#bonar colleano

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Sleeping Car to Trieste (1948) John Paddy Carstairs

October 19th 2024

[byneddiedingo]

David Niven and Marius Goring in A Matter of Life and Death (Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger, 1946)

Cast: David Niven, Kim Hunter, Robert Coote, Kathleen Byron, Richard Attenborough, Bonar Colleano, Joan Maude, Marius Goring, Roger Livesey, Raymond Massey. Screenplay: Michael Powell, Emeric Pressburger. Cinematography: Jack Cardiff. Production design: Alfred Junge. Film editing: Reginald Mills. Music: Allan Gray. 

Fantasy, especially in British hands, can easily go twee, and though Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger had surer hands than most, A Matter of Life and Death (released in the United States as Stairway to Heaven, long before Led Zeppelin) still manages occasionally to tip over toward whimsy. There is, for example, the symbolism-freighted naked boy playing a flute while herding goats, the doctor's rooftop camera obscura from which he spies on the villagers, and the production of A Midsummer Night's Dream being rehearsed by recovering British airmen. And there's Marius Goring's simpering Frenchman, carrying on as no French aristocrat, even one guillotined during the Reign of Terror, ever did. Many find this hodgepodge delicious, and A Matter of Life and Death is still one of the most beloved of British movies, at least in Britain. I happen to be among those who find it a bit too much, but I can readily appreciate many things about it, including Jack Cardiff's Technicolor cinematography (Earth is color, Heaven black and white, a clever switch on the Kansas/Oz twist in the 1939 The Wizard of Oz) and Alfred Junge's production design. On the whole, it seems to me too heavily freighted with message -- Love Conquers Even Death -- to be successful, but it must have been a soothing message to a world recovering from a war.  

[travsd]

The Crazy Love of Burt Pugach and Linda Riss

This is a show biz blog and Burt Pugach (1927-2020) had a modest footprint in show business. He was invested in New York nightclubs, and he produced the crime drama Death Over My Shoulder (1958) with Keefe Braselle, Bonar Colleano, and Jill Adams. But history will always remember him for something else, a memory amplified by the 2007 documentary Crazy Love, co-directed by Dan Klores and Fisher…

[tvln]

escape by night (uk, gilling 53)

[ludojudoposts]

The Sea Shall Not Have Them (1954)

Director-Lewis Gilbert

Starring-Dirk Bogarde, Michael Redgrave, Bonar Colleano, Jack Watling, Anthony Steel, Nigel Patrick, James Kenney, Sydney Tafler, Victor Maddern

Photo Set 1 of 2

[greenhatsinthesky]

lockdown film no. 38 - A Matter of Life and Death (1946) dir. Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger

27/05/2020

I feel like my dad has generally good taste in films about men, so when he suggested this for a watch on a Wednesday evening, I agreed quite happily. It helped that I’d seen it listed in hundreds of lists, and the image of David Niven and Kim Hunter was so iconic that I couldn’t very well refuse

- in general I liked this film. It’s almost comedically british, and I find the idea of a relationship between Niven and Hunter completely absurd, but is so often the way in old films where there’s a relationship just cos. Having said that, I understand that if you were about to die and you were talking to a person who expressed that they cared about you, you’d probably be inclined to say that you love them. I have a feeling 

- something I absolutely love about this films portrayal of heaven is that it’s entirely secular. It’s not a christian representation, and looks more like a hotel in the sky than heaven, or what we imagine heaven to be. I like the idea that heaven is all admin, and that instead of angels you have clerks. 

- I love the shot of Peter walking along the beach away from the sea, discarding his uniform and walking up towards the dunes. Beautiful 

- why is the little boy naked? Why is he playing the flute

- WHY ARE THEY CALLING EACH OTHER DARLING AND KISSING ON THE BEACH? Y’ALL JUST MET

- ‘sacre brouillard’

- I love the French guy? Concierge? He lost his head! O-ho!

- “I love her” Again — y’all just met!

- felt like I was gonna get whiplash watching them play ping pong

- this would be absolutely stunning as a play. All the sets, the staging, they could do so much with the sound and the more surreal sequences — I’d love to see it. 

- THE STAIRS. They would be difficult to do on stage maybe but it’d probably be doable!

- the shot of his eye closing… but from the point of view of being inside his eye??? That made me feel so ill. it’s really clever and actually probably fairly easily done? I’m seeing some weirdly coloured fabric and massive model eyelashes 

- very interesting bit where Peter kisses Kim even though she’s frozen. Conductor 71 says “she won’t feel it!” And Peter says “it doesnt matter”. Conductor 71 responds, to himself, it seems, with “oh, he is English. What is the good of kissing a girl if she does not feel it?” Very astute. 

- something I really enjoy about this film is the astonishing diversity they show. There were some (not many) propaganda posters in the second world war of soldiers from different countries in their different uniforms, but that diversity isn’t shown a lot in films. 

- “when in the course of human events our men and women came to your country as your allies it was not to become your prisoners.” “sir, may I bring you up to date, we are living in the twentieth century, not the eighteenth.” “may I bring you up to date, sir, we are not alive at all.

- the fact that he asks for a jury of American citizens and people (i mean, men) from all different cultural and national backgrounds appear makes me happy. Apart from the incredibly conspicuous absence of women

[mariocki]

Time Is My Enemy (1954)

"I never knew that anyone could be so low!"

"You should have learnt that during our delirious year together, my dear."

[seventh-victim]

American actor, Bonar Colleano who died in a car crash on 17 August 1958.  He was 34 years old.

[candy-tyrrell]

Reasons to be cheerful.

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Pool of London (1951) Basil Dearden

February 17th 2024

[papermaid]

South Park Paper Prop: Mr. Garrison's "In the Valley of Penises" Book

Support me on Patreon!

https://www.patreon.com/papermaid

It’s DONE!!!! This will be my flagship paper prop. Could not be more proud. If I can pin it to the top of my tumblr I will. The font, the center photo from the original, everything is PERFECT. Please share!

The image used in the book cover was from the play "A Streetcar Named Desire," 1949: https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/bonar-colleano-and-vivien-leigh-in-a-scene-from-tennessee-news-photo/3094340

I will post the video tutorial shorty.

Printing Instructions:

Color print, leave wide margins to wrap around a book and glue in place. Take the print to a dollar store and match what you have to a similar sized book (remember to account for the spine thickness!) More info:

https://papermaid.tumblr.com/post/178583312734/printing-instructions

[tvln]

the man inside (uk, gilling 58)

[ozu-teapot]

Pool of London | Basil Dearden | 1951

Renée Asherson, Bonar Colleano

[ludojudoposts]

Some of the main cast of The Sea Shall Not Have Them (1954)

1-Dirk Bogarde; 2-Michael Redgrave; 3-Bonar Colleano; 4-Jack Watling; 5-Nigel Patrick; 6-Anthony Steel; 7-James Kenney; 8-Sydney Tafler

[filmstruck]

EALING GOES DARK by Nathaniel Thompson

If you’ve been sticking around these Streamline parts for a while, it’s no secret that one of my very favorite things to write about is Ealing Studios, the venerable British film factory that became synonymous with hilarious madcap comedies in the ‘50s starring the likes of Alec Guinness and Peter Sellers. However, there’s way, way more to Ealing than that, which shouldn’t be surprising when you consider it actually started in the silent era and ran for six decades before it flourished as both a production company and a shooting facility. The studio was bought by the BBC in 1955, which effectively signaled the end of its golden era until the Ealing name was revived again in the early 2000s. It was also where films like SHAUN OF THE DEAD (2004) was shot, so needless to say, its history is full of surprises.

For some reason, the Ealing output is still barely recognized in the U.S. apart from a tiny handful of key titles, all comedies apart from what is easily the most influential British horror film of all time, DEAD OF NIGHT (‘45). However, Ealing dabbled in almost every conceivable genre and performed some fascinating experiments with them over the course of its lifetime; at least until recently. Its vital role in the evolution of British crime films has usually been downplayed in favor of other biggies including Hammer Films. You can find a couple of Ealing crime gems still undervalued by American audiences in the currently running “Brit Noir” spotlight at FilmStruck, a really diverse and highly worthwhile selection of examples showing how film noir was flourishing across the pond during its heyday in Hollywood. As with America, the zenith here was the decade or so after World War II when the world was still heavily scarred and in shock, gradually rebuilding itself and finding new senses of national identity that weren’t always entirely pretty. Ealing’s noir contributions may have been small in number, but they’re very high in quantity. The studio was no stranger to crime films by the time the postwar wave hit, with dark crime elements driving some of its fascinating but frequently forgotten early offerings like: ESCAPE! (‘30), THE FOUR JUST MEN (‘39), DEATH DRIVES THROUGH (‘35), SALOON BAR (‘40), LABURNUM GROVE (‘36) and BIRDS OF PREY (The Perfect Alibi, ‘30).

IT ALWAYS RAINS ON SUNDAY (‘47) features frequent Ealing star, Googie Withers (the terrified wife in the great haunted mirror segment from DEAD OF NIGHT) as Rose, a married lower-class housewife whose life turns upside down when ex-boyfriend Tommy (John McCallum, soon to be husband of Withers) turns up on her doorstep. Tommy’s just escaped from prison where he’s been doing time for a nasty robbery, and against her better judgment, Rose agrees to hide him out under the noses of her husband and children. If that premise sounds similar to the later Neil Simon comedy Seems Like Old Times well, yeah it is in theory, but the execution and story direction are wholly different as IT ALWAYS RAINS ON SUNDAY follows the course of a single day gone very, very bad. The ending goes about as grim as you could get while still making this safe for the Production Code to carry in the U.S., and both of the leads are quite amazing with performances featuring a kind of raw, carnal intensity at times that you’d never expect to see in a 1947 British film.

A fine companion film—if you’ve got more of an afternoon to spare— and another look at the lower class, POOL OF LONDON (1951), takes place after the rations and rebuilding seen in SUNDAY had become a not-quite-distant memory. Ealing was surprisingly progressive in casting black actors in leading roles, and this is an early example with Earl Cameron, (a Bermuda-born actor seen in such films as THUNDERBALL, ‘65), in his screen debut and given center stage as Johnny, a Jamaican sailor on leave with an American named Dan (Bonar Colleano) who becomes embroiled in smuggling and other criminal activity around the titular dock area. A while back our own Streamline writer Kimberly Lindbergs made a fine case for this film’s value as an early look at race relations on film and a key entry in the filmography of the terrific Basil Dearden (who still hasn’t earned auteur status and perhaps never will, but almost everything he directed is well worth watching).

What I’d like to point out here is how effectively Dearden picks up on the proto-kitchen sink realism that was already seeping into Ealing noir in SUNDAY and brings it to the forefront here, charting two courses that repeatedly converge and diverge over the course of one shore leave in a way that seems both plausible and accurate to the time while also visually inventive enough to rank with other slice-of-life noir studies of the period. For further evidence of Dearden’s underexploited skill with British noir, try (if you can) to see another of his Ealing classics, THE BLUE LAMP (‘50), a more traditional urban thriller starring a very young Dirk Bogarde.

You can even use them as an interesting comparison with the director of SUNDAY, Robert Hamer, who wasn’t one of the more prolific Ealing directors but did make his mark with that film and a very unusual noir-tinged period film, PINK STRING AND SEALING WAX (‘45). If you really want to get ambitious with your home programming, of course, you might also want to toss in Hamer’s most famous film, the Ealing classic KIND HEARTS AND CORONETS (‘49), which may be a comedy classic but also features a body count higher than all of the aforementioned films combined!