What classics did you see last week ? (8 Mar - 14 Mar 2020)

Well here is the Tele movies of last week:


It took some time to get used to Oldman, the trouble is having seen many documentaries with the real Churchill.
It covers a time when his biggest opponents wasn't Hitler and Mussolini, but came whithin his own party.
How much they could smoke back in those days in public locations.
While not the great movie, still feels like an honest recreation of a very demanding time.


There was a bit of fuss when Robert Fuller took the step over to a full length movie after TV stardom, by why chose such a standard western like this?
It's a very B-Western with a few familiar faces, that somehow has a rather rousing soundtrack by Hans J. Salter.
Dan Duryea is thankfully around doing his standard smart alleck bad guy that can't be trusted at all times and makes this movie watchable.


Dirk Bogarde in The Canadian Rockies, as an inheritor of a peace of land that his grandfather promised had oil, but that will soon be flooded when a dam building is finished.
The Canadian Rockies isn't the Canadian Rockies by the way, it was cheaper to make Italian Dolomites look Canadian than making it in Canada.
Not as interesting as I had hoped it to be, but still interesting. Stanley Baker makes a good bad guy. 
A boring romance takes too much space.
The Italian Dolomites looks spendid in Eastmancolour.


Tight and very British Police procedural movie when a police detective is trying to find a murderer with connections to a very posh club. The victim was not from a posh family, then why was she a member of a posh club. John Mills is the police sergeant on the case, but has a hard time cracking through the posh wall, as they just don't speak with simple people like him.
Eventually he cracks the case, but was a bit disappointed about who was the murderer. Though a climbing high on a church tower was a bit hand sweaty.
American Charles Coburn plays a doctor in exile from Canada, who might have cracked the case, or misleading.
Parts of police procedure reminded me of TV favorits like Midsumer Murders and A Touch of Frost.


I can see the double purpose of this movie, to entertain, but more importantly to enlighten what on earth tax money was spent on by US Navy (before NASA took over the space programme). Testing the limits what a human body can stand before it goes to pieces, and the men (it was just men back then) who risked their lives for eventual future space travels. That is the interesting part, but this isn't a documentary so it also have to have a plot. A boring romance is attached. Thankfully Dean Jagger is around and gives his usual solid support. Actor John Hodiak though, died of a sudden heart attack during production before his final scenes where filmed.


aka La sorcière aka The White Witch aka The Sorceress.
I posted a pic of Marina Vlady on General Boards "Post a pic from the latest..." and it got more "likes" than I'm used to.
It's not a horror movie though the supposed Witch can indeed do some sorcery.
Marina Vlady is indeed enchanting in her natural beauty.
It's about a French lumber or timber engineer (Maurice Ronet) taking a position way out in the Swedish outlands of deep and dark forests were locals mixes the Bible and folklore. Ronet see her peeking at him, and he comes under her spell.
Somehow hearing French actors speaking Swedish sounds strange, as much as I guess hearing Swedish actors speaking French for French people.
Available in a horrible English subtitled version on YT.


Tyrone Power has a simple job, carrying Diplomatic posts between embassy's until without his knowledge becomes part of a cat and mouse game between Soviet and USA, as this is not his normal job he doesn't know who to trust anymore, as he wasn't trained for this kind of assignments.
Handled with the hands of assured director Henry Hathaway, makes sure this keeps interesting, though I have to admit it lost me a few times.
Second unit filmed at European locations, and I don't think Tyrone and company ever left Hollywood.
Entertaining enough to follow to the end.


Mr and Mrs Smedhurst decided that after a long life they would retire to the English countryside, little knowing that the house (looks like a mansion indoors) that the house they just bought is haunted, after all it had been for sale for over 40 (or 60) years.
This is not a horror movie, though there is a few spine chilling scenes. It's more on the cozy side.
Instead of being scared they tries to solve the mystery of the lady that is apparently restless.
James Mason plays a the old Mr Smedhurst, and does it well, he got the old people walk right, but his skin is still too soft and winklefree. Margaret Lockwood plays a woman who is employed to the Smedhurt household with the sole purpose to be available when Mrs Smedhurst needs company, maybe that was normal once upon a time, and she is the one who might have been possessed by the latest owner.


Impressive sets, special effects and matte paintings, and very campy dancing in this once thought lost movie.
Helen Gahagan who plays She who must be obeyed later became a politician (and was Mrs Melvyn Douglas) and tried to buy off all copies of this movie.
The version that is availlable was found in Buster Keaton's private collection.
Meant to be an early Technicolor movie, but suddenly RKO decided otherwise, though sets, effects and matte paintings were meant to be in colour. Ray Harryhausen, who was a friend of Merian C Cooper, decided to restore it artificially into colorization, and knowing that story I was very OK for once about colorization since it was meant to be in colour in the first place.
As a movie it has it's stiff sides and it's impressive sides, but put together, it's entertaining most of the time.
One of the athletic looking extras was non other than legendary Olympic Gold Medalist Jim Thorpe, by the way.

That was my adventures last week, I will now read what interesting things all others have seen!

I let a black cat who looks like the one I used to have wave goodbye! (My cat cat had a white spot just like this one)