February 23 . . .
On this date in 1942, soon after the U.S. had entered WWII, the small coastal hamlet of Santa Barbara, California, was invaded by the Japanese navy. And all because of a cactus.
Well, not exactly. A Richfield Oil Company refinery was shelled by one lone Japanese submarine just offshore this night in 1942. Very little damage was done and no one injured. It turned out the commander of the submarine, Kizo Nishino, had worked at that very refinery years earlier as a tanker captain, and had slipped and fallen on a cactus plant, much to the amusement and teasing of his coworkers. Captain Nishino had a short sense of humor and a long memory. He vowed revenge one day. And on this day, he got it . . .
But the incident, amusing as it was, understandably scared nearby residents and the rest of California. Years later, Steven Spielberg ran with the incident in his box office bomb, '1941' (1979).
Spielberg took the event, tweaked it with an anything-goes script by Robert Zemeckis, moved the locale down the coast about 50 miles to Los Angeles, and hired a massive cast including Dan Ackroyd, John Belushi, Warren Oates, Christopher Lee and Treat Williams.
The result was Spielberg's biggest bomb ever, so critically lambasted that few people bothered to make the trip to theaters. Seen today, it's still far from Spielberg's finest hour, but it has its clunky charms, not the least of which is Belushi's mad-dog samurai pilot.
How does it hold up? Judge for yourself . . click here to see the trailer . . .
On this date in 1942, soon after the U.S. had entered WWII, the small coastal hamlet of Santa Barbara, California, was invaded by the Japanese navy. And all because of a cactus.
Well, not exactly. A Richfield Oil Company refinery was shelled by one lone Japanese submarine just offshore this night in 1942. Very little damage was done and no one injured. It turned out the commander of the submarine, Kizo Nishino, had worked at that very refinery years earlier as a tanker captain, and had slipped and fallen on a cactus plant, much to the amusement and teasing of his coworkers. Captain Nishino had a short sense of humor and a long memory. He vowed revenge one day. And on this day, he got it . . .
But the incident, amusing as it was, understandably scared nearby residents and the rest of California. Years later, Steven Spielberg ran with the incident in his box office bomb, '1941' (1979).
Spielberg took the event, tweaked it with an anything-goes script by Robert Zemeckis, moved the locale down the coast about 50 miles to Los Angeles, and hired a massive cast including Dan Ackroyd, John Belushi, Warren Oates, Christopher Lee and Treat Williams.
The result was Spielberg's biggest bomb ever, so critically lambasted that few people bothered to make the trip to theaters. Seen today, it's still far from Spielberg's finest hour, but it has its clunky charms, not the least of which is Belushi's mad-dog samurai pilot.
How does it hold up? Judge for yourself . . click here to see the trailer . . .
1 comment:
Great clip. I always loved George the best!
Post a Comment