Palmerin

... presented such WWII movies as THE LONGEST DAY and TORA! TORA! TORA! What happened on that date in WWII that motivated this lineup?

... has the amazing coincidence that three of its stars, Sydow, Savalas and Pleasence, played Ernst Stavro Blofeld in, respectively, NEVER SAY NEVER AGAIN, IN HER MAJESTY'S SECRET SERVICE, and YOU ONLY LIVE TWICE. Are there other movies in which at least two of its stars played the same role in different movies?

The parody that Brooks made of SW was TERRIBLE--I don't want to even mention its name; clearly, MB was running out of ideas. The short HARDWARE WARS, on the other hand, was absolutely hilarious.

That's what some ignoramus said about Dunaway in a discussion about which actors of the 1970s had star quality; in the opinion of those nitwits FD was the only female who achieved that status. What about such people as Sally Field and Streep, who started getting noticed in that very decade? To say that the 70s belonged exclusively to Dunaway is the same as saying that the 30s belonged exclusively to Davis, to the total exclusion of such as Crawford, Hepburn, and Loy!

1. The Ewoks are possibly the most ridiculous alien race of SW, even more than the Jar Jar Binks race; 2. Guerrilla warfare would never defeat the Empire. All that is needed to defeat forest guerrillas is a numerical advantage of at least ten to one, and conquering the entire territory from which the guerrillas operate; 3. Emperor Palpatine is a ludicrous scarecrow; much more effective would have been emperors based on the two great villains of the 1980s, Khomeini and Hussein. Jimmy the Crater was very stupid when he described Khomeini as some kind of saint; a look at the rabid hate filled eyes of K was more than enough proof that that bastard was the devil incarnate. As to Hussein, he wore a mustache to resemble his role model, Stalin, whom he imitated in everything from a nauseating cult of personality to keeping his inner circle in constant dread of him turning on them. A TIME article about the imminent fall of the Shah and the imminent return of K concluded with a young Iranian saying that he hoped that his country would experience a welcome breath of PURITY. Purity? PURITY???!!! I was immediately reminded of the ideological purity demanded by Stalin and Mao, and the racial purity demanded by Hitler. Purity is obviously a dangerous concept in politics.

Not technically a sequel; Travers wrote several MP books, which means that there is plenty of fresh material for a new movie.

Thanks for the explanation; 'tis really amazing and annoying how movie quotes get distorted beyond recognition, just as happened with PLAY IT AGAIN, SAM.

Part of the act of Ernie Wise of Morecambe and Wise was an imitation of Cagney that included the title phrase, which does not belong to any of JC's movies. Where did this bit of apocrypha originate? FWIW, I have two theories: 1. One of those stand up comedians that specialize in celebrity impressions delivered that phrase in the style of such people as Robinson, Tracy and Gable; his impression of Cagney was so successful that people ended up thinking it was the real thing; 2. It is indeed a real movie quotation that just happens to have been attributed to JC by mistake. Actors churned out so many movies in the 1930s--practically a new one every week--that it's almost impossible to keep track of who said what in which movie. What do you think?

My half sister should speak English as well as TV does. My sibling apparently was taught English by an Hibernian, because she always pronounces THE as DE, instead of DI.

Of all Americans of Irish ancestry, Rooney, with his ruddy complexion, red hair, and blue eyes, is one of the most outstanding examples of the race from the Emerald Isle, so why did Edwards cast him as a Japanese? Didn't BE have any real Japanese actors available for his show? PR is full of people whose slanted eyes, high cheekbones, and coppery skin denotes their American Indian ancestry; not only would they make better Japanese than MR, but they could also play Chinese, Mongolian, Korean, Filipino, Vietnamese, Cambodian, Lao, Burmese, Thai, Malay, and Indonesian.

Some books, such as OLIVER TWIST, have such convoluted plots that rearranging the storyline and omitting some characters is absolutely necessary; that is not the case with ZENDA. Read the book, and you will agree for sure.

that book is very trim and compact, which means that it can be filmed in its entirety in a two and a half hours movie without any of the brutal mutilations of practically every one of its film adaptations, which were obviously made by people who copied each other and never bothered to read the book. If you read it, you will discover that the king, though fond of the bottle, is nevertheless very respectful and considerate of colonel Sapt. Even more important, the protagonist is a much more complex and interesting character than the one dimensional cardboard cutout portrayed by Colman and Granger.

Would you agree that, of the four Cartwrights, Roberts was the best actor?; he certainly had a vigor and earnestness that overshadowed the other three. A very sweet factoid about TRAPPER JOHN, MD, which in PR was named HOMBRES DE BLANCO=MEN IN WHITE: my sister was so inspired by that show that she resolved to study medicine, and is now a nurse practitioner who cares for old people, such as our mother.

... having Rathbone and Bruce portray Holmes and Watson as a poor imitation of Abbott and Costello??? Anybody who has read the Doyle originals knows very well that that is not the right way to characterize H&W.

What's with Mankiewicz' fixation on the competition that movies of the 1950s had with TV??? Doesn't he realize that, without television, he would be out of a job? The battle at the beginning is all wrong. The classic centuries-old strategy is to first soften the enemy with artillery: archery and catapults=cannon, howitzers, mortars, missiles, and aviation--, and only then strike with the heavy cavalry=tanks and armored personnel carriers. On the other hand, the broadsword is handled more accurately than in the ADVENTURES OF ROBIN HOOD of Curtiz. That sword was no epee or saber; instead it was used like an axe to cleave the head of your opponent or to disable his arm. Now let's have your own observations, if you please, my dears.

EL CID: Mio Cid Ruy Diaz of Bivar pledging to lead his men even if it costs him his life, and then going on to win his last battle as a corpse--the most memorable sequence of all the filmography of Anthony Mann.

I would definitely say yes, as the essence of heroism is self-sacrifice.

Most interesting replies; my thanks to all of you.

ALIENS: Lieutenant Gorman and Private Vasquez blowing themselves up with a grenade in order to give Ripley, Newt, and Corporal Bishop the chance to escape the monsters that are pursuing them.

Is the mountain of PARAMOUNT based on a real mountain? Is COLUMBIA based on a real woman?

In OUTLAND, one of my favorite films, Marshall O'Niel (Sean Connery) is chasing drug smuggler Spota. After a chase through the entire mining station, O'Niel corners Spota in the kitchen of the dining room. S tries to destroy the amphetamines he is carrying by throwing them into a vat of frying grease, whereupon O, without a moment's hesitation, dips his left hand into the grease. Naturally he burns himself badly, but he manages to prevent the drugs from melting in the grease. That was so heroic, how the character faced down one of the most basic fears of humans and animals: the fear of getting burned!!! What other equally impressive acts of heroism do you recall?

... Kate Beckinsale and Kate Winslet, which one would you choose? I myself am entranced by the sultriness of brunettes such as Elizabeth Taylor and Jean Simmons--but only the damndest of fools would refuse someone like Winslet!

Did Cleopatra VII actually paint her mouth in the Jean Harlow heart shape style?

What is most blatant to me from the list of the winners of the Literature Nobel is the names that are NOT there. To quote one very obvious omission, where is Ruben Dario of Nicaragua, whose impact on Spanish language poetry was such that the history of Spanish language poetry is divided into two eras: before Dario, and after Dario?

So you have forgotten it? Good; I wish I could share your luck.