In the not too distant future, the morose Egyptian, Antar, works in New York City, as a home-based computer employee, monitoring artifacts which he can study holographically through cyber space. He conjures up the I.D. card of one L. Murugan, who had supposedly disappeared in Calcutta back in 1995. Murugan is/was an expert on Nobel laureate Ronald Ross, discoverer of the role of the anopheles mosquito in the transmission of malaria.
Through flashbacks to the intense week of his disappearance and to episodes in the late nineteenth century, the virtual Murugan roams Calcutta trying desperately to understand and expose a subtext of counter science in Ross's laboratory. He is joined by Urmila, a journalist whose life is endangered by their collaboration.
Murugan theorizes that Ross was sloppy, intent on fame and fortune though a simplistic rendering of the parasite-host relationship; his discoveries were fed to him by others and he was blind to the spiritualistic ambitions of Mangala, his Indian laboratory technologist. Conceiving of the powerful significance of malaria prevention and control, Mangala held different views on the purpose and means of investigating the disease and, Murugan thinks, she anticipated the later discovery of another Nobel laureate, J. Wagner-Jauregg, in the use of malaria for the treatment of syphilis. The travels of Murugan and Urmila imply that these views are still there awaiting their own discovery.
Multiple layers, numerous personalities, and complex time frames wander through the novel. The many Casteneda-like visions and mind-altering encounters spin an atmosphere of intrigue and suspicion around Ross and his Indian associates. Urmila copes with the dilemma of educated Indian women, as she tries to keep a career against the sexist demands of her family, who are indifferent to her desires, the importance of her work, and the risks that she incurs.
In explicating his hypothesis of the "Calcutta chromosome"--a chromosomal means of transmitting information, Murugan utters a Heisenberg-like uncertainty principle that seems to govern the writing: "to know something is to change it." Without clearly articulating any particular alternative explanation for malaria, the work is stimulating for its intriguing allusions to genetics, culture, colonialism, Nobel scientists, and their relationship to the disease that continues to kill two to three million people every year.
Twisted Nerve is a 1968 British psychological thriller film about a disturbed young man, Martin, who pretends, under the name of Georgie, to be mentally retarded in order to be near Susan, a girl he has become infatuated with. In covering his tracks he kills his stepfather and Susan's mother. Despite its "difficult" subject matter, the film is still evidently a popular and highly-regarded one- hence not only its aforementioned referencing by Tarantino, but also The Damned naming a song after it on their 'Black Album' as far back as 1982, and that popularity was finally vindicated in 2008 when Optimum released it on DVD.
December 21 — Winter Solstice at 11:11 UTC. December 21 — The Mesoamerican Long Count calendar, notably used by the Maya civilization among others of pre-Columbian Mesoamerica, completes its thirteenth b'ak'tun cycle since the calendar's mythical starting point (equivalent to 3114 BC August 11 in the proleptic Gregorian calendar, according to the "GMT-correlation" JDN= 584283). The Long Count b'ak'tun date of this starting point (13.0.0.0.0) is repeated, for the first time in a span of approximately 5,125 solar years. The significance of this period-ending to the pre-Columbian Maya themselves is unclear, and there is an incomplete inscription (Tortuguero Monument that records this date. It is also to be found carved on the walls of the Temple of Inscriptions in Palenque, where it functions as a base date from which other dates are computed. However, it is conjectured that this may represent in the Maya belief system a transition from the current Creation world into the next when Earth's poles will shift. 2012 is sometimes claimed to be a great year of spiritual transformation (or apocalypse). Many esoteric sources interpret the completion of the thirteenth B'ak'tun cycle in the Long Count of the Maya calendar (which occurs on December 21 by the most widely held correlation) to mean there will be a major change in world order. December 12, 2012 is 6 years, 6 months, 6 days from June 6, 2006, or 6/6/6 (or 2381 days) Transit of Venus – June 6, 2012 = 6/6/12(6x2)
Although popular from her first appearance in 1930, Jane Marple had to wait thirty-two years for her first big-screen appearance. When she made it, the results were found disappointing to Christie purists and Christie herself. Murder, She Said (1962, directed by George Pollock) was the first of four British MGM productions starring Dame Margaret Rutherford, a magnificent comic actress. This first film was based on the 1957 novel 4:50 from Paddington (U.S. title, What Mrs. McGillicuddy Saw!), and the changes made in the plot were typical of the series. In the film, Mrs. McGillicuddy does not see anything because there is no Mrs. McGillicuddy. Miss Marple herself sees an apparent murder committed on a train running alongside hers. Likewise, The other Rutherford films (all directed by George Pollock) were Murder at the Gallop (1963), based on the 1953 Hercule Poirot novel After the Funeral (In this film, she is identified as Miss JTV Marple, though there were no indication as to what the extra initials might stand for); Murder Most Foul (1964), based on the 1952 Poirot novel Mrs McGinty's Dead; and Murder Ahoy! (1964). The last film is not based on any Christie work but displays a few plot elements from They Do It With Mirrors (viz., the ship is used as a reform school for wayward boys and one of the teachers uses them as a crime force), and there is a kind of salute to The Mousetrap. Rutherford also appeared briefly as Miss Marple in the spoof Hercule Poirot adventure The Alphabet Murders (1965). Rutherford, who was 70 years-old when the first film was made, wore her own clothes during the filming of the movie, as well as having her real-life husband, Stringer Davis appear alongside her as the character 'Mr Stringer'.
Bunny Lake Is Missing is a psychological thriller directed and produced by Otto Preminger, who filmed it in black and white widescreen format in London. It was based on the novel of the same name by Merriam Modell. The score is by Paul Glass and the opening theme is often heard as a refrain. The Zombies also appear in a television broadcast.
Dismissed by both critics and Preminger as insignificant upon its release in 1965, the film later earned a following as a cult classic, along with strong reviews by critics such as Andrew Sarris. The movie was at last released on DVD in 2005.
American single mother Ann Lake (Carol Lynley) has lately come to England from the US with her four-year-old daughter Felicia whom she calls by the nickname Bunny, planning to settle in London with her journalist brother Steven (Keir Dullea). After Bunny's first morning at her new school (The Little People's Garden) Ann comes to fetch her but Bunny is not there and nobody can remember even having seen her.
Police Superintendent Newhouse (Laurence Olivier) faces an array of suspects in Bunny's disappearance. Among these is Ann's landlord, ageing writer and broadcaster Horatio Wilson (Noel Coward), who lets himself into the Lakes' new apartment as he pleases and is a whip-loving sado-masochist. Retired teacher Ada Ford (Martita Hunt) lives on the school's top floor and collects recordings of children's nightmares. Ada in turn tells Newhouse she thinks there is something "very unusual" about Ann's brother Steven. Meanwhile, Steven acts aggressively towards Newhouse, threatening to create a public scandal through his resources as a reporter unless the police quickly find Bunny.
The family further tell the police that all of the girl's belongings have vanished that same day in a mysterious burglary, along with her passport. The school authorities in turn report that they had never received a tuition check for Bunny. When Steven lets slip that Ann as a young girl had an imaginary friend whom she also called Bunny, Newhouse begins to wonder whether Bunny Lake ever really existed.
At her wits' end from not being believed, Ann suddenly recalls that, before Bunny's disappearance, the girl's doll had been taken in for repair. She sets off across nighttime London to try to get the doll back, thinking that with it in hand the police will have to believe her.
Original poster and credit sequence are designed by Saul Bass.
Endless Night is a Christie, but not really a murder mystery. It's actually more of a psycho drama, but its inclusion on a horror films site is assured by some determinedly spooky set pieces. There are several scenes which linger in the mind long after the film has finished, and it may well have been seen by a lot of you on some late night TV slot and then been half forgotten. The film starts with one of them, a weird dream sequence involving a woman with a blank face. Enter Hywell Bennet as our fresh faced narrator. He's in Christie's (clever, eh?) bidding on an expensive painting. Luckily, he doesn't get it (he's a penniless chauffeur) but he does display a remarkably original view on auctions which every Ebayer should take to heart: "Between my bid and the next, I owned that picture..." ("No you didn't!" explains the rest of the world, patiently) On a driving job in Europe, he meets with an architect and explains his lifelong dream - to build a house in a place called Gypsy's Acre. After being approached by someone (or something) in an art gallery, our baby faced hero develops an attitude problem, travels down to Gypsy's Acre and meets an American girl called Ellie (Hayley Mills, playing against type as a sweet and innocent blonde popsy without a worldy bone in her body). After explaining to her about his dream house (he just won't bloody shut up about it) they meet a spooky old woman and her cats, who intimates that something horrible has happened in the past, and more horrible things will occur. This is breezily brushed off by Bennett with the immortal line "Nutcase. We breed 'em in England". As if that wasn't enough, it turns out that Ellie is the "sixth richest girl in the world" and the two marry and build Bennett's dream house on Gypsy's Acre. The plot wastes no time in introducing several more shady characters, the most important of which is Britt Ekland (also playing against type, as an annoying bint with an impenetrable middle European accent), who is Ellie's best friend Greta. (Greta is basically Ekland's character Lucy from Asylum - a not-very-nice girl who seems to rule Ellie with a rod of iron) The others are Peter Bowles as a caddish uncle (natch) and his wife Miss Moneypenny. As rocks get chucked at the window and a murder appears to take place, without the help of any Belgian detectives it's left to the audience to sort it out. Who is the murderer? According to the cinema posters, only one in 10 people get it right. Filmgoers must have been stupider back in the 70s, but Endless Night is still an entertaining hour and a half. The temptation with any film that has the word "endless" in its title is to be cruel, but the truth is it's not a bad little movie, especially for Bennett and Mills' excellent taste in James Bond-style 70s pads, complete with swimming pool under the sliding floor.
He is a famous Oscar-winner, has his name in the Hollywood Walk of Fame and is still going strong despite being an OAP. He even helped in the war effort during World War II by promoting gas masks and has been painted by the most famous of artists including Andy Warhol. Yes Mickey Mouse is 80 today. History records his birthday as day of the release of Steamboat Willie, the rodent's first big break. Unlike most people clocking up 80 years, Mickey has changed very little since his debut at New York's Coloney Theatre on November 18 1928. Mickey Mouse was born in the imagination of a 26-year-old Walt Disney during a train ride in 1928 from New York to Los Angeles. He had just lost rights to his first cartoon character Oswald the Rabbit and so set about creating a new character. Walt originally called the mouse Mortimer. But the name was changed when Walt's wife Lillian suggested Mickey was a more suitable name.
James Bond's Lotus from The Spy Who Loved Me is to go under the hammer at a London auction next month. The white 1976 Lotus Esprit is expected to fetch between £100,000 - £120,000 at Bonhams annual motoring sale. It is one of two Lotus cars - driven by Roger Moore in the 1977 film - which turned into an amphibious car when it ended up in the sea during a chase. Bond fans will get the chance to bid on the car at the auction in Olympia, west London, on 1 December. The registration number AU1 from Bond classic Goldfinger will also be up for auction in the same sale. The first registration issued in Nottingham in 1903, AU1 was fitted to the Rolls Royce Phantom III used by arch villain Goldfinger in the film, as AU is the chemical symbol for gold in the periodic table. Bonhams hope the plate will fetch more than £80,000.
Washington - The war in Iraq is over, and President George W Bush has been indicted for treason - so it must have been a particularly busy news day at The New York Times. Real news, self-fulfilling prophecy or just a very elaborate hoax? At least 1.2 million copies of a fake edition of the Times was handed out Wednesday morning to New York commuters, replete with alarming headlines - for some, almost too good to be true. Accompanying the replica of the print edition was a website, which again looked like the Times: http://www.nytimes-se.com/ Free copies of the 14-page newspaper, which looked exactly like the real Times, were distributed at busy subway stations across the city. Many commuters might not have noticed the fine print - the paper was dated July 4, 2009, US independence day. Among the other gems that made front-page news: USA Patriot Act repealed; torture, rendition: "not such good ideas after all"; ex- secretary apologizes for WMD scare; and maximum wage law for CEOs succeeds. It emerged later in the day that the newspaper was the work of a liberal group called the Yes Men, who issued a statement: "In an elaborate operation six months in the planning, 1.2 million papers were printed at six different presses and driven to prearranged pickup locations, where thousands of volunteers stood ready to pass them out." The spoof paper included the usual sections - international, national, New York, business sections, editorials and corrections. There were several advertisements, including a recall notice for all cars that run on gasoline. "It's all about how at this point, we need to push harder than ever," said Bertha Suttner, one of the newspaper's writers. "We have got to make sure Obama and all the other Democrats do what we elected them to do. After eight, or maybe 28, years of hell, we need to start imagining heaven," she wrote in a press release published on the website of the Poynter Institute, a journalism think tank. A New York Times blog - the real one - quoted Catherine J Mathis, a Times spokeswoman, as saying: "This is obviously a fake issue of the Times. We are in the process of finding out more about it." The pranksters interviewed several gullible commuters and posted the video on the internet. One said, "I can't believe it - the war is over. Wow!" Another said: "I knew change was coming to America - I just didn't expect it so fast."
Sir Salman Rushdie's 1981 novel about Indian independence, Midnight's Children, is to be made into a movie by the prominent director Deepa Mehta. The author says that he is willing to work with Ms Mehta, an Indian-born Canadian, to co-write the script. Work is expected to begin next year with hopes that the film will be released in 2010. In July, the novel won the UK's "Best of the Booker" in a popular vote. The book tells the story of Saleem Sinai, who was born on the stroke of Indian independence day in 1947. Sir Salman and Ms Mehta made the announcement at a recent event in New York during the annual Mahindra Indo-American Arts Council (MIAAC) Film Festival. "I'm delighted that my friend Deepa Mehta has agreed to make a film of Midnight's Children. Her passion for the book, combined with her immense talent as a filmmaker, means that my novel has been placed in the best possible hands. I also look forward to working with her on the screenplay," Sir Salman said in a press statement on the MIACC website. Rushdie also won the Booker of Bookers award in 1993 In 1997, Sir Salman reacted angrily to a decision by the government in Sri Lanka not to allow the BBC to film an adaptation of his novel Midnight's Children there. He described it as a colossal blow and said those who objected to the film did not object to the novel, but to him personally. Published in 1981, Midnight's Children is a fictional memoir. Saleem is one of 1001 children born at the stroke of midnight on 15 August 1947, the very moment of India's independence. Saleem's life is uncannily intertwined with destiny of the country. The story spans a period of 30 years from 1947 ending with the emergency declared by Prime Minister Indira Gandhi in 1977. The novel continues to enjoy critical acclaim and is popular across a wide age range.
Jonny Quest (often referred to as The Adventures of Jonny Quest, which is actually a separate series) is a science fiction / adventure animated television series produced by Hanna-Barbera Productions, and created and designed by comic book artist Doug Wildey, about the adventures of a young boy who accompanies his father on extraordinary adventures. The first of several Hanna-Barbera action-based adventure shows, which would later include Space Ghost, The Herculoids, and Birdman and the Galaxy Trio, Jonny Quest ran on ABC in prime time for one season in 1964–1965. After spending two decades in reruns, new episodes were produced for syndication in 1986. Two telefilms and a spin-off series (The Real Adventures of Jonny Quest) later revived the characters for the 1990s.
Soylent Green is a 1973 dystopian science fiction movie depicting a future in which overpopulation leads to depleted resources on earth. This leads to widespread unemployment and poverty. Real fruit, vegetables, and meat are rare, commodities are expensive, and much of the population survives on processed food rations, including "soylent green" wafers.
The film overlays the science fiction and police procedural genres as it depicts the efforts of New York City police detective Robert Thorn (Charlton Heston) and elderly police researcher Sol Roth (Edward G. Robinson) to investigate the brutal murder of a wealthy businessman named William R. Simonson (Joseph Cotten). Thorn and Roth uncover clues which suggest that it is more than simply a bungled burglary.
The film, which is loosely based upon the 1966 science fiction novel Make Room! Make Room!, by Harry Harrison, won the Nebula Award for Best Dramatic Presentation and the Saturn Award for Best Science Fiction Film in 1973.
That most blameless of apocalyptic menaces, overpopulation, has been with us for centuries. It compelled Jonathan Swift to write his satirical call for institutionalized cannibalism in the 18th century. And in 1973, Hollywood produced a no-less-sensational (but considerably less satirical) movie about a vastly overpopulated future, where sinister corporate types have resorted to secret, institutionalized cannibalism. Every day is a potential food riot in New York City, but every Tuesday is Soylent Green day, when the latest—and apparently tastiest—flavor of nutrient-rich, plankton-based rations is distributed. Despite that infamous (and unintentionally funny) final line, and despite Charlton Heston, this movie is a surprisingly bleak and unflinching vision of the future. And sure, I get it, the stuff is made out of people. But that revelation won't fix the desiccated environment or shrink the population to manageable levels. The world of Soylent Green is as doomed as its inhabitants are delicious.
Remember, remember the Fifth of November, The Gunpowder Treason and Plot, I see no reason Why the Gunpowder Treason Should ever be forgot. Guy Fawkes, Guy Fawkes, t'was his intent To blow up the King and Parli'ment. Three-score barrels of powder below To prove old England's overthrow; By God's providence he was catch'd With a dark lantern and burning match. Holloa boys, holloa boys, let the bells ring. Holloa boys, holloa boys, God save the King!
Guy Fawkes Night (also known as Bonfire Night, Cracker Night, Fireworks Night) is an annual celebration on the evening of the 5th of November. It celebrates the foiling of the Gunpowder Plot of the 5th of November 1605 in which a number of Catholic conspirators, including Guy Fawkes, attempted to blow up the Houses of Parliament in London, England.
Thousands of fans braced themselves against chilly weather in London's Leicester Square Wednesday night to watch celebrities, including Princes William and Harry, arrive on the red carpet for the world premiere of the latest James Bond movie, Quantum of Solace, the 22nd in the franchise and starring Daniel Craig. Reports said that security was tight, with attendees refusing to admit anyone carrying cell phones for fear that they might record scenes from the film and post them on the Internet. The British reviews have been mixed. Geoffrey McNab wrote in the London Independent that the film "doesn't seem like a major entry in the Bond canon. Well under two hours long, it's shorter and more frenetic than most of its predecessors, and an often-jolting experience to watch. Loose ends about. What it does have, though, above all, is vigor. The franchise hasn't run out of juice quite yet." Peter Bradshaw in the Guardian called it "a crash-bang Bond, high on action, low on quips, long on location glamour, short on product placement." Writing in the Daily Mirror, critic David Edwards remarked that the movie "doesn't feel like a Bond film at all. Not once does Craig say: 'The name's Bond. James Bond.' There's no Q or his gadgets. Heck, we even see Bond in a cardigan. There are no risque quips or arched eyebrows." He concluded: "It doesn't disappoint - just don't expect the brilliance of Casino Royale." Judy Dench with Swarowski 007 tatoo
did Alfred Hitchcock appear in drag for a second cameo in North By Northwest? The idea came from these frames showing a stout woman with Hitchcockian features who appears on a train in the film. Maybe The Master had casted a female look-alike precisely to initiate this kind of "Paul is dead" debate.
Ken Adam was born in Berlin, Germany to a Jewish family. His family moved to England in 1934, when Adam was 13 years old, and then went to St. Paul's School in Barnes. Later, he attended University College London, training to be an architect. Although he was still a German national, he served as a pilot for the Royal Air Force during World War II, where he flew the Hawker Typhoon on many missions over NW Europe. This was a brave move: if he had been shot down and captured, instead of being sent to a prisoner of war camp, the Germans would have been able to hang him as a traitor. Adam was the only German national to be an RAF fighter pilot. He was later naturalised as a British citizen and was knighted in 2003 by Queen Elizabeth II.
Considering the sheer number of horror films to come out of Hollywood during the 1940’s, it is simply astonishing that there should be so few movies about hauntings made during that decade in which the ghosts turn out to be unambiguously real. In fact, I’m pretty sure Paramount’s The Uninvited (helmed by Lewis Allen, who would become an enormously prolific television director in the mid-1950’s) is the only one I’ve ever seen. Whereas most 40’s “ghost” movies portrayed phantoms, wraiths, and specters who would eventually stand revealed as a Nazi spy or the impossibly wealthy young heroine’s avaricious uncle or some such thing, The Uninvited plays it completely straight, and even goes so far as to posit a house haunted by two ghosts— one of them good, the other evil, and the both of them squabbling fiercely over the fate of someone still living. Nor is it, as was generally the case on those extremely rare occasions when a 40’s film dealt with an authentic ghost, a comedy or a romance. There are elements of both comedy and romance in The Uninvited, but the movie’s main business is unquestionably the protagonists’ quest to uncover the secrets that will finally lay the warring spirits to rest.
Those protagonists are pianist and London newspaper music critic Roderick Fitzgerald (Ray Milland, from Terror in the Wax Museum and The Premature Burial) and his sister, Pamela (Ruth Hussey). The Fitzgeralds are nearing the end of a holiday in Cornwall when they discover a huge and beautiful mansion standing abandoned atop the sea cliffs overlooking the Atlantic. The pair end up letting themselves in through an open window when their dog, Bobby, chases a squirrel inside, and Pamela instantly falls in love with the place. It reminds her very much of the house where she and Rick grew up, and it’s in such an excellent state of preservation that it would not be utterly ridiculous to imagine living there. Pam talks her brother into checking around to discover who owns the place, and making an offer to buy in the event that the house on the cliff is for sale.
The house turns out to belong to a retired naval officer by the name of Commander Beech (Donald Crisp, from Svengali and the 1941 version of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde). When the Fitzgeralds go to see Beech, they are greeted by his granddaughter, Stella Meredith (The Unseen’s Gail Russell), who tells them that the commander is out at the moment, but should be returning relatively soon. While Pam and Rick wait in Beech’s study, they mention to Stella that they’re interested in buying the old mansion, which the girl identifies as Winward House. This obviously disturbs Stella for some reason, and she begins attempting to hurry the visitors out, saying that Winward House is not for sale, regardless of what Roderick may have heard to the contrary. That’s when Beech comes home. In flat contradiction to what his granddaughter was saying, Beech confirms that he is looking to sell Winward House, and indeed that he’s willing to do so for even as little as £1200, the almost insultingly low figure which Rick offers (presumably in an attempt to indulge his sister’s new fixation while simultaneously stacking the deck against actually having to follow through on it). The Fitzgeralds are stunned, and though Roderick makes a short-lived effort to backpedal, Pamela pushes him ahead into closing the deal.
So why was Commander Beech so eager to unload the mansion on the cliff, and why was his daughter willing to resort to subterfuge to stop him from doing so? Well, the house had been in Beech’s family for generations, but its last occupants were his daughter, Mary, and her husband, a painter named John Meredith. Stella also spent the first years of her life under its roof. Mary was killed in a fall from the cliffs when Stella was three years old, and Meredith died too not long thereafter. The house thus has strong associations for both the old man and his granddaughter, but their respective currents of sentiment run in opposite directions. For Stella, Winward House is all that remains of her mother; for Beech, it is the scene of the most terrible loss he has ever suffered. As we shall see, however, there is more to the commander’s desire to be quit of Winward House than painful memories. Ever since Mary Meredith died, the mansion has had a reputation for hauntedness, and though Beech is at pains to deny any such thing, he does indeed believe that there are spirits walking its corridors. More to the point, he believes that there are malign spirits, which mean to do harm to Stella specifically.
A rather large monkey wrench is thrown into Beech’s plan for keeping his granddaughter and the ghosts at arm’s reach from each other, however, when Stella befriends the Fitzgeralds shortly after they move in, and indeed strikes up a romance with Roderick. The commander forbids the relationship, but he finds a modern-minded twenty-year-old girl to be rather less controllable than the crew of a torpedo boat destroyer, and all he really accomplishes is to make himself sick with emotional overexertion. So concerned does he become, in fact, and so resistant does he find Stella, that he places a phone call to a mysterious woman named Holloway (Cornelia Otis Skinner) to make arrangements for the girl’s removal from the scene by force, should no other option present itself. Meanwhile, the Fitzgeralds are discovering that the rumors of “disturbances” in Winward House are absolutely true. The pets refuse to set foot on the second floor, cold drafts blow through the house in places where they can’t be accounted for, a woman can be heard sobbing shortly before dawn nearly every morning, maid Lizzy Flynn (Barbara Everest, of Gaslight and These Are the Damned) sees a spectral apparition of a woman in white, and the room upstairs which John Meredith used as his studio gives off an inexplicable aura of menace and despair. Nor does it take long before Stella encounters the strange manifestations at Winward House, but she reacts to them rather differently than the place’s new owners. Though she is initially as frightened as anyone by the presence in the studio, and though something briefly seizes control of her and causes her to come within an ace of running off the cliff to her almost certain death, there is something else in the house which Stella finds soothing and comforting. In particular, there is something in Winward House which manifests itself with the smell of mimosas, and it is that scent that convinces Stella the mansion is haunted by her mother. You see, when she was but a child, her father gave her a bottle of her mother’s perfume, which she has since parceled out so sparingly that she still has a small quantity of it even today; that perfume smells strongly of mimosa.
So who is this Carmel, and what does she have to do with Winward House and the Meredith family? As Rick and Pamela will gradually piece together, Carmel was an artist’s model whom Stella’s father often employed, and with whom he was cheating on his wife. She was at Winward House on the night when Mary Meredith died, and her presence has led to much speculation over the possibility that Mary’s fall was neither accident nor suicide, but murder instead. But whatever happened between the two women out on the cliffs, it went nearly as badly for Carmel, who died herself just a couple of days later. Furthermore, Dr. Scott has in his possession a diary kept by his predecessor which makes it sound as though Carmel may have been allowed to die deliberately by the nurse who treated her in the aftermath of the confrontation. That nurse had been hired by the family to look after Commander Beech, who had a weak heart even back then, and there is some indication that she was Mary Meredith’s lesbian lover as well— certainly that would go some way toward explaining why Mary put up with her husband’s infidelity for so long, to say nothing of the motive it would provide the nurse for a revenge killing after Mary’s fatal fall. The nurse’s name? Why, it’s Holloway, of course. But as is usual for movies like this one, the ties between Carmel and the Meredith family were really much more complicated than is realized by anyone who is willing to talk about them, and Stella herself is at the center of the undying rivalry between the two dead women.
So far as I’ve seen, nobody but RKO was making horror movies as serious and mature as The Uninvited as a matter of course during the 1940’s, and to watch The Uninvited is to wonder why the hell not. Though it is hampered by a few descents into the maudlin or the saccharine, and by an obtrusively melodramatic score from the unaccountably well-regarded Victor Young, The Uninvited was probably the best cinematic ghost story to be made in the English-speaking world until Robert Wise’s The Haunting almost twenty years later. The spook scenes are commendably creepy— even the ones involving the benevolent ghost of Stella’s mother— and the visible manifestations of the evil ghost are nearly as effective as the nightmare scene with the animate wedding dress in The Amazing Mr. X. The mystery surrounding the haunting is unraveled in a believable manner, and the answers that are uncovered involve a startling amount of taboo material for a 1940’s Hollywood film. What levity there is comes not in the form of typical comic relief, but rather through the much more satisfying expedient of making one of the central characters a roguishly sarcastic wise-ass. And speaking of that roguishly sarcastic wise-ass, B-movie fans are likely to be knocked for a loop by Ray Milland’s performance. We, after all, are accustomed to seeing him as an older and grouchier man in the movies he made for American International during the 60’s and 70’s; his turn here as a dapper young sophisticate— let alone a romantic leading man— sets him in an entirely new context, and one which he inhabits with unexpected ease and assuredness. All in all, the biggest mystery in The Uninvited is not the origin of the haunting of Winward House, but rather why so few movies like this one were made in the United States during the old days.
I first met Paul Newman in 1968, when George Roy Hill, the director of Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, introduced us in New York City. When the studio didn't want me for the film it wanted somebody as well known as Paul he stood up for me. I don't know how many people would have done that; they would have listened to their agents or the studio powers. The friendship that grew out of the experience of making that film and The Sting four years later had its genesis in the fact that although there was an age difference, we both came from a tradition of theater and live TV. We were respectful of craft and focused on digging into the characters we were going to play.
Both of us were fundamentally American actors, with the qualities and virtues that characterize American actors: irreverence, playing on the other's flaws for fun, one-upmanship but always with an underlying affection. Those were also at the core of our relationship off the screen. Paul was very engaged at work. He was there. He liked a lot of rehearsal. But he was fun too. Whenever he'd make a mistake on set, he would enjoy it more than anybody. I'd look at him, and he'd look at me, and I'd say, "You're not fooling anybody. You're not staring at me intensely; you've lost your line." And he'd roar with laughter.
We shared the belief that if you're fortunate enough to have success, you should put something back he with his Newman's Own food and his Hole in the Wall camps for kids who are gravely ill, and me with Sundance and the institute and the festival. Paul and I didn't see each other all that regularly, but sharing that brought us together. We supported each other financially and by showing up at events. And then we'd give each other a hard time. Whatever success one of us would have, the other would knock it down. If you're in a position of being viewed iconically, you'd better have a mechanism to take yourself down to keep the balance. I think we did that for each other.
Thursday, October 02, 2008
With fanaticism about James Bond at its highest level since the 1960s, it's not surprising that the collector's market is booming. However, if you think people will be impressed by your 1979 Mego Moonraker action figures, try topping this: an unnamed Bond fan has spent £200,000 to purchase an Aston Martin that was accidentally wrecked during the filming of Quantum Of Solace. The car ended up in a lake and is not driveable. Not bad when even a mishap can result in a profit. Auric Goldfinger would be proud.
About the new USA Bette Davis postage stamp,it's a photo from ALL ABOUT EVE, and if you staring at it for a while you realize there is something wrong. She has a gloved hand raised beneath her chin in a very awkward pose. They removed a cigarette from her fingers! Censorship from Uncle Sam! Didn't they think anyone would notice? Film historians should revolt!
If any one person can be credited with having introduced the idea of "high concept"—the single striking image or pithy phrase that immediately sums up a creative work—to the movie industry, it would have to be Saul Bass. Not that the term existed when Bass, then known as one of America's brightest graphic designers, was called in to create the poster and title design for Otto Preminger's Carmen Jones. Bass preferred to talk in terms of Single Appropriate Image, in contrast to the then prevalent style of selling films, which he drily summed up as "the See! See! See! approach. See the missionaries boiled in oil, see the volcano destroy the island, see the virgins of the temple! The theory was that if you talked about a film in pieces, there would be something for everyone." Instead of crassly duplicating the function of the trailer, Bass saw his task as "finding a metaphor for the film, rather than an actuality from it."
The single image he created for Carmen Jones was a rose, in flames; taken with the title, that said it all. His design for Preminger's next film, The Man with the Golden Arm, was yet more audacious: the jagged diagram of an arm groping downward, contorted with agony. Like so many of Bass's concepts, it relied on the simplest and most effective style of design, a silhouette. Initially Preminger wanted a static image for the title sequence, but after "some towering discussions" Bass won his battle to animate the arm, making it jerk in torment to the rhythm of Elmer Bernstein's doomy, small-hours jazz score. Not for the last time, Bass's title sequence packed a more formidable punch than the movie that followed it. The prowling black alley cat that prefaced Walk on the Wild Side was so patently the best thing in the film that, once word got around, people would come to see the credit sequence, then get up and leave once the film started.
Knowing that nothing is more universally recognizable than stylized images of the human face or body, Bass drew on this primal source for some of his most memorable designs. The paper cut-out doll, suggesting at once childish innocence and the lethal sharpness of a blade, introduced the kidnap drama of Bunny Lake Is Missing. For Exodus, clenched fists grasping at a rifle: anger, desperation, revolt, revenge, all in one charged outline. A voluptuous pair of bare female thighs (in a style borrowed from Matisse) heralded the sophisticated sex comedy Such Good Friends. Bonjour Tristesse was evoked by a made-up face (a nod here to Picasso) decorated with a single fat tear. Most famous of all was the sectioned human body that suggested both a chalked forensic outline on the ground, and the title of the film: Anatomy of a Murder. So potent was the concept that it has been widely plagiarized ever since.
The blonde is Margaret Nolan, a forgotten 1960s starlet. The man in silhouette is Robert Brownjohn, one of the most innovative, expensive and downright difficult art directors of the 60s - reports The Guardian.
Nolan is being filmed for the title sequence of Goldfinger (1964), the third James Bond film. She was painted gold from head to toe and images from the film were projected on to her body, creating a hallucinogenic effect that was ahead of its time. Brownjohn had succeeded in turning a title sequence - generally an afterthought - into high art. Had he not died in 1970 from a heart attack aged 44, he would have received greater credit for his innovation.
Robert "Bj" Brownjohn had already made a name for himself as a designer in 1950s New York when he arrived in London in 1960. He claimed that he came over for the city's creative energy. His girlfriend, the super-chic fashion designer Kiki Byrne, remembers it differently. "You could get heroin on the National Health back then," says Byrne. "And Bj did have a problem. But he was also terribly gifted, so he quickly established himself as one of the key figures during a very special period in history."
Brownjohn was at the heart of swinging London when he got the call from Albert "Cubby" Broccoli to design the title sequences for From Russia With Love and Goldfinger. Having been given £850 for the first film, he demanded £5,000 for the second, a huge amount at the time. "We quoted £5,000 and it cost £5,000," remembers his assistant Trevor Bond. "You never made a profit on Bj." Byrne designed the bikini for Nolan.
Goldfinger was to prove a high point in Brownjohn's career. In 1968 he designed the sleeve for the Rolling Stones' album Let It Bleed, an unhappy experience that he illustrated by featuring a smashed wedding cake on the back cover. By this time, heavy drinking and drug use had taken over at the expense of output. He broke up with Byrne the following year, and soon he was living alone in a basement bedsit. But once, as his friend and fellow designer Alan Fletcher remembers, "Bj was the right man, in the right job, in the right place."
Academy Award nominated director Rob Marshall (Memoirs of a Geisha, Chicago) and The Weinstein Company are joining forces to bring the classic Broadway show Nine to the big screen. This marks the first time that Rob Marshall and Harvey Weinstein have collaborated since reviving the Hollywood musical with Chicago, winner of six Academy Awards, including Best Picture. Nine will be directed by Rob Marshall with music and lyrics by Maury Yeston, composer and lyricist for the original 1982 Broadway production that won the Tony Award for Best Musical, and was written by Arthur Kopit. Marshall and John DeLuca (Memoirs of a Geisha, Chicago) will choreograph. A writer will be announced shortly. The joint announcement was made today by Rob Marshall and Bob and Harvey Weinstein, co-chairmen of The Weinstein Company.
LUCAMAR Productions partners DeLuca and Marshall will be on board as part of the producing team. The Weinstein Company acquired the rights to produce Nine from Arthur Kopit and Maury Yeston who will each serve as co-executive producer.
Nine was initially adapted by Mario Fratti with the book written for the stage by Arthur Kopit. Throughout its successful runs on Broadway, Nine has attracted such legendary talent as Raúl Juliá, Antonio Banderas, Chita Rivera and Liliane Montevecchi.
"Inspired by Fellini's personal, painful, and beautiful film '8 1/2,'" Marshall said, "'Nine' is a sumptuous and emotional work that translates naturally to the film musical genre because of its seamless relationship between fantasy and reality." He added, "Finding another musical to bring to the screen has been quite a journey and I am thrilled that it's 'Nine.' Harvey and I are looking forward to working together again, and I am excited to be taking on this challenging and provocative piece."
Harvey Weinstein stated, "Rob and I have been looking for another musical to make together ever since 'Chicago' and I nearly fell over with excitement when he first suggested 'Nine.' It's a brilliant and timeless masterpiece, and no one can stage sexier or more dynamic numbers than Rob Marshall. Teaming up with him and the tremendous cast he's putting together, will be something we've never experienced before. After the truly sensational job he did with 'Chicago,' I cannot think of a better filmmaker to bring this daring story to the big screen."
Nine is a sultry and enchanting musical that follows the life of world famous film director Guido Contini as he prepares his latest picture and balances the numerous women in his life including his wife, a producer, a mistress, a film star, and his deceased mother. The original 1982 Broadway production of Nine, nominated for twelve Tony Awards and winning five, including Best Musical, was directed by Tommy Tune, choreographed by Thommie Walsh, starred Raúl Juliá with music and lyrics by Maury Yeston and book by Arthur Kopit. In 2003, the Broadway revival of Nine, starring Antonio Banderas, received eight Tony Award nominations and won two, including Best Revival of a Musical.
The film will feature an impressive cast up to now:
Actor Michael Madsen, who played Falco in the 2002 James Bond film "Die Another Day" with Pierce Brosnan, spoke to Empire magazine about meeting a previous incarnation of 007 - Geroge Lazenby.
Empire: Who is the best james bond?
Madsen: Sean Connery, of course. I met Lazenby once. It was really bizarre. I was in an airport on the way to do Die Another Day and this old guy walks up and goes, "Hey, Michael, how are you doing?" Shakes my hand. "Love your work". I'm like, "thanks very much." He stood there staring at me. I felt very embarrassed because I thought "this guy knows me and I don't know him". Five seconds later,it was like "Holy shit! You're George Lazenby." And he was like, "YES I AM!". I said "Wow, I'm on my way to do a Bond film right now!" He goes "Put a word in for me, woudya? I think I should be a bond villain - don't you think I'd be a great villain?". I said "I'll mention it to Barbra (Broccoli)".
Joanna Eberhart (Katharine Ross) is a young wife who moves with her husband Walter (Peter Masterson) and two children from New York City to the idyllic Connecticut suburb of Stepford. Loneliness quickly sets in as Joanna, a mildly rebellious aspiring photographer, finds the women in town obsessed with housework and looking great, but with few intellectual interests. The men all belong to the clubbish Stepford Men's Association, which Walter joins to Joanna's dismay. Witnessing neighbor Carol Van Sant's (Nanette Newman) sexually submissive behavior to her husband Ted, as well as her odd, repetitive behavior after a car accident also strike Joanna as unusual. Things start to look up when she makes friends with another newcomer to town, irrepressible Bobbie Markowe (Paula Prentiss). Along with glossy trophy wife Charmaine Wimperis (Tina Louise), they organize a women's liberation consciousness raising session, but the meeting is a failure when the other wives hijack the meeting with cleaning concerns. Joanna is also unimpressed by the boorish Men's Club members, including intimidating president Dale "Diz" Coba (Patrick O'Neal), who stealthily collect information on Joanna including her picture, her voice, and other personal details. When Charmaine turns overnight from a languid, self-concerned tennis fan into an industrious, devoted wife, Joanna and Bobbie start investigating, with ever-increasing concern, the reason behind the submissive and bland behavior of the other wives, especially when they learn they were once quite supportive of liberal social policies. Spooked, Bobbie and Joanna start househunting in other towns, and later, Joanna wins a prestigious contract with a photo gallery with some photographs of their respective children. When she excitedly tells Bobbie her good news, Joanna is shocked to find her freewheeling and liberal friend has abruptly changed into another clean, presumably conservative housewife, with no intention to move from town. Joanna panics and at the insistence of Walter, visits a psychiatrist who recommends she leave town until she feels safe. When Joanna returns home, the children are missing; Joanna and Walter get in to a physical scuffle. In an attempt to find her children, she hypothesizes Bobbie may be caring for them. When a desperate Joanna stabs Bobbie with a kitchen knife, Bobbie doesn't bleed or suffer, but instead goes into a loop of odd mechanical behaviour, thus revealing herself to be a robot. Feeling she might be the next victim, Joanna sneaks into the mansion which houses the Men's Association to find her children, but chances upon the mastermind of the whole operation, Dale "Diz" Coba, and eventually her own robot-duplicate. It is then suggested that the Johanna-duplicate strangles the real Johanna; in the final scene, the duplicate is seen placidly purchasing groceries at the local supermarket, along with the other "wives." The film was shot in a variety of towns in Western Connecticut, primarily in Westport and Fairfield. Tension developed between director Forbes and screenwriter Goldman over the casting of Nanette Newman (Forbes's wife) as one of the wives. Goldman had wanted the wives to be depicted as model-like women who dressed provocatively. But after casting Newman this was not to be, as Goldman stated he felt that Newman's physical appearance did not match the type of woman he imagined, and as a result this caused a change in appearance in costuming for all of the other wives. Goldman has said that he found Newman to be a perfectly good actress, however. Goldman was also unhappy with some rewrites that Forbes contributed. In particular, Forbes toned down Goldman's "horrorific" ending. Actor Masterson, who was friends with Goldman, would secretly call Goldman for his input on scenes creating additional stresses. Forbes purposefully chose white and bright colors for the setting of the film, attempting to make a "thriller in sunlight". With the exception of the stormy night finale, the film is almost oversaturated with bright light and cheery settings. All the locations were actual places; no sets were built for the film. The film's tone is reminiscent of Levin's earlier work Rosemary's Baby, where it is unclear whether or not the film's protagonist is truly threatened or merely paranoid; in both cases, the films make the threat more concrete.
The Comedy of Terrors (1964) is a American International Pictures comedy horror film directed by Jacques Tourneur and starring Vincent Price, Peter Lorre, Basil Rathbone, Boris Karloff, and Joe E. Brown (in his final film appearance). The film also features Orangey the cat, billed as "Rhubarb the Cat". It is a rare blend of comedy and horror, much in the vein of Universal Pictures's 1948 classic Abbott and Costello Meet Frankenstein.
Set sometime in the Victorian era (in New England), the film tells of drunkard Trumbull (Vincent Price), an unscrupulous undertaker who murders people in their own homes in order to keep himself in business and to have enough money for more drink.
One night, after one failed attempt when the widow of his victim leaves without paying his fee, Trumbull and his lowly servant Gillie (Peter Lorre) decide to murder their landlord, Mr. Black (Basil Rathbone), who is said to have bouts of death-like sleep, which Trumbull and Gillie are unaware of.
Black seemingly dies of a heart attack from being frightened by Gillie, and Trumbull places the supposedly-deceased Black in his family crypt and returns home to celebrate his new-found wealth. However, Black awakes and returns to the funeral parlour, quoting random lines from Shakespeare's Macbeth, which he was reciting from a script at the time of his heart attack. Humorous events follow as Black chases Trumbull and Gillie around the parlour before (finally) being killed after a lengthy monologue.
Gillie elopes with Trumbull's abused wife, who he has taken a shining for, and Trumbull is left a depressed heap on the floor. His father-in-law (Boris Karloff) appears after only a few short appearances throughout the film, and gives Trumbull some "medicine" that Trumbull was attempting to feed his father-in-law throughout the film. But the "medicine" turns out to be poison, and Trumbull drops dead by Black's side.
Many Ettore Scola's fans do not even know the existence of this gem is beyond me."La Piu' Bella Serata Della Mia Vita" has everything a movie buff demands: -A first-class screenplay,where ,at every minute,you can expect the unexpected.
-An incredibly extraordinary cast:think of it! Alberto Sordi,one of the luminaries of the brilliant Italian cinema,pit against the creme de la creme of French veterans :Pierre Brasseur,Charles Vanel and ,last but not least ,Michel Simon!A dream of a cast and Scola directs them in a masterful way.
Like Luigi Comencini's overlooked classic "Lo Scopone Scientifico " -where again Alberto Sordi and Silvana Mangano played opposite Bette Davis and Joseph Cotten-,this film is a fable.And you have got to pay attention to comprehend all the serious heavy things the director tells us.
With Amy Winehouse long out of commission, Alicia Keys has signed on to lend her sultry, soulful pipes to the new theme song being readied for the upcoming James Bond installment, Quantum of Solace, by alt-rocker Jack White.
The male half of the White Stripes, who wrote and produced the tune, called "Another Way to Die," will also play drums. The film's soundtrack is due out Oct. 28, while the movie itself, the second 007 flick featuring hunky blond Bond Daniel Craig, hits theaters Nov. 7.
White and Keys' collaboration marks the first time a duo have tackled the Bond song, which hopefully will be more "Thunderball" (Tom Jones = suave and sophisticated) than "Die Another Day" (Madonna = Pierce Brosnan getting his ass kicked in a Korean prison).
The tradition of having a specialized theme harkens back to English cabaret star Matt Monro's treatment of the title song from 1963's From Russia With Love.
Hitmakers who have lent their vocals for the use of her majesty's secret service over the years include Paul McCartney and Wings ("Live and Let Die"), Carly Simon ("Nobody Does It Better" originated on The Spy Who Loved Me soundtrack), Sheena Easton ("For Your Eyes Only"), a-ha (the purveyors of "The Living Daylights" as well as '80s favorite "Take on Me"), Duran Duran ("A View to a Kill"), Gladys Knight ("License to Kill"), Tina Turner ("GoldenEye"), Garbage ("The World Is Not Enough") and, most recently, Chris Cornell, who crooned "You Know My Name" for Casino Royale.
U.K. pop stars Leona Lewis and Duffy were also rumored to be in contention for Quantum of Solace honors before the job was handed over to White and Keys, who are sure to add a certain "that sounds like a marimba!" je ne sais quoi to the 22nd Bond adventure.
Anatomy of a Murder is an American 1959 trial court drama film directed by Otto Preminger and written by Wendell Mayes based on the best-selling novel of the same name written by Michigan Supreme Court Justice John D. Voelker under the pen name Robert Traver. Traver based the novel on a 1952 murder case in which he was the defense attorney. The picture stars Jimmy Stewart, George C. Scott, Lee Remick, Ben Gazzara, Arthur O'Connell, Eve Arden, Kathryn Grant, Orson Bean, and Murray Hamilton. The movie, inspired by a 1952 Big Bay Lumberjack Tavern murder trial in Michigan's Upper Peninsula, was adapted by Wendell Mayes from the novel by Robert Traver (pen name of John D. Voelker, a Michigan Supreme Court judge from 1957-1959). It was filmed in Big Bay, Marquette, Ishpeming, and Michigamme, Michigan. Some scenes were actually filmed in the Thunder Bay Inn in Big Bay, Michigan, one block from the Lumberjack Tavern, the site of a murder that had inspired much of the novel. The murder occurred at Big Bay Point Light. The movie was directed by Otto Preminger, and was noted for featuring unusually frank dialogue for 1959. It was among the first Hollywood films to challenge the Production Code, along with Billy Wilder's Some Like It Hot (1959) and Alfred Hitchcock's Psycho (1960). The role of the judge was offered to both Spencer Tracy and Burl Ives, but ultimately went to Joseph Welch, a real-life lawyer who had made a name for himself when representing the United States Army in hearings conducted by Senator Joseph McCarthy. It was Welch who famously asked of McCarthy, "Have you no sense of decency, sir? At long last, have you left no sense of decency?"
In my case, self-absorption is completely justified. I have never discovered any other subject quite so worthy of my attention.
(Waldo Lydecker - Laura 1944)
