Now Screening - What Are You Watching Right Now?

[Spectral Morn]

Tonight it is the ww2 blockbuster, The Dam Busters (1955) directed by Michael Anderson, who also did The Yangtse Incident and the 1956 version of 1984 starring Edmond O'Brien and Michael Redgrave.
Real Dam Buster developer Barnes Wallis is portrayed by Redgrave coincidentally, and Richard Todd plays Guy Gibson. Todd also played Major John Howard in "The Longest Day". Major Howard led the first action on D Day, the attack and seizure of the bridges over the Orne River and Caen Canal,now known as Pegasus Bridge In reality, Richard Todd, who was a paratroop Captain on D Day, led the first of the main force paratroops sent to relieve the Pegasus Bridge attackers.

This is one of the films that George Lucas used clips from to edit the rough cut of Star Wars: Episode IV - A New Hope (1977) (which utilizes many features of the finale of this film 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 film is reproduced almost verbatim (with the exception of the characters' names) in "Star Wars": Gibson: "How many guns d'you think there are, Trevor?" Trevor: "I'd say there's about 10 guns - some in the field and some in the tower".

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. The backspin placed on the bombs, which was secret at the time, gave them gyroscopic stability when skipping across the water, then held them against the dams as they sank. To conceal the backspin, the bombs in the footage were painted over frame by frame.

The Upper Derwent Valley in Derbyshire (the test area for the real raids) doubled as the Ruhr valley for the film. The scene where the Dutch coast is crossed was filmed between Boston, Lincolnshire and King's Lynn, Norfolk, and other coastal scenes near Skegness. Additional aerial footage was shot above Windermere, in the Lake District.

An Avro Lancaster B.VII modified for the film with cut-out bomb bay and mock bouncing bomb demonstrating to a crowd at Coventry Airport in 1954
While RAF Scampton, where the real raid launched, was used for some scenes, the principal airfield used for ground location shooting was RAF Hemswell, a few miles north and still an operational RAF station at the time of filming.

Leighton Lucas, a Former ballet dancer and had served in the RAF during WW2, did the incidental music for this, and Ice cold in Alex, which coming to a cinema near me. The DamBusters march was done by Eric Coates athough he had composed it before he was asked to do the job, he submitted it and it is now a classic. He turned down the job of doing the whole film, and died 2 years later, so a fine epitaph.Elgar was one of his admirers.

Fabulous film The Dam Busters......

Grant you mention one of my favourite naval war films above which alongside the Bedford Incident is The Yangtse Incident, not well known but a very interesting film based on a true story which tells the tale of a British warship - HMS Amethyst - getting trapped up the Yangtse river in China in 1949, after coming under heavy fire from Chinese PLA (this happened during the Chinese civil war) an attack that damages HMS Amethyst so badly that this results in her running aground. The film documents the attempts to rescue Amethyst both by her crew and other British warships. Nice pacy film, very moving in places, with good action scenes, quality acting and a wonderfully moving soundtrack.

HMS Amethyst plays herself in the film but as she was taken from a state of having been deactivated and in storage her sister-ship - Magpie - plays the moving parts as Amethyst's engines were no longer functional. Richard Todd plays Lieutenant Commander John Kerans who took command of the ship after her Captain had been killed in the initial attack on Amethyst and led the ships survivors into a daring plan to get Amethyst to safety. A great tale of courage under fire, inventiveness and its a movie to make one proud of the Navy.

I saw this movie first as a young teenager and it is just as thrilling and moving a watch now as it was then - I will be watching this later today as I have it on DVD. Channel 4 show the film every so often in the afternoon.

More about the Incident here http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amethyst_Incident

Theme Music



Footage from the film of the initial attack on HMS Amethyst



Actual footage of HMS Amethyst's return to Hong Kong




Regards Neil

[struth]

It is super film. I saw it not all that long ago on telly but forgot to record it as don't have the dvd.hopefully it'll be on again. Liked the way they changed the shape of her to fool the Chinese.

[Spectral Morn]

It is super film. I saw it not all that long ago on telly but forgot to record it as don't have the dvd.hopefully it'll be on again. Liked the way they changed the shape of her to fool the Chinese.

Yes it was on TV not that long ago, maybe 5 months ago.


Regards Neil

[struth]

Tonight I will be watching FARGO (1996) Directed by Joel Coen and Ethan Coen and starring William H. Macy, Frances McDormand, John Carroll Lynch and Steve Buscemi.

Although supposedly set in Fargo, Minnesota, the region was experiencing its second-warmest winter in 100 years. Filming of outdoor scenes had to be moved all over Minnesota, North Dakota, and Canada.
William H. Macy begged the directors for the role of Jerry Lundegaard. He did two readings for the part, and became convinced he was the best man for the role. When the Coens didn't get back to him, he flew to New York (where they were starting production) and said, "I'm very, very worried that you are going to screw up this movie by giving this role to somebody else. It's my role, and I'll shoot your dogs if you don't give it to me." He was joking, of course.(or was he?)

The film is not actually "Based on a true story". Joel Coen & Ethan Coen later admitted that they added that disclaimer so the viewer would be more willing to suspend disbelief in the story. (An urban legend even says that people have gone to search Minnesota for the briefcase of money, and come to a bad end.)
While the specific crimes in the movie didn't happen, the plot has elements of two well-known Minnesota crimes. In 1962, a St. Paul attorney named Eugene Thompson hired someone to kill his wife Carol. Unbeknownst to Thompson, his man hired someone else to do the job. The second man fatally wounded Mrs Thompson in her house, but she managed to escape him. She went to a neighbour's house for help while her assailant fled the scene. The sloppiness and brutality of the crime attracted great attention. The murderers were quickly caught and gave up Thompson, who denied knowing anything about the crime for many years afterwards.
In 1972, Virginia Piper, the wife of a wealthy banker, was kidnapped. A million-dollar ransom was paid, one of the largest in U.S. history. Mrs Piper was found tied to a tree in a state park. Two men were convicted of the crime, but were acquitted after a re-trial. One of them later went on a shooting spree after his wife left him, killing her, their 5-year-old son, her son from a previous marriage, her new boyfriend, and one of his sons. Only $4,000 of the money was ever recovered.

Despite hints to the contrary at the time of the film's release and in the closing credits, Prince does not play the Victim in the Field; this is J. Todd Anderson, who was actually a storyboard artist on the film. This was yet another Coen Brothers in-joke, since Prince was a famous native of Minneapolis, Minnesota. To further muddle matters, this moment in the film was memorialised in a "Snow-Globe" promotion included with a special edition version of the DVD, subtly hinting that the dead victim in the snow was a famous cameo.

Got to hand it to the Coens', they are masters of hype and sweary words....Fuck" and its derivatives are said 75 times, mostly by Carl Showalter. He says 10 of these during the scene where Steve Buscemi shoots Harve Presnell. I've said it now

[Barry]

A super film, along with much of the output of the Brothers Coen. (We'll quickly side-step and overlook the awful remake of The Ladykillers)

One of my favourites, along with The Big Labowski.

[struth]

A super film, along with much of the output of the Brothers Coen. (We'll quickly side-step and overlook the awful remake of The Ladykillers)

One of my favourites, along with The Big Labowski.

Its a good film. I also like Miller's Crossing. TBL I never got into for some reason, and although not seen their Ladykillers in full but what i saw was pretty awful.


Now watching The Long Arm with Jack Hawkins which was on telly recently

[Roy S]

[struth]

Ha. Gave that to the wife to watch tonight and she didn't like it...oh! Shes now watching open all hours

[struth]

Watching an old Steptoe and Son on telly, with Youtha Joyce as Harold,s love interest

[Andrei]

Watching an old Steptoe and Son on telly, with Youtha Joyce as Harold,s love interest

Grant! you take me back - steptoe! Sneezing on steak and then buying it at a reduced price 'cause it had been sneezed on! I love that man!!

(oops, steptoe wasn't a rellie of yours was he?)