General Chat

HI Pam,

Yes Bullitt has had a previous mention. Wasn't his first film "Somebody up There Likes Me", where he had a small part as a lad in a gang fight. That was a good film too, with Paul Newman as the boxer Rocky Graziano.

Ed

Evening Ed, yes a good film Bullitt. Lots of the ladies liked Steve. Think he died the year my son was born 1980 or there abouts.

Think we've mentioned it on this thread.

Edit: He died a week to the day before I had my son Stephen, 7th November 1980... my lad arrived on the 14th...ouch!!!

Hello Pam et al,

I've just noticed that Bullitt is on Film 4 tonight. May give it a go when I knuckle down to some late night work (I have paperwork coming out of my ears at the moment and need to clear some up). Love the car chase.

I remember when Steve McQueen died - my sister had a "big thing" for him and was inconsolable. I wouldn't mind, but at 9 years my senior she should have been over those teenage crushes by then!

Nudge

nudge

Ah well, no one about, so will call it a night.

Speak again soon.

They're bound to repeat it, you must watch it Ed, think you'd enjoy it.

EDIT: Yes I think there was a series called that.

Wasn't there a TV series in the 70s called Crimes of Passion?

Yes the Magdala was a funny old pub - the really odd thing was that the second to last woman who was hanged in Britain lived about four doors up from the place - I can't remember her name, but I think she was a Greek Cypriot in he later years who murdered her daughter-in-law.

No I didn't see the Timothy Spall portrayal of Pierrepoint (or however you spell it). I like him too - very versatile and always gives a convincing performance.

Yes Ed, he is still over there as you say.

Fancy the pub where Ruth Ellis shot her boyfriend being your local, bullet holes still there then in the late eighties. In France I think that would have been classed as a Crime of Passion. Well it was really, she didn't deserve to be hung.

Did you see Timothy Spall playing the part of Albert Pierreoint a while back. i like Timothy Spall, very good actor a nice bloke too it seems.

Hello Pam, yes I do recall the documentary. I think the lawyer in question is still over there, and he represents many people on death row in the States attempting to get them a reprieve.

I couldn't agree more about Manson and Brady. Some would argue they are criminally insane - but they shoot mad dogs, don't they?

EDIT: suffering from 'fat finger' syndrome with my typing tonight - you wouldn't believe I've been in IT for nearly 30 years the way I type!!

Evening Ed, yes I have seen it and you're so right Richard Attenborough's performance as the vile John Christie is very creepy. You just cant imagine can you how that poor fella must have felt going to the gallows. They pardoned Tomothy Evans I believe and moved him from his buriel place within the prison, but all a bit late for that wasn't it.

Did you ever see a documentry Ed about a young English defence lawyer in one of the southern states in America. He took on the cases of poor (literally) black fellas who were clearly innocent. It was first shown about ten or twelve years ago or maybe more. I'm afraid in many cases he didn't manage to win a repriese for them. One case comes to mind, it was truly heartbreaking, this young black lad clearly didn't committ the murder and he was almost 'accepting' of his fate. His family were allowed to be with him for a farewell 'party' the night before he went to the chair, and at one point his young neices and nephews sing to him. I'll never forget the song, it was Always by Atlantic Star. The cameras were allowed almost to be with him to the end, oh it upsts me thinking about it. The young English lawyer was very upset too, it was murder really. A fly on the wall documentary of this young mans murder. Shocking.

What really gets me though is, you've got scum like Charles Manson still alive and in this country Ian Brady.

Hi Pam, yes history is littered with the innocent being effectively murdered by the state, and they always seem to be vulnerable people as well. Timothy Evans springs to mind, the poor man who was found guilty of killing his wife and daughter, and subsequently hanged for the latter, when it was in fact John Christie who committed the crimes.

Which brings me nicely back to the film, 10 Rillington Place - a great but chilling film with memorable performances from both Richard Attenborough as Christie and John Hurt as Evans. Have you ever seen it Pam? I did many years ago and Attenborough's portayal of Christie still sends a shiver down my spine.

FOOTNOTE: I'm sure the MIL's mentioned that a member of her family lived either in or very near Rillington Place!

Hello Ed, yes I'm like you with my views on capital punishment. Years ago I would have been totally anti it, and disagreed many times with people over the subject. One particular case being that of Stefan Kiszko, that poor man being sent to prison for all those years and had it happened earlier he'd have been sentenced to death. I remember it was the first Christmas I was married, that poor little Lesley Moleseed, was found murdered and they apparantly had got someone for it. When they eventually released Stefan Kiszko in 1992, it was so upsetting to see this poor chap who clearly wouldn't have harmed a fly. The police apparantly had said they wanted the case 'wrapped up' before the Chrismas break. This was in 1975. He'd had a bad time inside, he mentioned this in an interview and said he hoped to find a nice girlfriend and settle down. It was heartbreaking, seeing him with his mum. All those years robbed from him. As you probably know Ed, he died the following year aged fourty four and his mum died six months later.

It's these people and cases like that, people who were ill and clearly innocent, who have always made me anti capital punishment. But as you say nowadays with DNA etc. and the evil creatures who are about it's making me feel totally the other way. I've often said when hearing some of the evil things going on now, I'd happily put them down myself. I never thought I'd ever feel like that, so it shows how awful it's got now.

HI Pam, yes I remember Let Him Have it - wasn't Bentley played by a young Christopher Ecclestone? In those days, if a policeman was killed then someone hanged for it - because they couldn't hang the lad who pulled the trigger as he was a minor, then poor Bentley got the rope. Wasn't his defence that he was trying to talk the other lad into giving the policeman the gun, and that's what he meant by "Let him have it?"

It's funny you should mention Ruth Ellis - I used to drink in the pub where she shot her lover - The Magdala in South Hill Park. The bullet holes were still there in the late 80s ...

EDIT: My view on capital punishment - hmmm it's mixed. One part of me says one wrongly convicted person hanging is not worth ten thousand guilty going to the gallows. On the other hand, when I see some truly evil people walking the streets who should not be, and think of how DNA profiling can convict beyond all reasonable doubt, then I think I'd have no qualms in pulling the lever myself in some cases.

Calling it a night now, speak soon and take care.

Keep a look out for Milla, Ed!

Yes, I knew it had to be something awful for him not to go back.

Let Him Have It. Remember seeing this film with my hubby in Norwich when we managed a night out when the kids were younger. Based of course on the dreadful and true story about Derek Bently, who was hanged as he was eighteen and his mate who actually committed the crime of shooting a policeman was only sixteen I think. Bently's parents campaigned to clear his name and when they passed away his sister carried on trying to clear him. I think she passed away just before they pardoned him. They were going to make some one pay and that poor lad wasn't the sharpest knife in the box. I remeber seeing his poor old dad on Question Time years ago. He looked a broken man. Whatever your views on capital punishment, you'd have to be hard not to see the injustice with this case. I remember dad telling me how everyone was outside Holloway prison when Ruth Ellis was hanged. I was only a few weeks old as she was hanged in 1955. In my opinion she shouldn't have been, I guess that could be for another thread.

Anyway, 'Let Him Have It,' another film for our thread.

Hi Pam,

Just found Polanski's mini biography on IMDB - it seems both his parents were taken into the concentration camps and his mother died.

He was convicted in the 70s of the statutory rape of a 13 year-old, and he fled America to avoid prison (I'm snarling as I typed that - you can guess why) which is why he can't go back.

Noooooooooooo - I keep missing Milla!!

At last someone who's seen that film! I felt so sorry that he gets shot.

I've never seen Easy Rider in full, I must be the only person who got fed up with it.