Bitter Victory (1957)
Time for one of my Terribly Exciting picspams. (It really isn't this time. That's what happens when you watch people who aren't David Collings and who never get eaten by hyenas. It's very sad.)
Anyway, I finally risked watching my v. cheap film from 1957 with Alfred Burke in. (I hadn't before because I tend to find war films dull and I was convinced he'd only be in it for a minute and never be seen again. I was right about one of those things, but not the other.)
I started watching it, and, yay, look who turned up in the very first scene! (And stayed in it for at least 20 minutes! With lines!) \o/
He even had a name and everything: Lt. Col. Michael Callander.
He seemed to be Richard Burton's best friend, but he obviously knew what sort of film he was in and stayed well away from the mission. (Everyone knows the hero's best mate always gets deaded if he goes.)
Although, actually, come to think of it, seeing as he's keen for Richard Burton to go on a deadly mission, maybe he's not as friendly as he makes out. (Not really. Richard Burton even fixes his fan for him when he's hanging around by his desk.)
Anyway, his commanding officer thinks Curt Jurgens would be better for the mission. Alfred Burke disagrees; he doesn't think Curt Jurgens is up to it any more. (Well, it's either that, or they keep checking each other out when they think the other isn't looking & I have to say that seems unlikely.)
See what I mean?
However, his commanding officer reckons Richard Burton is not the right material, he's a damned intellectual - and he's Welsh.
Cue this sort of reaction.
(I was going to rip this moment, but my computer hates the first 6 minutes of the film. Don't ask me about DVDs and ripping and the mysteries therein. I couldn't even get it to play on VLC, so I was lucky to get the screencaps at all.)
Anyway, then Alfred Burke gets to explain the Mission to everyone, using this model:
I am muchly amused that someone sat around making this and putting little palm trees and people on it. Since it seems to be Callander's and he was the only one we didn't see at the previous evening's party, we'll assume that's what he does in the evenings: build natty little models for mission plotting. (in rl, someone in the props department had too much fun, obviously.)
Christopher Lee was there, too. (I didn't notice till the end credits because I fast-forwarded that bit with all the marching, spying and fighting (but no Alfred Burke) in the middle. This is why I don't watch old war films. I would probably watch one if it had David Collings in and he died in it, though.)
It is a 1950s war film, so obviously there is only one woman (Ruth Roman) in Libya and she is in a love triangle with Richard Burton and Curt Jurgens, because love triangles are obligatory for angst and nobility and sacrifice and people dying and things.
You don't want Alfred Burke around when you're trying to kiss someone. He's a very effective gooseberry, even if it looks more like an awkward threesome from this angle.
And then it was all tragic and Richard Burton had died and Curt Jurgens gave his undeserved medal to the weird exercise dummies with the hearts on. (War films, soooo sentimental. Don't pretend they aren't.)
Anyway, since that wasn't terribly exciting, have a bonus screencap of the other cheap old film with Alfred Burke in that I bought ages ago. It was Norman Wisdom's On The Beat and Alfred Burke was in it for about 2 minutes at the start, when he was a figment of Norman Wisdom's imagination, because all character actors have strange lives. (It's just that David Collings is the only one who breaks down and dies quite that much and in so many inventive ways.)
Being Trigger O'Flynn, an OTT Irish gangster in Norman Wisdom's nightmare. (Watching this straight after Public Eye, it felt really weird to see him with a gun like that, shooting Norman Wisdom dead in his nightmare.)
Where would you be without me to bore you all silly with picspams of character actors in things nobody's ever heard of?
Now I just need to find something old with Pauline Delan(e)y in. (This seems very unlikely. She did turn up in The Avengers when I watched some, though, but somebody murdered her and it was far too distressing. It is fine to throw David Collings to your hyenas, people expect that; you don't murder Mrs Mortimer, even when she owns a creepy puppet shop. *glares at Steed and Mrs Peel for not rescuing her*)
Crossposted from Dreamwidth -- Comments there:
Anyway, I finally risked watching my v. cheap film from 1957 with Alfred Burke in. (I hadn't before because I tend to find war films dull and I was convinced he'd only be in it for a minute and never be seen again. I was right about one of those things, but not the other.)
I started watching it, and, yay, look who turned up in the very first scene! (And stayed in it for at least 20 minutes! With lines!) \o/
He even had a name and everything: Lt. Col. Michael Callander.
He seemed to be Richard Burton's best friend, but he obviously knew what sort of film he was in and stayed well away from the mission. (Everyone knows the hero's best mate always gets deaded if he goes.)
Although, actually, come to think of it, seeing as he's keen for Richard Burton to go on a deadly mission, maybe he's not as friendly as he makes out. (Not really. Richard Burton even fixes his fan for him when he's hanging around by his desk.)
Anyway, his commanding officer thinks Curt Jurgens would be better for the mission. Alfred Burke disagrees; he doesn't think Curt Jurgens is up to it any more. (Well, it's either that, or they keep checking each other out when they think the other isn't looking & I have to say that seems unlikely.)
See what I mean?
However, his commanding officer reckons Richard Burton is not the right material, he's a damned intellectual - and he's Welsh.
Cue this sort of reaction.
(I was going to rip this moment, but my computer hates the first 6 minutes of the film. Don't ask me about DVDs and ripping and the mysteries therein. I couldn't even get it to play on VLC, so I was lucky to get the screencaps at all.)
Anyway, then Alfred Burke gets to explain the Mission to everyone, using this model:
I am muchly amused that someone sat around making this and putting little palm trees and people on it. Since it seems to be Callander's and he was the only one we didn't see at the previous evening's party, we'll assume that's what he does in the evenings: build natty little models for mission plotting. (in rl, someone in the props department had too much fun, obviously.)
Christopher Lee was there, too. (I didn't notice till the end credits because I fast-forwarded that bit with all the marching, spying and fighting (but no Alfred Burke) in the middle. This is why I don't watch old war films. I would probably watch one if it had David Collings in and he died in it, though.)
It is a 1950s war film, so obviously there is only one woman (Ruth Roman) in Libya and she is in a love triangle with Richard Burton and Curt Jurgens, because love triangles are obligatory for angst and nobility and sacrifice and people dying and things.
You don't want Alfred Burke around when you're trying to kiss someone. He's a very effective gooseberry, even if it looks more like an awkward threesome from this angle.
And then it was all tragic and Richard Burton had died and Curt Jurgens gave his undeserved medal to the weird exercise dummies with the hearts on. (War films, soooo sentimental. Don't pretend they aren't.)
Anyway, since that wasn't terribly exciting, have a bonus screencap of the other cheap old film with Alfred Burke in that I bought ages ago. It was Norman Wisdom's On The Beat and Alfred Burke was in it for about 2 minutes at the start, when he was a figment of Norman Wisdom's imagination, because all character actors have strange lives. (It's just that David Collings is the only one who breaks down and dies quite that much and in so many inventive ways.)
Being Trigger O'Flynn, an OTT Irish gangster in Norman Wisdom's nightmare. (Watching this straight after Public Eye, it felt really weird to see him with a gun like that, shooting Norman Wisdom dead in his nightmare.)
Where would you be without me to bore you all silly with picspams of character actors in things nobody's ever heard of?
Now I just need to find something old with Pauline Delan(e)y in. (This seems very unlikely. She did turn up in The Avengers when I watched some, though, but somebody murdered her and it was far too distressing. It is fine to throw David Collings to your hyenas, people expect that; you don't murder Mrs Mortimer, even when she owns a creepy puppet shop. *glares at Steed and Mrs Peel for not rescuing her*)
Crossposted from Dreamwidth -- Comments there: