Posted on 08/23/2017 7:37:52 PM PDT by Strac6
Need A Little FReeper Movie Historian Help
With your help, I can dig deep into my past.... because I have come to learn, somewhere, some FReeper anything you want to know....
Rainy Saturday childhood afternoons at the Calderone Movie Theater on Long Island had a great effect on me. For example, I developed an early hate for Communists after they killed William Holden, Mickey Rooney and Earl Holliman in the Bridges of Toko Ri.
I had the opportunity to work with Rooney much later in both our lives, and he said it had the same effect on him. His words were “…. And I was only an actor in the movie! For many men, it was way too real.”
That hate kept me a little more wary in RVN, and you never know, might have saved my life.
But I digress. I also saw a short movie about that time, that, as a Christian, helped me develop a lifelong respect for Israel.
I saw Mike Todd’s “Around The World In 80 Days” in the late 1950s. I think the movie I am interested in, 60ish years later, was either part of the intro to ATWI80D (which I doubt) or a “short” that ran with it.
It was brief documentary about what the immigrated Jews had done in Israel. It was amazing, just 10 years after the declaration of the State of Israel, that they had created life in what had been dead lifeless desert. They had developed an army to defend themselves, and build shining cities where there was once only sand.
I’m not talking about Exodus, Cast a Giant Shadow or other feature length film. This was a color short. It might have been in Cinerama, as I think I saw it in the Theater that showed Around the World in 80 Days. I also have an unconfirmed slight thought that it might have been made by Mike Todd, as he was very pro-Israel.
My connecting it to ATWI80D may be incorrect, but it was certainly about that time/era?
I wish I remembered more, but does thing ring a bell with anyone? Anyone know the title or anything about it?
Did see a LOT of old movies at MOMA, but haven't gone that route in a very long time...too much of a hassle now.
Talking about old French movies...have you ever seen the THE 1927 Abel Gance silent "NAPOLEAN"? I did...with full symphony orchestra, when they were touring it, in the '80s. Now THAT was something else again and in spades!
Yes, I saw Napolean opening night at Radio City with Coppola’s orchestra (I imagine that’s the music you heard as well). Francis Ford C. got Abel Gance on the telephone in Paris and Ed Koch introduced it. Great night!
If you liked that, you’ll like this Les Miz. The director was clearly influenced by Abel Gance.
WOW....what an opening night THAT must have been and yes, I bet that you had a GREAT night!
I saw it at the CHICAGO Theatre ( which is NOT a movie theatre, but had had a screen installed for this ) and Chicago Symphony Orchestra were in the pit. I too had a great night; just not as a spectacular one, as you.
I have seen another Gance film, as well. He was a genius!
Now I'm going to have to see, perhaps own that Les Mis film; even more so, now, knowing what I do, thanks to you, than to just fill in the empty space of not have all versions of it.
That event was a long time ago! But I remember it like it was yesterday.
Me too! :-)
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