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Latvians find it more funny to play around with words, twist one's words and turn them into an inside or dirty joke on the fly before one finishes speaking, still preserving neutrality. For example:
A Latvian goes to the doctor, and says "I am going to work in Estonia and I really want to fit in, so I want 25% of my brain removed." The doctor says "Fine, such surgery is possible" - and the Latvian has part of his brain removed. However, after the surgery, the doctor comes to see him and says "I'm really sorry, we got things mixed up and instead of removing 25% of your brain, we left you with only 25% of your brain," to which the patient responds - Gerai, gerai! ("Good, good!" in Lithuanian language)
Get it? Cute, but it doesn't explain the Latvian googlers purpose for reaching this destination. Maybe he's a poor student who could care less about Huck Finn, but he's looking for film adaptations to cram for a quiz on Mark Twain novels ( he hasn't read) for this obscure America course he had to take. Doubtful that he's a TCM maniac, but their visit was welcomed and I hope they return.
This, the second of Astaire's outings with Hayworth, avoids wartime themes, and benefits from lavish production values – a consequence of the box-office success of the earthier You'll Never Get Rich. Kern here created a memorable standard with "I'm Old Fashioned", and there is a faultless trio of classic dance routines; but sugary sentimentalism enters, and rather eccentric art direction. Initially, Kern was unhappy about the selection of Cugat and his orchestra; however, when production was complete, he was so pleased with the band's performance that he presented him with a silver baton. Although Hayworth had a fine voice, Harry Cohn insisted on her singing being dubbed throughout by Nan Wynn.
The film follows the usual conventions established by Astaire in his earlier musicals, such as an anti-romantic first meeting between the two leads, a virtuoso dance solo for Astaire, a playful dance duet and a romantic dance duet.
It Happened One Night is an American 1934 screwball comedy directed by Frank Capra, in which a pampered socialite (Claudette Colbert) tries to get out from under her father's thumb, and falls in love with a roguish reporter (Clark Gable). Filming began in a tense atmosphere as Gable and Colbert were dissatisfied with the quality of the script. However, they established a friendly working relationship and found that the script was no worse than those of many of their earlier films. Capra understood that they were unwilling participants and tried to lighten the mood by having Gable play practical jokes on Colbert, who responded with good humor.
Both Gable and Capra enjoyed making the movie. Colbert however continued to show her displeasure on the set. She also initially balked at pulling up her skirt to entice a passing driver to provide a ride, complaining that it was unladylike. However, upon seeing the chorus girl who was brought in as her body double, an outraged Colbert told the director, "Get her out of here. I'll do it. That's not my leg!" Through the filming, Capra claimed, Colbert made "many little tantrums, motivated by her antipathy toward me," however "she was wonderful in the part." After her acceptance speech at the Oscars ceremony, she went back on stage and thanked Capra for making the film.
Eighteen chariots were built, with half being used for practice. The race took five weeks to film. Tour buses visited the set every hour.
The section in the middle of the circus, the spina, is a known feature of circi, although its size may be exaggerated to aid filmmaking. The golden dolphin lap counter was a feature of the Circus Maximus in Rome.
Charlton Heston spent four weeks learning how to drive a chariot. He was taught by the stunt crew, who offered to teach the entire cast, but Heston and Boyd were the only ones who took them up on the offer (Boyd had to learn in just two weeks, due to his late casting). At the beginning of the chariot race, Heston shook the reins and nothing happened; the horses remained motionless. Finally someone way up on top of the set yelled, "Giddy-up!" The horses then roared into action, and Heston was flung backward off the chariot.
To give the scene more impact and realism, three lifelike dummies were placed at key points in the race to give the appearance of men being run over by chariots. Most notable is the stand-in dummy for Stephen Boyd's Messala that gets tangled up under the horses, getting battered by their hooves. This resulted in one of the most grisly fatal injuries in motion picture history up until then, and shocked audiences.
Another urban legend states that a red Ferrari can be seen during the chariot race; the book Movie Mistakes claims this is a myth. (Heston, in the DVD commentary track, mentions a third urban legend that is not true: That he wore a wristwatch. He points out that he was wearing leather bracers right up to the elbow.)
However, one of the best-remembered moments in the race came from a near-fatal accident. When Ben-Hur's chariot jumps another chariot which has crashed in its path, the charioteer is seen to be almost thrown from his mount and only just manages to hang on and climb back in to continue the race. In reality, while the jump was planned, the character being flipped into the air was not planned, and stuntman Joe Canutt, son of stunt director Yakima Canutt, was considered fortunate to escape with only a minor chin injury. Nonetheless, when director Wyler intercut the long shot of Canutt's leap with a close-up of Heston clambering back into his chariot, a memorable scene resulted.
Wyler's films garnered more awards for participating artists and actors than any other director in the history of Hollywood. Besides winning three times, he received twelve Oscar nominations for Best Director, while dozens of his collaborators and actors (such as Audrey Hepburn, Olivia de Havilland) won Oscars or were nominated. In 1965, Wyler won the Irving Thalberg Award for career achievement. Eleven years later, he received the American Film Institute Life Achievement Award. In addition to his Best Picture and Best Director Oscar wins, ten of Wyler's films earned Best Picture nominations.
Wyler's style is (among auteurist critics) notoriously difficult to perceive. He did not build a stable of players like Capra, Sturges or Ford. He directed varied types of films without any trademark shots or themes, but in his choice of lighting, blocking and camera distance, and in the serious liberal tone of his work, a continuity of worldview is detectable.
Jonathan Demme directed an up-to-date version of The Manchurian Candidate in 2004, starring Denzel Washington as Major Marco, Liev Schreiber as Congressman Raymond Shaw, and Meryl Streep as Senator Eleanor Shaw (her husband is not included). This contemporary adaptation made substantial changes to the source material by dropping the Cold War background for an anti-corporation story of private and business control of the U.S. government. The American soldiers are also shown being captured in Kuwait during the Gulf War between Iraqi and UN forces.
Raymond is the brainwashed Manchurian candidate and Marco the brainwashed assassin. The novel explicitly depicts incest between Raymond and his mother. The social conventions of American cinema in 1962 limited Frankenheimer's depiction to a salacious adult kiss between mother and son. Demme's depiction of mother-son incest is more explicit.
Demme's rewritten and reworked version of The Manchurian Candidate was less critically successful than the original.
@TCManiacs it's not even close. The original is far better
@TCManiacs Sorry Denzel but i have to go with ol Blue eyes Sinartra!
@TCManiacs I like the 1962 one MUCH better
@TCManiacs Blogs: The Manchurian Candidate 1962 vs 2004 http://ow.ly/1Bfz Which do you prefer? Washington or Sinatra? Landsberry or Streep?
@TCManiacs original manchurian is awesome. Lansbury kills it.
Huckleberry Finn is the 1974 musical film version of Mark Twain's American classic boyhood adventure story, The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn.
The movie was produced by Reader's Digest and Arthur P. Jacobs (well-known for his role in the production of the Planet of the Apes films) and starred Jeff East as Huckleberry Finn and Paul Winfield as Jim. The film contains original music and songs, such as Freedom and Cairo, Illinois, by the popular "Sherman Brothers," Robert B. Sherman and Richard M. Sherman.
Both versions periodically shown on TCM.
Filmed in black and white, Howard set the standard with his portrayal of Sir Percy Blakeney and this version is widely regarded as the best screen adaptation.
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While the filmmakers made every effort to remain faithful to Paul Brickhill's account of the escape, given the scope and the length of time over which the book unfolds it was inevitable that some adjustments would have to be made to allow the story to be presented on screen. The result is that much of the action has been condensed in time and many of the men appear as composites of the real-life individuals who appear in the book.
Composite Characters Explained »
One important liberty taken by the film makers was that, in actual fact, no serving member of the American armed forces was involved in the final escape. Although not originally intended, the director John Sturges was told to write American heroes into the script or abandon the project. While fictional American characters dominated the film, it does concede that it was a mainly British led operation.
One important fact omitted from the film was the help the POWs received from outside the camp, some of it from their home countries; they received much material that proved invaluable for this and other escapes. Acting through secret agencies such as MI9, families from Allied nations would send maps, papers, tools as disguised material hidden in gifts, books, food, and other objects. Ex-POWs asked the film-makers to exclude such details lest it jeopardize future POW escapes.
The theft of a German airplane (in the film, a Bücker Bü 181) by Hendley and Blythe is also fictitious, although there was a failed attempt by Lorne Welch and Walter Morison to steal a plane following the delousing party escape a year earlier. Likewise the movie shows the plane going over Bavaria's Neuschwanstein Castle on the way to Switzerland; the 181 range is only about 497 miles — in real life their flight from Stalag Luft III would have gone down at least 50 miles from the Swiss border — instead of going down near the Swiss Alps.
A scene shows a choir singing to cover the noise of work done for the escape, but, in reality, it was a group of prisoners who formed a musical band and called themselves the "Sagan Serenaders". Future television meteorologist Wally Kinnan, then a First Lieutenant in the US Army Air Corps, and Pilot Officer Leonard Whiteley of the British Royal Air Force had organized the group. The Serenaders received musical instruments from aid organizations and whatever the German captors could scrounge. Musicians Tiger Ward, Nick Nagorka and pianist John Bunch were also members of this group.
Only 76 of the projected 200 men escaped while an air raid occurred; only three POWs escaped Germany into neutral territory: the Norwegians Per Bergsland and Jens Müller who escaped to Sweden, and the Dutchman Bram van der Stok who reached Spain. Though Roger Bartlett in the film speaks of freeing 250 men, there is no account of a target other than 200, and in the movie itself only about 15 POWS go through the tunnel to the forest.
The film depicts Tom's entrance as being under a stove and Harry's as in a drain sump in a washroom. In reality, Dick's entrance was the drain sump, Harry's was under the stove, and Tom's was in a darkened corner.
The caisson stopped when it arrived at Capitol Hill; military units removed it, and Hail to the Chief was played amidst a 21-gun salute. Two teams of military body bearers carried the coffin up the steps of the Capitol to Battle Hymn of the Republic.
When the casket reached the top of the steps, Nancy Reagan and her military escort met it. As the casket passed them, Mrs. Reagan momentarily pulled away from her escort, reached out, and touched the casket. The casket was placed under the rotunda, where it lay in state on Abraham Lincoln's catafalque. An evening memorial service then took place, with dignitaries
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