fuhgeddaboutit01

Watch only if you want some PC idea of a 'better' 1950s English village where the majority of people are now minorities.

All the effort went into box ticking . Little went into casting, the script or engaging storytelling. Sadly this is par for the course in most adverts, films and shows these days. It's almost unusual to see a cast that vaguely resembles the reality of today - let alone rural 1950s in this case.

Watch the original series if you actually want some link to the books, any charm, storytelling or good character development. Programmes like that won't be made again because of the constant demand to 'do more' for diversity. Art sacrificed for political correctness and wokeness.

Most film fans will have seen "The Wicked Lady"(1945) before they see this 1940 film.It was surely in playing roles like nurse Anne Graham which convinced casting directors and producers that Margaret Lockwood would be ideal in her most famous role as Lady Barbara Skelton & Highwaywoman. Another reviewer mentions prejudice and it shows that society still believes "there is no smoke without fire".To get a job (even though you have been aquitted of murder) especially in a caring job like nursing, it is sad that it is necessary to change your name because prejudice lingers on in the mind of society.However in Hollywood U.S.A. and in other rich countries, it cynically seems that if you are rich and famous you can never be found guilty of a serious crime let alone serve time in prison when one can afford high priced lawyers to get yourself aquitted.So often the lower (and impecunious) social orders feel the full weight of the law.But here Anne Graham's lawyer for once is the hero.He bamboozles the villain to give himself away to justice using a neat bluff in court!Nice to see Roger Livesey playing the detective.His most remembered role is the doctor in "A Matter of Life & Death"(1946) and "The Secret Life of Colonel Blimp" both Powell & Preesburger films.

JB Priestley usually had a moralising theme to his plays.As a Socialist he wanted to show his audience the social ills in society and prick their conscience.This film, which my son studied for his English GCSE was made into a film in 1954 with Alistair Sim in the title role.To help my son get a better understanding we all went up to the West End to see the play acted by professionals.It has a haunting theme about the social ills in the Edwardian society of 1912 when a girl first loses her job at the factory when asking for higher wages by the father, loses her second job courtesy of the daughter, loses her flat courtesy of the daughter's fiancé, is made pregnant by the son and finally is refused genuine charity by the mother.

My son returned the favour by giving me a DVD version of the film when I expressed a wish to see it, since one sees so few worthy films on TV these days compared to all the modern rubbish shown.There is rather a ghostly denouement to the film and twist which Priestley cleverly writes into the plot.Although Alistair Sim is only on screen for a short time he effortlessly steals your attention.

I now have about seven of Hedy's films on DVD/Video so have a means of comparison."White Cargo" is definitely not one of her best parts and I consequently only voted it 3/10.She was badly cast, Walter Pigeon is too melodramatic, and for a film, there was not enough change of scenes for my liking as it heavily betrays the stage play antecedent whence it originated.95% is so obviously made in a studio where the action gets bogged down.For a film supposedly set in Africa, couldn't the budget have stretched to a few more location shots?I know this was wartime (1942) but Florida could have made a good substitute.

Once the promising opening sequence is over (of a flying boat landing on a river), we are stuck in the planters shack (in the studio) and from there on its just a lot of bad tempered men shouting at each other and getting drunk.I did not "buy it" that an intelligent man sent by the government to an African plantation would fall for an illiterate savage, Tondelayo, whose only interest seemed to be how many trinkets she could obtain out of the men she meets.I much prefer to see Hedy as the intelligent, sophisticated woman she was and she was so much better cast in say "Boom Town" (1940) with Clark Gable and Spencer Tracy.Indeed in that film despite not having primary billing, she acts Claudette Colbert right off the screen.I also particularly liked her in "Come Live With Me"(1941) with Jimmy Stewart - see my critique of this film.

Yes I know "talkies" had just been invented for the cinema 2 years earlier when this was produced in 1929 but this film showed that much had to learnt about the art of producing films.It comes over as a filmed "hammy" stage play with the actors melodramatically enunciating their lines,rolling their eyes, using too many pregnant pauses and using gestures more appropriate to silent cinema, which I suppose was normal during the process of educating them to appear more naturalistic on screen.The gaps between lines spoken should have been tightened up during editing as it considerably slows the film.It is now only of interest for Titanic buffs who want to see an early example of this marine accident on film.In next chronological order they could see "Titanic" (1953) A Night to Remember (1958)"Titanic (1997), to see how the cinema's depiction of this tragedy as evolved over the years.There have been many documentaries and TV films made including the atrocious "SOS Titanic" (1979) On my version which is a DVD, David McCallum gives the introduction.It was he who played Harold Bride Marconi's junior wireless operator in "A Night to Remember"(still the best feature film - please read my "Tribute to Walter" comments on IMDb under Howard Morley.demon.co.uk)and gave the commentary on the series of 4 videos entitled "End of a Dream" so he was well qualified to give the narration.Of more interest I found was a recording accompanied by actual photos of the 1912 US Senate hearing which is also on the DVD.Actors speak the actual words spoken by Lightoller 2nd officer, J Bruce Ismay,Managing director of White Star, Harold Bride and others including Gloria Stewart (The "old Rose" in Titanic 1997) whose voice is used for one of the first class women survivors.