Reply With QuoteHey, I wish I could be there - Barbara Shelley is a most charming Lady with a wicked sense of humour.
Barbara Shelley will be making a personal appearance at the National Film Theatre in London - Monday 17th August at 6.20 along with Jonathan Rigby, author of English Gothic- introducing a showing of The Camp on Blood Island. It will be good to see this at last in a proper 2.35:1 print - I hope!
Hey, I wish I could be there - Barbara Shelley is a most charming Lady with a wicked sense of humour.
Hope it goes well for you Shelley, and also you may have to put up with stifled laughter as it's one of the worst casting films in the history of British cinema in my opinionOriginally Posted by Shelley Court
kingbman
Is anyone going to the showing.
It would be well worth seeing Barbara, as she doesn't make public appearances much these days (due to ill health, I think).
I well remember her as a lovely lady to work with.
I loved how Barbara Shelley looked in "Village of the Damned" from 1960, so I've been curious about some of her earlier films. IMDB lists several obscurities (at least, obscure to me) from the same era:
Cat Girl (1957)
The End of the Line (1957)
The Camp on Blood Island (1958)
The Solitary Child (1958)
Murder at Site 3 (1959)
Deadly Record (1959)
Bobbikins (1959)
Shadow of the Cat (1961)
Stranglehold (1962)
Postman's Knock (1962)
Are any of these worth seeking out in order to experience Barbara at the height of her great beauty? And are any of them they any good?
Barbara is very effective in The Shadow of the Cat, which is shown as "A B.H.P. Film", but is in fact an early Hammer Film appearance by her.
Another vote for The Shadow of the Cat. Hammer fans generally seem quite down on it, but when I eventually tracked it down I was pleasantly surprised. It's about the closest Hammer got to doing a Roger Corman Poe-type film. Shelley and Andre André Morell are terrific.
Cat Girl is interesting, although Barbara had only just returned from working in Europe so her performance of the English dialogue is unusually clipped and oddly delivered. She looks great though. Also the male lead Robert Ayres is completely unsympathetic and comes off as a complete tool.
The Camp on Blood Island is a fine film, but given it's about Japanese POWs I wouldn't watch it expecting Shelley to look her usual gorgeous self
Hammerdave your comment on S.O.T.Cat: Good solid thriller, a bit stagey in some scenes-but worthy of a look for those yet to see. The drowning swamp scenes were very effective, seen from a 'cat's view'-wide angle lens and distorted-another scene where the cat has yet again led to the death of one the killer's of the cat's Mistress. Freda Jackson in fine fettle as the hysterical 'Clara' housekeeper to the murderous household. Yes and Barbara plays a benign and restrained 'English Rose' part.
Another vote for The Shadow of the Cat. Hammer fans generally seem quite down on it, but when I eventually tracked it down I was pleasantly surprised. It's about the closest Hammer got to doing a Roger Corman Poe-type film. Shelley and Andre André Morell are terrific.
Cat Girl is interesting, although Barbara had only just returned from working in Europe so her performance of the English dialogue is unusually clipped and oddly delivered. She looks great though. Also the male lead Robert Ayres is completely unsympathetic and comes off as a complete tool.
The Camp on Blood Island is a fine film, but given it's about Japanese POWs I wouldn't watch it expecting Shelley to look her usual gorgeous self
I hadn't realised that she was in Murder at Site Three- Francis Searle quota quickie I'd love to see. I agree with the comment about Cat Girl, well worth checking out though for a more sensuous side to her screen persona.
Shadow of the Cat isn't a Hammer film but its a decent thriller as most Gilling films were
I think The Shadow of the Cat is really a Hammer Film, maybe not in copyright terms: "B.H.P. Films Ltd./A Jon Penington Production", but it was made at Bray with the regular Hammer crew.
Not sure what defines a 'Hammer' film if it isn't the production entity?
I take your point, but even putting aside the use of the word "Hammer" as a generic term for this kind of film - I remember Philip Jenkinson being lambasted in the Radio Times years ago for calling the Fu Manchu films of the 60s "Hammer Films" - on the technical side for this one, for what it's worth:-
The Shadow of the Cat is a bona fide Hammer film, despite going out as a BHP production. BHP was formed in 1960 by writer George Baxt, theatrical agent Richard Hatton and producer Jon Pennington (sic). Baxt wrote a script and they took the project to Hammer, who in turn secured backing from Universal on 17 August [1960]. The film would eventually be shot by Hammer's regular crew at Bray and production stills bare (sic) reference to it being Hammer's 73rd production.
Wayne Kinsey, Hammer Films The Bray Studios Years
Yeah there is a school of lazy journalism that defines anything with Chris Lee and/or Peter Cushing as a Hammer film; likewise though there is a generation of fans who make sweeping generalisations, 'I love Hammer movies'- not entirely sure what that statement means either. One might as well say I love NFFC films because they had money in the Hammer movies. In fact I suspect that the BHP marque was there to qualify for NFFC funding!
A Front-of-House still featuring Barbara Shelley and Andrew Keir in Quatermass and the Pit (1967).
I have also posted the above Front-of-House still on Andrew Keir's Thread on Brit Movie.
Here's Barbara wearing the same clobber as above but using a bike to cycle between set ups whilst battling the Martians in Quatermass and the Pit
And here's here first screen role in a blink and you'll miss it appearance in Hammer's Mantrap from 1953, She was still billed as Barbara Kowin then.
Excellent find, dremble!
And here's here first screen role in a blink and you'll miss it appearance in Hammer's Mantrap from 1953, She was still billed as Barbara Kowin then.
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