Michael Caine

I didn’t really know who Michael Caine was until the Madness song, which was in 1984. But when I saw the video I recognised him as being someone I’d seen in a lot of grown up films that were around in the Seventies.

A lot of his Sixties films were on TV in the Seventies as well, such as The Italian Job, so his face was all over the place.

I remember my mum saying he wasn’t a very good actor because he always played the same sort of character and he spoke with a monotonous tone. But he got so much work and was in so many films that someone must have thought he was good.

Apparently he didn’t care that people made fun of him being in bad films. According to wikipedia, he doesn’t really care whether the film is good or bad so long as he’s paid. When asked about one that was a total box office failure, he said, “I have never seen the film, but by all accounts it was terrible. However I have seen the house that it built, and it is terrific.” I think this is a healthy attitude to take in a world of instant celebrity and the fickleness of the media.

Educating Rita is one of my all-time favourite films, but that’s because I love Julie Walters, who is my long-lost twin. I wonder if he thinks this one is good.

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Josie Henley-Einion, author, blogger, Legend in my own Living Room

Stephen King

Some might say the Seventies were good to Stephen King, as it was the decade in which he got married, saw Carrie, his first book, published and gained increasing popularity with subsequent books such as Salem’s Lot, The Shining and The Stand. However, it was also the decade in which his mother died and he struggled with alcohol dependency. As with us all, the Seventies held good and bad for Stephen.

According to Wikipedia, Stephen King is the best-selling novelist in the world. He is the icon of the horror genre and his books’ themes are the key themes of horror so that his name is synonymous with the genre.

In the Seventies, the mass market paperback became extremely popular and Stephen King’s books were sold in extreme numbers. It has been suggested that his late-seventies pseudonym of Richard Bachman was due to the author’s insecurity about whether he could really cut it or whether it was pure fluke that he was a success. More likely it’s just that back then publishers didn’t like an author to put out more than one book per year.

I first heard of Stephen King when my Mum was reading one of his books and she told me not to read it. So of course the next book with the name ‘Stephen King’ on it that I saw in the library was snaffled. I didn’t get very far into it, but certain scenes of The Shining are emblazoned in my brain to this day. I would never have watched the 1980 film with Jack Nicholson as I was only 10 at the time, but have seen parts of it since. Parts, not the whole.

I think that his writing probably did influence mine, but in a negative sense of I really must not write like this! rather than any other way. Years later I read On Writing, which I found extremely interesting, insightful and useful, especially the bit about being selfish and shutting yourself away to write. I have always admired Stephen King as an author, not necessarily for his writing as I’ve read so little, but for his commercial savviness and his output.

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 Josie Henley-Einion, author, blogger, Legend in my own Living Room

Bedknobs and Broomsticks 1979

I was eight when Bedknobs and Broomsticks was re-released in 1979. We had never seen the film but we’d heard a lot about it as there was quite a build-up to the release. We rarely went to the cinema then as it was so expensive, having to travel into town first and the tickets were expensive and we hassled our parents for sweets and drinks which were astronomically expensive compared to having a drink at home. I remember going to see Snow White when I was about four or five, and Star Wars at about six and that’s about it. Most of the films we saw were the ones on the TV.

We did ask if we could go to Bedknobs and Broomsticks but without much hope. Then one evening I sensed that we were going to be going out (it’s funny how kids know that without being told isn’t it?). Dad said that we were going to be watching an orchestra. We all groaned but there was something about the way Dad said it that made me think he was playing a trick, because he sometimes did this. So I asked what was the name of the orchestra, and he said it was called Bedpans and Brush-handles. “Bedknobs and Broomsticks, Bedknobs and Broomsticks!!” we yelled, leaping around in the living room (but being careful not to get too excited in case we got slapped).

I don’t remember anything about watching the film, but I know it quite well as I’ve seen it plenty of times as an adult. I liked the undercurrent of the witches getting together to defeat Hitler, and have learned as an adult that this did actually happen although not in the Disneyfied manner that the film portrays. I hadn’t realised until I came to write this post that the film was based on a book, and that the initial release in 1970 was much longer. Must find that book now.

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Josie Henley-Einion, author, blogger, Legend in my own Living Room

Bank Holiday Films

Before there were videos, DVDs, multi-start TV and whatever else we have now, Bank Holidays were TV heaven. For the whole of one day, starting when the Testcard stopped showing at nine o’clock, there would be films to watch. Classics such as The Wizard of Oz, Jason and the Argonauts and Ben Hur during the family viewing daytime. Action adventure with Errol Flynn and new James Bond films in the evenings.

It was marvellous. If you were ever off school randomly, like if you were ill or the school flooded or froze, then you knew that the daytime TV generally sucked. I mean even more so than today when at least you have more options. For weeks leading up to a Bank Holiday, you might look forward to the time off school so that you could get to watch TV all day long and be happy. Unless your parents decided that you should be doing something healthy outdoors, that is.

These days, Bank Holidays aren’t as exciting. There is still time off school and work, but the TV doesn’t tend to be any different to the usual fare. Those old classic films haven’t lost their magic, but it seems that making them constantly accessible has watered down the excitement somewhat. Or am I just being jaded and cynical?

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Josie Henley-Einion, author, blogger, Legend in my own Living Room

Star Wars: May The Fourth Be With You

Yes, I really did deliberately choose today for this post so I could put this awful joke in the title. It comes around every year at this time. And I always like to slip it in.

What is a site dedicated to the Seventies without a bit of Star Wars? The whoosh of the light sabre, the rattling roar of the Wookie. The amazing technology of those beepy robot boxes! It was the height of sophistication. And as with Dr Who, although the film was set in a completely different time and space dimension, the haircuts were so recognisable, it could have been made in Walsall in 1975. In fact, there’s a rather excellent YouTube series Taff Wars by Jimbo Loony, which takes clips from the film and dubs Welsh Valleys voiceover. You really must check it out – but only if you are unshockable.

Look at that hair! Isn’t it fab? No bothering to cut a straight fringe, just stick a bowl on his head and slice around the edges. I identified with Luke more than any of the other characters (though I did sometimes go beep in a feeble impression of R2D2). There was no way I was going to stick a bun either side of my head and pretend to be Leah like the other girls did.

There have been swathes of documentaries about the making of Star Wars, the history behind it and cultural impact. The point that always seems to be brought up is that this was the first film with modern merchandising, especially toys. I never had a Millennium Falcon and would never have considered asking for one, but I really wanted a light sabre. I really, really wanted one.

Any scraggy old stick would do in lieu of a light sabre, and I could make the whooshing noise myself (still do) while I swished it around. While the other girls were spinning diddly-ompom sticks (which is what we called the batons that were used by the leader in the jazz band), I was spinning my sabre and being Luke. 

The other character I pretended to be on occasion was the Wookie, Chewbacca. I loved him to bits. Like a great big teddy bear who could fight if you needed him to. I envied Han Solo for having Chewy as a friend. I practiced the rattly roar (you need a lot of phlegm) and threw my head back and beat my chest. But only when no-one was looking. 

 

 

 

 

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Josie Henley-Einion, author, blogger, Legend in my own Living Room