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Post by Deleted on Feb 8, 2023 9:25:17 GMT -5
Planet of the Apes premiered at the Capitol Theatre in New York City on this day 55 years ago: We all know the facts, but a recap never hurts: it’s based on the 1963 novel La Planète des singes, known in English as Monkey Planet (written by French author Pierre Boulle). It sees astronauts crash-landing on a planet populated by intelligent apes. I am almost certain 100% of members here have seen it, but a post about a classic film that doesn’t feature a recap would be lazy on my part. The original novel is pretty tedious, if you ask me, but I saw the film long before I read the novel. It is one of the best sci-if films ever, not something I claim lightly. And as for that ending, wow! Four sequels followed. I would say the first three sequels are very good, but the fifth film pales in comparison to anything that came before. It’s spawned a lot of spin-offs, from the TV show and animated series to countless comics. Let’s hope we’ll see the franchise again because I don’t think the films from the last decade are too bad. By the way, my barber told me a story that could well be apocryphal: he told me that some critics didn’t get the ending, they assumed it was an alien planet that happened to have its own Statue of Liberty. Is that really true?
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Post by tartanphantom on Feb 8, 2023 9:28:11 GMT -5
Blackbeard’s Ghost, directed by Robert Stevenson, was released 55 years ago today: Dean Jones, perhaps history’s most underrated actor (IMO), plays a high school coach, Steve Walker, who inadvertently resurrects the ghost of Blackbeard, forcing the two into a most inconvenient pact, at a time when Walker has a lot to contend with. This appeared to get a regular airing here in the UK, either at Christmas or Easter. I understand reviews of it have been mixed. Personally, I find it a lot of fun. There was a comicbook adaptation: I remember seeing this movie first-run at the drive-in as a kid.
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Post by Hoosier X on Feb 8, 2023 12:21:11 GMT -5
Blackbeard’s Ghost, directed by Robert Stevenson, was released 55 years ago today: Dean Jones, perhaps history’s most underrated actor (IMO), plays a high school coach, Steve Walker, who inadvertently resurrects the ghost of Blackbeard, forcing the two into a most inconvenient pact, at a time when Walker has a lot to contend with. This appeared to get a regular airing here in the UK, either at Christmas or Easter. I understand reviews of it have been mixed. Personally, I find it a lot of fun. There was a comicbook adaptation: We have Disney+, so I’ve been watching the occasional Disney film over the last year or so. Anything with Suzanne Pleshette gets priority, so I saw this a few months ago and found it very amusing. I mean, it’s no That Darn Cat. But what is?
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Post by codystarbuck on Feb 8, 2023 12:36:39 GMT -5
Blackbeard’s Ghost, directed by Robert Stevenson, was released 55 years ago today: Dean Jones, perhaps history’s most underrated actor (IMO), plays a high school coach, Steve Walker, who inadvertently resurrects the ghost of Blackbeard, forcing the two into a most inconvenient pact, at a time when Walker has a lot to contend with. This appeared to get a regular airing here in the UK, either at Christmas or Easter. I understand reviews of it have been mixed. Personally, I find it a lot of fun. There was a comicbook adaptation: We have Disney+, so I’ve been watching the occasional Disney film over the last year or so. Anything with Suzanne Pleshette gets priority, so I saw this a few months ago and found it very amusing. I mean, it’s no That Darn Cat. But what is?The Three Lives of Thomasina? Dean Jones was a fine actor, but working for Disney as much as he did will pigeonhole you and it did. It was easier for some of the younger actors to get away from the stigma, but not so much the adults. Even then, ask Haley Mills about trying to shed that image, or Kurt Russell. It was nice to see Jones in Clear & Present Danger, after not seeing him in much of anything, in years. I always liked him in Any Wednesday, with Jane Fonda and Jason Robards, though it probably worked better as a stage play than a movie (I like it, though). Also thought he was good in Never So Few, as part of a group of OSS soldiers operating behind Japanese lines, in Burma, with Kachin tribesmen. You can also see a young Steve McQueen, Charles Bronson (as a Navajo codetalker), Peter Lawford, Frank Sinatra (the lead), Philip Ahn, Gina Lollobrigida, Paul Henreid, Brian Donlevy, James Hong, Mako and a young George Takei. It is a little amusing to see two actors of Japanese heritage playing Burmese Kachin, rather than Japanese characters (along with a Chinese-American actor). It's an early era one, for Hong, too.
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Post by Hoosier X on Feb 8, 2023 12:56:01 GMT -5
We have Disney+, so I’ve been watching the occasional Disney film over the last year or so. Anything with Suzanne Pleshette gets priority, so I saw this a few months ago and found it very amusing. I mean, it’s no That Darn Cat. But what is?The Three Lives of Thomasina? Dean Jones was a fine actor, but working for Disney as much as he did will pigeonhole you and it did. It was easier for some of the younger actors to get away from the stigma, but not so much the adults. Even then, ask Haley Mills about trying to shed that image, or Kurt Russell. It was nice to see Jones in Clear & Present Danger, after not seeing him in much of anything, in years. I always liked him in Any Wednesday, with Jane Fonda and Jason Robards, though it probably worked better as a stage play than a movie (I like it, though). Also thought he was good in Never So Few, as part of a group of OSS soldiers operating behind Japanese lines, in Burma, with Kachin tribesmen. You can also see a young Steve McQueen, Charles Bronson (as a Navajo codetalker), Peter Lawford, Frank Sinatra (the lead), Philip Ahn, Gina Lollobrigida, Paul Henreid, Brian Donlevy, James Hong, Mako and a young George Takei. It is a little amusing to see two actors of Japanese heritage playing Burmese Kachin, rather than Japanese characters (along with a Chinese-American actor). It's an early era one, for Hong, too. Last year, I decided to watch all the films that Dean Jones made for Disney. I think there’s 11. A couple of them aren’t on Disney+. But I found them on YouTube. They are mostly watchable and some of them are very entertaining. Monkeys Go Home is pretty bad, and it should be hard to sit through, but I find it a fascinating bad movie. (Much how I feel about That Touch of Mink with Cary Grant and Doris Day.) But I love the Herbie movies. Dean Jones made two of them. (Three, if you count 1997’s The Love Bug, which is a TV-movie.) I wasn’t very impressed with The Horse in the Grey Flannel Suit, but it’s wasn’t hard to sit through. I was in the habit of watching them when I got home from work. It was actually a pretty good way to rest my mind and relax a little before going to bed. Blackbeard’s Ghost, Snowball Express, The Ugly Dachshund, The Shaggy D.A., Million Dollar Duck. I love That Darn Cat. I saw that on TV as a kid and I was amazed at how well it holds up when I saw it a couple of years ago. I also watched all the Herbie movies and the Medford College trilogy.
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Post by Hoosier X on Feb 8, 2023 13:04:45 GMT -5
I just watched the trailer for Thomasina. I’ll have to get to that eventually.
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Post by Hoosier X on Feb 8, 2023 13:06:39 GMT -5
Dean Jones made a film in Italy titled Mr. Superinvisible. It’s on YouTube.
It looks pretty bad. But I’ll probably get to it eventually.
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Post by codystarbuck on Feb 8, 2023 13:07:23 GMT -5
That Darn Cat is helped by Haley Mills (always great) and Roddy McDowell. In fact, great cast, across the board.
I have a few Disney live action films, on DVD: Tron, 20,000 Leagues, The Parent Trap, Candleshoe, Freaky Friday, Island at the Top of the World, The Black Hole, The Great Locomotive Chase, The Apple Dumpling Gang, Condorman, The Sign of Zorro (the movie compilation of the first few episodes), and Dr Syn Alias the Scarecrow (ditto).
I have a digital copy of The Mystery of Dracula's Castle and just came across the Whiz Kid films and The Omega Connection (aka The London Connection) on Youtube.
Island At The Top of The World would have probably worked better with anyone other than David Hartman. There is a reason he went from being an actor to a morning talk show host.
I used to watch this stuff on The Wonderful World of Disney, on Sunday nights, back in the 70s.
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Post by codystarbuck on Feb 8, 2023 13:11:48 GMT -5
I just watched the trailer for Thomasina. I’ll have to get to that eventually. Keep a hanky close by for the tail end of the film. The coloring is similar to my little girl buddy, Aja....
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Post by berkley on Feb 8, 2023 20:38:00 GMT -5
Blackbeard’s Ghost, directed by Robert Stevenson, was released 55 years ago today: Dean Jones, perhaps history’s most underrated actor (IMO), plays a high school coach, Steve Walker, who inadvertently resurrects the ghost of Blackbeard, forcing the two into a most inconvenient pact, at a time when Walker has a lot to contend with. This appeared to get a regular airing here in the UK, either at Christmas or Easter. I understand reviews of it have been mixed. Personally, I find it a lot of fun. There was a comicbook adaptation:
I didn't see the movie but I read a book based on it - one of those Whitman hardcovers based on movies and tv shows and aimed at kids. We had a few of them back then, including Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea and The Monkees, off the top of my head.
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Post by Roquefort Raider on Feb 24, 2023 11:58:06 GMT -5
Thanks to Tubi, I re-watched both Zulu (1964) and it's sort of prequel Zulu Dawn (1979) this week. As large-scale war epics go, these movies remain among my favourites. Watching the hundreds of extras move on screen, I can't help but be struck by how superior practical effects still are to CGI scenes.
I believe Zulu played no little part in making Michael Caine a star. Good for him!
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Post by codystarbuck on Feb 24, 2023 21:37:40 GMT -5
Thanks to Tubi, I re-watched both Zulu (1964) and it's sort of prequel Zulu Dawn (1979) this week. As large-scale war epics go, these movies remain among my favourites. Watching the hundreds of extras move on screen, I can't help but be struck by how superior practical effects still are to CGI scenes. I believe Zulu played no little part in making Michael Caine a star. Good for him! That and Alfie. Technically, Zulu is a Stanley Baker film. A few years back, I was reading a Cinema Retro article on Zulu and the filming of it and Baker and Caine were both appalled at how the black extras were treated by the South Africans that they refused to film in that country again. The same couldn't be said for some other actors out there. The movie, The Wild Geese was filmed there, with actual South African soldiers as extras within the mercenary force; but, the character of Limbani presents a pretty strong voice against oppressive rule; though also a rather more palatable one, for white audiences, as he speaks of working together to find a solution to live in peace and free from outside interference. As wishy-washy as it kind of was, it does have some really great scenes of Hardy Krueger and Winston Ntshona debating their philosophies (Krueger plays a South African, looking to make enough money to go home and buy a farm) and you see Krueger's character finally start coming around to the unified vision that Limbani gives him. If nothing else, the film provided a strong showcase for South Africa's leading black actors, Ntshona and John Kani, who were noted for their work in anti-apartheid theater, including the acclaimed Sizwe Banzi Is Dead and The Island. For that era, though, my favorite Michael Caine films are The Italian Job and Gambit. Then again, I am a sucker for a good caper film and those are both excellent ones.
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Post by Deleted on Mar 2, 2023 9:45:36 GMT -5
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Post by codystarbuck on Mar 3, 2023 1:18:48 GMT -5
Not so much released as "broke free." For my money, you can keep the '76 film; I'll take Toho's King Kong Escapes! Mechani-Kong! That was also the least successful regeneration of Doctor Who!
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Post by codystarbuck on Mar 3, 2023 1:20:15 GMT -5
ps Adolf Hitler's favorite film ^^^
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