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Spiv
In the United Kingdom, the word spiv is slang for a type of petty criminal who deals in illicit, typically black market, goods. The word was particularly used during the Second World War and in the post-war period when many goods were rationed due to shortages. According to Peter Wollen, "The crucial difference between the spiv and the classic Hollywood gangster was the degree of sympathy the spiv gained as an intermediary in the transfer of black market goods to ... a grateful mass of consumers."Peter Wollen (2002) ''Paris Hollywood - Writings on Film'' pp185–6 Origins The origin of the word is obscure. According to Eric Partridge the word was originally racecourse slang, but had become widely accepted by 1950. It appeared in a paperback crime novel in 1934.Axel Bracey (1934) ''School for Scoundrels'' (Rich and Cowan) The ''Oxford English Dictionary'' states that it may come from: *''spiffy'', meaning smartly dressed; *'' spiff'', a bonus for salespeople (especially ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Spiff
A spiff, or spiv, is slang for an immediate bonus for a sale. Typically, spiffs are paid, either by a manufacturer or employer, directly to a salesperson for selling a ''specific'' product. It is sometimes given as SPIF or SPIFF, a backronym, with invented words to fit the letters, but these are not the origin (see below). Origin An early reference to a spiff can be found in a slang dictionary of 1859; "The percentage allowed by drapers to their young men when they effect sale of old fashioned or undesirable stock."Oxford English Dictionary (1989) 2nd edition An article in the ''Pall Mall Gazette'' of 1890 on the practices in London shops uses the term: a "spiff" system is usually adopted, spiffs being premiums placed on certain articles, ''not'' of the last fashion, indicated by a marvelous hieroglyphic put on the price ticket. These marks are well known by the assistant, and the almost invisible mystic sign explains why an article, wholly unsuitable, is foisted on the jaded c ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Flash Harry (St Trinian's)
Henry Cuthbert Edwards aka Flash Harry is a fictional character from the St. Trinian's series of films who first appears in the 1954 '' The Belles of St Trinian's'' and who may also be a spiv. The term refers to "an ostentatious, loudly-dressed, and usually ill-mannered man". The best-known portrayer is George Cole in the 1950s–1960s films. In the St Trinian's films, Harry is a long-term associate of the girl pupils, a Cockney involved in all sorts of shady dealings. His father sold racecards and, when he was 12, Harry himself was employed as a boot polisher by Miss Fritton, headmistress of St Trinian's, and may be an antithesis of Harry Flashman (the bully) of the 1857 book ''Tom Brown's School Days''. As an adult, Harry is one of the few whom the pupils trust: he helps to bottle and sell their gin, distilled in the school chemistry lab, and places bets on race horses for them. Harry also runs the St Trinian's Matrimonial Agency for the teenage Sixth Form girls, setting t ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Arthur English
Arthur Leslie Norman English (9 May 1919 – 16 April 1995) was an English television, film and stage actor and comedian from the music hall tradition. Early life English was born at 22 Lysons Road in Aldershot,'Arthur English, ''Aldershot Historical & Archaeological Society'' (AHAS), Yearbook 23 (2010) pg7 Hampshire, the son of Walter Frederick English (1856–1948) and Ethel English (née Parsons) (1886–1975), who married at Holy Trinity church in Aldershot in 1909. Arthur English had two older brothers: Walter (born 1910) and John Edgar (born 1912). All three boys were born in their parents' bedroom in Lysons Road and all three were baptised at Holy Trinity church. He attended West End Boys School in Aldershot (now the West End Centre) from the age of 5 to 14. His first stage appearance was aged 10 when he joined a group from Gale & Polden called the 'Five O'clock Follies' as an acrobat.AHAS, pg8 On leaving school in 1933 he briefly worked at Fisher's Hotel in nearby Fa ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
No Way Back (1949 Film)
''No Way Back'' is a 1949 British crime film directed by Stefan Osiecki and starring Terence De Marney, Eleanor Summerfield and Jack Raine. The screenplay concerns an injured boxer who sinks into bad company when his fighting career comes to an end leading to a spiral of crime. It was made at Nettlefold Studios in Walton-on-Thames. Plot Johnnie Thompson, a veteran and popular boxer known as "The Croucher" for his distinctive fighting style, enters the ring against a much younger opponent Tommy McGovern. Despite his years of hard living, Thompson remains confident of winning but soon finds himself in trouble. Drawing on all his reserves he is able to knock his opponent down but not out. McGovern gets up and then knocks Thompson out for a ten count. Thompson still hopes to continue his career and regain his title, but a visit to the Doctor's informs him that the sight in one of his eyes has gone. He realises he will be unable to fight on and retires. His promoter explains that he ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Duck's Ass
The ducktail is a men's haircut style popular during the 1950s. It is also called the duck's tail, duck's ass, duck's arse, or simply D.A. and is also described as slicked back hair. The hair is pomaded (greased), combed back around the sides, and parted centrally down the back of the head. History Joe Cirello, a barber from Philadelphia, said he had invented the duck's ass in 1940, and he called the swung hair sides and their termination 'The Swing', after the musical style of the day. He'd practiced on a lonely blind boy for about eighteen months. The duck's tail became an emblematic coiffure of disaffected young males across the English-speaking world during the 1950s. In Britain, it formed part of the visual identity of teddy boys and rockers, along with the quiff and the elephant's trunk. Combing technique The style required that the hair be combed back around the sides of the head. The teeth edge of a comb was then used to define a central parting running from the crown t ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Waterloo Road (film)
''Waterloo Road'' is a 1945 British film directed by Sidney Gilliat and starring John Mills, Stewart Granger, and Alastair Sim. It is based on the Waterloo area of South London. According to the British Film Institute database, it is the third in an "unofficial trilogy" by Gilliat, preceded by '' Millions Like Us'' (1943) and '' Two Thousand Women'' (1944). Premise A soldier, Jim Colter (Mills), goes AWOL to return to his home in south London to save his wife from the advances of Ted Purvis (Granger), a philandering conscription-dodger. Cast * John Mills as Jim Colter * Stewart Granger as Ted Purvis * Alastair Sim as Dr. Montgomery * Joy Shelton as Tillie Colter * Alison Leggatt as Ruby * Beatrice Varley as Mrs. Colter * George Carney as Tom Mason * Leslie Bradley as Mike Duggan * Jean Kent as Toni * Ben Williams as Corporal Lewis * Anna Konstam as May * Vera Frances as Vera Colter * George Merritt as Air Raid Warden Production The film was originally known as ''Bl ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
The Third Man
''The Third Man'' is a 1949 British film noir directed by Carol Reed, written by Graham Greene and starring Joseph Cotten, Alida Valli, Orson Welles, and Trevor Howard. Set in postwar Vienna, the film centres on American Holly Martins (Cotten), who arrives in the city to accept a job with his friend Harry Lime (Welles), only to learn that Lime has died. Viewing his death as suspicious, Martins elects to stay in Vienna and investigate the matter. The atmospheric use of black-and-white expressionist cinematography by Robert Krasker, with harsh lighting and largely subtle "Dutch angle" camera technique, is a major feature of ''The Third Man''. Combined with the iconic theme music by zither player Anton Karas, seedy locations and acclaimed performances from the cast, the style evokes the atmosphere of an exhausted, cynical post-war Vienna at the start of the Cold War. Greene wrote the novella of the same name as preparation for the screenplay. Karas's title composition " The ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Odd Man Out
''Odd Man Out'' is a 1947 British film noir directed by Carol Reed, and starring James Mason, Robert Newton, Cyril Cusack, and Kathleen Ryan. Set in Belfast, Northern Ireland, it follows a wounded Nationalist leader who attempts to evade police in the aftermath of a robbery. It is based on the 1945 novel of the same name by F. L. Green. The film received the first BAFTA Award for Best British Film, and was also nominated for the Academy Award for Best Film Editing. Filmmaker Roman Polanski repeatedly cited ''Odd Man Out'' as his favourite film. ''Odd Man Out'' follows the Mason character "on an anguished journey through the alleys of Belfast that visually presages Harry Lime's shadowy flight through the sewers of Vienna" in Reed's 1949 film ''The Third Man''. Plot The setting is an unnamed Belfast. Northern Ireland. Irish nationalist 'organisation' member Johnny McQueen has been hiding for six months, since his escape from prison, in a house occupied by Kathleen Sullivan ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
It Always Rains On Sunday
''It Always Rains on Sunday'' is a 1947 British film adaptation of Arthur La Bern's novel by the same name, directed by Robert Hamer. The film has been compared with the poetic realism movement in the French cinema of a few years earlier by the British writers Robert Murphy and Graham Fuller. Synopsis The film concerns events one Sunday (23 March 1947, according to the announcement blackboard at the local underground station) in Bethnal Green, a part of the East End of London that had suffered the effects of bombing and post-war deprivation. Rose Sandigate is a former barmaid married to a middle-aged man who has two teenage daughters from a previous marriage. She is now housewife, but with her wounded heart and kindly husband is coping with the difficulties of rationing and a drab, joyless environment. A former lover, Tommy Swann, jailed four years earlier for robbery with violence, escapes from prison and in a newspaper report is, as Rose discovers, on the run. In a remarkable ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
They Made Me A Fugitive
''They Made Me a Fugitive'' (released in the United States as ''I Became a Criminal'') is a 1947 British film noir set in postwar England.''Variety'' film review; 2 July 1947, page 13.'' Harrison's Reports'' film review (14 February 1948), page 26 Based on the Jackson Budd novel ''A Convict Has Escaped'', the black-and-white film was directed by Alberto Cavalcanti (credited as just Cavalcanti), with brooding and atmospheric cinematography by noted cameraman Otto Heller. The script was written by playwright Noel Langley. Plot Clem Morgan, demobilised from the Royal Air Force and unemployed after the war, helps in the stealing and transporting of black market goods in coffins to crime boss Narcy's (short for Narcissus) headquarters in a funeral parlour. Clem finds the activity harmless enough, until one day he finds drugs in the latest coffin. Clem objects and tells his girlfriend, Ellie, that he will quit after one last job that night, the looting of a warehouse. Narcy betrays ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Night And The City
''Night and the City'' is a 1950 film noir directed by Jules Dassin and starring Richard Widmark, Gene Tierney and Googie Withers. It is based on the novel of the same name by Gerald Kersh. Shot on location in London and at Shepperton Studios, the plot revolves around an ambitious hustler who meets continuous failures. Dassin later confessed that he had never read the novel upon which the film is based. In an interview appearing on The Criterion Collection DVD release, Dassin recalls that the casting of Tierney was in response to a request by Darryl Zanuck, who was concerned that personal problems had rendered the actress "suicidal" and hoped that work would improve her state of mind. The film's British version was five minutes longer, with a more upbeat ending and featuring a completely different film score. Dassin endorsed the American version as closer to his vision. The film contains a very tough and prolonged fight scene between Stanislaus Zbyszko, a celebrated profes ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Brighton Rock (1947 Film)
''Brighton Rock'' (US: ''Young Scarface''). is a 1948 British gangster film noir directed by John Boulting and starring Richard Attenborough as violent gang leader Pinkie Brown (reprising his West End role of three years earlier), Rose Brown (Carol Marsh) as the innocent girl he marries, and Ida Arnold ( Hermione Baddeley) as an amateur sleuth investigating a murder he committed. The film was adapted from the 1938 novel '' Brighton Rock'' by Graham Greene, and was produced by Roy Boulting through the Boulting brothers' production company Charter Film Productions. The title comes from the old-fashioned candy " a stick of rock": Ida in the film says that like Brighton rock she doesn't change—as the name Brighton stays written the whole way through. Plot In Brighton in 1935, a gangster named Kite is found dead, shortly after a newspaper published a story exposing local rackets and gang wars. Kite's old gang, now led by the psychopathic teenaged hoodlum Pinkie Brown, learns ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
