General Chat

How about Burt Lancaster in The Bird Man of Alcatraz ?

The guvenor was played him from Streets of San Francisco

Hi all, what about Westerns - I do love a good Western!

The Searchers - John Wayne as the Civil War veteran Ethan Edwards looking for his neice (played by Natalie Wood) who has been captured by the injuns.

Stagecoach - there's the 'Duke' again in his first starring role as the Ringo Kid - six horses, four wheels and lots of action!

High Noon - Gary Cooper as the retiring lawman who has to face one last enemy, and the people he protected for several years all turn their back on him.

Shenandoah - James Stewart as the farmer who's youngest son gets taken prisoner by the "Blues" and he sets out to find him and bring him home ...

She Wore a Yellow Ribbon - There's John Wayne again as a retiring US cavalryman going out on one last patrol. (She wore, she wore, she wore a yellow ribbon, she wore a yellow ribbon in the merry month of May, and when, I asked her why she wore that ribbon, she said it's for my football team who are going to Wembley - WEMBLEY, WEMBLEY, were the famous Arsenal and we're going to Wembley) Sorry couldn't resist it ...

You might have noticed a few John Wayne/John Ford combinations up there.

Ed

Yes Nicky think that was the reason. I saw a documentary about her and she wore wigs in the 70's and under the join of the wigs she kind of used to pin her hair back and it gave the effect of her skin being more tight...bit like the Croydon Facelift!! A very tight pony tail isn't it!!

EDIT: Marlene died in her Paris apartment on 6th may 1992, she's buried next to her mother in Berlin. That docummentary with Maximilian Schell was made in 1984.

Night. ☺

Daniel Bruhl is another German actor, he played the polish violinist in Ladies in Lavender with Maggie smith and Judy Dench. He was in a film on 4 last week and it was about the wall coming down but his character's mum had been in a coma when it came down and the shock may have killed her so they had to keep it from her for as long as possible........phew, anyway I was really enjoying it but tiredness took over and I woke about 3 in the morning, hubby was snorring away too!

Just googled Alcatraz films.....all 4 we`vve mentioned were the only ones to come up.......

EDIT......Pam.....I remember that Lille Marlene song when I was a little girl....your right its very haunting, she sounds so sad in it.......wonder why you didn`t see her face in that interveiw? prehaps the years hadn`t been kind to her, and she didn`t want her public seeing her that way.
Nicky

I remember a really fascinating programme on the telly a few years back about Marlene Dietrich. She allowed Maximilian Schell to interview her about her life, but you didn't get to see her just hear her. It was in her Paris apartment, it was really good. What style she had, I really liked her. She had such presence. I can't listen to her singing Lilli Marlene and also Where Have all the Flowers Gone, without filling up. True icon.

Hi Nicky, yes Cool Hand Luke is the one with the eggs ...

Perhaps Alcatraz will be the most featured place in our film lists ...

Gert Frobe - forgot about him. Classic line:

"No Mr Bond, I expect you to die!"

Evening Ed........ Yes Mc Vicar and Green Mile both favourites as well, also Papillion, but decided to just put 5...... I could probably put 20 quite easily, yes see your point Great Escape probably isn`t actually a Prison drama, but its a bl****y brilliant film, so deserves to be in my list...........

I may even include it again if i do a xmas favourites list.......lol


Cool Hand Luke...isn`t that Paul Newman and the Hard boiled Eggs!!!

Birdman of ALCATRAZ.......I can see a bit of a theme building up here.........

If you go to San Francisco you can go on a boat trip that takes you out sailing around the prison......... must try and get there one day.........

EDIT another excellent one......Monsters Ball starring Billy Bob Thornton, Halle Berry and the late Heath Ledger
Nicky

Well I do my best!

Gert Frobe is another one...but I didn't fancy him!!!
He was very funny in Those Magnificent Men in their Flying Machines. It was nice the way he sent up the germans,and being one himself too.

Oh Pam, trust you to find a bit of "eye candy"!

Evening all, talking of German actors, Jan Niklas is very good. Nice looking too.

Oooh Nicky - don't know about a shortage of German actors ...

Anton Diffring
Hardy Kruger
Victor Beaumont
Maximilian Schell (OK he's Austrian)

Hmmm ... prison films. Yes the Shawshank Redemption - excellent film. Escape from Alcatraz a good one as well.

What about Cool Hand Luke or The Green Mile?

Ed

EDIT: Sorry, had to add McVicar and The Birdman of Alcatraz as fave prison dramas. Does the Great Escape fall into a different genre: Prisoner of War films? If so, then there's 100s!

Obviously a bit of a shortage of German actors around the 60s and 70s then .......if they had to get the same guy Karl Otto Alberty to keep playing a soldier in POW /War films .........lol




Time for another list I think............

Prison Dramas

The Shawshank Redemption............ Tim robbins and Morgan Freeman in the adaption from a Stephen King book about a Banker wrongly jailed for the murder of his wife in 40s america, and his life over the next 20 years....absolutely Brilliant...

Escape from Alcatraz........ Clint Eastwood and Patrick McGooan based on a true story.......Alcatraz was shut down shortly after the escape of the 3 prisoners portrayed in this film.

The Rock........ Sean Connery and Nicholas Cage in a film based and filmed on Alcatraz { not really a prison drama, but its good so thought I`d include it}

Murder in the First.........Kevin Bacon and Christian Slater in a fictional story set on Alcatraz, the films actually set after Alcatraz had closed, but shows the brutal prison regime and Kevin Bacon plays a prisoner slowly descending in to madness due to his time in Solitary...not for the squeamish, but well acted by all concerned.

The Great Escape......Steve Mcqueen with the piercing blue eyes, and a star studded cast, what can anyone say about such a brilliant film that hasn`t been said already..........

Nicky

Hi all,

Didn't they film a lot of the Battle of Britain at Duxford? I seem to remember reading that the making of the film caused more damage to the airbase than the Germans in the Second World War!

Wasn't Laurence Olivier in it too as Hugh Dowding?

Yes David, you're right, the German was also in Kelly's Heroes. I just Googled him and his name is Karl-Otto Alberty - he was also in the Great Escape and The Battle of the Bulge.

Ed

Yes David he played Sussanna York's husband in that film. Also Kenneth More was in it too.

Another character he played got horribly burned (Is there any other way) in Battle of Britain

There was a German in that film guys (and gals) I'm sure he was in Kelly's Heros in the Tiger tank defending the bank that Kelly & co relieved of 16000 gold bars.

Yes I remember that film Ed. When he spoke in it as the Inca King he had an accent obviousley, but what stuck in my mind was he made funny little noises as he spoke. They garroted him in the end. Very disturbing.

Hello all,

Christopher Plummer - he's played some diverse roles hasn't he? I remember seeing him in a film where he played an Inca King under the cosh of the Conquistadores led by Robert Shaw.

I think he was also in Night of the Generals - didn't he play Rommel?