14 Surprising Facts About “Say Anything”

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Garin Pernia and Mental_Floss present 14 Surprising Facts About Say Anything.  Here are three of my favorites…

1. CAMERON CROWE BASED THE SCRIPT ON A REAL-LIFE HEARTBREAK.
Until Say Anything…, Crowe hadn’t written a love story. He told the San Diego Union Tribunethat the movie’s “a love story for people who don’t say I love you” and in 2009 told the Los Angeles Times that, “It’s a very personal movie, and it reminds me of falling in love, falling out of love, and falling back in love with life and all the unexpected glories and pain that happen along the way.”

The “personal” part references his first love and heartbreak: “She fell for me, and I fell for her, but not at the same time,” Crowe said. “And yes, I used to drive by her house late at night, listening to music, feeling like a sap and somehow heroic at the same time. She was already with someone new, but I was going to wave the flag of our great love, even if I was the only one at the ceremony.”

4. IONE SKYE WAS THE OPPOSITE OF DIANE COURT.
The actress had trouble identifying with the A-student Diane Court because she wasn’t like that. “I wasn’t a good student,” she told the Los Angeles Times. “I grew up with my mother, not my father. I kind of had a wild childhood. Even the father stealing money from old people, I was saying to Cameron, ‘I can’t access why this would upset me.’ That didn’t seem bad to me at the time.” Skye’s real-life father is famed Scottish musician Donovan. Two years after the movie came out, Skye married Beastie Boy Adam Horovitz; the couple divorced him in 1999.

13. A SITCOM VERSION OF SAY ANYTHING… WAS IN THE WORKS, UNTIL CROWE PUT A STOP TO IT.
In 2014, Fox gave the green light for producers to adapt the movie into a single-camera TV sitcom that would take place 10 years after the film’s events, but they apparently didn’t bother to ask Crowe for his blessing. Once Crowe found out about it, he tweeted his dismay about the project and said, “I have no involvement … except in trying to stop it.” Cusack also cried foul about the project; the backlash prevailed and the project was canceled.

Twilight Zone: “Perchance to Dream” [Season 1, Episode 9] / Z-View

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Twilight Zone: “Perchance to Dream” [Season 1, Episode 9]
Original Air Date: November 27, 1959

Director: Robert Florey

Writer: Charles Beaumont

Starring: Richard Conte, John Larch and Suzanne Lloyd

The Overview:  Beware of Spoilers…

Edward Hall [Conte] hasn’t slept in days.  Fatigued and on the ragged edge, Hall not only has a mental issue [fear of dying if he sleeps] but a weak heart.  Hall visits psychiatrist Dr. Eliot Rathmann [Larch] in hope of a cure.

Hall explains that each time he falls asleep Maya, a strangely alluring and dangerous carnival Cat Woman that he met in one of his fevered dreams visits him.  Hall knows the Cat Woman will kill him but he can’t escape her or sleep.

Final Thoughts:  Conte is excellent as the tormented, fatigued Hall.  Lloyd comes off perfectly as the dangerous but irresistible Maya.  The dream sequences are memorable.

Rating: 4 of 5 stars.

Twilight Zone: “Time Enough At Last” [Season 1, Episode 8] / Z-View

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Twilight Zone: “Time Enough At Last” [Season 1, Episode 8]
Original Air Date: November 20, 1959

Director: John Brahm

Writer: Rod Serling based on a short story by Lynn Venable

Starring: Burgess Meredith, Vaughn Taylor and Jaqueline deWit

The Overview:  Beware of Spoilers…

Poor little, nearsighted, henpecked Henry Bemis [Meredith] loves to read.  Reading is his passion but sadly life deprives him of it.  His boss at the bank, Mr. Carsville [Taylor] won’t allow reading at work.  Bemis’ wife [deWit] destroys his books at home.

Bemis decides to take his lunch in the bank’s underground vault so he can sneak in some reading as he eats.  While in the vault a massive explosion is felt. Bemis emerges to a world destroyed by nuclear war.  He is totally alone.

At first frightened, Bemis finds food and water to ensure his survival for years.  When he discovers a library Bemis realizes he now has time enough at last to read everything.  Of course this is the Twilight Zone and the episode concludes with one of its most famous twist endings.

Final Thoughts:  Meredith owns his role as Bemis.  A classic episode worthy of its reputation.

Rating: 5 of 5 stars.

20 Facts About Your Favorite Quentin Tarantino Movies

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Mental_Floss presents 20 Facts About Your Favorite Quentin Tarantino Movies.  Here are three of my favorites…

10. MICHAEL KEATON PLAYED HIS JACKIE BROWN CHARACTER IN ANOTHER MOVIE.
Keaton plays FBI agent Ray Nicolette in Jackie Brown. One year later, he reprised the role for Steven Soderbergh’s Out of Sight (both movies were based on Elmore Leonard novels).

5. THE CONCEPT FOR DEATH PROOF GREW OUT OF TARANTINO’S DESIRE TO BUY A VOLVO.
In a 2007 interview with Newsweek, Tarantino explained the genesis of the idea for Death Proof, the director’s half of Grindhouse: “About 10 years ago, I was talking to a friend about getting a car. And I wanted to get a Volvo because I wanted a really safe car. I remember thinking that I didn’t want to die in some auto accident like the one in Pulp Fiction … So I was talking to my friend about this, and he said, ‘Well, you could take any car and give it to a stunt team, and for $10,000 or $15,000, they can death-proof it for you.’ Well, that phrase ‘death proof’ kinda stuck in my head.”

11. TARANTINO DIRECTED RESERVOIR DOGS BECAUSE TONY SCOTT DIDN’T.
Because he was still new to the business, Tarantino knew he couldn’t direct both True Romance and Reservoir Dogs. So he gave both scripts to Tony Scott and told him to pick one. Though Scott wanted both of the films, he ended up choosing True Romance, leaving Tarantino to make Reservoir Dogs.

Twilight Zone: “The Lonely” [Season 1, Episode 7] / Z-View

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Twilight Zone: “The Lonely” [Season 1, Episode 7]
Original Air Date: November 13, 1959

Director: Jack Smight

Writer: Rod Serling

Starring: Jack Warden, John Dehner, Jean Marsh and Ted Knight

The Overview:  Beware of Spoilers…

James Corry [Warden] killed a man in self-defense. Found guilty of murder, Corry was sentenced to life not in prison but alone on an asteroid.  In the future convicts are imprisoned off Earth.  Corry’s only contact with others is when he receives a supply drop every three or for months.

Captain Allenby [Dehner] feels sorry for Corry. Four years into Corry’s sentence of living alone on the asteroid, Allenby secretly brings a female-programmed robot in Corry’s supplies.  The robot looks, feels and acts like woman.

At first Corry wants nothing to do with this machine…

Final Thoughts:   Warden and Dehner deserve kudos for their acting.  It’s fun seeing Ted Knight in an early role.  The ending has a nice TZ twist.  This episode will stick with you.Rating:

American Monster by Brian Azzarello and Juan Doe

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Brian [100 Bullets] Azzarello and Juan Doe have teamed for American Monster, a new comic series coming for AfterShock Comics.  Here is the official description:

AMERICAN MONSTER – War changes people. The person who leaves is never the person who returns. Theo Montclare is such a person. Horribly scarred and disfigured during his tour of duty, Theo returns to the small Northwestern town that was once his home a changed man, transformed emotionally and physically, both in appearance and in perception. But is he a returning hero or a modern day Frankenstein?

If you’d like to know more about American Monster and see some preview art [which looks great] then check out [be advised that this preview contains adult language] BRIAN AZZARELLO & JUAN DOE UNLEASH THEIR “AMERICAN MONSTER” at CBR.com.

Z-View Twilight Zone: “Escape Clause” [Season 1, Episode 6]

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Twilight Zone: “Escape Clause” [Season 1, Episode 6]
Original Air Date: November 6, 1959

Director: Mitchell Leisen

Writer: Rod Serling

Starring: David Wayne and Thomas Gomez

The Overview:  Beware of Spoilers…

Walter Bedeker [Wayne] is a hypochondriac who despite being perfectly healthy believes he is on death’s doorstep.  While lamenting that life is too short, Bedeker is visited by the Devil [Gomez] who offers immortality for Bedeker’s soul.  

The soul is collected on Bedeker’s death but since he is immortal how will the Devil collect?  Ah, there is an escape clause should Bedeker decide he no longer wishes to live.  

Bedeker accepts and comes to learn rather quickly that immortality in certain situations isn’t all he thought it would be.  

Final Thoughts:  This is a fun episode.  I enjoyed Bedeker’s plan to get rich.  Joe Flynn’s cameo was fun.  A nice twist ending caps the episode.

Rating:

The Day When Three NASA Astronauts Staged a Strike in Space

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The astronauts above are Jerry Carr, Ed Gibson and William Pogue.  In 1973, they manned the Skylab 4 mission.  Scheduled for an 84 day mission, the astronauts were assigned 16 hour work days every single day.

Other astronauts on the ground team, including the commanders of the previous two Skylab missions, advised NASA that the plans were unreasonable. None of the three astronauts on the Skylab 4 mission had been in space before, but NASA hadn’t factored in any time for them to become acclimated to conditions aloft. They were plainly overscheduled.

Things went sideways from the start.  William Pogue became debilitatingly sick with nausea acclimatizing to space.  The team decided not to inform Mission Control of Pogue’s illness only to find out that ground control was eavesdropping on all that went on.

After the space crew received a scolding for withholding information things went from bad to worse.  The crew fell behind on the work schedule and the 16 hour days were beginning to wear them down physically and mentally.  They asked NASA for some time off to recharge and for more workable schedule.  Skylab Commander Jerry Carr argued to NASA:

“We would never work 16 hours a day for 84 straight days on the ground, and we should not be expected to do it here in space.”

NASA wouldn’t budge so the Skylab Astronauts simply turned off all communications with ground control and took a full day to relax and recharge.

Needless to say, this did not sit well with Mission Control, but what could they do?

Nothing.

The following day the Skylab 4 astronauts contacted NASA, who at that point were much more agreeable to a modified schedule.

You can read the full story at The Los Angeles Times in Michael Hiltzik’s The Day When Three NASA Astronauts Staged a Strike in Space.

Z-View Twilight Zone: “Walking Distance” [Season 1, Episode 5]

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Twilight Zone: “Walking Distance” [Season 1, Episode 5]
Original Air Date: October 30, 1959

Director: Robert Stevens

Writer: Rod Serling

Starring: Gig Young

The Overview:  Beware of Spoilers…

Martin Sloan [Young] is a 36 year old New York business executive.  Everything for him is rush, rush, rush.  While on a drive back to the city Sloan finds himself at a gas station one and a half miles from the little town he grew up in.  He decides to take a walk to the town while the gas attendant services his car.

Once in the town Sloan finds nothing has changed.  The prices are the same… the people are the same.  Somehow he has gone back in time.  He goes to his home and his parents seeing a grown man claiming to be their son and send him away.  Sloan decides to find himself as a boy to give himself advice.

You know that old saying, “You can’t go home again” — Sloan finds out it is true.

Final Thoughts:  This episode doesn’t work for me.  When Sloan meets his parents his efforts to convince them of who he is are weak.  When his father does learn that somehow his son has come back to the past, dad basically tells his son to leave and go back to the future [not the movie, but the time he came from].  Sloan getting a limp because of something he caused to happen in the past is a nice touch.  Ron Howard has a brief cameo in one of his first acting roles.

Rating:

17 Truthful Facts About “A Few Good Men”

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Roger Cormier and Mental_Floss present 17 Truthful Facts About A Few Good Men.  Here are three of my favorites…

2. LINDA HAMILTON AND JODIE FOSTER AUDITIONED FOR THE ROLE OF LT. COMMANDER GALLOWAY.
A then-eight-months-pregnant Demi Moore ended up getting the part, and was paid $2 million for the role.

3. JASON ALEXANDER WAS SET TO PLAY LT. SAM WEINBERG.
But when Seinfeld was renewed by NBC for a second season, he was no longer available. Reiner then gave Kevin Pollak the part after he read with Cruise.

8. JACK NICHOLSON WAS PAID $5 MILLION FOR 10 DAYS OF WORK.
Nicholson, as Colonel Nathan R. Jessup, was in just three scenes in the entire movie. Technically he worked an extra morning for free when Reiner and crew didn’t get all of his footage shot in time.

Z-View Twilight Zone: “The Sixteen-Millimeter Shrine” [Season 1, Episode 4]

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Twilight Zone: “The Sixteen-Millimeter Shrine” [Season 1, Episode 4]
Original Air Date: October 23, 1959

Director: Mitchell Leisen

Writer: Rod Serling

Starring: Ida Lupino and Martin Balsam.

The Overview:  Beware of Spoilers…

Barbara Trenton [Lupino] used to be a big movie star… but that was 25 years ago and her star has faded with age.  Trenton increasingly spends her days and nights sitting alone in her room running her old films.  Her agent [Balsam] is worried that she is losing touch with reality and attempts to get her a part in a new film.  When Trenton discovers it is a supporting role and she will play the star’s mother — she insults the movie executive and retreats to her film room.

If only she could find a way to the past where she was happy…

Final Thoughts:  This episode feels like Sunset Blvd. lite.  Everything is played straight until Trenton somehow appears on her projection screen in an old movie setting.  When Balsam sees it, he calls to her to “come back” — almost as if he is not surprised/shocked that she is “in there.”  This episode fell flat for me.

Rating:

Z-View Twilight Zone: “Mr. Denton on Doomsday” [Season 1, Episode 3]

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Twilight Zone: “Mr. Denton on Doomsday” [Season 1, Episode 3]
Original Air Date: October 16, 1959

Director: Allen Reisner

Writer: Rod Serling

Starring: Dan Duryea, Martin Landau and Doug McClure.

The Overview:  Beware of Spoilers…

Al Denton [Duryea] used to be good with a gun.  Now he is the town drunk.  Dan Hotaling [Landau] is the town bully who takes great pleasure in humiliating Denton.  Hotaling pushes Denton around, makes him sing and beg for drinks even to the point of breaking a bottle of booze and throwing it in the street just to watch Denton scramble for it.

The townspeople nervously laugh at Hotaling’s antics and while some don’t like it, none will take a stand.  As Denton chugs from the broken bottle of booze, a new comer to the town named Henry J. Fate observes from a distance.  Suddenly a gun appears and Denton picks it up.

Hotaling sees Denton with the handgun and challenges him to a gunfight.  Denton wants no part of it but Hotaling won’t let him walk away.  Denton is a dead man unless [Henry J.] Fate steps in…

Final Thoughts: This episode had so much potential but ends up feeling disjointed to me.  Since I am picking nits: I don’t think the title of the episode fits.  Landeau comes off as a cartoon bully from the way he is dressed to his actions.  Naming the newcomer Henry J. Fate seems a bit heavy-handed.  Denton, the town drunk gives up booze with no effort — thanks to Fate?  Abruptly, Landeau is out and McClure is in.  When Duryea and McClure realize that they’ve both just drank the potion is a nice touch.

Overall not a bad episode, but could have been better.

Rating: