The Day Of The Triffids (1962)

When a shower of meteorites produces a glow that blinds anyone that looks at it hilarity ensues. As it was such a beautiful sight, most people were watching, and as a consequence, 99% of the world's population go blind. This chaos results in the escape of some Triffids: plants from outer space that had recently arrived on a meteor that are capable of moving themselves around and attacking people.

Trivia: The triffids inspired the E.T. plants of E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial. When the film was finished it was too short, so the entire sequence where the triffids attack the lighthouse was added. The Day Of The Triffids was one of the movies mentioned in the song "Science Fiction Double Feature". This was the song played over the opening titles of the cult classic The Rocky Horror Picture Show. The lyrics that mention it are "And I really got hot when I saw Janet Scott/Fight a Triffid that spits poison and kills".

I had never heard of this movie before hearing Science Fiction Double Feature and then I had no idea what it was. Normally triffids are small plants, no higher then a foot or two, but when they are subjected to the light display of the meteor shower they suddenly grow monsterous and mobile. The thing is that it is the lights, not anything else that triggers it because the first Triffids shown are inside the Royal Botanical Gardens greenhouse. This is a typical 60s horror film in that now it seems unintentionally funny. I think they really did intend for it to be a true horror film but I mean get real. These plants travel at the speed of a slow crawl, plus, they make a clicking noise when they are hunting. So basically, if you are walking along and suddenly you hear "click click click click" walk away really fast. Also if I was a scientist and I was trying to discover how to kill an alien, the first thing I would do would be to look around for obvious answers that you would least expect because they always seem to work (see War Of The Worlds). For those of you who haven't seen the movie and wonder what the heck I am talking about, well the triffids disolve in salt water, I mean like in less then a minute they are are big pile of green goo on the floor when you spray salt water on them. Oh and what is the deal with the convicts? There is a scene where a bunch of convicts get lose and what do they do? They go to the one house with seeing people and have a party. We are talking music and dancing and drinking and stuff and supposedly plundering and pillaging, but some of the girls who are being "held against their will" are dancing right along with the guys, I know, you are thinking they are being forced to, but some are dancing by themselves and looking like they are having fun.

Cool Hand Luke (1967)

Luke Jackson (Paul Newman) is a cool, gutsy prisoner in a Southern chain gang, who, while refusing to buckle under to authority, keeps escaping and being recaptured. The prisoners admire Luke because, as Dragline (Oscar Winner George Kennedy) explains it, "You're an original, that's what you are!" Nevertheless, the camp staff actively works to crush Luke until he finally breaks. Hilarity ensues, Boss!

Trivia: Bette Davis was first offered the role of Luke's mother, but refused the bit part. Luke's prison number (37) is a reference to the Bible - Luke 1:37. ("For with God nothing shall be impossible.") The movie's line "What we've got here is failure to communicate." was voted as the #11 movie quote by the American Film Institute. Truckloads of Spanish moss was shipped from Louisiana to the set in California to hang in the trees around the prison.

Talking about the movie Boss! One thing you need to learn if you want to survive in a southern prison camp is to make sure the Bosses (Guards) know what you are doing. You are in prison you know. If you don't do what the Bosses want you to do, you spend the night in the box. Paul Newman did a pretty good job as Luke "Sometimes nothing can be a real cool hand" Jackson. George Kennedy won an Oscar for playing Dragline. This movie is full of great quotes too, besides the most famous one said by Strother Martin (Luke says it too later on). Supposedly there is a lot of religious symbolism in the movie and you can see some of it. After Luke eats 50 hard boiled eggs on a bet he is left in a pose similar to Jesus on the cross. One of the head guards is known for not having eyes (he always wears mirrored sunglasses and is never shown without them) that makes him feel demonic, stuff like that. Anyway, it was pretty subtle. O Brother Where Art Thou would later use the man with no eyes character as the devil. Cool Hand Luke is a good movie.

Guess Who's Coming To Dinner (1967)

Joey Drayton (Katharine Houghton) brings her fiance, Dr. John Prentice (Sidney Poitier), home to sunny San Francisco to meet her affluent parents (Spencer Tracy and Katharine Hepburn). Hilarity ensues as their liberal persuasions are now put to the test, for although the young man is an ideal choice (he's highly and internationally respected in the medical field, and he's impeccably mannered, handsome, well dressed and of a respectable California family), he's black. The film, which covers one busy day in the Drayton home, is essentially a drawing-room comedy, a series of cross-conversations between the young doctor and the girl's parents. But just when you think it can't get any worse, guess who's coming to dinner. The simple dinner is extended to include the doctor's parents, who fly up from Los Angeles for the evening, and the crusty but benevolent old Irish priest, a friend of the family.

Trivia: Spencer Tracy died 17 days after filming was completed. Katharine Hepburn had to use her salary as backing in order to make this movie because Spencer Tracy was so ill that the studio didn't think that he would make to the end of the picture. Due to Spencer Tracy's health, the cast was always working from two shooting scripts, one with Tracy, one without. Typically, Katharine Hepburn brought Tracy in the morning, they worked until she decided he was too tired, then Tracy and Hepburn left. Sidney Poitier, who already had received a Best Actor Oscar for Lilies of the Field, was intimidated by working with two legends, and preferred to perform to empty high backed chairs. Katharine Hepburn never saw the completed movie. She said the memories of Tracy were too painful. Katharine Hepburn's character's daughter is played by Hepburn's actual niece Katharine Houghton. The three-inch bronze sculpture of Spencer Tracy featured in the film was created by Katharine Hepburn herself and was one of the items that were included in her estate auction in 2004. The bust was the most sought-after item and fetched the most money--it sold for $316,000, whereas pre-auction estimates were in the neighborhood of $3,000-$5,000. Spencer Tracy's glasses have no lenses throughout the film.

Welcome to Classic Month September. I have a backlog of old mostly classic movies and I have decided to dedicate the whole month to them. First up a little gem of a movie. I mean really, Spencer Tracy, Katharine Hepburn, Sidney Poitier? What a powerful cast. Three Oscar winners that dominate the screen, and even though Poitier was intimidated, he sure held his own. One of my friends mentioned this and I agree with him...the film makers really try to make Poitier smart, gentle, well respected, well mannered, and all that to make sure the main conflict is the fact that he is black and she is not, then they make him 1) 14 years older then her, and 2) they only met 10 days ago and already want to get married. This really submarines the whole race issue because both of these points would be valid issues to a parent to want to disapprove the marriage. So, how did they confront these two points? Well, as for the age issue, nothing, they completely ignore it, I think it was only mentioned once in passing. And the 10 days, they all but ignore it, there is a little mention of it, but that is about it. I mean I understand why they did it, the age difference gives him the time to become the respected doctor, but also keeps the parents younger and if they had had more time there wouldn't be a need for the parent to have to decide in one day if they approve which would effectively eliminate the conflict. But this is all beside the point, the movie was fantastic as were Poitier, Tracy, Hepburn, and Houghton.

Classic Movie Wednesday

Easy Rider (1969)

Two young "hippie" bikers, Wyatt (Peter Fonda) and Billy (Dennis Hopper) sell some dope in Southern California, stash their money away in their gas-tank and set off for a trip across America, on their own personal odyssey looking for a way to lead their lives. Hilarity ensues as on the journey they encounter bigotry and hatred from small-town communities who despise and fear their non-conformism. However Wyatt and Billy also discover people attempting 'alternative lifestyles' who are resisting this narrow-mindedness, there is always a question mark over the future survival of these drop-out groups. The gentle hippie community who thank God for 'a place to stand' are living their own unreal dream. The rancher they encounter and his Mexican wife are hard-pushed to make ends meet. Even LSD turns sour when the trip is a bad one. Death comes to seem the only freedom. When they arrive at a diner in a small town, they are insulted by the local rednecks as weirdo degenerates. They are arrested on some minor pretext by the local sheriff and thrown in jail where they meet George Hanson (Jack Nicholson), a liberal alcoholic lawyer. He gets them out and decides to join them on their trip to New Orleans in time for Mardi Gras.

Trivia: The Captain America jacket was designed by Peter Fonda and made by "two little old ladies" in Los Angeles. It was later sold at a charity auction. According to Peter Fonda, four police bikes were customized for the film. One was burned during filming, and the other three were stolen before filming was completed. Peter Fonda, Dennis Hopper, and Jack Nicholson were actually smoking marijuana on camera. During Jack Nicholson's "UFO" speech, Dennis Hopper was intent on getting him very stoned on marijuana. The laughing that eventually broke up his speech was not planned, and when Nicholson repeats the line "it....it....would be devastating...." was the next take. The final campfire scene was left out of the original shooting schedule and was shot after both motorcycles had been stolen. Some of the film was shot on 16mm film instead of 35mm. This was demo footage shot a year before production began. Some of the weird lighting effects in the LSD scene came about because a can of film was accidentally exposed when it was opened before being developed. Peter Fonda was an experienced motorcycle rider and the bike he rides in the movie is seriously stretched and raked and has tall "apehanger" style handlebars. Dennis Hopper was not as experienced a rider, therefore his bike is less radically chopped. Peter Fonda wore the Capt. America jacket and rode his chopper a week around L.A. before shooting began to give them a broken-in look and to get used to riding the radically designed bike. The American flag on the back of the jacket and on the gas tank of the bike caused him to be pulled over several times by the police. The rednecks in the Louisiana coffee shop who taunt the boys, and the two in the pickup truck at the end of the movie, were all local residents recruited by the filmmakers. In the case of the coffee shop denizens, the filmmakers were preparing to audition a group of local theater people when Dennis Hopper saw Causey, Lafont, et al, watching them and making wisecracks and decided to use them instead. It was one of the first films to make extensive use of previously released musical tracks rather than specially written film score. This is quite common with films now but was quite unusual at the time (the exception being the Beatles films and some other special cases). Hopper and Fonda did not write a full script for the movie and made most of it up as they went along. They didn't hire a crew and instead picked up hippies at communes across the country and used friends and passersby to hold the cameras and were drunk and stoned most of the time. Captain America's (Peter Fonda's) chopper was so "squirrely" to ride that at one stage Jack Nicholson (who was on the back) squeezed his knees on Peter Fonda's side to balance himself and broke one of Fonda's ribs.

Well, this was an interesting movie. There isn't really much dialog, a lot of it is Hopper and Fonda driving across America, which is beautiful. The most interesting part of this was the "making of" documentary. These guys made this on a shoe string budget and with the help of friends. They were also pretty much high the whole time. When you see them smoking marijuana on screen, they are smoking the real stuff. The cocaine was powdered sugar, but the marijuana was real.

The Alphabet Project: W is for...

What's New Pussycat? (1965)

Michael James (Peter O'Toole), a notorious womanizer, desperately wants to be faithful to his fiancee Carole (Romy Schneider), but runs into serious problems since every woman he meets seems to fall in love with him. His psychoanalyst Dr. Fassbender (Peter Sellers) can't help him either since he's busy courting one of his patients who in turn longs for Michael. Hilarity ensues as all the characters check into the Chateau Chantelle hotel for the weekend not knowing of each other's presence.

Trivia: The scene where Woody Allen's character celebrates his birthday on the wharf was filmed on December 1, 1964 - Woody's 29th birthday. Banned in Norway because of a scene where Peter Sellers tries to commit suicide by burning himself wrapped in a Norwegian flag. The movie began as a semi-autobiographical project for Warren Beatty with Woody Allen writing the screenplay. Eventually Beatty's role became smaller than originally intended and producer Charles Feldman ignored his request to cast his then-girlfriend Leslie Caron instead of Capucine. Beatty then left the project and his role was taken by Peter O'Toole. The title is a line Warren Beatty used on his girlfriends at the time. Dr. Fassbender's line about Rita, played by Ursula Andress, "knowing James Bond" was ad-libbed by Peter Sellers, which explains why Ursula Andress laughs out loud afterwards. Andress played Honey Ryder in the first James Bond film, Dr. No.

I had no idea when I got this movie that Woody Allen wrote the screen play, or for that matter that he was in it. The problem with that is that his parts, excluding the big hotel finale at the end, seemed to be shoehorned into the movie. They really didn't fit. They were funny, yes. They showed Allen's future brilliance, yes. Did they belong in the movie? No. Peter Sellers, on the other hand is a comic genius. I saw him in Dr. Strangelove and the Pink Panther movie, but I don't remember ever seeing him in anything else. I will have to seek out his other films, this man is just plain funny, from his comic timing to his outrageous accent. Then there is Peter O'Toole. He can be serious, he can be funny, I think he can be just about anything he wants to be. In this one he was charming and engaging, which his character was supposed to be, and he was funny. His timing went really well with Sellers timing. After it was over I was wondering, if they had tried to make this movie today, could they have pulled it off. I don't think so. First, you would have to find someone to play the Sellers role and then the O'Toole role and I could not think of a pair of actors that would be able to work together like those two.

Next Up: "X", This Week's Clue: This movie has way too many Baldwins in it. Nobody guessed correctly so I am off the hook for this week, I still owe Amanda, Mick, and Anonymous Ken movies, I have Amanda's and Mick's choices (they should be out this coming week)...but not AK's. Here are the guesses:

Walk The Line - A chronicle of country music legend Johnny Cash's life, from his early days on an Arkansas cotton farm to his rise to fame with Sun Records in Memphis, where he recorded alongside Elvis Presley, Jerry Lee Lewis and Carl Perkins.

Wedding Crashers - John Beckwith and Jeremy Grey, a pair of committed womanizers who sneak into weddings to take advantage of the romantic tinge in the air, find themselves at odds with one another when John meets and falls for Claire Cleary.

What Dreams May Come - Chris Neilson dies to find himself in a heaven more amazing than he could have ever dreamed of. There is one thing missing: his wife...

Watchers - Based on a novel by Dean Koontz. A boy takes in a stray dog, later finding out that its an ultra-intelligent runaway from a genetic research lab...

When Harry Met Sally - Harry and Sally have known each other for years, and are very good friends, but they fear sex would ruin the friendship.

Waterworld - In a future where the polar ice caps have melted and most of Earth is underwater, a mutated mariner fights starvation and outlaw "smokers," and reluctantly helps a woman and a young girl find dry land.

Westworld - A futuristic amusement park becomes a deathtrap when the androids and computer systems used in it begin to murderously run amok.

Who's Afraid Of Virginia Woolf - A bitter aging couple with the help of alcohol, use a young couple to fuel anguish and emotional pain towards each other.

A Shot In The Dark (1964)

When rich M. Ballon's spanish driver is found shot dead, Inspector Jacques Clouseau (Peter Sellers) is the first official on the scene. All evidence suggests Maria Gambrelli (Elke Sommer), the maid, to be the murderer. But Clouseau, being attracted to the beautiful girl, is convinced that she is hiding something. So, he has her released from jail and tries to follow her secretly, even to a nudist colony. Things do not work out the way the inspector wanted and people keep being murdered, and each time innocent Maria seems to be the killer. But with someone important wanting Clouseau and nobody else to cover this case, his tolerance-challenged boss Charles Dreyfuss is close to losing his mind when casualties keep turning up. And Clouseau keeps on causing hilarity to ensue without knowing it...

Trivia: Only official Clouseau film not to use the name "Pink Panther" nor use that cartoon character in the opening credits. This film was originally meant to have been an adaptation of the stage play by Harry Kurnitz. Walter Matthau and Peter Sellers were to have been the detectives, but Sellers did not like how things were going and wanted out. United Artists brought in Blake Edwards to keep Sellers on the project. Edwards looked at the script and thought that it might be better suited to the character of Inspector Jacques Clouseau, and rewrote the entire script with a young William Peter Blatty. It was released only three months after the original The Pink Panther (1963). None of the characters in the Harry Kurnitz stage play appears in the film. The character of Maria Gambrelli first appears in this film and was played by Elke Sommer. The character resurfaced in Son of the Pink Panther (1993), played this time by Claudia Cardinale, who played Princess Dala in the original The Pink Panther. The movie was completed before The Pink Panther, but shelved because the studio didn't think it was any good. The success of the first film made the executives decide to release the shelved film. This also explains the short time span between the release of the first film and this one and the absence of Kato in the original but his appearance in this film and all the subsequent sequels. Burt Kwouk's character is named "Kato" (later "Cato") after the Asian sidekick in The Green Hornet.

I didn't know before I watched this that it was completed before The Pink Panther or that it was released only three months later but it kind of makes sense now. It has some quintessential panther parts but is missing others. It has the chief inspector who hates Clouseau and wishes only to be rid of him. It has Kato/Cato trying to keep Clouseau guessing. It has all the Clouseau characteristics. It has Henry Mancini genius music, but it isn't the Pink Panther theme (It was used in the cartoons as the Inspector Clouseau theme). It doesn't have the Pink Panther animated title sequence though it does have the animated Inspector Clouseau that made it to the cartoons. I am glad that they didn't use the assistant Hercule character in the next few movies, Clouseau was far funnier without him and you started to wonder why Hercule allowed Clouseau to do some of the things he did. Peter Sellers is great in this movie, while Elke Sommers was good, but the rest of the cast seemed to not be able to figure out how to react to Clouseau and was therefore inconsistant. The nudist camp was very well done, kepping all the naughty bits concealed while still conveying the humor. All in all it was a funny movie.

The Alphabet Project: F is for...

The Fearless Vampire Killers Or Pardon Me But Your Teeth Are In My Neck (1967)

The old bat researcher, professor Abronsius (Jack MacGowran) and his assistant, Alfred (Roman Polanski), go to a remote Transylvanian village looking for vampires. Alfred falls in love with the inn-keeper's young daughter Sarah (Sharon Tate). However, she has been spotted by the mysterious Count Krolock who lives in a dark and creepy castle outside the village and taken to his castle. The professor and Alfred follow..hilarity ensues.

Trivia: Producer Martin Ransohoff discovered Sharon Tate on the set of "The Beverly Hillbillies" (1962), and insisted that director Roman Polanski use her instead of Jill St. John as Polanski had planned. Amongst the ancestral portraits in the castle is a depiction of an ugly old woman inspired by a sketch of Leonardo da Vinci and since the 18th century frequently connected with Margarete Maultasch, countess of Tyrol (1318-1369). The portrait on the wall in Alfred's bedroom in Count von Krolok's castle is of Richard III, king of England from 1483 to 1485.

Wow, this was a pretty weird movie. It had a B movie feel to it. The professor was funny in a absent minded professor sort of way. Polanski was pretty funny as the inept assistant and Sharon Tate was very beautiful with red hair. Well, you might have already figured out my clue about the link to the grisly crime in this movie. Roman Polanski eventually married Sharon Tate and two years later on the night of August 8th, 1969, Sharon and four other poeple were brutally murdered in her Hollywood home, Sharon was eight months pregnant at the time. The next night, two other poeple were killed. The murders became known as the Tate-LaBianca murders but when one of the killers confessed in prison, the crime became known as the Manson Family Murders after Charles Manson, the leader of the "family." Gee, that was a downer.

Okay, well, next up is "G", here are the guesses for "F":

Friday the 13th - Many years after two summer camp councilers are killed at Camp Crystal Lake, the owner decides to reopen, which sparks a series of grisly murders. (great, The Manson Family Murders aren't enough?)

Ferris Bueller's Day Off - A high school wise guy is determined to have a day off from school, despite of what the principal thinks of that.

Freddy Got Fingered - An unemployed cartoonist moves back in with his parents and younger brother Freddy. When his parents demand he leave, he begins to spread rumors that his father is sexually abusing Freddy. (I am NOT a Tom Green fan, sorry)

The Fifth Element - In the colorful future, a cab driver unwittingly becomes the central figure in the search for a legendary cosmic weapon to keep Evil and Mr Zorg at bay.

A Fist Full Of Dollars - (Per Un Pugno Di Dollari) A wandering gunfighter plays two rival families against each other in a town torn apart by greed, pride, and revenge.

Flubber - An absent-minded professor discovers "flubber," a rubber-like super-bouncy substance.

Fright Night - When a teenager learns that his next door neighbour is a vampire, no one will believe him.

Fantastic Voyage - A diplomat is nearly assassinated. In order to save him, a submarine is shrunken to microscopic size and injected into his blood stream with a small crew. Problems arise almost as soon as they enter the bloodstream.

Field Of Dreams - An Iowa corn farmer, hearing voices, interprets them as a command to build a baseball diamond in his fields; he does, and the Chicago Black Sox come.

Fallen - Homicide detective John Hobbes witnesses the execution of serial killer Edgar Reese. Soon after the execution the killings start again, and they are very similar to Reese's style

Face/Off - A revolutionary medical technique allows an undercover agent to take the physical appearance of a major criminal and infiltrate his organization.

Fargo - Jerry Lundegaard's inept crime falls apart due to his and his henchmen's bungling and the persistent police work of pregnant Marge Gunderson.

Finding Neverland - Starring Kate Winslet and some guy, The story of J.M. Barrie's friendship with a family who inspired him to create Peter Pan.

The 40 Year Old Virgin - Goaded by his buddies, a nerdy guy who's never "done the deed" only finds the pressure mounting when he meets a single mother.

Frequency - An accidental cross-time radio link connects father and son across 30 years. The son tries to save his father's life, but then must fix the consequences.

Flatliners - Medical students bring themselves near death; their experiment begins to go awry.

Flightplan - A claustrophobic, Hitchcockian thriller. A bereaved woman and her daughter are flying home from Berlin to America. At 30,000 feet the child vanishes and nobody admits she was ever on that plane.

From Here To Eternity - In 1941 Hawaii, a private is cruelly punished for not boxing on his unit's team, while his captain's wife and second in command are falling in love.

Fatal Attraction - A married man's one night stand comes back to haunt him when that lover begins to stalk him and his family.

Fear And Loathing In Las Vegas - An oddball journalist and his psychopathic lawyer travel to Las Vegas for a series of psychadelic escapades. Another one of those movies with that guy from Finding Neverland

A Few Good Men - Neo military lawyer Kaffee defends Marines accused of murder; they contend they were acting under orders.

Night Of The Living Dead (1968)

Chaos descends upon the world as the brains of the recently deceased become inexplicably reanimated, causing the dead to rise and feed on human flesh. Speculation rests on a radiation-covered NASA satellite returning from Venus, but it only remains a speculation. Anyone who dies during the crisis of causes unrelated to brain trauma will return as a flesh-eating zombie, including anyone who has been bitten by a zombie. The only way to destroy the zombies is to destroy the brain. As the catastrophe unfolds, a young woman visiting her father's grave takes refuge in a nearby farmhouse, where she is met by a man who protects her and barricades them inside. They both later discover people hiding in the basement, and they each attempt to cope with the situation. Their only hope rests on getting some gasoline from a nearby pump into a truck that is running on empty, but this requires braving the hordes of ravenous walking corpses outside. When they finally put their plans into action, panic and personal tensions only add to the terror as they try to survive. Hilarious chaos ensues.

Trivia: The blood is actually Bosco chocolate syrup. The word "zombie" is never used. The most common euphemism used to describe the living dead is "those things," mostly by Cooper. When the zombies are eating the bodies in the burnt-out truck they were actually eating roast ham covered in chocolate sauce. The filmmakers joked that it was so nausea inducing that it was almost a waste of time putting the makeup on the zombies, as they ended up looking pale and sick anyway. Though the radiation of a detonated satellite returning from Venus is theorized to be the cause of the dead rising and attacking the living, according to the filmmakers, the actual cause is never determined.

Columbia Pictures was the only major Hollywood studio interested in distributing this film, but eventually passed because it was in black-and-white at a time when movies had to compete with new color televisions. Ironically, Columbia did distribute the 1990 color remake. American International Pictures (AIP) considered releasing the film, but wanted George A. Romero to shoot an upbeat ending and add more of a love story subplot. During the filming of the cemetery sequence, shot on two separate days, an unexpected accident caused a fast change of script. The car driven by Barbara and Johnny into the cemetery was actually owned by the mother of Russell Streiner. Unfortunately, sometime between the two filming sequences, someone ran into the car and put a dent in it that would easily be visible on camera. George A. Romero rewrote the scene so the car would come to a stop by crashing into a tree. One of the Walter Reade Organization's publicity stunts was a $50,000 insurance policy against anyone dying from a heart attack while watching the film. The only real mishap to happen during filming involved producer and actor Russell Streiner's (Johnny's) brother, Gary Streiner. After the scene where Duane Jones sets the chair on fire, it was Gary's responsibility to extinguish the flames and set the chair ablaze again to preserve continuity, ensuring that smoke would be seen emanating from it near the end of the film. At one point Gary's sleeve caught on fire and, as he ran in terror, S. William Hinzman (in full zombie makeup) tackled him to the ground and helped extinguish the flames, saving him from major injury.

Okay, maybe your thinking, gee, I thought Will didn't like horror movies like that. Well, I have discovered that most are okay, especially the older ones and since this one came on cable (Turner Classic Movies) albeit at 1 a.m. in the morning I figured it was safe to watch. And it was. I really have noticed since starting this blog that I am watching movies I would have never thought of watching a year and a half ago. But what better movie is out there for a post on Halloween (besides maybe, oh I don't know...Halloween?) The Hollywood desensitization continues as this was tame compared to some of the "mainstream" movies I have seen. I commend the director for insisting on the darker ending when he could have succumbed to the major studios wishes and made a happy ending. For those of you who don't know how it ends, here is how: The living dead finally storm the house and as a result all the survivors except Ben are killed. Ben then barricades himself in the basement to wait out the night. He makes it through the night and listens as the sheriff and his men come in and kill the remaining zombies. As Ben emerges from the basement and looks out a window to see if all is clear, one of the sheriff's men sees movement in the house and shoots, killing Ben with a shot to the head. Ben's body is then moved to the bonfire with the other zombie bodies and burned. So there you have it.

Okay, an update on my Alphabet Project movie for "F". Netflix is supposed to send it today, which means I won't get it until tomorrow (Hopefully) so if I post it tomorrow it will be late. I am going to give you a clue to see if anybody can get a little closer. So here it is. The movie has a link to a very famous very grusome very grizzly crime that shocked the nation, now before you start guessing, the movie itself is not about the crime and has nothing to do with the crime and acutally happened before the crime did, the link is elsewhere.

Monster A Go-Go (1965)

Astronaut Frank Douglas, who was apparently sent into space to investigate mysterious satellites, crash-lands in some woods and promptly goes on a homicidal rampage. Investigators from NASA or the Air Force or the Lions Club, I dunno, look into the mystery; and, as the movie progresses and the body count mounts we discover not just one but TWO conspiracies at work here! It is revealed that Frank has been mutated, increased to ten feet in height *and* sent into a murderous rage by an experimental radiation repellent given to him before the launch. Just as we are recovering from this JFK-like cover-up of the truth, the plot moves forward eight weeks - the murders have stopped. But where is Douglas? It turns out that the inventor of the mutagenic rad-repellent captured him and has been keeping him bundled up in his lab, feeding him over those weeks an antidote to the repellent to keep him docile. Then....boom, more plot twist action: the antidote wears off faster and faster every time it is applied, and each successive relapse into the killer rage is worse! Douglas finally murders his way to freedom, and heads for the big city to go hide in a disused sewer tunnel. The army and Civil Defence move in to tackle the shuffling radioactive lumpy-faced (and very tall) space-crazed giant, only to discover the film's third and final twist...which even Joel and the guys on the satelite of love couldn't create enough hilarity to cover. (okay, I stole the above plot summery, if you could call it that, from a guy named Jeff Stone from New Zealand, which he had posted on IMDb.com, It is bang on.)

Trivia: Although Henry Hite (who plays the monster) was 7 foot 6, the director still wanted the monster to be 10 feet tall so Hite was shot at an upward angle to make an already very tall actor look even taller.

Joel and the guys from Mystery Science Theater 3000 tried their hardest, but to no avail. This is simply the worst movie I have ever seen in all my life. They must have been on something when they made this movie. It doesn't make any sense. I thought short and soft about it and I have decided to spoil this movie for you so you won't have to torture yourself by watching it. We last see our monster villian sludging through the sewers as the army closes in, and then...nothing. The movie ends. Here is what the narrator says "Suddenly there was no trail. There was no giant, no monster, no thing called Douglas to be followed. There was nothing in the tunnel but the puzzled men of courage who suddenly found themselves alone with shadows and darkness. With the telegram, one cloud lifts, and another descends. Astronaut Frank Douglas, rescued, alive, well, and of normal size some 8000 miles away in a lifeboat." Don't watch this movie, I beg of you, please, for your sanity, stay clear! I am gonna go to sleep now, my head hurts.

Top 250 Challenge: 249

El Angel Exterminador(1962)
Number 243 on IMDb's Top 250

During a formal dinner party at the home of Senor Nobile and his wife, Lucia, the servants unaccountably leave their posts until only the head butler is left. After dinner, the guests adjourn to the music room where one of the women plays a piano sonata. Later, instead of leaving, the guests remove their jackets, loosen their gowns, and settle down for the night. By morning it is apparent that for some inexplicable reason, they are trapped in the room. Days pass, and their plight intensifies; they become quarrelsome, hostile, and hysterical. One of the guests, Russell, dies and his body is placed in a large cupboard; Beatriz and Eduardo, a young couple about to be married, lock themselves in a closet and commit suicide; a sheep is slaughtered and roasted on a fire made from floorboards; the host gives his secret supply of morphine to Leonora, whose physician, another guest, reveals to others that she is dying of cancer, but the drugs are stolen by Francisco and Juana, an incestuous brother and sister; and Ana, a practitioner of witchcraft, invokes the demons of hell while lapsing into feverish hallucinations. Eventually, Raul suggests that Nobile is responsible for their predicament and that he must be sacrificed. As Nobile offers to take his own life, Letitia sees that they are all in the same positions as when their plight began. Obeying her instructions, they retrace their conversation and movements and discover that they are free to leave the room. To celebrate their salvation, the guests attend mass at the cathedral. When the service is over, they find that they, along with the priest and the entire congregation, are once again trapped. The situation on the church provokes a riot on the streets and the military apparently take over the town...hilarity ensues, I think.

Trivia: In the church scene - the first scene of the movie to be shot - Rita Macedo appears as "Lucia de Nobile". She was not able to complete the film due to her pregnancy.

What the heck? This was truly a strange movie. All the servants feel that something is going to happen so they leave. The guests are trapped in the room, but not by a lock or anything, they just can't leave the room, no real reason is given. Likewise, everybody outside can seem to figure out how to get in to see if anybody is still alive. I guess it is a study in how close the supposedly sophisticated people are to animals given the right environment or some such nonsense. And then there is the name, The Exterminating Angel, the only religious part of the movie is the end when they go to the church, if an Angel was doing this, don't you think more would have been made about them being somehow lacking in religious fevor or something? Strange, really strange.

Up Last (Hopefully): The Man WHo Would Be King, Sean Connery and Michael Caine! Adventure in all its glory!

Bond Revisted

On Her Majesty's Secret Service (1969)
Bond 6

While on leave, British agent James Bond (George Lazenby) prevents a young woman, Tracy Draco, from committing suicide. Her father is the head of a powerful crime syndicate who is impressed by Bond and wants him to protect his daughter by marrying her. In exchange he offers Bond information which will lead 007 to his arch enemy Ernst Blofeld. At first Bond agrees to the deal purely to fulfil his objective to kill Blofeld but later he grows to love Tracy. When the British learn of Blofeld's plans to destroy mankind with a deadly virus, 007 is torn between his loyalty to his county and his intent to marry Tracy. Hilarity ensues.

Trivia: Joanna Lumley makes one of her first screen appearances in this movie. Unlike other "Avengers" actors and actresses (Patrick Macnee, Diana Rigg, Honor Blackman), she is the only one to have appeared in a Bond movie before starring in "The Avengers" (1961). The building used for Blofeld's clinic called Piz Gloria, is a restaurant located atop the Schilthorn Mountain in the Bernese Oberlands. The only public access to the restaurant is by cable car (from Murren or Stechelberg). Since George Lazenby was a virtual unknown when he was cast as Bond, initial teaser advertising for the film emphasized the Bond character rather than the actor playing him. Several ads in fact utilized an image of a "faceless" Bond. United Artists would later say that this marketing strategy was a mistake which hurt the film's performance at the box office. In addition to having the longest running length of the Bond series, this movie also has the longest title (5 words, 9 syllables). Just before the opening credits, after Tracy runs away from him, Bond turns to the camera and says, "This never happened to the other fellow," a sly reference to the previous Bond, Sean Connery. It is also the only time Bond breaks the "fourth wall" in the series.

"Orbis non sufficit", is Latin for "the world is not enough". This is the motto of James Bond's family and is mentioned in both Ian Fleming's original novel and this film. It was later used as a Bond movie title in its own right for The World Is Not Enough (1999). As Bond clears out his desk, we see Honey's knife from Dr. No (1962), Grant's garrote/ watch from From Russia with Love (1963), and a re-breather from Thunderball (1965). A bit of the theme music from each movie is played as we see the appropriate item. As Bond passes a janitor in Draco's headquarters, the man can be heard whistling the Goldfinger (1964) theme.

The film performed admirably, outgrossing its nearest competitor almost two to one at the U.S. box office where, according to Variety, it was the most popular film in the country for four solid weeks. It generated enough rentals at the box-office to claim ninth position on the box office chart for the year 1970. The persistent belief that it was a flop arises from its disappointing showing in comparison to the previous three Sean Connery Bond films, all of which made twice as much money.

The Characters:

• James Bond - Played by George Lazenby for the only time.
• Ernst Stavro Blofeld - Bad guy extraordinary played by Donald Pleasance in an uncanny Telly Savalas impersonation...okay, it was Telly Savalas, just seeing if you were paying attention.
• Tracy Di Vicenzo/Tracy Bond - Diana Rigg, The only woman Bond ever married, unless you count Kissy Suzuki in You Only Live Twice, but as Kissy says, "Remember, you gave false name to priest!" and "This is business!"
• Blofeld's Angels of Death - 12 beautiful girls that were at Blofeld's clinic to have their allergies cured, but Blofeld brainwashes them to release a deadly agent the will devastate the world, that is unless, of course, the world's goverments pay him ONE MILLION DOLLARS...or something like that.

The Theme Song:

John Barry felt it would be difficult to compose a theme song containing the title On Her Majesty's Secret Service unless it was written operatically, in the style of Gilbert and Sullivan; director Peter R. Hunt allowed an instrumental title theme. (Thank goodness) Barry also composed the love song, "We Have All the Time in the World", sung by Louis Armstrong. With lyrics by Burt Bacharach's regular lyricist Hal David, it is heard during the Bond–Tracy courtship montage, bridging Draco's birthday party in Portugal and Bond's burglary of the Gebrüder Gumbold law office in Bern, Switzerland. "We Have All the Time in the World" often is mistakenly referred to as the opening credits theme. It was Louis Armstrong's last film performance (he was dying of cancer at the time).

Vehicles & Gadgets:

• Aston Martin DBS — This car is seen in the movie in four scenes: in the pre-credits teaser, outside Bond's hotel, briefly outside a jeweler's shop, and as Bond & Tracy's wedding car. Nothing is known about what kind of gadgets are installed, except for a rifle with a telescopic sight mounted in the glovebox.
• Radioactive Lint — In the beginning of the story, Q is showing M a homing device made of radioactive lint: "When placed in a person's pocket, the anti-personnel and location fix seems fairly obvious." M is more concerned with a location fix of 007. Reportedly, director Peter Hunt had a disdain for the multiple gadgets of previous films, so the creation of the seemingly silly radioactive lint (coupled with a general lack of gadgets in the film otherwise) was seen as his response to this. Ironically, the concept of radioactive lint actually makes it one of the more practical of all James Bond film gadgets.
• Safecracker — A small (for its time) device consisting of a flexible cable ending in a grapple meant to be fitted on a typical safe combination lock. The machine would then examine the lock, figure its combination, and open the safe. Additionally, the safecracker has an integral photocopier, to copy secret documents, and minimize the chance of the owner's learning of the break-in if the documents went missing. It is implied that the device is slow-working, as it takes an entire lunch hour to crack the safe. As demonstrated in the film, the device isn't very practical; aside from its slowness it requires support to transport the large device to the site and again to remove it after the job is done (in this film, a fellow agent passes the device to Bond using a crane from a neighbouring construction site). [Source]

The Pretitle Sequence:

James Bond driving his Aston Martin DBS on a Portuguese coastal highway. Suddenly, a woman in a red Mercury Cougar convertible roars up behind him and overtakes him. Soon, he comes across the same car parked along the side of the road. Using a telescopic rifle sight, Bond spies her walking into the tall waves of the Atlantic Ocean, appearing utterly lost. Realising she is intending suicide, Bond drives down to the shore, runs into the surf and plucks her from the sea. He brings her back to consciousness and introduces himself as "Bond, James Bond" (simultaneously revealing his face, in the same manner as Sean Connery was revealed in Dr. No). Two men then surprise the pair and separate them — Bond being led away at gunpoint and the woman at knifepoint. In short order, Bond gains the advantage and defeats them — trapping one under a boat, snaring the other in a fishing net. Meanwhile, the woman takes Bond's car, drives it back up to her car, jumps into the Cougar, and speeds away. Bond comments, "This never happened to the other fellow" (the only time the character breaks the fourth wall in the official series, although Connery as Bond does so at the end of the unofficial Bond film, Never Say Never Again), initiating the title credits sequence.

Okay a few thoughts. As a stand alone movie, this is pretty good. The ski scenes were spectacular! A guy, the same guy that filmed the Little Nellie stuff in You Only Live Twice, hung 18 feet below a helicopter in a parachute harness to film this. But as we all now, there is no way this movie will be viewed as a stand alone. So why is it not as well known as some of the preceding Bond films?

Well, to start off with, I think they tried too hard to convince us that everything was okay and that Bond was back. The title sequence used clips from the previous Bond films. There is a scene where Bond goes to his office, sits down, opens up a drawer, and starts pulling out props from the other films (accompanied with musical clues as to which movie the prop was from no less). To me the filmmakers were screaming, “See! He IS Bond! Really, would we lie to you!?”

Then on the other hand, they didn’t try hard enough, deviating from established themes, like the gadgets, the sharp Bond wit, stuff like that. I’m not saying that a less gadget filled movie is bad, just not when you are switching stars and trying to establish the new guy. Another thing is the theme song, with no lyrics it is hrad to associate the song with the movie, and Armstrong's song, though beautiful, doesn't convey "Bond film" to the listener.

Next, Lazenby played a more straight forward Bond, closer to the novels, but the public was used to Connery’s suave flippantness and playful humor. Again, not the fault of the filmmakers, but its still out there. I think if Lazenby was the first Bond, or had made some more Bond movies, he would have settled into the role.

And I think the biggest thing may be a little out there, but Bond defies M, and works outside Her Majesty’s Secret Service, with a bunch of international criminals no less. I know he is in love, but we want to see a secret agent, not a rogue agent. Bond lets it get too personal. The other time he did this, License to Kill, also underperformed. And as for Bond getting married, I think people want their Bond to be the suave, debonair ladies man, not the faithful husband, its part of the aura surrounding the secret agent. If he was married he couldn’t sleep with every girl he meets on a mission, there would be no sexual tension anymore, ot Bond would end up cheating on Tracy. I know, give the guy a break, but this is a fictional story and people want Bond to be a certain way. It was a catch 22 situation for Lazenby, I don't think he could have done anything to overcome the Connery legend, but I do think it helped Roger Moore, Timothy Dalton, Pierce Brosnan. Of course, to me, Sean Connery IS Bond!

Next Up: Bond 7, Diamonds Are Forever, Connery is Back!

Bond Revisited

You Only Live Twice (1967)
Bond 5

In 1967 the US and Soviet Russia reach a new crisis when Jupiter 16, a US space capsule, is captured in Earth orbit by a strange rocket ship. The US accuses the Soviets of the space hijacking, even though Great Britain believes the alien ship landed in the Sea Of Japan. Her Majesty's Secret Service now swings into action by "killing" James Bond in Hong Kong - a ruse so Bond can move about Japan unmolested by his enemies. Working with, and enjoying the exotic hospitality of, Japanese SIS and its commander "Tiger" Tanaka, James uncovers evidence that a major chemical company is smuggling liquid oxygen for rocket fuel, and his and Tanaka's investigation leads to an extinct volcano that is the source of the space hijacking - just as a Soviet spacecraft is grabbed by the alien rocket and a previously scheduled US launch is pushed upward with America's strategic forces on full battle alert, forcing James and Tanaka to confront the true source of the space hijackings - SPECTRE, and its ruthless leader Ernst Stavro Blofeld. Hilarity ensues.

Trivia: For the first time the story of a 007 film bears little resemblance to the novel it is based on. The budget was the then astronomic sum of $9,500,000 ($1,000,000 of of which was spent by Ken Adam in his crater set). The crater set was so large that crew members kept misreading Adam's dimensions as being in feet when they were supposed to be meters.

The female leads Mie Hama and Akikio Wakabayashi both appeared in Kingu Kongu Tai Gojira (1962) (King Kong vs. Godzilla). After being selected for the film, both Hama and Wakabayashi went to London and undertook English language tuition. Mie Hama found it difficult and failed to learn much English. When the producers came to the conclusion they would have to replace her, she threatened to commit suicide.

First Bond film in which 007 does not begin his mission in England (or in fact visits Britain at all). It is also the first film not to have Bond's briefing occur in M's London office; instead, it establishes that M and Miss Moneypenny and their offices are portable - a gimmick that would be revived in The Spy Who Loved Me (1977). First film to show James Bond in his Royal Navy uniform and to clearly indicate that he holds the rank of Commander.

The Characters:

• James Bond - Sean Connery, in his fifth film as Bond. Connery announced during filming that this would be his last Bond film (he was wrong, he made two more).
• Ernst Stavro Blofeld - Donald Pleasence, evil leader of SPECTRE and inspiration for Dr. Evil of the Austin Powers fame, this is the first time Blofeld's face was seen on screen.
• Tiger Tanaka - Tetsuro Tamba, head of Japan's secret service.
• Aki - Akikio Wakabayashi, Aki is Tiger Tananka's assistant and James Bond's guardian angel in Japan, saving him on several occasions. In a manner that is unusual for a Bond film, Aki, which the audience had been led to think was the main Bond girl, was killed off at the end of the second third of the film, leaving her successor Kissy to carry on as the female lead in the film's final third.
• Kissy Suzuki - Mie Hama, One of Tiger Tananka's top agents, Kissy is an Ama diver instructed to "marry" Bond through a sham marriage ("Remember, you gave false name to priest!"). Although she is considered the main Bond girl of the film, she didn't make her appearance until the final third of the film. Kissy held the distinction of being the only main Bond girl whose name, first or last, was never mentioned. In the beginning, Kissy held off Bond's advances ("This is business!"), which, as usual, did not last long.
• Helga Brandt - Karin Dor, SPECTRE agent Number 11 is Helga Brandt, who poses as a personal secretary to Osato, a Japanese businessman who also is a SPECTRE operative. A villainess in the tradition of Fiona Volpe, Helga wants to kill Bond off in a most spectacular manner (after bedding him, of course, thus ensuring she will be his last encounter). Spectacular usually does not mean effective. Bond survived, and Helga became fish food.

The Theme Song:

The soundtrack to You Only Live Twice was composed by Bond veteran, John Barry. At the time, this was his fourth credited Bond film. The theme song, You Only Live Twice, was sung by Nancy Sinatra. A rock version of You Only Live Twice was covered by Coldplay when they toured in 2001, and was covered by Natacha Atlas for her 2005 compilation album The Best of Natacha Atlas. The Icelandic singer Bjork also recorded a cover version.

Interestingly, an alternative example of a possible theme song (also called 'You Only Live Twice' and sung by Lorraine Chandler) was discovered in the vaults of RCA records in the '90s. Probably intended as a demo for consideration by the film's producers, it became a very popular track with followers of the Northern soul scene (Chandler was well known for her high-quality soul output on RCA) and can be found on several RCA soul compilations.

Vehicles & Gadgets:

• Toyota 2000GT convertible — Owned by Aki. Two 2000GT coupes were turned into convertibles for the film. One is displayed at Toyota's headquarters today, while the whereabouts of the other are unknown.
• Little Nellie — A heavily armed autogyro (mini helicopter-thingy) that could be transported in several suitcases for quick field assembly. Based on the real-life Wallis Autogyro, Little Nellie was actually flown by Wing Commander Wallis in the film.
• Shooting Cigarette — Tiger gives Bond a rocket-shooting cigarette with an accurate range of 30 yards; he uses it against a guard in Blofeld's volcano to reach the control to open the crater hatch, allowing Tanaka's forces to storm the base.
• Safecracker — A small, pocket-sized device that attaches to a safe lock the secret agent wants opened. When properly positioned, the user needs only to turn the combination lock's dial, and the device lights as each correct combination digit is found until the safe is opened. However, Bond learns the hard way that the gadget does not defeat a safe's other security measures, such as alarms.
• Gyrojet rocket guns — prototype guns using a small rocket-propelled projectile rather than conventional ammunition. A limited number were made in real life for trials by the US and British militaries, but the design never caught on and the guns and ammunition are now very collectible (and therefore highly sought after and expensive!) [Source]
  

The Pretitle Sequence:

While in Japan, James Bond beds Ling, who gives him "very best duck" then she throws a switch and his bed (one of those fold up into the wall beds) folds up into the wall, then two gunmen come in and blast the bed with multiple automatic gunshots. When the cops show up they find the secret agent still in the bed, dead. Bond is then buried at sea to full military honors...before being picked up by a British submarine. Bond and Ling had faked his death to throw Bond's detractors off of his trail.

Typical Bond film, very solid and fun to watch. The above descriptions pretty much tell you everything you need to know, so a few observations. I'm sorry, but Bond doesn't look very asian, it was actually kind of comical. He had slanted eye make-up, was very harry, and stood a full head taller then evrybody around him. I know that this seems racially stereotypical but there it was, on the screen. The most amazing part of the story was the flight of Little Nellie. It is still awesome to watch this little autogyro fly rings around the four helicopters chasing it. And the film footage was just amazing.

Up Next: On Her Majesty's Secret Service, Bond 6 and the first non-Connery Bond.

Bond Revisited

Casino Royale (1967)
Not an Official Bond

Sir James Bond (David Niven) is enjoying his retirement when four international agents press him into service again in hopes of smashing SMERSH and Topple LeChiffre (Orsen Welles) at the baccarat tables. Bond is taken in by Agent Mimi (alias Lady Fiona McTarry) [Deborah Kerr] who immediately falls in love with him. Bond's illegitimate daughter, Mata Bond, whose mother was the late Mata Hari, is going to help out. The current agent using the Bond name, Cooper (Terrance Cooper), has his hands full, despite his assistance by beautiful secretary, Moneypenny. 007's nephew Jimmy Bond (Woody Allen!) is supposedly incompetent. Bond, hoping to clear his name from its current low repute, hires Evelyn Tremble (Peter Sellers) to meet LeChiffre at the gambling tables at Casino Royale. The world's richest agent, Vesper Lynd (Ursula Andress), helps convince Tremble to masquerade as 007. Hilarity ensues.

Trivia: Peter Sellers and Orson Welles hated each other so much that the filming of the scene where both of them face each other across a gaming table actually took place on different days with a double standing in for one the actors. Orson Welles reportedly insisted on including magic tricks into his scenes, a possible source of the friction between him and Peter Sellers. Peter Sellers often caused interruptions by leaving the set for days at a time.

In 1954, CBS paid Ian Fleming $1,000 for the rights to adapt Casino Royale into a one hour television adventure as part of their Climax! series. The episode featured American Barry Nelson in the role of "Jimmy Bond", an agent for the fictional "Combined Intelligence" agency. The rights to Casino Royale were subsequently sold to producer Charles K. Feldman who turned Fleming's first novel into a spoof featuring actor David Niven as one of six James Bonds. The instrumental theme music was a hit for Herb Alpert and the Tijuana Brass. As a result, it was the only one not sold to Eon Productions. When plans began to adapt the novel as a motion picture, the original thought was to do a straight film of the novel. But with the success of Sean Connery's Bond, it was decided the only way a rival Bond film could survive would be as a parody. The Peter Sellers sequence is the only part of Ian Fleming's novel to make it into the film. The confrontation with Le Chiffre in the casino, the plan to discredit Le Chiffre with SMERSH and the villain's execution by enemy agents are all in the novel. So is the notion of Bond writing a book on baccarat, and the element of Vesper being an enemy spy. Reportedly, Eon Productions has been trying to buy back the rights to Casino Royale for years, in hopes of someday making a serious Bond film out of the novel. Despite being regarded as a "flop" financially in the press, the film actually did quite well in financial terms. Despite its very high production budget and additional costs in marketing and advertising, it still managed to make a net profit of well over $5 million for the studio. The film was generally reported as a failure financially in the press because it was outperformed at the box office by the official Bond film You Only Live Twice (1967), which was released in the same year, and because of the film's high costs. But in actuality the studio still made a large profit off the film and although it didn't match You Only Live Twice at the box office it still managed to do quite well. Casino Royale was the 3rd highest grossing film for the year behind only The Jungle Book (1967) and You Only Live Twice.

The Characters:

• James Bond: There are seven Bonds in this movie including: David Niven (Sir James Bond) the original, {when he becomes M he orders that all agents be named James Bond to confuse the enemies}, Terence Cooper (named Coop) the successor, Woody Allen (Bond's nephew Jimmy Bond), Joanna Pettet (Mata Bond, illegitimate daughter of Mata Hari and James Bond), and Peter Sellers (card-sharp Evelyn Tremble impersonating Bond at Casino Royale).
• Le Chiffre: Orsen Welles, the card shark with the card tricks
• Vesper Lynd: Ursula Andress, who previously appeared as Bond Girl Honey Rider in Dr. No.

Since this is a parody, it is hard to review the same as I would a regular serious Bond film. It was funny, yes, but it was a little hard to follow due to the plethora of 007s. The film was actually seperated into 7 chapters and actually seemed to have one or two chapters out of order. and actually ends in a cliched brawl (just like Blazing Saddles would seven years later, except that Blazing Saddles was better). It was good and fun.

Next Up: Bond 5 You Only Live Twice, Casino Royale's 1967 competition.

Top 250 Challenge: 240

Rosemary's Baby (1968)
Number 231 on IMDb's Top 250

Rosemary (Mia Farrow) and Guy Woodhouse move into an apartment in a building with a bad reputation. They discover that their neighbours are a very friendly elderly couple named Roman and Minnie Castevet (Best Supporting Actress Oscar Winner Ruth Gordon), and Guy begins to spend a lot of time with them. Strange things start to happen: a woman Rosemary meets in the washroom dies a mysterious death, Rosemary has strange dreams and hears strange noises and Guy becomes remote and distant. Then Rosemary falls pregnant and begins to suspect that her neighbours have special plans for her child. Hilarity ensues.

Trivia: The script called for Rosemary (Mia Farrow) to explain to Guy (John Cassavetes), that she went "to Vidal Sassoon" for her dramatic new haircut. Vidal Sassoon was in fact flown to the set to cut Mia Farrow's hair into the now iconic pixie cut she sports during the second half of the film. Jane Fonda was offered the role of Rosemary but turned it down to film Barbarella (1968) in Europe. Tuesday Weld was second choice (and Polanski's own preference) but refused to test for the role. Rosemary says to Terry Ginoffrio (Angela Dorian), "I thought you were Victoria Vetri, the actress," to which Terry responds, "Everyone says that, but I don't see the resemblance." Victoria Vetri is Angela Dorian's real name. Mia Farrow actually ate raw liver for a scene in the movie.

This film was directed by Roman Polanski, whose pregnant wife, the actress Sharon Tate, was murdered by Charles Manson and his followers in 1969. The Manson family titled their death spree "Helter Skelter" after the 1968 song by The Beatles, whose leader, John Lennon, would one day live (and in 1980 be murdered) in the Manhattan apartment building called The Dakota, the apartment building where Rosemary's Baby had been filmed.

You all know I hate watching horror films and usually when I actually watch the movie it isn't all that bad (See The Exorcist), and Rosemary's Baby was no exception. All the horror is in your mind, nothing is actually shown, and to a point you wonder if it is actually in her mind due to prepartem depression and side effects of the drugs she is taking for the pregnancy, and I am still not entirely convinced it wasn't. This is basically due to Ruth Gordon who won the Oscar for this role. There is no way this kind, nosey, loud, funny neighbor can be a witch and devil worshipper, which I guess is why it is so scary.

Next Up: The Searchers, He had to find her... he had to find her...

Top 250 Challenge: 236

Inherit The Wind (1960)
Number 218 on IMDb's Top 250

"He that troubleth his own house shall inherit the wind: and the fool shall be servant to the wise of heart." Proverbs 11:29. Teacher B.T. Cates (Dick York) is arrested for teaching Darwin's theory of evolution. Famous lawyer Henry Drummond (Spencer Tracy) defends him; fundamentalist politician Matthew Brady (Fredric March) prosecutes. Hilarity ensues. This is a very thinly disguised rendition of the 1925 "Scopes monkey trial" with debates between Clarence Darrow and William Jennings Bryan taken largely from the transcripts.

Trivia: When Stanley Kramer offered the role of E.K. Hornbeck to Gene Kelly, Kelly initially turned it down. Kramer told him that his co-stars would be Fredric March and Spencer Tracy, and Kelly changed his mind. This was a risky move on Kramer's part, as he had not yet asked March or Tracy to participate. When Drummond's attempt to call scientific experts to the stand to testify in behalf of the defense is thwarted, Stanley Kramer adds a couple of elements from the actual Scopes Trial, combining the fiery closing of Clarence Darrow's speech on the motion to quash the indictment with the change in which Judge Raulston cited Darrow for contempt.

This was a very good courtroom drama. Of course that is what happens when you have two extraordinary actors work off of each other. Between March and Tracy there are 14 Oscar nominations and 4 wins (two each). Now that is a pedigree. They even through Gene Kelly in as a smarmy reporter who can toss out snide remarks at the drop of a hat (although I don't think there is any way he could have gotten to the defense table so that he could dole out the comic relief within earshot of the prosecution, even if his paper paid for the defense attorney.) All in all a good solid movie.

Next Up: Rafifi...means trouble.

Bond Revisited

Thunderball (1965)
Bond 4

In a bold and deadly scheme, the evil SPECTRE organization hijacks a NATO plane and seizes two atomic warheads, each capable of killing millions of innocent people. As the world is held hostage by the threat of a nuclear nightmare, Bond jumps into action, racing against the clock as the trail leads him to tropical Nassau. There he meets Emilio Largo (Adolfo Celi), a high-ranking agent of SPECTRE, and the stunning Domino (Claudine Auger), with whom he shares an irresistible attraction. The confrontation builds to an epic battle on the ocean floor, as Bond and his allies fight to avert a catastrophe of immense proportions. Hilarity ensues.

Trivia: This is the first James Bond film to be shot in a widescreen process, Panavision. For the first time, Sean Connery performs the gunbarrel opening sequence. In the first three Bond films, the job was done with stuntman Bob Simmons (actually it was the same footage shown all three times, he didn't do it three times). The budget for this Bond film was more than the combined budgets of the first three Bond films. This film was Sean Connery's own favorite performance as 007.

In the underwater scenes where Bond encounters sharks, Sean Connery was supposed to be protected by clear plastic panels shielding him from sharks in close-ups. However, the panels only extended about three feet in height and sharks could swim over them; as a result in some scenes (notably during the pool fight at Largo's mansion) Connery got much closer to real sharks than he wanted - director Terence Young said in an interview that scenes used in the film where Bond reacts in fright at the approach of a shark were miscues in which Connery was reacting with genuine terror as a shark approached unobstructed by plastic shielding.

The Characters:

• James Bond - Sean Connery again plays the dashing British agent, his four time.
• Emilio Largo, SPECTRE #2 - Adolfo Celi, the evil behind the plot.
• Fiona Volpe - Luciana Paluzzi, Volpe is the first really bad Bond girl, (Tatiana Romanova from From Russia With Love, was tricked to work against Bond but eventually fell in love, Pussy Galore worked for Goldfinger, but is the one who changed the gas canisters and saved the soldiers) Volpe is out to kill Bond and is eventually killed (some say Bond purposefully used her as a shield)
• Dominique 'Domino' Derval - Claudine Auger, Bond's love interest.

The Theme Song

The original title credit theme to Thunderball was entitled "Mr. Kiss-Kiss, Bang-Bang", which was written by John Barry and Leslie Bricusse. The title was taken from an Italian journalist who in 1962 dubbed agent 007 as Mr. Kiss Kiss, Bang Bang. The song was originally recorded by Shirley Bassey, but was later rerecorded by Dionne Warwick, whose version was not released until the 1990s. The song was removed from the title credits after producers Albert R. Broccoli and Harry Saltzman were worried that a theme song to a James Bond movie would not work well if the song did not have the title of the film in its lyrics. John Barry teamed up with lyricist Don Black and wrote "Thunderball". "Thunderball" was sung by Tom Jones who, according to Bond production legend, fainted in the recording booth when singing the song's final, high note. Jones said of the final note, "I closed my eyes and I held the note for so long when I opened my eyes the room was spinning."

Vehicles & Gadgets:

• The famous Aston Martin DB5 makes its second appearance. For this film a surprise modification of rear water cannons were used in the opening pre-title sequence, although the vehicle itself has a noticeably weathered appearance that goes unexplained (perhaps suggesting other, unseen adventures).
• Also used in the pre-title sequence was the "Bell Rocket Belt" developed by Bell Aircraft Corporation. The rocket belt, which was used by Bond to escape from a building, actually works and was used numerous times before and afterwards for entertainment and amusement purposes; most notably Super Bowl I and at a regularly scheduled show at the 1964-1965 New York World's Fair.
• A homer pill that when swallowed emits a signal that helps headquarters trace his whereabouts.
• A waterproof watch that doubles as a Geiger counter and a camera that doubles as a Geiger counter.
• Bond was also outfitted with an underwater jet pack that was armed with a spear gun. It was used by Bond to maneuver through the water faster than anyone else.
• Lastly, Bond was given a very small scuba set that can be carried unnoticed and, when used, provided a few minutes of air in underwater emergency. It was called a rebreather in the movie, but it was actually open-circuit: two very small air cylinders end-to-end joined by a demand valve. After the film's release there was some confusion as to whether a "rebreather" of this size actually existed and worked, since most of Bond's gadgets (at the time), while possibly implausible, were somewhat based on real gadgets. In the real world a rebreather could not be that small, as it would not have room for a breathing bag; but this "rebreather" appeared again in later Bond films, most notably Die Another Day, and would also possibly be the inspiration for other similar devices found in other movies such as Star Wars Episode I: The Phantom Menace. [Source]

The Thunderball Controversy:

When plans for a James Bond film were scrapped in the late 1950s, a story treatment entitled Thunderball, written by Ian Fleming, Kevin McClory and Jack Whittingham, was adapted as Fleming's ninth Bond novel. Initially the book was only credited to Fleming. McClory filed a lawsuit that would eventually award him the film rights to the title in 1963. Afterwards, he made a deal with EON Productions to produce a film adaptation starring Sean Connery. The deal specifically stated that McClory couldn't produce another adaptation until a set period of time had elapsed, and he did so in 1983 with Never Say Never Again, which featured Sean Connery for a seventh time as 007. Since it was not made by Broccoli's production company, EON Productions, it is therefore not considered a part of the official film series. A second attempt by McClory to remake Thunderball in the 1990s with Sony Pictures was halted by legal action which resulted in the studio abandoning its aspirations for a rival James Bond series. To this day, McClory claims to own the film rights to Thunderball, though MGM and EON assert they have expired. [Source]

The Pretitle Sequence:

The film begins with James Bond attending the funeral of Jacques Boitier, a SPECTRE agent who had murdered two British agents. As it would turn out, a woman who Bond notices open a car door for herself at the funeral is Boitier in disguise. Bond comes to this realization and ambushes Boitier at his chateau where he kills him. Afterwards, Bond escapes using a jetpack to fly to his car parked outside the chateau where he has a brief battle with his pursuers, during which Bond uses water cannons on the Aston Martin DB5. (As I watch these movies again with a more critical eye, I am more and more impressed with the Austin Powers movies. This pretitle sequence is the origin of Austin's "She's a man, baby!" line in The Spy Who Shagged Me. Austin suddenly hits an obviously woman character and seconds later pulls the wig off an obviously man character. Bond does the same when he sees this obviously woman character open her own car door, he instantly knows something is up and reallizes that she is a man, baby! So he hits her and suddenly she is obviously a man in women's clothing fighting back.)

The Review:

Bond at his best. This movie is as good as Goldfinger, though I would still say Goldfinger is the quintessential Bond, Thunderball is probably a close second (so far). Thunderball was released at the height of the spy film craze started after the success of the first three movies. 20 new spy films had been announced to be either in preproduction or production in 1965 and numerous successful television shows featuring similar spy elements and secret agents were just beginning, such as The Man from U.N.C.L.E., I Spy, The Wild Wild West, and Get Smart. (By the way, nobody answered me quick trivia question on Goldfinger about which Bond film sold the most tickets. It was Thunderball with 166 million, 33 million more then Goldfinger)

Up Next: Casino Royale, An Unoffical Bond (not produced by EON Productions)

Bond Revisited

Goldfinger (1964)
Bond 3

The powerful tycoon Auric Goldfinger (Gert Frobe) has initiated "Operation Grand Slam," a cataclysmic scheme to raid Fort Knox and obliterate the world economy. James Bond, armed with his specially equipped Aston Martin (its accessory package includes built-in machine guns, a smoke screen and an ejector seat), must stop the plan by overcoming several outrageous adversaries. First there's Oddjob (Harold Sakata), the mute servant who kills at the toss of a lethal hat; next, the beautiful Jill Masterson (Shirley Eaton), who gives new meaning to the phrase "golden girl"; and finally, sexy pilot Pussy Galore (Honor Blackman), whose romantic feelings for Bond complicate her involvement in Goldfinger's high-flying scheme. Hilarity ensues.

Trivia: Although many of the locations in the film are American, Sean Connery never set foot in America during filming. All scenes where he's apparently in America were shot at Pinewood Studios, London. The producers had to pay for the Aston Martin, but after the success of the film, both at the box office and for the company, they never had to spend money on a car again. Gert Frobe spoke very little English, so Michael Collins dubbed his voice. In the film's trailer, however, Frobe's own voice is heard when Goldfinger tells James, "Choose your next witticism carefully, Mr. Bond, it may be your last," and when meeting with the mobsters, when he says, "Except crime!" Pussy Galore introduces herself to Bond, who replies "I must be dreaming." The original script had Bond replying "I know you are, but what's your name?" This was deemed too suggestive. In the novel, Pussy Galore is a lesbian, which is why she gives Bond the cold shoulder to start with. In the original cut of the film, the bomb's timer was stopped at 003, explaining Bond's line about "three more clicks." It was later changed to 007 for obvious reasons.

The Characters:

• James Bond - Sean Connery in his third film as the venerable secret agent
• Auric Goldfinger - Gert Frobe
• Oddjob - Goldfinger's manservant/henchman with the deadly boller hat is played by Harold Sakata
• Pussy Galore - Goldfinger's personal pilot and the absolute best bond girl name ever, period, is played by Honor Blackman.
• Jill Masterson - the famous gilded woman is played by Shirley Eaton, although the woman in the advertisements, poster, title sequence and end credits is actually Margaret Nolan who played Dink, Bond's Masseuse in the movie.

The Theme Song: Goldfinger is the first of three James Bond films with a theme song sung by Shirley Bassey. Though she only performed three out of the many Bond film theme songs, her strong, brassy style became a Bond theme trademark. "Goldfinger" was written by John Barry and Anthongy Newley.

Vehicles & Gadgets:

• Aston Martin DB5 - The most famous of James Bond's company cars and very easily the most famous movie car of all time. It was his first company car in the films, and is equipped with all of Q Branch's usual refinements (carried from adventure to adventure), including bulletproof front and rear wind screens, oil slick dispenser, smoke screen burner, front wing machine guns, rotating licence plates and, most famously, passenger ejector seat (which would again be used in Die Another Day, but in an Aston Martin V12 Vanquish). While being the most recognised Bond car, it's actually only appeared in four Bond films: Goldfinger and Thunderball starring Sean Connery, and GoldenEye and Tomorrow Never Dies starring Pierce Brosnan (not counting his The World Is Not Enough, where all the car's scenes bar a thermal satellite image were cut).
  
• The wetsuit that doesn't wet. In 1964 there existed "dry suits" which a diver could wear which would not allow water into the suit (for very cold water dives), but a dry suit is always distinguished by its rubber neck-seal, which the diver must poke a head through. No drysuit simply zips all the way to the neck, as Bond's wetsuit does. However, Bond's perfect white tuxedo is none the worse from water in the famous opening sequence of the film, despite a cover-suit which would be very hyperthermic out of water, if it worked. The nonwetting wetsuit in this film is half-way between "gadget" and "technical mistake."
• The Tilly Masterson character drives the then all-new Ford Mustang in a duel with the gadget-laden Aston. This is the first time the Mustang had been in a movie.
  
• Oddjob's steel-rimmed bowler hat, thrown in the movie notably like a Frisbee (a toy that had debued in name in 1958).
  
• Goldfinger rides in a 1937 Rolls Royce Phantom III, which has become famous in its own right from appearance in the film. The license plate (Au 1) includes the "Au" letters which are the chemical symbol for gold.
• Homer - Bond is issued two homing devices by Q Branch. The first, the larger, is used by Bond to track the villain's Rolls Royce automobile to his base. The second is the smaller and allows MI6 to track Bond's whereabouts; it is hidden in the secret compartment in the heel of one shoe. He later slips it onto the person of Mr. Solo who is taking his leave of Goldfinger's Fort Knox scheme; Bond hopes MI6 can then follow and capture Solo and question him about where he got the device. Unfortunately, the tracer is destroyed when Solo is murdered and his body crushed in a car-crusher along with the car he was in.
• The car-ferry airplane is an Aviation Traders Carvair, an aircraft that was built for transporting automobiles and well-off passengers. Only 21 Carvairs were ever built and therefore it is relatively unknown. Modern viewers may not be surprised at this airplane, which may superficially appear from the nose-bulge to be the well-known 747. However the 747 was not conceived until 1965, and did not fly commercially until 1970.
• Goldfinger's "private" jet. The first Lear Jet was still unsold when this film was released, and the Lockhead JetStar used in the movie as both Goldfinger's jet and the government's jet, was still very new, so the idea of a business jet or private jet was quite novel in 1964.
• The giant laser. Lasers did not exist in 1959 when the book was written, and they were a novelty in 1964 in the movie; this may be the first film appearance of the device (it is even referred to as an "industrial laser", which surely did not exist yet in 1964). The Bond set uses a scaled-up prop which visually suggests the original 1960 Theodore H. Maiman ruby-crystal laser, complete with coiled external flashlamp, and the beam is red. However, in the movie the laser beam is continuous, which is never the case with the 1960 flashlamp design. Reportedly the film prop actually used a low-powered helium-neon continuous beam gas laser, but the beam didn't show on the film, so it had to be added as an optical special effect. The effect on the table is simulated by a welder cutting through it from below with an oxyacetylene torch.
• The Chinese bomb. China was known to be working to become a nuclear power in the early 1960s, despite withdrawal of all Soviet assistance in 1960. However, China did not explode its first nuclear weapon until October, 1964, which was after this film's screenplay and release (September 17, 1964). Thus, the Chinese bomb, like the industrial laser, is a soon-expected but not-yet-realized device, in this film. [Source]
  

Pre-Title Sequence:
Although From Russia With Love had a pre-title sequence, Goldfinger's is the first to have a sequence that actually had nothing to do with the main plot of the film, in this case Bond destroys the base of a drug lord with plastic explosives, and defeats a thug in a bathroom brawl (electrocuting him in a bathtub with an impromptu lamp-toss, in a foreshadowing of Oddjob's demise).

Review:
This is probably the quintessential bond film. This movie gave us a Bond that was a little lighter in mood, a little more playful (Bond playing with Goldfinger's card game, Bond playing around with Goldfinger's golf game, Bond playiong around with Goldfinger's pilot, Pussy Galore, the first Bond Girl that is truely working on the other side {In From Russia With Love, Tatiana Romanova was not a part of SPECTRE but was tricked by them to participate}) And as I have said before Connery IS Bond. In terms of actually tickets sold Goldfinger is the second highest Bond film ever, selling an extimated 130.1 million worldwide, and is only one of two Bond flicks to sell more then 100 million (From Russia With Love is third at 95 million). Quick Sneaky Trivia: What Bond film sold more tickets? (Not made more money, sold more tickets). Goldfinger is also the first Bond movie to sell mechandise/memorabilia.

Next up: Bond 4 Thunderball

Bond Revisited

From Russia With Love (1963)
Bond 2

James Bond, 007, (Sean Connery) is sent on a mission to Istanbul to try and acquire a Russian cypher machine known as Lektor from a defecting Russian agent. However, the Russians have no knowledge of this as it is a S.P.E.C.T.R.E. ploy to lure James Bond into a trap - a fitting tribute to their now- dead agent Dr. No. Hilarity ensues.

Trivia: In this film, James Bond does not say "Bond, James Bond." This was chosen as the second 007 film after President John F. Kennedy listed the book among his top ten favorite novels of all time. According to the book "Death of a President" (1964) by William Raymond Manchester, this was the last motion picture John F. Kennedy ever saw, on 20 November 1963, in the White House.

"Q"/ Major Boothroyd played by Desmond Llewelyn appears for the first time. This character was played by Peter Burton in Dr. No (1962). When Burton was unable to return for this film, the role was recast with Llewelyn in the part. Llewelyn would reprise the role of "Q" in 16 subsequent Bond films (17 performances in all, he didn't appear in Live and Let Die (1973)), the most times a single actor has played the same role in major motion picture history.

Pedro Armendariz playing the role of Kerim Bey, was terminally ill during filming with the cancer he had likely contracted while filming the notorious 1956 film The Conqueror near the site of the US nuclear test site in the Utah desert. Armendariz had accepted the role in From Russia With Love partially as a means of providing financial security for his widow, and the film's schedule was altered in order to film the scenes in which he appeared while he was still physically able. Towards the end of the filming of those scenes, however, director Terence Young had to double for the actor in some of his long shots. One month after his scenes were completed, Armendariz, in emulation of his friend Ernest Hemingway, committed suicide.

The Characters:

• James Bond is played by Sean Connery for the second time.
• Ernst Stavro Blofeld, leader of SPECTRE, is listed in the credits as being played by ?, It will be few more movies before we see his face.
• Rosa Klebb, the evil Russian turn SPECTRE number 3 Agent is played by Lotte Lenya.
• Donald "Red" Grant, the SPECTRE assassin assigned to rid the world of James Bond is played by Robert Shaw.
• Tatiana Romanova, the not so evil Russian love interest is played by Daniela Bianchi.

Vehicles & Gadgets:

• Briefcase - Technically, James Bond's first gadget. The briefcase issued to 007 by Q-Branch contains a folding AR-7 sniper rifle with ammunition, a flat throwing knife, and fifty gold sovereigns in secret compartments accessible from outside the case. In addition, the briefcase has a trick safety mechanism that detonates a magnetically attached tear gas bomb if the briefcase is improperly opened.
• Pager - Although From Russia with Love was filmed in the 1960s, before this gadget's invention, Bond carried one, enabling MI6 to contact him at once; also, Bond's Bentley automobile had a radio-telephone.
• Bug detector - A small device that is designed to detect the presence of a phone tap device in a regular telephone when placed against such a device.
  Tape recorder disguised as a camera.
• The LEKTOR decoder - though never actually seen in use, could also count as a gadget (Fleming based it directly on the Enigma machine, a cryptology device used by the Germans during World War II) . [Source]

Pre-Title Sequence

From Russia With Love is the first Bond film to include a pre-title sequence, a scene that most of the time has nothing to do with the main plot that is shown after the gun-barrel opening and before the title sequence. In this one, Bond is shown walking around on the grounds of a mansion looking for something and eventually gets killed (strangled) by Grant in his introduction to the movie. It was then shown that it was a training exorcise at the SPECTRE training grounds.

Another Bond classic. Robert Shaw is great as the cold blooded assassin that doesn't really save anything and all of a sudden talks in a British accent when he is trying to convince Bond that he is another agent. Connery again, IS Bond, the suave debonair secret agent. There is also an example of the very very few times in the series that the movie breaks the fourth wall. The From Russia With Love theme song can be heard playing on a radio in the boat that passes Bond and Sylvia Trench before Bond gets the call to return to headquarters in the first scene after the title sequence.

Next Up: Bond 3 - Goldfinger

Top 250 Challenge: 224

The Wild Bunch (1969)
Number 188 on IMDb's Top 250

A few months before World War I, an aging band of outlaws led by Pike Bishop rob a Texas bank intent on using the money to retire. When the robbery goes wrong, the gang is forced to flee to Mexico with Bishop's reformed ex-partner, Deke Thornton, in hot pursuit. With nothing to show for the failed robbery, Bishop's gang agrees to steal a shipment of guns for General "Mapache" Juerta, to restore their fortunes. With Thornton closing in, and their association with the evil Juerta trying their conscience, Bishop and co. prepare for their lawless past to catch up with them. Hilarity ensues.

Trivia: Following the film's production, it was severely edited by the studio and producer Phil Feldman (QV) (in Sam Peckinpah's absence), cutting its length by about 20 minutes - remarkably, none of the excised film was violent. Due to its violence, the film was originally threatened with an "X" rating by the newly created MPAA (Motion Picture Association of America), but an "R" rating was its final decision. The film was restored to its original "director's cut" length of 143 minutes and threatened with an NC-17 rating when submitted to the MPAA ratings board in 1993 prior to a re-release in 1994, holding up the film's re-release for many months. The reinstated scenes (including two important flashbacks from Pike's past, and a battle scene between Pancho Villa's rebels and Gen. Mapache at the telegraph station) depicted the underlying character and motivations of the leader of the Bunch. With numerous, elaborate montage sequences with staccato shifts, the film set a record for more edits (3,643 shot-to-shot edits at one count) than any other Technicolor film up to its time.

According to Sam Peckinpah biographer Marshall Fine, there was concern on the set over the bridge explosion. Bud Hulburd, the head of the special-effects crew, was not particularly experienced, having ascended the ranks after Peckinpah fired his predecessors. Stuntman Joe Canutt appealed to both Hulburd and Peckinpah to no avail, so finally, out of concern for the other stuntmen, Canutt enlisted the help of screenwriter Gordon T. Dawson, who was instructed to stand behind Hulburd with a club. If the stuntmen began to fall before the final charge was set off, something that would've resulted in death, Dawson was to club Hulburd unconscious before he detonated the last charge. Luckily, the stunt went off without a hitch.

Supposedly, more blank rounds were discharged during the production than live rounds were fired during the Mexican Revolution of 1914 around which the film is loosely based. In total 90,000 rounds were fired, all blanks. The climatic gun battle sequence took 12 days to film. The crew nicknamed it the "Battle of Bloody Porch." The famous "Last Walk" was improvised by Sam Peckinpah during the shoot. Originally, the scene was to begin with the Bunch leaving the whorehouse and immediately cut to the confrontation with Mapache. Once the decision was made to lengthen the scene, many of the Mexican extras were choreographed by the assistant directors while the scene was filming.

I was a little disappointed in this movie. It is another case of reputation. I have always heard about Sam Peckinpah and directors paying homage to Peckinpah in their movies. Don't get me wrong, this was a good solid western. Maybe the problem is the distance in time. 36 years ago this movie was considered extremely violent, even almost garnering an X rating, but by today's standards it was tame. Even the massive Battle of Bloody Porch scene was just another gun battle to me. Is that saying something about our society today and our desensitization to violence?

Oh Well, Next Up: Manhattan, ugh a Woody Allen film!