On the whole I think the 'Bright Side' is safer even if less apposite to a Glasgow bus.

We'd better get back on topic or our leader will complain.
Does the devil really have the best tunes? - here's one I remember

I'm Spartacus

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-8h_v_our_Q

KD's son, Eric,tried his hand as a comedian at Jongeleurs in London. After a hopeless attempt at stand-up,the frustrated Eric shouted at the audience "You can't do this to me,don't you know who I am? I'm Kirk Douglas's son"
At which point one audience member got up and shouted "No, I'm Kirk Douglas's son", followed by another then another till the whole audience was on it's feet in a straight rip-off of the "I'm Spartacus" scene.

Have just seen 'The Artist" - stretching the historical film theme to the limit it is in a sense a film about film history. I still think however, that Ken Russel's take on the musical "The Boy Friend' - a box office flop on release, captured more of the flavour of the time.

I suppose this is historical now,though the setting was contempary at the time. This was ground breaking for 1967;

The slap scene from "In the Heat of the Night"

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7LsoG2H_aek

Too true Trike, in today's paper I've just read this "History interests me more and more. The most interesting part of it is that, suddenly, a large part of my life - the bit that happened when I was making other plans - has become historical". I can empathise with that sentiment, I'm now older than some of the archaeology that is being enthusiastically studied!

It's the same in our museum - the domestic parts at least are full of things I remember using and some of which I still use!

I wasn't sure if historical films did include those made contemporarily, but Casablanca for one was, and I at least have accepted that happily.

Not a scene, but a trailer for one of the great but forgotten Hollywood epics in which Obi Wan Kenobi as Rome's greatest emperor, with Captain Nemo as his able lieutenant, fail to stop the evil Captain Von Trapp from doing a bit of patricide and seizing power in Rome, behaving despicably to his sister The Millionairess, engaging in a gladiator fight with Jesus Christ (who kills him), all of which prefaced Rome's Fall (or Autumn, as they say in the USA). Note: The Roman forum set in Spain was a full-size replica built in stone. It cost half the film's then huge budget of 24 million dollars and was completely demolished afterwards "for insurance reasons". Doh!!!

Anyway, no prizes for guessing which film ripped this one off wholesale in 2000 (note the battle scene in the German forest towards the end).

We should include this one for Imperial Rome. The chariot race from Ben Hur

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pwi3xROzpSE

Priscilla wrote:

'The Charge of the Greys' in 'Waterloo,'

I think we can mange that one Priscilla

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7vlcuvrM1po

Thank you for finding that, Trike. Must get a copy of the film it really is impressive. regards, P.

The entire film is on youtube, Priscilla.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oKmqRqY0RLg

Thanks Trike, I'm down-loading it now... will watch that this evening I think.

By the way I forgot to add re the clip of the Scot's Greys... I loved the bit when they frantically sound the recall to abort the charge... and then Wellington, says in a petulant tone: "Oh, stop that stupid noise!" and then with an almost camp gesture lays his hand on the trumpeter's arm, and adds gently: "You might hurt yourself!".... and that in the middle of a battle.

Fair cracked me up that! He might have thought his troops were the scum of the earth, but he didn't want them getting chapped lips!

No problem, Meles.

Uxbridge "By God sir, I've lost my leg"

Wellington "By God sir, so you have"

Reminiscent of the "French Castle" scene in The Holy Grail, and all the funnier because it is apparently a verbatim rendition of what actually happened.

Meles meles wrote:

the Scot's Greys... I loved the bit when they frantically sound the recall to abort the charge

Recently I watched Lady Caroline Lamb (1972) written and directed by Robert Bolt. It's a film I had never heard of before. It includes a bizarre scene in which Laurence Olivier, as the Duke of Wellington, tries to ape Christopher Plummer's seminal performance of 2 years earlier. The scene takes place in Paris a little while after Waterloo and yet hanging behind Wellington on the wall of a French palace in the 1810s is Lady Butler's painting Scotland for Ever! painted more than 60 years later. Bolt can be forgiven this dramatic licence, however, as he has Sarah Miles (in the lead role) exclaim after looking at the painting:

"Good gracious!.. Well who do you suppose they're running away from?"

She later goads Wellington when he complains that he is "not a force of nature". "Napoleon was" she replies. "Well ma'am. I mastered him" he retorts. "And you will be remembered for it. Napoleon will be remembered for himself" is her Parthian shot.

I can't find that scene online but here is one from earlier in the film featuring the late Jon Finch as William Lamb:



When I began watching the film I feared that it might be somewhat dated as is so often the case with forgotten films from the 1970s. Forgotten for a reason that is. But not in this case. It's a little gem. It includes a wonderful cameo by Ralph Richardson as King George IV in a scene in which one has to pinch oneself to remember that it is not Nigel Hawthorne playing George III.

A sad but delightful film. Recommended to anyone who hasn't seen it.

Have we done this one yet?



Henry V tries to flush out the real Doc Holliday. Sandals all round.

And Doc Holliday and Johnny Ringo taunt each other in Latin from the film Tombstone