Ned"s Head

[petersj]

It seems we can never get enough of our folk hero Ned Kelly.

Of course I think the debate over whether or not Ned was as hero will continue for ever. You can put me in the pro Ned camp as I think the Jerilderee (must check spelling sorry folks) letter is a brilliant legal document.. I think he was indeed a hero! There I said it!

Still I can see validity on all sides.

One thing is for certain Ned and his story is still keeping the tourist dollar alive in places like Beech worth. Sorry he no longer has his head but at least we know that country people have their screwed on in the right place in doing all they can to promote this wonderful story.

There are tourist attractions and cafes, bars motels that all make a living out of Ned. I wonder if Ned would have known he is responsible for keeping so many in work. The Melbourne jail or gaol gets thousands of visitors each yea and the vast majority are there to learn more about our plucky little Irish rebel! scores Its a story that has promoted great art such as Nolan's stunning work and literature.

As for film its been made about four times including arguably our first feature and a mini series!

There will be more. You can't keep a great story down.

I love the way Aussies continue to passionately debate Ned with passion..

[petersj]

rofl...i actually saw it the other day.. it had its moments but pretty awful. It was fun seeing Frank Thring. Where are all the great eccentrics?

[petersj]

I dont know if you remember Hazel Philips but she was one of the early stars of Australian TV and also was in many JCW shows. She was broke and appeared on Australias Got Talent. One of the judges asked her why such a star like her was on a talent quest and she said that the only way to get work on Australian TV was to be able to cook. Kind of sad really. Totally agree with you on the American bit and where is all the Aussie slang gone?

[petersj]

Looks like this thread is just you and me kid!

.

You've got me!! I think there's an old Tiv program somewhere. See if I can find it. I collect Tivoli memor and I know he performed at the Tiv. I wish some of the old troupers were still around they would know.

I used to like Graham Kerr because he was always sloshed.

[franfran]

[quote name='PeterJMelb' timestamp='1316480419' post='35160']What was the name of a film starring George Formby, and in it he entered a 6 Day Bike race to impress a girlfriend.[/quote]



The film was called "No Limit" and the story centred around his attempts to compete in the Isle of Man TT motorcycle race. It is available on DVD (I have a couple of Formby DVDs, but not "No Limit"). If you're looking for a copy, PlayDVD in Bourke Street would probably have it.

[franfran]

No, I wasn't around when George Formby was making films (or, come to that, when he was alive) but I am a bit of an old film buff and have a collection of odd things like this - last time I was in Melbourne I bought a boxed set of Gracie Fields movies from PlayDVD. I knew about Formby because my father had a cassette of his songs, which he would play from time to time. The films I have on DVD are "Keep Your Seats Please", "Let George Do It" and "Turned Out Nice Again" and I bought them mainly out of curiosity. I might also buy "No Limit" some day, but I think that would be enough for my collection.

[franfran]

Let George Do It was a wartime film where Formby played the part of a ukelele player who was on his way as a replacement for someone in a concert party in Blackpool, but gets mistaken for a spy (coincidentally disguised as a ukelele player) and is put on a boat for Norway instead, where he ends up playing in a dance band led by the head of a Nazi spy ring. Of course, he manages to round up the spies - and gets fired out of a submarine's torpedo tube in the process. Quite a good film.

[franfran]

[quote name='PeterJMelb' timestamp='1316586469' post='35166']I thought he made a movie in which he took part in a 6 Day push bike race[/quote]



Sounds like you might be thinking of the Joe E Brown comedy "6 Day Bike Rider". Does this sound like it?

As Wilfred Simpson and his fiancée, Phyllis Jenkins, are leaving choir practice, they are approached by Harry St. Clair, a trick cyclist who wants to retrieve his bicycles from the railroad station where Wilfred works as a clerk. At the station, St. Clair takes advantage of Wilfred's preoccupation to walk Phyllis home. Wilfred is furious when he finds out and takes out his anger by hissing at St. Clair's performance the next evening. St. Clair challenges him to do better, and when Wilfred accepts, St. Clair once again vanishes with Phyllis. Mabel, St. Clair's assistant, jealously misleads Wilfred into believing that St. Clair has run away to marry Phyllis. Wilfred rouses the entire town to stop them, looking extremely foolish when they are discovered talking on the Jenkins' front porch. Embarrassed, Phyllis breaks her engagement and Wilfred announces that he is leaving town forever. On the road, he collides with Clinton Hemmings. Clinton plans to enter the Six Day Bike Race and Wilfred signs on as his partner. While working for a messenger service, Wilfred delivers a meal to St. Clair's hotel room. Imagining that the woman in the room is Phyllis, Wilfred punches St. Clair and is arrested when she turns out to be Mabel, St. Clair's wife. It appears that the jailed Wilfred will miss the race, but he is bailed out by a repentant Phyllis and arrives at the velodrome at the last minute. The race ends in a showdown between St. Clair and Wilfred. Despite several setbacks, Wilfred and Clinton win the race. Wilfred and Phyllis get married and soon their bike rides include their baby son.

http://www.tcm.com/tcmdb/title/1605/6-Day-Bike-Rider/

[petersj]

Its great to have you here franis. I am a movie buff too.

Peter and I were getting lonely in here, its great to have you here.

[franfran]

Hi.



I had a bit of ironing to catch up on last night and put on a couple of DVDs for company. One was Let George Do It (mainly because the discussion we have had made me want to have a look at it again). A couple of other points worth mentioning are that one of the songs is the well known Mr Wu's a Window Cleaner Now, and the other is that there is a rather surreal dream sequence where George punches Adolf Hitler.



The other movie I had on was the rather silly musical comedy Car of Dreams, with John Mills, Grete Mosheim and Robertson Hare - an English remake of a German original (which I think also starred Grete Mosheim). Interesting in one way - the ending, where the Rolls Royce takes off and flies through the sky, is practically identical to the ending of Grease...

[franfran]

Maybe we need to retitle this the old movies thread.....

[petersj]

The threads keep changing but I don't think it matters. I love old movies but Francis I think you are way ahead of me. The other day I watched Jedda, the Australian film. It was very moving.

[petersj]

Sorry Pete I didn't want to marry Grace lol. Nothing wrong with High Noon.

Grace was wonderful and Thomas Mitchell superb I just never liked Gary Cooper always found him very wooden although I did like Friendly Persuasion.

Dont leave the thread Peter..its going to keep changing any way lol.

[franfran]

[quote name='PeterJMelb' timestamp='1316778438' post='35218']What about Chips Rafferty? He was fairly wooden as well! Ha! Just my bad humor.[/quote]



Setting aside the obvious pun for a moment, Rafferty had a very limited range as an actor but, what he could do, he did very well - and he didn't take on parts that were beyond his ability.

[petersj]

I did like Chips in Walter Chiari movie Theyre a Wierd Mob Actually the movie looks quite charming now and Chiari is delightful. Less successful was the female lead who looks very stagey.

Chips was also just right for Smiley. But Frances is quite right.

With great respect Peter I love women as friends but its just not my orientation. Besides very very happy with what I've got.

[franfran]

Can't stand that song.....

[petersj]

I love the song.

Now I suppose its sexist but remember the circumstances and who sings it.

Oh dear from Ned to my absolutely fave topic. I LOVE MUSICALS.

I think South Pacific remains a very gutsy musical... you've got to be carefully taught which is a song about racism was banned in some productions. The song still packs a wallop.

I just wish Mary Martin was in the movie instead of Mitzi Gaynor.

John Kerr was brilliant and fab eye candy.

[franfran]

It's not that I was getting worked up about it, it's just that, although there are a lot of musicals I do like, I don't really care much for South Pacific and even less for that song. In fact I'm not that keen on a number of American musicals of the late 1940s and early 1950s - State Fair is another one I don't like much - just a bit too brash and noisy.



South Pacific is interesting though in that it does explore the subject of racism which, at the time, was pretty much ingrained in the American way of life....

[franfran]

Wait a minute there - I was not claiming that the musical itself was racist, but rather that it was not, which is rather surprising for a piece of popular theatre from that era. Racism is explored in several plot threads in South Pacific. Judging from this quote (from Wikipedia) the musical was rather controversial in some circles for challenging existing racist attitudes:

Nellie struggles to accept Emile's mixed-race children. Another American serviceman, Lieutenant Cable, struggles with the prejudice that he would face if he were to marry an Asian woman. His song about this, "You've Got to Be Carefully Taught", was criticized as too controversial for the musical stage and called indecent and pro-communist. While the show was on a tour of the Southern United States, lawmakers in Georgia introduced a bill outlawing any entertainment containing "an underlying philosophy inspired by Moscow." One legislator said that "a song justifying interracial marriage was implicitly a threat to the American way of life." Rodgers and Hammerstein defended their work strongly. James Michener recalled, "The authors replied stubbornly that this number represented why they had wanted to do this play, and that even if it meant the failure of the production, it was going to stay in."

Sexist, yes, but only in the way that certain characters (mostly the sailors) behave. And that was generally a pretty realistic representation of sailors' behaviour. Incidentally, the character Luther Billis was added to the two short stories that South Pacific was based on, in order to lighten up what was, for a musical, a fairly dramatic and serious storyline.

[petersj]

My favorite musical is a show called Carnival. I wish they would revive it.

One of the strangest shows today is Carousel. Lovely score but the story today really packs a wallop. Not really in a good way.

It almost implies wife beating is OK.

There was a Ned Kelly ballet!