Expresso Bongo 1959 directed by Val Guest on Kino Video  B/W



run time  1 hr 51 mins



IMDb tt0053806/



Summary from IMDb



A sly, sleazy and unscrupulous music agent, Johnny Jackson (Laurence Harvey) trolls the

neon-streaked sidewalks of London's SoHo district in search of fresh meat to exploit. He

finds it in a teen-packed coffee bar where a pompadoured rebel (pop star Cliff Richard)

is dazzling his peers with his pouty, Presleyish voice and a talent for pounding the

skins. Johnny renames the kid "Bongo" Herbert and, with the help of his stripper

girlfriend (Sylvia Syms), guides the potential teen idol along the rocky path of fame.

Beneath its deceptively kitschy surface, Val Guest's Expresso Bongo is a potently clever

film whose savvy critique of the corruptive values of show biz are reminiscent of that

other hard boiled classic, Sweet Smell Of Success.



Cast and creative



Music:    Monty Norman, David Heneker

Lyrics:   Monty Norman, Julian More

Book:     Julian More, Wolf Mankowitz



Directed by Val Guest



Johnny Jackson                                                 Laurence Harvey

Maisie King                                                         Sylvia Syms

Dixie Collins                                                        Yolande Dolan

Bert Rudge/ Bongo Herbert                         Cliff Richard

Mayer                                                                   Meier Tzelniker

Lady Rosemary                                                  Ambrosine Phillpotts

Leon                                                                       Eric Pohlman

Self                                                                         Gilbert Harding

Penelope                                                              Hermione Baddeley



My notes.



 I carried a previous torrent of this for a long time.  It's one of my favorite shows.  

I had originally seen it on television.  For many years it was out of print but I

think it is back in availability as the images show.



 This is one of my uploads from the 50's that does not have Mamie Van Doren or Joi

Lansing in it.  But the aforementioned opening sequence of an arcade and entertainment

district give that same feel of 1950's cheesecake.



 It's almost impossible to categorize this.  But seeing Laurence Harvey do the jitterbug

in one sequence is worth the view of the entire film.



 Bongo is about the music business in Britain.  Back to the opening montage over the credits , there's also a scene of 'busking'  in  street performance. There's a book out by Billy Bragg on how busking and skiffle bands  birthed rock n roll in Britain but that's another story.  I'll put it in the NFO.



 The new torrent is half the size but retains the original 2.35:1 format.  The audio,

though a great show band sound, could be better.  Just play it louder.  This was made in 1959 from a musical popular at the time.  



At the wiki:

"According to Val Guest the film made "a lot of money and got us a lot of awards".

In a review for Radio Times, David Parkinson said that as well as being a fascinating

snapshot of the era the film was also "one of the best musicals ever produced in this

country." Laurence Harvey was "perfectly cast" as the talent agent and the script by Wolf

Mankowitz was said to give the film an authentic quality."



Support the torrent and pick up the DVD before it goes out of print again.



notes compiled and written for the new torrent January 22nd,  2021



General

Unique ID                                : 177233172506201077061832378260010705834 (0x8555DE0E5FFBD47C35130F73DCA623AA)

Complete name                            : C:tixatidownloadsExpresso Bongo directed by Val Guest with Laurence Harvey 1959Expresso Bongo 1959 .mkv

Format                                   : Matroska

Format version                           : Version 4

File size                                : 903 MiB

Duration                                 : 1 h 51 min

Overall bit rate mode                    : Variable

Overall bit rate                         : 1 134 kb/s

Movie name                               : Expresso Bongo 1959

Encoded date                             : UTC 2021-01-22 17:53:56

Writing application                      : mkvmerge v52.0.0 ('Secret For The Mad') 64-bit

Writing library                          : libebml v1.4.1 + libmatroska v1.6.2 / Lavf58.29.100

SUMMARY                                  : Expresso.Bongo.1959.1080p.BluRay.H264.AAC-RARBG



Video

ID                                       : 1

Format                                   : AVC

Format/Info                              : Advanced Video Codec

Format profile                           : Main@L4

Format settings                          : CABAC / 15 Ref Frames

Format settings, CABAC                   : Yes

Format settings, Reference frames        : 15 frames

Codec ID                                 : V_MPEG4/ISO/AVC

Duration                                 : 1 h 51 min

Bit rate                                 : 1 000 kb/s

Width                                    : 1 128 pixels

Height                                   : 480 pixels

Display aspect ratio                     : 2.35:1

Frame rate mode                          : Constant

Frame rate                               : 24.000 FPS

Color space                              : YUV

Chroma subsampling                       : 4:2:0

Bit depth                                : 8 bits

Scan type                                : Progressive

Bits/(Pixel*Frame)                       : 0.077

Stream size                              : 796 MiB (88%)

Writing library                          : x264 core 157 r2935 545de2f

Encoding settings                        : cabac=1 / ref=15 / deblock=1:0:0 / analyse=0x1:0x131 / me=umh / subme=10 / psy=1 / psy_rd=1.00:0.00 / mixed_ref=1 / me_range=24 / chroma_me=1 / trellis=2 / 8x8dct=0 / cqm=0 / deadzone=21,11 / fast_pskip=1 / chroma_qp_offset=-2 / threads=1 / lookahead_threads=1 / sliced_threads=0 / nr=0 / decimate=1 / interlaced=0 / bluray_compat=0 / constrained_intra=0 / bframes=8 / b_pyramid=2 / b_adapt=2 / b_bias=0 / direct=3 / weightb=1 / open_gop=0 / weightp=2 / keyint=240 / keyint_min=24 / scenecut=40 / intra_refresh=0 / rc_lookahead=60 / rc=2pass / mbtree=1 / bitrate=1000 / ratetol=1.0 / qcomp=0.60 / qpmin=0 / qpmax=69 / qpstep=4 / cplxblur=20.0 / qblur=0.5 / vbv_maxrate=20000 / vbv_bufsize=25000 / nal_hrd=none / filler=0 / ip_ratio=1.40 / aq=1:1.00

Default                                  : Yes

Forced                                   : No

Color range                              : Limited

Color primaries                          : BT.709

Transfer characteristics                 : BT.709

Matrix coefficients                      : BT.709



Audio

ID                                       : 2

Format                                   : Vorbis

Format settings, Floor                   : 1

Codec ID                                 : A_VORBIS

Duration                                 : 1 h 51 min

Bit rate mode                            : Variable

Bit rate                                 : 160 kb/s

Channel(s)                               : 1 channel

Sampling rate                            : 48.0 kHz

Frame rate                               : 77.123 FPS (622 SPF)

Compression mode                         : Lossy

Stream size                              : 105 MiB (12%)

Title                                    : Mono

Writing library                          : libVorbis (Now 100% fewer shells) (20180316 (Now 100% fewer shells))

Language                                 : English

Default                                  : Yes

Forced                                   : No