So much, I would rather watch an Arthur Askey movie.
So much, I would rather watch nose-wrestling.
So much, I would rather re-watch Murders In The Zoo without fast-forwarding through the Charlie Ruggles scenes.
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So—a couple of resurrected reviews for you (because if I have to suffer through them, so do you):
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And having at last gotten my hands on a replacement copy of MURDERS IN THE ZOO (1933), I have fixed up the screenshots. (Oh, don’t worry—I didn’t take the snakes away!)
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Liz Kingsley is the insane genius behind And You Call Yourself a Scientist!
#1 by DamonD on July 21, 2014 - 8:24 am
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This was my first exposure to The Ghost Train as a kid, thankfully later superceeded by a fanastic theatre version of it.
“And a semolina for the spook!”
#2 by lyzard on July 21, 2014 - 6:25 pm
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Yes, I can imagine it working brilliantly on stage – fun!!
#3 by DamonD on July 23, 2014 - 7:30 am
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Yes! This was…probably around the late 80s at the Plymouth Theatre Royal. They had an old lady, called Babs, playing a piano on the intermissions that would rise under from under the stage. As part of the curtain call, the ghostly nightwatchman chased her backstage.
#4 by Jen S 1.0 on July 22, 2014 - 12:56 pm
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But… spook does mean “oooh, spooky ghostie” and not “horrible, unforgivable racial slur”, right?
#5 by DamonD on July 23, 2014 - 7:32 am
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Mercifully in this case, the former.
It’s the only line and almost the only moment I can remember about this film anymore. I could even be wrong about it.
#6 by RogerBW on July 27, 2014 - 9:23 am
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It seems to be a characteristic of British wartime films that they’re either propaganda pieces (In Which We Serve, etc.) or doing their best to ignore the whole beastly business. Similarly with post-war fiction; people just wanted to get back to their lives, even if that wasn’t possible any more.
#7 by The Rev. on July 28, 2014 - 11:24 am
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“Gorman, clearly, is devoted to the wild beasts he has captured, although not always in a good way, as we shall see; but in any case, he shows a great deal more admiration, and affection, and kindness, for them than he ever displays towards any member of the human race. Oddly, this is presented, not as a redeeming feature in Gorman’s character, but as further evidence of his psychosis.”
I know I have told you lately that I adore you…but I’m doing it again, dammit.
So, that guy in the derby…we’re meant to loathe him, and beg someone else in the movie to punch him in the face, right?
#8 by El Santo on July 28, 2014 - 1:29 pm
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“So, that guy in the derby…we’re meant to loathe him, and beg someone else in the movie to punch him in the face, right?”
That’s what’s so baffling about The Ghost Train. The audience is certain to loathe him. All the other characters in the film loathe him. Much of the dialogue is given over explicitly to discussions of his loathesomeness. And yet he’s the protagonist of the film.
#9 by The Rev. on July 28, 2014 - 8:09 pm
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I haven’t reread the review yet, so I was being a bit facetious, figuring he was the OCR.
However, if he’s the protagonist…then, yes, I am truly baffled right now and I have to ask what the hell gets into some people.
I am now scared that Ken is going to spring this on us at a future T-Fest…
#10 by lyzard on August 1, 2014 - 5:51 pm
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Strictly, the second- (or third-, according to taste) most annoying character is the protagonist, though this isn’t clear until the last ten minutes. Gander then becomes his sidekick and manages to help more or less by accident.
Not only do the other characters loathe him, but one of them exists wholly and solely to express that loathing.
I’m with Santo on this one—the whole thing plays out like some sort of perverse meta-joke. Both culturally and genetically I usually have no problem with the notorious “British sense of humour”, but this one has me flummoxed. I would certainly never recommend that someone watch The Ghost Train, but if you’re up for the challenge it’s a surreal experience. (And it’s free online, so at least you don’t have to pay for the privilege.)
#11 by The Rev. on August 15, 2014 - 7:01 pm
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Yeah, I came across it on my regular Roku travels and am debating watching it. However, considering how painful I found Sh! The Octopus, even surrounded by movie-watching brethren, I’m not sure I should do so alone.
Plus I just found Contamination and the Daimajin trilogy, and am fully planning on watching those ASAP…after I finally watch my last remaining Showa-era Gamera movie (the one with Jiger).
So yeah, could be a good long while.
Especially since you’re not recommending that I do so, ’cause we know how quickly that spurs me to action.
#12 by Luke Blanchard on August 3, 2014 - 5:58 am
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The IMDB lists the 1939 version as Dutch rather than German. SBS played it about twenty years ago. I thought it was easy to tell which role was likely played by Cicely Courtneidge in the 1931 version.
According to HALLIWELL’S FILM GUIDE in the original version the characters played by Richard Murdoch and Arthur Askey are one character: that is, the fool turns out to be the investigator.
I found the bit where Murdoch and Askey mime being underwater funny.
#13 by Count Otto Black on August 17, 2014 - 5:36 pm
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Did you know that [I]The Ghost Train[/I] was based on a play written by Arnold Ridley, who played Private Godfrey (the really old guy who always needed “to be excused”) in [I]Dad’s Army[/I]?
Anyway… If housework’s truly that bad (I wouldn’t know – I just let the spiders be), how about doing a series on terrible British comedies? [I]The Hound Of The Baskervilles[/I] was filmed quite a few times, but only once as a comedy – starring Peter Cook and Dudley Moore, no less! Based on a 5-minute sketch from their TV series which was never going to stretch to a feature-length film. Includes a totally irrelevant [I]Exorcist[/I] parody with a levitating bed and projectile vomiting. Astonishingly bad, in a “what were they thinking?” kind of way.
Also, Graham Chapman’s [I]Yellowbeard[/I], made during that period when for some inexplicable reason, all movies with pirates in them automatically failed. This one couldn’t even have succeeded if they’d released it now and called it [I]Pirates Of The Mediterranean[/I]. John Cleese said it was the worst script he’d ever read, and only did it as a favor to his friend Graham Chapman – he certainly doesn’t look happy. Neither does Eric Idle, who did it for similar reasons, and had a similar opinion of it. James Mason genuinely looks as though he’s in shock. I guess he needed the money. Marty Feldman actually seems to be enjoying himself; pity he dropped dead during filming. And Cheech and Chong show how funny they are when they’re not doing their stereotypical marijuana routines (in case you’re wondering, not very). A total mess, with more jokes about rape than in any other film ever. See if you can spot David Bowie’s walk-on.
And what about [I]The Great McGonagall[/I], an absolutely baffling and incredibly obscure movie in which, for the first and last time, Spike Milligan (who had cameos in both of the above) was given complete creative control over a feature film. Directed by Joe McGrath ([I]The Magic Christian[/I] and the bits of [I]Casino Royale[/I] with Peter Sellers in them), and featuring Peter Sellers as Queen Victoria, who, by the way, is married to Adolf Hitler. Spike plays the Ed Wood of poetry, a real person of whom this is biopic in the same way as [I]Abraham Lincoln, Vampire Hunter[/I]. Shot entirely inside a Victorian music hall (which you may have seen in quite a few other films), including scenes set in the Scottish Highlands and Africa. Some of the scenery wouldn’t cut it in a school play. Utterly ramshackle and completely bonkers.
And if you’re [I]really[/I] desperate, how about [I]Captain Eager And The Mark Of Voth[/I]?