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WolfmanOz at the Movies #66
Star of stage, screen and alimony Was the epitaph suggested for himself by actor and comedian Peter Sellers. Sellers was a prodigious talent, touching on genius at times, although almost all of his best work had been completed by the mid 1960s. Born Richard Henry Sellers in 1925. He began accompanying his parents in a…
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WolfmanOz at the Movies #65
Follow the money Is the phrase, master screenwriter William Goldman attributed to Deep Throat (aka Mark Felt), the informant who took part in revealing the truth behind the June 1972 Watergate break-in in the superb 1976 political thriller All The President’s Men, although the phrase did not appear in the book or in any of the…
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WolfmanOz at the Movies #64
Not a lot of people know that Is the catchphrase that many impersonators use in mimicking Michael Caine which came from his habit of informing people of obscure facts that he had remembered. Celebrating his 90th birthday only a couple of weeks ago, Michael Caine has not only appeared in over 160 movies that has…
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WolfmanOz at the Movies #63
Tom, Dick and Harry Were the names given to the three tunnels that were used in the mass escape by British and Commonwealth POWs from the German POW camp Stalag Luft III. The film of course is The Great Escape (released in 1963) which depicts a heavily fictionalised version of the escape, with numerous compromises made…
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WolfmanOz at the Movies #62
Queen of Diamonds Released in 1962, The Manchurian Candidate stands as one of the most insanely plotted and brilliantly executed political thrillers ever made. The plot centres on Korean War veteran Raymond Shaw (played by Laurence Harvey), who is part of a prominent political family. Shaw is brainwashed by Chinese and Soviet communists after his…
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WolfmanOz at the Movies #61
They call me Mr. Tibbs ! Was the defiant response by Sidney Poitier’s character policeman Virgil Tibbs to the aggressive and racist police chief of Sparta, Mississippi, Bill Gillespie (Rod Steiger in his Oscar winning Best Actor role) in the timeless mystery drama classic In The Heat Of The Night released in 1967 and directed…
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WolfmanOz at the Movies #60
Not that it matters, but most of what follows is true Was the original disclaimer written by legendary screenwriter William Goldman at the beginning of the 1969 western classic Butch Cassidy And The Sundance Kid although the director George Roy Hill deleted the first five words when he noticed in previews that the caption was…
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WolfmanOz at the Movies #59
All About Me ! Is the memoir of Melvin James Kaminsky better known as Mel Brooks. Born on June 28th, 1926, Mel Brooks has had a career that has spanned over seven decades incorporating TV, movies and theatre in which as a writer and director of comedy he has had many successes with broad farces…
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WolfmanOz at the Movies #58
A nation awaits its . . . Downfall (Der Untergang) released in 2004 and brilliantly directed by Oliver Hirschbiegel, vividly recounts the last days of Hitler’s Nazi Germany in Berlin. This has been filmed numerous times before but none have come remotely close to matching this films depiction of the utter collapse and moral bankruptcy…
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WolfmanOz at the Movies #57
A love caught in the fire of revolution A couple of weeks ago on the Weekend Open Thread there was a some discussion in regards to David Lean’s film Doctor Zhivago. I had briefly touched upon the movie on my post on David Lean a few couple of months ago but given the interest in…