Now Screening - What Are You Watching Right Now?

[struth]

Tom Selleck as Quigley Down Under, 1990. Co stars Alan Rickman and Laura San Giacomo.






In the scene where Quigley demonstrates the rifle, he mentions that the bullet is paper patched, which might sound like some Hollywood mumbo jumbo. However, it's an actual technique common in the mid- to late-1800's to maximize accuracy/ precision. A thin layer of paper is placed around the bullet which is then used by the barrel rifling to spin the bullet fast enough to stabilize it during flight.

Sharps Rifles are now so inseparably related to this film that they are commonly nicknamed "Quigley guns." Sales for such weapons increased by over 1000% following the film's release, especially in the United States and Australia, and continue through 2013.

Matthew Quigley's gun is a replica model 1874 Sharps Buffalo Rifle, built by Shiloh Rifles of Montana. They are chambered in .45-110, which is a .45 caliber bullet propelled by 110 grains of black powder. This round was the most accurate and powerful in the world until the advent of smokeless gunpowders.

[struth]

Rambo, First Blood.






When Rambo is racing down the pavement on the motorcycle, shouting "get out of the way" to terrified pedestrians, his mouth indicates he is shouting "fucking move it".

Sylvester Stallone hated the first cut of the film so much that he tried to buy the film back and destroy it. When he couldn't do that, he suggested that the producers cut much of his part and let the rest of the characters tell the story. That cut the movie time in half and set a precedent for future action movies.

During a Q&A with "Ain't It Cool News", Sylvester Stallone revealed the following: "I was doing the scene in FIRST BLOOD where I'm in the cell being whipped in the lower back with a piece of rubber hose. David Caruso was standing directly behind me. After every hit with the hose, David's character was suppose to exclaim, 'Jesus, can't you see this guy's crazy?' and then I get hit again. We had about four takes and David had repeated the line perfectly on each take, yet the director said, 'Let's try it again.' At this point, my back was on fire and I turned to the director and said, 'How many more times are you going to do this? The kid said it perfectly.' And the director basically said, 'Just shut up and do it again.' As he came forward, I pushed him back and the next thing I knew I was tackled by a pair of security men and driven against the cell wall, which in turn cracked my rib. Anyway, after several moments, everything cooled down, we all apologized and marched on."

[Pigmy Pony]

Tom Selleck as Quigley Down Under, 1990. Co stars Alan Rickman and Laura San Giacomo.






In the scene where Quigley demonstrates the rifle, he mentions that the bullet is paper patched, which might sound like some Hollywood mumbo jumbo. However, it's an actual technique common in the mid- to late-1800's to maximize accuracy/ precision. A thin layer of paper is placed around the bullet which is then used by the barrel rifling to spin the bullet fast enough to stabilize it during flight.

Sharps Rifles are now so inseparably related to this film that they are commonly nicknamed "Quigley guns." Sales for such weapons increased by over 1000% following the film's release, especially in the United States and Australia, and continue through 2013.

Matthew Quigley's gun is a replica model 1874 Sharps Buffalo Rifle, built by Shiloh Rifles of Montana. They are chambered in .45-110, which is a .45 caliber bullet propelled by 110 grains of black powder. This round was the most accurate and powerful in the world until the advent of smokeless gunpowders.

Very interesting trivia as usual, Grant

If this is the film I'm thinking of, there was a scene where Quigley managed to shoot two of the 'baddies' with one bullet. Which I thought was pretty cool. Another film for me to seek out.

[Barry]

And now for something different:

Romantics Anonymous



https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Romantics_Anonymous

Released 2011

[struth]

True Grit, 1969. John Wayne, Glen Campbell and Kim Darby star along with a suprb co star lineup.






Stunt double Jim Burk performed the entire scene where Rooster Cogburn charged Ned Pepper's gang on horseback. John Wayne was only seen briefly in close-up, and he was riding on a trailer, not a horse.

Glen Campbell later said, "I'd never acted in a movie before, and every time I see 'True Grit', I think my record's still clean!" Henry Hathaway later said he hated Glen Campbell's performance, which he described as wooden, and claimed the singer was only cast so he could have a hit with the theme song which would help promote the film.

In this and other John Wayne westerns, he wears his gun low and to the rear. He also carries one long bullet in the center back of his ammunition belt.

A few other things come to mind... Wayne wanted his daughter to be cast as maddie Ross, but Hathaway wouldn't have it, thus wayne wouldn't speak to Darby outwith the film making. Darby tho had nothing but good words for Wayne, although disliked Hathaway with a vengence. Wayne was always inclined to be a bit childish in things like that alas.

[struth]

9 to 5, 1980.... stars Dabney Coleman, Jane Fonda, Lily Tomlin, and Dolly Parton ......





This was Dolly Parton's theatrical film debut. In preparation for her role as Doralee Rhodes, she not only committed to memory her own part, but the parts of every other role in the film. Apparently, the two experienced starring actresses, Lily Tomlin and Jane Fonda, burst out laughing when Parton let on that she believed that pictures were filmed in the chronological order of a film's script.

[struth]

Cat Ballou, 1965. Jane Fonda again, and Lee Marvin star..





At his acceptance of the Oscar, Lee Marvin opened by saying, "Half of this probably belongs to a horse out in the Valley somewhere".

Even though everyone knew that they were making at least a good film, no one had any idea that they were making a classic. Jane Fonda recalled - "I have to admit, it wasn't until I saw the final cut of Cat Ballou that I realized we had a hit on our hands. I hadn't been around when they filmed Lee's horse, leaning cross-legged up against the barn in what's become a classic image, or when Lee tries to shoot the side of the barn."

[struth]

Paint Your Wagon, 1969. Marvin again this time with Clint Eastwood and Jean Seberg.





Lee Marvin drank real alcohol throughout the production, even though director Joshua Logan fought him about it. In most movies, the actors and actresses drink tea for whiskey and water for vodka. Marvin would only work if he got real liquor. Lee Marvin was apparently drunk nearly every day of filming.

Jean Seberg's singing voice was dubbed by Anita Gordon. Clint Eastwood and Lee Marvin did their own singing. Marvin's recording of the song "Wanderin' Star" went to number one on the U.K. charts, earning him a gold record.

Lee Marvin and director Joshua Logan became fast friends, and he developed a genuine fondness for Logan's two teenaged children. Logan was amazed at the contrasts in Marvin's character. Raised as a Southern gentleman, he always tipped his hat for ladies and referred to older men as "sir". But he also started drinking beer the moment he arrived on the set. If his drinking ruined a shot one day, he more than made up for it the next with a letter perfect performance. A few weeks after this movie came out, a New York City gossip columnist printed a story about Logan and Marvin having an on-set fight which climaxed with Marvin using Logan's boots "like a dog uses a fire hydrant." When Logan's children pointed out the article, he set the story straight with a letter stating, "Lee Marvin is a very close friend of mine and we will stay friends for many years to come. It is true that we have had a few mild discussions, never any violent ones. Lee Marvin is a great Southern gentleman. Therefore, when he is sober, it is absolutely impossible for him to have done such a thing, and when he is drunk, which he is once in a while I must admit, he is really drunk. He staggers and careens in such a way that he wouldn't have the aim."

Clint Eastwood and Jean Seberg had an affair during filming in Baker County, Oregon. Jerry Pam, a publicist for both actors at the time, told Seberg biographer David Richards in 1981: "Once they got back to Paramount, it was as if Clint didn't know who she was. Jean couldn't believe that he could be that indifferent to her, after everything that had gone on in Baker. She was a very vulnerable woman, and it was a terrible trauma for her." At the same time, Eastwood was having yet another affair with one of the extras. Speaking on condition of anonymity, the said extra told Seberg biographer Garry McGee in 2008: "We had an affair for two years. Since I was involved with Clint at the time, he pulled a few strings and got me work on the film." When asked if Seberg knew about Eastwood's other involvement, the woman said, "No. She had no idea."

[struth]

The Lady Vanishes, 1938. The Criterion Collection.(Hitchcock) Superb remastered film this. Hard to believe at times its from the 30's, although there are occasional issues.





In an interview with Peter Bogdanovich, Alfred Hitchcock revealed that this movie was inspired by a legend of an Englishwoman who went with her daughter to the Palace Hotel in Paris in the 1880s, at the time of the Great Exposition: "The woman was taken sick and they sent the girl across Paris to get some medicine in a horse-vehicle, so it took about four hours. When she came back she asked, 'How's my mother?' 'What mother?' 'My mother. She's here, she's in her room. Room 22.' They go up there. Different room, different wallpaper, everything. And the payoff of the whole story is, so the legend goes, that the woman had bubonic plague and they dared not let anybody know she died, otherwise all of Paris would have emptied." The urban legend, known as the Vanishing Hotel Room, also formed the basis of one segment of the German portmanteau movie Eerie Tales (1919), So Long at the Fair (1950) (in which the missing person was the young woman's brother as opposed to her mother) and Alfred Hitchcock Presents (1955) season one, episode five, "Into Thin Air", starring Hitchcock's daughter Patricia Hitchcock.

interesting article here...

https://www.reddit.com/r/UnresolvedM..._urban_legend/

[struth]

John Ford's Stagecoach, 1939, starring John Wayne .....







Stuntman Yakima Canutt explained how the stunt was accomplished where, as an Apache warrior attacking the stagecoach, he is "shot", falls off his horse, and then gets dragged underneath the stagecoach: "You have to run the horses fast, so they'll run straight. If they run slow, they move around a lot. When you turn loose to go under the coach, you've got to bring your arms over your chest and stomach. You've got to hold your elbows close to your body, or that front axle will knock them off." After the stunt was completed, Canutt ran to director John Ford to make sure they got the stunt on film. Ford replied that even if they hadn't, "I'll never shoot that again."
While working on Mascot serials, Canutt practiced and perfected his most famous stunts, including the drop from a stagecoach that he would employ in John Ford's 1939 Stagecoach. That famous stunt in Stagecoach was filmed on Lucerne Dry Lake, north of Lucerne Valley, California. He first did it in Riders of the Dawn in 1937 while doubling for Jack Randall. In his 1981 film Raiders of the Lost Ark, Steven Spielberg paid homage to Canutt, recreating the stunt when stuntman Terry Leonard (doubling for Harrison Ford) 'dropped' from the front of a German transport truck, was dragged underneath (along a prepared trench) and then climbed up the back and round to the front again.
Yakima in John Ford's Stagecoach doing the "drop" part of his most famous stunt
John Wayne

While at Mascot, Canutt met John Wayne while doubling for him in a motorcycle stunt for The Shadow of the Eagle in 1932. Wayne admired Canutt's agility and fearlessness, and Canutt respected Wayne's willingness to learn and attempt his own stunts. Canutt taught Wayne how to fall off a horse.

The two worked together to create a technique that made on-screen fight scenes more realistic. Wayne and Canutt found if they stood at a certain angle in front of the camera, they could throw a punch at an actor's face and make it look as if actual contact had been made.

Canutt and Wayne pioneered stunt and screen fighting techniques still in use. Much of Wayne's on-screen persona was copied from Canutt. The characterizations associated with Wayne - the drawling, hesitant speech and the hip-rolling walk - were pure Canutt. Said Wayne, "I spent weeks studying the way Yakima Canutt walked and talked. He was a real cowhand." In 1934 the two appeared together in the western Randy Rides Alone in which Wayne starred and Canutt appeared as "henchman Spike."