On this whirlwind episode of COL Movies.. Join Steve Jeff and Myself as we throw back….waaaaaay back to 1934’s controversial smash hit “The Black Cat” Do the two Icons of cinema Horror Karloff and Lugosi show us whats up? And whats up with that music? Then we go all topsy turvy! In the present we jump into the not so distant future and check out Hugh Jackman and Evangeline LIlly in the cinema tour de force of “Rockem Sock em..Robo…….errrr “Real Steel” Can our love of Giant Robots pull this one out of the corner? And Finally the Boys get teased about “The Hunger Games” Is the one minute and five second teaser enough to get us ready to jump into the theater next march? All this and More on the next reel steel episode of COL Movies! : It All Sounds Like a Bunch of Supernatural Baloney To Me

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The Past: The Black Cat (1934)

Rotten Tomatoes: 86% Fresh, 74% Audience

Director: Edgar G. Ulmer

Starring: Boris Karloff, Bela Lugosi and David Manners

Trivia:

• The satanic prayer Poelzig chants during the black mass scene consists of phrases in Latin, the most recognizable being “cum grano salis” (with a grain of salt).
• Edgar G. Ulmer admitted in an interview that Edgar Allan Poe’s story was credited to draw public attention, despite the fact it had nothing to do with the story in the movie.
• Censors in Italy, Finland and Austria banned the movie outright, while others required cuts of the more gruesome sequences.
• This was Universal’s biggest hit of 1934.
• The set of the main room in Poelzig’s house were built for $1,500.
• The first of eight movies to pair Boris Karloff and Bela Lugosi.
• Among the unconventional elements of this film was the soundtrack. At a time (early 1930s) when movie music was usually limited to the titles and credits, Edgar G. Ulmer had an almost continuous background score throughout the entire film.
• Boris Karloff’s character is named after Austrian architect and art director Hans Poelzig. Poelzig worked on Der Golem, wie er in die Welt kam, on which director Edgar G. Ulmer was set designer.
• Edgar G. Ulmer dubbed Boris Karloff’s line at the end of the chess match: “You lose, Vitus”.
• Edgar G. Ulmer dubbed Bela Lugosi’s voice instructing his servant to “wait here” before accompanying Boris Karloff down to be shown his preserved dead wife.
• The ill-fated bus driver is a direct homage to the doorman in Der letzte Mann, on which Edgar G. Ulmer worked as Production Designer.
• Director Edgar G. Ulmer, when writing this film, loosely based the villain Hjalmar Poelzig, played by Boris Karloff, on director Fritz Lang. Ulmer knew Lang from the German-Austrian film scene and, though he was a huge admirer of Lang’s films, felt Lang to be a sadist as a director.
• The only Universal picture until The Wolf Man to introduce the major characters during the opening credits, and the actors playing them, with brief clips from the movie.
• Part of the original SHOCK THEATER package of 52 Universal titles released to television in 1957, followed a year later with SON OF SHOCK, which added 21 more features.

Talking Points:

• Lighting in back and white movies
• Score
• The Performances of Karloff and Lugosi
• The “Frank Lloyd Wright” style house in the 1930s

What We’ve Learned:

• Quality of acting is not needed, as long as you look as creepy as your character is supposed to be!
• Its better to be Frightened than be crushed!
• Apparently Ikea was furnishing homes in 1934 Hungary

A good cast is worth repeating

Trailer:
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Recommendations:
Jeff: *looks around* Was this movie suppose to be scary? The acting was typical for the era. Just felt like an plain ordinary film to me. Not bad to watch if you’re doing a Legosi or Karloff marathon or something. Otherwise, skip it.
Ray: Interesting watch… I can see why Lugosi and Karloff played so many “monsters” they both have creepy down to a science.
Steve: Creepy! The black and white worked for this movie, too. Worth seeing from a horror history point of view.

The Present: Real Steel

Rotten Tomatoes: 58% Rotten, 83% Audience

Director: Shawn Levy

Starring: Hugh Jackman, Evangeline Lilly and Dakota Goyo

Trivia:

• Michigan was chosen to film this movie by director Shawn Levy because he was blown away by the Model T Automobile plant in Highland Park near Detroit. He felt it was the perfect set for the first fight scene called Crash Palace in the film. No other location he visited in New Mexico, Los Angeles, or Georgia came close.
• The third film of director Shawn Levy to be released in the IMAX format. The other two are Night at the Museum and Night at the Museum: Battle of the Smithsonian.
• Much of the robot boxing fights were motion-captured using professional boxers, supervised by Sugar Ray Leonard.
• In an apparent nod to Rocky, the world champion robot is named “Zeus”, while in ‘Rocky’, the champion is named “Apollo” Creed. In mythology, Apollo is the son of Zeus.
• In an obvious nod to the iconic game “Rock’em, Sock’em, Robots”, during the Atom/Zeus fight, Mashido assumes manual control of Zeus and grabs two simple joysticks and moves them back and forth operating Zeus exactly as done in the board game.
• The film is based on “Steel” – a 1956 short story by I Am Legend author Richard Matheson. It was also made into an episode of The Twilight Zone called Steel.
• The girls who ask to pose for a picture with Ambush are director ‘Shawn Levy”s daughters.
• Although not specified, director Shawn Levy has said that the film takes place in 2020. He stated in an interview: “The whole reason it’s 2020 and not further in the future is because I knew this movie was going to be an underdog story and I didn’t want the distant futurism of extreme sci-fi. I wanted the world to feel really familiar, so that the characters would feel really relatable. The cell-phone we used five or ten years ago looks different from today, but a diner still looks like a diner.”
• Each of the robots were built both in real life and CGI. For certain shots with animatronics, they were controlled by more than 20 puppeteers.
• Midas’ Mohawk hairstyle is a nod to “Clubber” Lang, Mr.T’s character in Rocky III.
• All video cameras used by the press are Red Epics, most with 3D lens attachments.
• The opening scene at the fairground features a semi tractor with a cattle-hauling trailer which belongs to “Ron Smith Trucking”, Breckenridge, MI.
• The climactic fight scene is a virtual punch-for-punch recreation of the Ivan Drago/Rocky Balboa fight from Rocky IV.
• Among the many parallels to the movie Rocky, the world champion (Zeus) gives an unheralded local club fighter (Atom) a shot at the title and then unexpectedly gets into the fight of his life before winning a controversial split decision to the disdain of the crowd; the fight lasts the full 5 rounds with each fighter suffering many injuries; the match illustrates Atom’s apparently unlimited ability to absorb punishment; and despite losing, Atom is declared “the people’s champion.”

Talking Points:

• Cliche’ – kid, female mechanic, lost career, etc – too many in one movie?
• Rocky references
• Robot fights – worth the rest of the movie?
• Steven Spielberg and Robert Zemekis

What We Learned:

• Never allow Hugh Jackman to try and pull off a Midwestern accent again!
• Japanese Bootlegs are always better
• Voice recognition still kinda glitchy in 2020
• The People Mover still works in Detroit in 2020..hell Detroit’s still around in 2020!
• Ya need Flare!

Trailer:

Recommendations:
Jeff: Very much an adrenalin rush at time, which probably the reason why I liked it so much. I would definitely enjoy seeing this again.
Ray: A father / son boxing movie… with robots! love it! Don’t expect Shakespeare.. but it was entertaining. And I didn’t hate the child actor for once.
Steve: This one gets BOTH a yawn and an eye roll from me. Hugh Jackman’s accent annoyed me the entire movie and the “little boy who speaks like he’s 40” concept is overplayed. From jump the music didn’t seem to fit the movie and the whole metaphor of “Rocky as a robot”, even though the robot is really Hugh Jackman since he’s controlling it, is weak at best. Skip it unless you just want to watch the robot fights.

The Future: The Hunger Games (2012)

Director: Gary Ross

Starring: Jennifer Lawrence, Josh Hutcherson and Liam Hemsworth

Summary:

In a not-too-distant future, North America has collapsed, weakened by drought, fire, famine, and war to be replaced by Panem, a country divided into the Capitol and 12 districts. Each year two young representatives from each district are selected by lottery to participate in The Hunger Games. Part entertainment, part brutal intimidation of the subjugated districts, the televised games are broadcast throughout Panem. The 24 participants are forced to eliminate their competitors, literally, with all citizens required to watch. When 16-year-old Katniss’ young sister, Prim, is selected as the mining district’s female representative, Katniss volunteers to take her place. She and her male counterpart Peeta, will be pitted against bigger, stronger representatives who have trained for this their whole lives.

Trivia:

• First part of a Trilogy series of young adult books by Suzanne Collins: ‘The Hunger Games’, ‘Catching Fire’, ‘Mockingjay’.
• Chloë Grace Moretz, Mary Mouser, Hailee Steinfeld, Abigail Breslin, Lyndsy Fonseca, Saoirse Ronan, Emma Roberts, Kaya Scodelario, Emily Browning and Shailene Woodley were considered to play Katniss, the lead role. Jennifer Lawrence won the lead role.
• Alex Pettyfer, Josh Hutcherson, Lucas Till, Nico Tortorella, Alexander Ludwig, Evan Peters and Hunter Parrish were considered to play Peeta Mellark. Hutcherson was later cast.
• Liam Hemsworth, Chris Massoglia, David Henrie, Robbie Amell and Drew Roy were considered to play Gale. Hemsworth was ultimately cast.
• Jennifer Lawrence was initially cast as the lead in Savages, but dropped out to do this film instead.
• Liam Hemsworth and Jennifer Lawrence, both natural blondes, dyed their hair brown for their roles in the film while Josh Hutcherson, naturally dark-haired, dyed his hair blonde for his part.

Talking Points:

• Is this the next Twilight?
• Does trailer really give you a sense of what the movie is?
• What’s the point of a teaser vs a trailer?

Trailer:

Excitement:
Jeff: It has my attention. And from everything I’ve heard outside of it, there are fans of the book that are excited. I’m intrigued but can’t wait for the longer trailer.
Ray:I put this trailer on here to test.. whether or not people who have no grasp of the source material are going to be interested in seeing this movie.. I know its only a “Teaser” but the point is to make a good enough first impression .. to get you interested in the film… i don’t think this teaser is doing a very good Job.
Steve: I’ve been seeing press about this, but didn’t know what it was about until I looked up the information about the movie. I like the concept, but don’t know that the trailer does enough to really give a sense that the synopsis we found does.

Coming Attractions:

The Past
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The Present

The Future

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