Well, maybe I little exaggerated Many western comedies were showed then, for example. Not all people in hiearchy was convinced ideologists and sometimes really great movie made it - like Raiders of the lost ark - I've seen it at least five times - my grandmother worked in local cinema, so I had it for free. But movies like Rambo, James Bond movies etc were accessible only on black market on VHS in horrible quality.
What is a "western comedy" - comedy made in western countries or a funny movie set in Wild West? 8) Anyway, lots of French and Italian movies were shown in movie theaters and on TV. And they were not only comedies, but also action/detective movies, e.g. those staring A. Delon, L. Ventura or very popular TV show about Mafia in Italy - The Octopus. British "buddy cop" series called Professionals was very popular back then (though some episodes were removed due to the protagonists fighting foes from the Eastern Bloc - we got those only in after 1989), later on it was Dempsey & Makepeace. There were also several British detective series based on P.D. James novels featuring Inspector Dalgliesh. Then there were West Germany detective shows Derrick and Schimanski. And so on. I bet all these are unknown to Americans. I also faintly remember there were many American movies staring R. Redford and P. Newman shown (and yes, many were biased towards showing how bad the system in the USA is). And we've also got huge hits like Alien, Indiana Jones, E.T. and Jaws (not sure about this one, I haven't seen it). Of course Bond or Rambo movies couldn't be shown, think who was the bad guys in them. :lol:
I left in '69, so my recollections all date to the sixties and the fifties. Westerns were very popular and I remember trying to see "Rio Bravo" in the Veletrzni Palac cinema several times, but I never got in. Saw the movie later and I wondered why it was so popular. "High Noon" and "The Magnificent Seven" were shown. Also the pseudo-westerns based on the Karl May books about Old Shatterhand and Winetou, that were shot in Yugoslavia with German actors were immensely popular. "Some Like it Hot and " Dancing in the Rain" too. But one movie made a deep impression on me. It was "Seven Year Itch" or "Slameny vdovec"(?) with Tom McEwell and Marylin Monroe. I saw it several times. I was taken by the carefree way the characters behaved, not so much by Marylins sexuality (she'd be an old women for me at that point!). Everything seemed to be easy in the movie and there was none of that daily scramble for "things" that we were experiencing.
Ah, those were the days. The Professionals, with Bodie and Doyle, was a great dilemma for all teenage girls in the 70s. Who did we fancy more? Bodie or Doyle? I was also quite keen on Inspector Dalgliesh until I found out he was wearing a wig! Phyllis (PD) James was on BBC Radio 4 last week. She's still writing, now well into her 80's. She's a member of the British House of Lords and I met her a couple of times when I was working for John Major at 10 Downing Street.
You were working for John Major? The "I-like-peas-they-are-so-versatile" John Major? That is very interesting. Does that mean you are a Tory? Never mind, that's rhetorical question...Did you meet Maggie? And how close to reality was "Yes, Minister" ? I bet you have stories to tell, but won't....
Well, Gene Kelly did some dancing in the rain in that movie too. Singing, dancing and carefree, ah, all was right with the world. I would say western comedies definitely refers to comedies about the old west, in particular the days of cowboys and indians, mining for gold in the California gold rush, and the days when the people in the east(of north America) were migrating by wagon train to the west coast. The days when you knew the good guys from the bad guys by the color hat they wore. Not familiar with Bodie and Doyle, the english dramas didn't make it over here that much. But I liked Agatha Christie's mysteries. The more modern Prime Suspect series, those were excellent. The spaghetti westerns, those filmed in Italy,(funny, it seems that could be a pejorative term, but I never heard it used that way)
By the way... One of those spaghetti westerns....Once upon a time in the west....what a classic that was......Highly reccommend it. James Fonda, Charles Bronson, an italian beauty(can't remember her name) The music alone is memorable. I wrote about it once here. Tři muže čekají na nádrží. Příjel vlak a také a odejel. Na druhé straně drah stojí muž, je slyšet hluk harmoniky. Jeden z třech říká, zdá se mi, že jsme přijeli o jeden koně meně. Kdepak, přijeli jste dva koně víc než budu potřebovat.
Too right. I remember one time, when the press were digging on some story or other, a journalist I knew well was asked by his colleagues whether it was worth phoning me about it. He replied "No, she's a hundred per cent loyal". I was quite proud of that and thought I might like it on my gravestone!
