FILM 1931: IN THE HEAT OF THE NIGHT

FILM 1931: IN THE HEAT OF THE NIGHT

TRIVIA: Sidney Poitier insisted that the movie be filmed in the north because of an incident in which he and Harry Belafonte were almost killed by Ku Klux Klansman during a visit to Mississippi. Hence the selection of Sparta, Illinois for the location filming. Nevertheless, the filmmakers and actors did venture briefly into Tennessee for the outdoor scenes at the cotton plantation, because there was no similar cotton plantation in Illinois that could be used. Poitier slept with a gun under his pillow during production in Tennessee. Poitier did receive threats from local racist thugs, so the shoot was cut short and production returned to Illinois.

Rod Steiger was asked by Director Norman Jewison to chew gum when playing the part. He resisted at first, but then grew to love the idea, and eventually went through two hundred sixty-three packs of gum during the shooting of the film.

According to Sidney Poitier, Tibbs' retaliation slap to Endicott (Larry Gates) was not in the original script nor in the novel on which the film is based. Poitier insisted that Tibbs slap Endicott back and wanted a guarantee that the scene would appear in all prints of the film. According to Stirling Silliphant, the slap was in the original script, though not in the novel.

Set in a hot Mississippi summer, but filmed during autumn in Illinois, many of the actors had to keep ice chips in their mouths (and spit them out before takes) to prevent their breath from appearing on camera during the night scenes.

The movie's line "They call me Mister Tibbs!" was voted as the #16 movie quote by the American Film Institute.

Frequently cited as Sidney Poitier's favorite of all the films he's done.

In 2007, the American Film Institute ranked this as the #75 Greatest Movie of All Time. It was the first inclusion of this film on the list.

Virgil Tibbs was ranked Hero #19 in the Heroes category on the AFI's 100 Heroes and Villains list.

Virgil's salary of "$162.39 per week" would be roughly $1,200 in 2017.

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

FILM 1924: THE OTHER GUYS

FILM 1924: THE OTHER GUYS

TRIVIA: The idea of teaming up of Will Ferrell and Mark Wahlberg had been gestating since The 79th Annual Academy Awards (2007), where Will had been viciously insulting other actors as part of a bit, but became extremely polite to Mark.

DIRECTOR CAMEO: Adam McKay: Dirty Mike.

FILM 1888: BLUE STEEL

FILM 1888: BLUE STEEL

TRIVIA: Tom Sizemore's film debut.

In Germany, it was distributed as "a film from Oliver Stone", even though Stone was only one of the movie's producers.

Despite the lack of financial success, the performances of Jamie Lee Curtis and Ron Silver received acclaim.

FILM 1884: THE HUNTING GROUND

FILM 1884: THE HUNTING GROUND

An exposé of rape crimes on U.S. college campuses, their institutional cover-ups, and the devastating toll they take on students and their families.

PODCAST: THE TEACHER’S PET

PODCAST: THE TEACHER’S PET

Chris and Lyn appear to have the perfect marriage. But when Lyn goes missing, dark secrets are buried. This is no fairytale, but a sordid story of strangely close twin brothers, teenage student lovers, and probable murder. 

MY VERDICT: This story is amazing for so many reasons, but mostly for the fact that someone could go missing for so long without anyone seemingly doing anything at all. It amazed me that the police took everything Chris Dawson said at face value and didn’t check even the easiest of evidence, like phone records to prove his story. One failure and story of incompetence or indifference after another will find you in equal parts frustrated and shocked by this story.

If I have any criticism it’s maybe that it’s an episode or two too long, and repeats information a little too often but the story is fascinating and ongoing, so I’m hoping for more updates in the future.

https://www.theaustralian.com.au/the-teachers-pet

(There is a lot of information on the official website…)

FILM 1843: SAFE HAVEN

FILM 1843: SAFE HAVEN

TRIVIA: This is the first Nicholas Sparks film adaptation to have an actual antagonist.

This is the 8th film adapted from a Nicholas Sparks novel and the second one to be directed by Lasse Halström, the first one being Dear John (2010).

Keira Knightley was offered the role of Katie. Knightley chose to star in Begin Again(2013) instead.

Covered on episode 105 of the podcast How Did This Get Made.

PODCAST: IN THE DARK: SEASON TWO

PODCAST: IN THE DARK: SEASON TWO

Curtis Flowers has been tried six times for the same crime. For 21 years, Flowers has maintained his innocence. He's won appeal after appeal, but every time, the prosecutor just tries the case again. What does the evidence reveal? And how can the justice system ignore the prosecutor's record and keep Flowers on death row?

MY VERDICT: I loved listening to this podcast but it made me angry. It made me angry because it just didn’t seem fair. This seemed to be your usual case of someone convicted on not enough evidence but it goes much deeper than this. It doesn’t seem like it should be allowed that when someone wins an appeal against their conviction they should have to stay in prison if the DA says he’ll just try again. Why does the DA not face some kind of punishment when he was found to be in the wrong – why do only the defendants suffer? 

This podcast team does some deep, deep investigating. Finding documents long thought lost and collating information on cases going back decades to crate stats that don’t get recorded or checked, but should. 

I would recommend this podcast but prepare to feel dismayed in large doses.

Their website is also very well put together: https://www.apmreports.org/in-the-dark/season-two

And if you haven’t listened to the first season, I would highly recommend that too, it’s not the same story so you don’t need to listen in a particular order. 

FILM 1800: ZODIAC

FILM 1800: ZODIAC

TRIVIA: The Zodiac case was re-opened after the release of the film.

The only real comment that Robert Graysmith said about the finished screenplay was, "God, now I see why my wife divorced me."

The shooting script was two hundred pages long. To prevent any problems with length, that such a long script might cause, Director David Fincher decided to ask his cast members to speak faster.

The producers hired a private investigator to track down the real-life Zodiac survivor, Mike Mageau.

Hair was digitally added to the close-ups of Jake Gyllenhaal's knuckles as he draws or holds letters. David Fincher felt that Gyllenhaal's hands "were too hairless and pretty".

When Mark Ruffalo met David Toschi, the investigator he plays in the film, he was very impressed to learn that Toschi had perfect recall of every detail of every case.

Robert Graysmith and Paul Avery were not actually friends. Their relationship is fictionalized for the film.

David Fincher was always first choice to direct, based on his work on Se7en (1995).

Jake Gyllenhaal shares one of the film's creepiest scenes with Charles Fleischer. In real-life, the two have known each other since Gyllenhaal was three years old.

Anthony Edwards was cast as Armstrong because David Fincher wanted him to be played by a thoroughly decent person. Fincher already knew him, not so much from his work on ER (1994), but because he was a neighbor.

Because he wanted the film to be as accurate as possible, David Fincher decided not to depict any of the alleged Zodiac murders for which there were no surviving victims or witnesses.

In order to save time, David Fincher decided to digitally add all the blood in the murder scenes.

Robert Downey Jr. was so unaccustomed to the experience of both David Fincher's multiple takes, and the process of filming digitally, that he rebelled against David for "having no time to get my shit together in my trailer" by hiding mason jars full of his urine on set.

(At around thirty-three minutes) Dave Toschi, in real-life, was the inspiration for Steve McQueen's performance in Bullitt (1968). In the film, Graysmith mentions that Toschi wears his gun like Bullitt. Avery replies that Bullitt got it from Toschi.

Dermot Mulroney had to wear a fat suit for his few short scenes, because David Fincherfelt he was in far too good shape for his character.

David Fincher's template for the film was Alan J. Pakula's All the President's Men (1976).

South Korean film Director Joon-ho Bong has classified David Fincher's film as a "masterpiece," writing that "There was really nothing to find fault with about it, down to the cinematography, art direction, and action."

Daniel Craig was first choice for Paul Avery.

(At around fourteen minutes) The bar Paul Avery frequents in the film, is called Morti's. Mortis is Latin for death.

Two of the lead actors, Mark Ruffalo and Robert Downey, Jr., would go on to co-star in the Marvel Cinematic Universe as The Hulk and Iron Man respectively.

The historical Paul Avery did not withdraw from working at the San Francisco Chronicle to a life of reclusive obscurity, as the film suggests. In 1974-75 he did reportage on the kidnapping of Patricia Hearst which he turned into a high-profile published book, "The Voices of Guns" (1976); he was also married with two daughters, a fact the film does not mention.

THE ALIENIST (2018)

THE ALIENIST (2018)

TRIVIA: Based on the novel "The Alienist" by Caleb Carr.

An alienist is a term for a psychiatrist who assesses the competence of a defendant in a law court.

The show takes place in 1896 New York City.

The full name of Luke Evans' character is John Schuyler Moore. Schuyler is an old New York Dutch family whose roots can be traced back to well before the founding of the nation and has close ties to the Roosevelt clan. A well-known descendant was Elizabeth Schuyler, wife of Alexander Hamilton.

Blackwell's Island was later named Welfare Island, and subsequently renamed Roosevelt Island. Due to the number of hospitals and asylums, the area was designated as a Hospital Park. By the mid-twentieth century, it became a mixed-use zone, through the introduction of residential developments, and by the twentieth-first century, a satellite campus of Cornell University and Franklin Roosevelt's Four Freedom Park was established at the Southern end of the Island.

The main titles for the series where created by the design studio "Elastic". The same studio responsible for the intro of True detective and Game of Thrones.

FILM 1785: SECRET IN THEIR EYES

FILM 1785: SECRET IN THEIR EYES

TRIVIA: Like in the original The Secret in Their Eyes (2009), the role played by Julia Roberts was initially earmarked for a male actor, but director and screenwriter Billy Ray rewrote it specifically for the actress.

The film's cinematographer Daniel Moder is the husband of Julia Roberts. This marks their third collaboration.

This is the first collaboration between the two actresses Julia Roberts and Nicole Kidman. Both actresses have been working since the 1980's, both won their Academy Award in the early 00's, and both have been among the highest paid actresses in the movie industry. According to the director 'Billy Ray' there was a healthy working relationship between the two; "There was enormous respect, great camaraderie, and, in my opinion - I don't know if either of them would ever admit to it - there was a very healthy, kind of athletic level of competitiveness. They both had such regard for each other and they both wanted to do their best because the other was in the movie."

BOOK 187: I'LL BE GONE IN THE DARK

BOOK 187: I'LL BE GONE IN THE DARK: ONE WOMAN'S OBSESSIVE SEARCH FOR THE GOLDEN STATE KILLER: MICHELLE MCNAMARA

A masterful true crime account of the Golden State Killer—the elusive serial rapist turned murderer who terrorized California for over a decade—from Michelle McNamara, the gifted journalist who died tragically while investigating the case.

"You’ll be silent forever, and I’ll be gone in the dark."

For more than ten years, a mysterious and violent predator committed fifty sexual assaults in Northern California before moving south, where he perpetrated ten sadistic murders. Then he disappeared, eluding capture by multiple police forces and some of the best detectives in the area.

Three decades later, Michelle McNamara, a true crime journalist who created the popular website TrueCrimeDiary.com, was determined to find the violent psychopath she called "the Golden State Killer." Michelle pored over police reports, interviewed victims, and embedded herself in the online communities that were as obsessed with the case as she was.

At the time of the crimes, the Golden State Killer was between the ages of eighteen and thirty, Caucasian, and athletic—capable of vaulting tall fences. He always wore a mask. After choosing a victim—he favored suburban couples—he often entered their home when no one was there, studying family pictures, mastering the layout. He attacked while they slept, using a flashlight to awaken and blind them. Though they could not recognize him, his victims recalled his voice: a guttural whisper through clenched teeth, abrupt and threatening.

I’ll Be Gone in the Dark—the masterpiece McNamara was writing at the time of her sudden death—offers an atmospheric snapshot of a moment in American history and a chilling account of a criminal mastermind and the wreckage he left behind. It is also a portrait of a woman’s obsession and her unflagging pursuit of the truth. Framed by an introduction by Gillian Flynn and an afterword by her husband, Patton Oswalt, the book was completed by Michelle’s lead researcher and a close colleague. Utterly original and compelling, it is destined to become a true crime classic—and may at last unmask the Golden State Killer. 

(information from https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/35068432-i-ll-be-gone-in-the-dark)

MY VERDICT:

This is a tragic book, tragic in so many ways. Firstly it is tragic because of the awful accounts of rape and murder perpetrated by a true monster, but also tragic because of Michelle McNamara’s tragic death partway through it’s writing, and almost most tragic of all is that McNamara never got to see the Golden State Killer finally caught.

The book is superbly written, and amazingly researched, you feel like you’re travelling through time and witnessing the investigation. This book cements McNamara as a true crime legend. 

I did hear, before reading this book, some accounts of sleepless nights due to the content. As someone who has read a lot of true crime and watched a lot of horror, I skeptical, I thought maybe I was immune to this way of thinking. However, there were a few nights after spending hours reading the book that I heard a noise in the dark in the night time and wondered how easily someone could gain access to my home, did someone know that there were no men in the house and that I was an easy target? I quickly started mentally making weapons out of the everyday objects in my room and planning where to hide if that noise became louder or I heard footsteps. I think it’s a testament to McNamara’s writing that even the most hardcore true crime fanatics are irked when they feel like they are for a moment placed in a real victim’s shoes.

Michelle McNamara’s investigation techniques are like none I’ve ever been privy to before.  The amount of work that McNamara put in was phenomenal. I was in a privileged position of knowing who the Golden State Killer was eventually found out to be while reading this and, it turns out, she was along the right lines. Because so many avenues were explored, the rules of averages would predict that something would turn out to be right. They guessed he could have been a cop, and they proposed that he would be found using DNA ancestry, that’s the place where McNamara abruptly ended, the last thing she was looking at, and from reading the book, you knew it was only a matter of time before he was caught. 

I wonder if he read this book? Nothing he could have done could have avoided his capture at this point because they had his DNA. I hope somehow, somewhere, Michelle McNamara got to hear the cell door slam behind him.

BOOK 186: FAREWELL, MY LOVELY: RAYMOND CHANDLER

Farewell, My Lovely is a novel by Raymond Chandler, published in 1940, the second novel he wrote featuring the Los Angeles private eye Philip Marlowe. It was adapted for the screen three times and was also adapted for the stage and radio.

CULTURAL REFERENCES

In the first shot after the opening titles of Get Carter, the character played by Michael Caine is seen reading a paperback copy of the book.

In the opening episode of the television series Bored to Death, the character Jonathan Ames, played by Jason Schwartzman, is inspired to become a private detective after reading the book.

FILM 1777: NOTHING BUT TROUBLE

FILM 1777: NOTHING BUT TROUBLE

TRIVIA: Based on Dan Aykroyd's personal experiences. In 1978, he was pulled over for speeding in a rural town in the Northeastern United States. The police officer took him to the local Justice of the Peace in the middle of the night for a trial.

This film only made approximately 8.5 million dollars, but the budget was estimated at forty million dollars.

Roger Ebert famously hated the movie so much that he refused to write a review for it after giving it one of his most emphatic "thumbs down" reviews ever on Siskel & Ebert(1986). On the show, Ebert said that when he went to a weeknight showing of the film in 1991, the theatre was almost abandoned except for him, a few lone adults, and several teenagers who were making loud, rude comments at the screen; Ebert famously went over to the teens and asked them to be even louder so he didn't have to listen to the terrible movie anymore.

This is the only film directed by Dan Aykroyd.

The police badges, seen in the revolving frames on both sides of the Shire Reeve's bench, are actual badges from Dan Aykroyd's personal collection.

Tupac Shakur's film debut. He briefly appears as one of the members of the former hip-hop group Digital Underground. In the end credits, he is billed as "2 Pac Shakur".

What inspired this movie, was one day Dan Aykroyd imagined his friend John Candy in drag, and burst with laughter, for several weeks, every time he imagined that image, he would burst out with laughter, so Aykroyd decided to write a movie, where Candy would play a woman, he thought of a plot later.

PODCAST: UNTOLD: THE DANIEL MORGAN MURDER

PODCAST: UNTOLD: THE DANIEL MORGAN MURDER

SEASON ONE & TWO

The Untold Story

The phone hacking scandal that closed News of the World was big, but that was just the tip of the iceberg.  At the bottom of that iceberg of 'dark arts' - hacking, burglary, bugging, and bribing bent cops - is the body of Daniel Morgan. 

It’s been described by an Assistant Commissioner of the Metropolitan Police as “one of the most disgraceful episodes in the entire history of the Metropolitan Police Service.” 

Over the three decades since Daniel was killed, five failed police investigations and an ongoing panel inquiry, his has become the most investigated murder in British history.

The story moves from back streets of London, through the highest echelons of Scotland Yard, to the offices of Rupert Murdoch's best selling newspapers, to the doors of Number Ten Downing Street. 

If you haven't heard this story, ask yourself, why? 

MY VERDICT: I listened to both seasons straight after one another and I binged the whole thing pretty quickly. That was a problem, as the second season does go back over a lot of the information from the first. However this was my problem and not something that the makers of ‘Untold’ can be blamed for.

The podcast is very well made and the story is fascinating. There is so much more to this story than a straight forward whodunit, probably because all involved are pretty sure they know who was responsible for the murder of Daniel Morgan, instead we delve into a world of underhand tactics by not only private investigators but also the police and the media. 

I would thoroughly recommend this podcast and found it refreshing to hear a story based in England, it meant a little more to me to know the places and people involved than the predominately American podcasts I had listened to in the past, and it’s nice to hear an English voice for a change. Even if you’re not from England, I think the storytellers give a good enough description of things that even those unfamiliar with newspapers like The News of the World will still be able to follow. However, be warned, there is a lot of information to digest, a lot characters to remember and after five full investigations a whole lot to process, hopefully with more to come this will all be worth it.

http://www.untoldmurder.com

PSYCH  (2006–2014)

TRIVIA: As a running gag, in every episode you'll find a pineapple, the word "delicious," a fist bump, the phrase, "I can't do this right now," and the question "What?"

James Roday (Shawn Spencer) and Maggie Lawson (Juliet O'Hara) started dating during the filming of season one. Their relationship lasted seven years.

Inspired by how Series Creator Steve Franks' father, who was a Los Angeles Police officer, would teach him how to be observant.

With the exception of Emilio Estevez who appeared in name only as one of Shawn's aliases, and Paul Gleason, every main actor and actress from The Breakfast Club (1985) appeared in the series. Judd Nelson appeared in the episode "Death is in the Air", Molly Ringwald appeared in the episode "Shawn Interrupted", Ally Sheedy appeared in the episodes involving the Yin-Yang killer and "Psych: The Musical", Anthony Michael Hall appeared in "No Trout About It" and the beginning of season eight, and John Kapelos appeared in two episodes ("Santa Barbarian Candidate" and "1967: A Psych Odyssey").

A recurring gag featured in the show's outtakes involves the cast and crew laughing hysterically at the mention of the phrase "three-hole punch." According to James Roday, the gag began with a script written by Tim Meltreger, which included a joke about a three-hole punch. During filming, Roday misspoke the line as "three-hole puncher." Meltreger called for a cut and raced onto the set, then insisted that Roday read the line exactly as scripted, because, in his words, "Three-hole punch is *way* funnier than three-hole puncher!" Subsequently, it became a running joke on the set: someone says the words "three-hole punch" while shooting and the cast and crew all pretend to laugh as if it's the funniest thing they've ever heard.

Spencer's mother, played by Cybill Shepherd, is called Madeleine, as a nod for her character in show Moonlighting (1985), Madeleine (Maddie) Hayes.

A running gag in the show is that Gus and Shawn will frequently say "C'mon son!" when something strange, surprising, or silly has happened. This phrase was coined by media personality Ed Lover. In the season eight episode "Remake, a.k.a. Cloudy...With a Chance of Improvement", Ed Lover guest starred as a bailiff, telling Gus to "Come on, son" as he attempts to escort him from the courtroom. He also appeared in the season six episode "Last Night Gus" as himself.

In season six, episode four (The Amazing Psych Man & Tap Man, Issue #2), Juliet acts impressed thinking that Shawn is The Mantis. She immediately learns that Shawn is faking it and Shawn responds with the phrase "I know you know that I'm not telling the truth...... I know, you know," which are the exact lyrics of the Psych theme song.