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Everyone loved Stella Stevens. I think every bloke on the planet fancied her.

woof

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Air America, 1990.





The sequence where Robert Downey, Jr. is seen hanging from a rope flying across the skies above Thailand, including a Buddhist temple, was done for real, with Downey performing the stunt himself after director Roger Spottiswoode had rejected doing it using such alternative techniques as blue screen or back projection.

In the Special Edition DVD "Making of" documentary, there is a discussion as to how much of Air America's plot is true and how much is false. Some of the real-life pilots interviewed claim that Air America did smuggle guns and drugs for the CIA, while others deny it, saying that the service only shipped food, medicine, and supplies. However, a historian in the documentary asserts that only certain pilots were involved in the illegal activities. The characters of Gene and Billy are a perfect example of this. Gene, who is a bit crazy, cynical, and shady, has no problem getting involved in the illegal smuggling, so he, and pilots like him, would have been used for the real-life illegal smuggling. Whereas Billy, who is young, honest, and idealistic, would be used only for the straight supply drops, and would not be trusted for such illegal activities.

Some of the stunt fliers declined to perform some of the more difficult and dangerous flying stunts. They used veteran stunt fliers, aged around sixty, to perform some more of the more difficult and dangerous flying stunts seen in the film.

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Me, Myself & Irene, 2000. directed by the Farrelly brothers.





The scene where Renée Zellweger kicks Jim Carrey over the railing and down the hill was done by Jim Carrey (instead of a stunt double) after many pleadings. He did a few takes, but they used the first one. A mattress was used for him to pop back into frame.
In the breast-feeding scene, Jim Carrey suckled on Shannon Whirry's real breast which had milk in them. He was so humiliated that he had to clear the set as well as apologized to her before each take.

Jim Carrey ad-libbed the moment when he asks his sons to kiss him before he leaves. One of them looks obviously surprised.

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M*A*S*H, 1970. directed by Robert Altman.






The fourteen-year-old son of director Robert Altman, Mike, wrote the lyrics to the theme song "Suicide is Painless". Because of its inclusion in the subsequent television series, he continued to get residuals throughout its run and syndication. His father was paid $75,000 for directing, but his son eventually made about $2 million in song royalties, with payments continuing, from first syndication through the present day/2020, as M*A*S*H (1972) continues in syndication around the world.

Tom Skerritt recalled that the dialogue was about 80% improvised. In order to create a different kind of atmosphere, Robert Altman cast some of the parts from improvisational clubs who had no previous movie or TV experience.

The first take of the shot where Hot Lips is revealed in the shower didn't work because Sally Kellerman anticipated the reveal, and was already lying on the floor when the tent flap went up. To distract her, Robert Altman and Gary Burghoff entered the shower tent and dropped their trousers while the shot was rolling outside. While Kellerman was staring at them, the tent flap was raised, resulting in her genuine surprise and shock when she realized what had happened. In the Special Edition double disc DVD, they say that Radar (portrayed by Gary Burghoff) had been standing naked beside the camera, and that's the reason why Sally Kellerman looks so surprised when the flap was raised.

During the opening titles, when the soldier carrying a wounded soldier on a stretcher trips and falls down, it had not been scripted by Ring Lardner Jr.. It was actually an accident by the actor who tripped over something. Robert Altman decided that instead of editing it out, to use it to foreshadow the dark humor theme as the movie's first small, but real, laugh.

When studio executives first saw the dailies, they complained to Robert Altman that the soldiers looked dirty compared to the soldiers in Tora! Tora! Tora! (1970) and Patton (1970). Altman, a veteran of World War II, replied that soldiers in war are dirty. The next day, the executives told the producers of those two films to make their soldiers look dirtier.

Roger Bowen (who portrayed Lieutenant Colonel Henry Blake in the movie) died on February 16, 1996. McLean Stevenson, who portrayed the role of Lieutenant Colonel Henry Blake on M*A*S*H (1972) for the first three seasons, died on February 15, 1996.

According to Robert Altman, Ring Lardner Jr. was very upset with the liberties taken with his script. Lardner later won an Academy Award for his screenplay. Lardner allegedly told Elliott Gould, "There's not a word that I wrote on screen." Screenwriter Ring Lardner Jr. was the only Academy Award winner out of the movie's five nominations. Before winning the award, Lardner had practically disowned the movie when he saw that very little of his original script made it into the final cut.

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Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country, 1991. directed by Nicholas Meyer.





Frankie and Johnny (1991) was being filmed in the same studio, and required Al Pacino to have a surprised expression on his face after opening a door. Director Garry Marshall arranged for Kirk (William Shatner) and Spock (Leonard Nimoy) be on the other side of the door that Pacino opened.

Nicholas Meyer met with Gene Roddenberry following a rough cut screening, to fulfill Roddenberry's role as creative consultant. Roddenberry, who was in failing health at the time, was bound to a wheelchair, and had to be hooked up to an oxygen tank. Despite his frailty, Roddenberry demanded certain cuts to the film and, according to Meyer, engaged him in a heated argument. Roddenberry died several days after the meeting, and Meyer has expressed deep regret over his behavior in the meeting, not realizing just how sick Roddenberry really was at the time.

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The Terminator, 1984. Directed by James Cameron.







Arnold Schwarzenegger worked with guns every day for a month to prepare for the role. The first two weeks of filming he practiced weapons stripping and reassembly blindfolded until the motions were automatic, like a machine. He spent hours at the shooting range and practicing with different weapons without blinking or looking at them when reloading or cocking. He also had to be ambidextrous. He practiced different moves up to 50 times. He wound up garnering a compliment in "Soldier of Fortune" magazine for his realistic handling of the guns on camera (whereas the magazine usually lampoons movies for their inaccurate depictions of weapons use).

While shooting this film, James Cameron often resorted to what he called "guerilla filmmaking" as a way of getting around acquiring permits needed to film certain scenes. This involved the production crew and actors quickly arriving at a specified location, shooting the scene and leaving before the police arrived. As a result, some of the people seen in a few shots are actual everyday citizens completely unaware they're in a movie. This was also used for re shoots with Cameron even calling and waking Arnold Schwarzenegger once at 3am to meet him at a location already in full costume to quickly re-shoot a scene. Cameron also used this tactic to film the very last scene where Sarah drives off into the desert. This almost backfired, however, when the police came sniffing around.

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a bit lighter now with The Devil and Miss Jones, 1941. Directed by Sam Wood.






Careful inspection of the interior set of Merrick's mansion reveals it to be the Xanadu set of the recently shot RKO picture 'Citizen Kane'. The fireplace behind the Merrick's desk with its unique herring-bone brick pattern is the tip-off.

The wine which John Merrick/Tom Higgins takes to the beach is a 1903 Romanée-Conti which has been called "one of the greatest wines of the world and the most perfect as well as the most expensive of Burgundy". The wine has been highly regarded for centuries. However, it's unlikely that the 1903 vintage yielded only 24 bottles, although Europe recorded particularly chilly weather that year.

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3 Days Of The Condor, 1975. Directed by Sydney Pollack.






In her biography "Looking for Gatsby", Faye Dunaway says of this film: "Now I'm sorry but the idea of being kidnapped and ravaged by Robert Redford was anything but frightening. [At one point, after Redford temporarily left the set and director Pollack took over his role for Dunaway's reaction shots] the cameras were rolling, I was in position, and suddenly Sydney lunged at me, growling 'I AM GOING TO GET YOU!'. I'm tied up at this point, unable to get away or move much at all, but Sydney kept moving toward me, his eyes glaring at me as he went on detailing all the horrible things he was going to do to me, and let me tell you, Sydney has an inventive mind. He is also a great actor, and he scared the hell out of me. Sydney kept the camera rolling and he was relentless".

The van sent to the murder scene once the CIA acts to cover up the murders is labeled "Augean Cleaning Service." This is a reference to one of the Twelve Labors of Hercules, where he was required to clean the stables in which King Augeas kept 3000 oxen, and which had not been cleaned for 30 years, in one day. Hercules did this by diverting the river Alpheus through the stables.

[walpurgis]

3 Days Of The Condor, 1975

Great movie!

[struth]

Zulu, 1964. Directed by Cy Endfield.





Director Cy Endfield wanted a camera crane that was lightweight when disassembled, so it could be packed and transported through the African bush. Ken Eddy designed the first Filmair Giraffe camera crane for the job, starting the world's best-known camera crane company. This key piece of gear is still used in the film industry.

One of this movie's technical advisors was a Zulu Princess, and the tribe's historian. She knew the battle strategy perfectly, and drew it on the sand. Director Cy Endfield shot it exactly as she drew it. Many Zulu extras laughed at Michael Caine because of his long blond hair. Their nickname for him was "Lady" in Zulu. The technical advisor, a Zulu princess and historian, told the extras to stop right away. They did

During the performance of his one-man show, Michael Caine said he auditioned for Lieutenant Bromhead, but was rejected. A few months later, he was at a cocktail party that Joseph E. Levine was also attending. Levine asked Caine if he still wanted the part. Caine reminded him that his audition was considered "terrible". Levine replied that the original actor was very ill, and the crew was leaving for South Africa the next morning. Caine shook Levine's hand, left the party, and went home to pack his bags.

After the battle, British troops finished off the wounded Zulu warriors with bayonets and gunfire.