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The Avengers: The Emma Peel Collection (1965-1967)

Blu-ray

[Imprint] Television

1965-67 / 1.33: 1 / Black and White and Color

Starring Diana Rigg, Patrick Macnee

Written by Brian Clemens, Philip Levene

Directed by Roy Ward Baker, Sidney Hayers, Charles Crichton

Though remembered for its idiosyncratic humor, The Avengers made its debut in 1961 as a no-nonsense crime drama. Ian Hendry starred as David Keel, a doctor turned detective, while Patrick MacNee haunted the sidelines as an inscrutable investigator named John Steed. Shot in black and white under grey English skies, the show was unmistakably a product of the Cold War, fueled by John Dankworth’s stentorian theme and an origin story that predicted television’s noirish The Fugitive; Keel’s fiancée has been murdered, prompting our heroes to join in the search for her killer.

It was a brief sojourn for Hendry who left at the end of the season, relinquishing star billing to Macnee and his new partner,...

Gangland London, 1960: Expatriate director Joseph Losey gives the Brit crime film a boost with a brutal gangster tale starring the ultra-tough Stanley Baker — and seemingly every up & coming male actor on the casting books. A committed thief returns to his craft the moment he’s freed from prison, but the emphasis is on the nasty betrayals and squeeze-plays of the criminal underworld, that conspire to foil Baker’s plans.

The Criminal

Blu-ray

Kl Studio Classics

1960 / B&w / 1:66 widescreen / 98 min. / Street Date February 18, 2020 / available through Kino Lorber / 29.95

Starring: Stanley Baker, Sam Wanamaker, Grégoire Aslan, Margit Saad, Jill Bennett, Rupert Davies, Laurence Naismith, John Van Eyssen, Noel Willman, Kenneth Warren, Patrick Magee, Kenneth Cope, Patrick Wymark, Paul Stassino, Tom Bell, Neil McCarthy, Nigel Green, Tom Gerard, Edward Judd.

Cinematography: Robert Krasker

Film Editor: Reginald Mills

Original Music: John Dankworth

Written by Alun Owen and Jimmy Sangster

Produced by Jack Greenwood...

Joseph Losey doesn't normally make trendy, lighthearted genre films, and in this SuperSpy epic we find out why -- an impressive production and great music don't compensate for a lack of pace and dynamism, not to mention a narrow sense of humor. Yet it's a lounge classic, and a perverse favorite of spy movie fans. Modesty Blaise Blu-ray Kl Studio Classics 1966 / Color / 1:66 widescreen / 119 min. / Street Date August 23, 2016 / available through Kino Lorber / 29.95 Starring Monica Vitti, Terence Stamp, Dirk Bogarde, Harry Andrews, Michael Craig, Clive Revill, Alexander Knox, Rossella Falk, Scilla Gabel, Tina Marquand Cinematography Jack Hildyard Production Designer Richard MacDonald, Jack Shampan Film Editor Reginald Beck Original Music John Dankworth Written by Evan Jones from a novel by Peter O'Donnell and a comic strip by Jim Holdaway Produced by Joseph Janni Directed by Joseph Losey

Reviewed by Glenn Erickson

When I first reviewed a DVD of Modesty Blaise fourteen years ago,...

By Todd Garbarini

On March 4, The Billy Wilder Theater at the Hammer Museum in Los Angeles will be hosting a 50th anniversary screening of Cy Endfield’s fine 1965 film Sands of the Kalahari, which stars Stuart Whitman, Stanley Baker, Susannah York, Harry Andrews, Theodore Bikel, and Nigel Davenport. The 119-minute film is in color and will be screened on 35mm at 7:30 pm. This is a rare screening and a wonderful opportunity to see it on the big screen.

Scheduled to appear at the screening is actor Stuart Whitman. According to actor, film authority, and longtime friend of the legendary Stuart Whitman, Douglas Dunning confirms that, following the screening, Mr. Whitman will be discussing his career and his experience making this film.

From the press release:

From the Collection of the Library of Congress

Sands of the Kalahari (UK, 1965)

A plane crash in the South African desert exposes its survivors...

Alex pays a fond return revisit to 1960s classic TV series, The Avengers...

Stylish crime fighting, despicable evil masterminds, a bowler-hatted old Etonian gentleman spy and a series of beautiful leather cat-suited, kinky-booted, no-nonsense heroines. The Avengers had all this and more. What began as a monochrome tape series in January 1961 ran the whole of the Sixties, becoming a colourful slice of period hokum, full of flair, wit and sophistication, yet with its tongue firmly in its cheek.

Always the perfect gentleman, John Steed was played by Patrick Macnee. Originally billed second to the late Ian Hendry, Macnee was still playing Steed over 15 years later when he was teamed with the youthful duo of Joanna Lumley and Gareth Hunt for The New Avengers in 1976. In the 1998 film, the role of Steed was given to Ralph Fiennes and Uma Thurman played Emma Peel. I will say no more about the film.

(Joseph Losey, 1963, StudioCanal, 15)

Half a century ago, British cinema had a great year. John Schlesinger's Billy Liar, Tony Richardson's Tom Jones and Lindsay Anderson's This Sporting Life took local film-makers into radically different directions. Two resident Americans – the self-exiled Stanley Kubrick and the McCarthy refugee Joseph Losey – established themselves as world figures. Kubrick made Dr Strangelove (though its release was postponed to 1964 due to the Kennedy assassination). Losey, after a difficult period, often working under pseudonyms, had three films released: the dazzling Hammer thriller The Damned, the Franco-Italian psycho-drama Eve (both shown in versions re-edited by their producers) and the complex, fully achieved The Servant.

Influenced by Marx and Brecht, The Servant was the first part of a trilogy scripted by Harold Pinter about class warfare, sexual conflict and struggles for power in 20th-century Britain, involving a whole society from the working class to the aristocracy.

Exquisitely made...

The actors who starred in the 1963 classic remember drinks with Dirk, ridiculous beehives – and a director with a foot fetish

Sarah Miles, actor

My agent was a man called Robin Fox. I was in a relationship with his son, Willy, an officer in the Coldstream Guards, who later changed his name to James. I'd already been offered the part of Vera the maid, so I said: "I won't do it unless you audition Willy for the role of the aristocrat." Nobody could have done it better. Dirk was suggesting Willy, too. And he was brilliant.

People still come up to me and say how that scene where I'm on the kitchen table, with a tap dripping, is the sexiest scene. But I didn't see anything sexy about it. It was just a very innocent, simple scene. I got up on a table and tapped my tummy – what's sexy about that?...

Trumpeter who played on every James Bond film soundtrack from Dr No to Skyfall

The trumpeter Derek Watkins, who has died aged 68 of cancer, was recognised by his fellow professionals as the finest lead player of his generation. To see him take his place in a big-band trumpet section or orchestral ensemble was to be reassured that all would be well. Dizzy Gillespie, no mean judge of trumpeters, called him "Mr Lead".

Watkins played on every James Bond film soundtrack from Dr No (1962) to Skyfall (2012), his blazing lead trumpet work evident on Monty Norman's iconic James Bond theme. The 19-year-old Watkins's spine-chilling trumpet growls set the scene on John Barry's Goldfinger (1964) theme, sung by Shirley Bassey, and Watkins was also prominent on Bill Conti's For Your Eyes Only (1981) score. As Barry said, Watkins "never failed to deliver the goods".

The film composer John Altman recalled that Watkins...

Derek Watkins, the trumpeter who played on every James Bond soundtrack, has died aged 68.

The British musician performed on every Bond film from Dr No to 2012's Skyfall.

He passed away at his home in Esher, Surrey, on Friday (March 22) after a long illness.

Watkins was "widely considered to be the foremost British Big Band trumpet player" of all time, Philip Biggs of the Brass Herald said.

The trumpeter is survived by his wife Wendy and their three children.

Watkins turned professional aged 17, before playing in his conductor father's band the Spring Gardens Brass Band in Reading.

Dizzy Gillespie described him as "Mr Lead", and he also played with the likes of The Beatles, Sir Elton John, Eric Clapton, Frank Sinatra, the London Symphony Orchestra and Royal Philharmonic Orchestra.

He also played with the BBC Big Band, while also performing with jazz musicians including Johnny Dankworth, Maynard Ferguson and Benny Goodman.

Above: A rack focus in Bullitt.

Trespassers Will Be Eaten

Perhaps a less eye-grabbing, but still “driving” title for this third Mubi soundtrack mix should be Shifting Gears...as such, it’s a free-falling, propulsive survey of scores focusing on the thriller in all of its manifestations: detective procedurals, bank heists, neo-noirs, spy films, psychodramas, giallos, chases, races, and sci-fi mind-games. Featured also are a few composers better known for their more famous musical projects. Police drummer Stewart Copeland’s metallic, rhythmic score for Rumble Fish, gamely taunts the self-conscious black and white street theatre of Francis Ford Coppola's film. So-called fifth Beatle, producer George Martin’s funky Shaft-influenced Live and Let Die score ushers in a more leisurely 70s-era James Bond, as incarnated by Roger Moore. Epic crooner visionary Scott Walker’s fatally romantic melodies for Leos Carax’s inventively faithful Melville adaptation Pola X is remarkably subdued and lush.

When directors wanted their films to ooze cool, they called on Johnny Dankworth. Richard Williams on the man who made British cinema swing

There was a time when jazz and film formed a natural partnership. When a ­director wanted a hectic ­accompaniment to criminal activity, or a splintered melody to echo an on-screen psychodrama, or a cool, lush sound to accompany a cocktail-lounge seduction, jazz was the sound to use. And Johnny Dankworth was one of the men who could provide it, on time and to length.

Dankworth, who died at the ­weekend, was a fine musician, although not ­perhaps a great one. His playing and his composing did not alter the course of jazz, and he has no disciples. His real achievement, and his knighthood, came as a result of his ambition to make jazz acceptable on the concert platform and in the conservatory. He will also be remembered...

• Audience shaken as Cleo Laine tells how hours earlier husband Johnny insisted on 'celebration'

• Star performers were told before going on stage for 40th anniversary gig at couple's home

As finales go, it was unconventional to say the least. Dame Cleo Laine, wife of jazz legend Sir John Dankworth, had returned from King Edward VII hospital in London, where hours earlier her husband of 50 years had died.

Star names were waiting to entertain a 400-strong crowd at The Stables in Wavendon, Buckinghamshire, the venue set up by Sir John and Dame Cleo 40 years earlier. The stars – including Victoria Wood, Prunella Scales and Paul O'Grady – were told that Dankworth had died but advised that the show must go on, and that the audience must not know. Dame Cleo, 82, was among those performing. The show was memorable, the audience was enthralled.

Then came the twist. Dame Cleo stepped forward and in hushed...

Celebrated figure of British jazz with a 60-year career as a performer, composer, bandleader and educationist

Late last November, Sir John Dankworth, who has died aged 82, elicited the most heartfelt standing ovation of his 60-year career in music for what was possibly his briefest and quietest performance. He had been taken to hospital during the run-up to the London Jazz Festival show for him and his singer wife, Cleo Laine, at the South Bank. But the frail Dankworth emerged in a wheelchair just before the interval. Laine, his daughter Jacqui, a singer-actress, his bassist son Alec and a good many of the big band looked as if they could hardly bear to watch the old star slowly bring the alto saxophone to his lips. Then the opening notes of the Duke Ellington ballad Tonight I Shall Sleep filled the hall, vibrating gently with Dankworth's delicate, richly clarinet-like ballad sound and everybody breathed out.

The B Noir festival is a hit! It's always a delight to hear about retrospective programming doing well. There are still people out there interested in and trying out old movies in theaters. Or maybe the San Francisco noir crowd is just that strong. I'd written about "I Wake Up Dreaming" a couple of weeks back (read it here); I have since went and saw some of the movies they're playing.

If you're in the Bay Area and you haven't spared the time, there's good news. The festival was supposed to end this Thursday, but I have just been informed that since it is selling out so well, they've decided to add another week of showings!

The list of extra screenings is at the bottom, but before that, I want to recommend trying to get to this Friday's showing of The Devil Thumbs a Ride, which I managed to catch on the fest's opening night.

LONDON -- Pop singer Tom Jones, jazzman John Dankworth and playwright Arnold Wesker received knighthoods in the British New Year's Honors list announced Saturday. The U.K.'s top lifetime achievement awards, the Queen's honors, which include varied ranks, go to people from all walks of life. Designer Vivienne Westwood was made a dame for services to British fashion. Former BBC Radio chief Liz Forgan, now chair of the Heritage Lottery Fund, was made a dame for services to broadcasting. Olympic athlete turned politician Sebastian Coe was made a knight for his work on London's successful bid for the 2012 Olympiad.