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[struth]

The Big Sleep, 1946.. Director Howard Hawks... One of the great films....





Due to Humphrey Bogart's affair with co-star Lauren Bacall, his marital problems escalated during filming, and his drinking often resulted in his being unable to work. Three months after the film was finished, Bacall and Bogart were married.

Raymond Chandler claimed that Martha Vickers gave such an intense performance as Carmen Sternwood that she completely overshadowed Lauren Bacall, and that much of Vickers' performance ended up on the cutting room floor as a result.

Rumors that Andy Williams dubbed Lauren Bacall's singing voice are untrue. Both director Howard Hawks and Bacall confirm that she did her own singing. The same rumors persist regarding her singing voice in To Have and Have Not (1944), and are equally untrue.

According to Lauren Bacall, production was such fun that they got a memo from Jack L. Warner saying "Word has reached me that you are having fun on the set. This must stop."

[struth]

The African Queen, 1951.







According to Katharine Hepburn's autobiography, John Huston initially found her performance too rigid. One day, he visited her hut and suggested that she model her performance on Eleanor Roosevelt, saying that Mrs. Roosevelt was not a comely woman by any means but whenever she was in public she carried herself well and had a beaming smile. She made do extremely well with what she had. After Huston left, Hepburn sat for a moment before deciding, "That is the best piece of direction I have ever heard."

The boat used as "The African Queen" was built in England in 1912 and used by the British East Africa Company from 1912-68 to shuttle passengers and cargo across Lake Albert (on the border between Uganda and Belgian Congo). It is now located in Key Largo, FL.

With only two days left to go on the shoot, everyone was on edge and ready to go home. When John Huston announced that he would need three additional days to film, there was a near mutiny. Humphrey Bogart was furious and so was the crew. Huston tried to appease everyone with a rousing "team spirit" speech, which was met with frustration. The cast and crew agreed to stay longer, but they believed that the schedule could be speeded up if they all pulled together. They decided on the last Friday to record all of the sound over Saturday and Sunday, while all props and electrical equipment could be shipped out Sunday night. Only the camera, a few crew members, and Bogart, Katharine Hepburn and Huston would remain until the very end. The last location shots were completed by noon on Monday, with everyone going straight to the airport. Bogart was elated to be out of there.

[Alex_UK]

I was going to say that the boat is now in The Florida Keys, but you beat me to it - seen the boat, but not the film!

[struth]

I was going to say that the boat is now in The Florida Keys, but you beat me to it - seen the boat, but not the film!

surprised youve not watched it alex. good film

[struth]

Shooter, 2007.






According to the movie's script doctor William Goldman, Clint Eastwood, Robert Redford, and Harrison Ford passed on the movie. These men would have fit the literary Bob Lee Swagger's age a bit more closely than Mark Wahlberg (born in 1971). Author Stephen Hunter introduced Swagger as a Vietnam veteran in a 1993 novel, taking place in 1992. However, to accommodate Wahlberg's age, this film has Swagger active in Africa in the 1990s, instead of Vietnam in the 1970s.

The dog featured in the film as Bob Lee Swagger's companion was trained by owner Drew Thompson. The dog's real name is Logan. He is a Bernese Mountain and English Mastiff X. Drew states that "he is easily the smartest dog I have ever trained".

[struth]

Waterloo Road, 1945.. Director Sidney Gilliat..






The film was originally known as Blue for Waterloo.

Stewart Granger later said the film was one of his favourites as his role "was a heel, but a real character". He says the film was made in ten days while he was also making Love Story. He was particularly proud of the fight scene with John Mills.

Sidney Gilliat says he was taken off the film before it was finished. Production was stopped and there were still some exteriors to be shot. Ted Black had gone and the Ostrers put the film at the end of the dubbing schedule. However, Earl St John who was in charge of Odeon cinemas liked the film and got the dubbing done.

Gilliat says the idea of using Alastair Sim's character as a commentator was his, though based on the original Val Valentine story. However, he thought the device "proved a bit of a mess"

[struth]

The Last of the Mohicans, 1992.

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The Sea Shall Not Have Them, 1954.





The billboard outside the Odeon cinema, Leicester Square, said: "Michael Redgrave and Dirk Bogarde in The Sea Shall Not Have Them". Passing by, Nöel Coward said, "I don't see why not. Everyone else has."

The title refers to the motto of the R.A.F.'s Directorate of Air Sea Rescue, which was created on February 6, 1941, and later became known as the "R.A.F. Search and Rescue Force".

[struth]

The Lavender Hill Mob, 1951.






Audrey Hepburn (Chiquita) was considered for a larger role in this movie, but stage work made her unavailable. Sir Alec Guinness was impressed with the young actress and arranged for her to appear in a bit part. This is considered to be Hepburn's first appearance in a major movie.



Ealing Studios, planning a bank robbery movie, asked the Bank of England to devise a way in which a million pounds sterling could be stolen from the bank. A special committee was created to come up with an idea, and their plan is the one used in this movie.

[struth]

Oliver Twist, 1948. Director David Lean..






This movie's release in the U.S. was delayed until 1951 because of protests from Jewish pressure groups, who judged Sir Alec Guinness' portrayal of Fagin to be anti-Semitic.
Banned on inital release in Israel and Egypt; in Israel for Fagan being anti-Semitic, and in Egypt for making Fagin too sympathetic. (catch 22 I guess)
Producer David O. Selznick violently accosted Sir Alec Guinness at a Hollywood party over his portrayal of Fagin.

John Howard Davies was only eight at the time, and child labor laws prohibited children under the age of thirteen from working in movie studios, but Sir David Lean managed to get around the restriction. Davies recalled that Lean "was unfailingly nice, unfailingly courteous. He used various devices on me. When I felt inhibited about doing something, he would often shoot the rehearsal. He wasn't silly enough not to do the take. But I pretty soon cottoned on to this because my hearing was even better than his, with his large ears, and I could detect the sound of a Mitchell turning over."

Cinematographer Guy Green also noted that the art direction presented some problems. "(Production designer) John Bryan made it bloody difficult, too, although his sets were wonderful to photograph. He had Francis L. Sullivan as the Beadle going along a tunnel, and it was impossible to light it. So I gave Sullivan a lamp to carry with a light inside it which shone out into the tunnel, and that was it. Oliver was about grim, dirty interiors, and I used a lot of diffused light, something which has become fashionable now with color. I tried to get the effect of light coming through small dirty windows, and it had a kind of richness of its own."