Saturday Night Out

The British films of the swinging sixties are typified for their crashing through the art barriers and doing things that had never been done before. Sometimes it came off; sometimes - well, all too often, to be exact - it didn't. Compare this with the "straight films" of the 1950s. Between these two phases of British cinema, there were a "special years" transitory phase: the straightness of the past was laid side by side with the oncoming weirdness of the swinging sixties. This is such a film.

The film follows the adventures of some merchant seamen on a London night out, before they return to their ship in the morning. There are some memorable scenes in this film. These include the "boyfriend" who is in a meditative trance, the know-all sailor getting his comeuppance, when he gets ripped off in a clip joint, and Bernard Lee voluntarily writing a cheque for ten pounds after a failed blackmail attempt. All this, and The Searchers playing in a pub, too.

It is a typical British B movie of the period, and is quite watchable.

I was in the Merchant Navy at this time and much of the film rings true. I only visited a clip joint once but you never forget. This was not the part of London that swung but further East. Some scenes are embarrassing but it is entertaining.

Seven sailors in London have an evening out before they have to return to ship.

It's an example of the 'Swinging London' genre of film, which means a diversity of exploits, from David Lodge, who spends the evening in with an old girl friend, to Bernard Lee, who thinks he's struck gold, to John Bonney and Coiln Campbell, who find love and frustration. There's a lot of seaminess to this movie, which turns out to be essentially normative and no worse than PG-12 by modern standards.

Liverpool band The Searchers play one number in a night club. The producers got the Beatles for the gig, but decided they didn't want to pay the train fare.

If ever a DVD should be prosecuted under the Trades Description Act this is it. To actually be released under the banner of 'The Best Of British' defies logic as it is mind blowingly awful from start to finish. There are few saving graces apart from a chance to revisit a London now long gone in the mists of time and see the blossoming beauty of the lovely Francesca Annis who shares her screen time mainly with the likable Colin Campbell. Bernard Lee has the best line after turning the tables on the smarmy Derek Bond and Erika Remberg's failed blackmail attempt, but the appearance of Nigel Green who spent the whole of his role drinking and stereotyping a drunken Irishman seemed utterly pointless. To have David Lodge as a lothario was another case of miscasting and I spent a lot of the time watching the film to see if Inigo Jackson was wearing a syrup or as they say in the States, a rug. I know times change and one shouldn't be too harsh on a film made nearly 50 years ago, but this was probably a film just as boring in 1964 as it is today. The less said about the Heather Sears role as a kind of forerunner hippy the better; her scenes seemed to go on forever and anyone who watched this on a Saturday night out would have wished they's spent a Saturday night in rather than going to see this codswallop. This was also the last film appearance of Freddie Mills who died a year later in mysterious circumstances. Rumours that his demise came after a disgruntled patron had seen this film were apparently unfounded.

There is no mistaking which decade this film was made in.It is clearly London and the swinging sixties.Mind you it is difficult to believe that this was 50 years ago and got an X certificate.Nowdays more like PG.The film has a very catchy title number which has stayed with me all the years since I first saw the film.The film is one of the portmanteau type,covering the adventures of 5 merchant seamen on leave.Some stories better than others.Bernard Lee in a rather different part,played partly for comic effect is quite good.The sailor going to the clip joint is quite interesting as it features one of the last performances of former boxer \Freddie \mills before he died in unexplained circumstances.The love story with the Australian sailor and the one with the electrician who spends the night alone in a room with a girl he has picked up and sleeps in a chair,are less satisfactory.This film captures London's Dockland in its last throes before it was transformed into offices and homes.In one instance they refer to a bomb site and this is nearly 20 years after the end of the war.