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Michael Armstrong (filmmaker)
Michael Armstrong (born 24 July 1944 in Bolton, Lancashire) is an English writer and director. Armstrong trained at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art and was writing and directing films at the age of 22 with the award-winning short, '' The Image'' starring David Bowie and Michael Byrne. The following year, he wrote and directed his first feature film, ''The Haunted House of Horror'', starring Frankie Avalon, Jill Haworth, Mark Wynter, Richard O'Sullivan and Dennis Price, following it with the notorious '' Mark of the Devil'', starring Herbert Lom and Udo Kier which exceeded box office expectations in Europe and America on its first release in 1970 and has grown to be considered a cult film. Since then, Armstrong’s film credits have included the highly successful sex comedies ''The Sex Thief'' (1973) and '' Eskimo Nell'' (1975), both of which featured Armstrong himself, ''Adventures of a Private Eye'' (1977), and ''House of the Long Shadows'' (1983) starring Vincent Price, Chri ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Fantastic Films Weekend
The fantastic (french: le fantastique) is a subgenre of literary works characterized by the ambiguous presentation of seemingly supernatural forces. Bulgarian-French structuralist literary critic Tzvetan Todorov originated the concept, characterizing the fantastic as the hesitation of characters and readers when presented with questions about reality. Definitions The fantastic is present in works where the reader experiences hesitation about whether a work presents what Todorov calls "the uncanny", wherein superficially supernatural phenomena turn out to have a rational explanation (such as in the Gothic works of Ann Radcliffe) or "the marvelous", where the supernatural is confirmed by the story. Todorov breaks down the fantastic into a manner of systems, filled with conditions and properties that make it easier to understand. The fantastic requires the fulfillment of three conditions. First, the text must oblige the reader to consider the world of the characters as a world o ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Udo Kier
Udo Kierspe (born 14 October 1944), known professionally as Udo Kier, is a German actor. Known primarily as a character actor, Kier has appeared in more than 220 films in both leading and supporting roles throughout Europe and the Americas. He has collaborated with acclaimed filmmakers such as Lars von Trier, Gus Van Sant, Werner Herzog, Rainer Werner Fassbinder, Walerian Borowczyk, Kleber Mendonça Filho, Dario Argento, Charles Matton, Guy Maddin, Alexander Payne, and Paul Morrissey. Early life Kier was born in Cologne, near the end of World War II. The hospital where he was born was bombed by the invading Allied forces moments after his birth, and he and his mother had to be dug out of the rubble. He grew up without a father. In his youth, he was an altar boy and cantor. He moved to London, England at the age of 18 to learn English. Career In 1966, Kier was cast in the lead role for the film ''Road to St. Tropez''. An early starring role in Andy Warhol's Frankenstein (19 ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Los Angeles
Los Angeles ( ; es, Los Ángeles, link=no , ), often referred to by its initials L.A., is the largest city in the state of California and the second most populous city in the United States after New York City, as well as one of the world's most populous megacities. Los Angeles is the commercial, financial, and cultural center of Southern California. With a population of roughly 3.9 million residents within the city limits , Los Angeles is known for its Mediterranean climate, ethnic and cultural diversity, being the home of the Hollywood film industry, and its sprawling metropolitan area. The city of Los Angeles lies in a basin in Southern California adjacent to the Pacific Ocean in the west and extending through the Santa Monica Mountains and north into the San Fernando Valley, with the city bordering the San Gabriel Valley to it's east. It covers about , and is the county seat of Los Angeles County, which is the most populous county in the United States with an estim ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Return Of The Saint
''Return of the Saint'' is a British action-adventure television series that aired for one series in 1978 and 1979 in Britain on ITV, and was also broadcast on CBS in the United States. It was co-produced by ITC Entertainment and the Italian broadcaster RAI and ran for 24 episodes. Premise ''Return of the Saint'' is a revival/updating of ''The Saint'', a programme based upon the stories of Leslie Charteris that had originally aired from 1962 to 1969, and starred Roger Moore as Simon Templar (the character, in turn, had been introduced by Charteris in a series of novels and short stories dating back to 1928). The new series starred Ian Ogilvy as Templar, an independently wealthy, somewhat mysterious 'do-gooder' known as 'The Saint'. Templar is shown travelling around Britain and Europe, helping out the people he encounters, though he is also often summoned by past acquaintances. The series borrowed a few storytelling elements from its predecessor. Once again, each episode began ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Shoestring (TV Series)
''Shoestring'' is a British detective fiction drama series, set in an unnamed city in the West of England and filmed in Bristol, featuring the down-at-heel private detective Eddie Shoestring (Trevor Eve), who presents his own show on Radio West, a local radio station. Broadcast on BBC1, the programme lasted for two series, between 30 September 1979 and 21 December 1980, featuring a total of 21 episodes. After the second series was broadcast Eve decided not to return to the role, as he "wanted to diversify into theatre roles". Subsequently, the production team began taking popular elements of the series and revising them for a new series, '' Bergerac'', set in Jersey and first shown in 1981. BBC Books published two novels written by Paul Ableman, ''Shoestring'' (1979) and ''Shoestring's Finest Hour'' (1980). ''Shoestring'' was repeated on terrestrial television in January 2002, with 14 of the 21 episodes being shown airing back to back on daytime BBC One. However, due to schedulin ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
The Professionals (TV Series)
''The Professionals'' is a British crime-action television drama series produced by Avengers Mark1 Productions for London Weekend Television (LWT) that aired on the ITV network from 1977 to 1983. In all, 57 episodes were produced, filmed between 1977 and 1981. It starred Martin Shaw, Lewis Collins and Gordon Jackson as agents of the fictional "CI5" (Criminal Intelligence 5, alluding to the real-life MI5 and CID). ''The Professionals'' was created by Brian Clemens, who had been one of the driving forces behind '' The Avengers''. The show was originally to have been called ''The A-Squad''. Clemens and Albert Fennell were executive producers, with business partner Laurie Johnson providing the theme music. Sidney Hayers produced the first series in 1977, and Raymond Menmuir the remainder. Outline CI5 - or Criminal Intelligence 5, is a British law enforcement department, instructed by the Home Secretary to use any means to deal with crimes of a serious nature that go beyond the cap ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
John Carradine
John Carradine ( ; born Richmond Reed Carradine; February 5, 1906 – November 27, 1988) was an American actor, considered one of the greatest character actors in American cinema. He was a member of Cecil B. DeMille's stock company and later John Ford's company, best known for his roles in horror films, Westerns, and Shakespearean theater. In the later decades of his career, he starred mostly in low-budget B-movies. In total, he holds 351 film and television credits, making him one of the most prolific English-speaking actors of all time. Carradine was married four times, had five children, and was the patriarch of the Carradine family, including four sons and four grandchildren who are or were also actors. Early life Carradine was born in New York City, the son of William Reed Carradine, a correspondent for the Associated Press, and his wife, Genevieve Winnifred Richmond, a surgeon.Krebs, Albin. "John Carradine, Actor, Dies; appeared in Numerous Roles", ''New York Times,'' Nov ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Peter Cushing
Peter Wilton Cushing (26 May 1913 – 11 August 1994) was an English actor. His acting career spanned over six decades and included appearances in more than 100 films, as well as many television, stage, and radio roles. He achieved recognition in his home country for his leading performances in the Hammer Productions horror films from the 1950s to 1970s, while earning international prominence as Grand Moff Tarkin in ''Star Wars'' (1977). Born in Kenley, Surrey, Cushing made his stage debut in 1935 and spent three years at a repertory theatre before moving to Hollywood to pursue a film career. After making his motion picture debut in the film '' The Man in the Iron Mask'' (1939), Cushing began to find modest success in American films before returning to England at the outbreak of the Second World War. Despite performing in a string of roles, including one as Osric in Laurence Olivier's film adaptation of ''Hamlet'' (1948), Cushing struggled greatly to find work during this peri ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Christopher Lee
Sir Christopher Frank Carandini Lee (27 May 1922 – 7 June 2015) was an English actor and singer. In a long career spanning more than 60 years, Lee often portrayed villains, and appeared as Count Dracula in seven Hammer Horror films, ultimately playing the role nine times. His other film roles include Francisco Scaramanga in the James Bond film '' The Man with the Golden Gun'' (1974), Count Dooku in several ''Star Wars'' films (2002–2008), and Saruman in both the ''Lord of the Rings'' film trilogy (2001–2003) and the ''Hobbit'' film trilogy (2012–2014). Lee was knighted for services to drama and charity in 2009, received the BAFTA Fellowship in 2011, and received the BFI Fellowship in 2013. He credited three films for making his name as an actor, ''A Tale of Two Cities'' (1958), in which he played the villainous marquis, and two horror films, ''The Curse of Frankenstein'' (1957), and '' Dracula'' (1958). He considered his best performance to be that of Pakistan' ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Vincent Price
Vincent Leonard Price Jr. (May 27, 1911 – October 25, 1993) was an American actor, art historian, art collector and gourmet cook. He appeared on stage, television, and radio, and in more than 100 films. Price has two stars on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, one for motion pictures and one for television. Price's first film role was as leading man in the 1938 comedy '' Service de Luxe''. He became well known as a character actor, appearing in films such as '' The Song of Bernadette'' (1943), '' Laura'' (1944), ''The Keys of the Kingdom'' (1944), ''Leave Her to Heaven'' (1945), '' Dragonwyck'' (1946), and ''The Ten Commandments'' (1956). He established himself as a recognizable horror-movie star after his leading role in '' House of Wax'' (1953). He subsequently starred in other horror films, including '' The Fly'' (1958), ''House on Haunted Hill'' (1959), ''Return of the Fly'' (1959), ''The Tingler'' (1959), '' The Last Man on Earth'' (1964), ''Witchfinder General'' (1968), '' The A ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
House Of The Long Shadows
''House of the Long Shadows'' is a 1983 British comedy horror film directed by Pete Walker. It is notable because four iconic horror film stars (Vincent Price, Christopher Lee, Peter Cushing and John Carradine) are together in one feature. The screenplay by Michael Armstrong is based on the 1913 novel '' Seven Keys to Baldpate'' by Earl Derr Biggers, which was also adapted into a famous play that gave birth in turn to several films. Plot summary Kenneth Magee (Desi Arnaz, Jr.), a young writer, bets his publisher (Richard Todd) $20,000 that he can write a novel of the caliber of ''Wuthering Heights'' in 24 hours. To get in the mood for the undertaking, he goes to a deserted Welsh manor. Upon his arrival, however, Magee discovers that Bllyddpaetwr Manor is not as empty as he was told. Still there are Lord Grisbane ( Carradine) and his daughter, Victoria (Sheila Keith), who have been maintaining the mansion on their own. As the stormy night progresses, more people come to the ma ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Adventures Of A Private Eye
''Adventures of a Private Eye'' is a 1977 British sex comedy film directed by Stanley Long and starring Christopher Neil, Suzy Kendall, Harry H. Corbett and Liz Fraser. It followed the 1976 film ''Adventures of a Taxi Driver'' and was followed the next year by ''Adventures of a Plumber's Mate''. Cast * Christopher Neil as Bob West * Suzy Kendall as Laura Sutton * Harry H. Corbett as Sydney * Diana Dors as Mrs. Horne * Liz Fraser as Violet * Adrienne Posta as Lisa Moroni * Jon Pertwee as Judd Blake * Irene Handl as Miss Friggin * Anna Quayle as Medea * Ian Lavender as Derek * Willie Rushton as Wilfred * Fred Emney as Sir Basil * Julian Orchard as Police Cyclist * Robin Stewart as Scott * Veronica Doran as Maud * Angela Scoular as Jane Hogg * Jonathan Adams as Inspector Hogg * Richard Caldicot as Craddock * Hilary Pritchard as Sally * Nicholas Young as Legs Luigi * Linda Regan as Clarissa * Leon Greene as Rosco * Shaw Taylor Eric Stanley Taylor (26 October 1924 – 17 Ma ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
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