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Alfie Bass
Alfie Bass (born Abraham Basalinsky, 10 April 1916 – 16 July 1987) was an English actor. He was born in Bethnal Green, London, the youngest in a Jewish family with ten children; his parents had left Russia many years before he was born. He appeared in a variety of stage, film, television and radio productions throughout his career. Personal life Alfie Bass was born Abraham Basalinsky in Bethnal Green in London's East End. He was the youngest of ten children of Jacob Basalinsky, who had fled Jewish persecution in Russia, and his wife, Ada Miller. After leaving school, he worked in his father's trade as a cabinet-maker. During this time he took part in amateur dramatics at a local boys' club. He was active in the labour movement and often attended union meetings. In 1936 he took part in the Battle of Cable Street, in which activists attempted to prevent a march through the East End by the British Union of Fascists. At the outbreak of World War II, he was rejected by the RAF, ...
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Bethnal Green
Bethnal Green is an area in the East End of London northeast of Charing Cross. The area emerged from the small settlement which developed around the common land, Green, much of which survives today as Bethnal Green Gardens, beside Cambridge Heath Road. By the 16th century the term applied to a wider rural area, the ''Hamlet of Bethnal Green'', which subsequently became a Parish, then a Metropolitan Borough of Bethnal Green, Metropolitan Borough before merging with neighbouring areas to become the north-western part of the new London Borough of Tower Hamlets. Economic focus shifted from mainstream farming produce for the City of London – through highly perishable goods production (market gardening), weaving, dock and building work and light industry – to a high proportion of commuters to city businesses, public sector/care sector roles, construction, courier businesses and home-working digital and creative industries. Slum clearance in the United Kingdom, Identifiable ...
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The Bespoke Overcoat
''The Bespoke Overcoat'' is a 1956 British black and white short film directed by Jack Clayton, based on a 1953 play of the same name by Wolf Mankowitz. The story is an adaptation of Nikolai Gogol's short story ''The Overcoat'' with the action moved from Russia to the East End of London. In this version the protagonists are poor Jews working in the clothing trade, played by Alfie Bass and David Kossoff. It won an Oscar at the 29th Academy Awards in 1957 for Best Short Subject (Two-Reel). Plot The film titles run as a funeral takes place. A coffin is placed in the grave. We then see an overcoat being thrown on the coffin, before the grave is infilled. Morrie a Jewish tailor, speaks to himself in the mirror. He is then joined by the dead Fender. They debate the art of tailoring. Fender is a lowly clerk in the warehouse of clothing manufacturers Ranting and Co. He complains to his boss, Mr Ranting that it is cold, and he wishes he had a good coat. Ranting ridicules him and says ...
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Alfie (1966 Film)
''Alfie'' is a 1966 British comedy-drama film directed by Lewis Gilbert and starring Michael Caine. An adaptation by Bill Naughton of his own 1966 novel and 1963 play of the same name, the film was released by Paramount Pictures. ''Alfie'' tells the story of a young womanising man who leads a self-centred life, purely for his own enjoyment, until events force him to question his uncaring behaviour, his loneliness and his priorities. He cheats on numerous women, and despite his confidence towards women, he treats them with disrespect and refers to them as "it", using them for sex and for domestic purposes. Alfie frequently breaks the fourth wall by speaking directly to the camera narrating and justifying his actions. His words often contrast with or totally contradict his actions. The film had its World Premiere at the Plaza Theatre in the West End of London on 24 March 1966. A box office success, it received critical acclaim and is an influential part of British cinema. Plot ...
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A Tale Of Two Cities (1958 Film)
''A Tale of Two Cities'' is a 1958 British film directed by Ralph Thomas and starring Dirk Bogarde and Dorothy Tutin. It is a period drama based on parts of Charles Dickens' novel ''A Tale of Two Cities'' (1859). Plot Sydney Carton, an alcoholic English lawyer, discovers that Charles Darnay, a man he once defended, is a French aristocrat trying to escape the French Revolution. While he envies the man over the love of a woman, Lucie Manette, his conscience is pricked and he resolves to help him escape the guillotine. Cast * Dirk Bogarde as Sydney Carton *Dorothy Tutin as Lucie Manette *Paul Guers as Charles Darnay (Voice dubbed by Tim Turner – uncredited) *Marie Versini as Marie Gabelle *Ian Bannen as Gabelle *Alfie Bass as Jerry Cruncher * Cecil Parker as Jarvis Lorry * Stephen Murray as Dr. Manette *Athene Seyler as Miss Pross *Ernest Clark as Stryver *Rosalie Crutchley as Madame Defarge *Freda Jackson as the Vengeance *Duncan Lamont as Ernest Defarge *Leo McKern as A ...
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Hell Drivers (film)
''Hell Drivers'' (1957) is a British film noir crime drama film directed by Cy Endfield and starring Stanley Baker, Herbert Lom, Peggy Cummins and Patrick McGoohan. The film was produced by the Rank Organisation and Aqua Film Productions. The film revolves around a recently released convict who takes a driver's job at a haulage company. Plot Having spent time abroad, Tom Yately (Stanley Baker) seeks work as a truck driver with Hawletts, a transport company. Mr. Cartley (William Hartnell), the depot manager, informs Tom that his drivers convey their ten-ton loads of gravel fast over bad roads. They are expected to deliver a minimum of twelve loads a day; if a driver falls behind, he is fired. Each run is round-trip; the top driver makes eighteen runs a day. Tom goes on a trial run with the depot mechanic, in truck no. 13. He narrowly avoids colliding head-on with two other Hawletts trucks speeding the other way. Cartley hires Tom, and he's assigned truck 13. Tom meets the oth ...
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The Lavender Hill Mob
''The Lavender Hill Mob'' is a 1951 comedy film from Ealing Studios, written by T. E. B. Clarke, directed by Charles Crichton, starring Alec Guinness and Stanley Holloway and featuring Sid James and Alfie Bass. The title refers to Lavender Hill, a street in Battersea, a district in London SW11, near to Clapham Junction railway station. The British Film Institute ranked ''The Lavender Hill Mob'' the 17th greatest British film of all time. The original film was digitally restored and re-released to UK cinemas on 29 July 2011 to celebrate its 60th anniversary. It is one of fifteen films listed in the category "Art" on the Vatican film list. Plot Henry Holland lives the life of luxury in Rio de Janeiro, and spends an evening dining out with a British visitor. During their meal, he narrates a story concerning how he changed his life by instigating an intricate gold bullion robbery. One year ago, Holland served as an unambitious London bank clerk, who for twenty years was in char ...
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Second World War
World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis powers. World War II was a total war that directly involved more than 100 million personnel from more than 30 countries. The major participants in the war threw their entire economic, industrial, and scientific capabilities behind the war effort, blurring the distinction between civilian and military resources. Aircraft played a major role in the conflict, enabling the strategic bombing of population centres and deploying the only two nuclear weapons ever used in war. World War II was by far the deadliest conflict in human history; it resulted in 70 to 85 million fatalities, mostly among civilians. Tens of millions died due to genocides (including the Holocaust), starvation, ma ...
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West End Theatre
West End theatre is mainstream professional theatre staged in the large theatres in and near the West End of London.Christopher Innes, "West End" in ''The Cambridge Guide to Theatre'' (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1998), pp. 1194–1195, Along with New York City's Broadway theatre, West End theatre is usually considered to represent the highest level of commercial theatre in the English-speaking world. Seeing a West End show is a common tourist activity in London. Famous screen actors, British and international alike, frequently appear on the London stage. There are a total of 39 theatres in the West End, with the Theatre Royal, Drury Lane, opened in May 1663, the oldest theatre in London. The Savoy Theatre – built as a showcase for the popular series of comic operas of Gilbert and Sullivan – was entirely lit by electricity in 1881. Opening in October 2022, @sohoplace is the first new West End theatre in 50 years. The Society of London Theatre (SOLT) announced ...
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Fiddler On The Roof
''Fiddler on the Roof'' is a musical with music by Jerry Bock, lyrics by Sheldon Harnick, and book by Joseph Stein, set in the Pale of Settlement of Imperial Russia in or around 1905. It is based on ''Tevye and his Daughters'' (or ''Tevye the Dairyman'') and other tales by Sholem Aleichem. The story centers on Tevye, a milkman in the village of Anatevka, who attempts to maintain his Jewish religious and cultural traditions as outside influences encroach upon his family's lives. He must cope with the strong-willed actions of his three older daughters who wish to marry for love; their choices of husbands are successively less palatable for Tevye. An edict of the tsar eventually evicts the Jews from their village. The original Broadway production of the show, which opened in 1964, had the first musical theatre run in history to surpass 3,000 performances. ''Fiddler'' held the record for the longest-running Broadway musical for almost 10 years until '' Grease'' surpassed its run. ...
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Tevye
Tevye the Dairyman, also translated as Tevye the Milkman ( yi, טבֿיה דער מילכיקער, ''Tevye der milkhiker'' ) is the fictional narrator and protagonist of a series of short stories by Sholem Aleichem, and various adaptations of them, the most famous being the 1964 stage musical ''Fiddler on the Roof'' and its 1971 film adaptation. Tevye is a pious Jewish dairyman living in the Russian Empire, the patriarch of a family including several troublesome daughters. The village of Boyberik, where the stories are set (renamed Anatevka in ''Fiddler on the Roof),'' is based on the town of Boyarka, Ukraine, then part of the Russian Empire. Boyberik is a suburb of Yehupetz (based on Kyiv), where most of Tevye's customers live. The stories were written in Yiddish and first published in 1894; they have been published as ''Tevye and His Daughters'', ''Tevye's Daughters'', ''Tevye the Milkman'', and ''Tevye the Dairyman''. As Tevye "tells" Aleichem the tales of his family life, ...
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Chaim Topol
Chaim Topol ( he, חיים טופול; born September 9, 1935), also spelled Haym Topol, mononymously known as Topol, is an Israeli actor, comedian, singer, film producer, author, and illustrator. He is best known for his portrayal of Tevye the Dairyman, the lead role in the musical ''Fiddler on the Roof'', on both stage and screen, having performed this role more than 3,500 times in shows and revivals from the late 1960s through 2009. Topol began his acting career during his Israeli army service in the Nahal entertainment troupe, and later toured Israel with kibbutz theatre and satirical theatre companies. He was a co-founder of the Haifa Theatre. His breakthrough film role came in 1964 as the title character in ''Sallah Shabati'', by Israeli writer Ephraim Kishon, for which he won a Golden Globe for Most Promising Newcomer—Male. Topol went on to appear in more than 30 films in Israel and the United States, including ''Galileo'' (1975), ''Flash Gordon'' (1980) and '' For Your ...
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Academy Award For Best Live Action Short Film
The Academy Award for Best Live Action Short Film is an award presented at the annual Academy Awards ceremony. The award has existed, under various names, since 1957. From 1936 until 1956 there were two separate awards, "Best Short Subject, One-reel" and "Best Short Subject, Two-reel", referring to the running time of the short: a standard Reel#Motion picture terminology, reel of film is 1000 feet, or about 11 minutes of run time. A third category "Best Short Subject, color" was used only for 1936 and 1937. From the initiation of short subject awards for 1932 until 1935 the terms were "Best Short Subject, comedy" and "Best Short Subject, novelty". These categories were merged starting with the 1957 awards, under the name "Short Subjects, Live Action Subjects", which was used until 1970. For the next three years after that, it was known as "Short Subjects, Live Action Films". The current name for the Academy Award for Live Action Short Film was introduced in 1974. Current academy ...
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