Old films I've never seen

[Arthur]

 

Plenty of Hell Driver DVDs on eBay, used one here starting at £6.99,

 

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/222406480016

 

New one around a tenner.

 

As for the spoil disposal at sea, why not, environmental concerns were irrelevant in the day. Dump it where it's cheap and convenient. Who was going to complain? Not being critical, just the way things were done.

[Pacific231G]

Hell Drivers is good, although I've not seen it for many years and have been unable to find it on sale as a DVD.

 

I watched Get Carter for the first time on TCM last night, and although the train journey at the start was good, the part I found most interesting (from an industrial/transport point of view) was right at the end, the cable system dumping colliery waste into the sea (at Blackhall, County Durham). Two things strike me: How such a method of waste disposal was used, and considered perfectly normal; And how sad that all remnants of it have been destroyed, including the large concrete tower in the sea; Could it not have been left as a monument to the area's mining heritage ?

I was at college in S. Shields in 1969-70 and remember seeing that, or a colliery waste transporter very much like it, working. It was quite an eerie experience top stand on the beach and watch the endless sequence of buckets going out to sea and tipping over without a soul in sight. I've often wondered what the environmental impact of that process was.  Coal has been naturally washed into the sea along that coast from exposed seams for aeons so it would be the scale of the disposal rather than the content of the waste buckets that might be damaging.

 

Update, apparently the Blackhall site and other beaches on that coast used as coal waste dumps made it an environmental disaster area with damage to the marine ecosystem up to four miles out to sea. It has now been cleaned up at considerable cost and in the Council of Europe Landscape Awards in 2011, the Durham Heritage Coast was a runner-up in the contest for the most transformed landscape in Europe,

Edited February 17, 2017 by Pacific231G

[Rugd1022]

That final scene in Get Carter somehow re-enforces the utter bleakness of the whole film...

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Arthur]

 

Was there ever a film with more quotable lines than 'Get Carter', some classics.

 

.

[Rugd1022]

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[locomad]

Hi locomad

I'm curious about the film made in Normandy that you saw and would love to find it.

t.

So would I, spent odd hour today looking for it, almost sure it's in b/w, about the stress of a forman sending out engine crews knowing that had a strong chance of never returning due to allied air power.

 

What I did find out there is 2 "train" films Burt Lancaster one and one called "le train" made 1974.

 

Also watched for first time "yesterday's enemy" 1959 Stanley Baker again very much like the long the short & the tall, also noticed "hell is a city " 1960 on you tube but seen that recently on TV.

 

Seems more subscribers are putting out rare and unheard of films on you tube, taking the chance to at least look at them, if I like them I just carry on watching them and enjoy

[Bon Accord]

41CiHEfhAhLc.jpg

 

carter56-9edit-18455.jpg

 

GC Card #5 Eric.jpg

 

Get Carter #1 (2).jpg

 

Get Carter Blyth Coal Staithes.jpg

 

Get Carter Cliff Brumby Car Park.jpg

 

Get Carter Ian Hendry #1.jpg

 

Get Carter location.jpg

 

cf06_carter_7.jpg

 

Get_Carter_2.jpg

 

Ian-Hendry-Get-Carter.jpg

 

GET CARTER London Bus Advert Spring 1971.jpg

 

Not only is "Get Carter" a good film in itself, it's a great piece of NE social history when you look at the locations and all that goes on in the background.

Great memories of a NE that is now long gone - one of my few claims to fame is that I've drank in both boozers featured in the film!

[jjb1970]

Get Carter is a great film, I have always liked the fact that Michael Caine didn't fall into just playing big time star vehicle roles and always played some interesting roles alongside the standard star vehicle type roles.

 

One of my favourite oldies is an old silent film called "The Battles of Coronel and Falkland Islands". BFI restored it and re-issued it with a new music score and it is a wonderful film, remarkably balanced and accurate. The film was shot using RN warships of the 1920's which were WW1 era vessels and although warship anoraks whinge because they're not the ship types that fought at Coronel and Falklands, the film has an authenticity which would be impossible to recreate as you are watching warships that served in WW1 crewed by seamen of that era and many of whom would have fought in the war. The film is full of details and there is a film montage sequence of the two battlecruisers being prepared for the journey to the South Atlantic which feels remarkably modern.

[Arthur]

 

On the topic of background interest one of the strangest films you'll see is Lindsay Andersons 'The White Bus' from 1967. Anybody familiar with Andersons work through films like 'IF', 'O Lucky Man' and 'Britannia Hospital' will know of his quirky style.

 

The film is shot largely in b&w with odd bits in colour, often washed out. It starts with a young woman, working in London, catching a train to her unnamed northern home town, Manchester in actuality.

 

There she joins a party of civic dignitaries, the mayor is Arthur Lowe, and boards the eponymous 'white bus'. This takes them on a surreal tour of the city.

 

Dialogue is minimal, there's no real story, no explanations, it's a bit dream like in its random scenes.

 

All quite odd but there are some very evocative and atmospheric shots capturing a northern city in 1967. Having been born and brought up in Manchester, it has particular interest to me and I was familiar with several of the places shown, particularly the visit to the industries of Trafford Park.

 

Only 47 minutes, on YouTube if it's of interest.

 

https://youtu.be/9BO1bN7sjec

 

.

[Pacific231G]

So would I, spent odd hour today looking for it, almost sure it's in b/w, about the stress of a forman sending out engine crews knowing that had a strong chance of never returning due to allied air power.

 

What I did find out there is 2 "train" films Burt Lancaster one and one called "le train" made 1974.

 

 

I think that would be the film released in an English language dub in 1974 as "The Last Train" and in 1973 in France as "Le Train" starring Jean-Louis Trintignant, Romy Schneider.and a certain steam loco *. It's actually one of my all time favourite films and IMHO works better than the Georges Simenon short story it's based on. It's a moving story of two people on an evacuation train crossing France in 1940 from near Sedan to La Rochelle to escape the rapidly advancing German invasion. The final scene is incredibly poignant and gets me every time but overall the film paints a very good picture of ordinary people caught up in France's greatest national tragedy. The music is terrific and includes what I think is the best musical evocation of a steam loco since Honegger's Pacific 231. The train effectively made much of the journey portrayed in the story, much of it on secondary goods only lines, and the railway locations, even the large stations at Moulins and La Rochelle, were as yet relatively unmodernised so still looked as they would have done in 1940  It hasn't been shown on British television for quite some time but is available as a DVD and well worth getting.    

 

 

*The loco that hauled The Last Train was 230G353, an ex PO 4-6-0  I have great affection for. This is mainly because, during a steam tour of Parisian railways in the late 1980s,  I got to ride ion its footplate round much of the eastern part of the Petite Ceinture. It was the loco that featured in Muder on the Orient Express and many other movies because, after the end of steam, it was maintained in service by SNCF for just such duties. Sadly a boiler problem in 2000 (serious corrosion I think) took it out of service and it's not steamed since. For a long time it was in bits at the SNCFs workshops in Epernay but since 2013 has been in the hands of a preservation group  APPMF (Association pour la Préservation du Patrimoine et des Métiers Ferroviaires) They restored it cosmetically for a 2014 Orient Express exhibition in Paris and are working to return it to service. I really hope they succeed.

Edited February 19, 2017 by Pacific231G

[Arthur]

 

Blimey, it must be good David, 'The Last Train' DVDs are £50.00 on eBay and start at £60.00 on Amazon.

 

Not on YouTube, as far as `I can tell, unfortunately.

 

.

[locomad]

Blimey, it must be good David, 'The Last Train' DVDs are £50.00 on eBay and start at £60.00 on Amazon.

Not on YouTube, as far as `I can tell, unfortunately.

.

 

I know,but i am looking sometimes a subscriber puts it on under a similar name

 

I watched that ww1 sea battle very good enjoyed it a lot, I've seen something similar "sailor & the king" almost sure there are a few versions one of which asks the viewer what ending they like.

 

Hope to watch "white bus" tonight, over weekend managed to watch "seven keys" 1961, "bank raiders" 1958 and "sea fury" 1958, last one was told, Stanley Baker this time a 1st officer on a slavage tug. 1958 was same year as "the key" not on YouTube but I've seen it one TV once, another good film

[BG John]

On the topic of background interest one of the strangest films you'll see is Lindsay Andersons 'The White Bus' from 1967. Anybody familiar with Andersons work through films like 'IF', 'O Lucky Man' and 'Britannia Hospital' will know of his quirky style.

 

The film is shot largely in b&w with odd bits in colour, often washed out. It starts with a young woman, working in London, catching a train to her unnamed northern home town, Manchester in actuality.

 

There she joins a party of civic dignitaries, the mayor is Arthur Lowe, and boards the eponymous 'white bus'. This takes them on a surreal tour of the city.

 

Dialogue is minimal, there's no real story, no explanations, it's a bit dream like in its random scenes.

 

All quite odd but there are some very evocative and atmospheric shots capturing a northern city in 1967. Having been born and brought up in Manchester, it has particular interest to me and I was familiar with several of the places shown, particularly the visit to the industries of Trafford Park.

 

Only 47 minutes, on YouTube if it's of interest.

It's certainly weird. Right from when I saw the legs hanging from the ceiling in the office, I was expecting her to be dead, or that the bus would be taking her to some sort of untimely and surreal end!

[locomad]

It's certainly weird. Right from when I saw the legs hanging from the ceiling in the office, I was expecting her to be dead, or that the bus would be taking her to some sort of untimely and surreal end!

Though it was brilliant film, I myself lived in Manchester for 13 years from 1977, clips of Trafford park very interesting,

 

There is some clips about civil defense trainings now I think they have been taken from a civil defense film made about the same time but banned by the BBC, I saw it years later but can't remember the name.

[Pacific231G]

Blimey, it must be good David, 'The Last Train' DVDs are £50.00 on eBay and start at £60.00 on Amazon.

 

Not on YouTube, as far as `I can tell, unfortunately.

 

.

It is on Daily Motion as Le Train (1973) but only in French..The English language version didn't look  dubbed so I think they may have double shot the lip sync dialogue shots. 

[pete_mcfarlane]

Though it was brilliant film, I myself lived in Manchester for 13 years from 1977, clips of Trafford park very interesting,

 

There is some clips about civil defense trainings now I think they have been taken from a civil defense film made about the same time but banned by the BBC, I saw it years later but can't remember the name.

The War Game? 

 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_War_Game

[locomad]

The War Game? 

 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_War_Game

Thanks that's the one, very powerful film

[locomad]

Plenty of Hell Driver DVDs on eBay, used one here starting at £6.99,

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/222406480016

New one around a tenner.

As for the spoil disposal at sea, why not, environmental concerns were irrelevant in the day. Dump it where it's cheap and convenient. Who was going to complain? Not being critical, just the way things were done.

It's free on you tube watched it last night, it was posted 19 Feb 2017, download or watch it before it's pulled

[Bon Accord]

Another good film which is probably more interesting for the background than the plot is "Hell Below Zero" starring Alan Ladd. It's the usual love/murder storyline with Stanley Baker looking providing the evil atagonist, however the film features extensive footage of the Salvesen whaling fleet operating in the Antarctic. This includes the catchers chasing and harpooning the whales and the carcasses then being brought onboard the factory ship and being processed, the men working etc plus some brief descriptions as to what is going on. Not only that but it's all in colour. It's all very graphic so perhaps not for the cuddly toy lovers out there but very interesting all the same.

I grew up in an area where a lot of men went "chasing the whale" with the very well known firm of Christian Salvesen of Leith and this usually meant them being away for upto 2 years at a time in the South Atlantic, during which time they lived and worked in very primitive conditions and endured much hardship. However, when they came home they were rich men, although the first thing their wives/mothers etc usually did when they came back would be to burn all their clothes and send them off to the steam room at the public baths.

Anyone who's been in the vicinity of a whaling factory ship will know exactly why!

[locomad]

Hell below zero is an excellent film, in rich colour too, however it's been on TV a few times, tonight I watched "Crest of a wave" 1954, which I have never seen before. Set on a Scottish naval testing station with usual British actors of the time, bit slow at first but very enjoyable especially the end.

 

With all these films on internet I wonder why I bother with a TV licence

[bertiedog]

There has been a rush of UK based films on Youtube recently, mainly just post war, but some from the 1930's, most seem to have been recorded from CH4 transmissions in the 1980's, plus a few that are obviously from DVD's and risk being removed.

Few to do with trains, but there is Kate Plus Ten, an old Edgar Wallace story with a chase in a loco and a missing train!

Stephen

[The Stationmaster]

This is the place to head - rather an eclectic mix but some good stuff does come up

 

http://talkingpicturestv.co.uk

 

http://talkingpicturestv.co.uk/schedule/

Edited March 15, 2017 by The Stationmaster

[bertiedog]

Talking Pictures still have the problem that channel 81 is only able to be picked up by the latest boxes and sets, a lot of built TV units will not get the channel, and Talking Pictures will not deal with Virgin Cable for private ( they say), commercial reasons. Funny they get put on Murdoch controlled stations...Hmm...

[The Stationmaster]

Talking Pictures still have the problem that channel 81 is only able to be picked up by the latest boxes and sets, a lot of built TV units will not get the channel, and Talking Pictures will not deal with Virgin Cable for private ( they say), commercial reasons. Funny they get put on Murdoch controlled stations...Hmm...

 

Interesting - we are picking it up off Crystal Palace on a set about 5 years old with an inbuilt 'box'.  But yes, the boxes do vary - one of our older boxes wouldn't pick up the same channels as a later one; I'll have to see if that one (about 10 years old) will pick it up.  

[Fenman]

Sadly, BFI Player is not available outside the UK . I can't understand why, considering one has to pay for a subscription. 

 

They've probably only got the rights for UK distribution of many of their films so would be breaching copyright if they made it available more widely.

 

I think the BFI does a pretty remarkable job in curating what is one of the world's biggest film and television archives. But they're like a traditional library - just as a library may own a copy of a book but that doesn't necessarily give them the right to re-publish it, the BFI may own the negatives or prints, but they do not necessarily own the distribution rights*.

 

As it happens, I know the BFI's senior rights lawyer - who is a genius at negotiating complex rights to enable the BFI to reissue all sorts of amazing films on DVD or their web-based player. But don't underestimate the work involved: negotiations for the classic silent film Napoleon, for example, took more than 10 years to complete. Where a widow owns some rights, things can start getting incredibly difficult - because so emotional. And the industry is also notorious for attracting large numbers of chancers or get-rich-quick merchants (look up "Hollywood accounting" on Wikipedia, for a beginner's guide).

 

And Pacific321G is absolutely right: almost all film rights have been sold on the basis of distribution "territories"; make it available outside the territory you've paid for and the rights owner will come knocking at your door demanding usually preposterous levels of damages and the legal fees that go with that sort of mess. The BFI is funded in part by British tax-payers: why should overseas dwellers, who largely don't pay British taxes (there are exceptions, of course...) get a "free" ride? They should be lobbying their own governments to fund cultural institutions as brilliant as the BFI.

 

Paul

 

* In fact, the BFI owns the rights to thousands of amazing films, including almost all the British Transport Films collection, the Central Office of Information films, the works of the GPO's film unit, and loads more. But the single biggest owner of rights in British films is, I understand, the French company, Canal+. It would cost around £2-3 billion (you read that right) for the BFI to buy those rights. Interestingly, we think nothing of using lottery funds to buy a single old master oil painting for, sometimes, tens of millions of pounds or even more. I do find it interesting that it's almost unimaginable that we'd spend that sort of money on buying film rights.