The Abominable Dr. Phibes
The Abominable Dr. Phibes is a 1971 British comedy horror film, produced by Ronald S. Dunas and Louis M. Heyward, directed by Robert Fuest, written by William Goldstein and James Whiton, starring Vincent Price and Joseph Cotten, its art deco sets, dark humour, performance by Price have made the film and its sequel Dr. Phibes Rises Again cult classics; the film features Terry-Thomas and Hugh Griffith, with an uncredited Caroline Munro appearing in still photographs as Phibes's wife. The film follows the title character, Dr. Anton Phibes, who blames the medical team that attended to his wife's surgery four years prior, for her death and sets out to exact vengeance on each one. Phibes is inspired in his murderous spree by the Ten Plagues of Egypt from the Old Testament. Dr. Anton Phibes, a famous concert organist and expert in theology and music, is thought to have been killed in a car crash in Switzerland in 1921, while racing home upon hearing of the death of his beloved wife, during surgery.
Phibes survived the crash. He uses his knowledge of acoustics to regain his voice. Resurfacing secretly in London in 1925, Phibes believes that his wife was a victim of incompetence on the part of the doctors, he begins elaborate plans to kill those who he believes are guilty for her death. Aided in his quest for vengeance by his beautiful and silent female assistant Vulnavia, Phibes uses the ten plagues of Egypt as his inspiration, wearing an amulet with Hebrew letters corresponding with each plague as he conducts the murders. After three doctors have been killed, Inspector Trout, a detective from Scotland Yard, learns that they all had worked under the direction of Dr. Vesalius, who tells him the deceased had been on his team when treating Victoria, as were four other doctors and one nurse. After the third doctor is murdered, Trout discovers one of Phibes' amulets at the scene, taking it first to the jeweler who made it and to a rabbi to learn its meaning. Believing Phibes may still be alive and Vesalius go to the Phibes mausoleum at Highgate Cemetery and find a box of ashes in Phibes' coffin, but Trout decides they are the remains of Phibes' chauffeur.
Victoria's coffin is found to be empty. The police are unable to prevent Phibes from killing the remaining members of Vesalius' team and focus their efforts on protecting the doctor himself. Phibes kidnaps Vesalius' son Lem calls Vesalius and tells him to come alone to his mansion on Maldene Square if he wants to save his son. Trout advises against it, but Vesalius knocks the inspector unconscious races to Phibes' mansion, where he confronts him. Vesalius prepped for surgery. Phibes has implanted a small key near the boy's heart that will unlock his restraints and Vesalius has to surgically remove the key within six minutes to release his son before acid from a container above Lem's head is released and destroys his face. Vesalius moves the table out of the way. However, ordered to destroy Phibes' mechanical creations, is surprised by Trout and his assistant. Convinced that he has accomplished his vendetta, Phibes retreats to the basement to inter himself in a stone sarcophagus containing the embalmed body of his wife.
He drains his blood, replacing it with an unknown fluid, the coffin's inlaid stone lid slides into place concealing it. Trout and the police realise that Phibes is nowhere to be found, they recall that the "final curse" speculate that they will encounter Phibes again. The film was shot on the "twenties era" sets at Elstree Studios in Hertfordshire; the cemetery scenes were shot in London. The exterior of Dr. Phibes' mansion was Caldecote Towers at Immanuel College on Elstree Road; the film was followed in 1972 by a sequel, titled Dr. Phibes Rises Again. Several other sequels were planned, including The Bride of Dr. Phibes, but none were produced. Howard Thompson of The New York Times wrote, "The plot, buried under all the iron tinsel, isn't bad, but the tone of steamroller camp flattens the fun". Variety was positive, praising the "well-structured" screenplay, "outstanding" makeup for Vincent Price, "excellent work" on the set designs. Gene Siskel of the Chicago Tribune gave the film three-and-a-half stars, calling it a "stylish, shrieking winner", though he disliked "the lack of zip in the ending".
David Pirie of The Monthly Film Bulletin was negative, faulting director Robert Fuest's "flat, unimaginative visual style" and a script "contriving to be coy and tongue-in-cheek without being witty". Critic Christopher Null wrote of the film, "One of the'70s juiciest entries into the horror genre, The Abominable Dr. Phibes is Vincent Price at his campy best, a famous concert organist, exacting revenge on the nine doctors he blames for botching his wife's surgery, which ended with her death. Through a series of tortuous means that would make a Bond villain green with envy, the hideous Phibes is matched by Joseph Cotten as the doc at the end of the road. A crazy script and an awesome score make this a true classic". In the early 2010s, Time Out conducted a poll with several authors, directors and critics who have worked within the horror genre to vote for their top horror films; the Abominable Dr. Phibes placed at number 83 on their top 100 list. At the film review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, the film has an approval rating of 81% based on 26 reviews and an average rating of 6.9/10.
The film was not regarded by American International Pictures' home offi
Michael Biehn
Michael Connell Biehn is an American actor known for his military roles in science fiction films directed by James Cameron. Kyle Reese in The Terminator, Cpl. Dwayne Hicks in Aliens and Lt. Coffey in The Abyss, his other films include The Fan, Navy SEALs, The Rock and Planet Terror. On television, he has appeared in Hill Street Blues and Adventure Inc.. Biehn received a Best Actor Saturn Award nomination for Aliens, received The Life Career Award at the 2011 ceremony. Biehn was born in Anniston, the second of three children of Marcia and Don Biehn, a lawyer, he is of German descent. When he was young, he moved with his family to Lincoln, to Lake Havasu City, where he was a member of the high school drama club before graduating, he attended the drama program at the University of Arizona, where he was a member of the Sigma Nu Fraternity before moving to Hollywood. Biehn got his start in movies with a bit part in the film version of Grease in 1978, he appears in two scenes, in one which John Travolta's character, hits Biehn's uncredited character in the stomach while playing basketball.
In 1981, he acted out the title role of Douglas Breen, a stalker, in the 1981 film version of Bob Randall's novel The Fan. After a few more films, Biehn played Sgt. Kyle Reese, a soldier sent back in time by John Connor to save his mother, Sarah Connor, in the 1984 film The Terminator, he starred in two other films directed by James Cameron: Aliens and The Abyss, had a small role in Terminator 2: Judgment Day reprising role as Reese in a scene cut from the final film but restored for the Director's Cut version. He was considered to portray the film's antagonist, the T-1000, but the role went to Robert Patrick. In an early draft of Alien 3 written by William Gibson, Biehn's character Hicks was to become the protagonist, replacing Ellen Ripley. However, Walter Hill and David Giler penned the final script, which had Hicks killed off in the opening scene. Biehn, upon learning of his character's demise and received as much money for the use of his likeness in one scene as he had been paid for his role in Aliens.
Biehn reprised the role of Hicks by voicing the character in the video game Aliens: Colonial Marines. Biehn played the role of Johnny Ringo in Tombstone with the showdown scene with Val Kilmer as Doc Holiday. In the 2000s, Biehn took acting roles ranging from big budget films such as The Art of War and Clockstoppers, to video games like Command & Conquer: Tiberian Sun, independent movies, such as Havoc, he starred in three TV series including the CBS drama The Magnificent Seven, the Tribune Entertainment syndicated TV series Adventure Inc. and the NBC TV series Hawaii. All three shows were subsequently cancelled because of low ratings. Biehn was considered for a role in James Cameron's science fiction epic film Avatar, but Cameron felt his appearance in the film coupled with that of Sigourney Weaver's would remind people too much of Aliens. Biehn directed the 2010 film The Blood Bond. In 2011 he wrote and starred in The Victim, released in 2011. Biehn has been married three times, his first wife was actress Carlene Olson, whom he married on July 11, 1980.
They had twin sons and Taylor and divorced in 1987. He married his second wife, Gina Marsh, they have two sons, Caelan Michael and Alexander and separated in 2008. Biehn is now married to actress Jennifer Blanc, who co-produced and starred alongside him in The Victim; the couple have one son, Dashiell King Biehn, born March 21, 2015. Michael Biehn on IMDb Michael Biehn at the TCM Movie Database Michael Biehn at AllMovie Phoenix – Michael Biehn Archive
Seven seals
The Seven Seals is a phrase in the Book of Revelation that refers to seven symbolic seals that secure the book/scroll that John of Patmos saw in his Revelation of Jesus Christ. The opening of the seals of the Apocalyptic document occurs in Revelation Chapters 5-8 and marks the Second Coming. In John's vision, the only one worthy to open the book/scroll is referred to as both the "Lion of Judah" and the "Lamb having seven horns and seven eyes"; the seven seals contained secret information known only to God until the Lamb/Lion was found worthy to open the book/scroll and to look on the contents. Important scrolls being secured with seals is mentioned in earlier Bible examples including Book of Daniel 12:4... "But thou, O Daniel, shut up the words, seal the book to the time of the end: many shall run to and fro, knowledge shall be increased." Upon the "Lamb" opening a seal from the book, a judgment is released or an apocalyptic event occurs. The opening of the first four Seals release each with his own specific mission.
The opening of the fifth seal releases the cries of martyrs for the "word/Wrath of God". The sixth seal prompts other cataclysmic events; the seventh seal cues seven angelic trumpeters who in turn cue the seven bowl judgments and more cataclysmic events. Certain words and phrases used in Revelation had a clearer meaning to ancient readers familiar with objects of their time. For example, important documents were sent written on a papyrus scroll sealed with several wax seals. Wax seals were placed across the opening of a scroll, so that only the proper person in the presence of witnesses, could open the document; this type of "seal" is used in a figurative sense, in the book of Revelation, only the Lamb is worthy to break off these seals. From the Reformation to the middle of the 19th century, the seals in Revelation have been interpreted through various methods, such as the historicist view that most Protestants adopted and the views of preterism and futurism that post-Reformation Catholic circles promoted.
Idealism was a major view that became realized since the time of Augustine, Bishop of Hippo. The preterist views that John was given an accurate vision, of a course of events that would occur over the next several centuries, to fulfill the prophetic seals. Robert Witham, an 18th-century Catholic commentator, offers a preterist view for the period that spans the length of the opening of the seals. Johann Jakob Wettstein places the date of the Apocalypse as written before A. D. 70. He assumed; the “Sealed Book” is the book of divorcement sent to the Jewish nation from God. Isaac Williams associated the first six Seals with the discourse on the Mount of Olives and stated that, “The seventh Seal contains the Seven Trumpets within it… the judgments and sufferings of the Church.” Traditionally, the historicist view of the Seven Seals in The Apocalypse spanned the time period from John of Patmos to Early Christendom. Scholars such as Campegius Vitringa, Alexander Keith, Christopher Wordsworth did not limit the timeframe to the 4th century.
Some have viewed the opening of the Seals right into the early modern period. However, Contemporary-historicists view all of Revelation. According to E. B. Elliott, the first seal, as revealed to John by the angel, was to signify what was to happen soon after John seeing the visions in Patmos; the general subject of the first six seals is the decline and fall, after a previous prosperous era, of the Empire of Heathen Rome. Moderate futurists interpret the opening of the seals as representing forces in history, however long they last, by which God carries out His redemptive and judicial purposes leading up to “the end”; the idealist view does not take the book of Revelation literally. The interpretation of Revelation’s symbolism and imagery is defined by the struggles between good and evil. Revelation 6:1-2 1 And I saw when the Lamb opened one of the seals, I heard, as it were the noise of thunder, one of the four beasts saying and see. 2 And I saw, behold a white horse: and he that sat on him had a bow.
Preterist viewJohann Jakob Wettstein identified the first Horseman as Artabanus, king of the Parthians who slaughtered the Jews in Babylon. However, Ernest Renan, a 19th-century modern rationalist preterist, interpreted the First Horseman to be symbolic of the Roman Empire, with Nero as the Antichrist; this rider who "went forth conquering" was Rome's march toward Jerusalem in the year 67, to suppress The Great Jewish Revolt. Historicist view In the historicist views of Nicholas de Lyra, Robert Fleming, Charles Daubuz, Thomas Scott, Cuninghame, they agreed that the First Seal opened thereupon the death of Christ. Puritan Joseph Mede associated the opening of the First Seal to year 73, during the reign of Vespasian, just after The Great Jewish Revolt. Campegius Vitringa, Alexander Keith, Edward Bishop Elliott considered this period to have started with the death of Domitian and Nerva’s rise to power in the year 96; this began Rome's Golden age where the spread of the Christianity flourished. To 17th-century Dutch Protes
Solar eclipse
A solar eclipse occurs when an observer passes through the shadow cast by the Moon which or blocks the Sun. This can only happen when the Sun and Earth are nearly aligned on a straight line in three dimensions during a new moon when the Moon is close to the ecliptic plane. In a total eclipse, the disk of the Sun is obscured by the Moon. In partial and annular eclipses, only part of the Sun is obscured. If the Moon were in a circular orbit, a little closer to the Earth, in the same orbital plane, there would be total solar eclipses every new moon. However, since the Moon's orbit is tilted at more than 5 degrees to the Earth's orbit around the Sun, its shadow misses Earth. A solar eclipse can only occur when the moon is close enough to the ecliptic plane during a new moon. Special conditions must occur for the two events to coincide because the Moon's orbit crosses the ecliptic at its orbital nodes twice every draconic month while a new moon occurs one every synodic month. Solar eclipses therefore happen only during eclipse seasons resulting in at least two, up to five, solar eclipses each year.
Total eclipses are rare because the timing of the new moon within the eclipse season needs to be more exact for an alignment between the observer and the centers of the Sun and Moon. In addition, the elliptical orbit of the Moon takes it far enough away from Earth that its apparent size is not large enough to block the Sun entirely. Total solar eclipses are rare at any particular location because totality exists only along a narrow path on the Earth's surface traced by the Moon's full shadow or umbra. An eclipse is a natural phenomenon. However, in some ancient and modern cultures, solar eclipses were attributed to supernatural causes or regarded as bad omens. A total solar eclipse can be frightening to people who are unaware of its astronomical explanation, as the Sun seems to disappear during the day and the sky darkens in a matter of minutes. Since looking directly at the Sun can lead to permanent eye damage or blindness, special eye protection or indirect viewing techniques are used when viewing a solar eclipse.
It is technically safe to view only the total phase of a total solar eclipse with the unaided eye and without protection. People referred to as eclipse chasers or umbraphiles will travel to remote locations to observe or witness predicted central solar eclipses. There are four types of solar eclipses: A total eclipse occurs when the dark silhouette of the Moon obscures the intensely bright light of the Sun, allowing the much fainter solar corona to be visible. During any one eclipse, totality occurs at best only in a narrow track on the surface of Earth; this narrow track is called the path of totality. An annular eclipse occurs when the Sun and Moon are in line with the Earth, but the apparent size of the Moon is smaller than that of the Sun. Hence the Sun appears as a bright ring, or annulus, surrounding the dark disk of the Moon. A hybrid eclipse shifts between a annular eclipse. At certain points on the surface of Earth, it appears as a total eclipse, whereas at other points it appears as annular.
Hybrid eclipses are comparatively rare. A partial eclipse occurs when the Sun and Moon are not in line with the Earth and the Moon only obscures the Sun; this phenomenon can be seen from a large part of the Earth outside of the track of an annular or total eclipse. However, some eclipses can only be seen as a partial eclipse, because the umbra passes above the Earth's polar regions and never intersects the Earth's surface. Partial eclipses are unnoticeable in terms of the sun's brightness, as it takes well over 90% coverage to notice any darkening at all. At 99%, it would be no darker than civil twilight. Of course, partial eclipses can be observed; the Sun's distance from Earth is about 400 times the Moon's distance, the Sun's diameter is about 400 times the Moon's diameter. Because these ratios are the same, the Sun and the Moon as seen from Earth appear to be the same size: about 0.5 degree of arc in angular measure. A separate category of solar eclipses is that of the Sun being occluded by a body other than the Earth's moon, as can be observed at points in space away from the Earth's surface.
Two examples are when the crew of Apollo 12 observed the Earth eclipse the Sun in 1969 and when the Cassini probe observed Saturn eclipsing the Sun in 2006. The Moon's orbit around the Earth is elliptical, as is the Earth's orbit around the Sun; the apparent sizes of the Sun and Moon therefore vary. The magnitude of an eclipse is the ratio of the apparent size of the Moon to the apparent size of the Sun during an eclipse. An eclipse that occurs when the Moon is near its closest distance to Earth can be a total eclipse because the Moon will appear to be large enough to cover the Sun's bright disk or photosphere. Conversely, an eclipse that occurs when the Moon is near its farthest distance from Earth can only be an annular eclipse because the Moon will appear to be smaller than the Sun. More solar eclipses are
Blue Fin
Blue Fin is a 1978 family movie that stars Hardy Krüger, Greg Rowe and Elspeth Ballantyne. It is based on an Australian novel written by Colin Thiele and published in 1969. Based on the children's novel by celebrated South Australian author'Colin Thiele', this is an emotional father and son story about tuna fishing of Southern Blue Fin tuna in South Australia's Port Lincoln fishing district. Accident-prone son Snook is forever making mistakes much to the chagrin of his father Pascoe, but when tragedy strikes the fishing boat during a deep sea fishing trek in the Southern Ocean, the boy is called on to become a man in a rites of sea passage to reconcile his past mishaps and save both his father and the ship from certain disaster. Twelve-year-old Steve Pascoe is nicknamed'Snook' by everyone in Port Lincoln. He's long-faced, like the fish he's named after. At school he's no good at sport and, at home, his father scorns him. Snook joins his fellow crewmen on a tuna-fishing expedition, when disaster strikes.
It is up to Snook to save his father from a desperate situation. Hardy Krüger as Bill Pascoe Greg Rowe as Steve "Snook" Pascoe Liddy Clark as Ruth Pascoe Elspeth Ballantyne as Mrs. Pascoe John Jarratt as Sam Snell Hugh Keays-Byrne as Stan The film is an unofficial follow up to Storm Boy with the same writer and star adapted from a Colin Thiele novel; the South Australian Film Corporation did not want to use Henri Safran as director, though, so employed another director from the ABC, Carl Schultz. The film was shot near Streaky Bay in mid 1978, it was a difficult editor Rod Adamson claimed the film would not cut together. Five weeks after filming had completed, Schultz had to leave the film to take up a directing job at the ABC. Accordingly, Matt Carroll of the SAFC called in Bruce Beresford, under contract to them, to re-shoot some sequences; some of these had to be done using a body double for Hardy Kruger. Schultz was supportive of Beresford stepping in but was unhappy with the fact he supervised the final re-cut.
A DVD was released on 1 January 2003. Cinema of Australia South Australian Film Corporation Blue Fin on IMDb Blue Fin at Oz Movies Blue Fin at the National Film and Sound Archive Blue Film at Australian Film Commission Blue Fin at The New York Times Pacific International Enterprises
TriStar Pictures
TriStar Pictures, Inc. is an American film studio, a division of the Sony Pictures Motion Picture Group and part of Sony Pictures, owned by Japanese multinational conglomerate Sony Corporation. The concept for TriStar Pictures was the brainchild of Victor Kaufman, a senior executive of Columbia Pictures, who convinced the studio, HBO, CBS to pool resources and split the ever-growing costs of making movies, creating a new joint venture in 1982. On May 16, 1983, it was given the name Tri-Star Pictures, it was the first new major Hollywood studio to be established since RKO Pictures was founded in 1928. The studio's first produced film in 1984 was The Natural starring Robert Redford, their first release however, was the film, Where the Boys Are'84. During this venture, many of Tri-Star's releases were released on VHS by either RCA/Columbia Pictures Home Video, CBS/Fox Video and HBO/Cannon Video. In addition, HBO would gain exclusive cable distribution rights to these films, broadcast television licenses would go to CBS.
CBS dropped out of the venture in 1985, though they still distributed some of TriStar's films on home video until at least 1992. In 1986, HBO dropped out of the Tri-Star venture as well and sold half of its shares to Columbia Pictures; the same year, Tri-Star entered into the television business as Tri-Star Television. It was formed when the studio joined forces with Stephen J. Cannell Productions and Witt/Thomas/Harris Productions and created a television distribution company called TeleVentures. On December 21, 1987, Tri-Star Pictures, Inc. was renamed to Columbia Pictures Entertainment, Inc. when Coke sold its entertainment business to Tri-Star for $3.1 billion. Both studios continued to distribute films under their separate names. On April 13, 1988, CPE spun off Tri-Star Pictures, Inc. as a reformed company of the Tri-Star studio. In 1989, Columbia Pictures Entertainment, Inc. was acquired by Sony Corporation of Japan, who merged Columbia and Tri-Star, but continued to use the separate labels.
On July 11, 1990, Tri-Star Pictures dissolved and sold its venture in TeleVentures to Stephen J. Cannell Productions and TeleVentures became Cannell Distribution Co. Most of the series and the Tri-Star film packages that were distributed by TeleVentures were transferred to Columbia Pictures Television Distribution; the Tri-Star film packages were transferred to Columbia Pictures Television Distribution. Sony Pictures Entertainment revived TriStar Television as a television production banner in 1991 and merged with its sister television studio Columbia Pictures Television to form Columbia TriStar Television on February 21, 1994. Both studios continued to operate separately until TriStar folded in 1999 and CPT in 2001. In addition to its own slate, TriStar was the theatrical distributor for many films produced by Carolco Pictures. TriStar theatrically distributed some FilmDistrict movies. Around summer 1998, SPE merged Columbia and TriStar to form the Columbia TriStar Motion Picture Group, but just like Columbia Pictures Entertainment, both divisions continued producing and distributing films under their own names.
TriStar was relaunched on May 13, 2004 as a marketing and acquisitions unit that had a "particular emphasis on genre films". Screen Gems' executive vice president Valerie Van Galder was tapped to run the revived studio after being dormant. However, the release of its 2013 film Elysium represents the label's first big-budget release since The Mask of Zorro in 1998; the same year, former 20th Century Fox co-chairman Tom Rothman joined Sony Pictures and created TriStar Productions as a joint venture with existing Sony Pictures executives. The new TriStar will develop and produce up to four films per year, as well as television programming and acquisitions, starting on September 1. Sony's TriStar Pictures unit will be retained for "other product, including titles from Sony Pictures Worldwide Acquisitions", will distribute product from the new TriStar. TriStar's logo of Pegasus, introduced in 1984, has become something of a cultural icon; the idea came about his family's interest in riding horses.
The original logo was created with the assistance of Sydney Pollack, an adviser at Tri-Star. The horse in that logo was the same one used in Pollack's film The Electric Horseman; the horse in that film was dark, so Pollack had the image altered it to look white in the logo. The second logo was painted by Alan Reingold and debuted in 1992, along with sister studio Columbia Pictures, with both logos sharing a background of clouds; the theatrical version was animated by Intralink Creative in 1993. The white stallion was shot in a hangar at the Santa Monica Airport, The wings were done by combining real white feathers and computer-generated-imagery merged with Pegasus by computer morphing; the background is nighttime blue. The clouds were shot from the Haleakala Crater on Maui. In 2015, a new TriStar Pictures logo was debuted in The Walk; this time it was animated by JAMM VFX. The clouds are white in this new logo
