October 7 -The Sum of All Fears

Today’s film is an espionage movie with a scene that happens on October 7. Watch it tonight and enjoy.

THE SUM OF ALL FEARS                

On October 7, 1973 [00:36 to 4:01] an Israeli aircraft carrying a nuclear bomb is shot down over the Golan heights. The bomb is buried by a sandstorm. In 2002, the bomb is found and sold to Olson, a South African scrap metal dealer, who in turn sells it to a neo-Nazi group led by Dressler. Nemerov becomes Russian president.  Jack Ryan, a CIA analyst goes with CIA director Cabot to Moscow, but Ryan’s  girlfriend who had been given his cover story of being a historian doesn’t believe his story of why he missed their date. Ryan and Cabot discover three Russian nuclear scientists are missing.  Cabot’s source inside the Kremlin says the Russians don’t know where they are.  Two renegade Russian generals launch a chemical weapons attack in Chechnya. Nemerov takes responsibility for this publicly because as he says privately it is better for him to seem guilty, rather than weak and unable to contol his own army.  John Clark, a CIA agent  infiltrates the lab where the three missing Russians scientist had been working to build a nuclear bomb and finds them all murdered and the lab empty. The bomb has been sent to Baltimore and planted in the football stadium there. Dressler’s plan is to start a nuclear war between the USA and Russia, allowing the neo-Nazis to seize power in Europe. Cabot and the President are attending a football game in that stadium. But a after a warning call from Ryan, they both get out. The nuclear bomb goes off.  After a neo-Nazi mole inside the Russian air force orders an attack on a US aircraft carrier, President Fowler and his aides are convinced that Russia was behind the bomb. Fowler orders a retaliatory strike on a Russian airbase. Nemerov and Fowler prepare to launch a full scale nuclear strike on the other. Ryan tracks the source of the bomb to plutonium that the USA secretly gave Israel. He is able to use the hotline to tell this fact to Nemerov and asks him to order Russian forces to stand down. Against the advice of his advisors Nemerov does. Fowler then orders US forces to stand down also. Olson and Dressler are assassinated. Nemerov and Fowler sign a new arms control treaty and Jack and Catherine become engaged.

Not the best adaptation of a Clancy novel. It seems to move at a rather ponderous pace at times. It does have excellent special effects.

The Encyclopedia of Military History from 3500 b.c. to the Present by R. Ernest Dupuy & Trevor N. Dupuy (Harper & Row, NY, 1977) p. 1235 gives day war started

Screenplay - Paul Attanasio and Daniel Pyne

Producer - Mace Neufeld                    

Director - Phil Alden Robinson

Runtime – 3 hours 4 minutes

Released – May 31, 2002

Starring –

Ben Affleck as Jack Ryan

Morgan Freeman as William Cabot

Bridget Moynahan as Dr. Catherine Muller

James Cromwell as J. Robert Fowler

Liev Schreiber as John Clark

Michael Byrne as Anatoly Grushkov

Colm Feore as Olson

Alan Bates as Richard Dressler

Ron Rifkin as Sidney Owens

Copyright by Ivan Walters in 2014. 

October 6 - Sadat

Today’s movie is a biographical drama with a scene that happens on October 6. Watch it tonight and enjoy.

SADAT

Captain Sadat is arrested and jailed during World War II for involvement in anti-British activity. As part of a British effort to shore up support after they have to call for an end of the Palestine Trusteeship, Sadat and all other jailed Egyptian officers are released. Sadat then meets and marries his wife Jihan. After a meeting with Gamal Nassar, Sadat is arrested, but released when he agrees to become a mole inside the Free Officers. However, Sadat and Nassar plot a revolution.   Sadat contacts the Muslim Brotherhood, which agrees to support the coup, but tells the government they said no. The Free Officers launch the coup. Later Nassar nationalizes the Suez Canal, provoking the 1956 War. The Americans pressure Israel, Britain and France to end the war after Nassar lies about agreeing to let Israel use the Suez Canal. Nassar unites Egypt with Syria and sends troops to Yemen.  Then Nassar orders UN peacekeepers out of the Sinai, which leads to the Six Day War. Israel occupies the entire Sinai peninsula. After the Israelis start to win, the Soviets want the Egyptian army put under their control, but Nassar refuses. After Nassar dies, Sadat becomes president. Forces on the right and on the left try to squeeze him out, but he successfully thwarts them. He survives a bomb blast. Sadat expels all Soviet troops and advisors.  Sadat launches the October War. While initially successful, Israeli counter attacks cross the Suez Canal and cut off Egyptian troops.  His brother is killed in action. Israeli prime Minster Begin warns Sadat of an attempt to assassinate him by Libya. He offers to go to Jerusalem and he does. This leads to the Camp David Accords and peace with Israel. This annoys many in the Arab world and some inside Egypt. Sadat is assassinated on October 6, 1981. [3:04:47 to 3:08:15]

A mostly truthful biopic. Gossette does a good job portraying Sadat as a visionary.  A film that is well worth watching.

A History of Egypt from Earliest Times to the Present by Jason Thompson (Anchor Books, New York, 2008) at page 338 and the film at 3:05:05 give the date

Producer – Daniel H. Blatt and Robert Singer

Director – Richard Michaels                  

Screenplay – Lionel Chetwynd                              

Runtime – 3 hours 15 minutes         

Released – October 31, 1983                      

Starring –

Louis Gossett Jr. as Anwar al-Sadat

John Rhys-Davies as Jamal Nasser

Madolyn Smith Osborne as Jihan Sadat

Jeremy Kemp as Thompson

Barry Morse as Menachem Begin

Nehemiah Persoff as Leonid Brezhnev

Thaao Penghlis as Amer

Anne Heywood as Mrs. Raouf

Ferdy Mayne as Mullah

Pepe Serna as Atif Sadat

Paul L. Smith as King Farouk

Jeffrey Tamboras Sharaff

Hugh Gillin as American Ambassador

George Morfogen as Salem

Copyright by Ivan Walters in 2014. 

October 5 - In The Name Of The Father

Today’s movie is a drama with scenes that happen on October 5.  Watch it tonight and enjoy.

IN THE NAME OF THE FATHER                

On October 5, 1974 [00:38 to 1:13] we see the Guilford pub bombing. Then in an extended flashback Gerry Conlon tells what happened.  He was part of a gang of burglars in Belfast. When he is mistaken by the British Army for a sniper, this leads to a neighborhood sweep. The IRA have to cause a riot so they can move an arms cache that was located nearby. This angers the IRA’s leadership, so Gerry and Paul Hill move to London, where they live in a squatter’s commune. At the exact time of the bombing on October 5, 1974 [19:15 to 25:58], he and Paul are miles away in a park where they meet a homeless man Charlie Burke. One of the commune members talks to the police, who arrest Gerry and Paul.  Paul confesses and implicates Gerry after he’s threatened and Gerry confesses after the police threaten his father, who’s also arrested as a IRA supporter. They are both tried and convicted. In jail Garry and his father share a cell and are the target of violence by other prisoners. The  real bomber is arrested and tells the police he did it, and not Gerry and Paul, but nothing happens. After the prisoners riot and take over the cellblock, Gerry meets lawyer, Gareth Peirce, who agrees to represent him. When a guard is set on fire, Gerry is the only one who tries to help him. His dad dies in prison, but this allows Gareth to review his file. Gerry is moved to a Scottish jail, but by a stroke of luck Gareth is able to review Gerry’s file and inside discovers new evidence. The police had found Charlie Burke a month after Gerry’s arrest and he confirmed their alibi, but the police decided to prosecute Gerry anyway. The cases against the defendants, including Gerry are dismissed.

An interesting story. A wake-up call for those people who believe the police are always straight arrows. Fortunately in Gerry’s case justice finally prevailed, but only after he spent 15 years in jail.

The Troubles: Ireland’s Ordeal 1966 -1996 and the Search for Peace by Tim Pat Coogan (Roberts Rinehart Publishers, Boulder, CO, 1996) at page 191 and the film at 1:12 give the date of the blast

Awards – The movie was nominated for the Best Picture, Best Actor (Day-Lewis), Best Supporting Actress(Thompson), Best Supporting  Actor (Postlethwaite), Best Director, Best Film Editing and Best Adapted Screenplay at the 66^th Academy Awards.

Producers - Jim Sheridan, Gabriel Byrne, Terry George and Arthur Lappin

Screenplay - Jim Sheridan and Terry George

                                                                     

Director - Jim Sheridan   

Runtime – 2 hours 13 minutes                                                                                               

Released - December 12, 1993                                     

Starring - 

Daniel Day-Lewis as Gerry Conlon                                                                     

Pete Postlethwaite as Giuseppe Conlon

Emma Thompson as Gareth Peirce

John Lynch as Paul Hill

Mark Sheppard as Paddy Armstrong

Beatie Edney as Carole Richardson

Anthony Brophy as Danny

Don Baker as Joe McAndrew

Copyright by Ivan Walters in 2014. 

October 4 - 4:50 From Paddington

Today’s movie is a murder mystery film with a scene that happens on October 4. Watch it tonight and enjoy.

4:50 FROM PADDINGTON                 

On October 4, 1957 [00:46 to 7:26] Elspeth McGillicuddy is traveling by train from London to St. Mary Mead. During the trip, when another train runs parallel to hers for a time she sees a murder in the other train, but cannot identify the killer. She tells her friend Jane Marple. They report the murder to the police, but when no body is found the police lose interest in the case. Miss Marple deduces that the body must have been pushed off the train at Rutherford Hall, a Victorian estate surrounded by a wooded park that abuts the railway line. Miss Marple recruits  Lucy Eyelesbarrow to take a job at the estate as the housekeeper so she can look for the body. Luther Crackenthorpe, the current owner collected a mass of worthless antiquities in his youth. His father wrote his will so that Luther cannot sell the estate and that when Luther dies the estate goes to Luther’s last surviving child or grandchild. Luther is a hypochondriac who is cared for by his daughter Emma and Dr. Quimper. The family consists of  Bryan Eastley, who was married to Luther’s deceased daughter Edith, Cedric, a bohemian painter, Harold Crackenthorpe, a banker and Harold a somewhat shady con man. After some searching Lucy finds the body in a sarcophagus that is part of Luther’s collection. The police now begin an investigation. Then Harold turns up dead in a mantrap set in the park. They identify the victim as a ballet dancer, Anna Stravinska.  Emma reveals that she got a letter from a Frenchwoman, Martine who claimed to have married her dead older brother Edmund at the start of  World War II and had a child by him. She thinks the dead woman might be her. They police wonder about this when they learn Anna Stravinska had been married to an Englishman and her real name was Martine Perrot. Someone breaks into her apartment and steals all her personal papers. Bryan says that he saw Cedric in London on the day of the first murder. Emma tells Alfred she’s engaged to Dr. Quimper and Alfred tells her Quimper “missed” a fatal disease he has. Miss Marple invites  Elspeth McGillicuddy  back and maneuvers Dr. Quimper into a position where Mrs. McGillicuddy recognizes him as the killer. He was married to Martine, but as a Catholic she would not agree to a divorce.  He planned to marry Emma then kill off the rest of the family so he would eventually inherit the Crackenthorpe millions. Quimper tries to run, but is caught by Bryan and arrested.           

Another one of Christie’s classic who-dun-its. Full of characters, clues and red herrings. An excellent mystery.

The date is given in the film at 2:51 on a newspaper.       

Producer – George Gallaccio          

Director – Martyn Friend                                 

Screenplay – T. R.  Bowen                               

Runtime – 1 hour 44 minutes                            

Released – February 25, 1987                          

Starring –

Joan Hickson as Miss Jane Marple

Jill Meager  as Lucy Eyelesbarrow

Mona Bruce as Elspeth McGillicuddy

Maurice Denham as Luther Crackenthorpe

John Hallam as Cedric Crackenthorpe

Bernard Brown as Harold Crackenthorpe

Robert East as Alfred Crackenthorpe

Joanna David as Emma Crackenthorpe

David Beames as  Bryan Eastley

Copyright by Ivan Walters in 2014. 

October 3 - A Painted House

Today’s movie is a drama with a scene that happens on October 3. Watch it tonight and enjoy.

A PAINTED HOUSE                    

In 1952 in eastern Arkansas Eli “Pappy” Chandler, grandfather to Luke hires the Spruills, a family of hill people and some Mexican migrants to pick cotton. Luke’s father Jesse and his wife Kathleen worry about debt and his brother Ricky, who’s in the Army in the ongoing Korean War. Luke develops a crush on 17 year old Tally Spruill. Her brother Hank verbally abuses Luke. They go to town and a fight breaks out between some of the hill people and the Sisco brothers. With Luke watching Hank intervenes in the fight and using a board beats one of the Siscos so badly he later dies. The sheriff comes looking for Hank. Luke is too intimidated by Hank to say what he saw, so Hank is not arrested. Later Hank and one of the Mexicans called Cowboy get into a huge fight after a baseball game. Jesse’s cousin Jimmy Dale comes to visit with his new Yankee bride, who’s disdainful of their lifestyle. Jimmy Dale talks about how much he is making working for GM in Detroit. Luke and Talley spy on the birth of a child to Libby Latcher, that she later says was fathered by Luke’s uncle Ricky. Someone secretly starts painting the Chandler’s house. Tally and Cowboy develop a romantic relationship. On October 3, 1952 [59:34 to1:01:20] on another trip to town Luke sees TV for the first time, watching game 3 of the 1952 World Series. Upon hearing that the sheriff is coming to arrest him, Hank leaves  but spots Tally and Cowboy together. The two fight and Cowboy kills Hank. Luke sees the fight. Cowboy tells him if he ever talks he will return and kill Luke’s mother, so he says nothing. Cowboy and Tally run off to Chicago together. It starts raining continuously, so the rest of the cotton can’t be harvested. The Spruills leave and the Chandlers and the Mexicans just about finish painting the house.  Luke tells his Grandfather about Hank’s death, but they decide never to tell anyone. Jesse Chandler takes a job in Detroit and they leave to start a new life.

Another good coming-of-age story. Luke has to grow up fast in this film. Good local color gives you a sense of really being there.

100 Years of the World Series by Eric Enders (Barnes & Noble Books, 2003) at page 129 gives the game date

Awards -.  Nominated for Outstanding Single Camera Sound Mixing for a Miniseries or a

                   Movie Emmy at the 55^th Primetime Emmy Awards.

Producer – Gordon Wolf                     

Director – Alfonso Arau                                      

Narrator – John Grisham                                      

Screenplay – Patrick Sheane Duncan                   

Runtime – 1 hour 37 minutes

Released – April 27, 2003

Starring –

Scott Glenn as Eli “Pappy” Chandler

Arija Bareikis as Kathleen Chandler

Robert Sean Leonard as Jesse Chandler

Melinda Dillon as Gran Chandler

Logan Lerman as Luke Chandler

Audrey Marie Anderson as Tally Spruill

Pablo Schreiber as Hank Spruill

Luis Garcia as Cowboy

Copyright by Ivan Walters in 2014.

October 2 - Amish Grace

Today’s movie is a drama with a scene that happens on October 2. Watch it tonight and enjoy.

AMISH GRACE                      

Amish mother Ida Graber is considering sending her 14 year old daughter Mary Beth to live with her shunned sister and go to high school as Ida thinks Mary Beth is too smart to end school at eighth grade. The next day, October 2, 1996 Mary Beth starts working at a one room Amish school as a teacher’s aide. Charlie Roberts, who many Amish know as the driver of the truck that collects milk from their farms, enters the school, releases the boys then murders ten girls. [14:39 to 34:02]  Their families are devastated, but some Amish, including Mary Beth’s father go to see Amy Roberts, Charlie’s wife to tell her they forgive her. Ida can’t understand this, and neither does Jill Green, a TV reporter covering the story. Ida walks out of a grief counseling session. The next day when Ida is going with her friend Rachel to see her wounded daughter in the hospital, Amy Roberts appears and offers to take them. They get in the car, but soon Ida gets out. Ida asks Jill Green to drive her and her other daughter to Philadelphia to visit her sisters. In a grief counseling session the Amish have a emotional meeting with Amy Roberts where they say they are forgiving, not to excuse what Charlie did, but to find peace for themselves. Rachel’s daughter comes out of a coma and tells the Grabers that Mary Beth asked to be shot first and said she would pray for Charlie.  This story enables Ida to forgive Charlie. The Amish attend Charlie’s funeral. A new school is built.   

A touching story. It’s a bittersweet one though. Discusses forgiveness and hate and love.

Think No Evil by Jonas Beiler (Simon & Schuster, New York, 2009) p. 44

Producer - Larry A. Thompson

Director - Gregg Champion

Screenplay  - Sylvie White and Teena Booth

Runtime - 88 minutes

Released - March 28, 2010

Starring -

Kimberly Williams-Paisley as Ida Graber

Tammy Blanchard as Amy Roberts

Matt Letscher as Gideon Graber

Fay Masterson as Jill Green

Madison Mason as Levi Brennaman

Darcy Rose Byrnes as Rebecca Knepp

Karley Scott Collins as Katie Graber

Amy Sloan as Rachel Knepp

John Churchill as Charlie Roberts

Madison Davenport as Mary Beth Graber

Copyright by Ivan Walters in 2014.

October 1 - Auntie Mame

Today’s movie is a comedy/drama film with a scene that happens on October 1. Watch it tonight and enjoy.

AUNTIE MAME                            

Edwin Dennis makes out his will giving custody of his son Patrick to his eccentric sister Mame and then promptly dies. On October 1, 1928 [3:13 to 16:31] Patrick arrives in New York in the midst of a wild party being thrown by his Aunt. In spite of their different personalities a strong bond immediately forms between Mame and her nephew. Patrick’s father, while giving custody to Mame, entrusted Patrick’s money to the Knickerbocker Bank and its representative, Mr. Babcock, a staunch conservative who does not get along with Mame. When Mame tries to defy Babcock by enrolling Patrick at a progressive, Montessori type school, Babcock ships Patrick off to a boarding school. Mame loses almost everything in the Stock Market Crash of 1929. She has to take on a series of jobs such as acting, switchboard operator and sales girl at Macys. In this last job she meets bucolic southern oil millionaire  Beauregard Jackson Pickett Burnside (“Bo” for short), who falls in love with her. Mame, Bo and Patrick travel to his plantation where Bo’s former love interest, Sally Cato, tries to sabotage Mame by forcing her to participate in a fox hunt. However, in spite of not being a rider, Mame ends up catching the fox and Bo proposes to her on the spot. The two go on a lengthy around the world honeymoon tour. When Bo is killed in an accident on the Matterhorn, Mame comes back to New York where Patrick has arranged for her to write her autobiography with the help of dissolute Irish poet, Brian O’Bannion and secretary Agnes Gooch. Sometime later Patrick returns, acting as conservative as Babcock and expressing disdain for Mame’s lifestyle. He has met a girl Gloria and Mame cares for Patrick so mush she agrees to do whatever it takes to make him happy. Mame sends O’Bannion and Agnes(to whom Mame has given a makeover) to a party with film executives interested in her book, telling O’Bannion Agnes is actually an incognito heiress, so Mame can meet Gloria. Mame is appalled to discover that Gloria is a shallow twit.  Mame goes to visit Gloria’s parents and finds them just as shallow and anti-Semitic to boot. Mame arranges a dinner party at her apartment inviting Gloria and her family and some of her friends. The result(as Mame secretly hoped) is a disaster. Patrick meets Pegeen Ryan, Mame’s new secretary while Gloria’s family is appalled by the presence of Agnes, who is  pregnant and unmarried as a result of attending the party with O’Bannion. Mame’s publisher and longtime friend  Lindsay Woolsey reads from her just published scandalous autobiography leading to Gloria insulting Mame’s friends. However Patrick defends them. A telegram from O’Bannion reveals he wants half the profits on Mame’s book for his “help” and that he had in fact married Agnes while she was intoxicated. We jump ahead several years. Mame married   Lindsay Woolsey and Patrick married Pegeen Ryan. They have a son Michael who they agree can go spend a few months in India with his great Aunt Mame. 

A classic comedy. The comedy in this film may be a little stilited for today’s audiences. However, they should give it a chance as it is actually a very funny movie with a serious message.  Uses an interesting method of handling fadeouts.

Mame gives the date in the film at 7:10 when Patrick arrives at her apartment.

Producer - Morton DaCosta

Director - Morton DaCosta

Awards – This film was nominated for the Best Picture, Best Actress(Russell), Best Supporting Actress(Cass), Best Art Direction,  Best Cinematography and Best Film Editing Oscars at the 31^st Academy Awards

Screenplay - Betty Comden and Adolph Green

Runtime – 2 hours 23 minutes

Released – December 27, 1958

Starring –

Rosalind Russell as Mame Dennis

Forrest Tucker as Beauregard Jackson Pickett Burnside

Coral Browne as Vera Charles

Fred Clark as Dwight Babcock

Roger Smith as Patrick Dennis – older

Patric Knowles as Lindsay Woolsey

Peggy Cass as Agnes Gooch

Jan Handzlik as Patrick Dennis – younger

Joanna Barnes as Gloria Upson

Pippa Scott as Pegeen Ryan

Lee Patrick as Doris Upson

Willard Waterman as Claude Upson

Robin Hughes as Brian O'Bannion

Connie Gilchrist as Norah Muldoon

Yuki Shimoda as Ito

Brook Byron as Sally Cato MacDougall

Carol Veazie as Mrs. Burnside

Henry Brandon as Acacius Page

Copyright by Ivan Walters in 2014