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Creamguide (Films) Commentaries: Battle Beyond the Stars

The shadowy cabal of Chris, Craig and Jack are joined by no one, but do welcome a new scriptwriter for Craig’s lines.  In this podcast commentary, learn everything you need to know about what makes a perfect film, and why Battle Beyond the Stars qualifies for that epithet.  Also, even more chat on old shops, including quite specific references to an individual branch of Safeways.  you have been warned. If you don’t want to listen to the commentary using our player (above), then Download this episode (right click and save) (77 MB). Or, to save you all this hassle, just subscribe to our podcast via iTunes.

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THIS COMMENTARY IS RATED ‘R’

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4 Comments

4 Comments

  1. George White

    March 12, 2018 at 10:49 am

    It’s wrapped up in licencing hell here. In the US, Corman owns it. So it’s been out on DVD there many times.
    The old boy is Jeff Corey, and he was in everything. He was in The Wild Geese, also in similar but not as good fantasy stuff like Conan the Destroyer and Sword and the Sorcerer. He wasn’t Ned Pepper in True Grit, he was Tom Chaney.
    Darlanne Fluegel died recently. Also played the wife in Crime Story, to touch on the last commentary.
    I love the fact Peppard (or Pepper, as my grandad called him – he was an extra on the Blue Max) sings “Cowboy’s Lament” by Burl Ives. I’ve forgotten how good it is. I often take things purely visually, so I forgot how good the script is. Little things like the Dial A Drug, and the whore-dating device with the zombie-girl. And the heat-fighting.
    Murakami didn’t make Humanoids, it was Barbara Peeters.
    Corman’s most commercially successful film at New World was Battle, but then a few months later, he released a Don Knotts-Tim Conway comedy, Private Eyes which made slightly more.

    Outlined Chris’ points.
    “Does it last last enough to tell the story?” “Does it make sense to itself” “Does everyone act their part?” “Does everything you need to see you see?” Mary Poppins, Railway Children, Mr. Blunden has that ending too, when they all do a “You Have Been Watching”. Lionel Jeffries liked that.

    I actually pitched Corman when The Force Awakens came out, a sequel. My idea was that it’d be Shad and Nanelia’s daughter, and Shad would be the Zed figure, and the daughter’d be this Princess Leia-figure going out on intergalactic peace missions, even though she really wants to fight, in the way of the Varda, and her father’s not happy, and she’s shot down on this Bermuda Triangle/Devils Domain planet. And there’d be this community of stranded people who’d been there for years, so you have lots of different cultures without leaving one planet. And one of the characters would be a male Valkyrie, the idea being a matriarchy – but he’d be dressed in the same type of outfit as St. Exmin, because that’s all he knows. And it’d be sort of Entebbe in space – a hostage situation headed by IIRC a female Malmori, Sador’s angry goth teenage daughter

    “Miller’s Crossing” – not a fan
    “Broadway Danny Rose” – not an Allen man
    “The Thing” – yes, its perfect
    “Casablanca” – yes, even though I’m not a fan.
    “Time Bandits” – yes
    “The Paper” – Not seen it, not my cuppa.
    “Jaws” – Yes.
    “My Cousin Vinny” – Not a serious courtroom guy, but from what I’ve seen of it, I need to see it again.
    Night Of The Demon – Yes.
    “Raiders” – Yes.
    “Empire Strikes Back” – It doesn’t feel like a whole, though.
    “Aliens”- Not a big fan, but yes, it fits.
    “Flash Gordon” – Of course.
    “The Verdict” – Not a courtroom guy.
    “Dragonslayer” – Yes
    “Gremlins” – Yes
    “Krampus” – not seen it.

    A perfect film for me – “A good cast”, “A world that you believe in”, “Good writing”, “Has everything the film should offer for it to work”.

    Another one I’d suggest for the list – “The Boys from Brazil”.

  2. George White

    March 12, 2018 at 10:52 am

    Also The Name of The Rose, yes, you should do a commentary on that – I’m not a hard-boiled guy, some mysteries I like – if they have a good setting and good characters, i.e. Death on the Nile. But Name of the Rose – just the right mix of great cast, great idea, great setting – the idea of a literally humourless villain.

    Other suggestions for perfect films – American Werewolf in London and the Muppet Movie.

  3. George White

    March 14, 2018 at 9:18 am

    Watching My Cousin Vinny – I think the student characters are annoying, well the other one is, Ralph Macchio I’ve always had respect for because I’m also someone whose voice only dropped, rather than broke. The courtroom stuff I find repetitive. But Lane Smith and Herman Munster are good. So, not quite for me, even though I love Vinny and Mona Lisa.

  4. George White

    April 16, 2021 at 7:24 pm

    Discovered Jimmy Murakami also supervised the animated bits in the BBC Chronicles of Narnia, while at TVC in the 80s.

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