Books in French are on www.livres-cinema.info
Offbeat
British Cinema's Curiosities, Obscurities and Forgotten Gems
Edited by Julian Upton
(0 vote)Average rating:
| 0 | rating |  = We can do without |
| 0 | rating |  = Good book |
| 0 | rating |  = Excellent book |
| 0 | rating |  = Unique / a reference |
Your rating: -
Book Presentation:
For years there has been consensus about the merits of Britain’s ‘cult films’ ― Peeping Tom, Witchfinder General, The Italian Job ― but what of The Mark, Unearthly Stranger, The Strange Affair and The Squeeze? Revisionist critics wax lyrical over Get Carter and The Wicker Man, but what of Sitting Target, Quest for Love and The Black Panther? OFFBEAT redresses this imbalance by exploring Britain’s obscurities, curiosities and forgotten gems ― from the buoyant leap in film production in the late fifties to the dying days of popular domestic cinema in the early eighties.
Featuring essays, interviews and in-depth reviews, OFFBEAT provides an exhaustive, enlightening and entertaining guide through a host of neglected cinematic trends and episodes, including:
• The last great British B-movies
• ‘Anti-swinging sixties’ films
• Sexploitation ― from Yellow Teddy Bears to Emmanuelle in Soho
• The British rock ‘n roll movie
• CIA-funded British cartoons
• Asylums in British cinema
• The Children’s Film Foundation
• The demise of the short as supporting feature
• Val Guest, Sidney Hayers and the forgotten journeyman of British film
• Swashbucklers, crime thrillers and other non-horror Hammers
Now updated with more than 150 pages of new reviews and essays, featuring:
• The Beatles in Colour!
• The History of the AA Certificate
• Ken Russell’s 1980s Films
• Iris Murdoch’s A Severed Head
• Curating Offbeat films in the Digital Age
And much more
About the Author:
Julian Upton works as an editor and writer. He has written on film for Headpress, Bright Lights Journal, Filmfax and MovieMail and is author of the book Fallen Stars: Tragic Lives and Lost Careers (2004).
Press Reviews:
"You have to love Offbeat, Julian Upton's perverse guide to British cinema's strangest films because it disinters Peter Cushing's ghastly low-point Corruption and lists The Impersonator, in which (spoiler alert) the killer is a pantomime dame. Behind You!" --The Independent
"Every so often a book comes my way that I wish I had written. 'Offbeat' is one such title..." --Adrian Smith, Cinema Retro
"A treasure trove of obscure British film gems, from Bette Davis's last UK film to Ken Russell's first. But here you'll also find Dirk Bogarde's British gay western, Frankie Howard tackling snakes and Ray Milland, and the deeply sinister Unman, Wittering & Zigo." --Christopher Fowler
See the publisher website: Headpress
> On a related topic:
Soho on Screen (2025)
Cinematic Spaces of Bohemia and Cosmopolitanism, 1948-1963
by Jingan Young
Subject: Countries > Great Britain
Uncanny Landscapes in 21st Century British Cinema (2025)
The Pestilence in the Ditch
Subject: Countries > Great Britain
Adult Themes (2025)
British Cinema and the X Certificate in the Long 1960s
Dir. Anne Etienne, Benjamin Halligan and Christopher Weedman
Subject: Countries > Great Britain
Killing Children in British Fiction (2025)
Thatcherism to Brexit
by Dominic Dean
Subject: Countries > Great Britain
Cinema, Culture, Scotland (2025)
Selected Essays
Dir. Colin McArthur and Jonathan Murray
Subject: Countries > Great Britain
How Stage Playwrights Saved the British Cinema, 1930-1956 (2025)
The Well-Made Screenplay
by David Cottis
Subject: Countries > Great Britain
Literature and Sound Film in Mid-Century Britain (2025)
Subject: Countries > Great Britain
Beyond the BBFC (2025)
Local and regional film censorship in the UK
by Sian Barber
Subject: Countries > Great Britain
Visual Culture in the Northern British Archipelago (2024)
Imagining Islands
Dir. Ysanne Holt, David Martin-Jones and Owain Jones
Subject: Countries > Great Britain
Channel 4 and the British Film Industry, 1982-1998 (2024)
by Laura Mayne
Subject: Countries > Great Britain
Back
