Wikipedia:Reference desk/Archives/Entertainment/2016 November 14

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November 14

Drug Smuggling Film

I'm trying to remember the title of a film I saw along time ago. It is similar to Midnight Express and I think it came out around the same time. The scene that I remember most was when the smuggler was intercepted by customs. He had a plaster cast around his torso (he may said that he had injured himself in a skiing accident) and the customs police started to search him. They stuck a pair of tongs inside the cast from the bottom and pulled something out. Eventually they cut the cast off and found his stash. At this point my memory fades and I can't remember the rest of the film. Hopefully there is enough here for somebody to identify it for me.

Thanks! --TrogWoolley (talk) 12:05, 14 November 2016 (UTC)

Well, I stumbled across The Diamond Arm, which includes a cast and smuggling and Turkey, but doesn't sound quite like your plot. --jpgordon^{𝄢𝄆 𝄐𝄇} 23:45, 14 November 2016 (UTC)

Octopussy

In the movie Octopussy, was General Orlov based on the real-life Soviet Field Marshal Andrey Grechko? 2601:646:8E01:7E0B:F88D:DE34:7772:8E5B (talk) 12:50, 14 November 2016 (UTC)

Orlov is mentioned as a stereotypical "General Ripper" in TV Tropes' article, which doesn't provide any real life examples ... I don't know anything about Grechko, and his willingness "to launch all-out nuclear strikes against the NATO nations the moment that the war began". Was it General-Ripper-like? Or just the logical consequence of a "qualified" no-first-strike position of deterrence? Anyway, couldn't find any source linking the two, or even James Bond to Grechko.---Sluzzelin talk 20:10, 14 November 2016 (UTC)

(posted later) Sorry, the article on "General Ripper" does give at least two real life examples: Generals Thomas S. Power (well, his is the introductory quote) and Curtis LeMay (who served as model for General Ramsey "Rammer" Curtis in Resurrection Day, and of course also for the character who gave TV Trope's entry its title: Jack D. Ripper in Dr. Strangelove [1]) . ---Sluzzelin talk 10:07, 15 November 2016 (UTC)

Well, regarding Grechko and Octopussy, there may be some indirect relationship between the two: (1) Octopussy was filmed and released in 1983, right at the height of the controversy regarding the deployment of the GLCM (nuclear Tomahawk) and Pershing missiles (in fact, this controversy is a vital plot element which Orlov references while Bond interrogates him in the tunnel scene -- indeed, without the anti-nuclear protests, his evil plot would have made no sense), and (2) Grechko's position regarding a first nuclear strike in case of war (and in particular his decision to deploy the SS-20) would certainly have appeared General Ripper-like to people in the West, whether or not it was actually the case. But still, this doesn't really prove anything -- the resemblance might have been purely coincidental. 2601:646:8E01:7E0B:F88D:DE34:7772:8E5B (talk) 04:08, 17 November 2016 (UTC)