Discover Top Posts Tagged with #robert tronson

Jeremy Brent-Ina Balin "Act of reprisa!" 1964, de Erricos Andreou, Robert Tronson.

#Ina Balin #Jeremy Brent #Erricos Andreou #Robert Tronson

Man in a Suitcase: Variation on a Million Bucks - Part Two (1.5, ITC, 1967)

"So, money and women make fools of us all. Which is making an idiot of you, Mr. McGill?"

"Both."

"Then you are twice damned."

#man in a suitcase #blood tw #variation on a million bucks #itc #classic tv #1967 #stanley r. greenberg #robert tronson #richard bradford #ron randell #yôko tani #anton rodgers #norman rossington #gay hamilton #harry landis #warren stanhope #jeremy wilkin #simon brent #harry tardios #ricardo montez #a neat wrap up to probably McGill's biggest adventure. of all the two parters ITC tried out in the late 60s with an eye to editing for #cinema release‚ i think this is perhaps the most successful. it does suffer bc of the revised transmission order‚ like part 1: US #intelligence explicitly know that McGill is innocent of the treachery he was accused of 6 years previously‚ something which will only be #revealed as a twist at the end of the next episode (in fact the pilot). I'd forgotten how downbeat the series could be‚ marking it out as a #real change in style and tone from ITC's previous fare; McGill rarely wins‚ and isn't always the most likeable lead. notably this ep #touches briefly on bigger themes about greed and the value of money‚ as well as obsession and mortality. it's also another fairly bloody ep #with McGill getting stabbed before act 1 is even over. also of note is McGill's killing of a man in the ep's conclusion; where The Saint #and others brush over this kind of standard violence for adventure tv‚ it's treated here as a serious issue with potential fallout that's #only avoided bc of the interference of the US government (likewise McGill seems to treat it more somberly than Simon Templar or such would)#a rare straight role for sitcom stalwart Norman Rossington as the corrupt ship's captain who smuggles McG into Lisbon

Villains: Billy Boy (1.13, LWT, 1972)

"Your father talked about you occasionally. I had the feeling he would like to have seen you."

"He did. I was handcuffed to a screw at the time. Can you imagine? Being led through a ward of geriatrics? Christ, how they stared. Even those on their last legs, eyes like organ stops. Hardly recognised him at first. 'Hello, Dad', I said, 'It's Billy Boy'. He stared straight through me. 'Who?', he said, 'I don't know any Billy Boy'."

"You broke his heart."

"Had to keep telling myself that that was my father lying there, could have been any old man. I remember, he had some grapes alongside the bed, I picked one off and ate it - that's when the screw turned on me. 'Don't you touch those', he said, 'They belong to your father, I didn't bring you here to stuff yourself'. Oh, that really got through to the old man. He thought that very amusing: laughed like a drain. Even while he's laughing, he starts to choke, he coughs up blood and all sorts. Anyway, that's... that's when a nurse rushed in, and I was dragged out and taken away. Nobody bothered to inform me when he died; was Eric worried I might have been let out for the funeral?"

#Villains #Billy Boy #classic tv #andrew brown #Robert Tronson #William Marlowe #David Daker #Alex Marshall #David Burke #Vanessa Payne #Herbert Ramskill #George Baizley #A.J. Brown #Peter Whitaker #Andy Devine #And so this brilliant‚ strange‚ completely unique series draw to its close. How like Brown to end the series in such an unexpected manner:#How like this series to open its final episode with the only major player still at large‚ William Marlowe's Bill‚ already in prison. What #Might reasonably have been expected to be a suspenseful tale of how Bill evades capture instead becomes a sharp character study explaining #Why he never could. Brown's script is one of the simpler in plot (although still featuring the multiple time lines characteristic of this #Series) but his dialogue is beautiful (not least the speech I've quoted above‚ which is much more affecting in performance)#Marlowe is incredible here; his story has in many ways been the one most central to this series and this episode perfectly strings together #The various glimpses of his life and personality that have been established so far‚ and simultaneously bringing the series to a logical #But deeply upsetting conclusion. Split between the present and prison‚ and the past and Bill's final day of freedom with his estranged #Family. These home scenes are a straight four hander which are played beautifully by all concerned (always fun to see a young David Burke #Rock up‚ even if he never did look that young) and shout out to Payne who's an excellent child actor. And then just as suddenly as it began #It's over. A mystifying‚ unpredictable‚ unique series. There are other shows that examined a single event and used individual episodes to #Study single characters (The Gold Robbers is a good example‚ and quite similar in set up) but none were so experimental and none blended #Genres and pushed the boundaries of the medium in the way this series did in some episodes (still not over some of them). At the same time #It isn't perfect‚ there are misses as well as hits‚ and for me Knocker is an awkward odd one out that fits badly with the rest of the serie #But that's old TV! It's never perfect‚ even the very best of it! And in a way it makes the rest so much better! What a series! What a world

Ina Balin-Jeremy Brett “Act of reprisa!” 1964, de Erricos Andreou, Robert Tronson.

#Ina Balin #Jeremy Brett #Erricos Andreou #Robert Tronson

Villains: Move In, Move On (1.8, LWT, 1972)

"You're a studious fellow, aren't you?"

"D'you know, my old man wanted me to go into accountancy. Either that, or civil engineering."

"So why didn't you?"

"Well I have. I've sort of combined both, haven't I."

#Villains #classic tv #LWT #1972 #Robert Tronson #Andrew Brown #Robin Chapman #William Marlowe #David Daker #Martin Shaw #Tom Adams #Alun Armstrong #Patrick Durkin #Michael Culver #Jim Norton #Bob Hoskins #Gwyneth Powell #Marion Mathie #Johnny Shannon #Geoffrey Lumsden #Joan Peart #Beryl Cooke #Eight episodes! Eight episodes in and we finally get a look at the robbery which has been at the heart of this series. Our lead is Bill #Marlowe who's been perhaps the most visible of the gang so far. We flit between him in his foreign hideaway after the escape (presumably #Mexico) and back to the planning and execution of the robbery. We get to see more of the gang together (altho Bob Hoskins scenes are still #Filmed in such an awkward way that I can only assume he wasn't available at the time and was spliced in later) whilst in the present we get #To see Marlowe suffer at an expat dinner party full of awful snobs. Classic Chapman fare as he invites us to wonder who is the moral #Villain in this story; the bank robber who worked hard for a small payout or the awful privileged types who condemn him as a leach when #They have contributed nothing to society themselves. A solid episode and its a treat to see the various stars act against one another #For once (as much as I have enjoyed the format so far its just nice to get actors like Marlowe Daker and Shaw all in a room together)

Villains: Sand Dancer (1.6, LWT, 1972)

"It all happened in the spur of the moment. We went to Brixton for the appeal, y'know... And I heard we were gonna be sprung. The others had plans, see. Well, it's worth it for them, they've still got their whack. Hey, thirty-thousand quid, you should've seen what that looked like! I used to sit in me room and just... open the case up, sit and stare at it. Stacks and stacks of bloody fivers. It looked that new though, I used to have to go and wash me hands afore I'd dare touch it. Funny, really. I never quite felt it belonged to me, y'know? Anyway, the law broke in, grabbed me, and grabbed the money. I thought at first, well, I'll serve me time, y'know, keep out of trouble and try and get all the remission I can. But there we were: in the middle of this bloody tunnel, free, and I thought to hell with it - I'll come and see you."