Although a film love for over 50 years I never could imagine when 9 months ago I went on a search for some maternal grandparents I would be on a mission to restore a film to cinema history. It is NOT a particularly good film but given todays politics it is very apt even 45 years on. Time Out, variety do not list it anymore - Halliwell still has it - just!
This is one of the many film sites I am on and nowhere is this film, No Love For Johnnie being discussed - except as a lost gem of 1960s British Cinema. Suggesting to me at least that the movie is seldom seen. Internet Movie Database (IMDb) mentions it but the reviews are so few I feel the film is almost completely unavailable for viewing in Britain at least.
Via an American contact I finally got to see the movie and will write a review in due course. But it does need to be seen. Peter Finch, Donald Pleasance, Stanley Holloway, Billie Whitelaw and Peter Sallis. Even Ollie Reed pops up with a wastepaper basket over his head - if that wasn't prophetic of his subsequent film career
I have written direct to Five Stars Film Ltd and asked them the reason they are singularly failing to distribute said film and await their response.
So apart from those who saw it on general release - anyone else out there seen this movie on heartless politics which won Peter Finch a BAFTA and Berlin Silver Bear for best actor?
After 9 months research I have decided works of art - books or films shouldn't be treated like "No Love For Johnnie" Censored for no good reason other than self interest of certain parties
In my opinion the key to this film being so unavailable is the book it is based on. Crossword lovers only need apply.
Mr Fienburgh's fellow MPs criticised their (by that time)late colleague for writing the book because it seemed to hand the "other" Party ammunition to beat Labour with. Mr Fienburgh wasn't alive to defend himself and I have found no satisfactory explanation why the MPs thought it was about them. Self obsessed to the last I suppose. I do not think it was about the occupants of the Westminster village - at least not directly.
Anyway, criticism - from that esteemed group? That is rich when you have the likes of Thorpe, Profumo, George Brown, Major, Prescott, Oaten, Kennedy, Blair, Archer, Gordon Brown and only today Lempit Opik showing how just how badly members of Parliament can really behave.
I may have a personal axe to grind but I also believe Mr Wilfred Fienburgh was the last wholly moral man in the place. Excuse me if I have missed any other rarity like the late MP for North Islington.
All Fienburgh did was write about it - he wasn't the bad guy but perhaps a very tactful whistle blower on bad behaviour by the ungoverned powerful.
The book had the same title "No Love For Johnnie" and the same short shelf life for the public to get instant access. Old copies of the book are only available via the Internet and thank heavens for that. Other options are second hand book stores and The British Library.
The quality of neither film or book was particularly good but both came to a screeching halt shortly after they were released.
Mr Wilfred Fienburgh was extremely adept at words and that skill was used to brilliant effect. However it affected the book's language - which seemed clunky in comparision with Fienburgh's other writings. But like the dog that can walk erect on its back legs unaided - while it was not done well - the surprise is, it is done at all. It starts with the title itself and goes on from there. The best place to hide something. In plain sight.
Crossword lovers?
Page One of the novel reads “I am body-sick and mid-sick of the whole bloody business” = My book. Coded business. Find lass with a boy. Him locked in!
