Now Screening - What Are You Watching Right Now?

[Lawrence001]

Oldie war effort from USA.. Airforce, 1943. Director was Howard Hawks. It also won an Oscar.






Because of the constant noise in the planes air crews wore "throat mics." These had two pickups that sat against the larynx (vocal cords) and picked the sound up directly from them. You will notice that whenever a crew member speaks he puts his hand up against the mic and presses it against his throat. This helped ensure good sound pickup.

Early in the film, an analyst is shown using a period-era teletype machine and a Hollerith punched card typewriter. This was very high-tech stuff for the time. Such devices became standard equipment on early digital computers, which were under development as this film was being produced in 1943. The punched card deck in particular became an essential component of so-called batch processing of large amounts of data, and for making hard copy of computer programs that could be rapidly (for the era) loaded into another computer.

The U.S. Army Air Forces aircraft that appeared in the film were:

Ten Boeing B-17B/C/D Flying Fortresses from Hendricks Field, Sebring, Florida.
North American AT-6 Texans (as Japanese fighters) and Bell P-39 Airacobras, Curtiss P-40Cs and Republic P-43A Lancers from Drew Field.
Six Martin B-26C Marauders from MacDill Field, Tampa, Florida, as the Japanese bombers.

That reminds me, when I was doing operational research at uni, I read that many of the computational methods were developed by the military in WWII to optimise the bombing campaign. The computers may have been doing this?

I think it was this that led to the USAAF targeting ball bearing factories as the weak spot in German aircraft production. IIRC the infamous Schweinfurt raids (as in the film with Clarke Gable) were the result.

[struth]

That reminds me, when I was doing operational research at uni, I read that many of the computational methods were developed by the military in WWII to optimise the bombing campaign. The computers may have been doing this?

I think it was this that led to the USAAF targeting ball bearing factories as the weak spot in German aircraft production. IIRC the infamous Schweinfurt raids (as in the film with Clarke Gable) were the result.

BB's were pretty much in everything for war. yup schweinfurt made most of their bearings; maybe 2/3 at one time so bombing them, although very difficult due to where they were and the protection they had was an important thing to try. the bombed regensburg at same time to split nazi response but the losses were catastrophic. 1 in 6 planes and men lost.

we, the british got our bearings from neutral sweden, by hook and crook at times. some by air but a lot by using gunboats(which is a long story in itself)

[Macca]

That reminds me, when I was doing operational research at uni, I read that many of the computational methods were developed by the military in WWII to optimise the bombing campaign. The computers may have been doing this?

I think it was this that led to the USAAF targeting ball bearing factories as the weak spot in German aircraft production. IIRC the infamous Schweinfurt raids (as in the film with Clarke Gable) were the result.

Norden M Bomb Sight https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Norden_bombsight

[struth]

Norden M Bomb Sight https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Norden_bombsight

yeah, they dumped it out over sea when they were going down. it was at that time very secret.

[struth]

The Man Who Knew Too Little, 1997.





stars Bill Murray and the delectible Joanne Whalley

[struth]

A Christmas Carol, 1984. George C Scott plays title role of Scrooge.(and very well too). David Warner is an equally good Cratchit.






This is probably the only version of 'A Christmas Carol' in which Scrooge wears dress pants with a dress shirt, vest, and smoking jacket instead of his nightshirt, slippers, and cap. Rumor has it that George C. Scott openly reeled at the very thought of portraying Scrooge under such conditions, especially in an English winter. In the book, Scrooge wears his shirt, pants, vest, dressing gown, and slippers. Scott's clothing is very close to the book.

This is the only traditional adaptation of A Christmas Carol where Scrooge's father is seen onscreen. He is mentioned in the book but never seen.

The word "humbug" is misunderstood by many people, which is a pity since the word provides a key insight into Scrooge's hatred of Christmas. The word "humbug" describes deceitful efforts to fool people by assuming a fake loftiness or false sincerity. So when Scrooge calls Christmas a humbug, he is claiming that people only feign charity and kindness in a scoundrel effort to delude him, each other, and themselves. In Scrooge's eyes, he is the one man honest enough to admit that no one really cares about anyone else, so for him, every wish for a Merry Christmas is one more deceitful effort to fool or take advantage of him. This is a man who has turned to profit because he honestly believes that everyone else will someday betray him or abandon him the moment he trusts them.

[struth]

Harlem Nights, 1989.






The story of Irish mobster Bugsy Calhoune trying to take over Sugar Ray's night club in order to control black Harlem is loosely inspired by the real-life feud between Jewish gangster Dutch Schultz and black gangster Bumpy Johnson over control of Harlem's lucrative "numbers" gambling rackets in the mid 1930s.

[struth]

some of the interplay with redd foxx(God rest his smutty soul) and della reese is fantastic.



think they ended up with their own show after this film..

[struth]

A bit of fun sleuthing from Miss Marple with Murder Ahoy!, 1964. Margaret Rutherford if Marple and her real Husband, Stringer Davis plays hr sidekick and love hopeful.





The screenplay was not based on any published Dame Agatha Christie story. It did, however, borrow a few obscure plot details from "They Do It With Mirrors", and there is a delightful moment when Miss Jane Marple pays homage to Christie's long-running play, "The Mousetrap".

H.M.S. Battledore was portrayed on deck by T.S. Arethusa, a training ship used by the Royal Navy (known in later years as the "Peking"). The story of the real ship may have inspired the script in many ways, as the Arethusa was used for many years as a sail training vessel and a "children's home" for wayward boys. However, the aft section of the ship in this movie featuring the panoramic stern windows of the Captain's cabin was a creation (as a matte painting in the wide shots and a set in the closer ones), as the real ship's stern had no resemblance to it. The ship was moved from Britain to the U.S. in 1974 and was docked in New York for many years, but it was moved to Hamburg, Germany in 2016.

[struth]

The Bourne Ultimatum, 2007.





This is the only Bourne film to win an Academy Award. It won three, in all the categories for which it was nominated, while the other Bourne movies weren't even nominated.

The film crew was unable to shut down Waterloo station, so pedestrians in the station can be seen looking and pointing at the camera. In the Tangier chase scene, Nicky, played by Julia Stiles, and Desh, played by Joey Ansah, are seen pushing past the citizens. These are not extras; Tangier was too crowded and the flow of the people was hard to control, hence the two are genuinely pushing through the crowd.