Ben McClellan's Movie Sign!

MST3K #701: Night of the Blood Beast

2011-07-15T12:23:00.002-05:00

Mystery Science Theater 3000 experiment #701: Night of the Blood Beast (with short, Once Upon a Honeymoon).
Original airdates: November 23, 1995 (Turkey Day marathon version); February 3, 1996 (standard version).
Available as part of the sixteenth MST3K collection here.

The first episode of the very short seventh season of MST3K sees the permanent arrival of Mary Jo Pehl as Pearl Forrester, the bad Doctor's mother. She would become the primary antagonist of Mike Nelson and his robot pals following the move from Comedy Central to Sci-Fi in 1997, but for the moment, she's here to turn Clayton Deborah Susan Forrester back into the true mama's boy he always was, now that there's no longer a TV's Frank to kick around.

In Once Upon a Honeymoon, a guardian angel named Wilbur is sent from Heaven to Earth to aid a young couple. The male has to complete a Broadway show tune in 24 hours; otherwise, there's not going to be a honeymoon...or a show, for that matter. His wife sings about the dream kitchen she always wanted, which Wilbur makes possible with liberal doses of magic dust. Phones also play a major role in the short, as the husband and wife stumble upon the smash Broadway hit song by accident after she dials a number on a rotary phone. Everyone lives happily ever after, I think...

The main feature opens with a rocket crash, and the pilot is dead, but somehow, his body is in perfect condition. It turns out that the pilot, named Steve, is alive, but he's been impregnated somehow by a stowaway alien. Steve's potential offspring all look like large shrimp. There's a lot of sitting around in labratories talking along with appearances from the Blood Beast, which is just another actor in a bad rubber costume. Eventually, the Blood Beast rationally explains his actions for killing an elderly doctor and impregnating Steve, which gets him bombarded with Motolov cocktails. Ah, good old Roger Corman.

Crow and Tom Servo are fearful of their safety on the SOL, so they end up tasing and macing Mike Nelson after he makes a very slight gesture. Down in Deep 13, Mother Forrester would like her son Dr. F to play a recital on the trombone. Clay performs horribly, drawing the ire of his mother. Up in space, Crow plays effortless renditions of "Getting Sentimental Over You" and "Hold That Tiger". After the short, Mike and the 'Bots parody it, complete with lots of plastic phones and appliances, Tom Servo dropping tons of magic dust from the air, and Mike playing a toy piano. Later on, Pearl interrupts Mike and Servo's arm wrestling match to inform them that Dr. Forrester has to confess something to them. After listing off several embarrassing high school incidents, Dr. F loses it and pulls a knife on his mother. Pearl calmly takes out a pistol and shoots her son. Crow later announces that he's pregnant, showing old shrimp fastened to a fake fluoroscope. Mike, Gypsy and Servo all see through this lie, so Crow goes on a long rant, demanding the same attention and courtesies he thinks are extended to pregnant women everywhere. Crow's anger extends into the last second, as he's now ranting about babies "getting a free ride" while Mike desperately tries reading a viewer letter. Downstairs, Pearl is cradling Dr. Forrester like a baby, and insisting that he still is one. Wow.

Recommended episode. The Shout! Factory DVD release also includes the Turkey Day marathon version, with totally different host segments with a Thanksgiving theme. This rendition only aired a handful of times on Comedy Central.

MST3K #622: Angels' Revenge

2011-07-15T01:49:00.002-05:00

Mystery Science Theater 3000 experiment #622: Angels' Revenge.
Original Comedy Central airdate: March 11, 1995.
Part of the second MST3K collection, currently out of print.

This episode holds the distinction of being the last one shown on Comedy Central in December of 1996 before it moved to Sci-Fi Channel the following year. No, I didn't tape it. Why do you ask?

A very blatant rip-off of Charlie's Angels. Six different women and their teenage sidekick Trish (Liza Greer) come together to crack a drug ring after the brother of one of them, singer Michelle Wilson (Susan Kiger), get assaulted by one of the pushers. After much preparation and training, the Angels storm and destroy a backwoods drug processing plant, leading to one of them, schoolteacher April, being kidnapped later. Trish ends up leading the Angels to the drug kingpin's (Peter Lawford, probably drunk out of his mind) hideout, where the obligatory rescue scenes take place. This turkey also features Jim Backus, Jack Palance, Alan Hale, Pat Buttram and Arthur Godfrey in small roles, all on the downswing of their careers, especially Lawford, who sure fell fast after Sinatra kicked him out of the Rat Pack. The Angels never really became big stars, either, aside from Liza and older sister Robin Greer, co-authors of You'll Never Make Love in This Town Again. Embarrassingly bad movie, folks!

On the bridge of the Satellite of Love, Crow is in a panic, claiming he's suffering from amnesia. After a blow to the head to cure it, he realizes he's suffering from Ambrosia, and then, Eric Carmen. Down in Deep 13, the Mads have dressed up as their favorite 1970s relief pitchers: Dr. Forrester is Rollie Fingers (complete with fake handlebar mustache); TV's Frank is Tug "You gotta believe!" McGraw. It seems that Mike and the 'bots are suffering from bad ratings, so Dr. F. turns them into the cast of Renegade. This works...kind of. Next, Crow hosts a reading of his new blaxploitation screenplay Chocolate Jones and the Temple of Funk, which is probably his magnum opus Earth vs. Soup rewritten with "jive" names and language. Mike later comes out dressed as the Fonz, which gets him blown up real good by Crow and Tom Servo. A little later, Aaron Spelling's house passes by the SOL, and...that's all. Afterwards, Mike, Servo and Crow unveil their Shame-o-Meter, which measures things in kiloLawfords, megaLawfords and gigaLawfords. The Mads, now dressed up as Billie Jean King and Bobby Riggs, break the Shame-o-Meter.

Not the best episode of MST3K ever made, largely thanks to the host segments, which seemed like everyone was phoning it in for this one. Best Brains was also completing production on Mystery Science Theater 3000: The Movie at the time this episode was produced, so their attention was understandably divided. This episode was also the first one in which Bill Corbett, the future voice of Crow, contributed jokes. Still, there were many good jokes during the movie, so this one is recommended, but not my first choice to watch or to introduce a newcomer to the show. Watch the movie, skip the host segments.

Black Sunday

2011-07-14T23:12:00.001-05:00

Black Sunday.
1977 Paramount Pictures.
Starring: Robert Shaw, Bruce Dern, Marthe Keller, Fritz Weaver, Bekim Fehmiu, William Daniels
Director: John Frankenheimer
Buy Black Sunday at Amazon.

John Frankenheimer filmed Black Sunday partially on location at Super Bowl X at the Orange Bowl in Miami in 1976 (Pittsburgh defeated Dallas, 21-17) with unprecedented cooperation from the NFL, and a lot of help from CBS. Many of the CBS crew knew Frankenheimer from his time at the network, and they help arrange his film cameras around their television equipment as to not distract the crowd viewing the game live, or later, to audiences at theaters viewing the movie. Frankenheimer also worked out a deal with Goodyear to use their iconic blimp in the movie. The only condition was, the onscreen pilot of the Goodyear Blimp be specified as a freelance one, not a Goodyear employee, and that the blimp itself actually not kill anyone with its propellers or other working parts. Black Sunday was also adopted from the novel of the same name written by Thomas Harris. The book was a moderate success, but Harris created the character of Hannibal Lecter for his next project, and the rest is history.

Michael Lander (Dern) is a pilot of the Goodyear Blimp, providing aerial coverage of NFL games. He's also a Vietnam vet, unhinged from years of torture as a POW, a court martial after returning to America, and his failed marriage. Lander is suicidal, and wishes to take out as many civilians as he can see from his blimp every Sunday afternoon as possible. He teams up with Dahlia Iyad (Keller), a member of Black September, a Palestinian terrorist organization. They plan to launch a suicide attack with a plastique bomb and 250,000 steel darts concealed on the underside of the Goodyear Blimp, which they will detonate over the Orange Bowl and Super Bowl X. Black September intends to use the attack as a wake-up call for the Americans to call attention to the plight of the Palestinians.

While Lander and Iyad carry out their mad scheme, a Mossad agent named David Kabakov (Shaw) and the FBI agent Sam Corley (Weaver) follow their every move and race to prevent the attack, leading to a spectacular chase involving the Goodyear Blimp and police helicopters.

Recommended suspense film, with Bruce Dern turning in a stellar performance as the deranged Michael Lander.

Sawdust and Tinsel

2011-07-14T12:37:00.002-05:00

Sawdust and Tinsel [Gycklarnas afton] (Criterion #412).
1953 Janus Films.
Starring: Åke Grönberg, Harriet Andersson, Hasse Ekman, Anders Ek, Gudrun Brost, Annika Tretow, Erik Strandmark, Gunnar Björnstrand, Curt Löwgren
Written and Directed by Ingmar Bergman
Buy Sawdust and Tinsel at Amazon.

The continuing adventures of a traveling circus led by ringmaster Albert (Grönberg), who has not seen his wife Agda (Tretow) in three years. Agda prefered to remain at home as a shopkeeper while her husband led his circus from town to town over the past three years, sleeping with his mistress Anne (Andersson). After Albert is reminded of a situation where his clown Frost (Ek) discovered his wife Alma (Brost) swimming nude before a crowd of cheering soldiers, he decides to go home to visit his wife. Albert does not know what to expect upon his return home.

Anne is deeply upset by Albert's decision to see his wife, so she meets and seduces a young actor named Frans (Ekman). Upon Albert's return to the circus, a drunken Frost tells him about Anne's fling with the actor. Albert is enraged enough to try picking a fight with Frans during a performance at their most recent stop, but Frans manages to thwart Albert's blows, and delivers a beating to the ringmaster. A humiliated Albert contemplates suicide, but decides instead to punish Anne by killing the company's bear, which she was very fond of. Afterwards, Albert orders his circus to pack up and move to the next stop.

A classic Bergman film with a great, depressing ending. Ingmar Bergman himself said that this thirteenth film was the first good one he made, despite a cool reception from critics and moviegoers alike. Highly recommended.

Happy birthday, Ingmar!

MST3K #621: The Beast of Yucca Flats

2011-07-13T23:35:00.002-05:00

Mystery Science Theater 3000 experiment #621: The Beast of Yucca Flats (with shorts, Money Talks and Progress Island U.S.A.)
Original Comedy Central airdate: January 21, 1995.
Available from Amazon on the 18th MST3K collection.

Money Talks: A young man wonders how he can go to the dance this Friday, but he doesn't have enough money to get in. Benjamin Franklin drops by to show our young friend how to budget his money better, among other helpful tips. This kid only earns seven dollars a week. How does he live on so little?!

Progress Island U.S.A.: A fast paced and exciting 1973 film designed to persuade investors into pouring some money into the crown jewel of the Caribbean, Puerto Rico. In 1973, Puerto Rico had everything! Music! Gambling! Rum! Nothing you couldn't find anywhere in the big cities here in the United States! I've lost sleep on many nights wondering if this short film really accomplished its purpose.

The Beast of Yucca Flats: The third part of the Coleman Francis trilogy, this one manages to be as inept and unintentionally hilarious as the other two movies. Following an edited scene where a nude woman is strangled by an unidentified man, Joseph Javorsky (Tor Johnson), noted Soviet scientist, defects to America, choosing to come to the Yucca Flat. He has a briefcase stuffed full of military secrets. Javorsky is attacked instantly by a pair of KGB assassins. He manages to outwalk them deep into the desert, where he wanders too close to an American nuclear test, which transforms him into a mindless, homicidal beast who presumably has little interest in protecting Soviet secrets, preferring to stumble around aimlessly. Javorsky kills a young couple, and is pursued by two cops. Meanwhile, two young sons get separated from their parents on vacation, and end up running into Javorsky. The movie ends like any true Coleman Francis classic does: someone gets shot to death by law enforcement. This one also features the usual Francis talent, like Tony Cardoza, Eric "I like coffee!" Tomlin, and Conrad Brooks.

Coleman Francis filmed this turkey without a soundtrack, so any narration, dialogue, and sound effects were added on later, leading to characters only speaking while offscreen, or when their faces aren't totally visable onscreen. Also, any gunplay is featured with the muzzle of the gun out of the shot. Basically, any film student could make a better movie than this! Bah!

We open on the S.O.L. with Mike Nelson putting up rows of mismatched wallpaper, while Tom Servo and Crow offer absolutely no practical assistance. Down in Deep 13, Dr. Forrester and TV's Frank unveil "Proposition Deep 13", complete with balloons and catchphrases. Mike and the 'Bots issue their own rebuttal, and they seem very confident of their victory until informed that this week's experiment is a Coleman Francis film. After that, they're like "NO RLY, OMFG!!" After the shorts, a loud party next door gets the attention of Mike, Servo, and Crow on the bridge, and Crow sneaks over to marvel at the Rick Wakeman record on hand. Apparently, our heroes don't really throw outrageous parties. Next, it's almost lunchtime, and Crow keeps asking Mike if it's 11:30 yet. And keeps asking. Later on, Crow introduces his new organization, the Film Anti-Preservation Society (FAPS), which is dedicated to allowing the deterioration of all horrible films such as this one. Mike comes on to halt Crow's speech. After the movie's done, Mike gives his victory speech, while the Mads concede defeat, leading to TV's Frank getting slapped in the face exactly 24 times.

Highly recommended episode containing a horrible movie, and two hysterical shorts.

...what?

Oh yes, I neglected to mention the best line:

"Flag on the moon...how did it get there?"

MST3K #514: Teen-Age Strangler

2011-07-13T21:42:00.002-05:00

Mystery Science Theater 3000 experiment #514: Teen-Age Strangler (with short, Is This Love?)
Original Comedy Central airdate: November 7, 1993.
Part of the MST3K Collection, Volume 10.2. An un-MSTed version from Something Weird Video is also available.

Short! In an unidentified college, we focus on two engaged couples. One is taking it slowly, the other (the main characters) want to get married right away. Despite the doubts expressed by the sensible couple, and the not-so-sensible daughter's parents, they run off to get married. Don't worry, I'm sure the man's professional football aspirations will ensure a long and happy marriage.

Movie! In the greatest feature film ever filmed on location in Huntington, West Virginia, someone is going around strangling teenage victims. Suspicion quickly falls on the local street gang called the Fastbacks, specifically, a young man named Jimmy, whose family relocated to West Virginia because he was blamed for stealing bikes in another community. It was actually Jimmy's little nerd of a brother Mikey (played by the excellent John Humphreys) who stole the bikes that forced the Walton family to pack up and flee to Huntington. With help from his girlfriend Betty, as well as a large group of their peers (including the other Fastbacks), Jimmy manages to find out the identity of the real teenage strangler: the high school janitor. But, first, everyone at the local malt shop has time to sing and dance to a local hit called "Yipe Stripes". Lady Gaga is making plans to remake the song at some point, or at least she should!

Oh, and apparently, the actor who played the teenage Jimmy was reportedly 47 years old at time of production?

We open the show with newcomer Mike Nelson on the Satellite of Love, utilizing a handful of calling cards to call his Grandma back on Earth...but he only gets her answering machine...which disconnects before he can finish telling his grandmother about his plight! The invention exchange sees Dr. Forrester strapping TV's Frank into the "Frank-N-Forcer", a large bouncing harness suspended over a bed of nails designed to keep him out of trouble. Mike and the 'Bots introduce the Waiter Baiter, a large mechanical arm designed to get the attention of those busy waiters. Inspired by the short, Mike and company discuss Hollywood romances, but Tom Servo bursts into tears when Nelson mentions Burt and Loni. Mike, who is also down with what's happening with today's youth, keep Crow and Tom from rumbling by "rapping" with them. Later, Crow and Servo trick Mike into transfroming into Mikey from the film with a special contraption they set up. He didn't steal no bicycle, neither! At the end, Mike sings his rendition of "Yipe Stripes", and Frank gets sick from bouncing around too much.

Highly recommended episode.

La Bête Humaine

2011-07-12T23:33:00.002-05:00

La Bête Humaine [The Human Beast or Judas Was a Woman] (Criterion #324).
1938 Paris Film and Janus Films
Starring: Jean Gabin, Simone Simon, Fernand Ledoux, Blanchette Brunoy, Jacques Berlioz
Director: Jean Renoir
Currently available at Amazon.

Jean Renoir directed this 1938 adaptation of the Emile Zola novel of the same name, while taking a small acting role in the production. Renoir hadn't even read the book for over twenty years when he began working on the screenplay, and most of Simone Simon's dialogue was copied almost word-for-word from the book.

Jean Gabin is locomotive engineer Jacques Lantier, a troubled man with a history of violent incidents committed against women, which he blames on the alcoholism of his forefathers, giving him "poisoned blood". Still, Lantier feels the best when he's driving the locomotive. A faulty axle ends up sidelining Lantier and his train in the city of La Harve for a few days, where he meets and falls for the wife of his coworker Roubald (Ledoux), the beautiful Severine (Simon).

Roubald is privy to his wife's long-term affair with her wealthy godfather Grandmorin (Berlioz), so the two of them plot to murder him on a train trip. They succeed, and an innocent passenger is convicted for the crime, while Lantier, the only witness, keeps quiet. Lantier and Severine begin an affair, partially instigated by Severine to keep the only witness quiet. Pretty soon, Severine is urging Lantier to murder Roubald, but unfortunately, she is unaware of Lantier's history of attacking beautiful women who fall in love with him, and it proves fatal for her.

A beautifully shot film with some stunning footage taken aboard a speeding train. The Criterion DVD presents a decent transfer for the most part, with a few scenes showing minor damage. Recommended film.

The Night of the Iguana

2011-07-11T23:43:00.002-05:00

The Night of the Iguana.
1964 Seven Arts Productions and MGM/Turner Entertainment.
Starring: Richard Burton, Ava Gardner, Deborah Kerr, Sue Lyon, James Ward, Grayson Hall, Cyril Delevanti
Director: John Huston
Available from Amazon as a single DVD, or part of the Tennessee Williams Film Collection.

Richard Burton and Ava Gardner star in this low budget horror film about giant mutant iguanas terrorizing a small village in Mexico, and...

No, that's not right.

Richard Burton and Ava Gardner star in an excellent film adaptation of the 1961 play of the same title by Tennessee Williams. The film won the Academy Award for Best Costume Design in 1964, and Grayson Hall received a nomination for Best Supporting Actress.

Two years after his nervous breakdown following his role in an inappropriate relationship with a "very young Sunday school teacher", the former Reverend Dr. T. Lawrence Shannon (Burton) now works for a cheap Texas tour company called Blake Tours as a tour guide. He's along for the ride as a large group of Baptist School teachers led by Miss Judith Fellowes (Hall) take a trip down to Puerto Vallarta, Mexico. Miss Judith's 17-year-old niece ~~Lolita~~Charlotte (Lyon) attempts to seduce Shannon. After a fight with Judith, Shannon sabotages the bus and strands the group at a cheap Costa Verde Hotel in Mismaloya. This facility is run by the widow of one of Shannon's old friends named Fred, the widow Maxine Faulk (Gardner). Maxine's interests turn to Shannon from her two cabana boys.

Shannon also meets Hannah Jelkes (Kerr), a painter from Nantucket along with her elderly poet granddad Nonno (Delevanti). They're both broke, and Shannon convinces Maxine to let them stay. Still, over a long night, Charlotte continues to make advances to Shannon, and the stress of everything else in addition to that triggers another breakdown. The cabana boys tie Shannon up in a hammock, and Hannah tries to talk him down, using poppy-seed tea and blunt spiritual talk.

From there, Nonno finally finishes his last poem before dying, while Shannon and Maxine reconcile and decide to run the hotel together.

Highly recommended movie.

Ikiru

2011-07-10T23:41:00.002-05:00

Ikiru [To Live] (Criterion #221).
1952 Toho Studios and Janus Films.
Starring: Takashi Shimura, Shinichi Himori, Haruo Tanaka, Minoru Chiaki, Bokuzen Hidari, Kamatari Fujiwara
Director: Akira Kurosawa
Ikiru is available from Amazon in the following links:
Criterion two-disc edition.
Single disc of Janus Films' Essential Art House line.
As part of the Essential Art House, Volume 2 set.
Part of Criterion's box set AK 100: 25 Films of Akira Kurosawa for only $318.49 as of this writing.
Part of the Janus Films box set Essential Art House: 50 Years of Janus Films for the low price of $772.49.

Roger Ebert's personal favorite Kurosawa film. Yes, he liked it even more than Seven Samurai.

Takashi Shimura is Kanji Watanabe, an employee for the government. He's worked in the same position for thirty years, and he is also a widower. His son and daughter-in-law live with him, but they are no more than roommates; the young couple are more interested in Kanji's pension, and their future inheritance. Kanji's coworkers are really no more than strangers to him.

Watanabe is diagnosed with stomach cancer and given less than a year to live. After deciding not to inform his son about his bad news, Kanji decides to go out and drink himself to death instead, but gives up after one night when he realizes it's not the answer. Still, he asks a piano player to perform "Gondola no Uta" in a pivotal scene.

The next day, Watanabe runs into one of his former coworkers, Kimura (Himori), and is attracted to her outgoing nature and love of life. Kanji confesses to her that he wants just one day to live like she does: totally carefree. Kimura's new gig is making toys, which makes her feel like she's playing with all of the children in Japan. Inspired, Kanji dedicates himself to leaving behind a positive legacy, and works tirelessly to help transform a cesspool (a community eyesore which numerous residents complain about in the opening of the film) into a playground for children.

At Kanji's wake, his former coworkers question why he changed so much in the last months of his life, and slowly realize that he must have known his time was limited. Over the course of many drinks, Kanji's surviving coworkers vow to live the same way he did, with the same dedication and passion. Back in the office, though, they find themselves unable to follow through on their new vow.

Highly recommended film.

Big Jim McLain

2011-07-08T12:24:00.002-05:00

Big Jim McLain. 1952 Warner Bros. Pictures.
Starring: John Wayne, James Arness, Nancy Olson, Alan Napier, Veda Ann Borg
Director: Edward Ludwig
Available at Amazon as a single DVD, or one-sixth of the John Wayne Film Collection.

Big Jim McLain was released to DVD in 2007 as part of the Warner Bros. box set The John Wayne Film Collection, which were six of John Wayne's lesser movies, and in some cases, vehicles for another actor with Wayne added to the picture to lure more people to the theaters. Also, in some European markets, the movie was retitled as Marijuana, and the original plot of HUAC investigators looking for communists in Hawaii was changed to Wayne and James Arness tracking down drug dealers. I think a version of Marijuana would've been an ideal extra for the Big Jim McLain DVD. Instead, we're getting a Joe McDoakes comedy short, and a Daffy Duck cartoon called The Super Snooper.

John Wayne is the title character, traveling to the Hawaiian Islands with his fellow HUAC agent Mal Baxter (Arness) to look for Communist Party activity. The HUAC in this film has no problem with going into private homes without a search warrant, wiretapping illegally, and occasionally, beating up a suspect. There isn't too much thrilling action, apart from McLain triggering a brawl at the end of the movie, just a lot of scenes of walking around and narrated sequences to advance the plot along.

By the way, at the time of the film's production, being a member of the Communist Party was not illegal in the United States.

Big Jim McLain is not the best John Wayne movie, and many people feel it's a lousy film in general. Personally, I felt it was an enjoyable, if slight film, not to be taken too seriously. Recommended unintentional comedy.

Port of Shadows

2011-07-07T23:17:00.002-05:00

Port of Shadows [Les Quai des Brumes] (Criterion #245).
1938 Osso Films, Janus Films and StudioCanal.
Starring: Jean Gabin, Michel Simon, Michèle Morgan, Pierre Brasseur, Edouard Delmont
Director: Marcel Carné
Amazon.com listing (only a few copies left).

An example of French "poetic realism", where characters often had a negative view of life and were either working class stiffs or criminals. Usually, these people got a last chance of love, but something would always go wrong, and the film would end in either disillusionment or death. Think of it as a nostaglic bitterness. Port of Shadows is a fine example of this genre, and it's a story of a man and his dog.

Jean (Gabin) drifts into a French port city called Le Havre, having deserted the army and seeking to escape France completely. He falls in with a loose knit group of misfits and outcasts who largely congregate at Panama's (Delmont) bar, just to hear Panama's stories about traveling the world. Among the group is Nelly (Morgan), a beautiful woman, and her godfather Zabel (Simon). Zabel is being stalked by a small-time hood named Lucien (Brasseur) because the gangster believes Zabel knows something about another crook named Maurice Brevin. Jean also has a dog following him throughout the film, who he saved at the beginning from being hit by a truck.

Jean acquires a fake passport, intending to leave for Venezuela, but he also falls in love with Nelly. In addition to that obstacle, Jean later finds himself at odds with Lucien!

Port of Shadows came out in 1938, just months before World War II erupted on the European continent. Surprisingly, even if the main character had deserted the military, there is no hint through the film of the imminent bloody conflict. Director Carné also had some problems producing the film, as the studio, Germany's UFA, had fallen under control of the Third Reich's propaganda minister, Josef Goebbels, who had already driven off the other major German directors and talents, including Fritz Lang. In the booklet that comes with the Criterion disc, an excerpt from Carné's autobiography goes into detail about finding a reasonable producer for the film, and how the French largely disliked the movie, since it wasn't an upbeat one, and it was linked to a Nazi-run film studio.

Recommended film.

Getting Straight

2011-07-06T12:36:00.001-05:00

Getting Straight. 1970 Columbia Pictures.
Starring: Elliott Gould, Candice Bergen, Robert F. Lyons, Jeff Corey, Max Julien, Gregory Sierra, Harrison Ford
Director: Richard Rush
Available from Amazon.

Another entry from Sony's Martini Movies line.

Harry Bailey (Gould) is a returning college student, having already served in Vietnam, and in dogged pursuit of his Master's Degree. His goal is to become a teacher. Even if Harry is a few years older than his peers, he is still caught in the middle between the "establishment" and the youth culture preaching revolution and demanding change. As such, many of the younger rebellious students will often defer to Harry for his take on whatever hot button issue that's bugging them at the moment. Harry will often dismiss any radical idea as unrealistic, even though deep down, he identifies much more with the youth culture than the older generation he's also trying to appeal to with his teaching ambitions. Harry's girlfriend Jan (Bergen) is also caught up in a similar trap: she is eager to join in on any campus protests, but she also has no issue with "selling out" and resigning herself to a conventional life in the suburbs.

In the meantime, Harry begins teaching an English course at the recommendation of one of his professors, Dr. Wilhunt (Corey), while trying to scheme with a stoner friend Nick (Lyons) so he doesn't get drafted and sent to Vietnam. Towards the end of the movie, Nick finally cracks up under the pressure and "goes straight". i.e., trying to sabotage the activities of his counterculture friends while claiming he's doing the right thing now.

Harry knows that he cannot play both sides of the fence for long, and he will have to pick a side: the establishment, or the campus rebels, and it takes a riot on campus to prompt this decision once and for all. Will Harry finally get "straight"?

Getting Straight doesn't really have a definitive message: it goes back and forth between sympathizing with the youth culture and the older generation, but it's still an entertaining film. Recommended.

Another Thin Man

2011-07-05T12:14:00.001-05:00

Another Thin Man.
1939 MGM/Turner Entertainment.
Starring: William Powell, Myrna Loy, Virginia Grey, Otto Kruger, C. Aubrey Smith, Nat Pendleton, Patric Knowles, Sheldon Leonard, Shemp Howard (uncredited)
Director: W.S. Van Dyke
Part of the Complete Thin Man Collection, available at Amazon.

Nick and Nora Charles (Powell, Loy) return, and this time, the eight month old baby Nicky Junior is along for the ride. Oh, and we can't neglect to mention Asta.

A Long Island munitions manufacturer Colonel MacFay (Smith) invites the Charles family to his Long Island spread for a weekend. The Colonel is convinced that an old business associate Phil Church (Leonard) is seeking to kill him. MacFay does turn up murdered, and Church is the obvious suspect, but Nick Charles is skeptical. Our good Colonel has had several relatives and acquaintances that may have an interest in MacFay's demise. Nick Charles, with help from Nora and his many reformed underworld buddies like Dum-Dum and Creeps, is on the case, trusty drink in hand, and the murderer may be someone no one would ever expect.

Another Thin Man is a delightful adaptation of Dashiell Hammett's "The Farewell Murder", and probably the funniest of The Thin Man series so far. Recommended movie.

3 Women

2011-07-04T23:00:00.001-05:00

3 Women (Criterion #230).
1977 20th Century Fox.
Starring: Shelley Duvall, Sissy Spacek, Janice Rule, Robert Fortier, Ruth Nelson, John Cromwell, Sierra Pecheur, Craig Richard Nelson
Director: Robert Altman
Buy 3 Women from Amazon. Blu-ray edition hits stores on September 30th.

Robert Altman once had a dream which he did not completely understand, but he still adapted it into a film treatment with the intent of not using an actual script. 20th Century Fox greenlit the idea regardless.

Out in the California desert, newcomer Pinky Rose (Spacek) gets a job at a senior care center as a therapist. Another employee, Millie (Duvall), is told to help train Pinky. Millie fancies herself a social butterfly, and seems oblivious to the fact that everyone who knows her is making fun of her. Pinky sees Millie differently, and eventually they become roommates at an apartment complex co-owned by the third woman in our story, Willie (Rule). Willie is pregnant and married to a man named Edgar (Fortier). She also constantly paints elaborate and surreal murals with violent and sexual imagery at the apartment complex (including one at the bottom of the complex's swimming pool) and the bar that she and Edgar run. Edgar also sees nothing wrong with cheating on his pregnant wife; he sleeps with both Millie and Pinky behind Willie's back.

Pinky admires Millie enough that she seems to be attempting to become Millie, even reading aloud passages from Millie's diary. In return, Millie treats Pinky horribly, attacking her for the most mundane social faux pas. After an argument one night, Pinky leaves the apartment and takes a spill from a balcony into the swimming pool. Pinky is comatose for a time, and Millie brings in Pinky's parents from Texas.

Just after Pinky emerges from her coma, she becomes a completely new woman: the outgoing, aggressive and confident woman that Millie so desperately tries to portray in public. Millie, meanwhile, finds herself turning into what Pinky used to be prior to her accident; meek, passive, awkward. Later, Edgar abandons Willie, and both Pinky and Millie find themselves trying to deliver her baby themselves...with tragic consequences. The ordeal of Willie's child being stillborn further transforms all three women into what seems to be a very odd and curious situation: the three women now live together, Pinky refers to Millie as her "mother", and talks to Willie just like a sister. Edgar's fate is unclear, though.

Highly recommended film, although it does take a while to really get going. It's worth the wait, though, with excellent performances from Duvall and Spacek.

Summertree

2011-07-03T23:54:00.002-05:00

Summertree. 1971 Columbia Pictures.
Starring: Michael Douglas, Jack Warden, Rob Reiner, Brenda Vaccaro, Barbara Bel Geddes
Produced by Kirk Douglas
Director: Anthony Newley
Buy Summertree from Amazon.

A fairly obscure number released as part of Sony's Martini Movies line. In addition to the film, I also got a nice recipe on how to make a champagne martini. Or was it a chocolate martini? I can't remember, and I'm not removing the disc from my player to look. Summertree was directed by a British actor and musician named Anthony Newley, whose prior film project to this one is B-Fest favorite Can Hieronymus Merkin Ever Forget Mercy Humppe and Find True Happiness?. I've never seen that one, but maybe I will at a future B-Fest. Moving on...

20 year old Jerry (Douglas) comes home to tell his parents Herb (Warden) and Ruth (Bel Geddes) that he's dropped out of college to "find himself", spending time in the "summertree" in the family backyard. Not only are his parents concerned about the wasted tuition money, but Jerry has also lost his draft deferral. But Jerry is confident enough about his guitar playing that he is planning to enter a music conservatorium. In the meantime, Jerry volunteers to become a Big Brother for an African American youth named Marvis. After a mishap with Marvis, they go to a hospital where Jerry meets an older nurse named Vanetta (Vaccaro). They quickly fall in love despite the age difference...and the fact that Vanetta is separated from her Marine husband Tony.

Things end up going downhill. Marvis rejects Jerry as his Big Brother after his biological older brother is killed in Vietnam, and Jerry's draft notice comes. Unwilling to go to 'Nam, Jerry ends up buying a car, planning to go to Canada, but never gets there thanks to mixed reactions from his father Herb, who is now opposed to America's involvement in Vietnam, but he still inadvertently sends his son overseas to die.

Kirk Douglas bought the film rights to Ron Cowen's play of the same name after son Michael was replaced by David Birney when Summertree was on Broadway. Recommended movie.

Road to Singapore

2011-07-02T11:36:00.001-05:00

Road to Singapore.
1940 Paramount Pictures, owned and distributed to home video by Universal Pictures.
Starring: Bing Crosby, Dorothy Lamour, Bob Hope, Charles Coburn, Judith Barrett, Anthony Quinn, Jerry Colonna
Director: Victor Schertzinger
Part of the On the Road with Bob Hope and Bing Crosby Collection, available at Amazon.

The first of the "Road to..." movies starring Hope, Crosby and Lamour.

Best friends Josh (Crosby) and Ace (Hope) have returned to the U.S. after being away at sea for a long time. After witnessing their fellow sailors being treated like dirt by their wives and girlfriends, Josh and Ace vow never to get involved with women again. This promise is tested immediately, after Ace is nearly dragged off by the family of a former flame who are demanding that he marry the girl. Also, Josh finds himself at odds with his fiancee Gloria (Barrett) and his father's (Coburn) wishes that he take over the family business.

Josh and Ace are late to an engagement party (they were busy fishing), and Gloria's brother starts a drunken fistfight with a news reporter present. After news of the brawl hits the papers, Josh and Ace jump a ship headed towards Hawaii, intending to travel to Singapore. The boys only make it as far as the island of Kaigoon before they run out of money, and they rescue Mima (Lamour) from her dance partner Caesar (Quinn). Before long, Mima is running Josh and Ace's lives, and they try several different schemes to make some quick money.

And before long, both Josh and Ace realize they're both in love with Mima...although she only truly loves Josh. Also, Josh's father and Gloria are enroute to Kaigoon to bring Josh back to America so he can face his responsibilities. And Caesar is out to get even with the boys in any way he can!

Recommended film.

How to Murder Your Wife

2011-06-30T22:59:00.002-05:00

How to Murder Your Wife.
1965 United Artists; distributed to DVD by MGM.
Starring: Jack Lemmon, Virna Lisi, Terry-Thomas, Claire Trevor, Sidnely Blackmer, Max Showalter
Director: Richard Quine
Available at Amazon as a single DVD or as part of the Jack Lemmon Star Collection with Some Like it Hot, Avanti and The Apartment.

Jack Lemmon is cartoonist and swinging bachelor Stanley Ford, who lives in a luxurious townhouse with his valet, Charles Firbank (Terry-Thomas). Ford is the creator of the comic strip Bash Brannigan, a secret agent vehicle with a surprising amount of realism in it, as Ford never depicts the lead character doing anything physically impossible or using far-out gadgets. Instead, Ford will hire actors and set up future storylines, playing Brannigan himself while Charles takes photographs.

One night, at a bachelor party for his friend Tobey Rawlins (Showalter), Stanley gets plasters and proposes to the bikini-clad Italian girl (Lisi) who emerges from the cake. An equally inebriated judge (Blackmer) performs a wedding ceremony. The next morning, Stanley wakes up with the woman in his bed, and they are legally married. What's worse, during a visit to a lawyer named Harold Lampson (Eddie Mayehoff), Stanley is told that getting a divorce would be impossible without any legal justification. Stanley's new bride, billed simply as Mrs. Ford, doesn't speak English, but she catches on by spending time with Harold's wife Edna (Trevor), and watching a lot of television, which is left on all night to Stanley's chagrin.

Charles takes a job with Rawlins, since he refuses to work for a married couple. Meanwhile, Mrs. Ford informs Stanley that her mother will be moving in with them. However, Stanley tries to adjust to married life, even changing his comic strip drastically: it's now lighthearted comedy and Bash Brannigan is now a bumbling idiot. Mrs. Ford still intrudes on Stanley's lifestyle, and after he's kicked out of an all-male health club when she shows up one day, Stanley needs an outlet to vent his frustration. He kills off Mrs. Brannigan in the comic strip, depicting her drugged on "goofballs" and buries her in wet cement. Stanley also re-enacts this in real life with a mannequin. Unfortunately, this storyline in the comics gets Stanley in huge trouble: first, Mrs. Ford runs off, convinced she isn't wanted. Secondly, Stanley is arrested and put on trial for murder after the police read the comics in the papers and conclude that Stanley really murdered Mrs. Ford!

Can Stanley Ford beat the rap and prove that life didn't imitate art?

Recommended comedy. Jack Lemmon won a Golden Laurel for Male Comedy Performance for his role at the 1965 Laurel Awards. He earned it, folks.

Roadie

2011-06-30T10:48:00.001-05:00

Roadie.
1980 Alive Enterprises and United Artists; distributed to DVD by MGM.
Starring: Meat Loaf, Kaki Hunter, Art Carney, Gailard Sartain, Rhonda Bates, Joe Spano, Don Cornelius, Hamilton Camp
Also appearing: Alice Cooper, Blondie, Asleep at the Wheel, Roy Orbison, Hank Williams Jr., etc.
Director: Alan Rudolph
Available from Amazon for under four bucks right now...

Meat Loaf stars as a good ol' boy from rural Texas named Travis Redfish, who lives with his disabled father Corpus (Carney) while working as a beer truck driver. During a run with his pal B.B. (Sartain), they stop to fix a stalled tour bus, and Travis is smitten by a groupie along for the ride named Lola (Hunter), who is looking to bed Alice Cooper. Travis ends up joining Lola on the road, traveling the country as an exceptional roadie with a knack for restoring electronic equipment. He meets Roy Orbison, Hank Williams Jr., Asleep at the Wheel, and Blondie during his misadventures, all the while trying to prove his love for Lola.

Eventually, Lola does get to meet her idol Alice Cooper, but mainly at the insistance of Travis, who is so fed up with the groupie stringing him along that he literally drags Lola to New York City where Cooper is playing, and storms into the arena during the sound check. Cooper asks them both to dinner, but Lola insists he appear in full stage costume, complete with the boa constrictor. In exchange for a bus ticket back home, Travis fixes Cooper's sound system before the big show.

Roadie has its moments, but it was an underwhelming film as a whole. Not recommended.

MST3K #505: The Magic Voyage of Sinbad

2011-06-28T23:20:00.003-05:00

Mystery Science Theater 3000 experiment #505: The Magic Voyage of Sinbad.
Original Comedy Central airdate: August 14, 1993.
One-fourth of the 20th MST3K set, available from Amazon.

A Russian film originally entitled Sadko, Roger Corman's Filmgroup released it in America with a new dubbed soundtrack and the title "The Magic Voyage of Sinbad"...even if there's absolutely nothing remotely Arabian depicted in the film. Regardless, Sinbad promises the citizens of his hometown wealth and happiness, only to get mocked publicly. With some assistance from Neptune's daughter, Sinbad catches a golden fish, which doesn't exactly set his town alight with happiness. So, Sinbad recruits a crew of locals to travel to India to seek out and bring back the Bluebird of Happiness. They do find what they're looking for, but Sinbad has an epiphany enroute: there is no better land than where you were born, and one doesn't have to travel far in search of happiness.

It's the S.O.L.tie Awards, and Crow T. Robot wins an award that Tom Servo (and Joel!) feel like they were more worthy of. The prize involved an incident involving Servo's out-of-control hoverskirt, so there may have been some fixing going on behind the scenes. The Mads introduce "Chin-derwear" for your chin; up in space, Joel and his robots come up with the Rat Pack Chess Set, which would probably sell millions if it were a real game. Ol' Blue Eyes also delays movie sign until he says it's okay. Soon after, the meeting of the Junior Jester Club is called off due to exhaustion after much fooling around. A city council meeting follows, where Joel and the 'bots don ridiculous beards and debate the ongoing Sinbad issue. Later, Crow abandons the experiment to embark on an epic quest like Sinbad, shooting himself out an air lock. It goes horribly. After the movie, Crow and Tom are impressed by Joel's Channel Cat puppet...and TV's Frank gets slugged by a different puppet named "Fisty". HEE!

A truly funny episode here. Highly, highly recommended.

MST3K #501: Warrior of the Lost World

2011-06-28T10:30:00.002-05:00

Mystery Science Theater 3000 experiment #501: Warrior of the Lost World.
Original Comedy Central airdate: July 24, 1993.
Available on the sixteenth MST3K set from Shout! Factory. Maybe if you're lucky, you can get one with the limited edition Tom Servo figurine.

A particularly crummy post-acopalyptic film from the 1980 starring Robert "the Paper Chase guy" Ginty as a nameless motorcycle rider with an advanced, but very annoying motorcycle called Einstein. The Paper Chase guy is picked to lead a rebellion against the Omega government led by Prossor, who is played by Donald Pleasence. The bike rider also meets Nastasia (Persis Khambatta), who urges him to rescue her captured father, McWayne, alias Jimmy Carter. The rescue is successful, but Nastasia is accidentally left behind, and Prossor brainwashes her. It's up to the Paper Chase guy, Einstein, Jimmy Carter, and their lovable band of Outsiders to strike back against Omega and reintroduce the "New Way": freedom, equality, justice. Fred Williamson also stars, as does the real breakout talent of the movie: Megaweapon.

Up on the Satellite of Love, Tom Servo gets his dream opportunity: a formal opening to the show that gets disrupted by Crow, who is then forced to eat Servo's prepared speech. Dr. Forrester and TV's Frank introduce the Square Master as part of the invention exchange, a simple piece of exercise equipment that takes advantage of nature's own gravity. Joel and the robots introduce Bittersweet Hearts, with such touching messages as "Get Out", "My Needs", and "Still Mad". Inspired by the movie's first chase scene, Joel outfits Tom and Crow with slot cars. Crow has a blast on the track, but Servo can't seem to get moving, and when he finally does, he wrecks. Next, Servo (as Steve Allen) introduces a sketch where Joel plays the Paper Chase guy had he not had his drivers' license when the apocalypse hit. The skit kind of runs out of steam just in time for movie sign. Later on, Joel and the 'bots discuss fun things you could do in the event of an apocalypse, like playing stickball on an interstate, among other things. Just be sure to have a spare pair of eyeglasses. After the movie, Joel and the robots call up Megaweapon, who is now living in Tampa with his sister; down in Deep 13, the Mads enjoy an active lifestyle.

Highly recommended episode, and the DVD contains an interview with the movie's director, David Worth, who is a self-professed MST3K fan, and he enjoyed the treatment his film got on the show.

Some Kind of Monster

2011-06-27T23:14:00.002-05:00

Metallica: Some Kind of Monster.
2004 IFC Films; distributed to DVD by Paramount Pictures.
Metallica: James Hetfield, Kirk Hammett, Lars Ulrich
Leaves Metallica: Jason Newsted
Joins Metallica: Robert Trujillo
Also appearing: Bob Rock, Phil Towle, Dave Mustaine, Torben Ulrich, Danny Lohner, Jeordie White (as Twiggy Ramirez), Pepper Keenan, Scott Reeder, Chris Wyse, Eric Avery, Joel Berlinger, Bruce Sinofsky (last two uncredited)
Directors: Joe Berlinger and Bruce Sinofsky
Available from Amazon.

In 1996, directors Joe Berlinger and Bruce Sinofsky released the documentary Paradise Lost about the West Memphis Three. Metallica allowed their music to be used for the film, a first for the band. A few years later, Berlinger and Sinofsky began work on this documentary. By then, Metallica itself was in a state of crisis. Jason Newsted left the group after fourteen years. He was unhappy with the direction Metallica was going, and proposed a year-long break where he'd focus on his side project Echobrain. The rest of the band, particularly James Hetfield, objected, so Newsted departed. A "performance enhancing" coach named Phil Towle is brought in to moderate therapy sessions to help the remaining members of Metallica understand one another. After rehearsals for the next record go nowhere, Hetfield walks out and checks himself into a rehabilitation center, leaving Kirk Hammett, Lars Ulrich and Bob Rock in limbo for the next several months. Well, they get a lot of talking to Towle done...

After Hetfield returns, sessions for what become the 2003 Metallica album St. Anger resume, although Hetfield can only work four hours a day as part of rehabilitation, so he can continue to repair his relationship with his wife and children. This four hour window annoys Ulrich, who sees it as another example of Hetfield needing to control everything, along with his lengthy absence tying up the rest of the band. Ulrich and Hetfield have been best friends and bandmates for twenty years at that point, but they really don't know one another that well...unless they're obliterated on alcohol.

In the meantime, Towle oversees frequent sessions with the group, and it appears that he starts believing that he's a member of Metallica; he even tries contributing lyrics at one point. Eventually, the group decides to inform Towle that his services will no longer be required; Towle disagrees, claiming that there are some "trust issues" that needed to be sorted out. But, while Towle was still being paid by the band, he brought in former Metallica guitarist and Megadeth founder Dave Mustaine to talk to Ulrich about the time he was kicked out of the group for drinking too much. After all of this time, and for all of the success he attained with Megadeth, Mustaine is still resentful that he was fired without ever being given a chance to redeem himself with a stint in rehab, not to mention that he still gets Metallica fans ridiculing him on the street. There were a few more years of bickering in the press between Mustaine and Ulrich, but all parties involved have completely settled their differences.

As St. Anger nears completion, Metallica auditions new bass players (producer Bob Rock handled bass duties in the studio). Robert Trujillo, of Suicidal Tendencies and Ozzy Osbourne's backing band, is hired as the new bass player, just in time for an MTV tribute special. Earlier, rumors circulated that Newsted expressed interest in returning, but he denied this, saying that he definitely does not regret leaving Metallica to concentrate on Echobrain and a little later, Voivod.

Some Kind of Monster is an interesting and compelling documentary that is also unintentionally funny at times, such as the scene where Lars Ulrich sells his art collection for millions of dollars, along with some of the really bad lyrics that ended up getting used on St. Anger. Oh, and the whole idea that a group of multimillionaire heavy metal musicians heavily utilizing a therapist to understand themselves better, and to express their feelings and emotions for their bandmates does seem hilarious, but hey, whatever works for Metallica. Recommended.

Pink Floyd: The Wall

2011-06-26T22:09:00.002-05:00

Pink Floyd: The Wall.
1982 Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer; distributed to DVD by Sony.
Starring: Bob Geldof, Christine Hargreaves, Eleanor David, Alex McAvoy, Bob Hoskins, Michael Ensign
Written by Roger Waters
Director: Alan Parker
Buy the 25th Anniversary Deluxe Edition from Amazon.
Oh, and feel free to peruse this fine site.

Pink Floyd's The Wall (the album, of course) was conceived as a concept by Roger Waters after the final date of the "In the Flesh" tour in Montreal in July of 1977. Waters spat in the face of a young fan, after singling him out as part of a particularly rowdy but small crowd near the stage. Horrified by his behavior onstage, and increasingly disillusioned by playing concerts in enormous football stadiums, Waters came up with the idea of constructing a wall across the stage, between the audience and the performers. The band always intended to produce a feature film about The Wall, in addition to the record. Alan Parker was tapped as director, and Roger Waters originally planned to play the lead role of Pink, before screen tests showed that he was better off not trying to act on top of his other duties producing the film. Also, the band intended to incorporate live concert material into the film, but this plan was shelved once Waters gave up any role appearing onscreen. Bob Geldof was cast as Pink, even after he expressed his contempt for Pink Floyd and their music.

Alienation, and the construction of a metaphorical wall, is the driving theme of the film. Pink, the central character and rock star, had it tough growing up. His father died in World War II, and he always longed for a father figure in his life. His mother is overprotective, and Pink is also humiliated in school one day when his teacher halts the class to read some lyrics that Pink is writing (the lyrics to "Money"). He does get married, but retreats into a life of material possessions and groupies when he learns that his wife is having an affair while he's on tour. But, when Pink snaps and destroys his hotel suite, he slowly goes off the deep end. Later on, after having shaved his entire body, Pink's manager (Hoskins) and the hotel manager (Ensign) discover him, and he's injected with drugs to help him perform. Pink, lost in a cloud of drugs, fantasizes he is a neo-Nazi dictator and his concert is a rally. His followers riot and attack minorities.

After a second rally, Pink screams "Stop!" and hides in a restroom, where he recites poetry and puts himself on trial, where the judge orders that his wall be torn down. Pink's fate is unclear, but it's implied that the cycle he was on will repeat itself for a different small child.

The Wall employs fantastic animation, surreal and sometimes frightening images, and of course, the music of Pink Floyd to produce one of the great rock and roll films. Highly recommended.

The Devil and Daniel Johnston

2011-06-24T22:49:00.002-05:00

The Devil and Daniel Johnston.
2006 Sony Pictures Classics.
Starring: Daniel Johnston
Also featuring: The Johnston Family (Bill, Mabel, Dick and Margie), David Fair, Jad Fair, Matt Groening, Gibby Haynes, Thurston Moore, Laurie Allen
Director: Jeff Feuerzieg
Available at Amazon.
Visit the official site.

If you remember seeing Kurt Cobain in the early 1990s wearing a white T-shirt with an odd looking cartoon character on it saying "Hi, how are you?", that shirt was designed by Daniel Johnston, a gifted singer, songwriter, and visual artist, and he's also the subject of this 2006 documentary.

Johnston has suffered all of his life from manic depression, and his first attack may have occured in junior high school, when his mother Mabel described Daniel as "losing all of his wonderful confidence". This might have been caused by his parents trying to force him to live a strict, religious upbringing, and suggesting that he place God above everything else (Daniel has had many religious-triggered incidents in his life, usually where he rants nonstop about the Devil). However, this didn't halt him from pursuing his passions of playing the piano, filming home movies, and drawing constantly, despite the disapproval of his mother, who Daniel recorded yelling at him to add to his first home recorded albums like Songs of Pain and Don't Be Scared. (Note: Daniel constantly recorded his thoughts to cassette tape, and we get to hear many of his thoughts as he struggles to cope with his mental condition.)

After a failed stint at Abilene Christian University, Daniel enrolled at the East Liverpool branch of Kent State to study art, where he met the love of his life, Laurie Allen. While Laurie did seem to enjoy Daniel's attention from the home video that he recorded of her, Laurie married an undertaker, fueling Daniel's passion for her and giving him a reason to focus his pain and confusion into his music. The DVD includes a reunion of Laurie and Daniel as an extra, and as heart warming as it is, Laurie still turns down Daniel's marriage proposal. Poor guy...someday, he'll get the girl (or not).

Relocating to Austin, Texas, Daniel gets a job at a local McDonald's, where he passes out copies of his homemade albums, and appears on an episode of MTV's The Cutting Edge that highlighted local Austin musicians. This, and an appearance at the 1985 Woodshock music festival gives him increased attention. Daniel also starts smoking marijuana, and drops acid at a Butthole Surfers concert (which were already weird enough without the aid of chemical enhancement). Things go downhill from there. Daniel is institutionalized after a violent incident with his family at Christmas, goes on medication, and spends a year in bed. Afterwards, Daniel takes a trip to New York City as the guest of members of Sonic Youth, where his problems escalate, but he refuses to go home or acknowledge anything may be wrong.

Even after Daniel causes his father's plane to crash (still a very emotional topic for his father Bill), and is put back in a mental hospital again, major record labels start trying to sign him. Elektra Records offers Daniel the most beneficial, one-sided contact for eight records, including a clause that he can't be dropped from the label due to poor record sales, but he turns it down because Metallica is also on the label, and he's afraid that they'll come after him and kill him. Well, maybe not, but Metallica might have sued him for what have you... (Kidding) Instead, Daniel signs with another company, who drops him after his only major label release Fun sells less than 10,000 copies.

Regardless, with the help of his parents, Daniel stabilizes the best he can, living with them in a small Texas town, where he continues to write and record music, draw nonstop, and perform live. Daniel usually stops using his medications before a performance, because he feels that it will make the show "better". Still, there's always a few in every audience who try goading Daniel into a meltdown onstage.

Recommended documentary, but Daniel Johnston's music isn't for everyone, of course.

The Song Remains the Same

2011-06-23T23:08:00.002-05:00

The Song Remains the Same. 1976 Warner Bros. Pictures.
Featuring: Led Zeppelin, Peter Grant, Richard Cole
Directors: Peter Clifton and Joe Massot
Two disc special edition available from Amazon.

Re-released in 2007 to DVD with all fifteen live performances included, and containing a newly remixed and remastered soundtrack (among other goodies), Led Zeppelin's live concert slash fantasy film is still an exciting two hours and seventeen minutes, even if the members of the band have admitted that this performance was an "off night" for them. The live performances were filmed at Madison Square Garden on July 27th through the 29th in 1973, with further footage filmed at Shepperton Studios in August of 1974, after director Peter Clifton noticed there were gaps in the concert footage already completed. This caused a minor continuity problem, as John Paul Jones had cut his hair short in the period between filming (he simply wore a wig at Shepperton), and Robert Plant had undergone dental surgery since the MSG performance. Also included in the film is Zeppelin manager Peter Grant chewing out a concert promoter while using two of the seven words you can never say on television quite often. Warner Bros. agreed only to release the movie if this scene's dialogue was censored.

The fantasy sequences are interesting, but one can suppose that they probably could have been left out of the film in favor of more live concert scenes. Grant and Richard Cole (Led Zeppelin's tour manager) play two armed hitmen attacking a business meeting filled with "greedy millionaires". After a scene where he reads Jack and the Beanstalk to his children, and receives a message requesting his presence in America, John Paul Jones stars in a reinterpretation of Doctor Syn, where he plays a masked gentleman named The Scarecrow, who travels at night on horseback with three others before returning home to his life as an ordinary family man. Robert Plant is a sword-wielding knight who rescues a maiden while on a quest for the Holy Grail. Jimmy Page climbs a mountain on a night with a full moon to seek out the Hermit in a quest for self enlightenment. However, when he reaches the top, Page discovers that somehow, the Hermit is him! John Bonham's fantasy sequence is quite ordinary: he simply spends time at home with his family, plays a game of snooker, and goes drag racing.

Recommended movie capturing Led Zeppelin at the peak of their popularity, and a good example of the excesses of the music and show business industries during the time. But, if you want a superior Zeppelin concert DVD, by all means pick up 2003's Led Zeppelin DVD, which contains more footage from the 1973 MSG concert that wasn't used in the movie.

Don't Look Back

2011-06-23T22:12:00.002-05:00

Don't Look Back.
1967 Leacock-Pennebaker Productions; distributed to DVD by Docurama.
Featuring: Bob Dylan, Albert Grossman, Bob Neuwirth, Joan Baez, Alan Price, Tito Burns, Donovan, Derroll Adams, Horace Freeland Judson, Marianne Faithfull, Allen Ginsberg, John Mayall (last three uncredited)
Director: D.A. Pennebaker
The 1965 Tour Deluxe Edition of this movie is available from Amazon.

D.A. Pennebaker follows Bob Dylan across the pond to England to cover his three week tour in 1965, where he made the transition from acoustic folk to rock music played with electric instruments. Opening with the now famous "Subterranean Homesick Blues" clip, we follow Dylan as he (among other things) plays several shows, including one at the Royal Albert Hall, picks on Time journalist Horace Freeland Judson, verbally jousts with student and future record mogul Terry Ellis, and befriends his British counterpart, Donovan. The film was also shot at the tail end of Dylan's relationship with Joan Baez, and even though they do collaborate on a song that came out in 1968, the tension between them is obvious.

The 2007 DVD release also includes the new documentary 65 Revisited, comprised of unused material shot in 1965, outtakes, and full song performances of seven tracks, including a duet with Baez.

Highly recommended film.

MST3K #423: Bride of the Monster

2011-06-22T23:14:00.002-05:00

Mystery Science Theater 3000 experiment #423: Bride of the Monster (with short, Hired!, Part One).
Original Comedy Central airdate: January 23, 1993.
This episode is available on the 19th MST3K collection at Amazon.

In part one of the Jam Handy Organization short made for Chevrolet in 1940, we see two new door-to-door salesmen named Jimmy and Henderson, and his frustrated supervisor, Mr. Warren, wondering why they're not panning out. Mr. Warren lives with his parents and complains to his elderly father (who sips lemonade when he isn't swatting at insects and having hankerchief-related "episodes") that the new generation doesn't work as hard as the older folks. Dad sets his son straight by reminding him that he wasn't always perfect and made mistakes as a younger salesman. Part two of Hired! opens MST3K episode 424, Manos.

It's an Ed Wood movie, folks. Bear with us. Bride of the Monster stars Bela Lugosi as mad scientist Dr. Eric Vornoff, who is experimenting with nuclear power with help from his lumbering mute assistant Lobo, played by Tor Johnson. Vornoff is looking to create an army of superhuman soldiers to conquer the world with, and he lives in a house guarded by a giant mutant octopus. The octopus has been responsible for a string of deaths in the region, and a reporter named Janet Lawton (Loretta King Hadler) investigates further into the situation, becoming a prisoner of Vornoff. There's giant rubber snakes, two-foot deep human traps, and stock footage of alligators, not to mention an official from Vornoff's home country demanding that he return home. Oh, and Ed Wood himself might have taken a cameo role as a female secretary in one scene. He loves him some angora.

Opening the episode, Joel utilizes Cambot to analyze Crow's dream. Things are all right until a horrified Tom Servo discovers that he's in the dream as a...candy-striper? Invention exchange: The Mads introduce and demonstrate the Tough Love Seat, equipped with metal studs and painful shocks of electricity. Joel introduces microwavable Faith Popcorn, which predicts upcoming pop culture trends, such as Jerry Reed getting elected to public office (Well, when you're hot, you're hot). Next, the Satellite of Love Community Theater presents the excellent Hired! The Musical which goes off without a hitch until commercial sign, when everyone finally gets annoyed. Later, Joel and the 'Bots discuss how lucky the monster octopus is because its victims literally fall into its grasp, and it segues into a discussion about which other food products could be used as a lame movie monster. Tom Servo next wishes for a world with no advertising, and Willy the Waffle (Crow) shows up to grant that wish. No springs? To end the show, Cambot re-edits the end of the film, Joel and the robots do their best Bela Lugosi evil look, and down in Deep 13, Dr. Forrester and TV's Frank are playing Bela and Tor.

Great episode. The riffing is spot on, and the host segments are great, especially Hired! The Musical. Highly recommended episode!

"He tampered in God's domain..."

MST3K #417: Crash of the Moons

2011-06-22T02:07:00.002-05:00

Mystery Science Theater 3000 experiment #417: Crash of the Moons (with an old clip from General Hospital).
Original airdate: November 28, 1992.
Available on MST3K, Volume XVIII, on sale at Amazon.

In a clip from an ancient episode of General Hospital, ABC's last surviving soap opera, Cynthia and Phil argue about who Cynthia is in love with. Phil wants Cynthia to love him and not the poor schmuck she loves. Or something. Truth be told, I couldn't follow what was going on. It ends with Cynthia and Phil engaging in liplock in a car. The repercussions of this kiss are still being felt today on the show.

The main feature is pieced together from episodes of the old sci-fi series Rocky Jones, Space Ranger. Here, Rock and his crew Winky, Professor Newton, Vena and a kid named Bobby are trying to evacuate the planet Ofecious before it collides with another planet. Queen Cleolanta of Ofecious would alternately rather die on her doomed planet, or at least try to destroy the rogue planet first. This second planet is the home of Kwotanda, Bwavarro, and their son, the Little Prince, who won't stop crying. In addition to many bad special effects of rocketships taking off and landing perfectly vertical, we also have John Banner of Hogan's Heroes fame in one of his more memorable roles. Boopie!

On the SOL, Tom Servo tries tackling macrame, and Crow sells Grit to keep kids like him off of the streets. Apparently, Crow has a history of ordering things in bulk that he keeps trying to sell to Joel, Servo and Gypsy. The invention exchange sees the Mads introduce Deep 13 Toothpaste, a sugary product that is great for teeth, I tell you! Meanwhile, Joel introduces the Rock 'n' Wreck Guitar for poor musicians who can wreck it and put it back together to their heart's content...and TV's Frank won't stop bogarting the toothpaste. Later on, introduced by Mr. Robinson, Crow and Tom serenade Gypsy with a song called "The Gypsy Moon", and leave it to Crow to ruin it by getting too dirty at the end. Next, Joel and the 'Bots introduce the Banner-gram in honor of John Banner, which you can send to anyone in the country, Denver in particular. Crow ends up sending a John Byner-gram and a David Mamet-gram by accident. Crow makes up for it next with his new sci-fi teleplay, with a ton of nonsensical, made-up words. Tom Servo isn't exactly impressed. After the movie, after Joel reads a letter, the Satellite receives a Banner-gram. Thinking quickly, Joel and the 'Bots send one down to Deep 13, and Dr. Forrester is not exactly appreciative.

A fun season four episode made even better by Trace Beaulieu's performance at the end of the show. Dr. F's freakout upon learning he's just been sent a Banner-gram is classic. I can't forget to mention Mike Nelson's hysterical John Banner, too. Highly recommended episode.

Jandek on Corwood

2011-06-21T21:37:00.002-05:00

Jandek on Corwood. 2004 Unicorn Stencil.
Featured: John Trubee, Phil Milstein, Katy Vine, Dr. Demento, Gary Pig Gold, Richie Unterberger, Calvin Johnson, Douglas Wolk
Director: Chad Freidrichs
Available on Amazon.
Visit the official website.

Among the dozens of records released in the year 1978, one came out from an act calling itself "The Units" from Houston, Texas. That record, Ready for the House, is forty-four and a half minutes of uncomfortably out of tune acoustic guitar playing (except for the last track) accompanied by a haunting, wavering voice. This unusual album came out on a label called Corwood Industries, which anyone could contact by writing to its post office. Ready for the House turned out to be the only album released by The Units, as another New Wave band from San Francisco with claims to that name stopped the Texas musician from using that name. One thousand copies of the album were pressed, and initially, just two copies were sold.

Three years later, Six and Six came out on the Corwood label, and now the musician was known as Jandek. This name is a combination of the month of January, and a man named Decker, who the man from Corwood spoke to on the telephone. Jandek is generally assumed to be a man named Sterling Richard Smith, although this has never been confirmed, and anyone at Corwood Industries isn't telling.

Very little is known about Jandek, aside from what little information that Corwood shared in letters to WFMU disc jockey and music historian Irwin Chusid, and in a fifty minute interview with former Spin Magazine writer John Trubee (which is included on the DVD in its entirely as an extra)*. So, how does one make a 90 minute documentary about a subject who has revealed very little about himself to the public, but he did sanction and cooperate with director Chad Freidrichs?

Utilizing many, many interviews with people discussing their interpretation of Jandek and his music, as well as mixing images of Jandek album covers and other random photographs, Freidrichs manages to present the whole Jandek story in 88 minutes in a way that can easily be grasped and appreciated by any newcomers to one of the most willfully obscure and private musicians out there. Highlights include Dr. Demento (who will probably be the only person most of the world would even recognize in this documentary) discussing his interactions, or lack thereof with Corwood, and Texas Monthly reporter Katy Vine, who tracked down a man who looked like the one on several of Jandek's album covers one day in 1999 intending to interview him about the music. Vine and the Corwood representative enjoyed an afternoon at a nearby tavern, but the man made it clear he didn't wish to talk about Jandek or the music.

So, over the course of the film, you will find that it's very possible to create a film about a subject who keeps to himself most of the time.

At the time that Freidrichs completed Jandek on Corwood, Corwood has issued 32 records under the name Jandek, included a re-issued Ready for the House with any reference to The Units replaced. Five more albums were recorded and issued after the film's completion (a bonus feature highlights these five new records), and most surprisingly, Jandek made his first onstage appearance at a music festival in Glasgow in October of 2004. Billed as a "representative of Corwood Industries", the man (who is the same as the one on the album covers) played an hour of abstract and largely improvised music with two backing musicians. Over the next several years, Jandek has released another thirty albums, including several live recordings from his concerts, played several dozen more live shows, and Corwood Industries finally opened an official website in 2010. Even if Jandek is now willing to make live appearances, and occasionally socialize with fans after the gigs, the mystery still remains about exactly who he is...or why.

Recommended music documentary.

* In Trubee's interview, the Corwood representative admitted he worked as a machinist at the time, and among other things, admitted that his guitars were not in fact, detuned, but instead tuned to unique keys that sounded good to him. At the time, Jandek estimated that he had sold only 150 copies total.

Hail! Hail! Rock 'n' Roll

2011-06-21T00:57:00.002-05:00

Hail! Hail! Rock 'n' Roll.
1987 Universal Pictures and Delilah Films.
Featuring: Chuck Berry
The band: Keith Richards, Johnnie Johnson, Chuck Leavell, Bobby Keys, Joey Spampinato, Steve Jordan, Ingrid Berry
Guest musicians: Eric Clapton, Robert Cray, Linda Ronstadt, Julian Lennon, Etta James, Joe Walsh (uncredited)
Also appearing: Bo Diddley, The Everly Brothers, Jerry Lee Lewis, Roy Orbison, Little Richard, Bruce Springsteen, John Lennon (archival footage)
Director: Taylor Hackford
Available from Amazon as a two-disc edition, or as a four-disc box set.

One of the architects of rock and roll stars in a decent documentary slash concert film to celebrate his 60th birthday. The live concert footage was filmed at the Fox Theater in St. Louis on October 16, 1986, although only about half of the movie is live music. For the first hour, we see interview clips from some of Chuck Berry's contemporaries, footage of Keith Richards rehearsing the backing band (with an argument between Berry and Richards in the middle of it), and plenty of footage of the star of the show; whether he's visiting old St. Louis landmarks from earlier in his life, or embarking to Columbus, Ohio to play a concert during the production of his film. Taylor Hackford accompanied him on this trip, where we learn that Berry only travels with his guitar (which he checks at the gate), and a briefcase with just a few toiletries inside it.

The concert footage, as expected, is excellent, as Keith Richards put together a decent band for Berry to lead, although Richards ends up playing nearly every guitar solo while Chuck dances around on stage. Despite being somewhat difficult during the production of the film and at the rehearsals, Chuck Berry is clearly having the time of his life onstage. All of the guest musicians shined, particularly Eric Clapton and his rendition of "Wee Wee Hours", which was the only song performed that wasn't an uptempo one.

This is an easy recommendation from me, and if you have to ask, get the four disc set. As of now, it's on sale for Amazon for very cheap right now, and worth every penny. In addition to the main film, the set includes extra rehearsal footage with Berry, Richards, Clapton and others. Disc two has a feature called "The Reluctant Movie Star" where Hackford and his crew discuss some of the problems they had with Chuck during production, including a filmed phone call where Berry demands an immediate cash payment, or he's leaving the film. Disc three has "Witnesses to History", essentially an extended interview with Berry, Bo Diddley and Little Richard where they discuss the ups and downs of their careers in music. Also, the third disc features "The Burnt Scrapbook" with Berry and The Band's Robbie Robertson. Disc four contains "Witnesses to History, Part II", three and a half hours of interviews with nearly every surviving early rock and roller, including the ones who had been showcased in the main film.

Get this one!

It Might Get Loud

2011-06-20T11:48:00.002-05:00

It Might Get Loud. 2008, 2009 Sony Pictures Classics.
Featuring: The Edge, Jimmy Page, Jack White
Director: Davis Guggenheim
Available from Amazon as a standard DVD or on Blu-ray.
Visit the official site.

Davis Guggenheim, who has directed such documentaries as An Inconveinient Truth and Waiting for "Superman", takes on a much less political topic here: the electric guitar. Highlighted here are The Edge from U2, Jimmy Page of Led Zeppelin, The Yardbirds, and the uncredited session guitarist on numerous mid '60s pop records, and Jack White from The White Stripes and The Raconteurs. All three guitarists discuss extensively their history as a guitarist: Page talks about his background in a childhood skiffle band, falling in love with the blues, working extensively as a session guitarist in the '60s, his time in the Yardbirds, and most famously, Led Zeppelin. The Edge discusses putting together a guitar with his brother Dik and reminisces about forming U2 during a visit to Mount Temple Comprehensive School in Dublin. Jack White remembers growing up in southwest Detroit with a bedroom so filled with musical equipment that he had to get rid of his bed to make room for more instruments. White also discusses how it was considered "uncool" to be seen playing any kind of instrument in his predominantly Latino neighborhood, since many of his peers preferred hip-hop and house music to Jack's preference of rock and roll and old blues records.

During the film, Jimmy Page visits Headley Grange, where he and Led Zeppelin recorded their fourth album, taking time to describe exactly how they got the legendary drum sound for "When the Levee Breaks". The Edge demonstrates his playing technique, where he makes use of elaborate echo and delay effects to make it sound like there's a second guitarist onstage and in the studio. Jack White admits that he deliberately sets up obstacles creatively to force himself to write and perform that much harder.

At "The Summit", Page, White and the Edge get together to talk shop, play their favorite records, and jam. The three guitarists also show each other how to play "I Will Follow", "Dead Leaves and the Dirty Ground", and "In My Time of Dying" before getting out their acoustic guitars to perform a cover of "The Weight" by The Band. During this session, Page sheepishly admits that he can't join in on the high vocal harmonies in the song's chorus.

There's a lot of interesting footage here, and you will get enough archive footage of old U2, White Stripes, Raconteurs and Zeppelin concerts to be completely satisfied. Two scenes I enjoyed were Jack White putting together a homemade guitar out of a glass bottle, wire, and pieces of wood; and the visit to Jimmy Page's music room, where he still gets a big kick out of playing "Rumble" by Link Wray. Page plays air guitar and can barely contain his enthusiasm for the song, nearly fifty years after it was first released.

Highly recommended film!

This is Elvis

2011-06-19T23:20:00.001-05:00

This is Elvis. 1981 Warner Bros. Pictures.
Narrated by Ral Donner
Produced by David L. Wolper
Directed by Malcolm Leo and Andrew Solt
Two-disc special edition of This is Elvis available from Amazon.

Directors Leo and Solt piece together an interesting Elvis Presley documentary utilizing a ton of film clips, television appearances, and quite a bit of authentic home movies of Elvis and friends. There are also some filmed reenactments, notably in the beginning of the picture, which opens with a segment where Elvis walks into Graceland on what will be the last night he was alive, and the following day in Portland, Maine where he was scheduled to perform on the day he was found dead. Honestly, the filmed reenactments do distract from the rest of the documentary, and they might have been better served as either cut from this project, or at least, saved for a fictional movie about Elvis. My opinion.

There are a plethora of highlights included here; notably Elvis appearing on Ed Sullivan, where the host gave him a warm sendoff; Steve Allen arranging for Presley to sing "Hound Dog" to an actual basset hound while dressed in a tux, the Welcome Home, Elvis special put together by Frank Sinatra in 1960 where Elvis interacts with the entire Rat Pack, and of course, quite a bit of footage from the 1968 comeback special. As the documentary reaches its conclusion, there's also enough filmed concert footage of an overweight and drugged out Elvis struggling through songs while performing in Las Vegas. His voice is still strong, but everything else is falling apart for the king of rock and roll. Leo and Solt do deserve credit for not sugarcoating anything, and presenting Elvis as he was in the end.

Recommended music documentary, except for the faked scenes.

T.A.M.I. Show

2011-06-18T22:54:00.003-05:00

T.A.M.I. Show (a.k.a. Teen Age Command Performance).
1964 Screencraft International & American International Pictures; distributed to DVD by Shout! Factory.
Featuring: The Barbarians, The Beach Boys, Chuck Berry, James Brown and the Famous Flames, Gerry & the Pacemakers, Lesley Gore, Jan and Dean, Billy J. Kramer and The Dakotas, The Miracles, Rolling Stones, The Supremes
House Band: The Wrecking Crew (Jack Nitzsche, Hail Blaine, Jimmy Bond, Tommy Tedesco, Bill Aken, Glen Campbell, Lyle Ritz, Leon Russell, Plas Johnson, etc.)
Also appearing: Toni Basil, Teri Garr
Producer: Bill Sargent
Director: Steve Binder
Available at Amazon.

Released at the end of 1964, the T.A.M.I. Show (Teenage Awards Music International) is a groundbreaking concert film, and incredibly influential in the development of music videos. It's almost criminal that such an influential movie didn't receive an uncut release to home video until 2010. Rights issues saw the Beach Boys' performances cut from most prints of the film, but Shout! Factory restored the lost footage to the film for their definitive DVD release. As expected, since that segment was captured from another print and not the master, there is some minor film damage present, but seeing a rare Brian Wilson live performance with his legendary band more than makes up for it.

The concert lineup is nothing short of spectacular; only the Barbarians never had a Top 40 hit before or after the movie was first released, but they still did a fine live version of their first single, "Hey Little Bird", complete with their one-armed drummer Victor "Moulty" Moulton nearly stealing the show with his own frantic drumming. Chuck Berry trading licks and songs with Gerry & the Pacemakers to open the show was fun to watch, and there are stellar performances from the Motown representatives the Miracles, Marvin Gaye, and of course, the Supremes.

And then, we have James Brown. Anything I write cannot even begin to describe just how over the top and magical his four songs were, especially "Please, Please, Please" and "Night Train". Everything is here: the energy, the inspired dancing, the passionate singing, and the gimmick with the cape. Producer Rick Rubin once said that Prince had Brown's T.A.M.I. Show performance running in a loop on a television in the lobby of his offices, and he called it the single greatest rock and roll performance ever captured on film. He's completely right. The Rolling Stones close the show, and while their performance is raw and energetic, it's not going to even approach what James Brown did onstage just a few minutes earlier. Keith Richards has admitted in interviews that going on after Brown was the biggest mistake the Stones ever made in their careers.

Get this one, folks. There are no better concert films out there.

Amarcord

2011-06-16T22:29:00.001-05:00

Amarcord [I Remember] (Criterion #4).
1973 Janus Films and F.C. Produzioni.
Starring: Magali Noel, Bruno Zanin, Pupella Maggio, Armando Brancia
Director: Federico Fellini
Buy Amarcord from Amazon.

The winner of the Best Foreign Language Film at the 1974 Academy Awards (among other accolades), Fellini's Amarcord is a delightful coming of age film set in the late 1930s in Rimini, Italy. Largely set around a year in the life of the Biondi family, where the boys are out of control deliquents, mother is ill, father is unable to cope with all of the changes happening in his personal life; not to mention any Mussolini-related issues, and the grandfather is growing senile. Another uncle has been institutionalized, but is allowed to spend a day in the country with the rest of his family...where he climbs to the top of the only tree for miles around and bellows "I want a woman!" over and over.

Chaos, violence, and confusion lie just ahead in the near future, but the Biondi family and the rest of the townspeople have one year to establish some long-lasting memories, and they all make the most of it.

Highly recommended film.

Last of the Red Hot Lovers

2011-06-15T11:14:00.001-05:00

Last of the Red Hot Lovers. 1972 Paramount Pictures.
Starring: Alan Arkin, Sally Kellerman, Paula Prentiss, Renee Taylor
Screenplay by Neil Simon
Director: Gene Saks
Available from Amazon.

A film adaptation of Neil Simon's stage play that first opened in 1969.

Barney Cashman (Arkin) is 45 years old, married, and he owns a restaurant in downtown Manhattan. One morning, he wakes up with the urge to stray, and have at least one great extramarital affair before he dies. After discovering that his mother's apartment will be empty one day a week, Barney decides to take advantage of it. Unfortunately, Barney simply isn't the kind of person who could engage in an affair, and he fails miserably in each of the three women he attempts to seduce: Elaine (Kellerman), who seems to be more interested in scoring a cigarette than actually scoring and who quickly grows annoyed at Barney's inexperience; Bobbi (Prentiss), an aspiring actress who might be more than a little bit crazy and who gets Barney to smoke a joint with her, and Jeanette (Taylor), the best friend of Barney's wife. By the time Jeanette comes over, Barney has acquired a new confidence after Jeanette made a pass at him at a social outing, but she reveals that she suffers from depression due to her husband's serial adultery, and spends most of the afternoon either crying or taking anti-depressants.

In the end, Barney has struck out three times, and realizes that he's not one to have an affair. So, he contacts his wife to come over to the apartment for a nice rendezvous.

Funny movie, with a decent performance from Alan Arkin, but Paula Prentiss definitely stole the show during her segment. Recommended.

A Safe Place

2011-06-15T00:36:00.002-05:00

A Safe Place (Criterion #548).
1971 BBS Productions and Columbia Pictures.
Starring: Tuesday Weld, Orson Welles, Phil Proctor, Jack Nicholson, Dov Lawrence, Gwen Welles
Produced by Bert Schneider
Written and directed by Henry Jaglom
Available only as part of Criterion's America Lost and Found: The BBS Story box set. Amazon: Standard DVD. Blu-ray.

Henry Jaglom's first movie is a big screen adaptation of a stage play he wrote and produced in the 1960s starring Karen Black, and Tuesday Weld on occasion. BBS Productions gave Jaglom the opportunity to produce a film version, and Jack Nicholson appeared in it as a favor to the director (Jaglom appeared in Nicholson's Drive, He Said), only expecting a new color television set as compensation. When A Safe Place was shown at the 1971 New York Film Festival, audience reaction was so divided that a riot nearly broke out.

A Safe Place is a surreal and somewhat confusing film where Tuesday Weld portrays a hippie woman named either Susan or Noah, and she seems caught between adolescence and adulthood, which is why she frequently retreats (seemingly) into her imagination. She is dating a somewhat nerdish man named Fred (Proctor), when she isn't having an affair with a wealthy married man, Mitch (Nicholson). Also appearing frequently is an older magician (Welles), and we're unclear as to who he really is, if he isn't a figment of Susan's imagination. Phil knows that Susan is whacko, but he puts up with her stories and other nonsense. Ultimately, neither Phil nor Mitch can completely satisfy Susan.

This one rivals Head as the oddest BBS production (they also produced and released The Last Picture Show in 1971). Still, Tuesday Weld gave a decent performance, and she looked gorgeous in this one. You can also tell Orson Welles was happy, as he got to essentially portray himself as the magician. Henry Jaglom uses plenty of unrelated jump cuts and other bizarre imagery to create a truly unique film. Recommended, although do not expect to get it the first time. This one may require more than one viewing, folks.

Look Back in Anger

2011-06-14T23:05:00.001-05:00

Look Back in Anger.
1959 Woodfall Film Productions, distributed to DVD by MGM.
Starring: Richard Burton, Claire Bloom, Mary Ure, Edith Evans, Gary Raymond, Donald Pleasence
Director: Tony Richardson
Buy Look Back in Anger from Amazon.

This 1959 film adaptation of a John Osborne play is also Tony Richardson's directoral debut.

Richard Burton is Jimmy Porter, an aspiring, lower class musician who tries to support himself and his upper class wife Alison (Ure) by working as a street vendor. Jimmy is incredibly angry at everything, particularly the status gap between he and his wife, who he constantly berates verbally. Jimmy's partner Cliff and friend (Raymond) also lives with them, trying to portray the calm voice of reason whenever Jimmy starts to abuse his wife with words.

There's also a further complication: Alison is pregnant with Jimmy's baby, and she's waiting for the right time to tell him. In the meantime, Alison's friend Helena (Bloom) has showed up to help out. Unfortunately, Jimmy hates Helena for her upper class background, and she advises Alison to leave Jimmy temporarily and stay with her parents. This doesn't stop Jimmy from beginning an affair with Helena in Alison's absence.

Cliff eventually strikes out on his own, and Helena ends her affair with Jimmy after an unexpected run-in with Alison. But there's a happier surprise awaiting our man who's angry at the world.

Recommended film. Another fine example of the British kitchen sink drama with an outstanding performance from Richard Burton, who may have been a little too old to play Jimmy...

Drive, He Said

2011-06-14T11:24:00.004-05:00

Drive, He Said (Criterion #547).
1971 BBS Productions and Columbia Pictures.
Starring: William Tepper, Karen Black, Michael Margotta, Bruce Dern, Robert Towne, Henry Jaglom, Michael Warren, Charles Robinson, David Ogden Stiers, Cindy Williams
Produced by Steve Blauner and Jack Nicholson
Screenplay: Jeremy Larner, Jack Nicholson, Terrence Malick (uncredited)
Director: Jack Nicholson
Drive, He Said is only available as part of Criterion's box set America Lost and Found: The BBS Story. Amazon listings: Standard DVD. Blu-ray.

Jack Nicholson's directoral debut not surprisingly features basketball as one of the central plotlines. It's also an interesting, but disorganized film. I still found it compelling enough.

Hector Bloom (Tepper) is a star college basketball player from California who has found himself at a small university somewhere in Ohio (modeled after Kent State). His roommate Gabriel (Margotta) is from a well off family, but he's still harboring radical feelings and getting involved with campus protests. Both Hector and Gabriel are both facing the draft: Hector to the NBA, while Gabriel will do just about everything to not go to Vietnam. And Hector, as the film goes on, seems more and more unhappy at the thought of turning professional.

Hector is also having an affair with the wife of his favorite professor, Olive (Black), which comes to an end once he realizes that he's in love with her. And then, Olive reveals she's pregnant. Coach Bullion (Dern) does his best to run the team and keep Hector motivated while slowly realizing that his star player may not have the heart for the game and the rest of the team anymore.

Drive, He Said has one notable standout performance, from Margotta as the increasingly crazed radical Gabriel, and the film itself is good, but not great. Interesting, I felt nonetheless, even if the finished project came across more as a series of unrelated, episodic sketches that are only tied together by the main characters. Recommended movie.

Almost Famous

2011-06-14T00:15:00.001-05:00

Almost Famous.
2000 DreamWorks Pictures and Columbia Pictures.
Starring: Patrick Fugit, Billy Crudup, Kate Hudson, Frances McDormand, Jason Lee, Phillip Seymour Hoffman, Fairuza Balk, Anna Paquin, Noah Taylor, Zooey Deschanel, Jimmy Fallon
Director: Cameron Crowe
Available from Amazon as a single DVD, or the "Untitled" directors' cut.

Cameron Crowe's 2000 semi-autobiographical film features a 15-year-old aspiring writer named William Miller (Fugit) who idolizes Lester Bangs (Hoffman) who lives with his overprotective mother Elaine (McDormand). William is unpopular with his peers, so he writes for underground papers about his love for rock music, and the record collection given to him by his older sister Anita (Deschanel), who left home because she could no longer cope with Elaine's beliefs. Bangs gives William a $35 assignment to review a Black Sabbath concert, and Lester advices him to "honest and unmerciful"...without mentioning how he can get into the show or meet the band. Unable to get into the arena, William meets a group of "Band-Aids", who are not "groupies". William strikes up a conversation with their leader, Penny Lane (Hudson), and he eventually does get backstage with the opening act, Stillwater. Their guitarist, Russell Hammond (Crudup), takes a liking to William.

Most of the story that follows sees William, who eventually gets a prime assignment for Rolling Stone trying to interview Russell, which usually never happens for whatever reason, even if Russell continually promises to talk to him "soon". William also develops a friendship with Penny Lane, who also has genuine feelings for Russell. William ends up spending more time on the road chasing this story than what he had promised his overprotective mother, who wanted him home "four days later".

Highly recommended movie.

Tron: Legacy

2011-06-13T22:02:00.001-05:00

Tron: Legacy. 2010 Walt Disney Pictures.
Starring: Jeff Bridges, Garrett Hedlund, Bruce Boxleitner, Olivia Wilde, Michael Sheen, James Frain, Beau Garrett
Music: Daft Punk
Produced by Sean Bailey, Jeffrey Silver and Steven Lisberger
Director: Joseph Kosinski
Available from Amazon on Disney DVD.

In 1989, ENCOM CEO and wizard software engineer Kevin Flynn (Bridges) disappears. Twenty years later, his son Sam (Hedlund) is ENCOM's controlling shareholder, and he has almost little interest in the firm except for pulling an annual prank on the board of directors. After the most recent stunt, Sam gets a visit from Kevin's old friend and ENCOM executive Alan Bradley (Boxleitner), who reports a mysterious page emitting from Kevin's old, disconnected office deep in his long abandoned arcade. Activating a computer in the dusty office, Sam accidentally projects himself into the Grid, a cold and dangerous virtual world within the computer. Captured immediately, Sam is taken to the game arena, where he faces off with a warrior called Rinzler. After discovering that Sam is a "user" and not a "program", Rinzler takes Sam before Clu, the now corrupted digital copy of Kevin Flynn. Clu attempts to kill Sam in a light cycle duel, but he is rescued by Quorra (Wilde), who takes Sam to a distant hideout off the grid, where he is finally reunited with his father.

Kevin informs Sam that he, Clu and Bradley's security program called Tron, were creating a new "perfect" system, and that Kevin discovered something called sentinent "isomorphic algorithms" (ISOs), which spontaneously evolved in the world, and they had the keys to unlock the mysteries in science, religion, and medicine. Clu rebelled against Kevin and Tron, destroyed the ISOs (Tron sacrificed itself to allow Flynn the opportunity to get away), and took control of the entire Grid, making a long term plan to raise an army big enough so that it could invade and "perfect" the "outside world", i.e. Earth. Quorra, though, is the last surviving ISO, who was rescued by Kevin.

It's up to Sam, Kevin and Quorra to find a way out of the Grid before Clu and its army does, where Sam can delete Clu. Also, is Rinzler simply a reprogrammed version of Tron? Wait and see...

Recommended movie, although I prefered the first film more.

MST3K #303: Pod People

2011-06-12T20:56:00.001-05:00

Mystery Science Theater 3000 experiment #303: Pod People.
Original Comedy Central airdate: June 15, 1991.
Part of the second MST3K DVD set, which looks to be out of stock at Amazon...

Chief? McCloud!!

This episode showcases a trainwreck of a film where an unsuspecting rural family, an unlikeable trio of poachers who constantly argue with one another, and a really bad pop band on vacation are all on a collision course with wackiness in a foggy region. A meteor crashes in the area, and a stash of glowing eggs are found by one of the poachers and a youth named Tommy from the unsuspecting and somewhat unlikeable rural family. An alien mother goes on the hunt looking for her eggs and offspring, killing off several characters. Tommy's egg hatches into something he dubs Trumpy, who unlike his mother, is not at all homicidal. Trumpy's mother eventually comes to the house, and Tommy escapes with Trumpy in tow, not willing to let all of the mean adults shoot his goofy looking pet. After all, Trumpy can do magical things. The ending is kind of depressing, not to mention foggy.

We open on the Satellite of Love where Joel, Servo and Crow are hosting an "arts chautauqua" where Crow debuts a monologue from his one-robot show Robot on the Run, and Tom Servo breaks down in hysterics during his own spoken word piece. The invention exchange is a musical one: Joel demonstrates his explosive new guitar chord, and the Mads debut their concept of public domain karaoke. Inspired by the crappy band in the recording studio, Joel and the 'Bots sing "Idiot Control Now", and Joel declares that it stinks. A wall of keyboards is set up and Joel explains to Tom and Crow about how they can create New Age music simply by holding down two keys for hours on end. Somehow, Windham Hill doesn't come through with a recording contract for "Music from Some Guys in Space". After a wild demonstration of the magic Trumpy can perform, Joel and the 'Bots sing a sad ballad, "Clown in the Sky", and the Mads cheerfully help out by saying that it also stinks.

Another fan favorite, and a great episode to me personally. Highly recommended.

MST3K #208: Lost Continent

2011-06-12T20:53:00.001-05:00

Mystery Science Theater 3000 experiment #208: Lost Continent.
Original Comedy Channel airdate: November 24, 1990.
Available on the eighteenth MST3K DVD collection from Shout! Factory.

Rock climbing.

Cesar Romero, Hugh Beaumont, Sid Melton and Acquanetta star in this 1951 film about an expedition to find a missing atomic rocket. The expedition's flight crashes on a remote island with a big old mountain where a lone native girl indicates that something unusual landed there. After twenty straight minutes of ROCK CLIMBING, the top of the mountain is reached, where a lush jungle inhabited by dinosaurs is found. Two out of the six explorers die, but the survivors salvage crucial rocket parts and escape (thankfully the trip down the mountain isn't depicted in such excruciating detail) before a volcanic eruption destroys the island, dinosaurs and all. The highlight? Hugh Beaumont cracking up in the background while Cesar Romero hauls Sid Melton onto a plateau by the seat of his pants.

The show opens with Joel in a cyan jumpsuit as a tough football coach giving his robots a lively pep talk. Beat 'em, beat 'em, beat 'em! In Deep 13, Dr. Forrester and TV's Frank introduce their exercise treadmill on wheels (which Frank immediately runs into the nearest wall), but sadly, we don't have time for Joel's invention this week. Joel's gadget, a translator that converts language into sign language, would appear again in the next episode (The Hellcats). Hugh Beaumont, having become a Horseman of the Apocalypse, stops by the satellite with his scary, but friendly message of death. Joel and the 'Bots perform their version of Quinn Martin's The Explorers which turns from adventure program to police drama just in time for the epilogue. Later, the gang witnesses "The Cool Thing"* out in space, and they encourage their viewers to send in their ideas of what exactly it is for a contest, and why it's cool. After the film, Joel and his robots recite little known facts about the film, including the knowledge that Cesar Romero may have had ties to the Nazis.

A great episode from season 2, although Shout! Factory's DVD transfer is less than stellar due to the condition of the master tapes they were given. Just make like you're watching someone's second or third generation VHS dubbed tape and enjoy. Highly recommended episode.

...rock climbing.

* The "Cool Thing" was later revealed to be Mexican stoplight candy in a third season episode, although the show did show some viewer submitted pictures at the end of season two. Okay? Fifteen minute break, everyone!

Slacker

2011-06-11T22:09:00.001-05:00

Slacker (Criterion #247).
1991 Detour Filmproduction and Orion Classics.
Starring: Richard Linklater, Kim Krizan, Marc James, Stella Weir, John Slate, Louis Mackey, Teresa Taylor, and many others
Written, produced and directed by Richard Linklater
Buy Slacker at Amazon today!

Along with sex, lies and videotape, this film is considered the genesis of the independent film movement of the 1990s, and it was a major influence on Kevin Smith, who has often stated Slacker was the inspiration for Clerks. Also, this movie supposedly popularized the term "slacker" to describe any person "characterized by apathy, aimlessness, and lack of ambition".

Over a 24 hour period in Austin, Texas, Linklater showcases dozens of mostly twenty-somethings all doing their part in keeping Austin weird. We see one or two characters converse about just about everything for a few minutes before we start to follow someone completely different and unrelated to the previous characters. The only common thing all of the movie's players have is that they might pass by one another on the streets during their daily routine, or perhaps, their lack of routine.

Highlights include Linklater as a chatty taxi passenger who just completed a long bus trip, the UFO "expert" in the Batman T-shirt trying to convince a complete stranger that the United States has really been traveling to the moon since the 1950s, yet another JFK conspiracy buff, someone who is really into collecting television sets (he even walks around with one strapped to his back!), an elderly anarchist who talks a younger man out of robbing his home with stories about where he was during Charles Whitman's rampage in 1966, and most bizarrely, the odd woman (Taylor) who walks up to a random couple offering to sell them a genuine "Madonna pap smear".

Highly recommended.

Fear Strikes Out

2011-06-10T22:03:00.001-05:00

Fear Strikes Out. 1957 Paramount Pictures
Starring: Anthony Perkins, Karl Malden, Norma Moore, Adam Williams, Perry Wilson
Director: Robert Mulligan
Buy the DVD from Amazon.

Robert Mulligan's first feature length film is a loose adaptation of the autobiography by baseball player Jimmy Piersall, who is known for his problems with bipolar disorder. Piersall (Perkins in the film), in real life, played a seventeen year career filled with many notable and bizarre incidents with a lifetime batting average of .272 and 104 home runs before embarking on a career in broadcasting.

Piersall would later disown the film adaptation of his book, since he felt that the screenplay distorted facts, and it also made it appear that his father (played by Malden) pushed his son too hard, helping contribute to Jimmy's on-screen breakdown, following his first home run as a member of the Boston Red Sox.

Still, Fear Strikes Out as a film is a decent popcorn movie, and an easy recommendation from me. Just be sure to keep in mind that it's another baseball movie, not a true biopic of an interesting ball player.

This Sporting Life

2011-06-09T23:31:00.002-05:00

This Sporting Life (Criterion #417).
1963 Janus Films and The Rank Organisation
Starring: Richard Harris, Rachel Roberts, Alan Badel, William Hartnell, Colin Blakely, Vanda Godsell
Produced by Karel Reisz
Director: Lindsay Anderson
Buy This Sporting Life from Amazon.

Lindsay Anderson's feature length debut is an outstanding example of the kitchen sink realism (the "British New Wave") that British cinema was producing between the late 1950s and early '60s. Richard Harris made his film debut here, and he won the Best Actor Award at the 1963 Cannes Film festival for his portrayal as the angry Yorkshire miner Frank Machin, who is recruited into a local rugby club after the team's manager witnesses a drunken fight between Machin and several of his players. Frank takes time to mature into a decent player, but he is signed to the premier team when the owner, Gerald Weaver (Badel) is impressed by Machin's aggressive play. In due time, Frank Machin has wealth and fame, but he finds that it's not enough to win the affections of his landlady, Mrs. Margaret Hammond (Roberts).

Margaret is the struggling mother of two young children, and her husband is recently deceased after an accident at Weaver's engineering firm which was ruled a suicide. At first, she rejects Frank's advances, but does begin a relationship with him that seems doomed from the start. Machin uses Margaret for sex, and she is still grief-stricken enough that she cannot return affection. Margaret, meanwhile, is upset at Frank's lack of social graces during a dinner date at a fancy restaurant. The affair ends, but a reconciliation is not in the cards. Margaret dies following a brain hemorrhage, and Frank finally realizes that his rugby career is probably no better than working all of his life operating machinery in a mine: both choices ultimately feels like an inescapable prison.

This Sporting Life also features William Hartnell as "Dad" Johnson, a rugby scout who is devoted to Frank to an uncomfortable degree even after Machin abandons him after his first taste of success. Hartnell's appearance here gained the attention of the first Doctor Who producer, Verity Lambert, and he would become the first Doctor that same year.

Get this DVD! Highly, highly recommended film.

Don't Look Now

2011-06-08T23:24:00.001-05:00

Don't Look Now. 1973 Paramount Pictures
Starring: Julie Christie, Donald Sutherland, Sharon Williams, Massimo Serato, Hilary Mason, Renato Scarpa, Clelia Matania
Director: Nicolas Roeg
Buy Don't Look Now at Amazon.

An occult thriller where director Roeg employs several recurring themes: notably water, the color red, glass being used as an omen of bad things to come, and plenty of flashbacks and flash-forwards. Don't Look Now is also well remembered for its graphic sex scene with Julie Christie and Donald Sutherland, which included a rare depiction of cunnilingus. The scene obviously caused controversy with censors on both sides of the Atlantic, and it led to rumors that Christie and Sutherland engaged in unsimulated sex, with outtakes allegedly being passed between screening rooms. The film, after some minor editing, ended up getting an R rating in the United States; the uncut version was declared to be "tasteful and integral to the plot" by the British Board of Film Classification. Also, producer Michael Deeley claimed on the BBC that Warren Beatty, who was seeing Christie at the time, flew to England to demand the sex scene cut from the film. Unlike the unsimulated sex rumor, this one was confirmed many years later.

After the accidental drowning of their young daughter Christine (Williams) at their country home in England, John Baxter (Sutherland) and his wife Laurie (Christie) are staying in Venice where John is help restoring an old church at the request of a bishop (Serato). At lunch one afternoon, Laura meets two eldery sisters, one of whom (Mason) is blind, claims to be psychic, and she--Heather--informs Laura that she is in contact with Christine, describing the attire she wore on the day of her death, and asserting she is happy. Laura is shaken enough that she faints at her table, and she tells John what the sisters told her at the restaurant. John is skeptical, but seems to be happy at his wife's new positive demeanor. Later that evening, they go out to dinner, become separated, and John sees what looks like a small child wearing a similar red coat that Christine was wearing when she drowned. The following day, Laura meets with the sisters, and Heather supposedly makes contact with Christine, who says that John is in great danger and must leave Venice.

Laura ends up leaving after a telephone call comes from England saying that their son has been injured in an accident. John, though, is shocked when he sees Laura later that day on a barge along with the two sisters that's part of a funeral procession. John reports his wife's disappearance to the police, worried about her obsession with Christine, and influenced by reports of a serial killer stalking Venice, but finds himself followed by a police inspector (Scarpa) who is suspicious of him. The misunderstanding with Laura is soon cleared up, but John has another vision of the child in the red coat again. Heather and her sister are taken in for questioning, so John brings them back to the hotel...where Heather enters a trance, and John again sees the figure in red, and this time decides to pursue him/her...

What could it mean?

Interesting movie where Nicolas Roeg pays homage to the work of Alfred Hitchcock while perfecting his unique editing style seen before in Performance and Walkabout. Recommended film.

MAS*H

2011-06-07T23:09:00.002-05:00

M*A*S*H. 1970 20th Century Fox.
Starring: Donald Sutherland, Elliot Gould, Tom Skerritt, Sally Kellerman, Robert Duvall, Roger Bowen, Rene Auberjonois, Michael Murphy, Gary Burghoff, Fred Williamson, Bud Cort, Kim Atwood, Marvin Miller
Screenplay: Ring Lardner, Jr.
Director: Robert Altman
Availavle from Amazon as a single DVD, or as part of the Robert Altman Collection.

Based on Richard Hooker's novel MASH: A Novel About Three Army Doctors, and set during the Korean War in 1951, Robert Altman's M*A*S*H was a huge hit in 1970, when many Americans were confused, weary, and angry about the ongoing conflict in Vietnam. M*A*S*H was also Altman's first project employing his filmmaking trademarks of widescreen photography, zoom lenses, overlapping sounds and dialogue, and a large ensemble cast largely improvising when the cameras were on. It also inspired the sitcom on CBS that ran for eleven years, even if Altman hated the show, and would only refer to it as "that series".

The film itself has several different ongoing storylines surrounding the 4077th Mobile Army Surgical Hospital; namely the arrival of the rebellious and mischievous new surgeons Captain Hawkeye Pierce (Sutherland) and Captain Duke Forrest (Skerritt) to the 4077th, who arrive in a "borrowed" Jeep, flirt with the nursing staff, and begin feuding with their tent mate Major Frank Burns (Duvall).

* A new thoracic surgeron named "Trapper" John McIntyre (Gould) comes to the unit, and Hawkeye is absolutely convinced he knows him from somewhere, even if Trapper John isn't talking about who he is, or where he came from. Trapper John also witnesses Major Burns blame another private for a patient's death, which leads to Burns getting punched out in front of another newcomer: Major Margaret "Hot Lips" Houlihan (Kellerman). Burns and Hot Lips find that they have repressed sexual tension for one another, which leads to a publicly broadcast tryst over the camp's PA system. Hawkeye taunts him the next day, and Burns attacks him, which gets him sent back to the United States.

* Meanwhile, Father Mulcahy (Auberjonois) discloses to Hawkeye later on that the unit's dentist Painless Pole (John Schuck) believes he is homosexual and decides he's going to kill himself. Hawkeye and company stage an impromptu Last Supper where Painless takes a "black capsule", which is actually a sleeping pill. Hawkeye then arranges a sexual encounter between Painless and another nurse who is returning to America soon, thus curing Painless of his "problem".

* Duke and Hawkeye make a bet that Hot Lips isn't a natural blonde, so they come up with a plan to see if the curtains match the drapes, so to speak, publicly humiliating Hot Lips after she's caught by the boys in the shower. She goes to Colonel Blake ranting and raving, and ultimately threatens to resigns her goddamn commission. There's also an ongoing plot featuring Ho-Jon (Atwood), who is drafted into South Korea's army, but after Hawkeye drives him to an induction center, he is found to have high blood pressure and a rapid heartbeat, but he is not disqualified from service. Instead, it's insinuated that Hawkeye gave Ho-Jon medicine to induce those symptoms to keep him from being conscripted.

* Trapper and Hawkeye are sent to Japan to operate on the son of a U.S. congressman...and to play golf on decent courses. They arrive and order the man into surgery immediately, so they can get on the links that much faster, not to mention enjoying a decent lunch. Hawkeye and Trapper also encounter problems with the hospital's commander, who can't stop the "Pros from Dover" from returning with a Japanese-American baby with serious medical issues. The commander is sedated, and then blackmailed when he is photographed in bed with a prostitute.

* The 4077th plays a friendly football game with General Hammond's (G. Wood) unit, where some money is thrown into the pot to make it interesting. Hawkeye enlists a neurosurgeon, Dr. Oliver Harmon "Spearchucker" Jones (Williamson), a former pro player, to play for their side while wheeling and dealing with the money bet on the game. Jones is kept out of the game until the second half. Even with Jones on their side, the 4077th does win the game on the last play of the game in a "semilegal" play, leading to a big ol' brawl after the game.

M*A*S*H is also well known for the song "Suicide is Painless", with lyrics written by Altman's son Mike, who ultimately made more money than his father got for directing the film in royalties. The making of the movie was reportedly difficult, thanks to tension between Altman and his cast. Donald Sutherland claimed he was the only principal cast member not using drugs during filming, and he along with Elliot Gould spent a third of their time on the set trying to get 20th Century Fox to fire Altman, who at the time had not earned the credentials to justify his unique filmmaking process. The film also earned one Academy Award, for Ring Lardner, Jr., who had spent twelve years blacklisted by the Hollywood studios (1954-66) by the House Un-American Activities Committee, which went along with another Oscar that he wrote under a pseudonym during his twelve year ban (he never revealed for what movie).

Highly, highly, highly recommended film.

Tron

2011-06-05T23:21:00.001-05:00

Tron. 1982 Walt Disney Pictures.
Starring: Jeff Bridges, Bruce Boxleitner, David Warner, Cindy Morgan, Barnard Hughes, Dan Shor
Director: Steven Lisberger
Tron is available on Disney DVD from Amazon. Tell 'em Clu sent you...

The origin of Tron dates back to 1976 when director Steven Lisberger became fascinated with the video game Pong, and he envisioned a movie based on video games. Originally intended to be a completely animated movie, Lisberger and producer Donald Kushner decided to incorporate live action sequences. Disney eventually green-lit the project after being rejected by several other Hollywood studios (Warner Bros., MGM, Columbia). At the time, Disney seldom employed outsiders to produce movies for them, so Lisberger and company were given less than a warm welcome by Disney employees. The finished product may look primitive and cheesy now, but in 1982, it was something else to behold.

Jeff Bridges is Kevin Flynn, a software engineer who is trying to hack into the mainframe of his former employers at ENCOM, seeking evidence that a senior executive named Ed Dillinger (Warner) stole his coding and passed it off as his own, leading to Dillinger's rapid rise in the company, and to Flynn being fired, taking a job running a video arcade filled with the games he wrote and designed. Flynn is blocked by the Master Control Program that controls ENCOM's mainframe. The same program is blackmailing Dillinger, threatening to reveal to the world that he truly stole Flynn's codes after the executive tried to halt the program from hacking into the Pentagon and Kremlin.

ENCOM employees Alan Bradley (Boxleitner) and Lora Baines (Morgan) drop by Flynn's arcade one night to tell him about Dillinger's new tighter security clearances after Flynn's attempts to break in. Flynn convinces them both to let him into ENCOM so he can get around the security clearances for Bradley's security program called "Tron" to monitor communications between the Master Control Program and the outside world. At the labratory, Flynn attempts to break into the system, but the MCP takes control of a nearby laser for "quantum teleportation", and digitizes Flynn into the ENCOM mainframe. Inside of the mainframe, Programs appear in the likeness of the real world Users who created them, but the MCP and its commander Sark (Warner) have run roughshod over the Programs, who have given up their belief in the Users, and the MCP has assumed near complete control over input and output within the mainframe.

While being forced to engage in gladitorial games where the loser is destroyed, Flynn meets Tron (Boxleitner), and the two escape deeper into the system during a Light Cycle match. The two are split up, but Flynn discovers that as a User, he can manipulate the physical laws of the digital world. With help from another program called Yori (Morgan), our digital heroes make their way to the core of the MCP and battle Sark. Sark is briefly destroyed, but he is restored by the MCP, which gives him all of its functions. After Flynn jumps directly into the MCP, it lets its guard down long enough for Tron to throw his disc into its core, destroying it and Sark, freeing the digital world. Flynn is then sent back to the real world, along with printed evidence that Dillinger has "annexed" his code. Dillinger arrives at work the next morning, finding the MCP non-functional and evidence of his crime displayed on his computer screen. Some time after this, Flynn becomes the CEO of ENCOM...

...until his disappearance in 1989, but that's a different movie, which will be reviewed here later this week.

Another great sci-fi classic movie that may look dated, but it's still great. Highly recommended.

Logan's Run

2011-06-04T23:31:00.002-05:00

Logan's Run. 1976 MGM/Turner Entertainment.
Starring: Michael York, Richard Jordan, Jenny Agutter, Roscoe Lee Brown, Farrah Fawcett-Majors, Michael Anderson Jr., Peter Ustinov
Director: Michael Anderson
Available from Amazon for cheap right now...

Logan 5 (York) is a Sandman, operating within a large domed city in the 23rd century. This domed city contains survivors of "war, overpopulation and pollution". Infants are implanted with a "Lifeclock" in their hands, a device that changes color as they grow older. When a citizen reaches their "last day" at age 30, the Lifeclock blinks red, then blacks, and they must report to "Carrousel", where they are told that there is hope of Renewal, a form of reincarnation. Those who refuse to submit to Carrousel are labeled "Runners", and the Sandmen are responsible for hunting down and terminating them. Logan and his friend Francis 7 (Jordan) attend a Carrousel ceremony, leaving briefly to hunt down and kill a Runner. This particular Runner was carrying a silver ankh.

After hours, Logan meets Jessica 6 (Agutter) who is also wearing a similar ankh. She declines his sexual advances, but they still discuss why it's wrong to run. The next day, Logan turns in the ankh at Sandman headquarters, and the supercomputer within the complex reveals that the ankh is a symbol for a group of outsiders assisting Runners trying to reach "Sanctuary". Logan is assigned to find Sanctuary and destroy it, and the computer advances his Lifeclock so he can pass as a runner. The computer ignores Logan's questions about whether or not he'll need assistance from another Sandman, or if his Lifeclock will be reset after the fact. Logan goes to recruit Jessica, seeking her help in reaching Sanctuary; she is reluctant to join Logan until she sees him assisting a Runner instead of killing her. Unfortunately, Francis also witnesses this, and he's unaware of Logan's undercover assignment, so he kills the Runner, then starts chasing Logan and Jessica.

From there, Logan and Jessica make their way through the bowels of city with Francis on their heels, encountering a bizarre robot named Box (Browne) whose job is preserving any food that comes his way, Runners included, and eventually, they escape the domed city entirely. Upon discovering the ruins of Washington, D.C. outside after a long journey in the outdoors, Logan and Jessica realize there is no Sanctuary. There is, though, an old man (Ustinov) living in the old Senate building with a roomful of cats, to their surprise. While there is no Sanctuary, there is now the knowledge that life does not have to end at age thirty...as the rest of the domed city's inhabitants will soon discover.

A great sci-fi popcorn movie. Highly recommended film.

The King of Marvin Gardens

2011-06-03T22:34:00.003-05:00

The King of Marvin Gardens (Criterion #550).
1972 BBS Productions and Columbia Pictures.
Starring: Jack Nicholson, Bruce Dern, Ellen Burstyn, Julia Anne Robinson, Benjamin "Scatman" Crothers, Charles LaVine, Josh Mostel
Director: Bob Rafelson
Available as a single DVD, or part of Criterion's America Lost and Found: The BBS Story box set (standard DVD) (Blu-ray).

This 1972 film directed by Bob Rafelson was reissued last year in one of the most (IMHO) exciting home video releases of 2010, Criterion's America Lost and Found: The BBS Story. Originally, the project was supposed to be released by Sony with the generic "New Hollywood" title in fall of 2009, but at some point, Sony licensed the set to Criterion, who worked their unique brand of magic on the seven films included, and the plethora of extras found on each disc. BBS Productions was formed in 1968 by Rafelson, Bert Schneider, and Steve Blauner, financed by the success of the Monkees' TV series. Over the next four years, BBS would create and release some undisputed classic films which were distributed by Columbia Pictures, notably Five Easy Pieces, Easy Rider, and The Last Picture Show. BBS was also responsible for the Academy Award winning 1974 Vietnam documentary Hearts of Minds, which is not included on the BBS set, but it has its own Criterion release.

The King of Marvin Gardens stars Jack Nicholson, playing against type as a depressing and almost passive radio host named David Staebler, also known as "The Philosopher", who spends his evenings depressing and boring the hell out of anyone who's listening in or around Philadelphia. One of his favorite topics to discuss on the air is his older brother Jason (Dern), who at the time, is in jail, allegedly for stealing a car. After one memorably bad show, David is called upon to bail Jason out of the hoosegow, with the help of a shady businessman named Lewis (Crothers). Arriving in Atlantic City, the bold and outgoing Jason ropes his brother into an outrageous scheme: buying a small island near Hawaii, and turning it into a resort. Jason is also living with two girlfriends in a once-grand Atlantic City hotel; the aging beauty queen Sally (Burstyn) and her stepdaughter Jessie (Robinson). Sally starts to grow paranoid that Jason will abandon her once his "upcoming success" in Hawaii becomes a reality.

The tension between Sally and Jessie gradually increases over the course of the movie, and David seems to realize that Jason's plans simply aren't going to happen, especially after a debacle of a lobster dinner with two potential investors from Japan, who do not come through. Also, Jason seems to be confident that he can get financial support from Lewis, who isn't buying in, as David will find out one evening. Tragically, Jason's grand scheme never gets out of Atlantic City, as Sally shoots him to death following a loud argument between the two of them and David.

A great movie, even if it was a bleak and depressing one at time. Its violent ending seemed almost appropriate in this character study of four people with no real future to their lives or any chance to escape Atlantic City, New Jersey. Recommended movie.

Talk Radio

2011-06-02T21:48:00.001-05:00

Talk Radio.
1988 Cineplex Odeon Films and Universal Pictures.
Starring: Eric Bogosian, Alec Baldwin, Ellen Greene, Leslie Hope, John C. McGinley, John Pankow, Michael Wincott
Music: Stewart Copeland
Director: Oliver Stone
Available for purchase at Amazon.

Talk Radio is based on Eric Bogosian's stage play, and portions of the screenplay was based on the 1984 assassination of Denver radio personality Alan Berg at the hands of neo-Nazis.

Bogosian is Dallas radio personality Barry Champlain, a host of a nightly Dallas program called Night Talk. Champlain's trademark is arguing with and insulting his callers, an audience of freaks, losers, racists, homophobes, and more than a few people who wouldn't think twice of ending Champlain's life because his nightly tirades infuriate them so much. Champlain usually hangs up on many of his callers, and they usually call back for another round of verbal fisticuffs with the host. Barry Champlain, despite his brash public persona, is actually a very insecure, self-loathing man. He was a clothes salesman who somehow lucked into a radio gig one fateful afternoon, and as his fame and audience grew, Barry started to live his outrageous radio persona off the air as well.

One Friday night, Champlain learns that his show will be picked up for national syndication, and the first nationwide show is scheduled for the following Monday. While being syndicated nationally will potentially mean more money, more fame, and a country filled with would-be listeners for him, Barry is less than thrilled at the news. He's dealing with the end of his relationship with a younger female producer named Laura (Hope), and the possibility that his new syndication bosses will neuter his show and his on-air persona. Barry's supportive ex-wife Ellen (Greene) flies into town to be on hand for what is supposed to be his first national program, but what she witnesses instead is completely the opposite of what should be a celebration: her former husband crashing and burning spectacularly on the air.

Great, great, GREAT movie. Eric Bogosian's performance was incredible. Highly, highly recommended film.

International House

2011-06-01T11:06:00.002-05:00

International House.
1933 Paramount Pictures; owned and distributed to DVD by Universal.
Starring: Peggy Hopkins Joyce, W.C. Fields, Stuart Erwin, George Burns, Gracie Allen, Sari Maritza, Lumsden Hare, Bela Lugosi, Franklin Pangborn, Edmund Breese, Colonel Stoopnagle and Budd
Also featuring: Rudy Vallee, Cab Calloway, Baby Rose Marie, Sterling Holloway
Director: A. Edward Sutherland
Available as part of the first W.C. Fields Comedy Collection, on sale at Amazon.

A star studded sketch film built around Dr. Wong (Breese) inventing a dandy contraption called a "radioscope", which features elements of television, and it also can pick up and zoom in on anything or anybody around the world. Not only that, the radioscope also provides snapshots of popular stage and radio performers. Wong plans to reveal his invention to the rest of the guests at the International House Hotel in Wuhu, China, and many of those guests make no secret that they hope to buy, or steal, the radioscope for themselves.

After the unexpected arrival of Professor Henry R, Quail (Fields), who had intended to travel to Kansas City, another guest named Tommy Nash (Erwin) becomes ill, leading to the hotel being quarantined. Nash is having a streak of bad luck, since he gets sick every time he attempts to marry his fiancee Carol (Maritza). Quail stays the night after disrupting the entire hotel and radioscope demonstration as only W.C. Fields can, and he leaves the next morning with Peggy Hopkins Joyce, escaping her ex-husband Nicholas Petronovich (Lugosi), who is at the hotel hoping to profit by stealing the radioscope for himself.

Great performances from everyone involved, particularly Fields, Lugosi, Burns and Allen. Highly recommended comedy from the era before the Motion Picture Production Code was implemented, hence the inclusion of a performance of Cab Calloway and his orchestra performing a wonderful ditty entitled "Reefer Man". Rock!

Pulp

2011-05-31T23:55:00.002-05:00

Pulp.
1972 United Artists; released to DVD by MGM with help from their distribution pals, 20th Century Fox.
Starring: Michael Caine, Mickey Rooney, Lionel Stander, Lizabeth Scott, Dennis Price
Music: Sir George Martin
Director: Mike Hodges
Pulp is available from Amazon, and for cheap, too!

Bet you didn't know that this movie inspired a group of young British musicians led by one Jarvis Cocker to claim its name for their pop group, did you? Pulp was also the last feature film role for Lizabeth Scott.

Anyway...Michael Caine is Mickey King, the prolific author of an endless series of paperback detective novels. He is offered a ridiculous amount of money to ghostwrite the autobiography of a "mystery" celebrity. King accepts the offer, and is taken to the island of Malta where he meets the mystery celebrity: the American actor Preston Gilbert (Rooney). Preston was known for playing mobsters in Hollywood, and hanging out with real life gangsters away from the set. He's also dying of cancer, so he wants King to start work on the autobiography before he dies.

And then, Preston Gilbert is murdered at a party. Many of his friends and associates also find themselves biting the dust shortly afterwards. It's up to Mickey King to emulate his favorite literary detectives to track down Gilbert's killer while keeping himself alive to write the next chapter.

Pulp has some good performances from Caine, Rooney, and Lionel Stander, and the screenplay contained some funny lines and visual gags, but the film seemed to drag on at times. Slightly recommended.

House

2011-03-11T11:56:00.002-06:00

House (Hausu) (Criterion #539).
1977 Toho Films & Janus Films.
Starring: Kimoko Ikegami, Miki Jinbo, Kumiko Oba, Ai Matsubara, Mieko Sato, Eriko Tanaka, Masayo Miyako, Kiyohiko Ozaki, Yoko Minamida, Godiego
Music: Godiego
Director: Nobuhiko Obayashi
Available from Amazon as a Criterion standard edition DVD or Blu-ray.

Not to be confused with the medical drama staring Hugh Laurie that airs on Fox, House is the debut feature film from director Nobuhiko Obayashi, who up until that time, was known for his experimental films such as Emotion (which is also included on the Criterion DVD) before transitioning into filming television commercials featuring American stars such as Kirk Douglas and Charles Bronson. Obayashi also employed many of his experimental filming techniques in his commercial work, and it should be no surprise this practice carried over into his feature films.

After the success of Jaws, Toho studios wanted to make a similar blockbuster film, and they asked Obayashi to develop a script. The director took several ideas from his young daughter Chigumi, believing that "children can come up with things that can't be explained". The finished script was approved by Toho (even if they felt it was "incomprehensible"), but none of their in-house directors wanted to touch the project, fearing it would end their careers. Obayashi ultimately directed the film, casting mostly unknown actors in addition to established stars Kimiko Ikegami and Yoko Minamida.

And now, the plot...

A young student named Gorgeous (Ikegami) changes her summer vacation plans after being told that her father (Saho Sasazawa), who has been in Italy scoring film music, has remarried. Upset, Gorgeous writes a letter to her aunt, asking if she can come visit for the summer, and after she is given permission, she invites her six best friends along. In addition to Gorgeous, and her Persian cat Blanche, we get to meet the brainy Prof (Matsubara), the expert at piano Melody (Tanaka), the brave Kung Fu (Jinbo), the constantly hungry Mac (Sato), the adorable Sweet (Miyako), and the quick to panic Fantasy (Oba). The seven samurai hop on a cross-country train trip, where the members of the band Godiego take time out of their busy schedule to see the girls off.

Once the girls arrive, and get settled in at Auntie's (Minamida), weird things start happening. Mac disappears after going to fetch a watermelon she picked up on the trip over. Fantasy finds, and is attacked by Mac's head after she goes to retrieve the watermelon. Auntie disappears after entering a broken refrigerator, and the rest of the girls are attacked by household items. Gorgeous is possessed by her aunt's mirror, and Sweet disappears after being lured into a spare room by Blanche, but not before she is attacked by mattresses. The remaining girls decide that they've had enough, but after Gorgeous leaves to find some help, the house locks Kung Fu, Melody, Prof and Fantasy in. After Melody is devoured by the piano she was playing, the girls run upstairs and find Gorgeous wearing a bridal gown, and she reveals her aunt's diary.

Ultimately, Gorgeous reveals that her aunt died many years ago waiting for her husband to return from World War II, but her spirit remains, and it is eating unmarried girls who arrive at the house. Kung Fu and Prof both fall victim to Auntie's spirit as the house begins to fill with blood. Fantasy manages to escape to find Gorgeous upstairs waiting for her. The next morning, Gorgeous' new stepmother Ryoko (Haruko Wanibuchi) arrives at the house, where she is met by Gorgeous, who tells Ryoko that her friends will be awake soon, and that they're "hungry".

House, with all of its deliberately bad special effects, and every single camera trick available, turned out to be a big hit in Japan, especially with young audiences. The film was never shown in the United States until after Janus Films bought the rights, originally intending for it to be released as part of Criterion's "Eclipse" line of DVDs. Interest in the movie led Janus to release the film theatrically in late 2009 and through the next year, before it was released by Criterion itself to DVD and Blu-ray on October 26th, 2010.

Highly recommended, although some caution should be used if there are young children in the audience, due to brief nudity in two scenes.

Bigger Than Life

2010-06-07T01:39:00.001-05:00

Bigger Than Life (Criterion #507).
1956 20th Century Fox.
Starring: James Mason, Barbara Rush, Walter Matthau, Robert Simon, Christopher Olsen, Roland Winters, Jerry Mathers (uncredited)
Scene deleted: Marilyn Monroe
Director: Nicholas Ray
Buy Bigger Than Life from Amazon.

James Mason is Ed Avery, a school teacher and family man who is secretly moonlighting as a cab driver to earn extra money to support his wife Lou (Rush) and son Richie (Olsen). Ed keeps pushing himself harder despite suffering increasingly painful spasms. Finally, Ed collapses, and while hospitalized, learns that he has been stricken by a rare arterial disease. The doctors have given him less than a year to live, but they do offer to provide him an experimental treatment with cortisone. At the time, cortisone was a new, and not fully tested as a drug.

Ed makes a full recovery and returns to work and family life, but things are not the same. For one thing, Ed has adopted a carefree attitude towards money. What's worse, Ed begins going through some very violent mood swings, where he finds himself talking down at just about everyone, family included. His closest friend, Wally Gibbs (Matthau), also finds himself on the receiving end of Ed's sudden outbursts. He soon comes to the conclusion that it's the cortisone at the root of the problem, and Ed is taking far more of the experimental drug than he has been prescribed, claiming that it's the only thing keeping him alive. Finally, one Sunday, Ed experiences a psychotic episode that threatens the safety of his family and best friend.

Bigger Than Life is a great look at drug addiction and psychological unhingement being brought into a 1950s suburban American home, which is probably why it was not a box office success at the time. Everyone needs to see this picture at least once. Highly, highly recommended.

Make Way for Tomorrow

2010-06-06T23:40:00.003-05:00

Make Way for Tomorrow (Criterion #505).
1937 Paramount Pictures, now owned by Universal Pictures.
Starring: Victor Moore, Beulah Bondi, Fay Bainter, Thomas Mitchell, Porter Hall, Barbara Read, Maurice Moscovitch, Minna Gombell
Director: Leo McCarey
Buy Make Way for Tomorrow from Amazon.

Leo McCarey directed this Depression-era drama in the same year that he also made The Awful Truth, one of the all time great screwball comedies. McCarey won the Oscar for Best Director for the latter film, but he couldn't resist remarking "Thanks, but you gave it to me for the wrong picture." Orson Welles, in a conversation with Peter Bogdanovich, commented that Make Way for Tomorrow "would make a stone cry".

The bank has foreclosed on the house that Barkley and Lucy Cooper (Moore & Bondi), a couple in their late 60s, have owned while bringing up their five children. The Coopers knew about their money problems, but did not act on them, and they instead waited for things to turn around for them. Ma and Pa turn to their children for help, but none of them can take both of their parents in together. Barkley moves in with his daughter Nellie (Gombell) and her husband Harvey (Hall), while Lucy is taken in by son George (Mitchell) and his spouse Anita (Bainter). The new living situations prove stressful for everyone involved.

Later on, the plan for the Cooper children is for one of them to take in both Ma and Pa so they can spend the rest of their lives together. Barkley is experiencing health problems, and it's believed that he would be better off in a warmer climate, but Lucy decides to move into a home for older women, which means the separation between she and Barkley will likely turn into a permanent one. Still, the Coopers still have one more day to spend together before moving into an uncertain future apart.

This isn't the most depressing film ever made, but it's close. Highly recommended, though.

P.S. Dear Criterion, please consider releasing My Son John if you ever want to issue another Leo McCarey film. While you're at it, I hear Duck Soup just might be available!

Apocalypse Now

2010-06-06T11:38:00.001-05:00

Apocalypse Now (viewed June 5th and 6th).
1979 American Zoetrope; distributed to DVD by Paramount.
Starring: Martin Sheen, Marlon Brando, Robert Duvall, Laurence Fishburne, Dennis Hopper, Harrison Ford, Frederic Forrest, Sam Bottoms, Albert Hall, Joe Estevez (uncredited)
Produced and directed by Francis Ford Coppola
Available from Amazon as part of Apocalypse Now: The Complete Dossier.

The story of the making of Apocalypse Now is probably just as well known as the film's story itself. Director Coppola had originally cast Harvey Keitel as Captain Benjamin Willard, but replaced him with Martin Sheen only a few days into filming, unsatisfied with Keitel's portrayal as the troubled veteran. Filming on location in the Philippines saw its share of troubles, ranging from Typhoon Olga striking the region in May of 1976, halting production for a month. In addition, Philippines President Ferdinand Marcos agreed to let his army provide helicopers and pilots to help work on the film, but the government would sometimes recall them from the set to help battle bands of rebels nearby.

Martin Sheen suffered a heart attack during production (his brother, Joe Estevez, stood in for him and also provided voiceover work where needed in post-production), and when it was his time to appear, Marlon Brando showed up reportedly drunk, very overweight, and unfamiliar with the script, or the novella it was based on, Joseph Conrad's Heart of Darkness. A compromise was reached, and Brando was allowed to largely improvise while Coppola filmed him in shadows and using a taller stand-in to disguise the actor's weight gain. Coppola did not escape the filming unscathed either: he threatened to commit suicide several times.

As for the rest of the story...

Army Captain Benjamin L. Willard (Sheen) is a special operations veteran. He has returned to Saigon after finding it nearly impossible to adjust back to civilian life back in America. Willard is actually still battling his demons even after returning to the scene of the war. Despite all of his hardships, Willard is assigned by two intelligence officers to travel up the Nung River deep into Cambodia, and find the rogue officer Colonel Walter E. Kurtz (Brando), who has assembled a large platoon of Montagnard troops who worship him like a god. Citing some very disturbing radio broadcasts and recordings made by Kurtz, Willard is assigned to terminate Kurtz's command "with extreme prejudice". Willard would prefer to make the trip alone, but he is assigned a crew comprising of the no-nonsense Chief Phillips (Hall), the chemically enhanced surfer dude Lance (Bottoms), the young South Bronx hepcat Clean (Fishburne), and Chef (Forrest), someone totally unprepared for what he's seeing away from his native New Orleans. Before the mission to find Kurtz begins, Willard and his men end up taking part in a mission led by the loud and boisterous Lieutenant Colonel Bill Kilgore (Duvall), where they seize a Viet Cong village near a beachhead that seemingly is perfect for surfing. After the fighting stop, Kilgore cheerfully informs Willard that he "loves the smell of napalm in the morning" since you all know it smells like victory.

Willard, whose mission is classified, so his companions are pretty much in the dark as to why they're going so far up the river, spends much of the time reading up on Kurtz, becoming more obsessed with his target, even coming to understand Kurtz's motives. In due time, several crew members are killed, Lance goes insane, and after encountering a loopy American photojournalist (Hopper) upon arrival at the compound who seems to idolize Kurtz, it remains to be seen if Willard will complete his mission to terminate with extreme prejudice.

Highly, highly recommended movie.

Bullets for Ballots

2009-11-30T23:55:00.001-06:00

Bullets for Ballots.
1936 Warner Bros.-First National Pictures & Turner Entertainment.
Starring: Edward G. Robinson, Joan Blondell, Barton MacLane, Humphrey Bogart, Frank McHugh, Joseph King
Director: William Keighley
Available from Amazon as a single DVD, or part of the Warner Gangsters Collection, Volume 2 (Formerly Tough Guys).

It's another "Warner Night at the Movies" presentation, which is an option available for viewing on this DVD. If you were alive in 1936, and wanted to go see Bullets for Ballots, here's what you would've been treated to at your local cinema:

* A trailer for The Charge of the Light Brigade, starring Errol Flynn, Olivia de Havilland, and David Niven. Warner Bros. dubbed this one an "epic re-release". I'm sure it was back in '36. (Available for sale at Amazon here, or as a single DVD)
* Crazy Newsreel: Two "news of the weird" features in under three minutes, covering a Canadian family who won nearly a million dollars from an eccentric millionaire for having fifteen children, tiger cubs in an incubator, and a flying bicycle contraption that never gets airborne.
* George Hall and His Orchestra, a short film featuring aforementioned orchestra, as they're unable to secure lodging at a hotel, so they move into a condemned building for the night. They rehearse some numbers, and scare the wits out of a drunken intruder who stumbles in. There's also some humor that can definitely be construed as racist today.
* I'm a Big Shot Now, directed by Friz Freleng, 1936. Cartoon time! In Birdville, the citizens all go about their business until a gangster stereotype bluebird sings the title song before wreaking havoc. Birdville's crack police force get to work, complete with a car chase, a shootout, and the bird criminal locked up, and woefully singing "I'm just a jailbird now". Tough break, kid.
* Main feature:

Edward G. Robinson is detective Johnny Blake, who goes undercover in a New York City mob, befriending a gangster named Al Kruger (MacLane), who is the subject of a recent movie about racketeering produced by a newspaperman named Ward Bryant (Henry O'Neill). Bryant has turned up murdered, and Kruger's partner, Nick Fenner (Bogart) is suspected of the crime. Blake is fired from the police force, and he later gets into an altercation with a police captain, Dan MacLaren (King) at a boxing match.

Blake quickly gains the trust of Kruger, although Fenner begins to rightfully suspect that Blake is secretly tipping off the police, and it's inevitable that both men are headed for a violent showdown. Who will survive?

The DVD also includes as an extra the Lux Theater radio broadcast featuring Robinson, Bogart, and Mary Astor in Joan Blondell's role, which first was aired on April 16th, 1939. As for the film, it's a recommended movie with an excellent transfer to DVD.

Marathon Man

2009-11-30T00:12:00.001-06:00

Marathon Man. 1976 Paramount Pictures.
Starring: Dustin Hoffman, Laurence Olivier, William Devane, Roy Scheider, Marthe Keller
Director: John Schlesinger
Buy Marathon Man from Amazon.

"Is it safe?" Number 70 on AFI's 100 Years...100 Movie Quotes list.

Dustin Hoffman is Thomas "Babe" Levy, a running enthusiast who is also working towards his Ph.D. in history researching the same field as his dad, who killed himself after he was investigated during the Joseph McCarthy era. His brother Henry (Scheider), or "Doc" if you prefer, poses as an oil company executive, but unknown to Babe, he is a government agent working for one Peter Janeway (Devane). Doc is in New York under the guise of visiting his brother, but in fact, he is tracking a Nazi war criminal named Dr. Christian Szell (Olivier), whose brother possesses a key to a safety deposit box containing an extremely valuable collection of diamonds (we learn later on that the diamonds were taken from Jewish victims that Szell personally executed at Auschwitz during World War II). Szell's brother dies following a road rage incident with a short-tempered Jewish American motorist. Meanwhile, Babe starts dating a fellow student named Elsa Opel (Keller), who says she's from Switzerland. One day, they're mugged in the park by two men in suits. Later, Doc takes them both to lunch, where he tricks Elsa into admitting she was lying about her past, because Doc suspects she has some kind of tie to Szell.

Doc is later stabbed by Szell, and he manages to make it back to Babe's apartment where he dies before telling him anything. The police interrogate Babe for hours, until Janeway and his men arrive. Janeway informs Babe of Doc's past as a government agent, and is convinced that Doc made his way back to Babe's apartment to share vital information. Later, Babe is abducted by the same two men who attacked him and Elsa in the park, who bring him to Szell, and Babe is tortured by the Nazi who repeatedly asks "Is it safe?" Babe denies any knowledge of what's happening, and is rescued by Janeway. After informing him of Szell's intentions for the cache of diamonds, and after Babe again stresses that Doc did not share any information with him before dying, Janeway reveals he is in cahoots with Szell. Szell had agreed to inform on his fellow Nazi war criminals in return for immunity. Babe is sent back to Szell, who is surprisingly gentle in his explanation why he's being held captive: he suspected Doc would attempt to seize the diamonds, or inform the authorities, and Szell wants to know if it's "safe" to withdraw the diamonds. Babe again says he knows nothing, and following more torture (dental torture!!), Babe escapes, outrunning Janeway and Szell's henchmen.

After this, Babe formulates a plan for revenge, and it could prove fatal for more than one person involved.

Laurence Olivier was nominated for an Oscar for Best Actor in a Supporting Role as Dr. Szell, and he won a Golden Globe in the same category. Olivier was also suffering from cancer at the time of filming, and Paramount initially didn't want to use him during production, but producer Robert Evans called on his friends Merle Oberon and David Niven to meet with the House of Lords in England to convince them to urge Lloyds of London to insure Olivier. In the end, Olivier's cancer went into remission, and he lived for another thirteen years.

Highly recommended thriller, thanks to the performances of Hoffman and Olivier, although some might find the dental torture scenes a little too hard to watch. Be forewarned!

Alfie

2009-11-29T00:03:00.001-06:00

Alfie. 1966 Paramount Pictures.
Starring: Michael Caine, Shelley Winters, Millicent Martin, Julia Foster, Jane Asher, Alfie Bass
Director: Lewis Gilbert
Buy Alfie (1966) from Amazon.

Yes, this one was remade in 2004 starring Jude Law and Marisa Tomei.

The original, however, stars Michael Caine as Alfie Elkins, a promiscuous young man who seems to be shagging most of the female population of London when he isn't breaking the fourth wall trying to justify his actions. Usually, what Alfie tells the audience is the opposite of what we see him doing onscreen. Alfie is seeing Siddie (Martin) for little more than romps in parked cars, while his live-in bird Gilda (Foster) waits at home

Alfie's life begins to change when he ends his relationship with Siddie, and subsequently gets Gilda pregnant. Fatherhood seems to mellow Alfie out a little bit, but his reluctance to commit to Gilda drives her to marry a bus driver (Graham Stark). Alfie is then diagnosed with "shadows on the lungs", which means that he won't be able to go near his son. Checking into a convalescent home, Alfie meets another patient named Harry (Bass), whose wife he gets pregnant in a one-night stand. Harry's wife chooses to terminate the pregnancy, which devastates Alfie.

Having met an older, American woman named Ruby (Winters) while taking holiday pictures, Alfie decides to abandon his carefree ways, and settle down. Alfie chooses Ruby, but the day he finally tries to tell her, he finds Ruby in bed with a younger man.

Alfie was based on Bill Naughton's novel and play of the same name, and it earned several Academy Award nominations, including Best Actor for Michael Caine. Recommended movie!

Planes, Trains and Automobiles

2009-11-28T00:34:00.001-06:00

Planes, Trains and Automobiles. 1987 Paramount Pictures.
Starring: Steve Martin, John Candy, Laila Robins, Michael McKean, Kevin Bacon, Edie McClurg, Ben Stein
Written, produced and directed by John Hughes
Available from Amazon (Those Aren't Pillows edition).

Ad exec Neal Page (Martin) is stuck in a meeting that seems to drag on forever, which may mean that he won't be able to catch a taxi to JFK to connect to his flight to Chicago, two days before Thanksgiving. Neal plans to be at home "by nine". That ain't happening. He first encounters Del Griffith (Candy) when the latter inadvertently gets into the cab that Neal hailed for himself. Neal does get to JFK just in time, only to find out two things:

1. The flight to Chicago is delayed, thanks to the mother of all snowstorms, and
2. While waiting, Del recognizes Neal. To Neal's annoyance, he's stuck in coach right next to Del!

The flight to the Windy City is diverted to Wichita due to the storm, which not so coincidentally clears up shortly after Del and Neal land, and settle into a crummy hotel in a rough part of town. Being robbed of nearly a thousand dollars by an unidentified thief does not help matters. Neal and Del are stuck together, and they gradually overcome their differences after much arguing, and they pull together to make their way back to Chicago over the course of the next three days, using just about every method of transportation they can. Once they make it back home, Neal realizes that Del, the seemingly happy-go-lucky kind of fella, actually is a widower (he has been carrying around a framed picture of his deceased wife Marie), and he has nowhere to go home to.

Highly recommended film, perfect for the Thanksgiving holiday.

...those aren't pillows!

At the Circus

2009-11-27T11:37:00.002-06:00

At the Circus. 1939 MGM/Turner Entertainment.
Starring: The Marx Brothers (Groucho, Chico, Harpo), Kenny Baker, Florence Rice, James Burke, Margaret Dumont, Nat Pendleton, Eve Arden
Director: Edward Buzzell
Available as part of the Marx Brothers Collection from Amazon.

Circus owner Jeff Wilson (Baker) is in danger of losing his business to a crooked creditor named Carter (Burke) and his two accomplices Goliath the Strongman (Pendleton) and Little Professor Atom (Jerry Maren). Wilson's assistant Antonio (Chico) takes it upon himself to enlist the help of an attorney called J. Cheever Loophole (Groucho), as well as another circus performer, Punchy (Harpo). Carter and his men aren't the only ones looking to take over the circus; aerialist Peerless Pauline (Arden) has also aligned herself with them. Wilson is mugged in the animal car and robbed of $10,000 with only one witness: a gorilla. It's up to Loophole, Antonio and Punchy to save the circus as only the Marx Brothers can...and that does involve Groucho running rings around a slightly bewildered Margaret Dumont (who plays Wilson's wealthy aunt, Mrs. Dukesbury). Will the gorilla come into play?

One of the film's musical numbers is "Lydia the Tattooed Lady", which became one of Groucho's signature songs, and it also references Captain Spaulding from Animal Crackers. Buster Keaton also worked on the film, contributing various sight gags, which did not mesh well with the Marx Brothers' style of comedy. During an argument, Keaton told Groucho that he's only doing what he's being paid to do, and that "you guys don't need help".

Recommended, of course, but it isn't the greatest Marx Brothers movie out there.

MST3K: Mr. B's Lost Shorts

2009-11-26T14:46:00.002-06:00

Mystery Science Theater 3000 presents: Mr. B's Lost Shorts.
Available on the sixth MST3K collection.

Featuring for your perusal...

Mr. B Natural, from experiment 319, War of the Colossal Beast.
X Marks the Spot, from experiment 210, King Dinosaur.
Hired! (Part One), from experiment 423, Bride of the Monster.
Design for Dreaming, from experiment 12 to the Moon (also available on Shorts, Volume 3).
Johnny at the Fair, from experiment 419, The Rebel Set.
Are You Ready for Marriage?, from experiment 616, Racket Girls.

Next to Manos, Mr. B Natural is arguably MST3K's most memorable film, and just about every MSTie is very familiar with Betty Luster's over the top performance as the androgynous "hep pixie" embodying the spirit of fun in music. Evidentally, his/her day job is shilling for the now-defunct C.G. Conn company, and persuading awkward teenagers named Buzz into taking up the trumpet. As you all know, playing an instrument increases confidence around teenage girls. Or something.

Sadly, Mr. B doesn't appear in the rest of the shorts, so we do not get to see his/her influence over short films concerning reckless driving in New Jersey (and death), learning how to become a more efficient Chevrolet salesman, surreal showcases for new General Motors products, Johnny getting lost at a fair, or helping a young couple in love recognize that waiting to get engaged would definitely be a good idea. But, you know, Mr. B Natural is there, subtlely influencing everyone involved. Why did Johnny get lost? Blame Mr. B! How did Joe Doakes from New Jersey die in a car accident? That was Mr. B's doing.

This disc is definitely the best of the MST3K shorts collections, so get it while you can. Highly, highly recommended!

The mini Turkey Day marathon is over. My next post will be a review of an actual movie.

MST3K #604: Zombie Nightmare

2009-11-26T11:39:00.002-06:00

Mystery Science Theater 3000 experiment #604: Zombie Nightmare.
Original Comedy Central airdate: November 24, 1994.
Available on the fifteenth MST3K collection.

Back in the olden days before South Park and Jon Stewart, Comedy Central used to have MST3K marathons on the Thanksgiving holiday, and this episode debuted during 1994's marathon.

Canadian bodybuilder and heavy metal musician Jon Mikl Thor starred in (and contributed music to) this 1986 film about a muscular, long-haired teenage baseball player named Tony, who one night, falls victim to a hit-and-run by a car full of teenagers. Those teenagers also include Tia Carrere (as Amy) in her first film role, and are led by a practicing sociopath named Jim (Shawn Levy).

After the death of Tony, his mother seeks out the neighborhood voodoo priestess (Hey! Every neighborhood has one!), who revives Tony as a zombie. Tony the ~~Black Lantern~~zombie goes on a killing spree, hunting down and murdering the teenagers who ran him down late one night. As the body count goes up, the local police captain, Tom Churchman (Adam West) begins taking a particular interest in the case, especially after learning that aforementioned voodoo priestess is somehow linked to the deaths. We also learn that Churchman and Jim's father killed Tony's dad long ago after he foiled their attack on the girl who grew up into a life of voodoo.

We open on the SOL with Crow and Tom as Secret Service agents relentlessly protecting Mike (and predictably causing him more harm than good), until they learn that they too could fall victim to an assassin's bullet. The Mads have embraced voodoo, and send up a voodoo kit to the satellite, which Mike and the bots use to do nice things for people like Jimmy Carter and Cokie Roberts. We won't even mention the naughty things they do to Dr. Forrester, though. Later, Crow falls victim to a hit-and-run courtesy of Tom Servo, but they do make up enough for the next scene, where they go hot tubbing. No one told them that Mike was also in the tub, fishing! Crow's Batman play is next for rehearsal, with Mike as a gigantic Robin and Servo as a dimunitive Batman, but Crow neglected to tell them he had scrapped the project. After the movie, the 'bots read letters to Adam West, and TV's Frank accidentally turns Dr. F. undead. Oh no!

Recommended episode, especially if you're a big fan of Hank Peters, Italian grocer, not to mention endless jokes about Canada.

A Charlie Brown Thanksgiving

2009-11-24T11:00:00.003-06:00

A Charlie Brown Thanksgiving.
Original CBS airdate: November 20, 1973.
Available from Amazon as a single DVD, or part of the Peanuts 1970s Collection, Volume 1.

We open our first review in quite some time with one of the three best known Peanuts holiday specials, which opens with the time honored tradition of Lucy pulling the football away from Charlie Brown, a tactic that you just never see in any football game these days, professional, collegiate, high school, or just playing for fun in the backyard.

Charlie Brown and his sister Sally have plans to go to their grandmother's place for Thanksgiving. Then, Peppermint Patty calls the Brown residence, inviting herself over to the Browns' for dinner, followed up by two successive calls where she tells Charlie Brown that her two neighborhood friends Marcie and Franklin are also coming by. As usual, Charlie Brown can't bring himself to say no, and agonizes over what to do...until Linus simply suggests that they hold an earlier dinner at home before it's time to visit Grandma. Unfortunately, all Charlie Brown knows how to make is cold cereal and "maybe toast". Recruiting Snoopy and Woodstock, the boys do the best they can.

The feast at the Brown residence consists of cereal, toast, popcorn, pretzel sticks, and jelly beans. This does infuriate Peppermint Patty, who is oblivious to the fact that she invited herself over until Marcie reminds her. Apologies are given out, and Charlie Brown realizes that they're running behind, and they're supposed to be at Grandma's house very, very soon. Fortunately, after calling her to explain what happened, Charlie Brown's grandmother cheerfully suggests that everyone can tag along and come over for a real Thanksgiving feast. After everyone leaves, Snoopy and Woodstock have their own dinner, complete with all of the staples that were missing from Charlie Brown's first attempt at hosting Thanksgiving dinner.

The Warner Bros. reissue of A Charlie Brown Thanksgiving also includes "The Mayflower Voyagers", the first episode from the 1988-89 miniseries This is America, Charlie Brown as an extra. Recommended disc, although the entire This is America, Charlie Brown series is available separately on a two DVD set.

Burden of Dreams

2009-07-01T21:48:00.001-05:00

Burden of Dreams (Criterion #287).
1982 Flower Films & Janus Films.
Starring: Werner Herzog, Claudia Cardinale, Klaus Kinski, Mick Jagger, Jason Robards
Narration: Michael Goodwin (writer), Candace Laughlin (spoken)
Directors: Les Blank with Maureen Gosling
Buy Burden of Dreams at Amazon.

Les Blank, with some help from Maureen Gosling, directed this documentary examining German filmmaker Werner Herzog and his nearly-five year struggle to film Fitzcarraldo in the South American jungle. Fitzcarraldo is the story of Brian "Fitzcarraldo" Sweeny Fitzgerald, a European living in Peru who loves opera music enough that he decides to build a music hall in the middle of the Peruvian rain forest, simply so Enrico Caruso can christen it with a performance. Fitzgerald breaks into the rubber industry, Peru's most profitable industry at the turn of the 20th century, to realize this vision.

From the very start, the production seems cursed, as original star Jason Robards becomes ill, and returns to America, where his doctor orders him to stay. His co-star, Mick Jagger, has to drop out of the film to honor commitments with the Rolling Stones (recording Tattoo You, and touring to support that record). Herzog replaces Robards with his frequent collaborator Klaus Kinski, and deletes Jagger's role from the script. The film's production also is hindered by unpredictable weather, and dealing with hostile local tribes, not to mention hostilities between Peru and Ecuador military units. Kinski was also difficult to deal with during the shoot, and he clashed with Herzog and other crew members many times, upsetting the local extras enough that a native tribe leader offered to murder the actor. Herzog turned down the offer...because he needed Kinski to finish filming.

Herzog wanted his movie to be as realistic as possible, which meant that instead of using models or other special effects, he hired hundreds of local residents to help move a 320 ton steamship over a hill (the real life Fitzgerald simply dismantled his boat before transporting it). The director believed that no one had ever performed a similar feat in history, and likely would never try it again, so he called himself "Conquistador of the Useless". Regardless, despite all of the hardships and setbacks, Herzog never gave up, and Fitzcarraldo was released to theaters in 1982, garnering great critical success.

As for Burden of Dreams, it is a very interesting documentary depicting the efforts of a nearly impossible and at times ridiculous film production that would've broken the wills of many directors, actors, or other film crew members. Highly recommended.

I Am a Fugitive from a Chain Gang

2009-07-01T17:11:00.003-05:00

I Am a Fugitive from a Chain Gang.
1932 Warner Bros. Pictures & Turner Entertainment.
Starring: Paul Muni, Glenda Farrell, Helen Vinson, Noel Francis
Director: Mervyn LeRoy
Available from Amazon as a single DVD, or as part of the Controversal Classics box set.

Based on the autobiography written by World War I veteran and Georgia chain gang member Robert Elliott Burns (while he was still on the run in New Jersey), I Am a Fugitive from a Georgia Chain Gang, this film not only contributed to significant changes in the United States penal system when it came to prison chain gangs, it also was a big enough hit at the box office to save Warner Bros. from financial ruin. I Am a Fugitive from a Chain Gang was banned in the state of Georgia, where Burns served his stint, even if the movie took place in an unnamed state.

Also, before this picture was made, it was almost unheard of for any studio or filmmaker to tackle serious social issues.

Sergeant James Allen (Muni) returns from World War I planning to find work in construction, but soon finds himself having a hard time finding work, or at least a job that he's completely happy with. Allen is so broke at one point that he pawns his war medals. One night, he is accidentally caught up in a robbery, and finds himself sentenced to ten years in a chain gang.

After several months, Allen makes his escape, and winds up in Chicago. In the Windy City, he finds great success in the construction business, and Allen marries the proprietor of his boarding house, Marie Woods (Farrell). Marie discovers Jim's secret, and blackmails him into entering an unhappy marriage. Later on, Allen meets and falls in love with Helen (Vinson). When Jim asks his wife for a divorce, Marie betrays him to the authorities. Allen is offered a pardon if he turns himself in; he does so, only to find that it was a ruse, prompting him to escape back to Chicago.

Allen finds Helen at her home, and tells her that he is going back on the run. When asked questions about where he's going, and if he needs any money, Jim tells her "I steal" before disappearing back into the darkness. The lighting during the final scene was a happy accident (the lights either failed, or were turned off too soon), and it was kept in the final print.

Highly, highly recommended pre-Code film.

Casablanca

2009-06-30T23:25:00.002-05:00

Casablanca.
1942 Warner Bros. Pictures & Turner Entertainment.
Starring: Humphrey Bogart, Ingrid Bergman, Paul Henreid, Claude Rains, Sydney Greenstreet, Peter Lorre, Conrad Veidt, Dooley Wilson
Director: Michael Curtiz
Available from Amazon as a single DVD (snapcase!), or as a two-disc special edition, which I own. Casablanca is also part of two box sets: the first Humphrey Bogart Signature Collection, and the Best Picture Winners installment of TCM's Greatest Classic Films Collection. Or, you could always invest in the ultimate collectors' edition.

"Here's looking at you, kid."

"Louis, I think this is the beginning of a beautiful friendship."

"Play it, Sam. Play As Time Goes By." *

"Round up the usual suspects."

"We'll always have Paris."

"Of all the gin joints in all the towns in all the world, she walks into mine."

One of the all time classic American films. Casablanca won three Academy Awards, including Best Picture, and Best Director for Michael Curtiz.

Humphrey Bogart is Rick Blaine, a nightclub owner in Casablanca during the early days of World War II. Rick's Café Américain is an upscale nightclub slash gambling den that attracts a wide base of customers, notably Vichy French and Nazi officials, as well as refugees and thieves. One day, a petty criminal called Ugarte (Lorre) shows up in the club with "letters of transit" that he got after two German couriers were murdered. These documents will allow the bearer to travel as they pleased through Nazi-controlled Germany, into neutral Portugal, and from there into the United States. Obviously, these are very valuable and highly coveted, and Ugarte plans to make a killing by selling them to the highest bidder who is eager enough to get out of Casablanca, but the criminal is arrested by the local police under the command of the corrupt Captain Louis Renault (Rains) before he could sell. He still entrusts Rick with the letters (Ugarte dies offscreen while in police custody).

And then, Ilsa Lund (Bergman) arrives in the club with her new husband Victor Laszlo (Henreid), a fugitive Czech Resistance leader. Rick and Ilsa were lovers, but she left him without explanation. Ilsa and Victor need Rick's letters to eventually escape to America so Victor can continue his work, and the German Major Strasser (Veidt) shows up to make sure Laszlo doesn't succeed. Laszlo has also met with Rick's business rival, Signor Ferrari (Greenstreet), voicing his suspicion that Rick has the letters. When Laszlo and Rick meet privately, he refuses to hand over the letters, suggesting that he ask his wife for the reason. Just then, Stresser and his fellow officers begin to loudly sing "Die Wacht am Rhein". Laszlo, with Rick's approval, gets the house band to play the French national anthem, "La Marseillaise", triggering long-suppressed patriotic fervor in the crowd, and quickly drowning out the Nazis. Strasser retaliates by having Captain Renault shut the nightclub down.

Later, Ilsa confronts Sam and demands the letters, but he refuses to hand them over. She tries to shoot him, but can't bring herself to pull the trigger, confessing that she still loves him. The truth comes out: Laszlo was believed killed in a concentration camp, but as the Germans were on the brink of capturing Paris, Ilsa learned that Laszlo was still alive; hence her wordless break-up with Rick, she left to tend to an ill Laszlo. Rick's bitterness towards Ilsa fades, and he agrees to help, making her believe that she will stay in Casablanca with Rick when Laszlo leaves for America.

Rick, as everyone knows, has other ideas, and his future does not involve a permanent reconciliation with Ilsa.

There's really not much else I can add. Of course, this one is highly, highly, highly recommended.

* Often mistaken for the simpler "Play it again, Sam".

The Maltese Falcon

2009-06-30T21:20:00.002-05:00

The Maltese Falcon.
1941 Warner Bros. Pictures & Turner Entertainment.
Starring: Humphrey Bogart, Mary Astor, Sydney Greenstreet, Peter Lorre, Barton MacLane
Director: John Huston
Available from Amazon as a three-disc special edition, which is also part of the second Humphrey Bogart Signature Collection.

This will be a special "Warner Night at the Movies" edition, which is an option available on the DVD. Had you gone to see The Maltese Falcon back in '41, this all would've awaited you at the theater:

* A trailer for Sergeant York.
* A very brief Newsreel.
* The Gay Parisian (short), directed by Jean Negulesco. Basically, the Ballet Russe de Monte Carlo dance to the music of Jacques Offenbach. It's in Technicolor, so it looks great, but it really doesn't go anywhere. Pass on it, even if it was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Short Subject.
* Hiawatha's Rabbit Hunt, directed by Friz Freleng, 1941. Bugs Bunny is hunted by a pint-sized Hiawatha in between trying to read Longfellow's The Song of Hiawatha. One of the earliest cartoons starring Bugs, and the first directed by Freleng.
* Meet John Doughboy, directed by Robert Clampett, 1941. Porky Pig hosts a parody of a newsreel with an armed forces theme, complete with caricatures of Jack Benny and Eddie "Rochester" Anderson. This one is also available on the sixth and final Looney Tunes Golden Collection.
* And of course, the main feature...

John Huston's directorial debut is a screen adaptation of Dashiell Hammett's 1930 novel, and it received three Academy Award nominations. It also helped turned Humphrey Bogart into a major star.

Bogart, as everyone knows, is detective Sam Spade, a man with his own personal code of honor. One day, a Miss Ruth Wonderly (Astor) breezes into the office Spade shares with his partner Miles Archer (Jerome Cowan), and offers them a healthy incentive to protect her from someone named Floyd Thursby. Archer takes the offer, simply because he saw the woman first. Later that evening, he and Thursby are shot to death. After some confusion about Spade's possible involvement in the murders (a motive that he might be attracted to Archer's wife Iva, played by Gladys George), the detective meets Wonderly again, but she's now calling herself Brigid O'Shaughnessy. Brigid explains that Thursby was her partner, and he may have shot Archer, but she doesn't know who offed Thursby.

Spade also meets the effeminate Joel Cairo (Lorre), and a criminal named Kasper Gutman (Greenstreet), and everyone involved is looking for a 12 inch high, jewel-encrusted statuette in the shape of a falcon. Spade is offered small fortunes by Cairo and Gutman to find the treasure, but they are not above committing violent crimes to attain the bird themselves. As usual, many things are not what they seem, or appear to be.

Highly, highly recommended movie.

Night and Day

2009-06-29T22:27:00.001-05:00

Night and Day.
1946 Warner Bros. Pictures & Turner Entertainment.
Starring: Cary Grant, Alexis Smith, Monty Woolley, Mary Martin, Jane Wyman, Eve Arden
Director: Michael Curtiz
Available at Amazon as a single DVD, or as part of the Cary Grant Signature Collection.

Michael Curtiz directed this biographical film about the life and career of Cole Porter which understandably (for 1946 audiences) left out any hint of Porter's homosexuality. Those looking for a more realistic film about Porter should perhaps look into De-Lovely, starring Kevin Kline, Ashley Judd, and Jonathan Pryce.

Night and Day covers the years 1912 to 1946, when Porter (Grant) attended Yale, and found himself uninterested in studying law, so he became involved with amateur theatricals under the tutelage of Monty Woolley, who plays himself. Cole signs up for the army and becomes an ambulance driver in World War I, and he meets his future wife Linda Lee (Smith) while stationed in France. After the war, Porter becomes a prolific songwriter, writing hit after hit, and drawing inspiration from mundane things like rain falling and the ticking of a grandfather clock. His marriage begins to suffer, as Linda starts feeling neglected when Cole's career takes off.

Later, Porter is seriously injured in a polo accident, but refuses to have his useless legs amputated and makes a big comeback, which draws praise from none other than a World War I veteran who just happens to be an amputee.

Recommended for fans of Cary Grant, although no one who comes across this one should expect a serious and 100 percent accurate biopic of Cole Porter.

Dinner at Eight

2009-06-29T20:32:00.001-05:00

Dinner at Eight. 1933 MGM/Turner Entertainment.
Starring: Marie Dressler, John Barrymore, Wallace Beery, Jean Harlow, Lionel Barrymore, Lee Tracy
Director: George Cukor
Available from Amazon as a single DVD, or part of the Classic Comedies Collection.

This one is a film adaptation of the play of the same name by George S. Kaufman and Edna Ferber.

Billie Burke is Millicent Jordan, a social butterfly who arranges a dinner party that would benefit the business of her husband, Oliver (Lionel Barrymore). A week before the big shindig, Millicent is overjoyed that Lord and Lady Ferncliffe have accepted her invitations, even though she seems unaware of her husband and daughter Paula's (Madge Evans) not being as enthusiastic as she is. Paula's fiance Ernest DeGraff (Phillips Holmes) is due back from Europe, and Oliver's shipping firm has been struck hard by the Great Depression; bad enough that a former flame from his past is offering to sell her holdings, and Oliver doesn't have the cash to buy the stock back. Millicent's next task is to fund an escort for her only single female guest, former stage star Carlotta Vance (Marie Dressler), who is now broke, and is essentially a "professional guest" now.

Oliver confides in mining mogul Dan Packard (Beery) about his financial problems, asking him to take over some of his stocks until business improves. Dan eagerly agrees, then goes home to brag to his gold digging wife Kitty (Harlow) that the Jordan Line is a valuable property that he plans to devour through crooked stock purchases. The Packards are also extended invitations, mostly to make Dan hesitant about buying the stock. Kitty jumps at the chance, but Dan only agrees when he hears about the Ferncliffes attending the party.

Meanwhile, Kitty is secretly having an affair with Dr. Wayne Talbot (Edmund Lowe), and Millicent finds herself inviting alcoholic silent film star Larry Renault (John Barrymore) as Carlotta's date, unaware that Paula is having an affair with him! Larry accepts, then urges Paula to forget about him and return to Ernest, which she doesn't take seriously. Carlotta sees Paula leaving Larry's hotel room.

Basically, nothing goes right at the party. The Ferncliffes cancel and go to Florida instead, and Oliver falls ill from the stress of his business problems. Kitty and Dan argue, where she reveals her affair with Dr. Talbot (who is also caught by his wife Lucy, played by Karen Morley), then blackmails him into not divorcing her, since she will tell the Cabinet about his crooked business dealings. Larry's comeback attempt fails when he's removed from the lead role of his newest stage play, and goes on a bender that leads to his suicide right before he's supposed to be at the party. Millicent, upon learning of Larry's death and her own husband's illness, finally realizes she's been focusing too much on social gatherings and not her own family. Paula ultimately stays engaged to Ernest, and Dan backs down from his takeover of the Jordan Line.

Recommended movie.

The Apartment

2009-06-28T23:21:00.001-05:00

The Apartment.
1960 The Mirisch Corporation & United Artists; distributed to DVD by MGM.
Starring: Jack Lemmon, Shirley MacLaine, Fred MacMurray, Ray Walston, Edie Adams
Director: Billy Wilder
Buy The Apartment Collectors' Edition from Amazon.

The Apartment was nominated for ten Academy Awards, and won five, including Best Picture, and Best Director for Billy Wilder.

C.C. Baxter (Lemmon) works for a Manhattan-based insurance company with the less than ideal home life, as four different company managers take turns commandeering his apartment (on West 67th Street) for various extramarital trysts. Baxter is obviously unhappy with this arrangement, but he's unwilling to challenge it directly, as his supervisors are returning the favor with glowing reviews of his work, which leads to a big promotion later on. His neighbors assume that Baxter is a lothario who brings home a new woman every evening to get them drunk, which he does nothing to disprove.

Baxter is also trying to catch the eye of the elevator operator, Fran Kubelik (MacLaine). After his promotion, he finally asks Fran to a Broadway show, which she accepts...and stands him up. When Baxter returns home, he finds Fran dressed in his bed, having overdosed on sleeping pills. Before the promotion, Baxter had also allowed his company's personnel director Mr. Sheldrake (MacMurray) to use his place, and he was present the night Baxter was away at the show. Fran reveals that he had been involved with Sheldrake the previous summer, but it ended when his wife returned from a vacation. She still caved into his promises later that fall, but attempted suicide after Sheldrake offered her money instead of a Christmas gift.

After Fran recovers, and Sheldrake's marriage finally collapses thanks to a tattletale secretary who also happens to be a former lover, Baxter finally takes a stand against his superiors taking advantage of him and using his quarters for their affairs. Baxter quits the firm, and Fran ditches Sheldrake on New Year's Eve, having realized who truly cares for her. They spend the big holiday playing gin rummy.

Highly, highly recommended. Now, shut up and deal!

Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back

2009-06-28T21:09:00.002-05:00

Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back.
2001 View Askew Productions & Dimension Films.
Starring: Jason Mewes, Kevin Smith, and the usual gang of idiots.
Director: Kevin Smith
Available from Amazon.

You could call this the ultimate self-referential movie, as Kevin Smith brings the entire View Askewniverse together in one movie.

After being banned from the Quick Stop by Randal Graves (Jeff Anderson) after he catches them roughing up two kids while boasting about the greatness of Morris Day and The Time (who also make an appearance as themselves), Jay and Silent Bob (Mewes and Smith) hang out at the Secret Stash comic shop, where they find out that there's going to be a Bluntman and Chronic movie based on the comic book with the characters based on them. They're even more mortified to discover that there's an almost universally negative reaction to the movie thus far, so they set off for Hollywood to prevent the film from being made, or at the least, get the money that they rightfully are owed. At first, they can't make any progress, even when a hitchhiker (George Carlin) advises them about a technique called "road head" (look it up elsewhere, this is a family movie review blog).

Somewhere between New Jersey and Hollywood, Jay and Bob end up joining up with an animal liberation group led by Justice (Shannon Elizabeth), consisting of three other ladies and one man (Seann William Scott) who Jay personally ejects from the group's van just to get closer to Justice. Actually, the group's real intention is to rob a diamond depository next to an animal testing lab in Colorado, and with the other guy gone, they pick Jay and Bob as their new patsies. As usual, the planned heist goes awry, the girls are mistakenly believed killed during a freak explosion, and our heroes rescue an orangutan named Suzanne, who they take with them to Hollywood.

In due time, Jay and Silent Bob (and Suzanne) arrive in Hollywood, with Justice and her girls following them. Can everything get straightened out without too much hilarity?

Highly recommended.

The final movie in View Askew continuity is Clerks II. Go read that review now.

MST3K #212: Godzilla vs. Megalon

2009-06-27T00:14:00.003-05:00

Mystery Science Theater 3000 experiment #212: Godzilla vs. Megalon.
Original Comedy Channel airdate: January 19, 1991.
Amazon.com listing (discontinued). Keep an eye on eBay for available copies.

This episode was originally released on DVD as part of the tenth MST3K set, but rights issues caused it to be withdrawn, and reissued with episode #402, The Giant Gila Monster in its place. It was originally conceived as a solo vehicle for the then-brand new Jet Jaguar character, who was created by a contest winner.

An undersea civilization called Seatopia has been ravaged by nuclear testing conducting by surface nations, so they unleash their god, Megalon, to attack and destroy the surface world. They also try to steal a newly-constructed robot called Jet Jaguar, along with its creator, Goro Ibuki, his kid brother "Roxanne", and their friend Hiroshi Jinkawa. The stolen Jet Jaguar lures Megalon to Tokyo, where human armies can't deal with the monster. Goro regains control of his robot, and sents it to Monster Island to bring back reinforcements: namely, Godzilla. Megalon somehow has backup, Gigan, and after Jet Jaguar grows to massive size, a big ol' royal rumble goes down, complete with Godzilla doing the Muhammad Ali shuffle (!), and executing the now infamous flying kick on Megalon. Godzilla and Jet Jaguar shake hands after their victory (!!), and Japan is safe for another day from men in rubber suits stomping on HO scale sets.

(And you thought that 1998 film abortion that was Godzilla was embarrassingly bad.)

On the SOL, Joel and the robots introduce the program in the style of a magazine show, complete with numerous Robert Goulet and Moms Mabley references. The invention exchange sees numerous simple Halloween costumes created from ordinary household items. Later, Joel catches Tom and Crow looking at naughty pictures, so they quickly improvise a discussion over which monster is more powerful. The SOL crew also introduces the new hit TV program Rex Dart: Eskimo Spy!, with action clips from the film, and the robots do a very bizarre sketch mercilessly lampooning popcorn icon Orville Redenbacher and his grandson. After the film, letters are read, and Joel modifies Crow and Servo with new arms that look cool, but are largely useless. Down in Deep 13, TV's Frank is incensed by his Mario Bros. video game.

Obviously, this isn't one of the best Godzilla movies (it's still better than the 1998 movie!!), but it made for a hilarious early episode of MST3K. This is easily the highlight of Season 2. Highly, highly recommended, but good luck finding a copy!

MST3K #902: The Phantom Planet

2009-06-26T11:02:00.004-05:00

Mystery Science Theater 3000 experiment #902: The Phantom Planet.
Original Sci-Fi Channel airdate: March 21, 1998.
Part of the eighth MST3K collection, still available at Amazon.

A U.S. astronaut named Frank Chapman (Dean Fredericks) is traveling through space when his ship finds a planet with a race of tiny, tiny people. The planet's bizarre atmosphere causes Chapman to shrink down to six inches in size. While he's stuck on the planet, Frank meets two beautiful women, and decides to help the locals combat an invading race of monsters called the Solarites, which look somewhat like dogs.

On the Satellite of Love, Crow and Servo have challenged Mike to an Andy Rooney-off, complete with giant bushy eyebrows. The competition is judged by Gypsy, who quits in frustration when the contestants refuses to stop Andy Rooney-offing (that's clearly not a word). Down in Castle Forrester, Pearl, Brain Guy, and Professor Bobo are finishing the move in, and Pearl's world domination kit arrives from Speigel. Too bad that the all-important "thing" has been sent up to the SOL, right? Later on, Mike and Tom discuss the Good and the Beautiful, which coincidentally are all mid '90s pin-up babes. The 'bots also invite Mike into taking part of their new hobby of water glass rim music, which they soon come to regret. Meanwhile, Pearl is still upset at getting an incomplete world domination kit, and the welcome wagon arrives at the castle, wielding flaming torches.

Recommended episode.

I Know Where I'm Going!

2009-06-25T23:25:00.003-05:00

I Know Where I'm Going! (Criterion #94).
1945 The Rank Organisation & Janus Films.
Starring: Wendy Hiller, Roger Livesey, Pamela Brown, Finlay Currie, George Carney, Nancy Price
Directors: Michael Powell & Emeric Pressburger
Available from Amazon.

From her infant days, Joan Webster (Hiller) always possessed an independent spirit, and always knew where she was going, or at least she thought so. As an adult, she leaves home in Manchester, planning to travel to the Hebrides to marry the very wealthy and much older industrialist Sir Robery Bellinger (voiced by Norman Shelley), settling down on the island of Kiloran. Bad weather keeps her stuck for a week on the Isle of Mull, and Joan waits in a small community of people whose values are foreign to her.

During the wait, Joan meets a naval officer named Torquil MacNeil (Livesey), who is also trying to make his way to Kiloran for shore leave. Over the next few days, she falls for MacNeil, but she still doesn't want her original plan to go to waste. Joan unsuccessfully tries to sail to Kiloran, but Torquil, who invited himself aboard after hearing that she was making the trip, manages to bring the boat back into a safe harbor. Only then does Joan learn that her future does not lie in a marriage of convenience on a small island, but it resides on the mainland with Torquil.

Highly recommended.

Wise Blood

2009-06-25T21:54:00.001-05:00

Wise Blood (Criterion #470).
1979 New Line Cinema (distributors) & Janus Films.
Starring: Brad Dourif, John Huston, Dan Shor, Harry Dean Stanton, Amy Wright, Mary Nell Santacrose, Ned Beatty, William Hickey
Director: John Huston
Buy Wise Blood from Amazon.

John Huston directed this adaptation of Flannery O'Connor's 1952 novel of the same name. Brad Dourif is Hazel Moses, a returning veteran discharged due to an embarrassing injury that he'd rather not discuss. Moses plans to settle down in a new town to experience things that he's missed out on before. Once he arrives in an unspecified mid-sized community called Taulkinham, various strange characters begin to congregate around him, including a young man named Enoch Emory (Shor), who is evidentally desperate for Hazel's approval, claiming to have "wise blood" flowing in his veins.

Hazel's grandfather (Huston) was a pretty hardcore fundamentalist preacher, we learn in flashbacks, and Moses grew up as an angry young man who refused to believe in a higher power. Even though Hazel grew up to despise preachers, he finds himself transforming into a zealous street preacher promoting his so-called "Church of Truth Without Jesus Christ", where a member has to save himself because "sure as hell the Lord won't save you". Moses also runs across a fellow preacher named Asa Hawks (Stanton) who feigns having blinded himself in the name of Jesus, as well as his daughter Sabbath Lily (Wright), who isn't as innocent as she seems.

The Church Without Christ never truly takes off, despite the efforts of Sabbath Lily, Hawks, Enoch, and a huckster known as Onnie Jay Holy (Beatty), who steals Hazel's message and attracts the following that Moses was unable to attain. Things start to spiral out of control for Moses, and a routine traffic stop is the catalyst that sends him over the edge.

Highly recommended, but this is still a weird movie.

Blast of Silence

2009-06-25T20:15:00.002-05:00

Blast of Silence (Criterion #428).
1961 Universal International.
Starring: Allen Baron, Molly McCarthy, Larry Tucker, Peter H. Clune, Danny Meehan, Howard Mann, Charles Creasap
Narrator: Lionel Stander (uncredited)
Director: Allen Baron
Buy Blast of Silence from Amazon.

This is an excellent late period film noir written, directed by, and starring Allen Baron. Peter Falk was originally cast for the role as Frankie Bono, but scheduling conflicts prevented this.

It's New York City at Christmas, 1961. An antisocial loner of a hitman named Frankie Bono arrives in the Apple from Cleveland, where he'll make a hit on a millionaire named Troiano (Clune). Frankie knows where to find his man, but his surroundings may prove it difficult to stay focued on killing Troiano, such as the reappearance of an old flame named Lorrie (McCarthy), and the Christmas season bringing Bono's suppressed loneliness to the surface. He has very painful memories of aforementioned holiday.

The DVD boasts an excellent (okay, nearly flawless) transfer of the film, providing the viewer with crisp, black and white shots of Manhattan. Again, this is an all around amazing movie. Highly, highly, highly recommended.

Hopscotch

2009-06-25T18:37:00.001-05:00

Hopscotch (Criterion #163).
1980 AVCO Embassy Films, StudioCanal & Janus Films.
Starring: Walter Matthau, Glenda Jackson, Sam Waterson, Ned Beatty, Herbert Lom
Director: Ronald Neame
Hopscotch is available from Amazon.

The Criterion Collection does have a few head-scratchers for movies that they've released, notably both of the Michael Bay films they issued on DVD, and most recently, The Curious Case of Benjamin Button. I also have to agree that Hopscotch, which to my knowledge was never a commercial or critical success, is one of those movies. Criterion has released other films made by director Ronald Neame, so it isn't completely unusual that Hopscotch is present in the collection.

Based on Brian Garfield's novel of the same name, the feature stars Walter Matthau as renegade CIA agent Miles Kendig who plans to publish a book exposing the inner workings of both his employers and the KGB. After Miles participates in a sting operation in Munich, he learns that his supervisor Myerson (Beatty) is planning to force him into semi-retirement and a desk job. Kendig insists that he's a field man, and takes it upon himself to leave, destroying his file on the way out. With the help of Isobel von Schonenberg (Jackson), Kendig starts globehopping, staying one step ahead of his pursuers from America and Russia, even hiding out in Myerson's Georgia home. He also finishes his book while hiding in London.

Kendig fakes his death in England, departing with Isobel for France, and everyone else involve believes that he really is dead, save CIA agent Joe Cutter (Waterson). The book does become a bestseller, though, amid rumors that Miles is alive and hiding in Australia.

Recommended film, although I admit that I didn't pay that close attention to it, as I was spending more time bouncing between various websites trying to read more about the death of Michael Jackson, so my apologies. Fortunately, Hopscotch did pick up the pace after Kendig went on his escape, keeping a step ahead of two powerful government agencies.

Manhattan

2009-06-24T21:31:00.001-05:00

Manhattan.
1979 United Artists; distributed to DVD by MGM.
Starring: Woody Allen, Diane Keaton, Michael Murphy, Mariel Hemingway, Meryl Streep, Anne Byrne, Michael O'Donoghue, Wallace Shawn
Director: Woody Allen
Available from Amazon as a single DVD, or as part of The Woody Allen Collection, Set 1.

This is Woody Allen's love letter to his hometown, as well as George Gershwin's music. He hated the finished product, and offered to make a movie for free if United Artists never released it. The studio obviously did not keep the film shelved like the director wanted.

Allen is Isaac Davis, a former TV writer who has been divorced twice, and his current project is writing a book about how much he loves New York City. He's also dating a 17-year-old high school girl named Tracy (Hemingway) who he still feels is too young for him, which is why he won't commit. His best friend Yale (Murphy) is married to Emily (Byrne), but he's still shagging Mary Wilkie (Keaton) on the side, and her ex-husband Jeremiah (Shawn) is also in the picture. Also, Isaac's lesbian ex-wife Jill (Streep) is writing a tell-all book about their relationship.

Isaac and Mary, after initially having a bad first meeting, fall in love, complete with the iconic scene with the bridge in the background. Isaac still continues to see Tracy, but he does encourage her to take an educational opportunity in Europe. Things change when Yale dumps Mary, unwilling to end his marriage to Emily, and suggests that Isaac ask Mary out, which he does, and he breaks it off with Tracy, which devastates her.

Things don't stay this way for long, as Yale finally splits with Emily to resume his relationship with Mary. Emily might have triggered this by reading out loud portions of Jill's book about her marriage to Isaac during a double date. Isaac tries confronting Yale about what happened, but after Yale says he met Mary first, Issac tells Emily that Yale was having extra-marital affairs. Emily simply believes that Isaac introduced Mary to Yale.

Isaac tries to catch Tracy before she leaves for England to rekindle that romance, but the plans are already made, and she simply tells him that Isaac needs to have a little more faith in people.

Highly, highly recommended film.

After the Thin Man

2009-06-23T20:00:00.001-05:00

After the Thin Man.
1936 MGM/Turner Entertainment
Starring: William Powell, Myrna Loy, James Stewart, Alan Marshall, Elissa Landi, Joseph Calleia, Penny Singleton, Sam Levene
Director: W.S. Van Dyke
Available from Amazon as a single DVD, or part of the Complete Thin Man Collection.

Nick and Nora Charles (Powell & Loy) end up coerced back into action after they are invited to a formal dinner hosted by Nora's family, which includes Aunt Katherine (Jessie Ralph), who hates Nick, and views him as "below" them. Nora's cousin Selma (Landi) is married to Robert (Marshall), who hasn't been seem for some time. Nick and Nora quickly find Robert in a Chinese nightclub, where he's conducting an affair with the club's star performer Polly (Singleton). He's also extorting money from David (Stewart), who harbors unrequited love for Selma.

Robert is unaware that Polly and her boss, Phil Dancer (Calleia), are planning to take the extorted money for themselves, and Robert is shot to death at midnight. The police quickly determine that Selma is the prime suspect, and her current mental state strengthens their case. Nick, with help from Lt. Abrams (Levene), now has to work to prove Selma's innocence as two more people connected to the case are bumped off.

Recommended sequel.

The Mackintosh Man

2009-06-23T17:10:00.002-05:00

The Mackintosh Man. 1973 Warner Bros. Pictures.
Starring: Paul Newman, Dominique Sanda, Ian Bannen, James Mason, Michael Horden, Harry Andrews, Nigel Patrick
Director: John Huston
Available from Amazon only as part of the Paul Newman Collection.

In his review for this movie, Roger Ebert suggested that this was the first "anti-spy" movie, made by a group of people with no real understanding for spy films.

Paul Newman is Joseph Rearden, an agent of British Intelligence who is assigned by Mackintosh (Andrews) and Mrs. Smith (Sanda) to impersonate a jewel thief who transports his stolen goods through the mail to avoid attention. Rearden does this successfully after punching out a postman and taking the diamonds, but is still arrested and sentenced to twenty years imprisonment. After being sent to prison, Rearden starts asking about a former British spy, Slade (Bannen). Slade is kept in high security because he was exposed as a mole for the KGB, but not much information is known about him.

A few weeks later, Rearden participates in a planned escape with another inmate (who turns out to be Slade) engineered by a secret organization in exchange for a large cut of the stolen diamonds. The two escapees are drugged and taken into Ireland, where they're told that's where they'll stay for a week until the manhunt is called off.

Rearden's incarceration turns out to be a planned sting operation intended to expose the secret organization, which is headed by suspected communist spy Sir George Wheeler (Mason), who is posing as a staunchly patriotic right-winger. Wheeler discovers he's being pursued, and he arranges Mackintosh's death. Rearden has to keep undercover while pursuing Wheeler, who has also abducted Slade, but his earlier arrest for the faked diamond robbery may make this task more difficult than it really should be.

Despite the presense of Newman and director John Huston, as well as some decent British character actors, this movie never really gets going. Slightly recommended, mainly for Paul Newman fans, or if there isn't anything better on to watch.

George Carlin: It's Bad for Ya!

2009-06-22T23:45:00.001-05:00

George Carlin: It's Bad for Ya!
Original HBO airdate: March 1, 2008
Written by and starring George Carlin
Director: Rocco Urbisci
Available at Amazon.

George Carlin's fourteenth and final HBO special focuses a lot on death (this show debuted less than four months before Carlin's death), and how the living still deal with it, particularly the belief in the afterlife and whether the deceased either go "up there", or "down there". It is more than a little disconcerting, not just because Carlin passed on shortly after this performance, but quite honestly, he looks bad. While his mind still seems to be as sharp as ever, and his performance suffers very slightly at times, George looks much older than his age at the time, seventy, and he definitely looks like he's in poor health.

Most of the material is fairly grim, but it doesn't come across as willfully dark as previous specials did. Carlin seems a little more subdued, and the stage set, which is a warm, inviting den, takes the edge off of any of the more "questionable" (for a lack of better terms).

The DVD also included two extras: a 2007 interview that Carlin did for the Archive of American Television called "Too Hip for the Room", as well as his appearance from 1968 or 1969 on The Jackie Gleason Show, where a clean shaven, red-haired, and suit wearing George telling mainly clean jokes for close to ten minutes. That last one alone is very interesting, if only to compare how much Carlin evolved over the next forty years.

Recommended DVD.

George Carlin: Jammin' in New York

2009-06-22T22:25:00.002-05:00

George Carlin: Jammin' in New York.
Original HBO airdate: March 11, 1992.
Written by and starring George Carlin
Director: Rocco Urbisci
Available at Amazon.

George Carlin returns to his hometown just a year or so after the end of the first Persian Gulf War, which he kicks off this program with a lengthy monologue about said war, along with the realization that war is just a game played between sexually inadequate politicians using weapons to compensate for their shortcomings. Also on the agenda: bizarre human behavior that we all seem to exhibit, the inanity of airline announcements, environmental issues, and a Carlin favorite, a long rant about human inequality using golf courses as the primary sign of the haves being much better than the have nots. What's Carlin's suggestion? Give the golf courses to the homeless.

This is probably Carlin's best HBO special, and he himself said it was his personal favorite performance. Highly recommended.

George Carlin: Doin' it Again

2009-06-22T21:27:00.001-05:00

George Carlin: Doin' it Again.
Original HBO airdate: March 23, 1990.
Written by and starring George Carlin
Director: Rocco Urbisci
Available from Amazon.

For those unaware, this HBO special was released to CD under the title Parental Advisory: Explicit Lyrics with a different running order. This was the last George Carlin special on HBO that wasn't edited or rearranged when it was released on compact disc.

George Carlin returned to the stage in New Brunswick, New Jersey in early 1990 to attack political correctness as well as the "soft language" that had been, in his view, overtaking the English language. For instance, in the old days, a World War I veteran was considered "shellshocked", but now, he is simply suffering from PTSD. Carlin speculates that had the phrase shellshock not fallen out of, some of the more traumatized veterans could very well have received the help they desperately needed at the time. Carlin also discusses feminism, which somehow transforms into a fairly uncomfortable routine where he claims that rape can be funny, and it depends on how one phrases the joke.

Other highlights are Carlin's stories about his old dog Tippy (he brings out his then-current pet at the end of the show), as well as discussing things you never see, things you never hear, or things you don't want to hear.

This is a recommended performance, as well as the first signs of the "angry old man" stage persona that Carlin started developing during the 1990s, although he's nowhere near as pissed off or nihilistic as he got over the course of the decade, reaching its inevitable conclusion during his 2005 special, Life is Worth Losing.

George Carlin: Personal Favorites

2009-06-22T20:55:00.002-05:00

George Carlin: Personal Favorites.
Original HBO airdate: circa 1996.
Written by and starring George Carlin
Director: Rocco Urbisci
Available from Amazon.

Sixty minutes of more of George Carlin's more notable onstage routines from his past HBO specials, with a lot of material recycled from George's Best Stuff, leaving only half a DVD of stuff you perhaps haven't seen before if you chose to watch the other disc first.

Here's what you can't find on the first DVD I reviewed earlier today:

Carnegie Hall, 1982: Hitler
Los Angeles, 1986: Hello Goodbye
Carnegie Hall, 1982: Dirty Words
Los Angeles, 1986: Earrings
Los Angeles, 1977: Kids
Carnegie Hall, 1982: Odds & Ends
Union City, NJ, 1988: We Like War
Los Angeles, 1986: It's Not a Sport

Pick one or the other if you're faced with a choice of this DVD, or George's Best Stuff, but not both. Slightly recommended otherwise.

George's Best Stuff

2009-06-22T01:14:00.001-05:00

George Carlin: George's Best Stuff.
Available from Amazon.
Written by and starring George Carlin
Director: Rocco Urbisci

87 minutes of George Carlin's best known routines from his HBO specials dating from 1977 through 1990.

Phoenix, 1978: Seven Words
Comic Relief, 1986: Stuff
Los Angeles, 1977: Hot Water Heater
New Jersey, 1990: Baseball & Football
Phoenix, 1978: Al Sleet
Carnegie Hall, 1982: Dogs and Cats
Los Angeles, 1977: Vitamins
Phoenix, 1978, Seven Words (continued)
Los Angeles, 1977: Dog Incident
Carnegie Hall, 1921: Have a Nice Day
Los Angeles, 1986: Losing Things
Los Angeles, 1977: Bread
Phoenix, 1978: Seven Words (continued)
Los Angeles, 1977: Walking
Carnegie Hall, 1982: Fussy Eater
Los Angeles, 1977: Monopoly
Union City, NJ, 1988: Driving

This was the period where Carlin was evolving from the counterculture icon (or as I like to call it, the world's oldest hippie) to the "angry old man" phase of his career that started in the early '90s, and we see elements of both over the course of the DVD.

This is an ideal introduction to George Carlin, although it probably could've been a whole lot better, as a lot of great comedy was left off. Recommended.

Keep 'Em Flying

2009-06-21T22:46:00.002-05:00

Keep 'Em Flying. 1941 Universal Pictures.
Starring: Bud Abbott, Lou Costello, Martha Raye, Dick Foran, Carol Bruce, Charles Lang, William Gargan
Director: Arthur Lubin
Available as part of Abbott and Costello: The Complete Universal Pictures Collection.

Stunt pilot Jinx Roberts (Foran) and his two assistants Blackie (Abbott) and Heathcliffe (Costello) are fired from a carnival after a disagreement with their boss. Jinx opts to join the Army Air Force, and the three pals go to a nightclub to celebrate one last time, where Jinx falls in love with the club's singer Linda Joyce (Bruce). Linda also becomes a USO hostess around the same time at the academy that Jinx and his brother Jimmy (Lang) have enrolled at. Their instructor is Craig Morrison, who co-piloted commercial airliners with Jinx before the war, and they still can't stand one another. Blackie and Heathcliffe also sign up as ground crewmen, falling in love with a pair of twin USO hostesses (Raye, in a double role), although Heathcliffe is unaware that his girl has a twin sister!

After a serious mishap involving Jinx and Jimmy, everyone is kicked out of the corps. But, a timely mishap involving Craig and a parachute may be the ticket for everyone to be allowed back in, no questions asked.

Recommended movie, although it wasn't the best Abbott and Costello movie I've watched this year...

In Society

2009-06-21T01:12:00.001-05:00

In Society. 1944 Universal Pictures.
Starring: Bud Abbott, Lou Costello, Marion Hutton, Kirby Grant, Arthur Treacher
Director: Jean Yarbrough
Currently available only as part of Abbott and Costello: The Complete Universal Pictures Collection.

At the time of filming, Abbott and Costello were in the middle of a contract dispute with Universal, and they were known to abruptly knock off for the day at exactly 4:00 in the afternoon, even if they were in the middle of a scene, or even speaking a line. Regardless, this movie about two plumbers accidentally invited to a high society event where a valuable painting is stolen is a pretty good one.

Eddie Harrington (Abbott) and his assistant Albert Mansfield (Costello) work on a leak in the private bathroom of the rich Mr. Van Cleave (Thurston Hall), which is keeping him awake, unlike the costume ball thrown by his wife (Nella Walker) downstairs. Eddie and Albert try to fix the leak, and predictably flood the bathroom. Meanwhile, their friend Elsie Hammerdingle (Hutton), an attractive taxi driver, is romanced by Peter Evans (Grant), a guest dressed as a taxi driver, and he invites her to another event at Briarwood Estate where the valuable painting called The Plunger is to be debuted to the world. Eddie and Albert are accidentally mailed an invitation to this party, instead of the letter of complaint that Mrs. Van Cleave had prepared for them for destroying the bathroom.

A loan shark (Thomas Gomez) that the boys owe money to demands that Eddie and Albert steal The Plunger, which they refuse to do. The painting is still snatched, and it's up to the plumbers and Elsie to apprehend the thieves and get it back.

Recommended movie, no bout adout it. Just don't mention Bagel Street.

The Wizard of Oz

2009-06-20T22:03:00.002-05:00

The Wizard of Oz. 1939 MGM/Turner Entertainment.
Starring: Judy Garland, Ray Bolger, Jack Haley, Bert Lahr, Billie Burke, Margaret Hamilton, Frank Morgan, Charles Grapewin, Clara Blandick, Terry the Dog (as Toto)
Directors: Victor Fleming, Mervyn LeRoy, Richard Thorpe, King Vidor (last three uncredited)
A 70th Anniversary Collector's Edition will be released on September 29, 2009. All other releases on DVD are currently out of print.

What else can I say about the beloved film adaptation of L. Frank Baum's The Wonderful Wizard of Oz that hasn't already been said before?

Since I really don't need to summarize the plot of the movie, I can just go ahead and say that it's highly, highly, highly recommended, and everyone needs to see this one at least five times during their life. If you haven't seen it by now, well, we can't do nothin' for ya, man.

Maybe next time, I can try this one out to see if it really works...

The Princess Bride

2009-06-20T20:34:00.001-05:00

The Princess Bride.
1987 20th Century Fox & Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer.
Starring: Cary Elwes, Robin Wright, Chris Sarandon, Mandy Patinkin, Christopher Guest, André the Giant, Wallace Shawn, Peter Falk, Fred Savage, Billy Crystal, Carol Kane, Peter Cook
Director: Rob Reiner
Available from Amazon.

A sports-obsessed youth (Savage) is sick in bed one afternoon, so his grandfather (Falk) comes over to read him the book that his father used to read to him, and what he read to the kid's dad during illnesses. The boy is initially concerned that the story he's going to hear is a "kissing book".

Everyone knows the story: Buttercup (Wright) lives on a farm in the country of Florin with the farm hand Westley (Elwes) to perform chores for her, which he always answers with "As you wish", which comes to mean "I love you". They fall in love, and Westley leaves to seek his fortune so they can marry. Instead, Westley is attacked by the Dread Pirate Roberts and believed dead. Five years later, a reluctant Buttercup is engaged to Prince Humperdinck (Sarandon), but she is abducted by a trio of outlaws: Vizzini (Shawn), Inigo Montoya (Patinkin), and the massive Fezzik (André).

Vizzini and company are pursued by the Prince and his soldiers, as well as a mysterious man in black, who outpaces the royal rescue party. We learn that Montoya is seeking to avenge his father's death at the hands of a man with six fingers on his right hand, complete with his prepared speech that probably doesn't even need to be listed here. The masked man defeats Montoya, Fezzik, and tricks Vizzini into drinking poisoned wine, and reveals himself to be Westley, who was made the Dread Pirate Roberts' apprentice. They make their way to the Fire Swamp, but end up captured by Humperdinck as well as the six-fingered Count Tyrone Rugen (Guest). Buttercup agrees to return with the Prince in exchange for Westley's freedom, but he's instead sent to Rugen's torture chambers. We soon learn that Humperdinck arranged Buttercup's kidnapping in order to blame a rival country and starting a war with them. Oh, and it would be even better propaganda if she was strangled on her wedding night.

On the day of the wedding, Montoya and Fezzik learn about what's going on, and seek out Westley to kill Rugen, but there's a problem: he's mostly dead, thanks to Humperdinck. With the aid of a magician Miracle Max (Crystal) and his wife, Westley is revived, only very, very slowly. He is still present for the invasion of the castle, where Montoya finally gets his revenge, and the wedding is disrupted long enough for everyone to get away on horseback.

Highly, highly, highly recommended film, but you probably already decided that for yourselves.

Frost/Nixon

2009-06-19T23:17:00.002-05:00

Frost/Nixon.
2008 Universal Pictures, StudioCanal, Imagine Entertainment & Working Title Films.
Starring: Frank Langella, Michael Sheen, Kevin Bacon, Oliver Platt, Sam Rockwell, Matthew Macfadyen, Rebecca Hall, Patty McCormack, Toby Jones, Andy Milder, Jim Meskimen, Clint Howard
Director: Ron Howard
Buy Frost/Nixon from Amazon, and then visit the official site.

The real David Frost interviews with Richard Nixon can be purchased here.

Frost/Nixon is Ron Howard's cinematic adaptation of Peter Morgan's stage play, which also starred Michael Sheen as David Frost, and Frank Langella as Richard M. Nixon.

In 1974, after Richard Nixon's resignation from the Presidency, David Frost is interested in the possibility of interviewing him. He pitches the idea with his friend and producer John Birt (Macfadyen), who isn't sure that Nixon would be interested in talking to Frost. The former President is recovering from phlebitis in California, and discussing his memoirs with literary agent Irving "Swifty" Lazar (Jones) when Frost makes his request to conduct an interview with him for an offered $600,000. Lazar contacts Frost to tell him that Nixon is interested. Frost makes the first partial payment amid doubts that he'll be able to provide the entire amount, and has difficulties selling the series of interviews to the American broadcast networks, but he is able to put things together so that the interviews can begin by 1977. Frost also hired Bob Zelnick (Platt) and James Reston Jr. (Rockwell) to help dig for information, mainly about Watergate.

The first eleven recording sessions sees Frost trying to ask planned questions of Nixon, who takes up most of the time giving lengthy monologues (yes, just like Secret Honor), which prevents Frost from challenging him. Nixon's behavior causes Frost's team to start coming apart, since the former President appears to be exonerating himself, and Frost is not coming across as an effective interviewer. However, four days before the final taping session about Watergate, Frost receives a drunken phone call from Nixon (this did not happen in real life) saying that they both know the final interview will essentially make or break the other's career. Frost is spurred into action, resolving the final interview will be successful. Reston is told to talk to his source at the Federal Courthouse in Washington, who he mentioned before the tapings started.

Frost is a sterner adversary during the final interview, which results in Nixon admitting that he did things that would otherwise have been illegal had he not been the President, and he finally confesses to have participated in a cover-up, "letting the American people down".

Highly, highly, highly recommended! The next step for you now is to track down the DVD set of the genuine Frost-Nixon interviews.

Cool Hand Luke

2009-06-19T21:01:00.001-05:00

Cool Hand Luke. 1967 Warner Bros. Pictures.
Starring: Paul Newman, George Kennedy, J.D. Cannon, Lou Antonio, Robert Drivas, Strother Martin, Jo Van Fleet
Also Starring: Dennis Hopper, Wayne Rogers, Harry Dean Stanton, Joe Don Baker
Director: Stuart Rosenberg
Buy the deluxe edition of Cool Hand Luke at Amazon.

"What we've got here is failure to communicate", number 11 on the American Film Institute's list of the one hundred most memorable movie lines.

Paul Newman is Luke Jackson, sent to a prison chain gang after he is arrested for drunkenly decapitating parking meters. Despite the best efforts of the Captain (Martin) to "get their minds right", Luke shows that he isn't about to kowtow to just anyone, which slowly wins over the other prisoners, even Dragline (Kennedy, who won the Oscar for Best Actor in a Supporting Role), who initially despises the newcomer. Among his other talents, Luke is decent at poker, and he devises methods for the other men to get their road work done in half the time, earning them an afternoon off.

After learning about his mother's death, Luke escapes, and when he is caught, he simply escapes again. During his longest time away from the camp, Luke mails the prisoners a magazine that has a picture of him with two beautiful women, which is faked, but still impresses the other inmates.

Soon enough, the people in charge of the prison start to break Luke's will, but he still makes a last bid for freedom with Dragline when the chance arrives to steal a guard's truck. Late at night, they are both tracked down at a church. Dragline made a deal with the feds saying they won't be hurt if they surrender peacefully, but Luke dismisses this, which gets him shot in the neck. After Dragline helps him outside, Luke is sent to the prison hospital, which is more than an hour away, despite his clear need for immediate medical attention. The film ends with Dragline and company reminiscing about Luke during another hot day in the fields.

Highly, highly, highly recommended film.

Battleground

2009-06-18T22:18:00.002-05:00

Battleground. 1949 MGM/Turner Entertainment.
Starring: Van Johnson, John Hodiak, Ricardo Montalban, George Murphy, James Whitmore, Ian MacDonald
Director: William Wellman
Available from Amazon as a single DVD, or part of the War Double Feature, or as part of the World War II Collection, Volume 1, and as one-fourth of TCM Greatest Classic Films Collection: World War II.

Wait a second here...do you mean to tell me that someone in the old days actually made a Hollywood film about American soldiers where they're portrayed as vulnerable and not afraid to doubt themselves, or complain out loud, and they're not the kind of soldier that can't wait to get into combat, and they almost always come back as heroes?

Van Johnson and John Hodiak star as two infantrymen belonging to the 101st Airborne Division stationed in France, and they're hoping to depart on a long-awaited leave to Paris. Instead, their regiment is given orders to march to Bastogne in Belgium to hold back the advancing 47th German Panzer Corps. After some character development where we meet and learn about some of the corps, they depart for Bastogne.

Shortly after arrival, the Americans learn that the Nazis outnumber them considerably, and they have the region completely surrounded. Even as the casualties mount, and the survivors manage to capture a number of enemy soldiers, they still believe their situation to be hopeless. They still refuse to surrender, and as things seem their bleakest, reinforcements fly in. The Nazis are driven back, and the surviving Americans return to France.

Battleground won two Academy Awards (Best Cinematography and Best Writing), and is largely considered the first significant movie made about World War II after that war ended. Highly, highly recommended picture.

The Fountainhead

2009-06-18T20:06:00.001-05:00

The Fountainhead.
1949 Warner Bros. Pictures & Turner Entertainment.
Starring: Gary Cooper, Patricia Neal, Raymond Massey, Kent Smith
Director: King Vidor
Available from Amazon as a single DVD, or part of the Gary Cooper Signature Collection set.

A 1949 movie based on Ayn Rand's first bestseller; she also wrote the screenplay for the film. Rand also made sure that a six minute speech at a trial was filmed in its entirety, and included in the final film after learning that director King Vidor was going to trim it down because it was "long, rambling and confusing". Gary Cooper also didn't understand the entire speech as it was written.

Gary Cooper is Howard Roark, an architect patterned after Frank Lloyd Wright. Roark often works as a quarryman to finance his ambitious projects rather than compromise his ideals. He also falls in love with a heiress named Dominique (Neal), but chooses to end the relationship after the opportunity to construct buildings to his wishes comes up. Dominique ends up married to a newspaperman named Gail Wynand (Massey), who uses his position to blast the "radical" Roark, but comes around in due time and becomes the architect's biggest supporter.

Despite being assured at first that his plans will be followed 100 percent, Roark is horrified to find out that his designs will be radically altered. So, he sneaks in late at night and blows the building to smithereens. Roark is put on trial, and all seems lost until he delivers a passionate testimony that wins him an acquital. Despite this, Wynand is distraught enough that he could do nothing to help Roark during his trial that he commits suicide. Roark and Dominique end up rekindling their romance, fittingly near the architect's latest building site.

Recommended.

MST3K #409: Indestructible Man

2009-06-18T11:25:00.003-05:00

Mystery Science Theater 3000 experiment #409: Indestructible Man (with short, The Undersea Kingdom, Part 2, "The Undersea City").
Original airdate: August 15, 1992.
Available from Amazon as part of the eleventh MST3K collection.

In the second part of the Undersea Kingdom serial, Crash Corrigan, Billy Norton, and reporter Diana Compton find the lost continent of Atlantis, and spend most of the short following the locals around. There's a lot of villains riding horseback and racing about, but that's about it, really. Perhaps I should've seen the first part of the series before this one?

The main feature stars Lon Chaney Jr. as executed murderer Butcher Benton who is betrayed right before the execution by two henchmen, Squeamy and Joe, and Butcher vows revenge on them, plus their lawyer Lowe, who is interested in finding the $600,000 that Benton and friends stole and hid somewhere in the Los Angeles sewer system. Butcher's body is taken to a cancer researcher, who subjects it to massive jolts of electricity. Benton is revived as an angry and mute killer looking to kill Squeamy and Joe, as well as reconnect with his stripper girlfriend who is now dating the detective who brought Benton to justice.

To open the show, the 'Bots have all traded voices to confuse Joel. The invention exchange sees Joel invent cereal boxes with complete novels attached to the back; the Mads are hosting a celebrity shindig in Deep 13 with plenty of Z-level personalities, but they fail to display their invention, which they claim is for men only. Joel and the robots throw a parade in honor of The Undersea Kingdom, and later describe what they would do if they were indestructible. Joel prefers mundane activities, while Crow and Servo plan to wreak havoc with their new indestructible selves. To end the show, a contact is signed prohibiting any more cop-donut jokes in future experiments, and two policemen (played by Kevin Murphy and Mike Nelson) visit Deep 13.

Recommended episode.

Treasure Island

2009-06-17T23:32:00.001-05:00

Treasure Island. 1934 MGM/Turner Entertainment.
Starring: Wallace Beery, Jackie Cooper, Lionel Barrymore, Otto Kruger, Lewis Stone, Nigel Bruce
Director: Victor Fleming
Available from Amazon as a single DVD, or part of the five disc Motion Picture Masterpieces Collection.

Not as famous as Walt Disney's 1950 film adaptation of Robert Louis Stevenson's famous book, this version of Treasure Island is still a well-made feature, with excellent performances from Jackie Cooper as young Jim Hawkins, Lionel Barrymore as the rum fueled Billy Bones, and of course, Wallace Beery as Long John Silver.

The story is pretty well known: Jim Hawkins' life is changed forever when he meets the drunken Billy Bones at the Admiral Benbow Inn. Bones takes over a party, and then, dies suddenly of a stroke. Jim finds a map in Billy's sea chest leading to riches beyond imagination. A voyage is quickly organized to depart for the island, and shortly before the departure time, several crew members have gone missing. Long John Silver poses as an ex-navy man and cons his way onto the boat, followed by several of his men, who are planning to mutiny and claim the treasures for themselves. When everyone arrives at the island, they're in for a surprise after they discover that Ben Gunn (Charles 'Chic' Sale) has amassed all of the treasure himself in a cave. Jim and the crew sail for Jamaica ready to recruit a brand new crew, with Silver sure to pay for his crimes. Jim has a change of heart and allows the pirate to escape.

Recommended movie.

Gimme Shelter

2009-06-17T21:54:00.002-05:00

Gimme Shelter (Criterion #99).
1970 Maysles Films & Janus Films.
Featuring: The Rolling Stones (Mick Jagger, Keith Richards, Mick Taylor, Charlie Watts, Bill Wyman)
Also Appearing: Ike and Tina Turner, Flying Burrito Brothers, Jerry Garcia, Jefferson Airplane, hundreds of thousands of concert attendees, and scores of Hells Angels
Directors: Albert Maysles, David Maysles, Charlotte Zwerin
Buy Gimme Shelter at Amazon, and then, visit the official site.

The Maysles brothers (Albert & David) and Charlotte Zwerin directed this chronicle of the Rolling Stones' 1969 U.S. tour, which ended at the disastrous Altamont Free Concert on December 6th, 1969. We also see plenty of concert footage from the Stones' appearance at Madison Square Garden, which can also be heard on the Get Yer Ya-Yas Out record, and follow the band as they embark on a recording session down in Muscle Shoals, Alabama, where they are working on "Wild Horses", "Brown Sugar" and "You Gotta Move", which would later appear on 1971's Sticky Fingers.

Most of Gimme Shelter focuses on the negotiations that took place to make the show at Altamont happen, and how the property owner was very adamant that his track not be damaged in anyway. Wishful thinking, dude. Altamont wasn't even the original site planned, as a San Francisco 49ers game made the original choice, Golden Gate Park, unavailable. Sears Point Raceway was the next choice, but a dispute with the owners saw everything moved over to Altamont Raceway just two nights before the show was to happen. The grounds were woefully inadequate for a show, with a serious lack of portable toliets and medical tents, and a four-foot high stage that required manned security. Enter the Hells Angels, led by Oakland chapter head Ralph "Sonny" Barger (who can be heard early on calling into a radio station and denying any wrongdoing that happened at the show). The Hells Angels were simply expected (and paid with $500 worth of beer!) to escort the Stones in, and keep fans away from the stage, although there has been quite a bit of debate over whether there were any expectations that they were to act as security for a concert with 300,000 plus people in the audience.

Over the course of the day, the mood got ugly as the crowd and the Hells Angels got more and more stoned. Fights broke out in the crowd, and Jefferson Airplane singer Marty Balin was knocked out cold by a Hells Angel after he jumped from the stage to try to end a skirmish. The Grateful Dead ultimately pulled out of the show at the last minute after hearing what happened to Balin. By nightful, when the Rolling Stones hit the stage, it was really tense. Mick Jagger had already been slugged by a concertgoer just after emerging from his helicopter, was visably intimidated, and two of their songs were stopped to plead with the crowd to calm down.

In the concert's most infamous moment, 18-year-old Meredith Hunter (in his bright green suit) came close to the stage, and drew a gun from his coat. As his girlfriend tried to restrain him, people began to scatter, and Alan Passaro from the Hells Angels went after Hunter with a knife, stabbing him five times. Hunter, who was very high, was reportedly jealous of his girlfriend's attraction to Jagger. There is also footage of Hunter's body being loaded into an ambulance as his girlfriend is in hysterics. The Stones themselves had no idea that Hunter had been killed, and continued their show. Barger claimed he pointed a gun at Keith Richards and ordered him and his mates to "keep playing".

Highly, highly, highly recommended, although it can be very uncomfortable to watch at times, especially when violence is breaking out in the enormous audience. Actually, I personally believe that just being in that sea of humanity would've been a nightmare for me.

The Wrestler

2009-06-16T20:40:00.001-05:00

The Wrestler. 2008 Fox Searchlight Pictures.
Starring: Mickey Rourke, Marisa Tomei, Evan Rachel Wood, Todd Barry, Ernest Miller, and scores of actual professional wrestlers
Director: Darren Aronofsky
Buy The Wrestler at Amazon and then, visit the official site.

A critically acclaimed film about the critically scorned world of professional wrestling, which I was a follower (casual and fanatical) for many years, right up until THIS happened.

Yes, really.

Anyway...Mickey Rourke was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Actor as a wrestler with the stage name Randy "The Ram" Robinson, who was a major star in wrestling during the 1980s. Twenty years later, he is well past his prime, and working shows in or around Elizabeth, New Jersey on weekends. During the week, he works in a supermarket, loading boxes for his boss Wayne (Barry), who doesn't exactly think the world of Randy.

Randy has something to look forward to, though, as a wrestling promoter is proposing a 20th anniversary match with his most infamous '80s opponent, The Ayatollah (Miller), who is retired and owns a used car lot in Arizona. The first match between both men sold out Madison Square Garden, and Randy jumps at the chance, hoping this is his ticket back to the big time. He starts training for the match, which includes doses of steroids and tanning. Unfortunately, Randy's comeback is sidelined after he takes part in a hardcore match with the Necro Butcher (Dylan Summers) which includes thumbtacks, staple guns, barbed wire and broken glass. Randy suffers a heart attack afterwards, which necessitates a bypass operation, and his doctor tells him that his heart can't take any more 'roids or wrestling.

Cancelling his future matches, Randy moves to the supermarket's deli counter as his new occupation, and tries wooing stripper Cassidy (Tomei), who initially rejects him. Randy also starts repairing his relationship with his estranged daughter Stephanie (Wood). However, the call of the ring, and the adrenaline rush he gets from the rabid wrestling crowds can't be ignored for very long, despite Randy's poor health.

Recommended movie.

The Killing

2009-06-16T10:36:00.001-05:00

The Killing.
1956 United Artists, distributed to DVD by MGM.
Starring: Sterling Hayden, Colleen Gray, Vince Edwards, Jay C. Flippen, Elisha Cook Jr., Marie Windsor
Director: Stanley Kubrick
Buy The Killing from Amazon.

Stanley Kubrick's first major film effort features Sterling Hayden as a veteran criminal named Johnny Clay, who is planning one last big heist before he leaves the world of crome to settle down into a "normal" life and marriage with Fay (Gray). The plan is to rob a racetrack of two million dollars during a big race, and Clay recruits several accomplices including a track employee, George Peatty (Cook Jr.), who is pressured into participating by his cheating wife Sherry (Windsor).

The actual robbery goes off without a problem, but during the aftermath, it's Sherry who spoils everything when she tells her lover Val (Edwards) about what happened, and he confronts Johnny's accomplices at the meeting place. The ensuing shootout sees everyone killed except George, who is badly wounded. His last act is to go home and shoot Sherry. Running late, Johnny sees an injured George and knows something went wrong. He puts the cash in an old suitcase, and takes Fay to the airport to leave on a plane, but an unexpected mishap enroute to the plane sends the cash blowing into the wind, ruining Johnny's last heist.

Recommended movie. It is also unsettling to see Stanley Kubrick directing this relatively simple and grounded project, in comparison to some of his later, more ambitious films.

General Idi Amin Dada: A Self Portrait

2009-06-15T22:12:00.002-05:00

General Idi Amin Dada: A Self Portrait [Général Idi Amin Dada: Autoportrait] (Criterion #153).
1974 Figaro Films & Janus Films.
Featuring: Idi Amin
Music: Idi Amin
Director: Barbet Schroeder
Available from Amazon.

Before he directed mainstream fare such as Single White Female and Reversal of Fortune, director Barbet Schroeder this documentary film about Idi Amin, the buffoonish military dictator who reigned over Uganda for eight years (1971-1979), and essentially drove that nation completely into the ground. Surprisingly, Amin willingly cooperated with Schroeder during production, despite the fact that he comes across as completely unintelligent, as if the finished film would have improved his image worldwide.

The truly frightening thing is, Idi Amin actually comes across as somewhat likeable. This is the man who had between 300,000 and 500,000 of his fellow countrymen put to death for just about any reason Amin could think of. This is also the man who ordered 80,000 Asians out of Uganda during a so-called "economic war" in 1972, then appropriated their businesses for his own followers, many of who had no business running them at all. All the while, Amin is heartily laughing about his justifications for his anti-Semitism, and anything else he's done wrong.

Over the course of the film, Amin brags about how much good he's done for Uganda after he seized power in 1971, demonstrates military training of a planned invasion of Israel where Amin's men train on a playground of all things, and talks about how any hijacked Israeli aircraft would be welcomed in Uganda, two years before Operation Entebbe happened. Amin is also featured in a cabinet meeting where he dresses down his Minister of Foreign Affairs (who would be found dead in the Nile River exactly two weeks later), and spouts off ground rules where if anyone misses three meetings, they are OUT of there!

One telling scene finds Amin meeting with a group of Ugandan doctors, who are wanting to discuss medical issues, and Amin is visably nervous and uncomfortable talking to them, especially when he starts babbling about the dangers of alcohol, almost as if, for one moment, Amin is actually recognizing his lack of intelligence while in a roomful of educated medical professionals who could very well run Uganda much better than he ever could.

Highly recommended documentary, presenting a real life dictator who was so ridiculously stupid that if he were any worse, other people would have had to invent him.