From this Saturday at 12am Eastern, that’s 6pm Saturday in NZ, 4pm in Sydney and 5am in the UK, and repeated every four hours throughout the day, it’s the described movies Thirty Seconds Over Tokyo from 1944 and Young Frankenstein from 1974.
Thirty Seconds Over Tokyo is a 1944 American war film produced by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer.
The screenplay by Dalton Trumbo is based on the 1943 book of the same name by Captain Ted W. Lawson.
Lawson was a pilot on the historic Doolittle Raid, America's first retaliatory air strike against Japan, four months after the December 7, 1941, Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor.
The raid was planned, led by, and named after United States Army Air Forces Lieutenant Colonel James Doolittle, who was promoted two ranks, to Brigadier General, the day after the raid.
Sam Zimbalist was the film's producer and Mervyn LeRoy directed.
The picture stars Van Johnson as Lawson; Phyllis Thaxter as his wife, Ellen; Robert Walker as Corporal David Thatcher; Robert Mitchum as Lieutenant Bob Gray; and Spencer Tracy as Lieutenant Colonel—and soon General— Jimmy Doolittle.
Tracy's appearance in the film is more in the nature of a guest star; he receives special billing rather than his usual top billing and has considerably less screen time than star Van Johnson.
In the book, Lawson gives an eyewitness account of the intensive training, the mission, and the aftermath as experienced by his crew and by others who flew the mission on 18 April 1942.
Lawson piloted "The Ruptured Duck", the seventh of 16 B-25s to take off from the aircraft carrier USS Hornet.
The film depicted the raid accurately and used actual wartime footage of the bombers.
Directed by: Mervyn LeRoy.
Screenplay by: Dalton Trumbo.
Based on: Thirty Seconds Over Tokyo (1943) by Ted W. Lawson and Robert Considine.
Produced by: Sam Zimbalist.
Starring: Van Johnson, Robert Walker, Phyllis Thaxter, Tim Murdock, Scott McKay, Gordon MacDonald, Don DeFore, Robert Mitchum, John R. Reilly, Horace McNally, and Spencer Tracy.
Cinematography: Robert Surtees, ASC, and Harold Rosson, ASC.
Edited by: Frank Sullivan.
Music by: Herbert Stothart.
Production Company: Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer.
Distributed by: Loew's Inc.
Release date: 15 November 1944.
File Length: 138 minutes.
Country: United States.
Language: English.
Budget: $2.9 million.
Box office: $6.2 million.
Young Frankenstein is a 1974 American comedy horror film directed by Mel Brooks.
The screenplay was co-written by Brooks and Gene Wilder.
Wilder also starred in the lead role as the title character, a descendant of the infamous Dr. Victor Frankenstein, and Peter Boyle as the monster.
The film co-stars Teri Garr, Cloris Leachman, Marty Feldman, Madeline Kahn, Kenneth Mars, Richard Haydn, and Gene Hackman.
The film is a parody of the classic horror film genre, in particular the various film adaptations of Mary Shelley's 1818 novel Frankenstein; or The Modern Prometheus produced by Universal Pictures in the 1930s.
Much of the lab equipment used as props was created by Kenneth Strickfaden for the 1931 film Frankenstein.
To help evoke the atmosphere of the earlier films, Brooks shot the picture entirely in black and white, a rarity in the 1970s, and employed 1930s' style opening credits and scene transitions such as iris outs, wipes, and fades to black.
The film also features a period score by Brooks' longtime composer John Morris.
A critical favourite and box-office smash, Young Frankenstein ranks No. 28 on Total Film magazine's readers' "List of the 50 Greatest Comedy Films of All Time", No. 56 on Bravo's list of the "100 Funniest Movies", and No. 13 on the American Film Institute's list of the 100 funniest American movies.
In 2003, it was deemed "culturally, historically or aesthetically significant" by the United States National Film Preservation Board and selected for preservation in the Library of Congress National Film Registry.
It was later adapted by Brooks and Thomas Meehan as a stage musical.
The film received nominations for the Academy Award for Best Sound and Best Adapted Screenplay, the latter of which was a nomination shared with Wilder and Brooks.
On its 40th anniversary, Brooks considered it by far his finest (although not his funniest) film as a writer-director.
Directed by: Mel Brooks.
Screenplay by: Gene Wilder and Mel Brooks.
Based on: Frankenstein by Mary Shelley.
Produced by: Michael Gruskoff.
Starring: Gene Wilder, Peter Boyle, Marty Feldman, Cloris Leachman, Teri Garr, Kenneth Mars, and Madeline Kahn.
Cinematography: Gerald Hirschfeld.
Edited by: John C. Howard.
Music by: John Morris.
Production companies: Gruskoff/Venture Films, Crossbow Productions, Inc. and Jouer Limited.
Distributed by 20th Century Fox.
Release date: 15 December 1974.
File Length: 101 minutes.
Country: United States.
Language: English.
Budget: $2.78 million.
Box office: $86.2 million.
Any questions, comments, or ideas for future described movies: e-mail me: anthony at mushroomfm dot com (e-mail address written that way to cut down on
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