Magere Hein

A few more titles rescued from oblivion: Richard Burton is up the creek and lost at sea in The Spy Who Came in from the Hold. A tale of the horrors of religious war: All Quiet on the Western Font Audrey Hepburn and Henry Fonda depict an epic battle among staff in the accounting department of the MoD in War and Pence. The Librarian plays a psychopathic ape with a love for ultra-violence in A Clockwork Orang. regards, Hein

This is obviously a capitalist conspiracy of the manufacturers and distributors of those pills and anti-spam software vendors to make the life of online socialists miserable. Come the revolution they'll be the first against the wall. Perhaps we can introduce a nice bright colour as a symbol? Dayglo green, for example. regards, Hein

Other Greenaway films that might well have been made, but weren't: An artist gets embroiled in sexual and intelligence liasions in The Draughtsman's Contact. A master builder finds himself in a spot of rain in The Welly of an Architect. John Gielgud draws an interesting haul in Prospero's Hooks. regards, Hein

An unwilling network engineer is drawn in the fight against the Dark Side, moves through mysterious routes and is eventually promoted in The Return of the Ping. An immigrant girl learns that not all East Enders are nice people in Prick Lane. DL candidate Herbert Lom, Alec Guinness, Cecil Parker and Peter Sellers star in sex comedie The Ladyfillers. A murder mystery in a post WWII Viennese restaurant: The Third Pan. 007 singlehandedly defeats a Vietnamese Communist plot to world domination in Dr. Ho. regards, Hein

Some SciFi movies that fortunately were never made: They expected trouble with the main computer in 2001, A Spare Odyssey. Sigourney Weaver puts things straight in Align. Harrison Ford knows he's in trouble fighting replicants in Blame Runner. Steve McQueen dispatches an alien ball in The Lob. Rick Moranis learns that size matters in Honey, I Shrunk the Lids. regards, Hein

The victims, you mean? regards, Hein

Today: Magere Hein's list of little known western films: Buster Keaton takes it easy: Go Rest. DL candidate Eli Wallach depicts adolescent angst in the west: The Good, the Lad and the Ugly. Gary Cooper slogs it out with the baddies in this Western Noir: High Moon. Yul Brynner, Eli Wallach (again) and Steve McQueen have a barney in the West Country: The Magnificent Severn. Nothing really happens at Little Big Horn: Sitting Dull. An addition to the Navarone trilogy: Gregory Peck, David Niven and Anthony Quinn demolish a German threat to humour: The Puns of Navarone. regards, Hein

This isn't quite the right topic, but I couldn't find a topic on dying royalty other than the UK ones, so here goes: Sheikh Ahmed bin Zayed al-Nahayan, a younger brother of Abu Dhabi's ruler and No 27 on Forbes's list of the world's most powerful people last year is MIA after a gliding accident in Morrocco. BBC News: Abu Dhabi royal missing after glider crash into lake. regards, Hein

A few classic disaster films: A dying fire causes little damage in a skyscraper: The Lowering Inferno. Carnivores plot an atomic terror attack on the US president: The Sum of all Bears. A textile worker thwarts a diabolical criminal: Dye Hard. Primeval canines eat their makers: Jurassic Bark. A sea-monster with peculiar feeding habits terrorises a beach resort: Jews. And my favourite war films: Michael Jackson drinks the Vietnamese under the table in the 1960's: The Beer Hunter. Gregory Peck, David Niven and Anthony Quinn demolish a German threat to shipping: The Huns of Navarone. The Royal Navy tempts a German threat to shipping to destruction: Wink the Bismarck!. The Royal Air Force damages German food production: The Ham Busters. Its less successful sequel: The Jam Busters. German tank commander fights the Tommies and hot weather: The Desert Sox: The Story of Rommel. regards, Hein

Vasily Smyslov died today, picked by no one on this year's DDP. Rats, another one for DDP's List of the Missed. I did consider the 7th world chess champion for my 2010 team (as in: he's in my spreadsheet of candidates) but discarded him for a reason I can't remember. Rats. regards, Hein

What exactly is the problem with that? Is there any obvious reason to assume that the creepy guy isn't Harold Shipman's love child? Does he threaten to start a libel suit? Can you be traced as the source of the rumour? Can you blame somebody else? regards, Hein

Interesting headline, that: I've lacked faith in the Pope's birthplace all my life. To the best of my knowledge Traunstein, Bavaria doesn't exist. regards, Hein

Cheeseburger or pussy? Or both: a burger containing both cat and cheese. Or one made of beef and cheese made from cat's milk. I've never eaten cat, so I don't know if it's any good. A friend of mine (now dead) claimed he ate one in 1945 (when under Nazi occupation the food supply in Holland was almost non-existent) and reported that it was quite chewy and tasted rather like hare. regards, Hein

Good grief, what were the makers of that ad thinking? For such horrors they ought to be put in the pillory. regards, Hein

Blues singer Marva Wright died. A Dutch news site reported her death and since I'd never heard of this woman before (which isn't rare) I searched the BBC news website. Nothing. I stuck her name in Wikipedia, which returned no article and only references. Google gave me the LA Times link, but it seems to me she was world famous in Nu Awlins. It seems that nu.nl has a secret blues loving editor. regards, Hein

Make your own David Cameron election poster: regards, Hein

I have a question about this: is it illegal in the UK for an MP to be bribed or ask for a bribe? In the Netherlands it may land an MP in gaol for up to four years. (Article 362 Penal Code) regards, Hein

From an NDP POV I hope that life means something like a few weeks. regards, Hein

German writer and polymath Johann Wolfgang von Goethe died on this day in 1832 in Weimar, aged 83. regards, Hein

If the past says anything about the future, we learn from that that Castro will die of natural causes at a ripe old age. But then: a murder attempt needs to succeed only once. regards, Hein