Last night's movie was "The Wind of Change"(1961), a kind of a precursor to "Guess Who's Coming to Dinner" if you made it about east London Cockneys and added some Teddy Boy violence with a pinch of "Rebel Without a Cause". Young and unemployed "Frank Marley" (Johnny Briggs) lives at home with his parents. At night, he and and his rowdy pals hang out at the local cafe, drinking Cokes through long straws, hitting on the birds and talking tough. The jukebox blares jazz until "Ginger" (David Hemmings) walks in with his guitar, which Frank's sidekick "Ron" (Norman Gunn) appropriates and belts out a rockin' tune as a showcase. All is well, the dancers are snappin' their fingers, until a Jamaican youth walks in and smiles at the counter girl. He's the only "colored boy" in the place (the phrase is used in the movie). He likes the music too, but Frank doesn't like him, or that he just smiled at the waitress. He gets up to challenge the young man, who sees he's outnumbered and leaves. Frank, Ron and Ginger chase him into an alley but a resident drives up (a white female), and the gang runs off. The Jamaican boy is saved.
All of that takes about 7 minutes, and then a very odd thing happens (at least I thought it odd): for the next 25 minutes (of a 61 minute film) the movie becomes a British Teddy Boy version of "Rebel", as Frank is home the next day when his father gets back from work. It's late afternoon. Dad (Donald Pleasence) is ineffectual but passive/agressive. He starts chiding Frank about getting a job, and Frank's attitude is bad from the get go. He never calls his father "Dad", or "Pop", or anything but "You". He sneers at everything Dad says. Even when Dad asks, "is Mum around?", Frank snarls. " 'ow should I know?" He needs a good wallop, and you just know it's coming, because Ineffectual Dad is Donald Pleasence, who also plays psychos. Quietly exploding is in his contract.
But it will take a while, because Frank is protected by Mom (Hilda Finemore), who just wants the family to get along. This 25 minute section of "You're tearing me apart!" domesticity features a long dinner scene in which Frank decries his sister dating a black man, a United States Air Force soldier. The n-word is used a lot. Mom doesn't disagree with Frank's opinion, though she uses more "decorum" in expressing hers. Dad seems to say, in so many words, that they're both wrong and hypocritical. "They have as much right to be in this country as we do," he says of black people.
All of this arguing is centered around the angry young Frank, who couldn't be more un(donald)pleasant. Mom wonders where Josie is, Frank's sister. He says if he had his chance, he'd kill her "colored" boyfriend. Mom blames his attitude on Ineffectual Dad: "You've never given Frank any guidance! You've only ever harrased him! All you ever do is listen to the wireless and tend to your silly rabbits." Dad does keep bunnies in a hutch out back. He's got "three white, one black," which he uses as a metaphor for racial tolerance. His black rabbit is named King Arthur. He also has a nickname for King Arthur but you have to listen closely to catch it.
When this very long domestic sequence ends, at around the 32 minute mark, the plot finally begins, and we get a 29 minute crime story, as Frank and his gang lay in wait for sister Josie and her boyfriend to walk by, down by the cafe alley. The gang jump the boyfriend with a knife, pipe and bicycle chain. It's dark and Josie doesn't recognise her brother. Her boyfriend later dies in the hospital, and the cops close in. Frank blames the victim (as many do), in this case his sister, who has a permanent scar on her cheek from a knife swipe during the mugging.
Now, you've been expecting Donald Pleasence to explode at some point; they wouldn't have cast him if he wasn't going to, but you also know he's gonna do it quietly. He finally punches Frank out, Frank looking every bit like a teenaged Roger Daltrey minus the hair. But sister Josie is the one to finally do him in ("Forgive me, Lord", she says) as two cop cars block the front and back doors while Ineffectual Dad tends his rabbits and delivers the final punch line which is King Arthur's nickname. Two Big Thumbs Up, verging on Two Huge, though the subject matter is distasteful. An unusually formatted film with half the movie taking place in the kitchen. The picture is razor sharp. ////
The previous night we had a top-notch Noir from Lippert Pictures: "Man Bait"(1952), starring English blonde bombshell Diana Dors in her debut role. Dors plays "Ruby Bruce", a 21 year old clerk in a collector's book shop run by the older, staid "John Harman" (George Brent). Ruby is one of those girls who looks in the mirror one day, decides she is All That, and makes a decision to use her sex appeal to get what she wants in life. She's young, though, so all she really wants now is to be allowed to show up late for work. When Mr. Harman calls her on it, Ruby - sulking that she's finally been told "no" by someone - sees a thief trying to steal an antique book, and because he's.....well, not roguishly handsome, but reasonably good looking and "dangerous", she promises not to rat him out, and agrees to meet him later for a drink. Of course, the book thief is a career criminal, not exactly suave but with enough street sophistication to enthrall a naive hottie like Ruby. His name is "Jeffery Hart" (Peter Reynolds), he's about ten years older, has a trampy woman for a girlfriend, and is just now out on parole. He's also broke, so the first thing he does when he gets Ruby alone is to ask her how wealthy her boss is.
"Mr. Harman?" she says, "Oh, he ain't got much, maybe 300 pounds in savings." She knows this because she's the shop's bookkeeper and has filed his insurance policy (pron. IN-surance as opposed to OUT-surance).
Well, 300 pounds may not be "much", but it's enough to interest Jeffrey, who enlists Ruby to come on to Mr. Harman the next time she's asked to work late. She wears skimpy clothes and entices Mr. Harman, who suddenly finds himself in an unexpected clinch. He inadvertently kisses her, which she initiates. He has an invalid wife at home, and he's a devoted husband, but Ruby has her wiles, and she's being manipulated by the career criminal Jeffrey, who she wants to impress because he's dangerous. When you're hot, the square life must be challenged. Daddy Figures and all that, donchaknow. After the work-late clandestine office kiss, Jeffrey tells Ruby to blackmail Mr. Harman. "Make him give you 100 pounds." She tries this and he throws her out of his office. "You know I didn't mean to kiss you and you started it. Now, don't mention it again or I'll go to the police."
Jeffrey then tells Ruby to threaten to write a letter to Mr. Harman's bedridden wife. She refuses to take things that far, so Jeffrey writes it himself and mails it. Harman's wife receives it and commits suicide, thinking her devoted husband is unfaithful. Now Ruby is in a world of trouble, having bitten off more than she can chew. The criminal Jeffrey doesn't give a hoot about her, he's got a woman his own age with street smarts who's more astute. Ruby's just a kid in bitches' clothing. But nobody planned for Mrs. Harman to kill herself. Ruby threatens to call the cops on Jeffrey, who then kills her late one night in the bookshop basement. He stuffs her in a book crate to make it look like Mr. Harman did it, and - as no one in the shop even knows Jeffrey exists - all signs point to Harman as the killer. He goes into hiding, protected by his secretary (Marguerite Chapman), who was also his psychiatric nurse after the war (shell shock). There's enough plot here to fill two movies, including the subthread of a Ron Howard-lookin' police inspector who's as relentless as a pit bull. Two Big Thumbs for "Man Bait", directed by Terence Fisher of Hammer Studios fame. Lippert Pictures always gives you your money's worth; they're like a slightly upscale version of The Butcher Brothers. Diana Dors does a decent enough job, given what's expected of her. Jeffrey Hart is played by Peter Reynolds, who we just saw last week as "Jim Tellman Drew" in "A Question of Suspense." He played a different type of killer in that one, a business CEO. He's got range. The picture is razor sharp. ////
And that's all for tonight. My blogging music is "Hergest Ridge" by Mike Oldfield, my late night is Handel's Amadis of the Gali Opera. I hope your week is going well and I send you Tons of Love, as always.
xoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxo :):)
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