Now Screening - What Are You Watching Right Now?

[struth]

Here Comes Mr. Jordan, 1941... Criterion Bluray.... another classic..




Columbia chief Harry Cohn had serious misgivings about this adaptation of Harry Segall's minor stage play. He preferred to reserve his more lavish budgets for surefire successes (e.g., anything featuring the studio's biggest star, Rita Hayworth). However, Sidney Buchman eventually was able to talk Cohn into forking out for costly celestial sets and Farnsworth's elaborate mansion and also into hiring Robert Montgomery on loan-out from MGM. Buchman was also able to convince Cohn that he had a better appreciation of what the public would pay to see than the Wall Street bankers to whom Cohn answered. James Gleason was brought on board mainly to polish the dialogue, but Gleason had a knack for authentic sounding vernacular language and also happened to be a great actor t'boot and played major part.

James Gleason was nominated for an Oscar for Best Supporting Actor in the role of Max Corkle. This is the first time in Academy Awards history for a person to be nominated for a supporting Oscar for a role for which a different person would later also be nominated for a supporting Oscar: Jack Warden was nominated for Best Supporting Actor as Max Corkle in Heaven Can Wait (1978).

[struth]

The Flying Scot, 1957..



not the best film ever made by any means but watchable on a cold day

[struth]

the year before, this classic was made.... Invasion of the Body Snatchers, 1956..



Production designer Ted Haworth came up with a fairly simple and inexpensive (about $30,000 total) idea for creating the pods. The most difficult part was when the pods burst open, revealing the likenesses of the actors. The actors had to have naked impressions of themselves made out of thin, skin-tight latex. Making the casts, which involved being submerged in the very hot casting material with only a straw in their mouths to breathe through, was grueling for the actors, especially Carolyn Jones, who was claustrophobic. Dana Wynter recalled, "I was in this thing while it hardened, and of course it got rather warm! I was breathing through straws or something quite bizarre, and the rest of me was encased, it was like a sarcophagus. The guys who were making it tapped on the back of the thing and said, 'Dana, listen, we won't be long, we're just off for lunch [laughs]!' In the end, we had to be covered except for just the nostrils and I think a little aperture for the mouth."

[struth]

a bit of poirot now while i make coffee...

[struth]

Key Largo, 1948...



In the film, James Temple describes the 1935 hurricane that devastated Matacumbe Key--one of the worst hurricanes in U.S. history. Many of the victims of the storm were World War I veterans who were building the Florida Keys portion of U.S. Highway 1, also known as the Overseas Highway. A portion of this highway is seen in the film's opening shots. The storm also produced the lowest-ever recorded barometric pressure over land in the North American continent.

Apart from the opening shots, the movie was filmed entirely at Warner Bros. Studio head Jack L. Warner was still reeling from the on-location cost of shooting John Huston's previous film, The Treasure of the Sierra Madre (1948). Warner refused to approve any more location filming for the director. The pier scenes were filmed using the studio tank--with miniature boats in the background to give an illusion of depth. The shipboard shots at the end were also filmed using the studio tank, with fog used to mask the artifice.

[struth]

earlier...little big man...


now the 1954 version of 'Robinson Crusoe'...

[Barry]

Any good? Bunuel made some, er, let's say 'interesting' films: 'Un Chein Andalou'; 'The Exterminating Angel'; 'The Discreet Charm of the Bourgeoisie'; 'Belle de Jour', etc..

[struth]

Any good? Bunuel made some, er, let's say 'interesting' films: 'Un Chein Andalou'; 'The Exterminating Angel'; 'The Discreet Charm of the Bourgeoisie'; 'Belle de Jour', etc..

its not great shall i say... but i dont think anyone has done a good one sadly as its a good story with lots of potential

[struth]

Get Carter, 1971... BFI 4k bluray.




Writer and director Mike Hodges was surprised that a star of Michael Caine's stature would want to play Carter. Caine said "One of the reasons I wanted to make that picture was my background. In English movies, gangsters were either stupid or funny. I wanted to show that they're neither. Gangsters are not stupid, and they're certainly not very funny." He identified with Carter as a memory of his working class upbringing, having friends and family members who were involved in crime and felt Carter represented a path his life might have taken under different circumstances: "Carter is the dead-end product of my own environment, my childhood. I know him well. He is the ghost of Michael Caine."

Following this movie's release, barmen in Newcastle got sick of being asked for drinks "In a thin glass!"

One of Stanley Kubrick's favorite movies. Upon seeing it, he remarked, "Any actor who sees this will want to work with (Writer and Director) Mike Hodges."

Not long after the film was released, Caine was in the West End and came across the gangster upon whose life this movie was based. He was highly critical of this movie, saying there is no gangster in the world like Jack Carter, who had no wife, children, or responsibilities of any kind. Rather than argue, Caine agreed with everything the man said.

[Macca]

Director's commentary is excellent on that, have you listened to it? (probably a daft question)