Hacker Cinema
Angels One Five
1952 · Film · 98 min
Directed by George More O'Ferrall
The year is 1940 and Pilot Officer T.B. Baird arrives straight out of flight school to join a front line RAF squadron at the height of the Battle of Britain. After an unfortunate start and a drumming down from his commanding officer, Baird must balance the struggle to impress his Group Captain, regain his pride, fit in with his fellow pilots, and survive one of the most intense air battles in history.
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1 comment on Hacker News
Define "underrated". But I'll throw something into the pot.
Riffing off the first item on the list (Roger Miller/Waterhole #3), The Ballad of Cat Ballou (film released after Nat King Cole's death): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-ghnpUNTR1I and Idle On Parade (Anthony Newley was a strong influence on David Bowie, and you can really hear it here) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6qbkKICmO_Q
Dunno if it's underrated (2.7m views), but while Donna Summer's I Feel Love is numinous, Venus Hum's cover with Blue Man Group is just suffused with joy https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0iFBXjRbVl0
Bonus: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pkRDvwsSLKY (album it's on didn't nearly get the attention it deserved, possibly because they were thought of as a novelty act)
Oh, and I did a deep dive into British cinema in the past two years, and the best little-known thing I came back with was Angels One Five (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Angels_One_Five). There's a whole genre of British films that are obviously working out the trauma of WWII (much like America's run of Vietnam War films a couple of decades later), many forgettable, all of their time, but this one's small, quiet, and has an upper lip so stiff you could use it as a ruler. It's Brief Encounter with Spitfires. Standout performance by Jack Hawkins.