Humphrey Bogart stars as one of five disreputable adventurers who are trying to get uranium out of East Africa. Bogart’s associates include pompous fraud Robert Morley, and Peter Lorre as the German-accented “O’Hara”, whose wartime record is forever a source of speculation and suspicion. Becoming involved in Bogart’s machinations are a prim British married couple (Edward Underdown and blonde-wigged Jennifer Jones). As a climax to their many misadventures and double-crosses, the uranium seekers end up facing extermination by an Arab firing squad. The satirical nature of Beat the Devil eluded many moviegoers in 1953, and the film was a failure. The fact that the picture attained cult status in lesser years failed to impress its star Humphrey Bogart, who could only remember that he lost a considerable chunk of his own money when he became involved in the project. Peter Viernick worked on the script on an uncredited basis. Beat the Devil eventually fell into public domain, leading to numerous inferior editions by second and third-tiered labels.Read More »
United Kingdom
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John Huston – Beat the Devil (1953)
1951-1960AdventureComedyJohn HustonUnited Kingdom -
John Goldschmidt – Play for Today: Vampires (1979)
1971-1980DramaHorrorJohn GoldschmidtThe Wednesday Play & Play for TodayUnited Kingdom“Vampires” is set in (then) present-day Liverpool and is about a young lad who finds proof in some catacombs that a vampire exists. Along with his classmates he organises a big hunt for it.
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Anthony Page – Not I (1973)
1971-1980Anthony PageExperimentalUnited KingdomA fascinating monologue of Samuel Beckett’s work, In A Wake For Sam, in which the only visible part of Ms Whitelaw are her lips, mouth and teeth. Mesmerising and chilling. Don’t forget to turn out the lights!Read More »
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Michael Winterbottom – Go Now (1995)
Drama1991-2000Michael WinterbottomUnited KingdomA poignant, touching tale of a young man afflicted by Multiple Sclerosis, Go Now suffers little of the sentimentality which often overwhelms television dramas dealing with illness and disability – which writer Jimmy McGovern contemptuously describes as ‘wheelchair plays’. This, and the unusually authentic feel, owes much to the fact that McGovern’s co-writer, newcomer Paul Henry Powell, is himself a sufferer of MS, and based the drama on his own experiences.Read More »
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Claude Goretta & Alain Tanner – Nice Time (1957)
1951-1960Alain TannerClaude GorettaDocumentaryShort FilmUnited KingdomSynopsis
In September 1956, two young Swiss film enthusiasts, Claude Goretta and Alain Tanner applied for a grant from the British Film Institute to finance a film about London’s Piccadilly on Saturday night. Both in their mid-twenties, they were working at the BFI, where they had met Lindsay Anderson and the other Free Cinema members, as well film critics like Derek Prouse and John Berger, who offered encouragement and support.Read More »
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Michael Simpson – Play for Today: Scully’s New Year’s Eve (1978)
1971-1980ComedyDramaMichael SimpsonThe Wednesday Play & Play for TodayUnited KingdomThe first TV glimpse of Alan Bleasdale’s alienated, down-at-heel scouse youth Franny Scully, as he invites his mates to gatecrash his mum’s new year’s eve party, which Bleasdale had developed in stories for Radio Merseyside. Scully and mate Mooey made strange dramatised cameos on misfiring waterbound Saturday morning miscellany The Mersey Pirate, before graduating to a series for Granada television.Read More »
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Jack Gold – Play for Today: A Walk in the Forest (1980)
1971-1980DramaJack GoldThe Wednesday Play & Play for TodayTVUnited Kingdom‘These refuseniks have all been denied visas to go to Israel. Some are in prison, others are suffering KGB harassment even as I speak… the point of asking you here is to find ways of mounting a barrage of publicity in the media. To act as horseflies, if you like, on the Kremlin’s rump.’Read More »
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Charlotte Colbert – She Will (2021)
Charlotte ColbertHorrorUnited KingdomWomen Make HorrorQuote:
The film explores the story of Veronica Ghent (Alice Krige) who after a double mastectomy, goes to a healing retreat in rural Scotland with her young nurse Desi (Kota Eberhardt). She discovers that the process of such surgery opens up questions about her very existence, leading her to start to question and confront past traumas.Read More » -
Michael Blackwood – Stirling: Three Museums [Omnibus] (1986)
1981-1990ArchitectureDocumentaryMichael BlackwoodUnited KingdomJames Stirling takes us from Germany, to London, to Boston, guiding us through three of his widely famed museums. Though the buildings designed and created by the established architect contain some of the world’s most notable works of art, Stirling reminds us that architecture serves as its very own long standing piece.Read More »