Tl;Dr:
The Beatles loved a Peter Sellers film that was helmed by a famous director. Paul McCartney felt the band members’ enjoyment of the movie said a lot about them. The director had an incredible impact on The Beatles’ career.
The Beatles were huge fans of a Peter Sellers movie that Paul McCartney called “zany.” The movie went on to inspire one of The Beatles’ most famous films. In addition, The Beatles worked with Sellers’ director multiple times.
Paul McCartney said The Beatles’ love of 1 Peter Sellers movie gave them ‘a personality’
During a 2020 interview with GQ, Paul discussed The Beatles’ tastes. “We liked people such as Stanley Unwin; we liked mad things,” he said. For context, Unwin was a comic actor known for creating his own language.
In addition, the members of the Fab Four enjoyed a short film that starred Sellers. “Like there was a little film...
The Beatles loved a Peter Sellers film that was helmed by a famous director. Paul McCartney felt the band members’ enjoyment of the movie said a lot about them. The director had an incredible impact on The Beatles’ career.
The Beatles were huge fans of a Peter Sellers movie that Paul McCartney called “zany.” The movie went on to inspire one of The Beatles’ most famous films. In addition, The Beatles worked with Sellers’ director multiple times.
Paul McCartney said The Beatles’ love of 1 Peter Sellers movie gave them ‘a personality’
During a 2020 interview with GQ, Paul discussed The Beatles’ tastes. “We liked people such as Stanley Unwin; we liked mad things,” he said. For context, Unwin was a comic actor known for creating his own language.
In addition, the members of the Fab Four enjoyed a short film that starred Sellers. “Like there was a little film...
- 8/15/2023
- by Matthew Trzcinski
- Showbiz Cheat Sheet
By Cooper Peltz
Celebrating Peter Sellers's birthday by taking a look at The Goon Show's massive impact on comedic podcasting.
The article How Peter Sellers and ‘The Goon Show’ Paved the Way for the Comedy Podcast appeared first on Film School Rejects.
Celebrating Peter Sellers's birthday by taking a look at The Goon Show's massive impact on comedic podcasting.
The article How Peter Sellers and ‘The Goon Show’ Paved the Way for the Comedy Podcast appeared first on Film School Rejects.
- 9/6/2017
- by Cooper Peltz
- FilmSchoolRejects.com
Criterion's special edition of Stanley Kubrick's doomsday comedy is more powerful than ever in a 4K remaster; and it even comes with a top-secret mission profile package and a partial-contents survival kit. A Kubrick fan can have a pretty good weekend in Vegas with all that stuff. Dr. Strangelove Or: How I Learned To Stop Worrying and Love The Bomb Blu-ray The Criterion Collection 821 1964 / B&W / 1:66 widescreen / 95 min. / available through The Criterion Collection / Street Date June 28, 2016 / 39.95 Starring Peter Sellers, George C. Scott, Sterling Hayden, Keenan Wynn, Slim Pickens, Peter Bull, James Earl Jones, Tracy Reed Cinematography Gilbert Taylor Production Designer Ken Adam Art Direction Peter Murton Film Editor Anthony Harvey Original Music Laurie Johnson Written by Stanley Kubrick, Terry Southern, Peter George from his book Red Alert Produced by Stanley Kubrick, Leon Minoff Directed by Stanley Kubrick
Reviewed by Glenn Erickson
When I heard that Criterion was putting out a Blu-ray of Dr. Strangelove, Or: How I Learned To Stop Worrying and Love The Bomb I thought that there already was a disc out there from The Collection. Nope, Sony released a Blu-ray in 2009, and back around 2000, a DVD. I was thinking of a deluxe laserdisc from Criterion sometime in the early 1990s. I remember being impressed by its extras, which included documentary materials about the Bomb in the Cold War years. Potential new fans of Kubrick's wickedly funny movie are being born every year, which leaves those of us for whom Strangelove was an important part of growing up having to remind ourselves just how good it still is. I remember recording the soundtrack off TV in high school and memorizing all of the dialogue; this has to be the most quotable movie of its decade. I also can remember my father's reaction when we watched it together on network TV, ABC, I think. An Air Force lifer who wouldn't discuss politics (or much of anything), the Old Sarge had little use for 'defeatist' movies like On the Beach. But he thought the premise of Seven Days in May wasn't really farfetched, having worked with Hap Arnold and Curtis LeMay. He shook his head after seeing Dr. Strangelove but I could tell that he found it very funny. It's too bad the two of us couldn't have gotten our senses of humor more in sync -- as soon as I wore my hair long, I think he stopped trusting me. I believe that Dr. Strangelove is one of few movies that 'made a difference' in that it redirected American public opinion about a major life issue. From that point forward only the ignorant and Shoot First fanatics talked about nuclear war as win-able, at least not until the neo-con Millennium. 1963 audiences had little use for suspect 'pacifist' movies that ended in masochistic doom, like On the Beach. The nuclear crisis was such a hot topic that that the low-key English science fiction film The Day the Earth Caught Fire was a surprise hit. Strangelove is more realistic than the straight atom nightmare movies. We're told that when Ronald Reagan was briefed at the start of his first term in office, he asked where the White House elevator to the War Room was. He figured it was there because he saw it in the movie. The decision to opt for broad comedy was Kubrick's inspired stroke. Dr. Strangelove may be the first hit film that was a bona-fide black comedy; I don't recall anybody even using the expression before it came out. It's not a crazy comedy where anything funny is okay. The backbone of the story remains 100% serious, while the jokes relentlessly demolish the death-cult logic of our Nuclear Deterrent. Kubrick and Terry Southern populate Peter George's credible cold-sweat crisis with insane caricatures given ridiculous names. The scary part is that, no matter how stupid they behave, none are really that exaggerated. Peter Sellers serves triple duty in a trio of characterizations, effectively outdoing previous champion film chameleon Alec Guinness. George C. Scott steals the show as an infantile Air Force General who acts like a Looney Tunes cartoon character. And the rest of the inspired cast nails their highly original quasi-comic characters. Every joke is a gallows joke; we're never allowed to forget that we all have an atomic noose around our necks. I almost envy the dead viewers still unfamiliar with Dr. Strangelove, as seeing it for the first time was a mind-opening experience. Jack D. Ripper (Sterling Hayden), the commander of Burpelson Air Force Base, orders a flight of B-52s to attack Russia. He then seals off Burpelson to prevent a recall of the planes. Exchange officer Group Captain Lionel Mandrake (Peter Sellers) tries to talk him into divulging the recall code. Holding court in the War Room, President Merkin Muffley (Peter Sellers) is horrified to discover that such a Snafu is even possible. He orders General Buck Turgidson (George C. Scott) to take Burpelson Air Base by force and recall the planes, and gets on the hotline with the Soviet Premier. Up in the lead B-52, Major 'King' Kong (Slim Pickens) receives Ripper's orders, coded 'Wing Attack Plan R.' He urges his crew to avoid Russian defenses and reach their primary target, while Turgidson tries to talk Muffley into launching an all-out attack. Advising in the War Room is ex-Nazi scientist Dr. Strangelove, a grinning theoretician already fantasizing about the sexual recreation for the ruling elite in the VIP bomb shelters, where America's chosen high officials will be living for the next 93 years. Dr. Strangelove divides its time between three main locations, each with its own deadly serious function and each overlaid with a different comedic tone. In his locked executive office in the Alaskan Air Force Base, the sexually obsessed American General Ripper faces off with a veddy proper English officer in a farcical one-act. Beady-eyed and intense in his anti-Communist convictions, Sterling Hayden contrasts beautifully with Seller's genial Group Captain, who can't fathom the depth of his commanding officer's madness. The action in the B-52 is a throwback to those gung-ho WW2 action films in which a racially and ethnically diverse attack team uses brains and guts to barrel through their suicide mission. Even though their pilot is a cowboy clown (Slim Pickens doing his only characterization, Slim Pickens) they're an admirable bunch, seemingly the only humans capable of doing anything without red tape or Coca-Cola machines getting in their way. The horror is that our heroes' mission is totally against every moral precept ever imagined. The docu feeling in the B-52 is further amplified by the gritty newsreel-like footage of the taking of Burpelson Afb, with American troops fighting American troops. In 1964 these were traumatic, subversive scenes. U.S. troops on film are supposed to fight for freedom and righteousness, not kill each other. Kubrick has the audacity to place in the middle of it all a big sign that reads, 'Peace is our Profession.' The grainy authenticity of these scenes would come back to haunt us when similar footage started being seen nightly on television, fresh from Vietnam. The center of activities is the War Room, a Camelot-like round table of Death located in the basement of the White House. The rational President Merkin Muffley trips over an ideological roadblock in the form of Buck Turgidson, a gum-chewing military nutcase itching to go to war and overjoyed that Jack Ripper has 'exceeded his authority.' The President is hardly in charge of foreign policy, and none of fifty advisors come to his aid with any original thinking. An amateur among experts, Muffley must be shepherded through protocol by an assistant. Here's where Southern and Kubrick make their biggest points, basically asserting that a showdown with the Russkies is inevitable because the American stance is a military one -- Sac just wants the peacenik in the Oval Office to get out of their way. The comedy is all over the place, and it's a miracle that it works. The stand-up humor on the hot line to Moscow is very much like a Bob Newhart routine. At Burpelson, it's the Goon Show all over again. Sellers' Mandrake cannot sway General Ripper, and the moronic Major Bat Guano (Keenan Wynn) suspects the Raf officer of being a 'deviated prevert.' Up in the bomber, Mad Magazine craziness is grafted onto combat realism. Previous looks at the Air Force's flying deterrent were enlistment booster films like Strategic Air Command. Kubrick drove his English craftsmen to fake the entire bomber interior right down to the switches and gauges. The aerial combat is more realistic than that in escapist films, even with inadequate models used for exteriors of the jet bomber in flight. Dr. Strangelove maintains a nervous tension between absurd comedy and morbid unease. Kubrick's main career themes -- sexual madness, treacherous technology and the folly of human planning -- come into strong relief. We're motivated to root for the fliers that are going to destroy the world. Then we fret over the President's pitiful lack of control. Dour, glowering Russian Ambassador De Sadesky (Peter Bull) informs the War Room about his country's solution to the costly Arms Race, the dreaded Doomsday Machine. Security advisor Dr. Strangelove enters the film in the last act to serve as sort of an angel of Death. Based loosely on Rand-corporation experts that calculated eventualities in nuclear war scenarios, Sellers' vision of Strangelove is a throwback to German Expressionism. A Mabuse in a wheelchair, he's black-gloved like the brilliant but mad Rotwang of Metropolis. Strangelove enters like the specter of Death itself; his grin looks like a skull. Contemplating 'megadeaths' gives him sexual pleasure. The detonation of the first bomb seems to liberate Strangelove, and he finds he can walk again. The character is straight from the Siegfried Kracauer playbook. The evil of nuclear war has restored the representative of apocalyptic Nazi vengeance to full power. Twenty years after his death, we all get to join Hitler in his suicide bunker. First-time viewers are usually floored by the audacious Dr. Strangelove. Only the truly uninformed will not recognize baritone James Earl Jones as one of Major Kong's flight crew. Those going back for a repeated peek will derive added enjoyment from Kubrick's deft juggling of his several visual styles and his avoidance of anything that might deflate tension: we hear about the recall code being issued but are spared any view of the responsible military personnel that must have sent it. Some of the best fun is finding details in designer Ken Adam's impressive War Room, such as the pies already laid out in preparation for the aborted pie-fight finale. Even better is watching the War room extras as they strain to maintain straight faces no matter how funny Sellers and Scott get; that contrast is what makes the comedy so brilliant. Watch Peter Bull carefully. In one extended take he starts to smile at Sellers, more than once. He catches himself and then is clearly on the verge of cracking up, forcing Kubrick to cut away. The Criterion Collection's Blu-ray of Dr. Strangelove, Or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb is the expected sterling transfer of this Kubrick classic, a 4K digital transfer. I put it up against Sony's old Blu-ray and the difference is not so great as to recommend that a trade-up is necessary. However, it looks extremely good. The Kubrick faithful out there will be thinking, 'I must not allow a disc shelf gap.' The HD picture makes quite a bit of difference in understanding Kubrick's photographic strategy. Not only do the hand-held Burpelson combat sequences approximate the look of documentary footage, a more contrasty and grainy film stock has been used. Switching "film looks" later became a fad for directors looking to be viewed as artists. The idea perhaps reached its zenith in Oliver Stone's Natural Born Killers. Back in 1964 the effect of imitating a news film look was quite stunning -- audiences reacted to the combat scenes as if they were real. I'm glad that we're finally beyond the frustrating early DVD years, when someone (at Warner Home Video?) claimed that Stanley Kubrick insisted that his films be shown at the old 1:33 aspect ratio for TV and disc. Even if they wangled a note from Kubrick to that effect, I still believe that the aspect ratio games were played because Kubrick was too busy to oversee new masters of his films, and Whv wanted to market them in a hurry at a minimum of cost. That's all old news now, but there was also the interesting aspect ratio question concerning Strangelove. At least one disc iteration -- Criterion's laserdisc, I'm fairly sure -- was released in a completely un-original dual-ratio scan. Kubrick apparently said that he preferred to see the War Room scenes at a full-frame 1:37, and so this one transfer of the film popped back and forth between ratios. I've never heard of anything like this before or after. Criterion's British 1:66 framing for this disc is correct, even though the film was probably screened at 1:85 for many of its American play dates. Criterion's new extras begin with interview featurettes with well-chosen spokespeople, like scholars Mick Broderick and Rodney Hill. Kubrick archivist Richard Daniels' piece is quite good, as is an examination of the film's visuals by two of the original camera crew. The son of author Peter George gives an excellent account of his father's life and the adaptation of his novel Red Alert. George reportedly liked the notion of turning his story into a black comedy, especially when his original narrative was changed very little. The stroke of genius was deciding that the entire subject could best be approached as a sick joke. Other extras are repeated from Sony's DVD disc of 2004. A making-of docu interviews several surviving technicians and actors, and a primer on the Cold War atom standoff goes deep into detail. The featurettes have input from Robert McNamara, Spike Lee and Bob Woodward. Critics Roger Ebert and Alexander Walker are also represented. Docu pieces on Peter Sellers and Kubrick appear to suffer from legal restraints disallowing the use of clips from non-Columbia sources. The Peter Sellers show features several choice film clips from the 'fifties, including Sellers' almost perfect take on a William Conrad-like hired killer. We're shown some stills from the legendary The Goon Show, which is not mentioned by name. A Stanley Kubrick career piece that uses UA, MGM and Universal trailers covers a lot of territory a bit too quickly. It does have some nice interview input from Kubrick's partner James B. Harris. Harris has since given terrific interviews on Criterion discs for Kubrick's The Killing and Paths of Glory. Criterion's Curtis Tsui produced those discs as well as this one. An entertaining extra is a pair of vintage 'split screen' fake interviews with Sellers and Scott intended for publicity use. Each actor projects his chosen PR image. They're charming, especially when Sellers takes us on a lightning tour of regional English accents. I wonder if those distinctions have faded, 52 years later? As a pleasant surprise, Curtis Tsui has overseen the creation of a collectable, highly amusing substitute for a standard disc insert booklet. Inside an authentic-looking 'Wing Attack Plan R' envelope, David Bromwich's insert essay is printed in the form of classified orders on two sheets of loose-leaf paper. Terry Southern's hilariously profane 1994 essay on the movie comes in the form of a Playboy parody, illustrated with photos of Tracy Reed as 'Miss Foreign Affairs.' Finally, the disc credits and details are printed in a genuine miniature Russian Phrase Book and Holy Bible, a little bigger than one-inch square. It indeed offers some phrases that I'll have to try on my multi-lingual daughter, like "Where is the toilet?" But the cover Lies, as there's no Bible in there that I could find. Also, no nine packs of chewing gum and no issue of prophylactics. On a scale of Excellent, Good, Fair, and Poor, Dr. Strangelove Blu-ray rates: Movie: Excellent Video: Excellent Sound: Excellent uncompressed monaural + alternate 5.1 surround soundtrack, presented in DTS-hd Master Audio Supplements: (from Criterion stats): New interviews with Stanley Kubrick scholars Mick Broderick and Rodney Hill; archivist Richard Daniels; cinematographer and camera innovator Joe Dunton; camera operator Kelvin Pike; and David George, son of Peter George, on whose novel Red Alert the film is based. Excerpts from a 1966 audio interview with Kubrick, conducted by physicist and author Jeremy Bernstein; Four short documentaries about the making of the film, the sociopolitical climate of the period, the work of actor Peter Sellers, and the artistry of Kubrick. Promotional interviews from 1963 with Sellers and actor George C. Scott; excerpt from a 1980 interview with Sellers from NBC's Today show; Trailers; insert essay by scholar David Bromwich and a 1994 article by screenwriter Terry Southern on the making of the film. Deaf and Hearing-impaired Friendly? Yes; Subtitles: English Packaging: Keep case Reviewed: June 7, 2016 (5136love)
Visit DVD Savant's Main Column Page Glenn Erickson answers most reader mail: dvdsavant@mindspring.com
Text © Copyright 2016 Glenn Erickson...
Reviewed by Glenn Erickson
When I heard that Criterion was putting out a Blu-ray of Dr. Strangelove, Or: How I Learned To Stop Worrying and Love The Bomb I thought that there already was a disc out there from The Collection. Nope, Sony released a Blu-ray in 2009, and back around 2000, a DVD. I was thinking of a deluxe laserdisc from Criterion sometime in the early 1990s. I remember being impressed by its extras, which included documentary materials about the Bomb in the Cold War years. Potential new fans of Kubrick's wickedly funny movie are being born every year, which leaves those of us for whom Strangelove was an important part of growing up having to remind ourselves just how good it still is. I remember recording the soundtrack off TV in high school and memorizing all of the dialogue; this has to be the most quotable movie of its decade. I also can remember my father's reaction when we watched it together on network TV, ABC, I think. An Air Force lifer who wouldn't discuss politics (or much of anything), the Old Sarge had little use for 'defeatist' movies like On the Beach. But he thought the premise of Seven Days in May wasn't really farfetched, having worked with Hap Arnold and Curtis LeMay. He shook his head after seeing Dr. Strangelove but I could tell that he found it very funny. It's too bad the two of us couldn't have gotten our senses of humor more in sync -- as soon as I wore my hair long, I think he stopped trusting me. I believe that Dr. Strangelove is one of few movies that 'made a difference' in that it redirected American public opinion about a major life issue. From that point forward only the ignorant and Shoot First fanatics talked about nuclear war as win-able, at least not until the neo-con Millennium. 1963 audiences had little use for suspect 'pacifist' movies that ended in masochistic doom, like On the Beach. The nuclear crisis was such a hot topic that that the low-key English science fiction film The Day the Earth Caught Fire was a surprise hit. Strangelove is more realistic than the straight atom nightmare movies. We're told that when Ronald Reagan was briefed at the start of his first term in office, he asked where the White House elevator to the War Room was. He figured it was there because he saw it in the movie. The decision to opt for broad comedy was Kubrick's inspired stroke. Dr. Strangelove may be the first hit film that was a bona-fide black comedy; I don't recall anybody even using the expression before it came out. It's not a crazy comedy where anything funny is okay. The backbone of the story remains 100% serious, while the jokes relentlessly demolish the death-cult logic of our Nuclear Deterrent. Kubrick and Terry Southern populate Peter George's credible cold-sweat crisis with insane caricatures given ridiculous names. The scary part is that, no matter how stupid they behave, none are really that exaggerated. Peter Sellers serves triple duty in a trio of characterizations, effectively outdoing previous champion film chameleon Alec Guinness. George C. Scott steals the show as an infantile Air Force General who acts like a Looney Tunes cartoon character. And the rest of the inspired cast nails their highly original quasi-comic characters. Every joke is a gallows joke; we're never allowed to forget that we all have an atomic noose around our necks. I almost envy the dead viewers still unfamiliar with Dr. Strangelove, as seeing it for the first time was a mind-opening experience. Jack D. Ripper (Sterling Hayden), the commander of Burpelson Air Force Base, orders a flight of B-52s to attack Russia. He then seals off Burpelson to prevent a recall of the planes. Exchange officer Group Captain Lionel Mandrake (Peter Sellers) tries to talk him into divulging the recall code. Holding court in the War Room, President Merkin Muffley (Peter Sellers) is horrified to discover that such a Snafu is even possible. He orders General Buck Turgidson (George C. Scott) to take Burpelson Air Base by force and recall the planes, and gets on the hotline with the Soviet Premier. Up in the lead B-52, Major 'King' Kong (Slim Pickens) receives Ripper's orders, coded 'Wing Attack Plan R.' He urges his crew to avoid Russian defenses and reach their primary target, while Turgidson tries to talk Muffley into launching an all-out attack. Advising in the War Room is ex-Nazi scientist Dr. Strangelove, a grinning theoretician already fantasizing about the sexual recreation for the ruling elite in the VIP bomb shelters, where America's chosen high officials will be living for the next 93 years. Dr. Strangelove divides its time between three main locations, each with its own deadly serious function and each overlaid with a different comedic tone. In his locked executive office in the Alaskan Air Force Base, the sexually obsessed American General Ripper faces off with a veddy proper English officer in a farcical one-act. Beady-eyed and intense in his anti-Communist convictions, Sterling Hayden contrasts beautifully with Seller's genial Group Captain, who can't fathom the depth of his commanding officer's madness. The action in the B-52 is a throwback to those gung-ho WW2 action films in which a racially and ethnically diverse attack team uses brains and guts to barrel through their suicide mission. Even though their pilot is a cowboy clown (Slim Pickens doing his only characterization, Slim Pickens) they're an admirable bunch, seemingly the only humans capable of doing anything without red tape or Coca-Cola machines getting in their way. The horror is that our heroes' mission is totally against every moral precept ever imagined. The docu feeling in the B-52 is further amplified by the gritty newsreel-like footage of the taking of Burpelson Afb, with American troops fighting American troops. In 1964 these were traumatic, subversive scenes. U.S. troops on film are supposed to fight for freedom and righteousness, not kill each other. Kubrick has the audacity to place in the middle of it all a big sign that reads, 'Peace is our Profession.' The grainy authenticity of these scenes would come back to haunt us when similar footage started being seen nightly on television, fresh from Vietnam. The center of activities is the War Room, a Camelot-like round table of Death located in the basement of the White House. The rational President Merkin Muffley trips over an ideological roadblock in the form of Buck Turgidson, a gum-chewing military nutcase itching to go to war and overjoyed that Jack Ripper has 'exceeded his authority.' The President is hardly in charge of foreign policy, and none of fifty advisors come to his aid with any original thinking. An amateur among experts, Muffley must be shepherded through protocol by an assistant. Here's where Southern and Kubrick make their biggest points, basically asserting that a showdown with the Russkies is inevitable because the American stance is a military one -- Sac just wants the peacenik in the Oval Office to get out of their way. The comedy is all over the place, and it's a miracle that it works. The stand-up humor on the hot line to Moscow is very much like a Bob Newhart routine. At Burpelson, it's the Goon Show all over again. Sellers' Mandrake cannot sway General Ripper, and the moronic Major Bat Guano (Keenan Wynn) suspects the Raf officer of being a 'deviated prevert.' Up in the bomber, Mad Magazine craziness is grafted onto combat realism. Previous looks at the Air Force's flying deterrent were enlistment booster films like Strategic Air Command. Kubrick drove his English craftsmen to fake the entire bomber interior right down to the switches and gauges. The aerial combat is more realistic than that in escapist films, even with inadequate models used for exteriors of the jet bomber in flight. Dr. Strangelove maintains a nervous tension between absurd comedy and morbid unease. Kubrick's main career themes -- sexual madness, treacherous technology and the folly of human planning -- come into strong relief. We're motivated to root for the fliers that are going to destroy the world. Then we fret over the President's pitiful lack of control. Dour, glowering Russian Ambassador De Sadesky (Peter Bull) informs the War Room about his country's solution to the costly Arms Race, the dreaded Doomsday Machine. Security advisor Dr. Strangelove enters the film in the last act to serve as sort of an angel of Death. Based loosely on Rand-corporation experts that calculated eventualities in nuclear war scenarios, Sellers' vision of Strangelove is a throwback to German Expressionism. A Mabuse in a wheelchair, he's black-gloved like the brilliant but mad Rotwang of Metropolis. Strangelove enters like the specter of Death itself; his grin looks like a skull. Contemplating 'megadeaths' gives him sexual pleasure. The detonation of the first bomb seems to liberate Strangelove, and he finds he can walk again. The character is straight from the Siegfried Kracauer playbook. The evil of nuclear war has restored the representative of apocalyptic Nazi vengeance to full power. Twenty years after his death, we all get to join Hitler in his suicide bunker. First-time viewers are usually floored by the audacious Dr. Strangelove. Only the truly uninformed will not recognize baritone James Earl Jones as one of Major Kong's flight crew. Those going back for a repeated peek will derive added enjoyment from Kubrick's deft juggling of his several visual styles and his avoidance of anything that might deflate tension: we hear about the recall code being issued but are spared any view of the responsible military personnel that must have sent it. Some of the best fun is finding details in designer Ken Adam's impressive War Room, such as the pies already laid out in preparation for the aborted pie-fight finale. Even better is watching the War room extras as they strain to maintain straight faces no matter how funny Sellers and Scott get; that contrast is what makes the comedy so brilliant. Watch Peter Bull carefully. In one extended take he starts to smile at Sellers, more than once. He catches himself and then is clearly on the verge of cracking up, forcing Kubrick to cut away. The Criterion Collection's Blu-ray of Dr. Strangelove, Or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb is the expected sterling transfer of this Kubrick classic, a 4K digital transfer. I put it up against Sony's old Blu-ray and the difference is not so great as to recommend that a trade-up is necessary. However, it looks extremely good. The Kubrick faithful out there will be thinking, 'I must not allow a disc shelf gap.' The HD picture makes quite a bit of difference in understanding Kubrick's photographic strategy. Not only do the hand-held Burpelson combat sequences approximate the look of documentary footage, a more contrasty and grainy film stock has been used. Switching "film looks" later became a fad for directors looking to be viewed as artists. The idea perhaps reached its zenith in Oliver Stone's Natural Born Killers. Back in 1964 the effect of imitating a news film look was quite stunning -- audiences reacted to the combat scenes as if they were real. I'm glad that we're finally beyond the frustrating early DVD years, when someone (at Warner Home Video?) claimed that Stanley Kubrick insisted that his films be shown at the old 1:33 aspect ratio for TV and disc. Even if they wangled a note from Kubrick to that effect, I still believe that the aspect ratio games were played because Kubrick was too busy to oversee new masters of his films, and Whv wanted to market them in a hurry at a minimum of cost. That's all old news now, but there was also the interesting aspect ratio question concerning Strangelove. At least one disc iteration -- Criterion's laserdisc, I'm fairly sure -- was released in a completely un-original dual-ratio scan. Kubrick apparently said that he preferred to see the War Room scenes at a full-frame 1:37, and so this one transfer of the film popped back and forth between ratios. I've never heard of anything like this before or after. Criterion's British 1:66 framing for this disc is correct, even though the film was probably screened at 1:85 for many of its American play dates. Criterion's new extras begin with interview featurettes with well-chosen spokespeople, like scholars Mick Broderick and Rodney Hill. Kubrick archivist Richard Daniels' piece is quite good, as is an examination of the film's visuals by two of the original camera crew. The son of author Peter George gives an excellent account of his father's life and the adaptation of his novel Red Alert. George reportedly liked the notion of turning his story into a black comedy, especially when his original narrative was changed very little. The stroke of genius was deciding that the entire subject could best be approached as a sick joke. Other extras are repeated from Sony's DVD disc of 2004. A making-of docu interviews several surviving technicians and actors, and a primer on the Cold War atom standoff goes deep into detail. The featurettes have input from Robert McNamara, Spike Lee and Bob Woodward. Critics Roger Ebert and Alexander Walker are also represented. Docu pieces on Peter Sellers and Kubrick appear to suffer from legal restraints disallowing the use of clips from non-Columbia sources. The Peter Sellers show features several choice film clips from the 'fifties, including Sellers' almost perfect take on a William Conrad-like hired killer. We're shown some stills from the legendary The Goon Show, which is not mentioned by name. A Stanley Kubrick career piece that uses UA, MGM and Universal trailers covers a lot of territory a bit too quickly. It does have some nice interview input from Kubrick's partner James B. Harris. Harris has since given terrific interviews on Criterion discs for Kubrick's The Killing and Paths of Glory. Criterion's Curtis Tsui produced those discs as well as this one. An entertaining extra is a pair of vintage 'split screen' fake interviews with Sellers and Scott intended for publicity use. Each actor projects his chosen PR image. They're charming, especially when Sellers takes us on a lightning tour of regional English accents. I wonder if those distinctions have faded, 52 years later? As a pleasant surprise, Curtis Tsui has overseen the creation of a collectable, highly amusing substitute for a standard disc insert booklet. Inside an authentic-looking 'Wing Attack Plan R' envelope, David Bromwich's insert essay is printed in the form of classified orders on two sheets of loose-leaf paper. Terry Southern's hilariously profane 1994 essay on the movie comes in the form of a Playboy parody, illustrated with photos of Tracy Reed as 'Miss Foreign Affairs.' Finally, the disc credits and details are printed in a genuine miniature Russian Phrase Book and Holy Bible, a little bigger than one-inch square. It indeed offers some phrases that I'll have to try on my multi-lingual daughter, like "Where is the toilet?" But the cover Lies, as there's no Bible in there that I could find. Also, no nine packs of chewing gum and no issue of prophylactics. On a scale of Excellent, Good, Fair, and Poor, Dr. Strangelove Blu-ray rates: Movie: Excellent Video: Excellent Sound: Excellent uncompressed monaural + alternate 5.1 surround soundtrack, presented in DTS-hd Master Audio Supplements: (from Criterion stats): New interviews with Stanley Kubrick scholars Mick Broderick and Rodney Hill; archivist Richard Daniels; cinematographer and camera innovator Joe Dunton; camera operator Kelvin Pike; and David George, son of Peter George, on whose novel Red Alert the film is based. Excerpts from a 1966 audio interview with Kubrick, conducted by physicist and author Jeremy Bernstein; Four short documentaries about the making of the film, the sociopolitical climate of the period, the work of actor Peter Sellers, and the artistry of Kubrick. Promotional interviews from 1963 with Sellers and actor George C. Scott; excerpt from a 1980 interview with Sellers from NBC's Today show; Trailers; insert essay by scholar David Bromwich and a 1994 article by screenwriter Terry Southern on the making of the film. Deaf and Hearing-impaired Friendly? Yes; Subtitles: English Packaging: Keep case Reviewed: June 7, 2016 (5136love)
Visit DVD Savant's Main Column Page Glenn Erickson answers most reader mail: dvdsavant@mindspring.com
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- 6/11/2016
- by Glenn Erickson
- Trailers from Hell
To the world, they're the Prince of Wales and Duchess of Cornwall. To their friends, they're Charles and Camilla. But to each other, they've long been Fred and Gladys. • Want to keep up with the latest royals coverage? Click here to subscribe to the Royals Newsletter.Prince Charles and Camilla, Duchess of Cornwall have been using these pet names for each other for decades, and the inspiration for the names comes from Charles himself. The names are lifted from The Goon Show, a comedy radio program from the BBC that was a favorite of the prince. The Goon Show premiered...
- 12/17/2015
- by Diana Pearl, @dianapearl_
- PEOPLE.com
By rights I should hate the English. Seriously, my background is almost entirely Scots and Irish. I grew up hearing about the troubles the English gave to the Scots and Irish, both in school and from my parents.
Yet I do not, I love the English. How can I hate a country that gave us not only Monty Python but also Benny Hill and the Carry On Films? How can I bear any ill will to a country that gave us writers of the caliber of Ramsey Campbell, Brian Aldiss, Michael Moorcock and J. G Ballard? How can anyone hate a country that not only prizes eccentric behavior but encourages it? Take Mr. Kim Newman for instance, a brilliant writer whose work appears regularly in Video WatchDog and Videoscope Mr. Newman dresses himself, has his hair and mustache styled and speaks in the manner of someone from the 19th Century!
Yet I do not, I love the English. How can I hate a country that gave us not only Monty Python but also Benny Hill and the Carry On Films? How can I bear any ill will to a country that gave us writers of the caliber of Ramsey Campbell, Brian Aldiss, Michael Moorcock and J. G Ballard? How can anyone hate a country that not only prizes eccentric behavior but encourages it? Take Mr. Kim Newman for instance, a brilliant writer whose work appears regularly in Video WatchDog and Videoscope Mr. Newman dresses himself, has his hair and mustache styled and speaks in the manner of someone from the 19th Century!
- 5/26/2015
- by Sam Moffitt
- WeAreMovieGeeks.com
Michael Palin Cbe has achieved that rare feat of being not only a man of multiple trades - actor, comedian, writer, presenter and political campaigner - but a master of them all.
Best known for being one sixth of iconic comedy group Monty Python, Palin has carved a hugely successful and varied career in showbusiness.
His achievements range from winning the BAFTA for Best Supporting Actor in 1989 for his role in A Fish Called Wanda, to travelling across the world in 80 days, to reuniting with his fellow Pythons for a hugely anticipated series of live Monty Python shows last year.
In the name of getting to know one of Britain's most famous men a little better, we headed to BAFTA HQ on Tuesday night (March 17) for the latest in BAFTA's live strand A Life in Television. Host David Walliams certainly extracted a host of fascinating facts about Palin's life (and...
Best known for being one sixth of iconic comedy group Monty Python, Palin has carved a hugely successful and varied career in showbusiness.
His achievements range from winning the BAFTA for Best Supporting Actor in 1989 for his role in A Fish Called Wanda, to travelling across the world in 80 days, to reuniting with his fellow Pythons for a hugely anticipated series of live Monty Python shows last year.
In the name of getting to know one of Britain's most famous men a little better, we headed to BAFTA HQ on Tuesday night (March 17) for the latest in BAFTA's live strand A Life in Television. Host David Walliams certainly extracted a host of fascinating facts about Palin's life (and...
- 3/19/2015
- Digital Spy
Monty Python’s Terry Jones arrived during a break in the clouds Friday for an Adr session at West La’s The Village, the storied recording studio where the late Robin Williams lent his voice to Jones’ upcoming sci-fi comedy Absolutely Anything shortly before his death this summer.
“One thing we’re grateful to Robin for is he was the first to come on and he stuck with the whole thing,” recalled Jones’ close collaborator Gavin Scott (The Mists of Avalon, Small Soldiers). “The kind of attitude that led him to stick with the project through all its ups and downs, he totally exhibited here. He wanted to make everybody feel good from the engineer to the lady making the coffee. It was very late in the day for him and we didn’t know that, but he was a real mensch.”
Co-scripted over two decades by Jones and Scott,...
“One thing we’re grateful to Robin for is he was the first to come on and he stuck with the whole thing,” recalled Jones’ close collaborator Gavin Scott (The Mists of Avalon, Small Soldiers). “The kind of attitude that led him to stick with the project through all its ups and downs, he totally exhibited here. He wanted to make everybody feel good from the engineer to the lady making the coffee. It was very late in the day for him and we didn’t know that, but he was a real mensch.”
Co-scripted over two decades by Jones and Scott,...
- 12/15/2014
- by Jen Yamato
- Deadline
When Prince Charles called Joan Rivers "utterly irreplaceable" on Friday, he was paying tribute not only to a groundbreaking comedian but also his friend. Like millions around the world, Charles, 65, and his wife, Camilla, Duchess of Cornwall, expressed sadness about her death on Thursday. For Charles, who since his youth has been a fan of zany humor, Rivers was one of those often-edgy performers who put a smile on his face, regularly joining him at fundraisers or for events at his country home. She was a guest at his wedding to Camilla in 2005, and when he turned 60 three years later,...
- 9/6/2014
- by Simon Perry, @SPerryPeoplemag
- PEOPLE.com
Thought to be lost for ever, short films co-written by Mordecai Richler to have first screening in almost 50 years
Two long-lost short films starring Peter Sellers will be shown in public for the first time in 2014, more than half a century after they were made.
In 1957, the iconic comic actor starred in the 30-minute shorts, Dearth of a Salesman and Insomnia Is Good for You, for the now-defunct Park Lane Films. They were discovered in 1996 in a skip outside the production company's headquarters by the building manager, Robert Farrow, who says he "put them in a cupboard and pretty much forgot about them".
He continued: "During a recent clear-out, I found them … and decided to see what the tins contained. It was then I realised they were two Sellers films, including the negatives, titles, show prints, outtakes and the master print. It was amazing."
The shorts were made early in Sellers's career,...
Two long-lost short films starring Peter Sellers will be shown in public for the first time in 2014, more than half a century after they were made.
In 1957, the iconic comic actor starred in the 30-minute shorts, Dearth of a Salesman and Insomnia Is Good for You, for the now-defunct Park Lane Films. They were discovered in 1996 in a skip outside the production company's headquarters by the building manager, Robert Farrow, who says he "put them in a cupboard and pretty much forgot about them".
He continued: "During a recent clear-out, I found them … and decided to see what the tins contained. It was then I realised they were two Sellers films, including the negatives, titles, show prints, outtakes and the master print. It was amazing."
The shorts were made early in Sellers's career,...
- 12/12/2013
- by Matt Trueman
- The Guardian - Film News
Two lost Peter Sellers films from 1957 have been found in a skip in London.
Dearth of a Salesman and Insomnia Is Good for You were thought to be lost when they were found by Southend-on-Sea resident Robert Farrow when he was cleaning out a now-defunct Park Lane Films property.
"As the building manager it was my job to oversee that each floor of the property was properly cleared prior to refurbishment back in 1996," Farrow said.
"I spotted 21 film cans in a skip outside the office block and thought they would be good for storing my Super 8 collection in. I took them home, put them in a cupboard and pretty much forgot about them."
He continued: "During a recent clear-out I found them again and decided to see what the tins contained - it was then I realised they were two Sellers films including the negatives, titles, show prints, outtakes and the master print.
Dearth of a Salesman and Insomnia Is Good for You were thought to be lost when they were found by Southend-on-Sea resident Robert Farrow when he was cleaning out a now-defunct Park Lane Films property.
"As the building manager it was my job to oversee that each floor of the property was properly cleared prior to refurbishment back in 1996," Farrow said.
"I spotted 21 film cans in a skip outside the office block and thought they would be good for storing my Super 8 collection in. I took them home, put them in a cupboard and pretty much forgot about them."
He continued: "During a recent clear-out I found them again and decided to see what the tins contained - it was then I realised they were two Sellers films including the negatives, titles, show prints, outtakes and the master print.
- 12/11/2013
- Digital Spy
Prolific comedy actor who worked with Peter Sellers, Tony Hancock, Spike Milligan and Hattie Jacques
The stony-faced, beaky comedy actor Graham Stark, who has died aged 91, is best remembered for his appearances alongside Peter Sellers, notably in the Pink Panther movies. His familiar face and voice, on television and radio, were part of the essential furniture in the sitting room of our popular culture for more than half a century. A stalwart in the national postwar comedy boom led by Sellers, Tony Hancock, Spike Milligan, Dick Emery, Eric Sykes and Benny Hill, he worked with them all in a sort of unofficial supporting repertory company that also included Hattie Jacques, Deryck Guyler, Patricia Hayes and Arthur Mullard. He was also a man of surprising and various parts: child actor, trained dancer, film-maker, occasional writer, and dedicated and critically acclaimed photographer.
Like Gypsy Rose Lee, he had a resourceful and determined...
The stony-faced, beaky comedy actor Graham Stark, who has died aged 91, is best remembered for his appearances alongside Peter Sellers, notably in the Pink Panther movies. His familiar face and voice, on television and radio, were part of the essential furniture in the sitting room of our popular culture for more than half a century. A stalwart in the national postwar comedy boom led by Sellers, Tony Hancock, Spike Milligan, Dick Emery, Eric Sykes and Benny Hill, he worked with them all in a sort of unofficial supporting repertory company that also included Hattie Jacques, Deryck Guyler, Patricia Hayes and Arthur Mullard. He was also a man of surprising and various parts: child actor, trained dancer, film-maker, occasional writer, and dedicated and critically acclaimed photographer.
Like Gypsy Rose Lee, he had a resourceful and determined...
- 11/1/2013
- by Michael Coveney
- The Guardian - Film News
Musical theatre star known as 'the champagne soprano'
Lizbeth Webb, one of the great forgotten stars of British musical theatre in the 1940s and 1950s, has died aged 86. Known as "the champagne soprano", she was the first to sing one of the BBC's most requested songs of all time, This Is My Lovely Day, written for her by Vivian Ellis and AP Herbert and included in their musical comedy Bless the Bride (1947).
Starting out during the second world war as a teenage singer with dance bands – she worked later with such conductors as Mantovani, Geraldo, Max Jaffa and Vilém Tauský – Webb was discovered by the bandleader Jack Payne and turned into a West End star by the impresario Charles B Cochran in 1946. Over the next 10 years she made her mark as a soprano of great range (often singing in two different registers), vibrancy and vivacity. She was dark, petite and...
Lizbeth Webb, one of the great forgotten stars of British musical theatre in the 1940s and 1950s, has died aged 86. Known as "the champagne soprano", she was the first to sing one of the BBC's most requested songs of all time, This Is My Lovely Day, written for her by Vivian Ellis and AP Herbert and included in their musical comedy Bless the Bride (1947).
Starting out during the second world war as a teenage singer with dance bands – she worked later with such conductors as Mantovani, Geraldo, Max Jaffa and Vilém Tauský – Webb was discovered by the bandleader Jack Payne and turned into a West End star by the impresario Charles B Cochran in 1946. Over the next 10 years she made her mark as a soprano of great range (often singing in two different registers), vibrancy and vivacity. She was dark, petite and...
- 1/27/2013
- by Michael Coveney
- The Guardian - Film News
London — Eric Sykes, the widely-acclaimed British comedy actor and writer, died Wednesday. He was 89.
Sykes was one of the most popular comic actors of his generation, appearing in shows in London's West End into his 80s. He began his career writing scripts for BBC shows, co-writing 24 episodes of the classic radio comedy "The Goon Show" with the late Spike Milligan.
He appeared in the "Sykes and a" sitcom about a brother and sister living together in west London, which ran in the 1960s and 1970s. He went on to write and act in theater shows and movies, including an appearance in "The Others" starring Nicole Kidman and in the Harry Potter film "Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire."
Sykes also wrote scripts for Peter Sellers and other major British actors.
Manager Norma Farnes said that Sykes died following a brief illness and was with his family when he passed away,...
Sykes was one of the most popular comic actors of his generation, appearing in shows in London's West End into his 80s. He began his career writing scripts for BBC shows, co-writing 24 episodes of the classic radio comedy "The Goon Show" with the late Spike Milligan.
He appeared in the "Sykes and a" sitcom about a brother and sister living together in west London, which ran in the 1960s and 1970s. He went on to write and act in theater shows and movies, including an appearance in "The Others" starring Nicole Kidman and in the Harry Potter film "Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire."
Sykes also wrote scripts for Peter Sellers and other major British actors.
Manager Norma Farnes said that Sykes died following a brief illness and was with his family when he passed away,...
- 7/5/2012
- by AP
- Huffington Post
Comedy writer and actor who starred in 70s sitcom Sykes and Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire has died after a short illness
From writing a film where the only word uttered is "rhubarb" to creating one of TV's most popular sitcom partnerships, Eric Sykes – who died on Wednesday aged 89 – will be remembered as one of Britain's finest comedy actors and writers.
Tributes came in thick and fast for a man who was seldom off radios, stages or screens in a career spanning 60 years that will spark different memories for different generations.
Some will know him best for writing and directing the silly slapstick film The Plank while others will remember his sitcom partnership with Hattie Jacques, who played his perpetually exasperated sister.
More recently, in the face of near total deafness and blindness, Sykes appeared in the fourth Harry Potter film and, in 2007, the British comedy Son of Rambow.
From writing a film where the only word uttered is "rhubarb" to creating one of TV's most popular sitcom partnerships, Eric Sykes – who died on Wednesday aged 89 – will be remembered as one of Britain's finest comedy actors and writers.
Tributes came in thick and fast for a man who was seldom off radios, stages or screens in a career spanning 60 years that will spark different memories for different generations.
Some will know him best for writing and directing the silly slapstick film The Plank while others will remember his sitcom partnership with Hattie Jacques, who played his perpetually exasperated sister.
More recently, in the face of near total deafness and blindness, Sykes appeared in the fourth Harry Potter film and, in 2007, the British comedy Son of Rambow.
- 7/4/2012
- by Mark Brown
- The Guardian - Film News
Fans of British radio, television and film will doubtless remember Eric Sykes as a tireless performer who entertained generations of U.K. audiences. Not only did he appear and star in several TV projects and movies, but he also wrote scripts for major British actors including Peter Sellers.
Sykes began his career writing for BBC radio shows and co-wrote 24 episodes of radio comedy "The Goon Show" with the late Spike Milligan, reports Fox News. He then went on to appear in several TV sitcoms, including "Syes and a" about a brother and sister living in West London. More recently, he made small appearances in movies like "The Others" and "Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire."
"To me, he was a great inspiration, both as a writer and performer," says Monty Python's Michael Palin.
"Oh no! Eric Sykes gone?" tweets comedian Stephen Fry. "An adorable, brilliant, modest, hilarious, innovative and irreplaceable comic master.
Sykes began his career writing for BBC radio shows and co-wrote 24 episodes of radio comedy "The Goon Show" with the late Spike Milligan, reports Fox News. He then went on to appear in several TV sitcoms, including "Syes and a" about a brother and sister living in West London. More recently, he made small appearances in movies like "The Others" and "Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire."
"To me, he was a great inspiration, both as a writer and performer," says Monty Python's Michael Palin.
"Oh no! Eric Sykes gone?" tweets comedian Stephen Fry. "An adorable, brilliant, modest, hilarious, innovative and irreplaceable comic master.
- 7/4/2012
- by editorial@zap2it.com
- Pop2it
Eric Sykes, a well-loved British comedian, actor and writer whose career spanned more than 50 years, has died. His manager Norma Farnes tells Reuters Sykes passed away peacefully this morning after a short illness. He was 89. Sykes began his career as a comedy writer in the 1940s in London on the radio show Variety Bandbox and went on to co-write 24 episodes of the classic radio comedy The Goon Show on BBC. His breakthrough in television came in 1960 in Sykes and a…. in which he co-starred with Hatti Jacques in a brother-sister act. He had several supporting roles in feature films including Heavens Above (1963), Those Magnificent Men In Their Flying Machines (1965) and The Spy With A Cold Nose (1966). He is possibly best remembered for the virtually dialogue-free film called The Plank in which he and Tommy Cooper appeared as two workmen delivering planks to a building site. Most recently Sykes appeared in The Others (2001) starring Nicole Kidman,...
- 7/4/2012
- by THE DEADLINE TEAM
- Deadline TV
London, July 4: British comic legend Eric Sykes died Wednesday after short illness. He was 89 years old.
Some of his best remembered films are "Harry Potter: The Goblet Of Fire", "Those Magnificent Men In Their Flying Machines," and "The Plank", reports femalefirst.co.uk.
Skyes had written skits for big names like Tony Hancock, Peter Sellers and Spike Milligan. In 1950, he worked in a radio comedy show - "The Goon Show".
In.
Some of his best remembered films are "Harry Potter: The Goblet Of Fire", "Those Magnificent Men In Their Flying Machines," and "The Plank", reports femalefirst.co.uk.
Skyes had written skits for big names like Tony Hancock, Peter Sellers and Spike Milligan. In 1950, he worked in a radio comedy show - "The Goon Show".
In.
- 7/4/2012
- by Shiva Prakash
- RealBollywood.com
Eric Sykes, the legendary TV and radio comedian, has passed away aged 89. The writer and star of classic '70s BBC sitcom Sykes, a writer for The Goon Show and a collaborator with stars such as Hattie Jacques, Tommy Cooper, Peter Sellers and Tony Hancock, Sykes entertained and amused audiences for seven decades. [Photo Gallery - The Life & Career of Eric Sykes] Sykes was partially deaf from his 30s and in later age was registered blind, but he continued to perform despite his disabilities. He married Edith Eleanore Milbrandt (more)...
- 7/4/2012
- by By Alex Fletcher
- Digital Spy
Directed by Richard Lester
Written by John Antrobus, Adapted by Charles Wood, based on the play by Spike Milligan and John Antrobus
Featuring (in order of height) Rita Tushingham, Dudley Moore, Harry Secombe, Arthur Lowe, Roy Kinnear, Spick Milligan, Ronald Fraser, Jimmy Edwards, Michael Hordern, Peter Cook, Ralph Richardson
If listing cast members by order of height seems rather absurd, welcome to The Bed Sitting Room. That’s how the film opens and it just gets stranger from there. It’s possibly the oddest post apocalyptic tale ever filmed, short of Six String Samurai, though not as much fun.
After the credits roll, the film opens on a BBC anchorman (Thornton), dressed in a suit from mid-chest up, (Thornton) knocking at a makeshift door in the middle of a field of mud. Invited in by the inhabitant, the anchorman squats behind a hollowed out television and announces the third (or...
Written by John Antrobus, Adapted by Charles Wood, based on the play by Spike Milligan and John Antrobus
Featuring (in order of height) Rita Tushingham, Dudley Moore, Harry Secombe, Arthur Lowe, Roy Kinnear, Spick Milligan, Ronald Fraser, Jimmy Edwards, Michael Hordern, Peter Cook, Ralph Richardson
If listing cast members by order of height seems rather absurd, welcome to The Bed Sitting Room. That’s how the film opens and it just gets stranger from there. It’s possibly the oddest post apocalyptic tale ever filmed, short of Six String Samurai, though not as much fun.
After the credits roll, the film opens on a BBC anchorman (Thornton), dressed in a suit from mid-chest up, (Thornton) knocking at a makeshift door in the middle of a field of mud. Invited in by the inhabitant, the anchorman squats behind a hollowed out television and announces the third (or...
- 4/10/2012
- by Chris McMillan
- Planet Fury
Directed by Richard Lester
Written by John Antrobus, Adapted by Charles Wood, based on the play by Spike Milligan and John Antrobus
Featuring (in order of height) Rita Tushingham, Dudley Moore, Harry Secombe, Arthur Lowe, Roy Kinnear, Spick Milligan, Ronald Fraser, Jimmy Edwards, Michael Hordern, Peter Cook, Ralph Richardson
If listing cast members by order of height seems rather absurd, welcome to The Bed Sitting Room. That’s how the film opens and it just gets stranger from there. It’s possibly the oddest post apocalyptic tale ever filmed, short of Six String Samurai, though not as much fun.
After the credits roll, the film opens on a BBC anchorman (Thornton), dressed in a suit from mid-chest up, (Thornton) knocking at a makeshift door in the middle of a field of mud. Invited in by the inhabitant, the anchorman squats behind a hollowed out television and announces the third (or...
Written by John Antrobus, Adapted by Charles Wood, based on the play by Spike Milligan and John Antrobus
Featuring (in order of height) Rita Tushingham, Dudley Moore, Harry Secombe, Arthur Lowe, Roy Kinnear, Spick Milligan, Ronald Fraser, Jimmy Edwards, Michael Hordern, Peter Cook, Ralph Richardson
If listing cast members by order of height seems rather absurd, welcome to The Bed Sitting Room. That’s how the film opens and it just gets stranger from there. It’s possibly the oddest post apocalyptic tale ever filmed, short of Six String Samurai, though not as much fun.
After the credits roll, the film opens on a BBC anchorman (Thornton), dressed in a suit from mid-chest up, (Thornton) knocking at a makeshift door in the middle of a field of mud. Invited in by the inhabitant, the anchorman squats behind a hollowed out television and announces the third (or...
- 4/10/2012
- by Chris McMillan
- Planet Fury
The actor and comedian Peter Sellers was a bad father with little sense of humour, his former wife Britt Ekland has revealed.
Asked by Jenny if he made her laugh, Britt said: “No never. Do you think The Goon Show would make me laugh – I didn’t understand a word of it. He would send me telegrams with Ying tong ying tong, Ying tong ying tong, Ying tong iddle I po written on them, all those sentences one after the other, after the other.”
Britt who married the star of the Pink Panther and Dr Strangelove after just 10 days said: “The whole marriage was bad, he was a mad man and he threw me out in Rome in the middle of the night when we were on holiday.”
She added they were married ten days after meeting and had one child. “He was not a good father, he had no loving feelings towards his children.
Asked by Jenny if he made her laugh, Britt said: “No never. Do you think The Goon Show would make me laugh – I didn’t understand a word of it. He would send me telegrams with Ying tong ying tong, Ying tong ying tong, Ying tong iddle I po written on them, all those sentences one after the other, after the other.”
Britt who married the star of the Pink Panther and Dr Strangelove after just 10 days said: “The whole marriage was bad, he was a mad man and he threw me out in Rome in the middle of the night when we were on holiday.”
She added they were married ten days after meeting and had one child. “He was not a good father, he had no loving feelings towards his children.
- 11/27/2010
- by Lisa McGarry
- Unreality
Items belonging to the late British comedian Spike Milligan have sold for a total of $111,950 (GBP73,000) at an auction in London.
The sale on Wednesday included the star's wartime diaries and original tape recordings of The Goon Show - the British radio comedy programme that shot Milligan to fame in the 1950s.
But it was Milligan's personal Beatles memorabilia that was most sought after, with a collection of seven Christmas cards sent to him by George Harrison selling for $10,944 (GBP7,200), a poem and cartoon created by Sir Paul McCartney fetching $9,120 (GBP6,000) and a copy of Arthur Janov's The Primal Scream signed by John Lennon selling for $6,385 (GBP4,200).
The comic's widow Shelagh decided to put the items up for sale because she is moving house.
The sale on Wednesday included the star's wartime diaries and original tape recordings of The Goon Show - the British radio comedy programme that shot Milligan to fame in the 1950s.
But it was Milligan's personal Beatles memorabilia that was most sought after, with a collection of seven Christmas cards sent to him by George Harrison selling for $10,944 (GBP7,200), a poem and cartoon created by Sir Paul McCartney fetching $9,120 (GBP6,000) and a copy of Arthur Janov's The Primal Scream signed by John Lennon selling for $6,385 (GBP4,200).
The comic's widow Shelagh decided to put the items up for sale because she is moving house.
- 11/26/2008
- WENN
British comedy legend Sir Spike Milligan, one of the founding fathers of 20th century comedy, has died at the age of 83. Along with fellow Goon stars Peter Sellers and Harry Secombe, Milligan influenced a whole generation of comedians, including the likes of the Monty Python team, with his surreal antics. He was the last of the comic trio, who delighted millions with their cult fifties radio show, to die. Milligan's agent, Norma Farnes, says, "He died this morning (February 27th). I believe it was from kidney failure." In addition to his television and radio projects, Milligan starred in several movies, including one based on the first volume of his autobiography, Adolf Hitler - My Part In His Downfall, in which he played his own father. His greatest fan was heir-to-the-British-throne Prince Charles, once famously labelled "a grovelling little bastard" on live television by Milligan. Milligan made it up with Charles after his remark by sending him a telegram saying, "I suppose a knighthood is out of the question now?" But it wasn't - Milligan was given an honorary knighthood two years ago. Charles was among the first to react after Milligan's death. A spokesman says, "The Prince of Wales is deeply saddened to hear the news. He knew Spike Milligan over many years and had a great affection for him."...
- 2/28/2002
- WENN
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