Now Screening - What Are You Watching Right Now?

[struth]

Mountains of the Moon, 1990..



the 1857–1858 journey of Richard Francis Burton and John Hanning Speke in their expedition to Central Africa, which culminated in Speke's discovery of the source of the Nile River and led to a bitter rivalry between the two men.

[walpurgis]

Mountains of the Moon, 1990.

Never heard of that one Grant.

[struth]

Never heard of that one Grant.

exhillerating but eventually quite sad film.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richard_Francis_Burton

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Hanning_Speke

[struth]

The Gathering Storm, 2002... https://www.cuckfieldconnections.org...sits-cuckfield





Ralph Wigram, C.M.G. (the Foreign Office secretary who provided information on clandestine German rearmament) was one of four leading individuals amongst a group of around twenty who assisted Sir Winston Churchill in this manner. It is agreed that he provided this information with the tacit consent of his supervisor, Robert Vansittart, who was also alarmed by the rearmament. While this movie seems to indicate that Wigram's efforts were illegal, Churchill was a Member of Parliament and Privy Counselor, which would grant him access to such information. Wigram had been thwarted by the Baldwin regime and he took things as far as holding a press conference in 1936, but this garnered little attention. This sharing of secret documents with Churchill began in late 1934 and lasted for two years, when he apparently committed suicide in December 1936. Wigram's wife Ava made several trips to Germany before the outbreak of the war and shared her observations in her correspondence with Churchill. In 1941, nearly five years after Robert's death, Ava married Sir John Anderson, a member of the War Cabinet who became Chancellor of the Exchequer. She died in 1974 at the age of eighty-seven. As for his temperament and character, Wigram's secretary referred to him as "the authentic local deity" and "the departmental volcano". He was also described by others as having a visionary understanding of what was secretly unfolding in Germany. In Churchill's multi-volume history of World War II, he referred to Wigram as one of the great unsung heroes.

[Barry]

exhillerating but eventually quite sad film.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richard_Francis_Burton

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Hanning_Speke

I think I might have seen that film, but I can't be certain. It is certainly something that would interest me, with my interest in foreign travel.

[struth]

I think I might have seen that film, but I can't be certain. It is certainly something that would interest me, with my interest in foreign travel.

certainly worth seeking out barry... quality film and fairly true

[Barry]

The Gathering Storm, 2002...




Ralph Wigram, C.M.G. (the Foreign Office secretary who provided information on clandestine German rearmament) was one of four leading individuals amongst a group of around twenty who assisted Sir Winston Churchill in this manner. It is agreed that he provided this information with the tacit consent of his supervisor, Robert Vansittart, who was also alarmed by the rearmament. While this movie seems to indicate that Wigram's efforts were illegal, Churchill was a Member of Parliament and Privy Counselor, which would grant him access to such information. Wigram had been thwarted by the Baldwin regime and he took things as far as holding a press conference in 1936, but this garnered little attention. This sharing of secret documents with Churchill began in late 1934 and lasted for two years, when he apparently committed suicide in December 1936. Wigram's wife Ava made several trips to Germany before the outbreak of the war and shared her observations in her correspondence with Churchill. In 1941, nearly five years after Robert's death, Ava married Sir John Anderson, a member of the War Cabinet who became Chancellor of the Exchequer. She died in 1974 at the age of eighty-seven. As for his temperament and character, Wigram's secretary referred to him as "the authentic local deity" and "the departmental volcano". He was also described by others as having a visionary understanding of what was secretly unfolding in Germany. In Churchill's multi-volume history of World War II, he referred to Wigram as one of the great unsung heroes.

It's a good film - but then anything with Albert Finney in it is worth watching.

[struth]

another of Albie's... Murder on the Orient Express, 1974...



During promotion and publicity junkets, many of the stars admitted, independently of one another, that their chief reason for appearing in this movie was the chance to meet and work with the other cast members. In her memoir, Lauren Bacall recalled that the lure for most of the cast was getting to act on-screen with "Albie" Finney.

The final scene, in which Poirot relates his solution to the crime, had to be shot countless times, as it required more angles than could be captured in a single take, and more cameras than could fit on the confining dining car set. The multiple takes were especially challenging for Albert Finney, whose uninterrupted monologue was eight pages long, but many cast members later recalled the tedium of sitting motionless for so long, maintaining their physical posturing for continuity, bolstered only by their professional drive to provide support for Finney's tour de force.

[struth]

Commando, 1985...




According to Alyssa Milano, Arnold Schwarzenegger was very protective of her on set. "He even helped with my algebra homework."

Arnold Schwarzenegger performed many of his own stunts, as producers found it difficult to find a stunt double for the bodybuilder. The actor suffered a dislocated shoulder and several stitches during the shoot.

There are 54 stunt performers listed in the credits, 17 more people than the actual cast.

Arnold Schwarzenegger can bench press over 450 pounds, but they made the phone booth out of balsa wood anyway.

Martial arts expert and fight choreographer Michael M. Vendrell worked with Arnold Schwarzenegger on the film, and, by the end of production, Vendrell estimated that Schwarzenegger had become a second degree black belt.

Arius (Dan Hedaya) is said to be a deposed dictator from the country of Val Verde. Val Verde was a fictionalized South/Central American country used by Hollywood from the 1980s to early 1990s to depict a Spanish speaking country similar to Cuba or Nicaragua without encountering diplomatic problems. It is also referenced in the films Predator (1987), Die Hard 2 (1990), and the made for TV movie Supercarrier: Deadly Enemies (Pilot) (1988). Even with blanks in his gun, Dan Hedaya was afraid to shoot.

[struth]

Doc Hollywood, 1991...




The car driven cross-country is a 1956 Porsche 356 Speedster. These are currently valued at a quarter of a million dollars now..

At one point Hank Gordon says, "I don't trust a man who doesn't eat meat." In real life, Woody Harrelson is a vegan. (I never did trust him)

Julie Warner's only nude scene in her career. Asked at the time how she felt doing it, she said, "Cold! Humiliation aside, and I'm not an exhibitionist, the hardest thing about it was that I was freezing," she explains. "Lou represents earthiness, and it wouldn't have been right for her to be in a Speedo."

In his autobiography, Lucky Man, Michael J. Fox tells of how he woke up one morning during production with a barely noticeable tapping in one finger. He'd had a big night drinking with Woody Harrelson and thought he may have injured it during some roughhousing he only partly remembered, but instead it would be diagnosed as the first presentation of his Parkinson's Disease.