Be Seeing You, Number Six
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| Patrick McGoohan, star, writer, director, progenitor, auteur, dammit of the classic series The Prisoner died today at age 80. Although that series will inevitably be the locus of the discussion of his career, I’d like to take a moment to consider one of his films, one that shows what a broad talent McGoohan was.
The film is All Night Long, 1961, directed by Basil Dearden. The story is an updating of Othello (no Shakespearean dialogue), regarding a black London jazzman and his white singer wife. McGoohan plays their ambitious drummer, Johnny Cousin,the Iago character. The film is/was notable in jazz circles for the appearance and performances of quite a few jazzmen of the time, some giants – Charles Mingus, Dave Brubeck, Johnny Dankworth. |
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| Ladies and gentlemen, Charles Mingus. The thing that startled me is that McGoohan played the drums himself for this. He manages to convince that he belongs with these people. |
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| This is a 2 or 3 minute solo. Now, maybe the soundtrack was actually done a second time in post, but either way I think he’s really doing this. Impressed, I am. |
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| Godspeed, Pat. Thanks for everything. |
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Terrific! I’m pointing people here.
I’m downloading “Star Trek II: Wrath of Khan” to watch in HD on my PS3.
As everyone knows, “The Prisoner” is the British equivalent of “Star Trek”.
I had thought it was Blake’s 7, or possibly Sapphire and Steel. But no, you’re right – The Prisoner = Star Trek 🙂
Hi – I don’t comment on many blogs but had to on yours. It’s really nice! I really like how you write – very to the point, unlike a lot of other journals. Thanks for having this site. I don’t have time to read everything here right now, I found this site while I was searching for something else on Google, but I’ve bookmarked your homepage and will check back soon to see the latest news. I am really eagerly awaiting the new series. Do you think it will be good? It won’t be as good as the original, of course, but Jim Caviezel is quite an actor (though he’s no Patrick McGoohan!). I have started a site with a few clips from both the original series and some previews of the remake. Please take a look at my site – it is at http://www.NoManIsJustANumber.com – and let me know what you think of it. Keep up the outstanding work! Be seeing you.