Blood Feast (also known as Egyptian Blood Feast and Feast of Flesh) is a 1963 American horror film directed by Herschell Gordon Lewis, often considered the first “splatter film”. It was produced by David F. Friedman. The screenplay was written by Alison Louise Downe, who had previously appeared in several of Lewis’s other films. Lewis also wrote the film’s score.
Trivia:
Was filmed in Miami in only nine days and cost just under $25,000 (some sources say $60,000) and earned back millions for its creator and associates.
Prints issued at drive-ins in New York carried the advertising title “Egyptian Blood Feast”, though the title card remains the same.
This was the oldest film on the UK DPP 72 list of official video nasties.
Innerspace is a 1987 science fiction comedy film directed by Joe Dante and produced by Michael Finnell. Steven Spielberg served as executive producer. The film was inspired by the classic 1966 science fiction film Fantastic Voyage. It stars Dennis Quaid, Martin Short, Meg Ryan, Robert Picardo, and Kevin McCarthy with music composed by Jerry Goldsmith. Though not a box office success ($25,893,810 of dosmetic gross revenue), it did win an Oscar, the only film directed by Joe Dante to do so. It was subsequently novelized by Nathan Elliott.
Trivia:
The patients in the doctor’s waiting room with Jack are played by Andrea Martin and Joe Flaherty, Martin Short’s co-stars from “SCTV Channel” (1983).
The computers in the lab display Apple 2 assembly language listing from the ROM monitor.
Cameo: [Chuck Jones] as a customer in the seen in the supermarket queue eating carrots. He utters the line regarding buying the aspirin, “At eight hundred dollars a bottle, who’d want to?”
The filmmakers used two different shopping malls for the scene where the doctor injects Tuck into Jack’s rear. The opening scenes where the doctor runs in and heads for the elevator were shot in the Northridge Mall in the San Fernando Valley in Los Angeles (also the epicenter of the ’94 quake). The scene where he reaches the top and rams the syringe into Jack was filmed on the top floor of the Sherman Oaks Galleria, another mall several miles away.
Some similarity to the pod in this movie and the one in Explorers (1985), also directed by Joe Dante.
After Scrimshaw and Canker are shrunk 50%, there are a few scenes where they are seen with full-size actors. These shots were actually filmed using forced perspective. For the car scene, the rear of the car is actually twice as large as a normal car rear, and was about 20 feet away. During the scene half size hands and double-size heads were used. Using this method, the film-makers didn’t have to worry about compositing two separate shots in post production, so the shots could be completed quicker. Even in the final scene with the suitcase, the case was twice as large, but the hand that closes it was real, closer to the camera in sync with the closing. (It took about 20 takes before it was perfect.)
This was the first film commercially released in Dolby Stereo “Spectral Recording” (SR). SR is a vastly improved noise reduction system which replaced Dolby’s original “A-type” noise reduction used for decades in all professional analog recording mediums (including all previous Dolby Stereo movies).
Director Cameo: [Joe Dante] as the first employee in the Vectorscope Lab attacked by the techno-terrorists.
When they are shrinking Tuck Pendleton, the lab’s instrumentation shows a reading on the screen that is five interlinked hexagons (two top, three bottom). This is the symbol that the “Combined Minature Deterrent Forces”, or CMDF, also used in the movie Fantastic Voyage (1966).
During the Cowboy/Putter changeover, Robert Picardo had to do quite a bit of work. After Putter has been changed, we see Lydia asking how he got into the room, etc. The first time Robert goes off screen he’s actually rushing behind camera, tearing off his breakaway clothes and getting into the bath. A make-up assistant is behind a fake wall at the head of the bath, having just changed the Putter Wig to the Cowboy one. Before the Scrimshaw meeting, Picardo’s voice was overdubbed with Short’s. During the meeting, Picardo used his own voice (with a Short-esque lilt), as the filmmakers didn’t think Short “trying? the Cowboy’s voice would be convincing enough to make the scene work.
The gas masks worn by Fiona Lewis and her henchmen are US M-17′s.
William Schallert was cast as Jack’s doctor as an in-joke since he had played a doctor in The Incredible Shrinking Man (1957).
The license plate on Mr. Igoe’s car is “SNAPON” this is a reference to Snap-on tools; an automotive mechanic tool that features a snap mechanism for different attachments, similar to his hand.
While getting Jack pumped up to jump out of the back of the freezer truck, Tuck chants “nam myoho renge kyo” at him three times – this is the mantra chanted by adherents of Japanese Nichiren Buddhism.
Amy Irving was married to Steven Spielberg at the time, and when he showed her the script, she desperately wanted to play the role of Lydia Maxwell.
The only film directed by Joe Dante to win an Academy Award.
After Gremlins (1984), this movie marked the third collaboration between Joe Dante and Michael Finnell with Steven Spielberg.
Dennis Quaid and Meg Ryan met on the set of this movie. They were married in 1991.
Cameo: [Arthur Kane] Arthur “Killer” Kane, bass player for the infamous New York Dolls makes an appearance as a passenger when the Cowboy us first seen in the airliner.
Luca Bercovici was the original actor to play Ingoe and his scenes were shot, but was replaced because the producers felt that he was not an intimidating villain as he was about the same height and body size as Martin Short.
The scene where Jack (Martin Short)’s character is tortured with propane is thought to be Robert Picardo’s character of The Cowboy with Rob Bottin’s make up effects. In reality, it is Picardo and it is his real voice during the scene as it played out. They had tried to dub Short as Picardo’s voice of The Cowboy but it did not work and had Picuardo just do the lines himself, according to Director Joe Dante.
The lab in the beginning of the film is the polar opposite of that of Victor Scrimshaw’s, Kevin McCarthy’s later on in the film. The lab seen when Dennis Quaid is miniaturized is in fact what a real lab would look like which is basically a poor man’s miniature home made pod. While the one later on seen during the scene where Ingoe (Vernon Wells) is miniaturized and injected into Martin Short is more high tech with all of the latest industrial tools with proper funding.
John Hora who had previously worked as Joe Dante’s cinematographer on all of his movies, was cast as Ozzie after Steven Spielberg suggested him to play the absent minded professor. Director Dante and Producer Michael Finnell were very skeptical about that idea and Spielberg insisted that they give him a screen test to just to see and was cast after impressing Dante and Finnell.
All of the cells seen outside the pod were in fact made out of Jello according to Peter Kuran, the special effects supervisor.
Director Trademark: [Joe Dante] [Regular Cast] Robert Picardo, John Hora, Kevin McCarthy, Wendy Schaal, William Schallert and Henry Gibson all regular actors who have appeared in Joe Dante’s previous and future films. Hora was Dante’s regular Director of Photography for most of his films up to Small Soldiers (1998).
The film was shot mostly on sound stages with the exception of one month of location filming in San Fransisco, Marin County and the Galleria Mall.
The lab workers seen during the scene where Dennis Quaid is about to be miniaturized were in fact real laboratory workers, as actors would not have been suitable to performing what real lab rats do.
Peeping Tom is a 1960 British psychological thriller/horror film directed by Michael Powell. The title derives from the slang expression ‘peeping Tom’ describing a voyeur. The film, which also contains the themes of serial murder and child abuse, revolves around a young man who murders women while using a portable movie camera to record their dying expressions of terror. The film was written by the World War II cryptographer and polymath Leo Marks.
Trivia:
Early choices for the role of Mark included Dirk Bogarde and Laurence Harvey.
The cameras in Mark Lewis’ room include director Michael Powell’s first film camera, a hand operated Eyemo, made by Bell and Howell, that he won in a competition.
Director Cameo: [Michael Powell] Peeping Tom’s father, seen in an old home movie he shows the girl.
In Mark Lewis’ “home movies,” Prof. A.N. Lewis is played by director Michael Powell, young Mark Lewis is played by Powell’s real-life son, Columba Powell, and Mark’s mother, seen lying lifelessly in bed, is played by Columba’s real-life mother, Frankie Reidy.
Premiere voted this movie as one of “The 25 Most Dangerous Movies”.
The scandal, which the movie aroused, destroyed the career of director Michael Powell.
The character of Don Jarvis the studio boss is a parody of notorious Rank mogul John Davis.
In his memoirs Michael Powell revealed his other candidates for the role of Vivian as being Joan Plowright (rejected as ‘too sympathetic’) and a young Julie Andrews (rejected as ‘too famous’). He eventually chose Moira Shearer despite initially describing her as ‘too glamorous’.
Seven (styled as Se7en) is a 1995 American crime film directed by David Fincher and written by Andrew Kevin Walker. A financial and critical success, the movie’s story follows a retiring detective (Morgan Freeman) and his replacement (Brad Pitt), jointly investigating a series of ritualistic murders inspired by the seven deadly sins.
Trivia:
While filming the scene where Mills chases John Doe in the rain, Brad Pitt fell and his arm went through a car windscreen, requiring surgery. This accident was worked into the script of the film. Ironically, the original script did call for Pitt’s Det. Mills character to be injured during this sequence–but to something other than his hand.
The autopsy of the first killing, as originally scripted, was incorrect according to the research of makeup man Rob Bottin (who viewed a real human autopsy as part of his prep work). The scene was truncated from the original script and shows only the sewn-up corpse of Gluttony, not the actual autopsy. Originally, Morgan Freeman drew his pistol with his finger on the trigger. Police officers that were on the set as technical advisors quickly corrected him, as that is not correct police procedure. The original script had a strange, dwarf-like woman as part of the forensics team, appearing in every one of the “cleanups” after a murder and hurling foul language and epithets at Somerset and Mills. An edited-out sequence near the beginning had Somerset looking over the country home he’s planning on moving into. He uses his switchblade to cut loose a rose on a fragment of silk wallpaper and carries it with him throughout the movie. The rose falls out of his jacket as he is taking off his gun before eating with the Mills family. (This touch was edited out, too. Both sequences are in the supplementary section of the Criterion laserdisc.) The rose is briefly visible in the opening scene, sitting atop a handkerchief on Somerset’s dresser. The screenplay had references to a partner Mills had when he still lived in the country, named Parsons. Parsons was shot and killed while on a bust with Mills, and consequently Mills is overprotective of Somerset in some scenes. All references to Parsons were deleted before shooting began. A rejected version of the credits had the same scratchy handwriting and Coil-remixed “Closer”, but used static images instead of the jumpy, blurred footage used currently. (This credit sequence is in the Criterion laserdisc supplement section.) Mills and William Somerset discuss the book “Of Human Bondage”, which was written by W. Somerset Maugham. All the building numbers in the opening scene start with 7. The climactic delivery was scheduled for 7pm. New Line executives originally balked at the film’s ending, but Brad Pitt refused to make the film if the ending were changed. The “Platinum Series” DVD of Se7en by New Line is mastered from a new HDTV transfer which was made directly from the camera negative. This required that the whole film had to be re-graded digitally, applying color and contrast correction to every shot under the director’s supervision. The resulting HDTV master is now the official master of the film. The digital corrections are quite extensive in some shots as the DVD supplements demonstrate in detail. Charles S. Dutton has a cameo as the cop who keeps the press out of the Greed crime scene. Cameo: [Andrew Kevin Walker] The writer of the film appears as the first corpse. When Somerset is in his apartment, he can be heard listening to a radio broadcast of John McClellan. McLellan was a Boston disc jockey (among other things) who did live Tuesday night broadcasts from the Boston club Storyville, on WHDH radio in the early 1950s. In the clip in the movie, you can hear McLellan’s voice announcing some of the members of the band at Storyville that night, including Charlie Parker with Herb Pomeroy on trumpet. All of John Doe’s books were real books, written for the film. They took two months to complete and cost $15,000. According to Somerset, two months is also the time it would take the police to read all the books. Screenwriter Andrew Kevin Walker wrote the script over a two year period while working at a branch of Tower Records. R.E.M’s Michael Stipe was once considered for the role of John Doe. As preparation for his traumatic scene in the interrogation room, Leland Orser would breathe in and out very rapidly so that his body would be overly saturated with oxygen, giving him the ability to hyperventilate. He also did not sleep for a few days to achieve his character’s disoriented look. The film was the subject of a lawsuit brought by a photographer whose work was used in the background of John Doe’s apartment. The case was decided in the filmmakers’ favor. Sandoval v. New Line Cinema Corp., 973 F.Supp. 409, 412-414 (S.D.N.Y 1997). Morgan Freeman’s son, Alfonso Freeman, played the part of a fingerprint technician. Denzel Washington turned down the part that went to Brad Pitt, telling Entertainment Weekly that the film was too “dark and evil.” When looking for the part of Victor, David Fincher stated that he wanted to find someone who was incredibly skinny, around 90 lbs. Michael Reid MacKay auditioned, and at the time weighed 96 lbs. Fincher gave him the part and jokingly told him to lose some more weight. Much to his surprise, MacKay turned up to filming having lost another 6 lbs. The song “6ix” from the Evan Dando album “Car, Button, Cloth” gives away the ending of the film. This was voted the eighth scariest film of all time by Entertainment Weekly. The word “fuck” and its derivatives are said a discernible 74 times throughout the movie, mostly by Brad Pitt. According to earlier versions of the script, the unspoken name of the police captain is Captain Lucas. David Cronenberg was offered a chance to direct this but he turned it down. The box full of photographs at the “Sloth” scene has written on the side “To the World, from Me.” Before Kevin Spacey was set to shoot his first scene, he asked director David Fincher if he should shave his head for the role. David Fincher replied “If you do it, I’ll do it.” Both Fincher and Spacey were bald for the remainder of the movie production. This was regarded as the first “A” production for New Line Cinema, proving that they could attract “A-list” directors and cast. Brad Pitt earned $7 million for this film. Andrew Kevin Walker had enormous difficulty getting a studio to buy the rights to his script because he was a complete unknown in Hollywood. Allegedly he put together a list of agents that represented writers that work in the crime and thriller genres, and just called each one up until he got a positive response. The closing credits for this movie scroll from the top of the screen to the bottom, instead of from the bottom to the top like in most other movies. Gwyneth Paltrow was David Fincher’s first choice for the part of Brad Pitt’s wife, having impressed him with her work in Flesh and Bone (1993). Paltrow was initially not interested so Fincher had to ask her then boyfriend – Brad Pitt – to get her to come in and meet with him. Kevin Spacey was cast two days before filming began. At exactly 7 minutes into the film Mills picks up the phone to be called over to the Gluttony scene. Kevin Spacey as the antagonist, John Doe, made his first appearance in the film, as the photographer taking pictures of Brad Pitt and Morgan Freeman at the sloth crime scene. If you pause the film at 54:45, when Pitt’s character was slapping the camera out of the photographer’s hand, you can clearly see that, it is Kevin Spacey.
The Black Cat is a 1934 horror film that became Universal Pictures’ biggest box office hit of the year. It was the first of six movies to pair actors Béla Lugosi and Boris Karloff. Edgar G. Ulmer directed the film; Peter Ruric (better known as pulp writer “Paul Cain”) wrote the screenplay. The classical music soundtrack, compiled by Heinz Eric Roemheld, is unusual for its time, because there is an almost continuous background score throughout the entire film.
Trivia:
The satanic prayer Poelzig chants during the black mass scene consists of phrases in Latin, the most recognizable being “cum grano salis” (with a grain of salt).
Edgar G. Ulmer admitted in an interview that Edgar Allan Poe’s story was credited to draw public attention, despite the fact it had nothing to do with the story in the movie. Censors in Italy, Finland and Austria banned the movie outright, while others required cuts of the more gruesome sequences. This was Universal’s biggest hit of 1934. The set of the main room in Poelzig’s house were built for $1,500. The first of eight movies to pair Boris Karloff and Bela Lugosi. Among the unconventional elements of this film was the soundtrack. At a time (early 1930s) when movie music was usually limited to the titles and credits, Edgar G. Ulmer had an almost continuous background score throughout the entire film. Boris Karloff’s character is named after Austrian architect and art director Hans Poelzig. Poelzig worked on Der Golem, wie er in die Welt kam (1920), on which director Edgar G. Ulmer was set designer. Edgar G. Ulmer dubbed Boris Karloff’s line at the end of the chess match: “You lose, Vitus”. Edgar G. Ulmer dubbed Bela Lugosi’s voice instructing his servant to “wait here” before accompanying Boris Karloff down to be shown his preserved dead wife. The ill-fated bus driver is a direct homage to the doorman in Der letzte Mann (1924), on which Edgar G. Ulmer worked as Production Designer. Director Edgar G. Ulmer, when writing this film, loosely based the villain Hjalmar Poelzig, played by Boris Karloff, on director Fritz Lang. Ulmer knew Lang from the German-Austrian film scene and, though he was a huge admirer of Lang’s films, felt Lang to be a sadist as a director. The only Universal picture until The Wolf Man (1941) to introduce the major characters during the opening credits, and the actors playing them, with brief clips from the movie. Part of the original SHOCK THEATER package of 52 Universal titles released to television in 1957, followed a year later with SON OF SHOCK, which added 21 more features.
The Hound of the Baskervilles is a 1959 British detective film produced by Hammer Films and is directed by Terence Fisher.
The film is an adaptation from the Sir Arthur Conan Doyle novel of the same name and stars Peter Cushing as Sherlock Holmes, Christopher Lee as Sir Henry Baskerville and André Morell as Watson. It also starred Marla Landi, Ewen Solon, Francis de Wolff, John Le Mesurier and Miles Malleson.
Trivia:
The first Sherlock Holmes movie to be filmed in color.
This film was planned to be the first in a series of many Sherlock Holmes films starring Peter Cushing, produced by Hammer Films. The audience disapproved of a Hammer film without any monsters and failed to turn up. The planned series was then dropped. For his role as Sherlock Holmes he of course had to have a pipe but as Peter Cushing was either a non-smoker or didn’t like the taste of the pipe, he kept a glass of milk always to hand to remove the taste. Feature film debut of Michael Hawkins. The hound they used was a real dog called Colonel. On the set before the hound attacks Christopher Lee’s character Sir Henry Baskerville, they could not get Colonel to jump on Lee, so they started to ‘prod’ him into action. Lee gave up and suddenly, Colonel lunged on him and bit right through one of his arms. Christopher Lee readily admits he has a morbid fear of spiders, and the panic on his face during the scene with the tarantula is not due to acting.
House of Wax is a 1953 American horror film starring Vincent Price. It is a remake of 1933′s Mystery of the Wax Museum without the comic relief featured in the earlier film, and was directed by André de Toth. The 1953 House of Wax was an early example of the 3-D film craze of the early 1950s.
The film was the first 3-D color feature from a major American studio, and premiered just two days after Columbia Pictures’s Man in the Dark, the first 3-D feature released by a major studio. It followed the very successful premiere months earlier of the independent production, Bwana Devil, both sparking the 3-D film boom of the 1950s. House of Wax premiered nationwide on April 10, 1953 and went out for a general release on April 25, 1953.
Trivia:
Warner Bros.’ first 3-D movie, filmed by director André De Toth – who was blind in one eye and hence could not see the effect.
The scene where Paul Picerni is rescued from the guillotine by Frank Lovejoy seconds before the blade came down was filmed in one take, using a real guillotine blade. Picerni and director André De Toth got into a heated argument when Picerni, on advice from the film’s stuntmen, refused to do the scene as too dangerous (a prop man was to hold up the blade off camera and tell the actors when he dropped it so they could yank Picerni away). De Toth threw him off the picture, but several days later, on orders from studio head Jack L. Warner, De Toth recalled him, and had the prop department modify the guillotine to make it less dangerous. After examining the guillotine, Picerni said he would do one take and no more, which is exactly what happened. Nedrick Young, who plays the alcoholic assistant Leon, was uncredited because he had been blacklisted during the McCarthy “Red scare” era in Hollywood. According to the “Guinness Book of World Records”, while this film is far from being the first 3-D film, nor the first in sound or color, it IS the first 3-D film released with a stereophonic soundtrack. This was reportedly Warner Brothers’ biggest success since Life with Father (1947). When Vincent Price is showing the wax sculpture of his former business partner, he says, “Foul deeds will rise, though all the world o’erwhelm them, to men’s eyes.” This is a quote from “Hamlet”, Act I, Scene 2. The name of Vincent Price’s character was changed to Henry Jarrod from Ivan Igor to avoid alienating Russian viewers. The trailer was scored by Max Steiner.
The Silence of the Lambs is a 1991 American thriller film, which blends elements of the crime and horror genres. It is directed by Jonathan Demme and stars Jodie Foster, Anthony Hopkins, Scott Glenn, and Ted Levine. It is based on the novel of the same name by Thomas Harris, his second to feature Dr. Hannibal Lecter, a brilliant psychiatrist and cannibalistic serial killer. In the film, Clarice Starling, a young FBI trainee, seeks the advice of the imprisoned Lecter on catching a serial killer known only as “Buffalo Bill”. The film won the top five Academy Awards: Best Picture, Best Actress, Best Actor, Best Director and Best Screenplay. To date, it is the third and most recent winner of this achievement.
Trivia:
Dino De Laurentiis, who had produced Manhunter (1986), passed on Silence of the Lambs because Manhunter had flopped. He gave the rights away free to Orion Pictures.
Then Secretary of Labor, Elizabeth Dole’s, Washington, D.C. office doubled for that of the F.B.I. director’s office in the movie. The Tobacco horn worm moths used throughout the film were given celebrity treatment by the filmmakers. They were flown first class to the set (in a special carrier), had special living quarters (rooms with controlled humidity and heat) and were dressed in carefully designed costumes (body shields bearing a painted skull and crossbones) A large part of the shoot took place in Pittsburgh. The city was chosen for its variety of landscapes and architecture, which was necessary to portray various parts of the country. Some of the film’s interior, including the Baltimore jail scene in the beginning and the ballroom scene of Lecter in his cage, were shot in Soldiers and Sailors Memorial located on Fifth Avenue in the Oakland area of Pittsburgh. The events in this film occur after the events in Manhunter (1986). Although there are several characters common to both films, there are only two actors who appear in both movies. Both actors play different characters in both movies. Frankie Faison plays Lt. Fisk in Manhunter and Barney in Silence of the Lambs, and Dan Butler plays an FBI fingerprint expert in Manhunter and an entomologist in Silence of the Lambs. Like Casablanca (1942), this movie contains a famous misquoted line: most people quote Lecter’s famous “Good evening, Clarice” as “Hello, Clarice.” Both Scott Glenn (Jack Crawford) and Ted Levine (Jame Gumb) have played astronaut Alan Shepard: Glenn in the film The Right Stuff (1983) and Levine in the miniseries “From the Earth to the Moon” (1998). Anthony Hopkins described his voice for Hannibal Lecter as, “a combination of Truman Capote and Katharine Hepburn.” Scott Glenn’s character of Jack Crawford was based on real-life detective John Douglas. Douglas spent time with Glenn to coach him. The pattern on the butterfly’s back in the movie posters is not the natural pattern of the Death’s-Head Hawk Moth. It is, in fact, Salvador Dalí’s “In Voluptas Mors”, a picture of seven naked women made to look like a human skull. Buffalo Bill is the combination of three real life serial killers: Ed Gein, who skinned his victims; Ted Bundy, who used the cast on his hand as bait to make women get into his van; and Gary Heidnick, who kept women he kidnapped in a pit in his basement. Gein was only positively linked to two murders and suspected of two others. He gathered most of his materials not through murder, but grave-robbing. In the popular imagination, however, he remains a serial killer with uncounted victims. A ‘Bon Appetit’ magazine can be seen in Hannibal Lecter’s temporary cell. At least six directors have roles in this film: Jodie Foster, Anthony Hopkins, Kasi Lemmons, Roger Corman, Dan Butler (who directed episodes of “Frasier” (1993)), and a cameo by George A. Romero. Almost all the scenes in Hannibal’s original cell have either a reflection of Hannibal or Clarice, depending on the camera’s point of view. The third EMS attendant treating “Sgt. Pembrie” is Jeff Busch, a paramedic in real life and owner of an emergency vehicle company in Pittsburgh that detailed all of the emergency vehicles for the film. Cameo: [Roger Corman] The veteran filmmaker and president of New World Pictures played the FBI Director. Director Cameo: [Jonathan Demme] wearing a blue cap at the end of the film. Cameo: [George A. Romero] the bearded man who accompanies Chilton and the two guards who forcibly remove Clarice Starling after her final meeting with Lecter. When Jonathan Demme filmed the scene where Lecter and Starling first meet, Anthony Hopkins said he should look directly at the camera as it panned into his line of sight. He felt Lecter should be portrayed as “knowing everything.” Jonathan Demme cast Anthony Hopkins as the sinister Hannibal Lecter based on his performance as the kind-hearted Dr. Frederick Treves in The Elephant Man (1980). (Hopkins has himself said that he felt the sharing-and-caring role of Dr. Frederick Treves a rather dull one.) After Lecter was moved from Baltimore, he was originally to be dressed in a yellow or orange jumpsuit, but Anthony Hopkins was able to convince director Jonathan Demme and costume designer Colleen Atwood that it would make the character seem more clinical and unsettling if he was dressed in pure white. Hopkins has since said that this idea came from his fear of dentists. Brooke Smith gained 25 pounds for her role as Catherine Martin. Brooke Smith (Catherine Martin) and Ted Levine (Buffalo Bill) were actually very close on the set, making Jodie Foster refer to Brooke Smith as “Patty Hearst” (meaning a woman that is actually close with her kidnapper). Anthony Hopkins invented the fast, slurping-type sound that Hannibal Lecter does. He did it spontaneously during filming on the set, and everyone thought it was great. Director Jonathan Demme became annoyed with it after a while, but denied his irritation. The filmmakers had completely prepared to go to Montana to shoot a flashback sequence depicting Clarice’s runaway attempt. But after filming the dialogue between Jodie Foster and Anthony Hopkins, director Jonathan Demme realized it would be pointless to cut away from their performances and announced, “I guess we aren’t going to Montana.” Jodie Foster, Jonathan Demme and Scott Glenn – and a few other cast and crew members – did a great deal of research at the FBI training facility in Quantico, Virginia. They studied under criminal profiling agents, learned about firearms and agent training, and sat in on a number of classes. The first moth cocoon found in one of the victim’s throats was made from a combination of “Tootsie-Rolls” and gummy bears, so that if she swallowed it, it would be edible. The film originally was going to be released in the fall of 1990. However, distributor Orion Pictures decided instead to delay its release until late January 1991 so that all the company’s efforts could be concentrated on promoting Dances with Wolves (1990) for Oscar consideration. As a result, Silence proved to be a notable exception to the conventional wisdom that films released early in a calendar year are forgotten come Oscar time – it won all five major Academy Awards, clearly vindicating Orion’s strategy for both pictures (Dances having seven wins including Best Picture). In preparation for his role, Anthony Hopkins studied files of serial killers. Also, he visited prisons and studied convicted murderers and was present during some court hearings concerning serial killings. Note Lecter’s mention of having consumed a victim’s liver with “some fava beans and nice chianti”. Liver, fava beans, and wine all contain a substance called tyramine, which can actually kill you if you’re also taking a certain class of antidepressant drugs known as MAO inhibitors. MAO inhibitors were the first antidepressant drugs developed, and were used primarily on patients in mental institutions. Lecter both worked in, and was committed to, a mental institution. Cameo: [Edward Saxon] head in jar When Ted Tally was writing the screenplay for the film, he suggested Jodie Foster for role of Clarice Starling. Foster had been lobbying hard for the part from the start but when Jonathan Demme was hired to direct the film, he felt she was wrong for the part and wanted Michelle Pfeiffer instead. Pfeiffer turned the part down because she felt the film was too violent. Demme then agreed to meet Foster and hired her after only one meeting because he said he could see her strength and determination for the part that he felt was perfect for the character of Clarice. Originally, the film was to open with Clarice Starling and a male FBI agent in the middle of a drug bust. They were to burst into the room and make a number of arrests, and only then would the audience be let in on the fact that it was a training exercise. However Jodie Foster was able to convince director Jonathan Demme to change this scene, as she felt it had been done so many times before. It was Foster herself who came up with the idea of opening with Starling running through the assault course. Jodie Foster spent a great deal of time with FBI agent Mary Ann Krause prior to filming and it was Krause who gave Foster the idea of Starling standing by her car crying. Krause told Foster that at times, the work just became so overbearing that this was a good way to get an emotional release. The song heard playing while “Buffalo Bill” does his little dance is “Goodbye Horses” by Q Lazzarus. A more commonly known version of this song is performed by Psyche. The inspiration for the Silence of the Lambs was the real life relationship between University of Washington criminology professor and profiler Robert Keppel and real life serial killer Ted Bundy. Bundy helped Keppel in his investigation of the Green River Serial Killings in Washington. While Bundy was executed 24 January 1989, the Green River Killings went unsolved until 2001 when Gary Ridgway was arrested. On 5 November 2003, Ridgway pleaded guilty to 48 counts of aggravated first degree murder in a King County, Washington (Seattle) courtroom. After working with John Douglas for some time Scott Glenn thanked him and said how fascinating it was to have been allowed into his world. Douglas laughed at this comment and told Glenn that if he really wanted to get into his world, he should listen to an audio tape of serial killers Lawrence Bittaker and Roy Norris torturing, raping and murdering two teenage girls. Glenn listened to less than one minute of the tape, and has since said that he feels he lost a sense of innocence in doing so and that he has never been able to forget what he heard. In the second draft of Ted Tally’s screenplay, the names of three characters had to be changed from ‘Thomas Harris”s novel for legal reasons. “Jack Crawford” became “Ray Campbell”; “Frederick Chilton” became “Herbert Prentiss”; and, finally, “Hannibal Lecter” became “Gideon Quinn”. Despite being recently declared bankrupt, Orion still managed to stump up $200,000 for the film’s Oscar campaign. The first film to win the Best Picture Oscar that was widely available on home video at the time of the ceremony. After being cast as Buffalo Bill, Ted Levine had done a lot of research into developing his character by reading profiles of serial killers. Levine later said that he found the material very disturbing. He also went out and attended a few transvestite bars, where he began interviewing patrons, as Bill was also a cross-dresser. One of only three films (the others being It Happened One Night (1934) and One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest (1975)) to win the top five Oscars – Best Actor, Best Actress, Best Director, Best Picture and Best Screenplay (Adapted). Thematic parallel: The tune played by the music box in Bimmel’s bedroom is from the Mozart opera “The Magic Flute.” Also from a music box, the magic tune releases the heroine from the clutches of a lecherous character who ‘covets’ her throughout the opera. The movie’s poster was as #16 of “The 25 Best Movie Posters Ever” by Premiere. Clarice Starling was chosen by the American Film Institution as the sixth greatest film hero (out of fifty), the highest ranked female on the list; Hannibal Lecter was chosen as the #1 greatest film villain (also out of fifty). Jodie Foster claims that during the first meeting between Lecter and Starling, Anthony Hopkins’s mocking of her southern accent was not rehearsed and that Hopkins improvised it on the spot. Foster’s reaction of horror was totally genuine, as she felt personally attacked, though she later thanked Hopkins for generating such an honest reaction. Entertainment Weekly voted this as the fourth scariest film of all time. The real-life FBI’s Behavioral Science Unit assisted in the making of this film. John Hurt, Christopher Lloyd, Patrick Stewart, Louis Gossett Jr., Robert Duvall, Jack Nicholson, and Robert De Niro were all considered for the role of Dr. Hannibal Lecter. Jeremy Irons turned down the offer. Gene Hackman bought the rights to “The Silence of the Lambs” and was planning to direct the film as well as taking on the role of either Lecter or Jack Crawford, but he withdrew after watching a clip of himself in Mississippi Burning (1988) at the The 61st Annual Academy Awards (1989) (TV), which made him uneasy about taking more violent roles. Thomas Harris, author of the novel “The Silence of the Lambs”, has never watched the film because he is afraid it will influence his writing. Michael Keaton, Mickey Rourke, and Kenneth Branagh were all considered for the role of Jack Crawford. Cameo: [Kenneth Utt] the producer appears as the coroner. Although when characters are talking to Starling, they often talk direct to camera, when she is talking to them, she is always looking slightly off-camera. Director Jonathan Demme has explained that this was done so as the audience would directly experience her POV, but not theirs, hence encouraged the audience to more readily identify with her. Anthony Hopkins has stated that he saw the character of Lecter as similar to HAL in Stanley Kubrick’s 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968); that is to say, a highly complex, highly intelligent, highly logical killing machine who seems to know everything going on around him. After Jodie Foster first read the Thomas Harris novel, she tried to buy the rights herself, only to find Gene Hackman had beaten her to it. The idea to use glass in Lecter’s Baltimore cell as opposed to traditional bars came from production designer Kristi Zea. The idea came about because director Jonathan Demme was unhappy shooting the Lecter scenes through bars, as he felt they negated the sense of intimacy between Lecter and Starling which he was trying to achieve. Dedicated to Trey Wilson. Has several things in common with Alfred Hitchcock’s Psycho (1960). Both Norman Bates and Jame ‘Buffalo Bill’ Gumb, the killers in both movies, are based on real-life Wisconsin serial killer Ed Gein. Norman Bates enjoyed taxidermy as a hobby and had many stuffed birds around the Bates Motel. When Clarice Starling enters the “Your Self Storage” facility in The Silence of the Lambs (1991), there is a self-conscious nod to this with a shot of a large stuffed bird very similar to the one on Norman’s wall. Jonathan Demme uses the same tracking shot that Hitchcock used when Vera Miles is approaching the Bates house on the hill at the end of Psycho (1960) (Demme uses it twice in The Silence of the Lambs (1991); when Clarice is approaching her car outside the asylum after her first meeting with Hannibal Lecter and when she goes up to the coffin in the funeral home). The heroines in both movies share their surnames with types of birds; Marion Crane (Janet Leigh)/Lila Crane (Vera Miles) and Clarice Starling (Jodie Foster). Julianne Moore went on to play both Lila Crane in Gus Van Sant’s remake of Psycho (1998) and Clarice Starling in Hannibal (2001). As revealed on the Blu-Ray documentaries, “Breaking The Silence” and “From Page To Screen”, both the film’s beginning and ending were altered. Ted Tally’s screenplay called for the film to begin with an FBI Raid not unlike the one featured in the opening sequence of Hannibal (2001); the difference being that SOTL’s shootout would end with the revelation that it was all just a training simulation. Thomas Harris’ book ends with Lecter writing a threatening letter to Dr. Chilton. Ted Tally and Jonathan Demme decided it would be necessary for Lecter to track Chilton to a tropical island; for a more dramatic and audience-pleasing closing, in addition to an all-expense studio-paid trip to shoot somewhere warm. This is arguably the only horror movie (though SOTL could easily fall into a number of other genres) to ever win an Academy Award for Best Picture. Only 2 other horror films were ever so much as nominated for best picture (The Exorcist (1973) and Jaws (1975)). Silence Of The Lamb’s sweeping all major categories at the Oscars was not without controversy, as the Academy was heavily criticized by family-values advocates for celebrating such lurid-subject matter. Since 1991, the only horror-themed films to receive a nomination by the academy for Best Picture would be 1999′s The Sixth Sense (1999) (which lost to American Beauty (1999)) and 2010′s District 9 (2009), (wich lost to The Hurt Locker (2008). The final lines are not delivered by Clarice as she repeats, “Dr. Lecter?… Dr. Lecter?… Dr. Lecter?… Dr. Lecter?”, but rather, it is Dr. Chilton who delivers the last dialogue: “Hey, what? Oh, excuse me. I’m sorry. Is the security system all set up?….Thank you. I appreciate that.” Sean Connery was director Jonathan Demme’s first choice to play Hannibal Lecter, but he turned the part down. Connery later did a similar serial-killer thriller called Just Cause (1995), where Ed Harris plays a sort of bible-bashing, redneck rip-off of Hannibal Lecter. The film was neither a critical or commercial smash like The Silence of the Lambs (1991) was. Hannibal mentions the Roman Emperor Marcus Aurelius to Clarice in the asylum. Marcus Aurelius, played by Richard Harris, was a character in Ridley Scott’s Gladiator (2000). Jonathan Demme won the Best Director Oscar for The Silence of the Lambs (1991), beating out Ridley Scott who was nominated in the same category for Thelma & Louise (1991)). Ridley Scott went on to direct Hannibal (2001), the sequel to The Silence of the Lambs (1991). When Anthony Hopkins found out that he cast as Hannibal Lecter based on his performance as Dr. Frederick Treves in The Elephant Man (1980) he questioned Jonathan Demme and said “But Dr. Treves was a good man.” To which Demme replied “So is Lecter, he is a good man too. Just trapped in an insane mind.” Film screenings were attended by gay rights protesters complaining that making the serial killer Buffalo Bill a transsexual was highly clichéd and a reflection of and/or pandering to public hostilities around the issue of sexual orientation diversity. One of the actresses who tried out for the role of Clarice was Josie Davis. According to Jonathan Demme, there were 300 applicants for the role of Clarice Starling. Jeremy Irons turned down the part of Hannibal Lecter as he had just played Claus von Bulow in Reversal of Fortune (1990) and didn’t want to return to playing another dark character. Third of only three films to win every major Academy Award, including Best Picture. Brooke Smith got along so well with Ted Levine that the rest of the cast teased her by calling her Patty Hearst. According to an old news article that Starling reads on microfilm, “Judge Detox” presided over Dr. Lecter’s murder trial. To date, the first and only horror film to win the Academy Award for Best Picture. Buffalo Bill’s dance was not included in the original draft of the screenplay (although it appears in the novel). It was added at the insistence of Ted Levine, who thought the scene was essential in defining the character.
Cape Fear is a 1962 film about an attorney whose family is stalked by a criminal whom he helped to send to jail. It stars Gregory Peck, Robert Mitchum as Max Cady, Polly Bergen, Lori Martin, Martin Balsam, Jack Kruschen, Telly Savalas, Paul Comi and Barrie Chase. It was adapted by James R. Webb from the novel The Executioners by John D. MacDonald. It was directed by J. Lee Thompson, and released on April 12, 1962.
Cape Fear was remade in 1991. Peck, Mitchum and Balsam all appeared in the remake.
Trivia:
Polly Bergen suffered minor bruises in a scene where her character struggles with Robert Mitchum’s character. He was supposed to drag her through various doors on the set, but a crewmember mistakenly left all those doors locked, so that when Mitchum forced Bergen through the doors, she was actually being used as a ram to push them open.
J. Lee Thompson originally wanted Hayley Mills to play Nancy Bowden, but Mills couldn’t because she was contracted to Walt Disney. Thompson still wishes that he had Hayley Mills play Nancy.
According to Robert Mitchum, during the filming of the final fight scene between he and Gregory Peck, Peck once accidentally punched him for real. Mitchum, knowing that Peck didn’t mean to and ever the professional, refused to break character and continued filming the scene. However, upon entering his trailer, Mitchum said he “literally collapsed” due to the impact of the punch and said that he felt it for days after wards. According to Mitchum: “I don’t feel sorry for anyone dumb enough who picks a fight with him (Peck).”
The hotel where Mitchum takes Barrie Chase is “mother’s house” from Psycho (1960), where Martin Balsam met his demise two years earlier.
The trailer and radio spots are narrated by Universal regular, Jeff Morrow.
Director J. Lee Thompson complained at the time that UK censor John Trevelyan had ruined the film by making extensive cuts, and the number of edits suggested ranged from 60 to over 100. Trevelyan later replied that he had made only 15 cuts, totalling around 6 minutes, with edits made to threatening dialogue and assault references, Cady’s attack on Peggy, and all shots of him staring longingly at Nancy. All later UK video releases restored the cinema cuts.
Gregory Peck, who produced the film, didn’t like the original novel’s title “The Executioners”. When thinking of a new title, he decided that movies named after places tended to be very successful, so he looked at a map of the U.S. until he happened upon Cape Fear in North Carolina.
The financial failure of Cape Fear (1962) ended Gregory Peck’s company, Melville Productions.
This film contains one of the few instances of a correct depiction of what someone sees when looking through binoculars. In most films, what is shown resembles a sideways figure 8 (i.e. side by side magnified images, one for each eyepiece). But what one really sees is a single round magnified image, the same as what you see when looking into the eyepiece of a telescope.
In the scene in the police precinct, the cops listed on the duty roster are the characters from the 87th Precinct series of novels by Evan Hunter.
Family Plot is a 1976 dark comedy/thriller film directed by Alfred Hitchcock, his final film. It stars Barbara Harris, Bruce Dern, William Devane and Karen Black. The film was screened at the 1976 Cannes Film Festival, but wasn’t entered into the main competition. There were two working titles: Deceit and Missing Heir.
Trivia:
Director Cameo: [Alfred Hitchcock] in silhouette 45 minutes into the film behind the door at the registrar of births and deaths.
A street sign in the film reads “Bates Ave”. The Bates Motel was the setting for Hitchcock’s earlier film Psycho (1960).
Roy Thinnes was originally hired to play Arthur Adamson, but Hitchcock’s first choice William Devane became available so Hitchcock fired Thinnes without a reason and hired Devane. Some key scenes had been shot prior to this. Everything that had been shot was re-shot except for long shots which to this day remain as Roy Thinnes and not William Devane.
Director Trademark: [Alfred Hitchcock] [bathroom] features a modern chemical toilet.
Alfred Hitchcock was famous for making his actors follow the script to the word, but in this movie he let the characters improvise and use their own dialogue.
Alfred Hitchcock’s final film.
Alfred Hitchcock initially wanted Al Pacino for the role of Lumley. According to an interview on the DVD with Bruce Dern, who ultimately got the part, Pacino’s asking price was too high because of the recent successes he had enjoyed (Serpico (1973), The Godfather (1972), etc.)
The final shot in the movie, a wink by the Barbara Harris character was a jokey reference that was not planned but Alfred Hitchcock decided to leave in.
Lillian Gish wanted to test for the role of Julia Rainbird but the role had been promised to Cathleen Nesbitt.
Jack Nicholson couldn’t accept the role of George Lumley, as he was doing One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest (1975).
Liza Minnelli was originally cast to play the role that later went to Barbara Harris.
