Midnight Oil:Movies and More

In “The Deadly Affair” (1966), John le Carré’s spy novel turns into a cinematic adventure for everyday secret service man, Charles Dobbs (played by James Mason). Even though he has a nymphomaniac wife at home, Charles Dobbs’ career as a British intelligence officer is nothing like that of James Bond. A suspicious looking suicide after an apparently unfounded accusation of communist sympathies leads down a trail of cold war intrigue. As the plot thickens, Dobb’s finds the answers in places that strike  uncomfortably close to home.

See a very interesting SNAM “Interview” that includes material on John le Carré’s more famous spy novel, “The Spy Who Came in from the Cold”, a film starring Richard Burton, also screened on the same evening on Saturday Night at the Movies.

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Catch the opening credits and opening scene for “The Deadly Affair” (1966) here.

“Shenandoah” (1965) IMDb with James Stewart playing the lead role provides a less than usual perspective on the American Civil War. The film tells the story of a well ensconced Virginian farming family caught up in the latter part of the Civil War. Stewart, as Charlie Anderson, vehiculates a pragmatic pacificism about a mean and dirty war that now encroaches on his land and his family. Anderson himself is not undergirded by a particularly robust morality about the war nor about his position on pacificism. He finds himself fighting a losing battle even though he technically remains “out of the war”.

The Uncivil War episode offered by Saturday Night at the Movies pairs “Ride with the Devil” (1995) IMDb with this movie classic from 1965. SNAM’s interviewed guests bring out the relationship of “Shenandoah” with American sentiments of the day concerning young American men snatched up into the war in Vietnam and the accompanying anger, confusion and sense of helplessness on the part of those at home.

 >>More to see: Looking for more out of life?

See the SNAM preview for The Uncivil War here. Dig in to the background for the films through the Interviews on The Uncivil War with experts on the period.

Catch the video trailer for “Shenandoah” (1965) here.

visit videodetective.com for more info

"Fahrenheit 451" (1966) IMDb, inspired by Ray Bradbury's science fiction novel of the same name, delivers a disturbing vision of a futuristic world where books are contraband to be burned by the state. For those of us who love books, this is a truly scary and undesirable future reality. Werner Oskar stars as the fireman who begins to question the purpose behind burning books in the oppressive police state. Julie Christie plays the double role of the witless wife of the fireman, Linda, and the open minded free spirit, Clarisse.

Check out Thom Ernst's blog for the scoop on his interview with the original author, Ray Bradbury, for the TVO Saturday Night at the Movies Interviews.

View the TVO video web preview for "Fahrenheit 451" (includes snippets of the Bradbury interview)

>>More to see: Looking for more out of life?

See the video trailer for "Fahrenheit 451" (1966)

visit videodetective.com for more info

“The List of Adrian Messenger” (1963)  a film directed by John Ford, produces an interesting mystery and an even more interesting list of cameo character appearances by famous Hollywood stars of the day. The premise of the film has a semi-retired MI6 officer, George C. Scott, investigating the whereabouts of a puzzling list of men who appear to have all gone missing. Kirk Douglas pops up throughout the film, eventually revealing himself to be one George Brougham, a long lost son who re-emerges from the Colonies (a.k.a Canada).

A fox hunt and a manhunt ensue. Will the fox be caught? Will the innocent young heir to the family fortune be spared a gruesome fate? Will his attractive widowed mother end up with the right suitor? All is set right in the end and the villain is “unmasked”.

But what really kept my interest the first time I saw the film on SNAM in the wee hours of the morning many moons ago was the hunt for the Hollywood stars. I just couldn’t figure out how you could manage to get Frank Sinatra, Tony Curtis, Robert Mitchum and Burt Lancaster into this odd little production. The joke was on the audience of course. The ending reveals all!

>>More to see: Looking for more out of life?

View the video introduction for "The List of Adrian Messenger" (1963).