Now Screening - What Are You Watching Right Now?

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Casablanca, 1942.





Exceeding expectations, Casablanca went on to win the Academy Award for Best Picture, while Curtiz was selected as Best Director and the Epsteins and Koch were honored for Best Adapted Screenplay. Its reputation has gradually grown, to the point that its lead characters, memorable lines, and pervasive theme song have all become iconic, and it consistently ranks near the top of lists of the greatest films in history.

Paul Henreid as Victor Laszlo. Henreid, an Austrian actor who had emigrated in 1935, was reluctant to take the role it "set him as a stiff forever", according to Pauline Kael, until he was promised top billing along with Bogart and Bergman. Henreid did not get on well with his fellow actors; he considered Bogart "a mediocre actor"; Bergman called Henreid a "prima donna"

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Predestination, 2014...







The movie is based on Robert A. Heinlein's short story "All You Zombies".

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The Apartment, 1960. bluray remaster...







Billy Wilder wrote the role of "Dr. Dreyfuss" for Lou Jacobi. But the producers of Jacobi's Broadway play wouldn't release him to make the film. So Jack Kruschen played the role and received an Oscar nomination. Wilder made it up to Jacobi by casting him as "Moustache" in Irma la Douce (1963) after the previously announced Charles Laughton died.

According to Fred MacMurray, after the film's release, he was accosted by women in the street who berated him for making a "dirty, filthy movie" and one of them hit him with her purse, because she brought her six-year-old to see it thinking it was a Disney film.

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Wyatt Earp, 1994....






The real Wyatt Earp's 6-shooter was loaned by the Earp museum and used in some scenes during a number of close-ups.

Tombstone (1993) was being filmed at the same time nearby, and bought up most of the period clothing in the region. Clothing had to be imported from Europe, delaying production.

Wyatt Earp is often erroneously regarded as the central figure in the shootout near OK Corral, but his brother Virgil was Tombstone city marshal and deputy U.S. marshal that day, and he had far more experience as a sheriff, constable, marshal, and soldier in combat. Wyatt being the more famous brother originates largely from his own self-promotion.

At the OK Corral no one would have been able to see anyone else as black powder smoke would have obscured any line of sight after Doc Holliday fired the first few rounds with a double barrel shotgun, his favorite weapon (vs. the .45s used in the movie).

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The Seven-Per-Cent Solution, 1976. Bluray remaster....







While the book showed Dr. Sigmund Freud with a daughter, the child he had in real life, the movie showed him with a make-believe son, because Dr. Anna Freud threatened a lawsuit if she was included. Since her father was dead, she had no control over how he was portrayed.

The title of the movie refers to the drug Sherlock Holmes is abusing. He injects himself with a solution of seven percent cocaine and ninety-three percent saline solution.

Ironically, Dr. Sigmund Freud praised the use of cocaine, and often injected himself with the drug many times a day. He even introduced the upper to his best buddy Ernst Fleisci-Marxow with the best intentions. Marxow was a gifted physiologist and also a morphine addict, due to a painful injury he sustained that was only soothed by the opiate. Freud believed cocaine would help him to kick his morphine habit (which was a common belief at the time) but unfortunately it did not aid his friend, but rather added another problem, with which he to deal, and may have been responsible for his early demise.

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).

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Albert R.N., 1953....Lewis Gilbert, Director... (aka Break to Freedom)






Artist and illustrator John Worsley (played by Anthony Steel), who made the model of "Albert" for the film, had performed the same task in the the real P.O.W. camp, where he had been assisted by the film's technical adviser Senior Commissioned Gunner (TAS) Lieut. J.W. Goble.

A fake POW camp was built on Headley Heath for this production.

As the opening credits state: "The events concerning Albert are based on fact, and took place in the prison camp, Marlag "O", for Naval Officers in North West Germany, during the spring of 1944."

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The Final Countdown, 1980. came up in a list of also watch so will. its easier than searching lol






The film was produced with the cooperation of the United States Navy's naval aviation branch and the United States Department of Defense, and as such was as cheerleader and come join navy film really; still its good enough fun. It was set and filmed on board USS Nimitz (CVN-68), filming operations of the modern nuclear warship, which had been launched in the early 1970s. The Final Countdown was a moderate success at the box office.

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Stay in the water with The Cruel Sea, 1953..






Jack Hawkins wrote in his 1973 autobiography "Anything for a Quiet Life" regarding this film, "All of us in the film were sure that we were making something quite unusual, and a long way removed from the Errol Flynn-taking-Burma-single-handed syndrome. This was the period of some very indifferent American war movies, whereas 'The Cruel Sea' contained no false heroics. That is why we all felt that we were making a genuine example of the way in which a group of men went to war."

The most successful film at the UK box office in 1953, as well as a surprise hit in the US. It was widely said at the time that if this film had been a Hollywood production both Jack Hawkins and Donald Sinden would have been nominated for Oscars.

If you look carefully, you will see that the rank insignia on Ericson's (Jack Hawkins') sleeves are in a different "font" from those of the other officers on his ship. This is because Ericson is RNR (Royal Navy Reserve: men who had been discharged from the regular navy but were retained as reservists - and indeed the novel makes it clear that Ericson had served at Jutland before joining the Merchant Navy), whilst the other officers are RNVR (Royal Navy Volunteer Reserve - men who joined after the outbreak of the war)

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Sergio Leone's Once Upon A Time In The West, 1969...






The main selling point to producers for the use of the Techniscope process was the savings in camera negative; but, another advantage was being able to derive the 2.35:1 aspect ratio while shooting with spherical lenses which avoided the distortion created by anamorphics during certain camera moves and extreme close-ups (such as those used by Sergio Leone). This film, together with The Good, the Bad and the Ugly (1966) (also directed by Leone and shot by Tonino Delli Colli) are now considered masterpieces in the use of the Techniscope system.

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The way ahead, 1944