Dracula At Discount Prices

Universal's original plan was to make a big-budget adaptation of "Dracula" that would strictly adhere to the Bram Stoker novel. However, after the stock market crash of 1929 and the beginning of the Great Depression, Universal chose not to risk an investment on such a sprawling film. Instead, it adapted the much less expensive Hamilton Deane stage play.

Related: Tomb of Dracula #1 (1979 Magazine) October 1979 Marvel Comics Grade NM

Bela Lugosi was so desperate to repeat his stage success and play the Count Dracula role for the film version, that he agreed to a contract paying him $500 per week for a seven week shooting schedule, an insultingly small amount even during the days of the Depression.

Before he was cast as Count Dracula, Bela Lugosi acted as an unpaid intermediary for Universal Pictures in negotiating with the widow of author Bram Stoker in an attempt to persuade her to lower her asking price for the filming rights to the Dracula property. After two months of negotiations, Mrs. Stoker reportedly lowered her price from $200,000 to $60,000. This, however, further demonstrated to Universal how desperate Lugosi was to repeat his stage success as Count Dracula and secure the film role for himself.

Universal acquired the film rights to "Dracula" from Bram Stoker's widow and the play's writer Hamilton Deane for $40,000. - (IMDB)

Dracula And Old Lace

Bela Lugosi was slated for the role of Dracula in "House of Frankenstein" (1944) , but the film was dependent upon the presence of Boris Karloff being released from the stage tour of Arsenic and Old Lace. Shooting was delayed, and John Carradine was cast instead of Lugosi, who had a prior engagement: ironically, playing Karloff's "Jonathan Brewster" role in another touring company of "Arsenic and Old Lace."

Related: The Bride - Bride of Frankenstein Boris Karloff Universal Monsters Horror Movie Poster Print

Glenn Strange was the fourth actor to play the Monster in Universal's Frankenstein series. The actor who played the original Monster, Boris Karloff, was of course on the set, playing the role of Dr. Niemann so he was able to personally coach Strange in the way the Monster should be played.

The only actor to reprise his original monster role was Lon Chaney Jr. who played Larry Talbot, aka "The Wolfman", for the third time.

By the way Kharis the mummy, another Universal "classic monster", was to be in the movie but was removed because of budget restrictions. Lord knows who they would have cast in that role? Possibly Lugosi?

Things You Didn't Know About "The Mysterians"

Beware! Multi-colored aliens have come to Earth with a giant drill-nosed robot to mate with our women and buy up all of our real estate.

The Mysterians  is a 1957 Japanese science fiction film directed by Ishirō Honda and stars Kenji Sahara, Yumi Shirakawa and Takashi Shimura. The film begins with a giant fissure destroying an entire village. This leads to an investigation whereby the source is discovered to be Moguera, a giant robot, who is then destroyed by the military. The remains are analyzed and discovered to be of alien origin. Shortly after, an alien race known as the Mysterians arrive, declaring they have taken some Earth women captive and that they demand both land and the right to marry women of Earth.

For The Mysterians, producer Tomoyuki Tanaka recruited Jojiro Okami, a science fiction writer, to develop the story. Honda later elaborated that he wanted the film to differ from both Godzilla and Rodan and to make it more of a "true science fiction film," one to promote peace and understanding between cultures. The film was popular upon its release in Japan, where it was among the top ten grossing domestic productions of the year. Contemporary reviews from Western critics in the Monthly Film Bulletin and Variety praised the special effect work but criticized the plot as confusing and juvenile, respectively. - Wiki

Who's Afraid Of Godzilla? Illustrated Book By DI Kaiju & Bob Eggleton Godzilla Movie Monsters! Mothra Rodan and More! Grade VF

At the end of the English-language US version, the last Mysterian saucer is seen ascending into the upper atmosphere. In the original Japanese-language version, this is revealed, through dialog, to actually be an Earth satellite that is launched to monitor the Mysterians and prevent a future attack.

This was one of the first Japanese productions to be shot in anamorphic widescreen. Tôhô Kabushiki Kaisha, which called its anamorphic process TôhôScope, specifically made this film to show off the new process. Part of Akira Ifukube's battle score was used on the TôhôScope logo, which appeared at the beginning of the Japanese-language prints.

The USA premiere of the Mysterians, Aka Chikyû Bôeigun (tôhô, 1957) was on October 30, 1958, at the United Artists Theater in downtown Inglewood, California. A giant 6-foot-tall cardboard standee poster of Mogera was placed outside of the theater, facing the street. It was released by RKO and Warner Bros. for that release, then MGM re-released it again in May 1959. It is available on VHS, Laserdisc from Tôhô, and on DVD from Tokyo Shock, 2005. The reissue DVD has a re-recorded English-language soundtrack with new voice actors and is not the original 1958 USA release soundtrack that had Paul Frees as the voice of actor Takashi Shimura, who played the veteran scientist Dr. Tanjiro Adachi, as he also did for this actor in voiceover work in Godzilla: King of the Monsters (1956) and Mosura (mothra) (1961).



The Mogera suit, originally worn by Haruo Nakajima, was, after filming, kept in storage in one of Tôhô's visual effects sound stages until 1974, when it was destroyed in a fire on the lot, caused by a pyrotechnical accident during the filming of Nosutoradamusu no daiyogen (1974).

In the original Japanese-language version, the aliens are called Mysterians (rendered in katakana as Misuterian). When he visited the United States, special-effects director Eiji Tsuburaya was surprised to discover that the term Mysterians was well-known. It had also been used in the English-language dubbing, and the film had even been released in the United States under the title "The Mysterians."

Mogera, the giant robot that was added to the film, was created to be a Godzilla-like mechanical monster, including spines along the back and a large tail. In the final edit of the film, most of the selected shots hide the fact that the robot does have a tail.

An early concept of Mogera was of a four-footed mecha, more along the lines of a mole. The name Mogera was based on the Japanese word for mole ("mogura"), which was not in the original script, but was added at the insistence of producer Tomoyuki Tanaka, who felt the movie needed a giant monster.

Japan's Self-Defense Forces gave assistance to this production and allowed the filming of military equipment and personnel. Through them, the production was also allowed to shoot TôhôScope-wide footage, especially of military aircraft, at United States Military installations in Japan. - IMDB

In the late 1980s long time Godzilla movie fan and music video producer Mick Anger developed a sequel to The Mysterians. The film featured Godzilla (Of Course) taking on the horny aliens and their giant Mogera robot. According to sources the film actually went through eighteen months of development before producer Tomoyuki Tanaka pulled the plug. Apparently Toho wasn't ready for an American to helm a Godzilla movie.

Here is a outline for the story:

"The story of GODZILLA Vs. THE MYSTERIANS involved a rogue faction of the aliens from the original 1957 flick, setting up shop under the Nevada Desert. Over the years the Mysterians conducted experiments on the local flora and fauna in their labs to try ,and combat the conundrum of their race's sterility. The results were a menagerie of genetic, and cybernetic abominations that brought them no closer to their goals of correcting their sterility. The mightiest of which, Hira-Jin, part-man, part-Gila Monster, part human.

The Mysterians hit upon the idea that Godzilla's unique biology might be the key to the answers they seek. So a ship is dispatched to Monster Island to capture the King of the Monsters. The mission is successful, Godzilla is captured ,and brought back to the base. Unfortunately, drawn into the affair are Anguirus and Rodan who track Godzilla to the Mysterians' base in the Nevada desert, which takes them through Las Vegas. The Mysterians unleash Hira-Jin against the kaiju, and large tracks of Vegas end up devastated in the resulting battle." - Toho Kingdom

Wow there is a lot to process there. I think that if you took out the half-human-half-gila monster thing you may have had something ... maybe.

Star Wars: Rare Photos And Trivia - "Mother, I want to fly coach, will you f**k off?!"

Trivia From IMDB

See Also: Star Wars: Episode VII

 George Lucas had planned the character of Han Solo to be a huge green-skinned monster with no nose and gills. Then Lucas changed the idea of Han Solo to a black human. He auditioned several black actors and even musicians (including Billy Dee Williams) until finally settling on Glynn Turman. But after this he decided to make the role white. Kurt Russell, Nick Nolte, Christopher Walken, Jack Nicholson, Al Pacino, Chevy Chase, Steve Martin, Bill Murray, Robert Englund, Sylvester Stallone, John Travolta and Perry King were all candidates for the role of Han Solo. George Lucas also wanted to stay away from any actors he had previously used in his films. James Caan, Jack Nicholson, Robert De Niro and Burt Reynolds turned down the role. Harrison Ford (who had played Bob Falfa in Lucas's American Graffiti) read the part of Han Solo for screen tests of other characters but wasn't originally considered for the part. During these tests Lucas realized Ford was perfect for the role.

Due to the limited budget the American cast members and crew (including George Lucas) all decided to fly coach class to England, rather than first class. When Carrie Fisher's mother Debbie Reynolds heard about this she called Lucas, complaining about how insulting it was for her daughter to be flying coach. Fisher was in the room with Lucas when he took the call, and after a few minutes asked if she could talk to her mother. When Lucas handed her the phone she simply said, "Mother, I want to fly coach, will you f**k off?!" and hung up.

At one point, George Lucas planned for the characters of Luke Skywalker and his aunt and uncle, to be dwarves.

Industrial Light and Magic (ILM) spent most of the production period in chaos, attempting to create special effects that had never been created before. They blew half their budget on four shots which George Lucas rejected. Ultimately, around $5,000,000 of the $8,000,000 budget was spent by ILM.

Alec Guinness always recalled the experience of making the movie as a bad one, and consistently claimed that it was his idea to have his character killed in the first film, so he "wouldn't have to carry on saying these rubbish lines". Reportedly because he hated working on Star Wars so much, Alec Guinness claims that Obi-Wan's death was his idea as a means to limit his involvement in the film. Guinness also claimed to throw away all Star Wars related fan mail without even opening it. Contrary to this, George Lucas has said he made the decision to kill off Kenobi, that Guinness was "less than happy" his character was dying earlier than expected, and that Guinness appeared to enjoy his time on set. While Alec Guinness made no secret that he disliked the dialogue in George Lucas's script, he claimed that he accepted the role for two reasons: 1). He was an admirer of Lucas' previous film American Graffiti and 2). The narrative compelled him to read the whole script through to the end, in spite of not liking the dialogue and not being a fan of science fiction.

George Lucas had not originally intended to use Anthony Daniels's voice for the voice of C-3PO. He only changed his mind after a suggestion by Stan Freberg, one of the actors considered as Daniels' replacement Daniels' voice was altered in post-production. His character was supposed to be like a "used-car salesman". Ultimately, though, George Lucas was won over by the charisma of Daniels' reading of the part as a "snooty British butler" and so Daniels has done the voice for C3PO ever since.

Carrie Fisher found the dialogue to be very difficult, later saying, "You can type this stuff, but you can't say it". Harrison Ford had similar trouble (particularly in the scene where the Millenium Falcon leaves Tatooine), and persuaded George Lucas to let him change several lines.

P.J. Soles, Sissy Spacek and Nancy Allen, Farrah Fawcett, Glenn Close, Barbara Hershey, Bernadette Peters, Bonnie Bedelia, Dianne Wiest, Margot Kidder, Jessica Lange, Meryl Streep, Sigourney Weaver, Cybill Shepherd, Christine Lahti Jane Seymour, Anjelica Huston, Catherine Hicks, Christine Baranski, Kay Lenz, Kim Basinger, Kathleen Turner, Debra Winger, and Geena Davis all auditioned for the role of Princess Leia. Linda Blair, Pamela Sue Martin and Jill Clayburgh were considered.

Terri Nunn of the band Berlin was in the running for the role of Princess Leia and had readings with Harrison Ford and Mark Hamill.

Before casting Alec Guinness as Obi-Wan Kenobi, George Lucas considered casting Japanese actor Toshirô Mifune. He also considered making casting a Japanese Princess Leia.

Before Alec Guinness was cast as Obi Wan, George Lucas briefly considered using Peter Cushing, who plays Tarkin.

On the first day of filming in the deserts of Tunisia, the country experienced its first major rainstorm in 50 years.

Carrie Fisher's breasts were taped down with gaffer tape, as her costume did not permit any lingerie to be worn underneath. She joked later, "As we all know, there is no underwear in space."

The origin of R2-D2 can be found in the "drones" Huey, Dewey, and Louie from the film Silent Running. Upon meeting Douglas Trumbull, director and special effects chief on "Silent Running", George Lucas commented on how much he liked the designs of Trumbull's two-footed robots in the film (which were operated by bilateral amputees). Four years later, a functionally similar design appeared as R2-D2 in "Star Wars". Universal Studios, the distributor of "Silent Running" noted the similarity between the robots (and the similarity of "Star Wars" to the Buck Rogers serials of the '30s), and promptly sued 20th Century Fox for infringement. The lawsuit was eventually settled when Fox counter-sued over Battlestar Galactica: Pilot, which bore a striking resemblance to "Star Wars".

Luke went through several changes. Lucas toyed with the idea of changing him into a woman after cutting Princess Leia from the script. He also entertained the notion of casting the principal characters as a dwarfs. In an early screenplay, Skywalker was a 60 year-old general. In the shooting script, he was called Luke Starkiller but this was changed to Luke Skywalker during production.

During the scene on the Death Star right after Ben leaves to shut down the tractor beam, Chewbacca barks something to Luke to which Han says "Boy, you said it Chewie". Backstage footage reveals that what Chewie says is "The old man's gone mad".

20th Century Fox was so sure Star Wars was going to be a disaster that they came within a matter of days of selling off their stake in the film as a tax shelter. Positive feedback from an advanced screening made them change their minds, and the profits from the film ended up saving the studio from bankruptcy.

For the special edition version, in the Cantina the close-up shot of the wolfman was removed. He was replaced with a close-up shot of a CGI dinosaur-type man. However in additional frames, you can still see the wolfman in the background.

Following principal photography, new scenes had to be filmed for the Cantina scene, to give it more diversity and add more aliens to the scene. However, the reshoot set was very small. If you look at the close-up scenes of most of the aliens when Luke and company enter, you can see the same window in the background.

David Prowse was not the only on-screen actor to have his voice overdubbed by another. In the early rough-cut of the Cantina sequence, Wuher, the barkeeper is speaking in a very pronounced Cockney accent, one that was overdubbed by an American actor before the film's release. The same also happens with the character of Dr. Evazan ("I have the death sentence in 12 systems!") for much the same reason.

The cantina creature later to be known as 'Dice Ibegon' was really nothing more than a hand puppet known as the 'Drooling arm'. This was because it was fashioned to have a red, oozy liquid drip from it's mouth. When they tried this on film however, the liquid spurted all over the place and the shot was judged to be too disgusting for a PG movie.

A small pair of metal dice can be seen hanging in the cockpit of the Millennium Falcon as Chewbacca makes preparations to depart from Mos Eisley. Set designer Roger Christian claims he added the pair of dice hanging in the Millennium Falcon cockpit (briefly seen when Chewbacca bumps his head on them as he first enters) because there were dice hanging in Harrison Ford's car in American Graffiti. However, Ford's character had a skull hanging from his rear-view mirror. Ron Howard had the fluffy dice. They don't appear in subsequent scenes, because they were stolen from the set and not replaced.

George Lucas planned to score the film with existing classical music like Stanley Kubrick had done on 2001: A Space Odyssey before Steven Spielberg introduced him to composer John Williams. Lucas and Williams agreed on a classical 19th-century Romantic music style with liberal use of leitmotif for the score. Since the movie would show worlds never seen before, the music had to serve as an "emotional anchor" for the audience to relate.

In earlier drafts, including the ones that were used for audition readings, the planet Alderaan was known as Organa Major. Although the name was changed, the "Organa" was retained and became Leia's adoptive family name.

Stunt doubles were not used for the scene in which Luke and Leia swing to safety. Carrie Fisher and Mark Hamill performed that stunt themselves, shooting it in just one take.

When the film was re-released in theaters after it became so successful, the Daffy Duck cartoon Duck Dodgers in the 24½th Century was run preceding the feature at the request of George Lucas.

James Earl Jones supplied the voice of Darth Vader, but specifically requested that he not be credited. At the time, the reason he cited was that he felt he had not done enough work to get the billing, but he later admitted that he didn't want his name associated with the film because he was still an up-and-coming actor, and didn't want to be typecast. Jones does receive billing in the 1997 "Special Edition".

George Lucas originally wanted Orson Welles to do Darth Vader's voice, but decided against it, feeling that Welles' voice would be too recognizable.

The terms "X-wing" and "Y-wing" and "TIE fighter" were used by ILM effects guys to distinguish the fighters. These terms are not used in this film, though they were incorporated into the sequels. They also became popular with the public after the toys and the Making of special aired on tv. In addition, ILM's special effects staff nicknamed the Millennium Falcon "The Porkburger" but this never caught on.

Several scenes were filmed of Luke with his friends on Tatooine in an effort to introduce the main character earlier in the film. First Luke and watches Princess Leia's ship battle with the Imperial cruiser through his Macrobinoculars and later he meets his best friend Biggs Darklighter in Anchorhead, who has left the Imperial Academy and plans to join the Rebel Alliance, Also present in the Anchorhead scenes were Anthony Forrest as Fixer and Koo Stark as Fixer's girlfriend Cammie. All these scenes were later cut, leaving Luke's mention of Biggs to his aunt and uncle as the sole reference to his character early on. The scenes have never officially appeared in any release of the movie, but stills were included in "The Story of Star Wars" (a book-and-record set), and the scenes also appeared in the comic book and novel adaptations. This has lead several people to believe they actually saw the scenes on the silver screen. All of the scenes were included on the CD-Rom Star Wars: Behind the Magic in 1998. A reunion scene between Luke and Biggs at the Rebel base was included in the Special Edition re-release of the movie. However, a line by Red Leader about having once met Luke's father was cut from this exchange.

My dear old monster. I owe everything to him. He's my best friend

During the production of Frankenstein (1931) there was some concern that seven-year-old Marilyn Harris, who played Maria, the little girl thrown into the lake by the creature, would be overly frightened by the sight of Boris Karloff in costume and make-up when it came time to shoot the scene. When the cast was assembled to travel to the location, Marilyn ran from her car directly up to Karloff, who was in full make-up and costume, took his hand and asked "May I drive with you?" Delighted, and in typical Karloff fashion, he responded, "Would you, darling?" She then rode to the location with "The Monster."

See Also: Dracula / Frankenstein 8 x 10 Studio Still - Dracula / Frankenstein Poster Image - Original Studio Image

"One always hears of actors complaining of being typed - if he's young, he's typed as a juvenile; if he's handsome, he's typed as a leading man. I was lucky. Whereas bootmakers have to spend millions to establish a trademark, I was handed a trademark free of charge. When an actor gets in a position to select his own roles, he's in big trouble, for he never knows what he can do best. I'm sure I'd be damn good as little Lord Fauntleroy, but who would pay ten cents to see it?" - Boris Karloff (IMDB)

Read Also: Frankenstein: Comics Greatest Monster - and - Five Myths About The ‘Frankenstein’ Monster

Bring out yer dead .. Monty Python and the Holy Grail Trivia

From Imdb

Funds earned by Pink Floyd's album "The Dark Side of the Moon" went towards funding The Holy Grail. The band were such fans of the show they would halt recording sessions just to watch Monty Python's Flying Circus (1969).

The famous depiction of galloping horses by using coconut shells (a traditional radio-show sound effect) came about from the purely practical reason that the production simply couldn't afford real horses.

During one of the first screenings of the film in front of a live audience, director Terry Jones noticed that when music was played during the jokes, there was a marked reduction of laughter from the audience. He went back and edited the music out whenever a punchline was delivered. At subsequent screenings he noticed a dramatic increase in the audiences' positive reactions to the jokes. From that point on, whenever he directed, he remembered to stop the music for the funny parts.

During the witch hunt, Eric Idle bares his teeth and bites down on the blade of the scythe he is holding. This was not scripted; Idle was actually about to burst out laughing and bit his scythe to stifle himself so as not to spoil the take. (If you look closely, you can see him shaking slightly, trying to keep his laughing under control.) Michael Palin can be seen hiding laughter at the same time as well, while earlier in the scene John Cleese quickly turns his head to one side just before the shot cuts, though not quickly enough to hide that he has broken character and is grinning broadly. All three comment on each others' corpsing on the DVD commentary.

Since the armour the Knights wore was really made of wool, and the weather conditions in Scotland and England being what they normally are, the actors spent most of the shooting days being very cold and wet. To make matters worse, the hotel where they were staying only had a limited number of baths and hot water. At the end of shooting each day, there was a mad dash to see who could get back to the hotel first, and into some hot water. The Monty Python troupe all seem to agree that they did not enjoy much of the filming experience for this movie.

The airspeed velocity of an unladen swallow is roughly 11 meters per second, or 24 miles per hour, beating its wings 7-9 times per second rather than 43. It's true: a 5 ounce bird cannot carry a one pound coconut, but furthermore, no swallow weighs 5 ounces. The barn swallow, which is what most English people mean when they say "swallow", weighs only 20 grams (2/3 of an ounce).

In the Killer Rabbit scene, a real white rabbit was used. He was dyed with what was assumed to be a washable red coloring liquid in the shots after the battle. When filming wrapped the rabbit's owner was dismayed to learn the dye could not be rinsed off. Terry Gilliam described in an audio commentary that the owner of the rabbit was present and shooting was abruptly halted while the cast desperately attempted to clean the rabbit before the owner found out, an unsuccessful attempt. He also stated that he thought that, had they been more experienced in film-making, the crew would have just purchased a rabbit instead. Otherwise the rabbit himself was unharmed. The rabbit-bite effects were done via special puppetry by both Terry Gilliam and SFX technician John Horton.

The Black Knight was first played by John Cleese, but when Arthur cuts off the first leg a real one-legged actor (a local silversmith) was used. On the DVD Terry Gilliam reveals that a marionette was used to film the shot of the second leg being cut off, he also jokes that using the one-legged silversmith for the shot of the knight with no legs saved work, since they only had to dig a hole for one leg (Cleese has said that it was himself standing in the hole).

King Arthur: I am your king.

Woman: Well, I didn't vote for you.

King Arthur: You don't vote for kings.

Woman: Well how'd you become king then?

[Angelic music plays... ]

King Arthur: The Lady of the Lake, her arm clad in the purest shimmering samite held aloft Excalibur from the bosom of the water, signifying by divine providence that I, Arthur, was to carry Excalibur. THAT is why I am your king.

Dennis: [interrupting] Listen, strange women lyin' in ponds distributin' swords is no basis for a system of government. Supreme executive power derives from a mandate from the masses, not from some farcical aquatic ceremony.

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"Oh my god, I shot my eye out! " - A Christmas Story Trivia

Ralphie: I want an official Red Ryder, carbine action, two-hundred shot range model air rifle!

Mrs. Parker: No, you'll shoot your eye out.

From IMDB

There is a debate about when the film takes place. Evidence seems to point to 1939 because of The Wizard of Oz (1939) references. The decoder ring points to 1940. However, if you look at the calendar on the wall (during the first dinner sequence), you can clearly see the first of December falls on a Friday. December 1st fell on a Friday in 1939, not 1940 as was previously accepted.

According to director Bob Clark, Jack Nicholson was given the script and was very much interested in the role of Mr. Parker, "The Old Man". However, Clark didn't learn of this until later and the studio didn't want to pay Nicholson's fee anyway, which would have doubled the budget. Regardless, Clark said that Darren McGavin was still the better choice and was born to play the role.

Ralphie as Adult: [narrating] Only one thing in the world could've dragged me away from the soft glow of electric sex gleaming in the window.

According to Peter Billingsley (young Ralphie) in the DVD Commentary, the nonsensical ramblings that Ralphie exclaims while beating up Scut Farkas were scripted, word for word.

Bob Clark's success with the teen-sex comedy Porky's (1982) allowed him the ability to make a movie he wanted to make. Without "Porky's" there would have been no "Christmas Story".

Ralphie: Oooh fuuudge!

Ralphie as Adult: [narrating] Only I didn't say "Fudge." I said THE word, the big one, the queen-mother of dirty words, the "F-dash-dash-dash" word!

Mr. Parker: [stunned] *What* did you say?

Ralphie: Uh, um...

Mr. Parker: That's... what I thought you said. Get in the car. Go on!

Ralphie as Adult: [narrating] It was all over - I was dead. What would it be? The guillotine? Hanging? The chair? The rack? The Chinese water torture? Hmmph. Mere child's play compared to what surely awaited me.

The film was released just before Thanksgiving and became a surprise hit. By the time Christmas rolled around, the movie had already been pulled from most theaters because it had been "played out". After complaints were lodged at the theater owners and the studio, the film played on select screens until after the first of the year 1984.

The people of Cleveland were incredibly cooperative during filming, donating antique vehicles from every corner of the city. These vintage vehicles helped to enhance the authenticity of the production design.

An elaborate fantasy sequence - in which Ralphie joins Flash Gordon to fight Ming the Merciless - was filmed but dropped from the final cut.

Narrator: Aunt Clara had for years labored under the delusion that I was not only perpetually 4 years old, but also a girl.

Jean Shepherd's book "In God We Trust: All Others Pay Cash", which the film is partly based on, is a collection of short stories that Shepherd wrote for "Playboy" magazine during the 1960s, including the ones about the tongue sticking to the flagpole and eating Christmas dinner at a Chinese restaurant. The subplot of the mangy dogs constantly harassing The Old Man was taken from another of Shepherd's short story collections, "Wanda Hickey's Night Of Golden Memories and Other Disasters." In that book, the character of Ralph is about 17 years old.

The Orphan Annie radio decoder pin that Ralphie receives is the 1940 "Speedomatic" model, indicating that the movie takes place in December, 1940. Different decoder badges were made each year from 1935-1940. By 1941, the decoders were made of paper.

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Godzilla (1954) Did You Know?

From IMDB

During Godzilla's rampage through downtown Tokyo, one of the buildings he destroys is the Toho Theater. In fact, some fans who were watching the film in that theater actually thought the theater was being attacked and tried to run out of the theater.

The sound department tried numerous animal roars for Godzilla but felt they were unsuitable for an animal of such immense size. Akira Ifukube came up with Godzilla's roars by rubbing a coarse, resin-coated leather glove up and down the strings of a contrabass (double bass), and reverberated the recorded sound. Also, Godzilla's thunderous footsteps were made by beating a kettle drum with a knotted rope.

George Lucas cites this film's miniatures as an inspiration for his effects in the Star Wars films.

Was the most expensive Japanese movie ever made at the time of its release.

The electrical towers that Godzilla melts with his radioactive breath were actually made of wax. The special effects crew melted them by blowing hot air on them, as well as shining hot studio lights on them for the white-hot effect.

One of the most famous legends regarding the production of this film has Ishirô Honda and Eiji Tsuburaya on the observation deck of what was then one of Tokyo's skyscrapers. They were planning Godzilla's path of destruction. Other visitors on the deck became concerned when portions of their conversation were overheard. The pair was stopped by authorities and questioned.

Because of the complexity of the production, the entire film was storyboarded. This is believed to be the very first time this was done for a Japanese film.

The name Gojira is a combination of the Japanese words for gorilla (gorira) and whale (kujira). The monster was so named because his original design was that of a gorilla-whale monster, which is recounted by people who worked on the film. 'Shigeru Kayama' (who was hired by Tomoyuki Tanaka to write the original story) recounted in a book of memoirs he published in Japan, that Tanaka told him the creature would be a sea monster that was "a cross between a whale and a gorilla". After producer Tanaka saw the American monster film The Beast from 20,000 Fathoms (1953), he got the idea to turn Godzilla into a dinosaur monster. Despite the physical change the name of the monster was kept. There has always been a legend that Godzilla was named after a hulking man nicknamed Gorilla-Whale who worked at Tôhô, but this is untrue. Not only is there no evidence of this man even existing, but the various stories about him kept changing through the years (he worked as a stagehand, he worked as a PR man, etc.). According to Kimi Honda, wife of Ishirô Honda, the Gorilla-Whale man was just an inside joke between her husband and various others on the Tôhô lot - specifically producer Tanaka.

The movie's opening scene was inspired by the Lucky Dragon incident, where the fishing boat known as the Lucky Dragon strayed too close to what was named the most powerful nuclear test ever and was contaminated with radiation. A crew on board a fishing boat, going about their normal day, suddenly a bright flash of light catches their attention, and they are soon bombarded with radioactivity. The only difference is that the boat catches fire and sinks in the movie. If you look closely at the life preserver, you will see the marking "No. 5". This was a reference to the ship Lucky Dragon No. 5, which was one of the inspirations for the film.

Originally when Gojira (Godzilla) makes his first appearance, there was supposed to be a bloody cow in his mouth. After reviewing the test shots, Masao Tamai, the cinematographer, felt it was far too graphic and convinced director Ishirô Honda to re-film the sequence without the cow.

In one of the early script drafts, Doctor Yemane was written as a very dark and sinister character. In fact, one of the original ideas was to have Yemane sneak into the control room that controlled the electrical towers and sabotage the attempt to electrocute Gojira (Godzilla).

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A Star Wars Christmas Bonanza

Star Wars Trivia:

 

George Lucas had planned the character of Han Solo to be a huge green-skinned monster with no nose and gills. Then Lucas changed the idea of Han Solo to a black human. He auditioned several black actors and even musicians (including Billy Dee Williams) until finally settling on Glynn Turman. But after this he decided to make the role white. Kurt Russell, Nick Nolte, Christopher Walken, Jack Nicholson, Al Pacino, Chevy Chase, Steve Martin, Bill Murray, Robert Englund, Sylvester Stallone, John Travolta and Perry King were all candidates for the role of Han Solo. George Lucas also wanted to stay away from any actors he had previously used in his films. James Caan, Jack Nicholson, Robert De Niro and Burt Reynolds turned down the role. Harrison Ford (who had played Bob Falfa in Lucas's American Graffiti) read the part of Han Solo for screen tests of other characters but wasn't originally considered for the part. During these tests Lucas realized Ford was perfect for the role.

Due to the limited budget the American cast members and crew (including George Lucas) all decided to fly coach class to England, rather than first class. When Carrie Fisher's mother Debbie Reynolds heard about this she called Lucas, complaining about how insulting it was for her daughter to be flying coach. Fisher was in the room with Lucas when he took the call, and after a few minutes asked if she could talk to her mother. When Lucas handed her the phone she simply said, "Mother, I want to fly coach, will you f**k off?!" and hung up. 

More at Star Wars: Episode IV A New Hope 

Looks like Wormie's caught too much sun.

They all exit the station and climb to the platform that surrounds the generator room. They all begin to survey the sky. Biggs soon decides that there is nothing really to see. Camie grabs the binoculars from Luke to see for herself. Luke protests and Fixer attempts to start to protect her. While Camie scans the sky Biggs gives Luke some advice.
 
Star Wars - The Missing Pieces 

 He left his mother at a tender age to join the Jedi only to seek her out as a teen, he finds her after she was captured by Sandpeople hen she dies in his arms. He got a little upset and went on a killing spree. He always thought that his fellow Jedi were holding him back so he turned to the dark side and slaughters his comrades, kills his own wife and tries to barbecue his best friend and mentor only to end up becoming a half-machine half-man monster with a bad Asthma problem.

Darth Vader Had Emotional Problems ...... Ya Think?















Mark Hamill Talks About His Experience Making Star Wars

There are things that don’t satisfy the audience about Luke – I’m too naïve, too straight forward, too earnest. All those things are complicated by Harrison Ford’s character, who is cynical, or Carrie Fisher’s character, who is very aggressive and sure of herself.  Every creature in the story line has such a recognizable human quality. The kids, of  course, respond to the Wookie because he’s big and furry and scary, but also he’s more scared than they are. That they love!
 

Mark Hamill - 1978 Star Wars Press Conference  

 Carrie Fisher – Lunch With Monsters At A Chinese Restaurant

In STAR WARS, Carrie Fisher has a film role that measures up to her fantasy life. She portrays the beautiful Princess Leia, a senator from the plant Alderaan and a rebel-leader working secretly for freedom and justice against the oppressive, evil Galactic Empire.

“When I made my first film, SHAMPOO, my scene was shot in Beverly Hills, which is where I grew up. I wore this little tennis outfit, which was something I might wear in real life. It wasn’t at all what I expected making movies would be,”  Carrie Fisher said. “I grew up watching movies  and they always seemed like adult recess. And that’s exactly what making STAR WARS turned out to be – a kind of adult recess. I got to go to lunch with outerspace monsters at a Chinese restaurant.”









I Thought I Would Find You Holding Vader's Leash 

“The horror movies give so much pleasure. And that’s what filmmaking is all about, isn’t it? That’s why I wanted to do STAR WARS. It’s a fantasy. People can experience emotions watching STAR WARS that they can’t experience in their ordinary lives,” Cushing said.

“Certainly I want to do other things than Horror films and play villains. I enjoyed playing in Laurence Olivier’s production of HAMLET. But I hope there are Dracula and Frankenstein films I can play in a wheelchair when I get old. Give up playing Van Helsing in DRACULA? Over my dead body.”
 
Peter Cushing – The Good Man Behind Evil Characters  

Star Trek Into Darkness Trivia

From IMDB

Screenwriters Roberto Orci and Alex Kurtzman explained that the dilemma for the sequel was whether to pit the crew against another villain, or to have an "exploration sci-fi plot where the unknown and nature itself is somehow an adversary," like in Star Trek.

According to J.J. Abrams, the time travel-alternate reality concept used in the previous film was a deliberate ploy to enable a reboot for new sagas/films: "The idea, now that we are in an independent timeline, allows us to use any of the ingredients from the past - or come up with brand-new ones - to make potential stories."

Hayley Atwell and Teresa Palmer auditioned for the role of Carol Marcus.

Benicio Del Toro was in early talks for the role of John Harrison, but eventually declined due to monetary issues. Demián Bichir, Édgar Ramírez and Jordi Mollà were considered afterwards, before Benedict Cumberbatch was finally cast.

Paramount Pictures requested director J.J. Abrams to make the film in 3D. However, Abrams wanted to shoot the movie two dimensionally on film using IMAX cameras. The two compromised, and as a result this film marks the first time in cinema history that a movie was filmed in the IMAX format and then converted into 3D in post production.

Benedict Cumberbatch was recommended to J.J. Abrams by his Super 8 co-producer Steven Spielberg, who directed the actor in the film War Horse.

Peter Weller previously starred in The Adventures of Buckaroo Banzai Across the 8th Dimension, along with former Trek villain Christopher Lloyd; and in RoboCop alongside fellow Trek veterans Ronny Cox, Kurtwood Smith and Miguel Ferrer.

Benedict Cumberbatch is best known for playing the title character in Sherlock. Leonard Nimoy played Sherlock Holmes on stage in the 1970s, and even makes reference to this fact in Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country, citing Holmes's logic that "when you eliminate the impossible, whatever remains, however improbable, must be the truth." Cast member Christopher Plummer also played Holmes, and also speaks a trademark line, "The game's afoot." Nimoy also recorded a song in the 1970s, "The Ballad of Bilbo Baggins", inspired by The Hobbit. Cumberbatch voices the dragon Smaug in The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug, in which his Sherlock castmate Martin Freeman plays Bilbo Baggins.

Benedict Cumberbatch recorded his screen test at his best friend's kitchen using an iPhone.

Benedict Cumberbatch and Alice Eve have worked together twice before, in Hawking and Starter for 10.

Of all the titles proposed for the film, including many joke titles, Damon Lindelof preferred "Star Trek: Transformers 4" best: "It's technically available, we can go there!"

Michael Dorn, who had played the Klingon Starfleet Lieutenant Worf, was contacted for a role during the start of filming, and was asked to play an officer. Eventually the filmmakers decided that "they didn't want to mix the old with the new" and cut him out.

According to writer Damon Lindelof, the story began with deciding whether Khan Noonien Singh would be the villain, and they weighed the pros and cons of him appearing. J.J. Abrams felt it would be "be fun to hear what Alex and Bob are thinking about Khan. The fun of this timeline is arguing that different stories, with the same characters, could be equally if not more compelling than what's been told before. Certain people are destined to cross paths and come together, and Khan is out there... even if he doesn't have the same issues."

The screenwriters studied sci-fi novels by Arthur C. Clarke and Larry Niven for inspiration.

This marks the first time a Star Trek film has shot outside the United States, with shooting in Iceland for special effects sequences.

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Sinbad and the Eye of the Tiger - Trivia - Photos - Trailer

From IMDB

John Phillip Law was originally set to reprise the role of Sinbad, which he had played in The Golden Voyage of Sinbad. Patrick Wayne wound up playing Sinbad instead.

After the live action filming was done, it took animator Ray Harryhausen almost 1½ years to do the animation, all from his own home studio.

At $7 million - a drop in the bucket by today's movie budgets - this was the costliest of the Ray Harryhausen films to date.

An actor in make-up originally was to play the Troglodyte but animator Ray Harryhausen said they were striving for "that fantasy effect that [King Kong] had, that wonderful never-neverland of fantasy". So he created the creature himself.

Animator Ray Harryhausen was forced to create a baboon creature, as an actual animal would have been difficult, if not impossible, to train

According to Ray Harryhausen's memoirs, British singer/actor Paul Jones was among the various British and American actors short-listed for Sinbad.

This is the second Sinbad film to have an actor who's played Doctor Who. But while Patrick Troughton was the Doctor before his appearance in this film, Tom Baker appeared in The Golden Voyage of Sinbad right before becoming the Doctor.

Laurence Naismith was first choice for the role of Melanthius but was unavailable due to other commitments.

When approaching the castle of Milanthius, the obvious stand-in for Jane Seymour wears a green dress, while Seymour herself wears blue.

(More After The Break)

During Dione's introduction on "Casgar" (after she calls off the rock-throwers) there are two reaction shots, one of Hassan, the other of Maroof. These are obviously from the later "Hyberborea" segment. The hilly backgrounds and the fact that Maroof is suddenly bare-chested give the inserts away.

The eye patch worn by Zabid changes sides between the right eye and the left during the sequence when he intercepts Zenobia's boat, indicating reversed shots.

During the time that Zenobia transformed herself into the seagull, the locket is visible with the magic elixir around the seagull's neck, but when the seagull is in flight, the locket is nowhere to be found.

The Troglodyte disappears after its battle with the Tiger. It cannot be seen even on the wide shot when the temple is collapsing.

When Zenobia's son is killed and she goes down the steps to see him at the end of the film, you clearly see she is wearing two shoes and no longer has the bird's claw on her right foot.

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"Fascinating. Horrible, but fascinating." - 20 Million Miles to Earth Trivia

From IMDB

One of the reasons the film takes place in Italy is that Ray Harryhausen always wanted to vacation there but could never afford to go on his own.

Ray Harryhausen's original design for the monster was a giant cyclops, similar to the one he later used in The 7th Voyage of Sinbad. He discarded the idea after making a clay model of it, and eventually settled on the reptilian Ymir.

Since he planned to use a real elephant for some of the footage in the zoo, Ray Harryhausen asked for one that was 15 feet tall, but the film was only able to procure an eight-foot-tall one for him. In order to make the elephant look much bigger, a 4'6" actor was cast to play the zookeeper.

Though the creature is referred to as the Ymir in reviews and websites, the name is never mentioned in the movie. Ray Harryhausen was concerned that audiences would mistake it for the Arabic title "Emir".

The Ymir roars in the film are variations of elephant roars sped up and modulated in pitches at different rates.

The Ymir is a vegetarian, eating grain when first attacked by the farmer with a pitchfork.

Distance from Earth to Venus- The closest approach of about 39.5 million kilometers (23.6 million miles)

Ray Harryhausen: a man feeding peanuts to the elephant that later battles the Ymir. He did so because the actor scheduled to play the part didn't show up. He later appears in a crowd fleeing the zoo.

(More After The Break)

The General, fearing that the space ship has sunk, points to a body of water on the map and says that the lost astronauts are now "20,000 leagues under the sea." Of course, it's a coy reference to the recent sci-fi flick 20000 Leagues Under the Sea (and Jules Verne's novel). However, a league is about 3 miles; no ship could sink 60,000 miles under the sea since the earth isn't that large. The Verne title refers to the amount of miles traveled under the sea, not how deep the craft was operating. So the General has made a geographical error while trying to make a hip quip.

The general and scientist consult a wall map of the world to locate the small village in Sicily where the rocket has crashed. At the end of the scene the camera pulls in for a close-up of Sicily, and we see that there are no city names printed on the map - not even major Sicilian cities like Syracuse or Palermo, let alone a tiny fishing village.

After testing the release of the wire net from the helicopter, an enlisted man with one stripe on his uniform says to Col. Calder, "The hook's working fine, sir!", to which Calder replies, "That's good, sergeant!" One stripe is the insignia of a private, not a sergeant.

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"Professor, there's a big lizard back there and he's heading this way!" - The Valley of Gwangi Trivia

From IMDB

Gwangi is a native American word that means lizard.

Gustavo Rojo is dubbed by Robert Rietty

When this film was first conceived it was supposed to have been a follow-up to King Kong, but was never made. However, version of the "cowboys in Africa" footage was shot, and wound up being used in Mighty Joe Young.

Due to a mishearing of the word "fuck" by the BBFC the 1995 video release was wrongly given a '12' certificate. This was corrected for the 2003 DVD and the rating changed to a 'U' certificate.

In 1971, Warner Brothers cleverly reissued this film in the USA on a double bill with When Dinosaurs Ruled the Earth.

Leading lady Gila Golan was re-dubbed, but the voice actress remains unidentified.

The roping of Gwangi was achieved by having the actors hold on to ropes tied to a "Monster stick" that was in the back of a Jeep. The jeep and stick when filmed with Gwangi are on a back rear projection plate and hidden by his body and the portions of rope attached to his body are painted wires that are matched with the real ropes.

Special effects master Ray Harryhausen has said that sequence of the elephant performing its act and its subsequent fight with Gwangi were done with no shots of a real elephant because no such animal was available. However, there is an elephant in the very early scene of the Wild West show's parade through the town, and Ray's animation puppet is a perfect double for it.

The pterodactyl picks Lope up by his shoulders but when T.J. is cleaning his wounds there are several claw marks down his right side and none on his shoulders.

(More After The Break)

Early on, young Lope tells Tuck Kirby that the arena is two miles outside of the town. This is confirmed by Tuck encountering Professor Bromley's paleontological digs in open desert during his return from his first visit to it. However, at the film's climax the arena is clearly within the town.

When Gwangi is chasing the cowboys out of the valley through the rock pass, one person falls off his horse twice.

Gwangi's apparent color changes several times over the course of the movie because there was so much animation to do that Harryhausen did not have enough time to do proper color testing.

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Star Wars: Episode IV A New Hope - Rare Photos And Trivia

Trivia From IMDB

See Also: Star Wars: Episode VII

 George Lucas had planned the character of Han Solo to be a huge green-skinned monster with no nose and gills. Then Lucas changed the idea of Han Solo to a black human. He auditioned several black actors and even musicians (including Billy Dee Williams) until finally settling on Glynn Turman. But after this he decided to make the role white. Kurt Russell, Nick Nolte, Christopher Walken, Jack Nicholson, Al Pacino, Chevy Chase, Steve Martin, Bill Murray, Robert Englund, Sylvester Stallone, John Travolta and Perry King were all candidates for the role of Han Solo. George Lucas also wanted to stay away from any actors he had previously used in his films. James Caan, Jack Nicholson, Robert De Niro and Burt Reynolds turned down the role. Harrison Ford (who had played Bob Falfa in Lucas's American Graffiti) read the part of Han Solo for screen tests of other characters but wasn't originally considered for the part. During these tests Lucas realized Ford was perfect for the role.

Due to the limited budget the American cast members and crew (including George Lucas) all decided to fly coach class to England, rather than first class. When Carrie Fisher's mother Debbie Reynolds heard about this she called Lucas, complaining about how insulting it was for her daughter to be flying coach. Fisher was in the room with Lucas when he took the call, and after a few minutes asked if she could talk to her mother. When Lucas handed her the phone she simply said, "Mother, I want to fly coach, will you f**k off?!" and hung up.

At one point, George Lucas planned for the characters of Luke Skywalker and his aunt and uncle, to be dwarves.

Industrial Light and Magic (ILM) spent most of the production period in chaos, attempting to create special effects that had never been created before. They blew half their budget on four shots which George Lucas rejected. Ultimately, around $5,000,000 of the $8,000,000 budget was spent by ILM.

Alec Guinness always recalled the experience of making the movie as a bad one, and consistently claimed that it was his idea to have his character killed in the first film, so he "wouldn't have to carry on saying these rubbish lines". Reportedly because he hated working on Star Wars so much, Alec Guinness claims that Obi-Wan's death was his idea as a means to limit his involvement in the film. Guinness also claimed to throw away all Star Wars related fan mail without even opening it. Contrary to this, George Lucas has said he made the decision to kill off Kenobi, that Guinness was "less than happy" his character was dying earlier than expected, and that Guinness appeared to enjoy his time on set. While Alec Guinness made no secret that he disliked the dialogue in George Lucas's script, he claimed that he accepted the role for two reasons: 1). He was an admirer of Lucas' previous film American Graffiti and 2). The narrative compelled him to read the whole script through to the end, in spite of not liking the dialogue and not being a fan of science fiction.

George Lucas had not originally intended to use Anthony Daniels's voice for the voice of C-3PO. He only changed his mind after a suggestion by Stan Freberg, one of the actors considered as Daniels' replacement Daniels' voice was altered in post-production. His character was supposed to be like a "used-car salesman". Ultimately, though, George Lucas was won over by the charisma of Daniels' reading of the part as a "snooty British butler" and so Daniels has done the voice for C3PO ever since.

Carrie Fisher found the dialogue to be very difficult, later saying, "You can type this stuff, but you can't say it". Harrison Ford had similar trouble (particularly in the scene where the Millenium Falcon leaves Tatooine), and persuaded George Lucas to let him change several lines.

P.J. Soles, Sissy Spacek and Nancy Allen, Farrah Fawcett, Glenn Close, Barbara Hershey, Bernadette Peters, Bonnie Bedelia, Dianne Wiest, Margot Kidder, Jessica Lange, Meryl Streep, Sigourney Weaver, Cybill Shepherd, Christine Lahti Jane Seymour, Anjelica Huston, Catherine Hicks, Christine Baranski, Kay Lenz, Kim Basinger, Kathleen Turner, Debra Winger, and Geena Davis all auditioned for the role of Princess Leia. Linda Blair, Pamela Sue Martin and Jill Clayburgh were considered.

Terri Nunn of the band Berlin was in the running for the role of Princess Leia and had readings with Harrison Ford and Mark Hamill.

Before casting Alec Guinness as Obi-Wan Kenobi, George Lucas considered casting Japanese actor Toshirô Mifune. He also considered making casting a Japanese Princess Leia.

Before Alec Guinness was cast as Obi Wan, George Lucas briefly considered using Peter Cushing, who plays Tarkin.

On the first day of filming in the deserts of Tunisia, the country experienced its first major rainstorm in 50 years.

Carrie Fisher's breasts were taped down with gaffer tape, as her costume did not permit any lingerie to be worn underneath. She joked later, "As we all know, there is no underwear in space."

The origin of R2-D2 can be found in the "drones" Huey, Dewey, and Louie from the film Silent Running. Upon meeting Douglas Trumbull, director and special effects chief on "Silent Running", George Lucas commented on how much he liked the designs of Trumbull's two-footed robots in the film (which were operated by bilateral amputees). Four years later, a functionally similar design appeared as R2-D2 in "Star Wars". Universal Studios, the distributor of "Silent Running" noted the similarity between the robots (and the similarity of "Star Wars" to the Buck Rogers serials of the '30s), and promptly sued 20th Century Fox for infringement. The lawsuit was eventually settled when Fox counter-sued over Battlestar Galactica: Pilot, which bore a striking resemblance to "Star Wars".

Luke went through several changes. Lucas toyed with the idea of changing him into a woman after cutting Princess Leia from the script. He also entertained the notion of casting the principal characters as a dwarfs. In an early screenplay, Skywalker was a 60 year-old general. In the shooting script, he was called Luke Starkiller but this was changed to Luke Skywalker during production.

During the scene on the Death Star right after Ben leaves to shut down the tractor beam, Chewbacca barks something to Luke to which Han says "Boy, you said it Chewie". Backstage footage reveals that what Chewie says is "The old man's gone mad".

20th Century Fox was so sure Star Wars was going to be a disaster that they came within a matter of days of selling off their stake in the film as a tax shelter. Positive feedback from an advanced screening made them change their minds, and the profits from the film ended up saving the studio from bankruptcy.

For the special edition version, in the Cantina the close-up shot of the wolfman was removed. He was replaced with a close-up shot of a CGI dinosaur-type man. However in additional frames, you can still see the wolfman in the background.

Following principal photography, new scenes had to be filmed for the Cantina scene, to give it more diversity and add more aliens to the scene. However, the reshoot set was very small. If you look at the close-up scenes of most of the aliens when Luke and company enter, you can see the same window in the background.

David Prowse was not the only on-screen actor to have his voice overdubbed by another. In the early rough-cut of the Cantina sequence, Wuher, the barkeeper is speaking in a very pronounced Cockney accent, one that was overdubbed by an American actor before the film's release. The same also happens with the character of Dr. Evazan ("I have the death sentence in 12 systems!") for much the same reason.

The cantina creature later to be known as 'Dice Ibegon' was really nothing more than a hand puppet known as the 'Drooling arm'. This was because it was fashioned to have a red, oozy liquid drip from it's mouth. When they tried this on film however, the liquid spurted all over the place and the shot was judged to be too disgusting for a PG movie.

A small pair of metal dice can be seen hanging in the cockpit of the Millennium Falcon as Chewbacca makes preparations to depart from Mos Eisley. Set designer Roger Christian claims he added the pair of dice hanging in the Millennium Falcon cockpit (briefly seen when Chewbacca bumps his head on them as he first enters) because there were dice hanging in Harrison Ford's car in American Graffiti. However, Ford's character had a skull hanging from his rear-view mirror. Ron Howard had the fluffy dice. They don't appear in subsequent scenes, because they were stolen from the set and not replaced.

George Lucas planned to score the film with existing classical music like Stanley Kubrick had done on 2001: A Space Odyssey before Steven Spielberg introduced him to composer John Williams. Lucas and Williams agreed on a classical 19th-century Romantic music style with liberal use of leitmotif for the score. Since the movie would show worlds never seen before, the music had to serve as an "emotional anchor" for the audience to relate.

In earlier drafts, including the ones that were used for audition readings, the planet Alderaan was known as Organa Major. Although the name was changed, the "Organa" was retained and became Leia's adoptive family name.

Stunt doubles were not used for the scene in which Luke and Leia swing to safety. Carrie Fisher and Mark Hamill performed that stunt themselves, shooting it in just one take.

When the film was re-released in theaters after it became so successful, the Daffy Duck cartoon Duck Dodgers in the 24½th Century was run preceding the feature at the request of George Lucas.

James Earl Jones supplied the voice of Darth Vader, but specifically requested that he not be credited. At the time, the reason he cited was that he felt he had not done enough work to get the billing, but he later admitted that he didn't want his name associated with the film because he was still an up-and-coming actor, and didn't want to be typecast. Jones does receive billing in the 1997 "Special Edition".

George Lucas originally wanted Orson Welles to do Darth Vader's voice, but decided against it, feeling that Welles' voice would be too recognizable.

The terms "X-wing" and "Y-wing" and "TIE fighter" were used by ILM effects guys to distinguish the fighters. These terms are not used in this film, though they were incorporated into the sequels. They also became popular with the public after the toys and the Making of special aired on tv. In addition, ILM's special effects staff nicknamed the Millennium Falcon "The Porkburger" but this never caught on.

Several scenes were filmed of Luke with his friends on Tatooine in an effort to introduce the main character earlier in the film. First Luke and watches Princess Leia's ship battle with the Imperial cruiser through his Macrobinoculars and later he meets his best friend Biggs Darklighter in Anchorhead, who has left the Imperial Academy and plans to join the Rebel Alliance, Also present in the Anchorhead scenes were Anthony Forrest as Fixer and Koo Stark as Fixer's girlfriend Cammie. All these scenes were later cut, leaving Luke's mention of Biggs to his aunt and uncle as the sole reference to his character early on. The scenes have never officially appeared in any release of the movie, but stills were included in "The Story of Star Wars" (a book-and-record set), and the scenes also appeared in the comic book and novel adaptations. This has lead several people to believe they actually saw the scenes on the silver screen. All of the scenes were included on the CD-Rom Star Wars: Behind the Magic in 1998. A reunion scene between Luke and Biggs at the Rebel base was included in the Special Edition re-release of the movie. However, a line by Red Leader about having once met Luke's father was cut from this exchange.