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Are you sitting comfortably children? You are? Good. Pay attention now because Uncle Si Que Watt is going to give us some wickedly saucy stories about the going-ons in Randy Ollie's corner of the garden. 
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Posted: |
Jan 28, 2017 - 3:53 PM
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By: |
Graham Watt
(Member)
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CONTINUED - PART 2
So, as I was saying, very few views of the great man himself. And then one morning around seven - the sun was already climbing high - I was woken by the sound of crashings and splinterings and obsceneties, and when I got up to look, I saw Ollie locked out of his own house, in the lane, wearing only a pair of tiny black underpants, and attempting to make his way through the impossibly thick hedge shouting despairingly, "F--cking dogs! You've RUUUINED my entire life!!!"
I saw him in the pub a few times after that, and he was almost impossibly gracious, holding the door open to allow people to enter or leave, and with a gracious bow - which must have been at least a bit "acted", but captivating nonetheless. He didn't seem to want to call attention to himself on those occasions. And I noticed that he was always with a different group of "friends" each time. I learned thereafter from the bar staff, and taxi drivers, and neighbours, that they were generally just a bunch of hangers-on who got chatting to him due to his fame, and who Ollie didn't really know how to get rid of. He enjoyed a chat over a pint, but after that it seems that people thought they were his friends for life, and that's not what he intended. They took advantage of him.
And then I thought about those summer parties in the garden. Ollie wasn't there. All these people were frolicking around in his garden and he wasn't even there. He was probably imbibing indoors with Hurricane Higgins over a snooker table, or in bed with loads of tottie, or asleep. But I don't think he really knew who those people were in his garden. And then the next day, locked out, emitting the anguished words, "F--cking dogs. You've ruined my entire life".
A couple of days after that, I walked past his front gate, which was open, and he was standing there alone, again just in a pair of swimming trunks. I hesitated, wondering if I should start a conversation. In the end I just nodded good day, to which he nodded back timidly. And the overwhelming sensation I got was of a little boy lost. Like a grown man who, in a moment of reflection, is realising that this isn't perhaps the life that he would have chosen. If only he had known. It was a kind of Rosebud moment in a way.
I don't know if the above sounds like a load of bollocks or not, but it's what I saw and how I feel.
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Hannibal Brooks, the best Bill Sykes ever "Bullseye??! Cum'ere!!" and stole the show in the Musketeers films.
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He was great, & a beautiful speaking voice as well, & should have been a big star of the seventies (he had a huge screen presence), but he just pissed it all away.
He was originally supposed to play the reporter in THE PASSENGER
It went to jack Nicholson
I read somewhere that he was offered the roll of Quint in Jaws,....
No, it was Stirling Hayden
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He was amazing in The Devils and got but in the Jaffas by a snake in Venom. Legend!
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When was the last time anyone here saw THE TRAP (1966)? I haven't seen it in over forty years. It never shows up on TV here in the States. Not aware of a video release either.
a mystery that. Rarely if ever shows up on uk tv either. Dont recall the last time. 20 years? Altho they use Goodwins theme fir the London marathons coverage every year.
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It was an early Revenant/Man in the Wilderness - i seem to recall him wrestling a pack of wolves and clubbing them with his rifle!
And singing the main theme as he canoes down the river.
And Rita Tushingham as a mouse wife he buys, who turns out to be a resilient soul and a lifesaver!
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Typical with me, I prefer an artiste's early works in black-and-white prior to any 'star' status.
When I began watching the beginning seasons of The Saint I was surprised to see Oliver Reed as a guest in 2 of these monochrome segments - and one of them ["Sophia"] was directed by leading man Roger Moore!
But even prior to The Saint, Reed was in a number B&W British productions which I recommend, such as Paranoiac as well as Joseph Losey's genre-blending These are the Damned ... and the anti-union/anti-workplace bullying film The Angry Silence (in which Reed had a very minor part).
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