How to Murder Your Wife

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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.