Kino Quickies

For our first film at a venue other than the Kino, Bermondsey, we were delighted to be hosted on October 8th 2023 at the gorgeous Garden Cinema for our screening of The Gaunt Stranger (1938).

Based on a novel by Edgar Wallace, The Gaunt Stranger is the story of a mysterious criminal called "The Ringer" who, although supposedly dead, has threatened to kill a corrupt lawyer called Maurice Meister at a specific time and date.

Directed by Walter Forde with a screenplay by Sidney Gilliat, The Gaunt Stranger has a small place in history for being the first film to be produced at Ealing studios by Michael Balcon. It stars Mr Jessie Matthews himself, Sonnie Hale, along with Patrick Barr, Alexander Knox, Wilfrid Lawson and the ever fragrant & delightful Patricia Roc.

Our guest for the Q&A was Dr Adrian Smith of the University of Sussex - not this Dr Adrian Smith of the University of Sussex or even this one but this one.

Adrian is on Twitter, has two podcasts - The Wild, Wild Podcast & Second Features and recently published a book about the late Norman J Warren.

Buy your very own copy of the The Gaunt Stranger on DVD....

...and listen to this 1973 BBC radio adaptation.

Visit London's newest and most beautiful independent cinema, The Garden Cinema and follow them on Twitter. They also have a brilliant membership scheme.

Your hosts at Kino Quickies screenings are Dom Delargy and Dr Lawrence Napper.

Subscribe to Dom's other film related podcast, Soho Bites and his non-film related one Mural Morsels.

Watch Lawrence's online talk about quota quickies - its title is controversial! Quota Quickies: the worst films ever made?

Follow Lawrence on Twitter.

Follow Kino Quickies on Twitter and Facebook for updates.

Join our MAILING LIST and never miss a screening again.

Here's a very good article explaining what Quota Quickies are from the Cinema History Blog.

Well that was fascinating but now I want to find out more.

Don’t forget to subscribe to the Kino Quickies podcast. It comes out a few days after each screening.

Scrooge (1935) was the subject of our Christmas special and the last Kino Quickie of the season.

It's the first ever talkie version of A Christmas Carol and stars Seymour Hicks, a man who had played the part hundreds of times before, on both stage and screen.

It's not this Seymour Hicks though.

Our guest for the Q&A was the playright and screenwriter, Ming Ho.

Follow Ming on Twitter.

The Kino Cinema was packed to the rafters which made the second half of the Q&A all the more enjoyable as it was given over to some festive community singing led by a top secret mystery special guest.

The best way to watch Scrooge (unless you happen to catch it on Talking Pictures TV or TPTV Encore) is to buy the DVD of the 1951 Alastair Sim version from Renown Films, because the Seymour Hicks version is included as a bonus extra feature.

Ming's research for the Q&A went above and beyond and she turned up all sorts of interesting nuggets of information much of which was found in THIS BOOK. Unfortuantley it's extremely expensive at the moment but is available to read in the BFI Library.

She also stumbled upon this - a record of the time Seymour Hicks's beloved wife and business partner, Ellaline Terris, appeared on This is Your Life.

Your hosts at Kino Quickies screenings are Dom Delargy and Dr Lawrence Napper.

Subscribe to our other film related podcast, Soho Bites and our non-film related one Mural Morsels.

Watch Lawrence's online talk about quota quickies - its title is controversial! Quota Quickies: the worst films ever made?

Follow Lawrence on Twitter.

Follow Kino Quickies on Facebook for updates - our Xwitter account has been discontinued.

Join our MAILING LIST and never miss a screening again.

Here's a very good article explaining what Quota Quickies are from the Cinema History Blog.

Well that was fascinating but now I want to find out more.

Don’t forget to subscribe to the Kino Quickies podcast. It comes out a few days after each screening.

***UPDATE*** The Kino has now been closed down but, after a long hiatus, The Arzner has taken its place.

Our expert sound engineer was the ever dependable Robin Warren AKA Robin The Fog - follow him on Twitter.

We are delighted to have received support from Talking Pictures TV - the UK's best TV station.  You can find them on your television on these channels: Sky 328, Freeview 82, Freesat 306 and Virgin 445 and register for their online catch-up service, TPTV Encore

You can hear the trailer preview episode of Kino Quickies season two HERE.

The cups all those millions of fans out there of the Kino Quickies mascot, Henry Kendall, runneth over this day, because Death on the Set treats us to a double dose of him.

Our Henry plays two unlikeable men - a very unpleasent film director and his drunken and disreputable lookalike - who are locked in a cycle of crime.

It's based on a book by Victor MacClure which is now out of print but you can buy it online if you sell all of your belongings.

Our guest for the Q&A is Richard Farmer, a researcher at Bristol University. He is currently researching UK film studios as part of a wider project called Studio Tec.

During the Q&A we displayed two interesting maps which show the locations of all the film studios in and around London in the 1930s. See them here on the website of the late, great Roland-François Lack.

Follow Richard and the Studio Tec project on twitter

Your hosts at Kino Quickies screenings are Dom Delargy and Dr Lawrence Napper,

Book tickets for Scrooge - THE LAST KINO QUICKIE OF THE SEASON HERE

Subscribe to our other film related podcast, Soho Bites and our non-film related one Mural Morsels.

Watch Lawrence's online talk about quota quickies - its title is controversial! Quota Quickies: the worst films ever made?

Follow Lawrence on Twitter.

Follow Kino Quickies on Twitter and Facebook for updates.

Join our MAILING LIST and never miss a screening again.

Here's a very good article explaining what Quota Quickies are from the Cinema History Blog.

Well that was fascinating but now I want to find out more.

Don’t forget to subscribe to the Kino Quickies podcast. It comes out a few days after each screening.

They don't just screen ninety year old films at the Kino - they show recent ones too!  Keep up to date with their Twitter, Instagram and website.

Making a welcome return from the beaches & fleshpots of Thailand, our sound engineer was Robin Warren AKA Robin The Fog - follow him on Twitter.

We are delighted to have received support from Talking Pictures TV - the UK's best TV station.  You can find them on your television on these channels: Sky 328, Freeview 82, Freesat 306 and Virgin 445 and register for their online catch-up service, TPTV Encore

You can hear the trailer preview episode of Kino Quickies season two HERE.

A Fire Has Been Arranged is the first full length feature starring the comedy musical duo, Flanagan & Allen.

The first of two films in the season to be directed by Leslie Hiscott, it also stars Robb Wilton and a 35 year old (but perpetually middle-aged) Alastair Sim. It was, like many quota quickies, produced by Julius Hagan at Twickenham Studios.

Our guest for the Q&A is quota quickie royalty in the form of the author Steve Chibnall, who literally wrote the book on quota quickies. It's called Quota Quickies by Steve Chibnall.

You can buy Quota Quickies by Steve Chibnall on the internet.

And the DVD of A Fire Has Been Arranged is widely available.

In 1978, an elderly Ches Allen appeared on ITV's "Looks Familiar".

Flanagan & Allen singing their most famous song, Underneath the Arches.

Your hosts at Kino Quickies screenings are Dom Delargy and Dr Lawrence Napper,

Book tickets for all future Kino quickies screening at our ticketing site.

Subscribe to our other film related podcast, Soho Bites and our non-film related one Mural Morsels.

Watch Lawrence's online talk about quota quickies - its title is controversial! Quota Quickies: the worst films ever made?

Follow Lawrence on Twitter.

Follow Kino Quickies on Twitter and Facebook for updates.

Join our MAILING LIST and never miss a screening again.

Here's a very good article explaining what Quota Quickies are from the Cinema History Blog.

Well that was fascinating but now I want to find out more.

Don’t forget to subscribe to the Kino Quickies podcast. It comes out a few days after each screening.

They don't just screen ninety year old films at the Kino - they show recent ones too!  Keep up to date with their Twitter, Instagram and website.

Making a welcome return from the beaches & fleshpots of Thailand, our sound engineer was Robin Warren AKA Robin The Fog - follow him on Twitter.

We are delighted to have received support from Talking Pictures TV - the UK's best TV station.  You can find them on your television on these channels: Sky 328, Freeview 82, Freesat 306 and Virgin 445 and register for their online catch-up service, TPTV Encore

You can hear the trailer preview episode of Kino Quickies season two HERE.

I Lived With You (1933) - a comedy starring Ivor Novello, based on a play that he wrote - is the third film in this second season of Kino Quickies.

Novello plays a homeless Russian prince who meets Gladys Wallis (Ursula Jeans) in the maze at Hampton Court and moves in with her family. His presence in this normal family home has chaotic effects on the whole household. Also starring Ida Lupino as Glad's sister, Ada and Eliot Makeham & Minnie Rayner as her parents, the film was directed by the most prolific director in UK film history, Maurice Elvey.

Our guest for the Q&A is the author John Snelson, who has written extensively about the performing arts and has a new book coming out soon about the history of British musicals.

I Lived With You has been released on DVD by Renown Films. Currently, however, all the copies available online are really expensive, so hopeully it will turn up on Talking Pictures TV and TPTV Encore soon.

Your hosts at Kino Quickies screenings are Dom Delargy and Dr Lawrence Napper,

Book tickets for all future Kino quickies screening at our ticketing site.

Subscribe to our other film related podcast, Soho Bites and our non-film related one Mural Morsels.

Watch Lawrence's online talk about quota quickies - its title is controversial! Quota Quickies: the worst films ever made?

Follow Lawrence on Twitter.

Follow Kino Quickies on Twitter and Facebook for updates.

Join our MAILING LIST and never miss a screening again.

Here's a very good article explaining what Quota Quickies are from the Cinema History Blog.

Well that was fascinating but now I want to find out more.

Don’t forget to subscribe to the Kino Quickies podcast. It comes out a few days after each screening.

They don't just screen ninety year old films at the Kino - they show recent ones too!  Keep up to date with their Twitter, Instagram and website.

Our sound engineer was Sam Durham.

We are delighted to have received support from Talking Pictures TV - the UK's best TV station.  You can find them on your television on these channels: Sky 328, Freeview 82, Freesat 306 and Virgin 445 and register for their online catch-up service, TPTV Encore

You can hear the trailer preview episode of Kino Quickies season two HERE.

The Impassive Footman (1932), is the earliest film in Kino Quickies season 2. It's a tense melodrama about an unhappy marriage, a foiled affair and a doctor's dilemma, all watched over by a mysterious -you might even say impassive - footman.

The film stars George Curzon as the eponymous footman, Betty Stockfeld & Allan Jeayes as the married couple at the centre of the film and Owen Nares as dashing young doctor, Bryan Daventry.

NOBODY is credited as the film's director - the candidates are its producer, Basil Dean and Graham Cutts. We try to get to the bottom of this in the Q&A.

Our guest for the Q&A is comedian and host of the Talking Pictures TV Podcast, Mel Byron.

The TPTV podcast is mostly made up of reviews of upcoming films submitted by TPTV viewers. Mel and the team are always looking for new contributors - especially of the lady variety because it's currently a bit chap-heavy. If you'd like to take part, get in touch with them on Twitter, Facebook or by email.

And you can follow Mel on Twitter

The Impassive Footman is available as part of a DVD box set which you can buy here.

Your hosts at Kino Quickies screenings are Dom Delargy and Dr Lawrence Napper,

Book tickets for all future Kino quickies screening at our ticketing site.

Subscribe to our other film related podcast, Soho Bites and our non-film related one Mural Morsels.

Watch Lawrence's online talk about quota quickies - its title is controversial! Quota Quickies: the worst films ever made?

Follow Lawrence on Twitter.

Follow Kino Quickies on Twitter and Facebook for updates.

Join our MAILING LIST and never miss a screening again.

Here's a very good article explaining what Quota Quickies are from the Cinema History Blog.

Well that was fascinating but now I want to find out more.

Don’t forget to subscribe to the Kino Quickies podcast. It comes out a few days after each screening.

They don't just screen ninety year old films at the Kino - they show recent ones too!  Keep up to date with their Twitter, Instagram and website.

Our sound engineer was Robin Warren AKA Robin The Fog - follow him on Twitter.

We are delighted to have received support from Talking Pictures TV - the UK's best TV station.  You can find them on your television on these channels: Sky 328, Freeview 82, Freesat 306 and Virgin 445 and register for their online catch-up service, TPTV Encore

You can hear the trailer preview episode of Kino Quickies season two HERE.

The Last Journey (1935), the first film in season two of Kino Quickies, is a seat-of-the-pants, nail-biting thriller set aboard a runaway train, directed by Bernard Vorhaus.

It stars Hugh Williams as Gerald Winter, Godfrey Tearle as Sir Wilfred Rhodes, Judy Gunn as Diana and Julien Mitchell as Bob Holt, the train driver whose suicidal mania is causing such a to-do.

Our guest for the Q&A is Dr Martin Stollery who knows a thing or two about editing as he wrote British Film Editors .

Your hosts are Dom Delargy and Dr Lawrence Napper,

Book tickets for all future Kino quickies screening at our ticketing site.

Subscribe to our other film related podcast, Soho Bites and our non-film related one Mural Morsels.

Watch Lawrence's online talk about quota quickies - its title is controversial! Quota Quickies: the worst films ever made?

Follow Lawrence on Twitter.

Follow Kino Quickies on Twitter and Facebook for updates.

Join our MAILING LIST and never miss a screening again.

Here's a very good article explaining what Quota Quickies are from the Cinema History Blog.

Well that was fascinating but now I want to find out more.

Don’t forget to subscribe to the Kino Quickies podcast. It comes out a few days after each screening.

They don't just screen ninety year old films at the Kino - they show recent ones too!  Keep up to date with their Twitter, Instagram and website.

Our sound engineer for this one (and the voice of "1930s man") was Robin Warren AKA Robin The Fog - follow him on Twitter.

We are delighted to have received support from Talking Pictures TV - the UK's best TV station.  You can find them on your television on these channels: Sky 328, Freeview 82, Freesat 306 and Virgin 445 and register for their online catch-up service, TPTV Encore

You can hear the trailer preview episode of Kino Quickies season two HERE.

We're back!

Welcome to this preview episode of the Kino Quickies podcast - SEASON 2!

The Kino Quickies podcast is based on a series of live screenings of 1930s quota quickie films plus Q&As at the Kino Cinema in Bermondsey Square, London SE1. We were amazed at how much people loved watching these rarely seen films in season one so we decided to do it all again with another season of six films from October 9th - December 18th 2022.

You can find details about the films, our guests, the venue and, of course, book tickets for any of the films here: https://www.ticketsource.co.uk/kinoquickies

Here's a very good article explaining what Quota Quickies are from the Cinema History Blog

Well that was fascinating but now I want to find out more

Don’t forget to subscribe to the Kino Quickies podcast.  It comes out a couple of days after each screening.

Follow Kino Quickies on Twitter for updates

You can even follow us on Facebook!

The Kino have a website too and they’re also on Twitter and even Instagram

Your hosts are Dom Delargy and Dr Lawrence Napper

The sixth and final film in Kino Quickies season 1, screened on May 22nd 2022, was Brief Ecstasy from 1937.

Directed by Edmond Gréville - who is probably most famous for directing Beat Girl several years later - it's the story of a love triangle made up of Helen (Linden Travers), her husband Paul (Paul Lukas) and her former lover, Jim (Hugh Williams).

The film is an early one from Ealing, so our special guest for the Q&A was Charles Barr, author of the seminal book about Ealing, "Ealing Studios"

Charles doesn't only know about Ealing though - he's also no slouch when it comes to Hitchcock.

Your hosts are Dom Delargy and Dr Lawrence Napper

Subscribe to our other film related podcast, Soho Bites and our non-film related one Mural Morsels.

Watch Lawrence's online talk about quota quickies - its title is controversial! Quota Quickies: the worst films ever made?

Follow Lawrence on Twitter

Follow Kino Quickies on Twitter and Facebook for updates.

Join our MAILING LIST and never miss a screening again.

Here's a very good article explaining what Quota Quickies are from the Cinema History Blog

Well that was fascinating but now I want to find out more

Don’t forget to subscribe to the Kino Quickies podcast. It comes out a couple of days after each screening.

They don't just screen ninety year old films at the Kino - they show recent ones too!  Keep up to date with their Twitter, Instagram and website.

Our sound engineer for this one was Nick Randall - he of the Scratch n Sniff podcast

We are delighted to have received support from Talking Pictures TV - the UK's best TV station.  You can find them on your television on these channels: Sky 328, Freeview 82, Freesat 306 and Virgin 445 and register for their online catch-up service, TPTV Encore

You can hear the trailer preview episode of the Kino Quickies HERE.

The fifth film in the Kino Quickies season, screened on May 8th 2022, was Say it With Flowers from 1934.

Directed by John Baxter, it's the simple story of a group of market traders who mount a benefit concert for their sick colleague. The film features performances from three of the biggest music hall stars of the Edwardian era, Charles Coburn, Marie Kendall and Florrie Forde.

Our guest for the Q&A was the Oscar nominated film composer and all round nice chap, Gary Yershon.

Gary talked about some really interesting stuff including a bit about this woman, who appalled by music hall.

There are three musical themes in title sequence to Say it With Flowers - this is one of them....

....and another is "Won't You Buy My Pretty Flowers" which is the song we all joined Gary in singing. If you too would like to have a little warble along to the podcast, you will find the lyrics HERE.

Your hosts are Dom Delargy and Dr Lawrence Napper

Book tickets for any of the films in the Kino Quickies season HERE

Subscribe to our other film related podcast, Soho Bites.

On April 7th, our very own Lawrence Napper gave an online talk for Westminster Libraries called, Quota Quickies: the worst films ever made? If you missed it, all is not lost as it will soon be posted to YouTube. Watch this space for more details.

Follow Lawrence on Twitter

Follow Kino Quickies on Twitter and Facebook for updates.

Here's a very good article explaining what Quota Quickies are from the Cinema History Blog

Well that was fascinating but now I want to find out more

Don’t forget to subscribe to the Kino Quickies podcast. It comes out a couple of days after each screening.

They don't just screen ninety year old films at the Kino - they show recent ones too!  Keep up to date with their Twitter, Instagram and website.

Our sound engineer for this one was Neva Missirian.

We are delighted to have received support from Talking Pictures TV - the UK's best TV station.  You can find them on your television on these channels: Sky 328, Freeview 82, Freesat 306 and Virgin 445 and register for their online catch-up service, TPTV Encore

You can hear the trailer preview episode of the Kino Quickies HERE.

The next Kino Quickies screening will be our last of this season. Brief Ecstasy (1937) will screen on May 22nd our special guest will be author and Ealing Studios expert, Charles Barr. Don’t forget to BOOK!