'Summer Holiday' this afternoon

[roninnes]

You are all a bunch of old cynics, the fact that we all went and spent our 15 bob or so to watch them perhaps for curiosity.
I was amazed at how many of the Shadowmusic community bought the set of Cliff/Shadows movies when the Daily Mail did their dvd offer.

Ron

[Didier]

I saw both "The young ones" and "Summer Holiday" during my summer stays in England in the early sixties. Funnily enough, I was the one who pushed my English hosts to go and see these films !
I was staying in a small place called Grayshott (Hampshire, near Surrey), and we went to see the films at a movie theater in Haslemere.

Didier

[captainhaddock]

You are all a bunch of old cynics, the fact that we all went and spent our 15 bob or so to watch them perhaps for curiosity.
I was amazed at how many of the Shadowmusic community bought the set of Cliff/Shadows movies when the Daily Mail did their dvd offer.

Ron

I bought the Cliff/Shadows movies when the Daily Mail had them on offer. I bought the complete set on e-bay for less than £3.00. The only reason that I bought them was for The Shadows parts and the fact that I am a completist. Perhaps one day I will open the envelope that they arrived in and then another day I will actually watch one.
I do actually also own a copy of "Finders Keepers" because the Shadows have a bigger part to play and the soundtack is rather good particularly "My Way".
In fairness to Cliff and TheShadows, very few musical films appeal to me, whoever made them. I enjoyed "A hard days night" because it was more of a documentary about the Beatles, when it came to "Help" I found it cringeworthy in the extreme with a juvenile story line. The Elvis films were mostly dire apart from perhaps "Jailhouse Rock" and "King Creole" the rest did not even have a decent soundtrack to make up for the embarassing storylines.

[roninnes]

Yes Phil who can forget Blue Hawaii or whatever it was called. I wish I could forget it.
I agree that there are very few good musical movies as story lines are usually quite weak.
Give me a good Cowboys and Indians, war movie or a thriller any day.

Ron

[cockroach]

Come on chaps and girls! It wasn't all bad stuff for Cliff...

I always thought 'Expresso Bongo' was Cliff's best film. Not much of the Shadows in it, but it was a good funny satire of the British rock scene at the time- and there was a proper plot and storyline too...very much like Jailhouse Rock was one of Elvis' best films in a similar style (rise and fall of a young rock star etc etc)

[Iain Purdon]

[quote="captainhaddock] Let's be honest, Cliffs films are all cringeworthy really, but the worst one has to be "Wonderful Life". I am always amused by the comment that one of the first things John Rostill did with the Shadows when he joined, was fly to the Canaries to film "Wonderful Life". I wonder if he read the script and then tried to find a way out of the gig?[/quote]

I only saw it once and, correct me if I remember wrongly, John's part amounted to two words: "Was it?" If someone told me I could have an all-expenses-paid fortnight in Gran Canaria if I would just dress up as a soldier and say "was it" to a film camera I'd .......

No, maybe you're right!

[abstamaria]

I remember when I first saw the film. My friends and I took the afternoon off from high school and trooped to the neighborhood cinema. in Manila, we hardly saw any photos of the Shadows except from album covers; they were never on TV. Cliff's movies, with our heroes and their flashing guitars, were therefore a big treat. I recall my friends all felt the movie was better than the class we missed.

I have the boxed set of Young Ones, etc., and have gotten friends to see them again, some for the 1st time since they saw the original in the 60s. They and I enjoy them, not so much for their artistic content, but because they bring back how I felt when I was very young - Madeleine cookies. I watch The Persuaders and The Avengers (I have boxed sets too!) for the same reason. With the old clothes, old cars, street scenes that no longer exist, the way people spoke, these 60s movies are a documentary of how things were. In my old age, I smile at the amateurish plot and screenplay, but enjoy them nonetheless.

My best,

Andy (currently in Macau)

[Rosemary]

Hi Andy
I totally agree and love watching old movies and TV shows for the same reasons you mention. In fact we watch far more DVDs than TV shows which are pretty abysmal nowdays (at least out here where it seems to be mainly cooking or reality shows - or even worse, a combination of both)
Best wishes
Rosemary

[neil2726]

I agree Rosemary, TV these days is generally pretty dire, full of reality shows for former "stars" with big egos who will do anything to get back in the spotlight. Luckily we can still get quite alot of the old shows through the Sky channels. Afraid with a few exceptions I dont find todays comedians at all funny - but then agin I was brought up watching Laurel and Hardy, Morecome and Wise , Eric Sykes and Hancock. Thanks goodnes Dad's Army can still be seen on saturday nights! For me its mainly the documentary channels and Vintage, who do show some really good stuff.

[donna plasky]

http://www.leosden.co.uk/

Hi, everyone. For those of you outside of the UK (like myself), I thought I would mention that Leo's Den (url appears above) was very helpful to me. On my own, I had been able to purchase most of the Cliff and The Shads movies on DVD...but I could not find a copy of "Finders Keepers" or "Take Me High" on DVD, only on PAL format video cassettes which will not play on my TV equipment. So, I contacted Leo's Den by email. They were able to get a copy dubbed to a DVD for me, at a very affordable price. If you find yourself in a similar situation, needing a special format/region that will be compatible with your equipment, please do contact Leo's Den and perhaps they can help you.

I really liked the soundtrack from Finders Keepers without ever having seen the movie...so I had to see it, simply out of curiosity. Like someone else said, I recall that the only speaking part for anyone other than Cliff was that John Rostill said something like, "OK, Cliff" in response to Cliff saying, "John, go get the car and bring it around front" or words to that effect. As for the "Take Me High" movie, which is a Cliff-only movie with no Shadows, I knew in advance that was a film about a silly money-making scheme involving hamburgers (to be called Brum-burgers in the movie, named after Birmingham)...so got what I asked for, so to speak.

Best wishes,
Donna