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Post by codystarbuck on May 1, 2024 11:32:07 GMT -5
ps I think he was dubbed in Zorro, though I haven't seen it in quite a while, to be certain. Stanley Baker was the villain, so it was a mixed international cast. Also featured the comedic actor Moustache, who also appeared as a guard, in the caper film How To Steal a Million, with Peter O'Toole and Audrey Hepburn.
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Post by codystarbuck on May 1, 2024 11:30:20 GMT -5
Don't forget Lost Command, with Anthony Quinn and George Segal, as an Algerian Legion paratrooper. Yep, George Segal.
And Claudia Cardinale, I see. Don't think I've seen that one either. My impression is that Alain Delon made a few attempts to break into Hollywood and the English-speaking market, but never succeeded in becoming the huge star as he was in French films, where he was one of the top guys for much of his career. Whether that was just bad luck or what, who knows.
On the subject of acting in a second language, a friend of mine was telling me about an interview he saw with Michael Ironside once: Ironside's an anglophone Canadian who does speak French but apparently felt he wasn't able to act in French as well as he'd like (this was an interview about a Canadian miniseries called The Last Chapter, a bike gang crime story that was filmed in both French and English versions).
How was Delon's English-language performance in the ones you've seen? I think his screen presence and star power come over in a big way in his French films, or the few of them I've seen at least, but perhaps it didn't carry over completely to his English-language movies, though I haven't seen or don't remember enough to judge from my own viewing.
His acting is fine, in Lost Command, where he mostly gets to play angry or indignant. The film is about a group of Legion paratroopers, who survive Dien Bien Phu and a POW camp, then are sent to Algiers to keep the peace. Delon is a staff officer who volunteers to jump into Dien Bien Phu, with supplies and what reinforcements they can muster. Quinn is the colonel in command, a man of Basque heritage, who hates the upper class senior command. He immediately takes a disliking to Delon, as a "staff lackey, but comes to respect him, as a soldier. Delon thinks Quinn is coarse and brutal, but comes to respect his leadership. After they are released from the POW camp, Quinn finagles a command in Algeria and the rest join him, except Segal's character, who witnesses the brutal treatment of his friends and neighbors and goes AWOL to join the resistance. When the parachute detachment is posted to Algiers, Segal's character is their main target and Cardinale is his sister. She is acting as a courier and Delon falls for her. Delon increasingly objects to the brutal methods being employed by another officer (a French colonial, driven out of Indochina), with Quinn's tacit approval. Cardinale is caught and interrogated and Delon reacts to the perceived betrayal. He gets to do a little romancing and a lot of arguing and admiring. It's not the greatest range for a character, but it is decent. He is second lead, after Quinn, who gets the biggest scenes, as he romances a former general's widow, which helps gain his command, plus a scene in his old village, in the Pyranees, where he had been a shepherd and smuggler. It's one of the few English films about both Indochina and Algeria and the French colonial wars there, though it is neither as good as the French films Dien Bien Phu, nor The Battle of Algiers.
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Post by codystarbuck on Apr 30, 2024 22:29:13 GMT -5
Don't forget Lost Command, with Anthony Quinn and George Segal, as an Algerian Legion paratrooper.
Yep, George Segal.
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Post by codystarbuck on Apr 30, 2024 20:47:30 GMT -5
I thin Le Samourai is fine; but, it is meant to be existential, which limits the crime aspect. It was the direct inspiration for John Woo's The Killer. Red Circle is a pretty good crime film.
My favorite Delon is Zorro. You can tell he is having a ball, in that one; and, it is a pretty good Zorro movie.
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Post by codystarbuck on Apr 29, 2024 22:54:45 GMT -5
None of Lee's redesigns worked and what is with all of the segmenting? If it is supposed to signify armor, why would Superman need armor? Never thought much of Lee's design sense, when it came to costumes. The entire problem for me is the style. The no outside trunks idea is fine with me, whether it's a one-piece or trousers plus top, or whatever. The artist could have drawn them in their traditional costumes and I'd probably still hate it, I just find that style ugly, ugly, ugly; and the same goes for most superhero artists of that era, whenever it was exactly (1990s-2000s? not really sure). 20Teens
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Post by codystarbuck on Apr 29, 2024 20:57:16 GMT -5
The best teaser segment, from Batman: TBATB....
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Post by codystarbuck on Apr 29, 2024 20:51:46 GMT -5
None of Lee's redesigns worked and what is with all of the segmenting? If it is supposed to signify armor, why would Superman need armor? Never thought much of Lee's design sense, when it came to costumes.
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Post by codystarbuck on Apr 29, 2024 20:27:34 GMT -5
The cool thing about that Jacques Rougeau vs Hogan match is that it was exclusive to Montreal and drew a good crowd, based on the Rougeau family name being so big in the city going back decades, and of course Hogan being involved. Montreal was often given exclusive main events for years after essentially becoming part of WWF, with Jacques vs Pierre (the Quebecers) selling out the Montreal Forum in 1994 and Pierre (now Jean-Pierre Laffite) vs world champ Diesel in 1995 doing a large crowd, both during a time when house show attendance was at a nadir in North America. Looking it up, Rougeau vs Hogan drew a healthy 9,000 and Hogan even put him over clean (it was untelevised and wouldn't be known outside of Montreal or sheet readers, so Hulk's rep would be protected) Rougeau was the promoter of the card. He did a few one-off cards in Montreal, all of which drew well because they hadn't had regular wrestling in a while and Jacques was able to use big name talent.
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Post by codystarbuck on Apr 29, 2024 10:25:36 GMT -5
Again, no, the Army was already developing the Fast Attack Vehicle when Needham had something similar built for the film. The Army heard about the filming (there were National Guard units involved, with the tanks and aircraft, seen in the film) and the Mega Destroyers and wanted to see if someone had leaked information or if it was a coincidence and got in touch with Needham and sent people to look over the vehicles and watch the filming. The design was a coincidence....just parallel thinking. The Army project started sometime between 1978 and 1981. Megaforce was filmed in 1982-83 and released to theaters in 1983. Mattel had a toy license, for all the good it did them, when the film tanked at the box office. The GI JOE toy line launched in 1982, with the initial batch of figures and vehicles, seen in the first year of the comic. Hasbro took a lot of cues from existing US Army equipment or other militaries or publicly revealed development projects (like the Osprey tilt-rotor or long standing research into jetpacks).
Needham just wanted stunt vehicles that looked futuristic, as the film was supposed to be set :sometime in the future." That was kind of ruined by the ancient helicopter that Edward Mulhare arrives in, if you ask me (and the M-60 tanks, used by Henry Silva's forces). Sandrails had been built since at least the 60s, so the Mega Destroyers were hardly new technology, nor were the Fast Attack Vehicles. They just went with the basic approach of taking the existing idea and mounting weapons on it, much like the SAS did with jeeps, in North Africa. Same for tanks in Normandy, after the problems of the bocage country, with the high earthen walls around fields. Someone hit upon the idea of welding steel teeth on the Shermans and then they could punch through the walls.
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Post by codystarbuck on Apr 28, 2024 19:44:19 GMT -5
Broke it again!
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Post by codystarbuck on Apr 28, 2024 19:36:55 GMT -5
Quality Comics Manhunter (Dan Richards) had a dog, named Thor..... Even cooler, though, was Quality's Doll Man, whose dog, Emo the Wonder Dog, was not only a sidekick, he was transport!
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Post by codystarbuck on Apr 28, 2024 19:30:07 GMT -5
Wait. Does that mean that the Pentagon is now taking its inspiration from the GI Joe toys? Nope; other way 'round. The US Army was already testing a vehicle in the dawn of the 80s, before the release of the toy line. They were testing a sandrail-style vehicle (frame created out of steal tubing, with a rear-mounted, air-cooled engine, usually a Volkswagen), which was called the Fast Attack Vehicle. The 9th Infantry Division was designated as the testers for this kind of stuff. In 1982-83, Hal Needham had vehicles custom-built for the filming of Megaforce and the US Army came out to take a look at them, during filming in the desert, in Southern California. News reports mentioned they were developing something similar, but that the movie vehicles did not show signs of copying them, just similar approaches to certain problems. The basic idea was a fast, maneuverable vehicle for infantry, particularly in a recon role. Sandrails and dune buggies (sandrails are built from the ground up and engines are installed, while dune buggies usually start with a vehicle, like a Volkswagen Beetle and then strip it down and add roll bars, etc) fit their mode of thinking. The idea of the Fast Attack Vehicle eventually morphed into the HMMV (Humvee); but, the Fast Attack Vehicle was turned over to a special forces role and redesignated the Desert Patrol Vehicle and deployed during the Gulf War (the first vehicles to enter Kuwait City were Navy SEAL DPVs). The AWE Striker was introduced to the toy line with the 1985 release, with the Crankcase figure. It's more of a dune buggy, as it has an enclosed chassis and a roll cage. It's closer to the racing dune buggies used in the Baja 1000 endurance off-road race. The 1985 release had a bunch of new vehicles and some updated ones, including the Silver Mirage motorcycle, which Lady J is riding. Expect to see more of them in upcoming stories, especially the new Cobra vehicles, I'm sure. I would especially expect them to use the Cobra Flight Pod, for a battle, in the future. My older cousin had a VW dune buggy he towed from Nebraska, to my grandfather's farm, in Southern Illinois, to try to fix up and ride around the farm; but, he never quite seemed to get the engine sorted out, for very long. Never did get a ride in it.
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Post by codystarbuck on Apr 27, 2024 21:51:38 GMT -5
GI JOE #44Hey, 3 second following distance, buddy! Oh, and she could be brought up on charges. Department of Defense Regulations clearly state that a helmet must be worn at all times, while operating a motorcycle. Creative Team: Larry Hama-writer, Rod Whigham & Andy Mushynsky-art, Joe Rosen-letters, George Roussos-colors, Denny O'Neil-editor, Jim Shooter-likes trucking.... Synopsis: Lady J is putting new JOEs Crank Case, Bazooka, Heavy Metal (Negro Casa's brother?) and Airtight through a combat course, in their vehicles. Wait, didn't she just join, too? Why is she initiating replacements, instead of Scarlett or Clutch? Where the hell is Steeler? Anyway, they are headed back to base, when some Cobra androids do a suicide run at them, releasing gas.... They carry cannisters, which contain bombs that unleash creeper vines. Jeepers! Creepers! Destro, The Baroness and Dr Brain-Wave observe, as the creepers emit a gas that knocks the JOEs out. Cobra troopers round up the sleeping JOEs and take their vehicles. Someone's going to be making payments to Uncle Sam for years to come. You have to sign those things out! Dr Brain-Wave gloats that his creeper bomb is better than explosives, because he can retrieve the vehicles and use or sell them, making the weapon more cost effective than explosives or armor piercing munitions. The JOEs wake up in their vehicles, in a scrapyard, but their munitions are gone. They are in a maze, constructed out of junked cars and Dr Brainwave sends in androids, in trucks and on motorcycles, with more bombs, for testing. Lady J orders the team to go down the middle, figuring they are programmed not to fire at each other. Crank Case tells Bazooka to jettison their recoilless rifle and he dumps it into an android. Heavy Metal and Airtight trap a HISS tank in a car crusher and activate it. Dr Brain-Wave changes his name to Dr Mindbender, in the middle of the fight and The Baroness (or is she a Marquess?) heckles him, saying it isn't going well. The JOEs stop for a conference and Crank Case says they need to take the initiative and go on the attack.....but how? Airtight has an idea. They soon head straight into the onslaught Dr Brain-Wave/Mindbender/Gillespie/Kildare/McCoy or whatever his name is, has unleashed. They have cobbled together gas masks, using air filters and gasket rings and duct tape. Yes, but can they jerry rigg a system to make a square cartridge work with a filtration system that uses round ones, like NASA did for Apollo 13? They've also got a bunch of discarded car batteries and they use the battery acid to kill the creepers, from the bombs. They are faced with a semi rigg loaded with bombs and they don't have enough batteries; but, Lady J has left the maze and commandeered a crane, with a electro-magnet attached and she snatches up the truck, with the bombs. Destro and Dr Whosis ae in an airtight van (and suffocating.... ) and the Doc plans to unleash an entire tanker of spores. Airtight chucks a first aid kit, filled with desert scorpions, through the van window, driving Destro and the Doc out, then the MBT Mauler tank swings around its turret, using the gun as a sling arm and launch batteries at the tanker, destroying it and setting it on fire. The Baroness (or duchess or Tsarina) evacuates the two domed idiots with a FANG helicopter (which is a one seater, so it gets kind of intimate and the JOEs win this years Scrap Trophy..... Thoughts: Basically, this is the pilot to the tv series Scrapheap Challenge (shown in the US, on TLC, as Junkyard Wars, with additional American hosts and competitions, as well as the British episodes)..... Basically, two teams are given a challenge to build a machine or vehicle, from scrap and then test it in competition with the other team. In the clip above, they had to build a device to launch a Mini Cooper, with one team building a catapult and the other a trebuchet. The trebuchet tore itself apart, in spectacular fashion. Other challenges saw teams build walking machines, hovercraft, gliders, power pullers, cannon, underwater vehicles, devices to hurl pumpkins and remote controlled demolition derby vehicles. The junkyard was seeded with working engines and batteries and other items specifically for certain challenges, like model rocket engines for a challenge to launch an ostrich egg and bring it back down, without breaking it. The sets were built on a scrapyard. This story has the same basic premise, except for life and death stakes, in a junk maze. Mostly, it serves to showcase the new characters. No idea why Dr Mindbender is calle Dr Brain-Wave and it isn't exactly addressed in the letters pages, later, except that someone submits a No-Prize entry to explain it away as Destro being sarcastic and using the Brain-Wave name as an insult. That doesn't really fit with Destro's personality, nor does it match the dialogue. It probably derives from a last minute change in the toy name, likely due to trademark issues (such as DC Comics Brain Wave trademark. His backer card profile says he used to be an orthodontist, who experimented with brainwave stimulation to relieve dental pain and tested it on himself, resulting in a complete personality change. The new tank looks more like a tank destroyer or self-propelled gun, than a tank. The original MOBAT was based on the M1 Abrams tank, which was fairly new, at the time of the toy line. I haven't found a direct inspiration, but a few self-propelled guns seem the closest matches, certainly based on the cannon it sports. The Striker dune buggy is pretty much an armed dune buggy, as you would see running around in Southern California, in the 80s. The US Army did develop a dune buggy fighting vehicle, which saw use in the Gulf War, the Desert Patrol Vehicle.... A Gunner sat in the upper seat, manning the .50 cal M2 Browning. Originally, they were armed with recoilless rifles, as the Striker is; but, the recoil (a recoilless rifle still has an opposing force recoil) was enough to flip the vehicles and the military opted to just arm them with TOW anti-tank missiles. The JOE version has a narrower profile and higher seat of gravity, more closely matching SoCal dune buggy build (those that didn't keep the VW Bug chasis). The idea for the vehicle was similar to the Mega Destroyer vehicles in the film Megaforce..... Nothing much else going on here; but, issue 50 is looming, so you now they will build a storyline to lead to that.. Sadly, Bazooka does not wear a baseball cap and an eyepatch. His #14 jersey was an homage to Steve Srogan, QB for the New England Patriots, in the late 70s and early 80s. The jersey isn't an exact match of a Patriots jersey, of the period, probably due to trademark issues. The Patriots faced the Chicago Bears in Super Bowl 20, at the end of the 1985 season, which probably explains why Grogan's number was used. They were mauled by the Bears....pretty much literally. Bazookas had long ago been replaced by other rocket launchers, in the US Army, including the disposable LAW rocket (the one where you pulled out the tube and clicked a switch in the top of it, as seen in the Dirty Harry film, The Enforcer..... There were also the DRAGON and TOW anti-tank launchers. DRAGON was shoulder-fired, while TOW had variations for shoulder-fired and vehicle mounted. Both were wire-guided. When the rocket launched, it trailed a wire, which transmitted guidance data from the launcher, to move it on target. Bazookas were simple rocket launchers, with line of sight guidance. The DRAGON was replaced by the Javelin launcher. Iron Man just uses a little Estes rocket.....
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Post by codystarbuck on Apr 27, 2024 18:55:57 GMT -5
I listen to a nostalgia station, in my car, when driving in town....Gen X era (70s, 80s, 90s and a smattering of late 60s and early 00s) and the station usually sticks to the usual suspects playlist, motivated by whatever gets used in movies and such (they play The Sweet, thanks to the GOTG films, for instance) and they do a decent mix of arena rock, disco, Funk, New Wave, Punk (well, the end, like The Clash, from Combat Rock), pop, Modern Rock, a bit of heavy metal (more British and the hair stuff, rather than Iron Maiden or Black Sabbath, though they will throw one out there). I am used to hearing certain songs, from certain eras, because they get used in commercials and movies and such. Every once in a while they throw one out I hadn't heard since that era, like Vickie Sue Robinson's "Turn The Beat Around". Yesterday, as I was going to pick up lunch, they started playing a song and I hear the intro and the lyrics start popping in my head and I almost take my eyes off the road, because I recognize it, then the vocals kick in and I can't recall who it is and I hit the radio button, which puts the station info on my dashboard display, with the artist info and it is KC and the Sunshine Band, doing their last big hit, "Please Don't Go."
Suddenly, I'm back at the start of high school. I haven't heard that one in decades. KC's other hits, yeah ("Shake Your Booty," and "I'm Your Boogie Man," especially, and, occasionally, "Keep It Comin' Love") but I hadn't even thought about that one. Reminds me of being at the municipal swimming pool, in the summer of 1980. KC wasn't exactly my music, but I enjoyed a bit of disco and the like and other genres of the period, though New Wave was my first real major connection, with a genre of rock music (well, apart from ELO).
The station, WBBE, 97.9 Bob FM, is pretty much an automated thing, with no real DJs and programmed playlists. Their slogan is "Bob Plays Everything, " to which I usually sarcastically reply with "Yeah, the same 'everything';" but, every once in a while, they surprise me.
Now if I could just get them to play some Siouxsie and the Banshees and the Tubes (aside from "She's a Beauty"); and some of the Ska Revival bands (aside from Madness' "Our House").
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Post by codystarbuck on Apr 27, 2024 18:04:31 GMT -5
Lower right: Luba and Major Gruber, from The Airtight Garage of Jerry Cornelius.
Yeah, that's about the only one I see with two characters I'd be interested in. Lots of other individual characters I like but don't know the ones they're talking to.
edit: unless .... who's that talking to American Flagg in the lower left? Not Rocco Vargas, the Daniel Torres character, is it?
Do you mean the guy in the shirt, pants and suspenders/braces? Not sure. The woman directly opposite him is Martha Washington, from Frank Miller & Dave Gibbons' Give Me Liberty. I'm not sure about the guy....I don't think Rocco Vargas and I also don't think it is Lester Girls, from The Trouble With Girls. I wonder if it was meant to be Chaykin's lead from Time 2, or possibly another character from Love and Rockets. I kind of like Hopey (I believe), throwing her cup at Mister X, which might be a commentary on the fallout between Jaime and Dean Motter, over The Return of Mister X. Zot and Concrete in conversation, by the Spirit portrait, would be interesting to eavesdrop,. I would have put Milk and Cheese next to Too Much Coffee Man. They just fit together. Xenozoic Tales' Jack Tenrec and Hannah Dundee seem a little standoffish, standing apart form others. El Borbah and Cowboy Wally would be an interesting conversation, there, just right of center.
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