Well, Katherine was always an up-personality, a definite morning person, and generally quite happy about something — possibly even of her co-star’s general grumpiness.

Being quite recently married to Lauren Bacall, Humphrey had been looking forward to a nice honeymoon on the African continent, but accepted the role in the movie without checking a climate calendar. It was the rainy season, with nearly daily storms.

Anyway, poor Bogey got very sick and the film had to be finished in Florida.

On topic for the thread, though, The Bible was directed by John Huston. It’s a film of the Book of Genesis. With a humorus arangement, I seem to recall that Huston was the voice of God, while at the same time playing the part of Noah. This being the case, John spent some time on-screen talking to himself — or rather Himself.

It seems I missed a “must see” in “Mountains of the Moon”. I put at the top of my Netflix queue,(it is marked long wait).

I read “Around the World in Eighty Days” many years ago. My memories are somewhat dim but I recall that I liked it a lot.

Last words quotes always interest me. Your reference to Burton’s unused quote reminded me of “Heart of Darkness”, a classic novella and film that premiered on TV prior to theater release. Of course the famous last words were “the horror”.

The film was panned by critics,

“It’s a faithful and respectable version of Conrad’s great classic, but not one that’s memorable or exciting.”

I couldn’t agree more.

Heart of Darkness, of course, inspired “Apocalypse Now” and was quoted in another great movie, not previously mentioned, “Altered States.

Great topic, this thread could go on forever and I would never tire of it.

Huston was an outstanding director, but there was an ugly side to his character, some say evil.

Although it is tempting to associate morality with artistic talent, competence, intelligence, or even with brilliance, there is ample evidence to suggest they may be uncorrelated. This seems to hold true for directors…think of Alfred Hitchcock, Roman Polanski, Charles Chaplin and Woody Allen.

I don’t know any of these men personally, and I certainly haven’t studied their lives, but the rumors keep popping up. I also know that when I see one of my personal artistic heroes in a different venue, say in an interview, I am often struck how ordinary they may seem, or even how unpleasant.

This one might grab you, ER.

A serious movie that I found a bit funny at the outset, with a svelte Clint playing the much rounder John. The two averaged 6’3″, but Eastwood looks a lot taller in this rendition, just because he’s playing the part of Huston. He also uses the stilted annunciation, like someone practicing a growing vocabulary, that John Huston was famous for.

Definitely a good movie.

But it is said his wife burned all his unpublished notes and manuscripts after his death because she felt they were “too wicked” to be read by the public.

As for “African Queen”, I never understood why it was so popular. I found it entertaining when I watched it, but I wouldn’t stay up late just to see it again.

I like Bogie and Hepburn, and John Huston is one of my favorite directors, but this film just didn’t click for me.

I know what you mean about missing films. My list could easily be doubled or tripled in size if I took the time to do so. I see movies as a genuine modern art form, and although “90% of everything is crap” the number of really good films that come out every year is a testimony to the skill of the artists, technicians and producers that make them. Too bad painting and sculpture never recovered from Abstract Expressionism.

Around the World in Eighty Days. Pick up the book. For a piece of Northern Hemisphere history, it’s quite an enjoyable read, and far more quirky than it is funny. Recall that the story is presented as the diary of Phileas Fogg’s man-servant, with both of them having to suddenly depart England on a bet, while unknowingly being pursued for the crime of grand theft. This being the case, and with some of their traveling connections having to be made on the run, at times our adventurous Mr. Fogg at least appears to be a bit guilty, and Passepartout a bit complicit.

The movie was filmed using three cameras, for that extra, extra wide, three-panel screen. I first experienced the movie at the Ohio Theater in downtown Columbus. Utterly astonishing! There is a seen shot from the cow-catcher of a train rolling through India and crossing a tressele bridge. Imagine the technology involved for the time, that a person half a world away could sit back in a very comfortable chair and have this simple bit of construction passing under, over and around him.

Other Panoramic marvels I enjoy include:
2001: A Space Odyssey (1968)
Airport (1970)
Alien 3 (1992)
Battle of the Bulge (1965)
Ben-Hur (1959)
Blade Runner (1982)
Brainstorm (1983)
Can-Can (1960)
Chitty Chitty Bang Bang (1968)
Cleopatra (1963)
Close Encounters of the Third Kind (1977)
Contact (1997)
Die Hard (1988)
Doctor Dolittle (1967)
Ghostbusters (1984)
Hello, Dolly! (1969)
How the West Was Won
Ice Station Zebra (1968)
It’s a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World (1963)
Krakatoa, East of Java (1969)
Lawrence of Arabia (1962)
Lord Jim (1965)
Masters of the Universe (1987)
Mutiny on the Bounty (1962)
Patton (1970)
Porgy and Bess (1959)
South Pacific (1958)
Spider-Man 2 (2004)
Star Trek: The Motion Picture (1979)
Star Wars Episode V: The Empire Strikes Back (1980)
The Bible: In The Beginning (1966)
The Sound of Music (1965)
Those Magnificent Men in Their Flying Machines (1965)
Tron (1982)
West Side Story (1961)

All built for the cinema experience.

Now, for a bit of insight on creating “Around the World in Eighty Days”:
As with the story itself, the whole thing had started out as an argument among friends at the club regarding the philosophical size of our planet Earth (how it had seemed to have shrunk over the years), and how long it would take for a person to physically travel the globe. In a fit of creative fury, the amazing Jules Verne put his point to the public, writing the entire novel from his desk in England, with train and shipping schedules as his only real data sources, along with a healthy use of — poetic license.

For “Mountains of the Moon,” we follow Sir Richard Burton and Lt. John H. Speke on their journey into “darkest Africa,” in search of the headwaters of the Nile. My favorite part involve the meeting of Burton and Livingstone at the Royal Geographic Society. Utterly excellent.

A side note on Burton (and not part of the movie), his last words were along the lines of: “My, God, I’m dead!”

Seems he was with his wife and dying of malaria or some such, when his home was invaded by a group of Shi’ite Muslims. Burton made no secret of his investigative research into the religious and private lives of the Muslim world and there had been a sort of open-ended jihad for his head. Getting up from his bed, he fought them off, but was fatally wounded. Taking up her husband’s sword, Mrs. Burton promptly dispatched his killer. You see, she had been trained by the greatest swordsman of the time, one Sir Richard Burton.

Cheers.