Movie Film Trivia

Remove this Banner Ad

As a child actress in the 2000s, Dakota Fanning starred in many roles in a variety of films. In some of them, Dakota's younger sister Elle Fanning, similar in looks to Dakota, played a younger version of Dakota's character in flashbacks or a relative. One example was in Charlotte's Web, where Dakota played the lead role of Fern and Elle had a small role as Fern's granddaughter in a scene set many years later at the end of the film.

Now adults, Dakota and Elle Fanning are still actresses and still look very similar facially, but there is no way they could share the same role. Why is this? Because younger sister Elle stands at a lofty 5 feet 10, much taller than older sister Dakota who is 5 feet 3 in height.
 
There's been quite a few movies over the years that have been production nightmares. One that would be a strong contender for the worst of all time was a 1996 film called 'The Island of Doctor Moreau' which was actually filmed in Queensland. A nightmare from pre-production through every stage of development and which when finally released was a commercial and critical failure, the problems of 'The Island of Doctor Moreau' were way more bizarre than most other stories of movies where there was disharmony on set, casting changes, budget problems, production falling behind and logistical issues. I'd be here until midnight if I was to list them all, but there's Youtube videos about this, and things were so bad that a movie about the making of 'The Island of Doctor Moreau' would probably be more interesting than the film itself.

The star in the titular role was the late Marlon Brando, who to put it tactfully was unimpressed by many things about the production and made his feelings known. One thing a reasonable person might think Brando might have been peeved about was the bizarre clothes that Doctor Moreau wore - weird mu-mu like dresses and strange hats as well as being accompanied by a mute midget dressed identically in every scene - and that this was an affront to the veteran actor's dignity, especially if he only found out about it after signing the contract and flying to Australia. Strangely though, Brando apparently loved the bizarre clothes of his character and wanted him to dress even more strangely such as a weird white outfit with white makeup and an ice-bucket on his head. He also loved the midget, and insisted that more scenes be written to include this character. This meant rewrites and meaningless random scenes that did not progress the plot and looked out of place, adding length to what was already an overly long film.
 

Log in to remove this ad.

emuboy said:
American actor Dan Hedaya is best known for playing the gruff father of Cher Horowitz (Alicia Silverstone) in the classic 1995 teen comedy 'Clueless'. In 1999, he starred in another teen comedy 'Dick' with Michelle Williams and Kirsten Dunst. This film was about two naive teenage girls in the 1970s who on a school trip to the White House accidentally blunder their way into the Oval Office where they meet President Richard Nixon and become involved in the Watergate Scandal. Hedaya played Richard Nixon in the film, but sadly over 20 years this very original and amusing teen comedy is largely forgotten.

Interestingly, just three years earlier in 1996 Hedaya had played an advisor to President Nixon in the failed biopic 'Nixon', starring Anthony Hopkins in the titular role.
Click to expand...

One of my all-time favourite character actors, I first saw him as a corrupt cop in Hill Street Blues. He's always excellent and always memorable.

dan-hedaya-photo_99407_3017.jpg
 
American actor James Tolkan turns 90 this year, and his best known role is in the 'Back to the Future' movies, where he played Principal Strickland, who in both 1955 and 1985 would frequently call young male students who incurred his wrath 'slackers'. Those identified as slackers by Mr. Strickland include Marty McFly, Dave McFly, George McFly, Biff Tannen and some hoodlums in the skewed 1985 timeline.

In the 1991 film Problem Child 2, the 'slackers' catch phrase was referenced when Tolkan plays a strict teacher who starts the school year by having his sixth grade class with write out a long list of rules, one of which is 'No Slackers'. This is perhaps aimed towards Murph, a stupid fat bully who deliberately fails sixth grade every year so he can stay in elementary school and not have to go to high school.

Another interesting connection between Tolkan and slackers comes from the 1979 film 'The Amityville Horror' where he plays the coroner, and along with the police is at the infamous Dutch Colonial House after the DeFeo murders have taken place, the bodies of the mother, father, two sons and two daughters taken out in body bags after eldest son Ronald DeFeo Junior shot them to death with a high-powered rifle in the early hours of the morning. In real life, there was a lot of tension between Ronald DeFeo Junior and his father Ronald Senior leading up to the killings, much of which centered around Ronald Junior not pulling his weight around the house or at work (a job his father had got him), dropping out of school without any qualifications and spending much of his time drinking and doing drugs - a classic example of a slacker. I wonder if the coroner in the film used the word 'slacker' to describe the perpetrator of the murders in his report?
 
emuboy said:
American actor James Tolkan turns 90 this year, and his best known role is in the 'Back to the Future' movies, where he played Principal Strickland, who in both 1955 and 1985 would frequently call young male students who incurred his wrath 'slackers'. Those identified as slackers by Mr. Strickland include Marty McFly, Dave McFly, George McFly, Biff Tannen and some hoodlums in the skewed 1985 timeline.

In the 1991 film Problem Child 2, the 'slackers' catch phrase was referenced when Tolkan plays a strict teacher who starts the school year by having his sixth grade class with write out a long list of rules, one of which is 'No Slackers'. This is perhaps aimed towards Murph, a stupid fat bully who deliberately fails sixth grade every year so he can stay in elementary school and not have to go to high school.

Another interesting connection between Tolkan and slackers comes from the 1979 film 'The Amityville Horror' where he plays the coroner, and along with the police is at the infamous Dutch Colonial House after the DeFeo murders have taken place, the bodies of the mother, father, two sons and two daughters taken out in body bags after eldest son Ronald DeFeo Junior shot them to death with a high-powered rifle in the early hours of the morning. In real life, there was a lot of tension between Ronald DeFeo Junior and his father Ronald Senior leading up to the killings, much of which centered around Ronald Junior not pulling his weight around the house or at work (a job his father had got him), dropping out of school without any qualifications and spending much of his time drinking and doing drugs - a classic example of a slacker. I wonder if the coroner in the film used the word 'slacker' to describe the perpetrator of the murders in his report?
Click to expand...

Did he call Maverick a slacker in Top Gun? He most certainly would have thought it.
 
In the mid-1960s, the Daleks from Doctor Who were so popular that two Dalek cinema films were made with Peter Cushing in the main role, the first one set on the Daleks' home planet, the second involving the Daleks taking over the Earth.

While the films are pretty dated now, they were popular at the time, especially as they were in color, while the Doctor Who TV Series was shot in black and white until 1970. In the second film the Daleks Invasion of Earth, the standard Daleks are blue and silver in color, and there are three senior Daleks; a red Dalek in control of the military operations, a black Dalek in charge of the mining and scientific operations and a gold Dalek which is in overall charge.

At the end of the film when the Daleks are defeated, we see the destruction of the Black Dalek and the Red Dalek, plus plenty of standard Blue Daleks, but the fate of the Gold Dalek is never shown on screen. Possibly it was on board the spaceship when it blew up or sucked down into the mine like its Black and Red counterparts, but this is never shown. Maybe its death scene was cut before the film was released, but it still seems pretty unusual not to show the end of a movie's main villain.
 
emuboy said:
In the mid-1960s, the Daleks from Doctor Who were so popular that two Dalek cinema films were made with Peter Cushing in the main role, the first one set on the Daleks' home planet, the second involving the Daleks taking over the Earth.

While the films are pretty dated now, they were popular at the time, especially as they were in color, while the Doctor Who TV Series was shot in black and white until 1970. In the second film the Daleks Invasion of Earth, the standard Daleks are blue and silver in color, and there are three senior Daleks; a red Dalek in control of the military operations, a black Dalek in charge of the mining and scientific operations and a gold Dalek which is in overall charge.

At the end of the film when the Daleks are defeated, we see the destruction of the Black Dalek and the Red Dalek, plus plenty of standard Blue Daleks, but the fate of the Gold Dalek is never shown on screen. Possibly it was on board the spaceship when it blew up or sucked down into the mine like its Black and Red counterparts, but this is never shown. Maybe its death scene was cut before the film was released, but it still seems pretty unusual not to show the end of a movie's main villain.
Click to expand...

Even then they were probably leaving things open for a possible sequel?
 
STFU Donnie said:
Even then they were probably leaving things open for a possible sequel?
Click to expand...

That is possible, but the Gold Dalek seemed to be completely forgotten in the final climax of the film, which is kind of strange.

Sometimes movies do seem to lose track of characters along the way. The Notebook is one example, where Fin's girlfriend Sarah, a friend of both Allie and Noah, faded out of the film. Given how desperate Noah was to contact Allie, surely a mutual friend might be a good way of doing so? There's also Billy Elliot, where Billy's friend Debbie on who he seems to have a bit of a crush vanishes without trace midway through the film. Debbie is the daughter of Billy's dance teacher, but neither Billy nor her mother mention her again, nor do any other characters. Another well-known example is in Superman II, where Miss Tessmaker helps her boyfriend Lex Luthor escape from prison, and accompanies him to Superman's fortress of solitude. However, later in the film when Luthor meets General Zod, Ursa and Non, he is alone, there is no sign of Miss Tessmaker and no explanation as to what happened to her.
 

(Log in to remove this ad.)

Yesterday (18-Apr-2021) marked an infamous anniversary in the history of film - it was 20 years to the day that 'Freddy Got Fingered' was released to the world. The Tom Green shock comedy horrified and outraged many, but two decades later is something of a cult movie. One reviewer described the movie as the second worst thing to happen in 2001.
 
emuboy said:
Yesterday (18-Apr-2021) marked an infamous anniversary in the history of film - it was 20 years to the day that 'Freddy Got Fingered' was released to the world. The Tom Green shock comedy horrified and outraged many, but two decades later is something of a cult movie. One reviewer described the movie as the second worst thing to happen in 2001.
Click to expand...

The Red Letter guys featured it in their re:View series.

 
From memory when the Golden Girls was on Estelle Getty who was the 80 year old mother Sophia to Bea Arthur's 55 year old Dorothy character was actually 1 or 2 years younger than Bea Arthur in real life.
 
If in the 1980s young Australian actor Paul Smith had spent sleepless nights lying awake worrying about his mother's health and safety, this would have been understandable. Three times as a teenager, Smith played a character whose mother had died.

In 'The Fire In The Stone', an movie adaptation of Colin Thiele's novel, Smith's character lived an unhappy life in a country town in South Australia, his father having completely given up caring about anything since the death of his wife a year earlier. The TV series 'The Henderson Kids' began in 1985 with brother Steve (Paul Smith) and sister Tamara Henderson (Nadine Garner) losing their mother in a tragic road accident on a busy Melbourne street. In 1987 Smith commenced in the Sydney-based sitcom 'Hey Dad', playing the original Simon Kelly, although he was replaced in the role by Christopher Mayer after 2 years. The main premise of Hey Dad was a widowed architect Martin Kelly raising his three kids Simon, Debbie and Jenny, although the late mother/wife was seldom spoken about. It was never said how she died, she didn't appear in any flashbacks nor was her image ever seen in any photographs, and IIRC the father never even referenced his deceased wife's name.
 
emuboy said:
If in the 1980s young Australian actor Paul Smith had spent sleepless nights lying awake worrying about his mother's health and safety, this would have been understandable. Three times as a teenager, Smith played a character whose mother had died.

In 'The Fire In The Stone', an movie adaptation of Colin Thiele's novel, Smith's character lived an unhappy life in a country town in South Australia, his father having completely given up caring about anything since the death of his wife a year earlier. The TV series 'The Henderson Kids' began in 1985 with brother Steve (Paul Smith) and sister Tamara Henderson (Nadine Garner) losing their mother in a tragic road accident on a busy Melbourne street. In 1987 Smith commenced in the Sydney-based sitcom 'Hey Dad', playing the original Simon Kelly, although he was replaced in the role by Christopher Mayer after 2 years. The main premise of Hey Dad was a widowed architect Martin Kelly raising his three kids Simon, Debbie and Jenny, although the late mother/wife was seldom spoken about. It was never said how she died, she didn't appear in any flashbacks nor was her image ever seen in any photographs, and IIRC the father never even referenced his deceased wife's name.
Click to expand...

Where do you come up with these Emu?
 
Did you know that both R2-D2 and C-3PO appear in Raiders of the Lost Ark? In fact they both appear twice.

r2d2-3cpo-indiana-jones.jpg
They appear as heiroglyphs on the pole just to the left of Indy, just below the snake.


star-wars-droids-indiana-jones.jpg
And here they are again, this time with Princess Leia, in a nod to the scene where she is uploading the Death Star plans into R2.
 
In the 1987 film 'Dirty Dancing' Baby's older sister Lisa isn't the brightest bulb in the box, and decides to enter the talent contest, clueless to the fact that she is tone deaf.

The song Lisa sings in the talent show (and the term 'sings' can only be applied very loosely) is called 'Hula Hana' and I initially I thought it was a forgotten one hit wonder from the early 1960s, when the movie is set. In fact Jane Brucker, the actress who played Lisa and unlike her fictional counterpart does have musical talent, wrote the song herself for the movie.
 
On the Rotten Tomatoes film review website, it is pretty rare for films to hold a 0 percent critical rating. Even infamously bad films like Battlefield Earth, From Justin to Kelly, Batman & Robin, Freddy Got Fingered, Gigli, Jack & Jill, Kirk Cameron Saves Christmas, Holmes & Watson and Dirty Grandpa don't hold a 0 percent RT critical rating.

For the films that have achieved the dubious honor, most are bad sequels, films that went straight to DVD and obscure B movies long forgotten. However, one stands out and this is 'Problem Child' from 1990. This black comedy was controversial at the time and critically panned, but a box office success with a sequel the next year which was also controversial but did well at the box office, and a sequel Problem Child 2 (successful) released in 1991, with a third film Problem Child 3 (mostly new cast, TV movie) in 1995.

Problem Child is a well known film with an experienced cast (John Ritter, Amy Yasbeck, Jack Warden, Gilbert Gottifred and Michael Richards), produced by a major studio and commercially successful, so it seems an odd one to end up with a 0% Rotten Tomatoes score, especially when neither Problem Child 2 (also controversial but made money) and Problem Child 3 (not commercially successful) don't have a 0% rating.
 
Like a lot of, if not most people I always thought Flying High (aka Airplane) was a parody of the earlier Airport series of movies. I only just (minutes ago) discovered that it was actually an almost shot-for-shot remake of an earlier film Zero Hour!.

Here's a fantastic video on the subject:

 
In the 2015 biopic film 'Legend' Tom Hardy played twin brothers Ronnie and Reggie Kray, infamous gangsters who controlled organized crime in London's East End from the late 1950s to mid 1960s. In real life the Kray twins had an older brother Charlie, who was also part of their 'firm', and who received a lengthy prison term along with the twins in the late 1960s. Like his more famous younger brothers, Charlie Kray is long dead.

However, in Legend Charlie Kray does not appear once not even for a brief cameo and no references are made to him, either past or present. In this movie, it is like Charlie never existed at all.
 
emuboy said:
In the 2015 biopic film 'Legend' Tom Hardy played twin brothers Ronnie and Reggie Kray, infamous gangsters who controlled organized crime in London's East End from the late 1950s to mid 1960s. In real life the Kray twins had an older brother Charlie, who was also part of their 'firm', and who received a lengthy prison term along with the twins in the late 1960s. Like his more famous younger brothers, Charlie Kray is long dead.

However, in Legend Charlie Kray does not appear once not even for a brief cameo and no references are made to him, either past or present. In this movie, it is like Charlie never existed at all.
Click to expand...


Actor Jamie Foreman, who has himself starred in many gangster flicks is the son of 'Brown Bread' Freddie Foreman, who was a member of the Krays' firm. He (Freddie) in fact did a ten stretch for disposing of the body of Jack 'The Hat' McVitie.

images.jpeg

EDIT: Freddie also did not feature as a character in the film. The producers missed a trick; they could have cast Jamie to play his old man.
 
Last edited:
John Hurt was not originally intended to appear in Alien. The original choice for the role was Jon Finch, who played the wrongly-convicted man in Frenzy. After two days on set Finch was required to go to intensive care - suffering severe chest pains.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Similar threads

Caesar
Movie Films You’d Like to See Made
Replies
22
Views
917
crafty_bernardo
crafty_bernardo
Exe Gesis
Movie Film Analysis - General Discussion
Replies
13
Views
636
rank and file
rank and file
Elmer_Judd
Movie Most memorable/thrilling film you have seen at the Cinema (on initial release)
Replies
23
Views
850
phantom13
phantom13

Remove this Banner Ad

Back
Top