15 Facts About “Silence of the Lambs” That You Didn’t Know

Cory Mahoney and the Hollywood.com present 15 Facts About Silence of the Lambs That You Didn’t Know.  Here are three of my favorites…

3. The moth cocoons Buffalo Bill placed in his victims throats were actually made from a combination of Tootsie Rolls and gummy bears, in case they were swallowed. 

7. Silence of the Lambs the only horror movie ever to win Best Picture at the Oscars.

Only two others have even been nominated: The Exorcist and Jaws.

9. Jonathan Demme always had characters speak directly into the camera for conversations with Clarice, yet he always filmed Jodie Foster looking slightly off camera.
The idea was to make audiences directly experience her point-of-view to more easily empathize with her character. We think anyone who has watched those gripping last few moments of the film can confirm the success of this technique.

The Rules of Wolfe by James Carlos Blake

The Rules of Wolfe by James Carlos Blake

Publisher: Mysterious Press

First sentence…

Eddie Gato pleaded with us to take him on that run last winter but we said no.

The Overview:  Beware of Spoilers…

 

Eddie Gato Wolfe is an ambitious young man who wishes to make a fast rise in the vast Wolfe family criminal organization.  When things aren’t moving as fast as he’d like, Eddie heads down to Mexico and takes a security job for the La Navaja drug cartel.

Assigned to a remote but luxurious desert villa, days and nights are boring.  The only time things liven up is when the cartel bosses fly in with young women to party.  Although contact or conversations with the help is not allowed one of the women seems interested in Eddie… and he in her.  Eddie learns her name is Miranda.

On Miranda’s next visit he sneaks a visit to her and they hit it off.  All is going well until the man who brought her finds them together.  He and Eddie fight and the man ends up dead.  The dead man is the brother of  La Navaja’s leader.  Eddie knows that unless he and Miranda can escape across the desert and back into the United States, a brutal merciless death awaits them both.

Eddie and Miranda head into the desert with the knowledge that the entire La Navaja cartel will be looking for them.  They’re only hope is a lot of luck and maybe some help from the Wolfe’s… the family that he deserted.

James Carlos Blake has another winner!

Rating:

13 Things You Probably Didn’t Know About “Arsenic and Old Lace”

Lou Lumenick and the New York Post present 13 Things You Probably Didn’t Know About Arsenic and Old Lace.  Here are three of my favorites…

The Broadway version was too good for his own good

The main draw on Broadway was Boris Karloff as the critic’s homicidal brother, who is described as looking “like Boris Karloff’’ because of botched plastic surgery.

Much to Karloff’s chagrin, the producers insisted that he remain on Broadway while Josephine Hull and Jean Adair, as the aunts, and John Alexander, as their brother who thinks he’s Teddy Roosevelt, reprised their roles in the movie.

Grant almost didn’t have the part

Grant wasn’t the first choice for the film, but Bob Hope wasn’t available because of a schedule conflict (Capra needed to shoot the film just before reporting for World War II military duty).

Grant, who donated his entire $100,000 salary to wartime charities, insisted, “Jimmy Stewart would have been much better [than me] in the film.’’ Stewart later starred opposite Josephine Hull in “Harvey’’ — for which she won an Oscar for Best Supporting Actress.

 

An auteur filled Karloff’s shoes

When Karloff left to head up a road company of “Arsenic and Old Lace,’’ he was replaced on Broadway by Erich von Stroheim. Karloff’s rival Bela Lugosi played the part for five weeks onstage in Los Angeles.

The Masters of Comic Book Art – 1987 Video Interviews with Legends!

Master of Comic Book Art was created in 1987, hosted by Harlan Ellison and features interviews with Will Eisner, Harvey Kurtzman, Jack Kirby, Steve Ditko, Neal Adams, Berni Wrightson, Frank Miller, Moebius, Dave Sim and Art Speigleman.

Hard to believe that 30 years have passed since this was made.  Of course that does explain why they look so young.

Enjoy!

Source: Bendis!

Leadfoot by Eric Beetner

Leadfoot (A Rumrunners Novel) by Eric Beetner

Publisher: 280 Steps

First sentence…

Slow it down, McGraw.

The Overview:  Beware of Spoilers…

1971.  Calvin McGraw is known as one of the best outlaw drivers working.  Calvin’s son, Webb, looks to follow in his footsteps.  When an easy delivery comes along, Calvin takes Webb to show him the ropes.

Things go sideways and Calvin finds himself in the middle of a gang war.  To make matters worse he needs to be in two places at once so he sends Webb to retrieve a package (that turns out to be a young woman who doesn’t want to be returned to the crime boss’ brother).  Calvin then works to set things right (even if it means killing a whole lot of folks) to protect his family.

I loved this book.

Rating: 5 of 5 stars.

The Murder of Rasputin: The 100th Anniversary of a Mystery That Won’t Die

Grigori Yefimovich Rasputin was murdered in the very early morning hours on December 30, 1916.  If you know the name Rasputin, then my bet is you know the circumstances of his death.

Rasputin was said to have healing powers, a hypnotic effect on men and woman, was a known womanizer whom some said was a saint while others claimed him to be the human incarnation of Satan.

Prince Felix Yusupov, who confessed to killing Rasputin details how Rasputin ate poisoned treats with no effect…

…Rasputin relaxed, eating multiple cakes and drinking three glasses of wine, Yusupov waited. And waited. The “Mad Monk” should have been dead in seconds, but the cyanide seemed to have no effect. Growing worried, Yusupov excused himself to the other room. He returned with a gun, promptly shooting Rasputin in the back. The other accomplices drove off to create the appearance that their victim had departed, leaving Yusupov and Purishkevich alone at the mansion with what appeared to be Rasputin’s corpse.

 

A strange impulse made Yusupov check the body again. The moment he touched Rasputin’s neck to feel for a pulse, Rasputin’s eyes snapped open. The Siberian leapt up, screaming, and attacked. But that wasn’t the worst part. As Yusupov wrote in 1953, “there was something appalling and monstrous in his diabolical refusal to die. I realized now who Rasputin really was … the reincarnation of Satan himself.”

According to legend Rasputin was poisoned, shot repeatedly, beaten, bound and dumped into a river to drown.  When his body was found its condition supported the account of Rasputin’s murder and unnatural ability to survive…

…Two days later, a search party found a body trapped beneath the ice of the frozen Malaya Nevka River. It was Rasputin: missing an eye, bearing three bullet wounds and countless cuts and bruises.

Rasputin’s daughter wrote in her book, My Father, that when Rasputin’s body…

…was found, his hands were unbound, arms arranged over his head… Maria claimed this was proof Rasputin survived his injuries, freed himself in the river, and finally drowned while making the sign of the cross.

Most of us know the story of Rasputin and his supernatural ability to survive attacks that would have killed mortals.  Yet all we know, may not be the whole story.  Perhaps Rasputin didn’t have supernatural powers.

Andrew Lenoir presents an explanation based on research and historical facts to explain The Murder of Rasputin: The 100th Anniversary of a Mystery That Won’t Die.

Source: Mental_Floss.

The Traveler (2010)

The Traveler (2010)

Director: Michael Oblowitz

Screenplay:  Joseph C. Muscat

Stars: Val Kilmer, Dylan Neal and Paul McGillion

The Pitch: “Hey,let’s make a murder mystery with supernatural revenge overtones.”

Tagline: How do you catch a killer you’ve already caught?

The Overview:  Beware of Spoilers…

Late one evening a stranger walks into a deserted under-staffed police station and begins confessing to murders he hasn’t yet committed.

Interesting premise that falls way short in reality.  The underlying premise is that an innocent man has been killed by the officers in the station and that the stranger is there to get revenge.  What follows is a lot of stupid decisions made by characters that results in torture and gore.  Then at the end there is a reveal that makes all that we’ve seen even worse.  Bah!

 

Rating:

The Writer’s Bible for “Batman: The Animated Series”

When a team comes together to create a tv series a writer’s bible is created detailing how the characters are to be handled, the types of stories the series will feature and just about everything one would need to know to create an acceptable episode.

The Writer’s Bible for Batman: The Animated Series has been posted online and makes for some very fun reading.

Credit for creating the Batman: The Animated Series Bible goes to Bruce Timm, Paul Dini, and Mitch Brian.

9 Festive Facts About A Charlie Brown Christmas

Me-TV presents 9 Festive Facts About A Charlie Brown Christmas.  Here are three of my favorites…

A FORD COMMERCIAL INSPIRED THE SPECIAL.

Charles Schulz was reluctant to turn his Peanuts comic strip into an animation, but ultimately allowed Ford Motors to use the characters in a commercial in 1959. Bill Melendez animated the spot, and Schulz liked the finished product so much he allowed Melendez to direct A Charlie Brown Christmas.

THE NETWORK DIDN’T LIKE IT AT FIRST.

Melendez and Mendelson screened the special for CBS just three weeks before it aired. The network hated it, thinking it was too slow and lacked energy, and the meeting ended with them telling the producers there weren’t going to be more specials in the future.

Image: ABC
THE NETWORK EVENTUALLY LIKED IT.

Maybe it was the fact that 15 million homes tuned into A Charlie Brown Christmas. Maybe it was because the special pulled a 50 share in the Nielson ratings, meaning half of all households with a television watched it. Whatever the case, CBS opened up to the special and aired it on the network until 2000, at which point ABC started airing it.

Hold That Hypnotist (1957)

Hold That Hypnotist (1957)

Director: Austen Jewell

Screenplay: Dan Pepper

Stars: Huntz Hall, Stanley Clements and Jane Nigh

The Pitch: “Hey,let’s make another Bowery Boys movie.”

Tagline: They’re HYSTERICAL…They’re HYPNUTICAL!

The Overview:  Beware of Spoilers…

Satch gets hypnotized and has visions of an earlier life when he was a pirate and wakes with the knowledge of a buried treasure.  Less laughs than most Bowery Boys films and one of the weakest in the series.

 

Rating:

San Quentin (1937)

San Quentin (1937)

Director: Lloyd Bacon

Screenplay:
Peter Milne
and Humphrey Cobb

Stars: Pat O’Brien, Humphrey Bogart, Ann Sheridan, Barton MacLane and Joe Sawyer.

The Pitch: “Hey,let’s make a dramatic romance focused around a prison.”

Tagline: “IT’S EASIER TO FIGHT TEN PRISON RIOTS THAN TAME ONE DIZZY DAME!”

The Overview:  Beware of Spoilers…

Captain Stephen Jameson (O’Brien) tasked with bringing discipline to the prisoners of San Quentin goes there to make a difference.  Jameson falls in love with the sister (Sheridan) of one of the convicts (Bogart).  When the convict escapes Jameson vows to bring him in.

One of the most unintentionally funny movie endings ever.

Rating:

Ken Meyer Jr.’s Ink Stains 25: Steranko!

If you’re a fan of fanzines, then you’ve got to check out Ken Meyer, Jr.’s monthly column Ink Stains.  Each month Ken (who is an amazing artist) posts… well, let’s let Ken explain…

I have a collection of over 200 fanzines from the 60’s-80’s that I plan to scan and talk about, one at a time. I hope to have some of the participants answer a few questions. Many of those participants are established comics professionals now, while some have gone on to other things. I will show a few snippets from each zine and give you a link to download a pdf of the whole thing, which I hope all of you will do!

For Ink Stains 25, Ken took a look at the Jim Steranko Portfolio from 1970.  Edited and published by Jim Steranko through his Supergraphics company.

I’d never seen this prior to reading Ken’s article.  What an amazing collection of Steranko art going all the way back to when he was just 15.  The talent was always there.  It is interesting to see Steranko’s choices as he moved from genre to genre.  What a talent!

Ah, the memories of the glory days of fanzines.  Thanks to Ken Meyer, Jr. for making these available!