150 Movies You Should Die Before You See - Miller Steve [13]
They Really Said It!
Erica: You American?
Col. Andy Tanner: Red-blooded.
Erica: What's the capital of Texas.
Col. Andy Tanner: Austin
Erica: Wrong, Commie! It's Houston!
Betcha Didn't Know
This was Charlie Sheen's first screen appearance, and the first major film role for Jennifer Grey.
This was the first film released with a PG-13 rating.
Trivia Quiz
What real-world documents inspired the storyline of the film, according to John Milius?
A: Speeches by President Ronald Reagan
B: Memoirs of French and Danish WWII freedom fighters
C: A report by the CIA and Army War College
D: The writings of Nostradamus
Answer: C. A report by the CIA and Army War College. In the early 1980s, the CIA and the Army War College released a study that described a possible invasion through Mexico by Soviet and Cuban troops.
TRAPPED BY TELEVISION
(AKA “CAPTURED BY TELEVISION”)
Columbia Pictures, 1936
PRODUCER Ben Pivar
WRITERS Harold Buchman and Lee Loeb (script), Sherman L. Lowe and Al Martin (story)
DIRECTOR Del Lord
STARS Mary Astor (Roberta “Bobby” Blake), Nat Pendleton (Rocky O'Neil), Lyle Talbot (Fred Dennis), Joyce Compton (Mae Collins), Robert Strange (Standish), Thurston Hall (John Curtis), Henry Mollison (Thornton), and Wyrley Birch (Paul Turner)
A tech-loving bill collector (Pendleton) decides to help an inventor (Talbot) promote the perfect television broadcasting/receiving device. Unfortunately, a group of violent techno-thieves are scheming to sell another type of television system, and they won't allow our hero and his roguish helpers to spoil their payday.
Why It Sucks
I suppose when television was new, some executive thought this was a great idea. Now, when my cellphone can handle what the broadcast camera in the film does, the movie is hopelessly dated.
Thumbs Down Rating:
The Crappies
The Worst Actor Award goes to … Lyle Talbot for being a scientist so unconvincing you'd be nervous about trusting him to turn on the overhead light in the laboratory.
And the Special Award for a Vision of the Future goes to … Harold Buchman, Lee Loeb, Sherman Lowe, Al Martin, and Del Lord for having the perspicacity to show a flat-screen TV sixty-five years before they were actually available to the public.
They Really Said It!
Rocky: Ain't that marvelous? Did I ever tell you that science wuz my hobby?
Betcha Didn't Know
Bela Lugosi also starred in a television-themed thriller in 1936. Titled Death by Television, the plot revolves around an inventor who dies under mysterious circumstances while demonstrating his new television broadcast method. One of Lugosi's more obscure films, it survives only in mangled and damaged prints.
Mary Astor started her show business career after her father pushed her into signing up for a beauty pagent. She went on to appear in many successful films, such as The Maltese Falcon and her Oscar-winning performance in The Great Lie.
Trivia Quiz
In what movies did Mary A stor appear alongside celebrated leading man William Powell?
A: The Bright Shawl (1923) and The Kennel Murder Case (1933)
B: Map of the World (1931) and The Maltese Falcon (1941)
C: The Girl Who Had Everything (1953) and Grumpy Old Men (1993)
D: The Thin Man (1934) and Blonde Fever (1944)
Answer: A.
The Bright Shawl (1923) and The Kennel Murder Case (1933). The Bright Shawl involved gun-runningin Cuba. In The Kennel Murder Case, Powell appears as private detective Philo Vance and Astoris as uspect in a baffling locked-room murder mystery.
ZOMBIES ON BROADWAY
(AKA “LOONIES ON BROADWAY”)
RKO Radio Pictures, 1945
PRODUCERS Sid Rogell (executive producer) and Benjamin Stoloff (producer)
WRITERS Lawrence Kimble (script), Robert Faber and Charles Newman (story)
DIRECTOR Gordon Douglas
STARS Wally Brown (Jerry Miles), Alan Carney (Mike Streger), Sheldon Leonard (Ace Miller), Bela Lugosi (Dr. Paul Renault), Anne Jeffreys (Jean LeDance), and Darby Jones (Kolaga, the zombie)
A pair of bumbling