BITS & PIECES OF A MISLAID LIFE: FILM # 22

"Bugs Bunny wasn't nothing but Br'er Rabbit with a better
 agent." 
            from The Sellout, a novel by Paul Beatty 
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ON THE ROAD TO MORROCO (1942)

Paramount shot two endings for the film. The one not used had Bob Hope and Bing Crosby enlisting in the Marines and ended with the line "See you on the road to Tokyo."

iMBd Trivia


From light verse writer BRUCE NEWLING

" Louis, your reference to Veronica Lake reminds me of a joke when I was a schoolboy in England, where Veronica Lake was very well known.  It was said that Robert Preston went missing and was later found bobbing up and down on Veronica Lake."
**

"The movies got it all wrong. Cigarettes don't taste good when you're wounded."
      Frank Sinatra's character in Never So Few
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WHY I SHALL NEVER BE A MOVIE STAR

Alain Delon --
Oh how my wife longs
For me to look & dress like Alain.
Alas! Compared to him, I look like an alien.

**
THE ORIGINAL TITLE FOR ANNIE HALL

"(WOODY)Allen's working title for Annie Hall was
'Anhedra,' a term coined by the French psychologist 
Theodule -- Armand Ribaud to describe 'the inability
to experience pleasure from actors usually found
enjoyable."

Philip Fiens. "Woody's Blues" in TLS (October 4,2013)
**
ON HAVING A PRE-DISPOSITION TOWARD SHOW BUSINESS

Warner Baxter claimed to have an early pre-disposition toward show business: "I discovered a boy a block away who would eat worms and swallow flies for a penny. For one-third of the profits, I exhibited him in a tent." 

Current Biography
**
YOU'RE TOAST & GHOSTBUSTERS

"The phrase "You're toast" gained prominence as a line from "Ghostbusters". This ominous declaration is uttered by the character Peter Venkman, played by Bill Murray, during a confrontational scene with the Stay Puft Marshmallow Man.
Since its cinematic debut, "You're toast" has transcended its ghostly origins to become a colloquial idiom, often used in a lighthearted manner to convey a sense of impending defeat or inevitable trouble."

DICTIONARY SCOOP (February 3, 2023)

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China banned time travel in TV and movies.

Most people have genres of film or TV that they dislike, and for the Chinese government, that genre is time travel. Back in March 2011, the country’s State Administration for Radio, Film & Television issued guidelines restricting the production and dissemination of TV shows and movies featuring time travel, saying that these tales “lack positive thoughts and meaning.” Ignoring the fact that some of the very best time-traveling TV shows (Doctor Who) and films (Back to the Future) seem to be bursting with meaning, the administration further explained that these programs “casually make up myths, have monstrous and weird plots, use absurd tactics, and even promote feudalism, superstition, fatalism, and reincarnation.”

INTERESTING FACTS WEBSITE (February 5,2024)

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"I wonder what you'd look like dressed."
           Jane to Tarzan in Tarzan the Ape Man
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Clara Bow inspired Betty Boop

"Clara Bow was one of the women who provided Max Fleischer 
with inspiration for Betty Boop, the squeaky-voiced flapper icon. Other inspirations include singer Helen Kane, who sued Paramount for what she called Fleischer’s “deliberate caricature” of her. The court ruled against Kane, noting 
that Boop was a composite of several different women, 
including Bow."

Mental Floss
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THE FIRST FILM TO UTILIZE VITAPHONE SOUND-ON-DISC

 "Don Juan is a 1926 synchronized sound American romantic adventure film directed by Alan Crosland. It is the first feature-length film to utilize the Vitaphone sound-on-disc sound system with a synchronized musical score and sound effects, though it has no spoken dialogue."

                             WIKIPEDIA
**

LUC SANTE ON THE VOICE OF LEO G.CARROLL

"He could speak while moving only the very middle of his
lower lip. If you believe in heaven you can imagine him
manning the admissions desk."

Luc Sante. "Rogues Gallery" in O.K. You Mugs: Writers on
Movie Actors, edited by Luc Sante and Melissa Holbrook 
Pierson (New York: Pantheon Books, 1999)
**
           THE NON-UMBRELLAS OF CHERBOURG

          I tell you I belong in the Guiness Book of Records
          For I have lost more umbrellas
          Than anyone on this slapdash planet.
          Bought one in the rain for $3.00.
          Left it in the library,
          Between Vachel Lindsay & the Oedipus Cycle.
          Bought another from the Marquis de Sade.
          Left it on the subway.
          A third disappeared into a vat of mezzo-sopranos
          Prepared for a convocation of boatswains.
          Went to see the rerelease of The Umbrellas of      
            Cherbourg, &
          There was not one umbrella on the screen.
          I was informed the third reel had been misplaced,
          Left on the street on the way to the theater.

          Louis Phillips