Toomorrow (1970)

Hurrah for the BFI who, together with US boutique Blu-ray outfit Deaf Crocodile, are giving us a 4K restoration of writer-director Val Guest’s TOOMORROW, a bizarre but extremely watchable British science fiction pop musical starring Olivia Newton-John, complete with a bunch of similarly eccentric extras.

Toomorrow is a band whose music is apparently so amazing it’s going to save the universe (shades of BILL AND TED’S EXCELLENT ADVENTURE). The three guys in the band exhibit entry-level charisma but Olivia Newton-John is quite obviously a star in the making. Roy Dotrice is a clueless alien who has been reporting from Earth for 3000 years but still has to have the band pointed out to him by his bosses. Other highlights include BritHorror little girl standby Chloe Franks as Livvy’s character as a little girl and Margaret Nolan being very funny as a sexy alien who is given a crash course in how to seduce someone by being taken to see, amongst other things, Pete Walker’s SCHOOL FOR SEX. 

One for fans of really weird and obscure 1970s British cinema (which will be quite a few people reading this, I suspect), your mileage with TOOMORROW may vary but the film is never boring. Other faces familiar to enthusiasts of this period of British cinema include Tracey Crisp (Richard Gordon’s THE PROJECTED MAN) and Imogen Hassall (Freddie Francis’ MUMSY, NANNY, SONNY AND GIRLY, Robert Hartford-Davis’ INCENSE FOR THE DAMNED and, of course, Gerald Thomas’ CARRY ON GIRLS).

As mentioned above, the release is a ‘co-production’ between the BFI here and Deaf Crocodile in the US, having undergone a 4K restoration from the original camera negative and presented here in High Definition. Extras include a commentary track from Andrew Sandoval which will tell you a lot you don’t know if you’re not as up on the musical trends of the period as he obviously is. There’s also plenty of good stuff about the trouble behind the scenes of the production.

Other extras include The Val Guest Guardian interview (62 minutes) from 1998 plus a ten minute piece from ten years earlier in which the director talks about the film’s troubled production over still images from the BFI archive. New material comes in the form of a video essay about the film from Celeste de la Cabra (17 minutes). A genuine highlight of the disc, as with so many other BFI releases, is the wealth of archival and sometimes frankly bizarre short subjects they’ve been able to dig up. First we get THE NOSE HAS IT!, an eight minute 1942 short starring UK comedy legend (yes he is) Arthur Askey telling you all to sneeze into your handkerchiefs to help the war effort. It’s included because it was directed by Val Guest and it also has photography by Arthur FIEND WITHOUT A FACE Crabtree. 

Then there’s TOMORROW NIGHT IN LONDON (5 minutes) which is a short travelogue-style piece from 1969. Also from 1969 is IF I COULD TURN YOU ON (13 minutes), a black and white record of a pretty bizarre live performance from US troupe Living Theatre that could be misconstrued as horror if you’re in the wrong / right frame of mind. And then, perhaps the oddest of all (especially for overseas viewers) there’s an episode of TV series Chimp-Mates entitled Alice Goes Pop! (17 minutes), a fine example of what we were watching as kids back in 1975. Written by Frank DEMONS OF THE MIND Godwin with music by Harry Robinson (TWINS OF EVIL, HAWK THE SLAYER and a lot of other great stuff) and featuring Roy Kinnear and Godfrey James (Angel Blake’s father in BLOOD ON SATAN’S CLAW) it’s the story of an adopted chimp who learns to play the drums. The first pressing of the disc also comes with a booklet featuring new writing on both the film and Val Guest as well as an essay on manufactured pop groups. 

Val Guest’s TOOMORROW is out on Blu-ray from the BFI in a 4K restoration on Monday 22nd June 2026 

Cover Girl (1944)

“Top-Notch Gloriously Colourful Musical”

All kinds of stuff drops through the letterbox here at House of Mortal Cinema, and here’s an item that was an unexpected treat as Charles Vidor’s vibrant, gorgeous 1944 picture for Columbia (with Gene Kelly on loan from MGM) gets a sparkling UK Blu-ray release from Eureka.

Rusty (Rita Hayworth) works as a dancer at a nightclub in Brooklyn owned by her boyfriend Danny (Gene Kelly). She enters a competition to be the cover girl for the anniversary issue of Vanity magazine, doesn’t get it, but eventually does because she reminds Vanity editor John Coudair (Otto Kruger) of his long lost love. Cue flashbacks (and songs) to John Coudair forty years previously (not Otto this time but Jess Barker) and Rita again, this time playing her own grandmother.

The cover shoot is a fabulous success and Broadway beckons. But should Rusty marry impresario and Julian McMahon lookalike Noel Wheaton (Lee Bowman) but be unhappy forever, or go back to Gene and his happy dancing? Will anyone for even one minute not know what’s going to happen? Of course not, because this is a Hollywood musical made when they really knew how to. 

Even bearing that in mind, COVER GIRL is still hugely impressive. The costume design is stunning, making full use of the colour revolution but coming up with some seriously trippy outfits into the bargain. Kelly was given a fair bit of freedom to put together some of the dance routines, with the result that they’re more ambitious than you might expect for a film of the period. Kelly dancing with himself is innovative enough, and there’s a fabulous tracking shot during a routine that foreshadows what Kelly would do in SINGIN’ IN THE RAIN. Fans of Robert Greenwald’s XANADU (1980) will spot that Kelly’s character in that and this share the same name of Danny McGuire.

Eureka’s Blu-ray is stunning, preserving the original 1.37:1 aspect ratio, with colours so vibrant they virtually leap off the screen with the dancers. Blacks are rich and there’s a good level of grain but no picture noise. Extras are sadly mininal. It’s great having Baz Luhrmann talk about the picture but his piece is only four minutes long. Other than that you get a trailer and an isolated music and effects track and that’s it.

I have to admit that I wasn’t expecting too much from a mid-1940s musical but COVER GIRL really was a revelation. While the plot isn’t anything to crow about, the design and choreography are (Rita Hayworth’s descent on the Broadway stage set looks like it could have come from a mega budget version of THE CABINET OF DR CALIGARI). Well worth a look even if you’re only slightly interested in movies of this type & this period. 

Eureka's Blu-ray of Charles Vidor's COVER GIRL is out on Monday 13th February 2017

Absolute Beginners (1986)

Julien Temple’s colourful mid-1980s British movie musical gets a sparkling Blu-ray and DVD release courtesy of Second Sight.

London, 1958. Struggling photographer Colin (Eddie O’Connell) is going out with Crepe Suzette (Patsy Kensit). Crepe (actually, nobody ever calls her that) is an aspiring fashion designer working for Henley (James Fox). 

When she revolutionises hemlines by taking them up rather than down (and engaging in one of the movie’s many dance numbers while going about it) she leaves Colin for the promise of Paris and as much James Fox as she would like (ie none at all, really).

In order to win her back, Colin decides to compromise his idealism by getting a job with pop promoter Lionel Blair. Along the way he has entrepreneur David Bowie sing to him from a giant typewriter, gets to meet fascist lunatic Steven Berkoff in full fascist lunatic Steven Berkoff mode, and gets involved in the Notting Hill race riots before he manages to save the girl from Henley (who turns out not to be that interested in girls anyway) and have her to himself. 

A brave move by a small British film company whenever it might have been made, but especially in the cinematic doldrums that was the UK industry in the mid-1980s, time has been very kind indeed to the ambitious, colourful spectacle that is ABSOLUTE BEGINNERS. I reviewed the BFI's new Blu-ray of Val Guest's energetic, slightly bizarre late 1950s Soho odyssey EXPRESSO BONGO on here a while back, and if you liked that movie, you'll like this. 

ABSOLUTE BEGINNERS certainly has things wrong with it (you really need actors like Gillian Hills and Oliver Reed to carry the lead roles) but there’s so much right that the movie’s 108 minute running time just flies by. 

The 'right' things include some great songs (including the cracking main title theme by David Bowie as well as Ray Davies’ mordantly witty Quiet Life), amazing sets, daring photography, buckets of cameos for those who want them, and above all a radiantly glowing depiction of city life that British cinema sadly seems rarely capable of achieving. 

Second Sight’s disc comes with a new 53-minute documentary courtesy of David Gregory and Severin Films. It’s absolutely worth a watch, featuring interviews with writer-director Temple, Palace Pictures boys Nik Powell and Stephen Woolley, DP Oliver Stapleton, production designer John Beard, and actors Eddie O’Connell and Ed Tudor-Pole (but no Patsy Kensit). 

The story of the film’s financing, production and the aftermath will probably hold few surprises for anybody familiar with the crazy world of film production but it’s nice to see that at least all those interviewed here seem to have come through the experience relatively unscathed.

ABSOLUTE BEGINNERS left a lot of viewers non-plussed back in 1986, and I have to admit I was one of them. Too young and too used to cinema fare like ALIENS, TOP GUN and A NIGHTMARE ON ELM STREET, I hadn’t grown up enough, seen enough or read enough to appreciate just how very good, and how very special, Julien Temple’s debut feature is. ABSOLUTE BEGINNERS is a remarkable, flamboyant, daring, and quite marvellous film, and Second Sight’s presentation shows it at its best. 

Julien Temple's ABSOLUTE BEGINNERS is out on Blu-ray and DVD from Second Sight on Monday 25th July 2016