RISE OF THE PLANET OF THE APES ...NEW TRAILER!!!

Hell yeah! Bring it on!

Or better yet HERE is the link to watch it in complete widescreen.

BIKINI!

Summer is gone from Sweden, so in order to keep the hot spirit for a little while longer we have to summon it with these calid pictures of famous movie stars in bikini, swimsuit or even in the nude...

For the hippie front: Peggy Lipton (from Mod Squade fame and Misses Quincey Jones from 1974 to 1990)

Uneasy pose for Natalie Wood (left foot and hands)

Ava Gardner

Queen pin-up: Betty Page

Angeline

MMM...Marilyn

Liz Taylor

My cult favorite Caroline Munro

Olga Kurylenko (technically not a bikini, but who's to complain)

Bardot, never enough of her in Guelyland

Linda "Nova" Harrison (from Planet of the Apes)

Linda Christian (born Blanca Rosa Welter in Tampico, Mexico)

Foxy Megan Fox

Barbara "Poor's men Marilyn" Nichols, film noir B-movie star

Dancing angels: Ginger Rogers and Cyd Charise

Blondes, Joan Blondell and Bette Davis

Barbara Eden, i Dream of Jeannie (Mi Bella Genio)

50's movie beauty, Elaine Stewart

Salma Hayec of mexican and lebanese background

You ask for it Mia Farrow and Liz Taylor in the rare 1968 movie "Secret Ceremony"

Joan March and Mary Carlisle, back in 1935

Trekkers dreamgirl, Sherry Jackson

Not "ugly" and S1mOne star Rachel Roberts

Young and in love Melanie Griffith and Don Johnson

Marilyn (it's a different bikini and no complains)

"Princess" Carrie Fisher and her stunt taking the sun

Helena Bonham Carter

Princess Grace

German Bambole Elke Sommer, twice (still no complains)

Warhol friend, Edie Sedwick and overdress Kevin McCarthy

Latina eighties queen: Barbara Carrera

Christina Ricci

And the naked one i promised: Donald Sutherland (Yeah! I hear the complains now)

BENEATH THE PLANET OF THE APES

From time to time i just take a short leave and fly to the planet of the apes. In my mind, i mean. Got the movies, the books, the music,... the Works. Plus, now we have the internet that makes everything much easier. Anyway, today I was going to tell you things about "Beneath", a trip to Beneath the Planet of the Apes (Ted Post, 1970).Is typical to say my favorite is the first and so, and in this account "Beneath" usually gets a low rating. Not in my book.Let's point out that Beneath The Planet of the Apes is the second of five movies and it picks up where Planet of the Apes ends (and even before).

Zira, Nova and Cornelius

In those days there were not sequels that use to continue the storyline of the first films. In those days (excepting "2001: A space Odissey", but that was Kubrick) the science fiction movies were not "intelligent films" so this couple started a trend that would go on during the seventies until the first star wars movie came out in 1977.A nihilistic movie,"Beneath" has the cojones of giving us the mother of all the unhappy endings. I remember falling for days in some kind of depression after I saw this film (I was like 12 or 13 at then, on peruvian TV for the first time in my life) and I could almost understand and agree with the Heston character for doing what he did after what happent to his dear Nova. I remember as well, and very, that a new dimention of musical terror was born in my mind with the off key chorus of gospell mutants.

The Mutants

As in the first movie the creationism versus evolution subtext of this entry in the series was quite daring , and seeing upside down crucified apes burn and been crushed by a bleeding giant statue of their religious patriarch in the middle of the desert or witnessing a mass attended by nuclear bomb worshiper skinless mutants beneath the ruins of New York didn't exactly add points in favor of the "creationist team".

Greetings from New York 3955 A.D. !

The thing is that it doesn't says that evolution is better either. It's just a fact and at the end we can't handle it . It is a tough merciless flick with no room for redemption or a crowd pleasing happy ending. Apes, humans and mutants (they are "technically" humans gone wrong, but you know what i mean) they all have his share in writting the ultimate destiny for the planet.

Only the beautiful Nova is out of guilt or responsability.

Take your stinky paws of her your double face uncredited mutant!

Now, something about the cast. Heston agreed to do the sequel with the condition that he should be killed cos didn't wanna hear more about it (at the end they agreed that he would be at the begining and the end).

Franciscus and Miss Harrison. Not in Kansas anymore...

James Franciscus (they couldn't get Burt Reynolds, in the first hand) kind of take over like a mini Heston (which is not as bad as it sounds). Linda Harrison as Nova is back (anyway she was the girlfriend of 20Th Century Fox mogul Zanuck). Natalie Trundy, as the mutant Albina (was the wife of producer Arthur P. Jacobs. Anyway). The great character actor James Gregory (they couldn't get Orson ) plays the militar gorilla Ursus.

General Ursus

As Cornelious is not Roddy McDowall (busy making his own movie in Scotland) but some David Watson. Maurice Evans and Kim Hunter are back as Dr. Zaius and Zira. Then we have the teve actor Don Pedro Colley playing a mutant credited simply as "Negro".

Of course you have to see the first movie to get this one. "Beneath" was made for half the budget of POTA (they didn't have to make or build so much stuff cos they had it from the first movie) so, unless you don't pay attention to the cheapy pull out masks that the extras show too often it looks quite cool (they re-use some sets from "Hello, Dolly!" and even the crashed spaceship is part of the "Jupiter I" from the Lost in Space series).

Dr. Zaius

These Planet of the Apes movies are very special for me. Kind of my favorite film saga. Full of adventure, scientific fiction (just love time travel speculations), apes, philosophical debates, misanthropic outsiders, Linda Harrison, and chocking moments one after another. People who likes these movies can talk and talk forever about it and there will be never enough theories that will come up because there are so many layers to peel. A great pub topic! The kind of movie that I know I will always will see again.

The drawings that you see here are taked from the still forthcoming book, From Aldo to Zira: Lexicon of The Planet of the Apes by Hasslein Books (hopefully coming out at the end of 2010).

CHARLTON HESTON (1923-2008)

Many people hate him because of his opinions. Many people, and I, like him because of his movies. Since i was like five (the first time i watched The Naked Jungle A.K.A. MARABUNTA! (1954) I am his fan. So here my homage to the great late Chuck "Stoneface" Heston:


My first Heston movie, a late night long time ago in a far, far away country...

With Gregory Peck as James McKay and Carroll Baker as Patricia Terrill in a scene from The Big Country, my most beloved western of them all. And one of the best soundtracks ever, by Jerome Moross.

Here's a little scene:

James McKay: If it's a fight you want, you've picked the right time for it, haven't you?

Steve Leech: Yeah, I'm offering you a fight. Or ain't that a nice word back east?

James McKay: You're gambling, Leech. You're gambling that if we fight, you can beat me. And you're gambling that if you beat me, Ms. Terrill will admire you for it.

Steve Leech: Out here, we leave a lady's name out of an argument.

(I hope someday I'll say this one somebody. By the way, this was a fist fight not a "gunned" one)

The tough but loyal Steve Leech from the same William Wyler,1958 masterpiece.

A "Semana Santa" classic. As Miguel Angel in La Agonía y el Extasis "Cuándo lo terminarás?(The Pope Rex Harrison kept asking him) Cuando lo termine! (his usual answer)" My mother always quoted him , when she used to take too much time on something (hence the "spanish mix")

An Epic Man if there ever was one. Mr. Heston as Major Dundee.


This one i'm sure doesn't need a presentation.


Remember my father taking me on my 10th birthday from the school to watch this great one.

A studio still as Judah Ben-Hur. No movie has won more Academy Awards then this one.

This pic is worth a click. It gets bigger then life.

Another classic that my father took me to see re-released at the movies when i was a kid.

And this one on it's premiere during the seventies, when he was the "Lord of Sensorround"!

With eeerh..., Julio Iglesias!!


My second favorite movie from all time Planet of The Apes (Franklin J. Schaffner, 1968). Chuck as Colonel Taylor with Maurice Evans as Dr. Zaius and my dreamgirl since i was fourteen Linda Harrison as Nova.

"FROM MY DEAD COLD HANDS!" Stupid, but brave!

By the way a quote from Planet of The Apes:

Cornelius: Well Taylor, we're all fugitives now.

George Taylor: Do you have any weapons, any guns?

Cornelius: The best, but we won't need them.

George Taylor: I'm glad to hear it. I want one anyway.

Right! Heston wasn't playing Cornelius...

Here he was "The Omega Man" fighting albino vampires, so i guess the use of firearms was justified.

With the great Orson in Touch of Evil. The "last" great B movie (1958). Playing a mexican polis called Miguel Vargas.

As Indiana Jones "Grandpa" Harry Stelle in Cuzco. Secret of the Incas from 1954. When is the "Damned Dirty" DVD coming??

" I marched for civil rights with Dr. [Martin Luther King] in 1963 - long before Hollywood found it fashionable. But when I told an audience last year that white pride is just as valid as black pride or red pride or anyone else's pride, they called me a racist. I've worked with brilliantly talented homosexuals all my life. But when I told an audience that gay rights should extend no further than your rights or my rights, I was called a homophobe. I served in World War II against the Axis powers. But during a speech, when I drew an analogy between singling out innocent Jews and singling out innocent gun owners, I was called an anti-Semite. Everyone I know knows I would never raise a closed fist against my country. But when I asked an audience to oppose this cultural persecution, I was compared to Timothy McVeigh."(Chuck in 1999)

With Poitier and Belafonte...

With Brando and Baldwin, fighting for human rights.

"My Dear Friends, Colleagues and Fans: My physicians have recently told me I may have a neurological disorder whose symptoms are consistent with Alzheimer's disease. So . . . I wanted to prepare a few words for you now, because when the time comes, I may not be able to. I've lived my whole life on the stage and screen before you. I've found purpose and meaning in your response. For an actor there's no greater loss than the loss of his audience. I can part the Red Sea, but I can't part with you, which is why I won't exclude you from this stage in my life. For now, I'm not changing anything. I'll insist on work when I can; the doctors will insist on rest when I must. If you see a little less spring in my step, if your name fails to leap to my lips, you'll know why. And if I tell you a funny story for the second time, please laugh anyway. I'm neither giving up nor giving in. I believe I'm still the fighter that Dr. [Martin Luther King] and [John F. Kennedy] and Ronald Reagan knew, but it's a fight I must someday call a draw. I must reconcile courage and surrender in equal measure. Please feel no sympathy for me. I don't. I just may be a little less accessible to you, despite my wishes. I also want you to know that I'm grateful beyond measure. My life has been blessed with good fortune. I'm grateful that I was born in America, that cradle of freedom and opportunity, where a kid from the Michigan Northwoods can work hard and make something of his life. I'm grateful for the gift of the greatest words ever written, that let me share with you the infinite scope of the human experience. As an actor, I'm thankful that I've lived not one life, but many. Above all, I'm proud of my family ... my wife Lydia, the queen of my heart, my children, Fraser and Holly, and my beloved grandchildren, Jack, Ridley and Charlie. They're my biggest fans, my toughest critics and my proudest achievement. Through them, I can touch immortality. Finally, I'm confident about the future of America. I believe in you. I know that the future of our country, our culture and our children is in good hands. I know you will continue to meet adversity with strength and resilience, as our ancestors did, and come through with flying colors - the ones on Old Glory. William Shakespeare, at the end of his career, wrote his farewell through the words of Prospero, in "The Tempest". It ends like this: "Be cheerful, sir. Our revels now are ended. These our actors, as I foretold you, were all spirits and are melted into air, into thin air: And, like the baseless fabric of this vision, the cloud-cap'd towers, the gorgeous palaces, the solemn temples, the great globe itself, yea all which it inherit, shall dissolve and, like this insubstantial pageant faded, leave not a rack behind. We are such stuff as dreams are made on, and our little life is rounded with a sleep". Thank you, and God bless you, everyone."

(Chuck, 9 August 2002)