It's prolly kinda impossible to top a guy who can say stuff like they used ta play where Ralphie Ciferetto's head got buried.

I nevah liked that Ralphie...

I remembah that Russian maid, that was too bad what happened.

I knew (by acquaintance only) one guy who met his fate while locked in the trunk of his Caddy. 

And my mom knew at least one other who "went away."

He was absconding with some of his collections.

Ironically, his wife received her weekly allowance at Sunday Mass. Every Sunday, without fail. Because... business, not personal.

A club I use to own - The Funhouse on 5th Ave & John St in Seattle, torn down around 2012 - is briefly in the background of a buggy chase scene from the film SCORCHY


I recently moved to Everett Wa and we visited the Evergreen Cemetery where part of Assassins was filmed.

Monster Squad works as a child friendly introduction to the Universal Monsters. I can see showing M. Squad as a precursor in preparing kids to watch and learn that many monsters are real and can be confronted and stopped by overcoming your fears of those monsters under the bed, in the closet and the outside world as they grow up.

I like the film, though not so much for Moore as for Richard Harris, Richard Burton, Hardy Krueger, Jack Watson and Winston Ntshona.  I read the novel, which was only published when the movie was released (it had been a manuscript before that) and Moore's Sean Finn had a smaller role.  It was Rafer who kills the mafia guy and is on the run, to be rescued by Alan.  There was another officer, who romances a woman while they are training.  Moore's role kind of encompassed both that character, Sean, and parts of Rafer.

Now, for my favorite Roger Moore role (aside from Simon Templar), it's Rufus Excalibur ffolkes, from the movie of the same name (aka North Sea Hijack aka Assault Force).  There, he actually plays a character part, as the hero, a private soldier (probable ex-Marine Commando) who works for insurance companies that cover shipping and oil production platforms.  Tony Perkins is a terrorist who places explosive on an oil drilling platform and refinery facility and threatens to detonate them for ransom.  Jack Watson is the captain of a supply ship, while James Mason is an admiral sent to both work with ffolkes and the terrorists.  The government goes with ffolkes as he already has operations for such things already worked out, plus the insurance company stands to lose big.  ffolkes is a misogynist, having grown up with all women and forced to wear their hand-me-downs, plus a general pain in the tuchus.  Moore has a lot of fun with it.

It was also directed by Andrew V McLaglen (son of actor Victor McLaglen, from John Wayne and John Ford's films).  He also directed The Sea Wolves, with Moore, Gregory Peck, Trevor Howard and Patrick Macnee, about the Goa raid on a German spy ship, by retired soldiers of the British Indian Army.

As far as the Wild Geese goes, as much as I love the action scenes and some of the training stuff (and pre-mission gathering of the soldiers), the thing that always grabs me is the dialogue between Winston Ntshona's Limbani and Hardy Krueger's Peter Coertze.  They carry out the basic debate of the plight of Africa, between black and white Africans.  Coertze makes the case for whites who have lived and grown in Africa, though they are descended from colonists who exploited the natives.  Once self rule came, in most countries, the white settlers found the tables turned and themselves driven out of their homes in a reverse of the same kinds of racism, via reprisal.  Ntshona speaks of finding a new way, by forgiving the past and present, to build a future.  there is a real idealism at play there, beyond the problem of balck and white, but just people, to build a better Africa for all, without outside interference.

Ntshona was the leading black actor of South Africa, under Apartheid, who, along with John Kani (the future T'Chaka), who plays Jesse, one of the mercs, were the leading lights of anti-apartheid drama.  They starred in Sizwe Banzi is Dead (about a man who lacks a work permit and is seeking a job and ends up taking the identity of a dead man, with a work permit) and The Island (which deals with two cellmates on Robbins Island, the prison where Nelson Mandela and many anti-apartheid leaders were held).  He plays a similar role as Limbani in the movie adaptation of Frederick Forsyth's The Dogs of War, as Dr Okoye, a former moderate opposition leader to a dictator, in the nation of Zangaro.  The novel had a similar twist ending; but, with a slightly different person at the center.

Ironically, the technical adviser on The Wild Geese was former mercenary leader Mike Hoare, who led 5 Commando in the Congo, during the Simba Revolt, in the 1960s.  When the Simba's took over Stanleyville and threatened to kill all of the white Europeans, a military rescue mission was launched, with Belgian paratroops airdropped on the city (from US Air Force planes), while Hoare's European mercenaries carried out a ground assault on the city (and were way late and less professional than the Belgians).  One of the actors, Ian Yule (who plays Tosh, an ex-SAS soldier) had served under Hoare, in the Congo.  Many of the extras were South African soldiers.  Either during or just after filming, the South African government and intelligence service approached Hoare about recruiting a mercenary unit to overthrow a Marxist government that had carried out a bloodless coup in the Seychelles. The mercs went in disguised as a rugby club, with weapons hidden in their luggage, but were discovered by a customs official when one of the mercs got into the "Declare" line, at customs.  The official searched his bag and found the outline of his Romanian AK-47.  The mercs took over the airport and ended up cut off, as Tanzanian military advisors moved in with armored cars.  The mercs "hijacked" an Air India plane to South Africa (they and the flight crew claimed they willingly flew the mercs out), where they were promptly arrested by police for hijacking the plane.  Hoare was sentenced to prison, while some of the men who didn't make it out stood trial in the Seychelles, before eventually being released to South Africa.

Lot of history repeating itself, with that film.

Great cast, especially Frank Finlay (The Three and Four Musketeers) as the priest, Barry Foster as the go-between, and Stewart Granger as the backer who double-crosses the mercenaries.  The casino dealer, Heather, is played by producer Euan Lloyd's daughter, while Ingmar Bergman's daughter, Anna, is one of the mafia kid's girls.  Jeff Corey (Beneath the POTA, Babylon 5, Night Court and more) is the old mob boss father of the slimeball.

The Simpson's homaged the escape scene, with a field trip...

Plenty of TV gets filmed in my home town. Of particular note, several episodes of the detective drama Inspector Morse were partially shot in my town. Dunno how well known that series is in the States, but it was very popular over here in its day.

Parts of the movie Four Weddings and a Funeral were shot in the town next to mine, including some scenes inside a 16th Century coaching inn. My wife and I actually got married in that inn and spent our wedding night in the bedroom featured in the movie.

Roger Moore is my favourite James Bond.

There! I said it.