Sage Wisdom From Rod Serling’s Planet of The Apes
Astronaut Colonel George Taylor: And that completes my final report until we reach touchdown. We’re now on full automatic in the hands of the computers. I’ve tucked my crew in for the long sleep, and I’ll be joining them…soon. In less than an hour we’ll finish our six months out of Cape Kennedy. Six months in deep space…by our time, that is. According to Dr. Hasslein’s theory of time in a vehicle traveling nearly the speed of light, the Earth has aged nearly 700 years since we left it…while we’ve aged hardly at all. Maybe so. This much is probably true. The men who sent us on this journey are long since dead and gone. You, who are reading me now, are a different breed…I hope a better one. I leave the 20th century with no regrets, but…one more thing, if anybody’s listening, that is. Nothing scientific. It’s…purely personal. But seen from out here, everything seems different. Time bends. Space is…boundless. It squashes a man’s ego. I feel lonely. That’s about it. Tell me, though, does man, that marvel of the universe, that glorious paradox who sent me to the stars, still make war against his brother…keep his neighbor’s children starving?
Planet of The Apes, 1968
Episode 1245: Sunset at Collinwood
“You’ve had too many victims! It’s over for you!”
Morgan Collins, the self-proclaimed god-emperor of the great estate at Collinwood, has learned that his emotionally explosive wife, who he had always feared was cheating on him with his cousin, was actually cheating on him with his cousin, to the extent that she is currently pregnant with her lover’s child.
Driven mad by this betrayal, in addition to the general background madness of being a Collins in the first place, Morgan has locked up Barnabas and Angelique in the cursed room that plagues this parallel hell. Everyone who spends a night in that room either dies or goes insane, at the pleasure of an angry ancestor who’s determined to spoil everyone’s fun. So far, the trapped lovers have been alternately possessed and throttled, but the evil wizard running the no-escape room hasn’t gone in for the kill.
As dawn approaches, Morgan…
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Some COVID-19 related movie news
There are some new tea leaves to read regarding motion pictures and COVID-19. Nothing definite, certainly not in connection with No Time to Die. But a few items to keep in mind.
Falling moviegoer confidence: The Hollywood Reporter said a late July poll indicates that confidence among moviegoers has lessened as the new delta variant of COVID-19 spreads.
An exerpt:
The results of a late July poll on moviegoing confidence levels were alarming. The National Research Group survey, closely watched by studios, showed that the overall comfort level had tumbled from a pandemic-era high of 81 percent to 72 percent in the span of just three weeks amid the delta variant. Moms appeared to be the most concerned about taking a trip to the multiplex, with their comfort index tumbling from 75 percent to 59 percent.
The story, by Pamela McClintock, references how the family film Clifford the Big…
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Shane Rimmer dies at 89
Shane Rimmer (1929-2019)
Shane Rimmer, a character actor who often played Americans in British-based productions and who appeared in three James Bond films, has died at 89.
His death was reported by the Official Gerry Anderson Website. Rimmer was a voice on Anderson-produced shows, including Thunderbirds. The website said his death was confirmed by his widow, Sheila Rimmer.
Shane Rimmer appeared in You Only Live Twice (1967), Diamonds Are Forever (1971) and The Spy Who Loved Me (1977). The latter provided the actor with his biggest 007 role, that of a U.S. submarine captain who assists Roger Moore’s James Bond.
Rimmer was born in Toronto. After moving to the U.K., he became a busy actor. Besides his work for Anderson and the Bond films, his credits included Dr. Strangelove, Superman II and various television shows, including The Persuaders!
In 2016, Rimmer did an interview where he reflected on working…
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The Guns of Navarone (1961)
Directed by J. Lee Thompson, this big budget extravaganza is the perfect example of a movie released early on to home video as the VHS tape was becoming a staple of home entertainment. It’s probably where I saw the film for the first time on a weekend rental from our local video store in the early 1980’s. Of course I’ve seen it countless times since then and while I don’t believe it to be a bona fide classic, it has much to offer in WW2 adventure and a cast of names to match. A cast that includes three Oscar winners with above the title billing.
Thompson would subsequently follow up this box office hit with the now classic, Cape Fear, reteaming him with Navarone’s leading man, Gregory Peck. He’d also direct Peck twice more in The Chairman and Mackenna’s Gold before the end of the decade. Following that he’d…
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A peculiar Daniel Craig interview is published
Daniel Craig
A peculiar interview with Daniel Craig was published online by Beyond magazine.
Why describe it as peculiar? In the text, it says, “Cameras began rolling on Bond 25 earlier this year.”
Bond 25 had an announced start date of March 4 — just six days ago. And that was before the release date was pushed back to April 2020 and it emerged that Scott Z. Burns was spending four weeks doing a rewrite of the script.
So what does “earlier this year” mean exactly? It’s hard to know reading the story.
Meanwhile, Craig appears to say that Bond 25 will really, really will be his finale.
“I have thoroughly enjoyed it,” Craig says in the interview.
It’s also clear that scribe Sarah Freeman is sympathetic to Craig. “On set, it’s now hard to imagine Bond being played by anyone else.”
Again, it makes it sound as if Craig…
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A fresh Mission to the Unknown filming
The classic Doctor Who story Mission to the Unknown is being remounted by students at UCLAN.
The news was confirmed by original series star Peter Purves, who is attending the shoot with Edward de Souza, who appeared in the episode back in 1965, and Nicholas Briggs, who will be voicing the Daleks. The single episode was a teaser for the 12 episode epic The Daleks Master Plan, and did not feature the Doctor (William Hartnell) or his companions.
Purves has noted that “it is being made as authentically as possible. The cameras are slightly later, but no zoom shots…
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Joseph Sirola, character actor and voice over artist, dies
Joseph Sirola as U.S. spymaster Jonathan Kaye is about to spring a surprise on Steve McGarrett and let Wo Fat go in The Jinn Who Clears the Way,
Joseph Sirola, a character blessed with a voice that attracted much voice over work, has died at 89, according to The Hollywood Reporter.
Sirola “died of complications from respiratory failure Sunday at a rehabilitation hospital in New York City,” according to the entertainment news website and trade publication.
The actor played villains in second-, third- and fourth-season episodes of The Man From U.N.C.L.E. He also portrayed U.S. spymaster Jonathan Kaye in five episodes of the original Hawaii Five-O series.
In his final appearance as Kaye, in The Jinn Who Clears the Way, his character springs a major surprise on Jack Lord’s Steve McGarrett. The Big Kahuna has captured arch villain Wo Fat. But Kaye makes the lawman let the…
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Logan’s Run: “Renew, renew…”
In the days before 1977’s “Star Wars” changed movies forever (at least for my generation), cinematic science fiction, with rare exceptions like “2001” and “Forbidden Planet,” consisted largely of cheapie monster flicks or dystopian nightmares.
One of the more successful of the dystopian movies was “Logan’s Run” (1976), based a bit loosely on a novel by sci-fi heavy hitters William F. Nolan and George Clayton Johnson (“Twilight Zone” “Star Trek TOS”). Nolan would go on to pen a couple of other adventures in this series, but I’ve only read the first book, so I’m not qualified to write about the sequels.
****SPOILERS!****
“Can you identify this word?”
The original book was published in 1967, the famous ‘summer of love.’ It was a time when western culture was obsessed with youth, rebellion and the ever-increasing generation gap. In this regard (and others) the book is quite different than the adaptations…
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U.N.C.L.E. script: The well-meaning villain
Captain Shark (Robert Culp) during a dramatic moment with Solo in The Shark Affair.
The Shark Affair, the fourth episode broadcast of The Man From U.N.C.L.E., would feature a different antagonist — well meaning but in the end one who had to be stopped.
Captain Shark (Robert Culp) is convinced the world will soon go up in atomic war. He is kidnapping people of various talents from ships. He disables and sinks the ships while sending the rest of the passengers on their way in lifeboats. Shark’s ship is a sort of modern day Noah’s Ark.
The episode was written by Alvin Sapinsley (1921-2002), a veteran with credits going back to 1949. The Shark Affair would be his only U.N.C.L.E. script.
Sapinsley would later be a key writer on the original Hawaii Five-O series, where his contributions included the only three-part story. He also wrote Sherlock Holmes in New York…
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