Author: John Welsh
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Sorcerer (1977)
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Read more: Sorcerer (1977)Sorcerer: (a truck, and not your Tonka truck, Bart) Directed by William Friedkin Screenplay by Walton Green A remake of Wages of Fear Directed by Henri-Georges Clouzot With: Roy Scheider (in the Yves Montand part) Several actors were offered roles and declined. Among them was Robert Mitchum, who asked, “Why would I want to go…
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The Ghost Writer
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Read more: The Ghost WriterIn Polanski’s slick, Hitchcockian thriller, a writer known only as the Ghost (Ewan McGregor), is hired to ghostwrite the memoirs of an ex British Prime Minister named Adam Lang (Pierce Brosnan), clearly based on Tony Blair.
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I Like to Watch TV
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Read more: I Like to Watch TVWhat else can I do while tied to the bed in passive restraints by the dutiful but obedient medical authority nurses? Not exactly the stuff of Henry Miller, is it?
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Great Expectations (1946)
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Read more: Great Expectations (1946)Directed by David Lean. Screenplay by David Lean, Anthony Havelock-Allan &Ronald Neame Based on the 1861 novel by Charles Dickens. With: John Mills, Valerie Hobson, Bernard Miles (who we’ll see ten years later as a kidnapper in The Man Who Knew Too Much). Here, he is kindly blacksmith, Joe), Francis L. Sullivan as Mr. Jaggers…
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The Oscars: When Pigs Fly Edition
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Read more: The Oscars: When Pigs Fly EditionI must thank my Lickspittle-in-Chief Bob, Pooka 1st Class, Narcissistic Division, for his invaluable assistance in compiling this pile from the foothills of Bandini Mountain, Hollywood USA.
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Dead-Eye Alec: Or, Put that gun down!
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Read more: Dead-Eye Alec: Or, Put that gun down!On October 21st 2021 actor/producer Alec Baldwin was pointing a Single Actor Army Colt revolver at cinematographer Halyna Hutchins. The weapon discharged, mortally wounding Ms. Hutchins and wounding the director, Joel Sousa. Those are the indisputable facts. Baldwin claimed he did not pull the trigger. I did not believe him for one second. In 1986 I…
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Oppenheimer
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Read more: OppenheimerJ Robert Oppenheimer lived a life worthy of a tragedy by Sophocles or Shakespeare. Like Oedipus or Othello, he planted the seed of his own destruction and nurtured the life it engendered. Since the cultures of Ancient Greece or Elizabethan England are unlikely to reoccur, we are left with what we have. What we have…
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The Untouchables
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Read more: The UntouchablesI was at the Ellis Mercantile movie prop house in Hollywood renting a couple dozen replica Colt Peacemakers and a few assorted Winchesters, Sharps and Spencer rifles for a western pilot I was propping to be shot in Santa Fe when I heard Brian DePalma was making a movie of The Untouchables. The guys at…
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Elton John Rocks: An Appreciation
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Read more: Elton John Rocks: An AppreciationOctober 5th 1973. I was driving my uncle’s Lincoln Mk III to deliver a case of scotch (Chivas Regal, the good stuff) to the rented house of my boss, the producer/director Charles Pierce. He had rented a eyesore at the very top of Laurel Canyon. Charle’s thirst was even greater than my own, although he…
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The Caine Mutiny: A Novel & Two Movies
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Read more: The Caine Mutiny: A Novel & Two MoviesThe Caine Mutiny, a 1952 novel by Herman Wouk The Caine Mutiny, a 1954 movie, directed by Edward Dmytryk The Caine Mutiny Court-Martial 2023 ,directed by William Friedkin It is worth noting the original 1954 Broadway production was directed by Charles Laughton Cast: Henry Fonda as Barney Greenwald, John Hodiak as Steve Maryk, Lloyd Nolan…