"Meet Mr Lucifer" (film)

[simpsons]

The screen shot by Kevin only reminds me of how difficult it was humping woodies and bakelite TV's into place for the window display. As for lifting them onto the shelves I can't imagine the size of the nuts and bolts holding shelves up or how much stronger I must have been.

Because the aerial amp was only good enough for a couple of sets to display pictures and when BBC 2 came along, only sufficient signal for one at a time, comparing one set against another was impossible.

In practise, it didn't matter as we rented most sets and the customer was more interested in how much per week the set cost. We were more interested in what goodies the manufacturer offered us when buying more than one model, usually a Christmas hamper would close the deal!

Radios and especially radiograms were a different matter. Full bass and no treble was the order of the day to show off the HiFi of VHF, this was when I worked in Letchworth Herts. "Up north", Sowerby Bridge to be exact, there was little treble on VHF by the time the PO landlines had got to Holme Moss and as MW didn't then have the high compression of today's stations, FM wasn't a big deal; moving the AM dial just a little off station gave the listener all the treble wanted!

Oh happy days

[G4YVM David]

Watched this tonight. Very good film. I had no.idea "on line porn" and video chat was so old!

Really enjoyed it

[johnmarshmanagain]

lucifer = bringer of light...

[McMurdo]

Here's a few off-screen pics of the vintage TV interest bits.

[Panrock]

Can anyone tell the actual set used, from the rear view?

Steve

[Techman]

Good off screen shots, Kevin, but a little bit 'wide screen' stretched, I think.

You should have watched it on a proper vintage set with the correct screen dimensions, like the one showing the end of that particular film in the picture below. If you can tell through the darkness of the picture, you may see that it's a set, not as early as the film by any means, but a set that some would say is more scary than Mr Lucifer himself!

Does anyone know if the film is going to be shown again, as I ought to try to get a recording of it on a vintage VCR?

Edit to say - If you click on the image it may appear on its side on some computers (a Windows 10 issue), but if you double click it, it will then go the correct way up.

[peter_scott]

I think photo 5 is http://www.thevalvepage.com/dbase/Baird/b1/b1p3.jpg

Peter

[McMurdo]

pics were taken by pointing my camera at the TV while it was playing; I have also cropped my pics to take away parts of my TV, ornaments and the curtains, etc. Talking Pictures have a habit of cropping old 35mm frames to 16:9, so you never see the full picture. Showing it on a 4:3 tv would result in black bars top and bottom unless you zoomed in and lost more at the sides into the bargain.

The TV's on the conveyor were a mixture, some with a row of knobs on the bottom edge, some not, but it looked like a real factory alright. It was the scene where the camera pans as the sets come along the conveyor towards the screen, then settles on the lady of the film standing in front of a wall of TV chassis with round tubes.

The TV 'back' looks like a few holes have been blanked off and the cables emerge from the bottom, as though it was once a proper TV and has been adapted for the large screen. The shots of it working were always a composite

[dave walsh]

Further to my comments re missing this film [twice... post 17*] a kind Forum member is doing a DVD copy for me. Having been off line for a week or two I missed both his offer, initially, plus another one from Davy Rocket [post 19*] which indicated that he records on VHS only. I don't know whether he might be able to assist with your particular VHS requirement TECHMAN [post 26*] but it could be worth you enquiring As far as I can tell, there has never been a commercial VHS tape of Meet Mr Lucifer. There is a DVD where it's bundled with other films of the same period. Despite the low opinion of this film in some quarters [irrelevant to the technical interest here anyway] someone is trying to flog a poster on e-bay for £450. Thanks for those stills-especially to McMurdo John M, Lucifer bringing light, not darkness [post 23]. A very deep observation, as well as a good cinematic pun!

Dave W

[dave walsh]

After being sent a DVD copy [thanks again Derrick] I was able to view the film with my daughter this week. TV Hardware aside I found it surprisingly interesting, amusing and also predictive of contemporary society. I could say a lot about it but one example was the theory put forward [then] that TV would have a hypnotising influence on the population[as shown by the effect on the young wife]. I don't think that quite happened despite, for example, current binge watching with "boxed" sets but it certainly applies now to another sort of screen, ie the one on our mobile phones The comparison with Spiritualism as someone tries to explain the new "medium" to Mr Lucifer [using his sister in Eastbourne] was interesting and made me think of Cyber Space! Stanley Holloway seemed exactly right for the role, with his tale tucked into his overcoat pocket.

In one of these coincidences that seem to happen, I heard Stanley in a 1960 interview on Radio 4xtra last Sunday. It was a program titled "Frankly Speaking". A very interesting account of his career and his accent was neither Cockney [I'm Getting Married In The Morning] or Lancs [eg Brown Boots/Sam Pick Up Your Musket /Albert and The Lion-featuring Mr and Mrs Ramsbottom [of course].
Should be available on BBC Sounds/App /I-Player or whatever.

Dave W

[davyrocket2]

I watched this last night, I discovered I had recorded it twice on UK Gold and on Talking Pictures. I very much enjoy Ealing studios films and Meet Mr Lucifer did not disapoint me.