thrush@spock.UUCP (Patricia White '88 cc) (04/04/85)
Has anyone besides me heard of J. Lee Thompson ? He directed a few great Gregory Peck films such as _The Guns of Navarone_ and _Cape Fear_ (a virtually unknown picture, but stupendous). He also directed last year's box office flop _The Ambassadors_ (or was it just _The Ambassador_ ? I forget.) starring Rock Hudson and Robert Mitchum. Anybody know of any other of his works ? He is a great director. In _Cape Fear_ he directed a scene that looked Hitchcockian style, with water reflections hitting the ceiling of the houseboat. A very suspenseful scene, it was. What else has he done ?
reiher@ucla-cs.UUCP (04/07/85)
In article <220@spock.UUCP> thrush@spock.UUCP (Patricia White '88 cc) writes: > >Has anyone besides me heard of J. Lee Thompson ? >He directed a few great Gregory Peck films such as _The Guns of >Navarone_ and _Cape Fear_ (a virtually unknown picture, but stupendous). If Thompson is unknown, he has earned his obscurity. Thompson was a solid action/suspense director in the late fifties and early sixties, but, for the last two decades, he's been responsible for some terrible films: "John Goldfarb Please Come Home", "Mackenna's Gold", "Conquest of the Planet of the Apes", "Battle for the Planet of the Apes", "The White Buffalo", "The Greek Tycoon", and "The Passage". He has also produced a few average films in that period, but when your high point over a two decade period is "Eye of the Cat", you must be doing something wrong. He does not even have the knack of producing popular bad movies, so I guess he must work quickly and cheaply to keep getting films after so many flops. >He also directed last year's box office flop _The Ambassadors_ (or was >it just _The Ambassador_ ? I forget.) starring Rock Hudson and Robert >Mitchum. This one must be really obscure. I've never heard of it, which essentially means it didn't get an LA release, unusual for a film with two big name stars. I'd bet it must be really bad or really offbeat. >What else has he done ? Well, the other stuff worth mentioning is: "Desert Attack", "Tiger Bay", "Northwest Frontier" (aka "Flame Over India", an excellent film), "I Aim at the Stars" (a biography of Werner von Braun which apparently sends knowledgeable folks into hysterics), "Taras Bulba", "Kings of the Sun" (Mayans migrate to Florida), "Huckleberry Finn" (1974), "The Reincarnation of Peter Proud", and "St. Ives". -- Peter Reiher reiher@ucla-cs.arpa {...ihnp4,ucbvax,sdcrdcf}!ucla-cs!reiher
leeper@ahutb.UUCP (m.r.leeper) (04/08/85)
You learn such interesting things on the net. I never realized that J.
Lee-Thompson and CAPE FEAR were virtually unknown. I always thought
that both were pretty well known. :-) I couldn't give you a Thompson
filmography off the top of my head, but with the help of Katz's
ENCYCLOPEDIA OF FILM here is a list of his films that sound familiar to
me:
AN ALLIGATOR NAMED DAISY ('55),
TIGER BAY ('59),
FLAME OVER INDIA('59),
I AIM AT THE STARS ('60), bio of Werner Von Braun starring Curt Jergens
GUNS OF NAVARONE ('61),
CAPE FEAR ('62),
TARAS BULBA ('62) empty but fun film with Brynner and Curtis as Cossacks
KINGS OF THE SUN ('63), I think this one is about Mayans
WHAT A WAY TO GO ('64), Shirley Maclane vehicle
JOHN GOLDFARB PLEASE COME HOME ('65), Fuss was made over its sex. Blah.
RETURN FROM THE ASHES ('65),
EYE OF THE DEVIL ('67), atmospheric horror about blood sacrafice
THE CHAIRMAN ('69), Gregory Peck in China with bomb in his head
MACKENNA'A GOLD ('69),
BROTHERLY LOVE ('70), Really dull and bad Peter O'toole incest film
CONQUEST OF THE PLANET OF THE APES ('72), ok kid's film
BATTLE FOR THE PLANET OF THE APES ('73), ok kid's film
HUCKLEBERRY FINN ('74),
REINCARNATION OF PETER PROUD ('76), so-so horror
WHITE BUFFALO ('77), Dino DiLaurentiis western/monster film
THE GREEK TYCOON ('78),
CABO BLANCO ('79),
TEN TO MIDNIGHT ('83) just recently on cable
Not meaning to sound snide, but Lee-Thompson is quite well-known. Most
of his stuff is just not that much like CAPE FEAR and GUNS OF
NAVARONE.
Mark Leeper
...ihnp4!ahutb!leeper