Favorite Films (lists up to participating site members)

[Steadmund Brand]

Hello all, I watched a great documentary last night on Netflix streaming it's called " Ray Harryhausen : Special Effects Titan" it's a few years old now, from 2011 but fell under my radar until last night... was really fun, and brought back some wonderful childhood memories.. and really made you appreciate the talent and skill of a true master...Just thought I would pass that along as it seems like something most film fans would enjoy....

maybe we should start a thread on Documentaries about films... hmmm anyone want to start one or shall I on my next post?

Steadmund Brand

[Robert]

Hi Jeff

Maybe it was the casual gun violence that McGoohan objected to about Bond. After all, there's nothing casual about a cannon.

Decades ago Lom appeared on the radio show Desert Island Discs, and here is a list of his selections :

http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p009y7f0/segments

[Mayerling]

Thanks Jeff.

Lom played a goodie in a TV series. It was called The Human Jungle, shown early 1960s in the UK. He played a psychiatrist who disentangles his patients' problems. The theme music is good, with Lom at the start of each episode entering his office and switching on a tape recorder (one of those old spool machines). He sits and listens to what is presumably a recording of an interview with a patient. As he listens, he puffs on a cigarette! Wouldn't be allowed today.

Interesting fact about McGoohan : he reputedly turned down the role of James Bond because he refused to carry a gun, but in the last episode of The Prisoner he blazes away with a machine gun.

Hi Robert,

One might even make a case (out of sympathy) that Herbert is even a good guy as the homicidal Chief Inspector Dreyfus, as dealing with Clouseau drives him to insanity (when Clouseau seems to be dead, Dreyfus calms down and behaves himself again).

As for McGoohan ending The Prisoner in a rain of machine gun fire - he has become an enemy of the secret service (or government division) that he worked for - which is why he was targeted and imprisoned in the village to begin with, so he has his reasons to turn to extreme violence against it. I don't think 007 ever turned against the British Secret Service. By the way, in his several appearances on "Columbo" he did not hesitate to kill people (once blowing one up with a cannon!).

Jeff

[Robert]

Thanks Jeff.

Lom played a goodie in a TV series. It was called The Human Jungle, shown early 1960s in the UK. He played a psychiatrist who disentangles his patients' problems. The theme music is good, with Lom at the start of each episode entering his office and switching on a tape recorder (one of those old spool machines). He sits and listens to what is presumably a recording of an interview with a patient. As he listens, he puffs on a cigarette! Wouldn't be allowed today.

Interesting fact about McGoohan : he reputedly turned down the role of James Bond because he refused to carry a gun, but in the last episode of The Prisoner he blazes away with a machine gun.

[Mayerling]

Hi Jeff

Re McGoohan, a few years ago he tried to return to the theatre, but found he just couldn't do it. I think it was stage fright.

He did however do a TV play, in which he played the part of GBS. It was to do with Shaw, some other guy, and a nun who had all written letters to each other for years. I think it was a series of monologues, each character speaking the text of their letters.

One of his best films was this one :

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0051713/

Hi Robert,

Definitely a good cast - with my favorite, Mr. Lom, as a good guy for a change (for another good guy role for Herbert, see his performance in the thriller "Return From the Ashes" with Maximillian Schell).

My favorite McGoohan part was as Edward I "Longshanks" in "Braveheart". One momentarily felt sorry for him when he had to try training his son and heir.

Jeff

[Robert]

Hi Jeff

Re McGoohan, a few years ago he tried to return to the theatre, but found he just couldn't do it. I think it was stage fright.

He did however do a TV play, in which he played the part of GBS. It was to do with Shaw, some other guy, and a nun who had all written letters to each other for years. I think it was a series of monologues, each character speaking the text of their letters.

One of his best films was this one :

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0051713/

[Mayerling]

I guess I must have gotten Juliet Mills confused with some other actress who died from an acting family (Lynn Redgrave comes to mind, but she never was in a Columbo episode). Sorry for the error. Hope Hayley and Juliet are entertaining when in Australia.

Jeff

[GUT]

Hi Jeff

Juliet was doing all right a year ago :

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt3089724/

http://www.advocate.com/arts-enterta...wist?page=full

hope so, her and Hayley are coming to Aus shortly.

[Robert]

Hi Jeff

Juliet was doing all right a year ago :

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt3089724/

http://www.advocate.com/arts-entertainment/television/2014/03/10/juliet-mills-back-nannying-twist?page=full

[GUT]

Ohh it's even more frightening when you find pictures of yourself from years ago then look in a mirror...... happened to me just last week... what a shock.. I felt as if I hadn't really aged but seeing those pics... yikes!!!!

39 Steps--- The 1978 version is great, but I still prefer the 1935 version, I admit I never saw the one made between the 2, in the early 60's i believe.. and I have yet to see the 2008 version, but have heard it's terrible, but I can't judge it.

By the way.. some sad news to pass on, Gregory Walcott, character actor probably best remembered as Pilot Jeff Trent, the star of Ed Woods Plan 9 from Outer Space died on March 20th at the age of 87...Walcott was in over 30 films and 300 TV shows in a career that spanned 5 decades...RIP Mr. Walcott

Steadmund Brand

Just imagine the movies they make in movie afterlife.

[Mayerling]

Ohh it's even more frightening when you find pictures of yourself from years ago then look in a mirror...... happened to me just last week... what a shock.. I felt as if I hadn't really aged but seeing those pics... yikes!!!!

39 Steps--- The 1978 version is great, but I still prefer the 1935 version, I admit I never saw the one made between the 2, in the early 60's i believe.. and I have yet to see the 2008 version, but have heard it's terrible, but I can't judge it.

By the way.. some sad news to pass on, Gregory Walcott, character actor probably best remembered as Pilot Jeff Trent, the star of Ed Woods Plan 9 from Outer Space died on March 20th at the age of 87...Walcott was in over 30 films and 300 TV shows in a career that spanned 5 decades...RIP Mr. Walcott

Steadmund Brand

Hi Robert and Steadmund,

I'm sorry to hear that one of the last links to Wood's "Masterpiece" (???) has passed on. All I can say (in keeping with that immortal dialogue), "He stopped breathing...and something must have happened!"

Juliet Mills did die about fifteen years or so ago - I was surprised to hear about it at the time. I know Hayley is still alive. Sir John passed on some time back too. I was lucky enough to see Sir John Mills on the Broadway stage in the late 1980s. He was in a production with Peter O'Toole, Amanda Plummer, and Lionel Jeffries of "Pygmalion", playing "Alfred Doolittle".

Jeff

[Robert]

Hi Stead

That's sad. Another one gone.

I've decided not to die - there's no future in it.

[Steadmund Brand]

Hi Jeff

Yes it is sad when stars we used to watch are no longer with us. It can also be a shock when they age, if you haven't seen them in years. This can happen with pop stars - someone whom you last saw prancing around on TV 40 years ago, gives an interview and it's "oh, no!"

Do you mean Juliet Mills the daughter of John and sister of Hayley? As far as I know, she's still alive.

On the 39 Steps, I think the third version - the one with Robert Powell - was the best one. I'm assuming you meant Powell? Robert Stephens did a Sherlock Holmes film.

Ohh it's even more frightening when you find pictures of yourself from years ago then look in a mirror...... happened to me just last week... what a shock.. I felt as if I hadn't really aged but seeing those pics... yikes!!!!

39 Steps--- The 1978 version is great, but I still prefer the 1935 version, I admit I never saw the one made between the 2, in the early 60's i believe.. and I have yet to see the 2008 version, but have heard it's terrible, but I can't judge it.

By the way.. some sad news to pass on, Gregory Walcott, character actor probably best remembered as Pilot Jeff Trent, the star of Ed Woods Plan 9 from Outer Space died on March 20th at the age of 87...Walcott was in over 30 films and 300 TV shows in a career that spanned 5 decades...RIP Mr. Walcott

Steadmund Brand

[Robert]

Hi Jeff

Yes it is sad when stars we used to watch are no longer with us. It can also be a shock when they age, if you haven't seen them in years. This can happen with pop stars - someone whom you last saw prancing around on TV 40 years ago, gives an interview and it's "oh, no!"

Do you mean Juliet Mills the daughter of John and sister of Hayley? As far as I know, she's still alive.

On the 39 Steps, I think the third version - the one with Robert Powell - was the best one. I'm assuming you meant Powell? Robert Stephens did a Sherlock Holmes film.

[Mayerling]

Mayerling.. wow what a list....I was thinking what I could add to it...the only one I could think of that wasn't there is the BBC version of Rogue Male with Peter O'toole (1976)... I know it is more of a chase film.. but the story is about a man's failed attempt to shoot Hitler...fun film that suprisingly few people remember ( see.. this is a " re-make" that wasn't bad.. because it wasn't a true re-make of Man Hunt ( the Fritz Lang film from the early 40's I believe, can't remember for sure)

Oh how I love this thread!!!


Steadmund Brand

Hi Steadmund,

I never saw the the Peter O'Toole remake, but I loved the 1941 original by Fritz Lang with Walter Pidgeon, Joan Bennett, George Sanders. It was a very clever idea - and one that (unfortunately) nobody in Europe really thought of doing before 1939. I sometimes wonder if the novel, "The Day of the Jackell" was also influenced by "Rogue Male".

There was also a remake of "The Thirty Nine Steps" that was closer to the actual John Buchan novel than the Hitchcock classic with Robert Donat. The actor Robert Stephens played "Richard Hannay" in it. It too I never saw.

Jeff