Movie Film Trivia

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In the original Back to the Future Marty McFly spent a total of eight days living in 1955. arriving on Saturday 5th November 1955 and departing on Saturday 12th November 1955. Some interesting things that happened in this week:

  • Kris Jenner, the matriarch of the Kardashian/Jenner clan was born on 05-Nov-1955, while late Scottish musician Les McKeown who was a member of the Bay City Rollers in the 1970s was born on 12-Nov-1955. Some other people born during this week were American journalist Maria Shriver, American wrestler King Kong Bundy, Australian politician Kevin Andrews and oddly enough four people whose names are associated with science fiction and fantasy. They are English actress Karen Dotrice (from Mary Poppins), German-born film director Roland Emmerich and two novelists Catherine Asaro and Jeffrey Ford.
  • Although Hill Valley High School held its Enchantment Under the Sea dance on Saturday 12th, there would have been no school on the Friday due to Veteran's Day on the 11th, giving the school's principal Mr. Strickland a day off from identifying and punishing slackers and George McFly a short break from Biff and the other bullies.
  • When Marty first arrived in 1955, an article of his 1985 clothing made him stand out more than anything else, this a red sleeveless jacket that many of those he encountered took to be a life preserver and to assume Marty was a sailor or a trainee in the Coastguard. These included the owner and an employee at the diner, Biff Tannen and his gang of bullies, his mother Lorraine, grandparents Stan and Stella and Doc Brown. While it is not stated where Hill Valley is located in California (one would presume in the southern part of the state and close to the coast, given it would be very cold in the north and inland by November and the Hill Valley weather seemed quite pleasant) this particular week saw one of the world's biggest maritime mysteries aside from Marty's seafaring attire, when a small ship the MV Jovita was found abandoned in the Pacific on 10-Nov-1955. There was no trace of any passengers or crew and while having a severe list to port, no evidence of why the ship was abandoned as all lifeboats were accounted for, and no record of any distress calls.
 
emuboy said:
In the original Back to the Future Marty McFly spent a total of eight days living in 1955. arriving on Saturday 5th November 1955 and departing on Saturday 12th November 1955. Some interesting things that happened in this week:

  • Kris Jenner, the matriarch of the Kardashian/Jenner clan was born on 05-Nov-1955, while late Scottish musician Les McKeown who was a member of the Bay City Rollers in the 1970s was born on 12-Nov-1955. Some other people born during this week were American journalist Maria Shriver, American wrestler King Kong Bundy, Australian politician Kevin Andrews and oddly enough four people whose names are associated with science fiction and fantasy. They are English actress Karen Dotrice (from Mary Poppins), German-born film director Roland Emmerich and two novelists Catherine Asaro and Jeffrey Ford.
  • Although Hill Valley High School held its Enchantment Under the Sea dance on Saturday 12th, there would have been no school on the Friday due to Veteran's Day on the 11th, giving the school's principal Mr. Strickland a day off from identifying and punishing slackers and George McFly a short break from Biff and the other bullies.
  • When Marty first arrived in 1955, an article of his 1985 clothing made him stand out more than anything else, this a red sleeveless jacket that many of those he encountered took to be a life preserver and to assume Marty was a sailor or a trainee in the Coastguard. These included the owner and an employee at the diner, Biff Tannen and his gang of bullies, his mother Lorraine, grandparents Stan and Stella and Doc Brown. While it is not stated where Hill Valley is located in California (one would presume in the southern part of the state and close to the coast, given it would be very cold in the north and inland by November and the Hill Valley weather seemed quite pleasant) this particular week saw one of the world's biggest maritime mysteries aside from Marty's seafaring attire, when a small ship the MV Jovita was found abandoned in the Pacific on 10-Nov-1955. There was no trace of any passengers or crew and while having a severe list to port, no evidence of why the ship was abandoned as all lifeboats were accounted for, and no record of any distress calls.
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Their very own Marie Celeste.

About the Marie Celeste - its name was actually the Mary Celeste. The alternative Marie came about from a misspelling in a short story by Arthur Conan Doyle. Interestingly, the incorrect spelling stuck.
 

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STFU Donnie said:
Their very own Marie Celeste.

About the Marie Celeste - its name was actually the Mary Celeste. The alternative Marie came about from a misspelling in a short story by Arthur Conan Doyle. Interestingly, the incorrect spelling stuck.
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The Joyita in spite of its joyful sounding name much like the Marie Celeste was an unlucky vessel. She was constructed for an American tycoon in the 1920s for him to entertain his family, guests and business associates at sea, but apparently the boat never really worked out as well as he had hoped. With war looming in the early 1940s the US Navy requisitioned the vessel, and in a supreme irony she was docked at Pearl Harbor on 7th December 1941, escaping the raid unscathed despite an already unhappy history. She changed hands several times after the war and continued to be plagued by ill fortune even after the 1955 disappearances, before being grounded and written off in the early 1970s.
 
What do 2004 romantic drama 'The Notebook', 2000 coming of age drama 'Billy Elliot', 1979 superhero film 'Superman II', 1990 Australian comedy 'The Big Steal', 1966 science fiction movie 'Daleks Invasion Earth' and 1997 historical romance/disaster film 'Titanic' all have in common?

At face value, nothing much at all, except that all of them managed to lose track of a character who sort of faded out of the story. To clarify, these characters had ongoing roles in the film not just there for a specific role in one or a number of scenes, but after a specific point in each movie they are not seen or mentioned again.

In 'The Notebook' in the early 1940s Allie's best friend is a girl named Sarah, and she is also the girlfriend of Finn, Noah's best friend. The two couples are seen hanging out and having fun together. Allie is sent back to school in Charleston with Noah desperate to contact her, yet he never considered trying this through a mutual friend in Sarah nor vice versa by Allie when she is missing Noah? Noah and Finn enlist and Finn dies in action, but if he and Sarah were still together at this stage, it is never shown on screen.

In 'Billy Elliot' one of Billy's friends on who he has a crush a mile wide is Debbie, a girl the same age with whom he attends school and the daughter of the ballet teacher Sandra. Yet at the midpoint of the movie Debbie steps behind a car - and she is not seen or mentioned again, not by Billy or even her mother. The ending of the movie in 1999 sees an adult Billy performing in Swan Lake, and his father, brother, his old mentor Sandra and his friend Michael are all in the audience (the grandmother would have passed on by then) but not an adult Debbie.

Superman II sees Miss Tessmaker help her boyfriend Lex Luthor escape from prison and she accompanies him to Superman's fortress of solitude, but after this when Luthor meets the Kryptonian supervillains General Zod, Ursa and Non, Miss Tessmaker is nowhere to be seen and Lex Luthor makes no mention of what became of her.

In the Big Steal one of the crooks at the car yard is a salesman called Frank (played by Frankie J Holden), who helps Gordon Farkas (Steve Bisley) con Danny into buying the Jaguar. He appears in other scenes too in the first half of the film and is just as sleezy and shonky as Gordon and assistant salesman Jimmy. But in the second half of the movie he is not seen again. He does not take part in the scenes where dealership salesmen Gordon, Jimmy and the two heavies from the service department George and Dougy chase Danny, Joanna, Van and Mark; nor at the end when they confront Mr. Johnson.

The Daleks Invasion of Earth in 1966 saw a force of Daleks led by three Daleks; one Black, one Red and the other Gold, with the standard Daleks Blue in color. We see the Black Dalek and Red Dalek destroyed in the film's climax along with many Blue Daleks, but not the Gold Dalek, which is kind of strange as it was in overall command.

Titanic revealed the fates of most characters except one, and oddly enough this was Rose's mother Ruth. She obviously survived the sinking in Boat 6, but we do not see her aboard Carpathia. Rose isn't frantically searching in the vain hope her daughter survived, either by herself, with Molly Brown or with Cal Hockley. We don't see her with Cal or other survivors or sitting alone lost in despair, in fact we don't see her at all. Old Rose tells of Cal's fate (death by suicide in the Great Depression), but never mentions what becomes of her mother (not even in a deleted scene), nor do we see her in Rose's dying dream at the end.
 
emuboy said:
What do 2004 romantic drama 'The Notebook', 2000 coming of age drama 'Billy Elliot', 1979 superhero film 'Superman II', 1990 Australian comedy 'The Big Steal', 1966 science fiction movie 'Daleks Invasion Earth' and 1997 historical romance/disaster film 'Titanic' all have in common?

At face value, nothing much at all, except that all of them managed to lose track of a character who sort of faded out of the story. To clarify, these characters had ongoing roles in the film not just there for a specific role in one or a number of scenes, but after a specific point in each movie they are not seen or mentioned again.

In 'The Notebook' in the early 1940s Allie's best friend is a girl named Sarah, and she is also the girlfriend of Finn, Noah's best friend. The two couples are seen hanging out and having fun together. Allie is sent back to school in Charleston with Noah desperate to contact her, yet he never considered trying this through a mutual friend in Sarah nor vice versa by Allie when she is missing Noah? Noah and Finn enlist and Finn dies in action, but if he and Sarah were still together at this stage, it is never shown on screen.

In 'Billy Elliot' one of Billy's friends on who he has a crush a mile wide is Debbie, a girl the same age with whom he attends school and the daughter of the ballet teacher Sandra. Yet at the midpoint of the movie Debbie steps behind a car - and she is not seen or mentioned again, not by Billy or even her mother. The ending of the movie in 1999 sees an adult Billy performing in Swan Lake, and his father, brother, his old mentor Sandra and his friend Michael are all in the audience (the grandmother would have passed on by then) but not an adult Debbie.

Superman II sees Miss Tessmaker help her boyfriend Lex Luthor escape from prison and she accompanies him to Superman's fortress of solitude, but after this when Luthor meets the Kryptonian supervillains General Zod, Ursa and Non, Miss Tessmaker is nowhere to be seen and Lex Luthor makes no mention of what became of her.

In the Big Steal one of the crooks at the car yard is a salesman called Frank (played by Frankie J Holden), who helps Gordon Farkas (Steve Bisley) con Danny into buying the Jaguar. He appears in other scenes too in the first half of the film and is just as sleezy and shonky as Gordon and assistant salesman Jimmy. But in the second half of the movie he is not seen again. He does not take part in the scenes where dealership salesmen Gordon, Jimmy and the two heavies from the service department George and Dougy chase Danny, Joanna, Van and Mark; nor at the end when they confront Mr. Johnson.

The Daleks Invasion of Earth in 1966 saw a force of Daleks led by three Daleks; one Black, one Red and the other Gold, with the standard Daleks Blue in color. We see the Black Dalek and Red Dalek destroyed in the film's climax along with many Blue Daleks, but not the Gold Dalek, which is kind of strange as it was in overall command.

Titanic revealed the fates of most characters except one, and oddly enough this was Rose's mother Ruth. She obviously survived the sinking in Boat 6, but we do not see her aboard Carpathia. Rose isn't frantically searching in the vain hope her daughter survived, either by herself, with Molly Brown or with Cal Hockley. We don't see her with Cal or other survivors or sitting alone lost in despair, in fact we don't see her at all. Old Rose tells of Cal's fate (death by suicide in the Great Depression), but never mentions what becomes of her mother (not even in a deleted scene), nor do we see her in Rose's dying dream at the end.
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They're all victims of the cutting room floor. Other scenes deleted from final edit, and so their story disappears
 
The late Sean Connery was a legend of film with a long career. His son Jason Connery is also an actor/director, while Sean Connery's younger brother Neil (who died a few months after Sean) was also an actor, although with far fewer and less high-profile roles than his older sibling.

But did you know that Sean Connery also had a niece who was an actress? Her name is Leone Connery, one of Neil Connery's two daughters. Her first acting role was in a Scottish TV show well-known for being the show that launched many famous Scottish actors (Alan Cumming, John Hannah, Robert Carlyle among others) and this was Taggart.

However, despite the Taggart TV movie Leone appearing in being arguably the best known in the show's history - Nest of Vipers in 1991 involving a terrifying race against time to stop a serial killer who is using venomous snakes, spiders and frogs to murder their victims - and a good performance from Leone (she played a biologist and her portrayal of a snake bite victim was extremely confronting and convincing) this was only one of two credited roles for her, the other being a lawyer in a crime drama called 'Colors of Justice' eight years later in 1999. She has since disappeared into obscurity and left no digital footprint as to what became of her.

While Leone Connery didn't get her big break from Taggart, two other completely unknown young Scottish actors did get their big break from the same 'Nest of Vipers' episode and have since become big name stars. One was Michelle Gomez, who had a small role as a witness; and the other was Dougray Scott, who like Leone Connery portrayed a researcher studying reptiles.
 
Love him or not, Kirk Douglas was pretty good at circus skills and in The Vikings didn't need a stunt double when he was running along the oars of the boat.
 
emuboy said:
The late Sean Connery was a legend of film with a long career. His son Jason Connery is also an actor/director, while Sean Connery's younger brother Neil (who died a few months after Sean) was also an actor, although with far fewer and less high-profile roles than his older sibling.

But did you know that Sean Connery also had a niece who was an actress? Her name is Leone Connery, one of Neil Connery's two daughters. Her first acting role was in a Scottish TV show well-known for being the show that launched many famous Scottish actors (Alan Cumming, John Hannah, Robert Carlyle among others) and this was Taggart.

However, despite the Taggart TV movie Leone appearing in being arguably the best known in the show's history - Nest of Vipers in 1991 involving a terrifying race against time to stop a serial killer who is using venomous snakes, spiders and frogs to murder their victims - and a good performance from Leone (she played a biologist and her portrayal of a snake bite victim was extremely confronting and convincing) this was only one of two credited roles for her, the other being a lawyer in a crime drama called 'Colors of Justice' eight years later in 1999. She has since disappeared into obscurity and left no digital footprint as to what became of her.

While Leone Connery didn't get her big break from Taggart, two other completely unknown young Scottish actors did get their big break from the same 'Nest of Vipers' episode and have since become big name stars. One was Michelle Gomez, who had a small role as a witness; and the other was Dougray Scott, who like Leone Connery portrayed a researcher studying reptiles.
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About Dougray Scott - he was the villain in Mission Impossible 2. He was also the actor originally cast to play Wolverine in X-Men but MI2 ran well over schedule leading to Hugh Jackman getting the role and becoming a megastar.
 
A fun doco about the making of George Pal's famous 'War of the Worlds' (1953) includes a lot of interesting trivia. Perhaps one of the best 50's scifi movies with great designs and special effects. The manta ray shaped Martian war machines are are a great piece of kit. Well worth a look. Scared the sh*t out of me as a kid in the 60's.



Young folks of the digital age won't really be aware how hard it was to do 'real' effects and how complex the model making was. Cinema only relied on analog effects for about 100 years before digital tech took over. Sadly this sort of model making and animation will never be seen again. I was lucky to have experienced it.

While I'm in a scifi retro mood I'm going to plug this Youtube channel, Atomic Snack Bar. A very cool dude, Mr R. Sterling, looks at old monster, scifi and other odd genres of movies from the past. Danger, low brow. He does a lot of research on the model makers, suit actors, artists etc. It was here I heard a Hollywood Chainsaw Hookers, so he has a lot to answer for. He does toys and gaming stuff, too. He has a nice laid back presentation, not liked the usual hyped up Youtubers, who often act like they have drunk too much red cordial and/or speed. Example about his favourite Twilight zone episodes below:

 

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CD Xbow said:
A fun doco about the making of George Pal's famous 'War of the Worlds' (1953) includes a lot of interesting trivia. Perhaps one of the best 50's scifi movies with great designs and special effects. The manta ray shaped Martian war machines are are a great piece of kit. Well worth a look. Scared the sh*t out of me as a kid in the 60's.



Young folks of the digital age won't really be aware how hard it was to do 'real' effects and how complex the model making was. Cinema only relied on analog effects for about 100 years before digital tech took over. Sadly this sort of model making and animation will never be seen again. I was lucky to have experienced it.

While I'm in a scifi retro mood I'm going to plug this Youtube channel, Atomic Snack Bar. A very cool dude, Mr R. Sterling, looks at old monster, scifi and other odd genres of movies from the past. Danger, low brow. He does a lot of research on the model makers, suit actors, artists etc. It was here I heard a Hollywood Chainsaw Hookers, so he has a lot to answer for. He does toys and gaming stuff, too. He has a nice laid back presentation, not liked the usual hyped up Youtubers, who often act like they have drunk too much red cordial and/or speed. Example about his favourite Twilight zone episodes below:

Click to expand...


Forbidden Planet is another movie with mind-boggling special effects from the mid 50's. It was based on The Tempest, with lots of classical allusions, and is easily the most intelligent Sci-Fi film I've ever seen.
 
American actor Lew Palter was never a Hollywood A-Lister, but he did get to be in one of the biggest films of all time - Titanic in 1997 - in which he plays real life passenger Isidor Strauss, bearing an uncanny resemblance to the late American tycoon who along with his wife Ida lost his life in the 1912 disaster. Lew Palter himself would die at age 94 in May 2023 - just weeks before the Titan submersible tragedy at the Titanic wreck site added five more names to the death toll. Expedition commander Stockton Rush - the maritime engineer who built and operated the Titan submersible - obviously lost his own life leaving his wife Wendy a widow. Wendy Rush (nee Weil) is the great-great granddaughter of Isidor and Ida Strauss.

Fan theories abound with lots of movies, and having such a high profile, James Cameron's epic blockbuster Titanic attracts many. Some are outlandish and ridiculous such as time travel or Jack being a figment of Rose's imagination, however there is one which does seem to have some merit. That theory goes that Louis Bodene's initial reservations about elderly Rose are correct - she is not whom she claims to be but rather a confidence trickster.

The theory goes that in the 1920s struggling actress Rose Dawson supplements her income working as an escort, and one of her regular clients is an unhappy and troubled Philadelphia millionaire Caledon Hockley. Hockley is particularly drawn to her by her name and noting an uncanny resemblance to his late fiance Rose De Witt Bukater, who really did die on the Titanic. As is often the case with men using the services of prostitutes, Cal tells Rose Dawson all about his current problems, and the circumstances of how his fiance fell for an artist named Jack aboard Titanic and lost her life looking for him in the sinking. Hockley gives Rose Dawson a replica of the Heart of the Ocean as a gift, noting that the original was lost with Rose in the sinking and that Jack drew a naked picture of Rose wearing the diamond the day the Titanic hit the iceberg. Increasingly depressed, Cal Hockley dies by suicide in 1929 and when the picture is found years later in 1996, Rose decides to claim to be Rose De Witt Bukater, using information she was given by Cal to try and get money or publicity before she dies.

An alternate theory on this is that Jack did not exist but is an invention of Cal rather than Rose, with Rose's actual lover being Trudy her maid, and it was in fact Trudy that drew the naked picture of Rose that Cal and Mr. Lovejoy find in the safe. Cal invented Jack as an imaginary figure to blame post-sinking, unable to accept that his lost fiance was in love with another woman rather than him. Rose refuses to board a lifeboat without Trudy who has become lost in the confusion, Trudy meanwhile is looking everywhere for Rose and both die when the ship sinks.

Although I personally don't believe these theories, they do explain some inconsistent things. For example Rose never notes what eventually happened to her mother Ruth, because she didn't know her fate and could be exposed if she said something that wasn't true. How could Rose have avoided anyone noticing her in a four-day trip to New York on Carpathia? Would an actress be a sensible career choice for someone running from their past life and believed to be dead? Why was only the drawing of Rose recovered, and none of Jack's other drawings in the folder? Why didn't Trudy survive the sinking, and why was she given such an undignified death, sliding down the deck screaming showing everyone her drawers as her dress rode up? The latter might have been an invention of a bitter Cal Hockley who told imposter Rose this story, with her taking it to be truthful? One has to wonder.
 
I also don't buy these theories. The best evidence in favour of her being the actual Rose is the fact that the drawing recovered by Bill Paxton, and the photos of Rose (one with the fish, and one with the plane) are clearly the same woman.

BTW, the fact that the widow of the submariner is the descendant of the Strauss' is mind-blowing.
 

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