Day for Night... The Appointment (1981), BFI Blu-ray, Flipside 44 Out Now!

 

As you will know, BFI Flipside is dedicated to rediscovering works from the margins of British film culture and to enable a re-evaluation of the otherwise over-looked or the under-valued. A quick look at IMDB shows this film with a middling aggregate score but this newly remastered edition – derived from the best available Standard Definition source materials – gives us all a chance to watch it in the best possible quality.

 

It's not just armchair critics who have been ambivalent to the film as it was not only deprived of a full TV release at the time of release it also failed to provide a platform for its director, Lindsey C. Vickers, to make more films. This, as he says now, is very hard to accept let alone credit as The Appointment is a very classy debut with strong performances and a film that builds and sustains a considerable amount of tension and unease. It is also a film that has a clear agenda outside of its genre in that it addresses the relationship between the members of the family involved.

 

In the excellent commentary conducted by Flipside supremo Vic Pratt with the writer/director, Vickers points out that it is the breakdown of the father/daughter connection that is really the issue and this is something well expressed in the drama, something clearly close to his heart.

 

Edward Woodward is clearly your man for this gig, he is so good at expressing forceful masculine certainty with stabs of realisation gradually eating away at his confidence. He’s an alpha male with heart here but a complacent one, caught up in the importance of his routines and discipline. He infantilises his talented daughter Joanne (Samantha Weysom) and finds it hard to relate to her maturing personality, possibly because she’s asking him for more commitment than his schedule – for him and her – allows.

 

Seeing and understanding all of this is mother and wife Dianna played by the wonderful Jane Merrow who Vickers was able to cast during one of her visits to the UK form the US where she was based for a long time. Merrow is another class act – one of the faces of the era – who can emote with such skill and is able to connect the audience with a grounded view of this supernatural drama.

 

The film starts with an enigmatic taster as, some years earlier, two schoolgirls carrying violins walk home from school and when one takes a spooky short cut, the tension mounts until she is violently pulled from the path by unseen force. Vickers plays this down as a commercially required overture but its importance becomes clearer as events play out.

 

We switch to three years later by which time the short cut has been fenced off and the drama is all about more seemingly prosaic matters. Vickers shows real skill in not revealing any clear “evidence” of supernatural issues, playing on our default engagement with the narrative of normality, gradually dropping hints and accelerating the unease like a practiced genre specialist.

 

So it is that Father Ian being called away on urgent business opens a whole uncanny can of worms as it means that he’ll miss Joanne’s big violin performance. He has his reasons but she can’t see it and clearly this means more to her… tempers are frayed but Ian can’t back down.

 

The family goes to bed and counting down the hours to his early start and the long drive through Snowdonia to his meeting, Ian experiences strange and vivid dreams. He’s not alone as Jane shares the same dreams… there’s the drive, a group of vicious dogs and increasing foreboding. It’s a long night and Vickers succeeds in even makes the viewer uncertain of the actuality.

 

The longest night is followed by just another day… or is it?

 

The art of this kind of film is in suspending disbelief but also persuading us the reality is going to take over at some point. Does that relief of normality come? It’s definitely one for you to find out, no spoilers although I will say that there’s one stunning visual event which I won’t reveal but it’s the kind of idea you could easily see forming the heart of the whole story: an horrific and memorable moment that stays with you.

 

But that’s the case for the whole film, a salutary take of the potential for familial estrangement, the consequences of which can be equally devastating with or without dark forces.

 

The film comes with a generous bundle of extras including: 

·         Newly recorded audio commentary by director Lindsey Vickers

·         Vickers on Vickers (2021, 41 mins): the director looks back on his life and career

·         Another Outing (2021, 16 mins): Jane Merrow recalls co-starring in The Appointment

·         Appointments Shared (2022, 7 mins): Lindsey and Jan Vickers remember the making of the ‘haunted film’

·         Framing The Appointment (2022, 19 mins): Lindsey Vickers recalls making the film

·         Remembering The Appointment (2022, 10 mins): assistant director Gregory Dark shares his recollections of the film

·         The Lake (1978, 33 mins): Lindsey Vickers’ eerie short finds young lovers choosing to picnic at a spot haunted by echoes of a violent event

·         Newly recorded audio commentary on The Lake by Lindsey Vickers

·         Splashing Around (2020, 18 mins): actor Julie Peasgood on making The Lake

·         Galleries featuring annotated scripts, storyboards, images and production materials

 

The Lake is also a creepy mini classic which I saw screened at the BFI a couple of years back. More excellent atmospherics and eerie build up from Vickers and, whilst he had a successful career elsewhere in film, it is a real shame he wasn’t able to make more features.

 

It’s a limited edition presented on Blu-ray in Standard Definition (Limited to 4,000 copies) and the first pressing only comes with an excellent Illustrated booklet featuring new writing on the film by Vic Pratt and contributions from William Fowler, Jon Dear and Lindsey Vickers.

 

So, order as soon as you can, direct from BFI and you won't be disappointed although you may well be shaken and intrigued… it’s an intense ride!

Sister act… The Killing of Sister George (1968)

 

There are so many remarkable things about this production it’s easy to overlook the fact that it was primarily shot in Hollywood with Director Robert Aldrich shifting the very British cast and crew over to the west coast and his Aldrich Studios in Los Angeles. There are plenty of location shots in London boozers and the streets around Hampstead all the way down to Chiswick to give the right impression but, of course, the soul of repression, and sheer vicious disappointment is uniquely British.

 

The film is based on Frank Marcus 1964 play in which Beryl Reid had also starred both in the West \end and then in 1966, Broadway when she was given a Tony Award. Marcus’ play hints at the nature of the relations but Aldrich wanted to make a more defined film about the scene in London, a year before make homosexuality was legalised and some of the stigma was removed from lesbianism. The latter was never criminalised because, as legend has it, Queen Victoria refused to believe that it existed… sound unlikely but if true, huge and very unfair on the poor men whose self-slaughter finally persuaded Parliament to take action.

 

The sexual politics aside there’s some fabulous footage of a lesbian bar which, in contrast to the majority of the film, shows ordinary women getting on with having a loving good time. George’s relationship with the much younger Alice "Childie" McNaught (Susannah York) is sometimes loving but also carries strange intimations of sadomasochism and cruelty. If Childie makes a mistake she has to go down on her knees and accept a punishment such as eating a cigar but, if she starts to pretend to enjoy the tobacco, Georgie gets upset and accuses her of “spoiling things”. Even with this very specifically sexualised reading, there’s more to George and Childie than meets the eye…

 

This allows for Aldrich not wanting to sensationalise his subject… and I don’t think he does, George is a tortured character and, in some ways, her sadism is just another expression of her sadness and inability to truly connect in a normal way without play acting, acting the fool or sexual role-play. Does she not know herself? She certainly hasn’t worked out what is going to happen to her career and, coincidentally her personal life when fashions change and suddenly, you’re left with a much shorter future.

 

Reid plays June "George" Buckridge, the titular star of a long-running soap opera called Sister George in which she plays a helpful district nurse riding around on a scooter, helping the locals sort out their day-to-day issues with a lovely west-country burr that could make light of even the most difficult of problems be it a double booking if the village hall or more worldly matters. Any similarity with The Archers and Mrs Dale’s Diaries is purely incidental. Be-loved characters persist in Manchester, as midwives, detectives and pillars of the community.

 

But George has heard rumours or, more specifically, has had rumours passed onto her in bad faith by some of the enemies she routines makes. George is very funny if you’re on her side by excoriating if you are not. And her acid tongue is the corrosive dark side to her character’s wholesomeness. Is she reaching the end of the line with her character, as other new parts start to finally, move her from the top of the polls.

 

It's worth mentioning some excellent work from Hugh Paddick as Freddie, the long-suffering director of the show who values George whilst also being aware of the danger she places herself in by kicking against the pricks. Chief amongst these is Ronald Fraser as Leo Lockhart, a proper act-or who has played in higher-brow productions that this and doesn’t mind who knows it. Sadly, he is the one who is winning the popular vote with viewers…

 

This professional pressure, aligned with George’s myriad self-doubts and irritations drives her to drink, although she doesn’t need much help in heading off in that direction. She skips out of a read through and heads to a local alehouse, drinking it dry before final call at 2.30pm – yes, dear readers, there as a time when public houses opened at 11-2,30pm and then again in the evening from 5.30 to just 10.30! How did we ever cope??

 

What George really needs is a loving relationship at home and someone who’ll listen to her miserable days with positive feedback and unconditional tenderness. Now Childie might be willing to provide many of these things but George is also at pains to make sure she’s dragged down with her too. Susannah York’s performance is almost the equal of Reid’s and her shocked, hurt response is vulnerable and open hearted. She’s not without resilience though, she plays the role George likes but is capable of more…

 

They’re an odd couple, Childie is almost half George’s age and very attractive… there are clearly issues and perhaps rather more than is credible. But it’s a drama…

 

Into this picture comes Coral Browne as Mercy Croft a well-meaning studio executive who visits George and Childie’s flat to discuss the rather thorny issue of when a drunken George got into a handsome cab with two nuns – one of which was a young Madelaine Smith – before assaulting them both verbally and physically… “well, hello girls!”. George defends the indefensible but agrees when she learns that Sister George is not in imminent danger but is falling behind in the ratings.

 

Then comes that great scene in Gateways lesbian nightclub where George and Childie go dressed as Hardy and Laurel respectively. Here we can see them getting on, the same sense of theatrical humour and the suggestion perhaps that their chemistry is stronger than it seems. Mercy Croft comes to see them in this world which the former married woman finds fascinatingly different… so much so that she starts to worry about George’s influence on the seemingly innocent Childie who’s artistic ambitions as a poet and more than a seamstress she thinks should be encouraged.

 

George becomes paranoid, especially when Childie goes missing for long hours and appears evasive. She’s always been scared that her pretty young friend will run off with a younger woman or, worse still a man, and takes advantage of the fact that she provides her with bed and board.

 

But pushing Childie only drives her closer towards the younger, but still older Mercy and, after Sister George’s demise is concerned Childie beg9ns to see more of Mercy… who leads her away from the climactic leaving party during which George leaves no bridge unburned, back home where the films’ most overtly sexual moment happens. It’s a remarkable moment which unnerved both actors but the power play between the two is exceptional and well directed by Aldrich. In the end a bitter George make sit clear that Childie might not be the catch she seems… sharper than a serpent’s tooth with extra venom.

 

Where is George left at the end of the film? Friendless and with a future as a talking cow on children’s TV? Who knows, but there’s ultimately a reflection that women’s careers in broadcast media were perhaps strictly defined by age than men’s. George isn’t punished for her way of life; she’s punished for her age and her unhappiness stems from an ultimately unhappy inability to really connect with people of either sex.

 

My memory of this film had it labelled in the “lesbian pays” sub-genre but there’s much more to George than that and Beryl Reid is frighteningly good in the part, spitting her sheer hate at all those who wrong her, a bully perhaps but also someone on the slide, raging against the dying of the light.

 

Not surprisingly the play has been revived a number of times over the years and this film is still worthy of your attention not least for the excellence of its three female leads.

West end story… Connecting Rooms (1970), Indicator Blu-ray, out now!

 

This previously hard to find curio provides Bette Davis a chance to avoid the horror parts that plagued this period of her and her most competitive of fellow travellers, Joan Crawford, with an adaptation of Marion Hart’s play The Cellist opposite the great Michael Redgrave. The film feels like a play but as the main interactions are between Redgrave and Davis there’s so much skill and fascinating expression to more than compensate and this is a master class from both.

Slightly less impressive is Alexis Kanner as the would-be pop impresario Mickey Hollister, a user and a fraud who is determined to get his big break by fair means or foul. The part is so shallow it didn’t give Mr Hollister enough to work with but those are the breaks and his story does serve to illustrate the folly of selfish youth as well as false expectations. It’s a play of generations, those with little hope and those still with a chance… it’s all a matter of trust. The game seems up, but there’s always hope and will the young, like Mickey, realise before they run down their time on wasted effort and blind alleyways.

Michael Redgrave

Directed and screen written by Franklin Gollings, the film is based in a boarding house out in an un-gentrified Bayswater run by a Mrs. Brent played by Kay Walsh giving as good as she gets with some killer gobbets of disdain for her long-insufferable guests. There’s some sharp dialogue even if it feels more comfortable from the older players than the youngsters, a common problem, eh Daddio? Into this darkened and repressed world comes James Wallraven (Michael Redgrave) a schoolteacher seemingly on a study break at the British Museum. James is nervy and carries a hunted look, there’s obviously more to his being in London but he’s barely willing to drop his guard with anyone. 

This seems very rum for the others, especially Mickey who sees angles everywhere and assumed everyone thinks like him. Cello-player Wanda Fleming (Davis) is a kind soul who works in one of the West End theatre orchestras, she is fascinated by and concerned for James but he won’t let his guard down easily. She could do with more caution herself when it comes to young Mickey, who’s trying to get her to help fund his pursuit of a more lavish lifestyle. He’s written a killer pop tune for a visiting French singer, Claudia Fouchet (Olga Georges-Picot) who is represented by Dick Grayson (Richard Wyler) for whom Mickey does some work. Song writing is not one of his tasks though and Dick refuses to give him an in.

Alexis Kanner and Gabrielle Drake

Mickey takes matters into his own hands and borrows a £500 MG for his mate Johnny (Mark Jones) who runs a garage, to make him look like the impressive pop mogul he aims to be. He also plays fast and loose with his beautiful girlfriend Jean (Gabrielle Drake) who he’s constantly letting down when opportunity arises. He tries to palm her off with Johnny just so he can present his words and music to Claudia. He’s also giving Wanda the impression of almost amorous interest, complimenting her in unexpected ways given their age gap, his eyes on a loan to buy the MG…

As we discover the depths to which Mickey will sink, we also learn more of James’s situation. He visits an old friend at another school and asks for work only to be rebuffed because of the scandal arising from his previous employment. Gradually the whole picture emerges, radical politics, a brilliant young student and support from his teacher that led to accusations of impropriety at a tome when such relations were only just legalised let alone approved of between pupil and teacher.

Michael and Bette

There is however, however, a lot unsaid, and what develops is an understanding between Wanda and James, she is patient, and accepting especially after he falls through the door connecting their rooms and, later, is driven home by the police from a protest march.

Meanwhile Mickey has worked his way into Claudia’s hotel apartment and tries to get her to read his words and sheet music. He’s persistent and later turns up at an impressive-looking recording session to push his case… gradually winning her over and inviting her to a disco where he, again, ignores Jean to pursue his dream deal… sorry, girl. It’s so hard to deal with people who put themselves first and whilst James does so out of guilt and decorum, Mickey is purely self-motivated. Jean can see the good in him, just as Wanda can in James, but both the accommodators might learn how to live with or without their potential partners.

On the edge of the Big Time...

James goes in search of work but is rebuffed by a teaching agent, Ellerman (Brian Wilde) who is aware of the scandal. He has no choice to accept whatever work he can and starts odd jobbing at a gallery. Unfortunately for him Jean is modelling for a life drawing class upstairs – we see a lot of both Gabrielle Drake – and when Mickey turns up to pester her, he spots James making tea. Naturally being a louse of the first order and no doubt wanting to loosen the ties with his potential honeypot, he goes straight to tell Wanda.

Wanda deep though and is only concerned for the man with the secrets, she knows how intelligent and committed he is, and she must find out why he is where he is. Meanwhile Mickey hustles and harries Claudia… do good guys always have to come last?

Dusty verdict: Connecting Rooms is an interesting film and one that allows a superb showing from Davis especially which rubs off on Redgrave who meets her on a more cinematic level than his theatrical background sometimes enabled. The supporting actors are also good and Gabrielle Drake stands out for all the right reasons.

There’s a mixed bag of reviews on IMDB with one twerp accusing Davis of “ageing like cheap wine” after 1960 which is just obnoxious. This excellent 4k transfer should hopefully put such assumptions down the drain where they belong. It’s not a great film but it is a worthwhile one and it allows you to fully appreciate this stage in the career of one of the true Hollywood greats and much else besides.

The film is out now along with a Limited Edition booklet and lashes of extras. It’s available to order direct from Indicator aka Powerhouse Films direct.