It's amazing how the drama is so clearly adumbrated by the serving and ordering of drinks, the discussion of drinks, the holding of drink receptacles, the type of drink, where it is drunk and by whom.
Reviews
5 Reviews
Impulse
(1984)
Much better than I expected
14 December 2018
I wasn't expecting much from this when it came on TV and was half-watching while doing computer stuff but it pretty soon drew me in. The characters and their interactions were much more realistic than I expected and the acting was really good. Last night I watched World War Z a big budget 'zombie' film from 2013 starring Brad Pitt and it was really poor - Impulse is a far more mature and involving treatment of a broadly similar theme.
Tinker
(1949)
May be of some interest to locals
19 August 2017
I grew up not far from the area in which this was filmed and to be honest that was about all there was to the film to hold my interest until the end. It looks like it was filmed in Easington, one of three coastal colliery villages along a 4 mile stretch of the East Durham coast. Easington was later the location for Billy Elliott and the blackened beach in front of the pit, visible at the end of the film, was used by the Who as the location for the cover shot of their album Who's Next. Also 'Tinker'' culminates in a brief action sequence filmed in and around what, as kids, we called the 'aerial buckets'. That setting is pretty much identical to that used for the final scenes in Get Carter though those particular 'aerial buckets' were 3-4 miles to the south at Blackhall. Miners in these coastal pits would often spend much of their working day at coal faces some miles out underneath the North Sea.
The main, perhaps only, fascination of the film is how much it takes for granted that it would be appropriate to send large numbers of boys in their early teens into what at that time would have been a particularly dangerous working environment. It is a sobering coincidence that, in 1951, only two years after this was made, an explosion at Easington killed 83 miners.
As for rating the film itself - well as a documentary it doesn't tell us much (not intentionally anyway).and as a drama it doesn't get off the ground, just sort of builds falteringly to a sort of climactic action scene. 5 out of 10 then for bravely putting a script in the hands of fairly rigid non-actors (sprinkled with what seem to be a couple of stage school kids) for what we can assume were the best of intentions. A failed experiment.
The main, perhaps only, fascination of the film is how much it takes for granted that it would be appropriate to send large numbers of boys in their early teens into what at that time would have been a particularly dangerous working environment. It is a sobering coincidence that, in 1951, only two years after this was made, an explosion at Easington killed 83 miners.
As for rating the film itself - well as a documentary it doesn't tell us much (not intentionally anyway).and as a drama it doesn't get off the ground, just sort of builds falteringly to a sort of climactic action scene. 5 out of 10 then for bravely putting a script in the hands of fairly rigid non-actors (sprinkled with what seem to be a couple of stage school kids) for what we can assume were the best of intentions. A failed experiment.
The War Wagon
(1967)
Still very watchable
3 July 2017
I saw this at the pictures as a kid in the 60s and loved the action scenes at the film's climax. 50 or so years on I find I can happily sit through an afternoon showing of it on TV. It's fairly formulaic for Wayne but its strengths are in the (relatively) inventive plot and the expert interplay between Wayne and Douglas. One if those movies Wayne made now and again that have a big more spark in the dialogue.
One notable line near the beginning is where Douglas' character refers to Keenan Wynn's as a 'crazy old man'. In reality Wynn was less than 5 months older than Douglas.
One notable line near the beginning is where Douglas' character refers to Keenan Wynn's as a 'crazy old man'. In reality Wynn was less than 5 months older than Douglas.
Escape by Night
(1963)
Way below average
12 May 2017
Other reviewers on this page have pointed out the glaring implausibility of the plot's central planks but that aside, the script, even allowing for the strictures of the period, is laughably bad. Compare The League of Gentlemen from 3 years earlier - another plot bringing together a group of ne'er-do-wells - with Bryan Forbes' clever, arch script nudging knowingly against the limits set by the mores of the time. That's how it could be done. Meanwhile, in Clash By Night: 'I shan't tell you again' is the stern admonishment of a prison officer to one of his charges who is talking too much on the bus. And 'They must be very proud of you' one of the prisoners tells the other prison officer, with no trace of irony, on hearing he lives at home with mum and dad, as they sit having a bit of a chat a few feet from the murdered corpse of his colleague and with the very real prospect of death by immolation hanging over them. I think most of us allow a bit of leeway when watching films from earlier eras, they can be interesting for all sorts of reasons but, frankly, this is dreadful.
Tell Your Friends