Now Screening - What Are You Watching Right Now?

[struth]

A bit of light banter now

Shaun Of The Dead, 2004. Nick Frost and Simon Pegg star.



better than its budget should have allowed. its quite fun and i have this online and on bluray

[struth]

Friday Matinee is The Sting, 1973. Paul Newman and Robert Redford star. Directed by George Roy Hill



This is the Universal 100th anniversary bluray edition.

This was a huge hit both financially and critically, winning 7 oscars and taking about $160m from a $5m budget

[struth]

Key Largo, 1948.. stars Humphrey Bogart, Edward G. Robinson and Lauren Bacall.



A high point of the film comes when Robinson's alcoholic former moll Gaye Dawn (Claire Trevor) is forced to sing a song a cappella before he will allow her to have a drink. Trevor was nervous about the scene and assumed that she would be lip-syncing to someone else's voice. She kept after director Huston to rehearse the song, but he put her off and said "there's plenty of time". One afternoon, he told her that they would shoot the scene right then, without any rehearsal. She was given her starting note from a piano, and then sang in front of the rest of the cast and the crew. It was this raw take that was used in the film. The song was "Moanin' Low", composed by Ralph Rainger with lyrics by Howard Dietz, introduced on Broadway in the 1929 revue The Little Show by Libby Holman. It became a hit and was Holman's signature song.

Author Philip Furia, whose books focus on the lyricists of the Tin Pan Alley era, writes that the song is about a woman who is trapped in a relationship with a cruel man, and Gaye slowly realizes as she is singing that she is in that very situation herself. He suggests that Trevor's performance in the role slowly breaks down during the song; "her voice falters and she sings off key." After the song, Bogart pours her a drink, saying "you deserve this". "It's a wonderful use of a song in a non-musical picture," according to Furia. He also suggests that Trevor won the Academy Award "based purely, I think, on that performance."

[walpurgis]

Key Largo, 1948

Good stuff!

[Macca]

One of my all-time favourites, don't know how many times I've seen it, but it's a lot. A perfect film.

[struth]

Yeah it's quality, edgy stuff right through.

[struth]

First Men in the Moon, 1964. Produced by Charles H. Schneer, and directed by Nathan Juran. Stars Edward Judd, Martha Hyer and Lionel Jeffries. Animations by Ray Harryhausen ....




Producer Schneer says that when the real Moon landing happened, NASA "had no footage showing the space capsule separating from the 'mother ship' and landing on the Moon's surface. All they had were shots of Neil Armstrong walking around." NASA went to Columbia Pictures and used the opening sequence of First Men on the Moon. "They used those portions of it which were applicable to their needs," said the producer.

The spacesuit type worn by the UN Astronauts in the film is actually the Windak high-altitude pressure suit, developed for the Royal Air Force, each fitted with a 1960s-type aqualung cylinder worn as a backpack.

[walpurgis]

First Men in the Moon, 1964. Produced by Charles H. Schneer, and directed by Nathan Juran. Stars Edward Judd, Martha Hyer and Lionel Jeffries. Animations by Ray Harryhausen ...

I've seen it, didn't think it was particularly wonderful. Edward Judd was always a bit of an 'also ran'. (I bet Michael Ripper was in it somewhere and probably Sam Kydd too )

[struth]

I've seen it, didn't think it was particularly wonderful. Edward Judd was always a bit of an 'also ran'. (I bet Michael Ripper was in it somewhere and probably Sam Kydd too )

no, but Miles Malleson puts in an appearance

Its more interesting than great

[walpurgis]

Miles Malleson puts in an appearancet

He was in loads of films, many good ones. Cast as a judge a few times I recall.