Many years ago, when I was a teenager, and things like that didn’t happen to people like us…….a famous actor called Rock Hudson died of a strange illness. There was much hype over whether his co-stars who had shared an on screen kiss with him would also be infected and at risk. Things have changed but plus ca change…….

Today is World AIDS Day and I would like to say a prayer for all those infected with this tragic virus and their friends and families, and I would like to call for a cure please. The world has waited long enough.

33 million people  around the world, men, women and children are living with HIV/AIDS.

“Come in, please…  My name is Ruby. I’ve been assigned to go over the circumstances of your death.” (Quote from “Seconds”)”

“Seconds,” made in 1966, starred Rock Hudson, as well as a host of actors you’ll recognize from “Twilight Zone” episodes, the Six Million Dollar Man, and the original “Manchurian Candidate.” 

First…what does this movie promise?  Welcome to “Outer Limits” meets “Twilight Zone” with a sci-fi edge and a decent cast of characters. 

“Seconds” premise is the ‘old’ protagonist, the aging banker (who you may recall was in “Prizzi’s Honor,”) who succumbs to a mysterious friend’s phone call, offering him a new, youthful identity, absolving him of his ‘lost,’ ‘unfulfilled,’ current life.  When Arthur arrives at ‘The Company,’ he pays $30,000, and is transformed with plastic surgery, into Tony Wilson, a successful artist in Malibu, California.  (Rock Hudson, by the way, plays the ‘reborn’  Tony at that point).  But what happens to Arthur, the older gentleman’s former life?   A dead body is found in a hotel room, supposedly identified as the aging Arthur, given time to adjust to his ‘reconstructed’ face, body and then sent to his new life as an artist.

Is there merit to this film?  Before answering that, I was admittedly surprised by the naked ‘orgy’ scene–well, not as much orgy, as more of a late sixties’ Dionysian orgy-cluster into a wine barrel…ala 1966…

Honestly, “Seconds” has a stark black and white, surreal quality, strong close-ups and simple dialogue which could be considered sci-fi film noir, with abstract camera shots and a sort of European vibe.   Not quite “Warhol’, but I liked that there was a balance between simple shots and dialogue.  Certainly, it could use updating, if this was re-made!   Ok, the plot…does it have one or does it mean put the movie into the film rental graveyard?

There are moments when it feels like a “Fat Farm” (short story), in the beginning when Arthur runs into a classroom filled with men just sitting there, not speaking, even when he speaks to them.  Then the protagonist meets the old man at ‘The Company,’ who presents himself as the proprietor…

The cinematography has a take you’d see from older directing styles–your eyes as the protag in a good portion of it.  As you follow Arthur (Tony), with his anxiety, as it grows in him, his frustration as he seeks out his past, swallowing and recreating confusion and a hint of guilt, as he adapts to his new life.  Sadly, reborn as “Tony Wilson,” he is unable to cope with the new life, with an explosion of detachment to an explosion of emotions…

Tony, in his new world, meets a woman who appears free, but you later see that she is a reborn meant to watch Tony in his new life, along with Tony’s ‘manservant.’  Then there’s the moment where you see that even the neighbors are ‘reborn’!  During a party, Tony is quickly surrounded by the ‘enemy’ as he gets drunk and freely reminisces of his former life to others.

Thus, Tony is brought back to ‘the Company’  When he declares that he wants a new identity, he is tasked by ‘The Company’ to seduce his friends into finding a new life as a ‘reborn.’  Tony refuses, and is put into what looks like a classroom, filled with other young men who have followed the same ethic.  Ah ha!  The scene from the beginning of the film!  The situation thickens as he finds the friend who initially ‘enticed,’ him on the telephone (at the beginning of the movie) is there, but it’s too late for either of them to realize the truth…that while they await for their ‘new identity,’ that are actually in a waiting room until they will become the cadaver for the next ‘reborn’ inductee!

I found this movie to be fun in the style it is presented, but it is a different taste.  For some, the film may be too funky, camp or ‘Seconds’ best, but I enjoyed the protagonist’s paradox, layers of conflict, hunger and self-fulfilling prophecy…he wants a new life, to achieve his dream life, and yet, when it was given to him, he was unable to enjoy it, always going back to the price..the moral having that same old saying, “Be careful for what you ask for.  You may get it.”

“Seconds,” I admit, is a film worth re-making, as the concept is a great one, has dynamic between characters, and has the potential of providing more ‘moral’ or not so…messages, such as the peril of self‑judgment, perception, life and love, happiness, success, and the quest of identity.

Before you give it a second thought, rent it If you like either the “Twilight Zone,” or “Outer Limits,” as it’s the black and white, surreal dive into the mind and feeling…otherwise, you may just see it as ‘sloppy Seconds.’

Here’s the link on the full info at:  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Seconds_(film)

Thanks for reading!  Please feel free to comment!

This hour begins with a recap of the recently concluded Game Show Congress 7 and the awards ceremonies honoring Geoff Edwards, Johnny Gilbert and the late Allen Ludden. Then midway through the hour, Ed and Frankie welcome actor Richard Anderson as they discuss his role as Oscar Goldman on The Six Million Dollar Man and The Bionic Woman and the impact and appeal of both series:

http://media.podcastingmanager.com/9/3/5/3/3/142636-133539/Media/111609tvc34_1.mp3

On November 17:

1493  Christopher Columbus landed on Puerto Rico

1558 Elizabethan era began when Queen Mary I of England died and was succeeded by her half-sister Elizabeth I of England.

1603  English explorer, writer, and courtier Sir Walter Raleigh went on trial for treason.

1800 The United States Congress holds its first session in Washington, D.C.

1811 José Miguel Carrera, Chilean founding father, was sworn in as President of the executive Junta of the government of Chile.

1831  Ecuador and Venezuela were separated from Greater Colombia.

1855 David Livingstone became the first European to see the Victoria Falls.

1903  The Russian Social Democratic Labor Party split into two groups; the Bolsheviks (Russian for “majority”) and Mensheviks (Russian for “minority”).

1919 King George V of the United Kingdom proclaimed Armistice Day (later Remembrance Day). The idea was first suggested by Edward George Honey.

1923  Bert Sutcliffe, New Zealand cricketer, was born.

1925  Rock Hudson, American actor, was born.

1925 The New Zealand and South Seas International Exhibition opened in Dunedin.

1937 Peter Cook, British comedian, was born.

1938  Gordon Lightfoot, Canadian singer, was born.

1939  Auberon Waugh, British author, was born.

1950  Tenzin Gyatso, the 14th Dalai Lama, was enthroned as the leader of Tibet at the age of fifteen.

1953 The remaining human inhabitants of the Blasket Islands, Kerry, Ireland were evacuated to the mainland.

1970 Douglas Engelbart received the patent for the first computer mouse.

1978  Zoë Bell, New Zealand actress-stuntwoman, was born.

Sourced from NZ History Online & Wikipedia.

TV CONFIDENTIAL promises to be better, stronger and faster when actor Richard Anderson joins Ed Robertson and Frankie Montiforte on the next edition of the program, which premieres Monday, Nov. 16 at 10pm ET, 7pm PT on Shokus Internet Radio, with a rebroadcast Tuesday, Nov. 17 at 11pm ET, 8pm PT on Share-a-Vision Radio, KSAV.org.

Best known for playing Oscar Goldman on The Six Million Dollar Man and The Bionic Woman—a role that made him the first actor in TV history to play the same character on two series that ran at the same time on two different networks—Richard Anderson has been a fixture in movies and television for more than 60 years. He has appeared in such classic films as The Long Hot Summer, Forbidden Planet, Compulsion, Seconds, Tora! Tora! Tora! and Paths of Glory, while his television career includes regular roles on Perry Mason, Dan August and Cover Up, featured roles in such acclaimed made-for-TV movies as Along Came a Spider, Say Goodbye, Maggie Cole and The Night Strangler, and guest appearances on such classic TV series as Bonanza, Gunsmoke, The F.B.I., Hawaii Five-O, Columbo and The Fugitive.

If you want to be part of our conversation, if you have a question for Richard Anderson about his career or any of the films and television series in which he’s appeared, we invite you to join us Monday, Nov. 16 at 10pm ET, 7pm PT on Shokus Internet Radio.

TV CONFIDENTIAL with Ed Robertson and Frankie Montiforte
Mon-Sun 10pm ET, 7pm PT
Shokus Internet Radio
Every other Tuesday at 11pm ET, 8pm PT
Share-a-Vision Radio, KSAV.org
www.tvconfidential.net
blog.tvconfidential.net
Also available as a podcast via iTunes and FeedBurner

Incredibly dated and oddly creepy, Pillow Talk is a vehicle for Rock Hudson’s good looks and Doris Day’s charm. Directed by Michael Gordon, the picture floats a truly weird story along with some outdated concepts about sex, women and relationships. It also features one of the most invasive and obnoxious soundtracks I’ve come across in quite some time.

This is 1950s gloss working its magic, attempting to convince us that there’s a reason for the attraction between the characters and that the good looks and charm of even the most obnoxious, creepy, sexist individuals should be enough for love. We’re supposed to fall in love with the coupling of Day and Hudson because the music says so, not because it actually makes any sense. In reality, what happens in Pillow Talk is quite sickening.

Day stars as Jan Morrow, a successful interior decorator. There’s a problem with her, though, as she lives alone and goes out and has fun. See, she’s much too old to be an independent woman with a good job and a nice apartment, so something’s gotta give. Her alcoholic maid (Thelma Ritter) makes sure that Jan knows her life is incomplete, too, which is always helpful advice when coming from someone whose drinking problem is played up for shiny chuckles.

Hudson is Brad Allen, a Broadway composer and “playboy.” He and Jan share a party line (Google it) and they don’t like each other much because Jan keeps wanting to make calls while Hudson is courting various women via telephone. One day, Brad sees Jan dancing and falls in love with her. He does what any normal person would do and invents a personality to court her so that she won’t know he’s the guy on the party line. Oh, and he also dupes a friend (Tony Randall) in the process while taking advantage of pretty much everyone who crosses his path. What a charming man!

That Brad completely fakes his way into Jan’s life is treated with the utmost respect. His square jaw and broad shoulders and good looks tell us that he’s doing the right thing, after all, and the annoying music reinforces the point. To make matters worse, Brad’s interest in Jan seems slightly predicated on the fact that his friend is in love with her. That piques his interest to discover who this delicate little flower might be and, before you can say “split screen,” we’re off on a road to romantic entanglement.

All of this might actually be hilarious were it not so creepy to think about. Jan has a streak of rebellion and independence that must be dealt with, which is, at least in part, why Rock Hudson’s character has to enter into the fray of fakery. When he essentially kicks her door down and abducts her towards the end of the picture, he’s doing the poor clueless dame a favour, after all, and she’s more than happy to oblige even if he has a creepy switch in his pad that locks the door. Try not to put too much thought into the fact that a policeman simply chuckles as Rock passes carrying a screaming Day, too. It’s the 50s.

The conception that draws this film to a close is downright disgusting. Day’s character is being “dealt with” because she had the audacity to right the wrongs against her in the way she knew how. Hudson’s Brad essentially gets everything in the end, while Day’s Jan is barefoot, pregnant and loving it. It is the ultimate reflection of vile, puritanical 1950s values and reeks of sexism and cruelty.

On top of all that, it’s actually a pretty horrible picture for other reasons. The Frank De Vol score is absolutely terrible, for one thing, and dominates each scene with its invasive need to pile instruments on top of other instruments. It’s one of the most obnoxious displays of music in a picture I’ve heard in quite some time. And the use of split screen and fade shots is just cheesy and tacky, too.

Overall, there’s really no good reason to see Pillow Talk. It only reinforces why progress is so important in today’s world and remains an example of a time and an attitude that keeps women in their places. It calls on a time when men were men, even if they were gay men pretending to be straight men mocking gay men, and has little to no redeeming value either as a film or as a piece of art.

0.7/10

Trailer:

Rock Hudson, what an awesome sounding completely made up name! I only first heard this name a few months ago while I was watching the Frontline documentary titled “The age of Aids” (Baker 2006) Strangely enough, for the past few weeks I have heard numerous people, friends, peers, professors and family, talk about this guy and the impact he left. Then on Tuesday when I saw his name on the list I thought, “BINGO, it must be a sign!” Unfortunately, not only have I never heard about this guy outside of that Frontline documentary, I have never even seen a signal movie of his. So I sat depressed on the IF bus on my way home. Then, the bus was passing Hyde Park Baptist church/school it hit me. I said to myself, “Oh Katy, you like watching movies don’t you. Well perhaps you can watch a few movies like Giant (Stevens 1956), Seconds (Frankenheimer 1966) and many others.” So that’s when I decide that I was to indeed write my paper on Rock Hudson. As soon was I walked in the door I turned on my computer and I started to do a little research on this guy named Hudson. My initial thoughts lead me to believe that he was almost like a sexually icon. I’m sure girls my age were going wild just from his looks. Little did they know that he was secretly gay. Mr. Rock Hudson was the ideal man. With that said, I then decided to study during the 50’s simply because Rock Hudson made some of his best and well-known films during that era although I am perhaps most interested with his life during the 1980’s. He was the 1st major star to die of AIDS. While researching I happened to come across some pretty cool old articles. The first one comes from Pete Martin and the Saturday Evening Post from 1960 titled “I Call On Rock Hudson.” Just from skimming the article it looks to be about……Mr. Martin says it best on page 16, “This handsome young veteran of 42 pictures – twice box- office king- answers critics who say he is a product of his agent’s imagination.” Sounds interesting and has some great pictures. The second article I might use is from the New York Times in 1990. John J. O’Connor writes an article called The Life, Death and Secrets of Rock Hudson. So, I guess that’s all I need to post here in my blog. I am quite looking forward to discover and uncover all Rock Hudson has to offer.

Aunque esto parezca una declaración de amor, no lo es. Ya que “I love my wife” lejos de ser un grito lanzado al aire por un corazón arrebatado es el título de una de las obras cumbres que la humanidad produjo en la década de los 70s; y recordemos que la humanidad no iba muy sobrada de obras cumbres en una década en la que se inventó la música disco. “I Love My Wife” es el título de un disparatado musical, y aquí amamos los musicales sacados de madre, que reflejaba el loco loco loco mundo urbano de liberalidad sexual y drogas que era lo más moderno del momento. Un musical pre-SIDA lleno de canciones con letras de Michael Stewart (“Hello Dolly”) y con música de Cy Coleman (“Sweet Charity,” “On the Twentieth Century”) todo aderezado por un argumento que, ya les digo, echa para atrás:

“En Trenton, dos antiguos colegas del instituto de New Jersey, Wally (ahora un ejecutivo de las RRPP) y Alvin (un empleado de mudanzas) discuten la posibilidad de meter un poco de picante en sus vidas haciendo un trío. Alvin sugiere a su mujer Cleo compartir la cama con Mónica, la mujer de Wally. Pero Cleo piensa que disfrutaría más compartiéndola con Wally. Ambos llegan al acuerdo que aquel que entre antes por la puerta será su compañero de cama, pero la pareja acaba cruzando la puerta a la vez. Los tres discuten la situación una vez que Mónica ha abandonado la casa y deciden hacer un cuarteto en Nochebuena (…). Demasiado excitados para comer se quitan la ropa y se meten en la cama a fumar hierba para relajarse. Mientras Wally sugiere ideas sacadas de un manual de sexualidad, el grupo las rechaza (…). Cada pareja se va por su camino pero continuando la amistad que comparten”.

Ese argumentazo, como decía, se ve salpicado de canciones como “Love Revolution,” “Sexually Free,” “Married Couple Seeks Married Couple” y, la que hoy nos ocupa, “Sniff Swig Puff”, que bien podríamos traducir por “Esnífate algo, échate un trago, pega una calada”. Una canción ab-su-lo-ta-men-te deliciosa que imita el estilo del gran Cole Porter, incluyendo entre los instrumentos que la ejecutan, ¡oh Dios!, un ukelele. Pero si ustedes están pensando como yo que una pieza no podía ser más perfecta, esperen a  ver la interpretación que les traigo. Una en el que dueto protagonista es interpretado nada más y nada menos por Beatrice Arthur esto es Dorothy Zbornak de Las chicas de oro, actriz ganadora de varios premios Tony, y, OMG!!!!, el gran Rock Hudson. Si esta canción en la que un matrimonio de mediana edad habla de los viejos tiempos en los que los problemas se solucionaban yendo al cine y no metiéndose todo tipo de drogas, si esta canción, como decía no es el momento más gay de la historia de la televisión mundial, yo, sinceramente no sé cuál es.

La canción empieza con estos versos:

“For some it’s grass, for some it’s coke
For some it’s powder, for some it’s smoke
Everybody today is turning on!
For some it’s dust, for some it’s weed
For some it’s acid, for some it’s speed
Everybody today is turning on!

Para algunos es la hierba, para algunos la coca/ Para algunos son los polvos, para algunos es el humo/¡Todo el mundo se coloca hoy en día!/Para algunos es el polvo, para algunos es la maría/Para algunos es el ácido, para algunos es el speed/¡Todo el mundo se coloca hoy en día!”

But now it’s pills, and now it’s pot
And now it’s poppers, and God-knows-what
Sniff, swig, puff, and your cares are gone
Everybody today is turning on!

“Pero ahora son las pastillas, y ahora es la hierba / y ahora son los poppers, y Dios-sabe-qué/ Esnífate algo, échate un trago, pega una calada, y tus problemas se habrán ido/¡Todo el mundo se coloca hoy en díaaaaa!”

For some it’s grass, for some it’s coke
For some it’s powder, for some it’s smoke
Everybody today is turning on!
For some it’s dust, for some it’s weed
For some it’s acid, for some it’s speed
Everybody today is turning on!

Time was when if a fella felt depressed
He simply got it off his chest
By callin’ on a preacher
Talkin’ to his teacher
Coughin’ up a half a buck to see a double feature!

But now it’s pills, and now it’s pot
And now it’s poppers, and God-knows-what
Sniff, swig, puff, and your cares are gone
Everybody today is turning on!

The simple life it must have been
When “smoke” was Luckys and “high” was gin
One pink lady and how it turned ‘em on!
“Junk” was trash, “speed” was swift
Glue was pasted instead of sniffed
Coke and aspirin, and wow it turned ‘em on!

Those days whenever folks were feeling low

They knew that they could get a glow

And chase away vapors

Laughing at the carpers

That Mutt and Jeff were cuttin´in the Sunday funny papers!

But now it’s sniff and down it goes
Around your windpipe and up your nose
Sniff, swig, puff, and your cares are gone
Everybody today is turning on!

Remember when “high” was up and kicks were tame
And “amyl nitrate” was some guy’s name?
Holdin’ hands and smoochin’ was turning on
“Horse” was ride and “roach” was bugs
“French connections” were foreign plugs
Jivin’ to Eddie Duchin was turning on!

Those days when if your nerves were kind of shot
Instead of going right to pot
You prayed to hold it steady
Kept a Bible ready
Took advice from Rabbi Weiss or Mary Baker Eddy!

But when the world is so amiss
How can a whiskey beat cannibis?
Sniff, swig, puff, and your cares are temporarily gone
Everybody today is turning on!

Remember when “hash” was fried and “T” was brewed?
Someone “pushing” was merely rude
But once a week you cut the grass
And too much acid just gave you gas
Sniff, swig, puff, and your cares are temporarily gone
Everybody today is puffin’
Into fudge look what they’re stuffin’
Hold it, Ma, don’t touch that muffin
God knows what your grandpa’s snuffin’
Everybody today is turning on!

No en serio, ¿esto es real?. Quiero decir, Rock Hudson cantándole al popper mientras Dorothy de “Las chicas de oro” imita el ruido de meterse una raya de un dedo de grosor. ¿Es esto real? O hemos caído en el lado oscuro de la cultura popular, en el Reverso Tenebroso de los Musicales, el lugar donde las ideas musicadas más enloquecidas van a morir. Dios mío, te doy gracias cada día por youtube.

Coincido con este blog del que he robado la mayoría de ideas que la mejor línea de una canción llena de aciertos es: “Amyl nitrite was some guy’s name”. Fantástica.

Right after class today, I asked my sister (a huge 1950s film buff) what 1950s film star I should do my report over, and right away, she replied Rock Hudson! I had only heard of him briefly before, but from some quick research, I found that this man’s life was pretty interesting.

I will focus on Hudson’s career during the 1950s in which I found an impression that he may have set a standard of masculinity during this era and was an example of the “perfect man” (yet at the same time, he was latently gay, which I may want to incorporate into the paper). Apparently, women were in “love” with Hudson, so he must have idealized what a man should be like during this era.

Rock Hudson and Doris Day

I IMDB’ed some of his movies, and I found that “Giant” was one of his most popular, and that “Pillow Talk” may have been one of the public’s favorites with him and Doris Day, whom I would also like to incorporate into my paper because she acted with him a lot (perhaps as the “perfect woman” for the “perfect man”).

I have already done some quick research on Rock Hudson, and I found two articles from the L.A. Time from the late 1950s. One is entitled “Rock no longer scared,” in which the reporter explains that Rock was once shy in a previous interview, but in a more recent interview, he was more relaxed because he is getting use to his stardom. This may be interesting to speak about because it shows how Hudson was growing accustomed to the image he was associated with during the 1950s. Also, I found an article entitled, “Rock Hudson, Deborah Kerr called Top Stars,” which would be great to use because it shows just how big Rock Hudson was to the society of the 1950s. I was also planning on calling my grandmother (who was in her late 20’s at the time), and see how she felt about Hudson. Then I may ask my grandfather to get a man’s view of Hudson from the time. Through them, I want to learn how women and men felt about how Hudson portrayed men during the 1950s. With this paper, I’d like to see how society felt about this ideal man.

I am sitting on the piazza of the storied Hotel Paisano in Marfa, Texas, enjoying a prickly pear margarita under a clear, cool sky. This would be the same sky shared by Elizabeth Taylor, James Dean, and Rock Hudson when filming the Academy Award winning movie, “Giant.”

I couldn’t have asked for a better start to the journey.

It was a glorious first day drive. It started in an unusual hill country fog that didn’t clear out until Fredericksburg. The jaunt from Austin to Fredericksburg is a day tripper’s dream. You have the beautiful hill country views (covered with fog though they were) and the amazing destinations.

First there is Johnson City. Johnson City is named after the paternal second cousin of the 36th President of the United States, Lyndon Baines Johnson. LBJ’s birthplace, once a farm and now a ranch, is a significant tourist attraction. It is located just west of Johnson City in Stonewall. Stonewall is also home to some fine, and very welcoming, Texas wineries.

Less than an hour from Johnson City is Fredericksburg. All I can say is it is a good thing I didn’t know Fredericksburg was only an hour and a half away from Austin.

Fredericksburg, settled by German’s fleeing the Revolution of 1848, is Main Street USA 2009 on steroids. Specifically, it is a siren call for shopaholics. Women load up on buses all over the state and make their pilgrimages to Fredericksburg. Add to that the numerous bed and breakfast inns and wineries, and you have a certified chick event. I’ve made that bus trip from Houston myself.

The world shifts after Fredericksburg. Highway 290 vanishes into Interstate 10. You spill out into a little transitional hill country, but soon find yourself in Comanche Country. The fog lifted and the road rose up to meet the sky in the rugged, brush covered West Texas desert. Ribbons of massive highway cut through the desolate, virtually uninhabited high country. Think John Wayne. Think “Giant.” I was grateful for the highway, but it seemed a blatant rape of the landscape. Between the road and the high lines, an otherwise undisturbed land laid out in front of me for a four hour stretch.

I learned a small lesson today. Do not, under any circumstances, turn off a major freeway onto ANY highway without a full tank of gas. I sang “Jesus Take the Wheel” from Fort Stockton to Alpine as I watched the fuel indicator needle slowly track to empty without any relief in sight. I mean NOT A THING IN SIGHT for over 50 miles. Not a house, not a building, and most certainly not a gas station. I pulled into the first station in Alpine with the empty indicator flashing hysterically. I wanted to kiss the pump.

Besides an empty gas tank, I wasn’t prepared for the appearance of field after field of statuesque wind mills, stretched across the desert plateaus like giant pinwheels as far as the eye could see. They were incongruous and out of place.

Where are Don Quixote and Rocinante when you need them?

When I started at Variety, Army Archerd was about to celebrate the 50th anniversary of his column. There was a lavish party — newbies weren’t invited — and a certain expectation that he would retire. He was 80 — and he’d had a good long run, breaking the news of Rock Hudson’s illness from AIDS, among other scoops.

But Army had no interest in retiring, and continued writing for Variety — online the last few years — until two late July. Today, he succumbed to cancer, ankling to the great beyond at age 87. I’m among the many that will miss him.

Unlike some of my former Variety counterparts, I did not grow up reading the trade paper, first becoming acquainted with it as a fact checker for TV Guide. Even then, I was just scanning news items on microfiche.

I didn’t really get to know Army and his work until I started working at the paper in April 2002. Army was so wonderfully old school, scribbling notes on slips of paper, phone cradled under his ear. He was very serious about his column: When I edited Variety’s party coverage, he would call to check and see what we were running, to make sure we didn’t overlap.

When in doubt, he’d ask if I could print a copy of the story out for him — there was no chance him being able to find it in our computer system — and I’d race it over to his office. He’d scowl if the copy was too close to what he had, but otherwise, he couldn’t have been sweeter. A real gentleman, quick with a compliment and a smile.

I loved seeing him on the party circuit with his wife Selma, dapper even when others were not. And I loved that he was the one guy at Variety who considered Peter Bart a whipper snapper.

It was sad to see him slow down — his daughter’s death a year ago hit him hard — but remarkable that he kept going as long as he did. Army never lost his love for showbiz or reporting.

Tim Gray wrote an affectionate send-off for Variety, which is accompanied by a photo gallery of him with various stars, including an impossibly handsome Paul Newman. The L.A. Times also published a fine obit.

Photo: Variety

  

Eden made featured appearances on television shows such as The Johnny Carson Show (as “Barbara Morehead” and “Barbara Huffman”), The West Point Story, Highway Patrol, Private Secretary, I Love Lucy, The Millionaire, Target: The Corruptors!, Crossroads, Perry Mason, Gunsmoke, December Bride, Bachelor Father, San Francisco Beat, Father Knows Best, Adventures in Paradise, The Andy Griffith Show, Cain’s Hundred, Saints and Sinners, The Virginian, Slattery’s People, The Rogues, and the series finale of Route 66 playing the role of Margo. She guest starred in four episodes of Burke’s Law playing different roles each time. She was an uncredited extra in the movie The Tarnished Angels with Rock Hudson.

Her theatrical film debut came in Back from Eternity (1956). From 1957-1959, she starred in the television series How to Marry a Millionaire, playing the role of “Loco Jones”, the character portrayed in the film by Marilyn Monroe. The show ran in syndication through National Telefilm Associates, which attempted to launch a fourth network at the time, in partnership with 20th Century Fox studios. Eden’s co-stars were Merry Anders, and Lori Nelson. After 39 episodes, Nelson quit the show. Eden as Loco and Merry Anders as Mike McCall continued with the series from the 40th episode to the final 52nd segment.

Discovery in the Hollywood sense came when she starred in a play with James Drury. Film director Mark Robson, who later directed her in the movie From The Terrace, had come to the play and wanted her for 20th Century Fox studios. Her screen test was the Joanne Woodward role in No Down Payment. Though she did not get the role, the studio gave her a contract. Eden did a screen test for the role of Betty Anderson in 1956 for the movie Peyton Place, though Terry Moore got the role. She had minor roles in Will Success Spoil Rock Hunter? and The Wayward Girl and then became a leading lady in films and starred opposite Gary Crosby in A Private’s Affair and had a notable part in Flaming Star (1960), with Elvis Presley.

The following year, she played in a supporting role as Lt. Cathy Connors in Irwin Allen’s Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea, with Frankie Avalon playing the trumpet while she danced in one of many successful science fiction outings by the so called “Master of Disaster.” She starred in The Wonderful World of the Brothers Grimm a George Pal-directed Cinerama film for MGM, and another Irwin Allen production for 20th Century Fox Five Weeks in a Balloon (1962). Eden was also the female lead in the 1962 20th Century Fox comedy Swingin’ Along, starring the comedy team of Tommy Noonan and Peter Marshall. She did a screen test with Andy Williams for the 20th Century Fox movie State Fair, but didn’t get the role.

Her last film for 20th Century Fox was The Yellow Canary (1963). She left Fox studios (due to budget cuts) and began guest-starring in shows such as Saints And Sinners and also doing films for MGM, Universal, and Columbia. She played supporting roles over the next few years, including The Brass Bottle, and the notable, if odd, movie 7 Faces of Dr. Lao, both with Tony Randall. In The New Interns, she co-starred with Michael Callan. She starred in the beach movie Ride The Wild Surf playing the role of Augie with Fabian.

Then she signed to become “Jeannie,” a genie in a bottle rescued by an astronaut in the television sitcom I Dream of Jeannie. She played this role for five years and 139 episodes. Eden also played Jeannie’s sister in nine episodes and Jeannie’s mother in two.

After that, Eden did an unaired pilot, The Barbara Eden Show, and another pilot, The Toy Game. She also began starring in and sometimes producing a string of successful made-for-TV movies, making at least one a year for one of the networks and they all were top-rated. Her first TV movie was called The Feminist And The Fuzz. Although best known for comedy, most were dramas, as when she starred with her “Jeannie” co-star Larry Hagman in A Howling in the Woods (1971). She starred in The Woman Hunter (1972) with Robert Vaughn, an earlier co-star from Gunsmoke. In The Stranger Within (1974), Eden plays unwitting housewife Ann Collins,

Brothers Grimm DVD

who becomes one of many earthling women that are extraterrestrially impregnated. Like the mother-to-be in Rosemary’s Baby, Ann develops unusual prenatal cravings (in this case, coffee grounds instead of blood-rare meat). The screenplay was written by Richard Matheson and directed by Lee Philips.

Eden played Liz Stonestreet, a former policewoman now private detective investigating the disappearance of a missing heiress in a critically acclaimed TV movie Stonestreet: Who Killed The Centerfold Model? (1977). She played Lee Rawlins, a woman who worked at a department store, in the ABC TV movie The Girls in The Office (1979) and starred in and co-produced with her own production company the NBC TV movie romantic comedy The Secret Life Of Kathy McCormick (1988) about a woman who works in a supermarket.

In addition, she starred in and produced the romantic comedy TV movie Opposites Attract (1990) co-starring John Forsythe, their first joint screen appearance since her guest-starring role in a 1957 episode of his Bachelor Father TV series.

Eden starred in I Dream of Jeannie as Jeannie, a genie set free from her bottle by astronaut Captain (later Major) Anthony Nelson, played by Larry Hagman. Barbara was initially passed over for the role as she was blonde and of small stature, but Sidney Sheldon called on her when he was unable to find a suitable brunette to play the part. I Dream of Jeannie was a mild success in the ratings, and it ran from 1965 until 1970, and during this time Eden was nominated twice for Golden Globe Awards. She later reprised her Jeannie role in two made-for-TV reunion movies (I Dream of Jeannie: 15 Years Later in 1985 and I Still Dream of Jeannie in 1991), and in the last scene of the theatrical movie A Very Brady Sequel. She also has played Jeannie in many TV commercials (AT&T, Lexus, Old Navy). I Dream of Jeannie has gone on to become one of the most successful series in international syndication earning Barbara Eden many fans over the world.

Trivia:

She was not allowed to show her belly button on “I Dream of Jeannie” (1965) because of NBC’s “No Navel Edict”.

Her parents divorced when she was 3 and her mother Alice later married Harrison Connor Huffman.

Although she was born Barbara Jean Moorhead, she took her stepfather’s last name of Huffman when her mother Alice remarried.

Also played Jeannie’s sister in “I Dream of Jeannie” (1965).

Mother, Alice Huffman (b. 13 August 1915). Barbara and her mother were very close. After her mother developed lung cancer, Barbara took care of her until she died on November 12, 1986.

Step-father, Harrison Connor Huffman (b. 19 November 1907)

Son, Matthew Ansara, (b. 29 August 1965).

Graduated in 1949 Abraham Lincoln High School in San Francisco.

Shortly after shooting began on the pilot episode for “I Dream of Jeannie” (1965), it was learned that she was pregnant. Director Gene Nelson invented a shot he playfully called the “ATB” (“Above the Baby”). “Sometimes,” he stated, “We’d have to follow Jeannie’s arm across the room”.

Her son Matthew Ansara (with first husband Michael Ansara) died of an accidental drug overdose. He was 35. His body was found in his car in a parking lot off a freeway in Los Angeles. [25 June 2001]

Barbara’s last name was changed from “Huffman” to “Eden” by her first agent.

Measurements: 36B/C-24-36 (Source: Celebrity Sleuth magazine)

She was inducted into the California Broadcasting Hall Of Fame in a special ceremony July 18, 2003

Her husband, Jon Eicholtz, celebrates his birthday on August 3

She did a screen test in May, 1960 for State Fair (1962).

After “I Dream of Jeannie” (1965) she had a nightclub act for a while. She was actually a talented singer, and she performed various kinds of songs in her act.

She’s directly descended from American founding father Benjamin Franklin.

Her grandfather, Charles Benjamin Franklin, was born in Germantown, Pennsylvania in 1870.

Has a younger sister, Alison Scanlon, who is 12 years younger.

Barbara and her husband, Jon Eicholtz, were married in 1991 in San Francisco at Grace Cathedral, where Barbara attended as a child.

As a child, she had to wear glasses, an eye patch and pigtails. Because of this, she became very shy. To help overcome her shyness, her mother had Barbara get singing lessons.

Miss San Francisco of 1951.

Received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.

Lucille Ball became her mentor and wanted to put Barbara under contract, Barbara signed with 20th Century Fox, instead.

Although she was born Barbara Jean Moorhead she began using the name Barbara Jean Huffman in 1945 and then became Barbara Eden in 1956.

When her son Matthew Ansara was 19 months old she brought him on stage and sang to him while co-hosting The Mike Douglas Show.

Owns a chocolate Labradoodle named Djinn-Djinn (The dog is named after Jeannie’s dog on “I Dream of Jeannie”).

Portrayed by Paris Hilton on “American Dreams” (2002).

Ray Bradbury

 

 

 

 

 

 

Raymond Douglas “Ray” Bradbury (August 22, 1920) is an American mainstream, fantasy, horror, science fiction, and mystery writer. Best known for his dystopian novel Fahrenheit 451 and The Martian Chronicles, Bradbury is widely considered one of the greatest and most popular American writers of speculative fiction of the twentieth century. Ray Bradbury’s popularity has been increased by more than 20 television shows and films using his writings.

From 1951 to 1954, 27 of Bradbury’s stories were adapted by Al Feldstein for EC Comics, and 16 of these were collected in the paperbacks, The Autumn People (1965) and Tomorrow Midnight (1966). Cover art for both books was done by famed fantasy artist Frank Frazetta. The reprints were published by Ballantine Books.

Also in the early 1950s, adaptations of Bradbury’s stories were televised on a variety of shows including Tales of Tomorrow, Lights Out, Out There, Suspense, CBS Television Workshop, Jane Wyman’s Fireside Theatre, Star Tonight, Windows, and Alfred Hitchcock Presents. “The Merry-Go-Round,” a half-hour film adaptation of Bradbury’s “The Black Ferris,” praised by Variety, was shown on Starlight Summer Theater in 1954 and NBC’s Sneak Preview in 1956.

It Came From Outer Space (1953)

Director Jack Arnold first brought Bradbury to movie theaters in 1953 with It Came from Outer Space, a Harry Essex screenplay developed from Bradbury’s screen treatment, “The Meteor”. Three weeks later, Eugène Lourié’s The Beast from 20,000 Fathoms (1953), based on Bradbury’s “The Fog Horn,” about a sea monster mistaking the sound of a fog horn for the mating cry of a female, was released. Bradbury’s close friend Ray Harryhausen produced the stop-motion animation of the creature. Bradbury would later return the favor by writing a short story, “Tyrannosaurus Rex”, about a stop-motion animator who strongly resembled Harryhausen. Over the next 50 years, more than 35 features, shorts, and TV movies were based on Bradbury’s stories or screenplays.

Double Feature DVD

Oskar Werner and Julie Christie starred in Fahrenheit 451 (1966), an adaptation of Bradbury’s novel directed by François Truffaut.

In 1969, The Illustrated Man was brought to the big screen, starring Oscar winner Rod Steiger, Claire Bloom, & Robert Drivas. Containing the prologue, and three short stories from the book, the film received mediocre reviews.

The Martian Chronicles became a three-part TV miniseries starring Rock Hudson which was first broadcast by NBC in 1980.

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The 1983 horror film Something Wicked This Way Comes, starring Jason Robards and Jonathan Pryce, is based on the Bradbury novel of the same name.

In 1984, Michael McDonough of Brigham Young University produced “Bradbury 13,” a series of thirteen audio adaptations of famous Ray Bradbury stories, in conjunction with National Public Radio. The full-cast dramatizations featured adaptations of “The Man,” “The Ravine,” “Night Call, Collect,” “The Veldt,” “Kaleidoscope,” “There Was an Old Woman,” “Here There Be Tygers,” “Dark They Were, and Golden Eyed,” “The Wind,” “The Fox and the Forest,” “The Happiness Machine,” “The Screaming Woman”, and “A Sound of Thunder”. Voiceover actor Paul Frees provided narration, while Bradbury himself was responsible for the opening voiceover; Greg Hansen and Roger Hoffman scored the episodes. The series won a Peabody Award as well as two Gold Cindy awards. The series has not yet been released on CD but is heavily traded by fans of “old time radio”.

From 1985 to 1992 Bradbury hosted a syndicated anthology television series, The Ray Bradbury Theater, for which he adapted 65 of his stories. Each episode would begin with a shot of Bradbury in his office, gazing over mementoes of his life, which he states (in narrative) are used to spark ideas for stories.

Five episodes of the USSR science fiction TV series This Fantastic World adapted Ray Bradbury’s stories I Sing The Body Electric, Fahrenheit 451, A Piece of Wood, To the Chicago Abyss, and Forever and the Earth.   A Soviet adaptation of “The Veldt” was filmed in 1987.

The 1998 film The Wonderful Ice Cream Suit, released by Touchstone Pictures, was written by Ray Bradbury. It was based on his story “The Magic White Suit” originally published in The Saturday Evening Post in 1957. The story had also previously been adapted as a play, a musical, and a 1958 television version.

In 2002, Bradbury’s own Pandemonium Theatre Company production of Fahrenheit 451 at Burbank’s Falcon Theatre combined live acting with projected digital animation by the Pixel Pups. In 1984 Telarium released a video game for Commodore 64 based on Fahrenheit 451.   Bradbury and director Charles Rome Smith co-founded Pandemonium in 1964, staging the New York production of The World of Ray Bradbury (1964), adaptations of “The Pedestrian,” “The Veldt”, and “To the Chicago Abyss.”

In 2005, the film A Sound of Thunder was released, loosely based upon the short story of the same name.  Short film adaptations of A Piece of Wood and The Small Assassin were released in 2005 and 2007 respectively.

In 2008, the film Ray Bradbury’s Chrysalis was produced by Roger Lay Jr for Urban Archipelago Films, based upon the short story of the same name. The film went on to win the best feature award at the International Horror and Sci-Fi Film Festival in Phoenix. The film has been picked up for international distribution by Arsenal Pictures and for domestic distribution by Lightning Entertainment.

A new film version of Fahrenheit 451 is being planned by director Frank Darabont.

Trivia:

Father of 4 daughters: Susan, Ramona, Bettina and Alexandra.

Son of Leonard Spaulding Bradbury, linesman with the Waukegan Bureau of Power and Light, and of Esther Marie Moberg.

He wrote the original manuscript of “Fahrenheit 451″ on a rented typewriter in a public library, from handwritten notes and outlines. It first appeared in print in a shortened form (of about 25,000 words) in Galaxy magazine and later in its present length but in serial format in the just starting out Playboy magazine.

Though considered by many to be the greatest science-fiction writer of the of the 20th century, he suffers from a fear of flying and driving. He has never learned to drive, and did not fly in an airplane until October, 1982.

National Public Radio’s “Bradbury 13″ (1984) was a 13-episode program based on many of his stories.

Recipient of a 2004 National Medal of Arts, awarded by the National Endowment for the Arts (USA).

There is a noted irony in the names of two characters in his novel “Fahrenheit 451″: “Montag” is also the name of a paper mill and “Faber” is a manufacturer of pencils. Ray Bradbury insists that this was unintentional.

His original title for one of his novels was ‘the Fireman’. He called his local fire department and asked them what the temperature at which paper burns at – and was told “451 Fahrenheit”. He reversed it to make it the title of his novel ‘Fahrenheit 451′.

He is the great-great-great grandson of Mary Bradbury, a woman who was tried in the Salem Witch Trials in 1692, but saved herself from being hanged for witchcraft.

He had a series of short stories which his publisher said would never sell, so he linked the stories together, while living at a local YMCA, and created the novel, “The Martian Chronicles.” He was paid just $500 for the story.

He voiced his displeasure at documentary filmmaker Michael Moore for appropriating the title of his book “Fahrenheit 451″ for the documentary Fahrenheit 9/11 (2004). However, Bradbury himself is the author of “Beyond 1984″ (title appropriated from George Orwell’s “1984″) and “Another Tale of Two Cities” (title appropriated from Charles Dickens  ”A Tale of Two Cities”).

As a bedtime story for each of his daughters, he read (in nightly installments) “Hound of the Baskervilles” by Arthur Conan Doyle.

As a young boy, a friend once ridiculed his collection of science fiction and comic books, and heckled him into throwing them away. A day later, Bradbury was heartbroken, feeling that he had trashed his best friends. He immediately rebuilt his collection!.

Says that he remembers being born.

He and famed animator Chuck Jones have been close friends for more than 50 years.

In Chaplin’s Goliath (1996), a documentary about silent film star Eric Campbell, the Rosedale Cemetary spokeswoman mistakenly claims Ray Bradbury is interred there.

A hero of his was the Italian director Federico Fellini. When they first met, as Bradbury claims, Fellini ran up to Bradbury, embraced him, and said ‘My twin! My Twin’ They became great friends but never collaborated on any projects.

I have already defaulted on my August goal to post more often on the blog. However, my other goals are going just fine. This past weekend was brilliant. I got to spend some quality time with my mom. Even though I was working on Sunday, it was all good.

On saturday, I took my mom shopping for sarees. Ganesh Chaturthi is coming up and she needed some new sarees, so i decided to gift her some. We went all around Thane and then finally found three sarees…surprisingly, we both picked out the same three sarees. They’re lovely!

After the shopping was done, I had to take off to go and meet a friend for coffee. But on my way there, I happened to drop into Planet M at Eternity Mall in Thane where I happened to pick up a few movies. I instantly knew my mom was going to love the movies I’d picked up. So, later that night, we had a nice movie marathon, where we watched two lovely movies. The first one we watched was:

Mamma Mia is such a great movie to watch with your mom! And my mom loves Meryl Streep…and with such a fun movie the evening was even better. Love ABBA and love the music and love the movie! This was just perfect.

However, for the second movie, we were joined by my papa as well. Now all those who know me and my dad, know that this is a rare occurence! Actually, the movie that I had put on happened to be one of his favourites too:

Absolutely loved Come September!!! It was so much fun…and Italy was so beautiful! And Rock Hudson…oh my god! Why don’t they make such men these days! The man was better than a greek god…the perfect prototype of the Mills n Boon man:

The movie was sweet, fresh – even after all these years and really really funny! Apparently it was released three times in India during the 60s! I can imagine why!

So eyah my weekend was amazing…it was as good as going on a lovely Europe tour… first to Greece and then to Italy! And yes, my mom enjoyed it too!

This came in the mail today.

I believe that any day becomes a little bit better with this duo.

Happy Weekend.

Connu pour être le maître d’un genre pour lequel je n’avais pour tout dire que peu d’intérêt, à savoir le mélodrame, Douglas Sirk est un cinéaste qu’il faut pourtant connaître. Allemand d’origine danoise puis naturalisé américain, il a réalisé certains jugés majeurs par la critique au cours des la seconde moitié des années 50. Tout ce que le ciel permet est souvent mentionné par la critique comme étant l’un des plus aboutis. Studieusement, je me mis en tête de découvrir Sirk, artiste boudé trop longtemps, et le film du jour fut mon premier contact. Même duo d’acteurs que pour Le secret magnifique tourné un an plus tôt, Rock Hudson et Jane Wyman.

Cary Scott (Jane Wyman) est une veuve de la quarantaine qui habite dans la petite ville de Stoningham que l’on devine situé sur la côte est des Etats-Unis. Le genre de bled où tout le monde se connaît, où tout se sait très vite, où l’amitié est souvent affaire de paraître. Elle rencontre Ron Kirby (Rock Hudson) alors que celui-ci taille les arbres de son jardin. Ils se rapprochent peu à peu l’un de l’autre jusqu’à ce qu’ils décident de se marier. Mais Cary a sous-estimé la réaction de son entourage, de ses voisins, de ses enfants. Tout le monde voulait la voir rencontrer un homme et refaire sa vie, mais son idylle avec ce vulgaire jardinier fait jaser. Les ragots vont bon train. Ned et Kay, les deux enfants de Cary, n’acceptent pas cette union et ne supportent pas les conséquences qu’elle aura sur eux. Cary comprend alors le poids des conventions et de l’hypocrisie et doit renoncer au bonheur qui lui était promis.

Sentiment ambivalent. D’un côté je ne peux que louer la très sobre mise en scène de Sirk, cette faculté à savoir filmer l’émotion avec pudeur et retenue, et l’extraordinaire qualité des images. Il y a bien sûr la critique fine et exacte du milieu bourgeois, de cette société du préjugé et de la méfiance, cette société renfermée sur elle-même totalement imperméable au monde extérieur, à tout ce qui est différent. Cependant j’ai eu tout au long du film l’impression que le sujet avait déjà été traité mille fois et qu’il n’y apportait pas grand chose. En fait, Tout ce que le ciel permet est un très beau film esthétique (on apprécie la très pertinente alternance entre le monde hostile et le hâvre de paix) tout en étant très peu original. Mi-figue, mi-raisin donc, jusqu’à, peut-être, ma prochaine vision.

Él, Rock Hudson, es uno de los tipos más influyentes en el mundo de la pesca de San Francisco. Escribe libros, da sabios consejos a quien se los reclama, sus artículos son una cátedra de la pesca y trabaja en unos almacenes de buena reputación especializados en ello.

Un día, ya desde el comienzo de la mañana, se topará con una muchacha un tanto impertinente, Paula Prentiss, que resultará ser la persona que le pida a su jefe que él participe en un torneo de pesca. ¿La sorpresa? El experto no sabe pescar.

A partir de ahí, comenzará la aventura en el parador donde se celebra el torneo. El ingenio y la gracia saltarán a la vista a través de muchas escenas. Él se verá envuelto, sin quererlo ni beberlo, en líos de cremallera con sus dos amables acompañantes, los osos le amargaran la existencia, el simple hecho de lanzar la caña al lago ya será toda una odisea, su prometida lo abandonará, por poco no morirá ahogado en el lago, el indio resultará no ser tan indio, más bien espía, montar una tienda de campaña será lo más parecido a subir el Everest, el Mayor se sentirá orgulloso por ese muchacho que saluda al estilo militar, y el peluquín del jefe no se mantendrá en su sitio en ningún momento. Son sólo algunas escenas graciosas del film, hay unas cuantas más.

Es decir, el pobre Rock vivirá una auténtica pesadilla en el Lago Guacapuchi. Todo ello, se podría pensar, por ser un auténtico farsante. Un experto que no tenía ni idea de pesca. Un teórico que no practicaba. Un tipo al que dos mujeres metieron en ese embrollo. Un embrollo que le ha salido caro. Su honradez al destapar la verdad (de las diversas situaciones) le dejará sin novia, ni trabajo, ni reputación. Es el precio de la honestidad, el precio de decir la verdad. ¿A cambio que encontrará? El amor de una chica un tanto peculiar. Una chica que personifica el nervio en estado puro. Una de esas chicas que hoy te dice que le gusta como besas y mañana no. Que hoy te hablo, y mañana no. Una “enredante”, siendo originales con el diccionario. Una chica que lo llevó al lago teniéndolo todo, y lo dejó sin nada. Bueno, se quedó con ella. Al pobre Rock lo acabaron pescando.

Not much of an ice station…

Stars Rock Hudson, Patrick McGoohan, Jim Brown, and Ernest Borgnine. Directed by John Sturges.

Story: Nuclear sub Commander James Ferraday (Hudson) receives notice that him and his men must travel to the North Pole and escort a guy named “Jones” (McGoohan) to a civilian camp for Top Secret reasons. Seeing as the paperwork comes from so high up the command chain he would get a nosebleed, he accepts. “Jones” is a mysterious character who knows more about what’s going on than the Captain and lets him know it. On their trip North they stop and pick up Vaslov (Borgnine) a Russian defector and Marine Captain Anders (Brown). Vaslov is affable and friendly, but uncomfortably pokes around the sub to learn more about it; he’s also good friends with Jones. Captain Anders is dry, hard-nosed, and by-the-book. When prepping a torpedo tube leads to sabotage and the death of a crewmember, the Captain tries to find the saboteur. Is it Anders, Vaslov, Jones, or even one of the crewmembers themselves? When they break through the Northern ice and get to the civilian camp they find half of the people barely alive, while others were shot before being burned in the fire. The hunt is on for a secret canister of film that both sides (American and Russian) want because it contains satellite intel on every base operated by them.

First off let me praise the WB for having an extremely clean print of the film. I watched in on DVD in HD and it’s clean and clear; no grain that stood out. This film was well taken care of.

Secondly, it’s an intriguing film to watch. If you decide to watch it do yourself a favor and view the trailer before seeing the movie because it essentially has the “backstory” you may need to understand what’s going on. Just a helpful hint.

Does the movie hold up to now? Well, it’s a good story. A little dated (it was a Cold War movie) but it’s still enjoyable. The only thing that seems somewhat “stilted” is when the Russians paratroop onto the ice to close in on the base; it seemed a little “hokey” for my tastes. As well as the Russian MiG flyovers.

Why should you watch this movie? Cold War allegory beside, two reasons to watch: Patrick McGoohan and the cinematography. I enjoyed “The Prisoner” (McGoohan’s spy series) and he made this movie in the middle of doing that. If you’re a fan, ya gotta check this one out.

The cinematography was incredible and a good portion of that was because of John Stevens. Stevens was the Second Unit Director who shot the sub under the ice scenes, as well as the crashdive and aerial views. If you love camerawork and what can be/has been done in movies, the scene where the sub is under the ice is enough alone to warrant renting this one. There is a featurette on the disc called “The Man Who Made a Difference.” It talks about Stevens and how he worked on this as well as “Grand Prix” (another good movie, especially for cinematography). Do yourself a favor and check him out on IMDB to see what other Second Unit work he’s done; you’d be surprised.

The story is okay, the acting is good, the music works, and the cinematography is the cherry on top.

My grade: B (solid)

What if Rock Hudson was a rock?

What if Rock Hudson was a rock?

Whatever Will Be, Will Be 1956

Excerpt ~ Def 1000 songs: Now before you jump up and down, ranting and raving saying “THIS IS NOT MUSIC!” let me give you a glimpse of the past to bring you to this point and time of Music …… more

Number 961 - Doris Day – 1955 – USA – Genre: Pop - Play Song

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Our interview with Richard Anderson continues into the second hour as the actor discusses his work with David Janssen on The Fugitive, Burt Reynolds on Dan August, John Frankenheimer in Seconds and Stanley Kubrick in Paths of Glory, as well as his encounters with Preston Sturges and Cary Grant early in his career. Then Tony Figueroa remembers Rock Hudson, Charles M. Schultz and Tom Hatten during This Week in Television History, while David Krell discusses Brandon Tartikoff’s memoir The Last Great Ride:

http://media.podcastingmanager.com/9/3/5/3/3/142636-133539/Media/111609tvc34_2.mp3