Bitter Victory (1957)
Jun. 10th, 2014 08:57 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
thisbluespiritTime 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*)
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*)
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no subject
Date: 2014-06-11 03:39 am (UTC)also omg baby Christopher Lee! ...not gonna lie, I had to cover up the bottom part of his face to notice it was him. I've never seen him without the beard before. Like Roger Delgado, he looks much righter with it.
AND THEN THE GANGSTER FILM or whatever it was, "when he was a figment of Norman Wisdom's imagination, because all character actors have strange lives." THEY DO INDEED. *loling forever* :D
(Alfred Burke looks so very American in that last pic. I mean, like someone you'd see on an American TV show of the same era, possibly playing a deranged farmer. I think it's the OTT "BAW-HAW-HAW" face -- you hardly ever see that in British shows. Maybe?)
psst didn't you make some alfred burke's face icons i need one ^_^
no subject
Date: 2014-06-11 01:16 pm (UTC)I didn't recognise him while I was watching it, either. But I should have noticed. It's a film of tall people. I mean, I know Alfred Burke's supposed to have been 6"1 or something, and when they're all lined up round the model, he looks short compared to everyone else...
Alfred Burke looks so very American in that last pic. I mean, like someone you'd see on an American TV show of the same era, possibly playing a deranged farmer. I think it's the OTT "BAW-HAW-HAW" face -- you hardly ever see that in British shows. Maybe?
eve11 iconed it for me (which was how I found the film) and she thought he was a cowboy. I knew he couldn't be because the British film industry never did cowboy films, for fairly obvious reasons, except for Carry on Cowboy (and TV parodies, too). And, hey, he's Irish, really, there's a lot of Irish in America! Or, really, just that, because it's a fantasy-nightmare scene, so they're riffing on US gangster films rather than British police things. (And it's a Norman Wisdom comedy which is... er... I dunno. I'd never actually watched one until this. Cultural icon I'd been avoiding all my life, really.)
I did, but i deleted them from Photobucket, because I'm still trying to stop it using up a stupid amount of bandwidth for no reason I can see (and still failing). A lot of them are here though. If you spot any you'd like, I'll upload them somewhere else and you can have one - if you really want one! :loL:
no subject
Date: 2014-06-11 01:28 am (UTC)no subject
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Date: 2014-06-11 01:08 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2014-06-11 01:09 pm (UTC)no subject
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Date: 2014-06-11 01:56 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2014-06-13 09:33 pm (UTC)At least Alfred survived to the end of the film - good for him for not going on the mission.
As for the machine-gun-happy Alfred, well, he was shooting Norman Wisdom. I can't blame him for being ecstatic over that.
no subject
Date: 2014-06-15 08:20 am (UTC):lol: I'd never seen a Norman Wisdom film before this. There was quite a lot that must of taken some impressive choreography (which isn't quite the right word, but the best I can manage this morning) but, yes... I didn't especially want to see another or even finish this one. I watched till I got a scene with Dilys Laye and then fast-forwarded everything.