Now Screening - What Are You Watching Right Now?

[struth]

The Abyss, 1989..




Real oxygenated fluorocarbon fluid was used in the rat fluid breathing scene. Dr. Johannes Kylstra and Dr. Peter Bennett of Duke University pioneered this technique and consulted on the film, giving detailed instructions on how to prepare the fluid. The only reason for cutting to the actors' faces was to avoid showing the rats defecating from momentary panic as they began breathing the fluid.

Very few scenes involved stunt people. When Bud drags Lindsey back to the rig, that's really Mary Elizabeth Mastrantonio holding her breath. When the rig is being flooded and characters are running from water, drowning behind closed doors, and dodging exploding parts of the rig, those are all actors, not stunt people. Ed Harris reportedly punched James Cameron in the face after he kept filming while he was nearly drowning.

James Cameron nearly drowned during production while he was weighed down at the bottom of the giant water tank during filming. His assistant director had failed to warn him to refill his oxygen, and realizing that he was running out of air, Cameron asked for help from underwater DP Al Giddings. However, Giddings couldn't hear him (he was near-deaf from an old diving-bell accident), and with no one else nearby, Cameron realized he had to go top-side as soon as possible. He quickly released his helmet, harness and weights, and started to swim with great speed to the surface, exhaling all the way in order to prevent lung damage from decompression. One of the safety divers held him down and gave him a regulator, but it was broken and only produced water. Cameron tried to release himself, but the diver, thinking that Cameron was simply having a panic attack, held him even tighter. Cameron only survived because he punched the diver in the face, and reached the surface before passing out. The AD and the diver were fired the same day.

[struth]

Sherlock Holmes, 2009...




Watson's line to Holmes, "You know that what you're drinking is for eye surgery?", is an obscure reference to Holmes' cocaine usage. At the time, cocaine was used as a topical anesthetic for eye surgery. In the stories, Holmes injects cocaine.

In the stories, Holmes is described to be an expert in Baritsu. In the film, however, the martial art that Holmes used is the Wing-Chun Kung Fu (famously used by Ip Man Yee and Bruce Lee). Robert Downey, Jr. is a practitioner of the art in real-life, and the fight scene between him and David Garrick at Punch Bowl Pit was coordinated with the help of his trainer.

[Macca]

The Abyss, 1989..




Real oxygenated fluorocarbon fluid was used in the rat fluid breathing scene. Dr. Johannes Kylstra and Dr. Peter Bennett of Duke University pioneered this technique and consulted on the film, giving detailed instructions on how to prepare the fluid. The only reason for cutting to the actors' faces was to avoid showing the rats defecating from momentary panic as they began breathing the fluid.

Very few scenes involved stunt people. When Bud drags Lindsey back to the rig, that's really Mary Elizabeth Mastrantonio holding her breath. When the rig is being flooded and characters are running from water, drowning behind closed doors, and dodging exploding parts of the rig, those are all actors, not stunt people. Ed Harris reportedly punched James Cameron in the face after he kept filming while he was nearly drowning.

James Cameron nearly drowned during production while he was weighed down at the bottom of the giant water tank during filming. His assistant director had failed to warn him to refill his oxygen, and realizing that he was running out of air, Cameron asked for help from underwater DP Al Giddings. However, Giddings couldn't hear him (he was near-deaf from an old diving-bell accident), and with no one else nearby, Cameron realized he had to go top-side as soon as possible. He quickly released his helmet, harness and weights, and started to swim with great speed to the surface, exhaling all the way in order to prevent lung damage from decompression. One of the safety divers held him down and gave him a regulator, but it was broken and only produced water. Cameron tried to release himself, but the diver, thinking that Cameron was simply having a panic attack, held him even tighter. Cameron only survived because he punched the diver in the face, and reached the surface before passing out. The AD and the diver were fired the same day.

Sounds more exciting than the actual film.

[struth]

The Belles of St. Trinian's, 1954..





The school motto, written under the silver cup stands, is "In flagrante delicto", Latin for "a burning offense". However, it was commonly used in British divorce cases as a euphemism for caught in the act of sex. It would, of course, hardly be the motto of a girls' school.

[struth]

Whisky Galore!, 1949...

the true story here... https://scotchwhisky.com/magazine/fe...whisky-galore/




The story is based on a real-life incident that occurred in 1941 on the Hebridean island of Eriskay when the SS Politician ran aground. The tale of how a group of local Scottish islanders raided a shipwreck for its consignment of 24,000 cases of whisky quickly became legend. What's less well reported, however, was the fact that the ship was also carrying a sizeable amount of hard cash. According to official files recently released by the Home Office, there were nearly 290,000 ten shilling notes on board as well (the equivalent of several million pounds in today's currency) not all of which was ever recovered.

American censors of the day insisted on a coda being inserted at the end of the film stating that the stolen whisky brought nothing but unhappiness to the islanders, even though quite the opposite was true in real life.

[struth]

Waterloo Road. 1945...





When Dr. Montgomery (Alastair Sim) deals with the blow Jim Colter (John Mills) sustained to his head, he applies a round sticking plaster. In the next shot it has changed to a horizontal rectangle. When Jim arrives at the Alcazar club, the plaster is a vertical rectangle. By the time he reaches The Lucky Star to accost Ted Purvis (Stewart Granger) the plaster has disappeared.

[struth]

Two Way Stretch, 1960....



Peter Sellers proved very difficult for director Robert Day to work with and at one point, even walked off the film. He was eventually persuaded to return, but Day later calculated that he had put about ten days on the shooting schedule through his tantrums.
The prison scenes were filmed at the South Cavalry Barracks at Aldershot, and the security van robbery at Pirbright Arch in the village of Brookwood in Surrey.

[struth]

Lionel Jeffries again in... Murder Ahoy!, 1964...




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 Square Peg, 1958...



Norman and Mr Grimsdale are council workmen mending the road outside an Army base when they come into conflict with the military. Shortly afterwards, they get drafted and fall into the clutches of the Sergeant they have just bested. They are sent to France to repair roads in front of the Allied advance but get captured. Norman takes advantage of a useful similarity to impersonate General Schreiber and manages to return a hero

[struth]

Planet Earth 2, 2016..4k.