Coming to DVD: Stormy Monday (1988)

Arrow Films will release Stormy Monday, Mike Figgis' feature-length directorial debut from 1988, in July. Accompanying the DVD will be a booklet including a new critical essay on Figgis and the film, 'Mike Figgis: Renaissance Man' written by yours truly

Be sure to order your copy!

Swing (1999)

I saw Swing more or less when it first came out on video. In the seventeen years (give or take) that have followed since I've little recollection of it beyond Alexei Sayle's turn as an initially intimidating leader of an Orangeman brass section, so I decided to track the film down again. It's only available on DVD as a region free import (from Holland I think) so that gives you an idea of just how little-seen and little-remembered Swing actually is. Initially, its status seems weird when you consider the cast involved, but watching it again you can unfortunately see why its been consigned to oblivion - 4 people (including me) list this as watched on here.

Swing affords The Full Monty star Hugo Speer and the Rochdale songbird Lisa Stansfield with their first starring role vehicle. Speer stars as Martin Luxford, a Liverpudlian chancer who, following an unwise decision to drive a getaway car for his shifty brother Liam (Brookside's Paul Usher) ends up spending two years in gaol. Whilst there, Martin learns the saxophone from a fellow inmate, a big black American fella called Jim who just happens to be played by The E Street Band's Clarence Clemons! Once released, Martin returns home to his mum and dad (Rita Tushingham and Tom Bell) and sets about going straight with the intention of forming a band ("those bloody Beatles" is the reaction he faces each time he mentions his ambition to family, friends or his probation officer) that will bring swing music to the masses once more. To get the venture off the ground, he sources a little help from the local Orange order ran by his uncle (Tom Georgeson) for a deal based on his first born being christened in the Protestant faith, a former National Front skin who played the drums for ultra right wing band Swastika, an old schoolmate who dreams of playing for arch enemies Manchester United, and his former girlfriend (Stansfield) who just so happens to have married the police officer who arrested him whilst Martin has been banged up.

Looked at in purely cynical terms it's clear that Swing hopes to emulate the success of The Commitments, but it's an ambition that is well beyond its reach. The most interesting thing about Swing is its characters and the cast chosen to play these roles, but the tepid direction lets them down at every turn. Watching it, I began to consider just how a poor choice of director can ruin a writer's vision, so imagine my surprise when I found out that the director Nick Mead was also responsible for the screenplay! (Mind you, he was also responsible for the screenplay to the Michael Caine/Roger Moore vehicle Bullseye! and I think that ought to tell you all you need to know about him) Mead - who devised the story with his producer Su Lim - resolutely fails to inject the same kind of spirit into the film that is inherent in the script itself. The contentious nature of the rag tag assortment of bandmates is never utilised and it's a grave error to allow their issues of racial and religious intolerance to go unresolved; Mead just glosses over them and they exist solely as a missed opportunity at best, or bizarre, silly comic relief at worst. It appears that he perhaps hoped that Sayle et al will have enough about them in the performance to breathe life into them, and whilst they try their best, the empty space in the script where character progression ought to exist and the poor realisation in bringing them to screen from the director means they're doomed to fail despite their best endeavours. 

They're not the only actors wasted here either; Tom Bell, seen here in the latter stages of his career before his untimely death in 2006, brings his usual quiet, noble and strong screen presence to the role but his biggest and best scene is opposite Liverpool poseur Danny McCall (of Brookside, panto and some desperate attempts at chart success fame) as Stansfield's corrupt policeman hubby - and he naturally wipes the floor with him, defying the inadequacy around him. Likewise, sax legend Clarence Clemons is something of a star attraction, but his actual role on screen (away from the fact that he provided the sax score that Speer mimes too) consists of little more than a series of dreamy cutaways in which he imparts Obi Wan Kenobi style wisdom to his protege, Martin. 

Front and centre of the film are Speer and Stansfield in their first lead acting roles. They equip themselves rather well - despite adopting scouse accents that are not natural to them - and Stansfield of course excels in the singing scenes, but the chemistry isn't exactly something that sets the world alight - and that's perhaps what was really required to lift the film above its other noticeable errors.

A musical romcom in which both the rom and the com fails and the music is always only going to appeal to a select audience means Swing fails to do just that - swing. The film's best joke perhaps lies (strangely) in the credits; 

'Five hamsters were killed in the making of this film...and if they had not moved, the staple gun would not have been used'

NB: Internet Movie Database includes Jimmy Nail in the cast list as a character named 'Arthur'; he doesn't appear in either the film or the  end credits of the film. A mistake on IMDB's part? (they neglect to include Del Henney who actually does appear!) or an example of scenes consigned to the cutting room floor? I'm leaning towards the former, I can't imagine Swing missing the opportunity of having a(nother) household name in its cast to attract audiences.

Out On Blue Six : Earth Wind and Fire, RIP Maurice White

Another sad loss - Maurice White, founder member of Earth Wind and Fire, has died aged 74 following a lengthy struggle with Parkinsons Disease.

RIP

End Transmission

Theme Time : Bob James - Taxi

Yet another firm family favourite that I grew up with, Taxi was a US sitcom created by the team who would go on to make Cheers, which centred on the lives of the employees of the Sunshine Cab Company at the fleet garage in Manhattan. It starred Judd Hirsch, Marilu Henner, Danny DeVito, Tony Danza, Jeff Conaway, Andy Kaufman and Christopher Lloyd to name but a few. It ran from 1978 to 1983 and, if its on TV today, I still watch it.

Two time Grammy award winning jazz musician Bob James composed the memorable theme tune. Entitled Angela, it was only ever intended for a small sequence in the third ever episode entitled Blind Date which featured Judd Hirsch's seasoned cabbie Alex asking out a phone operator called Angela on a blind date, purely because of her sexy voice. When he meets her, he finds that she's an overweight woman who is used to being spurned because of her size. Nevertheless, they strike up a good friendship. It's a lovely bittersweet episode with a great performance from Suzanne Kent as Angela Matusa (who would return to the show a year later for another episode) and the theme suits it perfectly. So much so that the producers found this tune more to their liking than the up tempo number James had originally offered them for the show's theme tune. A switch was made, and the rest is history.

All Night Long (1962)

Firstly before we start, let's just take a moment to acknowledge how beautiful this poster is. 

Isn't it just a thing of design brilliance?

Director Basil Dearden delivers a Noirish curio in All Night Long, an entertaining update of Shakespeare's Othello set in the London jazz scene of the early '60s. In reworking the Bard, the scriptwriting team of Nel King and 'Peter Achilles' - the pseudonym for blacklisted exiled American Paul Jarrico -  shift some of the focus from the titular character of the Moor, depicted here as jazz band leader Aurelius Rex (Paul Harris) and onto his duplicitous, malevolent drummer Johnny Cousin played to slimy, jittery perfection by the great Patrick McGoohan. 

The action takes place almost exclusively in the converted dockland warehouse pad of a titled music patron played by Richard Attenborough (who seems three decades ahead of the yuppie trend for London's Docklands warehouse conversions) who is busy preparing a surprise first year anniversary party for Rex and his bride, Delia (Marti Stevens) Milling around the pad, setting up their instruments and helping themselves to a drink is a truly eclectic and diverse cast which includes real jazz greats like Charles Mingus, Dave Brubeck, Johnny Dankworth ("Sorry Cleo couldn't make it!"), Johnny Scott and Tubby Hayes as well as the likes of Bernard Braden as a recording studio money man, Keith Michell as Cass, the Cassio role naturally, Harry Towb, Betsy Blair and in a brief uncredited role, future Ken Loach favourite Carol White. 

McGoohan's Johnny stalks around the proceedings dripping poison in everyone's ear as he attempts to manipulate the evening's events to propel himself into the big time, smuggling away Delia from the group and her marriage to be his singer. The plot stays pretty close to Shakespeare (until the end, at least) and neatly embraces the contemporary using such props as doctored tape recordings and cigarette cases as plot devices used to further Johnny's web of lies. Race and more specifically racial politics is alluded to in the mature way one would expect from Dearden who was also responsible for Sapphire and Flame In The Streets and one doesn't have to imagine how rare the film's progressive use of mixed-race couples was for early '60s cinema.

The dated hipster dialogue may appear occasionally contrived or just plain cringeworthy to some but I think it lends to the retro appeal now inherent in the production, and at least its delivered relatively well by the assembled cast. Certainly, Attenborough may have been a little too long in the tooth to truly convince in his role but he serves as a strong and reassuring ballast and master of ceremonies for the more unknown and inexperienced actors around him.  

It's fair to say the film belongs to the powerhouse McGoohan, who plays his own drums here (and I couldn't help but think of the intro to The Prisoner every time Dearden showed the darkening storm clouds and had thunder claps fill the air) but Paul Harris' dignified and hurt Rex is also worthy of strong praise. 

Wisely, the real-life musicians aren't expected to act all that much in terms of the drama that occurs around them and Dearden uses them primarily as credible background decoration, before shifting them to the foreground to do what they do best and enliven the proceedings with their musical talent.

Out On Blue Six : Acker Bilk, RIP

Another sad passing in the news today, legendary jazz musician Acker Bilk has died aged 85.

Born Bernard Stanley Bilk, he took the stage name Acker, slang for mate in his native Somerset, after mastering the clarinet whilst doing his National Service in Egypt.

He claimed his distinctive playing style was on account of the loss of three teeth during a playground fight and half a finger in a sledging accident. His most famous hit Stranger On A Shore, shared here, was written for his young daughter and saw him become the first UK artiste to hit the US charts.

RIP

End Transmission

Theme Time : Harry South - The Sweeney

Inspired by my friend Cait's review of The Sweeney (you can read it on her blog) today's theme time will focus on that classic show's theme, one of the most easily identifiable TV themes ever from Harry South

Here's the bombastic opening theme which scores of schoolkids back in the day (those allowed to stay up late that is) would sing along in playgrounds up and down the country as "The Sween-eeeeey! The Sween-eeeey! Dat-dat-dah-dah-dah-dah-du-dooby-doo! The Sween-eeeey! The Sween-eeeey!" etc etc 

You knew instantly what to expect from that opening theme and titles. A world of casual violence, racism and sexism (a world otherwise known as the 1970s) as our heroes chase down 'big tickles' from snouts and scumbags in The Smoke.

However 50 minutes later and you realised that often all was not right with the world, and never would be. South's melancholic score that played the show out really hits the right note. The vibrancy and hope of the opening has been quashed to reveal the good guys don't always win - or at least not as they'd have liked - and that tomorrow's another shitty day, with only a hangover and the liquid concrete coffee from the squad's vending machine to sustain you. It's actually the version I prefer more

Lastly, South's original full theme - complete with mad jazzed up middle section!

Phew, Dennis Waterman didn't sing da feem toon this time around!

Harry South (1929-1990) was a familiar name in the world of TV and film in the 70s and 80s, his style of jazz often going hand in hand with the more seamier world of entertainment with sexploitation films such as Can You Keep It Up For A Week? and School For Sex and London set dramas such as The Chinese Detective (another police series) and the excellent cardsharp drama Big Deal

Out On Blue Six Xmas : Vince Guaraldi

End Transmission

Out On Blue Six : Cleo Laine and John Dankworth

The theme from The Servant

End Transmission