Conspiracy
theories flourish today thanks in large part to the universality of the
Internet and, more specifically, the ease with which once can access the World
Wide Web. The Dark Web is more than likely a better platform for every
“end-of-the-world” worry wart with a grievance huddled in a makeshift bunker to
anonymously poke the bear and make themselves heard. Following President John
F. Kennedy’s 1962 famous speech which decreed that “…this nation should commit
itself to achieving the goal, before this decade is out, of landing a
man on the moon and returning him safely to the Earth,” NASA set to
work to do just that, feeling they owed it to him following his assassination
14 months later. NASA accomplished this feat in a race against the Soviets, but
in the years since the 1969 moon landing, conspiracy theorists who generally
have a problem with the truthfulness of the United States’s Federal Government,
began tossing around the notion that film director Stanley Kubrick was hired to
direct the moon landing which they claim was faked on the sets remaining from MGM’s
2001: A Space Odyssey (1968) film shoot. Purported hidden messages that
ostensibly appear in his 1980 film The Shining have resulted in more
Youtube.com videos than you can shake a stick at, in addition to a feature
film, Room 237 (2017), which touches upon this very notion.
Peter
Hyams’s Capricorn One, lensed in the early months of 1977 and released
on Friday, June 2, 1978, was written off by some critics as a silly thriller
with plot holes large enough to fly a spacecraft through. It posits the notion
that the Powers That Be (i.e. the Military Industrial Complex), in a bid to
keep the space race funded and afloat, need to conquer the next frontier and
send American astronauts to the planet Mars, for fear of indifference from
American citizens. NASA is ready to send Charles Brubaker (James Brolin), Peter
Willis (Sam Waterston), and John Walker (O.J. Simpson) to Mars until the men
are pulled right before takeoff by a team headed by Dr. James Kelloway (Hal
Holbrook) who explains that forces bigger than NASA want the flight to be a
success and have created a set to mimic the Red Planet’s terrain complete with
a mock-up of the lunar module. Strong-arming the three men into complicity with
the deception, it soon becomes apparent that it would be impossible for them to
remain silent regarding their involvement and there is no intention of letting
them return to their families, keeping them as prisoners locked away in the
desert.
Robert
Caulfield (Elliott Gould) is a journalist who is onto the ploy and the Powers
That Be are always one step ahead of him. Elliot Whitter (Robert Walden) is a
NASA employee who refuses to believe that the transmissions are coming from
Mars and disappears after several attempts to air his concerns to Dr. Kelloway.
This raises even more suspicion from Caulfield who established a professional
rapport with him, only to find that Whitter’s apartment is now inhabited by a
woman he has never seen before. Multiple attempts are made on Caulfield’s life,
he is framed and arrested and bailed out of jail by his non-believing boss
(David Boyle) who then fires him on the spot, however a fellow journalist
(Karen Black) comes to his aid.
There
are a lot of interesting supporting character actors who appear. Brenda
Vaccarro is on hand as Brubaker’s wife who firmly believes that she must go on
following the “death” of her husband in the “re-entry accident” to Earth; James
Karen is his usual ingratiating self as the Vice President of the United States
several years before he appeared in Poltergeist; David Huddleston is
Hollis Peaker who politely airs his grievance about the absence of the
President of the United States at the launchpad; Lou Frizzell, an actor I
always liked from Steven Spielberg’s Duel (1971), Robert Mulligan’s Summer
of ’42 (1971) and The Other (1972) and Curtis Harrington’s Devil
Dog: The Hound of Hell (1978), is quite moving as a NASA employee who gives
the astronauts a Bible to take with them; and Telly Savalas is hilarious as a
crop duster pilot who puts his skills to the test for Caulfield in a chase that
Alfred Hitchcock would appreciate after the three astronauts escape from the
desert by plane, with Brubaker being the sole survivor. The film ends abruptly like
a TV-movie, on an image that is probably framed and hanging on Barbara
Streisand’s wall. I would have liked the film to go one step further, with
Brubaker walking up to Kelloway at his “funeral,” and punching him in the face,
just like Sean Connery does to Peter Boyle in the aforementioned Outland.
Imprint,
the wonderful Blu-ray label from Down Under, has released the film on Blu-ray
in a deluxe, two-disc edition.
Blu-ray
Disc One – Theatrical Cut:
The
film had its network television debut on Sunday, May 11, 1980, and being that
it aired in a two-hour time slot on NBC, was no doubt trimmed as the theatrical
cut runs 123 minutes. This is the version that appears on the first Blu-ray,
and it includes subtitles. The transfer is adequate given that the film was
shot 47 years ago. It retains the film’s Panavision 2.35:1 framing in an
anamorphic presentation in 1080p High-Definition.
Ported
over from the Lionsgate DVD from 2008, there is a feature-length audio commentary
by director Peter Hyams, who would go on to direct Hanover Street in
1979 and the nifty High Noon redo in outer space in Outland
(1981) where deception of another kind takes place as the mining colonists on
one of Jupiter’s moons all take Polydichloric Euthimol, a drug that makes them
work harder until it kills them, and their co-workers all believe they go back
to Earth to account for their absence. He talks about the challenges that he
encountered on Capricorn One and rightly heaps praise on the performers
involved in the film. Most people today will recognize these folks and say,
“Hey, I know him/her!”
Flights
of Fancy: The Politics of Capricorn One (Standard
Definition). This piece runs 17:17 and is a fascinating look at “no-moonies,” a
term given to those who believe that the July 1969 moon landing was faked. This
notion is debunked by the onscreen interviewers. Director Hyams recounts how he
watched the event from his Chicago apartment and how it affected him. He had
been a wartime correspondent in Vietnam and saw firsthand how the government
was lying to the public. There are also discussions about audience boredom with
the space race, something brought to light in Ron Howard’s terrific film Apollo
13 (1995).
What
If?: The Making of Capricorn One (Standard
Definition). This piece runs 6:51 and is a series of quick on-camera comments
from some of the performers in the film and their thoughts on faking a Mars
landing.
On
Set with Capricorn One (Standard
Definition). This piece runs 38:22 and consists of non-narrated,
behind-the-scenes raw footage shot in June 1977 in the desert highlighting
Brubaker’s encounter with the gas station and the crop duster.
The
Photo Gallery(High Definition) contains 95 images from the film
displayed during 9:31 of running time. Ironically, when the film was released
in 1978, I saw one of the movie poster ads for it in the newspaper which
depicts the lunar module and oversized lights and crew people standing around.
I was under the erroneous impression that this was a behind-the-scenes shot
taken on the set of the film and it made its way into the film’s marketing campaign
by accident. Talk about confusion and deception!
The
requisite theatrical trailer is in High Definition and is sourced from an old
theatrical print and runs 3:09.
Blu-ray
Disc Two – Extended Cut
This
is an extended cut in high definition of the film that runs 128:30 and has some
noticeable differences that make for a different interpretation of the film and
is worth watching. There is an audio commentary by film historians Daniel
Kremer and Daniel Waters that accompanies this cut, which they announce was
recorded on James Brolin’s birthday which was August 27th. They
provide a very fun and informative examination of the film.
Conspiracy
Busting (High Definition). This is an
onscreen interview with Elliott Gould shot in 2024 and it runs 17:45 with him
discussing his history with the director beginning with their collaboration on Busting
in 1974. He is perched in front of his DVD collection, and he has a great
assortment of titles – some of which he starred in! Love him.
Confessions
of an Astronaut’s Wife (High
Definition). This is an onscreen interview from 2024 with Brenda Vacarro that
runs 13:18 and appears to have been conducted over either Zoom or Skype. She
speaks highly of her co-workers and her director and the luck she has had with
working with so many wonderful people over the years.
How
the Capricorn Was Won: Getting the Greenlight (High Definition). This is an interview with producer Paul Lazarus and
runs 26:49 and his experience working with and winning over Sir Lew Grade of
ITC Entertainment (remember their logo right before The Muppet Show?) to
get the funding for the film. Extremely interesting.
A
Lady of Wondrous Abandon: Remembering the Incomparable Karen Black (High Definition). This is a memorial piece for
the actress that runs 7:16. People weigh in on her impact on them and in film.
I first saw her in Dan Curtis’s 1976 thriller Burnt Offerings and later
his 1975 TV-movie Trilogy of Terror, and she was wonderful. Her poignant
work in Bob Rafelson’s Five Easy Pieces (1970) opposite Jack Nicholson
was heartbreaking.
Orchestrating
a Conspiracy (High Definition).
I love this piece that runs 18:00 because it discusses the wonderful music of
Jerry Goldsmith, whose work I first heard in August 1979 when Logan’s Run
(1976) premiered on NBC television. Even as a seven-year-old I could really
appreciate his contribution to the film, to say nothing of
twenty-three-year-old Jenny Agutter’s side-split “barely there” outfit – Holy Toledo,
Batman…I would later hear his work on Outland (1981) and then Poltergeist
(1982) which sealed the deal. I was a fan for life.
If
you’re any kind of a fan of this film, this is the edition to get.
Incomparable.
The region-free Blu-ray can be ordered by clicking here.
Note: Prices are in Australian dollars. Use currency converter for non-Australian orders
Ad from the magazine Monster Mania #1 in 1966 at the height of Batmania. Note how there was an effort to market 8mm films from the Batman serials from the 1940s.
In 1971, a well-connected Dutch prostitute named Xavier Hollander
published her memoirs under the title of "The Happy Hooker". The book
became an international bestseller with its lighthearted recollections
of her adventures in "the world's oldest profession". "The Happy Hooker"
delighted readers who were relishing the new-found sexual freedoms that
came about in the 1960s. Women, who would have been chastised for
reading such a book ten years earlier, could openly read it on buses and
in subway cars because everyone else was reading it. The content
was erotic enough to be titillating but humorous enough to give it
enough cachet to not be labeled pornographic. How much of it was true?
Who knows. bestselling author Robin Moore ("The Green Berets", "The
French Connection"), who actually took down Hollander's recorded
comments on her life, came up with the title and the book was likely
ghostwritten by Yvonne Dunleavy. With the success of the book, it was no
surprise that a few years later Hollywood brought Hollander's exploits
to the screen the film version of "The Happy Hooker". Released in 1975,
it starred Lynn Redgrave in the title role. Not wanting to alienate
mainstream audiences, the film was made as a saucy comedy. It was
followed two years later by "The Happy Hooker Goes to Washington" with
Joey Heatherton portraying Hollander. The third and final film in the
official trilogy (we won't count an unauthorized hardcore production)
was "The Happy Hooker Goes Hollywood", which was released in 1980 with
Martine Beswick (billed here as "Beswicke") taking over the role.
"The Happy Hooker Goes Hollywood" follows the tradition of the
previous two films in that it stresses zany comedy. However, there are
some surprisingly steamy softcore sex scenes between some very
recognizable actors that makes for a bizarre mixture of slapstick and
eroticism. It also features an eclectic cast of first-rate second
bananas who finally get some plum roles on the big screen, albeit in a
Cannon Films production. Cannon, of course, was notorious for being a
highly profitable "cheese factory", churning out many modestly-budgeted
exploitation flicks for undiscriminating audiences. The film opens with a
wheelchair-bound Phil Silvers (yes, that Phil Silvers!) as
legendary studio mogul William Warkoff, an obnoxious one-time titan of
the industry whose fortunes have been in decline. When he reads that
Xavier Hollander intends to bring her bestselling book to the big
screen, he dispatches his long-suffering right-hand men Joseph Rottman
(Richard Deacon)and his son Robby (Chris Lemmon) as well as Lionel
Lamely (Adam West), to secure the screen rights by whatever underhanded
methods are necessary. Lionel arranges a meeting with Xavier, who is
immediately attracted to him. (In fact, she finds most men irresistible
and even seduces her chauffeur en route to the meeting.) Before long,
Lionel and Xavier are engaging in steamy sex sessions. She falls for him
and agrees to allow Warkoff Studios to produce her film- that is, until
she learns that Lionel actually has a longtime girlfriend and has been
misleading her. She then announces she will make the film herself and
secure her own financing, which outrages Warkoff. In order to raise
money, Xavier employs her ever-ready squad of equally happy hookers. She
sets up an exotic bordello in which men can live out any fantasy,
including having sex with a call girl dressed like Little Bo Peep.
(Imagine "Westworld" for fetishists.) Warkoff strikes a more lucrative
deal with Xavier but intends to deceive her and cheat her out of
ownership rights to the film but she is savvy enough to turn the tables
on him.
Directed by Alan Roberts, "Hollywood" has a goofy charm primarily
because of the good-natured performances of the cast. It's nice to see
Martine Beswick in a rare leading role and she plays the part with a
deft combination of wicked wit and eroticism. (Beswick unabashedly
appears topless numerous times in the course of the film). Adam West,
who looks like he had barely aged a day since playing Batman two decades
previously, also gets a chance to showcase his comedic abilities and
admirable physique. The sex scene between Beswick and West's characters
is a bit eye-opening because it's one of the few elements of the film
that isn't played for laughs and there is some kind of pop culture
appeal to watching the Uncaped Crusader getting it on with a two-time
Bond girl. (Beswick would later recall that West felt very uncomfortable when he discovered how erotic the scene would be.)Phil Silvers overdoes the obnoxious aspect of his character
but it's still enjoyable seeing him in a feature film this late in his
career. Richard Deacon, who made a career of playing sycophantic
"yes-men", is in top form and he and West share an amusing scene in
which they are forced to dress in drag. Chris Lemmon is very appealing
as a naive young man who gets caught up in Xavier's world with
appreciable results. He exudes the same comic timing and mannerisms of
his legendary father, Jack. One of the most unintentionally amusing
aspects of the film is the virtual beatification of Xavier Hollander,
whose approval of the movie must have been a prerequisite. In any event,
she is referred to as a titan of business and a living legend, when, in
fact, by 1980 her star had diminished appreciably. The whole plot
climaxes (if you'll pardon the pun) at the "World Premiere" of the
film...which is also unintentionally amusing because it is only a grand
event by Cannon standards, though they did spring for getting a
spotlight and a few dozen extras to act like a screaming mob as the
stars arrive at a nondescript L.A. theater.
"The Happy Hooker Goes Hollywood" is symbolic of a long Hollywood
tradition of glamorizing prostitution. Xavier and her
stable of call girls are all seen as successful, independent
businesswomen who have turned their love of sex into a profit-making
operation. There's nary a hint that most women who practice the
"profession" are actually forced to do so through human trafficking,
exploitation, torture and threat of death. Instead, films like this
prefer to concentrate on the relatively small percentage of women who do
willingly and successfully work as prostitutes. In this respect, the
movie has to be viewed as a product of the era in which it was made.
Because of it's sheer unpretentious exploitation aspects, it can be
enjoyed as a guilty pleasure.
The Manila International Film Festival was set to open its doors to guests on 20 January 1982. The date was nearly a year to the day that strong-man Philippine President Ferdinand E. Marco had lifted his controversial eight-year term of martial law restrictions in the country. But the lifting of the martial law brought only small relief to the majority populace. ThePhilippines was still racked by issues of rampant poverty, wealth inequality and unemployment. Bothpolitical and cultural observers thought itfolly to stage such a gilded film event during this transitional period.The Associated Press reported the festival was toconvene in a building costing some 21.5 million dollars - and still under construction.The film center, designed to housescreening rooms and film laboratories,was to also serve as primary archive of Filipino cinema holdings.
The center, described as an eight-story “Parthenon-like Film Palace” was ordered to be built withinthe time of 170 construction days. In such rushed circumstance, aroof collapse occurredreportedly endingthe lives of some fourteen construction workers. The order to erect thepalatial center wasgiven by none other than Imelda Marcos, first lady of the Philippines, often chided for her “edifice complex” excesses. Many saw this wild expenditure as sorry government decision-makingconsidering the nation’s significant economic issues. But Marcos – appearing before the press in a pair of lovely pair of shoes, no doubt – saw it differently.
Marcoscountered that a strong Filipino “film industry would help reduce Manila’s crime rate, because it would give people something to do in their leisure time.” But she was also mindful that a prestigious festival might burnish her country’s damaged image worldwide – all those pesky claims of human rights violations continued to dog the regime.Though anti-Marco forces promised to disrupt the festival should it be held, the army was prepared to protect. There was, thankfully, no violence.
On 2 February 1982, a correspondent from Variety sent in a dispatch from the inaugural staging of the twelve-day festival. The report made note that Filipino film product wasn’t often seen outside the borders of the Pacific island nation. He reasoned this was due to the selling inexperience of local producers. They had worked in isolation for so long, they simply were not familiar with the film industry’s “aggressive marketing tactics.” Two months prior to the actual staging of the event, Variety described how “reluctant” Filipino producers had been invited to a seminar – one designed to stoke their “sales offensive” skills through “showmanship” tactics. But the trade sighed that despite the well-intentioned marketing teach-in, the Filipino film industry had been too long xenophobic, their business-side interest mostly “half-hearted.”
Regardless, and despite many boycotts of the Marcos-inspired event, there was a bubbling of international interest in Filipino film product. Brokers had expressed significant interest in buying distribution rights to eight of the Filipino features offered and available, the sum of those investments bringing sales of nearly a half-million dollars to local producers. Nearly 300 films had been made available to international film brokers at the event, sixty of Filipino provenance. One of the most popular Filipino films – described breathlessly as the festival’s “Top scorer by far” - was an unusual, over-the-top secret agent pastiche featuring a two-foot, nine-inch actor named Weng Wengas central hero. (Critic Alexander Walker of London’s Evening Standard would mockingly describe the diminutive Weng as “a James Bond type cut-off”). The Weng film, directed by Eddie Nicart, was mischievously titled For Y’urHeight Only, an obvious word playon the most recent James Bond screen adventure For Your Eyes Only.
I can’t say with certainty that For Y’ur Height Onlyplayed the grindhouse theaters of “The Deuce” on Manhattan’s 42nd Street, but the film would have fit in well there. It’s a spy-film fever-dream of sorts: thecrack addicts and alcoholics in the grungy red seats could awake from their own narcotic-fed hallucinations and behold images on screen even wilder beyond their own madness’s.This was James-Bond-on-a-budget.A very low budget.Weng’s “Agent 00” is even introduced via an ersatz 007 gun barrel sequence, the moment heightened by the pulsing –and very familiar – opening strains of John Barry’s “James Bond Theme.”
The film itself is all spy-film formula.For Y’ur Height Onlyopens with the kidnapping of a scientist who holds the secret formula to a coveted “N Bomb” weapon. The syndicate behind the kidnapping is led by the mysterious “Mr. Giant” who chooses to communicate withhis minions through a blinking-light, oversized facial mirror.Mr. Giant’s crime syndicate is not, all things considered, particularly political. They also dabble in street-level crimes: drugs, prostitution and theft. They’re a cabal of rogues,openly declaring, “The forces of good are our enemy and they must be exterminated.”
In reaction to the kidnapping, little-person Agent 00 (Weng, described as a “man of few words”), is summoned to report to the office of an ersatz “M.” Weng’s boss breaks down the situation before offeringthe agent a staggering number of gadgets to put to use while working in the field. These include a pen that “doesn’t write words,” a tiny jet-pack, and a razor-brim hat with boomerang-return capability. Of courseWeng manages to dutifully employall of these gadgets while targeting the evildoers: one minion remarks, inarguably, that Wengis “a one-an army,”anothertags him as the “scourge of the secret service.”
Honestly, Weng hardly requiresall the gadgetry. He parachutes from the top of a high-rise building using an ordinary bumbershoot for ballast (think Batman ’66 Penguin-style). But he more often employs his karateskills to bring down platoonsof bad guys with multiple sharp kicks to their groins.Weng also appears a lot smarter than his adversaries as well: he’salways a step or two ahead of theircounter-moves.In a filmbrimming-to-the-edgeswith non-stop action, Weng is constantly seen climbing above or understructures orsliding across floors to vanquish evil gunmen. The film reaches its climax when Weng engages in mano a mano fisticuffs with Mr. Giant, at the villain’s secret lair on a hidden island.
I believe it’s reasonable to saythat for all of its eccentric, energetic charm, For Y’ur Height Onlyis completely and utterly bonkers.It’s also a very cheap looking feature film, the settings gritty and tawdry, the scripting ridiculous. The faces of the entire cast are entirely covered in the glistening sheen of South Pacific humidity and sweat. The film’s atrocious dubbing (from native Tagalog to English) – not the fault of the original filmmakers, of course – burdens the soundtrack: an additional later ofaural nonsensetocompliment the madness on screen.Though For Y’ur Height Onlyis often categorized as an “action-comedy” the original filmmakers took exception, arguing it was no such thing. In their mind, they had made a straight-up formulaic spy film, albeit one with an unusual actor in the lead role.
Following the great reaction and interest inFor Y’ur Height Only at the Manila fest, there were discussions of grumbling embarrassment among Filipino artists and intellectuals in attendance. How could this amateurishly produced extravaganza of pure exploitative nonsense have bested the country’s more significantly erudite and artistic entries?But the film brokers at the festival weren’t highbrows. They were interested in buying cheap and making a few dollars off this novelty spy adventure. Kurt Palm of West Germany’s Repa-Film Productions,purchased the rights to For Yur Height Only(and two other of Weng’s films) for $60,000. Sri Lanka chipped in an additional $1500 for Height rights. Before the festival closed,the producers had sold export rights of Height to distributors in Belgium, France, Indonesia, Italy, Morocco, Nigeria and Switzerland, as well asa number of South American countries.Continue reading "AGENT DOWN: THE IMPROBABLE RISE AND SAD FALL OF SECRET AGENT "OO""
(Barbara Rush with Robert Vaughn, Anthony Eisley and Paul Newman in "The Young Philadelphians". Photo: Cinema Retro Archive.)
By Lee Pfeiffer
Actress Barbara Rush has passed away at age 97. Rush had a long career in film, theater and television. She worked under contract in the 1950s for both Paramount and Universal. Her first prominent role was in the 3-D sci-fi cult classic "It Came from Outer Space". She also had a major role in director Martin Ritt's 1957 drama "No Down Payment", a riveting critique of hypocrisy in post-WWII suburban society. She co-starred with Paul Newman in the acclaimed 1959 drama "The Young Philadelphians" and would reunite with him, playing an unsympathetic role, in Martin Ritt's 1967 classic western "Hombre". She was the female lead in the 1958 WII drama "The Young Lions" starring Marlon Brando, Montgomery Clift and Dean Martin. She would also co-star with Frank Sinatra in the comedies "Come Blow Your Horn" and "Robin and the Seven Hoods". In later years, she found success on television in recurring roles in the prime time soap operas "Flamingo Road" and "7th Heaven". She also toured in the one-woman stage production of "A Woman of Independent Means", earning kudos from critics. She also gained pop culture status in the 1960s by playing the villainess Nora Clavicle in the "Batman" TV series. Rush was married three times, including to actor Jeffrey Hunter. She is survived by her son and daughter. For more click here.
Comic books are American as apple pie and Uncle Sam… aren’t they? Visit
The Cartoon Museum this Spring to discover how British artists and writers
invaded America and made their mark on iconic superheroes and more!
HEROES: The British Invasion of American Comics tells the story of
early American comics such as Buster Brown, Miss Fury and Superman, how they
influenced British artists and culture, and how the British took that influence
and sold it back to America through legendary comics such as Watchmen and V For
Vendetta.
The exhibition also celebrates The Mighty
World of Marvel which brought Marvel’s heroes and heroines to newsagents
across Britain every week.
In 1972, Stan Lee launched
Marvel UK with an event at The Bung Hole wine bar in Holborn, London. Up until
then, UK distribution of American comics had been patchy at best, and fans
often had to make do with poorer-quality black and white imitations. The Mighty
World of Marvel brought Marvel’s heroes and heroines to newsagents across
Britain every week, establishing a new fan base and influencing an upcoming
generation of comic creators.
We are thrilled to be able to
display a rare original press kit given out at the launch event, which has
never been on show before.
The exhibition also shines a
light on the many British creators who provided art for iconic superheroes
including Batman, Spider-Man, Hellboy and Hit-Girl, including works by Brian
Bolland, David Lloyd, Doug Braithwaite and Alison Sampson. On the way you’ll
discover British attempts to imitate American strips in the 1940s, find out the
story behind the 1972 launch of Marvel UK, and enjoy stunning artwork by key
figures from DC Comics and the British Invasion. You’ll even get to see the
costume of a real-life British superhero!
The exhibition features an
incredible collection of original Sunday Paper Strips and artworks from the
early 1900s and wonderful British and American comic art from the 1950s to the
modern day. Among these are works by legendary names such as Jack Kirby, Jack
Davis and Tarpe Mills.
(Miss Fury, by Tarpe Mills.)
Since the 1938 publication of
Action Comics #1 the world has fallen more and more in love with American comic
books, right up to the box office success of the Marvel Cinematic Universe.
Drawing inspiration from popular characters of the 1940s, such as Popeye and
Aquaman, the Brits took no time proving they could do it just as well as the
Americans, leading to decades of collaboration and competition across the
Atlantic. Through this exhibition you will be able to step back in time and see
just how right they were.
“We love our superheroes
because they refuse to give up on us. We can analyze them out of existence,
kill them, ban them, mock them, and still they return, patiently reminding us
of who we are and what we wish we could be.”
- Grant Morrison, Supergods
The Cartoon
Museum can be found at 63 Wells Street, Fitzrovia, London, W1A 3AE. Click here to visit web site.
Rightfully or wrongfully, I’m going to concentrate this
review of Mill Creek’s Sci-Fi from the
Vault Blu on two of this Blu-ray set’s decidedly lesser films:Creature
with the Atom Brain (1955) and The
Thirty Foot Bride of Candy Rock (1959).This is partially due to the fact that the set’s two most prominent
titles, 20 Million Miles to Earth and
It Came from Beneath the Sea, were
previously issued by Mill Creek back in 2014 on their twofer Ray Harryhausen Creature Double Feature
from the same transfers. Though Creature with the Atom Brain is making
its U.S. Blu debut on this set, the film has seen a previous Blu issue on the UK
import Cold War Creatures: Four Films
from Sam Katzman.So only The Thirty Foot Bride of Candy Rock is making
a worldwide debut on Blu with this set.
All four films in this new set come, as per the title,
from the vaults of Columbia studios. Creature
earlier appeared on the commentary-free DVD set Sam Katzman: Icons of Horror Collection (2007).As I am not privy to the sales figures of
that set, I can only surmise should Mill Creek release a Sci-Fi Vault Vol. 2 on Blu, we might see the “missing” Katzman titles
sprinkled into a future U.S. set.This Mill
Creek set is not an “all Katzman” edition (ala Icons).The workhorse
producer has no connection to either 20
Million Miles to Earth or The Thirty
Foot Bride of Candy Rock.
It’s with no disrespect to the late, great special
effects wizard Ray Harryhausen that I’m not going to do a deep dive into 20 Million Miles to Earth and It Came from Beneath the Sea.Though these two films are genuine and iconic
sci-fi classics, both have previously gotten the Mill Creek Blu treatment and
also received transatlantic Blu releases as well.So I can’t imagine anyone interested in these
Harryhausen-associated titles not already in possession of copies.Fair to say, if you own Mill Creek’s previously
published twofer, their reappearances here are redundant.
This new set, priced at an MSRP of $29.99, is – happily -
available far less expensively from any variety of on-line retailers.In some sense, it’s a bargain.This recent edition does offer a new and informative audio commentary on It Came from Beneath the Sea, courtesy
of Justin Humphreys and C. Courtney Joyner.So if you’re an enthusiast of commentary tracks, that’s a checkmark in
the plus column.On the other hand,
there’s no audio commentary included on 20
Million Miles to Earth, a film no less deserving of annotation.So that’s a checkmark lost.
Oddly, Edward L. Chan’s Creature with the Atom Brain (1955), an arguably less-deserving
film, does come with a commentary
track – this time courtesy of film producer-writers’ Phoef Sutton and Mark
Jordan Legan.It’s nice to have a
commentary supplied by two established screenwriters since Creature producer Sam Katzman had conscripted the great Curt
Siodmak (The Wolf Man) to script his low-budgeter.The often curmudgeonly Siodmak was a pretty
productive scripter, memorably knocking off no fewer than nine sci-fi/horror programmers
for Universal 1940-44 – and many other original scenarios for other studios.
Though Siodmak provides a decent enough script for Creature, director Kahn’s film proves a
B-film guilty pleasure a best.On their
commentary, Sutton and Legan provide a breezy, lighthearted narration filled
with the usual, occasionally colorful, anecdotes, often based on their rattling
off resumes of the film’s various cast and crew member.To their credit, the two honestly acknowledge
the film’s shortfalls, mulling that “the first four and a half minutes are the
best thing about it.”The film is a bit
of slow-going unless one has a sense of nostalgia about it.
It was late October 1954 when Variety reported that Katzman had tapped Kahn to direct Creature, the first of the producer’s
first sci-fi feature film forays. News
of actor Richard Denning signing on to star was reported the following week.Similar to Katzman, Kahn was a film industry
workhorse, a director not identified with any one particular genre.In the 1950s, Kahn helmed war films,
westerns, gangster pics and teenage melodramas. But he also managed to put the
fright into the “Frightened Fifties,” cranking out no fewer than eight serviceable
sci-fi pics in a four-year period:beginning
with She Creature (1956) and finishing
with Invisible Invaders (1959).Actor Denning provided a face familiar to
50’s sci-fi fans: the actor had lead roles in The Creature from the Black Lagoon, Target Earth and The Black
Scorpion, to name only a few.
It was Columbia’s intention to bill the more pedestrian Creature as the supporting feature to It Came from Beneath the Sea.In June 1955 it was reported the double-bill was
to be first rolled out to thirty-one theaters in and around the Los Angeles
area.Both films would be produced under
the aegis of Katzman’s Clover Productions.Though Kaufman’s low-budgeted independent offerings weren’t expected to
bring in boffo box-office numbers,
Columbia’s accountants were aware the absence of big name stars and inflated
production costs brought better returns on investment.
A trade paper reported bluntly that Columbia, “feels it’s
better to make a 15% to 25% profit on a picture than to stand to lose 50% to
75% on a wholly-made studio picture.”While
Katzman’s pictures for Columbia (Creature
with the Atom Brain, The Giant Claw, Zombies of Mora Tau and The Werewolf) might not have produced
great art, they did bring in worthwhile returns on investment. It Came
fromBeneath the Sea, the far stronger
film (with a bigger budget) managed great
business, helped in part by a combination of Harryhausen’s screen magic, word-of-mouth
excitement and a supportive radio-television-print campaign of $250,000.Though It
Came fromBeneath the Sea was not
the first “giant” monster movie of the 1950s, it was among the earliest, and
this monstrous sci-fi sub-genre would blossom throughout the 1950s and well
into the 1960s.
Which leads us into our discussion of the final “giant” film
offered on this set.The working title
of Sidney Miller’s The 30 Foot Bride of
Candy Rock was originally titled The
Secret Bride of Candy Brock.The
film’s co-screenwriter, Arthur Ross, was familiar writing for films featuring
gargantuan(s): he had already helped craft the screenplay for Columbia’s The Three Worlds of Gulliver, a soon-to-be-
released pic in 1960.But Candy Rock was to serve primarily as a
vehicle for comedian Lou Costello.Though
his 1940s heyday was behind him, the roly-poly actor had been introduced to a
new generation of fans in the ‘50s through airings of The Abbott and Costello Show television series.
The
30 Foot Bride of Candy Rock was to be the comedian’s first feature
film project following the dissolution of his partnership with Bud Abbott in
July of 1957.That pair’s final film, the
saccharine comedy-drama Dance with Me,
Henry (United Artists, 1956) was generally dismissed as a tired re-play of
routines long gone cold.Now, as a solo
player, Costello was hoping that Bride
might reestablish his box-office prowess.This indie production, shot on the Columbia studios lot, saw Costello’s
manager, Eddie Sherman, serving as the film’s executive producer.With such leverage Costello was even able to
gift a small role to daughter Carole.
Producer Lew Rachmil suggested to a reporter from London’s
Picturegoer that Costello’s titular
bride, Dorothy Provine (a 22 year-old blonde that stood 5’ 4” tall), was a
“born comedienne – nearly as funny as Lou at times.”Provine was a relative newcomer to Hollywood,
having worked only two studio soundstages, one for The Bonnie Parker Story and for a two- episode role as a twelve
year old (!) on TV’s Wagon Train.Provine told gossiper Erskine Johnson that
she hadn’t “missed a day’s work since I arrived in Hollywood, but I was always
scared about every job being my last job.”She needn’t have worried, following Bride
the actress was picked to star alongside Roger Moore as a regular character on the
television series The Alaskans and
would also have a prominent role in the 1963 Cinerama comedy It’s a Mad,
Mad, Mad, Mad World.
In conception, Bride
seems little more than Lou Costello’s attempt to lampoon the popularity of the ongoing
“giant monster” craze.Whiling away his
days in an amateur laboratory, Costello’s rubbish collector and would-be inventor
Artie Pinsetter (‘a world-famous scientist who’s not famous yet”) is determined
to unravel secrets: primarily he wishes to learn how the prehistoric beasts that
once roamed a local region known “Dinosaur State Park” had achieved gargantuan
sizes. He’s investigating an ancient Native American belief that these
creatures achieved such measurement due to a mysterious stream of steam
emissions emanating from a canyon cave.
To this end he has constructed an elaborate electronic contraption
that he calls “Max.”His invention is part
time machine – due to its ability for “changing time curves” - and part
straight man.Pinsetter hadn’t needed to
go through all the trouble of mechanical tinkering.Walking through the canyon, girlfriend Emmy
Lou (Provine), accidentally walks through a plume of canyon steam and finds
herself having gained an additional 25 feet in height.The steam, we are told, is the castoff of atomic
energy escaping from the bowels of the earth.
To make matters worse for Pinsetter, we learn Emmy Lou is
the niece of the town’s self-involved and self-important bank president/gubernatorial
hopeful Raven Rossiter (Gale Gordon, of Our
Miss Brooks fame).Rossiter doesn’t
care much for Pinsetter, and his ill-tempered behavior provides much of the
film’s lukewarm comic tension.But ultimately,
the film’s concentration is whether or not the townies – and alarmed Pentagon
officials – can escape the problems wrought by Costello’s foolish inventions or
of his skulking thirty-foot bride.
Shot in the fanciful descriptions of “Wonderama” and
“Mattascope,” Bride is not a great
film by any measure.But having said
this, it’s an innocuous 73-minute nostalgia trip that admittedly brought a
number of head-shaking smiles to my face.The film is an innocent bit of nonsense, a “family-friendly” movie that
I’m certain brought fun to kiddie audiences of its day.My favorite time capsule moment occurs when
an airborne Costello nearly collides with the Soviet Union’s recently launched Sputnik 1 satellite.
Sadly, Lou Costello would not live to see the finished
film released to the public.The
legendary film star would die of a heart attack, just days shy of age 53, on
March 3, 1959 – a mere ten weeks following his first day of shooting on Bride in November of 1958 (production wrapped
a mere month later).On March 24, 1959,
executives at Columbia announced the aforementioned title change.The film was still in editing by June of 1959
– as was the Three Stooges’ sci-fi comedy Have
Rocket, Will Travel. In July Columbia shared plans to package Bride as a late summer trip bill of such
other family fare films as Rocket and
Ted Post’s The Legend of Tom Dooley.
There were studio previews as early as July 7, but when Bride finally was unleashed on movie
screens it was not as one-third of the aforementioned package as scheduled - but
rather as the under bill to Disney’s Darby
O’ Gill and the Little People or Have
Rocket, Will Travel.Though there
were no critical raves for Bride –
truthfully the film was undeserving of such praise – most reviewers found the
film harmless and wholesome family entertainment.Which it was.I suppose it would have been in poor taste to completely dismiss the value
of the final film of one of Hollywood’s most beloved – and successful –
actor-comedians.
In any event, Mill Creek’s Sci-Fi from the Vault collection has made The 30 Foot Bride of Candy Rock available for the first time on Blu-ray.Previously the film had only appeared on VHS
by Columbia/Tri-Star in 1986 and – with a far lesser transfer - on the cheapie
Good Times label in 1988.Its first
digital appearance was a 2010 release as a DVD MOD from Sony/Columbia Screen
Classics.So, regardless of merit, it’s
nice to get this one on Blu.Its
appearance here should interest fans of both Abbott and Costello-related
productions as well as collectors of vintage 50s Silver Age sci-fi.There’s also a light-hearted but informative
audio commentary for Bride provided
by the Monster Party Podcast team.Think
of a few wise-cracking - but informative - movie-buff friends sitting on the
couch alongside you.The commentary adds
a bit of color to an otherwise monochrome film.
To its credit, the set also includes two bonus features
well worth a look:Daniel Griffith’s 25-minute
doc They Came from Beyond: Sam Katzman at
Columbia as well as his 14:30 minute doc Fantastical Features: Nathan Juran at Columbia.The former gives us a thumbnail tracing of
Katzman’s career in film.The producer
knocked out dozens of serials for Victory and Columbia - including Superman (1948) and Batman and Robin (1949) - from the mid-1930s on.He later moved on to producing features for Monogram
– a studio described here as Hollywood’s “lowest echelon” - where he enjoyed
the first of his feature film successes.
Katzman’s films for Monogram and others were usually made
on shoestring budgets with tight shooting schedules.The producer didn’t necessarily favor the
horror sci-fi genre during his 40+ years working in Hollywood.But having employed Bela Lugosi on the 1936
serial Shadow of Chinatown, Katzman
managed to bring the now underworked and underappreciated actor to Monogram for
a series of guilty pleasure, fan-favorite cheapie horror-melodramas.But Katzman was not shy on capitalizing on whatever
fad was capturing public fancy. His filmography included everything from ghetto
dramas, gangster pics, East Side Kids/Bowery Boys comedies, westerns, sword and
sandal epics, early rock n’ roll pics – even a couple of Elvis Presley films (Kissin’ Cousins (1964) and Harum Scarum (1965) .
In the mid-1950s, sensing sci-fi was proving popular with
audiences, Katzman scored big as the Executive Producer on such less penny-pinching
epics as It Came from Beneath the Sea
and Earth vs. the Flying Saucers
(1956).Both of these films featured the
completely amazing stop-motion special effects of the great Ray Harryhausen,
with whom Katzman was happy to collaborate.In all likelihood, it’s the appreciative audience of so-called “Monster
Kids” that continues to stoke interest in Katzman’s work.
The second bonus doc, Fantastical
Features, has C. Courtney Joyner and Justin Humphreys taking a brief look
at the films of the fast-shot flicks Nathan Juran directed for Columbia.Though not necessarily a horror/sci-fi film
director, Juran had previously helmed The
Black Castle (1952) for Universal and, more importantly, for that studio’s
great giant insect epic The Deadly Mantis
(1957).Once moving to Columbia, Juran
managed a number of sci-fi/fantasy epics including such cinematic touchstones
as 20 Million Miles to Earth, Attack of
the 50 Foot Woman (1958) and The 7th
Voyage of Sinbad (1958).
For the most part, all of these black-and-white films
look great for their age, though they’re not entirely pristine: one can expect
a few not terribly distracting scratches or speckling throughout.Personally, I’m not sure how many more times
I will revisit Creature with the Atom
Brain or The 30 Foot Bride of Candy
Rock – they’re not great films - but it’s still nice to add these titles to
my ‘50s sci-fi film collection.You’ll
have to decide if they’re worth adding to yours.
Click here to order from Amazon and save 50% off SRP.
Josh
Agle, better known as “Shag” has made a name for himself creating Mid-Century,
Tiki-inspired art that has become quite popular with collectors. He has
previously mined the cinematic landscapes of Star Wars, Planet of the Apes, GodzillaThe Addams Family and Batman, creating stylized fine art prints,
many of which sold out. Now he’s finally
turned his talents to James Bond, releasing “Bambi & Thumper”, a Diamonds
Are Forever-inspired print at his Las Vegas store on May 27th.
The
work was, of course suggested by the 1971 Connery classic – “I first saw Diamonds
Are Forever as a kid and the scene where two beautiful bodyguards beat up
James Bond in a futuristic home is something that made a lasting impression on
me,” the artist explained in a recent email to his followers.The story gets even better, as Agle wrote “Many
years later I got to stay in that supervillain lair, the Elrod House in Palm
Springs and I blasted the soundtrack to Diamonds Are Forever… how could
it not inspire a painting?”
(Mark Cerulli with wife Sandra Carvalho with Shag at a recent print-release party at his gallery in Palm Springs, CA. Photo: Mark Cerulli.)
If
your licensed troubleshooting takes you to Palm Springs, Shag’s unique store is
worth a visit.The artist frequently
hosts print release parties where he chats with guests and is happy to sign his
work – which also includes Tiki Mugs, small prints, kitschy lamps and clocks, books,
beach towels, even socks! He also has a
store in The Palms Casino Resort in Vegas – a location both Bond and Shady Tree
would feel at home at.
“Bambi
& Thumper” will be for sale on the SHAG website (shagstore.com)
starting Sunday, May 28th, available framed and unframed. With a print run of only 200, hop in your Moon
Buggy to grab one!
It's easy to look back on the Blaxploitation film craze of the 1970s
as a short-lived period that spawned some cinematic guilty pleasures.
However, time has been kind to the genre and if retro movie buffs view
some of the films that emerged during this era they will undoubtedly
find more artistry at work than was originally realized. Case in point:
"Truck Turner", a 1974 action flick released at the height of the
Blaxploitation phenomenon. I had never seen the film prior to its
release on the new Blu-ray special edition from Kino Lorber Studio
Classics. It's a violent, brutal film filled with ugly characters and
"heroes" who deserve that moniker only because they aren't quite as
abhorrent as the cutthroat antagonists they face. Yet, there is
something special about "Truck Turner". Amid the carnage and frequent,
extended action sequences, there is real talent at work here. Most of it
belongs to Jonathan Kaplan, the director who had recently emerged as
yet another promising protege of Roger Corman. In fact, Kaplan had just
recently completed filming another Blaxploitation film, "The Slams" with
Jim Brown, before being drafted into "Truck Turner". The idea of a
white, Jewish guy directing a Blaxploitation film may seem weird today
but at the time, most of the creative forces behind these movies were
white guys, an indication of just how few opportunities existed in
Hollywood for black filmmakers in the 1970s. The movies were also
largely financed by white studio executives who benefited the most
financially. Yet, it cannot be denied that the genre went a long way in
opening doors for a lot of talented black actors and musicians, who
often provided the scores for the films. Until the release of "Shaft" in
1971 (which was directed by a black filmmaker, Gordon Parks),
most of the action roles for black characters seemed to be hanging on
the durable shoulders of Sidney Poitier, Jim Brown, Harry Belafonte and
the great character actor Woody Strode. Suddenly, there were a great
number of opportunities for black actors and actresses to display their
talents on screen. The vehicles in which they toiled were often
low-budget potboilers, but it did increase their visibility and name
recognition. More importantly, black action characters became
commonplace henceforth.
"Truck Turner" has emerged as a genuine cult movie in the decades
since its initial release. The movie's oddball appeal begins with the
casting of the titular character, who is played by legendary soul
musician Isaac Hayes in his screen debut. While Laurence Olivier
probably never lost sleep over Hayes's decision to enter the movie
business, his casting was a stroke of genius on the part of the
executives at American International Pictures, which specialized in
exploitation films for the grindhouse and drive-in audiences. Hayes had
recently won the Academy Award for his funky "Theme From 'Shaft'" and
had an imposing and super-cool physical presence. He also proved to be a
natural in front of the camera. His emotional range was limited but he
exuded an arrogance and self-confidence that the role required. Turner
is a skip tracer/bounty hunter employed by a bail bond agency in the
slum area of Los Angeles. A stunning opening shot finds literally dozens
of such agency dotting the urban landscape- an indication of how out of
control crime was in the city during this period. Turner and his
partner Jerry (Alan Weeks) agree to take on an assignment to track down a
local notorious pimp and crime kingpin named 'Gator' Johnson (Paul
Harris), who has skipped bail, thus leaving the agency's owner Nate
Dinwiddle (Sam Laws) on the hook for the money. Turner and Jerry pursue
'Gator' in one of those requisite high octane car chases that were
seemingly mandatory in 70s action movies. This one is quite spectacular
and features some dazzling stunt driving. 'Gator' is ultimately killed
by Turner and this leads to the main plot, which concerns his lover,
Dorinda (Nichelle Nichols). She was 'Gator's partner in a lucrative
prostitution business. The two pimped out beautiful young women who they
keep as virtual prisoners on a large estate. Dorinda is the Captain
Bligh of madams, routinely abusing her stable of girls and demeaning
them at every opportunity. She is enraged by Turner's slaying of 'Gator'
and offers a bounty for his murder: half of her stake in the
prostitution ring. The offer draws more than a few professional
assassins to her doorstep, all of whom promise they can kill Turner.
However, the only one who seems to have the ability to do so is Harvard
Blue (Yaphet Kotto), a soft-spoken but vicious crime boss who would like
nothing more than to make easy money from a major pimping operation.
With a small army of assassins, he sets out to make good on his promise
to kill Turner.
Like most action movies of this genre, the plot points are
predictable. As with Charles Bronson's character in the "Death Wish"
films, virtually every person who befriends Turner comes to great
misfortune. This kind of predictable emotional manipulation is par for
the course when you're watching 70s crime films and doesn't overshadow
the fact that there is a great deal of style evident in "Truck Turner".
The dialogue is saucy and witty. For example, Dorinda describes one of
her "girls" as "Kentucky Fried Chicken" because "she's finger-lickin'
good!" and another as "Turnpike" because "you have to pay to get on and
pay to get off." If you think that's politically incorrect, consider
that every other line of dialogue has somebody calling somebody else a
nigger. Then there's the character of Truck Turner, who - like his
fellow cinematic tough ass crime fighters of the era ranging from Dirty
Harry to 'Popeye' Doyle to John Wayne's McQ- seems oblivious to the
fact that he is endangering an abundance of innocent people in his
obsession to get the bad guys. Turner engages in carjacking and
threatens the lives of people who he feels aren't cooperating fast
enough. He also has a sensitive side, though, as we see in his scenes
with the love of his life, Annie (Annazette Chase). She's recently
completed a jail term and only wants to settle down with Turner to live a
quiet, normal lifestyle. Good luck. When the contract is put out on
Turner, she becomes a potential victim and is terrorized by Harvard Blue
and his gang. The film concludes with some terrific action sequences,
the best of which has Hayes and Kotto going mano-a-mano inside the
corridors of a hospital. They chase and spray bullets at each other amid
terrified patients in wheelchairs and on gurneys and in one scene,
carry the shoot out into an operating room with doctors in the midst of
working on a patient! The finale, which centers on Kotto's last scene
in the movie, is shot with such style that it almost approaches being
(dare I use the term?) poetic. The supporting cast is first rate with
Alan Weeks scoring strongly as Robin to Turner's Batman. Annazette Chase
is excellent as the ever-patient object of Turner's desire and, of
course, Kotto is terrific, as usual, managing to steal scenes in his own
unique, low-key way. The most enjoyable performance comes from Nichelle
Nichols, who is 180 degrees from her "Star Trek" role. As the ultimate
villainess, she seems to be having a blast insulting and threatening
everyone in her line of vision. Her final confrontation with Turner
makes for a memorable screen moment, to say the least.
The Kino Lorber Blu-ray is up to the company's usual high standards
in all respects. Old Truck never looked better on screen and there are
some welcome bonus materials. Director Kaplan provides a witty and
highly informative audio commentary, relating how American International
was more interested in the soundtrack album they would be able to
market than the film itself. (Hayes provides the impressive score for
the film, including some "Shaft"-like themes.). He also said that he was
originally drawn to the project because he was told the film would star
either Lee Marvin, Ernest Borgnine or Robert Mitchum! Nevertheless, he
speaks with great affection for Hayes and his colleagues and points out
various character actors his used in the film including the ubiquitous
Dick Miller, James Millhollin, Scatman Crothers and even Matthew Beard,
who played "Stymie" in the Our Gang comedies. Another welcome bonus is
director Joe Dante,obviously an admirer of the film, in discussion at a
2008 screening of "Truck Turner" at the New Beverly Cinema in L.A. He's
joined by director Kaplan and stuntman Bob Minor. The reaction of the
audience indicates this film enjoys a loyal following. There is also a
segment from Dante's popular "Trailers From Hell" web site that features
director Ernest Dickerson introducing and narrating the original
trailer for the film. The trailer is also included in the Blu-ray, as
well as a double feature radio spot ad for "Truck Turner" and Pam Grier
as "Foxy Brown". In all, an irresistible release for all retro movie
lovers.
Seven years after his blockbuster success producing the 1972 film The Poseidon Adventure, Irwin Allen revisited the same story for a sequel, Beyond the Poseidon Adventure. The 1979 film represents all the reasons that sequels to most hit films are generally disdained. Yes, there was The Godfather trilogy to buck the trend, but there were also those God-awful sequels to Jaws. Beyond the Poseidon Adventure opens the morning after the capsizing of the cruise ship. Michael Caine is Mike Turner, the financially destitute captain of a small vessel who is facing bankruptcy after losing his cargo in the same violent storm that destroyed the Poseidon. On board his boat are his first mate Wilbur (Karl Malden) and Celeste Whitman (Sally Field), a perky but klutzy young drifter the men have befriended. They stumble upon the capsized wreck of the Poseidon and Turner immediately smells financial opportunity in the tragedy. If he can make his way through the hull and down to the purser's office, he can raid the safe and abscond with the riches that are inevitably stored there. This is the first of any number of absurdities in the script. With the Poseidon the worst maritime disaster since the Titanic, Turner and his crew discover that, with the exception of one French copter that is conveniently leaving the scene upon their arrival, there is literally no other sign of the international rescue forces that would be omnipresent at the scene. Instead, after rescuing the few people who managed to make it onto the hull in the preceding film, those forces are in no hurry to get additional manpower to the scene in order to search for additional survivors before the ship sinks the bottom of the ocean. Inexplicably, while the rescue forces can't make a timely arrival at the scene, a small craft under the command of Captain Stefan Svevo (Telly Savalas) does. Svevo claims he is a doctor who is there with his crew to enter the ship and search for any survivors. (Absurdity #2: Svevo is about to undertake this arduous, grimy and potentially deadly task while attired in a snow white designer suit!). Turner buys his story and forms and uneasy alliance with Svevo and his team, who are also clad all in white and resemble some of those bands of henchmen from the old Batman TV series.
Once inside the ship, movie magic takes over and the group finds every chamber to be brightly lit, thus making it possible to move about freely. True, there is the hazardous task of finding your way around an upside down vessel, but that problem is solved when they conveniently find a map that lays out precisely where everything is located. Soon, Turner discovers what even the most naive viewer has already realized: that Svevo is actually a villain with his own agenda. In the third major absurdity, we learn that the Poseidon was transporting plutonium that Svevo wants to acquire for nefarious purposes relating to bomb- building. As if that isn't enough, it turns out the ship was also transporting a huge shipment of assault weapons and stockpiles of ammunition. It's a wonder there was any room for those joyous conga lines to dance around on that fatal New Years Eve.
Since a hallmark of any Irwin Allen film is the presence of respected actors peppered throughout the production, it isn't long before familiar faces start popping up in every room, like those celebrities who used to stick their heads of windows and make wise-cracks on Rowan and Martin's Laugh-In. Slim Pickens, in full scenery-chewing hayseed mode, comes stumbling out of nowhere, drunk and protecting a precious bottle of wine. He pretends to be a Texas tycoon but it turns out he was the ship's wine steward and regards the bottle of expensive vino as a symbol of his life long dream to acquire the lifestyle that has always eluded him. Then there is Shirley Jones, who emerges and announces that she is a registered nurse, which is certainly more practical to the group than if she were a butcher by trade. Angela Cartwright is a young woman who was on the cruise with her father, a bull-headed Archie Bunker type played by an unusually over-the-top and embarrassing Peter Boyle. Every Allen film needs a sympathetic older couple to wring a few tears from from the audience so this time we have Shirley Knight and Jack Warden substituting for the previous film's Shelly Winters and Jack Albertson. Allen throws in the kitchen sink by making Warden play a blind man. Not to be politically incorrect, but the sequences of Warden stumbling around the upside down wreck of the Poseidon with a cane and wearing sunglasses begins to resemble a Monty Python sketch. Then there is Veronica Hamel as the prerequisite "bad girl" who slinks around in a drenched evening gown showing ample cleavage- oh, and Mark Harmon has a major role as a young hunk who finds love with Angela Cartwright in the bowels of the sinking ship. If that isn't enough, we learn that lovable ol' Karl Malden's character is terminally ill and the symptoms manifest themselves while he's holed up in the upside down ship. (Somehow Allen showed restraint by not introducing killer sharks to the mix.)
Irwin Allen had the good sense to have seasoned directors Ronald
Neame and John Guillerman direct his two biggest blockbusters, The
Poseidon Adventure and The Towering Inferno and they remain enormously
entertaining films. However, he became convinced that he could save a
few bucks by doing the job himself. Thus, the man known for making
disaster movies became better known for the man who made disastrous
movies. The first slip was The Swarm, a 1978 flapadoodle that we always
refer to as the worst "Bee" movie of all time. The movie was a bomb but
that didn't teach star Michael Caine and co-star Slim Pickens a darn
thing, since they re-teamed with Allen right away for Beyond the
Poseidon Adventure. (Many years later, Caine said he was ashamed of this
period of his career when he took virtually any job in order to earn an
easy pay check.) With Allen back in the director's chair, Beyond was
destined to be another camp classic and it has the look and feel of a TV
movie. Caine looks understandably embarrassed, Field is in Flying Nun
cutesy mode and Savalas channels his inner Blofeld as the villain. Allen
packs in everything from an ax murder (!) to a full blown shoot-out in
which every day people turn out to be as adept at handling machine guns
as Sgt. Fury and his Howling Commandos. There
are some reasonably impressive sets on view but many of the special
effects are sub-par. The most hilarious are found in the opening frames
in which we see Caine at the helm of his storm-tossed boat in the midst
of a hurricane. The sequence was apparently filmed with the ship on
rockers and the violent rainstorm was simulated apparently by having
some guy off camera spray garden hoses. It's quite possibly the
cheesiest effect I've ever seen in a modern, major studio production.
The Warner Archive has released Beyond the Poseidon Adventure only on DVD. With the film itself a dud, there is at least the
saving grace of an interesting bonus extra: a vintage 22 minute TV
special about the making of the film. It affords some excellent behind
the scenes views of the production and makes it clear that a lot of
talented people put a great deal of work into creating films that often
turn out badly. There are also some nice trailers for the main feature,
The Swarm, Twister and The Perfect Storm. Even bad movies need some love, so how about a Blu-ray release of "Beyond the Poseidon Adventure"?
CLICK HERE TO ORDER FROM THE CINEMA RETRO MOVIE STORE
The Three Stooges starred in their last feature film "The Outlaws is Coming" in 1965. This rare behind the scenes footage includes an original TV spot for the film. Also in the cast: future "Batman" star Adam West. The Stooges' original comedy shorts were shown on TV all over the USA in the 1960s, with the programs each having a different host for the individual market that was telecasting the shows. If you grew up in the New York City area, you'll recognize Joe Bolton in the cast. He hosted the TV show under the guise of a policeman named Officer Joe Bolton. Interestingly, there trailer shows a glimpse of an armored stagecoach that resembles "The War Wagon" a couple of years before that movie was released.
I’m
going to begin this review by cribbing a couple of sentences from my review of
Blue Underground’s double-feature Blu-ray of The Blood of Fu Manchu and The
Castle of Fu Manchu:Sax Rohmer’s Fu Manchu novels were wildly popular
pulps but unapologetically racist in construction, reflective of many western
attitudes of the day. His Fu Manchu series, the first novel having been
published in 1912, were written as blowback in the decade following the long
simmering anti-colonialist, anti-imperialist, anti-Christian, and decidedly
anti-British Boxer Rebellion of 1899-1901. OK, just needed to get that out
of the way before moving on… but we’ll return to examine this subject a bit
later.
I
suppose it’s fitting the fireworks of the Boxer Rebellion serve as the starting
point of Paramount’s The Mysterious Dr. Fu Manchu (1929). The film
flashes with scenes of Chinese fighters in Peking battling colonizing Brits
(and other western allies) in dramatic style. To make the uprising more
authentic in its stage dressing, the trades reported (March 16, 1929) the
filmmakers were planning to comb LA’s Chinatown in search of as many as “500
oriental actors and extras.” They apparently fell short of this ambitious goal.
Reporting four days later, the Los Angeles Evening Express derided, “Los
Angeles’s Chinatown has fallen down on the job,” causing the studio to widen
their search to “surrounding cities for reinforcements.”
It
was only a few weeks earlier (March 3, 1929) that Paramount announced Rowland
V. Lee was chosen to direct The Insidious Dr. Fu Manchu (the true title
of Rohmer’s first novel featuring the fiendish villain). The film’s title was
soon amended to the easier-to-market The Mysterious Dr. Fu Manchu, with
“rehearsals” set to commence immediately on the first week of March. Lee, who
would go on to more famously direct such Universal features as Son of
Frankenstein and Tower of London (both 1939), was short-listed
having recently helmed two pictures for Paramount in 1929: Wolf of Wall
Street and The Women Who Needed Killing. Even as the Boxer Rebellion
battle scenes were being staged, it appears full casting for the film was still
not finalized: several of film’s players were not brought on until mid-April
1929. The film was given a tight shooting schedule, one wag noting “all night
sessions will be the order of things.”
There
were other hurdles to surmount. Hollywood was still making its earliest steps
in their exploration of sound-filmmaking. In April of 1929, the Los Angeles
dailies made note of the challenges of writing for the screen in this new
“sound era.” Filmmakers now needed to pointedly write and cast to address the
vagaries of “foreign” speech patterns and regional dialects. This challenge fell
particularly heavy on the screenwriters. “The dialogue voiced by Fu Manchu and
the other Chinese characters had to be “couched in this peculiar, flowery
oriental style,” according to the Los Angeles Times. “To once digress
from it would have been to possibly ruin the effect of the entire production.”
There
were other issues. There’s more than a bit of stilted over-acting present in The
Mysterious Dr. Fu Manchu: lots of theatrical over-emoting throughout,
several actor’s - understandably - not yet conversant with the new realities of
sound-recording. This is most obvious in the performance of actress Jean Arthur
cast as the beleaguered Lia Eltham, the mink-lined imprisoned daughter of the
man Fu Manchu holds responsible for the death of his wife and child. Arthur is
a great actress – she enjoyed a long career lasting from the early 1920s
through the mid-1960s – but her exaggerated silent-era gesturing and doleful
sways present in this first Fu film are a noticeable throwback to days passed.
I suppose Warner Oland’s Fu Manchu fares better than most as his character is
of course, written as inscrutable: reserved, reticent, cunning and
seemingly less susceptible to theatrical outbursts.
As
the title character, Orland of course stands dead center of the ensuing mayhem.
The actor, soon to command greater fame as the Chinese sleuth Charlie Chan in
the Monogram series, was – famously (or perhaps infamously) - not of Asian
descent. He was Swedish. Of course neither the previous of succeeding Fu
Manchus were of Chinese heritage. Oland’s predecessor Harry Agar Lyons (in a
series of silent-era shorts (1923-1924) was British as were two of Oland’s
successors, Boris Karloff and Christopher Lee. It’s fair to say Orland was the
most convincing non-Asian actor to play the role. Having worked in silent films
from 1912 through 1926, Oland’s “exotic” (by early Hollywood standards)
appearance allowed him to play an assortment of characters of physical
non-western heritage.
Oland
wasn’t bothered with such typecasting. The amount of work offered was
profitable and playing outside his own culture allowed him the chance to test
his abilities. “I like to play the Chinese roles because most of them give me
the opportunity to do some real acting,” he told the Scripps New Service. “In fact,
I like all the roles that give me a chance for difficult characterizations. I
believe character actors are the real backbone of most pictures. They are the
ones who give the production its atmosphere. And, incidentally, the character
actors are the ones who live the longest in the business.”
Obviously,
one can’t look at these Fu Manchu movies in this 21st Century
without groaning at the stereotypes, the insensitive dialogue, and – of course
- the casting of a non-Asian in the title role. To be fair, Caucasians are
damned and thrown under the bus as well. “The white men are kind and generous,”
Fu Manchu soothes his frightened daughter as he finds his home in the crossfire
between British snipers and Boxer rebels. But his opinion soon changes when his
wife and daughter find themselves collateral damage of Britain’s superior
firepower. Now, with the “white men” having failed in their promise to protect
his family and home, Fu has an awakening. “I’ve been blind,” Fu Manchu rages.
“These whites are barbarians, devils, fiends!” Which sets him off to
exact revenge on the offspring of the westerners he holds responsible.
That’s
essentially the plot device of both films in this new set from Kino Lorber. The
two film’s play out much as movie serials of the 1940s do. Lots of villainy,
lots of episodic action, a distressed gal, and a heroic paramour (in this case,
the handsome Neil Hamilton, “Commissioner Gordon” of TV’s Batman (1966).
It’s not great art, but it was – in its time, no doubt – a suspenseful and fun
thrill-ride. Paramount offered previews of The Mysterious Dr. Fu Manchu
in late spring/early summer of ’29 at the Westlake Theatre. Initial critical
reaction was muted: the earliest previews of the original cut ran the gamut
from “overlong” to “somewhat sketchy.” Regardless, upon national release, the
film did well enough that by late January of 1930, the trades announced both
director Lee and Oland (and indeed the entire primary cast of the original)
were to return for a rousing sequel The Return of Dr. Fu Manchu.
In
his promotion of this second coming, Lee – again, tapped to direct - pointed
out the sinister Fu Manchu was intriguing as he was no ordinary gangster. He
was a super-villain, a worthy adversary to Inspector Nayland Smith (O.P.
Heggie). Their rivalry and brinksmanship was much in the tradition of Sir
Arthur Conan Doyle’s Holmes vs. Moriarty. “Dangerous criminals make fascinating
prey,” Lee contended. “Such a man is the fictitious Dr. Fu Manchu. His
mentality, although diverted into wrong channels, is as keen as that of those
who pursue him. He knows what to expect.”
Oland’s
Fu is far more loquacious than inscrutable in this second film. There’s a lot
of bantering dialogue and threats tossed. Perhaps too many. As one critic noted
in his review of The Return of Fu Manchu, “Where is this oriental
laconicism they talk about? Dr. Fu is one of the most garrulous individuals on
record.” Though decrying the film’s excessive verbiage, the reviewer conceded
the film did possess “the virtues of movement… events tumbling over each other
in endless succession from start to finish.” Which sounds, more than a little,
of what critics thought of the crazy but entertaining James Bond opus Moonraker
a half-century later. Not great art, again. But great fun… for some.
I
suspect the audience for this particular Fu Manchu set will be split somewhat
evenly between aficionados of early sound-films and Cinema Study students
examining Race and Ethnicity Depictions of Early Hollywood. There’s a lot to
uncomfortableness to mine through here, no shortage of political and cultural
tripwire hazards in this “woke” era. Are the Fu Manchu pulps and films racist?
Well, of course they are. The question is whether or not the films are still
viable. In his intriguing book Charlie Chan: The Untold Story of the
Honorable Detective and His Rendezvous with American History, Professor
Yunte Huang accepts that many will always view Oland’s Chan as a “Yellow Uncle
Tom,” his impersonations akin to that of a blackface minstrel. But he also
notes that upon Oland’s visit to Shanghai in 1933, local audiences celebrated
the actor for “bringing to life the first positive [Chinese] character in
American film.”
So
it’s all complicated. As an amateur historian, I personally think artifacts of
days ancient and not-so-ancient should be preserved for study and education.
Such storytelling shines light on our past and the best (and worst) aspects of
our world and ourselves. In terms of simple film-collecting, perhaps the
appearance of these two rare-ish Fu Manchu films might pique the interest of
fans of Oland’s far better known Charlie Chan series. In 2009 20th
Century Fox issued an essential five box DVD collection of the actor’s Chan
oeuvre, so there’s evidently interest in Oland’s filmography even some ninety-years
on.
It
might be somewhat disappointing to those more knowledgeable collectors that
Kino chose not to (or perhaps were unable?) to include the third and final film
of the Oland Fu Manchu series on this set. In 1931 Paramount released The
Daughter of Fu Manchu, the last (and, arguably, least) of the series, but
one featuring Anna May Wong as the featured character. To my knowledge The
Daughter of Fu Manchu has never been given a proper official release on
home video, though copies of the film have long been found on the grey-market.
(In 1984 the Video Marquee label issued a clamshell VHS edition of the film as
part of their “Joe Franklin’s Collectibles” series – but I’m not certain this
release had any official sanction). In any case, a two-disc Blu-ray set of this
triumvirate would have surely satiated the desires of the sad Completists
amongst us. I’m not complaining, mind you. While some might wish such dated
fare be removed from circulation as not to offend anyone’s sensibilities, I’m
grateful Kino Lorber continues to shine light on such obscure and mostly
forgotten films from Hollywood’s Golden Age.
This
Kino Lorber Studio Classics Blu-ray edition of The Mysterious Dr. Fu
Manchu/The Return of Dr. Fu Manchu is presented here in 1920x1080p, dts
sound and with an attractive slipcase cover. The film looks very good
considering its age, though neither print is pristine: there are occasional
flashes of white and black emulsion scratches present throughout, and some
shots appear a bit soft. The set rounds off with several theatrical trailers of
period films as well as welcome commentaries courtesy of novelist and critic
Tim Lucas of Video Watchdog fame.
If you follow current movie industry news then you know that the big bombshell this week was the decision by Warner Bros. to pull the plug on the much-anticipated "Batgirl" feature film. Even more shocking was the announcement that the studio would never show the film in any format. The film was mostly completed but directors Bilall Fallah and Adil El Arbi were still putting finishing touches on the production. Making matters worse, WB allegedly never informed anyone associated with the movie that it was being shelved until the New York Post broke the story. The movie is chockablock with talent: Leslie Grace, who plays the title role was prepping for a major career boost. The supporting cast includes Oscar winners J.K. Simmons as Commissioner Gordon and Michael Keaton, returning in the role of Batman for the first time in decades. Brendan Fraser, who plays the villain Firefly, was promoting the movie at a fan convention on stage when the news broke. Everyone associated with the movie is understandably stunned and outraged despite the fact that WB issued a statement saying that the decision in no way reflects on the creative team.
"Holy Ouch, Batman!" What caused this to happen?
Apparently, WB is on a cost-cutting mission and a rough cut of "Batgirl" had been test screened with poor results. (It allegedly averaged in the "30s" in terms of audience satisfaction.) WB says the film will cost $90 million but press reports say the cost could be $100 million. That's still a relatively modest sum for a modern superhero flick but WB obviously feels it should cut its losses, as today's major films cost tens of millions to publicize and market. Fans have pondered why the studio doesn't directly release it to streaming and home video. It's because there is a clause that says if a studio wants the benefit of a tax break covering the total production costs, it can't show the film anywhere or profit from it under any circumstances.
If history is any guide, "Batgirl" will eventually surface in some version on bootleg videos. However, that's a poor way to experience whatever vision the creators had in mind. A film isn't complete until its director (or directors) proclaim it as such. The studio is grappling with the public relations disaster and there will obviously be plenty of breaking news to come. In the meantime, we'll have to satiate ourselves with Yvonne Craig's charming portrayal of Batgirl in the classic TV series from the 1960s.
(The New York Post has run some behind the scenes photos from the production. Click here to view. For additional coverage, click here.)
Having starred in the popular sitcom series The
Munsters from 1964 -1966, Herman (Fred Gwynne), Lily (Yvonne De Carlo), Grandpa
(Al Lewis), Eddie (Butch Patrick) and Marilyn (Debbie Watson) hit the big
screen in Munster, Go Home (1966).
Produced and co-written by series creators
Joe Connelly and Bob Mosher (Leave It to Beaver), this satire of American
suburban life features British comedians Terry-Thomas and Hermione Gingold,
legendary horror star John Carradine and future Family Feud host Richard Dawson,
who was then appearing on Hogan’s Heroes.
The Munsters achieved higher Nielsen ratings
than the similarly macabre family of the time The Addams Family. In 1965 it was
nominated for the Golden Globe Award for Best Television Series but lost to The
Rogues starring David Niven which was cancelled after one season.
After 70 episodes, The Munsters was also
cancelled after ratings dropped due to competition from the Batman TV Series.
The film was produced immediately after the television series completed filming.
It starred the original cast (Fred
Gwynne, Yvonne De Carlo, Al Lewis, Butch Patrick) apart from Marilyn, who was
played by Debbie Watson, replacing Pat Priest from the series.
The movie was released in Technicolor,
whereas the TV series was telecast in black & white. The hope was that the
film would introduce the series to the world in advance of negotiating future
syndication rights. The film was released in the United Kingdom at the end of
December 1966 as support for the Norman Wisdom movie Press for Time (1966). The
instrumental theme song, titled The Munsters' Theme, was composed by
composer/arranger Jack Marshall and was nominated for a Grammy Award in 1965.
The story sees Herman becoming Lord Munster
after he inherits an estate from an English uncle. With Spot guarding 1313
Mockingbird Lane, Herman leaves his job at Gateman, Goodbury & Graves
Morticians for Munster Hall in England. Whilst there, he uncovers a counterfeiting
ring and upholds the family honour by driving his Drag-u-la special in the
annual road race.
The move from the TV screen to the cinema
screen is often a gamble. The transition is tricky, with the chief obstacle finding
a story interesting enough to fill a 90-minute slot while at the same time
sustaining the audience’s attention can be tough. However, the central problem
with Munster, Go Home! is that it just really isn’t that funny. The shifting
dimensions between TV and cinema so often adjust the overall dynamics. The
absence and familiarity of a laughter track almost leaves a cold, empty feel to
the movie. Whilst The Munsters (shot at Universal City) was never filmed in
front of a live studio audience, it was overdubbed with ‘canned laughter’ or a
laughter track, an element that at least helped cue up or support a punchline
or a comedic line of dialogue. As a result, something just seems to be lost in
the movie version. Even the support from Terry-Thomas as English ancestor
Freddie Munster is really over-the-top and at times borders on embarrassing. At just 96- minutes, it’s all really hard
work.
Nevertheless, it’s not all bad. On the
technical side, the production values work very well. Creepy dungeons, gothic
mansions et al – create the perfect setting and atmosphere to satisfy every
horror kid’s dream. The film is also presented in its original theatrical
1.85:1 ratio. But the real winner here
is the Technicolor photography; the process simply elevates everything on
display. It’s a distinctly ‘groovy’ 60’s colour pallet with all of its vibrant
lime greens, luminous pinks and rich reds’ really igniting the screen and it
comes through as the film’s overall saving grace.
Considering the film (and the series it was
based upon) was so culturally significant, the Blu-ray’s extras are decidedly
thin, consisting of just a lone theatrical trailer. It’s a real pity that some
film or horror historian couldn’t be found to sit in and provide some sort of
commentary – especially as the whole franchise had loose connections and is
distantly related to the whole Universal Horror cycle…
Munster, Go Home! is released on July 25th
2022 as a Region 2 Blu-ray and is available from www.fabulousfilms.com
(Darren Allison is the Soundtracks Editor for Cinema Retro)
On this clip from "American Bandstand", the iconic American TV show that featured teenagers dancing to the latest hit songs, host Dick Clark takes an unusual detour from the world of rock 'n roll to promote ABC-TV's newest sensation, "Batman"- after which there is a countdown of the top ten songs on the charts and everybody rocks to the sounds of Gary Lewis & the Playboys!
Cinema Retro has received the following press release from The History Press.
THE ART OF FILM
Designing James Bond, Aliens, Batman and More
24 March 2022 | 9780750997423 | HB | £25
TERRY ACKLAND-SNOW WENDY LAYBOURN
Legendary
Art Director Terry Ackland-Snow lifts the lid on his extraordinary career in
cinema.
Features
many unpublished images and production sketches, and a wealth of amusing and
revealing anecdotes. Terry Ackland-Snow has been a legendary figure in the film /
TV industry for more than 40 years. Having worked on over 80 feature films,
including two James Bond (On Her Majesty’s Secret Service and The Living
Daylights), Aliens, Batman, 2001: A Space Odyssey, Labyrinth and The Rocky
Horror Picture Show, he reveals in The Art of Film the stories behind the
making of these iconic productions. With behind-the-scenes photographs and
Terry’s own production sketches, many of which are published here for the first
time, this is an essential read for lovers of classic cinema.
Terry
Ackland-Snow has been in the film and television industry for more than 50
years. Having worked on over 80 feature productions, he has amassed a wealth of
knowledge and experience, all of which he now teaches on his art direction
training courses based at Pinewood Studios.
Wendy
Laybourn has worked in the film industry since the early 1970s and has spent
the past few years helping the future generation of filmmakers to understand
the skills and crafts involved.
In 1966, with Batmania sweeping the world, everyone was trying to get a
piece of the action. Columbia Pictures came up with a novel idea. The
studio rereleased the 1943 Batman and Robin serials collectively under the title An Evening with Batman and Robin. Naturally,
this was more than twenty years before Adam West and Burt Ward slid
down the Batpoles for the first time. The gimmick turned a tidy profit,
though some of the more naive fans may have been stunned to see the
Dynamic Duo in black and white and attired in costumes that looked like
they came in last place in the local school Halloween contest. This rare
trade ad extols the regional grosses the film event was scoring across
America. Did you know that Lewis Wilson, who played Batman in these
serials, was the father of James Bond producer Michael G. Wilson?
Cinema Retro has received the following press release:
"Essential
viewing for all Sellers fans."
--
British Film Institute
"Mr.
Sellers is in fine form here, and in the first half he displays some of the
physical comedic traits that defined his Inspector Jacques Couseau in the 'Pink
Panther' series a couple of years later."
-David Ferguson, Red Carpet Crash
"Its
abiding bittersweetness [is] what has become this 'lost' curio's chief
preservative. What stands out, unsurprisingly, is Sellers himself..."
-Robert Abele, Los Angeles Times
FILM MOVEMENT CLASSICS UNVEILS PETER SELLERS'
LONG LOST 1961 DIRECTORIAL DEBUT, NEWLY-RESTORED
IN 2K FROM THE LONE SURVIVING 35MM PRINT
MR. TOPAZE
Street
Date: October 27, 2020
Blu-ray/DVD/Digital
Available
for the First Time Ever in North America,
the Classic Comedy, Co-Starring Herbert Lom, Leo McKern and
Nadia Gray,
Arrives with the Madcap Seller Short Film "Let's Go
Crazy", a Video Essay on Auteur Marcel Pagnol, the Topaze
Playwright, a 24-page Booklet with a New Essay by Roger Lewis, Author of
"The Life and Death of Peter Sellers" and More!
SYNOPSIS
Albert
Topaze (Peter Sellers), a poor but proud French schoolmaster, loses his job
after he refuses to alter the failing grades of one of his students. Seizing
the opportunity to exploit his honesty, actress Suzy Courtois (Nadia Gray)
convinces her lover, the corrupt city council member Castel Benac (Herbert
Lom), to hire Topaze as a managing director for one of his shady businesses.
Sellers'
lone directorial effort, MR. TOPAZE displays the British comic genius at the
peak of his powers alongside his future Pink Panther nemesis Herbert Lom
and a stellar supporting cast that includes Leo McKern, Billie Whitelaw and
Michael Gough. Long considered a "lost" classic, MR. TOPAZE was
digitally restored in 2K from the last surviving 35mm prints held in the BFI
National Archive.
In
his newly-written MR. TOPAZE essay included in the Film Movement Classics
release, Roger Lewis, author of "The Life and Death of Peter Sellers"
writes "In my opinion we are only now beginning to wake up to Sellers'
unique qualities as a performer, and the rediscovery of Mr. Topaze will
aid this reassessment. It is a film of which Jacques Tati might be proud. It is
as good as any of the later Chaplin efforts, Limelight or A Countess
from Hong Kong. It is a scandal that it was lost for so long."
CAST
Peter Sellers (Being There, The Pink Panther series,
Dr. Strangelove)
Herbert Lom (The Pink Panther series, The Dead
Zone, Spartacus)
Nadia Gray (La Dolce Vita)
Leo McKern ("Rumpole of the Bailey", Ryan's
Daugher, The Mouse That Roared)
Billie Whitelaw (The Krays, Hot Fuzz, The Omen)
Michael Gough (Batman, Sleepy Hollow, The Age of Innocence)
BONUS
FEATURES
Let's Go Crazy (1951) - a madcap short film starring Peter
Sellers and his Goon Show co-star Spike Milligan
The Poetry of Realism (2019) - Kat Ellinger video essay on
auteur Marcel Pagnol, the playwright of Topaze
Abigail McKern Interview (2019) - Leo McKern's daughter
discusses her father's life and career
24-page booklet with notes on the film's rediscovery by BFI
curator Vic Pratt and a new essay by Roger Lewis, author of The Life and
Death of Peter Sellers
PROGRAM INFORMATION
Type:
Blu-ray/DVD/Digital
(New 2K Digital Restoration)
One of the most popular and enduring sitcoms of its era, "McHale's Navy" ran from 1962-1966. The premise centered on Lt. Commander Quinton McHale (Ernest Borgnine), a PT boat skipper stationed in the South Pacific (later transferred to Italy) during WWII along with a motley but lovable crew of swabbies. McHale and his men are unconventional, to say the least, and routinely disregard basic military discipline. They are so unruly that they have been relegated to their own tiny island, which suits them just fine. Here they brew booze, entertain young women and run about dressed in party attire. They also manage to "adopt" a genial Japanese prisoner-of-war, Fuji (Yoshio Yoda), who manages to stay hidden despite indulging in all the excesses of McHale and his crew. McHale's antics are to the chagrin of their superior officer, Capt. Binghamton (Joe Flynn), who is constantly devising schemes to catch McHale and his men in a major infraction and have them court martialed. Inevitably, just in the nick of time McHale and his crew distinguish themselves in some sort of military action that brings them praise from the top brass instead of ending their careers.
The series proved to be so popular that is spawned two feature films that have now been released as a double-feature DVD by Shout! Factory. "McHale's Navy" was certainly not the first TV series to have a cross-over to the big screen. In the 1950s Walt Disney edited together several episodes of his immensely popular "Davy Crockett" series starring Fess Parker and released them as the feature film "Davy Crockett: King of the Wild Frontier". During the 1960s and 1970s, the same process was used to release previously-seen TV episodes as feature films, though many were seen only in European markets. These included "Mission Impossible Vs. The Mob", "Mission: Monte Carlo" (based on "The Persuaders") and most notably, eight entire feature films derived from two-part episodes of "The Man From U.N.C.L.E.". "McHale's Navy" was a more ambitious venture because, like the big screen versions of "Batman" and "The Munsters" ("Munsters Go Home!"), it at least consisted of entirely new material shot specifically for the theatrical version. The real thrill for fans of such shows was the ability to see their favorites on the big screen in color during an era in which precious few homes boasted color TVs.
The plot of the first film is reed-thin. McHale crew member Gruber (Carl Ballantine) tries to raise funds for an orphanage by devising a massive betting scheme predicated on the outcome of a horse race in Australia that has already been completed. However, the bettors won't legitimately know the results of that race until the newspaper is delivered by mail drop a week after the race's conclusion. Thus a large number of servicemen converge on McHale's island to engage in the betting. The trouble is that almost everyone is betting on the favorite: Silver Spot. When the newspaper arrives, Gruber discovers to his horror that Silver Spot has indeed won- and now the pot isn't big enough to pay off the bettors. McHale and Gruber stall for time and buy a week during which they must come up with the money to pay off the bettors. McHale and his men sail their PT 73 to New Calendonia where McHale reunites with a former lover, Margot (Jean Willes), a local saloon owner who he hopes will lend him the funds. She agrees to do so but only for a steep price: he must consent to marry her. Meanwhile, McHale's bumbling executive officer, Ensign Parker (Tim Conway) attempts to rescue a local French beauty, Andrea (Claudine Longet) from a bothersome local wolf, a rich businessman, Le Clerc (an unrecognizable George Kennedy). He earns her respect and his wrath but he also accidentally launches a depth charge that destroys one of the docks owned by Le Clerc. Now McHale and his men must come up with money for damages or risk being imprisoned. In a plot device that is as improbable even by sitcom standards, it turns out the valuable Silver Spot has gone missing and the crew of the PT 73 just happens upon him on a remote island. They attempt to win the money they need by disguising the horse and running him in another race under another name. The "Day at the Races"-like scenario falls apart, exposing the crew's deceitful tactic- but when McHale and his men thwart a Japanese submarine attack, all is forgiven and they are rewarded with enough cash to pay off all their debts. The film provides some pleasant entertainment and manages- ever so slightly- to spice things up compared to the TV series. (It's clear that McHale and Margot enjoy a pretty steamy past.) Also, the ever-virginal Ensign Parker finds himself uncomfortably close to Andrea as she tries to change out of wet clothing. Much of the fun derives from watching the great Joe Flynn and Tim Conway interact with impeccable comedic timing. The direction by Edward J. Montagne is well-paced. Montagne, who also produced the TV series, was an underrated talent, having helmed and/or produced the terrific Don Knotts feature films of the era including the cult classic "The Ghost and Mr. Chicken".
Edward Montagne was also in the director's chair for "McHale's Navy Joins the Air Force", released in 1965 on the heels of the first film's success. This time, however, Ernest Borgnine is nowhere to be seen. Borgnine told this writer years ago that he never got a clear explanation for why the film was made without him but said that theater owners leveled criticism at him, thinking he refused to be in it. In fact, Borgnine said he was flabbergasted that he had never been asked to appear in the movie. There were probably two motives for by-passing him. The first was money. By eliminating the highest paid cast member, Universal could keep production values low. Second, the studio might have wanted to give unrestrained screen time to the antics of Joe Flynn and Tim Conway, who were becoming an enormously popular duo through the TV series. In any event, Borgnine's absence is initially glaring but the as the film gets underway it turns out this sequel is superior to the original. The plot is more ambitious and the antics of Conway and Flynn are unrestrained. This film also affords McHale's crew- which consists of some wonderful character actors like Billy Sands, Gavin MacLeod and Carl Ballantine- to appear as something more than mere window dressing. This time around the plot revolves around a case of mistaken identity. Cutting through the clutter, it boils down to Ensign Parker first being mistaken for defecting Soviet officer and being arrested by KGB agents (one of whom is played by Len Lesser, who went on to appear as Uncle Leo in the "Seinfeld" series). Parker bumbles his way out of that but then becomes mistaken for a high profile Army officer (Ted Bessell), who has a reputation for being quite the lady's man. A lot of the fun revolves around the hapless, innocent Parker becoming a chick magnet for the likes of willing young women played by Susan Silo and Jean Hale, among others. Since the Army Air Corps officer Parker is impersonating is also a master pilot, he is forced to act as navigator aboard a bomber. Through a convoluted series of events, Binghamton ends up aboard the plane with him and the two wreak havoc before tumbling out of the plane on a jeep that is suspended from the cargo hull by a parachute. Flynn and Conway are like a modern version of Laurel and Hardy and I must admit that, despite the sheer predictability of their routine, I ended up chuckling out loud at numerous points. Meanwhile, McHale's crew gets some screen time when they switch uniforms with Russian sailors in order to sneak off PT 73 and go into town to get drunk. This, of course, turns out to have disastrous unforeseen consequences. The film also benefits from some other familiar character actors of the era including Henry Beckman, Tom Tully and Willis Bouchey, all of whom are marvelous to watch. Both films also feature the deft comedic turns by series regular Bob Hastings as Binghamton's ever-present aide and boot-licker, Lt. Elroy Carpenter, whose devotion to his unappreciative boss borders on the homo erotic. (I'm convinced the Mr. Burns/ Smithers relationship in "The Simpsons" is directly based on the Binghamton/Carpenter characters in "McHale's Navy"). As with the previous film, this one is a bit more mature in terms of sexual content, though it remains firmly in the category of family entertainment. The women's sexual aggressiveness would never have made it in the TV series (Jean Hale's character in particular makes it clear she can't wait to bed the legendary Romeo that Parker is impersonating). In another scene, Parker and Binghamton uncover a shipment of brassieres and both of them are clueless as to what they are.
Both of the Shout! Factory transfers are completely pristine and make for a highly enjoyable afternoon of "McHale" bing-watching. Unfortunately, there are no bonus extras.
The United States of America brought to the world many
amazing things. To this reviewer the top three are baseball, jazz and comic
books, although I must admit I prefer comic books to jazz. Let's face facts
here, whether you love, despise, or are just 'eh' about comic books they are
among the very first things that children read. I loved them before I could
read. Consider that a disclaimer for the review about to follow.
Anthony Desiato is a life-long (so far) comic book fan,
podcaster and documentary filmmaker from Westchester County in New York. His
company is called Flat Squirrel Productions. In 2017, through Kickstarter, he
reached his goal of $15,000 to make the film he promised "will take you
behind the scenes and capture the business, culture, and fandom of the local
comic book store on a national level." He succeeded with the release of
"My Comic Shop Country". This film is a wonderfully interesting look
at the strange and familial world the industry has created, and now, is
possibly destroying. It hit home with me on a number of levels but more about
that later. For now, some history.
Comic books have traveled a rough road from their
beginnings. In 1933, Eastern Publications published what is regarded as the
first newsstand comic book in the format we know today, "Famous Funnies a
Carnival of Comics" which was basically combined newspaper strip reprints
with some original material. It started the industry. Eastern, and later Dell,
began to publish these on a regular (bi-monthly basis). Ron Goulart (comic book
historian and terrific novelist in his own right - read his Groucho Marx
mysteries series) called this publication: "the cornerstone for one of the
most lucrative branches of magazine publishing."
Five years later, two young men in Cleveland, Ohio
created (based somewhat upon Edgar Rice Burroughs' “John Carter, Man of Marsâ€)
a character that would change not only the industry but the world. Of course,
most of you know I mean Superman. Arguably the second most famous fictional
character in world history behind only Sherlock Holmes. The following year saw
the introduction of Batman. Timely Comics (which would eventually become
Marvel) also first appeared in 1939.
The comic book industry flourished. Romance, Westerns,
horror, anthropomorphic animals. Nothing was left out. For more than fifteen years
the industry grew not only in size but in pushing boundaries. Realizing that
most of their readers were teen-aged boys, comics started to feed their
adolescent...
well you know what I mean. Scantily clad women appeared
everywhere. From femme fatales to heroines, supporting characters to characters
who didn't wear support garments, pubescent fantasies were fulfilled. According
to a wacko psychiatrist named Fredric Wertham, who in 1954 published the book
"Seduction of the Innocent," claimed "that comic books were
responsible for an increase in juvenile delinquency, as well as potential
influence on a child's sexuality and morals." That led to the Senate
Committee on Juvenile Delinquency to investigate comics. Like parents
throughout eternity, Senators didn't have any idea what their children were
reading (well, maybe a dad or two did) and in an effort to hold off a
government response that would censor their industry, the Comic Code Authority
was formed and all comics had to pass through a censorship inspection. The Code
lasted into the 70s and was abolished formally in 2011.
"And now... back to our film"
Now that the Comic Book Ignorant (further referred to as
the CBI) have been brought up to speed on comic book history let me enlighten
you about the film.
Obviously, a labor of both love and regret for Desiato,
“My Comic Shop Country†stands out as an indictment against greed,
monopolization and poor manners. He was a regular customer, loiterer and
sometime employee of a comic shop called Alternate Realities in Scarsdale, NY.
He later became a podcaster. His shows discuss the comic book industry and life
in Westchester. A previous documentary, "My Comic Shop Documentary,"
made in 2011, was all about Alternate Realities and its owner, Steve Oto. For
this new film, Desiato visited twenty comic shops in nine states across the US
and built relationships with the owners.
The first dedicated comic book shop opened in the late
60s in Southern California. The direct market industry started to grow as the
dedicated comic shop industry grew. By the 90s there were over 12,000 in the
United States.
If the CBI don't know, there is a difference between
direct market distribution and the traditional newsstand distribution that
those of us of a certain age grew up with. The direct market in the 70s and 80s
allowed for independent comic book companies to distribute more adult fare. But
as things grew with more independent publishers such as First Comics, Capital
Comics, Pacific Comics, The Guild, Image Comics, etc., they began to flood the
market distributing the books themselves. But they also paid the creators fair
wages as opposed to the work-for-hire system that had existed for generations.
Famous comic book artists such as Jack Kirby, Frank Brunner, Howard Chaykin,
Neal Adams began to create content for these companies where the creators
retained licensing rights for their characters. Glut became an operative word.
Too much of a mediocre thing. As the smaller of these small companies died out,
so did the distribution channels. Eventually, distribution would become a
monopolistic ouroboros - the snake that eats itself.
In today's industry, direct shops must order books from
Diamond Comics Distributors' (the monopoly) Previews catalogue two months in
advance of shipping. In the 90s, Previews was published not by a monopoly but
by a company intent on spreading the word, thank Rao, (CBI, please web search)
and the catalogue was magazine thickness. Today, run by the existent monopoly,
its size is somewhere between a Montgomery Ward Christmas Catalogue and a
pre-cellphone Yellow Pages. And, unlike in newsstand, bookstore, luncheonette,
etc. distribution, the excess books cannot be returned. When I collected comics
as a child all the newsstand, et. al., had to do was return the torn corner of
the cover that held the price to receive a refund on the unsold books that sold
at the time for 12 cents. The store then sold them for a few pennies. I have
some books in my collection that are thusly marred. Direct market shops have to
eat the leftovers. Hence, the very large back-issue sections.
“My Comic Shop Country†is filled with colorful
characters. From the denizens who haunt the shops to some of the creators
themselves, Desaito discusses the state of the industry with all. It was a great
pleasure to meet these fellow geeks. Then again, everyone is a geek of some
order. Jocks are sports geeks, no?
Paul Levitz, former President and Publisher of DC comics:
"85% to 90% of the shops are mom and pop stores. Brick and mortar is not
at a great time in America today." "If you own a bake shop the
quality of the shop is up to you. If you run a comic shop the quality of the
shop is up to other people."
Sarah Titus, co-owner, The Comic Book Shop (Wilmington,
DE): "How do you have a million dollar comic book shop? You start with two
million dollars…When someone calls us a Comic Book Store, I say, "No, a
STORE is where you go to get, like, toilet paper. A SHOP is where you go to
look at all the cool things, and compare, and check, and take it all in." Has
there ever been a clearer dictionary definition between the two?
The avalanche of Batman-inspired toys that came with the surprise success of the 1960s TV series continues to this day but the prime prices for the rarest releases pertain to toys released in the 1970s as well- and some have some very bizarre stories attached to them, as chronicled in an entertaining article presented on the CBR.com web site. Click here to read.
I admit to having a weakness for the "dirty cop" movies that were all the rage beginning with Bullitt in 1968 and extending through the mid to late 70s. Seemingly every major star wanted to be part of the genre, just as the spy film rage of the mid-1960s had everyone and their grandmother portraying a secret agent. The Super Cops, a 1974 MGM production, came at the end of the era in which stars such as Clint Eastwood, Gene Hackman, Roy Scheider, Al Pacino, Robert Duvall, Steve McQueen and John Wayne had portrayed anti-establishment law enforcement officers. The Super Cops has the key ingredients common to all these films: wisecracking hero(es), tone-deaf police brass who are either resistant to using innovative methods or are flat-out corrupt and gritty urban backdrops. The Super Cops had the pedigree of being based on fact and a bestselling book by the titular heroes, New York City detectives David Greenberg and Robert Hantz whose daring and unconventional exploits earned them the nicknames of Batman and Robin. (The Batman connection extends into the marketing campaign of the feature film with a one sheet poster that emulated the Pow! Zap! graphics of the 1960s TV series.) The pair became among the most decorated detectives in New York City Police Department history, but if you believe the script, these accolades were given reluctantly from police brass that despised their headline-grabbing antics.
The film benefits from the having been directed by Gordon Parks (Shaft). Parks, a former Life magazine photographer, was the first African-American to direct films for major studios. He was no auteur but Parks did have a true knack for conveying life in troubled urban communities. The film opens with Greenberg (Ron Liebman) meeting Hantz (David Selby) at police cadet school where their wiseguy ways of upstaging superiors alienates them from the powers-that-be and even fellow cops. Nevertheless, their unconventional methods result in high profile arrests- even if the niceties of due process are often ignored. The film rambles from one unrelated incident to another and this lack of a central antagonist or plot device results in a meandering feeling to the story line. Liebman and Selby are no Butch and Sundance but acquit themselves adequately. (Liebman has all the scene-stealing opportunities and Selby is presented primarily as straight-man). Much of the film has the feel of a TV movie, though it could just be that cheesy aspects of the production are simply a product of the time: ugly fashions, ugly haircuts, ugly, boxy cars, etc, all set to an equally cheesy score by the usually impressive Jerry Fielding. In the movie's most creative action sequence, Greenberg and Hantz pursue suspects through a condemned tenement high rise that is being destroyed at that very moment by a wrecking ball. As the film progresses, it takes on a slightly more serious tone that makes for a some more moderately compelling scenes, such as when Greenberg's attempt to infiltrate a drug mob goes awry. The main problem is that there is absolutely no background given to the two heroes. We learn nothing about their motivations or personal lives outside of the police force, which leaves them as opaque and superficial characters. The film does benefit from an inspired supporting cast that includes the always-watchable Pat Hingle, Dan Frazer as an opportunistic police lieutenant who supports Greenberg and Hantz for his own career purposes and Joe Sirola in a fine performance as an arrogant police sergeant. Sheila E. Frazier supplied the only sex appeal as a hooker with a weakness for Greenberg.
The Super Cops is no work of art but if you also have a weakness for dirty cop movies of the 70s, it's worth a look. The region-free DVD contains the original trailer.
CLICK HERE TO ORDER FROM THE CINEMA RETRO MOVIE STORE
The short-lived 1960s TV series "The Green Hornet" was brought to ABC-TV by the producer of "Batman" in the hope the lightning would strike twice. It didn't. The show lasted but a single season. Whereas "Batman" was played for laughs, "The Green Hornet" was done as a serious adventure series and probably seemed too hokey even in 1966. Still, if one catches the re-runs on various networks today, it remains highly entertaining. The series afforded an early high profile role for Bruce Lee, who tended to occasionally overshadow top-billed star Van Williams. The show has never been released officially on video in the USA or UK, probably due to legal entanglements. (It took literally decades to get "Batman" released.) The dismal look of this rare ABC promo spot isn't much worse than the prints that are being telecast today. So let's hope someone, somewhere can give The Green Hornet and Kato a first-rate release on video in the near future.
The 1960s spawned a number of thrillers that were blatantly intended to emulate the style and content of Alfred Hitchcock's films. The best of the lot was Stanley Donen's "Charade" (1963) which can be described as the best Hitchcock movie that Hitchcock didn't direct. There were others of varying degrees of quality, all of which boasted one-word titles in the manner of many Hitchcock classics. Among them: "Arabaesque", "Masquerade" and "Mirage". Most, but not all, were breezy, lighthearted adventures that pitted a glamorous couple against exotic bad guys in equally exotic locations. Fitting snugly into this sub-genre was "Blindfold", a 1966 romp that paired Rock Hudson and Claudia Cardinale. The movie begins in Manhattan and focuses on Hudson as Dr. Bartholomew Snow, a revered psychiatrist to the rich who is also one of the city's most eligible bachelors, probably because he looks a lot like Rock Hudson. Snow has a comfortable life running a successful practice. His sole employee is his devoted secretary Smitty (an amusing Anne Seymour), an older woman who speaks to him more like a son than an employer. Smitty keeps a file on Snow's failed romantic relationships and constantly needles him about being a serial proposer. However, he always gets cold feet before he walks down the aisle and early in the film, we see him call off yet another engagement with a frustrated (but unseen) lover. One afternoon while enjoying a horseback ride in Central Park, Snow is approached by one General Prat (Jack Warden), who is affiliated with a top secret U.S. intelligence agency. He explains to Snow that one of his former patients, an esteemed government scientist named Arthur Vincenti (Alejandro Rey) has become the target of a crime syndicate that is looking to kidnap him and deliver him to a foreign power (presumably the Soviets) so that he can be forced to divulge important information. Pratt explains that Vincenti is under guard at a secret location that can't be divulged. He also tells Snow that Vincenti is in an emotionally fragile state and is babbling incoherently. He hopes that by seeing Snow once again, he will allow the doctor to treat him. Snow reluctantly agrees to help only to find that he can't be told where Vicenti is being held. To get there, he is taken on a plane to a remote area, then blindfolded and driven to the hideaway. Snow makes the trip on numerous occasions but finds that Vincenti is not responsive to his treatments.
Back in Manhattan, Snow is accosted by a beautiful, irate young woman, Vicky (Cardinale), who is Vicenti's sister. She believes that her brother has been kidnapped and that Snow is partly to blame. You can pretty much take it from there, as these types of films go. The two squabble and yell at each other and then become romantically involved. Before long, they learn that both Arthur and the General have been kidnapped. In order to save them, Snow must use his memory and sense perception to try to recreate the journey to the lost hideaway he had visited many times. This is only one of the more far-fetched elements of the script and it isn't very convincingly brought off. However, "Blindfold" is a lot of fun thanks to the charisma of Hudson and Cardinale, who have real chemistry together. Director Philip Dunne keeps the pace brisk but goes off course with a fight set inside a Central Park boat house that is played with enough slapstick to mirror an episode of "Batman". Still, the film gets better as it proceeds and the finale, which finds Hudson and Cardinale trying to penetrate a dangerous swamp to thwart the villains, is very well done. Dunne, who co-wrote the screenplay with W.H. Menger based on Lucille Fletcher's novel, blends action and comedy rather successfully and the film is aided by a fine turn by Guy Stockwell as a villain with a stutter. There are also funny supporting turns by Brad Dexter and Vito Scotti. Jack Warden, as usual, is in top form as the cigar-chomping general.
"Blindfold" doesn't approach "Charade" in terms of style or wit but it's never dull and one can do worse than to spend 102 minutes in the company of Rock Hudson and Claudia Cardinale. The film has been released by Kino Lorber on Blu-ray. The transfer looks terrific but the only extras are the original trailer and trailers for other thrillers available from the company.
In 1971, a well-connected Dutch prostitute named Xavier Hollander published her memoirs under the title of "The Happy Hooker". The book became an international bestseller with its lighthearted recollections of her adventures in "the world's oldest profession". "The Happy Hooker" delighted readers who were relishing the new-found sexual freedoms that came about in the 1960s. Women, who would have been chastised for reading such a book ten years earlier, could openly read it on buses and in subway cars because everyone else was reading it. The content was erotic enough to be titillating but humorous enough to give it enough cachet to not be labeled pornographic. How much of it was true? Who knows. bestselling author Robin Moore ("The Green Berets", "The French Connection"), who actually took down Hollander's recorded comments on her life, came up with the title and the book was likely ghostwritten by Yvonne Dunleavy. With the success of the book, it was no surprise that a few years later Hollywood brought Hollander's exploits to the screen the film version of "The Happy Hooker". Released in 1975, it starred Lynn Redgrave in the title role. Not wanting to alienate mainstream audiences, the film was made as a saucy comedy. It was followed two years later by "The Happy Hooker Goes to Washington" with Joey Heatherton portraying Hollander. The third and final film in the official trilogy (we won't count an unauthorized hardcore production) was "The Happy Hooker Goes Hollywood", which was released in 1980 with Martine Beswick (billed here as "Beswicke") taking over the role.The film has been released as a Blu-ray special edition by Scorpion.
"The Happy Hooker Goes Hollywood" follows the tradition of the previous two films in that it stresses zany comedy. However, there are some surprisingly steamy softcore sex scenes between some very recognizable actors that makes for a bizarre mixture of slapstick and eroticism. It also features an eclectic cast of first-rate second bananas who finally get some plum roles on the big screen, albeit in a Cannon Films production. Cannon, of course, was notorious for being a highly profitable "cheese factory", churning out many modestly-budgeted exploitation flicks for undiscriminating audiences. The film opens with a wheelchair-bound Phil Silvers (yes, that Phil Silvers!) as legendary studio mogul William Warkoff, an obnoxious one-time titan of the industry whose fortunes have been in decline. When he reads that Xavier Hollander intends to bring her bestselling book to the big screen, he dispatches his long-suffering right-hand men Joseph Rottman (Richard Deacon) and his son Robby (Chris Lemmon) as well as Lionel Lamely (Adam West), to secure the screen rights by whatever underhanded methods are necessary. Lionel arranges a meeting with Xavier, who is immediately attracted to him. (In fact, she finds most men irresistible and even seduces her chauffeur en route to the meeting.) Before long, Lionel and Xavier are engaging in steamy sex sessions. She falls for him and agrees to allow Warkoff Studios to produce her film- that is, until she learns that Lionel actually has a longtime girlfriend and has been misleading her. She then announces she will make the film herself and secure her own financing, which outrages Warkoff. In order to raise money, Xavier employs her ever-ready squad of equally happy hookers. She sets up an exotic bordello in which men can live out any fantasy, including having sex with a call girl dressed like Little Bo Peep. (Imagine "Westworld" for fetishists.) Warkoff strikes a more lucrative deal with Xavier but intends to deceive her and cheat her out of ownership rights to the film but she is savvy enough to turn the tables on him.
Directed by Alan Roberts, "Hollywood" has a goofy charm primarily because of the good-natured performances of the cast. It's nice to see Martine Beswick in a rare leading role and she plays the part with a deft combination of wicked wit and eroticism. (Beswick unabashedly appears topless numerous times in the course of the film). Adam West, who looks he had barely aged a day since playing Batman two decades previously, also gets a chance to showcase his comedic abilities and admirable physique. The sex scene between Beswick and West's characters is a bit eye-opening because it's one of the few elements of the film that isn't played for laughs and there is some kind of pop culture appeal to watching the Uncaped Crusader getting it on with a two-time Bond girl. Phil Silvers overdoes the obnoxious aspect of his character but it's still enjoyable seeing him in a feature film this late in his career. Richard Deacon, who made a career of playing sycophantic "yes-men", is in top form and he and West share an amusing scene in which they are forced to dress in drag. Chris Lemmon is very appealing as a naive young man who gets caught up in Xavier's world with appreciable results. He exudes the same comic timing and mannerisms of his legendary father, Jack. One of the most unintentionally amusing aspects of the film is the virtual beatification of Xavier Hollander, whose approval of the movie must have been a prerequisite. In any event, she is referred to as a titan of business and a living legend, when, in fact, by 1980 her star had diminished appreciably. The whole plot climaxes (if you'll pardon the pun) at the "World Premiere" of the film...which is also unintentionally amusing because it is only a grand event by Cannon standards, though they did spring for getting a spotlight and a few dozen extras to act like a screaming mob as the stars arrive at a nondescript L.A. theater.
One
of the most surprising things about director Roger Christian’s 1982 chiller The
Sender, which screams America from almost every fibre, is that it’s British
made. With a cast and crew of varied nationality and narratively set in America
– location work took place in Georgia – all the studio work for the Paramount
Pictures production was actually shot on stages at Shepperton in the UK.
British
born Christian himself was a former Academy Award winning art director on the
first Star Wars (and a nominee in the same category for Alien). On the other
end of the ‘accomplishments to be proud of’ scale, however, he’s the man
responsible for the woeful Battlefield Earth, so it’s fair to say his cinematic
career was mixed. The Sender, his debut in the director’s chair, resides on the
upper end of that scale.
Following
a failed attempt at suicide on a public beach, a nameless young man suffering
from amnesia (Zeljko Ivanek) is committed to a sanatorium for psychiatric
assessment by Dr Gail Farmer (Kathryn Harrold). Before long she begins
experiencing phantasmagorias, at first confounding, then progressively
disturbing. It transpires her patient, who’s tagged John Doe #83, is a
telepath, but to a level beyond his control, cursed with unconsciously transferring
the conjurings of his dreams and fears into the minds of others, skewing their
sense of reality. After she’s visited by Doe’s subtly manipulative mother
(Shirley Knight), Farmer believes she's starting to get to grips with the lad,
but she hasn’t accounted for how deeply he’s penetrated her psyche and how
great an influence he has on her ability to distinguish between the physical
and the hallucinatory.
The
Sender’s ability to toy with an audience’s perception of what is and what isn’t
real gifts it with the tropes of one of the better entries in the series
spawned by Wes Craven’s A Nightmare on Elm Street – minus its infamous child
molesting maniac, of course. The waking dream sequences are expertly realised,
several of them genuinely chilling, and writer Thomas Baum taps into a number
of base human fears with his gleefully dark and disturbing script. For example,
there’s a full blooded yikes moment in which it goes unnoticed by surgical
staff that the patient on the table has woken during an invasive procedure. If
that doesn’t touch a nerve, little will, although murophobics should definitely
approach with caution! The film’s highlight hallucinatory sequence is served up
in a marvellously staged setpiece during an attempt to administer shock therapy
treatment to Doe, wherein all manner of telekinetic hell breaks loose.
Yet
for all the horrors The Sender has stashed in its pocket, there’s a curious undercurrent
of melancholia coursing through its veins. It’s a facet that enables the viewer
to empathise with Doe, who, much like Carrie White before him, hasn’t chosen to
walk a destructive telepathic path, but rather has been pushed that way by
circumstance rooted in a toxic maternal relationship.
Of
the cast there are several standouts. American Kathryn Harrold, who over the
period of just a few years scooped starring roles opposite the likes of Steve
McQueen (The Hunter, 1980) and Arnold Schwarzenegger (Raw Deal, 1986), is
excellent and – let’s not skirt it, seriously gorgeous – as the beleaguered
psychiatrist. Christian couldn’t have chosen a better leading lady, her
authoritative confidence masking an endearing fragility. Perhaps the most
recognisable among the cast’s British contingent is Paul Freeman, who brings
class to everything in which he appears and pleasingly gets plenty to do here.
As the head doctor at the sanatorium, the impotent voice of reason amidst the
less and less easy to explain away dramatics, he commands the screen whenever
he’s on. Shirley Knight meanwhile delivers an elegantly eerie performance as
Doe’s mother, arriving to impart an earnest warning about her son, then
departing with ethereal serenity. And then there’s Slovenian actor Zeljko
Ivanek in the first of what thus far tallies in excess of a hundred film and
television roles, large and small; he most recently cropped up in 2017’s Three
Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri. His John Doe is at once scary and
sympathetic, and on the strength of his stellar performance it’s easy to see
why he continued in the profession with such success.
With
moody cinematography from debuting DoP Roger Pratt (Brazil, Batman) and a score
by Trevor Jones (The Dark Crystal, Angel Heart) that spans the thrill-infused
to the breezily melodic, The Sender is arguably Roger Christian’s most enjoyable
film and well worth spending time with.
Arrow
Video have done a splendid job with their restoration, which looks absolutely
luscious on their new Blu-ray release. The supplements comprise an audio
commentary from Roger Christian, interviews with Thomas Baum and Paul Freeman,
an overview of psychic horror in the cinema from genre guru Kim Newman, a
decent sized step-through stills gallery, a trawl through all the extended,
alternate and deleted material in Baum’s shooting script, and a trailer. And
what would any Arrow release be without reversible sleeve art and an attractive
limited edition collectors’ booklet?
In contemporary cinema, it would appear that virtually every major action film is based on super hero from the comic book universe. Yet, decades ago, superhero flicks were considered to be a dicey bet by most major studios, despite the success of Christopher Reeve Superman films, which had been deemed as having run out of steam. All of that changed with the 1989 release of Tim Burton's dark, revisionist interpretation of Batman. Writing in The Washington Post, Michael Cavna explores how the success and influence of that film led to the glut of superhero blockbusters we are seeing today. Click here to read.
Retro movie lover Steven Thompson has put together a marvelous web site that pays tribute to his favorite year: 1966. It's hard to argue with his logic, especially if you were growing up then. The Beatles, James Bond, Batman, The Man From U.N.C.L.E., British invasion rock, great comic books, and so much more all at your fingertips. The site features vintage ads for movies, TV shows and products of the day, as well as vintage comic strips and film clips. Click here to view
Ever wonder what toy factories in China do with leftover parts? Generally, they try to make use of them by combining them in the creation of other toys, even when it isn't appropriate. In a hilarious slide show on Flavorwire, Jason Bailey has a remarkable collection of the worst bootleg superhero toys ever created. How about Superman using a parachute or riding a horse? Most of the toys change the name of the character, as though we're not supposed to believe he could possibly be based on Superman, Batman or Spiderman. Thus, we get Specialman, Spaderman and Silver Bat (who also rides a horse!) Click here to view
The James Bond films may represent the longest-running movie series produced by the same company, but ol' 007 doesn't hold a candle to the longevity of Sherlock Holmes as a big screen hero. Holmes has been a cinematic staple since the silent era and though his popularity has soared and waned over the decades, he has remained a presence in popular culture throughout the world. In recent years, younger people have embraced Holmes as a hero thanks to hip, updated interpretations of the character on television and the big screen. However, there were long periods in which Holmes had disappeared from motion pictures. The films starring Basil Rathbone and Nigel Bruce were enormously popular from their first appearance in 1939 through their final cinematic adventure in 1946. Holmes and Watson would not re-emerge on the big screen again until Hammer Films produced the first color Holmes movie, "The Hound of the Baskervilles" in 1959. The plan was to launch a Holmes series for the studio starring Peter Cushing and Andre Morrell. Although the film is very well regarded today, it was not a financial success and the series never materialized. The next major studio release of a Holmes adventure was "A Study in Terror", which has been released on Blu-ray by Mill Creek. The movie starred John Neville as Holmes and Donald Houston as Watson- and both of them performed admirably in the handsomely-mounted 1965 production. The concept of Holmes facing off against Jack the Ripper has been done numerous times to date both in literature and on the screen, but "A Study in Terror" was the first Holmes property to exploit the duel-of-wits between the fictional detective and the real-life serial killer.
"A Study in Terror" has the look and feel of a Hammer Studios film of the period and one expects Peter Cushing or Christopher Lee to pop up somewhere along the line, but we must console ourselves with a very fine cast of character actors, each of whom is used well thanks to the intelligently-written screenplay by Donald and Derek Ford and the assured direction of James Hill, who would go on to direct "Born Free". Among the standout appearances: John Fraser, Barbara Windsor, Adrienne Corri, Anthony Quayle as a seemingly devoted surgeon who might just be the killer, Georgia Brown as a beer hall singer, Peter Carsten as a shady pub owner, Robert Morley as Mycroft Holmes- and keep an eye out for young Judi Dench. Frank Finlay appears as Inspector Lestrade, but his role is frustratingly underwritten. The film has a lush production design that masks the fact that virtually all of it is shot in the studio, with the exception of some exteriors of stately mansions, and the score by John Scott is appropriately atmospheric. The story opens with the horrendous murders of prostitutes in the Whitechapel district of London, a seedy place in the Victorian era where pollution was often so bad that one could barely see across the street, a factor that aided Jack the Ripper in escaping justice for his crimes. When police can't solve the string of murders, Holmes and Watson take up the cause and, as one might expect, the list of suspects includes a number of red herrings. This was the first Holmes movie to benefit from the new-found screen liberties. Thus, there is a blatant sexual element that would have been unthinkable a decade before. In addition to plenty of heaving bosoms and boisterous bar girls, there is also more violence and gruesome elements than had ever been seen previously in a Holmes feature film. It also features Holmes and Watson demonstrating their prowess with fisticuffs. As with most Holmes mysteries, the fewer details divulged, the better the element of surprise for viewers. Suffice it to say that the story moves at a brisk pace and that Neville and Watson both give spirited performances that should have led to sequels. Alas, "A Study in Terror" was not a boxoffice hit. The lack of marquee names along with a preposterous marketing campaign that emulated the "Batman" TV series (referring to Holmes as "The Original Caped Crusader!") seemed to ensure that the film would not be a popular success. However, that doesn't dilute its many qualities. The Mill Creek Blu-ray has an excellent transfer that does justice to the rich color schemes and fine set designs. Unfortunately, there are no bonus extras. Do we recommend it? The answer should be elementary: of course.
The
year 1989 brought us such Oscar-winning pictures as Driving Miss Daisy, Born on
the Fourth of July, Dead Poets
Society, and, of course, the blockbuster Batman. One picture, though, always stood out for me and was my personal
favorite of the year—Steven Soderbergh’s remarkable feature film debut, Sex, Lies, and Videotape. The Academy
nominated it only for Original Screenplay. The Cannes Film Festival, however,
awarded it the Palme d’Or and the
Best Actor honor for James Spader. The movie put Soderbergh on the map,
establishing him as an innovative, provocative filmmaker who was unafraid to
take on challenging subjects.
The
Criterion Collection has produced a new, restored 4K digital transfer and a new
5.1 surround mix (from the original sound elements), supervised by Soderbergh.
The results, in the director’s own words that appear in an on-screen comment on
the restoration, are such that one should “throw away†all previous home video
(DVD, Blu-Ray) versions of the film—this is the definitive edition.
Made
for only a little over a million dollars, the story is really a chamber drama
of sorts that focuses on four characters. There is Ann (wonderfully played by
Andie MacDowell), a sexually uptight and frigid housewife married to John
(Peter Gallagher), a successful, go-getter lawyer who happens to be a lying
philanderer. He’s having an affair with Ann’s precocious and definitely not sexually uptight sister, Cynthia (Laura
San Giacomo), who works as a bartender. Enter Graham, an old college friend of
John’s, who has returned to town after nine years—and he is one strange dude.
James Spader delivers a nuanced, sensitive, but assuredly slightly perversely
skewed performance—one that pretty much defined the kinds of roles he would
play for years to come. Like Ann, he, too, is sexually inhibited due to
something that happened with his college girlfriend.
These
days the only way Graham “gets off†is by videotaping various female
acquaintances and interviewing them about their sex lives—and then viewing them
when he’s alone.
While
Ann suspects her husband is betraying her, she finds Graham oddly fascinating
and they become friends until she discovers Graham’s “habit.†This proclivity
is not a problem for Cynthia, though—she happily makes a video for Graham.
How
things turn out for the quartet of characters plays out like therapy. In fact,
Ann is seeing a therapist throughout the picture. Soderbergh has subtly
structured and presented the story such that, in many ways, we, the audience,
are the therapists observing the characters as they reveal their secrets.
In
1989, the material was shocking. Without any nudity or explicit sex scenes, Sex, Lies, and Videotape manages to be
extremely visceral, voyeuristic, and, yes, sexy. It explores how the most
intimate desires of human beings might seem kinky or perverse to some, and yet
be perfectly normal for others. The way the “therapy†of the film addresses
these hang-ups in the final moments is revelatory. Soderbergh may have never
written or directed a more perfect picture.
The
new transfer looks and sounds remarkable. An audio commentary from 1998,
featuring Soderbergh and filmmaker Neil LaBute, accompanies the film.
The
supplements are up to Criterion’s usual high standards. There’s a new
introduction to the film by Soderbergh, along with vintage interviews with the
writer/director from 1992 and 1990. A new documentary on the making of the
film, featuring actors MacDowell, Gallagher, and San Giacomo, is especially
informative and insightful. James Spader makes an appearance in a vintage 1989
appearance on the Today Show. There’s
a deleted scene with commentary by Soderbergh. A new conversation between sound
editor/re-recording mixer Larry Blake and composer Cliff Martinez explores the
challenges of the location shoot in Baton Rouge. Finally, Blake takes us on a
journey through the evolution of sound restorations. The booklet features an
essay by critic Amy Taubin and excerpts from Soderbergh’s 1990 book about the
film.
Sex, Lies, and
Videotape is
still relevant and powerful. The picture reveals a young filmmaker who is
exploding with talent, and four brave actors who dig deeply within to reveal
all. It’s a masterpiece of independent filmmaking. Pick it up.
Steve Thompson's addictive blog 1966 My Favorite Year has a wealth of pop culture photos and videos pertaining to what was hot during that glorious one year period. There is an abundance of Batman-related posts including Batman "Sparking" Cola by Cott, which we confess we don't recall back in the day but was apparently marketed as the champagne of sodas. You'd need quite a few dollars in your utility belt to afford a can or bottle of this today. Click here to visit the blog...it's not only groovy, it's downright fab!
The web site Geek Tyrant presents evidence to bolster their opinion that, in the world of Batman actors, Adam West is still the guy who kicks ass most. Writer Mick Joest displays five key things that West's Batman could do that no other actor ever attempted in their interpretation of the Caped Crusader...Click here to read and view clips..
Published for the first time anywhere, in
celebration of the 100th anniversary of Mickey Spillane's birth, come two short
novels in the same book. "The Last Stand" (Spillane's final novel) is
preceded by "A Bullet for Satisfaction," an unfinished manuscript
that was finalized by Spillane's long-time collaborator Max Allan Collins. Both
stories are satisfying reads. The book has been published by the Hard Case Crime imprint from Titan Books.
Mickey Spillane is best known for his
character Mike Hammer, the fictional P.I. that redefined the "action
hero" and spawned countless imitators. Unlike private investigators before
him, Mike Hammer was a merciless executor of villains who slept with countless
beautiful, willing women. Sound like anyone we know? The first Mike Hammer
novel, "I, The Jury," was published in 1947, six years prior to Ian
Fleming's James Bond debut, "Casino Royale." It may be argued that if
Fleming was indeed James Bond's literary father, Spillane and Mike Hammer could
be considered, if not grandfathers, then influences. Fleming admitted to that
but he also had an influence on Spillane. The mid-1960s saw Spillane introduce
a new character, Tiger Mann, an agent for a private organization dedicated to
wiping out Communism. Tiger Mann lasted four novels.
If there is such a thing as a
"Tough-Guy-Renaissance-Man," Mickey Spillane was it. After a brief
stint in college he worked summers as a lifeguard and for a period of time was
a trapeze artist for Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus.Through a friendship with
fellow Gimbels department store employee Joe Gill, he began his career
as a comic book writer in 1940, eventually writing an eight-page story a day on
a diverse number of characters from different publishing companies, including
Captain Marvel, Superman, Batman and Captain America. He enlisted in the United
States Army Air Corps on December 8, 1941, the day after Pearl Harbor and
became a fighter pilot and flight instructor.
"I, The Jury" was written in just
19 days and sent off to publisher E. P. Dutton. Between the hardcover released
in 1947 and the subsequent paperback a year later, the novel sold more than 6
1/2 million copies in the US alone. A new career began, along with a
reinvention of the genre.
Mickey Spillane was also an actor. His first
leading role was given to him by John Wayne, who hired him in 1954 to appear
with Pat O'Brien and lion-tamer Clyde Beatty in the Wayne-produced film
"Ring of Fear," which Spillane, without credit, also co-wrote, although,
he did receive a white Jaguar as a gift from producer Wayne. He also starred as
his most famous creation, Mike Hammer, in the 1963 British produced film
"The Girl Hunters" for which he received favorable notices acting
alongside such veterans as Lloyd Nolan and future “Goldfinger†actress Shirley
Eaton. But perhaps for many of us of a particular age, he was most well known
for his appearances in the Miller Lite commercials as his alter-ego of Hammer
along with "Doll," Lee Meredith of "The Producers" fame.
First up in the book is "A Bullet for
Satisfactionâ€, which presents a very Hammeresque character in a Hammeresque
story. Told in Spillane's traditional first-person style, Detective Capt. Rod
Dexter is both the hero (anti-hero?) and narrator. The book opens with Dexter
investigating the murder of the politically connected Mayes Rogers. But no one
seems to be talking. In an argument with the D.A, he loses his temper; "Then
I'll just continue my investigation of the Rogers’ murder and go anywhere and
everywhere it leads me. And before I'm through with you, you'll be doing plenty
of talking". Not
surprisingly, he loses his job. He takes it on his own to continue the
investigation unofficially. The web spins, the clock turns and he finds himself
getting deeper and deeper into trouble as he comes closer to unraveling a
conspiracy. Of course he finds time for a dalliance, this time with the sister
of Rogers’ widow.
Much like Mike Hammer, Det. Dexter is a man
driven by vengeance. And much like Hammer, Dexter has a lot of luck with dames.
When he, along with one of the women he seduces are kidnapped, Dexter diagnoses
the situation thusly: "The other one grabbed Jean. She tried to break
away and he slapped her until she was still. He was dead - he just didn't know
it yet." A short time later: "Behind the wheel now, Bacon smiled
and let a low, rumbling laugh come deep from his throat. 'What have you got
against a little joy ride, Dexter?' He laughed again. So did the guy in the
back. Killing them would be a pleasure."
Yes, Mickey Spillane's work can be a guilty
pleasure but he never fails to satisfy. I guess that's why sales of his books
have now topped 225 million.
The lead story here, "The Last
Stand", is an entirely different type of book. First of all, it's told in
the third-person, not Spillane's typical style. There are no shoot outs.
There's no sex. There's a hell of a terrific story, though.
Joe Gillian is a pilot who, when his vintage
BT 13A airplane loses power, lands "in the middle of a desert that was
someplace in the United States where nobody would ever look to find him and, so
far, not even a vulture was eyeing him for supper."
Drinking a beer (Miller Lite, natch -
Spillane got a plug in) to pass the time, he meets Sequoia Pete, an Indian from
a local reservation who's "fossil hunting" but who has lost his horse.
They share a "Tastes great, less filling, right?"beer and try to find their way back to
Pete's hogan. The buddy movie begins.
The love interest shows up soon after in the
form of Pete's sister who is as brilliant as she is sexy and Joe finds himself
pulled into a whirlwind of trouble that involves criminals, G-men, the tribe
and a secret that could lead to incredible wealth and power.
Then there's Many Thunders, aka Big Arms. "They
call him Big Arms for a reason," Running Fox said softly. "He picks
up train wheels. He plays with tree trunks. Sometimes he lifts cars right off
the ground." He also considers Running Fox to be his woman and has
hurt many other men who he thought were a threat to his claim. And he's going
to fight Joe on Feast Day.
"The Last Stand" is a terrific romp
through the western desert of the US with colorful, well-fleshed characters and
a fine story. It's written cinematically. You can almost picture the people and
the world they inhabit.
I thoroughly enjoyed both these stories both
times I read them. I can't say this about too many books, but when I turned the
last page of "The Last Stand" I turned the book over, turned to the
first page and started to read it again.
Michael
Fassbender plays a Norwegian detective with the high school bully magnet name
of “Harry Hole†on the icy trail of a serial killer who always leaves a snowman
at his crime scenes. Based on the, um,
Hole literary series by Norwegian writer Jo NesbØ, the thriller also stars
Rebecca Ferguson as a damaged policewoman trying to solve the crimes, Oscar-winner
J.K. Simmons as a creepy industrialist and, curiously, Val Kilmer as an
alcoholic detective who first opens up the case. (Kilmer’s rumored bout with cancer has sadly
taken a toll as the actor looks nothing like the blonde Adonis he was in Top Gun and Batman Forever. It also sounded like he was dubbed throughout.) Although the Nordic scenery looks bleakly majestic
due to Dion Beebe’s stunning cinematography and soaring helicopter shots, the
plot twists and turns into a slushy mess.
Directed
by Swedish filmmaker Tomas Alfredson (Tinker,
Tailor, Soldier, Spy), The Snowman
careens along several avenues of investigation in an effort to add layers of
complexity… but promising leads fizzle out and a sex trafficking subplot seems
to die on the vine. (There’s also an
intruder scene in the detective’s shabby apartment that makes no sense.) All
that said, The Snowman is not a total
loss as it has some gripping moments and Fassbender is, as always, a powerful screen
presence.For the gore fans, the shadowy
killer employs a unique and gruesome mechanical device to dispatch his victims.Fassbender must have sacrificed half a lung to
play the heavy-smoking Harry Hole (!), but if that character were the Stage 4
lush portrayed on the screen, how could he function so effectively, noticing
subtle clues and putting the pieces together?That also didn’t quite wash. The Snowman is a big budget, well-made
film with an impressive scope and feel, but somehow it left me a bit… cold.
Hollywood studios are still licking their wounds over one of the worst years in memory in terms of boxoffice performance, though there are signs of a strong final quarter. Still, the guys and gals in the corner offices can't get out of a rut when it comes to lack of imagination. When they have a good thing, their only strategy seems to be to over-indulge in it. As David Sims writes in the Atlantic, Warner Bros. is planning three- yes, three- simultaneous comic book-related films featuring the Joker. The abundance of superhero films is the latest trend and, as usual, studios are over-indulging in it to the point that the bloom will come off the rose with audiences that are always seeking the next shiny object. Eventually, the quality of the films, which are all similar in content, begins to diminish and all the CGI effects imaginable can't make up for an uninspired script. There's already signs that audience exhaustion with superhero flicks is already setting in, despite the great success of some of the franchises. Universal is in the same dilemma: trying to dust off its classic Universal Monsters franchise for modern audiences despite anemic response to their updated version of "The Mummy" starring Tom Cruise. The recent remake of Stephen King's "It" indicates there is still a big market for horror films....but let's remember, the film is still a remake of a TV production. The lack of imagination and risk-taking among the major studios has left independent productions and art house films to dominate the market for mature audiences who want to see something a bit different than young women being pursued by maniacal killers. Perhaps the success of Christopher Nolan's "Dunkirk" might embolden the studios to have more faith in diversity- but I wouldn't be surprised to see a film about the battle of Gettysburg somehow involving Superman and Batman. Click here to read.
Here's another batch of rare TV promotional ads, this time from 1966. Highlights include Adam West as Batman pitching savings bonds to kids on behalf of President Johnson so they can help support the Vietnam War (!); The Monkees in an ad for Rice Krispies, Elizabeth Montgomery in "Bewitched", Robert Loggia as "T.H.E Cat" and many more. Enjoy!
There was a time once, in the far long ago, when
a kid, on any given Saturday, could take a quarter from his allowance and spend
an entire afternoon at his local neighborhood movie theater. The “Saturday Matineeâ€,
as it was called, was a weekly event that usually included the showing of a
couple of cartoons, a bicycle race, a Three Stooges short, a double feature, a serial
and a popcorn fight or two. Serials, in case you don’t know, were short,
two-reel chapters of a story that usually ran for 12 chapters, each chapter
ending in some kind of a cliffhanger in which the hero of the story seemed to
face imminent doom. You’d have to come back the next Saturday to learn how the
he got out of it.
Several studios produced serials during the Cliffhanger’s
heyday, which spanned the period from the 1930’s to the 1950s. They leaned
heavily on newspaper comic strips for their sources. Universal brought Flash
Gordon to life in perhaps three of the best serials ever made with Buster
Crabbe in the starring role. Columbia released a couple of Batman serials as
well as Superman, the Phantom, and Mandrake the Magician. But the studio that
produced more serials than any other—and some would argue the cream of the crop—was
Republic Studios. In terms of production values, scripts, stunts, and clever
cliffhanger chapter endings, no one else came close. And without doubt, one of
Republic’s best was “Daredevils of the Red Circle†(1939).
“Daredevils of the Red Circle.†What a great
title. Has certain ring to it, doesn’t it? You might wonder how they came up
with a title like that. Well, first of all, you need to know that as the story
begins a deranged criminal has escaped from prison. Harry Crowl, who refers to
himself only by his prison serial number, 39013 (pronounced Thirty
Nine-Oh-Thirteen) was sent to prison by millionaire philanthropist Horace
Granville (Miles Mander). Crowl has vowed revenge on Granville, and has
dedicated himself to destroying all of the wealthy industrialist’s various
properties. Crowl is played by none other than Charles Middleton, best known as
Ming the Merciless in the Flash Gordon chapter plays. Said to be a really nice
guy in real life, Middleton’s craggy face, hollow eyes and deep menacing voice
kept him in demand as one of the best movie villains ever to appear on the
silver screen.
As the story opens he has already set his sights
on the Granville Amusement Center as his next target. It so happens that a trio
of circus daredevils is appearing there, including aerialist Gene Townley
(Charles Quigley), escape artist Bert Knowles (Dave Sharpe), and strong man Tiny
Dawson (Herman Brix). Quigley is a barely known actor who never gained much of
a reputation but he does a good job here as a true blue hero. He probably could
have been cast as Captain Marvel if he’d had a better agent. Dave Sharpe was
one of Republic’s best stunt men, and although he was doubled for some of the
more dangerous stunts this time around, in this one he took quite a few flying head-first
leaps and had an abundance of fist fights. Herman Brix played Tarzan in an
earlier serial filmed in Guatemal and later had a fairly distinguished acting
career after he changed his name to Bruce Bennett.
But let’s get back to explaining how they
came up with the serial’s title. Thirty Nine-Oh-Thirteen’s men set fire to the
Granville Amusement Center which results in a personal tragedy for the trio of
acrobats. Now out of a job anyway, they offer their services to Granville to
help track down Thirty Nine-Oh-Thirteen
and bring him to justice. Granville has a daughter, Blanche, (Carole Landis)
who lives in the Granville Mansion with her father. Granville is a sickly old
man who can only communicate with visitors by telephone from inside a sanitized
room on the other side of a glass barrier. (Did you know Blake Edwards wrote a
character like that in one of his scripts for an episode of “Peter Gunn� Guess
he was a Daredevils fan.) There are a couple of big surprises in the first
chapter alone, including the fact that Granville isn’t exactly who he appears
to be. As the story progresses chapter by chapter, the Daredevils receive help
from a mysterious, cloaked, and hooded figure who creeps around the Granville
mansion leaving cards with clues and hints written on them, all of them signed
by someone calling himself The Red Circle. Thus the title “Daredevils of the
Red Circleâ€.
For 12 thrilling chapters, the daredevils,
using their individual skills and strengths, manage to escape Thirty
Nine-Oh-Thirteen’s fiendishly clever machinations and death-dealing devices. Among
other perils, they avoid drowning in a flooded tunnel, being burned alive, gassed
to death, blown up, and disintegrated by a death ray. Will they finally capture
Thirty Nine-Oh-Thirteen and discover who is the mysterious Red Circle? You won’t
find out until Chapter 12, “Flight to Doom,†where all is revealed.
“Daredevils†was directed by William Witney
and John English, the team that turned out 17 of Republic’s 66 serials. This
was number 14 for them. Witney handled the action scenes, English did the
dialog scenes. The script was by written by five screenwriters including Barry
Shipman, Franklin Adreon, and Ronald C. Davidson, all veteran serial writers
who were adept at devising clever and believable cliffhanger chapter endings.
Kino Lorber has done another terrific
restoration job on the Blu-ray of “Daredevils of the Red Circle,†just as they
did with Roy Rogers’ “Sunset in the West,†reviewed earlier. The picture
quality of the 1080p transfer from a 4K scan is outstanding. A lot of the
serial was filmed outdoors in various locations around Los Angeles, all of
which look great in high def. It’s a fascinating look at LA before it was
ruined by the freeways, over-development, traffic congestion and
overpopulation.
Informative and entertaining commentary on
several of the chapters is provided by film historian Michael Schlesinger on a
separate audio track. The disc also includes some trailers for other KL Studio
Classics releases. I recommend you get this one. Just make sure you have plenty
of popcorn and soda pop on hand. I guarantee once you start Chapter One, “The
Monstrous Plot,†it will be hard to switch it off. Thirty Nine-Oh-Thirteen and
the Daredevils will keep you hooked for the whole three and half hours.
Adam West, one of the most enduring pop culture figures of the 1960s, has passed away at age 88 after a battle with leukemia. West was a hunky young actor laboring in bit parts in films such as "The Young Philadelphians", "Robinson Crusoe on Mars" and co-starring with the Three Stooges in their last feature film "The Outlaws is Coming!" when he got the opportunity to audition for the role of Batman in ABC's new TV series. The essence of the show was that it would be played as a broad comedy. West impressed the producers with his ability to pretend his character wasn't in on the joke. West played Batman and his alter ego Bruce Wayne as stalwart, incorrupt heroes. He approved young Burt Ward to play the role of Robin despite not having any previous acting experience. The show, which premiered in January 1966, took off like a rocket especially with young people who appreciated the funky humor and the eye-popping production designs. ABC decided to emulate the old Batman serials but presenting the show as two half-hour episodes on consecutive nights, the first one always ending with a cliffhanger. Many actors of repute competed to play villains in the show including Cesar Romero, Burgess Meredith, Vincent Price and many others. In 1966, Fox rushed a feature film based on the series into production with West and Ward starring.
The show also inspired the short-lived TV series "The Green Hornet", which gave Bruce Lee his first dose of fame. By early 1968, however, the show's novelty had worn off and it was canceled. West struggled to find acting gigs. In 1971 he won good reviews for a dramatic performance in "The Marriage of a Young Stockbroker", playing a supporting role. West was proud of the film but it wasn't a hit and his career went back into the doldrums. West never went out of style, however, and make lucrative appearances throughout the decades at fan conventions around the world.
He also got a late career boost by providing the voiceover work for the hit animated TV comedy series "The Family Guy" as well as for the "Batman" animated series. West also enjoyed a surge in popularity whenever a new "Batman" feature film would go into production and he was a participant in the long-awaited home video release of the "Batman" TV series in 2014. In 2013, Netflix ran a documentary "Starring Adam West" in which the actor reflected on his career. For more click here.
“Beautiful as Aphrodite, wise as Athena,
stronger than Hercules and swifter than Mercury!â€
By Joe Elliott
Wonder
Woman is one of the true wonders of comic book fandom. She first made her
appearance during the Second World War and more than 75 years later she’s still
going strong. Throughout the decades she has been transformed numerous times,
yet through it all she has for the most part maintained her basic form and
personality, one driven by a thirst for justice and in defense of the
defenseless. Born of Amazonian royalty, she is Princess Diana of Themyscira, a sub-continent
located somewhere in the blue mists of time, also known as Paradise Island. Her
mother, Queen Hippolyta, is the ruler of this all-female happy domain, a
position that Diana herself will presumably fill one day. That is, until a man
shows up. Steve Trevor, a U.S. Army pilot, literally drops out of the sky, and,
badly injured, into the care of the Amazons. Trevor is the first male Diana
ever sees and she immediately falls head-over-heels in love. She is eventually
chosen to fly the convalescing pilot back to Washington in her invisible plane
where she enlists in the fight for “America, the last citadel of democracy, and
of equal rights for women.†She at first disguises herself as Steve’s
caretaker, the demure nurse Diana Prince. However, it isn’t long until she bursts
upon the public scene as the tiara crowned, red bustiered, magic lassoed,
“Amazonium†braceleted, kick-booty female warrior we all know and many of us
love. She will spend the rest of the war fighting the Axis powers, along with
an assortment of other bad actors. Following the end of the conflict her job
description broadens out to include a greater variety of crusader of justice
duties, along with a few weird detours here and there.
Created by psychologist William “Charles Moulton†Marston (yes, a man!),
Wonder Woman was given a special mission from the start. Marston believed there
weren’t any real female superheroes that young girls could look up to and
emulate. "Not even girls want to be girls so long as our
feminine archetype lacks force, strength, and power,†he is quoted as
saying. Wanting to change this, he came up with the idea of a female comic book
character who had all the physical strength and moral courage of a Superman or
Batman, but also was smart, intuitive, and, yes, sexy. In Marston words, a
super hero with “the allure of a good and beautiful woman." In addition to
all her other qualities, Wonder Woman was also compassionate and caring, traits
perhaps more easily expressed openly by a woman than a man. She was, in short,
the best of both worlds. Above all, she was a strong woman who, though she
considered others’ advice, in the end always made up her own mind about how
best to act in a situation. She might love dear ol’ Steve, but there were
moments when she realized he was wrong and so acted accordingly. And while she
has definitely seen her ups and downs through the years, the decade of the Sixties
being, I think, an especially problematic one in her long illustrious career,
as she, along with millions of others, searched for a new personal identity
(and a stable of writers), she nonetheless endured it all and remains today a
contender; one truly worthy of the appellation “Super Hero.†Her broader
cultural influence is also noteworthy, inspiring many as she has, including a
little Ohio girl and WW fan-atic
named Gloria Steinem.
Wonder Woman has continued to evolve and change in terms
of her appearance and, to some degree, personality; gifted or saddled, according
to how you look at it, with a bewildering array of modern storylines by a
myriad of agenda-centric artists. She is about to be reincarnated yet again,
this time on the big screen, in Patty Jenkins’ Wonder Woman, starring Gal Gadot in the title
role. Whatever else they do with the character, I fervently hope the filmmakers
will endow this newest WW with the qualities that first made her great and
defines the essence of that greatness. According to actress Lynda Carter, who
singlehandedly pirouetted into motion a new generation of WW fans, “she’s the symbol of the extraordinary
possibilities that inhabit us, hidden though they may be.
And
that, I think, is the important gift Wonder Woman offers women. Perhaps our
real challenge in the 21st century is to strive to reach our potential while
embracing her values. Wonder Woman is fearless. She sees the good in everyone,
convinced they are capable of change, compassion and generosity. She’s
kindhearted and hopeful, and she has a great sense of humor. Who knows? Maybe
she really can save the world.â€
Joe
Elliott, a writer and educator, lives in Asheville, North Carolina
The new documentary "Batman & Bill" is sure to be controversial. It tackles the subject of who actually created the iconic world of Batman, who debuted in comic books way back in 1939. Conventional wisdom always gave sole credit to Bob Kane, who became a legend in the comic book industry and our pop culture as the Batman phenomenon stretched for decades. However, the documentary seeks to give credit to Bill Finger, a collaborator of Kane's who apparently created some of the most memorable characters in the Batman universe but who remained unheralded. The documentary debuts on Hulu on May 6 and the intriguing trailer indicates this truly will measure up to being "must-see TV".
Joe Dante's Trailers from Hell site presents screenwriter/producer Larry Karaszewski's insightful appreciation of the little-seen and long-forgotten film "The Marriage of a Young Stockbroker" from 1971. Based on the novel by Charles Webb, who also wrote "The Graduate" (and who also directed this film), "Stockbroker" stars Richard Benjamin as a young man who is successful in business but no so successful in his personal life. He's got a beautiful wife (Joanna Shimkus) but he suffers from a psychological obsession with voyeurism. The film looks at his dilemma from a comedic standpoint but the underrated movie also provides plenty of insights into the human psyche and the way we deal with relationships. Benjamin is terrific as the every day guy whose obsession causes him quite a few problems. There are fine turns by Elizabeth Ashley and Adam West, whose amusing performance reminds us of how foolish Hollywood was to alienate him after "Batman". Sadly, the movie was only released on video in the early days of VHS and has not resurfaced since except for an occasional showing on Turner Classic Movies. Hopefully, this will be rectified and we'll get a Blu-ray release at some point.
First things first; it’s obvious from 1966 through 1972
the seemingly idyllic small islands dotting the UK were no place to summer
vacation. In 1966 poor Peter Cushing
lost his left hand to a rampaging horde of flesh-eating silicates on the isle
of Petrie (aka the Island of Terror), a few miles east off of Ireland’s
coastline. In 1973, Hammer Horror icon
turned Celtic pagan Christopher Lee sacrificed an investigating Christian
martyr to the flames on the bonny banks of Summerisle in Robin Hardy’s 1973 grim
thriller-mystery, The Wicker Man. One year before The Wicker Man would have its
theatrical debut, Tigon-British Film Productions would release the
environmental-thriller Doomwatch (1972). Set on the isle of Balfe (actually Cornwall), Doomwatch tells the tale
of still another plagued and isolated island off the English coast. This time the inhabitants are desperately
trying to hide a seemingly monstrous secret from the prying eyes of outsiders. It goes without saying that the production of
these three films was likely not bankrolled by anyone from the British Tourist
Board.
Director Peter Sasdy’s 1972 sci-fi mystery, Doomwatch
recounts the story of Dr. Del Shaw (Scottish actor Ian Bannen), who teams up
with the island’s imported schoolteacher Victoria Brown (Judy Geeson) to
unravel the mystery behind the closeted deformities of the island’s native
inhabitants. Dr. Shaw, who works for a government-funded anti-pollution
campaign, somewhat pessimistically coded Doomwatch, soon finds out that British
navy - through an unscrupulous intermediary - had used the bay surrounding the
island of Balfe to secretly and illegally dump sealed canisters of radioactive
waste. Time and the sea have since
caused these seals to give way, with the resulting leakage infecting the
village’s fishing industry. As seafood
is the primary diet of the islanders, the exposure to toxins and unnatural
growth hormones has unleashed an outbreak of acromegaly. This disfiguring
disease is not an invention of screenwriter Clive Exton. As any scholar of classic horror can tell
you, this is the all-to-real growth-hormone aberration was suffered (and
tastelessly exploited) by Universal Studios in their casting of horror actor
Rondo Hatton as The Creeper. Though this
pituitary gland disease is a result of radioactive elements contaminating the
island’s fish supply, the natives are unaware of the Navy’s polluting of their
waters. The insular and deeply religious
community believes the island’s plague is simply God’s punishment for their
immorality and inbreeding. It’s this
deep-seated shame that has long prevented them from getting help from the
mainland.
Sasdy’s film was loosely based off a BBC television
series of the same name (1970-1972) which featured a team of
activist-scientists fighting new, mysterious environmental and health threats
in the post-Atomic age. These television threats would include such plights as
enlarged radioactive rats, plastic-eating viruses, and chemical toxins that
could destroy all of Earth’s plant life. This fear of manmade and unchecked
environmental calamity was carried on in Doomwatch the film; the storyline
centers on the dangers of radioactive elements and the consequences of improper
storage and disposal methods of such harmful toxins. These issues were of
course, not uncommon during the time, as in the early 1970s environmental issues
were at the forefront of global public consciousness. Not coincidentally, in 1972, the year the
film was first released, the United States would pass the Clean Water Act with
the aim of eliminating toxic waste from global waters.
Though Bannen and Geeson are the film’s principal
players, the film sports a strong supporting cast of familiar faces. Geoffrey Keen, who plays Sir Henry, the man
responsible for the illegal radioactive dumping, will be recognizable to
filmgoers for his tenure as the Minister of Defence in six James Bond films
(beginning with Roger Moore’s The Spy Who Loved Me through Timothy Dalton’s The
Living Daylights). Another recognizable face is that of George Sanders, who
enjoyed a legendary long career in film and television and pop-culture (he
portrayed Leslie Charteris’ The Saint in no fewer than five films (1939-1941)
and even as the chilling Mister Freeze in TV’s Batman series of 1966.
Kino Lorber’s new Blu-Ray release of Doomwatch is of
definitely interest to film enthusiasts. Special features include an “On Camera
Interview†with actress Judy Geeson, audio commentary and introduction to the
film courtesy of director Peter Sasdy, and a gallery of film trailers for other
recent Blu-Ray releases of Kino-Lorber.
The
world-famous Pinewood Studios celebrates 80 years in the film business this
year and Penguin Books have published a luxurious large-format 376-page
hardback book to commemorate the fact. Loaded with interesting stories - from
the studio's beginnings to the latest 'Star Wars' offering under the Disney
banner - it's certainly an interesting ride along the way. All of your
favourites are here: the 'Carry On', James Bond, Superman and Batman series, as
well as photos galore - many I'd not seen before (although a few captions are
incorrect) - make for an easy read without getting too bogged down with
statistics. Nice to see industry insiders being interviewed, and there are
numerous quotes from the likes of Sir Roger Moore, Barbara Broccoli, Sir Ridley
Scott, Martin Campbell, Michael G. Wilson and Michael Grade, to name but a few.
Interestingly, now that Pinewood owns the 'other' famous British studio at
Shepperton, this gets coverage, too.
Author Bob McCabe mentions first visiting
the studio in 1977 (aged 10) and seeing the American cars scattered on the
backlot following the filming of 'Superman'. Well, I was there too, Bob -
although a tad older! For those of you, like me, who have been fortunate to
visit this wonderful 'film factory', then it is worthy of a place in your
library. For those of you who will probably never pass through its portals,
then it's an even a bigger treat. Oh, and Cinema Retro gets a credit in the 'sources
of research' section! 'Pinewood: The Story of an Iconic Studio' has a cover
price of £40.00., but is currently available from Amazon UK for the bargain
price of £26.00. Now that's what I call a great Christmas present.
"Batman v. Superman: Dawn of Justice"- no one seemed to like the film except the audience.
In an interesting article for the New York Times, reporter Brooks Barnes analyzes the hits and misses pertaining to Warner Brothers. Interviewing chief executive Kevin Tsujihara, Brooks addresses the conventional wisdom in Hollywood that WB is a studio in turmoil. Yet Tsuhihara points out that 2016 has been a highly successful year with record operating profits being posted. "Quietly, we've been having an amazing year", he says. Even critically lambasted "tent pole" productions like "Batman v. Superman: Dawn of Justice" and "Suicide Squad" turned solid profits and the studio is banking heavily on the JK Rowling story "Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them" as a potential blockbuster (Rowling wrote the screenplay). Other major films in the pipeline include "Wonder Woman", "Kong: Skull Island" and "Justice League" not to mention Christopher Nolan's WWII epic "Dunkirk". The studio doesn't just rely on mega-budget productions, however. Clint Eastwood's "Sully" turned out a profit as did other modestly-budgeted films and the studio's TV division booming, turning out old favorites like "The Big Bang Theory" and the new HBO series "Westworld". Click here to read.
(The following reviews pertain to the UK Region 2 releases)
When
I'm in the right mood I adore bit of film noir. I admire the diversity of its
storytelling, I love every facet, from the hardboiled private eyes, duplicitous
dames and characters that seldom turn out to be what they first appear, to the
alleyways bathed in inky shadows, ramshackle apartments and half-lit street
corners they inhabit. How can you not get drawn in by the sheer delight of Edward
G Robinson playing a second rate psychic trying to convince the authorities he
can see the future in The Night Has a
Thousand Eyes? Or amnesiac John Hodiak on a mission to discover his own
identity, in the process getting embroiled in a 3-year-old murder case and the
search for a missing $2 million in Somewhere
in the Night? Yes, indeed, there's nothing quite like a hearty serving of film
noir on a Sunday afternoon to soothe those end-of-the-weekend blues.
Newly
released to dual format Blu-ray and DVD in the UK – carefully restored by UCLA
Film and Television Archive following several years of sleuthing by the Film
Noir Foundation – are a couple real crackers. I'd seen neither before but both have
quickly found a spot among my favourites.
First
up is 1949 United Artists picture Too
Late for Tears (also known under the re-release moniker Killer Bait), directed by Byron Haskin
from a Roy Huggins
story (first serialised in the 'Saturday Evening Post'). The plot hinges on a
bag packed with an ill-gotten $60,000 worth of banknotes. Husband and wife Alan
and Jane Palmer (Arthur Kennedy and Lizabeth Scott) are drawn into a deadly
game when someone in a passing car hurls a briefcase full of cash into the back
of their open top saloon – cash so hot it's "a bag o' dynamite", as
Alan sagely recognises it. He’s insistent that they hand it over to the cops,
but Jane is having none of it; their ship has come in and she intends to hop aboard.
Initially she swings Alan round to her way of thinking but it's not long before
the intended recipient of the money (Dan Duryea) shows up to claim it back.
Jane, tougher than she at first seemed, is determined to keep it even if doing
so means resorting to murder.
Despite
striking support from the slinky Kristine Miller and an urbane Don DeFore, this
is 100% Lizabeth Scott's parade. She's breathtaking as the ice cold blonde schemestress
with a loaded shooter in one hand and a clutch bag full of seductive ploys in
the other; as femme fatales go they don't come much wilier. Huggins' script is
awash with mistrust and the razor sharp repartee born thereof: "Looking
for something?"/"My lipstick"/"Colt or Smith &
Wesson?". The twists come thick and fast as Jane's scruples, if ever she
had any, are casually discarded as she calculatingly works to finagle the cash.
With a sucker punch of a final twist that doles out the roughest of justice, Too Late for Tears is a little gem.
Next up, a Universal Pictures release: Norman Foster's San Francisco based Woman on the Run, a tad lighter in tone
but equally gripping. Out walking his dog one night, artist Frank Johnson (Ross
Elliott) witnesses a murder – but the killer sees him too. With little faith in
police witness protection, Johnson does a runner. Believing that he's really trying
to escape their failing marriage, Frank's wife Eleanor (Ann Sheridan) sets out
to find him. Assisted by intrepid reporter Dan Legget (Dennis O'Keefe), eager
to scoop a front page exclusive, Eleanor follows a trail of clues that reveal
things about Frank she never knew, all the while dodging the police (who believe
she'll lead them to her husband, the only person who can identify the killer), and
blindly unaware she’s being watched by the killer himself, intent on eliminating
the sole witness to his crime.
Working
from a screenplay he co-wrote with Alan Campbell, Foster (who went on to direct
episodes of Batman and The Green Hornet for television) keeps
the action moving along at a fair old lick, never afraid to punctuate the mood
with a splash of comic relief; the Johnson's dog is called Rembrandt, because
"It's the nearest we’ll come to owning one". Although it initially
feels like folly when the story’s ace twist is played midway point, it’s in
fact a very shrewd move; arming the audience with such vital knowledge serves
to ratchet up the suspense thereafter to almost unbearable levels. Boasting
some fantastic San Francisco location work and climaxing amidst the after-dark
amusement park thrills of Santa Monica's Ocean Park Pier (a finale which
delivers squalling tension to rival the theme park located climax to Hitchcock
classic Strangers on a Train,
released the following year), if you dip into only one noir thriller this year,
be sure that it's 24-carat keeper Woman
on the Run.
Tony
Earnshaw, one of our contributing writers, has trawled his extensive archive of
interviews with prolific directors – accrued over some 20 years of attending
press junkets – and cherry picked a selection of the most worthy material for
his new book "Fantastique: Interviews with Horror, Sci-Fi and Fantasy
Filmmakers" (a title which, on the copyright page, is tantalisingly
suffixed with a parenthesised Volume I).
Though
around a third of these interviews were conducted in the more intimate environs
of one-on-one sessions, the remainder derive from press junkets mounted at the
time of each film's release. Whether the responses gleaned to questions posed
under such circumstances can be considered entirely honest or not is debatable,
the very purpose of those (usually contractual) gatherings being for directors
and all manner of other associated creative parties to sell their movie as the
best thing to ever hit the screen; it can often take a bit of distance and the
benefit of hindsight to extrude more candid comments. However, given that most
of the films under discussion here were bona fide critical and financial
successes adds considerably to the veracity of the directors’ words.
Some
anecdotes harbour a ring of familiarity (again, being the product of press events,
they were repeated often), but this reader found enough fresh meat and potatoes
to compensate. Everyone will have their favourite chapters (as likely to be dictated
by one’s liking for a particular film as they are a partiality to the director
at hand); among the highlights for this reader were Tim Burton (on 2000's Sleepy Hollow) revealing Christopher
Walken's apparent fear of horses (he must have had a tough time on the likes of
1978’s Shoot the Sun Down and 1985
Bond caper A View to a Kill too then!),
William Friedkin (on 1973's The Exorcist)
dismissing the stories of the much-publicised curse surrounding the production
and his disinclination to ever integrate the legendarily shelved "spider
walk" sequence into the film (which, in a new cut some years later, was), James Mangold talking about his
multi-layered mystery masterpiece Identity
(2003), and literally everything a tirelessly enthusiastic Frank Henenlotter
had to say in a 2012 retrospective discussing his movie-saturated youth and in
particular his barmy 1982 comic horror film Basket
Case.
Opening
with a foreword from noted genre writer Bruce G Hallenbeck and rounded off with
a listing of director filmographies, “Fantastique†is an irresistibly worthy
addition to the library of anyone with even a passing interest in fantastic
cinema. Roll on Volume II.
New to DVD in the UK is ‘Arabella’, an
Italian period comedy set in that hotbed of hilarity, pre-WWII fascist Italy. Virna
Lisi stars in the title role – known variously in the film as Arabella Danesi
and Arabella Angeli – who determines to save her grandmother from destitution
by finding ingenious ways to pay off her elderly relative’s crippling tax bill.
The film is structured rather like those
1960s Italian portmanteau comedy-dramas, such as ‘Yesterday, Today, Tomorrow’,
‘The Witches’ or ‘Woman Times Seven’. Such films were intended as vehicles for
one female star, be they Sophia, Silvana or Shirley, to demonstrate their versatility
in a variety of roles. But instead of separate stories, with different
characters, ‘Arabella’ has one continuous story arc, with Lisi’s sexy heroine
adopting various costumes, personas and wigs to seduce and blackmail her way
through a string of lovers, who are then conned out of cash to pay off granny’s
debts. Some of her victims are played by
Terry-Thomas. It is he who gets to show off his comedy skills in a variety of
roles, though despite costume and make-up changes, they all resemble
Terry-Thomas – there’s no disguising that tooth gap. He plays a girdle-wearing,
monocled British general Sir Horace Gordon, an Italian hotel manager angered by
the installation of a public urinal in the street outside his swanky
establishment and the rich duke who hires Arabella to ‘cure’ his gay son
Saverio. Terry-Thomas and Lisi had
already worked together to great success on the Hollywood black comedy ‘How to
Murder Your Wife’ (1965) and he’s clearly enjoying himself here in the various
roles.
The cast of this Italian-UK co-production –
shot in Rome, Naples and Venice – is an interesting one. Margaret Rutherford
plays Arabella’s debt-ridden granny, Princess Ilaria, James Fox is Arabella’s mysterious,
louche shadow Giorgio, and Rutherford’s old partner Stringer Davis from the
big-screen 1960s Miss Marple films shows up in an amusing cameo as Ilaria’s
gardener, Nazzareno. Giancarlo Gianni played Saverio, who pretends to be gay,
so that his father continues to send in alluring women to try to ‘cure’ him. Familiar
Italian supporting players appear, too – Renato Romano played General Gordon’s
batman, Renato Chiantoni is one of the tax inspectors hassling Ilaria, Giuseppe
Addobbati is a hotel guest and Ugo
Fangareggi is a policeman.
‘Arabella’s disjointed, jumpy plotting bears
the signs of considerable cutting for international distribution and it
eventually falls to pieces as a movie – in exactly the same way so many very
good 1960s Italian films that have been edited and dubbed for international
audiences fall to bits. The film was released internationally by Universal
Pictures and its associate producer was Dario Argento’s father, Salvatore,
before he began producing his son’s legendary gialli thrillers. The big plusses
are the art direction (by Alberto Boccianti) and superb 1920s period costumes
by Piero Tosi (Visconti’s designer on ‘Death in Venice’ and ‘The Leopard’), so
visually the film is splendid. Of most interest to me was the chance to hear
one of Ennio Morricone’s many little-heard scores of this period. ‘Arabella’
was directed by Mauro Bolognini, whose dramas ‘He and She’ (1969 – ‘L’assoluto
naturale’), ‘Un bellissimo novembre’ (1969 – ‘That Splendid November’) and ‘Metello’
(1970) are all worth a look, or rather a listen, for their memorable Morricone
scores. Bolognini also directed the erotic period drama ‘La Venexiana’ (1986),
aka ‘The Venetian Woman’ starring Laura Antonelli and Jason Connery, which also
benefits from a lovely Morricone score. The maestro’s score here is a mixture of
lush period orchestrations and comedic, clockwork themes which resemble early
drafts of Morricone’s title cue to ‘Investigation of a Citizen Above Suspicion’
(1970). The descending flute trill from ‘A Fistful of Dollars’ makes a brief
appearance, but in the main, this is a playful score, befitting the material, with
a lovely violin theme for the Venetian scenes towards the end of the movie.
The Region 2 DVD from Simply Media is
presented in 4:3 screen ratio, which looks cropped at the sides. This seems to
be the case, as the IMDB lists the aspect ratio as 1.85:1. The film was 105
minutes in Italy, but cut drastically to 88 minutes for US release. Simply
Media’s habit of printing the US running time in promotional material continues
here, as the UK DVD actually runs 84 minutes. The picture quality has nowhere near the sharpness and clarity of some
of Simply Media’s other releases – notably its Universal westerns such as ‘A
Man Called Gannon’ and ‘Calamity Jane and Sam Bass’. ‘Arabella’ is rated 12 (for
‘moderate sex references’).
For 1960s Commedia all’Italiana, Terry-Thomas
and Morricone completists this is worth a look, but others might find it hard
going. A definite curio however and a long-lost one at that.
"Batman v. Superman": potential blockbuster or "Cleopatra Redux".
BY LEE PFEIFFER
The heavily-hyped Warner Brothers super hero epic "Batman V. Superman: Dawn of Justice" is one of the most heavily promoted films in years. It's also one of the most expensive. Variety estimates that the film's $250 million production budget plus ancillary marketing costs will make it necessary for the movie to gross $800 worldwide just to break even. You read that right: $800 million. One industry analyst says that anything less than a gross of $1 billion will be considered a disappointment. Warner Brothers contends that those figures don't take into consideration ancillary revenues from video and merchandising. Fair enough, but if a film bombs, generally speaking, the merchandise and video sales do, too. If you doubt it, how many people did you see walking around with "Waterworld" or "Howard the Duck" T shirts? Veteran screenwriter William Goldman once said of the film industry "Nobody knows anything." That was decades ago and it's still true today. The major studios are so devoid of any original ideas that they can only keep upping the ante in hopes of milking the current passion for big-budget comic book hero productions. It seems that if "Hamlet" were to be brought to the big screen nowadays, the famed soliloquy would have to be delivered by some guy in a cape and mask. Warner Brothers says that the fate of the studio doesn't depend on "Batman vs. Superman", but the fact that they would have to make such a statement indicates how high the stakes are in terms of this film delivering the goods.
Short-sighted studio executives have always been suckers for mega-budget would-be blockbusters. After the success of "Ben-Hur" and "The Ten Commandments" in the late 1950s, studios churned out any number of big-budget roadshow productions. Some worked out well ("The Sound of Music", "Patton", "The Longest Day"), some did okay ("The Alamo", "The Sand Pebbles") while many more lost substantial sums of money ("Mutiny on the Bounty", "55 Days at Peking", "Reds", "Hello, Dolly!", "Cleopatra", "Paint Your Wagon" and the notorious "Heaven's Gate"). That isn't to say that most of these boxoffice bombs weren't good movies. In fact, some were great movies, but from a sound business standpoint, their budgets should never have been allowed to jeopardize the health of the entire studio. When James Cameron's "Titanic" went over-budget and ended up costing $200 million back in 1997, industry executives swore they would never put themselves in such a precarious situation again. Guess what? The film became a blockbuster and all caution was thrown to the wind. Before long, directors who were deemed to be hot could get a virtual blank check if they could convince studio bosses that they had the next "can't miss" formula. That included Cameron, who ended up dropping $300 million on "Avatar", which managed to denounce capitalist corporations even as Cameron sought millions from the same entities to finance his already-forgettable blockbuster. (Cameron had learned never to sink your own money into your own production, regardless of how passionate you are about it. It was a lesson learned the hard way by John Wayne on "The Alamo" and Francis Ford Coppola on "Apocalypse Now".) However, the truth of the matter is that the industry is relying on fewer and fewer blockbusters to carry the baggage for other costly productions that either under-perform or bomb outright. The jury is not yet in on "Batman v. Superman" but how it stacks up in terms of quality isn't the most relevant factor. If the movie doesn't open huge there will be at lot of pants wetting in the corporate boardroom. (Word of mouth on the film is worrying. Apparently, trailers aren't testing that well with the fan boy base the studio needs to woo.)
Here's a suggestion: how about cutting back on productions that have budgets equivalent to some nation's entire gross national product and get back in the business of making modestly-budgeted movies that are designed to make modest profits. Studios never bet the ranch on mid-range westerns, war movies and spy flicks. Kate Hepburn, Jerry Lewis, Gary Cooper, Burt Lancaster and Marilyn Monroe never starred in high risk blockbusters but their films could always be relied upon to make a decent profit. In the rare cases they did not, the losses were never very substantial. Remember when classic sci-fi movies like "Planet of the Apes" could be completed on relatively small budgets even with major talent involved? Today, insane salaries for overpaid talent have driven the costs of films sky high even before shooting even begins. This, despite the fact that unlike days of old, there are precious few genuine "stars" still left in the industry. What defines a star? Someone whose name on the marquee virtually guarantees a film's success, regardless of the quality of a film. Try thinking of how many actors today meet that criteria. The studios have learned nothing since the era in which Fox bet its very future on the fate of one film: "Cleopatra". It's a practice akin to the average person betting their life savings on a sure bet at a casino. I dunno. I'm just a guy with a blue collar background from Jersey City but I think I could run a studio boardroom more responsibly than some of the folks who are now doing so-- and so could you. Nobody knows anything.
Neal
Hefti’s soundtrack compositions always seem to define a sense of good safe ground.
Throughout the 1960s, Hefti provided light but always memorable scores
including TV’s Batman (1966-68), How to Murder your wife (1965), Barefoot in
the park (1967) and The Odd Couple (1968). Perhaps rather less memorable were
the comedies Boeing Boeing (1965) and Oh Dad, Poor Dad, Mamma’s hung you in the
closet and I’m feelin’ so sad (1967). Boeing Boeing marked the last strains of
Paramount’s association with Jerry Lewis and co-starred Tony Curtis. A romantic
comedy farce, the film is set in Paris, and Hefti’s loungey, easy-listening feel
makes it an enjoyable experience. There are of course certain familiarities. Hefti’s signature sound is hard to ignore:
smooth brass and witty electric keyboard motifs all signify a certain 60s
charm. Vocalion’s new release (CDLK4578) marks Boeing Boeing’s first venture on
CD. At just 28 minutes, it’s a straight forward re-release of RCA’s original
1965 LP. Nevertheless, Vocalion have sensibly paired Boeing Boeing with Hefti’s
soundtrack album, Oh Dad, Poor Dad, Mamma’s Hung you in the closet and I’m Feelin’
So Sad (1967). A much darker comedy and based upon the stage play by Arthur L.
Kopit, the film version starred Rosalind Russell, Robert Morse and Barbara
Harris. Hefti’s music offers a rather bizarre mix of flavours, with its main
theme song (a kid’s ditty of sorts) performed by a children’s chorus. There is
also a good deal of Bossa Nova beats and a rather nice Latin infused love
theme. Again, it is typical of that very comfortable Mancini Sixties
environment. Listen out in particular to the track ‘This is Mother’ and you
might just pick up more than a hint of Hefti’s Batman’s backbeat. Hefti’s Oh
Dad is another short score, and another straight reworking of the original album
- coming in at just 24 minutes
It’s
probably fair to assume that either of these scores (in their individual
capacity) would tend to struggle. However, as a pairing they actually work very
well and complement each other seamlessly. They achieve a rather nice balance
and as a result, a very enjoyable collection of Neal Hefti’s film music emerges.
The accompanying booklet consists of just a 2 Panel (4 page) insert containing
the original album notes – which is a shame. Thankfully, Vocalion’s excellent audio
production of the two albums makes it a worthwhile purchase.
