Roku Picks for August

This month, for our Streaming Picks series, we are focusing the spotlight on the Roku app since they have a nice mixture of television series and films available this July/August. 

In addition to some rarer British series well worth checking out (such as the intriguing The Gentle Touch with the talented Jill Gascoigne) there are also a few obscure American series not usually available on the streaming apps. Code 3 is a really rare series from 1957 about "real-life cases from the Los Angeles sheriff's office" and Steve Canyon (1957-1958) is a hardly-ever-talked-about action series that also features real-life cases... this time from the files of the United States Air Force. Also worth checking out is The Lawless Years (1959-1961) starring James Gregory as a New York cop fighting crime during the Roaring 20s.

Television Series

Land of the Lost

AirWolf

The Addams Family

Code 3 - L.A. Sheriff's Case Files

The Fugitive

The Outer Limits

The Buccaneers

Tales of Tomorrow

Steve Canyon

Stingray

The Rat Patrol

Medic

The Alfred Hitchcock Hour

The Steve Allen Show

Daktari

The Gentle Touch

Charlie's Angels

Movin' On

Budgie

Scarecrow and Mrs. King

Danger Mouse

Films

The Jigsaw Man (1983)

Diabolique (1955)

Red River (1948)

The Four Feathers (1939)

The Million Pound Note (1954)

Young and Innocent (1937)

A Night in Casablanca (1946)

Another Man's Poison (1951)

The Deadly Companions (1961)

Godzilla Raids Again (1958)

The Importance of Being Earnest (1952)

This Happy Breed (1944)

Sissi film series (1950s)

This Sporting Life (1963)

The True Story of Jesse James (1957)

The Key (1958)

Dressed to Kill (1946)

Danger Flight (1939)

Misty (1961)

Master of the World (1961)

In Morgantown, Pennsylvania, in 1868, a giant voice was heard booming from the mountain ridge known as The Great Eyrie. It was quoting from the Holy Book. John Strock (Charles Bronson), an agent for the United States Department of the Interior, decides to investigate this phenomenon and asks inventor/arms manufacturer Mr. Prudent (Henry Hull) to journey up to the mountain with him in his air balloon. Going along the ride is Prudent's daughter Dorothy (Mary Webster) and her fiancée Philip (David Frankham). 

However, the foursome never make it to the summit because their balloon is shot down by a giant airship called The Albatross. At the helm is Robur, a Nemo-like character who wants to stop warfare by forcing nations to disarm by the threat of destroying their instruments of war. Strock and the others are held prisoners onboard the Albatross until Strock hatches a plan to destroy Robur and his flying weapon. 

Producer Samuel Arkoff is best-known for his budget horror films (War of the Zombies, The Raven) and beach-party comedies (Bikini Beach, Beach Blanket Bingo) but Master of the World, released in 1961, marked his foray into Irwin Allen's territory of family-friendly sci-fi adventure. It wasn't a bad venture, either. 

Charles Bronson plays a likeable hero; the rest of the cast are engaging enough (especially Henry Hull), and the set design and bright color schemes are pleasant on the eye. The story, based on two novels by Jules Verne, is pretty much "20,000 Leagues Under the Sea" now set in the air. Vincent Price plays a good Robur, but he lacks the convincing anguish that James Mason gave to Nemo in the 1954 classic 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea and it is hard to feel compassion for his character. Perhaps it is because the audience is never given a reason why Robur is bent against stopping warfare, unlike Nemo whose family was killed in a war. 

The film could have used a sprinkling of comedy. 20th Century Fox's excellent sci-fi adventure Journey to the Center of the Earth was released just two years prior to Master of the World but what a world of difference in terms of production quality and entertainment. Master of the World would have been marvelous with James Mason, Pat Boone, Diane Baker and perhaps Richard Haydn cast as the aerial prisoners. Vito Scotti's kitchen humor just wasn't enough to add the element of fun to Master of the World, something the film needed. 

Nevertheless, the movie is one that I can re-watch numerous times. It is a classic steampunk picture released years before the term was even invented. 

The music, by conductor Les Baxter, is lovely and the supporting cast, made up of several less-known players are good in their parts. David Frankham, who plays Philip, was a familiar face on the small screen where he did numerous guest appearances in sitcoms, westerns, and dramas throughout the 1960s. Mary Webster was also a television actress (Arkoff was always mindful of the budget) and this was one of the rare feature films she made. Henry Hull was one of the few big-names on the roster, being an old character actor from the 1940s.

American International Pictures released Master of the World along with Konga as a double-feature in 1961, so if sci-fi did not appeal to the audience they could be entertained by a gorilla.

British Pathé: Royal Film Performance of 1962

This month's British Pathé newsreel features color footage from the 1962 Royal Film Performance which had Queen Elizabeth, Princess Margaret, and Lord Snowdon in attendance....not to mention 16 big-name stars who were presented to the queen prior to the showing. These included Yul Brynner, Cliff Richard, Melina Mercouri, Pat Boone, Horst Bucholz, Peter Sellers, Janet Munro, Peter Finch, and Leslie Caron. Also in attendance was Richard Beymer and director Robert Wise, which may give you a hint to what film was chosen for the Royal Performance, something the announcer failed to mention: West Side Story. I think Queen Elizabeth was in for a treat at the movies. 

Instead of linking to the video on Youtube, we are just going to embed it right here so you can easily watch it. 

Other similarly themed British Pathe shorts: 

Royal Film Performance (1956) - 1:31 sec 

Royal Film Performance ( 1959 ) - 2:05 sec

Royal Film Performance (1969) - 1:11 sec 

Film Albums: Lee Evans Plays Themes from Great Motion Pictures

There was a plethora of great piano music albums released in the 1960s. Most of them were from the "big names" like Ferrante and Teicher, Horst Jankowski, Liberace or Frankie Carle... but a name that deserves to rank among those famous ivory-ticklers is Lee Evans. 

Evans name may not be familiar to most people because he worked behind-the-marquee as a music director for Engelbert Humperdinck, Tom Jones, Carol Channing and others. He also was the creative talent behind nearly 90 songbooks released through Hal Leonard Publishing, so if you play the piano yourself, you've probably been playing Lee Evans arrangements. 

Evans released five albums in the 1960s with Capitol and MGM Records, all of which are excellent. If we had to choose a favorite it would be Lee Evans Plays Themes from Great Motion Pictures, naturally because it features film themes. 

Evans style is similar to Ferrante and Teicher with numerous trickly arpeggios and lush strings accompanying him, but the arrangements (by Dick Hyman) are unique and lovely to listen to. This album (MGM, SE-4460) has three particularly must-listen-to pieces: "Early in the Morning", a Frank DeVol piece from The Happening (1967), a sporty version of Georgy Girl, and a haunting rendition of "Wednesday's Child", made famous by Matt Monro. 

Track Listing

Side One

Born Free

Theme from "The Sand Pepples"

A Man and a Woman

Early in the Morning ("The Happening")

Warning Shot

Tara's Theme

Side Two:

Georgy Girl

Lara's Theme

Theme from "The Deadly Affair"

Wednesday's Child from "Quiller Memorandum"

Hurry Sundown Blues

This is My Song

Top Picks: Theme from The Sand Pebbles, Early in the Morning, Lara's Theme, The Deadly Affair, Wednesday's Child

From the Archives: The Deadly Mantis (1957)

 

William Hopper is giving Craig Stevens a hearty hello handshake but the Air Force-man only has eyes for Alix Talton....as does the men behind him. Of course, later all of them are more concerned about the giant mantis than romancing women from Washington. 

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