Linkshoch Wonderful Movie

Megamind To all those who have watched it: I hope you enjoyed it as much as I do.

BelSports This is a coming of age storyline that you've seen in one form or another for decades. It takes a truly unique voice to make yet another one worth watching.

Mehdi Hoffman There's a more than satisfactory amount of boom-boom in the movie's trim running time.

Prismark10 Upon its release, A Nightingale Sang in Berkeley Square aimed to be British heist film with a modern sheen (there is a scene in an early branch of McDonalds where the serving staff has an American accent) but it comes across as a passable but humdrum movie with a lot of familiar faces and some light comedy.A slightly portly Richard Jordan (Pinky) plays a recently released ex-convict, an ace in fixing anything electrical whose parole officer has improbably got him a job in a high security bank.Pinky working in such a place does not go unnoticed. David Niven (Ivan) is the suave but ruthless criminal mastermind who wants to break into the vaults and persuades him to help his gang.Pinky resists as he wants to go straight but later wilts. Pinky does not trust Ivan to give him his fair share of the loot so has a back up plan with his best friend Oliver Tobias (Foxy) to help him out.After the robbery Richard Johnson (Inspector Watford) discovers that Pinky's jacket had the combination numbers for the safe and puts pressure on him to cough up names.The film has a lot of location shooting of late 1970s London, many of the female stars are there for eye candy such as Elke Sommer. Jordan is a likable lead, Niven is suave but he never convinced me as being menacing and of course you realise he was ill at the time this film was shot as he was suffering from Motor Neuron Disease which progressively got worse.

SceneByScene One of those lovely little films that would be more or less lost to the 21st-century viewer, were it not for the interest of certain Freeview TV channels, such as Talking Pictures, in broadcasting such gems.Not a great film, it has to be said, but an opportunity to see the talented David Niven in what was sadly to be one of his last roles. Also catch the much-missed American actor Richard Jordan (whose portrayal of a terrifying killer in 1985's 'The Mean Season' has ever stayed in my memory) as the lead character. A charming - if not stretched - role for one of the leads of the film classic 'Logan's Run'.There are a few crashing disappointments. The American actress of sultry 1940s/'50s film noir roles, Gloria Grahame, is criminally underused in the role of Richard Jordan's mother. And Elke Sommer's character ends up as nothing more than the role in which, unfortunately, she was always typecast: the token sexpot female. A waste of skills in both cases.Re the musical score: there are a few inexplicable - & inappropriate to the scene - motifs in the incidental music that are redolent of a Benny Hill theme. Being a 'caper' movie does not also make it a farce! This badly judged feature might in fact have been more to with the film's director - Ralph Thomas - having had a film career that included directing a string of lightweight sex comedies such as two 'Carry On...' movies & the 'Doctor...' films. But in most scenes the score - by Stanley Myers, the composer of the entrancing 'Cavatina' theme tune from 'The Deer Hunter' - has moments of great perceptive interpretation of the storyline.The film must also be noted for a few novitiate roles by now well-known actors: spot Alfred Molina in his second ever film role as a ferry port official; uncredited, too! And Duncan Preston (he of superb comedic roles in 'Dinnerladies' & 'Surgical Spirit') as a blink-and-you'll-miss-him policeman driver. Even John Rhys-Davies shows his future capacity to play a role with gravitas, in a small part as a solicitor.Oliver Tobias takes a sizeable role, a charismatic man if ever there was one. And Joss Ackland has a cameo. The fact that Auckland's role as the prison warden is uncredited on the film's cast list surely must mean that he took the role for fun. What with David Niven's stature as an actor, especially as the 1st part of his superb & witty autobiography - "The Moon's a Balloon" - had recently hit the bestseller list, I should think several people got involved in the film just for a chance to act with the great man. In fact it would be nice to dream that lots of old film career friendships were consolidated in the making of this London-set film! The director Ralph Thomas had not made a film in five years when he made this 1979 movie; & it turned out to be the last film he made before retiring.It is frankly preferable to gloss over the sad fact that this was to be the last film for too many of the actors. David Niven's quietly threatening & manipulative crime lord was one of his last film roles (and the last role he voiced himself after disease affected his voice). Plus this was the last film of Hugh Griffith. And Gloria Grahame only made a few more movies before passing away.If you know London then the locations will be of interest to you. West London features heavily, as do central parts of the city. And I would even be so bold as to swear that I recognised the micro-house of Gloria Grahame's character, as the same split-level London house that was lived in by the character of Bodie (or was it Doyle?!) in TV's 'The Professionals'! I remember so well the trendy 1970s' house layout from watching the series reruns, because as a teenager I always used to daydream that my first flat would look like it! So, more fond memories...A little 'find' on the Freeview TV schedule, well worth a perusal.

Leofwine_draca A NIGHTINGALE SANG IN BERKELEY SQUARE is one of those little-seen films that everybody seems to have forgotten about these days, which is a pity because it turns out to be a decent, semi-serious comic crime film. It was a late feather in the cap for director Ralph Thomas, who directed those early CARRY ONs all those years before, and it stands head and shoulders above similar fare as one of the most unique films of the era.Semi-comic films are notoriously difficult to pull off but this one gets the balance just right, I think. The movie is set in and around a bank where a gang of robbers are desperate to get inside the vault and plunder the priceless contents wherein. An on-form David Niven plays the leader of the gang and plays it just like he's in a comedy, whereas American lead Richard Jordan (LOGAN'S RUN) is the straight man believably driven to the edge by the turn of events.Despite a quite lengthy running time, A NIGHTINGALE SANG IN BERKELEY SQUARE never runs out of steam and keeps you guessing right until the end. For a comedy there's a surprising amount of suspense involved in the narrative and the robbery scene itself is exemplary. The subsequent fall-out is also very well staged and the film finishes on a real high. A supporting cast of familiar faces and former greats (hello, Gloria Grahame!) add to what is a very pleasurable viewing experience.

duke-verity Delightful! It never pretends to be a masterpiece, but it's a mini-gem of late-Seventies British comedy. Given that the producers wanted to sell it abroad, it stars an American (the late character actor Richard Jordan), but at least he isn't the usual dull Hollywood hunk type. Surrounding him is the cream of British character acting talent, led by a wonderfully waspish and superior David Niven.Niven's Ivan the Terrible naturally gets the best one liners and all the best reaction shots. He also manages to be surprisingly menacing and intimidatingly dangerous. The moment in the snooker club when he drops the charming facade and threatens Richard Jordan will come as a shock to those viewers who think of Niven as being only a light drawing-room comedy star. He is filled with genuine power and ruthlessness as we see all at once how Ivan earned his nickname. All the more surprising given how ill Niven was at the time. Shortly after filming this production he lost his powers of speech to Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (known as Lou Gehrig's disease). This is the last picture Niven made where you can hear his own voice, being dubbed thereafter by the comic impressionist Sid Little.Alongside him you can spot numerous familiar faces from Seventies cinema and television. Elke Sommer (flashing her breasts in true Seventies era politically incorrect bimbo mode), Oliver Tobias, Michael Angelis, Brian Croucher, Richard Johnson, John Rhys-Davies, Davy Kaye etc, etc. Davy Kaye gets one of the biggest laughs as he holds up a security guard caught making a phone call to the old UK analogue vinyl telephone music service Dial-A-Disc. "Who you ringing?!....Bloody Dial-A-Disc! You gormless git!" Great shots of London street locations; making the film a period patina time capsule of red phone boxes with chunky round-dial manual handsets, black cabs driven by "Cor blimey, gov!" cockneys, and ladies and gents modelling all manner of deeply dodgy late-Seventies retro leisure-wear and hair styles. Highly entertaining, quaintly dated in its fashions and attitudes, and the stuff of late night cult viewing. Perfect to watch at midnight after the pubs have shut; if you're of a certain age, are feeling a touch nostalgic; and have always wanted to see David Niven swanning about inside a branch of McDonalds, silently intimidating an American via the deployment of a retractable telescope!