Left, Yasuyuki Inoue in Hollywood in 2004. Photo by Brett Homenick.
When word got out in fan circles that Yasuyuki Inoue had passed away, I emailed Tom Baker at The Daily Yomiuri in Japan to see if he had any additional information.
I received this reply today:
Dear Armand:
Sorry for the slow reply to your message. I just checked the Yomiuri database and was mildly surprised to see that the paper ran nothing about Yasuyuki Inoue's death. But then I did a Japanese Google news search (results here: http://bit.ly/wZW59n) and saw that the Jiji wire service, the Sankei Sports newspaper and the Nikkei Shimbun each had an item on it -- but each of the items is only two or three sentences long.
Basically, they say that he was a Fukuoka Prefecture native who died in Kanagawa Prefecture of heart failure at the age of 89. They also mention a couple of the movies he was involved in.
Thanks! You may want to go to YouTube to check out a video featuring Inoue entitled, "Bringing Godzilla Down To Size." It is well done and Inoue demonstrates a volcanic special effect technique.
Well moviephiles it's Oscar night! What does that mean here at Monster Island News? Well since "Annie Hall" beat out "Star Wars" in 1977 I haven't held the award in any form of high regard so I'm posting about a film that wasn't nominated for one, namely "Escape From The Planet Of The Apes".
I know, your confused. Why the hell would I post about a "Planet Of The Apes" movie on Oscar night? Well I think that the film really had all the qualities that The Academy generally looks for like drama, action, great acting, monkeys ... talking monkeys, a tear jerker ending and that sexy Ricardo Montalban. What's not to like?
Not buying it?
Hey just think about how hard it would be to try and act with all that John Chambers ape makeup on? Roddy McDowall and Kim Hunter should have rolled out of the place with statues and expensive gift baskets ... but alas ... they didn't.
Hey I know Chambers won an Oscar for his makeup work on the original "Planet of the Apes" ... that fact isn't lost on me.
Back to the photograph at hand. The image is a promotional photo that was distributed to printed media outlets. In the case of this particular photo it a key art image of the film's poster probably intended for theater showing adverts in newspapers though magazines could have featured the image as well.
It is an 8x10 photograph on glassy stock paper and it's serial number is 22X28.
Overall this is one the prize images in my collection because it features Cornelius (McDowall), Zira (Hunter) and that adorable little chimp Milo who has the government going bananas ... bad pun ... ape shit ... worse pun ... okay on a blood-thirsty rampage of senseless violence.
Okay the fact that I love all the "Apes" films (not the Tim Burton one ... blech) doesn't hurt.
I like that whole "blood-thirsty rampage of senseless violence" part.
Here's your history:
Escape from the Planet of the Apes, directed by Don Taylor, is a 1971 science fiction film starring Roddy McDowall, Kim Hunter, Bradford Dillman and Ricardo Montalbán. It is the third of five films in the original Planet of the Apes series produced by Arthur P. Jacobs, the second being Beneath the Planet of the Apes (1970). Its plot centers around many social issues of the day including scientific experimentation on animals, nuclear war and government intrusion. The film was well received by critics, getting the best reviews of the four Planet of the Apes sequels. It was followed by Conquest of the Planet of the Apes.
Today I have opted to change things up a bit with an article that, for once, doesn't focus on a movie advertisement but instead features an actual publicity still. For those of you who are out of the loop on this sort of thing publicity stills are movie images that are sent out to magazines, newspapers and now in the digital age websites for promotional purposes (i.e articles and movie reviews).
Today's image comes from one of my personal favorite films "Five Million Years to Earth" (Quatermass and the Pit - UK). In the photo are the films two top billed stars, Andrew Kier (Professor Quatermass) and James Donald (Dr. Mathew Roney) alongside one of the insect "Martians" who's spaceship was unearthed during the construction of a London subway tunnel.
Here is the photo info from the reverse side of the photograph:
"Professor Quatermass (Andrew Keir) and Roney (James Donald) finally get into the secret compartment of the spaceship to find violently colored glass honeycombes containing insect Martians in 20th Century Fox's "Five Million Years to Earth." The Deluxe Color attraction was produced by Anthony Newley Keys and directed by Roy Baker."
As I mentioned above "Five Million Years to Earth" is one of my personal favorite sci fi films and a truly underrated film though Gary Gerani in his book "Top 100 Sci-Fi Movies" ranks the film in the number three slot just behind "2001: A Space Odyssey" and just in front of "Star Wars".
I don't know if I would have the stones to rank this one ahead of "Star Wars" though I do believe it ranks well into the top thirty or so sci-fi films ever produced easily.
The original image (and yes this is a studio original) is a black and white, 8x10 on glossy stock paper, and the serial number is FMY/21
History:
Quatermass and the Pit (US title: Five Million Years to Earth) is a 1967 British science fiction horror film. Made by Hammer Film Productions it is a sequel to the earlier Hammer films The QuatermassXperiment and Quatermass 2. Like its predecessors it is based on a BBC Television serial – Quatermass and the Pit – written by Nigel Kneale. It was directed by Roy Ward Baker and stars Andrew Keir in the title role as the eponymous professor, replacing Brian Donlevy who played the role in the two earlier films. James Donald, Barbara Shelley and Julian Glover appear in co-starring roles.
The plot, which is largely faithful to the original television production, centres around the discovery of a mysterious object buried in the ground at the site of an extension to the London Underground. Also uncovered nearby are the remains of early human ancestors more than five million years old. Realising that the object is in fact an ancient Martian spacecraft, Quatermass deduces that the aliens have influenced human evolution and the development of human intelligence. The spacecraft has an intelligence of its own and once uncovered begins to exert a malign influence, resurrecting Martian memories and instincts buried deep within the human psyche. Mayhem breaks out on the streets of London as the alien force grows in strength. It is only defeated when a metal object – a building crane – is swung into the centre of the force and the energy is discharged.
Nigel Kneale wrote the first draft of the screenplay in 1961 but difficulties in attracting interest from American co-financiers meant the film did not go into production until 1967. The director, Roy Ward Baker, was chosen on account of his experience with technically demanding productions such as A Night to Remember. This would be the first of many films he directed for Hammer. Andrew Keir, playing Quatermass, found making the film an unhappy experience, believing Baker had wanted Kenneth More to play the role. Due to lack of space the film was shot at the MGM studios in Elstree, Borehamwood rather than Hammer's usual home at the time which was the Associated British Studios, also in Elstree.
The film opened in November 1967 to favourable reviews and remains generally well regarded. Hammer announced they would make a fourth Quatermass film but nothing ultimately came of this. A new serial adventure – titled simply Quatermass – was eventually made in 1979 by ITV television in 1979 and (in re-edited form) received a limited cinema release under the title The Quatermass Conclusion.
Written By: Ken Hulsey Source: Terri Furr Pressley
Just try and name every cartoon and classic commercial in this great clip that I now refer to as "fifteen minutes of pure retro joy!". In know I did and I almost went blind! Granted the task wasn't too difficult on my end because I'm actually ... ahem ... cough ... old enough to remember just about all of them.
For all of you out there too young to remember any of these shows let me clue you into the fact that in a time long ago, but not forgotten, yet, Saturday morning television was not the vast entertainment wasteland it is today. No sir, Saturday morning television was three channels (NBC, ABC & CBS .. yes there was a time when there were only three) of non-stop animation and really cool programs aimed at young people that lasted from 6 am to noon. Yes, a whole six hours!
To break it down for you, a lot the shows on Adult Swim, well they are based off "real" Saturday morning shows from the sixties and seventies. Oh ... check out Boomerang some time!
Okay let's see if I can do this? Play along at home if you like!
"Spiderman" "H.R. Pufnstuf" That damn "Life" cereal commercial ... "Hey Mikey! He Likes It!" "Davey and Goliath" "Time Bomb" ... okay I don't know that one. Any show that gives kids the idea that explosives are okay sounds irresponsible to me! That's the parent in me talking. I'm just mad that I didn't get to blow stuff up! "Stratego" "Casper" "The Beatles" "Atom Ant" "Secret Squirrel" "Top Cat" "BASH!" ... a game that looks like you get to beat the crap out of some poor slob with a hammer! God I miss the days when mindless violence was cool. "Electro-Shot Shooting Gallery" ... back when guns were cool! What has happened to us? "Underdog" .. who can kick the ass of every one of those lame superheroes in the clip before it. "Boggle" "The Jetsons" .. okay I know you've heard of that one! "King Kong" ... yep the big guy had a cartoon series that was made in Japan (See King Kong Escapes) "Mystery Date" ... A meat market for young girls ... wanna know why you never live up to your girls expectations? Thank you Milton Bradley!!! "The Bugs Bunny/Road Runner Hour" ... the coolest intro (next to Johnny Quest) ever!! .. "Overture, curtain, lights! This is it. The night of nights. No more rehearsing or nursing a part. We know every part by heart!" "Space Ghost" Um ... a game where you overload a camel until his spine snaps ... again great idea! "Magilla Gorilla"
Okay ... enough of that I have Attention Deficit Disorder so I can't keep that up for fifteen minutes!
You get the idea anyway just about everything that was ultra cool to us kids back in the late sixties and seventies condensed into one glob of images that makes us pine away for days gone bye and gives us the bragging rights over the younger generation who grew up with sub par programing.
(I'm laughing and pointing) Ha Ha!
Here are the words to the Bugs Bunny intro:
"The Bugs Bunny/Road Runner Hour." (curtain rises) "Overture, curtain, lights! This is it. The night of nights. No more rehearsing or nursing a part. We know every part by heart! (cane flip) Overture, curtain, lights! This is it. We'll hit the heights! And oh, what heights we'll hit! On with the show, this is it! (character procession) Tonight what heights we'll hit! On with the show, this is it!" "Starring the Oscar-winning rabbit, Bugs Bunny." "And also starring my fast-feathered friend, the Road Runner!" (Road Runner zips forward on film projector screen) "Beep, beep!" "Road Runner, that Coyote's after you! Road Runner, if he catches you, you're through! Road Runner, that Coyote's after you! Road Runner, if he catches you, you're through! That Coyote is really a crazy clown! When will he learn that he never can slow him down? Poor little Road Runner never bothers anyone. Just running down the road is his idea of having fun!" "Beep, beep!" "The Bugs Bunny/Road Runner Hour."
Written By: Ken Hulsey Source: Wishes To Remain Anonymous
Back in 2010 I posted a couple of articles about the infamous "Speedway Monster" that at one time used to prowl around the rural communities at the base of the San Bernardino Mountains just a mere 30-minute drive from downtown Los Angeles. The creature in question got it's signature name from a plethora of sightings that occurred between the 1950s and early 1970s at the Mickey Thompson's Fontana International Dragway where literally hundreds of race fans witnessed it roaming nearby fields and rummaging through trash cans. After the raceway closed in 1972 sightings of the "Speedway Monster" continued through the early 1990s when the suburban areas of Fontana and Rialto grew by leaps and bounds into the sprawling residential and shopping mecca it is today. As most cryptid hunters know, Bigfoot doesn't like malls so for good reasons the monster has moved on.
Or so it seemed....
An anonymous eyewitness has contacted this website with news that the "Speedway Monster" may have returned to it's old haunts near the location where the old dragstrip once stood in an area that is now the residential neighborhoods of Las Colinas in Rialto, Ca. According to the source Bigfoot, or something that resembles one, visited the area on several occasions in 2004 and 2005 traveling down a dry river bed across from the community that connects to Lytle Creek an infamous hot spot for sightings.
The eyewitness stated, " I remember hearing this loud howling screams, screeching and growling all at the same time in the night around 2 am about twice a month. My Grandfather who lived with me at the time said he heard them as well. He mentioned that in his home country the creature is known as 'The Screamer' he said it sounded just like that."
"It seemed the calls were coming from across a main road in a dry river bed that lead directly into Lytle Creek. Not until about a two years ago did I ever hear calls of that sort again, on TV during research show of Bigfoot. When I heard them on TV it gave me goosebumps and chills. I now believe that was the noises I was hearing."
For a while the creature seemed content with making a lot of noise and sticking to the dry river bed. Then one night it got up the courage to venture into the neighborhood.
The source continues, "Around the time that I was living in that neighborhood (Las Colinas) one night my older brother called my cell phone asking where my Louisville Slugger was. I asked why and he said because he was in the bathroom on the 2nd floor and looked out the window and saw a tall, hairy creature looking up at him. According to him it was on the side of the house behind the hedges that separated our house from our neighbors. The hedge was approximately 9 ft tall."
"He said the creature was standing and its head was clear over the hedge. When the creature, I think was some sort of BigFoot, noticed my brother George looking back at him it ducked its head. According to George the creature was a grayish tan color, hairy and tall. Covered with hair and a human like face. He was genuinely freaked out . He was never one to be into or believed in Bigfoot type things but when I got home he was sure of what he saw and it scared him very much."
Has the "Speedway Monster" returned to it's old hunting grounds near the spot where the old Mickey Thompson's Fontana International Dragway once stood? According to the eyewitnesses the answer is yes.
It would be hard to believe that a creature like Bigfoot would be brave enough to venture from the safety of the nearby mountains into an area that is now a rather dense suburban area. Granted the area of the sightings, Las Colinas, is somewhat more remote than other housing tracts in the general area with a still large undeveloped area adjacent to it.
There is of course the matter of the dry river bed that connects directly to Lytle Creek further in the San Bernardino Mountain range. This area has been a virtual hot spot for Bigfoot sightings for over a hundred years, so if the creature does indeed live just outside the vast metropolitan area of Los Angeles this would in all likelihood be it's home turf.
For now this is all just conjecture but if these reports are to be taken seriously than one of the world's greatest mysteries may show up on the doorstep of some unsuspecting urbanite.
Above, Godzilla approaches Nagoya Castle in "Mothra vs. Godzilla" (1964). The photo was signed by Haruo Nakajima.
It was destroyed by U.S. air raids in 1945. It rebuilt and later destroyed by Godzilla in 1964. Now, it may be destroyed again by Nagoya city officials.
The City of Nagoya, Japan is considering rebuilding Nagoya Castle.
The Mainichi Daily News reports:
NAGOYA -- Local residents here showed mixed feelings during a public meeting over the weekend over a plan to rebuild Nagoya Castle from the current concrete structure into a wooden one to preserve its original state.
The Nagoya Municipal Government held the meeting at a civic hall on Feb. 19, in which some 160 local residents discussed the pros and cons of Mayor Takashi Kawamura's plans to transform Nagoya Castle into a wooden structure.
Founded by Tokugawa Ieyasu, the initiator of the Tokugawa shogunate (1603-1867), Nagoya Castle was first completed in 1612. The structure, however, was destroyed by U.S. air raids in May 1945. The current castle tower was rebuilt in 1959.
Above, the real Nagoya Castle.
Nagoya Castle was featured (and demolished by Godzilla (Haruo Nakajima)) in the 1964 feature Mothra vs. Godzilla.
Trivia Compiled By: Ken Hulsey Sources: IMDB / Wikipedia
Rear Window is a 1954 American suspense film directed by Alfred Hitchcock, written by John Michael Hayes and based on Cornell Woolrich's 1942 short story "It Had to Be Murder". Originally released by Paramount Pictures, the film stars James Stewart, Grace Kelly, Wendell Corey, and Thelma Ritter.
All of the sound in the film is diegetic, meaning that all the music, speech and other sounds all come from within the world of the film with the exception of non-diegetic orchestral music heard in the first three shots of the film.
The entire picture was shot on one set, which required months of planning and construction. The apartment-courtyard set measured 98 feet wide, 185 feet long and 40 feet high, and consisted of 31 apartments, eight of which were completely furnished. The courtyard was set 20 to 30 feet below stage level, and some of the buildings were the equivalent of five or six stories high. The film was shot quickly on the heels of Dial M for Murder, November 27 1953-February 26 1954. At the time the set was the largest indoor set built at Paramount Studios. The size of the set necessitated excavation of the soundstage floor. Thus Jeff's apartment was actually at street level.
All the apartments in Thorwald's building had electricity and running water, and could be lived in. In fact during the month-long shoot Georgine Darcy, who played "Miss Torso", "lived" in her apartment all day, relaxing between takes as if really at home.
One thousand arc lights were used to simulate sunlight. Thanks to extensive pre-lighting of the set, the crew could make the changeover from day to night in under forty-five minutes.
While shooting, Alfred Hitchcock worked only in Jeff's "apartment." The actors in other apartments wore flesh-colored earpieces so that he could radio his directions to them.
The love affair between war photographer Robert Capa and actress Ingrid Bergman is believed to be Alfred Hitchcock's inspiration for the film's romantic aspect.
The 35mm camera that James Stewart holds with the huge telephoto lens attached is an early 1950s Exakta VX (also known as the "Varex" outside the USA) manufactured in Dresden, (east) Germany. The lens is a 400mm Kilfitt. The Paramount property department purposely covered over the name with black masking tape.
The film was inspired in part by the real-life murder case of Patrick Mahon. In 1924, in Sussex, England, Mahon murdered his pregnant mistress, Emily Kaye, and dismembered her body. In the modern interview, Alfred Hitchcock claimed that Mahon threw the body parts out of a train window piece by piece and burned the head in his fireplace. Another modern source, however, states that Mahon quartered the body and stored it in a large trunk, then removed internal organs, putting some in biscuit tins and a hatbox and boiling others on the stove.
In addition to Mahon, Alfred Hitchcock noted in the modern interview that the 1910 case of Dr. Hawley Harvey Crippen also served as an inspiration for the film. Crippen, an American living in London, poisoned his wife and cut up her body, then told police that she had moved to Los Angeles. Crippen was eventually caught after his secretary, with whom he was having an affair, was seen wearing Mrs. Crippen's jewelry, and a family friend searched unsuccessfully for Mrs. Crippen in California. After Scotland Yard became involved, Crippen and his mistress fled England under false names and were apprehended on an ocean liner. Police found parts of Mrs. Crippen's body in her cellar.
At one point, the voice of Bing Crosby can be heard singing "To See You Is to Love You", originally from the 1952 Paramount film Road to Bali. Also heard on the soundtrack are versions of songs popularized earlier in the decade by Nat King Cole ("Mona Lisa", 1950) and Dean Martin ("That's Amore", 1952), along with segments from Leonard Bernstein's score for Jerome Robbins's ballet Fancy Free (1944), Richard Rodgers's song "Lover" (1932), and "M'appari tutt'amor" from Friedrich von Flotow's opera Martha (1844).
A "benefit world premiere" for the film, with United Nations officials and "prominent members of the social and entertainment worlds" in attendance, was held on August 4, 1954 in New York City, with proceeds going to the American-Korean Foundation (an aid organization founded soon after the end of the Korean War and headed by President Eisenhower's brother). The film received overwhelmingly positive reviews from critics and is considered one of Hitchcock's finest films.
Hitchcock's fans and film scholars have taken particular interest in the way the relationship between Jeff and Lisa can be compared to the lives of the neighbors they are spying upon. The film invites speculation as to which of these paths Jeff and Lisa will follow. Many of these points are considered in Tania Modleski's feminist theory book, The Women Who Knew Too Much.
The film received four Academy Award nominations: Best Director for Alfred Hitchcock, Best Screenplay for John Michael Hayes, Best Cinematography, Color for Robert Burks, and Best Sound Recording for Loren L. Ryder, Paramount Pictures
I know it has been over two weeks since I last took a look into my own private collection of movie promotional images and I'm sure that all of you have been just going ape shit crazy wondering what I would pull out of my sack?
What? No bad jokes based on that really bad pun?
Okay, your no fun! Anyway today I have yet once again selected an image that was created for theater owners via trade publications. The image itself is a full page advert for the 1954 epic "Theodora, Slave Empress".
Again ... crickets
Well good old "Theodora" despite being a "Fiery, Barbaric Mistress of the World's Most Sinful Empire" failed to really bring them in during the early 1950s and the film itself is relatively forgotten. In fact, just try and find out any info on this one online.
Again ... crickets
Well the most important things you need to know is that the film is an Italian import, it stars the rather sexy Gianna Maria Canale, is based on a real figure from Roman history (Theodora I) and was kinda Xena before Lucy Lawless slipped into a leather corset.
It should also be noted that film makers of this period often times believed that history could be both entertaining and sexy, often times adding a little artistic license to the real life stories of some of histories more prominent names. The results of these films was a real mixed bag of which "Theodora" has sunk to the bottom.
As for the image itself ... well ... slave girl in a little harem outfit with a whip moves you to the head of the class!
Here is your history:
Theodora, Slave Empress (Italian: Teodora, imperatrice di Bisanzio) is a 1954 film about Theodora, a former slave who married Justinian I, emperor of Byzantium in AD 527-565. It was directed by Riccardo Freda. (Honestly ... that's all Wikipedia has on this film!)
IMDB at least has a plot:
Teodora, a Roman courtesan and former slave girl, marries the Roman emperor Justinian and assumes the throne as Empress of Rome. But the divide between nobility and slave is too great. Teodora seeks justice for her people, and revolution and armed conflict erupt in both Byzantium and Rome. - Jim Beaver
Here is what you really want to know:
Gianna Maria Canale (12 September 1927 – 13 February 2009
Canale was born in Reggio Calabria. In 1947, at the Miss Italia beauty contest, won by Lucia Bosè, she placed second. Canale received publicity in many Italian magazines after this. Her looks were compared to those of Ava Gardner. Riccardo Freda offered her a role in a movie, and, after they fell in love, they got married in Brazil, where they shot two films. Canale however was not used to living in South America and they came back to Italy, where, always directed by her husband, she starred in many sword and sandal films, as well as Italian horror and adventure films. I vampiri was her last film with Freda. She retired from the movie industry in 1964 and died in Florence in February 2009.
And about the real Theodora:
Theodora I (Greek: Θεοδώρα) (c. 500 – June 28, 548), was empress of the Roman (Byzantine) Empire and the wife of Emperor Justinian I. Like her husband, she is a saint in the Orthodox Church, commemorated on November 14. Theodora is perhaps the most influential and powerful woman in the Roman Empire's history.
I know that I will loose you if I go too far into the life of Theodora I but the rest of her bio can be found HERE.
One thing that I try to do here at Monster Island News is showcase all forms of ultra-cool entertainment, be that movies, TV shows or music. One genre that has been lacking as of late has been animation, namely cartoons. Being a child of the 70s I was raised on what I consider to be the "Golden Age" of cartoon animation, which in my mind is anything produced between 1930 and 1980. Granted one could argue that a second such golden age took place in the early 1990s with all the great television shows and films produced by Disney that were produced in that all too brief window.
I can't argue against that point, there were some really great toons from that time.
That being said, I generally turn on modern cartoon programs and throw up in my mouth a little.
So it's the classics for me and the king of such classics has always been the one-and-only Bugs Bunny, who to me has always been equated to the king of all comedy. Nothing brings a smile to my face or a deep belly laugh like a Warner Bros Bugs Bunny short.
Actually to convey a secret, Bugs is actually the one character that I have based the core of my personality and sense of humor on. I know it should be Jesus ... or Charlton Heston ... or someone like that but in actuality it is an animated Wabbit. Of course this should come to no surprise to anyone who knows me well. I actually quote the carrot chomping one under my breath and actually make asides to an imaginary audience that isn't actually there.
I know .... reserve me a room at the sanitarium ...
So today I kinda picked a cartoon out of a hat due to the simple fact that there are far too many great Bugs Bunny cartoons to make a selection of just one.
So you get "Bully for Bugs" today. Here is some history:
Bully for Bugs is a 1952 Warner Brothers Looney Tunes theatrical cartoon short released in August 1953. It was directed by Chuck Jones and written by Michael Maltese.
In his biography Chuck Amuck Chuck Jones claims that he made this cartoon after producer Eddie Selzer burst into Jones' workspace one day and announced, for no readily apparent reason, that bullfights were not funny, and they were not to make a cartoon about them. Since Selzer had, in Jones' opinion, consistently proven himself to be wrong about absolutely everything (having once barred Jones from doing any cartoons featuring Pepé Le Pew, on the grounds that he perceived them as not being funny, which led to Jones and Maltese to do For Scent-imental Reasons, which won an Oscar, which Selzer accepted), the only possible option was to make the cartoon. The sounds of the crowd are recorded from a genuine bull-fighting crowd in Barcelona, Spain. The boulder to the face gag was reused from Rabbit Punch which was also directed by Chuck Jones five years earlier.
Despite the fact that it has carrots, some fans have come to the conclusion that Bugs' reason for his journey to the carrot festival was to celebrate Cinco de Mayo (though the release date for this cartoon was in August). It should also be noted that while the Coachella Valley is a major agricultural region which grows some carrots, it does not hold an annual carrot festival. The immediate area's carrot growing region is outside of the valley in the Imperial County town of Holtville which does in fact hold an annual carrot festival.
On Saturday I had the pleasure of attending the "Star Wars: Where Science Meets Imagination" exhibit at the Discovery Science Center in Santa Ana, Ca. For those of you unfamiliar with this traveling exhibit that has been moving from city to city across America for the better part of a decade it is a rather amazing collection of props, models and costumes from all six "Star Wars" films.
As expected I ran around the exhibit taking all kinds of photographs and spent an absurd amount of time starring glossy-eyed at the collection of items I have seen on screen over a godzillion times. I was amazed by both the amount of work and detail that went into some items and the sheer simplicity of others.
I will get more into some of that in a follow-up article.
Today I have opted not to get into discussing the numerous number of vehicle and spaceship models, which were my favorite part of the exhibit, but to instead focus on the character costumes ... and okay a couple of miniatures.
Over the decades since the "Star Wars" film series began way back in 1977 volumes and volumes of information has been published in books and on websites about the origins and history of these props and costumes so I think going into depth on each one would be overkill to the umpteenth degree.
In other words you know the details already just enjoy the damn photographs!
Okay, now that's out of the way.
What I have chosen to do is combine a photograph piece with a movie quote piece in hopes of creating something that will be enjoyable for you ....
(for the photo above)
"Sir, my first job was programming binary loadlifters – very similar to your vaporators in most respects."
―C-3PO (Star Wars: Episode IV - A New Hope)
"Hey, steady girl. What's the matter? You smell something?"
- Luke Skywalker (Star Wars: Episode V - The Empire Strikes Back)
"That's 'cause droids don't pull people's arms out of their sockets when they lose. Wookiees are known to do that"
- Han Solo (Star Wars: Episode IV - a New Hope)
"Ready are you? What know you of ready? For eight hundred years have I trained Jedi. My own counsel will I keep on who is to be trained. A Jedi must have the deepest commitment, the most serious mind. This one a long time have I watched. All his life has he looked away... to the future, to the horizon. Never his mind on where he was. Hmm? What he was doing. Hmph. Adventure. Heh. Excitement. Heh. A Jedi craves not these things. You are reckless. "
- Yoda (Star Wars: Episode V - The Empire Strikes Back)
"Echo station three-t-eight. We've spotted imperial walkers."
- Sergeant Major Trey Callum (Star Wars: Episode V - The Empire Strikes Back)
"A droid of some kind. I didn't hit it that hard. It must've had a self-destruct."
- Han Solo (Star Wars: Episode V - The Empire Strikes Back)
"Echo 3 to Echo 7, Han old buddy, do you read me?"
- Luke Skywalker (Star Wars: Episode V - The Empire Strikes Back)
"Stop that ship, blast'em"
- Stormtroopers (Star Wars: Episode IV - A New Hope)
"Commander, tear this ship apart until you find those plans! And bring me all passengers, I want them ALIVE!"
- Darth Vader (Star Wars: Episode IV - A New Hope)
"Sandpeople always ride single file to hide their numbers."
- Obi-Wan Kenobi (Star Wars: Episode IV - A New Hope)
"Excuse me, sir but that R2 unit is in prime condition, a real bargain."
- C-3PO (Star Wars: Episode IV - A New Hope)
As I mentioned above the exhibit itself was amazing though the admission price was a bit steep, $25 per person - that's $15 to get into the Science Center then another $10 to get into the SW exhibit (double dipping are we?), which overall was worth it to get a chance to see these items up close.
The Star Wars: Where Science Meets Imagination exhibit will run through April 15th 2012 at the Discovery Science Center (That big-ass cube off the 5 freeway) in Santa Ana, Ca - Website
Masami Nagasawa has been a rising star in Japan. Godzilla fans know her as one of the Mothra fairies (shobijin) in Godzilla x Mothra x Mechagodzilla: Tokyo S.O.S. (2003) and Godzilla Final Wars (2004).
Left, Masami Nagasawa (right) with Chihiro Ôtsuka in "Godzilla x Mothra x Mechagodzilla: Tokyo S.O.S."
Now, she is set to star as a television detective.
From Japan Today:
TOKYO — Masami Nagasawa says she is very happy to play a detective in her newest TV drama, “Toshi Densetsu no Onna,” which will air on TV Asahi on Friday nights from April.
It has been three years since Nagasawa appeared in a TV drama series. “Toshi Densetsu no Onna” is a mixture of comedy and mystery. Nagasawa plays Tsukiko Otonashi, a police detective who is obsessed with urban legends and who works on unsolved cases behind the legends.
Right, Masami Nagasawa in “Toshi Densetsu no Onna.”
The announcement has been made that the 10th Annual Rondo Hatton Classic Horror Awards ballot will be unveiled and voting begins this coming Sunday night.
What is the Rondo Awards?
The Rondo awards, named after Rondo Hatton, an obscure B-movie villain of the 1940s, celebrate the best in classic horror research, creativity and film preservation.
To see the ballot and to vote, go here Sunday night!
It was a hair under a year before my time, but on this date in 1953, the Adventures of Superman starring George Reeves, Phyllis Coates, Jack Larson, John Hamilton and Robert Shayne premiered in Los Angeles on KCEA-TV Channel 7 (the forerunner of KABC-TV).
The premiere episode was "Superman On Earth," which chronicled Jor-El and Lara's sending the baby Kal-El to Earth before the planet Krypton exploded.
The episodes that followed were the ones that Robert Maxwell and Bernard Luber produced. These were rock 'em, sock 'em crime dramas and not kiddie shows.
Okay movie poster buffs today I have real treat for you! Everyone enjoys a really cheesy flick from time-to-time and MGM's (Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer) "Wild, Wild Planet" is considered by connoisseurs of such cinema gems as the cream of the crop. "Spaghetti Westerns" were all the rage in the late 1960's as were a handful of Italian made sci fi films such as WWP. Mix together some bad dubbing with low end special effects and several bizarre (sometimes head scratching bizarre) gimmicks and you have the recipe for cult cinema gold!
Listen to this list straight from the poster!
The Laser-Ray Girls! The Four-Armed Strangler! The Menacing Mutants! The Deadly Doll-Men! The Flesh-Fusion Experiments! The Armada Of Spaceships!
That's a lot of hyphens!
You gotta like "Laser-Ray Girls" and "Mutants" .... and ... and lot's of model spaceships zipping around on strings right?
Once again this image is from my personal collection and like the prior two (1, 2) images I posted over the last couple of weeks, wasn't intended for public viewing but was published in movie industry trade publications to entice theater owners to run the film.
This image is printed on heavy stock paper for the back cover of a magazine. I hate the fact that the image was creased before I acquired it but I couldn't pass such a great movie advert up!
Here's your history:
Wild, Wild Planet (Italian: I Criminali della Galassia) is a 1965 Italian science fiction horror film directed by Antonio Margheriti and written by Renato Moretti and Ivan Reiner. Tony Russel stars as Commander Mike Halstead. Also featured are Lisa Gastoni, Franco Nero and Massimo Serato. The low-budget aesthetics and general cheesy vibe of the picture have made it a favorite of bad-movie fans and websites such as badmovies.org.
The film is the second of four "Gamma I" science fiction films originally contracted by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer to be made for TV movies but were released theatrically instead.
- "What to do if you find yourself stuck with no hope of rescue: Consider yourself lucky that life has been good to you so far. Alternatively, if life hasn't been good to you so far, which given your present circumstances seems more likely, consider yourself lucky that it won't be troubling you much longer."
- The Hitchhikers Guide To The Galaxy (Book)(Stephen Fry) - The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy (2005)
There's a new theme park opening in Tokyo. It's called Gundam Front Tokyo.
According to the Japan Times:
A theme park featuring popular "anime" series "Mobile Suit Gundam" will open on April 19 in Tokyo's Odaiba district.
According to Bandai Co., the new theme park, named Gundam Front Tokyo, will have a huge dome-shaped screen showing images of Gundam, the venerated fighting robot in the popular series, and rare documents related to the series' production will be on display.
The most "Gundam" I've ever done was to pose in a Gundam uniform on the Gundam Lift at the old Bandai Museum (below).
Left, Yasuyuki Inoue in Hollywood in 2004. Photo by Brett Homenick.
