Lord Emsworth
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Post by Lord Emsworth on Oct 29, 2019 19:16:23 GMT
One of my favourites on tonight at 10pm, 'Fragment Of Fear', David Hemmings & his then wife Gayle Hunnicut lead a great cast. Well worth recording.
The novel on which the film is based was written by an ex spy who was the inspiration for John Le Carre's George Smiley character in 'Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy' Ticks a lot of my boxes Arthur
Thanks
I'd never heard of this and it sounds as though it's right up my street
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Post by Arthur Pringle on Oct 29, 2019 19:52:57 GMT
Talkingpictures seem to be showing a number of films released by Powerhouse Films, the British company who release blu rays under the Indicator label, they showed The Reckoning & The Deadly Affair last week, both Powerhouse titles, I've got their blu ray of Fragment Of Fear.
I've liked this film since I first happened to see it on ITV in the late 80's. One of those films that you see without knowing anything about it & it stays with you. Part of the the soundtrack by Johnny Harris became famous after being used in a tv ad. The screenplay is by the Brit who wrote the Planet Of The Apes sequels, Paul Dehn.
Roger Webb's version of the opening titles theme-
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Lord Emsworth
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Post by Lord Emsworth on Oct 29, 2019 20:08:11 GMT
Can't wait
Thanks again Arthur
That soundtrack sounds good too
In other Talking Pictures news....
I'm currently working my way through A Taste of Honey which I recorded off Talking Pictures as part of the Dora Bryan season. For some inexplicable reason I've never seen it before. It's a goodie so far.
When I was a student in Brighton in the 80s Dora ran a hotel and I used to go to their bar as it was local. She was often in there serving.
The front of her hotel (Clarges Hotel) features in Carry on Girls triv fans
One Sunday evening I went in there having watched Carry on Sergeant on TV earlier in the day. I mentioned I'd seen her in the film.
"Oh, not that load of old rubbish" she bellowed in a humorous way.
Despite making light of it, I got the impression she genuinely thought those films were beneath her. Still, a job's a job eh?
Clarges as it appeared in Carry On Girls
Sadly and predictably now converted into flats
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Post by Steve Austin on Nov 23, 2019 19:36:32 GMT
Couple of greats on tonight; Two Way Stretch starring Peter Sellers followed by The League Of Gentlemen starring Jack Hawkins.
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Lord Emsworth
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Post by Lord Emsworth on Nov 24, 2019 6:54:59 GMT
Talkingpictures seem to be showing a number of films released by Powerhouse Films, the British company who release blu rays under the Indicator label, they showed The Reckoning & The Deadly Affair last week, both Powerhouse titles, I've got their blu ray of Fragment Of Fear.
I've liked this film since I first happened to see it on ITV in the late 80's. One of those films that you see without knowing anything about it & it stays with you. Part of the the soundtrack by Johnny Harris became famous after being used in a tv ad. The screenplay is by the Brit who wrote the Planet Of The Apes sequels, Paul Dehn.
Roger Webb's version of the opening titles theme-
I'm currently watching Fragment Of Fear and it is certainly unusual - shades of the Giallo films from Italy
The ambiguity between the cental character, a still young and handsome David Hemmings, and the events is done well. Is he a victim of harrassment or is his addict past catching up with him
Looking forward to finishing it
Thanks Arthur, it was your praise that prompted me to record it
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Post by Arthur Pringle on Nov 24, 2019 16:31:52 GMT
I read a review that described it as an 'English giallo', though not a horror film it's mentioned in David Pirie's book on British horror films 'A Heritage Of Horror', he praises it & compares it to Hitchcock's 'Vertigo'. It's similar in some ways to two other Hemmings films, 'Blow Up' & 'Deep Red'. I read the novel by John Bingham a few years ago, it's more straightforward than the film & doesn't have the film's ambiguous ending.
Hemmings is one of my favourite actors, there's an interview from the 80s with him on the Blow Up blu ray where he says the only films he's done that he's proud of are 'Blow Up', 'The Walking Stick' & 'Charge Of The Light Brigade'. He was a heavy drinker & lost his boyish looks quite rapidly, I read a newspaper article from the 90s where he claimed to drink vodka from a hosepipe in his garden, not sure how that worked
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Lord Emsworth
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Post by Lord Emsworth on Nov 24, 2019 21:13:15 GMT
Thanks again Arthur
I’m still really enjoying it
I’m definitely going to buy the Johnny Harris soundtrack
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Post by Lord Emsworth on Nov 25, 2019 8:59:18 GMT
Thanks again Arthur I’m still really enjoying it I’m definitely going to buy the Johnny Harris soundtrack The Movements CD is an arm and leg but it is available on a download for a more modest price.
The artwork is very much of its time....
It contains the three instrumentals from the Fragment of Fear soundtrack and then a load of cover versions which I am hoping will be interesting and worthwhile...
Fragment Of Fear Reprise Stepping Stones Something Give Peace A Chance Footprints On The Moon Light My Fire Wichita Lineman Paint It Black
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Lord Emsworth
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Post by Lord Emsworth on Nov 25, 2019 9:18:59 GMT
By the by, as some of you may know, Johnny Harris is now 87 and lives in the US. This is from Wikipedia and, I thought, quite interesting.....
His ground-breaking album Movements was recorded with the best London session musicians in the spring of 1970, was performed live at the Royal Albert Hall and was pressed by Warner's three times in the UK (on orange, green and Burbank labels) and finally reissued on CD by Warner Bros. UK in 2002 with remastered sound, bonus tracks and an in-depth interview with Johnny talking about the album and his long career. Movements and All To Bring You Morning were again released in 2015 as limited edition SHMCD's by Warner Bros. Japan for the Japanese only market (this is the first time Movements and All To Bring You Morning has been issued in Japan). Movements was again out-of-print worldwide in 2017 until a vinyl only release made in Australia came out in November.
Singles released from the album were the space age classic Footprints On The Moon (1969) and the moody suspense theme Fragment Of Fear (1970) from the film of the same name starring David Hemmings. Shirley Bassey recorded a vocal version of his arrangement of The Doors Light My Fire from Movements on her 1970 Something album (issued in the US as the Shirley Bassey Is Really "Something" album) which she still performs today.
Warner Bros. UK also released his Man in the Wilderness film soundtrack (1971) and the sequel to Movements - All To Bring You Morning (1973) before he left for the US to work with Paul Anka.
He composed the scores for several cult British films including Fragment of Fear (1970), Bloomfield (1971, his score was recorded in 1969 featuring Maurice Gibb of The Bee Gees), Man in the Wilderness (1971) and I Want What I Want (1972).
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Post by Arthur Pringle on Nov 25, 2019 18:37:27 GMT
Yes it's a strange album cover, to think he agreed to them using that picture with his eyes like that.
It's not on 'Movements' but the theme to the film 'I Want What I Want' is very nice, an unusual film with a great performance by Anne Heywood, she plays a man who longs to be a woman, one of the very few films to deal with the sensitive subject of transexualism. Not available on dvd & unlikely ever to be shown on tv but there is a copy on youtube.
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