CELEBRATING 70 YEARS! : COSH BOY .. IFP / ROMULUS .. UK .. 1953 ..

 INDEPENDENT FILM PRODUCERS

PRESENTS
A ROMULUS PRODUCTION
From LIPPERT PICTURES 

COSH BOY

starring

JOAN COLLINS as RENE ..
With
JAMES KENNEY      ROBERT AYRES     BETTY ANN DAVIES     HERMIONE BADDELY 
 NANCY ROBERTS   HERMIONE GINGOLD   LAURENCE NAISMITH    JOHNNY BRIGGS
         IAN WHITTAKER   SIDNEY JAMES
   Director of Photography - Jack Asher      Art Director - Bernard Robinson  Edited by Charles Hasse
        Music by Lambert Williamson  Screenplay by Lewis Gilbert & Vernon Harris from the stage play -
          "Master Crook" by Bruce Walker   Assistant Director - John Bremer  Produced by Daniel M Angel
                                Directed by Lewis Gilbert ....

(c)  Romulus 1952  ...   73 mins ..  B/W ..

Joan with James Kenney

Made in 1952, "Cosh Boy" was adapted from the play "Master Crook", by Bruce Walker, which also starred James Kenney, who plays the villian Roy, in this film version.  Released around the same time as the notorious court case of Derek Bentley, the young backward boy hanged for the murder of a policeman, partly because his accomplice Christopher Craig, was too young to hang. "Cosh Boy" fell foul of the British censors of the time as they picked up on the similarities in the case and the character of Alfie (Whittaker) is simple and takes the blame for the crimes committed by the thug Roy (Kenney). The censors awarded the film the first of the new X Certificate for adult themed films. They also softened some of the coshing scenes as they were deemed strong content for the time. 

Joan in the role of Rene

Critics commented...

SUNDAY  GRAPHIC  :

" I don't remember such an outcry when it was played on the London stage. I suppose they assume that theatregoers are far steadier fellows than the film public!"

The film was shot at Riverside studios and Hammersmith, with Joan playing another of her teen gone bad roles, although the character of Rene is more virginal than in the other of her "Coffee Bar Jezebel" roles! Rene although fond of a good time, either at the local dance club or a day out on the river, still manages to convey an innocence, which is apparent when she is ambushed into a sexual situation with the ruffian Roy. Joan looks stunning and she brings a touch of youthful glamour to a drab looking London! Incidentally Hermione Baddeley plays Joan's mother in the film, a real battleaxe, who Joan herself had a run in with. Hermione who lived with Joan's old RADA mate Laurence Harvey, didn't take kindly to pretty young actresses and told Joan to her face, " So! This is the new Jean Simmons! Let

Joan with Hermione Baddeley

me tell you, my dear, Jean has nothing to worry about! You don't have her looks. You don't have her talent! And you certainly don't have half the things the papers have been saying about you!" Hermione was obviously typecast, as she plays a ferocious old harridan in this film!  Hermione Gingold also appears as the dotty hooker Queenie and she also appears in Joan's later film "Our Girl Friday". James Kenney later turns up in "The Good Die Young", while Laurence Naismith appears with Joan in later productions, "Quest For Love" and "The Persuaders".
"Cosh Boy" is influenced by Italian neo realist films such as "Bicycle Thieves", it also has the distinction of been banned in Sweden and Birmingham! 
More recently the British Film Institute put "Cosh Boy" on the shortlist for it's " 100 Greatest Films of All Time". 
While not as shocking today as it must have seemed in the fifties, it still was a film ahead of it's time and deserves it's place in British film history!

The USA Blu-Ray under it's American title 'The Slasher'
ORDER 'THE SLASHER' REGION 1 USA RELEASE HERE!

2020 RELEASE FROM BFI ..
ORDER 'COSH BOY' REGION 2 BLU-RAY / DVD HERE!

                              

CELEBRATING 70 YEARS! : DECAMERON NIGHTS .. RKO / EROS .. USA .. 1953

 

EROS FILM
Presents

An RKO Pictures Release.

DECAMERON NIGHTS 

starring

          JOAN FONTAINE    LOUIS JOURDAN   JOAN COLLINS   BINNIE BARNES 
    GODFREY TEARLE  ELLIOT MAKEHAM  NOEL PURCELL  MARJORIE RHODES  

  Director of Photography - Guy Green B.S.C   Music by Anthony Hopkins  Assoc Prod - Montagu Marks
    Produced by M.J.Frankovich & William Szekely       Directed by Hugo Fregonese

  (c)   1953     RKO     94 MINS   TECHNICOLOR ..

Joan with Binnie Barnes at Les Ambassedeurs 

Released in 1953, this was Joan's first American produced film, shot on location in Madrid and Segovia, the film took two years to plan and research. The publicity department cited the film as having a cast of 2,200, while the Spanish government loaned the production an exact replica of the vessel, the "Santa Maria", which Christopher Columbus discovered America in. The films co-star Binnie Barnes, as well as been married to the producer Mike Frankovich, also served as assistant producer on the film. In fifties Spain, items like make-up, eyelashes, lipstick brushes and hair glue for wigs, were very scarce. Binnie made several round trips from various Spanish locations to London, to pick up such items! Joan recalled that the director Hugo Fregonese was a cold man and had no great feeling for his cast. Fregonese's wife, the fifties star Faith Domerque acted as one of nine interpretors on the internationally cast film. The hotel that the cast lived in during the shoot, according to Joan, resembled a doss house and she recalled that Segovia was filthy. Joan later referred to her role as " A mischievous minx, of a lady in waiting!"
Gossip at the time claimed that Joan was almost arrested for wearing tight jeans on the street in Spain! How times have changed!! Incidently Joan Fontaine later starred with Joan  in "Island in the Sun", while co-star Godfrey Tearle played Mr Dove in Joan's previous film " I Believe in You".
"Decameron Nights" probably seemed bawdy at the time of it's release, but viewed today it is very tame, but entertaining, with some good locations and photography, not to mention a good cast!
Joan plays two roles in the film, like many of the main cast. Her main role as the young Pampinea, who has designs on the older Boccacio (Jourdan), but he has only eyes for Fiametta (Fontaine).Joan is eager in the role and manages to convey both innocence and sultriness! The bulk of the films running time is concerned with the three tales told by Boccacio and Fiametta.

Bosley Crowther of the New York Times reviewed the film in 1953..

" Even though M.J.Frankovich and William Szekely, dared at least to rush in where other filmmakers have feared to tread, by taking the bawdy tales of Italian courtier, Boccaccio and making a motion picture that would vaguely embrace the salty themes of marital discontent and indiscretion, contained in the great "Decameron". This big technicolor panorama, is a tame and generally witless trifling with the materials of naughtiness, lacking completely the vitality and the trenchant comments of the original. Jourdans performance consists almost entirely in looking handsome and roguish, in bright costumes, while Fontaine behaves all coquettish and throwing ladylike leers. Binnie Barnes whips about without any point or purpose and Joan Collins and Godfrey Tearle are present in lesser Roles"

Even though 'Decameron Nights' has a quality cast and from the golden age of Hollywood, it never seemed to get a decent release on video or dvd.. I have had many video and dvd releases over the years all of which had awful faded prints.. However in 2009 Synergy released an on demand dvd which I snapped up and although not perfect it does have a decent print and is far superior to any previous public domain reissues.. In the USA last year Medusa Films released an on demand dvd branding it a remastered to its original technicolor! I have not seen this version as yet, so can't confirm the quality.. Hopefully we may get a studio release of the film at some stage..

ORDER THE MEDUSA FILMS 2020 RELEASE HERE!

                                                                                                     

ORDER THE SYNERGY 2009 RELEASE HERE!

CELEBRATING 70 YEARS! : I BELIEVE IN YOU .. THE RANK ORGANISATION / EALING FILMS .. UK 1952 ..

 

The J.Arthur Rank Organisation

Presents

An Ealing Studios Film

I BELIEVE IN YOU
starring
Celia Johnson Cecil Parker Godfrey Tearle Harry Fowler George Relph Laurence Harvey
Ada Reeves Ursula Howells Sidney James Gladys Henson Katie Johnson Laurence Naismith
& JOAN COLLINS as Norma Hart

Screenplay by Jack Whittingham / Michael Ralph / Basil Dearden

 From the novel "Court Circular" by Sewell Stokes 

Music by Ernest Irving 

Director of Photography Gordon Dines
Produced & Directed by Michael Relph & Basil Dearden

(c) 1952 J . Arthur Rank Organisation 95 Mins B/W ..

"I Believe In You" was Joan's first major role and she had to do three screen tests before finally receiving a telegram while on holiday in Cannes, telling her she had secured the role of Norma.
 Joan recalled that costumes for the film were found whilst trawling around London's East End second hand shops!
 Joan earned £30 a week for her eight week's work on the production.

The critics at the time gave Joan some very good reviews;

Critic Jympson Harmon wrote..
" Joan Collins makes a tremendous impression as the wayward girl. She has a dark, luscious kind of beauty, which puts her in the Jane Russell class, but Joan already seems to be an actress of greater ability. On the showing of this first big film part, she looks like the most impressive recruit in British films for many a moon!"

NEWS OF THE WORLD raved;

" A dozen of my darkest red roses to Joan Collins! Fire and spirit in her acting and that odd combination of allure and mystery that spells eventual world stardom!"

After completing "I Believe In You", Joan appeared in several plays including "The Seventh Veil" and "Jassy" with her soon to be husband Maxwell Reed. Other plays included "Claudia & David" and "The Skin of Our Teeth". After the success of the film Joan was signed to a five year contract with Rank.

VARIETY said of Joan;
" Joan Collins turns in a strong dramatic performance"

THE NEW YORK TIMES in 1952;

" "I Believe In You", is a largely placid resemblance of things past, but it shines with understanding and is a warm and adult adventure, which pins deserving medals on unsung heroes, without heroics. Joan Collins, a comparative newcomer, is pretty and provocative as the fiery Norma, who finds in her a healthy love for Hooker, the answer to her problems. Although it rarely becomes impassioned, "I Believe In You", is a credible, satisfying and illuminating view of what generally is a dark scene!"

The film's star Celia Johnson, was nominated for a BAFTA award for her performance as Miss Mattie the long suffering probation officer in charge of Joan's character the wayward Norma. But she lost the Best Actress in a leading role Award to Vivien Leigh for her role in "A Streetcar Named Desire"

'I Believe In You' is currently available from Network dvd as part of a series of Ealing films releases.. I personally think the film should be released as a stand alone title and not roped in with other obscure releases.. Hopefully we will get a special edition of the film on dvd or blu-ray from maybe the BFI..

ORDER 'I BELIEVE IN YOU' HERE!

CELEBRATING 70 YEARS! : JUDGMENT DEFERRED .. BFD PRODUCTIONS / GROUP 3 .. 1952 .. UK ..

 A.B.F.D Productions

From Group 3

Presents

An Associated British Release

" JUDGMENT DEFERRED "

Starring

Hugh Sinclair   Helen Shingler   Abraham Sofaer    Leslie Dwyer    Harry Locke    Elwyn Brook Jones

                 Wilfrid Walter Marie O'Neill Bransby Williams Bud Flanagan Edmundo Ros & Orchestra

                                                With Joan Collins as Lil Carter

Executive Producer -John Grierson Written by Barbara K Emery From a story by Herbert Ayres

     Director of Photography - Arthur Grant                     Produced & Directed by John Baxter

                             (c) 1952 Group 3 Productions 88 Mins B/W

"Judgment Deferred" was originally made in 1933 under the title "Doss House", by the same director John Baxter. This was Joan's third film following "The Woman's Angle" and she finally gets a speaking role and much more screen time than in the previous two films. Before shooting this movie, Joan tested for the part of Alan Ladd's girlfriend in a film called "The Red Beret". The role eventually went to Susan Stephen whose career fizzled out in the late fifties after she married director Nicolas Roeg. Joan also did a test with heart throb Dirk Bogarde for another film.

The script described Joan's character Lil as,
" A once beautiful girl, fallen on hard times through drink, drugs and deprivation!"
Publicity cited the role as,
" An exciting and emotional role of a one time beautiful girl, a convicts daughter, ruined by the colourful and dangerous crowd in which she has sought pleasure!"
The Evening News ran a review which read,
" Although so young for her emotional role, Joan Collins comes through with flying colours."

Press Release!

    "Brilliant New Screen Discovery!!"

"When two such veterans of the film industry as John Baxter and Bill Watts (Joan's 1st agent), think they have discovered a future star, then it's something to talk about! Joan Collins is the girl!"

Joan plays the role of Lil Carter, with a mix of streetwise, good-time girl and a naive teenager. We first see her decked in furs and all dolled up as she is the criminal mastermind Coxon's girlfriend. But later on, when he no longer wants her, she turns up the worse for wear, minus the furs and caked in dirt, rather than Max Factor! Joan is wonderful in the small but important role of a naive girl, who becomes smitten by a user. It was the first of many roles for Joan, where she plays wayward girls, who always get mixed up with the wrong type of men. She would later become labelled with titles such as "The Coffee Bar Jezebel" and it would be a few years before she finally got to play more mature roles.

Viewed today, "Judgment Deferred" is an unusual film, with interesting characters and certainly worth a viewing.

Sadly 'Judgment Deferred' is not currently on dvd, so one hopes Network or the BFI might release the film in the near future...

PRESS UPDATE : THE SPECTATOR .. JANUARY 21ST 2021 ..

 

Joan Collins

Vaccination is the only way out of this catastrophe.

Monday started with me opening my bedroom windows to let what little light there is come through, only to find two workmen on my balcony looking surprised that anyone lived in the building. Since my shooing gestures weren’t understood, I had to step outside, putting myself inside the regulatory two metres, to tell them to ‘get off my land’. As they weren’t even wearing masks, I now am worried they could have been carrying Covid. My landlord is carrying out external redecorations. Is this truly ‘essential’ work? I asked. When so many are not allowed to work at all, and have to isolate at home, must I be subjected to scaffolding outside my windows, like prison bars, and workmen trampling all over the place, using hammer drills, shouting and generally making life miserable? It reminds me of the old joke in the days when the binmen used to collect your garbage. They rang the bell of a particularly harassed lady and demanded ‘Garbage!’, to which she replied: ‘Sure, send it up.

‘Behave!’ ‘Follow the rules!’ ‘Obey!’ ‘Stick to the guidelines!’ These words strike anarchy into my heart. I’m not a robot. I’m a freedom-loving social being, and being forced to stay at home month after month is torture. Nevertheless, I obey. And the threats! ‘Stay at home, or you’ll die’, ‘Keep away from other people or you’ll be fined’, ‘It’s going to get tougher and tougher’, screeches the PM as Mssrs ‘Doom’ and ‘Gloom’ nod in agreement. Now that we’re allowed out only to buy food and to exercise once a day, most people are at the ends of their tethers. Therefore there’s no question in my mind that the only way out of this catastrophe is to get vaccinated. I spent weeks of envious anxiety, reading daily reports of various names getting vaccinated: Sir Ian McKellen, Marty Wilde, Dame Joan Bakewell, Prue Leith, Lionel Blair, Dame Esther 

Rantzen, along with more than hundreds of thousands of others. I found it incredibly worrying that so-called anti-vaxxers seem to be filling many vulnerable people’s minds with fake news and misinformation.

Ever since the beginning of this ghastly plague, I’ve wanted the shot. So when my NHS surgery finally called me up, I didn’t give it another thought, and raced over to get it. As a little girl, I was first in the queue at my school to receive the mandatory DPT vaccine. My needle-phobic mother had a fit when I told her, so sadly I too developed an abnormal fear of needles for many years. However, having read more and more about the preventative properties of vaccines, I now dutifully take the flu shot every October, the pneumonia shot when advised and, since I’ve seen first hand the crippling pain it can inflict on people, I also took the shingles shot.

My GP, Ammara Hughes, chatted to me gaily as Raj Gill, the physician associate, bustled around in the background. Before I knew it, I felt a small scratch in my arm and he announced: ‘It’s done!’ ‘Really?’ I exclaimed, greatly surprised. It was seamless and painless.

Iloathe these endless lockdowns. I had to lock down with the rest of the country in March and had to quarantine twice later in the year, after returning from France and Spain for work. During both those personal quarantine periods, the rest of London was wide open, so I had to stay in while my friends were going shopping and to restaurants. I relived my childhood misery when I had to stay indoors with the flu while all my friends played outdoors.

As soon as I finished my last quarantine in November, I rushed out to lunch and dinner at my favourite restaurants. They were all exceptionally careful. The staff were muzzled, as were customers when heading to and from their tables. The tables were a good three metres from each other and in some places plastic dividers had been erected between tables. This caused merry confusion on one occasion when someone at the opposite table kept tapping the divider and pointing down at the banquette. ‘What do you think she’s trying to say?’ I asked Percy. ‘Don’t worry, probably some drunken fan trying to make a lewd remark,’ he replied. However, after the second of these interventions, I found to my embarrassment that they were trying to say that my heavy coat, upon which I was sitting to protect me from the outdoor chill, had oozed under the divider on to their seat, warming not only my derrière, but also theirs..

.

CELEBRATING 70 YEARS! : THE WOMAN'S ANGLE .. 1952 .. ASSOCIATED BRITISH ..

 

                                  Associated British Pictures Corporation Ltd
                                                         Presents
                                      A Leslie Arliss / Bow Bells Production

                                                    The Woman's Angle
                                                            starring

                      Cathy O' Donnell  Lois Maxwell  Claude Farell
                                   Edward Underdown
            Peter Reynolds Marjorie Fielding Isabel Dean                                                                                                                                   Anthony Nicholls John Bentley Olaf Pooley Joan Collins                                                                                                                   

Screenplay by Leslie Arliss Adapted by Diana Morgan       Music by Robert Gill & Mabbie Poole

Director of Photography - Erwin Hillier             Produced by Walter Mycroft

                                               Directed by Leslie Arliss
                                                                                                 

                                                     

                              (c) 1952 . ABP LTD. B/W .. 84 MINS ..

This 1952 film was Joan's second film appearance and she gets a few minutes more screen time than in the previous year's "Lady Godiva Rides Again". This time she plays the role of Marina, a maid on a small Greek island, where she works at the inn owned by her father. Although she get no lines, she still manages to show a fiery spark and vitality and it makes you want to see more of her. The film itself is typical fifties British movie making, with a romantic if not racy plot, which may have seemed risque at the time, dealing with divorces and affairs. The setting is a divorce court hearing, with the bulk of the plot, a series of flashbacks, telling the story of Robert Mansel's indiscretions with the three women in his life! One of those ladies is Lois Maxwell, who went on to become the iconic Miss Moneypenny in the legendary James Bond series of films. The film was shot at Elstree Studios and Joan was paid fifty pounds for her two day stint.

        Joan as Greek maid Marina with Eric Pohlmann as her father..

On it's release in the USA in 1954, NY Times critic Bosley Crowther wrote;

" The Woman's Angle, a baffling little exercise on the subject of masculine behaviour. It is also a mildly vexing picture, a grim little sample of bad writing, bad acting and bad directing all around!"

He obviously enjoyed it then! Viewed today it's a passable time waster and it gives us an early glimpse of Joan.

                                Most recent DVD release from Network UK..

BUY REGION 2 DVD FROM NETWORK HERE!

CELEBRATING 70 YEARS! : VIDEO CLIP .. FACTS AND FANCIES .. 1951 ..

Following on from my previous post about the 1951 short 'Facts and Fancies' which was one of Joan's earliest screen appearances, here is a clip from the short, featuring Joan's scenes... 

CELEBRATING 70 YEARS! : FACTS AND FANCIES .. PUBLIC RELATIONSHIP FILMS .. UK .. 1951

 While 1951 was the year Joan made her first film appearance, fleeting as it was in 'Lady Godiva Rides Again', she made a more noticable appearance in a short film made on behalf of the Gas Council to educate cinema audiences on the by products we take for granted by the carbonisation of coal.. Joan plays the groovy daughter of the family, who discovers, among other things,  without coal she wouldn't have a pair of nylons to her name! 

Starring

Richard Massingham as Father

Ethel Edwards as Mother

Joan Collins as Daughter

Russell Waters as Son

Produced by Richard Massingham

Directed by Michael Law

From Public Relationship Films

(c) 1951   24mins ..

CELEBRATING 70 YEARS! - LADY GODIVA RIDES AGAIN aka BIKINI BABY .. 1951 BRITISH LION / LONDON FILMS ..

 

A London Films Release
LADY GODIVA RIDES AGAIN
starring
Pauline Stroud    Diana Dors     Dennis Price  John Mc Callum     Stanley Holloway  Gladys Henson Eddie Byrne   Kay Kendall    Cyril Chamberlain   George Cole  Dora Bryan   Sidney James   Alastair Sims
 &  Joan Collins as Beauty Contestant!
Written by Frank Launder & Val Valentine             Music by William Alwyn
Cinematography by Wilkie Cooper                    Produced by Sydney Gilliat

                                    Directed by Frank Launder
(c) 1951 91Mins B/W Available on Region 2 DVD from Network UK.

Made in 1951 this is Joan's first film, although she is only glimpsed as a beauty queen contestant, but it was a start and she was delighted to be working with the legendary duo of Sydney Gilliat & Frank Launder, who produced the film as well as classics, The St Trinian's series and The Green Man. The film was inspired by the 1950 Miss Kent beauty competition.

Joan's co-stars were also popular British stars including Dora Bryan and Sidney James and of course legendary Diana Dors. Joan had tested for the leading role of Marjorie Clarke, the small town girl who wins the beauty pageant and becomes involved in the not so glamorous world of films! The role went to Pauline Stroud who only made a handful of films after this and whose last screen appearance was for TV in 1972. Joan however went on to have a long and continuing career!

Joan spent three day's freezing in a bathing suit at Leas Cliff town hall in Folkestone by the sea. Diana Dors played the more experienced beauty queen Dolores August, who has a string of titles and by hook or by crook (usually by crook),plans to land the title of Miss Fascination. In the film Diana has to wear some revealing bikini's, which would have been too racy for the American film censors of the time. For the export prints, extra shots with Diana and the other girls in less revealing bathing suits had to be filmed. Star Pauline Stroud was not keen on her costumes and commented to the press.

" I shall be glad when this is over! I dislike parading in a swimsuit!"

The beauty parade scenes took six hours to shoot with Diana along with starlets Jean Marsh, Simone Silva, Dana Wynter and Joan, parading up and down the studio pre-fabricated stairs.The tabloid newspapers of the time, compared the casting of the female lead as similar to the hunt for Scarlet O'Hara! No wonder Pauline Stroud's career was Gone With The Wind!! Although we only get a fleeting glance at Joan, the film has a wonderful cast of characters with many of Britain's popular faces of the day and is well worth an afternoon's viewing..

                           Most recent dvd/bluray release from Network..

Order the bluray of Lady Godiva Rides Again here!

Order the dvd of Lady Godiva Rides Again here!

The USA release was retitled 'Bikini Baby' and gave Diana Dors the star billing.. 

PROMOTION UPDATE : COIN MASTER ADVERT NENE vs JOAN.. JANUARY 2021 ...

Check out this latest advert for the mobile game 'Coim Master', one of the UK's top games starring Joan.. The advert also features American personality Nene Leakes..

TV FLASHBACK : DYNASTY - 40TH ANNIVERSARY!

     Rare still of Joan on set of Dynasty

I couldn't let the day go by without mentioning that today is the 40th Anniversary of the hit series 'Dynasty' which premiered January 12th 1981. However the first season plodded along and would probably have been cancelled after the second season, if not for the addition to the cast of a certain Miss Joan Collins, who made her debut at the start of the 2nd season on January 1st 1983 in an episode entitled 'Enter Alexis' and as they say the rest is tv history!