Unofficial Christ's Hospital Forum

When I was a lad we used to troop to saturday night pictures once a month or so in Big School.

Presumably these days it's videos or DVDs in the Day Room since the films are available that way?

When did film nights in Big School stop? I think it lasted my time as I remember seeing A Clockwork Orange at school before it got banned for 20 years plus by Kubrick.

Sure we still had the odd film shown when I was there around the mid/late eighties Think they were shown in the theatre then though.

Hmmm, I just about remember school films - not sure that any of them were too challenging. "Hannibal Brooks" springs to mind......

I recall watching "The Sting", "Papillon" and "One flew over the Cuckoo's Nest" in Horsham.

Otherwise, leave days in London provided the best cinematic opportunities.

"The Towering Inferno" , "The Song Remains the Same" (us wearing greatcoats, platform shoes and glugging cheap brandy - brilliant! Still enjoy watching it.), Emanuelle, Caligula (to further our classical education, you understand...).

They used to show films in the theatre when I was at CH in the 90's - they were often run by Deps with witty names like: 'The Cunning Stunts'...

i can understand drinking cheap brandy whilst watching 'the song remains the same', you have to be on something for that film to make any sense. the bit with the technicolor swords is ace though.

afaik they still show films in the theatre. the last few that i saw, the sound had been given over to the theatre-techies as 'practice' for them. which meant that the sound was pIss-poor. every time. i gave up going after a couple of 'amatuer showings'.

does anyone remember seeing 'the cult'? it was a film written and directed by then dep, vaughaun (sp?) williams. shot entirely at CH. it was absolutely brilliant and i am looking for a copy.

Hendrik wrote:does anyone remember seeing 'the cult'? it was a film written and directed by then dep, vaughaun (sp?) williams. shot entirely at CH. it was absolutely brilliant and i am looking for a copy.

I've never seen more than a few bits here and there, but my brother was in it and may still be in touch with Vaughn Marles, I'll ask him if he has a copy of the film. I know he's got some stills - him and Chris Blackburn looking moody!

Junior Films in Big School.......Vivid memories of walking there in the dark, dressed up like Scott of the Antarctic and shining torches around, then sitting freezing in Big School in scarf and gloves, shovelling oneself full of Ritz crackers whilst one's nose dripped into the crackerbox thanks to the sub-Arctic temperatures. Paddy Cullen at the helm.....kids shining torches at the screen.....everyone hoping for a glimpse of tit, though obviously there wasn't a cat in hell's chance of seeing any in an A- or U-certificate film....Hannibal Brooks, Hornblower (a film noted internationally for its lack of tit)......then back to house in time for Dave Allen.

Pretty pathetic really.

We used to get a couple of films a term in Big School. Sure they were all in black and white.

Can't remember any of the titles, but seem to remember Buster Keaton putting in a 'guest-appearance'................................

J.R. wrote:We used to get a couple of films a term in Big School. Sure they were all in black and white.

Can't remember any of the titles, but seem to remember Buster Keaton putting in a 'guest-appearance'................................

Did your films have that new-fangled sound as well?

Hendrik wrote:i can understand drinking cheap brandy whilst watching 'the song remains the same', you have to be on something for that film to make any sense. the bit with the technicolor swords is ace though.

Yup, that bit was a result of Jimmy Page's *ahem* imagination.....

Never been able to watch Zulu since it got flogged to death in Big School.

The rest were even more dire and even less memorable.

Richard Ruck wrote:

J.R. wrote:We used to get a couple of films a term in Big School. Sure they were all in black and white.

Can't remember any of the titles, but seem to remember Buster Keaton putting in a 'guest-appearance'................................

Did your films have that new-fangled sound as well?

Yes Richard, but somewhat primitive and echo-ee ! Always was a bit of a problem to find someone to play the piano on the 'silents', though !

I recall films in Big School, not a bad selection; Bridge of the River Kwai, Dr Strangelove, The Horse's Mouth (Alec Guiness), The Rebel (Tony Hancock I think), Mon Oncle (Jacques Tati?) all run by Paddy Cullen on a back projector, i.e., it projected on to the back of the screen as opposed to the cinema, which projected on the front. There were about 3 films a term but only in the Michaelmas and Lent terms. They all seemed quite recent and were films I would not have had a budget to see during the holidays.
I also remember seeing silent cinema (B & W Chaplin, Keaton etc) shown at a hall behind the Prep, with accompanying piano played by Derek Austin? This was only a one off I think.

I remember seeing the musical Oliver in Big School around the end of 1973. The theatre then opened and school films all were shown in the theatre thereafter as far as I know. If I remember correctly, visibility was better in the theatre but Big School was a great deal less uncomfortable. I think they finally got round to replacing the bum-numbingly uncomfortable benches in the theatre some time in the 1990s!

Big School films 1973 onwards included Zulu, Charade (Cary Grant/Audrey Hepburn), Shalako, When Eight Bells Toll (early Anthony Hopkins), The Italian Job.........

didn't have the same carnival atmosphere when they moved the films to the theatre.....