This was a film I saw on broadcast TV, maybe in the 1980s. I thought it was great and I am glad to show it now. It is English, it looks and feels like a Hammer Studios Film, but it is not. It was a movie out of Epoch studios, which no doubt has access to the same sets and costumes as Hammer. A deeper dive into the names of the costumers and set designers might prove me right.
So what is this about? It’s a Victorian sci-fi adventure where a man figures out how to capture the spirit leaving the body of an animal or person, thereby leaving said person or animal alive indefinitely. Great plot! It just seems this film slipped through the cracks in 1972, with everyone obsessing over all the salacious Hammer films coming out of Britain at the time. This film deserves better. So I am posting it tonight.
Some nerd info, from a fact buried deep in IMDB:
The film was originally shot in Todd-AO 35, a wide-screen process which is normally viewed at 2.35:1. The 1995 UK video featured a much shorter print and missed around 12 minutes of footage including dialogue scenes, an anti-hanging protest before the execution, and the removal of a scene showing the now-immortalized guinea pig being released from its cage. The 2004 Anchor Bay UK DVD features the same print and is presented in an anamorphic 1.85:1 ratio and also uses a pan & scan technique, thus cropping much of the print into a false version of wide-screen. The 2010 Odeon DVD features both the shorter and longer original prints in genuine widescreen.
Our version is 1H:26M long, which seems like nothing would be cut out. And after some quick measuring on my computer screen, the screen ratio is 2.35:1. So are we blessed with an original version? Or the Odeon print? I suppose we won’t know until it gets watched all the way through. Either way it looks pretty good.
Another trivia point – The guy who directed this film (Peter Newbrook) did the camera work for Bridge Over the River Kwai and Lawrence of Arabia, among other things. This was the one film he directed. No wonder it was in a crazy super wide print. He was a cinematographer’s cinematographer.
Even more interesting, the story was written by the team of Christina and Lawrence Beers, who never wrote another movie. Seems a shame, this is quite good. We have a post-Easter tie-in here as well! Robert Powell, who went on to play Jesus in Jesus of Nazareth, is in this as the star. You get to see him playing somebody else besides Jesus!
So watch! Or don’t! Everything is voluntary! This is a great film to break out the popcorn, so I do hope you watch. Next week, I am planning on taking a trip down memory lane with Heavy Metal. It’s a popular film so if it gets pulled from free streaming I will have an alternate.
This movie looks interesting. I’ll get to it over the weekend. I’m heading to bed early.
Next week, I am planning on taking a trip down memory lane with Heavy Metal. It’s a popular film so if it gets pulled from free streaming I will have an alternate.
I like Heavy Metal. I have it on DVD.
It’s not a movie for everyone. It’s fan service for fans of the magazine. Folks that don’t like the magazine or don’t like that style of storytelling won’t like the movie.
Thanks RJ!
#dittoes
I am out of town but should be home Sunday
Watching it for the first time in years, it’s still great. Well paced, just excellent.
Way more science fiction focused than Hammer. I think that is why it gets forgotten. Which is sad.
You have to like Mobius to like Heavy Metal, the movie. When I first saw it I was about 13 or so, and had no idea. Still loved it, like only a weird kid can.
This movie looks awesome. It will be que’d up this weekend.
Every person here was a weird kid. And I am fairly certain they all liked Heavy Metal.
Thank you for rocking these out. This sounds fantastic and I love the trivia. I rather enjoy how the Brit version removed the “scene showing the now-immortalized guinea pig being released from its cage.” Everything about that is funny. I like to think the editor was vehemently anti- guinea pig and wouldn’t *DARE* let people see an omnipotent rodent escape from prison, free to wield its power over the masses.
Imagine all the poop an immortal guinea pig would make in 100 years.
I made a lasagna today with homemade noodles.
I’m First at everything.
Nice. I had a charcuterie board of British cheeses and some scotch.
How’d the bechamel sauce turn out?
Do I look French? This is made the American way.
That’s unfortunate.
BOLO sauce or GTFO!
Used to do that every day at the Eye Talyan joint in college.
Tastes WAY better.
Lasagna Cat is comedy gold: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NAh9oLs67Cw
hat tip to HM
Has anyone seen the Sonic/Give me Liberty commercial? Or am I just hallucinating it?
I have done so much effort to isolate myself from commercials that I haven’t seen one in a long time.
Sonic drive thru or something else?
ASS FIX IS STEVE SMITH FAVORITE PASTTIME!
Yes, yes. I am surprised I didn’t use that joke. My 13 year old daughter even said that when I told her I was playing The Asphyx.
Fun times at the swimming hole today. I swam with turtles, snakes, and catfish. There was even a gator who was polite enough to stay out of the water and out of sight til I was done. I’m a regular redneck Aquaman.
I met an old Army vet and swapped stories with him. When I showed him my old Army ID, he said I looked like Mike Hammer, Private Eye. I’ll take that as a compliment. Turns out he was roommates briefly with Jeffrey Dahmer while in the Army. They were both medics.
Imagine this guy in camo, I guess. I always wanted a pinstripe suit. I should have bought one from that tailor I walked past all the time in Chicago.
https://i.pinimg.com/originals/fc/20/16/fc2016acac10b6021d4e24bcced76a9a.jpg
Swimming with snakes and gators and hanging out with Dahmer’s associate? I’ve got a bad feeling about this.
He’ll be fine.
suggested music: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fcTQCNntGEs
LoA, was just one giant pan of the fookin desert, in Glorious color, I love that movie,
Fendi?
That movie might be the reason I ended up studying Arabic. I read the Seven Pillars of Wisdom when I was 14 or so.
love this scene:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3R3rR_zq1WM
crossing the anvil of the sun…the Nafud desert
‘Aurence!
That character’s accent makes no sense and doesn’t sound like Saudi Arabic. And effendi (sir/master) is a Turkish word. It’s unlikely a rando Bedouin slave would know it.
Also there is no quicksand in a desert nor a Sarlacc pit monster.
how to make and escape from quicksand: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z0CFgdMjS5w
All the camerawork was because of Peter Newbrook. He was crazy about camerawork. It’s appropriate that his one feature film was about using cameras and lights to capture ghosts.
So, the original Ghost hunters?
“I feel something warm and, kind of moist running down my leg”
“Me too! Ghaaaaaa!”
Modern reviewers make that comparison.
I think it definitely contributed to Ghostbusters.
Penn & Teller had a great bit where they wondered why ghosts always appear clothed. Does my shirt have a soul?
At least naked ghosts would kind of make sense, or maybe weird but humanoid shapes like Slimer from Ghostbusters.
Reminds me of my favorite cartoon intro: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZtHRTbQZ-iw
My brother and cousin had toy proton packs. Guess who always had to be the ghost. Whatever, it was the part I was born to play.
Stacy Keach?
When I get home, I’m going to watch this while eating a delicious bacon and turkey sandwich. With french fries. The diet can pound sand tonight.
This movie kicks ass. Enjoy.
Good grub and Glibflix? Perfect end to the day.
Another amazing commercial. Pepto Bismol this time. What is this?
I know this sounds crazy but when Biden was president, all Tubi showed was prescription drug ads. And COVID vaccination ads. This is a big and welcome change.
I’ve noticed a couple commercials recently that were legitimately funny. I also noted the seemingly free-from-worry the producers had with the content.
One that made me legit chuckle involved two dudes in a garage, one fixing his car. The other dude was a knight and the two were gonna time travel together on a motorcycle. ‘Mechanic’ agrees to let the stubborn wayward take a power drill with a long-ass bit with him for him to agree to ride bitch behind the other dude. He whirrs it with smug confidence.
It was genuinely good. I strongly approve, especially with people not feeling the top-down burden to ‘behave.’ It’s a thankful relief.
this commercial gave me a Finnish smile:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pD-f45TbvEw
The Sonic commercial had a guy in a powdered wig going on about “freedom” and smashed burgers. It was entertaining and free of lecturing. More please!
Interesting how he loses his soul and gets animalistic and angry.
I can’t watch the daughter scene. Can’t do it.
Hey R.J. instead of shlock and horror flicks, maybe some quasi Libertarianism kinda stuff.
They Live
OG Fountainhead
Stuff like that. Theirs plenty of weirdness out there besides Scifi/ slasher stuff.
/ just my 2c.
Save your two cents.
I did They Live. Might do Fountainhead.
If you stay tuned in, I am doing a film from the 1969s about government reaction to global warming. It’s about two posts out. There is a very limited amount of Libertarian films outside of westerns.
The Life Aquatic is a somewhat libertarian film, as is Jaws.
So is the 1950s 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea film, if you want to stick with the sci-fi/horror vibe.
Red Dawn and Kelly’s Heroes fit the bill too.
Ghostbusters is libertarian (has an EPA stooge as the villain).
Tora! Tora! Tora! is libertarian in showing the folly of central planning on both sides.
Down Periscope is Animal House on a submarine with shades of Police Academy.
I have to disagree with your read on several of those, especially 20,000 Leagues.
OK, I’ll hear you out.
Captain Nemo is the ultimate sea-steader and a militant pacifist (oxymoron?) with an all-volunteer crew. They are totally self-sufficient.
Nemo violates the non-aggression principle by taking 3 hostages, but the alternative was leaving them to die after they fell overboard.
20,000 Leagues under the Sea was a story of an out of control Progressive murdering people, like Progressives tend to do. It is a morality tale for freedom loving peoples. I defend Derpy in that.
Even when I don’t show movies with libertarian morality embedded in the plot, I show movies from people with a singular vision who worked outside the mainstream studio network. And that is a celebration of individual achievement and economic liberty.
I do agree Ghostbusters is a remarkably libertarian flick. So too, with Jaws, and fuck if I understand the resentment some of us (((Us?))) have towards it.
It’s a stunningly perfect film.
Some of the better ‘libertarian’ flicks are subverse about it, often (usually) without intending to be. GATTACA is a great flick, though true I haven’t watched in a while and I hope it holds up. Sci-Fi future where DNA data and genetically manufacturing ‘perfect’ children, mixed with the other folk who came about through natural means, and the ‘normal’ people are discriminated against for being inferior to the wealthy folks’ who can design their kids as they wish (and money affords).
Straight-up showing the folly and danger of Top Down controls, with Ethan Hawke rising above it as an ‘Invalid,’ making his way with merit while faking Jude Law’s DNA to ‘pass,’ Law being a gifted athlete+ but is now crippled. Uma Thurman is also there.
Worth ones time, though I imagine many here have seen it, and I likely doubt my appreciation for it Is shared.
“Even when I don’t show movies with libertarian morality embedded in the plot, I show movies from people with a singular vision who worked outside the mainstream studio network. And that is a celebration of individual achievement and economic liberty.”
Outstandingly put. I highly enjoy the look into these types of creative affairs.
OK, interesting take what with Nemo supposedly being a murdering progressive.
By clearing the sea of warships of all nations, is he not promoting world peace and free trade? What do you think those warships were on their way to do? Give dancing lessons?
It reminds me of Solution Unsatisfactory about a global international air force:
***
Manning becomes lifetime head of the new Peace Patrol, with a worldwide monopoly over the radioactive dust and the aircraft which can deliver it. He opens schools for the indoctrination of cadet patrolmen from any race, color, or nationality. They will patrol the sky and “guard the peace” of any country but their own, and would be forbidden to return to their original country for the entire duration of their service; “a deliberately expatriated band of Janizaries, with an obligation only to the Commission and the race, and welded together with a carefully nurtured esprit de corps.”
***
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Solution_Unsatisfactory
I’m sorry, Derpy, you ignore or forget the Unprovoked attacking and sinking of vessels on the open sea. Nemo is the reason the hostages were in danger of drowning.
No, no he is not – he is freeing it up for rampant piracy and lack of maritime trade.
Imam siding with UnCivil here, clearly. He committed unprovoked murder. I have no time to look up lines from the book, but I can tell you he wanted to control the actions of others, even kill them to protect the environment.
Historically, the worst pirates were funded and encouraged by governments to plunder the merchant ships of other governments.
To a large extent, the navies of Britain, France, and Spain were colleges for pirates and their captains.
Nemo is more moral than pirates who are out for loot in that aspect, and I suspect he’d gladly sink pirate ships as well if given the opportunity.
If the navies are better armed and more numerous than the pirates, who is the bigger threat?
Defending yourself from criminals is a lot easier than defending yourself from the police.
***
The novel’s later pages suggest that Captain Nemo went into undersea exile after his homeland was conquered and his family slaughtered by a powerful imperialist nation.
***
Hence his impartial hatred for the world’s navies.
Two wrongs don’t make a right. At least Nemo only attacks military targets.
Historically most pirates operated short range raids on trade from bases on land at bottlenecks, the long-ranging raids of the golden age of sail were an aberration. The recent Somali piracy was closer to the historical average than was Captain Kidd. And the story was set in the 1870s – after the last gasp of privateering or the ex-naval pirates.
Nemo is a great villain, and a character with dimensions, but he is not a moral man.
What makes ambushing and murdering sailers who are not at war with anybody any different from ambushing and murdering anyone else?
Alexander the Great once questioned a pirate he captured. Augustine of Hippo wrote of it:
***
Justice being taken away, then, what are kingdoms but great robberies? For what are robberies themselves, but little kingdoms? The band itself is made up of men; it is ruled by the authority of a prince, it is knit together by the pact of the confederacy; the booty is divided by the law agreed on. If, by the admittance of abandoned men, this evil increases to such a degree that it holds places, fixes abodes, takes possession of cities, and subdues peoples, it assumes the more plainly the name of a kingdom, because the reality is now manifestly conferred on it, not by the removal of covetousness, but by the addition of impunity. Indeed, that was an apt and true reply which was given to Alexander the Great by a pirate who had been seized. For when that king had asked the man what he meant by keeping hostile possession of the sea, he answered with bold pride, “What thou meanest by seizing the whole earth; but because I do it with a petty ship, I am called a robber, whilst thou who dost it with a great fleet art styled emperor.”
***
Is Nemo worse for only attacking the warships of nations hellbent on conquering and enslaving other countries? That colonialism is piracy writ large.
The word of a self-justifying criminal.
You know where the difference lies? In the peace. Oh wait, the pirates never create any.
Sailors on warships are trained for fighting, and the most skillful leaders of such are highly regarded among the navies of the world.
Is Captain Nemo really worse than Horatio Nelson, Barbarossa, or Ching Shih?
Nemo has no goal apart from sinking as many warships as possible. He’s not a pirate or a conqueror. He’s a vigilante.
If keeping the peace is the test of good leadership and conduct, I invite you to read about how much more peaceful Philadelphia was when the mafia was in charge of the place.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IErlI34-0so
I guess I see Nemo as a more plausible version of Superman, though the latter is scrupulous about not killing people.
And how libertarian is the Man of Steel? He’s an almost omnipotent alien. There was even a comic book where he went “fuck it” and just declared himself king of Earth. Complete with pope hat!
https://pm1.narvii.com/5823/3a8bedbd028f7f9ceaf3d7cc2e55cc05650a164b_hq.jpg
I remember a screening of “Shenandoah” with Jimmy Stewart at a libertarian conference back in the 70s.
Derpy: Nemo wished to control through coercion and violence. Rather than kill those who hurt him, he reached for the low hanging fruit of murdering people on random ships. And he took hostages which is absolutely not libertarian. This is my viewpoint. I suggest we continue this excellent discussion via Zoom tomorrow, with drinks and spliffs. I do finally have a place to Zoom again, after almost half a year.
OK. Nemo was a violent man; a mad man on a suicide mission even. On an emotional level, I understand his actions. On an intellectual level, I also see he was not a good libertarian. Or even a libertarian at all.
Like you say, he could have gotten his revenge by being more selective in his targets. I think he was trying to make a statement because he knew in the end he would lose.
Surely with his apparent wealth and scientific knowledge he could have forged a more constructive and ethical path. Instead, he chose violence.
Is there a relevant difference between a libertarian and a criminal? From what I can tell, it is a matter of taste, much like the freedom fighter vs terrorist dichotomy.
Also, I dressed up as Captain Nemo during an elementary school parade. The theme was our favorite fictional characters. My outfit was kind of like the Gorton’s Fisherman crossed with Captain Obvious.
I see Nemo like Batman.
Batman could have been more selective in his targets. Instead, he chose to fight crime in general, as he saw that as more useful and ethical.
Like Nemo, he too could have used his apparent wealth and knowledge more constructively and ethically. But where’s the fun in that?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y6Oe9iijjbw
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W5QsFYLmWuE
Speaking of pirates…https://www.britannica.com/story/the-time-julius-caesar-was-captured-by-pirates
You gotta wonder at some point if it’s better just to kill your captives every now and then…
Jeez, I was thinking of cool movies, not existential tropes,
/Ill go back to disc golf
Ha! Look what you did!
No shit, maybe we can get a good flick from it!
KMA, Yusef. I will as I find them.
O/T aside to TPTB: I’ve just submitted a post for your perusal and, ideally, approval. It’s light on graphics, mainly in the interest of expedience so as to sooth Swissy’s panicky palpitations, but I did include a featured image. Furthermore, I am not lame!
Good to hear your knee is improving.
😄
I dig your popcorn animation R.J.
#metoo
Trump 2.0 is losing momentum. Lots of noise and not much actual accomplishment. What’s that about second marriages? The triumph of hope over experience?
There’s a significant chunk of this country that are broken. Indoctrinated and cultured into self hatred, guilt, and nonsense like insane support for illegals. Broken nutjobs. What can be done with these idiots?
I knew he was not going to deliver on a lot of the good stuff and would follow through on the bad stuff. It’s the iron law of presidents. However, I still can’t come up with a single instance where a Kamala Harris presidency is better. I know it’s not ideal to perpetuate the duopoly, but even the Libertarian Party wasn’t doing shit this time. Chase Oliver seemed like he wasn’t even trying.
I’m trying to stay hopeful – we’re only a few months in, after all. We’ll see.
Once Trump crosses the Rubicon of thumbing his noses not only at the insane rulings handed down by the robed henchmen of the Deep State but their cowardly accomplices on the Supreme Court there will be no turning back, for him, or the US. He knows it and they know it. Battle lines have been drawn. All that’s left is to choose what battlefield to fight on, and who which side can count on and not turn their coats.
Four years from now when Team Blue is in power things will be terrible.
Is he though? Doubt.
Eh. He’s done more in his first three months to fuck over FedGov than he did in his entire first term. Tarries are bad. Are they worse than coofery? Don’t know yet.
It’s still early in but he’s got to stop with the executive order>injunction>no follow through bullshit. Is it succor to his base that he knows will be overturned, in other words he doesn’t want it implemented but politically he feels he has to do it? Only time will tell but it’s looking more and more like a contrived head fake to me. Even DOGE was a bust where they seemed to have shuffled around the “savings” to the Pentagon’s north of a trillion dollar budget. Lean on the legislature to pass something that actually has institutional staying power, Trump, or fuck off.
Happy Friday, you wild and crazy people!
🤪👏🏽🦺
Be safe out there.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MzGnX-MbYE4
🎶🎶
On a plane to Chicago. ALB outdid itself in inefficiency. Precheck shines in this sort of situation.
Safe travels.
Thank’ee
https://www.yahoo.com/news/pregnant-pottstown-woman-accused-shooting-161700675.html
#strongwomen
A Ham Planet seated herself next to me. But she brought a surprisingly chill terrier with her so it’s not too bad.
Ham planet?
You have my attention…..go on
“I was talking to the dog”
Old, old joke…
suh’ fam
yo whats goody
The lady sitting next to Not Adahn may be goody for you at her size.
Thats what I was trying to discern.
And I didnt know if her “chill terrier” was some weird eupehmism.
Good morning, homey, Ted’S., NA, and Sean!
And a bright, shiny Good Morning to TC, Sean, GT, TedS’ and Not Adawn and all the official lurkers/lurkettes
Home today just in time for it to rain….
Good morning, 4(20)!
Well, of course it’s raining, homey! TT & I have Dragons tickets for tonight! 🙄
Morning.
I was able to intentionally sleep in today…. 😴
So the day’s off to a good start. But signs are my sore throat is an upper respiratory infection 🙁
Good morning, U! I hope you’re mistaken about your sore throat, but dose up as well as you safely can before your appointment today! (i.e., nothing that might make you drowsy!)
How are things with you this morning?
Very well, thanks! This is my last day of work until the end of the month. Taking Monday through Wednesday off to keep from maxing out on vacation and going down to our nearby state park lodge Sunday for a few nights.
I’m sorry you’re not feeling well. Hope it blows over, and I hope your appointment today goes quickly and achieves the desired outcome!
Have a happy little vacation.
Sorry for those that care, no Stoic Friday.
I was coughing all night and just took nyquil so I can try to sleep.
Kindly turn your head when you cough.
It will be missed, but it’s far more important for you to rest. Hope you feel better ASAP!
*flips table*
Good morning all from the wilds of SW Virginia.
What are you doing down there?
Repairs/maint on the rental. My tenant was nervous we’re fixing the place up to sell. Just catching up on stuff I had planned to do that got deferred.
I can understand the tenant’s position if you tend to be out of sight and out of mind a lot of the time.
Bristol?
Fancy Gap
https://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2025/04/breaking-fbi-arrests-democrat-new-mexico-judge-wife/
OK. I’m a lil surprised.
I’m not surprised.
[ looks at supply of drugs on floor under Sean’s ass ]
Whoah, whoah, whoah…
Those ain’t mine!
Morning all. Killing time drinking coffee watching random videos….
” ‘Scientists’ surprised to see evidence of massive solar storm ~9500ya when our models show the sun being especially quiet during that period”
” ‘Experts baffled by huge spike in C14 at 775AD when models show….”
I am seeing as many stories like that that you care to find. “We used our models to create a narrative we like but reality doesnt cooperate with our models”
After the ‘tipping points are once again looming’ story from yesterday it would seem the scientific community, though there are some good people out there somewhere, has become a joke. The global warming scam has gone beyond a clown show.