THE FILMS OF WOODLEIGH COURT

I'm nearly done with my Netflix run of the 'Rosemary & Thyme' episodes starring Pam Ferris and one of my favorites, Felicity Kendal. Last night during my break, I watched the Christmas episode from 2005, "The Cup Of Silence" and was kept busy scribbling down the names of all of these movies that look to be found only in the Netflix of Toobworld.

The episode took place at a countryside hotel named Woodleigh Court owned by one brother, while the other inherited the neighboring vineyards where he bottled Crickle Valley wines. Back in the fifties and sixties, when the hotel estate was in disrepair, it had been leased out to moviemakers who created some low-budget "classics" on the site. Since then, movie lovers from all over Great Britain had flocked to the hotel grounds in order to see where some of their favorite movies had been filmed.

Even though I had the option to replay those key scenes in which these fictional movies were named, but even that didn't help me at times to catch the names of some of the actors and directors who were supposedly involved in these cinematic ventures. But those I did hear were the names of real celebrities. So even though the movies were creations of Toobworld, the actors involved were the televersions of actors from the Trueniverse.

Each of the rooms in the hotel were named after characters from these movies - the honeymoon suite was the "Lorna Doone" and the cramped quarters near the attic in which Rosemary and Laura were billeted was called the "Ebenezer Scrooge". (From their window, Scrooge called out to the passing boy on Christmas morning.)

So here's a Deep Six list of the movies that were mentioned during the episode:

"Dance Of The Viper Woman" - As with "Lorna Doone", no other information was given about it that I can remember....

"Ebenezer Scrooge" - This starred Wilfred Brambell, best known for playing Paul McCartney's grandfather in "A Hard Day's Night" and for being Albert Steptoe in 'Steptoe And Son'. Luckily for Toobworld, this credit was not mentioned, so there was no Zonk to be splained away.

"Pride & Prejudice" - One of many adaptations of the Jane Austen novel, this one featured Peter Cushing getting his teeth kicked out. (Of all these titles, this one actually exists! It was a television adaptation back in the 1950s. Luckily it wasn't mentioned as such, so we don't have to consider it a Zonk.)

"The Many Loves Of Genghis Khan" - Dennis Lotis and Kay Kendall starred in this film, which had its scene of the slaughter of the virgins staged at the Woodleigh Court summer house.

"The Body In The Boot" - Released in 1962 (perhaps by the legendary movie studio of Toobworld, Mammoth Studios?), this movie starred the late Hazel Court, one of the cinema's great "scream queens". An actor was also mentioned, but try as I might, the best I could make out was a name similar to "Douglas Watson". But I don't think that was correct.

Finally - and this is my favorite of the batch - Denis Price portrayed Sherlock Holmes in a movie made at Woodleigh Court, in which Cecil Parker was murdered by Professor Moriarty. I''m not sure who Parker played, but he would have made for a marvelous Dr. Watson in the Nigel Bruce vein.

As for who played Moriarty, that actor wasn't mentioned either, so it led me to do a bit of Wish-Craft. With Price of "Kind Hearts And Coronets" and Parker of "The LadyKillers" and "The Man In The White Suit" already involved, who better to play the Napoleon of Crime than the star of those aforementioned films, Sir Alec Guinness?

Even with Cecil Parker being killed in the movie, I could see this being a production of Ealing Studios because of those involved. After all, a little murder - or five - didn't keep "The Lady Killers" from being one of the greatest comedies ever filmed!

BCnU!
Toby O'B