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[walpurgis]

The Big Sleep, 1946

They don't come much better!

[struth]

The Woman in the Window, 1944... bluray remaster... Director was Fritz Lang.



Edward G. Robinson, Dan Duryea, and Joan Bennett would go on to play the three leads in Fritz Lang's next film Scarlet Street (1945).

Loosely based on plot from Dostoyevsky's Crime and Punishment; where the criminal is invited by the investigator to aid in solving the crime. This plot twist is used here and appears both in Agatha Christie novels and TV dramas such as Colombo.

Included among the American Film Institute's 2001 list of 400 movies nominated for the top 100 Most Heart-Pounding American Movies.

[Macca]

They don't come much better!

True, but it's surprising how many people you meet who've never heard of it let alone seen it.

[struth]

both films just watched are classics... now another with ... The African Queen, 1951. bluray remaster, directed by John Huston





To show her disgust with the amount of alcohol that John Huston and Humphrey Bogart consumed during filming, Katharine Hepburn drank only water. As a result, she suffered a severe bout of dysentery. Due to the unfiltered drinking water, most of the crew was ill with a combination of simultaneous illnesses. According to cameraman Jack Cardiff, Katharine Hepburn was so sick during shooting of the church scene that a bucket was placed off camera because she vomited constantly between takes. Cardiff called her "a real trooper." In her book "The Making of 'The African Queen'" Hepburn said she rushed for the outhouse only to find a black mamba inside, then ran to the trees.


While filming the "leeching" scene, Humphrey Bogart insisted on using rubber leeches. John Huston refused, and brought a leech-breeder to the London studio with a tank full of them. It made Bogart queasy and nervous, qualities Huston wanted for his close-ups. Ultimately, rubber leeches were placed on Bogart, and a close-up of a real leech was shot on the breeder's chest.

[struth]

Great Expectations, 1946... bluray remaster.






Charles Dickens wrote a much harsher ending to the novel for its original publication in which Pip and Estella remain apart. He was forced to substitute the more famous ending when it later was published as a book, because the first one upset his readers. This appears to be the only time he ever changed the ending to one of his novels.

[struth]

My Man Godfrey. 1936... Criterion bluray remaster....






screwball comedy film directed by Gregory La Cava, and stars William Powell and Carole Lombard, who were once married.


A stand-in (Chick Collins) was used when William Powell carries Carole Lombard over his shoulder up the stairs to her bedroom.

This is the only film to receive Oscar nominations for writing, directing and all four acting awards without being nominated for Best Picture. It was also the only film to receive those six nominations without winning in any of the categories until American Hustle (2013).

[struth]

The Life and Death of Colonel Blimp, 1943... bluray remaster.. Directed by Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger.





Three-quarters of the Germans in the crowd at the POW camp are "carefully painted and positioned" plaster models.

The filmmakers wanted Laurence Olivier to play Clive Candy, but he was prevented from being furloughed from the Navy by Prime Minister Winston Churchill, who didn't want the film to be made. Churchill didn't want to bolster the production with an actor and star of Olivier's caliber, as he felt the movie was critical of a type of British patriot. Olivier was allowed to take a leave from the Navy to make a film about William Shakespeare's patriotic King Henry V in Henry V (1944). Roger Livesey was cast instead. A generation later, he played Olivier's father, Billy Rice, in The Entertainer (1960), though he was actually less than a year older than Olivier.


[Patriotism is the virtue of the vicious eh]

[struth]

Rogue Male, 1976.. made for tv.. bluray remaster stars Peter O'Toole.




This movie was based on the Geoffrey Household book "Rogue Male", published in 1939. The main protagonist and the main antagonist went unnamed in that novel. However, Household wrote a sequel--"Rogue Justice"--that was published in 1982. In that novel, the main characters' names were revealed: Raymond Ingelram and Von Lauen. The lawyer is named Saul Harding.

The story was previously filmed by Fritz Lang as Man Hunt (1941). The scripts are almost identical, with one incidental plot variation.

[struth]

Rogue Male, 1976.. made for tv.. bluray remaster stars Peter O'Toole.





This movie was based on the Geoffrey Household book "Rogue Male", published in 1939. The main protagonist and the main antagonist went unnamed in that novel. However, Household wrote a sequel--"Rogue Justice"--that was published in 1982. In that novel, the main characters' names were revealed: Raymond Ingelram and Von Lauen. The lawyer is named Saul Harding.

The story was previously filmed by Fritz Lang as Man Hunt (1941). The scripts are almost identical, with one incidental plot variation.

excellent film and o'toole was great in the part. one of my favs this, although i do like the lang version, manhunt too, although its a little too 'hollywood'

[struth]

Death on the Nile, 2022.





Directed and starring Kenneth Branagh.


Salome Otterbourne is clearly based on real-life Sister Rosetta Tharpe (who just might have invented rock and roll). Five songs in the film are performed by Tharpe, and a sixth Tharpe song is performed by others.