| MICHAEL REDGRAVE The Night My Number Came Up UK Official Dvd (1955) Header Photo: Detail from one of the promotional posters for the film release. © Studiocanal. 2016: Forever Ealing Book Reviewed, Photos & In Stock Search Site We are based in South London near Croydon and if preferred this item can be picked up by appointment. Just e-mail here. We are one of the few places left still accepting cheques! Actors: Michael Redgrave, Sheila Sim, Alexander Knox, Denholm Elliott, Ursula Jeans MOVIE REVIEW At a fashionable dinner party in Hong Kong a pilot is coaxed into revealing details of a dream in which eight persons take off from Bangkok in a Dakota bound for Tokyo and crash in the Japanese mountains. Amongst those listening is Air Marshal Hardie who is due to fly to Tokyo the next day. Hardie initially dismisses the dream because he is scheduled to fly out in a Liberator, but as Hardie arrives at the airport he discovers that the Liberator has developed mechanical problems and has been replaced by a Dakota. When, just before the flight is due to depart, two soldiers board the plane making a complement of eight, Hardie fears that the Dream may be coming true and he is destined to die. INFO. FROM EALING FOREVER BOOK Released March 1955. A late Ealing foray into the occult. This was Leslie Norman's directorial debut. It was the only Ealing screenplay by R.C. Sherriff. © Pavilion Books. 2016: Forever Ealing Book Reviewed, Photos & In Stock - the ultimate source for anything Ealing I'll start it off: this is a gripping movie. In fact I find it more watchable than the more esteemed Ealing movies and yet I can't put into words just why. Certainly the story frame doesn't help it as you know from the start that there has been a crash but despite knowing this there is tension right to the end. But it isn't the story that holds me - it's the feel of the movie I can't quite convey. It's ethereal, magical, a trip near to the Other Side without quite getting there but it's there, always there - in the shadows or behind that mountain, that cloud.
It's over a mysterious Japan that we never really get to see. A remote island, Sado Island, is mentioned and we feel the remoteness of it all. I would wager very little was filmed anywhere near Japan and yet it doesn't matter - the lonely wilds of Japan are below. British middle-class quabbles above a foreign land, greyness, confusion.
Michael Redgrave just about rises above what is, to use an old term, a stellar British cast. This would be Sheila Sim's (Lady Attenborough) last movie role and it’s fascinating to witness her from one of her earliest roles, A Canterbury Tale, to this some 10 years or so later. From a serous but sunny woman in her early 20s to here in her elegant mid 30s. She’s kind of marginalized here, at the edge of the screen so to speak, but she played the part of an attractive middle class British woman abroad better than most. She got 2nd billing which is nice. I've always been a fan of hers and just wished she'd made more movies. She was also the last living link to the movie until her passing in 2016.
Leslie Norman is a criminally underrated director. This isn't the first time I've seen something of his where's he's taken the mundane to something approaching art.
One off words to describe the film: otherness, beyond, Britishness, above, middle-class, premonition, Japan, pre-ordained, fear, darkness, outer, clouds, 1950s, politeness, stoic, lost.
If you don't want to get it on Dvd try TPTV. Well at least in the UK. They dig it out every 6 months or so. Tape it or play the DVD in darkness at 1am or so. The loneliness takes you to the loneliness above the black & white clouds above this Earth.
Plight & premonition. 90 minutes that take you to the precipice of the other side.
I love it. Don't let my clumsy words put you off it's a must see film. I'm surprised it isn't more popular today - it's kind of been half forgotten, relegated to a footnote in the illustrious history of Ealing Studios. But it's worth far, far more than that. All images © Studiocanal. Condition: New. 2021: I've got a handful in. Payment can also be made to Lenin Imports by cheque, po, money order, cash by registered mail. Please enclose title of item ordering and return address. Address: Lenin Imports E-mail if you would like to be kept up to date via e-mail on your order status or would like to do a bank transfer. Please bear in mind that outside Europe the chances are that this Dvd won't work as it's a Region 2 Dvd. Please check before buying that you can play Region 2 (UK & Europe) Dvds as it's a waste of time and money on return postage bearing in mind the cost of the post these days. Thanks. Payment can also be made to Lenin Imports by personal check, po, money order, international money order, cash by registered mail. Please enclose title of item ordering and return address. Address: Lenin Imports E-mail if you would like to be kept up to date via e-mail on your order status or would like to do a bank transfer. 2016: Forever Ealing Book Reviewed, Photos & In Stock Search Site Top of Page |
