Now Screening - What Are You Watching Right Now?

[struth]

Peggy Sue Got Married, 1986..



In the original script, Rosalie, the woman in the wheelchair at Peggy Sue's high school reunion, was a gymnast who was crippled in an accident. In the original script, Peggy Sue tried to take advantage of her knowledge of the future. She invented pantyhose, encouraged people to invest in Xerox, and tried to prevent Rosalie from hurting herself.

While "visiting" 1960, Peggy Sue warns her sister about eating red M&Ms. Red M&Ms were discontinued in 1976, when Red #2 dye was named as a suspected carcinogen. In 1986--after the film was released--red M&Ms were reintroduced with a different red dye.

The opening shot of the film is an optical illusion. Because the camera and crew would have been seen in the reflection of the mirror had the scene been shot in a conventional manner, there is a body double for Kathleen Turner (only she can be seen from behind in the shot) on the other side of the "mirror," doing the exact opposite of the star's movements, giving the illusion that Turner and Helen Hunt are reflections, when in fact they are the real actors in tableau with a body double sitting in front of them with her back to the camera in front of an empty mirror frame, framing a hole in the wall of the set.

[struth]

The Day the Earth Caught Fire, 1961... bluray remaster..






Towards the end, Peter (Edward Judd) is driving to Jeannie's (Janet Munro's) apartment, when he stops to talk to a policeman, who was played by Sir Michael Caine.

The realistic newspaper footage was shot in the Fleet Street offices of Express Newspapers and gives a vivid picture of the "old" London Fleet Street industry (most British newspapers have now moved out of this area, which was famous as a press center). "Express" editor Arthur Christiansen plays himself in this movie.

Janet Munro appears topless from the front for a fraction of a second. you have to look in the mirror.This and the subject caused the movie to receive an "X" certificate from the British Board of Film Censors upon release, barring anyone under sixteen from seeing it.(it was 16 in those days, since uprated to 18 oddly)

[struth]

And if there is a future for Man - insensitive as he is, proud and defiant in his pursuit of power - let him resolve to live it lovingly; for he knows well how to do so. Then he may say once more: Truly the light is sweet; and what a pleasant thing it is for the eyes to see the Sun.

great film.. pity some folk don't listen.

[struth]

The Last Samurai, 2003...




Tom Cruise spent almost two years in preparation for this movie, including swordplay instruction and Japanese-language lessons.

The swordsmith in the village is a real swordsmith. His name is Shoji Yoshihara, brother to Yoshihara Yoshindo. Shoji is a "Mukansa"-level master swordsmith, one of the highest rankings in Japan.

Tom Cruise narrowly escaped potentially fatal injuries after a sword was swung within one inch of his neck while filming. He and his co-star Hiroyuki Sanada were acting out a sword fight scene when the incident happened. Sanada swung a sword at Cruise who was on an off-camera mechanical horse at the time. But the machine reportedly malfunctioned and failed to duck at the right moment. Sanada stopped the blade just one inch from his neck.

For the climactic battle scenes, over 500 Japanese extras trained for ten days at the Clifton Rugby Grounds in New Plymouth, New Zealand.

[struth]

Classic film.

[struth]

Dead of Night, 1945...anthology horror film, made by Ealing Studios. . The individual segments were directed by Alberto Cavalcanti, Charles Crichton, Basil Dearden and Robert Hamer. It stars Mervyn Johns, Googie Withers, Sally Ann Howes and Michael Redgrave. The film is best remembered for the concluding story featuring Redgrave and an insane ventriloquist's malevolent dummy.

Dead of Night is a rare British horror film of the 1940s; horror films were banned from production in Britain during the war. It had an influence on subsequent British films in the genre. Both of John Baines' stories were reused for later films and the ventriloquist dummy episode was adapted into the pilot episode of the long-running CBS radio series Escape.

[struth]

Spooky film..

[struth]

The Untouchables, 1987... all star cast this and fairly good too...



Albert H. Wolff, the last survivor of the real-life Untouchables, was a consultant on this movie, and helped Kevin Costner with his portrayal of Eliot Ness.

An envelope is dropped on the desk of Eliot Ness in one scene. It is assumed to be a bribe, but the amount inside is never revealed. In real life, Al Capone promised Eliot Ness that two $1,000 bills would be on his desk every Monday morning if he turned a blind eye to his bootlegging activities (an enormous amount of money then; more than $30,000 today). Ness refused the bribe, and in later years struggled with money. He died almost broke at the age of fifty-four. In real life, Al Capone, knowing that killing a Prohibition agent would only lead to more trouble than he or his outfit could handle, actually had a non-violence order to his men concerning the Untouchables. While Capone did repeatedly attempt to buy them off, he never once attempted to kill Eliot Ness or any of his men.

[struth]

the life of birds..,attenborough..

[Barry]

North West Frontier, 1959...





"DVD Talk" said of this film that it " . . . has a lot in common with John Ford's Stagecoach (1939) in that it's essentially a tale of a motley mix of Anglos confined in a train car, racing across an Indian plain trying to evade 'bloodthirsty savages'. It may be a blatant reworking of Stagecoach (1939), as the original story was co-written by John Ford (I)'s son Patrick Ford and Maureen O'Hara's husband Will Price. The final screenplay was adapted from a script by screenwriter Frank S. Nugent, the writer of 11 Ford films."

This picture's setting, the North-West Frontier Province of colonial British India in 1905, is now in modern-day Pakistan, but the movie was actually filmed in Guadix, Granada, in Andalucía, Spain.

The song Capt Scott (Kenneth More) sings and which is used as an occasional theme, especially at the end, is the Eton Boating Song, often heard in the Ealing comedies like "The Lavender Hill Mob (1951)" and "The Titfield Thunderbolt (1953)."

One of my favourite films, despite Moore's typecast as a 'thoroughly good chap'.