The story surrounds the party of Angela Field (Elizabeth Shannon) the girl who needs to have the best of everything. To add shock value to her party she has decided to host it at an old mansion which is rumored to be haunted.  Years earlier a group of party goers all met their death on one fateful night. As the party begins to kick off drugs are rife, and its not long before the cops are tipped off about this illegal party. With a clutch of stragglers left behind and a strange accident the group discover a hidden room filled with skeletons, and in doing so unleash a curse that has been buried for nearly a hundred years.

Showing a good seven months before the rest of the world get to see it Night Of The Demons was not a particularly anticipated movie of the festival. It seemed for the most part that people were not looking forward to the remake, and I confess I was one of them. To my surprise I really quite enjoyed the movie, its nice to watch a horror movie that you need to give little thought to. This was typical 80’s fare bought forward to a new generation, and while it will not become part of a trend it sits alone in a list of burgeoning horror movies.

As I mentioned earlier the impressive aspect of the movie was the scares, and these were the best type, the sudden jumps. It was most impressive to watch people arms flying all over the place a number of times as various assorted creatures burst through walls and mirrors. More impressive of all was that every single one was expected, you knew it was coming but it still caused scares. At one point there were three such jumps all in close succession, giving viewers little rest.

Night of the demons does need an awful lot to be desired, but for what it was it worked very well and I personally believe delivered the festivals biggest surprises.

On the subject of surprises it was good to see the return of Terminator 2 star Edward Furlong, who stars rather ironically as a drug dealer who gate crashes the party in order to earn some fast money to pay a debt to his supplier. Furlong looks overweight and has stubby little hands and barely resembles the Furlong from Terminator. Still, the actor proved he could still act and formed the movies rather unexpected male hero.

The lead character however, and best performance comes from Bobbi Sue Luthor who plays Suzanne. Watch this actress as I’m sure we will see big things from her over the next few years, perhaps even taking the scream queen mantle from Linnea Quigley who also makes a brief cameo here as a demented ballerina. It was good to see the return of American Pie actress Shannon Elizabeth who proves that she can still act and look stunning.

At the end of the movie Adam Gierasch, Jace Anderson (his wife) Bobbi Sue Luthor and other members of the cast took to the stage for a Q & A. From the questioning the movie was well received.

Night Of The Demons opens in US cinemas from February 2010, with the rest of the year seeing the movie from next summer.

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I’ve come to the conclusion that women have no taste in movies.  Sure, it’s really easy for women to call men nerds for liking epic movies like The Dark Knight and Lord of the Rings.  But they only call men nerds because they don’t know how else to defend their bad tastes.  Women don’t have large brain capacity when it comes to art.  The acting in these Twilight movies is attrocious, and Robert Pattinson and Kristen Stewart talk in these really boring, monotone voices with no sense of excitement or thrill.  You can tell they are very bored with the material.  Kristen Stewart always looks like she’s tired or bored.  It is hard to tell which.  Honestly, if women want to see a guy take off his shirt for half the movie, just go look at male porn on the internet.  You may even see a penis or two if you search on Google hard enough.

What sickens me is that there are so many better romantic movies out there for women.  There are plenty of movies that are great romance stories, and yet women keep going to this mediocre piece of trash Twilight series.  Yeah it’s so romantic that this girl keeps putting herself out there to get violently assaulted by these vampires just because she wants to be loved.  Jeez, isn’t that how things like rape happen in real life?  Is that what this movie is teaching young girls?  That it’s romantic to be stalked by creepy guys? 

I always felt in America that nowadays people only settle for mediocrity.  They only settle for below average.  All these young girls decided not to read books until this really horribly written book came out.  To all you mothers out there, you’re doing a fine job at raising the bar for your daughter when it comes to reading.  Instead of having her read good literature, you’re completely lowering her expectations of writing.  All these little girls will want to write like Stephanie Meyer, and we’ll get a huge surplus of garbage novels.

Not only are the characters in Twilight not interesting, but the message is terrible.  So basically Kristen Stewart’s character is a nobody unless she is a property of this vampire or a property of that werewolf guy.  What a great way to let women know they aren’t anybody unless they are property of a man.

Anyways, Twilight is lowering the expectations of what is considered quality in film and literature.  It’s killing two birds with one stone.  If you want your kids to read, there’s so many books out there to get them reading.  Enough of this hollywood hype machine.  They just want to oversexualize your kids when they are 13 year olds so your daughters grow up to be whores when they are 18.  Not that I mind, cause when your daughters turn 18, I wouldn’t mind stalking them like the vampires they read in those Twilight books and Twilight movies.  Now I bet you read that and thought, “Wow what a creepy dude”.  Really?  I’m creepy but you’re okay with your kids watching movies/reading books that tells girls if you get stalked, then its romantic.  You’re an A+ parent for sure.

Catch-22 lobby card set image courtesy Heritage Auction Galleries

Director Mike Nichols and Paramount Pictures delivered the offbeat WW II comedy Catch-22 to movie theaters in 1970. Alan Arkin stars as the mad bombardier, with Richard Benjamin, Martin Balsam and Art Garfunkel along for the turbulent ride into the wild blue.

Joseph Heller’s Catch-22 Novel

Catch-22 is based on the 1961 novel of the same name by American writer Joseph Heller (1923-1999). In 1941, Heller joined the United States Army Air Corps, where he eventually logged 60 combat missions as a bombardier with the U.S. 12th Air Force during World War II.

While working as a copywriter for a small advertising agency in the early 1950s, Heller began writing Catch-22. “I wrote the first chapter in longhand one morning in 1953, hunched over my desk at the advertising agency – from ideas and words that had leaped into my mind only the night before,” Heller recalled in an interview.

Heller’s first chapter appeared under the title Catch-18 in the quarterly New World Writing #7 in 1955, earning him $25. Heller eventually expanded his WW II story into a full-length novel, now retitled Catch-22 in order to distinguish it from Leon Uris’ Mila 18, which was published by Simon & Schuster on November 10, 1961.

Numbering 443 pages and priced at $5.95, Catch-22 garnered mixed reviews. Giving the book a big thumbs-up was Nelson Algren in The Nation (11/4/61), who reported: “Below its hilarity, so wild that it hurts, Catch-22 is the strongest repudiation of our civilization, in fiction, to come out of World War II…”

Mike Nichols Directs Catch-22

John Calley and Martin Ransohoff produced Catch-22 for Filmways Productions. Buck Henry wrote the screenplay and Mike Nichols (Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?, The Graduate, Carnal Knowledge) directed, with the latter earning $1 million for his services.

Alan Arkin (Capt. John Yossarian), Richard Benjamin (Maj. Danby) and Martin Balsam (Col. Cathcart) head the strong cast. Other players include Art Garfunkel (Capt. Nately), Jack Gilford (Doc Daneeka), Buck Henry (Lt. Col. Korn), Bob Newhart (Maj. Major), Anthony Perkins (Capt. A.T. Tappman), Paula Prentiss (Nurse Duckett), Martin Sheen (Lt. Dobbs), Jon Voight (Lt. Milo Minderbinder), Orson Welles (Gen. Dreedle), Bob Balaban (Capt. Orr), Susanne Benton (Dreedle’s Buxom WAC), Norman Fell (Sgt. Towser), Charles Grodin (Capt. Aarfy Aardvark) and Peter Bonerz (Capt. J.S. McWatt).

Catch-22 Filmed in Mexico and Italy

Budgeted at $18 million, Catch-22 was filmed from January to August 1969. Shooting in Guaymas and San Carlos, Mexico, consumed six months, as cinematographer David Watkin could only film a few hours in the afternoon in order to capture the same, even lighting. The production company also traveled to Rome, Italy, in order to lend the movie some on-location authenticity.

The picture’s principal props were 18 B-25 Mitchell bombers, of which 17 were flyable. The one vintage aircraft that was not was employed in the crash-landing scene, where it was burned and destroyed by the special effects team.

Catch-22 suffered one fatality during filming when second unit director John Jordan, who had always refused to wear a safety harness, was sucked out of an airplane’s open doorway on May 16, 1969. The 44-year-old Jordan plummeted to his death 2,000 feet below into the Gulf of Mexico.

Catch-22: World War II Movie Comedy

Catch-22 opens on the island of Pianosa off the Italian coast. A first-light mission is underway, with a small fleet of B-25 Mitchells embarking from the island base. Watching the mission unfold is Captain John Yossarian, who, after discarding his bombardier wings, is stabbed by a shadowy figure.

Yossarian is seen in earlier days, engaging in nonsensical conversation with his fellow officers in the mess hall. Yossarian later pays a visit to the flight surgeon, informing him that he no longer wishes to fly because “it’s dangerous.” Doc Daneeka replies that he can’t certify Yossarian crazy because of an illogical, unwritten rule known as “Catch-22.”

An array of characters parade through the proceedings, including Lt. Milo Minderbinder, the head of M&M Enterprises who is heavily invested in the black market; Captain A.T. Tappman, the ineffective base chaplain of the Anabaptist faith; the callous Colonel Cathcart, who keeps increasing the number of combat missions needed to go home; would-be assassin Lt. Dobbs, who attempts to eliminate the hated Cathcart; and the pompous General Dreedle, who awards medals following a mission where 20 tons of ordnance was harmlessly dropped into the Mediterranean.

The height of insanity comes when Yossarian confronts Captain Aardvark, who murdered an Italian prostitute and dumped her body out of a window. The MPs arrive, but instead of arresting Aardvark they haul away Yossarian for being AWOL.

Catch-22 Opens in New York City

Catch-22 opened at New York City’s Paramount and Sutton Theaters on June 24, 1970.   

“Catch-22…is, quite simply, the best American film I’ve seen this year. It looks and sounds like a big-budget, commercial service comedy, but it comes as close as being an epic human comedy as Hollywood has ever made…” reported Vincent Canby of The New York Times (6/25/70).

“Mike Nichols’ Catch-22 is a disappointment, and not simply because it fails to do justice to the Heller novel…The movie divides in the middle; the first half is funny, the second is not,” offered Roger Ebert of the Chicago Sun-Times.

Catch-22 Box Office, Trivia, DVD

• Catch-22 grossed $12.250 million, earning the #10 slot on the list of the top moneymaking films of 1970.
• Joseph Heller’s Catch-22 was not an immediate success. But following praise from comic writer S.J. Perelman, sales of the novel began to take off.
• Understanding Catch-22: The “22″ refers to the number of combat missions needed to go home, with the “catch” being that the top brass can increase the magic number at any time.
• George C. Scott was offered the role of Colonel Cathcart but turned it down, declaring that he had already played a similar character, the wacky General “Buck” Turgidson, in Dr. Strangelove (1964).
• Second unit director John Jordan (1925-1969), killed while filming Catch-22, had to have his leg amputated following an airborne mishap with a helicopter rotor blade while filming You Only Live Twice (1967).
• Milo Minderbinder tries to corner the market in Egyptian cotton.
• Yossarian is lead bombardier for the 256th Squadron.
• TV remake and unsold pilot: Catch-22, telecast over ABC on May 21, 1973, starring Richard Dreyfuss and Dana Elcar.
• On DVD: Catch-22 (Paramount, 2001).

“Let me see if I’ve got this straight. In order to be grounded, I’ve got to be crazy and I must be crazy to keep flying. But if I ask to be grounded, that means I’m not crazy any more and I have to keep flying,” Yossarian asks Doc Daneeka.

Right, that’s Catch-22, or thereabouts…

When I first heard about the new Star Trek coming out, I was ecstatic. I couldn’t wait. But then I heard it was a reboot with a whole new cast. This bothered me a little, but eventually I swallowed my pride. The first news I heard on casting was that they chose Simon Peg as Scotty. Personally I thought that was a perfect choice. If anyone could play Scotty, he could. As time went on I heard more news on casting, some unknowns to me, some great choices. In all on cast, I feel that they couldn’t have chosen better on the cast. Chris Pine as Kirk was great, Zachary Quinto as the present day Spock was just about perfect, but the best casting I for any character in Star Trek was Karl Urban as “Bones”. He was able to truly portray that character.

You can tell they all had a lot of fun making Star Trek. It really showed through with the final product. The sets and effects were great. I found out that J.J. Abrams wanted to do as much as possible with practical special effects, and as little as possible with CGI. I believe this really showed through with the final product. I am a fan of practical effects though, so I might be a little bias.

Over all I have to give J.J. Abrams Star Trek a 9 out of 10. It shows drama, witty dialogue, great action sequences, and great film-making all in one package. If you haven’t seen it yet I suggest checking it out.

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High Noon insert movie poster image courtesy Heritage Auction Galleries

Director Fred Zinnemann and United Artists delivered High Noon to movie theaters in 1952. Gary Cooper plays the besieged town marshal, with Grace Kelly, Thomas Mitchell and Lloyd Bridges in gripping support.

John W. Cunningham’s The Tin Star

High Noon is based on the short story “The Tin Star” by John W. Cunningham (1915-2002), which first appeared in the December 6, 1947, issue of Collier’s.

It was Carl Foreman, in partnership with producer Stanley Kramer at the time, who broached the idea of bringing “The Tin Star” to the silver screen. Foreman wrote the screenplay and Fred Zinnemann (The Men, Oklahoma!, A Man for All Seasons) directed. Dimitri Tiomkin created the original music score and Floyd Crosby delivered the stark b/w cinematography.

Gary Cooper and Grace Kelly in High Noon

Gary Cooper (Marshal Will Kane) and Grace Kelly (Amy Fowler Kane) head the cast. Other players include Thomas Mitchell (Mayor Jonas Henderson), Lloyd Bridges (Deputy Harvey Pell), Katy Jurado (Helen Ramirez), Otto Kruger (Judge Percy Mettrick), Lon Chaney Jr. (Martin Howe), Harry Morgan (Sam Fuller), Ian MacDonald (Frank Miller), Eve McVeagh (Mildred Fuller), Morgan Farley (Dr. Mahin), Harry Shannon (Cooper), Lee Van Cleef (Jack Colby), Robert J. Wilke (Jim Pierce), Sheb Wooley (Ben Miller), Lee Aaker (Boy), John Doucette (Trumbull) and Jack Elam (Charlie).

The role of Will Kane was originally offered to Gregory Peck, who turned it down. Peck’s reasoning: he had just played Johnny Ringo in The Gunfighter (1950), and the two roles were just too similar for his taste.

High Noon Filmed in California

Budgeted at $750,000, High Noon was filmed in California. Locations used included Warner Brothers Studios in Burbank, the Iverson Ranch in Chatsworth, Columbia State Historic Park, the Melody Ranch in Newhall, Railtown 1897 State Historical Park in Jamestown and St. Joseph’s Catholic Church in Tuolumne City.

Shot in a scant 28 days, High Noon’s first cut proved unacceptable, with producer Stanley Kramer complaining that it contained too many dead spots. He then ordered Fred Zinnemann to film a series of closeups featuring Gary Cooper’s lined, anxiety-ridden face along with intermittent cuts to various clocks as they ticked their way to high noon.

Kramer also instructed Dimitri Tiomkin and Ned Washington to write a moody ballad which could be used to effectively convey Will Kane’s lone, desperate stand against the Miller Gang. The result was the haunting “Do Not Forsake Me, Oh My Darlin’, performed by Tex Ritter in the soundtrack.

Following completion of the film, writer and associate producer Carl Foreman was blacklisted due to his lack of cooperation before the red-baiting House Un-American Activities Committee. Foreman sold his share of High Noon to Stanley Kramer Productions for a reported $285,000 and promptly departed for Europe.

Marshal Will Kane vs. the Miller Gang at High Noon

Set in Hadleyville, New Mexico Territory (population 650), High Noon opens with the marriage of Marshal Will Kane and his Quaker bride Amy. Will plans to hang up his badge and take up ranching, much to the delight of his young wife.

Word is received that gunslinger Frank Miller, whom Kane had sent away to prison years earlier, is out for revenge against the lawman, with several of his cohorts waiting for his arrival at the train station. Rather than turn tail, Will decides to face Miller and his gang, only to discover that he will have to do it alone as the frightened townspeople now consider it a “private matter.”

Abandoned by his friends and deputies, the clock ticks away, with Frank Miller making his arrival. Meeting him at the train station are three gunfighters: brother Ben Miller, steely-eyed Jack Colby and the grizzled Jim Pierce. Strapping on a six-shooter, Frank Miller leads his boys into town, looking for the lone Will Kane.

A wicked gunfight erupts in the largely deserted Hadleyville, as Marshal Kane takes on the Miller Gang. And when the dust and gunpowder has finally settled, a wounded Kane has somehow prevailed. The marshal then tosses his badge and leaves town in a buckboard, with his loyal wife Amy at his side.

High Noon Opens in New York City

High Noon premiered at New York City’s Mayfair Theater on July 24, 1952.

“Meaningful in its implications, as well as loaded with interest and suspense, High Noon is a western to challenge Stagecoach for the all-time championship,” reported Bosley Crowther of the The New York Times (7/25/52).

“A basic western formula has been combined with good characterization in High Noon…With the name of Gary Cooper to help it along, and on the basis of the adult-appealing dramatic content, the business outlook is favorable,” observed Variety (4/29/52).

High Noon Box Office, Academy Award Nominations, Trivia, DVD

• High Noon grossed $3.4 million at the American box office, good for the #12 position on the list of the top moneymaking films of 1952.
• Oscar nominations: Best Picture, Best Director, Best Actor (Cooper,won), Best Screenplay, Best Film Editing (Elmo Williams, Harry W. Gerstad, won), Best Music Score (Tiomkin, won), Best Original Song (Tiomkin, Washington, won).
• Frankie Laine’s version of “Do Not Forsake Me, Oh My Darlin’,” released as “High Noon” on Columbia Records single #39770, climbed all the way to #5 on the Cash Box charts.
• High Noon is reportedly former President Bill Clinton’s favorite film.
• Television remake: High Noon (2000) starring Tom Skerritt and Susanna Thompson.
• Auction results for original High Noon movie memorabilia, courtesy Heritage Auction Galleries, Dallas, Texas: one sheet poster ($1,673), insert poster ($1,015.75), half sheet poster ($896.25), title lobby card ($286.80), 40×60-inch poster style Y ($2,151), 1987 reissue Polish poster ($30).
• On DVD: High Noon Two-Disc Ultimate Collector’s Edition (Lionsgate, 2008).

Frankenstein 1931 movie herald image courtesy Heritage Auction Galleries

Carl Laemmle and Universal Pictures delivered the horrific Frankenstein to movie theaters in 1931. Boris Karloff plays the monster and Colin Clive its sinister, god-like creator. It’s alive! It’s alive!

Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein

Frankenstein is based on the 1818 novel Frankenstein, or The Modern Prometheus by Mary Shelley and the subsequent 1927 stage production by Peggy Webling. Frankenstein, starring Charles Ogle, was first filmed in 1910 by the Edison Company. That was followed by Life Without Soul in 1915 and an Italian picture titled Master of Frankenstein in 1920.

Carl Laemmle’s Frankenstein owes its impetus to the success of another Universal Pictures horror film, 1931’s Dracula starring Bela Lugosi, which had debuted ten months earlier. Universal was looking for another horror vehicle in which to cast Lugosi, with writer-director Robert Florey coming up with several possibilities, including The Invisible Man, The Murders in the Rue Morgue and Frankenstein.

Florey fashioned a five-page Frankenstein outline which was later followed by a full-length screenplay. A two-reel test was then filmed using the old Dracula castle set, with a heavily made-up Lugosi playing the monster in the pivotal creation scene.

Dissatisfied with Florey’s direction and Lugosi’s sympathetic portrayal of the monster, Universal released both. In order to avoid legal complications, however, the studio quickly assigned Florey to another of its pictures, Murders in the Rue Morgue (1932), starring Bela Lugosi.

James Whale Directs Frankenstein

Frankenstein was produced by Carl Laemmle Jr., the 23-year-old son of the head of Universal Pictures. John Balderston, Francis Edward Faragoh and Garrett Fort wrote the screenplay, with James Whale in the director’s chair. David Broekman and Bernhard Kaun delivered the eerie, primitive music score and Arthur Edeson and Paul Ivano served as cinematographers.

Colin Clive (Dr. Henry Frankenstein), Mae Clarke (Elizabeth), John Boles (Victor Moritz) and Boris Karloff (The Monster) head the cast. Other players include Edward Van Sloan (Dr. Waldman), Frederick Kerr (Baron Frankenstein), Dwight Frye (Fritz), Lionel Belmore (Herr Vogel), Marilyn Harris (Little Maria), Francis Ford (Hans) and Arletta Duncan (Bridesmaid).

Frankenstein Filmed at Universal City 

Budgeted at $291,000, Frankenstein was filmed from August to October 1931 at Universal City, Universal Pictures’ sprawling 230-acre municipality located in California’s San Fernando Valley.  Other California locations used included Lake Sherwood,  Malibou Lake in Agoura and Busch Gardens in Pasadena, with the latter serving as the convalescent scene.

Makeup artist Jack P. Pierce had the monumental task of turning Boris Karloff into the hideous Frankenstein monster. Karloff’s imposing ensemble consisted of a square rubber head with lizard eyes, two pairs of pants, steel struts for stiffening the legs, a pair of 30-pound boots, gobs of blue-green greasepaint, mounds of heavy padding and lots of plaster. In all, the makeup process took five hours each day, with an additional two hours needed for removal.

Karloff’s monster costume was kept a closely guarded secret until the movie’s release, with Uncle Boris taking his meals in private and donning a black hood while being transported to various sound stages.

Frankenstein: It’s Alive! It’s Alive!

Frankenstein opens in a fog-shrouded cemetery at midnight where Dr. Frankenstein and his hunchback dwarf assistant, Fritz, are trolling for freshly-buried bodies. The Doc then takes his human cargo back to his old watchtower laboratory where he stitches the male corpses together, forming a single lifeless cadaver.

Fritz is sent to a nearby university in order to retrieve a preserved human brain. In a panic, the dwarf accidentally grabs a jar bearing the ominous label, “Criminal Brain,” and delivers it to his master.

With the horrified Dr. Waldman, Victor Moritz and his fiancee Elizabeth in attendance, Dr. Frankenstein proceeds with his latest experiment. Raising the cadaver on a huge platform to the top of the tower, Frankenstein captures the strikes of a series of lightning bolts that transfer their energy into his creation.

Initially, the creature remains motionless, but then a hand suddenly twitches. Catching this small movement, the power-mad Frankenstein shouts in triumph, “It’s alive – it’s alive – it’s alive…Oh, in the name of God. Now I know what it feels like to be God!”

Taunted by the slow-witted dwarf, the lumbering monster breaks free of its chains and escapes its dungeon home. Now on the loose, the monster terrorizes the nearby village and subsequently murders a little girl. Cornered by its creator and a mob of angry, torch-carrying townspeople, the monster meets its fiery end at an old windmill.

Frankenstein Opens in New York City

Frankenstein opened at New York City’s Mayfair Theater on December 4, 1931. The movie made its official West Coast premiere on December 6, 1931, in Santa Barbara, California, with Colin Clive and Mae Clarke in attendance.

“James Whale…has wrought a stirring grand-guignol type of picture, one that aroused so much excitement at the Mayfair yesterday that many in the audience laughed to cover their true feelings,” reported Mordaunt Hall of The New York Times (12/5/31).

“Looks like Dracula plus, touching a new peak in horror plays and handled in production with supreme craftsmanship…Appeal is candidly to the morbid side…” observed Variety (12/8/31).

Frankenstein Box Office, Trivia, DVD

• Frankenstein grossed a staggering $12 million at the American box office.
• Frankenstein and Dracula were re-released in 1938 and shown as a double feature. At one theater, packed with 4,000 restless fans, a riot nearly broke out when the show failed to start on time due to the late arrival of the prints.
• Frankenstein had a tough time with motion picture censor boards, both in the United States and abroad. The U.S. censors didn’t like Dr. Frankenstein’s pseudo-blasphemous “God” claim while U.K. censors objected to the monster’s murder of Dr. Waldman and its overt threats to bride-in-waiting Elizabeth.
• As per Carl Laemmle Sr.’s  orders, Boris Karloff in full Frankenstein makeup was never to be seen by his office staff. His reasoning: “Some of our nice little secretaries are pregnant and they might be frightened if they saw him.”
• Carl Laemmle Sr. viewed the rushes from Frankenstein and was horrified by what he saw. He then told his producer son that moviegoers must be warned, which led to Edward Van Sloan’s prologue/disclaimer as featured at the beginning.
• Bette Davis had auditioned for the part of Elizabeth, but James Whale deemed her “too aggressive.”
• Boris Karloff was invited to audition for the role of the monster after James Whale had spotted him in the Universal Pictures commissary. “Your face has startling possibilities…” he told the actor.
• One male moviegoer was so upset after viewing Frankenstein that he phoned the theater manager at 3 AM the next morning, telling the startled man: “I saw Frankenstein at your place last night and can’t sleep – I have no intention that you should either!”
• In its 1998 list of the “20 Scariest Movies,” TV Guide placed Frankenstein at #9.
• On DVD: Frankenstein 75th Anniversary Edition (Universal, 2006).

“The brain you stole, Fritz. Think of it. The brain of a dead man waiting to live again in a body I made with my own hands!” Colin Clive declares.

Far out…

White Christmas 1961 reissue lobby card set image courtesy Heritage Auction Galleries

Director Michael Curtiz and Paramount Pictures delivered White Christmas to movie theaters in 1954. Bing Crosby and Danny Kaye play the hotshot entertainers, with Rosemary Clooney and Vera-Ellen as the singing Haynes Sisters.

Irving Berlin’s White Christmas Origins

White Christmas owes its origins to Irving Berlin (1888-1989), America’s legendary songwriter who composed over 1,500 popular tunes during his remarkable career. According to Irving Berlin: A Daughter’s Memoir by Mary Ellin Barrett, her father began sowing the seeds for the song “White Christmas” while working in Hollywood in December 1937. But it wasn’t until 1942 when “White Christmas” was officially introduced, with Bing Crosby doing the honors in the movie musical Holiday Inn.

With the United States now fully engaged in World War II, “White Christmas,” winner of the 1942 Academy Award for Best Song, became a huge hit, touching many on the American home front whose loved ones were now in service and far from home. In 1946, Bing Crosby once again rendered his version of “White Christmas” for Hollywood, this time in the Paramount Pictures musical Blue Skies.

Michael Curtiz Directs White Christmas

Robert Emmett Dolan produced White Christmas for Paramount Pictures. Norman Krasna, Norman Panama and Melvin Frank wrote the screenplay and Michael Curtiz (Yankee Doodle Dandle, Casablanca, Mildred Pierce) directed. Joseph J. Lilley served as musical director, Loyal Griggs as cinematographer and Robert Alton as choreographer, with music and lyrics by Irving Berlin.

Bing Crosby (Bob Wallace), Danny Kaye (Phil Davis), Rosemary Clooney (Betty Haynes) and Vera-Ellen (Judy Haynes) head the fine cast. Other players include Dean Jagger (General Waverly), Mary Wickes (Emma Allen), John Brascia (John), Anne Whitfield (Susan Waverly), Herb Vigran (Novello), Sig Ruman (Landlord), Johnny Grant (Ed Harrison), I. Stanford Jolley (Station Master), Barrie Chase (Doris Lenz), Percy Helton (Train Conductor) and George Chakiris (Dancer).

White Christmas Filmed in Hollywood

Filming for White Christmas was to have initially begun in January 1953. But when 40-year-old Dixie Lee Crosby, Bing’s wife, died on November 1, 1952, the production schedule was pushed back to mid-August 1953.

White Christmas was primarily shot on Stage 9 at Paramount Pictures. The train station scenes were filmed at Twentieth Century-Fox Studios in Century City.

Irving Berlin penned the musical’s entire soundtrack: “White Christmas,” “The Best Things Happen When You’re Dancing,” “Sisters,” “Count Your Blessings Instead of Sheep,” “Mandy,” “Gee, I Wish I Was Back in the Army,” “Snow,” “Choreography,” “The Minstrel Show,” “Let Me Sing,” “What Can You Do with a General?,” “The Old Man,” “Abraham,” “Blue Skies,” “Heat Wave” and “Love, You Didn’t Do Right By Me.”

Trudy Stevens provided the singing voice for Vera-Ellen in practically all of her numbers.  

White Christmas in Vermont

White Christmas opens on Christmas Eve 1944 in war-torn Europe. Captain Bob Wallace and Private First Class Phil Davis are staging a show in a forward area. Putting in a surprise visit is Major General Thomas F. Waverly, who is being replaced as the division’s commander.

An enemy bombing raid hits the forward area, whereby Pvt. Davis saves Captain Wallace’s life. At the hospital, Davis informs Wallace that he has a song the latter might be interested in, and proposes that the two get together as a team.

Fast forward ten years, where ex-servicemen Bob Wallace and Phil Davis are now the hottest musical act in the country. As a favor to Benny Haynes, a.k.a. “The Dog-Faced Boy,” Bob and Phil check out a sisters act playing The Florida nightclub in the Sunshine State. The Haynes Sisters are headed to Vermont for the holidays, with the infatuated Bob and Phil deciding to forgo their trip back to New York and join the girls in Pine Tree instead.

The Haynes Sisters are booked at the Columbia Inn, which happens to be owned by the boys’ old division commander, General Waverly. Unseasonably warm weather, however, has put the damper on snow skiing and other winter activities and threatens to financially ruin the retired general.

As a favor to General Waverly, the boys bring the entire Wallace & Davis show to Vermont. Bob then goes on The Ed Harrison Show, asking that all former members of the 151st Army Division report to the Columbia Inn for a surprise reunion on Christmas Eve.

White Christmas Opens in New York City

White Christmas opened at New York City’s Radio City Music Hall on October 14, 1954.

“Director Michael Curitz has made his picture look good. It is too bad that it doesn’t hit the eardrums and the funnybone with equal force,” reported Bosley Crowther of The New York Times (10/15/54).

“Bing Crosby and Danny Kaye, along with VistaVision, keep the entertainment going in this fancifully stage production, clicking well,” observed Variety.

White Christmas Box Office, Academy Award Nomination, Trivia, DVD

• White Christmas grossed $12 million at the American box office, earning the #1 position on the list of the top moneymaking films of 1954.
• One Oscar nomination: Best Original Song “Count Your Blessings Instead of Sheep.”
• Donald O’Connor was Paramount’s first choice for the role of Phil Davis. But when he had to withdraw because of an injury, Danny Kaye was brought in as his replacement.
• White Christmas was the first movie to be filmed in VistaVision, Paramount’s answer to Twentieth Century-Fox’s CinemaScope.
• Carl “Alfalfa” Switzer plays homely Benny Haynes in the photo Vera-Ellen produces at The Florida.
• Playing Around is the title of Wallace and Davis’ two-year hit on Broadway.
• The cost of Bob and Phil’s last-minute train tickets to Vermont which enable them to sit in the dining car all night: $97.24.
• The four deceased stars: Bing Crosby (1903-1977), Danny Kaye (1913-1987), Rosemary Clooney (1928-2002), Vera-Ellen (1921-1981).
• On DVD: White Christmas (Paramount, 2007).

The Flight of the Phoenix color still set image courtesy Heritage Auction Galleries

Producer-director Robert Aldrich and Twentieth Century-Fox flew The Flight of the Phoenix into movie theaters in 1965. James Stewart plays the veteran pilot, with Hardy Kruger as the abrasive airplane designer.

Elleston Trevor’s The Flight of the Phoenix Novel

The Flight of the Phoenix is based on the 1964 novel of the same name by Elleston Trevor, a pen name for Trevor Dudley Smith (1920-1995). A taut thriller, the book begins: “The wind had flung the sand thirty thousand feet into the sky above the desert in a blinding cloud from the Niger to the Nile, and somewhere in it was the airplane.”

Following a review in Life magazine, several Hollywood agents tried to purchase the movie rights to Trevor’s fantastic novel, including one representing actor James Stewart. But eventually winning the bidding war was director Robert Aldrich, who then agreed to cast Stewart in the starring role.

Robert Aldrich Directs The Flight of the Phoenix

Lukas Heller penned the screenplay for The Associates & Aldrich Company. Robert Aldrich (Vera Cruz, What Ever Happened to Baby Jane?, The Dirty Dozen) produced and directed. Frank De Vol created the original music score and Joseph Biroc served as cinematographer.

James Stewart (Frank Towns), Richard Attenborough (Lew Moran), Peter Finch (Captain Harris) and Hardy Kruger (Heinrich Dorfmann) head the small cast. Other players are Ernest Borgnine (E. “Trucker” Cobb), Ian Bannen (”Ratbags” Crow), Ronald Fraser (Sergeant Watson), Christian Marquand (Dr. Renaud), Dan Duryea (Standish), George Kennedy (Mike Bellamy), Gabriele Tinti (Gabriel), Alex Montoya (Carlos), Peter Bravos (Tasso), William Aldrich (Bill), Barrie Chase (Farida) and Stanley Ralph Ross (Arab Singer).

Connie Francis delivers a wonderful rendition of “Senza Fine,” a romantic Italian ballad which emanates from Ernest Borgnine’s transistor radio.

The Flight of the Phoenix Filmed in Arizona and California  

The Flight of the Phoenix was filmed from April to August 1965 in Arizona (Buttercup Valley, Yuma) and California (Pilot Knobb and Imperial County). Principal props employed were three Fairchild C-82 Packet cargo planes and an experimental aircraft called the Tallmantz Phoenix P-1.

Filming went reasonably well until the morning of July 8, 1965, when Paul Mantz, a veteran pilot with over 25,000 flying hours, along with co-pilot Bobby Rose, took to the air. In order to simulate the Phoenix’s attempt to become airborne, Mantz had to guide the plane over cameras placed at opposite ends of Buttercup Valley. Although the first take was adequate, the director called for a second “insurance” take, with Mantz and Rose duly complying.

The second take proved disastrous, with the experimental plane’s landing skids catching a rough patch of ground. The Phoenix then broke apart and crashed, with Rose suffering a broken pelvis and left shoulder and Mantz killed instantly. The Federal Aviation Administration later determined that the plane’s airframe had failed due to overload stresses. The FAA also ruled that alcohol consumption by Mantz prior to the flight had contributed to the crash, impairing the 61-year-old stunt pilot’s “efficiency and judgment.”

With their lead stunt pilot dead and the Phoenix in shambles, the production company rented a vintage North American O-47 observation plane from the Ontario Air Museum, which was used to complete the flying sequences.

The Flight of the Phoenix: Survival in the Sahara Desert

The Flight of the Phoenix opens in North Africa, where a cargo plane owned by Arabco Oil takes off for Benghazi in northern Libya. Manning the aircraft are pilot Frank Towns and navigator Lew Moran, with a small group of company employees and two British Army personnel comprising the sparse passenger list.

A mammoth sandstorm soon engulfs the sky truck, crippling the engines and forcing Captain Towns to set down in the vast emptiness of the forbidding Sahara Desert. As the days pass by and rescue seems more remote, the survivors contemplate their options. Captain Harris, a by-the-book British officer, proposes that he and Sergeant Watson march their way out, producing a map which shows that the nearest water point is a “mere” 106 miles away.

Heinrich Dorfmann, a German aircraft designer, informs Captain Towns that they have all the necessary components to construct a new, smaller plane that can safely fly them back to civilization. A wary Towns reluctantly goes along with the idea, with construction getting underway.

Towns and Lew Moran later learn the truth about Dorfmann. The German works for NEU, a maker of model airplanes whose biggest design boasts of a wingspan of only two feet. “He’s crazy, Lew. The man builds toy airplanes,” Towns tells his friend, who then lapses into the hysterical laughter of a madman.

Dorfmann’s aeronautical creation, dubbed “The Phoenix” by Standish, is finally completed. With Frank Towns at the controls, Dorfmann directly behind him and the other passengers strapped onto the wings, the Phoenix’s single engine is finally ignited and the survivors brace themselves for take-off from their desert hell.

Release and Reviews

The Flight of the Phoenix opened in selected theaters on December 15, 1965, although many would not see it until 1966. The picture did not come to New York City until January 31, 1966, where it opened at the Astor Theater.

“…With the characters all being fellows of limited fascination, at best, who accumulate nothing as time passes except horrible sun blisters and beards, the attraction of being with them in their ordeal is miniscule. It’s as grim and implausible as being with Charlton Heston while he is doing that big interior decorating job in The Agony and Ecstasy,” reported a cranky Bosley Crowther of The New York Times (2/1/66).

“Robert Aldrich’s filmic translation of the Elleston Trevor book is an often-fascinating and superlative piece of filmmaking highlighted by standout performances and touches that show producer-director at his best,” observed Variety.

The Flight of the Phoenix Oscar Nominations, Trivia, DVD

• Academy Award nominations: Best Supporting Actor (Ian Bannen), Best Film Editing (Michael Luciano).
• Over 400 people attended the funeral for stunt pilot Paul Mantz, including James Stewart and World War II flying legend Jimmy Doolittle. Mantz is buried at Forest Lawn Memorial Park in Glendale, California.
• A tribute to Paul Mantz is carried at the end of the picture: “It should be remembered…that Paul Mantz, a fine man and a brilliant flyer gave his life in the making of this film…”
• James Stewart served as a bomber pilot with the U.S. Eighth Air Force during World War II.
• Flight of the Phoenix was remade in 2004 with Dennis Quaid as Frank Towns. The setting was Mongolia’s Gobi Desert.
• On DVD: The Flight of the Phoenix (20th Century-Fox, 2003).

“I’ve lost five men, Lew. Gabriel in there, he’s on the way, that’ll be six. Are you asking me to try to kill the rest of them trying to get a deathtrap off the ground?” James Stewart tells Richard Attenborough.

Not an easy decision…

This movie is notable for several reasons. First, it was director John Ford’s first Western made using sound. It was also Ford’s first of many movies made in Monument Valley. But more importantly for you Western fans, it was John Wayne’s breakthrough role, the first movie that did big with him in it. Wayne plays an outlaw named Ringo Kid who rides along with a prostitute, a banker and others as they travel to Lordsburg, New Mexico, through Apache territory. To my way of thinking, this was the first real modern Western film.

The Magnificent Seven (1960)

Lots of stars in this picture. Yul Brynner, Eli Wallach, Charles Bronson, Steve McQueen, just to name a few. The story is simple. Seven gunmen are hired to protect a village from bandits. During the build-up to the conflict, and during the main conflict, the gunmen fall in love with the village. At least those who survive the battle do. Plenty of action here, and a touch of comedy here and there, also. This is a pretty standard Western for a big cast, basically having become an iconic screen favorite. Worth seeing time and time again.

A Fistful of Dollars (1964)

This particular film is director Sergio Leone’s first in what came to be called the Dollars Trilogy, three spaghetti Westerns starring Clint Eastwood as the Man With No Name. Based upon the Japanese samurai movie Yojimbo, this film is about a bounty hunter caught up in the fight between two families in a small town. Truly, one of the first post-modern Westerns, and a worthy Western film debut for star Clint Eastwood. For anyone thinking I’ve left out The Good, The Bad and The Ugly, don’t fret. That movie made it onto my original article, 10 Movies Every Western Fan Must See, so check it out there.

For a Few Dollars More (1965)

This is the sequel to A Fistful of Dollars. Clint Eastwood returns as a bounty hunter, but this time he’s joined by Lee Van Cliff. Clint and Cliff team up to take on a band of bank robbers, but there’s more than money at stake. Vengeance is the name of the game in this movie. And so I don’t forget it, the score by Enio Morricone is just as good here as it is in Sergio Leone’s other spaghetti Western flicks.

Django (1966)

Though much of the world thinks of Clint Eastwood and Sergio Leone when it comes to spaghetti Westerns (Western movies in the 1960s and 1970s that were mostly made by Italian directors), there were plenty of other films in the genre. This is probably the next-best known of the lot after The Dollars Trilogy. Starring Franco Nero as Django, the story is a complicated one of a gun runner who becomes involved in a conflict between two warring generals. After much bloodshed, Django finally gets his revenge against the generals.

The Wild Bunch (1969)

If you like movies with lots of bullets and blood, this should be right up your alley. Truly, one of the most violent Western flicks ever made. Just about everyone is killed by the end of this one, which sounds kind of sad and pathetic in some ways, but it really works here. Director Sam Peckinpah originally meant for this movie to show theater crowds the ugliness of violence, but so many people loved the movie he eventually became somewhat disillusioned with his own message. The plot? A group of aging bank robbers try to survive the waining years of the cowboy age. Pretty simple, right? Not for this group of guys. A classic. Much like The Magnificent Seven, this one has a huge cast of stars, including William Holden, Ernest Borgnine and more.

The Cowboys (1972)

This is another one featuring John Wayne. It’s not a traditional Western by most standards. You won’t find gunslingers and sheriffs and Indians here, though there are a few outlaws. Wayne portrays a cattle rancher who has to drive hundreds of cows, but he’s got this problem. All his ranch hands have run off to a gold rush. In fact, nearly all the men but Wayne have shot off looking for gold. So who is going to drive these steers? Boys. Yep, I said boys. This is the tale of a bunch of boys and John Wayne herding cattle across the prairie. Doesn’t sound too adventurous, does it? Well, it is. There’s a good bit of action and comedy both. The ending is one of my favorites of a Wayne film, though it is somewhat bitter sweet.

Jeremiah Johnson (1972)

Partly based on fact and partly on legend, this film starring Robert Redford isn’t quite a Western. Though it sort of is. It’s just set before the traditional time period of most Westerns, before six-guns were slapping against thighs and black powder rifles were the end-all, be-all weapon. But that being said, in my opinion, this is the best movie on this list. It’s tale of mountain man Jeremiah Johnson, how he came to the mountains and the travails he faced once there. The tale is slow at times, but always thoughtful, and the action comes along often enough to keep the interest of more traditional Western fans.

Blazing Saddles (1974)

Okay, I can hear some folks complaining now. But I don’t care. Blazing Saddles is a Western. Quite probably the funniest Western of all time. Director Mel Brooks brought a classic piece of comedic and Western cinema to the scree when he filmed this one. Starring Cleavon Little as a black sheriff stuck in a small town of whites who mostly hate him, other than gunslinger Gene Wilder. Loaded with laughs, and makes fun of plenty of Western stereotypes.

The Shootist (1976)

We started with John Wayne and we’ll end with him. This is Wayne’s final movie, which also starred Lauren Bacall and Ron Howard. The story concerns the last days of a dying gunfighter, which was fitting considering Wayne would die three years later of cancer. This isn’t the best Western ever made, but it is a pretty decent one and it includes not only Wayne’s final role, but one of his best.

Related movie links

10 Movies every Western fan must see

5 Cigars that will make you look like Clint Eastwood

10 Cop Movies every Action Fan Must See

Lee Marvin in The Big Red One, image courtesy Heritage Auction Galleries

Director Samuel Fuller and United Artists delivered the gripping war drama The Big Red One to movie theaters in 1980. Lee Marvin plays the old, grizzled sergeant, with Mark Hamill, Robert Carradine, Bobby Di Cicco and Kelly Ward as his young charges.

Samuel Fuller and U.S. Army’s First Infantry Division 

The Big Red One garners its title from the United States Army’s First Infantry Division, whose members sport the distinctive big red 1 patch on their uniforms. The division’s history begins in 1917, when the American Expeditionary Force arrived in France under the command of General John “Blackjack” Pershing. The “Fighting First” would later distinguish itself in a number of WW I battles at places like Cantigny, Soissons, St. Mihiel and the bloody Argonne Forest. The division’s exploits would continue into World War II, Vietnam, Desert Storm and Operation Iraqi Freedom.

Samuel Fuller served with The Big Red One in World War II, where he fought in the division’s campaigns from North Africa to Europe. Awarded the Silver Star, Bronze Star and Purple Heart, Fuller and his division completed their long journey across Nazi-occupied Europe in 1945 when they liberated the Falkenau Concentration Camp in Czechoslovakia. Following a pitched battle between the Americans and die-hard Nazi SS guards, Fuller had employed his own 16mm movie camera, personally recording the camp’s horrors.

Lee Marvin Stars in The Big Red One

Produced by Gene Corman for Lorimar Productions, The Big Red One was scripted and directed by Samuel Fuller (The Steel Helmet, Hell and High Water, Merrill’s Marauders). Dana Kaproff created the original music score and Adam Greenberg served as cinematographer.

Lee Marvin (The Sergeant), Mark Hamill (Pvt. Griff), Robert Carradine (Pvt. Zab) and Bobby Di Cicco (Pvt. Vinci) head the cast. Other players include Kelly Ward (Pvt. Johnson), Stephane Audran (Underground Asylum Fighter), Siegfried Rauch (Schroeder), Serge Marquand (Rensonnet), Charles Macaulay (General/Captain), Alain Doutey (Broban), Maurice Marsac (Vichy Colonel) and Perry Land (Pvt. Kaiser).

Samuel Fuller makes a cameo appearance as a cigar-chomping Army cameraman who instructs the soldiers to wave at the camera.  

The Big Red One Filmed in Israel

Much of The Big Red One was filmed in Israel. It was a little unsettling for some to see Israelis playing German Wehrmacht and SS soldiers. When a scene was completed, they would take off their helmets, often revealing yarmulkes underneath. And in between takes, Jewish actors could be glimpsed lounging around the set in full Nazi costume, conversing in Hebrew or reading the Torah.

Other aspects of the picture were shot in Ireland and California. The brutal winter war scenes were filmed at Big Bear in California’s San Bernardino National Forest.

The Big Red One in World War II

The movie opens in 1918, where The Sergeant is locked in deadly hand-to-hand combat with an enemy soldier. Upon killing the German, The Sergeant returns to headquarters only to learn that the Great War had ended four hours earlier and that the “Hun” was merely trying to surrender.

Fast forward to World War II, where The Sergeant is once again in combat, leading his raw recruits in Operation Torch, the 1942 Allied invasion of North Africa. This is only the first leg on their long, arduous trek as the Sicily campaign, the D-Day landings at bloody Omaha Beach, the Battle of the Hurtgen Forest and the final push into Nazi-held Czechoslovakia await them.

Along the way The Sergeant and his “Four Horsemen” experience the horrors and pathos of war, losing comrades in battle, delivering a baby in a tank and coming face-to-face with Hitler’s Final Solution at Falkenau Concentration Camp. One of the film’s strongest scenes takes place at the latter, where a young American soldier, confronted with the Nazi death ovens, continues to shoot an SS guard long after the man has died.

The Big Red One Opens in New York City

The Big Red One opened in New York City on July 18, 1980.

“A handsome, technically first-rate, almost leisurely recollection of the World War II experiences of five American soldiers, from the landings in North Africa in 1942 until the collapse of Germany in 1945,” reported Vincent Canby of The New York Times (7/18/80).

“Sam Fuller’s The Big Red One is a lot of war stories strung together in a row, almost as if the director filmed it for the thirty-fifth reunion of his old Army outfit, and didn’t want to leave anybody out,” observed Roger Ebert of the Chicago Sun-Times.

“The Big Red One was two years in the making and 35 years in Samuel Fuller’s head. It’s a terrific war yarn, a picture of palpable raw power which manages both intense intimacy and great scope at the same time,” announced Variety.

The Big Red One Trivia, DVD

• Lee Marvin (1924-1987) saw combat with the U.S. Marines during World War II.
• The Big Red One began filming in 1978. At over four hours, the movie was edited by Lorimar Productions to a more commercially feasible two hours, much to the dismay of its progenitor.
• Samuel Fuller passed away at age 85 in Hollywood, California, on October 30, 1997.
• The Big Red One: The Reconstruction Two-Disc Special Edition DVD was released by Warner in 2005, along with an accompanying documentary titled The Real Glory: Reconstructing The Big Red One. The former was produced by film historian Richard Schickel who with film editor Bryan McKenzie collected additional footage found in a vault in Kansas City, Missouri. The two then worked from Sam Fuller’s shooting script, creating a longer movie which they felt more resembled the director’s original version.
• “The Reconstruction, which clocks in at 2 hours, 43 minutes, with not a single extraneous frame, elevates the work from a robust genre film to a full-blown epic…” crowed Kevin Crust of the Los Angeles Times (1/21/05) on the restored DVD.

“You know how you smoke out a sniper? You send a guy out in the open and you see if he gets shot. They thought that up at West Point,” Private Zab informs the viewer.

Private Zab doesn’t like the Army brass…