| Author | Message | ||
     Joel (Joel) Username: Joel Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 91.110.188.228 |
If you have the recent BFI DVD of THE INNOCENTS, the extras include this remarkable Jack Clayton short from 1956. According to my mother THE BESPOKE OVERCOAT was a staple B-movie in the North London cinemas of the fifties. It's a half-hour film scripted by Wolf Mankowitz and adapted from his own stage play, which is based on a Gogol short story. Mankowitz transplanted the Russian Jews of Gogol's story to London's East End in the early 20th century. The film is an ironic ghost story, not scary but fairly bleak, about friendship, grief, poverty and injustice. An impoverished tailor is making a bespoke overcoat, at cost price, for his ageing friend when his friend dies of pneumonia. He is drowning his sorrows on cheap brandy when the friend returns – but not for the bespoke overcoat. Full of dry wit, but ultimately a painfully sad story, THE BESPOKE OVERCOAT is a neglected classic. It was made on a budget that would hardly have purchased a second-hand coat. The technicians gave their labour for bus fare and sandwiches. Actors David Kossoff and Alfie Bass were both members of the Communist Party of Great Britain, and the film has much to say about the exploitation of immigrant labour. | ||
| Joel (Joel) Username: Joel Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 91.110.137.123 |
Er, has anyone here but me seen this film? | ||
| Craig (Craig) Username: Craig Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 67.116.103.241 |
I haven't, never heard of it, but would love to see it - and I didn't even know there was a new INNOCENTS out there! Which must go up as one of the top 5 best horror movies ever made... though its source material was unfairly sublime to begin with.... | ||
| Huw (Huw) Username: Huw Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 218.168.196.181 |
I have the BFI DVD, but I haven't watched anything apart from the main film and the commentary yet. I've a stack of things I've been meaning to watch for months... and even more books I've been meaning to read. I'll have to try to squeeze it in this week... Another one I keep meaning to get around to is THE QUEEN OF SPADES, which Anchor Bay included in their edition of DEAD OF NIGHT. Anyone seen it? I liked the original story (by Pushkin). | ||
| Mick Curtis (Mick) Username: Mick Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 86.154.242.64 |
Joel - I saw THE BESPOKE OVERCOAT many years ago on TV - I do recall thinking it was a great little film, but wasn't aware that it was available anywhere nowadays, so thanks for the info - I'll buy the DVD. |