Now Screening - What Are You Watching Right Now?

The mini series, Porterhouse Blue, 1987.


https://encrypted-tbn2.gstatic.com/i...SiLTUPb1a8JiBj


Some of the more irreverent scenes, such as the one where Skullion races around the college quad bursting the gas-filled condoms that Zipser has released, were filmed at a mansion near Peterborough because none of the Cambridge colleges would allow them to be filmed there due to allegations of tarnishing the reputation of the university.

The title song "Dives in Omnia" ("There's Money in Everything") was sung by a-cappella group "The Flying Pickets"

More comedy now with Jeeves and Wooster series 1. 1990(I think)



https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/...9K5EL._AC_.jpg


The theme called "Jeeves and Wooster" is an original piece of music in the jazz/swing style written by composer Anne Dudley for the program. Dudley uses variations of the theme as a basis for all scores and was nominated for a British Academy Television Award for her work on the third series.
For this TV rendition, the character of Wooster was deliberately given quite a talent for music (of which the character in the books possesses precious little), in order to capitalize on Hugh Laurie's own musical talents.

Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides, 2011.



https://encrypted-tbn0.gstatic.com/i...VgeosBZeqg4rHg

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by struth

More comedy now with Jeeves and Wooster series 1. 1990(I think)



https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/...9K5EL._AC_.jpg

---

I have the complete set of the series. Good at the start, but fell off IMO when they became stranded in America.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Barry

I have the complete set of the series. Good at the start, but fell off IMO when they became stranded in America.

---

yeah ive the dvd boxset and have it on hdd too.

In Which We Serve, 1942.


https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/...qt7YL._AC_.jpg


Noël Coward was a friend of Lord Louis Mountbatten, who was Captain of the Royal Navy destroyer H.M.S. Kelly from the outbreak of World War II until the Kelly was sunk by enemy action in May 1941. Coward wrote the screenplay for this movie based on Mountbatten's experiences on H.M.S. Kelly. Coward's character in this movie, Captain E.V. Kinross R.N./Captain "D", was also based on Mountbatten's experiences.
This movie was shown to all new Royal Navy recruits after it was released to give them an idea and an impression of what life in the Navy was like.
Lord Louis Mountbatten's contribution cannot be discounted, even in the middle of a war, he was able to obtain approximately two hundred real sailors to play extras for two weeks and in the evening, after he finished his war work, watched the rushes and gave advice.

Several scenes of Torrin underway are of K-class destroyer H.M.S. Kashmir (F12). The scene of Torrin under tow includes 1940 newsreel footage of Lord Louis Mountbatten's heavily-damaged K-class destroyer H.M.S. Kelly. Both ships were sunk by German dive bombers on May 23, 1941 during operations off Crete.

The First Great Train Robbery , 1978.


https://encrypted-tbn0.gstatic.com/i...McEroXuciuUKst


Sir Sean Connery spent several days running on top of a moving train. The train was supposed to be travelling at thirty-five miles per hour; Connery argued it was going faster. The train driver was counting telegraph poles to measure the speed. A helicopter pilot confirmed Connery's suspicion. The train was travelling at over fifty-five miles per hour.

The character of Clean Willy was played by one of Britain's premiere ballet dancers, Wayne Sleep, from The Royal Ballet Company. He did his own stunts, including scaling the Newgate prison walls, at the tremendous risk of falling and hurting himself. In a 2011 BBC radio interview, Wayne Sleep (Clean Willy) told how he was asked by Michael Crichton to climb a sixty foot wall. Sleep's response was "I'm an actor, not a stuntman." When Crichton explained that they had not been able to find a stuntman small enough (Sleep is 5'2"), Sleep made the climb anyway.

The method in which Henry Fowler's key is copied was changed for this movie. In the book, Henry Fowler contracts syphilis and, because a rumored cure is to have intercourse with a virgin, has intercourse with a twelve-year-old (presumably virgin) prostitute (in Victorian times, the age of consent for females was twelve), in the course of which his key is abstracted and copied. For comic effect and so as not to depict child sex or pornography, the plot was changed in the screenplay to have Pierce set Fowler up with Miss Miriam (disguised as a high-class prostitute), copy his key while she is disrobing him and then fake a police raid on the bordello before Fowler can even get her undressed.

When it came to casting and shooting the ratting scene, the crew were somewhat closemouthed about discussing certain details with writer and director Michael Crichton. They presented only one dog (not several candidates) and told him that this was the dog he definitely wanted. Likewise, they didn't explain much as to how they would set up the activity in the ratting pit. Only when it came time for the shoot did Crichton realize they had acquired an actual ratting dog and had captured live sewer rats, which the dog killed by biting and snapping their necks with a vigorous shake. Crichton said that the R.S.P.C.A. did find out what was happening and confronted them about it, but no legal action resulted.
The dog used in the ratting scene was present for two scenes, one, in Ireland when the dog is picked up in front of Trent's house, and another back at Pinewood Studios for the actual ratting scene. To avoid the mandatory six month quarantine for transporting animals between the two countries, the terrier was smuggled across the Irish Sea.

Grant, I suspect your write ups are often more interesting than the films they describe. Keep it up :)

Dead Reckoning, 1947. Director was John Cromwell. Stars Bogey and Lizabeth Scott who was a bit of a Bacall lookalike.
https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikiped...-publicity.JPG



https://m.media-amazon.com/images/M/...pg_UX1000_.jpg


In the train scene, after they discover that Drake is to receive the Medal of Honor, Murdock quips that maybe the president will let Drake "sit on top of his piano". This is a reference to a then-scandalous photo of Harry S. Truman playing piano with a leggy blonde on top that was taken at the National Press Club in 1945. The blonde was Lauren Bacall, wife of Humphrey Bogart.

By the unit insignia on the left shoulder of their uniforms, Rip and Johnny were members of the 82nd Airborne Division, the "AA" standing for the nickname "All American". The insignia on their right shoulders is for the First Allied Airborne Army, formed in August 1944 as the command organization for all Allied airborne forces in Europe.

Filming Location was "St. Petersburg, Florida, USA",(might want to change its name lol) which was founded in 1888 by John C. Williams, who purchased the land, and by Peter Demens who brought the railroad industry into the area.[9][10] A coin toss bet was held between Williams and Demens to name this new community. Demens won the bet and named the land after Saint Petersburg, Russia. Williams was then granted the right to name the first hotel built (which he named the Detroit Hotel). Both named their winnings after their personal hometowns. St Petersburg is a common destination for filming. Such films as Once Upon a Time in America, Ocean's Eleven, Cocoon and Lethal Weapon 3 were partly filmed there among others.

I will see out the day with Blackadder the second.


https://encrypted-tbn3.gstatic.com/i...gVLd2zbe5keWAQ


The writers realized that they had to rewrite the character of Queen Elizabeth I after they saw Miranda Richardson's wonderfully silly interpretation.

The only location shooting for this season was the courting scene in Blackadder II: Bells (1986) and the closing credit scenes; these scenes were shot over a couple of consecutive days in the gardens of Wilton House, Wiltshire. The rest of the season was shot on the filming stage, using a couple of standard sets (Blackadder's house and the Queen's court) and a couple of sets that would be built for each episode.

Wilt, 1989. A good british cast but all were unknowns in america, where the film failed. it did well in uk tho.


https://encrypted-tbn0.gstatic.com/i...WeTiwPlATLUxjF


Writer Tom Sharpe worked as a lecturer in history at the Cambridge College of Arts and Technology from 1963 to 1972. He used this experience as the basis for his "Wilt" series.

I see the movie 'The Blue Dahlia' 1946, is on Film 4 at 12.45pm. I'm sure I must have seen it, but don't recall for sure. With Alan Ladd and Veronica Lake, in a Raymond Chandler story directed by George Marshall it should be good, reviews say so. It's also got the excellent William Bendix in it. I'll give it a watch.

https://i.ibb.co/N69Y8Gf/Screen-Shot...t-12-24-PM.png

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by walpurgis

I see the movie 'The Blue Dahlia' 1946, is on Film 4 at 12.45pm. I'm sure I must have seen it, but don't recall for sure. With Alan Ladd and Veronica Lake, in a Raymond Chandler story directed by George Marshall it should be good, reviews say so. It's also got the excellent William Bendix in it. I'll give it a watch.

https://i.ibb.co/N69Y8Gf/Screen-Shot...t-12-24-PM.png

---

watched it a few weeks ago.. should be a write up here.. good film.

https://i.ibb.co/ZdQbVK1/Joe-Kidd.jpg

'Joe Kidd' (1972)

Low key 'revisionist' Western. Clint Eastwood is an ex bounty hunter hired by Robert Duvall to accompany him and his men on a mission to capture a Mexican bandit leader (John Saxon).

They don't often show this, makes a change from endless repeats of 'Magnum Force.' But there are no bad Clint Eastwood films.

On release it wasn't received well by the usual critics, although if they were still alive today it would probably be acclaimed as genius in light of the wall to wall crap Hollywood is making now.

Well worth a watch. Eastwood goes through the motions as his usual character (he was ill during filming) but Robert Duvall is really good as the ruthless land owner and John Saxon makes a better fist of playing a Mexican than Charlton Heston managed in 'Touch Of Evil.' I suppose it never occurs to them to just hire a Mexican but that's Hollywood for you.

Yeah John Saxon was a good actor(off Italian stock), and a pupil of Stella Adler, who taught such names as Marlon Brando, Robert De Niro, Harvey Keitel, Elaine Stritch and Kate Mulgrew.

decent film joe kidd. ive got im myself.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Macca

'Joe Kidd' (1972)

Robert Duvall is really good as the ruthless land owner and John Saxon makes a better fist of playing a Mexican than Charlton Heston managed in 'Touch Of Evil.' I suppose it never occurs to them to just hire a Mexican but that's Hollywood for you.

---

Pretty decent.

As you say, Robert Duvall was excellent, as were Don Stroud and James Wainwright, who was a really cool killer.

John Saxon, I found annoying as usual. You could always tell he was acting, had a big opinion of himself too I believe.

Directed by David Lean, This Happy Breed, 1944, this episodic telling of 20 years of the working-class Gibbons family in their South London rental house from 1919 to 1939--from just after the conclusion of WWI to just before the start of WWII..

Kay Walsh was only 6 years her screen dad Robert Newton's junior, while John Mills plays Celia Johnson's future son in law but they were both same age. Newton had a fine in place for everytime he got drunk and held up shooting(him being an alcoholic) and by end of filming his £9k salary was all used up. They paid him anyway lol


https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikiped...pyBreedDVD.jpg




The comment early in the movie about the cat and buttering its paws comes from a technique used when a cat moves houses. According to this, if the cat has butter on its paws it will stop and lick it off. As cats are very clean creatures, the butter on its paws and the bits of dirt/dust/debris that will inevitably stick to it will annoy the cat. The cat will sit down to clean itself and, in doing so, will take in its new surroundings creating a mental map of where its new home is and helping it to make the adjustment to its new surroundings.

Billy (Sir John Mills) works his way up in the Navy through the movie. When he is first seen, he is a Leading Seaman/Rate having a 3rd Class Quarters Rating in Gunnery. At Reg's (John Blythe) wedding, he is now a Petty Officer, with two stripes (chevrons) indicating 10 Years Good Conduct, and is still working in Gunnery. Finally, when he comes to tell the Gibbons (Robert Newton and Celia Johnson) he has found Queenie (Kay Walsh), he wears the thin ring which, in 1939 and until 1956, indicated the rank of Warrant Officer rather than a commissioned Sub-Lt, who would wear a thicker gold ring.

The title is taken from a monologue of John of Gaunt's in William Shakespeare's "Richard II", act II, scene 1, which is widely renowned for its stirring pro-Anglicism. It reads, in part, "This happy breed of men, this little world, / This precious stone set in the silver sea, / Which serves it in the office of a wall, / Or as a moat defensive to a house, / Against the envy of less happier lands, / This blessed plot, this earth, this realm, this England."

This is the remastered bluray.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by walpurgis

Pretty decent.

As you say, Robert Duvall was excellent, as were Don Stroud and James Wainwright, who was a really cool killer.

---

Yes Don Stroud is always good, should have mentioned him.

yeah don is still alive afaik. was a big surfer and comes from hawaii. was in another eastwood one about same time

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by struth

I will see out the day with Blackadder the second.


https://encrypted-tbn3.gstatic.com/i...gVLd2zbe5keWAQ


The writers realized that they had to rewrite the character of Queen Elizabeth I after they saw Miranda Richardson's wonderfully silly interpretation.

The only location shooting for this season was the courting scene in Blackadder II: Bells (1986) and the closing credit scenes; these scenes were shot over a couple of consecutive days in the gardens of Wilton House, Wiltshire. The rest of the season was shot on the filming stage, using a couple of standard sets (Blackadder's house and the Queen's court) and a couple of sets that would be built for each episode.

---

a bit more of this until my next film.

Cant think of anything i fancy so will have a trusty old western from 1970 ..Two Mules for Sister Sara....




https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikiped...ara_Poster.jpg



Two Mules for Sister Sara received moderately favorable reviews, and Roger Greenspun of the New York Times reported, "I'm not sure it is a great movie, but it is very good and it stays and grows on the mind the way only movies of exceptional narrative intelligence do"

firearms :D

Hogan (Clint Eastwood) carries a Single Action Army 5 1/2" Artillery as his sidearm in the film. This is historically incorrect since the Colt Single Action Army was introduced in 1873 and the French had withdrawn from Mexico in 1866.
Same story with his 2 Winchester 1873 Saddle Ring Carbines.

Spoof western now with Carry On Cowboy, 1965. great names in marshall p knut and the rumpo kid among them..:D



https://encrypted-tbn3.gstatic.com/i...6TzH6-Kx8YI3Cx


Angela Douglas was terrified about her singing sequence. Joan Sims literally pushed her onto the sound stage, having given her two brandies before she went on!

This has the distinction of being the only Western film in history where the town has a left hand turn at the end of the main road. This was due to the fact that Pinewood didn't have sprawling prairies behind it.

Eric Rogers' brother Alan Rogers wrote the saloon song "This is the night for love" and if you look closely you can see Alan playing the piano in the saloon.

For the stagecoach scene, you can see it racing across open country near Esher in Surrey with dust flying up from the wheels. This was provided by a crewman sitting in the coach with a powder gun and despite the fact that the horses were kicking up mud as it was one of the wettest days on location.

The Parallax View, 1974.



https://encrypted-tbn0.gstatic.com/i...GwPl6u1LP08QEi


The film's director Alan J. Pakula described the picture as "sort of an American myth based on some things that have happened, some fantasies we may have had of what might have happened, and a lot of fears a lot of us have had . . . The Parallax View was a whole other kind of filmmaking for me".

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by struth

The Parallax View, 1974

---

Very good thriller movie. I must watch it again, the DVD is in my collection.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by walpurgis

Very good thriller movie. I must watch it again, the DVD is in my collection.

---

yes it was good. been years since i saw it.

now, crime and The Outfit, 1973. stars Robert Duval, Joe Don Baker and Karen Black


https://encrypted-tbn0.gstatic.com/i...0lfRx6Ora_duOc


Brian Garfield, in an intro to a reprint of the novel on which this film is based, notes that it was originally written by director John Flynn as a period piece, intending to be set in the postwar 1940s. That's why such "film noir" veterans such as Elisha Cook Jr., Richard Jaeckel, Marie Windsor, and Jane Greer appeared in it. The studio, however, decided it would be too expensive to shoot a period picture, so the script was superficially updated, the World War II vets became Vietnam vets, and actors and actresses like Robert Ryan, Karen Black, and Sheree North joined the cast. The result was that the story was restored to its original conception (the series on which this book was based was written and set in the then contemporary 1960s and 1970s). Had the period piece idea gone through, this would have represented a rare case of backdating a character.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by struth

The Outfit, 1973. stars Robert Duval, Joe Don Baker and Karen Black

---

Not seen that for many years, recall it was good.


If you want something gritty to watch, track down 'Rush', 1991. Not well known and never shown, but very good. With Jason Patric, Jennifer Jason Leigh and Sam Elliott. I have that on DVD too, one of my favourites, 'cos it's mean! :).

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by walpurgis

Not seen that for many years, recall it was good.


If you want something gritty to watch, track down 'Rush', 1991. Not well known and never shown, but very good. With Jason Patric, Jennifer Jason Leigh and Sam Elliott. I have that on DVD too, one of my favourites, 'cos it's mean! :).

---

i got a copy of that on amazon prime cheapish so will watch it soon. cheers... elisha cook had a small part; he was a strange guy. A loner and mountain man type. liked to live in a cabin up in the high sierras and fish/hunt.. very much the opposite of his screen personnas. he also made more film noir appearances than any other actor at 21.

Chato's Land, 1972. Chuck Bronson stars.


https://encrypted-tbn2.gstatic.com/i...J1HhTGsxmOyLcG


Charles Bronson refused to play in the scene where he saves a naked woman. He refused because she was without clothes. Director Michael Winner eventually used a trick to make the scene without Bronson's agreement.

The Hooker ranch house and barn are the same as the McBain house and barn in Once Upon a Time in the West (1968).

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by struth

i got a copy of that on amazon prime cheapish so will watch it soon. cheers... elisha cook had a small part; he was a strange guy. A loner and mountain man type. liked to live in a cabin up in the high sierras and fish/hunt.. very much the opposite of his screen personnas. he also made more film noir appearances than any other actor at 21.

---

'The cheaper the crook, the gaudier the patter.'

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by struth

Oldie war effort from USA.. Airforce, 1943. Director was Howard Hawks. It also won an Oscar.



https://m.media-amazon.com/images/M/...0MDY@._V1_.jpg


Because of the constant noise in the planes air crews wore "throat mics." These had two pickups that sat against the larynx (vocal cords) and picked the sound up directly from them. You will notice that whenever a crew member speaks he puts his hand up against the mic and presses it against his throat. This helped ensure good sound pickup.

Early in the film, an analyst is shown using a period-era teletype machine and a Hollerith punched card typewriter. This was very high-tech stuff for the time. Such devices became standard equipment on early digital computers, which were under development as this film was being produced in 1943. The punched card deck in particular became an essential component of so-called batch processing of large amounts of data, and for making hard copy of computer programs that could be rapidly (for the era) loaded into another computer.

The U.S. Army Air Forces aircraft that appeared in the film were:

Ten Boeing B-17B/C/D Flying Fortresses from Hendricks Field, Sebring, Florida.
North American AT-6 Texans (as Japanese fighters) and Bell P-39 Airacobras, Curtiss P-40Cs and Republic P-43A Lancers from Drew Field.
Six Martin B-26C Marauders from MacDill Field, Tampa, Florida, as the Japanese bombers.

---

That reminds me, when I was doing operational research at uni, I read that many of the computational methods were developed by the military in WWII to optimise the bombing campaign. The computers may have been doing this?

I think it was this that led to the USAAF targeting ball bearing factories as the weak spot in German aircraft production. IIRC the infamous Schweinfurt raids (as in the film with Clarke Gable) were the result.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Lawrence001

That reminds me, when I was doing operational research at uni, I read that many of the computational methods were developed by the military in WWII to optimise the bombing campaign. The computers may have been doing this?

I think it was this that led to the USAAF targeting ball bearing factories as the weak spot in German aircraft production. IIRC the infamous Schweinfurt raids (as in the film with Clarke Gable) were the result.

---

BB's were pretty much in everything for war. yup schweinfurt made most of their bearings; maybe 2/3 at one time so bombing them, although very difficult due to where they were and the protection they had was an important thing to try. the bombed regensburg at same time to split nazi response but the losses were catastrophic. 1 in 6 planes and men lost.

we, the british got our bearings from neutral sweden, by hook and crook at times. some by air but a lot by using gunboats(which is a long story in itself)

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Lawrence001

That reminds me, when I was doing operational research at uni, I read that many of the computational methods were developed by the military in WWII to optimise the bombing campaign. The computers may have been doing this?

I think it was this that led to the USAAF targeting ball bearing factories as the weak spot in German aircraft production. IIRC the infamous Schweinfurt raids (as in the film with Clarke Gable) were the result.

---

Norden M Bomb Sight https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Norden_bombsight

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Macca

Norden M Bomb Sight https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Norden_bombsight

---

yeah, they dumped it out over sea when they were going down. it was at that time very secret.

The Man Who Knew Too Little, 1997.


https://encrypted-tbn0.gstatic.com/i...mX9c8qOVJpTe-P


stars Bill Murray and the delectible Joanne Whalley

A Christmas Carol, 1984. George C Scott plays title role of Scrooge.(and very well too). David Warner is an equally good Cratchit.



https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikiped...stmascarol.jpg


This is probably the only version of 'A Christmas Carol' in which Scrooge wears dress pants with a dress shirt, vest, and smoking jacket instead of his nightshirt, slippers, and cap. Rumor has it that George C. Scott openly reeled at the very thought of portraying Scrooge under such conditions, especially in an English winter. In the book, Scrooge wears his shirt, pants, vest, dressing gown, and slippers. Scott's clothing is very close to the book.

This is the only traditional adaptation of A Christmas Carol where Scrooge's father is seen onscreen. He is mentioned in the book but never seen.

The word "humbug" is misunderstood by many people, which is a pity since the word provides a key insight into Scrooge's hatred of Christmas. The word "humbug" describes deceitful efforts to fool people by assuming a fake loftiness or false sincerity. So when Scrooge calls Christmas a humbug, he is claiming that people only feign charity and kindness in a scoundrel effort to delude him, each other, and themselves. In Scrooge's eyes, he is the one man honest enough to admit that no one really cares about anyone else, so for him, every wish for a Merry Christmas is one more deceitful effort to fool or take advantage of him. This is a man who has turned to profit because he honestly believes that everyone else will someday betray him or abandon him the moment he trusts them.

Harlem Nights, 1989.



https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/...AC_SL1500_.jpg


The story of Irish mobster Bugsy Calhoune trying to take over Sugar Ray's night club in order to control black Harlem is loosely inspired by the real-life feud between Jewish gangster Dutch Schultz and black gangster Bumpy Johnson over control of Harlem's lucrative "numbers" gambling rackets in the mid 1930s.

some of the interplay with redd foxx(God rest his smutty soul) and della reese is fantastic.

https://c8.alamy.com/comp/BPDF40/red...989-BPDF40.jpg

think they ended up with their own show after this film..

A bit of fun sleuthing from Miss Marple with Murder Ahoy!, 1964. Margaret Rutherford if Marple and her real Husband, Stringer Davis plays hr sidekick and love hopeful.


https://encrypted-tbn2.gstatic.com/i...jTtu6-940dIsDU


The screenplay was not based on any published Dame Agatha Christie story. It did, however, borrow a few obscure plot details from "They Do It With Mirrors", and there is a delightful moment when Miss Jane Marple pays homage to Christie's long-running play, "The Mousetrap".

H.M.S. Battledore was portrayed on deck by T.S. Arethusa, a training ship used by the Royal Navy (known in later years as the "Peking"). The story of the real ship may have inspired the script in many ways, as the Arethusa was used for many years as a sail training vessel and a "children's home" for wayward boys. However, the aft section of the ship in this movie featuring the panoramic stern windows of the Captain's cabin was a creation (as a matte painting in the wide shots and a set in the closer ones), as the real ship's stern had no resemblance to it. The ship was moved from Britain to the U.S. in 1974 and was docked in New York for many years, but it was moved to Hamburg, Germany in 2016.

The Bourne Ultimatum, 2007.


https://encrypted-tbn2.gstatic.com/i...8VvyWUAdYS-YFt


This is the only Bourne film to win an Academy Award. It won three, in all the categories for which it was nominated, while the other Bourne movies weren't even nominated.

The film crew was unable to shut down Waterloo station, so pedestrians in the station can be seen looking and pointing at the camera. In the Tangier chase scene, Nicky, played by Julia Stiles, and Desh, played by Joey Ansah, are seen pushing past the citizens. These are not extras; Tangier was too crowded and the flow of the people was hard to control, hence the two are genuinely pushing through the crowd.

Next, ...The Ipcress File, 1965.


https://encrypted-tbn2.gstatic.com/i...7WDbwEz0hOTcGJ



One night early in 1964, Michael Caine was having dinner with his flatmate Terence Stamp at the Pickwick Club on the edge of Soho, when a waiter handed him a note from Canadian film producer Harry Saltzman, who was dining with his family following an outing to the cinema.

Would Caine like to join them for a quick coffee?

The two men didn’t know one another, but the film Saltzman had just seen was Zulu, about the 1879 Battle of Rorke’s Drift, from which he recognised Caine as the pompous British army lieutenant Gonville Bromhead.

It was a supporting role but Saltzman reckoned that the 30-year-old actor was on the road to major stardom and wanted to accelerate his journey.

Caine walked across the restaurant, heart pounding, thinking that Saltzman, who by then had co-produced the first three Bond films, might be about to offer him a part alongside his pal Sean Connery in the next 007 movie.

Instead, Saltzman asked him if he’d read Len Deighton’s Cold War spy thriller about brainwashing and atomic secrets, The Ipcress File, published just a couple of years earlier? Caine replied, truthfully, that he was half-way through it.

‘Good,’ said Saltzman, then asked if he wanted to play the lead in the film version?

Taken aback, Caine said yes. ‘Good,’ replied Saltzman. And would he also like a seven-year-contract? Again, Caine said yes. And would he like to have lunch the next day at Les Ambassadeurs?

Once more, Caine said yes, then walked back to his table in a daze and told Stamp what had happened. He had just been turned from a supporting player into a movie star.

‘But you’ve only been gone two minutes,’ said Stamp.

Great story.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by struth

He had just been turned from a supporting player into a movie star

---

He deserved it too.

Operation Petticoat, 1959. Good cast in this comedy


https://encrypted-tbn2.gstatic.com/i...Q6Chc3zx-9Wt23


In the film the submarine is on a constant quest to reach a submarine repair ship to restore her operational status again. In real life Tony Curtis served on the submarine repair ship USS Proteus during WW2. It was alleged his enlistment in the Pacific Submarine Force was inspired by the film Destination Tokyo (1943), starring Cary Grant.

A submarine based at Cavite, the USS Seadragon, did go on patrol with a red paint job. Her original black paint was damaged by fire in the air raid, and ended up peeling off while she was on patrol. She ended up sinking three Japanese ships during the time her paint was peeling, leading Tokyo Rose to make broadcasts about "Red pirate submarines."

The "sinking" of a truck was inspired by a real incident that happened in 1944. On August 9, USS Bowfin (SS-287) followed four Japanese ships into Minami Daito Harbor. She fired her six bow torpedoes at the moored ships, hitting three and sinking two of them, but one torpedo went astray and hit a pier. A bus parked on it was blown up and thrown into the water by the explosion.

The Adjustment Bureau, 2011. from a Phillip K. Dick story.

https://encrypted-tbn1.gstatic.com/i...bIaVOEV0miCV1d

Actress Shohreh Aghdashloo played God in the original cut of the film. According to Shohreh Aghdashloo herself in a Los Angeles Times interview, she was replaced by the studio because she was raised a Muslim and the studio wasn't ready for Muslim to portray God in a movie. Her exact quote: "Oh, my God, I loved that role. As actors, we all know we're at the mercy of the editing table, but not to this extent, never had I experienced it. The director, George Nolfi, decided I should play God. Everything went great until I got a call from the director who was asking to have lunch with me. He was on the verge of crying. He said, the distribution company believes that you cannot play this role....That's right, although if I'm asked what religion I am, I say I was raised a Muslim. I don't introduce myself as a Muslim woman, but I guess the distribution company put the dots together and felt it's too early for this."

terrible film but Emily Blunt.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Macca

terrible film but Emily Blunt.

---

not terrible.. might not be great, but its got emily in it for a start:D

Not the best of films - but, as you say, it's got Emily Blunt in it. So not all bad. :)

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by struth

Next, ...The Ipcress File, 1965.


https://encrypted-tbn2.gstatic.com/i...7WDbwEz0hOTcGJ

---

A great film and a darned sight better than the overlong and over-complicated offering on ITV.

Looper, 2012.

https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/..._AC_SY445_.jpg

The second of three films that star Emily Blunt, which involve characters trying to change the future. The first was The Adjustment Bureau (2011), and the third was Edge of Tomorrow (2014).