Previews and Reviews that are Z's Views
Twilight Zone: “The Dummy” [Season 3, Episode 33]
Original Air Date: May 4, 1962
Director: Abner Biberman
Writer: Rod Serling based on a story by Lee Polk
Starring: Cliff Robertson, Frank Sutton and George Murdock.
The Overview: Beware of Spoilers…
Jerry Etherson is a very good ventriloquist. The only thing holding him back from the big time is his dummy… who is very evil and very alive.
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Just the names Azzarello and Risso are enough for a comic to make my monthly pull list. Probably yours too, right? Add to the fact that Moonshine is a period crime tale with werewolves and I think that we won’t be the only ones.
MOONSHINE is set during the Prohibition Era, deep in the backwoods of Appalachia and tells the story of Lou Pirlo, a city-slick “torpedo” sent from New York City to negotiate a deal with the best moonshiner in West Virginia, one Hiram Holt. Lou figures it for milk run—how hard could it be to set-up moonshine shipments from a few ass-backward hillbillies? What Lou doesn’t figure on is that Holt is just as cunning as ruthless as any NYC crime boss and Lou is in way over his pin-striped head. Because not only will Holt do anything to protect his illicit booze operation, he’ll stop at nothing to protect a much darker family secret…a bloody, supernatural secret that must never see the light of day… or better still, the light of the full moon.
Source: Bleeding Cool.
Jarrod Alberich aka The Yard Sale Artist created the Rambo piece above. Jarrod calls himself The Yard Sale Artist because he uses only materials that he finds at yard sales, thrift stores, dumpsters and so on.
Eric D. Snider and Mental Floss present 13 Monumental Facts About North by Northwest. Here are three of my favorites…
3. JAMES STEWART WANTED TO PLAY THE LEAD.
Stewart had been in four Hitchcock movies at this point, and he wanted North by Northwest to be the fifth. But while Hitch loved him, he didn’t think he was right for the glibly debonair Roger Thornhill. He wanted Cary Grant for the part. Not wanting to hurt Stewart’s feelings, Hitchcock waited until Stewart was committed to another film (Bell, Book and Candle) before casting the role.
4. CARY GRANT HAD NO IDEA WHAT WAS GOING ON.
The star found the screenplay baffling, and midway through filming told Hitchcock, “It’s a terrible script. We’ve already done a third of the picture and I still can’t make head or tail of it!” Hitchcock knew this confusion would only help the film—after all, Grant’s character had no idea what was going on, either. Grant thought the film would be a flop right up until its premiere, where it was rapturously received.
5. PART OF IT WAS SHOT SECRETLY.
You wouldn’t expect Hitchcock to have to sneak around, but even the Master of Suspense was no match for the United Nations, which did not allow filming at its New York headquarters, not even in the plaza outside. So to get the shot where Grant walks into the building, Hitchcock hid a camera in a nondescript truck and filmed in secret from across the street.
Twilight Zone: “The Gift” [Season 3, Episode 32]
Original Air Date: April 27, 1962
Director: Allen H. Minor
Writer: Rod Serling
Starring: Geoffrey Horne, Nico Minardos and Cliff Osmond.
The Overview: Beware of Spoilers…
Word reaches a small Mexican village that a space craft crashed nearby and the alien encounter with the police left one of the officers dead and the alien wounded. Shortly after a stranger shows up in town.
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For decades John Wayne was one of the biggest box office stars in the world. Wayne’s dream project was to direct the story of The Alamo. Although film fans know that Wayne did get the film made, most don’t know what a struggle it was.
Wayne had hoped to just direct The Alamo, but financing was impossible unless he not only starred in it, but signed a three picture deal with the studio. Casting was also a nightmare. Wayne was hoping to get Clark Gable or Frank Sinatra for one role and that didn’t work out. Burt Lancaster was Wayne’s first choice for another role but he ended up with Richard Widmark. To make matters worse Wayne and Widmark developed an instant dislike to each other.
During filming there were natural disasters, the murder of a co-star and more. Even after filing wrapped there were troubles.
Nolan Moore documents Wayne’s struggles to get The Alamo made in 10 Amazing Stories About John Wayne’s Epic Failure. It is well worth the read.
Source: Listverse.
Twilight Zone: “The Trade-Ins” [Season 3, Episode 31]
Original Air Date: April 20, 1962
Director: Elliot Silverstein
Writer: Rod Serling
Starring: Joseph Schildkraut, Noah Keen and Alma Platt.
The Overview: Beware of Spoilers…
John and Marie Holt have had a long and loving marriage. The take their life savings to the New Life Corporation with the idea of having their consciousness transplanted into new, young and healthy bodies. Sadly, they only have enough for one of them to get the transformation.
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Rob Hunter and Film School Rejects present 32 Things We Learned from Zack Snyder’s Dawn of the Dead Commentary. Here are three of my favorites…
13. Snyder cameos during the opening credits montage as a soldier with a machine gun on the lawn of the U.S. Capitol.
19. The original’s Tom Savini, Ken Foree, and Scott H. Reiniger all cameo here as a sheriff, a preacher, and a general, respectively.
29. Someone after a test screening questioned Snyder as to why/how the zombies pause at the bottom of the stairs at 1:32:25, and it put him on the spot when they asked if the zombies could even do that. He replied, “in real life, no, but in film where you dramatize…”
Twilight Zone: “Hocus-Pokus and Fisby” [Season 3, Episode 30]
Original Air Date: April 13, 1962
Director: Lamont Johnson
Writer: Rod Serling based on a short story by Frederick Louis Fox
Starring: Andy Devine, Milton Selzer and Howard McNear.
The Overview: Beware of Spoilers…
Somerset Fisby [Devine] is known to tell tale tales about everything. To hear Fisby tell it he has several advanced degrees and the greatest minds in the world seek his advice.
Everyone knows to take what Fisby says with a grain of salt except for the two strangers passing through town… they turn out to be aliens in disguise and believe Fisby would be the perfect example of a human to take to their planet.
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A loving look at how the Fleischer brothers pushed the limits of animation to create the definitive Superman. Well worth a look!
Twilight Zone: “Four O’Clock” [Season 3, Episode 29]
Original Air Date: April 6, 1962
Director: Lamont Johnson
Writer: Rod Serling based on a short story by Price Day
Starring: Theodore Bikel, Phyllis Love and Linden Chiles.
The Overview: Beware of Spoilers…
Oliver Crangle [Bikel] has made it his life’s work to ruin the lives of those he sees as communists, perverts, and undesirables. Crangle contacts an FBI agent to say that he’s arranged that a four o’clock the evil people will transform.
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This was too good not to share… Simon Lee‘s Predator Visiting the Dentist. You can see more of Simon Lee’s work here.
Twilight Zone: “The Little People” [Season 3, Episode 28]
Original Air Date: March 30, 1962
Director: William Claxton
Writer: Rod Serling
Starring: Joe Maross, Claude Akins and Michael Ford.
The Overview: Beware of Spoilers…
Three astronauts make an emergency landing on an unknown planet and discover a society of beings the size of ants. When the ship is repaired one of the astronauts elects to stay behind since the society view him as a god.
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Alvin Ward and Mental_Floss present 116 Amazing Facts for People Who Like Amazing Facts. Here are three of my favorites…
50. Roger Ebert and Oprah Winfrey went on a couple dates in the mid-1980s. It was Roger who convinced her to syndicate her talk show.
62. Dolly Parton once entered a Dolly Parton look-a-like contest—and lost.
74. Herbert Hoover was Stanford’s football team manager. At the first Stanford-Cal game in 1892, he forgot to bring the ball.
