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  • ThunderpussyThunderpussy Behind you !Posts: 63,792MI6 Agent
    Thanks for the information TonyDP {[] I recently picked up a special edition of
    The Thing, and in one of the features they talk about the original story and how
    the writer got the idea of replacing people, from his aunt, who was an identical
    twin of his Mother, which as a boy he always had a fear of his aunt replacing his
    Mom.
    "I've been informed that there ARE a couple of QAnon supporters who are fairly regular posters in AJB."
  • Napoleon PluralNapoleon Plural LondonPosts: 10,468MI6 Agent
    The Wrecking Crew

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    Those who've seen Quentin Tarantino's Once Upon a Time in Hollywood set in 1969 will recognise scenes from this, as it co-stars Sharon Tate. In QT's film, the actress played by Margot Robbie is seen popping into a cinema to see herself on the big screen - the clips she sees are actually from Tate in the film itself.
    Tate does have a fair bit of kooky comic charm. However, it's a good half hour before she shows up in the film, and way before then you'll be firmly convinced that this spy spoof is the worst film ever.

    It's a Matt Helm flick, so we see a tanned and aged Dean Martin - still trim and with lustrous hair, tbf - swan around hotel rooms being seduced by enemy spies in negligee, while supposedly investigating the theft of gold bullion from a freight train.
    I suppose this kind of rubbish would have prepared Americans for the sight of an aged Roger Moore in Octopussy - and indeed Connery that same year.
    This spy spoof makes Casino Royale 67 look like True Lies.
    The 'action' is accompanied by this awful easy listening stuff, like Up Up and Away by the Fifth Dimension (I happen to like that song but not as an action soundtrack).
    Watching this, which came out in 1969, you can see why Lazenby had it in mind to quit the Bond franchise, esp as there are scenes in OHMSS that are uncomfortably close.

    Though it's rubbish, that didn't prevent the Bond producers looting it of course. In this film, Helm slips into a booth which revolves or descends suddenly so he is unexpectedly confronted with the villains opposite, like Bond in LALD.
    Tate plays a comic foil, an assistant who is a klutz. Much like Tiffany Case in the field in DAF, and O'Toole for that matter, and of course the secretary Goodnight in Golden Gun. It's not at all PC or women's lib of course.

    Showing on Sky Movies Classic, it's interspersed with Tarantino in interview opining on why he loves it to some wide-eyed blonde who seems to be thinking 'Keep smiling, it could be worse, instead of watching this rubbish, it could be Harvey and his bathrobe.'
    That said, it did make me better appreciate, if that's the right word, Tate's demise and she comes across as quite loveable in this film.
    "This is where we leave you Mr Bond."

    Roger Moore 1927-2017
  • johnraidersjohnraiders Posts: 97MI6 Agent
    The Invisible Man

    Very creepy and scary, a great reworking on the originals
  • caractacus pottscaractacus potts Orbital communicator, level 10Posts: 4,111MI6 Agent
    The Wrecking Crew
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    thanks for the Matt Helm review, Napster.

    I found a used box set of all four Matt Helm films a couple weeks back, but passed it up because it was a bit expensive and I didn't want to make an impulse purchase.
    Then of course I woke up in the middle of the night in a panic, thinking "I need that, I need that, I need that!!!" and the next day when i went back to the store, of course, it was already sold, proving once again you should always throw your money away on impulse purchases whenever you have the opportunity.

    So your review makes me feel not quite so bad about the way things worked out.
  • ThunderpussyThunderpussy Behind you !Posts: 63,792MI6 Agent
    I have the Matt Helm collection, as I love
    Dean Martin as an entertainer and fell he
    Was underrated as like a select few he made
    It look easy.
    The films are silly, nonsense but perfect
    For when you're in the mood for some
    Sillyness . Same with TMFU films and
    The two Derek Flint movies.
    "I've been informed that there ARE a couple of QAnon supporters who are fairly regular posters in AJB."
  • BarbelBarbel ScotlandPosts: 37,874Chief of Staff
  • caractacus pottscaractacus potts Orbital communicator, level 10Posts: 4,111MI6 Agent
    Number 17
    Hitchcock, 1932

    This is very early Hitchcock, still filling time with silent movie pantomime acting more than dialog.
    Its a farce in the shape of a crime thriller, where eight characters converge in the middle of the night in an abandoned house next to the railway tracks, some criminals, some competing criminals, some undercover police, some wandering opportunists, some innocent neighbours ... and nobody can figure out who's which since they all seem to be lying. Based on a stage play, the first two thirds all take place on a single stairway landing (ooh, a staircase in a Hitchcock movie!) and given visual variation by the tricks he learned from German expressionist cinema.

    The last third, the criminals escape on a passing train headed to the ferry, and theres much dangerous action on the fast moving train and a hijacked passenger bus, leading up to a huge messy crash-up at the harbour. I don't know how this part of the story was done in the stageplay? The longshots of the train losing control and crashing into the ferry are all done with miniatures, and anticipate the incredible ending of Foreign Correspondent a decade later.
    But the chases on the moving train are not nearly nearly so good as what Keaton was doing a decade earlier.

    Caractacus Potts verdict: hardly essential Hitchcock, even for the very early stuff.
    I have this in a public domain boxset, along with the five 30s spy films, the Lodger and Blackmail (all of which are essential), and it also includes Rich and Strange which is more of a proto-screwball comedy. I guess the public domain packagers included whatever they had access to. But wikipedia shows he made dozens of films in England before Rebecca, and there were several other thrillers I've never seen from that period. I wish there was more of an official boxset collecting the important stuff from this first phase of his career.
  • caractacus pottscaractacus potts Orbital communicator, level 10Posts: 4,111MI6 Agent
    edited March 2020
    which reminds me, I forgot to report on last week's screening at Cinema Potts
    _________________________________________________
    Rebecca
    Hitchcock, 1940

    Hitchcock's first American film, produced by David Selznick. Selznick brought Hitchcock to Hollywood, and produced several of his 1940s films, but imposed heavy creative control over Hitchcock's vision. It's Selznick who removed and permanently lost 18 minutes of Salvador Dali footage from Spellbound, so I gotta bone to pick with him.

    The story is a Gothic romance based on Daphne de Maurier, set in a spooky old manor house on the Cornish coast. Joan Fontaine is the otherwise unnamed second Mrs de Winter, married to the handsome but brooding Laurence Olivier. The ubiquitous but neverseen Rebecca is his dead first wife.
    Best of all is Judith Anderson as Mrs Danvers the housekeeper. As best as can be implied under the Hayes Code, the housekeeper had a lifelong girlcrush for the first Mrs de Winter and will never accept a second. In High Anxiety, Chloris Leachman's character Nurse Diesel is partially based on Mrs Danvers.

    oh, and there's a traumatic staircase scene in this film too! gotta watch for them staircases in Hitchcock films, nothing good ever comes from a Hitchcock staircase!

    _________________________________________________
    Yes that's right, I now have 31 Hitchcock films lined up in front of my teevee set, and know where to get four more if I dare set foot on public transit. Over the next weeks of self-isolation I may report on each and every one of them!
  • BarbelBarbel ScotlandPosts: 37,874Chief of Staff
    Rebecca, a wonderful movie. Great atmosphere, and excellent performances. Good choice, cp.
  • Golrush007Golrush007 South AfricaPosts: 3,421Quartermasters
    I've had a four film Ealing Studios boxset sitting unwatched on my shelf for over a year so I treated myself to a little Ealing double feature yesterday with a viewing of The Ladykillers and The Man in the White Suit. I had never previously watched any of the famed Ealing comedies but knew of their reputation. These two certainly didn't disappoint. Both star the great Sir Alec Guiness, and in The Ladykillers in particular he is joined by a fine supporting cast. I particularly enjoyed seeing Peter Sellers and Herbert Lom on screen together, some years before they would become long running co-stars in The Pink Panther series. The plotting in The Ladykillers is clever, and the dark humour is laced a charming dose of the British old school about it.

    The Man in the White Suit is also a fine piece of work. Shot in a stark, nomewhat noirish black and white style which later takes a turn towards the surreal when the extremely white suit is lit up when all around it is dark. The story has a sharp satirical edge, as the textile manufacturers in Britain are alarmed to discover that Guinness's character has created a fabric which is apparently impervious to dirt and wear-and-tear. Effectively, it is a product that could totally destroy the industry.

    Now, with the prospect of a lot more time spent at home in the near future I can hopefully make more progress through my long list of films that I've owned on DVD/Blu-Ray for ages and have never got round to watching.
  • ThunderpussyThunderpussy Behind you !Posts: 63,792MI6 Agent
    An odd mix yesterday Angel has fallen followed by Dr Who Daleks' Invasion Earth 2150 AD
    "I've been informed that there ARE a couple of QAnon supporters who are fairly regular posters in AJB."
  • caractacus pottscaractacus potts Orbital communicator, level 10Posts: 4,111MI6 Agent
    Golrush007 wrote:
    The Ladykillers
    hey I've seen that one! didn't realise I'd seen any Ealing comedies, but I have seen that one.
    Dr Who: Daleks' Invasion Earth 2150 AD
    I didn't know that Dr Who movie was on dvd, I've never met anybody who actually saw it!
    You must tell us more about it, I'm sure a lot of people here don't even know it existed.
    Can it be reconciled with regular Dr Who continuity?
    who is the actor playing The Doctor and is he any good? does he explain where he fits in the regeneration cycle?

    and Thunderpussy, you've fallen behind in your reviews in the regular Dr Who thread. I was enjoying the chance to discuss the classic shows that everybody loves. Are you still in the Baker-era?
  • Number24Number24 NorwayPosts: 22,344MI6 Agent
    Golrush007 wrote:
    The Ladykillers
    hey I've seen that one! didn't realise I'd seen any Ealing comedies, but I have seen that one.

    The Coen brothers made a remake a few years ago. Maybe that's what you saw?
  • caractacus pottscaractacus potts Orbital communicator, level 10Posts: 4,111MI6 Agent
    Golrush007 wrote:
    The Ladykillers
    hey I've seen that one! didn't realise I'd seen any Ealing comedies, but I have seen that one.
    Number24 wrote:
    The Coen brothers made a remake a few years ago. Maybe that's what you saw?
    I've seen both of them! The Alec Guiness version is much better.
    I don't know why the Coens started doing remakes. Their True Grit remake is visually stunning, but even less necessary.
  • Number24Number24 NorwayPosts: 22,344MI6 Agent
    I think their True Grit was great, less so for Ladykillers.
  • caractacus pottscaractacus potts Orbital communicator, level 10Posts: 4,111MI6 Agent
    their version of True Grit is closer to the original than is Ladykillers.
    as hilarious as Bridges is, he's just playing Jeff Bridges. Whereas John Wayne was actually acting, a claim that cannot usually be made for him.
    and the original also had stunningly beautiful landscape photography.
  • Golrush007Golrush007 South AfricaPosts: 3,421Quartermasters
    I saw the Coen Brothers' version of The Ladykillers some years ago and despite being a massive fan of the Coens (I absolutely love their version of True Grit, by the way) I didn't enjoy it. Now that I've seen the original I am just a tiny bit tempted to go back and rewatch the Coens' version a second time just to see if I enjoy it any more. It might also be interesting to examine how they went about adapting/remaking it.
  • ThunderpussyThunderpussy Behind you !Posts: 63,792MI6 Agent
    Avengers : End Game.
    One of the reasons I got Disney + was for the marvel movies, and End Game was a Hoot.
    Pure entertainment and in 4k Can't wait to look at them all over again. I also watched an
    old Favourite of mine The Rocketeer with Timothy Dalton, very obviously enjoying himself
    playing the villain.
    Just started watching my Favourite Marvel movie Cpt America : The winter soldier, great
    story and special effects nicely blended together.
    "I've been informed that there ARE a couple of QAnon supporters who are fairly regular posters in AJB."
  • caractacus pottscaractacus potts Orbital communicator, level 10Posts: 4,111MI6 Agent
    Avengers : End Game.
    I too watched that the other night.
    For a four coloured superhero movie, it's not really satisfying escapism for these troubled times, is it.
    Our heroes are all sitting round brooding and depressed because half the population has just disappeared forever, and what could they have done differently?
    and unless real life scientists are working on time travel when they should be working on a vaccine, I don't think we can take any hope from the Avengers' solution.




    speaking of time travel...
    @Thunderpussy !!!
    please tell us more about Dr Who: Daleks' Invasion Earth 2150 AD!!
  • ThunderpussyThunderpussy Behind you !Posts: 63,792MI6 Agent
    :D
    Daleks – Invasion Earth: 2150 A.D. was made in 1966 as a follow up to
    Dr Who and the Daleks made the year before and a third film based on the
    Dr Who TV series " The Chase " was to have been made, but never was.
    The first Dr Who film was very successful and was basically a film version
    of the television series, only Dr Who was changed to a Human Grandfather
    who was a brilliant scientist, none of this Time Lord nonsense :D It got
    some good reviews and it would have been the first time Daleks were seen
    in colour, and in some fantastic looking sets.
    The second film Didn't do as well, once again working from the Terry Nation
    story. They tried to go bigger, but on a similar if not smaller budget. Due to
    its lacklustre success, plans for a third film were shelved.
    The story concerns an invasion of earth by our favourite over lords the Daleks
    They want to drill down to its core and then tow the planet back home
    to use it as a spare, well for its minerals etc. The Doctor manages to send their
    " Core bomb " of course and defeat them. Bernard Cribbins ( Later to appear in
    New Who ) has one memorable scene playing a "Roboman ". They are men
    controlled like robots by the Daleks. It all physical humour trying to fit in to
    their strictly timed movents etc. Another scen had two Londoners caught by the
    daleks ( That sounds very sore ) One tries to escape, but is shot by them, falling from
    a shop roof on to some rubble. The stuntman who did it actually broke his leg on
    landing but had to hobble on to finish the scene. So when Ton Cruise goes on about
    a broken ankle, just tell him to try it with a broken leg.
    I first saw this film when I was a very young kid and was totally immersed in it,
    to the point. That during a chase from the Daleks in a red van, My Mother asked
    me to hurry and stop that Post office van !!!, ....... I was up off the floor and had
    opened the front door, before I realised, She was joking. ;)
    Much later, I learned that at one point Peter Cushing was offered the role of Dr Who in
    the TV series, which he turned down, although he later said he regretted not doing it.

    Gymkata I agree it was fantastic to see Robert Redford again, I think because he'd
    made a few movies like three days of the condor. They wanted him as the story concerned
    surveillance, or rather abuse of surveillence.
    "I've been informed that there ARE a couple of QAnon supporters who are fairly regular posters in AJB."
  • caractacus pottscaractacus potts Orbital communicator, level 10Posts: 4,111MI6 Agent
    thank you very much Thunderpussy, I learned plenty from that.
    You are a wise and patient professor of all things truly important.
    All I knew about these Dr Who films before before is that Peter Cushing played the Doctor.
    I see you say Terry Nation wrote the script so that makes the films official, if not canonical.

    followup questions, sir:
    Was Cushing any good?
    Was Hartnell still the actual Doctor at that time? (I note you say the CushingDoctor was a grandfather but not a timelord)
    Did Cushing try to channel Hartnell's performance or was he doing an original take on the character?

    are the two films based on previous TV storylines?
    (I think it was the second Dalek storyline that saw them first invade earth, that's also the one where Susan is written out of the series)

    and did you see this as part of that BritBox streaming service you mentioned elsewhere, or do have the dvd?
  • ThunderpussyThunderpussy Behind you !Posts: 63,792MI6 Agent
    Hartnell was still the actual Doctor at the time, I'm a big Peter Cushing fan so I thought he
    was brilliant. He did his own version of the Dr, He was very friendly and out going unlike the
    rather grumpy Grandfather figure of Hartnell. The films are based on the TV series scripts,
    just tweaked to get them to film length. I bought it as a download from Amazon Prime.
    Apparently it was one of the first British films to use Product placement, with Quaker Oats
    financing part of the film, Hence why in one opening scene in London 2150, it's under a big
    poster for Sugar Puffs :D
    "I've been informed that there ARE a couple of QAnon supporters who are fairly regular posters in AJB."
  • BarbelBarbel ScotlandPosts: 37,874Chief of Staff
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  • caractacus pottscaractacus potts Orbital communicator, level 10Posts: 4,111MI6 Agent
    no further questions, your Thunderpussyness.

    but that was awesome, we gotta get you to do more essays on your areas of expertise like that!
  • ThunderpussyThunderpussy Behind you !Posts: 63,792MI6 Agent
    A little note on the great Christopher Lee, I recently read that he said he only got
    the role of Frankenstein's Monster because his agent charged a little less than
    Bernard Bresslaw's agent ! and that lead to Dracula ........ ;)


    89720378-carry-on-camping-rank.jpg
    Here with Sid James.
    "I've been informed that there ARE a couple of QAnon supporters who are fairly regular posters in AJB."
  • caractacus pottscaractacus potts Orbital communicator, level 10Posts: 4,111MI6 Agent
    actually I do have a followup question, or four, Thunderpussy.

    You say these two movies were adapted from the first two Dalek storylines?
    in the first Dalek storyline, the Doctor and his companions travel to Skaro where they first encounter the previously unknown lifeform.
    If CushingDoctor is an earthling, not a TimeLord, how did they travel to Skaro?
    Does he have a TARDIS? (cant believe it took me so long to think of that crucial question)
    If so, how did he get a TARDIS?
  • ThunderpussyThunderpussy Behind you !Posts: 63,792MI6 Agent
    Yes he has the Tardis, but in these films he's just an eccentric scientist/ inventor.
    They do travel to Skaro and the story unfolds pretty much the same. Only Cushing
    has his Daughter, Granddaughter and Roy castle as Barbara's Boyfriend ( Ian )
    "I've been informed that there ARE a couple of QAnon supporters who are fairly regular posters in AJB."
  • welshboy78welshboy78 Posts: 10,320MI6 Agent
    Yes he has the Tardis, but in these films he's just an eccentric scientist/ inventor.
    They do travel to Skaro and the story unfolds pretty much the same. Only Cushing
    has his Daughter, Granddaughter and Roy castle as Barbara's Boyfriend ( Ian )

    Used to love that one as a kid. Time to revisit. Only been 30 plus years lol
    Instagram - bondclothes007
  • caractacus pottscaractacus potts Orbital communicator, level 10Posts: 4,111MI6 Agent
    huh, now I realise its so easy just to say he's an alien Timelord, that's why he has a TARDIS. Leave the rest to our imaginations.
    It's a lot more complicated to explain how a human scientist would invent a TARDIS.
    Does he have any more control over it than the regular Doctor?

    and does that mean Barbara is his daughter?
  • ThunderpussyThunderpussy Behind you !Posts: 63,792MI6 Agent
    In this film Barbara is his Daughter with her
    Boyfriend, Ian. So they didn't have to change
    The scripts ;) ( and not Susan's teachers ) .
    Susan in the film is a child of maybe 12 or
    So.
    He does seem to have more control, as
    It goes where and when he wants.
    "I've been informed that there ARE a couple of QAnon supporters who are fairly regular posters in AJB."
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