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David Cottis @davidcottis.bsky.social · 6h

Two students, overheard walking past me in a corridor:

First: I'm not good at any sport.
Second: (in the tone of someone trumping an ace) Yeah, I'm no good at anything.

David Cottis @davidcottis.bsky.social · 18h

I always do the intro to I'm a Moody Guy by Shane Fenton

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David Cottis @davidcottis.bsky.social · 1d

@secondmentions.bsky.social 'this garish gourd'

The Guardian @theguardian.com · 1d

Pumpkin power! How this garish gourd took over the world

Whether you want a mug, tealight holder or fidget spinners, all are available with a pumpkin theme. Festivals are dedicated to the orange fruit, and there are countless recipes to try. Why are they suddenly October’s overlords?

www.theguardian.com

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David Cottis @davidcottis.bsky.social · 1d

Also one of the founders of the ESC - Shylock, Volpone, Prospero, and a glorious George Melly-suited Falstaff

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David Cottis @davidcottis.bsky.social · 2d

R.I.P. John Woodvine - an RSC stalwart when I was a teenager, during that company's imperial period; Banquo to McKellen's Macbeth, Falstaff in Merry Wives, Ralph Nickleby. Less of a film career, but he was perfect in An American Werewolf in London. The definition of an actor with authority.

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David Cottis @davidcottis.bsky.social · 4d

The best section has pianist Johnny B. Great, whoever he may be, doing a storming version of 'I Had a Hammer'. The US release had a completely different title and framing plot. One of the songs is credited to 'Mercy Hump', a mildly risque in-joke, later used by Anthony Newley. (2/2)

David Cottis @davidcottis.bsky.social · 4d

Not really a film, more a video show, with Sam Costa lying in bed watching mimed performances by various second division '60s singers and bands. Freddie and the Dreamers top the bill, with Freddie Garrity dressed as a court jester, which seems about right. (1/2) www.imdb.com/title/tt0060...

Just for You (1964) ⭐ 5.5 | Musical

1h 3m

www.imdb.com

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David Cottis @davidcottis.bsky.social · 4d

London vignette: a teenager on a Lime bike, in the classic uniform of black jeans, hoodie, and scarf, cycles round and stops in front of me. He holds up his hand for a high-five, which I give him. I hear a couple of young people behind me cheering. I think I might have just won somebody a bet.

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David Cottis @davidcottis.bsky.social · 4d

In the stage adaptation, this was then applied back to Lind, which may have influenced the authors of 'Barnum' to create a story about P.T. Barnum's (fictional) affair with Jenny Lind, which was then carried over into 'The Greatest Showman'. What a wonderful world. (2/2)

David Cottis @davidcottis.bsky.social · 4d

So, let's see if I've got this right... 'Hans Christian Andersen' took Andersen's (real-life) infatuation with Jenny Lind, hybridised it with 'The Red Shoes' (which is itself a hetting-up of the Diaghilev/Nijinsky relationship) to produce a story about a (fictional) ballerina. (1/2)

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David Cottis @davidcottis.bsky.social · 5d

That website's quite the rabbit hole, btw.

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David Cottis @davidcottis.bsky.social · 5d

Hmm.. interesting that they made Jenny Lind into his lost love. Presumably this is a few years before 'Barnum' did the same thing (with the difference being that in Andersen's case, it may actually have been true).

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David Cottis @davidcottis.bsky.social · 5d

I assume you know the story about Singin' in the Rain...

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David Cottis @davidcottis.bsky.social · 5d

Yeah, I remember that, and wondered how it would work - there are only eight songs, and they're mostly in the first half. I'm guessing someone had to augment the score - from what I've heard of Tommy, i doubt that he would put up with a dancer stealing half of his show.

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David Cottis @davidcottis.bsky.social · 5d

The great Basil Wolverton

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David Cottis @davidcottis.bsky.social · 5d

... marking the screen debut of the French ballerina Zizi Jeanmaire (of 'Where Do You Go To , My Lovely?' fame). The template is clearly 'The Red Shoes' - a love story structured round an Andersen story (here, 'The Little Mermaid', with Andersen as the mermaid) ending with a ballet version. (3/3)

David Cottis @davidcottis.bsky.social · 5d

Watching it now, I'm struck my a few things: the brilliance of Frank Loesser's songs, the odd darkness of the central love triangle (Andersen is more of a stalker/voyeur than a lover), and especially how dance-heavy it is - almost the entire second half is taken up with ballet routines... (2/3)

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David Cottis @davidcottis.bsky.social · 5d

I'm not quite sure how I got to the age i am without seeing this, especially given how present Danny Kaye was in the culture when I was growing up, but a recent reading of a biography of Moss Hart, who wrote the screenplay, inspired me to seek it out. (1/3)

www.imdb.com/title/tt0044...

Hans Christian Andersen (1952) ⭐ 6.9 | Biography, Family, Musical

1h 52m | Approved

www.imdb.com

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David Cottis @davidcottis.bsky.social · 6d

Two female students overheard in a corridor:

First: Still, people are quite nice to us.
Second: Yeah (Pause.). It's quite good being NPCs.

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Reposted by David Cottis

Anne Billson @annebillson.bsky.social · 7d

The Cardinal and the Corpse was directed by Chris Petit & features Martin (not Michael) Stone, legend, who once lent me a first edition of Fritz Leiber's Night's Black Agents, at a time when it was impossible to find (I have my own not-a-first copy now thanks to @annodracula.bsky.social)

Jonathan Calder @lordbonkers.bsky.social · 7d

This film takes us deeper into its world of disreputable book scouts.

We meet - still alive and thoroughly respectable - Michael Moorcock and Alan Moore.

Then there's David Seabrook (dead), Michael Stone (dead) and Driffield (disappeared, though see the recent court case).

The Cardinal and The Corpse: Deeper into Iain Sinclair's world

Reminiscing about a lost Stamford bookshop , I mentioned Iain Sinclair's novel White Chappell, Scarlet Tracings. This film takes us deep...

liberalengland.blogspot.com

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David Cottis @davidcottis.bsky.social · 7d

... following various public health scandals, including a corpse fire at Spa Fields, near where I live. A perfect opening to the annual London Month of the Dead, which was described by one attendee as 'like Christmas, only better'. (2/2)

David Cottis @davidcottis.bsky.social · 7d

Great talk at Highgate Cemetery Chapel, by t he ever-impressive Roger Luckhurst launching his new book on Graveyards, talking about the history of London's 'magnificent seven' cemeteries, and the campaigns of the Victorian philanthropist George 'Graveyard' Walker to get them built... I1/2)

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David Cottis @davidcottis.bsky.social · 11d

Directed by American expat Cy Endfield, who came to the UK to avoid the blacklist, and later directed Zulu. The DVD includes a contemporary 'making-of' short, with interviews with Endfield and Alfie Bass, whose natural accent is completely different from the one he always used on screen. (2/2)

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David Cottis @davidcottis.bsky.social · 11d

A important film in the whole reappraisal of classic British cinema that's been going on lately, partly because of TPTV. An astonishing cast, and a tough, working-class milieu that's rare in the national cinema of the time, giving it a '30s Warner Brothers tone. (1/2) www.imdb.com/title/tt0051...

Hell Drivers (1957) ⭐ 7.2 | Crime, Drama, Film-Noir

1h 31m | Approved

www.imdb.com

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David Cottis @davidcottis.bsky.social · 11d

R.I.P Tony Harrison. So many masterpieces - The Misanthrope, the Oresteia, the Mysteries, Trackers of Oxyrynchus, V.... The later work is less consistent - he should never have started directing his own texts - but there are moments of glory even in a sprawling mess like Fram. A genuine legend.

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