“Talkin’ the Oldies” Archive
Jerry Frebowitz | Talkin' the Oldies
Here are 10 trivia facts about Caddyshack from 1980, which originally appeared as our Mystery Movie Quiz on our Facebook page. There are hundreds of pieces of behind-the-scenes information about this movie. Please feel free to comment and add more trivia we might have missed.
1. This movie revolves around a particular occupation.
The movie title gives it away. Michael O'Keefe is a caddy at stuffy Bushwood Country Club, trying his best to get a college scholarship. It was O'Keefe whom director Harold Ramis felt was consistently the most convincing golfer of all the cast members, which included Ted Knight, Chevy Chase, Bill Murray and Rodney Dangerfield. The basic storyline of the film is about O'Keefe's position as a caddy, which eventually gives way to him transforming into a player in a high-stakes finale involving Dangerfield in some of the funniest scenes in movie history, exposing Rodney's acting talents to millions who only knew him as a standup comic.
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Jerry Frebowitz | Talkin' the Oldies
It took some doing to get Nelson Eddy and Jeanette MacDonald out of the Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer vaults and into viewers' homes. At this point, it should be said that both Naughty Marietta (1935), their first movie together, and Sweethearts (1938), their first in Technicolor, did have some deterioration in the film stock; not unusual for films that are over 70 years old.
Going in, it was known it was going to take a lot of work to get these classics cleaned up and ready for distribution. When film elements are problematic, they are usually rejected at the outset of the process. In the case of both of these classics, their source elements were newly manufactured, and there was no indication that there would be any hold-up in moving along.
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Jerry Frebowitz | Talkin' the Oldies
Here are 10 trivia facts about Blazing Saddles from 1974, which originally appeared as our Mystery Movie Quiz on our Facebook page. There are lots of pieces of behind-the-scenes information about this movie. Please feel free to comment and add more trivia we might have missed.
1. This film has racial overtones.
In 1974, before the letters PC meant "politically correct," Mel Brooks' Blazing Saddles towered as a laugh-out-loud comedy containing many references to racism and some rather derogatory terms for African-Americans. Much like the then-popular TV series All in the Family, though, the words were to mock bigotry, and throughout the film it's the prejudiced white townspeople and the villains who bear the brunt of all the jokes.
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Jerry Frebowitz | Talkin' the Oldies
Here are 10 trivia facts about Cat Ballou from 1965, which originally appeared as our Mystery Movie Quiz on our Facebook page. There are lots of pieces of behind-the-scenes information about this movie. Please feel free to comment and add more trivia we might have missed.
1. It was named by AFI as one of the 10 best of its genre.
In 2008, Cat Ballou was ranked by the American Film Institute as being among the 10 greatest films in the "Westerns" category. If there was a category for "Comedy Westerns," it would probably be high up on that list, too.
2. This was the director's first feature film.
Between 1954 and 1965, Elliot Silverstein directed episodes of some very high-profile TV shows, including Omnibus, Route 66, Have Gun, Will Travel, Dr. Kildare, The Twilight Zone, The Defenders and more. However, it wasn't until 1965 that Silverstein made his big-screen directing debut with Cat Ballou. A few years later, he had another highly visible film, A Man Called Horse (1970), and since that time has mostly concentrated on television. For trivia buffs, Silverstein was David Cassidy's stepfather for a short time.
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Jerry Frebowitz | Talkin' the Oldies
Here are 10 trivia facts about The Silent Partner from 1979, which originally appeared as our Mystery Movie Quiz on our Facebook page. There are hundreds of pieces of behind-the-scenes information about this movie. Please feel free to comment and add more trivia we might have missed.
1. This is not considered a holiday movie but it is set around the holidays.
It's Christmastime at the mall and Christopher Plummer is the mall Santa. While everyone in town is decking the halls and resting ye merry gentlemen, Santa, who we learn is very dishonest, has his sights set on robbing the mall bank. Elliott Gould as the bank teller gets wind of the coming heist (see the movie to find out how) and when "it's beginning to look a lot like Christmas," Plummer is outwitted when Gould decides he needs to "have himself a merry little Christmas" at Santa's expense.
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Jerry Frebowitz | Talkin' the Oldies
Here are 10 trivia facts about Alfred Hitchcock's The Birds from 1963, which originally appeared as our Mystery Movie Quiz on our Facebook page. There are hundreds of pieces of behind-the-scenes information about this movie. Please feel free to comment and add more trivia we might have missed.
1. Most of this film’s setting is in a real-life small town.
The exterior shots for The Birds were filmed in Bodega Bay, California. Not all the filming was done there, as Alfred Hitchcock didn't really like location shooting, so a good deal of the film was shot at Universal Studios. When Tippi Hedren (bio; videography) is attacked in the rowboat, that scene is in Bodega Harbour and the schoolhouse shown as the Bodega Bay School was really the Potter Schoolhouse in the town of Bodega, about five miles from Bodega Bay. An interesting fact about the gas station in Bodega Bay; it didn't exist in that spot until it was built years later -- but the script called for the gas station to be visible from the windows of the Tides Restaurant... and with a little Hitchcock magic, the gas station is there.
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Jerry Frebowitz | Talkin' the Oldies
Here are 10 trivia facts about The Great Race from 1965, which originally appeared as our Mystery Movie Quiz on our Facebook page. There are hundreds of pieces of behind-the-scenes information about this movie. Please feel free to comment and add more trivia we might have missed.
1. Five of the actors were Academy Award nominees -- but none for this film.
Tony Curtis was nominated for one Oscar; Natalie Wood nominated 3 times; Peter Falk twice, Arthur O'Connell twice, and the most nominated actor in The Great Race is Jack Lemmon who was nominated 8 times, taking home two Oscars, one each for both Best Actor and Best Supporting Actor.
2. The film takes place in various locales.
The Great Race was actually filmed in 14 different locations including Paris, France and Salzburg, Austria. The other 12 locations were in California, Kentucky and Oregon.
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Jerry Frebowitz | Talkin' the Oldies
Here are 10 trivia facts about Field Of Dreams from 1989, which originally appeared as our Mystery Movie Quiz on our Facebook page. There are many pieces of behind-the-scenes information about this movie. Please feel free to comment and add more trivia we might have missed.
1. This movie features something that is currently in the news.
Sports news of varying types appears 12 months a year, but when the "boys of summer" move on to the World Series, baseball is noticeably in the news.
2. Finances play a role in the film.
When Ray Kinsella (Kevin Costner) hears the voice telling him "if you build it, he will come," he is so convinced that he plows his cornfield. But after a year without anything happening, he and Annie (Amy Madigan) are in financial straits and consider selling the farm.
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Jerry Frebowitz | Talkin' the Oldies
Here are 10 trivia facts about Airplane! from 1980, which originally appeared as our Mystery Movie Quiz on our Facebook page. There are hundreds of pieces of behind-the-scenes information about this movie. Please feel free to comment and add more trivia we might have missed.
1. The movie was nominated for a Golden Globe as Best Picture in its category.
Airplane! was nominated for The Hollywood Press Association's Golden Globe award for Best Picture in the category of "Musical/Comedy." The other nominees in 1981 were Fame, Melvin and Howard, The Idolmaker and the winner, Coal Miner's Daughter.
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Jerry Frebowitz | Talkin' the Oldies
Here are 10 trivia facts about The Big Lebowski from 1998, which originally appeared as our Mystery Movie Quiz on our Facebook page. There are hundreds of pieces of behind-the-scenes information about this movie. Please feel free to comment and add more trivia we might have missed.
1. A popular sport is played in the film.
The Dude and Walter would always rather be bowling. Although there are many scenes in the bowling alley, The Dude is never actually seen bowling. The bowling alley scenes were filmed at the Holly Star Lanes in Los Angeles. It has since been torn down and a new elementary school was built on that spot.
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Jerry Frebowitz | Talkin' the Oldies
Here are 10 trivia facts about Saving Private Ryan from 1998, which originally appeared as our Mystery Movie Quiz on our Facebook page. There are hundreds of pieces of behind-the-scenes information about this movie. Please feel free to comment and add more trivia we might have missed.
1. The movie takes place in the past and the present.
The backbone of the movie is the WWII sequences and the scenes at Arlington National Cemetery are in the present. Incidentally, the part of Old Mrs. Ryan was played by Kathleen Byron in her last film. Fans of Michael Powell & Emeric Pressburger will recognize her from her brilliant appearances in Stairway To Heaven and Black Narcissus.
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Jerry Frebowitz | Talkin' the Oldies
Here are 10 trivia facts about Inherit The Wind from 1960, which originally appeared as our Mystery Movie Quiz on our Facebook page. There are hundreds of pieces of behind-the-scenes information about this movie. Please feel free to comment and add more trivia we might have missed.
1. Betrayal was a subplot of the film.
In the movie, Bertram Cates is engaged to Rev. Brown's daughter, and Matthew Brady used the relationship to manipulate her to give damaging testimony at the trial. Those scenes are entirely fictional. The real-life John Scopes (portrayed as biology teacher Cates in the film) reportedly was not engaged nor did he have a girlfriend at the time of his trial.
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Tags: 1980s movies