★★★★☆ / ★★★☆☆
Two of J Lee Thompson’s early films – a gritty women’s prison drama and a postwar crime thriller – serve as a reminder that the director deserves more kudos as an artist
J Lee Thompson is a British director who could maybe do with a bit more auteur respect: here is a double-bill rerelease of two of his early black-and-white films from the 1950s. The Weak and the Wicked (★★★★☆) is a melodrama that came out in 1954 just before his wrenching classic Yield to the Night, which featured Diana Dors on death row. It is a tough women’s prison film as well, one that quickly morphs into a social-issue sermon; it is richly flavoured, speckled with comic interludes and gloriously cast with Glynis Johns as Jean, a young society beauty and gambling addict whose dud cheque leads to an appearance in court and whose head-girl demeanour never falters in the clink.
Two of J Lee Thompson’s early films – a gritty women’s prison drama and a postwar crime thriller – serve as a reminder that the director deserves more kudos as an artist
J Lee Thompson is a British director who could maybe do with a bit more auteur respect: here is a double-bill rerelease of two of his early black-and-white films from the 1950s. The Weak and the Wicked (★★★★☆) is a melodrama that came out in 1954 just before his wrenching classic Yield to the Night, which featured Diana Dors on death row. It is a tough women’s prison film as well, one that quickly morphs into a social-issue sermon; it is richly flavoured, speckled with comic interludes and gloriously cast with Glynis Johns as Jean, a young society beauty and gambling addict whose dud cheque leads to an appearance in court and whose head-girl demeanour never falters in the clink.
- 8/5/2024
- by Peter Bradshaw
- The Guardian - Film News
Studiocanal are delighted to announce the release of two compelling dramas from British director J. Lee Thompson into their Vintage Classics Collection The Weak And The Wicked and No Trees In The Street, both Blu-ray, DVD and Digital from 5 August. We’re giving you the chance to win both copies on Blu-Ray.
Studiocanal are delighted to announce the release of two compelling dramas from British director J. Lee Thompson (Ice Cold in Alex) into their Vintage Classics Collection featuring standout performances from two legendary and much-missed British actresses Glynis Johns and Sylvia Syms. The Weak And The Wicked stars the late Diana Dors (Yield to The Night) alongside Glynis Johns (Mary Poppins), and No Trees In The Street features Herbert Lom (The Pink Panther Strikes Again) and Melvyn Hayes (Summer Holiday) alongside Sylvia Syms (Woman in a Dressing Gown) in her BAFTA-nominated performance. Both films will premiere at Bristol’s...
Studiocanal are delighted to announce the release of two compelling dramas from British director J. Lee Thompson (Ice Cold in Alex) into their Vintage Classics Collection featuring standout performances from two legendary and much-missed British actresses Glynis Johns and Sylvia Syms. The Weak And The Wicked stars the late Diana Dors (Yield to The Night) alongside Glynis Johns (Mary Poppins), and No Trees In The Street features Herbert Lom (The Pink Panther Strikes Again) and Melvyn Hayes (Summer Holiday) alongside Sylvia Syms (Woman in a Dressing Gown) in her BAFTA-nominated performance. Both films will premiere at Bristol’s...
- 7/21/2024
- by Competitions
- HeyUGuys.co.uk
Actor who starred in films of the 1950s and 60s including Ice Cold in Alex and went on to a long career in supporting roles
Although Sylvia Syms, who has died aged 89, emerged as an actor during the decade from 1956 to 1966 that saw British cinema changing radically, she seemed to belong to an earlier stiff-upper-lip tradition of British films rather than “kitchen sink” drama. Nevertheless, the ethereal Syms starred in a wide variety of films during that period before she developed in later years into a fine supporting actor.
She was nominated for a Bafta for her performance in J Lee Thompson’s Woman in a Dressing Gown (1957), which had Syms playing the “other woman” for whom Anthony Quayle wants to leave his wife (Yvonne Mitchell). Based on a play by Ted Willis, this candid social drama heralded a new dawn in gritty British film-making. However, the same director-writer team...
Although Sylvia Syms, who has died aged 89, emerged as an actor during the decade from 1956 to 1966 that saw British cinema changing radically, she seemed to belong to an earlier stiff-upper-lip tradition of British films rather than “kitchen sink” drama. Nevertheless, the ethereal Syms starred in a wide variety of films during that period before she developed in later years into a fine supporting actor.
She was nominated for a Bafta for her performance in J Lee Thompson’s Woman in a Dressing Gown (1957), which had Syms playing the “other woman” for whom Anthony Quayle wants to leave his wife (Yvonne Mitchell). Based on a play by Ted Willis, this candid social drama heralded a new dawn in gritty British film-making. However, the same director-writer team...
- 1/27/2023
- by Ronald Bergan
- The Guardian - Film News
Sylvia Syms, best known for her leading role in Ice Cold in Alex, has died aged 89.
The British actor “died peacefully” early on Friday (27 January) morning at Denville Hall, a London care home for those in the entertainment industry, her children shared in a statement.
“Our mother, Sylvia, died peacefully this morning. She has lived an amazing life and gave us joy and laughter right up to the end,” Beatie and Ben Edney said.
“Just yesterday we were reminiscing together about all our adventures. She will be so very missed.”
They added: “We would also like to take this opportunity to thank everyone at Denville Hall for the truly excellent care they have taken of our Mum over the past year.”
Born in Woolwich, London in 1934 to Daisy and Edwin Syms, Syms was raised in Well Hall, Elthan.
She studied at prestigious drama school Rada before gaining her first on-screen...
The British actor “died peacefully” early on Friday (27 January) morning at Denville Hall, a London care home for those in the entertainment industry, her children shared in a statement.
“Our mother, Sylvia, died peacefully this morning. She has lived an amazing life and gave us joy and laughter right up to the end,” Beatie and Ben Edney said.
“Just yesterday we were reminiscing together about all our adventures. She will be so very missed.”
They added: “We would also like to take this opportunity to thank everyone at Denville Hall for the truly excellent care they have taken of our Mum over the past year.”
Born in Woolwich, London in 1934 to Daisy and Edwin Syms, Syms was raised in Well Hall, Elthan.
She studied at prestigious drama school Rada before gaining her first on-screen...
- 1/27/2023
- by Inga Parkel
- The Independent - Film
British actor Sylvia Syms, best known for her roles in “Ice Cold in Alex” and “Victim,” died Friday in London. She was 89.
Syms’ family said that she died at Denville Hall, a care home in London for entertainment industry people.
“Our mother, Sylvia, died peacefully this morning. She has lived an amazing life and gave us joy and laughter right up to the end. Just yesterday we were reminiscing together about all our adventures. She will be so very missed,” Syms’ children, Beatie and Ben Edney, said in a statement. “We would also like to take this opportunity to thank everyone at Denville Hall for the truly excellent care they have taken of our Mum over the past year.”
Syms was educated at The Royal Academy of Dramatic Art in London. In the first phase of her storied career, Syms had significant roles in British war classic “Ice Cold in Alex...
Syms’ family said that she died at Denville Hall, a care home in London for entertainment industry people.
“Our mother, Sylvia, died peacefully this morning. She has lived an amazing life and gave us joy and laughter right up to the end. Just yesterday we were reminiscing together about all our adventures. She will be so very missed,” Syms’ children, Beatie and Ben Edney, said in a statement. “We would also like to take this opportunity to thank everyone at Denville Hall for the truly excellent care they have taken of our Mum over the past year.”
Syms was educated at The Royal Academy of Dramatic Art in London. In the first phase of her storied career, Syms had significant roles in British war classic “Ice Cold in Alex...
- 1/27/2023
- by Naman Ramachandran
- Variety Film + TV
It’s a given that a movie poster needs to be both visually and verbally succinct. It must grab your attention in the amount of time it takes to walk past it in the street; it must tell you all you need to know—or enough to make you want to know more—in one arresting image and with one pithy tagline. One of the challenges of movie poster design and movie marketing is to say as much as possible in a small space and few words.
But then there are posters which break those rules, which, for one reason or another, feel the need to make you stop in your tracks and read. I own a couple of posters for Robert Aldrich films—The Longest Yard and The Emperor of the North— which I’ve always loved because they are anything but succinct. In place of taglines these two tough-guy movies have long-winded,...
But then there are posters which break those rules, which, for one reason or another, feel the need to make you stop in your tracks and read. I own a couple of posters for Robert Aldrich films—The Longest Yard and The Emperor of the North— which I’ve always loved because they are anything but succinct. In place of taglines these two tough-guy movies have long-winded,...
- 11/23/2013
- by Adrian Curry
- MUBI
Cinematographer on the first Star Wars film who worked with the Boulting Brothers, Hitchcock and Polanski
The British cinematographer Gilbert Taylor, who has died aged 99, was best known for his camerawork on the first Star Wars movie (1977). Though its special effects and set designs somewhat stole his thunder, it was Taylor who set the visual tone of George Lucas's six-part space opera.
"I wanted to give it a unique visual style that would distinguish it from other films in the science-fiction genre," Taylor declared. "I wanted Star Wars to have clarity because I don't think space is out of focus … I thought the look of the film should be absolutely clean … But George [Lucas] saw it differently … For example, he asked to set up one shot on the robots with a 300mm camera lens and the sand and sky of the Tunisian desert just meshed together. I told him it wouldn't work,...
The British cinematographer Gilbert Taylor, who has died aged 99, was best known for his camerawork on the first Star Wars movie (1977). Though its special effects and set designs somewhat stole his thunder, it was Taylor who set the visual tone of George Lucas's six-part space opera.
"I wanted to give it a unique visual style that would distinguish it from other films in the science-fiction genre," Taylor declared. "I wanted Star Wars to have clarity because I don't think space is out of focus … I thought the look of the film should be absolutely clean … But George [Lucas] saw it differently … For example, he asked to set up one shot on the robots with a 300mm camera lens and the sand and sky of the Tunisian desert just meshed together. I told him it wouldn't work,...
- 8/25/2013
- by Ronald Bergan
- The Guardian - Film News
★★★★☆ Temporarily gone but most certainly not forgotten, J. Lee Thompson's compelling kitchen sink drama Woman in a Dressing Gown (1957) made its way back into UK cinemas this July courtesy of a StudioCanal re-mastered rerelease. Consigned to jaded memory for far too long, this bedraggled partner piece to David Lean's 1945 tale of unrequited love Brief Encounter now makes its way onto DVD, giving home audiences the opportunity to sample a hugely underrated near-classic of post-war British cinema.
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- 8/13/2012
- by CineVue UK
- CineVue
Headhunters
It's not just the UK that's in a thrall to the current wave of Scandinavian noir: this Jo Nesbø adaptation was exported to around 50 countries – a record for a Norwegian film.
While the police in these crime stories are all flawed and, to some extent defined by their mental conditions, be they depression, childhood trauma or Ocd, the criminals walk a more hubristic path. What's refreshing is that those on the wrong side of the law are not conveniently shaped and softened to make them more likable.
The main character here, Roger Brown, is pretty despicable all round. His professional life sees him using his natural arrogance as a headhunter for multinational concerns, selecting those as greedy and ruthless as himself for top level jobs. If that doesn't make you warm to him, he's also an art thief – all to keep himself in the lap of luxury. His potential...
It's not just the UK that's in a thrall to the current wave of Scandinavian noir: this Jo Nesbø adaptation was exported to around 50 countries – a record for a Norwegian film.
While the police in these crime stories are all flawed and, to some extent defined by their mental conditions, be they depression, childhood trauma or Ocd, the criminals walk a more hubristic path. What's refreshing is that those on the wrong side of the law are not conveniently shaped and softened to make them more likable.
The main character here, Roger Brown, is pretty despicable all round. His professional life sees him using his natural arrogance as a headhunter for multinational concerns, selecting those as greedy and ruthless as himself for top level jobs. If that doesn't make you warm to him, he's also an art thief – all to keep himself in the lap of luxury. His potential...
- 8/10/2012
- by Phelim O'Neill
- The Guardian - Film News
Not even the draw of Boyle's opening ceremony could stop The Dark Knight Rises from becoming this year's fastest growing film
Back in early 2009, Danny Boyle's Slumdog Millionaire created a challenge for rival awards-hopefuls such as Frost/Nixon and Milk by sucking all the air out of the market. Two years later, Boyle's 127 Hours might have done a bit better had it not faced stiff competition from fellow Oscar contenders The King's Speech and Black Swan. Now Boyle is once again in the competitive mix, with his highly praised Olympics opening ceremony drawing 23m viewers on Friday night on BBC1, and a peak of 27m.
Cinema grosses were affected, although variations between films were significant. Family films, which don't attract many viewers in the late-evening slot occupied by the opening ceremony, saw fairly even distribution of box office across the three days of the weekend, with Friday benefiting from being a school holiday.
Back in early 2009, Danny Boyle's Slumdog Millionaire created a challenge for rival awards-hopefuls such as Frost/Nixon and Milk by sucking all the air out of the market. Two years later, Boyle's 127 Hours might have done a bit better had it not faced stiff competition from fellow Oscar contenders The King's Speech and Black Swan. Now Boyle is once again in the competitive mix, with his highly praised Olympics opening ceremony drawing 23m viewers on Friday night on BBC1, and a peak of 27m.
Cinema grosses were affected, although variations between films were significant. Family films, which don't attract many viewers in the late-evening slot occupied by the opening ceremony, saw fairly even distribution of box office across the three days of the weekend, with Friday benefiting from being a school holiday.
- 7/31/2012
- by Charles Gant
- The Guardian - Film News
The Dark Knight rose (sorry, that’s awful) to the top of the Box Office pile this weekend banking an incredible £14 million since its opening last Friday. This makes it the third highest grossing three-day opening behind Avengers Assemble and Harry Potter and The Deathly Hallows Part 2. Both The Amazing Spider-Man and Ice Age 4 saw their taking tumble, dropping 73 and 79% respectively, and it’s difficult to see anything unseating Tdkr at the top of the chart for a fair few weeks yet.
Much like last time out, there’s fairly slim pickens out this weekend as the studios undoubtedly see the danger of releasing any of their movies during Tdkr’s first few weeks. Their blockbusters would have to share the market with a more powerful rival, and their mid-range major movies would simply be buried. As such, there are a fair number of smaller movies hoping to capture...
Much like last time out, there’s fairly slim pickens out this weekend as the studios undoubtedly see the danger of releasing any of their movies during Tdkr’s first few weeks. Their blockbusters would have to share the market with a more powerful rival, and their mid-range major movies would simply be buried. As such, there are a fair number of smaller movies hoping to capture...
- 7/28/2012
- by Rob Keeling
- HeyUGuys.co.uk
Dr Seuss' The Lorax (U)
(Chris Renauld, Kyle Balda, 2012, Us) Zac Efron, Taylor Swift, Ed Helms, Danny DeVito. 86 mins.
Dr Seuss's most environmentally minded story was a natural choice for movie treatment, but as with so many others (How The Grinch Stole Christmas, Horton Hears A Who!), the temptation to "expand" on the original runs out of control. Seuss's elegant tale of a land where they paved paradise and cut down all the Truffula trees has been injected with all the compulsory gags, subplots, musical numbers and painfully bright landscapes that family animation is now deemed to require, making for an eco-tale that's packed with artificial additives.
Searching For Sugar Man (12A)
(Malik Bendjelloul, 2012, Swe/UK) 86 mins.
An inspiring documentary that successfully rehabilitates the reputation (and perhaps more) of Sixto Rodriguez, a 1970s Detroit troubadour who never found fame at home but unwittingly became huge in South Africa – where his...
(Chris Renauld, Kyle Balda, 2012, Us) Zac Efron, Taylor Swift, Ed Helms, Danny DeVito. 86 mins.
Dr Seuss's most environmentally minded story was a natural choice for movie treatment, but as with so many others (How The Grinch Stole Christmas, Horton Hears A Who!), the temptation to "expand" on the original runs out of control. Seuss's elegant tale of a land where they paved paradise and cut down all the Truffula trees has been injected with all the compulsory gags, subplots, musical numbers and painfully bright landscapes that family animation is now deemed to require, making for an eco-tale that's packed with artificial additives.
Searching For Sugar Man (12A)
(Malik Bendjelloul, 2012, Swe/UK) 86 mins.
An inspiring documentary that successfully rehabilitates the reputation (and perhaps more) of Sixto Rodriguez, a 1970s Detroit troubadour who never found fame at home but unwittingly became huge in South Africa – where his...
- 7/27/2012
- by Steve Rose
- The Guardian - Film News
★★★★☆ Available to own on DVD for the first time since its cinematic release back in 1957, J. Lee Thompson's Woman in a Dressing Gown hints at what was to come from the British New Wave of the 1960s, with its realistic portrait of the breakdown of a marriage on a post-war London council estate. Amy (Yvonne Mitchell) is a hopelessly lost house wife, whilst her husband Jim (Anthony Quail), frustrated with his spouse, falls in love with his secretary Georgie (Sylvia Syms). When Amy discovers the affair her world falls apart and she attempts to win back Jim's heart.
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- 7/26/2012
- by CineVue UK
- CineVue
Asif Kapadia on shooting his London Olympics film, and Sylvia Syms on a neglected 50s classic
As if by magic
My favourite of the official Olympics films is by Asif Kapadia. His The Odyssey examines London from the skies against a backdrop of Olympian expectation and politics, like these two were fighting it out to be the prevailing winds over the city. A panoply of voices give their Olympics memories and London thoughts, but just as in his award-winning doc Senna we don't see their faces: they could be media personalities (Richard Williams, Robert Elms, Lord Coe) or boys or elderly ladies interviewed on the street.
The film includes social comment on the closure of council leisure facilities and the shock of the 7/7 bombings. I hear now that Asif is developing his themes into a feature film. "Even though we shot in a very short time, there was still a...
As if by magic
My favourite of the official Olympics films is by Asif Kapadia. His The Odyssey examines London from the skies against a backdrop of Olympian expectation and politics, like these two were fighting it out to be the prevailing winds over the city. A panoply of voices give their Olympics memories and London thoughts, but just as in his award-winning doc Senna we don't see their faces: they could be media personalities (Richard Williams, Robert Elms, Lord Coe) or boys or elderly ladies interviewed on the street.
The film includes social comment on the closure of council leisure facilities and the shock of the 7/7 bombings. I hear now that Asif is developing his themes into a feature film. "Even though we shot in a very short time, there was still a...
- 7/21/2012
- by Jason Solomons
- The Guardian - Film News
The Dark Knight Rises (12A)
(Christopher Nolan, 2012, Us/UK) Christian Bale, Tom Hardy, Anne Hathaway, Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Gary Oldman, Marion Cotillard, Michael Caine. 164 mins
As big and dark and serious as The Avengers was big and light and fun, the climax to Nolan's Batman trilogy ticks most of the boxes it was demanded to – which is quite an achievement. There's an Occupy-style theme to baddy Bane's Gotham City lockdown, which forces Bruce Wayne to consider his 1% financial status and Batman to revive his punching and growling skills (prompted by Hathaway's slinky cat burglar). Some cheesy cliches (and questionable politics) are needed to tie it all together, but it's still the solid, epic finale you'd hoped for.
Something From Nothing: The Art Of Rap (15)
(Ice-t, Andy Baybutt, 2012, UK/Us) 111 mins
The well-connected director calls on the biggest names in rap (Eminem, Q-Tip, Melle Mel, Snoop Dogg, etc), asks them a...
(Christopher Nolan, 2012, Us/UK) Christian Bale, Tom Hardy, Anne Hathaway, Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Gary Oldman, Marion Cotillard, Michael Caine. 164 mins
As big and dark and serious as The Avengers was big and light and fun, the climax to Nolan's Batman trilogy ticks most of the boxes it was demanded to – which is quite an achievement. There's an Occupy-style theme to baddy Bane's Gotham City lockdown, which forces Bruce Wayne to consider his 1% financial status and Batman to revive his punching and growling skills (prompted by Hathaway's slinky cat burglar). Some cheesy cliches (and questionable politics) are needed to tie it all together, but it's still the solid, epic finale you'd hoped for.
Something From Nothing: The Art Of Rap (15)
(Ice-t, Andy Baybutt, 2012, UK/Us) 111 mins
The well-connected director calls on the biggest names in rap (Eminem, Q-Tip, Melle Mel, Snoop Dogg, etc), asks them a...
- 7/20/2012
- by Steve Rose
- The Guardian - Film News
The 78-year-old Britsh actor, whose 1957 film Woman in a Dressing Gown is being re-released, talks about her rebellious past, why she's not dame material – and what she'd love to do next
Sylvia Syms sits in her lovely flat in west London explaining how she avoided being treated as a piece of meat in the 1950s. There was an "assumption that because you were blond and an actress, you were available," she says. Determined not to be "pretty, available and treated like shit", she took inspiration from Dame Sybil Thorndike.
"I thought, that's what I want," says Syms, who seems to have worked with every British screen legend – from Dirk Bogarde to Michael Caine – during her seven decades in film, TV and theatre. "I want to go on working when I'm an old lady and have that kind of jolliness and respect, which she had. She was just incredible."
Syms turns on me like a hawk.
Sylvia Syms sits in her lovely flat in west London explaining how she avoided being treated as a piece of meat in the 1950s. There was an "assumption that because you were blond and an actress, you were available," she says. Determined not to be "pretty, available and treated like shit", she took inspiration from Dame Sybil Thorndike.
"I thought, that's what I want," says Syms, who seems to have worked with every British screen legend – from Dirk Bogarde to Michael Caine – during her seven decades in film, TV and theatre. "I want to go on working when I'm an old lady and have that kind of jolliness and respect, which she had. She was just incredible."
Syms turns on me like a hawk.
- 7/20/2012
- by Patrick Barkham
- The Guardian - Film News
Dr. Garth Twa takes an in-depth look at La Grande Illusion - a revolutionary milestone of visual art, exclusively for @puremovies We all have those films, those films that open us up. La Grand Illusion is one of those films. It was for Orson Welles, and for Woody Allen. That’s what so important about what Studiocanal is doing. ‘With every foot of film lost, we lose a link to our culture, to the world around us, to each other, and to ourselves,’ Martin Scorsese says, 'movies touch our hearts, and awaken our vision, and change the way we see things. They take us to other places. They open doors and minds. Movies are the memories of our lifetime. We need to keep them alive.' In addition to restoring and re-releasing La Grand Illusion, this year Studiocanal are also bringing out Marcel Carné’s Quai des Brumes, Luis Bunuel...
- 4/7/2012
- by Dr. Garth Twa
- Pure Movies
Most stars are just the front-of-house display for an industry that makes fortunes for many others
I asked my mum over the holidays where her big pile of sketches was, because I wanted my sons to see them. She said she'd thrown them away ages ago. I was stunned. I'd loved looking though them all when I was little. Portrait after portrait of actors, all beautifully copied from the movie magazines of the 1940s and 1950s, some of them oil paintings on greaseproof paper, a nimbus of ochre linseed around their edges, most of them pencil on sugar paper. There were a few of Deborah Kerr, whom my mother, as a young woman, had adored. She was my namesake.
My mother's classmate at school in Essex, Maureen Rippingale, had been particularly fascinated by my mother's ability to capture a likeness, even to ratchet up all that glamour and beauty just a tiny bit more.
I asked my mum over the holidays where her big pile of sketches was, because I wanted my sons to see them. She said she'd thrown them away ages ago. I was stunned. I'd loved looking though them all when I was little. Portrait after portrait of actors, all beautifully copied from the movie magazines of the 1940s and 1950s, some of them oil paintings on greaseproof paper, a nimbus of ochre linseed around their edges, most of them pencil on sugar paper. There were a few of Deborah Kerr, whom my mother, as a young woman, had adored. She was my namesake.
My mother's classmate at school in Essex, Maureen Rippingale, had been particularly fascinated by my mother's ability to capture a likeness, even to ratchet up all that glamour and beauty just a tiny bit more.
- 1/21/2012
- by Deborah Orr
- The Guardian - Film News
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