36 Otley

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domino harvey
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36 Otley

#1 Post by domino harvey » Fri Apr 13, 2018 11:54 pm

Image
Gerry Otley (Tom Courtenay – The Loneliness of the Long Distance Runner, Billy Liar, 45 Years) is a charming scrounger who stumbles unwittingly into espionage, murder and double crossing as he is mistaken for a spy, kidnapped, and then becomes romantically embroiled with a sexy foreign agent, played by Romy Schneider (Purple Noon, Ludwig, Death Watch).
Adeptly balancing thrills and laughs, this Sixties comic spy thriller from writer-director Dick Clement (TV’s The Likely Lads, Porridge, Auf Wiedersehen, Pet) is a stellar addition to the British canon of post-Bond spy flicks.

INDICATOR LIMITED EDITION SPECIAL FEATURES:
• High Definition remaster
• Original mono audio
• Audio commentary with director Dick Clement and film historian Sam Dunn (2018)
• The Guardian Lecture with Dick Clement and Ian La Frenais (2008): archival audio recording of an interview conducted by Dick Fiddy at London’s National Film Theatre
• Tom Courtenay on 'Otley' (2018, 6 minutes): a new interview with the renowned British actor
• Ian La Frenais on 'Otley' (2018, 17 mins): new interview with the acclaimed co-writer of Otley
• Original theatrical trailer
• Image gallery: on-set and promotional photography
• New and improved English subtitles for the deaf and hard-of-hearing
• Limited edition exclusive 40-page booklet with a new essay by Laura Mayne, an extract from Martin Waddell’s original novel, location reports, archival interviews with Tom Courtenay, an overview of contemporary critical responses, and film credits
• World premiere on Blu-ray
• Limited Edition of 3,000 copies

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domino harvey
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Re: 36 Otley

#2 Post by domino harvey » Sat Apr 14, 2018 9:30 am

Can anyone who's seen it speak to this film? I love Courtenay in this period, but dislike nearly all spy/saboteur movies from this era

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36 Otley

#3 Post by MichaelB » Sat Apr 14, 2018 9:59 am

Here are the two longest pieces on the film that I’m aware of, from CineOutsider and Parallax View.

For me, it’s very much a Courtenay film first and a trendy Sixties spy thriller second. I’m far from the only person to think that it plays as a quasi-sequel to Billy Liar.

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domino harvey
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Re: 36 Otley

#4 Post by domino harvey » Sat Apr 14, 2018 10:19 am

Sold! I'll pick it up when I order all the other big April titles coming out this month in the UK (still waiting for Little Murders to drop in price on Amazon...) and will weigh in once I get to it in five years

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domino harvey
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Re: 36 Otley

#5 Post by domino harvey » Mon Oct 29, 2018 2:19 pm

This was enjoyable, if slight. Better comic films have been made about clueless saps dropped in the middle of spy shenanigans (North by Northwest, Laissons Lucie faire!), but this one has a droll laidback quality that makes it entertaining all the same. I loved how the film took a different approach in showing the typical anti-establishment anti-cop stance by making the police ludicrously accommodating, serving Courtenay a full breakfast in his cell and leaving the door open ("Oh, is there a draft?"). I also enjoyed the self-assured assassin who "kidnaps" Courtenay and is amusingly unfazed by every attempt by Courtenay to escape or get the upper hand. Along those lines, though, having never been to the London myself, I wonder how accurate it is that the Notting Hill gate would be that empty in the early evening?

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