Salvation Army Archives - Jeremy C. Processing

Director – Stanley Kramer – 1959 – US – Cert. PG – 134m

*****

Australia is the only country yet to succumb to radiation sickness following a nuclear war – on Blu-ray from Monday, July 27th

The nuclear submarine USS Sawfish, under the command of Commander Dwight Lionel Towers (Gregory Peck), surfaces in Melbourne, Australia. Lieutenant Peter Holmes (Anthony Perkins) makes a bottle of milk for baby Jennifer and a cup of tea for his sleeping wife Mary (Donna Anderson from Inherit the Wind, Stanley Kramer, 1960; Count Yorga, Vampire, Bob Kelljan, 1976). He has to pick up the milk as it won’t be delivered any more. He’s on his way to see the admiral, who gives him a job on the Sawfish.

Reporting to the commander, he offers to take the latter for a drink, and winds up inviting his to stay at his home. He puts local woman Moira Davidson (Ava Gardner) in charge of him; at a party, where there’s a row between scientist Julian Osborn (Fred Astaire) and another man over who caused the nuclear war, she gets very drunk and comes on to Towers, but she falls asleep, so he puts her to bed.… Read the rest

The Choral

Director – Nicholas Hytner – 2025 – UK – Cert. 12a – 113m

*****

Against the backdrop of WW1 and a dwindling male population, the choral society of a small Yorkshire village attempts to mount a performance of Elgar’s The Dream of Gerontius – out in UK cinemas on Friday, November 7th

The fictional town of Ramsden, Yorkshire, 1916. World War One has been raging almost two years in France, but that almost seems like a distant world to 17-year-old lads Ellis (Taylor Uttley) and Lofty (Oliver Briscombe) whose main concern is eyeing up the local girls and working out their chances. Almost. Because Lofty’s job as a telegram boy, on which rounds Ellis accompanies him, means he’s delivering news of deaths from the Front to wives waiting anxiously at home and, following the 1916 Conscription Act requiring men aged 18 and above to join the armed forces, conscription notes to households from the King. (Prior to the Act, joining up had been voluntary although there was considerable moral and social pressure on men to do so.)

Closer to home, a more immediate concern looms for Ramsden in the form of the local choir, which has just lost its musical director to the army.… Read the rest