Vid: James Maxwell Tribute

[thisbluespirit]

I have been a bit AWOL, but for reasons and also now I have a vid! And, all right, so it is a vid of James Maxwell, BUT it is totally a vid containing cute children and animals, paper aeroplanes, stuffed toys, random barometers, wilful destruction of property, Emma Peel kicking ass, vampires, tea and coffee drinking, two Henry VIIs, rocks, Nazis, space ships, and an actual kitchen sink. Also epic hand-holding (but not anything like as much as there could have been).


James Maxwell Vid
Basically, multi-fandom obscure character actor love. (Girl on Approval, The Traitors, Espionage, Evil of Frankenstein, The Power Game, The Avengers, Portrait of a Lady, Otley, Dracula (ITV 1968), The Tower of London: The Innocent, The Shadow of the Tower, The Hanged Man, Raffles, Doctor Who, Enemy at the Door, and The Racing Game.)

3.37 mins. Warnings only for some scrappy old sources, plus some WWII German soldiers & Nazi salutes right at the end. Also I might have accidentally shipped stuff.

JM1 from lostspook1 on Vimeo.

(Password: maxwell)

Also here at YouTube and not looking as bad as usual (but it is prettier on Vimeo).


I was thinking it'd be nice to make a James Maxwell fanvid for August - it will be 20 years ago that he died this year, but then that seemed a bit morbid. (And, really, he should have a tribute for his theatrical work*, except that's not within my power.) But I still wanted to have a go and, since he apparently loved music and making people laugh, I wound up making a (hopefully!) amusing vid set to Mozart. For April, and let's forget the whole thing about people being dead, which shouldn't be allowed.

I couldn't fit in The Racing Game at the end, but was determined to include it because there is a Sid Halley micro-fandom around, so put in the quote. (But all his accents are fake, and that one's not my favourite. So I keep glaring at it for not having his SotT voice.)

Anyway, I had fun, & I hope some people who aren't me also have fun watching. There are no spoilers that I can think of (except maybe for one episode of The Avengers). I'd think a lot of it should be funnier out of context, too? Maybe...

And if I still don't know why I like him, I think this does at least show that there's more to James Maxwell than Underworld! Plus, yes, he really was in a lot of TV & film of which this is only a small selection - being basically things that I had legal access to at the time of making this vid. (So sadly, the glory that is his two Dangerman eps are not included, and let's not even get started on the masses of 60s things that don't exist any more.)


The sources:

Girl on Approval (1961; issues film about fostering a difficult teenage girl)
The Traitors (1962; spy B-movie)
Espionage (1963; ITC spy anthology)
The Evil of Frankenstein (1964, Hammer Horror.)
The Power Game (1965/66; ABC series. JM is a semi-recurring character in S1.)
The Avengers ("The Superlative Seven" 1967; ABC series)
Otley (1968, spy comedy)
Portrait of a Lady (BBC 1968; as Gilbert Osmond)
Dracula (Thames TV, 1968; as Dr John Seward)
The Tower of London: The Innocent (BBC 1968; as Henry VII, one-off drama)
The Shadow of the Tower (BBC 1972; as Henry VII 13 part serial)
The Hanged Man ("The Bridge-Maker" Yorkshire TV, 1975; drama serial)
Raffles (ITV 1975; as Inspector Mackenzie, pilot only)
Doctor Who ("Underworld" BBC 1978)
Enemy at the Door ("Treason" LWT 1978; WWII drama)
The Racing Game (Yorkshire TV, 1979; as Charles Roland, 2 eps. Adaptation of Dick Francis's Sid Halley series.)

With many thanks to Liadt for the kind loan of Raffles!**


Also featuring: Rachel Roberts (Girl on Approval), Patrick Allen (The Traitors), Rosemary Leach (The Power Game), Patrick Macnee, Diana Rigg (The Avengers), Tom Courtenay (Otley), Suzanne Neve (Portrait of a Lady, Dracula), Denholm Elliott, Susan George, Bernard Archard (Dracula), Norma West (Shadow of the Tower), Christopher Strauli (Raffles), Tom Baker (Doctor Who), Simon Cadell, Alfred Burke (Enemy at the Door), and Mike Gwilym (The Racing Game). Plus others seen too briefly to mention.



* James Maxwell was one of the founding artistic directors of Manchester's Royal Exchange Theatre. As well as helping to set it up and run it, he acted there, wrote translations, and adaptations of 19th C literature, and directed many plays, usually comedies. Which is why he was on TV less from the late 70s onwards. It doesn't really explain why people now claim that he haunts the Royal Exchange, but at least I get some bemusement and amusement out of mentioning it each time. And it does mean that he's in (what I assume is) a very rare category of actors who have made appearances on TV from beyond the grave. (If you believe Most Haunted, that is.)

** Amazon lied to me about which Raffles DVD set contained James Maxwell. I shall probably never forgive them. Or Victor Carin, who had the misfortune of not being James Maxwell.


And, at some point, I will catch up with other stuff a bit. (♥)

Comments

[justice-turtle.livejournal.com]

Aww, he is a cutie! Even with terrible fake hair. ;-) I wish your Copper was real and on the show -- Copper and Silver together would be too much adorable to handle. <3

[thisbluespirit]

Thank you! I have been spending far too much time making this - I have almost stopped seeing the fake hair! (Though I have Thoughts now on whether or not some of it is real hair augmented by fake hair. These are v good reasons not to vid silly things!)

But I glad you liked it, and even more that you liked him in it, as he's given me a lot of entertainment over the last couple of years.

There is actually a scene in Shadow of the Tower with both David Collings and James Maxwell, but unfortunately, it's also the one episode of it that my pc doesn't believe in, so I can't vid it. (David Collings had been causing trouble again and James Maxwell wanted him taken away somewhere he would never see him again.) At least I could vid him with Alfred Burke as a reward at the end. (I am happy to know that he and Alfred Burke seem to have known each other relatively well in rl and indeed, shared an acting mentor, as it turns out. ♥)

Excuse my rambly reply and thanks so much for stopping to watch my odd vid. <3

[swordznsorcery.livejournal.com]

You've been busy! I'm surprised at the lack of clips from "Heroes Of The Revolution" though. Is that those Network DVDs refusing to rip properly again?!

[thisbluespirit]

It's actually easier to do something like this than a vid for a TV series. *waves hands incoherently about why* (It's too early in the morning this morning.) But thank you. :-)

As to Heroes of the Revolution, well, James Maxwell was only in the prequel and you were sadly right about Network continually delaying its release. One day! And then it probably won't rip!

(Actually, Network are kinder to me over James Maxwell than they are over David Collings, or I probably couldn't have made this at all! Only The Hanged Man and Dracula wouldn't rip at all out of the Network things - and randomly Evil of Frankenstein decided to be one of those things that only load the DVD intro.)

[liadt]

I'm impressed with the wide variety of clips you've used! I see James Maxwell's cunning plan to get you to like him via the use of cute kids, animals and toys worked;p I enjoyed viewing the whole of JM being flung into a pool clip & taking revenge on water in 'Frankenstein'(!). And there was plenty of hand action for all - hurrah:) The best bits were from 'Raffles' of course;)

I don't think the gold spacesuits go with anyone's 70's hair though...

[thisbluespirit]

Thank you! I don't think it was really a cunning plan, because in fact (thanks to the whole Amazon/Raffles conspiracy) the only thing I could get hold of after SotT was Portrait of a Lady and I almost got put off him for life. Except someone sent me EatD & I found Girl on Approval and also accidentally acquired Dracula when in search of David Collings.

I am even more bitter about Amazon keeping the Raffles pilot from me! He's so funny in it, I love it. I might actually like Raffles for more than one episode if it had James Maxwell having that much fun in it every other week. But sadly, it does not and thus I don't. You should get another credit, actually, because you gave me The Avengers, so the Emma Peel bit is also your doing.

Well, at least it's not yet another Victorian facial hair epidemic!

[liadt]

Ah, Maxwell was trying to get back into your good books then?:)

Shh, I don't want to be done for being an old TV pusher;p

Maybe he refused to do any Victoriana without facial hair?

[thisbluespirit]

I think he tried to hide from me, but failed. I mean, having seen how I behaved to David Collings, obviously... ;-p

You ARE an old TV pusher and I love you very much for it.

I'm beginning to think so. I think he just loved the facial hair. I have the Royal Exchange book and I don't think there are any photos of him in any parts in it where he doesn't have more and more facial hair. Either that, or make up people were really mean to him.

[liadt]

Lol

Aw, bless you:)

Hmmm, being of a suspicious mind and that he was held in high regard I suspect the make-up dept of conning him into thinking his character should absolutely have a fake beard so they could spend more time in his general direction...;p

[thisbluespirit]

Either that, or like Alfred Burke, they felt his face was Too Much without a beard! (Probably not, though. I think that's only Alfred Burke.)

[dimity-blue.livejournal.com]

That was fun. I didn't read your list of sources beforehand, so I was surprised to recognise Raffles near the end. What a swizz that he was only in the pilot. Boo!

I also got a bit confused about the b/w then colour Henry VII, but I see from your list there was a one off drama about Henry VII before Shadow of the Tower. Obviously, JM was the only actor the BBC could see as Henry VII so they refused to hire anyone else to play the part. :oD

Thanks for sharing the vid.

[thisbluespirit]

Aw, thank you so much for watching! And, yes, I might like Raffles a lot more if it had James Maxwell in it instead of Victor Carin. (I'm sure Victor Carin is very nice really, but the crime of Not Being James Maxwell at any point when Amazon told me he would be is just hard to get over.)

Ha, everybody who played a Tudor monarch for the BBC had to play it twice, it was the rule! Sorry for the confusion, but it was the BBC's fault, I am just a humble vidder who had no sources between 1968 and 1971. (I should work on that.)

♥

[a-phoenixdragon.livejournal.com]

YOU...are awesome! *Beams*

*HUGS*

[thisbluespirit]

Thanks. :-)

[flowsoffire.livejournal.com]

That looks lovely, and really fun at times! Delightful :D

[thisbluespirit]

Thank you! ♥