Category: Trivia

Movie Easter Eggs: X Marks the Kill

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One of the great reoccurring treats at JoBlo.com is Movie Easter Eggs.  Movie Easter Eggs are hidden messages, jokes and nods to other films that are hidden within a movie.

One of the Movie Easter Eggs covered this week is that in the movie The Departed.  Director Martin Scorsese…

…paid tribute to Howard Hawks’ original 1932 version of SCARFACE in which the director included a bunch of Xs in scenes to imply that a character was going to end up dead.

You can see the X’s in The Departed  scenes.  Click over and you can see the X’s in Scarface  as well as Movie Easter Eggs for Kill Bill,  Die Hard with a Vengeance,  The Simpson’s Movie  and Back to the Future.

41 Things We Learned from the “Dracula” Commentary

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Kevin Carr at Film School Rejects provides 41 Things We Learned from the Dracula  commentary.

Here are five of my favorites…

16. Dracula’s infamous line “I never drink wine” was not in the book or the stage play. However, after it became popular from the film, it was added to the dialogue of the stage play.

20. Several scenes in the script described fangs for Dracula, however Lugosi never wears them. Even though the Count in Nosferatu had fangs, the vampires from the early Universal films did not have them.

25. Originally, Stoker planned to call the title character Count Vampyr. However, he stumbled upon the history of Vlad Tepis and his name Dracula (meaning “son of the Devil”).

32. The shot of Renfield crawling at the fainted maid is not as sexual or violent as it first appears. In fact, he is trying to catch a fly that has landed on her. This was edited out of the English-language version but left in the Spanish-language one.

34. Originally, Lugosi was not considered for the role in the film. Trade papers suggested Conrad Veidt (the sleepwalker in The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari). The studio wanted Lon Chaney, and they ended up offering him a three-picture deal which included a talkie sequel to The Phantom of the Opera. However, Chaney died before this could be done. After several other considerations, Lugosi got the role with a $500 per week salary.

The TV Shows That Premiered 50 Years Ago!

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Recently The ’60s at 50 posted the September ’64 Television Debuts.   I was surprised that 50 years had passed but so many of the shows that premiered that season are still not only known, but are being regularly watched on retro channels.

The Shows and my thoughts…

‘Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea’ – I occasionally watched, but often found the concept cooler than than the execution.
‘Peyton Place’ –  Never watched it.
‘Shindig!’ – Occasionally watched but preferred Dick Clark’s American Bandstand.
‘Bewitched’ – Used to tune in regularly.  
‘Jonny Quest’ – Loved that show.  An all-time favorite cartoon.
‘The Addams Family’ – I watched but not regularly.  I was more a fan of  The Munsters.
’12 O’Clock High” – Never really watched it.
‘Flipper’ – As a kid I was a regular viewer.
 
‘The Man From U.N.C.L.E.’ – I watched as often as I could.
‘The Munsters’ – I was a pretty regular viewer.
‘Daniel Boone’ – One of my favorite shows as a kid!
‘Gomer Pyle – USMC’ – We’d watch regularly.
‘Gilligan’s Island’ – We’d watch weekly.
‘My Living Doll’ – I don’t remember it, but with Julie Newmar co-starring, I’d be interested in giving it a look.
It would be interesting to see how other seasons held up after 50 years.  Nice one, The ’60s at 50.

Doomsday Speeches: If D-Day and the Moon Landing Had Failed

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Can you imagine how much different the world might be today had D-Day failed or had or first attempt to land man on the moon ended in tragedy?

The Atlantic recently posted General Eisenhower’s and President Nixon’s prepared Doomsday Speeches: If D-Day and the Moon Landing Had Failed.  The article by Dominic Tierney is well done and definitely worth a read.