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[struth]

Great Expectations, 1946.. Director David Lean.






Director Sir David Lean wanted his movie to have a feeling of heightened realism. Working closely in conjunction with art director John Bryan and cinematographer Guy Green, he employed several tricks, such as forced perspective, to achieve this effect. The famous opening shot in the graveyard, for instance, features a brooding church in the background, which, in reality, was only three meters (9'10") high.

Director Sir David Lean was not a particularly well-read man and only became aware of the power of Charles Dickens' story when his wife Kay Walsh dragged him to a stage production of "Great Expectations" in 1939. Incidentally, playing Herbert Pocket in that production was a young Sir Alec Guinness, whom Lean subsequently cast in the same role in the movie. Aside from bit parts, it was Guinness's first major screen role, and was also the first of six movies he made with Lean. Martita Hunt was also in the stage production, playing Miss Havisham, a role she reprised in this movie.

[Barry]

Re. 'Peeping Tom'

yes it was on a par with psycho, but on a slightly different bent i guess.

Mark uses a pair of unconventional for time, electric space heater like loudspeakers in his workshop. The Quad Electroacoustic model ESL-57 can be seen prominently in the background in the final scene with Mark playing the screaming audio tapes to Helen.

After filming a scene where she's fully nude on a bed, Pamela Green remained on the bed so the production photographer could shoot some still photos. Then she was suddenly aware of a stranger's presence at the foot of the bed, aiming a camera straight up her naked body. She sat up quickly yelling, "You're shooting me from that angle? No pictures! Get him off the set!" Electricians pounced on the intruder, whipped away his camera and ejected him off the set. It turned out to be some photo-journalist who had got wind of the fact that there was a naked girl on F Stage and wanted to get photos of the "first nude woman in a British feature length film."

It is, I think, the only film to feature Quad ESLs in a scene. There are also some other British audio electronics featured in the film: the Ferrograph tape decks.

I have a DVD copy of the film somewhere.

[struth]

Charley Varrick, 1973. Director Don Siegel..





Character Maynard Boyle's line, "They're gonna strip you naked and go to work on you with a pair of pliers and a blowtorch," is paraphrased in Pulp Fiction (1994) by character Marsellus Wallace.

Walter Matthau's character makes love repeatedly to Felicia Farr's character. She was the wife of his longtime comedic partner, Jack Lemmon

[walpurgis]

Charley Varrick, 1973

One of my favourites!

[struth]

To Have And Have Not, 1944. another of those all time greats.






Howard Hawks gave John Huston the climax (a shootout on a boat) that he was unable to fit into the end of this film. Huston used this in Key Largo (1948), as he had been having difficulties coming up with a satisfactory ending.

Many aspects of Lauren Bacall's screen persona were based on director Howard Hawks' wife at that time, Mary Gross, including her nickname (Slim), glamorous dresses, long blonde hair, smoky voice and demure, mysterious demeanor. Hawks was having an affair with Dolores Moran(also in film) but wanted Bacall and was annoyed she chose and fell in love with Bogey. He threatened to affect her career to no avail. They were married within a year.

[Barry]

To Have And Have Not, 1944. another of those all time greats.

One of my favourite films - I think I prefer it to 'Casablanca', which is another of my favourites.

[struth]

Another Bogey classic ..The Maltese Falcon, 1941.. Bogart alongside the lovely Mary Astor, who was also a great actress and author...







John Huston had Mary Astor run around the set several times before each of her scenes in order to give her a breathless, nervous appearance on screen.

There is an inordinate amount of smoking done by the main actors in this film. According to then-studio employee (and future screenwriter) Stuart Jerome, this resulted in a feud between studio head Jack L. Warner and stars Humphrey Bogart and Peter Lorre. Warner hated to see actors smoking on the screen, fearing it would prompt smokers in the movie audience to step out into the lobby for a cigarette. During filming, he told director John Huston that smoking should be kept to a minimum. Bogart and Lorre thought it would be fun to annoy Warner by smoking as often as possible, and got their co-stars, Mary Astor and Sydney Greenstreet, to go along with the joke. During the initial filming of the climactic confrontation, all four actors smoked heavily. After seeing the rushes, Warner furiously called Huston to his office and threatened to fire him from the picture if he didn't tell Bogart and Lorre to knock it off. Realizing their prank had backfired, Bogart and Lorre agreed to stop smoking on camera. However, when the next series of rushes came back, it was obvious that the "lack" of smoking by the actors was taking away from the sinister mood of the scene. Huston went back to Warner and convinced him that the smoking added the right amount of atmospheric tension to the story, arguing that the characters would, indeed, smoke cigarettes while waiting nervously for the Maltese Falcon to arrive.

[struth]

Kind Hearts and Coronets, 1949.






Agatha's death in the movie caused some consternation for Sir Alec Guinness. The scene in question, a hot air ballooning accident filmed in a field next door to Pinewood Studios, prompted him to ask the producers if he was well insured. They told him that he was, to the tune of ten thousand pounds sterling, but Guinness didn't think that was enough. He then declared that the balloon could not be raised any more than fifteen feet unless they raised the insurance to fifty thousand pounds sterling. Ealing Studios was renowned for being very penny-pinching, and it naturally refused Guinness' demand, pointing out that he would be accompanied in the balloon by a well-qualified Belgian balloonist hidden in the basket with him. Guinness was undeterred in his refusal to perform the stunt, so the scene in the finished movie is not him, but the Belgian balloonist wearing Agatha's dress and wig. Guinness had the last laugh, however, when a high wind pulled the balloon off course. The Belgian balloonist was found fifty miles away, having had to jump into a river.

Producer Michael Balcon was known to have said to director Robert Hamer, "You are trying to sell that most unsaleable commodity to the British, irony. Good luck to you." It worked, of course. This movie was a considerable success upon release.

[struth]

i was reading that the woke brigade are attacking the film as racist and sexist sad times we live in.

one of the great films made over 70 yrs ago and of an even older period in time when such things didnt really exist for the population.

[struth]

I'm All Right Jack, 1959.






Two of the shop stewards in the movie, brothers Tony Comer and John Comer, got the roles after winning a talent show as a comedy double act, "The Comer Brothers". The prize was one thousand pounds sterling and a movie contract with The Boulting Brothers.

Five of the major actors in this film also appeared in School For Scoundrels made the same year. They are: Ian Carmichael, Terry-Thomas, Dennis Price, John Le Mesurier and Irene Handl.