sah-10 Reviews

A Fire Has Been Arranged (1935)

Worth buying DVD for "Two Whistles" scene

[6/10 · 17 May 2006]

The film begins with a jewellery robbery by Bud, Ches and Hal who then flee to the countryside to bury their ill-gotten gains. The gang need to dig a big hole to bury their loot but also need to establish their location so that they can come back to retrieve it at a later date. This leads to the scene where they try to establish "North" and the extremely surreal and amusing dialogue about digging holes and selling them to the farmers This is not a great film but it is well worth purchasing the DVD for this scene, the later "You've got one, too" and legerdemain scenes and a reasonable early performance from Alastair Sim.

Green for Danger (1946)

Film reviewed at alastairsim.net

[10/10 · 26 February 2006]

A cracking film with a remarkable mixture of sly comedy and genuine thrills and Alastair at the very top of his game. Alastair's dry sardonic humour counterpoints the darkly atmospheric hospital environs. Alastair's voice-over introduces the village postman, Joseph Higgins, in sepulchral tones: "I begin with him, because . . . he was the first to die." The film then becomes a rhythmic whirl of sexual and office tensions all within the atmospheric confines of theatre anaesthetics with its rituals of flow-meters, hissing gas cylinders and palpitating rubber bags (all in the middle of the Blitz, too!) The story line is a superb whodunit but is also a sly but affectionate side-swipe at the omniscient detective figure and the clichés of the detective novel.

There is a full synopsis of this film at www.alastairsim.net with some nice images.