THE SWARM IN GLORIOUS PAN AND SCAN

[Hibi]

14 hours ago, CinemaInternational said:

Back to the swarm... I am reporting on Roger Ebert's words about The Swarm's costume design nom in a 1979 video "I'm amazed that Paul Zastupnevich's costumes in The Swarm were even nominated. How ridiculous can you get? The characters aren't wearing asbestos suits to protect them from killer bees, they mostly just dressed is standard double-knit business suits and police uniforms. But then, why get all dressed up for the year's worst movie?" In the same video Ebert asks Siskel: "How do you account for the Academy Award nomination for The Swarm? How do you get an AcademyAward nomination for dressing people right off the rack?" Siskel replies: "Well there is only one explanation as I am concerned. And that is this costume designer must have an awful lot of friends among his fellow costume designers who nominated him."

Two years later, Siskel picked the same designer's costumes for When Time Ran Out as the worst Oscar nomination of 1980...... (Ebert picked the cinematography from The Formula, which I personally feel is an undervalued film... if also confusing at times)

ROFL!

[Hibi]

1 hour ago, LornaHansonForbes said:

IN RE: THE ALMOST CAMUS-LIKE EMPTINESS OF THE DeHAVILLAND/BEN JOHNSON/MACMURRAY menage in THE SWARM:

IT IS WEIRD ISN'T IT?

spoilers

the 1970's brought with them the NEW NOTION of KILLING THE PROTAGONIST, OFTEN UNEXPECTEDLY, even if they were the hero- a definite rebellion against the OLD SCHOOL POLICY that A STAR DOES NOT DIE AT THE END EVEN IF IT MAKES NO SENSE AND UNDERCUTS THE REST OF THE STORY (see: KISS OF DEATH or even THE DAMNED DON'T CRY.)

And with POSEIDON and THE TOWERING INFERNO, THE TWO THINGS that stuck with most people were the deaths of SHELLEY WINTERS and JENNIFER JONESESESES' CHARACTERS, ESPECIALLY THE LATTER, because while THE TOWERING INFERNO has A LOT OF SHORTCOMINGS, the death of THAT CHARACTER, even though the special effects choices in rendering it are questionable**- is EFFECTIVE and UNSETTLING.

So i think this was IRWIN'S THIRD TIME TO THE WELL on LET'S WORK IN A "BELOVED" HOLLYWOOD LEGEND, endear them moreso to the audience, then DISREGARD THEM BRUTALLY by killing them with a risible NONCHALANCE....ONLY everything about it just reeks of afterthought. and BLESS HER GOD**** HEART, But as GOOD an actress as OLIVIA was, SHE WAS IN THE WEEDS ON THIS ONE AND MAN DOES IT SHOW!

YES, LIVVIE, GIVE ME "THE DOG JUST "WENT" ON THE CARPET!"  REALNESS!

they actually filmed a double for OLIVIA with a BEE BEARD. there are pics on google i think BUT I AM NOT POSTING IMAGES OF MELANIE WILKES BEING STUNG TO DEATH BY BEES THANK YOU VERY MUCH.

If you want to see them, look 'em up yourself you sick bastards.

 

**When that BARBIE DOLL bounces off the side of that flaming model, it's like, "whoa there, watch it, that's ST BERNADETTE. CLUNY BROWN and RUBY GENTRY THERE. SHE ALSO SAVED THAT CAT AND THOSE KIDS.")

LIVVY COVERED IN BEES! I MUST FIND THIS!

[Hibi]

Does anyone know where Olivia and her chums were going on that train??? (3rd time question)

[Hibi]

1 hour ago, LornaHansonForbes said:

.

So i think this was IRWIN'S THIRD TIME TO THE WELL on LET'S WORK IN A "BELOVED" HOLLYWOOD LEGEND, endear them moreso to the audience, then DISREGARD THEM BRUTALLY by killing them with a risible NONCHALANCE....ONLY everything about it just reeks of afterthought. and BLESS HER GOD**** HEART, But as GOOD an actress as OLIVIA was, SHE WAS IN THE WEEDS ON THIS ONE AND MAN DOES IT SHOW!

YES, LIVVIE, GIVE ME "THE DOG JUST "WENT" ON THE CARPET!"  REALNESS!

 

I have to agree. She's embarrassingly bad. One wonders why she would agree to play such a nothing part. Doubt anyone could have put it over with what little was there to work with. At least Jennifer had a good part and figured into the story. Olivia is like in some other film altogether and seems edited in. Even the trainwreck comes out of nowhere and she has no big dying scene either! LOL.

[LornaHansonForbes]

1 hour ago, Hibi said:

Does anyone know where Olivia and her chums were going on that train??? (3rd time question)

I THINK THAT WOULD REQUIRE A REWATCHING OF THE FILM, AND I (for one) am not totally up to it at the moment.

(oops, caps lock)

Maybe it was THE MIDNIGHT TRAIN TO GEORGIA, just the daytime route.

[LornaHansonForbes]

1 hour ago, Hibi said:

I have to agree. She's embarrassingly bad. One wonders why she would agree to play such a nothing part. Doubt anyone could have put it over with what little was there to work with. At least Jennifer had a good part and figured into the story. Olivia is like in some other film altogether and seems edited in. Even the trainwreck comes out of nowhere and she has no big dying scene either! LOL.

I seem to recall reading that IRWIN ALLEN wanted her for the JENNIFER JONES role in TOWERING INFERNO (Lisolette?) but she gave it a hard pass, then regretted it.

Hence, her appearance in this joint.

EDIT: Oh, but if it had been a menage betwixt Olivia, Fred MacMurray and Joan Fontaine...the killer bees would pale in comparison to the violence.

[LornaHansonForbes]

1 hour ago, Hibi said:

LIVVY COVERED IN BEES! I MUST FIND THIS!

it's on google images and i was wrong, it's not a double- it's OLIVIA (they most have use a superimposed camera trick)

[Hibi]

24 minutes ago, LornaHansonForbes said:

I THINK THAT WOULD REQUIRE A REWATCHING OF THE FILM, AND I (for one) am not totally up to it at the moment.

(oops, caps lock)

Maybe it was THE MIDNIGHT TRAIN TO GEORGIA, just the daytime route.

LOL. There was nothing leading up to it in the version TCM broadcast wondering if it explained it in the uncut version. Some people have seen it, but haven't commented on this tidbit.

[Hibi]

25 minutes ago, LornaHansonForbes said:

I seem to recall reading that IRWIN ALLEN wanted her for the JENNIFER JONES role in TOWERING INFERNO (Lisolette?) but she gave it a hard pass, then regretted it.

Hence, her appearance in this joint.

EDIT: Oh, but if it had been a menage betwixt Olivia, Fred MacMurray and Joan Fontaine...the killer bees would pale in comparison to the violence.

ROFL!!!!

[Hibi]

25 minutes ago, LornaHansonForbes said:

it's on google images and i was wrong, it's not a double- it's OLIVIA (they most have use a superimposed camera trick)

Yes, I found it! There are a lot of images from the train in there, that weren't in the cut version. Really bad editing job. Why have the wreck in the first place if you DON'T MILK IT??? THey have a few shots of it turning over, then exploding and that's it! And why would it explode? Too many stings?

[LornaHansonForbes]

19 minutes ago, Hibi said:

Yes, I found it! There are a lot of images from the train in there, that weren't in the cut version. Really bad editing job. Why have the wreck in the first place if you DON'T MILK IT??? THey have a few shots of it turning over, then exploding and that's it! And why would it explode? Too many stings?

I was not alive for most of the 1970's (no offense, but THANK GOD), but MULTIPLE EPISODES OF CHiPS alone have taught me that when anything mechanical goes off the road, it INSTANTLY explodes into a BALL OF FIRE (and sometimes turns into another make and model of car entirely). I never read that RALPH NADER THING, but I just assume this was true of all planes, trains and autos of the seventies.

[Hibi]

Just now, LornaHansonForbes said:

I was not alive for most of the 1970's (no offense, but THANK GOD), but MULTIPLE EPISODES OF CHiPS alone have taught me that when anything mechanical goes off the road, it INSTANTLY explodes. I never read that RALPH NADER THING, but I just assume this was true of all planes train and autos of the seventies.

LOL. You didn't miss much!

[LornaHansonForbes]

Just now, Hibi said:

LOL. You didn't miss much!

well, I missed some BUTTUGLY FASHION AND DESIGN TRENDS. I was born with good taste, I would have been an EcoTerrorist if I had been alive in the 70's.

[Hibi]

Yeah, 70s fashions are the worst (and Oscar Best Costume nominations!)

[LornaHansonForbes]

1 minute ago, Hibi said:

Yeah, 70s fashions are the worst (and Oscar Best Costume nominations!)

it's only been in the past 2 years that i have started watching movies from the 70's.  used to, i skipped the decade altogehter unless it was a period piece.

[Hibi]

Aside for a handful of up and coming directors, there's not much there.

[Mr. Gorman]

There's plenty of groovy movies to like from the 1970s; it just depends on what kind of movies you're looking for.    

 For years I've endeavoured to round up as many 'Drive-In'/low-budget/"B" or "Z" -grade movies as I could that I thought might interest me even a little bit.  To that end I've been rather successful in finding most of the '70s low-budgeters/exploitation movies I've been looking for.  

Still need more, though!  I don't have HOLLYWOOD HIGH (1976) as of yet.  Or THE STUDENT TEACHERS (1973).      

 

[CinemaInternational]

6 hours ago, Hibi said:

Does anyone know where Olivia and her chums were going on that train??? (3rd time question)

The film doesn't tell us. All they say is that they are evacuating the town, and show many of the town residents getting on the train. The town is supposed to be not that far from Huston, so they are likely going north or west judging from the cliffs in the sequence. Patty Duke's character misses the train because she goes into labor, and Lee Grant accompanies them to the hospital. Although we see Duke again after she has given birth, the film drops both characters and we are left to assume both survived.

[CinemaInternational]

There she is with the bees. Note: She was the only cast member in the film to actually get stung during production. And that is the fabric from the seats in the train scene so it must have been set after the explosion or just before.

[CinemaInternational]

5 hours ago, LornaHansonForbes said:

I seem to recall reading that IRWIN ALLEN wanted her for the JENNIFER JONES role in TOWERING INFERNO (Lisolette?) but she gave it a hard pass, then regretted it.

Hence, her appearance in this joint.

EDIT: Oh, but if it had been a menage betwixt Olivia, Fred MacMurray and Joan Fontaine...the killer bees would pale in comparison to the violence.

Well she had already done her disaster due in Airport 77!

Oh, by the way, her character survives in Airport 77, as do the characters played by Jack lemmon, Brenda Vaccaro, Jimmy Stewart, and Joseph Cotten. Lee Grant who (seemingly) survived in the Swarm was one of the fatalites as were Christopher Lee, and Robert Foxworth. The film does serve as a finale though. It was the final oscar nomination for Edith Head, and judging from Olivia's dress here, the costumes were better than the ones in The Swarm.

[CinemaInternational]

5 hours ago, Hibi said:

LOL. There was nothing leading up to it in the version TCM broadcast wondering if it explained it in the uncut version. Some people have seen it, but haven't commented on this tidbit.

Here, information about the differences between the two versions with no need to rewatch it all.

https://www.movie-censorship.com/report.php?ID=1496

[CinemaInternational]

5 hours ago, LornaHansonForbes said:

it's only been in the past 2 years that i have started watching movies from the 70's.  used to, i skipped the decade altogehter unless it was a period piece.

 

4 hours ago, Hibi said:

Aside for a handful of up and coming directors, there's not much there.

Of the decades from the 30s onward, I've seen the least amount of films from the 70s..... 358. It's a strange decade because the good stuff is really sublime, and yet some of the other titles  are in what were they thinking territory (although I must say Mahogany is a very enjoyable guilty pleasure, and some of the old fashioned films so slated at the time are actually quite lovely.).  The clothing of the period is pretty eyeopening to say the least.  The 70s landed on their feet like a cat in having many of their best films also being some of the best known of the era, something that would not be true about the 80s or 90s where many choice titles were swept under the rug. There are some hidden gems I loved. Having the studio guides though is a nice way to deal with the period because you get to read up on what films actually sound like they are worth a look. I'm sharing pictures of what I have seen from the decade for reference..... (What is it in this decade with making the titles had to see on the poster?) I think I'd be willing to go back and see quite a few of these.

[LornaHansonForbes]

16 hours ago, CinemaInternational said:

 

Of the decades from the 30s onward, I've seen the least amount of films from the 70s..... 358. It's a strange decade because the good stuff is really sublime, and yet some of the other titles  are in what were they thinking territory (although I must say Mahogany is a very enjoyable guilty pleasure, and some of the old fashioned films so slated at the time are actually quite lovely.).  The clothing of the period is pretty eyeopening to say the least.  The 70s landed on their feet like a cat in having many of their best films also being some of the best known of the era, something that would not be true about the 80s or 90s where many choice titles were swept under the rug. There are some hidden gems I loved. Having the studio guides though is a nice way to deal with the period because you get to read up on what films actually sound like they are worth a look. I'm sharing pictures of what I have seen from the decade for reference..... (What is it in this decade with making the titles had to see on the poster?) I think I'd be willing to go back and see quite a few of these

 

these thumbnails are neat as hell, is this something imdb does for you?

I was born in 1978 and I am fascinated by films of the 30's, 40's, 50's, and 80's; and the 60s and 90s are interesting- but for years, on largely aesthetic grounds, i avoided the 70's entirely.

my favorite films of the period still largely are PERIOD FILMS- because that is one thing the 70's did REALLY WELL- DAY OF THE LOCUST, MURDER ON THE ORIENT EXPRESS, CABARET, MURDER BY DEATH, FAREWELL MY LOVELY, CHINATOWN, THE BOY FRIEND, AMERICAN GRAFFITI- and some I know I'm forgetting, are superb films, and even some of the others I admire- THE NIGHT DIGGER, THE LONG GOODBYE, JAWS and (yes, even) DOG DAY AFTERNOON (which I SWEAR is just like a great 30's screwball comedy) and WHAT'S UP DOC? have a sort of "timeless" feel- DELIBERATE OR NOT.

I HAVE DISCUSSED this more than maybe i ought to, but in real life I struggle with manic depression and sometimes when I am feeling very very low watching SOMETHING SICK AND TWISTED AND DEGENERATE acts as a sort of ELECTROSHOCK THERAPY and "brings me back."

I am being 100% on the level about this, and as such I have seen MANDINGO and CALIGULA and I SPIT ON YOUR GRAVE and and THE WICKER MAN (WHICH I ****ING LOVE BTW!!!!!!!!) 

The film that jumpstarted my whole openness to 1970's viewing was KEN RUSSELL'S THE DEVILS (1971) which I watched UNEDITED on YOUTUBE (GOD BLESS IT) IN 28 PARTS ON FREEZING FEBRUARY NIGHT 10 YEARS AGO.  it's a perfect example of what the 70's were all about...from someone who was, of course, not around for most of them (again, thank you Jesus.) All apologies to the rest of you who were conscious and sentient during that DARK time for hair and fashion and interior design and architecture and automotive engineering.

THE DEVILS is, at the same time, the most depraved AS WELL AS one of the most staunchly, honestly moral movies i have ever seen.

Plus you get to see topless nuns grinding on a fallen figure of JESUS.

ANYHOW, LONG STORY SHORT (too late) I realized that the 1970's were something of a SPAGHETTI DECADE IN FILMMAKING, in that- for the first time and for whatever the Hell reason- people were allowed to THROW WHAT THE **** EVER THEY WANTED AND THE WALL. Sometimes it sticks, sometimes it doesn't, the end result from one not alive in the time is rife with fascination.

ps- it also looks like you have not seen THE WICKER MAN (1971) which I WOULD REAAAAALLY RECOMMEND HIGHLY.

PSS- I LOVED THE BATTLE OF CABLE HOGUE

 

[Sepiatone]

Sure, the '70's were an uneven time of movie making, but too, most other decades have their share of uneveness.   The '70's started off with some classic and not so classic "horror/suspense" dogs like LET'S SCARE JESSICA TO DEATH( which I lampooned as "Let's BORE Jessica to Death.")  and schmaltz like LOVE STORY, but picked u a bit with THE GODFATHER and the rise of MEL BROOKS.  The former inciting a spate of MOB movies, and the latter also joined by an increase of WOODY ALLEN and CLINT EASTWOOD flicks.  Actually, as you know, "spaghetti" usually refers to those mid to late '60's westerns produced and filmed in Italy, which also helped kick off Clint's post TV film career.  And too, don't overlook the '70's  huge increase of nudity and profanity in many "major" motion pictures.  Oh, and....

I believe you're thinking of THE BALLAD OF CABLE HOGUE, eh?   

Sepiatone

[LornaHansonForbes]

34 minutes ago, Sepiatone said:

 

I believe you're thinking of THE BALLAD OF CABLE HOGUE, eh?   

Sepiatone

DAMMIT! THAT'S AT LEAST THE SECOND TIME I'VE DONE THAT! I do not KNOW WHY I think BATTLE for BALLAD!

THANK YOU!

(I'M LEAVIN' IT THOUGH, THANKS FOR CATCHING.)