VCI British Cinema/Film Noir DVDs – Cinema Drama/Volume Three (The Rough & The Smooth/Grand National Night/Kill Me Tomorrow/The Scamp) + Cinema Volume Two/Comedy (Our Girl Friday/Dentist In The Chair/The Runaway Bus/Carry On Admiral/Time Of His Life) + British Film Noir (The Slasher/Twilight Women)

 

Picture: C     Sound: C     Extras: C     Films: B-

 

 

Without enough notice for film fans, VCI Entertainment has been issuing a nice helping of older British films few have seen in a long time and in many genres.  Three recent releases show just how wide-ranging and interesting these little-seen films really were and why it is a welcome thing to see them in print again.

 

The Drama collection features The Rough & The Smooth (1951) is directed by no less than Robert Siodmak (Son Of Dracula, Phantom Lady, The Killers (1946), File On Thelma Jordan) stars Nadja Tiller as a blonde sexual seductress who breaks up a marriage of two upper class types, but is secretly involved with a no good thief.  Not quite a Noir, but interesting.  Tony Britton, William Bendix, Donald Wolfit and Adrienne Corri also star.  Freddie Francis was supposed to be Director of Photography, but the also-great Otto Heller took over, so this looks good either way.

 

Grand National Night (1953) is a murder tale set at a horse race track as a married couple (Nigel Patrick, the underrated character actress Moira Lister) are on the rocks when he wins at gambling on a horse.  They quarrel and he accidentally kills her in a physical altercation.  Now he has to figure out how to fix his mess.  Jack Asher is Director of Photography.

 

Kill Me Tomorrow (1957) is co-directed by Terence Fisher and Francis Searle.  It involves an alcoholic reporter (Pat O’Brien) who slowly looses everything (wife, job, etc.) until he is framed for murder.  Lois Maxwell (Miss Moneypenny in the James Bond films) is the new woman in his life who tries to help in this late Noir-era film and shows once again she could have easily become a lead actress in her own right.  George Coulouris, Wensley Pithey and Freddie Mills also star and the cinematography of Geoffrey Faithful (the original Village Of The Damned, Murder She Said, Clash By Night, The Terrornauts) is a plus.

 

The Scamp (1957) is a melodrama about an abused young child who has no mother, is hated by his father and finds some great foster parents (Richard Attenborough, Dorothy Allison) in this intelligent drama.  Colin Petersen, Terence Morgan, Jill Adams, Geoffrey Keen and Kenneth Edwards also star, plus this is one Director of Photography Freddie Francis stayed to lens.

 

 

A Volume Two/Comedy set includes Our Girl Friday (1953, aka The Adventures Of Sadie) is an amusing send-up of Robinson Crusoe with Joan Collins in her early glory days even then looking great, proving to be a woman with real star power and more than just an Elizabeth Taylor clone.  Backed by a cast that includes George Cole, Kenneth More, Hermione Gingold, Lionel Murton and Peter Sellers voicing a parrot, it is worth catching.  The great Director of Photography Wilkie Cooper shot this and that is a plus.

 

Dentist In The Chair (1960) is a silly comedy with two dental students stealing dental equipment.  Directed by the capable Don Chaffey, it is not bad, but not great either.  Bob Monkhouse, Peggy Cummins, Eric Barker, Ronnie Stevens and David Glover star.

 

The Runaway Bus (1954) is a fine Horror/Comedy outing directed by the great Val Guest, in which a bus heading for an airport hits a storm and detours to another airport.  Instead, they find themselves trying to solve a murder and the result is some true suspense.  Frankie Howard, Margaret Rutherford, Petula Clark, George Coulouris, Michael Gwynn and Lionel Murton star.  If you liked Bob Hope and Abbott & Costello doing this kind of thing, you’ll enjoy this one.  Stanley Pavey (Fearless Vampire Killers) did the cinematography.

 

Carry On Admiral (1957 aka The Ship Was Loaded) is another one of the many, endless Carry On films set at sea, but with only so many laughs.  The film was in 2.35 X 1 SpectraScope, but only the opening credits are letterboxed, so this is a tunnel-vision copy of the film.

 

Time Of His Life (1955) has a couple gone nuts as high class wife Ellen Pollock locks up ex con husband Richard Hearne so he will not ruin her daughter’s birthday party, but he gets out and chaos ensues.  Watchable if not great.

 

 

The latest is a British Film Noir release with The Slasher (1953 aka Cosh Boy) is directed by Lewis Gilbert (Sink The Bismarck!, Alfie, You Only Live Twice) is about a teen thief (James Kenney) who eventually becomes a gang leader in immediate post-WWII England.  Joan Collins is his hot girlfriend and it is the only film I know of where Hermione Baddeley (The Unsinkable Molly Brown, TV’s Maude) and Hermione Gingold (Gigi, Bell, Book & Candle) co-star.  Interesting in its pre-Rock-‘N-Roll portrait of teen violence, Gilbert handles the material well.  Laurence Naismith, Robert Ayres, Betty Ann Davies and Edward Evans also star.  Jack Asher is Director of Photography.

 

Twilight Women (1952 aka Women of Twilight) has a night club singer (Vivianne Bruce) happy enough with her life when her lover (a young and convincing Laurence Harvey) is arrested for murder.  Can she prove him innocent?  Not bad Noir that also features Lois Maxwell, Freda Jackson, Joan Dowling, Dorothy Gordon, Dora Bryan and Ingeborg von Kusserow.  Jack Asher is Director of Photography.

 

 

The 1.33 X 1 image in all cases tends to have good Video Black, yet also show their age, have some detail issues and Friday is in color that is not bad.  The Dolby Digital 2.0 Mono in all cases is also down a few generations, though also restored, shows their age in all cases.  Extras include some trailers in most cases, though not necessarily for these films.

 

 

-   Nicholas Sheffo