274 posts tagged “retro”

I wanted to find some clips to pay tribute to the late actor, Edward Woodward. Strangely, the day he died (at a time when I did not know he had passed away), my mind kept thinking back to a joke my friend Ann told me (‘If there were no ds in his name, he’d be called Ewar Woowar’). But here is Woodward in his prime, in shows such as The Baron and The Saint, decades before he became a household name in the US in The Equalizer.

Woodward won the Best Actor award in the UK in 1970 for Callan: In 2000, Woodward, still looking quite healthy, recalled his time on the show: And who knew that he could sing? Here he is in Morecambe & Wise:    The last shows I saw Woodward in were CI5: the New Professionals, in which he was hampered by some terrible scripts that kept getting changed so his performances were never polished, and in the last La Femme Nikita season, where he is revealed as Peta Wilson’s character’s father. My heart goes out to Michele, his widow.

Now that Vox seems to be letting me in within minutes rather than hours, my mind turned to cheesy 1980s’ mini-series. Remember when this was cool?

   Maurice Binder did the titles to this Sidney Sheldon-based mini-series, If Tomorrow Comes, starring Madolyn Smith. Binder’s trademark can be seen here: primary colours, a modernist approach to most elements, including the typography (ITC Modern No. 216). The hourglass motif was also used in On Her Majesty’s Secret Service. The scary thing is I remember the Nick Bicât theme after all these years, but didn’t remember Liam Neeson being in it as a co-star.
   One YouTuber has put up clips from the mini-series and I was surprised at how slowly things dragged on, even with a 10-minute selection. We’ve obviously become accustomed to the action in the big-screen blockbusters.
   Before Matt Damon was Jason Bourne, Dr Kildare was Jason Bourne. This also dragged on—the difference being I remembered it being slow at the time (1988) and thinking it only needed to be two hours. Evidently some movie executive thought the same in the 2000s with the Doug Liman version.
   However, for Ludlum purists, the mini-series was more faithful to the book and even has a few scenes that creep up in the second movie.
   Old Doc Kildare was looking pretty worn by 1988, though Jaclyn Smith still looked amazing (and in 2009, as a 60-something, she still does). There were some good action sequences, but they were few and far between. However, as with If Tomorrow Comes, some European filming gave the mini-series a bit of polish that was absent from the hourly TV shows on back then.
   Here’s how it started (similarly to the Matt Damon one): And here’s a meeting at Treadstone—and yes, that is Shane Rimmer in the military uniform:    How about this one, Deceptions, starring Stefanie Powers, from 1985? This stands up quite well, with a ridiculous plot of two twins swapping lives, and Barry Bostwick with a lot of facial hair. The finalé takes place on Tower Bridge, London, and they shut off the bridge to film it, so some big bucks were involved. More entertaining than a lot of the stuff on TV today, and certainly miles better than any of that reality garbage.

Wow. Six minutes to load the compose screen. That’s definitely this week’s record.
   This is the other photo I wanted to show:

   A beautiful 1969 Ford Mustang Fastback with a 351 in³ V8 under the hood. I asked the owner for permission to photograph his car which, sadly, had lost all oil pressure. I drove him to the petrol station in case the car was ‘out of gas’; when I came back along this route a while later, his car had gone, so I hope he was able to get it started.
   He says he has a friend with a Cobra Jet 428, which we both thought was the best of this series, and that this shape was probably the nicest before Bunkie Knudsen’s fat Mustangs hit the streets for the 1971 model year. Sometimes I like the ’68s, and the ’65s, but right now, the ’69s seem to appeal to my taste in 2009.

I managed to get NZ$20 credit thanks to the Real Groovy loyalty card, meaning that I paid a grand total of NZ$10 for these two purchases today:

   I already had the first Casino Royale set, but it lacks a director’s commentary and many of the features one would expect for the NZ$35 I originally paid. I refused to buy the collector’s edition originally because I felt Sony would be getting my money twice. But for NZ$5, why not? Well worth it for all the extra stuff, deleted scenes and fascinating documentaries about the connections Ian Fleming had with the Bahamas (which many Bondphiles would not even know).
   There is even a documentary about the 50-year journey of the novel to this version of the movie, and clips from the first James Bond (with Barry Nelson) and the first time Casino Royale hit the big screen (in 1967, with David Niven—and we do get clips of Barbara Bouchet, Jacqueline Bisset, etc., too).
   Given how basic the Quantum of Solace DVD set is, my bet is that Sony will do this again.
   Secondly, this CD was on special anyway (NZ$5), and it has a few John Barry tracks, plus one Chet Baker one. It’s not the special album that Barry and Baker put together for this film, but considering that was never released in New Zealand, it’s the next best thing. A bit “1990s” in some respects (the Moby track in particular), but it has been ages since I treated myself to some music.

I’ve waited for ages to get the Vox compose screen: anyone else with this issue?
   Here was what I wanted to post an hour ago:

I’m not sure how my friend Pearl came up with the scenario of Agent Smith from The Matrix (shown at left in one of his many guises—I think this was the scene where he battled Neo in a gay bar, before one of his stilettos broke) battling Joseph Stalin, but I took her lead:

   Smith: Mr Stalin.
   Stalin: Who are you? How did you get in to the Kremlin?
   Smith: It came to me when I tried to classify your species and I realized that you’re not actually mammals.
   Stalin: Education is a weapon whose effects depend on who holds it in his hands and at whom it is aimed.
   Smith: You move to an area and you multiply and multiply until every natural resource is consumed and the only way you can survive is to spread to another area.
   Stalin: Everyone imposes his own system as far as his army can reach.
   Smith: There is another organism on this planet that follows the same pattern. Do you know what it is? A virus. Human beings are a disease, a cancer of this planet. You’re a plague and we are the cure.
   Stalin: Death is the solution to all problems. No man, no problem.

As Agent Smith contemplates Stalin’s response, a Soviet Red Guard shoots Smith in the back with an AK-47. As Smith appears to die, Joseph Stalin turns into Agent Smith.
   Agent Smith 1, Soviet Union 0.

The stories are different enough that one could not accuse the Hong Kong film-makers of outright copying, but there is clear inspiration between the English Ooh, You Are Awful (or Get Charlie Tully), starring Dick Emery, and the first of the successful franchise 最佳拍檔 (Aces Go Places). The films are 10 years apart.
   The plot lines are similar: in the original, Emery has to find a Swiss bank account number, separately tattooed on four different girls’ behinds. In the later film, Sam Hui (the father of Canto-pop) and Karl Maka’s characters have to find a map reference, tattooed on two different girls’ behinds. The following is of two very similar scenes, one set at Waterloo Station in London, the other at a taxi company’s radio department, and subsequent scenes involving photographic booths, where one might be able to claim there was a fair amount of direct copying. Emery is more blue, while the later film is more slapstick with better pacing.
   And yes, that is the lovely Cheryl Kennedy in the first clip.
   In the 1970s and 1980s, it was highly unlikely for Hong Kong cinemagoers to have seen the Emery film.
   Head to 2.45 for the above scene in the first video; 0.43 in the second clip.

I was, of course, referring to Simon Templar, or at least the TV incarnation of him as played by Roger Moore. For today I spotted the following down the road from the office:

It’s a beautifully maintained Volvo 1800S from 1967 (and yes, I could tell without looking at the registration certificate).
   A few hours before there was this beautiful 1959 MGA hardtop on the other side of Latimer Park:    Earlier today, I also spotted a Karmann Ghia Typ 3 and yesterday, a 1972 Volkswagen Typ 4.
   Christchurch seems to be the home of many a classic car—two months ago, I came across a beautiful old Ford Falcon Wagon. These Cantabrians seem to love their classics.

Chambers & Partners did a few opening titles to ITC shows and TV movies in the 1960s and 1970s. There was the original Randall & Hopkirk (Deceased) (the remake employed Tomato, which also did a great job), but I really love this one for Department S. It shows what a difference design can make, and Chambers had a nice, modernist approach here. The Century Expanded Bold type suits the style of the series, and the titles have aged rather better than Peter Wyngarde’s hairstyle.

   The spin-off, which had Wyngarde on his own in Jason King, felt cheaper, and the titles seem to have lost their sophistication. The Laurie Johnson theme tune was quite cool and was one of the few things that were better about the new series.    However, there are folks who are out there with their own ideas on how the Department S theme can be improved. Groovy!

For our American friends who might not know what Chris Tarrant looks or sounds like in the 21st century, ITV (presumably, as the eventual successor to ATV and Carlton) did a Tiswas reunion special a few years ago. I found this part on YouTube, and it includes a very politically incorrect rant against the French by Michael Palin toward the end.