Wicker Man Lee’s freebie
QUESTION Have any leading actors appeared in films for free?
Robin Hardy’s The Wicker Man (1973) is one of the great cult horror films of all time. Christopher Lee, who played Lord summerisle, felt it was his greatest performance.
as there were production difficulties and uncertainties, Lee appeared for free to keep the budget under control and even spent his own money on a promotional tour to help market the film.
Jennifer Smith, Shrewsbury, Shropshire.
The 1943 RKO film Forever and a day told the story of an american (Kent smith) who comes to London in the blitz to sell his ancestral home. during a night spent in an air raid shelter, the current tenant (Ruth Warrick) tells him the story of the house from 1804-1940. The house is bombed but they decide to rebuild it.
The idea for the film came from Cedric Hardwicke, who intended it to honour the british spirit and benefit war relief charities. Those involved in its making were not paid, though it was reported that equity members received $60 a week, which they also donated to charity.
anna neagle, Charles Laughton, Jessie Matthews, buster Keaton, Merle oberon and Ray Milland were among the dozens of famous faces in the film, which had seven directors and the longest-ever list of credited co-writers, including C.s. Forester, Christopher isherwood, R.C. sherriff and James Hilton.
Kenneth Mills, Hampton, Middx.
QUESTION Why don’t spiders get caught in their own webs?
SPIDERS have up to seven glands in their abdomen that produce silk. These glands secrete proteins that are extruded through spinnerets to produce silk.
Half of spiders, particularly orb, cob, sheet and funnel-weaving spiders, use this silk to build webs to catch prey. orb and cob weavers apply glue to their webs to capture prey, sheet webs and funnel webs are non-sticky — their complex weaves are used to entangle the prey.
For decades it was believed that orb and cob-weaving spiders avoided sticking to their webs by secreting a non-stick oil onto their legs. However, modern investigations have found no oil-secreting glands on spider tarsi (end of legs). orb and cob-weaving spiders do not secrete glue across all strands of their webs. in the case of an orb web, only the silk used for the intricate catching spirals is dotted with glue, so spiders will know which threads to avoid.
a 2012 study by R. briceño and W.G. eberhard found that the orb-weaver does come into contact with its glue drops. The parts of the tarsi used for this are covered with hairs that keep the glue from touching the leg. They postulate that these hairs may be covered with a chemical that resists the glue. spiders also groom themselves regularly by pulling their legs through their mouths.
Web-spinning spiders also have an extra set of claws on their feet; two parallel claws and a third opposing claw that operates like a thumb. in use, the third claw moves up between the other pair and pinches the silk line. Thus, they are able to grasp a silk strand precisely without becoming entangled. These claws are used to grasp threads and provide traction as the spider moves along.
scientists are interested in spider silk for manufacturing — the viscid (sticky) thread is comparable to rubber in elasticity but has more strength. The dragline thread is comparable to steel in strength and bullet-proof Kevlar in stiffness.
James Collings, Stratford-Upon-Avon, Warks.
QUESTION What was the first civilian airliner attacked by hostile aircraft?
THis was the Kweilin incident that took place during the second sino-Japanese War. on august 24, 1938, the Kweilin, a dC-2 jointly operated by China national aviation Corporation (CnaC) and pan american, carrying 17 passengers and crew, was on a routine civilian passenger flight from the british colony of Hong Kong to Wuchow when it was attacked by Japanese aircraft in Chinese territory.
pilot Hugh Leslie Woods made a safe river landing but none of the passengers could swim. The Japanese began to strafe the Kweilin with machine-gun fire. Woods managed to swim to an abandoned boat. The radio operator, Joe Loh, and a wounded passenger, Lou Zhaonian, were the only other survivors.
Three prominent Chinese bankers, women and children were among the dead. it was later believed to be an assassination attempt on Chinese president sun yat-sen’s only son, sun Fo, whom the Japanese mistakenly believed to be on the plane.
The Kweilin was retrieved, rebuilt and put back into service as Chungking. on october 29, 1940, Chungking was destroyed by Japanese fighters shortly after it had made a scheduled landing at Changyi airfield, yunnan, China. nine people were killed, including the american pilot Walter ‘Foxie’ Kent and Chinese architect Chang-Kan Chien. The plane never flew again.
Harry Smith, London N9.