BITS & PIECES OF A MISPLACED LIFE: FILM #4

Boris Karloff, who played the monster in the classic 
horror film Frankenstein was considered so unimportant 
as an actor that he was not even invited to the movie's 
World Premiere.

See The Encyclopedia of Mystery and Detection, 
edited by Chris Steinbrunner and Otto Penzler 
(NY: McGraw Hill, 1976)
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POPULAR LINES OF DIALOGUE

Roger Ebert once casually ranked “Let’s get 
out of here (along with “Look out!” and “Take this!”)
as among the most common limes of dialogue 
in the movies. In 2007, some film geeks posted 
a mash-up on YouTube showing everyone from 
Bugs Bunny to Jack Nicholson urging us to blow 
this joint.

Virginia Heffernan. 
“Staying Power” in The New York Times Magazine  
(February 22nd, 2015)

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ANTHONY LANE REVIEWS “F9:THE FAST SAGA”

“The acting is of soaring ineptitude; the deeper 
Diesel emotes, the more he resembles a man who 
dabbed too much wasabi on his tuna roll. The 
most imposing performance is that of Corona – 
not the virus but the beer, whose labels face 
the camera with pride.”

The New Yorker (July 5, 2021)

Shouldn't there be a category of the Academy Awards 
honoring Product Placement?

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WILL THE REAL JOHN WAYNE, PLEASE STAND UP

 When John Wayne was told that he had cancer, 

the first thought that came to his mind was 
"What would John Wayne say?"
       
Donald Ranard, commenting on FILM #3 BLOG

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ON RELIGION & THE MOVIES

“When I watched The Exorcist in theaters when it 
first came out and saw adult movie-goers jump up 
and stumble toward the exits, retching and/or weeping 
with fear, it was to me yet another example of what 
a bad effect a religious upbringing could have.”

Mary Gaitskill.Somebody With a Little Hammer (NY: Pantheon Books, 2017)

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Documentary film maker, Nelson Breen
comments on Noel Coward's remark that if
Peter O'Toole had been any prettier the film
would be called Florence of Arabia.

The  Noel Coward remark about Peter O'Toole reminded 
me of seeing him at the Ziegfeld Theatre in 1989 
at the "premiere" of the restored version of 
"Lawrence of Arabia." He sat in the first row 
during the entire screening (& long intermission), 
transfixed I felt by his own youthful beauty. 
I sat with Omar Sharif, equally beautiful at 
the time the film was produced, in more comfortable 
seats; Sharif had long ago come to terms with 
the ravages of time."



ON DIRECTING A MOVIE

“The thing about directing a movie is that 
every day you think, Oh no….I  cannot get 
out of those corner…She”s awful, he’s awful, 
I’m awful…And you talk your way out of the 
end of the world. You shoot one more scene, 
and you’re saved again.”

                      Mike Nichols
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SIDNEY LUMET AND SELF REVELATION


I hope some day it’s apparent there is a lot of
 me in Serpico, just as there is a lot of me in 
The Sea Gull. They don’t have to be similar
worlds for me to emerge. When I made Long Day’s 
Journey into Night – which I happen to think is 
a perfect movie – I gave Katie that moment when 
Edmund says to her, ‘Mama, I’m going to die,’ 
and she hauls off and whacks him as hard as she 
can across the face. If you don’t understand 
something about me from that scene, then you 
just don’t understand.

Sidney Lumet, quoted in Sidney Lumet: A Life 
by Maura Spiegel (NY: St. Martin’s Press, 2019)

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THE ONLY ACTOR TO GET TWO ACADEMY AWARDS FOR 
THE SAME ROLE

For his performance as Homer Parrish, Harold Russell 
became the only actor to win two Academy Awards for 
the same role. The Academy Board of Governors thought 
he was a long shot to win, so they gave him an honorary 
award "for bringing hope and courage to his fellow 
veterans through his appearance." Later that ceremony 
he won for Best Supporting Actor.

from iDMb trivia -THE BEST YEARS OF OUR LIVES
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ON CERTAIN MOVIES WRITTEN & DIRECTED
BY DAVID MAMET

Con Science
Has no conscience.

Louis Phillips