Sheryl Lee Ralph in The Mighty Quinn (1989)

The Mighty Quinn (1989) dir. Carl Schenkel

Bay Cove 1987

Direção : Carl Schenkel Casal muda para ilha em Massachussets e começa a estranhar os moradores locais. A esposa descobre que o local, há 300 anos, era populado por bruxos e tenta convencer o marido a ir embora. Bay Cove é um filme de televisão da rede NBC de 1987 que foi ao ar em 25 de outubro de 1987. Originalmente intitulado Bay Coven, foi alterado para o nome do local do título, Bay Cove,…

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GEDEON BURKHARD

The known actor from INSPECTOR REX, COBRA 11 and INGLOURIOUS BASTERDS hosts the gala concert.

Gedeon Burkhard was born in Munich and raised bilingually in German and English, subsequently attending boarding school in England and American high school. He starred in his first movie AUNT MARIA when he was 10, his second lead role followed one year later in the American/German co-production BLOOD AND HONOR as Hartmut Keller. Due to his bilingual upbringing, he was the only actor who did not have to be dubbed in either version. After high school, Burkhard concentrated on his professional training, attending musical school and taking speech and acting classes.

In 1988 Burkhard starred in the motion picture WELCOME TO GERMANY, next to Tony Curtis, which marked the beginning of his career as a grownup. Since then, Burkhard has acted in numerous films, including ACTING IT OUT (German Film Award/Movie and Bavarian Film Award/Actor) by acclaimed German director Wortman, SILENCE LIKE GLASS by Carl Schenkel and MAKING UP (Student Academy Award USA/German Film Award) by Katja von Garnier. He also starred in the internationally successful television series INSPECTOR REX (sold to over 140 territories) and COBRA 11 (an action series, sold to over 120 territories).

In 2006 Burkhard portrayed Henry Neumann, a Jewish boxer trapped in a boxcar with his family on the way to Auschwitz, in the motion picture THE LAST TRAIN and 2009 he played the Jewish Basterd Will Wicky in Quentin Tarantino’s movie INGLOURIOUS BASTERDS. In October 2011 Gedeon Burkhard was seen in the cinemas next to Gudrun Landgrebe, Catherine Flemming and Konstantin Wecker in the World War drama WUNDERKINDER, directed by Marcus Rosenmüller, produced by the renowned Artur Brauner. The love of music and the friendship connect nations, which is the idea of Rosenmüllers film.

Further films of Gedeon Burkhard include the comedy OHNE GNADE with his fellow actor Jürgen Prochnow, and the Italian thriller BETWEEN THE OLIVE TREES, directed by the American David Worth. In 2011 Gedeon Burkhard was also filming the movie LUDWIG II, playing the character of Graf Max von Holstein along with Hannah Herzsprung, Peter Simonischek and Uwe Ochsenknecht.

Gedeon Burkhard has been hosting the gala concert HOLLYWOOD IN VIENNA since 2010.

The Mighty Quinn (1989)

R-1h 38m Genres: Action, Crime, Drama

When police officer Xavier Quinn’s childhood friend, Maubee, becomes associated with murder and a briefcase full of ten thousand dollar bills, The Mighty Quinn must clear his name. Or try to catch him, which could be even trickier.

Director: Carl Schenkel Writers: Albert Z. Carr (novel), Hampton Fancher (screenplay) Stars: Denzel Washington, Robert Townsend, James Fox

Abwärts (Out of Order), 1984.

Dir. Carl Schenkel | Writ. Carl Schenkel & Frank Göhre | DOP Jacques Steyn

1992 Knight Moves (Jaque al asesino) de Carl Schenkel

Out of Order dir. Carl Schenkel

"MURDER ON THE ORIENT EXPRESS" (2001) Review

"MURDER ON THE ORIENT EXPRESS" (2001) Review There have been more adaptations of Agatha Christie's 1939 novel, "And Then There Were None" than any of her other novels. That is quite an achievement. The only other novel that comes close to producing this number of adaptations is her 1934 novel, 'Murder on the Orient Express".

Christie's 1934 novel managed to produce four adaptations, as far as I know - two movie releases and two television movies. The least famous of this quartet of adaptations was the television movie that aired on CBS in 2001. This version is famous or infamous for one thing - it is the only one that is not a period drama and set in the present day. "MURDER ON THE ORIENT EXPRESS" made a few other changes to Christie's narrative. The television movie's beginning established a complicated romance between Belgian sleuth Hercule Poirot and a sexy younger woman named Vera Rossakoff. The number of suspects was reduced from twelve to nine. And the Orient Express was stalled by a mudslide due to heavy rain and not a snowbank caused from an avalanche. Due to the film's setting, some of the characters' backgrounds and professions had been changed to reflect the late 20th century and early 21st century setting. "MURDER ON THE ORIENT EXPRESS" begins in Istanbul, Turkey; where private detective Hercule Poirot had just solved the murder of a dancer at a local nightclub. After a brief quarrel with his lady love, Vera Rossakoff, Poirot sets out to fly back to London. But an encounter with his old friend Wolfgang Bouc, an executive with the the Compagnie Internationale des Wagons-Lits, leads Poirot to return to London via the famed Orient Express train. During the eastbound train journey, an American millionaire named Samuel Ratchett tries to hire Poirot to protect him from a potential assassin who has sent him threatening letters. However, Poirot refuses the job due to his dislike of Ratchett. During the second night of the journey, heavy rain causes a landslide, blocking the train to continue its journey. And Rachett is found stabbed to death inside his compartment, the following morning. Bouc recruits Poirot to solve Rachett's murder. I have a confession to make. I had disliked "MURDER ON THE ORIENT EXPRESS" when I first saw it on television all those years ago. My main reason for disliking the television movie was the fact that it had a modern setting, instead of one set in the 1930s. It was not a period movie. And for a story like Christie's 1934 novel, I resented it. However, I do believe the film's modern setting provided one major flaw for its narrative. Since the late 20th century, passengers for the Simplon Orient Express have to book passage on the train long before the date of its departure - six months to a year, more or less. The idea of Poirot managing to get a compartment aboard the Orient Express at such short notice in 2001 strikes me as pretty implausible. And when one adds to the fact that the train travels to and from Istanbul at least once a year, makes this narrative in a modern setting even more implausible. Another problem I had with "MURDER ON THE ORIENT EXPRESS" was it made the same mistake as the 2010 adaptation from "AGATHA CHRISTIE'S POIROT". They used the wrong rail cars. The 2010 television movie used the blue and cream Pullman cars for the journey from Istanbul to Calais. The 2001 movie used the brown and cream Pullman cars, usually reserved for the Orient Express from London to Folkstone, as the main train, as shown below:

Do I have any other problems with "MURDER ON THE ORIENT EXPRESS"? Well . . . yes, I have one further problem. But I will address it later. Aside from these problems, did I enjoyed this recent re-watch of the television movie? Yes, I did. More than I thought I would. Which is ironic, considering that I disliked the movie so much when I first saw all those years ago. I finally realized that I had automatically resented the film for not being a period drama. And over the years, I had erroneously believed that the movie was set aboard a modern train and not on a restored one from the past. It took my recent viewing of the television movie for me to realize I had been wrong. However, I did noticed that the sleeping compartments did look surprisingly bigger than usual. Despite some modern updating in the film's visual look, the characters' background and dialogue; "MURDER ON THE ORIENT EXPRESS" did a first-rate job of adapting Christie's novel. What many might find surprising is that screenwriter Stephen Harrigan and director Carl Schenkel did not inflict any drastic changes to Christie's plot, unlike some recent Christie adaptations from the "AGATHA CHRISTIE'S POIROT" series and one or two miniseries produced by Sarah Phelps. Harrigan and Schenkel did not drastically change the movie's narrative, aside from reducing the number of suspects and having the train delayed by a mud slide, instead of a snow drift. Yes, the backgrounds and professions of the characters were changed due to the modern setting. And characters also change nationalities - like Bob Arbuthnot, an American tech CEO (British Army colonel in Christie's novel); Senora Alvarado, a widow of a South American dictator (a Russian princess in the novel); Phililp and Helena von Strauss, a German or Austrian couple traveling the world (the husband was a Hungarian diplomat in the novel); and even Wolfgang Bouc, the Franco-German Compagnie Internationale des Wagons-Lits executive (who was solely French in the novel). This version of "Murder on the Orient Express" was not the first or last time when some of the characters' backgrounds and nationalities were changed. All four adaptations (including the highly regarded 1974 version) were guilty of this. But despite these changes, Harrigan and Schenkel stuck to Christie's narrative. And thanks to Harrigan's direction, this version proved to be a lot better than I had originally surmised. I certainly had no problems with most of the film's performances. "MURDER ON THE ORIENT EXPRESS" provided solid performances from Amira Casar, Kai Wiesinger, Dylan Smith, Nicolas Chagrin, Adam James, Tasha de Vasconcelos, and Fritz Wepper, who managed to create an effective screen team with star Alfred Molina as the investigative pair of Poirot and Monsieur (or Herr) Bouc. I thought David Hunt did an excellent job of conveying the aggressive, overprotective and slightly arrogant traits of American CEO, Bob Arbuthnot. I enjoyed Leslie Caron's colorful, yet autocratic portrayal of Senora Alvarado, the widow of a South American dictator. Meredith Baxter was equally colorful as an American character actress, traveling around Europe as a tourist. Her portrayal of Mrs. Hubbard reminded me of a younger version of a character she had portrayed in the 1980 miniseries, "BEULAH LAND" - but without the Southern accent. And I was really impressed by Natasha Wightman's performance as British tutor Mary Debenham. What really impressed me about Wightman's performance is that her portrayal of Miss Debenham was the closest to the literary character than any of the other versions. There was one performance that fell flat with me and it came from Peter Strauss, who portrayed the victim, Samuel Rachett. If I must be brutally honest, I found it rather hammy. Strauss, whom has always struck me as a first-rate actor in other productions, seemed to be screaming in nearly every scene. However, there is one scene in which I found his performance impressive. The scene involved Rachett's attempt to hire Poirot as his bodyguard and with a performance that permeated with subtlety and menace, Strauss reminded audiences of the excellent actor that he had always been through most of his career. I have never come across any real criticism of Alfred Molina's portrayal of Belgian detective, Hercule Poirot. Well . . . I did come across one article that discussed Molina's performance from Vulture magazine. But the critic seemed more focused on the movie's modern setting and Poirot's relationship with Vera Rossakoff, than Molina's performance. Personally, I thought the British actor did a superb job in portraying the detective. He managed to capture all of Poirot's intelligence, mild eccentricities, slight pomposity and talent for emotional manipulation. One thing I can say about Molina's portrayal is that his performance as Poirot was probably the most subtle I have seen on a movie or television screen. Whether someone would regard this as good or bad, is in the eye of the beholder. But I feel that this subtle performance suited Molina's style. Some have commented that Molina's Poirot was more "youthful" than other portrayals. Hmmmm . . . how odd. Molina was in his late 40s when he shot the television movie (perhaps 47 or 48 years old). Yet, Albert Finney was a decade younger when he portrayed Poirot in the 1974 film and his Poirot came off as a middle-aged man. David Suchet was five or six years younger when he began his twenty-four years stint portraying the detective for ITV's "AGATHA CHRISTIE'S POIROT". And during those early years, his Poirot also seemed slightly middle-aged. Because of this, I find this observation of Molina's Poirot as "youthful" rather questionable. It is a pity that the "official" opinion of "MURDER ON THE ORIENT EXPRESS" is so negative. I used to share this opinion until I did a re-watch of the television film with a more open mind. Like others, I had been dismissive of the 2001 version, due to its modern setting. I now realize I had been rather narrow-minded and prejudiced. Despite its flaws - and it had a few - "MURDER ON THE ORIENT EXPRESS" proved to be a lot better than I had originally surmised, thanks to director Carl Schenkel, Stephen Harrigan's teleplay and an excellent cast led by the superb Alfred Molina. I hope that one day, other Christie fans would dismiss their prejudices against the movie's setting and appreciate it for the entertaining production it truly is.

Out of Order

Out of Order    [trailer]

It's Friday evening. The lift repairman leaves the building and wants to finish his work on Monday. But he doesn't know there are four people in the building. They use the lift but it gets stuck about 100 meters from the floor. Fear and paranoia start to set in.

Even after almost forty years, it's still a great thriller.

During most of the first half you just want the two alpha males to fall down the elevator shaft. But the second half is just unbelievably tense and you can't stop watching.

Maria McDonald in The Mighty Quinn (1989)

You think you have it made, don’t you?  You come down here and you do what you want, you take what you want, you kill who you want.  You’re fucking nuts.  You’ve gone too far.  I’m going all the way.

The Mighty Quinn (1989) dir. Carl Schenkel

two geniuses

Viimeinen siirto / Knight Moves (1992) Finnkino https://www.videospace.fi/release/viimeinen_siirto_vhs_finnkino_finland

The Mighty Quinn (1989)

R-1h 38m Genres: Action, Crime, Drama

When police officer Xavier Quinn’s childhood friend, Maubee, becomes associated with murder and a briefcase full of ten thousand dollar bills, The Mighty Quinn must clear his name. Or try to catch him, which could be even trickier.

Director: Carl Schenkel Writers: Albert Z. Carr (novel) (as A.H.Z. Carr), Hampton Fancher (screenplay) Stars: Denzel Washington, Robert Townsend, James Fox