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Itching for a Seventh Year
an extract from Robert Cettl's book Film Tales: Movie Trivia in the Age of DVD (on sale now in print and soon in e-book)

Director Billy Wilder's hit film of The Seven Year Itch contains the ultimate Marilyn Monroe scene – the one where she steps over the subway grating and the air raises her skirt above her waist, exposing her underwear. Although intended to be shot on location, word somehow spread and over 4,000 people turned up to see the sex symbol, including her then husband, who was not impressed with the scene at all. Wilder could not get the large crowd to keep quiet enough to film the scene, until Monroe merely raised her finger and put it to her lips. Such was the popular power of the sex symbol in America at that time. The shot still had to be done later in a studio. At some point in her dressing room when alone, Monroe realized that under the bright cinema lights it was possible to see through her underwear. Her solution was simply to double-up: to put on a second pair of underwear. The classic shot, the most iconic image of Monroe and one of the most celebrated erotic images in film, is now referred to by director Wilder as a "two-panty shot". Apparently the existing "see-through" test footage soon disappeared. Soon on Ebay?

DVDs have enabled the 'average' person to experience movies deeper and more intimately than ever before.

"Whether in front of the camera or behind, Film Tales gives you the inside; the low-down; the scoop and the stories behind the movies; the stars, writers, directors and producers."

Packed full of fascinating facts and tantalizing trivia Film Tales adds even more joy to your movie enjoyment.

Film Tales: Movie Trivia in the Age of DVD
a Wider Screenings Guide e-book (by Robert Cettl) in print now

BROWSE SAMPLE AND ORDER IN PRINT OR E-BOOK (coming soon)
“For discerning viewers who like to read about rewarding movies on DVD."

Anecdotes from the making of some of the sceen's best, most popular and most obscure movies are here collected in the one volume. With chapters covering each of the main Hollywood genres, Film Tales is designed to guide the reader along a journey through the breadth of popular film.

Light, informative and always entertaining, Film Tales is a celebration of the movies through the seldom used art of the anecdote... for eg.

Few film flops have the peculiar distinction of Raise the Titanic. Although producer Lew Grade (who seemingly will sadly be known forever to England's loftier critics as "Low" Grade) had been offered the screen rights to the Clive Cussler novel, he initially declined. However, sometime later, he envisioned that the lead character, named Dirk Pitt, could potentially be a rival to James Bond and optioned the screen rights, intending an epic action film. After numerous script re-writes, the immense production budget soon escalated when the original director left, citing the usual "creative differences". In addition, the scale model of the Titanic built for the film proved too big to be accommodated by any existing water tank. Eventually, modifications were made to one such tank in Malta. However, the water pressure was now so great that the model submersibles needed for certain scenes were crushed. Finally completed, the film was so rushed into release that no prior pre-screening could be arranged to judge whether any changes should have been made. Cussler so detested the film that he vowed never again to sell the screen rights to one of his novels. Indeed, Raise the Titanic proved so great a critical and box-office flop that Lew Grade later remarked that it would have been cheaper to lower the Atlantic.

The studio head of Paramount Pictures hated the proposed screen treatment of the film The Accused feeling it an esoteric rape movie better suited to television and a non-event as a movie without a strong male role to hold it together. However, the script did feature strong female roles, was based on a headline making rape case and had initially attracted the main interest of star Jane Fonda. Fonda wanted the script re-written by a woman first but when the script proved unsatisfactory, bowed out of the project. Kelly McGillis was then a rising star having been featured in both Top Gun and Witness and agreed to do the film, although she did not want to portray the rape victim, herself having been raped some years before. The producer finally convinced the studio head to finance the film by promising to keep the budget extremely low, so that the studio would not lose much if the film flopped, as the studio head felt that it would inevitably do. For the role of the rape victim, the producers turned to an actress then wrapped up in doubts about her acting career and thinking of even abandoning it – Jodie Foster – although at first they didn’t even want to audition her for the part. In the end, Foster won an Academy Award for the role and the film was a hit.

Exorcist III was an intriguing sequel to the horror classic. Directed by the first film’s screenwriter, William Peter Blatty, it was less an obvious exorcism film than a bizarre serial killer thriller. Indeed, the studio insisted some of the film be re-shot when Blatty did not even provide an exorcism scene in the final movie. What had impact, however, was the demonic serial killer character (played by Brad Dourif) who inhabits the mind of the surviving priest from the first movie (played by Jason Miller) and wreaks havoc around a hospital’s psychiatric wing. Indeed, the Satanic serial killer aspect of the movie would prove to be an obsession for one true life serial killer. Notorious homosexual cannibal Jeffrey Dahmer was an enormous fan of Exorcist III. He would watch it constantly. From it, he got the idea of wearing yellow contact lenses to make himself more like the serial killer character in the movie. Dahmer would bring his pick-ups home and drug them with a potent home-made cocktail of drugs. As they would pass out on his couch, before he would kill them, Dahmer would put on a video of Exorcist III and watch it with his victims. When he was finally apprehended by police, he was reportedly playing the video again at home.

Animation master Ralph Bakshi was known for his pioneering work in underground, adult animation in the 1970s, notably on such works as the adaptation of Robert Crumb’s comic book character Fritz the Cat. In addition, Bakshi also had an interest in children’s animation and was hired to head up an animation division overseeing children’s cartoons. Bakshi himself took to revamping a character he felt an affinity towards – Mighty Mouse. He took to the project with a dedicated fondness, turning the barely popular anymore character into a new vision of possibility in animation. However, Bakshi may have just betrayed his underground background a little too cleverly for some. Indeed, The New Adventures of Mighty Mouse, long popular with children and shown on Saturday morning shows, soon became the target for church and family groups utterly dismayed at this re-invention of the innocuous kid’s character. What they objected to most strongly was a particular scene where the mighty rodent was shown inhaling plant pollen to give him added zest. Perhaps knowing Bakshi’s penchant for drug humour, the religious groups felt this too clearly made the Mighty Mouse out to be snorting cocaine.

THESE AND MANY MORE ANECDOTES FROM ACTION & ADVENTURE, DRAMA, HOLLYWOOD CLASSICS, SCI-FI & FANTASY, COMEDY, CULT & EXPLOITATION, HORROR & THRILLER, ROMANCE & RELATIONSHIPS and EROTICA

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FILM TALES: MOVIE TRIVIA IN THE AGE OF DVD / BLU-RAY