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Non - SEO knowledge => Stars => Topic started by: Parody movies on January 02, 2012, 09:02:57 PM
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Parody movies are so funny. And I want to make this topic for all parody movies admirers in the world. They will find here many information about these movies.
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Parody movies
- a very good, useful topic for this omnilogical Non-SEO and SEO forum!
Now I will give you parody movies fans a good list about parody movies (parody films).
Here it is (scroll down the topic, because I am going to represent it by years).
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Parody movies (1940s)
-Abbott and Costello Meet Frankenstein (1948)
-Abbott and Costello Meet the Killer, Boris Karloff (1949)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Parody_film
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Parody movies (1950s)
Abbott and Costello Meet the Invisible Man (1951)
Abbott and Costello Meet Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde (1953)
Beat the Devil (1953)
Abbott and Costello Meet the Keystone Kops (1955)
Abbott and Costello Meet the Mummy (1955)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Parody_film
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What are the parody movies? A parody film is a comedy that satirizes other film genres or films. Although the genre is often overlooked, parody films are commonly profitable at the box office.http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Parody_film
Because they are very funny, surprising, attractive and people like to watch this celebrity fun.
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Parody movies 1960s
Carry On Spying (1964)
The Great Race (1965)
Carry On Cowboy (1965)
Help! (1965)
Don't Lose Your Head (1966)
Casino Royale (1967)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Parody_film
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Parody movies (1970s)
Carry On Up the Jungle (1970)
Carry On Henry (1971)
Carry On Dick (1974)
Blazing Saddles (1974)
Flesh Gordon (1974)
Young Frankenstein (1974)
The Groove Tube (1974)
Love and Death (1975)
Monty Python and the Holy Grail (1975)
The Adventure of Sherlock Holmes' Smarter Brother (1975)
Silent Movie (1976)
Murder By Death (1976)
Queen Kong (1976)
The Big Bus (1976)
High Anxiety (1977)
The Kentucky Fried Movie (1977)
Attack of the Killer Tomatoes (1978)
The Cheap Detective (1978)
Carry On Emmannuelle (1978)
Monty Python's Life of Brian (1979)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Parody_film
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Parody movies (1980s)
Airplane! (1980)
Galaxina (1980)[4]
History of the World, Part I (1981)
Student Bodies (1981)
Dead Men Don't Wear Plaid (1982)
Young Doctors in Love (1982)
Airplane II: The Sequel (1982)
Monty Python's The Meaning of Life (1983)
Bloodbath at the House of Death (1984)
Johnny Dangerously (1984)
Surf II: The End of the Trilogy (1984)
This Is Spinal Tap (1984)
Top Secret! (1984)
When Nature Calls (1985)
Haunted Honeymoon (1986)
Reform School Girls (1986)
Hollywood Shuffle (1987)
Spaceballs (1987)
Back to the Beach (1987)
Amazon Women on the Moon (1987)
Leonard Part 6 (1987)
Return of the Killer Tomatoes (1988)
The Naked Gun: From the Files of Police Squad! (1988)
I'm Gonna Git You Sucka (1988)
Flesh Gordon Meets the Cosmic Cheerleaders (1989)
UHF (1989)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Parody_film
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Parody movies 1990s
A Man Called Sarge (1990)
Repossessed (1990)
Killer Tomatoes Strike Back (1990)
If Looks Could Kill (1991)
The Naked Gun 2½: The Smell of Fear (1991)
Hot Shots! (1991)
Killer Tomatoes Eat France (1991)
Evil Toons (1992)
Loaded Weapon 1 (1993)
CB4 (1993)
The Naked Truth (1993)
Hot Shots! Part Deux (1993)
Robin Hood: Men in Tights (1993)
Fatal Instinct (1993)
The Silence of the Hams (1994)
Naked Gun 33⅓: The Final Insult (1994)
Dracula: Dead and Loving It (1995)
Don't Be a Menace to South Central While Drinking Your Juice in the Hood (1996)
Spy Hard (1996)
High School High (1996)
Mars Attacks! (1996)
Plump Fiction (1997)
Austin Powers: International Man of Mystery (1997)
Jane Austen's Mafia! (1998)
Wrongfully Accused (1998)
Austin Powers: The Spy Who Shagged Me (1999)
Galaxy Quest (1999)
The Underground Comedy Movie (1999)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Parody_film
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Parody movies 2000s
2001: A Space Travesty (2000)
Scary Movie (2000)
Shriek If You Know What I Did Last Friday the Thirteenth (2000)
Scary Movie 2 (2001)
Not Another Teen Movie (2001)
Kung Pow (2002)
Undercover Brother (2002)
Austin Powers in Goldmember (2002)
Scary Movie 3 (2003)
Johnny English (2003)
Lost Skeleton of Cadavra (2004)
Shaun of the Dead (2004)
Freak Out (2004)
Kung Fu Hustle (2004)
My Big Fat Independent Movie (2005)
Date Movie (2006)
Scary Movie 4 (2006)
Another Gay Movie (2006)
Epic Movie (2007)[5]
Farce of the Penguins (2007)
Hot Fuzz (2007)
The Comebacks (2007)[5]
Walk Hard: The Dewey Cox Story (2007)
Meet the Spartans (2008)[5]
Superhero Movie (2008)
The Onion Movie (2008)
Another Gay Sequel: Gays Gone Wild (2008)
An American Carol (2008)
Disaster Movie (2008)
Extreme Movie (2008)
Dance Flick (2009)
Black Dynamite (2009)
Stan Helsing (2009)
Spanish Movie (2009)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Parody_film
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Parody movies 2010s
MacGruber (2010)
Vampires Suck (2010)
The World's End (2010)
The 41-Year-Old Virgin Who Knocked Up Sarah Marshall And Felt Superbad About It (2010)
Thamizh Padam (2010)
Three Kings (2011)
Scary Movie 5 (2012)[6]
The Biggest Movie Of All Time 3D (2012)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Parody_film
Edit: Don't forget the links
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Parody movies 2010s
...
Well, I am Mr. SEO, not Mr. Future ;D 8) It's 2012 now. I even don't know all the parody movies of 2012, nor the parody movies of 2013. That is why I am not able to write you (now) anything about the 2010s parody movies and other movies. But when it come, we/you can try to continue the list. Now what we can do is to develop this useful parody movies list and the parody movies topic. I really like parody movies!It's my online, offline, SEO and Non-SEO hobby.
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Yes. Parody movies show must go on.
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"Parody movie" in different languages
Let me help you about the translation of the words "parody movie" in different languages.
English: Parody movie/Parody film
Japanese: パロディ映画
Chinese: 嘲讽电影 (恶搞电影; 戏仿电影)
Indonesian: Film parodi
Italian: Film parodia
Swedish: Parodifilm
Dutch: Spoofing
Spanish: película de parodias (Spoof movie)
Bulgarian: пародиен филм
Russian: кинопародия
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Parody movies (1940s)
-Abbott and Costello Meet Frankenstein (1948)
-Abbott and Costello Meet the Killer, Boris Karloff (1949)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Parody_film
Abbott and Costello Meet Frankenstein
Abbott and Costello Meet Frankenstein (which has the onscreen title Bud Abbott Lou Costello Meet Frankenstein) is a 1948 American comedy horror film directed by Charles Barton and starring the comedy team of Abbott and Costello. It is the first of several films where the comedy duo meets classic characters from Universal's horror film stable. In this film, they encounter Count Dracula, Frankenstein's monster and the Wolf Man, while subsequent films pair the duo with the Mummy, Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, and the Invisible Man. On a TV special in the early 1950s, the two did a sketch where they interacted with the latest original Universal Studios monster being promoted at the time, the Creature from the Black Lagoon (1954). The film is considered the swan song for the "Big Three" Universal horror monsters – Count Dracula, the Wolf Man and Frankenstein's monster – although it does not appear to fit within the loose continuity of the earlier films.
In 2001, the United States Library of Congress deemed this film "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant" and selected it for preservation in the National Film Registry, and in September 2007, Readers Digest selected the movie as one of the top 100 funniest films of all time. The 1948 film is recognized by historians as the definitive end point to the American golden age of the monster mash and the classic Universal monster cycle.
Plot
he film opens with Larry Talbot (Lon Chaney, Jr.) making an urgent call from London to a railway baggage claim room in LaMirada, Florida where Chick Young (Bud Abbott) and Wilbur Grey (Lou Costello) work as baggage-clerks. Talbot tries to impart the danger of a shipment to the "McDougal House Of Horrors" to Wilbur. However, before he is able, a full moon rises and he becomes The Wolf Man and the call is disconnected. Wilbur, thinking the call is just a crank, continues on with his work day. Then, the actual Mr. McDougal (Frank Ferguson) shows up to claim the shipment of crates containing "the remains of the original Count Dracula (Béla Lugosi)" and "the body of the Frankenstein Monster" (Glenn Strange). However, when Wilbur and Chick mishandle the crates, McDougal demands that they deliver them in person so an insurance agent can inspect them for damages.
When Chick and Wilbur get to McDougal's "House Of Horrors", they open the first shipping crate and find a coffin with "Dracula" inscribed on the front. Wilbur witnesses Dracula awaken when Chick is out of the room, but fails to get his attention in time. Dracula hypnotizes Wilbur and re-animates Frankenstein's Monster. McDougal then arrives with the insurance agent and Chick in tow. Finding the storage crates empty, McDougal accuses the boys of theft and has them arrested.
That night, Dr. Sandra Mornay (Lénore Aubert) receives Dracula and the Monster at her island castle. Sandra, a gifted surgeon who has studied Dr. Frankenstein's notebooks, has been posing as Wilbur's girlfriend as part of Dracula's scheme to replace the Monster's brutish brain with a more pliable one — Wilbur's.
Wilbur and Chick are bailed out of jail and mistakenly believe Sandra to be their benefactor. It is actually Joan Raymond (Jane Randolph), who is secretly working for the insurance company that is processing McDougal's claim, and hopes Wilbur will lead her to the missing "exhibits". Meanwhile, Larry Talbot has taken the apartment across the hall from Wilbur and Chick. He has tracked Dracula and the Monster from Europe and knows them to be alive. Talbot asks Chick and Wilbur to help him find and destroy Dracula and the Monster.
The next day, Joan Raymond comes to Chick and Wilbur's apartment and feigns love for Wilbur. Wilbur, not expecting the favor but embracing it, invites Joan to the masquerade ball that evening. That night, Wilbur, Chick and Joan go to Sandra's castle to pick her up for the ball. While the ladies powder their noses, Wilbur answers a telephone call from someone wanting to speak to a 'Dr Leighos'. It is Talbot, who informs them that they are in fact in the "House of Dracula". Wilbur reluctantly agrees to search the castle with Chick, and soon stumbles upon an underground passageway, complete with boat and dock. Meanwhile, Joan has discovered Dr. Frankenstein's notebook in Sandra's bureau and Sandra has discovered Joan's insurance company employee I.D. in her purse.
After the women re-join the men, a suavely dressed Dr. Leighos, (a.k.a. Dracula) descends the castle stairs and introduces himself to Joan and the boys. Also working at the castle is the naive Prof. Stevens (Charles Bradstreet), who questions some of the specialized equipment that has arrived. In private, Sandra admits that Stevens' questions, Joan's credentials, and Wilbur's curiosity in the basement have made her nervous enough to put the experiment on hold. Impatient, Dracula asserts his will by hypnotizing her, biting her in the throat, and making her his vampire slave.
At the ball, the boys encounter Talbot and McDougal just as Dracula and Sandra rejoin the group. Dracula, when confonted by Talbot, easily deflects accusations that he is "the real thing". While Dracula takes Joan for a dance, Sandra lures Wilbur to a quiet spot. Before she can move in and bite him, Chick and Larry approach and she flees. As they search for Joan, Talbot transforms into the Wolf Man. Wilbur escapes, but the Wolf Man finds and injures McDougal. Noting that Chick has brought a wolf mask as his costume to the ball, McDougal concludes that it was Chick who actually attacked him out of revenge. Chick manages to slip away, only to witness Dracula hypnotizing Wilbur. Chick is then also hypnotized and rendered helpless while Dracula and Joan bring Wilbur back to the castle. The next morning, Chick and Talbot agree to work together to rescue Wilbur and Joan.
While Wilbur is being held in a pillory, Sandra finally explains to him the plan to transplant his brain into the Monster. She and Dracula leave him to prepare the Monster for the operation. While Dracula gives the Monster electrical boosts in the lab, Sandra prepares to open Wilbur's skull when Talbot and Chick storm in. Talbot struggles with Sandra and casts her aside. Chick knocks out Sandra and just as Talbot is about to untie Wilbur, he once again transforms into the Wolf Man. Dracula flees, with the Wolf Man giving chase. Chick arrives to untie Wilbur just as the Monster, now at full power, breaks his own restraints and rises from his stretcher. Sandra attempts to order him back, but the Monster defiantly throws her out the lab window to her death.
Dracula, in an attempt to escape, transforms into a bat, but the Wolf Man snares him and both fall over a balcony to their deaths in the rocky seas below. Joan abruptly wakes from her trance, while the boys escape the castle and head to the pier with the Monster in pursuit. Wilbur succeeds in untying the boat, while Stevens and Joan arrive and set the pier ablaze. The Monster turns around and marches into the flames, succumbing as the pier collapses into the water.
Just as Chick and Wilbur relax, they hear a disembodied voice (provided by Vincent Price) and see a cigarette floating in the air. The voice says: "Allow me to introduce myself, I'm the Invisible Man!" The boys jump off the boat and swim away while the Invisible Man lights his cigarette and laughs as the final scene comes to a close.
Cast
Bud Abbott as Chick Young
Lou Costello as Wilbur Grey
Lon Chaney Jr. as Lawrence Talbot/The Wolf Man
Béla Lugosi as Count Dracula
Glenn Strange as Frankenstein's Monster
Lenore Aubert as Dr. Sandra Mornay
Jane Randolph as Joan Raymond
Frank Ferguson as Mr. McDougal
Charles Bradstreet as Prof. Stevens
Vincent Price as The Invisible Man (voice cameo)
Production notes
The film was originally intended to be titled The Brain of Frankenstein, but its name was changed prior to the filming schedule, which ran from February 5 through March 20, 1948.
Walter Lantz, noted for the creation of Woody Woodpecker, provided the animation for Dracula's transformations.
In a 1996 documentary, 100 Years of Horror, hosted by Christopher Lee, it was revealed that the studio hired two additional comedians to add laughs between takes on the set.
Costello hated the script. He said that his five-year-old daughter could have written something better, but later warmed to the film during production.
During filming, Glenn Strange found Costello so funny he would often break up laughing, necessitating many retakes (this is readily apparent in the scene where Costello sits on the Monster's lap). There were several pie fights between takes as well, but Abbott and Costello respected the three monsters (Chaney as the Wolfman, Lugosi as Dracula and Strange as the Monster) and made sure no pies were flung at the heavily made-up actors.
Boris Karloff was originally approached to play the monster once again but declined. He did, however, help promote the film and can be seen in several publicity photos, including one where he is buying a ticket, even though he refused to actually see the film (considering it an insult to horror movies).
During the scene in the laboratory where the Monster comes after Chick and Wilbur after throwing Sandra through the window, Glenn Strange stepped on a camera cable, causing the camera to fall and break some bones in his foot. Lon Chaney, who was not working that day, took over the role of the Monster for that one scene.
The Australian film board required that almost every scene involving a monster be removed before release.
This was the only time Béla Lugosi reprised the famous role he had created in Dracula (1931). He had previously portrayed vampires in Mark of the Vampire (1935), The Return of the Vampire (1944) and Old Mother Riley Meets the Vampire (1952), and made a gag cameo as Dracula in a 1933 Hollywood on Parade short, but this was the only time he again played Dracula as a sustained role on film.
The final scene with the Invisible Man presaged 1951's Abbott and Costello Meet the Invisible Man, though Price did not star, and all characters were different. Vincent Price had appeared however in 1940's The Invisible Man Returns.
Film mistakes
At one point in the film, where Abbott and Costello's characters are going through the revolving panel, Costello calls Abbott by his real name instead of his character's name.
Dracula's reflection can be seen in the mirror when he makes Dr. Mornay his next victim. In previous Universal horror films, (notably Lugosi's Dracula and House of Dracula with John Carradine), the undead could be recognized because they cast no reflection. However, this bit of lore had not been established within the context of the Abbott and Costello Meet Frankenstein script.
When the Frankenstein Monster breaks free of his bonds on the operating table in the climactic chase/fight scene, one of his neck electrodes clearly pulls off of his neck.
Awards and honors
American Film Institute recognition
2000: AFI's 100 Years... 100 Laughs #56
Routines
The Moving Candle routine previously used in Hold That Ghost (1941) was utilized again in this film.
Reissues and home media releases
Abbott and Costello Meet Frankenstein was re-released theatrically by Realart in 1956 on a co-bill with Abbott and Costello Meet the Killer, Boris Karloff.
After being released several times on VHS in the 80's and 90's, the film was released three times on DVD. Originally released as a single DVD on August 29, 2000, it was re-released twice as part of two different Abbott and Costello collections, The Best of Abbott and Costello Volume Three, on August 3, 2004, and again on October 28, 2008 as part of Abbott and Costello: The Complete Universal Pictures Collection.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abbott_and_Costello_Meet_Frankenstein
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Abbott and Costello Meet the Killer, Boris Karloff
Abbott and Costello Meet the Killer, Boris Karloff is a 1949 comedy horror film starring Abbott and Costello and Boris Karloff. The full onscreen title is Bud Abbott and Lou Costello Meet the Killer, Boris Karloff.
In 1956 the film was re-released along with Abbott and Costello Meet Frankenstein.
Plot
Prominent criminal attorney Amos Strickland (Nicholas Joy) checks into the Lost Caverns Resort Hotel, and is later discovered murdered by the bellboy, Freddie Phillips (Lou Costello), who is implicated in the crime. Casey Edwards (Bud Abbott), the house detective, tries to clear Freddie, but Inspector Wellman (James Flavin) and Sergeant Stone (Mikel Conrad) keep him in custody.
Seven of Strickland's former clients happen to be at the resort, and they are all suspects. These former clients are Swami Talpur (Boris Karloff), Angela Gordon (Lénore Aubert), Mrs. Hargreave (Victoria Horne), T. Hanley Brooks (Roland Winters), Lawrence Crandall (Harry Hayden), Mrs. Grimsby (Claire DuBrey) and Mike Relia (Vincent Renno). They gather for a meeting, and decide that they must conceal their pasts and that Freddie must take the blame for Strickland's murder. They try unsuccessfully to get Freddie to sign a confession, e.g., Angela tries to seduce him, but the police stop her when they fear she's poisoned the champagne. Then the Swami attempts to hypnotize him into committing suicide, but his stupidity saves him.
Freddie and the two police officers, in an attempt to lure the real killer, inform everyone that Freddie is in possession of a blood-stained handkerchief that was found at the murder scene. Soon afterwards, several attempts to kill Freddie are made, including gun shots at window of his booby trapped room, and locking him in a steam cabinet. Eventually Freddie hears a voice that calls him to bring the handkerchief to the Lost Cavern. There he meets up with a masked figure who offers to save him from the hole he has just fallen into in exchange for the handkerchief. Freddie makes the mistake of telling the mysterious figure that he left it in his room. He is left in the hole, but is eventually rescued by the two police officers.
Back at the hotel, everyone has gathered together and Stone returns with some muddy shoes that belong to Melton (Alan Mowbray), the hotel manager, which proves that he was the one in the caverns with Freddie. His motive for the murder was that he, Relia and Millford, Strickland's secretary, were blackmailing the owner Mr. Crandell. When Strickland found out, he came to investigate, so Melton killed him. Millford then sent down the former clients to use as decoys for the police, but Melton then killed Relia and Millford to cover it all up. He attempts to escape through a window, but is caught by a booby trap previously set by Freddie.
Production
It was filmed from February 10 through March 26, 1949.
The original script, titled Easy Does It, was written with actor-comedian Bob Hope in mind. However, Universal then purchased the rights and reworked it for Abbott and Costello.[1].
The role eventually played by Boris Karloff in the film was originally a female character named Madame Switzer in the final shooting script which was then titled, Abbott and Costello Meet the Killers. Five days before shooting, Karloff was hired and the character was changed to a swami.
After filming was completed, Costello was bedridden for several months due to a relapse of rheumatic fever, which he originally battled in 1943. As a result, the duo would not make another film together until one year later, 1950's Abbott and Costello in the Foreign Legion.
Boris Karloff's inclusion in the title of the film seems evident from the movie poster, which includes a comma between the words "Killer" and "Boris Karloff," but the actual credits in the film show no such distinction, and could be interpreted as "Abbott and Costello Meet the Killer," followed by the co-star credit "Boris Karloff."
Alternate versions
In Australia and New Zealand, every scene with a corpse was removed prior to distribution. The film was banned in Denmark due to the scene where corpses play cards.
Routines
Changing Room, where Costello keeps finding a dead body and when he tries to show it to Abbott (or anyone else), it is no longer there. This comic device was first used in Hold That Ghost (1941).
Cast
Bud Abbott as Casey Edwards
Lou Costello as Freddie Phillips
Lénore Aubert as Angela Gordon
Gar Moore as Jeff Wilson
Donna Martell as Betty Crandall
Alan Mowbray as Melton
James Flavin as Inspector Wellman
Roland Winters as T. Hanley Brooks
Nicholas Joy as Amos Strickland
Mikel Conrad as Sgt. Stone
Morgan Farley as Gregory Milford
Victoria Horne as Mrs. Hargreave
Percy Helton as Abernathy
Claire Du Brey as Mrs. Grimsby
Boris Karloff as Swami Talpur
DVD releases
This film was released twice on DVD, on The Best of Abbott and Costello Volume Three, on August 3, 2004, and again on October 28, 2008 as part of Abbott and Costello: The Complete Universal Pictures Collection.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abbott_and_Costello_Meet_the_Killer,_Boris_Karloff
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Another parody movies is Abbott and Costello Meet the Invisible Man
Abbott and Costello Meet the Invisible Man (also known as Bud Abbott Lou Costello Meet the Invisible Man (full screen title)) is a 1951 comedy horror film directed by Charles Lamont and starring the team of Abbott and Costello alongside Nancy Guild.
The film depicts the misadventures of Lou Francis and Bud Alexander, two private detectives investigating the murder of a boxing promoter. The film was part of a series in which the duo meet classic characters from Universal's stable, including Frankenstein, the Mummy and the Keystone Kops.
Plot
Lou Francis (Lou Costello) and Bud Alexander (Bud Abbott) have just graduated from a private detective school. Tommy Nelson (Arthur Franz), a middleweight boxer, comes to them with their first case. Tommy recently escaped from jail, after being accused of murdering his manager, and asks the duo to accompany him on a visit to his fiancée, Helen Gray (Nancy Guild). He wants her uncle, Dr. Philip Gray (Gavin Muir), to inject him with a special serum he has developed which will render Tommy invisible, and hopes to use the newfound invisibility to investigate his manager's murder and proved his innocence. Dr. Gray adamantly refuses, arguing that the serum is still unstable, but as the police arrive Tommy injects himself with it. Detective Roberts (William Frawley) questions Dr. Gray and Helen while Bud and Lou search for Tommy.
Helen and Tommy convince Bud and Lou to help them seek the real killer, after Tommy explains that the motive for the murder occurred after he refused to "throw" a fight, knocking his opponent out. Morgan (Sheldon Leonard), the promoter who fixed the fight, ordered Tommy's manager beaten to death while framing Tommy for the crime. In order to investigate undercover, Lou poses as a boxer, with Bud as his manager. They go to Stillwell's gym where Lou gets in the ring with Rocky Hanlon (John Day), the boxer who Tommy knocked out. Tommy, still invisible, gets into the ring with them and again knocks out Hanlon with the illusion that Lou did it, and an official match is arranged. Morgan urges Lou to throw the fight, but when the match occurs (with the aid of an invisible Tommy), Hanlon is knocked out yet again. Morgan plans Bud's murder which is thwarted by Tommy, who unfortunately is wounded in the battle. The protagonists rush to the hospital where a blood transfusion is arranged between Lou and Tommy. During the transfusion, Tommy becomes visible again. Unfortunately, some of Tommy's blood has apparently entered Lou,who briefly turns invisible, only to reappear with his legs on backwards.
Production
Abbott and Costello Meet the Invisible Man was filmed between October 3 and November 6, 1950 and is a modified remake of the 1940 film The Invisible Man Returns. The character names of Abbott and Costello are Bud and Lou's real first and middle names.
The special effects, which depicted invisibility and other optical illusions, were created by David S. Horsley, who also did the special effects for The Invisible Man Returns, The Invisible Woman and Invisible Agent.
Cast
Bud Abbott as Bud Alexander
Lou Costello as Lou Francis
Nancy Guild as Helen Gray
Arthur Franz as Tommy Nelson
Adele Jergens as Boots Marsden
Sheldon Leonard as Morgan
William Frawley as Detective Roberts
Gavin Muir as Dr. Philip Gray
Sam Balter as Radio announcer
John Daheim as Rocky Hanlon
Paul Maxey as Dr. James C. Turner
James Best as Tommy Nelson (Franz's stand-in)
DVD releases
This film has been released twice on DVD, on The Best of Abbott and Costello Volume Three, on August 3, 2004, and again on October 28, 2008 as part of Abbott and Costello: The Complete Universal Pictures Collection.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abbott_and_Costello_Meet_the_Invisible_Man
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Here is another one with a very interesting title about Jekyll and Hyde !
Abbott and Costello Meet Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde
Abbott and Costello Meet Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde is a 1953 comedy horror film directed by Charles Lamont and starring the comedy team of Abbott and Costello, and co-starring Boris Karloff.
Loosely based on the novel The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde by Robert Louis Stevenson, the film follows the story of two American detectives visiting Edwardian London who become involved with the hunt for Dr. Jekyll, who is responsible for a series of murders.
Plot
Slim (Bud Abbott) and Tubby (Lou Costello) are American cops in London studying police tactics. A newspaper reporter, Bruce Adams (Craig Stevens), gets into an altercation at Hyde Park that was instigated by Vicky Edwards (Helen Westcott), a suffragette. Bruce and Vicky wind up in jail, while Slim and Tubby are kicked off the police force. Dr. Henry Jekyll, Vicky's guardian, bails them out.
Jekyll has been conducting home experiments in which he injects a potion and transforms into Mr. Hyde, a monster who murders a fellow doctor when he scoffed at Jekyll's experiments. Jekyll has more thoughts of murder when he notices that Vicky and Bruce are mutually attracted. Tubby and Slim witness the doctor's shenanigans at a music hall, where they begin to chase him with Bruce at their side. Tubby traps Hyde in a wax museum, but by the time he brings the Inspector (Reginald Denny) and Slim to the scene, the monster has already reverted back to Dr. Jekyll. The "good" doctor then asks Slim and Tubby to escort him to his home, where Tubby drinks a potion that transforms him into a large mouse. Slim and Tubby bring news of Jekyll's activities to the Inspector, who refuses to believe them.
Vicky announces her engagement to Bruce and Mr. Hyde reemerges, this time with intent to murder Vicky. Bruce saves her, but Hyde escapes. Tubby accidentally falls onto a serum-filled syringe, transforming Tubby into a Hyde-like monster as well. Bruce chases after Hyde, while Slim pursues Tubby, each believing still that there is only a single monster. Bruce ends up back at Jekyll's home, where Hyde falls from an upstairs window to his death, revealing to everyone his true identity when he reverts to normal form. Slim then brings Tubby (still in monster form) to the Inspector. Before reverting to human form, Tubby bites the Inspector and four officers, transforming them into monsters who begin to chase Slim and Tubby.
Production
Filmed between January 26 and February 20, 1953, Abbott and Costello Meet Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde received an "X" rating in Britain because of the scenes with Mr. Hyde. In these scenes, the transformed character of Mr Hyde is played by stuntman Eddie Parker, who remained uncredited, while Karloff plays the sole role of Dr. Jekyll.
Cast
Bud Abbott as Slim
Lou Costello as Tubby
Boris Karloff as Dr. Henry Jekyll/Mr. Hyde
Craig Stevens as Bruce Adams
Helen Westcott as Vicky Edwards
Reginald Denny as Inspector
John Dierkes as Batley
DVD releases
This film has been released twice on DVD, on The Best of Abbott and Costello Volume Four, on October 4, 2005, and again on October 28, 2008 as part of Abbott and Costello: The Complete Universal Pictures Collection.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abbott_and_Costello_Meet_Dr._Jekyll_and_Mr._Hyde
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There is another 1953 parody movie: "Beat the Devil"
Beat the Devil is a 1953 film directed by John Huston. It was co-authored by Huston and Truman Capote, and loosely based upon a novel of the same name by British journalist and critic Claud Cockburn, writing under the pseudonym James Helvick. It was intended by Huston as a tongue-in-cheek spoof of his earlier masterpiece, The Maltese Falcon, and of films of its genre.
The script, which was written on a day-to-day basis as the film was being shot, concerns the adventures of a motley crew of swindlers and ne'er-do-wells trying to lay claim to land rich in uranium deposits in Kenya as they wait in a small Italian port to travel aboard an ill-fated tramp steamer en route to Mombasa. The all-star cast includes Humphrey Bogart, Jennifer Jones, Gina Lollobrigida, Robert Morley (playing the role that Sydney Greenstreet would have played had he still been acting), Peter Lorre and Bernard Lee (who was to gain widespread recognition with his appearances as "M" in the James Bond movies).
This Huston opus does not easily fit into the standard set of film categories; it has variously been classified as a "thriller," a "comedy," a "drama," a "crime" and a "romance" movie. It is above all else a parody of the Film Noir style[citation needed] that Huston himself had pioneered and as such has developed cult status in the ensuing years.
A quartet of international crooks -- Peterson, O'Hara, Ross and Ravello -- is stranded in Italy while their steamer is being repaired. With them are the Dannreuthers. The six are headed for Africa, presumably to sell vacuum cleaners but actually to buy land supposedly loaded with uranium. They are joined by others who apparently have similar designs.
Cast
Humphrey Bogart as Billy Dannreuther
Jennifer Jones as Mrs. Gwendolen Chelm
Gina Lollobrigida as Maria Dannreuther
Robert Morley as Peterson
Peter Lorre as Julius O'Hara
Edward Underdown as Harry Chelm
Ivor Barnard as Maj. Jack Ross
Marco Tulli as Ravello
Bernard Lee as Insp. Jack Clayton
Mario Perrone as Purser on SS Nyanga
Giulio Donnini as Administrator
Saro Urzì as Captain of SS Nyanga
Aldo Silvani as Charles, Restaurant Manager
Juan de Landa as Hispano-Suiza Driver
Reception
The movie was not well received critically (although it was to become a National Board of Review winner) and was to mark the closure of the "quest movies" period in Huston’s career. Despite its disappointing performance, Beat The Devil has gone on to garner mild cult status.
Humphrey Bogart never liked the movie, perhaps because he lost a good deal of his own money bankrolling it, and said of Beat the Devil, "Only phonies like it." Roger Ebert notes that the film has been characterized as the first camp movie. In the biographical film dramas Infamous (2006) and Capote (2005), Truman Capote, portrayed by Toby Jones and Philip Seymour Hoffman, reminisces about life during the filming of Beat the Devil.
Beat the Devil is in the public domain because of unrenewed copyright, and is freely available and distributed over the internet as seen below.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Beat_the_Devil
Edit - I'm sorry for my mistake. Now I think is alright. Good wishes to you parody movies!
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A parody movie from 1955: Abbott and Costello Meet the Keystone Kops
Abbott and Costello Meet the Keystone Kops is a 1955 film starring the comedy team of Abbott and Costello.
After the film was completed, Universal wanted to rename it Abbott and Costello in the Stunt Men, because they did not consider the "Keystone Kops" to be relevant anymore. However, in October, 1954, the studio relented and agreed to use the "Keystone Kops" name.
Plot
Harry Pierce (Bud Abbott) and his friend, Willie Piper (Lou Costello), invest $5,000 in a motion picture studio. They are sold a deed to the Edison Studio by a con man, Joe Gorman (Fred Clark), who immediately leaves town with his girlfriend, Leota Van Cleef (Lynn Bari). The couple heads to Hollywood where he poses as a European director, Sergei Toumanoff, who plans to make a film starring Leota. Meanwhile, Harry and Willie pursue Gorman across the country in hopes of getting their money back after learning that the deed they purchased is worthless. They hop off a freight train near Los Angeles and stumble onto the set of the western film that Toumanoff happens to be directing. He is furious with the interruption, but the head of the movie studio, Mr. Snavely (Frank Wilcox), hires Harry and Willie because he is impressed with their "stunt work".
Toumanoff plots to dispose of Harry and Willie before they can learn his true identity, and he arranges for Willie to double for Leota during a dangerous airplane stunt. His cohort, Hinds (Maxie Rosenbloom), sabotages their parachute and arranges for live bullets to be fired from the other plane in the scene, but Harry and Willie manage to avoid harm. After viewing the film of the airplane stunt, Snavely decides that Harry and Willie would make a great comedy team, and assigns a visibly annoyed Toumanoff to direct them in a film. (Snavely is aware that Toumanoff is actually Gorman, and has arranged for everyone that has been swindled to get their money back if Toumanoff agrees, which he does). Gorman and Leota then go about robbing the studio safe of $75,000, but are discovered by Harry and Willie, who give chase. The studio's Keystone Kops are asked by Harry and Willie, who believe that they are real policemen, to assist in the chase. The Kops decide to play along, believing that they are on the same work team. The chase progresses onto the city streets before ending at an airport where the swindlers are finally captured. Unfortunately, the stolen money is blown away by the wind generated by the airplane's propeller.
Production
Filming ran from June 7 through July 9, 1954 and included cameos by Costello's daughter, Carole, as a theater cashier, Keystone Cops director Mack Sennett as himself, as well as three original Keystone Cops, Hank Mann, Heinie Conklin, and Herold Goodwin.
DVD releases
This film was released twice on DVD, on The Best of Abbott and Costello Volume Four, on October 4, 2005, and again on October 28, 2008 as part of Abbott and Costello: The Complete Universal Pictures Collection.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abbott_and_Costello_Meet_the_Keystone_Kops
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Another 1955 parody movie is Abbott and Costello Meet the Mummy
Abbott and Costello Meet the Mummy is a 1955 film directed by Charles Lamont and starring the comedy team of Abbott and Costello. It is also the 28th and final Abbott and Costello film produced by Universal Pictures.
Plot
Freddie Franklin (Lou Costello) and Peter Patterson (Bud Abbott) are Americans who are stranded in Cairo, Egypt. They happen to overhear Dr. Gustav Zoomer (Kurt Katch) discussing the mummy Klaris, the guardian of the Tomb of Princess Ara. Apparently the mummy has a sacred medallion that shows where the treasure of Princess Ara can be found. The Followers of Klaris, led by Semu (Richard Deacon), overhear the conversation along with Madame Rontru (Marie Windsor), a business woman interested in stealing the treasure of Princess Ara.
Pete and Freddie go to the doctor's house to apply for the position to accompany the mummy back to America. However, two of Semu's men, Iben (Mel Welles) and Hetsut (Richard Karlan), murder the doctor and steal the mummy just before Pete and Freddie arrive. However, the medallion has been left behind and is found by Pete and Freddie, who attempt to sell it. Rontru offers them $100, but Pete suspects it is worth much more and asks for $5,000, which Rontru agrees to pay. She tells them to meet her at the Cairo Café, where Pete and Freddie learn from a waiter that the medallion is cursed. They frantically try to give it to one another (the Slipping the Mickey routine from The Naughty Nineties), until it winds up in Freddie's hamburger and he swallows it. Rontru arrives and drags them to a doctor's office to get a look at the medallion under a fluoroscope. However, she cannot read the medallion's inscribed instructions, which are in hieroglyphics. Semu arrives, claiming to be an archaeologist, and offers to guide them all to the tomb. Meanwhile, Semu's followers have returned life to Klaris.
They arrive at the tomb, where Freddie learns of Semu's plans to murder them all. Rontru captures Semu, and one of her men, Charlie (Michael Ansara), disguises himself as a mummy and enters the temple. Pete follows suit by disguising himself as a mummy, and he and Freddie rescue Semu. Eventually all three mummies are in the same place at the same time, and the dynamite that Rontru intends to use to dig up the treasure detonates, killing Klaris and revealing the treasure. Freddie and Pete convince Semu to turn the temple into a nightclub to preserve the legend of Klaris and the three criminals who wanted to steal the treasure are presumably arrested.
Production
Abbott and Costello Meet the Mummy was filmed from October 28 through November 24, 1954 and is the last film that Abbott and Costello made for Universal Pictures, although Universal released a compilation film of clips from their films, titled The World of Abbott and Costello in 1965.
Although Abbott and Costello were called "Pete and Freddie" in the script and in the closing credits, they used their real names onscreen during filming.
The day after filming completed, on November 25, 1954, Abbott and Costello arrived in New York City to ride on the first float of the annual Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade.
In Universal's previous mummy films, the mummy was called "Kharis". In this film it is called "Klaris."
Stuntman Eddie Parker (billed as "Edwin") played Klaris the mummy. He had previously doubled Lon Chaney, Jr. as Kharis Universal's earlier Mummy films.
DVD releases
This film has been released three times on DVD. Originally released as single DVD on August 28, 2001, it was released twice as part of two different Abbott and Costello collections, The Best of Abbott and Costello Volume Four, on October 4, 2005, and again on October 28, 2008 as part of Abbott and Costello: The Complete Universal Pictures Collection.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abbott_and_Costello_Meet_the_Mummy
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Glad to present you 7 Pakistani Parody Movies :) : http://www.pakistanistage.com/list/pakistani-parody-movies/18
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At last we came to the 1960s! Rock and roll, dudes! 8) ;D So, let's learn more about the Parody movies of the 1960s !
Scroll down to read about them!
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Parody movies (1964) -
Carry On Spying
Carry On Spying is a 1964 film, the ninth movie in the Carry On film series. It marks Barbara Windsor's first appearance in the series. Series regulars Kenneth Williams, Charles Hawtrey and Jim Dale are present. Bernard Cribbins makes the second of his three Carry On appearances (although it would be 28 years before he returned). Eric Barker appears for his third entry (his final appearance would be in Carry On Emmannuelle 14 years later). Dilys Laye returns after her debut in Carry On Cruising. Carry On Spying is the last Carry On film shot in black and white.
Plot
A top secret chemical formula has been stolen by STENCH (the Society for the Total Extinction of Non-Conforming Humans). Fearful of what would happen if that formula fell into the wrong hands, the Chief of the Secret Service reluctantly sends the only agent he has left, the bumbling and snide Agent Desmond Simpkins, (Kenneth Williams), and his three trainees, Agent Harold Crump, (Bernard Cribbins), Agent Daphne Honeybutt, (Barbara Windsor), and Agent Charlie Bind (Charles Hawtrey), to find the formula.
The Agents are hot on the trail, chasing the villains across the world. Their pursuit takes them to Vienna, and to Algiers. Upon the way they encounter the STENCH agents, the Fat Man and Milchmann (who stole the formula disguised as a milkman). Unfortunately the agents' lack of experience results in their contact agent, Carstairs (Jim Dale), being floored in an encounter with the Fat Man, and they also encounter the mysterious Lila (Dilys Laye), whom they are uncertain if they can trust.
Cast and Crew
Kenneth Williams as Desmond Simkins
Barbara Windsor as Daphne Honeybutt
Charles Hawtrey as Charlie Bind
Bernard Cribbins as Harold Crump
Jim Dale as Carstairs
Eric Barker as The Chief
Richard Wattis as Cobley
Dilys Laye as Lila
Eric Pohlmann as The Fat Man
Victor Maddern as Milchmann
Judith Furse as Dr Crow
John Bluthal as The head waiter
Renee Houston as Madame
Tom Clegg as Doorman
Gertan Klauber as Code clerk
Norman Mitchell as Native policeman
Frank Forsyth as Professor Stark
Derek Sydney as Algerian gent
Jill Mai Meredith as Cigarette girl
Angela Ellison as Cloakroom girl
Hugh Futcher as Bed of nails native
Norah Gordon as Elderly woman
Jack Taylor as Thug
Bill Cummings as Thug
Anthony Baird as Guard
Patrick Durkin as Guard
Virginia Tyler as Funhouse girl
Judi Johnson as Funhouse girl
Gloria Best as Funhouse girl
Audrey Wilson as Amazon guard
Vicky Smith as Amazon guard
Jane Lumb as Amazon guard
Marian Collins as Amazon guard
Sally Douglas as Amazon guard
Christine Rodgers as Amazon guard
Maya Koumani as Amazon guard
Screenplay - Talbot Rothwell & Sid Colin
Music - Eric Rogers
Songs - "Too Late" by Alex Alstone & Geoffrey Parsons and "The Magic of Love" by Eric Rogers
Associate Producer - Frank Bevis
Art Director - Alex Vetchinsky
Director of Photography - Alan Hume
Editor - Archie Ludski
Camera Operator - Godfrey Godar
Assistant Director - Peter Bolton
Unit Manager - Donald Toms
Continuity - Penny Daniels
Hairdressing - Biddy Chrystal
Sound Editor - Christopher Lancaster
Sound Recordists - CC Stevens & Bill Daniels
Costume Designer - Yvonne Caffin
Make-up - WT Partleton
Producer - Peter Rogers
Director - Gerald Thomas
Production
James Bond producer Albert R. Broccoli objected to the character name "James Bind agent 006½" and threatened legal action. Producer Peter Rogers therefore changed the name to Charlie and the agent's code number to double 0 - ooh! Poster artist Tom Chantrell also had to modify the poster when similar complaints were voiced that the artwork was too similar to From Russia with Love.
The film pokes fun at various spy movies, James Bond being the least of them. They include The Third Man (coincidentally, Eric Pohlmann - who played The Fat Man - also had a minor part in The Third Man), and Casablanca. One or two of Crow's female assistants wear hairstyles similar to that of Modesty Blaise, whose adventures had started in the Evening Standard the previous year.
Filming and locations
Filming dates – 8 February-13 March 1964
Interiors:
Pinewood Studios, Buckinghamshire
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carry_On_Spying
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And there is one from 1965. The Great Race
The Great Race is a 1965 slapstick comedy film starring Jack Lemmon, Tony Curtis, and Natalie Wood, directed by Blake Edwards, written by Blake Edwards and Arthur A. Ross, and with music by Henry Mancini and cinematography by Russell Harlan. The supporting cast includes Peter Falk, Keenan Wynn, Arthur O'Connell and Vivian Vance. The movie cost $12 million, making it the most expensive comedy film at the time.
Despite the film not being a box office or financial success at the time of release, these days it is now noted as one of Wood's prettiest screen appearances, and for one scene that was promoted as "the greatest pie fight ever."
Plot
The Great Leslie (Tony Curtis) is the classic hero in white, handsome, courteous, talented, and successful. Professor Fate (Jack Lemmon) is the villain, Leslie's nemesis, dressed in black and dogged by failure. Leslie proposes an automobile race from New York to Paris, to prove a new car, the Leslie Special. Fate builds his own race vehicle, the Hannibal Twin-8, complete with hidden devices of sabotage. Others enter cars in the race, including New York City's most prominent newspaper. Driving the newspaper's car is beautiful photojournalist Maggie DuBois (Natalie Wood), a vocal suffragette.
The six-car race begins, but Fate's sidekick Maximilian Meen (Peter Falk) has sabotaged three other cars (and his own, by mistake, but it is repaired). The surviving teams are Leslie with his loyal mechanic Hezekiah Sturdy (Keenan Wynn), Maggie DuBois driving by herself, and Fate and Max. The newspaper's car breaks down and Maggie accepts a lift in the Leslie Special. Fate arrives first at a refueling point, a small frontier town where the racers see a variety show featuring singer Lilli Olay (Dorothy Provine). A local outlaw named "Texas Jack" (Larry Storch) becomes jealous of Olay and a saloon brawl ensues. Fate steals the fuel he needs and destroys the rest. Maggie convinces Leslie to carry her after tricking Hezekiah and pretending he has quit.
The two remaining cars reach the Bering Strait and park side-by-side in a blinding snowstorm. Keeping warm during the storm, Leslie and Maggie begin to see each other as more than competitors. Mishaps compel all four racers to warm themselves in Leslie's car. They awake on a small ice floe which drifts into their intended Russian port, where Hezekiah is waiting for Leslie. Maggie is snatched by Fate, who drives off in the lead.
After driving across Asia, both cars enter a small kingdom whose Crown Prince Hapnick (also played by Lemmon) is a double for Fate. Usurpers under the leadership of Baron Rolf von Stuppe (Ross Martin) and General Kuhster (George Macready) kidnap the Prince as well as Fate's party. Fate is forced to masquerade as the Prince during the coronation, so that the Baron and the General can gain control of the kingdom. Max escapes, and he and Leslie rescue the others. Leslie bests Von Stuppe in a sword fight. The dueling expands into an extended pie fight involving all the racers.
As the five leave the small kingdom with Maggie now back in Leslie's car, it becomes a straight road race to Paris. Nearing Paris, Leslie and Maggie have a spirited argument regarding the roles of men and women in relationships. Leslie stops his car just short of the finish line under the Eiffel Tower to prove that he loves Maggie more than he cares about winning the race. Fate drives past to claim the winner's mantle, but after a brief triumph becomes indignant that Leslie let him win. Fate demands a rematch: a race back to New York.
The film ends with the start of the return race, with newlyweds Leslie and Maggie now a team. Fate lets them start first, then attempts to destroy their car, accidentally bringing down the Eiffel Tower instead.
Cast
Jack Lemmon as Professor Fate/Prince Frederick Hapnick
Tony Curtis as Leslie Gallant III ("The Great Leslie")
Natalie Wood as Maggie DuBois
Peter Falk as Maximillian "Max" Meen
Keenan Wynn as Hezekiah Sturdy
Dorothy Provine as Lily Olay
Larry Storch as Texas Jack
Hal Smith as Mayor of Boracho
Denver Pyle as Sheriff of Boracho
Arthur O'Connell as Henry Goodbody
Vivian Vance as Hester Goodbody
Ross Martin as Baron Rolfe von Stuppe
Marvin Kaplan as Frisbee
George Macready as General Kuhster
Joyce Nizzari as Woman in West
William Bryant as Baron's Guard
Themes
Director Blake Edwards based the film on the 1908 New York to Paris Race, very loosely interpreted. On February 12, 1908, the "Greatest Auto Race" began with six entrants, starting in New York City and racing westward across three continents. The destination was Paris, making it the first around-the-world automobile race. Only the approximate race route and the general time period were borrowed by Edwards in his effort to make "the funniest comedy ever".
Edwards, a studious admirer of silent film, dedicated the film to early film comedians Laurel and Hardy. The Great Race incorporated a great many silent era visual gags, along with slapstick, double entendres, parodies, and absurdities. The film includes such time-worn scenes as a barroom brawl, the tent of the desert sheik, a sword fight, and the laboratory of the mad scientist. The unintended consequences of Professor Fate's order, "Push the button, Max!", is a running gag, along with the spotless invulnerability of "The Great Leslie".
Edwards poked fun at later films and literature, too. The saloon brawl scene was a parody of the western film genre, and a plot detour launched during the final third of the film was a direct parody of The Prisoner of Zenda, wherein a traveler is a lookalike for the king and stands in for him.
Production
Because of the success of Edwards' previous films Breakfast at Tiffany's, The Pink Panther and A Shot in the Dark, the film's budget started out at a generous $6 million. Mirisch Productions initially financed the film for United Artists, but the film's escalating costs led UA to drop the film but the project was picked up by Warners. Edwards wanted Robert Wagner to play the leading man, but studio executive Jack Warner insisted on Tony Curtis, possibly due to Natalie having recently divorced from Wagner. Working with Warner, Curtis's new agent Irving "Swifty" Lazar negotiated $125,000 for Curtis, more than Edwards and Lemmon who were to receive $100,000 each. After Warner signed the Curtis contract, Lazar reasoned that Edwards and Lemmon should also make $125,000 and Warner upped their compensation to match Curtis.
Natalie Wood did not want to make The Great Race, but Warner pressured her into it. Wood was unhappy with her career and her personal life, having recently divorced from Robert Wagner in April 1962. Warner asked Curtis if he would give a percentage of his film royalties to Wood, as an enticement, but Curtis refused. He said, "I couldn't give her anything to make her want to do the movie." Instead of more money, Warner promised Wood that if she completed The Great Race, she could star in Gavin Lambert's drama Inside Daisy Clover, a role she greatly wished to have. Wood agreed, thinking that filming would be brief on Edwards' movie.
Shooting began on June 15, 1964. Many of the sight gags for The Great Race were expensive to create, and the costs ballooned to $12 million by the time the film was finished. Edwards, sometimes with Wood in tow, repeatedly visited Warner in his office to ask for more money. Warner approved nearly all of the requests. When it was released it was the most expensive comedy ever filmed.
In November 1964, the actors were done with all the film except for dialog replacement. During the five months of filming, Wood's unhappiness was not visible to the cast and crew, and her characterization of Maggie DuBois was playful. Her sister Lana Wood thought that Wood looked the prettiest she ever had, but Lana sensed that the film "was physically taxing" for Wood. On Friday, November 27, the day after Thanksgiving, Wood wrapped up the last bit of dialog work, then went home and swallowed a bottle of prescription pills. Groggy from the drugs, she called her friend Mart Crowley who took her to the hospital for emergency treatment.
Music for the film was by Henry Mancini and the costumes were designed by Edith Head. Production design, setting the period and augmenting the visual humor, was by Fernando Carrere who also designed The Great Escape and The Pink Panther for Blake Edwards.
Custom cars
The hero's white car, named the "Leslie Special" was specially built by Warner Brothers to resemble a Thomas Flyer that won the 1908 New York to Paris Race. According to the Petersen Automotive Museum, four "Leslie Specials" were built. One of the four appears painted green in the 1970 Warner Brothers film The Ballad of Cable Hogue—the grille can be seen bearing the words "Leslie Special". Another of the four is at the Tupelo Automobile Museum in Tupelo, Mississippi, listed as a 1963 Leslie Special Convertible.
The villain's black car was named the "Hannibal Twin-8"; five were constructed. One of them is on display at the Petersen Automobile Museum, powered by a Volkswagen industrial engine. Another is at the Volo Auto Museum in Volo, Illinois. This model includes a prop "cannon" and a working smoke generator. The Volo museum describes the Hannibal Twin-8 as built by Warner Brothers at a cost of $150,000, powered by a Corvair six-cylinder engine with three-speed manual transmission and six wheels. All four rear wheels are powered by a chain drive.
Both vehicles were first on display at Movie World "Cars of the Stars" museum in Buena Park, California, until the museum closed in the late 1970s.
Pie fight
The Technicolor pie fight scene in the royal bakery was filmed over five days. The first pastry thrown was part of a large cake decorated for the king's coronation. Following this was the throwing of 4,000 pies, the most pies ever filmed in a pie fight. The scene lasts four minutes and twenty seconds and cost $200,000 to shoot; $18,000 just for the pastry.
Colorful cream pies with fillings such as raspberry, strawberry, blueberry and lemon were used. For continuity between days of shooting, the actors were photographed at the end of each day and then made up the following morning to have the same colorful appearance, the same smears of pie crust and filling.
Edwards told the cast that a pie fight by itself is not funny, so to make it funny they would build tension by having the hero, dressed all in white, fail to get hit with any pies. He said, "The audience will start yearning for him to get it." Finally, the hero was to take a pie in the face at "just the right moment".
Shooting was halted while the actors took the weekend off. Over the weekend, the pie residue spoiled, all over the scenery. When the actors returned Monday morning, the pie filling smelled so bad that the building required a thorough cleaning and large fans to blow out the sour air. The missing pie residue was carefully recreated with more pies, and shooting resumed.
At first, the actors had fun with the pie fight assignment, but eventually the process grew wearisome and dangerous. Wood choked briefly on pie filling which hit her open mouth. Lemmon reported that he got knocked out a few times; he said, "a pie hitting you in the face feels like a ton of cement." At the end of shooting, when Edwards called "cut!", he was barraged with several hundred pies that members of the cast had hidden, waiting for the moment.
The pie fight scene paid homage to the early Mack Sennett practice of using a single thrown pie as comedic punctuation, but to a greater degree it was a celebration of classic movie pie fights such as Charlie Chaplin's Behind the Screen (1916), The Battle of the Century (1927) starring Stan Laurel and Oliver Hardy, and The Three Stooges' In the Sweet Pie and Pie from 1941. In his script for The Great Race Edwards called for a "Battle of the Century-style pie fight". Though Edwards used 4,000 pies over five days, many of these were used as set dressing for continuity. Laurel and Hardy used 3,000 pies in only one day of shooting, so more are seen flying through the air. Leonard Maltin compared The Great Race pie fight to The Battle of the Century and determined that Laurel and Hardy's pacing was far superior; that the more modern film suffered from an "incomplete understanding of slapstick" while the 1927 pie fight remains "one of the great scenes in all of screen comedy."
Reception
The Great Race was generally not well-received upon release and was considered a critical flop, making it the first notable failure for director Edwards. Most critics attacked its blatant and overdone slapstick humor and its lack of substance. It also suffered from comparisons with another race-themed "epic comedy" of 1965, Those Magnificent Men in Their Flying Machines. Film critic Richard Schickel wrote that, though the film "bumps along very pleasantly for the most part", Edwards failed at his attempt to recreate the slapstick atmosphere of a Laurel and Hardy comedy. Schickel felt that Wood was "hopelessly miscast", and that the energies of Lemmon and Curtis did not quite make the slapstick work. Maltin wrote that Wood "never looked better" and that the film's comedy sometimes worked but was otherwise forced: "a mixed bag".
The film won an Oscar for Best Sound Effects as well as being nominated for Best Cinematography, Best Film Editing, Best Song, and Best Sound (George Groves). It was nominated for the Golden Globe Award for Best Picture – Musical or Comedy and Best Actor – Musical or Comedy (Jack Lemmon). It currently has a 77% "fresh" rating on Rotten Tomatoes.
Soundtrack
Before the film was released, the soundtrack was re-recorded in Hollywood by RCA Victor Records for release on vinyl LP. Henry Mancini spent six weeks composing the score, and the recording involved some 80 musicians. Mancini collaborated with lyricist Johnny Mercer on several songs including "The Sweetheart Tree", released as a single. The song was performed onscreen by Natalie Wood with the voice dubbed by Jackie Ward (uncredited). It was nominated for but did not win an Oscar for best song.
Other songs include:
"He Shouldn't A Hadn't A Oughtn't A Swang on Me" – Mancini/Mercer. Performed by Dorothy Provine
"Buffalo Gals" – Traditional Western song performed by the chorus girls in Boracho saloon, with different lyrics and a middle section, for a 1900s atmosphere
"Great Race March" – Mancini
Legacy
The film was a major influence on Wacky Races, a Hanna-Barbera cartoon series. The film's characterizations were themselves rather cartoonish. Furthermore, film editor and sound-effects man Treg Brown, who worked on many classic Warner Brothers cartoons, worked on this film, and many sound effects will be familiar to cartoon fans. Brown's sound design won the film an Oscar.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Great_Race
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Carry On Cowboy is another 1965 parody movie. Let's continue the parody movies topic with the information about this film:
Carry On Cowboy is the eleventh in the Carry On series of films. It was released in 1965 and was the first film to feature series regulars Peter Butterworth and Bernard Bresslaw. Series regulars Sid James, Kenneth Williams, Jim Dale, Charles Hawtrey and Joan Sims all feature and Angela Douglas makes the first of her four appearances in the series.
Plot
A parody of Westerns, it is set in the fictitious town of Stodge City (alluding to the real-life Dodge City). An outlaw known as The Rumpo Kid (played by Sid James) arrives in town and quickly turns the quiet town into a base for his network of cattle rustlers and thieves, despite the limited protests of the inept Judge Burke (Kenneth Williams).
In Washington DC, Englishman Marshal P. Knutt (Jim Dale), a "sanitation engineer first class", arrives in America in the hope of revolutionising the American sewage system. He accidentally walks into the office of the Commissioner, thinking it to be the Public Works Department, and is mistaken for the new US Peace Marshal for Stodge City.
The Rumpo Kid hears of the new Marshal, and tries all he can to kill the Marshal without being caught, including sending out a pack of Indians, led by their Chief Big Heap (Charles Hawtrey) and hanging the Marshal after framing him for cattle rustling. Knutt is saved only by the prowess of Annie Oakley (Angela Douglas), who has taken a liking to Knutt.
Eventually, Knutt runs the Kid out of town, but once Rumpo discovers that Knutt is only a sanitary engineer and not the Peace Marshal he once thought, the Kid swears revenge, returning to Stodge City for a showdown. By hiding beneath the manholes in the main street, Knutt kills off Rumpo's gang, but fails to capture Rumpo, who escapes into the dusk.
Cast
Sid James as Johnny Finger/The Rumpo Kid
Kenneth Williams as Judge Burke
Jim Dale as Marshal P Knutt
Charles Hawtrey as Big Heap
Joan Sims as Belle
Peter Butterworth as Doc
Bernard Bresslaw as Little Heap
Angela Douglas as Annie Oakley
Jon Pertwee as Sheriff Albert Earp
Percy Herbert as Charlie
Sydney Bromley as Sam Houston
Edina Ronay as Delores
Lionel Murton as Clerk
Peter Gilmore as Curly
Davy Kaye as Josh
Alan Gifford as Commissioner
Brian Rawlinson as Stagecoach guard
Michael Nightingale as Bank manager
Simon Cain as Short
Sally Douglas as Kitkata
Cal McCord as Mex
Garry Colleano as Slim
Arthur Lovegrove as Old cowhand
Margaret Nolan as Miss Jones
Tom Clegg as Blacksmith
Larry Cross as Perkins
Brian Coburn as Trapper
Ballet Montparnasse as Dancing girls
Hal Galili as Cowhand
Norman Stanley as Drunk
Carmen Dene as Mexican girl
Andrea Allen as Minnie
Vicki Smith as Polly
Audrey Wilson as Jane
Donna White as Jenny
Lisa Thomas as Sally
Gloria Best as Bridget
George Mossman as Stagecoach driver
Richard O'Brien as Rider
Eric Rogers as Pianist
Crew
Screenplay - Talbot Rothwell
Music - Eric Rogers
Songs - Eric Rogers & Alan Rogers
Associate Producer - Frank Bevis
Art Director - Bert Davey
Editor - Rob Keys
Director of Photography - Alan Hume
Camera Operator - Godfrey Godar
Assistant Director - Peter Bolton
Unit Manager - Ron Jackson
Make-up - Geoffrey Rodway
Sound Editor - Jim Groom
Sound Recordists - Robert T MacPhee & Ken Barker
Hairdressing - Stella Rivers
Costume Designer - Cynthia Tingey
Assistant Editor - Jack Gardner
Horse Master - Jeremy Taylor
Continuity - Gladys Goldsmith
Producer - Peter Rogers
Director - Gerald Thomas
Filming and locations
Filming dates – 12 July-3 September 1965
Interiors:
Pinewood Studios, Buckinghamshire
Exteriors:
Chobham Common, Surrey
Black Park, Fulmer, Buckinghamshire
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carry_On_Cowboy
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Parody movies - 1965
Help! (film)
Help! is a 1965 film directed by Richard Lester, starring The Beatles—John Lennon, Paul McCartney, George Harrison and Ringo Starr—and featuring Leo McKern, Eleanor Bron, Victor Spinetti, John Bluthal, Roy Kinnear and Patrick Cargill. Help! was the second feature film made by the Beatles and is a comedy adventure which sees the group come up against an evil cult. The soundtrack was released as an album, also called Help!.
A series of still photographs were taken by the photojournalist Michael Peto during the making of the film and are held by Archive Services, University of Dundee.
Synopsis
Part One
An eastern cult (a parody of the Thuggee cult) is about to sacrifice a woman to the goddess 'Kali'. Just as she is about to be killed, the high priestess of the cult notices that she is not wearing the sacrificial ring. Ringo Starr, drummer of The Beatles, has it; sent to him by the victim – it is on his finger. Determined to retrieve the ring and sacrifice the woman, the great Swami Clang (McKern), the high priestess Ahme (Bron) and several cult members including Bhuta (Bluthal) leave for London. After several failed attempts to steal the ring, they confront him in an Indian restaurant. Ringo learns that if he does not return the ring soon, he will become the next sacrifice. Ringo then discovers that the ring is stuck on his finger.
Next, they seek a jeweller to remove it but the tools he uses all break on the ring. In a desperate effort to remove the ring, the band resorts to the bumbling efforts of a mad scientist, Foot (Spinetti) and his assistant Algernon (Kinnear). His laboratory is full of surplus British made equipment and Foot despises anything British. When his equipment turns out to have no effect on the ring, Foot decides that he, too, must have it. Before he can do anything else, Ahme comes in with a pink Walther P-38 pistol, rescues the group and they return home.
Ahme, now revealed as being on the group's side, tells the group that her sister's time has passed and she is now out of danger. Ringo is now the sacrifice victim. Ahme proposes to inject Ringo with a potion that is derived from the essence of certain orchids and would shrink his finger so the ring would come off. She tells Ringo to be brave and suggests, to the camera, that if he had been brave; "none of this would have been necessary".
Intermission
The boys are seen in a field, jumping up and down.
Part Two
Ahme's sister is taking a bath and getting the red paint off.
Part Three
Ringo lies nervously on Paul's bed, waiting for the injection. But before Ahme can proceed, the gang starts to pound on the doors. Startled, Ahme drops the needle into Paul's leg and he shrinks instead. Cutting from "The Exciting Adventure of Paul on The Floor", the thugs break into the room and a fight ensues. Ahme flees. Ringo is doused with red paint (he has to be painted red in order for him to be sacrificed), thus ruining his best suit and causing him to cry and a swordsman approaches. Foot comes in, shoots a warning shot with his Webley and scares the man away. The gang retreats and Foot makes his attempt to take the ring. Paul unshrinks and John subsequently starts to swing a lamp at Foot who tries to shoot him, but his gun misfires. Blaming this on the fact that the gun is British made, Foot retreats. The boys are left to sort things out.
The band flees to the Austrian Alps for refuge but both thugs and Foot follow in pursuit. As the Beatles participate in a game of curling, Foot and Algernon booby trap one of the curling stones with a bomb. George sees the "fiendish thingy" and tells everyone to run. The bomb eventually goes off after a delay, creating a big hole in the ice in which a swimmer (Mal Evans) emerges and asks directions to the White Cliffs of Dover. Next, Swami skis down a slope that Ahme told him was the way to get to further pursue the Beatles, but turns out to be the take-off ramp for a Ski jumping contest. Swami is the winner, and inadvertently gets held up by receiving a gold medal. The group escapes back to England and they ask for "protection" from Scotland Yard; and get it in the form of a cowardly Inspector (Cargill). After being attacked while recording in the middle of Salisbury Plain surrounded by the British Army, they hide in "A Well Known Palace" (Buckingham Palace) until they are almost captured by Foot.
The group step into a small pub, where Swami appears to be working. After being served beer, Ringo cannot pick his glass up from the table, so George tips it over, unknowingly opening a trapdoor to the cellar that Swami set up. Inside the cellar is a broken ladder and a tiger. They go summon the Inspector, and tells them to sing the Ode to Joy from Beethoven's 9th Symphony to the tiger in order to tame it, while everyone outside the pub hear the melody, and join in. Disguised, the Beatles take a plane to the Bahamas, followed by Scotland Yard officers, Foot and Clang. After Ringo is nearly captured, the other Beatles pose as him in order to lure the cult members, who are then arrested by the Bahamas Police. Despite their best efforts, Ringo is captured by Foot, who takes him on to a ship intending to cut off his finger to get the ring.
Ahme rescues Ringo by giving Foot the same orchid essence shrinking solution in exchange. The two try to escape the ship by jumping into the water, however Ringo cannot swim. They are captured by the cult and tied down on the beach where they are surrounded by two battalions of Kukhri Rifles. Clang begins the ceremony to sacrifice Ringo, after telling him that the cult members are prepared to attack the rest of the Beatles and police when they come to the rescue and that if Ringo attempts to warn them he will die instantly.
Ringo manages to untie himself and tries to wave to his band mates to warn them away. With this act of courage, the ring falls from his finger. He puts the ring on Clang's hand, saying "Get sacrificed! I don't subscribe to your religion!" Ahme declares that Clang will be the next sacrifice, as he is wearing the ring. The movie ends with Help! playing one last time and everyone running around. Clang manages to remove the ring and gives it to Foot and Algernon. They, however, leave the ring in the sand while the police rush about arresting the cult while The Beatles playfully run around; the ring ends up on Bhuta's finger and he becomes the target for sacrifice; meanwhile, Mal Evans swims toward the beach and once again, asks for directions to the White Cliffs of Dover. The movie ends with a dedication to "Elias Howe, who, in 1846, invented the sewing machine".
The credits feature the characters acting up in front of the camera, with the jewel of the ring being placed in front of the lens. The music playing during the credits is the Overture of The Barber of Seville by Gioachino Rossini, with The Beatles adding their own laughing and comments.
...http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Help!_%28film%29
(to be continued. Please, I need somebody, please... ;D)
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My pleasure! Long time no see! Glad to post here again.
So, we're talking about the parody movies and right now about the parody film "Help!"
Let's continue it with the post/part 2:
Inspiration
The Beatles said the film was inspired by the Marx Brothers classic Duck Soup; it was also directly satirical of the James Bond series of films. At the time of the original release of Help!, its distributor, United Artists, also held the rights to the Bond series (now owned by UA sister studio MGM.) The humour of the film is strongly influenced by the abstract humour of the Goon Show, in which the director had personal and direct experience in the conversion of the radio format to television, and personal working experience with Peter Sellers in particular. Many of the films concepts are derived from Goon Shows, such as the presence of wild animals, music, and abstractions such as the closing statement the concludes the film.
Production
According to interviews conducted with Paul McCartney, George Harrison, and Ringo Starr for The Beatles Anthology, director Richard Lester was given a larger budget for this film than he had for A Hard Day's Night, thanks to the commercial success of the latter. Thus, this feature film was in colour and was shot on several exotic foreign locations. It was also given a fuller musical score than A Hard Day's Night, provided by a full orchestra, and including pieces of well known classical music: Wagner's Lohengrin, Act III Overture, Tchaikovsky's "1812 Overture", Beethoven's "Ninth Symphony" ("Ode to Joy"), and, during the end credits and with their own comic vocal interpretation, Rossini's "Barber of Seville" overture. The original title for the film – only changed to Help! very near to its release – was Eight Arms To Hold You.
Help! was set in London, Salisbury Plain, the Austrian Alps, New Providence Island and Paradise Island in the Bahamas and Twickenham Film Studios, beginning in the Bahamas on 23 February 1965. Starr commented in The Beatles Anthology that they were in the Bahamas for the hot weather scenes, and therefore had to wear light clothing even though it was rather cold. Tony Bramwell, the assistant to Beatles manager Brian Epstein, stated in his book A Magical Mystery Tour that Epstein chose the Bahamas for tax reasons. According to The Beatles Anthology, during the restaurant sequence filmed in early April, George began to discover Indian-style music, which would be a key element in future songs such as "Norwegian Wood". Filming finished on 14 April at Ailsa Avenue in Twickenham.
The Beatles did not particularly enjoy the filming of the movie, nor were they pleased with the end product. In 1970, John Lennon said they felt like extras in their own movie.
"The movie was out of our control. With A Hard Day's Night, we had a lot of input, and it was semi-realistic. But with Help!, Dick Lester didn't tell us what it was all about.
—John Lennon on filming Help!
Ten years later Lennon was more charitable:
I realize, looking back, how advanced it was. It was a precursor to the Batman "Pow! Wow!" on TV—that kind of stuff. But [Lester] never explained it to us. Partly, maybe, because we hadn't spent a lot of time together between A Hard Day's Night and Help!, and partly because we were smoking marijuana for breakfast during that period. Nobody could communicate with us, it was all glazed eyes and giggling all the time. In our own world. It's like doing nothing most of the time, but still having to rise at 7 am, so we became bored.
A contributing factor was exhaustion attributable to their busy schedule of writing, recording and touring. Afterward they were hesitant to begin another film project, and indeed Help! was their last full-length scripted theatrical film. Their obligation for a third film to United Artists was met by the 1970 documentary film Let It Be. The 1968 animated film Yellow Submarine did not meet contractual obligations because it did not star the Beatles, and their only live appearance was featured for less than two minutes at the film's conclusion.
"Haze of marijuana"
The Beatles later said the film was shot in a "haze of marijuana". According to Starr's interviews in The Beatles Anthology, during the Austrian Alps film shooting, he and McCartney ran off over the hill from the "curling" scene set to smoke a joint.
"A hell of a lot of pot was being smoked while we were making the film. It was great. That helped make it a lot of fun...In one of the scenes, Victor Spinetti and Roy Kinnear are playing curling: sliding along those big stones. One of the stones has a bomb in it and we find out that it's going to blow up, and have to run away. Well, Paul and I ran about seven miles, we ran and ran, just so we could stop and have a joint before we came back. We could have run all the way to Switzerland. If you look at pictures of us you can see a lot of red-eyed shots; they were red from the dope we were smoking. And these were those clean-cut boys! Dick Lester knew that very little would get done after lunch. In the afternoon we very seldom got past the first line of the script. We had such hysterics that no one could do anything. Dick Lester would say, 'No, boys, could we do it again?' It was just that we had a lot of fun – a lot of fun in those days."
—Ringo Starr
In the Beatles Anthology Director's Cut, Harrison admitted that they were smoking marijuana on the plane ride all the way to the Bahamas.
McCartney also shared some of his memories of when they were filming Help!:
"We showed up a bit stoned, smiled a lot and hoped we'd get through it. We giggled a lot. I remember one time at Cliveden (Lord Astor's place, where the Christine Keeler/Profumo scandal went on); we were filming the Buckingham Palace scene where we were all supposed to have our hands up. It was after lunch, which was fatal because someone might have brought out a glass of wine as well. We were all a bit merry and all had our backs to the camera and the giggles set in. All we had to do was turn around and look amazed, or something. But every time we'd turn round to the camera there were tears streaming down our faces. It's OK to get the giggles anywhere else but in films, because the technicians get pissed off with you. They think, 'They're not very professional.' Then you start thinking, 'This isn't very professional – but we're having a great laugh.'"
—Paul McCartney
"John did once offer me a joint. And I obligingly tried to take a little puff. I knew there was some special way of doing it – but I don't smoke anyway. So I took a little puff and then thought, "This is so expensive. I mustn't waste it!" And gave it back to him. So that's your definition of naïve, I think."
—Eleanor Bron
he photographer Michael Peto was commissioned in 1965 to take still photographs during the making of the film; these became known for their candid and expressive quality. During the digitisation of the Michael Peto Collection, which is held by Archive Services, University of Dundee, in 2002, 500 unpublished previously unpublished photographs of the Beatles taken during the making of Help! were reported to have been uncovered. Now These Days are Gone, a limited edition volume of Peto's photographs focusing on the Beatles images was produced in 2006 with deluxe editions of the book signed by Richard Lester. An exhibition of the photographs to mark the book's launch was held at Hoopers Gallery, Clerkenwell, in January, 2006.[2][9] Another exhibition of the photographs was held at the University of Dundee in 2007 as part of the University's 40th anniversary celebrations, with the exhibition then moving to the National Conservation Centre, Liverpool. In 2011 the photographs were exhibited in Dundee, as part of the Scottish Beatles Weekend, and at the Proud Gallery, Camden.
Songs
The song that appear in the film are:
"Help!"
"You're Going to Lose That Girl"
"You've Got to Hide Your Love Away"
"Ticket to Ride"
"I Need You"
"The Night Before"
"Another Girl"
"She's A Woman" (heard in the background, on a tape machine, and underground in the Salisbury Plain scene)
"A Hard Day's Night" (played by Indian band and as an instrumental)
"I'm Happy Just to Dance with You" (played by a band during the bike-riding scene)
"You Can't Do That" (played as an instrumental during the Austrian Alps sequence)
The seven main songs formed the first side of the British release of the Help! album. The second half consisted of other new Beatles songs recorded at the same time.
Critical response
Critical opinion at the time of release was generally positive, but many critics feel that this big budget effort was not as strong as A Hard Day's Night. Leslie Halliwell describes it as an
[e]xhausting attempt to outdo A Hard Day's Night in lunatic frenzy, which goes to show that some talents work best on low budgets. The humour is a frantic cross between Hellzapoppin', The Goons, Goofy, Mr. Magoo and the shade of Monty Python to come. It looks good but becomes too tiresome to entertain.
Allmovie's Ronnie D. Lankford, Jr. describes it as
... a forerunner to music videos. ... Lester seemed to find the right tone for Help!, creating an enjoyable portrait of the Beatles and never allowing the film to take itself too seriously. His style would later be co-opted by Bob Rafaelson [sic] for the Monkees' television series in the '60s and has continued to influence rock musicals like Spice World in 1998.
Novelisation
A novelisation entitled The Beatles in Help! was written by Al Hine and published by Dell in 1965.
A sequence featuring Frankie Howerd and Wendy Richard was filmed but left out of final editing owing to its length. However, the sequence was left in the film novelisation.
Release history
Like A Hard Day's Night, Help! was originally distributed theatrically by United Artists – the company handled distribution from 1965 to the end of 1980. In January 1981, rights to the movie reverted from UA to producer Walter Shenson, and the movie was withdrawn from circulation.
Help! was released several times in different video formats by MPI Home Video and The Criterion Collection. On VHS, a version was released during February 1987 through MPI, along with a reissue of A Hard Day's Night the very same day, and was followed by a special-edition release on 31 October 1995. MPI also issued a CLV laserdisc in 1995 and two releases on DVD, the first as a single DVD release on 12 November 1997 and the second as part of The Beatles DVD Collector's Set on 8 August 2000.
LaserDisc releases include a Criterion CAV laserdisc and a Voyager CLV laserdisc in 1987, each of which had three pressings. The first pressings had no UPC on the gatefold covers while the other two had the UPC either as a sticker or printed directly on the jacket.
The film's transfer on the CAV laserdiscs was done correctly so that no blending of frames occurs and thus movements are not blurry. The supplemental section, which, with few exceptions, has never been available on any other home video release, contains the following:
original theatrical trailer (which includes deleted scenes)
silent home movie footage of the film set and of the world premiere
still photos, some of which are introduced by text describing the production history of the film
posters
sheet music
record jackets
radio ads (on audio during the silent footage)
an open interview, originally designed for disc jockeys. By reading prompts on the screen, one can pretend to talk to the Beatles.
In June 2007, a version of Help!, sub-titled in Korean, became available on Amazon.com. However, by July 2007, all home video versions of the film were pulled from the market because of rights issues involving Apple Corps – now the full rights holders to the film. The rights issues were eventually resolved and Apple Corps/EMI/Capitol released a new double DVD version with a fully restored film negative and newly remixed in 2.0 stereo and 5.1 surround sound of the film. This came in standard 2xDVD packaging and 2xDVD deluxe edition box set on 30 October 2007 in the UK and 6 November 2007 in America. This latest release contains new featurettes, three trailers (one of which is in Spanish), and the aforementioned radio ads carried over from the Criterion LaserDisc issue.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Help!_%28film%29
That's all for now. I hope we don't need help anymore! :D
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Parody movies - 1966
Don't Lose Your Head
Don't Lose Your Head (often incorrectly Carry On Don't Lose Your Head) is the thirteenth Carry On film (and one of only two not to have "Carry On" in the original title). It features regular team members Sid James, Kenneth Williams, Jim Dale, Charles Hawtrey and Joan Sims. French actress Dany Robin makes her only Carry On appearance in Don't Lose Your Head. It was released in 1966. Set in France and England in 1789 during the French revolution, it is a parody of Baroness Orczy's The Scarlet Pimpernel.
Plot
It is the time of the French Revolution, and two bored English noblemen, Sir Rodney Ffing (pronounced "Effing") and his best friend, Lord Darcy Pue, (played by Sid James and Jim Dale respectively) decide to have some fun and save their French counterparts from beheading by the guillotine.
Enraged revolutionary leader Citizen Camembert (Kenneth Williams) and his toadying lackey, Citizen Bidet (Peter Butterworth), scour France and England for the elusive saviour of the French nobles, who has become known as The Black Fingernail. After abducting the Fingernail's true love, Jacqueline (Dany Robin), Camembert and Bidet plot to lure the Fingernail to his death... oblivious that Desiree (Joan Sims), Camembert's flamboyant mistress, is herself in love with the hero and will do all she can to save him from the guillotine.
Cast
Sid James as Sir Rodney Ffing/The Black Fingernail
Kenneth Williams as Citizen Camembert
Jim Dale as Lord Darcy de Pue
Charles Hawtrey as Duke de Pommefrites
Joan Sims as Desiree Dubarry
Peter Butterworth as Citizen Bidet
Dany Robin as Jacqueline
Peter Gilmore as Citizen Robespierre
Marianne Stone as Landlady
Michael Ward as Henri
Leon Green as Malabonce
Hugh Futcher as Guard
Richard Shaw as Captain
David Davenport as Sergeant
Jennifer Clulow as 1st lady
Valerie Van Ost as 2nd lady
Jacqueline Pearce as 3rd lady
Nikki van der Zyl as Messenger
Julian Orchard as Rake
Elspeth March as Lady Binder
Joan Ingram as Bald-headed Dowager
Michael Nightingale as "What locket?" man
Diana MacNamara as Princess Stephanie
Ronnie Brody as Little man
Billy Cornelius as Soldier
Patrick Allen as Narrator
Monica Dietrich as Girl
Anna Willoughby as Girl
Penny Keen as Girl
June Cooper as Girl
Christine Pryor as Girl
Karen Young as Girl
Crew
Screenplay - Talbot Rothwell
Music - Eric Rogers
Song - Bill Martin & Phil Coulter
Performers - Michael Sammes Singers
Production Manager - Jack Swinburne
Director of Photography - Alan Hume
Editor - Rod Keys
Art Director - Lionel Couch
Camera Operator - Jimmy Devis
Assistant Director - Jack Causey
Sound Editor - W Nelson
Sound Recordists - Dudley Messenger & Ken Barker
Continuity - Rita Davison
Make-up - Geoffrey Rodway
Hairdressing - Stella Rivers
Costume Designer - Emma Selby-Walker
Choreographer - Terry Gilbert
Horse Master - Jeremy Taylor
Producer - Peter Rogers
Director - Gerald Thomas
Filming and locations
Filming dates – 12 September-28 October 1966
Interiors:
Pinewood Studios, Buckinghamshire
Exteriors:
Clandon Hall, Guildford, Surrey, England
Claydon Park, Claydon, Buckinghamshire, England
Cliveden, Buckinghamshire, England, UK
Waddesdon Manor, Waddesdon, Buckinghamshire, England, UK
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Parody movies
1967
One of the probably most famous parody movies is the movie Casino Royale. Let's represent it now.
"Casino Royale is a 1967 comedy spy film originally produced by Columbia Pictures starring an ensemble cast of directors and actors. It is set as a satire of the James Bond film series and the spy genre, and is loosely based on Ian Fleming's first James Bond novel.
The film stars David Niven as the original Bond, Sir James Bond 007. Forced out of retirement to investigate the deaths and disappearances of international spies, he soon battles the mysterious Dr. Noah and SMERSH.
The film's famous slogan: "Casino Royale is too much… for one James Bond!" refers to Bond's ruse to mislead SMERSH in which six other agents are designated as "James Bond", namely, Baccarat master Evelyn Tremble (Peter Sellers), millionaire spy Vesper Lynd (Ursula Andress), Bond's secretary Miss Moneypenny (Barbara Bouchet), Bond's daughter with Mata Hari, Mata Bond (Joanna Pettet) and British agents "Coop" (Terence Cooper) and "The Detainer" (Daliah Lavi).
Charles K. Feldman, the producer, had acquired the film rights and had attempted to get Casino Royale made as an Eon James Bond film (i.e. one made by Eon Productions); however, Feldman and the producers of the Eon series, Albert R. Broccoli and Harry Saltzman, failed to come to terms. Believing that he could not compete with the Eon series, Feldman resolved to produce the film as a satire.
The film has had a mixed reception among critics, some of whom regard it as a baffling, disorganised affair, with critic Roger Ebert branding it "possibly the most indulgent film ever made". On the other hand, Andrea LeVasseur called it "a psychedelic, absurd masterpiece"[2] and cinema historian Robert von Dassanowsky has described it as "a film of momentary vision, collaboration, adaption, pastiche, and accident. It is the anti-auteur work of all time, a film shaped by the very zeitgeist it took on."
Plot
Overview
The story of Casino Royale is told in an episodic format and is best outlined in "chapters". Val Guest oversaw the assembly of the sections, although he turned down the credit of "co-ordinating director".
Opening sequence
Evelyn Tremble/James Bond 007 (Peter Sellers) and Inspector Mathis meet in a pissoir, where Mathis presents his credentials—in a shot suggesting a display of Mathis' genitals, and setting the tone of the film by satirizing the dramatic opening sequences in the Eon Bond films.
Plot summary
Sir James Bond 007, a legendary British spy who retired from the secret service 50 years previously, is visited by the head of British MI6, M, CIA representative Ransome, KGB representative Smernov, and Deuxième Bureau representative Le Grand. All implore Bond to come out of retirement to deal with SMERSH who have been eliminating agents: Bond spurns all their pleas. When Bond continues to stand firm, his mansion is destroyed by a mortar attack at the orders of M, who is however killed in the explosion.
Bond returns M's remains to the grieving widow, Lady Fiona McTarry, who has been replaced by SMERSH's Agent Mimi. The rest of the household have been likewise replaced, with SMERSH’s aim to discredit Bond by destroying his "celibate image". However, Mimi/Lady Fiona becomes so impressed with Bond that she changes loyalties and helps Bond to foil the plot against him. On his way back to London, Bond survives another attempt on his life.
Bond is promoted to the head of MI6 and he orders that all remaining MI6 agents will be named "James Bond 007", to confuse SMERSH. He also hatches a plan to train an irresistible male agent to resist the charms of opposing female agents and Moneypenny recruits "Coop", a karate expert who begins training to resist seductive women: he also meets an exotic agent known as the Detainer.
Bond then hires Vesper Lynd, a retired agent turned millionaire, to recruit baccarat player Evelyn Tremble, whom he intends to use to beat SMERSH agent Le Chiffre. Having embezzled SMERSH's money, Le Chiffre is desperate for money to cover up his theft before he is executed.
Following up a clue from agent Mimi, Bond persuades his estranged daughter Mata Bond to travel to East Berlin to infiltrate International Mothers' Help, a school for spies that is a SMERSH cover operation. Mata uncovers a plan to sell compromising photographs of military leaders from the US, USSR, China and Great Britain at an "art auction", another scheme Le Chiffre hopes to use to raise money: Mata destroys the photos. Le Chiffre's only remaining option is to raise the money by playing baccarat: The Detainer tried to stop him, but Le Chiffre prepared a magic trick, hypnotising The Detainer and making her disappear.
Tremble arrives at the Casino Royale accompanied by Vesper, who foils an attempt to disable him by seductive SMERSH agent Miss Goodthighs. Later that night, Tremble observes Le Chiffre playing at the casino and realizes that he is using infrared sunglasses to cheat. Vesper steals the sunglasses, allowing Evelyn to eventually beat Le Chiffre in a game of baccarat. Vesper is apparently abducted outside the casino, and Tremble is also kidnapped while pursuing her. Le Chiffre, desperate for the winning cheque, hallucinogenically tortures Tremble. Vesper rescues Tremble, only to subsequently kill him. Meanwhile, SMERSH agents raid Le Chiffre's base and kill him for his failure.
In London, Mata Bond is kidnapped by SMERSH in a giant flying saucer, and James and Moneypenny travel to Casino Royale to rescue her. They discover that the casino is located atop a giant underground headquarters run by the evil Dr. Noah, who turns out to be Sir James's nephew Jimmy Bond. Jimmy reveals that he plans to use biological warfare to make all women beautiful and kill all men over 4-foot-6-inch (1.37 m) tall, leaving him as the "big man" who gets all the girls. Jimmy goes to check on The Detainer, and tries to convince her to be his queen, she apparently agrees, but foils his plan by poisoning him with one of his own atomic pills, which will cause him to hiccup till he explodes.
Sir James, Moneypenny, Mata and Coop manage to escape from their cell and fight their way back to the Casino Director's office where Sir James establishes Vesper is a double agent. The casino is then overrun by secret agents and a battle ensues. Eventually, Jimmy's atomic pill explodes, destroying Casino Royale along with everyone inside. Sir James and all of his agents then appear in heaven and Jimmy Bond is shown descending to hell.
Cast
See also List of characters in Casino Royale (1967) for a complete list of all actors who play a major, minor or uncredited role in the film.
David Niven as Sir James Bond 007 – A legendary British secret agent forced out of retirement to fight SMERSH. David Niven had, in fact, been Ian Fleming's preference for the part of James Bond,[5] Eon Productions, however, chose Sean Connery for their series. In a documentary included with the U.S. DVD of the 1967 release of Casino Royale, Val Guest states that Ian Fleming had written the book with David Niven in mind. When the novel was published, Fleming sent a copy to Niven, who for a time considered making Casino Royale into an episode of Four Star Playhouse. David Niven is the only James Bond actor who is mentioned by name in the text of Fleming's James Bond novels: In On Her Majesty's Secret Service, Bond visits an exclusive ski resort in Switzerland where he is told that David Niven is a frequent visitor, and in You Only Live Twice, David Niven is referred to as the only real gentleman in Hollywood.
Peter Sellers as Evelyn Tremble/James Bond 007 – A Baccarat Master recruited by Vesper Lynd to challenge Le Chiffre at Casino Royale.
Ursula Andress as Vesper Lynd – A retired British secret agent forced back into service in exchange for writing off her tax arrears.
Orson Welles as Le Chiffre – SMERSH's financial agent, desperate to win at Baccarat in order to repay the money he has embezzled from the organization.
Woody Allen as Dr. Noah/Jimmy Bond – Bond's nephew and head of SMERSH.
Barbara Bouchet as Miss Moneypenny – The beautiful daughter of Bond's original Miss Moneypenny. She works for the service in the same position her mother had years before.
Deborah Kerr as Agent Mimi/Lady Fiona McTarry – A SMERSH agent who masquerades as the widow of M but cannot help falling in love with Bond. Kerr was 46 when she played the role and was the oldest Bond Girl in any of the James Bond films.
Jacqueline Bisset as Miss Goodthighs – A SMERSH agent who attempts to kill Evelyn Tremble at Casino Royale.
Joanna Pettet as Mata Bond – Bond's daughter, born of his love affair with Mata Hari.
Daliah Lavi as The Detainer – A British secret agent who successfully poisons Dr. Noah with his own atomic pill.
Terence Cooper as Coop – A British secret agent specifically chosen, and trained for this mission to resist the charms of women.
Bernard Cribbins as Carlton Towers – A British Foreign Office official who drives Mata Bond all the way from London to Berlin in his taxi.
Ronnie Corbett as Polo – A SMERSH agent at the International Mothers' Help who was in love with Mata Hari and expresses the same feelings for Mata Bond.
Anna Quayle as Mata Hari's teacher Frau Hoffner is a parody of the German Expressionist film The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari.
John Huston as M/McTarry – Head of MI6 who dies from an explosion caused by his own bombardment of Bond's estate.
William Holden as Ransome – A CIA agent who accompanies M to persuade Bond out of retirement, then reappears in the final climactic fight scene.
Charles Boyer as LeGrand – A Deuxième Bureau agent who accompanies M and Ransom to see Bond.
Casino Royale also takes credit for the greatest number of actors in a Bond film either to have appeared or to go on to appear in the rest of the Eon series — besides Ursula Andress in Dr. No, Vladek Sheybal appeared as Kronsteen in From Russia with Love, Burt Kwouk featured as Mr. Ling in Goldfinger and an unnamed SPECTRE operative in You Only Live Twice, Jeanne Roland plays a masseuse in You Only Live Twice, and Angela Scoular appeared as Ruby Bartlett in On Her Majesty's Secret Service. Jack Gwillim, who had a tiny role as a British army officer, played a Royal Navy officer in Thunderball. Caroline Munro, who was an extra, received the role of Naomi in The Spy Who Loved Me. Milton Reid, who appears in a bit part as a guard, opening the door to Mata Bond's hall, played Stromberg's underling, Sandor, also in The Spy Who Loved Me.
Major stars like George Raft and Jean-Paul Belmondo were given top billing in the film's promotion and screen trailers despite the fact that they only appeared for a few minutes in the final film sequence.
Uncredited cast
Well established stars like Peter O'Toole and sporting legends like Stirling Moss were prepared to take uncredited parts in the film just to be able to work with the other members of the cast. Similarly, David McCallum also made a cameo appearance. Stunt director Richard Talmadge employed Geraldine Chaplin, daughter of Charlie Chaplin, to appear in a brief Keystone Kops insert. The film also proved to be young Anjelica Huston's first experience in the film industry as she was called upon by her father, John Huston, to cover the screen shots of Deborah Kerr's hands. The film also marks the debut of Dave Prowse, later to find fame as the physical form of Darth Vader in the Star Wars series."http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Casino_Royale_%281967_film%29
To be continued...
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Recently I started to like most of them. Before I thought that all of them are stupid, but I saw I wasn't right and we can learn a lot from them, not just watching them for fun. I will forward this topic now...
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Parody movies - moving on with the second part of the information about the film "Casino Royale"
Production
Directors
The production proved to be rather troubled, with five different directors helming different segments of the film, with stunt co-ordinator Richard Talmadge co-directing the final sequence. In addition to the credited writers, Woody Allen, Peter Sellers, Val Guest, Ben Hecht, Joseph Heller, Terry Southern, and Billy Wilder are all believed to have contributed to the screenplay to varying degrees. Val Guest was given the responsibility of splicing the various "chapters" together, and was offered the unique title of "Co-ordinating Director" but declined, claiming the chaotic plot would not reflect well on him if he were so credited. His extra credit was labelled "Additional Sequences" instead.
Early screenplays
Ben Hecht's contribution to the project, if not the final result, was in fact substantial. The Oscar winning writer was the first person whom Feldman recruited to produce a screenplay for the film. He created a number of complete drafts with various evolutions of the story incorporating different scenes and characters. All of his treatments were “straight” adaptations, far closer to the original source novel than the spoof which the final production became. The first, from as early as 1957, is a direct adaptation of the novel, albeit with the Bond character absent, instead being replaced by a poker playing American gangster.
Later drafts see vice made central to the plot, with the Le Chiffre character becoming head of a network of brothels whose patrons are then blackmailed by Le Chiffre to fund Spectre. The racy plot elements opened up by this change of background include a chase scene through Hamburg's red light district that results in Bond escaping whilst disguised as a lesbian mud wrestler. New characters appear such as Lili Wing, a brothel madam and former lover of Bond whose ultimate fate is to be crushed in the back of a garbage truck, and Gita, wife of Le Chiffre. The beautiful Gita, whose face and throat are hideously disfigured as a result of Bond using her as a shield during a gunfight in the same sequence which sees Wing meet her fate, goes on to become the prime protagonist in the torture scene that features in the book, a role originally Le Chiffre's.
Hecht never produced his final script though, dying of a heart attack two days before he was due to present it to Feldman in April 1964. Time reported in 1966 that the script had been completely re-written by Billy Wilder, and by the time the film reached production almost nothing of Hecht's screenplay remained. The one thing that did endure, and indeed became a key plot device of the finished film, was the idea of the name “James Bond” being given to a number of other agents. In the case of Hecht's version, this occurs after the demise of the original James Bond (an event which happened prior to the beginning of his story) which, as Hecht's M puts it “not only perpetuates his memory, but confuses the opposition."
Budget
The studio approved the film's production budget of $6 million, already quite a large budget in 1966. However, during filming the project ran into several problems and the shoot ran months over schedule, with the costs also running well over. When the film was finally completed it had run twice over its original budget. The final production budget of $12 million made it one of the most expensive films that had been made to that point. The previous Eon Bond film, Thunderball, had a budget of $11 million while You Only Live Twice, which was released the same year as Casino Royale, had a budget of $9.5 million. The extremely high budget of Casino Royale caused it to earn the reputation as being "a runaway mini-Cleopatra," referring to the runaway and out of control costs of the 1963 film Cleopatra. The film was due to be released in time for Christmas 1966 but premiered in April 1967.
Feud
The film is notable for the legendary behind-the-scenes drama involving the filming of the segments with Peter Sellers. Supposedly, Sellers felt intimidated by Orson Welles to the extent that, except for a couple of shots, neither was in the studio simultaneously. Other versions of the legend depict the drama stemming from Sellers being slighted, in favour of Welles, by Princess Margaret (whom Sellers knew) during her visit to the set. Welles also insisted on performing magic tricks as Le Chiffre, and the director obliged. Director Val Guest wrote that Welles did not think much of Sellers, and had refused to work with "that amateur".
Some biographies of Sellers suggest that he took the role of Bond to heart, and was annoyed at the decision to make Casino Royale a comedy as he wanted to play Bond straight. This is illustrated in somewhat fictionalized form in the film The Life and Death of Peter Sellers, based upon a biography by Roger Lewis, who claims that Sellers kept re-writing and improvising scenes himself to make them play seriously. This story is in agreement with the observation that the only parts of the film close to the book are the ones featuring Sellers and Welles.[9] In the end Sellers' involvement with the film was cut abruptly short.
Missing footage
Sellers left the production before all his scenes were shot, which is why Tremble is so abruptly captured in the film. Whether he was fired or simply walked off is unclear. Given that he often went absent for days at a time and was involved in conflicts with Welles, either explanation is plausible. Regardless, Sellers was unavailable for the filming of an ending and of linking footage to explain the details, leaving the filmmakers to devise a way to make the existing footage work without him. The framing device of a beginning and ending with David Niven was invented to salvage the footage. Val Guest indicated that he was given the task of creating a narrative thread which would link all segments of the film. He chose to use the original Bond and Vesper as linking characters to tie the story together. Guest states that in the originally released versions of the film, a cardboard cutout of Sellers in the background was used for the final scenes. In later versions, this cardboard cutout image was replaced by a sequence showing Sellers in highland dress, inserted by "trick photography".
Signs of missing footage from the Sellers segments are evident at various points. Evelyn Tremble is not captured on camera; an outtake of Sellers entering a racing car was substituted. In this outtake, Sellers calls for the car, à la Pink Panther, to chase down Vesper and her kidnappers; the next thing that is shown is Tremble being tortured. Out-takes of Sellers were also used for Tremble's dream sequence (pretending to play the piano on Ursula Andress' torso), in the finale (blowing out the candles whilst in highland dress) and at the end of the film when all the various "James Bond doubles" are together. In the kidnap sequence, Tremble's death is also very abruptly inserted; it consists of pre-existing footage of Sellers being rescued by Vesper, followed by a later-filmed shot of her abruptly deciding to shoot Tremble, followed by a freeze-frame over some of the previous footage of her surrounded by bodies (noticeably a zoom-in on the previous shot).
So many sequences from the film ended on the cutting room floor that several well-known actors were cut from the film altogether, including Mona Washbourne, Ian Hendry and Arthur Mullard.
Final sequence
Jean Paul Belmondo and George Raft received major billing, even though both actors appear only briefly. Both appear during the climactic brawl at the end, Raft flipping his trademark coin and promptly shooting himself dead with a backwards-firing pistol, while Belmondo appears wearing a fake moustache as the French Foreign Legion officer who requires an English phrase book to say 'ooch!' when he punches people. At the Intercon science fiction convention held in Slough in 1978, Dave Prowse commented on his part in this film, apparently his big-screen debut. He claimed that he was originally asked to play "Super Pooh", a giant Winnie The Pooh in a superhero costume who attacks Tremble during the Torture Of The Mind sequence. This idea, as with many others in the film's script, was rapidly dropped, and Prowse was re-cast as a Frankenstein-type Monster for the closing scenes. The final sequence was principally directed by former actor and stuntman Richard Talmadge.
Rights
Columbia Pictures distributed this version of Casino Royale. In 1997, following the Columbia/MGM/Kevin McClory lawsuit on ownership of the Bond film series, the rights to the film reverted to MGM (whose sister company United Artists co-owns the Bond film franchise) as a condition of the settlement.
Years later, as a result of the Sony/Comcast acquisition of MGM, Columbia would once again become responsible for the co-distribution of this 1967 version as well as the entire Eon Bond series, including the 2006 adaptation of Casino Royale. However, MGM Home Entertainment changed its distributor to 20th Century Fox Home Entertainment in May 2006, and MGM Television started to self-distribute again. Sony still controls the 2006 adaptation and theatrical rights to this version.
Alongside six other MGM-owned films, the studio posted Casino Royale on YouTube.
Release and reception
The "chaotic" nature of the production was featured heavily in contemporary reviews, while later reviewers have sometimes been kinder towards this. Roger Ebert said "This is possibly the most indulgent film ever made," and Variety said "it lacked discipline and cohesion."
Some later reviewers have been more impressed by the film. Andrea LeVasseur, in the AllMovie review, called it "the original ultimate spy spoof", and opined that the "nearly impossible to follow [plot]" made it "a satire to the highest degree". Further describing it as a "hideous, zany disaster" LeVasseur concluded that it was "a psychedelic, absurd masterpiece". Robert von Dassanowsky has written an article on the artistic merits of the film and says "like Casablanca, Casino Royale is a film of momentary vision, collaboration, adaption, pastiche, and accident. It is the anti-auteur work of all time, a film shaped by the very zeitgeist it took on."
Writing in 1986, Danny Peary noted, "It's hard to believe that in 1967 we actually waited in anticipation for this so-called James Bond spoof. It was a disappointment then; it's a curio today, but just as hard to get through." Peary described the film as being "disjointed and stylistically erratic" and "a testament to wastefulness in the bigger-is-better cinema," before adding, "It would have been a good idea to cut the picture drastically, perhaps down to the scenes featuring Peter Sellers and Woody Allen. In fact, I recommend you see it on television when it's in a two-hour (including commercials) slot. Then you won't expect it to make any sense."
Despite the lukewarm nature of the contemporary reviews the pull of the James Bond name was sufficient to make it the third highest grossing film in North America in 1967 with a gross of $22.7 million and a worldwide total of $41.7 million[16] ($274 million in 2012 dollars).
Orson Welles attributed the success of the film to a marketing strategy that featured a naked tattooed lady on the film's posters and print ads. Since its release the film has been widely criticised by a number of people. For instance, Simon Winder called Casino Royale "a pitiful spoof", while Robert Druce described it as "an abstraction of real life". In his review of the film, Leonard Maltin remarked, "Money, money everywhere, but [the] film is terribly uneven - sometimes funny, often not."
Conversely, Romano Tozzi complimented the acting and humour, although he also mentioned that the film has several dull stretches.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Casino_Royale_%281967_film%29
Next time we'll learn about the music in this movie!
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Yes, please, let's learn more about the music in this parody movie. I like parody movies, dear people!
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OK, I will continue the music topic about that parody movie - Casino Royale
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Casino_Royale_%281967_film%29#Music :
The original music is by Burt Bacharach. Herb Alpert & the Tijuana Brass performed some of the songs with Mike Redway singing the lyrics to the title song as the end credits rolled. (A version of the song was also sung by Peter Sellers.) The title theme was Alpert's second number one on the Easy Listening chart where it spent two weeks at the top in June 1967 and peaked at number twenty-seven on the Billboard Hot 100.
The 4th chapter of the film features the song "The Look of Love" performed by Dusty Springfield. It is played in the scene of Vesper Lynd recruiting Evelyn Tremble, seen through a man-size aquarium in a seductive walk. "The Look of Love" was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Song. The song was a Top 10 radio hit at the KGB and KHJ radio stations. A year later a version by Sérgio Mendes and Brasil '66 reached #4 of Billboard Hot 100. Dusty Springfield's version was heard again in the first Austin Powers film, which was to a degree inspired by Casino Royale. The German version of the film, however, features a German adaptation of "The Look of Love" sung by Mireille Mathieu. To make room for her credit in the film titles, the credit for Jean Paul Belmondo was removed in the German language version.
John Barry's song "Born Free" was also used in the film. At the time, Barry was the main composer for the Eon Bond series.
The original album cover art was done by Robert McGinnis, based on the film poster and the original stereo vinyl release of the soundtrack (Colgems #COSO-5005) is still highly sought after by audiophiles. It has been regarded by some music critics as the finest-sounding LP of all time. The original LP was later issued by Varese Sarabande in the same track order as shown below:
Soundtrack listing
"Casino Royale Theme" - Herb Alpert & the Tijuana Brass
"The Look of Love" - Dusty Springfield
"Money Penny Goes for Broke"
"Le Chiffre's Torture of the Mind"
"Home James, Don't Spare the Horses"
"Sir James' Trip to Find Mata"
"The Look of Love" (Instrumental)
"Hi There Miss Goodthighs"
"Little French Boy"
"Flying Saucer" - First Stop Berlin
"The Venerable Sir James Bond"
"Dream On James, You're Winning"
"The Big Cowboys and Indians Fight at Casino Royale" / "Casino Royale Theme" (reprise)
Track 5, "Home James...", heard in the film during the brawl at the military auction and Carlton Towers's and Mata Bond's subsequent escape, was re-arranged as "Bond Street", appearing on Bacharach's album Reach Out and on a 45. "Bond Street" itself has since appeared on the early-1990s easy listening compilation CD, This Is...Easy.
One cut conspicuously absent from the earlier film soundtrack issues is the vocal version of the title song, heard over the film's end credits. The album merely replays the instrumental opening theme in the last track.
However, in 2010, Kritzerland Records issued a remastered version of the soundtrack. This limited edition of 1,000 units presented the original album tracks in two parts. The first part used what survived of the original album masters (as they had suffered wear over the intervening decades, and the remainder of the score was unavailable for use on the reissue), was digitally and sonically restored using current technology, and was re-edited so as the music is presented in the order they appeared in the film. Some previously unreleased brief cues were added to this mix, including the aforementioned vocal version of the end title music. The second part was presented in the original LP order, and to address the issue of the sound quality of vinyl, part two was remastered directly from pristine vinyl copies of the LP.
:) Are you happy? Be happy and watch happy movies. I like parody movies and I also like comedies. I want to watch AGAIN "Dude, Where's My Car?" It's an American comedy film.
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"Dude, Where's My Car?"? Oh, yes. Ashton Kutcher is a good actor. :)
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Yes, he is. Ashton Kutcher can act every kind of characters - serious, funny, etc.
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It's time to move on. Let's introduce the parody movies from the 70's. Scroll down to learn about them.
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The first parody movie of 1970 is
Carry On Up the Jungle
Carry On Up the Jungle is the nineteenth Carry On film, released in 1970. The film marked Frankie Howerd's second and final appearance in the series. He stars alongside regular players Sid James, Charles Hawtrey, Joan Sims, Terry Scott and Bernard Bresslaw. Kenneth Williams is unusually absent. Kenneth Connor returns to the series for the first time since Carry On Cleo six years earlier and would now feature in almost every entry up to Carry On Emmannuelle in 1978. Jacki Piper makes the first of her four appearances in the series. This movie is a send-up of the classic Tarzan movies.
Plot
In Edwardian England, camp ornithologist Professor Inigo Tinkle (Frankie Howerd) tells a less-than-raptured audience about his most recent ornithology expedition to the darkest, most barren regions of the African wilds in search for the legendary Oozlum bird, which is said to fly in ever decreasing circles until it disappears up its own rear end. Financing the expedition is Lady Evelyn Bagley (Joan Sims) and the team are led by the fearless (and lecherous) Bill Boosey (Sid James) and his slow-witted African guide, Upsidaisi (Bernard Bresslaw). Also on the expedition is Tinkle's idiotic assistant, Claude Chumley (Kenneth Connor) and June (Jacki Piper), Lady Bagley's unappreciated maidservant. The journey does not get off to a good start, with a mad gorilla terrorizing the campsite and the travellers' realising they have ventured into the territory of the bloodthirsty "Noshas", a tribe of feared cannibals.
On the first night of the expedition, at dinner Lady Bagley reveals that she has embarked on the journey to find her long-lost husband and baby son who vanished twenty years ago on their delayed honeymoon, whilst out on a walk. Her husband is believed to have been eaten by a crocodile, but she hopes to find her baby son, Cecil's, nappy pin as something to remember him by. What the group do not know is watching them from the bushes is the bungling yet compassionate Tarzan-like jungle dweller named Ug (Terry Scott), who has never before seen any other white people, especially a woman. The next day, June stumbles across a beautiful oasis where she saves Ug from drowning, and the two begin to fall in love.
That night, Ug wanders into camp and encounters Lady Bagley in her tent (mistaking it to be June's tent) and she is astonished to see that Ug is wearing Cecil's nappy pin, and that Ug is in fact her lost son, Cecil. But before they can be reunited, Ug flees in shock and Lady Bagley faints with shock. The next day the travellers are kidnapped by the Noshas, but manage to bribe their way out of being cannibalised by giving the tribal witch doctor Tinkle's pocket watch. Tinkle however delays and promises the witch doctor that their gods will bestow a sign of thanks upon them; intending rescue Ug accidentally catapults himself into the Nosha camp and starts a fire. In the chaos, Ug, June and Upsidaisi manage to escape but the enraged Noshas apprehend the other travellers and prepare to kill them.
As they wait to be put to death, they are suddenly rescued by the all-female Lubby-Dubby tribe led by the stunning Leda (Valerie Leon) from the Lost World of Aphrodisia. They are taken to Aphrodisia and meet the king of the tribe Tonka who turns out to be Walter Bagley (Charles Hawtrey), Lady Bagley's missing husband, who was taken by the Noshas years ago but saved and brought to Aphrodisia by the tribal women. Evelyn Bagley is infuriated that he never bothered to search for their missing son, and laments she has seen him but has once again lost him. June and Ug are revealed to be living happily together and June is teaching Ug to speak English.
Bill Boosey, Prof. Tinkle and Chumley enjoy the attention given to them by the tribal women, and Tinkle and Chumley are stunned to find that their elusive Oozlum Bird is in fact a sacred animal to the Lubby-Dubby females. It transpires that the Lubby-Dubbies need the menfolk to save themselves from extinction, as no males have been born in Aphrodisia for over a century. The men think their dreams have come true... until Leda makes it clear that the Lubby-Dubby women have no intention of letting them go. Tonka implies that the last man who tried to escape Aphrodisia was murdered by the tribe.
Three months pass and the men now hate the pressures forced on them by Leda, who in turn is outraged that none of the men's "mates" have gotten pregnant. She overthrows Tonka and assumes his place, threatening harm to the men. However Upsidaisi arrives disguised as a woman and says he has brought soldiers to save them. Ug and June also search for their friends, and Ug summons a stampede of animals to create chaos and enable the men to get away. During the confusing, Tinkle snatches the Oozlum Bird and the team escape, along with Tonka. After the chaos, Leda and her army chase after the men, but are more interested in the trampled soldiers. She says to let the others go, not needing them now that they have "some real men." Lady Bagley is reunited with her beloved son, and the group return to England. Tinkle unveils his Oozlum Bird to his audience... only to find it vanished up inside itself.
June and Ug are happily married with a baby, and live in a treehouse in the suburb, whilst Ug goes to work in a bowler hat and suit, but also barefoot.
Cast
Frankie Howerd as Professor Inigo Tinkle
Sid James as Bill Boosey
Charles Hawtrey as Walter Bagley/King Tonka
Joan Sims as Lady Evelyn Bagley
Kenneth Connor as Claude Chumley
Bernard Bresslaw as Upsidasi
Terry Scott as Ug the Jungle Boy/Cecil Bagley
Jacki Piper as June
Valerie Leon as Leda
Reuben Martin as Gorilla
Edwina Carroll as Nerda
Danny Daniels as Nosha Chief
Yemi Ajibadi as Witch Doctor
Lincoln Webb as Nosha with girl
Heather Emmanuel as Pregnant Lubi
Verna Lucille MacKenzie as Gong Lubi
Valerie Moore as Lubi Lieutenant
Cathi March as Lubi Lieutenant
Nina Baden-Semper as Girl Nosha
Roy Stewart as Nosha
John Hamilton as Nosha
Willie Jonah as Nosha
Chris Konylis as Nosha
Crew
Screenplay - Talbot Rothwell
Music - Eric Rogers
Production Manager - Jack Swinburne
Director of Photography - Ernest Steward
Editor - Alfred Roome
Art Director - Alex Vetchinsky
Assistant Editor - Jack Gardner[disambiguation needed ]
Camera Operator - James Bawden
Assistant Director - Jack Causey
Continuity - Josephine Knowles
Make-up - Goeffrey Rodway
Sound Recordists - RT MacPhee & Ken Barker
Hairdresser - Stella Rivers
Costume Designer - Courtenay Elliott
Dubbing Editor - Colin Miller
Titles - GSE Ltd
Producer - Peter Rogers
Director - Gerald Thomas
Filming and locations
Filming dates – 13 October-21 November 1969
Maidenhead Library - The location for Professor Tinkle's lecture. The building is now demolished but the original site is directly opposite Maidenhead Town Hall, as featured in Carry On Doctor, Carry On Again Doctor and Carry On Behind.
Pinewood Studios was used for both interior and exterior filming.
Production and casting
Carry On Up the Jungle is, in part, a parody of Hammer films' "Cavegirl" series: One Million Years B.C. (1966), Slave Girls (1968) [1] and more particularly Edgar Rice Burroughs' Tarzan series of books and films.
Bernard Bresslaw learned all his native orders in Swahili; however, the "African" extras were of Caribbean origin and didn't understand. But Sid James, who was born in South Africa, recognised it and congratulated him.[2]
The storyline is partly referenced in the Christmas Special Carry On, when all the characters sit down for Christmas Dinner and eat the Oozlum bird instead of a traditional Turkey.
Charles Hawtrey (born November 1914) as Walter Bagley plays the father of Ugg/Cecil Bagley Terry Scott (born May 1927) despite being merely twelve and a half years his senior. Joan Sims (born May 1930) as Lady Bagley plays his mother though she is three years his junior.
References
1. ^ Sinclair McKay (2007) A Thing of Unspeakable Horror: The History of Hammer Films: 105
2. ^ Ross and Collins, The Carry On Companion, B. T. Batsford: London, 1996. ISBN 0-7134-7967-1, p87.
Bibliography
Davidson, Andy (2012). Carry On Confidential. London: Miwk. ISBN 978-1908630018.
Sheridan, Simon (2011). Keeping the British End Up - Four Decades of Saucy Cinema. London: Titan Books. ISBN 978-0857682796.
Webber, Richard (2009). 50 Years of Carry On. London: Arrow. ISBN 978-0099490074.
Hudis, Norman (2008). No Laughing Matter. London: Apex. ISBN 978-1906358150.
Keeping the British End Up: Four Decades of Saucy Cinema by Simon Sheridan (third edition) (2007) (Reynolds & Hearn Books)
Ross, Robert (2002). The Carry On Companion. London: Batsford. ISBN 978-0713487718.
Bright, Ross, Morris, Robert (2000). Mr Carry On - The Life & Work of Peter Rogers. London: BBC Books. ISBN 978-0563551836.
Rigelsford, Adrian (1996). Carry On Laughing - a celebration. London: Virgin. ISBN 1-85227-554-5.
Hibbin, Sally & Nina (1988). What a Carry On. London: Hamlyn. ISBN 978-0600558194.
Eastaugh, Kenneth (1978). The Carry On Book. London: David & Charles. ISBN 978-0715374030.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carry_On_Up_the_Jungle
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Carry On Henry
Carry On Henry is the 21st of the Carry On series and was released in 1971. It tells a fictionalised story involving Sid James as Henry VIII, who chases after Barbara Windsor's character Bettina. James and Windsor feature alongside other regulars Kenneth Williams, Charles Hawtrey, Joan Sims, Terry Scott and Kenneth Connor. This was the first time that Williams and Connor appeared together since Carry On Cleo seven years previously. The original alternative title was to be Anne of a Thousand Lays, a pun on the Richard Burton film Anne of the Thousand Days, and Sid James wears exactly the same cloak that Burton wore in that film.
The opening theme is a version of Greensleeves, by Eric Rogers.
Casting and characterisation
Sid James plays Henry VIII as a lovable rogue who is surrounded by scheming courtiers. Peter Rogers originally planned on using Harry Secombe in the title role, and in the first draft of the screenplay Henry was going to be an avid composer of madrigals, but the idea was shelved and Sid James took over the role. Two comedic madrigals written for the film but unused were later performed in the 1972 Carry On Christmas special and the 1973 stage show Carry On London.
Plot
The film opens with a passage, which states:
This film is based on a recently discovered manuscript by one William Cobbler, which reveals that Henry VIII did in fact have two more wives. Although it was first thought that Cromwell originated the story, it is now known to be definitely all Cobbler's... from beginning to end.
Henry VIII (Sid James) has his wife Anne of Cleves (Patsy Rowlands) beheaded and quickly marries Marie of Normandy (Joan Sims). This union was organised at the behest of bumbling Cardinal Wolsey (Terry Scott) as Marie is cousin of King Francis I of France. Henry's wedding night ardour dies when he finds she reeks of garlic, but she refuses to stop eating it. Marie gets frustrated so soon receives amorous advances from Sir Roger de Lodgerley (Charles Hawtrey who, while still in his camp persona, is playing against type as a ladies man).
Henry is keen to be rid of Marie, as he has met the lovely Bettina (Barbara Windsor, in her favourite Carry On role). Bettina is the daughter of the Earl of Bristol (Peter Butterworth, in a one scene cameo), a punning reference to Bristols. Thomas Cromwell (Kenneth Williams) assists in ousting Marie by organising Lord Hampton of Wick (Kenneth Connor) to kidnap the King in a staged plot. Cromwell and Lord Hampton also secretly plot to bring the king to harm as part of this escapade, but the false kidnapping fails.
Henry seizes on Marie's infidelity with de Lodgerley to be free of her; all he needs is a confession from de Lodgerley. He orders Cromwell to extract a confession using any means necessary. This leads to a running joke in the torture chamber as Henry keeps changing his mind about the confession due to political necessities, requiring multiple changes and retractions of the original confession. Wolsey is baffled by all the intrigue, and Cromwell is driven to treason by all of Henry's unreasonable demands.
Cast
Sid James as King Henry VIII
Kenneth Williams as Thomas Cromwell
Charles Hawtrey as Sir Roger de Lodgerley
Joan Sims as Queen Marie of Normandy
Terry Scott as Cardinal Wolsey
Barbara Windsor as Bettina
Kenneth Connor as Lord Hampton of Wick
Julian Holloway as Sir Thomas
Peter Gilmore as Francis, King of France
Peter Butterworth as Charles, Earl of Essex
Julian Orchard as Duc de Poncenay
Gertan Klauber as Bidet
David Davenport as Major-domo
Margaret Nolan as Buxom lass
William Mervyn as Physician
Norman Chappell as 1st plotter
Derek Francis as Farmer
Bill Maynard as Guy Fawkes
Douglas Ridley as 2nd plotter
Leon Greene as Torturer
David Prowse as Torturer
Monica Dietrich as Katherine Howerd
Billy Cornelius as Guard
Marjie Lawrence as Serving maid
Patsy Rowlands as Queen
Alan Curtis as Conte di Pisa
John Bluthal as Royal tailor
Bill McGuirk as Flunkey
Jane Cardew as Henry's 2nd wife
Valerie Shute as Maid
Peter Rigby as Henry's courtier
Trevor Roberts as Henry's courtier
Peter Munt as Henry's courtier
Filming and locations
Filming dates – 12 October-27 November 1970
Interiors:
Pinewood Studios, Buckinghamshire
Exteriors:
Windsor Great Park
The Long Walk, Windsor Castle
Bibliography
Davidson, Andy (2012). Carry On Confidential. London: Miwk. ISBN 978-1908630018.
Sheridan, Simon (2011). Keeping the British End Up - Four Decades of Saucy Cinema. London: Titan Books. ISBN 978-0857682796.
Webber, Richard (2009). 50 Years of Carry On. London: Arrow. ISBN 978-0099490074.
Hudis, Norman (2008). No Laughing Matter. London: Apex. ISBN 978-1906358150.
Keeping the British End Up: Four Decades of Saucy Cinema by Simon Sheridan (third edition) (2007) (Reynolds & Hearn Books)
Ross, Robert (2002). The Carry On Companion. London: Batsford. ISBN 978-0713487718.
Bright, Ross, Morris, Robert (2000). Mr Carry On - The Life & Work of Peter Rogers. London: BBC Books. ISBN 978-0563551836.
Rigelsford, Adrian (1996). Carry On Laughing - a celebration. London: Virgin. ISBN 1-85227-554-5.
Hibbin, Sally & Nina (1988). What a Carry On. London: Hamlyn. ISBN 978-0600558194.
Eastaugh, Kenneth (1978). The Carry On Book. London: David & Charles. ISBN 978-0715374030.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carry_On_Henry
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Carry On Dick
"Carry On Dick" is another 70's parody movie
Carry On Dick is the 26th Carry On film. It was released in 1974 and marked the end of an era for the series. It featured the last appearances of Sid James (after 19 entries in the series) and Hattie Jacques (after 14 entries) although both would make a further appearance in the Carry On Laughing TV series. It was also the 20th and final Carry On to be scripted by Talbot Rothwell, and Barbara Windsor's final acting role in a Carry On film, although she would co-present That's Carry On! (a film compilation) three years later. Other regulars in Carry On Dick were Kenneth Williams, Bernard Bresslaw, Joan Sims, Kenneth Connor, Peter Butterworth and Jack Douglas. The story is based on the Dick Turpin legend and features Turpin (James) as an antihero, attempting to evade capture by the authorities.
Plot
In the year 1750, England is rife with crime and highway robbers. In order to stop the wave of chaos, King George sets up the first professional police force named the Bow Street Runners, under the command of the bellowing Sir Roger Daley (Bernard Bresslaw), and seconded by Captain Desmond Fancey (Kenneth Williams) and Sergeant Jock Strapp (Jack Douglas). The Runners are apparently successful in wiping out crime and lawlessness – using all manner of traps and tricks to round the criminals up. However their main target is the notorious Richard "Big Dick" Turpin (Sid James), a highwayman who has evaded capture and succeeded in even robbing Sir Roger and his prim wife (Margaret Nolan). After this humiliation, Turpin becomes the Bow Street Runners' most wanted man, and thus Captain Fancey is assigned to go undercover and catch the famous Dick Turpin and bring him to justice.
The Bow Street Runners nearly succeed in apprehending Turpin and his two partners in crime, Harriet (Barbara Windsor) and Tom (Peter Butterworth), one evening as they hold up a coach carrying faux-Frenchwoman Madame Desiree (Joan Sims), and her not so virginal daughters, "The Birds of Paradise." However, Turpin manages to overpower the Runners and flee.
Outraged by Strapp's incompetence, Captain Fancey travels with the sergeant to the province of Denture, where the majority of Turpin's hold-ups are carried out. There they encounter the mild-mannered Reverend Flasher, who is really Turpin in disguise, with Tom as his church assistant and Harriet as his maidservant. They confide in the rector their true identities and their scheme to apprehend Turpin. They agree to meet at the seedy Old Cock Inn, a notorious hang-out for criminals and sleazy types, and where Desiree and her showgirls are performing. Fancey and Strapp pose as two on the run crooks - and Strapp dubs his superior "Dandy Desmond" - and they hear from the greasy old hag, Maggie (Marianne Stone), a midwife who removed buckshot from Turpin's buttock, that Turpin has a curious birthmark on his manhood. Strapp wastes no time in carrying out an inspection in the public convenience of the Old Cock Inn.
When the rector arrives, he discovers their knowledge of the birthmark, and sweet talks Desiree into assisting him with the capture of "Turpin", whom the rector has told Desiree is actually Fancey, who is sitting downstairs in the bar. She lures him to her room and attempts to undress him, with the help of her wild daughters. The girls pull down his breeches but fail to find an incriminating birthmark, and Desmond staggers half-undressed into the bar. Strapp is also dumped into a horse trough for peeping at the men in the toilets.
Strapp and Fancey send a message to Sir Roger about the birthmark, and are accosted by Harriet in disguise who tells them to meet Turpin that night at ten o'clock. Meanwhile, Tom tells the local constable that he knows where Turpin will be that night - at the location Harriet told Strapp and Fancey to wait. Thus, they are imprisoned as Turpin and his mate, and Sir Roger is yet again robbed on his way to see the prisoners.
However things fall apart when the rector's housekeeper, Martha Hoggett (Hattie Jacques) begins to put two and two together when Mrs Giles (Patsy Rowlands), apparently sick and used for a cover-up story for Dick's raids, is seen fit and well at the church jumble sale. Later that day, Harriet is caught at the Old Cock Inn where Fancey, Strapp and Daley are meeting and Fancey recognises her as the "man" who conned them into being caught. She is chased into Desiree's room and is told to undress to show the infamous birthmark. However, they soon realise she is a woman and are prepared to let her go, but lock her up after Lady Daley recognises a bracelet that Harriet is wearing as one Turpin stole from her.
With the net tightening, the Reverend Flasher gives an elongated sermon before outwitting his would-be captors and making a speedy getaway with Harriett and Tom across the border.
Cast
Sid James as The Reverend Flasher/Dick Turpin
Kenneth Williams as Captain Desmond Fancey
Barbara Windsor as Harriett
Hattie Jacques as Martha Hoggett
Bernard Bresslaw as Sir Roger Daley
Joan Sims as Madame Desiree
Peter Butterworth as Tom
Kenneth Connor as Constable
Jack Douglas as Sergeant Jock Strapp
Patsy Rowlands as Mrs Giles
Bill Maynard as Bodkin
Margaret Nolan as Lady Daley
John Clive as Isaak
David Lodge as Bullock
Marianne Stone as Maggie
Patrick Durkin as William
Sam Kelly as Sir Roger's coachman
George Moon as Mr Giles
Michael Nightingale as Squire Trelawney
Brian Osborne as Browning
Anthony Bailey as Rider
Brian Coburn as Highwayman
Max Faulkner as Highwayman
Jeremy Connor as Footpad
Nosher Powell as Footpad
Joy Harrington as Lady
Larry Taylor as Tough man
Billy Cornelius as Tough man
Laraine Humphrys as Bird of Paradise
Linda Hooks as Bird of Paradise
Penny Irving as Bird of Paradise
Eva Reuber-Staier as Bird of Paradise
Crew
Screenplay - Talbot Rothwell
Treatment - Lawrie Wyman & George Evans
Music - Eric Rogers
Production Manager - Roy Goddard
Art Director - Lionel Couch
Editor - Alfred Roome
Director of Photography - Ernest Steward
Camera Operator - Jimmy Devis
Continuity - Jane Buck
Assistant Director - David Bracknell
Sound Recordists - Danny Daniel & Ken Barker
Make-up - Geoffrey Rodway
Hairdresser - Stella Rivers
Costume Design - Courtenay Elliott
Set Dresser - Charles Bishop
Dubbing Editor - Peter Best
Horse Master - Gerry Wain
Assistant Editor - Jack Gardner
Casting Director - John Owen
Stills Cameraman - Tom Cadman
Wardrobe Mistresses - Vi Murray & Maggie Lewin
Coach & Horses - George Mossman
Titles - GSE Ltd
Processor - Rank Film Laboratories
Producer - Peter Rogers
Director - Gerald Thomas
Filming and locations
Filming dates – 4 March-11 April 1974
Interiors:
Pinewood Studios, Buckinghamshire
Exteriors:
Countryside and woods near Pinewood Studios at Black Park Iver Heath
The Jolly Woodman Pub, Iver Heath, Buckinghamshire
Stoke Poges Manor
Bibliography
Davidson, Andy (2012). Carry On Confidential. London: Miwk. ISBN 978-1908630018.
Sheridan, Simon (2011). Keeping the British End Up - Four Decades of Saucy Cinema. London: Titan Books. ISBN 978-0857682796.
Webber, Richard (2009). 50 Years of Carry On. London: Arrow. ISBN 978-0099490074.
Hudis, Norman (2008). No Laughing Matter. London: Apex. ISBN 978-1906358150.
Keeping the British End Up: Four Decades of Saucy Cinema by Simon Sheridan (third edition) (2007) (Reynolds & Hearn Books)
Ross, Robert (2002). The Carry On Companion. London: Batsford. ISBN 978-0713487718.
Bright, Ross, Morris, Robert (2000). Mr Carry On - The Life & Work of Peter Rogers. London: BBC Books. ISBN 978-0563551836.
Rigelsford, Adrian (1996). Carry On Laughing - a celebration. London: Virgin. ISBN 1-85227-554-5.
Hibbin, Sally & Nina (1988). What a Carry On. London: Hamlyn. ISBN 978-0600558194.
Eastaugh, Kenneth (1978). The Carry On Book. London: David & Charles. ISBN 978-0715374030.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carry_On_Dick
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Right now I posted in another forum that I like watching comedies and mostly - parody movies and I remembered this topic. I miss parody movies. :D :)
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Today I will continue our parody movies topic with a parody movie from 1974 named "Blazing Saddles".
Blazing Saddles is a 1974 satirical Western comedy film directed by Mel Brooks. Starring Cleavon Little and Gene Wilder, the film was written by Brooks, Andrew Bergman, Richard Pryor, Norman Steinberg, and Al Uger, and was based on Bergman's story and draft.[3] The movie was nominated for three Academy Awards, and is ranked No. 6 on the American Film Institute's 100 Years...100 Laughs list.
Brooks appears in multiple supporting roles, including Governor William J. Le Petomane and a Yiddish-speaking Indian chief. The supporting cast also includes Slim Pickens, Alex Karras, and David Huddleston, as well as Brooks regulars Dom DeLuise, Madeline Kahn, and Harvey Korman. Bandleader Count Basie has a cameo as himself.
The film satirizes the racism obscured by myth-making Hollywood accounts of the American West, with the hero being a black sheriff in an all white town. The film is full of deliberate anachronisms, from the Count Basie Orchestra playing "April in Paris" in the Wild West to a rustler referring to the Wide World of Sports to Nazis.
Plot
In the American Old West of 1874, construction on a new railroad led by Lyle (Burton Gilliam) runs into quicksand. The route has to be changed, which will require it to go through Rock Ridge, a frontier town where everyone has the last name of "Johnson" (including a "Howard Johnson", a "Dr. Samuel Johnson", a "Van Johnson" and an "Olson N. Johnson".) The conniving State Attorney General Hedley Lamarr (Harvey Korman) wants to buy the land along the new railroad route cheaply by driving out the townspeople. He sends a gang of thugs, led by his flunky assistant Taggart (Slim Pickens), to scare them away, prompting the townsfolk to demand that Governor William J. Le Petomane (Mel Brooks) appoint a new sheriff. The Attorney General convinces the dim-witted Le Petomane to select Bart (Cleavon Little), a black railroad worker who was about to be hanged. (Bart had hit Taggart in the head with a shovel after Taggart ignored him and his black friend sinking in quicksand, deciding to save their handcar instead.) Lamarr believes a black lawman will so offend the townspeople that they will either abandon Rock Ridge or lynch the new sheriff, with either result paving the way for him to take over the town.
With his quick wits and the assistance of drunken gunslinger Jim (Gene Wilder), also known as "The Waco Kid" ("I must have killed more men than Cecil B. DeMille"),[4] Bart works to overcome the townsfolk's hostile reception. He defeats and befriends Mongo (Alex Karras), an immensely strong, slow-thinking (but surprisingly philosophical) henchman sent by Taggart and Lyle to kill Bart, and then beats German seductress-for-hire Lili von Shtupp (Madeline Kahn) at her own game. Lamarr is furious that his plans keep failing and decides to destroy Rock Ridge with a newly recruited and diverse army of thugs (which Lamarr characterized as ideally consisting of "rustlers, cutthroats, murderers, bounty hunters, desperadoes, mugs, pugs, thugs, nitwits, half-wits, dimwits, vipers, snipers, con men, Indian agents, Mexican bandits, muggers, buggerers, bushwhackers, hornswagglers, horse thieves, bull dykes, train robbers, bank robbers, ass kickers, shit kickers – and Methodists"). In a scene where Lamarr hires his villains, the candidates include bikers, Arabs, banditos, crusaders, Nazis, and Klansmen. Lamarr even kills a bank robber for chewing gum in line and not having enough to share with everyone else.
Bart now has twenty-four hours to come up with a "brilliant plan to save our town." He gathers the town, along with the railroad workers, three miles east of Rock Ridge to build a fake town as a diversion. The workers labor all night to complete their task. After the sun rises, the fake town is a perfect replica, right down to the orange roof on Howard Johnson's outhouse. Bart realizes the town has no people in it, so it won't fool Lamarr's villains. Bart orders the townspeople to make "exact replicas of themselves," and leaves with Jim and Mongo to execute a plan that will slow the villains "to a crawl." The three construct a tollbooth labeled "Le Petomane Thruway," requiring Taggart's crew to pay ten cents each to pass on their horses. Upon seeing it, Taggart asks, "now what will that asshole think of next?" Since no one in the raiding party is carrying any change, nor do they realize that there is nothing stopping them from simply riding around the tollbooth, Taggart sends someone back to town to "get a shitload of dimes."
Once through the tollbooth, Lamarr's villains attack the fake town, which Bart boobytrapped with several dynamite bombs. Bart attempts to set off the bombs but is unsuccessful as the detonator he has won't work. Jim is given the task of exploding the bombs, which he does by firing pistol shots into them. After the bombs explode, throwing villains high into the air, the citizens of Rock Ridge attack the villains.
The resulting fight between the townsfolk and Lamarr's army of thugs breaks the fourth wall, quite literally; the fight spills out from the Warner Bros. film lot into a neighboring all-gay musical set being directed by Buddy Bizarre (Dom DeLuise), then into the studio commissary, where a pie fight ensues. Taggart is knocked out when Mongo smashes his head on a cash register, and the fight finally pours out into the surrounding streets. The citizens of Rock Ridge chase the villains back to town to destroy them, but Lamarr runs to the theater while Bart and Jim follow him.
The film ends with Bart killing Lamarr by shooting him in the groin at the 'premiere' of Blazing Saddles outside Grauman's Chinese Theatre, saving the town, and then joining Jim inside the theatre to view the end of the movie, persuading people of all colors and creeds to live in harmony, before they hand in their horses and ride off (in a limousine) into the sunset.
Cast
Cleavon Little as Sheriff Bart
Gene Wilder as Jim, aka "The Waco Kid"
Harvey Korman as Hedley Lamarr
Madeline Kahn as Lili von Shtupp, the "Teutonic Titwillow"
Slim Pickens as Taggart
Dom DeLuise as Buddy Bizarre
Mel Brooks as Gov. William J. Le Petomane / Indian Chief / Tough wearing sunglasses and a bomber jacket.
Liam Dunn as Reverend Johnson
George Furth as Van Johnson
Burton Gilliam as Lyle
John Hillerman as Howard Johnson
David Huddleston as Olson Johnson
Richard Collier as Dr. Samuel Johnson
Alex Karras as Mongo
Jack Starrett as Gabby Johnson
Robyn Hilton as Miss Stein (the governor's secretary)
Rodney Allen Rippy as Young Bart
Charles McGregor as Charlie
Robert Ridgely as Boris, the hangman
Carol Arthur as Harriet Johnson
Anne Bancroft as Extra in Church Congregation (uncredited)
Notes
Count Basie appears as himself in a cameo, with his band, which plays "April in Paris".
Mel Brooks also appears in a cameo as one of Hedley Lamarr's toughs, wearing sunglasses and a bomber jacket. He also dubbed the voice for one of the German chorus boys backing Madeline Kahn's performance of "I'm Tired", speaking lines such as "Give her a break!", "She's not a snake" and, "Don't you know she's pooped?!"
Production
In the DVD commentary, Brooks explains that the original title of the film, Tex X (as in the name of Black Muslim leader Malcolm X), was rejected, along with Black Bart and Purple Sage. Finally, Brooks concocted the title Blazing Saddles while taking a shower.[5]
Blazing Saddles was Brooks' first film shot in anamorphic format. To date, this film and History of the World, Part I are the only Brooks films in this format.
Brooks had repeated conflicts with studio executives over the cast and content. They objected to both the highly provocative script and to the "irregular" activities of the writers (particularly Richard Pryor, who reportedly led all-night writing jams where loud music and drugs played a prominent role). Brooks wanted Pryor to play the sheriff, but Warner executives expressed concern over Pryor's reliability because of his heavy drug use and the belief that he was mentally unstable.[5] In a similar vein, Gene Wilder was the second choice to play the Waco Kid. He was quickly brought in to replace Gig Young after the first day of filming.[6]
After screening the movie, the head of Warner Bros. complained about the use of the word "nigger", a flatulent campfire scene, and Mongo punching a horse. Brooks was told to remove these elements. As Brooks' contract gave him control of the final cut, the complaints were disregarded and the elements remained. The only element removed was a scene in which Lili tried to seduce Bart in the dark, prompting him to quip, "I hate to disappoint you, ma'am, but you're sucking my arm."
Brooks wanted the movie's title song to reflect the western genre, and advertised in the trade papers for a "Frankie Laine-type" sound. Several days later, Laine himself visited Brooks' office to offer his services. Brooks had not told Laine that the movie was a comedy: "'Frankie sang his heart out... and we didn't have the heart to tell him it was a spoof — we just said, 'Oh, great!'. He never heard the whip cracks; we put those in later. We got so lucky with his serious interpretation of the song."[7]
In an interview included in the DVD release of Blazing Saddles, Brooks claimed that Hedy Lamarr threatened to sue, saying the film's running "Hedley Lamarr" joke infringed her right to publicity. This is lampooned when Hedley corrects Governor Le Petomane's pronunciation of his name, and Le Petomane replies with "What the hell are you worried about? This is 1874, you'll be able to sue her!". Brooks says he and the actress settled out of court for a small sum. In the same interview, Brooks related how he managed to convince John Wayne to read the script after meeting him in the Warner Bros. studio commissary. Wayne was impressed with the script, but politely declined a cameo, fearing it was "too dirty" for his family image. He is also said to have told Brooks that he "would be first in line to see the film, though".
Influences
The movie poster shows an "Indian" Mel Brooks with a headband saying in Hebrew "Kosher L'Pesach," or "Kosher for Passover."
The plot (i.e. thwarting a ruthless scheming land-grabber) was a spoof of countless Western movies and cliches, including Destry Rides Again, The Wild Bunch and Once Upon a Time in the West.
The film, town, and many of the scenes, music, and themes in Blazing Saddles were parodies of the classic Gary Cooper film High Noon. The church scene in particular was imitated down to the costumes and 'murmuring' of the townsfolk. Brooks' The Ballad Of Rock Ridge uses motifs and melodies that echo "Do Not Forsake Me, Oh My Darlin'", performed by Tex Ritter.
The line "We don't need no stinking badges!" is a reference to a similar line in the Humphrey Bogart and John Huston film The Treasure of Sierra Madre.
Madeline Kahn's character, Lili Von Shtupp, is a parody of Marlene Dietrich in her chanteuse roles from Destry Rides Again and The Blue Angel, etc. The song "I'm Tired" is a parody of Dietrich's "I'm the Laziest Gal in Town" from Hitchcock's Stage Fright. 'Shtup' is a Yiddish verb meaning "to stuff, poke, or fill" but which is commonly used as a vulgarism best translated into English as "to have sex" (and which is considered as crude in polite society as its English counterpart). (When broadcast on television, Lili's last name is usually changed to "Shhhhhh..." to avoid use of the vulgarism, but is still written normally on the title card.)
Some references to Mel Brooks' first film The Producers include the playing of "Springtime for Hitler" before the introduction of Lili von Shtupp, Governor Le Petomane's echoes of Max Bialystock's line "Hello Boys!" and the use of the theme from "The French Mistake" when Hedley Lamarr and others escape the movie studio lot after breaking the fourth wall. Brooks also used the names of actors Richard Dix and Randolph Scott as partial tributes to both stars.
The scene under Hedley Lamarr's office window involving Boris, the Quasimodo-like hangman, is used again in a larger fashion in Brooks' 1993 comedy, Robin Hood: Men in Tights with Robert Ridgely reprising his role.
The extensions to the ISO 9660 standard for Unix Filesystem attributes are named as Rock Ridge extensions after the movie's town.
Reception
While the film is widely considered a classic comedy today, critical reaction was mixed when the film was first released.[citation needed] Vincent Canby wrote:[8]
“Blazing Saddles has no dominant personality, and it looks as if it includes every gag thought up in every story conference. Whether good, bad, or mild, nothing was thrown out. Mr. [Woody] Allen's comedy, though very much a product of our Age of Analysis, recalls the wonder and discipline of people like Keaton and Laurel and Hardy. Mr. Brooks's sights are lower. His brashness is rare, but his use of anachronism and anarchy recalls not the great film comedies of the past, but the middling ones like the Hope-Crosby "Road" pictures. With his talent he should do much better than that.”
Roger Ebert gave the film four stars and called it a "crazed grabbag of a movie that does everything to keep us laughing except hit us over the head with a rubber chicken. Mostly, it succeeds. It's an audience picture; it doesn't have a lot of classy polish and its structure is a total mess. But of course! What does that matter while Alex Karras is knocking a horse cold with a right cross to the jaw?"[9] The film grossed $119.5 million in the box office becoming only the tenth film in history up to that point to pass the $100 million mark.[10]
On Rotten Tomatoes, the film has a "Certified Fresh" rating of 89%.[11]
Awards and honors
In the scene where Lamarr addresses his band of bad guys, he says, "You men are only risking your lives, while I am risking an almost-certain Academy Award nomination for Best Supporting Actor!" Harvey Korman did not, in fact, get an Oscar nomination, but the film did receive three other Academy Awards nominations in 1974: Best Actress in a Supporting Role for Madeline Kahn, Best Film Editing, and Best Music, Original Song. The film also earned two BAFTA awards nominations, for Best Newcomer (Cleavon Little) and Best Screenplay.
The film won the Writers Guild of America Award for "Best Comedy Written Directly for the Screen" for writers Mel Brooks, Norman Steinberg, Andrew Bergman, Richard Pryor, and Alan Uger.[12]
In 2006, Blazing Saddles was deemed "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant" by the Library of Congress and was selected for preservation in the National Film Registry.[13] The American film critic Dave Kehr queried if the historical significance of Blazing Saddles lay in the fact that it was the first film from a major studio to have a fart joke.[14]
Legacy
TV pilot
A television pilot was produced for CBS based on Andrew Bergman's initial story, titled Black Bart,[15] which was the original title of the film. It featured Louis Gossett, Jr. as Bart and Steve Landesberg as the drunk sidekick. Mel Brooks had little if anything to do with the pilot, as writer Andrew Bergman is listed as the sole creator. The pilot did not sell, but CBS aired it once on April 4, 1975. It was later included as a bonus feature on the Blazing Saddles 30th Anniversary DVD and the Blu-ray disc.
Musical adaptation
With the production of musical adaptations of The Producers and Young Frankenstein, rumors spread about a possible adaptation of Blazing Saddles. Brooks joked about the concept in the final number in Young Frankenstein, in which the full company sings, "next year, Blazing Saddles!" In 2010, Mel Brooks confirmed this, saying that the musical could be finished within a year. No creative team or plan has been announced.[16]
Soundtrack
The first studio-licensed release of the full music soundtrack to Blazing Saddles was on La-La Land Records on August 26, 2008. Remastered from original studio vault elements, the limited edition CD (a run of 3000) features the songs from the film as well as composer John Morris's score. Instrumental versions of all the songs are bonus tracks on the disc. The disc features exclusive liner notes featuring comments from Mel Brooks and John Morris.[17]
Notes
^ Stewart, Jocelyn (February 10, 2008). "John Alvin, 59; created movie posters for such films as 'Blazing Saddles' and 'E.T.'". Los Angeles Times. Retrieved February 10, 2008.
^ "Box Office Information for Blazing Saddles". Box Office Mojo. Retrieved January 17, 2012.
^ Director and Leading Actors
^ Quotes from Blazing Saddles (1974) – GarnersClassics.com.
^ a b 2001 Review, mostly of Brooks's DVD commentary, from Salon.com
^ IMDb Biography for Gig Young
^ From the libretto of the La-LaLand Records soundtrack album
^ Review of Blazing Saddles by Vincent Canby
^ Roger Ebert. "Blazing Saddles". Chicago Sun-Times.
^ http://boxofficemojo.com/movies/?id=blazingsaddles.htm
^ http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/blazing_saddles/
^ Awards for Blazing Saddles (1974)
^ http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0071230/awards
^ National Film Registry Announces New Titles
^ Black Bart at the Internet Movie Database
^ Back on the Horse: Mel Brooks Penning Songs for Blazing Saddles Musical
^ Blazing Saddles press release at La-La Land Records
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blazing_Saddles
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Hi what's up? More porody movies PLEASE!!!!! 8)
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Tell me some good parody movies?
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crazy stone ,my favourite :D
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I like "Meet the Spartans" very much! ;D 8)
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Tell me some good parody movies?
Young Frankenstein.