The younger ones… Two Left Feet (1963)

 

London's teenage jungle blazing vividly to life...

There’s a brightness and energy to this film that goes beyond my reaction to the youthful zest of the stars to be on screen, its mildly-annoyed young man/coming of age storyline is very much of its time – a good thing! - but the performances ultimately bring through the flavour of the characters and convince. The film is based on David Stuart Leslie's novel, originally entitled In My Solitude (1960), which was praised by the Daily Express for describing 'Fings as they are. . . Fresh observation, no self pity, no phony sociology, rough and squalid, yet redeemed often by sardonic Cockney humour. A story as convincing as it is readable'.

There’s little about Stuart Leslie on the internet but he seems to have written some interesting books about London life, notably Two Gentlemen Sharing (1963), a multi-racial flat share story which was also made as a film in 1969, along with thrillers and adventure novels right up to popsploitation fare with titles like Snap, Crackle and Pop and Bad Medicine. His writing style for what became Two Left Feet, is very much in the vernacular, with lines like:

“Me and my two left feet!” I said wiping down inside my shirt almost to my belly button. I saw her eyes following my hand and I said to myself, ‘Watch it girl!’

Julia Foster and Michael Crawford

 

Now you have to imagine an impossibly young Julia Foster as the “girl” in question, Beth a shop worker, and an equally youthful Michael Crawford as Alan Crabbe, labourer by day and improving dancer by night. Foster was 19 and Crawford was 21 just five years on from playing a lad in Soapbox Derby (1958) and half a century before being named as a national treasure, as indeed is Ben Fogle’s mum, Julia!

Directed by stalwart Ray Ward Baker, Two Left Feet kicks off where it means to carry on with some fantastic location shots of our hero emerging from the tube at Piccadilly Circus and giving superb location shots of old Soho as young Alan’s eye is caught by all manner of sexually interesting sites. The credits roll as he gawks at the magazines in a shop window – Click, Honey, Cherie, Revels… walks along Moor Street to Old Compton Street and ending up at the Bijou Cinema where they are screening the “Fabulous Pamela Green” in Naked as Nature Intended – reviewed in all seriousness earlier on this blog!

Alan window shopping

Alan is 19 and inexperienced as a dancer and a lover which is the source of constant ribbing from his workmates who include the lovely David Lodge as Bill and Cyril Chamberlain as Miles, older married men who have seen it all before. The work mates’ luncheon is enlivened by the new girl at the corner café, Eileen played by Nyree Dawn Porter, 27 at the time but still the youngest I’ve seen her pre-Protectors and Forsyte Saga. Eileen gives as good as she gets as the lads banter and takes a shine to Alan, gently pushing his buttons to get his interest.

Gradually Alan builds up the courage to ask Eileen out and he takes her up West to the subterranean The Florida Club which is – checks Reel Streets – under the Bridgewater Road tunnel. They ask another youngster Brian (David Hemmings, also 21 and not quite as eye-catchingly cool as he would be in Blow Up) if he can sign them in with his membership and they start to cut a rug to Bob Wallis and his Storyville Jazzmen and other cool cuts. Albert’s limited moves don’t impress Eileen quite so much as Brian’s young pal Ronnie (Michael Craze, just 20 and a very talented actor who would do far more in a varied career that included that spell in the Tardis) dancing with the simply stunning Dilys Watling (also 20) as Mavis.

Michael Crawfor and Nyree Dawn Porter

 

The youngsters chat between dances and there’s that awkwardness you’d expect and so many passions running deep and slightly out of control. Eileen dances with Ronnie, Mavis looks longingly at Brian and Alan’s attention is caught by a pretty young blonde, Beth (Julia Foster). At times it feels as if some of the dialogue could have been improvised as it’s jarring but that could just be the excellence of the cast in building the fragile bridges of attraction and male connection.

Eileen and Alan keep on going but he doesn’t really know how to proceed and after one fumbled coupling only increases the tension between them. Beth is a different proposition, easier company for Alan who is more relaxed around her, showing his moral balance by accepting the awkward truths of her father’s suicide which she is both shamed by and resolved. Alan’s father is a policeman, played by Bernard Lee, and it’s only later when we see them together that we understand the son’s debt to his upbringing.

Dilys Watlting, Michael Craze and David Hemmings

Meanwhile, there’s nearly murder on the dancefloor as Eileen starts dating Ronnie, Alan goes with Beth and Mavis gets engaged to Brian, the first steps towards the “grown-ups”. There’s a great blow out at the wedding with Mavis’ Uncle Reg (Michael Ripper who always delivers) arranging party games at the reception. This is when matters come to a head with Eileen but also with Ronnie… the group consider him too young at 17 and Alan had previously made some comment about him needing to decide “which way he’s going…” all of which oblique coding is given stark context when, in a kissing game in which the boys are blindfolded, Brian replaces Eileen and Ronnie ends up kissing him.

Tensions rise further between Alan and Eileen as well as Beth and Ronnie… and the final couplings are in doubt until the very end.

Ever since Mr Axelford's Angel, I've held a place in my heart for Julia...

Dusty Verdict: Two Left Feet (1963) is as interesting for its times as well as for it’s leading actors. In the end it was given an X Certificate and not fully released until 1965 by which time the names were far better known but society and audience had moved on. This is a shame as it’s well made and more sophisticated than I expected with nuance not just from Dawn Porter but also from the prodigiously talented Foster and Crawford.

Crawford’s character as a narrative of its own which convinces as he gains the confidence of a man in tune with the dance as well as his own instincts. Michael Craze is also excellent as the cat on a hot tine roof, barely of age, carrying a flick knife and at war with himself. David Hemmings and Dilys Watling have lesser range to their roles but both deliver in terms of watchability and in Dilys’ case, dancing! I once saw her coming out of the Liverpool Playhouse in the seventies and she even walks in time!

Dilys dances!

 

The film is available from Network Distribution direct from their website and the DVD comes with production shots and looks great!

Now, time to find some of David Stuart Leslie's other works…

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

  

 

 

 

 

Topography of terror… The Reptile (1966)

Horror connoisseur Kim Newman describes this film as one of his favourite Hammer horror films whilst The Monthly Film Bulletin review described its "… unusually controlled dignity for a Hammer production; instead of the customary blood-lettings ... Altogether, a film of quite some merit." Yet Kevin Thomas of the Los Angeles Times was most definitely not impressed; "the script is too silly for all but the most uncritical."

It’s been said many times but Hammer films were made on the tightest of budgets and in the shortest time possible with many having no more than a six week shoot which was strictly 9 to 5.30 and with no time spent working at weekends. The cast and crew were all highly professional and could work with minimal retakes, having to nail these scenes as quickly as they could.

The stories were often pulp fiction but the film-making skills involved in their making is often admirable. So it is with The Reptile which despite a plot located firmly in the depths of the region of daft, manages to be both atmospheric and interestingly human with characters you care about.

The tightly-arranged location; pub, church and graveyard all in one place

Part of this is down to director John Gilling making a positive virtue out of his restricted budgets and the inventiveness of his production designer Bernard Robinson aided by Don Mingaye’s art direction. Together they create a intimate world that you soon work your way around; they seem to have taken the corner of an old house and used it to create a corner of a village with a pub and nearby a Church and graveyard with which we become very familiar. It’s quite a feat but most of the action takes place in this set with the exception of the moors that separate the mysterious mansion from the cottage in which our main protagonists try to work out the mystery and survive.

Few films have The Reptile’s sense of place, you know exactly which direction the danger is at any time and Gilling must either have had an unerring sense of direction or a compass. Into all this are placed his players and, as with a theatre production, he moves them around with such skill as well as getting the upmost from their reactions and anticipations. This is not a gory film but it is decisive and quick with moments of death, just like the viper in question and with those characters constructed as carefully as the narrative, sets and movements the whole thing is an enjoyably unsettling journey into nostalgic unease.

Jennifer Daniel and Ray Barrett

The film was actually shot directly after The Plague of the Zombies, also directed by Gilling who using many of the same sets, including exterior shots in the grounds of Oakley Court near Bray, Berkshire…  The only two actors in both were established character actor Michael Ripper – here playing local publican, Tom Bailey – and a relative newcomer, Jacqueline Pearce, beloved of many as Blake’s Seven’s Servalan, and an actor of real depth and technical prowess (trained at Lee Strasberg's Actors Studio in Los Angeles).

The story begins with a young man, Charles Edward Spalding (David Baron) investigating strange goings on at a mansion owned by a Doctor Franklyn (Noel Willman), who wears an expression caught somewhere between fear and arrogance and who, we don’t doubt, has paid the price for meddling in Eastern practices that cross the line between mysticism and science… He is unable to prevent Spalding climbing the stairs and confronting a creature that runs at him faster than the eye can follow leaving him instantly poisoned and dead within seconds.

John Laurie and Michael Ripper two superb character actors

He is not the first to die under such circumstances in the village and when his brother, a soldier named Harry George Spalding (Ray Barrett) arrives with his young wife Valerie (Jennifer Daniel) to make their home in Charles’ humble cottage, he is soon confronted by a wall of silence, emptying Tom’s pub as he casts aspersions on the frightened clientele. Tom’s a good lad, but he’s travelled far and thinks he knows well enough to leave well enough alone… he advises Harry to forget the mystery of his brother’s death and to leave.

There are many types of military men and, in this case, Harry is certainly not one to cut and run and neither is his wife, Valerie being made of stern stuff – perhaps Hammer wrote some female parts better than they were ever credited with? There’s certainly a lot of meat for both the women in this film to get their teeth into.

Talking of chewing, that’s exactly what John Laurie does to the scenery when he arrives at the Spalding’s cottage as Mad Peter, on the cadge for some food and full of tales that clearly hint at the truth of what’s going on. Before he arrives, Valerie is greeted by a beautiful young woman called Anna (Ms Pearce), the daughter of Dr Franklin and as vivacious and delightful as he is rude and repulsive. She and Valerie hit it off over flower arranging before a mysterious oriental figure The Malay (Marne Maitland, playing to type here… he was born in India and of mixed heritage but he was schooled in the UK, attending Bedales School and Magdalene College, Cambridge). Anna returns to the big house with his prompting… who is The Malay and what is his hold over the Franklyns?

While her sitar gently weeps...

Before we find out Mad Peter proves not to be that mad but certainly 100% dead which inspires Tom to finally offer to help the Spaldings. Events move at a place especially when the Spaldings are invited over for dinner with the Franklyns and Anna gets carried away with the sitar… Clearly something happened in the Orient which has bound The Malay, the Doctor and Anna together and the reveal is not overplayed as suspense and sympathy is maintained with admirable restraint.

Dusty Verdict: Well acted and very well directed, The Reptile is a treat and shows the underlying skills involved in Hammer filming: disciplined expression and generous, theatre-honed ensemble playing. Enough to make almost any plot believable.