Charity Shop & Poundshop Finds

[hunck]

Mackenna's Gold is not one of Thompson's best. He liked working a lot, and that can mean the quality can vary wildly, certainly the case with him. Anyway, it features Julie Newmar (Catwoman) swimming nude, if that interests you.

I'm interested..

 

[JamesWhitehead]

Mackenna's Gold is not one of Thompson's best.

I see it was originally planned as a very grand Roadshow release. Sections were filmed in various processes, in the hope of recreating the Cinerama experience! Vestiges of this ambition are evident in the impressive opening section.

It was pared down to two hours, which required voice-overs to cover the cracks. Any clamour for a reconstruction? Maybe the two of us?

 

[JamesWhitehead]

DVD bought, Bury, 02.01.2020, total price £0.50:

2753.D: Mr. Majestyk, dir. Richard Fleischer, 1974, ana. w/s, 104'

Fleischer, from the cartoon dynasty, meets Bronson, from his Death Wish period in this thriller, which I think I only ever saw on tv. Does Bronson own an orange-grove? That sticks in my mind. Him or Delius, easy to confuse . . .

 

[Frideswide]

Does Bronson own an orange-grove?

melons!

 

[GNC]

Mr Majestyk is rare among Bronson thrillers because he actually has a sense of humour in it. Unless the subject is melons.

 

[ramonmercado]

Mr Majestyk is rare among Bronson thrillers because he actually has a sense of humour in it. Unless the subject is melons.

He does become rather meloncholy in some scenes.

 

[JamesWhitehead]

4 x DVDs bought, Chadderton 11.01.2020, total price £1.49:
2754.D: Holiday Camp, dir. Ken Annakin, 1947, 93'06" + Bios. texts + Gallery 3' c
2755.D: Here Come the Huggetts, 1948, dir. Ken Annakin, 89'14" + Gallery 0'45"
2756.D: Vote for Huggett, 1948, dir. Ken Annakin, 81'03" + Gallery 0'50"
2757.D: The Huggetts Abroad, 1949, dir. Ken Annakin, 83'25" + Cast Bios. texts + Gallery 0'50"

3 x DVDs bought, Droylsden 14.01.2020, total price £1.00:
2758.D: Speed, dir. Jan de Bont, 1994, ana. scope, 111'
2759.D Speed 2, Cruise Control, dir. Jan de Bont, 1997, ana. scope, 120' P.
2760.D: You'll Never Get Rich, dir. Sidney Lanfield, 1941, f/s, 88'

I had hoped the ITV Huggetts set would have marked more of an upgrade than it does. Holiday Camp, best of the group, was acquired on VHS, which led me to download the others to view as a sequence, a couple of years back. The DVDs are mediocre transfers from soft and speckly materials, confirming these antique soap-operas as faded fodder indeed. I remember when HMV were flogging this ITV set for £25! The films are very much time-capsule fare, teaming Jack (Dixon) Warner with Kathleen Harrison as parents of a supposed working-class family. I can see these would not be compelling viewing for many, these days, but I am drawn to the "hauntology" of the era just before my own!

I had Speed on VHS and enjoyed it a while back. Now I can enjoy the sequel, which I gather was pretty much the same. I note that, unusually for a sequel, it runs longer! You'll Never Get Rich is a 1941 Fred Astaire movie. He had switched to Columbia by this time and was teamed with Rita Hayworth, in lieu of Ginger. I'm not mad-keen on dance films but this one was a gap worth filling for the 50p. asked! Columbia did make some effort to refurbish their back-catalogue, so I am hoping this will look nice!

From the same source came a 1 ltr Thermos flask in mint condition. I see it has a glass liner, so it may not survive my clumsy handling for long. Worth a punt for £2.

 

[GNC]

I know what you mean about old movies, part of the reason I love watching them is the time capsule element, the way of seeing where they were in the river of time and where we are now by comparison. Not to get pretentious, you understand.

Fred and Rita were great together, they should have made more films with each other, really.

Speed 2 is NOT the same as Speed. Keanu was wise to give it a miss. It was based on a dream director Jan de Bont had! Presumably he showed up for work without his trousers or something.

 

[Mythopoeika]

Presumably he showed up for work without his trousers or something.

Could happen to anybody.

 

[maximus otter]

l needed a new gym bag, as my previous one (a charity shop find) was going home. l finally found a nice example - Nike, in red - priced at £8.95. l thought that was a trifle steep, but was happy to pay it.

On arrival at the till, l handed the item to the lady. She peered at the price label and conferred with a colleague, who said, “Charge what you like, we want to get rid of it”, or words to that effect.

£3.95: Result!

maximus otter

 

[Mythopoeika]

l needed a new gym bag, as my previous one (a charity shop find) was going home. l finally found a nice example - Nike, in red - priced at £8.95. l thought that was a trifle steep, but was happy to pay it.

On arrival at the till, l handed the item to the lady. She peered at the price label and conferred with a colleague, who said, “Charge what you like, we want to get rid of it”, or words to that effect.

£3.95: Result!

maximus otter

You bought the cursed bag! Congrats.

 

[maximus otter]

You bought the cursed bag! Congrats.

Once I'd scraped the dead, ball-gagged GCHQ agent out of it I had no more problems.

maximus otter

 

[Frideswide]

@maximus otter

 

[Tigerhawk]

l needed a new gym bag, as my previous one (a charity shop find) was going home. l finally found a nice example - Nike, in red - priced at £8.95. l thought that was a trifle steep, but was happy to pay it.

On arrival at the till, l handed the item to the lady. She peered at the price label and conferred with a colleague, who said, “Charge what you like, we want to get rid of it”, or words to that effect.

£3.95: Result!

maximus otter

You bought the cursed bag! Congrats.

Once I'd scraped the dead, ball-gagged GCHQ agent out of it I had no more problems.

maximus otter

No, it's still cursed. When I curse something, it stays cursed!

 

[CarlosTheDJ]

One charity down a fiver. Can you fire a volunteer?

 

[Tigerhawk]

One charity down a fiver. Can you fire a volunteer?

Out of a cannon, certainly. Don't ask how I know this...

 

[Swifty]

Not my find, someone else's on facebook's charity shop shit ..

 

[Yithian]

Shocking racist doll.

But I like the sausage wrestlers.

 

[ramonmercado]

But I like the sausage wrestlers.

I didn't notice that! Just saw it as a generic classical sculpture!

 

[Swifty]

Shocking racist doll.

But I like the sausage wrestlers.

If 'a person of colour' has made that doll, is it still racist? *strokes beard in pre-emptive potential smugness*

 

[Mythopoeika]

If 'a person of colour' has made that doll, is it still racist? *strokes beard in pre-emptive potential smugness*

Yes! LOL

 

[escargot]

Not my find, someone else's on facebook's charity shop shit ..

It's a version of a famous sculpture of Hercules and Diomedes wrestling. The original is intended to be humorous, with Diomedes grabbing Hercules’ penis to stop himself being thrown. We have a little copy of the original somewhere.

 

[Peripart]

I had Speed on VHS and enjoyed it a while back. Now I can enjoy the sequel, which I gather was pretty much the same.

No, no, no! Speed is a decent movie, but the sequel is... well, the opposite. Much, much worse. Speed 3 (the Father Ted one) is the only sequel worth seeing.

 

[Tigerhawk]

It's a version of a famous sculpture of Hercules and Diomedes wrestling. The original is intended to be humorous, with Diomedes grabbing Hercules’ penis to stop himself being thrown. We have a little copy of the original somewhere.

Someone is being "thrown"...

 

[Mythopoeika]

Someone is being "thrown"...

... or tossed.

 

[escargot]

Bought some Asda pyjamas, BNWT, £2 rather than £15.

They are far from snug. Like this!

(gif of David Byrne in his oversized suit)

 

[maximus otter]

A Lowe Alpine Airzone Centro 35 rucksack - £60 to £70 worth - like new for £9.99

That’s our upcoming holiday in the Lake District sorted.

maximus otter

 

[Dinobot]

Not my find, someone else's on facebook's charity shop shit ..

View attachment 22657

Looks like a standard Friday night in Cromer...

 

[JamesWhitehead]

2 x DVDs bought, Middleton, 24.01.2020, total price £1.00:
2761.D: Fort Apache, dir. John Ford, 1948, f/s, 123' - supersedes 414.V
2762.D: Cabin in the Sky, dir. Vincente Minelli, 1943. f/s, 93' + Comm. + Studio Tour, short. P. - supersedes 1325.V
6 x DVDs bought, Prestwich, 31.01.2020, total price £3.00:
2763.D: Genevieve, dir. Henry Cornelius, 1952, f/s, 82'50" + short, 23'43" + locations, 2'49" etc. supersedes 590.V
2764.D: Boys in Brown, dir. Montgomery Tully, 1949, f/s, 79'37" P.
2765.D: Hunted, dir. Charles Crighton, 1952, f/s. 81'08" P.
2766.D: Penny Princess, dir. Val Guest, 1952, f/s, Technicolor, 90'04" P.
2767.D: Spanish Gardner, dir. Philip Leacock, 1956, 91'38" open-matte? from VistaVision, P.
2768.D: Singer Not The Song, dir. Roy Baker, 1961, 127'15" full-frame, cf scope version on 9121.D

January, 2020 ends with four upgrades and four new titles. Fort Apache isn't much of a step up from the video, looking soft and green, as these Universal discs often do. The all-black Minelli musical looks quite good and comes with a Commentary and short.

Nice to get the box of rare Bogarde titles for £2. I am hoping The Singer Not the Song is in its proper Cinemascope ratio, not full-frame, as the box states. It's a very camp curio, featuring Dirk as a black-leather bandit. My downloaded version is wide but dismal.

Radcliffe produced no interesting DVDs but a browse of the clothing turned up two brand-new pairs of M & S trousers at £1 each. Over the road, a set of twelve glasses, curiously packaged in a piano-shaped box, set me back a fiver but they are fine glassware and my stocks were getting low!

Edit 08.30 pm. Previews confirm that Genevieve is a tad grainy but the Technicolor is vivid. It includes a nice little making-of featurette with Dinah Sheridan and other participants, also a montage of stills and a set of clips identifying the locations.

The Bogarde set is a curate's egg. Boys in Brown and Hunted are quite pleasing transfers of these b & w stabs at social realism. Love the location photography! Penny Princess is echt-Ruritanian fluff but the Technicolor has survived quite well. The Spanish Gardner was made in VistaVision but this disc is open-matte, I think. It needs refurbishing. The stinker in the pack is The Singer, which is full-frame, after the Cinemascope titles.

 

[GNC]

The Singer Not the Song is positively groaning at the seams with repressed homoeroticism. Only one problem: John Mills wasn't Dirk's idea of anybody's lust object, and he hated making the film as a result.