PROPER JOB.....

The more observant among you may have noticed that, thanks to my good friend Wurzel, whose ramblings can be seen at `Wurzel`s thoughts` (see link under `Snopper`s Links`) I have managed to introduce a new feature into these pages. Go to the right and down a bit and you will see `Snopper`s Films.` I hasten to add that this is not a `Top 10` or a list of my favourite films, but just a fairly random list drawn from so many I have seen and enjoyed over the years.

I guess some of my enthusiasm stemmed from my time as a projectionist in the AKC Cinema in Paderborn, Germany, where I endured my National Service, but my love affair with the cinematic world goes much deeper. But, as they say, more on that story later.

On the list I have shown, there is a `+` mark against each film title which, if you click on, something about each film should appear, along with links to the Internet Movie DataBase site for full details, so I won`t go into detail about each one here. However, perhaps one of the entries - `Johnny Frenchman` - deserves a little explanation as to its inclusion, for it most definitely comes into the realms of the obscure.

I first saw this 1945 black and white epic when I was recuperating from some bug or other and `Johnny Frenchman` came on one weekday afternoon - clearly just to fill time in the tv schedule. But it immediately grabbed my attention for a number of reasons. The acting could flatteringly be described as `wooden,` and the plot `contrived` - it centres around an unlikely drama concerning rivalries between Breton and Cornish fishing folk. But the location was Mevagissey, some of whose inhabitants take impromptu roles in the film, and it gives a good insight into how that lovely Cornish fishing port actually was all those years ago, as opposed to the tourist mecca it has since become.

(click on photo for larger image)

The scene which really stood out for me, though, is when that classically trained Shakespearean actor, Ralph Michael, is quaffing a pint in the Mevagissey local and - in a clipped, quasi-Cornish accent - struggles to utter the Cornish approbation `proper job.` At which point, I collapsed with laughter.