Celebrating U.S.A.'s 240th birthday today from hot & humid Florida, but wishing I was in Sweden, on a boat in the Stockholm archipelago, eating strawberries with friends, and enjoying the Midnight Sun; Ingmar Bergman's "Wild Strawberries"

Snapshots, in a few tweets and words, of what I'm thinking about today, the Fourth of July...
Celebrating U.S.A.'s 240th birthday today from hot & humid Florida, but wishing I was in Sweden, on a boat in the Stockholm archipelago, eating strawberries with friends, and enjoying the Midnight Sun; Ingmar Bergman's "Wild Strawberries"

Before hamburgers, hots dogs, pretzels & beer R consumed today -& B4 we "Let freedom ring!"- there must be #donuts! https://t.co/m9BybGCcwY

— HallandaleBeachBlog (@hbbtruth) July 4, 2016

Before anyone else is awake, we sneak out for a morning run with the boat. ...and maybe some "fika"? ☺️☀️☕️ pic.twitter.com/nXY48b9aYI

— Magnus Lundin (@magnusswede) May 30, 2015

Sun sets over Stockholm @sweden , heading out to the archipelago. Fantastic October evening.

Have a nice weekend! pic.twitter.com/eohvTUHexG

— Magnus Lundin (@magnusswede) October 3, 2014

Midsummer!! 🕶 #swedisharchipelago #yxlan #midsummer

A photo posted by fullofkeys (@fullofkeys) on Jun 25, 2016 at 12:32pm PDT

Above, a great recent snapshot of a boat in an archipelago in Sweden taken on Midsummer Day by super-talented Anni Bernhard, a.k.a. singer Full of Keys, a friend of the blog and someone we adore for a whole host of good reasons, many of which we've written about here in the past.

@magnusswede Celebrating 240th B'day 2day in humid #FL, wishing was on #STHLM archipelago, eating strawberries! :-) https://t.co/FpYZtX8Qs2

— HallandaleBeachBlog (@hbbtruth) July 4, 2016

@magnusswede Just in case, I'll order us a backup boat so daytrip goes perfectly! @chriscraftboats ad fm 1944 @LIFE. pic.twitter.com/Hr6Q4tTWeY

— HallandaleBeachBlog (@hbbtruth) July 4, 2016

Updated on 2016-07-05

Well, it's the Fourth of July, Birthday #240 for the USA.

Owing perhaps to the oppressive heat and humidity of Florida as I'm experiencing it in 2016. I mentioned strawberries in one of my tweets earlier today to Magnus Lundin, savvy and personable CEO of SISP, the Swedish Incubators & Science Parks, located in beautiful Stockholm, because 
a.) I really do LOVE strawberries, and,
b.) It seems without ever planning to, more often than not, most Fourth of July weekends, at some point, often after watching fireworks, I end up watching Ingmar Bergman's iconic film "Wild Strawberries" because... it's SO perfect, SO summer and SO Sweden!

I can't believe that I and my then-friends put up with this crazy summer heat as a kid growing-up in South Florida in the early and mid-1970's, riding our bikes EVERYWHERE during the day, without benefit of plastic water bottles!

Moonrise in the light of the midnight Sun https://t.co/92EUHiXCRV #moon #midnightsun #Sweden #Norrland #Nikon #D810A pic.twitter.com/nYuCu8YAO0

— Göran Strand (@Astrofotografen) July 1, 2016

Which is to say, for me, it's a perfect film for transporting me away from my everyday, mundane concerns, including helping me to forget how truly hot it is outside, with mosquitos buzzing around aiming to make me their meal ticket, something that was just as true this time of the year when I was living and working in Chicago and Washington, D.C. as it is today back in Florida. 

Part of the genius of this film, at least to me, is that like the best films, it always gives gives the viewer a reason to contemplate a life very different from the one they are currently living, since it has a huge dollop of wistfulness in it, something I, perhaps, already spend too much time considering.
This classic film of remembrance, known as Smultronställe in Swedish, officially opened in Sweden on December 26th, 1957, but for me, it remains a film of #summer.

One of my all-time favorite films, I've probably seen it, conservatively, over two dozen times, mostly on Turner Classic Movies (TCM), though I have a DVD and videocassette of it and many other Bergman films. It's a film that I always gets something new out of, and never tire of watching in part because there's so very much going on, even when it doesn't always seem that way.

It stars Victor Sjostrom, and a 22-year old Bibi Andersson, Ingrid Thulin and Gunnar Björnstrand.  I've got some good clips of it at the bottom of this post for you to peruse.

For those of you who are new to my blog and the wide variety of subjects that I like to discuss, share and analyze here, or newbies to my ever-expanding number of Followers on Twitter via my @hbbtruth handle, https://twitter.com/hbbtruth, I note here that Swedish film director Ingmar Bergman was accorded one of the greatest honors of any film personality I can think of when a few years ago, he was chosen to be the face of the newest Swedish 200 Kronor note, starting last year, replacing Selma Lagerlöf, who was the first female writer to ever win the Nobel Prize for Literature.

Designed by Göran Österlund

I previously discussed who the newest faces of Swedish currency were in this April 25, 2012 blog post titled, "Beautiful, just like the original! Greta Garbo will be featured on the new Swedish 100 Kronor note, with Ingmar Bergman on the 200 SEK note, all designed by Göran Österlund, starting in 2015"

http://hallandalebeachblog.blogspot.com/2012/04/beautiful-just-like-original-greta.html

-------

Wild Strawberries -Opening Credits (1957)

http://www.tcm.com/mediaroom/video/239721/Wild-Strawberries-Movie-Clip-Opening-Credits.html

https://youtu.be/A3n4TxNeaPg

https://youtu.be/41usu9d8Fnw

Dave 

Twitter: @hbbtruth, https://twitter.com/hbbtruth

https://twitter.com/hbbtruth/with_replies

http://www.hallandalebeachblog.blogspot.com/

https://www.youtube.com/user/HallandaleBeachBlog

Thursday is Gregory Peck Day on Turner Classic Movies' Summer Under the Sun, with 11 movies in 24-hours from the iconic American actor who personified dignity and equanimity under pressure, and the American character and moral conscience to millions of film-goers all over the world; #gregorypeck, #turnerclassicmovies

Oscars YouTube Channel video: Gregory Peck winning Academy Award for Best Actor of 1962 for "To Kill A Mockingbird," accepting Oscar from Sophia Loren, after intro by Frank Sinatra. Uploaded September 27, 2011. http://youtu.be/46rabPWIKyY

Thursday is Gregory Peck Day on Turner Classic Movies' Summer Under the Sun, with 11 movies in 24-hours from the iconic American actor who personified dignity and equanimity under pressure, and the American character and moral conscience to millions of film-goers all over the world 

11 films of 1 Icon: Eleven films starring Gregory Peck, one of America's most-respected and admired actors when American movies, more than anything else, shaped the world's opinion of the content of the American character, making him an unofficial Ambassador of America's Moral Conscience. 


In almost every one of his films, regardless of genre, regardless of what directing great was calling the shots on the set, while his sheer elegance may've been the first thing you noticed, it was always his ability to show an inner thoughtfulness, a certain kind of inner strength and purpose, moral clarity, and a willingness to fight for basic principles and concepts of fair play and equality that made audiences around the world root for him, regardless of the odds.

Complete list of all 11 Gregory Peck films being shown today over 24 hours on Turner Classic Movies, starting at 6 a.m. Eastern: http://summer.tcm.com/gregorypeck

Movie Premiere of "The Man in the Gray Flannel Suit" (1956)

http://youtu.be/hLNY2Ub3Hnc

The Man in the Gray Flannel Suit (1956) - A proto-Don Draper moment

http://youtu.be/rVEElg2Id-8

I'm heading a new tour! “@onlocationtours: The @TCM Classic Film Tour bus is wrapped & ready to go! Starts Aug22nd!! pic.twitter.com/EdtlARSp3j”
— Sarah Louise Lilley (@SarahLLilley) August 9, 2013

DVR Alert! Thursday morning's Turner Classic Movies schedule features three of my all-time favorites: Ingmar Bergman's 'Wild Strawberries' & 'The Virgin Spring,' and Lasse Hallström's 'My Life as a Dog', all from Svensk Filmindustri (SF)

Robin Quivers YouTube Channel video: Ang Lee on The Virgin Spring. Uploaded August 25, 2012. http://youtu.be/GmFGB3hMluk

DVR Alert! Thursday morning's Turner Classic Movies schedule features three of my all-time favorites: Ingmar Bergman's 'Wild Strawberries' & 'The Virgin Spring,' and Lasse Hallström's 'My Life as a Dog', all from Svensk Film Industri (SFI)

Reminiscing on a life that could have been and seeing the uneasy co-existence of good and evil in our hearts, Bergman-style; Youthful lessons learned that are sad and knowing, funny and absolutely amazing.
All on DirecTV Channel 256

7:45 a.m. Wild Strawberries (1957)

9:30 a.m. The Virgin Spring (1960)

(11:01 a.m. short The Battle Of Gettysburg (1956)

11:30 a.m. My Life As A Dog (1987)

-----

http://svenskfilmindustri.com/ 

DVR Alert!: Oscar-winner Lee Marvin gets the TCM 21-gun salute tonight with 4 of his films, as new book on Marvin by Dwayne Epstein gets rave reviews; Tonight features John Boorman's fast-paced '67 noir thriller 'Point Blank' with Marvin as a one-man blunt object of retribution and malice -who does not crack wise- along with Cat Ballou, Monte Walsh, and The Dirty Dozen

Turner Classic Movies video: The Dirty Dozen - (Original Promo Featurette), A look behind the scenes of the making of the World War II thriller, The Dirty Dozen (1967), starring Lee Marvin, Telly Savalas, Robert Ryan, Donald Sutherland, Clint Walker, Jim Brown, et al.

http://www.tcm.com/mediaroom/video/30500/Dirty-Dozen-The-Original-Promo-Featurette-.html

DVR Alert: Oscar-winner Lee Marvin gets the TCM 21-gun salute tonight with 4 of his films, as new book on him by Dwayne Epstein gets rave reviews; Tonight features John Boorman's fast-paced '67 noir thriller 'Point Blank' with Marvin as a one-man blunt object of retribution and malice who does not crack wise, along with Cat Ballou, Monte Walsh, The Dirty Dozen

Los Angeles Times

CLASSIC HOLLYWOOD blog

Rediscovering Lee Marvin's gritty brilliance

By Susan King, Los Angeles Times 

January 29, 2013, 5:30 p.m.

The versatile Oscar-winner, who died at 63 in 1987, is the subject of a new biography, a film-series retrospective and a Turner Classic Movies marathon.

Lee Marvin "is the guy who started it all in terms of modern American cinema violence," according to Dwayne Epstein, the author of a new biography of the iconic actor.

Read the rest of the piece at: http://www.latimes.com/entertainment/movies/moviesnow/la-et-mn-lee-marvin-20130130,0,6481171.story

Cat Ballou airs at 8:00 p.m. Eastern, Monte Walsh at 10:00 p.m., The Dirty Dozen at 12:00 a.m., and Point Blank at 2:45 a.m.


TheTrailerBlaze YouTube Channel video: Trailer for John Boorman's 1967 'Point Blank,' starring Lee Marvin and Angie Dickinson. Uploaded April 10, 2010. http://youtu.be/N2sKgsKTeEM

When I first saw Mel Gibson in 1999's Payback on one of the pay cable channels after it'd been out for a while, 


it seemed to me to be more his take on Michael Caine's 1971 film Get Carter than anything else, and all I could think of was this Marvin film instead.

No matter what current actors say, even ones who are as dedicated and perfectionist as Mel Gibson, there are very few who are actually willing and able to pull-off playing full-out menace throughout a film, with no light-hearted asides or quips to themselves to lighten the mood -a la 007 or Bruce Willis. 
They care too much what the audience thinks of them and their character, and I can understand that even if I don't agree that it should be so important.

But in Point Blank, under Boorman, Marvin is all-in, and makes no attempt at all to soften his hard, malevolent edges.

Trust me, you will recognize every-other actor in this film, too, as it has a great supporting cast. 

This video features celebrity chef and TCM's Guest Programmer for the night Alton Brown joining TCM host Robert Osborne and rhapsodizing on why he selected John Boorman's 1967 Point Blank as one of his films to share and talk about.
http://www.tcm.com/mediaroom/video/186798/Point-Blank-Movie-Intro-Outro-Alton-Brown.html

Article at: 

http://www.tcm.com/this-month/article/544429%7C0/Starring-Lee-Marvin-1-31.html 

If you have never watched this John Boorman documentary on his friend Lee Marvin before, it's flat-out wonderful, so make some time soon to come back to watch it.

smilerbwfc YouTube Channel video: BFI/AMC Documentary: Lee Marvin By John Boorman, Part I, Uploaded December 25, 2007. http://youtu.be/soA0_5oZ8LY

Part 2  http://youtu.be/5PpGJh46NTI

Part 3  http://youtu.be/jKIDp4tZRNo

Part 4  http://youtu.be/H0KpPqwAnac

Part 5  http://youtu.be/P9oHT6Ue7R0

And before there were feature films...

wksufreshair YouTube Channel video: NBC-TV's "M Squad" Golden Look Part 01, starring Lee Marvin as Chicago detective Lt. Frank Ballinger, 1957.

http://youtu.be/r0sq_VJ2LQs

-----

https://twitter.com/DwayneEpstein

http://www.schaffnerpress.com/books/detail/15 

More mournful wistfulness about a talented entertainer: All Eyes on Sharon Tate

Turner Classic Movies video: All Eyes on Sharon Tate - (Original Promo Featurette) A behind the scenes featurette on the making of 13 which was released as Eye of the Devil (1967). http://youtu.be/Qf1NX9AQOEI


I've been wanting to post this Sharon Tate featurette video ever since I started the blog, even before Turner Classic Movies finally made the video available on their website as an embed, having previously videotaped it off of TCM many years ago and then subsequently dubbed it to a DVD thanks to a friend who had a VHS/DVR when they were still expensive.

But now, well, I don't have to do that, and the difference in quality is obvious.


(And no sooner do I say that than two of the videos I've embedded here keep showing the same thing, the trailer for Eye of the Devil, when I look at this in Draft preview.
Even though the embed code for each is different! I've run into this problem before with the TCM embeds and had to cancel some blog posts here on classic films because I couldn't show what was the meat of the post. Oh, well.)


These sorts of featurettes and film promos are one of the reasons that I've been such a devout TCM viewer ever since it started. My favorite is one that was done about the filming of The Dirty Dozen, like the first video, filmed in London in 1966 for MGM.


Turner Classic Movies video: The Dirty Dozen - (Original Promo Featurette), A look behind the scenes of the making of the World War II thriller, The Dirty Dozen (1967), starring Lee Marvin & Jim Brown.
http://www.tcm.com/mediaroom/video/30500/Dirty-Dozen-The-Original-Promo-Featurette-.html


The specific reasons I'm posting this today is two-fold.
First, it's a general reaction of sorts on my part from watching so much of the truly disturbing courtroom testimony that's been given at the trial of Anders Behring Breivik in Oslo, which I've been following closely and watching online since it started, though I haven't mentioned it here on the blog for reasons not worth getting into now.


Breivik was/is a person with a delusional personality who imagined himself destined for big things, believes in a political manifesto and was more than willing to kill innocent people to gain publicity for those political beliefs and to hasten the change that he imagined would naturally follow from it. 
Just like Charles Manson.


This past week, I finally I saw a recent film directed by Sharon Tate's husband, Roman Polanski, that I'd never seen before, though I've seen pretty much everything else he's done that's been released in the U.S., including the Polish language films from the 1960's, like .
Knife in the Water . 
It's 2010's The Ghost Writer starring Pierce Brosnan and Ewan MacGregor.


I've previously discussed the controversy surrounding him here on the blog, but my focus today is on Tate, his wife who was only 26 when she was intentionally murdered by the Charles Manson gang, along with their unborn child, and four others on her property, three years after this video was filmed.


When you watch this video at the top that was done to promote the upcoming David Hemmings, David Niven and Debrorah Kerr suspense film she was co-starring in, she just completely takes your breath away, and you see how her dynamic beauty just jumps right off the screen.

Turner Classic Movies video: Eye of the Devil - (Original Trailer)
A French nobleman deserts his wife because of an ancient family secret in Eye of the Devil (1966) starring David Niven and Deborah Kerr.
http://www.tcm.com/mediaroom/video/29013/Eye-of-the-Devil-Original-Trailer-.html


In my opinion, the only actress we have now with those sort of dynamic qualities is really Charlize Theron, and frankly, I'm not so crazy about her recent film choice selection or even her off-screen choices.


Theron is perplexing in that way, and while I can imagine some of the reasons why her film choices might've seemed appealing to her at the time, to be honest, since she won her Oscar for a film that very few people actually saw at the time -and which is, even now, largely forgotten and which draws blank looks from people when you ask which film she won the Oscar for- while there's no doubting that she's clearly got the talent chops and the beauty, what have we really been offered of late that film fans will recall fondly twenty years from now?


Why is she never in an ensemble film that is really well-done, memorable and popular with critics and audiences alike?
Why is is always one but not the others?


Talented directors we respect and admire ought to practically be banging down her door -or having her agent do that because of a role that she'd be perfect in- but I never hear from my friends and contacts in LA about good roles she turned down in order to be in something great.


It sort of makes me wonder what's going on, and whether there's some reason, mysterious or banal, that might better explain why Theron, as close as we have to a glamorous old-fashioned movie star as anyone, doesn't seem to be getting offered the sorts of scripts we'd all agree she ought to be seeing, for films that we'd like to see her in.


Who knows, maybe the directors I'm thinking of think she should work for less to be in quality ensemble productions, something that DOES happen frequently in Hollywood and esp. in London for period films, and she simply thinks that she'd be making a mistake to do that now.


On the other hand, isn't this sort of what has happened to Oscar-winner Gwyneth Paltrow, too?
They both should really be in the 'sweet spot' of their film careers, where they are in one good film after another, and yet... the best thing I've seen Charlize in has been that fabulous Dior ad for J'adore.



http://youtu.be/mXrWiJcmvBI


As for Gwyneth, is it a case of too much Goop-ing around?


Meanwhile, we wonder about what might've been for Sharon Tate.
The quality light-comedy films that she would've delighted us in, or the melodramas that made us cry, as she got better at her craft and more self-confident...
Take advantage of your opportunities while you have them...



Sharon Tate, Murdered Innocence - Part 4
http://youtu.be/NnrqxXnD-Mo  

DVR Alert - Saturday on Turner Classic Movies at 3:15 pm EDT - The thriller "36 Hours," starring James Garner, Rod Taylor, Eva Marie Saint - "James Garner thinks World War II is over but it's all a charade concocted by the Nazis"

http://www.tcm.com/tcmdb/title/92944/36-Hours/

DVR Alert - Saturday on Turner Classic Movies at 3:15 pm EDT - The thriller "36 Hours," starring James Garner, Rod Taylor, Eva Marie Saint - "James Garner thinks World War II is over but it's all a charade concocted by the Nazis."

Directed by George Seaton 

"Give me any American for 36 hours and I'll give you back a traitor"-Major Walter Gerber

Co-stars John Banner, i.e Sgt. Schultz from CBS-TV's "Hogan's Heroes" as yes, a German sergeant, but one with a conscience.

I've seen this film at least three to four times already, and there's always a few interesting things I notice for the first time with each viewing that shows the enormous attention to detail made in concocting the elaborate charade.

Reagan's 100th Birthday: Ronald Reagan Presidential Foundation Curates YouTube.com on Reagan's 100th Birthday!

Ronald Reagan Presidential Foundation Curates YouTube.com on Reagan's 100th Birthday!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DEa9xOkpJgc

http://www.reaganlibrary.com/
http://www.youtube.com/user/ReaganFoundation


http://turnerclassic.moviesunlimited.com/product.asp?sku=D64025&shopRef=TCMdb|Title

Original trailer -Knute Rockne--All American (1940)
Still one of my favorite films, which I've seen at least thirty times over the years. http://www.tcm.com/video/videoPlayer/?cid=27603&titleId=80476


TCM's 31 Days of Oscar 2011

Monday TV Alert: The Third Reich's rise tears apart a German family in "The Mortal Storm" on TCM at 8 p.m. Eastern

"The Third Reich''s rise tears apart a German family."

The Mortal Storm, 1940, directed by Frank Borzage on Turner Classic Movies at 8 p.m. Eastern Monday night.



http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HxltKn5NKuM

Film poster at: http://www.tcm.com/tcmdb/archive/viewer.jsp?contentId=140832

After I first saw this film about twenty years or so on TCM in the middle of the night, I could never look at actor Robert Young again in quite the same light, because he was SO believably creepy in this film that it literally made my skin crawl.

Plus, you had Nazis harassing pro-democracy Frank Morgan the year after he played the Wizard in The Wizard of Oz, and chasing James Stewart, including his so-called best friend. Some friend!

I softened a bit on Young after finally seeing him co-star with Hedy Lamarr in the great under-rated classic -with about the most terrible film name ever!- H.M. Pulham, Esq., based on the 1930's best-seller I half-read while living in Evanston in the mid-'80's, after buying it at the Evanston Junior League shop.
But then everyone seemed more human and fallible around alluring Hedy.
They sure don't make 'em like her any more, that's for sure!
http://www.tcm.com/video/videoPlayer/?cid=110910&titleId=77194

Robert Young made Pulham with Hedy the year after making Storm with a young Robert Stack, whose films TCM is featuring today as part of their Summer Under the Stars promotion, wherein each day they feature an entire day's worth of films by one actor. http://www.tcm.com/2010/suts/index.jsp#/robertstack/8

http://www.tcm.com/2010/suts/index.jsp

This film has a dramatic ski chase-and-pursuit sequence with Jimmy and frequent co-star Margaret Sullavan that gives you a whole new appreciation for the justly-famous ski chase with Roger Moore as 007 in the beginning of The Spy Who Loved Me, but this one, in what is supposed to be the German Alps, takes place at night!

Bosley Crowther's June 21, 1940 film review in the New York Times is here:
http://movies.nytimes.com/movie/review?res=9D06E3DC1E30E53ABC4951DFB066838B659EDE

http://www.tcm.com/index.jsp

Must-see TV today: Humphrey Bogart in Deadline U.S.A. at 4 p.m. on TCM

"A big-city editor brings down a mobster, saves his newspaper and re-unites with his ex-wife."


"That's the press, baby. The press! And there's nothing you can do about it. Nothing!"
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FgdE-qPv6kw



Deadline U.S.A. may well be the best Bogart film that most people have STILL not seen for themselves, so do yourself a favor before leaving for work Wednesday morning and make a point of setting your VCR or DVR or whatever electronic gadget you schedule your TV life with, and make a point of recording this film Tuesday afternoon at 4 p.m. on Turner Classic Movies, DirecTV 256.
http://www.tcm.com/tcmdb/title.jsp?stid=72550

I've probably seen this film about a dozen times by now and because I've seen all of Bogart's other films SO many more times, this is still one that surprises me with each new viewing as I find myself noticing things for the first time.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NPTo_YAJ21s



Do you know the difference between a journalist and a reporter?
Jim Backus will explain it to you at a bar full of veteran reporters who've heard the same joke for decades, but who still laugh each time it's told.

I came across this short trailer for an upcoming PBS documentary called Stop the Presses: The American Newspaper in Peril while looking for something else a few weeks ago. It's already been shown in some TV markets but I don't recall it being in South Florida yet.

Hope it'll be as good as the one on the LA Times last year, even though that one started trailing off a bit towards the end, probably because there was no hero riding in on a white horse at the end -with $$$. If you don't blink, there's also a few seconds of Anders Gyllenhaal of the Herald speaking. It was uploaded on June 2nd.


AMS Pictures - Stop the Presses
Uploaded by ggallucci. - Watch feature films and entire TV shows.

I later found its website: http://www.stopthepressesdoc.com/

Some of the newspaper blogs I read include:
http://newsosaur.blogspot.com/
http://gannettblog.blogspot.com/
http://davisullblog.blogspot.com/

Cuba to be focus of Turner Classic Movies Monday night, November 9th

Cuba to be focus of Turner Classic Movies
Monday night, November 9th.

"Before the revolution it was an exotic travel destination
and our 5-film lineup takes you to another place and time..."

Mystery, melodrama, myths and suspense...

8 p.m. Topaz (1969)
Directed by Alfred Hitchcock, 142 minutes
A French agent is sent to Cuba to spy for the
CIA.




10:30 p.m. Our Man in Havana (1960)
Directed by Carol Reed, 107 minutes
A salesman in Cuba takes up spying to support
his spendthrift daughter.




12:30 a.m. Cuba (1979)
Directed by Richard Lester, 122 minutes
A British mercenary meets an old love while
training anti-Castro forces in Cuba.




2:45 a.m. Pier 5, Havana (1959)
Directed by Edward L. Cahn, 68 minutes
An American in Cuba tries to thwart a bombing
plot aimed at Castro.

4:00 a.m. We Were Strangers (1949)
Directed by John Huston, 106 minutes
A Cuban American returns to his homeland
during the Revolution and becomes involved
in an assassination attempt.

DVR Alert: Miami Expose on TCM Sun. at 2:45 a.m.

Meant to mention this on Thursday!

Corrupt public officials, lobbyists and

gambling in the Sunshine State!

Turner Classic Movies,

Sunday morning at 2:45 a.m.

Miami Expose -1956, 73 minutes

A police detective baits killer gamblers with a mob witness

in the Everglades.

Starring Lee J. Cobb, Patricia Medina, Edward Arnold,

with cameo by then-Miami mayor Randy Christmas.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Randy_Christmas

See http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0049500/ and

http://www.tcm.com/thismonth/article/?cid=235341

Extra Special TCM Movie Alert for early Saturday morning: Blood Feast, and Two Thousand Maniacs!

Last year I happened to see two films on Turner Classic Movies that I'd never heard of or seen before and they were being played back-to-back: Blood Feast, and Two

Thousand Maniacs!

After I finished watching the videotape I'd made of them the following day, because they were aired overnight, I promised myself that if I ever heard they were going to be shown again, I'd do a blog post about them to give you all a head's up. 
 Well, here it is.

Blood Feast was filmed in Miami Beach and in North Miami Beach, and what's now considered the City of Sunny Isles Beach, the latter at The Suez Motel, the site of Trump Royale.

See photos of the Motel and their famous entrance with two sphinxes at http://fpc.dos.state.fl.us/commerce/c025170a.jpg

and http://fpc.dos.state.fl.us/commerce/c025154.jpg and

http://www.cardcow.com/169396/the-suez-motel-on-the-ocean-at-18215-collins-ave-miami-beach-us-state-town-views-florida-miami-beach/

Other info on iconic Motel Row Sunny Isles hotels of the '50's and '60's at

http://forums.miamibeach411.com/index.php?/forums/viewthread/2205/P60/

(Before they moved to Hallandale Beach, my father and late step-mother lived for years near the southern tip of Sunny Isles before it was incorporated, while I was living up in Arlington. Their south-facing high rise apt. gave me a great view at night when I'd come down for a visit or for Orioles spring training, since I had an unobstructed view of the ocean, Haulover Beach, and downtown Miami and the Bay in the distance. It was really something to behold!)

If you look closely you'll notice certain tell-tale signs, which I first observed when I watched a tape of this after TCM premiered this film last year, paired with the same book-end film, Two Thousand Maniacs, a very different sort of spring break film, which is really jarring the first time you see it.

In the first film, the police cars used have an old NMB logo on them: North Miami Beach, Gateway to Interama.
In the final climactic scene, filmed on what was scheduled to be the future site of Interama, the Inter-American Center Authority

(see http://www.miamiartzine.com/vol3/issue65/4right.htm

http://www.flickr.com/photos/hmsf/sets/72157611052525041/

and http://www.miamitodaynews.com/news/060209/story-viewpoint.shtml )

but which is now the FIU Bay Vista campus, pay attention to what's looming in the distance of the city dump during the chase scene.

It's the large gas tanks on W. Dixie Highway and N.E. 159th Street.

As someone who grew-up in NMB from 1968-'79, and who spent lots of time on W. Dixie Highway as a kid, especially at the Aqua Bowl playing baseball (for Harry Rich Carpet)

and the Bowling Alley and the Holiday Theatre on NE 159th Street -second-run films for only $2- I'd know that anywhere. 

The settings are so 1960's Miami, especially the front yard and back yard scenes, that you'll almost find yourself constantly looking for familiar landmarks every time there's an exterior

scene, and wondering what street it was filmed on.

Each film has the same lead actor and actress William Kerwin and Connie Mason, who were married fro 25 years until his death twenty years ago.

The second film was filmed in Florida near Orlando, but is set near Augusta, GA, and coincidentally, this is Masters Week at Augusta. 
Now that's timing!

Per the theme of the second film, that reminds me of a bumper sticker I saw on an older car when I came back down here. 
Under a drawing of a giant mosquito, it says,

"Keep sending Northeners, they're delicious!"

http://www.tcm.com/2008/underground/index.jsp

2:00 AM	Blood Feast (1963)
	An Egyptian priest uses human sacrifice to bring back his goddess. Cast: William Kerwin, Mal Arnold, Connie Mason. Dir: Herschell Gordon Lewis. C-67 mins, See http://www.tcm.com/2008/underground/movies/index/?cid=209058 and http://www.tcm.com/2008/underground/movies/index.jsp?cid=209110 and http://www.aycyas.com/bloodfeast.htm Video at: http://www.tcm.com/video/videoPlayer/?cid=213425&titleId=69119
3:15 AM	Two Thousand Maniacs! (1964)
	Travelers stumble on a Southern town out for revenge for losing the Civil War. Cast: William Kerwin, Connie Mason, Jeffrey Allen. Dir: Herschell Gordon Lewis. C-84 mins, http://www.tcm.com/2008/underground/movies/index/?cid=209059 Video at: http://www.tcm.com/tcmdb/title.jsp?stid=558233&contentTypeId=130&category=movie