Hi!

I've been working on my China photos, and have made lots of progress on the I SPY/Hong Kong ones. I caught part of "The World of Suzie Wong" last night .... and though it was filmed several years before I SPY was there, there were many sites that were familiar from the episodes.

So until my "THEN & NOW" Hong Kong photos are ready, I wanted to mention .... FLOOD!!


There is a new videoclip of Bob's movie, FLOOD , (1976) up on Google.

http://video.google.com/videosearch?client=safari&rls=en&q=%22robert%20Culp%22%20flood&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8&um=1&sa=N&tab=wv

(Here's the direct link from Video Detective, which doesn't play for me.)

http://www.videodetective.com/movies/FLOOD/trailer/P00002127.htm


FLOOD was an Irwin Allen made-for-TV film. Irwin Allen was the king of the disaster films producing "The Towering Inferno," "The Poseidon Adventure," "The Swarm," "Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea" (both the movie and TV versions) and on TV - "The Time Tunnel," "Lost in Space," "Land of the Giants," etc., etc. He often used his favorite actors over and over in his other productions - which always had huge casts.





FLOOD had a great cast, itself - besides Bob (who is mentioned first in the videoclip), it also starred Martin Milner, Richard Basehart, Barbara Hershey, Carol Lynley, Roddy McDowell, Cameron Mitchell, and Leif Garrett, among many others.

O.K. I hope I don't give anyone a headache, but I love those "I SPY" and "Culp" connections (as in "he's worked with everyone out there twice") - so sit back, get comfy, and follow along ... lots of connections here!!

The director of FLOOD was no less than Earl Bellamy (One of Our Bombs Is Missing, The Beautiful Children, Laya, The Medarra Block, Philotimo, Now You See Her, Now You Don't, An American Empress, etc. etc. He directed 14 "I SPY" episodes in all.)

The story is basically about a long-time mayor of a small town who does not want to admit that the dam protecting them is about to burst - big-time! .... It was not a terrific film, but I did think seeing the fantastic cast made up for that a good deal.

Martin Milner played the town "good guy" - who no one listens to ... and Bob plays his friend, Steve Brannigan, a helicopter pilot was comes in and tries to help when the disaster occurs.





As to "connections" ... Mona had asked about who was standing to the right of our Mr. Culp - in this photo of "Hollywood Squares Crime Fighters Week" (2004) I had posted awhile ago. Yep, that's Marty Milner, of "Route 66 and Adam-12." And that's Henry Winkler (The Fonz) and the producer of the show on his left.





and that's Dennis Weaver, sitting on the far left. Bob co-starred with Dennis Weaver in 1977 in the excellent POLICE STORY episode "A Cry for Justice" - where Culp plays Weaver's flamboyant partner. Morality and personality come to play when they need to re-examine new evidence that will impact a closed case they both handled together.







"A Cry for Justice" also co-starred "I SPY" alumni guest stars Diana Muldaur (This Guy Smith), who plays Dennis Weaver's wife (and who you may remember appeared as "McCloud's" girlfriend, Chris Coughlin, in that series ....).





Nehemiah Persoff ("The Honorable Assassins" and " Rome Take Away Three") is also in "A Cry for Justice" playing a small role as a psychiatrist.





Plus Larry Hagman is featured as a lawyer (Culp and Hagman starred in "Last of the Good Guys" together in 1978 - and - the other famous Hagman connection from IMDB, Bob .... "would have replaced Larry Hagman as J.R. in "Dallas" (1978) if Hagman decided not to return to the series because of contract negotiations. There was a storyline all ready to explain JR`s new face: a bullet had struck him right in that evil smile and he would require plastic surgery, and when the bandages came off there would be Robert Culp. However, the pay dispute was resolved and Hagman came back."

There are more connections with "The Last of the Good Guys" (Marlyn Mason), but I'll save them for later. I don't want to spin too far out of orbit here --- so back to FLOOD !

Cameron Mitchell also starred in FLOOD , as another town member trying to get the mayor to listen to reason about the impending dam break.





OK, back to my beloved "connections" ... Cameron Mitchell co-starred in one of my "all-time" favorite Bad Bob Movies (as I always say - "Bob is never bad in a movie, but some of those movies he's been in were really bad." ) Bob and Cameron appeared in Joshua at Jericho, one of those films in the "Greatest Heroes of the Bible" series (1978).







Need I say more ... Bob was Joshua (bet he asked for the biggest beard they'd give him to hide behind) and Cameron played Assurabi, the General of Jericho. Subtlety was NOT the keyword to describe Cameron's performance ... in fact, I couldn't find a director listed for this one at all. Whoever he was, he really must have encouraged his actors to play things way over the top. You really wanted to hiss out loud whenever Assurabi or the King (Sydney Lassick) appeared on screen. This one was so bad, it was stellar!!

And then there's Leif Garrett also appeared in FLOOD. At one time, Leif was listed as Bob's son in "Bob & Carol & Ted & Alice,"(1969) but IMDB now lists him as Ted and Alice's son. But Leif did play Bob's nephew in STRANGE HOMECOMING, a very interesting made-for-TV film from 1974. The casting was a bit strange, with Glen Campbell playing Bob's brother. Glen was a small-town sheriff who cool, uncle Bob comes to visit after a long absence. Unbeknownst to everyone, Bob is also a jewel-thief and murderer, using the visit to hide out for awhile. There were some very interesting dynamics going on in this one, and it was quite well-done. (I'm not giving anything away here, the storyline is given at the opening of the film.)









The writer/producers of STRANGE HOMECOMING happen to be Eric Bercovici (Turkish Delight & One Thousand Fine) and Jerry Ludwig (The Name of the Game, A Few Miles West of Nowhere, Cops & Robbers, and Now You See Her, Now You Don't) - AND the production manager and asst. director was Leon Chooluck. Old home week!! ... and probably the reason for the quality of this one.


Anyone else ever see FLOOD or any of these other Bob films??
Let us know what you thought of them! ( ... And any of your always interesting insights to share, MBF??)

O.K. everybody go take 2 aspirins and I'll have more later.


As always,

Tatia


P.S. Hey, Lindy ... how is the I SPY DVD viewing going? Any special favorites??



~ ~

Your “flood” of connections didn’t give me a headache Tatia, just a slight case of vertigo. I’m better now. Like you, I love this stuff. I was inspired to finally watch Strange Homecoming. (Some nice person gave me a copy a while back.) It’s a distant cousin (and definitely a poor country cousin) to the Alfred Hitchcock movie Shadow of a Doubt with Robert Culp in the Joseph Cotton role. In keeping with our connections theme, Teresa Wright was Joseph Cotton’s co-star, and she is in the cast of Flood. As you say, Strange Homecoming is very interesting and pretty good. Certainly Robert Culp is enormous fun to watch. We know right from the beginning that he is a thief and a murderer. He can be charming but can’t keep his darker underbelly from popping out here and there. Culp’s character seems to be a kleptomaniac with an intense desire to win at everything, though I think what’s actually driving him to evil deeds is open to interpretation. I couldn’t figure whether he meant any of his expressed regard for his family. I guess that’s part of what makes the movie interesting. I liked Glen Campbell and Barbara Anderson well enough. Noted in passing: Barbara Anderson normally dresses conservatively, but wears tiny shorts while vacuuming.

Jimmy

Hi!

RE: STRANGE HOMECOMING (1974)




Jimmy wrote ..... "Certainly Robert Culp is enormous fun to watch. We know right from the beginning that he is a thief and a murderer. He can be charming but can’t keep his darker underbelly from popping out here and there. Culp’s character seems to be a kleptomaniac with an intense desire to win at everything, though I think what’s actually driving him to evil deeds is open to interpretation. I couldn’t figure whether he meant any of his expressed regard for his family. I guess that’s part of what makes the movie interesting."

Yes, I agree completely, Jimmy! Culp's character was definitely charming, but with this cool, strange undercurrent. I also could not figure out if his regard for his family was genuine or feigned. And that is a major complement to Mr. Culp's acting skills and how he interpreted and portrayed this multi-dimensional, very interesting and puzzling character.

I just looked all over the internet and could find nothing more on "Strange Homecoming," except a line or two of synopsis. I am sure that I read somewhere that one of original titles for this movie was "Whatever Happened to Uncle Jack" or something with "Favorite Uncle Jack" in the title. But I couldn't find any more information on that at all.

Do you know anything more about this production, Mr. Beardface??

I imagine this movie comes up on eBay and ioffer.com now and again. If it does, I really recommend it.

And again, the "behind-the-scenes" I SPY alumni production people - the writer/producers Eric Bercovici (Turkish Delight & One Thousand Fine) and Jerry Ludwig (The Name of the Game, A Few Miles West of Nowhere, Cops & Robbers, and Now You See Her, Now You Don't) - AND the production manager and asst. director Leon Chooluck definitely added to the quality of this made-for-TV movie.

Anyone else see this one??


As always,

Tatia



~ ~

The picture in the extreme upper right of the Robert Culp photo collection which just sold on eBay (see Tatia’s posting above) was used in Strange Homecoming. Glen Campbell wants to show Robert Culp a picture from his high school yearbook, and this is the one he flips to. Culp makes a disparaging comment about it, something about his overlarge ears. He couldn’t have had this picture in mind.



Jimmy

Man You Are Good, Agent Mitchell !! I am really impressed. I didn't remember that yearbook scene at all.

Very well done!

The only thing I can add are some "real" yearbook photos of our man Culp when he was at the University of Washington - Seattle.
(Yes, yes, you wouldn't believe what is down in the vaults of the Loring Photography Archives! )

These are all from theatrical productions he was in - must have been sometime in the 1950s.








I hope this one was from some theatrical program, too ...




The other "yearbook" connection - is this one we posted quite awhile ago. Seems like a good time to bring it back.

Apparently the 1968 class of Savannah High School asked Robert to choose "Miss Blue Jacket"! He graciously accepted. Here's their yearbook results.





You never know what's out there!


As always,

Tatia



~ ~

Hello, all,

You're comments on this show were so intriguing I just had to track it down. Not easy to do! I finally found it through World Wide Videos (www.wwvideos.com) who specialize in finding out of print shows. I also am ordering "Rhino" from them and "Voyeur". They are moderately priced. But, even they didn't have a copy of some of Bob's older shows I'd love to see.

Just for your edification, if anyone else wants to get a copy.

Mona

Hi Mona,


Thanks so much for the information about "A Million and One World Wide Videos"

http://www.wwvideos.com

.... sounds like a really interesting site!! I had never heard of them before.

Their "Search" feature isn't working right now, but I'll try it again later.

And their free service of "video detectives" hunting things down, sure sounds like a great resource.

Enjoy your new videos when they arrive - and - looking forward to your review of "Strange Homecoming" later!!


As always,

Tatia



~ ~

I forgot to add that you might want to also check out "Movies Unlimited" ....


http://www.moviesunlimited.com/musite/findresults_actor.asp?search=Robert+Culp


I don't know how their prices compare, but they do show a large selection. Hunt around in there, too --- for example, "Conan, the Adventurer" TV series, doesn't show up on the main "Bob" menu, but if you click on "The Nanny - Complete 1st Season" - Conan is listed on that page. Bob was in the "Red Sonja" episode on Conan - as the incomparable "King Vog" ....





Anyway, it's another place to look!


As always,

Tatia


~ ~

Thanks, Tatia,

I just picked up a couple of items from Movies Unlimited I also didn't have. My collection is growing!!! Oh, the wonderfulness of it all!



Mona

Their free video detectives service is reading off all the titles you want to the very nice woman on the phone, who has, apparently truly a world-wide database of collectors and sellers and who can find out if they have the show or not immediately. They guarantee quality as they play the items first, to ensure high quality. They do not charge until everything is in order. It was easy, casual and fun ordering the items; I could hear her kids playing in the background.

Mona

I just got a message from a seller on ioffer.com that he will soon, within a few days, have an available copy of Strange Homecoming to sell. It will probably be cheaper than the wwvideo.com price.

Mona