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Martin Landau Memorial Film Festival

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anim8rfsk

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Jul 16, 2017, 11:42:59 PM7/16/17
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Digging around to see what of his I have to watch.

His excellent Outer Limits ep, The Man Who Was Never Born, was on the
retro channel last week, so I've just seen it.

I saw him on stage in DRACULA (the version with the Gorey stage
dressings); I'd dearly love to find a video of that, but I despair that
such a thing exists.

The Netflix only offers a recent version of The Rounders.

I've got his stint on ADVENTURES IN PARADISE on the cloud, as well as
Space: 1999 and North by Northwest (that one's a lock)

The Amazon Instant has a *lot* of results from a search for 'Martin
Landau' but most of them aren't free, and a lot of them are dubious -
for instance, it claims he guest starred in an unnamed season 3 episode
of Star Trek Deep Space Nine, but I can't find anything to substantiate
that.
They've got all three of his Mission: Impossible seasons (I'll probably
watch the one with Joan Collins, same notation for Space: 1999) and some
things I've never heard of: Lovely, Still; Remember; Empire State
(which the description bizarrely says takes place in England); The
Return.

Anybody got any favorite Martin Landau moments?

--
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Capricorne

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Jul 17, 2017, 12:09:51 AM7/17/17
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anim8rfsk wrote :
Yes, the one with Woody Allen.

FPP

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Jul 17, 2017, 12:26:47 AM7/17/17
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Without a doubt, playing Bela Lugosi in Ed Wood. Ordered it on blu-ray
a week ago, and, coincidentally, it was delayed until this week.

"No one gives two fucks for Bela." - one of the finest lines he ever
delivered...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PMdvRIj6soM

2:30 in...

--
"Tinkle, tinkle little Czar, Putin put you where you are." -George Takei

A Friend

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Jul 17, 2017, 12:29:38 AM7/17/17
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In article <anim8rfsk-D9268...@news.easynews.com>,
Back in M:I days, Landau co-hosted Mike Douglas's talk show for a week.
I remember him trying to explain how his Method acting classes worked
by sitting on the floor and acting like a gorilla. He stuck out his
lips, and I think he pretended to peel a banana.

anim8rfsk

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Jul 17, 2017, 12:55:25 AM7/17/17
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In article <170720170029313254%no...@noway.com>,
Hah! I love it.

Michael OConnor

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Jul 17, 2017, 1:13:22 AM7/17/17
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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.

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."

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.

Adam H. Kerman

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Jul 17, 2017, 1:26:20 AM7/17/17
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Michael OConnor <mpoco...@aol.com> wrote:

>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."

Straight acting?

I always assumed he'd have figured out a way to get rid of Eva Marie Saint
without objection from James Mason regardless of having proved that she'd
betrayed Mason, just out of jealousy.

anim8rfsk

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Jul 17, 2017, 2:05:54 AM7/17/17
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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).

anim8rfsk

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Jul 17, 2017, 2:13:30 AM7/17/17
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In article <okhhid$is7$1...@dont-email.me>,
In interviews Landau says he decided to play the character gay, meaning
he wasn't written that way. I'm not sure I believe it unless they
altered the work some to accommodate him (which doesn't sound like
Hitchcock); certainly Mason was in on it with him in the scenes in the
house on top of Mount Rushmore.

Adam H. Kerman

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Jul 17, 2017, 2:47:19 AM7/17/17
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anim8rfsk <anim...@cox.net> wrote:
>"Adam H. Kerman" <a...@chinet.com> wrote:
>>Michael OConnor <mpoco...@aol.com> wrote:

>>>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."

>>Straight acting?

>>I always assumed he'd have figured out a way to get rid of Eva Marie Saint
>>without objection from James Mason regardless of having proved that she'd
>>betrayed Mason, just out of jealousy.

>In interviews Landau says he decided to play the character gay, meaning
>he wasn't written that way. I'm not sure I believe it unless they
>altered the work some to accommodate him (which doesn't sound like
>Hitchcock); certainly Mason was in on it with him in the scenes in the
>house on top of Mount Rushmore.

Yeah, I just read that. It was usually said about Hitchcock that he
didn't interfere with an actor's interpretation unless absolutely
necessary.

I always figured it was Hitchcock trying to get something past the censors,
like the train entering the tunnel. The performance made the character
particularly off putting, which worked really well.

Michael OConnor

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Jul 17, 2017, 9:01:09 AM7/17/17
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> I always figured it was Hitchcock trying to get something past the censors,
> like the train entering the tunnel. The performance made the character
> particularly off putting, which worked really well.

I never understood how Hitchcock got the line past the censors where Landau says, "Call it my woman's intuition...", which is about as close as a character can come to saying that they are gay in a movie in 1959.

A Friend

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Jul 17, 2017, 9:09:08 AM7/17/17
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In article <okhma9$a6$2...@dont-email.me>, Adam H. Kerman <a...@chinet.com>
Landau said he and writer Ernest Lehman put in a line about Leonard
having "women's intuition" as a signal that he was gay. Landau said
Hitchcock knew all about it and approved. From the Telegraph, October
12 2012:

"I chose to play Leonard as a gay character. It was quite a big risk in
cinema at the time. My logic was simply that he wanted to get rid of
Eva Marie Saint with such a vengeance, so it made sense for him to be
in love with his boss, Vandamm, played by James Mason. Every one of my
friends thought I was crazy, but Hitchcock liked it. A good director
makes a playground and allows you to play."

Other good stuff in there, too.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/film/starsandstories/9601547/Martin-L
andau-I-chose-to-play-Leonard-as-gay.html

Barry Margolin

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Jul 17, 2017, 10:32:51 AM7/17/17
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In article <c1d0d047-a16f-4bea...@googlegroups.com>,
I think censors often allowed double entendres through. They could
rationalize this as being sarcastic.

--
Barry Margolin
Arlington, MA

Adam H. Kerman

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Jul 17, 2017, 11:29:39 AM7/17/17
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Good find. That makes perfect sense.

Michael OConnor

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Jul 17, 2017, 11:47:20 AM7/17/17
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> > 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).

I liked that Tucker had that Frank Capra feel to it, that "one man vs. the establishment" concept, although you knew all along things weren't going to go his way in the end.

anim8rfsk

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Jul 17, 2017, 12:00:56 PM7/17/17
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In article <ace8d2ff-4b7b-416f...@googlegroups.com>,
Yeah, Capra, I get that. Good observation!
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