Our second film in our pairing of live-action Disney musical fantasy films is the 1971 sleeper-hit Bedknobs and Broomsticks! The film shares several people, including director Robert Stevenson, star David Tomlinson, and musical scribes Richard and Robert Sherman! With the help of star Angela Lansbury, and co-stars Roddy McDowell, Sam Jaffe, John Ericson, and Reginald Owen, this film tells the story of Eglantine Price, an apprentice witch with a plan to help the war effort during World War II. When she gets three London orphans foisted off on her, things go from chaotic to truly magical! Nominated for five academy awards, and winner of the award for Best Special Effects, this movie answers the question "What happens when magically-animated armor goes up against a squad of Nazi soldiers! Plus, the trio discuss what documentary sub-genre they'll be tackling in the next pairing!
A magical nanny literally floats down from the sky to turn around the lives of a London banker, his suffragette wife, and their two precocious children. Directed by Robert Stevenson and starring Julie Andrews (who won an Oscar for the role), Dick Van Dyke, David Tomlinson, Glynis Johns, Arthur Treacher, Reginald Owen, and Ed Wynn, this became one of the jewels in the crown of Walt Disney's kingdom. With such memorable songs like Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious, A Spoonful of Sugar, Chim Chim Cheree, and Step in Time, written by Oscar award-winning brothers Richard and Robert Sherman, this is the film that has entertained children and adults for over 50 years!
Part two of our Halloween horror pairing is the 1982 remake of "The Thing" by horror master John Carpenter! Based on the 1951 "The Thing From Another World," Carpenter took the sci-horror genre and turned it up higher than ever before! Directed by Carpenter from a screenplay written by Bill Lancaster, this version sees Kurt Russell, A moustache-less Wilford Brimley, T. K. Carter, David Clennon, Keith David, Richard Dysart, Charles Hallahan, Peter Maloney, Richard Masur, Donald Moffat, Joel Polis, and Thomas G. Waites as the crew of Antarctic Base US #31, an isolated research facility. A chance encounter with a Norweigen helicopter and its inhabitants spins their "normal" lives off into an otherwordly carnival of subterfuge, suspicion, accusation, blood, and terror. Plus, learn what cinematic balm the trio has prescribed for the post-Halloween weeks as they discuss their next pairing!
The film that came to define the "Sci-Horror" genre, 1979's "Alien" starts off our Halloween horror pairing! Directed by Ridley Scott, from a screenplay written by Dan O'Bannon (one of the authors of the original story), this film made Sigourney Weaver a household name in the sci-fi world! Also starring Tom Skerritt, Veronica Cartwright, Harry Dean Stanton, John Hurt, Ian Holm, and Yaphet Kotto, this film introduced audiences to how something as wide open as space could, in fact, feel claustrophobic, and how a cat's hiss could turn your insides to water! With Alien designs inspired by the twisted H. R. Giger, this film would go on to spawn a sci-horror franchise that's still turning out new films!
The second film in our pairing of "film noir" stories is directed by Alex Segal and co-written by Cyril Hume and Richard Maibaum. Starring Glenn Ford, Donna Reed, and introducing Leslie Nielsen, "Ransom!" tells the story of a rich vacuum cleaner magnate David Stannard (Ford) and his wife Edith (Reed) whose eight year-old son, Andy, is kidnapped. When given with the realities of kidnapping by the Chief of Police and concerned newspaper reporter Charlie Telfer (Nielsen), David decides to go a different route than just paying the ransom demanded by the kidnappers. Although this film comes near the end of the first film noir cycle, it still does a terrific job of using the tropes and features some amazing supporting actors and actresses as well! Plus, learn all about what evil the geeks have planned for their Halloween pairing this year!
Our second film in our pairing of live-action Disney musical fantasy films is the 1971 sleeper-hit Bedknobs and Broomsticks! The film shares several people, including director Robert Stevenson, star David Tomlinson, and musical scribes Richard and Robert Sherman! With the help of star Angela Lansbury, and co-stars Roddy McDowell, Sam Jaffe, John Ericson, and Reginald Owen, this film tells the story of Eglantine Price, an apprentice witch with a plan to help the war effort during World War II. When she gets three London orphans foisted off on her, things go from chaotic to truly magical! Nominated for five academy awards, and winner of the award for Best Special Effects, this movie answers the question "What happens when magically-animated armor goes up against a squad of Nazi soldiers! Plus, the trio discuss what documentary sub-genre they'll be tackling in the next pairing! 
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