2 X Delgado
Oct. 21st, 2015 02:41 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
scripsiSo I have managed to dig up some more Roger Delgado. Actually, finding his episode from The Persuaders (1972) wasn’t hard at all as my husband is a huge Roger Moore fan and have just about everything with him. I remember loving The Persuaders as a child. The title melody still makes me feel happy. This episode is called “To the Dearth, Baby” and in it the Persuaders are set to save a young heiress from the shady clutches of a con man. Only with a twist. And a side order of fake money. Apart from some casual racism consisting of some rather cringe worthy scenes in a Roma village, the episode is good fun and one I actually remember I have seen before. But if you just want to see Roger Delgado, well, then you probably should save your money. He has a tiny role as a villainous card player, though he is delightfully snarky and eyebrow raising. He never takes off his shades, though, which is a pity.
Then I watched The Stranglers of Bombay (1959) and was pleasantly surprised, despite the big but I had for it. We take that first:
The movie takes place in India in the 1830’s. Are the Indians actually played by people from India? No, they are not. They are played by white people in make-up. Common thing back then, still very uncomfortable to watch today. But if you can get over that bit, the movie is actually surprisingly good. It’s based on the true story of the Thugs of India, a strangling cult devoted to Kali, which killed a huge amount of people until they were rooted out. I don’t know much more than that, but I suspect liberties were taken in regard of actual historical events. Though it’s a Hammer movie and the trailer suggests it’s a horror movie, it is actually a thriller.
The hero of the movie is an officer, Lewis, who has lived in India for many years. He has realised that a lot of natives go missing every year, something his superiors believe are by natural causes. He still manages to persuade his boss to form a small group dedicated to find out the truth. He expects to get the job to lead this group, but instead it goes to a nonchalant young officer who has been to the right schools. He completely blows off all the research Lewis has done. This comes to blows when Lewis servant Ram Das disappears and he wants to search for him, leading to his dismissal. He goes of looking anyway and manage to untangle the clues leading to the Cult of Kali and the stranglers.
Though there are a lot of racism against Indians, most of it are expressed by the noticeably dim-witted officers. And though Lewins is very much The White Hero who saves the natives, he and his wife clearly has a both loving and respectful relation to Ram Das, who is a loyal and courageous character. I will argue that the real hero of the movie is Ram Das mongoose Toki, though. It’s he who leads Lewis to a hidden mass grave and he later saves him from a rattlesnake.
Roger Delgado’s part is small, when it comes to speaking lines, but as the cult leader's second in command he is on screen a lot, doing a good job looking smouldering. Actually his two best scenes don’t have any lines at all. There is a scene when the cult leader is so overwhelmed by watching people being tortured that he has to go around the corner to wank off. Well, he doesn’t, because this movie is from 1959, but his facial expression and he getting so sweaty his handkerchief gets soaked when he wipes his face isn’t exactly subtle. Thne Delgado’s character surprises him and seeing what is happening thoughtfully gives his boss a clean handkerchief and gets slapped for it. And then he has a wonderful hammy death scene which he milks for what it’s worth. I suspect he had fun doing it.
There is quite a bit sexual innuendo, we have the native girl who gets to show off her cleavage and look happy and aroused every time someone is subjected to violence. She is really very pointless because that’s the only thing she does, but I read up a bit and it seems her part was largely cut at some point and she actually had a plotline before that. For example, this poster with what looks like Delgado’s character strangling her? Doesn’t occur in the movie.
And there are a lot of men with bare chests, so if you ever wanted to see the Master half naked, then this movie is definitely for you. I think that considering the 50’s standard for a nice man’s bod, Delgardo pretty much hit it. In fact, after watching this movie and The Persuaders I really realise how much the perception of what kind of body a handsome man should have has changed. The standard for women are pretty much the same, though there was no artificial breasts around back then, but even leading men could have a body that sagged both here and there. Roger Moore and Tony Curtis were both in their forties in The Persuaders and there are both hints of man boobs and tummies. Then google Daniel Craig…
Anyways, if you can stomach the made up Indians, then I can recommend Stranglers.
Then I watched The Stranglers of Bombay (1959) and was pleasantly surprised, despite the big but I had for it. We take that first:
The movie takes place in India in the 1830’s. Are the Indians actually played by people from India? No, they are not. They are played by white people in make-up. Common thing back then, still very uncomfortable to watch today. But if you can get over that bit, the movie is actually surprisingly good. It’s based on the true story of the Thugs of India, a strangling cult devoted to Kali, which killed a huge amount of people until they were rooted out. I don’t know much more than that, but I suspect liberties were taken in regard of actual historical events. Though it’s a Hammer movie and the trailer suggests it’s a horror movie, it is actually a thriller.
The hero of the movie is an officer, Lewis, who has lived in India for many years. He has realised that a lot of natives go missing every year, something his superiors believe are by natural causes. He still manages to persuade his boss to form a small group dedicated to find out the truth. He expects to get the job to lead this group, but instead it goes to a nonchalant young officer who has been to the right schools. He completely blows off all the research Lewis has done. This comes to blows when Lewis servant Ram Das disappears and he wants to search for him, leading to his dismissal. He goes of looking anyway and manage to untangle the clues leading to the Cult of Kali and the stranglers.
Though there are a lot of racism against Indians, most of it are expressed by the noticeably dim-witted officers. And though Lewins is very much The White Hero who saves the natives, he and his wife clearly has a both loving and respectful relation to Ram Das, who is a loyal and courageous character. I will argue that the real hero of the movie is Ram Das mongoose Toki, though. It’s he who leads Lewis to a hidden mass grave and he later saves him from a rattlesnake.
Roger Delgado’s part is small, when it comes to speaking lines, but as the cult leader's second in command he is on screen a lot, doing a good job looking smouldering. Actually his two best scenes don’t have any lines at all. There is a scene when the cult leader is so overwhelmed by watching people being tortured that he has to go around the corner to wank off. Well, he doesn’t, because this movie is from 1959, but his facial expression and he getting so sweaty his handkerchief gets soaked when he wipes his face isn’t exactly subtle. Thne Delgado’s character surprises him and seeing what is happening thoughtfully gives his boss a clean handkerchief and gets slapped for it. And then he has a wonderful hammy death scene which he milks for what it’s worth. I suspect he had fun doing it.
There is quite a bit sexual innuendo, we have the native girl who gets to show off her cleavage and look happy and aroused every time someone is subjected to violence. She is really very pointless because that’s the only thing she does, but I read up a bit and it seems her part was largely cut at some point and she actually had a plotline before that. For example, this poster with what looks like Delgado’s character strangling her? Doesn’t occur in the movie.
And there are a lot of men with bare chests, so if you ever wanted to see the Master half naked, then this movie is definitely for you. I think that considering the 50’s standard for a nice man’s bod, Delgardo pretty much hit it. In fact, after watching this movie and The Persuaders I really realise how much the perception of what kind of body a handsome man should have has changed. The standard for women are pretty much the same, though there was no artificial breasts around back then, but even leading men could have a body that sagged both here and there. Roger Moore and Tony Curtis were both in their forties in The Persuaders and there are both hints of man boobs and tummies. Then google Daniel Craig…
Anyways, if you can stomach the made up Indians, then I can recommend Stranglers.
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no subject
Date: 2015-10-21 02:13 pm (UTC)Not seen the Persuaders - how very remiss of me.
Yes, body fashions have changed. Nowadays it's not enough for a woman to be slender she has to be toned. Women are presented more glamourously too. Things are more extreme. In old films where a woman's clothes fall off, if she was in a film today she'd be in the magazines with loads of arrows pointing at her wobbly bits and criticisms of her underwear. I guess people back then were less fussy because they had less access to pics of naked babes, as long as there was some flesh to look at the blue movie cinemas were kept in business.
Blokes seem to be, er, chunkier in the old days and clothes were mostly kept on. Again muscle definition is very important now and no pasty white bods. It does amuse me when in old Brit TV they did a show set somewhere hot and it was full of actors with snow white tans. Also trousers used to be huge!
no subject
Date: 2015-10-21 02:41 pm (UTC)Me too, but certainly not in a bad way. :)
As I remember it Lewis was the only one who had a brain out of the Brits!
He was. And had some opinions of how the Brits behaviour could backlash heavily on them eventually. All the other british character's, including his friend, was pretty much caricatures.
Not seen the Persuaders - how very remiss of me.
Oh, you have to! Curtis and Mooore have a really nice chemistry with lot of banter. I feel the need to re-watch now I've seen one episode.
Nowadays it's not enough for a woman to be slender she has to be toned.
That's true. I could rant a lot about changing ideals and the pressure bodies that are extreme has on people, but I shan't right now. :)
Definitly chunkier med. :) And those pasty tans... I don't mind clothes staying on, but then I was never much into lots of muscles either. :)
no subject
Date: 2015-10-21 03:10 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2015-10-21 03:51 pm (UTC)Let's not. Argh indeed!
no subject
Date: 2015-10-21 04:41 pm (UTC)Not all of them! I seem to like all the
weedyskinny men! (And Alfred Burke doesn't keep his clothes on enough, seriously. James Maxwell, however, prefers to get thrown in swimming pools with all his clothes on but has an unwise tendency to wonder round in tights and I've still never dared check that bit where he apparently flashes the nation in Shadow of the Tower. David Collings just gets chained up in places... oh, wait, you found actual Mr Collings nudity somewhere? As I said, people do not keep their clothes on enough.)Personally, I'm totally in favour of everybody keeping their clothes on! Although I am also in favour of throwing James Maxwell in swimming pools, just to be hypocritical. I feel v grateful that 1960s director understand me far better than modern ones. (Although some of those do understand the necessity of loving shots of Matthew Macfadyen's eyes, so we won't be too hard on them.)
*coughs* *removes self from thread*
no subject
Date: 2015-10-22 02:48 pm (UTC)David Collings problem is that he takes his clothes off in the wrong sort of scenes: he wipes his bum with a sheet of paper in 'Mahler'. Um, thanks for that Ken Russell. And let us not forget torture by Foggy Dewhurst, ieeeee!
no subject
Date: 2015-10-22 04:20 pm (UTC)(Um, sorry scripsi; we should go have this conversation elsewhere!)
no subject
Date: 2015-10-22 07:02 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2015-10-22 08:06 pm (UTC)Well, wouldn't life be a lot more boring if we weren't, at times? ;)
no subject
Date: 2015-10-21 03:25 pm (UTC)*HUGS*
no subject
Date: 2015-10-21 03:50 pm (UTC)Rather PG-rated torture porn, but yeah! :)
But I just may have to see it because Delgado and hammy death scene. Just because, lol!!
It's certainly worh watching just for that! :D
*hugs*
no subject
Date: 2015-10-21 04:45 pm (UTC)I've seen that pic before, but I didn't know which film it came from! (I probably couldn't watch it because then I would have to remember the radio drama. Which was fine, except that near the end David Collings had an actual sex scene. On RADIO. /o\ And it was all narrated over by his rl wife and... I'm sorry, do you have any spare brain bleach from dealing with all the 1950s British race fail? I need it again! 0_o)
(I've just been watching The Damned this afternoon, an actually quite good if not thrilling Hammer horror, in search of five minutes more of James Maxwell. He looked out at the sea, but nobody had the foresight to throw him in it.)
no subject
Date: 2015-10-22 08:10 pm (UTC)I confess, I got this movie just because I knew I would see Roger Delgado without his shirt on. Which is pretty hypocritical of me.
The movie, however, does not include and actual sex scenes. The hero embraces his wife at times, but it's all very proper. That radio show sounds like one need ear bleech after!
James Maxwell. He looked out at the sea, but nobody had the foresight to throw him in it.)
Rats! ;)
no subject
Date: 2015-10-23 08:50 am (UTC)You see, last time I watched James Maxwell in a thing this old, he went to a swimming pool and this happened:
So, you see, I don't understand why you'd put the sea and James Maxwell in close proximity and not, er, make the most of it! ;-D
no subject
Date: 2015-10-23 11:24 am (UTC)Right! Research, pure reserach, that is what it is! I'm nobly sacrifacing myself on the Altar of Better Fanfiction. *nods*
So, you see, I don't understand why you'd put the sea and James Maxwell in close proximity and not, er, make the most of it! ;-D
Yes, I can clearly see the allure of James Maxwell and water. :D
no subject
Date: 2015-10-23 04:14 pm (UTC)Yes, I can clearly see the allure of James Maxwell and water.
:-D
no subject
Date: 2015-10-23 06:28 pm (UTC)*feels virtuous and noble for watching half-naked Master* And that's not a mean feat! :D