ALL SCI-FI

[Bud Brewster]

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Ah yes, kiddies — Daddy's pockets contain more surprise for today!

This Friday's Featured Threads includes Three Stooges, two Thunderbirds, and . . . and an Easter Egg hidden in one of the three replies whch I'll add to the posts below right now, this very minute!

Can you find it? I certainly hope to so!

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The Three Stooges Go Around the World in a Daze (1963)



Phileas Fogg III, great-grandson of Jules Verne's bold British adventurer, makes the same gentleman's wager that his famous ancestor made.

And instead of having just one loyal-and-eccentric servant who accompanies him around the world, Fogg III has three servants,

Guess who?

As Stooge movies go, this world-hopping bit of slap-stick is relatively enjoyable. Emil Sitka ("The Three Stooges in Orbit") and Joan Freeman co-star. Produced and directed by Moe's son-in-law, Norman Mauer.____________________________________________________________________

Thunderball (1965 England)

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The fourth James Bond movie had a tough act to follow ("Goldfinger"), and it suffers a bit by comparison.

"Goldfinger" has more girls, more gadgets, and a fat, nasty villian who deserved to be sucked out of an airplane window.

"Thunderball" has Adolfo Celi as the villian, Luciana Paluzzi as his henchwoman, and Claudine Auger as Luciana's rival for Bond's coveted body. In fact, "Thunderball" has so many characters with Italian accents it ends up sounding like a English-dubbed film.

Adolfo Celi hi-jacks a NATO bomber, steals its nuclear weapons, and threatens to blow up several major cities if he doesn't receive a ransom.

Much of the action takes place underwater; Bond battles scuba diving bad guys, dodges hungry sharks, and makes underwater love to Miss Auger.

Bond's newest gadget for this movie is a jet-propelled back pack for his scuba tanks — a desperate effort on the part of the film makers to get somebody moving fast during the sodden climatic battle.

The biggest mistake "Thunderball" made was setting so much of the action underwater — especially the climax. Legions of soldiers in wet suits who desperately fight each other in slow motion are about as exciting to watch as time lapse photography of blooming flowers!

Oddly enough, Bond's final fight with the villain on a hydrofoil yacht includes too much footage that was crudely sped up!

Even with its faults, "Thunderball" is still a fun, skillfully directed movie by Terence Young. Sean Connery always delivers a classy performance. Martine Beswick ("One Million Years B.C.", "Prehistoric Women") plays a secret agent who assists Bond in Jamaica.

The ever-changing face of CIA agent Felix Leiter is played by Rik Von Nutter this time 'round. Leiter is a series regular whose physical appearance ranged widely, depending on the actor chosen for each film. David Hedison ("The Fly") was the only actor who played Leiter twice ("Live and Let Die" and "License to Kill") — but by the time he did it the second time, Roger Moore had been replaced by Timothy Dalton.

So, even though Leiter was played by the same guy in both films, Bond was not!
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Thunderbird 6 (1968)

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Another feature version of the "super marionation" TV series about the International Space Rescue Service. Lady Penelope and the Tray family battle the villianous Black Phantom with their new, untested space craft.

Good fun for kids and grownups. The "Thunderbird" series was created and written by Gerry and Sylvia Anderson. Ms. Anderson served as both producer and the voice of Lady Penelope. Directed by David Lane.
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Is there no man on Earth who has the wisdom and innocence of a child?
~ The Space Children (1958)