MerryXmas & HappyNewYear!

Elis Regina

In Memoriam : Blake Edwards ( 1922-2010 )

The Prisoner

The Prisoner is a 17-episode British television series first broadcast in the UK from 29 September 1967 to 1 February 1968. Starring and co-created by Patrick McGoohan, it combined spy fiction with elements of science fiction, allegory, and psychological drama.

The series follows a British former secret agent who is held prisoner in a mysterious seaside village where his captors try to find out why he abruptly resigned from his job. Although sold as a thriller in the mould of McGoohan's previous series, Danger Man (called Secret Agent in its U.S. release), the show's combination of 1960s countercultural themes and surreal setting had a far-reaching effect on science fiction/fantasy programming, and on popular culture in general.

The show was co-created by Patrick McGoohan and George Markstein. Markstein, script editor of Danger Man, remembered that during World War II some people were incarcerated in a resort-like prison. A documented situation with some similarities was Operation Epsilon: German atomic scientists were detained post-war in relatively comfortable isolation in a mansion in England, while their conversations were recorded. Markstein suggested that the Danger Man lead, John Drake, could suddenly resign, and be kidnapped and sent to such a location. Markstein subsequently wrote a novel, The Cooler, in 1974 about such a prison for spies who had suffered mental breakdowns.

This idea was mirrored in an episode of Danger Man called "Colony Three" in which Drake infiltrates a spy school in Eastern Europe during the Cold War. The school, in the middle of nowhere, is set up to look like a normal English town in which pupils and instructors mix as in any other normal city, but the instructors are virtual prisoners with little hope of ever leaving.

McGoohan grafted Markstein's suggestion on to material he had been developing since working on the original version of Danger Man in 1960. An episode, set partly in Italy, simulated that locale by shooting at a Welsh resort. The architecturally distinctive appearance of the place struck McGoohan, who felt that something should be done with the place, something significant, surreal, and allegorical. He spent his spare time during the next several years working up a format. Shortly after the filming of the fourth series of Danger Man in colour had begun, McGoohan told Lew Grade of ITC Entertainment that he intended to quit. Grade asked McGoohan if he would work on anything else for him, so McGoohan pitched the series, which Grade agreed to in a handshake deal.

Grade bought the show and it was produced for broadcast on ITV and overseas. McGoohan wrote a forty-page show Bible, and wrote and directed several episodes, often under pseudonyms. The exteriors for the series were filmed primarily on the grounds of the Hotel Portmeirion in Penrhyndeudraeth, North Wales, which was the resort used in Danger Man that had partially inspired the program.

At the request of Portmeirion's designer Sir Clough Williams-Ellis, the location of the series was not disclosed until the credits at the end of the last episode.

There is debate as to whether the series ended by mutual agreement or cancellation.

The opening and closing sequences of The Prisoner have become iconic. Cited as "one of the great set-ups of genre drama", the opening sequence establishes the Orwellian and postmodern themes of the series; its high production values have led the opening sequence to be described as more like film than television.

The series follows an unnamed British agent who abruptly resigns his job, and then finds himself held captive in a mysterious seaside "village" that is isolated from the mainland by mountains and sea. The Village is further secured by numerous monitoring systems and security forces, including a mysterious device called Rover that captures those who attempt escape.

The agent encounters the Village's population, hundreds of people from all walks of life and cultures, all seeming to be tranquilly living out their lives. As they do not use names, they have each been assigned a number. The agent is told by the Village's chief administrator "Number Two", that he is "Number Six", and they are seeking "information" as to why he resigned; the task of doing this is carried out by the ever-changing "Number Two", acting as supposed proxy to the unseen "Number One". As the series unfolds, the audience learns that the Village authorities have other interests in Number Six aside from the knowledge he possesses: interests that often spare Number Six from the more destructive information-gathering techniques employed by the Village authorities upon other inmates.

Number Six, distrusting of anyone involved with the Village, refuses to co-operate or provide answers. Alone, he struggles with multiple goals: determine for which side the Village works, remain defiant to its imposed authority, concoct his own plans for escape, learn all he can about the Village and subvert its operation. Some of his schemes, while not resulting in an escape, do lead to the dismissal of an incumbent Number Two on two occasions. By the end of the series the administration, becoming desperate for Number Six's knowledge and fearful of his growing influence in the Village, take drastic measures that threaten the lives of Number Six, Number Two, and the rest of the Village.

The series features striking and often surreal storylines, and themes include hypnosis, hallucinogenic drug experiences, identity theft, mind control, dream manipulation, and various forms of social indoctrination. A major theme of the show is individualism versus collectivism.

Kevin Spacey impersonations - again!

HappyBirthday!

Invasion of the Body Snatchers (1956/1978)

Invasion of the Body Snatchers are a 1956 and a 1978 science fiction films based on the novel The Body Snatchers by Jack Finney (originally serialized in Colliers Magazine in 1954).

The 1956 version starred Kevin McCarthy, Dana Wynter, King Donovan, and Carolyn Jones. The screenplay was adapted from Finney's novel by Daniel Mainwaring, along with an uncredited Richard Collins, and was directed by Don Siegel. The film is the first and most critically acclaimed of the novel's four film adaptations to date.

In 1994, it was selected for preservation in the United States National Film Registry by the Library of Congress as being "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant". In June 2008, the American Film Institute revealed its "Ten top Ten" — the best ten films in ten "classic" American film genres — after polling over 1,500 people from the creative community. Invasion of the Body Snatchers was acknowledged as the ninth best film in the science fiction genre. The film also placed number 47 on AFI's 100 Years... 100 Thrills, a list of America's most heart-pounding films.

The 1978 remake starred Donald Sutherland, Brooke Adams, Jeff Goldblum, Veronica Cartwright, Leonard Nimoy and Art Hindle. It was adapted by W. D. Richter and directed by Philip Kaufman. Unlike many remakes, it met a generally favorable critical response and performed very well at the box office. The original music score is composed by Denny Zeitlin.

There are a number of cameo appearances in the film; the star of the original film, Kevin McCarthy, appears briefly as a man on the street frantically screaming about aliens ("They're here!"), in a shot reminiscent of one of the final shots of the original. The original's director, Don Siegel, appears as a devious-looking taxicab driver who drives Matthew and Elizabeth from the city.

Robert Duvall is also seen briefly as a silent priest on a swing set in the opening scene, and Grateful Dead guitarist Jerry Garcia plays banjo on the soundtrack. Director Philip Kaufman appears in dual roles both as a man wearing a hat who bothers Sutherland's character in a phone booth, and the voice of one of the officials Sutherland's character speaks to on the phone. His wife, Rose Kaufman, is credited as the woman who argues with Jeff Goldblum's character at the book party; several of the people at the party were writer friends of Kaufman. Cinematographer Michael Chapman appears twice as a janitor in the health department; he appears when Elizabeth breaks down in Matthew's arms, ominously waxing the floor, and later leaning against the wall when the couple sneaks back into the building.

• Both films are set in California.
• The 1956 film depicts Becky as the ex-girlfriend of Miles. The 1978 film portrays the relationship of Matthew and Elizabeth as nothing more than friends (and colleagues, since they both work at the health department) until love occurs in the latter part of the plot.
• Both films depict Jack Bellicec being duplicated early on with the partially-formed duplicate being discovered by the Bellicecs. The line, "It has no details, no character ... it's unformed" delivered by Jack in the remake is similar to the line spoken by Dr. Miles Bennell in the original. In both movies it is pointed out that the developing pod replacement has no fingerprints.
• Both films have the police department playing a prominent role in spreading the invasion and preventing humans from escaping.
• In the 1978 version, Elizabeth Driscoll is startled by the mantel clock chiming in her apartment as she watches the pod duplicate of her boyfriend Geoffrey taking a trash can filled with the decayed remains of his original body out to the trash truck. In the 1956 original, Becky Driscoll is startled by the cuckoo clock in the Bellicec's house as she watches her boyfriend Miles examining the developing pod duplicate of Jack Bellicec on Jack's pool table.
• In the first and second films a duplicated Jack and the duplicated psychiatrist corner the couple in the office. The 1956 version has Dan Kaufman speaking the line, "It would have been so much easier if you'd gone to sleep last night." In the remake the line is given to Jack who says, "It would have been so much easier if we'd just gone to sleep last night." In the original Miles uses syringes filled with poison to kill the treacherous duo (Jack Bellicec and Dan Kaufman). In the 1978 film hypodermics were also used in the office setting, only this time the syringes are filled with a mild sedative and administered to Matthew and Elizabeth by the psychiatrist. In this version, Jack's double is killed when Matthew jabs a dart into the base of his skull and Kibner is locked in the lab's freezer. In each film Jack and the psychiatrist are dispatched and the couple flees.
• In the first film the leading man, Miles Bennell, is a small town doctor. In the second, Matthew Bennell is a big city health inspector.
• In the original film, Jack Bellicec is a moderately successful writer who lives with his wife, Teddy, in a fashionable bungalow. The 1978 film depicts Bellicec as a frustrated, hapless writer who owns a mud bath spa with his wife, Nancy.

• In the original, all four of the remaining human characters watch in horror as their four duplicates are developing from "hatching" pods in Miles' greenhouse. In the remake, Matthew sees Elizabeth's double taking shape in Geoffrey's greenhouse garden. The setting of the four duplicates developing simultaneously from hatching pods (more graphic in the 1978 version) is changed to Matthew's rooftop garden. In the first movie Miles destroys his duplicate with a pitchfork to the chest. In the second, Matthew destroys his with a garden hoe to the head.
• In the original, the underscoring features a very sharp and prominent brass section. In the remake, the opening theme music and some of the underscoring also features a prominent brass section.
• In the original, Miles leaves Becky behind in an abandoned mine to investigate the source of music coming from over the hills. Both hope the music emanates from genuine humans. Miles discovers a huge greenhouse complex growing thousands of pods instead. The music had come from a radio, which is switched off. He returns and discovers that Becky has fallen asleep and been transformed into a pod duplicate. In the 1978 film, Matthew and Elizabeth discover a huge pod-growing facility together. After fleeing the factory, Matthew leaves Elizabeth behind in a field to investigate a seaship piping out a bagpipe version of Amazing Grace over its loudspeaker, which is also turned off shortly thereafter. To his dismay, large pallets of pods are being loaded into the ship's hold. Matthew returns, alarmed to see that Elizabeth has fallen asleep. He embraces her but she disintegrates in his embrace. Elizabeth's soulless double rises (naked, which is actually logical) and betrays Matthew as does the duplicated Becky to Miles in the original film.
• In the original movie, the psychiatrist's name is Danny Kaufman; in the remake it's David Kibner.
• The 1956 movie has Miles and Becky taking refuge in Miles' doctor's office. The 1978 version has Matthew and Elizabeth taking refuge in the Health Department office where both work. In both films a night watchman enters the office shining a flashlight and leaves without discovering the couple. Both films also have the couple taking pills to keep them awake. Miles and Becky in the original, as well as Matthew and Elizabeth in the remake, share a kiss as they're hiding out. In both movies, the couples look out the office window to discover a large crowd of duplicates carrying unhatched pods bound for surrounding towns and cities in order to spread the invasion.
• The first film has Becky alerting the pods to hers and Miles' humanity when she screams in reaction to a dog almost being hit by a truck. In the second, Elizabeth similarly alerts the pod people when she screams in reaction to seeing a pod duplicate with a dog's body and a human's face. This "creature" was formed from a combination of the banjo playing hobo and his dog, when Matthew kicks the pod growing next to them and obviously damages the duplication process to accidentally duplicate both the dog and the man into one creature.
• The scene in which Matthew, Elizabeth, Jack, and Nancy are fleeing a mob of pod people down several flights of stairs is reminiscent of the scene in the first movie in which Miles and Becky are fleeing a similar mob up a long outdoor stairway.
• In the original, Miles remains himself long enough to warn humanity of the pod people and is still himself at the film's end. In the remake, Matthew is subsumed by the end of the film and has not warned humanity.

The 1978 film is seen as a satire on the "Me Decade", with the psychiatrist, Dr. David Kibner (Leonard Nimoy), a character who is a popular self-help guru who dismisses the other characters' fears until he is uncovered as a duplicate himself.

In the original, the aliens are never seen in their pre-human-like form. We only see the emotionless human doubles. In the opening scene of the remake we see the aliens in their pre-invasion form struggling to survive on their dying home planet. They appear to be cunning survivors though they are formless gelatinous creatures who can escape the gravity of their doomed homeworld at will to drift along to a more habitable environment.

The first film never shows us what happens to the original human bodies after duplication. In the second, there are several scenes in which we see greyish debris dangling from the back ends of trash trucks which kicks up grey dust when compacted.

The 1978 remake not only reflects the zeitgeist of the 70's with its moody paranoia, but also contrasts itself with its 50's counterpart by its more graphic portrayal of Jack Bellicec's partly developed double, as well as its portrayal of the hatching pods in Matthew's rooftop garden. Feminist sensibilities are also in evidence in the second film. In the original, Becky Driscoll did not appear to have a job or career. In the remake, Elizabeth Driscoll is a nine-to-five lab worker at the San Francisco Department of Health. In a similar vein, Jack's wife Teddy was a housewife in the first film. In the second, Jack's wife Nancy is a co-owner of their mud bath emporium and works with the clients.

In the original, any pod duplicate who sensed the presence of a non-duplicated human would alert its fellow pods by simply pointing toward the humans and then running after them with seemingly emotionless facial expression. However, in the remake, they are portrayed with more of an other-worldly sense in this regard; whenever a pod sensed a human being's presence, it would alert other pods by opening its mouth and emitting a piercing, alien-like, shrill scream, which resonates for great distances and can warn pods from hundreds of yards away that there is a human presence.

As Siegel originally intended with the first film, Kaufman's version seems to preclude any optimistic or hopeful ending by the twist ending in the film's final seconds.

waiting for the new one - gunbarrels

There's still no official word. But voices from 007 insiders are saying that production should start on the next James Bond movie -- "Bond 23" -- towards the end of next year for release November 2012. Makes sense since MGM's future is now sorting itself out what with the pre-packaged bankruptcy getting approval, and Spyglass taking over studio filmmaking, and star Daniel Craig finishing his film commitments. The actor began work on the Hollywood remake of the Swedish original The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo as soon as he completed shooting Cowboys and Aliens in a nifty bit of schedule coordination between two studios and James Bond rights holders Barbara Broccoli and Michael Wilson.

Happy Birthday!

Marilyn Monroe & Jane Russell - Gentlemen Prefer Blondes (1953) - When Love Goes Wrong

The Devil-Doll (1936)

The Devil-Doll (1936) is a horror film directed by Tod Browning and starring a cross-dressing Lionel Barrymore and Maureen O'Sullivan as his daughter, Lorraine Levond. The movie was adapted from the novel Burn Witch Burn! (1936) by Abraham Merritt.

By the time The Devil-Doll was released in 1936 Tod Browning's career was all but dead due to the backlash stemming from his now cult classic Freaks. Though Browning attempted to get his career back on track it never came to be and The Devil-Doll was sadly his 2nd to last movie; after this Browning would make one more movie in 1939 titled Miracles for Sale.

The plot tells the story of Paul Lavond (Lionel Barrymore), wrongly convicted of robbing his own Paris bank and killing a night watchman more than seventeen years ago, who escapes Devil's Island with Marcel (Henry B. Walthall) a scientist who is trying to create a formula to reduce people to one-sixth of their original size. The intended purpose of the formula is to make the Earth's limited resources—clean water, food, energy, etc.—last longer for an ever-growing population. The scientist dies after their escape. Paul Lavond joins the scientist's widow, Malita (Rafaela Ottiano), and uses the shrinking technique to obtain revenge on the three former business associates who had framed him and to vindicate himself. Lavond clears his name and secures the future happiness of his estranged daughter, Lorraine, (Maureen O'Sullivan) in the process. Malita isn't satisfied, and wants to continue to use the formula for personal gain. She tries to kill Paul when he announces that he is finshed with their partnership, having accomplished all he intended, but she ends up blowing up their lab and killing herself. To save his daughter from scandal, Paul tells Toto, Lorraine's fiancee, about what happened. He meets his daughter, pretending to be the deceased Marcel. He tells Lorraine that Paul Lavond died during their escape from prison, but that he loved her very much. Lavond then departs, planning to leave France forever.

The screenplay by Garrett Fort, Guy Endore & Erich von Stroheim was excellent; while the villains aren't all that developed, their script is very well written with plenty of laughs and surprisingly some touching dramatic moments. The Devil-Doll may not have the greatest script, but it's always well written and highly entertaining.

Director Tod Browning once again delivers a classic of the genre; while there aren't many horror moments his scenes are well paced with some really funny moments and he handles the dramatic scenes brilliantly. The Devil-Doll is truly one of a kind and too bad Tod Browning never was able to get his career back on track. His loss was a great loss for the horror genre and one can only wonder what classics he would have brought to us.

Even with Browning's direction, what makes this movie so great is the performance by Lionel Barrymore. Once he gets to France to get his revenge he takes a disguise as the people he's after have offered money for his capture, so his disguise is of that of a kind old lady. Seeing Barrymore dressed up as an old lady was hysterical and Barrymore plays up to the camp value and its quite clear he was having a lot of fun in the role. But he also delivers a very emotional performance that was simply brilliant.

Paul's daughter Lorraine played by Maureen O'Sullivan doesn't know her father was set up and she hates him and blames him for the problems that have come upon her family. There's some really great scenes with Paul dressed as an old lady trying to talk with Lorraine. That subplot plays a pretty big part, but than is dropped for a while before a very touching scene at the end between Paul and Lorraine, which has to rate as one of the all time greatest scenes in horror or any genre for that matter.

The Devil-Doll featured a lot of special F/X and honestly even today they still look rather good despite the age of the movie.

The immortal life of Henrietta Lacks

Her name was Henrietta Lacks, but scientists know her as HeLa. She was a poor Southern tobacco farmer who worked the same land as her slave ancestors, yet her cells—taken without her knowledge—became one of the most important tools in medicine.

Henrietta Pleasant married her first cousin, David "Day" Lacks (1915–2002), in Halifax County, Virginia. David had already been living with Henrietta's grandfather when she moved there at age 4. Their marriage in 1941, after their first two children were born, (the first when Henrietta was just 14) surprised many in the family as they had been raised like brother and sister. After convincing David to go north to search for work, Henrietta followed in 1943, bringing their children with her. David found work at the Sparrow's Point shipyards and found a house for them on New Pittsburgh Avenue in Turners Station, now a part of Dundalk, Baltimore County, Maryland. This community was one of the largest and one of the youngest of the approximately forty historically African American communities in Baltimore County.

The couple had five children together: Lawrence (b. 1935), Elsie (b. 1939), David "Sonny" Jr. (b. 1947), Deborah (b. 1949), and Joseph (b. 1950, changed name to Zakariyya Bari Abdul Rahman). Joseph Lacks, Henrietta's last child, was born at Johns Hopkins Hospital in November 1950, just four and a half months before Henrietta was diagnosed with cancer. Elsie was described by the family as "different", "deaf and dumb" and eventually died in the Crownsville State Hospital in 1955. Years later the family learned Elsie had been abused there and may have had holes drilled in her head during experiments. Elsie had been placed there about 1950, the same timeframe Henrietta discovered she had lumps and unusual bleeding.

On February 1, 1951, just days after a march for a cure for polio in New York City, (according to Michael A. Rogers of Rolling Stone and Rebecca Skloot), Lacks visited Johns Hopkins because of a painful "knot" in her cervix and a bloody vaginal discharge. Once she got the biopsy back, she found she was diagnosed with cervical cancer, and the appearance of the tumor was unlike anything that had ever been seen by the examining gynecologist Dr. Howard Jones who, with his wife Georgeanna, would go on to found the Jones Institute for Reproductive Medicine at Norfolk, Virginia's Eastern Virginia Medical School.

Prior to receiving treatment for the tumor, cells from the carcinoma were removed for research purposes without her knowledge or permission, which was standard procedure at that time. During her second visit eight days later, Dr. George Otto Gey obtained another sample of her tumor; these cells would eventually become the HeLa immortal cell line, a commonly used cell line in biomedical research. Lacks was treated with radium tube inserts, sewn in place, a common treatment for these types of cancers in 1951. After several days in place, the tubes were removed and she was released from Johns Hopkins with instructions to return for X-ray treatments as a follow up. Lacks returned for the X-ray treatments. However, her condition worsened and the Hopkins doctors treated her with antibiotics, thinking that her problem might be complicated by an underlying venereal disease (she had neurosyphilis and presented with acute gonorrhea at one point as well). In significant pain and without improvement, Lacks returned to Hopkins demanding to be admitted on August 8 and remained until her death. Though she received treatment and blood transfusions, she died of uremic poisoning on October 4, 1951 at the age of thirty-one. A subsequent partial autopsy showed that the cancer had metastasized throughout her body. Mrs. Lacks was buried without a tombstone in a family cemetery in Lackstown. Her exact burial location is not known, although the family believes it is within feet of her mother's gravesite.

Lackstown is located in the town of Clover in Halifax County, Virginia. Lackstown is the name of the land that has been held by the (black) Lacks family since they received it from the (white) Lacks family, who had owned the ancestors of the black Lackses when slavery was legal. Many of the black Lacks family were also descendents from the white Lacks family. A row of boxwoods separates the graves of white ancestors from those of the black ancestors. The family name "Lacks" had originally been "Lax", but the spelling was later changed. For decades, Henrietta Lacks' mother has had the only tombstone of the five graves in the family cemetery in Lackstown.

So the first “immortal” human cells grown in culture, they are still alive today, though she has been dead for more than sixty years. If you could pile all HeLa cells ever grown onto a scale, they’d weigh more than 50 million metric tons—as much as a hundred Empire State Buildings. HeLa cells were vital for developing the polio vaccine; uncovered secrets of cancer, viruses, and the effects of the atom bomb; helped lead to important advances like in vitro fertilization, cloning, and gene mapping; and have been bought and sold by the billions.

Yet Henrietta Lacks remains virtually unknown, buried in an unmarked grave.

Henrietta’s family did not learn of her “immortality” until more than twenty years after her death, when scientists investigating HeLa began using her husband and children in research without informed consent. And though the cells had launched a multimillion-dollar industry that sells human biological materials, her family never saw any of the profits. As Rebecca Skloot so brilliantly shows in her book The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks, the story of the Lacks family—past and present—is inextricably connected to the dark history of experimentation on African Americans, the birth of bioethics, and the legal battles over whether we control the stuff we are made of.

Rumors on Bond 23

According to today's newspaper reports, English actor Russell Beale is being considered for a sizable role in the 23rd James Bond film.

Beale is currently performing in "Deathtrap" at the Noël Coward theatre in London, and recently appeared as the Home Secretary in the latest season of BBC telvision's MI5 thriller series "Spooks".

Beale and Mendes are planning to work together in a high-profile production of "King Lear" in 2012 at the National Theatre.

Kate Winslet revealed in the Daily Mail today that Sam Mendes and James Bond producer Barbara Broccoli have already had many meetings over casting, and Ms Broccoli has visited the play "Deathtrap" twice to see Simon Russell Beale perform. The leading actor is an old friend of Sam’s and they’re "keen to work together again".

Back in January, Beale admitted that he yearned for a part in the next Bond movie: "Every actor wants to be in Bond. I'd love to be a baddie. I saw Sam just before Christmas and dropped a hint – and he just looked wearily at me."

The duo first worked together during Mendes's stint at the Donmar, which he transformed into a space in which the biggest box-office stars clamoured to appear. Mendes cast Russell Beale in his twin farewell productions when he finally left the theatre in 2002, as Uncle Vanya, and as Malvolio in Twelfth Night. He cast him again in two productions last year, as part of his Bridge project linking shows at the Brooklyn Academy and the Old Vic: as Leontes in The Winter's Tale, and Lophakhin in The Cherry Orchard. Both productions won a string of awards for actor and director on both sides of the Atlantic.

Creative for a good cause - London

from TheCoolHunter:

Creative duo Kirsten Rutherford and Lisa Jelliffe from London’s Brothers & Sisters agency drew our attention to their current poster installation “Making the invisible visible” that hit the streets of London this past weekend.

It is a collaboration with the Berlin-based, three-person photographic street art collective Mentalgassi in support of Amnesty International.

The London poster campaign is specifically in support of Troy Davis, a man described as having “been on death row for 19 years in the USA, despite serious doubts about his conviction.”

The posters, depicting a close-up Davis’s face, are mounted on fence railings that disguise the posters so that the face behind the bars is revealed only when viewed from an angle. View the video.

The three posters are located at 4-7 Great Pulteney St, 21 Great Pulteney Street, and 5 Berners St (all W1).