FILM 1927: BAD TIMES AT THE EL ROYALE

FILM 1927: BAD TIMES AT THE EL ROYALE

TRIVIA: The El Royale is based on the famous Cal Neva Resort and Casino that was once owned by Frank Sinatra.

Chris Hemsworth had to lose 25-30 lbs of muscle weight immediately after Avengers: Infinity War (2018) wrapped to star in this film.

FILM 1824: SINGIN' IN THE RAIN

FILM 1824: SINGIN' IN THE RAIN

TRIVIA: Gene Kelly was a taskmaster with Debbie Reynolds, who had never danced to this degree before rehearsals started. Fred Astaire, who was in an adjacent dance studio, found her crying under a piano and reassured her that all of her hard work was worth the effort.

For the "Make 'em Laugh" number, Gene Kelly asked Donald O'Connor to revive a trick he had done as a young dancer: running up a wall and completing a somersault. The number was so physically taxing that O'Connor, who smoked four packs of cigarettes a day at the time, ended up in a hospital bed for a week after its completion. He suffered from exhaustion and painful carpet burns. Unfortunately, an accident ruined all of the initial footage, so after a brief rest O'Connor--ever the professional--agreed to do the difficult number all over again.

Only 19 when cast to play the film, Debbie Reynolds lived with her parents and commuted to the set. She had to wake up at 4:00 a.m. and ride three different buses to the studio; sometimes, to avoid the commute, she would just sleep on the set.

A microphone was hidden in Debbie Reynolds' blouse so her lines could be heard more clearly. During one of the dance numbers, her heartbeat can be heard, mirroring what happens to Lina Lamont in the movie itself.

In the looping sequence, Kathy Selden (Debbie Reynolds) is seen dubbing the dialogue for Lina Lamont (Jean Hagen) because Lina's voice is shrill and screechy. However, it's not Reynolds who is speaking, it's Jean Hagen herself, who actually had a beautiful deep, rich voice. So you have Jean Hagen dubbing Debbie Reynolds dubbing Jean Hagen. And when Debbie is supposedly dubbing Jean's singing of "Would You?" the voice you hear singing actually belongs to Betty Noyes, who had a much richer singing voice than Debbie.

The "Singing in the Rain" number took all day to set up--and Gene Kelly was very ill (some say with a fever over 101). When it was all set up, Kelly insisted on doing a take--even though the blocking was only rudimentary (starting and ending positions only), and co-director Stanley Donen was ready to send him home. He ad-libbed most of it and it only took one take, which is what you see on film.

At the 1972 Academy Awards, Gene Kelly deliberately ignored Malcolm McDowell because he was so offended by the graphic rape scene in A Clockwork Orange (1971) being performed to Kelly's original vocal of "Singin' in the Rain."

The screenwriters bought a house in Hollywood from a former silent film star who lost his wealth when the innovation of sound film killed his career. This was part of the inspiration for the film.

In 2007, the American Film Institute ranked this as the #5 Greatest Movie of All Time.

According to supplemental information on the DVD, the first time they tried to film the "Singin' In The Rain" sequence they shot it in the late afternoon. Unfortunately the homeowners in the area had just come home from work and had turned on their lawn sprinklers so there was not enough water pressure for the "rain" to work. They finally filmed the sequence the next day, early enough so that everyone was at work and the water pressure was adequate for the shot.

Milk was added to the water for the title number to make the rain appear more visible.

Gene Kelly choreographed his dance scenes with Cyd Charisse to hide the fact that she was taller than he was. To keep the height difference from being obvious, Kelly staged the routine so that the two were rarely upright when standing next to each other, always bending toward or away from one another instead.

The soundstage used for the signature "Singin' In The Rain" scene is used for the street scenes for the quintessential 80's & 90's hit TV series sit-com Seinfeld (1989).

Included among the "1001 Movies You Must See Before You Die", edited by Steven Schneider.

FILM 1674: MARGUERITE

TRIVIA: Shot entirely in the Czech Republic.

The name of the title character is a gallicised form of Margaret Dumont, the dignified lady with the figure of an old-time opera singer who was the foil for the Marx Brothers' gags.

FILM 1649: THE BLUES BROTHERS

TRIVIA: A world-record--at that time--103 cars were wrecked during filming. This feat was exceeded two years later, when 150 cars (and a plane) were crashed for H.B. Halicki's The Junkman (1982). That record in turn held for two decades, until over 300 cars were wrecked during the filming of The Matrix Reloaded (2003).

During filming one of the night scenes, John Belushi disappeared and could not be located. Dan Aykroyd looked around and saw a single house with its lights on. He went to the house and was prepared to identify himself, the movie and that they were looking for Belushi. Before he could, the homeowner looked at him, smiled and said, "You're here for John Belushi, aren't you?" The homeowner then told them Belushi had entered their house, asked if he could have a glass of milk and a sandwich and then crashed on their couch. Situations like this prompted Aykroyd to affectionately dub Belushi "America's Guest."

John Belushi was nicknamed "The Black Hole" on the set, as he went through hundreds of pairs of sunglasses during production. He would do a scene and then lose the pair before filming the next one.

Carrie Fisher became engaged to co-star Dan Aykroyd during this shoot shortly after he saved her from choking by applying the Heimlich maneuver.

Some of the performers were not used to lip-syncing to their pre-recorded songs, the standard procedure for movie musicals. James Brown ended up singing his number live with a recorded backing (the rest of his choir was lip-syncing). John Lee Hooker's performance of "Boom Boom" was recorded live at Chicago's Maxwell Street Market. Aretha Franklin's performance is cut together from many, many takes, using the parts where her lip-syncing was actually in sync.

When recording the soundtrack for the movie, Cab Calloway was needed to record his hit "Minnie the Moocher" in better quality than his original album. When he came into the studios he was prepared to do his new disco version that was just released. Of course, the filmmakers wanted nothing to do with this and asked for the original version, which Calloway reluctantly gave them.

The young woman in the choir at The Triple Rock Church is R & B singer Chaka Khan.

At the Bob's Country Bunker gig, Jake introduces "Stand By Your Man" by saying it's a favorite of the horn section. The horn section doesn't play in the song.

DIRECTOR CAMEO: John Landis: the state trooper driving the second car, the one that shows up after the first car calls for backup, that chases the Bluesmobile through the shopping mall.

DIRECTOR TRADEMARK: John Landis: [filmmakers] Appearances by directors Frank Oz and Steven Spielberg.

DIRECTOR TRADEMARK: John Landis: [SYNW] a billboard advertising the fictional horror movie "See You Next Wednesday" is seen during the Good Ole Boys chase.

FILM 1607: ELF

TRIVIA: Will Ferrell caused several minor traffic accidents when walking through the Lincoln Tunnel in his costume because people were so surprised to see him wearing an elf outfit.

Will Ferrell turned down $29 million to be in Elf 2 in late 2013.

The cotton balls Buddy eats while in the Doctors office were actually Cotton Candy that had not been dyed.

On the final day of shooting in New York, it was just the director, Will Ferrell, and a camera man driving around the city looking for locations to shoot. They would jump out and ask pedestrians if they would be willing to be extras for some quick cash while Ferrell paraded around acting like Buddy. Much of the montage when Buddy first arrives in New York was filmed then, such as when he is getting his shoes shined and jumping between traffic.

The design for Santa's Workshop as well as the Elf uniforms come from the original Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer (1964) animated special. The Elf uniforms completely mirror the ones from the TV special. Most of the animals in the North Pole are also designed to look like the same form of stop motion animation used in Rudolph.

The scene where the fake Santa is chasing Buddy had to be done in one take because it was too hard to rebuild everything.

Director Jon Favreau drew Buddy's crayon drawing of himself in the card he made for his dad.

The apartment that Buddy's dad lives in is the same apartment building (exterior shot) that Dana Barrett lived in in Ghostbusters.

Buddy's 12-second belch was supplied by voice actor Maurice LaMarche, best-known for his cartoon character, "The Brain", from Pinky and the Brain (1995), and who also did the operatic belching in Animaniacs (1993) as "The Great Wakarotti". LaMarche also worked with Will Ferrell on the animated series, The Oblongs (2001).

When this screenplay first emerged in 1993, Jim Carrey was attached to star in the lead.

The sound effect used by the jack-in-the-box is the same sound effect used by the laughing hyenas at the Magic Kingdom at Disney World in Orlando, Fl. And was also used in the 1955 Disney movie; "Lady and the Tramp" for the laughing hyenas in the zoo, as well as for Ripper Roo in the Crash Bandicoot video game series.

The brief TV news clip showing Buddy walking in Central Park (just before Buddy's dad and brother find him), and the still picture of Buddy in the news clip, closely mimic the famous 1967 film of an alleged Bigfoot ("Patty") taken by Roger Patterson and Robert Gimlin.

The film was turned into a Broadway Musical; it premiered November 2010 and ran through January 2011.

When she first meets Buddy, Jovie asks, "Did Crumpet put you up to this?" Crumpet was David Sedaris' character name when he worked as a Macy's elf, as recounted in his Christmas story anthology "The Santaland Diaries." David Sedaris's sister, Amy Sedaris appears in the film as James Caan's assistant, Deb. It may also be a reference to Mount Crumpit from the Dr. Seuss Christmas story "How the Grinch Stole Christmas."

FILM 1432: THE JUNGLE BOOK

TRIVIA: Walt Disney died during production of this film. Many people wondered at what the studio's fate would be, particularly the animation division. The film performed extremely well at the box office, ensuring that the animators would not be put out of work. Had the film failed, it is likely that animation would have been closed down at the Disney studio.

The 19th animated feature in Disney animated features canon, and the last to be personally supervised by Walt Disney, himself. The first Disney film to be released after his death in 1966, just prior to the film's theatrical release.

The Vultures were originally going to be voiced by The Beatles. The band's manager, Brian Epstein, approached the Disney studios about having The Beatles appear in the film, and Disney had his animators create the Vultures specifically to be voiced by the band. But when Epstein took the idea to the Beatles, John Lennon vetoed the idea, and told Epstein to tell Disney he should hire Elvis Presley instead. The look of The Vultures, with their mop-top haircuts and Liverpool voices, are a homage to The Beatles; one bird's voice and features are clearly based on George Harrison's. When the Beatles departed the project, the song was rewritten as a barbershop quartet, to make it timeless.

Bruce Reitherman - who provides the voice of Mowgli - is now a wildlife documentarian.

All of the 'scatting' in the film was improvised by Phil Harris and Louis Prima.

Winifred is the only female animal to have any dialogue throughout the entire film; although Raksha (the Mother Wolf) briefly appears at the beginning, she never actually speaks.

Just after Mowgli runs away and Bagheera is trying to convince Col. Hathi to look for him, Hathi's wife Winifred announces if they don't help find him, she will take command of the herd. Hathi is outraged at the thought of a female leading. The joke is that elephants herds are led by a matriarch (female), while adult males generally live alone. As the only apparent female in the herd, Winifred should be leading by default.

According to Elsie Kipling Baimbridge, Rudyard Kipling's daughter, "Mowgli" is pronounced "MAU-glee" (first syllable rhymes with cow), not "MOH-glee" (first syllable rhymes with go). She reportedly never forgave Walt Disney for the gaffe.

Kaa the snake is a completely different character in the film than he is in the original book. In the book, he is a friend and adviser of Mowgli, and the one who rescues him from the monkeys. In the film, he is a villain bent on eating Mowgli. Walt Disney felt that the audience would not accept the idea of a snake as anything but a villain. This is makes Kaa the first and only Character voiced by Sterling Holloway to be a Villain (not counting The Cheshire Cat in Alice in Wonderland (1951) who was an anti-hero).

Disappointed by the muted reception to The Sword in the Stone (1963), Walt Disney was determined to come back with a universally well-regarded film. He told his animation crew to "throw away" Rudyard Kipling's book "The Jungle Book" because the original concept storyboards were too dark and dramatic. During pre-production, Disney assigned animator Larry Clemmons to head story development on the project. He gave Clemmons a copy of "The Jungle Book" and told him, "The first thing I want you to do is not read it."

Many cultural scholars (including Anthony Edward Schiappa, Susan Miller, and Greg Rode) have singled out the King Louie character as a particularly offensive racial stereotype for appearing to be "African American", especially given the political and civil rights climates in America during the time this film was released. However, he spoke in Louis Prima's normal voice (and, like most of the characters, had a physical resemblance to his voice actor), Prima being a white man of Italian descent.

Rudyard Kipling's Hindi names for the animals are related to their species. Baloo: bear, Bagheera: panther, and Hathi: elephant. Shere Khan means Tiger King.

Shere Khan was modeled after George Sanders who provides his voice. According to the DVD commentary, most of the characters' appearances were based on their actors, but his is the most noticeable.

For the film's backgrounds, Disney Animators visited real jungles in India and studied wildlife there.

Ken Anderson storyboarded the final scene almost at the same time that Richard M. Sherman and Robert B. Sherman had finished "My Own Home". Everything that the Sherman brothers had envisioned while writing the song was up on the storyboards. They brought Anderson up to their office and played him the song and he immediately began to cry.

According to Richard M. Sherman on the audio commentary, George Sanders (the voice actor for Shere Khan) refused to sing for "That's What Friends Are For". Bill Lee did the singing for Shere Khan, replacing Sanders.

Came seventh in the UK's Ultimate Film, in which films were placed in order of how many seats they sold at cinemas

Voted number 19 in Channel 4's (UK) "Greatest Family Films"

This is the first Disney Animated Feature where the opening credits say who voiced which role.

King Louie calls Mowgli "cousin." This is technically accurate as both humans and apes are primates.

Wolfgang Reitherman:  [Re-using animation]  There are multiple moments in the film which feature animation recycled from 101 Dalmatians (1961), The Sword in the Stone (1963), The Adventures of Ichabod and Mr. Toad (1949), Song of the South (1946) and Goliath II (1960).