Anyone know the movie that opens...

[jarhfive]

The movie opens with a birds eye view of a city (NYC?). Vaporous things rise up out of the city and swoop toward the camera. A narrator speaks (on the verge of hysteria)..."The four ????..." The four something or another may be 'fates', 'horseman...'--I just don't remember.

 

Think "Ghostbusters"--the spirits rising up from the skyscraper.

 

The context:

I saw this film as a youngster, summer vacation, matinee movie, between harrasment sessions by my big brother and his friends, mid-1960's.

 

The search:

I have tried IMDB and search engines...but I don't know how to 'keyword' search the above description.

 

The reason:

I don't know. But it must have been a pretty scary effect to have remembered it to this day.

 

Thanks for any reply. I really have wondered about the movie or...is it just my imagination? Whooo...

 

Rusty

[MikeDouglas]

Hello.....any other clues at all? Any tidbit? Do you recall if it was in color or b&w? Remember ANY of the actors....including the supporting players? Do you recall catching a glimpse of the opening credits which may lead to the studio that released it. While watching it, did you get the impression it was an "old" film from the 1930's or early 40's? Or more recent to the mid-60's. These are wild guesses but what comes to mind with the info provided are "Gabriel Over the White House" with Walter Huston (1933), and "The Horn Blows at Midnight" with Jack Benny (1945) ? .......I know I am throwing darts in the dark, but you never know what might jog loose another memory.

[jarhfive]

MikeDouglas,

 

Not a whole lot to go on...is it?

 

As for color or black/white--funny you should mention that. Another movie I saw (on TV) about the same time was, "nuns stuck in a monastery...going crazy...running through the Alps(?)...and so on". That one was fairly easy to look up--"Black Narcissus". I was excited to see that "Black Narcissus" was to be broadcast on TCM. I tuned in. I realized that was the movie I remembered. The plot was the same, oh...strike Alps, insert Himalayas. But something important was different, could not quite connect what I had remembered and what I was seeing. I realized, "the movie I was watching was in color...really vibrant color and I had remembered a kind of spooky, dark movie". Huh? I then understood--our family had a black and white TV! My dad didn't buy a color TV until about 1968! So...the movie I am asking about MAY be in color, I simply would not know.

 

I just can't remember anything past the opening of this movie (maybe it was those 'beatings' by my brother...sorry, 'beatings' is too strong a word...more like 'heavy duty lickings'). As I said in the original post, I have had no luck with past look-fors. I was hoping the 'signature' special effects might be enough information for a reader.

 

Thank you for your reply. I will check out the plot synopsis of the two movies you mentioned. Maybe trigger a memory.

 

You know, I suppose it could of been a 'produced for television' show. Doubt it. The only other thing I can think of is the era these 'matinee movies' seemed to have been produced. Almost certainly after World War II (I am pretty sure of this...can't say why) to, of course, 1965-1966.

 

Thanks again.

 

Rusty

[jarhfive]

MikeDouglas,

 

I have seen "Gabriel Over the White House". A couple of times. Boy, does THAT come from a different time and place. A movie that has caused more than one discussion in my family. Unfortunately, not the answer to my query. I will check out Jack Benny.

 

Rusty

[FredCDobbs]

"Gabriel Over the White House" was a politically significant film. It was made at a time when a lot of people in various states were clamoring for the federal government to become involved in national crime-fighting. That was back in the days when the 9th and 10th Amendments to the Constitution were much stronger than they are today. Consequently, there weren?t very many federal crime laws, and each state was on its own concerning gang activity, bank robberies, and many other types of crime. That was before cops from one state could pursue criminals into another state. That?s why we see some old movies where the pursuing police stop at the state line and allow the fleeing bank robbers to get away.

 

I read somewhere that the Gabriel film was scripted as a suggestion that the next President should assume more powers and take on the crime issue as a federal issue. That actually did happen with FDR, but he also had the help of Congress too, and that?s how we got our federal bank robbery and ?hot pursuit? laws.

 

Ironically, some people today think that the feds have too much power and we should return to the old 9th and 10th Amendment days, when states had much more autonomous control over their own affairs.

 

Another film to watch that has the strong ?federalization? message is ?Scarface?. This film calls for citizens to rise up and demand more federal control of firearms and the federal eradication of crime gangs.

 

Along these lines, it is interesting to compare the movie ?Inherit the Wind? with the actual transcript of the John Scopes trial of 1925. In the movie, the William Jennings Bryan character is portrayed as ?a crazy fanatic?, but in the real trial transcript, it is clear that it was Clarence Darrow who was the fanatic. The Scopes trial represented an attempt by the ACLU to get a Supreme Court ruling that standardized all state school curricula around the country and to federalize the American state school system. The ACLU failed back in 1925, but they finally began to succeed in the 1960s and ?70s.

[jarhfive]

FredCDobbs,

 

What a coincidence! I just now finished your post about "Triumph of the Will" and documentary filmmaking. Fascinating! While a student in high school, I was smart enough to be one of ten students to attend the school's first 'film study' class. I think the class was a 'try-out'--see if students showed any interest. One of the films considered (by the instructor) to be of enough importance and, of course, available was "Triumph of the Will". The class spent one week studying this film--one viewing over two classes and three days of re-viewing what the teacher considered the important segments. One of the things I remember was the use of lighting so that, to give an example, a solitary athlete was framed against a black background--very dramatic (maybe it was the print?). To get to a point, I remember the instructor saying that, "despite working for the Third Reich, Leni Riefenstahl was considered a filmmaker of considerable influence"--this was in the early 1970's.

 

"Gabriel Over the White House". One connection between movie plot and American history is the severe illness of President Hammond/President Woodrow Wilson...the cover-up by White House staff/ President's family and the unconstitutional 'usurpation' of executive power. I guess the Wilson cover-up was public by the time "Gabriel Over the White House" was produced.

 

Rusty

[Guest]

I don't remember the beginning but there are 2 movies 1921 & 1962 called Four Horsemen Of The Apocalypse you mentioned 4 and horsemen being a possibility . There is no mention of the beginning of the movie in the database. The Valentino one is playing this month. The 1962 with Glenn Ford is scheduled for April but the database says the horsemen each represent something different I can't remember and I'll lose this tread to check it out.

[jarhfive]

FredCDobbs,

 

I just noticed I wrote "Triumph Of The Will" when I should have written "Olympia".

 

What happened to the 'Get-It-Right' button? I know I saw it next to 'Spell Check'.

 

Rusty

[FredCDobbs]

jarhfive,

 

There are a couple of ways to make the sky seem black on film. One is to use a certain kind of orthochromatic film that makes the blue sky photograph as very dark in B&W, and also a red filter can be used with panchromatic film.

 

Leni, in her long TV interviews, said that she had no idea what the Nazis were going to do a few years later, and she said that her filming back in 1934 and ?36 was just like some Russian making a great film about an old Moscow Mayday parade, or an American making a great film about a 4th of July parade or an Olympics anywhere in the world. And I agree with her about that.

 

Gosh, I?d hate to work for a bunch of Nazis. I worked with a lot of bosses in the TV and film business in the US who seemed like Nazis. One time I had to film some indoor close-up scenes of Warner von Braun, in New Orleans in 1964, when he was working for NASA and they were opening the new facility at Michoud, which was just outside of town. My bright movie light bothered his eyes and he scowled at me. That scared the heck out of me. I could just imagine him thinking, ?Twenty years ago I could have thrown you in a concentration camp for that!? Yikes!

 

But I think Leni didn?t really know what was going to happen a few years later. And once it started to happen, no one inside the country could stop it without being killed or sent to a concentration camp. It was similar in Russia and China during the Communist years. I?m sure glad I grew up in the US. My bosses could fire me, but they couldn?t send me to a concentration camp.

 

FredC.

[jarhfive]

FredCDobbs,

 

This is a double coincidence or, co-coincidence? My dad worked at the Navy Yards in Virginia during World War II. I suppose he was highly regarded as a machinist...he was interviewed by Von Braun, around 1950, Huntsville, Alabama. What was to become part of NASA was getting organized. Originally from Sweden, he did not want to live some place that got as hot as Alabama--turned an offer of employment down. Coastal Virginia did not get hot? Instead, took a job at (what was then) the National Bureau of Standards in Boulder (atomic clock stuff). Anyway, got to meet one of the great engineers of the 20th century.

 

I am glad at his decision. I have lived in Alabama. Colorado better than Alabama, climate-wise. Please, no cards and letters about Colorado versus Alabama--this is only my opinion.

 

Fred, there it is. Six degrees of sumthin'-nuther.

 

Rusty

[FredCDobbs]

I spent most of my life in the Deep South... Louisiana, Alabama, and Mississippi. I spent a couple of years in Montana and Nebraska in the late ?40s and I didn?t like the cold.

 

Down in the South, I think I got to meet the real ?Big Daddy?, the guy Berl Ives played in ?Cat on a Hot Tin Roof,? and the guy Ed Bagley played in ?Sweet Bird of Youth.? He was Leander Perez, and he was the old-time political boss of Plaquemines Parish in South Louisiana. Just about every county in the South had it?s local ?political boss?, but Leander Perez was the most notorious of them all. Plus, Tennessee Williams would have known about him, since Williams lived in New Orleans a lot, and Perez was in the news there a lot.

 

I often met some character types such as those in Tennessee Williams and William Faulkner books, plays, and movies. I?ve lived in a lot of other states, and actually those types of characters live all over the US. But there weren?t many writers like Williams and Faulkner who could write about them well. I got to visit Tennessee Williams? apartment on Royal Street one time back around 1964, during an ?open house?. But he wasn?t there.

 

I filmed some stuff up at Oxford Mississippi for CBS, back in ?62 and for NBC in ?63. The place was just the same then as it was in the film ?Intruder in the Dust.? In fact, I got to visit a lot of places that were in movies, such as the ruins of ?Windsor?, South of Port Gibson, which were shown briefly in the film ?Raintree County.? Windsor was an old pre-War Greek Revival mansion that burned down before the War. I also visited Rodney, which was a little town on the River before the War and Mark Twain wrote about it. It could be seen from steamboats on the River before the river changed course.

 

Also I was in Vicksburg and Natchez many times. Natchez under the Hill hasn?t changed much in 200 years, and it was used in a lot of movies because of its location on the river and its old buildings. When I was in New Orleans, I lived on Bourbon Street for more than a year. Wow, that was fun. I was in New Orleans when Steve McQueen and Tuesday Weld were making ?The Cincinnati Kid?. Also when Robert Redford was making ?This Property is Condemned.? I got to meet the chief cameraman, James Wong Howe, briefly.

 

So, although it was always very hot and humid, I enjoyed living and working in the South.

[MikeDouglas]

FredCDobbs

 

How lucky you are that you got to meet the GREAT James Wong Howe. He was Director of Photography for so many of my favorite films. "Viva Villa", "Air Force", "Yankee Doodle Dandy", just to name a VERY few. Think of the technological changes he would have witnessed and used to great advantage, during his long and distinguished career from the silent era into the 1960's.

Anything that stands out in your mind about the man, that you feel like sharing?

[jarhfive]

FredCDobbs,

 

Concerning Alabama and the 'deep south'--every place I have called home (not many places) has positives and negatives. The two years I lived in Alabama was outside of Montgomery, near a town called "Hope Hull". My brother used to make fun of the address--no "Hope Hull" in Oklahoma...on the other hand, no "Gotebo" in Alabama. The area was how an outsider (me) pictures the deep south--huge oaks, spanish moss, etcetera. I liked it! As an added bonus--easy drive to Pensacola Beach. Even better!

 

Same for Louisiana. During the 1978-1981 oil boom I worked off-shore, based out of Lafayette. My year and a half in south Louisiana was great--like a different world. If I had it over, I would eliminate the 'working off-shore' part.

 

To the point of this message. While you were in New Orleans (during the filming of "The Cincinnati Kid") was Edward G. Robinson on location? Any anecdotes?

 

Rusty

[FredCDobbs]

What impressed me about James Wong Howe was that he was a very calm and quiet guy. I watched him film a few scenes, then I just walked up to him on the set on Bourbon Street and asked if I could talk to him. I told him I was a young TV news cameraman. I was so nervous I frankly don?t remember much about what he said, but he was very nice, he didn?t mind being interrupted, and was so calm and quiet. He still spoke with a slight Chinese accent. I often wonder how he got into the movies, but I didn?t think of asking him that at the time.

[lzcutter]

Speaking of James Wong Howe, his widow, the writer Sanora Babb, died over the weekend.

 

They met in Hollywood and she ran a Chinese restaurant that he owned in North Hollywood for awhile in the early 1940s. They dated despite the fact that it was against the law at that time.

 

By all accounts, they were a happily married couple.

[ayresorchids]

Hi, Fred. Here's a professional bio of him that I found online:

 

Born Wong Tung Jim in Canton, China (now Guangzhou, China) on August 28, 1899, James Wong Howe, as he was known in America, is considered one of the greatest cinematographers in the history of motion pictures. When Howe died in West Hollywood on July 12, 1976, he had more than one hundred twenty-five films to his credit. He was known for his artful use of light and shadow and his innovative yet unobtrusive camera work. For "Body and Soul" (1947) he shot a boxing match on roller-skates with a small handheld camera, drawing the viewer into dynamic and intimate involvement with the action. He also was one of the first to use "deep focus" photography, where both the foreground and distant background are clearly seen. "Citizen Kane," photographed by Gregg Toland, is perhaps the classic example of this technique. Howe received an Academy Award in 1955 for his work on "The Rose Tattoo," starring Anna Magnani and Burt Lancaster, and in 1963 for "Hud," with Paul Newman.

 

Howe arrived in the United States when he was five with the dream of becoming a boxer. His first job as a teenager was as an assistant to a commercial photographer and he soon found his life's work. Known as Jimmie to his colleagues and friends, Howe began his career in motion pictures in Hollywood in 1917, working as an assistant in a studio editing room. Hollywood was only a few years beyond being a small rural Los Angeles suburb when Howe arrived. Later he was "slate boy" for the famous director Cecil B. DeMille, holding up the small sign that identifies each scene before it is shot. Howe's talents were quickly appreciated, and it wasn't long before he was working as an assistant cameraman. By 1922, he was a full-fledged director of photography and Los Angeles was the movie capital of the world. Howe's original screen credit was James or Jimmie Howe, but during his early years at MGM, "Wong" was added, "for exotic flair," according to one writer.

 

During the era of the silent movie, Howe made his first film as director of photography: "On the Trail of the Lonesome Pine" (1923). Other silents include "Mantrap" (1926), starring sexy flapper Clara Bow, and "Laugh Clown Laugh," (1928), with romantic leads John Gilbert and Joan Crawford.

 

With the coming of sound, heralded by "The Jazz Singer" in 1928, Howe came into his own. Examples of his classic work during this period include "The Power and the Glory" (1933), "The Thin Man" (1934), "Fire Over England" (1937), "Adventures of Tom Sawyer" (1938), "Abe Lincoln in Illinois" (1940), "Yankee Doodle Dandy" (1942), "Air Force" (1943), "Body and Soul" (1947), "The Brave Bulls" (1951), "The Rose Tattoo" (1955), "Picnic" (1955), "Sweet Smell of Success) (1957),"Old Man and the Sea" (1958), "Last Angry Man" (1958), "Bell, Book and Candle" (1958), "Hud" (1963), "This Property is Condemned" (1966),"Hombre" (1967), "The Heart is a Lonely Hunter" (1968) and his final film, which earned him an Academy Award nomination in 1975, "Funny Lady," starring Barbra Streisand.

 

During his long and distinguished career James Wong Howe also worked a few times as a director and even as an actor, but it was the power of his images as a cinematographer that will last forever. In 1949 he was honored with the super secret assignment of shooting test footage for a proposed comeback film ("La Duchesse de Langeais") for the legendary Greta Garbo . The comeback never happened for Garbo, but is was a mark of the high esteem in which Howe was held at the time, and ever since.

 

-- Contributed by Jon Wilkman, 1999

[ayresorchids]

Fred, the IMDB features an even more detailed bio of James Wong Howe:

 

http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0002146/bio

[FredCDobbs]

Interesting, thanks.