
The best thing about the BBC's Summer of British Film is the scheduling of lost Brit classics during the daytime schedules, as opposed to re-runs of Columbo, 'made for TV' rubbish and cheap imported dramas. Long may it continue...but I'll not hold my breath.
One such gem was Flame In The Streets, a tale of race and racism in early 60s London. In fact, it's about racism on three levels - in the workplace, in the home and on the streets. And it all centres around Jacko Palmer (John Mills), a career-minded union leader, fighting to make his mark in the role - and fighting for the rights of black employees to be treated equally on the shopfloor.
But what's fine in the workplace isn't as fine in the home. His daughter Kathie (Sylvia Syms) is dating a black teacher (Peter Lincoln, played by Johnny Sekka) - and the two plan to marry. Her mother Nell (Brenda De Banzie) is outraged, fearing the good name of the family and airing just about every prejudice in the book - looking to Jacko for a solution to their impending 'shame'.
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“Birdie num num”
The Party is one hell of a funny film and one that director, Blake Edwards should be rightly proud of with its abundant (and hilarious) sight gags and a sparkling script adding the finishing sheen to a colouful, stylish vehicle for the comedic talents of a certain Peter Sellers.
‘The Pink Panther’ (1963) had of course, propelled Messrs Sellers and Edwards into the stratosphere and having worked together again on another Clouseau adventure, ‘A Shot In The Dark’ (1964), they embarked on this foray into unadulterated daftness.
Hrundi V Bakshi (Sellers) an incompetant film extra, fresh from fouling up his last movie, is erroneously invited to a swish Hollywood party. From the moment he arrives at the oppulant pad he causes chaos and as he moves from one excruciating situation to another, the party starts to unravel resulting in psychedelic pandemonium.
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