Film Archive (73)

© Words Matteo Sedazzari
Loosely based on the works of writer Edgar Wallace (1st April 1875 – 10th February 1932) who covered many genres from crime to historical fiction, and began his career writing songs and poems at the close of the 19th  century before establishing himself as a fiction writer.  He even worked on the screen play for King Kong in 1932 before his unexpected death.  If he had lived it looked like he would have broken into the US. 

Christmas - a time for getting together with family and work colleagues – in other words, people you wouldn’t normally associate with. But take care, those rounds of Christmas parties are like dousing your knackers with Jack Daniels and setting fire to them – that warm fuzzy feeling soon gives way to excruciating pain.

©Words - Dean Cavanagh

Antonia Bird the wonderful human being and film & TV director passed away recently at the age of 54. I was blessed to have known and worked with her and she made a big and lasting impact on my life. It was 1999 I had recently adapted Irvine Welsh’s “Filth” into a screenplay for HAL ( a subsidiary of Indie film giant Miramax ) and Irvine graciously asked me to meet Antonia with a view to getting involved in an adaptation of a true story. Irvine had recently joined Antonia, Mark Cousins and Robert Carlyle in forming a production company called 4-Way.  

© Words Matteo Sedazzari

Based on the 1960 novel of the same title by Wakefield born and bred David Storey, a writer and former Rugby League player, drawing on his past experiences, to produce a masterpiece fit for the cinema. In addition, This Sporting Life was the directorial debut of Lindsey Anderson in 1963, who would only go on to direct a further seven feature films, including the cult British classic films If,  O Lucky Man and Britannia Hospital, all starring Malcolm McDowell in different incarnations of the rebellious Mick Travis. 

Hello Chaps

Ferdy Fox here, connoisseur of the frighteningly fantastic and the morbidly macabre.  Welcome to my World of Horror where I review the latest UK DVD and Video-On-Demand releases.

Every month the British public face an unrelenting deluge of new films from a variety of different viewing orifices. Included are hundreds of Horror and Fantastic Films – and to watch them all would be akin to masturbating on amphetamines - time-consuming, repetitive and likely to give you eye strain!