Film Albums: The Trouble with Angels (1966)

In 1966, Jerry Goldsmith was relatively new to soundtrack scoring for comedy films (he was making a name for himself writing music for western films and television series), but nevertheless he created a marvelous score for the dramatic comedy The Trouble with Angels starring Hayley Mills and Rosalind Russell. He mixes a light-hearted upbeat tempo (reflecting the rebellious teens) with a solemn church-like theme to create an entirely new sound. It's a happy score with hints of religious themes and it was perfectly suited to the picture. 

The complete album is available on Youtube. Just click on the link below to enjoy: 

The Trouble with Angels Original Soundtrack

Track Listing

Main Title

Welcome to St. Francis

Warning #1

Dirty Dishes

Changing Seasons

Snow Birds

Silent Sunday

True Feelings

A Pot of Tea

Angels We Have Heard on High

The Sewing Circle

Future Plans

Sad Sunday

Graduation

Rachel Says Goodbye

End Title

Top Picks: Main Title, Welcome to St. Francis, Snow Birds, Rachel Says Goodbye

The Impossibly Difficult Name that Movie Game

Here's an important-looking man doing important-looking work... at least, some may think so. It depends on how much money you have riding in the 7th.

As always, if you are not familiar with the rules to the Impossibly Difficult Name that Movie game or the prize, click here!

You Never Can Tell (1951)

There's something about the comedies of the early 1950s that I find so likeable. Even when they have silly and incredulous plots, they are entertaining. You Never Can Tell is one of those films with an amusing yet decidedly implausible plot. In fact, it was publicized as "A Picture for People Who Think They've Seen Everything!" 

You may have heard of a man turning into a dog, but this film is about a dog turning into a man. Dick Powell stars as the reincarnated dog who continues to munch on kibbles and scratch behind his ear while in human form.

Powell plays Rex Shepard, a man who was known as "King" during his life on earth as a German Shepherd. King inherited millions from his eccentric owner and then was poisoned in order to clear the way for Ms. Ellen Hathaway (Peggy Dow) to be the next in line to inherit. 

When King goes to the Beastatory - the afterlife of animals - he requests to return to Earth to avenge his murder and clear his mistress Ellen of suspicion. Hence, private detective Rex Shepard suddenly appears along with his private secretary Goldie (Joyce Holden), who was formerly "Golden Harvest," a prize-winning racehorse. While the two-legged Palamino spends some time visiting her filly friends, Rex sets off to investigate his own murder and, in the process, falls in love with Ellen. 

You Never Can Tell sounds ridiculous and yet it is really an amiable bit of whimsy that's doggone addictive. The script - by David Chandler - is brimming over with canine quips and the casting is spot-on. Charles Drake plays a seemingly great guy and is re-united with his Harvey co-star Peggy Dow, while Albert Sharpe (of Darby O'Gill and the Little People) has an amusing role as Ellen's sea captain uncle. Also in the cast is Frank Nelson as a police chief. 

From the Archives: About Face (1952)

                     

This is a lovely behind-the-scenes photo of Gordon MacRae, Phyllis Kirk, and Dick Wesson on the set of About Face (1952), a Technicolor remake of the classic Brother Rat.

From the Archives is our latest series of posts where we share photos from the Silverbanks Pictures collection. Some of these may have been sold in the past, and others may still be available for purchase at our eBay store: http://stores.ebay.com/Silverbanks-Pictures

The Reptile (1966)

Hammer Studios was the king of horror film studios in the 1960s and they offered something deliciously frightful for all appetites. 

If blood-sucking vampires, ferocious werewolves, or linen-wrapped dead people aren't your cup of tea, then The Reptile, a scrumptious bit of gothic horror from the year 1966, may wet your lips. 

In this tale, Captain Harry Spalding (Ray Barrett) and his wife Valerie (Jennifer Daniel) come to England from India due to the sudden death of Harry's brother Charles.  They want to live in the cottage that Charles left behind, but the village folk warn them against it. In fact, most of the villagers are downright hostile to the couple, except for local pub owner Tom Bailey (Michael Ripper). 

Neighboring the cottage is the mansion of Dr. Franklin (Noel Willman) and his daughter Anna (Jacqueline Pierce), a young woman who is frightened of her father. Shortly after the Spaldings' arrival, a villager dies mysteriously with bite marks on the back of his neck and foam pouring from his mouth. Harry believes his brother may have died the same way and thinks Dr. Franklin is hiding the truth about his death. 

The Reptile is one of Hammer Studio's more tamer productions and, like The Gorgon (1964), most of the film builds up to the creature-revealing climax, which in this case is a - surprise! - reptile. This climax would have been much more exciting if the title of the film, and the poster, did not give away the ending. 

In spite of its tameness, The Reptile is engrossing and well worth a watch, if only to soak in all that wonderful gothic atmosphere that Hammer productions were so good at creating. 

The cast were all capable actors (both Noel Willman and Jennifer Daniel may look familiar from Kiss of the Vampire), the music is fittingly eerie, and the color palette is marvelous. The cottage that the Spaldings stay in, as well as Dr. Franklyn's manor across the lawn, reminded me of Cherry Cottage and Cavor's home in First Men in the Moon but these were different filming locations. The Reptile was filmed in and around Windsor in Berkshire next door to Bray Studios, where the picture was made. 

The Reptile is currently available on DVD as well as on Blu-Ray. 

Roku and Tubi Picks for October

With Halloween coming up, most of the Roku apps have a bevy of frightful films on their roster for the month of October, some of which we will highlight below. But even if scary movies aren't your cup of tea, there are a delightful array of mysteries, sci-fi films and television series available this month.... plus, a couple of great comedies. So, check them out! 

Also of note: If you click on the Roku Live TV Guide you will find a huge list of channels to browse. The "Alfred Hitchcock Presents" channel not only plays episodes of Alfred Hitchcock Presents throughout the day, but also shows two Hitchcock classics each evening, one at 8pm EST and another around 10pm EST. 

One of the other channels through Roku's Live TV Guide listing is the "Universal Monsters" channel which plays 1930s-1980s Universal horror films throughout the day and then -for the month of October- airs back-to-back episodes of The Munsters starting from 6pm EST. Our family has been enjoying these each evening...followed by the Hitchcock film showing at 8pm.

Lastly, one great mystery to watch this month: Murder, She Said (1961) starring Margaret Rutherford is available for free through the Kanopy app.

Tubi TV 

(Also available for viewing at tubitv.com) 

Nosferatu (1922)

The Adventures of Robin Hood (1938)

Gunga Din (1938)

The Mark of Zorro (1940)

Cottage to Let (1941)

Pride of the Yankees (1942)

Meet Me in St. Louis (1944)

Notorious (1946)

Bicycle Thieves (1948)

Strangers on a Train (1950)

The Third Man (1950)

The Thing (1951)

Room for One More (1952)

The Beast from 20,000 Fathoms (1953)

The Long, Long Trailer (1954)

Seven Brides for Seven Brothers (1954)

Them! (1954)

Autumn Leaves (1956)

The Bad Seed (1956)

Curse of the Demon (1957)

Around the World in 80 Days (1958)

Auntie Mame (1958)

South Pacific (1958)

Some Like it Hot (1959)

The Mummy (1959)

Please Don't Eat the Daisies (1960)

To Kill a Mockingbird (1961)

The Music Man (1962)

Whatever Happened to Baby Jane? (1962)

The Haunting (1963)

The Unsinkable Molly Brown (1964)

TV Series

The Addams Family (on Roku and Pluto)

Alfred Hitchcock Presents

The Alfred Hitchcock Hour (on Roku and Peacock)

Doctor Who - Classics

Gilligan's Island

The Munsters

Thriller

Twilight Zone

Tom and Jerry Collection (also available on the MeTV Toons channel)

The Alfred Hitchcock Hour: Don't Look Behind You (1962)

In 1962, The Alfred Hitchcock Hour premiered, expanding on the popular half-hour thriller series Alfred Hitchcock Presents. Like its predecessor, each episode opened with an introduction from the Master of Suspense himself Mr. Hitchcock, who teased his audience about the story to follow. 

"Don't Look Behind You" was only the second episode in this new hour-long format and, unfortunately, it played out like a half-hour episode stretched to fit the new timeslot. 

The episode, based on a novel by Samuel Rogers, was about a crazed killer who stalked the woods at night murdering young women in the college town of Woodside. One evening, Daphne (Vera Miles) decides to take a chance and crosses the woods as a shortcut to get to a dinner party - she makes it out alive but knows for certain that someone was following her close behind. At the party, arriving shortly later, is her fiancé Harold (Jeffrey Hunter), a psychology professor who looks a bit bedraggled. Also arriving late is Dave (Dick Sargaent) a science teacher who has a crush on Daphne. Another admirer of hers is Edwin (Alf Kjellin), a pianist who has a bent towards the morbid. 

Harold comes up with the brilliant idea of using Daphne as bait so he can catch the killer himself and throughout the episode we are supposed to wonder whether the lunatic is Harold himself, Dave, or Edwin, all of whom happen to be in the woods the same night Daphne is walking through it. All three men look crazy but Harold seems to be the most dangerous and one cannot help but wonder how Daphne can be so blind as to not realize it. 

"Pain is only a secret name for pleasure, my darling"

The wonderful director John Brahm (The Lodger, Hangover Square) directed "Don't Look Behind You" and, while the scenes through the woods are atmospheric, the episode as a whole is a letdown. This could have been a tense thriller with nail-biting "who can the killer be?" ending, but instead it is so obvious that most of the episode fails to build any tension. Jeffrey Hunter's character of Harold should have been a sympathetic intelligent man whom Daphne relies on, this would have given her plausible reason for staying in Woodside with a killer on the loose and would have made the ending have more of that Hitchcockian-twist. 

"Don't Look Behind You" features one of the best introductions of any of the Alfred Hitchcock episodes with Vera Miles walking in a flowing white dress down a secluded dark wooded shortcut, but overall, it just fails to stir up the shivers like any decent Alfred Hitchcock episode should. Nevertheless, Vera Miles gives a wonderful performance as the innocent victim and there is a cast of familiar faces including Abraham Sofaer (Elephant Walk), Madge Kennedy, and Ralph Roberts (Bells are Ringing).