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Post by Doghouse6 on Aug 4, 2020 21:52:32 GMT
A Perry Mason twofer: Erle Stanley Gardner, author of the Perry Mason novels, made his only appearance in the classic Perry Mason series in the very last episode of the last season (as the Judge), appropriately titled "The Case of the Final Fade-Out” (Season 9 Episode 30. May 2, 1966). I’m not sure if the actual final fade-out of the series is rueful or playful, probably the latter: Perry, Della, and Paul are going over the notes for their next case. Raymond Burr originally tested for the role of perennial loser D.A. Hamilton Burger. Other actors considered for Mason were William Hopper (who got the role of P.I. Paul Drake), Richard Carlson, Fred MacMurray, and Efrem Zimbalist, Jr. Tinged with irony as well, either intended or not. Della's final line is, "This police report looks convincing." At the time, the LAPD was under a public microscope for systemic brutality, racism and corruption in the months following the Watts riots. James Stacy, mentioned in Lebowskidoo 🦞's post on page 2, played the murder victim in that episode (from which the image in the post is taken). Speaking of irony, also among the cast was Dick Clark, still six years from the inception of his long-running New Year's Rockin' Eve specials, playing a screenwriter named Leif Early. A string of witnesses giving testimony in a brief montage were Perry Mason production crew and staff.
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Post by mikef6 on Aug 4, 2020 21:58:02 GMT
A Perry Mason twofer: Erle Stanley Gardner, author of the Perry Mason novels, made his only appearance in the classic Perry Mason series in the very last episode of the last season (as the Judge), appropriately titled "The Case of the Final Fade-Out” (Season 9 Episode 30. May 2, 1966). I’m not sure if the actual final fade-out of the series is rueful or playful, probably the latter: Perry, Della, and Paul are going over the notes for their next case. Raymond Burr originally tested for the role of perennial loser D.A. Hamilton Burger. Other actors considered for Mason were William Hopper (who got the role of P.I. Paul Drake), Richard Carlson, Fred MacMurray, and Efrem Zimbalist, Jr. Tinged with irony as well, either intended or not. Della's final line is, "This police report looks convincing." At the time, the LAPD was under a public microscope for systemic brutality, racism and corruption in the months following the Watts riots. James Stacy, mentioned in Lebowskidoo 🦞 's post on page 2, played the murder victim in that episode (from which the image in the post is taken). Speaking of irony, also among the cast was Dick Clark, still six years from the inception of his long-running New Year's Rockin' Eve specials, playing a screenwriter named Leif Early. A string of witnesses giving testimony in a brief montage were Perry Mason production crew and staff. It seems that much of the final series story was made up of in-jokes, including the title. I love it.
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Post by BATouttaheck on Aug 4, 2020 22:04:02 GMT
Doghouse6 mikef6I lay in wait for weeks waiting for that episode, afraid that something would happen to either me or the TV ! Got to see it ! LOVED that ending and even mentioned it in a thread about TV series finales somewhere or other. What a great touch about the witnesses ! Shall have to watch it again and take note! I noted that Dick Clark had never really aged ... did he have a portrait in his attic ? Whenever I see James Stacy I feel badly. I think he was on Cagney and Lacy (?)post accident as a wounded vet <?> anyway... great trivia, youze guyz !
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Post by Doghouse6 on Aug 4, 2020 22:37:44 GMT
Tinged with irony as well, either intended or not. Della's final line is, "This police report looks convincing." At the time, the LAPD was under a public microscope for systemic brutality, racism and corruption in the months following the Watts riots. James Stacy, mentioned in Lebowskidoo 🦞 's post on page 2, played the murder victim in that episode (from which the image in the post is taken). Speaking of irony, also among the cast was Dick Clark, still six years from the inception of his long-running New Year's Rockin' Eve specials, playing a screenwriter named Leif Early. A string of witnesses giving testimony in a brief montage were Perry Mason production crew and staff. It seems that much of the final series story was made up of in-jokes, including the title. I love it. They were also quite fond of alliteration and other wordplay in their episode titles. Among those of the final season alone were: The Case Of the Bogus Buccaneers; ...Vanishing Victim; ...Golfer's Gambit; ...Scarlet Scandal; ...Twice-Told Twist (a car-stripping-ring update of Oliver Twist); ...Unwelcome Well; ...Positive Negative.
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Post by Prime etc. on Aug 24, 2020 7:18:16 GMT
In commentary discussion for The Man Who Haunted Himself Roger Moore mentions that the road he drives on in the opening scenes was where the director Basil Deardon was killed in a car crash a year later (on the way to dinner with Val Guest)--Bryan Forbes added "decapitated."
Another:
Bryan Forbes: "I remember going around one night, the art department, there was some dispirited man doing a poster. And it was a frightening poster of a naked woman chained to a bed. And I said, 'what is that for?' And it is was for a Hammer film. And I said, 'did you do that from real life, I mean did you have a model to do that?' He said, 'I couldn't get a model so I used my wife.'"
Moderator: "You actually were going to do a film for Hammer at one point weren't you Roger, Bride of Newgate Gaol."
Roger Moore: "Was I?"
Moderator: "I think so. They announced it with you."
Roger Moore: "What was it called?"
Moderator: "Bride of Newgate Gaol."
Roger Moore: "I can't see why I'd have the title role."
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Post by Prime etc. on Aug 24, 2020 7:47:42 GMT
Roger Moore mentions doing North Sea Hijack and having a castle full of cats and they wouldn't stay still so someone suggested drugging them and James Mason, a notorious cat fancier objected. Moore's impression of Mason is hilariously convincing.
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Post by Prime etc. on Aug 29, 2020 21:39:28 GMT
Freddie Francis on Peter Cushing:
"I think Peter is absolutely wonderful - there is not an actor in the world who can speak rubbish like Peter and make it sound real."
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Post by BATouttaheck on Sept 24, 2020 23:02:03 GMT
Billy Dee Williams was born William December Williams in April Has to be a story about that middle name ...
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Post by mikef6 on Sept 26, 2020 18:48:11 GMT
Some trivia with a dark side. Back in ’11 got to see a movie in the historic Texas Theatre in the Oak Cliff neighborhood just south of downtown Dallas. Why historic? Well, it opened in 1931 as the largest movie theater in the DFW metroplex and the first with air conditioning. But its long run all but ended on November 22, 1963. After Lee Harvey Oswald left the Book Depository building he had used as a sniper’s perch, he walked about a mile south into Oak Cliff. On a corner there, he shot and killed Dallas police office J.D. Tippett and then fled into the Texas Theatre without paying for a ticket. Theater management called police who showed up in just a few minutes. I know what you’re asking yourself about this tragic day: what was playing at the Texas Theater? On the marquee that day was a war movie double feature. Oswald got to see a few minutes of “War Is Hell” (1961, Burt Topper) Also playing on the double bill was “Cry of Battle” (1964, Irving Lerner) (not to be confused with “Battle Cry” from 1955). Both “Cry of Battle” and “Battle Cry” starred Van Heflin. The Texas was already a second-run double feature movie house in ’63, but after this brush with infamy it had nothing but bad luck for the next 30 years, barely escaping demolition several times. It was eventually purchased by a preservation society and, about 2008, by a film theater management company who restored it. The day after the assassination, the FBI showed up at the Texas and removed the seat where Oswald had been sitting. The seat is presumably still in the National Archives. A story went around that the theater owner didn’t tell them that he had already replaced the seat to keep for himself so allowed the Feds to carry off the replacement. Aisle 2, Row 3, Seat 5
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Post by BATouttaheck on Sept 26, 2020 20:50:17 GMT
mikef6 Twist of history IF he had paid for that ticket !
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Gubbio
Sophomore
@gubbio
Posts: 254
Likes: 217
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Post by Gubbio on Sept 28, 2020 17:54:09 GMT
Hedy Lamarr, in describing why she turned down the leading role in "Laura" said, “They sent me the script, not the score.
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Post by amyghost on Sept 28, 2020 18:10:08 GMT
The London Scottish Regiment served in Flanders in WWI. on the roster was Ronald Colman, Herbert Marshall, Basil Rathbone and Claude Rains. They could have put on a decent company play. An interesting additional note to this is that Rains was gassed in combat; he was temporarily blinded, and lost sight in one eye for life. Even wilder was the fact that he completely lost his voice and had to learn to speak all over again; his original accent was heavy Cockney, but in retraining his voice, he acquired the distinctive velvet tones that thrilled filmgoers for decades.
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Post by mikef6 on Oct 6, 2020 22:09:08 GMT
Character actor Albert Salmi had a sad and unsettling end. In 1990 he shot his estranged wife to death and then took his own life. But just 30 years earlier, in the "A" western "The Unforgiven" he got to kiss Audrey Hepburn! If I had that privilege, I would have been good to go for a hundred years, easily.
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Post by BATouttaheck on Oct 6, 2020 22:15:51 GMT
mikef6 damn never knew that ... He was always a welcome actor ... The Unforgiven a highlight ! damn
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Post by mstreepsucks on Oct 6, 2020 22:38:34 GMT
Stanley Kubrick, who never had the same actor in a movie twice,: Originally (allegedly)wanted slim pickens to to play the part scatman crothers played. Which is odd because the person in the book that it was based on was black.
But there's no reason an actor would want to work with kubrick again after the first time, considering how many takes they would have to do for no reason. Which is why slim declined.
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Post by DanaShelbyChancey on Oct 6, 2020 22:45:52 GMT
There is a story about this shot in Rosemary's Baby. At first, Polanski thought this shot was an error, and was going to reshoot it, as Ruth Gordon isn't that visible. Until he noticed that people in the screening room were tilting their heads, as if to see around the doorway of the room in the scene. So Polanski decided to leave the shot in as it was.
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Post by jervistetch on Oct 7, 2020 1:54:27 GMT
Stanley Kubrick, who never had the same actor in a movie twice,. Peter Sellers, Timothy Carey and Joe Turkel are three actors that appeared in more than one Kubrick movie. Perhaps they were masochists.
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Post by Prime etc. on Oct 7, 2020 2:48:24 GMT
That's a shocker about Salmi--I tended to seem him as an easy going kind of screen personality.
LISA AND THE DEVIL trivia
The original ending was changed because they got to film inside a 747 (first film to do so) and thus they were called away from their production offices. While away--a landslide destroyed much of the building--if they had been there, serious casualties would have happened.
When making it Telly Savalas was supposed to be eating gumdrops but he didn't like it so he suggested a lollipop. After the film was shown, Telly Savalas met Samuel Arkoff who told Savalas that the lollipop he had in his mouth in the film made him look ridiculous. So as a challenge, Savalas started using a lollipop on Kojak to prove he could make it look respectable.
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Post by Prime etc. on Oct 7, 2020 3:04:49 GMT
Another bit of LISA AND THE DEVIL trivia --Mario Bava tried to persuade Elke Sommer NOT to do a nude scene. His sister was a mother superior in a convent.
She had already done a more explicit nude scene--in fact she appeared nude in a film (The Invincible Six) made in Iran of all places.
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Post by Lebowskidoo 🦞 on Oct 8, 2020 18:27:05 GMT
Actors Russ Conway (1913-2009) and Donald Woods (1906-1998) were both brothers and Canadian born. They both changed their names in Hollywood.
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