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On Sunday 14 July 2024, Talking Pictures TV broadcasts Those British Faces!

A Tribute to Miles Malleson Season 1 Episode 6 Episode Summary

In this episode of “Those British Faces” on Talking Pictures TV, titled “A Tribute to Miles Malleson,” viewers are treated to a poignant documentary honoring one of British cinema’s most esteemed figures. Aired in 1993, the episode pays homage to the legacy and contributions of Miles Malleson, highlighting his remarkable career and influence on the film industry.

The documentary serves as a fitting tribute, delving into Malleson’s diverse roles as an actor, screenwriter, and playwright. Through archival footage and interviews with colleagues and admirers, viewers gain insight into Malleson’s versatility, wit, and enduring impact on British cinema during the golden age of film.

Join Talking Pictures TV for an enriching exploration of Miles Malleson’s life and cinematic achievements in “A Tribute to Miles Malleson,” where his talent and...

Step into the world of British cinema legends with “Those British Faces,” airing at 6:00 Pm on Sunday, 14 July 2024, on Talking Pictures TV. Season 1, Episode 6, titled “A Tribute to Miles Malleson,” pays homage to one of the greats of British cinema, Miles Malleson, in a poignant documentary.

In this episode, viewers are treated to a comprehensive tribute to Miles Malleson, highlighting his significant contributions to the world of film. Known for his versatile acting and distinctive presence on screen, Malleson’s career spanned decades, leaving an indelible mark on British cinema. The documentary explores his memorable performances, ranging from comedic roles to character parts that showcased his depth and range as an actor.

“Those British Faces” offers a nostalgic journey through the life and career of Miles Malleson, featuring interviews, archival footage, and insights from film historians and colleagues. It celebrates his talent, his impact on the industry, and his enduring legacy in British cinema.

Courtesy of Studiocanal

by James Cameron-wilson

1960 was a year that sent shockwaves throughout the film industry. Alfred Hitchcock, who was to direct Anna Massey twelve years later in his lurid thriller Frenzy – about a serial killer in central London – opened a movie called Psycho. Psycho was significant in several regards. Hitchcock refused to show the film to critics and barred his two leads, Anthony Perkins and Janet Leigh, from doing any promotional interviews as he wanted total control over the film’s publicity and its content. This was in June of 1960. Two months earlier another celebrated filmmaker had released an equally shocking film called Peeping Tom and whose critical reception ruined both the movie and the reputation of its director, Michael Powell. Hitchcock wanted audiences to judge Psycho for themselves. Most audiences never got a chance to evaluate Peeping Tom.

Both films were about serial killers and both showed the murderer as a self-effacing,...

Kudos to Powerhouse Indicator for releasing this dramatic propaganda piece based on an actual German churchman imprisoned for refusing to kowtow to the Nazi authorities. It’s a primer on fascist power from early in the war, one of the first features by the Boulting Brothers. Pi’s extras package enlarges our interest ten-fold: the pastor’s objection to the Nazis was grossly misrepresented and the politics of his incarceration were very different. An added bonus are other wartime short subjects by Roy Boulting, from the Imperial War Museum.

Pastor Hall

Region Free Blu-ray

Powerhouse Indicator

1940 / B&w / 1:37 Academy / 95 min. / Street Date June 27, 2022 / Available from Powerhouse / £15.99

Starring: Wilfrid Lawson, Nova Pilbeam, Seymour Hicks, Marius Goring, Brian Worth, Percy Walsh, Lina Barrie, Eliot Makeham, Hay Petrie, Bernard Miles.

Cinematography: Mutz Greenbaum

Art Director: James Carter

Film Editor: Roy Boulting

Original Music: Charles Brill, Mac Adams

Screen Story and Screenplay by Leslie Arliss,...

Alfred Hitchcock puts Jane Wyman in harm’s way, as she tries to rescue her unworthy boyfriend Richard Todd from a murder charge. Is Jane proving her love, or are both of them being manipulated by a scheming actress, Marlene Dietrich? This is the movie in which Hitch inflicts a ‘frump complex’ on Ms. Wyman — she looks demoralized whenever she shares the screen with Dietrich. It’s also the movie that ponders the cinematic concept of ‘The Lying Flashback,’ which made perfect sense to Hitchcock but frustrated his audience. Also starring Michael Wilding, Alastair Sim and a cherry-picked list of English acting royalty.

Stage Fright

Blu-ray

Warner Archive Collection

1950 / B&w / 1:37 Academy / 110 min. / Available at Amazon.com / Street Date January 25, 2022 / 21.99

Starring: Jane Wyman, Marlene Dietrich, Michael Wilding, Richard Todd, Alastair Sim, Sybil Thorndike, Kay Walsh, Miles Malleson, Joyce Grenfell, André Morell, Patricia Hitchcock, Alfie Bass, Irene Handl. Lionel Jeffries.

Cinematography:...

Courageous disc boutique Scream Factory takes on one of Hammer’s biggest embarrassments, that almost everyone connected to it would like to disown. I bailed from my first viewing around 1990 … yet this time around found it somewhat better than I expected. The girlie-show nudity is treated as a special effect, and the story at least hangs together. And like every Hammer horror, there’s a sizable, vocal cheering section out there that sings its praises.

Lust for a Vampire

Blu-ray

Scream Factory

1971 / Color / 1:85 & 1:66 widescreen / 91 min. / Street Date July 30, 2019 / 27.99

Starring: Barbara Jefford, Ralph Bates, Suzanna Leigh, Yutte Stensgaard, Michael Johnson, Helen Christie, Mike Raven, Christopher Cunningham, Harvey Hall, Pippa Steel, David Healy, Jonathan Cecil.

Cinematography: David Muir

Film Editor: Spencer Reeve

Original Music: Harry Robinson

Written by Tudor Gates, based on characters by Sheridan Le Fanu

Produced by Harry Fine, Michael Style

Directed by Jimmy Sangster

What? This column...

Dead of Night

Blu ray

Kino Lorber

1945 / 1.33 : 1 / 102 Min.

Starring Mervyn Johns, Michael Redgrave, Googie Withers

Cinematography by Douglas Slocombe

Directed by Basil Dearden, Alberto Cavalcant, Charles Chrichton, Robert Hamer

Anthology films have been a reliable Hollywood staple since D.W. Griffith’s time-traveling Intolerance and Paramount’s depression-era dramedy If I Had a Million. The short story format has proved especially popular with horror movie fans who prefer their thrills lean, mean and straight to the point.

That humble subgenre contains multitudes – from Masaki Kobayashi‘s elegant Kwaidan to the comic book stylings of Freddie Francis’s Dr. Terror’s House of Horrors to the state of the art shocker Nightmare Cinema – but the great-granddaddy of them all is surely the 1945 classic from Britain’s Ealing Studios – Dead of Night.

Mervyn Johns, the eternal Everyman, plays Walter Craig, a restoration expert whose newest project – a provincial manor called “Pilgrim’s...

Yvonne Monlaur: Cult horror movie actress & Bond Girl contender was featured in the 1960 British classics 'Circus of Horrors' & 'The Brides of Dracula.' Actress Yvonne Monlaur dead at 77: Best remembered for cult horror classics 'Circus of Horrors' & 'The Brides of Dracula' Actress Yvonne Monlaur, best known for her roles in the 1960 British cult horror classics Circus of Horrors and The Brides of Dracula, died of cardiac arrest on April 18 in the Paris suburb of Neuilly-sur-Seine. Monlaur was 77. According to various online sources, she was born Yvonne Thérèse Marie Camille Bédat de Monlaur in the southwestern town of Pau, in France's Pyrénées-Atlantiques department, on Dec. 15, 1939. Her father was poet and librettist Pierre Bédat de Monlaur; her mother was a Russian ballet dancer. The young Yvonne was trained in ballet and while still a teenager became a model for Elle magazine. She was “discovered” by newspaper publisher-turned-director André Hunebelle,...

The Mint Theater presents the World Premiere of Yours Unfaithfully by Miles Malleson, an 'un-Romantic Comedy' about the price of free love.The production is runningatThe Beckett Theater at Theatre Row throughFebruary 18th.Opening Night is set for tonight, January 26th. Yours Unfaithfully was published in 1933 but never produced, making Mint's production a very belated World Premiere. In honor of opening night, BroadwayWorld has a look at the cast in action below...

The Mint Theater has begun performances for the World Premiere of Yours Unfaithfully by Miles Malleson, an 'un-Romantic Comedy' about the price of free love. Performances began last night, December 27th,at The Beckett Theater at Theatre Row, and continue through February 18th. Opening Night is set for January 26th. Yours Unfaithfully was published in 1933 but never produced, making Mint's production a very belated World Premiere. BroadwayWorld has a first look at the cast in action below...

Hammer hits one out of the park with this 'ripping good' Sherlock Holmes tale, tilted heavily toward gothic mystery and horror. Peter Cushing and André Morell excel in heroic roles, while Christopher Lee doesn't have to play a monster, just a coward. Terence Fisher's directing skill is at its height. The Hound of the Baskervilles Blu-ray Twilight Time Limited Edition 1959 / Color / 1:66 widescreen / 86 min. / Ship Date June 14, 2016 / available through Twilight Time Movies / 29.95 Starring Peter Cushing, André Morell, Christopher Lee, Marla Landi, David Oxley, Francis De Wolff, Miles Malleson, Ewen Solon. Cinematography Jack Asher Production Designer Bernard Robinson Film Editor Alfred Cox Original Music James Bernard Written by Peter Bryan from the novel by Arthur Conan Doyle Produced by Michael Carreras & Anthony Hinds Directed by Terence Fisher

Reviewed by Glenn Erickson

In addition to their straight-up gothic horrors, Hammer films produced films in other genres, such as costume adventures and war pictures.

Rex Ingram in 'The Thief of Bagdad' 1940 with tiny Sabu. Actor Rex Ingram movies on TCM: Early black film performer in 'Cabin in the Sky,' 'Anna Lucasta' It's somewhat unusual for two well-known film celebrities, whether past or present, to share the same name.* One such rarity is – or rather, are – the two movie people known as Rex Ingram;† one an Irish-born white director, the other an Illinois-born black actor. Turner Classic Movies' “Summer Under the Stars” continues today, Aug. 11, '15, with a day dedicated to the latter. Right now, TCM is showing Cabin in the Sky (1943), an all-black musical adaptation of the Faust tale that is notable as the first full-fledged feature film directed by another Illinois-born movie person, Vincente Minnelli. Also worth mentioning, the movie marked Lena Horne's first important appearance in a mainstream motion picture.§ A financial disappointment on the...

Stars: Peter Cushing, André Morell, Christopher Lee, Marla Landi, David Oxley, Francis De Wolff, Miles Malleson, Ewen Solon, John Le Mesurier, Helen Goss, Sam Kydd, Michael Hawkins, Judi Moyens, Michael Mulcaster | Written by Peter Bryan | Directed by Terence Fisher

I’ve always been a Sherlock Holmes fan, and my horror leanings turned me to The Hound of the Baskervilles, a story I grew to love. It is evident by all different movies based on the tale and their popularity, that I’m not the only one. One of the best has to be Hammer’s with Peter Cushing as Sherlock Holmes. This is why when Arrow Video revealed their Blu-ray release I looked forward to seeing it, especially with the amount of behind the scenes material on the disc.

When Charles Baskerville is found slain on Dartmoor, the next in line Sir Henry Baskerville (Christopher Lee) inherits the estate, and...

Prolific comedy actor who worked with Peter Sellers, Tony Hancock, Spike Milligan and Hattie Jacques

The stony-faced, beaky comedy actor Graham Stark, who has died aged 91, is best remembered for his appearances alongside Peter Sellers, notably in the Pink Panther movies. His familiar face and voice, on television and radio, were part of the essential furniture in the sitting room of our popular culture for more than half a century. A stalwart in the national postwar comedy boom led by Sellers, Tony Hancock, Spike Milligan, Dick Emery, Eric Sykes and Benny Hill, he worked with them all in a sort of unofficial supporting repertory company that also included Hattie Jacques, Deryck Guyler, Patricia Hayes and Arthur Mullard. He was also a man of surprising and various parts: child actor, trained dancer, film-maker, occasional writer, and dedicated and critically acclaimed photographer.

Like Gypsy Rose Lee, he had a resourceful and determined...

Alec Guinness: Before Obi-Wan Kenobi, there were the eight D’Ascoyne family members (photo: Alec Guiness, Dennis Price in ‘Kind Hearts and Coronets’) (See previous post: “Alec Guinness Movies: Pre-Star Wars Career.”) TCM won’t be showing The Bridge on the River Kwai on Alec Guinness day, though obviously not because the cable network programmers believe that one four-hour David Lean epic per day should be enough. After all, prior to Lawrence of Arabia TCM will be presenting the three-and-a-half-hour-long Doctor Zhivago (1965), a great-looking but never-ending romantic drama in which Guinness — quite poorly — plays a Kgb official. He’s slightly less miscast as a mere Englishman — one much too young for the then 32-year-old actor — in Lean’s Great Expectations (1946), a movie that fully belongs to boy-loving (in a chaste, fatherly manner) fugitive Finlay Currie. And finally, make sure to watch Robert Hamer’s dark comedy Kind Hearts and Coronets...

In the 1940s and 50s, the Boulting brothers won over filmgoers and critics with a series of classics – from Brighton Rock to Private's Progress. As the BFI begins a retrospective, Michael Newton explores their version of Britain

The history of the Boulting brothers is the history of British cinema in miniature. The brilliance, the comforts and the disappointments are all there. In the 1940s, they take off from documentary realism to reach the heights of noir extravagance, before falling back into a gently unexciting worthiness. At the start of the 1950s they produce two fascinating oddities, characteristic of the oddity of the times. Later that decade, they turn to cosily satirical farce, the products of an exasperated, grump. The 1960s see them trying to get with it and making a middle-aged effort to "swing", but also creating one work that finds a vulnerable, extraordinary beauty in ordinary lives. And after that comes a petering out,...

Chicago – It’s a cause for celebration amongst film buffs when any picture—however minor or unremarkable—is miraculously resurrected from the dead, enabling us to view a lost piece of cinema history. That being said, there are countless titles more worthy of being reborn than “Perfect Understanding,” the latest alleged classic released by Cohen Media Group.

At first glance, this 1933 talkie promises to be fascinating. After making the intimidating transition to sound, while scoring two Oscar nominations in the process, one would imagine that Gloria Swanson’s career was on fire. Yet her popularity was waning with audiences, inspiring the star to form her own production company to make this comeback vehicle with a young up-and-comer named Laurence Olivier. Apparently the film fizzled during its initial release, inspiring Swanson to make only two more pictures before disappearing for nearly a decade.

Blu-ray Rating: 1.5/5.0

It wasn’t until 1950 when Swanson...

To mark the release of Go to Blazes on DVD this Monday, 6th February, Studio Canal have given us three copies of the class movie to give away. The movie was originally released in 1962, is directed by Michael Truman and stars Maggie Smith, Dave King, Robert Morley and Daniel Massey.

For anyone who loves British comedy, Go To Blazes features an all-star cast that includes Robert Morley (The African Queen, Topkapi), Daniel Massey (In Which We Serve, The Entertainer), Dennis Price (Kind Hearts and Coronets, The Rebel) and Coral Browne (Auntie Mame, Theatre of Blood).  Go To Blazes also features classic British character actors Norman Rossington (The Wrong Box, The Charge of the Light Brigade), Finlay Currie (Around The World in Eighty Days, Ben Hur) and Miles Malleson (The Importance of Being Earnest, The Man In The White Suit). And last but not least, Go To Blazes stars Dame Maggie Smith...

A young teacher on her way to a new job in Transylvania gets stranded at an old castle. There she is persuaded by a young man to help him escape the shackles with which his mother has kept him locked up in for years.

Unknown to her, the man is actually a vampire and a disciple of Count Dracula. Finally freed, he begins to unleash his reign of terror on the local village. That is until Dr. Van Helsing shows up to put an end to the vampire plague once and for all.

When Christopher Lee stated that he wasn’t going to reprise his role as Dracula, Hammer had two options. Either recast the role which could alienate a lot of people and they had to be sure they got the right man in the first place. Or the alternative was to switch the focus of this franchise from...

Hi Lee,

Thanks for the nice write-up on Hammer's version of Phantom of the Opera.With all the hype attributed to previous film versions and the stage musical, this version often gets lost in the shuffle and it's far superior to all the others. It knows it's a horror movie. I wish you'd consider having someone on your staff write up a piece on that film. It was planned for Cary Grant to actually play the Herbert Lom role, but that casting arrangement fell apart. I think Grant might have been excellent as the Phantom (he was always desparate to play a character he could disappear into), but I have a very hard time seeing him as Professor Petrie, don't you? In any case, Hammer's Phantom has always been my favorite just for its raft of character actors alone - Michael Ripper and Miles Malleson as cabbies, Patrick Troughton as...