EricJ
-
Posts
4,879 -
Joined
-
Last visited
Posts posted by EricJ
-
-
7 minutes ago, Janet0312 said:
Not to mention that Eddie Parker stood in for Lugosi and even Chaney Jr as the monster in some scenes.
Lon Jr., by the time he was pretty deep in his cups, started to get more and more creative in his stories about the Universal days, and at one point claimed he had to stunt-double for Lugosi as the monster for the majority of the scenes..."I played Frankenstein and the Wolfman in that movie!"
However, that's since taken with the same grain of salt as Judy Garland's Oz-set stories.
1 hour ago, darkblue said:The way they decided to go, it's as if 'The Ghost of Frankenstein' never happened and Ygor was never put into the monster's body at all.Not only was continuity utterly demolished by this decision, the monster itself became nothing more than a stage prop from this chapter onward.
Always thought the movie had a surprising lack of Frankenstein in it, when I first saw it...Which brings up an interesting thread topic:
What OTHER movies had their entire raison d'être main plot or subplot cut out by the studio at the last minute, leaving...not very much, with no particular reason to be made?
Apart from Superman II, Star Trek: Insurrection, Daredevil, Creepshow II, and Smokey & the Bandit III, what more classic-era examples were there?
-
1 hour ago, Det Jim McLeod said:
yes, I have pieces of that dialogue in the book It's Alive: The Classic Cinema Saga Of Frankenstein by Gregory William Mank, so it is true that those scenes were in the script and were filmed. According to the screenwriter Curt Siodmak, they screened it for the Universal staff and they were in hysterics when they heard Lugosi's Hungarian accent coming out of the Monster. In the previous film "The Ghost Of Frankenstein" the brain of Ygor (Lugosi) was put into the skull of the Monster, he has the Lugosi/Ygor voice at the end of the film but goes blind. This explains the dialogue about having clever brain put into him by Frankenstein's son. After the disastrous screening they decided to cut out all of the Monster's dialogue.
Huh...The need for post-Ghost plot, dialogue and canon WOULD certainly explain the unlikely casting of Lugosi as the Monster in FMtW, as more physically suited (and non-Hungarian) actors like Glenn Strange would play him in the other Universal movies, eg. Abbott & Costello.
And, as the clip points out, the Ygor/Monster being blind does explain that iconic arm-stretched walk we took for granted for years.
-
1
-
-
2 hours ago, LawrenceA said:
A Clockwork Orange (1971)
- Overlord (1975)
- Barry Lyndon (1975)
- Greystoke: The Legend of Tarzan, Lord of the Apes (1984)
A salute to John Alcott cinematography, and no "Beastmaster" or "Terror Train"??
-
1
-
13 hours ago, sewhite2000 said:
Between April and September of 1983, NBC aired five episodes of a Casablanca TV show with David Soul as Rick, Hector Elizondo as Louis, Ray Liotta as Sacha and Scatman Crothers as Sam! It was supposed to be set before the events of the movie started, but its continuity didn't precisely jibe with the movie as Rick has already met Strasser and Heinz in the series, and they're recurring characters. It appears to have been a summer try-out show that didn't get picked up for a full season. It averaged 91st in the Nielsen ratings over its five episodes.
Did anyone watch this?
Thought it was just a TV-movie pilot, didn't remember it getting episodes--
Still, why are you asking if we "remember" it, when we have YouTube?:
Now, if only Fox would release the rest of Yul Brynner's 70's "Anna & the King" show, of which they only put the pilot on the "King & I" disk.
-
1
-
-
6 hours ago, CaveGirl said:
I always liked the line, which went something like "You can't fight in here. This is the War Room!" Also the bits about not shooting out the Coke machinem even for a world emergency needed dime, are hilarious as is Sellers' off the wall take on Henry Kissinger.
For the second time, it's not Kissinger, it's Werner "Our Germans are better than their Germans" von Braun.
As for the "recommendation" to see RV, which I would never make, I would caution to look at a bit of Richard Pryor's sad last bit of "80's poor-shlub comedy" in "Moving" (1988). Not because it's a good film--which, oh, dear lord, it is not--but because I looked at the trailer for Robin Williams in "RV" and thought..."Were they trying to remake it? ? "
-
7 hours ago, sewhite2000 said:
Just on last night: Darren McGavin's super-evil drug dealer in The Man with the Golden Arm.
And the mention of McGavin for some reason reminds me of Gene Kelly's insincere uber-cynical news reporter from Inherit the Wind. Not "evil", just a lot slimier than his usual casting.
(Think McGavin had the part in the Kirk Douglas TV-movie version.)
-
11 hours ago, LawrenceA said:
The Court Jester (1955) - This was reportedly the most expensive comedy ever filmed at the time, and turned out to be a major flop, although it has developed a following in the decades since then. Recommended. (8/10)
On the last Filmstruck Pick4, this was my personal pick for Funniest (or at least Favorite) Classic Movie Comedy ever made.
You sit there thinking, how LONG can they keep the "Pellet with the Poison" gag going, and they keep raising the comic stakes for five unbroken minutes. And that would be if the movie didn't already have the "Knight ceremony" or the hypnotic-suggestion sword duel.
It spoils you for watching other Danny Kaye movies, since his Samuel Goldwyn musicals were a bit over or underdone, and Sylvia Fine was the only one who really understood his act when they started producing projects together. As a result, I can't think of a second movie where we get as much pure, uncut Danny, without a lot of corny studio frills put in to surround him. (Which is why I put "The Inspector General" a very, very, very distant second on Kaye's list, and "Hans Christian Andersen" doesn't even crack the top five.)
-
2
-
-
10 hours ago, calvinnme said:
A more recent example, but Harrison Ford was really good as a bad guy in "What Lies Beneath". It just took him awhile to pull off his mask.
Speaking of Ford, how about Harrison Ford and Cindy "Shirley" Williams showing very different screen sides in Francis Coppola's "The Conversation"?
-
On 7/27/2018 at 11:48 AM, TopBilled said:
They might as well retitle the Star of the Week "MGM's greatest hits" or "Warner Brothers greatest hits" since they are really just highlighting the studio catalogues in the Turner library.
Well, they have to, otherwise the tribute to Ira Levin would include Paramount's "Rosemary's Baby" (duh).
-
My favorite story of how the New Kids just aren't as hip as their parents were:
Back in the early-early-early days of Blu-ray, nobody owned a player, so most of the home-theater Blu-vs.-HDDVD Internet discussions came down to gamer wars between the Playstation and X-Box owners. ("Casino Royale!" "Peter Jackson's King Kong, dood!") The good part was, if a classic came out on Blu, Playstation gamers would greedily snap it up never having heard of it, and Millennial film discussions would start over anything they'd discovered....I'd actually forgotten the last time I'd had to debate the ending of "2001".
There weren't many classics, since Sony spent most of its time releasing action movies and gamer-friendly guy comedies, but Warner trotted out all of its 4K-restored classics: One time, on our birth-of-Blu forum, the thread started, "What's the funniest comedy currently on Blu-ray?" To a "man", all of the posters answered "Superbad", while a few were generous to include "Pineapple Express" as well. As the senior veteran, I pointed out that Warner had, ahem, already released "Blazing Saddles" on Blu, and half the posters, predictably, had never heard of it.
They must have rushed out to see it, since the reactions were later shocked protests of "Heyyy, they're using the N-word, that's not funny!"
-
43 minutes ago, Fedya said:
Field of Dreams would have been more interesting if it had a psychopathic serial killer in it.
"Ty Cobb wanted to join us, but we couldn't stand the SOB when he was alive, so we told him to stick it, hah!"
-
I don't know why, but I have genuine rage issues at anyone who fooled themselves into believing that "Beauty & the Beast" is "the greatest Disney animated movie ever made", unquote. (I can think of at least five reasons people still say that in the 10's, that have absolutely nothing to do with the movie, and IMO, it sure as heck ain't the movie.)
But I don't get mad...I've now found a useful outlet for karmic payback and/or closure--
I sit them down and make them watch Angela Lansbury in "The Manchurian Candidate": ?
(From the director who gave us Will "Grandpa Walton" Geer's evil scientific conspiracy in "Seconds".)
-
1
-
-
10 hours ago, hamradio said:
"The Last Jedi" (2017) on DVD today, goodness only 8 bucks new.
Movie is fair, are these Star War stories "Rogue One" and "Solo" (whatever is next) are better than the main episodes today?
Some say "No", and in Last Jedi's case, some say "Oh, HELL no... ?"
And after Solo, frankly, even Disney's not sure what's next besides the Ep. IX "finale", but smart money is that whatever it is, it'll be downgraded to the new streaming service. There are very few examples of "the Franchise Killer", and you've just officially watched one.
Winters was a working actress. Sure she started out playing romantic parts, but she was almost always still very earthy. I confess to disliking her when I was younger, often just seeing her as a desperate ham who was either drunk or totally out of control with her histrionic style. That summation has changed over the years, especially after seeing more of her earlier work, and I respect her more, although I still wouldn't count her among my favorites. Off screen she was a great character, full of fun anecdotes, and the subject of many herself.
I certainly wouldn't have cast Marilyn as Lolita's mother in the Kubrick film, if that's what you mean...
-
2 hours ago, jimmymac21 said:
"Rosebud". I have not watched it from start to finish. I know it is famous, but starts off boring for me. Then again, it isn't a musical. No singing or dancing. How can you call it a movie. Grin!
It helps if you dig up either PBS's "The Battle Over Citizen Kane" documentary (on the disk?), or at least Liev Schrieber in the dramatized "RKO 281". After that, you can't take your eyes off of Welles.
As for me, I think I've seen only ONE Errol Flynn movie in my life, and that the obvious one. Keep forgetting to look up The Sea Hawk at the library.
-
9 minutes ago, sewhite2000 said:
While I know I've seen some Alan Smithee movies, I'm hard-pressed to remember which ones off the top of my head. Does anyone know what the very first one was? When did the use of this name start, anyway, and where the heck did the name come from?
According to IMDB:
QuoteBorn in 1967, the same year he directed his first picture, Death of a Gunfighter (1969). Restricted by Directors Guild of America rules to certain "genres" of film, i.e., those on which the other directors have functioned, but from which they wish to be disassociated. Gained strong reviews for his initial film: "Sharply directed by Allen Smithee who has an adroit facility for scanning faces and extracting sharp background detail", (New York Times); "Smithee's direction keeps the action taut and he draws convincing portrayals from the supporting cast", (Variety).
And the Eric Idle character in Joe Ezsterhas' "Burn, Hollywood, Burn" is unrelated.
-
10 hours ago, LawrenceA said:
The TV edit of Dune.
Wasn't that technically "Judas Booth"? (And yes, arguably better than the theatrical cut.)
-
54 minutes ago, LawrenceA said:
I used Google translate on one of the thread titles a few days ago and posted the result. It was mostly gibberish with some words implying that it was a call girl/massage service catering to traveling businesspersons.
Many of the prior threads have been ads for Korean online blackjack gambling websites, and there have been several offering forged documents, from diplomas to passports.
So, they're not ALL about bootleg/knockoff Samsung smartphones, then?
-
14 hours ago, TomJH said:
Before Jack Mercer settled into the role as Popeye's voice, there were two other voice artists who did it, one named William Costello who, apparently, developed a swollen head because of it. Mercer, who initially impersonated Popeye as a lark, had no idea that his version of the voice would become a career for him. He softened the characterization, bringing to it much of the under the breath comments, endearing the character more to fans with his sense of humour. Many of the off the cuff moments by Mercer were actually planned but sometimes they were, indeed, done spontaneously during the recording session.
Popeye/Ali Baba also has some of my favorite Mercer mutter-libbed Popeye-isms:
"Wish there was a boardwalk on this beach...If I had some bread, I'd make a SAND-wich, if I had a witch...(stops to rest at red stoplight in the middle of the desert, stoplight turns green) C'mon, we got the green light with us..."
We don't get the Mercer-voiced toons for about five more (until "King of the Mardi Gras"), but listen to a few of those, and you'll KNOW why they cast Robin Williams in the 1980 movie.
-
3 hours ago, hamradio said:
Boffin is a British slang term for a scientist, engineer, or other person engaged in technical or scientific research and development.
Yeah, I only knew that term from old Danger Mouse cartoons, even if Cavey was having a little too much fun with her Word-a-Day calendar.
QuotePlease don't answer in Korean...
....OHHHhhhh!! ?
(Yes, I saw the 160pp. spampocalypse too, so I get it NOW, but gotta admit, given that it's usually bounced within hours, K-Spam jokes' shelf life gets shorter in a direct ratio to their specific subject matter.)
On topic, it's hard to not picture Desmond Llewelyn next to the dictionary entry:
-
1
-
-
3 hours ago, Wayne said:
and only know Philip Glass for his horrible score for 1931's Dracula.
?
Criterion/Filmstruck. Qatsi Trilogy (or just Koyaanis, the other two are pretty bad). NOW.
If you'd said you only knew Glass for his "Mishima" score, I would have gladly given a pass, but "Dracula" is unforgivable.
-
1 hour ago, slaytonf said:
I did see a few moments of the remake, but when I saw that Thomas Crown was doing the heisting, I lost interest.
Yeah, that was a brief, weird phase, when John McTiernan set out to remake all of his buddy Norman Jewison's 60's-70's classics as labors-of-love without really having a fundamental understanding of them.
Of course, after that, we got the '02 "Rollerball" remake, and we'll never know what would have happened after that.
-
32 minutes ago, NickAndNora34 said:
#17: TREASURE ISLAND (1950)* Score: 1/5
Yet another Bobby Driscoll Disney movie. I'm not complaining, just an observation.
Just wait till you get to Peter Pan, next on the animated list. (For which, to be fair, Bobby retired the jersey.)
And might want to go back and compare Disney's "the" Treasure Island by the time when/if you get to "Treasure Planet" from '02. Neither one can be called perfect, but the '50 version gets points just for Robert Newton as Long John Silver--
How iconic/influential was Newton?: When you go "Arr, matey" on Talk Like a Pirate Day, 90% chance you're imitating his Silver.
-
1
-
-
On 7/25/2018 at 12:15 PM, jakeem said:
Cher, the longtime pop star turned Academy Award-winning actress, will be among the performers recognized in December at the annual Kennedy Center Honors in Washington, D.C.
Also named as honorees: the great country singer Reba McEntire (also an actress); the durable jazz saxophonist and composer Wayne Shorter; and the classical music composer Philip Glass. In addition, the creators of the stage sensation "Hamilton: An American Musical" -- Lin-Manuel Miranda, Thomas Kail, Andy Blankenbuehler and Alex Lacamoire -- will receive a special tribute for their groundbreaking work.
So, Glass is recognized for thirty-five years of work, Lin-Manuel is recognized for one hit Broadway show and a couple of Disney movies, and Cher is recognized for having a new Broadway musical to plug?
(Hey, Peter Stone had one historical Broadway hit too, where's HIS lifetime Kennedy Honors?)
-
1
-
-
31 minutes ago, batongal said:
Tom Cruise playing a paraplegic in Born on the Fourth of July. Willem DaFoe also plays one.
And they have a chicken-fight with their wheelchairs. Which I think is supposed to be dramatic, but I'm not sure.
-
1
-
Frankenstein Meets the Wolfman Missing Dialogue
in General Discussions
Posted
(As part of her ongoing vigilant campaign to avenge....something I said, probably that K-spam joke: )
Well, that's the strange thing about Universal monster geography--No one knows WHERE it takes place:
Frankenstein isn't in Transylvania, Dracula is in Transylvania, which is full of German peasants. The Baron's castle is somewhere in Germany, which is full of cockney English peasants, who dress in Bavarian clothes. Remarkably similar to the English-moor village where the Wolfman prowls the Talbot estate...Although the English estate is close enough for Romanian gypsies to wander through.
If Boris Karloff's mannered English voice comes out of the Monster, we assume it came from the English-speaking Germany of the Baron's estate. Lugosi's allowed to sound as Romanian/Hungarian as he likes, which includes shepherds who might have escaped from other countries.