good pace and revolves around a mens ward with troublesome patients, young nurses to send the men's temperatures up even higher, doting visitors, a betting orderly all under the watchful eye of a domineering matron. A reporter is sent to the ward with appendicitis while there he is persuaded to investigate the workings of a modern hospital, this being 1959 it is very different to the health system of today but even back then it seemed our NHS was doomed if things were to run like as they do in Haven Hospital.

The reporter (Terence Longdon) not content with just writing articles also finds time to fall in love with nurse Shirley Eaton (this is prior to her turning gold for James Bond). Other patients on the ward included Mr Hinton (Charles Hawtrey) who seems to like nothing best than listening to the radio, Oliver Reckitt (Kenneth Williams) an intellectual about to have his own study in love, a colonel (Wilfrid-Hyde-White) who being posh of course has a private room to himself where he likes to place bets, eat biscuits and seems to think the nurses have nothing better to do than to dote on him hand and foot and also Bernie Bishop (Kenneth Conner) a boxer with an injured hand. When another patient Jack Bell (Leslie Phillips) arrives to have a bunion removed and his operation is postponed the wards drunken patients decide to remove the offending bump themselves. The comical ending involves the nurses getting their own back on the annoying colonel by taking his temperature in a most peculiar way.

Carry On Nurse would be the first medical themed film in the series and as with other early entries in the series is more gentle than the later innuendo filled adventures of the Carry On gang and so for most of the film you would hardly recognise it as one and it is interesting to see the actors in a script that didn't require extra sauce (saucy). Charles Hawtrey is forever the scene stealer, Joan Sims makes the most of her clumsy character, Kenneth William hams it up as the intellectual while Kenneth Conner gets a tougher than you might expect role but of course plays a boxer with heart and Hattie Jacques seems born for the role of uptight matron.

Carry On Nurse is a healthy comedy and I would personally give it a healthy 8/10, its age may mean it's not for everyone's tastes but for those willing to watch a film in black and white (oh just the thought of it!) it's rewards grant an enjoyable hour and half with laughs along the way.

I hadn't heard of any of the actors in this film before nor the radio show it was based on however I still managed to get a few laughs out of it. The mayor of Foaming At The Mouth, an odd name even for a fictional town is broke and in a game of poker has 'won' a theatre, this theatre however isn't as grand as he first hopes and also comes with an acting school full of pupils who have paid but haven't received any tuition. One thing leads to another and they end up putting on a variety show, getting this show on stage means lots of twists and turns before the big night. The lead role played by Tommy Handley is mildly amusing, his rapid quickfire humour wears off before the end of the film and his bumbling ever loyal assistant also suffers from a similar fate, the best laughs however come from the end of the film which helps to keep the film going. All the cast play their roles well and the overall production is decent enough so although I had no idea who 'that man' was he helped entertain me for an hour and a half.

City On Fire is a disaster movie about... well a city on fire which gave several ageing Hollywood stars something to do in the late 70's. At the end of the 1970's and pretty much at the end of the disaster movie's original box office trend came City On Fire a film that fizzled fast but featuring a certain player out of a certain earlier disaster movie, can you guess???? It's Ava Gardner, having survived Earthquake and The Cassandra Crossing, City On Fire would be her final disaster movie, although it's true in this film she isn't given much to do, she does add a comic twist to a film that shouldn't really be funny in the first place.

City On Fire tells the story of a modern day large American city, in reality that large American city was actually Montreal, in Canada, this city which is never named has a rather large, looming, dangerous feature, an oil refinery, (starting to get an idea of what might happen in this film?) Yes if you have fired up your imagination you may have already guessed that it is this oil refinery and one annoyed employee who is passed over for promotion who sets off a change of events that leads to a series of explosions at the plant and across the city, buildings burst into flames, people run around screaming, cars are thrown into the air, TV presenters swear and walls fall down revealing men on the toilet.

As the heat is turned up and city starts to burn people at the brand new hospital are trapped in a potential firestorm, this would mean that all the oxygen within the hospital would be burnt out along with everything else in the surrounding area. A rescue attempt is set in motion for the trapped people and patients.

The film has long been given a rough ride, true it isn't an amazing piece of cinema and it does rely to heavily on stock footage of fires but among that is this fairly interesting and exciting story of the rescue attempt watched under by the supervision of fire chief Henry Fonda and local television presenter Ava Gardner, Shelley Winters is also thrown in for good measure having gone belly up in the Poseidon Adventure here she gets all hot under the collar as a caring but tough talking nurse. These three Hollywood legends are joined by funny man Leslie Neilsen who believe it or not is mayor of doomed city and only a few years away from his role in disaster movie spoof Airplane and a bunch of lesser names such as Barry Newman and Susan Clark in lead roles as chief doctor and rich widow whose money was burning a hole in her pocket.

Not a great film but it's Luke warm build up means the film fizzles out before it's big bang finish.

Inn For Trouble certainly isn't a grand piece of cinematic history and there's few who would consider it a classic but it is pleasant enough to enjoy, to partially fill a lazy afternoon and at less than an hour and a half long Inn For Trouble never outstays it's welcome. The film (the title is a pun and perhaps a warning, you're inn for trouble if you mess with mamma) is based on a television series (never an indication of excellence) called The Larkins and follows the family as they move away from their suburban home to run a country pub known as Ye Earl Osbourne on behalf of Belchers Brewery. Sounds simple enough, this being comedy however, things don't exactly run smoothly for the big mouthed mother and her clan. The Larkins find their pub has no punters, the only remaining staff are either grumpy (Charles Hawtrey) or distracting (Yvonne Monlaur), the local copper is t-total (doesn't drink alcohol) and despite being located between two major roads there is no passing trade, add a drinking competition and an undercover Earl and there you have the plot of the film that is better suited to those of the decade just ending than to those of the one just starting, the final 'knees up mother brown' scene cementing this as a cockney film from days gone by.

Peggy Mount the family matriarch portrays her character Ada Larkin with her usual trademark style of dominating gusto, that would of had her punters running for cover should they have had any. David Kossoff is decent enough in his role of the hen pecked husband Alf Larkin whose beloved beer is disliked by the locals and the remaining family members are passably performed by Ronan O'Casey as the son in law whose wife is holidaying in Canada and by Shaun O'Riordan the scoutmaster son who would rather sleep in a tent than at the pub.

Charles Hawtrey billed as special guest has a throw away role appearing in only a handful of scenes as the grumpy employee Silas Withering, his attitude is never really explained despite later in the film exclaiming that the new landlords are working him to hard, so perhaps he prefers the quite life and plots to send the Larkins packing back to the city.

Character actresses Irene Handl and Esma Cannon appear in just one scene gossiping in the local village shop but have some important information to tell Mrs Larkin, while Leslie Phillips portrays the owner of the Belchers Brewery and is featured at both the beginning and the end of the film.

Overall I would rate Inn For Trouble 7/10 it's a pleasing film with some enjoyable characters and has a gentle comedic tone but it never sizzles with fun and excitement, never really has you laughing out loud and yes probably isn't to memorable either, explaining it's widely unknown status today, a shame but perhaps not a big surprise.

Get ready to be shaken, stirred and possibly even tickled as Los Angeles is destroyed by a major earthquake (hence the title) made over 40 years ago, Earthquake still has the magnitude to entertain even if some will find the first 50 mins a little slow but don't be discouraged once the knee trembler strikes it should offer enough to keep you entertained. The characters are a little clichéd we have Ava Gardner and Charlton Heston in a troubled marriage, it seems that its not just L.A. that is falling apart, there is George Kennedy as a disgruntled cop, Genevieve Bujold as a single mom, Victoria Principle as a young woman who attracts the men and whole host of other actors who were famous during the 70's. The special effects range from good to laughable, just remember this was before cgi and the scenes where we see the skyline wibble and wobble are still quite impressive to this day as is the post quake action. So if you don't mind your action, flared, bell bottomed and campy this 1970s blockbuster one of the best, biggest and least disastrous disaster movies of its time could be the film for you.

As much as I have enjoyed watching Miss Marple and Poirot on TV over the past few years I must admit I have never read an Agatha Christie novel, and although I was familiar with the basic outline of And Then There Were None, 10 people on an island being murdered one by one, I didn't expect it to be so good.

The setting on an isolated island was intriguing, the tie in with the 10 Little Indians poem was clever and the disappearing figures with each death was a wonderful twist.

With each character having a troubled past it was impossible to single out an individual as the murderer but isn't that what a good thriller is all about, making you think, making you work ,to get the thoughts going, watching it with others made it fun as we all had different ideas of who the killer was. There were in hindsight clues that were never picked up on and red herrings that although lead you so far, didn't quite lead you to the guilty one and when the murderer is finally revealed it was well thought out and clever rather than just stupid.

You do have to give Agatha Christie credit even without her much loved 'old dear' and moustached, funny little Belgium man she could write a great who done it, and without the characteristic or familiar settings of these two detectives she was able to go further with the story line, delve deeper into the dark side of human nature.

It has certainly left me wanting more, and has left me intrigued as to other Agatha Christie novels that don't feature her more famous characters. Here's hoping they adapt more of her novels on TV or indeed maybe I should just pick up a book! lol

There is a Meteor on collision course with Earth and if we don't stop it then, well its bye bye for a lot of us!

Meteor is a disaster movie that came out in 1979 when the genre was winding down people had, had enough of buildings collapsing, airplanes crashing and boats capsizing which is part of the reason I think this movie has been ridiculed ever since, sure the special effects aren't great and the use of stock footage is a bit cheap but for its time they aren't that bad. The story line is fairly interesting trying to get America and Russia to combine its nuclear weapons to destroy the large rock during the Cold War wouldn't of been easy and the tension between the two groups is well presented. The acting from all involved including Sean Connery (getting shaken but not stirred), Natalie Wood, Henry Fonda and Karl Malden is OK but nothing special and almost tongue in check which is probably the best way to take this film.

Before the daddy rock takes aim, we get baby ones coming along for the ride causing snow storms, avalanches, tidal waves and the destruction of New York City, perhaps a few more would of helped things move along quicker.

The ending is quite predictable but then we couldn't have the rock destroying us all could we? It is probably drawn out a bit to long and at this point in the film I thought the scenes back on earth with our stars clambering there way through subways was more interesting.

So all in all, yes its a bit corny, yes its a bit camp and yes it certainly isn't a great film but on the other hand, it should hold your attention and isn't that bad either, if it had been released a few years earlier when disaster was big business then I do think it would of been a better received film and is at least as good as most other disaster movies from the 1970s.

A disaster movie about a Boeing 747 that collides with a smaller plane and is left without a pilot. This film now being viewed 40 yrs after it was made is quite memorable for all the right and wrong reasons. On board we have an array of old time movie stars that if you are under a certain age wont know anything about, Gloria Swanson, Myrna Loy mean anything to you? We have pilots that put women's lib back about 20 yrs with talk that these days would result in a possible sexual harassment suit and we have Linda Exorcist Blair as a girl needing a kidney transplant, being possessed the year before must of played havoc with her organs. Add a singing nun and a passenger list of virtually every cliché you can think of and we are ready for take off!

About 40 mins into our perilous flight, disaster strikes and we are left without any pilots, What are we going to do? The first thing I would of done is ask if anyone on board has the required skills but no, head stewardess Karen Black finds her inner action heroine and takes control. The remainder of this daft, corny but at times irresistible and unintentionally funny film is taken up by the attempts to land the plane before Mrs Black smashes it into an on coming mountain. Thankfully for the little lady, Charlton Heston and George Kennedy are on hand to save us and land the plane and send it on it's way into 70's campy greatness.

Modern, big budget, special effect blockbusters were just finding their feet when this 'action movie' came out and the film does have some good points Karen Black is good in her role and shows that women on planes can do more than just hand out tea, some of the action scenes although very dated are well handled and the impending doom does keep things fairly interesting. So if you don't expect to much from this old disaster movie you are probably in for a fairly pleasant but windy flight.