title: Josef von Sternberg

text: When Sternberg embarked on his next feature, "Blonde Venus", Paramount Pictures' finances were in jeopardy. Profits had plummeted due to a decline in theatre attendance among working class moviegoers. Fearing bankruptcy, the New York executives tightened control over Hollywood film content. Dietrich's heretofore forthright portrayals of demi-mondes ("Dishonored", "Shanghai Express") were suspended in favor of a heroine who embraced a degree of American-style domesticity. Producer B. P. Schulberg was banking on the success of further Sternberg-Dietrich collaborations to help the studio survive the financial downturn.


title: Josef von Sternberg

text: Sternberg's original story for "Blonde Venus" and the screenplay by Furthman and S.K. Lauren presents a narrative of a fallen woman, with the caveat that she is ultimately forgiven by her long suffering husband. The narrative exhibited the "sordid self-sacrifice" that was "de rigueur" for Hollywood's top female performers, yet the studio balked at the redemptive denouement.


title: Josef von Sternberg

text: When Sternberg declined to alter the ending, Paramount put the project on hold and threatened the filmmaker with a lawsuit. Dietrich joined Sternberg in defying the New York executives. Minor adjustments were made that satisfied the studio, but Sternberg's compromises would revert to him after the less than stellar critical and box-office success of the movie.


title: Josef von Sternberg

text: Paramount's toleration of the duo's defiance was conditioned largely by the considerable profits that they were reaping from "Shanghai Express", over $3 million in early distribution.


title: Josef von Sternberg

text: "Blonde Venus" opens with the idealized courtship and marriage of Dietrich and mild-mannered chemist Herbert Marshall. Quickly ensconced as a Brooklyn, New York housewife and burdened with an impish son Dickie Moore, she is compelled to make herself a mistress to politico and nightclub gangster Cary Grant when her husband requires expensive medical treatment for radiation exposure. The plot grows increasingly improbable as Dietrich resurrects her theatrical career that takes to exotic locations around the world – with her little boy in tow.


title: Josef von Sternberg

text: The movie is ostensibly about the devotion of a mother for her child, a subject that Sternberg uses to dramatize the traumas of his own childhood and his harsh experiences as a transient laborer in his youth. With "Blonde Venus", Sternberg reached his apogee stylistically. A film of great visual beauty achieved through multiple layers of evocative décor where style displaces and transcends personal characterizations.


title: Josef von Sternberg

text: Between the highly episodic narrative, disparate locales, and an unimpressive supporting cast, the movie is frequently dismissed by critics.


title: Josef von Sternberg

text: "Blonde Venus" "camp" designation is attributable in part to the outrageous and extremely stylized "Hot Voodoo" nightclub sequence. Dietrich, the beauty, assumes the role of the beast and emerges from an ape costume.


title: Josef von Sternberg

text: Paramount's expectations for "Blonde Venus" were out of proportion to realities of declining theatre attendance. Though not an unprofitable picture, the less than robust critical acclaim weakened the studio's commitment to sustaining further Sternberg-Dietrich creations.


title: Josef von Sternberg

text: At odds with Paramount and their individual contracts nearly expired, Sternberg and Dietrich privately conceived of forming an independent production company in Germany. Studio executives were suspicious when Sternberg offered no objections when Dietrich was scheduled to star in director Rouben Mamoulian's "The Song of Songs" (1933) in the final weeks of her term. When Dietrich balked at the assignment, Paramount quickly sued her for potential losses. Courtroom testimony revealed that she was preparing to abscond to Berlin to pursue filmmaking with Sternberg. Paramount prevailed in court, and Dietrich was required to remain in Hollywood and complete the film. Any hopes for such a venture were dashed when the National Socialists were ushered into power in January 1933 and Sternberg returned to Hollywood in April 1933. Abandoning their plans for independent filmmaking, both Sternberg and Dietrich reluctantly signed a two-film contract with the studio on May 9, 1933.


title: Josef von Sternberg

text: Reacting to Paramount's increasing coolness towards his films and to the general disarray that plagued studio management since 1932, Sternberg prepared to make one of his most monumental movies: "The Scarlett Empress", a "relentless excursion into style" that would antagonize Paramount and mark the onset of a distinct phase in his creative output.


title: Josef von Sternberg

text: "The Scarlet Empress", an historical drama concerning the rise of Catherine the Great of Russia, had been adapted to film on several occasions by American and European directors when Sternberg began organizing the project. In this, his penultimate film starring Dietrich, Sternberg abandoned contemporary America as a subject and contrived a fantastical 18th-century Imperial Russia, "grotesque and spectacular", stupefying contemporary audiences with its stylistic excesses.


title: Josef von Sternberg

text: The narrative follows the rise of the child Sophia "Sophie" Frederica through adolescence to become Empress of Russia, with special emphasis on her sexual awakening and her inexorable sexual and political conquests. Sternberg's decision to examine the erotic decadence among 18th-century Russian nobility was partly an attempt to blindside censors, as historical dramas "ipso facto" were granted a measure of decorum and gravity. The sheer sumptuousness of the sets and décor obscure the allegorical nature of the film: the transformation of the director and star into pawns controlled by the corporate powers that exalt ambition and wealth, "a nightmare vision of the American dream."


title: Josef von Sternberg

text: The film portrays 18th-century Russian nobility as developmentally arrested and sexually infantile, a disturbed and grotesque portrayal of Sternberg's own childhood experiences, linking eroticism and sadism. The opening sequence examines the young Sophia (later Catherine II) early sexual awareness, conflating eroticism and torture, that serves as a harbinger of the sadism that she will indulge in as an empress. Whereas "Blonde Venus" portrayed Dietrich as a candidate for mother love, the maternal figures in "The Scarlet Empress" make a mockery of any pretense to such idealizations. Dietrich is reduced to a fantastic and helpless clothes horse, bereft of any dramatic function.


title: Josef von Sternberg

text: Despite withholding distribution of the film for eight months, so as not to compete with the recently issued United Artists film "The Rise of Catherine the Great" (1934), starring Elisabeth Bergner, the movie was dismissed by critics and the public. Americans, preoccupied with the challenges of the financial crisis were in no mood for a picture that appeared to be an exercise in self-indulgence. The film's conspicuous failure among moviegoers was a blow to Sternberg's professional reputation, recalling his 1926 disaster, "A Woman of the Sea".


title: Josef von Sternberg

text: Sternberg embarked on the final film of his contract knowing that he was finished at Paramount. The studio was undergoing a realignment in management that was the fall of producer Schulberg, a Sternberg stalwart, and the rise of Ernst Lubitsch, which did not bode well for the director. As his personal relationship with Dietrich deteriorated, the studio made clear that her professional career would proceed independently of his. With the cynical blessing of incoming production manager Ernst Lubitsch, Sternberg was given full control over what would be his final film with Marlene Dietrich: "The Devil is a Woman".


title: Josef von Sternberg

text: "The Devil is a Woman" is Sternberg's cinematic tribute and confession to his collaborator and muse Marlene Dietrich. In this final tribute he sets forth his reflections on their five-year professional and personal association.


title: Josef von Sternberg

text: His key thematic preoccupation is fully articulate here: the spectacle of an individual's conspicuous loss of prestige and authority as the price demanded for surrendering to a sexual obsession. To this endeavor Sternberg brought to bear all the sophisticated filmic elements at his disposal. Sternberg's official handling of the photography is a measure of this.


title: Josef von Sternberg

text: Based on a novel by Pierre Louÿs, "The Woman and the Puppet" (1908), the drama unfolds in Spain's famous carnival at the end of the 19th century. A love triangle develops pitting the young revolutionary Antonio (Cesar Romero) against the middle-aged former military officer Don Pasqual (Lionel Atwill) in a contest for the love of the devastatingly beautiful demi-mondaine Concha (Dietrich). Despite the gaiety of the setting, the film has a dark, brooding, reflective quality. The contest ends in a duel where Don Pasqual is wounded, perhaps mortally: the denouement is never made explicit.


title: Josef von Sternberg

text: More so than any of his previous pictures, Sternberg picked a leading man (Atwill) who is the director's double in more than facial appearance: short stature, stern countenance, proud bearing, verbal mannerisms and immaculate attire. Sternberg has effectively stepped from behind the camera to play opposite Dietrich. This deliberate self-portraiture signals that the film is a submerged commentary on the decline of his career in the movie industry as well as his loss of Dietrich as a lover. The sharp exchanges between Concha and Pasqual are filled with bitter recriminations. The players do not emote to convey feeling. Rather, Sternberg carefully applies layer upon layer of décor in front of the lens to create a three-dimensional effect. When an actor steps into this pictorial canvas, the most delicate gesture registers emotion. His outstanding control over the visual integrity is the foundation for much of the eloquence and force of Sternberg's cinema.


title: Josef von Sternberg

text: The March 1935 premiere of "The Devil is a Woman" in Hollywood was accompanied by a press statement from Paramount announcing that Sternberg's contract would not be renewed. The director anticipated his termination with his own declaration before the film's release explicitly severing his professional ties with Dietrich, writing "Miss Dietrich and I have progressed as far as possible ... if we continued, we would get into a pattern that would be harmful to both of us."


title: Josef von Sternberg

text: Even with better than expected reviews, "The Devil is a Woman" cost Sternberg his reputation in the film industry. Sternberg would never again enjoy the largesse nor the prestige that had been conferred on him at Paramount.


title: Josef von Sternberg

text: A postscript to the release of "The Devil is a Woman" concerns a formal protest issued by the Spanish government protesting the film's purported disparagement of "the Spanish armed forces" and an insult to the character of the Spanish people. The objectionable scenes depict Civil Guards as inept at controlling carnival merrymakers, and a shot of a policeman consuming an alcoholic beverage in a café. Paramount president Adolph Zukor agreed to suppress the picture in the interest of protecting US-Spain trade agreements – and to protect Paramount film distribution in the country.


title: Josef von Sternberg

text: The personnel shakeup that followed bankruptcy at Paramount in 1934 prompted an exodus of talent. Two of the refugees, producer Schulberg and screenwriter Furthman, were picked up by the manager-owner of the Columbia Pictures, Harry Cohn. These two former colleagues sponsored Sternberg's engagement at the low-budget studio for a two-picture contract.


title: Josef von Sternberg

text: An adaption of the 19th-century Russian novelist Fyodor Dostoevsky's "Crime and Punishment" was Sternberg's first project at Columbia, and a mismatch in terms of his aptitudes and interests. Presenting literary masterpieces to the masses was an industry-wide rage during the financially strapped 1930s. As copyrights on these works were generally expired, the studio paid no fees.


title: Josef von Sternberg

text: Sternberg invested Dostoevsky's work with a measure of style, but any attempt to convey the complexity of the author's character analysis was suspended in favor of a straightforward, albeit suspenseless, detective story. However uninspired, Sternberg proved an able craftsman, dispelling some of the myths regarding his eccentricities, and the film proved satisfactory to Columbia.


title: Josef von Sternberg

text: Columbia had high hopes for Sternberg's next feature, "The King Steps Out", starring soprano Grace Moore and based on Fritz Kreisler's operetta "Cissy". A comedy of errors concerning Austrian royalty set in Vienna, the production was undermined by personal and professional discord between opera diva and director. Sternberg found himself unable to identify himself with his leading lady or adapt his style to the demands of operetta. Wishing to distance himself from the fiasco, Sternberg quickly departed Columbia Pictures after the film's completion. "The King Steps Out" is the only movie that he insisted be expunged from any retrospective of his work.


title: Josef von Sternberg

text: In the wake of his distressing two-picture sojourn at Columbia Pictures, Sternberg oversaw the construction of a home on his 30-acre (12-hectares) property in the San Fernando Valley north of Hollywood. Designed by architect Richard Neutra, the avant-garde structure was built to the director's specifications, featuring a faux-moat, an eight-foot (2.4 meter) exterior steel wall and bullet-proof windows. The siege-like character of this desert retreat reflected Sternberg's apprehensions regarding his professional career, as well as his mania to assert strict control over his identity.


title: Josef von Sternberg

text: From 1935 to 1936, Sternberg travelled extensively in the Far East, cataloging his first impressions for future artistic endeavors. During these excursions he made the acquaintance of Japanese film distributor Nagamasa Kawakita – they would collaborate on Sternberg's final movie in 1953.


title: Josef von Sternberg

text: In Java Sternberg contracted a life-threatening abdominal infection, requiring his immediate return to Europe for surgery.


title: Josef von Sternberg

text: While convalescing in London, the 42-year-old director, his creative powers still fully intact, was approached by London Films' Alexander Korda. The British movie impresario asked Sternberg to film novelist and poet Robert Graves's biographical account of Roman Emperor Claudius. Already in pre-production, Marlene Dietrich had intervened on Sternberg's behalf to see that Korda selected her former collaborator rather than the British director William Cameron Menzies.


title: Josef von Sternberg

text: Claudius as conceived by Graves is "a Sternbergian figure of classic proportions" possessing all the elements for a great film. Played by Charles Laughton, Claudius is an aging, erudite and unwitting successor to the Emperor Caligula. When thrust into power, he initially governs upon the precepts of his heretofore virtuous life. As emperor, he warms to his tasks as a social reformer and military commander. When his young wife, Messalina (Merle Oberon) proves unfaithful while Claudius is away campaigning, he launches his armies against Rome and signs her death warrant. Proclaimed a living god, the now dehumanized and megalomaniacal Claudius meets his tragic fate: to rule his empire utterly alone. The dual themes of virtue corrupted by power, and the cruel paradox that degradation must precede self-empowerment were immensely appealing to Sternberg both personally and artistically.


title: Josef von Sternberg

text: Korda was eager to get the production underway, as Charles Laughton's contract would likely expire during shooting.


title: Josef von Sternberg

text: Korda had already assembled a talented cast and crew when Sternberg assumed his directorial duties in January 1937. The Austrian-American injected a measure of discipline into the London Film's Denham studio, an indication of the seriousness with which Sternberg approached this ambitious project.


title: Josef von Sternberg

text: When shooting commenced in mid-February Sternberg, a martinet who was prone to reducing his performers "to mere details of décor", soon clashed with Laughton, London Film's Academy Award-winning star.


title: Josef von Sternberg

text: As a performer, Laughton required the active intervention of the director to consummate a role – "a midwife" according to Korda. Short of this he could be sullen and intransigent.


title: Josef von Sternberg

text: Sternberg, who had a clear insight cinematically and emotionally as to the Claudius he wished to create, struggled with Laughton in frequent "artistic arguments". Suffering under Sternberg's high-handedness, the actor announced five weeks into the filming that he would be departing London Film when his contract expired on April 21, 1937. Korda, now under pressure to expedite the production, discreetly sounded Sternberg on the film's likely completion date. With only half the picture in the can, an exasperated Sternberg exploded, declaring that he was engaged in an artistic endeavor, not a race to a deadline.


title: Josef von Sternberg

text: On March 16, with growing personnel animosities and looming cost overruns, actress Merle Oberon was seriously injured in an automobile accident. Though expected to recover quickly, Korda seized upon the mishap as a pretext to terminate what he had concluded was an ill-fated venture.


title: Josef von Sternberg

text: The film negative and prints were place into storage at Denham Studio and London Films collected sizable insurance compensation.


title: Josef von Sternberg

text: The greatest share of misfortune accrued to Sternberg. The surviving film sequences suggest that I, Claudius might have been a genuinely great work. When production was aborted, Sternberg lost his last opportunity to reassert his status as a top-rung filmmaker.


title: Josef von Sternberg

text: The collapse of the London Film production was not without its impact on Sternberg. He is reported to have checked into Charring Cross Psychiatric Unit in the aftermath of the shoot. Sternberg's persistent desire to find work kept him in Europe from 1937 to 1938.


title: Josef von Sternberg

text: He approached Czech soprano Jarmila Novotná as to her availability to star in an adaption of Franz Werfel's The Forty Days of Musa Dagh, but she demurred.


title: Josef von Sternberg

text: Reviving their mutual interest in playwright Luigi Pirandello's Six Characters in Search of an Author Sternberg and director Max Reinhardt attempted to obtain the rights but the cost was prohibitive.


title: Josef von Sternberg

text: At the end of 1937, Sternberg arranged for Austrian financing to film a version of "Germinal" by Émile Zola, successfully acquiring Hilde Krahl and Jean-Louis Barrault for the lead roles. Final preparations were underway when Sternberg collapsed due to a relapse of the illness he had contracted in Java. While he was convalescing in London, Germany invaded Austria and the project had to be abandoned. Sternberg returned to his home in California to recover but found he had developed a chronic heart condition that would plague him for his remaining years.


title: Josef von Sternberg

text: In October 1938, Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer asked Sternberg to finish up a few scenes for departing French director Julien Duvivier's "The Great Waltz". His association with M-G-M twelve years previously had ended in an abrupt departure. After completing that simple assignment, the studio engaged Sternberg for a one-movie contract to direct a largely pre-packaged vehicle for Austrian-born Hedy Lamarr, the recent star of "Algiers". Metro was motivated by Sternberg's success with Marlene Dietrich at Paramount, anticipating that he would instill some warmth in Lamarr's screen image.


title: Josef von Sternberg

text: Sternberg worked on "New York Cinderella" for little more than a week and resigned. The movie was completed by W. S. Van Dyke as "I Take This Woman" in 1940. The feature was panned by critics.


title: Josef von Sternberg

text: Sternberg returned to the crime drama, a genre he had created in the silent era, in order to fulfill his contract to M-G-M: "Sergeant Madden".


title: Josef von Sternberg

text: A paternalistic Wallace Beery patrolman rises through the ranks to become sergeant. As father he presides over a blended family of natural and adopted children: a biological son Alan Curtiss and adopted children Tom Brown and Laraine Day. After the natural son marries his "sister", he turns to crime and dies in a police shootout, in which Berry participates. The adopted and dutiful son emulates his father to become a good cop and marries his deceased brother's wife.


title: Josef von Sternberg

text: The film is notable in that the theme and style strongly resemble German films of the post-WWI period. Thematically, the precept that social duty is superior to family loyalty was commonplace in German literature and film. In particular, the spectacle of an adopted son displacing an interior offspring in a test of physical and moral strength thus proves his worth to society. The central conflict in "Sergeant Madden" recounts the natural son (Curtis) engages in mortal combat with a powerful father (Barry), bears parallels to Sternberg's boyhood struggles with his tyrannical father Moses.


title: Josef von Sternberg

text: Stylistically, Sternberg's film techniques mimic the dark, gray atmosphere of the German Expressionist films of the 1920s. The minor characters in "Sergeant Madden" appear to have been recruited from the films of F. W. Murnau. Despite some resistance from the bombastic Berry, Sternberg coaxed a relatively restrained performance that recalls Emil Jannings.


title: Josef von Sternberg

text: Sternberg's restrained directorial performance at Metro reassured Hollywood executives and United Artists provided him with the resources to make the last of his classic films: "The Shanghai Gesture".


title: Josef von Sternberg

text: German producer Arnold Pressburger, an early associate of the director, held the rights to a John Colton play entitled "The Shanghai Gesture" (1926). This "sensational" work surveyed the "decadent and depraved" denizens of a Shanghai brothel and opium den operated by a "Mother Goddam". Colton's lurid tale presented difficulties to adaption in 1940 when strictures imposed by the Hays Office were in full force. Salacious behavior and depictions of drug use, including opium, were forbidden, leading censors to disqualify more than thirty efforts to transfer "The Shanghai Gesture" to the screen. Veteran screenwriter Jules Furthman with assistance from Karl Vollmöller and Géza Herczeg formulated a bowdlerized version which passed muster. Sternberg made some additions to the scenario and agreed to film it. Paul Ivano, Sternberg's cinematographer on "A Woman of the Sea" was enlisted as cameraman.


title: Josef von Sternberg

text: To satisfy censors, the story is set in a Shanghai casino, rather than a brothel; the name of the proprietress of the establishment is softened to "Mother Gin-Sling", rather than the impious "Mother Goddam" in the Colton's original. Gin-Sling's half-caste daughter Gene Tierney – the result of a coupling between Gin-Sling and British official Sir Guy Charteris Walter Huston – is the product of European finishing schools rather than a courtesan raised in her mother's whore house. The degradation of daughter who sports the nickname "Poppy" is no less degraded by her privileged upbringing.


title: Josef von Sternberg

text: Sternberg augmented the original story by inserting two compelling characters: Doctor Omar (Victor Mature) and Dixie Pomeroy (Phyllis Brooks). Dr. Omar – "Doctor of Nothing" – is a complacent sybarite impressive only to cynical casino regulars. His scholarly epithet has no more substance than Sternberg's "von" and the director humorously exposes the pretense. The figure of Dixie, a former Brooklyn chorus girl contrasts with Tierney's continental beauty and this all-American commoner takes the measure of the banal Omar. Poppy, lacking "the humor, intelligence and an appreciation of the absurd" succumbs to the voluptuous Omar – and Sternberg cinematically reveals the absurdity of the relationship.


title: Josef von Sternberg

text: The veiled parental confrontation between Charteris and Gin-Sling revives only past humiliations and suffering, and Poppy is sacrificed on the altar of this heartless union. Charteris obsessive rectitude blinds him to the terrible irony of his daughter's murder.


title: Josef von Sternberg

text: "The Shanghai Gesture" is a tour-de-force with Sternberg's sheer "physical expressiveness" of his characters that conveys both emotion and motivation. In Freudian terms, the gestures serve as symbols of "impotence, castration, onanism and tranvestism" revealing Sternberg's obsession with the human condition.


title: Josef von Sternberg

text: On July 29, 1943, the 49-year-old Sternberg married Jeanne Annette McBride, his 21-year-old administrative assistant at his home in North Hollywood in a private ceremony.


title: Josef von Sternberg

text: In the midst of World War II, Sternberg, in a civilian capacity, was asked by the United States Office of War Information to make a single film, a one-reel documentary for the series entitled "The American Scene", a domestic version of the combat and recruitment oriented "Why We Fight". Whereas his service with the Signal Corps in World War I included filming shorts demonstrating the proper use of fixed bayonets, this 11-minute documentary "The Town" is a portrait of a small American community in the Midwest with emphasis on the cultural contributions of its European immigrants.


title: Josef von Sternberg

text: Aesthetically, this short documentary exhibits none of Sternberg's typical stylistic elements. In this respect it is the only purely realistic work he ever created. It is executed, nonetheless, with perfect ease and efficiency, and his "sense of composition and continuity" is strikingly executed. "The Town" was translated into 32 languages and distributed overseas in 1945.


title: Josef von Sternberg

text: At the end of the war, Sternberg was hired by producer David O. Selznick, an admirer of the director, to serve as a roving advisor and assistant on the film "Duel in the Sun", starring Gregory Peck. Attached to the unit overseen by filmmaker King Vidor, Sternberg pitched into any task he was assigned with alacrity. Sternberg continued to seek a sponsor for a highly personal project entitled "The Seven Bad Years", a journey into self-analysis concerning his childhood and its ramifications for his adult life. When no commercial backing materialized, Sternberg abandoned hopes for support from Hollywood and returned to his home in Weehawken, New Jersey, in 1947.


title: Josef von Sternberg

text: For two years Sternberg resided at Weehawken, unemployed and in semi-retirement. He married Meri Otis Wilmer in 1948 and soon had a child and a family to support.


title: Josef von Sternberg

text: In 1949, screenwriter Jules Furthman, now a co-producer for Howard Hughes' RKO studios in Hollywood, nominated Sternberg to film a color feature. Oddly, Hughes demanded a film test from the 55-year-old director. Sternberg dutifully submitted a demonstration of his skills and RKO, satisfied, presented him with a two-picture contract. In 1950, he began filming the Cold War-era "Jet Pilot".


title: Josef von Sternberg

text: As a precondition, Sternberg agreed to deliver a conventional movie that focused on aviation themes and hardware, avoiding the erotic embellishments he was famous for.


title: Josef von Sternberg

text: In a Furthman script that resembled a comic-book narrative, a Soviet pilot-spy Janet Leigh lands her Mig fighter at a USAF base in Alaska, posing as defector. Suspicious, the base commander assigns American pilot John Wayne to play counter-spy. Mutual respect leads to love between the two aviators and when Leigh is denied asylum, Wayne weds her to avoid Leigh's deportation. The USAF sends them to Russia to spread fraudulent intelligence, but upon his return to the air base Wayne is suspected of acting as a double agent and scheduled for brainwashing. Leigh arranges for their escape to Austria.


title: Josef von Sternberg

text: Janet Leigh is placed at the visual center of the film. She is permitted a measure of eroticism that contrasts sharply and humorously with the All-American pretensions of the Furthman script. Sternberg stealthily inserted some subversive elements in this paean of cold war militarism. During the airborne refueling scenes (anticipating Stanley Kubrick's "Dr. Strangelove)", the fighter jets take on the persona and attributes of Leigh and Wayne.


title: Josef von Sternberg

text: Sternberg wrapped up shooting in merely seven weeks, but the picture was fated to undergo innumerable permutations until it finally enjoyed distribution – and a moderate commercial success – by Universal Studios six years later in September 1957.


title: Josef von Sternberg

text: To Sternberg's discomfiture, RKO maintained strict control when filming commenced in September 1950. The thriller is set in the exotic locale of Macao, at the time a Portuguese colony on the coast of China. American drifters Robert Mitchum and gold-digger Jane Russell become involved in an intrigue to lure corrupt casino owner and jewel smuggler Brad Dexter offshore into international waters so he can be arrested by US lawman William Bendix. Mistaken identities put Mitchum in danger and murders ensue, ending in a dramatic fight scene.


title: Josef von Sternberg

text: Cinematically, the only evidence that Sternberg directed the picture is where he managed to impose his stylistic signature: a waterfront chase that features hanging fish nets; a feather pillow exploding in an electric fan. His handling of the climactic fight between Mitchum and Dexter was deemed deficient by producers. Mastery over action scenes predictably eluded Sternberg and director Nicholas Ray (uncredited) was summoned to re-shoot the sequence in the final stages of production. Contrary to Hughes's inclination to retain Sternberg as a director at RKO, no new contract was forthcoming.


title: Josef von Sternberg

text: Persevering in his efforts to launch an independent project, Sternberg obtained an option on novelist Shelby Foote's tale of sin and redemption, "Follow Me Down", but failed to obtain funding.


title: Josef von Sternberg

text: Visiting New York in 1951, Sternberg renewed his friendship with Japanese producer Nagamasa Kawakita, and they agreed to pursue a joint production in Japan. From this alliance would emerge Sternberg's most personal film – and his last: "The Saga of Anahatan".


title: Josef von Sternberg

text: Between 1959 and 1963, Sternberg taught a course on film aesthetics at the University of California, Los Angeles, based on his own works. His students included undergraduate Jim Morrison and graduate student Ray Manzarek, who went on to form the rock group The Doors shortly after receiving their respective degrees in 1965. The group recorded songs referring to Sternberg, with Manzarek later characterizing Sternberg as "perhaps the greatest single influence on The Doors."


title: Josef von Sternberg

text: When not working in California, Sternberg lived in a house that he built for himself in Weehawken, New Jersey. He collected contemporary art and was also a philatelist, and he developed an interest in the Chinese postal system which led to him studying the Chinese language. He was often a juror at film festivals.


title: Josef von Sternberg

text: Sternberg wrote an autobiography, "Fun in a Chinese Laundry" (1965); the title was drawn from an early film comedy. "Variety" described it as a "bitter reflection on how a master artisan can be ignored and bypassed by an art form to which he had contributed so much." He had a heart attack and was admitted to Midway Hospital Medical Center in Hollywood and died within a week on December 22, 1969, aged 75. He was interred in the Westwood Village Memorial Park Cemetery in Westwood, California near several film studios.


title: Josef von Sternberg

text: Scottish-American screenwriter Aeneas MacKenzie: "To understand what Sternberg is attempting to do, one must first appreciate that he imposes the limitations of the visual upon himself: he refuses to obtain any effect whatsoever save by means of pictorial composition. That is the fundamental distinction between von Sternberg and all other directors. Stage acting he declines, cinema in its conventional aspect he despises as mere mechanics, and dialogue he employs primarily for its value as integrated sound. The screen is his medium – not the camera. His purpose is to the emotional significance of a subject by a series of magnificent canvasses".


title: Josef von Sternberg

text: American film actress and dancer Louise Brooks: "Sternberg, with his detachment, could look at a woman and say 'this is beautiful about her and I'll leave it ... and this is ugly about her and I'll eliminate it'. Take away the bad and leave what is beautiful so she's complete ... He was the greatest director of women that ever, ever was".


title: Josef von Sternberg

text: American actor Edward Arnold: "It may be true that [von Sternberg] is a destroyer of whatever egotism an actor possesses, and that he crushes the individuality of those he directs in pictures ... the first days filming "Crime and Punishment" ... I had the feeling through the whole production of the picture that he wanted to break me down ... to destroy my individuality ... Probably anyone working with Sternberg over a long period would become used to his idiosyncrasies. Whatever his methods, he got the best he could out of his actors ... I consider that part of the Inspector General one [of] the best I have ever done in the talkies".


title: Josef von Sternberg

text: American film critic Andrew Sarris: "Sternberg resisted the heresy of acting autonomy to the very end of his career, and that resistance is very likely one of the reasons his career was foreshortened".


title: Revolutionary Communist Party, USA

text: The Revolutionary Communist Party, USA (also known as RCP and The Revcoms) is a communist party in the United States founded in 1975 and led by its chairman Bob Avakian. The party organizes for a revolution to overthrow the system of capitalism and replace it with a socialist state with the final aim of world communism. The RCP is frequently described as a cult, although the party strongly objects to this characterization.


title: Revolutionary Communist Party, USA

text: In early 1968, Leibel Bergman, H. Bruce Franklin, Bob Avakian, Stephen Charles Hamilton and a score or so others—consisting of both veterans of the Communist Party USA, and Bay Area radicals based in Palo Alto, Berkeley, and San Francisco, formed the Bay Area Revolutionary Union (BARU). Among the first tasks of the BARU was to challenge the Maoist Progressive Labor Party (PLP) over their positions on the Black Panther Party, the Chinese Cultural Revolution and the direction of Maoism. The early RU joined with the Revolutionary Youth Movement faction in the Students for a Democratic Society (SDS) in opposing PLP's role in SDS at their national convention in Chicago in 1969. The resulting split led to PL controlling the SDS name, while RYM itself split into two different factions.


title: Revolutionary Communist Party, USA

text: In 1971, Franklin led a more militant faction of BARU out the organization to join Venceremos. The RU continued to expand nationally uniting collectives, across the country, becoming a national organization—with the long-term goal of forming a new communist party. The new nationwide structure induced BARU to change its name to simply the Revolutionary Union (RU). Avakian was elected to the central committee of the RU shortly thereafter. The RCP claims that of the various groups coming out of SDS, it was the first to seriously attempt to develop itself at the theoretical level, with the publication of "Red Papers 1". In 1974 RU started publication of their newspaper "Revolution" (renamed "Revolutionary Worker," and adopting a weekly format in 1979)


title: Revolutionary Communist Party, USA

text: In 1973 the anti-war group Vietnam Veterans Against the War (VVAW) entered into reforms following the end of the Vietnam War, these included adopting an explicitly Anti-imperialist stance and the opening of its membership to civilians. During this period the RU became a popular faction within the VVAW eventually reaching its peak in 1975, when the RU controlled national office voted to remove members, expel chapters and place the organization into ideological uniformity, following the integration RU reconstituted itself as the Revolutionary Communist Party (RCP).


title: Revolutionary Communist Party, USA

text: After the death of Mao in 1976, the RCP split, with about 40% of its membership leaving, over which position to take in relation to the new Chinese leadership. Avakian led the majority of the Party that rejected what they analyzed as a counterrevolutionary coup against Mao's allies. Following this split, Avakian wrote and published the book, Mao Tsetung's Immortal Contributions, which summarizes the developments of Maoism.


title: Revolutionary Communist Party, USA

text: In January 1979 Avakian and 78 other Party members and supporters were arrested and charged with various crimes in connection to a militant protest against Deng Xiaoping's visit to the White House. Seventeen demonstrators, including Avakian, were charged with multiple felonies which would carry a combined sentence of up to 241 years. After the RCP and its supporters waged a mass campaign for political, legal, and other support for the defendants, the charges were dropped in 1982, by which time Party leadership had decided to go into exile, with Avakian applying for political asylum in France, where he remained for many years.


title: Revolutionary Communist Party, USA

text: The RCP organized May Day 1980 rallies in 16 cities across the U.S., including in Los Angeles, New York, Portland, Seattle, and Washington, D.C. Weeks before the May Day demonstrations, RCP member Damian Garcia and two others climbed the Alamo, tearing down the American flag from its pole, and raising the Red Flag in its place before being arrested. Shortly thereafter, on April 22, 1980, Garcia was stabbed to death while organizing in a Los Angeles housing project. At the time, police said that Garcia's murderer was gang-affiliated, while RCP insisted that he had been assassinated by the state in retaliation for his action at the Alamo. Avakian remarked in his memoir that Garcia's murder was "very clearly tied in with police agents ... it was an attack on our Party."


title: Revolutionary Communist Party, USA

text: In 1984 Avakian and other members of the RCP co-founded the Revolutionary Internationalist Movement (RIM), a now-defunct international grouping of Maoist parties, which were united by a founding declaration upholding Marxism-Leninism-Maoism. Other participating parties in RIM included the Communist Party of Peru (Shining Path), the Union of Iranian Communists (Sarbedaran), and the Revolutionary Communist Group of Colombia. RIM published and distributed the magazine and news service "A World to Win" from 1981 to 2006, but since the dissolution of RIM in the 2000s, the publication is now updated only on its website. In 2017, "A World to Win" was restructured to be "a more thorough-going tool for revolution based on Bob Avakian's new synthesis of communism."


title: Revolutionary Communist Party, USA

text: Flag-burning by RCP members led to the "Texas v. Johnson" case, which established the burning of the American Flag as a Constitutionally protected right.


title: Revolutionary Communist Party, USA

text: In 2011, RCP spokesperson Carl Dix along with Cornel West co-initiated the campaigns to "Stop "Stop and Frisk"" and ""Stop Mass Incarceration"". Dix and West appeared on "Democracy Now!" to discuss the state of Black America in the age of Obama. RCP organized "Rise Up October" against racism and police brutality; the attendance included Quentin Tarantino.


title: Revolutionary Communist Party, USA

text: In July 2016, mass protest and police arrests erupted over a flag-burning by the RCP outside the Republican National Convention, before a crowd of thousands. The next week, the RCP staged another flag burning outside the Democratic National Convention, after denouncing the United States. Later that year, in response to Donald Trump's tweet calling for the criminalization of flag burning, RCP supporters burned another American flag outside the Trump International Hotel in New York City.


title: Revolutionary Communist Party, USA

text: In October 2016, RCP supporters were banned from the University of Chicago for trespass after encouraging students to get organized with the revolutionaries, with one activist arrested by police; the next day they returned to defy the ban, while denouncing U.S. elections and America.


title: Revolutionary Communist Party, USA

text: In August 2016, the RCP led protesters in a two-day march on a barricaded police station after the fatal officer shooting of a black man by Milwaukee police; the police chief said the RCP had incited violence towards police.


title: Revolutionary Communist Party, USA

text: RCP members handed out fliers outside the San Diego Levi's Stadium in support of Colin Kaepernick and NFL protests of the U.S. national anthem.


title: Revolutionary Communist Party, USA

text: In December 2016, in response to the election of Donald Trump, the RCP helped to initiate and lead the ad-hoc coalition Refuse Fascism, which had as its goal the prevention of the Trump inauguration through mass political protest and civil disobedience. After the inauguration took place, the organization adjusted to a mission of launching sustained mass protests aimed at forcing the removal of the Trump administration before the scheduled election of 2020.


title: Revolutionary Communist Party, USA

text: In July 2018, Refuse Fascism and RCP organized 100 handmaids to protest U.S. Vice President Mike Pence in New York City, saying "[he] is a Christian fascist theocrat for whom the handmaid's tale is a model."


title: Revolutionary Communist Party, USA

text: In October 2018, the RCP organized a demonstration in Chicago's Daley Plaza on the 23rd Annual "National Day of Protest to STOP Police Brutality," in response to the police murder of Laquan McDonald and other black youth.


title: Revolutionary Communist Party, USA

text: At a February 2019 speaking event at USC, in the Q&A, RCP supporters sparked controversy after criticizing speaker Amanda Nguyen's work in the U.S. government during the War on Terror.


title: Revolutionary Communist Party, USA

text: In March 2019, a "Revolution Newspaper" correspondent was detained by police on the anniversary of the police shooting of Stephon Clark, after getting into an argument with Al Sharpton, while urging attendees to organize for revolution rather than political reforms.


title: Revolutionary Communist Party, USA

text: On International Women's Day 2019, the Revolution Club joined supporters of the Communist Party of Iran (Marxist–Leninist–Maoist), to march through Westwood, California, calling for universal women's rights.


title: Revolutionary Communist Party, USA

text: On Independence Day 2019, the RCP staged flag burnings at the U.S.–Mexico border and at the White House, the latter being a demonstration against the "Salute to America" military parade, which resulted in two RCP supporters being attacked by the Proud Boys and arrested by Secret Service officers.


title: Revolutionary Communist Party, USA

text: The RCP originated as a Maoist political organization with roots in the New Left of the 1970s. In the 1990s, its political ideology was Marxism–Leninism–Maoism. Today, the framework for its political ideology is Bob Avakian's 'New Synthesis' (or 'New Communism'), which it sees as an advancement of revolutionary theory; this has been debated among Maoists internationally. The RCP is atheist and claim to stress the scientific method.


title: Revolutionary Communist Party, USA

text: RCP leadership says "the system cannot be reformed, it must be overthrown," and does not participate in charity or elections, instead organizing for total revolution, to replace the capitalist system with a new socialist system aiming for communism worldwide. Its goal is not to "make America socialist" but instead "a world without America and everything it stands for."


title: Revolutionary Communist Party, USA

text: Since the 2000s, Avakian's "new communism" is the RCP's ideological framework, which it considers a scientific advancement of Marxism–Leninism–Maoism. Prior to this, the party was a founding member of the Revolutionary Internationalist Movement.


title: Revolutionary Communist Party, USA

text: The RCP began developing a cult of personality around Avakian as part of the 1979 pivot catalyzed by the Deng Xiaoping protest trial. The goal was to both increase support for Avakian in the legal arena while also making RCP a more revolutionary organization, inspired by Stalin's rule, the Mao Zedong cult, and the more recent Free Huey! campaign in which Avakian and company had participated. Relying on the theory of Georgy Plekhanov and framing the development of a cult as a scientifically-based organizational strategy, Avakian was put forward as a larger-than-life figure to revitalize the group.


title: Revolutionary Communist Party, USA

text: The RCP is frequently perceived by both members of the left and the broader public as a small cult around Bob Avakian. This perception was noted in "The Indypendent" in 2014, Harpers in 2016, Mic in 2017, and "Vice magazine" in 2022. Members and groups on the left, in organized labor, and in protest movements have described RCP as a cult. Former USLAW national coordinator Michael Eisenscher described RCP in 2016 as primarily "a cult around Avakian". In June 2022, a coalition of 23 abortion rights, feminist, and mutual-aid groups released a statement denouncing RCP and the affiliated organization Rise Up 4 Abortion Rights, including a description of RCP as a cult.


title: Revolutionary Communist Party, USA

text: RCP members themselves celebrate the organization as a cult of personality around Avakian. RCP members in RCP publications say that the RCP and Bob Avakian have encouraged controversy and serious debate over their views and a wide range of issues, engaging in numerous debates and polemics, while also taking a strong stand against destructive allegations in place of principled dialogue and building unity for what they term "the emancipation of humanity".


title: Revolutionary Communist Party, USA

text: In the 1970s and 1980s, the RCP labeled homosexuality as "petty bourgeois" and prohibited LGBT individuals from party membership. This outlook co-existed with a public line against gay-bashing and attacks on homosexuals by religious bigots and fundamentalists, and was consistent with numerous groups of the New Communist movement and the broader Marxist–Leninist movement of the period. The party's policy against homosexuality was ended in 2001. The current RCP platform demands full recognition of LGBT rights as a fundamental component towards establishing socialism.


title: Revolutionary Communist Party, USA

text: The RCP releases daily updates online and a periodic print edition of its weekly newspaper, "Revolution" (formerly called "Revolutionary Worker", 1979–2005) available in English and Spanish, and published continuously since 1979.


title: Revolutionary Communist Party, USA

text: In December 2016, party members and others co-initiated Refuse Fascism, a coalition group aiming to "drive out" the Trump administration through sustained street protests. InfoWars and other far-right conspiracy theory websites claimed the RCP and Refuse Fascism were organizing a military overthrow of the government on November 4, 2017. Several nationwide anti-Trump protest marches were organized for that day, numbering in the thousands.


title: Revolutionary Communist Party, USA

text: Refuse Fascism protesters were arrested in September 2017, after blocking four lanes of the 101 Freeway in Los Angeles during rush hour, to "sound the alarm about fascism."


title: Revolutionary Communist Party, USA

text: RCP supporters Michael Slate and Sunsara Taylor have regularly aired shows on radio networks KPFK and WBAI, respectively, where they discuss news and politics with guests.


title: Revolutionary Communist Party, USA

text: RCP branches opened "Revolution Books" stores in major US cities and became a frequent presence in protest movements. There is a location in Berkeley. From 1978 through 2015 there was a location Chelsea, which in 2015 moved to Harlem.


title: Revolutionary Communist Party, USA

text: The RCP runs the Prisoners Revolutionary Literature Fund, which sends its newspaper and other political works from its publishing press to hundreds of incarcerated people nationwide to spread a revolutionary message. As its aim, the fund "provides an educational opportunity for prisoners to engage with world events and key political, cultural, and philosophical questions from a unique communistic perspective, including discussions of morality, religion, science, and the arts centered around a positive socialist-light."


title: Revolutionary Communist Party, USA

text: The RCP has faced increasing censorship by prison officials who seek to deny inmates requested access to revolutionary literature.


title: .50 GI

text: The .50 GI (12.7×23mmRB) pistol cartridge was developed by Alex Zimmermann of Guncrafter Industries. The .50 GI was introduced at the 2004 SHOT Show alongside the Guncrafter Industries Model No. 1, a variation of the M1911. The round has a rebated rim that is the same diameter as that of the .45 ACP.


title: .50 GI

text: In 2006, Guncrafter Industries introduced its 1911 Model No. 2 which sports a full length light rail/dust cover and is chambered for the .50 GI cartridge. Both the M1 and the M2 can be fitted with Guncrafter Industries' .45 ACP conversion unit, the .45 ACP magazines hold 8 rounds.


title: .50 GI

text: Physically, the .50 GI round is wider than the .45 ACP and slightly longer. The M1 and M2 magazines can hold seven rounds. The Glock conversion can hold eight rounds in the standard magazine and nine with the extended base pad.


title: .50 GI

text: The .50 GI operates at pressures comparable to the .45 ACP, around 15,000 psi (100 MPa). Felt recoil is not unlike that of the .45 ACP. The .50 GI has developed a reputation for accuracy, though this may be due to the high precision of the semi-custom and very expensive Guncrafter pistols themselves. In one test, the 300 grain (19 g) jacketed flatpoint (JFP) gave a 25-yard group of 2.24 inches, and the 300-grain Jacketed hollow point (JHP) and 275-grain JHP gave a 25-yard group of 2.14 inches.


title: .50 GI

text: The penetration in gelatin (but not necessarily the kinetic energy) of the .50 GI is significantly different than the .45 ACP. While it is one of the few examples of the largest legally allowed caliber projectile (.50) in a semiauto handgun, it was purpose built to have a recoil impulse and kinetic energy substantially less than the magnum .50 caliber rounds such as the .50 Action Express (semiautomatic) or .500 S&W Magnum (revolver). Factory loaded ammunition has a kinetic energy of around 500 ft·lb.


title: .50 GI

text: The cartridge is not used in law enforcement and rarely for personal defense due to limited availability of ammunition and guns chambered for the cartridge. Currently, the only commercial handguns available in this caliber are Guncrafter Industries' own Colt 1911 handgun variants and its Glock 21/Glock 20 conversion upper receiver, and Magnum Research chambers their BFR revolver in this caliber on a custom basis.


title: A View to a Kill (song)

text: "A View to a Kill" is the thirteenth single by the English new wave and synth-pop band Duran Duran, released on 6 May 1985. Written and recorded as the theme for the James Bond film of the same name, it became one of the band's biggest hits. It remains the only James Bond theme song to have reached number one on the US "Billboard" Hot 100; it also made it to number two for three weeks on the UK Singles Chart while stuck behind Paul Hardcastle's "19". The song was the last track recorded by the most famous five-member lineup of Duran Duran until their reunion in 2001 and was also performed by the band at Live Aid in Philadelphia, their final performance together before their first split.


title: A View to a Kill (song)

text: The following year, composer John Barry and Duran Duran were nominated for the Golden Globe Award for Best Original Song for "A View to a Kill". Following Barry's death in 2011, the band paid tribute to him for their encore at the Coachella Festival later that year, with Simon Le Bon reappearing in a tuxedo for a pared-down version backed by an orchestra, before launching into the familiar full-band hit version. Bassist John Taylor introduced the song by saying, "We lost a dear friend of ours this year. A great English composer familiar to Hollywood, his name was John Barry. We're gonna play this for him."


title: A View to a Kill (song)

text: The song was written by Duran Duran and John Barry, and recorded at Maison Rouge Studio and CTS Studio in London with a 60-piece orchestra.


title: A View to a Kill (song)

text: Duran Duran were chosen to do the song after bassist John Taylor (a lifelong Bond fan) approached producer Cubby Broccoli at a party and somewhat drunkenly asked, "If I give you a fiver, can I write a theme tune please." The band was then introduced to Bond composer John Barry, and also composer/producer Jonathan Elias (with whom Duran Duran members would later work many times). An early writing meeting at Taylor's flat in Knightsbridge led to everyone getting drunk instead of composing.


title: A View to a Kill (song)

text: Singer Simon Le Bon said of Barry: "He didn't really come up with any of the basic musical ideas. He heard what we came up with and he put them into an order. And that's why it happened so quickly because he was able to separate the good ideas from the bad ones, and he arranged them. He has a great way of working brilliant chord arrangements. He was working with us as virtually a sixth member of the group, but not really getting on our backs at all."


title: A View to a Kill (song)

text: Due to a clear separation of areas of responsibility, the cooperation between band and composer turned out to be largely harmonious. The band was in charge of the actual songwriting while Barry created the final arrangement, including the orchestral parts. The song was finally completed in April 1985 and released that May. In the UK, it entered the singles chart at No. 7 before peaking at No. 2 the following week, and remained at that position for three weeks. In the US, it entered the charts at No. 45, and on 13 July it reached number one on the "Billboard" Hot 100 chart. It remains the only Bond theme to achieve this chart placing.


title: A View to a Kill (song)

text: "Cash Box" described the single as "a memorable and dynamic cut and easily one of Duran Duran’s very best efforts" that is "melodically strong" and employs "highly sophisticated state of the art production."


title: A View to a Kill (song)

text: The song's music video was filmed in the Eiffel Tower and was directed by the duo of Godley & Creme. The video opens with the iconic gun barrel sequence and is centered around the scene from the film where Max Zorin's henchwoman May Day kills private detective Achille Aubergine in front of James Bond at the Tower. It then cuts to the band walking by the Tower on a secret mission: Simon Le Bon, disguised as a tourist, wearing a gray trenchcoat and carrying a Walkman; John Taylor, a long-haired tourist dressed in black; Nick Rhodes, a photographer working with a top model; Andy Taylor, a blind accordionist who plays the Bond theme on the accordion; and Roger Taylor, a supervisor inside a van. The band's actions coincide with events shown from the movie, while Bond pursues May Day through the Tower, culminating in her escape via parachute. The video ends with a beautiful young girl approaching Le Bon to question him, "Excuse me... aren't you?", where he breaks the fourth wall to say, "Bon. Simon Le Bon". However, her moving Le Bon's arm to talk to him causes him to accidentally activate a detonator concealed inside his Walkman, blowing up the Eiffel Tower.


title: A View to a Kill (song)

text: previously unreleased remix of Duran Duran‘s A View To A Kill that has recently surfaced and since then there has been much debate over both the authenticity of the remix and who was responsible for the work involved. We are delighted to inform all you 1980’s pop fans out there that legendary producer and remixer Steve Thompson has been in touch with SDE and ‘filled in the blanks’, putting the speculation to bed once and for all.


title: A View to a Kill (song)

text: Steve had the following to say: “The mystery [is] solved. I did this mix with Mike Barbiero and the band was there except John. We did that mix in a studio in Paris. All [the] sounds of the mix were done with the band.“Echoing the views of Duran Duran fans who have always wondered why a twelve-inch version of the Bond theme was never released, Thompson added “I could never understand why the mix didn’t come out. And yes I brought it to [alternative New York radio station] WLIR because we were all friends of the station and I would always give them exclusives.”


title: A View to a Kill (song)

text: DJ's Factory, a Eurodance project of German producer Bülent Aris and British keyboarder Adrian Askew, released a dancefloor-oriented version of the song in summer 1985, reaching No. 22 on the German single charts.


title: A View to a Kill (song)

text: In 1987, Shirley Bassey covered the song for her album "The Bond Collection", which contained her renditions of Bond theme songs. However, she wasn't satisfied with the quality, so the album was withdrawn from sale.


title: A View to a Kill (song)

text: In 2008, the song was covered in a bossa nova style by former Morcheeba singer Skye on the various artists compilation album "Hollywood, Mon Amour", containing cover versions of songs from 1980s films.


title: A View to a Kill (song)

text: Måns Zelmerlöw performed a live version of the song at the beginning of the Andra Chansen (Second Chance) round of Melodifestivalen 2010 in Örebro, Sweden.


title: A View to a Kill (song)

text: Further cover versions of the song have been recorded by the Welsh alternative metal band Lostprophets, Canadian punk rock band Gob, Australian band Custard, on the tribute album "The Songs of Duran Duran: UnDone" (1999), and the Chilean heavy metal band Los Mox, on their album "...Con Cover" (2006). Finnish melodic death metal band Diablo has covered the song, as well as Finnish symphonic metal cover supergroup Northern Kings. Jay Gonzalez of Drive-By Truckers covered the song in a bossa nova style on the various artists compilation album "Songs, Bond Songs: The Music of 007" (2017).


title: Gordon Riots

text: The Gordon Riots of 1780 were several days of rioting in London motivated by anti-Catholic sentiment. They began with a large and orderly protest against the Papists Act 1778, which was intended to reduce official discrimination against British Catholics enacted by the Popery Act 1698. Lord George Gordon, head of the Protestant Association, argued that the law would enable Catholics to join the British Army and plot treason. The protest led to widespread rioting and looting, including attacks on Newgate Prison and the Bank of England and was the most destructive in the history of London.


title: Gordon Riots

text: Violence started later on 2 June 1780, with the looting and burning of Catholic chapels in foreign embassies. Local magistrates, afraid of drawing the mob's anger, did not invoke the Riot Act. There was no repression until the Government finally sent in the army, resulting in an estimated 300–700 deaths. The main violence lasted until 9 June 1780.


title: Gordon Riots

text: The riots occurred near the height of the American War of Independence, when Britain, with no major allies, was fighting American rebels, France, and Spain. Public opinion, especially in middle-class and elite circles, repudiated anti-Catholicism and lower-class violence, and rallied behind Lord North's government. Demands were made for a London police force. There appeared painted on the wall of Newgate prison a proclamation that the inmates had been freed by the authority of "His Majesty, King Mob". The term "" afterwards denoted an unruly and fearsome proletariat.


title: Gordon Riots

text: Wild and savage insurrection quitted the woods, and prowled about our streets in the name of reform... A sort of national convention ... nosed parliament in the very seat of its authority; sat with a sort of superintendence over it; and little less than dictated to it, not only laws, but the very form and essence of legislature itself.


title: Gordon Riots

text: The stated intention of the Papists Act of 1778 was, as its preamble notes, to mitigate some of the official discrimination against Roman Catholics in Great Britain. It absolved Catholics from taking the religious oath when joining the British Armed Forces as well as granting a few and limited liberties. There were strong expedient reasons for this change. British military forces at the time were stretched very thinly in what had become a global American War of Independence, with conflicts ongoing with France, Spain, and the new United States. The recruitment of Catholic people would be a significant help to address this shortfall of manpower.


title: Gordon Riots

text: The 1698 anti-Catholic laws had largely been ignored for many years and were rarely enforced. Because of this, many leading Catholics were opposed to the repeal of these laws, fearing it would stir up anti-Catholic sentiment for little practical return. It was also pointed out that large numbers of Catholics, recruited in Ireland and the Scottish Highlands, were already serving in the military. In spite of this, the government decided to press ahead with the Bill, and had it introduced in Parliament by Sir George Savile.


title: Gordon Riots

text: The Protestant Association of London had the support of leading Calvinist religious figures, including Rowland Hill, Erasmus Middleton, and John Rippon. Lord George Gordon became its President in 1779, in an effort to force the repeal of the Papists Act. An articulate propagandist, though eccentric, Gordon inflamed the mob with fears of Papism and a return to absolute monarchical rule. He implied that Catholics in the military would, given a chance, join forces with their co-religionists on the Continent and attack Britain. He enjoyed popularity in Scotland where he took part in a successful campaign to prevent the same legislation from being introduced into Scots law, although the Act continued in force in England and Wales and in Ireland. The success in obstructing the law in Scotland led Gordon to believe he could enjoy similar success in the rest of Britain and Ireland. Early in 1780 Gordon had several audiences with King George III but was unable to convince him of what he saw as the dangers of the act. George III initially humoured Gordon, but grew increasingly irritated with him and eventually refused any future audiences.


title: Gordon Riots

text: The political climate deteriorated rapidly. On 29 May 1780, Gordon called a meeting of the Protestant Association, and his followers subsequently marched on the House of Commons to deliver a petition demanding the repeal of the Act.


title: Gordon Riots

text: After the first march to Parliament, further riots occurred involving groups whose grievances were nationalist, economic, or political, rather than religious. Aside from the issue of Catholic emancipation, it has also been suggested that the driving force of the riots was Britain's poor economic situation: the loss of trade during the war had led to falling wages, rising prices, and periodic unemployment. As Rudé noted, there was no general attack on the Catholic community, "the victims of the riots" being distinguished by the fact they were "on the whole, persons of substance". Voting in parliamentary elections was restricted by a property threshold, so most Londoners were unable to vote and many hoped for reforms to make Parliament more representative of the people. However, Paul Monod has argued that "no matter how much one would like to interpret the Gordon Riots ... as economically motivated, they remain fundamentally anti-Catholic in character".


title: Gordon Riots

text: Shortly after the riots had broken out, the Duke of Richmond suggested that they were directly attributable to the passing of the Quebec Act six years before, a view that was ridiculed by many of his colleagues. Another suggested cause was Britain's weakened international position, which had arisen from the country's isolation in Europe and the disappointing news coming from the ongoing war. Some rioters were against the continuation of the war, and many strongly supported American independence, while others were angry that Britain's war effort was being mishandled by Lord North. In many cases a mix of issues blended together and drove people to take part in the rioting.


title: Gordon Riots

text: On 2 June 1780 a huge crowd, estimated at 40,000 to 60,000 strong, assembled and marched on the Houses of Parliament. Many carried flags and banners proclaiming "No Popery", and most wore blue cockades which had become the symbol of their movement. As they marched, their numbers swelled. They attempted to force their way into the House of Commons, but without success. Gordon, petition in hand, and wearing in his hat the blue cockade of the Protestant Association, entered the Commons and presented the petition. Outside, the situation quickly got out of hand and a riot erupted. Members of the House of Lords were attacked as they arrived, and a number of carriages were vandalised and destroyed.


title: Gordon Riots

text: Despite being aware of the possibility of trouble, the authorities had failed to take steps to prevent violence breaking out. The Prime Minister, Lord North, had forgotten to issue an order mobilising the small number of Constables in the area. Those that were present in the House of Commons were not strong enough to take on the angry mob. Eventually a detachment of soldiers was summoned, and they dispersed the crowd without violence. Inside the House of Commons, the petition was overwhelmingly dismissed by a vote of 192 to 6.


title: Gordon Riots

text: Once the mob around Parliament had dispersed, it seemed to the government that the worst of the disorder was over. However, the same night a crowd gathered and attacked the Roman Catholic Sardinian Embassy Chapel in Lincoln's Inn Fields. Bow Street Runners and soldiers were called out and made thirteen arrests, although most of the ringleaders had managed to escape. The same night the chapel of the Bavarian Embassy in Warwick Street, Soho, was destroyed and crowds caused random violence in streets known to house rich Catholics.


title: Gordon Riots

text: The area of Moorfields, one of the poorest parts of the city, was the home of many Irish immigrant workers and had a large area of open ground where crowds could assemble. Despite the appeal of a prominent Irish merchant, James Malo, to the Lord Mayor, Brackley Kennett, no additional protection was offered to the area. During 3 June a crowd had gathered in Moorfields, and by nightfall it began to go on the rampage. Malo's house was amongst the many to be sacked and burned.


title: Gordon Riots

text: Newgate Prison, where rioters arrested on 2 June were being held, was attacked and largely destroyed, as was The Clink. This allowed large numbers of prisoners to escape, many of whom were never recaptured. Severe destruction was inflicted on Catholic churches and homes and chapels on the grounds of several embassies, as well as on New Prison, Fleet Prison, and the house of the Lord Chief Justice, William Murray, 1st Earl of Mansfield. On 7 June, called "Black Wednesday" by Horace Walpole, the riot reached its climax. An attempt on the Bank of England was narrowly averted when a combination of the London Military Association and regular troops repulsed rioters, resulting in heavy casualties.


title: Gordon Riots

text: The army was called out on 7 June and given orders to fire upon groups of four or more who refused to disperse. About 285 people were shot dead, with another 200 wounded. Around 450 of the rioters were arrested. Of those arrested, about twenty or thirty were later tried and executed. Gordon was arrested and charged with high treason, but was found not guilty. Brackley Kennett, the Lord Mayor, was convicted of criminal negligence for not reading out the Riot Act and was given a £1,000 fine. The military units which dealt with the rioters included the Horse Guards, Foot Guards, Inns of Court Yeomanry, the Honourable Artillery Company, line infantry including the 2nd (Queen's Royal) Regiment, and militia from the City and neighbouring counties. The defence of the Bank of England was conducted by the 9th Regiment of Foot under the command of Thomas Twisleton, 13th Baron Saye and Sele.


title: Gordon Riots

text: The riots damaged the reputation of Britain across Europe, where many saw British constitutional monarchy as an inherently unstable form of government. This came at a time when Britain was searching for allies, particularly Catholic Austria, in the American War of Independence to challenge the strong coalition the French had built. Britain had also initiated secret negotiations with Catholic Spain to end Spanish support of the United States. After learning of the riots, the Spanish government pulled back from peace negotiations with Britain, concerned that the disorder would lead to a widespread collapse of the current British administration.


title: Gordon Riots

text: The riots highlighted the problems Britain faced by not deploying a professional police force, a notion which was opposed as foreign and absolutist. The day after the riots broke out, the Earl of Shelburne shocked many by proposing in parliament that Britain should consider forming a force modelled on the French police.


title: Gordon Riots

text: The riots destroyed the popularity of radical politician John Wilkes, who led citizen militiamen against the rioters. Many of his followers saw this as a betrayal; some of them may have been among the rioters. A pamphlet and a book of poems defending the role of Gordon were written and published by the polemicist and hymn-writer Maria De Fleury.


title: Gordon Riots

text: The events at the Bank of England started a tradition where a detachment of soldiers, usually from the Brigade of Guards, would march to the bank to perform security duties. Until 1963 the duty was performed by the Guards in Home Service Dress with bearskin, though tennis shoes were worn inside the bank. From that date until 31 March 1973 the detachment became more functional than ceremonial, doing their duties in service dress with automatic weapons.


title: Gordon Riots

text: George Walker's anti-Jacobin novel "The Vagabond" (1799) anachronistically resituates the Gordon Riots amidst the political events of the 1790s. Its narrator unwittingly becomes a prominent figure in the riots, which Walker depicts as solely destructive and acquisitive.


title: Gordon Riots

text: Maria Edgeworth's 1817 novel "Harrington" contains a vivid evocation of the Gordon Riots, with two unsympathetic characters taken for Papists and finding refuge in the home of the rich Spanish Jew, the father of the young Jewish woman at the centre of the love story.


title: Gordon Riots

text: Charles Dickens' 1841 novel "Barnaby Rudge" depicts the Gordon Riots and features Lord George in a prominent role.


title: Gordon Riots

text: John Creasey's 1974 novel "The Masters of Bow Street" depicts the Gordon Riots and the recalcitrance of Lord North to the establishment of a police force.


title: Gordon Riots

text: In Bernard Cornwell's "Sharpe" novels (1981–2007), the protagonist Richard Sharpe's mother was killed during the riots while he was still a child.


title: Gordon Riots

text: Miranda Hearn's 2003 historical novel "A Life Everlasting" depicts the main protagonists caught up in the riots as innocent Londoners.


title: Gordon Riots

text: In the film "The Great Rock'n'Roll Swindle", a scene set in 1780 refers to the Gordon Riots, showing the Sex Pistols hung in effigy.


title: Gordon Riots

text: "BABYLONdon", a novel by English SF/Fantasy author John Whitbourn (2020), blends a detailed depiction of the Gordon Riots with supernatural plot elements and an apocalyptic denouement.


title: Gordon Riots

text: "The Invisibles", a comic series by Grant Morrison features a principal character mostly known as King Mob.


title: Gordon Riots

text: Mentioned by Peter O'Toole's character to Aldo Ray in The Day They Robbed The Bank of England, referencing that he and his men had been guarding the titular bank in a certain fashion since "the Gordon Riots in 1780."


title: Air Austral

text: Air Austral is a French airline, based at the Roland Garros Airport, in the Indian Ocean. It operates scheduled services from Réunion to metropolitan France, South Africa, Thailand, India and a number of destinations in the Indian Ocean. The company has eleven airplanes in the fleet and employs around 900 people.


title: Air Austral

text: Air Austral was created in December 1974 by local businessman Gérard Ethève as "Réunion Air Services" (RAS), Réunion's first commercial airline. By August 1977, RAS had started regional services from Sainte-Marie to Mayotte with a 32-seat Hawker Siddeley HS 748 turboprop. RAS became "Air Réunion" in December 1986.


title: Air Austral

text: In October 1990, Sematra, a company 46% owned by the local councils of Réunion with the remaining shares owned by banks and other private partners, purchased Air Réunion.


title: Air Austral

text: In November 1990, Air Réunion became "Air Austral". Two months later, Air Austral bought its first Boeing 737-500. Another 737-300 was acquired in 1994, and in 1997, the airline purchased a 737-300QC, which enabled both passenger and cargo only traffic.


title: Air Austral

text: In 2000, the airline took delivery of an ATR 72-500 short-haul turboprop. By then, Air Austral operated from both Roland Garros Airport in Sainte-Marie and Pierrefonds Airport in Saint-Pierre, with scheduled services to Mayotte, South Africa (Johannesburg), Comoros, Mauritius, the Seychelles, and four destinations in Madagascar (Antananarivo, Tamatave, Nosy Be, Majunga). In 2003, Air Austral launched its first long-haul service between Réunion and Paris, with two Boeing 777-200ERs. The two Boeing 777s were joined by a third Boeing 777-200ER in 2005. A second long-haul route from Réunion to Marseille and Lyon was established.


title: Air Austral

text: In 2007, a third long-haul service to Toulouse via Marseille started. In 2008, the airline introduced new uniforms for staff and crew members, designed by Balenciaga. A second ATR 72-500 was added to the fleet, followed by a third a few months later. In April 2009, Air Austral started a new service to Sydney and New Caledonia, thus opening up a new route between Paris and Sydney via Réunion. The airline also acquired two Boeing 777-300ERs. In November, it placed a firm order for two all-economy class 840-seat Airbus A380s, for delivery in 2014. These were intended for Air Austral's Réunion-Paris flights. In June 2010, Air Austral announced it would start scheduled flights from Réunion to Bordeaux and Nantes from February 2011. In August 2011, Air Austral received its first Boeing 777-200LR.


title: Air Austral

text: In April 2012, founder and chief executive Gérard Ethève was replaced by Marie-Joseph Malé following financial difficulties caused by risky business decisions and made worse by high fuel prices. Non-profitable routes to Nouméa, Sydney, Marseille, Bordeaux, Nantes, Toulouse, and Lyon were closed. Additionally, Air Austral was unable to pay for a new 777-200LR awaiting delivery and looked to sell the plane instead of taking delivery. Following this development, Air Austral announced in May 2012 that it would defer or cancel its order for two Airbus A380s, with a decision to be made by the end of June 2012.


title: Air Austral

text: In June 2013, Air Austral introduced direct flights to Chennai, India with its new Boeing 737-800s. In February 2015, the company announced an order for two Boeing 787-8s, to be delivered in May and October 2016 respectively. In March 2015, it also announced the lease of 2 more B777-300ER from Air Lease Corporation (ALC). These aircraft, delivered in late 2016, replaced the oldest two models of the same type then operated by Air Austral.


title: Air Austral

text: In November 2015, the company sold its single Boeing 777-200LR to Florida-based broker Atlas Aviation, which became the "Crystal Skye" ultraluxury air cruise aircraft. Air Austral simultaneously announced the lease, from November 2015 to May 2016, of a Boeing 737-300QC (QC for quick change) from ASL Airlines France (formerly Europe Airpost). The plane involved was F-ODZZ, a convertible version of the 737-300 (a cabin that can be changed from passenger to freight configuration) that had already been in Air Austral service between 1997 and 2005. It was used until the first of two Boeing 787-8s ordered by the company was delivered in May 2016.


title: Air Austral

text: In October 2017, Air Austral signed a strategic partnership agreement with Air Madagascar to become the airline's minority shareholder, owning a 49% stake in the company, after the two companies established their relationship in 2016. The move was done in part to help Air Madagascar return to profitability and facilitate stronger connections within the regional market for the two airlines. In February 2018, Air Austral revealed its restructuring strategy for Air Madagascar through 2027, which included stabilising the company's finances, launching strategic routes, and expanding the company's fleet. In July 2018, Kenya Airways signed a memorandum of understanding to join the partnership in an effort to strengthen Nairobi's connections to Réunion and Madagascar and to also open up the possibilities of codesharing between the three carriers. The agreement was later finalized by the three airlines in December 2018. However, in November 2019, reports revealed that the partnership between Air Austral and Air Madagascar was at risk of dissolution after Air Austral did not contribute its second payment of €25 million for its equity share in the airline.


title: Air Austral

text: In August 2018, Air Austral began wet leasing an Airbus A380 from charter airline Hi Fly after it grounded one of its Boeing 787s due to inspections of the plane's Rolls-Royce Trent 1000 engines. In October 2019, Air Austral announced it was developing its plans to renew its fleet. That month, the airline signed a purchase agreement for three Airbus A220-300 aircraft that would replace its two Boeing 737-800 and ATR 72-500 aircraft. The airline projects it may begin renewing its long-haul fleet beginning in 2023.


title: Big Brother Canada (season 4)

text: Big Brother Canada 4 is the fourth season of the Canadian reality television series Big Brother Canada. It was produced by Endemol Shine North America and Insight Productions for all episodes, and Shaw Media for 16 episodes prior to defunct. The season premiered on March 2, 2016 on Global, and ended after 77 days – the longest season to date – on May 12, 2016, where for the first time in "Big Brother Canada" history a set of siblings won the series after Nick & Philippe Paquette beat Kelsey Faith in a 7–2 jury vote to be crowned the winners of "Big Brother Canada 4".


title: Big Brother Canada (season 4)

text: The house this season was the same as the one used in the previous season. The layout of the house remains mostly identical to the previous season however there are some changes (most notably the location of the staircase has changed and there being 2 bedrooms instead of 1). The theme is a Luxury Hotel/Casino theme. The two bedrooms are dubbed the "Hundo Suite" (named after a catchphrase commonly used by Season 2 winner, Jon Pardy) and the "19199 Suite" (named after Season 1 HouseGuest Talla Rejaei and her infamous incident in an HoH comp). The Have-Not room is in the style of a Las Vegas Chapel. Additionally, Marsha the Moose is hiding in the altar in the chapel. The vault has been replaced by a high roller room.


title: Big Brother Canada (season 4)

text: On February 23, four former contestants (two men and two women) from international editions of "Big Brother", were revealed to be competing in a public poll for two spots in the Big Brother Canada, with the man and woman with the highest number of votes entering the Big Brother Canada house immediately after the first eviction. On Day 7, Nikki Grahame and Tim Dormer entered the Big Brother Canada house, and were immune for their first week.


title: Big Brother Canada (season 4)

text: Cassandra Shahinfar and Dallas Cormier returned to compete as HouseGuests on "Big Brother Canada 5". Nikki Grahame also returned on "Big Brother Canada 5" to give the remaining houseguests makeovers for the Big Brother Canada awards. Tim Dormer also returned to lead the Jury roundtable segment during the final week.


title: Big Brother Canada (season 4)

text: On Day 1, fourteen HouseGuests entered the BBCAN Grand Hotel. They were then dealt their first twist. Two HouseGuests, Nick and Phil, were revealed to be brothers. The brothers will act as one HouseGuest, alternating who will participate in competitions each week. The brothers selected Nick to compete this week. They will be nominated and evicted together, and they will only have one eviction vote between them. If they make it to the end, they will split the prize money. Shortly before the Head of Household competition, the HouseGuests were asked to bet who they thought will be the first HouseGuest eliminated and the Head of Household. The HouseGuests selected Joel and Nick, respectively. If Joel defies expectations and is not the first one eliminated, he will win immunity for the week. If Nick does not live up to expectations and does not win Head of Household, he (and his brother Phil) will be locked away in isolation for the night. The HouseGuests then took part in the first Head of Household competition, "One Night Stand". HouseGuests stood on a narrow beam while holding onto a rope. As the competition continues, the rope would wind towards the center, dragging the HouseGuests with it. HouseGuests must remain on the beam and keep the rope in their hands. The last HouseGuest standing on their beam with their rope in their hands will be the first Head of Household. Joel earned safety, Nick & Phil were both locked away in the High Roller room for the night. Loveita won the competition and became the first Head of Household of the season. A showmance started to blossom between Kelsey and Jared. Loveita hoped to split them up as they could be dangerous down the road. At the nomination ceremony, Loveita nominated Kelsey and Paige, with Kelsey as her target. Loveita, Kelsey, and Paige, as well as Sharry, Nick & Phil, and Raul, with Dallas as the host, competed in the "What the Shell?" Power of Veto competition. While dressed as mermaids, HouseGuests had to slide down their bumpy lane, grab a letter, and take it back to their puzzle board. Once they had all the letters, they had to solve a mystery phrase. The first HouseGuest to solve their puzzle will win the Power of Veto. Nick & Phil won the Power of Veto. At the Veto Meeting, the brothers decided to keep Loveita's nominations intact. Though the brothers kept the nominees the same for Loveita they rather keep Kelsey in the house over Paige for the fact if Kelsey and Jared are a showmance people would go after them. Along with their influence and Kelsey's campaign of flirting on Day 7, Paige was evicted by a vote of 7–4, receiving the votes of Dallas, Maddy, Ramsey, and Sharry. Shortly after Paige's eviction, Tim and Nikki were revealed to be the two wildcards and became HouseGuests. They received immunity for the upcoming week.


title: Big Brother Canada (season 4)

text: Following Tim and Nikki's entrance, the HouseGuests gathered around to meet them, most not happy while some hoping to take advantage of their arrival. Tim had fit right in understanding how to play the game but deciding to play dumb while Nikki had a panic attack as the realization of being in the house hits her. Later in the night everyone except for Loveita, Nikki, and Tim, went head-to-head in the "Big Brother Roast" Head of Household competition. Canada was asked to give their first impressions of the HouseGuests. Arisa read an impression of a HouseGuest. HouseGuests were required to buzz in and state to which HouseGuest the impression was referring. A correct answer allowed the HouseGuest to eliminate anyone he or she wanted from the competition. An incorrect answer resulted in their own elimination. The last HouseGuest standing will be the new Head of Household. Jared was the winner. Loveita was scared Jared would nominate her for the fact that Kelsey stayed over Paige and Jared and Kelsey are close. On Day 8, the HouseGuests took part in the "Wheel of Meals" Have-Not competition. Each team was required to strap one member to a spinning wheel with food targets. They had one minute to spin their teammate for as many revolutions as possible. For each revolution, they got one paint balloon to throw at the food targets. The targets hit will represent what food they will eat for the week. The team that hits the fewest targets will be the Have-Nots for the week. Cassandra, Joel, Loveita, and Sharry were the Have-Nots for the week. Sharry went to campaign to Jared in hopes of saving Loveita from nomination but was told she may be a nominee due to association with her. On Day 8, Jared nominated Loveita and Sharry for eviction.


title: Big Brother Canada (season 4)

text: On Day 9, Jared, Loveita, Sharry, Nick & Phil, Mitch, and Christine played in the "Flip It to Win" Power of Veto competition, sponsored by the Brick. HouseGuests were required to search furniture for keys to open three doors. The three HouseGuests who opened the doors moved on to the final round. Throughout the furniture were pictures from past competitions. HouseGuests were asked a question about a past competition. If they did not know the answer, there were clues in the furniture room to assist them. The first HouseGuest to answer five questions correctly will win the Power of Veto and $5,000 gift card from the Brick. Christine, Mitch, and Loveita moved on to the final round, and Christine won the Power of Veto and the $5,000 gift card from the Brick. After her Veto win, Christine was given a chance to double her gift card money by selecting the correct couch cushion. She did, and received another $5000 for a grand total of $10,000. On Day 11, Christine decided to leave Jared's nominations intact. On Day 12, Big Brother gave Cassandra and Joel the task to clean all of the dirty laundry and sheets in the House. They were secretly given the task to pick two clothing items from each HouseGuest to give to charity. However, the other HouseGuests were told about this secret task and were given a mission of their own to act incredibly upset that they lost their clothes. The HouseGuests passed their task and earned a party. The remainder of the week was talk on who stays, Loveita or Sharry. Most people looked at Loveita staying in the game beneficial to them as she would still be a target as for Sharry wouldn't be as much of one. On Day 14, Sharry was evicted by an 11–1 vote, with Nikki voting to evict Loveita.


title: Big Brother Canada (season 4)

text: Following Sharry's eviction, the HouseGuests battled in the "Big Brother Breakaway" Head of Household competition. One at a time, HouseGuests slid a ball down the lane attempting to get the highest point value. The HouseGuest with the highest point value will be the new Head of Household. Loveita was the winner. Most people in the house believed Loveita had an easy decision in nominating one of the Third Wheel alliance (composed of Jared, Kelsey and Raul). Even though it seemed the easy thing to do Loveita was getting tired of the back and forth targeting they've been doing. Joel was given a secret mission by Marsha the Moose to ask Cassandra on a date and if Loveita would let him use the Head of Household room for the date. However, during the date, Joel had to dump Cassandra. He passed his mission and earned a party for the House. Cassandra and Joel were caught for breaking Have-Not rules and were made Have-Nots again for the week. Loveita struck a deal with Jared, Kelsey, and Raul and wanted to go after Cassandra due to a rude comment made by her after the Head of Household competition. On Day 15, Loveita nominated Cassandra and Christine, with Cassandra as her target. On Day 16, Loveita, Cassandra, and Christine drew Dallas, Jared, and Ramsey to join them in the "Allegiant Veto" Power of Veto competition, sponsored by the new movie, Allegiant. For this competition, HouseGuests had to rappel down a huge wall and search airplane wreckage to find puzzle pieces. The first HouseGuest to finish their puzzle, climb the wall, and hit the buzzer will win the Power of Veto, as well as a special screening of Allegiant. Dallas was the winner and selected Maddy, Loveita, and Joel to join him to watch the movie. Although he tried to convince Loveita to target the brothers, on Day 18, Dallas decided not to use the Power of Veto. On Day 21, Christine was evicted by a 6–5 vote, with Dallas, Maddy, Nikki, Ramsey, and Tim voting to evict Cassandra.


title: Big Brother Canada (season 4)

text: Following Christine's eviction, the HouseGuests paired up for the "Locked Lips" Head of Household competition. HouseGuests must work together to transport fifty balls from the diner to the well at Makeout Point without their hands. The first pair to transport all 50 balls will win the competition and must decide between the two of them who will be the Head of Household. Mitch and Joel narrowly defeated Dallas and Jared, and Joel became the new Head of Household. HouseGuests later stepped up to the plate for the "Big Brother Baseball" Have-Not competition. For this competition, each person had three chances to hit an oversized ball over the wall. The other team attempted to catch the ball on the other side of the wall while wearing oversized mitts. A caught ball counted as an out and a fair ball was a home run. The team with the most runs will be the Haves for the week and must select four HouseGuests from the losing team to be Have-Nots. Jared, Kelsey, Raul, and Tim were the Have-Nots for the week. On Day 22, Joel nominated Kelsey and Raul. On Day 23, Joel, Kelsey, and Raul, alongside Dallas, Ramsey, and Jared, saddled up for the "Ace in the Hole" Power of Veto competition. For this competition, HouseGuests had to pull themselves on a horse with a rope along a rail, dig up bags containing playing cards, and take it back to their board. Each HouseGuest may only hold five cards. Some cards may have a reward or a punishment attached to it, which the must accept if they play it. The HouseGuest with the best poker hand will win the Power of Veto. Kelsey won $1000, Raul had to lasso a bull 1000 times before sundown, Dallas must wear a cactus costume for 24 hours, but he also won the Power of Veto. On Day 25, Dallas decided not to use the Power of Veto. On Day 28, Arisa informed the HouseGuests of a Double Eviction night, and Kelsey was evicted by an 8–2 vote, with Cassandra and Jared voting to evict Raul. Immediately after, the HouseGuests were quizzed in the "Heads Up" Head of Household competition. In this competition, HouseGuests faced off in one-on-one matches. Each question will refer to a past competition. The person to buzz in with the correct answer will eliminate their opponent, and an incorrect answer will eliminate themselves. The person who survives will pick the next two players to face off. The last HouseGuest standing will be the new Head of Household. Maddy was the winner. She immediately nominated Jared and Raul for eviction, with the intention of backdooring Loveita. Maddy, Jared, and Raul picked Tim, Nick & Phil, and Joel to play in the "Slow Roller" Power of Veto competition. For the competition, HouseGuests had to fill their ladle with punch, roller skate down their lane, and fill their straw. However, their skates were tied together. The first HouseGuest to fill their straw and get the ball will win the Power of Veto. Nick & Phil won the Power of Veto. Nick & Phil decided to take Jared off the block, and Maddy named Loveita as the replacement nominee. On Day 28, Loveita was evicted by a 7–2 vote, with Dallas and Joel voting to evict Raul. However, both Kelsey and Loveita were relocated into a secret room for a week, where one of them will return to the game next week.


title: Big Brother Canada (season 4)

text: Following Kelsey and Loveita's evictions, the HouseGuests hoped to take control in the "Blast From the Past" Head of Household competition. In this competition, HouseGuests were asked questions based on items contained in a time capsule given to the HouseGuests. The HouseGuest with the most points will be the new Head of Household. Tim was the winner. On Day 29, HouseGuests were given the task to play "Big Brother Says". HouseGuests must perform all tasks Big Brother gives them. The HouseGuests passed their task and earned a pizza party. Tim chose to hold a house meeting and revealed that his nominations would be based on a HouseGuests vote with the voting rules being adopted from his season of "Big Brother Australia". Each HG had 5 nomination points (represented by Gummy Koalas from his HoH box) to give to 2 HouseGuests. Most of the HouseGuest voted according to Tim's rules but Dallas chose not to participate, leading to Dallas himself getting 5 Koala as a penalty. On Day 29, Tim nominated Dallas (who has received 30 Koalas) and Ramsey (who received 9 Koalas) for eviction. On Day 30, Tim, Dallas, and Ramsey chose Cassandra, Jared, and Mitch to play in the "End of the Rainbow" Power of Veto competition. For this competition, HouseGuests had to roll their ball past the obstacles and up and over their rainbow and catch it on the other side. If a HouseGuest drops their ball, their counter will drop to zero. The first HouseGuest to roll their ball 300 times without dropping it will win the Power of Veto. Ramsey won the Power of Veto. On Day 32, Ramsey took himself off the block, and Tim named Maddy as the replacement nominee. On Day 33, Emmett surprised Kelsey and Loveita to give them the secret task to hide black and white poker chips throughout the House. The HouseGuests were then split into team to find their team's poker chips in ten minutes. The team who finds more poker chips will receive a reward, and the losing team will receive a punishment. The white team of Ramsey, Nick & Phil, Joel, Cassandra, and Raul won and received a cocktail party with Emmett and Tim. The black team of Dallas, Jared, Maddy, Mitch, and Nikki lost and were forced to clean the House. Despite Dallas receiving the most votes on the gummy koala poll, Tim changed his target to Maddy, hatching a plan to use his tie breaking vote to backdoor her. On Day 35, however, neither Nikki nor Ramsey sided with Tim, and as a result, Dallas was evicted by a 5–3 vote, with Cassandra, Joel, and Nick & Phil voting to evict Maddy.


title: Big Brother Canada (season 4)

text: Following Dallas's eviction, Arisa informed the HouseGuests that last week was a Fake Double Eviction. She then told the HouseGuests that they must come to a unanimous decision on whether Kelsey or Loveita should return to the House. They unanimously decided to bring Kelsey back into the house. Following Kelsey's return, the HouseGuests participated in the "Trading Fates" Head of Household competition. In this competition, HouseGuests had to endure one of three punishments: balancing a sword on their head, balancing a ball on a disk, or pushing a boulder. If a HouseGuest drops the sword, drops the ball, or lets go of the boulder, they will be eliminated. However, at certain points in the competition, HouseGuests may trade punishments. The last HouseGuest standing will be the new Head of Household. Raul was the winner. Raul was then required to name four Have-Nots for the week. Joel, Maddy, Nick & Phil, and Ramsey became the Have-Nots for the week. On Day 36, Raul nominated Joel and Mitch for eviction. On Day 37, Raul, Joel, and Mitch, as well as Jared, Nick & Phil, and Ramsey, rivaled in the "Who Can You Beat?" Power of Veto competition. In this competition, there are three games to play: Blackjack Roulette, BBCAN Bingo, and Card Toss. Each player would compete head-to-head against another HouseGuest in one of the games. The winner will receive 3 points, and the loser will receive one point. However, the non-participating players will bet on which HouseGuest will win the head-to-head match. If a HouseGuest guesses correctly, they will receive 2 points. The HouseGuest with the most points after six rounds will win the Power of Veto. Jared won the Power of Veto. On Day 39, Jared decided to keep Raul's nominations intact. On Day 42, Mitch was evicted by a 5–3 vote, with Maddy, Nikki, and Ramsey voting to evict Joel. He became the first jury member.