Now Screening - What Are You Watching Right Now?

[struth]

Carry on Jack, 1964.

Well, it's got the lovely Juliette in it.

[Gazjam]

Enjoying a recent 4K release of this,
Wow.. This is great!



Loved it way back when the first time I saw it,
Never seen it like this though.

Forgotten how good an actor James Farentino was.

[struth]

Enjoying a recent 4K release of this,
Wow.. This is great!



Loved it way back when the first time I saw it,
Never seen it like this though.

Forgotten how good an actor James Farentino was.

been looking for the 4k version

[Macca]

Good premise for a story but it goes nowhere interesting.

[struth]

Good premise for a story but it goes nowhere interesting.

oh well, i wont bother going there then

[struth]

Invasion of the Body Snatchers, 1956. Director Don Siegel.





Kevin McCarthy and author Jack Finney have always denied the rumor that the story is a statement against McCarthyism and Communism; they just saw it as a thriller. Director Don Siegel, however, believes that the political references to Sen. Joseph McCarthy and totalitarianism are inescapable, even though he tried not to emphasize them.

The last sequence was shot, not on the actual Hollywood Freeway, but on a little used cross-bridge. The cars were driven by stunt drivers. Don Siegel said later that Kevin McCarthy was in real danger of getting hit, because the sequence was shot at dawn and he was near complete exhaustion.

[struth]

Another Don Siegal film now with... Escape From Alcaraz, 1979.







A 2015 History Channel documentary received photographs from the family of the Anglin brothers, allegedly taken around 1975, somewhere in South America. Their facial recognition experts believe that the photo is authentic, confirming that at least the Anglins survived the escape. As of 2018, they are still considered at large.

The Warden, who is never named during the film, at one point refers to his "predecessors, Wardens Johnston and Blackwell." Warden Blackwell was the actual warden at the time of Frank Lee Morris' escape, and this script reference was clearly done to avoid legal trouble.

Paramount Pictures had to spend quite a large amount of money in maintenance, re-fitting, and refurbishment costs on the prison. This totalled around half a million dollars. A great deal of expense and work was required to restore the prison to its 1963 state. Fifteen miles of cable were required to reconnect the island to the city's electricity, much of the wiring having corroded. Many of the improvements were kept intact after the film. For the shoot, water-soluble, removable, and peelable paint, and other temporary camouflages were put over paintings and graffiti painted there by Native Americans. They had once occupied the island as a political process, and the material was of a heritage nature. After filming, the paint had to be carefully removed, so the markings could be visually recovered.

[struth]

Jeremiah Johnson, 1970. It is based partly on the life of the legendary mountain man John Jeremiah Johnson, recounted in Raymond Thorp and Robert Bunker's book Crow Killer: The Saga of Liver-Eating Johnson and Vardis Fisher's novel Mountain Man.
Directed by Sydney Pollack.






Liver Eatin' Johnston's wife (who was pregnant at the time) was actually killed by a random raiding party of Crow, not as revenge for a violation of their burial grounds. She was killed in the spring while Johnston was off trapping and he didn't return to find her body until several months later. He identified the band that had killed her because he recognized a Tennessee rifle he had given her in the possession of a Crow warrior. Also, rather than isolated incidents as shown in the movie, Johnston often recruited other mountain men as well as Indians (particularly Flatheads) to help him with his vendetta. The part about the warriors sent to kill him and told not to return without his scalp was true.
According to the book "Crow Killer," the Crazy Woman was a real person who had settled in the Wolf Tail Valley. After her children were killed and her husband taken captive, she remained in her cabin. Liver Eatin' Johnson, Del Gue and Anton Sepulveda were among the mountain men who "avenged" her. One popular story was that the mountain man known as "Hatchet Jack" was actually her husband who had gone insane after being scalped and tortured by the Blackfoot Indians when they took him away. It was known that Hatchet Jack had been scalped at some point in his life and that he was mentally unbalanced. Johnson refers to this when he tells the Crazy Woman that he cannot find any sign of her husband, but that he might return if he escaped from the Indians.

[struth]

Old Favorite, Hopscotch, 1980. Director Ronald Neame.






The Oktoberfest scene at the beginning of the film was not staged. The filmmakers hid eight cameras to prevent people from knowing they were being filmed.

The U.S. State Department issued several "real" passports for Matthau's character's several aliases. The documents were filmed in tight close-ups and were kept in a safe at the production company's office for security. When filming was complete, they were returned by hand to the State Department.

[struth]

The Four Feathers, 1939. Director Zoltan Korda.





The action scenes, photographed by Osmond Borradaile, were not only filmed where the historical battles had taken place, but also included among the many extras, people who had witnessed or participated in the fighting more than forty years earlier. These battle scenes further benefitted from Director Zoltan Korda's expertise at large-scale action and his early experience as a cavalry officer.

Although he was a stickler for historical fidelity, Director Zoltan Korda was not above stretching the truth for the sake of spectacle. As shooting was about to begin on the lavish ballroom scene, he went into a fit over the fact that the officers were all clad in blue uniforms. Technical Advisor Brigadier Hector Campbell, informed him that this was the proper dress for a private party in the late 1800s. "But this is Technicolor!" Korda roared, and the uniforms were changed to bright red.