The 14 (The Wild Little Bunch)

A story about kids too old to be children, too immature to be adult. Raised in a big city [London] slum, orphaned when their [widowed] 38-year-old Mother dies, they fought desperately to stay together as a family. They are unruly, undisciplined, and defiant of well-intentioned authority when it seeks to split them up for their own good. There are no villains’ in this story. Only victims of a society we ourselves have created.  As a film it is tough, rough and raw. It is also warm and deeply moving. It has laughter as well as tears, heartbreak as well as hope. It is more than a great Motion Picture experience. It is a great human document – one you will never forget![1]

Is this a fair description of David Hemmings second directorial outing? Yes - I think it is. The 14 (1973) known as The Wild Little Bunch on its release in the USA, is certainly a heart rendering story about the 14 orphans of the title. Similar in tone to the social problem films of the 1950’s and 60’s, films like The Pool of London (1953), Violent Playground (1958), Victim (1961) and A Place to Go (1963) and one that brings to mind Jack Clayton’s Our Mothers House (1967). The children range from the 17 year old Reg, played by Jack Wild, right down to wee baby Marie.  They all live in a house in a street that’s due for slum clearance; in fact some dwellings have already been demolished! The family are just about making ends meet when their mother (EastEnders regular June Brown) falls ill and dies in hospital leaving the children completely alone.  Welfare places a Mrs Booth (another EastEnders star Anna Wing who played Lou Beale from 1985-1988 who sadly died last year.) in the house to look after the children, a placement that goes tits-up in a rather hilarious fashion. The story continues with the children attempting to look after themselves with the help of Reg’s girlfriend Reena (Cheryl Hall best known as Wolfie’s girlfriend in the TV sitcom Citizen Smith) who moves in along with her own two young babies.  But Welfare, who one must be honest are not painted in too bad a light by Roland Starke’s screenplay, are not happy with these arrangements and begin to split the family up - much to their displeasure.

 

Reg and Reena get the oven working....

....a result - Christmas dinner. 

"I've got my eye on you son"

This entertaining but moving story was entered in the 23^rd Berlin International Film Festival where it won the Silver Bear. Set in East London and made at Pinewood Studios by Avianca Productions London WC2 The 14 is purported to be based on a true story about the struggle of a family of Birmingham orphans to stay together, in spite of what the authority’s put in their way, who eventually are relocated as a family on a farm in Cornwall. Maybe a tiny bit emotional at times but never melodramatic which is probable due to the cracking cast of non-actors that play the children and manage to enhance the anarchic reality of the story.  Made available on DVD for the first time from Network and well worth a look.

Trailer:  The 14  (1973).

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[1] Promotional press book.

Some People.

The question asked in this early sixties film is whether a local youth club with its ping pong soft drinks and cosy church like atmosphere is enough to save three motorcycle lads from becoming delinquents. Its when Johnnie (Ray Brooks) and his two mates Bill (David Andrews) and Bert (David Hemmings in his first decent role) get banned from riding their bikes and who after their days work at the timber yard has finished end up at a loose end wondering the streets trying to keep themselves entertained without getting into more trouble. But its when they go into the local church and Johnnie starts banging out a tune on the organ, which obviously upsets the Minister, that they meet Mr Smith the part time organist and choirmaster who along with his attractive daughter Anne (Anneke Wills best known for her role as Polly in BBC TV’s Doctor Who) arrange for the boys to use the Church Hall to rehearse their rock-n-roll outfit, complemented by a couple of middle class lads from the choir and Bills girlfriend Terry played by the Carry On actress Angela Douglas. Gradually they are brain washed into taking part in the Duke of Edinburgh’s Award Scheme but Bills not keen, which in turn leads to tension between him and Johnnie. 

 

"The Band" 

A cross between 60's realism and the cheerful optimism of the Cliff Richard musicals Clive Donner's Some People (1962) is not only a look at the teenage culture of the early sixties, where alcohol was the working class drug of choice, but an advert for the virtues of the Duke of Edinburgh's Award Scheme for youth. When actor Kenneth More was asked to play Mr Smith he agreed to do so for nothing apart from his expenses because of his support of the DOEAS which the film promoted and that the proceeds would go to the Award Scheme and the National Playing Fields Association. It was during the filming that he met Angela Douglas for whom he left his second wife after 16 years of marriage. He then found himself virtually ostracised by the film industry until success in the BBC's 1967 adaptation of The Forsyth Saga made his talent and popularity impossible to ignore.

 

Ray Brooks with Mrs More to be Angela Douglas.

The film was shot entirely on location in Bristol. Songs for this semi musical were written by Ron Grainer and Johnny Worth and performed by the UK band The Eagles and singer Valerie Mountain.  Clive Donner, who went on to direct two other memorable 60’s films The Caretaker (1963) and Here We Go Round The Mulberry Bush (1967), makes the most of his young cast with Ray Brooks worth a special mention. Without the obvious DOEAS propaganda this could have been a serious pre Beatles look at youth culture with the usual problems of not being accepted by middleclass society who at that time were scared of the power that working class teenagers were beginning to assert through high employment and money in there pockets. Instead we end up with a rather cozy look at the perceived youth problems of the time, so much better portrayed in other films of the period like the Free Cinema Movement that lead into the British New Wave and Basil Dearden’s social problem films like Violent Playground (1958).

Blow-Up.

The classless photographer indulges in his fashion shoot.

It wasn’t until Michelangelo Antonioni ventured to the UK and made his first English language film that he becomes a truly international filmmaker. Blow-Up (1966) was the Italian directors biggest commercial success. It was based on a short story Las Babas del Diablo by the Argentinian writer Julio Cortazar. Shot mainly in South London it tells the story of glamorous fashion photography, inspired by classless snapper David Bailey who divides his time between serious shoots and sessions with fashion models. The film opens with Thomas (David Hemmings) dressed as a transient leaving a Salvation Army Hostel, a place that would then have been referred to as a doss house, with reels of 35mm stock showing the men and the conditions they lived in, all of which are to be used in a forthcoming book. Leaving the area in a convertible Rolls Royce he goes back to his studio to photograph the German model Veruschka and a fashion shoot for a magazine. Later whilst waiting for the owner of an antique shop to return so he can make an offer for the property he enters Maryon Park and starts taking photos for a future project.  He see's a young women (Vanessa Redgrave) and an older man petting and intrusively starts taking pictures. The woman is furious and tries to get hold of his camera, eventually tracking him down to his studio. Thomas can't understand why the woman wants the negatives so much until he develops and enlarges the prints.

The films release was blocked because of some explicate images.

If the film does nothing else it shows what the mid 1960s were perceived to be like underlining the hyped up feel so beloved of the media at the time. But in fact there was a significant discrepancy between most people's experiences and the colourful dream that was the swinging sixties. Most of us were earning our living in a far less romanticized fashion than the well-heeled individuals portrayed in the movie. It did however show the beginnings of the celebrity culture, note the two young girls (Jane Birkin and Gillian Hills) notoriously going to any length to get a famous photographer to take their pictures with perhaps the hope that some of his fame will rub off on them. Certainly, for a main stream British film at that time, the nudity was quite explicit, including Redgrave removing her blouse and wondering around the studio with only her crossed arms protecting her modesty, the films initial release being blocked because of it. It also shows the acceptance of the drug culture, the casual sex, and the fashion consciousness of the time and of course music concerts, all of which was available to those that could afford to indulge in the life style. Incidentally the film has a great soundtrack from Herbie Hancock and also includes the track performed by The Yardbirds with a classic lineup that included both Jimmy Page and Jeff Beck.

The Swinging Sixties wasn't like this for us all!!

Antonioni's film was said to influence Coppola's 1974 movie The Conversation and after seeing both film’s recently I would beg to differ. Coppola set out to make a thriller where as Blow-Up was neither suspenseful nor a thriller. It was really a portrait of what was to become known as a swinging London movie but like many of them had the addition of some disturbing undertones involving the mystery of what our aggressive young photographer saw or did not see in a dog less South London park. 

The mystery of Maryon Park, South London.

Deep Red (Profondo Rosso)

Promotional artwork for Deep Red.

From time to time we all complain about the obtrusive musical soundtracks that accompany some films. Spoiling our enjoyment when the music attempts to tell you how to feel about a scene, but with certain movies it’s inconceivable that we could watch them without a soundtrack. For example directors like Quentin Tarantino use music to enhance the story line, you couldn’t imagining watching Pulp Fiction (1994) or perhaps Kill Bill (2003, 2004) without it’s musical score.

Another director who is famous for experimenting with music is the leading Italian director of horror movies and mystery thrillers Dario Argento. When he first wanted to score his film Deep Red (1975) he contacted jazz pianist and composer Giorgio Gaslini who, it is alleged, he fell out with and had to look for somebody else, eventually finding a home grown progressive rock band called Goblin. Influenced by early Genesis and King Crimson the band so impressed Argento he got them to rewrite most of the score including the films famous main theme which forms an important part of the narrative.  Goblin in one form or another subsequently went on to score many of Argento’s films.

The original title of the movie was Profondo rosso but in America where it was cut by some twenty minutes it’s known as The Hatchet Murders. The film is usually referred to as being part of a sub genre known as giallo which in Italian is a word meaning yellow and stems from a series of cheap pulp paperback mystery novels which all had trademark yellow covers.

Daria Nicolodi.

David Hemmings.

Co-written by Argento, Deep Red proved to be his break through film and he remarked that it was his favourite of all his movies. A film between dream and fantasy with a plot that does not take close examination but it has his trademark vibrant colour, massive close ups, jump shots, flamboyant camera movement, gruesome bloody death’s and as I previously pointed out a great score. The story involves some gory murders linking a mystery from the past, which English piano teacher Marcus Daly (played by a rather lack lustre David Hemmings) attempts to investigate with a local reporter Gianna Brezzi (played by Daria Nicolodi, Argento’s wife at the time). Is it a film worth seeing? Yes as an example of this world-renowned directors oeuvre, in fact it’s a good place to start.