“Deliverance” Trivia!

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Rob Hunter at Film School Rejects posted 31 Things We Learned from John Boorman’s ‘Deliverance’ Commentary.  Before you click over, here are three of my favorites…

9. Dickey took Boorman aside, made him promise not to repeat this, and said, “I’m going to tell you something I never told a living soul, everything in that book happened to me.” The director later learned that he did the same with other members of the cast and crew. “When I got into a canoe with James Dickey and he capsized it, I realized that nothing in this book had happened to him.”

(Dickey was not well liked on the set — there’s another quote in the piece that talked about Dickey’s drinking and interfering with the movie and Burt Reynolds has a funny response. – Craig)

15. “I had no doubles, no stuntmen,” says Boorman. “I don’t like the idea of stuntmen because if a shot is dangerous enough that you need a stunt man then you shouldn’t be doing it.” He acknowledges that there are exceptions including one instance where Voight was doubled (while Reynolds insisted on doing his part himself), but in general he prefers doing the scenes with the actual actors.

(Reynolds, as most folks know always wanted to do his own stunts and respected the stunt crew.  But stunts were not the only differences between Voight and Reynolds are you’ll see in the next quote. – Craig)

26. While Reynolds preferred to move quickly through every scene, Voight challenged almost every decision in need of explanation and reason which dragged things out. Voight would also require three minutes before shooting scenes where he’s meant to seem exhausted because he would run around the area to tire himself out. Reynolds, by contrast, would spritz his face to simulate sweat and then breath hard. Boorman found the two to be good influences on each other.

(They have two different schools of thoughts in preparing for a scene.  Some like to prepare, research and stay in character and others are able to just do it.  I can’t remember the actor and I’m paraphrasing but when asked how he was able to just jump into a scene and take on whatever emotion without first preparing, his response was, “I act.” – Craig)

“Enola Holmes” – The Poster and Trailer are Here!

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Here are the poster and trailer for Enola Holmes starring Millie Bobby Brown, Henry Cavill, Sam Claflin and Helena Bonham Carter.  The poster is okay, but I like the trailer.  In fact I’m surprised at how much I enjoyed the preview. Hope you do as well.

When Enola Holmes—Sherlock’s teen sister—discovers her mother missing, she sets off to find her, becoming a super-sleuth in her own right as she outwits her famous brother and unravels a dangerous conspiracy around a mysterious young Lord. Starring Millie Bobby Brown, Sam Claflin, with Henry Cavill and Helena Bonham-Carter. Directed by Harry Bradbeer (Fleabag).

“The Unholy Wife” / Z-View

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The Unholy Wife (1957)

Director: John Farrow

Screenplay:  Jonathan Latimer (based on a story by William Durkee)

Stars:  Diana Dors, Rod Steiger and Tom Tryon.

The Pitch: “We’ve got Diana Dors, let’s star her as a femm fatale in a film noir!”

Tagline: HALF-ANGEL……HALF-DEVIL, she made him HALF-A-MAN! …she flaunted his hopes, taunted his dreams, turned his peaceful valley into a volcano of seething passions that even murder could not stem!

The Overview:  Beware of Spoilers…

The Unholy Wife is a little known, under-rated film noir released in 1957 staring Diana Dors and Rod Steiger.  Steiger plays Paul, a war vet who runs the gigantic family vineyard.  A chance encounter with a beautiful woman leads Paul to fall in love with her.  And that love sends him down the path to death and ruin.

Sound familiar?  It should because its the outline for all great film noirs.  Double Indemnity?  Check.  The Postman Always Rings Twice?  Check.  Now, I’m not saying that The Unholy Wife meets the gold standard of those two classics, but it’s definitely coming from the same mine.

Dors plays Phyllis a bleach-bottle blonde bombshell (say that three times fast) that steals Paul Hochen’s heart.  Despite the warning signs (some from Phyllis herself), Paul marries her. He then brings Phyllis and her young son home to live on his huge vineyard estate.  It isn’t long before Phyllis is having an affair and plotting to set her husband up for murder.

The Unholy Wife reminds me of a lesser known Gold Medal book you’d find on the paperback racks back in the 50s.  I say that as a good thing.  Even The Unholy Wife movie poster looks like it could have served as a Gold Medal cover!

I like everything about The Unholy Wife.  Dors is excellent as the beautiful, heartless seductress.  Steiger is convincing (and doesn’t overact) as the nice guy led astray.  Tom Tryon doesn’t have much to do, but is just right as Dors’ lover.  The movie was made in Technicolor and the process and colors make it look like a lurid paperback cover come to life.

If you’re a fan of film noir then you should really enjoy The Unholy Wife. I did.

Rating:

“The Batman” Trailer and Craig’s Thoughts…

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Warner Bros. dropped the trailer for The Batman and it is rightfully getting a lot of positive buzz.

Truth be told, I hadn’t much interest in The Batman until seeing this trailer.  While Batman is my favorite DC comic character and I’ve enjoyed all of the Batman movies to some extent, the change of director, star and focus of the new film left me with a wait and see attitude.  Now that I’ve seen the trailer let’s talk…

  • Pattison as Batman looks good.  Because of the way the modern films have designed the suit, anyone (within reason) could be Batman.  I like that this suit isn’t as flashy as previous ones.
  • Zoë Kravitz is an excellent choice for Catwoman.
  • Take out the Batman and Catwoman and the movie still looks like something I’d want to see.
  • The supporting cast is excellent.
  • I like that Matt Reeves co-wrote and is directing.
  • I like the title The Batman and that Batman is working with the police.  The whole film has a Batman: Year One vibe and that is a great thing.
  • The only thing that I question at this point, is Batman says, “I am vengeance” when I always felt that Batman was more about “justice”.
  • The Batman is now on my must-see list and I can’t wait to see more.

From Warner Bros. Pictures comes The Batman, with director Matt Reeves (the Planet of the Apes films) at the helm and with Robert Pattinson (Tenet, The Lighthouse, Good Time) starring as Gotham City’s vigilante detective, Batman, and billionaire Bruce Wayne.

Also in the star-studded ensemble as Gotham’s famous and infamous cast of characters are Zoë Kravitz (Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grindelwald, Mad Max: Fury Road) as Selina Kyle; Paul Dano (Love & Mercy, 12 Years a Slave) as Edward Nashton; Jeffrey Wright (the Hunger Games films) as the GCPD’s James Gordon; John Turturro (the Transformers films) as Carmine Falcone; Peter Sarsgaard (The Magnificent Seven, Black Mass) as Gotham D.A. Gil Colson; Barry Keoghan (Dunkirk) as Officer Stanley Merkel; Jayme Lawson (Farewell Amor) as mayoral candidate Bella Reál; with Andy Serkis (Planet of the Apes films, Black Panther) as Alfred; and Colin Farrell (Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them, Dumbo) as Oswald Cobblepot…

Based on characters from DC. Batman was created by Bob Kane with Bill Finger. The Batman is set to open in theaters October 1, 2021 in select 3D and 2D and IMAX theaters and will be distributed worldwide by Warner Bros. Pictures.

“Frankenstein” by Paul Mann!

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This morning I saw the beautiful Frankenstein poster above created by Paul Mann.  I then followed a link to Mann’s website and went down a rabbit-hole admiring the beautiful art in his portfolio.  There are movie posters, book covers, original preliminary pieces for sale and more.  If you love art then you owe it to yourself to check out Paul Mann’s portfolio.

Source: JoBlo – Awesome Art We’ve Found Around the Net.

Of Mice and Minestrone: Hap and Leonard: The Early Years by Joe R. Lansdale / Z-View

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Of Mice and Minestrone: Hap and Leonard: The Early Years by Joe R. Lansdale

Trade Paperback: 240 pages
Publisher: Tachyon Publications

First sentence…

I must have been six or seven at the time, and it was an event that went on for years, this gathering of relatives.

The Overview:  Beware of Spoilers…

Of Mice and Minestrone: Hap and Leonard: The Early Years contains five short stories about Hap and Leonard during their, you guessed it, early years.  As an added bonus, there’s a section titled Good Eats: The Recipes of Hap and Leonard by Kasey Lansdale (Joe’s daughter).  Let’s take a quick look at each…

The Kitchen is, as Lansdale says in the intro to the book, more of a vignette than short story.   Reading it you get a sense of where Hap got his moral foundation and why family is important to him.  If you’re lucky it will also bring back memories of another time when things moved slower and family get-togethers were special events.

Of Mice and Minestrone is divided into two parts.  In part one, Hap (a 16 year old high school student) has a run-in with a thugish man at a gas station.  Hap apologizes for his part, but the bully wants a fight.  When the thug’s wife tries to calm her husband by saying, “He’s just a kid.  He didn’t mean nothing -” it’s obvious she has overstepped.  The gas station owner comes out and the man and his wife leave.

Later, when Hap unexpectedly sees the woman in town he can tell that she’s been beaten up.  Hap wants to help her, but she’s afraid and Hap is just a kid.  Together they devise a plan to save her.  Part II Of Mice and Minestrone deals with the fallout from their plan and as you can guess things don’t end up all sunshine and roses.

The Watering Shed was a dive bar located a ways from town.  It was a rough place where you could get a drink even if you were under-age, if you had the cash.  Hap and Leonard had some coin and a hankering for a beer.  Had Leonard not been black, there wouldn’t have been a problem.  But he was and there was and it led to two murders.

In The Sparring Partner Hap and Leonard are offered some easy money to assist a promoter in getting his new fighter ready for his next match. Unfortunately the promoter isn’t on the level and his fighter is in waaay over his head.  Hap and Leonard could take their sparring partner money and walk away but we know that won’t happen.

The Sabine was High takes place when Leonard arrives home from Viet Nam and Hap has recently gotten out of prison (for refusing to be drafted). They go on an overnight fishing trip and share stories about the hell each of them has been through.

Good Eats: The Recipes of Hap and Leonard is exactly what you’d imagine, recipes for preparing food from the stories.

Of Mice and Minestrone: Hap and Leonard: The Early Years provides a look at events that shaped Hap and Leonard into the men they would become. You don’t have to be a H&L fan to enjoy the book, but if you are you’ll enjoy it all the more.  My favorite story gave the book it’s title.  Lansdale sets up a classic situation and then throws in twists along the way (doesn’t he always) that will leave you smiling at his storytelling ability and sad at the situations the characters are in.  There’s not a weak story in the book and even though I’m not much of a cook, I think I’ll give a recipe or two a shot.

Rating:

“Let Him Go” Starring Diane Lane and Kevin Costner – The Poster and Trailer are Here.

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Today we have the poster and first trailer for Let Him Go starring Diane Lane and Kevin Costner.  The poster is okay, but the trailer is solid.   Deal me in.

Academy Award nominee Diane Lane and Academy Award winner Kevin Costner star in #LetHimGo. In theaters this November.

Following the loss of their son, retired sheriff George Blackledge (Costner) and his wife Margaret (Lane) leave their Montana ranch to rescue their young grandson from the clutches of a dangerous family living off the grid in the Dakotas, headed by matriarch Blanche Weboy. When they discover the Weboys have no intention of letting the child go, George and Margaret are left with no choice but to fight for their family.

“Train to Busan Presents: Peninsula” – A New Clip!

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I loved Train to Busan.  The follow-up, set in the same world (and the same director) is called Train to Busan Presents: Peninsula.  Although I’ve heard that Peninsula isn’t as good (TTB is a tough act to follow), I still look forward to seeing it.

Here’s a clip to hold us over.

Four years after South Korea’s total decimation in TRAIN TO BUSAN, the zombie thriller that captivated audiences worldwide, acclaimed director Yeon Sang-ho brings us PENINSULA, the next nail-biting chapter in his post-apocalyptic world. Jung-seok, a soldier who previously escaped the diseased wasteland, relives the horror when assigned to a covert operation with two simple objectives: retrieve and survive. When his team unexpectedly stumbles upon survivors, their lives will depend on whether the best—or worst—of human nature prevails in the direst of circumstances.

“Death on the Nile” – The Trailer is Here!

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Although I’ve never read an Agatha Christie novel, I enjoyed Murder on the Orient Express starring Kenneth Branagh.  After seeing the trailer below for his return as Hercule Poirot (along with an all-star cast) in Death on the Nile, I’m looking forward to the sequel even more.

Maybe I should check out one of Christie’s novels. Hmmm.

Murder was just the beginning. Watch the new trailer for Death on the Nile, in theaters this October 23.

Belgian sleuth Hercule Poirot’s Egyptian vacation aboard a glamorous river steamer turns into a terrifying search for a murderer when a picture-perfect couple’s idyllic honeymoon is tragically cut short. Set against an epic landscape of sweeping desert vistas and the majestic Giza pyramids, this tale of unbridled passion and incapacitating jealousy features a cosmopolitan group of impeccably dressed travelers, and enough wicked twists and turns to leave audiences guessing until the final, shocking denouement.

Death on the Nile reunites the filmmaking team behind 2017’s global hit Murder on the Orient Express, and stars five-time Academy Award® nominee Kenneth Branagh as the iconic detective Hercule Poirot. He is joined by an all-star cast of suspects, including: Tom Bateman, four-time Oscar® nominee Annette Bening, Russell Brand, Ali Fazal, Dawn French, Gal Gadot, Armie Hammer, Rose Leslie, Emma Mackey, Sophie Okonedo, Jennifer Saunders and Letitia Wright.

Death on the Nile is written by Michael Green, adapted from Christie’s novel, and is produced by Ridley Scott, Mark Gordon, Simon Kinberg, Kenneth Branagh, Judy Hofflund and Kevin J. Walsh, with Matthew Jenkins, James Prichard and Matthew Prichard serving as executive producers.

Silent Films, Anyone?

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I wonder how many reading this can name all three of the gentlemen above?  Probably just about everyone knows Charlie Chaplin (far right), but the other two?  The man in the middle is Buster Keaton and the guy leading the pack is Lon Chaney.  These men were the stars of their day, when movies had no sound.

My guess is we lost a few readers when they saw the title of this post and even more dropped off before getting this far.  If you’re reading now you’re hopefully either a fan of silent movies or are open to checking some out.  As for me, I’m a fan.  

Most folks who like silent movies started with the comedies.  There were so many made by greats such as Charlie Chaplin, Buster Keaton, Laurel & Hardy and Fatty Arbuckle.  The great thing about silent film comedy is that most of the gags are ageless.  The first silent movies I remember seeing were comedies, but my enjoyment of silent film really took off with the discovery of silent horror movies.

Lon Chaney was the king of silent horror films starring in classics such as The Phantom of the Opera, The Unknown, The Hunchback of Notre Dame and so many others.  Chaney was equally adept in crime films and dramas.  Known as The Man of 1,000 Faces, Chaney created his own make-up for each role.  If you lean more to horror, crime films and dramas, then Lon Chaney is the star to look for.

If comedy is more to your liking, then I’d suggest checking out Buster Keaton’s Steamboat Bill, Jr., The General or Sherlock, Jr.  Perhaps you want to go to the best known silent film star, Charlie Chaplin.  My suggestions for you would be The Kid, The Circus, Shoulder Arms or almost any of Chaplin’s work in silent films.  Charlie Chaplin is one of the few silent film stars who transitioned to talkies and continued to be successful.

TCM is a great source for silent films.  I recorded and have been making my way through many of Charlie Chaplin’s films that are new to me.  TCM runs silent films each week late on Sunday night and at various times throughout each month.  Check your listings and give some a go.  You, of course can also find great silent movies on other channels, streaming and dvd.

If you’re a fan of silent films or check some out, let me know your thoughts and send some recommendations my way.  Don’t be silent about your favorites.  ; )

“The Secrets that We Keep” – Poster and Trailer are Here!

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I like the looks of the poster and trailer for The Secrets That We Keep.  Hope you do as well.

In post-WWII America, a woman (Noomi Rapace), rebuilding her life in the suburbs with her husband (Chris Messina), kidnaps her neighbor (Joel Kinnaman) and seeks vengeance for the heinous war crimes she believes he committed against her. Directed by Yuval Adler from a script by Ryan Covington and Yuval Adler.

“Young Wallander” – The Trailer is Here!

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Check out the trailer below for the new Netflix series Young Wallander. Wallander first appeared in novels created by Swedish author, Henning Mankell.  Kenneth Branagh played Wallander in a series that ran from 2008 to 2016.  Young Wallander is a prequel and here is the synopsis and then the trailer.  Looks pretty good!

Uncover the case that made the man.

Kurt Wallander (Adam Pålsson) fresh out of police academy witnesses a brutal crime and is pulled into solving it under the wing of superintendent Hemberg (Richard Dillane).

Criminal Deluxe Edition, Volume 3 by Brubaker & Phillips is Coming!

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Fans of Ed Brubaker and Sean Phillips will be glad to hear that on October 27, 2020, the Criminal Deluxe Edition, Volume 3 Hardcover will be released!  I can’t wait.  Here’s what it will contain…

This oversized deluxe hardback collects several short stories and novellas from the most award-winning team in the history of comics in a fantastically-designed book full of extras — illustrations, selected articles, interviews, behind the scenes looks, painted covers… and much much more! Collects the SAVAGE SWORD OF CRIMINAL and DEADLY HANDS OF CRIMINAL magazines, the novellas MY HEROES HAVE ALWAYS BEEN JUNKIES and BAD WEEKEND, and issues 1 and 4 of the newest run of the CRIMINAL monthly series, two full length short stories about the LAWLESS family.

A true collector’s edition must-have for any fan of the best in crime comics.

The Criminal Deluxe Edition, Volume 3 is available for pre-order now.