Friday, March 14, 2008

The British B movie

Matthew Sweet - one of this blog's heroes - has an article in today's Guardian on the lost world of the British B movie:

Observe, say, 1950s Britain through its top-of-the-bill films and it emerges as a land populated by pipe-smoking, twentysomething men who drive vintage Bentleys, usually with Muriel Pavlow in the back.

Explore it from the bottom of the bill and you'll encounter something different: tracts of featureless industrial estates, a world in which Wolseley police cars clatter under railway bridges in Croydon and mid-price actors occupy frowsty suburban drags. It is threadbare, unspectacular territory, where compromised people spend their time committing adultery and double-crossing each other, often while drinking pre-mixed American cocktails.

1 comment:

Blognor Regis said...

Have you noticed that the entire "Sir Norbert Smith: a life" has appeared on You Tube? Harry Enfield's finset hour, right up your street I should imagine.