FILM 2018: GRETA

 FILM 2018: GRETA

TRIVIA: The film is set in New York, but was actually filmed in Ireland.

Greta's last name, "Hideg", is the Hungarian word for "cold".

The restaurant scenes were shot over the space of a week. By the end of the week, the smell of fish on set was so bad, it made people need to leave early.

In the film, Frances' friend's name is Erica. This is the same name as the character Isabelle Huppert plays in the 2001 psychosexual thriller, The Piano Teacher.

Neil Jordan and Stephen Rea previously worked together in the 1992 film "The Crying Game" and the 1999 film "The End of the Affair."

FILM 1436: IT COULD HAPPEN TO YOU

TRIVIA: The movie is based on the true story of Phyllis Penzo and Officer Robert Cunningham. For twenty-four years, Penzo served as a waitress at Sal's Pizzeria in Yonkers, New York. Cunningham, a thirty-year veteran of the police force in nearby Dobbs Ferry, N.Y., was a regular customer at the restaurant, well-liked by the staff there. (His favorite dish was linguine with clams.) One day in March, 1984, Cunningham asked Penzo for help picking his weekly lottery numbers. Penzo suggested three numbers, and Cunningham came up with three more numbers on his own. Cunningham jokingly promised that if he won, he would split the winnings with Penzo as a tip. The next day, to Penzo's surprise, Cunningham and his wife came to the diner with the winning lottery ticket in hand. Cunningham's ticket had won $6 million, which he split with Penzo, giving her $3 million. In real life, however (as stated in a disclaimer at the end of the movie), Cunningham and Penzo were both happily married to other people for many years.

Released in the UK in the same week that the National Lottery was launched.

Madonna and Marisa Tomei turned down the role of Yvonne Biasi.

The title was originally going to be "Cop Gives Waitress Two Million Dollar Tip".

Film 907: Mildred Pierce

Trivia: Shirley Temple was originally considered for the part of Veda Pierce.

Shooting the early scenes, director Michael Curtiz accused Joan Crawford of needlessly glamorizing her working mother role. She insisted she was buying her character's clothes off the rack, but didn't mention that her own dressmaker was fitting the waists and padding out the shoulders.

Monty's Beach House, used in the key opening scene and several others, was actually owned by the film's director, Michael Curtiz. It was built in 1929 and stood at 26652 Latigo Shore Dr. in Malibu. It collapsed into the ocean after a week of heavy storms in January 1983.

Mirroring her own life, Joan Crawford had also supported herself as a waitress and saleswoman before she achieved success as an actress.

Joan Crawford was nominated and won the Academy Award for Best Actress for Mildred Pierce. She was not at the award ceremony because she was home in bed with pneumonia. However, there was a story circulated that she faked her illness. Joan did not think she would win the Academy Award and she did not want to attend the ceremony to be humiliated. It was said that after she heard that she won the award for Best Actress, she jumped out of bed, did her make up and put on her best negligee to meet the press.