Download MP3 In today's episode Nate and Austin compare Terence Young's best and worst rated films, Wait Until Dark (1967) and Inchon (1981), respectively. Nate is seeing in black and white, Austin flirts with Audrey Hepburn, and they both watch one of the worst movies ever made. Spoiler alert: it sucked. Check back next Sunday at 7pm PST where we will compare Luc Besson's Leon: The Professional (1994) and Arthur and the Revenge of the Maltazard (2009), his best and worst rated films.
Also check out this segmented series of behind the scenes footage from the making of Inchon: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JWsmCVhq9XQ
Inchon Notes
Worst Rated
PLOT: During the Korean War, General Douglas MacArthur masterminds the amphibious invasion of Inchon in September 1950.- Ratings: IMDb 2.7 | RT 0% C / 9% A
- Released: 1981
- Director: Terence Young
- Writer(s): Robin Moore and Laird Koenig (screenplay), Robin Moore and Paul Savage (story)
- Cinematographer: Bruce Surtees (Dirty Harry, Beverly Hills Cop, Escape from Alcatraz)
- Notable actors: Laurence Olivier, Jacqueline Bisset, Ben Gazzara, Toshiro Mifune, Richard Roundtree, David Janssen, Kung-won Nam, Gabriele Ferzetti, Rex Reed, Sabine Sun, Dorothy James, Karen Kahn, Lydia Lei, James T. Callahan
- Budget: $46 million
- Box office: $5.2 million
- Fun Facts:
- When location filming ran past the original production schedule, Laurence Olivier insisted on being paid his "bonus salary" in weekly cash payments, delivered to him as briefcases full of money, flown to the location by helicopter.
- The movie had an estimated loss of $44,100,000.
- The recreation of the Inchon lighthouse was destroyed by a typhoon during filming, and had to be rebuilt.
- Most of the cast and crew were paid in cash, which furthered suspicions that it was funded by the controversial Unification Church.
- The film has never officially been released on home video or DVD. It was broadcast on cable TV during the early 2000s.
- The climactic scene of the fleet coming into harbor had to be re-shot when an assistant director misinterpreted instructions and ordered the ships to head out of camera range.
- The United States Department of Defense supplied 1,500 American troops (stationed in Korea) as extras. When they found out the Unification Church was one of the financial backers, they withdrew support and asked that credit be removed.
- Initial footage of Gen. Douglas MacArthur's final limo scene was rejected because the crowd was too small. The scene was re-shot in Korea, but the shots of the crowds and the limo didn't match. Finally, the crew rented a studio in Dublin and put the limo against a rear projection of the crowds. The three-minute scene cost over $3 million.
Wait Until Dark Notes
Best Rated
PLOT: A recently blinded woman is terrorized by a trio of thugs while they search for a heroin-stuffed doll they believe is in her apartment.- Ratings: IMDb 7.9 | RT 95% C / 91% A
- Released: 1967
- Director: Terence Young
- Writer(s): Frederick Knott (play), Robert Carrington & Jane-Howard Hammerstein (screenplay)
- Cinematographer: Charles Lang (Some Like It Hot, The Magnificent Seven, Charde)
- Notable actors: Audrey Hepburn, Alan Arkin, Richard Crenna, Efrem Zimbalist Jr., Jack Weston
- Budget: $3 million
- Box office: $17.5 million
- Fun Facts:
- In an interview, Alan Arkin talked about the Oscar nominations he received for his early major film roles (The Russians Are Coming! The Russians Are Coming! (1966) and The Heart Is a Lonely Hunter (1968). When asked if he was surprised that he was overlooked for "Wait Until Dark", his second movie, he replied: "You don't get nominated for being mean to Audrey Hepburn!"
- During World War II, 16-year-old Audrey Hepburn was a volunteer nurse in a Dutch hospital. During the battle of Arnhem, Hepburn's hospital received many wounded Allied soldiers. One of the injured soldiers young Audrey helped nurse back to health was a young British paratrooper - and future director - named Terence Young who more than 20 years later directed Hepburn in Wait Until Dark (1967).
- In his non-fiction book Danse Macabre, Stephen King declared this to be the scariest movie of all time and that Alan Arkin's performance "may be the greatest evocation of screen villainy ever."
- The role that eventually went to Alan Arkin was difficult to cast because the producers couldn't find actors willing to be cast in such a villainous role - not only terrorizing a blind woman, but terrorizing beloved Audrey Hepburn to boot! Alan Arkin later went on to say how easy it was for him to get the role because of the reluctance of other actors to take it.
- During the credits there is no credit for costumes, this is because Audrey Hepburn herself picked the clothes she wore from the stores in Paris.
- Audrey Hepburn's only horror film, despite it more commonly being categorized as a suspense-thriller.
- As a way to get people to see the movie, the filmmakers made a print ad and cautionary trailer that read: 'During the last eight minutes of this picture the theatre will be darkened to the legal limit, to heighten the terror of the breathtaking climax which takes place in nearly total darkness on the screen. If there are sections where smoking is permitted, those patrons are respectfully requested not to jar the effect by lighting up during this sequence. And of course, no one will be seated at this time.' It worked and the film became a huge success because of it.
Intro music: Calm The Fuck Down - Broke For Free / CC BY 3.0