Evil Under the Sun (1982) - An Agatha Christie Island Mystery

Belgian detective Hercule Poirot is back, this time solving mysteries at an exclusive island resort in the Adriatic for Agatha Christie's Evil Under the Sun (1982).

Daphne (Maggie Smith) holds the position of proprietress at a former summer palace-turned-hotel. Her guests hold murder in their hearts.

Rex Brewster (Roddy McDowall) is desperate to sell his tell-all book about one of the other guests, and is livid that he cannot get a release form signed; one of the characters made off with an expensive jewel piece owned by Sir Horace Blatt (Colin Blakely) and he is not happy.

The film has its share of squabbling married couples.

The Redferns (Nicholas Clay and Jane Birkin) do not get along with each other; Arlena Marshall (Diana Rigg) flirts outrageously with other men in front of her new husband, Kenneth (Denis Quilley), and is unkind to her teen-aged stepdaughter Linda (Emily Hone); the Gardeners (James Mason and Sylvia Miles) are theatrical producers desperate to coax Mrs. Marshall back to the stage.

Even Daphne has a complicated history with one or two of the guests.

Everyone has a motive to kill someone else. However, the tension is handled with humor. The barbs and slings are often funny and sometimes shocking coming from the mouths of your favorite classic movie and television stars.

 

Costumes by Anthony Powell are recreations of 1930s long, trim, elegant silhouettes - the very thing for stylish men and women of the day.

It's an island, so we get lots of great beachwear and coveralls.



Some of the costumes, however, are handled with humor. When the movie wants to poke fun at someone, it interrupts the signature vertical line with outrageous horizontals, outlandish colors or details.

 Poirot in a swimsuit with a pocket square is hilarious.

However, some outfits are too clown-like and odd. Take Mrs. Gardner - a loud unpleasant woman who, at cocktail hour, wears puffed sleeves that are larger than her head. You want to kill her just for wearing that.

The comic tone of the costumes leavens the gruesome event of murder, but it is sometimes difficult to accept.


The characters all have some outfit which pairs white and/or black with bright red, navy blue or, occasionally, yellow. They could take a big family photo at almost any moment and look perfectly coordinated. Daphne's earrings match Rex's red socks. Rex's blue polka-dot neckerchief matches Mrs. Gardner's dress. Linda's blue swimsuit is reminiscent of the blue stripes in Rex's robe, etc., ad infinitum.

 

If this color coordination means something, the relevance is not apparent. It's disconcerting to behold an entire hotel full of guests who are perfectly united in color scheme and nautical theme, as if they were about to put on a production of Anything Goes.

Speaking of Cole Porter projects, the composer of "Begin the Beguine" makes his mark on the film. His music abounds in the score to set the era and the tone -luxurious, elegant and humorous.


Another interesting artist of the 20th century, Hugh Casson, architect and interior designer, lends his talents to the film. Casson created the watercolors under the title sequence. They are initially beautiful in and of themselves; they become especially meaningful on subsequent viewings. He doesn't reveal any clues to the mystery, but he does brilliantly set the tone for the film to follow.

When an actor's title card comes up, you'll notice some prop which represents the character, something you'll see him/her using during the movie.


Arlena's dashing red sun hat can be seen on Diana Rigg's title card.




Mr. Gardner's ubiquitous polka dot ascot and white pageboy hat is seen on James Mason's title card.

One of the characters loves to sketch, which becomes a plot point. Perhaps these little pictures belong to that person.

Daphne's resort on the Adriatic was actually filmed on the island of Mallorca in Spain. Every shot is stunningly beautiful. EMI Films -which also released Death on the Nile and The Mirror Crack'd- is known for lush production values in Christie films.


 

Though Evil Under the Sun has some distractingly funny costumes, watch this film for the impossible-to-solve mystery and the breathtakingly gorgeous location shots.


Further Notes

• Original New York Times review of Evil Under the Sun 
• A Pair of Poirots: Suchet and Ustinov Discover "Evil Under the Sun" 

Ladies in Love (1936) - Dramedy with Constance Bennett and Loretta Young

Three young ladies are practical about romance. They share an expensive apartment to improve their future. In Ladies in Love (1936), (based on a play by Ladislaus Bush-Fekete) not one female lead is interested in love... until they each discover someone special.

 

Yoli (Constance Bennett) wants the finer items in life and sets her cap for a rich guy.  She is torn between Ben (Wilfred Lawson) the generous wealthy guy and John (Paul Lukas) the kind poor guy.

 

Martha (Janet Gaynor) is tired of odd jobs and wants a home of her own; she'll take a guy if he goes with it. She is torn between Dr. Imre (Don Ameche) who keeps rabbits and The Great Sandor (Alan Mowbray) a magician who never pulls a rabbit out of a hat.

Susie (Loretta Young) claims she wants to be independent of men and run her own shop. She is torn between Count Karl Lanyi (Tyrone Power) and her idea of independence. Actually, she drops her business idea in a hot second for the promise of a serious relationship with a man who can take her out of the chorus.

All three women are selfish and shallow, which the movie addresses. There is the possibility throughout the story that they might feel the consequences of any mistakes, which is refreshing. Usually in stories like this, the lovers can be as silly as they please and everything works out fine.

Not in this movie. There is suffering.

Ladies in Love would be Tyrone Power's last film credited as Tyrone Power, Jr. It had been five years since his famous father, the Shakespearean actor Tyrone F. Power had died in his son's arms. Power loved his father dearly; it was likely a studio decision to drop the "junior" on his credit card. Still, it was a fitting adjustment as Tyrone the younger made his own mark in acting and would later become more famous than the man who taught him the essence of his craft.

Power isn't in this film much, but that's ok. This is only his sixth out of fifty-two films. The world would later see a lot more of him at Twentieth Century Fox Studios.

 

The world would also see Ladies in Love (or similar stories) recycled. Two years later, Loretta Young would play the Constance Bennett role - the leader of the operation- in a comedy about three sisters on the hunt for wealthy husbands at an expensive resort. That film would be based on a play by Zoe Akins and would be titled Three Blind Mice.  In a neat bit of unintentional foreshadowing, Young sings "Three Blind Mice" in Ladies in Love.

In 1953, Fox would make another film based on the same Zoe Akins play about three women looking for husbands, this time with Lauren Bacall, Marilyn Monroe and Betty Grable in How to Marry a Millionaire.

Though Ladies in Love has a familiar theme, and the three leads can be silly, their immaturity is not always rewarded. There is a remarkable self-aware quality to the writing that you won't find in the remakes. As the story twists and turns, you think you know how it will end, but you might be wrong. 

Recommended.

How Classic Movies Use the Conga, the Mambo and the Waltz to Shape the Story

Three popular dances -the Conga, the Mambo, and the Waltz- each have their own reputation in classic movies (up to the mid-1960s). They are treated almost as movie characters, and, consequently, have a role to play in the story.


 
CONGA
The Conga, a Cuban carnival march, is a treat to see. Three steps and a kick showcase unbridled fun in the movies. Often it's shown in the Conga Line. Each dancer grabs the waist of the person in front  and walks in a line to the rhythm.

The Conga is presented as your best buddy and the life of the party. You might not dance it well, but the Conga doesn't care. Just have fun!

Strike Up the Band (1940)

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Judy Garland and Mickey Rooney choose "1-2-3- Boom" as their count to the Conga in Strike Up the Band (1940). This dance is used to display the youth and vitality of the stars. The lyrics refer to this as a new dance, but it had been around for a while; it was simply new to U.S. mainstream pop culture at the time. The fact that the two young people know the Conga emphasizes their modernity.

It Started with Eve (1941)

This film uses the energetic Conga to show the improved health of an older man (Charles Laughton), a man who was lately on his sickbed. Who teaches him the "new" dance? The woman he hopes will become his daughter-in-law - Anne (Deanna Durbin). She's a good match for this family and these two seal their friendship with the Conga.

Ball of Fire (1942)

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"DA DA da da DA. BOOM. DA DA da da DA. BOOM,"  is how Sugarpuss O'Shay (Barbara Stanwyck) counts out the Conga in Ball of Fire (1942). The burlesque dancer teaches stodgy old professors how to jump into the 20th century with both feet. The Conga Line seems to be the perfect choice. The steps are not intricate; you can ruin the dance and no one will care. (At least in the movies.)

My Sister Eileen (1955)

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My Sister Eileen (1955) ends with a Conga Line of people. The Cuban Navy is in town and looking for fun. They start an impromptu Conga, scooping up all the main characters and their wacky Greenwich Village neighbors for the finale.

In a home office or out on the street, the Conga in classic movies is used to show likeable people having fun with abandon.


MAMBO

As with the Conga, Cuba is the place of origin for the quick-paced, and relatively complicated Mambo. The dance was invented in the 1940s by Perez Prado to accompany the music which was invented ten years earlier.

The Mambo is the peacock in the room. He will outstrip you with his flourish and spectacle. Just get out of the way, you'll be fine.

Because of the fast pacing, it takes time for people to learn to do it properly. Consequently, the Mambo is used to show division in a movie between the sophisticated and the socially awkward. It's also used to emphasize a character's competitive nature.

Teacher's Pet (1958)

Jim (Clark Gable), a rough-hewn newspaper editor who graduated from the school of hard knocks, is an old-fashioned guy. Erica (Doris Day), young and fresh-faced, is his counterpart - a journalism professor who represents a new way of communicating news.

Jim takes Erica to the floor for a slow Foxtrot. When the band quits the slow tempo and picks up the pace with a cacophony of percussion, Jim is lost. Erica proclaims, "It's the Mambo!" Jim doesn't know that dance.

So here he is at the table, contemplating Erica and her new dance partner, another professor, Dr. Pine (Gig Young), who seems to know everything, including the Mambo. Jim is in stiff competition with this guy, who is besting him in everything, including romance.

The Mambo is just another way to make a distinction between Jim's hardscrabble, boot-strapping reality and Erica's and Dr. Pine's easy, breezy, erudite world of theory.

The Mambo conquers another square.

Phffft!(1954)

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 A divorced couple (Jack Lemmon and Judy Holliday)  want gaiety and excitement in their new lives. They each trot down to Arthur Murray's dance studio for classes in the latest terpsichorean craze, neither knowing the other has the same idea.


Later, the ex-spouses accidentally show up to the same nightclub. They are so angry with each other they show off their new skills with a dance-off to a Mambo, pushing the other dancers off the floor with their antics. They make fools of themselves.

In this film, knowing the Mambo is a sign of sophistication. This new worldliness is used to highlight the competitive nature of two people who can no longer stand each other.


West Side Story (1961)

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It's the big dance at the gym. Rival gangs dance out their frustrations. Finally they can't take the tension anymore. They challenge each other to the ultimate face-off  -Mambo!

We'll see who's hep, Daddy-o!  The Mambo is crazy cool until it gets hot. [Insert your own badly-mangled, mid-20th century slang here.]

Does this challenge settle anything? No. But it looks pretty.


The Mambo's relatively complicated, fast-paced steps make this dance the weapon of choice in classic movies for deciding who's the most up-to-date.


WALTZ
There was a lot of group dancing for "respectable" people, and then came the Waltz. This one-on-one public dance- was a scandal in the early 1800s, often banned for being too intimate.

A couple twirls together. 1-2-3, 1-2-3 (strong accent on 1), and a box step in three-quarter time. It's so beautiful, especially with the voluminous fabrics that people wore at the time swirling around.

As the 20th century slowly turned, so did the Waltz. It turned from too new to too old; too brazen to too square. You could still request the Waltz at a dance during the classic movie era, but it was the stuff of nostalgia by the 1930s, something your grandparents might have preferred.

Because of its advanced age at the time of this new industry called moving pictures, the Waltz tends to be brushed aside in classic movies, or otherwise displayed in mothballs.

It's like your great-great-aunt Agatha who's nice and everything, but you've got nothing in common with her, except you exist on the same planet.

The Big Broadcast of 1938 (1938)

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There is a big, fantastic production number devoted to the Waltz in The Big Broadcast of 1938. It's a history of Western dance which recounts the idea that other dances may be fads, but people still dance the Waltz.

"The Waltz lives on," Shirley Ross sings. Though it is respectful of the dance, the song is like when you hear that someone is "still alive." It's slightly cringe-inducing. There is the implication that they might pull the plug at any moment, but, for now, that old Waltz is still hanging in there.

It's a great number, though.

Anchors Aweigh (1945)

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Going to the dance floor with Kathryn Grayson, Frank Sinatra seizes up in Anchors Aweigh . The band has changed the tempo. He apologizes, "I only know how to Waltz...."

They return to the table where Gene Kelly -playing a "wolf," a guy who knows how to seduce women- takes the lady back to the floor. She's swept off her feet by Kelly's charm.

Sinatra goes back to the table to contemplate this male peacock on the dance floor who knows the new "exotic" dances. In this film, the Waltz is for schlubs, for a young guy who cannot function in society.

Harvey Girls (1946)

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When a Waltz is shown in a period piece, the movies take a break from ridiculing the dance. It's there to undergird the time frame of the story.

In the Harvey Girls, women from all over the U.S. are waitresses in the Wild West for the Fred Harvey restaurants. They show something new to the cowboys -a dance "where the fella puts his arms around the lady's waist." Everyone gets excited over this possibility.

Here, the Waltz puts you in the period of the story. It also gives the audience a chuckle that the prospect of not dancing in a group is so thrillingly new.

An American in Paris (1951)

Written in 1936, George and Ira Gershwin's song "By Strauss" is a tribute to and a mocking of the Waltz.  The song makes an appearance years later when Georges Guetary, Oscar Levant and Gene Kelly sing it in An American in Paris. They lean heavily on the mocking aspect. According to this film, the waltz is out.

Here they playfully deride a rather stiff, traditional guy:

Kelly: He doesn't like Jazz?
Levant: He's against it.
Kelly: What else is there?
Levant: I know what he likes. He's strictly a three-quarter man.

In a classic movie set in the modern day, the Waltz is often compared to some other form of music or dance; it cannot stand by itself and/or cannot be presented without derision.

And who demonstrates the Waltz as Kelly and friends are yucking it up? A white-haired lady of a certain age. This is the only time they tamp down the jokes and give the least bit of dignity to the Waltz; that's more out of respect for the lady than the dance. The Waltz is in mothballs by the 1950s, and they don't mind saying so.



Flower Drum Song (1961)

There is a party at Mr.Wan's house. The guests perform many popular dances in the U.S., including a Waltz.

 After that blast from the past, they "have a ball." The pace picks up and soon Mr. Wan's teenaged son (Patrick Adiarte) and friends take over the floor with modern dance and Jazz, as the older people stand back and observe.

In this film, the Waltz is a charming old piece for grown-ups that is contrasted with, and must make way for, something newer.


The Happiest Millionaire (1967)

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It's the 1910s and Cordelia (Lesley Ann Warren) is growing up. She wants to be like all the other girls and know the latest dances.

"The Waltz is for old people," Cordelia exclaims, repeating her father's words earlier. (Her boxing-enthusiast father prefers a lively jig for exercise.) This declaration comes on the heels of the number, "Bye-Yum-Pum-Pum," which rehearses the merits of slinking around to modern, sensuous music -the Tango.

Again, the Waltz is compared unfavorably with something newer in pop culture.

But this Disney movie does not leave the dance defeated; the Waltz makes an awesome comeback. It punches up from the floor and knocks Cordelia out with its grace and poise. She falls in love with Angier (John Davidson) while dancing -gasp!-  that old 19th century relic, the Waltz.

The dance regains its dignity. Thank you, Disney.

Though the Waltz is often used in classic movies to mock a character or era for being old fashioned, the gentility of the form still leaves the audience nostalgic.

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Classic movies use the Conga, the Mambo and the Waltz to categorize a character or an era, sometimes unfairly.  Ultimately, they are still a thrill to watch.

Further Notes

• Erik Summers - Dancing in the Movies

Tomorrow is Forever (1946) - Claudette Colbert & Orson Welles

This Valentine's Day let's discuss mature love in a classic movie. Not puppy love, not a new romance. Not a couple on the verge of infidelity or bickering constantly about their finances, but a couple who is happy. And love beyond the romantic type.

Tomorrow is Forever (1946) fits the bill.

John Andrew MacDonald (Orson Welles), whom the U.S. Army mistakenly declared dead long ago in the European War, returns to the U.S. decades later to discover that he has a son and that his widow Elizabeth (Claudette Colbert) is remarried to a another loving man -Lawrence Hamilton (George Brent).

John now lives in the U. S. as a former citizen of Austria under the name of Kessler. His wounds have disfigured him beyond recognition, so when Kessler shows up as consultant to Hamilton's business, Elizabeth has no clue she's shaking hands with her first husband.

World War II is burgeoning and his son Drew (Richard Long), now nearly 21 years of age, wants to join the Allies, which brings even more conflict to the plot.

Great conflict is an opportunity to express great love. If we define love as doing what's best for the other person regardless of the benefit to oneself, there's plenty of love to spare with these characters.

There is

•  the compassionate man who becomes loving husband and adoptive father to a lonely widow and her son.
• the biological father and son who share an ability to see beyond personal discomfort and express a love of family and country despite the risk of the ultimate sacrifice. In fact John says to his wife on his way to war, "Let me love you in my own way."
• the love the son has for his parents, never wanting to bring sorrow to their lives.
• the love of a mother for her son. Elizabeth doesn't want Drew to  die as her first husband did.
• the love and respect John has for his wife's new family. You can see him gauging his options, never wanting to intrude.

Dilemmas abound in this movie. Will John tell Elizabeth that he is her husband? Will that change her perspective? What will everyone end up doing? The stakes are so high. One wrong move and everyone will be miserable.

Despite the fact that its title sounds like that of a cheesy James Bond film, Tomorrow is Forever is a solid story about love -actual love- on many different levels between and among its characters. It'll keep you guessing and hoping each character makes the right decision. Highly recommended for Valentine's Day (or any other day).

 Further Notes

• Watch for a charming performance from Natalie Wood as a war orphan that Kessler adopts.
• For a comic version of a similar story of a spouse believed long-dead who shows up again, watch My Two Husbands  with Jean Arthur and My Favorite Wife with Cary Grant.

 

Dead Ringer (1964) - Bette Davis Plays Twins

Question: What could be better than Bette Davis? Answer: More Bette Davis. Our star plays her own twin in the film Dead Ringer (1964).

In movies about identical twins, there is usually deliberate mistaken identity and deception. The twins can collaborate and switch lives (The Prince and the Pauper, The Parent Trap) or, for a more sinister twist, one of the pair will have no say in the arrangement (The Prisoner of Zenda). Dead Ringer is the latter type.

The film distinguishes the ladies with personality and dress. Edie wears unflattering, frumpy clothes with flaccid underpinnings and bags under her eyes. She's a dour, down-trodden person with massive financial troubles.

Her sister, Margaret DeLorca, wears trendy fashions with a girdle, appearing 20 pounds slimmer than Edie. She married into wealth. Margaret's speech patterns sound more clipped and energetic than Edie's, the latter dragging out each syllable as if she's too tired to pick them up.

They meet at Mr. DeLorca's funeral for the first time in years. They both were attracted to the same man. Edie often stares into the distance and speaks warmly of her sister's late husband.

Though Margaret seems to have her life in order, there's something unnerving about her. She is forever smiling in her mourning frocks.


The sisters clearly have a tense relationship, and you're asked to route for the underdog. Dead Ringer is shrewd in making Margaret a cold, indifferent person and Edie a passionate, down-and-out individual, for reasons that will become clearer as we discuss this movie.

Karl Malden is on hand as Sergeant Jim Hobbson, a police officer and Edie's boyfriend. Anyone that Malden likes in a movie the audience will like. He has that mysterious seal of approval that audiences adopt for themselves.

This seal of approval will come in handy, because we're going to spend a lot of time with Edie. It's also there to mitigate the repugnance of what's about to happen.

Edie lures Margaret to Edie's broken-down bar and kills her. They even show the actions leading up to and just after murder with a cutaway to musicians in the bar below during the ultimate act. This is a rather gruesome scene even without blood everywhere.


The motive? Vengeance for "stealing" Edie's beau -Mr. DeLorca- decades ago. His recent death (along with discovering Margaret never loved her late husband) has triggered all the bitterness again. Plus, Edie's in a poor financial spot and believes any life is better than her own.

Edie assumes Margaret's position as lady of the DeLorca estate.The rest of the film is suspense. As Edie navigates a her new world, she cannot rest. Who will discover the secret?

• Jim who seeks to comfort Mrs. DeLorca in her (and his) hour of grief over Edie's presumed suicide?
• The maid (Monika Henreid) who is continually confused by Mrs. DeLorca's new instructions?
• Mr. DeLorca's Great Dane who suddenly likes Margaret?
• The family lawyer (George MacReady) who needs her signature on important papers?
• Tony (Peter Lawford), Margaret's paramour?
• Dede (Jean Hagen), Margaret's best friend?

As Edie sticks around she learns more of her sister's secrets, secrets that are utterly untenable.

There are few, if any, heroes in Dead Ringer. Bette Davis is delightfully dangerous in both roles. You'll be disgusted, you'll be terrified, but you'll not look away.


Further Notes

•  Bette Davis also plays twins in A Stolen Life (1946).

•  Peter Lawford would later play the part of a twin who assumes his murdered brother's life in the dramady One More Time (1970) co-starring Sammy Davis, Jr.  and directed by Jerry Lewis.

• You'll notice Perry Blackwell briefly at the beginning of the film at the organ in Edie's bar. Ms. Blackwell is known for her comic scene in Pillow Talk.  A pianist and singer, the performer has made Dead Ringer her last film to date.

Wizard of Oz Homage in Knight and Day (2010)

Many newer filmmakers are classic movie fans. At times their love of what has come before will show up in their films. Such is the case for James Mangold's Knight and Day (2010), an action film starring Tom Cruise and Cameron Diaz.

This film has been compared to two different Cary Grant thrillers - Hitchcock's North by Northwest and Charade. Though the similarities with those two films are vaguely noticeable, the patterns from another classic movie are unmistakable. Knight and Day is chock full of references to the perennial classic The Wizard of Oz (1939).

Both films are about a female who is taken against her will on adventures far away from home.

KANSAS

Our protagonist in Oz, Dorothy (Judy Garland), lives in Kansas and dreams of an adventure somewhere else. Most of the film is about being away from her home state.

Knight and Day begins the movie with June (Cameron Diaz), a vintage car restorer, in a Kansas airport. She has found car parts in this state. She's on the plane going home when her life changes forever. From then on, she's taken everywhere - uncharted islands, Spain, Austria, you name it.

BLUE GINGHAM

Dorothy's signature dress (the one that sold for nearly half a million dollars at auction fairly recently ) is in blue gingham and so is June's blouse when we first meet her. She spends a good 30 minutes of the film in that blouse.

Blue gingham in Kansas. How much more iconic can you get? 


WHIRLING AROUND IN THE AIR

A tornado carries Dorothy's house from Kansas to the fantasy world of Oz, where her adventure begins.

In Knight and Day, a strange guy that June meets in the airport, Roy (Tom Cruise), has hijacked the plane which twists and turns as they rapidly descend. Her adventure begins.

DEAD BODIES

Dorothy's house lands on and kills a villain.

By the time the plane lands in Knight and Day, there are corpses of several assassins in it. Roy has killed everyone except June.

SCARECROW IN THE CORNFIELD

One of Dorothy's friends in the land of Oz is a talking scarecrow in a cornfield.

 

To avoid the authorities, Roy needs to land the plane anywhere but at an airport. He chooses a cornfield. During the skidding, we get a gratuitous shot of a scarecrow flying into the plane's window.


TIN MAN/ KNIGHT IN SUIT OF ARMOR

Dorothy's second friend in Oz is a man made of tin.

The MacGuffin, the item that drives the plot in Knight and Day, is a perpetual battery which is housed inside a miniature replica of a knight in a suit of armor.


[I know what you're thinking. Is Dorothy's third friend, the cowardly lion, referenced in Knight and Day? He isn't. There are hairy men, but not one of them is a coward.]

WIZ/WHIZ KID

The bulk of the plot centers around Dorothy and her new friends going to see the wonderful Wizard of Oz who can grant their every wish.

In Knight and Day, June and her new FBI/assassin "friends" are after a whiz kid who has made a potentially world-changing item - a perpetual battery.

THE LAIR

In both films,  once the leads initially reach the wizard's/whiz kid's lair, they do not see the actual guy behind it all face-to-face. Instead, there are instructions to send them on another wild goose chase.

YELLOW

Dorothy must follow the yellow brick road to get to the Wiz and return home.

June wears a yellow bridesmaid's dress as she is taken from her sister and other people that symbolize home.

FLYING MONKEYS/ ANONYMOUS SUSPENDED ASSASSINS

Both films make a point to send a group of anonymous henchman, darkly-clad and suspended in mid-air, to capture the lead characters. Oz sends flying monkeys; Knight sends trained assassins who rappel down into a New York warehouse.

DRUGGED OUT

The villain of Oz creates a poppy field in Dorothy's path to make her sleepy and zonk out before reaching her destination.

It's a running gag that the hero (or antihero) of Knight, Roy, continually drugs June so that's she'll stop panicking and zonk out. He can deal with assassins and abduct June a lot easier when she isn't screaming.


WAKING UP

Both lead females awaken at home in bed wondering if their adventure was just a dream.

 

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Knight and Day is not a full-on remake of Oz, but there are plenty of references to the latter film. Don't you just love discovering the work of other quirky, obsessive classic movie fans?




Further Resources

• Date Night (2010) vs. North by Northwest (1959) and The Out-of-Towners (1970).
• The Wizard of Oz(1939) vs. The Wiz (1978) Part 1
• The Wizard of Oz(1939) vs. The Wiz (1978) Part 2