Some critics wondered if Alec Guinness and John Mills should have swapped roles for this adaptation of James Kennaway’s incisive novel about popularity vs. discipline in the command structure of a Scots army brigade. Ronald Neame’s direction is exemplary, showcasing the powerhouse performances yet avoiding theatrical flourishes. And the movie introduces Susannah York as well. Criterion’s 4K remaster greatly improves on their older DVD release.
Tunes of Glory
Blu-ray
The Criterion Collection 225
1960 / Color / 1:66 widescreen / 106 min. / available through The Criterion Collection / Street Date December 3, 2020 / 39.95
Starring: Alec Guinness, John Mills, Dennis Price, Kay Walsh, John Fraser, Susannah York, Gordon Jackson, Duncan Macrae, Percy Herbert, Allan Cuthbertson.
Cinematography: Arthur Ibbetson
Film Editor: Anne V. Coates
Original Music: Malcolm Arnold
Written by James Kennaway from his novel
Produced by Albert Fennell, Colin Lesslie
Directed by Ronald Neame
1960’s Tunes of Glory hasn’t persisted in revivals, and neither is it...
Tunes of Glory
Blu-ray
The Criterion Collection 225
1960 / Color / 1:66 widescreen / 106 min. / available through The Criterion Collection / Street Date December 3, 2020 / 39.95
Starring: Alec Guinness, John Mills, Dennis Price, Kay Walsh, John Fraser, Susannah York, Gordon Jackson, Duncan Macrae, Percy Herbert, Allan Cuthbertson.
Cinematography: Arthur Ibbetson
Film Editor: Anne V. Coates
Original Music: Malcolm Arnold
Written by James Kennaway from his novel
Produced by Albert Fennell, Colin Lesslie
Directed by Ronald Neame
1960’s Tunes of Glory hasn’t persisted in revivals, and neither is it...
- 1/18/2020
- by Glenn Erickson
- Trailers from Hell
Ronald Neame remains somewhat of an underrated, incredibly multi-faceted figure from the annals of classic British cinema. Beginning as a writer/producer/cinematographer for David Lean, Neame began his directorial debut in the late 1940s and stretched into the mid-1980s.
Twice competing at Cannes (his 1969 Muriel Sparks adaptation of The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie won Maggie Smith her first Oscar), his work ranged from film noir (the Locarno entry The Golden Salamander) and twice went to Venice, with 1958’s The Horse’s Mouth and 1960’s underappreciated post-wwii drama Tunes of Glory, one of three Neame titles to join the Criterion Collection (including The Horse’s Mouth and Hopscotch), and won John Mills Best Actor in Venice while scribe James Kennaway nabbed an Oscar for Best Adapted Screenplay (from his own novel).…...
Twice competing at Cannes (his 1969 Muriel Sparks adaptation of The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie won Maggie Smith her first Oscar), his work ranged from film noir (the Locarno entry The Golden Salamander) and twice went to Venice, with 1958’s The Horse’s Mouth and 1960’s underappreciated post-wwii drama Tunes of Glory, one of three Neame titles to join the Criterion Collection (including The Horse’s Mouth and Hopscotch), and won John Mills Best Actor in Venice while scribe James Kennaway nabbed an Oscar for Best Adapted Screenplay (from his own novel).…...
- 12/31/2019
- by Nicholas Bell
- IONCINEMA.com
This strange picture goes forth in search of a genre, mainly because its theme — the destruction of the human personality — had previously seen light only in movies about brainwashing and alien possession. The Michael Relph and Basil Dearden team may not be as slick as The Archers, but they do peg this sober Isolation Chamber drama — even if we wonder if Dirk Bogarde will start talking like Paddy Chayefsky, and then shape-shift into an ape man. The real issue here is scientific ethics, of which Bogarde’s associates seem to have zero.
The Mind Benders
Blu-ray
Kl Studio Classics
1963 / B&w / 1:66 widescreen / 109 min. / Street Date October 15, 2019 / available through Kino Lorber / 29.95
Starring: Dirk Bogarde, Mary Ure, John Clements, Michael Bryant, Wendy Craig, Harold Goldblatt, Geoffrey Keen.
Cinematography: Denys N. Coop
Film Editor: John D. Guthridge
Original Music: Georges Auric
Written by James Kennaway
Produced by Michael Relph
Directed by Basil...
The Mind Benders
Blu-ray
Kl Studio Classics
1963 / B&w / 1:66 widescreen / 109 min. / Street Date October 15, 2019 / available through Kino Lorber / 29.95
Starring: Dirk Bogarde, Mary Ure, John Clements, Michael Bryant, Wendy Craig, Harold Goldblatt, Geoffrey Keen.
Cinematography: Denys N. Coop
Film Editor: John D. Guthridge
Original Music: Georges Auric
Written by James Kennaway
Produced by Michael Relph
Directed by Basil...
- 9/24/2019
- by Glenn Erickson
- Trailers from Hell
Basil Dearden, recently celebrated with an Eclipse box set of his London crime dramas, was almost unique in the early part of his career (the forties and fifties) for trying to look at working-class life in Britain and examine the issues affecting it. Unlike the later "kitchen sink" realist films of the sixties, mainly adapted from plays and novels, Dearden tended to work from original screenplays, and he tended to use genre to sweeten the pill of social commentary.
Violent Playground (1958) is one of his best, and it shows both the strengths and weaknesses of Dearden's approach in great detail. One of the director's quirks, picked up at Ealing, was a fondness for films which interwove multiple storylines (Train of Events, Pool of London), rather like John Sayles, allowing a panoply of a particular time and place to emerge, but sadly limiting the development of each storyline. Fortunately, in Violent Playground,...
Violent Playground (1958) is one of his best, and it shows both the strengths and weaknesses of Dearden's approach in great detail. One of the director's quirks, picked up at Ealing, was a fondness for films which interwove multiple storylines (Train of Events, Pool of London), rather like John Sayles, allowing a panoply of a particular time and place to emerge, but sadly limiting the development of each storyline. Fortunately, in Violent Playground,...
- 8/2/2012
- MUBI
Oscar-nominated screenwriter Shane Connaughton has come a long way since stumbling across filmmaking deals in a London pub by chance. His script for Jim Sheridan's 'My Left Foot' earned him an Academy Award and BAFTA nomination, while 'The Dollar Bottom', which he co-wrote with James Kennaway, scooped the Academy Award for Best Short Film. An actor as well as a writer, his acting skills earned him roles in long-running Utv soap 'Coronation Street'; Neil Jordan's 'The Miracle', as well as a number of successful theatre productions.
- 7/31/2012
- IFTN
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