Friday, 17 June 2011
Thursday, 16 June 2011
Tomorrow's History
The 1974 Dr. Who Annual was one of my most treasured posessions when I was a kid, a book that I read until it literally fell apart. I got another one a few years ago, and as I flicked through, realised that I still knew every word and picture. I might have a copy cremated with me. In your face, collectors of the future.
Anyway, here's a nice PDF for you to download and have a look at.
My favourite non-Doctor bit? 'Malevolent Monsters'. I must have copied this rather scrappy drawing of a werewolf hundreds of times.
Wednesday, 15 June 2011
The Rivals of Sherlock Holmes
Douglas Wilmer as Professor Augustus S.F.X Van Dusen, 'The Thinking Machine'.
Tuesday, 14 June 2011
Man, It's...
Geoff Love wasn't just the permanently grinning musical arranger and arm waver on the endless and excerable 'SingalongaMax' series, you know. Under the pseudonym of Mandingo, he gathered many of the seventies finest session players together and gave them a simple brief: easy listening meets exotica meets afro rhythms meets mental.
Mandingo released four amazing albums, and here's your first sample: 'Mumbo Jumbo' from 'Mandingo III: A Story Of Survival'. Please ensure your socks are secured.
Stone Age Highway
'The Ridgeway' is a short tourist information film which was broadcast constantly on television up until the late eighties. A 5,000 year old man made thoroughfare which once stretched from Dorset to the Wash in North Norfolk, the 87 miles of The Ridgeway which weave between Avebury in Wiltshire and Tring in Buckinghamshire was opened as a protected national trail in 1973, and the promotional film was made shortly afterwards.
It's usual for films like this to place a strong emphasis on the echoes of history, but here the ghosts are shown literally, long dead figures which fade in and out of vision, but are indelibly recorded on the landscape.
I wasn't going to post the whole film (all two and a half minutes of it), but, now I think about it, it seems mean not to, so here it is.
Oh, and if you do have any queries, please don't write to the Countryside Commission as they ceased to exist in 1999 and their offices in Cambridge Gate have been converted to flats, albeit flats that cost £8,000,000 each.
Monday, 13 June 2011
Sunday, 12 June 2011
Stuffed Bats
Another great experimental film from Jeff Keen, this time it's the negative photography, flashing imagery, nudity and taxidermied animals of 'White Lite' (1968).
Saturday, 11 June 2011
Legend of the Witches
'Legend of The Witches’ is a documentary film from 1970. In its entirety, mainly due to virtually non-existent editing and a posh, slow, low voiceover, it’s incredibly boring, but short individual sequences are great.
Starting off with a load of old cobblers about the rising sun and a blindfolded nude bloke staggering around on his way to be initiated, we get to see several ceremonies presided over by UK Witchcraft superstars Maxine & Alex Sanders; get a potted history of superstition and the Devil; a long tour of the Boscastle Museum of Witchcraft and dozens of dimpled bottoms and swinging boobs, moobs and twinkles.
It’s not necessarily one to watch when you’re having your lunch, or in charge of heavy machinery. It’s a fascinating document, but it can cause drowsiness. Here’s a clip which sums it up: boring and brilliant. ‘The Island’ takes no liability for any viewer actually hypnotised by this footage, especially if you are naked.
Friday, 10 June 2011
Another Place
We all know about 'Found Objects', don't we? Well, they now have their own TV Channel (sort of, not really) and, for now, I'm it's Lew Grade (sort of, not really).
'Transmission One' has a distinct mid 70's feel, and takes in Wales, rabies, cobblers, lobsters, hippies, reflective material and the psychic search for the body of a missing policeman.
Unholy Union
US poster for 'The Devil Rides Out' under its alternate title 'The Devil's Bride' I wonder what the wedding reception was like...
Un-Diabolical
One day in the mid 1970's, my Dad decided to recount to me the story of the film he'd watched last night. Once he'd finished his tale of hypnotic eyes, skeletons on horseback, giant spiders and the Devil in the form of a goat I made him promise to let me watch it the next time it was on. The film was, of course, 'The Devil Rides Out'. When I finally saw it, perhaps a year or so later, I was astonished. It was BETTER than he had described it.
I love this film, it has everything apart from Peter Cushing. It's scary, it's funny, it's thrilling, it's preposterous, it's Hammer, it's Dennis Wheatley and it's quite brilliant. Highly recommended.
Thursday, 9 June 2011
Strange Report
An interesting clip from 'Report 8944: Hand - A Matter of Witchcraft', an episode of the 1969 ITC series 'Strange Report', starring Anthony Quayle.
Every show started brilliantly, with a bizarre or intriguing pre-credit sequence, setting up a mystery which genius criminologist Adam Strange would be called in to solve. Sadly, the stories never really kept up the momentum, and many of the solutions were rather prosaic. Nonetheless, very watchable, and Quayle is a solid and credible lead.
Wednesday, 8 June 2011
As Pretty As Me
Here's a rather good performance from pop art punksters Generation X on 'Marc'. Shame it was necessary to cut them off in their prime whilst Marc's crappy dance troupe, Heart Throb, got four minutes and a plug for their terrible single. 'Godfather of Punk', indeed.
Tuesday, 7 June 2011
Disco Verite
I don't always agree with Adam Curtis, but I'll watch anything he makes. 'All Watched Over By Machines Of Loving Grace' has been a fascinating trip, although I have occasionally shouted at the telly. I've no wish to trivialise his work, but I particularly enjoyed the archive footage of various disco dancers he used to illustrate the last film in the series, so here are some snapshots.
Just like me, Adam has his own blog which he sometimes uses as a testing ground for new projects; unlike me, Curtis is not that interested in disco.
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