Deep End
(1970/BFI Blu-ray (Region Free) Dual Format import release w/DVD + Bonus Disc/Flipside
Series) + Rank “Doctor” Film Series
(1954 – 1970/British Comedy/VCI DVDs) + Simba:
Mark Of The Mau Mau (1955/VCI DVD)
Picture:
C+ (Deep: B-) Sound: C+ Extras: C (Deep: B) Films: C+ (Deep: B-)
British
Cinema, from oppression and decline to sexual freedom and a new wave? Despite changes after WWII, British films in
the commercial sphere acted often like the empire was still alive on some level
or just ignored such changes and simply “carried on” but it cinema eventually
found its own new golden age just the same.
These recent releases show how.
Jerzy
Skolimowski’s Deep End (1970) is an
example of the latter, a bold independent film about 15-year-old Mike (John
Moulder Brown) who is coming of age and takes a job at a local bathhouse, only
to fall for Susan (Jane Asher) in this interesting, honest and surreal, yet
realistic look at his life that shows the new sexual freedom of British cinema
at the time. Susan is engaged, but Mike
intends to get in the way and see if he can spoil the potential union, yet the
personal experience angle is what makes this worth revisiting. Though the ending has some problems, I liked
the film and it sports a fine supporting cast including a funny turn by Diana
Dors (now in heavy mode) hitting on Mike.
Mike
Nichols’ The Graduate (1967) has
some influence on this, yet there is something raw and unique about this film
that works and is yet another fine release from BFI of films that would
otherwise be lost. This handles the
sexual aspects honestly without being pretentious, phony or false. The Flipside series is one of the most
comprehensive series ever on alternative cinema and this film fits in well.
Extras
include the bonus DVD version, Bonus Disc with Moulder and Asher Q&As, an
informative booklet with tech information, promo stills, essay on the film by
David Thompson, Permissive British
Cinema? essay by Yvonne Tasker, William Fowler on the soundtrack by Mother
Sky and essay on the filmmaker by Ewa Mazierska, while the Blu-ray adds the
original theatrical trailer, new Starting
Out documentary (74 minutes) on the making of this film, 12 minutes of
deleted scenes and Francine Windham’s 10-minutes short Careless Love (1976)
with Asher (as a different character) doing anything to keep the man she loves.
Of
course, British cinema was not always that open and is not often so now, but
like Hollywood, had its share of movie series and these included comedies like
the Carry On series. Though the Rank Organization produced the “Doctor” films from 1954 to 1970, they
did not make as many and the series is not as discussed, but VCI in the U.S. has issued
all seven films on DVD and they are all worth a look.
Based on
the novels of Richard Gordon, the films have some of the best talent and
upcoming talent around and are all worth a look just for some laughs and
giggles. Doctor In The House (1954) launched what would be the series and
though Donald Sinden got top billing, Dirk Bogarde would become its main star
as his star rose. The amusing goings on
at St. Swythins makes for some amusing moments and solid old-fashioned British
humor. This became pretty much the
introductory film to the hijinks and still has more to offer than you might
think. Kenneth More, Muriel Pavlow,
Geoffrey Keen, James Robertson Justice, Donald Houston and Kay Kendall (who I
wish was here more) round out the cast.
Extras include a photo gallery and feature length audio commentary by
Pavlow and Sinden.
That was
such a big hit that the next two films, Doctor
At Sea (1955) and Doctor At Large
(1957), would be shot in the large-frame film format VistaVision and would join
other such elaborate comedies Rank was making at the time. Sea
brought back Bogarde, Keen and Justice, then added a young Brigitte Bardot,
Brenda De Banzie, Maurice Denham, Noel Purcell, George Coulouris, Michael
Medwin, Joan Hickson, Jill Adams and Joan Sims in this romp where they are
stuck on a classy ship. Large has Bogarde, the return of
Sinden, Pavlow, Medwin, Coulouris and Justice, joined by a young Shirley Eaton,
Derek Farr, Anne Heywood, Lionel Jeffreys and Mervin Johns as Bogarde’s
character has to switch work places in ways he did not expect. Both have still sections and Large adds a feature length audio
commentary by Pavlow and Sinden.
Doctor In Love (1960), Doctor In Distress (1963) and Doctor
In Clover (1966) had the series revert back to regular 35mm film and
concluded Bogarde’s run in the series, all products of changing times. Justice and Sims returned too in Love, joined by Michael Craig, Liz
Frazer, Virginia Maskell, Leslie Philips, Irene Handl, Fenella Fielding,
Nicholas Parsons and Carol Leslie in this amusing entry where more than two
people fall in love, with more kinetic energy than the previous films since the
loss of VistaVision and the great visuals that go with it gave way to a swifter
style. Distress continues in this vein with Bogarde and Justice joined by
Samantha Eggar, Mylene Demongeot, Dennis Price, Leo McKern, Donald Huston and
Barbara Murray as Bogarde (his 5th and last film here in the series)
tries to figure out why a mentally ill patient is sudden calm and well. The series transforms into richer comedy
writing which it needed to to survive and again is very watchable. Clover
has John Frazer and Leslie Philips in the leads with Shirley Anne Field in the
female lead and Justice and Sims returning as the men now in control try to
hold the hospital together in vein. All
three have photo galleries, but Love
has a feature length audio commentary by Philips and Frazier, while Clover adds a feature length audio
commentary by Philips and Field.
Clover did not fare too well at the box
office, but Producer Betty Box, Director Ralph Thomas and the studio tried one more
effort with Philips (who took a percentage of the film for a pay cut) called Doctor In Trouble (1970) which would be
the last entry and only one to reflect the new British Cinema. Justice (in his last film ever), Handl and
Sims returned and were joined by another formidable cast including Harry
Secombe, Robert Morley, Simon Dee, John Le Mesurier, Freddie Jones and Bond
girl Angela Scholar. This is the film
that brought Philips and Scholar together and they were married until recently,
but more on that in a minute.
This
battle of doctors is amusing and has some fun moments, but with TV sitcoms in
full swing and British TV finally going to full color, the series quit while it
was ahead, yet I enjoyed this one as much as the rest and it is as top rate as
the rest. Extras include a photo gallery
and a feature length audio commentary by Philips, but this was recorded months
before his wife Scholar died. Sadly, she
was very ill with serious mental health problems and other issues we will not
go into, but here as always, she was a great, talented, energetic force of
nature the camera loved and viewers always noticed. She took her life just weeks before this
review in a terrible incident that I still cannot believe. Seeing her here was great and she will be
greatly missed. Our condolences to Mr.
Leslie and their entire family.
Finally
we have Dirk Bogarde back in a drama, Brian Desmond Hurst’s Simba: Mark Of The Mau Mau (1955) is a
drama that essentially becomes a kind of Revenge Western as Bogarde is in Kenya when the British
Empire still had a presence there.
Will they stay or go? Based on
real events that began in 1950 (and only ended a year later this film was
released), the Mau Mau uprising was not pretty and this film is a somewhat
politically incorrect look at it. Not
that it does not have its moments, but it is also part of a cycle of such films
(usually commercial) that wonders if and how The Crown could have held onto
foreign land, whose fault is it that it was lost and always has issues with “the
other” in it all. At least this one has
some suspense, good supporting cast with Virginia McKenna and Donald Sinden et
al and is at least worth a look. A Photo
gallery is the only extra.
The 1080p
1.85 X 1 digital High Definition image transfer on Deep End can show its age at times, but it also offers some great
shots and great color most of the time as lensed by Director of Photography
Charly Steinberger (One Or The Other,
Just A Gigolo (1978), The Lightship) and has some very
effective shots and editing throughout.
This comes from a 35mm archive print and is pretty good for the most
part. The DVD PAL Region 2 version
included is anamorphically enhanced. The
VCI DVDs are either 1.33 X 1 or letterboxed 1.78 X 1, save Doctor At Sea, which is anamorphically enhanced 1.78 X 1 and all
are in color. Most are in Technicolor
and the later films in EastmanColor and likely Rank Color, but all have variant
issues with motion blur, soft shots, some print damage and even Sea should look better and does not. However, you can see how well these were shot
and all the Doctor films were lensed
by the ingenious Director of Photography Ernest Stewart, B.S.C., while Simba was shot by the equally brilliant
Director of Photography Geoffrey Unsworth, B.S.C., so all the entries in this
review have top rate visuals.
The PCM
2.0 Mono on Deep End can also show
its age and especially in the compressed-sounding music score (wish this was in
stereo at least or isolated stereo music tracks were available), but it is
still the best sounding of all the releases here by a narrow margin. The DVDs are Dolby Digital 2.0 Mono releases,
but all (save Clover) also include
Dolby Digital 5.1 mixes that try to upgrade the sound, but merely stretch it
out and are no better than the 2.0 versions.
I wondered if stereo tracks for Sea
and Large might exist somewhere
simply because they were VistaVision releases, but we do not know. Note that Sea at least had 35mm three-strip, dye-transfer Technicolor
reduction prints in the U.S.
market and they are particularly valuable to collectors like all such
prints. Most of the Doctor films and Simba
were originally issued that way.
- Nicholas Sheffo
