Cinema Retro
Entries from May 2014
One of our loyal subscribers, Rodney Barnett, has his own addictive retro movie blog, Bloody Pit of Rod. He's located some cool, cheesy 1970s original ads for a line of Planet of the Apes toys. We especially love the "Forbidden Zone Trap"! Click here to view.
The toy image above comes from Hunter's Planet of the Apes Archive, a super cool site dedicated to everything "Apish". Click here to visit.
By Lee Pfeiffer
In a lifetime of reviewing movies, there have been some titles I generally try to avoid. With a few exceptions, Biblical epics aren't my thing, nor is anything with "Adam Sandler" above the title. One retro-based film I've tried studiously to avoid is "Ilsa: She Wolf of the S.S." I've got a pretty liberal attitude when it comes to watching distasteful movies, but the idea of blending Nazi concentration camp horrors with eroticism was too much. Nevertheless, there is no denying that the 1975 film, shot for $150,000 in sets left over from "Hogan's Heroes" (I kid you not!), was a boxoffice smash on the grindhouse circuit back in the day. Recently, I received a review DVD of the film from a company I won't identify, not only because the transfer was lousy but primarily because it apparently isn't available any longer. (The movie is now in the public domain and there are apparently a wide range of releases of varying quality). I decided to finally take the plunge and judge the film as objectively as I could. I've heard that there are very good transfers of the film on the market. Unfortunately, this isn't one of them. The plot centers on a Teutonic goddess named Ilsa, who is the de facto commandant of a Nazi prison camp. Her primary obsession is conducting gruesome medical experiments on inmates in order to prove a bizarre theory that women can withstand more pain than men. (Exactly what scientific value of such research would be is never explained, but real life Nazi quacks such as Dr. Josef Mengele did indeed conduct hideous experiments on helpless people.) As played by Dyanne Thorne, an Amazonian, blonde ex-show girl, Ilsa is indeed an imposing presence. She has the run of the camp and is feared by inmates and guards alike. Ilsa takes special delight in mixing sexual perversions with her daily grind. She has a loyal staff of female soldiers who parade around topless and excel at whipping and torturing female prisoners. Men receive special treatment. If Ilsa finds a male inmate attractive, she treats him to a night of passionate S&M sex, ironically with her playing the submissive role. Yet, there is a bit of a downside. The day after making love to Ilsa, these men are routinely castrated so that they can never have sex with another woman.
Ilsa meets her match when she meets a hunky prisoner named Wolfe (Gregory Knoph), who is cunning enough to make his services indispensable to Ilsa, while secretly organizing inmates to attempt to take over the camp. In the interim, viewers are treated to all sorts of depravities. If these were limited to sex, it would be bad enough (historically, sexual manipulation was indeed an everyday part of life in a concentration camp with certain female inmates allowed special treatment if they served in bordellos.). However, director Don Edmonds indulges in stomach turning sequences of men and women being systematically flogged and butchered under the most heinous circumstances imaginable. In one particularly awful sequence, a beautiful young woman has a noose tied around her neck and she is placed atop a block of melting ice so that she is slowly strangled to death. The fact that she is dying while standing atop a dinner table where Nazi officers dine and laugh in amusement make it almost unbearable to watch- precisely because such "creative" tortures were implemented in the camps.The film culminates in a limply-staged battle between guards and inmates in which the bad guys get their comeuppance.
There are legions of fans of this movie who argue it represents genuine eroticism. There are also legions of people who think it's cool to wear T shirts with Charles Manson's image on them. I can't understand either point of view. Yes, sexual fantasies are just that-fantasies. If you dream of being flogged by an Amazon woman, good for you. However, blending sexual fantasies with real life horror of the Holocaust makes me wonder how anyone can find this film a turn-on. The fact that it was released during an era when there were still millions of survivors of concentration camps still alive makes the subject matter all the more atrocious. There certainly is a place for artistic expression of sexual content in films that push the envelope. (The Night Porter comes to mind, but at least it was a quality film with an intelligent viewpoint beyond shameless exploitation.)
The film was so successful that it spawned two sequels, though they dropped the Nazi angle. I guess that says all we need to know about what passes for entertainment in some quarters.
I suppose there is an audience for anything and I don't argue the producers had every right to release and profit from this claptrap. You just have to wonder how anyone can derive sexual pleasure from seeing screaming women being disemboweled and hapless men being castrated. Call me old-fashioned, but I would personally rather watch "Hogan's Heroes."
Click here to view trailer and judge for yourself (Warning! X-rated and not for the squeamish.)
Click here to order Prime Time DVD (illustrated above) from Amazon, but please note: this is not the DVD we actually reviewed, though it is said to be of superior quality.
By Lee Pfeiffer
The latest grindhouse vintage porn double feature from Vinegar Syndrome is one of their best releases yet. "Sadie" is an unlikely 1980 hardcore "adaptation" of Somerset Maugham's classic story "Rain", though we doubt ol' Somerset ever envisioned the types of goings-on that occur in this film, directed by Bob Chinn, a prolific name in the industry who was born in Hawaii (please refrain from making the old joke "on the island of Kumoniwannaleiya") and went on to direct dozens of X rated feature length movies. Here the titular character is a blonde bombshell played by Chris Cassidy. Sadie is a prostitute living in Borneo and the action all takes place in a low-rent beachfront hotel here she plies her services and receives paternal loving care from the seedy owner of the resort. Sadie is in love with an American soldier on leave to Borneo but finds she can't leave the island because the local Raja insists that he "bought" her in Saigon and that she must become a member of his harem. Sadie is a moody young woman, prone to selfish and occasionally reckless behavior. Her stress level only increases when an Evangelical U.S. senator and his wife and teenage daughter check into the hotel. The senator has married his wife in order to make an "honest woman" of her because she had been unwed when she gave birth to her daughter. Since then the couple has led a chaste marriage, as the senator believes sex is the work of the devil. The daughter, who has just turned 18, has no such beliefs and her raging hormones can't stand the strain as she witnesses the unapologetic free love practiced by Sadie and her friends. Before long, she's joining in the action while Sadie tries to construct a plan to work with corrupt government officials to get out of the country with her lover.
"Sadie" is largely confined to a few rooms in the hotel and there are no exterior shots. Yet the film is somewhat ambitious and rises above standard porn because director Chinn has a degree of skill in presenting a reasonably compelling story. His leading lady fits the bill in terms of the erotic sequences but is weak dramatically. Unusually for this type of film, Chinn gives plenty of screen time to what appear to be accomplished middle-aged character actors who don't get involved in the down-and-dirty stuff. The film is all the better for it. Chinn also knows how to skillfully lens the sex scenes but never overdoes them. There are twosomes, threesomes and orgy scenes but there is plenty of time devoted to at least attempting to tell an engaging story.
Another Chinn film fills out the double feature, thus making this a genuine "Double Chinn" presentation. "The Seductress" is a 1981 film, that like "Sadie", is far more ambitious than standard grindhouse fare of the era. Porn superstar Lisa De Leeuw plays Cindy, a young wife married to Richard, a local commissioner on the Las Vegas fire commission board. He's a chauvinist boor who talks to her as though she is the hired help. She finds out about a "service" that blackmails spouses by having them seduced, then secretly photographed from behind a two-way mirror as they have their illicit liaisons in a hotel room. Cindy engages the service and sure enough, Richard goes for the bait and ends up in bed with Renee (Lee Carroll), who pretends she is also married and is nervous about having an affair. In reality, she is a heroin-addicted hooker. Cindy's plans go awry when Renee refuses to turn over the photos of her husband unless Cindy "fills in" for her at the next night's liaison. If she doesn't, Renee will blackmail her. Cindy reluctantly takes on the task and ends up in a foursome with a cynical hooker and two men, one of whom is also being set up for blackmail/divorce. The plot gets pretty confusing at times but Chinn elicits good performances by old pros De Leeuw and Carroll, though his luck runs out with much of the supporting cast, some of who read their lines as though they are in a school play. Nevertheless, the film boasts a good story line that involves organized crime and a conspiracy to manipulate who sits on the fire commission. The political intrigue aspect has a genuinely creative payoff in the last frames, as Chinn ties it in with real life news footage of the disaster 1981 Hilton Hotel fire in Vegas that was caused by arson.
The print quality of these two features is above average and Vinegar Syndrome has even gone to the effort of tracking down the original trailers for each film. Although both "Sadie" and "The Seductress" are hardcore films, these represent an early attempt to appeal to female viewers who, at the time, might have wanted to experience some X-rated fare without being totally grossed out. Both hold up well today and are probably more creative than the largely indistinguishable fare being made today.
Click here for a preview of both films.
Audrey Hepburn would have been 85 years old this month. As a tribute to her special sense of class and style, the Huffington Post provides a series of photos illustrating Hepburn in the 1970s and 1980s as evidence that her beauty and elegance only became more impressive as she aged. Click here to view
Rod Barnett, writing on his blog The Bloody Pit of Rod, has an intriguing take about what went wrong with both attempts to make The Lone Ranger the subject of big screen feature films. The first debacle, The Legend of the Lone Ranger, was a costly flop back in 1981 but it looked like a smashing success compared to the 2013 Disney version, which is estimated to have lost $250 million despite the presence of Johnny Depp. Barnett's article, written contemporaneously with the release of the latter film last summer, examines why both films veered far off course. Click here to read
By Don L. Stradley
The first image we see in Gore Vidal: The United States of Amnesia, a handsome new
documentary by Nicholas D. Wrathall, is
of Vidal at the Rock Creek Cemetery in Washington D.C., standing over what will
soon be his own tomb. He’s heavier than
we remember, leaning on a cane for balance. He recalls a few friends who are
already buried nearby, mentions his “pathological hatred of death,†and ambles
away. This is the titan at midnight, crumbling at the edges, still formidable.
The movie’s cryptic opening segues into a respectful,
occasionally moving, look back at Vidal’s life. It’s more a tribute than a
full-blown biography, for Wrathall presents Vidal as a kind of intellectual
colossus, utterly devoid of faults, a near perfect thinker, and the last lion
of America’s golden age of liberalism. The movie stops short of hagiography, but just barely. What keeps it interesting is Vidal, a born
entertainer who, even in his final years, could still spin a tale, drop a name,
or do an impression of JFK.
Vidal seems a natural subject for a documentary - there
have been several already, including a 2004 episode of the PBS American Masters
series - for his life was very much like a long, American novel of the 1920s.
His mother was a ditzy alcoholic. His father was an aeronautics instructor at
West Point, had an affair with Amelia Earhart, and wanted to be the Henry Ford
of aviation. The job of raising Vidal was left to his blind grandfather, the
fiery Senator T.P. Gore of Oklahoma. When
Vidal reminisces about the senator, the respect and awe is palpable. T.P. passed on to Vidal not just his liberal
politics, but also a love of literature, and a fearsome oratory skill.
After a stint in the U.S. Army during World War II, Vidal
went on to become a scandalous novelist, a playwright, a screenwriter, a
television dramatist during TV’s golden age; he was a self-described member of
the ruling class who struggled to escape it; he never referred to himself as
‘gay,’ but wrote books and essays defending bisexual and homosexual lifestyles;
he was deeply involved in politics, and later, was a TV gadfly, appearing on
The Tonight Show a dozen times, as well as many other programs, even lending
his voice to The Simpsons and Family Guy.
Wrathall taps most of those aspects of Vidal’s past
(not, alas, the cartoon work), but focuses mainly on Vidal the political
commentator, the weary traveler who sees America as a series of shams and
failures, the gruff grumbler. Indeed, the movie shows Vidal holding court at
various speaking engagements; all he has to do is call George Bush “a fool,â€
and the walls of the joint practically come down. If the movie has a glaring fault, it’s that
we see Vidal go from being a young author of gay themed novels to a
socio-politico bon vivant, with very little in between to illustrate his
journey. Instead, Wrathall relies on nameless, faceless narrators to offer such
bromides as “Gore was everywhere, like a shape shifter.â€
The cornerstone of any documentary about Vidal will be
his televised 1968 debates with William F. Buckley. Wrathall includes a hearty
helping of them here, and they still bristle nearly 50 years after their first
airing on ABC. Buckley is especially fascinating – he’s so effete he doesn’t
even know how to show anger. He bites his lip and cranes his neck like a man
having a fit. Vidal doesn’t come off
well either. He and Buckley were both trying so hard to be witty, and so unable
to conceal their hatred of each other, that whatever topic was on the table
grew cold quickly.
Much of the footage comes from late in Vidal’s life,
when he was bothered by physical problems and needed help getting around.
Hence, we see Vidal being helped up stairs, helped across bridges, helped up
hills, helped onto a stage at the 2005 Pen awards, and carted around in a
wheelchair. These scenes are interwoven
with a sort of “greatest hits†collection from Vidal’s past, where the great
pundit railed at this and that, his words rolling over his enemies like a
tank. The effect is entertaining enough,
and if Wrathall intended to depict Vidal as a fallen hero, he sort of succeeds.
Still, a more thorough and less deferential documentary might have considered
some of Vidal’s resounding flops. Remember Caligula?
Vidal’s long life, which included friendships with
Tennessee Williams, Paul Newman, and other bright lights of our popular
culture, can’t be jammed into a 90 minute documentary. For instance, Truman
Capote is barely mentioned, which is
akin to leaving Joe Frazier out of a movie about Muhammad Ali. The saucier aspects of Vidal’s life, such as
his affairs with women, are not mentioned here, either. His engagement to Newman’s future wife,
Joanne Woodward, is ignored, although there are several odd photos of the
Newmans with Vidal, including one of Vidal and Newman fondling a statue’s
buttocks.
Wrathall doesn’t spend an inordinate amount of time on Vidal’s
books, or the notion, held by many, that Vidal possessed a great facility with
words but could not quite write a masterpiece. Instead, Wrathall gets cute and
shoots close-ups of Vidal’s pithy quotes, including “Whenever a friend
succeeds, a little something in me dies.†And, “Never offend an enemy in a
small way.†Anyone who doesn't know
better might think Vidal composed blurbs for fortune cookies.
Where Wrathall succeeds grandly is in showing Vidal’s
soft side. It's touching to hear of Vidal's relationship with longtime
companion Howard Auster, and Wrathall is smart to let the camera linger when
Vidal turns melancholy. Watch how Vidal pauses when recalling a childhood
friend who died in WW2, or the way his eyes mist over when he recalls “school
boy’s stuff, at a boys’ school, long, long, long ago.†These moments, and the gorgeous scenery
surrounding Vidal’s Italian home, make the documentary worth seeing. Wrathall’s
movie is like one of Vidal’s novels in that it’s not great, but very good.
(The film has just opened theatrically in New York. Click here to view trailer.)
By Lee Pfeiffer
Vinegar Syndrome has released another grindhouse double feature of '70s hardcore porn flicks. "The Altar of Lust" is a boring, snoozefest masquerading as erotica when, in fact, it is about as stimulating as an Amway party. Erica Landers (billed in the film credits as "Erotica Lantern" (!), plays Viveca Hansen, a nubile Dutch teenager who is brutally violated by her barbaric stepfather in the only rape sequence ever filmed that is more boring than offensive. She makes her way to New York where she confides her life story to a sympathetic psychiatrist. For whatever reason, the dialogue comes from superimposed voices from both characters that give the impression that the film was badly dubbed. Erotica Lantern doesn't live up to her name, even in an era when everyday women could become major porn stars. She is far from exotic looking and is adorned with a dime store fright wig that gives each one of her scenes an unintentionally funny overtone. The entire "story line" involves her inability to have a stable relationship with men. After being abused by her stepfather, she enters affairs with other men who verbally abuse her (including porn super star Harry Reems, who uses the screen name "Stan Freemont".) One night, she walks in on her boyfriend Don as he's getting it on with another girl. The other woman ends up seducing young Viveca, much to the amusement of Don. However, when the two get carried away with sapphic lovemaking, he realizes there's no room for him in this party and he angrily departs the scene. Henceforth, Viveca becomes obsessed with women, leading her to see the therapist to find out what is wrong with her. The only intriguing angle of the flick is to evoke a bygone era in which gay people were seen to be suffering from a mental disorder. At the end of the flick, Viveca is put back on track when her own psychiatrist gets it on with her, a plot device you can see coming from minute one. The film is unexceptional on every level and will disappoint fans of the genre because the majority of sex scenes are softcore. The transfer, however, is top notch, given that source material for such releases comes from the "take what you can get" school.
The second feature on the DVD is "Angel On Fire", a 1974 flick that attempts to capitalize on "The Devil in Miss Jones". The film opens without credits but Darby Lloyd Rains is the female lead and stalwart male performers Marc Stevens and Jamie Gillis have major roles. The first scene finds Steven, a young hunk, in bed having torrid sex with his adoring girlfriend. However, when she informs him she is pregnant with his child, he verbally abuses her and abandons her without a second thought. He is a lifelong chauvinist who treats women as sex objects and nothing more. He is ultimately struck by a van and killed by driver (Stevens), who has been distracted by the fact that his girlfriend had been performing a sex act on him while they were cruising the streets of Manhattan. Steven finds himself in Heaven and in the presence of a comely female angel who tells him his fate: he is to be sent back to earth, this time as a female. Steven is "reborn" as a good look young woman named Stephanie (Darby Lloyd Rains) who is as sex crazed as his male alter-ego was. Before long, she enters a relationship with an arrogant man (Jamie Gillis), who treats her every bit as callously as he treated his own girlfriend. Speaking of whom, that woman reappears at his apartment and doesn't seem to be overly-startled by the revelation that her former lover has been reincarnated as a woman. In fact, the two get down to serious canoodling right away for the film's primary prerequisite lesbian sequence. As her dependence on her new boyfriend grows, Stephanie finds herself serving as a virtual sex slave to her deplorable lover- and her devotion only increases the more he abuses her. Finally, she discovers she is pregnant- and he abandons her as callously as he once abandoned his own lover. Stephanie is so heartbroken the she begs to die and - Presto! She is back in Heaven as Steven. He tells his angel guardian that he has learned an important life lesson about respecting women. For this, he is informed that in Heaven, sex is frequent and guilt free. She rewards him for recognizing his flaws and correcting them and the two start getting it on. ("If this cloud is a rockin', don't come a knockin'", you might say.) As The Temptations pointed out, everyone's doing fine on Cloud Nine. Angel on Fire is crudely made and suffers from an insufferable performance by Rains. Beyond that, however, it is far superior to "The Altar of Lust" and contains some genuinely erotic sequences. The flick also looks like it went through a meat grinder, with numerous blotches and edits apparent. As with previous Vinegar Syndrome releases, however, this only adds to its appeal.
Click here to watch a preview clips from the double feature.
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By Lee Pfeiffer
When it comes to documentaries about the American Civil War, it's pretty much acknowledged that the gold standard was set with Ken Burns' acclaimed 1990 PBS series. However, it would be a mistake to dismiss other filmmaker's take on the conflict. One of the most impressive documentaries we've seen is producer, director and writer Chris Wheeler's "Civil War: The Untold Story", a five-episode series presented on two DVDs through Athena Home Video. The series is impressive on every level and rivals Burns' film in terms of educating viewers and providing emotional impact. Whereas Burns relied entirely on photographs of the period and location photography, Wheeler delves into the risky realm of using re-enactments of famous battles. If such sequences are not up to par, the effect can look cheesy and distracting. However, in "Civil War: The Untold Story", Wheeler was obviously working with a very substantial production budget. The battle sequences are meticulously staged and take on the feel of an epic, often evoking the grandeur of the big screen feature film "Gettysburg". The title is a bit misleading. There really isn't much here that has been "untold" but there is plenty that has not been covered in the detail Wheeler goes into. The series begins with a look at the plight of black slaves in the old South and poignantly shows the horror of their living conditions. The show then delves into the complex socioeconomic and political factors that brought about secession and the start of the war in 1861. As with most such series, this one is peppered with plenty of scholarly talking heads, each of whom adds immeasurably to one's understanding of the conflict. I did learn a great deal from the show, including how some famous generals were known to have made enormous military blunders such as ordering frontal assaults on embedded enemy positions, thus resulting in mass casualties. Wheeler's literate script also details how fragile American democracy was by 1864. With President Lincoln's popularity at its lowest point, war-weary northerners were more than willing to make peace with the south. In fact, Lincoln suffered the humiliation of having one of his former top generals, McClelland, nominated to be his Democratic opponent in the election. Violent and deadly riots had already torn apart New York City in protest of the draft. Lincoln had to pull off a major victory or America, as we know it, would have been confined to the dustbin of history. In fact, democracy itself as a form of government would have been doomed. Although we know the outcome of all this, Wheeler skillfully builds these crisis to the point of considerable suspense. He also manages to tell the story of the war through focusing on individual soldiers from both sides as well as freed slaves who found emancipation to be a crisis in and of itself. Where did these poor souls go? With no education, money or support structure, many ex-slaves traded one hellish life for another. Wheeler also points out the the legacy of the Civil War still permeates North/South relationships today. Indeed, even some elected officials call the conflict "The War of Northern Aggression".
The series, wonderfully narrated by Elizabeth McGovern, is completely addictive and you'll find yourself on a viewing binge, looking forward to each successive episode. The only downside is that one would have hoped that Athena had included an interview with Chris Wheeler about the making of this remarkable show. The only extras are some silent WWI-era newsreels that show fascinating footage of Civil War veterans from both sides attending "Peace Jubilees". It's truly surprising how many thousands of these veterans were still alive and well in the era of the automobile. The set also includes an instructional booklet of historical biographies and facts.
"Superb" is not a word one throws around casually but "Civil War: The Untold Story" is a superb achievement.
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By Don Stradley
It’s hard to say
why the brain trust at Troma decided to release Dangerous Obsession on DVD this
year. Perhaps someone thought the
Esquire network’s recent re-airing of the old HBO Dream On series would create
interest in Brian Benben, who stars in this film (originally called Mortal Sins)
as Nathan Weinschenk, a brash private investigator from New York who gets
involved in a complex murder case involving some transplanted Southern religious
zealots. But even if there is a sudden renewed interest in the Benben catalog,
it’s difficult to imagine that even the most devoted Benben completists would
derive any pleasure from this cheaply made 1989 flick with its clichés and hack
dialogue. I can’t even label this one as
decent 1980’s kitsch.
When
Reverend Park Sung (James Saito) is murdered in his Manhattan apartment,
Weinschenk is hired by rival evangelist Malcolm Rollins’ (James Harper) who
wants to protect his own Manhattan church (‘The Divine Church of the People’).
Weinschenk also ends up protecting Rollins’ lovely daughter (Debrah Farentino),
which adds a little steam to the proceedings. The daughter, you see, has a
complicated sex life, as most women in movies did back in the late 1980s,
whether or not they knew Mickey Rourke or Michael Douglas.
Weinschenk mines
the humor of being a Jew in a nest of bible-thumping Southern vipers. True, the
idea of Southern-fried televangelists setting up shop in Manhattan may have
sounded edgy at the time (this was the 1980s, remember, when Jimmy Swaggart and
Jim Bakker were involved in serious scandals, and TV preachers had become
popular punching bags), but the film is played out in such broad strokes that
any good ideas are quickly crushed by cartoonish acting. Weinschenk, for
instance, has the stereotypical Jewish parents who are oblivious to anything
outside their little household. He also shares
his office with a no-account male relative (I couldn’t tell if they were
brothers or cousins) and there’s even a running gag where the Southern folks
can’t pronounce his name.
If
the Jewish stereotypes aren’t enough, we also get a lot of TV private eye
clichés. As if he’s auditioning for a role in a network cop show, Weinschenk drives a classic 1950s car, and listens
to classic R&B (I’ll give some points to this movie for including a cut of
Jackie Wilson’s ‘No Pity In the Naked City’). He also thinks he’s a real wiseass,
although his level of wit is restricted to lines like, “Nice work if you can
get it.†Benben curses a lot, too, and
while he can drop the F-bombs with convincing venom, he’s still stuck with playing
a wooden character. The Southern stereotypes are pretty thick, too. The Southerners are all portrayed as bloated,
effete, Jerry Falwell types, speaking in
exaggerated, syrupy drawls; if you told me they were all stoned on Quaaludes
during filming, I’d believe you. The perfectly named Brick Hartney has some success
as the slimy Billy Beau Backus, playing his part like a community theater star
vamping for his friends in the front row. Proving that some people know how to get
out while they’re on top, Hartney never acted in films again.
There
are plenty of extras here, but none are about Dangerous Obsession. The extras are
solely Troma related, including vintage trailers for The Toxic Avenger, Return
to Nuke ‘Em High: Vol. 1, Badmouth, Poultrygeist, and Cars3, plus a snippet of
a Troma documentary called How To Sell Your Own Damn Movie, featuring filmmaker
James Gunn discussing the dubious wonders of social media.
For those who enjoy
spotting character actors early in their careers, you’ll find a surprising
number of them in Dangerous Obsession. Anthony LaPaglia has a small role, as
does Maggie Wheeler, who went on to recurring roles on Friends, Ellen, and
Everybody Loves Raymond. Anyone who has
watched TV during the past 25 years will also recognize Peter Onorati, who has
made a career out of playing guys named Angelo or Sal. Director Yuri Sivo and screenwriter Allen
Blumberg have worked infrequently since 1989 – Blumberg has directed a couple
of small projects, with Sivo’s highpoint being a couple episodes of the Swamp
Thing TV series.
On
the plus side, Dangerous Obsession is visually striking, with a sophisticated
use of shadows and silhouettes. That’s no surprise since it was shot by underrated
veteran Bobby Bukowski, whose recent work includes two excellent titles, The
Messenger (2009) and, what is perhaps my favorite movie of the past few years,
The Iceman (2012). Even while strapped
to a no-budget howler like Dangerous Obsession, Bukowski shows the immense
talent that would make him one of the most reliable and sought after cinematographers
of the past two decades. (Hell, he even shot Shakes the Clown!) In fact, I’d only recommend this DVD to those
who want to marvel at how a ham-handed script made on an Ed Wood budget can
feature so many lollipops for the eye. Even the final shot is superb, with Weinschenk and his girlfriend
arguing on a fire escape, the camera pulling back and wheeling around to reveal
a lush New York skyline at what must have been the so-called magic hour. The idea that the evil Southerners are gone
and the New Yorkers can get back to arguing among themselves is trite, but
Bukowski shoots it like he’s practicing for his future.
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By Martin Sheffield
The Empty Canvas (original Italian
title La Noia), is a 1963 Italian drama waiting to be rediscovered as a
classic by retro film lovers in America. Besides being a solid outing for Horst Buchholz and part of Bette Davis’
1960’s resurgence, this film is a reminder of why French-born Catherine Spaak
was the “IT†European teenager of the period. She was described by critic Rex Reed as "[h]alf kittycat go-go
girl, half petulant defiance, … like a sexy lollipop [with] soft hair the color
of maple syrup.†In The Empty Canvas, the 18-year-old actress gave the best performance
of her career in a role intended to make her an international star. That performance earned a special Golden
Plate award at the David di Donatello awards (presented by The Academy of
Italian Cinema) in 1964.
Based on a novel by
Alberto Moravia, the film follows Dino (Buccholz), the twenty-something artist
son of a rich, American ex-patriot from New Orleans (Davis). Dino has
lost his way in life and no longer feels inspired to paint, or inspired for life
in general, so it seems. He resents his mother and her money, spending as
little time with her as possible.
Dino's life changes,
however, when he meets Cecilia (Spaak), an amoral young woman. Cecilia
has been carrying on a torrid affair with a much-older married painter, who is
Dino's neighbor. Upon the painter's death, Dino and Cecilia slide into a
torrid affair of their own. As their affair progresses, Dino, suddenly filled
with feelings and purpose in his life, becomes obsessed with obtaining
commitment from Cecilia. In the film's penultimate scene, Dino covers
Cecilia's nude body in lira notes in an effort to win her commitment.
Cecilia, on the other hand, is just out to have fun and do whatever makes her
feel good. Dino is in danger of letting his obsession with Cecilia
destroy his life, just as the old painter’s life was destroyed by his obsession
with Cecilia.
Of the
"money" scene, director Damiano Damiani was quoted in The Saturday Evening Post as saying that
"It was the most important scene of her career in her first
English-language picture, one that would either make or break her as an
international star. And she was cold as ice." While she may have been cold as ice in
controlling her nerves, as Cecilia, Catherine exudes a sensuous quality that
leaves no doubt about how a man like Dino could become obsessed with her
charms. In one scene set at an outdoor
cafe overlooking the city, as Rita Pavone sings "Now That You've
Gone," Cecilia dances seductively while Dino watches attentively from a
swing. Without a word being said, you can see Dino's resistance falling
and his obsession budding. That is one of my all-time favorite scenes
from any film.
Shot in gorgeous,
mood-setting black-and-white around Rome in the summer of 1963, the film's set
was a linguistic adventure. Director Damiani spoke English to Bette
Davis, German to Buchholz, French to Spaak, and Italian to others. The actors
spoke their lines in English for later dubbing. It had to have been interesting
to watch Bette Davis try to reign supreme over such an eclectic mix of
talent. In Rex Reed's N.Y. Times
profile of Catherine in 1966, he quoted her as saying: "I acted with
Bette Davis in 'The Empty Canvas.' Everyone in Rome was terrified of
her. I said only one thing to her: 'Hello'."
On a curious side note,
Bette Davis biographer Charlotte Chandler recounted in her book an odd incident
concerning Bette's arrival in Rome for filming. She was greeted at the
airport by Buchholz, who wanted to get things started off on a good note with
the notoriously persnickety Davis. Buchholz leaned forward to kiss Bette
on the cheek, as custom would dictate, whereupon Bette proceeded to put her
tongue in Buchholz's mouth in a more-than-friendly kiss! Buchholz never
knew whether she was just trying to shock him, or whether she had other
intentions.
It is also interesting to note that Sophia
Loren’s 18th century castle, renovated at a cost of nearly $2,000,000, was
loaned by her to represent Bette Davis' villa in the film. Furthermore, the filming of the garden party,
which provides the setting for the "money" scene, included the
participation of more than 150 leaders of Rome's cultural set, who were there
to honor Bette Davis' first film in Rome.
The Empty Canvas was a hit in Italy
before being distributed in the U.S. in March 1964 by Joseph Levine’s Embassy
Pictures. Levine was quoted by The Saturday Evening Post as saying that
“[Catherine Spaak] will be the biggest new star of the 1960's. This girl
will be the Bardot of her generation. Ten years from now there will be
girls billing themselves as the new Catherine Spaak.†In Bardot tradition, I suppose, some of the
advertising showed Cecilia draped only in a towel and was considered too risqué
in some circles. As a result, some of
the advertising was censored. Levine even took to Variety to express anger about the ad censoring by the L.A. Times and the L.A. Examiner. Censoring can
still be seen on many of the surviving lobby cards for the film. My how times have changed!
The Empty Canvas generally received mixed-to-negative
reviews at the time from American critics, but it did respectable business and
garnered considerable attention for Catherine in the U.S. She was featured on the cover and in a story
in the July 1964 issue of Cosmopolitan, and she was also the subject of
a feature story in the May
2, 1964 issue of the Saturday Evening Post.
Catherine’s story
was a dream come true for the press, because she was the daughter of well-known
screenwriter Charles Spaak, was the niece of famed Belgian politician
Paul-Henri Spaak, and had married actor Fabrizio Capucci (of the Capucci
fashion-design family) in February of 1963, while seven months pregnant with
their first child. Amazingly, after
giving birth to daughter Sabrina in April of 1963, Catherine shot a film called
The Little Nuns before commencing
work on The Empty Canvas in
July. By the time the film reached U.S.
shores, Catherine and Capucci had already split, including a well-publicized
incident at the Italian border, where authorities stopped Catherine as she was
trying to leave the country with her infant daughter. I am sure that the tabloids of the day were
all over this story.
The Empty Canvas has never been released on DVD
in North America, but it was released by Embassy Home Entertainment in an
English language version on VHS in 1987. With The Criterion
Collection’s impressive recent release of the 1962 Italian classic Il sorpasso (aka The Easy Life), in which Catherine has a prominent supporting role,
the time is ripe for rediscovery in America of her classic work in The Empty Canvas as well. Furthermore, there should be no Bette Davis film
from the 1960’s that is unavailable on DVD
in the U.S.
We want our DVD!
By Fred Blosser
On a windy night, a black-clad stranger
rides into Daugherty City, Texas. He
flips a coin to a scruffy drunk who is
strapped for the price of a drink. He exposes a crooked dice game in the local
saloon, where most of the townsfolk seem to be congregated. Then he departs. In the meantime, down the street, a gang of
acrobatic robbers breaks into the bank and heists a safe containing $100,000 in
Army payroll money. The getaway crew
escapes town before a wounded trooper can raise the alarm, but out on the trail
they run into the stranger, Sabata, who picks them off with a tricked-out rifle
and recovers the stolen money.
Thus, in under 15 minutes of running time,
Gianfranco Parolini neatly sets up the events that will drive the remaining 90
minutes of his 1969 Spaghetti Western, "Ehi amico... c'è
Sabata, hai chiuso!" -- better known simply as “Sabata,†as United
Artists retitled the English-dubbed version that debuted in the U.S. in
1970. The original Italian
title translates to something like, “Hey, Pal, Sabata’s Here, You Lose†. . .
or maybe closer to the film’s rambunctious spirit, “. . . You’re Screwed.â€
Bracketing the opening credits, Parolini
economically introduces most of the movie’s main characters, establishes their
personalities, and through their interactions with Sabata and each other,
defines the interpersonal relationships that will drive the plot.
Sabata (Lee Van Cleef), the sharp-eyed “man
who knows,†as the drunk Carrincha (Pedro Sanchez) calls him, deduces that the
men behind the attempted robbery are the local businessman Stengel, his partner
Ferguson, and their crony Judge O’Hara (Gianni Rizzo). He approaches them and demands $10,000 in hush
money. Refusing, Stengel dispatches one
assassin after another to kill him. Stengel’s henchman Slim, a hulking gunman named Sharky, two hit men
dressed like the Earp brothers, and a nervous killer disguised as a clergyman
all try and fail. With each attempt,
Sabata raises his price higher and higher.
An old acquaintance, barroom minstrel Banjo
(William Berger), one of the supporting characters deftly sketched in the
opening saloon scene, ambles in and out from the periphery, toting his own
tricked-out weapon, a carbine hidden under his musical instrument. Sometimes he sides with Sabata for money,
sometimes he works for Stengel; in any event, not to be trusted by either. He and a greedy saloon girl, Jane, have a
sort of romance characterized by mutual boredom and availability. Carrincha and a mute Indian acrobat, Alley
Cat (Nick Jordan), help Sabata.
Arguably, “Sabata†represented the high
tide of Spaghetti Western popularity in the States in 1970, benefiting from the
box-office success of Sergio Leone’s groundbreaking films and preceding the
decline of the genre as it sputtered toward a slow box-office death in the
mid-‘70s. Where Leone’s movies were
generally panned by mainstream U.S. media on their initial release, but
nevertheless attracted a small early following of more progressive critics,
“Sabata†ironically met the opposite reception.
Major outlets like The New York Times gave
it good notices, but the pioneering book-length studies of the genre by
Christopher Frayling and Laurence Staig & Tony Williams were lukewarm. Staig and Williams dismissed it as “a mixture
of gimmickry and borrowed themes.†Citing Banjo’s hidden carbine, Frayling said that the movie was one of
the “derivatives†inspired by Leone’s scenes in which “guns are fired from
unexpected places.â€
Other commentators over the years have
noted additional Leone influences. Before you see Sabata’s face in the opening scenes, Parolini gives us a
shot down the main street of Daugherty City, framed between Sabata’s boots in close-up
-- a favorite Leone visual angle. Paralleling the three lead characters of “The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly,â€
Parolini (who also co-scripted with Renato Izzo) builds the action around an
unflappable protagonist, an icy bad guy, and a talkative, slippery secondary
lead. Sabata’s black suit, black
military coat, and fanciful weapons recall Colonel Mortimer’s from Van Cleef’s break-out Spaghetti role in “For a
Few Dollars More.â€
The argument that Leone cast a long shadow
over Parolini’s movie is valid as far as it goes, but then Leone cast a long
shadow over all the Italian Westerns that followed after his enormously
successful pictures with Clint Eastwood. If we acknowledge that “Sabata†often follows the visual and dramatic
conventions of Leone’s movies, it’s only fair to Parolini to note that he
also departed from those conventions in
ways that other Spaghetti directors such as Sergio Corbucci, Sergio Sollima,
and Luigi Vanzi generally didn’t.
For example, like John Ford, Leone held a
sentimental reverence for the sanctity of the traditional family; the families
in his movies symbolize social stability. There are no traditional parents and children in Parolini’s universe,
even if a kid’s chorus heard in the movie’s bouncy title tune suggests there will be. The only offspring and parent in “Sabata†are
Sharky -- a burly, slovenly adult -- and his gray-haired old virago of a
mother, who berates him verbally and physically for not settling a score with
their neighbors the Mallorys. “They stole
your woman, didn’t they?†she
shrieks. No, Sharky retorts, “you sold
her to the Mallorys.â€
Carrincha, who looks a bit like Sharky in
girth and disheveled appearance, laments his life of thirst and poverty: “I
curse the mother who bore me, and my brother, and my whole family.†Almost everything Carrincha says is prone to
exaggeration, so it’s difficult to know whether this sentiment is real or
not. Regardless, it mirrors and
reinforces the satiric relationship between Sharky and his mother, poles away
from the traditional relationships portrayed by Leone and Ford.
Playing with the “trio†aspect of “The
Good, the Bad, and the Ugly,†Parolini assigns the trickster role of “the Uglyâ€
not to the boisterous Mexican (in name, at least) Carrancha, as Eli Wallach’s
Tuco was “the Ugly†in Leone’s movie, but to the Anglo drifter, Banjo. This way, Parolini finds not only differences
but also similarities between the two characters, including allusions to a
shared history during and after the Civil War and maybe a shared past outside
the law. This gives their relationship
an extra dimension not present in the relationship between the Good and the
Ugly in the Leone movie.
Critics and fans who appreciate “Sabata†on
its own terms usually employ terms like “hectic and chaotic,†and
“fun†that’s “not to be taken too seriously.†The movie hardly lets up for a moment (none of Leone’s long, measured
takes), but a term like “chaotic†can be misleading if you think it means slipshod. In fact, even though Parolini doesn’t build
the movie around a mystery as Leone does
in “For a Few Dollars More†(what do those seemingly shared flashback memories
by Colonel Mortimer and Indio mean?) or around a character arc as Sollima does
in “The Big Gundown†and Corbucci in “The Mercenary,†“Sabata†has its own
ingenious design. Beyond the action,
stunts, and cynical humor, “Sabata†bears repeated viewing to appreciate the
two techniques that Parolini uses to bring unity to the film.
One technique is
repetition. Little details that appear
in one scene in the visuals or in the dialogue will unexpectedly and sometimes
subtly reappear later in a different context. Slim’s loaded dice in the opening saloon scene always come up 7. There are seven men in the getaway crew from
the bank robbery whom Sabata ambushes. When Sabata checks into a hotel in Daugherty City, Banjo’s squeeze Jane
gives him Room 7 -- “next to mine,†she says suggestively. (Sabata isn’t interested. As Jules Feiffer once observed of Superman,
he is so self-sufficient and self-confident that he doesn’t need to pursue
every woman he encounters, or even to respond to every pass that comes his
way.)
Parolini’s other technique is
music. Like Ennio Morricone’s
compositions for Leone, Marcello Giombini’s score is integrated into “Sabataâ€
as an essential part of Parolini’s fabric. Like Morricone, Giombini
tailors certain musical themes and cues to specific characters in the
story. As John Mansell observes in his
liner notes for a 2001 CD soundtrack edition, Sabata’s theme incorporates “a
rather buoyant sounding guitar piece … interspersed with a solo muted trumpet,
occasional harpsichord flourishes plus the added support of choir, which is
carried along on a backing of slightly upbeat percussion.†Banjo’s theme is a cocky melody plucked on
his namesake instrument, sometimes augmented by jingling bells like those sewn
on his trousers.
But Mansell’s description of Sabata’s
theme, while insightful, fails to note that the theme also incorporates a
glissando passage like the swirling of the wind. Sabata is associated with the wind throughout
the movie. In the first scene,
tumbleweeds blow down the street and lamplight flutters as Sabata rides into
Daugherty City. In the closing scene,
Parolini and Sabata use the wind to the same ironic effect that John Huston
used it at the end of “Treasure of Sierra Madre†and Stanley Kubrick in the
finale of “The Killing.†Although Judge
O’Hara wonders if Sabata is a government agent, and Stengel snaps back that
“he’s nothing -- just a drifter who’s after our money,†the man in black
perhaps suggests his true elemental nature when he advises Stengel in one
exchange: “Don’t shoot at the wind.â€
Parolini and Giombini also take their
partnership one step further than Leone and Morricone did in their
collaborations. In Morricone’s scores,
Leone’s primary characters have (in the words of Staig and Williams) their own
“individual musical signatures†-- the template followed by Parolini with
Sabata’s and Banjo’s themes. The
difference is that, in Morricone’s scores, in any one scene where the character
either enters or dominates the action, his theme predominates. Parolini combines his individual themes for
Sabata and Banjo as point and counterpoint in the same scene to underscore the
two gunmen’s shared history and one-up rivalry.
Banjo’s theme sounds a little like the old
military marching tune, “The British Grenadier,†a reminder of Banjo’s allusion
to his and Sabata’s Civil War past on different sides of the conflict: “You in
the North and me in the South.†In their
first meeting after Sabata’s arrival in town, Banjo plays a mocking version of
the tune, in increasingly frantic tempo, as if trying to get under the other
man’s skin. Sabata stops the performance
by shooting one of the pegs off the banjo. “You were out of tempo,†he says dryly.
Near
the end of the film, as Banjo leaves Daugherty City in apparent triumph after a
pivotal final encounter with Sabata, a merry version of his banjo theme begins
to play, bolstered by a fife and drum that underlines the similarity to
military marching music. The jingle of
bells joins in with a close-up of the bells on Banjo’s trousers. The viewer senses that this is the victorious
music that Banjo probably hears in his own imagination. However, Sabata’s wind-theme presently swirls
in. As if in competition, the strum of
the banjo gains tempo, becoming increasingly insistent. Remembering the association of the fast-tempo
strumming with the much earlier scene in which Banjo was humiliated, you may
anticipate that Banjo’s present victory will be short-lived, too.
There isn’t an official 45th anniversary
edition of “Sabata,†but the Swiss label Explosive Media recently released a
new Blu-Ray combo pack that also includes a DVD print, a supplemental disc of
interviews and features, and a nice souvenir booklet in German, copiously
illustrated with stills and pictures of
various international posters.
“Sabata†and the two Parolini films that
immediately followed it are popularly known as “The Sabata Trilogy,†although
only one is a true sequel. “Indio
Black, sai che ti dico: Sei un gran figlio di . . .,†released in Italy in
1970, was imported to the U.S. the following year as “Adios, Sabata.†Yul Brynner played the hero who wears black,
this time a black fringed shirt and bell-bottom trousers instead of Lee Van
Cleef’s more formal outfit. In the
Italian version, he’s Indio Black; in the dubbed U.S. print, Sabata.
Both movies are strongly linked in casting
and style. Three of the major supporting
roles in the two movies are occupied by the same actors (Jordan, Rizzo,
Sanchez) and fulfill similar functions in character and plot. Dean Reed, who looks like the young Roger
Moore, plays an opportunist named Ballantine who serves as this film’s surrogate
for Banjo. There are several big-action
set pieces, mostly involving Sabata’s mission in Mexico to relieve a tyrannical
officer, Colonel Skimmel, of a hoard of gold during the revolution against
Maximilian.
“Adios, Sabata†is an entertaining Spaghetti
with a bigger cast of extras and more explosions than its predecessors. One set piece, in which Sabata sends the
no-good Murdock Brothers to their “just reward†in a showdown at the Bounty
Hunters’ Agency, is particularly well dialogued and choreographed.
But “Sabata†is the better movie, partly
because Van Cleef and Berger had stronger chemistry than Brynner and Reed, and
partly because Brynner’s character is a more traditional soldier of fortune and
do-gooder (he’s friends with benevolent old priests and small children) than
Van Cleef’s enigmatic loner. Although
Bruno Nicolai’s score for “Alias Sabata†is quite good on its own terms, the
title track emulating the full-on symphonic, choral sound of Morricone’s
Spaghetti music, it isn’t as ingeniously integrated into the movie as
Giombini’s composition was.
Parolini’s
authentic sequel to “Sabata,†released in Italy in 1971 as "È
tornato Sabata... hai chiuso un'altra volta," reached the States in 1972
as “Return of Sabata.†Lee Van Cleef
returns as the lead character, and Giombini returns as the soundtrack composer,
but unfortunately this movie doesn’t measure up to its predecessors.
As in “Sabata,â€Van Cleef’s character rides
into a town where a cabal of seemingly respectable citizens is engaged in nefarious
activity. This time, the heavies are
the outwardly pious McIntocks who trumpet civic expansion in Hobsonville by
raising money for new buildings and businesses. They do so by imposing exorbitant taxes on the town’s goods and
services.
In truth, patriarch Joe McIntock is
conniving with his brother-in-law, banker Jeremy Sweeney, to smuggle the money
out of town for his own enrichment. Sabata, who arrives in Hobsonville as a sharpshooter in a traveling circus
sideshow, following a hunch about something being rotten somewhere, uncovers
the fraud. As in “Sabata,†he demands
blackmail from the bad guys in return for keeping their secret. The McIntocks, reluctant to pay, send a
series of would-be assassins after him.
Again, Parolini employs his stock troupe of
Jordan, Rizzo, and Sanchez in supporting roles, and inserts a slippery
intermediary character, Clyde (Reiner Schone). Clyde, like Banjo, shares a Civil War past with Sabata. Giombini’s music isn’t as ingenious as his
score for the first movie, and the circus aspect of the story never quite jells
with the plot about the McIntocks’ scam; as a whole, the movie lacks the little
visual and aural details that wove “Sabata†together.
Another problem: Sabata loses much of the
steely, enigmatic quality that defined his personality in the first movie. In “Return of Sabata,†an old girlfriend, a
hooker named Maggie, drifts into town, and Sabata shacks up with her. Maggie is never quite integrated into the
story either. Sabata as a mysterious
loner in the original film was intriguing. As a more conventional character with a sexy main squeeze, like a hero
out of a paperback adult western, he isn’t. Still, “Return of Sabata†hardly merits a place among the “50 Worst
Movies of All Time,†as the Medved brothers asserted in their 1978 book. Maybe Parolini has the last laugh: the Sabata
movies live on while the Medved book is long forgotten.
CLICK HERE TO ORDER "THE SABATA TRILOGY" FROM AMAZON USA
(For information about Explosive Media's Blu-ray European special editions, click here. For more information, see the story in Cinema Retro issue #29. Click below to purchase).
Cinema Retro issue #29:
Gordon Willis, one of the most acclaimed cinematographers of all time, has passed away at age 82. Praised by critics and prominent filmmakers alike, Willis helped transform the way modern movies were shot and had a unique style that defined his work. His most prominent films include The Godfather triology and numerous movies with Woody Allen including the 1979 classic Manhattan, which Willis shot in black and white. It became what many consider to be his signature achievement in motion pictures. Willis never won a competitive Oscar but was honored with an Academy Award on the basis of his lifetime achievements. For more click here
By Brian Hannan
The 50th
anniversary showing of Zulu in Britain next month is unlikely to be
repeated in the U.S. where the film flopped. But even the poorest box-office performer has an afterlife. So in 1965 Zulu was pushed out again anywhere that
would have it. That meant it supported some odd, not to say ugly, bedfellows –
exploitationer Taboos of the World in
Kansas City, The Three Stooges in The
Outlaws Is Coming in Phoenix, B
western Stage To Thunder Rock in Long Beach, How to Stuff a Wild Bikini in Des Moines and Rhino in Abilene. They liked it in Long Beach where it supported both
Circus World and That Man from Rio. It was the second feature to None But the Brave in Provo, Utah, and to
two more successful Joe E. Levine movies, Yesterday,
Today and Tomorrow in Ironwood, Michigan, and Marriage, Italian Style in Corpus Christi, Texas. Triple bills
being a staple of drive-ins, it was seen with Viva Las Vegas and Beach
Party in Tucson.
But it was not just support
meat. Almost a year after its release, it topped the bill in Helena, Montana,
with Robert Mitchum in Man in the Middle
as support. In Chester it was the main attraction with Homicidal in support. In Weimar, Texas, it was supported by Tarzan the Magnificent and in Bridgeport
by First Men on the Moon. At the
Cecil theatre in Mason City, Iowa, it played on its own, as it did in Colorado
Springs where it was advertised as “in the great tradition of Beau Geste†(supply your own exclamation
marks.)
But it was not done yet.
Exhibitors in San Mateo had a soft spot for Zulu in 1966. It played there seven
times, as support to The Great Race, Marlon Brando western Appaloosa, Fantastic Voyage
(in two theaters), What’s Up Tiger Lily?, The Leather
Boys and Lawrence of Arabia.
Abilene brought it back twice, for a re-match with Rhino and then in a double bill with Kimberley Jim starring singer Jim Reeves when it was promoted as “a
true story of the Zulu tribe.†Fremont cinemas also ran in twice – with Return of the Seven and Fantastic Voyage. In Troy and Bennington
it rode shotgun with Elvis in Harum
Scarum. In Charleston it supported Arabesque,
in Winona The Second Best Secret Agent and in Long Beach What Did You Do in the War, Daddy?
The highlight of 1967 had to
be a double bill with The Daleks (Dr Who and the Daleks) in Delaware, or
perhaps the teaming with Batman in
Cumberland, Maryland, or El Cid in
Ottawa. Zulu returned twice to
Fremont to support Africa Addio and John
Sturges’ Hour of the Gun. In Modesto
it played with Where The Spies Are.
In Long Beach it was put on at a pop concert where the headline act was
Organized Confusion (anybody remember them?). These three years of repeated
showings hardly counted as a proper reissue, but it did cast an interesting
light on what may – or may not – have turned into something of a cult film. In
Britain, where it was a smash hit, it was reissued on the ABC circuit in 1967
and 1972/
Brian Hannan is the author
of the forthcoming The Reissue Bible.
CLICK BELOW TO ORDER CINEMA RETRO ISSUE #28
Earlier this month, Cinema Retro was invited to cover Tribeca Talks, a new live interview series that took place as part of the Tribeca Film Festival in New York City. We sent our "Man About Manhattan", Giacomo Selloni to cover the initial event at which Ron Howard was interviewed by NBC newsman Brian Williams. Here is his report:
By Giacomo Selloni
Ron Howard is an articulate film director. So it should come as no surprise that he is also an articulate speaker. He also has a way with anecdotes, as one might expect, given the length and diversity of his career.
"I think it's wrong to think of what I'm in as the movie business," Howard says. "It's the moving image business. I think it's necessary to work in all different mediums." He also says it's hard to call it the film business as the industry moves further towards digital movie making. Part of his process is deciding not only how to tell a story but what medium to use, film, television even the internet. "Some stories might work better on the internet, with little three-minute segments. The audience is always going to tell you what they want," he continued, "the audience clearly wants to have the option to view different stories in different ways."
"You're sixty, and a grandfather; it's enough to make one check their watch," Brian Williams said about Howard as he asked him questions about his career. When called upon to tell stories about the people he's worked with in his career that has now spanned six decades, Howard's abilities as a story teller came to the forefront. John Wayne, Henry Fonda, Betty Davis, Jimmy Stewart are among the legends he's acted with or directed. Howard recalled his first meeting with "The Duke." He was picked up at the airport in Carson City, Nevada by "The Shootist" dirctor, Don Siegel and driven to the motel where they were all staying. "C'mon," Siegel said, "let me introduce you to The Duke." Upon introducing the young star of "Happy Days" to John Wayne, Siegel handed Wayne a copy of the latest TV Guide that he picked up at the airport. It featured Ron Howard and Henry Winkler on the cover. "A big shot, huh?" said Wayne. Howard later asked Wayne if he wanted to run lines. Wayne told Howard that no one had ever asked him to do that before. Howard was struck by how hard Wayne worked on finding the right spots to insert his trademark pauses and hitches. They weren't by accident, they were part of a "structured performance." "That's one thing all the great ones had in common," Howard recalled, "they always worked a little bit harder than everyone else."
Williams asked Howard if he would ever return to acting. "I would kind of like to," Howard replied - much to the audience's approval. Now that he and his wife are empty nesters she's urging him to get out of the house more. He told the story of how he got his first full-length feature directing job. "Kids off TV sitcoms were not from the fertile ground where the industry looked for directors." He made a deal with Roger Corman who wanted him to make "Eat My Dust," a film he did not want to star in. Corman gave him the opportunity to pitch a film that was in the same car-chase vein. "Grand Theft Auto" was the result. Howard co-wrote the script with his father, actor Rance Howard, and it was a major boxoffice success. The rest, as they say, is history. A few years later Howard gave up acting completely in order to concentrate on his booming career as a director, although out of sentiment, he did co-star in the smash hit TV movie "Return to Mayberry" in 1986 out of sentiment and respect for his co-stars from "The Andy Griffith Show".
The subject of politics and popular culture came up. Howard is a great believer in American culture. "We are truly a melting pot nation and we understand how to make it work and grow." Working primarily in Europe for the last few years, he is troubled by the confusing messages the United States sends to the rest of the world, the whole red state/ blue state thing. People are purposely polarized. Moderate ideas, he claims, don't get any attention. The only messages that get attention are those of the extremists. In closing, Brian Williams told Howard that "If our country were to prepare a time capsule, your films would have to be in it - if not you, yourself." A quick look on IMDB as a reminder of his distinguished directorial career may have you feeling the same way.
(Giacomo Selloni is a playwright and serves as Treasurer of the legendary Players club in New York City.)
Cinema Retro has received the following press release relating to our columnist Howard Hughes' new book:
I.B.TAURIS
PRESS RELEASE
OUTER
LIMITS
THE FILMGOERS’ GUIDE TO THE GREAT SCIENCE-FICTION FILMS
Howard
Hughes
Published in Paperback
30 May 2014
£14.99 | 9781780761664
The
up-to-date detailed companion to the best sci-fi movies of all time
Science Fiction is probably the most popular box office
genre in movie history and has given filmgoers some of their most memorable
cinematic experiences. Outer Limits
takes its readers on a tour of the sci-fi cinema universe in all its
fantastical, celestial glory.
The milestone films of sci-fi cinema from Metropolis to
Avatar are discussed in this Filmgoers’ Guide for anyone who enjoys a cinema
that has pleased and amazed filmgoers since the dawn of cinema. Illustrated
with fine examples of sci-fi film poster-art, Outer Limits goes deep into the most interesting and popular movies
across sci-fi cinema’s many forms, with core chapters used as launch pads to
discuss lesser-known influential movies and follow-on sequels. Howard Hughes
tells the stories from pre-production to box office returns of The War of the Worlds, Independence Day,
Tarantula, Godzilla, The Time Machine, The Thing, Invasion of the Body
Snatchers, Forbidden Planet, Barbarella, Galaxy Quest, Minority Report, Planet
of the Apes, Mad Max 2, Back to the Future, Alien, Terminator 2: Judgement Day,
The Man Who Fell to Earth, The Matrix, Star Trek, Apollo 13, Blade Runner
and many more.
ABOUT
THE AUTHOR
Film writer and historian Howard Hughes is the author
of Aim for the Heart: The Films of Clint Eastwood
(I.B. Tauris) and of the Filmgoers’ Guide
series, When Eagles Dared, Crime Wave,
Once Upon a Time in the Italian West and Stagecoach to Tombstone (all from
I.B. Tauris). He is contributor to ‘The James Bond Archives’, the official
fiftieth anniversary celebration of 007, and writes regularly for film magazine
Cinema Retro.
PRAISE
FOR HOWARD HUGHES’ BOOKS
‘expertly dissected...a fascinating read.’ - The Times
‘offers much to inform and plenty to enjoy...Highly
recommended.’ - Kamera
Hughes is ‘rigorous...engulfing us with history and
myriad detail.’ - Empire
‘Entertaining, illuminating and packed with
information’ - Sight and Sound
‘Hughes is a fan and his enthusiasm, as well as his
research, shines through.’ - Tribune
‘a goldmine of such film trivia, wide-ranging and often
delightful...Hughes is a thorough researcher and knows his stuff’ - The Australian
CLICK HERE TO ORDER FROM AMAZON USA
CLICK HERE TO ORDER FROM AMAZON UK
There will be a special two-day 50th anniversary tribute to the James Bond classic "Goldfinger" held in Oslo, Norway May 22-23. Ken Adam, the legendary Oscar-winning production designer, will be an honored guest along with his biographer Sir Christopher Frayling, Norman Wanstall (who won an Oscar for his sound effects for the film) and actress Margaret Nolan, who played "Dink" and whose body was seen in the classic opening titles sequence. For full information and schedule click here
Joe Dante's Trailers From Hell site presents the original theatrical trailer for John Boorman's classic 1972 screen adaptation of James Dickey's "Deliverance" starring Jon Voight, Burt Reynolds and Ronny Cox and Ned Beatty, both in their feature film debuts. The trailer includes commentary by film director Neil Labute. Click here to view Click here for Cinema Retro's review of the Blu-ray 40th anniversary release.
(This review pertains to the Region 2 UK release)
By Paul Risker
Unemployed and disgruntled Ronnie (Robert Buchanan)
hatches a plan to steal ninety sinks as
a means to solving his financial hardship. Recruiting his closest friends,
against the grey backdrop of Glasgow, eight teenagers plan to pull off the
cinematic caper that would define 1979.
Alongside the 60th Anniversary release of Akira
Kurosawa's seminal action masterpiece Seven Samurai, the month of April would
find the BFI with one eye fixed on Japan, and the other on home soil.
With their Flipside label the BFI proudly champions
the rediscovery of British cult films, and the latest film to find itself
inducted into this illustrious catalogue is Bill Forsyth's 1980 caper comedy
That Sinking Feeling.
It is hard to think of two more distinct films finding
themselves on the release slate alongside one another. In spite of being worlds
apart, they share a single similarity, and to the astute eye it is a
singularity that multiplies. That Sinking Feeling and Seven Samurai together
are perhaps a testament to the fact that films, like people, are individuals
but also live within a cinematic or narrative society.
As unmistakably Japanese as is Seven Samurai –
although it would be the seed of inspiration for John Sturges’ The Magnificent
Seven -- Forsyth's Glaswegian crime caper has British cinematic blood coursing
through its veins. It is indelibly a cult British classic,, regardless of whether
or not you’d describe it in that typically English way as your “cup of tea.â€
The role That Sinking Feeling plays in the story of
both British and international independent cinema should not be overlooked. Highlighted
in an entry of Kermode Uncut that can be found amongst the extras, Forsyth
discusses how he constructed the film’s budget and how he gathered
non-financial resources that made his debut feature anything but a sinking endeavour.
It positions Forsyth as one of cinema's ingenious independent filmmakers, and
his story allows us to compare the landscape of independent cinema and the
working filmmaker from then to now.
With its shade of social realism through the disenchanted youth, Forsyth and
his cast of characters turn hardship into comedic gold, or at least they
attempt to do so through a caper that more than thirty years on may strike one
as pointless, and even perhaps, as amusing as the film itself. That being said,
with the recent scurrying around for scrap metal and copper that has helped
regional news programmes fill their schedule, That Sinking Feeling may not have
sunk as deeply into the past as one might imagine.
From the outset Forsyth imbues the film with playfulness - the film's title
sinking off-screen to the suggestion of Glasgow as a fictitious place. Add to
that the wry smile that frequents Ronnie’s (Robert Buchanan's) lips and it is
almost as if the film is trying not to laugh along with itself; an infectious
humour that would similarly plague Seinfeld cast members years later.
The fictitious place known as Glasgow is one that
may just intertwine itself with an inner knowing truth that Glasgow is real,
and the grey urban landscape of Forsyth’s debut feature is a reflection that
possesses a certain proportion of truth.
Constructed with a seeming focus on individual moments - the opening monologue,
the science-fiction comedy element and the encounter with a pretentious art
dealer amongst others, That Sinking Feeling is made up of comedy segments that
undermine the fluidity of a narrative gliding towards its destination. Whilst
it does successfully tell the story of a caper, and the forming of a gang, it
decidedly feels as if it is a film of moments that should be appreciated as
such.
Although it is rough around the edges, and it habitually surrenders to the
moment, it should be regarded as both criticism and praise. These faults afford
That Sinking Feeling a vitality that so often can be found in first films where
directors succumb to the moment, a creative energy or instinct. After all, film
is constructed of moments, and the creation of these moments that permits a
film to exude charm and energy is reason enough for celebration.
With a comprehensive set of extras of first-hand accounts, the BFI have pulled
Forsyth's debut out of the shadows cast by Forsyth’s better known and often
more celebrated Gregory's Girl and Local
Hero. That Sinking Feeling may be a
title of introspective truth regarding its own fate.
Whilst the dark confines of the cinema may be the
traditional spiritual experience of the cineaste, to fine connoisseurs of home
entertainment such as the BFI, they are equally a beguiling means towards discovery or rediscovery. If the
truth be told, they possess a greater capacity to take us beyond the film, and
with the restored original Glaswegian audio track and a spate of extras, for
those either not born in 1979 or for those too young to see That Sinking
Feeling on its initial theatrical release, the BFI Flipside release is a
beguiling means of discovery, and for all others re-discovery with it restored
to Forsyth’s original vision.
Click here to order from Amazon UK
By Don L. Stradley
Martin Ritt's Conrack,
now available on Blu-ray from Twilight Time, first hit theaters in 1974. This was a time when new, brash directors
were reinventing American cinema, a time
when movie screens were likely spackled with vomit from demonically possessed
little girls, or blood from the victims of Dirty Harry Callahan's .44 Magnum. Theaters
in your neighborhood were just as likely to be playing hardcore porn as the
latest Paul Newman movie. Ritt's simple
tale of an optimistic white teacher in a schoolroom of dirt poor black students
was a success just by squeaking through to its birth.
Looking at it 40 years later, one is struck by two
things, namely, Jon Voight's relentless energy and goodwill as the big-hearted
teacher, and the very realistic performances from the kids. Even while acknowledging the film's uneven
tone, or what one critic deemed "a crazy quilt of naturalism, farce, and
soap opera all jumbled together," one is still intrigued by Conrack. Maybe the idea that a caring soul might try to educate some people who
would otherwise remain ignorant strikes a primal cord within us. Maybe there's something irresistible about
sheltered folks suddenly realizing there is more to the world than their dirty
little backwater. Or maybe, and this
might trump all the other maybes, we all hated school so much that we wish our
own lives had been enriched, even briefly, by someone like Conrack.
Pat Conroy, a young idealist, takes a teaching position
on a remote island in a South Carolina river delta. He's vowed to grow his hair until the war
stops (the story takes place in 1969) and the locals look at him as if they're
seeing a mythical animal up close, for a towering blonde white man on an island
made up almost entirely of blacks is as odd as a unicorn. The locals can't even pronounce his name,
which creates the movie's title. The
newly dubbed Conrack fends off their suspicions with a grin as wide as the
Bible belt, and then sets about teaching "the babies," as these fifth
through eighth graders are called. He's
shocked to find out the level of his students' ignorance - they can't read,
they know nothing about life beyond the island, they've never heard of Babe
Ruth or Halloween, have never played football, and, Heaven forbid, they don't
even know that coffee comes from Brazil.
Based on Pat Conroy's memoir ‘The Water Is Wide,’ the
story follows Conrack's effort to help these children even as he is met by
resistance from the school's principal, a middle aged black woman (Madge
Sinclair) who believes the children need to beaten with a leather strap, and
superintendent Skeffington (Hume Cronyn), a grinning sadist who likes to grab a
kid by the thumb and twist, a punishing move he calls "milking the
rat." Add to this a local drunk
(Paul Winfield) who skulks around the island like Boo Radley, the talkative Mr.
Quickfellow (Antonio Fargas) who stalks 13-year-old girls with promises of new
dresses, plus the natural reluctance of students who have never been
challenged, and it seems Conrack has entered a world that may be too much for
him to conquer.
Yet, armed with nothing but his enthusiasm, Conrack
gradually earns the love and respect of the classroom. The kids, as meek as
church mice at the movie’s start, are
soon chanting James Brown songs, and dressed up for a Halloween trip to
Beaufort. Conrack's teaching methods are
unorthodox - he tickles, wrestles, and teases the students, and when he learns
that no one on the island knows how to swim, he promptly throws the kids, one
by one, into the river. His freewheeling style gets results. He even gets the
class to sit still long enough to listen to some recordings of classical
music. I like how the kids calmly pay
attention to the sounds coming from the old turntable. In a more contemporary movie, they all would
have picked up instruments, mastered them overnight, and would have then gone on to win a contest
of some kind, for in modern America a story is only uplifting if you can crush
someone and win a prize. But in Conrack,
the kids merely listen; they’re quietly mystified by the music, happy that they
can come close to pronouncing the names of Beethoven or Brahms. Conrack even
picks up one of the younger boys and cradles him as the music plays, inviting
him to close his eyes and sleep. Somehow, Conrack's good intentions get him labeled as "an outside
agitator" and fired from his job. Conrack tries to fight the verdict but
is no match for Skeffington’s power as superintendent. His good spirit bloodied
but unbowed, Conrack leaves the island. To the children he says, "May the
river be kind to you when you cross it."
As one might have expected, reactions to the movie were
mixed: syndicated columnist David Sterritt dismissed it as "an audacious
attempt at mythmaking." Indeed
there are scenes of Conrack jogging along the beach, his class running along
behind him, as if he’s some sort of golden haired pied piper, an image that probably
ruffled some feathers in the super cynical ‘70s. The New York Times gave it a
mostly positive review, but lamented the film's "glaze of sentimentality
that sugars much of the narrative."
Continue reading "REVIEW: "CONRACK" (1974) STARRING JON VOIGHT, TWILIGHT TIME BLU-RAY REVIEW "
MI6 Confidential, the terrific British James Bond magazine, is now shipping issue #25. Highlights include: interview with legendary stuntman/coordinator/second unit director Vic Armstrong; interview with former United Artists head of production David V. Picker; The Cars of Ian Fleming; interview with Lana Wood of Diamonds Are Forever, The Bond in Motion London auto exhibition; the story behind the James Bond Jr. animated series, and much more. Click here to order.
Cinema Retro has received the following press release from Sony:
CULVER
CITY, Calif. (May 8, 2014) / PRNewswire — At a ceremony today at the U.S.
National Archives in Washington, D.C., Monuments Men Foundation Founder and
Chairman Robert Edsel donated “Hitler Album No. 6†to the Archive, reuniting it
with 39 other “Hitler Albums†recovered at the end of World War II. Chief
Archivist of the United States, David Ferriero, accepted the album from the
foundation and Monuments Man Harry Ettlinger. Ettlinger represents the historic
group honored most recently in Sony Pictures’
THE MONUMENTS MEN, which is based on Mr. Edsel’s No.1 New York Times’
bestselling book of the same name.
George
Clooney’s action thriller THE MONUMENTS MEN is now available on Digital from
Sony Pictures Home Entertainment, starring Clooney, Matt Damon, Bill Murray, John
Goodman, Jean Dujardin, Bob Balaban, Hugh Bonneville and Cate Blanchett.[i]
The Blu-rayâ„¢ Combo Pack and DVD are available on May 20, including bonus features
with Ettlinger and Edsel, who worked closely with Clooney during the production
of the film.
The
brown leather-bound album of photographs donated today was created by the staff
of a special Nazi taskforce, the Einsatzstab Reichsleiter Rosenberg (ERR),
which documented Hitler’s systematic looting of cultural treasures in
Nazi-occupied Europe. The ERR staff catalogued the French collections by
creating leather-bound photo albums, including Album No. 6, with each page
containing a photograph of one stolen item with inventory codes denoting the
family to which it belonged. These albums were specifically created for Hitler
in an effort to keep him apprised of the ERR’s progress in France. In May 1945,
39 original ERR albums, along with records that documented the confiscation of
thousands of looted items, were discovered at the Castle of Neuschwanstein in
Germany by the Monuments Men, including Lt. James Rorimer, who after the war
became the sixth Director of the Metropolitan Museum of Art. The albums were
subsequently taken to the Munich Central Collecting Point, where they were used
by the Monuments Men, including Harry Ettlinger, to assist in the restitution
process. The albums were also introduced as evidence at the Nuremberg trials to
document the massive Nazi art looting operation.
Today,
the U.S. National Archives has custody of the original 39 albums. It was
believed that additional ERR albums had been destroyed during the latter days
of World War II. However, since 2007, The Monuments Men Foundation discovered three
additional albums, which have since been donated to the U.S. National Archives,
joining the original 39 albums. Album No. 6 was found when an heir of an
American soldier stationed in the Berchtesgaden area of Germany contacted the
Monuments Men Foundation. In the closing days of World War II, the soldier had
entered Hitler’s home in the Bavarian Alps and picked up the album as a
souvenir. The soldier’s nephew, who later inherited the album, was initially
unaware of their historical significance until meeting with Edsel.
“The
Foundation often receives calls on our toll free tip line, 1-866-WWII-ART, from
veterans and their heirs, who don’t know the importance of cultural and
artistic items they brought home after their military service, or aren’t aware
that anyone is looking for the items,†Edsel stated. “This album is just the
tip of the iceberg, and thanks to George Clooney and the success of The
Monuments Men film, global awareness about these heroes of civilization has
increased dramatically. We are delighted, and anticipate that the home
entertainment rollout of the film will continue to help us honor the legacy of
the men and women, and complete their mission by locating and returning works
of art and cultural items to their rightful owners.â€
Bonus
features on THE MONUMENTS MEN include two all-new featurettes that highlight
the making of the film. The first, “George Clooney’s Mission,†features
interviews with Clooney, as well as the rest of the cast, on the elements that
went into completing THE MONUMENTS MEN. The second featurette, “Marshalling the
Troops,†features a cast discussion on the real men and women who inspired the
film. Exclusively available on the Blu-ray Combo Pack are deleted scenes and two
additional exclusive featurettes. “In Their Own Words†is a unique piece that
offers the most comprehensive and direct insight into the hearts and minds of
the heroes, featuring an interview with Ettlinger, one of the last surviving
members of the Monuments Men.
“A Woman Amongst the Monuments Men†features a discussion with Cate Blanchett about
her film character, Claire Simone, who is based on French heroine Rose Valland.
CLICK HERE TO VISIT THE MONUMENTS MEN SONY WEB SITE
[i]Two-time Academy Award® winner Clooney (Argo, Best Motion Picture of the Year,
2012),
Academy Award® winner Matt Damon (Good Will Hunting, Best Writing, Screenplay Written Directly for
the Screen, 1997), Bill Murray (The Grand
Budapest Hotel), John Goodman (Argo),
Academy Award® winner Jean Dujardin
(The Artist, Best Performance by an Actor
in a Leading Role, 2011), Bob Balaban (The
Grand Budapest Hotel),
Hugh Bonneville (TV’s “Downton Abbeyâ€) & Academy Award® winner
Cate Blanchett (Blue Jasmine, Best
Performance by an Actress in a Leading Role, 2013).
Review by Darren Allison
On Chris' Soundtrack Corner label
Stelvio
Cipriani's beautiful percussion based score for Joe D'Amato's ORGASMO NERO (1980)
(CSC 014) sits very nicely alongside Chris' Soundtrack Corner’s previously
released PAPAYA DEI CARAIBI (1978) (CSC 006). Both films are among D’Amato’s
island-based sexploitation features and both were scored by Italian composer
Cipriani. Both of Cipriani’s scores are superb examples of Mondo-exotica/erotica
film music. Beyond the percussion based tribal themes there are also many
subtle and romantic pieces that reflect the sun, sand and sexuality – each of
which were often the staple exponents of European cult cinema of the 70s. Yes,
these films were of course adult sub-genres, and in this case the focus was on American
born actor Richard Harrison who plays Paul, an ethnological researcher who is
investigating a little known island tribe. Paul is accompanied on the trip by
his wife Helen (played by Spanish actress Nieves Navarro). Helen subsequently begins
a sexual relationship with Haini (Lucia Ramirez), a beautiful black tribeswoman
who exercises a lusty ‘primitive’ sexuality. Thus begins a fractured love triangle
– a relationship that is further complicated when Paul and Helen take Haini
back with them to the big city. From here on, D’Amato relies on a very familiar
and tested formula, using each occurring situation as the premise for a soft
porn sequence.
Cipriani's
music is always reliable and often outlives the film itself, and this again
proves to be the case with ORGASMO NERO. Cipriani provides some rich Bossa
cuts, but you are never too far away from a piece of evocative, multi layered
ambiance. Cipriani wisely chose a contrast of styles, an intelligent decision
on his part – as it isn’t hard to imagine how other (and arguably lessor) composers
may have simply relegated it to one particular genre. Fans and collectors of Cipriani’s
work will certainly have little problem melting into this latest release and no
doubt take to it like an old familiar friend.
To order click here
On Monday night, Cinema Retro was invited to attend a private party in honor of actor Alan Cumming at New York's legendary and quirky Theatre 80 St. Marks on St. Marks Place. The venue has its own mini "walk of fame" that dates back many decades. The Theatre/bar also houses the Museum of the American Gangster, as it once had a sordid history that included a gangland rubout. Alan Cumming graciously signed the cement block, having been introduced by the theater's owner Lorcan Otway and actress Arlene Dahl. After the party, everyone thundered to the famed bar, where plenty of good brews and live Irish music (and Irish whiskey) rounded out the evening. (Alan Cumming is currently reprising his Tony Award-winning role in Cabaret on Broadway.)
If you are in New York and would like to visit Theatre 80 St. Marks, click here for info.
(All photos copyright Cinema Retro. All rights reserved.)
By Todd Garbarini
Ivan Kavanagh’s The Canal (2014) is the one of the creepiest, most brilliantly
photographed and edited psychological studies I have seen of late. An utterly frightening and unsettling concoction,
The Canal, which screened last month
at the 2014 Tribeca Film Festival, pulls no punches in creating an overwhelming
feeling of dread while constantly keeping the audience on its guard.
David (Rupert Evans) is a film
archivist who appears to have a wonderful home life. He and his expectant wife Alice (Hannah
Hoekstra) visit a prospective house, with a canal not far off, to settle in. As Alice inspects the layout, David sees what
appears to be someone walking through the first floor. Vexed, he swears that he saw someone. Or did he? Five years hence their lives appear ordinary with the addition of their
young son, Billy (Calum Heath). Alice
keeps telling David she loves him prior to leaving for work or following mechanical
sex. It arouses suspicion; at a dinner
party, Alice rushes off to speak with a client, Alex (Carl Shabaan), but David
notices intimate exchanges between the two and when she returns to dance with him,
and we see the estrangement on their faces.
At work, David’s work partner Claire
(Antonia Campbell-Hughes) tells him that new footage has come in and needs to
be viewed for archiving. He is shocked
to learn that it is a detail of a 1902 crime scene that took place inside the
bedroom that he and his wife now occupy (this is a point that the estate agent
naturally neglected to impart to the couple.) The footage has the look and feel of authenticity (the effect could have
probably been created in post-production on a computer utilizing a high brow
software package) and director Kavanagh shot the crime scene aftermath with a 1915 Universal movie camera by using the
lowest speed black and white 35mm stock that he and his crew could find. The film delves more into a ghost
story that recalls The Shining
(1980), The Ring (2005), and The Innkeepers (2011) in terms of
imagery and mood. Veteran composer Ceiri Torjussen provides a brilliantly
effective, frightening and memorable score.
David starts to become unhinged. When his wife prepares to go to work, David
pleads with her to come straight home and she promises to. After work, David follows her as she and
Alex, their affair now obviously confirmed, walk to Alex’s house which is
opposite a canal. David follows them
from a distance, and catches them in the midst of sexual passion, leaving him
feeling betrayed and disillusioned. He
stumbles into the worst cinematic toilet seen since Danny Boyle’s Trainspotting (1996) and begins to see
flashes of the murder that occurred well over 100 years ago. Like the best ghost stories, The Canal presents us with images that
give us pause to determine if they are real or if they are just happening in
the mind of the protagonist.
When David’s wife goes missing, he
contacts the police and tries desperately to locate her. The lead officer on the case (Steve Oram)
immediately suspects David killed her and asks him straight out; David is
bewildered by the inquiry. His son Billy
is too young to understand the concepts of disappearance and death; Sophie the
nanny (Kelly Byrne) is concerned for Billy’s welfare but is also afraid for her
own safety and as David becomes more and more frenetic she feels the need to
leave.
The film is beset in imagery that
references pregnancy and childbirth; water, as it did in Robert Altman’s
dreamlike 3 Women (1977), plays a big
factor, as does duality. The references
in The Canal are two-fold – there is
the canal where David’s wife’s body is found, and the birth canal is referenced
in a scene of unnerving horror.
The
Canal had me watching the end
credits in silent anticipation, holding my breath until the final sounds on the
soundtrack ended abruptly. It is a
visceral, gripping film experience, one to be ideally experienced
theatrically. Viewers will get that
chance in months to come when the film is released in 20 market
By Lee Pfeiffer
Explosive Media is an exciting new German company that specializes in releasing excellent Blu-ray and DVD editions of retro movies. The good news is that all of their releases are "region free", which means they will play on any Blu-ray/DVD system. The bad news is that if you don't live in Germany, you might have a difficult time obtaining these unless you order through Amazon Germany or find the the titles through third party sellers. Nevertheless, our considerable European readership will be especially gratified that some excellent titles are now available through this company. One of those titles is The Revengers, a little-remembered but very worthwhile 1972 Western that reunited Wild Bunch co-stars William Holden and Ernest Borgnine, along with another Western icon, the great Woody Strode. The time-worn premise is a familiar one to fans of the genre. Holden plays John Benedict, a successful rancher with a loving family consisting of two sons, two daughters and a devoted wife. One day, while out hunting a mountain lion, Benedict is alerted to the fact that his ranch is being attacked by a band of ruthless rustlers. By the time he makes his way home, he finds a horrific sight to greet him: his entire family and dedicated farm hand have been mercilessly slaughtered. Benedict is overcome with grief but his overriding emotion is for revenge. He learns the band of cutthroats consists of renegade Indians and white men who are led by Tarp (Warren Vanders), who is leading the pack and their stolen herd to a hideout encampment in Mexico where they will use the horses to trade for guns and liquor. Benedict travels to Mexico and hand picks a gang of convicts who are suffering under horrid conditions in a desert prison. He "rents" them ostensibly to do labor in a mine but actually enlists them to accompany him on his seemingly suicidal mission to infiltrate Tarp's camp so he can have his revenge. Predictably, the motley crew double crosses and even robs him- but in the end, his faith in them is justified when they return and inform him they will go with him. They embark on a year-long quest to find Tarp's camp and when they do, a major battle ensues during which Tarp escapes. Benedict and his ragtag "army" continue the hunt but not without some infighting within their group that leads to Benedict being seriously wounded by one of his own men.
The Revengers looked like pretty standard horse opera stuff at the time of its release. At times it's like The Comancheros meet The Magnificent Seven by way of The Dirty Dozen and The Searchers. However, the film plays better today with Holden and Borgnine giving fine performances (the latter is particularly amusing as the sleaziest of Holden's allies) with Woody Strode and an impressive cast of supporting actors adding to the mix. Susan Hayward (in her last film role) pops up briefly as a lonely Irish nurse who cares for the wounded Holden. Director Daniel Mann makes the most of the Mexican locations and there is some truly inspired cinematography by Gabriel Torres. There are also any number of well-staged action sequences including a hell of a battle when Holden's group aids an outnumbered outpost of U.S. Cavalry against an overwhelming number of Comancheros. These scenes feature some of the best horse falls stunts of the era. The only criticism from a technical standpoint is that composer Pino Calvi's score seems dated and more appropriate for an old episode of Starsky and Hutch.
The Blu-ray edition boasts a crystal clear transfer with the film available in both English and German languages. Explosive provides some nice extras including a four-page German language illustrated booklet, a great gallery of original posters and German lobby cards and several trailers for other releases including a terrific promo for Burt Lancaster in Valdez is Coming.
Explosive Media titles may be hard to get in the English language market, but they are worth going to some trouble to obtain.
Click here to visit their web site with links to Amazon Germany.
(In America, Paramount is reissuing the film on DVD, but not Blu-ray. Click here to order)
Paramount Home Video is releasing a special Blu-ray edition of the John Wayne/Maureen O'Hara hit Mclintock! (1963) in May. Here are the details. Pre-order now!
Synopsis: McLintock! presents screen giant John Wayne at his two-fisted best, with the beautiful, fiery Maureen O’Hara as the proverbial thorn in his side. The Duke stars as George Washington McLintock, a proud, defiant cattle baron whose daughter is due home from college. But G.W.’s happy reunion is tempered by the arrival of his headstrong wife (O’Hara), who recently left him. Verbal fireworks explode, slapstick pratfalls bloom… and the Wayne-O’Hara “reconciliation†culminates with the notorious “spanking†scene and the biggest mudhole brawl this side of the Mississippi in this wild, raucous and hilarious Western comedy!
Audio & Subtitles:
· English 5.1 Dolby TrueHD, English Mono Dolby TrueHD, French 5.1 Dolby Digital, Spanish 5.1 Dolby Digital & Portuguese 5.1 Dolby Digital
· English, English SDH, French, Spanish & Portuguese Subtitles
Special Features:
· Introduction by Leonard Maltin
· Commentaries by Leonard Maltin, Frank Thompson, Maureen O’Hara, Stefanie Powers, Michael Pate, Michael Wayne and Andrew McLaglen
· The Making of McLintock!
· The Corset: Don’t Leave Home Without One!
· 2 Minute Fight School
· Photo Gallery
· Theatrical Trailer HD
CLICK HERE TO ORDER FROM AMAZON
Efrem Zimbalist Jr., the son of a violin master and an opera singer who became an acclaimed actor, has died at age 95. Zimbalist had a recurring role in the 1950s hit TV series Maverick before starring with Roger Smith as private eyes in the smash hit 1958 series 77 Sunset Strip. However, it was in the 1960s that his star really rose by top-lining the TV show The F.B.I. The series was a love letter to the bureau and won praise from its controversial and mercurial director, J. Edgar Hoover, who gave unprecedented cooperation to the series. Zimablist went on to appear with his daughter Stephanie Zimbalist and Pierce Brosnan in another crime show, the 1980s hit Remington Steele. His feature films include Wait Until Dark, Airport 1975, The Crowded Sky and The Chapman Report. For more click here
Seven James Bond films starring Sean Connery and Roger Moore debut in May on Netfllix, North America. Titles are: Goldfinger, You Only Live Twice, A View to a Kill, From Russia With Love, Live and Let Die, For Your Eyes Only and Never Say Never Again. Click here for a list of other films and TV shows debuting this month.
By Lee Pfeiffer
There are precious few things in life that reach the status of absolute perfection. Off-hand I can think of three:
1. A top notch Cuban cigar.
2. A wee-small hours meal in a New Jersey White Castle.
3. Any performance by the New York Philharmonic.
Last night, I had the opportunity to cover the latter for Cinema Retro, as the Philharmonic, under the direction of the esteemed conductor David Newman, presented a magnificent tribute to the music of the Pixar animated film classics. The event took place at Avery Fisher Hall at Lincoln Center in New York City and was the latest production in the legendary orchestra's tie-ins to major motion pictures. Last year, I reported on the Philharmonic's similar celebration of the films of Alfred Hitchcock. (Click here for coverage) However, the Pixar event was even more impressive. My one gripe with the Hitchcock event was that the film clips included dialogue which distracted from the fact that a live orchestra was providing the background music. Obviously those concerns were shared by others because the clips used in the Pixar tribute were silent, thus allowing the full impact of the magical music scores to be appreciated.
David Newman addressed the packed auditorium prior to the concert and gave some fascinating insights into his family's long ties with film compositions. His father, Alfred Newman, was one of the most acclaimed movie composers of all time, having been accorded an astonishing 45 Oscar nominations and 9 wins. David is a noted film composer in his own right, his brother Thomas has been nominated for 12 Oscars and cousin Randy Newman has been nominated for 16 Oscars and won twice. It's doubtful there will ever be such a family legacy again in the course of motion picture history. David Newman's enthusiasm for the event was evident. He put his heart and soul into the performance. Drenched with sweat but clearly brimming with family pride, he provided an encore of Randy Newman's classic "You've Got a Friend in Me" from the original "Toy Story". It brought down the house. Kudos also to the editing team that so painstakingly put together the film clip montages that perfectly accompanied the scores. In all, there were selections from "Toy Story", "Finding Nemo", "Ratatouille", "A Bug's Life", "WALL-E", "Toy Story 2", "Cars", "Up", "The Incredibles", "Monsters, Inc.", "Cars 2", "Toy Story 3", "Brave" and "Monsters University". All but five of these scores were written by Randy or Thomas Newman. Four of the remaining scores were written by Michael Giacchino, with the score for the Scottish-themed "Brave" composed by Patrick Doyle. (There was a bagpiper brought out on stage to perform with the Philharmonic for themes from this film.)
We've written frequently about the fact that most contemporary movies lack memorable film scores. Composers are treated today like necessary evils rather than valued contributors to the finished movie. Often, they are brought on board after the movie has been completed and given an abbreviated time table to knock out a score. Compare that to the old days when composers were viewed as integral members of the production team who were often scoring sequences while the movie was still in production. The Pixar films still provide high profile presentations of major composer's work. Hearing these superb scores played by one of the world's greatest orchestras was a truly thrilling experience. Even more pleasing was the fact that there were many children in attendance. What better way could there be to illustrate to a young person the the contributions of musical scores to films?
The concerts opened last night and run tonight and tomorrow, May 3. Do not hesitate to attend if you possibly can. (Click here for ticket info)
Now I have to get those two other "perfect" things in life, so I'll have to track down a Cuban cigar while I head off to a White Castle here in Jersey.
By Don L. Stradley
When a young
woman is killed in the woods near the Florence Nightingale Institute,
detectives immediately begin their investigation at the weird old nursing
establishment. Why wouldn’t they? The place seemed full to bursting with
suspicious characters. There was shifty-eyed Dr. Cabala, for instance, who
looked too much like Christopher Lee to be totally innocent. Or maybe it was Dr. Carter, who seems a bit
too enthusiastic about splashing around in the guts of dissected frogs. (His
fingers seem permanently stained from frog juice). Then there was Hettie Green,
the head of the nurses who liked to welcome new trainees with a very sensual
bedtime massage. Accusations could also be aimed at Moss, the drooling
hunchback who wandered the landing in his role as handyman, often peeking in on
the young nurses as they slept or showered. Then again, maybe it was the
cloaked figure in the top hat who seemed to always be lurking in the shadows.
There’s even a young nurse who is acting in a local stage production of Dr. Jekyll
and Mister Hyde, a small girl whose delicate hands belie a facility with a
sword. That’s only part of the cast of characters in The Jekyll and Hyde Portfolio, an occasionally
bloody and often pornographic mess from 1971, brought back to gory life by the
kind fellows at Vinegar Syndrome, a group that thrives on reviving long buried
grindhouse dreck.
The
epic was directed by Eric Jeffrey Haims, who spent a brief time making porno
movies in Hollywood under the auspices of his bare bones production company,
Xerxes Productions Ltd. Haims gained a small amount of publicity when his 101 Acts of Love was shown at
Hollywood’s Las Palmas Theater in ’71 before an invited group of medical
professionals. The film was part of a benefit, with proceeds going to the LA
Free Clinic. Haims’ piece was one of those bogus medical documentaries that
were made as an excuse to show couples humping, yet J. Michael Kenyon of the
Hollywood Reporter praised the thing: “…the beauty and intrinsic calm of
physical delight are well highlighted by artful rendition…†I wonder if Kenyon
saw The Jekyll and Hyde Portfolio?
According to
those who keep track of such things, The
Jekyll and Hyde Portfolio was given an extremely limited VHS release many
years ago by Intervision Video, resulting in some outlandish bidding wars on
Internet auction sites. There have been instances of it selling for over
$1,500. (Who bid that much? It must have been J. Michael Kenyon.) Not to dampen
the spirits of the lucky winners, but I can’t imagine what made this movie such
a collectible title. True, there are some scenes of lesbianism, and a lot of
nudity, and some of the ladies are very pretty. As for the Sappho stuff, the
girls give it the old college try, which probably helped the movie get its X
rating. I can even understand how some might point to this movie as a
forerunner of the slasher flicks that would explode by the end of the decade.
(In fact, The Jekyll and Hyde Portfolio
boasts a scene where a couple’s barnyard coitus is interrupted when the male is
beheaded by someone wielding a nasty looking scythe, a distinctly Friday the 13th type of murder.) I'm
also sure that many bidders were titillated by the idea of a horror movie cast
with performers from the porn industry. Still, for $1,500 you can get real women
to come to your house and do stuff to you. On the other hand, who knows what
owning the actual VHS in its original box can do for a fellow’s social
standing.
On the plus
side, the movie is not bad looking. Cinematographer Arch Archambault was fresh
off of shooting Count Yorga, Vampire,
and he creates a nice, saucy atmosphere for the lesbian nurses and twitchy
doctors to roam around in. There’s a scene in the hospital where the very
beautiful Mady Maguire (as Dr. Leticia Boges) wanders in the dark with a
candle; the scene is downright atmospheric, as if we’re suddenly watching a
real movie made by competent filmmakers. Unfortunately, it doesn’t last long.
Maguire, incidentally, may be familiar to some for her occasional appearances
on ‘The Beverly Hillbillies’, and for her starring role in Norma, a cheapo stinker where she played a nymphomaniac. The final
role of her illustrious career came in 1980 with an appearance on the
short-lived ‘Tenspeed and Brown Shoe.’
Other than the
occasional inspired moment from Archambault, there’s not much to recommend. The
acting is of community theater quality, and the script is like something a
junior high school kid would write after watching a couple of old Hammer films.
Aside from the sex scenes (which contain plenty of groping and heavy
breathing), the actors move woodenly and unconvincingly through the creaky
plot, decked out in what barely passes for 1870s period costuming, but making
no attempt to hide what were obviously 1971 hairstyles, and distinctly modern,
urban accents. (One of the nurses sounds like Fran Drescher, and the two
detectives on the case, while dressed as Sherlock Holmes and Dr. Watson, sound
like extras from 'Kojak.')
Aficionados of
vintage '70s porn might be interested to know that Rene Bond, who by some
estimations appeared in anywhere from 80 to 300 porn productions, appears here
in a key role. Bond earned some notoriety for being one of the first women in
porn to undergo breast augmentation (allegedly paid for by porn producer Harry
Novak). Bond's real life boyfriend and longtime porn partner Ric Lutze is also
in the film. Bond and Lutze look like kids here, and even though there isn't an
ounce of talent between them, I wonder if they thought The Jekyll and Hyde Portfolio, which was promoted as a horror film,
might lead to more roles in non-porn features. It didn't. By 1978, Bond would
drift away from porn and embark on a somewhat successful career as a Las Vegas
stripper. She died young, at 45, from cirrhosis of the liver. It's rather bittersweet
to see her here, young and vibrant.
Another familiar
face to lovers of old porn will be Nora Wieternik. She plays Amber Van Buren, a
sexed-up nurse whose wardrobe consists of a single corset. She’s appropriately
bawdy for a goofy film like this one, and the only member of the cast who seems
to know what she’s doing. Wieternik would work often during the early 1970s,
usually as a hooker or a hippie in such classics as Dr. Dildo’s Secret. Some might recognize her as Queen Amora in the campy spoof Flesh Gordon (1974). I also
enjoyed the work of the brilliantly named Hump Hardy, the sinister looking chap
who played Moss the hunchback. Hump had an almost superhuman ability to drool
on cue, which is why I'm so surprised he never acted again. Surely there was a
place for him somewhere in Hollywood.
But wait,
there’s more! Vinegar Syndrome added a second Eric Haims feature to make this
DVD a double event (it is part of their ongoing “Drive-In Collectionâ€). The B
side of the program is A Clockwork Blue (1972), a throwback to the nudie cuties of 12 years before.
This time Haims takes some of the same cast members from The Jekyll and Hyde
Portfolio and dresses them as various historical figures, including Marie
Antoinette, Louis XVI, and Betsy Ross. Viewers are taken through a sort of
kinky trip through history, as if any of us really wanted to know about Betsy
Ross’ sex life. The movie is as dumb as it sounds, but A Clockwork Blue was actually a bigger hit than The Jekyll and Hyde Portfolio, having a longer
shelf life on the porn theater circuit, sometimes as part of a bill with Deep Throat. Not surprisingly, Warner
Bros. took Haims and company to court over the title sounding too much like A Clockwork Orange. Haims backed down,
and changed the title of his film to A Tic
Toc Blue.
For those
keeping score, both titles are scanned in 2K & 4K from 35 MM internegative
(Jekyll) and 35 MM camera negative (Clockwork).
No extras here,
just a lot of bad acting from people who could screw on cue but couldn’t recite
simple dialog.
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By Christopher Robinson
In 1977, a
low-budget flick about the New York disco scene became a sudden sensation.
Today it looms large in the pantheon of iconic cinema. Several of its moments,
however, allude to another equally iconic film. Well, more so than that Wizard
of Oz/’Dark Side of the Moon’ myth, anyway.
Saturday Night Fever’s success was undoubtedly attributed
to several factors. There are gripping performances, multi-dimensional
characters and a soaring soundtrack featuring the Bee Gees that steals the
show. At the heart of it all is an undeniably compelling story.
Tony Manero(John
Travolta) lives in Brooklyn with his parents, sister and grandmother. He works
at a hardware store and on Saturdays, treks to the local discotheque where he
reigns supreme as the neighborhood’s premier disco dancer. He parties, drinks
and carouses with his buddies then goes home and sleeps it off, dreaming of
more in life. ‘Night fever’: he knows how to do it and has fun but something is
missing and at age nineteen he’s “gettin’ oldâ€. The adoration he receives is
only so rewarding, his relationships superficial. His ignorant friends provoke
outside ethnic gangs, plunging them into brawls and Anette (Donna Pescow), a
confused young woman who tags along, pressures Tony with advances in hopes of
joining the ranks of her “married sistersâ€. His home life is no less
complicated. Dinner table spats, though run-of-the-mill for the Maneros are
exacerbated by Dad’s unemployment. Nevertheless, we see beneath the surface a
caring, loving family. The “character†of Tony’s nearly silent grandmother is
really to exemplify the multi-generational unit of the Italian-American family.
Enter Tony’s
brother, Frank Jr.(Martin Shakar), the priest who “ain’t a priest no moreâ€. His
decision to leave the church causes a rift within their household and makes
Tony reexamine his own choices. Tony’s brother often comes off as a surreal paradox.
Though repeatedly spoken of, he curiously is never seen with any family members
other than Tony. Were it not for his character being discussed in other scenes,
he would seem a figment of Tony’s imagination. It’s even tempting to think of
him as a component of Tony’s inner psyche. The name ‘Father Frank Junior’
itself, a contradiction in terms, he is essentially a cautionary figure for
Tony to observe. He warns his brother not to act out someone else’s dream but
to do what feels best for himself.
Tony’s world
feels very wrong to say the least. His friends are treading down a path of
drugs and recklessness. Misogyny and racism are ingrained in their sub-culture (Tellingly,
network and basic cable presentations of the film censor its racial slurs until
the pivotal diatribe where Tony denounces the group’s bigoted ways. To the
censors, these slurs are deplorable and unnecessary unless used sympathetically).
Looking for a way out, Tony searches new paths. He stares oddly at the Verrazano
Bridge to “get ideasâ€.
One idea he soon
gets is to try his hand at the club’s dance competition with the slightly
stuck-up Stephanie (Karen Lynn Gorney), a fellow Brooklynite who shares a
slowly developing sexual tension with Tony. They meet for lunch and she
belittles him, condescendingly boasting about big dreams and famous people she
has met. His ostensible unfamiliarity with the names she rattles off is belied by
the numerous pop culture images adorning his wall at home. Appropriately, one
of them is of Rocky.
Released in
1976, Rocky made a household name of Sylvester Stallone who portrayed
Rocky Balboa, a Philadelphia underdog willing to subject himself to anything
for a once-in-a-lifetime shot at the world heavyweight championship title.
A Stallone motif
arguably surfaces throughout Tony Manero’s life, even if that name could have stumped him too. Compare Fever with
Rocky and interesting parallels are obviated. Both center on characters
who “take a shotâ€, using God-given gifts to attain something better in life
than the perfunctory humdrum they face. Tony and Rocky both excel at their craft yet are still perceived as local losers
and each go out of their way to win the heart of a woman who seems their
virtual opposite. Both men sadly realize they have settled in with negative
people who keep them subjugated and bury their dreams. And… oh yeah, did I
mention their names almost rhyme?
Most
significantly, in Rocky, the title hero advises a young girl on the dangers of
allowing boys to mistreat and disrespect her. In vain, he explains how it will
only leave her used, hurt and alone. In Fever, Tony takes on this similar
role of the sage, educating Anette on how there are only “two kinds of girls-nice girls and pigs!†He elaborates on how she cannot be both and must decide
early on in life which to be. From what annals of wisdom this philosophy is
taken we simply do not know, but it is certainly likely that he ‘gets ideas’
from more than a bridge.
In the end, it
would seem, the story resumed with a closing credit sequence as the Bee Gees crooned
“How Deep is Your Loveâ€. Who could have guessed then that the connection would
be driven home when Stallone himself would write, direct and produce Fever’s
sequel, Staying Alive. Tony’s rollercoaster life is further chronicled
a few years later, still ‘taking a shot’, this time on Broadway. And… speaking
of Broadway, guess where Rocky is slugging it out right now?
See a
pattern?
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