davidcorne245

After reading the first review of this film I was tempted to say that the reviewer should have gone to Specsavers. Talking about 'the lovely Rita Tushingham' made me think this. She may have been a good actress, but lovely she certainly wasn't. Mike Sarne used this film as a vehicle to prove that not only he couldn't sing, but couldn't act either. The one saving grace for me as someone who worked in Bethnal Green around this time the film was made was the jogging of my memory of streets, neighbourhood and people long gone. The sight of Doris Hare belittling Bernard Lee at the family meal table was as embarrassing as the bedroom clinch they later shared. The scene where Lee sets light to the Christmas decorations is just laughable and how Sarne and Tushingham spent time canoodling in a derelict bombed out building probably running alive with rats was as ridiculous as casting John Slater as the local gangster. Like Lee who played an escapologist (not a very good one at that)who struggled to free himself of the chains he was bound by, I couldn't get out of the cinema quick enough!

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.

This series was recently undeservedly brought back from obscurity by the Yesterday Satellite Channel in the UK. It is totally laughable and most of the actors must have auditioned to see how much they could overact. It was so bad that I daren't miss an episode of this hogwash. Several of the cast set out to show how not to act, but the Oscar winner was probably Brian Pringle playing a priest working for the French underground who would have been better employed by London Underground. He was simply appalling and it was a relief when he was shot after a couple of episodes. He was joined by so many of the cast in their over the top clichéd portrayals of German officers, Frenchmen and upper class English women. Trevor Peacock invented the new method of acting by delivering as much of his dialogue through clenched teeth, but at least he looked realistic whereas Jane Snowden had a fresh hairdo and makeup in every scene and also a steady supply of new skirts and blouses. The production spoilt itself in that they used authentic German armour and aircraft but let itself down as in the case of the women being shown as glamour pusses instead of tough secret agents. Jane Asher found her true calling when she turned to cake making as she really took the cake as the boss of the British base of the SOE operations. Kate Buffery was often seen smoking in the series, but I venture to say that she never smoked at all in 'real life.' I saw the DVD on sale in HMV for the princely sum of £55 for the complete series which could earn many of the 'actors' some royalties, but personally I'd put most of them plus the director in front of a firing squad! Another series along similar lines was 'Secret Army' which was remorselessly spoofed and spoilt by 'allo, allo', but 'Wish Me Luck' didn't need to be spoofed as it became a comedy in it's own right. The French locations couldn't save this series which was spoilt by poor acting, intrusive music and abysmal scriptwriting. Why did I watch it? My Resistance was low!