The Eagle Has Landed (1976)

¬This never happened.It dit not occur¬

TEHL/ The Eagle Has Landed (1976) is the last film directed by the Magificent Seven's John Sturges, as a fare to get more fishing money. That's what I've read now and I am sad about this-he didn't care about the post production at all, but the film still stands up, and it's a joyride!

The plot to kidnap Winston Churchill by a band of condamned German paratroopers in England in 1943...wow! Solid script by Tom Mankiewicz, based on a novel by Brtish writer Jack Higgins. 

It is one of my guilty pleasures:  faved ww tales of what if (Where Eagles Dare, Eye of the Needle,  Kelly's Heroes)  and the multi million studio bound all star cast  A Bridge too Far was made at the same time)

Rober Duvall pulls a lookalike heavy Stauftenberg, how the F*** the got him?, grand accent), reddish Donald Sutherland as Devlin, an Irish IRA member seems to have much fuun,

It stars also Donlad Pleasence as Himmler, and Anthony Quayle has a cameo as adimral Canaris, we dont get the fuhrer but we get his signature :)

and Jenny Agutter, yes:)

Michael Caine as colonel  Karl Steiner, the same Steiner that shows up in The Iron Cross and Steiner Iron Cross Part 2, played by James Coburn (great in Peckinph's only war movie), and Richard Burton in a gimme gin gig, how the heck the only German name is Steiner for all these?

and Larry Hagman, well J.r. as a commaning American officer with a moustache...

I bet Tarantino loves this...

Sir Micharel Caine said it and I was shattered..BS

In his autobiography, Sir Michael Caine confessed to being somewhat disappointed with the end product: "The picture was being directed by the Hollywood old-timer John Sturges, and we were all very pleased that this illustrious veteran had agreed to direct our film. That is, until one day when I was talking to him between set-ups and he informed me that, now that he was older, he only ever worked to get the money to go fishing, which was his passion. Deep-sea fishing off Baja, California, he added, which was very expensive. The moment the picture finished, he took the money and went. Producer Jack S. Wiener later told me that he never came back for the editing nor for any of the other post-production sessions that are where a director does some of his most important work. The picture wasn't bad, but I still get angry when I think of what it could have been with the right director. We had committed the old European sin of being impressed by someone, just because he came from Hollywood."

I was too, to find out this in 2022 :(

so Anne Coates (the editor) did the movie...

I also love the Lalo Schifrin score and

this gets better every time i revisit it.

It's now on you tube , you can watch it here -until it vanishes :)

Why the plot failed? 

¬I thought my plot failed cos' one of my man died saving the little girl over there¬

Steiner

I still think it's a great fun film and they don't do them like that anymore :( Caine, Duvall,Sutherland, Lalo, Sturges all in one, you gotta treasure that, it was 44 years ago...The Eagle had landed all right (remember the Saxon live album cover as well).

7 out ot 10, 3 1/2 out of five (would be a six but, hey :)

Halloween 2022 recommendations: The Cabinet of Curiosities, Halloween Ends, Barbarian, Pearl

Halloween 2022 recommendations 

that is if you haven't been trampled in (South ) Korea or you don't party with Elon Musk and the probably reptilian clique at Bran (Dracula's) Castle...

on netflix:

Guillermo Del Toro's The Cabinet of Curiosities 

an anthology of 8 stories, 8 different directors. Nice premieres, streaming two episodes per day in three days from Oct 25 to Oct 28. The best for me were The Viewing- directed by Panos Cosmatos (Beyond the Black Rainbow, Mandy), featuring a great Paul Weller (a clin d'oeil to his father 1983 cult film Of Unknown Origin that starred Peter Weller!) , Autopsy-d:David Prior (The Empty Man, Voir)  with a fantastic F.Murray Abraham and Lot 36-d: Guillermo Navarro (great DOP and tv director), with a downbeat dark Tim Blake Nelson, based on a short story by GdT himself. 

Del Toro didn”t direct any of the eight, he presents every story in person in a Hitchcock or Rod Sterling manner, .also a la Tales from the Crypt. He did write 2 short stories of wich two episodes are based, the second one being The Murmuring (directed y Jennifer Kent-The Babadock). 2 episodes are based on stories by Del Toro and all horror lover's favorite, H.P. Lovecraft - Pickman's Model (d by Keith Thomas-The Vigil) and Dreams in the Witch House (director Catherine Hardwicke-Twilight).

 Ana Lily Amirpour (A Girl Walks Home at Night, The Bad Batch) The Outside episode is a body horror satire with a brave acting performance by Kate Micucci that loses but all wind in an hour when it could've been half . In opossition with Lot 36 which is the shortest of the whole bunch (45 min) except the Vincenzo Natali (Cube, Splice) episode, Graveyard Rats. The shortest film at 37 mins, it is a classic and morbid take on Edgar Allan Poe's tropes and can be seen also in Glorious Black and White version (for this version scroll down on Episodes on the screen to the Trailer and More section). All stories are set in the past to capture the spirit and style of the genre. 

Uneven as all anthologies are but tones better than the recent netflix fare The Midnight Club for ex. Season two is okțd for next year. 

in cinemas and PPW:

Halloween Ends -actually not so bad, Halloween mixed with Stephen King's Christine and other King themes. Music by John Caprenter, his son Cody and Daniel Davies.

It will not be the last if you're worried, in a few years they'll reboot it again. But it will be definetly the last with Jamie Lee Curtis. Anyhu, John Carpenter says he doesn't care...

on Disney ! (yes Disney, from Fox)

Barbarian 

written and directed by Zach Cregger, an effective thriller with creepy undertones works in three different acts and surprises you best if you know less about the plot (i had no clues whatsoever when bro cuz' kinosseur recommended it to me ;)

shades of Wes Craven (People under the Stairs) and some similarities with Don't Breathe (derelict Detroit neighbourhood)

and from wherever you can get it:

Pearl, the prequel to X by Ti West ( and Mia Goth 

Scorsese loved it, me to..and some more, some none---

it's the real Blonde film. Talk about bravura acting (even more so than in X where she did both roles of Maxine and Pearl, can't wait for the sequel now-Maxxxine). 

Wizard of Oz meets Psycho (someone wrote -like if Shelley Duvall was playing Norman Bates) with a bit of alligator fare from Tobe Hopper's Eaten Alive (aka Death Trap)

technicolor Reds and some great oneshots plus the last shot you won't forget...

RIP Jerry Lee Lewis

”The Killer” is gone....The last of the only ones...Jerry Lee Lewis was 87...(born Sept. 29 1935) 

There was a hoax news about his death 3 days ago but now it is official :(

Saw him in Brasov at Cerbul de Aur / The Golden Stag in Brasov in a fantastic performance in 1993. 

Here is the video from Romanian television. 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H3XBSmtcVJ4

biopic: Great Balls of Fire ! with Dennis Quaid (d: Jim McBride,1989)

DocȘ Jerry Lee Lewis: Trouble in Mind is the documentray by Ethan Coen that premiered in 2022 in Cannes film festival. He was not present there.

Lewis's publicist Zach Farnum said: "He was there at the beginning, with Elvis, Johnny Cash, Chuck Berry, Little Richard, Carl Perkins, Fats Domino, Buddy Holly, and the rest, and watched them fade away one by one till it was him alone to bear witness, and sing of the birth of rock'n'roll."

Nicknamed the Killer, he has been described as "rock n' roll's first great wild man and one of the most influential pianists of the 20th century.

Blonde (2022)

Blonde, the Marilyn Monroe biopic that Netflix bought and premiered in Venice last month was one of the most expected films of the year. It proves to be most controversial, especially these days post feminism and post #metoo proved to be an UFO that doesn't do any good to Marilyn, Norma Jean or the myth of M.M. Ana de Armas pulls a heroic performance but I am biased the AMPAS will look at it for a win (UPSATE-but she got nominated!!! the only nod of the flick), the whole thing looks, feels and sounds like a stunt. The sex stuff doesn't help, it makes you feel dirty and definetly there was no need for NC 17, especially on a film streaming that can be watched by any child at the end of the remote control. 

https://www.cinemablend.com/movies/the-blonde-scene-with-ana-de-armas-some-viewers-say-went-too-far

Director and writer Andrew Dominik (adapting Joyce Carol Oates’ book) stumbles between black and white and color and it's an overlong  mess (2 hrs 47) that only pains and confuses. Also with a downbeat score by Nick Cave and Warren Ellis that might have been written by anyone else but them (ex: Vangelis, Zimmer).

As a good friend said, ¬The Feel-bad movie of the year. Any year¬ :(((

Emily Ratajkowski accuses Marilyn Monroe film 'Blonde' of 'fetishizing female pain'