Film (1964)

Film is a film written by Samuel Beckett, his only screenplay. It was commissioned by Barney Rosset of Grove Press. Writing began on 5 April 1963 with a first draft completed within four days. A second draft was produced by 22 May and a forty-leaf shooting script followed thereafter. It was filmed in New York in July 1964.

Beckett’s original choice for the lead – referred to only as “O” – was Charlie Chaplin, but his script never reached him.The director Alan Schneider was interested in Zero Mostel but he was unavailable. Beckett was “enthusiastically in favour” of Jack MacGowran as a replacement but he also became unavailable. James Karen, who was to have a small part in the film, talked constantly about the 68 year old Buster Keaton and persuaded Schneider to consider him when MacGowran’s circumstances changed. Schneider credits Beckett himself with the suggestion however.

The filmed version differs from Beckett's original script but with his approval since he was on set all the time, this being his only visit to the United States. The script printed in Collected Shorter Plays of Samuel Beckett (Faber and Faber, 1984) states:

“This is the original film project for Film. No attempt has been made to bring it into line with the finished work. The one considerable departure from what was imagined concerns the opening sequence in the street. This was first shot as given, then replaced by a simplified version in which only the indispensable couple is retained. For the rest the shooting script followed closely the indications in the script.”

It was remade by the British Film Institute (1979, 16 mm, 26 minutes) without Beckett’s supervision, as Film: a screenplay by Samuel Beckett. David Rayner Clark directed Max Wall.

It first appeared in print in Eh Joe and Other Writings (Faber and Faber, 1967).

More has probably been written about the making of this film than the film itself. An entire play has even been devoted to the story, The Stone Face by Canadian playwright Sherry MacDonald.

Beckett had never seen Schneider direct any of his plays and yet continued to entrust him with the work. Why then, for this particular project did he decide to make the trip? Schneider has speculated that it may simply have been the opportunity to work directly with Keaton. “It has even been suggested that the inspiration for Waiting for Godot might have come from a minor Keaton film called The Lovable Cheat in which Keaton plays a man who waits endlessly for the return of his partner - whose name interestingly enough was Godot.”

“When Schneider managed to hunt up Keaton, he found that genius of the silent screen — old, broke, ill, and alone — some $2 million ahead in a four-handed poker game with an imaginary Louis B. Mayer of MGM and two other invisible Hollywood moguls.

“‘Yes, I accept the offer,’ were silent Keaton’s unexpected first words to Schneider. Keaton was dying even as they made the film. ‘We didn’t know that,’ Rosset told interviewer Patsy Southgate in 1990, ‘but looking back at it, the signs were there. Couldn’t speak — he was not so much difficult, he just wasn’t there.’ Keaton would in fact die 18 months after the shooting of Film.”

From this one might think that Keaton jumped at the chance but this is not the case. James Karen remembers:

“He had to be talked into it by Eleanor [his wife] and I remember calling and saying, ‘You know, it could be your Les Enfants du paradis. It could be that wonderful, wonderful thing.’”

Beckett had wanted to work with Keaton several years earlier, when he offered him the role of Lucky in the American stage premiere of "Waiting for Godot," but Buster turned it down. It's said that Buster didn't understand Godot and had misgivings about this script as well. Presumably this went a long way to make him think twice about this new project.

During a meeting with documentary filmmaker, Kevin Brownlow, Beckett was quite forthcoming:

“Buster Keaton was inaccessible. He had a poker mind as well as a poker face. I doubt if he ever read the text - I don't think he approved of it or liked it. But he agreed to do it and he was very competent … Of course, I had seen his silent films and enjoyed them – don't suppose I could remember them now. He had a young woman with him – his wife, who had picked him up from his alcoholism. We met him at a hotel. I tried to engage him in conversation, but it was no good. He was absent. He didn't even offer us a drink. Not because he was being unfriendly, but because it never occurred to him.”

Scheneider’s recollection of that awkward first meeting confirms all of this and more: “They simply had nothing to say to each other, no worlds of any kind to share. And all of Sam's good will and my own flailing efforts to get something started failed to bring them together on any level. It was a disaster.”

But not entirely. Although the role called for Beckett’s seemingly ubiquitous bowler hat, Keaton had brought along some of his trademark flattened-down Stetsons and it was quickly agreed that he should wear one of those. On the Monday morning they “traipsed down in Joe Coffey's ancient Morgan to just beneath the shadow of Brooklyn Bridge and began the shooting.”

Beckett continues:

“The heat was terrible - while I was staggering in the humidity, Keaton was galloping up and down and doing whatever we asked of him. He had great endurance, he was very tough and, yes, reliable. And when you saw that face at the end - oh!’ He smiled, ‘At last’”

Both Beckett and Schneider were novices, Keaton a seasoned veteran. That said, “Keaton's behaviour on the set was … steady and cooperative … He was indefatigable if not exactly loquacious. To all intents and purposes, we were shooting a silent film, and he was in his best form. He encouraged [Schneider] to give him vocal directions during the shot, sometimes starting over again without stopping the camera if he felt he hadn't done something well the first time. (Nor did he believe much in rehearsal, preferring the spontaneity of performance.) Often when the crew was stumped over a technical problem with the camera, he came through with suggestions, inevitably prefacing his comments by explaining that he had solved such problems many times at the Keaton Studios back in 1927.”

Both Beckett and Schneider pronounced themselves more than pleased with Keaton's performance; the latter called him "magnificent."

Keaton’s negative comments about the film are often reported but this final recollection by Schneider may redress the balance: “Whatever he may have subsequently said to interviewers or reporters about not understanding a moment of what he was doing or what the film was about, what I remember best of our final farewell on the set was that he smiled and half-admitted those six pages were worth doing after all.”

The Miracle Worker (1962)

The Miracle Worker is a 1962 American biographical film directed by Arthur Penn. The screenplay by William Gibson is based on his 1959 play of the same title, which originated as a 1957 broadcast of the television anthology series Playhouse 90. Gibson's original source material was The Story of My Life, the 1902 autobiography of Helen Keller.

The plot tells the story of young Helen Keller, blind and deaf since infancy due to a severe case of scarlet fever, frustrated by her inability to communicate and subject to frequent violent and uncontrollable outbursts as a result. Unable to deal with the child, her terrified and helpless parents contact the Perkins School for the Blind for assistance. In response they send Annie Sullivan, a former student, to the Keller home to tutor the child. What ensues is a battle of wills as Annie breaks down Helen's walls of silence and darkness through persistence, love, and sheer stubbornness.

Despite the fact Anne Bancroft had won the Tony Award for Best Performance by a Leading Actress in a Play for her performance in the Broadway production, United Artists executives wanted a bigger name cast as Annie Sullivan in the film adaptation. They offered to budget the film at $5 million if Elizabeth Taylor was cast but only $500,000 if director Arthur Penn insisted on using Bancroft. Penn, who had directed the stage production, remained loyal to his star. The move paid off, and Bancroft won an Oscar for her role in the film.

For the dining room battle scene, in which Annie tries to teach Helen proper table manners, both Bancroft and Patty Duke wore padding beneath their costumes to prevent serious bruising during the intense physical skirmish. The nine-minute sequence required three cameras and took five days to film.

The film was shot at Big Sky Ranch in Simi Valley, California and Middletown, New Jersey and was remade twice for television, in 1979 with Patty Duke as Annie Sullivan and Melissa Gilbert as Helen and in 2000 with Alison Elliott and Hallie Kate Eisenberg in the lead roles.

In his review in the New York Times, Bosley Crowther observed, "The absolutely tremendous and unforgettable display of physically powerful acting that Anne Bancroft and Patty Duke put on in William Gibson's stage play The Miracle Worker is repeated by them in the film . . . But because the physical encounters between the two . . . seem to be more frequent and prolonged than they were in the play and are shown in close-ups, which dump the passion and violence right into your lap, the sheer rough-and-tumble of the drama becomes more dominant than it was on the stage . . . The bruising encounters between the two . . . are intensely significant of the drama and do excite strong emotional response. But the very intensity of them and the fact that it is hard to see the difference between the violent struggle to force the child to obey . . . and the violent struggle to make her comprehend words makes for sameness in these encounters and eventually an exhausting monotony. This is the disadvantage of so much energy. However, Miss Bancroft's performance does bring to life and reveal a wondrous woman with great humor and compassion as well as athletic skill. And little Miss Duke, in those moments when she frantically pantomimes her bewilderment and desperate groping, is both gruesome and pitiable."

Rare interview of Alfred Hitchcock discovered

Long thought to be lost or destroyed a complete recording has been found of one of the few hour long interviews of Alfred Hitchcock . Originally broadcast as one of the first Tomorrow Shows with Tom Snyder in the Fall of 1973. This recording is from a second repeat of this show broadcast on Memorial day, 1980.

The VHS (SP) tape itself was found to be in excellent condition. While properly stored in a climate controlled environment it apparently had not been played in decades. Great care has been taken to make the digital transfer.

Donald O'Connor

Donald David Dixon Ronald O’Connor (August 28, 1925 – September 27, 2003) was an American dancer, singer, and actor who came to fame in a series of movies in which he co-starred alternately with Gloria Jean, Peggy Ryan, and Francis the Talking Mule. Perhaps his most famous performance was as Gene Kelly's friend and colleague in Singin’ in the Rain (1952).

O'Connor broke into films in 1937, usually playing impetuous kids. He scored a huge personal success opposite Bing Crosby in Sing, You Sinners, and even at age 12 displayed excellent comedic timing. Paramount Pictures kept him busy in both A and B pictures, including Tom Sawyer, Detective and Beau Geste, until 1940, when the now-adolescent O'Connor had outgrown kid roles. He returned to vaudeville for more than a year.

In 1942 O'Connor joined Universal Pictures' troupe of talented teenagers. He received gradually larger roles in four of the studio's Gloria Jean musicals, and achieved stardom at 17 with Mister Big (1943), co-starring Gloria Jean and comic dancer Peggy Ryan. O'Connor and Ryan's energetic routines invited comparisons with M-G-M's pairing of Mickey Rooney and Judy Garland.

O'Connor was drafted into the armed forces in 1944. Before he reported for duty, Universal rushed him through the production of three feature films, produced simultaneously and released while the actor was overseas. Upon his return, Universal (now reorganized as Universal-International) cast him in lightweight musicals and comedies. In 1949, he was given the leading role in Francis, the whimsical story of a sad-sack soldier befriended by a talking mule. The film was a huge success, and a mixed blessing for O'Connor: the momentum of his musical career was constantly interrupted because the studio insisted on his making one "Francis" picture a year until 1955.

It was because of Francis that O'Connor missed out on a plum role: Bing Crosby's sidekick in White Christmas. O'Connor was forced to bow out when he contracted an illness transmitted by the mule. He was replaced in the film by Danny Kaye. However, his role as Cosmo the piano player in Singin' in the Rain would earn him the Golden Globe award for Best Performance by an Actor in a Comedy or Musical.

In 1954 O'Connor he appeared in There's No Business Like Show Business (1954), which featured an all-star cast, including Marilyn Monroe, Dan Dailey, Ethel Merman, Mitzi Gaynor, with whow he also appeared in Anything Goes in 1955. He attempted to shed his boy-next-door image with a more dramatic role in the 1957 biopic The Buster Keaton Story. However, as the 1950s came to a close, O'Connor came across fewer and fewer parts.

After overcoming a drinking problem in the 1970s, he had a huge career boost when he hosted the Oscars, which earned him two Primetime Emmy nominations. He appeared as a gaslight-era entertainer in the 1981 film Ragtime, notable for similar encore performances by James Cagney and Pat O'Brien. O'Connor also appeared in the short-lived Bring Back Birdie on Broadway in 1981, and continued to make film and television appearances into the 1990s. Donald O'Connor's last feature film was the Jack Lemmon-Walter Matthau comedy Out to Sea, in which he played a dance host on a cruise ship. O’Connor was still making public appearances well into 2003.

He died from congestive heart failure on September 27, 2003 at the age of 78. Among his last words, he is reported to have expressed tongue-in-cheek thanks to the Academy Award for Lifetime Achievement that he expected to win at some future date. He was cremated at the Forest Lawn - Hollywood Hills Cemetery in Los Angeles.

He was survived by his wife of over 40 years, Gloria, and four children.

The Manchurian Candidate (1962)

The Manchurian Candidate is a 1962 Cold War political thriller film starring Frank Sinatra, Laurence Harvey and Janet Leigh and Angela Lansbury and featuring Henry Silva, James Gregory, Leslie Parrish and John McGiver. It was directed by John Frankenheimer from an adaption by George Axelrod of Richard Condon's 1959 novel.

The central concept of the film is that the son of a prominent, right-wing political family has been brainwashed as an unwitting assassin for an international Communist conspiracy. The Manchurian Candidate was nationally released on Wednesday, October 24, 1962, at the height of the Cuban Missile Crisis.

During the Korean War, the Soviets capture an American platoon and take them to the region of Manchuria in Communist China. There, communists implant false memories in the soldiers' minds. Brainwashed, the soldiers are covertly returned to action, unaware of their ordeal, and under the belief that one of their own, Staff Sergeant Raymond Shaw (Laurence Harvey), saved their lives in combat. Upon the recommendation of the platoon's commander, Captain Bennett Marco (Frank Sinatra), Shaw is awarded the Medal of Honor for his supposed actions. In addition, when asked to describe him, Marco and the other soldiers automatically respond, "Raymond Shaw is the kindest, bravest, warmest, most wonderful human being I've ever known in my life." Deep down, however, they know that Shaw is a cold, sad, unsociable loner. As Marco puts it: "It isn't as if Raymond is hard to like. He's impossible to like!"

After the war, Marco — who has since been promoted to Major — suffers from the same recurring nightmare, in which a hypnotized Shaw kills two of his fellow soldiers before assembled Soviet, Chinese, and North Korean brass during a practical demonstration of the communists' brainwashing technique. Marco wants to investigate, but receives no support from his superior officers at Army Intelligence, because he has no proof. This changes when he learns that another soldier from the platoon, Allen Melvin (James Edwards), has been suffering the same nightmare and has identified the same specific communists in a photo lineup. Deciding that this is too much of a coincidence, Army Intelligence agrees to help Marco set up a task force to investigate.

It is revealed that Shaw, as a result of his conditioning in Manchuria, is an unwitting assassin whose actions are triggered by a Queen of Diamonds playing card. When he sees it, he will obey the next suggestion or order given to him. His intended role is that of a killer who, while carrying out his assignments, must also kill any witnesses and then forget his actions.

Raymond's mother, Eleanor Iselin (Angela Lansbury), is the driving force behind her husband Senator John Yerkes Iselin (James Gregory), a bombastic demagogue in the style of Joseph McCarthy, who is dismissed by many people as a fool. He is also Raymond's stepfather. Raymond hates them both, especially his domineering mother. Sen. Iselin's political stature is established when (per his wife's orders) he interrupts a televised Congressional briefing of the Secretary of Defense and accuses him of knowing that some 207 Defense Department employees are Communist agents. This provokes a chaotic reaction among journalists and an enraged reaction from the Secretary.

However, unknown to everyone, even Raymond, the Iselins are actually Communist agents with a plan that could take them to the White House. His own mother is also the American operative for whom Raymond is the instrument with which to effect the operation's final step.

Raymond briefly finds happiness when he rekindles a youthful romance with Jocelyn Jordan (Leslie Parrish), the daughter of Senator Thomas Jordan (John McGiver), one of his step-father's political rivals. Raymond previously courted Jocelyn in order to get at his parents in a Romeo and Juliet-style romance, but they then genuinely fell in love, both she and her father being the nearest thing Raymond has ever had to having friends. The couple are reunited as part of a plan by Mrs. Iselin to get Senator Jordan to support her husband's vice presidential bid. They even elope and get married. Although pleased with the match, Senator Jordan tells Mrs. Iselin that he will move for Senator Iselin's impeachment if he makes a bid to become their party's vice-presidential candidate. Mrs. Iselin "triggers" Raymond and has him assassinate Senator Jordan, as well as Jocelyn, who witnessed the event. Raymond has no recollection of doing this and is grief-stricken when he hears of the murders.

In the course of Marco's investigation, he discovers the role of the Queen of Diamonds card in putting Raymond in an hypnotic state for his assignments. Marco meets Raymond and, using a trick deck composed entirely of such cards, gets the full story from Raymond and instructs him not to carry out further orders. Later, Mrs. Iselin primes Raymond to assassinate their party's presidential candidate at the nomination convention so that Senator Iselin, as the vice-presidential candidate, will become the presidential candidate by default and give an inflammatory anti-communist speech (written by the communists themselves). This will cause mass hysteria that will get Iselin elected and justify him taking on presidential emergency powers that, in Mrs. Iselin's words, "will make martial law seem like anarchy." Thereby President Iselin — the "Manchurian Candidate" — will rule America on behalf of the communists.

In a cynically moving scene, Raymond's mother admits to the activated Raymond that she has been a Communist agent for years. She needed an assassin to complete her plan and regrets that he is involved. After all, the world is full of killers who do not require brainwashing to do the job. The International Communist Conspiracy chose Sergeant Raymond Shaw as the assassin because it solidified their hold and control over his mother, and she intends to strike back at them once in power.

Marco's attempt to free Raymond from Mrs. Iselin's control appears to fail. Raymond enters the convention hall disguised as a Catholic priest and takes up a position to carry out the assassination. Marco and his supervisor, Colonel Milt (Douglas Henderson), arrive at the convention to stop him. As the Presidential nominee (Robert Riordan) makes his speech, Raymond instead takes his revenge by killing his stepfather and mother. He then commits suicide in front of Marco, while wearing his Medal of Honor.

For Raymond's mother, Sinatra had wanted Lucille Ball, but Frankenheimer, who had worked with Lansbury in a mother role in All Fall Down, suggested having her for the part and insisted that Sinatra watch the film before decisions were made.

Love Never Dies (2010)

Love Never Dies is a musical with a book and lyrics by Glenn Slater and music by Andrew Lloyd Webber. A sequel to The Phantom of the Opera, it will be directed by Jack O'Brien and is scheduled to open at the Adelphi Theatre in the West End on 9 March 2010, on Broadway on 11 November 2010, and in Australia in 2011. It will be the first time a musical sequel is staged in the West End.

On 8 October 2009, Lloyd Webber launched the musical at a press conference held at Her Majesty's Theatre, where the original Phantom has been running since 1986. Also present were Sierra Boggess, who has been cast as Christine Daaé, and Ramin Karimloo, who will portray the Phantom, a role he currently is playing in the West End. Karimiloo sang his character's first song in the new production for the journalists, industry insiders, and fans who had assembled for the presentation. Boggess originated the role of Ariel in The Little Mermaid on Broadway.

The musical is set a decade after the end of Phantom. Christine is invited to perform at Phantasma, a new attraction in Coney Island, by an anonymous impresario and, with her husband Raoul and son Gustave in tow, journeys to Brooklyn, unaware it is the Phantom who has arranged her appearance in the popular beach resort.

Lloyd Webber first began plans for a sequel in 1997. Following a conversation with Maria Björnson, the designer of The Phantom of the Opera, Lloyd Webber decided that were a sequel to come about, it would be set in turn-of-the-20th century New York City. Lloyd Webber began collaborating with author Fredrick Forsyth on the project, but it soon fell apart as Lloyd Webber felt the ideas they were developing would be difficult to adapt for the musical stage. Forsyth went on to publish some of the ideas he had worked on with Lloyd Webber as a novel entitled The Phantom of Manhattan.

Lloyd Webber continually returned to the project throughout the late 1990s and early 2000s, collaborating with a number of unknown writers. Although it was during this time that Lloyd Webber came up with the idea of making The Phantom the designer of Coney Island amusement park attractions, Lloyd Webber still did not feel the ideas he had were adaptable into a piece of musical theatre.

Finally, in 2007, Ben Elton (who had served as the librettist for Lloyd Webber's The Beautiful Game) approached Lloyd Webber with his own synopsis for a sequel, based on Lloyd Webber's initial ideas. Elton's treatment of the story focused more on the original characters of The Phantom of the Opera and omitted the new characters that Lloyd Webber and Forsyth had developed. Lloyd Webber was pleased with Elton's treatment and considered it to be the right version of the story to be adapted into a musical. Elton's synopsis served as the catalyst that led Lloyd Webber to begin work on the sequel, and in early March 2007, in his website's video blog, he officially announced he would be moving forward with the project.

In May 2008, on the live finale of his show I'd Do Anything, Lloyd Webber made the announcement that the sequel would likely be called Phantom: Once Upon Another Time. However, on 14 September 2008, during the BBC's Birthday in the Park concert celebrating his 60th birthday, Lloyd Webber announced the title would be Love Never Dies.

In July 2008, the first act of what was still known as Phantom: Once Upon Another Time was performed at Lloyd Webber's annual Sydmonton Festival. In the preview, the Phantom was played by Ramin Karimloo, while Raoul was played by Alistair Robbins.

On 3 July 2009 Lloyd Webber announced that Ramin Karimloo and Sierra Boggess had been cast as the Phantom and Christine in Love Never Dies. It also was confirmed that the role of Meg Giry would be played by Summer Strallen.

Lloyd Webber had originally intended for Love Never Dies to open in London, New York and Shanghai simultaneously in the Autumn of 2009. Production was later put on hold as Lloyd Webber felt it would be too difficult to cast and rehearse three simultaneous productions of the same show without it being detrimental to the quality of the productions. On 8 October 2009, at a press launch event at Her Majesty's Theatre, Lloyd Webber announced that Love Never Dies would begin previews in London on 20 February 2010. A production will be mounted in New York on Thursday 11 November 2010 and a further production in Australia will begin performances in 2011. Lloyd Webber has also announced that plans for Asian and Canadian productions are well under way.

Lloyd Webber revealed that the original cast recording has already been recorded, though will not be released in its entirety until the production begins.

The plot takes place on Coney Island in 1906, approximately a decade after the events of The Phantom of the Opera. The Phantom has travelled to Coney Island with Madame Giry and her daughter Meg. Beginning his new life in America as a freakshow attraction, he has worked his way up to a position of power and is now the successful architect of a number of Coney Island attractions. Despite his new found wealth and success he still longs for Christine and manages to arrange for her to come and sing at one of his latest attractions. Christine arrives at Coney Island along with Raoul and their son Gustave, unknowingly returning to the man she feared most.

new playmate

Marge Simpson is gracing the cover of Playboy magazine, becoming the first cartoon character in the publication's history.

The November issue sees Marge posing on a chair with the distinctive Playboy Bunny logo.

It marks the 20th anniversary of The Simpsons, viewed as America's most dysfunctional family.

The move to put Marge on the cover is an attempt to draw in a younger audience for the soft porn magazine.

"We knew that this would really appeal to the 20-something crowd," said Playboy spokeswoman Theresa Hennessey.

It is not yet know how much of Marge will be on show inside the issue, but "it's very, very racy," said editorial director James Jellinek.

He added: "She is a stunning example of the cartoon form."

The edition goes on sale in the US on 16 October, but subscribers to the magazine will find their copies have a more traditional live model on the cover.

Playboy owner Hugh Hefner is said to be a huge Simpsons fan and appeared in an episode in the early 1990s.

Targets (1968)

Targets (1968) is a film written, produced and directed by Peter Bogdanovich.

The story concerns an insurance agent and Vietnam veteran, played by Tim O'Kelly, who murders his wife and mother and then goes on a shooting rampage from atop a Los Angeles oil refinery. When police start tracking him down, he flees to and resumes his shootings at a drive-in theater where an aging horror film actor is making a final promotional appearance.

The character and actions of the killer are patterned after Charles Whitman, the University of Texas sniper. The character of actor Byron Orlok, named after Max Schreck's vampire Count Orlok in 1922's Nosferatu, is patterned after Boris Karloff himself, who in fact plays the part in his last appearance in a major American film (although Bogdanovich states that, unlike Orlok, Karloff was not embittered with the movie business and did not wish to retire).

In the film's finale, which takes place at a San Fernando Valley drive-in theater, Karloff — the old-fashioned, traditional screen monster who always obeyed the rules — confronts the new, nihilistic late-1960s monster in the shape of a clean-cut, unassuming multiple murderer.

Boris Karloff and Peter Bogdanovich

Bogdanovich got the chance to make Targets because Boris Karloff owed studio head Roger Corman two days' work. Corman told Bogdanovich he could make any film he liked provided he used Karloff and stayed under budget. In addition, Bogdanovich had to use clips from Corman's Napoleonic-era thriller The Terror in the movie. The clips from The Terror feature Jack Nicholson and Boris Karloff. Bogdanovich has said that Samuel Fuller provided generous help on the screenplay and refused to accept either a fee or a screen credit, so Bogdanovich named his own character Sammy Michaels (Fuller's middle name was Michael) in tribute.

Although the film was written and production photography completed in 1967, it was released after the assassinations of Martin Luther King and Robert F. Kennedy and thus had some topical relevance to then-current events. Nevertheless it was not very successful at the box office.

However, Bogdanovich, who appears in the film as a young writer-director (i.e. like Karloff, playing a character very similar to himself in real life), credits it with getting him noticed by the studios, which in turn led to his directing three very successful films in the early 1970s.

Network (1976)

Network is a 1976 satirical film about a fictional television network, Union Broadcasting System (UBS), and its struggle with poor ratings. It was written by Paddy Chayefsky and directed by Sidney Lumet, and stars Faye Dunaway, William Holden, Peter Finch and Robert Duvall and features Wesley Addy, Ned Beatty and Beatrice Straight. The film won four Academy Awards, including Best Actor, Best Actress, Best Supporting Actress and Best Writing, Screenplay Written Directly for the Screen.

Network has continued to receive recognition, decades after its initial release. In 2000, the film was selected for preservation in the United States National Film Registry by the Library of Congress as being "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant". In 2002, it was inducted into the Producers Guild of America Hall of Fame as a film that has "set an enduring standard for U.S. American entertainment." In 2006, Chayefsky's script was voted one of the top ten movie scripts of all-time by the Writers Guild of America, East. In 2007, the film was 64th among the Top 100 Greatest U.S. American Films as chosen by the American Film Institute, a ranking slightly higher than the one AFI gave it ten years earlier.

The script was written by Paddy Chayefsky, and the producer was Howard Gottfried. The two had just come off a lawsuit against United Artists, challenging the studio's right to lease their previous film, The Hospital, to ABC in a package with a less successful film. Despite recently settling this lawsuit, Chayefsky and Gottfried agreed to allow UA to finance the film. But after reading the script, UA found the subject matter too controversial and backed out.

Undeterred, Chayefsky and Gottfried shopped the script around to other studios, and eventually found an interested party in Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer. Soon afterwards UA reversed itself and looked to co-finance the film with MGM, who for the past several years had distributed through UA in the US. MGM agreed to let UA back on board, and gave them the international distribution rights, with MGM controlling North American rights.

The film premiered in New York City on November 27, 1976, with a wide release following shortly afterward.

The Shootist (1976)

The Shootist is the final film role of John Wayne.

Directed by Don Siegel, it tells the story of John Bernard (J.B.) Books (John Wayne) (born January, 29, 1843), an aging gunfighter, the most celebrated "shootist" extant, who is struggling with terminal prostate cancer. The movie begins with a clip montage of some of Wayne's earlier western movies. Although Books is perceived by some of the characters as an amoral opportunist, he expresses his simple creed when he says, "I won't be wronged, I won't be insulted, and I won't be laid a hand on. I don't do these things to other people, and I require the same from them." Arriving in El Paso, Texas (Carson City, Nevada in the movie) in 1901, Books seeks the second medical opinion of an old friend, E. W. ("Doc") Hostetler (Jimmy Stewart).

Once Hostetler confirms the presence of the cancer, Books rents a room from the widow 'Bond' ("that's a crackerjack of a name for a woman") Rogers (Lauren Bacall), and her son Gillom Rogers (Ron Howard). Books' presence in town is soon known to most, and the news spreads by telegraph throughout the country. This results in the arrival of troublemakers to lure Books back to his past. Not only does he have to deal with his inevitable death, but he has to deal with the vultures who come to profit from his infamy. Having never had trouble facing death in other men, Books now struggles with the fact that death is calling on him. On his 58th birthday, January 29, 1901 he confronts the three men, offering to settle an outstanding score, and they meet in an empty saloon, where he kills Mike Sweeney, Jack Pulford and Jay Cobb. Then the bartender shoots Books and in return Gillom shoots him, throws the gun away and walks out of the saloon and down the street.

The character of J.B. Books - John Wayne in the film - serves to parallel the final days of Wayne himself, who died from stomach cancer three years after production ended. The Shootist would be his final film role, concluding a legendary career that began during the silent film era in 1926. The knowledge of Wayne's health during the production would inspire much of the dialogue and imagery of the film. Lauren Bacall had suffered through the 1957 death of her husband Humphrey Bogart, who died of throat cancer, adding further shading to the parallels of the film.

At the time the movie rights were purchased, John Wayne was not seriously considered for the role, due to questions about his health and his ability to complete the filming. The producers had wanted George C. Scott, but Wayne actively campaigned for the role and made completion of the film a personal mission.

Contrary to popular belief, John Wayne did not have cancer when he made this film. His entire left lung and several ribs had been removed in surgery on 16 September 1964, and in 1969 he was declared cancer free. It was not until 12 January 1979, almost three years after this movie had been filmed, that the disease was found to have returned.

The film was shot on location in Carson City, Nevada and at studios in Burbank, California. In Carson City, the house at 500 N. Mountain Street that doubled for J.B. Books' rooming house (owned by Bond Rogers in the movie) is three doors south from the Nevada governor's mansion. The only change to the house was a portico added on the southern side. Besides changing the location from El Paso to Carson City, and having his horse Dollor written in, Wayne also changed the ending of the screenplay. Books was supposed to shoot Jack Pulford (Hugh O'Brian) in the back, and then Gillom Rogers (Ron Howard) was to shoot Books. Wayne said "I've made over 250 pictures and have never shot a guy in the back. Change it." He also did not want the young Gillom killing him. The screenplay was changed, having him shoot Pulford in the head, the bartender then shooting Books, followed by Rogers shooting the bartender.

The horse that J.B. Books (Wayne) rides in the film, Dollor ('Ole Dollor), that he gives to Gillom Rogers (Howard), had been Wayne's favorite horse for ten years, through several Westerns. The horse shown during the final scene of True Grit was Dollor, a two-year-old in 1969. Wayne had Dollor, a chestnut Quarter horse gelding, written into the script (although there is no mention in the book of a specific horse) of The Shootist because of his love for the horse; it was a condition for him working on the project. Wayne would not let anyone else ride the horse. Robert Wagner was a rare exception, who rode the horse in a segment of the Hart to Hart television show, after Wayne's death.

John Wayne and Lauren Bacall made one previous film together two decades earlier called Blood Alley (1955), a seafaring adventure set in China.

James Stewart and John Wayne also made one previous film together, John Ford's The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance (1962).

The original poster of the film is Richard Amsel art.

Freaks (1932)

Freaks is a 1932 United States horror film about sideshow performers, directed and produced by Tod Browning and released by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, with a cast mostly composed of actual carnival performers. The film was based on Tod Robbins' short story "Spurs". Director Browning took the exceptional step of casting real people with deformities as the eponymous sideshow "freaks," rather than using costumes and makeup.

Browning had been a member of a traveling circus in his early years, and much of the film was drawn from his personal experiences. In the film, the physically deformed "freaks" are inherently trusting and honorable people, while the real monsters are two of the "normal" members of the circus who conspire to murder one of the performers to obtain his large inheritance.

Despite the extensive cuts, the film was still negatively received by audiences, and remained an object of extreme controversy. Today, the parts that were removed from it are considered lost. Browning, famed at the time for his collaborations with Lon Chaney and for directing Bela Lugosi in Dracula (1931) had trouble finding work afterward, and this in effect brought his career to an early close. Because its deformed cast was shocking to moviegoers of the time, the film was banned in the United Kingdom for 30 years. Beginning in the early 1960s, Freaks was rediscovered as a counterculture cult film; throughout the 1970s and 1980s, the film was regularly shown at midnight movie screenings at several movie theaters in the United States. In 1994, Freaks was selected for preservation in the United States National Film Registry as being "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant". It was ranked 15th on Bravo TV's list of the 100 Scariest Movie Moments.

Among the characters featured as "freaks" were Peter Robinson ("the human skeleton"); Olga Roderick ("the bearded lady"); Frances O'Connor and Martha Morris ("armless wonders"); and the conjoined twins Daisy and Violet Hilton. Among the microcephalics who appear in the film (and are referred to as "pinheads") were Zip and Pip (Elvira and Jenny Lee Snow) and Schlitzie, a male named Simon Metz who wore a dress mainly due to incontinence. Also featured were the intersexual Josephine Joseph, with her left/right divided gender; Johnny Eck, the legless man; the completely limbless Prince Randian (also known as The Human Torso, and mis-credited as "Rardion"); Elizabeth Green the Stork Woman; and Koo-Koo the Bird Girl, who suffered from Virchow-Seckel syndrome or bird-headed dwarfism, and is most remembered for the scene where she dances on the table).

MGM had purchased the rights to Robbins' short story Spurs in the 1920s at Browning's urging. In June 1932, MGM production supervisor Irving Thalberg offered Browning the opportunity to direct Arsène Lupin with John Barrymore. Browning declined, preferring to develop Freaks, a project he had started as early as 1927. Screenwriters Willis Goldbeck and Elliott Clawson were assigned to the project at Browning's request. Leon Gordon, Edgar Allan Woolf, Al Boasberg and an uncredited Charles MacArthur would also contribute to the script. The script was shaped over five months. Little of the original story was retained beyond the marriage between midget and an averagely sized person and the wedding feast. Myrna Loy was initially slated to star as Cleopatra, with Jean Harlow as Venus. Ultimately Thalberg decided not to cast any major stars in the picture.

Freaks began filming in October 1931 and was completed in December. Following disastrous test screenings in January 1932 (one woman threatened to sue MGM, claiming the film had caused her to suffer a miscarriage), the studio cut the picture down from its original 90-minute running time to just over an hour. Much of the sequence of the freaks attacking Cleopatra as she lay under a tree was removed, as well as a gruesome sequence showing Hercules being castrated, a number of comedy sequences, and most of the film's original epilogue. A new prologue featuring a carnival barker was added, as was the new epilogue featuring the reconciliation of the tiny lovers. This shortened version - now only 64 minutes long - had its premiere at the Fox Criterion in Los Angeles on February 20, 1932.

Owing to its cult status in the late-20th century, Freaks has been referenced explicitly in popular culture expressions from 1970s onward, from songs by other self-proclaimed "freaks", such as the Ramones ("Pinhead" "Gabba, gabba, we accept you, one of us."), David Bowie ("Diamond Dogs"), and Devo ("Jocko Homo"), to "cult" comic strips like Zippy the Pinhead (a reference to the aforementioned microcephalic), and episodes of many TV series, including South Park. The chant of "One of us!" is commonly used as a reference to the film.

Pocketful of Miracles (1961)

Pocketful of Miracles is a 1961 American comedy film directed by Frank Capra. The screenplay by Hal Kanter and Harry Tugend is based on the screenplay Lady for a Day by Robert Riskin, which was adapted from the Damon Runyon short story Madame La Gimp.

The film proved to be the final project for both Capra and veteran actor Thomas Mitchell.

It tells the story of Dave the Dude, a successful but very superstitious New York City gangster who buys apples from street peddler Apple Annie to bring him good luck. On the eve of a very important meeting, he learns Annie has an adult daughter named Louise, who was sent to a school in Europe as a child. Louise believes Annie is wealthy socialite Mrs. E. Worthington Manville, and she is bringing her aristocratic fiancé Carlos and his father, Count Alfonso Romero, to the States to meet her mother.

Dave's girlfriend Queenie Martin convinces him to help Annie continue her charade for the benefit of Louise. While Queenie takes on the task of transforming the derelict into a dowager, Dave arranges for pool hustler Henry D. Blake to pose as Annie's husband, the dignified Judge Manville, and hires a man to pose as her butler Hudgins. As Dave continues to postpone his appointment with another powerful gangster, his right hand man Joy Boy becomes increasingly exasperated. Dave manages to engineer a lavish reception with both the mayor and the governor as guests, and Louise and her impressed future husband and father-in-law return to Europe none the wiser about her mother's real identity.

Frank Capra had directed Lady for a Day in 1933 and for years had wanted to film a remake, but executives at Columbia Pictures, which owned the screen rights, felt the original story was too old-fashioned. In the mid-1950s, when Hal Wallis offered to buy it as a Paramount Pictures vehicle for Shirley Booth, Columbia head Harry Cohn decided to offer it to Capra instead, hoping he could lure Booth to his studio. Unable to persuade either Abe Burrows or Garson Kanin to update the plot, Capra began working on the screenplay himself. His modern version, which involved Korean War orphans and an apple farm in Oregon, was filled with Cold War rhetoric and retitled Ride the Pink Cloud. Cohn insisted Capra find a collaborator, but he thought the draft submitted by Harry Tugend was no better, and he dropped the project.

In 1960, Cohn sold Capra the rights for $225,000, and the director made a deal with United Artists, where it was decided to film the story as a period piece set in the 1930s. Capra originally cast Frank Sinatra as Dave the Dude, but the actor walked out due to disagreements about the script. Kirk Douglas, Dean Martin, and Jackie Gleason rejected the role. Then Glenn Ford approached Capra with an offer to help finance the film through his production company if he was cast as the lead. The director felt Ford was wrong for the part but out of desperation he agreed to the arrangement, which called for each of them to receive 37½ percent of the film's profits. Ford was paid $350,000 up front, but Capra received only $200,000. Because the film never earned back its cost, he lost an additional $50,000 in deferred salary.

Budgeted at $2.9 million, the film began principal photography on April 20, 1961. Cast as Apple Annie was Bette Davis, who accepted the role after Shirley Booth, Helen Hayes, Katharine Hepburn, and Jean Arthur turned it down. Davis was undergoing financial difficulties, and the need for the $100,000 paycheck overshadowed her concern about making her Hollywood comeback (her last American film had been Storm Center in 1956) in the role of an elderly hag. From the beginning, she clashed with co-star Glenn Ford, who had demanded Hope Lange, his girlfriend at the time, be given the dressing room adjacent to his, one that had been assigned to Davis. Davis graciously insisted any dressing room she was given would be adequate, noting "Dressing rooms have never been responsible for the success of a film." Despite her effort to avoid an unpleasant situation, Davis was given the room Lange had wanted, and from then on Ford began treating her like a supporting player. In an interview, he suggested he was so grateful to Davis for the support she had given him during the filming of A Stolen Life in 1946, he had insisted she be cast as Apple Annie in order to revive her sagging career, a condescending remark Davis never forgot or forgave. Because of Ford's involvement with the financing of the film, Capra refused to intervene in any of the disagreements between the two stars, but he suffered blinding and frequently incapacitating headaches as a result of the stress. Altough the above and what Ford may have said, the best parts of the film comes without surprise when Davis is on the spot, well supported by Thomas Mitchel and Edward Everett Horton. Filming was completed in late June 1961, and Capra painfully struggled to get through the post-production period. Upon its completion, he professed to prefer the remake to the original.

The Night of the Generals (1967)

The Night of the Generals is a 1967 suspense/thriller film set in World War II, adapted from the novel of the same name by Hans Hellmut Kirst. It stars Peter O'Toole, Omar Sharif, Tom Courtenay, Donald Pleasence, Joanna Pettet, Corale Browne, and Philippe Noiret.

The film was produced by Sam Spiegel and directed by Anatole Litvak, with a musical score by Maurice Jarre. The screenplay was written by Paul Dehn and Joseph Kessel. Gore Vidal also contributed to the screenplay but was uncredited.

The murder of a prostitute in Nazi-occupied Warsaw in 1942 draws Abwehr Major Grau (Omar Sharif) into an investigation where the evidence points to the killer being one of three German general officers: General von Seydlitz-Gabler (Charles Gray), General Kahlenberg (Donald Pleasence), his chief of staff, and General Tanz (Peter O'Toole). Grau’s investigation is cut short by his summary transfer to Paris at the instigation of these officers.

The case remains closed until all three officers are transferred to Paris in July 1944. Paris is a hotbed of intrigue, with senior Wehrmacht officers plotting to assassinate Adolf Hitler. Kahlenberg is deeply involved in the plot, while von Seydlitz-Gabler, who is aware of its existence, is sitting on the fence, awaiting the outcome. Tanz, who is unaware of the plot, remains loyal to the Führer.

Tanz's orderly Kurt Hartmann (Tom Courtenay) witnesses the aftermath of his commander's butchery of a second prostitute on the night of July 19, 1944. Tanz tells Hartmann to run away; realizing that it would be his word against that of a general, Hartmann takes his advice. When Grau, who is now a Lieutenant Colonel, learns of the murder, committed in the same manner as the first, he resumes his investigation and concludes that Tanz is the killer. However, his timing is unfortunate. On July 20, 1944, the assassination attempt takes place. When Grau accuses Tanz face to face, the general kills the detective and labels him as one of the plot conspirators to cover his tracks.

After the war, the murder of a third prostitute in Hamburg in 1965 draws the attention of Interpol Inspector Morand (Philippe Noiret). Morand owes a debt of gratitude to Grau for not revealing his connection to the French Resistance during the war. Morand confronts Tanz at a reunion dinner for Tanz's former panzer division. When Morand produces Hartmann as his witness, Tanz goes into a vacant room and shoots himself.

The film includes three cameos appearances by actors portraying historical figures. The first is Christopher Plummer, who makes a brief appearance as Field Marshal Erwin Rommel. The second is Harry Andrews, who makes an appearance as General Karl-Heinrich von Stülpnagel, the German Military Governor of Occupied France in 1944. Finally, Gerhard Buhr appears as Colonel Claus von Stauffenberg, the officer who carried the bomb into Hitler’s headquarters in East Prussia on the morning of July 20, 1944.

This was the second film in which Omar Sharif and Peter O'Toole appeared together, the first being Lawrence of Arabia (1962).
It was also the second film in which Sharif and Tom Courtenay appeared together, the first being Dr. Zhivago (1965). This was the first film in which Peter O'Toole and Coral Browne worked together, they would later appear in The Ruling Class (1972), Coral Browne and Charles Grey appeared together in An Englishman Abroad. Both Charles Grey and Donald Pleasence starred in the James Bond films as the archi villain Ernst Stavro Blofeld.

The Chairman (1969)

The Chairman is a 1969 film, a spy thriller starring Gregory Peck. It was directed by J. Lee Thompson. The screenplay was by Ben Maddow, based on a novel by Jay Richard Kennedy.

The plot involves an american who is sent to communist China in order to retrieve an important agricultural enzyme. What he does not know is that there is a bomb implanted in his head; the forces behind his mission will detonate it if he fails to carry out the assignment.

Dr No (1962), the very first James Bond movie was such a hit that, not only did it begin the most successful franchise in cinema history, it spawned a slew on imitators in the decade that followed. They ranged from the far out comedy of Matt Helm (Dean Martin), the crazy hip playboy of Our Man Flint (James Coburn) and the English knockabout Harry Palmer (Michael Caine). Even Gregory Peck got in on the act with The Chairman (1969) which attempted rather more world realism. This was Peck’s fourth collaboration with director J.Lee Thompson after working on The Guns of Navarone (1961), Cape Fear (1962), and Mackenna’s Gold (1969).

The script is pretty far ahead of its time dealing with Chinese research into genetically modified plants, allowing wheat to be grown on any land surface and in any climate. The Americans, British and Russians get together to try to steal the enzyme and send Nobel prize-winning scientist John Hathaway (Peck) into China to get the formula. Hathaway has a radio transmitter implanted in his head – but is unaware it is also a bomb which can be detonated at any time. The US military comes in the form of Shelby (Arthur Hill) an abrupt career man. He wears glasses with one glass dark, one light which gives some indication of the characters duality and references the good and bad – some may remember the exact same device is used for Archangel, Deputy Director of The FIRM, in the eighties television series Airwolf. Ori Levy has great fun as the Russian Shertov, stealing every scene he is in and literally munching through his lines with great enthusiasm.

The movie is surprising in that when Hathaway reaches China, the main protagonist is Chairman Mao! Conrad Yama gives an extraordinary performance as Mao.

He and Hathaway play a ping pong game whilst throwing each other’s temperament and nationalities at each other - words are twisted with each volley of the ball. It’s amusing to connect this scene with the later visit of President Nixon to China and the problems he faced on his return. Hathaway eventually meets up with the scientists working on the enzyme and tries to make off with the formula in an armoured tank.

The movie has many good points but unfortunately doesn't add up to the sum of its parts.

The opening main title sequence apes, and in many ways outdoes, those of the Bond movies. Created by Paul Brown Constable, photographs of the Cultural Revolution (which had only started a couple years before the movie was made) are spliced together as the wonderful Jerry Goldsmith score thunders in. There’s a kinetic energy to the film as it zips along. However a couple of scenes, with romantic interest Kay Hanna (Anne Heywood), are very poorly handled and could easily have been cut from the movie. Unlike Bond, the film does allow Peck to be roughed up quite badly and a couple of Asian actress’s are given very strong and dominant roles.

Travels with my Aunt (1972)

Travels with My Aunt is a 1972 American comedy film directed by George Cukor. The screenplay by Jay Presson Allen and Hugh Wheeler is based on the 1969 novel of the same name by Graham Greene.

George Cukor initially gave Katharine Hepburn a copy of the Graham Greene novel and told her he wanted to cast her as Augusta. Upon first reading the book, basically a collection of anecdotes, she felt it couldn't be adapted into a viable screenplay, but after reading it several more times she agreed to make the film.

She ultimately was unhappy with the completed script, and Jay Presson Allen finally suggested she rewrite the screenplay herself. After working on it for months, Hepburn submitted it to MGM, but studio head James T. Aubrey, Jr. felt it was missing the charm of the book. Additionally, he wanted Augusta to be seen as a younger woman in flashbacks, and he felt Hepburn was too old to do so convincingly. In a phone call to the actress, he told her the project was being postponed, but the next day her agent was advised she was being given notice for refusing to report to work. Hepburn was outraged and considered suing MGM for payment for her contributions to the screenplay, but finally decided against taking legal action.

Allen later claimed only one speech of hers remained in the completed film, but Hepburn was denied screen credit because she wasn't a member of the Screen Writers Guild.

Costume designer Anthony Powell became a close friend of Maggie Smith and dressed her for her later films Death on the Nile, Evil Under the Sun, and Hook, as well as the plays Private Lives and Lettice and Lovage.

The Illustrated Man (1969)

In 1969 director Jack Smight optioned the movie rights to the Ray Bradbury book The Illustrated Man. Reportedly, Bradbury stipulated only a few actors were acceptable including Steiger who ended up with the role. It's a super juicy role too with plenty of character screen time. You could say the Illustrated Man was nearly perfect to showcase an actors ability. One of those meaty parts that come along once in a lifetime.

And Steiger is astonishing in it. Seeing him work is like a revelation. It's one of his best performances and that's saying something when you're talking about Rod Steiger.

The book is a collection of short stories written by Bradbury for the pulps. He collected these shorts into a single novel using the Illustrated Man merely as a framework to loosely tie it all together. Three stories included in the film are The Veldt, The Long Rain, and The Last Night of the World and they are relatively weak, especially as adapted for the movie. The screenwriters managed to lose all the psychological edge Bradbury instilled while reducing all three to gadget stories with a trick ending. A rather disappointing treatment to some of the finest ironic fiction of grandmaster writer Ray Bradbury.

At the same time the writers expanded the framework character of Carl (the Illustrated Man) into the centerpiece of the movie. They added a complete backstory to his "Skin Illustrations" along with motivations that never existed in the book. Carl probably occupies half the film now which is a very good thing. The expanded role along with Steiger's mesmerizing performance transforms the movie into something special indeed. The three little sci-fi stories, although not well done, are still sufficiently interesting to keep your attention. They too star Steiger which only adds to their appeal.

Julius Shulman

Julius Shulman (October 10, 1910 – July 15, 2009) was an American architectural photographer best known for his photograph "Case Study House #22, Los Angeles, 1960. Pierre Koenig, Architect." The house is also known as The Stahl House. Shulman's photography spread California modernism around the world. Through his many books, exhibits and personal appearances his work ushered in a new appreciation for the movement beginning in the 1990s. His vast library of images currently reside at the Getty Center in Los Angeles. His contemporaries include Ezra Stoller and Hedrich Blessing. In 1947, Julius Shulman asked architect Raphael Soriano to build a mid-century steel home and studio in the Hollywood Hills.

Some of his architectural photographs, like the iconic shots of Frank Lloyd Wright's or Pierre Koenig's remarkable structures, have been published countless times. The brilliance of buildings like those by Charles Eames, as well as those of his close friend, Richard Neutra, was first brought to light by Shulman's photography. The clarity of his work demanded that architectural photography had to be considered as an independent art form. Each Shulman image unites perception and understanding for the buildings and their place in the landscape. The precise compositions reveal not just the architectural ideas behind a building's surface, but also the visions and hopes of an entire age. A sense of humanity is always present in his work, even when the human figure is absent from the actual photographs.

Today, a great many of the buildings documented by Shulman have disappeared or been crudely converted, but the thirst for his pioneering images is stronger than ever before.

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