Upcoming Jessie Matthews from VCI

[Harold Aherne]

VCI will be issuing several of Jessie Matthews' films in coming months:

There Goes the Bride (1932) pre-order date 19 Jul.
Friday the Thirteenth (1933) pre-order date 2 Aug.
The Good Companions (1933) pre-order date 2 Aug.
The Man from Toronto (1933) release date 3 Sep.
Climbing High (1938) pre-order date 5 Jul.

Further details and artwork are found at VCI's website: http://www.vcientertainment.com/. They already have First a Girl (1935) available.

-HA

[Frederica]

VCI will be issuing several of Jessie Matthews' films in coming months:

There Goes the Bride (1932) pre-order date 19 Jul.
Friday the Thirteenth (1933) pre-order date 2 Aug.
The Good Companions (1933) pre-order date 2 Aug.
The Man from Toronto (1933) release date 3 Sep.
Climbing High (1938) pre-order date 5 Jul.

Further details and artwork are found at VCI's website: http://www.vcientertainment.com/. They already have First a Girl (1935) available.

-HA

Fabulous! I don't think I've seen any of these yet.

[Jim Roots]

The Man From TORONTO???!!! Are you kidding me? Somebody once made a film that not only features a character from Toronto, but uses the city's name in the TITLE????

Wait -- the narrative places Toronto a stone's throw from the North Pole, right? And everybody there speaks with a funny French accent?

I see it's captioned, too. Egads, I have no excuse. Must order it immediately.

Jim

[Penfold]

Climbing High is completely barking mad........do get it !!! It's directed by that young Carol Reed....

[Gaucho]

I suppose you can thank me for There Goes the Bride coming out in R1 - I'd been holding off on buying the Region 2 DVD for some time now and just when I break down and order it...boom.
Delightful film though!
Looking forward to seeing Friday the Thirteenth too.

[moviepas]

Toronto, New South Wales, Australia.
Toronto was named after Toronto, Ontario, Canada in honour of Edward Hanlan, a world-champion sculler who visited Australia in 1884.[2] The area's subdividers, the Excelsior Company, named the land in honour of Hanlan's visit, which coincided with the opening of the subdivision. The name was not publicly used until 1887. The Canadian city's name comes from the Mohawk language tkaronto, meaning where there are trees standing in the water.[3]

[Jim Roots]

Toronto, New South Wales, Australia.
Toronto was named after Toronto, Ontario, Canada in honour of Edward Hanlan, a world-champion sculler who visited Australia in 1884.[2] The area's subdividers, the Excelsior Company, named the land in honour of Hanlan's visit, which coincided with the opening of the subdivision. The name was not publicly used until 1887. The Canadian city's name comes from the Mohawk language tkaronto, meaning where there are trees standing in the water.[3]

Ned Hanlon remains reasonably well-known in Toronto, mostly because an island in the harbour was named after him.

Dunno about that Aboriginal fable, though. It's been a long time since I checked, but I don't think it was Mohawk territory (wasn't it Iroquois?) and the word "toronto" meant "gathering place" or "gathering place by the water".

We have some other Torontonians on NitrateVille who may be able to verify. Reg Hartt???

Jim

[s.w.a.c.]

I believe The Rank Organization was owner, or part-owner, of the Odeon Cinema chain in Canada (heck, their logo was the man with the gong), which was later split up into two separate companies, Cineplex-Odeon in Quebec, Ontario and points west, and Empire Theatres in Atlantic Canada (where I live, owned by the Sobeys grocery store chain). Occasionally they would come up with Canadian stories to interest their colonial audiences, TCM recently showed High Tide at Noon (1957), which featured locations shot in Northwest Cove, about 20 minutes outside of Halifax, and interiors shot at Pinewood Studios back in Blighty. Not a bad little romance, set against the backdrop of the local lobster fishery, with a cast that includes Flora Robson, Ontario-born Alexander "Wilson" Knox and Patrick McGoohan in a supporting role. They don't get the accents right (vintage South Shore Nova Scotia residents would either sound like a softer version of the Maine nasal twang--you hardly hear this anymore--or they'd be of German or Scottish descent), but that's to be expected I suppose.

A friend's dad remembers lots of British films in the local cinemas growing up in Halifax, including those starring his personal favourite George Formby, and when I was a kid in the '70s I recall lots of newspaper ads for Carry On titles (wasn't allowed to see those, too rude!) and those Adventures of a Plumber's Mate-style sex comedies. Haven't seen The Man from Toronto (1932), but I see Toronto's Royal York hotel in the background of the cover art, so I guess I'll have to have a look to see how much of it actually takes place here.

[drednm]

Climbing High is very funny and Michael Redgrave is surprisingly good ... and so is Jessie Matthews.

[moviepas]

or they'd be of German or Scottish descent), but that's to be expected I suppose.

Going into a supermarket in Windsor/Ontario in the early 1970s one was struck by the Scots' tongue thicker than thickened cream. Not sure about today as I have not been out of my country since August 1980. However, I and descended from both those gutteral tongues mentioned in the heading.

Back in the 1970s, I belonged to the Nostalgia Book Club(Arlington House) in New Rochelle. They offered copies of the Broadcast Information whatever catalogues and one was the listing of TV series available in North America at the time including one off specials, some in color. If a show was available, tragically, its production was not listed. However, the film catalogue listed thousands of films and if a title was not available it was still listed and reason on the unavailability was given. An example was Good News(MGM 1930) and the reason was given as Negative Deteriorated. I guess this meant the 2-strip Technicolor finale reel. This catalogue also listed the territories the films were available to screen. Thus there was a large number of British films going right back before the war listed(Jessie Matthews, Gracie Fields etc) and these were only available thru a distributor for TV there for Canadian TV stations. At the time many of those titles had never been on Australian TV since TV started back in 1956. Many of those films are now on DVD in my collection.

In the early 1970s I lived about 235 miles from Toronto and never did get there. I was living with family in Lincoln Park/Mi close to Wyandotte Chemical in Wynadotte(on the Detroit River) before German firm, BASF took them over.

I watched the midday movies often on Kaiser Broadcasting Ch 50 when they were presented 7 days a week with Canadian cowboy, Bill Kennedy ,who I phoned up one day. He had previously done the same job at CKLW Ch9 over in Windsor. In the main I saw many films on the Late Late Show from the depression era(MGM, Warners 1928-30) that must have been in the early TV packages but never seemed to be screened in Melbourne/Australia. The Big House(MGM 1930) comes to mind. Watching films in the wee hours is painful as ads were about every five minutes. Horrible, I kept falling asleep.

[Harold Aherne]

Some additional British and/or Jessie Matthews films on VCI's schedule for October and November:

It's Love Again (1936)
Gangway (1937)
Head Over Heels (1937)
Sailing Along (1938)
Bank Holiday (1938)

-HA

[N_Phay]

"Sailing Along"! I never thought I'd see that one on DVD.

[drednm]

One of her best.... possibly my favorite. Possibly.

Should be watched with the marvelous Brit film Painted Boats to get the background on canal life.

[N_Phay]

The numbers from this film are some of the best ones on the double CD I have of her songs I think.

[entredeuxguerres]

One of her best.... possibly my favorite. Possibly.

Should be watched with the marvelous Brit film Painted Boats to get the background on canal life.

Have to be wonderful to surpass Evergreen, but I'll be finding out for myself very soon.

Haven't seen the other film, but I did see years ago an excellent Nat Geo special about British canal boaters.