Being a film nut is frustrating when your brain gets older and slower like mine. I used to be able to recall any name, any actor and any storyline. I am a collector of films of sorts I suppose, mentally and physically.
Some films have faded fron view but have haunted me nevertheless, sort of been at the back of my mind for decades even though I haven't seen them since way back.
There are two I can think of: Night Must Fall and The Lost Weekend.
Both of the films were in black and white I seem to remember and I will have seen them late at night at my family's home in the late Sixties or probably the early Seventies. Not sure if my Parents knew I was watching them! They may have gone to bed!
The Lost Weekend was about the trials of an alcoholic and as a film went to great lengths to show cinematicaly the effects of the addiction. Like a public service broadcast it bared all and no doubt scared all. I think the main actor was Ray Milland - he of the Man with the X-Ray Eyes - but I could be wrong. I could google everything but I'm trying to remember!
The scene that has lingered in my memory was magnificently shocking. I think it showed a mouse coming out of a hole high up on the addict's bedroom wall. It was when a large bat flew in that it became something else. The bat attacks the mouse and after some shrieking a trickle of blood runs down the wall. Needless to say these are meant to be hallucinations and I thought the photography was mesmerising. I do hope no animals were harmed in it though. Do you recall this film?
The other flick, Night Must Fall, was British I think. It concerned an old house, an old woman in a wheel chair and an axe murderer. Said axeman was played by Albert Finney. The scene I recall the most was when Albert stalked the old lady through the ground floor of her house and eventually rid her of her head. Naturally this is only suggested but it had a lasting impact on me, a memory accentuated by the following scene were Finney stores the head in a hat box on his wardrobe! Gothic menacing grue.
Do you recall this film?
Do you have any 'lost' films in your head?
I remember The Lost Weekend, and it was indeed Ray Milland who starred in it. There's a scene in My Favourite Brunette, where, when trying to escape some thugs, Bob Hope grabs on to an overhead light and finds a bottle of alcohol in the glass lightshade. "Ray Milland's been here" he says, which must puzzle younger viewers these days. Incidentally, you simply must see Alias Nick Beal, one of Ray Milland's finest movies. It's an absolute belter.
ReplyDeleteGlad I'm not alone in the Lost Weekend Kid! ha ha. A memorable flick. I'll have a gander at Alias Nick Beal.
Delete"Dead of Night" a B&W Ealing style thriller with (I think) Corin Redgrave which features a double decker bus minature FX crash, worthy of Captain Scarlet's plunge off the road!
ReplyDeleteDead of Night is one of my fave fearfilms Lewis. A stunner. So many superb stories especially the dummy segment. Shockingly good. I shall have to look out for the bus crash.
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