It has been quite a while since we shared a British Pathé newsreel but today we have a gem: Model Village from 1955. This 4:33 minute newsreel has footage of a very impressive model village in The Hague, Netherlands...and what a great opening! You think you are looking at a real building until a head of a giant man suddenly appears from behind it! This is a model village of such proportions that the toddlers who walk the streets of the village appear as large as Godzilla did to Toyko citizens.
Madurodam has a village section, a suburban area and also has a fully-functioning railway service, a seaport capable of receiving freighters and ocean-going vessels ( all in miniature size, of course ), and even an airport, where mini KLM planes operate from.
The details that can be seen throughout this village are so impressive. If you missed seeing it in the 1950s ( as most of us probably have ) then you can still check it out today. Madurodam not only still exists but has grown and been updated throughout the years. Here is their website: https://www.madurodam.nl/en/the-park/all-attractions
Happy Thanksgiving to all of our readers!
We hope you are having a wonderful day and counting all of your blessings. There is so much we can all be grateful for!
If you have a few minutes and want to watch something Thanksgiving-related then check out this fabulous little cartoon from 1940 - The Landing of the Pilgrims. It's a bouncy light-hearted look at how the pilgrims from the Mayflower came to America and contended with the Native Americans. It is far from being historically accurate but that's what makes it so wonderfully fun!
Have a wonderful holiday!
- Constance & Diana
If you like piano music and classic films then this is an album not to be missed! Peter Nero was a maestro when it came to tickling the ivories. He was a downright jazzy player and his unique New York arrangements of familiar songs made the oldest of tunes sound fresh and vibrant. He was like Elmer Bernstein and Horst Jankowski rolled into one....what more could one ask for?
Track Listing:
Side One:
Theme from "The Silencers"
Theme from "Harlow" ( "Lonely Girl" )
What's New Pussycat?
Ship of Fools
The Flick
Chim Chim Cheree ( from "Mary Poppins" )
Side Two:
Thunderball
Love Theme from "The Sandpipers" ( "The Shadow of Your Smile" )
Forget Domani ( from "The Yellow Rolls Royce" )
Theme from "The Spy Who Came In From The Cold"
My Favorite Things ( from "The Sound of Music" )
Help!
Top Music Picks: Thunderball, Theme from Harlow, Chim Chim Cheree, The Shadow of Your Smile
Click here to listen to the full album.
Jean Seberg is looking lovely here as usual, and she is seated next to director Mervyn LeRoy in this candid shot taken on the set of Moment to Moment ( 1966 ), a wonderful - and terribly underrated - thriller shot in the south of France.
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
One afternoon, while collecting funds for charity, Miss Marple witnesses the death of Mr. Enderby, a death that the doctor claims was due to a heart attack. Miss Marple believes it was deliberate murder: a heart attack triggered by the sight of a cat. Mr. Enderby, a rich recluse, had "a weak heart and a pathological horror of cats. What easier than for some interested party to slip a cat into the house, a cat that the old man would come upon accidentally. Yes, old Enderby was frightened to death!"
She takes her suspicions to Inspector Craddock of the local police, whom she had worked with on a previous murder case. Craddock found her to be "of some small help" before but, upon hearing this new theory of hers, suggests she read fewer thrillers.
At the reading of the will, Mr. Enderby's family members are shocked to hear demure Aunt Cora also suggest that his death was deliberate. "He was murdered....wasn't he?" When Aunt Cora is dispatched with - by a hatpin of all weapons! - Miss Marple decides to don her Sherlock Holmes cap and solve the mystery herself.
The members of the Enderby family are not as interesting as the Ackenthorpes of Murder, She Said but they do make wonderful murder suspects. Each of them received a goodly inheritance from old Mr. Enderby, but one of them is obviously out for a larger share of the money.
Hector Enderby ( Robert Morley ) leads the list of suspects as the head of the family and proprietor of the Gallop Hotel, where the Enderbys, Aunt Cora's companion Miss Milcrest, and Miss Marple are all staying. Hector loves to be in the saddle more than anything else and he sees "this whole murder business" and the police's presence as interference with running his business establishment.
His niece Rosamund, portrayed by Katya Douglas, is a spoiled and demanding woman. She is not overly interested in the Enderby fortune because her mind is preoccupied with curiosity as to why her husband Michael ( James Villiers ) lied about what he was doing the afternoon Enderby died. Nephew George ( Robert Urquhart ) is certainly greedy enough to murder. He quickly becomes Miss Marple's prime suspect, but when he turns up dead, she - and the audience - are forced to re-examine the case.
"Agatha Christie should be compulsory reading for the police force."
Ron Goodwin's sprightly harpsichord music greatly contributes to the entertainment and the overall production is top-notch. The cinematography by Arthur Ibbetson is properly atmospheric and the location filming around Buckinghamshire adds to the film's appeal. But make no doubt about it, the film's most charming asset is Dame Margaret Rutherford herself, the endearing star of these films.
Rutherford's characterization of the popular sleuthing spinster bears little resemblance to the Jane Marple you will find in Agatha Christie's novels. Plump and energetic, Rutherford completely transformed Miss Marple into a spunky, emancipated, lovable old gal with a taste for mystery and mayhem. With jowls jiggling and a tongue firmly jutted in her cheek, Jane swings her tweed cape about her, squares her shoulders, and is ready to face any danger that stands in the way of her amateur sleuthing. She has an indomitable spirit that will suffer no nonsense - not even from a murderer!
The remaining cast, which includes Finlay Currie, the talented Flora Robson, Charles Tingwell as the kindly Inspector Craddock, and Duncan Lamont, add to making this an overall delightfully entertaining mystery.....one that even a loyal Agatha Christie fan would enjoy.
Hayley Mills is one of the main reasons this film came off as enjoyable. Another actress may not have been able to convincingly play a virgin with morals. That is what Take a Girl Like You is really about: morals regarding pre-marital sex.
Hayley Mills stars as Jenny Bunn, a new schoolteacher in town. She meets Patrick, an art teacher ( Oliver Reed ), whom she is attracted to even though she knows that he likes to "play the field". When he invites her to his apartment one evening ( and not to look at his sketches ), she surprises him by telling him she is a virgin and intends to stay that way until she marries. Patrick wants to bed her and so he goes on with a lot of debates about how "nobody cares about that" anymore and such. Jenny obviously cares and - if Patrick cared for her - would respect her views, but this isn't a film about respect. It is just about Patrick trying to have "it" with Jenny.
Perhaps it was the location scenery. Take a Girl Like You was shot in and around Middlesex in southeast England and we get a glimpse of an average working town of the late 1960s.
Or perhaps it was the music. The peppy opening theme was sung by The Foundations who were one of the biggest British soul bands of the era. The music for the picture was scored by Stanley Myers who, in spite of the unfamiliarity of his name to most people, penned quite a bit of film and television music from the 1950s-1980s.
It certainly had nothing to do with Oliver Reed being in the film. He was never my idea of a leading man and a more handsome and engaging fellow, such as Michael Caine, would have made this story much more entertaining. Noel Harrison's presence in the film helps quite a bit. The rest of the supporting cast was made up of familiar British character actors: John Bird, Sheila Hancock, Penelope Keith, and Aimi MacDonald.
That is not surprising. It is not the kind of film you would watch with your family or even your spouse. In fact, I cannot picture dating couples attending the film in 1970 and walking out of the theater with smiles on their faces...and yet, if you watch it by yourself, it keeps you entertained. In fact, I may just watch the film again this week.
Take a Girl Like You is available for streaming on Tubi or, if you want to hear some insightful commentaries, on Blu-ray DVD.