Happy Birthday: Charlton Heston!

Charlton Heston, was a bigger than life actor of film, theatre and television. Heston is best known for having played heroic roles, such as Moses in The Ten Commandments, Colonel George Taylor in Planet of the Apes, El Cid, and Judah Ben-Hur, for which he won the Academy Award for Best Actor.

My Charlton Heston Halloween movie pick is:

The Awakening (1980). British horror film. It was directed by Mike Newell. It is the third film version of Bram Stoker's 1903 novel The Jewel of Seven Stars, which had previously been adapted for television in 1970 as The Curse of the Mummy, followed by a theatrical adaptation in 1971, Blood from the Mummy's Tomb, released through Hammer Films. The film stars Charlton Heston, Susannah York, and Stephanie Zimbalist in an early acting role.

The film begins as archaeologist opens the tomb of an ancient Egyptian queen at the exact moment his daughter is born. Many years later, the girl, now a teenager, begins to have many frightening changes in personality. People begin to mysteriously die. Heston soon comes to believe that the spirit of a cruel queen, named Kara, possessed his daughter at the moment of her birth andplans to live through her body.

This film has some beautiful Egyptian location shots. If you like the mysteries of Egypt or mummy movies you may like this film. Yes, it is a little gory at times.

Soylent Green(1973).

Soylent Green(1973). Science fiction. Director: Richard Fleischer. Cast: Charlton Heston, Edward G. Robinson, Joseph Cotton, Chuck Connors, Leigh Taylor and Dick Van Patten. The film is about the investigation of a brutal murder of a wealthy businessman in a future suffering from pollution, overpopulation, depleted resources, poverty, dying oceans and a hot climate. Much of the population survives on processed food rations called "soylent green".

The film, is loosely based on the 1966 science fiction novel Make Room! Make Room!, by Harry Harrison, won the Nebula Award for Best Dramatic Presentation and the Saturn Award for Best Science Fiction Film in 1973.

Soylent Green, is one of my favorite sci-fi and Charlton Heston films. Eddie Robinson performance was very touching as one of the last men who remembers the past. Charlton Heston's and Eddie Robinson's on screen chemistry is wonderful. One of my favorite scenes is when they are eating a meal of real food. The film is very powerful in its possible view of the future.




*Spoiler alert*
In Charlton Heston's crying scene, he really was crying, he was the only person on set who knew Edward G. Robinson was dying of cancer. His death scene was the last day he worked in his life; he died just nine days after shooting wrapped.