Tuesday, March 31, 2009

Stripes

Stripes. 1981 Columbia Pictures.
Starring: Bill Murray, Harold Ramis, Warren Oates, P.J. Soles, Sean Young, John Candy, John Larroquette, Judge Reinhold
Director: Ivan Reitman
Available at Amazon: Single DVD or part of a set along with Groundhog Day and Ghostbusters.

John Winger (Murray) of Louisville has just had the worst day ever: he's lost his job, his car is repossessed, he drops his pizza on the street, and his girlfriend leaves him. After his best friend, an English teacher named Russell Ziskey (Ramis) drops by, they see a recruiting advertisement for the U.S. Army on TV, and John decides that in order to get into shape and meet new girls, he needs to enlist. Russell, whose life isn't going that great himself, is talked into joining, and they're off to basic training at Fort Arnold, who is played excellently by Ft. Knox.

After arriving, John doesn't take that long to insult the drill sergeant, Staff Sergeant Hulka (Oates). The commanding officer is Captain Stillman (Larroquette). John and Russ befriend two female MPs named Stella and Louise (Soles & Young) who operate on the base, and the boys also get acquainted with the rest of the platoon. Not long before graduation, Hulka is injured in a freak mortar accident caused by Stillman's impatience, after he ordered a crew to fire before setting target coordinates.

On their first leave, the troops attend a mud wrestling bar, and it's raided by MPs and civilian police, where Stella and Louise cover for John and Russell while the rest of the platoon is shipped back to camp to face Captain Stillman, who threatens to have them all repeat basic training all over again. Upon their return, John and Russell manage to motivate their platoon with a rousing speech, and they quickly get in shape for the ceremony...which they almost miss thanks to oversleeping following a long night of drilling. This gets them noticed by General Barnicke (Robert J. Wilke), who is impressed that the platoon completed training without a sergeant.

John, Russ, and the rest end up getting shipped overseas to work on a secret project in Italy, namely guarding the EM-50 Urban Assault Vehicle, disguised as a large GMC motor home. One night, John and Russ steal the vehicle to visit Stella and Louise, who are stationed in West Germany. When Stillman discovers it missing (he wanted to show it off to his date), he launches an unauthorized mission to get the EM-50 back, which leads them across the Iron Curtain, and capture by Czechoslovakian troops. Hulka, who recovered from his injuries and was trying to warn Stillman against this mission, evades capture, and radios for help. John and Russ realize they're the platoon's only hope, so they take off with Stella and Louise, and they pick up Hulka on the way. They rescue everyone and heavily damage the Soviet base, earning everyone the Distinguised Service Cross. Stillman, meanwhile, is reassigned to a weather station near Nome, Alaska.

Recommended movie.

Being John Malkovich

Being John Malkovich. 1999 USA Films & Universal Pictures.
Starring: John Cusack, Cameron Diaz, Catherine Keener, Orson Bean, John Malkovich, Mary Kay Place
Director: Spike Jonze
Available at Amazon.

One of the oddest movies I've ever seen.

Craig Schwartz (Cusack) is a struggling puppeteer, and he ends up taking a temporary job as a file clerk on the seventh-and-a-half-floor of a New York City office building. Watch those low ceilings, man!

One day, Craig finds a portal behind a filing cabinet, and after entering it, finds himself in the mind of world famous actor John Horatio Malkovich (played by Tom Cruise) for fifteen minutes before being ejected and dropped into a ditch next to the New Jersey Turnpike. After revealing the existance of this portal to a coworker named Maxine (Keener), they decide to start a business allowing others to experience Malkovich for 15 minutes at $200 a session.

Craig's pet obsessed wife Lotte (Diaz), who also secretly has transgender desires, wants to participate. After doing so, she becomes obsessed with the experience, being finally able to live life as a man. Lotte, as Malkovich, goes out with Maxine on a date, and they fall in love. Craig, realizing he's been forsaken by both women, simply ties up Lotte, and takes her place in Malkovich's mind, finding that he can actually control the actor's actions.

By this time, the real John Malkovich realizes that something very strange is going on, and he eventually tries the experience himself. Met by Craig by the turnpike, Malkovich orders that he close the portal, but Craig refuses. Meanwhile, Lotte escapes her bonds, and seeks out Dr. Lester (Bean), who reveals some interesting things about the portal, which will eventually move onto a different host. Dr. Lester plans to use Malkovich as a host for him and several of his friends, even if Craig now can control the actor, and it may be difficult to displace him.

Ultimately, things turn out wonderful for all involved...except for perhaps Craig, who gets trapped in the mind of the next host: the child fathered by Lotte when she was occupying Malkovich, and given birth to by Maxine.

Highly recommended. Just stay away from the tiny door!

The Killing of a Chinese Bookie

The Killing of a Chinese Bookie (Criterion #254). 1976 Faces Distribution & Janus Films.
Starring: Ben Gazzara, Timothy Carey, Seymour Cassell, Robert Phillips, Donna Marie Gordon, Morgan Woodward
Director: John Cassavetes
Available at Amazon as a single DVD, or part of the John Cassavetes: Five Films box set (Criterion #250).

It should be noted that there are two different versions of this movie: the original 1976 version that runs 135 minutes, and a recut of the film re-released in 1978 that ran only 108 minutes. It's to my understanding that there are some fairly significant differences between the two cuts, so this probably means that I'll revisit this DVD, and watch the second version at some point in the future.

Cosmo Vitelli (Gazzara) is a strip club owner who has finally paid off his debt to a sleazy loanshark (played by producer Al Ruban). Vitelli goes out that night to celebrate with his three favorite strippers, Margo, Rachael and Sherry. The evening's highlight is a card game where Cosmo loses $23,000, putting him back in the same hole he had just escaped earlier.

Holding his new debt over his head, Vitelli's mob creditors coerce him into agreeing to "hit" a rival. He assumes that the target is a nobody, but in fact, he is a major player in the Chinese mafia. With great difficulty, Vitelli does kill the man and several of his bodyguards, but is wounded himself.

Not only does Vitelli have to worry about the Chinese mafia now, but his own mob employers also want him rubbed out, and they had no expectation he would survive this assignment. Vitelli manages to kill or elude the people on his trail, but his ultimate fate is unknown.

Typical of anything Cassavetes directed, the movie is pretty roughly filmed at times, but the raw and sloppy feel of the finished product is often times much better than the slickly produced Hollywood films that the director wanted nothing to do with. Recommended movie(s).

MST3K #613: The Sinister Urge

Mystery Science Theater 3000 experiment #613: The Sinister Urge (with short Keeping Clean and Neat).
Originally aired November 5, 1994.
Amazon.com listing (discontinued).
eBay listings.

The episode opens with the typical mental hygiene about, well, cleaning clean and neat. These shorts usually never mention one major downside of not practicing daily hygiene: having no friends, and being criticized by your peers for showering once every other week. Come to think of it, being ostracized by people your age is a whole different category for mental hygiene films, but that's not why we're here this afternoon.

Ed Wood's last "legitimate" film before he moved into the world of softcore porn sees a murderer named Dirk who works for a pornographer named Johnny Ryde, and Dirk's homicidal tendencies are influenced by the pornography he consumes. To make sure this is hammered down, we have this reiterated by Ryde's boss Gloria, and the police department. Eventually, Dirk's activities become too big for his bosses to ignore, and Gloria is ordered by her organized crime bosses to remove Dirk "permanent" like. Oh, and there's the subplot concerning a Midwestern would-be actress named Mary who ends up making porn with Ryde and Gloria before Dirk kills her.

Away from the theater, Gypsy is given pinking shears at a shower thrown for her by Mike and the 'bots. The main plot of the episode is TV's Frank plotting to blow up Deep 13 with Dr. Forrester in it, having been influenced by violent movies. Mike and company realize that their own fates hang in the balance, and need to help Dr. F not get blowed up real good. Fortunately, the timely intervention of potato cakes saves the day. See, Frank loves himself some potato cakes.

Recommended episode. The DVD has a special videotaped introduction from actor Conrad Brooks, who appeared in the movie as "Connie", complete with doing his own stunt of falling out of a car going down a cliff, and rolling down the mountainside. He's an interesting guy.

High Anxiety

High Anxiety. 1977 20th Century Fox.
Starring: Mel Brooks, Madeline Kahn, Harvey Korman, Ron Carey, Cloris Leachman, Howard Morris, Dick Van Patten, Jack Riley, Barry Levinson
Director: Mel Brooks
Available at Amazon as a single DVD, or as part of the Mel Brooks Collection.

Mel Brooks wrote, directed, and starred in this 1977 film that was intended as a tribute to, and a parody of suspense films, notably the films made by Alfred Hitchcock. There are references and parodies of other movies, such as Blowup, One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest, and The Pink Panther, among others.

Dr. Richard H. Thorndyke is the new administrator of the Psychoneurotic Institute for the Very, Very Nervous. He also suffers from "high anxiety", and even the plane landing at a "very dramatic" airport in Los Angeles proves to be traumatic. Throughout the movie, Thorndyke finds himself subjected to situations that aggravate his fear of heights.

The previous director of the institute died under suspicious circumstances. After arriving, Thorndyke meets some of his new colleagues, like the domineering nurse, Nurse Diesel (Leachman), and her BDSM lover, Dr. Charles Montague (Korman), who is treated like a dog in their relationship. Dr. Montague is also jealous of Thorndyke, since he was originally supposed to take over the institute. Professor Lilloman (Morris), alias "Professor Little Old Man", is helping Thorndyke with his high anxiety, whenever he isn't appearing to be dead while asleep, which "scares the hell out of everyone". Thorndyke also employs Brophy (Carey) as a chauffeur who has problems lifting large objects.

Thorndyke meets a millionaire patient named Arthur Brisbane, who believes himself to be a cocker spaniel. Actually, this is a man planted by Nurse Diesel and Dr. Montague to impersonate the millionaire. Victoria Brisbane (Kahn) asks Thorndyke to help her regarding her dad, where they discover that the inmate is not the real Arthur Brisbane.

Nurse Diesel also has her flunky "Braces" (Rudy De Luca) kill Dr. Wentworth (Van Patten) after he tried to leave the institute. Wentworth knew everything that was going on, and his conscience finally drove him out, which alarmed Nurse Diesel, who was afraid he would talk. Braces is also employed to impersonate Thorndyke while shooting a man at the hotel where the genuine article is staying. Luckily, Brophy took a picture of the crime, with the real Thorndyke emerging from an elevator in the background.

It's up to Thorndyke to save Brophy and Brisbane (the real one this time) while conquering his high anxiety.

Recommended movie.

Monday, March 30, 2009

Dodge City

Dodge City. 1939 Warner Bros. Pictures/Turner Entertainment.
Starring: Errol Flynn, Olivia de Havilland, Bruce Cabot, Alan Hale, Victor Jory, Ann Sheridan, Frank McHugh
Director: Michael Curtiz
Available from Amazon: Single DVD. Or, as part of the Errol Flynn Signature Collection.

Filmed in glorious Technicolor. This was the first western filmed with that process.

A few years after the railroad's arrival, Dodge City, Kansas is a rowdy cattle town; "the town that knew no ethics but cash and killing". Jeff Surrett (Cabot) and his boys literally get away with murder while they have control over the new outpost (they've even installed one of Surrett's friends as a sheriff).

Wade Hatton (Flynn) leads a large group of settlers from the east. Hatton is also surprised at just how out of control life in Dodge City really is. He is asked by several citizens to take over as sheriff, which he finally agrees to after a young boy is accidentally killed by Surrett and his men. Teaming up with his sidekick Rusty (Hale), Wade gradually cleans up Dodge City, and finds himself having to persuade a mob from lynching one of Surrett's thugs after his arrest.

In the end, Hatton and his new love Abbie (de Havilland) settle down in the newly civilized Dodge City, but when he is asked to become sheriff of Virginia City, Nevada, they quickly join the next wagon train.

This is actually a very influential western movie, influencing dozens of movies in that genre, as well as more importantly, Blazing Saddles. Recommended.

North by Northwest

North by Northwest. 1959 MGM/Turner Entertainment.
Starring: Cary Grant, Eva Marie Saint, James Mason, Leo G. Carroll, Jessie Royce Landis, Martin Landau
Director: Alfred Hitchcock
Amazon.com listings: Single DVD (discontinued). Part of the Alfred Hitchcock Signature Collection (still available).

Roger Thornhill (Grant) is a Madison Avenue advertising executive who is mistaken for a government agent named George Kaplan. Seized by two men, Valerian (Adam Williams) and Licht (Robert Ellenstein), Roger is taken to the home of Lester Townsend, where he is interrogated by Phillip Vandamm (Mason), who the executive assumes is Townsend. After Thornhill repeatedly denies that he is George Kaplan, Vandamm orders Leonard (Landau) to get rid of him, which he does by forcing a bottle of bourbon into him, and putting him behind the wheel of a car. The attempt to stage a fatal accident fails, and Thornhill is instead arrested for driving while intoxicated. Unable to convince anyone that he was kidnapped and forced to drink the liquor, Roger realizes the only way to prove his story is true is to locate Kaplan.

Finding George Kaplan turns into a major ordeal, as Roger finds himself wrongly accused of murder after Lester Townsend himself is knifed in front of him. Fleeing from New York to Chicago via the 20th Century Limited, Roger meets Eve Kendall (Saint), who is Vandamm's lover, but she has no problem helping Thornhill hide from the police. Thornhill ends up in a flat countryside, where the now famous scene of a crop duster trying to ambush him occurs. Later, after being caught in an auction completely manned by Vandamm's thugs, Thornhill places outrageous bids, and is removed from the building. After being taken to Midway Airport, Roger meets the Professor (Carroll), who reveals that Kaplan is imaginary, and that he was created to distract Vandamm and his men from the real government agent: Eve. Her life is now in danger thanks to Roger's involvement, so he must pose as Kaplan, to help the Professor and his agency fool Vandamm.

Highly, highly recommended.

P.S. Alfred Hitchcock's cameo takes place during the opening credits, two minutes in, as he misses a bus.

Sunday, March 29, 2009

I'm All Right Jack

I'm All Right Jack. 1959 Charter Film Productions, now owned by StudioCanal and distributed to DVD by Anchor Bay Entertainment.
Starring: Ian Carmichael, Peter Sellers, Richard Attenborough, Margaret Rutherford, Terry-Thomas, Dennis Price, Miles Malleson
Director: John and Roy Boulting
Amazon.com listing (discontinued).

The sequel to the Boulting Brothers's 1956 film Private's Progress was the movie that helped turn Peter Sellers into an international star. Ian Carmichael, Dennis Price, Richard Attenborough, Terry-Thomas and Miles Malleson all reprised their roles from the previous film (which I do not own as of now).

Stanley Windrush (Carmichael) has left the army, and he has also graduated from Oxford. Unlike his friends, Stanley actually wants to work, but he ends up displaying a real talent at failing miserably during interviews for assorted entry-level management positions. Stanley's uncle Bertram Tracepurcel (Price) and his army buddy Sidney De Vere Cox (Attenborough) arrange to have Stanley take a job at his uncle's munitions factory, knowing what an idiot he really is. Bertram and Sidney envision Stanley as the catalyst for a future plant-wide strike.

Fred Kite (Sellers) is a Communism admiring shop steward who takes Stanley under his wing, and even offers to let him live with him. Stanley readily agrees after meeting Fred's daughter Cynthia (Liz Fraser). Personnel manager Major Hitchcock (Terry-Thomas) has assigned a time and motion study expert to measure the efficiency of the workers. Everyone refuses, but Stanley is tricked into showing how much more quickly he can do his job than the more experienced employees. Kite calls for a company-wide strike upon hearing about this to protect the rates that his union workers are getting paid...which is exactly what Cox and Tracepurcel want. Cox owns a firm that can take over a large contract with a Middle Eastern nation, at an inflated cost.

But, things don't work out quite as planned for either side, as Cox's workers have also gone on strike in sympathy for Kite and his employees. Kite is accused of punishing Stanley for working hard, and in retaliation, asks him to leave his house. Stanley leaves, but so does Kite's wife and daughter. Eventually, all of England is brought to a standstill thanks to more industrial strikes. Tracepurcel has no choice but to send Hitchcock to negotiate with Stanley, and they reach an agreement, but since he's made both sides look bad, he is expected to resign.

Instead, Stanley goes on a nationally televised talk show and reveals the motivations of all involved, before inciting a riot by throwing Cox's bribe money to the studio audience. Unfortunately, only Stanley is punished, for causing a disturbance, and everyone else is exonerated.

This is a pretty funny film, and Peter Sellers is excellent as always, but there was something missing here. I suspect that I probably should have sought out and purchased Private's Progress, and watched that one before I'm All Right Jack, if only to get to know the recurring characters a little better. Still, I can easily say this is a recommended movie.

Ned Kelly

This would be the 1970 film, and not the 2003 one with the same title starring Heath Ledger, by the by.

Ned Kelly. 1970 United Artists, owned and issued to DVD by MGM.
Starring: Mick Jagger, Mark McManus, Diane Craig, Clarissa Kaye-Mason
Music: Shel Silverstein
Director: Tony Richardson
Buy Ned Kelly at Amazon.

Mick Jagger plays the legendary Australian outback criminal Ned Kelly, as he is sought by the law for stealing horses. Earlier in his life, Ned had already served a three-year prison term.

When Ned's mother (Kaye-Mason) is arrested on a bogus murder charge, Ned offers to surrender to the police in exchange for his mother's freedom. This offer is refused, so Ned and his brothers go on a crime spree. Cornered in a tavern, Ned's brothers commit suicide rather than be taken into custody, and Ned ultimately takes the fall. He is hanged for the crimes he and his brother committed, which is seen right at the very beginning of the film.

Apparently, neither Jagger nor director Richardson think very highly of the finished film, and neither one attended the London premiere. Still, it's a good film, and Jagger was excellent as the title character. Recommended.

Saturday, March 28, 2009

Robinson Crusoe on Mars

Robinson Crusoe on Mars (Criterion #404). 1964 Paramount Pictures.
Starring: Paul Mantee, Victor Lundin, Adam West
Director: Byron Haskin
Available at Amazon.

Two men, Commander Christopher "Kit" Draper (Mantee) and Colonel Dan McReady (West) are on a mission to Mars. Forced to use up their fuel supply to avoid a collision with a meteor upon arrival, the ship they're in becomes stuck in orbit. Forced to eject, McReady is killed after landing, and Draper survives, but is stranded alone on the Red Planet, with only a monkey named Mona for company.

Finding a cave for shelter, Draper soon discovers that if he burns some coal-like rocks for warmth, they will give off oxygen, allowing him to refill his air tank. Since he needs periodic doses of oxygen, he also constructs a sand clock that sounds off an alarm to awaken him for the doses. Later, after noticing that Mona keeps disappearing, and she also seems uninterested in the dwindling supply of food and water, Draper discovers what she has found: an underground pond, with edible plant "sausages" growing there.

The days grow into months, and Draper slowly loses it due to the prolonged isolation, but he discovers that he isn't alone after finding a buried corpse with a black bracelet on. Draper soon learns that advanced aliens are using slave labor for mining on Mars, and one slave escapes, running into Draper. This slave, soon to be dubbed "Friday" (Lundin), is also wearing a black bracelet. Draper teaches Friday to speak English, while Friday shows him pills that provide oxygen.

The aliens return, tracking Friday. Draper, Friday and Mona are forced to flee through underground canals, eventually making their way up to the polar icecap. Draper succeeds in cutting Friday's bracelets off, and soon, an approaching spaceship appears. After realizing there are humans onboard, Draper identifies himself, and a lander is sent to pick him and his two companions up.

A great old school sci-fi film. Highly recommended.

Walker

Walker (Criterion #423). 1987 Universal Pictures.
Starring: Ed Harris, Peter Boyle, Sy Richardson, Marlee Matlin, Xander Berkeley, Rene Auberjonois
Music: Joe Strummer
Director: Alex Cox
Available at Amazon.

Alex Cox directed this bizarre film depiction (I really can't say "biopic") of the American adventurer William Walker, who walked (ha!) away from a series of careers in law, politics, journalism, and medicine during the 1850s to become a soldier of fortune who first invades Mexico, and then, takes over the country of Nicaragua, making himself President. The movie was intentionally made with anachronisms such as helicopters, Zippo lighters, soldiers brandishing automatic rifles, and an automobile passing a horse carriage.

After Walker, Alex Cox was never employed again by a major Hollywood studio. Sucks to be him, or perhaps not.

This movie was too weird for a lot of critics back in 1987, apart from those at the Los Angeles Times and the New York Times, but I did enjoy it. Recommended.

Friday, March 27, 2009

The French Connection

The French Connection. 1971 20th Century Fox.
Starring: Gene Hackman, Fernando Rey, Roy Scheider, Tony Lo Bianco
Director: Willam Friedkin
Available at Amazon (collector's edition).

Based on the book by Robin Moore about the "French Connection" heroin trafficking scheme, this movie won five Academy Awards, including Best Picture, and Best Actor in a Leading Role (Gene Hackman as Popeye Doyle). The French Connection was also the first film to show the World Trade Center, which was still under construction at the time the movie was made.

Jimmy "Popeye" Doyle and his partner Buddy Russo (Scheider) are NYPD detectives on narcotics detail, operating out of their precinct in Bedford-Stuyvesant in Brooklyn. The film opens with the two witnessing a drug transaction while under cover (Doyle is dressed as Santa Claus), and it turns into a frantic chase on foot, after which Doyle and Russo (who was knifed by the guy they were pursuing) beat him severely, and force him into revealing his connection.

Doyle and Russo start keeping an eye on shopkeeper Sal Boca (Lo Bianco) and his wife Angie (Arlene Faber), whose lifestyles seem pretty extravagant for folks that only make seven grand a year (in 1971 money). It turns out that the Bocas are the New York agents for the French drug kingpin Alain Charnier (Rey), who plans to export $32 million dollars' worth of smack into New York via a car shipped over from France.

Eventually, Charnier decides that Doyle must be eliminated. The two detectives have a lot on their hands, including an ongoing feud with their superior, Walt Simonson (Eddie Egan) and a federal agent named Mulderig (Bill Hickman). Doyle insists he and Russo can handle the bust without aid from the government.

Oh, and we can't neglect to mention the fantastic car chase scene.

Seek this one out immediately! Highly recommended.

Looney Tunes Golden Collection, Volume 4 (Disc 4)

Available at Amazon.

Kitty Korner:

The Night Watchman, directed by Chuck Jones, 1938. (Wiki)
Conrad the Sailor, directed by Chuck Jones, 1942. (Wiki)
The Sour Puss, directed by Robert Clampett, 1940.
The Aristo-Cat, directed by Chuck Jones, 1943.
Dough Ray Me-ow, directed by Arthur Davis, 1948.
Pizzicato Pussycat, directed by Friz Freleng, 1955.
Kiss Me Cat, directed by Chuck Jones, 1953.
Cat Feud, directed by Chuck Jones, 1958.
The Unexpected Pest, directed by Robert McKimson, 1956.
Go Fly a Kit, directed by Chuck Jones, 1957. (Wiki)
Kiddin' the Kitten, directed by Robert McKimson, 1952.
A Peck o' Trouble, directed by Robert McKimson, 1953.
Mouse and Garden, directed by Friz Freleng, 1960.
Porky's Poor Fish, directed by Robert Clampett, 1940.
Swallow the Leader, directed by Robert McKimson, 1949.

All right, if you happen upon this disc, you probably will only recognize a few of the characters right away, namely Daffy Duck, Porky Pig and Sylvester, and they only make two appearances at the most. Some younger fans might recognize Pussyfoot from recent Warner Bros. merchandise, although you'd never see her companion, the bulldog called Marc Antony, on a T-shirt or keyring.

Conrad the Sailor is one I remember pretty well as a kid, where Daffy Duck raises hell on a Navy carrier, infuriating Conrad to no end.

Still, any disc of Looney Tunes is going to contain some gems, so I can easily say this one's recommended, but just not the first choice to watch that I would make.

Oh, and the disc has this as a bonus feature. Yes, if you doubted its existance before, it really happened.

Thursday, March 26, 2009

The Naked Truth

The Naked Truth (U.S. title: Your Past is Showing). 1957 The Rank Organisation, distributed to DVD by MGM.
Starring: Terry-Thomas, Peter Sellers, Peggy Mount, Shirley Eaton, Dennis Price
Director: Mario Zampi
Available at Amazon.

A blackmailer named Nigel (Dennis Price) threatens to publish embarrassing secrets in his magazine, The Naked Truth. This time, he has targeted Lord Henry Mayley (Terry-Thomas), TV host Sonny MacGregor (Sellers), a writer named Flora Ransom (Mount) and model Melissa Right (Eaton).

Some of the would-be targets decide on their own that having Nigel murdered would be preferable to paying him not to expose their dirty laundry. Lord Mayley almost falls victim to MacGregor's and Ransom's schemes, but they all regroup and try again. What happens is, Nigel is arrested for an unrelated crime. At his trial, he threatens to reveal everything, so Mayley recruits the help of hundreds of other past targets in sending him to South America. The London police is overwhelmed with fake calls for help while Mayley and MacGregor (plus his assistant) break Nigel out of prison and wisk him to a waiting blimp.

Nigel is kept unconscious until everyone ends up in the blimp's cabin, and they're enroute to a rendezvous with an outgoing ship. The publisher ends up doing himself in when he steps out for some fresh air, unaware of where he really is. While celebrating, MacGregor shoots his pistol, puncturing the blimp. Whoops!

A pretty funny British comedy featuring Sellers before he became famous, Terry-Thomas, and several assorted Carry On regulars. Recommended.

A Face in the Crowd

A Face in the Crowd. 1957 Warner Bros. Pictures/Turner Entertainment.
Starring: Andy Griffith, Patricia Neal, Anthony Franciosa, Walter Matthau, Lee Remick
Director: Elia Kazan
Available at Amazon as a single DVD, or as part of the Controversal Classics box set.

Based on a short story called "Your Arkansas Traveler" by Budd Schulberg, the movie centers on an loud and abrasive rural comedian and musician named Larry "Lonesome" Rhodes (Griffith). The character of Rhodes is discovered in a county jail in a small town in Arkansas by a radio personality named Marcia Jeffries (Neal) during the late '50s, when television was replacing radio as the most popular entertainment medium. Rhodes is loosely modeled on Tennessee Ernie Ford, as well as CBS radio and TV personality Arthur Godfrey.

After Ms. Jeffries helps secure Rhodes a spot on a radio show, he is also invited to appear on television in Memphis by a talent scout, where he meets Mel Miller (Matthau), his future scriptwriter. During his time in Memphis, Rhodes gains attention by frequently insulting his sponsor, to the delight of his audience. The sponsor, a mattress company, is obviously unhappy, but are relenting in pulling sponsorship when they find out that Rhodes is actually helping increase sales. Oh, and the wife of the owner is also a Lonesome Rhodes fan.

Eventually, with the help of an office boy named Joey DePalma (Franciosa), Rhodes goes to New York City, becoming the spokesman for a dietary supplement called Vitajex, and we see a montage of commercials for the product. His rising fame and influence goes to his head, and Lonesome Rhodes is ultimately undone after Marcia, unhappy at his penchant for privately insulting his fans, exposes him on national television. As Rhodes puts on a happy facade, he calls his viewers idiots, morons, and guinea pigs, and those comments go over the air after Jeffries pushes slide switches, turning his microphones back on.

While Lonesome Rhodes would most likely be able to resume his broadcasting career, it would never reach the heights he did before Marcia exposed him.

Highly recommended film. Andy Griffith's performace was fantastic, and the movie in general is a stark portrayal of television's influence on the general public.

MST3K #1008: Final Justice

Mystery Science Theater 3000 experiment #1008: Final Justice.
Original airdate: June 20, 1999.
Part of the fourteenth MST3K collection, available at Amazon.

This is the second, and unfortunately last, Joe Don Baker movie featured on the greatest TV show in history. As you may remember, Mitchell was the first, and there are a few references to that episode here, along with Mike attempting to escape, and justifying it by saying that Joel escaped after the last Baker movie, so he figured it was his turn.

Baker plays a Texas lawman named Thomas Jefferson Geronimo III, a fat-assed sheriff and junk food junkie. His partner is killed by an Italian mobster, so Geronimo goes out, catches him, and escorts him back to Italy, only to lose him in the city of Valletta. Geronimo decides to defy the local law enforcement by using Texas justice to capture the criminal.

During the host segments, Tom Servo considers the unexplored implications of "Owner of a Lonely Heart, and everyone is plagued by Yes orchestra hits shortly afterwards. Pearl Forrester encourages humor in the workplace, but later, loses it when Mike and the 'bots demonstrate how annoying it is when a film repeats the same scene twice in a row.

"Mike's tripping!"

Recommended episode, and one I haven't seen in several years.

Wednesday, March 25, 2009

Escape from New York

Escape from New York. 1981 AVCO Embassy Pictures, released to DVD by MGM.
Starring: Kurt Russell, Lee Van Cleef, Ernest Borgnine, Donald Pleasence, Issac Hayes, Harry Dean Stanton, Adrienne Barbeau, Season Hubley, Tom Atkins
Director: John Carpenter
Buy Escape from New York at Amazon. Also available as a special edition DVD.

It's 1997, and World War III is nearing its end. The U.S. and Soviet Union have suffered greatly, and they are both seeking a peaceful resolution. Nine years earlier, Manhattan Island was turned into a massive maximum security prison after a nationwide crime increase of 400 percent. The island and surrounding waters are surrounded by a containment wall, and all inmates inside are sentenced to life, and the inmates have formed gangs that control the city.

While traveling to a three-way summit between America, Russia and China, Air Force One is hijacked by revolutionaries. They crash the plane into Manhattan, but the President (Pleasance) is placed in an escape pod before then, and survives. The inmates quickly take him hostage and order all soldiers to leave Manhattan immediately, or he gets killed.

A police commissioner, Bob Hauk (Van Cleef) cuts a deal with a new prisoner, a special forces soldier turned criminal "Snake" Plissken (Russell): rescue the President and retrive a cassette tape containing information on nuclear fission, and Snake is pardoned for all of his crimes...but only within 24 hours before the summit meeting that the President was scheduled to attend begins. Snake reluctantly agrees, and Hauk has him injected with microscopic explosives that will blow open his carotid arteries in 24 hours, and they cannot be defused until within fifteen minutes before they go off, making sure that Plissken doesn't abandon his mission, or try to remove the explosives himself. Hauk will save Snake if he returns with the President and the tape in time for the summit...and Snake promises to kill him when he returns.

After landing on the World Trade Center, Snake is aided by "Cabbie" (Borgnine), Brain (Stanton), who committed some heists alongside Plissken, and Brain's girlfriend Maggie (Barbeau) in rescuing the President from the self-proclaimed Duke of New York (Hayes) and his minions.

Recommended movie.

Airheads

Airheads. 1994 20th Century Fox.
Starring: Brendan Fraser, Steve Buscemi, Adam Sandler, Joe Mantegna, Michael McKean, Amy Locane, Nina Siemaszko, Chris Farley, Ernie Hudson, Judd Nelson, Michael Richards, Mike Judge (voice only)
Director: Michael Lehmann
Buy Airheads from Amazon.

Chazz (Fraser), Rex (Buscemi) and Pip (Sandler), otherwise known as the Lone Rangers, are a rock band having all sorts of problems getting noticed, and their demo tape is usually ignored by producers. The boys try getting it played on the local rock station, Rebel Radio 103.6 (KPPX-FM) after hearing about another band who secured a deal after getting some airplay. The Lone Rangers fail several times to break into the radio station, but succeed.

Rebel Radio jock Ian the Shark (Mantegna) puts them on the air without them knowing, and they're all interupted by the station's manager, Milo (McKean). After he calls Rex "Hollywood Boulevard trash", he and Chazz use water pistols (that look like Uzis) loaded with hot sauce in Milo's face, demanding airplay. Unfortunately, in the haste to set up the reel-to-reel machine, the tape ends up getting destroyed. The Lone Rangers try to flee, but find the building surrounded.

Realizing they're now considered armed hostage takers, Chazz and the boys start negotiating with police, and gain some support within the radio station after Milo reveals that he's changing Rebel Radio's station format, which means everyone, including Ian, will be downsized out of a job. Will the guys achieve their goal, despite their clearly illegal tactics?

Recommended movie.

The Cincinnati Kid

The Cincinnati Kid. 1965 MGM/Turner Entertainment.
Starring: Steve McQueen, Edward G. Robinson, Ann-Margret, Karl Malden, Tuesday Weld, Rip Torn, Cab Calloway
Director: Norman Jewison
Available at Amazon: Single DVD, or as part of the Essential Steve McQueen Collection.

A film adaptation of Richard Jessup's novel of the same name, with the only major change being the location. In the novel, events took place in St. Louis; here, they've been moved down river to New Orleans.

Steve McQueen is excellent as an up-and-coming poker player named Eric "The Kid" Stoner. He hears that Lancey Howard, otherwise known as "The Man" (Robinson) is in New Orleans, and decides to take him on. The Kid's friend Shooter (Malden) warns him about Howard. Shooter thought he was the best, until The Man came along and "gutted" him.

Howard arrives, and arranges a game with William Jefferson Slade (Torn), asking Shooter to act as the dealer. Thirty hours later, Howard beats Slade for six grand, angering Slade. The following night, Slade tries bribing Shooter into cheating in The Kid's favor when his game with Howard comes up. Shooter declines,and Slade threatens to blackmail him by revealing information about his wife Melba (Ann-Margret). When asked by Shooter why he wants him to cheat on behalf of Stoner, Slade replies that he wants to see The Man gutted the way Howard gutted him. Shooter, who has been known for his integrity over the past 25 years, agonizes over his choice.

Will Shooter tilt the big match in The Kid's favor? Even if he doesn't, can Stoner beat Howard?

Recommended movie.

Tuesday, March 24, 2009

You Can't Cheat an Honest Man

You Can't Cheat an Honest Man. 1939 Universal Pictures.
Starring: W.C. Fields, Edgar Bergen, Charlie McCarthy, Constance Moore, John Arledge, Eddie "Rochester" Anderson
Directors: George Marshall, Edward F. Cline (uncredited)
Available at Amazon as part of the W.C. Fields Comedy Collection.

I'm not entirely certain about how a dummy got third billing in this movie...

Fields is Larsen E. Whipsnade, a carnival owner on the run from the law to keep a step ahead of foreclosure, and he's also not paying his performers, including Bergen and Charlie McCarthy. While Bergen tries to talk Whipsnade into paying him, McCarthy tries to steal some. Okay, I guess the dummy isn't such a dummy after all.

Larsen's sone Phineas (Arledge) is aware of his dad's financial problems, and has figured out a solution: he wants his sister Victoria (Moore) to marry a wealthy playboy named Roger Bel-Goodie (James Bush). Learning about her father's problems, Victoria decides to marry Roger just to bring in some money to the family, but she can't get over her feelings for Edgar Bergen. I'm assuming these feelings didn't extend to McCarthy and Mortimer Snerd (who is uncredited in the film and at IMDB, but receives full billing in the DVD package, in case you desperately needed to know).

To ensure the marriage goes off without a problem, Whipsnade sets Bergen and McCarthy adrift in a hot-air balloon. But this pair of dummies can't be kept out of the equation for long.

Recommended movie, since you can't go wrong with W.C. Fields, and his old radio rival(s), Edgar Bergen and Charlie McCarthy. Jack Benny's sidekick and valet Eddie "Rochester" Anderson also has a small role, and does well with it.

Stewie Griffin: The Untold Story

Family Guy Presents Stewie Griffin: The Untold Story. 2005 20th Century Fox. Original airdate on Fox: May 21, 2006.
Vocal Talent: Seth MacFarlane, Alex Borstein, Seth Green, Mila Kunis, Patrick Warburton, Mike Henry, Phil LaMarr, Adam West, Danny Smith
Additional vocal talent: Drew Barrymore, Jennie Garth, Noel Blanc, Michael Clarke Duncan, Bill Fagerbakke, Larry Kenney, Don LaFontaine, Jason Priestley, Kevin Michael Richardson, Will Sasso, Tori Spelling, etc.
Director: Pete Michels
Available at Amazon.

A straight-to-DVD animated film where Stewie Griffin, lamenting his existance in the world, openly questioning on whether or not that Peter Griffin can be his real father. After struggling through swim lessons, a failed murder attempt on the best student in that class, and a brief alcoholic stage after following Brian Griffin's example where he controls anger through his drinking, Stewie sees a strangely familiar man on television, one who looks and sounds exactly like he does.

The man is currently in San Francisco, and Stewie vows to meet him. He and a reluctant Brian hitch a ride on Glenn Quagmire's cross-country Winnebago sex trip. They steal the vehicle in New Mexico after Quagmire is mugged and handcuffed to the bed by a cleaning woman. After arriving in San Francisco, Stewie is shocked to learn that the man he saw on TV is himself from thirty years in the future, taking a time travel vacation.

When the adult Stu Griffin returns to his proper time, Stewie stows away with him, and he learns that the future is not good to him at all. Stu passes Stewie off as a Nicaraguan adoptee named Pablo. To Stewie's horror, he finds out that his future self is a 35-year-old virgin who lives alone in an apartment, works at an electronic store, and collects cartoons from Parade Magazine. Stewie attempts to make Stu "cool", remaking his apartment, and setting him up on a date with a female coworker that goes great up until it's time to actually go to bed with her. His date gossips about the disaster the next day, costing Stu his job, and he comes home to see that his apartment has burned down. After complaining about the near-death experience at the pool, Stu and Stewie ask Lois (now in a retirement home with Peter) for money to buy a new time-travel watch. Lois agrees, and Stewie goes back in time, righting various wrongs, ending with changing events at the swimming pool that day.

While Stewie isn't figuring out where things went wrong, Peter gets a job at Channel 5 with a news segment called "What Really Grinds My Gears", which grates on Tom Tucker, who resents Peter's popularity. He and Lois also want to teach Meg and Chris to get dates so they can have some peace and quiet together, but soon question if the kids are really ready for dating.

Recommended.

Monday, March 23, 2009

Chasing Amy

Chasing Amy (Criterion #75). 1997 View Askew Productions & Miramax Films.
Starring: Ben Affleck, Joey Lauren Adams, Jason Lee, Jason Mewes, Kevin Smith, Scott Mosier, Matt Damon, Brian O'Halloran
Director: Kevin Smith
Buy Chasing Amy at Amazon.

Kevin Smith jokingly referred to Chasing Amy as his "science fiction" movie on An Evening With Kevin Smith, and went on to say that if you asked a lesbian, the events in this movie would never happen in real life, even if, and probably especially because of Ben Affleck.

Anyway, Holden McNeil (Affleck) and Banky Edwards (Lee) are two New Jersey-based comic book artists and lifelong best friends who just happen to share names with characters in The Catcher in the Rye. Things are going great for them up until they go to a comic book convention in New York to promote their comic Bluntman and Chronic. They meet a lesbian-identified young lady named Alyssa Jones (Adams). Holden is instantly attracted to her, despite her sexual identity, and they develop a deep friendship, to Banky's chagrin. Holden falls in love, and one night, he is unable to contain his feelings for Alyssa. She at first considers her confession unfair and inconsiderate since she identifies as a lesbian, but they form a romantic relationship that night. After finding that they had slept together one morning, Banky starts investigating Alyssa's past, and it turns out she has been involved with other men before, as well as a threesome during high school. Holden is deeply disturbed by this, and they argue about it at a hockey game.

Holden has lunch with Jay and Silent Bob (Mewes & Smith), and Bob breaks his silence, relating a long story (peppered with Jay's characteristic insults) about how he was in a similar relationship to Holden and Alyssa. Bob was in love with a girl named Amy, but he was insecure about her past sexual experiences, and that caused him to sabotage the relationship. Silent Bob is angry about letting her go, and he has spent a lot of time since then "chasing Amy". Inspired, Holden dreams up a crazy idea to fix his relationships with Alyssa and Banky: a threesome. Banky is initally disgusted, but agrees, while Alyssa flatly turns him down and walks out of his life. Banky, relieved that there would be no threesome to take part of, does the same.

A year later at a new convention, Holden and Banky are at another convention, separately promoting their latest comics, and Alyssa happens to show up. With some encouragement from Banky, Holden approaches her, and they have a brief conversation. Holden gives her a copy of Chasing Amy, his new book based on their failed relationship.

Recommended, although I'm not entirely sure why it's in the Criterion Collection, apart from the fact that it was a Criterion laserdisc during the '90s before DVDs became hugely popular. Oh well, it's not a major issue.

P.S. What's a nubian?

Hoop Dreams

Hoop Dreams (Criterion #289). 1994 Fine Line Features, Kartemquin Films, and KTCA Minneapolis.
Featuring: William Gates & Arthur Agee, Jr.
Also featuring: Arthur "Bo" Agee, Sheila Agee, Emma Gates, Curtis Gates, Isiah Thomas, Spike Lee, Bobby Knight, Kevin O'Neill
Directors: Peter Gilbert, Steve James & Frederick Marx
Available at Amazon.

This critically acclaimed documentary follows two African-American youths, William Gates and Arthur Agee from Chicago, as they are recruited by a predominantly white high school, St. Joseph, in the suburb of Westchester, giving the boys a three-hour round trip between home and school. The two struggle to improve their basketball skills in difficult workouts and practice, while trying to adjust to a foreign social environment. Agee's family falls behind on payments to the school, so he transfers to a school closer to home, John Marshall High School. Gates suffered a knee injury while playing for St. Joseph, which limited his playing time, and ultimately, college recruitment offers.

Hoop Dreams touches on a number of issues aside from basketball; race, class, economic differences, education, and American values

Agee and Gates never made it to the NBA, sadly. Gates did try out for the Washington Wizard following Michael Jordan's second comeback, but suffered another injury, and turned down an offer to join the Chicago Bulls as a reserve. Agee, meanwhile, launched the Arthur Agee Foundation (website), which is devoted to promoting higher education for inner city youth.

Highly, highly, highly recommended film.

Sunday, March 22, 2009

Monty Python and the Holy Grail

Dentist on the Job. 1961 Bertram Osterer Productions & Anglo-Amalgamated Film Distributors.
Starring: Bob Monkhouse, Ronnie Stevens, Kenneth Connor, Shirley Eaton, Richard Wattis, Charles Hawtrey, Arthur Mullard
Director: C.M. Pennington-Richards
Available at Amazon (Region 2 only!)

A 1961 British comedy in the vein of the Carry On films about a revolutionary type of toothpaste called Dreem, and...what? Hey, wait a second here!

I seem to be watching the wrong movie!

[One Moment Please]


Monty Python and the Holy Grail. 1975 Python (Monty) Pictures, released to DVD by Columbia TriStar Home Entertainment.
Written by and starring: Graham Chapman, John Cleese, Terry Gilliam, Eric Idle, Terry Jones, Michael Palin
Also starring: Connie Booth, Carol Cleveland, Neil Innes, John Young
Directors: Terry Gilliam & Terry Jones
Available at Amazon: Special Edition DVD, or the Extraordinarily Deluxe Three-Disc Edition.

Okay...enough has been written about Holy Grail that I can probably get away with not posting a brief synopsis about the film. You probably know the story: King Arthur (Chapman) travels through England recruiting knights in his quest to find the Holy Grail. You also probably know all of the best jokes and most memorable scenes by heart now, right?

* Coconuts.
* The airspeed velocity of an unladen swallow?
* "Bring out your dead!"
* The Black Knight and his refusal to quit.
* The French Taunter.
* Run away! Run away!!
* A famous historian, and his death.
* Knights who say "ni!"
* Castle Anthrax.
* The Killer Rabbit of Caerbannog (yes, it has an official name).
* Sir Not-Appearing-in-This-Film, who is represented by a picture of William Palin, Michael's son.
* The Legendary Black Beast of Aaaaarrrrrrggghhh, and the animator's fatal heart attack.

This is the movie that finally broke Monty Python in America (they had a cult following after Monty Python's Flying Circus was imported to PBS in the early '70s), and it's probably the only Python project that just about everyone and their mother can quote verbatim. I also feel this is still their funniest movie.

Holy Grail was also very difficult for the Pythons to make, as they were plagued by troublesome weather, subpar hotel accomodations, their own inexperience at producing their own feature film, two directors with different artistic visions, and Graham Chapman's alcoholism, which had yet to peak, but it was during the film's production that he realized that it was becoming a serious problem. Even the normally calm and relaxed Michael Palin lost his temper at one point during production, which took his fellow Pythons by surprise (Cleese found himself applauding after Palin finally calmed down).

Highly, highly recommended. Now, get on with it!

Hoosiers

So, during the excitement that is March Madness, I figured why not watch a basketball themed movie, and there are few better ones than...

Hoosiers. 1986 Orion Pictures & Hemdale Film Corporation; distributed to DVD by MGM.
Starring: Gene Hackman, Barbara Hershey, Dennis Hopper, Sheb Wooley, Maris Valainis, Kent Poole, Steve Hollar, Brad Long, Wade Schenck
Director: David Anspaugh
Available at Amazon: Single DVD, or the Collector's Edition.

Or, as this film is known in England, Best Shot.

Hoosiers is inspired by the true story of tiny Milan High School in southeastern Indiana, and its trip to the high school state championship in 1954. The movie moves up their state championship by two years, and it changes their opponents from a school in Muncie to another one up in South Bend. (Differences?)

Despite the differences between real life and reel life, this is still an enjoyable movie, and the only one that really captures just how crazed the state of Indiana is about basketball. Highly recommended.

If you decide to buy, pick up the Collector's Edition. The Milan vs. Muncie championship game is included as an extra.

Saturday, March 21, 2009

Miles Electric: A Different Kind of Blue

Miles Electric: A Different Kind of Blue
2004 Eagle Rock Entertainment.
Director: Murray Lerner
Available at Amazon.

For all of the ground that Miles Davis broke during his lifetime, it still seems that when he plugged in and went electric in the late '60s, incorporating influences from Jimi Hendrix, Sly and the Family Stone, and James Brown (among others), was to some people, the most controversal thing he ever did. There are still jazz fans out there who probably never forgave Miles for going in the direction he did.

I disagree with them. Personally, my favorite Miles Davis records are everything he did starting with In a Silent Way up until his 1975 hiatus, simply because they're the most interesting, exciting and unpredictable music he ever made. While I love everything he did before he plugged in, and brought the Fender Rhodes piano and the guitarists onstage, his fusion era remains my favorite.

This documentary interviews many of Miles' sidemen and other musicians, notably Herbie Hancock, Chick Corea, Carlos Santana, and Joni Mitchell, and contains a lot of archival footage of live performances, including one from the Steve Allen Show with Miles and his second quintet (Hancock, Wayne Shorter, Ron Carter, Tony Williams). The centerpiece of the DVD is the complete 38 minute performance from the Isle of Wight Festival on August 29th, 1970. Miles received bottom billing for the festival, which meant that TINY TIM was billed higher than he was that year.

Tiptoe through the tulips, indeed.

Highly recommended.

Friday, March 20, 2009

Ace in the Hole

Ace in the Hole (Criterion #396). 1951 Paramount Pictures.
Starring: Kirk Douglas, Jan Sterling, Robert Arthur, Porter Hall
Director: Billy Wilder
Buy Ace in the Hole from Amazon.

This movie was Billy Wilder's first flop, although it was way ahead of its time. You might have seen this movie on cable under the title The Big Carnival. Criterion's 2007 release, which was reportedly the first for this movie on any home video format, retained the original name.

Chuck Tatum (Douglas) is a newspaper reporter working his way west to New Mexico all the way from New York City, having been fired from eleven other newspaper for slander, adultery, and heavy drinking. Fiercely ambitious and self-centered, Tatum has been writing for an small Albuquerque daily for over a year, and is still the same man he was when he walked in the door the first time.

While covering a rattlesnake hunt (This ain't the Big Apple, Chuck!), he learnes about Leo Minosa (Richard Benedict), who is trapped in a cave collapse while trying to excavate Native American artifacts. Sensing that this could turn into a huge story, Tatum manipulates the rescue effort, even persuading the local sheriff to pressure the rescue crew into using a much slower method, just so Tatum and his story can stay on the front pages longer. Sure enough, the story becomes a media sensation. Tourists start flocking to town, and the rescue site literally is turned into a carnival, with rides, games, and entertainment.

Tatum learns that Minosa is fading fast, but it's too late to switch back to the quicker rescue procedure. When he dies, the reporter is guilt-ridden.

Ace in the Hole definitely predicted the media circuses that seemed to break out surrounding any major news story, prolonging their stays on the front page, and on the TV news. Highly, highly recommended.

MST3K #603: The Dead Talk Back

Mystery Science Theater 3000 experiment #603: The Dead Talk Back (with short, The Selling Wizard).
Originally aired July 30, 1994.
Part of the eighth MST3K collection, still available at Amazon.

The episode starts out with a ten minute Anheiser-Busch film pitching various refrigerated cabinets, with a fairly dull narrator, and a woman presenter who is simply there for eye candy, and the narrator's borderline sexist remarks. Not the best MST3K short, but still a pretty good one.

The Dead Talk Back was filmed in 1957, and then shelved until 1993, when Sinister Cinema discovered it, and released it to video themselves. A scientist (Aldo Farnese, in his only role) is running experiments in talking to the dead while living in a rundown boarding house with an ecclectic group of characters. One gets murdered with a crossbow. The eccentric scientist ends up helping two pretty inept detectives find the killer, but the machines designed to talk to the deceased never do what they're intended to. Instead, they simply rely on the tried-and-true method of gathering everyone in the place in the labratory, and rambling on until the real killer finally confesses, seemingly out of boredom.

The host segments see a fire drill on the Satellite of Love, with everyone walking in circles since there's no way out of the place. The Mads experiment with "pinpoint marketing" by pitching Nelson Cigarettes, but despite the insistance of Crow, Mike Nelson does not immediately become a five pack a day smoker. After the bots host a call-in radio show where the dead do call in to talk, the gang impersonates the Grateful Dead, and Crow plays an endless solo that last through the rest of the host segments. Dr. Forrester later tries to interrogate Mike and company, but TV's Frank confesses instead.

Recommended. It's kind of a dull episode, thanks to the movie, and there are a few mastering errors on the DVD that could prove to be more than a little distracting.

Thursday, March 19, 2009

The Seven-Ups

The Seven-Ups. 1973 20th Century Fox.
Starring: Roy Scheider, Tony Lo Bianco, Larry Haines, Richard Lynch, Victor Arnold, Jerry Leon, Ken Kercheval
Director: Philip D'Antoni
Buy The Seven-Ups at Amazon.

The Seven-Ups is the only directoral effort for Philip D'Antoni, who is noted for producing Bullitt and The French Connection. Not so coincidentally, all three films have famous car chase sequences.

Roy Scheider plays Buddy Manucci, an NYPD investigator who runs a task force of renegade cops known as the "Seven-Ups", because most of the convictions done by the team usually sees a prison sentence from seven years and up for the offender. Manucci is also catching some flak from his superiors thanks to the Seven-Ups' tactics on the streets. He also relies on a street informant named Vito Lucia (Lo Bianco).

Lucia double crosses Manucci by using some information concerning a secret list of Mob loan sharks. The criminals are quickly kidnapped and held for ransom. The scheme leads to the death of one of the Seven-Ups (Kercheval). Manucci and his surviving men go to war with New York City's underworld, doing whatever they can to track down and capture Lucia.

Naturally, the car chase scene through Manhattan is the best part of the movie. Recommended movie.

Wednesday, March 18, 2009

The Dream Team

The Dream Team. 1989 Universal Pictures & Imagine Entertainment.
Starring: Michael Keaton, Christopher Lloyd, Peter Boyle, Stephen Furst, James Remar
Director: Howard Zieff
Buy The Dream Team at Amazon.

A psychologist named Dr. Weitzman (Dennis Boutsikaris) works in a sanitarium in New Jersey, overlooking four patients named Billy, Henry, Jack and Albert.

Billy Caulfield (Keaton) is a writer and seemingly the most normal of the four, and their unofficial leader. He is also a pathological liar with delusions of grandeur, with the occasional violent outburst. Henry Sikorsky (Lloyd) is an obsessive/compulsive neat freak who has deluded himself into believing he is another doctor employed at the sanitarium, complete with lab coat, clipboard, and "reports" on the other patients. Jack McDermott (Boyle) was an advertising executive, and now he believes he's Jesus Christ. Finally, Albert Ianuzzi (Furst) is a near-catatonic man-child who only repeats things he hears from televised baseball games, particularly from announcer Phil Rizzuto.

Dr. Weitzman persuades his superiors that the four need some time away from the sanitarium, and takes them to a Yankees game. The doctor witnesses two crooked policemen (Philip Bosco & James Remar) murdering another cop, and gets assaulted for his troubles. Billy, Henry, Jack and Albert are now stranded in New York City, a place more bizarre than the sanitarium. It's also up to them to save their doctor from being murdered by the two corrupt cops, as well as having to pry the clues out of Albert, who was the only one to see Dr. Weitzman attacked.

Recommended movie.

The Spirit of St. Louis

The Spirit of St. Louis. 1957 Warner Bros. Pictures.
Starring: James Stewart, Murray Hamilton, Patricia Smith, Bartlett Robinson, Marc Connelly, Arthur Space, Charles Watts
Director: Billy Wilder
Available at Amazon: Single DVD, or part of James Stewart: The Signature Collection.

A film adaptation of Charles Lindbergh's autobiography of the same name, it begins the night before his historical flight across the Atlantic Ocean, using multiple flashbacks of Lindbergh's (Stewart) aviation career dating back to his first solo flight in 1923. From there, we see him take a few aviation jobs, and eventually gaining support from the St. Louis Chamber of Commerce to design and build his own airplane, the Spirit of St. Louis.

Lindbergh deals with lack of sleep and icing during his flight overseas, while we see more flashbacks from his barnstorming days, and flying for the Army. He makes it to Paris to a hero's welcome.

James Stewart was 47 when cast for the role, which meant he was playing a character that was only 25 years old. He was also reportedly difficult to work with on the set, which was uncharacteristic for him.

Normally, I enjoy Billy Wilder's work, and James Stewart is always good, but this movie ran way too long. Slightly recommended for those curious, although I don't really think I'll be watching this one again any time soon.. Warner Bros., as always, should be commended for their transfer of the film to DVD and the extras included.

The Conversation

The Conversation. 1974 Paramount Pictures.
Starring: Gene Hackman, John Cazale, Allen Garfield, Cindy Williams, Frederic Forrest, Teri Garr, Harrison Ford, Robert Duvall (uncredited)
Director: Francis Ford Coppola
Buy The Conversation from Amazon.

Francis Ford Coppola directed this film, a partial homage to Michaelangelo Antonioni's Blowup, in between the first two Godfather movies.

A paranoid surveillance expert named Harry Caul (Hackman) runs his own San Francisco based company, and is highly respected in his profession. He is also obsessed with his own privacy, living in a bare apartment behind a triple-locked door, using pay phones to make calls while claiming to not have a home one, and enclosing his office in wire mesh in a corner of an enormous warehouse. Harry is completely professional at work, but finds personal conflict very difficult.

Harry also agonizes over the content of the conversations he records, and the uses to which his clients put his surveillance activities, even if he insists his professional code absolves him of everything. His current assignment is monitoring the conversation of a couple (Williams & Forrest) as they walk through Union Square in San Francisco, and one key phrase ("He'd kill us if he got the chance") drives him mad, and he interprets it as a plot by the "Director" who hired him to murder the couple. Earlier in his career, one of Harry's assignments resulted in three people dying, and he is not keen on repeating that if he can help it.

Increasingly paranoid, Harry refuses to hand over the tapes, but loses them after he is seduced by a call girl who takes them after the fact. It turns out that the conversation he recorded was not a murder plot, but there is another tragedy that happens. The movie ends with Harry discovering that his own home is bugged, and after he destroys the place, he finds no listening device.

The Conversation was nominated for three Academy Awards, including Best Picture. Highly recommended.

Safety Last!

Safety Last! 1923 Hal Roach Studios; distributed to DVD by New Line Home Entertainment.
Starring: Harold Lloyd, Mildred Davis, Bill Strother, Noah Young, Westcott Clarke
Directors: Fred C. Newmeyer & Sam Taylor
Part of the Harold Lloyd Comedy Collection at Amazon.

Safety Last! includes one of the silent film era's most famous images, Harold Lloyd clutching the hands of a clock on the side of a building, as he hangs above moving traffic. Lloyd himself performed some of the close-ups in his stunts, which is remarkable considering he was missing the thumb and forefinger from his right hand, due to a 1919 accident with a prop bomb (he wore a prosthetic glove after that). Most of the stunts involving the clock were performed on specially constructed sets on the rooftops of buildings, which were then photographed to give the illusion that Lloyd was really hanging a long way up.

The Boy (Lloyd) leaves his sweetheart, The Girl (Davis, who later married Lloyd in real life) in a small town called Great Bend while he seeks out fame and fortune in a faraway metropolis. Instead, he gets a job as a clerk in a department store, but lies in his letters sent home, and says he's the store manager. The Boy is also rooming with The Pal, or Limpy Bill (Strother), a construction worker with a talent of climbing up buildings. After The Boy runs across an old friend who is now a city policeman, he invites Bill to see what his friend in uniform would let him get away with. Bill instead knocks over the wrong cop (Young), and escapes up the side of a building.

Meanwhile, The Boy is now trying to conceal his bad luck by sending his girlfriend expensive gifts that he can't really afford, which prompts her to take a train to visit him, thinking he is already well off enough to support a family. The Boy finds himself posing as the store manager, and getting into an embarrassing situation of incidents or accidents. Overhearing the real boss (Clarke) talking about a plan to pay anybody a thousand dollars to anyone who attracts major attention to the store, The Boy recruits Bill and his policeman friend, and volunteers to help out. The Boy intends to pay Bill $500 to climb the store, while he takes the other half for himself. A chance encounter with the other cop ("The Law") sends Bill running for it, and The Boy must make the climb himself.

Highly, highly recommended film. There's nothing wrong with silent films, kids!

Modern Times

Modern Times. 1936 United Artists, distributed to DVD by MK2 Diffusion and Warner Home Video.
Starring: Charlie Chaplin, Paulette Goddard, Henry Bergman, Stanley Sandford, Chester Conklin
Written and directed by Charlie Chaplin
Available at Amazon:
Two-disc special edition.
Part of the Chaplin Collection, Volume 1.
Limited Edition Collector's Set (still available!)

Charlie Chaplin originally intended for this film to be his first "talkie", writing a script with dialogue and experimenting with sound scenes. For whatever reason, that didn't suit Chaplin, so he turned the movie into a silent one with music and sound effects. The only speaking voices heard come from mechanical devices (phonographs, radios, and the like).

Chaplin, as his famous Tramp character, is a factory worker, employed on the assembly line. The facility is rapidly modernizing, which sees Chaplin force-fed by a "modern" feeding machine, and he is also subjected to a faster assembly line than he and his coworkers are used to. Suffering a mental breakdown, he is sent to a hospital.

After his release from the hospital, Chaplin is mistakenly arrested for allegedly leading a Communist demonstration when he was simply trying to return a red flag that fell off a delivery truck. While in jail, the Tramp eats what he believes is salt, but it's actually cocaine. While high, Chaplin walks into the middle of a jailbreak and knocks out the escaping inmates. He is hailed as a hero, and released, but he finds life on the outside is tough, and tries getting arrested again when failing to find a good job.

The Tramp meets an orphan named Ellen Peterson (Goddard), who is by his side for the rest of his misadventures, which sees him getting assorted odd jobs, getting arrested a few more times, and protecting Ellen from the police. She is wanted for stealing a loaf of bread.

Highly recommended, and funny too!

Tuesday, March 17, 2009

The Cannonball Run

The Cannonball Run. 1981 20th Century Fox.
Starring: Burt Reynolds, Dom DeLuise, Farrah Fawcett, Dean Martin, Sammy Davis Jr., George Furth, Roger Moore, Jackie Chan, Jamie Farr, Peter Fonda, etc.
Director: Hal Needham
Available at Amazon: Single DVD. Two-fer with The Gumball Rally.

Half-assed review time!

An all-star slapstick comedy film based on the real life Cannonball Baker Sea-To-Shining-Sea Memorial Trophy Dash, which was held four times during the 1970s, starting in Connecticut and ending in California.

So, who's in it, and what are they driving? Who will be the first to make it across the country first?

Recommended movie, although not an especially artistic one.

¡Three Amigos!

¡Three Amigos! 1986 Orion Pictures and Home Box Office.
Starring: Steve Martin, Chevy Chase, Martin Short, Patrice Camhi, Alfonso Arau, Tony Plana, Joe Mantegna
Director: John Landis
Available at Amazon.

This one was originally entitled The Three Caballeros, with Steve Martin teaming up with Dan Aykroyd and John Belushi. Bill Murray and Rick Moranis were also considered as two of Martin's prospective costars. Apparently, this movie is very loosely based on the storyline from Kurosawa's Seven Samurai, which is very surprising to me.

Lucky Day (Martin), Dusty Bottoms (Chase) and Ned Nederlander (Short) are three silent film actors who are fired for demanding higher saleries for their popular "Three Amigos" films. They receive a plea from the villagers of Santo Poco who have been terrorized by a villain called El Guapo (Arau). The actors mistake the plea for an acting job, so they steal their Amigos costumes and travel to the town, where they are given a hero's welcome. They quickly realize that they're not being considered for a movie after a near fatal confrontation with El Guapo. After briefly leaving, Day, Bottoms and Nederlander return, and after seeing the end results of El Guapo, they decide to step up and become the Three Amigos for real. Can they save Santo Poco from further disaster?

This is a childhood favorite, and my only complaint is the less than stellar transfer the movie was given when released on DVD. A reissue doesn't seem forthcoming, it looks like.

Bulworth

Bulworth. 1998 20th Century Fox.
Starring: Warren Beatty, Halle Berry, Oliver Platt, Don Cheadle, Paul Sorvino, Jack Warden, Isaiah Washington, Christine Baranski, Amiri Baraka
Director: Warren Beatty
Available at Amazon.

Senator Jay Bulworth (Beatty) is losing his re-election bid to a fiery young opponent, which leads to a nervous breakdown. After going without sleeping or eating for three days, he takes out a $10 million insurance policy on himself while arranging his own assassination. The policy is arranged in exchange for a favorable vote for the insurance policy. With only a few days to go, Bulworth undergoes a drastic turn politically and personally. Drinking before a scheduled speech at an African-American church, the senator throws out his prepared speech in favor of improvising truthful remarks to any questions directed to him. Most of the churchgoers are horrified, but Bulworth gains one notable new follower, Nina (Berry). She and two of her friends get a ride in Bulworth's limo to an after-hours club where the senator gains respect for hip-hop culture, which he exploits fully at later public appearances.

Bulworth's new attitude makes him a media sensation, which also re-energizes his campaign. He also learns that Nina was the one given the hit contract, but refused to carry out the assassination. Unfortunately, the senator despite his newfound popularity still might not make it until Election Day.

Beatty's performance was fantastic. Recommended movie.

Monday, March 16, 2009

The Treasure of the Sierra Madre

The Treasure of the Sierra Madre. 1947 Warner Bros. Pictures/Turner Entertainment.
Starring: Humphrey Bogart, Walter Huston, Tim Holt, Bruce Bennett
Director: John Huston
Available at Amazon.

This film is the source of the "stinkin' badges" line that you've probably heard used in a bazillion other movies, TV shows, or stand-up comedy routines (More info here). Aforementioned line is #36 on the American Film Institute's "100 Years...100 Movie Quotes" list.

Fred C. Dobbs (Bogart) is down and out in Tampico, Mexico, and finding himself asking other citizens if they can help an American with a meal. He uses the last of the money he has to buy a lottery ticket, which brings him an unexpected windfall later on. He and Bob Curtain (Holt) find themselves meeting and being entertained by Howard (W. Huston), who has stories about prospecting for gold. Fred and Bob collect their pay from their shifty boss rather violently, and pool it with Fred's lottery winnings to buy equipment for a prospecting expedition with Howard. Dobbs pledges that anything they find will be split three ways, which Howard doesn't believe for a minute.

The three of them do strike gold, and Fred starts growing distrustful of his partners, eventually wanting all of the treasure for himself. Some bandits, who the trio had encountered earlier, appear dressed as Federales, and they are driven off by the genuine authorities after a gun battle. After Howard leaves temporarily to help some local villagers, Dobbs and Curtain have a showdown, which Dobbs wins, leaving his friend shot and bleeding. Fred meets his end in the desert thanks to some surviving bandits, who unknowingly scatter the gold to the winds, losing it forever. Curtain is found and taken to Howard's village, where he recovers, but they soon learn that the gold is gone.

Recommended movie.

The Adventures of Robin Hood

The Adventures of Robin Hood. 1939 Warner Bros. (First National) Pictures/Turner Entertainment.
Starring: Errol Flynn, Olivia de Havilland, Basil Rathbone, Claude Rains, Patric Knowles, Eugene Pallette, Alan Hale
Directors: Michael Curtiz & William Keighley
Two-disc special edition DVD available at Amazon.

Welcome to Sherwood, my lady!

King Richard is captured by Leopold of Austria while returning from the Crusades. His brother Prince John (Rains) takes power in his place, and begins oppressing the commoners. He also raises taxes, allegedly to raise to pay for Richard's ransom, but he does it only to secure his position on the throne.

Eventually, John raises the ire of Robin, Earl of Locksley (Flynn), who begins his crusade by saving Much (Herbert Mundin) from arrest for poaching one of the king's deer. Robin meets with Prince John, and announces to he and his assembled supporters, which includes Maid Marian (de Havilland) that he opposes him, and will do anything possible to restore King Richard to the throne. After escaping, Robin takes refuge in Sherwood Forest with Will Scarlet (Knowles), and starts recruiting followers, notably Little John (Hale) and Friar Tuck (Pallette).

At first, Marian is disdainful of Robin and his band of "cutthroats", but after she is captured along with a large party transporting collected tax money through the forest along with the Sheriff of Nottingham (Melville Cooper), she realizes that Robin is fighting the good fight. While Prince John is scheming to find a way to be rid of Robin, Richard (Ian Hunter) returns to England disguised as a monk. He is quickly exposed, but Richard goes underground to join Robin and his men. Can they stop Prince John from being crowned king and save an abducted Marian?

How many people can think of Robin Hood, and not have Errol Flynn come to mind. The film is a good one, and Warner Bros. did a stellar job restoring it (the colors are sharp and vivid) and transferring it to DVD. Highly recommended movie.

Sunday, March 15, 2009

Stir Crazy

Stir Crazy. 1980 Columbia Pictures.
Starring: Gene Wilder, Richard Pryor, Georg Stanford Brown, JoBeth Williams, Miguel Ángel Suárez, Craig T. Nelson
Director: Sidney Poitier
Buy Stir Crazy at Amazon.

Skip Donahue (Wilder) and Harry Monroe (Pryor) are both trying to break into show business (Skip's a writer, Harry's an actor), but aren't exactly going anywhere fast. They finally leave New York City for Hollywood after being fired from their jobs on the same day, intending to take odd jobs along the way. One such job sees Skip and Harry dressing up as two woodpeckers for a local bank, and performing a song and dance number as part of a promotion. Two men who had met Skip and Harry in a bar steal the costumes during a break, briefly perform...and then rob the bank. As the two thieves make their getaway, Skip and Harry are arrested, convicted rather quickly, and sentenced to 125 years in prison each. On the advice of their court-appointed lawyer, they start their sentences while he works on the appeal.

Prison isn't exactly the best environment for people like Skip and Harry, but they survive. Most of the movie concerns a prison "rodeo" between two rival prisons, and how Skip, who shows surprising skills at riding the bull, is preparing for it. They also befriend Jesus Ramirez (Suárez), who really robs banks, and the gay murderer Rory Schultebrand (Brown), and later, the feared giant inmate Grossberger (Erland Van Lidth), a voluntary mute who is also a convicted mass murderer. All the while, their attorney Len Garber (Joel Brooks) and his cousin Meredith (Williams) fight to prove the innocence of Skip and Harry.

Funny movie, I thought. Recommended, although prison movies or television shows aren't really my favorite things to watch.

Fargo

Fargo. 1996 PolyGram Filmed Entertainment, distributed to DVD by MGM.
Starring: Frances McDormand, William H. Macy, Steve Buscemi, Peter Stormare, Harve Presnell
Directors: Joel & Ethan Coen
Available at Amazon: Special Edition single DVD, part of the Coen Brothers Movie Collection, or as part of a two-fer with Raising Arizona.

One of the greatest movies ever made, and not because it popularized "Minnesota nice". Trust me.

Jerry Lundegaard (Macy) sells Oldsmobiles in Minneapolis, and he's run into financial troubles, having fleeced General Motors. These problems are serious enough that he's begging the government for a bailout hatching a plan involving the kidnapping of his wife Jean (Kristin Rudrüd) with two acquaintances, Carl Showalter (Busceme) and Gaear Grimsrud (Stormare). Jerry gets $40,000; the kidnappers receive the other half, plus a Cutlass Ciera from the dealership. He also plans to tell his wealthy but antagonistic father-in-law and boss, Wade Gustafson (Presnall) that the ransom is one million dollars, and Jerry intends to use the difference to settle his debts. Some miscommunication between all parties follow: Jerry pitches a $750,000 investment on a parking lot which Wade initially shows interest in, and Jerry asks that the kidnapping be cancelled, but he can't get ahold of Carl or Gaear. They carry out Jean's abduction while Jerry is meeting with Wade and his accountant, where he learns that Wade wants to pursue the project by himself, and Jerry will only be paid a finder's fee.

After returning home, Jerry calls Wade to tell him his daughter's been kidnapped, claiming that the police not be contact, or Jean will be harmed. Wade only agrees to this after talking to his business partner.

The plot escalates out of control when Carl and Gaear are pulled over near Brainerd, Minnesota. After the trooper sees Jean lying in the back seat, Gaear shoots him to death with a pistol that was in the glove compartment, then orders Carl to removed the body from the highway. Two witnesses happen to drive by, and Gaear follows them in hot pursuit. After the witnesses skid off the highway, Gaear kills both of them.

The case grabs the attention of the seven-months-pregnant local police chief Marge Gunderson (McDormand), who quickly figures out the chain of events, and starts pursuing Carl and Gaear. When she first contacts and interviews Jerry, he claims not to have anything to do with the murders, although she surprises him about inquiring about a missing Cutlass Ciera from his dealership. Carl and Gaear, anxious to get paid, and feeling the heat, embark on even more madness, leaving Wade, Jean, and a parking lot attendant murdered in their path. At their hideout, Gaear kills Carl with an ax after a dispute over ownership of the car, and is caught by Marge shoving his corpse into a wood chipper. After a brief shootout, Marge arrests him, questioning why he did what he did "for a little bit of money".

Jerry does not escape the law. After a GMAC representative threatens him with legal action, Marge asks to speak with him again. When she asks to see Wade, Jerry panics and flees the interview, which is enough for Marge to call in the State Police. He is arrested in Bismarck, North Dakota at a motel. But, the whereabouts of the missing $920,000, buried by Carl after Wade was murdered (he brought the ransom money instead of Jerry), remains a mystery.

Highly, highly recommended...even if everyone talks and sounds like Sarah Palin.

The Spy Who Came in from the Cold

The Spy Who Came in from the Cold (Criterion #452). 1965 Paramount Pictures.
Starring: Richard Burton, Claire Bloom, Oskar Werner, Sam Wanamaker, George Voskovec, Rupert Davies, Cyril Cusack
Director: Martin Ritt
Available at Amazon: Criterion Collection #452, or a cheaper non-Criterion edition.

Richard Burton is Alec Leamas, a British secret agent who seemingly loses control of his West Berlin office, and is recalled to London ("coming in from the cold") after one of his operatives dies. Leamas is demoted to a lower-tier section of the agency, feeling depressed and disgruntled while battling alcoholism. He quickly becomes depressed enough that he starts accepting overtures from German communist agents.

Actually, this is a carefully planned transformation of Alec Leamas to pull one over on the East Germans, so he can feed misinformation to the Communists. He appears to have information that will implicate an East German intelligence officer named Mundt (Peter Van Eyck) as a paid informant for Britain, but not enough information, which frustrates "Herr Fiedler" (Werner). All three men are arrested, and later, Mundt and Fiedler find themselves in front of a German tribunal with Leamas as a star witness. Leamas has a bad day in court, topped off by the testimony of his communist girlfriend, Nan Perry (Bloom), and he is exposed as still working as a British agent, which clears Mundt, and sees Fiedler, his credibility ruined, escorted out. He is later executed.

Leamas believes he has failed his mission, and will be executed. Mundt comes around to release him, where he realizes that the plan all along was to discredit Fiedler, and that Mundt genuinely was a British agent, so his mission did succeed. Nan berates Alec, who grows quickly annoyed that she doesn't know about the world he really lives in. Sadly, Nan has learned too much during her time in Berlin, and she is shot at the Berlin Wall. Alec, persuaded by agents on both sides to either return or permanently defect, simply goes to Nan's body, where he is also killed.

This film is dreary, depressing, and brilliant. Highly recommended.

Saturday, March 14, 2009

Eating Raoul

Eating Raoul. 1982 20th Century Fox International Classics & Quartet Films, distributed to DVD by Columbia TriStar Home Entertainment.
Starring: Paul Bartel, Mary Woronov, Robert Beltran, Susan Saiger, Ed Begley Jr., Buck Henry
Director: Paul Bartel
Amazon.com listing (discontinued; I bought my copy at Wal-Mart a couple of years ago for just four dollars).

Paul and Mary Bland (Bartel & Woronov) bemoan their low status in life, and dream of the day that they open a restaurant. They also live in an apartment building that regularly hosts swinger parties, something that changes their lives forever one evening when a drunken swinger stumbles into their apartment and tries to rape Mary. Paul kills the rapist with a heavy frying pan, and then take the money on him before dumping him down the trash compactor. After they kill another swinger in a similar fashion, Paul and Mary realize they could make money by killing "rich perverts". They seek advice on infiltrating the swinging lifestyle from one of the building's regulars, Doris the Dominatrix (Saiger).

They meet Raoul (Beltran), a locksmith, after deciding to change the lock on the apartment door to protect Mr. Bland's wine collection. Raoul also makes a habit of breaking into the homes of his clients, which he does one night to the Blands, only to find their latest victim, a Nazi fetishist. Paul confronts Raoul, and they make a deal: Raoul will keep their secret, and he also knows a place where he can "exchange" the bodies for cash (a dog food company). Raoul joins the Blands, and he starts selling the victims' cars after stealing them.

However, Raoul quickly oversteps his boundaries after he begins an affair with Mary after saving her from another would-be rapist (Begley Jr.) while Paul is away. After he finds out, Paul hires Doris to pose as a variety of people to try to get Raoul out of the picture by trying to convince him he's being deported. Eventually, Raoul drunkenly confronts Paul, and tells him he's marrying Mary, and lures him into the kitchen so that he and Mary can kill him. Instead, Mary kills Raoul with the frying pan. Remembering that they're expecting their real estate agent for dinner, and he's helping them buy their dream restaurant, Paul and Mary realize there's no food in the apartment. They simply decide to cook and serve Raoul for dinner, which certainly doesn't hinder their ambitions.

This is certainly a bizarre film, made all the more so by Paul and Mary's practice of killing "rich perverts", and finding their various sexual fetishes more disgusting than what they're doing to them, which is murdering them and selling their corpses to a dog food company. Highly recommended, although the DVD is out of print at this time. Maybe they're working on improving the transfer for a future release? (I've seen one source online claim that the VHS version of this film is actually superior to the DVD release)

Point Blank

Point Blank. 1967 MGM/Turner Entertainment.
Starring: Lee Marvin, Angie Dickinson, Keenan Wynn, Carroll O'Connor, Lloyd Bochner, Michael Strong, John Vernon
Director: John Boorman
Buy Point Blank at Amazon.

This movie is adapted from Donald E. Westlake's (a.k.a. Richard Stark) novel The Hunter, and it was the first movie filmed at Alcatraz after the prison was shut down. One significant change between the pages and the screen is the name of the protagonist character, changed from Parker to Walker.

Walker (Marvin) teams up with a friend named Reese (Vernon, in his first major role) to steal a large amount of money from a courier transporting the cash from a large gambling operation. Reese double crosses Walker, shooting him multiple times, and even stealing Walker's wife, Lynne (Sharon Acker). After he recovers, Walker goes after Reese and the syndicate he belongs to, known simply as The Organization.

Director Boorman combined elements of film noir with the French New Wave, creating an interesting and slightly disturbing picture. Recommended DVD.