Soho Bites Podcast

Oh I do like to be beside the seaside. For this episode, we braved the British railway system and went out to the Southend-on-Sea Film Festival to watch a screening of this month’s film “ A Taste of Money ”. A Taste of Money was produced by the Danziger brothers and was directed by Max Varnel (son of Marcel ) and stars Jean Cadell as an OAP who has recently turned to crime and Dick Emery as her cr...

Do you need a hand with that? The NSFW Irina Palm (2007) was directed by Sam Garbarski and stars 1960s icon, Marianne Faithfull as Maggie, a middle aged woman who turns to sex work to raise money for her grandson's medical treatment. Adopting the name Irina Palm, the service she provides is a very limited one and is such that she never has to change out of her floral overall. The film was describe...

Not a Humphry Bogart film. King of the Underworld (1952) stars Tod Slaughter as Terence Reilly - a master criminal who is always one step ahead of his arch nemesis, Inspector Morley, played by Patrick Barr . The film should not be confused with King of the Underworld (1939) which stars Humphry Bogart and is a very different film all together. It was not originally made as a film and is actually th...

I would prefer not to. Based on “ Bartleby the Scrivener - A Story of Wall Street ”, a short story by Herman Melville , Bartleby (1970) is the story of a young man at odds with the world in which he finds himself. He starts work as an audit clerk at an accountancy firm but within a few days begins to refuse to do any work, saying merely that he “would prefer not to”. Starring John McEnery in the t...

Spiv Noir. According to the billing, the stars of 1948's Noose (known as The Silk Noose in the US) are Carole Landis , Joseph Calleia & Derek Farr , but the real star of the film is Nigel Patrick who is cast against type as Bar Gorman, a sharply dressed, fast talking spiv. Set firmly in Soho, it tells the story of how the police, the press & a group of normal citizens, try to loosen the ch...

After two years in the wilderness, we return to your ears with episode 48 and a brilliant film - Mona Lisa (1986). Directed by Neil Jordan and written by David Leland , it’s a noir thriller with a fantastical edge - or perhaps a fantasy cloaked in noir - about humans finding connection in a grim world. Bob Hoskins , Cathy Tyson , Michael Caine and Robbie Coltrane all turn in beautiful performances...

Bienvenue dans le premier épisode de 2024. Monsieur Ripois (1954) was directed by René Clément and stars the French heart throb, Gérard Philipe along with the English beauties, Joan Greenwood , Natasha Parry & Valerie Hobson . It was based on the 1912 novel, Monsieur Ripois et la Némésis by Louis Hémon . The film was released under several other titles including “Lovers, Happy Lovers” & “K...

Ching ching etc - it's the Soho Bites Christmas special. Having just left behind the wholesome world of Jessie Matthews and 1930s musicals, it feels right to descend into the grubby underbelly of Soho with the festive fiasco, Don't Open 'til Christmas . The "plot" such as it is, is a basic one. A crazed serial killer is roaming the west end murdering men dressed as Santa Claus. If there's a worse...

Jessie part three. For this, the third and final instalment of our mini-series about the 1930s' biggest UK film star, Jessie Matthews , we met up with Dr Jennifer Voss of De Montford University to talk about Friday the Thirteenth (1933). NB: this is the Friday the Thirteenth from 1933, directed by Victor Saville with a large ensemble cast including Jessie as well as her husband, Sonnie Hale , Emly...

Jessie part two. This is the second instalment of a three part mini-series about the 1930s' biggest UK film star, Jessie Matthews . Evergreen (1934) was based on Ever Green, CB Cochran's 1930 musical spectacular at the Adelphi Theatre. Jessie starred as Harriet Green in both the stage show and the film. We're joined by Dr Melanie Williams of The University of East Anglia to talk about the film and...

The Big Jessie series. This is the first of a three part mini-series focusing on the 1930s' biggest UK film star, Jessie Matthews . None of Jessie's films were set in Soho, but the fact that she was born on Berwick Street where her dad was a market trader, that she lived in William & Mary Yard on Brewer Street and that she learned to dance in an upstairs room at The Blue Posts means that, as f...

Not a normal episode. We're not actually talking about a Soho film in this episode. It's a long story... We do, however, talk to a genuine film star from the golden era. As an eight year old boy, Bobby Henrey was rocketed into the public eye when he starred in Carol Reed & Graham Greene 's 1948 thriller, " The Fallen Idol ". He joins us on Soho Bites (on his 84th birthday!) to tell us about th...

At last! It's the long awaited exotic birds episode. The Green Cockatoo (1937) is a noir-ish thriller set in gangland Soho. The Green Cockatoo of the title is not actually a beautiful tropical bird but a drab Soho nightclub. When Dave Connor gets on the wrong side of some gangsters, his brother, Jim and an innocent bystander, Eileen get caught up in the trouble. Directed by William Cameron Menzies...

It's Jazz, man. Also, it's Shakespeare. All Night Long (1962) is a re-telling of Shakespeare's Othello in which Othello is Rex, the famous leader of a jazz band, Desdemona is a singer called Delia and Iago is the band's drummer, Johnny. The film was directed by Basil Dearden and stars Patrick Mcgoohan and Richard Attenborough plus several major jazz stars of the day, including Tubby Hayes , Charle...

Thirty nine episodes in and we finally do a gay themed episode of the show. About time too! Nighthawks (1978) was directed by Ron Peck and was based on a script developed by him and Paul Hallam . It stars Ken Robertson as Jim, a geography teacher at a London comprehensive school who spends his nights looking for love in gay bars, clubs and discos (discos were still a thing then). To talk about Nig...

Murder mystery? Rom-com? And, as an afterthought.... wartime boosterism? East of Piccadilly (1941) was known as "The Strangler" in the US and was directed by Harold Huth . It stars Judy Campbell & Sebastian Shaw and was written by the then quite young J Lee Thompson . It tells the story of a murder investigation and is (extremely) loosely based on a real life case, that of the "The Soho Strang...

Attention jiving scum! This is one is straight from the fridge dad . It doesn't get more Soho than Beat Girl (1960) - coffee shops, beatniks, strip clubs, The 2 i's .... it's got the lot. Gillian Hills leads the cast of Beat Girl, which also stars Adam Faith , Christopher Lee , Shirley Ann Field and, in a very small role, a young Oliver Reed . We met novelist, Des Burkinshaw in the bar of the Soho...

Everything changes but.... The changing faces of London neighbourhoods is our loose theme for this episode. In the first half, the novelist, Christopher Fowler makes his second appearance on the podcast, talking about his latest book and about his memories of Soho - a neighbourhood which changes constantly but somehow always remains the same. ***UPDATE*** Christopher very sadly died a few weeks af...

Two Films, One Guest. Normally we have two guests on each episode of Soho Bites, but when your guest is as good as David McGillivray , who needs a second? Long before Matthew Sweet gave him the moniker, "The Truffaut of Smut", David reviewed Zeta One (AKA The Love Factor - no idea why) for The Monthly Film Bulletin. He didn't have a lot of good things to say about it then - has his opinion changed...

Double Stinker. After an extended break to allow our massive team to shift its attention to our most recent podcast series, Kino Quickies , we return to Soho Bites with the 1948 murder mystery, It Happened in Soho . It’s safe to say, the film had a very small budget and doesn’t have the highest of production values but it does boast a major star, Richard “Stinker” Murdoch . At the time the film wa...

Special Sandwich Special. We’ve done some episodes in the past with some disparate and unusual themes. We did a Spain themed episode, a sport one, a God special and even a wrestling / boxing episode, but we think we’ve surpassed ourselves this time as the theme linking the two items in episode 33 is sandwiches. Sandwich boards , that is, and the men who wear them. There was a time when Sandwich me...

Softly Shoe Shuffle. Murphy's Law states that if you've arranged an interview with a brilliant guest to talk about a fantastic film in a great location, then you will catch Covid and have to self-isolate. This is why my interview with Ming Ho about Turn the Key Softly (1953) took place online and not in the lovely surroundings of the BAFTA bar as originally planned. Turn the Key Softly is set over...

Sohohoho Bites Christmas special. In this festive special, we’re talking about the much loved Christmas classic, The Muppet Christmas Carol (1992) which, according to this article, is the greatest film ever made . In the first half of the show we meet up with Jonathan Foster. He works at the Prince Charles Cinema, just off Leicester Square and is the co-host of the Pod Charles Cinecast. The PCC is...

Kent Noir. Good-Time Girl is a post war UK film noir with three main locations – Lambeth, Soho and “Soho-On-Sea” (AKA Brighton). James Harrison of South West Silents & Film Noir UK joins Dom to talk about the film and about Film Noir UK. The star of Good-Time Girl is Jean Kent , known throughout the 1940s and beyond as UK film’s “bad girl”. To talk about Jean’s life and career, we drop in to t...

Wham bam Bowie special. In this Bowie special, we talk to Del Pike about the much maligned Absolute Beginners (1986) - was the critical mauling justified? And Aiden McManus returns to the show to talk about Bowie's pre-fame years in Soho. Arriving on cinema screens on the back of an inordinate amount of pre-publicity in 1986, Absolute Beginners was, notoriously, an instantaneous disaster at the bo...