Now Screening - What Are You Watching Right Now?

[Macca]

think eastwood would probably have done it. he was a womanizer no doubt. using his star status to get folk hired happens, as can getting folk fired.
Kaufman had the opposite way to Eastwood in liking lots of takes as well and clint being a tightwad wouldnt be happy .. it was clint that brought him in to improve the script and then direct.

I believe the bit about them both sniffing round Sondra Locke, but I think the real reason Clint got rid of him was because he realised he could do it better and cheaper,

Got a biography of him somewhere I'll have to dig it out and see what version of the story it gives.

[struth]

I believe the bit about them both sniffing round Sondra Locke, but I think the real reason Clint got rid of him was because he realised he could do it better and cheaper,

Got a biography of him somewhere I'll have to dig it out and see what version of the story it gives.

clint was sniffing around anything young and pretty im sure the money etc saving was part of it, and the given reason, but

[Macca]

The bio doesn't mention the Sondra Locke thing. Just says that Clint was fed up doing repeated takes, and then when they ended up roaming around in the desert for hours looking for a marker Kaufmann had placed some days earlier to remind him where to set up the camera, that was the final straw.

[struth]

More Eastwood with 'The Good, the Bad and the Ugly', 1967.





According to Eli Wallach, when it came time to blow up the bridge, Sergio Leone asked the Spanish Army Captain in charge to trigger the fuse, as a sign of gratitude for the Army's collaboration. They agreed to blow up the bridge when Leone gave the signal "Vai!" (Go!) over the walkie-talkie. Unfortunately, another crew member spoke on the same channel, saying the words "vai, vai!", meaning "it's okay, proceed" to a second crew member. The Captain heard this signal, thought it was for him, and blew up the bridge. Unfortunately, no cameras were running at the time. Leone was so upset that he fired the crewman, who promptly fled from the set in his car. The Captain was so sorry for what happened that he proposed to Leone that the Army would rebuild the bridge to blow it up again, with one condition: that the fired crewman be re-hired. Leone agreed, the crewman was forgiven, the bridge was rebuilt, and the scene was successfully shot.

During the scene right before the final duel where Tuco (Eli Wallach) is running frantically through the cemetery, a dog can be seen running on-screen at the beginning of the scene. In reality, that was improvised on the spot. Sergio Leone, who was afraid that the scene was going to slip into melodrama, released the dog without informing Eli Wallach first--thus, his look of surprise is quite genuine.

In addition to the train scene, Tuco (Eli Wallach) cheated death in the first scene where Blondie (Clint Eastwood) shoots him down from a hanging. The gunshot scared the horse, which took off running at full speed for nearly a mile. Wallach's hands were tied behind his back, and he had to hang on for dear life with his knees.

[struth]

Playing By Heart, 1998.





Sir Sean Connery took just $60,000 as his salary for this movie, as he was keen to play a character his age in a relationship with someone his own age. This was a far cry from the $14 million he earned on The Rock (1996).

Originally titled "Dancing About Architecture". The movie still contains the line from which this title was taken: "Talking about music is like dancing about architecture." or was it making love??lol

[struth]

The Anderson Tapes, 1971. Sean Connery again...






Sidney Lumet says in his book that there was a problem during exterior shooting in New York. The funeral of a notorious mafia kingpin was taking place while they were filming, and bystanders among the attendees asked for a copy of the film, because they were unhappy at the possibility that their faces might show up on film. (not sure who it was but might have been Billy Batts)

One of the burglars looks into a sack taken out of the safe and exclaims in delight, "Double eagles!" The double eagle is a $20 gold coin, no longer made. One of them is now worth several thousand dollars.

[struth]

Blow Out, 1981. Director Brian De Palma.






While on the way to the airport, the driver of the van containing two reels of footage of the Liberty Parade sequence stopped at a Dunkin' Donuts, leaving the van unattended. It was stolen while he was inside, and the footage was never seen again. The crew had to return to Philadelphia just to re-shoot the entire scene, at a cost of $750,000. Cinematographer Vilmos Zsigmond was no longer available, so he was replaced by László Kovács.

Quentin Tarantino stated in an interview that this film is his favorite Brian De Palma movie. In fact, Tarantino cast John Travolta in Pulp Fiction (1994) because he liked his performance in this movie so much.

[struth]

How to Murder Your Wife, 1965. Stars Jack Lemmon, Virna Lisi and Terry-Thomas.



During a taping of The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson (1962), Jack Lemmon told this story. Prior to starting the film, the husband of co-star Virna Lisi made her promise that she would not be talked into doing a nude scene in her first American film. She assured him that she would not, signed the contract and traveled to Hollywood. While filming the "revelation" scene, where Lemmon awakens to discover in horror that he had gotten married at the bachelor party, she had to disrobe and lay in the bed nude but discreetly covered with a sheet. However, it was this day that her husband, an architect, arrived unannounced at the set to surprise his wife. When he walked into the scene, he became very upset. He focused his anger toward Lemmon who, realizing that discretion was the better part of valor, exited the set at full speed with Virna's husband in pursuit. Running past several sound stages on the MGM lot, he quickly found a garbage dumpster, jumped in and closed the cover. He waited there until security officers found him.

[struth]

Predestination, 2014.





The movie is based on Robert A. Heinlein's short story "All You Zombies".

The picture of the Crosby Shoes building in the beginning of the movie is actually a picture of the exploded reactor number 4 from Chernobyl Power Plant which erupted on 26 April 1986.

[Macca]

'For Your Eyes Only' (1981)

At the end of 'The Spy Who Loved Me' we were promised that Bond would return in this one but instead he returned in 'Moonraker.'

The reason was the success of 'Star Wars' in 1977 encouraged the producers to go for an outer-space themed Bond and so FYEO was put back to the next outing instead.

Originally Moore was not going to return to the role after 'Moonraker' so a new Bond would be required. Due to that and also because they did not think they could top the extravagant production values and ludicrous plots of the two previous films, this time the producers decided to do a more 'back to basics' Bond along the lines of 'From Russia With Love.'

In the end Moore did decide to come back. The problem is that he was really starting to look too old to be credible. Sure the women half his age still fancy him, he's James Bond, so we can overlook that, but in terms of the stunts and fights and so forth it gets hard to suspend your disbelief. Maybe they could have written it as an older Bond using cunning and guile to achieve his objectives, which would have been interesting, but they didn't.

That aside this is still probably the last 'proper' James Bond film. 'Octopussy' was a mess, 'View To A Kill' looked like a made-for-TV pilot. And then the less said about everything that came after the better. This one also has the last decent attempt at a theme tune. (Sheena Easton, although she didn't write it).

Some good set pieces, Topol is always worth watching and plays a good part. The Maggie Thatcher bit at the end probably seemed like a good idea at the time, it got a big laugh in the cinema when I went to see it. Forty years on though it just seems bizarre and is out of keeping with the tone of the rest of the film which is fairly short on humour since it is essentially a tale of revenge.

I'd vote it as Moore's fourth best (after 'Spy', 'Moonraker', and 'Live and Let Die.').