 |
|||
 |
Empty
|
 |
 |
 |
|||
|
|
|||||||||||||||||
|
|
Last Of The Blonde Bombshells
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
 |
Our DVD Price: £8.99 RRP: 
Availability In Stock - should be despatched within 72 hours. This product will be dispatched from Guernsey. Delivery times
Earn 40 Bonus Points when you buy this product. More info |
Film Description
Originally produced for HBO, this nostalgic comedy about the reunion of a wartime female dance band stars Judi Dench and Ian Holm and has a marvellous supporting cast of British acting talent.
Film Information
| Director | Gillies MacKinnon | ||||
| Starring | Ian Holm, Judi Dench, Leslie Caron, Olympia Dukakis, Billie Whitelaw, Joan Sims
|
||||
| Genre | Television
|
||||
| Country | UK | Language | ENGLISH | Year | 2000 |
DVD Extras
Interactive menu
Technical Details
| Certificate | 15 | Length | 84 mins | Label | UPV | ||
| Cat No | 8246167 | Format | DVD | Colour | |||
| Region | 2 | Aspect | 1.78 | ||||
| Subtitles | plus English for the hearing impaired. | ||||||
4 Stills
 |
 |
Share your thoughts and opinions - write a review
Review by David Parkinson on 18th December 2006
The success of Mrs Henderson Presents and the presence of Judi Dench has doubtlessly prompted the release of this HBO/BBC collaboration, which trades in the same nostalgia for the lost swing innocence of wartime Britain. The films are staged with the effortless charm that British middlebrow movie-making has possessed since the 1930s, when Alexander Korda decided that the industry's best hope of turning a profit was to appeal to an American market addicted to our old country quaintness.
The performances are impeccable, with Dench twinkling with late-life vigour as the grieving grandmother who decides to reunite the dance band that provided the happiest days of her life. However, it proves to be a tricky mission, as Billie Whitelaw is in jail, June Whitfield plays her trombone solely for the Salvation Army, Olympia Dukakis has become a bibulous Scottish widow in a remote castle, Leslie Caron can't be found, and Joan Sims and Cleo Laine are reluctant to team up again with Ian Holm, their mutual ex-husband who spent the war playing drums in Some Like It Hot drag to avoid conscription.
Each member of the ensemble sketches out her caricature with genial precision, but such clichés wholly suit the gentle drama, which is buoyed by a spirited soundtrack that will have you digging out Glenn Miller albums. However, the picture belongs to the sax-playing Dench and the irrepressible Holm, whose flirtation is made all the more delightful by the fact that she knows what a rascal he is and indulges him anyway.
As suits the tone of the film and Alan Plater's script, the band’s reunion for a dance at the school of Dench's sparky grand-daughter is low-key, which makes the finale a cosy affair. Director Gillies Mackinnon knows his audience and trusts his cast. It's a shame that other veteran performers aren't given the chance more often to show that while looks and celebrity may be temporary, acting class is permanent.
View more reviews by David Parkinson
Hand-picked recommendations of related films
|
Dir: T V The first and still the best film about how to make a rock band, it stands up well three decades on and contains... More > |
|
Dir: Nigel Cole Based on a true story, Nigel Cole's CALENDAR GIRLS has a mix of comedy and heart-tugging emotion that compares w... More > |
|
Dir: Stephen Frears Wartime entertainment takes a new turn when Mrs Henderson decides to offer an all naked female dance troupe to b... More > |
Recommendations from fellow customers
by Richard Eyre
by Mike Leigh
More films directed by Gillies MacKinnon
The History of Mr Polly (2006)
More films starring Judi Dench
by Derek Jarman
by John Madden
by John Madden
More films starring Ian Holm
by Mike Newell
by Stanley Tucci / Campbell Scott
by Danny Boyle
Greystoke - The Legend Of Tarzan Lord Of The Apes
by Hugh Hudson
More films starring Joan Sims
More films starring Billie Whitelaw
by T V
by Val Guest
More films starring Leslie Caron
by Ralph Nelson
| Special Offers | ||||||||||||||||
|
More Great Offers
|
| BestSellers | ||||
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
| Recommended by MovieMail | ||||||||||
|
A curated collection of the best DVDs
Latest Additions
|
||||||||||
|
|
||||||||||
| Just Released |
|
Raiders Of The Lost Ark San Demetrio London All That Heaven Allows Eyes Without a Face Skins (Series 2) |
| Coming Soon |
|
The Great Lover Closing the Ring Tokyo Joe They Made Me A Fugitive Before the Devil Knows Youre Dead |
|
||
| Home | Film Catalogue | New Releases | Special Offers | Top 30 | ||
|
||
| Film Collections | Film Media | News | Your Account | Help | Become a MovieMail affiliate | ||
|
||
For questions or assistance, call us on (+44) 0844 776 0900 or email on enquiries@moviemail-online.co.uk © 2004-2007 MovieMail, Ltd., All Rights Reserved. Find out more about MovieMail |
||
|
Death In Venice
Notes on a Scandal
The History of Mr Polly
Vera Drake
Scrooge
