Now Screening - What Are You Watching Right Now?

[Barry]

Murder on the Orient Express, 1974...





The great Albert Finney at work... a tour de force

Much, much better than the Branagh version - and a lot closer to the book.

[Barry]

Ice Cold in Alex, 1958.... John Mills again.



The love scene between Anson and Diana had to be re-shot after the British censor decided that Sylvia Syms had too many buttons undone on her blouse, revealing too much cleavage. Censor John Nicholls had already requested over eighty alterations to the script before shooting and, following protests by Director J. Lee Thompson, he was eventually replaced as BBFC Chief by John Trevelyan in May 1958. Other additional dialogue cuts included the removal of the phrase "made a balls of it" and the overdubbing of "bloody good old bitch".

In the bar scene in Alexandria, Sir John Mills was drinking real beer because ginger ale and other substitutes didn't look real enough on film. In the final cut (the fourteenth take) he actually was quite drunk.

Excellent film!

[Pigmy Pony]

is that the 'nobody beats me in the kitchen' one

"I don't know, I'm just the chef".

[struth]

Casablanca, 1942.... classic this of course and no intro really needed.



Many of the actors who played the Nazis were in fact German Jews who had escaped from Nazi Germany.

Rick's Cafe was one of the few original sets built for the film, the rest were all recycled from other Warner Bros. productions due to wartime restrictions on building supplies.

During the scene in which the "La Marseillaise" is sung over the German song "Die Wacht am Rhein" ("The Watch on the Rhine"), many of the extras had real tears in their eyes as a large number were actual refugees from Nazi persecution in Germany and elsewhere in Europe and were overcome by the emotions the scene brought out. The scene was copied from Jean Renoir's La Grande Illusion (1937), in which French soldiers in a German POW camp sing the song as a similar gesture of defiance. In that film the song was led by a prisoner who was in drag for a show the prisoners were putting on. The song was written in 1792 by Claude Joseph Rouget de Lisle in Strasbourg after the declaration of war by France against Austria, and was originally titled "Chant de guerre pour l'Armée du Rhin" ("War Song for the Rhine Army").

Humphrey Bogart's then-wife, actress Mayo Methot, continually accused him of having an affair with Ingrid Bergman, often confronting him in his dressing room before a scene was to be shot. Bogart would come onto the set in a rage. In fact, despite the undeniable on-screen chemistry between Bogart and Bergman, they hardly spoke, and the only time they bonded was when the two had lunch with Geraldine Fitzgerald. According to Fitzgerald, "The whole subject at lunch was how they could get out of that movie. They thought the dialogue was ridiculous and the situations were unbelievable . . . The film made both of them tbh..

[struth]

staying with bogey, ... The African Queen, 1951...




interesting combo of bogart and hepburn; not one that you'd think would work but it did.

Sources claimed that everyone in the cast and crew got sick except Humphrey Bogart and John Huston, who said they avoided illness by essentially living on imported Scotch whisky. Bogart later said, "All I ate was baked beans, canned asparagus and Scotch whisky. Whenever a fly bit Huston or me, it dropped dead."

[struth]

bogey again and..... The Big Sleep, 1946...



According to Lauren Bacall, production was such fun that they got a memo from Jack L. Warner saying, "Word has reached me that you are having fun on the set. This must stop."

During shooting, Howard Hawks added the strong implication that Marlowe and the bookstore clerk are about to make love as the scene ends. There is no such indication in the novel, but Hawks was so struck with the 19-year-old Dorothy Malone's mature sexuality that he decided to make the scene steamier.

[struth]

Rio Lobo, 1970.... John Wayne said "haven't I made this film before" lol

[Macca]

bogey again and..... The Big Sleep, 1946...



According to Lauren Bacall, production was such fun that they got a memo from Jack L. Warner saying, "Word has reached me that you are having fun on the set. This must stop."

During shooting, Howard Hawks added the strong implication that Marlowe and the bookstore clerk are about to make love as the scene ends. There is no such indication in the novel, but Hawks was so struck with the 19-year-old Dorothy Malone's mature sexuality that he decided to make the scene steamier.

yes I always like to think that he shags her in the film, although like you say he doesn't in the book.

[struth]

yes I always like to think that he shags her in the film, although like you say he doesn't in the book.

Dorothy Malone only died 4 years ago. Not a bad innings at 93

[walpurgis]

Dorothy Malone only died 4 years ago. Not a bad innings at 93

I remember her in Peyton Place. That Norman Harrington was a miserable git . Lee Grant and Barbara Parkins were gorgeous!