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I believe the bit about them both sniffing round Sondra Locke, but I think the real reason Clint got rid of him was because he realised he could do it better and cheaper,Quote:
Originally Posted by struth
Got a biography of him somewhere I'll have to dig it out and see what version of the story it gives.
clint was sniffing around anything young and pretty:lol: im sure the money etc saving was part of it, and the given reason, but;)Quote:
Originally Posted by Macca
The bio doesn't mention the Sondra Locke thing. Just says that Clint was fed up doing repeated takes, and then when they ended up roaming around in the desert for hours looking for a marker Kaufmann had placed some days earlier to remind him where to set up the camera, that was the final straw.
More Eastwood with 'The Good, the Bad and the Ugly', 1967.
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According to Eli Wallach, when it came time to blow up the bridge, Sergio Leone asked the Spanish Army Captain in charge to trigger the fuse, as a sign of gratitude for the Army's collaboration. They agreed to blow up the bridge when Leone gave the signal "Vai!" (Go!) over the walkie-talkie. Unfortunately, another crew member spoke on the same channel, saying the words "vai, vai!", meaning "it's okay, proceed" to a second crew member. The Captain heard this signal, thought it was for him, and blew up the bridge. Unfortunately, no cameras were running at the time. Leone was so upset that he fired the crewman, who promptly fled from the set in his car. The Captain was so sorry for what happened that he proposed to Leone that the Army would rebuild the bridge to blow it up again, with one condition: that the fired crewman be re-hired. Leone agreed, the crewman was forgiven, the bridge was rebuilt, and the scene was successfully shot.
During the scene right before the final duel where Tuco (Eli Wallach) is running frantically through the cemetery, a dog can be seen running on-screen at the beginning of the scene. In reality, that was improvised on the spot. Sergio Leone, who was afraid that the scene was going to slip into melodrama, released the dog without informing Eli Wallach first--thus, his look of surprise is quite genuine.
In addition to the train scene, Tuco (Eli Wallach) cheated death in the first scene where Blondie (Clint Eastwood) shoots him down from a hanging. The gunshot scared the horse, which took off running at full speed for nearly a mile. Wallach's hands were tied behind his back, and he had to hang on for dear life with his knees.
Playing By Heart, 1998.
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Sir Sean Connery took just $60,000 as his salary for this movie, as he was keen to play a character his age in a relationship with someone his own age. This was a far cry from the $14 million he earned on The Rock (1996).
Originally titled "Dancing About Architecture". The movie still contains the line from which this title was taken: "Talking about music is like dancing about architecture." or was it making love??lol
The Anderson Tapes, 1971. Sean Connery again...
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Sidney Lumet says in his book that there was a problem during exterior shooting in New York. The funeral of a notorious mafia kingpin was taking place while they were filming, and bystanders among the attendees asked for a copy of the film, because they were unhappy at the possibility that their faces might show up on film. (not sure who it was but might have been Billy Batts)
One of the burglars looks into a sack taken out of the safe and exclaims in delight, "Double eagles!" The double eagle is a $20 gold coin, no longer made. One of them is now worth several thousand dollars.
Blow Out, 1981. Director Brian De Palma.
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While on the way to the airport, the driver of the van containing two reels of footage of the Liberty Parade sequence stopped at a Dunkin' Donuts, leaving the van unattended. It was stolen while he was inside, and the footage was never seen again. The crew had to return to Philadelphia just to re-shoot the entire scene, at a cost of $750,000. Cinematographer Vilmos Zsigmond was no longer available, so he was replaced by László Kovács.
Quentin Tarantino stated in an interview that this film is his favorite Brian De Palma movie. In fact, Tarantino cast John Travolta in Pulp Fiction (1994) because he liked his performance in this movie so much.
How to Murder Your Wife, 1965. Stars Jack Lemmon, Virna Lisi and Terry-Thomas.
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During a taping of The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson (1962), Jack Lemmon told this story. Prior to starting the film, the husband of co-star Virna Lisi made her promise that she would not be talked into doing a nude scene in her first American film. She assured him that she would not, signed the contract and traveled to Hollywood. While filming the "revelation" scene, where Lemmon awakens to discover in horror that he had gotten married at the bachelor party, she had to disrobe and lay in the bed nude but discreetly covered with a sheet. However, it was this day that her husband, an architect, arrived unannounced at the set to surprise his wife. When he walked into the scene, he became very upset. He focused his anger toward Lemmon who, realizing that discretion was the better part of valor, exited the set at full speed with Virna's husband in pursuit. Running past several sound stages on the MGM lot, he quickly found a garbage dumpster, jumped in and closed the cover. He waited there until security officers found him.:lol:
Predestination, 2014.
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The movie is based on Robert A. Heinlein's short story "All You Zombies".
The picture of the Crosby Shoes building in the beginning of the movie is actually a picture of the exploded reactor number 4 from Chernobyl Power Plant which erupted on 26 April 1986.
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'For Your Eyes Only' (1981)
At the end of 'The Spy Who Loved Me' we were promised that Bond would return in this one but instead he returned in 'Moonraker.'
The reason was the success of 'Star Wars' in 1977 encouraged the producers to go for an outer-space themed Bond and so FYEO was put back to the next outing instead.
Originally Moore was not going to return to the role after 'Moonraker' so a new Bond would be required. Due to that and also because they did not think they could top the extravagant production values and ludicrous plots of the two previous films, this time the producers decided to do a more 'back to basics' Bond along the lines of 'From Russia With Love.'
In the end Moore did decide to come back. The problem is that he was really starting to look too old to be credible. Sure the women half his age still fancy him, he's James Bond, so we can overlook that, but in terms of the stunts and fights and so forth it gets hard to suspend your disbelief. Maybe they could have written it as an older Bond using cunning and guile to achieve his objectives, which would have been interesting, but they didn't.
That aside this is still probably the last 'proper' James Bond film. 'Octopussy' was a mess, 'View To A Kill' looked like a made-for-TV pilot. And then the less said about everything that came after the better. This one also has the last decent attempt at a theme tune. (Sheena Easton, although she didn't write it).
Some good set pieces, Topol is always worth watching and plays a good part. The Maggie Thatcher bit at the end probably seemed like a good idea at the time, it got a big laugh in the cinema when I went to see it. Forty years on though it just seems bizarre and is out of keeping with the tone of the rest of the film which is fairly short on humour since it is essentially a tale of revenge.
I'd vote it as Moore's fourth best (after 'Spy', 'Moonraker', and 'Live and Let Die.').
yeah, no 'M' in that either. think only the first one didnt have an M.. Bernard Lee was going to play him but was dying sadly a nd had to abandon it. Moore was about 54, so certainly an aged Bond.
The House on 92nd Street, 1945. Directed by Henry Hathaway, and narrated by Reed Hadley who did a number of Department of Defense films as well as narrating hollywood films..
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The movie deals with the theft by German spies of the fictional "Process 97", a secret formula which, the narrator tells us, "was crucial to the development of the atomic bomb." The movie was released on September 10, 1945, only a month after the atomic bombs had been dropped on Japan, and barely a week after Japan's formal surrender. While making the film, the actors and Director Henry Hathaway did not know that the atomic bomb existed, nor that it would be incorporated as a story element in the movie. (None of the actors in the film mentioned the atomic bomb.) However, co-Director and Producer Louis De Rochemont (who produced the "March of Time" newsreel films) and Narrator Reed Hadley were involved in producing government films on the development of the atomic bomb. (Hadley was present at the final test of the bomb in Los Alamos, New Mexico, in July, 1945.) After the bomb was dropped on Hiroshima, Hadley and Screenwriter John Monks, Jr. hastily wrote some additional voice-over narration linking "Process 97" to the atomic bomb, and Rochemont inserted it into the picture in time for the film's quick release.
I liked Bernard Lee, he was a great British supporting actor and in so many films.Quote:
Originally Posted by struth
Monty Python and the Holy Grail, 1975.
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The famous depiction of galloping horses by using coconut shells (a traditional radio-show sound effect) came about from the purely practical reason that the production simply could not afford real horses.
During the witch hunt, Eric Idle bares his teeth and bites down on the blade of the scythe he is holding. This was not scripted; Idle was actually about to burst out laughing and bit his scythe to stifle himself so as not to spoil the take. (If you look closely, you can see him shaking slightly, trying to keep his laughing under control.) Sir Michael Palin can be seen hiding laughter at the same time as well, while earlier in the scene, John Cleese quickly turns his head to one side just before the shot cuts, though not quickly enough to hide that he has broken character and is grinning broadly. All three comment on each others' corpsing on the DVD commentary.
A Bridge Too Far, 1977. Director Richard Attenborough...Operation Market Garden.
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Sir Dirk Bogarde's portrayal of General Browning was highly controversial, and several friends of the late General suggested that, had Browning still been alive in 1977, he would have sued director Sir Richard Attenborough and screenwriter William Goldman for libel. Bogarde took issue with the portrayal during filming, having known Browning personally, as he was a member of Field Marshal Bernard L. Montgomery's staff during the war. Although Attenborough publicly took responsibility for the controversy, his relationship with Bogarde was never the same again. Browning's son said he believed his father was made the fall guy for the failure of Operation Market Garden in the film because the producers knew there would have been too much flak if they went after Montgomery. During World War II, Sir Dirk Bogarde, who played Lieutenant General Browning, served in intelligence with the British Army. He, and eight other intelligence officers, were sent to Arnhem by General Bernard L. Montgomery during the battle.
Sir Michael Caine's scripted line to order the column of tanks and armored cars into battle, was "Forward, go, charge". Luckily for Caine, Lieutenant Colonel J.O.E. Vandeleur was on the set, so he could ask him what the actual line was. Vandeleur told him, "I just said quietly into the microphone, 'Well, get a move on, then'", which is what Caine says in the movie.
....also with Caine, he claims that director Richard Attenborough did not tell him that a string of dummy tanks behind the scout car which Caine was riding in would be blown up so that Caine would look realistically startled during the shot. He did!
quality film although you have to remember the script was written by a yank.
Browning did make one error which was to drop into the Nijmegan DZ along with his whole headquarters unit on the first day. Not only did that use up transport aircraft that could have been used to land more combat troops but also made it harder for him to control the operation than if he had remained in England.
The main reason for the failure is as explained in the film - 1st Airborne's DZ was too far from the objective as the RAF, concerned about losing too many transport aircraft, wanted to avoid flying over the enemy flak units.
A friend of mine her ex-husband was in 3 Para and she said he would be constantly re-watching it. I must have seen it a dozen times at least including at the cinema. I've got two copies of it on DVD as well. Quality film top to bottom.
Looking for new things to watch,
thought I'd take a punt on this, on AppleTV+
An "alternative history" take on the Space Race between USA and Soviets,
https://youtu.be/HZS9M52Bd_w
From Ronald D. Moore, the guy who did some of the best Trek DS9 shows and the reimagining of Battlestar Galactica.
That got my attention.
6 episodes in, its excellent.
Invaders from Mars, 1953. one of the first aliens from space films this....
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The special effects department used condoms to create the "bubbles" on the walls of the underground tunnels.
Luce Potter, one of the Munchkins in The Wizard of Oz (1939), played the Martian "head" enclosed in glass in the film. For years she received letters from fans of the movie telling her how much she had scared them as kids.
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Spectre (2015)
Not bothered with this one until now as one of my brothers is a big Bond fan and he told me it wasn't up to much.
On the whole though it's not so bad by the standards of 'modern' Bond. Craig is probably the most believable Bond since Connery and we no longer have Judi Dench as 'M', which never worked for me.
Some good set-pieces, especially the fight on the train which is reminiscent of similar from 'From Russia With Love' and 'The Spy Who Loved Me.' Although the direction occasionally gets a bit too fancy (you need a workmanlike director to do Bond properly) it's less intrusive than in the previous Craig films.
The return of Blofeld (following the resolution of rights ownership) is welcome and Christopher Waltz is always good, but the whole back story thing is a bit laboured. The last 20 minutes or so are a mess story-wise too. Why does Bond, who has vowed to protect Swann, allow her to just wander off into the night? Needless to say she is kidnapped by Blofeld within minutes.
Conveniently this all happens off screen so we don't see how it occurred as it's already been established that Swann is resourceful and tough.
Worth a watch but it still isn't 'proper' Bond for many reasons. Won't list them all but here is one that will give you an idea - near the start of the film Bond is summoned to M's office. M's office is the size of a basketball court and superbly appointed.
It Came from Outer Space, 1953.
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Although credited to Harry Essex, most of the script, including dialogue, is copied almost verbatim from Ray Bradbury's initial film treatment of The Creature from the Black Lagoon. .
The first 3-D film to be released by Universal Studios.
The shot of the spaceship destroying a ship was in fact a newsreel shot of HMS Barham exploding after being torpedoed in November 1941.
Invasion of the Body Snatchers, 1956.
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Kevin McCarthy and author Jack Finney have always denied the rumor that the story is a statement against McCarthyism and Communism; they just saw it as a thriller. Director Don Siegel, however, believes that the political references to Sen. Joseph McCarthy and totalitarianism are inescapable, even though he tried not to emphasize them.
I've never bought the whole political angle to that film.
McCarthy was rabidly anti-communist. So it can't be both an anti-McCarthy film and an anti-communist film at the same time. I don't think it was ever intended to be either.
The horror aspect to the film is that once you get taken over you lose your individuality which is something we all subliminally fear. So I think it's actually a lot deeper than some trite political allegory.
I think it was linked to both ends of the political spectrum: some have read the film as a reflection of right-wing paranoia about Communists taking over the American way of life, while others see it as symbolic of left-wing paranoia about McCarthyism. It was deliberately set in small town America where these fears were highest.Quote:
Originally Posted by Macca
Lets face it, America in the 50's especially, but to an extent always has been paranoid about freedom. AKA The Simpsons and...If You Don't Have A Gun, The King Of England Can Just Walk In Here And Shove You Around.
Change of style now with Carry On Screaming!, 1966.
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One of the most popular films of 1966, and one of the highest-grossing films of the "Carry On" series.
The gag in the "do you mind if I smoke" sequence had been used by Morticia Addams in the 11/13/64 The Addams Family (1964) episode shown on UK TV during 1965, although without the couch. It had previously appeared earlier--almost exactly, and even with a chaise lounge--in the 4/2/55 episode of The George Gobel Show (1954), where guest star Maila Nurmi, aka "Vampira", did the smoking.
Sgt. Bung's car is a 1904 Brushmobile. The company was based in Loughborough in Leicestershire, England, and only six of these cars were made. The taxi used by Bung's wife is a 1906 Renault.
from that to the plain silly... Carry On Up the Jungle, 1970 :D oumpa, oumpa, stick it up your jumper...
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Bernard Bresslaw learned all his native orders in a genuine African language - Fanagalo in South Africa, a.k.a. Chilapalapa or Chikabanga further North, the lingua franca of Southern Africa. But on the first day of shooting, the extras all stared at him dumbly - all were of Caribbean origin and thus completely confused by his orders. However Sidney James (born to a Jewish family in South Africa) claimed to recognize the real thing and congratulated him.
The film's joke alternate titles seen at the start of the opening credits were "the African Queens", "Stop Beating About the Bush" and "Show Me Your Waterhole and I'll Show You Mine". Joke alternate titles that were dropped and weren't used at the beginning of the movie included "The Lust Continent" and "Don't Shoot 'til you See the Whites of their Thighs".
Joan Sims played Lady Evelyn in this film, the mother of Cecil The Jungle Boy, played by Terry Scott. She was actually three years younger than Scott. Terry Scott wasn't allowed to wear underwear under his loin cloth. In the scene by the river, his awkward posture as he lay next to Jacki Piper made his genitalia slip out during the long scene, making the camera crew and production staff corpse in the background.
Carry On Dick, 1974. .. Dick Turpin is terrorising the countryside around Upper Dencher. Captain Fancey and Sergeant Jock Strapp plan to put an end to his escapades, and enlist the help of the Reverend Flasher.
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The film was banned in South Africa in the 1970s as the South African authorities considered it anti-Christian. This was because of Sidney James's role as a parish priest as being corrupt having an alias as a robber.
The name of King George II's first professional police force was "The Bow Street Runners". The name of this outfit was the same as the true life historical police unit "The Bow Street Runners" which was the first in English history. The were founded in 1749 which was within a year of when this film is set it being 1750. Dick Turpin died in 1739, around eleven years before the picture actually takes place.
Bernard Bresslaw insisted on a closed set for the scene where his character, Sir Roger Daley, is stripped of his clothes and possessions. In the script, it was necessary for Sir Roger and Lady Daley, played by Margaret Nolan, to be naked, apart from a hat covering their private parts. Other cast members took photographs of Bernard Bresslaw as a practical joke in order to poke fun at his insistence of the set being closed to most crew. Sure Margaret Nolan didn't bother lol.
Creature from the Black Lagoon, 1954. Ingmar Bergman watched this film every year on his birthday.
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The Creature's appearance was based on old seventeenth-century woodcuts of two bizarre creatures called the Sea Monk and the Sea Bishop. The Creature's final head was based on that of the Sea Monk, but the original discarded head was based on that of the Sea Bishop.
Ricou Browning, the stuntman who provided the underwater shots of the creature, once had to make an emergency bathroom visit while he was filming a scene. Browning had been underwater for several minutes and breached the water, in full costume, next to an unsuspecting mother and her young daughter on the nearby shore. Browning said that they fled in terror once they saw him. He recalled, "they took off, and that's the last I saw of 'em!"
The Front Page, 1974. Kino Lorber Bluray Reg A.
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This version of "The Front Page" was the first to mention the city by name and use actual Chicago newspapers. Billy Wilder felt that Chicago was the most exciting newspaper town in the country.
The opening scene showing the newspaper being printed was shot at the Los Angeles Herald Examiner's print room. It had one of the last fully operational old style printing presses still in use.
Susan Sarandon stayed at the famed Chateau Marmont Hotel in Hollywood during the shoot, and was robbed by an intruder who took her gear while she slept. When she told Walter Matthau, he insisted on lending her some money to get her through the shoot.
The Seven-Per-Cent Solution, 1976. Shout Factory Bluray. Director: Herbert Ross.
Thought by many not to be all that good, but i like it a lot with Nicol Williamson as Holmes an excellent choice.
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The tennis match sequence was not a studio set but was shot at classic historical tennis courts at the Queen's Club in West Kensington, London.
Dr. Watson's revolver appears to be a Webley RIC No. 1 New Model (distinguishable from the older RICs by its fluted cylinder), an inspired choice by the filmmakers as it dovetails perfectly into Watson's service time, British Army regulations about service cartridge chambering, and Watson's likely financial means at the time (the New Model had been in production for several years by 1879 and used specimens could have been had fairly cheaply).
Holmes' hallucinations while detoxing include references to a number of canonical Holmes stories. The hound jumping out of the cabinet is a reference to the novel The Hound of the Baskervilles, set by sone Holmesian scholars as taking place before the great hiatus. Holmes also imagines his bed surrounded by a group of ginger haired and bearded men, a reference to the short story The Redheaded League.
Next up, Tobe Hooper's 1986 version of Invaders From Mars.
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Jimmy Hunt, who played young David MacLean in the original Invaders from Mars (1953) and the police chief in this remake, actually has several lines. When he and Officer Keeney go up the hill in search of Mr. Gardner, Hunt's line of "Gee, I haven't been up here since I was a kid" is a playful reference to the similar area of Martian activity that he witnessed as the boy in the 1953 movie.
During the final shootout between the Marines and the Martians in the Supreme Intelligence's throne room, a fire broke out. It was quickly contained and no one was hurt, but quick thinking led to the Supreme Intelligence being cut open to let the puppeteers out.
Invasion of the Body Snatchers, 1978. Director Philip Kaufman...
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Robert Duvall, who had previously worked with Philip Kaufman on The Great Northfield Minnesota Raid (1972), happened to be in San Francisco at the time of filming, and shot his only scene for free. He plays a crazy priest playing on a swing. It's supposed to foreshadow the pod person anomie and alienation we feel later in the movie.
Harry the homeless banjo guy's banjo playing was performed by Grateful Dead frontman Jerry Garcia. The song being played (and sung) is the traditional "Going Down the Road Feeling Bad," which was a regular tune played by The Dead in live performances, and appears on several live albums.
Good remake that, one of the few in history.
That Invaders from Mars re-make is pretty good too IIRC.
Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl, 2003.
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Good fun these and as ever, well made. This also has a young Keira Knightly in it.
Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest, 2006. Keira again...:eyebrows:
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Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End, 2007.
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Pirates of the Caribbean: Salazar's Revenge, 2017.
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Terminator 2: Judgment Day, 1991. This is the 4k uhd version.
Arnold Schwarzenegger was given a slightly used Gulfstream III airplane (worth about US $14 million) by producer Mario Kassar, for accepting the role in this film.
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Special effects guru Stan Winston and his crew studied hours of nuclear test footage in order to make Sarah Connor's "nuclear nightmare" scene look as realistic as possible. A miniature Los Angeles was made to simulate the scene. Some of the materials used in the miniature that mimicked all the destroyed masonry were Matzos crackers and Shredded Wheat. After each take, it would take on average two days to set the model up to shoot again. In late 1991, members of several US federal nuclear testing labs unofficially declared it "the most accurate depiction of a nuclear blast ever created for a fictional motion picture." The special effects team members have stated several times that no scene they've worked on since has received an equivalent amount of praise or emotional feedback from viewers.
Robert Patrick trained in a rigorous running regimen while breathing only through his nose, in order to be able to appear to run at high speeds without showing fatigue on film. He had trained so hard that he was able to catch up with Edward Furlong on his dirtbike with great ease, so he had to slow down considerably.
Production took sufficiently long that Edward Furlong visibly aged during the shoot. He is clearly much younger in the scene in the desert, for example, than in other scenes. His voice began to break and had to be pitched one level in post-production. He had also grown so tall over the months that, for one scene shot late in the production schedule, he had to stand in a hole in the ground in order to maintain continuity in height difference with Linda Hamilton.
For the Los Angeles River sequence, Arnold Schwarzenegger was in pain because he could not wear a glove while cocking the gun, so his fingers would get stuck in the mechanism. He tore the skin from his fingers and hand many times before he mastered it, and he frequently hit Edward Furlong with the gun while doing it, one time almost knocking the young actor out. He had to achieve all this while trying to act and control a Harley at the same time as James Cameron told him where to look. He could not dart his eyes either because it would have ruined the shot. Shooting the gates also took weeks of practice because he had to also "act cool" while doing it.
The Battle of the Sexes, 1959. Peter Sellers stars.
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The Dam Busters, 1955. Directed by Michael Anderson.
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Footage used to show the bombs as they skipped on the surface of the water towards the dams was drawn from footage of the bombs being tested. Backspinning the bombs gave them gyroscopic stability when skipping across the water, then held them against the dams as they sank. To conceal the backspin, which was still a state secret at the time of filming, the bombs in the footage were painted over frame by frame. The bombs shown in the movie were the wrong shape because the actual shape (a stubby cylinder) was still secret at the time. Scenes of indoor testing of the model bomb were shot at the National Physical Laboratory at Teddington in the tanks where the actual tests took place.
Frank Phillips repeats in the movie his official announcement of the breach of the dams, which he had read on the BBC on May 18, 1943.
This is one of the movies from which George Lucas used clips to edit the rough cut of Star Wars (1977) (which utilized many features of the finale of this movie quite closely, notably the briefing, the ground staff waiting for news, the troika formation of the attacking aircraft and so on). In addition, the following exchange from this movie was reproduced almost verbatim (with the exception of the characters' names): Gibson: "How many guns d'you think there are, Trevor?" Trevor: "I'd say there's about ten guns, some in the field and some in the tower."
The Star Wars dialogue is:Quote:
Originally Posted by struth
GOLD LEADER: How many guns do you think, Gold Five?
GOLD FIVE: I'd say about twenty guns. Some on the
surface, some on the towers.
Just cut and paste your film from bits of other peoples', make a million dollars.
This scene was lifted entirely for Star Wars, including the bit at the end where they think they've blown the damn but it turns out they haven't.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E1DCxpMz8aU
they had to rename the dog, 'trigger, or tigger' for american audiences apparently. ;) the dog wasnt as universally loved as film suggests, as it had a habit of pissing on people.
although many debate the point of raid now, this was said at time..
The Dam Busters raids were hugely innovative and daring, but how much impact did they really have? At the time, there was much speculation. The mission was to cause mass flooding, crippling steelworks and other facilities and cause the enemy huge logistical problems.
Not everyone was convinced, however. Even after the event, Sir Arthur “Bomber” Harris refused to budge on his earlier scepticism. In private, he wrote that the raids “achieved nothing compared with the effort and the loss”. Lancaster bombers were too valuable to have risked in this way, he was adamant.
Was it all a morale boosting stunt then, or something far greater? Perhaps the most telling evidence came from the Germans themselves. After the war it was revealed that the flood damage had caused chaos. Some 20,000 men were forced to redeploy to repair the dams and deal with the damage, rather than helping defend key strategic points in the conflict. The German Minister for Armaments himself, Albert Spear, declared it as “a disaster for us.”
For huge numbers of men and women stationed in the airfields of Lincolnshire, life was painfully tense. We can only imagine what passed through the minds of young pilots as they contemplated the mortal risks with every mission. The average age of RAF aircrew at the time has been estimated to be as low as 21. Almost three quarters (73%) were hurt or killed in action. Some 56% of those who flew with Bomber Command overall were killed in action or died of injuries.
In James Holland's recent book, Dam Busters: The Race to Smash the Dams, he states that "it is time to put the record straight". He insists that the damage was "absolutely enormous" and it was "an extraordinary achievement".
He points out that every bridge for 30 miles below the breached Mohne dam was destroyed, and buildings were damaged 40 miles away. Twelve war production factories were destroyed, and around 100 more were damaged. Thousands of acres of farmland were ruined.
Germans instantly referred to it after the raid as the "Mohne catastrophe". Even the cool Speer admitted that it was "a disaster for us for a number of months". German sources attribute a 400,000-tonne drop in coal production in May 1943 to the damage caused. Another German report into the effects of the raid talked about "considerable losses of production" caused by "the lack of water" and that "many shaft mines, coking plants, smelting works, power stations, fuel plants and armaments factories were shut down for several days".
The fact that a titanic effort was made to repair this damage shows how high a priority the dams were, and it meant resources were shifted from elsewhere. Nowhere was this costlier to the Third Reich than on the beaches of Normandy.
Hitler had ordered the construction of a massive network of defences against an Allied invasion. Now thousands of workers who should have been toiling in France were redirected to the Ruhr to repair the dams. A year later allied troops would have faced far more significant defences had it not been for the Dambusters raid.
No raid mounted by so few aircraft had ever caused such extensive material damage. It did not bring German war production to a permanent halt, but nobody had expected it to.
great film... Squadron Leader George Leonard "Johnny" Johnson, MBE, DFM is last surviving dambuster. he is 100 yrs young.. he was 3 months younger than my dad(also in raf) and 22 when the raid went ahead...22:doh: so many young guys died or were scarred for life especially in bomber command.
Selected to be part of the specialist No. 617 Squadron RAF, Johnson arrived at RAF Scampton on 27 March 1943. It was at this time that he was due to marry; however, due to the requirements of the training for Operation Chastise, all leave had been cancelled. Johnson appealed to his new Commanding Officer, Wing Commander Guy Gibson, who eventually relented, giving Johnson four days' leave.
McCarthy's crew in Lancaster AJ-T (T-Tommy) were detailed to attack the Sorpe Dam, the structure of which differed considerably from the other main targets insofar as it being an earthen dam as opposed to the gravity construction of the Möhne and Eder dams, thus necessitating a completely different type of attack. Like the rest of No. 617 Squadron, Johnson had practised dropping his bomb as the aircraft flew straight towards the target at low level. However, on the afternoon prior to the raid, when the five crews detailed to attack the Sorpe Dam received their briefing, they were told that they had to fly along the dam wall and drop their mine at its centre. It would roll down the wall and explode when it reached the correct depth. The specialist bomb sight developed for the raid would also be of no use.
Due to various losses and technical issues en route to the target, AJ-T was the first Lancaster to reach the Sorpe, and McCarthy soon realised how difficult the attack would be. Although there were no flak batteries, the attack would require the aircraft to be flown low across the nearby town of Langscheid, with its prominent church steeple, followed by the aircraft having to drop even lower so the bomb could be released. It was not until the tenth attempt that the crew were satisfied, with Johnson finally releasing the bomb.
For his part in the raid, Johnson received the Distinguished Flying Medal.
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There was far more loss of life to the Allies than to the Germans. Only 40% of the squadron returned after the first mission. Many of the bouncing bombs exploded harmlessly in the water, or bounced over the top of the dam walls, exploding in neighbouring fields.
Only the Möhne and Eder dams were seriously breached, causing the death of some 1,700 people, mostly captured Allied prisoners. The dams were quickly repaired, using forced prisponer-of-war labourers taken from the V-weapon programme; which meant the development of the A3 rocket was delayed and never deployed.
The Hound of the Baskervilles, 1939. Rathbone and Bruce star....
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The impressive interior set for Baskerville Hall was subsequently recycled by Fox, most notably for their last Charlie Chan feature, Castle in the Desert (1942).
Publicity materials referred to the dog who played the title character as "Chief". The dog's real name was "Blitzen", but this was thought to sound too German.
Watson's revolver in this film is easily identifiable as a Colt Single Action Army, aka the Peacemaker, widely identified with the American "Wild West." However, over 5300 of these were sold in England through Colt's Pall Mall agent between 1874 and 1912, and were chambered in nearly every caliber approved by the British Army. Since officers (like Watson) purchased their own sidearms, this is, somewhat counter-intuitively, one of the more realistic choices made by a film maker of what Watson's service revolver might have actually been.
The film inspired the Grateful Dead song "Dire Wolf".
think there were 5/600 german deaths. the rest were mostly pows and forced labour;Quote:
Originally Posted by Barry
Bicentennial Man, 1999. Robin Williams stars, from a short story by Isaac Asimov.
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When Andrew regales the family with jokes, the jokes themselves were unscripted. Robin Williams ad-libbed all of the jokes. The other actors' reactions to the jokes and their laughter are real.
The aria that Andrew is listening to when he first uses the record player is from Dvorak's opera "Rusalka." The opera is concerned with the fairy-tale story of a water nymph who wants to become mortal for love.
Asimov's Three Laws of Robotics, which govern all the robots in his stories, are as follows: First Law - A robot may not injure a human being or, through inaction, allow a human being to come to harm. Second Law - A robot must obey the orders given it by human beings except where such orders would conflict with the First Law. Third Law - A robot must protect its own existence as long as such protection does not conflict with the First or Second Laws.
People have been injured by robots and probably fatally too. Not the sentient humanoid type though, if there are really any yet.Quote:
Originally Posted by struth
Not sure how you'd reconcile Azimov's rules with the idea of robot soldiers
It was an excellent film.
now, Dances with Wolves, 1990. Kevin Costner directs and stars in this western epic.
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Because of the film's enormous success and sympathetic treatment of the Native Americans, the Sioux Nation adopted Kevin Costner as an honorary member.
Kevin Costner did all his own riding, including bareback and shooting his gun without holding the reins, during the buffalo hunt.
During the scene where the buffalo is charging at Smiles a Lot, the buffalo is actually charging at a pile of its favorite treat: Oreo cookies. (lol)
In the skinned buffalo scene, fake animals made of paper were used and looked very realistic. A passerby called the police during filming and they showed up with guns drawn ready to arrest the crew for poaching. After some explanations, the cops left laughing.