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[profh0011]

COME DIE WITH ME   (1994)

Rob Estes as Mike Hammer, Pamela Anderson as Velda, and Darlanne Fleugel as Pat Chambers.  REALLY?  REALLY??  Oh, yeah, and talk about unmittigated nerve...  Kent Williams plays a stoolie.  Not only that, but Dr. Joyce Brothers makes her 3rd appearance (as herself, natch) in a Mike Hammer story.  That Jay Bernstein...!

I'll be honest... this is actually a good film, well-made, fun to watch. I could tell because I was tired as hell when I put it on and I DIDN'T fall asleep, or even begin to drift off, not even once for its entire length. But I think it would have gone over with the audience MUCH better if they'd just changed the names of the 3 leads.  I mean, COME ON!!! It's not just that this cast replaces Stacy Keach, Lindsey Bloom & Don Stroud (FOR NO DAMN APPARENT REASON), but to try and depict "Mike Hammer" as a young, hip, "cool" P.I. living IN MIAMI-- it's just a bit too much of a departure. (I wonder what the HELL Mickey Spillane thought of this?)

I remember liking Rob Estes in SILK STALKINGS.  Pamela Anderson used to be so CUTE back in those days (before repeated trips to the plastic surgeon... why? WHY???). And I see Darlanne Fleugel was Rick Hunter's 2nd partner-- the one they KILLED OFF after a dozen episodes, to be replaced by Lauren Lane (before THE NANNY).  Fleugel was also in BATTLE BEYOND THE STARS, as Richard Thomas' love interest.  Boy, did she change over those years!

Randi Ingerman, who played the crooked woman cop (who hires herself out as a HITMAN!!!), oddly enough, actually reminded me of the character "Chelle" from Paige Braddock's JANE'S WORLD.  Strange...!

[josemas]

I missed this Mike Hammer version completely. 

Your posting is the first I heard of it, Henry.

I guess it didn't do particularly well as there were no followups.

Best

Joe

[josemas]

Some TV collections watched lately

3rd Rock From the Sun- Season Two-  Great cast and writing keep this show on a role.  The 2 part 3-D season finale was a hoot.  What the heck have French Stewart and Kristen Johnston been doing since this series?  They're both great in it!   A crime that it didn't make TV Guide's recent 60 Greatest Comedies list.  Extras on the set included bloopers, interviews and some behind the scenes featurettes.

Secret File USA-  a no-frills four-episode DVD set showcasing this mid 1950s espionage series.  It starred Robert Alda (father of M*A*S*H's Alan Alda).  It's low budget but because it was filmed in Amsterdam it benefits from some authentic European location filming, at times.   
I grew up on the fantastic spy/secret agent series of the 1960s (Man from UNCLE, Wild Wild West, Mission Impossible) so getting to see the much grimmer, very cold war espionage series of the 1950s in recent years has been an eye-opener.

The Carol Burnett Show-  a 16 episode collection showcasing mainly episodes from the mid 1970s.- every one a winner!   The last of the really great comedy-variety shows here in the states.  Lots of extras including interviews, documentaries, and an episode of The Gary Moore Show (on which Carol was a regular co-star) from the early 1960s in which Carol plays Supergirl and does her tarzan yell for the first time on network TV.

Best

Joe

[jimmm kelly]

The Carol Burnett Show-  a 16 episode collection showcasing mainly episodes from the mid 1970s.- every one a winner!   The last of the really great comedy-variety shows here in the states.  Lots of extras including interviews, documentaries, and an episode of The Gary Moore Show (on which Carol was a regular co-star) from the early 1960s in which Carol plays Supergirl and does her tarzan yell for the first time on network TV.

Best

Joe

The first time I remember seeing Carol Burnett doing the Tarzan yell was in a Tarzan spoof on THE JACK BENNY SHOW (which would've been in late 1962). I don't think we got THE GARRY MOORE SHOW on our TV, as I don't remember seeing it, though I knew it existed. I mainly remember Garry Moore for hosting TO TELL THE TRUTH (previously hosted by Bud "Superman" Collyer)--and I used to think Mary Tyler Moore was his daughter.

On a tangent, listening to the radio today, I heard that orangutan's can't distinguish music from noise. To generalize, I would assume this is true for all the great apes. Yet Tarzan's ape family were musical, in that they would drum and dance at the Dum-Dum--which might suggest an evolutionary distinction between these apes and others.

[profh0011]

Josemas:
"I guess it didn't do particularly well as there were no followups."

I did so "well", 3 years later, Jay bernstein brought back STACY KEACH for a brand-new series for syndication, MIKE HAMMER, PRIVATE EYE.  (heehee)

Kent Williams had an appearance in the 1st episode as Barrington (now Deputy Mayor), but there was a new Velda, an entirely new character replacing Pat Chambers, and Mike picked up a young protoge.  Ther local station here did such a chaotic job running it, I threw my hands up after only a few weeks!!! (I never knew when it would be on or not...)

[profh0011]

THE MYSTERIOUS ISLAND  (1929)

Legend has it this was filmed in 2-strip Technicolor, but, no color prints are known to exist.  Too bad.  Really cool film designed to be the "epitome of Jules Verne", incorporating various elements from several of his books (while having next to nothing to do with the plot of the one it takes its title from).  I like how this one online review pointed out that, except for the main character DYING at the end, this could easily be a "prequel" to Disney's 20,000 LEAGUES UNDER THE SEA, showing us in detail the "origin" of Captain Nemo!

Because so much of the plot involves 2 submarines, each crippled in different ways, slowly sinking to the floor of the ocean, I keep thinking a good alternate title would have been, "VOYAGE TO THE BOTTOM OF THE SEA".


20,000 LEAGUES UNDER THE SEA  (1956)

I still consider this possibly the single best adventure film Disney was ever involved in.  Having read the novel in the late 80's, I can somewhat understand that someone felt the "need" to borrow elements from another Verne book ino order to give the film an "action" climax the novel simply didn't have. What's interesting is, I went in this time specifically looking at the film as a SEQUEL (to the 1929 film), and it's amazing how much it makes sense in that light.  This is particularly tur regarding the way nemo treats Professor Arronax.  One can easily see him thinking of Baron Fallon, a man who put acquiring HIS scientific knowledge (for all the wrong and worst purposes) ABOVE human life.  You also wind up with 2 films in a row with a similar ending (the inventor blowing up his own shipyard to prevent others from getting their hands on his work).

[narfstar]

Season Final of Doctor Who was interesting enough.

[jimmm kelly]

The season finale was pretty good.

At the risk of revealing my inner Mary Sunshine, I really like DOCTOR WHO. All of DOCTOR WHO. This might be because I've only become a fan in the past year and after this honeymoon phase, maybe in twenty years, I too will sound like all those darkhearted Whovians that grumble about every detail and pick everything apart.

But the whole reason I was attracted to Who is because it's the one thing that remains intact. Whatever problems it has with continuity are minor when compared with what has been done to the great comics, movies, and TV shows I've loved.

DW is a safe refuge from all the reboots and retcons that have smashed my favourite stories to pieces. For that reason I truly admire DOCTOR WHO, new and old.

I hope we will get to see Paul McGann return in the 50th celebration. And I hope they do something Canadian--since Sydney Newman was Canadian and other Canadian elements have played into the series over its history. I'm bummed out that Clara's leaf used to be a maple leaf and now it's some other kind of leaf. I was sure it was supposed to be a maple leaf to honour Sydney's creative input.

[narfstar]

Like many Americans I started with the 4th Doctor. I liked all those to follow some more than others. I enjoyed many of the stories, despite what some consider terrible writing. I did not like the third Doctor because he was stuck on earth. I have not seen much of the first two.

Arrow seemed more like a final than season final with so much wrapped up.

[profh0011]

I still remember, when the revival was announced, and even several weeks into it, fans were still not sure, is this gonna be a reboot, or a revival?  Some weeks into the Christoppher Eccleston season, it became clear... REVIVAL! Considering almost the entire show has changed completely at times when a new Doctor was cast, what point would there have been to follow everyone else's bad habit and throw everything out just to start over?

That said, it flipped me out how well the revival started.  Unlike the Paul McGann film (which got just about everything possible as wrong as could be), Eccleston's 1st episode starts out focusing on the human cast, and we have no idea WHO this strange guy calling himself "The Doctor" is.  It really allowed the show to build a brand new audience from scratch, while not alienating any of its older fans.

My 1st Doctor was actually Peter Cushing (we're talking "alternate universe version" here-- heh).  Then it was Jon Pertwee (except the Philly station skipped his debut story).  Years later, Tom Baker (the Philly station ran his first 4 seasons totally out of sequence!!). 

After that, it was Peter Davison, William Hartnell, Patrick Troughton, Colin Baker... and THEN Sylvester McCoy.  And the crazy thing is, McCoy became my favorite!  (How'd THAT happen?)   

[profh0011]

Oh, by the way... HERE's my favorite Peter Davison...
http://25.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_lrzag8AIMC1qb7zluo1_500.jpg

[narfstar]

If I did not have so many other things to watch and do I would give Campion a try.

[paw broon]

We have the box set of Campion - great entertainment.  New series of The Apprentice started here but some of our American favourites are finished for a while. 

[jimmm kelly]

I really enjoyed the season finale of ARROW. Man oh man, wall to wall excitement. And there's something about seeing your hometown in ruins that is attention grabbing (if not exactly entertaining).

Given the gamble that is TV production, I think the ARROW producers planned out the year to be relatively self-contained, just in case the series didn't get picked up for a second season.

With DOCTOR WHO this season, it's felt like really the fall episodes belong with the previous season. While from Christmas onward those episodes are all set-up for the 50th anniversary special and the coming storm next season.

By the way, along with Barrowman and Kingston, there's another connection between WHO and ARROW--which is that Mi-Jung Lee played an unnamed TV reporter in the 1996 TV movie and she's played an unnamed TV reporter in episodes of ARROW. Mi-Jung Lee is a Vancouver TV reporter, as she was back in 1996 (and she's played the same role in several other movies and TV shows).

Of course, if location is a character, then you could also say that the character of Vancouver has played a role both in the DOCTOR WHO TV movie and ARROW. In fact some of the same locations were undoubtedly used in both.

[narfstar]

I wish shows would at least plan to wrap up at the end of the season. Make a wrap up episode for whenever the wrap up might be. Remember a few years ago when all three networks had a scifi show. Threshold, Invasion, and another none finished. Then last year we had Ringer. I would like to have seen endings for Earth 2 and Space Above and Beyond. There may not be enough fans to keep a series going but they need to consider those loyal enough to stick with it. BTW does anyone else use VIGGLE? I am hoping that they are connected to some form or rating not just advertising. I want it known that I am watching Doctor Who and Orphan Black so more can be produced. I believe OB only has two episodes left. I hope it is the end of the show not just the season. Wrap it up not drag it out. Of course I did not think Revenge and Once Upon a Time could keep going as long and as well as they have.

[profh0011]

And finishing off the "Captain Nemo trilogy"...

MYSTERIOUS ISLAND  (1961)

I'm pretty sure this was my very 1st Ray Harryhausen film.  Isn't that Bernard Hermann something else? Overwhelming, overpowering, AWESOME music score!

Michael Craig (Captain Cyrus Harding) would later turn up on DOCTOR WHO in "Terror of the Vervoids", with Colin Baker & Bonnie Langford.

[profh0011]

It's bad enough for Jon Pertwee's Doctor to be stuck on Earth. Imagine "The Silurians" being my FIRST tv story and wondering what the HELL this has to do with the guy who travels around in space in a Police Box?

Plus, Pertwee's Doctor for most of seasons 7-8 had this colossal chip on his shoulder, angry as hell and obnoxious as a result for being stuck on Earth.  When I finally got to see "Spearhead From Space" in the mid-80's, it was a revelation. Pertwee was actually FUNNY in that! Re-watching it over the years, I came to realize an odd thing... he actually goes thru the entire story "doing" Patrick Troughton!  This is no doubt because the story was produced by Peter Bryant, who did Troughton's last season.  Barry Letts doesn't take over as new producer until "The Silurians".  Apparently, the strike ("industrial action") that forced them to record ON FILM and ON LOCATION rather than videotape in studio blew the season's budget, which is why the rest of the season consisted entirely of the budget-saving insanity of 3 7-PARTERS in a row.  (AUGH!!!)

To me, while I love "Spearhead", the show doesn't get really watchable until the sequel... "Terror of the Autons".  All of a sudden, you have likable characters all around to balance out the fact that the show's hero is an egotistical pain-in-the-ass.  Mike Yates (generally good guy), Jo Grant (adorable sweetie, and much smarter than she first appears), and Sgt. Benton (everyone's best friend).  Plus, you had this new guy who was handsome, charming, likable, and brilliant... and, unfortunately, a homicidal maniac. It's totally NUTS, but when I watched the 8th season way back in the 70s, I found The Master to be FAR more likable than The Doctor.  And he was the recurring VILLAIN!!!

This actually makes sense IF you know what Barry Letts had in mind, but which he was NEVER able to reveal onscreen in the series, due to Roger Delgado's fatal accident between seasons 10 & 11... that The Doctor had somehow been SPLIT into 2 people, and The Master was his other half!!  Barry Letts was a big STAR TREK fan... think 1st season episode, "THE ENEMY WITHIN", where Kirk is split in two via a transporter accident.  I really wish Letts had been able to finish the story the way he intended.  If he had, we wouldn't have gotten an endless succession of TERRIBLE stories where they brought The Master back over and over, each one worse than the one before.

Roger Delgado actually served as the inspiration for one of my own comic-book characters...

[jimmm kelly]

Well when I was watching all those episodes a few months ago, as the end of Troughton came and I knew what was in store with Pertwee, I approached it with trepidation. But my general experience of everything (with small exceptions) is that after my initial discomfort, I came to enjoy the new order. Nevertheless, I was anxious to see the Doctor use the TARDIS again.

I still think it was a dumb move to ground the Doctor, but the good result were all those characters (and the actors who played them) that cast a long shadow through the rest of the series.

What intrigues me about this, on a thematic level, is that we saw the same thing happening in comics around the same time. Wonder Woman, Teen Titans, Green Lantern, Superman, even Batman had some kind of grounding of one kind or another. Also, I think at Marvel there were similar doings with Captain America, Silver Surfer and maybe some others.

While some of this was for the good, in general I find it strange, because it feels like the people behind these changes wanted to stop us from having good fun. It's like your parents telling you to stay in your room and do your homework, instead of going out to play.

Or to use a Paul McGann and Richard E. Grant reference, it's like the end of WITHNAIL AND I, where we go from the gassy goofball romp of the 60s to cutting our hair and settling in the 70s.

[Captain Audio]

THE MYSTERIOUS ISLAND  (1929)

Legend has it this was filmed in 2-strip Technicolor, but, no color prints are known to exist.  Too bad.  Really cool film designed to be the "epitome of Jules Verne", incorporating various elements from several of his books (while having next to nothing to do with the plot of the one it takes its title from).  I like how this one online review pointed out that, except for the main character DYING at the end, this could easily be a "prequel" to Disney's 20,000 LEAGUES UNDER THE SEA, showing us in detail the "origin" of Captain Nemo!

Because so much of the plot involves 2 submarines, each crippled in different ways, slowly sinking to the floor of the ocean, I keep thinking a good alternate title would have been, "VOYAGE TO THE BOTTOM OF THE SEA".


20,000 LEAGUES UNDER THE SEA  (1956)

I still consider this possibly the single best adventure film Disney was ever involved in.  Having read the novel in the late 80's, I can somewhat understand that someone felt the "need" to borrow elements from another Verne book ino order to give the film an "action" climax the novel simply didn't have. What's interesting is, I went in this time specifically looking at the film as a SEQUEL (to the 1929 film), and it's amazing how much it makes sense in that light.  This is particularly tur regarding the way nemo treats Professor Arronax.  One can easily see him thinking of Baron Fallon, a man who put acquiring HIS scientific knowledge (for all the wrong and worst purposes) ABOVE human life.  You also wind up with 2 films in a row with a similar ending (the inventor blowing up his own shipyard to prevent others from getting their hands on his work).

You should check out the silent version of 20,000 Leagues under the sea, its available as a free download on the Internet Archive site.
The film is a bit dark and grainy in spots but still very watchable. I was amazed at how well they built the prop Nautilus and there's far more action than you'd expect in a film of that era.
They tell Nemo's back story in full, which other productions only hinted at.

I had just watched the Disney versions of 20,000 Leagues last night. Its a great film and holds up extremely well even by todays standards. James Mason will always be Nemo to me.

PS
The 29 version of Mysterious Island is another personal favorite. I'll always remember the sunken war galley with skeletons still chained to the rows being dragged into position so its battering ram could be used against the sub. Alexander the Great once used warships outfitted with battering rams to attack a Phoenician walled city.

[profh0011]

I don't mind watching short bits on computer, but the way the room and the furniture is set up, I don't watch movies on computer-- only on the TV (on the other side of the room).  And I don't at the moment have any way to connect the two (so don't start making suggestions please...)   

What a surprise when I read 20,000 LEAGUES (in the 80's) and found there was NO explanation for Nemo at all!  We knew his crew spoke some "unknown" language-- but what?

Strange but true...  Jules Verne wrote the book with Nemo being a POLISH count whose family is murdered by the RUSSIANS!  But France was friendly with the Czars at the time, and so censorship reared its ugly head, and that part of the book was cut out before publication.

Later, in THE MYSTERIOUS ISLAND, Verne revealed that Nemo had been an INDIAN prince who'd taken part in an uprising against the ENGLISH.  France has a long history of hating England, so it was perfectly okay for the villains to be English!

What's interesting is when MGM did their film in the late 20's, the fictional country they created was a blatent, OBVIOUS stand-in for RUSSIA undergoing the Bolshevik Revolution (when CRIMINALS seized power under the guise of alleged "cultural reform" and "communism"-- what B***S***!!!).  Lionel Barrymore was, in effect, closer to what Jules Verne had in mind than what wound up in the novels!!

Disney added the revelation about Nemo's past (which was not there in the published novel), but carried over having the baddies be OBVIOUSLY English (though referred to as "that country that flies no flag"-- just look at those uniforms!!), and Mason was obviously English as well.  So a DISNEY film depicted the ENGLISH government murdering their own citizens... they just didn't come out and say it. You'd think that might have been somewhat controversial post-WW2, wouldn't you?

We don't really know what nationality Herbert Lom is (though he often played foreigners, as when he played the pirate ship captain in SPARTACUS).  While Disney expanded on Nemo's character in their film, and added a lot of emotional depth that wasn't in the published novel, I like the fact that Charles Schneer & Ray Harryhausen made Nemo more robust (NOT dying of old age) and still involved in scientific research to find ways to end war. It blows my mind that they took such a LONG, LONG book and squeezed it into a relatively short film, left out 3/4ths of the details, ADDED a pile of stuff that wasn't in the book, and yet, still managed to be very faithful to the overall structure and tone of the novel!  That's astounding.

[profh0011]

Polishing off my "submarine" movie marathon...

VOYAGE TO THE BOTTOM OF THE SEA  (1961)

This has simply the most insane plot I've ever seen in any sci-fi film.  The Van Allen belt has ignited, the temperature keeps rising, and by a certain point, the entire world will be cremated!  Unless, an nuclear missile can be fired at a specific time, place, and angle of tragectory, to blow the belt away from Earth.  (Who writes this stuff???)

The last 10 minutes are really wild.  First, Captain Lee Crane orders Admiral Harriman Nelson relieved of command for irrational behavior.  But he's interrupted when an unknown sub tries to destroy The Seaview with torpedos.  They're only saved by diving into the Marianas Trench so deep, the other sub, stupid enough to follow, BLOWS up from the pressure!  Then, while they're down there, a GIANT OCTOPUS grabs The Seaview!!! They no sooner get away, when someone cuts off the power.  Turns out it's the psychiatrist who claimed Nelson was going crazy, who has not only got a lethal dose of radiation, but falls into a shark pool.  With only minutes left to fire the missile, suddenly, a religious fanatic holds up a bomb, declaring "It's not right to challenge God's will!" So Crane has to sneak outside the ship in order to fire the missile MANUALLY!

I haven't seen the TV series in ages, but the feature film has become a favorite of mine in recent years (despite its clunkiness in spots).  I sometimes wonder what posessed Irwin Allen to do the pilot of the TV series as a REBOOT instead of a sequel? It seems to me some of the characters from this film would have been an asset to the show.  But apparently, Allen wanted the show to be DEADLY SERIOUS all the time, and had no room for humor, or romance. In a way, this film is even more like STAR TREK than the TV series was.

[Captain Audio]

I don't mind watching short bits on computer, but the way the room and the furniture is set up, I don't watch movies on computer-- only on the TV (on the other side of the room).  And I don't at the moment have any way to connect the two (so don't start making suggestions please...)   

I don't watch movies on the PC if I can help, despite having an excellent quality and fair sized flat screen monitor.
There are freeware programs that allow you to burn a downloaded video to DVD. I can recommend DVDstyler.
The first version I installed had a few glitches but the recent updated version works great, allowing up to nine short films (30 min) on a single 4.7 GB DVDR disc.
These play on any DVD player, and you can burn to PAL or NTSC as you prefer.

What a surprise when I read 20,000 LEAGUES (in the 80's) and found there was NO explanation for Nemo at all!  We knew his crew spoke some "unknown" language-- but what?

Been a long time since I read it and I'm fairly sure the edition I read was a toned down kid's edition.

Strange but true...  Jules Verne wrote the book with Nemo being a POLISH count whose family is murdered by the RUSSIANS!  But France was friendly with the Czars at the time, and so censorship reared its ugly head, and that part of the book was cut out before publication.

Later, in THE MYSTERIOUS ISLAND, Verne revealed that Nemo had been an INDIAN prince who'd taken part in an uprising against the ENGLISH.  France has a long history of hating England, so it was perfectly okay for the villains to be English!

What's interesting is when MGM did their film in the late 20's, the fictional country they created was a blatent, OBVIOUS stand-in for RUSSIA undergoing the Bolshevik Revolution (when CRIMINALS seized power under the guise of alleged "cultural reform" and "communism"-- what B***S***!!!).  Lionel Barrymore was, in effect, closer to what Jules Verne had in mind than what wound up in the novels!!

Disney added the revelation about Nemo's past (which was not there in the published novel), but carried over having the baddies be OBVIOUSLY English (though referred to as "that country that flies no flag"-- just look at those uniforms!!), and Mason was obviously English as well.  So a DISNEY film depicted the ENGLISH government murdering their own citizens... they just didn't come out and say it. You'd think that might have been somewhat controversial post-WW2, wouldn't you?

Though the uniforms look British, the German Colonial troops also wore similar uniforms and pith helmets. I'd have to compare screen caps to a catalog of uniforms of the era.
Belgian colonial troops also wore similar uniforms and helmets as did mercenary companies.
BSA also sold British military small arms under contract to many smaller countries and to Asian royalty for their personal guards.
British Khaki was a result of the Green Uniforms of the British East India company having faded from many washings and the tropical sun. The faded uniforms actually looked more businesslike than when new so Khaki became the color of choice for tropical uniforms and outdoor wear.
I have a USAF officers tropical bush jacket, apparently patterned on the British tropical jacket circa WW2.

We don't really know what nationality Herbert Lom is (though he often played foreigners, as when he played the pirate ship captain in SPARTACUS).  While Disney expanded on Nemo's character in their film, and added a lot of emotional depth that wasn't in the published novel, I like the fact that Charles Schneer & Ray Harryhausen made Nemo more robust (NOT dying of old age) and still involved in scientific research to find ways to end war. It blows my mind that they took such a LONG, LONG book and squeezed it into a relatively short film, left out 3/4ths of the details, ADDED a pile of stuff that wasn't in the book, and yet, still managed to be very faithful to the overall structure and tone of the novel!  That's astounding.

Herbert Lom is Czech born and moved to the UK in 1939.
There's a bit of the Tartar and/or Mongol in the appearance of many mid and eastern Europeans.

I like the Disney Mysterious Island. Lom's Nemo seemed a bit over the hill though, as Nemo would have been after all he had been through.

The 1916 production of 20,000 Leagues brings a lot into perspective.

[jimmm kelly]

Regarding VOYAGE TO THE BOTTOM OF THE SEA, I know that we watched this TV show every week, even though I was barely able to talk when it first aired. Being the youngest of five, what programs we watched was a constant negotiation--one that I rarely won. I suspect my brother had decided we had to watch this show.

While it had a couple of actors I liked, I found it a really dull show. The title seemed to promise so much more than what it delivered. I vaguely remember the movie and wondering why the TV show was never like that. It's hard to believe that some people thought this was even science fiction.

I remember the Disney version of 20,000 LEAGUES UNDER THE SEA. And I think I read the book. Our school library had a bunch of science fiction books by Jules Verne and H.G. Wells and I read all of them--which was pretty precocious, since I couldn't have been more than seven years old when I started reading those books. But I have to say I much preferred Wells to Verne.

[Captain Audio]

I love H G Wells.
Another author not know for science fiction, since the word had not been invented in his day, was Jack London.
His story "the Red One" is the most bone chilling story of an encounter with something from beyond that I can think of other than "Who Goes There?" by John W Campbell. Actually "the Red One" is a much better written story, though gruesome in the extreme, it reminds me a bit of the worst parts of "the Heart of Darkness".
London also wrote of a hunter caught up in a cat and mouse dilemma with a wooly mammoth.

Then the Ambrose Bierce and his classic sci fi horror story "the Damned Thing" which has been filmed but never filmed well. I think "the Damned Thing" was the inspiration for "the Predator".

Another film I like is the Italian "Planet of the Vampires" which is considered to be the inspiration for "Alien".

[profh0011]

I was referring to that we don't know what nationality (if any) Herbert Lom's Captain Nemo was.  Lionel Barrymore's strikes me as a fictional version of Russian, while James Mason's is English.  I suppose Lom being Czech means he's probably the closest to what Verne originally intended.

As it happens I'm half Polish and half Czechoslovakian (no idea which side of that former country).  Just like "Richard Devere" on TO THE MANOR BORN!

My late best friend Jim once commented he wished Disney HAD done THE MYSTERIOUS ISLAND, if only so the film could have reused Disney's NAUTILUS.  I wonder, has one production company ever rented out a prop from another? That would have been a good time for someone to have done so.

I watched VOYAGE quite a bit when it was first-run, but never with the sort of dedication or fanaticism than I did LOST IN SPACE.  I guess the same could be said for THE MAN FROM UNCLE.  I always preferred GET SMART...!

Oddly enough, while I never had a Jupiter 2 toy as a kid, I did have a Seaview toy.  It was seaworthy, and could propel itself thru water.  (Of course, unless you use it in a swimming pool, it's kind of limited on that level.) My Dad got me the full playset, which also came with 2 (or 3?) other smaller vehicles (none of which were the Flying Sub) and a pack of about 20 undersea soldiers.  I used to team them up with the soldiers from the HORRIBLE HAMILTON playset against the giant monsters from that.  ("More" is better.)