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Post by kijii on Aug 30, 2018 4:51:30 GMT
Primemovermithrax Pejorative--
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Post by louise on Aug 30, 2018 16:22:14 GMT
lost in Paris (2017). whimsical comedy about a woman searching Paris for her missing aunt. I didn't find very funny. 5/10.
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Post by teleadm on Aug 30, 2018 18:03:30 GMT
The Raven 1963, directed by Roger Corman, based on a poem by Edgar Alan Poe, staring Vincent Price, Peter Lorre, Boris Karloff, Hazel Court, Jack Nicholson, Olive Sturgess and others. Horror comedy about sorcerers and sorcery, "Dr. Craven (Price) is the son of a now dead great sorcerer who was once himself quite skilled at that profession, but has since abandoned it. One evening, a cowardly fool of a magician named Bedlo (Lorre) comes to Craven for help - the evil Scarabus (Karloff) has turned him into a raven and he needs someone to change him back. He also tells the reluctant wizard that Craven's long-lost wife Lenore (Court), whom he loved greatly and thought dead, is living with the despised Scarabus", and so begins the story. Having seen some of the more serious Roger Corman - Vincent Price collaborations, I think benefited the joy of seeing this movie, because I thought it was funny and entertaining as the three old-timers is sending up their old horror images and seems to enjoy the experience themselves too. Jack Nicholson acts here as a sort of Jack-of-all-trades character, and is the only one who seems to have a clear view on what is happening as he tries his hardest to keep the three stuffy old sorcerers in order, and even he is funny.
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Post by ZolotoyRetriever on Aug 30, 2018 18:13:24 GMT
The Fast and the Furious (1955). Directed by John Ireland, Edward Sampson. With John Ireland, Dorothy Malone, Bruce Carlisle. DVR'd from recent TCM telecast. First-time viewing.
Low-budget but oddly interesting early effort by Roger Corman (based on a story by, and produced by). Vintage car buffs will appreciate this one. Of note: the 2001 film of the same name is not a remake; however, the title rights of the 1955 film were purchased from Corman so that the title could be used on the 2001 film.
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Post by ZolotoyRetriever on Aug 31, 2018 3:44:22 GMT
*Dementia/Daughter of Horror (1953/1955). Directed by John J. Parker, with Adrienne Barrett, Bruno Ve Sota, Ben Roseman, Richard Barron. Narration by Ed McMahon. Watched via YouTube.
Oddly fascinating psychotronic film that has elements of both B&W horror as well as noir crime. It tells the tale of a tormented young woman (Barrett) who, haunted by horrific episodes from her youth, is transformed into a switchblade-wielding killer. Has no dialogue to speak of, but is accompanied by a rather creepy voiceover narration provided by a pre-Tonight Show Ed McMahon. In addition, has constant musical soundtrack, including a couple of well-placed and nicely performed jazz numbers.
This is a very trippy film even by today’s standards. I can only imagine what reactions it elicited back in the mid-fifties when it was finally released (it was made in 1953, but not released until ’55 due to a 2-year battle with the New York State Board of Censors). Cuts had to be made, and narration by Ed McMahon was added, then it was released with the alternate title of Daughter of Horror. The Variety critic of the day summed it up nicely, saying “This may be the strangest film ever offered for theatrical release.”
*Note: not to be confused with Francis Coppola’s Dementia 13 (1963).
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Post by kijii on Aug 31, 2018 5:13:06 GMT
Good-bye, My Lady (1956) / William A. Wellman Rented from Amazon Prime
This is a fairly simple story about an orphaned boy, Skeeter Jackson (Brandon De Wilde), being raised by his old Uncle Jesse Jackson (Walter Brennan) in the Swamps of southeastern Mississippi. The story centers around a strange dog that Skeeter finds in the swap. Both Skeeter and Uncle Jesse are curious about this dog since it cleans its paws like a cat, gives a laughing sound, and never barkes. When Skeeter finds the dog, wins him over, and trains him to hunt like a bird dog, this astounds his uncle and the neighbor from town, 'Cash' Evans (Phil Harris).
Later when Cash Evans finds out (through a magazine) that someone had lost a rare African breed of dog, a Basenjis, in that area and is offering a large cash reward for anyone who finds it, he tell Jesse about it and Jessie leaves it up to Skeeter whether to let the owner know or keep it a secret---finders keepers, you know. The story is simple but it does hold your interest..much like other boy-dog movies do.
Uncle Jesse Jackson (Walter Brennan) : That dog's a foreign dog. Skeeter Jackson (Brandon De Wilde) : Maybe it's a Yankee dog. You know how Yankees are. Uncle Jesse Jackson : I don't know much about Yankees, thank the good Lord, but that dog's been around folks. Don't belong around here.
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Post by kijii on Aug 31, 2018 5:41:25 GMT
The Bible: In the Beginning... 1966, directed by John Huston, based on the first part of the book of Genesis, screenplay by Christopher Fry, starring Michael Parks, Ulla Bergryd, Richard Harris, John Huston, Stephen Boyd, George C. Scott, Ava Gardner, Peter O'Toole, Gabriele Ferzetti, Franco Nero and others. Italian-American biblical epic with Adam and Eve, Cain and Abel, Noah and his ark, Nimrod, Abraham and Sara, Lot and his wife and Sodom and Gomorrah. The best things are Toshirô Mayuzumi Oscar nominated soundtrack, having a self-professed atheist directing the movie, and the Noah sequence with all it's animals. The movie is actually very boring, and maybe is that way, because I guess it has to please so many believers, and hurt as few as possible in their beliefs. By 1966 biblical epics were a bit out of fashion, the times were changing. They had planned to make a whole series in which this was planned as the first part, but it became a stand alone movie instead since the box-office returns were disappointing. The Noah sequence is at least entertaing, with Huston himself seemingly having a good time among all the animals. He was at one point trying to get Charles Chaplin to play the part. In one scene in the Sodom and Gomorrah sequence I think I heard the sound of a moped or vespa driving by. Recomended for those who is just curious about how it looks, and how they solved some things technically, if it's worth nearly 3 hours of your time. teleadm---I recently saw this movie, too, as is part of my John Huston viewing project, so I think I will just piggyback off of your review (above). For those of us who find these Bible stories ridiculous, this movie just drives home the message. Interesting that John Huston played the voice of God (as well as Noah) in this movie. Seeing God create man from a dirt pile and then blowing breath into a pole of the dirt sort of says it al.. ... but things don't get any better....in this depiction....of Genesis. In the Noah arc fairy tale, two animals of each kind just gather and march on to the arc; in the Tower of Babel fairy tale, everyone gathers, starts speaking different languages and then magically spread out across the earth. Why are these completing stories at all? It is one thing to hear these stories and another to see them portrayed in screen as Huston did in this movie.
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Post by teleadm on Aug 31, 2018 17:33:49 GMT
They Drive by Night 1940, directed by Raoul Walsh, based on a novel by A.I. Bezzerides, staring George Raft, Ann Sheridan, Ida Lupino, Humphrey Bogart, Gale Page, Alan Hale, Roscoe Karns, John Litel and others. Drama about the Fabrini brothers Joe (Raft) and Paul (Bogart) who are struggling in the trucking business in California mainly shipping fruit from farms to the markets in Los Angeles. Along they meet and befriend waitress Cassie (Sheridan), and after an accident begins working for a trucking company run by an old friend, Ed Carlsen (Hale) who's wife (Lupino) has the eyes on Joe, so much that she might commit a murder, while Paul who is married has lost one arm in an accident. Sometimes a movie just klicks with me, and this is one of them, and I can't exactly explain why. This is a very Warner Bros movie, gritty and tough, but also with a heart, making as think about who delivers all the fruits, vegetables, herbs and berries so they are fresh when we go and buy at our local markets and grocery stores, it's about those who drives the trucks by night. George Raft delivers one of his best roles of his career, tough but also tender. Ann Sheridan has memorable lines with an amusing bite at a truck store, but softens as the story goes on. Bogart plays the a good guy for once, but his character takes a background role once Lupino enters. Lupino plays her love thirsty role to the hilt and delivers a very shattering speach at the end of the movie. The only character that feels out of place is played by Roscoe Karns, who is some kind of comic relief from the drama that at least didn't work on me. The movie also blinks a friendly eye towards the Teamsters Union, and their 8 hours work hours policy. The movie is labeled a film-noir, and the threat isn't criminal, it's more about making ends meet, and keeping loan sharks away, though a murder is commited in this movie.
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Post by mikef6 on Aug 31, 2018 21:24:56 GMT
The Raven 1963, directed by Roger Corman, based on a poem by Edgar Alan Poe, staring Vincent Price, Peter Lorre, Boris Karloff, Hazel Court, Jack Nicholson, Olive Sturgess and others. Horror comedy about sorcerers and sorcery, "Dr. Craven (Price) is the son of a now dead great sorcerer who was once himself quite skilled at that profession, but has since abandoned it. One evening, a cowardly fool of a magician named Bedlo (Lorre) comes to Craven for help - the evil Scarabus (Karloff) has turned him into a raven and he needs someone to change him back. He also tells the reluctant wizard that Craven's long-lost wife Lenore (Court), whom he loved greatly and thought dead, is living with the despised Scarabus", and so begins the story. Having seen some of the more serious Roger Corman - Vincent Price collaborations, I think benefited the joy of seeing this movie, because I thought it was funny and entertaining as the three old-timers is sending up their old horror images and seems to enjoy the experience themselves too. Jack Nicholson acts here as a sort of Jack-of-all-trades character, and is the only one who seems to have a clear view on what is happening as he tries his hardest to keep the three stuffy old sorcerers in order, and even he is funny. I love The Raven even though, at first, it caused a little confusion when I first saw it in 1963 at the old 1930s downtown theater that had turned a little seedy. It usually showed cheap horrors and other kinds of teen exploitation (“Dragstrip Riot”) so our parents told us never to go there. So when “The Raven” came to town and was publicized as a E.A. Poe chiller as was the earlier “Pit and the Pendulum” (1961), we got downtown as fast as we could. So, when the raven flies though the window and lands on the Bust of Pallas and Vincent Price says: “Who sent you to me? Are you some dark-winged messenger from beyond? Answer me, monster. Tell me truly. Shall I ever hold again that radiant maiden whom the angels call Lenore?” – the raven answers, “How the hell would I know?” Not the expected answer. It took a little time to figure out that this was going to be a comedy – a successful comedy. I have always enjoyed it every time I’ve watched it.
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Post by teleadm on Sept 1, 2018 15:53:52 GMT
Les aventures d'Arsène Lupin aka The Adventures of Arsène Lupin 1957, directed by Jacques Becker, based on the novels of Maurice Leblanc, staring Robert Lamoureux, Liselotte Pulver, O.E. Hasse, Daniel Ceccaldi, Sandra Milo and others. Lighthearted crime movie about Arsène Lupin, the multifaceted gentleman thief, steals two masterpieces from the President of the Council. Some time later, posing as Monsieur Gilles, a winegrower who is marrying , he asks several jewelers to come to his mansion and robs them of their gemstones. Watching a French movie without subtitles is more or less impossible to follow any plot, yet I watched it in fascination for all it's running time. I don't know much about actor Robert Lamoureux, but to me he isn't the ideal Arsene Lupin in my eyes, he doesn't have the right flair, so to say, and that sort of hampers the movie story flow. What I liked was the cinematography, the period settings, the location shots, and offcourse Lilo Pulver.
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Post by delon on Sept 1, 2018 16:02:59 GMT
The Raven 1963, directed by Roger Corman, based on a poem by Edgar Alan Poe, staring Vincent Price, Peter Lorre, Boris Karloff, Hazel Court, Jack Nicholson, Olive Sturgess and others. Horror comedy about sorcerers and sorcery, "Dr. Craven (Price) is the son of a now dead great sorcerer who was once himself quite skilled at that profession, but has since abandoned it. One evening, a cowardly fool of a magician named Bedlo (Lorre) comes to Craven for help - the evil Scarabus (Karloff) has turned him into a raven and he needs someone to change him back. He also tells the reluctant wizard that Craven's long-lost wife Lenore (Court), whom he loved greatly and thought dead, is living with the despised Scarabus", and so begins the story. Having seen some of the more serious Roger Corman - Vincent Price collaborations, I think benefited the joy of seeing this movie, because I thought it was funny and entertaining as the three old-timers is sending up their old horror images and seems to enjoy the experience themselves too. Jack Nicholson acts here as a sort of Jack-of-all-trades character, and is the only one who seems to have a clear view on what is happening as he tries his hardest to keep the three stuffy old sorcerers in order, and even he is funny. The Raven is a wonderful cheesy fun. I always enjoy seeing it.
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Post by Deleted on Sept 1, 2018 21:36:33 GMT
Good movie but personally i found the twist at the end a bit obvious. I rate it 7\10
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Post by Deleted on Sept 1, 2018 21:41:36 GMT
They Drive by Night 1940, directed by Raoul Walsh, based on a novel by A.I. Bezzerides, staring George Raft, Ann Sheridan, Ida Lupino, Humphrey Bogart, Gale Page, Alan Hale, Roscoe Karns, John Litel and others. Drama about the Fabrini brothers Joe (Raft) and Paul (Bogart) who are struggling in the trucking business in California mainly shipping fruit from farms to the markets in Los Angeles. Along they meet and befriend waitress Cassie (Sheridan), and after an accident begins working for a trucking company run by an old friend, Ed Carlsen (Hale) who's wife (Lupino) has the eyes on Joe, so much that she might commit a murder, while Paul who is married has lost one arm in an accident. Sometimes a movie just klicks with me, and this is one of them, and I can't exactly explain why. This is a very Warner Bros movie, gritty and tough, but also with a heart, making as think about who delivers all the fruits, vegetables, herbs and berries so they are fresh when we go and buy at our local markets and grocery stores, it's about those who drives the trucks by night. George Raft delivers one of his best roles of his career, tough but also tender. Ann Sheridan has memorable lines with an amusing bite at a truck store, but softens as the story goes on. Bogart plays the a good guy for once, but his character takes a background role once Lupino enters. Lupino plays her love thirsty role to the hilt and delivers a very shattering speach at the end of the movie. The only character that feels out of place is played by Roscoe Karns, who is some kind of comic relief from the drama that at least didn't work on me. The movie also blinks a friendly eye towards the Teamsters Union, and their 8 hours work hours policy. The movie is labeled a film-noir, and the threat isn't criminal, it's more about making ends meet, and keeping loan sharks away, though a murder is commited in this movie. My favorite movie with Ida Lupino
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Post by mikef6 on Sept 1, 2018 21:59:00 GMT
Foreign Correspondent / Alfred Hitchcock (1940)
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Post by petrolino on Sept 2, 2018 0:58:15 GMT
'The Unknown Cyclist' (1998) - Punishing drama about staring death in the face, testing physical endurance and being the better man. It deals head-on with the AIDS epidemic and is directed by seasoned cinematographer Bernard Salzmann.
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Post by kijii on Sept 2, 2018 17:25:39 GMT
Romance (1930) / Clarence Brown Seen from DVD She also made many films with Lewis Stone. Though both Brown and Garbo were nominated for Oscars in this film too, the "why" of it escapes me. It's hard for me to see Garbo as a great--or even good--actress in this movie. She seems to overact with every word and her accent is so thick that sometimes I feel I need subtitles to understand what she is saying. (Yet, she was nominated four times in her career.) Then there is the plot.....What is it and why do I care? Maybe it has to do with dreams..or is it flowers? I think this might have been better as a Silent movie..the gestures are broad and exaggerated and the plot is overdone
Madame Rita Cavallini (Greta Garbo): Love is just a beast that you feed all through the night, and when the morning comes, love dies.
Madame Rita Cavallini : How do you like, then, if I drink to what I see in your eyes and you drink to what you see in mine?
Madame Rita Cavallini : You see my flowers, here. So fresh and beautiful. Tom Armstrong : You're crushing them! Madame Rita Cavallini : Oh, what does it matter? They were born to die. Our meeting here tonight, what is it but a bunch of flowers that we love and smell and throw away. Why should we take them home with us and watch them die?
Madame Rita Cavallini : Oh, I wish I knew a flower that would never die.
Madame Rita Cavallini : A dream, I guess that's all I am. A dream that's lost her way and rests for a minute in your sleeping heart. Tomorrow you'll wake up and the little dream's all gone.
Madame Rita Cavallini : Let me tell you something that I hope you'll remember. Yesterday's a dream that we have forgot. Tomorrow's the hope for some great happiness. It'll never come. Before, behind, just clouds and shadows. Nothing that is real, but, just these little minutes that we call Today.
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Post by OldAussie on Sept 3, 2018 4:07:18 GMT
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Post by Deleted on Sept 3, 2018 19:30:08 GMT
Good movie not very historical accurate but still 8.5\10
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Post by kijii on Sept 4, 2018 5:01:36 GMT
Saratoga Trunk (1945) / Sam Wood DVR'd from TCM (re-airing again this Friday)
Two years after Sam Wood had directed Gary Cooper and Ingrid Bergman in Hemingway's For Whom the Bell Tolls (1943), he directed them again in this black and white movie based on an Edna Ferber novel. The male and female role types could not have been more different between these two movies: In Saratoga Trunk Bergman plays the lead character and Cooper plays a more secondary role.
Edna Ferber's novels tend to be based on fictional American historic sagas and this is no exception. However, it is hard to compare this story with So Big!, Cimarron, Show Boat, Come and Get It, Ice Palace, or Giant.
Saratoga Trunk is about two people who likely would not have met if it were not for the strange circumstances of their meeting in late 19th Century New Orleans and then bringing them both to the Saratoga, New York state. Both characters are driven by revenge about how their families had been treated in the past. In the case of Bergman's character, it is about how the people of New Orleans had mistreated her mother after her mother had been accused of killing her father years earlier. In the case of Cooper's character, it is about how the railroad people had humiliated his family in Texas and driven them to poverty.
The movie tells a colorful story with a great cast, but in many ways it is almost too complex. It's almost like two movies (one set in New Orleans and the other set in Saratoga) with connecting characters sharing (or witnessing) the play out of the other's revenge. The logic of Cooper meeting Bergman in New Orleans is strange since there is no logical reason for him to be there except to meet her. On the other hand, Bergman quickly settling her revenge in New Orleans and following Cooper to Saratoga seems illogical too.
Flora Robson received an Oscar nomination for playing Bergman's Creole maid and Florence Bates gets to play one of her most delicious roles as Bergman's guide to the characters in Saratoga and how to win them over through cunning and gamesmanship. Sophie Bellop (Florence Bates) : [to Clio] I know my way around this world. I know what it is to be very rich. I know what it is to be very poor. I've lived on nothing for years... in luxury
Clio Dulaine (Ingrid Bergman): Won't you come in? Colonel Clint Maroon (Gary Cooper) : [Thinking he's been propositioned] Hey, uh, what kind of game is this anyway? [She seems bewildered] Colonel Clint Maroon : Now, look, Honey. I was born in Texas, but it wasn't yesterday.
Full TCM overview with SPOILERS: In 1875, Clio Dulaine, the illegitimate daughter of an aristocratic New Orleans Creole man and a French woman, returns from Paris to her birthplace in Rampart Street to avenge her mother's mistreatment at the hands of her father's family, the Dulaines. Years ago Clio's mother accidentally killed Dulaine when he tried to prevent her from committing suicide, and the scandalized Dulaines then exiled Clio and her mother to Paris. Clio is accompanied by her mulatto maid, Angelique, and her dwarf manservant, Cupidon. After fixing up the rundown house in Rampart Street, Clio ventures out, hoping to encounter the Dulaines. At the French marketplace, Clio stops for a bowl of jambalaya and is immediately attracted to Clint Maroon, a tall Texan in a white hat, who is eating at the counter. The attraction is mutual, and Clint offers to drive Clio to the cathedral in his carriage, but a disapproving Angelique interferes, and Clio leaves without him. After the service, Clio, Angelique and Cupidon breakfast at the restaurant patronized by the Dulaines every Sunday. Announcing to the maitre d' that she is a relative, Clio sits at the table reserved for the Dulaines, but when the Dulaines arrive, they recognize her by her resemblance to her mother and leave without a confrontation. Clint and Clio meet again at the restaurant, and afterward, he drives her home. Eventually, Clint moves into Clio's house. Although Clio and Clint are in love with each other, Clio, who is obsessed with her plans for revenge, intends to marry a rich and powerful man to prove that she is as good as her father's family. Clint, a gambler, who never intends to marry, is out for revenge on the railroaders who ruined his father in Texas. While Clio continues to embarrass the Dulaines at every opportunity, planning, if necessary, to interrupt the debut of her half-sister Charlotte, Clint, exasperated by Clio's unrelenting machinations, leaves for Saratoga. As the result of Clio's scheming, the Dulaines pay her $10,000, agree to destroy the Rampart Street house and bury her mother in a New Orleans cemetery. Later, Clio joins Clint in Saratoga, where she plots to marry wealthy railroad heir Bartholomew Van Steed. Clio's arrival with Angelique and Cupidon causes quite a stir, and because the hotel is completely booked, Clint, who is now calling himself Colonel Maroon, offers Clio two of the rooms in his suite. Privately, he explains that Bart owns a railroad, the Saratoga Trunk, which is suddenly worth millions of dollars because it connects the coal country with New York. Railroader Raymond Soule, the same man who ruined Clint's father, is trying to steal the railroad from Bart. Clio poses as the widow of a French count, a claim that many doubt until she is unexpectedly backed up by socialite Mrs. Coventry Bellop, who intensely dislikes Van Steed's mother. Clio's beauty and melodramatic posturing quickly capture Bart's attentions. In the meantime, Clint offers to save the Saratoga Trunk from Soule in exchange for shares in the railroad. When Clio learns that Bart is paying Clint to do his dirty work, she hysterically accuses him of cowardice and sends him away. This excites Bart, who explains that he knows about her background, but wants to marry her anyway. The costume ball that evening is interrupted by the arrival of Clint and Cupidon, who were seriously wounded during a pitched battle with Soule's men. Clio realizes that she loves Clint too much to marry another man and nurses him back to health. Clint then tells Clio that, having saved the Saratoga Trunk from Soule, his railroad shares have made him a very rich man.
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Post by teleadm on Sept 4, 2018 17:43:03 GMT
Tora! Tora! Tora! 1970, directed by Richard Fleischer, Kinji Fukasaku and Toshio Masuda, based on tow books, one by Gordon W. Prange and another by Ladislas Farago, staring Jason Robards, Martin Balsam, Sô Yamamura, Joseph Cotten, Tatsuya Mihashi, E.G. Marshall, Takahiro Tamura, James Whitmore and many others. Big-scale war movie with intermission, is a retelling of the Pearl Harbor attack details everything in the days that led up to that moment in American history. As United States and Japanese relations strain over the U.S. embargo of raw materials, Air Staff Officer Minoru Genda (Mihashi) plans the preemptive strike against the United States. Although American intelligence agencies intercept Japanese communications hinting at the attack, they are unwilling to believe such a strike could ever occur on U.S. soil. Just like Battle of Britain 1969 there could be things that was still classified as Top Secret by the time they made this movie. It's a very well made movie deliberatly without any stars, as the producers wanted the story to be the star, and I'm okey with that. In my eyes it looks realistic enough. A very expensive movie that had a hard time recoupe it's costs even if it was the ninth biggest hit in USA that year. The time was probably not right to release such a movie during the Vietnam protests era, people went to see M*A*S*H instead. An insteresting angle of Tora! is that the Hawaiian staff was made scapegoats because of mistakes made in Washington. Several later films and TV series relating to World War II in the Pacific have used footage from Tora! Tora! Tora!, such as Midway 1976, The Final Countdown 1980 and an episode of Magnum P.I. among others. The movie won an Oscar for Best Effects, Special Visual Effects, and was nominated in another four categories, though not Best Movie.
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