BELMONT RURAL FEATURE

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Sleepers are films, telly programs, books, magazines and music that never gained the fame they deserved - or only after many years lying dormant. Their merit is of course a matter of personal judgement. That's why contributions to this Belmont Rural web page carry an author's identity - even if it's only a web name.

Got a sleeper of your own? Email it to contribs@belmontrural.co.uk

Duel at Silver Creek
Audie Murphy
Steve McNally

 

 With such a title and "stars" of that magnitude who - these days - would give this fifties B-feature (The US news magazine, Time, called such westerns "oaters") a second thought? The plot isn't a lapel-gripper either. Long before NHS eye tests a sheriff finds his sight is failing and worries he may plug the wrong target. What matters is it's an early work of director Don Siegel, a great creator of action films (Dirty Harry, Charlie Varrick, The Shootist). Duel works like a Swiss watch. OAP
Excitable Boy
Warren Zevon
 I'm on tricky ground here. Pop's not my thing and it could be that the late Zevon (died 2003) and the song are famous. However, various pop enthusiasts of my acquaintance proved ignorant of him and his music. The song dates back to 1978, it's got audible and meaningful words and - without taking a harsh rightwing view - suggests there are certain crimes that the law is ill-equipped to deal with. Memorable tune, easily sung by an amateur. What more could you ask for? OAP
Downhill Racer
Oakley Hall		 Members of the US ski team racing each other throughout the winter. Turned into a forgettable film with Robert Redford. Where the book scores is its exploration of a teenage mind barely afloat in an obsessive, claustrophobic world utterly lacking in distractions other than the piste. Goes some way towards revealing the shrunken intellectual existence of the dedicated sports person. OAP
Larry Sanders Show
BBC2, two or three years ago		 Foul-mouthed American sitcom, hence its appearance at 11.45 pm, hence its frequent disappearance if the snooker over-ran. Many innocent viewers still awake at this time thought it was simply a chat-show and rejected it. But it was a show about a chat-show. Viciously parodic, brilliantly written, totally subversive. What made it different from all other sitcoms is that the repellent people it portrayed were successful and wealthy. Thus very powerful. OAP
PS: Those with satellite TV or a digibox, plus a great deal of persistence, may watch LSS repeats on ITV4
Car and Driver
1967 - 1972		 Unsurprisingly a UK sleeper since it was - and still is, in a more diluted form - an American magazine. But in the period indicated, when it had three separate editors, it was imaginative, well-written and funny. Cars were merely the spring-board for a majority of the articles which touched on most aspects of American life. Subversive too. C&D organised the original Cannonball Baker Memorial Run for which drivers secretly foregathered in New York prior to setting out for Los Angeles in the fastest time possible. OAP
Charles Ives
Fourth Symphony		 The American composer Ives died in 1954 without hearing this work performed in public. It requires gigantic resources and two conductors. Stokowski, introducing the first performance for the Public Broadcasting Network in the sixties said, sardonically, "Some people think that one conductor is too many". Like other Ives orchestral works it includes many quotations from hymns and folk songs, the mixture of rhythms is unnerving, and the pace can be breathless. But it is great fun, I promise. OAP
Bruch
Scottish Fantasia		 Hardly a sleeper, it can be heard on the airwaves frequently, usually a bit over-romantic and hackneyed. But try Jascha Horenstein with The London Symphony Orchestra, (Decca 476 7288). A seriously motivated orchestra in a performance above and beyond, transforming it into something different with power, precision and pizzazz. If you've ever thought it not worth bothering to get the best recording of some music this will change your mind. OAP - fr.
It's a wonderful life
James Stewart		 What about "It's a wonderful Life" with James Stewart, husband and father who missed all the career opportunities of his life helping others? Reaching a mid-life crisis, with a lovely wife and three happy children he wishes he had never been born when an angel, in the form of an elderly rookie, training to get his heavenly wings, saves him from suicide. The angel grants Jimmy his wish and takes him back into the past showing him how different the world would be if he had never lived. The experience makes our hero realise just how wonderful life is and how lucky he had actually been and begs to be returned to the present. Christmas, with loving family and many friends around, he knows that "every time a bell rings, an angel gets his wings". All uplifting and original stuff and now, after years
without recognition, a very popular family film on
DVD. Joyce Clare
Hobson's Choice
Charles laughton
John Mills

"Hobson's Choice" is a black and white classic with young
John Mills as Will Mossop, a boot maker working in the
cellars of a shoe shop owned by Charles Laughton. It includes is a now famous scene where a liberally intoxicated Laughton tries to capture the moon in a puddle outside the pub !

Laughton's eldest daughter, Maggie, clever and hard working, runs the family shoe shop and the house and is considered an old maid. She surprises her father and two twittering sisters by deciding to marry Will Mossop who she recognises has talent and skill. Her proposal is a shock to everyone, Will included, and the couple are told to leave the family business. They set up on their own and between the surprises of a happy honeymoon (no bouncing flesh or groans in this film) and their eventual success as shoe makers to the gentry, Will and Maggie make you feel that life is worth living however hard it is.

Later the two sisters get help from Will and Maggie to marry their sweethearts, their father gets DTs, sees pink rats on the bedstead and finally suggests that the couple return to his shop as joint owners. This super story is played for all its worth by great actors and actresses whose every word you can hear and understand. This is my all time black and white comedy film favourite and I recommend it even to the young who may not recognise the Edwardian setting but will understand the plot and the way it all takes shape. Joyce Clare




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