[MoMo]

Thanks, Trimotor,

that sounds right!

" Beachead " may indeed have one of the dumbest endings of all times,

MoMo

[MoMo]

HI FOLKS,


I've just been reviewing some of my comedy movies of WW2 and I have to say that the best of the bunch has to be " STALAG 17" which was directed by one of my all-time favourite directors, Billy Wilder.

I watched " I Was Monty's Double "
( a B&W Brit 50's effort which has an interesting plot concerning Allied attempts to deceive German intelligence as to the whereabouts and intentions of General Montgomery before and up to june,6th,1944 by using a lookalike to throw the Huns off the scent )

I also watched " Kelly's Heroes " ( colour, mid 1970s ) which is an entertaining, if somewhat tainted Clint Eastwood flic with lots of good prop vehicles of the right vintage, but marred by the inclusion of a character played by Donald Sutherland who acted and looked like a Hippy to draw in the youth audience of the 70s. I'm sure that you've all seen it so I won't bore you with a plot synopsis. It is still very watchable today and I would recommend it if you haven't seen it.

Next came " Private's Progress " ( B&W late 1950s) which is a must if you haven't seen it. Especially if you happen to be a Brit. If you ain't a Brit, the humour may be hard to discern because the film comes from the stable of the Boulting Brothers who made a career of satirising post-war British society by characterising the officer clas as either incompetent upper-class twits or corrupt bounders and cads. In the centre we have a character who is an innocent abroad, played solidly for laughs by Ian Charmichael, and who is given the oppertunity to
' save ' looted art treasures from the clutches of the Germans.

Unbeknown to him, his uncle who is ' something ' at the War Office has plans for a portion of the art treasure.

Ian Charmichael, who is on sabbatical from Oxford for the duration, is sent to brush up on his German, but ends up becomming adept in speaking Japanese instead. Worth a watching, if only to see the contributions of Richard Attenburgh, as a 'spiv' soldier on the make, and Chrisopher Lee, as one of the nasty Nazis. Dennis Price turns in a good performance as the dodgy uncle.

I read a great biography last month on Billy Wilder. He made some of my favourite movies ever ( 'Some Like it Hot', 'Double Indemnity', 'The Long Weekend',etc. ) and I was intrigued by some insight into the great man's work.
I won't go into the details of his fascinating life, but just mention this one fact. He departed from his adopted city of Berlin and his work there at UFFA studios the day before Cristalnaght and the commencement of the open persecution of the jews in Nazi Germany. Wilder was a jew and he would have been most certainly hounded and destoyed by the Nazis.

Das Reich's loss was Hollywood's gain.

By 1951, Billy Wilder had had a string of hits. On Broadway a play called
Stalag 17 was playing to packed houses and Paramount paid $100,000 for the film rights..a staggering sum for those days.

Wider and his partner at the time, Blum, would adapt the material and Wider would direct. The ace part of the anti-hero, Sefton, would go to William Holden.

This was a magic formula. Holden's portrayal of Sefton created an iconic figure who would later turn up in many guises in POW Camp movies ( and also on TV..but suitably toned-down ).

This is one of the great WW2 movies and is a must see if you haven't had the pleasure.

Sefton, runs all the rackets in Stalag 17: the saturday night rat races, the still, hiring a telescope to look at the Russian women POWs as they queued for showers, etc. Everyone else either hates Sefton or just despises him. Sefton is not phased by this. Instead, he is quite philisophical about using his time productively in the time-honoured, American way of making a buck in order to come out of the war ahead!

Compare Sefton's cynical attitude to the characters in " The Great Escape". He wasn't going to risk his neck for nobody!

Needless to say, the situation, and Sefton's resolve, is altered when a rich fly-boy is introduced into the camp. Sefton's luck changes though when he is suspected of being the camp stool pigeon and that adds another dimension to the plot.

All this is contrasted and lightened by the antics of some of the other POWs who are clearly, and slowly, going off their heads.

Best scene : when a whole hut-full of POWs are ' converted' to the Nazi credo after being gifted a copy of " Mein Kampf " and greet the Feldwebel with a hearty Seig Heil while all wearing Hitler moustaches.

" One Fuhrer is enough!" is his reaction.

Watch this one and give yourself a treat. " Hogan's Heroes ", a vague TV spinoff, is a pale immitation of this B&W classic.

I won't reveal any more of the plot. Watch it and enjoy.

MoMo

[Tri-motor]

How about "Lion of the Desert"? Ahthony Quinn fights the conquering Italians (led by Oliver Reed) in 1930s Libya. The costomes & re-created tanks & armor cars are the highlites of this movie. It's hard to believe the Oleg Cassini-inspired uniforms of the Italians. And the armor cars were built just for the movie. Both phases are well-done. Rod Steiger as Mussolini!4/4 stars! Maurice Jarre soundtrack, too. What else could you want in a movie?

[MoMo]

Thanks, Tri-motor,

I never saw that one. I'll track down a copy and give it a spin.


cheers,

MoMo

[Tri-motor]

I expect a full review upon completion of your viewing.

[planenuts]

Speaking of WWII comedies.....one of my favorites is "I Was a Male War Bride" with Cary Grant and Ann Sheridan. Great movie

[MoMo]

Hi,Folks,

I've been off-line for 5-6 weeks because my wife " persuaded " me that we should change our server!

NEVER DO THIS! Anyone who offers you 'Free' Internet service for life should be locked away in a very small, dark room and treated to electro-shock therapy by a large man with a pointy stick...then ignored!

Why do I listen to her ( against my better nature )?

I amused myself last week by watching my favourite war movie of all time.
All boy baby-boomers must have been entranced when they saw
" Lawrence of Arabia " for the first time; I'm still entranced after my 60th viewing. To me, it is a most perfect, poetic interpretation of the war experiences of T.E. Lawrence, that fish out of water who helped the Arabs to annoy the hell out of the Turks in the First World War. Lawrence helped to sow the seeds of Arab nationalism by aiding Prince Faisal and directing his force of Beduins to disrupt and destroy the Turkish railways which serviced the Ottoman Empire's army in the Middle-East.

The basis for the script of the film is Lawrence's beatifully written " Seven Pillars of Wisdom", which recounts some of the great man's exploits in the desert war.

David Lean, who directed the film, never saw the restored version of it released on DVD. People like Steven Speilberg oversaw the restoration which was Lean's original interpretation ( and Robert Bolt's ) of the enigma of this man of great poetic vision. A man who could be both cruel and vindictive and, at the same time, appalled by the horror and waste of war.

When the film was first released ( and it is worth seeing the first, early cut of the movie ) all references to Lawrence's ( repressed? ) prediliction for those with a similar sex to his own were toned down and cut to the bone.

Similarly, Lawrence's leaning towards the glamour of fame was toned down to present him as a hero who struggled with his new-found fame and who ran away from the publicity which his success brought him.

In the restored version of Lean's film we can see a Lawrence who is more human; weaker than he seems in the first version.

The story is told in flashback through the eyes of those who knew him. In this respect it is rather similar in approach to " Citizen Kane ", though dissimilar in structure in that Lean tells the story chronlogically.

Cinematically, this movie is a true, sweeping epic which is a banquet for all your senses. The cinematography is breathtaking and all directors of today's so-called epics should be compelled to watch it till they bleed. The music, by Maurice Jarre is truly vital to the film and its impact; truly beautiful and mesmerising. The themes of the music seem to rise from the desert of their own volition and draw the audience into the frame.

The script, by Robert Bolt, is intelligent without being patronising. The drama seems real and immediate.

The acting by Alec Guinness, Anthony Quinn, Jack Hawkins, Claude Rains, et al is superb.

Peter O'Toole gives the performance of his life and Omar Sharif, as Sherrif Ali, won international stardom by riding out of the desert from a fixed point on the horizon to shoot Lawrence's arab guide and trade insults with this strange British Officer who wanted to be taken to see Lord Faissal so that the Generals in Cairo could " Appreciate the situation " in Arabia.

The spectacle of this movie is constant. Even the quiet scenes in the desert are paced with a majesty of care. The locations in Jordan never cease to awe the viewer into hushed reverence for the beauty of the desert.

If you have never seen this movie, you have never truly experienced the real impact and scope of what a great film really is.

Memorable moments :

• the transition shot of Lawrence in Cairo putting out a lighted match to a shot of the burning sun above Lawrence in the desert
• the attack by Arab cavalry on Aquaba
• Lawrence struggling with the plan to attack Aquaba
• the ship 'sailing' through the desert ( Suez )
• the attack on a Turkish train...unforgetable!
• The Turkish aircraft bombing and strafing the arabs and the arabs fighting back by charging the planes
• the exchanges between Lawrence and Faisal which sets Lawrence on a course which runs contrary to the wishes of his superiors ( we know that every word he is saying is true and, boy, do we wish we were there and we had the chance to lead that desert army against their oppressors! )
• the sadness as Lawrence goes home a broken man...always the outsider

.....just some of the things you walk away with from this movie.

I think that the Turkish airforce may have been composed of Tiger Moths. I know that the Rolls Royce armoured cars were converted from vintage Rollers and that they were converted specially for the movie.

I won't say any more about the movie in case some of you have not seen it, or in case some of you have not seen it for a long time and wish to see it again relatively fresh.

This film won 7 Academy c. Awards and deserves to be seen in a big movie palace.

If you can't find one ( they converted them all ) find the biggest T.V. screen you can and add 5 point Dolby sound and off you go!

I scratch-built the Rolls Royce armoured car years ago, but it has long gone. I used some of the parts from an Airfix vintage Roller ( mainly the wheels ), the chassis, plastic card and bits of plastic tubing from a container for the turret! I was 12 and the result was less than perfect!

Happy viewing. Let me know if anyone has seen the movie recently or just your recollections of it!

MoMo

[mikeb1958]

Originally Posted by planenuts

I don't know if I have ONE all time favorite war movie. But two that always come to mind when the subject comes up are.......'Patton' and 'A Bridge Too Far'.

How about the classic 1980's flick.. "Amazon Woman on the Moon"? The rocket ship looked like the first IXO production prototype for a German V-2!

[fileasfog]

I saw a movie called "Stukas over london"
Very very bad.
For some reason they had bf 109's painted RAF style, trying to pass for Spitfires. Battle scenes were intercut with archive footage.

I think in the same movie there were stuka attacks yet the planes were not stukas but dauntless with swastikas on them.

There were some sherman tanks painted in grey that British and Americans kept bazooking saying they were Panzers.

[mustangdriver]

I have got to say that I love 1941. I know it was not made during WWII but set in that time period. But John Belushi as the P-40 pilot was great.