Rob Halliday

Trivia: Mel Brooks makes a "cameo" appearance in Blazing Saddles as State Governor William J. Le Petomane. This intentionally referenced French music hall artist, Joseph Pujol (1857-1945), who took the stage name "Le Petomane." He could break wind at his own will, and used this ability to play songs and extinguish candles on stage, becoming one of France's highest paid and most popular entertainers. However, while Blazing Saddles takes place in 1874, "Le Petomane" only made his stage debut in 1887.

Rob Halliday

Trivia: As a "spoof", Blazing Saddles deliberately included some obvious errors. But one thing impressed me in this film. Saloon singer Madeline Kahn/Lili Von Shtupp sings "I'm Tired", accompanied by six musicians in an orchestra pit in front of the stage. In many westerns a saloon singer is backed by a full orchestra that cannot be seen (for example Marlene Dietrich/Frenchie in Destry Rides Again, whom Madeline Kahn is parodying). So, perhaps inadvertently, Mel Brooks actually got something right.

Rob Halliday

Trivia: The film omits George Smith. An assistant army chaplain, at Rourke's Drift he brought ammunition to the defending soldiers at great personal risk throughout the defence. Had he been a member of the armed forces he would have received a Victoria Cross. Technically, he was not a member of the armed forces and therefore could not receive a medal. Instead, in recognition of his service he was promoted to a full military chaplain. After Rourke's Drift he was always called "Ammunition Smith."

Rob Halliday

Trivia: New York Transit Authority has code words for trains going through subways, based on the departure station and time of departure. Pelham One Two Three means the train left Pelham Bay Park Station at 1:23 pm. Ever since the 1974 film was released, New York Transit authority has made a conscious decision to try very hard not to let subway trains leave Pelham Bay Park Station at 1:23 in the morning or afternoon.

Rob Halliday

Trivia: William Alland who produced The Creature From The Black Lagoon, acted in Citizen Kane as the reporter who investigates Kane's career. During the filming Alland met Mexican cinematographer Gabriel Figueroa Mateos, who told him a legend of an amphibious creature who comes out of the River Amazon to seize women. Alland wrote a story based on the legend, which would form the basis of this 1954 horror film.

Rob Halliday

Trivia: In 1957 folk-singer Ewan MacColl wrote "The First Time Ever I Saw Your Face." In 1969 Roberta Flack recorded this. In 1971 Clint Eastwood was driving through Los Angeles when he happened to hear the record on his car radio. Eastwood so liked it that he included it in Play Misty For Me. Cinema audiences picked up on it, and it became the best selling US record of 1972, turning Roberta Flack into an international star. However, Ewan MacColl said he always hated Flack's version of his song.

Rob Halliday

Trivia: The Inn Of The Sixth Happiness tells the story of Gladys Aylward, an English missionary in China. The casting of Ingrid Bergman in the role was quite amazing, especially considering that Gladys Aylward was still alive at the time. Ingrid Bergman, who exuded glamour throughout the movie, was 5' 9" tall, had blonde hair and retained her native Swedish accent. Gladys Aylward was of rather plain appearance, stood a mere 4' 10" tall, had black hair and spoke with a cockney accent.

Rob Halliday

Trivia: The movie tells the story of James Allen/Paul Muni, an unjustly imprisoned convict, who escapes from a brutal chain gang and ends up a frightened, hunted, homeless vagrant. This was based on the life of Robert Elliott Burns, who was unjustly convicted and placed on a chain gang, from which he escaped. Burns wrote a best-selling book about his experiences and advised on the making of the movie. After the movie's release Burns was granted parole and became a free man. "I Am A Fugitive From A Chain gang" may be unique among Hollywood movies, in that, while the movie had a sad ending, the real-life story that inspired it had a happy ending.

Rob Halliday

Trivia: When scripting "The Producers", Mel Brooks deliberately chose the name Leopold Bloom (aka "Leo Bloom") for the accountant character, the role played by Gene Wilder, because it was the name of the Irish Jew who is the central character of James Joyce's novel "Ulysses."

Rob Halliday

Trivia: When Charlie (Tom Cruise) decides to take Raymond (Dustin Hoffman) across the USA he wants to travel by plane. Raymond refuses, citing the fact that at least one plane from all the airlines on offer have, at some time, crashed. The only airline that Raymond would be willing to travel on is Qantas (the Australian airline) as this has a 100% crash-free record. Since Qantas offers no cross USA flights they have to travel by road. After the release of Rain Man many airlines included the film as part of their in-flight entertainment option, but nearly all of them deleted this scene, since it was hardly good publicity for their flights. The one exception was Qantas, who were proud to include the film in its entirety, thinking this particular scene gave Qantas excellent publicity.

Rob Halliday

Trivia: Wilfrid Brambell portrayed Albert Steptoe as an untidy, badly groomed, slovenly old man. In real life Wilfrid Brambell was a smart dresser who was very particular about his appearance. When episodes of Steptoe and Son were being filmed, either in a television studio, or on location, autograph hunters might congregate hoping to collect the autograph of, or make social contact with the actors. Popular folklore about the programme holds that, after a day's filming, Wilfred Brambell would change from Albert's scruffy clothes into a tailored suit, shave and brush himself, and then blithely walk offset past the sightseers and autograph hunters, who would not recognise the dapper, well-dressed gentleman as the dishevelled Albert Steptoe.

Rob Halliday

Trivia: J M Barrie befriends Sylvia Llewelyn Davies and her four sons. Sylvia is portrayed as a widow, which allows J M Barrie to become something of a surrogate husband and father figure to the Llewelyn Davies family. The truth was rather more complicated: Sylvia's husband, Arthur Llewelyn Davies was still alive when J M Barrie befriended the family, and in 1904 when the stage play of Peter Pan debuted on the London stage. Arthur developed a malignant disease that caused his death in 1907, when J M Barrie paid his medical bills.

Rob Halliday

Trivia: 'Amadeus' had (and still has) the highest budget for wigs for the cast of any film in cinema history.

Rob Halliday

Trivia: For much of ‘Braveheart' Robert the Bruce is torn between the choice of following his conscience by helping William Wallace or submitting to the English as a puppet ruler of Scotland. Thus he serves with the English army at the Battle of Falkirk, but helps Wallace to safety after the Scots are defeated. At the end of the film he is about to finally submit, when he has a change of heart, calls his followers to fight, and defeats the English. This is nonsense. Robert the Bruce was among the first Scottish noblemen to resist English control of Scotland. Edward I's Scottish wars lasted for more than ten years, and, at times, when it seemed that Edward had crushed all opposition, Robert the Bruce (like most Scots) made a half-hearted submission, but he soon took up arms again. There is no record that he was at the Battle of Falkirk (on either side). In 1306, seven months after Wallace's execution, he had himself crowned King of Scotland, provocatively rejecting English authority. For the rest of his life he waged uncompromising war against the English, culminating in his great victory at Bannockburn.

Rob Halliday

Trivia: 'Amadeus' is essentially an extended flashback. The composer Antonio Salieri, now old and embittered, recounts his life story to a young priest. He recalls how, as a young man, he dedicated his life to music by taking a vow of chastity. He became a successful and respected musician. Then his life was disrupted after the child prodigy, Mozart performed for the crowned heads of Europe, demonstrating incredible ability, and composing music that was much better than his. At times Mozart ridiculed Salieri's compositions as old fashioned and badly written. Jealous of Mozart's brilliance, Salieri worked to discredit Mozart and hasten Mozart's early death at 36. Much of these elements of the plot are highly fanciful. Salieri never lived a life of chastity: aged 25 he married Therese Hefferstorter, by whom he had eight children. The portrayal of Salieri as a mature, adult musician eclipsed by the young upstart Mozart is wholly inaccurate. Salieri was only six years older than Mozart: he was born in 1750; Mozart was born in 1756. Like Mozart, Salieri was a child prodigy, performing before the Emperor Joseph II when aged 16. Salieri and Mozart were attached to the Habsburg court in Vienna, here, far from being bitter rivals, they often collaborated. "Amadeus' is accurate in showing how Salieri outlived Mozart: while Mozart died in 1791, Salieri lived until 1825. But he did not harbour animosity to Mozart, instead he was something of a surrogate father to Mozart's youngest son, Franz Xavier Mozart, ensuring that Franz received a good musical (and general) education. Far from being alone and forgotten in his last years, Salieri became a highly regarded music teacher, whose pupils included Franz Liszt, Franz Schubert and Ludwig Van Beethoven.

Rob Halliday

Trivia: Something that I found rather amusing. In the 1968 'Planet Of The Apes' film, its immediate sequels, and the spin-off television series, apes have acquired a high level of intelligence, but lack technology. They can construct simple houses and buildings, write books, cultivate the land for food, organise governmental systems, but they cannot make machines, or run factories. Yet the apes possess vast quantities of guns, and have an unlimited supply of ammunition, which they apply to keep humans under control. Like or loathe firearms, it requires a great level of technical skill and resource to make a gun. Soon many people began to ask: how can the apes have so many guns, when they have no factories in which to make them? It was not long before somebody found a simple answer to what seemed like an unanswerable conundrum. All the weapons were left over from World War III, and discovered by the apes after they evolved.

Rob Halliday

Trivia: After the execution of Charles I / Alec Guiness, Oliver Cromwell / Richard Harris returns to his home. Sitting by the fire, he is consoled by his wife: he can now put the cares and worries of war and politics behind him, and enjoy a quiet life as a country gentleman. This cosy domesticity is rudely interrupted when some of his old colleagues arrive to tell him tell him that he is now needed to run the country. He protests that, as a country gentleman he would be unfit for such a role, but he reluctantly assumes power. In fact, by the time of Charles I's execution Oliver Cromwell was one of the most powerful political figures and military commanders in Britain, and actively continued commanding armies in Ireland, Scotland and England, and involving himself in government. Although rejecting a suggestion that he should be crowned king (after much deliberation), he was quite willing to take the title of 'Lord Protector' and govern England, Scotland, Ireland and Wales until his death in 1658.

Rob Halliday

Trivia: Peter O'Toole is a great actor, and delivers a commanding performance as 'Lawrence Of Arabia'. Much of the presence that he exudes when portraying T.E. Lawrence derives from his height (Peter O'Toole is 6 foot 2 inches tall). But Lawrence of Arabia was only 5 foot 5 inches tall (at a time when the average height for men was 5 foot 9 inches). For much of his life T.E. Lawrence forced himself to great tests of endurance to increase his strength and stamina, it is possible that this was to compensate for feelings of inferiority over his short stature.

Rob Halliday

Trivia: A crucial point occurs quite early on in the fight between Draba and Spartacus, being staged for the entertainment of Crassus. Spartacus is defeated, and lies at Draba's mercy. Crassus smugly points to Draba with a downturned thumb. In the film the gesture is meant to signal 'kill him'. Classical historians are generally agreed that the Romans used the gesture called, in Latin 'pollice verso' (which translates as 'turned thumb') as a signal to gladiators, but nobody is sure which gestures applied. Some argue that a downturned thumb meant 'drive your sword into him' (kill him), which is the case here: had Crassus felt merciful he would have displayed an upturned up thumb, meaning 'raise your weapon' (spare him). However, many experts argue that an upturned thumb meant 'raise your weapon to kill him', while a downturned thumb meant 'drop your weapon and spare him'. It has also been suggested that both schools of thought were wrong: instead Romans who wanted a gladiator to dispatch a defeated foe pointed sideways, meaning 'run your sword into him', but if they wanted to spare a fallen gladiator they displayed a fist with the thumb tucked inside, meaning 'sheath your sword' (or put your sword back into the scabbard). Unfortunately since the greatest classical historians and archaeologists have been debating this for over a century, and never resolved the point, any film director wishing to stage a classical epic film will probably have to use his or her discretion and chose whichever version they think best.

Rob Halliday