Now Screening - What Are You Watching Right Now?

[struth]

Murder by Death, 1976...





an all star cast in this crazy ditty, inc peter sellers again...

The screaming woman sound used as a doorbell is Fay Wray's screams from King Kong (1933). Her unique scream has made her known as the "Scream Queen" of movies.

''We should have taped the first read-through of the script and released it as a comedy album. It was a classic", reported many of the production personnel after first rehearsal session together of the cast and crew. According to writer Neil Simon, "the first reading is where I see what works and what doesn't. It was the best one I've ever witnessed for any of my plays or films." Simon was on the set of this movie every day.

Peter Sellers reportedly played several practical jokes on cast and crew during filming, including once calling Neil Simon up and imitating co-star Sir Alec Guinness and demanding a rewrite of a key scene in the middle of the night. Neither Guinness nor Simon were amused.

[struth]

The Devil and Miss Jones, 1941

[struth]

The Battle of the Sexes, 1959...





Film rights to the story were owned by Hecht Hill Lancaster. Billy Wilder was signed to direct. Then Charles Crichton was brought out from London to direct the film but it didn't proceed. Eventually they sold the rights.

It was the first film made by the newly-formed Bryanston Films, who approved it on 13 May 1959. Crichton liked the script, felt Robert Morley was "slightly miscast... but I think it was about the best performance Peter Sellers ever gave in his life."

[struth]

The Lavender Hill Mob, 1951..





Charles Crichton says the origin of the film came with the success of The Blue Lamp. Michael Balcon, head of Ealing, got screenwriter Clarke to come up with ideas for a follow-up.

Clarke is said to have come up with the idea of a clerk robbing his own bank while doing research for the film Pool of London (1951), a crime thriller surrounding a jewel theft. He consulted the Bank of England on the project and it set up a special committee to advise on how best the robbery could take place.

Extensive location filming was made in both London and Paris. The scenes show a London still marked by bomb sites from the Second World War.

[struth]

My Favorite Brunette, 1947... some light fun...

[struth]

The African Queen,1951..

[struth]

The Scarlet Pimpernel, 1934...

Set in 1792, shortly before the Reign of Terror, vengeful French mobs are outraged when aristocrats are saved from death by a secret society of 20 English noblemen known as the "Band of the Scarlet Pimpernel."





Alexander Korda, a Hungarian who had been born in a town not far from Baroness Orczy's farm, had recently had great success with the actor Charles Laughton in the film The Private Life of Henry VIII, so he asked Laughton to play the role of Sir Percy.^[2] When the announcement went out to the press, the reaction from the Pimpernel's many fans was negative; the pug-nosed Laughton was thought a poor choice to play the suave Sir Percy. Korda thus gave the role to Leslie Howard.

Andre Sennwald wrote in The New York Times that "'The Scarlet Pimpernel' is stirring to the pulse and beautiful to the eye, and it weaves the richly textured background of those tingling months of the French Revolution into an enormously satisfying photoplay. ... Did the narrative seem a trifle leisurely in places? No matter. It was a leisurely age and here is a succulent and captivating entertainment."^[3] He also praised Leslie Howard's performance

[struth]

Howard again as a Pimpernel... "Pimpernel" Smith, 1941...




The Pimpernel's signal melody, referred to as "There's a tavern in the town" in the film, is also known as a well-known interactive children's action song with lyrics along the lines of "Heads and shoulders, knees and toes. Knees and toes. Heads and shoulders, knees and toes, knees and toes. Eyes, and ears and mouth and nose. Heads and shoulders, knees and toes. Knees and toes." It was possibly a deliberate creative choice to reflect the Nazis attempting to keep up with the Pimpernel, as the song actions are often a challenge. These lyrics also inspired the P&G Head and Shoulders shampoo spoof April Fools Day body wash product "Knees and Toes". In later years the song was also adapted by the fans of many English football clubs as "There's A Circus In The Town", to generally disparage and mock the achievements and qualities of their closest city rivals.

[struth]

same year,... Sullivan's Travels, 1941..

[struth]

First Blood, 1982.