It Got By The Censor/In Jokes

[ZelenskyTheValiant (Ivan)]

Hi Ivan,
Hemingway's short story - one of his best - "The Killers" basically took place in the diner. That's why it's the highlight of the film, the balance was Hollywood expanding the story line though that was
very well done as well.

Yep that's what I found out from the special features on the disc - that Papa H. just wrote the diner scene. Everything else was Hollywood.

[Luther's nephew Dobie]

I wasn't sure where to post this, here as it describes a in joke or in the Mannix thread:


Stephen Bowie wrote about Mannix's - first year - origin story in the May 27, 2014 issue of the AV CLUB Newsletter. Below is an excerpt.
Bowie has his own Classic TV blog about television which is superb. For my money he is the best -

The long-running private eye series Mannix was brutal, stylish comfort food
But Mannix began as something much less high-concept: an intellectual take on the private-eye genre from William Link and Richard Levinson, the creators of Columbo.
During its first season—so different from what followed that it was usually excluded from syndication—Joe Mannix worked for a large, efficiency-oriented private-detective firm,
whose operatives were valued less than the firm’s gigantic crime-solving data center.
Mannix, an ex-cop, took an intuitive, old-school approach that put him at odds with the head of Intertect, Lew Wickersham (Joseph Campanella).
Man versus machine: Joe Mannix was John Henry and the steam hammer was a computer.
Intertect, as Link and Levinson originally titled the show, was meant as an allegory, in which the familiar cloak of the mystery genre would conceal a critique of soulless, modern corporate life.

Wickersham’s name was a pun on that of Hollywood mogul Lew Wasserman and also Lankershim Boulevard, where sat the main entrance to Universal Studios.
In 1959, Universal had been acquired by MCA, a talent agency with a reputation for ruthlessness.
Its agents, many of whom became Universal executives, wore uniform black suits and ties, and MCA president Wasserman was known for his scary bursts of temper and his always-empty
desk (paper was for underlings).
By the late ’60s, Universal was the biggest television factory in the industry; it conducted business out of an ominous glass-walled slab nicknamed “The Black Tower,” and was the first
studio to keep track of its employees using computer punch cards.
Link and Levinson, who had written for Alfred Hitchcock Presents there, incorporated all of these details into the original format of Mannix, making Intertect a rich inside joke.

[Luther's nephew Dobie]

Actor Dennis Chun has appeared in the original Hawaii Five-0 and the reboot. He has also appeared on both Tom Selleck's Magnum PI and the current remake.
One of his roles is HPD Sergeant Duke Lukela, starting on the Hawaii Five-0 reboot and now on the new Magnum.
Wearing a Honolulu police uniform runs in the family, his dad Kam Fong Chun was an actual Honolulu police officer, working his way up to detective.
No one at Magnum Mania has to be told he later went into acting, playing Steve McGarrett's trusted team member Chin Ho Kelly.
The senior Chun witnessed the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor in 1941.
In 1943 two B-25 bombers collided directly over Chun's house, his wife and two young kiddies perishing in the resultant inferno.

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In "Target - A Cop", that old softie Steve McGarrett(Jack Lord) quotes poet Edwin Markham -

"He drew a circle that shut me out--
Heretic, rebel, a thing to flout.
But love and I had the wit to win:
We drew a circle and took him in!"

[Luther's nephew Dobie]

Film editor Doug Ibold, pal of Magnum creator Bellisario has died. You have to figure he was the inspiration for the Magnum PI character Doc Ibold (Glenn Cannon).
I wonder if some other character's names were taken from other behind the scenes talent by Bellasario. Offhand I recall reading that Gene Roddenberry had a WW 2 buddy
named Khan Noonien Singh, giving the name to Kirk's nemesis played by Ricardo Montalban.


Doug Ibold Dead: 'Law and Order' Editor Was 83

VARIETY NOVEMBER 25, 2023
 
Doug Ibold, who edited episodes of “Law & Order,” “Magnum, P.I.” and “Miami Vice,” died on Nov. 8 after a battle with cancer, his family announced. He was 83.

Ibold worked on the first six seasons of the original “Magnum, P.I.” series from 1980 to 1985, and handled other Donald P. Bellisario productions including “Quincy M.E.,”
“Quantum Leap", “Tequila and Bonetti” and the 1995 pilot for the drama series “Crowfoot.”

[Bobbyjoe]

Gail Fisher (Peggy Fair) was a billiards expert. She was once a guest on the Art Linkletter show. I think it was the Art Linkletter show. “People Are Funny”.

[Luther's nephew Dobie]

Gail Fisher (Peggy Fair) was a billiards expert. She was once a guest on the Art Linkletter show. I think it was the Art Linkletter show. “People Are Funny”.

Hi Bobbyjoe,
Welcome to Magnum Mania!
Wow, Peggy was a pool shark.
She had a great voice, I always wondered why she didn't do more voice over work in commercials or in cartoons.
Thanks for sharing that info on Jersey Girl Gail Fisher, of Potters Crossing in Edison.

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Don Knott's last onscreen words as Barney Fife occurred not on The Andy Griffith Show but on it's spin off Mayberry RFD
on the 1st episode of season one.

During Andy and Helen's wedding, Best Man Barney frantically searches his pockets for the wedding ring. In a panic he mumbles "I had the ring" to the minister before finding it.
You'd think the writers would have given him a better send off line.

Though the episode's end open's with him dueting with Andy on "Long Long Long Ago" as the camera pulls back and reveals they are in the honeymoon suite while a frustrated Helen awkwardly
sits and smiles.

[ZelenskyTheValiant (Ivan)]

Gail Fisher (Peggy Fair) was a billiards expert. She was once a guest on the Art Linkletter show. I think it was the Art Linkletter show. “People Are Funny”.

Hi Bobbyjoe,
Welcome to Magnum Mania!
Wow, Peggy was a pool shark.
She had a great voice, I always wondered why she didn't do more voice over work in commercials or in cartoons.
Thanks for sharing that info on Jersey Girl Gail Fisher, of Potters Crossing in Edison.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Don Knott's last onscreen words as Barney Fife occurred not on The Andy Griffith Show but on it's spin off Mayberry RFD
on the 1st episode of season one.

During Andy and Helen's wedding, Best Man Barney frantically searches his pockets for the wedding ring. In a panic he mumbles "I had the ring" to the minister before finding it.
You'd think the writers would have given him a better send off line.

Though the episode's end open's with him dueting with Andy on "Long Long Long Ago" as the camera pulls back and reveals they are in the honeymoon suite while a frustrated Helen awkwardly
sits and smiles.

I did manage to see one episode of Mayberry RFD. It's the episode where Natalie Schafer (Lovey from Gilligan's Island) guest stars as a social ladder climbing mother of a girl Goober is dating. Goober has to pretend that he owns a mansion and has servants. I liked it. It seemed like it was more of the same - what we were used to seeing in the last 3 seasons (in color) on The Andy Griffith Show. Now, I know there are many that hate those last 3 colored seasons of TAGS so I can imagine Mayberry RFD wouldn't be to their liking, but for those of us who adore TAGS no matter what season it is (*) I think Mayberry RFD is an enjoyable way to spend the time (especially since you still have those great Mayberry characters like Goober around). I look forward to seeing more episodes of the show in the future.

(*) Yes we all get it - the first 5 seasons of TAGS in B&W are the best but to just outright dismiss the rest of the show simply because it went to color (everything went to color on television at the time) and because Barney was gone is ridiculous. I mean I seriously hope Barney isn't the only reason people watch the show. There's so much more to that show than just Barney Fife. It was a slice of life that is long gone and the town of Mayberry is a setting unlike any other in the history of television. It was magical. Out of all the settings in the history of television if there was one place I'd love to live it would have to be Mayberry. It's that special. Well, maybe Robin's Nest would be the other. So people who think Barney is the only draw to watching the show are totally missing what made the show so great. Because that means you care nothing about what goes on around Barney, you're just tuning in to see his antics. Which is really selling the show short. One of the greatest episodes is "Opie the Birdman" and Barney is largely in the background in that one. Andy and Opie are front and center. And if you get nothing out of that episode and you don't get misty-eyed during the course of the story (because you didn't get enough Barney) then I truly feel sorry for such a person. Talk about missing the whole point of the story and the show as a whole. I always say that ANY TAGS is better than no TAGS at all. Even in color and without Barney it was still a better show than any other silly sitcom on the air at the time. It even finished in 1st place in the Nielsen ratings during its final season.

[Luther's nephew Dobie]

"Damn it Jim, I'm a doctor, not a bricklayer"

The Kennel Murder Case (1933) is the fourth Philo Vance murder mystery starring William Powell of Thin Man fame.
Directed by cinema great Michael Curtiz it features Mary Astor and many of the era's wonderful stock characters such as the plodding city copper in the form of Eugene Pallette.

In it the irascible Coroner Doremus (Etienne Girardot) may very well have inspired Star Trek creator Gene Roddenberry to use/swipe his character to create Dr. Leonard "Bones" McCoy.
At least it seemed that way to me soon after Doremus made his entrance and as the movie progressed.

As delightfully played by Giradot, Doremus resents all queries put his way by any bumbling flatfoots as well as the private snooper Philo Vance.
He is given to saying things Trekers would instantly recognize as McCoyisms -

"I'm a doctor not a magician". "I'm a doctor not a detective."

The doctor is irritated when called back for the third time as more bodies keep being found in the Coe mansion.
In response to Vance asking "could the wound have been self inflicted, Doctor?" the Coroner testily replies
"I'm the City Butcher, not a detective.
Don't bother me with any murders after three tomorrow. I'm going to the World Series!" "
(shaking his fist at Vance and detective Eugene Pallette)

This film is famous for being one of the earliest if not the first example of the murder victim found dead in a sealed room locked from the inside gag. It's pretty clever how it was done, if I was a bad guy
I'd be taking notes. Anyway it's a flick well worth catching and if you are a Star Trek fan you might agree Roddenberry saw a good thing and in the parlance of 1933 'heisted the joint'.

[Pahonu]

"Damn it Jim, I'm a doctor, not a bricklayer"

The Kennel Murder Case (1933) is the fourth Philo Vance murder mystery starring William Powell of Thin Man fame.
Directed by cinema great Michael Curtiz it features Mary Astor and many of the era's wonderful stock characters such as the plodding city copper in the form of Eugene Pallette.

In it the irascible Coroner Doremus (Etienne Girardot) may very well have inspired Star Trek creator Gene Roddenberry to use/swipe his character to create Dr. Leonard "Bones" McCoy.
At least it seemed that way to me soon after Doremus made his entrance and as the movie progressed.

As delightfully played by Giradot, Doremus resents all queries put his way by any bumbling flatfoots as well as the private snooper Philo Vance.
He is given to saying things Trekers would instantly recognize as McCoyisms -

"I'm a doctor not a magician". "I'm a doctor not a detective."

The doctor is irritated when called back for the third time as more bodies keep being found in the Coe mansion.
In response to Vance asking "could the wound have been self inflicted, Doctor?" the Coroner testily replies
"I'm the City Butcher, not a detective.
Don't bother me with any murders after three tomorrow. I'm going to the World Series!" "
(shaking his fist at Vance and detective Eugene Pallette)

This film is famous for being one of the earliest if not the first example of the murder victim found dead in a sealed room locked from the inside gag. It's pretty clever how it was done, if I was a bad guy
I'd be taking notes. Anyway it's a flick well worth catching and if you are a Star Trek fan you might agree Roddenberry saw a good thing and in the parlance of 1933 'heisted the joint'.

Hey Dobie,
That’s a really interesting connection. I’ve never seen that film but I did once see the first Philo Vance film as I’m a fan of Bill Powell so recorded it on TCM some years ago. I don’t remember the title, but I do recall from the opening comments that it was originally shot as a silent and then converted to sound with the actors returning to dub themselves! That was all of them except the showgirl character, who was played by Louise Brooks, the flapper dancer and actress. She refused and left the country to work in Germany. It wasn’t a great film, and the dubbing was downright poor in parts, but it’s an intriguing relic of that transition in film history. It’s a real example of the Singin’ in the Rain premise!

Edit:
Loose Brooks had a very interesting career of her own, including a relationship with Marion Davies’ niece, the one committed to an asylum by Hearst and who later jumped out a window to her death.

[Luther's nephew Dobie]

"Damn it Jim, I'm a doctor, not a bricklayer"

The Kennel Murder Case (1933) is the fourth Philo Vance murder mystery starring William Powell of Thin Man fame.
Directed by cinema great Michael Curtiz it features Mary Astor and many of the era's wonderful stock characters such as the plodding city copper in the form of Eugene Pallette.

In it the irascible Coroner Doremus (Etienne Girardot) may very well have inspired Star Trek creator Gene Roddenberry to use/swipe his character to create Dr. Leonard "Bones" McCoy.
At least it seemed that way to me soon after Doremus made his entrance and as the movie progressed.
As delightfully played by Giradot, Doremus resents all queries put his way by any bumbling flatfoots as well as the private snooper Philo Vance.
He is given to saying things Trekers would instantly recognize as McCoyisms -
"I'm a doctor not a magician". "I'm a doctor not a detective."
The doctor is irritated when called back for the third time as more bodies keep being found in the Coe mansion.
In response to Vance asking "could the wound have been self inflicted, Doctor?" the Coroner testily replies
"I'm the City Butcher, not a detective.
Don't bother me with any murders after three tomorrow. I'm going to the World Series!" "
(shaking his fist at Vance and detective Eugene Pallette)
This film is famous for being one of the earliest if not the first example of the murder victim found dead in a sealed room locked from the inside gag. It's pretty clever how it was done, if I was a bad guy
I'd be taking notes. Anyway it's a flick well worth catching and if you are a Star Trek fan you might agree Roddenberry saw a good thing and in the parlance of 1933 'heisted the joint'.

Hey Dobie,
That’s a really interesting connection. I’ve never seen that film but I did once see the first Philo Vance film as I’m a fan of Bill Powell so recorded it on TCM some years ago. I don’t remember the title, but I do recall from the opening comments that it was originally shot as a silent and then converted to sound with the actors returning to dub themselves! That was all of them except the showgirl character, who was played by Louise Brooks, the flapper dancer and actress. She refused and left the country to work in Germany. It wasn’t a great film, and the dubbing was downright poor in parts, but it’s an intriguing relic of that transition in film history. It’s a real example of the Singin’ in the Rain premise!
Edit:
Loose Brooks had a very interesting career of her own, including a relationship with Marion Davies’ niece, the one committed to an asylum by Hearst and who later jumped out a window to her death.

Pahonu,
I don't think I have ever seen a bad William Powell movie. The six Thin Man movies with Powell as Nick Charles are top notch. All the wonderful shady characters
Nick knows delights both the audience and his heiress wife Nora Charles who is introduced to a world she never knew before.
It takes one aback to see a very young Jimmy Stewart as the murderer in one of them.

That was interesting about the re-dubbing, and your citing of Singin in the Rain caused me to finally realize something that must have been apparent to everyone else:
that Singin in the Rain is an excellent intro into History of Film 101 and was the reason the teacher ran it on the first day of my first course on that subject. Doh!
You can keep Princess Lei, Debbie Reynolds in that picture blew her away.

Louise Brooks and a sapphic affair ending in suicide, randy Randolph Hearst aka Citizen Kane, Marion "Rosebud" Davies, I think you have all the makings for a miniseries.
The Hoff as Hearst might be interesting stunt casting.

[ZelenskyTheValiant (Ivan)]

Louise Brooks and a sapphic affair ending in suicide, Randy Randolph Hearst aka Citizen Kane, Marion "Rosebud" Davies, I think you have all the makings for a miniseries.
The Hoff as Hearst might be interesting stunt casting.

Someone call my name? But seriously, you gotta be kidding me! I have Knight Rider and Baywatch under my belt. I wouldn't stoop that low to star in some second-rate Citizen Kane fluff.

[Pahonu]

"Damn it Jim, I'm a doctor, not a bricklayer"

The Kennel Murder Case (1933) is the fourth Philo Vance murder mystery starring William Powell of Thin Man fame.
Directed by cinema great Michael Curtiz it features Mary Astor and many of the era's wonderful stock characters such as the plodding city copper in the form of Eugene Pallette.

In it the irascible Coroner Doremus (Etienne Girardot) may very well have inspired Star Trek creator Gene Roddenberry to use/swipe his character to create Dr. Leonard "Bones" McCoy.
At least it seemed that way to me soon after Doremus made his entrance and as the movie progressed.
As delightfully played by Giradot, Doremus resents all queries put his way by any bumbling flatfoots as well as the private snooper Philo Vance.
He is given to saying things Trekers would instantly recognize as McCoyisms -
"I'm a doctor not a magician". "I'm a doctor not a detective."
The doctor is irritated when called back for the third time as more bodies keep being found in the Coe mansion.
In response to Vance asking "could the wound have been self inflicted, Doctor?" the Coroner testily replies
"I'm the City Butcher, not a detective.
Don't bother me with any murders after three tomorrow. I'm going to the World Series!" "
(shaking his fist at Vance and detective Eugene Pallette)
This film is famous for being one of the earliest if not the first example of the murder victim found dead in a sealed room locked from the inside gag. It's pretty clever how it was done, if I was a bad guy
I'd be taking notes. Anyway it's a flick well worth catching and if you are a Star Trek fan you might agree Roddenberry saw a good thing and in the parlance of 1933 'heisted the joint'.

Hey Dobie,
That’s a really interesting connection. I’ve never seen that film but I did once see the first Philo Vance film as I’m a fan of Bill Powell so recorded it on TCM some years ago. I don’t remember the title, but I do recall from the opening comments that it was originally shot as a silent and then converted to sound with the actors returning to dub themselves! That was all of them except the showgirl character, who was played by Louise Brooks, the flapper dancer and actress. She refused and left the country to work in Germany. It wasn’t a great film, and the dubbing was downright poor in parts, but it’s an intriguing relic of that transition in film history. It’s a real example of the Singin’ in the Rain premise!
Edit:
Loose Brooks had a very interesting career of her own, including a relationship with Marion Davies’ niece, the one committed to an asylum by Hearst and who later jumped out a window to her death.

Pahonu,
I don't think I have ever seen a bad William Powell movie. The six Thin Man movies with Powell as Nick Charles are top notch. All the wonderful shady characters
Nick knows delights both the audience and his heiress wife Nora Charles who is introduced to a world she never knew before.
It takes one aback to see a very young Jimmy Stewart as the murderer in one of them.

That was interesting about the re-dubbing, and your citing of Singin in the Rain caused me to finally realize something that must have been apparent to everyone else:
that Singin in the Rain is an excellent intro into History of Film 101 and was the reason the teacher ran it on the first day of my first course on that subject. Doh!
You can keep Princess Lei, Debbie Reynolds in that picture blew her away.

Louise Brooks and a sapphic affair ending in suicide, randy Randolph Hearst aka Citizen Kane, Marion "Rosebud" Davies, I think you have all the makings for a miniseries.
The Hoff as Hearst might be interesting stunt casting.

All three performers were incredible in Singin’ in the Rain, and Jean Hagen for a different reason. Donald O’Connor’s Make ‘em Laugh routine was exceptional. The title number gets all the attention, but my favorite is the trio in Good Morning. Debbie Reynolds was leagues better than Carrie Fisher, despite the genetic gift from her mom.

I also don’t think I have seen a bad performance from Bill Powell. I rewatched all the Thin Man series a couple of summers ago. That first Philo Vance film wasn’t bad, but it didn’t inspire me to watch the others. I think I’ll keep an eye out for The Kennel Murder Case and give the series another try. I looked up the original and it was titled The Canary Murder Case. I also learned that Powell felt the role was too simplistic and refused to do any more films in the book series.

That’s an interesting comment about your film class. I was a film major and had a series of film history courses with one professor and he showed Singin’ in the Rain also, but not to start. We began with silent film history, including Gaumont in France, Edison Studios, Biograph, Solax, etc… before Hollywood. I think it wasn’t until the second quarter of the series that we got to the talkies. I really came to enjoy silent films because of that first course. I loved Murnau’s Nosferatu. I still record them often on TCM’s Silent Sundays program. I believe we finished the first course with Jolson’s The Jazz Singer, so it might have been the start of that second course when we watched it. I also had courses in global cinema and documentary film making, among other things.

The Star Wars comment was referring to me being a child when Jack Nicholson’s film career really took off in the 70’s. A six or seven year old wasn’t really watching The Shining or One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest, or should they be! LOL I was about four when my favorite of his, Chinatown, came out.

[Luther's nephew Dobie]

Pahonu wrote:
"That’s an interesting comment about your film class. I was a film major and had a series of film history courses with one professor and he showed Singin’ in the Rain also, but not to start. We began with silent film history, including Gaumont in France, Edison Studios, Biograph, Solax, etc… before Hollywood. I think it wasn’t until the second quarter of the series that we got to the talkies. I really came to enjoy silent films because of that first course. I loved Murnau’s Nosferatu. I still record them often on TCM’s Silent Sundays program. I believe we finished the first course with Jolson’s The Jazz Singer, so it might have been the start of that second course when we watched it. I also had courses in global cinema and documentary film making, among other things.
The Star Wars comment was referring to me being a child when Jack Nicholson’s film career really took off in the 70’s. A six or seven year old wasn’t really watching The Shining or One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest, or should they be! LOL I was about four when my favorite of his, Chinatown, came out."

Nosferatu fan! Best Dracula movie ever, all those slasher films are kiddie fare by comparison.
I like the Silents as well, so I just had to ask Joan in my Lions club - she was deaf and read lips - if it was true that some actors back then were actually cursing or saying crazy things as opposed to what
the intertitles/title cards said. She confirmed that was the case and that at times it was hilarious.
She also noted that with the advent of VCRS many deaf people preferred watching Silent films as they were easier for them to comprehend, being more visual.
Which is something that would never have occurred to me otherwise, but makes sense.
As for The Shining, I will grant you that legions of savvy and informed movie fans love it.
But I can still recall watching it in the theater when it first came out and I was bored except for when Jack chopped through the door.
I anticipated almost every single thing that happened before it unfolded. When that happens I can never buy into the story.

[Pahonu]

That’s really interesting about preferring silent films before subtitles. I had no idea either. I understood that the actors didn’t always follow the inter titles, but thought they were generally expressing the emotion of the scene with whatever felt best. I know that in some cases you can see that they are following closely to the title cards. I recall noticing that with a few Harold Lloyd films. The swearing is itself hilarious! That was somewhat depicted in the Singin’ in the Rain scene where Don and Lina are in a romantic scene calling each other names as he kisses her.

[Luther's nephew Dobie]

In the penultimate episode of Nash Bridges, "Cat Fight", Nash's partner Joe has been trying to unload the racehorse "Mister Woody" that he owns with Nick Bridges.
When a famous mystery writer makes an offer for the nag,the always scheming Joe figures the longer the negotiating is dragged out the more likely it is the offer will be upped.
Unfortunately near the episode's end Nash hands Joe a newspaper with a headline announcing the would be buyer's demise -

CRIME WRITER VICTIM OF REAL LIFE CAPER

along with a photo of the deceased.
The photo is of the real mystery and crime writer, Carlton Cuse, creator of Nash Bridges and other series such as Lost.

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"That dude just took his last crap"...Terminal Island(1973)

Apparently that line is the oft quoted lone standout - really? - from this exploitation film.
Set in the future, Terminal Island is where America sends all it's convicted murderers and leaves them to fend for themselves. Two warring gangs fight over ownership of the women inmates.
One gang's second in command is Roger Mosley, while the island's doctor is played by Tom Selleck.
Also on hand is Lost In Space's Judy Robinson(Marta Kristen), and going by the pictures of her in one review, all I can say is Holy Smokes! I met her some 20 years later and she still
was strikingly beautiful.
I have never seen this film nor do I recall anyone at Magnum Mania saying they have seen it, perhaps it's not in circulation. Maybe it's one of those flicks so bad it's good.