Citizen Rules...Cinemaesque Chat-n-Review

I don't remember if I watched The Great Escape for the 1960's list or for a HoF, but I remember thinking that it was a good movie, but too long. And I agree that it might have been the inspiration for the TV show "Hogan's Heroes".

Hi GBG. The Great Escape is one of my favorites.
But there is another movie that was the direct inspiration for Hogan's Heroes called Stalag 17 (1953). It even had a humorous Sergeant Shultz.

Thanks for the info.

I rarely watch war movies because they're not really my type of movies, but I've seen some of the higher rated ones for various reasons. Unless they're more of a romance, comedy, or something else, and they only have the war as background, I usually don't like them.

Just to let you know Stalag 17 is a mix of comedy and drama. Despite some of its comedy (which Hogan's Heroes would adopt), it does have some very real & serious themes as well. It's about the internal goings on of one barracks inside a German-run POW camp during WWII. Saying more than that would get into spoiler territory. Stars William Holden and Peter Graves (of Mission Impossible fame) among others. I always get a kick out of the fact that Harvey Lembeck is in the cast - he played "Eric Von Zipper" in the Frankie & Annette beach movies!

It has a good cast so I might watch it if it airs on TCM, but it's not the type of movie that I would go out of my way to find.

Director: Nathan Juran
Cast: Ronald Reagan, Nancy Reagan, Arthur Franz
Genre: Action Drama War

It's World War II and Ronald Reagan is the commander of the USS Starfish, a Hellcat class of Navy submarines. His mission is to retrieve a new Japanese mine that is blowing up American ships. During his testing of a new prototype U.S. radar...the Commander takes it upon himself to enter into Japan's coastal waters in an attempt to chart the dangerous, mine laden waters off the shore of Japan. His first officer doesn't trust the Commander's judgement after Reagan decides to submerge the submarine leaving a man in the water to die.

This is the only movie that Ronald Reagan and Nancy Davis appear together in, though both made plenty of films. Later they would be married and be President and First Lady of the USA.

I thought this was a pretty fun movie. Sub movies are my thing and this one has some great footage of a real sub underwater with frogmen leaving the sub while it's underwater.

The action was good and the inside of the sub looked really cramped. The b story - romance between a crew member and Nancy Davis who's the commanders old girl didn't work for me.

The script was written by a blacklisted writer under a different name. Ronald Reagan as a politician denied that a Hollywood blacklist ever existed.
This is the only movie I've seen Nancy Davis in, and I can't figure out why they let her be a romantic lead? It must have been at Ronald's request as they were married at the time.

The title for Reservoir Dogs came from Quentin Tarantino during his video store days. Tarantino was trying to recommend Au Revoir Les Infants to a guy, but he misheard it as 'reservoir dogs'. In case you didn't know.

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Hey Gats, I never heard that before, that's interesting, so that's how Reservoir Dogs came to be called...I always thought that was a strange name for a crime movie.

Director: Ron Howard
Cast: Tom Hanks, Daryl Hannah, Eugene Levy, John Candy
Genre: Romantic Comedy

Synopsis: A young boy thinks he sees a mermaid girl and jumps into the ocean. Years later as an adult, and unlucky in love, the man (Tom Hanks) is reunited with the mermaid (Daryl Hannah) who had saved him from drowning all those years ago. He falls in love with the woman not knowing she's a mermaid.

Prologue: Wow, has it really been 32 years since this first came out? It seems like only yesterday Splash was the movie to see. What young man wouldn't want to see Daryl Hannah's tush? I didn't even know who she was at the time, and Tom Hanks was that guy who dressed like a woman on TV...But Splash had John Candy and he was a star. Somehow as the years went by, this movie slipped through the cracks, until last night.

Review: It's a love story, what's not to like about that? Boy meets mermaid girl, they fall in love, boy looses mermaid girl and tries real hard to get her back. OK, so it's a simply movie, good, It works! I felt the love on the screen. I rooted for Tom Hanks to end up with Daryl Hanna. The movie made me happy, made me smile...and I was never bored, and that's a winner.

Production History: The director Ron Howard couldn't get any studios to back his film as there was already a big budget mermaid movie in the works. Nobody wanted to take Ron's smaller film, except Disney Studios who was eager to get a project...only they didn't want to put the Disney name on a movie with Daryl Hanna's naked backside. So this is when Disney decided to launch Touchstone Pictures and Splash was their first release. All thanks to Daryl and her assets.

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Hey Rules - I may be overly sentimental, but the part of Splash that always got me was the scene where John Candy turns serious for a moment and goes off on his brother (Tom Hanks) about finding something most guys never will... that he (John Candy) never will.

I just felt the characters longing, pain & regret as he admitted he was resigned to the fact that he'd never find a love like his brother had due to the person he'd become.

It's such a short scene, that most people probably wouldn't blink at it, but it made me admire Candy for being able to momentarily expose to the audience the true loneliness & vulnerability hidden beneath the seemingly shallow surface of the character he'd created & load so much emotion into just a couple lines. What did you think of that scene?

I haven't seen Splash in many years, so I don't remember much about it. The only characters that I remember are Tom Hanks and Daryl Hannah's characters. I don't even remember John Candy in the movie at all.

The only scene that I remember is a scene when Daryl Hannah makes a loud shrieking noise that hurt my ears. (That's probably why I've never had any desire to rewatch the movie. )

For Rules (and GBG if interested), I know we've discussed Valerie Harper a few times and the other night a strange coincidence occurred...

I put on Rock, Rock, Rock (1956). It was on TCM On-Demand (of course). I later came to find out it was Val Harper's movie debut, but she is uncredited and is one of many girls at a dance. She's most noticeable applauding after the performance by Frankie Lymon and the Teenagers.

The movie itself is a showcase for singers & groups of the day, loosely built around a plot about a girl trying to get up enough money for a prom dress. That girl is Tuesday Weld - looking young and lovely, but then Ben Mankiewicz explains she was only 13 when this movie was made! We have to assume she's playing an older teen since she's got an onscreen boyfriend & is going to prom. This is pretty unheard of (it's usually actors in their 20's playing teenagers, not the other way around.)

Seems Tuesday Weld had a very troubled childhood - she had a nervous breakdown at the age of 9, started drinking at age 10 and was "dating" grown men when she was a young teen.

Captain I remember the scene, but I don't remember thinking anything special about it. Perhaps I wasn't paying attention. I trust your instincts on these unique moments...you were right about the dwarf!...I will go right now and rewatch that part of the movie and post back.

I like Splash but it's been many years, one of the first times I went to the movies without parental guidance.

It's a fun flix Crick.

Captain, I just now watched the scene where John Candy turns serious and tells his brother (Tom Hanks) about finding something most guys, including himself, never well...love.

Candy was good in that scene, I watched it 3 times and Candy was very good as a serious actor. The scene didn't really impact me but if I had watched it 20 years ago, it would have resonated with me.

I'm still working on John Candy's filmography. I just requested Volunteers (1985)

I think it stood out for me because Candy's character is pure comic relief through the movie - he's obnoxious & bombastic (very much playing his "Johnny LaRue" character from SCTV), but in that one moment he shows that this character is really a human being inside.

Yup on both accounts. Believe it or not I also thought of his Johnny LaRue character during the movie.

Very interesting about Tuesday Weld, and sad too. I've seen here a lot as a regular guest star on Dobie Gillis circa 1960. I thought she was much older as other actors were in their mid or late 20s. She's quiet good too. I have to catch one of her films.

Director: Billy Wilder
Writers: Arthur Conan Doyle (original stories), Billy Wilder (screnplay)
Cast: Robert Stephens, Christopher Lee, Colin Blakely
Genre: Adventure, Crime, Light Comed

It's strange how a simply event can change events in the future. A few days ago my wife told me she had read an internet story about the finding of a 'Loch Ness' monster by a submersible camera drone in the deep waters of Lock Ness. The monster turned out to be a movie prop used by Billy Wilder in a making of a movie, The Private Life of Sherlock Holmes. His prop sank to the bottom of Loch Ness where it remained undiscovered until now....So out of curiosity I watched a movie that otherwise I might not have ever seen.

And it was good! I was really surprised at how much I liked it. But I guess I shouldn't have been surprised, as it's directed by one of the greatest directors, Billy Wilder. So great in fact he gets his name above the movie titles! If you've seen other Billy Wilder films you know he mixes clever humor with his stories. Same here. What impressed me was the sets. Billy must have had deep pockets because the movie looks fantastic. Most everything was shot in England at Pine Studios and in Scotland, what a rich looking film.

If you're not a fan of Sherlock Holmes...then you'll still like this film. It's not done in the typical Holmes solves a riddle like other SH films. This is about Sherlock Holmes private life...and apparently he was cocaine addict, who knew. I was really surprised to see that in the film, btw.

Oh, and the movie prop that sank...well you'll just have to see the film.

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I read the article about the Lock Ness movie prop, but I haven't seen the movie that it came from. It sounds interesting. I'll have to add it to my watchlist.

You read that too? I wonder how many people watched the film after that news article? Probably just me. Have you seen any other Sherlock Holmes stuff? Besides on Star Trek