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[josemas]

I tend to agree that Fairbanks and Williams are probably better in the role of Zorro (although only by a little bit) but I still think the 1940 film is the best Zorro feature in terms of overall production, direction, cast etc...

[profh0011]

I actually did see the Guy Williams "movie" in a theatre, sometime in the 70s, on a double-bill with SWISS FAMILY ROBINSON.  (Which is kinda bizarre, if you think about it.)

[bowers]

If I recall correctly, Fairbanks actually carved the "Z" on his opponent's face. That's a hard-core Zorro! I also think the Power version was the best. Anyone notice that the script for the 1974 Langella TV movie is almost literally word-for-word from the 1940 film version? Anyway, I liked them all. Cheers, Bowers

[Morgus]

THIEF OF BAGDAD 1924 Fairbanks again...and my favourite movie from him. The sets are terrific, and his stunts never fail to amaze me. Like Harvey Korman said in BLAZING SADDLES:'How did he do such great stunts with such little feet???"

[narfstar]

Watching the season finale of TURN. I enjoy learning history while enjoying a good show. This is one of my favorites. Anxious for the next season.

[bowers]

Yeah, TURN was pretty good. I especially enjoyed the espionage tricks they used, such as secret writing inside a hard-boiled egg. I had to try it, and it works! Cheers, Bowers

[profh0011]

"THE HEAVENS CALL" (1959) is virtually the Russian version of "2001: A SPACE ODYSSEY", only made 9 years earlier.  It's a very expensive, visually-impressive film about the future of space travel, with some political commentary thrown in.  Of course, it's NEVER been properly translated into English, either by dubbing or subtitles, as it shows the Russians as helpful and the Americans as foolhardy types who need to be rescued from their own folly.

Roger Corman & Francis Ford Coppola just barely managed to maintain the main thrust of the story, while totally murdering the translation & voice dubbing process, when they did their US version, entitled BATTLE BEYOND THE SUN.  Astoundingly, some footage from the film also turned up, COMPLETELY out of context, in Peter Bogdonavich's VOYAGE TO THE PLANET OF PREHISTORIC WOMEN, which manages to mangle the Russian film "PLANET OF STORMS" even more than the earlier VOYAGE TO THE PREHISTORIC PLANET did.

I'm guessing someone in Russia actually posted THE HEAVENS CALL at Youtube, it's a pristine print, which looks IMMENSELY better than any of the US butcher jobs I've seen online.  Of course, there's NO dubbing... and NO subtitles.  Oh well.  I did have to read an online review of the actual Russian version to understand a few points of the plot, despite having seen the US version already.  But it's such a STUNNING film, visually, for me, I couldn't help watch the whole thing even though I couldn't understand a single word of it.

It seems some of the production drawings from THE HEAVENS CALL actually made their way into Stanley Kubrick's hands.  I'm not surprised.  There's this one scene of a "shuttle" that takes astronauts from Earth to the huge orbitting space platform where you see 2 characters step out of a circular elevator located in the center of a round room where the design is almost IDENTICAL to the one in "2001" where Ed Bishop stops in to say hello to passenger William Sylvester (as "The Blue Danube" played).

Also, the conversations about Russians & Americans helping each other and sharing information in space exploration reminds me of "2010".  Someone suggested that the production team was operating inside a "bubble", as stylistically the film is a lot like a SILENT film... but then, so was "2001"!!!

[Morgus]

SOLARIS Is the Russian feature I actually liked better then 2001..give it a try and see what you think..

[profh0011]

I like a lot of movies more than "2001".  It just happens "2001" has a special place in my heart for being such a unique "art" film which I saw multiple times in theatres over the years, etc. etc. etc.

It was interesting seeing a much older film that clearly had to have been some influence on it.

Now if you wanna talk about a really GREAT space movie with a GREAT story, etc.....  "2010".  (I really get tired of people dismissing it when in so many ways it's a much better "movie". And MUCH more powerful than Clarke's novel it was based on!)

[Morgus]

Wow, somebody else digs that one, too! I KNEW there had to be someone...I enjoyed it a WHOLE lot more...I cared about the characters...and liked the way they dealt with HAL..."Will I dream??" Very powerful.
A very under rated film...

[profh0011]

You know the crazy thing about "2010"?  The entire US vs. USSR subplot was created just for the movie.  I like to compare the movie adaptation of "2010" to the Disney "20,000 LEAGUES".  Both cut half the "technical" stuff but replaced it MUCH more powerful character drama.

It's only a tiny shame "2010" cut the minor sub-plot about the Red Chinese making it to Io before the Russians... and a creature there accidentally destroying their ship, stranding them to a hopeless horrible death from lack of air before anyone could possibly save them.  (Now that I think about it, that sub-plot almost seems inspired by the one about the Americans racing to beat the Russians to Mars in "THE HEAVENS CALL", and having their own disaster as a result.)


The only thing from the book I miss in the movie is the BRIEF bit right after the Discovery blows up. ..





"Dave? Are you there? What happened?"
"It's alright HAL.  Everything's going to be alright."


HAL was advanced to a superior being, just like Dave had been.  That means HAL was a sentient being!!!  I actually cried when I read that in the book.


By the way, if you'd like to see William Sylvester (the original Dr. Floyd) in something GREAT, check out the "INTERLUDE IN VENICE" episode of THE SAINT with Roger Moore.  it's one of the best episodes in the entire series, and the guest-stars also include Lois Maxwell, and Patrick Troughton (who steals the show even though he's only in it for a few minutes).

[narfstar]

Anyone else watching this. My wife and I really liked the first episode, not so much the second. The third was OK. We find ourselves enjoying it more when they are lawyers, and he uses his powers, than when he is a superhero.

[profh0011]

I ESCAPED FROM DEVIL'S ISLAND (1973), with Jim Brown (in a role suspciously similar to Luke Cage), with Christopher George, and supportng roles by Robert Phillips & Paul Richards.  I'm beginning to wonder at this point just HOW MANY "prison" pictures Roger Corman was involved in in the 70s.

[profh0011]

THE ARENA  (1973)

What, ANOTHER Pam Grier "women in prison" / "escape" movie produced by Roger Corman?  How many of these things ARE there???  Geez.  This one stands out from the others for having a much bigger budget, and being a "Roman Empire" film, in which the mistake is the decision to turn women slaves into GLADIATORS... and of course, a revolt erupts at the climax.  I did find myself yelling at the screen, "KILL them! KILL THEM ALL!  EVERY F***ING one of them!!!"  (The Romans, of course, nothing but savage, brutal animals in the guise of "civilization", which deserved destruction and which everyone should be on the alert to make sure that certain elements of our modern world DON'T succeed in BRINGING BACK.)

[profh0011]

"EVIL UNDER THE SUN" (1982), from the first time I saw it on HBO (I never even heard of it until then-- I suspect it didn't even run in my area at all, or if it did, that it vanished after 7 days) , has long been a close 2nd for me after DEATH ON THE NILE as my favorite AC or Poirot film.  Unlike "...NILE", though, I had a much harder time remembering the details. I loved the locations, the cast, the dialogue, the music... but it seemed to me they picked that particular story to do because it was the most complex mystery they could find.  At the end, it would always make sense, but I could never follow the details or logic of it.

Then, a few years ago, I almost fell asleep on the end.  After, I got so annoyed, I went to get a snack, came back, re-ran the tape to exactly where Maggie Smith says, "You mean-- NOBODY did it!" and Poriot replied, "And yet... we STILL have... a body." --and watched the end again.

AND SUDDENLY, after more than 20 years, the WHOLE DAMN FILM made sense to me!!!!

I've seen it multiple times since, and unlike before, each time now, I KNOW exactly what's going on.  And why.  The why is important.  And they don't really stress that in the film itself.  But trust me, if you don't understand the motives, the actions are almost impossible to keep track of!!

I think "EVIL..." may have surpassed "...NILE" in my eyes these days.  I just love it.

[profh0011]

DOWN AND DIRTY DUCK (1974) -- possibly the strangest animated film I've ever sat thru (and that says a lot). The style of this reminds me a bit of YELLOW SUBMARINE, but while that was charming, this is not. By a very wide margin.  Violence, nudity, sex, profanity, drugs, you name it, this thing's got it. And none of it is pleasant. or even cohetrent, in any way.  I still can't figure out what the hell a "duck" has to do with anything.  Was it a slap at Disney & Warner Brothers?  This was originally going to be called "CHEAP", but Roger Corman objected, as apparently he felt audiences would think it referered to the production values.

[profh0011]

COCKFIGHTER (1974)  Warren Oates, Richard Schull & Harry Dean Stanton give terrific performances (especially Schull, who steals the movie) in a film that is so "marginal" New World had trouble figuring out how to promote it, it had only limited releases in the US, and was BANNED in many countries for its subject matter (people who make a living training roosters to fight to the death).

BIG BAD MAMA (1974) Angie Dickinson breaks every law in the book in this depression-era crime-spree epic that follows in the tradition of BONNIE AND CLYDE and BLOODY MAMA. Noble Willingham plays a bootlegger who gets killed early in the proceedings, Tom Skeritt plays a bank robber who winds up teaming up with Angie, and Dick Miller plays a Fed who's following her trail of mayhem. Oh yeah, and William Shatner gets 2nd billing.

[paw broon]

DOWN AND DIRTY DUCK ?  prof, could it perhaps be rhyming slang?  It is here.  Unless, of course, there is a duck as a main character.  Perhaps it's just the way my mind works
No, I've just checked IMDB and it is about a duck, so I assume that's what a "duck" has to do with it.
As things are improving here, we've had a chance to watch some more tv, but it's been mostly re-runs of Midsomer Murders, Lewis, some Star Trek and Benidorm, which is a truly awful depiction of holidays in a Spanish hotel in Benidorm, but fall off the chair funny.  There are a pile of episodes from series 4 & 5 here:-
http://www.dailymotion.com/video/xplinr_benidorm-s05e03_shortfilms
Well, we think they're funny. Be warned, bad language, adult situations, weirdness and cringeworthy at times. But I don't think many outside UK will get some of it.

[profh0011]

I've reached a point where if some of these movies are really not interesting me, I let them run while I'm doing Photoshop on the other computer.  So I can listen, and look over if anything's interesting.  Haven't done this sort of thing in ages, niot since I had a "wired" remote on my VCR and could edit shows without even looking. 

In the case of that cartoon, I'm sure the visuals were more interesting than the dialogue, but there you go.  Yes, the movie did have a duck in it, I just don't know WHY, and that's after watching the whole thing. There seemed to be some point to it, or some meaning to the word beyond the obvious, but I couldn't figure it out.  I figure, the whole thing was done by people ON DRUGS.  Let that be a lesson.  Don't do drugs.   

[profh0011]

CAPONE  (1975)

Directed by Steve Carver (who did my favorite Chuck Norris film, AN EYE FOR AN EYE), starring Ben Gazarra, Harry Guardino, Sylvester Stallone, and quite a few dependable character actors.  After ALLLLL those el cheapo films made in the Phillipines, it's good to finally see Roger Corman back to doing "classy" pictures again.  Although I would say this isn't HALF the film Corman's own THE ST. VALENTINE'S DAY MASSACRE was, in my eyes it's a FAR better and more watchable film that that over-budgeted soul-less atrocity Brian De Palma knocked out.

Oddly enough, Gazarra is out-acted by nearly every single actor in this film (or maybe the version of Capone he created here is simply so simple and one-dimensional, it only looks that way).  The most memorable scene in the entire film for me-- the only bit I really remembered after 30 years-- was at the very end, when Frank Nitti goes to see the sick Capone, who's slowly dying and has already lost his mind.  A young hood says he'd have loved to met the old guy in his prime-- he heard he was real smart.

"Smart? HIM? Let me tell you-- he was an ANIMAL.  Always shooting guys across the street.  That's how he got where he was, and that's how he figured he'd stay there.  His big mistake-- the same one Johnny Torrio made-- was, the guy you have to worry about isn't across the street-- he's on the same ladder you are, and RIGHT behind you."

This film chronicles 4 bosses of the South Chicago Mob-- Big Jim Colossimo (who refused to get into bootlegging), his sidekick Johnny Torrio (who wanted peace, not gang wars), his sidekick Al Capone (see above description), and HIS sidekick, Frank Nitti.  Each is responsible for getting rid of the one before him!  In this version, it's Frank Nitti who is directly responsible for handing over Capone's books to the Feds, bringing about his conviction on income tax evasion.  This is foreshadowed less than halfway thru the film, when Nitti is seen planting a bomb in Capone's car-- then, "discovering" it, to make himself self look loyal to Capone.  RIGHT.

Each film bio of Capone seems to focus on different aspects of his career.

[profh0011]

JACKSON COUNTY JAIL (1976).  After knowing about this film for decades, I finally saw it.  Unlike all those earlier "women in prison" movies, this one focuses entirely on ONE woman who's having the worst luck imaginable.  Her 2-year boyfriend cheats on her again, she decides to take up an old friend on a job offer in NYC, but makes the mistake of driving there.  While in the deep south, she makes the next mistake of giving a screwy young couple a ride... and proceeds to have them steal her car, her I.D., and almost kill her.  A diner owner tries to rape her, and when a cop arrives, he locks HER up because she doesn't have any I.D.  During the night, one of the deputies tries to rape her (!!!), she KILLS the bastard in self-defense, then if pushed into RUNNING for it by her fellow prisoner, a career criminal headed for death row in another state.  What follows is a crazy series of running, hiding, chasing, action & violence, in which the self-professed "thief" is the ONLY one who treats her with any respect in the whole movie!

Stars Yvette Mimieux (probably her highest-profile film after THE TIME MACHINE), Howard Hesseman (WKRP) Severn Darden (he played a total bastard in the 4th & 5th PLANET OF THE APES films), Tommy Lee Jones (the irony of hearing him say the cops don't have time to look for killers is outrageous, considering his role in THE FUGITIVE and U.S. MARSHALS) and Mary Woronov (a fabulous cameo as an outlaw last seen shooting it out with the cops as if it was as natural as breathing).  A harrowing story that fortunately for all involved moves SO FAST and is over almost before you know it, it doesn't outstay its welcome.

[elGiron]

Woah, thanks for all the info prof! I had no idea that movie existed. I remember I once bought "Voyage To The Prehistoric Planet" (?) dirt cheap. I think that is also a Russian flick. That one could have been better.

[profh0011]

"I had no idea that movie existed."

Wait a minute-- which one?

I was trying to briefly cover all the films I've been seeing, but it was starting to get away from me, so I figured, at the least, I should talk about some of them one at a time as I finish watching them.

THE HEAVENS CALL was a Russian epic (very much in the style of 2001, but 8 years early) that Corman turned into BATTLE BEYOND THE SUN.

PLANET OF STORMS, about an expedition to Venus, was turned into VOYAGE TO A PREHISTORIC PLANET.  Then, 3 years later, it was turned into VOYAGE TO THE PLANET OF PREHISTORIC WOMEN.  Not a sequel-- a "remake", this time, with added footage to show the same exact story from the previously-unseen women's POV.  Unfortunately, it winds up destroying any sense of mystery, wonder, or SYMPATHY toward said women, as we "discover" every disaster the Earthmen faced in the original film was caused by MURDER-CRAZED religious fanatics trying to destroy "the invaders".  What's left of the film also becomes totally disjointed as they cut lots of footage to make room for the new footage.

Both of these butcher-jobs (the 1st one isn't bad, the 2nd one is) ALSO feature some footage from THE HEAVENS CALL-- especially the 2nd one.  It was a charge to actually see the original Russian film, with a GOOD, sharp, bright print-- even if, with no dubbing and no subtitles, I couldn't understand a single word of it.

Now I gotta see if some movie fan IN RUSSIA has posted PLANET OF STORMS in its original form online...

[bowers]

Just had the pleasure(?) of viewing "Voyage to the Planet of Prehistoric Women" a few nights ago. One of the local education channels carries "Professor Fred's Movie Marvels", a public access program out of Seattle. Prof. Fred treats us to some of the most obscure, ridiculous, and just plain worst sci-fi and horror movies ever made. This movie starred(?) one of my all-time favorite 60's Hollywood blondes- Mamie Van Doren. Also a host of blonde hotties in tight capris and clamshell halters. And a rubber pterodactyl! Some of the Russian footage was a bit silly as well, such as the two guys riding a robot out of a lava flow. Well, they can't all be gems! Cheers, Bowers

[profh0011]

Working backwards, now you need to see VOYAGE TO THE PREHISTORIC PLANET... and at some point, PLANET OF STORMS.