Ask 411 Movies for 3.31.08: The Column That Delivers the Kiss of Death!
Posted by Leonard Hayhurst on 03.31.2008
Horton Hears A Who, James Bond, Columbo serial killers, actors turned directors, blaming Canada and Milton Berle goes Round and Round
Actor Richard Widmark, 93, died last Monday after a long illness at his home in New York. He was nominated for an Oscar for best supporting actor in 1947 for his film debut Kiss of Death. Other films included Panic in the Streets, Broken Lance, Warlock, The Alamo, Two Rode Together, How the West was Won, Cheyenne Autumn, Madigan, Murder on the Orient Express and Against All Odds. He is survived by his second wife, Susan Blanchard, and a daughter from his first marriage to the late Jean Hazelwood, Anne Heath Widmark-former wife of Sandy Koufax.
From YouTube this week we go back in time to one of the first music videos to use a celebrity guest appearance to boost it's popularity, Ratt's "Round and Round" featuring Milton Berle. Berle was the real Uncle Miltie to the band's manager and that's how he wound up in the video.
I took my niece Laken to see Horton Hears a Who. Jim Carrey cut up a bit too much for liking with all the adult references, but the performance did feel a bit restrained for him, which was a good thing. Steve Carrell was perfect as the slightly daft, slightly henpecked mayor. Overall the voice casting was good and I like how the script kept to the basic sentiments and elements of the book while constructing a more fully formed story for a feature film. It was breezily paced with a lot of comedy bits or action through out. You might remember me saying that Laken got bored with Alvin and the Chipmunks because there wasn't enough going on and that wasn't the case here. The tail end is pretty meh, but it's overall very good for what it is.
From the Wal-Mart dump bin this week I snagged Uncle Buck, Rocky III, Traffic and a special edition of Young Guns. They sound like things I would already own, but I don't. The cool thing about the dump bin is that I can buy deluxe editions of movies I probably wouldn't normally get and bare bones editions of DVDs I want just for the movie itself.
Q: I believe you intended to use the word "climactic" and not "climatic" in your review of the Natural. I don't mean to be a dick, especially if it was just a typo, but I often see people make this mistake and it irks me. Of course, if you had used "climatic" in reference to the lightning bolt scene then I would have no qualms.
Eric
A: Yes it was just a typo on my part. Since climatic is a word, spell check didn't catch it. ‘Climatic' refers to changes in the weather, while climactic refers to the end of an event. Good tie in with the lightening bolt scene though. I guess I just fail fourth grade English…again.
Q: "The chunky kid from the Big Green, I think he was in another Disneyesque movie, playing the bully, where the one scene I remember is during a big basketball game, attached an RC strip to the basketball and controlled from the stands via radio control. It caused the ball to do all sorts of stupid things like roll around the rim, go under the rim, and then back in to give his team the lead. Any suggestions?
The fat kid from The Big Green is Patrick Renna, who was also the fat kid in The Sandlot. I believe your movie is Boys Klub from 2001. Mario (Chauncey Leopardi) is shipped off to San Francisco to his aunt (Ashley Graham) after his dad (Beau Bridges) gets a big promotion. He befriends a group of inner city kids and they form a basketball team, entering the city tournament as huge underdogs."
Actually, I believe the movie is "Summertime Switch" a Disney made-for-TV movie from 1994 (at least I know it aired on Disney). Rider Strong (Shawn from "Boys Meets World") and Jason Weaver (Marcus from "Smart Guy", the show starring the Mowry twins' midget brother) both have the same name (Frederick Egan) and end up going to the wrong camps by mistake. Strong is a preppy rich kid sent to a juvenile detention camp for bad kids and Weaver is a street-wise delinquent who ends up at a ritzy camp. Patrick Renna plays (I think) a hacker named Modem who blackmails Weaver into doing what he wants because he knows Weaver isn't the correct Frederick Egan. The two camps play a basketball game at the end and Modem gambles on it. To ensure a victory, he plays the trick on the basketball mentioned above. Also in the movie is Greg Brady as Strong's father, Punky Brewster as a cheerleader, and Bull from "Night Court" as a wise janitor who knows Weaver isn't where he should be and becomes his mentor. Of course, Modem gets his in the end, Strong learns there is more to life than money, and Weaver learns to be a gentleman and gets the girl. It's a decent mid-90s Disney flick along the same line as 1996's "Suzy Q" and 1996's "Wish Upon a Star".
Keep up the good work!
-Nick
A: Thanks for the correction. It sounds like yet another adaptation of The Prince and the Pauper. The movie was originally shown and made for ABC and then found it's way to Disney, because the House of Mouse owns the network. At the time of the movie, Strong was starring on "Boy Meets World" and Weaver was on "Thea" for ABC. Greg Brady is Barry Williams, Bull is Richard Moll and Punky Brewster is Soleil Moon Frye, who got uber-hot.
Q: Leonard,
Still reading, still trying to come up with a dozen questions at a shot to fill your column. Oh well, I'll just have to settle for these.
I got around to watching The Kingdom the other day, Starring Jamie Foxx and Jennifer Garner, directed by Peter Berg, and aside from one quibble near the end on the highway where Foxx's character seems to know what's going on a good minute or two before it happens, yet still doesn't do anything about it until he screams "BRAKE!!!" I thought the movie was fantastic. A lot of that had to do with Berg, whom I understand is or was also an actor.
That got me thinking about other actors that have become directors, and I fail to think of any who are bad directors. What do you think of actors-turned-directors? In some ways, the argument could be made that they are better at getting performances out of other actors, or are really good at blocking out a scene, or other things that a pure director might not think of. Willing to also give a short list, say the top five of your favorites, of said people?
On a side note, Peter Berg made me think he would be an excellent choice to direct a James Bond movie... I'll come back to that one.
The next one is stemmed from uninformed debate, and perhaps you can help. Why is it that here in Canada (and perhaps other countries) we can browse to American network TV websites, pull up all sorts of data, yet are given a message saying we can't view on-web TV because of our location? A friend of mine and myself went back and forth about it being the CRTC, the FCC, advertisers, or something else. We both, however, agreed that it is a silly practice, as we get the channels, if not the programming, anyway.
Back to Bond. I asked a few months back about CIA agent Felix Leiter, and thank you for the answers with pictures. So now I am wondering about 007 producer Micheal G Wilson -- I understand he has cameos in almost every Bond movie. I can only think of him as the Montenegro police chief who is "photoshopped" into getting arrested. Could you give a quick rundown on what/who/where he was in the movies he was in?
There have been a fair number of actors and directors that have said they want to involved in a 007 movie, from Sir Sean Connery once saying he'd like to play a villain, to Quenten Tarantino wanting to direct; what have been some of the worst and best ideas you've heard from, and if Bond leaves you short, you can pick from other movie series as well.
One last one, also starting from Bond, but you can take it anywhere that is logical. Joe Don Baker played two different characters in the 007 universe, first. an over-achieving bad guy in The Living Daylights, then an ally of Bond in Tomorrow Never Dies and The World Is Not Enough. Which actors have played the most number of different characters in a TV or movie series? Satire shows like SNL and Mad TV I would void, because they aren't a series, per se. Same with soaps, unless they are belong to the same universe.
Hopefully I am not the only person sending questions for next week!
-Paul in Canada
A: If you ever send me a dozen questions at one time I will hop the border to Canada and find your sorry ass.
What you say is true about actors turned directors. They usually work well with their fellow actors and have a good idea about framing and camera movement from practical application. However, that doesn't mean that all actors are inherently great directors, because many go into the chore thinking they know what to do just from being an actor and they don't. Many also choose to do it as a vanity project and win up focusing too much on themselves or putting ‘their vision' on screen without realizing that film is a collaborative effort. Likewise, many directors have some acting experience and that helps them in a similar way in being able to see things from the other side of the camera. Just recently Sydney Pollack was in Michael Clayton. Even the great John Ford started out as an actor during the silent era of Hollywood before getting his first directing gig.
Of my favorite actors turned directors with a substantial body of work I would go with Clint Eastwood, Ron Howard, Robert Redford and Warren Beatty. Plus, just in the last year we had good directing turns from Sean Penn with Into the Wild and Sarah Polley with Away From Her.
However there have been some actors who have tried their hands at directing with less than stellar results such as Larry Hagamn (Beware the Blob), William Shatner (Star Trek V), Crispin Glover (What is It?), Eddie Murphy (Harlem Nights) and Sylvester Stallone (Staying Alive).
I would say the main reason that foreign countries can't download shows from a website is because the series hasn't been aired in their country yet. It's like how they release DVDs by different regions because not all movies are released through out the world at the same time. The best way for you to view the episodes is to use a US proxy or have someone in the US download the episode and post it for you or burn it and send it to you if they have the technology. As far as Canada goes, I didn't read all the details because I had to clip my toenails, but it does seem that the CRTC strictly controls what is termed as ‘new media' and media from non-Canadian sources; much more so than the FCC does on similar matters in the US.
Michael G. Wilson was one of the Fort Knox soldiers in Goldfingers. He was sitting in the audience at the pyramid movie theater in The Spy Who Loved Me, He was a NASA technician in Moonraker. He was a Greek priest in For Your Eyes Only. He was one of the Soviet Security Council members in Octopussy. Only his voice was heard in A View to a Kill as he made loudspeaker announcements while Bond was at the San Francisco City Hall. He's an opera patron at the start of The Living Daylights. He's a DEA agent in License to Kill. He plays a security council member again in Goldeneye. He's the character Tom Wallace in Tomorrow Never Dies. He can be seen in the casino in The World is Not Enough. He's General Chandler in Die Another Day and the police chief framed in Casino Royale.
When Dr. No became slated as the first Bond film in 1962, author and creator Ian Fleming wanted Roger Moore. However, Moore was contracted to "The Saint" and couldn't get out of it. Just about every famous British actor of the time was considered for the part, but rejected for one reason or another. Most of them were just plain too old such as Cary Grant, David Niven, Trevor Howard and Rex Harrison. Also in the running were Ian Hendry, Richard Johnson, William Franklyn and Richard Burton. Fleming also wanted his cousin Christopher Lee to play Dr. No and briefly considered him for Bond when Moore was not available, but the studio said no dice. Max Von Sydow and Noel Coward also passed on Dr. No. Director John Frankenheimer would also claim that producer Albert "Cubby" Broccoli offered him the part of Bond, but that has never been confirmed by reliable sources. Patrick McGoohan played a secret agent on television in a couple different series, but it's said he turned down the role due to ‘moral issues.' It was hyped that Sean Connery won the part based on a poll done of English citizens. Not true. Broccoli's wife saw him in Darby O'Gill and the Little People and suggested him to her husband.
Due to contract disputes and other minor quibbles, Sean Connery bowed out of On Her Majesty's Secret Service in 1969. Roger Moore was still contracted to "The Saint." Broccoli was said to be very high on newcomer Timothy Dalton. Dalton turned down the part thinking he was too young at the age of 25. In Adam West's autobiography he recounts that he was in London doing public service announcements as Batman. He was having dinner in a fancy restaurant one night when Broccoli came up to him and said how much he loved the "Batman" series and offered him the Bond part. West said that he knew he could play the role and do it well, but was smart enough to realize that audiences would not accept him. Robert Campbell, Anthony Rogers, Hans De Vries, John Richardson and Roy Thinnes were also considered top contenders. Some 413 actors auditioned and Bond was eventually cast as George Lazenby. A popular story is that Lazenby won the part by breaking the nose of a stuntman during a fight scene screen test. Another has Lazenby spending all of his money on a Bond like suit and rolex and then getting a Bond haircut at Broccoli's barber at a time he knew he would be in there. He saw Lazenby and knew he had his man. Lazenby actually turned down a multi-picture deal to play Bond thinking he would become outdated in the seventies and didn't want to be tied to a dying franchise. How wrong he was.
Dalton and Moore were considered again for Diamonds are Forever, but both were still unattainable. American John Gavin was then signed. He's probably best known as Sam Loomis in Psycho. United Artist head David Picker balked at Gavin and set out to sign Connery at any price. It was a heavy one for the time. Connery signed on for $2.5 million up front with 12.5% of the gross and UA's promise to back two more films of Connery's choosing.
Connery was then offered $5.5 million for Live and Let Die, but he said enough was enough. United Artists this go around insisted on an American taking the part and pushed for Paul Newman, Robert Redford and Burt Reynolds. Broccoli insisted on a Brit and his long time choice Roger Moore was now free. Moore was doing the "The Persuaders" with Tony Curtis but it luckily bombed in the United States despite good ratings in Britain and was canned. Gavin was also supposedly in the running again as were Simon Oates, John Ronane, Michael McStay and Michael Billington, who would play Sergei in The Spy Who Loved Me.
Due to age creeping up on him, Moore was reluctant to return as Bond as early as For Your Eyes Only He was eventually lured back for an undisclosed sum of money. Those considered for the part at the time included Billington again, Lewis Collins, David Warbeck, David Robb, Michael Jayston, Nicholas Clay and Ian Ogilvy. Ironically, Ogilvy took over the part of "The Saint" from Moore when they brought the series back in 1978 thanks to the renewed interest in the character due to Moore doing so well as Bond. Moore again wanted to quit before Octopussy. This time Moore was just trying to play with the producers as he knew Sean Connery was going to return as Bond in the rival Never Say Never Again. His bluff was called when American James Brolin, the current Mr. Streisand, was screen tested. The two sides reached an agreement. Moore finally called it quits with A View to a Kill because he said he learned that his leading lady in that film, Tanya Roberts, had a mother younger than he was.
Moore's story to become Bond would be mirrored in that of Pierce Brosnan. "Remington Steele" was headed for cancellation when it was announced that Brosnan would be taking on the part. This led to people checking out his series to see him in action. Ratings soared. NBC renewed the series. Brosnan was contractually obligated and couldn't make The Living Daylights. Ratings for "Steele" bottomed out again and it was canceled halfway into the next season. Sam Neill was also considered, but producers didn't think he had the right look. Sean Bean screen tested, but he was a virtual unknown at the time. Bean would be the villain in GoldenEye. Christopher Lambert was in the running too, but his accent doomed him. Timothy Dalton finally thought he was old enough and came on. Originally he was filming Brenda Starr, but the delay with the Brosnan ordeal gave him the time to finish that up.
Dalton's second outing as Bond in License to Kill was a flop. It would be six years before the next film and this time Brosnan was available. However, Neill was looked at again along with Mel Gibson, Liam Neeson, Hugh Grant and Lambert Wilson.
In the last casting carousel names tossed about included Ewan McGregor, Clive Owen, Hugh Jackman, Ioan Gruffurd, Colin Firth, Hugh Grant again, Gerard Butler, Colin Farrell, Heath Ledger and Eric Bana.
It's more common in television for shows to use the same actors in different minor parts than for movie series. This is because the same casting directors will go for the same people and it's always good to have someone on the set familiar with how things work and familiar with the other actors and crew. The show most notorious for recasting guest stars is probably "Columbo." Including the original run of the show and the later movies, Patrick McGoohan has played a killer on the series four times. Robert Culp has made four appearances, being the killer three times. Jack Cassidy has been a murderer three times. George Hamilton and William Shatner have been on twice each. Other notable actors to have multiple appearances include Robert Vaughn, Vito Scotti, Val Avery, Ed Begley Jr., Sorrell Booke, Dabney Coleman, John Finnegan, Michael Fox, Mariatte Hartley, Bruce Kirby, Michael Lally, Ida Lupino, Ray Milland, Leslie Neilsen and Dean Stockwell. What one person has been on a single series the most time as different characters would be hard to say.
Don't die.
"In my world everyone is a pony and they all eat rainbows and poop butterflies."
