Now Screening - What Are You Watching Right Now?

Man Who Knew Too Little, 1997... Manage to pick this up on bluray; its a reg A as its not available in uk afaik...



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Great cast inc joanne whalley, who was super hot in her day...

When Wallace Ritchie (Bill Murray) uses the mallet to break down the door, he yells "Here's Johnny!" This is a nod to Jack Torrance (Jack Nicholson) breaking down the door with an axe and saying the same thing in The Shining (1980). The mallet is also the signature weapon used by Jack Torrance in Stephen King's novel The Shining, unlike the axe used in the Stanley Kubrick movie.

Filming took place in London's East End (Three Mills Studios), at a variety of London locations, and just outside London at the Elstree Film Studios.

The Private Life of Sherlock Holmes, 1970..



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Writer and director Billy Wilder said of this movie in the book "Conversations with Wilder" by Cameron Crowe, "when I came back (from Paris), it was an absolute disaster, the way it was cut. The whole prologue was cut, a half-sequence was cut. I had tears in my eyes as I looked at the thing. It was the most elegant picture I've ever shot."

Pirates of the Caribbean: Salazar's Revenge, 2017... currently the last of the POTC films.



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Grossed about $800mil from a $300 budget.

Memoirs of an Invisible Man, 1992... Director is John Carpenter...



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John Carpenter has stated that this is his least favorite of all the films he's directed, and is the film he "hates thinking about the most". One reason was because of the constant studio interference that didn't allow Carpenter much creative freedom. Carpenter also called Chevy Chase "a director's worst nightmare" and "nearly impossible to direct", also saying the same about Daryl Hannah. According to Carpenter, Chase would complain non-stop about the film's tone and hated wearing the special effects, often prematurely removing his makeup and ruining hours of filming. At one point, Carpenter broke a clipboard in half over his knee in a fit of rage when Chase removed his makeup mid-take. Carpenter said that Chase and Hannah were "immune to any punishment from the studio, and they knew it, so they walked over me and everyone else on set and essentially told us we'd be replaced if we had any problem with them...it was like working with your boss's snooty children who would tattle on you if you didn't bend to their every will." Despite this, Carpenter ended up bonding and seeking comfort in Sam Neill over the troubling production and the two became close friends, with Neill agreeing to work with Carpenter again on In The Mouth Of Madness.

never was keen on Daryl Hannah, didn't fancy her and having to sit through that terrible film where she's a mermaid pretty much did it for me.

Chevy Chase, on the other hand, will always be a legend for 'Fletch' (and, to a lesser extent, 'Fletch Lives').

Rio Bravo, 1959...



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Exteriors for the film were shot at Old Tucson Studios, just outside Tucson. Filming took place in the summer of 1958, and the movie's credits gave 1958 for the copyright; the film was released in March 1959.

Rio Bravo is generally regarded as one of Hawks' best, and is known for its long opening scene which contains no dialogue. The film received favorable reviews, and was successful, taking in over US$5.5 million.

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Originally Posted by Macca

never was keen on Daryl Hannah, didn't fancy her and having to sit through that terrible film where she's a mermaid pretty much did it for me.

Chevy Chase, on the other hand, will always be a legend for 'Fletch' (and, to a lesser extent, 'Fletch Lives').

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not big on her either tbh. she was fairly pretty in her own way but i think she was probably nuts.

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Originally Posted by struth

not big on her either tbh. she was fairly pretty in her own way but i think she was probably nuts.

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yeah she's far from ugly just not my type. Nothing wrong with her acting. Thing is if you are doing a romantic film about a bloke chasing after a woman, it doesn't work for you if you don't at least fancy the bird he is chasing. You sit there thinking 'Mate, just look for someone else, she's no great shakes.'

I've always had the problem with 'Casablanca'. Bergman's very pretty but her character in the film is a very bland personality. You can't really imagine her appealing to someone like Rick. I mean a few weeks of fun in Paris, yes, but him falling hard for her? No chance.

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Originally Posted by Macca

yeah she's far from ugly just not my type. Nothing wrong with her acting. Thing is if you are doing a romantic film about a bloke chasing after a woman, it doesn't work for you if you don't at least fancy the bird he is chasing. You sit there thinking 'Mate, just look for someone else, she's no great shakes.'

I've always had the problem with 'Casablanca'. Bergman's very pretty but her character in the film is a very bland personality. You can't really imagine her appealing to someone like Rick. I mean a few weeks of fun in Paris, yes, but him falling hard for her? No chance.

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bergman was a lot hotter than her hollywood image. she had affairs with everyone; bar bogey of course. the 2 didnt like each other

talking about this film recently so have a mind to watch it again..

Barry Lyndon, 1975... Director is Stanley Kubrick.


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Production was moved from Ireland to England after writer, producer, and director Stanley Kubrick received word that his name was on an I.R.A. hit list for directing a movie featuring English soldiers in Ireland. Consequently, several scenes were dropped.

Contrary to legend, this movie did use artificial lighting in some scenes (for example, when Bryan (David Morley) learns he's getting a horse). However, it is true that no electronic lighting was used for the candle-lit scenes. A lens built by the Carl Zeiss Company for N.A.S.A., a 50mm Zeiss lens modified with the Kollmorgen adaptor used in still cameras, was used to shoot scenes lit only by candle. This lens had the largest aperture of any ever built for movie use (f/0.7).

A myth grew that the Academy Award winning costumes used in this movie were genuine antique clothes, but this is only partly correct. Some of the costumes were genuine antiques bought at auction by costume designer Milena Canonero, while others were custom-made specifically for this movie and were based on clothing of the period and costumes seen in period paintings.

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Originally Posted by struth

talking about this film recently so have a mind to watch it again..

Barry Lyndon, 1975... Director is Stanley Kubrick.

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Tremendous film!

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Originally Posted by struth

A lens built by the Carl Zeiss Company for N.A.S.A., a 50mm Zeiss lens modified with the Kollmorgen adaptor used in still cameras, was used to shoot scenes lit only by candle. This lens had the largest aperture of any ever built for movie use (f/0.7)

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To be precise, the modified lens (modified by Ed DiGiulio) retained the focal length of 50mm with a full aperture of f/0.7. When used with the Kollmorgan adaptor, the focal length of the combination was reduced to 36.5mm, but retained a full aperture of f/0.7, so in effect a little 'slower'.

I see Talking Pictures TV have the 1961 classic 'Only Two Can Play', with Peter Sellers on at 11.55 this morning.

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I saw it recently and it's well worth a watch.

Dances With Wolves, 1990.


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Because of budget overruns and general industry reluctance to invest in a Western, Kevin Costner Costner was forced to dig deep into his own pockets and pay $ 3 million to make up the film's $18 million budget to cover overages. As it then went on to gross over $100 million, he himself earned an estimated $40 million from his original investment.

Kevin Costner's spreading out of his arms while doing his suicide run at the start of the film was a completely spontaneous gesture that took his stunt coordinator by surprise.

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Originally Posted by walpurgis

I see Talking Pictures TV have the 1961 classic 'Only Two Can Play', with Peter Sellers on at 11.55 this morning.

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I saw it recently and it's well worth a watch.

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a good one that geoff. rarely available too

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'Oliver Twist' (1948)

Unrivalled adaption of the Dicken's novel that actually improves on it in a number of ways. Great performances, sets, and atmosphere.

There were issues regarding the portrayal of the Fagin character. The original idea was to copy the appearance of Fagin from the illustrations used for the first edition of the book, requiring Alec Guinness to wear a large prosthetic nose. But so soon after the Holocaust this was considered unwise so the prosthetics were toned down and some scenes were shot. The problem now was that Fagin resembled Jesus Christ. So David Lean elected to return to the original make-up.

Consequently 12 minutes of footage of the scenes with Fagin in were removed for the American release.

The film was banned in Israel as Guinness's performance as Fagin was thought to be anti-Semitic. The film was banned in Egypt because it was thought that Fagin was portrayed too sympathetically.

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Originally Posted by struth

Dances With Wolves, 1990.


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Because of budget overruns and general industry reluctance to invest in a Western, Kevin Costner Costner was forced to dig deep into his own pockets and pay $ 3 million to make up the film's $18 million budget to cover overages. As it then went on to gross over $100 million, he himself earned an estimated $40 million from his original investment.

Kevin Costner's spreading out of his arms while doing his suicide run at the start of the film was a completely spontaneous gesture that took his stunt coordinator by surprise.

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An excellent film.

Harvey, 1950... bluray... Director is Henry Koster.



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At the suggestion of James Stewart, the director changed many shots to make them wider so that "Harvey" would be in the frame.

As a joke, the cast and crew would often set a chair for the title character at lunch and order him something to eat.

When speaking with Mrs. Chumley, Elwood describes Harvey as a púca, which is a creature from Irish mythology, and in Celtic as well Nordish myth as well. Referred to as a bringer of either good or bad tidings, a púca can appear in the form of various animals, and sometimes as a human. In most cases, a púca is both friendly and very helpful.

Henry Koster and James Stewart discovered that they worked extremely well together. Koster said later that working with Stewart was "without any doubt one of the most pleasant experiences of my life...It must have been his spirit. There was very little friction, ever, only ambition and craftsmanship and precision, just doing it right professionally. On top of that he put the whipped cream of great talent...He was always the first on the set."

Her Comes Mr Jordan, 1941, bluray.. Director is Alexander Hall...



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Columbia chief Harry Cohn had serious misgivings about this adaptation of Harry Segall's minor stage play. He preferred to reserve his more lavish budgets for surefire successes (i.e., anything featuring the studio's biggest star, Rita Hayworth). However, Sidney Buchman was eventually able to talk Cohn into forking out for costly celestial sets and Farnsworth's elaborate mansion and also into hiring Robert Montgomery on loan-out from MGM. Buchman was also able to convince Cohn that he had a better appreciation of what the public would pay to see than the Wall Street bankers who Cohn answered to.

James Gleason was nominated for an Oscar for Best Supporting Actor in the role of Max Corkle. This is the first time in Academy Awards history for a person to be nominated for a supporting Oscar for a role for which a different person would later also be nominated for a supporting Oscar: Jack Warden was nominated for Best Supporting Actor as Max Corkle in Heaven Can Wait (1978). James Gleason was mainly brought on board to polish the dialogue. Gleason had a knack for authentic sounding vernacular language but also happened to be a great actor.

James Gleason
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Another film with James Gleason now... The Bishop's Wife, 1947...



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Originally Cary Grant played the bishop and David Niven the angel. When original director William A. Seiter left the film, Henry Koster replaced him and viewed what had been shot so far. He realized that the two were in the wrong roles. It took some convincing because Grant wanted the title role of the Bishop. He eventually accepted the change and his role as the angel was one of the most widely praised of his career.

Very Important Person, 1961.
Stanley Baxter and James Robertson Justice.
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How To Murder Your Wife, 1965...


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Porridge, 1979.


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My Fellow Americans, 1996.


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Jamaica Inn, 1939..


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In a 1972 interview with Pia Lindström, Alfred Hitchcock said that it took one full morning to get one close-up of Charles Laughton. He also said that "He was a nice man. A charming man. He really was. But oh! He suffered so much, because he felt he couldn't get it out, and we were one whole morning on the one close-up until he got up, and he was crying in the corner, and I went over and patted him on the shoulder."

The real Jamaica Inn still exists as of 2020 and is located just off the A30 in Bolventor, Cornwall, England.

Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest, 2006..



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Originally Posted by Barry

An excellent film.

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I dont know if any of you have but, if you haven't, I strongly suggest watching the full extended version of Dances With Wolves - it really does add to what is already a fantastic film!!!!

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Originally Posted by Us-&-Them

I dont know if any of you have but, if you haven't, I strongly suggest watching the full extended version of Dances With Wolves - it really does add to what is already a fantastic film!!!!

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yes its the extended version ive got.. top class .

"The Heiress" 1949.. A gem of a film with a superb leading cast of Olivia De Haviland(maybe her greatest portrayal), Montgomery Clift(the young conman of the heart) and Sir Ralph Richardson(as the domineering father who knows a conman when he sees him).



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After seeing "The Heiress" on Broadway, Olivia de Havilland approached William Wyler about directing her in a screen adaptation of the play. He agreed and encouraged Paramount Pictures executives to purchase the rights from the playwrights (Ruth and Augustus Goetz) for $250,000 and offer them $10,000 per week to write the screenplay. The couple were asked to make Morris less of a villain than he was in their play and the original novel in deference to the studio's desire to capitalize on Montgomery Clift's reputation as a romantic leading man.

Olivia de Havilland wisely chose William Wyler as her director, considering that such a meticulous director would be able to coax a strong performance from her. As it turned out, Wyler became a staunch supporter of his leading actress, particularly in regard to the sneering attitude that Montgomery Clift displayed toward her (he didn't value her talents as an actress) and Sir Ralph Richardson taking every opportunity to steal scenes from under her nose with his improvisations. Montgomery Clift was so unhappy with his performance, he walked out of the premiere.

From a budget of around $2,600,000 , it grossed about $160 worldwide.

The song sung by Montgomery Clift while playing the piano is originally a vocal romance, "Plaisir d'amour," composed in 1784 by classical composer Jean-Paul-Égide Martini (August 31, 1741 - February 10, 1816), and was the basis for Elvis Presley's 1961 hit "I Can't Help Falling In Love With You" written for the movie Blue Hawaii (1961).

During the staircase scene, director William Wyler shot 37 takes with Olivia de Havilland. Only after the final one, whereupon she fell down from exhaustion, did Wyler declare that this was the take he wanted to print.

Indiscreet, 1958... Cary Grant said that this was his personal favorite film.



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The casting of Cary Grant and Ingrid Bergman as slightly older and wiser lovers had greater relevance to 1958 audiences. Grant was on the third of his five marriages, while Bergman had ridden the waves of scandal following her adulterous relationship with Italian director Roberto Rossellini.

When the censors had a problem with Cary Grant and Ingrid Bergman in bed together, director Stanley Donen shot an overhead split-screen sequence showing both stars side-by-side in bed, but with a clearly visible "border" between them.

The car Anna's chauffeur drives is a brand new 1958 Rolls-Royce Silver Wraith, valued at $23,000 at the time (over $209,000 in 2020). Reportedly, Cary Grant purchased the car at the end of filming.

Scrooge, 1951.


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Although this movie is widely regarded as the best version of Charles Dickens' story, it is the only one which omits Ebenezer Scrooge's famous line: "If I could work my will, every idiot who goes about with 'Merry Christmas' on his lips should be boiled in his own pudding and buried with a stake of holly through his heart." Alastair Sim would eventually get a chance to say it, however, when he reprised his role in the animated A Christmas Carol (1971), which also featured Sir Michael Hordern returning as Jacob Marley.

Monty Python and the Holy Grail, 1975.



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A 2021 tweet by Eric Idle revealed that the film was financed by eight investors: Led Zeppelin, Pink Floyd, Jethro Tull's Ian Anderson, Holy Grail co-producer Michael White, Heartaches (a cricket team founded by lyricist Tim Rice), and three record companies including Charisma Records, the record label that released Python's early comedy albums. The investors contributed the entire original budget of £175,350 (about $410,000 in 1974). He added that this group also received a percentage of the proceeds from the 2005 musical Spamalot.

According to Terry Gilliam, the Pythons turned to rock stars like Pink Floyd and Led Zeppelin for finance as the studios refused to fund the film and rock stars saw it as "a good tax write-off" due to the top rate of UK income tax being "as high as 90%" at the time.

quote...



Dingo : You must spank her well, and after you are done with her, you may deal with her as you like... and then... spank me.

All : And me. And me too. And me.

Dingo : Yes. Yes, you must give us all a good spanking.

Dingo : And after the spanking, the oral sex.

Galahad : Well, I could stay a bit longer...

Red, 2010...


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now Red 2, 2013..


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Dark Passage, 1947...



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Warner Brothers studio head Jack L. Warner was not pleased to discover that the face of one of his biggest stars, Humphrey Bogart, is not seen for the first half of the movie. By the time Warner knew this, the film was too far along to be changed.

Not right now, but last night watched "Boys from the Black Stuff" - part 4, Yosser's story. Funny and sad at the same time.

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"I'm desperate father"
"Call me Dan"
"I'm desperate Dan."

This drama was a big deal in the 80s. Currently showing on BBC iPlayer.

Yosser's kids were played by creator Alan Bleasdale's kids. I wonder if any of it affected them.

I remember watching the series when it was first screened. Unless something is done very soon, I fear we are heading towards another depression - yet don't see anything from the current administration or from the competitors for leadership to be encouraged.

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Originally Posted by Pigmy Pony

Not right now, but last night watched "Boys from the Black Stuff" - part 4, Yosser's story. Funny and sad at the same time.

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"I'm desperate father"
"Call me Dan"
"I'm desperate Dan."

This drama was a big deal in the 80s. Currently showing on BBC iPlayer.

Yosser's kids were played by creator Alan Bleasdale's kids. I wonder if any of it affected them.

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I remember watching those when they were brand new. That bit where she headbutts the social worker is classic.

I think Bleasdale was too middle-class to write anything authentic though. The whole series is about how middle class think the working class live and how terrible it must be,. Not much in the way of reality, but still entertaining.

The Long Goodbye, 1973..



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Both Leigh Brackett and Robert Altman have said that Sterling Hayden and Elliot Gould''s dialogue during the drinking scenes was improvised. This was because Hayden was drunk and stoned on marijuana most of the time.

Elliott Gould smokes in every scene.

Marlowe's car was a 1948 Lincoln Continental Cabriolet that belonged to Elliott Gould. In 2013 it was in The National Automobile Museum (The Harrah Collection) in Reno, Nevada, and where it had been repainted yellow.

The Devil and Miss Jones, 1941..



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Originally Posted by Macca

I remember watching those when they were brand new. That bit where she headbutts the social worker is classic.

I think Bleasdale was too middle-class to write anything authentic though. The whole series is about how middle class think the working class live and how terrible it must be,. Not much in the way of reality, but still entertaining.

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So were you not a regular at The Green Man? I thought I saw you drinking there in the last episode :D

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Originally Posted by Pigmy Pony

So were you not a regular at The Green Man? I thought I saw you drinking there in the last episode :D

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shake hands:eyebrows:

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Originally Posted by Pigmy Pony

So were you not a regular at The Green Man? I thought I saw you drinking there in the last episode :D

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No I was too young to get served back then, even in Liverpool. :)

I did occasionally drink in the Aigburth Arms which gets mentioned quite often in 'Red Dwarf'.

Some Like It Hot, 1959...again...lol...well it is a classic



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Originally Posted by struth

Some Like It Hot, 1959...again...lol...well it is a classic



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"Well nobody's perfect". :)

Saturday matinee....Back to the Future, 1985...



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I'm All Right Jack, 1959..


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and now...


The Square Peg, 1958...


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a bit of 'good ol' boy si-fi' now with Tremors, 1990...



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Back to the Future II, 1989.



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The biggest effect the picture employs is a camera system called the VistaGlide. There are four scenes that use the effect of the same actor interacting with themselves. The four scenes that were shot were Griff and 2015 Biff in the Cafe 80's, the dinner sequence in 2015, 1955 Biff talking to 2015 Biff in the garage, and 1955 Doc talking with 1985 Doc. In order to create the dinner sequence with VistaGlide, the camera had to be divided into thirds and Michael had to come in three different times to play his older self, Marty Jr., and his daughter Marlene. This is the first film to accomplish interaction between the same actor on the screen twice as two different characters. If you watch closely, you'll see that 2015 Biff's hand disappears during the scene in the garage.

Independence Day, 1996... 4k bluray..



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(at around 1h 7 mins) The scene in which Will Smith drags the unconscious alien across the desert was filmed on the salt flats near Great Salt Lake in Utah. Smith's line, "And what the hell is that *smell*?" was unscripted. Great Salt Lake is home to tiny crustaceans called brine shrimp. When they die, the bodies sink to the bottom of the lake (which isn't very deep) and decompose. When the wind kicks up just right, the bottom mud is disturbed and the smell of millions of decaying brine shrimp can be very, very bad. Apparently, nobody warned Will.

Holds the record for most miniature model work to appear in one film. Model shop supervisor Michael Joyce estimated that more miniatures were used for this film than in any other two films combined. Due to the advances in digital technology since this film's release, most experts believe this record may stand forever.

Well I was looking forward to watching "Ad Astra" on the Channel 4 last night. The plot is complicated (very complicated for a sci-fi film), so needs to be followed carefully.

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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ad_Astra_(film)

Unfortunately about an hour in to the screening, the signal level dropped and the picture broke up and was either unwatchable or a complete blank screen. (this affected all the independent channels, all the BBC channels were fine). :( I don't know if was due to the weather (with the old analogue system, hot weather could cause co-channel interference with one of the French stations), but I just gave up and played some music instead.