Now Screening - What Are You Watching Right Now?

[Macca]

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.

[struth]

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.
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.

[struth]

Change of style now with Carry On Screaming!, 1966.





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.

[struth]

from that to the plain silly... Carry On Up the Jungle, 1970 oumpa, oumpa, stick it up your jumper...





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.

[struth]

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.





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.

[struth]

Creature from the Black Lagoon, 1954. Ingmar Bergman watched this film every year on his birthday.






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!"

[struth]

The Front Page, 1974. Kino Lorber Bluray Reg A.





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.

[struth]

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.




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.

[struth]

Next up, Tobe Hooper's 1986 version of Invaders From Mars.





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.

[struth]

Invasion of the Body Snatchers, 1978. Director Philip Kaufman...





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.