Now Screening - What Are You Watching Right Now?

[struth]

Chinatown, 1974. Director Roman Polanski.





After several takes that never looked quite right, Faye Dunaway got annoyed and told Jack Nicholson to actually slap her. He did and felt very guilty for it, despite it being Dunaway's decision. The shot made it into the movie.

Faye Dunaway and Roman Polanski were notorious for their on-set arguments. During filming, Polanski pulled out some strands of Dunaway's hair. On another occasion, when she asked him what her character's motivation was, he exploded, "Just say the f**king words, your salary is your motivation!"

L.A.'s original Chinatown was demolished between 1933 and 1936 to make way for Union Station. The current Chinatown, located a few blocks away, opened in 1938. So the only time L.A. had no official Chinatown was 1937, the year in which this film is set.

The Van der Lip Dam disaster is a reference to the collapse of the St. Francis Dam in 1928, forty miles northwest of Los Angeles, which had been designed by self-educated engineer William Mulholland. The consequent flooding killed at least four hundred fifty people, a loss of life that remains second only to that from the 1906 San Francisco earthquake and fire in California's history.

[walpurgis]

Chinatown, 1974

Superb thriller! As was the follow up 'The Two Jakes', movies don't get much better than these.

Got both on DVD and I should watch them again I think.

[struth]

Superb thriller! As was the follow up 'The Two Jakes', movies don't get much better than these.

Got both on DVD and I should watch them again I think.

yes both good flms. nicholsson directed second

[Macca]

'Bad for glass.'

Certainly one of the best films ever.

[struth]

Blazing Saddles, 1974. Director Mel Brooks.





(at around 45 mins) Cleavon Little was not warned about the "you know. . . . morons" line. His reaction was real.

The scene in which Cleavon Little aims his gun at his own head to save himself from the townspeople's wrath was based on an incident from Mel Brooks' childhood. He said that once, to his disbelief, he stole some gum and a water pistol from a drugstore; when a store worker tried to stop him, Brooks held the worker at bay with the very water pistol he had just taken from the store.

After promising Warner Brothers that he would edit out several "offensive" scenes, such as the infamous farting sequence, Mel Brooks never cut a single scene except one: after the room is darkened and Lilly (Madeline Kahn) informs Bart "It's TWUE! It's TWUE!," Bart (Cleavon Little) quietly states, "You're sucking on my arm." The scene was later added back to the home video release.

Production began with Gig Young as Jim, The Waco Kid. On the first day of shooting the scene where the drunk Waco Kid hangs from a bunk asking if Bart is black, Young revealed that he really was indeed drunk (he had had an alcohol problem for years) and proceeded to undergo a physical collapse on-set. According to Mel Brooks, "On the first day of shooting... we hung him upside down in the jail cell, and green stuff started spewing out of his mouth." Young's agent tried to defend him by explaining that he was a recovering alcoholic, with Brooks responding that wasn't actually recovered yet. Brooks shut down production for a day and Gene Wilder flew cross-country to take over the role. Young sued Warner Brothers for breach of contract.

[Macca]

Young also got sacked from 'Charlie's Angles.' He only had to do the voice of Charlie but was too drunk to even manage that.

[struth]

American Guerrilla in the Philippines, 1950. Director Fritz Lang.






Director Fritz Lang only made the film to pay his bills. In later years, he actively denied even making it.

This movie was filmed just prior to the outbreak of the Korean War in June of 1950, and used American warships to portray Japanese ships. One such ship, the U.S.S. Orleck (DD 886), exists to this day after serving in the Korean War, the Vietnam War and being sold for a while to the Turkish Navy, and is permanently docked in Lake Charles, LA, where it serves as a museum.

[struth]

Funniest line in movie... When Americans drop bombs son, they hit Japs, not us

US airforce killed more of their own from air than the Japs did, or so my dad said still, they meant well...

[struth]

The Big Sleep, 1978. Director Michael Winner.





James Stewart(who was about 70) had difficulty saying his lines on time due to hearing problems. Some of the cast were shocked by his aged appearance. Robert Mitchum recalled, "The picture was all about corpses, but Jimmy looked deader than any of them." Stewart actually outlived Mitchum(who was 60 making the film) by one day, nearly 20 years later.

Oliver Reed told an interviewer he only accepted the minor supporting role of Eddie Mars in order to work with Robert Mitchum. Robert Mitchum impressed Oliver Reed on-set by drinking a bottle of gin in 55 minutes.

To avoid any copyright violations, Michael Winner organized a photo session for the cover of the pornographic book that Marlowe found in the bushes. Among the models taking part was Lindy Benson, who became Robert Mitchum's "companion" for the duration of filming.

[Macca]

so many things wrong with that film it would take the rest of my life to list them. Just one - it's set in London.