rowan_h

I saw this documentary about 8 years ago, wow, that long? Hudson and Halls have both been dead for longer than that and probably largely forgotten. However, even if you don't remember seeing them camp around your TV screens in NZ or the UK this is worth a watch.

Its, in fact, precisely what is says; a Love Story. Peter Hudson and David Halls were a couple for many years and despite their on and off screen bickering very much devoted to one another. When Peter died of cancer David was heart-broken and committed suicide a year later.

The documentary recreates the world, not so long ago, when gay men had to be at least discreet and where everyone knew but pretended not to. Probably until the last ten years of their lives Hudson and Halls would have never admitted they were gay, but of course, it was obvious. In a small way they helped to blow the lid off that world. Their cookery programme in NZ was quite explosive for the time, instead of staid matrons and sound blokes you had two screaming queens careening about the studio. As a gay teenager in the UK I was amazed and delighted to see these camp old flamers, seemingly so confident and careless of what anyone thought of them, mocking their star guests and taking the p, on TV. There was nothing quite like it. I can't imagine anyone watched it for the cookery.

The documentary shows them to have been challenging people and possibly alcoholics, but none the less loving and caring and full of fun and love of life. Its very sad and very funny and well worth a watch, even if you never saw them

Really, Its hard to find words for how bad this was. I lasted half an hour and then I just couldn't stand any more. Its not just that the acting and script were bad, and they were, the setting, costumes and general atmosphere were so wrong that a bad film failed even to transport you to the world it was meant to portray which might at least have made me watch a bit more of it.

I was put off right at the beginning by Edward Teach (Blackbeard) having a Scottish accent when of course he was English. Angus MacFadyen can act English why didn't he? Stacy Keach looked embarrassed as well he should and Richard Chamberlain tried to rise above it but his costume prevented him. Thailand does not look like the West Indies and the Thais don't look like African slaves.

the acting was truly awful and the script sounded like a teenager had written it after watching a few old movies. The costumes were particularly awful. Richard Chamberlain's looked like a High School pantomime costume and the wigs looked as if someone had once seen a picture of an English lawyer and tried to reproduce it from memory with cotton wool. About the only decent thing in it was the ships and the at sea sequences where at least they'd spent a bit of money.

I know it was Hallmark but they can do an reasonable enough job, Moby Dick was OK, this was bad, bad, bad. So bad I felt insulted and bitterly resented the rental fee. If you're thinking about watching it don't, just look out the window for an hour its bound to be more entertaining.

A friend passed this on to me with a laconic "let me know what you think". I wasn't expecting much. I was pleasantly surprised. The silent b/w thing was great and just the right atmosphere for a Lovecraft film. I especially liked the real period feel of the title cards. The acting was surprisingly good, particularly the professor and the degenerate swamp dweller. Silent film acting is much more like stage acting, i.e. it has to be somewhat exaggerated or the audience will lose it. This film understood this and bravo. The production was far better than might be expected on something I suspect to have been low budget and the expressionist set of R'lyeh was fantastic! That said I have a few plaints. Firstly; costumes. Unfortunately they fall into an all too common trap of period film making. Don't assume you know, get someone who really does know, look at old photos or paintings very carefully. In the 1920s men wore suits and ties and hats but that doesn't mean if you put a man in a suit and a tie and a hat he will look like he stepped out of the 20s. The suits here were mostly the wrong cut and style. Henry Wilcox was wearing a pair of ridiculous knickers that looked cheap and ill made, in the 20s they would have been far baggier. The shape of the ties was very modern.In one flashback scene to 1908 they lost it all together with an array of modern jackets and a pathetic attempt at period look by everyone wearing the same wing collar...SOFT ATTACHED WING COLLARS!!!! How 1980s! a variety of stiff detached collars, please! I know I seem a pedant but what is the point in establishing a great period atmosphere if you can't get the clothes right? Some scenes fell very flat and this seemed to be down to underacting and bad direction e.g the archaeologists conference. The music was buzzing and highly annoying. There were definitely moments of drag and tedium and the pace could have been picked up or cuts made, frankly it was too long.

Despite this for what it was it was a valiant and amusing attempt to render a great story in an appropriate context. If you complain about the shoddiness of sets or the crap special effects then you are missing the point. THEY ARE MEANT TO BE! It wouldn't be as good otherwise but I accept some people just won't get the joke. This kind of thing is not for everyone but I'm glad they did it. Being involved to some degree in projects of a similar level I know that it's easy with modern technology to make crap look good. I think it's great that they did the opposite...If you love old movies and Gothic drama have a look at this, it's fun.