Les bicyclettes de Belsize

For those interested in this film, I felt it worth mentioning that it is now available via Optimum Classic/Studio Canal (optd1142) on the same release that features Norman Cohen's utterly wonderful 'The London Nobody Knows'. As you might expect, the DVD is lovingly assembled and the print quality of both films is superb.

Juxtaposing both on the same disc carries some editorial weight: Cohen's London is genuinely (and properly) post-apocalyptic, still reeling from the human and economic tragedies of the Second World War, whereas Hickox describes a shimmering fantasy which, for the fortunate few, was not a million miles from the truth.

Bar the slapstick and the redundant bus stop scene, this poignant love story has stayed with me since I first saw it as a child on ITV then C4 in the 80's. Lucklily my VHS copy is still fine taped from C4 sometime in 1989. The music, magic and romance is much more than most movie musicals ever achieve. Has anyone ever wondered where the two stars are now? Best song in my opinion is the one Julie sings "All I Want is Love?" I could marry her if I was so inclined! I will look out for that soundtrack and am so glad to see others have enjoyed this simple masterpiece. Email me if you love this film too! Wouldn't it be amazing to have a screening in North London at a cinema for all lovers of this. We could all arrive on bikes and wear 60's bohemian gear!

This film has been shown on UK terrestrial TV - the last time being a Sunday afternoon in March 1990 when I recorded it onto videotape. My main reason for watching was the spellbindingly beautiful actress Judy Huxtable, who here represents the pinnacle of English Perfect Dollybird - at once sexy and vulnerable. The male lead is played by Anthony May, who also appeared in the film The Triple Echo. Skip Martin, probably best known for his role as Hoptoad in the film The Masque Of The Red Death, appears in a small role at a party which is still going on while other people are getting up for work! The songs are superb - I don't know who sings the title song as used in the film, but Englebert Hunperdinck also recorded it and had a hit single with it. Why hasn't this film been on TV in so long? Why isn't it available on DVD ? And why aren't I married to Judy Huxtable ?

I haven't seen this short 1960s film for at least 10 years now, and yet I retain an intense fondness for it. Perhaps, as a Londoner born and bred (albeit in Fulham, south-west London), I savour it for its portrait of a particularly glamorous part of London (Hampstead and environs), at a particularly fashionable time (the late 1960s). (Whenever I walk around certain parts of London I feel myself to be back in the 1960s, and the Hampstead/Highgate area is one such part.) I recommend that anyone within commuting distance of London book a day (or afternoon) of walking over Hampstead Heath and adjoining area, and that anyone else within remote-control distance of a VCR record this evocative little film at the next opportunity.

This lovely little film, a 30 minute short film features a boy in search for the love of his life who he had just crashed through on his bike. She was the model on a advertising poster.

It's all very quaint, that's not a put down but a big compliment featuring a score written by Les Reed and Bart Mason and a wonderful theme song sung by Englerbert Humperdinck (?) On yes I forgot to mention it's a silent movie with what little dialogue sung by the cast, that makes it a musical I guess lol .