In article <
4d9c9073-5320-4e2c...@googlegroups.com>,
Michael OConnor <
mpoco...@aol.com> wrote:
> The Man who was Never Born was one of the best Outer Limits episodes, and
> it's plot was recycled for "The Terminator". Landau was a superb actor, but
> his career got off track after the Mission: Impossible years until the late
> 80's when he made a comeback as a top-flite character actor. I can see his
> wanting to work with his wife, but I think they could have found a better
> vehicle than Space: 1999. After two seasons of that his career sunk to where
> he wound up starring in a Gilligan's Island TV movie, and from there it was
> all uphill.
Okay, my fest started with Adventures in Paradise - a horrid, horrid ep
that played like a dramatic Gilligan's Island episode, so it's an
excellent bookend for his career.
The boat and stars aren't in it; it's the adventures of their sidekick,
who's on an island with an English couple and their incredibly annoying
kid (a boy dubbed by a woman) when a Mercury space capsule washes ashore
with a space chimp (sounds just like Gilligan, doesn't it?). Evil
Landau shows up pretending to be from NASA hoping to sell the chimp back
to the USA (I'm really not sure he's even doing anything wrong). They
lock the good guys in an old wooden hut with a heavy iron door. The
good guys find an old Japanese grenade and try to toss it out the window
to kill their guard on the assumption that Landau will kill them all
before he leaves (why would he?). The grenade is a dud, just sits there
and smolders. They realize that if you throw it against the door from
the outside it will explode (why?) and the door will protect them (huh?)
and knowing that all space chimps are taught to bowl as part of their
basic astrochimp training (say what?) they yell BOWL BOWL BOWL out the
door until the space chimp bowls the smoldering grenade against the
door, blowing it open without hurting the captives, and run out and
capture Landau, and threaten to blow his brains out if he refuses to
cheer Hip Hip Hoorah for the space chimp with the others. What the Hell?
> He was also brilliant as James Mason's straight-acting but gay assistant
> Leonard in "North by Northwest". I loved the scene early on when Cary Grant
> is showing all his identification to the bad guys and Landau coldly says,
> "They provide you with such good ones."
A fine, fine film, on tap for later, after I get through the schlocky
stuff.
> I thought he should have won the Oscar for the Tucker movie, as he was the
> automotive insider who was trying to help Preston Tucker build his dream car
> but knew the establishment was going to destroy Tucker and his car.
Oh, that's right, he was in Tucker. I've only seen that once, and was
infuriated when the ending coda turned out to be the exact opposite of
what really happened (see the Hollywood always gets it wrong thread).