I am publishing a short story as I write it – The Jesus Monster exlusively on twitter over the next few days. Tune in and read it here: https://twitter.com/LazloFerran. It won’t be published anywhere else for at least 6 months.
Category: 633 SQUADRON
Cliff Robertson, Star of Charly, Has Died
Cliff Robertson has died. I don’t know how at the moment. His website is down but I am going to send our little group’s condolences to him via his Press Agent – when I can find his address. It will probably be swamped in the welter of messages from other people but it’s the best I can do.
I only had the briefest of correspondences with him but I was struck by how open, warm and friendly he was. He asked me to go to his house to conduct an interview ‘Mano a Mano’ but it wasn’t the right time for me. I did feel also that he was possibly not well by some of the things he said. It’s sad I won’t now have the chance to talk to him but at least we have some answers to questions about 633 Squadron.
Cliff, if you are watching or listening, you will be missed.
Cliff Robertson R.I.P.
Steve Thompson has given me this address if anybody wants to leave a message about Cliff.
https://cinemanewswire.blogspot.com/2011/09/charles-thompson-phil-lansdale-cliff.html
If you haven’t already read it, you can find Cliff Robertson’s answers to a questionnaire I I sent him on the film 633 Squadron a year before he died here.
Best Film Car Chase Vote
Here is my vote for the best Vehicle Chase (as usual in reverse pts order – 10 pts for best)
10 Bullitt
9 The Italian Job
8 Mad Max II the truck at the end
7 Boat Chase in Live and Let Die
6 Gone is 60 Seconds remake
5 Gone is 60 Seconds original
4 The French Connection
3 Diamonds are Forever
2 Vanishing Point
1 Duel
The following candidates (not in any order) Continue reading “Best Film Car Chase Vote”
Best drunk in a film – Time to Vote!
Okay time for a final vote now we have had plenty of time to deliberate. I have a few additions though so if anybody else has, please add them now:
Original list:
1. Walter Matthau in Earthquake (this is also definitely my funniest)
2. Lee Marvin in Paint Your Wagons
3. Lee Marvin in Cat Ballou (I’m still going to check out Paul Newman in The Sting though)
4. Paul Newman in The Hudsucker Proxy
5. Shelley Winters in Alfie
6. Martin Sheen in Apocalypse Now (thanks for suggestion El’Phantasmo)
7. I forgot Nick Cage in Leaving Las Vegas
8. Embarrassing one this but Oliver Reed in Oliver! Okay, okay I know the film is a bit of old hokey’ but he really is very menacing – and he was Carol Reed’s nephew.
9. Okay – the butler in Dinner for One, although I am not sure I have seen this. I will look on youtube
10. Cary Grant in North by North West. Actually this is pretty good too.
11. I am actually adding in George Peppard in the Blue Max because the book from which the film was made was actually about alcoholism and I think on reflection Peppard is trying to convey something of this.
12. Peter O’Toole in Murphy’s War
13. Lee Marvin in Shout at the Devil
14. Robert Mitchum in El Dorado
That’s all from me. If you have none to add you can vote straight away. 10 pts for your favourite down to 1 point for your tenth favourite (we do PR here)
Also been trying to think of my ‘6 films you have got to see’ but its actually extraordinarily difficult. Mainly because I am trying to think of not my personal 6 favourites but 6 which I think everyone should see. So far I have only thought of 2.
Finally don’t miss the UK film 1066 which is currently in production. It’s the first UK film ever to be selling shares to the public and it has the biggest cast ever for a UK film. It has Lewis Collins as Earl Godwin too, which should be fun. Perhaps at last he will get some recognition. It also has Mark Lester (remember Oliver!) as King Harold.
Stop Press: there is a competition to win a day on the set of the film 1066: go to http://www.lewiscollins.info and click on ‘Competition’.
Questions I asked Cliff Robertson about 633 Squadron in 2010
If you’ve watched the popular war movie, you’ve probably asked one of two questions:
Did Cliff Robertson die in 633 Squadron?
Did Roy Grant die in 633 Squadron?
Well, I asked Cliff Robertson while he was alive, and the answer is in this post!
This post has been copied from the original post on my old blog (now deleted – see Reference Note at end of page). It would be a shame to lose it. Cliff, who played Roy Grant in 633 Squadron, was nice enough to reply by letter to a questionnaire I sent him about 633 Squadron. Below is my original letter. (Please note, Cliff did not answer all questions and here I have left the response blank.)
Note: Cliff Robertson died in 2011, but I have left the post in its original form.
Click ‘Continue reading’ below if you want to skip this section to his answers.
Dear Mr Robertson,
633 Squadron is the film in which I first saw you and made me a fan of yours. Ever since then I have sought out any film with you in it and recently, at last, I managed to see Charly (which I have never seen scheduled in England on TV).
633 Squadron has always been a very popular movie in England: filmed at Bovingdon airfield, it was regularly shown on TV during my childhood and is my favourite film. Today I think the film has entered the national psyche and is even the subject of contemporary adverts. The theme music is one of the best-loved pieces of music here and for myself, I never tire of watching your performance as the laconic Roy Grant. I think, more than any other film (certainly on flying or war), it has come to represent the best, something fundamental, about the British character. Many fans would love to know more about the film and about your part: you only have to look at the posts on youtube alongside excerpts (illegal I am sure) of the movie to see how popular it is, and yet you have been almost silent on it. Please Cliff, would you be so kind as to try and find time to answer the following questions for your fans in England (I cannot speak for Wales, Ireland and Scotland but I am sure they feel the same).
A movie and aviation buff. Continue reading “Questions I asked Cliff Robertson about 633 Squadron in 2010”
Questionnaire for Cliff Robertson – final
As you may have seen from the comments on my original post, it looks like there is a more direct route to asking Cliff these questions that emailing the webmaster on his site. Steve Thompson contacted me and said he would pass the questions on to Cliff. So after some consultation among us, here are our final questions and the intro that I will send in a pdf letter to Cliff. Continue reading “Questionnaire for Cliff Robertson – final”
Questionnaire for Cliff Robertson
Having watched a long interview with Cliff Robertson – one of my favourite actors, on youtube, I find I still have a lot of questions which it would be nice to hear him answer. He has a huge interest in aircraft and blogs regularly on the subject so I have decided to email him a list of questions. Of course there is only the very slimmest chance he will ever get them as I have to email the webmaster of the site but I think it’s worth a try. If anybody wants to add a question of change one slightly let me know before next Wednesday (20 October). This is what I intend to send in an email. Continue reading “Questionnaire for Cliff Robertson”
How About Winged Serpents?
I am going to take my time to respond to Gary’s recent comment that the serpent in the Garden of Eden is depicted with wings in some cases.
Although I have never seen images like this (to my knowledge) of a serpent with wings in the Garden of Eden, it does not suprise me to see one now. We have often had little tussles Gary over the way I see themes at the core of Ordo Lupus and the Temple Gate, and the way you see them. I have referred sometimes to werewolves and warg.
The reason I can do this (and still think myself sane) is because, for me the modern concept of werewolves and vampires etc, is probably a romanticised and glamorized version of what was once, by some, seen as more real than mere myth. I see the roots of these myths and legends being far more interesting, buried as they are deep within esoteric knowledge that is hidden from most of the world. That is why the wolves in my book are not just wolves but communicate on some level with people. The main character in the book is a wolf-being in a human body (ie with the Earthly clothes of a human).
Similarly the Serpent was once a human. Continue reading “How About Winged Serpents?”
Occult, Sci-fi & Military 