It’s
easy to lose track of time in the Bahamas – every day is sunny and beautiful
just like the day before it… and yet things DO change, especially in the almost
six decades since the EON film crew took the island by storm to shoot their
James Bond masterpiece, Thunderball.Back then it was a sleepy tropical island for the occasional cruise ship
and small numbers of tourists making the short hop from Miami. Aside from the port
city of Nassau, much of the island was undeveloped.
(Paula might be in there...)
Today
the Bahamas is a thriving tourist destination attracting almost one million
visitors annually.On most days, Nassau
hosts multiple cruise ships disgorging thousands of passengers who storm the
downtown shops and restaurants.Although
the Thunderball era is long gone, there are still remnants of it
throughout the island.With just a
couple of days, no way could I have done the deep dive that Simon Firth did in
his definitive Filming James Bond in the Bahamas, but I could visit some
of the key destinations still around after 58 years.
(Site of the original Cafe Martinique on the Atlantis property.)
Mention
James Bond and almost everyone you meet has a story – from encountering Sean
Connery to talking about Thunderball.“I used to work in that liquor store,” our airport driver said as we
rolled past a strip mall on the way to our hotel. “Mr. Connery would come in
and buy wine. He was always very nice.”As we passed a small plaza he pointed “And right there he’d have a
coffee and read a book most mornings.”It’s easy to see why Sir Sean settled in Nassau – the locals treated him
as just another resident, not the iconic film star he actually was.No autograph or photo requests, just the
famous Bahamian hospitality which gave him what all celebrities crave –
anonymity.
Still
bummed at missing the great fan-organized tours for one reason or another, this
was about as close as I was going to get…
LOVE
BEACH
In
Thunderball, the beach appeared remote and untouched, filled with palm
trees, most noticeably the one Bond spears Vargas to while delivering that
classic line, “I think he got the point.”
(Channeling Vargas on Love Beach.)
Today
Love Beach is still beautiful but now there are private homes where the lush
woods that Vargas strode through once were.I also read it took a hard hit from a hurricane some years back.The only easy access point is through a
surfside bar called Nirvana Beach which charges $5 per person for
admittance.I got the impression the
place was hopping at night, but during a weekday, there was hardly anyone.After a blazing hot walk on the beach trying
to find “THE” spot where the spear-gunning took place, I settled for a random
palm tree and my VERY patient wife took the obligatory photo before saying “I’m
f---ing melting here.”Further
exploration now out of the question, we made tracks back to the Nirvana bar for
a couple of ice-cold Kalik beers.I
mentioned that a Bond epic had been filmed at this lovely spot.“Oh, really?” was the female bartender’s
response, adding, “I’m glad you’re enjoying yourself.” Ok, so perhaps not
everyone is a rabid fan…
DOWNTOWN
NASSAU
We
managed only a quick trip in to pick up some souvenirs and were lucky that only
one mammoth cruise ship was in port. I went over to Rawson Square which, in our
favorite film, Bond and Paula are seen walking across heading for Pinder’s
staging area.Along with a busy market,
an old government building – Churchill House – is clearly visible.Sadly, Churchill House is no more – a parking
lot now sits where it once stood.As
Joni Mitchell sang, “They paved over paradise and put up a parking lot.”
THE
SEAWALL
In
1965 this breakwater was off a sleepy beach road on Paradise Island.Here Bond infiltrates the Spectre dive team
as they suit up to move their stolen nuclear bombs. Today it’s an architectural
relic located on Cabbage Beach, now part of the massive, 154-acre Atlantis
Resort.Few if any of the guests
enjoying the beach even know it’s there!Bond aside, there are tons of things to do and see in Atlantis so buying
a day pass ($190 for adults, $95 for kids) might be worth it.Along with pools, rides, restaurants you can
also walk up to the sea wall.I reached
out to the resort a few weeks out from my trip and their PR department graciously
responded, allowing me a visit and assigning me a very personable guide named
Kool Aid who knew everything about the resort and had an impressive knowledge
of the island’s Bond locales.
We
walked from the hotel lobby through Atlantis’ underground aquarium which
boasted a variety of marine life – from huge groupers to moray eels, sharks and
more, all living in crystal-clear water pumped in from the nearby ocean.As part of “The Blue Project”, Atlantis also
operates a coral nursery where they grow this vital organism (on lengths of PVC
pipe) to replenish ailing reefs.As ocean
temperatures rise, programs like this will become more and more important so
good on the resort for stepping up.And
then we walked over a causeway to Cabbage Beach.Fifty-eight storm seasons had taken a toll on
the concrete, but the seawall was still there and looked much as it did in the
film.To say I took some photos
would be an understatement.
(CR’s Mark Cerulli with Atlantis PR rep Kool Aid - the breakwater is in the background.)
On
the way out, Kool Aid asked if I wanted to see the location of the ORIGINAL
Café Martinique.Why, yes… yes I
would!We went back through the
lobby and he pointed to a take-out pizza restaurant in a pink tower which is
where the legendary restaurant once operated.Again, it was difficult to picture the elegant and romantic Café from
the film in light of the area’s total transformation. Perhaps in a nod to the
island’s history, the resort did create another Café Martinique nearby.
On
my next to last day, I got to see (for me) the Crown Jewel of Bahamian Bond
locations –Palmyra…
LARGO’S
HOUSE
For
many years it’s been owned by a prominent Bahamian family and its local name is
“Rock Point.” Most islanders know it as “The Bond House.”The owners kindly allowed me access to the grounds.(Unoccupied for a number of years, the house
itself is firmly boarded up and there is a 24-hour guard.)Yes, it’s run down, but here it was easy to
picture it from the film – the balcony where Largo and Fiona shot clay targets is
different from 1965 but still hints at the home’s grandeur – and the ocean view
is mind-blowing.The basement doors that
Connery used to access Palmyra actually lead to the pool’s pump room - the swinging
doors themselves are long gone, but the structure is still there.
The
huge swimming pool where Bond escapes hungry sharks is intact but filled with
brackish water. Even this rabid Thunderball fanatic didn’t want to do a
lap in it – although I couldn’t resist wearing my Orlebar Brown Thunderball camp
shirt! I also noticed the pool’s cement cutout where the controls for the metal
grating used to trap Bond underwater once were.
The
circular Shark Pool where the Golden Grotto sharks were kept is still there,
but part of the outer wall has collapsed allowing ocean water to flow in and
out.Still, it would be a relatively
easy fix to restore. The estate also boasts a gorgeous private beach.The owner’s son said the family was talking
over various plans to rehabilitate the property and bring it back to its former
glory.The bones are all there – the
house appears to be structurally sound, and a coat of paint would make it look
as it did when Terence Young’s cameras were rolling.In this writer’s mind, there’s no reason it
couldn’t become another GoldenEye type destination – or the best 00 bar this
side of Duke’s!
(Casino Royale location - the former One & Only Resort.)
As
a bonus I managed to hit two more Bondian locations – The Four Seasons Resort Ocean
Club (formerly the One and Only Resort) seen in Casino Royale and
Solemar Restaurant – formerly known as Compass Point.This was a happy coincidence as we and our
friends just happened to go there for dinner.The restaurant was never in a Bond film but it was a favorite of Sean
and Micheline’s.Apparently, he used to like
their lamb chops so that’s what I had. Yesh, they were great!
(A lovely memento of Thunderball at the former One & Only Resort - now a Four Seasons.)
Many
kind thanks to Simon Firth and Jaime Ciaccia for location tips and
pointers.
(All photos copyright Mark Cerullli. All rights reserved.)
Tom
Johnson, noted Hammer Film expert and longtime friend of many a Hammer star,
passed away at his home in Shillington, PA on July 11th. He was 76.
Tom’s
best-known work was his 1995 book, Hammer Films – An Exhaustive Filmography
(co-written with Debra Del Vecchio) and exhaustive it was with over 400 pages
covering every film the studio made from the 1930s onward.He wrote other books like The Christopher
Lee Filmography (co-written with Mark A. Miller and Jimmy Sangster), The
Films of Oliver Reed (with Susan D. Cowie) and The Mummy in Fact and
Fiction (with Susan D. Cowie) and others.His 2015 tribute to Christopher Lee for Little Shoppe of Horrors –
“Christopher Lee – He May Not Have Been… Who You Thought He Was” won the Rondo
Award for Best Horror Article.
I
met Tom when I covered the 1997 Midnight Marquee Hammer Convention for
Cinemax.Along with spending time with
Caroline Munro, Freddie Francis and Jimmy Sangster, I got to know Tom.Very smart, with a dry wit and an
encyclopedic knowledge of cinema, he was easy to befriend. Tom was close to
many Hammer actors and filmmakers, most noticeably Christopher Lee and Peter
Cushing.I will forever be in his debt
for his getting Lee to sign my UK one-sheet to Scars of Dracula.Tom said when he unfolded it for the star,
Lee rolled his eyes and mumbled, “Oh my God.” The Count, it seems, was not a
fan of the film!
Along
with his literary efforts, Tom taught and coached high School track. (He was a
medal-winning runner himself back in the day.) An avowed Luddite, Tom didn’t own a computer,
never had an e-mail account and never once browsed the web. I remember telling
him how great it would be if he got an email address.His response?“Nah.” Old school to his core, he
would write his books by hand and his wonderful British writing partner Sue
Cowie would type them up and bring them into the 21st Century.
(Tom with Joyce Broughton, Peter Cushing's long-time secretary and personal assistant.)
As
years went by, Tom’s health got worse and he seldom ventured far from his PA
home, but we would talk on the phone.He
took great delight in my collecting tales – the items that got away and also the
things I managed to get, especially anything expensive. Tom laughed uproariously when I told him about
buying a rather large helicopter model from You Only Live Twice sight
unseen and my wife’s less than enthusiastic reaction.He made ME laugh when he recounted buying an ultra-rare
window card for 1935’s Mad Love at an antique store, putting it under his
mattress to “straighten it out,” then FORGETTING it for years!When he finally removed it, the brittle paper
was in tatters. Ouch.
Tom
stoically faced his mounting health problems with his sense of humor and
curiosity unchanged.He was a kind and
gentle man who truly loved the art of filmmaking and was unrivalled in his
knowledge of the entire Hammer canon.He
leaves behind seven books, countless articles and an army of people who will
truly miss him.Thank you, dear Tom.
Josh
Agle, better known as “Shag” has made a name for himself creating Mid-Century,
Tiki-inspired art that has become quite popular with collectors. He has
previously mined the cinematic landscapes of Star Wars, Planet of the Apes, GodzillaThe Addams Family and Batman, creating stylized fine art prints,
many of which sold out. Now he’s finally
turned his talents to James Bond, releasing “Bambi & Thumper”, a Diamonds
Are Forever-inspired print at his Las Vegas store on May 27th.
The
work was, of course suggested by the 1971 Connery classic – “I first saw Diamonds
Are Forever as a kid and the scene where two beautiful bodyguards beat up
James Bond in a futuristic home is something that made a lasting impression on
me,” the artist explained in a recent email to his followers.The story gets even better, as Agle wrote “Many
years later I got to stay in that supervillain lair, the Elrod House in Palm
Springs and I blasted the soundtrack to Diamonds Are Forever… how could
it not inspire a painting?”
(Mark Cerulli with wife Sandra Carvalho with Shag at a recent print-release party at his gallery in Palm Springs, CA. Photo: Mark Cerulli.)
If
your licensed troubleshooting takes you to Palm Springs, Shag’s unique store is
worth a visit.The artist frequently
hosts print release parties where he chats with guests and is happy to sign his
work – which also includes Tiki Mugs, small prints, kitschy lamps and clocks, books,
beach towels, even socks! He also has a
store in The Palms Casino Resort in Vegas – a location both Bond and Shady Tree
would feel at home at.
“Bambi
& Thumper” will be for sale on the SHAG website (shagstore.com)
starting Sunday, May 28th, available framed and unframed. With a print run of only 200, hop in your Moon
Buggy to grab one!
(Mark Cerulli, Paul C. Rosen and movie poster designer Dan Chapman (who did many famous posters including The Rock, Basic Instinct, Bad Boys and more) on the Red Carpet.)
CR
scribe and friend Mark Cerulli produced and directed a documentary feature devoted
to 101 year-old graphic designer Joe Caroff, who created numerous iconic film
and TV logos including the legendary 007 gun logo.
Last week the film was awarded Best
Documentary Short at the prestigious Beverly Hills Film Festival.Aside from Joe’s film work, By Design also
tells the story of his remarkable life – living through the Great Depression,
fighting in WWII and becoming a design force in the Madmen Era.
It’s currently streaming on HBOMax and Mark
and producer/editor Paul C. Rosen are looking for an international
distributor.
Ok,
its opening weekend was, um, anemic and it seems critics’ long wooden stakes
have been out for "Renfield", but as a longtime fan of the thirsty count in all
his cinematic forms, I found the film to be a highly enjoyable cinematic homage.
Over
the decades, an elite group of actors have donned the black cape – Bela Lugosi,
John Carradine, Christopher Lee, Jack Palance (in Dan Curtis’ 1974 made-for), Gary
Oldman, Claes Bang (in the BBC’s 2020 mini-series) and now Nicolas Cage joins
the unholy brotherhood. Cage, a skilled and still underrated actor despite
winning a Best Actor Oscar for Leaving Las Vegas, has an absolute blast as
Dracula. Director Chris McKay, working from a script by Ryan Ridley, created a
canvas of vivid colors and over the top action set in modern-day New Orleans. Their
Count does all the things we’ve learned to expect from a vampire – turn into
bats, vaporize into dust, drink blood (in a martini glass) and embody pure
evil.The filmmakers paid attention to
the details – a vampire must be welcomed into a house and there’s a shot of
Dracula stepping over a “welcome” mat.As
every horror fan knows, vampires are allergic to sun so they included an
intense sequence where Dracula is burned to a crisp by daylight – echoes of
Christopher Lee’s crumbling demise in Horror of Dracula 64 years earlier.There is also a clever tribute to Lugosi’s
Dracula where the Count and Renfield (Nicholas Hoult) faithfully recreate
several scenes from the 1931 original.
Hoult,
so good as the starstruck foodie in "The Menu", is terrific in the title role as the
vampire’s lackey who seems slightly bewildered by his long servitude and now wants
to break free from his boss from hell.The production team spared no expense on visuals – Dracula swoops across
the screen, throws people across rooms and severs limbs (as did Renfield, who
drew his superpowers from eating bugs). Rapper/comedian Awkwafina plays a gutsy
beat cop who becomes Renfield’s love interest – although their chemistry is
weak at best and their relationship never really goes anywhere.But the marquee draw here is Cage as Dracula
and he totally eats the role up - snarling, threatening, slashing and oozing an
oily charm.
Deep
thinking isn’t needed for "Renfield", instead it’s a bloody rollercoaster ride
that’s exactly what a shell-shocked, post-Covid audience needs – laughs, gore
and cinema’s most iconic monster, played with real gusto by an actor who isn’t
afraid to have fun and let it rip.Grab
your garlic – or martini glass full of tomato juice and enjoy!
Ricou
Browning, a multi-talented filmmaker best known for playing TheCreature
from the Black Lagoon (in the underwater sequences) passed away at his
Florida home on February 27 at age
93.A Florida native and lifelong
swimmer, in 1953 Ricou was selected to accompany the location scouts from
Universal Studios, then planning their next monster epic about a prehistoric creature
rising from a remote Amazonian lake. This film, unlike many of their other
monster films, had extensive location photography, much of it underwater in
Wakulla Springs and Silver Springs, Florida.The 6’3” Browning’s grace and ease underwater so impressed studio
executives, that he was offered the title role for the water scenes. (The
Creature on land was played by actor Ben Chapman.)The film became a much-loved hit and spawned
two sequels – with Ricou reprising his role in 1955’s Revenge of the Creature
and 1956’s The Creature Walks Among Us.He got the idea for a show about kids and dolphins after raising some
dolphins himself and the movie Flipper was born (co-written with his
brother-in-law Jack Cowden).He went on
to direct and write numerous episodes of the TV series that followed.Another career highlight was when Ricou was
selected to choreograph the iconic underwater battle in Thunderball,
marshalling dozens of divers from the Florida diving community.He rehearsed their moves above water on a
barge, then recreated them for the cameras below the surface. Ricou returned to
Bondage to coordinate the underwater scenes for Sean Connery’s 1983 film, Never
Say Never Again and arranged the famous “Caddy Day” pool sequence in Caddyshack
(shot in Davie, Florida).
All
in all, Browning’s epic career spanned some five decades and over 50 films and
TV projects.And to think, it all
started with a swim in a lagoon!
Ricou
is survived by his four children including underwater coordinator, actor and
director Ricou Browning, Jr. ,10 children and 11 great-grandchildren. RIP, Ricou and thank you.
Writer/Producer Mark Cerulli with the homicidal “Ruby Rose” (Matthew Lucero). (Photo copyright Mark Cerulli).
(Cinema Retro's Mark Cerulli provides an update on his initial report that took readers inside the making of an indie horror film.)
By Mark Cerulli
My
first Cinema Retro report was just after we had wrapped our first shoot for Area
5150, a sci-fi/horror comedy I co-wrote with director Sean Haitz.It was 6 days filled with
warmth, laughter and moments of terror in the high desert outside Palm Springs,
California.But we got it done, movie in
the can, premiere on the horizon, right?
Not
so fast.
Haitz,
an intense storyteller (who also fronts a rock band), wanted to do a “Cold
Opening” to the film, launching the audience right into the action.He had a vision of a terrified young woman,
babbling in a foreign language, running down a deserted highway, trying to get
away from… something.Several
weeks later, damn if Sean didn’t have Kati Rausch, a young Finnish actress,
running down an empty highway in a bloody hospital gown at 7 AM on a
Sunday.She gets recaptured – ‘natch - and
then we meet our villain, Dr. Izar (an amazing character actor named Jed Rowen)
in a prison cell that would have done Hannibal Lecter proud.
Director Sean Haitz lining up a shot in Morongo Valley, CA.
(Photo copyright Sean Haitz.)
A
few months later Sean landed Felissa Rose – the “it girl” of Sleepaway Camp,
now a well-known genre star with over 100 credits including Victor Crowley,
Terrifier 2 and the upcoming Dark Circles.We had her for only one day, so Sean and I pounded
out some scenes where she played a crazy desert rat mom with two feral kids – local
desert residents who brought a menagerie with them including a tarantula,
snakes and scorpions!(In a very un-Bondian
manner, this writer declined the opportunity to have the tarantula crawl up his
arm.) Felissa went all out and delivered an outstanding performance, getting
applause from the sleep-deprived crew.
“No thanks, kid.” writer/producer Mark Cerulli with a cast member and her pet Tarantula. (Photo copyright Mark Cerulli).
That’s
a wrap, right?Well… we realized the
film needed more.In came a
brilliant young producer named Ryan James who had us write some
character-building scenes and stayed on for the duration.The entire cast was brought back for a new
shoot in March ’22.Like the previous year, we made use of every last
minute of daylight, especially during the fabled “Golden Hour” which seemed to
go by in minutes. Once again, we shot
scenes in an abandoned crack house – now even MORE vandalized than on our
previous shoot.Somehow, we managed to
get our new scenes shot both in the desert and in a soundstage in LA that had
very realistic standing sets which we used for the interiors of Area 51.
There
is still more to do – a few more scenes (possibly with an iconic genre actor)
and Sean has an epic attack on Area 51 by our lead mutant, Ruby Rose in mind.
There’s also hiring a skilled editor and funding the maze of post-production –
mixing, scoring, color correcting, etc.But we’re getting there…
For more on Area 5150 or to get involved on the
film, click here.
Almost
30 years ago, Jurassic Park thundered into theaters, forever changing
the cinematic landscape. Steven Spielberg’s iconic film was based on Michael
Crichton’s best-selling novel that brilliantly channeled people’s endless fascination
with dinosaurs. It was beyond a box
office hit, grossing close to a billion dollars during its 1993 release. It
also revolutionized visual effects, leaving old-school stop motion dinosaurs in
its dust.
Jurassic
World: Dominion
ain’t your father’s Jurassic Park…This 6th and “final” instalment in the JP franchiseis
a huge, loud, expansive spectacle that brings together the original cast (including
dinosaurs) and the franchise’s 2nd generation stars for one last
scaly hurrah.
The
film opens with a cable news clip that tells us that dinosaurs have escaped
from the ruins of Isla Nublar and are now everywhere. Once that has been
established, director Colin Trevorrow puts the cinematic pedal down and doesn’t
let up for two hours and twenty-seven minutes. The somewhat muddied plot involves Biosyn, the
shady corporate heir to John Hammond’s InGen, run by Lewis Dodgson (Campbell
Scott), a Jeff Bezos type who is using dino DNA to “benefit mankind”. Uh huh. (If
Dodgson’s name sounds familiar, it’s because he was the original bagman who
handed Dennis Nedry the infamous can of shaving cream/bio-sample tubes in the
original film.)
Luckily,
Dr. Ellie Sattler (Laura Dern) is onto Biosyn, corralling her reluctant former
colleague Dr. Alan Grant (Sam Neill) to visit their remote headquarters where
the third member of the original Jurassic team, Dr. Ian Malcolm (Jeff Goldblum)
is a visiting scholar in residence.The
Biosyn retreat is also a world sanctuary for… dinosaurs.The OTHER parallel-running plot involves the
genetically-engineered child (the wonderful Isabella Sermon) of an original
Jurassic Park scientist who is in hiding with Owen Grady (Chris Pratt) and
Claire Dearing (Bryce Dallas Howard). Her unique genetic makeup makes her a
very valuable commodity and a target for kidnappers. The two Jurassic Park
worlds - old and new - collide when she is
kidnapped and Owen and Claire follow her trail from the Pacific Northwest
to the alleyways of Malta and, the futuristic Biosyn complex itself.There are breathtaking man v. dinosaur chases
that rival any James Bond or Jason Bourne pursuit. Jurassic World Dominion
also drifts into Indiana Jones territory with a knock-down, drag-out fight in a
seedy dinosaur smuggler’s market, complete with a dino fighting pit, of course!
Trevorrow,
who ably helmed the previous two Jurassic Park movies, really hits his
stride with this film – from a dino roundup on horseback in a vast prairie to
stunning mountain photography in the Italian Alps and dino-mayhem in the dense
forests of the Pacific Northwest.The
film brings back old favorites like the T-Rex and the raptor “Blue”, and
introduces new ones like the Quetzalcoatlus, a huge, feathered dinosaur and the
Dreadnoughtus, which resembles a Brontosaurus on steroids – 27 dinosaur species
in all. According to the production materials, each creature was grounded in
reality under the strict supervision of a leading paleontologist. The film’s visual effects are rivalled only by
its audio effects – every crash is bone-jarring and the various dino roars are
teeth-rattling.
While
Pratt and Howard are great performers and have developed a wonderful onscreen
chemistry, it’s the return of the original cast members – Neill, Dern and
Goldblum that really got the preview audience clapping.Even original JP scientist Henry Wu (BD Wong)
is on hand to try to rectify his mistakes. They all step back into their roles as
easily as you’d pull on a favorite shirt; and Goldblum’s Ian Malcolm patois is
as wry and quirky as it was in 1993.Time has been kind to them all.
For
this epic conclusion to the cinematic Jurassic era, Universal has pulled out
all the stops and is seeing their cash cowasaurus off with a bang.
For
a few glorious weeks, every time a James Bond film is released, for those fans
of a certain age, it becomes Christmas 1965 when a plethora of Bond-related tie-ins
once again flood the market.In 1965 it
was a Thunderball merchandise tsunami with toys, clothing, diving
equipment and men’s jewelry…In 2021
it’s No Time to Die’s turn.In
keeping with the film’s many nods to 007’s cinematic past, Bond is back
drinking his beverage of choice from Dr. No – Smirnoff Vodka, an historic
brand dating back to 1863 and one of the world’s most popular vodkas.
As
a serious Bond collector, I’ve seen many a corporate 007 gift – from model
vehicles (BMW and Caterpillar) and leather satchels (MGM) to all manner of
007-branded clothing… but nothing beats
the stunning Martini-maker briefcase Smirnoff created.
The
custom case (embossed with the Smirnoff and NTTD logos) contains everything a
thirsty secret-agent (or Bond fan) could want – a crystal martini glass,
measuring jigger, olive spears, a lemon shaver and, of course, a bottle of
Smirnoff, all elegantly encased in red velvet.If there is a more lavish piece of Bond promotion, I’d love to see
it.Kudos to Smirnoff’s marketing agency
for this brilliant promotional tool.
Always
a fashion icon, whatever Bond wears is now carefully studied and snapped up by
trendy consumers and fans.Recently the
fabled American bootmaker Danner joined in by supplying pairs of their Tanicus
all-weather boots to the production – in Bond black, of course.
(Photo: MGM/Danjaq)
On
September 16th, they put the boot on sale via their website.The result was a digital stampede.So many orders came in that their website froze
and they had to add additional servers.I know because I was caught up in the footwear frenzy.Did I need an exotic new pair of boots in
sunny Southern California?No. Do I
do any mountaineering or exploring at all?Um… no, but the boots looked rugged, were priced right ($180 a pair) and
came in a custom No Time to Die
box as cool as the boots themselves.I
managed to grab a pair – which also included a unique 007 leather keychain, but
it was as nail-biting as buying Rolling Stones seats during an online ticket
drop.Danner’s entire stock sold out in
under 20 minutes.“This was a
record-breaking launch for us,†said a member of their online team.For more on Danner’s line of footwear go
to:www.Danner.com
Are
there more Bond tie-in products out there?Of course.Anyone know somebody
at Heineken?
Mark Cerulli with Jerry Juroe at the "Bond in Motion" exhibition in London, 2018.
(Photo: Mark Cerulli. All rights reserved.)
BY MARK CERULLI
While
not a marquee name like Broccoli, Connery or Moore, Charles “Jerry†Juroe was
an integral part of the James Bond movie phenomenon for three decades.On September 30th, he passed away quietly
at his home in Southern Spain with his daughter Kim by his side. Jerry was 98.
A
publicity man through and through, Jerry started out at Paramount Pictures in
the 1940s, but his new career was interrupted by World War II. As a graduate of
the Castle Hill Military Academy in Tennessee, he was immediately called up and
was part of the D-Day Invasion -service that, 75 years later, would earn him
France’s prestigious Legion d’Honneur, presented by President Emmanuel Macron,
no less.Jerry also saw action in
Germany and Czechoslovakia before transferring to the Army’s Office of Special
Services.There he escorted movie stars
on USO appearances while also arranging entertainment for the troops.Although he held positions in Hollywood and
was the publicist for Bob Hope and Bing Crosby, Jerry loved Europe and
preferred to live there – especially after meeting lovely British actress Lynn
Tracy, who became his wife of 42 years until her death in 2001.During his stint as a publicist for Arthur P.
Jacobs, Jerry handled press for The Prince and the Showgirl, working
with the mercurial Marilyn Monroe.Running
European publicity for United Artists, Jerry worked with The Beatles on A
Hard Day’s Night and Help.The job also put him in the orbit of a rising young producer named
Albert “Cubby†Broccoli.At UA, Jerry
handled publicity chores on Dr. No, accompanying Sean Connery on his
first press tour.He worked on all of
Connery’s films through the 1967 epic, You Only Live Twice.He left UA for several years but was invited
back into Bondage by Cubby himself for The Man with The Golden Gun, joining
the EON fold permanently from Moonraker through Licence to Kill.(Jerry came back briefly for the 1994
announcement of Pierce Brosnan as the new 007.)
I
was fortunate enough to know Jerry for 40 years, meeting him as a college
student spending a semester in London.I
wrote a gushing letter to EON, which Jerry answered then invited me out to
Pinewood.That was the start of a
beautiful friendship.He also was fond
of my wife, a fellow marketing exec, pulling me aside to say, “You got the best
part of that deal.â€Pure Jerry.
Jerry Juroe (far left) on the "Moonraker" publicity tour, 1979.
(Photo courtesy of Jerry Juroe estate.)
He
was fond of cruise ships and came to New York to take one of the last
“crossings†of the QE2.While there, he
handed me the manuscript of his autobiography which Ian Fleming Foundation
co-founder and close friend Doug Redenius and I were able to get published in
2018 as Bond, The Beatles and My Year With Marilyn (McFarland
Books).EON graciously invited us to
lunch then sponsored a book-signing at the London Bond in Motion exhibit. A
number of 00 alumni came for one of Jerry’s last hurrahs – John Glen, Gitte Lee
(Sir Christopher’s widow), Jenny Hanley, Valerie Leon, Peter Lamont, Deborah
Moore, Carole Ashby, Margaret Nolan, Steven Saltzman, Anthony Waye, former EON
publicity & marketing honchos Anne Bennett and John Parkinson, EON Chief Archivist
Meg Simmonds and many more. Also on hand
were authors Ajay Chowdhury and Matthew Field, CR’s Dave Worrall, From Sweden with
Love’s Anders Frejdh, bullet-catcher Mark O’Connell, French Bond expert Laurent
Perriot – even Titanic star Billy Zane. Speeches were made, glasses were
raised and warm embraces were exchanged. It was a beautiful night.
Jerry’s
passing severs one of the very last connections to Hollywood’s Golden Age and
his contribution to Bond’s success can’t be understated. As 5x Bond director John Glen put it, “Jerry
was very much a part of the James Bond phenomenon. He took great care of all
aspects of publicity, particularly looking after the actors which could be a
trying task at times.â€
“Sad
indeed, but a full life well lived and lived well,†said actress Jenny Hanley
(OHMSS).
My
last conversation with Jerry was just days ago.I asked how he was feeling and he answered with a weary, “I’m still here.â€Indeed he was and he always will be.
Thank
you, Jerry.
If you want to read more about Jerry Juroe's remarkable life and career, order his autobiography.
(Photo copyright Mark Cerulli. All rights reserved.)
By Mark Cerulli
Thanks
to the Ian Fleming Foundation (IFF,) this scribe was invited to the opening
night party for the massive Bond in Motion exhibit at LA’s world-famous
Petersen Automotive Museum, co-sponsored by EON Productions.You’ve seen the vehicles on screen, but
nothing compares to getting up close and personal with over 34 production-used
vehicles from the 1960s right up to No Time To Die. It’s a collection representing
almost 30 years of sleuthing by the IFF’s co-founder Doug Redenius and other IFF members.
(Photo copyright Mark Cerulli. All rights reserved.)
L007K
UP –
Bond’s hang-glider from Moonraker, the Vulcan Bomber model from Thunderball,
an Osato chopper model from You Only Live Twice and a full-size Cessna
from Licence to Kill.
L007K
OUTSIDE
– Visitors are greeted by the From Russia With Love chase copter.
L007K
OVER THERE
– The V8 Volante from The Living Daylights, the (huge) sub from For
Your Eyes Only, an Octopussy Tuk-Tuk, the AMC Hornet from The
Man With The Golden Gun and a badly damaged Aston Martin DBS used in a
record-breaking stunt from Casino Royale.
LOO7K
AROUND
– At the Jaguar XKR from Die Another Day, a MINT 1964 Aston Martin DB5
(seen in five Bond films), the 1971 Mach 1 from Diamonds Are Forever, Blofeld’s
escape sub from Diamonds, the Glastron from Live & Let Die’s
iconic boat jump and so many more – all lovingly restored by the IFF.
Luciana Paluzzi with Cinema Retro's Mark Cerulli- and an original "Thunderball" underwater sled.
(Photo copyright Mark Cerulli. All rights reserved.)
The
evening started with a rooftop cocktail party where the NEFT vodka flowed like
Tracy’s dress as invited guests mingled and toasted the night’s VIPs – five,
count ‘em, FIVE Bond Girls – Maud Adams (The Man With the Golden Gun,
Octopussy), Luciana Paluzzi (Thunderball), Gloria Hendry (Live & Let Die), Lynn-Holly Johnson
(For Your Eyes Only) and Mary Stavin
(Octopussy, A View To A Kill).They all seemed delighted to see each other and were up for a big night
out.
Bond royalty: Maud Adams, Luciana Paluzzi, Lynn-Holly Johnson, Gloria Hendry and Mary Stavin.
(Photo copyright Mark Cerulli. All rights reserved.)
Doug
and fellow IFF co-founder Michael VanBlaricum gave a discussion on their
acquisition of screen-used vehicles, many found in total disrepair across the
globe.Then they shared the spotlight
with the Bond actresses for some Q&As. Next, the 00 VIPS cut the red ribbon,
officially opening the exhibit and crowds swarmed the cars – all artfully
arranged by the Petersen staff in unique dioramas.Even the event’s official car transport – DHL
– got into the spirit by positioning their 007-branded yellow vans around the
Museum.Bond truly is back – and right
now, he’s at the Peterson Auto Museum in LA.
(Photo copyright Mark Cerulli. All rights reserved.)
To celebrate the release of producer Sam Sherman’s memoir,When Dracula Met Frankenstein (Murania Press) Cinema Retro presents
this exclusive interview with the man himself. In our two-hour conversation,
the filmmaker demonstrated a virtual photographic memory when discussing his
remarkable 60 plus year career.Our
interview was a time capsule of the drive-in era where creative marketing,
distribution and production exemplified the true spirit of independent
filmmaking.
Sam Sherman grew up a horror and western film fan.The first horror film Sam ever saw was
Universal’s classic monster comedy, Abbott & Costello Meet Frankenstein
(1948) which captivated his imagination at a very young age.Following his dream, he attended City College
of New York to study filmmaking.Like
most CR readers, he was also an avid collector – in his case, horror stills,
which one imagines were almost given away in the 1950s.Those black and white photos, picked up in
the small memorabilia stores that used to dot Manhattan, led to a career – “In
1958, I wrote to Famous Monsters and to my surprise, got a call back from Jim
Warren and asked if they’d be interested in renting my stills,†Sherman
recalled.
“I produced ads for Captain Company (FM’s merchandising
division) and I also acquired product for them.â€(As one who spent a lot of hard-earned
teenage cash on Captain Co products - including a Dr. No movie poster
for all of $4.99 - that was a part of Sam’s long career I could instantly
relate to.)
While ghostwriting articles for FM and working on other
Warren publications like Spacemen, Screen Thrills Illustrated and Wildest
Westerns, Sherman frequently found his enthusiasm for horror looked down upon
by Help! magazine art director, Terry Gilliam. Years later, Gilliam took an
obvious jab (and inspiration) from Sherman’s climactic battle of the monsters
in Dracula vs Frankenstein (1971) with his own comedic dismemberment scene
in Monty Python & The Holy Grail (1975).“I made it a point never to see anything
he’s done,†Sam adds.
In the 1950s and 60s, New York was the center of the film
universe and Sherman found himself making the rounds of small distributors
trying to find films to license for his own fledgling company, Signature
Films.Sam later got in with an independent
film company called Hemisphere Pictures which specialized in movies shot in the
Philippines, including the Blood Island horror cult classics directed by
Eddie Romero.Sherman honed his
exploitation skills by creating the theatrical, television, radio and print ad
campaigns which established Hemisphere as The House of Horror with
unforgettable gimmicks and marketing promotions like “The Oath of Green Bloodâ€
for the first audience participation film, The Mad Doctor of Blood Island
(1969).
Sam’s book is full of photos from that era – from
snapshots of early visits to LA, to on-set stills and “ballyhoo†photos of
theater displays, lurid posters and marquees.One image that jumps out is of a young Sam standing behind the iconic Boris
Karloff on A.I.P.’s The Raven set. “Forry Ackerman (Famous Monsters’
longtime editor) took me to the last day of shooting and we spent the whole day
with Peter Lorre and Vincent Price, which was wonderful. I had a nice chat with
Karloff. He finished up for the day and (director) Roger Corman took him away
to do The Terror, which was non-union, somewhere else.â€Talk about maximizing your star!
In 1968, Sherman and several partners – including longtime
friend, filmmaker Al Adamson, formed Independent-International Pictures Corp.(a riff off the very successful American
International Pictures).“Al just wanted
to make movies, he left it to me to figure out how to market them and make
money,†Sam recalls.
Their first production for the new company was a raw biker
film, Satan’s Sadists starring Russ Tamblyn of West Side Story
fame and directed by Adamson. The film tapped into the national shockwaves
reverberating from biker gang violence as well as LA’s horrific Manson
murders.The female lead was a
statuesque California blonde, Regina Carrol, who became Adamson’s girlfriend,
later his wife and star of his films. Wanting to give her a little extra
exposure, Sherman labeled her “The Freak-Out Girlâ€.As the film contained nudity, the then-new
movie ratings board wanted to slap an X on Satan’s Sadists.Sam went to the mat to contest it, even
advising the theatre circuits to rate the film themselves based on regional
tastes vs the Motion Picture Board’s inconsistent classifications for
independent films.
Sam’s book is full of similar throw out the rulebook tales
– like licensing an odd Filipino caveman film named Tagani which was
shot in black & white. To modernize it, Adamson shot some new scenes with
veteran horror star John Carradine but the film still didn’t look right, so Sam
suggested using various tints (“Like they did in silent moviesâ€). He wrote MORE
new scenes (including computer sex!), added an eye-catching title - Horror
of the Blood Monsters and they now had a releasable film!
At Independent-International, Sam and Al shrugged off the
industry’s notoriously unforgiving deadlines: “We released an imported German
picture called Women for Sale which had been a big hit and I said ‘We
can’t find anything like it to follow up with, so let’s make a picture like
this’, it’ll be called Girls for Rent…â€Sam hired an industry friend to write it, months went by without a
script.“We’re getting closer to the key
summer playdates, and we were really in a jam†Sam recalled. “I got another
writer and we knocked the picture out fast, doing the campaign fast, ordered
prints and got it into release by the end of the summer. Sixty days, I couldn’t
believe we could do it but we did and it was a pretty good film!â€
Of course, there’s a chapter on Independent-International’s
biggest picture – Dracula vs Frankenstein, which actually started out as
Blood Freaks (aka Blood Seekers).“The script was not much of anything but I was working on it… we wanted
a name actor so Al went to agent Jerry Rosen who said ‘You can have Lon Chaney,
Jr. and J. Carrol Naish for a week for $6K.’â€They booked them sight unseen – and when they reported for work, both
were in ill health. “Naish had a bad eye and Chaney had throat cancer. (Dracula
vs Frankenstein would be his final horror film.) “Ya gotta meet the people,†Sam adds
knowingly.Diminutive Angelo Rossitto rounded
out the cast as the carnival barker Grazbo. The resulting film was so bad,
backers recommended it just be shelved.Sam lives by the motto “Waste not, want not†and since he was an editor
himself, he went to work watching the film repeatedly until he found a line of
dialogue he could use to expand the storyline to include the last surviving
Frankenstein… and the monster. “And once I thought that I said, ‘Let’s bring in
Dracula for good measure.’â€Scraping
together $50K for reshoots they hired a tall, dark-haired record store
employee, Rafael Engel (named “Zandor Vorkov†by Forry) to play the Count and
7’4†accountant, John Bloom, to play the monster.“I left it to Al to make the picture, but as
the president of Independent International, I made the final decisions,†Sam
adds. Sam also tapped Famous Monsters’ Forry Ackerman who not only acted in the
film, but also secured the electrical equipment and props of special effects
wizard Kenneth Strickfaden for the production. Strickfaden’s crackling
electrical contraptions were originally used in Universal’s Frankenstein
film 40 years earlier.Against the
odds, Dracula vs Frankenstein was a monster hit!Ahead of his time, Sam even released the film
on TV AND in theaters/drive-ins “day-and-date†at the same time.“Nobody caredâ€, Sam says, chuckling, “I did what
I wanted to do.â€
Naturally, Sam devotes a chapter to his creative partner
and “the brother I never hadâ€, Al Adamson, who was tragically murdered by a
contractor renovating his desert house in 1995.Incredibly Sam still had a connection with him because one night after Al
had been declared “missingâ€, Sam silently asked his friend to give him a sign
of where he was… the word “Cement†popped into his mind. He communicated that to police and sure
enough, when they investigated, Al’s body was discovered underneath a cement floor.The contractor was apprehended in Florida and
is now serving decades in prison but the pain of Sam’s loss is palpable.He still keeps Adamson’s name alive with
drive-in screenings and special DVD and Blu-ray releases of their work.
Behind the scenes on "Dracula Vs. Frankenstein": (L to R): John Bloom, Sam Sherman, Zandor Vorkov, Al Adamson.
Now 81, Sam feels the time is ripe for his story to be
told.His oversize book is full of
industry lore and life lessons.“I hope
readers get that if they want to be in the picture business, they can… and people
who aren’t filmmakers but want to know the history of Al and myself, the whole
story is there – how we did it, why we did it and what really happened.â€Summing up, Sam says, “We did what we had to
do.â€
Many movies are a
reflection of their time: Dr. Strangelove was a biting 1960s anti-nuclear
war satire. Taxi Driver was a 1970s commentary on urban loneliness. Now
as America grapples with rising, politically inspired unrest, it’s more than a
bit sad that the movie for OUR time may well be The Forever Purge.
This half a billion-dollar
franchise started out in 2013 as a humble $3M action/thriller starring Ethan Hawke.Expectations were modest at best… Instead,
the film’s main theme – allowing society to “let off steam†with one night
where all crime is allowed - touched a nerve, grossing almost $90M and
installments (and profits) soon followed.
This latest sequel,
directed by Everardo Gout and written by series creator, James DeMonaco,
cannily picks up on today’s social and political vibes - a humble Mexican
couple, Juan and Adela, sneak into the U.S. in search of a better life, ready
to work hard to achieve that iconic American dream. Juan winds up toiling as a ranch hand for a
wealthy Texas family whose mercurial son (Josh Lucas) makes it clear he doesn’t
want Mexicans around.On Purge Night, as
the owners hunker down in luxury to ride the things out; the ranch hands and their
families take refuge in a barricaded warehouse.All emerge the next morning to discover the terrifying truth – the Purge
genie ain’t going back in the bottle.Paramilitary groups have decided to rid America of all “othersâ€, with NO
time limit.From coast to coast,
violence explodes. In a clever reverse, Mexico and Canada now offer U.S.
citizens asylum, so the wealthy ranch owners must rely on their Mexican workers
to guide them to safety.
Tenoch Huerta turns in a
solid performance as Juan, the Mexican immigrant gamely trying to fit in. Ana
de la Reguera (so good in Netflix’s Army of the Dead) really shines as
Adela, whose quiet demeanor masks a fearsome warrior.Veteran character actor Will Patton has a
brief, but impactful role as the Texas family patriarch, surprised at how his
country has changed. In one telling scene, a hulking skinhead being transported
to jail through the Purge Night mayhem, happily rattles off a multitude of gun
types based on the bullet sounds coming from the surrounding streets.
The film is a wild ride
through an amped up, paranoid, gun-filled American West and while entertaining
and well done (one expects no less from a movie that lists Jason Blum as a
producer) the resemblance to current events is just too stark to ignore.
The Forever Purge opens Friday, July 2nd, from
Universal Pictures.
Mike
Henry, the rugged former football player-turned-actor, passed away on January
8, 2021 after a long battle with Parkinson’s disease and Chronic traumatic
encephalopathy, likely from his heavy physical contact during his years in the
NFL playing for the Pittsburgh Steelers and LA Rams.Although not a household name, Henry carved
out an impressive career playing heroic roles, most notably Tarzan in three
films from 1966 – 68.I remember
stumbling across Tarzan And the Valley of Gold on network TV as a kid
and being enthralled by this hulking, well-spoken Tarzan who wore a suit in one
scene and the traditional loincloth in the next. (The series’ producer, Sy
Weintraub, cannily tried to jump on the then-raging Bondmania in 1966 by
offering up a suave Tarzan equally at home in a city as in the jungle.The fact that Henry bore a passing
resemblance to Sean Connery didn’t hurt.)Henry took over the role of Tarzan from Jock Mahoney (who suffered
dysentery making Tarzan’s Three Challenges that was so severe, he
emerged emaciated from the shoot in Thailand.) Blessed with a chiseled physique
that Weintraub crowed looked like it was “sculpted by Michelangeloâ€, Henry
could easily handle the athletic demands of the coveted part.
What
Henry endured making the Tarzan films was even more heroic than the role itself.
While filming Tarzan and the Great River, the script called for Tarzan
to pick up Cheeta (a chimpanzee) and run with him.The film was shot in the jungles of Brazil,
so all the onscreen animals had to be flown in – one imagines they were under
severe stress in a totally unfamiliar environment.The chimp reacted by biting Henry in the face,
requiring 20 stitches in his jaw and a stay in the local hospital for bouts of
“monkey feverâ€.
Mike Henry in a Brazilian hospital after being treated from wounds inflicted by a chimpanzee.
In
the course of making his three Tarzan epics, Henry suffered a severe ear
infection, food poisoning, fatigue, liver ailments, almost got clawed by an
enraged leopard and was so exhausted by the back-to-back film shoots that when
his contract required him to jump right into a Tarzan television series, the
actor wanted out. Who who could have blamed him?Ron Ely took over as Tarzan on TV and racked
up an equally impressive number of injuries including numerous broken bones and
several lion bites during its 2-year run.Henry, reportedly one of the most humble and affable people in the biz, was
so traumatized that he sued producer Weintraub for almost $1 million for
“maltreatment, abuse and working conditions detrimental to my health…†(Both
this and a related lawsuit were unsuccessful in court.)
Although
he had a successful career behind the camera, producing TV commercials and
documentaries, Henry continued to act – in films like The Green Berets, The
Longest Yard, Soylent Green and on episodes of M*A*S*H, The Six Million
Dollar Man, Scrubs, Fantasy Island and others.His role as Jackie Gleason’s dimwitted son in
three Smokey and the Bandit movies introduced this versatile performer
to a new generation of fans. Sadly, due to his illnesses, he had to retire from
the industry in 1988.
I
made several attempts to interview Mr. Henry, especially when I discovered he
lived near me in Los Angeles, but Covid and not wanting to intrude kept me from
pushing too hard.Still, he is one of
the actors I most remember from my movie-going youth and his dashing
appearances at Tarzan, in spite of all the trauma he personally endured, makes
him a true hero in my book.Thanks for
the magic, Mike.
Mark Cerulli (seated) with Aaron Prager, Matthew Lucero, August Kingsley and Rob Wight. (Photo by David Rubalcava)
Cinema Retro columnist Mark Cerulli has long championed indie horror films. They generally have one thing in common: the need to use innovative methods to compensate for less-than-extravagant budgets. Cerulli finally decided the best way to experience what it's like making one of these films was to participate in aspects of its creative process. Here is his report.
BY MARK CERULLI
As
a writer/producer for HBO, I had been on a number of film sets to do interviews
and shoot “B-rollâ€â€¦ tolerated, sometimes even welcomed but never a part of the
actual film. As a scriptwriter I had also piled up an impressive number of “passesâ€
(my favorite was from Steven Seagal’s nutritionist!).Then in a Hollywood coincidence I met
director Sean Haitz at the premiere of Rob Zombie’s Three from Hell. We
discovered that we shared an interest in Area 51, the mysterious military base
in the high desert outside Las Vegas and UFOs.We batted ideas around, agreed on a story and I wrote a first draft.Sean came up with a catchy title - AREA 5150
– and revised the script.At age 34, this
would be Sean’s 4th film. (His latest, Cannibal Comedian will be
out soon.) He gets things done. Last
December, we even took a quick trip to the real
Area 51 to shoot some exteriors, all under the watchful eye of “the Cammo
Dudesâ€, the private security force who guard all approaches to the base.
After
10 or 11 drafts, Sean’s very capable Assistant Director, CJ Guerrero, imported our
script into studio software where it underwent further changes.My first inkling of that was when Sean cheerfully
said, “You might want to wear a cup.â€
Oh
really?
At
the end of February I, along with the cast and a young crew of 15, were in Morongo
Valley, a quiet desert community about 30 mins from Palm Springs.Sean had the run of a sprawling vehicle graveyard
– cars, buses, construction equipment and the abandoned property next door (“a
trap house†as actor D’Shae Beasley called it).Set decorator, prop master and makeup artist Andrea Davoren turned the
vacant house into a functional-looking home – albeit without heat, running
water or even plumbing.Much mayhem
ensued with the walls pierced by hammers, screams and a custom chainsaw.And, of course, splattered with fake
blood.(Fun fact: there are two
varieties – one for the body, and a minty version for spewing out of your
mouth!)
Actress Clair Brauer in trouble! (Photo by Mark Cerulli).
The
most surreal event was staging a dinner scene that Sean wanted to do as an
homage to Texas Chainsaw Massacre.Since the house had no electricity we had to use an outside generator so
the floor was always a forest of cables. (My dropping an axe on one, cutting
the power didn’t help!)Since our script
had a crazy father role, I asked to play it as I had acted in high school and
college and took some classes in NYC before chickening out on pursuing it full
time. Even so, I underestimated what was involved in being in front of the
camera…
Inside
the house, the only source of heat was the old hearth, which production
assistants thankfully kept filling with branches from the overgrown
property.As it got later and later, the
temperature dropped into the 30s.By the
time we got ready to shoot dinner – around 2AM - we were all freezing. The others
at the table – Aaron Prager (star of Sean’s upcoming Cannibal Comedian),
lovely Claire Brauer (a real trooper in a skimpy cutoff t-shirt) and Rob Wight
(playing my dimwitted son #2) were all professional actors. Assistant Art Director August Kingsley played
my mutant offspring, Timmy, under a custom latex mask. I had foolishly written
a speech for my character and suddenly realized I had to deliver it. My first take - sometime after 3 AM - was…um…
lackluster. “We’re all tired. You look
it and sound it…†the director said from behind the monitor. I took a deep
breath and remembered what Bruce Glover (who teaches acting when he’s not
trying to kill James Bond) said about “locking upâ€. I managed a better delivery and we finally
wrapped for the night.
Sean Haitz sets up a shot with “Can Man" David Vega. (Photo by David Rubalcava).
For
a small film, Sean Haitz managed to get maximum bang for every buck – like getting
a helicopter for a key scene.Original
landing location dropped out?No problem:
he staged a landing on a side road next to a busy highway! Our female lead
tried to get away in a car so my (screen) daughter, Ruby Rose (played by our
special effects guru, Matthew Lucero) crushed the car and flipped it over with
a backhoe!We benefitted from having a
great young Director of Photography, Kraig Bryant, who was shooting his first
feature after working on music videos.He and cameraman Josh Wagner made full use of every hour of daylight,
literally shooting until the sun went down.
With director, co-writer/producer Sean Haitz on location in Morongo Valley, California. (Photo by David Rubalcava)
Every
movie villain deserves a wicked death and mine was a doozy – involving a circular
saw and a certain body part. (Hence the cup.) I was wired with tubes running up
my pants to a compressor tank filled with a gallon of fake blood.The result was a spectacular Tarantino-ish
shower of gore! I drove back to the
hotel drenched in drying blood, praying not to get pulled over by a cop.
Squeezing out every last hour of daylight… (Photo by Mark Cerulli).
After
8 long, exhilarating days, over 8 terabytes of data were digitally “in the
canâ€.We had a movie!And I had a new cinematic family – we had all
grown close during those days in the desert. That is the part of making Area 5150 I
think I cherish the most.
Just
before the Covid veil descended, this Cinema Retro scribe traveled to Texas to meet
up with the unstoppable Allen Danziger, an entrepreneur and actor who parlayed
a friendship with the late Tobe Hooper into roles in two of his films.Always fast on his feet, Allen basically
improvised his way through Eggshells, Hooper’s 3rd film in 1969… five
years later he got the call for a role in Hooper’s next project, The Texas
Chainsaw Massacre. He landed the part of “Jerryâ€, the van driver
transporting his college friends to their doom – and into cinema history. “I
think he liked my look,†Danziger says of Hooper, “I was a munchkin with
Leatherface towering over me.â€(Leatherface was played by 6’4†Gunnar Hansen, who passed in 2015.)
The
Texas Chainsaw Massacre was a genre film destined for drive-ins and grindhouses,
then something magical happened – audiences connected with its raw power and
gritty filmmaking.TCM (as fans refer to the film) became a surprise hit, grossing
over $30 million in 1974 dollars (around $150M today).Like bit players in Star Wars, anyone
who had anything to do on the film was in demand at conventions and autograph
shows.The surviving cast members have
all become close friends, “We’re like a vanishing Band of Brothers,†Danziger
notes wryly.And while he happily rode
the autograph wave, he was always open to doing more...
He
and a couple of friends were having a plate of barbecue at The Gas Station – a TCM location, now a horror museum/BBQ
joint run by super fan Roy Rose - when they said, “Hey Allen, you’re an
icon…â€Danziger laughed it off saying,
“Well, an icon should have his own bobble-head and it has to talk!†In short order, his buddy John (aka “The Wizâ€)
found a company in China able to manufacture them.“We sent them pictures of me from the movie
and they did a prototype which I loved.â€The first order of them arrived in January “on a slow boat from Chinaâ€,
Allen laughs.The response has been
impressive, “Everybody’s who’s seen one, wants one.â€Although sales are certainly a consideration,
Danziger notes another reason for their creation – “If it gets people smiling
and laughing, that’s what it’s all about.This has been a tough year for everybody.â€
(Allen Danziger at The Gas Station, March 2020. Photo: Mark Cerulli.)
The
Nodder should be a strong seller when fan conventions can safely resume and
Danziger has a couple of other ideas in the hopper saying, “If it (the doll)
takes off, I want to do a Chainsaw
Jerry Chia Pet and beef jerky.â€After
all, it really IS about the meat…
(Above: Raphael Peter Engel (aka Zandor Vorkov) today.
BY MARK CERULLI
When you think of Dracula, some iconic names immediately
come to mind – Bela Lugosi, Christopher Lee, Gary Oldman, Jack Palance… and Raphael
Engel.
Wait.
Who?
Raphael Peter Engel, aka
“Zandor Vorkov†played the thirsty count in one of the most unique films to
feature the immortal character – 1971’s Dracula vs Frankenstein, made by
the prolific B-movie team of director Al Adamson and co-writer/producer Sam
Sherman.
Both the actor and the film
itself took a very circuitous route to come into being.Born in Cleveland, Ohio, Raphael (then known
as Roger) grew up with a younger brother in Miami, Florida. “We did Saturday
matinees – two films, cartoons, a short, popcorn and I’d walk down many blocks
to the theater…â€, Raphael recalls in an exclusive Cinema Retro interview. “That influenced me. We’d come home and play
the characters we had seen.â€
He shipped out to Vietnam
in 1965, coming under enemy fire as soon as he stepped off the troop carrier. After
serving a year in the Army – “I made it out without a scratch,†– Engel
returned to late 1960s New York where he managed record stores in Gotham’s
Greenwich village while soaking up the era’s vibrant music scene.A collector of life stories, one of his
favorites is helping Stevie Wonder make some record choices on a Christmas Eve.
He also hung out with music producer Gary Katz (Steely Dan, Jim Croce) and
drifted into the world of film finance. (Contrary to popular belief, he was
never a stockbroker.) Raphael didn’t
know it, but this was all leading up to his donning Dracula’s cape.
Dracula Vs Frankenstein started out as a totally different film – Satan’s
Blood Freaks, later titled TheBlood Seekers and meant to be
a sequel to Sherman and Adamson’s 1969 effort, Satan’s Sadists (“The First Biker Horror Movie!â€). Tapping into national unease over the Manson
murders, marauding biker gangs and occultism, Satan’s Sadists was a hit.
Satan’s Blood Freaks/The
Blood Seekers starred The Wolfman
himself, Lon Chaney Jr. (in his final role), J. Carrol Naish (his final role), Al
Adamson’s wife, Regina Carrol (billed as “the Freak Out Girl†in Satan
Sadists), Angelo Rossitto from 1932’s Freaks and returning cast
member Russ Tamblyn – more famous for his work in West Side Story. The
plot followed a mad doctor Durea (Naish) hiding out in a seaside sideshow, whose
lumbering henchman (Chaney) murdered people on the beach so he could reanimate
their bodies.The results were…
disappointing at best.There was talk of
just shelving the film, but Sherman wanted to take a crack at fixing it – by
introducing the iconic characters of Dracula and the Frankenstein monster.As he was rewriting the script, he and Adamson arranged a screening of
their film and Raphael was there with a financier.Although Sherman wanted to tap John Carradine
to play Dracula (as he had in Universal’s House of Frankenstein and House
of Dracula), they didn’t want to pay his fee.Adamson took note of the tall, gaunt,
assistant with the jet black Afro and popped the question, “How’d you like to play Count Dracula?â€Funnily enough, Raphael didn’t even like
horror films but he accepted the challenge. “It became an adventure,†Raphael
says, adding,“When I commit to
something, I really care about people and want to do the best I can so I pushed
through my own resistance and thought, ‘How do I play this role?’â€
Although he recalled seeing
Lugosi’s epic performance (“It definitely set the tone for everything…â€) Raphael
tried to make the part his own. “I did everything I could to embody what my
young self understood a vampire (to be).â€How did he rate his turn as the Count? “It was different. to say the
least. The other guys who played it were subtler and didn’t have long curly
hair and I was younger.â€
While the film was
decidedly low budget, it was a fairly easy shoot. “There was no tension there
except with J. Caroll Naish, who we found out later was hurting like mad (due
to osteoporosis.)†Raphael remembers. “Angelo (Rossitto) kept to himself… I
never remember him smiling… Regina Carrol was as nice as could be and John
Bloom (the Frankenstein monster) was in makeup for hours.â€(Sam Sherman has a memorable tale of seeing
the 7-foot Bloom becoming more and more impatient in the makeup chair.Finally, the producer said, “John, what else
do you have to do?â€Bloom replied, “It’s
tax season. I’m an accountant!â€) Lon
Chaney’s scenes had been shot two years earlier, so young Raphael never got a
chance to meet the Wolfman. (Chaney, a heavy smoker and drinker, was
suffering from throat cancer during production and died of heart failure in
1973.)
Dr. Durea’s (Frankenstein)
lab scenes were shot at the Hollywood Stages in West Hollywood, utilizing studio
alleys and the soundstage roof.Although
done on the cheap, the production did utilize
the same electro-magnetic gear from 1931’s Frankenstein, created by
electrical effects wizard, Kenneth Strickfaden. “It kept me on my toes,â€
Raphael recalled. “I walked onto the set and somebody said ‘Stay back, Drac’
those are live!†Along with genuine
camp, the film offers a rare opportunity to see the original Frankenstein
electric gear in color.
Another member of the eclectic
cast was longtime Famous Monsters of Filmland editor, Forrest J. Ackerman,
playing an enemy of Dr. Frankenstein’s.Dracula appears in his car, directing him to a spot where the Frankenstein
monster is waiting.Raphael remembers
the legendary editor as being “A nice guy… he was really into it.â€Ackerman returned the favor by putting
Raphael on the cover of Famous Monsters issue #89.“That was an honor,†he says. (Ackerman also came up with Raphael’s
distinctive screen name – “Zandorâ€, from Church of Satan founder Anton Szandor
LaVey and “Vorkov†because it sorta sounded like Karloff!)
(Above: J.Carroll Naish with Forry Ackerman on the set.)
Originally the film was
supposed to end with the count being impaled on a pipe as Regina Carrol escaped
with her beau (Hawaiian Eye star Anthony Eisley).Sam Sherman considered that ending to be weak
so he came up with a new one taking place in an abandoned church.Raphael and Carrol were flown back East and
the climax was filmed in rural Somers, New York.Not having the funds to fly John Bloom in,
the monster was played by Raphael’s former record store boss, Shelly Weiss.
(“We just need a big guy who we could make up and follow directions… and he
(Shelly) went nuts, he loved it and he got to tell everybody that story.â€)
“They gave me a different
cloak and they handed me some Halloween plastic teeth, somebody put clown white
all over me and that made for a fun movie,†Raphael recalls with a laugh.Yes, the Count was wearing those upper and
lower cheapo plastic fangs every 1960s kid wore at Halloween!
(Above: Regina Carrol and Lon Chaney Jr. in a candid moment.)
Fake fangs or not, Dracula
literally tears the monster limb from limb, finally ripping off his head. Dracula’s
shocking act of violence is totally at odds with the gentle, civic-minded
actor. “Everybody who knows me said ‘You did what?’†Raphael recalls. Three
years later, Monty Python’s Terry Gilliam riffed off the grisly sequence with
the memorable scene of King Arthur (Graham Chapman) dismembering the Black
Knight (John Cleese) in Monty Python and the Holy Grail. Interestingly, Gilliam once worked with Sam
Sherman at Warren Publications, publisher of Famous Monsters.
Roy Rose and his horrific and historic gas station.
(Photo copyright Mark Cerulli. All rights reserved.)
BY MARK CERULLI
Deep in the heart of Texas
there’s a nondescript gas station on the side of a sleepy road…You can’t buy gas there.They don’t sell lottery tickets, and the
closest neighbors are a herd of cows.But this gas station has a unique place in horror film history as a key
setting of director Tobe Hooper’s iconic 1974 film, The Texas Chainsaw
Massacre.
The station was in serious
disrepair when it caught the eye of Texas Chainsaw Massacre mega-fan Roy Rose who “fell in love with the movie
since I was ten years old.â€Why?“It’s the most realistic horror movie there
is, nothing else is even close,†Roy explains.He then set about living his dream - approaching the station’s original
owner to buy it.A few years (and many
phone calls later) his persistence paid off – the station was his. “I told my
wife and my kids, ‘Let’s go! We’re moving to Texas…’†Roy chuckles.
Tall and bearded, the Ohio
businessman shrugs off the two years of hard work it took to bring the station
back from its sorry state. He stocked it with a vast array of horror masks and
figures, plus rows of licensed Chainsaw-centric t-shirts you can’t find
anywhere else.A stickler for details,
he tracked down the same outdoor chairs and even the same type of front door
seen in the movie, finding them on Craigslist, then shipping them to Texas for
a princely sum.
But Roy’s vision included
much more than just creating an out-of-the-way horror boutique.First, he added… barbeque from a huge, custom-made
smoker. “Oh, we got the best barbeque,â€
Roy says confidently. This Cinema Retro scribe can truthfully say that the gas station’s
smoked brisket was tender and juicy and their sausage was delicious – not too
spicy, with a satisfying snap. Roy’s Gas Station Chili also hit the spot,
served with plenty of white bread to sop it up with.
Inside the horror emporium.
(Photo copyright Mark Cerulli. All rights reserved.)
Roy also turned the gas station
into a tourist destination by building cozy one-room cabins that can be rented
for one night or longer.Once a year he
screens his favorite film at the compound (“I always pay the licensing fee,†he
points out) and holds a horror convention where surviving cast members sign
autographs and mingle with fans. “Fans come to the gas station, meet the stars
and we also have live music.â€
On the day of my visit, original
TCM actor Allen Danziger (Jerry, the
van’s driver) arrived to discuss his merchandising plans (get ready for “Chainsaw
Jerry’s Beef Jerkyâ€).After chowing down
on a smoked sausage sandwich, the former Bronx native was ready to talk about
making the historic film. “For me it was a lark, I wasn’t an actor,†Allen
explained. He just happened to have worked on director Tobe Hooper’s first
film, Eggshells (“It was a psychedelic, hippy dippy kind of thingâ€) so
he was a shoo-in for a part in Chainsaw.
CR’s Mark Cerulli with TCM actor Allen Danziger in front of the same model van he drove in the film.
(Photo copyright Mark Cerulli. All rights reserved.)
Fortunately for Allen, he didn’t
have to spend much time inside the actual Chainsaw house. “People were puking
and getting sick after a take, it was awful,†he recalled. Remember all those dead animals on the walls
and dangling from the ceilings?They
weren’t rubber props, they were REAL dead animals – roadkill! “Occasionally
I would get a whiff of Gunnar (Hansen) and that was enough.†(Hansen was the
6’4†Icelandic-born actor who played the murderous Leatherface in the film.) “Gunnar
and I became real good friends,†Allen said, adding, “He was very bright with a
good sense of humor…â€Sadly, Hansen
passed away in 2015 at age 68.
After filming ended, Allen visited
the director in the editing room. “Tobe showed me some scenes and asked what he
could do to improve them. I jokingly said ‘Have the seats facing away from the
screen.’†That did NOT go over well with the prickly filmmaker. “I didn’t see
any more rushes.â€But once the film was
edited and retitled – from Headcheese to the more familiar The Texas
Chainsaw Massacre, Allen was sold on it.
When asked what he wanted
fans to remember about the game-changing movie, Allen said, “That a group of
young people gave their all…â€He did
mention that promised shares in the film’s profits never materialized - but
such is showbiz. (TCM grossed over
$30 million on a $140K budget.)
Gas station barbeque- "It's the meat!"
After his two Tobe Hooper
roles, Allen landed a small part in Willie Nelson’s Honeysuckle Rose and
then his acting career hit the skids.“I
had a rapid rise and a meteoric fall,†Allen laughs, explaining that he went
into social work and had his own entertainment company. Now 77, Danziger
credits the film’s intense realism to its long-lasting success. “None of us
were known but there was the believability that this all could happen. I mean,
it’s Texas.â€
Look for Roy’s Cult Classic
Convention in Bastrop, Texas in February, 2021, headlining Bill Moseley (Chop
Top in TCM 2), Caroline Williams (TCM 2), Camille Keaton (I Spit on
Your Grave), Joe Don Baker (Walking Tall) and others TBD.Check Roy’s creepy empire by clicking here.
HOW TO GET THERE
The
Gas Station is located in Bastrop, Texas, about 30 minutes outside Austin. Car Rental
or Uber/Lyft are your best options in terms of getting there. If you opt
for a ride sharing service, offer to buy the driver a plate of BBQ while you
shop for your Chainsaw treasures as it might be quite a wait to get a ride back
into town!
When I first heard of The
Hunt, the controversial action movie from Universal’s Blumhouse Studios, I
thought it would be a modern riff off one of my favorite films – 1994’s Surviving
The Game.I was wrong.While The Hunt IS an action movie set
in the woods – it’s one wrapped in biting socio political satire which perfectly
echoes today’s conspiracy culture and insane partisan politics.
The film was slated for
release last September when America’s sad reality intruded – the tragic mass
shootings in El Paso and Dayton. Studio brass decided to shelve it
indefinitely. For a moment, it looked like The Hunt would become a
famously “lost†film like Lon Chaney’s London After Midnight. Now, with only a hotly contested election and
pandemic fears swirling, the film opens nationwide on Friday.
Like the old Caddyshack
tagline, “It’s the snobs against the slobsâ€, The Hunt’s plot revolves
around a bunch of rich elites who decide to hunt “deplorables†on a remote
estate – literally kidnapping them from their daily lives and depositing them
in the middle of the woods. Most of the prey are straight up stock redneck
types who are dispatched fairly quickly (although in jarring, sometimes brutal
ways).One, however, isn’t your average
hillbilly.Her name is Crystal and she’s
got a few tricks up her sleeve.Ably
played by Betty Gilpin (TheGrudge, Ghost Town), Crystal has a
military background and isn’t about to be meekly led to the slaughter.Radiating a quiet inner strength and
competence, she takes the fight to the elites, burning her way through the
haplessly woke villains until she faces off against their ringleader – the mysterious
mega-rich Athena (Oscar-winner Hillary Swank) in a bone-jarring catfight that
wouldn’t be out of place in a James Bond movie.(Caution: you may never look at a grilled cheese sandwich the same way
again.)
The film’s press materials
state that The Hunt’s writers Damon Lindelof (who also produced) and
Nick Cuse (who executive produced) were “politically obsessed†and the story
came together amidst a stream of internet conspiracy theories and the
“unrestrained hostilities between the Left and Rightâ€.The film does take care to point out the
absurdities of both sides – including an inspired sequence with movie veteran
Amy Madigan (Field of Dreams) and her hubby (Reed Birney) playing kindly
old shop owners who happily dispatch their human victims while railing against
various stereotypes and sugared soft drinks!
Director Craig Zobel (Compliance,
Z for Zachariah) keeps the action fast and unrelenting, with the camera so
close, one almost feels the body blows. Although the film’s satire gets heavy handed
at times and there are some gruesome death scenes (punji sticks anyone?) the
film might be too woke for the 18-34 action movie crowd, sailing over their
heads like a blown up body part… then again, in today’s toxic political climate
heading into the 2020 election, The Hunt’s timing might just be spot on.
The Hunt, released by Universal Pictures, opens
nationwide on March 13th.
Growing
up, I remember listening to the CBS Radio Mystery Theater, hosted by the gifted
actor, E.G. Marshall.But as the
plethora of new media choices came online over the years, I had thought that
kind of pure audio entertainment had gone the way of the RCA Selectavision Video
Disc… The delightful Passport to Oblivion
2-disc set from Spiteful Puppet proved me wrong and is a welcome return to
adventure for the ears and mind.
The
production, based on James Leasor’s 1964 best-seller (filmed as Where the Spies
Are in 1966) stars ex-007 George Lazenby as Dr. Jason Love, a reluctant spy
lured back into service to make a seemingly routine rendezvous for MI6 – a
rendezvous that turns out to be anything BUT routine.Love is no high-flying secret agent, but a
comfortably retired doctor in rural England.
The
story unfolds with a highly skilled cast including Glynis Barber, Terence Stamp
and Nickolas Grace, all performing against a rich audio bed of sound effects,
other voice actors and music cues. There’s even a Bondian-sounding theme song
by the talented British singer Verity White.
Lazenby’s voice is
unmistakable – his Australian accent has aged, with a rich timbre. Having
recently turned 80, he does the show with the confidence of an artist who has
nothing left to prove, taking us through all the twists and turns of Leasor’s elaborate
plot, his famous voice conveying outrage, confusion, humor and his natural
Aussie charm.
By
all reports, Lazenby enjoyed the experience and unlike his one screen
appearance as Bond, he’s keen to do more.Spiteful Puppet has the option to release nine more of Dr. Love’s
adventures in dramatic audio format.For
director/producer Barnaby Eaton-Jones, working with Lazenby was a peak experience
– “It was always a coup to get George on board and the challenge of him
playing a reluctant spy, rather than a super confident double-O-agent, was
something that clearly appealed (to him). When you meet him, you quickly realize
he was essentially playing himself as Bond. He has a swagger and a twinkle and
a devil-may-care attitude that hasn't changed even though he's now hit 80 years
old.â€
During
production, Eaton-Jones observed George displaying the same hot-blooded
instincts he showed while making On Her Majesty’s 50 years ago – “… he was perkiest in the recording studio when Glynis
Barber and Carla Mendonça were present (our two leading females) but, between
takes, he would regale us with the antics of his past.â€
In a world crowded with video games and streaming videos of every
description, Spiteful Puppet’s Passport to Oblivion audio drama is a
welcome return to the entertainment of old – well-crafted, detailed and
absorbing.
Passport
To Oblivion
will be released as a 2-disc audio set in a custom illustrated sleeve on
November 29, 2019 and you can order it by clicking here.
Fifty
years after his one remarkable turn as Bond in On Her Majesty’s Secret Service, George Lazenby returns to the fertile ground of international
espionage in Passport to Oblivion, a
new audio thriller by the UK’s Spiteful Puppet Company, based on James Leasor‘s highly successful novel
of the same name.
Lazenby
plays Jason Love, a quiet country doctor with a VERY adventurous WWII
past.But when MI6 needs his help, Love
can’t refuse the call in this thriller that’s set in 1964. (David Niven played
Dr. Love on the big screen in the 1966 feature film Where the Spies Are.)
As
Lazenby says, “What’s interesting about this character is he’s a reluctant spy
rather than a Double-O-Agent. Oh, and he’s Australian. I reckon I can play
Australian rather well!â€
The all-star cast also includes Glynis Barber, Nickolas Grace, Michael
Brandon and Terence Stamp
– a lineup that even impressed the former 007, who said, “I’ve been surrounded by a pretty amazing cast, who it will
be a pleasure working with.â€
As
the first actor to take on one of cinema’s
most iconic roles after Sean Connery moved on, Passport to Oblivion marks another Lazenby first – “It will be
interesting to step into the world of audio and declare it another first for
me, making my debut in that discipline.“
And
you can pre-order the limited-edition 2-Disc set, due for release on 29November
2019, here:
Spiteful
Puppet has the option to the 9 other Jason Love novels, so there’s a very good
chance this spy story won’t be a one-off for George Lazenby.Or as the star puts it, “Maybe I’ll do more
than one this time?â€
John
Carpenter’s Halloween was supposed to
be a one-off… a small, disposable horror movie that would give some young
filmmakers a break and its backers a nice hit of cash should it succeed.But a one-off it was not.Instead it became an American classic, which
until a few years ago, was the most successful indie movie of all time.It’s a story that cried out for a book – and
now there is one: Halloween: The Changing Shape Of An Iconic Series by
Ernie Magnotta.
This
deeply researched, 378 page oversize paperback illustrates Magnotta’s
enthusiasm for the films and the genre on every page.He goes through the franchise, film by film,
examining the plots, the key sequences, the cinematography, the music and, of
course, the characters and the actors who portray them. Even the changing face of Michael’s iconic
mask is examined and discussed. Like all fans, Magnotta has strong opinions and
isn’t afraid to share them.For example,
he picks apart the rather confusing ending of Halloween 6, which this writer saw in the theaters and couldn’t
quite get, either. He also looks at the
various plot holes and inconsistencies that crop up over the long course of the
series, which have caused die-hard Halloween
fans no small amount of agida over the years. That said, the book is not a
hatchet job by any means.It praises the
great work done by directors, actors and cinematographers as well as the many inventive
scares – crucial elements that helped make this one of horror’s most successful
and beloved franchises.
The
book contains over 200 color photos, as well as a number of posters and rare
lobby cards. Magnotta also thoughtfully includes film reviews of each title,
giving the reader a taste of how each movie was received during its initial
release.With the, er, monster success of Blumhouse’s 2018 Halloween reboot, this franchise is far
from dead – and Ernie Magnotta’s book is the perfect guide.
Forty
eight years ago, United Artists continued their series of highly profitable
Bond double features by releasing arguably the biggest 00 double bill of them
all – Thunderball and You Only Live Twice.Both films had coined money on their initial
releases, with Thunderball being the
highest-grossing 007 film of that era – in fact, of many eras, right up until Skyfall in 2012.Thunderball
earned a stunning $141 Million worldwide (over onebilliondollars in today’s money), a number that
must have had UA’s finance department humming the Bond theme at 727 Seventh
Avenue. You Only Live Twice pulled in
over $111 Million worldwide, its profits squeezed perhaps by a competing Bond
film, the over-the-top comedy, Casino
Royale with Peter Sellers, David Niven, Terence Cooper and Woody Allen as various
Bonds or an Italian spy knockoff starring Sean Connery’s younger brother, Neil.
(More on that later.)
Throughout
the 60s, 70s and into the early 80s, United Artists cannily fed the demand for
Bond with double features that also served to ignite audience interest between
new films.The double-bills were pure
cash cows for the studio – the movies had already been produced and paid for,
so all UA had to do was book the theaters, buy TV, radio and print advertising,
then, as Bond producer Cubby Broccoli was fond of saying, “Open the cinema
doors and get out of the way.â€
As
a (very) young Bond fan in New York City, the exciting double feature TV spots
for “The Two Biggest Bonds of All†got my attention and I desperately wanted to
go.My father, an advertising and music executive,
thought noon on a Saturday was the perfect time – instead we were greeted with
a line around the block and a sold out show. Apparently that satisfied my dad’s interest in
the movies because we never went back. Almost
five decades later, I still regretted missing those two fantastic films on the
big screen…
Enter
Quentin Tarantino.Throughout July, his New
Beverly Theater in LA ran most of the classic Bonds in vintage 35MM IB
Technicolor prints, reportedly from his own collection. (The IB refers to
“imbibitionâ€, Technicolor’s patented die-transfer process resulting in a richer,
more stable color palette.) So while
there was no 4-hour, action-packed double feature for me, I finally got
to see both films in 1960s 35MM, only a week apart.Even fifty years later, they didn’t
disappoint:Thunderball remains a bonafide masterpiece.Fortunately Quentin owns a very good print,
so the colors were still lush and it was fairly scratch-free.The main titles set to Tom Jones’ timeless
song still popped in an explosion of colors and sound effects. The scenes of
Domino and Bond meeting on a coral reef were hauntingly beautiful. The frantic Junkanoo
chase fairly jumped off the screen and Thunderball’s
iconic underwater battle is still a showstopper.(The filmmakers cleverly refrained from
wall-to-wall music so the sequence incorporated underwater breathing and other
natural sounds. Kudos again to 00 audio genius, Norman Wanstall.)
You Only Live Twice is a true epic and
only the master showmen, Monsieurs Broccoli and Harry Saltzman could have
pulled it off.They reached into the
highest levels of the Japanese government to secure a lengthy shoot in what was
then a very exotic location in a much bigger world.Japan was almost a character itself in their sprawling
space age tale that occasionally bordered on sci-fi.Much
has been written about Ken Adam’s volcano crater, but seeing it on a big screen
really brings out his mind-blowing vision, especially during the climactic
battle where the “ninjas†rappel down from the roof as controlled explosions rock
the set.One can only imagine how that
went over with 1967 audiences who had never seen anything like it.Putting it in context, Tarantino had selected
various spy-themed trailers to run before the film – including The Wrecking Crew, TheVenetian Affair and The Liquidator.Although they were all successful and well made,
their sets and action sequences looked positively cheap in comparison to a Bond
film.
Both
features starred a young, vibrant Connery whose acting chops were on full
display.Connery played Bond for
real.He made you believe… once you bought into him as 007, then his strapping on a
jetpack to fly over a French chateau, or a SPECTRE construction crew hollowing
out a volcano - in secret - to create a rocket base seemed totally
plausible.Sure Connery had put on a few
pounds between Thunderball and Twice, but he was still fit and looked
fantastic in his custom-made suits.And his
fight with Samoan wrestler Peter Maivia (grandfather to Dwayne “The Rock†Johnson)
in Osato’s office is still one for the ages.
(Above: Mie Hama joins in celebrating Connery's birthday on the set.)
As
most Bond students know, Twice was a
grueling shoot for the mercurial star.He was subjected to intense press and fan interest in a country that had
gone wild for 007.Connery needed security
to accompany him from location trailer to set. Going out for a quiet dinner was
out of the question – even visiting the loo was off limits after an overzealous
photographer poked his lens into Connery’s toilet stall! But if he was feeling angry or bitter about
his situation, he was too much of a pro to let it show in his performance.In spite of the pressures, there were some
good times on the Twice shoot during
the furnace hot Asian summer of 1966 – now-famous photos show Connery-san
laughing with lovely Mie Hama at his 36th birthday party on
location, or back at Pinewood, smiling at Donald Pleasence during a light
moment in the control room that even had Blofeld’s hulking bodyguard (actor Ronald
Rich) laughing in the background.
Photo Credit: Universal Pictures and Amblin Entertainment, Inc. and Legendary Pictures Productions, LLC.
BY MARK CERULLI
Like the old-time movie
serials, Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom
picks up shortly after the previous film ends to keep the overall story
going.The famous resort is now in
shambles, slowly being reclaimed by the jungle and the surviving dinosaurs have
been left to die out on Isla Nublar.The
screenplay by Derek Connolly & Colin Trevorrow(who directed the previous film) cleverly incorporates
the current spirit of environmentalism with a raging debate to save the
remaining dinosaurs, or let them die out again.When the island’s volcano erupts (shades of the current situation in
Hawaii) a private foundation headed by the partner of the park’s original
founder, John Hammond, comes to the rescue...
Armed with deep pockets and
the best of intentions, the partner (James Cromwell) enlists former Jurassic
World staffers Claire (Bryce Dallas Howard) and Owen (Chris Pratt) to round up
as many dinosaurs as possible for transfer to a sanctuary.Joined by a computer whiz (Justice Smith) to
help locate the valuable creatures, they meet up with a gritty capture team
headed by Jamie Gumb himself (Ted Levine). They have a, um, different
agenda:selling dinosaurs to the highest
bidder!Sure enough, a double-cross
ensues and the dinosaurs, including many of the most dangerous species, are on
their way to an auction deep below the partner’s remote mansion.Here the film combines the best of a Jurassic
Park adventure with elements of a haunted house – including that trailer clip
scene of a carnivore’s giant claw tapping on the floor.
Howard and Pratt, although
strong, are overshadowed by the real “heroes†of this film - the incredibly
lifelike CGI dinosaurs.In fact, they
carry most of the story as the human actors dodge lava explosions and giant
snapping jaws.
Photo Credit: Universal Pictures and Amblin Entertainment, Inc. and Legendary Pictures Productions, LLC.
Director J.A. Bayona (A Monster Calls) keeps the action swift
and unrelenting – although he slows it enough to include a haunting scene of a
doomed brontosaurus left behind on the Island’s dock as the last transport ship
pulls out. Jeff Goldblum reprises his
role as the eccentric mathematician, Dr. Ian Malcolm – although his scenes are
confined to a senate hearing room.
While nothing can equal the
game-changing impact of the 1993 original, Jurassic
World: Fallen Kingdom is another high-octane installment of what will undoubtedly
be a long and successful franchise.
Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom opens nationwide on
Friday, June 22 From Universal Pictures.
Left to right: Stars Dwayne Johnson, Naomie Harris, Jeffrey Dean Morgan, Malin Akerman, Joe Manganiello and director Brad Peyton at the Warner Bros. junket. (Photo: copyright Mark Cerulli. All rights reserved.)
BY MARK CERULLI
Back
when he used to wrestle for the WWE, Dwayne “The Rock†Johnson would ask, “Can
you smell what The Rock is cooking?â€Well, his latest big screen blowout, Rampage
smells a lot like jet fuel – there are more smashed planes and helicopters in
this film than in ten Godzilla movies
combined.
Based
on the 1980s video game of the same name, the big screen version features not
one, not two, but THREE hyper-deadly creatures making a beeline for downtown
Chicago. Johnson plays a zoo
primatologist who prefers animals to people, reluctantly teaming with a lovely
geneticist (Naomie Harris) to stop them. Although Johnson is the movie’s star, he shares
the screen with an even bigger hero: a
massive gorilla named “Georgeâ€. “They’re a lot alike,†director Brad Peyton
said, “They’re both funny, they’re both alpha males and they’re both the
biggest guy in every room.†Rampage
is Johnson’s third collaboration with Peyton, who previously directed him in San Andreas and Journey 2: Mysterious Island.Ahead of the film’s debut, Warner
Bros staged an elaborate press junket at a Hollywood studio where key cast and
crewmembers talked about the film…
“The
conceit of this idea is a ridiculous one, “Johnson told the assembled crowd of
reporters, “Three gigantic monsters destroying the city of Chicago… we took a
lot of swings at it to make it fun and give the story an anchor in heart and
soul, which is my relationship with my best friend – this rare, gigantic albino
gorilla.â€
(Photo: copyright Mark Cerulli. All rights reserved.)
“We
wanted to make a monster movie that would stand the test of time,†Johnson
continued. “There’s been a lot of great ones – King Kong, Godzilla, even Jurassic
Park I’d include – so we wanted to raise the bar, even a little bit and anchor
it in a relationship.â€Since George, the
gorilla, exhibits many human-like qualities and has a deep bond with Johnson’s
character, he goes all out to save him from the inevitable military hardware
brought out to take the huge ape down.Special note should be made of the remarkable visuals created by New
Zealand-based Weta Digital, which has a long history of creating amazing
effects in blockbusters like Avatar, Justice League and War For The Planet Of The Apes.
(Photo courtesy Warner Bros.)
The
film gives Naomie Harris – who Cinema Retro readers know as Moneypenny in the
Daniel Craig Bonds – a chance to get out of MI6 to dodge falling buildings and
gigantic creatures, an experience that was well out of her acting comfort zone:“This was reacting to tennis balls and I was
absolutely terrified,†Harris says with a laugh, referring to the weeks of complex
green screen work she had to do to dodge said giant monsters.Luckily, her amiable co-star came to the
rescue:“I had to lean on Dwayne, he’s
the master of this and I was completely lost in the beginning.â€
“It’s
odd that my comfort zone is destruction,†Johnson added, which got a big laugh.And destruction there is – from a space
station spinning high above the earth to Chicago’s Magnificent Mile being torn
up, Rampage is a fast-moving visual
feast, which the cast doesn’t take too seriously and neither should the
audience.Instead Rampage is a ride meant to be enjoyed… As the movie’s director summed up: “What I’ve
learned from him (Dwayne) is ‘When you get up to the plate, try and hit a grand
slam.’ As a Canadian, I wasn’t trained to think like that, but this gigantic
Hawaiian dude really knows how to do this right!â€
(Photo courtesy Warner Bros.)
Rampage roars into theaters
Friday, April 13th, from Warner Bros. Pictures. Click here to visit official site.
There’s
a new Tomb Raider in town and she’s not… well…she’s not your older brother’s Tomb
Raider.Gone is the statuesque,
pistol-packing Angelina Jolie of the iconic video game character’s first movie incarnation.Alicia Vikander’s Lara Croft is pared down to
the essentials - a dangerous tomboy who is smart, feisty and tough as nails.
When
we meet this Lara Croft she’s broke,
toiling as a London bicycle messenger, getting her ass kicked in MMA training
and still reeling from the disappearance of her father (Dominic West) seven
years ago.He had vanished exploring a
mysterious island off the coast of Japan. When she discovers the key to his
hidden workroom, she becomes hooked on his quest and decides to follow his
trail all the way to the jungle tomb he was desperately trying to keep from
ever being opened.
Directed
by the aptly named Finnish director, Roar Uthaug, the film starts off at a breakneck
pace and rarely slows.The action moves like
a bullet train from a bike chase in Central London to a Hong Kong dock melee
and then on to a remote island as forbidding and dangerous as the one King Kong
calls home.There, Croft encounters her
father’s nemesis – a shadowy organization called Trinity which is laser-focused
on finding the final resting place of an ancient Queen known as “The Mother of
Death.â€Their archaeological dig is run
by a psychotic thug played with real verve by Walton Goggins (Justified), who could clearly give
Hannibal Lecter a run for his money.When he steals Croft’s father’s journal, the path to the tomb and its
hideous contents is revealed and the final battle begins.
Vikander
is fit and relentless, yet vulnerable for an action hero – when she takes a
beating, you feel it.The amount of
training Ms. Vikander had to endure for the role must have been epic.As the New York Times’ review pithily noted,
she has “a washboard stomach you could play the blues on.â€(Sorry, that was too sweet not to reuse!) Cinematographer
George Richmond makes great use of the lush South African scenery, and his zooming
camerawork flies through jungle canopies and ancient tombs with equal finesse.
While
Vikander’s Lara Croft isn’t as snide or as sexualized as her predecessor, hers
is a strong debut and like Daniel Craig’s Bond, she’ll make this iconic
character her own.
TOMB
RAIDER is released by Warner Bros. and MGM. The film makes its North American debut on Friday, March 16.
Like
the old saying goes, “You can’t go home again.â€Having seen Scream And Scream
Again decades ago, I remembered it as being thrilling and suspenseful... now,
47 years (!) after its release, not so much.The story is a hodgepodge of sci-fi and social commentary as a brusque
police inspector (Alfred Marks) and a curious doctor (Christopher Matthews)
investigate the brutal deaths of several young women, eventually connecting them
to a scientist (Vincent Price) who is creating synthetic humans using body
parts from unwilling live donors.Christopher Lee is the head of British Intelligence, whose agency is – I
think – secretly funding the experiments.A subplot with a sadistic official (Marshall Jones) from a fictional Eastern
European nation (think East Berlin) in collusion with the Brits is also in the
mix. (In an interview years later, even Vincent Price admitted he didn’t know
what the film was really about!)
Ably
directed by Gordon Hessler, who made a number of Price Edgar Allen Poe films
including The Oblong Box; Scream And Scream Again is a time
capsule of late 60s England:there are
several nightclub scenes featuring the then-popular Welsh band Amen Corner
singing away, with audience members gamely trying to look hip… one guesses the
object here was to contemporize things: “Look
Kids! No more stodgy castles!†Still,
there is a lot to recommend the film – the opening sequence of a hapless jogger
running through London, waking up several times to find more and more of his
limbs being removed is as effective now as it was in 1970, and Hessler’s use of
hand-held camera to put the audience IN the action was innovative for its time.Another standout sequence is a wonderful
faceoff between a nattily dressed Lee and Jones in Trafalgar Square. (Jones’
knit pom-pom cap remains a bold wardrobe choice for a hulking villain!)
Both
Price and Lee are at the top of their game and if you’re a Christopher Lee fan,
there are many loving close-ups of his sneering visage. Unfortunately the
wonderful Peter Cushing is used in only one scene – blink and he’s gone.According to filmmaking lore, Vincent Price
insisted on doing his death scene (sinking into a vat of acid) himself.The harsh chemicals used in the fluid caused
him serious sinus problems for years.
The
Twilight Time DVD release is welcome for overcoming some longtime rights issues
and returning the original music to the film. The colors are crisp in 1080p HD
and the DVD is loaded with extras including a 23-minute documentary, Gentleman Gothic: Gordon Hessler At AIP, which
features an interview with Hessler, who passed in 2014, as well as film historians
discussing his work.There is also a
still file, radio spot, original trailer (which erroneously identifies actor Marshall Jones as the iconic Peter Cushing!) and a subtitled interview with German
actress Uta Levka, who played the impersonal “composite†nurse in the
film and an illustrated booklet with liner notes by historian Julie Kirgo.It’s safe to say, this will
forever be the definitive release of Scream and Scream Again!.
This is a region-free, limited edition of 3,000 units. Click here to order.
A LOOK AT 2017 FILMS NOMINATED FOR PROMINENT OSCARS
(This review originally ran during the film's initial theatrical release in 2017)
BY MARK CERULLI
This
so could have been a by-the-numbers genre movie: “Sensitive boyfriend goes to meet hot girlfriend’s parents in secluded
country home and mayhem ensues…†and that’s exactly what happens in Get Out, the new thriller from
writer/director Jordan Peele, but in a totally unexpected way.
The
filmturns every horror trope on its
head while tackling racist stereotypes along the way. Daniel Kaluuya is excellent as Chris, an
aspiring young photographer who happens to be black. His beautiful, Ivy League-ish girlfriend,
Rose (Allison Williams from HBO’s Girls)
is bringing him home to meet her parents for the first time – a momentous
occasion in any new relationship but even more so when it’s interracial, a fact
the movie meets head on. Once at the
family estate, Chris feels that something is truly off – from the mind-gaming
father (Bradley Whitford) and his spooky psychiatrist wife (Catherine Keener)
to Rose’s hostile brother (Caleb Landry Jones). Their all black staff goes out
of their way to tell Chris how happy they are to be there, which just makes him
more uncomfortable. And then there’s the
family gathering Rose forgot to tell him about, where cousins and uncles leer
at Chris as if he’s on display, making clueless, subtly racist comments in a
perfect sendup of East Coast liberal elitism. Chris gamely endures all this while Rose seems genuinely mortified – but
it’s all an act! Chris has been brought
there for a sinister purpose and after Rose’s mom slyly hypnotizes him, that
purpose is revealed and Get Out moves
into high gear.
Writer/director
Peele, who made his name acting and writing in comedies like MAD TV and Keanu, deftly blends laughs and horror, all leading up to a truly innovative
climax as Chris desperately tries to escape. Daniel Kaluuya (Sicario) is
spot on as a budding artist trying to navigate a difficult social
situation. Allison William’s Rose is
appropriately seductive and Milton “Lil Rel†Howery is hysterical as Chris’
loyal wingman, Rod, a TSA Agent who investigates when his friend goes
missing. Produced by genre hitmeister
Jason Blum (Paranormal Activity, Split,
The Purge), Get Out is a mystery
thriller that truly delivers while skewering today’s pervasive racial
stereotypes. It’s also is a stunning
directorial debut for Jordan Peele, who will doubtlessly be able to work in
whatever genre he chooses.
Michael
Fassbender plays a Norwegian detective with the high school bully magnet name
of “Harry Hole†on the icy trail of a serial killer who always leaves a snowman
at his crime scenes. Based on the, um,
Hole literary series by Norwegian writer Jo NesbØ, the thriller also stars
Rebecca Ferguson as a damaged policewoman trying to solve the crimes, Oscar-winner
J.K. Simmons as a creepy industrialist and, curiously, Val Kilmer as an
alcoholic detective who first opens up the case. (Kilmer’s rumored bout with cancer has sadly
taken a toll as the actor looks nothing like the blonde Adonis he was in Top Gun and Batman Forever. It also sounded like he was dubbed throughout.) Although the Nordic scenery looks bleakly majestic
due to Dion Beebe’s stunning cinematography and soaring helicopter shots, the
plot twists and turns into a slushy mess.
Directed
by Swedish filmmaker Tomas Alfredson (Tinker,
Tailor, Soldier, Spy), The Snowman
careens along several avenues of investigation in an effort to add layers of
complexity… but promising leads fizzle out and a sex trafficking subplot seems
to die on the vine. (There’s also an
intruder scene in the detective’s shabby apartment that makes no sense.) All
that said, The Snowman is not a total
loss as it has some gripping moments and Fassbender is, as always, a powerful screen
presence.For the gore fans, the shadowy
killer employs a unique and gruesome mechanical device to dispatch his victims.Fassbender must have sacrificed half a lung to
play the heavy-smoking Harry Hole (!), but if that character were the Stage 4
lush portrayed on the screen, how could he function so effectively, noticing
subtle clues and putting the pieces together?That also didn’t quite wash. The Snowman is a big budget, well-made
film with an impressive scope and feel, but somehow it left me a bit… cold.
For
years, every studio salivated over Marvel’s profit machine where iconic
characters jump in and out of each other’s films. To get in on the action, Universal
mined their monster vaults by creating the Dark Universe franchise. The first
entry was The Mummy starring Tom
Cruise, Annabelle Wallis and Russell Crowe (as Dr. Henry Jekyll). Directed by
Alex Kurtzman, the film also starred Algerian stunner Sofia Boutella as the
title creature, who is light years away from Karloff’s 1932 creation.
The
film stirred a pot o fan controversy when it was announced because of, well… Tom Cruise in a horror movie? Not to worry, he dove into the hero role with
his trademark enthusiasm and ageless good looks, doing stunts that would leave
any other mortal in a coma or full body cast. The film is entertaining; it’s a popcorn ride, full of beautiful scenery
and state-of-the art visual effects, and Boutella steals the show as the
sensuous 5,000 year-old Egyptian Princess who is pure evil.
Along
with their $125 million film, Universal packed a sarcophagus full of extras on
the 2-disc, dual format set that also includes a digital download version. Extras in the set include:
Deleted
Scenes
Creating
The Plane Crash (in Zero G)
Meet
Ahmanet
Cruise
In Action
And
others – adding up to over an hour of bonus material. Say what you will about Tom Cruise doing
horror, The Mummy featured
spectacular sets and some of the best action sequences this side of a James
Bond movie. (And the vicious sandstorm taking out London’s financial district is
a show stopper.) Universal’s first
plunge into their Dark Universe is definitely worth your time – and you might
as well get familiar with it because, if the studio has its way, The Mummy is just the tip of the dark
iceberg: The Bride of Frankenstein (with
Javier Bardem as The Monster) is already in the works as is The Invisible Man (with Johnny Depp no
less).
(For Mark Cerulli's review of the film's theatrical release, click here).
Tim Sarnoff Technicolor's President of Production, addresses attendees.
By
Mark Cerulli
The
energy was building, the drones were flying and the mood was celebratory as
Technicolor officially opened its brand-new Culver City TEC Center dedicated to
the brave new worlds of VR (virtual reality), AR (augmented reality) and other immersive
media platforms.
The
official name is “Technicolor Experience Centerâ€, and it’s been having a “softâ€
opening for almost a year, but now the doors are really open... The facility
is a collaborative lab and incubator to develop future content and delivery
platforms in the Immersive media space. “The TEC is really a work in progress,â€
explains Marcie Jastrow, Technicolor’s SVP Immersive Media and the executive in
charge of the Center. “It’s a safe place for people to come and learn. It’s part education, part production and part
post-production.†Although Technicolor is the parent company of hot VFX shops
The Mill, MPC and Mr. X, which combined work on fully 80% of Hollywood
blockbusters and 50% of Super Bowl spots, the TEC is agnostic – meaning they
welcome all producers and projects.
Mention
“Technicolor†and most people think old time movie color, but as Tim Sarnoff,
Technicolor’s President of Production points out, “We processed our last foot
of film in 2015, we’ve been growing in the digital space for years.†Technicolor owns over 40,000 patents and is
ubiquitous today. “Everyone touches something that involves Technicolor,†says
Sarnoff, “… from your smartphone, TV, set-top boxes, blockbuster movies to
Super Bowl commercials.â€
One
cool item on display was “The Blackbird†a VR vehicle designed by The Mill that
has been transforming auto advertising because it can mimic almost any type of
car and its unique 3D camera rig can capture a virtual version of any
environment. Along with making auto ad
shoots easier, The Blackbird (named because it was built in the very same
hangar where the legendary spy plane, SR-71, was constructed) can also help automotive
designers envision a new vehicle much earlier in the design process.
Over
400 people crowded Technicolor’s new space – designers, directors, executives
from gaming, TV, film studios and technologists, all curious about the night’s other
big announcement: Technicolor and HP’s new collaboration: MARS Home Planet, an
ambitious project to use VR to design a life-sustaining environment for 1
million humans on the Martian surface. Hopefully we don’t have to flee Mother
Earth just yet (!) but this will be a vast experiment where students and
members of the public worldwide are invited to participate.
Blackbird VR vehicle.
“We
wanted to tap into the collective human imagination and inspiration to reinvent
life on another planet…†enthuses Sean Young, HP’s Worldwide Segment Manager,
Product Development. He also pointed out
that while HP is known for its printers, they’ve been working in the film and
media space for 75 years, starting with building a color grader for Walt
Disney’s Fantasia.
MARS
Home Planet uses NASA’s research and footage of the Martian surface to create a
realistic backdrop for engineers, creatives, scientists and others to reimagine
what human life on another planet could be. Wanna be an astronaut? Go to hp.com/go/mars. The first 10,000 explorers get a download
code for the Fusion Mars 2030 VR Experience.
Anyone
who grew up in the 1970s fondly remembers “Chiller Theater†playing on WPIX in
the NY area. Chiller introduced me to
all the Universal classics – Dracula,
Frankenstein, The Wolfman and, of course, Karloff’s 1932 addition, The Mummy. Universal’s new re-imagining of their beloved
classic isn’t that Mummy, not by a long shot– but we’re in a different time and
a different world, so why not?
This
new Mummy stars Tom Cruise as Nick
Morton, an Army commando/antiquities raider who finds and sells priceless
relics on the black market. He’s stolen
a map from a lovely, combative British archaeologist (Annabelle Wallis) that
leads him to modern day, ultra dangerous Iraq. After he and his Army bro (Jake Johnson) call in an airstrike to save
them from insurgents, a missile blast reveals the hidden tomb of Ahmanet, an
Egyptian Princess who murdered her immediate family in a quest for power. Her punishment was being buried alive – in a
vat of mercury, which the ancient Egyptians believed prevented her evil spirit
from escaping. Tom Cruise inadvertently
raises her and all Hell breaks loose – literally.
Stunning
Algerian actress Sofia Boutella (the legless assassin from Kingsman: The Secret Service) plays our new Mummy – it was a bold
choice, but the ONLY one director Alex Kurtzman could make as no one could
out-Karloff Karloff. Boutella is
menacing, seductive and a screen presence who can more than hold her own with
Tom Cruise.
The
film has already received a drubbing from some critics and die-hard monster
fans. They took issue with Tom Cruise’s
casting and the filmmakers’ use of CGI. While I was surprised to hear that
Cruise had signed on, The Mummy is
something different from his usual action hero chores and he embraced it with
his trademark enthusiasm. He
convincingly plays a macho military guy fighting against Ahmanet’s spell,
trying to win back the archeologist and save the world from the
princess’ zombie hordes. (Did I mention
she can raise the dead?) While the
filmmakers did use CGI, the work by
Technicolor’s MPC is, as expected, top notch – from sandstorms blowing through
London’s Financial District, to attacking camel spiders and dead Crusaders stalking
the London Underground.
So
we have a new, female Mummy, we have global icon Tom Cruise, we have zombies,
chases and car crashes. What’s the only thing missing? A frame to hang it and future monster movies
on. Well, the filmmakers thought of that
too: enter “Prodigiumâ€, a super secret organization dedicated to wiping out
evil and it’s hot on The Mummy’s trail. Prodigium is run by… um… Dr. Henry
Jekyll. Cue the needle skip sound!
Jekyll,
played by Oscar-winner Russell Crowe, is a clue that The Mummy, impressive as it is, is part of something bigger – the
Dark Universe, Universal’s reinvigorated monster franchise.Take a deep breath and step back… unless
you’ve been buried alive for the last decade, Hollywood is, for better or
worse, in the mega franchise business:Iron Man, Thor, Deadpool, Kong, Star Trek,
Pirates, Harry Potter, MI, Fast & Furious, Hunger Games, James Bond, Jack Reacher, etc. Why?Because with rare exceptions, they make
boatloads of money.If you view it in
that context, Dr. J’s appearance makes a bit more sense. Crowe is fine as the good doctor and his evil
counterpart who gives Cruise a righteous thrashing while trying to enlist him
to the dark side, but I kinda wish they hadn’t crossed horror streams, so to
speak…that said, The Mummy is everything you could want from a $120 million film –
it’s fast, exciting, and impeccably made.And it isn’t all airless CGI: early on, the military plane transporting
Princess Ahmanet’s sarcophagus is hit by a swarm of crows.The resulting crash was filmed on 16
parabolic flights to show Cruise and Wallis banging around the cabin in Zero
G.There’s a high-speed ambulance crash
on the moors of England that practically puts you in the driver’s seat.Cinematographer Ben Seresin uses the vast Namibian
desert to great effect; and love him or hate him, Tom Cruise is a damn good
actor. His almost-nude scene reveals he is also as ageless as the Sphinx.So kick back and enjoy this Mummy.You’ll always
have Karloff’s classic on your DVD shelf.
(The new documentary "Becoming Bond" is now showing on the Hulu network.)
BY MARK CERULLI
Prior
to seeing Josh Greenbaum’s illuminating documentary, Becoming Bond, which premiered on HULU May 20th, I had
dismissed George Lazenby’s mystifying refusal to continue as 007 as just
another gullible young actor taking bad career advice; like Tom Selleck passing
on Indiana Jones, Travolta nixing Forrest Gump, Thomas Jane handing Don
Draper to Jon Hamm… but there’s more to
it than that, a lot more as it turns out.
Cleverly
combining interview footage of Lazenby, still hale and hearty at 77, with
well-staged recreations, Becoming Bond
dives deep into this complicated and impulsive star to understand HOW he could
casually dump one of the most coveted roles in the history of film. As it turns out, that decision is symbolic of
who George Lazenby really is: intelligent, charming, naïve but most of all, independent. Lazenby is, and has always been, his own man. From pissing off teachers in grade school, to
pursuing a girl from an elite family many social stations above his own, George
always did what George wanted to do. Usually documentaries feature others talking about the main subject in
order to create a full picture. Early on, director Josh Greenbaum felt
Lazenby’s stories were so rich, he wanted to recreate them – it was an inspired
choice. Australian actor Josh Lawson is
perfect as a young George Lazenby, gradually finding his way in the world and
effortlessly using his charm and chiseled looks to become a top model. A fluke landed him dinner with a London
talent agent (played by real Bond Girl, Jane Seymour) who got him in the
door to audition for 007, then George did it HIS way: conning a brusque Harry
Saltzman (comedian Jeff Garlin) into handing him the keys to the Bond movie
kingdom, then confounding him when he wouldn’t play by his rules. Lazenby did his and Cubby Broccoli’s film, On Her Majesty’s Secret Service, which
became a box office hit in 1969 (despite popular belief that the movie bombed.) Suddenly the world – and a world of women –
were at his feet, but it was a lot for a guy from tiny Goulburn, Australia to
handle. Maybe too much. Lazenby turned down a one million dollar
payment to sign a seven-picture deal, something most actors would give body
parts for. Once the Bond producers realized none of the usual leverage worked,
they were playing by Lazenby’s rules, which meant there were no rules: George does what George wants. In the end, Lazenby did okay without Bond – he
made his money in real estate, acted in other films, married, became a father…
but oh what might have been.
After the documentary screening at LA’s delightfully quirky Cinefamily Theater, cast, crew and George himself answered questions, and once again, George was George. When asked if he regretted walking away from Bond, the actor said, “If I had stayed as James Bond I would have probably had three wives in Beverly Hills, mansions, been a drug addict… that’s the kind of person I would’ve been because it wouldn’t’ve been me.†He admitted he just didn’t like taking orders. Sitting next to him, actor Josh Lawson perceptively pointed out that, “the things that caused George to walk away were the things that got him the job in the first place.â€
After the Q&A, Hulu threw down an after party with an open (bless them) martini bar. There the cast and Lazenby mingled with guests – including this CR scribe. I had met George before, but had forgotten how freakin’ big he is in person. (A fellow Bond fan said he was the tallest of all the Bonds.) Shaking his enormous hand reminded me of shaking hands with boxing champ George Foreman during my HBO producer days. No wonder Lazenby knocked out a stuntman during his Bond action screen test. (An act seen in the documentary, followed by Saltzman stepping over the twitching body to tell George, “We’re going with you.â€) Absolutely priceless, all true – and pure Lazenby!
Lazenby’s
composure is remarkable given how close he came to having it all. In fact, the only time he became visibly
emotional was when he discussed the one decision he does regret: giving up the girl of his dreams, a lovely
upper class gal named Belinda (wonderfully played by Kassandra Clementi). Like her co-star, Clementi had never met
Lazenby until Wednesday’s premiere and she had never even seen On Her Majesty’s Secret Service, which
was shown after the festivities. And how
did she like it? “I loved the film,â€
Clementi said via her publicist, “And George Lazenby was unsurprisingly just as
captivating and charming as he is today.†Sounds like a newly-minted Bond fan…
Cinema Retro readers no doubt remember Michael Crichton’s classic sci-fi thriller Westworld. Who can forget the chilling spectacle of Yul
Brynner – sans face – stalking a hapless Richard Benjamin? When I heard HBO was “rebooting†Westworld, I was skeptical. The word “Why?†kept coming to mind. The original was so good, why go
there?
I’m
happy to say I was dead wrong. By
expanding Michael Crichton’s original vision, the producers were able to open
up new storylines and vastly enhance the earlier concept. While the 1973 film was epic, it was limited
by the visual effects available at the time. Now every modern tool in the VFX toolbox can be used and the results are
intoxicating, drawing the viewer into
Westworld’s latex embrace.
The
overall setup is still the same – a high-end resort modeled after the Old West
where guests can indulge in every fantasy and no matter how much mayhem they
cause, they can’t ever get hurt. So far… Overseen by Executive Producer J.J. Abrams (sharing
those duties with Jerry Weintraub, Jonathan Nolan, Lisa Joy and Brian Burk),
the series’ attention to detail is meticulous. The show’s use of Monument Valley’s stunning
vistas (put to such good use by John Ford many decades ago) really gives it a
scope well beyond typical cable. The
town of “Sweetwaterâ€, the hub of the
action, has an authentic look and feel as good as anything seen on Deadwood and the gunfights – of which
there are many – would do Clint Eastwood proud.
Jonathan
Nolan (who also directed the pilot) and Lisa Joy’s writing is crisp, seamlessly
blending layer upon layer of narrative. HBO’s casting is flawless: Anthony Hopkins as the resort’s Creator
Director is quietly menacing as he rewrites the resort’s “storyline†for mysterious
reasons. Instead of Yul Brynner, Ed
Harris is the relentless gunslinger in black. Not a robot, but a frequent guest who is on a quest to discover all
the resort’s hidden secrets, whether management wants him to or not. To say
he stays “in character†would be an understatement. When another guest begins to gush about how
his (real life) foundation saved his sister’s life, Harris threatens to slit
his throat, snarling, “I’m on vacation!†Thandie Newton is conniving yet vulnerable as the local brothel owner
who begins to have doubts as to who or what she is… and special note has to be made of Evan
Rachel Wood, a stunning actress who made her name in HBO’s Mildred Pierce and True Blood
and in a string of indie films. Here she
plays an innocent farm girl “host†(artificial human), available to be ravaged
or romanced, depending on the guest. Gradually she realizes she’s part of something much bigger and
her AI awakening is a major story arc. Louis
Herthum, playing her homespun rancher dad, is nothing short of terrific –
alternating from folksy charm to an eerie mechanical persona as he’s examined
by Hopkins and his head programmer, played by a brooding Jeffrey Wright (Casino Royale). Rounding out the regulars is the great
looking James Mardsen as a stoic young gunslinger.
Early
in production, a casting notice asking extras to be prepared to perform nude
went viral, causing an uproar. There IS
nudity in Westworld, but it’s fleeting
and in each instance, totally germane to the story. Not a gratuitous shower scene in sight.
Currently
HBO has plans for 10 episodes of Westworld,
but hopefully that’s just the beginning. With a reimagining like this, there is plenty more to explore. And
then maybe they’ll visit Romanworld or Medievalworld…
The
series’ fifth installment explodes on the screen as Matt Damon returns to the
role he originated way back in 2002. The
Bourne in this film is a bulked up, bare knuckle street brawler, earning money
to support a humble off the grid existence. While never chatty and light, this Bourne incarnation is – if possible –
even more grim and purposeful than before. (Supposedly Damon has only 25 lines of
dialogue in the entire film!) His old
CIA ally, Nicky Parsons (played by the wonderful Julia Stiles) tracks him down,
offering freshly hacked information that will finally put the missing pieces in
Bourne’s identity puzzle. When he learns that his own father was deeply
involved then sacrificed, this chase becomes personal. Let’s just say you don’t want to get in
Bourne’s way when it’s personal…
As
important as Damon’s return to the franchise is, his reteaming with director
Paul Greengrass is truly cause for celebration. Greengrass is undoubtedly one
of the most gifted action filmmakers working today. Cinematographer Barry Ackroyd’s constantly
moving cameras keep the action going at a frenetic pace that never lets up. An early sequence set in the middle of a
Greek anti-austerity riot is literally breathtaking as is the film’s ferocious Las
Vegas climax. Jason Bourne features the best Vegas car chase
since Diamonds Are Forever – except without the occasional one-liner to lighten
things up. It is just a high-speed
demolition derby that tears up the Strip.
Delicately
beautiful Oscar-winner Alicia Vikander plays an ice-cool CIA tech officer
trying to reel Bourne in to serve her own hidden agenda. Veteran actor Tommy Lee Jones is her CIA
Director boss. Jones’ craggy face is almost
a separate character in the film – when the camera lingers on it, the miles and
battle scars show. Shadowing Bourne
throughout is a brutally efficient CIA killer known only as “the Assetâ€, convincingly
played by Vincent Cassel. Out of all the
spooks Bourne has dispatched over the years, Cassel might actually cross him
off the Company’s hit list.
The
filmmakers cleverly wrap their story in the headline issues of today – web
surveillance, civil unrest, and big government paranoia, making the entire plot
totally and sadly believable. (There’s even a nod to Edward Snowden early on.) Damon
was a svelte 32 when he first took on Bourne. Now 45, his Bourne is starting to age and you can see the toll his years
on the lam have taken on his face and his soul – more proof, if needed, of what
a spectacular actor Matt Damon really is.
After
one hundred years of turning dreams into cinematic reality, Technicolor became
only the second company to be awarded a coveted Star by the Hollywood Chamber
of Commerce.The ceremony took place on March 30.
Although
world famous for bringing color to the movies, especially in iconic films like
Gone With the Wind and The Wizard of Oz, Technicolor has adapted to the
times. It withdrew from 35MM film
processing a number of years ago and is now firmly in the digital era. The company also holds over 40,000 patents
and its technology can be found in flat screens and other consumer
products.
At
the ceremony, attended by actor Edward James Olmos and distinguished
cinematographer and ASC President Richard Crudo, Technicolor’s CEO, Frederic
Rose said the company strives to “bring a soul, a spirit, a feeling to what is
being created.†Since Technicolor is
known as a “Creative Technology Companyâ€, Rose noted that “technology is an
enabler, it’s something that allows a director or cinematographer to stretch
the boundaries and create something that has never been seen before.â€
Technicolor senior executives at the unveiling ceremony.
Fully
70% of current blockbusters and 50% of the recent Super Bowl ads feature visual
effects created by Technicolor through companies like the Mill and MPC in London. Some of their recent triumphs include providing
visual effects for The Revenant and winning an Oscar for sound mixing on
Whiplash. James Bond fans will remember
the rich Technicolor look of many of the classic films and the company has
continued that partnership in the 21st Century by creating striking visual
effects on Skyfall and Spectre as well as sound mixing on both films. (Skyfall’s audio mix won an Oscar for sound
editing.)
After
the star was unveiled, members of the press were escorted to an expansive
conference room where examples of Technicolor’s classic film library
restoration and upscaling (from SDR to
HDR) were being played. Let’s just say a
treated 36 year-old clip looked jaw-droppingly crisp, the colors popping off
the screen. The company is also heavily
involved in next generation technologies like VR. Goggles were available to see demo reels
including an amazing clip of The Martian VR Experience, Sony’s Goosebumps and a
project for Gatorade that makes the viewer feel what it’s like to be a major
league baseball player.
It
was a proud day for the venerable company, but as CEO Frederic Rose promised,
“the next 100 years will be even more exciting.â€
Full disclosure: I’m a Mac evangelist and have been since the
1980s. (The boxy Macintosh Plus was the
first model I used.) I idolized Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak and this brilliant
movie from director Danny Boyle doesn’t change that. What it does do is explain Jobs as much as a
force of nature like Steve Jobs can be explained. The film, written by Aaron Sorkin, tells
Jobs’ story through three pivotal product launches –1984’s Macintosh, the
ill-fated Next in 1988 and his triumphant 1998 return with the revolutionary
iMac. Most of the action takes place in
the tension-filled backstage crucible before each event, where Jobs terrorizes
staffers and programmers and deals with the inconvenient truth of a very
dependent ex-girlfriend (played by Sam Waterston’s daughter, Katherine) who is
also the mother of his child. A child he
refuses to acknowledge, conclusive paternity test or no.
Michael Fassbender is
nothing short of amazing as Jobs, a man so convinced of his own rightness that
he can’t acknowledge a shred of humanity or empathy. Although Fassbender doesn’t look like the
mercurial tech rockstar, he’s able to channel him. Kate Winslett turns in another stellar
performance as Jobs’ harried marketing chief, the one woman he does confide in
– as much as Jobs was capable of confiding. Seth Rogan puts his usual stoner persona aside
as the real brains behind Apple, co-founder Steve Wozniak. “Woz†is seemingly Jobs only friend but his
relentless perfectionism pushes their relationship to the limit.
Flashbacks illustrate
major points in Jobs’ career –the birth of Apple in a silicon valley garage, wooing
Pepsi head John Scully (Jeff Daniels) to be Apple’s CEO, and the crushing
boardroom battle where the indispensible Jobs suddenly found out that he was
totally dispensable. Along the way Jobs
hints at the reasons behind his iron will and propensity to lash out at anyone
who doesn’t live up to his impossible standards – rejection by his first set of
adoptive parents who literally gave him back. Instead of coming to grips with it through therapy or discussion, he
walled it off, along with most human emotions.
Cinematographer Alwin H. Küchler’s
tight camerawork is centered on the actors moving through various backstage
settings as the product launch tensions ramp up and ever so slightly, Jobs
acknowledges the fatherhood he’s denied. Sorkin’s Oscar-bait dialogue crackles throughout. For example…
Jobs
to a stressed-out engineer: “You had three weeks, the universe was
created in a third of that.â€
The
stressed-out engineer: “Well, someday you’ll have to tell us how
you did it.â€
Because Apple products are
so ubiquitous and four years after his death, Jobs has passed into legend; we
think we know him. We think he’s
ours. But behind the iconic products,
there was an intense, ruthless and occasionally cruel man. This film helps explain why and does what
Jobs himself never could – it helps humanize him.
Steve Jobs opens October 9th
from Universal Pictures.
After
a 14-year cinematic hibernation, the dinosaurs of Jurassic Park roar back with
a vengeance. This fourth installment in
the franchise had a lot to get right – it had to stand alone as entertainment
for the masses who haven’t seen the 1993 original and make the series seem
fresh and relevant, while fanning the flames of awe with which we (well, most
of us anyway) hold dinosaurs. It also
had to acknowledge that today’s world is far darker, more commercial and more
cynical than 1993. Jurassic World succeeds on all counts. Instead of picking up where Jurassic 3 left
off way back when, Jurassic World creates a new narrative – the park has been
open for years and is a thriving tourist destination. But like any theme park, it needs to be
updated to keep the public coming back. Although they have herds of Triceratops, pods of Velociraptors (the
baddies in the first film) and dozens of lumbering Apatosaurus, the park owner
wants bigger, badder, “coolerâ€, so they’ve created a new species, “Indominus
Rex.†(It should’ve been named “Ominous
Rex†as it makes Godzilla look like the Geico Gecko.) This beast is a hybrid
consisting of genes from many different species, so when it busts out, the park
truly has a problem on its hands – only now it’s not largely empty as in the
first film, it’s packed with 20,000 guests.
The
human cast is led by Chris Pratt and his work in Jurassic World should propel
him into the Harrison Ford leading man zone. His character, the park’s ex-Navy animal trainer, is a true Alpha Male, stoic,
decisive and cool. (Although he could have used a touch of humor to lighten him
up.) Bryce Dallas Howard is spot on as a
driven career woman responsible for the park’s operations. She’s frazzled because not only is her enigmatic
billionaire boss (Bollywood star Irrfan Khan) on site, but also her nephews (played
by Nick Robinson and Ty Simpkins, marking his second Spielberg project after
War of the Worlds) have arrived, expecting a VIP experience with their aunt. Complicating
matters is a shady security operator named Hoskins (a swaggering Vincent
D’Onofrio) sent by parent company InGen (remember them?) to assess the military
possibilities for the park’s “assets†(aka dinosaurs).
As
the film picks up speed, there are numerous nods to the series’ iconic past –
one of the control room operators is wearing an original Jurassic Park t-shirt,
which he bought off eBay. (“In mint condition they go for $300.â€) As the nephews try to escape the park, they
stumble into the original visitor’s center and hotwire one of the red and white
Jeep Wranglers from the first film. The
only original cast member to return is B.D. Wong, playing the park’s genetic
scientist, coolly unaffected by all the mayhem his creations have caused.
As
expected, the VFX is impeccable; the dinosaurs seem as alive as their human
co-stars. The “trailer moment†when the
huge Mosasaurus lunges up from
the Sea World-like tank to devour a dangling Great White shark really was
stunning, as is the flying Dimorphodon attack and – yay! – the return of the
T-Rex.
Director
Colin Trevorrow keeps things moving and gives the audience what it wants the
most – dinosaurs and more dinosaurs. This CR scribe caught the Imax 3-D version,
but Jurassic World will not disappoint in any format.
Thirty
years after Mad Max Beyond Thunderdome
seemingly ended the Australian post apocalypse triptych, director George Miller
is back, with a vengeance (and a much bigger budget). The result could have been an
overdone, bloated production, loaded with CGI and soft on any real thrills…
instead Miller has created a masterpiece that significantly raises the bar of
action filmmaking.
Where
to begin? From the opening sequence when
Max Rockatansky (Tom Hardy) surveys a vast desert wasteland while eating a
mutant lizard that wandered too close, you know this ain’t your daddy’s Mad
Max. The film explodes from there – Max
is captured by a gang of “War Boys†run by a terrifying character named
Immortan Joe, his face hidden behind a ghastly breathing mask complete with
teeth. Joe is played by Hugh Keys-Byrne who
starred as Toe Cutter in the original Mad
Max. The actor has bulked up and gone gray, but lost none of his swaggering
menace. Our Max is quickly put to use as
a living blood donor for an ailing warrior named Nux (Nicholas Hoult). Max’s life seems grim and short until he makes
a daring escape, joining up with Furiosa (Charlize Theron) who has just
committed the most unforgivable of sins – stealing from Immortan Joe. And she didn’t just drive off with treasure
or gasoline, she’s taken his very future – his five alluring slave wives, one
of whom is carrying his child. You can
bet he’ll unleash the hounds of automotive hell to get them back!
The
film cleverly blends the best of the first three movies – snippets of Max’s
personal tragedy, the hulking villain from 1982’s Road Warrior and a bit of Bartertown, resulting in a full throttle chase
through the irradiated wasteland. Gradually Max and Furiousa learn to trust each other, but that’s as warm
and fuzzy as the movie gets – there’s just no time for more. In fact, if Max has more than one page of
dialogue in the entire film, I’d be surprised. What there IS time for, is an array of
mind-bending stunts as they flee Immortan Joe’s forces, pursuing them in a
fleet of devilishly souped-up vehicles. Throw in the hostile, opportunistic
tribes roaming the wasteland and death is literally waiting around every curve. In terms of pacing, the director really puts
the hammer down, so it’s relentless… and best of all, Miller did everything “Old
School.†Real stunts, flying stuntmen, honest to gawd car crashes and glorious
explosions, all played out against a white hot sky and muted red earth. (The
film was shot off the grid in the Namibian desert when the Australian outback appeared
too forgiving.)
While
many of today’s releases can be enjoyed on DVD or any of the over the top
services now available, Mad Max: Fury
Road MUST be seen in a theater and
with an audience. Guaranteed, there
won’t be the usual multiplex hassles of conversation or texting – all eyes will
be glued to the screen. (The preview
audience I saw it with actually applauded various action sequences, a real
rarity.)
We
all love old movies and constantly lament, “They just don’t make ‘em like they used
to.†This time they did, and Lord
Humongous would approve!
Mad Max: Fury Road Opens May 15th
from Warner Bros.
The 1951 film The
Tales of Hoffmann, the acclaimed British adaptation of the opera by Jaques
Offenbach, was an early influence on major directors like Cecil B. DeMille,
George Romero (who said it was “the movie that made me want to make moviesâ€)
and Martin Scorsese. They were drawn to co-directors,
Michael Powell and Emeric Pressberger’s inventive camera work, vibrant color
palette (each of the three acts has its own primary color) and smooth blending
of film, dance and music. According to
an interview found on Powell-Pressburger.org, Powell wanted to do a “composed
film†– shot entirely to a pre-recorded music track, in this case, Offenbach’s
opera. Not having to worry about sound meant
he could remove the cumbersome padding that encased every Technicolor camera
and really move it around production designer Hein Heckroth’s soaring sets.
(Heckroth’s work on the film earned him two 1952 Oscar nominations.)
The film’s extensive
restoration was sponsored by Scorsese’s Film Foundation and the BFI Film
Archive, in association with Studiocanal. The entire project was overseen by Powell’s widow, longtime Scorsese editor
Thelma Schoonmaker. In fact it was
Scorsese who had introduced Powell to Schoonmaker, resulting in their 1984
marriage.
Ms. Schoonmaker – on
location in Taiwan to work on Scorsese’s next film, Silence - said the director was obsessed (in a good way!) with her
late husband’s and his partner’s work. She stated that Scorsese says their films are “in his DNA.†He was particularly interested in The Tales of Hoffmann because it taught him about
moving the camera, capturing the body language of actors and “celebrating the
emotion of music.â€
Aside from the film’s
pristine new look (which took over six months of “very intense†work), this
version features 6 minutes missing from the Third Act, apparently cut by
producer Alexander Korda who had wanted the filmmakers to drop Act Three
entirely! Another gem found in BFI’s
vaults was an epilogue the directors shot to introduce the opera singers who
voiced the dancers appearing in the film. As Schoonmaker recalls, “Sinceno
sound track was found for it, I created a sound track of applause and music
from the film. No one had ever seen this
epilogue, because it was never on the original release prints.†It’s
a delightful piece of filmmaking whimsy that has gone unseen for over six
decades.
The film had been
previously restored in the 1980s using the Technicolor three strip Interpositive,
but during the intervening years, the three-color strips had shrunk, creating
fuzzy images even after restoration. But as Schoonmaker relates, this version remedies
that, and then some… “The new restoration was able to digitally
realign the three strips perfectly. The
rich color of the film was rebuilt layer by layer, an arduous process, until
the restorers were satisfied the film looked as it had when it was first made.
“
Overseeing the entire
process along with Schoonmaker was a true student of the film – Martin Scorsese!
“Scorsese knew the film intimately
having screened it many times on a 16mm print and through watching the Criterion
DVD over and over again.†Schoonmaker
recalled, noting, “I had watched the film with my late husband, Michael Powell and
so Scorsese and I were able to guide the color restoration.â€
The film boasts a joint writer,
producer, director credit, which was quite rare in the 1950s. Schoonmaker explained that, “only Michael
directed on the set, but he admired Emeric’s contribution to their films so
much that he agreed to sharing the remarkable title (for the time) ‘Written,
produced and directed by Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger’ long before
that kind of title was used as much as it is today.†The prolific duo made 19 films together.
The Tales of Hoffmann’s
influence on Scorsese can be seen in his gritty 1976 masterpiece, Taxi Driver. As his three time Oscar-winning editor points
out, “He (Scorsese) says the dancers in the film taught him so much about body
language. And the eye movements of (actor)
Robert Helpmann were a direct influence on De Niro’s eyes in the mirror of the
car ...â€
Having worked with the
director on revered films like Raging
Bull, Casino, Goodfellas, The Aviator
and Wolf of Wall Street – in fact on every
Scorsese film since 1980 – Thelma Schoonmaker should know!
The Rialto Pictures
release of the restored and expanded The Tales
of Hoffmann opens in New York and Los Angeles on Friday March 13th,
with other cities to follow.
For fans of movies of the
1960s and ’70s, his name ranks up there with the stars who made the major
studio films of that era. Even though he didn’t actually “make†movies, his
work most definitely did. Best known as the artist behind the “classic†James
Bond posters, McGinnis worked for almost every publisher and major magazine for
decades, putting his distinctive stamp on a huge, well, body of work, which
is fully (and gloriously) represented in The
Art of Robert E. McGinnis, a lush 176-page hardback now on sale from Titan
Books. Since McGinnis is one of the most influential and iconic movie poster
artists of the 20th Century, Cinema Retro was pleased to see him
honored in this way.
The book starts with McGinnis’s
journeyman beginnings in the 1950s Cincinnati and New York advertising scenes,
where he toiled away on product ads like so many other young, hungry
illustrators. Most would flourish for a time, then fade into obscurity, but a
chance encounter in NYC with artist Mitchell Hooks (of Dr. No movie poster fame) led to paperback cover assignments that firmly
put McGinnis on the map. In the 1950s, ’60s and ’70s, most book covers were
illustrated, and the cover directly impacted sales. The more lurid or
intriguing the art, the better the sales, and McGinnis’s racy (for those days)
cover art quickly brought him attention from publishers.
In 1961 McGinnis painted
his first movie art – Breakfast At
Tiffany’s – and that launched him into the illustration stratosphere for
the rest of the decade. He painted the key art for Thunderball, You Only Live Twice, Casino Royale (1967 spoof), On Her
Majesty’s Secret Service, Diamonds Are Forever, Live and Let Die, Man With the
Golden Gun, and the book cover art on
Moonraker, helping guide the Bond series through major transformations as
different actors took on the lead role. McGinnis’s specialty was the human form
– he painted the heroic images of Bond and, of course, the sultry Bond Girls. The late Frank C. McCarthy handled certain
explosions and action art on some of the early Bond titles. The result was
marketing nirvana, dramatic, precedent-setting artwork that helped make Bond
the hottest movie property around.
McGinnis’ work was everywhere
– from huge billboards to newspaper ads, and, of course, on paperbacks in every
commuter’s briefcase. Curiously, his favorite art from his movie work is for The Odd Couple one-sheet, where he
perfectly captured the essence of neat-freak Felix and super-slob Oscar. Other
Hollywood works like Barbarella and Cotton Comes to Harlem are also
beautifully reproduced in the book, some with his original sketches, so the
reader can see the work evolve.
Each phase of McGinnis’s
long career is chronicled by writer Art Scott, who worked with the artist on
this definitive book. As you might expect, each chapter is profusely
illustrated with gorgeous full-color art – from hardboiled detective book
covers to bucolic landscapes for magazines like Reader’s Digest and Good
Housekeeping, even vivid historical scenes for National Geographic are here. McGinnis also illustrated for a
number of men’s magazines like True
and Cavalier, and his provocative
nudes left little to the imagination, but they also serve as even more proof of
his astonishing skill. These long-legged “McGinnis Women†looked like they
could get up and walk off the page – something I’m sure most Cavalier readers wished they would! The
artist himself chimes in throughout the book, offering up inside stories from
his long career. Thankfully, his creative output isn’t slowing down – just look
at page 95 where his stunning cover art for the 2011 limited edition of Stephen
King’s Joyland is reproduced. That
cover features a pale, yet alluring “McGinnis Woman†in a bikini and holding a
rifle. What could be more perfect?
The
Art of Robert E. McGinnis is one of those “must haves,†a book
any movie or fine art fan will want to pick up to look through again and again.
It perfectly captures McGinnis’s impressive work, curves, gun barrels and all.
With a list price of just $34.95, it’s a bargain when compared with the prices
McGinnis original art now fetches at auction.
Blake
Edwards’ 1965 comedy epic, The Great Race,
has been out in various formats for years, but the Warner Archive has finally
given it the royal Blu-ray treatment that’s as immaculate as the dazzling white
car Tony Curtis drives in the film.
The Great Race was loosely based
on the 1908 New York to Paris race and Edwards and screenwriter Arthur Ross
threw everything but the kitchen sink at it. Originally developed at United Artists, the project was picked up by
Warner Bros when UA balked at the rising cost – which eventually hit a
then-unheard of $12 million, making it the most expensive comedy made at that
time. Clocking in at two hours and
forty minutes, it was also one of the longest running. (Unless compared with Stanley Kramer’s
classic It’sA Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World, which ran over three hours in its
original roadshow presentation.)
The
story follows two bitter rivals, “The Great Leslieâ€, suavely played by Tony
Curtis and his evil nemesis, “Professor Fate†(a first-rate, over the top performance
by Jack Lemmon) as they race across three continents from New York to Paris. The Leslie character and his sidekick “Hesekiahâ€
(Keenan Wynn) take the high road while Fate and his bumbling henchman “Maxâ€
(Peter Falk) use an array of dirty tricks to cheat their way to the finish
line. Achingly beautiful Natalie Wood
plays a reporter gamely trying to cover the race. Comedy set pieces abound, most notably a
saloon brawl that must have used every working stuntman in Hollywood and the
ultimate pie-fight, which cost over $200,000 to film. Beautifully shot by Cinematographer Russell
Harlan (Hatari) in locations like
Austria, Paris, Death Valley and no less than eight WB soundstages, no
expense was spared… and yet the film never received the love it deserved. Critics considered it “overdoneâ€, missing
that the film was Edwards’ homage to outrageous slapstick. Although it earned a respectable $25 million,
it wasn’t a breakout hit. (In contrast,
our beloved Thunderball, which was
released the same year,cost $5.6
million to produce and raked in over $140 million. Talk about a great ROI!)
Natalie Wood in some blissfully skimpy attire.
Box
office math aside, as pure cinematic fun, The
Great Race delivers in spades. Lemmon’s work as the evil villain and a
drunk lookalike prince was brilliant, full of manic energy and a real showcase
for his skill and range as an actor. Tony Curtis gave another strong
performance as the stoic hero who can do no wrong, unfazed by any mishap,
including finding a huge polar bear in his back seat! It’s rumored that co-star Natalie Wood didn’t
want to make the film and had to be persuaded by WB brass, but she seemed to be
having fun and could throw a pie with the best of them. She lit up the screen as an intrepid writer/photographer
trying to break free of early 20th century stereotypes of what a
woman could and could not do. Seeing her
in the various Edith Head-designed costumes reminds one of what a stunning
young woman she was.
As
to be expected, the image quality is nothing short of pristine in 1080p, with scenes
looking almost three-dimensional in their clarity. The audio was bumped up to DTS-HD 5.1 so all
of Lemmon’s agonized cries of “Maaaaaaax!†sound great, as does Henry Mancini’s
gentle score. The only nitpick is the
lack of any new extras – the disc contains “Behind the Scenes With Blake
Edwards’ The Great Race†- the
vintage studio featurette and a theatrical trailer; both of which were on the 2002
DVD release. They are most welcome, but it would have been even more beneficial if, some years ago, someone had interviewed Edwards, Curtis and Lemmon about the making of this epic comedy. I would have produced those gratis, just to hear more about this
wonderful, if overlooked film. Sigh.
LA’s
long awaited rain couldn’t keep Sony Pictures Home Entertainment from
celebrating the DVD release of Woody Allen’s Magic In The Moonlight with a vintage-themed party at The Crocker
Club in downtown LA on December 2nd.
Allen’s
whimsical 2014 romantic comedy stars Colin Firth as a magician on a mission to
debunk a professional clairvoyant played by Emma Stone. The film was well received during its
theatrical run with reviewers noting the strong performances of Firth and Stone
as well as cinematographer Darius Khondji’s excellent work capturing the French
Riviera of the 1920s. (The two are
already collaborating on Allen’s next film.)
At
the party, guests could circulate among screen-used costumes from the film as a
tarot card reader and astrologer worked their, um, magic. There was also a hip, young stylist on hand
for guests who wanted a quick touch up. (Unfortunately
she didn’t have the many hours this CR scribe would have needed!)
Woody
Allen’s Magic In The Moonlight is
available on digital HD on December 2, with the Blu-ray and DVD release on December
16th.
(PHOTOS COURTESY OF SONY PICTURES HOME ENTERTAINMENT. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.)
(Photos copyright Mark Cerulli. All rights reserved.)
By Mark Cerulli
Last Wednesday, the
red carpet was rolled out on Hollywood Boulevard, the paparazzi were out in
force and the Spiderman and Wonder Woman impersonators had been pushed aside,
at least momentarily, for American Film Institute’s annual film festival.
Cinema
Retro was in da house for writer/director J.C. Chandor’s new crime drama, A Most Violent Year, this year’s opening
night selection. The director introduced
his third film onstage at the Dolby Theater, joined by his distinguished cast
and crew, including Jessica Chastain and DP Bradford Young. Chandor also pointed out where he was sitting
when his screenplay for “Margin Call†(which he also directed) lost out to
Woody Allen’s “Midnight In Paris†in the 2012 Oscar race.
Although
the film’s setting – the cutthroat world of home heating oil doesn’t sound
exciting, it provides the backdrop for Abel Morales, a principled young businessman
(the excellent Oscar Issac) to reach for the American dream – if his
competitors don’t ruin him first! Chandor,
a NJ native, perfectly captured the bone-chilling winter of 1981 as well as the
underbelly of this unglamorous but essential trade. Jessica Chastain was a scene-stealer as Abel’s
beautiful but hard-edged wife, willing to reach into her mob past to protect
their business. Screen veteran Albert
Brooks gives a steady, understated performance as their business partner, totally
unfazed by the industry’s corruption even as the violence starts to spiral out
of control.
A bit drawn out at times,
the film’s strong performances and meticulously crafted early 80s look more
than make up for the slow pace. One
stunning shot occurs early on when the main character looks out over a grimy
industrial property he’s desperately trying to acquire and across the East
River is the 1981 New York skyline complete with the Twin Towers; a sight many a
New Yorker took for granted until they were gone.
After
the credits it was on to the famous Roosevelt Hotel – where Charlie Chaplin and
Mary Pickford used to down cocktails - for an after-party complete with open
bar and unlimited schmoozing but curiously no food. It was a headache-inducing combination that
sent this CR scribe heading off to see another acclaimed Hollywood star, In
& Out Burger!
Everyone
in the west knows the name – Gaddafi.For over 40 years he was an international
riddle, visiting world capitals yet sleeping in a bulletproof tent; a statesman
who surrounded himself with female bodyguards and, of course, a pariah scorned
by the west for acts of international terror…
In
Mad Dog: Inside The Secret World of
Muammar Gaddafi , a remarkable Showtime documentary premiering April 11th,
director Christopher Olgiati and his team went deep inside the late despot’s
hidden world. The resulting portrait is
chilling, horrifying and impossible not to watch.
The
film’s Executive Producer, Roy Ackerman spoke with Cinema Retro about putting together
this daunting and dangerous project. “Chris (Olgiati) and I had worked together before… and he came to me
about doing a film on the Lockerbie Crash and we spent a lot of time developing
that but for various reasons we came to focus on Gaddafi.â€
The
film took three years to research and shoot in ten countries around the globe –
from the United States to the Marshall Islands. (Try even finding them on a
map!) Along the way the dictator’s
finely honed image as a Nationalist Statesman completely unravels, revealing a
desperate and perverse man who preyed on his own people.
Making
any movie is all about challenges, but shooting inside Libya was in a whole
other league – “It was very, very dangerous.†Roy remembers, “we went in three times and there were bombs going off
and car bombs, one time we had to just leave because it was too unstable.â€
The
Libyan footage they did get is apocalyptic and stunning – a Mad Max moonscape
of ruined buildings and burnt out interiors. They also interviewed several people who did business with the regime, including
international fugitive Frank Terpil who supplied Gaddafi’s military with
weapons. Another notable interview was
former CIA officer Valerie Plame who provides perspective on Gaddafi’s dramatic
hunt for nuclear weapons. The producers
left no biographical stone unturned, even interviewing Gaddafi’s plastic
surgeon who told a surreal tale of late night operations in an underground
bunker, the dictator refusing general anesthesia for fear of assassination.
Through
rare archival footage, we see a dashing young Gaddafi as an army officer with a
killer smile, eager to bring his country out of its Colonial past. Gradually he becomes corrupted by his immense
power and oil wealth (one billion dollars PER WEEK), which stripped away everything
but a desire to stay in power at any cost. Outwardly a “family manâ€, in reality he
indulged an array of dark and repulsive desires that the documentary illustrates
in haunting detail.
The
final chapter of Gaddafi’s tale is ironic and tragic – Western powers were
willing to turn the page on Gaddafi’s notorious past due to the great equalizer
- oil. Only the Arab Spring, which
ripped through many countries, including Libya prevented reengagement and
ultimately cost him his life. But the
film’s Roy Ackerman felt that if there’s any lesson to be learned from Gaddafi,
it’s proceed with caution – “You do deals with these people, they’re not
stupid, they’ll get a price for it.â€
Mad Dog: Inside The
Secret World of Muammar Gaddafi premieres Friday, April 11 on Showtime.
Who The F**K Is Arthur Fogel? I had no f**kin’ idea, but being a longtime music fan,
I was happy to accept the invitation for Cinema Retro to cover the LA premiere of the new EPIX documentary about rock’s
enigmatic mystery man.
Arthur Fogel (currently Live Nation's Chairman of Global Music
and CEO of Global Touring) is one
of the most powerful people in entertainment today. He’s responsible for the mega concert tours
that now sweep the globe, Hoovering up hundreds of millions of dollars in
ticket and merchandise sales and revolutionizing the way people view live music. If you’ve ever ponied up to see The Rolling
Stones, The Police, Madonna, U2, David Bowie or Lady Gaga in the last decade, then
you’ve seen Fogel’s work.
Deftly written and directed
by Ron Chapman, the film takes the viewer where fans never go, deep inside the
concert industry. What could have been a
dry exposition – after all, music is a business so it’s all about money – is in
fact a highly visual and entertaining experience. Chapman and his crew spent several years
roaming the world, interviewing the top of music’s pyramid - U2’s Bono, The
Edge and Adam Clayton, plus their legendary manager, Paul McGuinness. Fogel was a guiding hand behind the tour
everyone said could never happen – The Police’s long awaited 2007 reunion, so
Sting, drummer Stewart Copeland and bassist Andy Summers were also on camera. In fact two thirds of the iconic band showed
up for the premiere. (More on that later…)
Since Fogel is Canadian, the
documentary also interviews Geddy Lee, the seemingly ageless frontman of that
country’s most enduring musical export, RUSH. But the real star of the show is, undeniably, Fogel. In a series of interviews, the low key,
spotlight-avoiding mogul talks about his background, starting out as a rock
drummer then working his way up in a true dog-eat-dog business. Fogel did it
the hard way – by paying his dues and learning, one act at a time. Other talent managers like Guy Oseary
(Madonna) and Ray Daniels (Rush) along with other insiders weigh in on Fogel’s
long string of industry hits and his rare misses like Guns & Roses aborted
2002 tour when the first show was cancelled before the doors even opened,
sparking a riot.
Helping the narrative is
stunning concert footage, mainly from U2’s ground-breaking 360 Tour (Fogel
helped the band achieve their vision of performing in the round), but also of
The Stones, Rush, the Police and lesser know groups like Canadian New Wave pioneers
Martha And the Muffins. Never been backstage? No worries, interspersed throughout is footage of bands going on stage,
heading off stage, rehearsing – even bowing their heads for pre-show
prayers! As if to cement Fogel’s insider
status, none other than Madonna asks him to lead them in their prayer right
before she goes on.
The movie also covers the
tricky issue of digital downloading – how what could have been a huge new
revenue stream became a juggernaut that crippled the entire industry. Again, this could have been another tired retelling
of a story we’ve all heard, but here it’s given a fresh spin by snappy editing
and illuminating interviews with executives who were there. The main takeaway from this very interesting
documentary is that even though the concert field – and the entire music
industry - has changed radically, there are more exciting times ahead. The film closed with a wonderful sequence
showing Fogel returning to his drumming roots by walking onto U2’s massive
stage and playing Larry Mullen Jr.’s drums in an empty stadium. Now, nobody but him could have pulled THAT
off!
After the screening, Epix
laid down a slick party at LA’s storied Chateau Marmont. As expected, LA’s music scene turned out in
force to toast the man himself, and Fogel held court in the VIP section. Concert phenomenon Lady Gaga attended both
the screening and the after party. Used
to seeing her in lavish, often bizarre stage costumes (Remember her jaw
dropping meat dress?), tonight she wore an elegant gown and looked gorgeous –
even if her bodyguards kept most people at arms length. The evening’s only sour note occurred when I
dared approach Police drummer Stewart Copeland for a comment on the movie he
had just been featured in. I had barely
posed a question when he mumbled “Sure, sure…†and made a beeline for the door.
Unfortunately it was Don’t Stand So Close To Me, for real.
Life imitating art?
F**KIN’
EPIX UPDATE:
Writer/Director
Ron Chapman is expanding his original documentary “Who The F**K Is Arthur Fogel?â€
to include new concert footage and an exclusive, never-before-seen interview
with Lady Gaga.It’s a perfect fit
because Fogel helped elevate her onto the global concert stage where she sells
out consistently. The documentary’s new premiere date is Wednesday, March 19th
on Epix.