Re: What Did You Watch? 2024-05-04 (Saturday)

On 5/5/2024 10:36 AM, Dimensional Traveler wrote:

The Twilight Zone S4E09 'Printer's Devil' (DVR)
A desperate newspaper editor hires the devil (Burgess Meredith) to save his failing business.  With Patricia Crowley.  (Comcast)
A man sells his soul to the Devil to save his failing newspaper and gets more than he bargained for.  (IMDb)
 

I still have your last TZ post saved for later reading.  I need to get around to reading it.

The Devil is in the Trivia
Referring to the title, a printer's devil was an apprentice in a printing establishment who performed a number of tasks, such as mixing tubs of ink and fetching type.
Mr. Smith makes the rhetorical argument 'that's like asking Paganini if he plays the fiddle'. Niccolò Paganini was an Italian violinist, violist, guitarist, and composer. He was the most celebrated violin virtuoso of the early 19th century, and left his mark as one of the pillars of modern violin technique. In fact he was so skilled, it was widely rumored he had sold his soul to the devil in order to possess such 'unnatural' abilities (some of his techniques bordered on the impossible, even by modern standards).
The special effect of Burgess Meredith creating a flame to light his cigar merely by snapping his fingers was accomplished by having two electric wires attached to a battery running up Meredith's coat and concealed on his fingers. Meredith held his fingers in a can of ice water until they were numb, and then a crew member put lighter fluid on his fingers. Bringing the wires together created a spark that ignited the fluid so he could light the cigar.
Burgess Meredith makes his fourth and final appearance in the Twilight Zone. This is the only time out of the four in which he plays an unsympathetic character.  (He was very good at creepy.)
In creating this tale, writer Charles Beaumont reused the central premise of his earlier pulp fiction short story "The Devil, You Say?" which had been published in the January 1950 issue of Amazing Stories Magazine. The original story was much more over the top; it had the Danville Courier displaying such outrageous headlines as "Mayor's Wife Gives Birth To Baby Hippopotamus" and "S.S. Queen Mary Discovered On Main Street."
 Narrator: [Opening Narration] Take away a man's dream, fill him with whiskey and despair, send him to a lonely bridge, let him stand there all by himself looking down at the black water and try to imagine the thoughts that are in his mind. You can't, I can't. But there's someone who can - and that someone is seated next to Douglas Winter right now. The car is headed back toward town, but its real destination is the Twilight Zone.
Narrator: [Closing Narration] Exit the infernal machine, and with it his satanic majesty, Lucifer, prince of darkness - otherwise known as Mr. Smith. He's gone, but not for good; that wouldn't be like him - he's gone for bad. And he might be back, with another ticket - to the Twilight Zone.
  Eternals (DVR)
The Eternals, a race of immortal beings with superhuman powers who have secretly lived on Earth for thousands of years, reunite to battle the evil Deviants.  (Comcast)
The saga of the Eternals, a race of immortal beings who lived on Earth and shaped its history and civilizations.  (IMDb)
 

I really liked this movie.

Eternally Trivial
Makkari, portrayed by deaf actress Lauren Ridloff, is the first deaf superhero in the MCU.
Due to Chloé Zhao's outspoken comments about mainland China, there is currently no Chinese release date for Eternals as of now in theaters. The film was announced to be banned in Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, and Oman due to the countries wanting to cut out scenes of Phastos and his husband, which Disney refused to allow. It was also banned in Kuwait and Qatar due to the countries being against depicting gods and prophets on film.
(at around 10 mins) The dog that spots the Deviant monster in the water couldn't stop wagging its tail during filming, and so the tail had to be digitally altered in post-production.
According to Kevin Feige, Gemma Chan being cast as Sersi was done because he deeply regretted that her talents were wasted in Captain Marvel (2019), and wanted to work with Chan on a film once again.
It's the twenty-sixth film of the Marvel Cinematic Universe.
Set around eight months after the events depicted in Avengers: Endgame (2019).
 Why is it that the creations of supremely powerful beings, who should be able to make loyal servants, always eventually go rogue?
 

Free will?

What Did You Watch?