Presenting a brand-new feature…

I.C.S. Trivia Quiz #1   by G. "Braniac" Roberson
 
1. The spacecraft NOSTROMO in the film ALIEN was named after a craft in what classic novel? Hint: this novel also inspired Coppola's APOCALYPSE NOW.
 
2. What was ironic about the director of the Vincent Price 3-D horror classic HOUSE OF WAX?
 
3. What 1970's Brian DePalma horror thriller got not 1, but 2 Oscar nominations? and for what?
 
4. The bulk of the rights to film Ian Fleming's James Bond novels were optioned by Albert  "Cubby" Broccoli and Harry Saltzman...all except one, which was the hot property of   producer Kevin McClory. He filmed it twice, under 2 different titles, which were...?

5. THE WIZARD OF OZ has hundreds of fascinating "behind the scenes" tales. One of them involves MGM head Louis B. Mayer who originally wanted the "wicked witch" to be played as an evil, but beautiful blonde sexy villian, and screen tests were done with actress Gale Sonnegard in the role. What made him change his mind and go with Margaret Hamilton?
 
6. The great actor Sean Connery sang a few bars of Undrneath the Mango Tree in his 1st Bond movie, DR. NO, as the lovely Ursula Andress, humming the same tune, rises up out of the ocean. (actually Ursula, in that bikini had every guy in the audience humming...) Sean, however performs a whole song with the lovely Janet Munro in what previous film? What's the name of the tune?  As a bonus, name the stage musical Connery appeared in before he got into film acting.
 
7. In the TV series Lost In Space, the Robinson's spacecraft was called the Jupiter 2. What became of the Jupiter 1?  What was the original name of the spacecraft, as used in the unaired pilot episode?
 
8. This prolific film music composer, recently deceased, lent his incredible talents to such films as ROBOCOP, STARSHIP TROOPERS, RED DAWN, CONAN THE BARBARIAN and FLESH AND BLOOD, amongst many others. Who was he?
 
9. What superb action thriller takes place in the upper floors of the Noritaki Plaza?
 
10. Last, but not least!  What infamous film, directed by Howard Hughes, inadvertantly lead to the early deaths by cancer of some of the cast and crew, amongst them John Wayne, Susan Hayward and Pedro Armindez, because it was unknowingly filmed in a radioactive area of desert formerly part of an atomic bomb testing site? Bonus: what part did John Wayne play in the film?

The answers, and new questions, in next month's issue!
 

farewellsfarewellsfarewells Good bye farewellsfarewellsfarewells

Don Herbert, who explained the wonderful world of science to millions of young baby boomers on television in the 1950s and '60s as Mr. Wizard and did the same for another generation of youngsters on the Nickelodeon cable TV channel in the 1980s, died Tuesday. He was 89.
Herbert launched his weekly half-hour science show, WATCH MR WIZARD, for children on NBC in 1951. He used basic experiments to teach scientific principles to his TV audience via an in-studio guest boy or girl who assisted in the experiments. That show ran for 14 years. 
WATCH MR. WIZARD garnered numerous honors, including a Peabody Award, four Ohio State awards and the Thomas Alva Edison Foundation Award for "Best Science TV Program for Youth."
“Over the years, Don has been personally responsible for more people going into the sciences than any other single person in this country," George Tressel, a National Science Foundation official, said. "I fully realize the number is virtually endless when I talk to scientists, they all say that Mr. Wizard taught them to think."
 
 

Actress Mala Powers, who played Roxane to Jose Ferrer's CYRANO DE BERGERAC and starred in other films of the 1950s, has died. 
She was born Mary Ellen Powers in 1931 in San Francisco to journalist parents who later moved to Hollywood. She began training as an actress at an early age at Max Reinhardt's Dramatic Workshop and as a preteen had a bit part in a 1942 Bowery Boys movie, TOUGH AS THEY COME.  In 1951 she starred as a rape victim in OUTRAGE, directed by Ida Lupino. The film created a minor sensation because of its subject matter. Howard Hughes, impressed by Powers' performances (in CYRANO and OUTRAGE), placed her under contract at RKO.
Her other films included EDGE OF DOOM, ROSE OF CIMARRON, CITY THAT NEVER SLEEPS, RAGE AT DAWN, BENGAZI, THE STORM RIDER, TAMMY AND THE BACHELOR, MAN ON THE PROWL and DADDY’S GONE A-HUNTING. There were also such genre movies as THE UNKNOWN TERROR, THE COLOSSUS OF NEW YORK and THE DOOMSDAY MACHINE. She was 75.
 

THE LAST WARD . . .

 Lock all the doors and windows!  Hide the women and children!  Just when you thought it was safe to go back to the newsletter…the magic ellipsis returns!!  
 What happened to GRINDHOUSE? … Two months later, and I’m still trying to figure out how the movie tanked…Personal theory: Releasing such an outrageous gorefest over the Easter holiday weekend was probably a bad idea…I am consoling myself with the excellent coffee table book GRINDHOUSE: The Sleaze-Filled Saga of an Exploitation Double Feature, containing lots of inside info and pictures on the making of the film…The book also contains the shooting script for Planet Terror, the Robert Rodriguez half of the movie, as well as behind-the-scenes stuff on the making of Machete and Thanksgiving, two of the fake trailers…highly recommended for fans of the film…
 Speaking of books…currently on my bookshelf, waiting to be read…Invisible Prey by John Sandford…One Shot by Lee Child…Clemente: The Passion and Grace of Baseball’s Last Hero by David Maraniss…Dr. No by Ian Fleming…Night by Elie Wiesel…
 A brief look at my Netflix queue…The Sopranos, Seasons 2 through 6…That should take me most of the summer…BEND OF THE RIVER and WINCHESTER ’73, two James Stewart westerns…THE HOUSE THAT DRIPPED BLOOD…HERE COMES MR. JORDAN…DEAD RECKONING with Humphrey Bogart…SERENITY…Jess Franco’s COUNT DRACULA with Christopher Lee and Klaus Kinski…SCARFACE: THE SHAME OF A NATION with Paul Muni...Fritz Lang’s M with Peter Lorre…something called BIG BAD WOLF…and even GHOST RIDER!!...I’ve heard complaints that Netflix takes forever to send out the new releases…I’ve found that not to be the case…since I usually hit Netflix for the classics, they’re always available, and by the time I feel like watching a new release, it’s usually there…
 The best films of the first half of 2007: GRINDHOUSE, PAN’S LABYRINTH, and ZODIAC…The worst movie of 2007 (so far): HANNIBAL RISING…The biggest disappointment (so far): SPIDER-MAN 3…
 Against my better judgment, I went to see FANTASTIC FOUR: RISE OF THE SILVER SURFER with No. 1 Son…the movie didn’t suck…wonder of wonders…I had less hope for this one than I did for HANNIBAL RISING…one small quibble, though…Jessica Alba in a blonde wig and blue contacts doesn’t really do it for me…of course, Jessica Alba in just about anything else (like the new comedy GOOD LUCK CHUCK) – smokin’!  (As Mr. Roberson would put it)…and speaking of hot Jessicas in summer comedies…anyone else seen the trailer for the Adam Sandler comedy I NOW PRONOUNCE YOU CHUCK AND LARRY with Jessica Biel?...almost enough to get me into the theater for an Adam Sandler comedy…
 What’s left for genre fans in the second half of 2007?...here’s an update from my earlier list…July: TRANSFORMERS and THE SIMPSONS MOVIE…Yes, I plan to see both…August: THE BOURNE ULTIMATUM, THE INVASION, and HALLOWEEN…at least one of those should be damn good, at least one other has possibilities…I’ll leave it to you to guess which ones…September: SHOOT ‘EM UP with Clive Owen and Paul Giamatti…looks like an homage to early John Woo…October: VANTAGE POINT, 3:10 TO YUMA, and 30 DAYS OF NIGHT…the first, an assassination thriller told from multiple POVs…the second, a remake of a classic Glenn Ford western with Russell Crowe and Christian Bale, directed by James WALK THE LINE Mangold…the third, an adaptation of the well-reviewed graphic novel about vampires above the Arctic Circle…November: AMERICAN GANGSTER and FRED CLAUS…December: ALIEN VS. PREDATOR 2, RIPLEY’S BELIEVE IT OR NOT, and last but far from least, I AM LEGEND…I’ve heard the new AvP movie might go out with an R rating…the RIPLEY’S movie is directed by Tim Burton and stars Jim Carrey, and it’s actually a look at the real-life Ripley, who traveled the globe seeking out oddities…and then there’s I AM LEGEND…I’ve seen the first teaser trailer, and I can’t wait for this one…some of the shots look pretty eerie…Will Smith should make big bucks this winter…which would be a first for the Richard Matheson source novel, right?...
 The American Film Institute celebrated its 10th anniversary of “Top 100” TV specials last week with a revision of its very first list:  the Top 100 American Movies ever made…Genre movies (horror, sci-fi, fantasy, Hitchcock, etc) were well represented…CITIZEN KANE held onto its no. 1 spot for the second time…THE GODFATHER passed CASABLANCA for no. 2…VERTIGO was the highest ranking genre film at no. 9…followed by THE WIZARD OF OZ (10)…STAR WARS EPISODE IV (13)…PSYCHO (14)…2001: A SPACE ODYSSEY (15)…IT’S A WONDERFUL LIFE (20)…E.T. THE EXTRATERRESTRIAL (24)…SNOW WHITE AND THE SEVEN DWARFS (34)…DR. STRANGELOVE (39)…KING KONG (41)…REAR WINDOW (48)…THE LORD OF THE RINGS: THE FELLOWSHIP OF THE RING (50)…NORTH BY NORTHWEST (55)…JAWS (56)…RAIDERS OF THE LOST ARK (66)…A CLOCKWORK ORANGE (70)…THE SILENCE OF THE LAMBS (74)…THE SIXTH SENSE (89)…BLADE RUNNER (97)…TOY STORY (99)…You might notice that quite a few of these films showed up on our very own ICS All-Time Top 100 Genre Movies list several months back…A few notes…I included DR. STRANGELOVE because it plays out as a paranoid fantasy satire…the KING KONG listed is, of course, the 1933 original…LOTR: FELLOWSHIP was the highest-ranking movie released in the last 10 years…in other words, since the last list…a few complaints…I did not think 2001 deserved such a high ranking, if it deserved to be ranked at all…but I know I’m in a very small minority here…also, I didn’t think THE SIXTH SENSE was good enough to be included on this list…there were plenty of other movies, both genre and non-genre, that deserved it more…
 Folks, it’s late on Sunday night, and I want to get this into email shape and out to you, so I’ll sign off…see you next month…
 We miss you, Mr. Childs…
 

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