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#Daniel Benzali
2ndaryprotocol · 2 years
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The political comedy ‘The Distinguished Gentleman’ starring Eddie Murphy opened in theaters this day 30 years ago. 🗳💸⚡️
“𝙶𝚘𝚍 𝙸 𝚑𝚘𝚙𝚎 𝙸’𝚖 𝚗𝚘𝚝 𝚍𝚎𝚟𝚎𝚕𝚘𝚙𝚒𝚗𝚐 𝚊 𝚌𝚘𝚗𝚜𝚌𝚒𝚎𝚗𝚌𝚎, 𝚒𝚝’𝚜 𝚐𝚘𝚗𝚗𝚊 𝚋𝚎 𝚊 𝚏*𝚌𝚔𝚒𝚗’ 𝚗𝚞𝚒𝚜𝚊𝚗𝚌𝚎 𝚒𝚗 𝙲𝚘𝚗𝚐𝚛𝚎𝚜𝚜.”
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ljones41 · 4 months
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"MURDER AT 1600" (1997) Review
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"MURDER AT 1600" (1997) Review
Remember the action films from the 1980s and the 1990s? I do. Several days ago, I found myself thinking about them and realizing that the Hollywood industry rarely, if ever, made them anymore. I ended up searching my collection of old DVDs and found my copy of the 1997 action thriller called "MURDER AT 1600".
Directed by Dwight Little and starring Wesley Snipes and Diane Lane, "MURDER AT 1600" begins with the discovery of the dead body of a Presidential secretary named Carla Town inside one of the bathroom stalls at the White House. Much to the Secret Service's surprise, National Security Advisor Alvin Jordan requests that the Washington D.C. Metropolitan Police investigate the murder. The police sends homicide Detective Harlan Regis and Detective Stengel to serve as the investigators. Secret Service Director Nick Spikings assigns Agent Nina Chance to serve as liaison between the Metropolitan Police and the U.S. Secret Service.
The murder inside the White House proves to be the latest scandal to mar President Jack Neil's administration. The President is also dealing with an international crisis in which thirteen American servicemen are being held hostage by the North Korean government. Although President Neil wants to resolve the situation without starting a war, many within his circle and the press wants him to send troops to rescue the hostages. While Neil deals with the crisis, Regis and Stengel's investigation leads to a major suspect - a White House janitor named Cory Allen Luchessi. However, Regis eventually realizes that Luchessi is innocent. He also manages to convince Agent Chance to help him find the real culprit, leading her to finding herself at odds with Spikings and her fellow Secret Service agents.
"MURDER AT 1600" is not some classic Hollywood action movie. It has never been regarded on the same level as the "DIE HARD" franchise or something like "BULLITT". I could see why during my recent re-watch. Like many action films from the late 20th century, "MURDER AT 1600" featured some cliched dialogue. On two separate occasions, a character mentioned details from the John F. Kennedy assassination. Why? What did the homicide of a secretary had to do with the assassination of president? Some people might regard its plot as a bit over-the-top. I mean . . . a Washington D.C. homicide detective investigating a murder committed inside the White House? I doubt very much such a thing would actually happen . . . or be allowed. And like many action films from the 1980s and 1990s, "MURDER AT 1600" has - thankfully - a small share of cheesy dialogue that became popular with the early DIE HARD movies.
I have not seen "MURDER AT 1600" in years. Before I had started this latest re-watch, I had assumed that my positive feelings for this film would change. And you know what? I was wrong. I ended up enjoying "MURDER AT 1600" even more than ever. Despite certain implausible aspects of the movie's narrative, I actually enjoyed the story. Thanks to screenwriters Wayne Beach and David Hodgin's script, "MURDER AT 1600" provided a well-executed combination of a mystery, an action thriller, and political intrigue. Regis's hobby of constructing tabletop miniatures of Civil War battles and sites played a role in the movie's final action sequence. I enjoyed how the film's scandals and political intrigue allowed Regis to comment on the toxic nature of Washington D.C. politics and intrigue. Regis's conflict with the Secret Service provided a character arc for Nina Chance, allowing her to choose between protecting the First Family's secrets on behalf of the agency and doing the right thing. Even the implausible aspects of the movie - Regis's appointment as investigator and mentions of the JFK assassination - ironically ended up serving the plot's political intrigue. Not long after Regis and his partner, Stengel, arrived at the White House, Spikings had expressed the implausibility of two local homicide detectives investigating a murder inside the White House - which is Federal property. As it turned out, Regis's appointment played a substantial role in the movie's political intrigue. And the comments on the JFK assassination served hints to what was really going on. My recent viewing of "MURDER AT 1600" reminded me that Beach and Hodgin's screenplay seemed to feature a great deal of red herrings, along with an interesting bait-and-switch plot point.
Lest we not forget, "MURDER AT 1600" is also an action thriller. And thanks to director Dwight Little, film editors Leslie Jones and Billy Weber, and Shane Cardwell's stunt team; the movie featured some very effective action sequences. But there were at least three action scenes that stood out for me. They include Agent Chance's theft of the murder victim's appointment book from the Secret Service's archives and her flight from the building, along with Regis and Chance's encounter with two assassins at a suspect's Maryland home. But the film's pièce de résistance proved to be the final action sequence that involved the pair and Stengel's infiltration of the White House via a tunnel, another deadly encounter with a government assassin, Regis' encounter with two Secret Service agents and his attempt to reach the President.
If there is one thing I can say about "MURDER AT 1600", it is a lovely movie to view. Cinematographer Steven Bernstein provided a visual feast of Washington D.C., Maryland and Virginia locations, thanks to his sharp and colorful photography. Christopher Young's score served the movie well with its rich, yet mellow score that emphasized the narrative's political intrigue and murder mystery. Not only did Jones and Weber's editing serve the movie's action scenes very well, but also the movie in general. In fact, I honestly believe "MURDER AT 1600" was a well-paced film - not to fast, but at the same time, it did not drag.
I do not know what to say about the movie's performances. I had earlier stated that the movie had some cheesy dialogue that was prevalent in action movies thirty to forty years ago. I do not believe the dialogue was bad enough to sabotage the performances, thank goodness. But I cannot honestly recall a performance that stood out above the rest. All or most of the performances - aside from one in particular - struck me as pretty solid. More importantly, Wesley Snipes and Diane Lane both did great jobs in carrying the film. Frankly, either one of them could have done the job alone. But they managed to form a pretty damn good screen team. Both Dennis Miller and Diane Baker also gave solid performances, but I felt they had been somewhat underused in "MURDER AT 1600" - especially Baker, whose only lines were part of a speech at a fundraiser scene. And Miller seemed to be used mainly as the occasional comic relief. But that one performance that seemed off-kilter to me came from Charles Rocket, who had portrayed a recently fired government employee threatening to kill himself in the middle of a D.C. thoroughfare. I found his performance a bit over-the-top. Ironically and tragically, Rocket committed suicide some eight years later.
"MURDER AT 1600" has its shares of what I believe to be minor flaws - some contrived plot points and cheesy dialogue. But overall, I believe it is a more-than-solid action film and political thriller. I thought it held up very well after so many years, thanks to Wayne Beach and David Hodgin's screenplay, Dwight Little's direction and a solid cast led by Wesley Snipes and Diane Lane. It also led me to long for a return of the action films of the 1980s and 1990s - something I believe that is sorely needed.
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Wesley Snipes, Diane Lane, and Daniel Benzali in a publicity still for Murder at 1600. Dan was born in Rio de Janiero and has 60 acting credits from 1983 to two episodes of a 2015 series.
His other notable credits include A View to a Kill, an episode of Star Trek: Next Generation, seven of LA Law, Murder One (23 episodes), NYPD Blue (13), and General Hospital (54).
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badgaymovies · 2 years
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The End Of Violence (1997)
The End Of Violence by #WimWenders starring #BillPullman, #GabrielByrne and #AndieMacDowell, "Weak stakes for the characters’ situations, boring dialogue exchanges and a strong whiff of pretentious psychobabble about life, art and economics"
WIM WENDERS Bil’s rating (out of 5): B France/Germany/USA, 1997. CiBy 2000, Kintop Pictures, Road Movies Filmproduktion, Wim Wenders Stiftung. Story by Nicholas Klein, Wim Wenders, Screenplay by Nicholas Klein. Cinematography by Pascal Rabaud. Produced by Nicholas Klein, Deepak Nayar, Wim Wenders. Music by Howie B., Ry Cooder, DJ Shadow. Production Design by Patricia Norris. Costume Design by…
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defconprime · 2 years
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Rittenhouse Complete TNG Series 1 autograph card for Daniel Benzali as The Surgeon, 2011.
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lyselkatzfandomluvs · 4 years
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Little picture dump while reorganising my hard drive.
For @warlockwriter, @ihaveallthesefeelsokay and @thewhiterabbit42
The Agency (CBS - 2001)
David Clennon, Paige Turco, Jason O'Mara, Rocky Carroll, Beau Bridges, Daniel Benzali, Will Patton, Richard Speight Jr, Gil Bellows.
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I really like this show and the characters (especially Terri, Jackson and Leeeeex). Love s2 for Rich getting more screen time and the BoB cast reunion
I'm still upset it was cancelled and never released on DVD (except for a bizarre combination of two episodes sold as a TV movie).
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clemsfilmdiary · 4 years
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Pack of Lies (1987, Anthony Page)
10/16/20
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abs0luteb4stard · 4 years
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WATCHING
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josefksays · 6 years
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Murder at 1600 (1997) directed by Dwight H. Little 
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eriksamaya · 3 years
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Tread Perilously Extra: A Chat With Trekkies Director Roger Nygard
Tread Perilously Extra: A Chat With Trekkies Director Roger Nygard
Erik chats with Back to Back and Trekkies director Roger Nygard about his career, comedy, and shooting movies like Suckers and documentaries like The Nature of Existence. Topics include the power of pre-sold movies in the 1990s, how he put the comedic element in Back to Back, and the way film distribution has changed in the last few decades. He also explains why comedians like Jake Johannsen and…
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memoriastoica · 7 years
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Red | Murder at 1600 (1997)
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ljones41 · 3 years
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"A VIEW TO A KILL" (1985) Review
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"A VIEW TO A KILL" Review The year 1985 marked a milestone in the history of the Bond franchise. This was the year in which EON Productions released their latest Bond film, "A VIEW TO A KILL". The movie would turn out to be Roger Moore's last turn as the British agent, James Bond. With this movie, Moore would become the only actor who has portrayed Bond for EON Productions more than any other - seven times. Sean Connery would also portray Bond seven times, but his last effort would not be for EON Productions.
But this review is not about Moore's tenure as James Bond. It is about his last movie - namely "A VIEW TO A KILL". The franchise's 14th installment is not what I would call a remarkable film. But I do not consider it a travesty like many other Bond fans do. On the whole, it struck me as a slight remake of the 1964 film, "GOLDFINGER" in regard to one scene and the villain's objective. In "GOLDFINGER", the villain's objective was to destroy the U.S. gold reserve at Fort Knox with a nuclear bomb in order to drive up the value of his own supply of gold. In "A VIEW TO A KILL", the villain's objective was to destroy the U.S. dominant control of the microchip market by causing a "natural disaster" in Silicon Valley. Both movies also feature scenes in which the villain reveals his scheme to potential "investors". But whereas "GOLDFINGER" created a major plot hole in its version of this particular scene, "A VIEW TO A KILL" managed to avoid one. Bond's discovery of a microchip on the body of the dead Agent 003 in Siberia leads to MI-6's investigation of an industrialist named Max Zorin, who now owns the very company that the British government and military have contracts. Bond's investigation leads to his introduction of certain individuals - a former Nazi criminal/scientist named Carl Mortner, an oil geologist named Conley and the movie's leading lady, whose name is Stacy Sutton. In a nutshell, these three characters - especially Sutton - allowed Bond to discover Zorin's past as a KGB agent, his betrayal of his bosses, and his plot to destroy Silicon Valley. Michael G. Wilson and Richard Maibaum's screenplay is not very original, considering its strong similarity to "GOLDFINGER". Fortunately for "A VIEW TO A KILL", director John Glen did what he could with Wilson and Maibaum’s screenplay and did a commendable job in avoiding the major mistakes of the 1964 film. Granted, the movie’s portrayal of the San Francisco Police seemed straight out of the Keystone Cops. Nor I did not care for the writers’ attempt to keep Stacy in the story by allowing her character to reveal the details of Zorin’s plot. It seemed to be stretching things a bit. But in the end, I rather liked the story. And I liked Glen’s direction. I believe that he did better with movies like "FOR YOUR EYES ONLY", "OCTOPUSSY”, "THE LIVING DAYLIGHTS" and even "LICENSE TO KILL". But at least I have nothing major to complain about. The cast’s performance seemed to be pretty solid. The only complaint I have of Roger Moore is that in certain scenes, he looked a little too old and tired to be portraying Bond. Some fans would attribute this to his age (he was 57 when he shot the movie). But from what I had learned, Moore had been suffering from the flu at the time. However, there were scenes in which he looked like a handsome, middle-aged man. Despite his illness, Moore managed to turn in a good performance that had not been marred by the occasional silly joke, as it had in "OCTOPUSSY". Aside from the silly Beach Boys moment and the movie's final scene, the humor in "A VIEW TO A KILL" seemed more restrained and tasteful. Ironically, three of Moore’s best moments featured both humor – which featured Bond’s impersonation as a spoiled and demanding playboy and his reunion with KGB agent Pola Ivanova (Fiona Fullerton) - and also drama – his dislike of Zorin apparent, following the murder of Mr. Howe (Daniel Benzali) of the Department of Conservation. I would never regard Tanya Roberts ("CHARLIE’S ANGELS"/"THAT 70s SHOW") to be a great actress.  But I cannot deny that she gave a solid performance as Stacy Sutton, the California State geologist, whose oil company Zorin wanted to buy. But she did have her moments of wooden acting. Fortunately for Roberts, she can at least claim to be a better actress than either Barbara Bach or Lois Chiles. And despite her acting limitations, she managed to inject a great deal of spirit and moxie into the Stacy character. Oscar winner Christopher Walker, on the other hand, was great. I loved his slightly off-kilter portrayal of the greedy and psychotic Max Zorin – former KBG agent-turned-entrepreneur and industrialist. And considering that Walken was portraying a psychotic, it is a credit to his skills as an actor that he did not ham it up for the screen. He even managed to provide some great moments. But my favorite Walken moment featured Zorin’s reaction to his discovery that Bond’s true identity. And of course there is Grace Jones as Zorin’s equally psychotic henchwoman, May Day. Perhaps she was not as psychotic, considering she was able to mourn the deaths of her two female assistants (Alison Doody and Papillon Soo Soo). But like Walken, she brought a lot of style and verve to her role without going over the top. And for an exhibitionist like Jones, it was a miracle. The regular Bond cast seemed to be their solid selves. I especially enjoyed Moore’s last on-screen interaction with Lois Maxwell (Miss Moneypenny). However, I must confess that the movie’s last scene of Q (Desmond Llewelyn) using a remote controlled "rover" to peep into Bond and Stacy’s shower activities at the end of the movie struck me as distasteful. Included among Bond’s allies is Patrick Macnee, portraying Sir Godfrey Tibbett. Tibbett is a gentleman horse breeder who helps MI-6 investigates the mystery of Zorin’s success on the racetrack (microchips imbedded in the horses’ flesh). Macnee (the fourth ”AVENGERS” cast member to appear in a Bond film) gave a very competent and classy performance and seemed to have produced a good screen chemistry with Moore. It seemed a shame that he was only present in the movie’s first half. Cinematographer Alan Hume did a great job in taking advantage of the elegant settings of Paris, the French countryside and surprisingly, San Francisco. In fact, I believe that ”A VIEW TO A KILL” marked one of those rare times in a Bond movie in which the U.S. locations actually looked tasteful or interesting. I am usually not a fan of Duran Duran, but I must admit that I am a fan of their rendition of the movie’s theme song – "A View to a Kill" (written by Duran Duran and John Barry). I am not surprised that the song ended up second place on the U.K. pop charts and at the top of the charts in the U.S. "A VIEW TO A KILL” will never be considered a top favorite of mine. Aside from the cinematography, the theme song by Duran Duran and Christopher Walken’s performance, there is nothing really remarkable about it. Many Bond fans consider it a travesty that Moore had to end his tenure on such a low. I personally do not regard "A VIEW TO A KILL" as a low note for Moore. In fact, I feel that he was lucky to end his tenure with a good, solid action film of which he had nothing to feel ashamed.
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R.I.P. Tanya Roberts (1955-2021)
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oppaiokudasai · 7 years
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A Movie A Day #22: Messenger of Death (1988, directed by J. Lee Thompson) In rural Colorado, the three wives and all the children of Orville Beecham (Charlie Dierkop) have been murdered.  
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The Grey Zone (2001)
(This is an essay I wrote for my Holocaust in Film class, way back when I was an undergraduate in college. If you want to know what my writing was like back when it mattered, this is probably as good an example as any. Really, I’m just bored and found this on my external hard drive, and thought I’d share.)
It’s important to analyze Tim Blake Nelson’s The Grey Zone on two levels—as a Hollywood film, and as an assessment of a historical event. It’s not surprising that over half of the reviews collected on Rottentomatoes.com praised the film for its “stark realism” while a slightly smaller percentage accused it of being “stagy” and “dull”. Each critic was looking at it from one particular aspect of one level. The film finds itself in a grey zone of its own, somewhere between history and drama, with weaknesses and strengths in both levels.
The very idea of filming a dramatized story about the Holocaust is rife with problems because it attempts to fictionalize something that went beyond the bounds of reality. In his review of the film Roger Ebert wrote that, “In a sense, the murders committed by the Nazis were not as evil as the twisted thought that went into them,” and in a sense he’s right. The Holocaust was an actualized product of ideas that went beyond moral, intellectual, and emotional comprehension. They were unimaginable and unrealistic ideas made actual. On a variety of levels, the Holocaust should not only have never been conceived, but more importantly, never realized. Recreating and dramatizing such an event for a fictional film—attempting not only to make it comprehensible but also to layer it with themes and morals—goes against the very reality of the Holocaust. In fact, previous films that fit into the Holocaust genre seemed to have kept a short distance from the actual subject of the death camps. Schindler’s List, which is largely considered the greatest Holocaust film to date, teeters on the brink of realization of the camps in the same way that its subjects, Schindler’s Jews, had. The closest the film ever came was in the implication of Auschwitz’ gas chambers. Until The Grey Zone, the reality of the death camps (as described in memoirs and documentaries like Night, Survival in Auschwitz, and Shoah) was never recreated for film. 
It’s to The Grey Zone’s credit that the historical aspects of the film are as realistic as possible.Only a few people in the world would be able to compare the real, working Auschwitz with the Auschwitz in the film, but Nelson creates an environment that is so intricately detailed and so historically accurate that, within the first moment of the film, you take the setting for what it is—not a set, but the gas chambers and crematoriums of Auschwitz. The most believable scenes in the film are the small, second-long ones that have a sense of casualness to them—the Nazi guards unceremoniously pouring Zyklon B into the gas chambers, for example. 
Unfortunately, as Stephen Holden of the New York Times wrote, “The more realistic The Grey Zone appears to be, the more its unrealistic elements stand out.” The plot point in which the inmates attempt to save a girl who had somehow survived the gas chamber is altogether unbelievable simply because we know the actual circumstances did not allow—and would never allow—it to get as far as it did. Although in reality a girl did survive the gas chambers, she was discovered and quickly killed by SS officers. The movie asks us to believe two breaks from historical fact—firstly, that the guards in the camp (represented chiefly by Harvey Keitel’s Oberschaarfher Muhsfeldt) would allow the girl to be kept alive as long as she was; and secondly, that the members of the Sonderkommando would be willing to sacrifice so much to save her. Throughout Holocaust testimonials we see the emergence of at least one theme—over time, prisoners would adopt a survival method devoid of feeling. This is understandable; when placed in such a traumatic environment, it’s safer to close yourself off from emotion and to fight for your own survival instead of risking your life to save another. It’s an idea offered in The Grey Zone as the norm (and manifesting itself most clearly in Daniel Benzali’s Schlermer), but Nelson asks us to take a step back from it for a moment so that he might introduce to us the thematic element of the girl. But these thematic elements are necessary in the same way that it was necessary for Claude Lanzmann to recreate the barbershop in his documentary Shoah—to elicit a response (in Nelson’s case, from the audience; in Lanzmann’s case, from the barber Abraham Bomba and, in turn, the audience). It’s the only way Nelson could give his audience a “movie” as opposed to a recreation of a historic event devoid of feeling or thought. Other thematic elements of the film detract from historical reality—the stilted dialogue delivered in American accents, the stylized last moments of the film, and many of the scenes between Muhsfeldt and Allen Corduner’s Dr. Nyiszli. In fact, one of the most striking moments of the film is also one of the least realistic—in the middle of the uprising, we find the traumatized girl sitting beside an SS officer who had at one point shot a prisoner for no apparent reason; each one possessing the same blank expression, as though realizing that they both had the same chances of survival. 
On the level of a Hollywood film, however, these are among The Grey Zone’s best scenes; what detracts from the film on a historical level of the film strengthens it on a dramatic level.The film is well-made, and the actors give realistic performances. The characters are interesting and the themes of the film are intriguing, as it addresses the question of blame within the death camps. As Ann Hornaday infers in her article “The Grey Zone’s Dark Divide”, many do see the Sonderkommandos as being the buffers between the Jews and the Nazis.Were the Sonderkommandos partly to blame for aiding the camp’s machine, even if the only alternative they had was death? The film also questions the true definitions of redemption, sacrifice, and heroism. If the Sonderkommandos’ revolt delayed the use of a section of the camp’s gas chambers and crematoriums, but resulted in the executions of not only all those involved but also a number of innocents, did it really make a difference in the long run?Similarly, if a group of Sonderkommandos sacrificed their lives believing that, in doing so, they’ve saved the life of a young girl, does the ultimate death of the girl make their sacrifice obsolete? The film doesn’t give clear answers to these questions because it’s up to each individual viewer to interpret them, but it presents its argument in the best way possible. 
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jamieroxx · 7 years
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Happy Birthday. Today, Jan 20, 1950 – Daniel Benzali, Brazilian-American actor was born. (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Daniel_Benzali)
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movievillaindeaths · 8 years
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W.G. Howe - A View to a Kill (1985)
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Howe is shot in the chest by his own boss, Max Zorin, with James Bond’s Walther PPK, thus framing Bond for the murder.
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