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The Bridge on the River Kwai, 1957. Directed by David Lean.






The elephants employed in helping build the bridge would take breaks every four hours and lie around in the water, whether the crew wanted them to or not.

Screenwriters Michael Wilson and Carl Foreman had been blacklisted in Hollywood after having been accused of having Communist ties at the time that this movie was made, and went uncredited. The sole writing credit, and therefore the Oscar for Best Adapted Screenplay, went to Pierre Boulle, who wrote the original French novel, but did not speak English. Clearly he had not written the English script, and this became a long-running controversy between the Academy and the actual authors to achieve recognition for their work. In 1984, the Academy retroactively awarded the Oscar to Wilson and Foreman. Sadly, Wilson did not live to see this, and Foreman died the day after it was announced. When this movie was restored, their names were added to the credits.

This movie has many elements of truth woven into its fictitious narrative. While prisoners were used as slave laborers to build the railway depicted, the factual commander, Lieutenant Colonel Philip Toosey was the senior officer in this camp and risked his own life many times by deliberately sabotaging the bridge building efforts, completely different from the senior officer in this movie.

While Sir David Lean didn't always get along with everyone in his cast, he was very fond of William Holden. Lean found Holden to be extremely professional. He felt that Holden's considerable talent often went unnoticed, in part because the actor made everything look so effortless. At one point during filming, director Sir David Lean nearly drowned when he was swept away by a river current. Actor Geoffrey Horne saved his life.

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My Favorite Brunette, 1947. Directed by Elliott Nugent.






Bob Hope wanted Bing Crosby's cameo as Harry so much that he paid him $5,000 to appear. The sum was later donated to a charity.

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The Smallest Show on Earth, 1957(AKA Big Time Operators) This is the network bluray and a super remaster it is. Its directed by
Basil Dearden.






The exterior of the Bijou Cinema was a façade built for this movie between two railway bridges on Christchurch Avenue in Kilburn, next to Kilburn Underground station.

The production insurers declined to cover Dame Margaret Rutherford, so all of her scenes were squeezed into seven days.

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One-Eyed Jacks, 1961. Directed by Marlon Brando.





Marlon Brando's first cut of the film was allegedly five hours long. He was reportedly unhappy with the final cut of 141 minutes, despite its box-office success. "Now, it's a good picture for them [Paramount]," he said upon its release, "but it's not the picture I made . . . now the characters in the film are black-and-white, not gray-and-human as I planned them." Marlon Brando printed close to 250,000 feet of film (the average is 150,000). All this while utilizing the Vista-Vision process, which cost fifty cents a foot! In the end, the film, originally budgeted at $1.8 million, wound up with a price tag of $6 million.

Marlon Brando's inexperience behind the camera was obvious on set. He shot six times the amount of footage normally used for a film at the time. He was indecisive and ran over schedule and over budget in getting the film finished. Paramount eventually took the film away from him and re-cut it.

According to Karl Malden, during shooting, Marlon Brando would have "two steaks, potatoes, two apple pies a la mode and a quart of milk" for dinner, necessitating constant altering of his costumes.

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Oliver Twist, 1948. Directed by David Lean.






The wordless opening sequence, in which Oliver's mother staggers over the rain-swept moors to give birth on the steps of the workhouse, was devised by actress Kay Walsh (Nancy, and Lean's wife at time).

John Howard Davies was only eight at the time, and child labor laws prohibited children under the age of thirteen from working in movie studios, but Sir David Lean managed to get around the restriction. Davies recalled that Lean "was unfailingly nice, unfailingly courteous. He used various devices on me. When I felt inhibited about doing something, he would often shoot the rehearsal. He wasn't silly enough not to do the take. But I pretty soon cottoned on to this because my hearing was even better than his, with his large ears, and I could detect the sound of a Mitchell turning over."

Some insurance companies would not even cover Robert Newton(due to his alcoholism), and the J. Arthur Rank Organisation wanted to boycott him, but Sir David Lean persisted, having worked with Newton previously on Major Barbara (1941).

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Blithe Spirit, 1945. David Lean again Directs.





As with most of Noël Coward's work, this movie is renowned for its dialogue. During an argument with Ruth (Constance Cummings), Charles (Sir Rex Harrison) declares, "If you're trying to compile an inventory of my sex life, I feel it only fair to warn you that you've omitted several episodes. I shall consult my diary and give you a complete list after lunch." The line, considered extremely risqué by censors, was deleted from the U.S. release.

Although it received positive critical reviews, this movie was a box-office failure on both sides of the Atlantic, but is now widely regarded as a classic.

Charles' first car is a 1938 Triumph Dolomite roadster coupe. His second, replacement car after the first one was wrecked is a 1935 (Hudson) Terraplane DeLuxe convertible coupe.

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The Devil's Brigade, 1968. Directed by Andrew V. McLaglen.






The Devil's Brigade actually existed; its formal military designation was the First Special Service Force (FSSF), and alternatively known as the "Black Devils". It was indeed a joint American-Canadian unit, was comprised of three regiments of two battalions each, and was envisioned for difficult, cold-weather, mountain-warfare missions. The members were known as "Forcemen". Initially earmarked for Northern Europe, the FSSF was first sent to the Pacific, then to the Italian campaign, before finishing its service in southern France in 1944. During World War II, the brigade suffered casualty rates of 39%. Upon disbandment in 1944, each nations' Forcemen were incorporated into their national armies. Veterans of the Devil's Brigade have been meeting each year since 1945, in Montana, at the former training facility depicted in the movie, although in the movie, filming took place in Utah, as a stand-in for Montana.

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The 1st Special Service Force was an elite American–Canadian commando unit in World War II, under the command of the United States Fifth Army. The unit was organized in 1942 and trained at Fort William Henry Harrison near Helena, Montana in the United States. The Force served in the Aleutian Islands, and fought in Italy, and southern France before being disbanded in December 1944.

The modern American and Canadian special operations forces trace their heritage to this unit. In 2013, the United States Congress passed a bill to award the 1st Special Service Force the Congressional Gold Medal.

[Macca]

The Devil's Brigade, 1968. Directed by Andrew V. McLaglen.






The Devil's Brigade actually existed; its formal military designation was the First Special Service Force (FSSF), and alternatively known as the "Black Devils". It was indeed a joint American-Canadian unit, was comprised of three regiments of two battalions each, and was envisioned for difficult, cold-weather, mountain-warfare missions. The members were known as "Forcemen". Initially earmarked for Northern Europe, the FSSF was first sent to the Pacific, then to the Italian campaign, before finishing its service in southern France in 1944. During World War II, the brigade suffered casualty rates of 39%. Upon disbandment in 1944, each nations' Forcemen were incorporated into their national armies. Veterans of the Devil's Brigade have been meeting each year since 1945, in Montana, at the former training facility depicted in the movie, although in the movie, filming took place in Utah, as a stand-in for Montana.

watchable movie but it deviates a lot from the actual history. If they'd really attacked that hill in broad daylight like they do in the film no-one would have survived.

[struth]

lol, i guess they needed to see the action for cameras. yup its not the greatest film ever by a mile but its enjoyable enough.