Soho Bites Podcast

Soho Bites 50: Bartleby (1970)

I would prefer not to.Based on “Bartleby the Scrivener - A Story of Wall Street”, a short story by Herman Melville, Bartleby (1970) is the story of a young man at odds with the world in which he finds himself. He starts work as an audit clerk at an accountancy firm but within a few days begins to refuse to do any work, saying merely that he “would prefer not to”.Starring John McEnery in the title role and Paul Scofield as his extremely patient boss, the film is the only feature to be directed by Anthony Friedman.Stephen Armstrong, journalist at The Observer and freelance film critic joins us to talk about the film.In popular culture, Bartleby has become a symbol of passive resistance to corporate bureaucracy. Among many other things, Bartleby’s famous line “I would prefer not to” has become a:Column in the economistSeveral T-shirtsA slogan used at Occupy Wall St and other protestsSocksThe official motto of philosopher Slavoj Žižek!In Herman Melville’s original story, he mentions the names of two real life people - John C Colt & Samuel Adams. Little heard of today, they would have been extremely famous at the time due to a notorious murder which gripped the United States. We tell the story of this case in the first half.Read or listen to Stephen Armstrong’s work at the Observer and find his books here. Stephen also produces an extremely Soho podcast called Strippers in the Attic.The director of Bartleby, Anthony Freidman, did not direct any other feature films and went back to academia.See the Bartleby locations thanks to our friends at ReelStreets.Buy the Blu-ray from Indicator Films.The New York Sun published this special edition all about the John C Colt / Samuel Adams case in January 1842.Most of the information about the Colt / Adams case came from two books by Andie Tucher and Harold Schechter.The Bartleby sound track, composed by Roger Webb, was released by Trunk Records on vinyl. It’s also available on Spotify.Troy Taylor provided the voice of John C Colt. Check out his website, his podcast and his Museum of American Oddities on Facebook.Thank you for listening.Follow us on Blue Sky (our Xwitter account is no more)We're now on YouTubeEmail us at sohobitespodcast@gmail.comWe'd love it if you left us a lovely REVIEW.And if you'd like to help support the show we'd be very grateful.Check out our spin-off series Mural MorselsIn fact, see all relevant links HERE

Soho Bites 49: Noose (1948)

Spiv Noir.According to the billing, the stars of 1948's Noose (known as The Silk Noose in the US) are Carole Landis, Joseph Calleia & Derek Farr, but the real star of the film is Nigel Patrick who is cast against type as Bar Gorman, a sharply dressed, fast talking spiv.Set firmly in Soho, it tells the story of how the police, the press & a group of normal citizens, try to loosen the choke-hold of gangsters on the city. The film is one of a group of films known as "the spiv cycle".The director, Edmond T. Gréville, also directed Beat Girl which is straight from the fridge daddio.Dr Josephine Botting, curator at the BFI, joins us to talk about Noose, Edmond T. Gréville and the spiv cycle.Interesting article about the spiv cycle of films.In the first half of the show we were joined by the mighty Steve Hayes to talk about the life and death of Carole Landis.Steve has a brilliant YouTube channel, Tired Old Queen at the Movies and, rather like Morgan Freeman, George Burns and John Huston, he once played God in a movie.In our interview, Steve mentioned those two famously bitchy and competitive Hollywood gossip columnists, Hedda Hopper and Louella Parsons.Here's the listing for the 1947 stage version of Noose on the Theatricalia website and also a copy of the programme.We're fans of vintage lobby cards on Soho Bites - here's a couple of colourised ones for Noose.Friend of the show, Rob Baker, wrote an article about British post-war gangster films on his Flashbak website.A News Chronicle article from September 13th, 1945 by Bill Naughton - "Meet the Spiv".There's plenty of stuff online about Carole Landis and her suicide, most of which is pretty salacious and muck-rakey. This one is too, but written slightly better than the rest.A Carole Landis tribute site.Carole did not appreciate being called The Ping Girl.Booking for the monthly Projecting the Archive at the BFI is highly recommended.At the time of writing this, the Museum of Soho website is under redevelopment - check back soon. In the meantime you can follow their Instagram.Thank you for listening.Follow us on Blue Sky (our Xwitter account is no more)We're now on YouTubeEmail us at sohobitespodcast@gmail.comWe'd love it if you left us a lovely REVIEW.And if you'd like to help support the show we'd be very grateful.Check out our spin-off series Mural MorselsIn fact, see all relevant links HERE

Soho Bites 48: Mona Lisa (1986)

After two years in the wilderness, we return to your ears with episode 48 and a brilliant film - Mona Lisa (1986).Directed by Neil Jordan and written by David Leland, it’s a noir thriller with a fantastical edge - or perhaps a fantasy cloaked in noir - about humans finding connection in a grim world.Bob Hoskins, Cathy Tyson, Michael Caine and Robbie Coltrane all turn in beautiful performances and we catch a glimpse of the real Soho as it was before gentrification began.Soho based film producer, Colin Vaines, returns to the show to talk about Mona Lisa.Our guest for the thematically linked supporting feature© is Professor Oliver Carter of Birmingham City University. Oliver has been running a research project called Under the Counter looking at the history of the British pornography industry for several years and he shares some of the nuggets of his extensive research.Mona Lisa is available to stream on various platforms but if you’re a physical media person and if you prefer to not give money to Jeff Bezos when you can help it, you can buy it from Arrow Films.The famous scene in which Bob Hoskins walks around Soho is, perplexingly, accompanied by In Too Deep by Genesis.We try not to promote Xwitter these days so follow Colin on Facebook.Oliver has various links - his website, the Under the Counter website from where you can buy his book and the Under the Counter archive at the Bishopsgate Institute (slightly NSFW).Check out Mona Lisa’s then & now locations thanks to our friends at Reelstreets.Thank you to the Museum of Soho for allowing us to record in their gallery at All is Joy, 75 Dean Street, Soho.Thank you for listening.Follow us on Blue Sky (our Xwitter account is no more)We're now on YouTubeEmail us at sohobitespodcast@gmail.comWe'd love it if you left us a lovely REVIEW.And if you'd like to help support the show we'd be very grateful.Check out our spin-off series Mural MorselsIn fact, see all relevant links HERE

Soho Bites 47: Monsieur Ripois (1954)

Bienvenue dans le premier épisode de 2024.Monsieur Ripois (1954) was directed by René Clément and stars the French heart throb, Gérard Philipe along with the English beauties, Joan Greenwood, Natasha Parry & Valerie Hobson. It was based on the 1912 novel, Monsieur Ripois et la Némésis by Louis Hémon.The film was released under several other titles including “Lovers, Happy Lovers” & “Knave of Hearts” and was made in both English and French with the two versions being shot concurrently.We talk about Monsieur Ripois to the actor and director Jason Morell, whose mother was Joan Greenwood, one of the stars of the film. Listen out for some seventy year old hot gossip!Also on the French theme, we revisit an episode of Mural Morsels to hear about the notorious bohemian French poet, Paul Verlaine. This was an interview I did with another poet, Niall McDevitt, back in 2020 who has since sadly passed away. We’re using this interview with the blessing of his partner, Julie Goldsmith.Read this article by Jason Morell about dear old mum.Follow Jason on the Twitters.Here’s a little extract from the film.Of course our friends at Reelstreets have watched M. Ripois and you can look at some of the locations from the film HERE.Julie Goldsmith, the partner of the late Niall McDevitt, is a sculptor. You can see some of her work on Instagram and on her website.Niall’s obituary in The Irish Times.The 1995 Paul Verlaine biopic, Total Eclipse is worth watching if you can find it - although it’s quite difficult to track down. Here are a few options.Thank you for listening.Follow us on Blue Sky (our Xwitter account is no more)We're now on YouTubeEmail us at sohobitespodcast@gmail.comWe'd love it if you left us a lovely REVIEW.And if you'd like to help support the show we'd be very grateful.Check out our spin-off series Mural MorselsIn fact, see all relevant links HERE

Soho Bites 46: Don't Open 'til Christmas (1984)

Ching ching etc - it's the Soho Bites Christmas special.Having just left behind the wholesome world of Jessie Matthews and 1930s musicals, it feels right to descend into the grubby underbelly of Soho with the festive fiasco, Don't Open 'til Christmas. The "plot" such as it is, is a basic one. A crazed serial killer is roaming the west end murdering men dressed as Santa Claus. If there's a worse Christmas film (not including anything by Hallmark) we'd be very interested to hear about them.Written, produced & directed by a rotating motley crew of exploitation regulars, the film apparently took two years to make which is possibly the most shocking thing about it.Our guest for this episode is the magnificent David McGillivray who has not only written about this film in the past but also knew many of the people involved.David's Wikipedia entry and his IMDB listing.Buy David's books, Doing Rude Things and Little Did You Know.Thanks to Danny Cox for the countdown of festive Santa murders.If you really want to see Don't Open 'til Christmas, you can find it on YouTube.Thank you for listening.Follow us on Blue Sky (our Xwitter account is no more)We're now on YouTubeEmail us at sohobitespodcast@gmail.comWe'd love it if you left us a lovely REVIEW.And if you'd like to help support the show we'd be very grateful.Check out our spin-off series Mural MorselsIn fact, see all relevant links HERE