Chronological deaths of the actors in SECRET OF THE INCAS

Well, Walter Slezak, who was quite hefty in his day, lived to 81. Of course, he committed suicide, so who knows how long he might have lived had he not become despondent over having to wait for his next meal?

This Mr. Edwards sounds rather arrogant and full of himself -- I've discovered the conclusive truth so if you don't accept what I say you're just interested in perpetrating a myth. By the way, what "myth"?

The fact that this Kosminski was a suspect at the time certainly narrows it down, but on the other hand how did they retrieve and match DNA samples from over a century ago? The only way they could link the blood to Kosminski would be to compare DNA from his descendants (or dig him up and get it straight from the corpse) and match it to what they found on the shawl. Presumably this is what they did, but it's funny this report says nothing about their methodology. (And how did they identify the other blood as Miss Eddowes's?) There are also chain-of-custody issues. Maybe this guy is just taking the name of an actual suspect and trying to force a conclusion based on imperfect match-ups. Now, he may well be right, but his arrogance and self-righteousness put me off and make me suspicious, and of course he has a book to sell.

I was interested to see that the report referred to Edwards as "the fanatic". In the US, that would be a term of opprobrium, meaning someone who was a single-minded, often dangerous individual impervious to logic or anything not in agreement with his pre-set ideas, someone determined to have his own way at any cost. The killers of ISIS are "fanatics", for example, though there are less murderous examples. No one here would ever use that term in this connection. Of course, the word "fan" is an abbreviated form of "fanatic", but has come to have a wholly innocent connotation, just indicating an enthusiast, not a psychotic. But it sounds as if in the UK you use the full word in a more beneficent way as well.

Though in this guy's case, "fanatic" in the American sense may well apply anyway!

I believe that Kosminski was Jack the Ripper, hob. They have identified the blood of the victim Eddowes by the DNA of one of her relatives, and they also tested the DNA of the last known survivor of Kosminski, but like the maniacs who don't believe that Oswald shot Kennedy, there will always be a looney group who refuse to believe hard facts. Go on the JFK board and marvel at the lunacy on display. It's quite frightening that those weirdos are walking the streets!

First Leon Askin, and now Walter Slezak - are we going to name all the fat people of Austria on this board. It's a good thing Hitler looked so healthy, or we would be besmirching his good name as well.

Oh no, my missus has just told me that Robin Hood was from Doncaster and that he never set foot in Sherwood Forest ... what the hell is going on?


The internet is for lonely people. People should live. Charlton Heston

If the DNA tests are conclusive, especially when added into the other contemporary evidence, then one should accept that this loony was JtR.

But I wouldn't quite equate concluding Kosminski was the Ripper with Oswald's guilt, which is much more firmly established and verifiable. After all, there's a big difference between an assassination committed in the 1960s in broad daylight and recorded on film, along with all the other evidence and the technical ability and resources to discover and analyze it, vs. a group of random, separate murders committed at night in isolated parts of a big city, with no clear witnesses, in the 1880s and with only primitive forensic resources at hand.

From what you and HCH have told me Kosminski's guilt is still circumstantial, based on finding his blood and a victim's on the one shawl. That's pretty convincing and makes it extremely likely he was the killer, and added to the fact he was under suspicion at the time one can legitimately conclude he was Jack. Still, to play devil's advocate, why would the killer's blood be on the shawl? How or why would he have gotten cut and bled onto it? Without witnesses it's possible to argue he stumbled upon it after the crime. It's also possible he killed this girl but not the others; it's assumed, but as far as I know there's no proof, that all six (?) victims attributed to the Ripper were murdered by the same man, but can anyone definitively say that none of those killings was committed by a copycat?

Point is, one can offer alternative theories for the evidence, and in the absence of direct proof the case against him is of necessity circumstantial. That said, most criminals are convicted on circumstantial evidence, so as I said, given the totality of the evidence against him, fingering Kosminski is most likely accurate. In any case it's doubtless the closet anyone will ever get to identifying a killer who committed his crimes nearly 130 years ago.

Personally, I think Kosminski was the patsy for a plot whose center lay deep in the catacombs of Buckingham Palace, designed to cover up the fact that the real killers were the Prince of Wales and members of the Reform Club, with the complicity of the Prime Minister, Scotland Yard and The Times, committed in the guise of trying out a new initiation rite but with the ultimate goal of dispatching the Old Queen so that these vested interests could launch their war of aggression for diamonds in South Africa. In such circumstances, it was no trick for these powerful men to drop the notorious "pristine shawl" in a pool of Miss Eddowes's blood, then induce the hapless Pole into cutting his hand with the infamous "magic knife" and staunch his bleeding on that very same shawl, which was then planted beside the body by a mystery figure known popularly to history by the initials "JR"...or just plain "Jack", to his friends in high places.

Until someone disproves this, in which case I won't accept it anyway because you're all in the pay of the Establishment and part of an ongoing cover-up, I know this to be what really happened.

And by the way, when next you see me look for my posts under a new IMDb moniker: RobinstabbedNottingham.

hob, the sample of Kosminski's DNA found on Eddowes shawl was the same sort of DNA that was left on Monica Lewinsky's dress by President Clinton - it wasn't his blood. I dare not type the correct word for fear of overly-exciting our dear administrator.

I just looked up that story about Robin Hood and his Yorkshire roots, and I don't believe it. Robin Hood was from Nottingham and he looked just like Errol Flynn - and that is official in my book!

One last thought - it wouldn't be bad typecasting now to have Kurt Katch as Jack the Ripper.

After all those descriptive adjectives you used about that Esther Costello thing on the other thread, Haddock, I'm surprised to see you suddenly turn so circumspect in your language here!

The paradox is there is no need for such reluctance. After all, the administrators are well educated. They know, as do we all, that as an island nation that raised the mightiest fleet the world had ever seen, Britain owes her position in world history to the heroism, spirit and unyielding stamina of her seamen.

Anyway, your clarification opens more avenues of doubt than it closes. Come, come.

Kurt Katch as Jack the Ripper? Just more Pole-bashing. Is he supposed to tearfully beg the prostitute who grabs his knife away from him and proceeds to break off the blade, "No! Wait! My knife! How will I make my living?"

Maybe as a farmhand. Katch the Reaper.

Well, after reading your post, you've certainly sown the seeds of doubt in my mind, hob.

At least now we nearly know that Jack the Ripper was probably an ugly little Pole we won't have the likes of Johnny Depp playing him any more.

Nearly half the cast of "Secret of the Incas" were born outside America - this must surely be a record for an American production.

The internet is for lonely people. People should live. Charlton Heston

Most are from the Americas, though, and Spanish speaking countries (which includes America, as well now).

I don't know, Os. Among just Heston's films, 55 Days at Peking is generally considered an "American" film, though it was filmed by Bronston in Spain, and only four or so actors in it were Americans. The rest of the cast was European, Chinese, and probably a few scattered others, though one or two (such as Paul Lukas) became Americans by choice. Outside of Heston the cast of The Agony and the Ecstasy was entirely non-American as far as I can remember -- predominantly, certainly.

Granted, these were not filmed in the U.S. But for Hollywood-made movies, how about Casablanca? Virtually all the actors in that movie were not Americans -- Humphrey Bogart, Dooley Wilson, John Qualen, Joy Page and a couple of minor players are the only Americans I can think of. The rest were Swedish, German, English, Italian, French, Austrian, you name it. I think there are some other wartime examples. Notorious had an almost completely non-American cast; Louis Calhern and a few bit players were the only exceptions. And of course there are films like Rebecca, peopled almost entirely by Brits, albeit most of them resident in the U.S. and most having become American citizens. So in terms of having a non-American cast there are surely movies that can give Secret of the Incas a run for its pesos.

Haddock, I would respectfully disagree that the United States is now a Spanish-speaking country (even if said half in jest). Of course the Hispanic minority is growing and may become the dominant ethnic group in a century, but even most Hispanics use English and we're hardly the bilingual country Belgium or Canada are. Still, more and more labels on things like food are printed in part in Spanish, a commercial decision made by businessmen who want a piece of a growing market demographic, and there are other examples of incremental bilingualism. But even that's a long way from becoming a full-fledged reality, let alone having Spanish become the dominant language.

No, as long as Rupert Murdoch's terminally insane Fox News keeps its old, white viewers in hand with the comforting thought that Hispanic dominance is a century away, rest assured que la mayoría de la población de los Estados Unidos habla inglés, y solamente inglés: una verdad inmutable y orgullosa, una tradición con la fuerza de la ley, la lengua de Jorge Washington, Tomás Jefferson, Abraham Lincoln y Simón Bolívar....

¡Díos mío! ¡El siglo veinte y dos ha llegado más pronto que pensaríamos!

What about the cast of BEN-HUR then? how many Americans are in this American production!

http://www.secretoftheincas.co.ukhttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PhSPcAyCgwE

Ben-Hur? Never heard of it.

Yes, of course, an obvious example. Charlton Heston and Sam Jaffee are the only Yanks in the thing. Probably a handful of extras (the soldier who shouts "No water for him!" sounds American) but most are Brits, Italians, one Israeli and scattered others. Stephen Boyd became an American citizen but was from Belfast.

Lawrence of Arabia -- not one American aside from Arthur Kennedy.

But most of these are later, "international" epics. Finding a pure Hollywood-made film with Americans in the minority is a bit tougher, but there are some.

It is with great sorrow that another one has just joined the chronological death list.
R.I.P. Booth Colman.

I have just amended the list. Nice to see you back Haddock, but terrible news to come back to. God rest the immortal soul of Booth Colman.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PhSPcAyCgwE

Thanks for responding to my PM so quickly, James. I really liked Booth Colman and am most distressed at his passing. Still, 91 is a good age.

Booth Colman was a wonderful actor, and from what I have read about him, he was a decent, well respected gentleman in his personal life.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PhSPcAyCgwE

For the first time in my life, I actually contacted the family of someone famous to express my condolences. I saw his on-line obituary in the Los Angeles Times and the family invited emailed comments from his fans. I sent them a few paragraphs and got a nice reply back from his niece.

How wonderful, hob. I bet she was very proud of her Uncle, a real class act.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PhSPcAyCgwE

Yes, in fact she said those very words -- that she was very proud of him and enjoyed talking on the phone with him every Sunday night.

Here's their email address if you want to send something:

[email protected]

(I've just tried printing that several ways in order to create a direct link -- i.e., one that reproduces in purple so you can click it on -- but no dice. This is now a recurrent though uneven problem on IMDb posts. If you click on the underlined word "link" above in your reply you'll get the address reproduced, but only in normal print that has to be copied and pasted, not an actual, direct link. If you do it manually, or insert the email between the "url" and "/url" notations, nothing gets printed, as if you'd written nothing. Bizarre, counterproductive and frustrating.)

Were there many replies to "[email protected]" hob?
I enjoyed Booth as the old ape on tv in that short lived spin-off of the Heston film.

Oh, I have no idea, Haddock. I just sent an email. I assume only the family has access to them.

Oh, I thought all the messages could be viewed online.

Not as far as I know. If I find out anything I'll let you know.

hob, I just received a reply from Booth Colman's very nice niece and she told me she would miss all his stories on Friday nights. I sure wish I had been present at some of his reminiscing!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PhSPcAyCgwE

That must be the same niece who contacted me, except she spoke about talking with him on the phone Sunday nights. It seems they kept in touch regularly. What did you tell the family in your email?

Robert Clarke, another small-part actor (bits plus low-budget leads) wrote a great book about his career 20 years ago (still in print and expanded with additional material). I'm sorry Booth Colman didn't write something similar. He played bits in many major films with top stars as well as bigger parts in smaller movies, along with a great deal of TV and stage work. I'm sure he'd have had lots of great tales to tell!

All I wrote was that Booth Colman was part of my children's childhood, because they loved the tv PLANET OF THE APES show. We never missed an episode. Of course, I mentioned my admiration for SECRET OF THE INCAS and his wonderful contribution to WORLD WITHOUT END, and I ended my letter by saying I would remember Booth Colman in my morning and evening prayers and that the family was so lucky to have such an interesting Uncle and brother.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PhSPcAyCgwE

Better than what I wrote. (Especially remembering him in your prayers.) I just babbled on about some of my favorite films featuring Booth -- SOTI and WWE, of course, but also things like The Big Sky (his film debut), Auntie Mame, The Comancheros, Fate is the Hunter and some others. I didn't mention any specific television performances of his. I guess they just appreciate anyone who recognizes him (truthfully, how many people knew his name?), so if we can let them know he touched a few lives, so much the better.

I bet the family received plenty of tributes from POTA fans. The movies and the tv series have a huge cult following.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PhSPcAyCgwE

Could be.

🐵🍌🐵🍌🐵🍌🐵🍌🐵🍌

Stop monkeying around, hob.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PhSPcAyCgwE

If you quit laying on the banana oil, JB!