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This is probably the most forgettable movie featuring an iconic character, and the last one featuring arguably the most popular actor in the role.  

Cannon Films had obtained the film rights to the franchise and hoped that this would be a blockbuster that would get them out of their financial troubles.  In fact, the original version was cut from two hours down to 90 minutes, as the producers had hoped that theaters could run more showtimes.  (A six-hour span would be four 90-minute slots, but only three 120-minute slots.)  It didn't work out that way, as the movie was critically panned and a box-office dud.

George

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This is probably the most forgettable movie featuring an iconic character, and the last one featuring arguably the most popular actor in the role.  

Cannon Films had obtained the film rights to the franchise and hoped that this would be a blockbuster that would get them out of their financial troubles.  In fact, the original version was cut from two hours down to 90 minutes, as the producers had hoped that theaters could run more showtimes.  (A six-hour span would be four 90-minute slots, but only three 120-minute slots.)  It didn't work out that way, as the movie was critically panned and a box-office dud.

I suspect that most people would think the star of the film to be quite likeable, as that certainly was his on-screen persona.  Oddly, though, many of the IMDb trivia notes about this film indicate that he didn't get along with the director or co-stars.

The vast majority of the external scenes were filmed in and around Milton Keynes, Buckinghamshire, England. Producers Menahem Golan and Yoram Globus couldn't afford to shoot in New York City.

In the star's autobiography, he refers to this movie in only one sentence: "The less said about ----- the better."

George

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On 12/16/2020 at 6:23 AM, GeorgeStGeorge said:

Not James Bond.  I would say a more famous character.

George

Which character is more famous than James Bond?    Julius Caesar, Jesus Christ, George Washington?  Where do I go with that?   Do you have any more clues George?

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2 hours ago, GeorgeStGeorge said:

He wears his underwear on the outside.

George

In the style of old-school acrobats or bodybuilders?     That suggests one role above all others, the guy with the spit-curl.

Ok, that narrows it down a LOT.

I was all set to jump on the Routh one, but the first clue shouts this was a Christopher Reeve movie.

That set of movies ended with "Superman 4-the Quest for Peace."    (The first Superman movie I DIDN'T see in the theater, IIRC.)

Hey, Jon Cryer was in that movie as Lex Luthor's nephew or something.   Small world to see Cryer play LL decades later, no? 

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On 12/18/2020 at 12:53 PM, WordWolf said:

In the style of old-school acrobats or bodybuilders?     That suggests one role above all others, the guy with the spit-curl.

Ok, that narrows it down a LOT.

I was all set to jump on the Routh one, but the first clue shouts this was a Christopher Reeve movie.

That set of movies ended with "Superman 4-the Quest for Peace."    (The first Superman movie I DIDN'T see in the theater, IIRC.)

Hey, Jon Cryer was in that movie as Lex Luthor's nephew or something.   Small world to see Cryer play LL decades later, no? 

I might have gone with the Cryer trivia, but I didn't want to give away that it was Superman at that point.

Quest for Peace was pretty awful.  Lex Luthor had created a clone of Superman who was radioactive.  Naturally, he runs around wrecking things while Superman cleans up after him.  One particularly silly scene, due to the low special-effects budget, was Superman repairing the Great Wall of China with his heretofore unrevealed "fixer-upper vision," where they simply played the collapse in reverse, rather than have SM repair the Wall at super-speed.  Superman defeats the solar-powered clone by MOVING THE MOON TO CAUSE AN ECLIPSE!  Somehow, this DIDN'T cause major tidal devastation.  :confused:

The Brandon Routh movie wasn't great, but it beat Quest for Peace by a LONG shot.

George

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-The production company for this US film was a HONG KONG company- Golden Harvest.  That explains some of the cast but causes another wrinkle in the casting at the same time.

-One role was written specifically with DON RICKLES in mind, but he refused the role, and we got a better movie for it once it was recast (with the same name.)

-George Furth and John Fiedler both appear in this movie. (I used to confuse the 2 actors because of this.)

-Peter Fonda appears in it as well.  And Valerie Perrine. And Bianca Jagger.

-Steve McQueen was cast, but died before they prepared to begin filming, so that part was re-cast and the mood of the movie was changed radically.

-In one scene, a Cantonese-speaking character is interviewed by a Japanese television presenter.  Neither the presenter nor the audience understand what he's saying, but the other Cantonese-speaker in the movie and he chat several times, in Cantonese.

-One actor spoke about having done the movie, later. "I did that film for all the wrong reasons. I never liked it. I did it to help out a friend of mine, Hal Needham. And I also felt it was immoral to turn down that kind of money. I suppose I sold out so I couldn't really object to what people wrote about me."

-This was the first movie the late Rick Aviles appeared in (you may remember him as Willie Lopez in "Ghost.")

-Nobody remembers the name of the character Pamela Glover-she ends up with a nickname early on, and that "becomes" her name for the rest of the movie.

-Continuity error: the "Hawaiian Tropic" car changes from a Laguna to a Monte Carlo after a quick paint job.

-Continuity error: Jamie Black and Fenderbaum know Mc Clure and Prinzim early on.  However, in the middle of the movie, Mc Clure and Prinzim completely fail to recognize them.

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When Clint Eastwood made the comedy Every Which Way but Loose (1978), this actor reportedly said to him, "Clint, you're getting into my territory [comedy], and if it's a success, I'm going out and make 'Dirty Harry Goes to Atlanta'!". When this movie went into production, Eastwood sent a telegram to the actor saying, "You really weren't kidding, were you?" 

This was Rachel Ward's first major motion picture.  (She was not the star.)

George

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When Clint Eastwood made the comedy Every Which Way but Loose (1978), this actor reportedly said to him, "Clint, you're getting into my territory [comedy], and if it's a success, I'm going out and make 'Dirty Harry Goes to Atlanta'!". When this movie went into production, Eastwood sent a telegram to the actor saying, "You really weren't kidding, were you?" 

This was Rachel Ward's first major motion picture.  (She was not the star.)

The romantic sub-plot of this movie's storyline has been likened to that of the classic 'film noir' Laura (1944).

The Orion Pictures studio acquired the film rights to William Diehl's source novel of the same name for a reported US $400,000 according to the 10th January 1979 edition of show-business trade paper Daily Variety.

The picture often played on a double-bill, such as in second runs and at drive-ins, with Mickey Spillane's "I, the Jury" (1982), as both had 18+ classification certificates, and both were distributed by Warner Brothers in certain territories.

George

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When Clint Eastwood made the comedy Every Which Way but Loose (1978), this actor reportedly said to him, "Clint, you're getting into my territory [comedy], and if it's a success, I'm going out and make 'Dirty Harry Goes to Atlanta'!". When this movie went into production, Eastwood sent a telegram to the actor saying, "You really weren't kidding, were you?" 

This was Rachel Ward's first major motion picture.  (She was not the star.)  She was cast six days before shooting began.  The director likened it to starting filming on "King Kong" without having the gorilla.

The romantic sub-plot of this movie's storyline has been likened to that of the classic 'film noir' Laura (1944).

The Orion Pictures studio acquired the film rights to William Diehl's source novel of the same name for a reported US $400,000 according to the 10th January 1979 edition of show-business trade paper Daily Variety.

The picture often played on a double-bill, such as in second runs and at drive-ins, with Mickey Spillane's "I, the Jury" (1982), as both had 18+ classification certificates, and both were distributed by Warner Brothers in certain territories.

Quotes from the star, who also directed:

  • "Most directors cast actors on the basis of what they've seen before, and they don't want surprises; they want the actor to give another version of what he's already done. I try to do the opposite. I tell the actors, 'You've done that before, so let's go for something else.' On this picture I did with my actors what I always wanted other directors to do with me, which is to say, 'O.K., I have what I want, now you do what you want.' Sometimes magical things happen that way. I had lots of ideas, but I was open to any ideas the actors had. There really was a wonderful feeling of camaraderie"
  • "In my picture the good guys win and the bad guys, the dopers, lose.  That's important to me: I don't like dopers. I get mad as hell when I hear that studios are coddling actors who are always high on cocaine."

George

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  • 2 weeks later...

Does it help if I say

The star was Burt Reynolds.

When Clint Eastwood made the comedy Every Which Way but Loose (1978), this actor reportedly said to him, "Clint, you're getting into my territory [comedy], and if it's a success, I'm going out and make 'Dirty Harry Goes to Atlanta'!". When this movie went into production, Eastwood sent a telegram to the actor saying, "You really weren't kidding, were you?" 

This was Rachel Ward's first major motion picture.  (She was not the star.)  She was cast six days before shooting began.  The director likened it to starting filming on "King Kong" without having the gorilla.

The romantic sub-plot of this movie's storyline has been likened to that of the classic 'film noir' Laura (1944).

The Orion Pictures studio acquired the film rights to William Diehl's source novel of the same name for a reported US $400,000 according to the 10th January 1979 edition of show-business trade paper Daily Variety.

The picture often played on a double-bill, such as in second runs and at drive-ins, with Mickey Spillane's "I, the Jury" (1982), as both had 18+ classification certificates, and both were distributed by Warner Brothers in certain territories.

Quotes from the star, who also directed:

  • "Most directors cast actors on the basis of what they've seen before, and they don't want surprises; they want the actor to give another version of what he's already done. I try to do the opposite. I tell the actors, 'You've done that before, so let's go for something else.' On this picture I did with my actors what I always wanted other directors to do with me, which is to say, 'O.K., I have what I want, now you do what you want.' Sometimes magical things happen that way. I had lots of ideas, but I was open to any ideas the actors had. There really was a wonderful feeling of camaraderie"
  • "In my picture the good guys win and the bad guys, the dopers, lose.  That's important to me: I don't like dopers. I get mad as hell when I hear that studios are coddling actors who are always high on cocaine."

George

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