Archive for the Trivia category
August 11th, 2006
John Ford loved to shoot his westerns in Monument Valley, Utah. Those films include Stagecoach (1939), My Darling Clementine (1946), Fort Apache (1948), She Wore a Yellow Ribbon (1949), Wagon Master (1950), Rio Grande (1950), The Searchers (1956), Sergeant Rutledge (1960) and Cheyenne Autumn (1964).
So how did he discover this rugged and picturesque location? Here’s the story as explained by the Internet Movie Database:
“In 1939 there was no paved road through Monument Valley, hence the reason why it hadn’t been used as a movie location before (it wasn’t paved until the 1950s). Harry Goulding, who ran a trading post there, had heard that John Ford was planning a big-budget Western so he traveled to Hollywood, armed with over 100 photographs, and threatened to camp out on Ford’s doorstep until the director saw him. Ford saw him almost immediately and was instantly sold on the location, Particularly when he realized that its remoteness would free him of studio interference.”
August 10th, 2006
Holiday (1938) is based on a play by the same writer (Philip Barry), has the same director (George Cukor), and features the same two stars (Katharine Hepburn and Cary Grant) as The Philadelphia Story (1940). Yet the lesser known (and earlier) movie is actually the better of two.
August 9th, 2006
Russian poster for Lucrezia Borgia (1922)
This silent German film featured Conrad Veidt as Cesare Borgia. In an odd coincidence, he had famously played a character named Cesare just two years earlier in The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari (1920). His best part was probably the title role in The Man Who Laughs (1928), though he is best known for his portrayals of Jaffar in The Thief of Bagdad (1940) and Maj. Strasser in Casablanca (1942).
August 9th, 2006
In his article “The Strange Case of Alfred Hitchcock, Part Three,” Raymond Durgnat writes that “Dr. Goebbels loved watching Foreign Correspondent.” Goebbels predicted it would make “an impression upon wide broad masses in the enemy countries.” Hitchcock later speculated that a print was probably brought in through Switzerland. Was this a case of an evil manipulator recognizing the skills of a more benign manipulator?
August 8th, 2006
The most beautiful movie star ever?
She also helped invent the communication system used today in cellular phones and modern weapons. You can read about this other side of Hedy Lamarr here, here, here, and here.
August 8th, 2006
“Studio publicity in 1941 claimed that Ronald Reagan and Ann Sheridan were scheduled to appear in this film, and Dennis Morgan is mentioned as the third lead. This was never the case, however, and the false story was planted, either by a studio publicist or a press agent for the three other actors, to keep their names in the press. Meanwhile George Raft was angling for the part with Jack L. Warner, but Hal B. Wallis had been assigned to search for what would be Humphrey Bogart’s next starring role. He wrote to Warner that he had found the next movie for Bogart, and the role was perfect for him. Nobody else was ever considered for the part.”
– Source: Internet Movie Database
August 8th, 2006
One of the first Japanese films to be shot in anamorphic widescreen, The Mysterians (1957) is also the first of a long line of low-budget Toho Studio movies that feature alien invaders.
August 8th, 2006
“When former Olympic star Johnny Weissmuller was approached to play Tarzan, he was under contract with BVD to advertise their underwear and swimming trunks. BVD strenuously objected to its spokesman appearing in just a loincloth — the company only wanted him to appear wearing its product. In return for letting Weismuller play Tarzan, MGM allowed BVD to run ads featuring the studio’s contract players in BVD swimsuits (including Greta Garbo, Joan Crawford, Jean Harlow, and Marie Dressler).”
– Source: Gabe Esso’s book Tarzan of the Movies (as cited by Internet Movie Database)
August 8th, 2006
Independently produced by Sherman S. Krellber, The Lost City (1935) was a 12-part low-budget serial that mixed not-so-convincing jungle locales with cool-looking mad scientist laboratory equipment. If the laboratory equipment looks familiar, it may be because Ken Strickfaden also created the electrical effects for Frankenstein (1931) and Bride of Frankenstein (1935).
August 7th, 2006
Buljanoff: How are things in Moscow?
Ninotchka: Very good. The last mass trials were a great success. There are going to be fewer but better Russians.
Ninotchka: I am interested only in the shortest distance between these two points. Must you flirt?
Leon: I don’t have to but I find it natural.
Ninotchka: Suppress it.
Leon: I’ll try.
– Dialogue from Ninotchka (1939)
August 7th, 2006
Japanese poster for Akira Kurosawa’s The Hidden Fortress (1958)
George Lucas has cited this movie as a primary influence for the original Star Wars (1977).
August 7th, 2006
One of the reasons 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968) has endured as a great movie is director Stanley Kubrick’s obsession with getting every detail right.
Kubrick did find a technical flaw just before the film was released. It would have been too costly to correct, so the mistake remains. During the flight to the moon, Dr. Floyd drinks food through a straw, in what we understand to be a weightless environment. If you look closely, you can see the food drop when he stops sucking on the straw. Since there’s no gravity, the food shouldn’t be falling back.
August 6th, 2006
Produced by Hal Roach and directed by Fred Guiol, Flaming Flappers (1925) may survive today only as a fragment. Sadly, the majority of silent films are lost forever.
August 6th, 2006
“It is widely believed that Ted Turner had plans to colorize Citizen Kane, but that wide public outcry led to his decision not to. The rumor came from a tongue-in-cheek comment from Turner that he would colorize the film in order to bait critics of the process.
“In actuality, Orson Welles had the rights to the film, and Turner couldn’t have colorized the film even if he had wanted to. Nonetheless, the controversy over the potential alteration of this film was one of the catalysts that eventually led to the film industry requirement that all future video and TV releases of films that have been altered in any way — including the standard conversion from widescreen to ‘pan and scan’ — must carry a disclaimer indicating the film has been ‘modified from its original version.’
“It is also widely believed that when he heard about it, Welles supposedly roared, ‘Tell Ted Turner to keep his crayons away from my movie!’ However, being that he owned the rights to the film, it is highly unlikely that he ever made any such statement.”
– Source: Internet Movie Database
August 5th, 2006
“The running time for The Wizard of Oz was originally 120 minutes. Producer Mervyn LeRoy realized that at least 20 minutes of the film needed to be deleted to get it down to a manageable running time. Three sneak previews aided LeRoy in his decision in what to cut. The original film in its entirety was seen only once by an audience in either San Bernadino or Santa Barbara, and it was the only time the famed Jitterbug number was seen by the public.
“After this preview, LeRoy cut the aforementioned Jitterbug number and the Scarecrow’s extended dance sequence to ‘If I Only Had a Brain.’ A second preview was held in Pomona, California, where the film ran 112 minutes. After the preview, LeRoy cut Dorothy’s ‘Over The Rainbow’ reprise and a scene in which the Tin Man turned into a human beehive, and the Emerald City reprise of ‘Ding Dong The Witch is Dead,’ as well as a few smaller scenes and dialogue, notably two Kansas scenes in which the Hickory character was building a machine to ward off tornadoes, as well as dozens of threatening lines by the Wicked Witch of the West.
“By the third preview, held in San Luis Obispo, the film finally was down to its 101-minute running time, where it has remained ever since.”
– Source: Internet Movie Database
August 5th, 2006
“Thirty-seven doctors in the continental U.S. had the same name the writers had given to Groucho Marx in A Day at the Races. It was feared the studio would be sued the minute they were portrayed on the screen by Groucho as horse doctors.”
What name was dropped and replaced with Hackenbush? The answer is Quackenbush.
– Source: Marx Brothers – Night at the Opera Treasury
