Blake Edwards dies at 88!

[druadic]

WOW. This guy was extremely funny and his work was incredible. If you loved "The Pink Panther" cartoons and movies, this guy wrote em! He passed away on Dec 15, but had a good life (1922-2010!) Blake Edwards also wrote the entire musical scores for all his work as well! EVERYONE knows "The Pink Panther" cartoon song!

His work was top notch and I loved Peter Sellers as the bumbling Inspector Closeau. I'm sorry, Steve Martin SUCKED. Peter Sellers was and will always remain the KING of this series. ANY movies Peter Sellers was in, I LOVED THEM. I have a TON of movies with Peter Sellers in them. Yeah, I'm a fan

Blake Edwards also wrote TONS of music for other formats across the board. He will be sorely missed

I wanted to post this earlier, but have been so busy! Glad I could find the date and HAD to post. He was one amazing man! A small bit of gratitude to a shining star in the movie/music business. A silent moment.......

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[sleepy]

Well that's a dirty trick now...

Very sad to hear, and I remember last seeing him in his appearance at The Oscars several or more years ago. He was in a wheelchair while performing a getaway skit, though I don't know if he was disabled at the time or was affecting a sight gag???

No, *cough* Henry Mancini is credited as the composer of The Theme From The Pink Panther, or at least for writing the notes from somewhere...perhaps while listening to the tune for Moon River...

http://www.theage.com.au/news/music/...934345004.html

Mancini had a special love for The Pink Panther, says his daughter, singer Monica Mancini. "I don't think he ever tired of it," she says. "He thought it one of the best demonstrations of the marriage of music and film. You cannot disassociate the cat from the music.

"That one song, in particular, expressed his personality more than anything else he ever wrote. He had this very odd sense of humour. He was really kind of goofy."

The composer did not actually write The Pink Panther theme for the impish feline depicted in the credit sequence. As he related in his 1989 memoir, Did They Mention the Music?, it was originally the stealthy motif for the jewel thief played by David Niven. Only after watching the title animation did he realise that his sneaking-around music was just right, and Niven's underscore also became that of the title character.

So you see, the identity of the actual creator of the piece is still in doubt...until le cass iss salveda.

And yes, I do appreciate Peter Sellers.

[faralos]

I started to watch the remake with Steve Martin and about ten minutes in, I realized that no one could ever replace the late great Peter Sellers! His timing was incredible and he played the poor misift to the hilt where I saw Stave trying too hard to make it look like slap-stick. It's tough to explain...but those fans of Mr. Sellers know of what I speak...Sad to hear Blake Edwards died, he was great in all he had a hand in! Man I hate when we lose great ones and all the crappy ones are still hanging around...ah well r.i.p. Mr. Edwards...

[druadic]

Originally Posted by faralos

I started to watch the remake with Steve Martin and about ten minutes in, I realized that no one could ever replace the late great Peter Sellers! His timing was incredible and he played the poor misift to the hilt where I saw Stave trying too hard to make it look like slap-stick. It's tough to explain...but those fans of Mr. Sellers know of what I speak...Sad to hear Blake Edwards died, he was great in all he had a hand in! Man I hate when we lose great ones and all the crappy ones are still hanging around...ah well r.i.p. Mr. Edwards...

Faralos;

Amen bro; you know exactly what I'm talking about. Steve Martin is funny, but Peter Sellers FIT the Inspector perfectly. HE LIVED that role. I have ALL the Pink Panther movies with Peter Sellers! I even have Murder By Death where he plays Inspector Sidney Wang! I never saw the movie he was in called "The Fiendish Plot Of Dr. Fu Manchu" since it never really did well. Of course, I would still love to see it. Peter Sellers was in a LOT of movies and I have the Video Hounds to Movies book. It's massive and I'll have to take a look at all the movies Peter Sellers was in. I'm also a fan of Burt Kwouk who played Sellers sidekick "Kato". Those two played the perfect roles together.

REVENGE OF THE PINK PANTHER: (both Inspector and Kato fall into a bakery)
KATO: "It's a Bakery" (holding a long john in his hand)
INSPECTOR: "I know that, I know that. At least you're not yellow anymore."
ROFL when this was said - the Inspector ALWAYS picked on Kato and Kato ALWAYS got his revenge.

Blake Edwards as well was in a few movies. I can't remember where, but I can look that up too when I have time. My VP WIP keep me busy - I have three slated for Christmas now

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[mrschultz]

Sad to hear about Blake Edwards.

The thing about Sellers as Clouseau was no matter what crazy stuff was going on or he himself was doing, his demeanor never changed, just amazing acting skill to do that.

Sellers plays 3 roles in Dr Strangelove, with 3 different accents, and gets them all perfectly. Most of the time you don't even realize it's him as the president.

[druadic]

Never saw that movie either. Guess I have a lot to watch! I'm currently watching Return Of The Pink Panther. LOVE IT.

Herbert Lom: "You said Minkey!"

Herbert Lom: "Yes, Clouseau is in Staad. Today a paradise, tomorrow a wasteland."

Herbert Lom is hilarious as well. He goes crazy and ends up in the loony bin. He tries over and over to kill Clouseau but just can't succeed. Funny thing is that the Inspector is his demise. Go figure.

The scene where Sellers uses the vacuum is hilarious, sucking up his mustache and then the parrot in the room. He opens the vacuum and the bird climbs out with his mustache on. "Swine bird! That is my private mustache! Naughty bird!" says Sellers as he peels the mustache off the bird's beak. The bird laughs, flies off and leaves a dump on his coat. ROFL.

Hilarious. No matter what he did, Sellers was just that perfect bumbler of an inspector. I loved how Sellers' character was so oblivious to what was happening around him. He was just too lucky to get as far as he did. His character made lucky decisions and he lived through a lot of hilarity.

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[druadic]

Heh, even Yoda can be funny.

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[faralos]

"Dr. Strangelove, or How I came to love the bomb" is still a hilarious movie! he is also great in Fu Manchu he plays a (very long!) bearded chines 'philosopher'. but the original Casino Royale which also has a slew of great comics and actors in it, also had him in it. The "shot in the dark" was I think his first in the series and a funny movie all around...

[druadic]

Faralos;

Correct. "A Shot In The Dark" was the FIRST Pink Panther movie. It was hilarious.

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I have one movie I couldn't believe I got a hold of on VHS called "Silent Movie" with Mel Brooks, Dom DeLuise, Marty Feldman, and many others. There is ONE WORD of speech in it and the rest of the movie has music, but it is one of Mel Brooks' best movies. I LOVE IT. Better than ALL his other movies including High Anxiety. Which I ALSO have on VHS. If I can find hard to find movies on VHS, I burn em to DVD like Buckaroo Bonzai Across The 8th Dimension and The Rose And The Sword with Rutger Hauer.

[mrschultz]

Originally Posted by druadic

Faralos;

Correct. "A Shot In The Dark" was the FIRST Pink Panther movie. It was hilarious.

I have one movie I couldn't believe I got a hold of on VHS called "Silent Movie" with Mel Brooks, Dom DeLuise, Marty Feldman, and many others. There is ONE WORD of speech in it and the rest of the movie has music, but it is one of Mel Brooks' best movies. I LOVE IT. Better than ALL his other movies including High Anxiety. Which I ALSO have on VHS. If I can find hard to find movies on VHS, I burn em to DVD like Buckaroo Bonzai Across The 8th Dimension and The Rose And The Sword with Rutger Hauer.

A Shot In The Dark was the second Pink Panther movie in '64. The first one was The Pink Panther in '63. Dr. Stangelove was also in '64.


Sorry, Young Frankenstein is the best Mel Brooks movie, followed by Blazing Saddles... I thought Silent Movie was hilarious when I was a kid but re-watching it now not as much. I think all of Mel's movies have now been remastered and are out on Blu-Ray. Young Frankenstein looks fantastic on Blu-Ray on a big screen.

Buckaroo Banzai is available on DVD but goes out of stock often.

The Rose and The Sword was renamed Flesh+Blood and was on DVD for a while but is now out of print, you can pick up used copies on Amazon for a few bucks.

A lot of the more obscure titles are now available on DVD-R, the studios make a few disks and if they sell out they make a few more, or make them to order. The quality is pretty good, I got the 1965 version of "She" that way and it looks pretty good.

[faralos]

And I personally think Blazing Saddles rules! I wasn't thrilled with high anxiety, and silent movie was so-so. But Young Frankenstien was hilarious! "That's Dr. Frahnkenshteen, Not Frankenstein"! leaves me in stitches every time I watch it...
so what? no Ice Pirates, or Time bandits, or Labyrinth (starring David Bowie as the Goblin King!), or the Dark Crystal?

[druadic]

Marty Feldman as Igor in Young Frankenstein: "Bluka!" - horse neighs in the background. You're right, Young Frankenstein was very funny. I still laugh harder at Silent Movie though. Never seen some of Mel's movies like Twelve Chairs.

Well, I have to say ever since the 90's movies to me have died. I haven't seen a new movie that can capture anything from the past. It seems the movie companies have run out of ideas and redo older movies over and over. I have seen a few that are excellent such as "The Professional" which I have the 2 disc edition and "The Italian Job" which has Mark Wahlberg. They are both excellent movies, even though Italian Job is a remake from the 60's release.

I don't know - I say if it's good the first time around, leave the damn thing alone.

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[sleepy]

What made Marty Feldman for me was the short films he did for his two t.v. series, "That's Marty" and *I think* The Marty Feldman Comedy Machine.
The shorts that he did for "That's Marty" were used in the show "Dean Martin Presents the Golddiggers" which was a Summer replacement show.

[faralos]

The marty feldman comedy machine was a hilarious show but getting back to mel, he also (I think it was his first directorial debut) did 'The Producers' with zero mostel The twelve chairs was cute, there is a fortune in jewels hidden in a chair which was part of a set of twelve which have been scattered all throughout the countryside. getting to each one takes some ingenuity! Most of Mel's movies are funny I can't think of any that arent...

[mrschultz]

Originally Posted by faralos

The marty feldman comedy machine was a hilarious show but getting back to mel, he also (I think it was his first directorial debut) did 'The Producers' with zero mostel The twelve chairs was cute, there is a fortune in jewels hidden in a chair which was part of a set of twelve which have been scattered all throughout the countryside. getting to each one takes some ingenuity! Most of Mel's movies are funny I can't think of any that arent...

Yes, The Producers is also hilarious (Zero Mostel was another brilliant comedic actor like Sellers). I've never seen The Twelve Chairs.

Mels' movies are all funny, some more than others but even his worst ones are still worth watching.


Druadic: As for recent movies, when you say since the 90's do you mean since 1990 or since 2000, the 90's had some good stuff: As Good As It Gets, Office Space, LA Confidential, Unforgiven, and, uh, that's all I can think of off the top of my head, maybe A Few Good Men but I don't place that as high as a lot of people do.

The remake trend has gotten out of hand the last 10 years, along with the TV show to movie and comic book to movie trends. I think the only remake I can say I liked was the Batman reboot. The Day the Earth Stood Still, Planet Of The Apes, War Of The Worlds and The Time Machine were abominations, spitting on the originals.

Forgot about Men In Black, that was the 90's also.

Since 2000, it's hard to pick out even as many as from the 90's, V for Vendetta, The Lord Of The Rings trilogy, some of the Pixar films, and uh, can't think of much more really good stuff, there's a lot of "above average" stuff like the Bourne trilogy and Iron Man but I'd say the 2000's had fewer high quality movies than even the 90's

[druadic]

V for Vendetta was EXCELLENT. The Professional, The Lord of the Rings Trilogy was very good but they omitted "Tom Bombadil" once again from the screen from the book. If it wasn't for Tom Bombadil Frodo would never have lived. I can't understand WHY he is always omitted.

As far as I'm concerned, the 40's - 80's were the best movie companies had to offer. Don't get me wrong; there were plenty of excellent films after that like Spaceballs, Schindler's List, Braveheart, YES, Unforgiven; how about Gran Torino (I LOVE this film) and others. Casino Royale. EXCELLENT.

Interview With The Vampire (DVD) which I have is amazing.

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[mrschultz]

Originally Posted by druadic

V for Vendetta was EXCELLENT. The Professional, The Lord of the Rings Trilogy was very good but they omitted "Tom Bombadil" once again from the screen from the book. If it wasn't for Tom Bombadil Frodo would never have lived. I can't understand WHY he is always omitted.

As far as I'm concerned, the 40's - 80's were the best movie companies had to offer. Don't get me wrong; there were plenty of excellent films after that like Spaceballs, Schindler's List, Braveheart, YES, Unforgiven; how about Gran Torino (I LOVE this film) and others. Casino Royale. EXCELLENT.

I have the extended box set of the LOTR trilogy and thought maybe he would show up in the 12 hours of movie on there, but no. I was bummed they only released the theatrical cuts on Blu-Ray, I'll wait for the extended cuts before upgrading those.

I forgot Schindler's list was in the 90's, and Saving Private Ryan.

I liked Gran Torino but thought it was a bit too predictable.

I forgot about the Bond reboot, it might actually be better than the Batman reboot, although Dark Knight was damn good. So there are 2 remakes I've liked, still not a good track record.

I just got the Complete Metropolis on Blu-Ray, the darn movie actually makes sense now, those extra 25 minutes and having everything back in it's original order really make it an interesting story.

If you are a movie fan and ever watched MST3K, the guys from that show now do mp3 commentaries on all kinds of movies, check out rifftrax.com. Since they only sell their audio commentaries they can now do big budget films that they could never get the rights to do on MST3K. I have a special shelf of movies I would normally never buy but have them just for the commentaries by Mike, Kevin, and Bill. They also still do public domain shorts and some public domain movies. But they are at their best ripping apart stinkers like Eragon and the Star Wars Prequels... The forum over there is great also.

[druadic]

Personally, Schindler's List was one of the first movies to really make me see just how much the Jews went through. I never knew it was that bad. Schindler actually did what he could, blowing all his money to save 1,000 Jews which in my book made that man a hero. It did make me cry and the ending was absolutely spectacular, showing all those folks who lived paying respects to a great man. Truly a wonderful film. This film truly captured the truth behind the hell the Jews went through. After watching this film (and owning the VHS version) my heart still aches to know about all that happened to a people that never should have gone through what they did. I have many friends that are Jewish (I am not) and I always talk about this movie and they love to talk about it, the past with their parents and grandparents etc. It is painful for them to talk about it, but they are proud of how far they have come.

Tom Bombadil was going to be added? What happened? I'd LOVE to see those clips or shorts of him. Who played him? WOW.

How about Serenity? ****ING AWESOME movie!!!!

Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber From Fleet Street (I have)

Fear and Loathing In Las Vegas (I have)

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[mrschultz]

Originally Posted by druadic

Tom Bombadil was going to be added? What happened? I'd LOVE to see those clips or shorts of him. Who played him? WOW.

No, I just thought maybe they would add him in the extended cuts since they did so much more character development in those, but he's not even in any deleted stuff I could find.

Got to mention Kung Fu Hustle, had to get that on Blu-Ray, the un-cut version, listen to it with original sound + subtitles and it's even better than the dubbed version.

Also forgot about Pulp Fiction and the Kill Bill movies, pretty good stuff there.

Serenity was great, really nice way to wrap up the cancelled series (except for some of the deaths).

For other recent science fiction I thought Moon was also great, I think District 9 could have been better if they toned down the violence a little, I kept thinking "yea, we know the aliens are being treated badly, stop beating us over the head with it and get on with the story...".