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The Avengers: The Emma Peel Collection (1965-1967)

Blu-ray

[Imprint] Television

1965-67 / 1.33: 1 / Black and White and Color

Starring Diana Rigg, Patrick Macnee

Written by Brian Clemens, Philip Levene

Directed by Roy Ward Baker, Sidney Hayers, Charles Crichton

Though remembered for its idiosyncratic humor, The Avengers made its debut in 1961 as a no-nonsense crime drama. Ian Hendry starred as David Keel, a doctor turned detective, while Patrick MacNee haunted the sidelines as an inscrutable investigator named John Steed. Shot in black and white under grey English skies, the show was unmistakably a product of the Cold War, fueled by John Dankworth’s stentorian theme and an origin story that predicted television’s noirish The Fugitive; Keel’s fiancée has been murdered, prompting our heroes to join in the search for her killer.

It was a brief sojourn for Hendry who left at the end of the season, relinquishing star billing to Macnee and his new partner,...

Vincente Minnelli took time out from expensive MGM shows like Gigi to knock off this tale about the London debutante season, a light-comedy Cinderella story without satire or social comment. Young Sandra Dee and John Saxon come off well, but the show belongs to stars Rex Harrison and especially Kay Kendall, whose comedy timing and finesse lift the tame, weightless material.

The Reluctant Debutante

Blu-ray

Warner Archive Collection

1958 / Color / 2:35 widescreen / 96 min. / Street Date May 26, 2020 / available through the WBshop / 21.99

Starring: Rex Harrison, Kay Kendall, John Saxon, Sandra Dee, Angela Lansbury, Peter Myers, Diane Clare, Charles Herbert.

Cinematography: Joseph Ruttenberg

Film Editor: Adrienne Fazan

Written by William Douglas-Home from his play

Produced by Pandro S. Berman

Directed by Vincente Minnelli

Not often mentioned as a highlight of Vincente Minnelli’s career, The Reluctant Debutante is enjoyable now for the comedy playing of Rex Harrison and Kay Kendall. Harrison hadn’t been...

One can suppose it was inevitable for Hammer to take on a lesser celebrated (at the time) yet influential sub-genre such as zombies; the ’30s and ’40s were certainly a heyday, with such films as White Zombie (1932) and I Walked with a Zombie (1943) setting a template of voodoo curses and unwilling (and undead) subjects. By the ’50s, they were already used for comic effect, until Hammer took their chance with The Plague of the Zombies (1966), an atmospheric yet rousing period piece that would help set up another template for zombiedom’s biggest sea change two years later.

Part of a four picture co-op with Seven Arts Productions, Plague was released stateside by Twentieth Century Fox in late January to better than average reviews; mind you, Hammer usually found an appreciative press, if even for set design and production values alone. But critics at the time liked the fact that they...

Director Bryan Forbes tries his hand at comedy. His nostalgic Victorian farce features an eclectic choice of Brit stars — established greats John Mills & Ralph Richardson, the freshly-minted Michael Caine, reigning jester Peter Sellers and even a debut for the collegiate pranksters Peter Cook & Dudley Moore. It’s a beaut of a production with a charming John Barry music score… but the result yields more indulgent smiles than out-and-out laughs.

The Wrong Box

Region A+B Blu-ray

Powerhouse Indicator

1966 / Color / 1:75 widescreen / 105 min. / Street Date November 23, 2018 / available from Amazon UK / £14.99

Starring: John Mills, Ralph Richardson, Michael Caine, Peter Cook, Dudley Moore, Nanette Newman, Tony Hancock, Peter Sellers, Wilfrid Lawson, Thorley Walters, Gerald Sim, Irene Handl, Norman Bird, John Le Mesurier, Norman Rossington, Diane Clare, Tutte Lemkow, Charles Bird, Vanda Godsell, Jeremy Lloyd, James Villiers, Graham Stark, Dick Gregory, Valentine Dyall, Leonard Rossiter, André Morell, Temperance Seven, Andrea Allan, Juliet Mills.

Cinematography:...

One of Hammer Films more overlooked horror films within its canon, The Plague of the Zombies is a 1966 tale of class struggle and colonialism run amok in Great Britain. The great British character actor Andre Morell (who should have starred in as many films for Hammer as Peter Cushing did) stars as Professor Sir James Forbes, a teacher, doctor, and all-around sensible man in a land of superstitious villagers. He's summoned by one of his star pupils, who's perplexed by the deaths of several young people in Cornwall. Forbes and his daughter Sylvia (Diane Clare) got to visit, and Sylvia's old friend, the lovely Alice also succumbs to whatever local madness is happening. As it turns out, Squire Clive Hamilton (John Carson), who...

[Read the whole post on screenanarchy.com...]...

The Plague Of The Zombies

Stars: André Morell, Diane Clare, Brook Williams, Jacqueline Pearce, John Carson | Written by Peter Bryan | Directed by John Gilling

When it comes to Hammer’s The Plague of the Zombies it’s never been one of my favourite. When I read that it would be part of the Bradford After Dark event at this years Bradford International Film Festival I thought I’d give it a go. With the digital restoration that has been done I was looking forward to seeing how good the print would actually look.

People are dying in strange circumstances in a small Cornish village and the doctor Peter Thompson is out of his depth in both understanding and dealing with the villagers who want answers. Calling on his professor Sir James Forbes he pleads for help. When Forbes arrives with his daughter it’s evident that something is not right...

Some comments on my review of the Doctor Who Christmas Special 'A Christmas Carol' got me thinking about how it came to be that everyone's favourite Time Lord can never seem to get any 'action', romantically speaking. It's not been for want of attention or admirers; even back in the William Hartnell days, The Doctor was capable of flirting and even having a matrimonial 'near-miss' in the 1964 Who outing 'The Aztecs', so Matt Smith's Doctor is breaking no new ground in running away from connubial bliss with the 1957 version of Marilyn Monroe in 'A Christmas Carol'.

Can 47 years of sexual tension ever be released without killing the fundamental dynamic of the show? I've come to believe that it probably can't - which, if true, puts the Gallifreyan rogue at least neck-and-neck with Star Trek's Mr. Spock in terms of 'attractive unavailability'.

When the show...