Golden Age of Hollywood Book Club discussion

Good point. I think I'd list him as under-appreciated. He usually had the stiff-upper-lip part.

I have seen that film but for some reason I thought it had another title. It was enjoyable and I also like James Donald.

Likely the cumbersome and untantalizing, 'Quatermass and the Pit' (UK title). The lead protagonist in this movie ('Professor Quatermass') played by the portly Robertson-Justice, features in several others of the same series. What kind of surname is that anyway? Sheesh

Anyway it's really a fun romp, with effective and simple special FX that create a genuine feeling of eeriness in an audience.

I think is was Quatermass and the Pit. I saw another in that series which starred the American actor Bryan Donlevy.

"In the classic Hollywood studio era, actual US currency was not permitted to be photographed for the sake of the story line."

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It turns out to be a popular misconception; the rule was not strictly observed; shots of genuine currency took place frequently.

The 'impossible crane shot' from "Soy Cuba!" ("I am Cuba!", 1964) has been added to the group video library.

I was lucky enough to see a beautiful restored version on the big screen, when Scorcese re-introduced it to the American arthouse circuit.

While it is a political propaganda movie it is not overtly so; the theme is simply one of revolution vs oppression.

It is otherwise a clinic in visual storytelling; shot in the streets of Cuba at the time.

One sample of the poetic cinematography should be enough to convince anyone of the director's skill. His name was Kalatozov.

Yes. Quatermass and the Pit was also called Five Million Years to Earth. I actually have a “tin/metal” poster of the latter on my wall. Five Million Years to Earth is probably a more appropriate title, as James Donald’s character is more of a main character, not to mention the hero. One of my favorite 60’s sci fi films, and luckily the effects are somewhat minimal, so it’s not TOO dated today.

James Donald was/is very underrated, at least among supporting actors. There’s also a very good episode of Alfred Hitchcock Presents that he was on, The Crystal Trench.

Brian Donlevy was Quatermass in the first 2 films, The Quatermass XPeriment and Quatermass 2, also titled Enemy From Space. I just saw Donlevy in an excellent film noir last week, The Glass Key.

Been wondering lately about stunt 'drops' or 'falls' in US cinema.

Focusing on my favorite such sequence; the leap by Redford & Newman in 'Butch Cassidy & the Sundance Kid'.

It is quite a nifty bit of editing. The stars are only perched on a ledge which is 25 - 30 feet above a normal creek. It's a branch of the Animas River north of Durango Colorado.



Where 'Old Shalona Road' crosses the water via Baker's Bridge. Although rocky and turbulent waters are visible nearby, it's not a dramatically deep 'gorge' at all. At least, from what I can tell.



It's simply a popular whitewater rafting destination; without presenting any daunting heights or steep climbs.



So the boys are on this rather 'ordinary' rocky ledge for their dialogue and then they leap onto a special-built cushioned wood platform maybe six feet below the rim.

It's the background shots interspersed in this sequence, which are so scenic. Like, looking down from the cliff (their POV) and looking up and down the canyon.

That vast crevasse is somewhere in California where two stunt doubles did the actual plunge.

Specifically: the Fox Movie Ranch at the Century Lake Dam, now Malibu Creek State Park.



Now, what interests me is the height. Supposedly the stuntmen jumped approximately eighty feet.

Sundance: Why won't they just jump in after us?
Butch: Would you make a jump like that if you didn't have to?

This has me wondering: How high is too high? For ordinary, non-professionals?

For comparison: some of today's most-popular thrill-seeking jumps for doofus USA 'bro' culture (ex: flooded granite quarries in Barre, VT) are 112 ft high. See below.



Now, if you land off-center from that height, you may possibly wreck a leg or an arm badly enough to merit amputation. It almost happened to one numbskull.

Other comparisons:
~The Great Falls in Paterson, NJ is 77 ft high --nearly equivalent to the stunt gorge in California used in Butch\Kid
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_F...
~The Brooklyn Bridge: 127 ft above water. Usually fatal; but occasionally jumpers do sometimes survive the fall.
~Niagara Falls / Horseshoe Falls: 167 ft (almost surely, certain death)
~The NYC Narrows Bridge: 228 ft (very scary, very certain death for jumpers, barred to all pedestrians; netting added)

So it seems like anything between 80 ft and 130 ft high, the risk a stuntman faces is pretty dangerous. Strong potential for ruptured internal organs.

Back to Butch & Sundance: that Durango location is the same as what we see in Jimmy Stewart's 'Naked Spur'.



Which makes sense: in the finale of that flick (dragging the body of Vandergroat out of the rapids) the rocky banks seem like, 20-25 ft or so deep.

Conclusion? I myself do not like heights. I'm slew-footed and would probably stumble. But I have been hang-gliding here:



https://www.tripadvisor.com/Attractio...

Here's a video which shows all the shots in the Butch/Kid canyon scene:
https://youtu.be/xo5_nk50GnM

The locations chosen by George Roy Hill feel sensible towards the action depicted there. If I was being chased by someone with a rifle, I would certainly leap off an eighty foot cliff, but I wouldn't do it unless I had to, and I wouldn't do it for fun without a professional in charge.

p.s. The world record for cliff dives is 193 ft; but the athlete was professional and survived striking the water at 70mph.

Meanwhile. I'm fascinated by the unlucky (or just plain boneheaded stuntman) who --for the sake of promoting public awareness towards homelessness --rode a 'jet-ski' over Niagara Falls.

167 - 175 feet. Sailed right over the edge. Twice the height of that gorge in Butch/Kid. Niagara is not a plunge you can grin and stroll away from.

But this stooge ignored all danger. He had a parachute rigged to expand with a tiny rocket.

The guy sealed his fate with colossal stupidity of entirely his own devising. It failed to launch!

Even as a layman, I myself can grasp that at low altitude, a sky-diver must open his chute immediately. The thing needs time to open and unfurl.

Can't help but wonder what he thought of himself as he yanked futilely on that ripcord.

You can read about it online.

Question: what heist movie was it where the crooks figure out that if they set off all the burglar alarms in the city at once, they can break into any bank(s) they wish because there's no way the coppers can figure out which bank is actually being jacked?

Was that, 'Asphalt Jungle' or no?

inside a film projector

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Intermi...