[narfstar]

I have not read the comics so I may enjoy the movie more

[profh0011]

People in Hollywood always talk about how "in any adaptation, changes have to be made from one medium to another".  Now, while it may be true (according to one writer I know) that "many bad novels have been turned into GREAT movies", surely the reverse is also true. And too often, it's not the difference in the mdeium that the question (as with Roger Corman's POE films), but the egos of people involved depserate to put their own stamp on something, sometimes, just to justify their jobs!

The JAMES BOND 007 films have seen both extremes-- terrific books turned into AWFUL movies, and good books turned into GREAT movies. As good as DR. NO was (mostly because of Sean Connery), I've always felt the book was vastly superior. The movie eliminated any sense of mystery in the first 10 minutes (whereas the book did NOT reveal what was really going on on that island UNTIL the dining table scene), and all the truly perverse weirdness of the baddie was also eliminated, including the "obstacle course" nature of that pipe, not to mention the giant octopus.

FROM RUSSIA WITH LOVE was seriously re-structured, as just about HALF of the novel went by before Bond was introduced, and the entire plot involving the decoding machine was made TWICE as complex by adding S.P.E.C.T.R.E. to the mix. Then again, they added an "action" climax not in the book (the boat chase & explosions), much as was done decades later with CASINO ROYALE.

ON HER MAJESTY'S SECRET SERVICE, on the one hand, wound up being the closest to the novel, while at the same time, nearly every scene in the movie had changes-- but for once, the changes resulted in the film being MUCH BETTER than the already-good book.

But then you've got things like DIAMONDS ARE FOREVER, LIVE AND LET DIE, THE MAN WITH THE GOLDEN GUN, MOONRAKER... you wonder, how is it even possible for such abortions to have been concocted? Funny how 3 of those are 3 of the earliest books, and the 4th was the last of the novels. Maybe not great literature, but I enjoyed all 4 novels, and feel they deserved a lot more respect than they got-- especially LALD and MOONRAKER. As it is, they seem more inspired by Dean Martin's "Matt Helm" films than anything from Fleming.

[narfstar]

The Moore Bond's were a product of the time. They were my first theater Bonds so to me he was Bond and the movies were fun. They have not held up I'm afraid, but at the time I loved them and thought Moore was the better Bond.

[josemas]

The Connery Bond's are also a product of their time.  Most of his just seem to hold up better, over all, than Moore's Bond films.  Not that Moore couldn't make a good Bond film-The Spy Who Loved Me, for example, is still one of my favorite Bond films. 

I remember taking my youngest brothers, along with the Lil Missus (when we were first dating), to see it when it was initially released.  It was their first Bond film and they loved it then and still like it now.

The Lil Missus, on the other hand, just went along because we all wanted to see it and doesn't really give two hoots about any of the Bond films to this day.  Women!  Sheesh!

Best

Joe

[profh0011]

Looking back, what seems strange to me now is, most of the 70's had movies that were deadly-serious, intense, VIOLENT, profane, sexy... and yet, here you had "James Bond" movies-- a series that, when it started, had been condemned by every organized religious group on the planet for being offensive and obscene-- and they were going completely the other way! I mean, I keep wondering how it might have been like if George Lazenby had stuck around, and the films had gotten as violent and sexy as I found out the newspaper strips got in the 70's?

Yeah, THE SPY WHO LOVED ME was very impressive, my favorite film that year. I guess it was the first one that seemed like a real "James Bond movie".  Moore even played it (mostly) straight for the first 45 minutes or so (up until the fight in the Egyptian temple, which then turned into outright slapstick-- I mean, it was REALLY FUNNY!!!). If only Gerry Anderson had been doing something that entertaining at the time...

FOR YOUR EYES ONLY remains my favorite Moore film. It's got SO MUCH actual Ian Fleming material squeezed into it, Moore acts (mostly) serious for much of it, it's got my 2nd-favorite Bond movie villain of all time (Julian Glover), and-- dare I say it-- my favorite Bond girl ("Bibi Dahl", Lynn Holly Johnson). The thing is, in recent years, whenever I watch it, I still love it, it's just that these days I find myself wishing Timothy Dalton had been in it instead of Moore. (They were really thinking about him that year! But then Moore came back...)

[profh0011]

Recently watched:

BRIDE OF FRANKENSTEIN
SON OF FRANKENSTEIN
YOUNG FRANKENSTEIN
HIGH ANXIETY
YOU'LL FIND OUT
HORROR OF DRACULA


I just noticed after all these years, the piano player in the lounge where Mel Brooks sings (doing a Sinatra impression) is Murphy Dunne, from THE BLUES BROTHERS!

[profh0011]

You know what else I can't figure out?  As NASTY and VIOLENT as the early-mid 70's movies were, how come nobody did any MIKE HAMMER films in that whole period? You'd think he would have been a perfect fit!  (Actually, there were "Mike Hammer" films... except in those, he was called "John Shaft"... heh heh heh)

[narfstar]

  (Actually, there were "Mike Hammer" films... except in those, he was called "John Shaft"... heh heh heh)

[profh0011]

Okay, I'm glad somebody thought that was funny...

Let me explain. My introduction to SHAFT was actually the promotional trailer for SHAFT'S BIG SCORE, run at the end of THE CBS FRIDAY NIGHT MOVIE to fill out time (remember those days?).  It may seem nuts, but until that moment, I had no idea "Shaft" was the name of a private eye. A year later, "Are You Man Enough" by the Four Tops turned up on the radio, and became a fave of mine (side-by-side with "Live And Let Die" by Wings).  I thought it was funny that James Bond went to Harlem the same time SHAFT IN AFRICA came out.  A couple months later, a TV magazine article was titled, "You can't put THAT John Shaft on TV!", about the TV-movie series. The write-up was so bad, I never watched (then again, CBS was dumb enough to schedule their rotating series opposite NBC's rotating series-- isn't that like putting BUCK ROGERS on in the same time slot as DOCTOR WHO ?).

I finally saw SHAFT on CBS, when they ran it in a 90-min. slot. Think about that. The movie's 2 hours. HOW MUCH did they cut? Amazing it still made sense-- and became a fave of mine overnight.  Only several years late. (I even wrote a comic-book story during my senior year in high school that was a tribute to it. I had Robert Stack team up with Richard Roundtree.) The sequels never turned up on the networks.  SHAFT'S BIG SCORE turned up on Philly's Channel 6 on the midnight show. I immediately got to like that BETTER than the 1st one!  SHAFT IN AFRICA turned up a few years later on some cable channel, around 2 AM.  The TV movies, years later still, at 4 AM.  (Somebody really did not like these movies.)

In 1983, Stacy Keach debuted as MIKE HAMMER.  I'd heard about the guy for some time, but made sure I watched when Mickey Spillane did a radio interview to promote it, talking about the earlier Kevin Dobson film, and totally disavowing the Armand Assante film in between (which he had nothing to do with). To this day, Tanya Roberts is my favorite Velda, even though she only did that one movie.  (She would have come back, but they dragged their feet, and by the time they did the sequel, she was off filming SHEENA.) I always remember, about 15 minutes in, suddenly realizing that in the 70's, SHAFT had been a "black" variation on HAMMER.  Both ex-cops with friends on the police force who break every rule in sight and sleep with every woman who crossed their paths.  (Actually, I'm not sure Richard Roundtree's character was an ex-cop... but later, his NEPHEW was!)


And here's the punch line.  BOTH Mickey Spillane (who created HAMMER) and Ernest Tidyman (who created SHAFT) at one time, used to work for MARTIN GOODMAN!  (So, LUKE CAGE was continuing a tradition...)



"That man's trouble, he's been to my house!"

[josemas]

Nice comparison there between Hammer and Shaft, Henry.  Never really thought about it before but certainly seems apt. 

Didn't know that Tidyman had worked for Goodman either.  Was it in comics or for his sweat mags?

Best

Joe

[profh0011]

I suspect it was for his magazines, not the comics.

What I didn't realize for many years was that Ernest Tidyman was WHITE. So I guess having guys like Roy Thomas, John Romita, Archie Goodwin, George Tuska & Steve Englehart all doing HERO FOR HIRE was also continuing a tradition. At least Billy Graham-- like Gordon Parks-- was BLACK.



"Mom-- is it because I'm black?"
--Bill Russell  (SNL)

[profh0011]

The last few days...

THE BRIDES OF DRACULA
DRACULA PRINCE OF DARKNESS
DRACULA HAS RISEN FROM THE GRAVE
TASTE THE BLOOD OF DRACULA

I actually saw TASTE... in a theatre back in 1971, when I was down in Texas.  My first time seeing Christopher Lee as Dracula on a big screen.  Decades later, I read a crazy story about the film.  Lee did not want to come back, and they wrote a story about one of Dracula's disciples, "Lord Courtley" (Ralph Bates).  Presumably, the plot involved Bates, a worshipper of Satan and Dracula (in Hammer's universe, possibly the same thing), who gets killed during a black mass, then comes back for revenge against the 3 men who killed him.

Well, the distributor, Warner Bros., REFUSED to put up the money for production costs-- UNLESS Lee was in the film!  So they had to do a hasty rewrite, in which Courtley's dead body serves as the host for the ressurected Dracula.  It did not make sense for Dracula to want revenge against men who killed his SERVANT-- but that's what they had in the film!  Anyway, they had to BEG Lee to come back for the film, feeding him a "guilt trip" about how all these actors and technicians would be out of work if HE didn't do the film.  So he did.

    The following year, the same thing happened again.  They did a "reboot" of their 2 big franchises.  THE HORROR OF FRANKENSTEIN was a remake of the 1st Peter Cushing film, only with Ralph Bates instead, and sick humor added.  SCARS OF DRACULA was also meant to restart the Dracula series, only with a different actor, and a LOT more sex and violence.  But again, WB refused to back the film without Lee.  So Lee appeared in a film written for somebody else... and ironically, wound up with more dialogue than all his other Drac films put together.  I bet he was annoyed.  Not that he had all the dialogue, but because all the other films didn't, and this one was intended for someone else.  (He was paid by the day, so they wrote scripts that limited his screen-time.  Sounds counter-productive, doesn't it?  Roger Corman didn't have this "problem" with Vincent Price...)

[Geo (R.I.P.)]

Source Code: experimental government program that is used to prevent a terrorist attack on Chicago, one movie with a "good" ending.

Geo

[Menticide]

Walking Dead, oddly enough my wife has been bugging me to watch it because she watched the series first run, and bought the blu-ray. The odd thing is zombie movies are hardly the type of thing that she'd normally watch, but she got hooked on it, and I can see why it's a pretty decent show.

[bowers]

Recently watched "Source Code"  and enjoyed it more than I thought I would. Did anyone else catch the two little "tips of the hat" to Quantum Leap? Saw "Super 8" last week- not great, but the best damn train wreck I've ever seen on the big screen! Also saw a couple of episodes of "Zen" on PBS Mystery. Not a big fan of Rufus Sewell, but I did like the two episodes I watched. New Inspector Lewis episode next week. I've been trying to get back into "Leverage" this season, but the writing just doesn't seem up the usual standard. Cheers, Bowers

[narfstar]

I was not impressed with Super 8 but the train wreck was pretty cool. I could not put my finger on it but I think you are right about the writing on Leverage. I still love Parker.

[paw broon]

Last night, Slam Evil, The Phantom film.  Tonight there's an old Hancock's Half Hour on the radio and later we have the new Castle on t.v.
We tried Body of Proof but not sold on it yet.  We'll keep an eye on it.  You don't seem to get it in N.America but keep looking for New Tricks, it is really excellent and as it's a BBC show, it should show up somewhere.

[bowers]

Been a fan of "New Tricks" for years, Paw. Our local PBS station has been showing newer episodes this year, but we're probably still at least a year behind. By the way, is there any word on possible new episodes of "Sherlock"? Only a little over a month till the new season of "The Mentalist". What can they do to top last season's finale? Cheers, Bowers

[josemas]

I was not impressed with Super 8 but the train wreck was pretty cool. I could not put my finger on it but I think you are right about the writing on Leverage. I still love Parker.

The Lil Missus seems to feel the same way as youse guys about Leverage this season- that it has slipped a notch or so.  I'm still enjoying it though and they got a lot of good will from me when they did that episode where Timothy Hutton did the tribute to his Dad's version of Ellery Queen.

Best

Joe

[paw broon]

"Been a fan of "New Tricks" for years, Paw. Our local PBS station has been showing newer episodes this year, but we're probably still at least a year behind. By the way, is there any word on possible new episodes of "Sherlock"? Only a little over a month till the new season of "The Mentalist". What can they do to top last season's finale? Cheers, Bowers"
New Sherlock coming up in the autumn.  Yeeeeeeeaaaah!!!!!!   And heaven only knows what they're going to do with The Mentalist.

[bowers]

Last night on the local college cable channel "Prof. Fred's Movie Madness" aired possibly one of the worst sci-fi movies ever made. I believe the title was "Attack from Space", one of the Japanese "Starman/ Super Giant" series. Where to begin? The hero's ludicrous costume? (Looks kind of like a butterfly!) The ridiculous laugh as he beats up the evil minions? Jaw-dropping special effects, such as reversing a film clip of a man rolling down the stairs so it looks like Starman kicked him up the stairs? Fight scenes that go on forever because everybody, even the ones that were shot, keep getting up and coming back for more?  Spaceship doors opening in space without losing any cabin pressure? The list goes on and on. This movie is so bad it could not have been released-- it must have escaped! Cheers, Bowers

[paw broon]

Don't know if I should admit this or not but here goes, I have, not only, Attack From Space but also Evil Brain From Outer Space and Atomic Rulers of the World. And, yes, I bought them and I've watched them and you're bang on, they are so awful.  But isn't that part of the fun?   I'm sure there must have been other Starman movies as the ones I have are from 1956, 1964 and 1965 - unless that's their American release dates.  Having seen such truly enjoyable films such as The Mysterians and War in Space, I was keen to see more and unfortunately Starman was waiting for me.  Oh well.

[josemas]

Yikes!   

I have loved the Japanese Starman movies ever since I first saw them on television as a little kid and while much of Bower's description is spot on it's really no worse than much of what goes on in many GA (or even SA) super-hero comics.

Starman (or Super Giant as he was originally named in Japan) paved the way for such later Japanese celluloid heroes as Ultraman and Kamen Rider.  In Japan the films were originally released (from 1957-59) as a nine episode serial/series consisting of three two-part story lines and three stand alone episodes. Episodes originally ran anywhere from 39-57 minutes each.  The four American Starman adaptations edited the six two-part story lines into three single movies and the three stand alone episodes into one very convoluted movie.

While they may be a guilty pleasure I still enjoy watching my DVDs of the American Starman movies and would love to someday see the original Japanese versions.

Best

Joe (standing up for Truth, Justice and the [wacky] Japanese Superhero way)

PS The four American Starman movies (all released directly to television in the mid 1960s) are Atomic Rulers of the World, Invaders From Space, Attack From Space and Evil Brain From Outer Space (collect 'em all).

[bowers]

You're right, gentlemen. Even though it was an awful movie, it did have a quirky charm.  I have to admit that I did watch the whole thing! Wonder what gem Prof. Fred has in store for us next week? Cheers, Bowers

[profh0011]

Once again I've just watched some of my favorite series films... over the last
few days, the final 3. To use (ahem) "alternate" titles...


DRACULA TODAY

DRACULA IS DEAD AND WELL AND LIVING IN LONDON

DRACULA AND THE ARMY OF KUNG-FU ZOMBIES


Not the actual titles, but fun flicks all the same. And Peter Cushing is Prof.
Van Helsing in all 3 of them!