Now Screening - What Are You Watching Right Now?

[struth]

Heaven Knows, Mr. Allison, 1957. Directed by John Huston.






When filming began, Robert Mitchum worried that Deborah Kerr would be like the prim characters she frequently played. However, after she swore at director John Huston during one take, Mitchum, who was in the water, almost drowned laughing. The two stars went on to have an enduring friendship which lasted until Mitchum's death in 1997.

The script called for several Japanese-speaking officers and a company of Japanese troops to be on the island. There were no Japanese men on the islands of Trinidad and Tobago, where the film was shot. A half-dozen who spoke the language were finally found in a Japanese emigrant community in Brazil and flown to the location to play the officers. For the non-speaking roles of Japanese troops, the company hired 50 Chinese who worked in the island's restaurants and laundries. This caused friction with the local islanders, who found it difficult if not impossible to get their clothes cleaned or to get a meal in a restaurant because most of the employees were working on the film.

The knife used by Cpl. Allison is a Ka-Bar. It is standard issue for the US Marines since 1942.

[struth]

Hope And Glory, 1987. Directed by John Boorman.
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A 650 feet long suburban street set with seventeen semi-detached houses was constructed for this movie. Apparently, at the time at least, it was the largest set built in the UK for twenty-five years.

[struth]

a touch of pirating now... Dead Man's Chest, 2006.

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Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End, 2007.

[struth]

A bit of classic humour now with.... Some Like It Hot, 1959. Directed by Billy Wilder.







Jack Lemmon wrote that the first sneak preview had a bad reaction with many audience walkouts. Many studio personnel and agents offered advice to Billy Wilder on what scenes to reshoot, add and cut. Lemmon asked Wilder what he was going to do. Wilder responded: "Why, nothing. This is a very funny movie and I believe in it just as it is. Maybe this is the wrong neighborhood in which to have shown it. At any rate, I don't panic over one preview. It's a hell of a movie." Wilder held the next preview in the Westwood section of Los Angeles, and the audience stood up and cheered.

Years after the film's release, a movie reviewer asked Tony Curtis why his "Josephine" was so much more feminine than Jack Lemmon's "Daphne." Curtis explained he was so scared to be playing a woman (or a man pretending to be one) that his tightly wound body language could be read as demure and shy, traditionally feminine traits, whereas Lemmon, who was completely unbothered, and "ran out of his dressing room screaming like the Queen of the May," kept much more of his masculine body language.

[struth]

Back to the Future, 1985. Directed by Robert Zemeckis.





The script was rejected 44 times before it was finally green-lit.

Writers Bob Gale and Robert Zemeckis actually received a fan letter from John DeLorean after the film's release, thanking them for immortalizing his car.

Musician Mark Campbell did all of Michael J. Fox's singing. He is credited as "Marty McFly." Mark was perhaps best known as the lead singer of popular 1980s band Jack Mack and the Heart Attack.

[struth]

Key Largo, 1948. Directed by John Huston.





Although they played on-screen enemies, off-screen Humphrey Bogart and Edward G. Robinson treated each other with great respect. Bogart insisted Robinson be treated like a major star, and he would not come to the set until Robinson was ready. Often, he would go to Robinson's trailer to personally escort him to the set.

In the film, James Temple describes the 1935 hurricane that devastated Matacumbe Key--one of the worst hurricanes in U.S. history. Many of the victims of the storm were World War I veterans who were building the Florida Keys portion of U.S. Highway 1, also known as the Overseas Highway. A portion of this highway is seen in the film's opening shots. The storm also produced the lowest-ever recorded barometric pressure over land in the North American continent.

[Barry]

Hope And Glory, 1987. Directed by John Boorman.
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A 650 feet long suburban street set with seventeen semi-detached houses was constructed for this movie. Apparently, at the time at least, it was the largest set built in the UK for twenty-five years.

Excellent film!

[Barry]

Key Largo, 1948. Directed by John Huston.

My second favourite Bogart - Bacall pairing (after 'To Have and Have Not' of course).

[struth]

The History Of Mr Polly, 1949.