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[struth]

Murder Ahoy!, 1964..



Unlike the previous three films that were adapted from Christie novels – The 4.50 from Paddington (Murder, She Said – the only Miss Marple novel used), After the Funeral (a Poirot mystery, adapted for Miss Marple with the title Murder at the Gallop) and Mrs. McGinty's Dead (another Poirot novel, adapted as Murder Most Foul) – this film used an original screenplay that was not based on any of Christie's stories.
It does, however, employ elements of the 1952 Miss Marple story They Do It With Mirrors. Specifically, the Battledore is a training ship for teenage boys with criminal tendencies, who are supposedly being set on the straight and narrow path – when, in fact, one of the members of the crew is training them for careers in housebreaking. Likewise, in They Do It With Mirrors, a boarding school for delinquent youths is actually being used to hone their criminal skills. This is the only element in the film borrowed from a Christie story.

[struth]

The Likely Lads: A Special Christmas Edition, 1973..

[struth]

Ripping Yarns, 1976.. classic stuff from michael palin

[Macca]

'The Hired Gun' (1957)

Rory Calhoun (standing on his hind legs) is a bounty hunter who has to get Ann Francis (at the height of her powers) out of a spot of bother.

Quality B western.

Never noticed it before but Rory Calhoun looks a lot like Noel Gallagher out of Oasis.

Last day of TCM today, that's a bit of a blow.

[struth]

'The Hired Gun' (1957)

Rory Calhoun (standing on his hind legs) is a bounty hunter who has to get Ann Francis (at the height of her powers) out of a spot of bother.

Quality B western.

Never noticed it before but Rory Calhoun looks a lot like Noel Gallagher out of Oasis.

Last day of TCM today, that's a bit of a blow.

she was of forbidden planet fame. quite pretty

[struth]

Tom Jones, 1963...bluray.




Playing the director's cut from the 2 disc set.. The Film won 4 Oscars...

It took two nights to film the sequence in which Squire Western chases after Tom. The second night, Hugh Griffith managed to undo the wiring on his riding crop, and actually hit Albert Finney with it, drawing blood. In character, Finney turned on Griffith and said, "I can't abide to be whipped, Squire," then punched him in the face. Each stalked off the set, swearing never to work with the other again. Hugh Griffith was reportedly drunk through much of the production; the scene in which his horse falls on him was not planned, and many believed he was saved by virtue of his inebriated condition. The film incorporated every frame of footage before rescuers entered the frame to save him.

This was the last film that President John F. Kennedy saw during a stopover in Palm Beach, Florida, en route to Dallas, Texas (November 17, 1963).

Welsh singer Tom Jones (born Thomas John Woodward) chose his professional stage name from the title character/protagonist of this film.

[struth]

Quartet, 2012..







Dustin Hoffman's first completed directorial effort. In 1978, he began directing Straight Time (1978), but after a few days, he decided it was too difficult to both star and direct, and asked Ulu Grosbard to take over.

Ronald Harwood wrote the part of Wilf for Albert Finney, who had worked with Sir Tom Courtenay on The Dresser (1983). Finney was forced to turn down the role due to ill health, and Peter O'Toole was cast to replace him. Before shooting began, O'Toole concluded that he was unable to survive the rigors of a movie shoot and he was replaced by Sir Billy Connolly.

Most of the supporting cast were retired professional musicians.

The principal actors and actresses were trained to sing, but the scene of them singing the title quartet from Giuseppe Verdi's opera Rigoletto was cut from the movie, but is heard playing over the end credits.

[struth]

Starman, 1984.. bluray..




Only John Carpenter film to get an Oscar nomination (Bridges)

[struth]

Irma la Douce, 1963.. Eureka bluray version...




The pimps' union is called the "Mecs (Guys or Blokes) Paris Protective Association" (MPPA), which also stands for "Motion Picture Producers Association", an organization which had given Director Billy Wilder some trouble.

According to an article in the 21 October 1962 edition of the New York Times, the sprawling Rue Casanova set took three months to build at a cost of $250,000 ($2.45M in 2022), and included 48 buildings and three converging streets.





In order to be able to play Irma properly, Shirley MacLaine traveled to Paris to see what it was like for real Parisian prostitutes. They were eager to tell her what it was like, and very willing to answer any questions she had. When asked if she would like to "watch them in action", she politely declined, but to her surprise they became indignant. They requested that she watch one of their weekly customers with three of the girls through a small window in the hotel door; she unwillingly obliged.






Shirley MacLaine was not happy with the script, and thought even less of the film after it was finished, calling it "crude and clumsy". She was surprised to get a Best Actress Oscar nomination out of it, saying, "I would have been nonplussed had I won it."

[Barry]

'The Hired Gun' (1957)

Rory Calhoun (standing on his hind legs) is a bounty hunter who has to get Ann Francis (at the height of her powers) out of a spot of bother.

Quality B western.

Never noticed it before but Rory Calhoun looks a lot like Noel Gallagher out of Oasis.

Last day of TCM today, that's a bit of a blow.

What is TCM?