Previews and Reviews that are Z's Views
Twilight Zone: “In Praise of Pip” [Season 5, Episode 1]
Original Air Date: September 27, 1963
Director: Joseph M. Newman
Writer: Rod Serling
Starring: Jack Klugman, Connie Gilchrist, Bobby Diamond and Bill Mumy.
The Overview: Beware of Spoilers…
A bookie [Klugman] is stabbed protecting a young man. As the bookie bleeds to death, his only wish is to see his son (who is serving in Viet Nam) one last time.
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Eric D. Snider and Mental_Floss present 14 Epic Facts About Gangs of New York. Here are three of my favorites…
1. IT WAS 32 YEARS IN THE MAKING.
Martin Scorsese read Herbert Asbury’s 1928 nonfiction book The Gangs of New York: An Informal History of the Underworld in 1970 and immediately thought it would make a good movie. He didn’t have any money or clout yet though, so he had to wait. He bought the movie rights to the book in 1979, and even got a screenplay written around that time, then spent the next 20 years trying to get the project off the ground before finding a willing financial partner in Harvey Weinstein at Miramax Films.
7. SEVERAL CHARACTERS WERE BASED ON REAL PEOPLE.
Bill the Butcher was real, though Scorsese changed his surname from Poole to Cutting for the movie to reflect a creative liberty he’d taken, i.e., having the character live to see the Civil War (he was actually murdered in 1855). William “Boss” Tweed (Jim Broadbent) was a real politician who controlled the Tammany Hall political machine, as you may recall from your high school U.S. history class. So were the Schermerhorns, the rich people seen taking a tour of the misery and vice of Five Points. (Interesting footnote: Scorsese’s fifth wife, whom he married in 1999, is one Helen Schermerhorn Morris, a descendant of early New York elites.) Perhaps most surprisingly, Hell-Cat Maggie (Cara Seymour)—the vicious female fighter who bites off victims’ ears—was fact-based, being a composite of the real Hell-Cat Maggie (her real name is unknown) and a few other historical lady criminals.
13. THERE WERE LONGER CUTS OF THE MOVIE, BUT YOU WON’T SEE THEM.
The first cut, the throw-in-everything-and-see-what-works version, was three hours and 38 minutes, almost an hour longer than the final cut. Scorsese and his longtime editor, Thelma Schoonmaker, tinkered with it relentlessly, ultimately producing 18 different versions that were screened for various audiences. Weinstein, rightfully nicknamed Harvey Scissorhands for his ruthless trimming of the movies he releases, no doubt urged Scorsese toward a shorter runtime, but Scorsese said he’s happy with the one everybody saw, which is two hours and 47 minutes.
“There’s not one version that I would say, ‘That’s my original version,’” Scorsese said on the DVD commentary. They were more like drafts: “This was all a series of changes and rewrites and restructuring, until finally it comes down to the movie you see in the theater.”
Twilight Zone: “The Bard” [Season 4, Episode 18]
Original Air Date: May 23, 1963
Director: David Butler
Writer: Rod Serling
Starring: Jack Weston, John McGiver, Doro Merande and Burt Reynolds.
The Overview: Beware of Spoilers…
An untalented television writer [Weston] finds a way to transport William Shakespeare from the past. Soon the writer is successful thanks to Shakespear ghosting his scripts. Things go south when Shakespeare shows up on the set.
[Burt Reynolds’ take on Marlon Brando is worth the price of admission.]
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Today we have a Jack Kirby splash inked by Frank Miller! You can see a larger version as well as a Kirby Spider-Man drawing inked by Miller at Brian Michael Bendis’ Tumblr.
Michele Debczak and Mental_Floss present 10 Towering Facts About The Iron Giant. Here are three of my favorites…
5. THE TITLE CHARACTER WAS COMPUTER GENERATED.
Despite being considered one of America’s last great traditionally animated films, The Iron Giant’s title character was created entirely with a computer. The creators took careful steps to make sure the Giant blended in seamlessly with the hand-drawn world. They even went so far as to develop a computer program to make the character’s lines wobble slightly, producing a crude, hand-drawn effect.
6. IT FEATURES A PRE-FAST AND FURIOUS VIN DIESEL.
Before making a name for himself as an action star, Vin Diesel provided his voice to the towering robot in The Iron Giant. Not counting groans and grunts, the Giant utters a grand total of 53 words in the entire film. When Diesel returned to feature voice acting 15 years later for Guardians of the Galaxy, he played Groot, a character whose vocabulary is even more severely limited.
7. THE DESIGN WAS INSPIRED BY THE ART OF NORMAN ROCKWELL.
The Iron Giant takes place in an idyllic Maine town in the 1950s—a perfect contrast to the themes of McCarthy-era paranoia the film explores. To give the setting more of a wholesome, Americana look, the creators drew inspiration from the art of Edward Hopper, N.C. Wyeth, and Norman Rockwell. Even the fictional town’s name—Rockwell—is a nod to the iconic American artist.
Twilight Zone: “Passage on the Lady Anne” [Season 4, Episode 17]
Original Air Date: May 9, 1963
Director: Lamont Johnson
Writer: Charles Beaumont
Starring: Gladys Cooper, Wilfrid Hyde-White, Cecil Kellaway and Alan Napier.
The Overview: Beware of Spoilers…
A young married couple decide a cruise will do them good and book passage on an old ship. Upon boarding they notice that all the passengers are old. Stranger still, the passengers keep insisting that the couple get off the ship immediately. The couple fails to listen and the ship sets sail… for The Twilight Zone.
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S. Craig Zahler [writer/director of the under-rated Bone Tomahawk] will start production this summer on Brawl in Cell Block 99 with Vince Vaughn in the lead. If the title alone isn’t enough to get you in line for a ticket, maybe this will…
Vaughn will play a former boxer named Bradley who loses his job as an auto mechanic and goes to work as a drug courier for an old friend. This vocation improves his situation until the terrible day that he finds himself in a gunfight between a group of police officers and his own ruthless allies. When the smoke clears, Bradley is badly hurt and thrown in prison, where his enemies force him to commit acts of violence that turn the place into a savage battleground.
Can I get my ticket now?
Source: Entertainment Weekly.
The news broke earlier this week that Sly Stallone is set to star as mob boss Raymonde Aprile in an television adaptation of Mario Puzo’s best seller Omerta. Antoine [Training Day] Fuqua is set to direct.
Stallone and Fuqua along with Harvey and Bob Weinstein and David Glasser will serve as Executive Producers on the series which is being fast-tracked for production.
I think that is an excellent move by Sly. With the right team (and they are off to a great start with Stallone and Fuqua at the helm) this series could be right up there with Justified and The Shield. I can not wait for this!
Mark Mancini and Mental_Floss present 10 Out-of-This-World Facts About Plan 9 From Outer Space. Here are three of my favorites…
1. IT WAS BELA LUGOSI’S LAST MOVIE.
A lifelong Bela Lugosi fan, Ed Wood was able to cast his idol in 1953’s Glen or Glenda. Two years later, the director gave him a Dr. Frankenstein-like role in Bride of the Monster. For his next film, Wood once again wanted Lugosi to take center stage. At the California home of Swedish wrestler Tor Johnson—who’d also appeared in Bride of the Monster—Wood shot a handful of very brief scenes, all starring Lugosi. Depending on who’s telling the story, this footage was either intended for Plan 9 or for an unmade movie called The Vampire’s Tomb. Regardless, Lugosi sadly didn’t live to see any of it reach the silver screen. The horror icon died of a heart attack in August 16, 1956. Endlessly resourceful, Wood threw all of his existing Lugosi shots into Plan 9 from Outer Space.
2. A CHIROPRACTOR PLAYED LUGOSI’S DOUBLE.
Production on Plan 9 from Outer Space began in earnest after Lugosi’s death. Since he was no longer around to film certain scenes, Wood recruited chiropractor Tom Mason as a substitute. Physically, he wasn’t a perfect stand-in; Mason was noticeably taller than Lugosi (a fact that Wood tried to disguise by having him hunch over). But the good doctor made sure to mask his face under a cape at all times.
4. IN SOME VERSIONS OF THE FILM, YOU CAN SEE THE SHADOW OF A BOOM MIKE IN THE BACKGROUND.
Perhaps unsurprisingly, Plan 9 has numerous bloopers. For example, the grave scenes use plywood tombstones, which wobble throughout the movie. But Wood’s team wasn’t responsible for every error. Early on, we see our hero—pilot Jeff Trent—flying a plane when a huge burst of light almost blinds him. Viewers may also notice that, as he recoils, a boom microphone shadow appears on the back wall of the cockpit. Look carefully, and you’ll also observe that Trent’s co-pilot is holding a copy of the script in his lap. Both of these gaffes were created when Plan 9 was converted to a film and TV-friendly format. Neither the script nor the boom mike shadow appeared in the original theatrical version. Unfortunately, the aspect ratio changes made to Plan 9 for its video and TV releases suddenly rendered both of these things visible.
Twilight Zone: “On Thursday We Leave for Home” [Season 4, Episode 16]
Original Air Date: May 2, 1963
Director: Buzz Kulik
Writer: Rod Serling
Starring: James Whitmore, Tim O’Connor and James Broderick .
The Overview: Beware of Spoilers…
A group of colonists stranded on a barren planet have struggled to survive for the past 30 years. The colonists have come to depend on Captain Benteen [Whitmore] in every area of their lives. When a rescue ship finally arrives and can transport them all back to Earth problems arise.
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Eric D. Snider and Mental_Floss present 14 Up-Tempo Facts About Saturday Night Fever. Here are three of my favorites…
6. IT HAS SOME ROCKY CONNECTIONS.
First connection: It was supposed to be directed by John G. Avildsen, whose previous film was Rocky. Ultimately, that didn’t work out and Avildsen was replaced with John Badham a few weeks before shooting began. Second connection: Tony has a Rocky poster on his bedroom wall. Third connection: Saturday Night Fever’s 1983 sequel, Staying Alive, was directed by … Sylvester Stallone.
8. THE WHITE CASTLE EMPLOYEES WEREN’T ACTING WHEN THEY LOOKED SHOCKED.
In the brief scene where Tony, his boys, and Stephanie are loudly eating at White Castle, those were the real burger-flippers, not actors. Badham told them to just go about their business. He also told his actors to cut loose and surprise the White Castlers in whatever way they saw fit. The shot that’s in the movie appears to be a reaction to Joey standing on the table and barking, but Badham said it was actually in response to something else: “Double J (actor Paul Pape) pulling his pants down and mooning the entire staff of the White Castle.”
11. THE COMPOSER HAD TO SCRAMBLE TO REPLACE A NIXED SONG.
For Tony and Stephanie’s rehearsal scene about 30 minutes into the movie, Badham had used the song “Lowdown” by Boz Scaggs, going so far as to shoot the scene, including the dialogue, with the song actually playing in the background. (That’s usually a no-no, for exactly the reasons you’re about to read about.) According to Badham, no sooner had they wrapped the scene than Scaggs’ people reached out to say they couldn’t use the song after all, as Scaggs was thinking of pursuing a disco project of his own. Badham now had to have the actors re-dub the dialogue (since the version he’d recorded was tainted by “Lowdown”); what’s more, he had to find a new song that would fit the choreography and tempo of the dancing. Composer David Shire rose to the occasion, writing a piece of instrumental music that met the specifications, and that’s what we hear in the movie.
Twilight Zone: “The Incredible World of Horace Ford” [Season 4, Episode 15]
Original Air Date: April 18, 1963
Director: Abner Biberman
Writer: Reginald Rose
Starring: Pat Hingle, Nan Martin, and Ruth White.
The Overview: Beware of Spoilers…
Horace Ford [Hingle] is obsessed with his childhood days when the world was a better place. His obsession is starting to take a toll on his life and when Ford gets the chance to return to his childhood he finds things are not all as he remembered.
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Roger Cormier and Mental_Floss present 16 Lively Facts About Death Wish. Here are three of my favorites…
4. CHARLES BRONSON AND HIS AGENT DISAGREED ON THE FILM’S MESSAGE.
“It’s the only time Paul Kohner, my agent, ever disagreed with me about a film,” Bronson said in 1974. “Paul felt very strongly that it was a dangerous picture—that it might make people think it’s right to take the law into their own hands. This is what the hero of the picture does when he wants a one-man vigilante squad to kill muggers, after three of them have murdered his wife and raped his daughter. I told Paul I thought the message was the same there that runs through a lot of my pictures: That violence is senseless because it only begets more violence.”
6. DENZEL WASHINGTON MADE HIS ON-SCREEN DEBUT IN THE MOVIE.
16. SYLVESTER STALLONE WANTED TO REMAKE IT.
Sylvester Stallone was set to direct and star in a Death Wish remake for MGM back in 2008. While that project, uh, died, it was recently reported that Paramount and MGM are teaming up to remake the movie—with Bruce Willis starring.
Twilight Zone: “Of Late I Think of Cliffordville” [Season 4, Episode 14]
Original Air Date: April 11, 1963
Director: David Lowell Rich
Writer: Malcolm Jameson
Starring: Albert Salmi, John Anderson, Wright King and Julie Newmar.
The Overview: Beware of Spoilers…
William Feathersmith [Salmi] is very old and very rich. Feathersmith made his money at the expense of others. It isn’t the wealth that made Feathersmith happy it was getting it at the expense of others.
When offered a deal with the devil for the opportunity to go back in time and do it all over again, Feathersmith accepts. With the knowledge he has of things that will happen, he knows that he came create an even bigger empire but of course Feathersmith’s deal was with the devil and this is the Twilight Zone.
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