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  • BarbelBarbel ScotlandPosts: 36,053Chief of Staff

    N24, there's some doubt over how much of Britt's voice was dubbed for this film. Scottish actress/singer Annie Ross has been credited (or claimed) to have done some (the singing) or all of her voice, and Britt has denied this. Mind you, she has always denied doing the nude scenes as well....

  • Number24Number24 NorwayPosts: 21,702MI6 Agent

    She has her Swedish accent in all other movies I've seen her in, but not in this one.

  • BarbelBarbel ScotlandPosts: 36,053Chief of Staff

    Have you been watching those films in the English dub, or the Norwegian one? I obviously only know the English one. IMHO she's dubbed, and partially doubled in the nude scenes.

  • BarbelBarbel ScotlandPosts: 36,053Chief of Staff
    edited April 2022

    The Secrets Of Dumbledore

    Watched it today, and was very pleased with Jude Law as the younger Dumbledore but even more so with Mads Mikkelsen (one of ours) as Grindelwald, replacing Johnny Depp. Part of the plot involves Grindelwald attempting to set himself up as the leader of the wizarding world, which takes place in a Berlin around 1930. The Nazi symbolism is very clear, especially when he declares his intent to destroy the Muggles. I hadn't noticed before, despite knowing the actor since CR06 and following his Hannibal TV series, but he would be perfect casting for Hitler- just add the moustache- which is something this film does not fail to take advantage of.

  • BarbelBarbel ScotlandPosts: 36,053Chief of Staff

    PS- I'm willing to bet that Christopher Lee did the Norwegian dub himself.

  • Number24Number24 NorwayPosts: 21,702MI6 Agent
    edited April 2022


    Dubbing is for children. Like I said: Britt Ekland sounds like her Swedish self in all of her movies (as far as I know), but this one. She has a distinctive sound to her. If there was one Sean Connery movie where he didn't sound like Connery, I'd say he was probably dubbed. Same with Ekland. (except if I'm wrong this time)

  • chrisno1chrisno1 LondonPosts: 3,177MI6 Agent
    edited April 2022

    THE TRANSPORTER (2002)

    High octane, low humour, nil romance exercise from the pen of Luc Besson and the directorship of old hand Corey Yuan.

    Jason Statham had made an impression in Guy Ritchie’s break out capers Lock Stock… and Snatch, but it was this violent chase thriller which solidified his image as a monosyllabic tough-guy hero, who handily has a degree in martial arts. Plenty of action to get one’s teeth into accompanied by a thumping music soundtrack. The movie is best at the beginning where Statham’s Frank Martin, a ‘transporter’ or driver for criminal hire, runs amok in the south of France and reveals his three golden rules: never change the deal, no names, never look in the package. Unfortunately, this is an ex-special services mercenary with a conscience and when he realises he might just be ‘transporting’ a live person, events begin to spiral out of control. His car is bombed, his house destroyed, the police are on his tail and a beautiful waif-like Chinese girl wants to save 450 trafficked immigrants from slavery.

    So much for the plot.

    Statham is easily identifiable as a man of action. You believe him from the outset when he’s persuading a bunch of no-hoper thieves not to renege on a deal while staring at a gun in his face. You enjoy his patter with the suspicious, but unconventional cop Inspector Tarconi – a cheerfully careworn Francois Berleand. You really do root for him as he takes out a mansion-full of henchmen. He handles the unenthusiastic escaped hostage with brutal delicacy. The fights are furious. The car chases even more so. There’s a refreshing look to the film, even given it is now twenty years old. I think that’s down to the fact it’s virtually a no-CGI zone, all the stunts are either performed for real or edited to perfection, giving the impression of reality. Character barely gets a look in. The movie chops up the same staple ingredients as the same year’s The Bourne Identity, but without the pathos, the conceited narrative and the gadgets. Frank Martin is a distinctly low-rent hero.

    The film loses its way towards the end due mostly due to a very long series of fights in and around a bus garage which strains our patience and credulity, although the most incredible stunt Statham’s character pulls off is when he chases down a crop spraying biplane. Or maybe it’s bedding Shu Qi’ s nubile heroine.

    The film spawned three sequels and a television series which repeated the formula almost verbatim. I felt quite nostalgic watching it now. It’s nowhere near as thunderous as I remember it being in the cinema, but a lot of fun nonetheless.

     

     

     

      

  • chrisno1chrisno1 LondonPosts: 3,177MI6 Agent

    NOBODY RUNS FOREVER (1968)

    Nobody Runs Forever is based on the novel The High Commissioner written by John Cleary, an Australian who made his name with The Sundowners, which was turned into a successful film. The High Commissioner introduced readers to the Sydney police detective Scobie Malone. He’s dispatched to London by a self-serving city mayor Leo McKern to arrest the Australian High Commissioner on a murder charge, except the Commissioner is in the middle of trade negotiations and someone from the delegates has plans to assassinate him. Malone, instead of arresting his fellow Aussie, turns detective and security guard, gets mixed up with Asian communist agents and eventually gets his man.

    The film follows the basic outline fairly faithfully. Rod Taylor plays Malone and gets to act an actual Australian for once. Up to this point in his career Taylor had mostly played dramatic American roles. This was also his first foray into outright action and, along with the same year’s The Mercenaries, was a permanent change of direction for him. He claims to have been asked to audition for Dr No and foolishly turned it down. On this evidence probably a good thing. He makes a very chunky, clunky hero and lacks the svelte-like sophistication of a Bond, although one of the highlights is telling the McKern’s mayor point-blank “I didn’t vote for you, sir” which recalls some of OO7’s spiky exchanges with M.

    An unnecessary love-interest [sex-interest?] is created so Dahlia Lavi can flash some flesh [nice…]. Camilla Sparv looks lovely as a winsome secretary [very nice…]. Christopher Plummer plays the Commissioner [yeah, okay on that one…]. Ralph Thomas directed with no special love [none at all, “I was a hired hand,” he claims, although the producer was his regular collaborator Betty Box]. Everyone has done better work elsewhere.

    The action is sporadic and there’s not a lot of tension, not even during the very obvious ending. Not great.   

  • caractacus pottscaractacus potts Orbital communicator, level 10Posts: 3,907MI6 Agent

    chrisno1 says:

    Rod Taylor plays Malone and gets to act an actual Australian for once. Up to this point in his career Taylor had mostly played dramatic American roles. This was also his first foray into outright action and, along with the same year’s The Mercenaries, was a permanent change of direction for him.

    he did play Boysie Oakes, in the Liquidator, and even if the charatcer tried to avoid his job responsibilities for most of the film there were some good action scenes towards the end He gets in a punch-up on the hood of a car teetering on the edge of a cliff, very dangerous looking. And spoke with an American accent even though the character was British, he might as well have just spoke Aussie (Aussie sounds closer to British to North American ears, and to Brits both accents are wrong anyway)

  • chrisno1chrisno1 LondonPosts: 3,177MI6 Agent

    @caractacus potts I was under the impression - from reading Guns, Girls and Gadgets that The Liquidator was tongue in cheek. [It is on my ever increasing list of 'must see...] Nobody Runs Forever barely raises a glimmer of a giggle hence why I termed it 'outright action'.

  • BarbelBarbel ScotlandPosts: 36,053Chief of Staff

    IIRC, there's a line or two to make Boysie an American rather than a Brit as he is in the novel.

  • caractacus pottscaractacus potts Orbital communicator, level 10Posts: 3,907MI6 Agent

    you're quite right though its more of a cynical satire of the spy fantasy than say Matt Helm

    You should watch it! I thought it was excellent

    and I shall try to find Nobody Runs Forever, as it sounds good too, and theres not enough straight spy stories from this era

  • Royale-les-EauxRoyale-les-Eaux LondonPosts: 814MI6 Agent

    Operation Mincemeat. Thoroughly enjoyed, one grandfather was in Sicily; thank you, Mr Fleming.

  • chrisno1chrisno1 LondonPosts: 3,177MI6 Agent

    KING OF KINGS (1961)

    It’s difficult to know if one should criticise a movie about a deity.

    King of Kings relates the Biblical story of Jesus of Nazareth, but relegates the main man to a supporting role in his own movie. At first, this seems rather peculiar, especially as he barely features in the first third, but as proceedings unravel we can appreciate why and how the filmmakers’ took this route as it allows them to concentrate more on the context of Jesus life and death rather than the Christian teaching behind it.

    Instead, we are treated to an elegant Orson Welles narration which joins the dots of the historical milieu by explaining what ended up on the cutting room floor [including a whole hour of footage featuring Richard Johnson, whose role as ‘David’ was designed to do exactly the same thing, but apparently slowed the pace of the movie to an absolute crawl]. What this gentle build does is to bend accepted antiquary history – that of Tacitus, Josephus and the Gospels – and include segments of myth and apocryphal writings, both of which blurs the line between good and evil, guilt and innocence, truth and legend. The Ethiopian history which states Pilate and his family converted to Christianity following his removal from office is clearly hinted at by the Prefect’s rising doubt and his wife’s clear absolution of the Messiah. There’s a large role for Hurd Hatfield as a centurion, Lucius, who also comes to understand the non-confrontational matter of Jesus’ teaching.

    That’s not to say we haven’t got blame attached to someone. Mostly it’s thrust on the non-Jewish ruler Herod Antipas, a nominal king who succeeded his father Herod the Great. The imagined machinations of Herod’s court are where the film is most fruitful. Frank Thring makes a competent Herod: delightedly disposing of his scowling father [Gregoire Aslan] who cowers under the yoke of his sins, notably the Slaughter of the Innocents. Odd, though, all the baby children are clearly plastic dolls…

    Still, the decisions faced by the two internecine kings are nicely compared; they both end up as sweaty, frightened rulers: the elder Herod fearing a usurper, the younger in thrall to his scheming wife and daughter. The script gives a fair lick to that triad relationship, gloriously revelling in the incestuous bath Antipas has chosen to swim in: married to his brother’s wife, lusting after his step-daughter. While Rita Gam’s Herodias panders to and mocks her ineffectual husband in equal measure, the young siren Salome slithers in her soft silken outfits, stares pernicious, seductive eyes at her stepfather, the imposing Roman consuls and the sheepskin clad John the Baptist, whose blood she believes is poison. Brigid Bazlen was only sixteen when she played this role and she never bettered it.

    Nicholas Ray was a steady director, but like all big budget epics of the day the film struggles under the weight of its own expectation. Originally conceived by ardent Catholic and tough guy action director John Farrow [who was made a Knight of the Papal Seal or something… no, seriously, look it up] the project took off when Samuel Bronston and he collaborated over John Paul Jones. King of Kings, or Son of Man as the film was initially labelled, was to be their next project. Farrow’s script was unfilmable. Bronston sacked the director from his own pet project, brought in Ray and screenwriter Philip Yordan and set about building Jerusalem in Spain.

    The film is big and bold. The main temple design is magnificent, as are the courtly surrounds. Apparently over 300 sets were built for the movie, but you don’t see anything like 300 sets [maybe they are featured in that lost footage] and most of what we do get is fairly standard material. The 70mm photography is superb. Miklos Rozsa’s music score is one of his best efforts, especially the main title theme. The costumes so-so. The battle scenes are decent; inserted without historical accuracy, but included one assumes to bolster the pace.

    Ray and Yordan were both experienced makers of westerns and they bring some of that ‘lone hero’ worldliness to the proceedings. Christ is often featured alone: even when surrounded by his disciples, he’s apart, leading them, instructing; frequently he’s off-screen entirely. The familiar trope of Cowboys and Indians is played out between the Romans and the Jewish uprisers, most noticeably in a guerrilla attack outside Jerusalem. Joseph and Mary’s entry to Bethlehem has all the rollicking squalor and quarrel of a wild west town. Early on, the centurion Lucius visits Nazareth and the sequence is reminiscent of all those homestead scenes set around a well, the stranger calling at a remote cabin, the natives anxious. This time of course, those emotions are swapped, and it is Lucius who leaves nervous. By the time Jesus makes an appearance though, we are back to the rudiments of the Biblical movie.

    The problem, as with most epics, is who to cast and how to perform it. Usually films like this turn into a game of spot the star, but there are barely any recognisable faces to be seen. Instead the cast is populated by middle-of-the-road supporting players and hastily employed Spanish actors, many of whom are dubbed. It’s worrying that all the ‘villains’ of the show: the Romans, the Herods, Harry Guardino’s Barabbas, even Ray Milland voicing the Devil, seem better equipped both in script and thespian experience than the ‘good guys’. Jeffrey Hunter is extremely bland as Jesus. The normally delightful Siobhan McKenna plays his mother. She shares a couple of deferential scenes with the Messiah and looks desperate to help young Jeff get on the acting track, but ends up stranded, like all Virgin Mary’s, chatting to her counterpart Miss Magdalene, not a good turn from Carmen Sevilia. There’s not much to be said for the disciples who are a tortured and silent lot. Robert Ryan is woefully miscast as John the Baptist. Even the normally reliable Judas Iscariot [Rip Torn] can’t raise our interest in this one. Ray and Yordan reduce Jesus’ input to a basic half-dozen Gospel stories and the rest of his preaching is reduced to several spies’ reports, either for Barabbas’ rebels or Pilate’s Romans, or first-hand accounts related after the events. The effect is to lessen the impact of Jesus’ religious message and increase the socio-political impression he had on the age. It makes for a disjointed epic, for when the obvious climax reaches us and the religious iconography kicks in, we’ve almost forgotten the film’s about the Messiah because the rest of the movie’s narrative has got so much more going for it.

    Ray does sterling work creating some splendid images: John the Baptist in prison attempting to crawl to his saviour, their hands linking and separating like Michelangelo’s God and Man on the Sistine Chapel ceiling; the aerial shot of Herod the Great being murdered by his son is replicated when the cross is raised on Calvary; Salome’s dance is always good for a whack and Frank Thring’s indecision, his ugly executioner waiting in shadow has all the sinister chiaroscuro of a Caravaggio; the conquering Pompey entering Solomon’s temple; the early establishing shots and the matte work are impeccable. Unfortunately for this King of Kings the good work just isn’t good enough and as interesting as the court intrigue is, it’s virtually a sin to make a movie about Jesus Christ and forget to put him in it.      

  • chrisno1chrisno1 LondonPosts: 3,177MI6 Agent

    CHARLIE IS MY DARLING (1966 / 2012)

    Thought to be lost following a burglary at Andrew Loog Oldham’s offices, footage of the Rolling Stone’s brief tour of Ireland in 1965, ostensibly shot to test the band’s photogenic impact, turned up during a clear out of Alan Klein’s New York offices. Painstakingly pieced together the result is a mixture of documentary interviews, impromptu rehearsals and jam sessions and some exhilarating live footage. It was released to DVD following a run on the festival circuits to celebrate the band’s 50th anniversary. Sky Arts showed it as a belated tribute to the late Charlie Watts.

    It's always great to see a band in their formative years. It’s hard to believe people ever considered them rebellious; they look so well presented and kept, speak tremendously politely, and play some awesome blues inspired numbers. What on earth was there to fear? Ah, time is a great healer.

    Some good off the cuff backstage sequences reveal the drudgery of life on the road in the sixties, the small venues, the tight corridors and changing rooms, the lack of security, the stage invasions – a gig in Dublin is stopped when three of the Stones are hauled to the ground by over eager fans – the weariness and wariness of the band. Dear Charlie, bless him, stating: “I’m not very talented. I can’t read [music]. I just sit there and play the drums.” Or Bill Wyman: “I’m not a musician. I’m a bass player in a band.” None of them expect anything to last. Mick Jagger cheerfully relates how they thought they might be together for a couple of years, “But here we still are.” A young vicar watching the Belfast gig doesn’t understand what all the fuss was about: “They seem like good boys. The music was good. Other people’s misbehaviour isn’t their fault.”

    Of the live songs, The Last Time sounds terrific, while It’s Alright causes the mini riot. Everybody Needs Somebody is almost drowned by the screams. Satisfaction is played so fast it’s an audible blur. Round and Round is suitably rock n rolling epic. Jagger and Richards mock Elvis duetting on a version of Santa Bring My Baby Back To Me and the Beatles with Eight Days a Week. It was great to hear an early classic like Heart of Stone on the incidental track. All in all, I thoroughly enjoyed it. I’d love to get a copy of the live soundtrack if it’s available; the sixties live cuts [Got Live If You Want It etc] have a lot more energy and drive than the more sanitised later concerts like Still Life.    

  • Napoleon PluralNapoleon Plural LondonPosts: 10,239MI6 Agent

    If you're in the UK, it's disconcerting reading @chrisno1 's posts because he'll have been watching what you did last night on the telly, it's a bit 'I had your wife last night and this is what I thought of her...'

    I dipped in and out of this (!) thinking it was a tribute to Charlie Watts but of course the late drummer doesn't feature in this any more than the others. It alternated on the telly with the 1995 Top of the Pops revisit on BBC2 and as that was a stellar Britpop year, the Stones had tough competition not least cos this documentary had a lot of mundane clips of jaded, pasty-faced fans not being able to get tickets to see the band, all filmed in black and white of course. I mostly missed their probably affectionate backroom tribute to the Beatles' I've Just Seen a Face, followed by more mocking Eight Days a Week parody. There always was that tension of sorts between the two, listening to Dig A Pony you have Lennon singing 'Roll a Stoney... you can imitate anyone you want...' and only recently there was a strange war of words in the press between Macca and Jagger, the former preposterously deriding the Stones as only a blues cover band - not necessarily referring to them in their origins - and Jagger on record as dismissing the rivalry saying the Beatles ended decades ago while the Stones were still touring and still and entity.

    As for the BBC2 tribute evening, well, Louise Weiner looks hot as ever, seems to be doing a Cassie from Skins tribute act now. Not sure why there isn't a channel devoted to this kind of stuff in the 90s rather than just 70s and 80s revisits. You could view in conjunction with the Gazza documentary now showing, doing the same era.

    "This is where we leave you Mr Bond."

    Roger Moore 1927-2017
  • caractacus pottscaractacus potts Orbital communicator, level 10Posts: 3,907MI6 Agent
    edited April 2022

    One Million Years BC

    Harryhausen, 1966

    starring Raquel Welch and her fur bikini

    also Martine Beswick (one of ours) as a rival cavegirl, and Robert Brown (another one of ours) as leader of the caveman tribe

    was Welch ever considered for a BondFilm? she shouldve been , she's better than a few of those 60s BondGirls. Maybe American which some folks don't like, but she's got an exotic look and also a good sense of humour and a physical style well suited to action movies (being a former ballerina)

    Beswick does a naughty pagan dance, then gets in a kittykittycatfight with the topbilled star

    you know theres a Seinfeld where Elaine gets in a catfight with guest star Raquel Welch? though in typical Seinfeld style the big event happens off camera and Elaine's smartass friends tell inappropriate jokes about it afterwards. Elaine: My life was in danger, why do you guys always talk about two women fighting like its so amusing? Jerry: Because there's a chance maybe the two girls will kiss! Never thought of it before, but maybe that Seinfeld dialog was a specific reference to this film. Beswick of course has prior experience in such performances.

    in the name of equal time, here's our future M, also showing lots of flesh. His management style had mellowed out by the time he got promoted to head of MI6, his caveman tribe by comparison was a toxic workplace.

    its on archive.org skip to 1:13:00 to see kittykittycatfight

  • BarbelBarbel ScotlandPosts: 36,053Chief of Staff

    Yes, she was considered for TB. However, the producer of "Fantastic Voyage" persuaded Broccoli & co to let her appear in that film instead.

  • caractacus pottscaractacus potts Orbital communicator, level 10Posts: 3,907MI6 Agent

    so before she became a star

    would she have been Domino or one of the supporting characters? I think she would have made a better Domino, a better actor and she can make a swimsuit look good.

    Beswick of course is Paula, itd be ironic of Welch had been considered for that part. I wonder if they let the two ladies fight for the role and the Zora the GypsyGirl won?

  • BarbelBarbel ScotlandPosts: 36,053Chief of Staff

    It was Domino, all right.

  • Number24Number24 NorwayPosts: 21,702MI6 Agent

    Papillion (1973)

    It's incredible how many good movies are avalilable for free on Youtube! This one is based on the semi-true story about Papillion (Steve McQueen) who gets sentenced to the brutal French penal colonies in south America. Papillion becomes friends with the forger Degas (Dustin Hoffman). We are used to impressive performances by Hoffman, so for me it's McQueen's Papillion that impresses me. This is the best performance I've ever seen from him. Steve McQueen forgets his vanity in many scenes, perhaps especially the isolation sequence. He's far from The Cooler King here. A positive portrayal of a gay character is also worth mentioning. Generally this is a really good movie and worth watching, especially to see Steve McQueen show us how good an actor he really was.

    Here it is: Papillon.1973 - Bing video

  • chrisno1chrisno1 LondonPosts: 3,177MI6 Agent
    edited April 2022

    I love Claudine Auger as Domino, but by golly Raquel Welch would have got my pulse exploding. I wonder though if Eon would have had her dubbed like they seemed to do with every actress unless she was in The Avengers ?

    Great film One Million Years B.C. BTW, caractacus, the best of Hammer's 'dinosaur' cycle.

  • CoolHandBondCoolHandBond Mactan IslandPosts: 6,030MI6 Agent

    THE PLANK (1967)

    I haven’t seen this since it was released and it’s a piece of superb British slapstick. Tommy Cooper and Eric Sykes are two workmen trying to transport a plank of wood to a job. Almost silent, it’s a brilliantly staged movie with a host of well known faces in supporting roles including, Hattie Jacques, Roy Castle, Kenny Lynch, Bill Oddie, Graham Stark and Stratford Johns. It’s a short movie but very, very funny.

    Yeah, well, sometimes nothin' can be a real cool hand.
  • BarbelBarbel ScotlandPosts: 36,053Chief of Staff

    She was dubbed in "One Million Years BC" (by Bond regular Nikki van der Zyl) so I'd guess probably.

  • chrisno1chrisno1 LondonPosts: 3,177MI6 Agent

    @Barbel She was dubbed???? You are kidding me ! She doesn't 'say' anything, all she has to do is grunt and moan and scream - and I'd listen to Ms Welch grunt and moan and scream any day...

  • caractacus pottscaractacus potts Orbital communicator, level 10Posts: 3,907MI6 Agent

    (for those who've just tuned in, we're discussing Raquel Welch's performance in One Million Years BC)

    actually she says quite a few words, she's from the more civilised tribe with a primitive language, she asks the runaway caveman his name and explains the names of various tools.

    I wonder if there was so many exterior shots the voices didn't pick up and they needed to overdub in postproduction? still, I'm sure she could have done her own overdubs

  • chrisno1chrisno1 LondonPosts: 3,177MI6 Agent

    I'd forgotten that. I haven't seen One Million Years BC for a good decade or so. To be honest, the dialogue is not top of my list of concerns when I watch this movie. That sounds awful, but it's true.

  • Number24Number24 NorwayPosts: 21,702MI6 Agent

    Antonia Banderas is Spanish and Spain was ruled by Arabs from the 8th to the 15th century. I don't think casting him as an Arab was baffiling at all. 🙂

  • Number24Number24 NorwayPosts: 21,702MI6 Agent
    edited November 2022

    In terms of etnicity and look he was a good choice playing an Arab I think. If it made him the right actor for the role is an open question. The critics didn't like the movie, so perhaps not.

  • BarbelBarbel ScotlandPosts: 36,053Chief of Staff

    Nope, no kidding. And as @caractacus potts says, she does say a few words.

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