Peggy, a chimp, played Bonzo in the 1951 movie comedy Bedtime For Bonzo co-starring Ronald Reagan. Unfortunately she and her understudy died in a tragic zoo fire two weeks after release of her big film.
Yes Mark it is Hidalgo ( 2004 ) and the beautiful mustang horse was played by T.J. who was uncredited in the film. Viggo Mortenson purchased the horse T.J. after the film was completed.
As religions go, Quakerism seems pretty awesome. Everyone’s a “Friendâ€, they use adorable archaic pronouns, and instead of going to church to listen to sermons and all that jazz, they just sit there and say nothing for a couple of hours. Quakers don’t really feature much in popular culture, aside from serving as plot devices in Law and Order or The West Wing. Friendly Persuasion is the only film to centre entirely on Friends: it’s about the Birdwells, a Quaker family forced to confront the reality of the Civil War. Friendly Persuasion stars Gary Cooper and Anthony Perkins, two veritable badasses, and it won the Palme d’Or in 1957, so I had reasonably high expectations.
Well, now. From the word go, this film embodies schmaltz. It’s the cinematic equivalent of a hot apple pie to the face. It opens on an altercation between a goose and a freckle-faced snub-nosed kid called Little Jess. The goose appears to have a serious beef with Little Jess, and chases him around the yard along to incidental music. Hilarity ensues! At this point I paused the film, took a deep breath, and decided that the only sensible option was to get blackout drunk.
The goose is actually the most complex and engaging character of the whole film, played to mesmerising effect by Samantha the Goose. This was Samantha’s one and only film credit. I assume she died happy after this sterling performance.
One of the key themes of Friendly Persuasion is wood-chopping. It seems like everyone chops wood at some point. Gary Cooper chops wood the best, I think. He can really chop wood like a champ. He slams out some kindling at one point and it’s really breathtaking. I was so inspired I paused the film to find something to chop. I couldn’t find any wood, so I chopped a few slices of bread and made some peanut butter on toast. It was excellent.
Nobody does nervous intensity quite like Anthony Perkins. He’s really intense in this movie, and he sweats quite a lot. After Samantha, he’s the standout of the cast, even in the ridiculous scene in which a bunch of young women excessively fawn over him. It’s implied that they’re going to pack-rape him. As we all know, pack-rape is a comic goldmine. It’s about as subtle as a Cleveland Steamer, and the acting is pantomime-level. I’m not an angry drunk, but around the fifteenth time one of these Southern banshees shrieked “HEY MAW!†something simply snapped. Some deep, ancient defence mechanism kicked in and I felt an overwhelming desire to punch something.
Whilst pulling shards of glass out of my wrist, I realised what the problem was. It wasn’t the theeing andthouing, or the meandering, tootling soundtrack, or the magic negro character who dispenses totally bogus philosophy about what it’s like to die (“it’s just stoppin’ breathin’, I reckonâ€). It’s just all so sickeningly earnest, and while it’s really beautifully shot, it’s kind of monotonous. Pretty much the first two hours are devoted to establishing that the Birdwells have a really, really idyllic life. Reality finally approaches in the last half hour, when they’re forced to confront violence and resist retaliation, even when their lives are being threatened. We’ve laughed, we’ve cried, we’ve chopped a hell of a lot of wood, now, finally, some inner and outer conflict is gonna go down. Somehow, though, the climax still manages to be cheesy. It’s embodied in one shot panning across a field filled with dead soldiers, and that upbeat soundtrack keeps tootling away. It elicited a deep, tearful laugh from me, which makes it effective, I guess.
Cynicism is easy. It’s much harder to remain open and upbeat. But Friendly Persuasion is constructed from such potent, weapons-grade schmaltz that it’d probably test Gandhi’s patience. Not to mention that it’s pretty pro-war. I can understand how this was considered a great film in its day: it’s a poetically shot, earnest exploration of conscientious people. Unfortunately it hasn’t stood the test of time, and in the harsh light of 2011 it just seems a bit empty-headed.
Number 18 - That's some scarred looking dog with some obnoxious kid yelling in his ear and even having read the script the thought of what is happening is sort of worrying to him.
Comments
Number 15
All the younger members of the forum have no excuse for not knowing this one.
Clue -Released in 2004.
Signed
David the Senile
(No Computer Posting via Mobile)
Taken from Wikipedia. -
Peggy, a chimp, played Bonzo in the 1951 movie comedy Bedtime For Bonzo co-starring Ronald Reagan. Unfortunately she and her understudy died in a tragic zoo fire two weeks after release of her big film.
Hidalgo?
Number 16
Long overdue is another feline movie photo to be identified.
Number 17
Well, now. From the word go, this film embodies schmaltz. It’s the cinematic equivalent of a hot apple pie to the face. It opens on an altercation between a goose and a freckle-faced snub-nosed kid called Little Jess. The goose appears to have a serious beef with Little Jess, and chases him around the yard along to incidental music. Hilarity ensues! At this point I paused the film, took a deep breath, and decided that the only sensible option was to get blackout drunk.
The goose is actually the most complex and engaging character of the whole film, played to mesmerising effect by Samantha the Goose. This was Samantha’s one and only film credit. I assume she died happy after this sterling performance.
One of the key themes of Friendly Persuasion is wood-chopping. It seems like everyone chops wood at some point. Gary Cooper chops wood the best, I think. He can really chop wood like a champ. He slams out some kindling at one point and it’s really breathtaking. I was so inspired I paused the film to find something to chop. I couldn’t find any wood, so I chopped a few slices of bread and made some peanut butter on toast. It was excellent.
Nobody does nervous intensity quite like Anthony Perkins. He’s really intense in this movie, and he sweats quite a lot. After Samantha, he’s the standout of the cast, even in the ridiculous scene in which a bunch of young women excessively fawn over him. It’s implied that they’re going to pack-rape him. As we all know, pack-rape is a comic goldmine. It’s about as subtle as a Cleveland Steamer, and the acting is pantomime-level. I’m not an angry drunk, but around the fifteenth time one of these Southern banshees shrieked “HEY MAW!†something simply snapped. Some deep, ancient defence mechanism kicked in and I felt an overwhelming desire to punch something.
Whilst pulling shards of glass out of my wrist, I realised what the problem was. It wasn’t the theeing andthouing, or the meandering, tootling soundtrack, or the magic negro character who dispenses totally bogus philosophy about what it’s like to die (“it’s just stoppin’ breathin’, I reckonâ€). It’s just all so sickeningly earnest, and while it’s really beautifully shot, it’s kind of monotonous. Pretty much the first two hours are devoted to establishing that the Birdwells have a really, really idyllic life. Reality finally approaches in the last half hour, when they’re forced to confront violence and resist retaliation, even when their lives are being threatened. We’ve laughed, we’ve cried, we’ve chopped a hell of a lot of wood, now, finally, some inner and outer conflict is gonna go down. Somehow, though, the climax still manages to be cheesy. It’s embodied in one shot panning across a field filled with dead soldiers, and that upbeat soundtrack keeps tootling away. It elicited a deep, tearful laugh from me, which makes it effective, I guess.
Cynicism is easy. It’s much harder to remain open and upbeat. But Friendly Persuasion is constructed from such potent, weapons-grade schmaltz that it’d probably test Gandhi’s patience. Not to mention that it’s pretty pro-war. I can understand how this was considered a great film in its day: it’s a poetically shot, earnest exploration of conscientious people. Unfortunately it hasn’t stood the test of time, and in the harsh light of 2011 it just seems a bit empty-headed.
Josh Harris
My Dog Skip ( 2000)
The dog in the film was played by Moose and his son Enzo. If the dog looks familiar it is because he appeared in the sitcom Frazier.
THAT'S ALL FOLKS!