What's New, Mr. Jones?

John Hughes R.I.P.

2009-08-08T10:27:00.001-07:00

The scene that convinced me John Hughes was a genius. Look for the mighty William Windom as Elizabeth McGovern's father.

Review- The Lady From Shanghai

2009-06-17T02:33:00.000-07:00

"When I start out to make a fool of myself there's very little can stop me."- Michael O'Hara (Orson Welles) speaking the first line of "The Lady From Shanghai".

"Loverrrr..."- Arthur Bannister (Everett Sloane) drunkenly yells at his wife Elsa (Rita Hayworth) as his equally odious-but less talented- partner George Grisby (Glenn Anders) looks on.

We think we know where we are when the film starts... the soaring orchestral score (which the director despised1) under the credits bringing us into a romantic crime melodrama... a bitter, glib narrator filled with cute lines about how much of a fool he is, or how stupid... there's a dangerous woman who is a powerful man's wife... some sort of a plot about murder and money which no one (not even the director) can figure out. A film noir, in other words.

And we've seen those before.

But this is different...

Elsa (Hayworth) confronts several truths about herself.

"...Shanghai" is less a film and more some sort of fever dream posing as a film noir. As much as the movies are dream versions of real life, this movie is like a dream version of a movie. Michael "Black Irish" O'Hara (Orson Welles) and Elsa Bannister (Rita Hayworth)2 speaking in hushed or dreamy tones, while Arthur Bannister (Everett Sloane) and George Grisby (Glenn Anders) bray in harsh, strident, intense voices. When Elsa's musicality becomes much more strained in the later scenes, it is Welles the director having Elsa reveal her true colors at last.

"...I'm pretty tired of both of us"- Arthur Bannister has his Bergman Persona moment with his wife.

Welles used every trick in the book to make this story transcend it's pulpy beginnings to a story of romantic nightmare, not just with sound manipulation, although his extensive reworking of vocal soundtracks in the post-production process is one of his trademarks3. The camera work actually builds to the bravura funhouse sequence, beginning with the sped-up/under-cranked fight sequence in the park (which is called back in the judges chambers later- Apparently when Michael fights, his opponents become the Keystone Cops) leading to when he says goodbye to Elsa at the parking garage and suddenly Broome (Ted DeCorsia) and Grisby appear out of nowhere. Two characters we will be seeing a lot more of, commenting without introduction on what we've just seen, with a background character we never see again. This mise en scene is seemingly without precedent in the film and yet sets up a feeling that will occur again and again in the story... that we're never on steady ground, nothing is real or permanent, an attorney can put himself on the stand and begin questioning his own involvement in the case, a trapdoor can open at any point... this is the world we (and Michael O'Hara) find ourselves in.

Orson Welles as Michael O'Hara looking dazed, an expression that marks him as audience surrogate for most of "The Lady From Shanghai".

I've talked a little about the vocal performances from the actors, and I think it's important to mention it again. Welles, Sloane, and DeCorsia were all radio veterans with Anders, Erskine Sandford and Gus Schilling having had mostly stage experience. All of these actors were used to utilizing their voices as much as their visual appearance to portray their characters and serve the story. Anders usually gets the praise for the insinuating purr of his Grisby character, but I want to call your attention to Everett Sloane as Arthur Bannister, "The World's Greatest Criminal Defense Attorney" as it is repeated throughout the film.

"Killing you is killing myself... it's the same thing..." Arthur Bannister gets the drop on his own reflection.

We first see Sloane waddling in on two canes his character has to use to get around. His voice and manner are appropriate, but timid. We can tell Bannister is out of his element here in a sailor's hiring hall- he's looking for Michael O'Hara to hire him as the bequest of his wife Elsa- his voice is quieter, almost timid as he is intimidated by his surroundings to the point of allowing O'Hara to get him to buy himself and his two friends drinks "while I entertain myself by refusin' to go to work for'im". But once Bannister is drunk, he begins to reveal one of his motivating characteristics- the way Sloane enunciates "tough guy" and passes out on the line "Well... bare it in mind..."- Bannister, ashamed of his deformity, worships power and wields his own mental power over those he knows could best him physically. Sloane is constantly warping his character's voice from the gazillion different ways he has of calling his wife "Lover" to the intense, minor key tones he uses for the conversation he and Elsa have over Michael's fate toward the end of the trial sequence tones that he alternates with jovial hail-fellow-well-met greetings to various members of the court passing by. To watch just Sloane in this film is to see how much Welles loved the actor's vocal instrument.

It's interesting how much most commentary on "The Lady From Shanghai" is spent on the Hall Of Mirrors shootout. It's a great scene, one of Welles' best in both conception and execution, but when you see this film pay attention to all of it. Even in it's current, truncated form4 it is, to my eyes one of the great Orson Welles films, certainly on par with "Touch Of Evil" or "F For Fake", if not "Citizen Kane"5.

1- Welles supposedly wrote in a memo to Harry Cohn, Columbia's chief re: the score ""The only idea which seems to have occurred to this present composer is the rather weary one of using a popular song -- the "theme" -- in as many arrangements as possible.... Lady From Shanghai is not a musical comedy."

2- Elsa says she's "White Russian" early on in the film, while Welles makes a point of mentioning his character's nickname "Black Irish" a couple of times to bring out the characters' contrasting natures. Elsa is "white" while being one of the darkest characters and Michael is "Black" yet is also the erstwhile hero of the story.

3- Voices seem to come out of nowhere, with characters frequently seen looking frantically about the frame in a scene or montage for the some sort of stable source.

4-Welles made a cut of about 155 minutes which the studio then pared down to 88 minutes.

5-Paid for by The People's Committee To Show That Orson Welles Made More Than One Great Film.

One of the best films about America and it's love of heroes ever made...

2009-05-23T20:16:00.001-07:00

Has there ever been a filmmaker who simultaneously loved people and saw them for the goofballs they could be as well as Preston Sturges? Sharper than Capra, but the humanist that Wilder could never be, Sturges in the 7 or so classics he made held a mirror to both the greatness and the foolishness of humanity.

Watch "Hail The Conquering Hero" this Memorial Day weekend. You'll be glad you did.

Book Review- Road Dogs

2009-03-11T09:52:00.000-07:00

"When a man's partner is killed, he's supposed to do something about it. It doesn't make any difference what you thought of him. He was your partner and you're supposed to do something about it."- from the John Huston screenplay adaptation of Dashiell Hammett's "The Maltese Falcon"

"They put Foley and the Cuban together in the backseat of the van..."-from the first sentence of "Road Dogs", Elmore Leonard's latest novel.

Let's imagine you're at a bar, with a group of people, maybe people you know or have heard stories about, and the conversation you're having with them- or really, you're listening to them describe what they're thinking as they went through this recent event they all shared- is really great. Also, they're all criminals and some are more violent than others. Some are also stupider. But they're all very engaging and interesting as they talk about this moment where there lives intersected.

And that's an Elmore Leonard novel.

"Road Dogs" brings together three characters from other Leonard books: Jack Foley ("Out Of Sight"), Cundo Rey ("La Brava"), and The Reverend Dawn Navarro ("Riding The Rap"). There are also cameo appearances from previous Leonard stories including the maverick judge Maximum Bob ("Maximum Bob") and Foley's one-night stand U.S. Marshall Karen Cisco ("Out Of Sight"). Like most of the background characters in this crime fiction minimalist's (who once claimed the only verb he would allow would be the word "said") work, we learn everything we need to know about what they've been up to in a couple of paragraphs.

What we learn about the main characters are- Foley and Cundo became friends (or the titular "Road Dogs") in prison and Cundo hired a hotshot lawyer for an early release for Foley. Cundo has made a bundle in Southern Californian real estate and has a common-law wife in Reverend Dawn who has become a psychic-to-the-stars while staying in one of Rey's houses.

Got that?

Foley (George Clooney) and Cisco (Jennifer Lopez in her best role) come to an

understanding in Steven Soderbergh's critically acclaimed film adaptation of

"Out Of Sight".

Foley still thinks about Karen, while trying to sort out whether he should go straight or do whatever illegal scheme Cundo, or Dawn (or both) has cooked up. Foley also gets busy with almost every woman he meets in the book. And waits for someone to come up with something to do. Including himself.

"Riding The Rap" is a sequel to the Elmore Leonard

book "Pronto".

One of the things Leonard does really well is show how career criminals are sort of at the mercy of the elements when they get out of prison. Foley, arguably the smartest one of the bunch, still doesn't commit to any action (besides self-preservation) or anyone throughout the entire course of the book. Rey at first, seems to have plans, but they dissipate once he gets out. Dawn is consistently frustrated at the lack of ambition in the men in her life, but the plans she make keep getting sidetracked.

Supposedly, in the mid-eighties, Dustin Hoffman dithered

on making a film version of this book so much that it

never got made- thus inspiring the short, method actor,

movie star of the book "Get Shorty".

In the end, you will have spent maybe a day (Leonard books are always a quick read for me) with some of the more interesting ex-cons, cheats, swindlers, gangbangers and feds you'll ever meet. Like the films "The Anderson Tapes", "The Asphalt Jungle" or "The Killing", a group of shady people get together, try to pull off a job and in the end no one, except maybe Foley is any wiser or richer. Except that Leonard gives the perspective of each character so sharply, it feels like he uses jeweler's tools instead of pen and paper.

"Road Dogs" is the latest jewel in Elmore Leonard's crime thriller crown.

This book was made into a very short-lived ABC

summer replacement show in the late nineties,

starring Beau Bridges in the title role. It was

produced by Barry Sonnenfeld, who directed

"Get Shorty".

Review- The Prestige

2009-03-08T12:55:00.000-07:00

"Are you watching closely?"

first line from "The Prestige".

There's a story about the sleight-of-hand/con game/arcane performance expert, writer and actor (he appears in "The Prestige") Ricky Jay. From 1985 to 1990, he was the curator of the Mulholland Library of Conjuring and the Allied Arts, an extensive collection of items that pertained to magic and anything else that today one could call "non-traditional" showbiz. It was a dream gig for Jay. Unfortunately, in 1990, the owner of the collection was a banker and this banker was shut down by California banking regulators with it's assets (mainly the collection which was the only thing- thanks to Jay- that had increased in value over the years) liquidated.

And that is how, in a California bankruptcy court, the entire collection came to be owned by David Copperfield, a ritzy super-showman-as-magician. In other words the complete anathema to the intellectual, magic-for-magic's sake Ricky Jay.

One could make a decent comparison between that story and the plot of "The Prestige", a puzzle film about competing 18th century magicians, that is as much about art vs entertainment, obsession and the folly of revenge as anything else.

The film begins with a murder trial, as one of the two competing magicians ("The Professor" and "The Great Danton") has been accused of doing away with other. You have to pardon me as I am trying to not reveal more than is necessary here. The Professor, or Alfred Borden (Christian Bale) is a working class conjurer who approaches magic as an art, one to be fiercely guarded from others (including his own wife), especially his former friend The Great Danton, aka Robert Angier (Hugh Jackman). Danton is someone who takes the grubby Professor's tricks, steals them and flashes them up for an ever-increasing audience. Sounds familiar?

The casting of this film, from just the art vs commerce aspect couldn't be more perfect if they has put Karen Finley (one of the four performance artists the NEA denied grant money to in the early nineties) in Bale's part and an animated dollar sign in Jackman's.

Christian Bale, of course, is known for his impassioned devotion to every part he plays, from losing a gazillion pounds for "The Machinist" to even nailing musical theatre in "Newsies".

Also, he tends to throw temper tantrums when cinematographers get in his way.

Jackman, meanwhile is a favorite of the showbiz community, thanks to his genial, nice guy-ness and his winning enthusiasm for everything from "Wolverine" to, well, fun, upbeat musical theatre.

Also, he played a mostly gay songwriter from Australia on Broadway.

It's a good match up. Batman Vs. Wolverine. Crazy Method Actor vs. Straight Musical Theatre Guy.

But there's more to the film than just art vs. commerce. There is also the theme of magic (which arguably uses science as a tool for the trick) vs. science (which to the primitive eye can seem like sorcery).

We see The Professor's trick "The Transported Man" amaze Danton who then uses his assistant Olivia (Scarlett Johansson) to steal Borden's diary. Which is encrypted. And the key is the name "TESLA". As in Nikola Tesla (David Bowie- genius) Thomas Edison's arch-rival, who brought about Alternating Current and is a good catch-all for conspiracy theorists as his theories and inventions included a death ray (perversely called a "peace ray") the plans of which mysteriously disappeared after Tesla's death.

Hmm, you know Edison was more of businessman than Tesla (Tesla somewhat valuing the purity of his science above the financial possibility). So, maybe we are back to art vs. commerce?

Speaking of the cast, it includes America's favorite indie hottie Scarlett Johannson, America's favorite old Cockney Michael Caine and sitcom actors including some brits who have moved to America including Daniel (not British, but often plays one on TV, including "The Nanny"'s butler) Davis, Jim (Brit expatriate writer/actor/Christopher Guest movie regular cast member) Piddock, Roger (Professional arrogant Brit/Rebecca's boyfriend on "Cheers") Rees, and Edward (Professional British Fop/"Gil" on "Fraiser") Hibbert. This last bit of casting makes sense as the entire production was filmed in Southern California locations, doubling for Victorian England.

The entire film is one misdirection after another.

We can see this in so many parts, the way the film is constructed as flashback within diary entry, within flashback, within a different diary. The casting with American actors playing British. The two lead characters and their aliases. And a very successful film made by a commercial filmmaker who has brought an independent filmmaker's sensibility to the dollars and cents world of Hollywood film.

Christopher Nolan was someone who made a successful dent in the indy world with "Following" and the critical and commercial success of "Memento". After a smaller success with the Hollywood remake of "Insomnia", he was given the keys to the kingdom by Warner's to make "Batman Begins", which was a big hit for them. Maybe you remember that?

So we come back to art vs. commerce. The success of Nolan's career shows what the film story cannot- the way either art or commerce can win is they work together organically.

Like a man who makes a superhero film, but says "why not tell a story that's more than a bunch of illustrated panels of action strung together. One that moves on a deeper level than what a punch to the jaw brings."

Because there is a special kind of magic in the story that is well-told.

Review- F For Fake

2009-02-25T07:59:00.000-08:00

"for my next experiment, ladies and gentlemen..."

- the opening line of "F For Fake" intoned by Orson Welles in darkness.

In 2005, I wrote a review of the Criterion dvd of the movie here, but this is a film that has become my favorite Welles film and I thought I would try a lengthier ("Is such a thing possible?" you say) essay on what makes "F For Fake" so unforgettable.

For most of us who grew up in the seventies, when we think of Orson Welles, we think of him as he looks in this, his last completed film. A corpulent older man, full-flowing gray beard wearing black with a voice that has the resonance of the theatre-trained radio actor that he was (when he wasn't being a boy genius, a maverick, a has-been or any other perception of him in the biz). Rambling on about wine or peas or how it was in the forties when John Ford was still making Westerns, Welles would give you the idea of all of his former greatness having been diluted into the commercial pitchman and perennial talk show guest he became by the early seventies.

But, then, you were probably not aware of "F For Fake".

A film he made out of scraps of other's (including his own) uncompleted films, united by his narrated essay on how much fakery and art need each other, this film begins with a magic trick with children in a French train station. He makes a key turn into a coin, has dialogue with his film crew (including his cinematographer François Reichenbach, who directed an unfinished documentary that Welles uses as the basis for "F") and a mysterious woman (Oja Kodar, Welles' mistress/collaborator/muse at the time) who plays a larger part in the later section of the film. All of this chicanery is part of the larger magic trick of Welles drawing you into a film that is not a documentary, but, instead, the cinematic equivalent of having him over to your house for a dinner party.

As I said before, this film's central theme is Welles' assertion that art and fakery are symbiotic and it is hard to tell where one ends and one begins. Indeed, he makes the case that perhaps the fakery is as authentic as the original. Using François Reichenbach's original footage we take a look at Elmyr de Hory's work as a forger of Picasso paintings. With Reichenbach's interviewer, author Clifford Irving (who wrote a book on de Hory), we see the charming little forger explain his work and host parties as the toast of the seventies European jet set. Does Irving sound familiar to you? Do you remember a Richard Gere film called "The Hoax"? It was based on Irving having, not much longer after Reichenbach's project, but before Welles', faked an autobiography of Howard Hughes. This book was protested by Hughes himself and eventually Irving was found out and sent to prison.

And so Welles incorporates that as well, into the film.

Then Welles brings up his own hoax, the panic that came from a broadcast of his radio version of H.G. Wells' "The War Of The Worlds". Although Welles didn't intentionally create a panic, his dramatization was so real, it made a number of listeners across the country listening to it believe America was being invaded by Martians. During this section he has his old friends Joseph Cotton and Paul Stewart comment on the phenomenon.

And then he brings up his lady friend Kodar's relation to Picasso and some forgeries associated with that association.

The film begins with a magic trick and ends with a mild piece of flim-flammery, that to be fair, Welles told you was going to happen in his introduction in the film. Along the way we get several dinner parties, Oja Kodar running around in next to nothing (or nothing) at all (making one feel the letter "F" is not merely for "Fake), Laurence Harvey (and excerpts from a film Welles was trying to finish with Harvey in it), some more magic, beautiful architecture, and a film that ends as pleasantly mysterious as it began.

And as I think about the film, I find that it's not the ideas presented in it, but the atmosphere itself filled with fast cuts, Welles' soothing baritone, eccentric characters, Michel Legrand's ("The Shadow Of Your Smile", "Summer Of '42") great score and each section as sublime as the one that precedes it.

Like a great dinner party that you don't remember the specifics of, only how terrific an evening it was.

Blossom Dearie, The Jazz Singer Who Sang The "Figure Eight" Song, Died This Past Weekend

2009-02-12T06:01:00.001-08:00

This song always made me sad when I was a kid and to this day, when I look her up on ITunes, I envitably think of this first, before any of the other numbers I've heard her do over the years.

Schmoscars

2009-01-24T06:55:00.000-08:00

This year's Oscar nominees were announced on Thursday, but some other thing (political, wouldn't you know?) took up most of the news this week. And so, a really interesting development in the bigtime showbiz show got little notice this week- independent film got some props.

But isn't that the history of the independent film movement? Unless it had major studio backing (which, let's face it- all independent films you hear about have, somewhere along the way, gotten major studio backing), you'd only here about it as an interesting development. A sidebar notice in The New York Times. A major actor talking about "getting back to his roots" by working on a smaller budgeted "personal project".

Films like "Frozen River" (above) would only be noticed because Melissa Leo is the star. And this would only be noted because she was once on TV.

And the same with "The Visitor" (above), Tom McCarthy's new film starring character actor extraordinaire Richard Jenkins. It would be that little segment on a late eighties/early nineties "Entertainment Tonight" episode, when they weren't talking about "Ishtar" or "Waterworld" going over budget. It would begin "You may recognize the face, but this actor has never been a lead- until now!"

The actors on one of my other blogs "You Know The Face..." are actors like these (and indeed all of the links in this article are linked to pieces I did on them there. Synergy).

Support.

Helping fill out the good films to make them greater.

Or being the great thing about a mediocre movie. Have a good memory of "Starship Troopers"? It was probably because of Clancy Brown. Or "Making Mr. Right"? Maybe you're really remembering how good Laurie Metcalf was. I don't know, I thought they were both pretty good, but then, I haven't seen them in awhile and memories are a funny thing.

This year's Oscars have made indies the major serious, adult, mature movie source. Besides "Frost/Nixon" and "Blah, blah, blah Benjamin Button" (the original title), the only other serious major studio contender was "The Dark Knight". And that's a topic for another post. The Academy has now acknowledged that the studios farm out most of their stuff for adults to the mini-majors or "independent" boutique studios they have deals with, or own.

Today "Chinatown" would be made by the Weinsteins, "Network" by Focus Films and "Norma Rae" would be developed at Sundance and released by Warner's through a special arrangement with Robert Redford.

We live in interesting times.

Also, I believe an African-American was elected President of the United States.

My Favorite Star Trek Villain Has Past Away...

2009-01-14T16:37:00.001-08:00

Ricardo Montalban has left us. I first saw him in Escape From The Planet Of The Apes, then Cathy Lee Crosby's "Wonder Woman" TV Movie (earlier than the Lynda Carter series), so that by the time "Fantasy Island" came around, the idea of this guy being in something with the title "Fantasy" in it, made perfect sense.

"Ricardo Montalban dies at 88
By BOB THOMAS, Associated Press Writer Bob Thomas, Associated Press Writer – 2 hrs 40 mins ago

LOS ANGELES – Ricardo Montalban, the Mexican-born actor who became a star in splashy MGM musicals and later as the wish-fulfilling Mr. Roarke in TV's "Fantasy Island," died Wednesday morning at his home, a city councilman said. He was 88.

Montalban's death was announced at a city council meeting by president Eric Garcetti, who represents the district where the actor lived. Garcetti did not give a cause of death.

"What you saw on the screen and on television and on talk shows, this very courtly, modest, dignified individual, that's exactly who he was," said Montalban's longtime friend and publicist David Brokaw.

Montalban had been a star in Mexican movies when MGM brought him to Hollywood in 1946. He was cast in the leading role opposite Esther Williams in "Fiesta," and starred again with the swimming beauty in "On an Island with You" and "Neptune's Daughter."

But Montalban was best known as the faintly mysterious, white-suited Mr. Roarke, who presided over a tropical island resort where visitors were able to fulfill their lifelong dreams — usually at the unexpected expense of a difficult life lesson. Following a floatplane landing and lei ceremony, he greeted each guest with the line: "I am Mr. Roarke, your host. Welcome to Fantasy Island."

The show ran from 1978 to 1984.

More recently, he appeared as villains in two hits of the 1980s: "Star Trek: The Wrath of Khan" and the farcical "The Naked Gun: From the Files of Police Squad."

Between movie and TV roles, Montalban was active in the theater. He starred on Broadway in the 1957 musical "Jamaica" opposite Lena Horne, picking up a Tony nomination for best actor in a musical.

He toured in Shaw's "Don Juan in Hell," playing Don Juan, a performance critic John Simon later recalled as "irresistible." In 1965 he appeared on tour in the Yul Brynner role in "The King and I."

"The Ricardo Montalban Theatre in my Council District — where the next generations of performers participate in plays, musicals, and concerts — stands as a fitting tribute to this consummate performer," Garcetti said later in a written statement.

"Fantasy Island" received high ratings for most of its run on ABC, and still appears in reruns. Mr. Roarke and his sidekick, Tattoo, played by the 3-foot, 11-inch Herve Villechaize, reached the state of TV icons. Villechaize died in 1993.

In a 1978 interview, Montalban analyzed the series's success:

"What is appealing is the idea of attaining the unattainable and learning from it. Once you obtain a fantasy, it becomes a reality, and that reality is not as exciting as your fantasy. Through the fantasies you learn to appreciate your own realities."

As for Mr. Roarke: "Was he a magician? A hypnotist? Did he use hallucinogenic drugs? I finally came across a character that works for me. He has the essence of mystery, but I need a point of view so that my performance is consistent. I now play him 95 percent believable and 5 percent mystery. He doesn't have to behave mysteriously; only what he does is mysterious."

In 1970, Montalban organized fellow Latino actors into an organization called Nosotros ("We"), and he became the first president. Their aim: to improve the image of Spanish-speaking Americans on the screen; to assure that Latin-American actors were not discriminated against; to stimulate Latino actors to study their profession.

Montalban commented in a 1970 interview:

"The Spanish-speaking American boy sees Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid wipe out a regiment of Bolivian soldiers. He sees `The Wild Bunch' annihilate the Mexican army. It's only natural for him to say, `Gee, I wish I were an Anglo.'"

Montalban was no stranger to prejudice. He was born Nov. 25, 1920, in Mexico City, the son of parents who had emigrated from Spain. The boy was brought up to speak the Castilian Spanish of his forebears. To Mexican ears that sounded strange and effeminate, and young Ricardo was jeered by his schoolmates.

His mother also dressed him with old-country formality, and he wore lace collars and short pants "long after my legs had grown long and hairy," he wrote in his 1980 autobiography, "Reflections: A Life in Two Worlds."

"It is not easy to grow up in a country that has different customs from your own family's."

While driving through Texas with his brother, Montalban recalled seeing a sign on a diner: "No Dogs or Mexicans Allowed." In Los Angeles, where he attended Fairfax High School, he and a friend were refused entrance to a dance hall because they were Mexicans.

Rather than seek a career in Hollywood, Montalban played summer stock in New York. He returned to Mexico City and played leading roles in movies from 1941 to 1945. That led to an MGM contract.

Besides the Williams spectacles, the handsome actor appeared in "Sombrero" (opposite Pier Angeli), "Two Weeks With Love" (Jane Powell) and "Latin Lovers" (Lana Turner).

He also appeared in dramatic roles in such films as "Border Incident," "Battleground," "Mystery Street" and "Right Cross."

"Movies were never kind to me; I had to fight for every inch of film," he reflected in 1970. "Usually my best scenes would end up on the cutting-room floor."

Montalban had better luck after leaving MGM in 1953, though he was usually cast in ethnic roles. He appeared as a Japanese kabuki actor in "Sayonara" and an Indian in "Cheyenne Autumn." His other films included: "Madame X," "The Singing Nun," "Sweet Charity," "Escape from the Planet of the Apes" and "Conquest of the Planet of the Apes."

Montalban was sometimes said to be the source of Billy Crystal's "you look MAHvelous" character on "Saturday Night Live," though the inspiration was really Argentinian-born actor Fernando Lamas.

In 1944, Montalban married Georgiana Young, actress and model and younger sister of actress Loretta Young. Both Roman Catholics, they remained one of Hollywood's most devoted couples. She died in 2007. They had four children: Laura, Mark, Anita and Victor.

Montalban suffered a spinal injury in a horse fall while making a 1951 Clark Gable Western, "Across the Wide Missouri," and thereafter walked with a limp he managed to mask during his performances.

In 1993, Montalban lost the feeling in his leg, and exhaustive tests showed that he had suffered a small hemorrhage in his neck, similar to the injury decades earlier. He underwent 9 1/2 hours of spinal surgery at UCLA Medical Center.

Despite the constant pain, the actor was able to take a role in an Aaron Spelling TV series, "Heaven Help Us." Twice a month in 1994, he flew to San Antonio for two or three days of filming as an angel who watched over a young couple.

In an interview at the time, Montalban remarked: "I've never given up hope. But I have to be realistic. I gave my tennis rackets to my son, figuring I'll never play again. But my doctor said, `Don't say that. Strange things happen. You never know.'"

___

AP entertainment writer Sandy Cohen contributed to this story."

Please enjoy one of my favorite actor battles in film history.

McGoohan performs his final escape...

2009-01-14T16:25:00.001-08:00

One of the great multi-murderers (actors who played more than one murderer character) on Columbo (besides Jack Cassidy, Robert Vaughn, Robert Culp, William Shatner, and George Hamilton) has passed away. Patrick McGoohan was not just an actor but also a writer, producer and director (indeed, he also directed episodes of Columbo). But you may know him better as Number Six on "The Prisoner".

Here's the obit from the AP...

"TV's 'The Prisoner' star Patrick McGoohan dies in Los Angeles Module body

Wed Jan 14, 4:13 PM

By Andrew Dalton, The Associated Press
LOS ANGELES - Patrick McGoohan, the Emmy-winning actor who created and starred in the cult classic television show "The Prisoner," has died. He was 80.

McGoohan died Tuesday in Los Angeles after a short illness, his son-in-law, film producer Cleve Landsberg, said.

McGoohan won two Emmys for his work on the Peter Falk detective drama "Columbo" and, more recently, appeared as King Edward Longshanks in the 1995 Mel Gibson film "Braveheart."

But he was most famous as the character known only as Number Six in "The Prisoner," a sci-fi tinged 1960s British series in which a former spy is held captive in a small enclave known only as The Village, where a mysterious authority named Number One constantly prevents his escape.

McGoohan came up with the concept and wrote and directed several episodes of the show, which has kept a devoted following in the United States and Europe for four decades.

Born in New York March 19, 1928, McGoohan was raised in England and Ireland, where his family moved shortly after his birth. He had a busy stage career before moving to television and won a London Drama Critics Award for playing the title role in the Henrik Ibsen play "Brand."

He married stage actress Joan Drummond in 1951. The oldest of their three daughters, Catherine, is also an actress.

His first foray into TV was in 1964 in the series "Danger Man," a more straightforward spy show that initially lasted just one season but was later brought back for three more when its popularity - and McGoohan's - exploded in reruns.

Weary of playing the show's lead John Drake, McGoohan pitched to producers the surreal and cerebral "The Prisoner" to give himself a challenge.

The series ran just one season and 17 episodes in 1967, but its cultural impact remains.

He voiced his Number Six character in an episode of "The Simpsons" in 2000. The show is being remade as a series for AMC that premieres later this year.

"His creation of 'The Prisoner' made an indelible mark on the sci-fi, fantasy and political thriller genres, creating one of the most iconic characters of all time," AMC said in a statement Wednesday. "AMC hopes to honour his legacy in our re-imagining of 'The Prisoner.' "

Later came smaller roles in film and television. McGoohan won Emmys for guest spots on "Columbo" 16 years apart, in 1974 and 1990.

He also appeared as a warden in the 1979 Clint Eastwood film "Escape from Alcatraz" and as a judge in the 1996 John Grisham courtroom drama "A Time To Kill."

His last major role was in "Braveheart," in what The Associated Press called a "standout" performance as the brutal king who battles Scottish freedom fighter William Wallace, played by Gibson.

In his review of the film for the Los Angeles Times critic Peter Rainer said "McGoohan is in possession of perhaps the most villainous enunciation in the history of acting."

McGoohan is survived by his wife and three daughters.

-Solvej Schou contributed to this story."

Enjoy the opening titles to McGoohan's radical, arty spy series.

Around The Globes in 80 Days Part 11

2009-01-11T20:25:00.001-08:00

Later on...

Best Dramatic Actor Guy- Susan Sarandon brings back the class. Mickey Rourke gives me what I've been waiting for... cursing and sincerity. Thanks, Mickey.

NBC shows a commercial for a "modern updating of the David and Goliath myth". Thanks NBC. Now I have something to make fun of for all of the 3 weeks it'll be on the air.

Best Dramatic Movie- Tom Cruise is sad about "Valkyrie". Next time, German accent Tom. "Slumdog Millionaire" wins.

Summing up, the drunk awards show needs to get more of the funny, less of the NBC promo stuff. Sorry Zuckerman. The big stories and the ongoing Oscar buzz will be Mickey Rourke, Kate Winslet and Slumdog.

Also, the thing about Duchovny and Tea Leoni getting back together. That blew my mind.

Around The Globes in 80 Days Part 10

2009-01-11T20:11:00.000-08:00

About a hundred hours in...

Scene from "Vicki Cristina Barcelona"- Salma Hayek flirts with the other one.
Best Comedy Movie- Sasha Baron Cohen kills me, not the room. Really? A groan over Guy Ritchie and Madonna?? Come on Hollywood. The Woody Allen movie wins. His sister accepts and sounds like Woody Allen.
Scene from "Slumdog Millionaire". I like everyone who introduced the film and everyone in it. I have been drinking.
Best Movie Drama Lady- Cameron Diaz and Mark Wahlberg. Adam Samberg is funnier than this. Kate Winslet wins for playing Mrs. DiCaprio. We don't watch.
Best Drama TV Show- First line from Rainn Wilson is funny. After that, awkward. Mad Men wins! I am vindicated! I'm not sure why.

Around The Globes in 80 Days Part 9

2009-01-11T20:03:00.000-08:00

2:00-2:15

Best Director Person- Emma Thompson and Dustin Hoffman meander through to a weak punchline. Danny Boyle is best director person! Hooray! See kids? Direct a zombie movie and you can win!
Scene from "Mad Men- The Movie". Sigourney Weaver intros carefully.
Best Comedy Movie Actor Guy- Sandra Bullock tries to remind us why we liked her ten years ago. Colin Farrell wins. Makes 2000 American election jokes. Very relevant. He says something pretentious that I can't understand. A bit poetic, ya know...

Around The Globes in 80 Days Part 8

2009-01-11T19:49:00.000-08:00

1:45- 2:00

Scorsese gives Spielberg the Best Director Guy Ever Award. My wife actually asked me if we have to watch this "Yes, it's Spielberg! Yes-Yes, it's Scorsese giving Spielberg the award!!!" It's like she had amnesia for a second or something. Scorsese and Spielberg do some logrolling "Spielberg is a pioneer." "Scorsese inspires me." Jeez, get a room guys. Great speech. Inspiration from unique vision is the key.

Around The Globes in 80 Days Part 7

2009-01-11T19:42:00.000-08:00

1:30-1:45 (I think... God, I'm so drunk right now)

Scene from "Mamma Mia". Pierce Brosnan tries to forget he was Bond.
Best Movie Music. Which if these stars do not belong here. Seriously, after Tracy Morgan, I think it's Kate Beckinsale. "Slumdog Millionaire" wins for that thing they did in "Monsoon Wedding".
Best TV Comedy Lady- Hey David Duchovny is still married to Tea Leoni! Why would he lie? Also, Tina Fey wins. And kills. Of course, c'mon she's funny.

Around The Globes in 80 Days Part 6

2009-01-11T19:27:00.000-08:00

1:15-1:30

Scene from "In Bruges". Gerard Butler makes my wife tell me to shut up. It's true.
Best Movie Writer- Seth Rogan gives Mickey Rourke a reason to beat him up. "Slumdog Millionaire" guy wins.
Best TV Comedy Guy- Patrick Dreamy and Amy Poehler give Alec Baldwin the thing. You know what I mean. No I am not drunk.
Scene from "The Reader". Renee Zellweger however must be.
Best TV Movie-ish Guy- Terence Howard is sad he blew "Iron Man 2". But Don Cheadle's gotta work, yo. Paul Giamatti wins for the Tom Hanks Prestige Thing. I have enjoyed his zany faces during this Golden Globes. For that I would've given him the award.
Best TV Show- Glen Close and Larry (Yeah I can call him that.) Fishburne do the phony serious intro thing. "30 Rock" is the winner??? Tracy Morgan kills. Zucker smirks and wishes this would pull the ratings of the network (NBC) out of the basement.

Around The Globes in 80 Days Part 5

2009-01-11T19:21:00.000-08:00

1:00-1:15

Scene from "Frost/Nixon"- Tom Brokaw mispronounces "screenplay" in addition to the letter "L".
Best Foreign Movie- Colin Farrell mocks his intro then cues the drunk running the playback. The animated one that wasn't "Persephone" wins.
Best TV Movie-ish Lady. Jake's sister and Aaron Eckhart show that she's taller in heels. Laura Linney wins. And is classy.

Around The Globes in 80 Days Part 4

2009-01-11T19:10:00.000-08:00

00:45-01:00

Scene from "Blah, blah Benjamin Button". Jake Gyllenhal wonders why no one cared about "Zodiac".
Best TV Movie-ish. Drew Barrymore and Jessica Lange share a private joke and take up precious Globe-time. The Tom Hanks Prestige Thing wins. No one cares about Gary Goetzman showing up. Tom Hanks thanks everyone in the room and knocks HBO. He's TOM HANKS. Got it HBO?
Best Supporting Movie Guy- Demi mocks her daughter in front of the room and the world. Class. Heath Ledger wins. Nothing snarky, that was frickin' great! Eat it, cynics. His director accepts the award for him and does it well.

Around The Globes in 80 Days Part 3

2009-01-11T19:00:00.000-08:00

00:30-00:45

Scene From "Happy-Go-Lucky". Ricky Gervais kills with Holocaust movie joke. Smart.
Best Animated Movie- Jonas Brothers come out to give the kids a thrill. Wall-E wins for awesomeness. That's right- I'm the rebel who said it.
Best Movie Lady. Johnny Depp enters and Tom Cruise wonders where his career went. "What's so great about accents" he thinks to himself? Sally Hawkins wins for Mike Leigh's little comedy. Maybe because of Ricky Gervais' joke. She is sooooooooo sincere. I wished I lived in a city that showed frickin' foreign films as early as LA and New York get them. Loved her speech. Long, funny, real.

Around The Globes in 80 Days Part 2

2009-01-11T18:44:00.000-08:00

oo:15-00:30

Simon West and Eva Blah Blah Blah- Best Supporting TV Guy. Hey, Piven feels better Mr. Mamet! Wilkinson wins for being in the prestige Tom Hanks show. Kate Beckinsale shoots daggers at the world.
Best Supporting TV Lady. Melissa George looks like she can eat the camera. Laura Dern wins for being the most honest portrayal of a frickin loon in "Recount". And apparently Obama wins, too!
Scene from Burn After Reading. Don Cheadle kills.
Eva Mendes shows what being sober will get you... a mediocre comic book movie and introducing the President Of Foreign People.
Best Guy on TV- Hayden Pantierre and Zac Effron for the kids-n-geeks. Gabriel Byrne wins and shows his class by not showing up and forcing young stars to improvise.
Best TV Lady- Young Kirk and Young Spock make awkward talk then... Anna Paquin wins for her terrible Louisiana accent. Maybe she'll do her Scottish... nopers, she has lived here long enough, just a horrible mid-atlantic accent.

Around The Globes in 80 Days Part 1

2009-01-11T18:35:00.001-08:00

0:00-:15-

Club song opening montage. Jennifer Lopez Best Supporting Actress. Jlo can't get anyone's attention. Has she done anything besides steal someone's husband and make a movie with him in years? And the winner is... Kate Winslet. Parents, tell your daughters dressing up like a half-naked Catherine Deneuve does not mean you won't win anything. Winslet acts like Sarah Jessica Parker after the first hundred wins for "Sex And The City"- The TV Show.
Sting for Best Movie Song. He has died his hair and beard for the show. Springsteen gets the first "The Wrestler" award. Wonder if he'll say anything about Obama? Good Eastwood joke.

Paul Benedict- Character Actor, R.I.P.- Telling A Fish Story

2008-12-10T07:38:00.001-08:00

This is from some people who worked with him at a theatre in Massaschusetts. He is improvising a story about catching a fish in the same gentle voice that everyone remembers him for.

I tried to find some clips from his appearances in Christopher Guest's films (Waiting For Guffman, A Mighty Wind, the Attack of The 50 ft. Woman remake) but couldn't find any online.

Please search'em out as he is great in those as well.

Paul Benedict- Character Actor, R.I.P.- The Goodbye Girl

2008-12-10T07:27:00.001-08:00

Here we see that his growing popularity on The Jeffersons afforded him more opportunity to bring "The Benedict" to other media.

This is one of my favorite things he did... the young Theatre Director giving his "interpretation" of "Richard III"...

Paul Benedict- Character Actor, R.I.P.- The Jeffersons

2008-12-10T07:23:00.001-08:00

Most remember him from his portrayal of the British neighbor on "The Jeffersons". This would pay the rent while also showing how Benedict's slightly eccentric acting style could be harnessed for mainstream showbiz.

What I like about him in this is that, for a show that seemed to be a showcase for Sherman Helmsley and Isabel Sanford screaming at each other for thirty minutes (with commercials), Benedict brought a much-needed quiet, Ealing Brothers-ish gentle, funny voice.

The show alsways seemed to have a couple of minutes for his character to distract everyone from the "plot" so he could tell some shaggy dog story. Then he would exit, George or Weezy would do a double take and go back to the "story".

Witness this excerpt of a rare episode that has him on for more than a couple of minutes...

Paul Benedict- Character Actor R.I.P. Chapt. 1- The Mad Painter

2008-12-10T07:13:00.001-08:00

Paul Benedict passed away the other day and I thought I would find somethings you've seen him in to memorialize his life.

Those of use who still remember their early seventies childhood (or maybe just me) remember his performances in Sesame Street as The Mad Painter.

Here he is with frequent "Painter" co-star The Young Stockard Channing, trying to pain a "4". It's not as easy as you would think.

If I was Forry I would have a really bad pun here...

2008-12-06T14:59:00.000-08:00

... however, no one was Forrest J. Ackerman, but Forrest J. Ackerman. Writer, actor, editor, literary agent, personality, but above all huge geek, Ackerman passed away on Thursday.

Ackerman with his prized Dracula ring, originally worn by Bela Lugosi in the film of the same name, I believe.

The New York Times had, as usual, a great obituary. Here it is, in italics...

Forrest J Ackerman, High Elder of Fantasy Fans, Is Dead at 92
By BRUCE WEBER
Published: December 6, 2008

It’s a common claim that someone is the world’s biggest fan of such-and-such. Elizabeth Taylor’s biggest fan. The biggest fan of the New York Jets. The world’s biggest country music fan. Hardly anyone takes such a designation seriously, except, perhaps, when it comes to Forrest J Ackerman, whose obsessive devotion to science fiction and horror stories was so fierce that he helped propel their popularity. Indeed, he was widely credited with coining the term sci-fi.

Mr. Ackerman died on Thursday at his home in Los Angeles. He was 92. The cause was heart failure, The Associated Press reported, quoting Kevin Burns, who is head of the production company Prometheus Entertainment and a trustee of Mr. Ackerman’s estate.

In the cultural niche defined by monsters, rocket ships and severed body parts, Mr. Ackerman was decreed by acclamation to be its leading citizen. He was a film buff, an editor of pulp magazines and anthologies, a literary agent for dozens of science fiction writers and an amateur historian. No one has evidently disputed his claim that he created the expression sci-fi.

He was also an omnivorous memorabilia collector who once turned a former home of his overlooking Los Angeles into a sort of scream-a-torium. Thousands of science-fiction fans made pilgrimages to the house, a repository of more than 300,000 books, posters, masks, costumes, statuettes, models, film props and other artifacts. (He sold the house several years ago to pay for mounting medical bills.)

“He was the world’s biggest fan,” the writer Stephen King said in a recent phone interview. “If you had been to his house, you wouldn’t doubt it.”

Mr. Ackerman’s appetite for science fiction embraced the highbrow as well as the low. His favorite film, he often said, was Fritz Lang’s futuristic masterpiece from 1927, “Metropolis.” He said he had seen it nearly 100 times. In 2002, when he received a lifetime achievement award at the World Fantasy Convention, he shared honors with one of the most admired writers of fantasy and science fiction, Ursula K. Le Guin, whose book “The Other Wind” was named the year’s best novel.

But Mr. Ackerman spent most of his time in the arena of pop culture. Between 1958 and 1983, he wrote and edited Famous Monsters of Filmland, a seminal black-and-white magazine heavily illustrated with photographs from Mr. Ackerman’s collection. The magazine emphasized the scream-worthy features of movies and was fond of groan-worthy wordplay. “Menace, Anyone?” was a typical title. But it also conveyed the idea that language was flexible and that using it could be fun.

The magazine fired the imaginations of generations of young horror fans, including Mr. King and the filmmakers George Lucas and Joe Dante (“Gremlins”).

“When you think of the size of the business, the dollar amount, that has sprung up out of fantasy, the people who made everything from ‘Star Wars’ to ‘Jaws,’ ” Mr. King said, “well, Forry was a part of their growing up. The first time I met Steven Spielberg, we didn’t talk about movies. We talked about monsters and Forry Ackerman.”

Forrest James Ackerman (he used his middle initial, but without the period) was born in Los Angeles on Nov. 24, 1916. His father was a statistician for an oil company. He saw his first science-fiction film in 1922: “One Glorious Day,” the story of a disembodied spirit that takes over the soul of a tired professor, played by Will Rogers. Four years later he discovered science-fiction magazines, starting with Amazing Stories, and began collecting them and science-fiction memorabilia. His collection eventually included more than 40,000 books and 100,000 film stills.

His wife, Wendayne, a teacher who translated many science-fiction novels from French and German into English, put up with the collection but restricted it to the lower floors of the house, which in the science-fiction world was known as the Ackermansion, in Horrorwood, Karloffornia. (After her death in 1990, the collection began creeping up the stairs.)

The couple had no children, and Mr. Ackerman leaves no immediate survivors.

After serving in the Army during World War II, he started a literary agency that eventually represented, by his count, 200 writers, including, at different times, Ray Bradbury, H. P. Lovecraft and L. Ron Hubbard, who later founded Scientology.

Mr. Ackerman said he came up with “sci-fi” in 1954. He was driving in a car with his wife when he heard a radio announcer say “hi-fi.” The term sci-fi just came reflexively and unbidden out of his mouth, he said.

Over the years he published as many as 50 short stories of his own, wrote most of the articles in Famous Monsters himself under pseudonyms like Dr. Ackula and wrote and edited many other magazines with titles like Monster World. At his induction into the Horror Hall of Fame in 1990, the actor Robert Englund (a k a the serial killer Freddy Krueger in the “Nightmare on Elm Street” films) introduced Mr. Ackerman as “the Hugh Hefner of horror.”

Mr. Ackerman also invented the comic character Vampirella. And as testimony to his ubiquitous presence, he acted (sort of) in more than 50 films, almost always as an extra. His longest screen appearance was a two-minute scene in which he played the president of the United States in the science-fiction spoof “Amazon Women on the Moon” (1987).

“He was an appreciator, a collector, not a creator,” Mr. King said. “Well, he was a creator in the sense that with the magazine he gave us a window into a world we really wanted to see. He was our Hubble telescope.”

I don't think it's overstating to say that the magazine was a gigantic part of my childhood as well as my brother's. Walking to the local convenience store in McComb, Mississippi (called "Pic-N-Pac") to buy comic books and Famous Monsters was a weekly ritual that seems almost Mayberry-ish in the lack of safety fears (the place was several blocks away) and the summer-walking-barefoot-anywhere routine we kids had. Cherry or Coke Icees, comic books and Famous Monsters Of Filmland were all elements in that chemical formula of my early-to-mid-nineteen seventies life.

With Ackerman's passing, a little bit of my childhood summers have just passed away too.

Part 3 of Orson Welles' Television Anthology Pilot

2008-11-26T10:33:00.001-08:00

Rick Jason was also in the television show "Combat". Joi Lansing was also in Welles' "Touch Of Evil" as Zita, the girl who is blown up at the beginning of the movie. Dan Toblin has been in everything.

Part Two Of Orson Welles' Television Anthology Pilot

2008-11-26T10:26:00.001-08:00

Hey, is that Nancy Kulp from "The Beverly Hillbillies" and "Aunt Harriet" from "Batman"?

Yes it is. Now quit interrupting.

The Orson Welles Television Show That Might Have Been...

2008-11-26T10:24:00.001-08:00

This pilot was made by Welles for Desilu to pitch to CBS as a proposed Welles anthology series (sort of a pre "Twilight Zone" or "Alfred Hitchcock Presents") in 1956. Welles was friends with Lucille Ball from their days of working together on one of the gazillion versions of radio's "The Mercury Theatre On The Air". Ball has a great part in one episode reading Dorothy Parker verse which Welles introduces.

So, cut to a decade or so later and Lucille Ball is one of the great powers of television and can basically do whatever she and Desi want. They have bought her old studio (RKO) and are producing "I Love Lucy" as well as various pilots for pitching to CBS. This, of course was also the studio where "Citizen Kane" and "The Magnificent Ambersons" were made.

Now Welles has just returned from Europe and is looking to try and make his mark in the new medium of television. He contacts Lucy and Desi, they meet him in New York and discuss two ideas- the first being a guest spot on "I Love Lucy", the second being the new series Welles wants to do.

As I said before, this series was going to be a "Welles-zone" anthology. But it had its precedents in Welles' various former radio shows like "This Is My Best" (which, during this version of that long-running show should have been called "This Is Orson's Latest Vehicle"), "The Columbia Playhouse", or any of the previously mentioned to gazillion variations on "The Mercury Theatre".

The "Lucy" episode came off without a hitch, but the pilot was another matter. Given five days to shoot, Welles typically went 3 and a half days overbudget. But, just as typically, watch what he did. His use of slides, the way he cuts in camera and his own presence as narrator/host make this story a marvel of creative ingenuity.

The mind reels at what could have been one of the great anthology shows, had it been picked up.

But it wasn't. CBS turned down EVERY pilot Desilu presented that year, and all of them were eventually run two years later as part of a different anthology show. Networks typically did this to burn off pilots.

And later in the year, Welles' pilot that was weird , that went overbudget, that nobody wanted to have anything to do with, won the prestigious Peabody Award for comedy.

Here's Part One.

Another Shameless Plug For My Brother's Funnybook...

2008-11-01T07:43:00.000-07:00

Well, he's done it again! I know, like many of you, I had started to wonder if my brother had the guts to finish what he started.

And after seeing the above, I think that even if he doesn't, at least he drew the toughest version of the Hawaiian Punch guy I've ever seen. And I've seen them all.

Here's his desperate plea for acceptance, other wise known as an e-mail-

Hi, friends and neighbors, gosh it's been along time since we rock 'n' rolled. Even longer since I last dropped a reminder about my smash hit webcomic, Breakfast of the Gods! (To answer your question, YES, it's still going.)

Book Three:Apocalypse Yum is up to page 16 (and is one of the images I've been dying to draw since I began this puppy - I think it came out quite nicely!) and, if you've been keeping up so far you can jump right to that most recent update here:

http://www.webcomicsnation.com/poyorick/botg3/series.php

Or, if'n you want to take in the totality of Book Three to date, it starts right here:

http://www.webcomicsnation.com/poyorick/botg3/series.php?view=archive&chapter=28604

I hope this spammy mass email finds each and every one of you well and happy. And I hope none of you will embarrass yourselves too much at whatever Halloween functions you head out to tonight. Me? I'm staying in with the flu and back episodes of Mad Men and Pushing Daisies. Oooooh, scaaary!

Yer pal in P-Town,
Brendan

P-Town is, of course, his infantile slang for when he goes to the bathroom...

...sigh.

Oh Brendan.

I am a sucker for a decent Vincent Price impression...

2008-10-28T19:29:00.001-07:00

...and Bill Hader is one of the guys who does one. Michael McKean, Dana Gould (stand up/writer-producer for The Simpsons), and Maurice LaMarche (also one of the best Orson Welles impressionists, as heard whenever one hears oen fo his best-known voices "Brain" on "Pinky and The Brain")are the other ones I've heard... besides myself, of course.

Seriously, if you heard me recite The Raven in the shower... well, what would you be doing in my shower, freak?

Do us both a favor, get out of my fricking shower.

Be that as it may, this sketch from last week's Jon Hamm-hosted (hey Don Draper is fun-nee!) SNL has one of my favorite running sketches "The Vincent Price Holiday Special", this time a very appropriate Halloween special with Gloria Swanson (Kristen Wiig), James Mason (Jon Hamm), and Liberace (Fred Armisen).

Watch and know the genius of old showbiz-specific references and obscure Hollywood impressions... some might say it's what my act hinged on, back in the day.

And by "some" I mean none.

Just watch the bideo vee-atch.

The opening of "The Long Goodbye"...

2008-10-24T20:18:00.001-07:00

...is where Marlowe tries to feed his cat. Altman always called his concept of the Raymond Chandler character "Rip Van Marlowe". In other words, a private eye from the forties who woke up in the early seventies in the same suit and drove the same car, but was dealing with morals and attitudes of the more modern time.

Or you could take the view that Marlowe is stoned. I mean listen to how Gould reads his speeches to the cat.

Okay, I guess I'm the only one who ever thought that.

Whatever.

Gould's adlib of "It's okay with me"... became a running theme for the movie.

You'll also hear several versions of the theme song, introducing the joke I referred to a post or two ago.

This is a great film and is one of those seventies movies I can only imagine being made independently now.

The Long Goodbye Theatrical Trailer

2008-10-24T20:10:00.001-07:00

I believe this is when they were promoting the film as a comedy.

One of my favorite seventies films...

2008-10-24T20:08:00.001-07:00

... is Robert Altman's "The Long Goodbye". Basically an Altman take on forties private eye melodramas, but in the seventies with Elliot Gould as Philip Marlowe. Gould mumbles his way through a Leigh (the adaptation of "The Big Sleep" for Howard Hawks) Brackett adaptation of Raymond Chandler's book of the same name, with ALtman's trademark muddy soundtrack and use of zoom lens to pick up the action from the different areas of the frame in any given scene.

Altman's style is usually a dealmaker/breaker for most film fans. But I promise you, everyone has a favorite Altman film.

In this one, we also hear a running gag involving the theme song written by Johnny "Skylark" Mercer and Johnny "Movie Blockbuster Theme" Williams. This song, which feels like a spoof on how forties film noir would play their haunting themes ad infinitum/nauseum, is sung and played on and on and on by various singers, orchestras and even a mariachi band at one point.

The You Tube clip (with a ponderous slideshow of posters)features the version done by Jack Sheldon, who you may remember as a Jazz Trumpeter/Vocalist I revere. Or who you may remember as the voice of "Conjunction Junction".

Either way... enjoy the next few posts dedicated to a great Robert Altman film.

Not that I'm too political but...

2008-10-15T11:34:00.003-07:00

...If I do watch political news, lately I watch Keith Olbermann (sp.?) and Rachel Maddow. While I'll be the first to say that these shows are skewed to the liberal side, I like how intelligent Maddow and, to some degree Olbermann are. I think Maddoa is the more cerebral, but Olbermann, for all of his sarcasm, can get really, sincerely upset about issues I get upset about... like the special comment he did last night on McCain's culpability in the enflamation of the radical, lunatic fringe on the right.

I don't know much about politics, but I do know how you can judge character.

Just wait until someone's back is up against the wall, and see what they do.

McCain will try desperate move out of desperate move like a gambling addict who thinks they can put the kid's college education on Danny Boy in the fifth, because- if he wins- he pays 100 to 1.

Behind in the buzz and the polls?

-Pick an unqualified governor that you've only spoken to for the equivalent of time it takes Jerry Lewis to make his pitch at three in the morning during the MDA telethon. Then desperately vamp when her views, lack of experience and family life become known to everyone THEN you.

-Suspend your campaign to look like you're willing to forgo the political process in order to get things done. Then DON'T get things done and resume political process.

-After years of decrying negative campaigning (mostly as a victim of it yourself), hire people who trained with Karl Rove, and unleash devisive ads that focus campaign on non-issues of the opposition's "association" with a guy he barely knows, who's terrorist acts occurred when your opposition was EIGHT YEARS OLD... then act like the ads never happened during the debates.

McCain, when his back is up against the wall, will do anything.

I do not trust that kind of a "maverick".

Enjoy!

Some Nice Things I've Been Listening To Lately...

2008-10-05T17:19:00.000-07:00

I've been a fan of Charlie Haden since I first heard his Quartet West film noir tributes, "Haunted Heart", "Now Is The Hour" and "Always Say Goodbye" in San Francisco in the mid-nineties. Later, I moved to LA and had the opportunity to meet Haden and his family at a festival of film noir at one of the theaters I worked at. He was there to promote the albums and see a number of the films he loved (he is a huge fan of "The Big Sleep") and was one of the most gracious celebrities I've ever met. I think it was the night I met him that I found out he used to be a part of a family country gospel group, kind of like The Carter Family, before he became one of the premier jazz bassists in the country.

The new CD, called "Rambling Boy" is a tribute by him to the music he grew up performing, done by Haden, his family and friends of theirs.

And when I say family, well, his daughter Petra made one of my favorite cd's a few years back "Petra Haden Sings: The Who Sell Out" and before that she, her sister Rachel, drummer Tony Maxwell and Anna Waronker were in the critically lauded That Dog, as well as recording a great duet album with guitarist Bill Frisell and a gazillion other artists... I guess my point is I've only named a couple of his kids and they (plus his wife) are all incredibly talented. Which you will hear when you purchase said CD.

Worth it if only for guest Rosanne Cash doing "Wildwood Flower", which was a number that her stepmother June used to do with her family The Carter Family... and the circle grows tighter and tighter...

Hey, look, I'm listening to a cd that has one of the Rat Pack performing in it... weird, huh? Oh shut up. Listen, "Boy Meets Girl" is a collection of two recordings Sammy Davis Jr. and Carmen McRae made together for the Decca label ("Boy Meets Girl" with a smaller combo and a recording of "Porgy and Bess" with the two singers, a full orchestra and chorus) toward the beginning of their respective recording careers and while I had heard some of them in a greatest hits tape Universal put out in the late eighties, the actual albums have been out of print until now.

What you get is such a great melding of two voices you wonder why they never recorded again. Both singers have a similar style of enunciation (Sammy's is easily parodied and it's funny to hear him try to rough up his sound when he would do songs like the theme from "Shaft" in the seventies) and both are great bop singers who could also sing with more traditional pop jazz arrangements. Listen to them scat on the Gershwin brothers' classic "Who Cares?" and then knuckle down to the dramatic, and much more formal, recordings of material from George Gershwin's "Porgy And Bess" and you will be blown away at their range.

Yes, there are some of the sillier things Sammy would do during his earlier recordings (silly voices or his impressions of Nat King Cole and Jerry Lewis) in "Boy Meets Girl", but overall, it is a great set that isn't dated at all.

Speaking of dated, The Art of Noise's "The Seduction Of Claude Debussy" from the late nineties sounds a lot like most electronica coming out in the late nineties... except for the appearance of John Hurt, the best sounding actor in London! I love the sound of Hurt's voice when he talks... he has this singularly British booze/cigarettes-soaked voice that has livened up his appearances in everything from "Harry Potter and The Sorcerer's Stone" to "Hellboy" to "Alien" to this terrible Bob Clark/Judd Nelson lawyer vehicle (co-written by David E. Kelley!) "From The Hip" (with Darren McGavin!) that I watched just watched to see Hurt play a villain!

The cd is a great piece of electronica from a partially reunited The Art Of Noise, paying tribute to the composer Claude Debussy that has Hurt narrating and appearances from Rakim, Donna Lewis and Sally Bradshaw. Just listen to the opening narration as one of TAON says "Imagine an actor saying the following..." then Hurt's voice, sounding like he just polished of a double scotch and Cuban cigar saying "Imagine me saying the following...".

This is a great cd for driving through the rain, and if it's not raining, don't worry- there are rainstorm sound effects in various tracks on the disc.

'Cuz it's trippy like that, yo.

Please enjoy this sketch that shows what Tina Fey does when not propping up Tracy Morgan and Alec Baldwin...

2008-10-05T12:39:00.000-07:00

Frickin' Tina Fey coming in and doing this impersonation has become one of my favorite things she's ever done... too bad it won't be relevant much longer ;>

One of my favorite moments of the VP debate...

2008-10-03T03:31:00.001-07:00

Palin refers to Gen. David McKiernan as "McClellan"... and winks. Sure Olbermann is partisan, but he's not making this up. She did say this. And I don't think getting the moronic "Drill, Babay, Drill" chant is a gaffe.

It feels more like he's speaking what the national zeitgeist subtext of the chant is.

Or maybe I'm just being elitist.

As little patience as I have for movie and television stars telling me what to do...

2008-10-03T03:18:00.001-07:00

...like when the famous singers made videos asking if
"they" knew it was Christmas time or telling me that they were not just millionaire rock stars, but also "the world" and "the children"... well, that's one way to look at this. Or look at it for what it's intended for- a last ditch effort to get poeple registered and voting this year.

Plus Jonah Hill and Sarah Silverman make me laugh. And if Laura Linney told me to jump off a bridge, I would be incredibly moved by her performance as "person telling me to jump off a bridge".

Enjoy the bailout and vote!

Paul Newman- The Last Angry Man

2008-09-28T10:39:00.001-07:00

When I was 16, a group of us young drama geeks went to see "The Verdict". It was the first "serious drama" I had ever seen in a theater (unless you count "The Empire Strikes Back"... and I do).

Seeing the layers of this search for justice in a corrupted world, movingly written by David Mamet and directed by Sidney Lumet, was amazing. It is a "through a glass darkly" Frank Capra story (although Capra himself tended to set up his stories in a pretty real-world context), with Paul Newman as a seriously flawed ambulance chaser, a drunk who has lost faith in himself, the system and is going through the last stages of his long, plummet into the abyss. To watch him in the opening montage is to see a man who's greased his way down with whiskey and is not looking for a way to stop.

But a life preserver comes anyway, in a malpractice case that everyone tells him to settle on. The fact that he somehow can't is and it scares him is one of the many, many levels Newman works in this story.

We have lost an actor of passion and intelligence, one who was able to channel an anger that he carried with him most of his life. Has there ever been a role that Paul Newman played that didn't have anger in it?

Even when he was playing lighter characters, they seemed to be driven by some fire that couldn't be quenched by the banalitites of what the script required.

We will not see the like of this man again.

Also, he had blue eyes.

Schemmies- Post dog walk 8

2008-09-21T19:55:00.000-07:00

OMG they are going to make them stand there. "Haven't they been sufficient?" No. No they haven't....
Jeff wins! His mea culpa sounds sincere?? Jimmy Kimmel told them it wouldn't work. He's a smart guy. So is anyone who is funny. They all should've been consulted and heeded.
Hey it's MTM! And her plastic surgery!! She presents...
Betty White! I wonder if they're just going to keep presenting various stars until it's one a.m.? Nice joke about running long. Best Comedy Series...
30 Rock wins! Again! It is a very funny show. Nice craven shout out for people to watch the show.
Magnum! Has been told to keep it short. Best Drama...
Mad Men wins! Thank you Jesus! Woo-hoo! Hurray Television! Hey it's Bobby Morse! Look the mighty John Slattery and his wife, the ex-Mrs. George Clooney!
Jeff signs off. I think I'm liking him more now.

MY THEORY ABOUT THE FRICKIN' "FOCUS ON REALITY" PART OF THE SHOW!

Glad you stuck around. Here's what the theory is... they have proved the irrelevance of the phenomenon. Even someone who you would've thought would be adept at getting through the show- yes, I'm talking about Howie Mandell- tanked. The host who came off best was Jeff Probst and it was only during his acceptance speech, where he apologized.

I remember during an actor's strike (probably in the early eighties) the show was hosted by members of AFTRA, who were allowed to be there. Namely, Steve Allen and Dick Clark.

They were fine. Allen is a great ad-libber, Clark a fine straight man and together it was fine.

You cannot say this of the hosts tonight or last year.

We will not see the like of consummate pros like a Steve Allen or a Dick Clark again. They were both from radio and early television. I don't see the Internet producing that kind of experience for performers.

Reality is popular on a sporting level. And yet even the late sportscaster Jim McKay could pull out a professional job when the Munich Olympic crisis occurred. I doubt any sports host today could do that. Maybe Bryant Gumbel. Or Bob Costas.

Reality uses a lower standard for their hosting positions. The TV Academy should not have expected more from these guys, especially Seacrest (who is no Dick Clark, despite what his PR would have you believe) who has now tanked two years in a row.

Overall, the Emmys next year will need a Conan O'Brien or Jimmy Kimmel or (hope, hope) Ricky Gervais.

Someone who could do this with their eyes closed. Not someone who makes you cover yours. And your ears.

Schemmies- Post dog walk 7

2008-09-21T19:46:00.000-07:00

Keifer Sutherland- running out of time. Should be old hat for the star of "24". Best Actor in A Drama...
Bryan Cranston??!?!? Hey, I liked that show okay, but really? No disrespect to Cranston (a great actor- watch him in "From The Earth To The Moon") or the show. But have you seen "Mad Men"??
Brooke Shields and Craig Ferguson. No, don't read the jokes. Move on. Lead Actress in A Comedy Series...
Tina Fey, the new Elaine May, wins! Shout out to Julia Louis-Dreyfuss!! Nice joke to parents!
Jimmy Kimmel- trying to justify the reality focus tonight. The hosts come out to endure the jokes. Omigod, I thought they would make them stand there for the winner announcement. Which would be just punishment for their previous appearances on the show.

Schemmies- Post dog walk 6

2008-09-21T19:30:00.000-07:00

Glenn Close- Maybe they've dumped the hosts mid-show? Can I hope? Cute election year joke. Lead Actor in mini or TV movie...
Paul Giamatti wins! Hurray! Nice president joke. His wife gets humiliated, by an over-active director... hey, he won an Emmy for direction of live television folks! Irony, much?
Candy Bergen- Good joke. Lead Actor in A Comedy...
Alec Baldwin wins! The missus will be so pleased. And let's face it, the guy is frickin' funny. Tony Shaloub has finally stopped winning! Hey, I like "Monk", but still... Tina Fey is Elaine May??? Ummm, she's funny, but... wake me when she writes the "A New Leaf" of her generation, Alec.
America Ferrara and Vanessa Williams. The show is running so long, they've cut her mike AND her bit. Best Actress in A Drama...
Glenn Close wins! Big shout out for the basic cable over-forty ("Mature", I believe is what she said) ladies! She's cut short, but carries through. Probably because of the really funny guys who should've been hosts this year.
In Memoriam. As usual it's the Pleshettes and the Nettlesons of the group who get me the most. We will not see their like again.

Schemmies- Post dog walk 5

2008-09-21T19:18:00.000-07:00

Tom and Heidi- neither dramatic or comedic.
Kristin Chenowith and Neil Patrick Harris. Great dig at Howie Mandell. They're remembering who? Best variety performance...
Don Rickles! Who will be blamed by the Emmy's for running long, because he is frickin' awesome! Funny, sincere. God to be that great when I'm his age. Or standing up and breathing, which I'll take.
Kate Walsh and Wayne Brady. Stay on prompter and skip the bit we wrote for you.
Cynthia Nixon and Glenn Turman. Nixon is pro and Turman (the former Mr. Aretha Franklin and hey, its' the guy from "A Different World") is very happy to be there. Best director of a drama...
The guy from "House". Nice. Very sincere. Outstanding writing in a drama series...
Matthew Weiner "Mad Men" wins! I've been pulling for them all night... which you could probably guess if you read this blog, especially here... one of the best shows I've ever seen. Weiner's acceptance speech... Funny, sincere.

Schemmies- Post dog walk 4

2008-09-21T19:04:00.001-07:00

Howie- mentions the last decent thing he did in showbizness. Not counting "Walk Like A Man". Remind me to tell you the time Janeane Garofalo walked an entire room in Houston and shouted at them "Go home! Go home and watch Howie Mandell!!" And one of them yelled back "At least he's funny!"... where are they tonight, I wonder.
Tribute to M.A.S.H.- nice. Wait, why are Alexander Payne's ex-wife and the star of "Loverboy" talking about M.A.S.H. ? Supporting Actress in a mini or movie...
Eileen Atkins- See Tom Wilkinson.
Rickles and Kathy Griffin- Griffin does a decent thing. Rickles kills. I suppose it will be his fault the show went over too. Griffin loooooves him. Best Reality Show goes to...
The Amazing Race- Or Bruckheimer's little tv thing. Rickles still killing. I am working on a theory about the Emmy legitimisation of reality this year that I will share with you at the end... stay tuned!
Sally Fields- told to read prompter and go home.
John Adams wins best miniseries. Sally and Harry Truman do a bit. Wonder if they're gonna talk about this year's election... and they do!
Sally was cut short for...
Sarah Chalke's Haynes Wedgie Undies commercial! Yay TV!

Schemmies- Post dog walk 3

2008-09-21T18:48:00.000-07:00

Jeff- Moronic. Nice hat.
William Petersen and Laurence Fishburne- Petersen passes the torch to Fishburne to star in a show I don't watch. Best Supporting Actor in A TV Movie or Miniseries...
Tom Wilkinson wins. Not there, but hopefully will show up next year and demand it from Petersen and Fishburne.
Ryan and Tom- Lame joke executed lamely. Leading into...
Stewart and Colbert! My favorite thing they do on these shows is when they start off with some faux-Emmy intro- "The miniseries is a 14-part window into the soul" Genius. Prune as McCain/Republicans... awesome! Best director for miniseries, movie or dramatic special...
Jay Roach wins! Hey, he's still with Susannah Hoffs! Another shout out to Pollack and another "rock the vote" message!!!
Best writer for miniseries, movie or dramatic special- Kirk Ellis for "John Adams". Tom Hanks still rocking the Harry Truman look. Laura Linney was in "The Truman Show". Coincidence? You tell me... Ellis makes great point about relevancy of intellect in politics and gets cut off on "They used words...". Again, coincidence? Guess they needed more time for Ipod and "Beverly Hills Chihuahua" commercials.

Schemmies- Post dog walk 2

2008-09-21T18:37:00.000-07:00

Tom- has been told not to be funny. Good choice.
The West Wing- Martin Sheen's bit funny. Nice "Rock The Vote" message. All this to introduce John Schaffner?? On the whole, the "Sets Of The Classic Shows" theme is not really helping this show. Dare I say, it is "going a little long".
John Schaffner- The Television Academy matters speech. Not too long. None of us will remember it tomorrow, unless Schaffner pulls out an AK-47 and mows down his hosts.
Christian Slater and Christinia Applegate- Cute. Everyone loves both of them because they're survivors. Best TV Movie-
Recount- I wish "Extras" had won, because I would like Gervais to do more time. But, frankly my wife and I loved "Recount", Sydney Pollack's death was a blow and I'm glad his last project got some props.

Schemmies- Post dog walk 1

2008-09-21T18:19:00.000-07:00

Tom- Uh-oh, they told Tom to be funny.
The Laugh-In bit- "Sock it to me" bit was painful. Dear god, the comedy wall is sooooo saaaaadddd. Remind me to tell you about when I did a script reading with Fred Willard and Alan "Laugh-In" Sues. Or, as you saw him tonight, Alan "Nerve Damage" Sues
Heidi and Models- Heidi refers to "Bones" as "Der Bones". I guess "Dem Bones" would be too racist.
David Boreanaz and Lauren Conrad- Lauren does what exactly?
Kathryn Joostin- They cut her bit?? Best comedy director goes to...
Barry Sonnenfeld- Possibly one of THE great cinematographers of the late eighties/early nineties. "Love TV and fear the Internet" possibly best line to tonight.
Best Writer on a Comedy- Lauren does what exactly? And the winner is...
Tina Fey- Funny, grateful. Why couldn't she host?

I suspect this will be a catchphrase throughout the night for me.

Schemmies 9-9:08

2008-09-21T18:01:00.000-07:00

Heidi and Ryan- have been told to shorten it. Proving the existence of a supreme being. Or a producer who's cutting his losses.
Josh Groban- Gives it his best. The least-cringy are "The Jeffersons", "Fresh Prince", and his announcer voices.
Alec Baldwin- The reason my wife is having me dvr this. Lead Actress in a miniseries. Cute joke about his failed marriage to Kim Basinger. I'm sure their daughter appreciated it.
Laura Linney wins.- She was on fi-yah in this project. Tom Hanks looks like he's auditioning for "Give'em Hell Harry 2- Give'em Heller". But you know he'll probably only produce it. Great line about community organizers.
Microsoft commercial- Jeez, is Bill Gates not rich enough. Is his skin not thick enough that he can't take the light-hearted joshing of a John Hodgman and a former Mr. Drew Barrymore?
I will now walk the dog and set the dvr on pause. Just so's you knows.

Schemmies 8:40 -8:55

2008-09-21T17:39:00.000-07:00

Conan O'Brien- Last favorite host of Emmys. Great Katherine Heigl joke. The Best Supporting Drama Actress. I was pulling for Dianne Wiest who my own therapist sounded like. Before I moved from LA. In Virginia, you are not required to have a therapist.
Wiest wins. And I reach resolution with my mother issues.
Writers Awards- Bizarrely, Letterman's was the best "zany writer montage" this year. Nicely done old man. But-
Colbert wins! Nice. Sincere. And then...
Howie and Jeff. Announcing Accountants. They're running late. Because of lame opening with hosts? No, the director when he accepted his award said it was Ricky Gervais. Who actually killed.
Steve Martin. Another frickin' genius who should have been host. Presenting GD Tommy Smothers with the Emmy he should have won, but didn't.
Tommy Smothers. Goes political. Cut to Fey and Poelher looking concerned. Smothers pulls out his awkward speech only to be awkward again. Martin smiles graciously. I'll cut this guy some slack, because I've drunk the liberal Kool-Aid.

Schemmies 8:25- 8:35

2008-09-21T17:26:00.000-07:00

Jeff and Heidi- Any ad-libs these hosts have are poor. Let the professional announcers announce professionally and quit having them "be funny".
Desperate Housewives- Nicolette blocks the shortest one, who does not seem happy. They announce the Supporting Drama guys.
Zeljko Ivanek wins- I was pulling for Slattery, but this guy's a pro. Hey, the housewives can't pronounce his name. Not even the one who was stage-trained. You know, William H. Macy's wife.
Ricky Gervais- should host the show. Frickin' genius.
Horvitz wins Best director of a variety or awards show. How come the Emmy director always wins? Because then they can do the "winner-calls-the-shots-as-he-accepts-his-award" bit.
The jazz number on the first commercial was in "Rushmore". Look it up.

Schemmies 8:15- 8:22

2008-09-21T17:17:00.000-07:00

Intro of Julia Louis-Dreyfuss- Why do I yearn for the days of Ryan Seacrest solo. I guess because I don't like multiple targets.
Julia Louis-Dreyfuss- Funny. Jean Smart wins Supproting Comedy Actress. Hey, she's still married to the guy from "Operation Petticoat". The TV version.
Nights in Rodanthe trailer- Can anyone pronounce this title? Was a simpler title just too easy?

Schemmies 8- 8:13

2008-09-21T17:07:00.000-07:00

Preopening- Having catchphrases done by current television stars worked pretty well. Only to be followed by
Opening- Oprah does the worst Groucho impression I have ever heard. And I've heard Travelena.
Hosts bit- bit is a good word.
Piven wins- Good dig at bad hosts. Fey and Poehler do the joke they thought of on the way in. Aline speak is always funny.
Macy's Commercial- really great.

Burn This And The Usual Gang of...

2008-09-18T20:02:00.000-07:00

Have you seen "Burn This" and "Mad Men" this year? I know, I know I praised them last year here and here, but this year these shows are on fi-yah!

....this year on "Burn Notice" fer instance, the gang has more time to show off their acting chops as Bruce Frickin' Campbell and Sharon GD Gless rock the mutha with episodes featuring both actors being roomies in Gless' house. Seeing pros like Campbell and Gless make you wonder why they aren't leads in their own shows... except that Jeffrey Donovan is doing some of his best work this year and he's the lead. What could've easily been a syndicated action show starring Wings Hauser from the late eighties, instead has been leavening the fun-n-games with a story of how a man used to being on his own, now has to depend on a drunk ex-navy seal, an ex-girlfriend who was a gunrunner for the IRA and his mother and brother- people he has kept at arm's length until he becomes "burned".

Call it a "The Prisoner" with funnier jokes, or a "Man From U.N.C.L.E." where Waverly and Kuryakin have set Solo up to take a fall. This show had me "Blammo"!

"Mad Men" has become for me, the show that Rod Serling would've written if he could curse and not have to couch all of his points in fantasy. Think about it- man in the grey-flannel suit-types inhabit a great deal of "The Twilight Zone", especially men who have grown dissatisfied with the lives they've made for themselves. Don Draper (Jon Hamm's character in "MM") could be a brother to Gig Young's character in the TZ episode "Walking Distance".

But a brother who wanted the rat race because the memories of the small town are less idyllic than the one who goes back in time. Oh just watch the frickin' episode, jackass, you'll figure it out.

What I love about this show is that they've taken the idea of the "question of character" that plagues the main males in the cast and brought the females into this moral quandary as well. You can argue that the Peggy Cooper (Elisabeth Moss) character was the only female character had to deal with major moral questions, but I would posit that her journey this season has more layers and is more on the level of what Draper and Pete Campbell were going through last year. And this year Betty Draper, Joan Holloway and even Bobbie Barrett have had their parts deepened to a comparable level to the men.

Watching an episode of "Mad Men" is watching the excruciating devastation of the small cruelty. No other show can approach such mature themes without nudity or excessive foul language.

These are shows worth watching.

Okay, I'm watching Burn Notice tonight and all of a sudden, out of nowhere-

2008-09-11T19:20:00.000-07:00

Tim Matheson shows up! But not like the Tim Matheson we know... but like an old, Mickey-Rourke's-plastic-surgeon-did-a-number-on-him Tim Matheson...

I mean he doesn't look like this anymore

Or this...
Certainly not like this...

Now he looks more like this...

Anyhoos... I'm just wondering. I mean this guy was kind of the Dick Clark of actors from the sixties/seventies.

Been around forever, always looked pretty young.

I know the guy's sixty-something now but-

Just watch the show on it's site or whatever Hulu-ish site is running it.

And you tell me.

The Fringe Element

2008-09-10T20:39:00.000-07:00

Hey, have you seen this? It premiered this week and of all the X-Files' knock-offs I have ever seen (and I've seen them all), this is the good one. At least, if the first episode is any evidence, and I think it is.

It basically tells the ongoing story of a task force thrown together to investigate a conspiracy with the ominous name of "The Pattern". Heading the group is FBI agent Olivia Dunham (Anna Torv- one of two Aussie actors in the show and a runner-up in the Cate Blanchett look alike/act alike contest), who in the first episode finds that two men may have a clue as to what is going on- one is the head of a Microsoft/General Electric global science conglomerate called Massive Dynamic (because, I guess, Omnitech and Buy-N-Large were already taken)- the other has been institutionalized for 17 years. The only way to get any answers is through either of the two men. So, after being rebuffed by Massive Dynamic, they go for the crazy guy- Dr. Walter Bishop (John Noble- the other Aussie, who looks like he could be Danny Huston's father except that John Huston is already in that position. You may remember him as "Denethor" in "The Lord of the Rings". You know, the crazy King who wants to burn his own son alive on a pyre?).
But they can only get Bishop through his roguish son Peter (Joshua "I was Pacey" Jackson) who has a good deal of his dad's smarts, but has gambling debts which have him on the run from the mob. Peter hates his father, blames him for most of his troubles, but you know how persuasive the FBI can be.
So, once they get Walter out, the show proper begins. What I liked about the show was how much they got right without totally ripping off the X-Files. It is a cinematic show, with J.J. Abrams' (the producer of this, plus "Lost", "Alias", the new "Star Trek" film, etc.) brand of pacing and his way with a great opening act. You won't believe you're watching network TV.
So, what's to hate? Not much really. I could've done with less of Mark (the weak link on "Boston Legal") Valley (has he ever played someone who wasn't a stiff? Ever?), but besides that all of the actors are really good especially...
John Noble and Joshua Jackson. Their scenes both crackle and not just with the tension between the characters. Noble as slightly lucid Dr. Bishop is channeling frickin' Vincent Price here with a palpable joy-of-acting that I wish more actors had. And Jackson has taken some Kenneth Branagh "Round Face Actor With Grit" pills (ask for them by name!) reminding me at times like a less ethical Mike Church the character Branagh played in "Dead Again". Joshua Jackson- who knew?

The conspiracy stuff, which after living through the entire run of the X-Files makes my teeth itch usually, is handled very well here, with Blair Brown being the face of corporate evil as a highly placed executive at Massive Dynamics. The head of the company (and former partner of the mad Dr. Bishop) is nowhere to be seen in the pilot, but I imagine he will be good for some sweeps week stunt casting down the line.

If you must see one of these X-Files-ish shows, this is the one.

And we're ba-a-a-a-a-a-a-c-k......

2008-08-13T11:18:00.001-07:00

We went to Maine a couple of weeks ago to rid it of the horrific creatures, demons and presences as evidenced in True Crime writer, Stephen King's non-fiction bestsellers.

My son, Future, tests the waters to see if there are any ghosts of old blues singers, as King wrote of in "Bag Of Bones". No ghosts, but the water did contain shells that are, we suspect, of alien origin...
...I had great success finding the giant dinosaur bugs that King said were created by some sort of mist. The natives call them mosquitoes...
Later on, we stopped our creature hunt as our son was momentarily attacked by a demon clown named Pennywise. This is not a picture of that.

Overall, we had a good time even though it rained 5 out of the 7 days we were there and we were hunted by undead bloodsuckers. The natives call them mosquitoes...

Coming up, we compare and contrast the films "Point Blank", "Payback- Straight Up: The Director's Cut" and the book they're based on "The Hunter" the first of the "Parker Series" by Richard Stark. There's no truth to the rumor that Richard Stark is related to authors George Stark or Thad Beaumont.

Also, I explain why we have decided to save every dime we have for our son, so I will never have a Blu-Ray player. The answer may surprise you!

Be Back In A Week Or So...

2008-07-25T13:41:00.000-07:00

We're going on our annual trip to Maine. Home of sad blondes from the forties who stare out of their window in a state of existential angst... or maybe that's just an Edward Hopper painting.
My son is getting the car ready for the trip, while we pack.
We're pretty excited about it. Well, the missus is. Future looks like he's wondering what he's doing wearing a spring sweater in late July.

Before I go...

Two Questions About Vampire Weekend.

Do you think they were aware that their popularity would last exactly the length of time that a vampire has to enjoy a weekend, when they named their band?

What, was "Two Day Wonder" taken?

A Statement About The Dark Knight.

I am tired of the people focussing solely on Heath Ledger. When you see this again (and you will), you will realize that this film is the sole work of one man, one vision and that is why your breath is taken away.

That man is Christopher Nolan.

Sure it is tragic, when you realize that in order for them to bring The Joker back, they will need to get another fearless actor on the level of Heath Ledger to play the character. And there aren't that many.

But this film is a meal. It is a gourmet-frickin' meal and that chef is Christopher Nolan.

I await your hate on this indefensible arguement.

Another uncle croc clip- Robert Ridgeley as Steve Exhaustion, The $6.95 Man

2008-07-09T18:41:00.001-07:00

These guys are all frickin' geniuses (yes even Alfie "Cannonball Run" Wise as "Rabbit Ears" )... just don't make any "derisive comments" please.

ummmm... my brother and I were addicted to this when we were kids...

2008-07-09T18:36:00.001-07:00

...it was a show called "Uncle Croc's Block". It lasted (I believe) exactly one year on ABC and had the pop culture effeminate celebrity team up of Charles Nelson Reilly AND Jonathan (original Dr. Smith on original "Lost In Space") Harris.

I offer this as evidence of what television is missing these days and as an explanation of why I am, the way I am.

Pt. 4- I know what I like...

2008-07-09T11:07:00.001-07:00

Concluding an examination of one of the artists of the new Thoughts on Democracy exhibition at The Wolfsonian–Florida International University and the artist (and illustrations)who inspired the exhibit...

This is one of Norman Rockwell's most optimistic works in that there is no heavy shadows or darkness... except in the prayer book held by the man closest to the viewer. I think religion was a big deal to Rockwell and definitely is something he believed united all peoples (or really the universal search for spirituality and meaning). This is an illustration that has no opening for the snarky comments (and believe me, I've tried). Possibly his starkest work.

Chip Kidd brings it home with his biggest (in my mind) statement on abuse of freedom, his recurrent theme in his take on Rockwell's "Four Freedoms". Anyone who has ever seen this perversion of Christianity1 on the side of the road during Gay Pride parades/festivals knows what Kidd is talking about here. When people begin using the teachings of their religions in ways that magnify their own human paranoia and fear, how is this bringing the peace that is so often talked about in these teachings?

I've said it before... Rockwell's take on the four freedoms says "Remember. Be Grateful."

Kidd's says "Watch Out!"

1. I mean God is love... right?

Pt. 3- I know what I like...

2008-07-09T11:07:00.000-07:00

Continuing with an examination of one of the artists of the new Thoughts on Democracy exhibition at The Wolfsonian–Florida International University and the artist (and illustrations)who inspired the exhibit...

Obviously, with World War II being so close on the heels of the Depression, Norman Rockwell had food on his mind when he came up with this poster to illustrate "Freedom From Want". Just look closer and you'll see that while everybody is excited and mostly focused on the turkey, one guy is looking right at you from the bottom left-hand corner- as if to say "Doesn't this look great? C'mon in, the water's fine!" I like this, like a lot of Rockwell's work, because the warmth radiates from the picture... and yet the darkness from the old man's suit in the center also reminds us of,well, funerals.

It could all be over so quickly.

Chip Kidd1 reminds about the other side of all of that food... as relevant today as Rockwell's was for it's day, this poster shows the end result of that freedom when it's abused. Great Grandpa and Great Grandma had no ideas we would become addicted to the turkey. And yet where Kidd again goes with an in-your-face image, I think I prefer Rockwell's subtler commentary on how these freedoms are so ephemeral.

1. An amazing graphic designer- just look at his work on this book about Jack Cole, the creator of Plastic Man!

Pt. 2- I know what I like...

2008-07-09T11:04:00.000-07:00

Continuing with an examination of one of the artists of the new Thoughts on Democracy exhibition at The Wolfsonian–Florida International University and the artist (and illustrations)who inspired the exhibit...

Again we see Norman Rockwell using his photorealist technique (Alex Ross always seemed to me to be a big fan of Rockwell's) to show some average joe standing up to speak his mind at a public gathering of some sort1. It is touching to see the supportive looks on the others faces looking up this guy. As if maybe, this is the first time he's ever really spoken out on anything in public.

Okay, I tend to read a lot into these things.

Chip Kidd show us an image that be taken one of two ways- 1) We can express our Freedom of Speech by burning the flag or 2)By this freedom being taken away, we are destroying the very nation (and flag) that this freedom was created for in the first place.

I like what Rockwell does in almost anything, as I am not someone who gets cynical about his work. I think one needs to only look at how he uses shadows to know that this is an artist who believes that darkness is never very far from light, which to me puts the lie to his Pollyanna-ish image.

That being said, the light in the guy's eyes as he says whatever he's saying makes one again feel optimism about our country, even as the shadow behind him obliterates any detail about where this is taking place.

Kidd on the other hand offers another stark image2 to show what we need to be wary of. Rockwell seems to be saying "Be Grateful. Remember." to Kidd's "Watch Out!"

1... umm I never really research these things, y'know?
2. Which is going to be a theme for his presentations.

Pt. 1- I know what I like...

2008-07-09T10:37:00.000-07:00

Last Thursday July 3rd, The Wolfsonian-Florida International University opened an exhibition "comprised of posters created by sixty leading contemporary artists and designers, invited by The Wolfsonian to create a new graphic design inspired by American illustrator Norman Rockwell’s “Four Freedoms” posters of 1943, which were recently gifted to the museum by Leonard A. Lauder."

Phew... I wonder what Lauder knew what he was getting into when he donated these classic Rockwell posters.

Anyhoos, the exhibition, entitled "Thoughts on Democracy" has some amazing artistic riffs1 on what Rockwell created, with the current state of these freedoms as a jumping off point. Some of my favorites are the ones done by graphic artist extraordinaire Chip Kidd.

Let's take a gander at each, shall we?

Being a parent, I love how Rockwell nails what feeling truly at peace, either as the child or as the parent is... this to me isn't dated, but, instead, is a universal goal worth fighting for. Rockwell originally created these illustrations as an idea of what everyone in America would be fighting for during World War II, but as I said before, who would think that this was a justifiable cause today?

Whereas Kidd jumps right to the heart of everyone's most urban, individual fear- a gun in the face. And when I say "individual", I don't mean it as a put down. You live in a city, you live with this fear. Just ask Bernard Goetz, or the people on the subway who witnessed him pulling the gun. Or the guys on the other end of the gun.

When I say "individual" it feels to me that Rockwell is more optimistic? maybe? in his consideration of what the fears could be and includes parents- he is thinking of generations to come. Kidd is very much present tense- accent on both words- and makes his statement about what you fear, this very second.

1. Hey, I'm jazzy!

After a week of mourning Carlin and Harmon, exciting news about the Spaced dvd and a four city tour! aka, "When in LA, NY, Austin and San Diego..."

2008-07-05T06:18:00.001-07:00

Perhaps you'll recall my love of this obscure little British sitcom that was the first entertainment effort by the guys who went on to bring us "Shaun Of The Dead" and "Hot Fuzz"? Anybody remember this? A show called "Spaced"? I talked about it here.

Well, anyways, somebody in showbiz execland finally figured out it would be a good idea to release a tricked out dvd collection of the show. And I'm very excited about this, because after the Mannix Season One dvd set, I'm rarin' for more episodic television goodness!

In addition to the dvd set, the creators are going on a 4 city tour of New York, Los Angeles, Austin TX., and San Diego's ComicCon!

But enough of my yakkin'... let's see what a professional press release wirter has to say about it!

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
July 3, 2008

SPACED - A FOUR CITY TOUR TO CELEBRATE THE DVD RELEASE
Creators-stars and director to attend events in New York, Los Angeles, Comic-Con and Austin
BBC Video announced today a four city tour to celebrate the DVD set release of Spaced: The Complete Series, available for the first time in North America on July 22. Creator-stars Simon Pegg (Shaun of the Dead, Hot Fuzz) and Jessica Hynes (nee Stevenson) (Shaun of the Dead, Son of Rambow) and director Edgar Wright will travel to New York, Los Angeles, Comic-Con and Austin for special screenings, a marathon, panel sessions and signings for fanboys and fangirls.

The weeklong tour kicks off in New York City at the Village East Cinema on Monday, July 21, with a screening and Q&A session moderated by Elvis Mitchell (film critic and host of KCRW's The Treatment). The week's events include a Los Angeles screening and Q&A moderated by the very own Kevin Smith (Clerks, Dogma), a Comic-Con panel session moderated by Ain't It Cool's Drew 'Moriarty' McWeeny, a Fans' Choice screening at Comic-Con, a Marathon screening at the Austin's Alamo Drafthouse moderated by Ain't It Cool's Harry Knowles and signings at New York's Virgin Megastore in Union Square, Jay & Silent Bob's Secret Stash West and Comic-Con. The final stop on the tour is the Late Show with David Letterman where Simon will be a guest on Monday, July 28.

Facebook event pages have been created for each free screening so fans can get instant updates and hear directly from Simon, Jess and Edgar. They will also be able to follow the tour by visiting http://www.spacedinvasion.com/.

Spaced: The Complete Series, a 3-disc set from BBC Video, features all 14 surreal episodes of the award-winning show, described by Pegg as "a cross between The Simpsons, The X-Files and Northern Exposure." Boasting over eight hours of content, the DVD set features bonus material including the original commentary from the UK release plus all-new commentary from Quentin Tarantino (Reservoir Dogs, Kill Bill), Kevin Smith (Clerks, Dogma), Matt Stone (South Park, Team America: World Police), Bill Hader (Superbad, SNL), Patton Oswalt (King of Queens, Ratatouille) and Diablo Cody (Oscar®-winning writer of Juno).

Available on pre-order:
http://www.bbcamericashop.com/video/spaced-the-complete-series-14714.html

NEW YORK

Monday, July 21

7:00 PM: A special 3-episode screening event of Spaced, immediately followed by a Q&A with
Simon, Jessica and Edgar at the Village East Cinemas. The Q&A session will be moderated by Elvis Mitchell (film critic and host of KCRW's The Treatment).

Facebook Event Page New York:

http://www.facebook.com/event.phpeid=24044392781&ref=ts

Tuesday, July 22

2:00-4:00 PM:
Virgin Megastore in Union Square hosts a Spaced: The Complete Series signing event with Simon, Jessica and Edgar.

LOS ANGELES

Wednesday, July 23

12:30-2:30 PM:
Jay & Silent Bob's Secret Stash West hosts a Spaced: The Complete Series signing event with Simon, Jessica and Edgar.

7:00 PM:
A special 3-episode screening event of Spaced, immediately followed by a Q&A with Simon, Jessica and Edgar at the Arclight Hollywood. The Q&A session will be moderated by Kevin Smith (Clerks, Dogma). Facebook Event Page Los Angeles:

http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=19610377378

COMIC-CON

Friday, July 25

12:30 PM:
Simon, Jessica and Edgar will participate on a panel session moderated by Ain't It Cool's Moriarty in Room 6A. The three will also do multiple signings including one at the BBC booth.

10:15 PM:
To close the day, Simon, Jessica and Edgar are asking fans to pick three episodes for a special Comic-Con screening event in Room 6A. Log on now to SpacedInvasion.com to cast your vote.

AUSTIN

Sunday, July 27

5:00 PM:

The Spaced Numb-A-Thon:

A marathon screening of all 14 episodes of Spaced, including a Q&A with Simon, Jessica and Edgar moderated by Ain't It Cool's Harry Knowles at the Alamo Drafthouse Ritz.

Facebook Event Page Austin:

http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=32271346848

Here's a site that's explains (sort of) the premise of the show, kind of...

http://www.spaced-out.org.uk/

Let's all say a few prayers for the friends and family of Stan Winston...

2008-06-18T12:08:00.001-07:00

I met him in the late nineties when a fiend of mine had a development deal with him on a script he had written. So I get this call saying "How would you like to meet Stan Winston and tour his studio?"

And, of course, I go. Don't act like you wouldn't.

Well, Stan Winston turns out to be this really nice kid with grey hair. I mean, he acts like he was just given the keys to the kingdom. Which is how I would be, I think, if I was just starting out and I had a cool gig like special effects for some major film.

But Stan Winston was a 20+ year veteran at this point. And there he was pointing out all of these great things at his studio, like the Edward Scissorhands statue, a Spiderman statue, the Terminators from both 1 and 2, the Predator and the Alien from Aliens.

He loved his work.

And he went way above the call for all of us geeks who were there that day.

...And for Cyd Charisse.

2008-06-18T11:52:00.001-07:00

I saw her at the West Coast Premiere of the Woody Allen film "Everyone Says I Love You", a decent little musical comedy. Miramax (or "Oh Those Weinsteins!") had invited actors from Miramax films (Michael Madsen, Rose McGowan), from Woody Allen films (Martin Landau, Carry Fisher) and from movie musicals (Gwen Verdon, Robert Morse). And Tony Martin and his wife Cyd Charisse. She was done up to the nines (well they all were, it was a premiere) and looked like a million dollars. I was working for the theatre holding the premiere and everyone was very nice. It was great to see Charisse who was dynamite in the MGM musicals she was in. My favorite of those is probably "The Bandwagon" with Fred Astaire.

This clip is from her dance (she was always dubbed in her singing) during the opening credits of the Dean Martin spy movie "The Silencers". She was 45 years old when this was made.

This Just In- Frank Sinatra, Jr. Almost As Out Of It As His Dad Was In The Eighties and Nineties!

2008-06-18T09:56:00.000-07:00

So I'm watching "Sergeants 3", which I gave a preview for here. It's a decent remake of "Gunga Din", but with Sammy Davis Jr. playing the sweet bugler Gunga as a freed slave who bugles and dances (!) named Josh. Watching Davis play such a sycophantic (thanks Mr. Webster!) character made me wonder whether he drew on his own experience being sycophantic to Sinatra in real life.

And hey, Ruta Lee, fellas!

Anyhoos, I'm now watching the dvd with the commentary by Sinatra's son, Sinatra Jr.1 and as he is talking through the opening credits of the film, he sees the director's name and says something along the lines of "John Sturges, a fine director and someone who inherited his talent from his father Preston Sturges, another great director."

Hm.

You know Preston Sturges, right? I sure do, I talk about him enough, mostly here. Director of the some of the best screwball comedies you ever gonna see? Inventor of kiss-proof lipstick? Playwright? Son of Isadora Duncan's bff Mary Estelle Dempsey? Am I the only one?

Well, even if you do know who he is, I would bet you probably would know he isn't John Sturges' father... unless he had John when he was 13... which is possible I suppose.

Which brings me to John Sturges. He directed three of the great guy movies of the fifties and sixties. The first would be "Bad Day At Black Rock" starring the mighty Spencer Tracy, the awesome-tastic Robert Ryan with support from the diabolical duo2 of Lee Marvin and Ernest Borgnine.

The next film is "The Magnificent Seven" starring this bunch of losers. Whatever happened to Yul Brynner, Steve McQueen, James Coburn, Charles Bronson, or Robert Vaughn? Only the world-famous Horst Bucholz and Brad Dexter would go on to become major cinema icons... okay I can't keep this up. If you don't know who the above are, find out through imdb. Moving on...
The original "bunch of guys break out of prison" movie "The Great Escape" stars Coburn, McQueen, Bronson, James Frickin' Garner3, Richard Attenborough, and Donald Pleasance.

Among the great things about these three films is Sturges way with moving throughout his huge casts, making sure everyone gets enough time remain in your mind. And yet he never lets the plot or feeling of ensemble suffer, even in what was probably, initially, a Spencer Tracy vehicle like "Bad Day...".

And the same basically holds true for "Sergeants 3".4 He gives a decent amount of screen time to each of the Rat Pack (even Joey Bishop plays a character who is not like Joey Bishop!) and keeps the pace up, which is something you can't say about the original Ocean's Eleven, as fun as it is.

But Sinatra Jr., who says he worked on this film a little bit, can't even get the basic info right about John Sturges and Preston Sturges. It's like saying Buster Keaton is the grandfather of Michael Keaton and Diane Keaton's uncle. Which is a nice sentiment, but...

Listen I love Sinatra, but I'm old enough5 to remember when he would introduce his version of the Beatles' "Something" as a tribute to the great songwriter John Lennon.

Which is fine, but George Harrison wrote the song.

1. His real name.
2. Man, I should've written for the sixties "Batman".
3. This guy deserves your prayers right now.
4. See I bring it around. Usually.
5. Don't say it.

Still Smarting After All These Years...

2008-06-16T10:49:00.000-07:00

Like many of you, I have wondered if the new "Get Smart" is going to be any good. Ok, it was just me. Still, I do wonder.
I mean I want this to be good for a couple of reasons. One, I like Steve Carell, especially when he is a film that allows him to do good work while working on it's own. Like "Little Miss Sunshine", "Anchorman" and even "Dan In Real Life". He is a very good actor in addition to being a great comedic improv actor and he is one of those people I think picked up a lot of gigs after his initial success. It seems like after "The Forty-Year Old Virgin" (the only movie he has ever "opened" well) was this huge sleeper, he went "Wow, everyone is offering me big paydays and this may never happen again and I've got a wife and kids and let's just go for it". Which is a legitimate reason, being a parent myself, I get it.

But I hope this is a success for him as it will maybe get him back to writing his own scripts, which, since "...Virgin", hasn't happened.

And "B", I loved the show, so I would hope this movie would be an incredibly silly tribute to the original. Although the writers have only co-written "Failure To Launch" before this, and the director Peter Segal has only done one film that I thought was really good before and that was "Tommy Boy", a movie the missus and I bonded over when we first met1. Not the best recipe for success, I'll grant you.

Which brings us to the original "Get Smart" one of the silliest television comedies ever. What was, initially, a parody of the spy show created by Mel Brooks and Buck Henry, became this bizarre showcase for Don Adams' talent for mimicry, with a spy show parody frame. It's a one-of-a-kind entertainment that does not bode well for the movie. Even Adams himself could never revive the success of the show in subsequent features ("The Nude Bomb"), reunion tv movies ("Get Smart Again"), and television revivals (the 1995 "Get Smart" with Andy Dick as 99 and Smart's son... that's right I said Andy Dick!).

"None of the sequels worked... none of the shows... they were all terrible", I remember Adams grousing during an E True Hollywood Story on the show.

Adams was not known as the most pleasant of people to begin with and I had a fiend who was working as a transcriber on the E show, and she told me how depressing it was listening to Adams. Apparently, he was not in a good mood during a lot of the shoot.

Adams has since passed away, Ed "Chief" Platt before him. Barbara "99" Feldon is still alive as is
Bernie "Seigfried, head of KAOS" Kopell (although I think only Kopell is in the new movie in a cameo).

The first season is out on dvd this August. The complete run was available through Time Life for a year or two, for a gazillion dollars.

So, at least the movie brought the show back, restored, on dvd.

1.Hey it's funny and made me cry, man, so lay off, okay?

This Just In- If You're In LA Thru June 16th, Why Not See What Jack Sheldon's Function Is?

2008-06-04T19:19:00.001-07:00

Here's the info on a two-week run at the Majestic Crest Theatre of the new documentary about one of the great jazz artist/raconteurs of our time- Jack Frickin' Sheldon!

The Jack Sheldon Documentary!!!!
"Trying To Get Good-The Jazz Odyssey of Jack Sheldon"
May 30 Fri thru June 15 Sunday
Seven days a week / 4 screenings each day
3:00p, 5:00p, 7:00p, 9:00p
Majestic Crest Theater
1262 Westwood Blvd. (1/2 block South of Wilshire)
Los Angeles 90024
advance ticket info: 310 474-7866
tickets also available at box office
www.westwoodcrest.com

As a citizen of the world it is your right- nay duty- to search out wherever this is being shown!

Here's one of the versions of the song you hear in The Tender Trap...

2008-06-04T09:34:00.001-07:00

Perhaps not as ubiquitous (hey, I said ubiquitous! Thanks Roget!) as Doris Day's version of "Que Sera Sera" is in the "The Man Who Knew Too Much", but still, by the end of the film, you will have this song uncomfortably lodged in your brain!

Sadly, we don't get to see who "Mannix" was sponsored by.

2008-06-04T09:28:00.001-07:00

Here's what you would see at the opening of every episode of Mannix in the first season. The great theme by Lalo Schiffrin was a rare jazz-in-waltz-time (or 3/4 time). A waltz doesn't lend itself very well to jazz arrangement but Schiffrin was able to give it this kind of carnival ride feel to underscore how crazy Joe Mannix's life can be.

Or at least that's what my "TV Theme Analysis For Dummies" told me to say.

Possibly The Most Important Dvd Releases Of The Year That Have Frank Sinatra And Mike Connors In Them!

2008-06-03T07:47:00.000-07:00

Well, I couldn't let these dvd releases go by without some comment... the first two are from May and the last is from this week and my childhood!

Warner Home Video has become the only real competitor to wrest the "Most Awesome-riffic DVD Release Company Ever!" crown from the mighty Criterion Collection. I have delighted in their John Wayne/John Ford Collection and their Thin Man Collection (not to mention their bells and whistles 5000 "Rio Bravo" ultimate edition), as well as countless musicals, "Bullitt" two-disc edition... sigh, the list goes on and on. And now you can add the Sinatra releases that were timed for the May '08 10th anniversary of his passing.

"The Rat Pack Ultimate Collector's Edition" is a big collection of what great (and not-so-great) entertainment can result from a group of powerful, talented friends when they want to hang out and make money at the same time. This set includes...

The original "Ocean's Eleven". For a long time, this movie was a cultural touchstone for me. You can look, but you're not going to find very many films that compare to this weird combination of the "all star showcase" genre ("Grand Hotel" and "Dinner At Eight" come to mind from the thirties... too many, including the remake of "OE", from other eras) and the caper film. Yes, there is a little too much "comedic improv" from the fellas, adding to a fairly slow pace. But the basic plot (especially the ending) is great, the score and songs (even Sammy's bizarre "Ee-oh Eleven", of which I'm still not sure what it means exactly) have Nelson Riddle rocking out where the editing drags, and the costumes inform an unmistakable style that you can't deny, even when you're checking your watch. And Angie Dickinson! You know what I mean?
What can you say about "Sergeants 3" that hasn't been said by Stan Freberg? Freberg (genius comedy writer/performer/ad man) had been hired by Sinatra to make ads for the movie (a wild west/Rat Pack remake of "Gunga Din") and came up with these ads1 that directly confronted the issues... First Advertisement
"After the announcer, played by me, had confronted a number of people--a woman hurrying down the street, a man popping out of a manhole--who couldn't accept the fact that Gunga Din had been remade as a western, I would walk over to Dean Martin and Frank Sinatra. They would be in Civil War uniforms leaning against a fence.
FREBERG: (TO MARTIN) They can't accept it.
MARTIN: (TO SINATRA) They can't accept it.
SINATRA: Yeah, well... (HE SHRUGS)
MARTIN: (TO SINATRA) Maybe we should have remade Ben Hur as a western...
SINATRA: Next time.
CUT TO THE MOVIE LOGO
FREBERG: (VOICE OVER) Sergeants Three, staring Frank Sinatra, Dean Martin, and Sammy Davis, Jr., opens Friday. Try and see it! Try and accept it!"
Second Advertisement
"In one TV spot I used a clip from the movie showing Sinatra killing Indians left and right. I cut to a new shot I made with the great Indian character actor Iron Eyes Cody and another Indian.
IRON EYES CODY: (STARING OFF AT SINATRA) Who is that?
SECOND INDIAN: It is "the thin one."
IRON EYES CODY: What he thinks he doing?
SECOND INDIAN: He remake Gunga Din as a western.
IRON EYES CODY: (SHAKING HEAD SLOWLY) Mmmm ...me no accept that!"
I've been wanting to see this for a long time, and it was near impossible to find on the television device or as a dvd/video. Because they never released it on video or dvd until now. I'm sure it has issues (the making of it was supposedly much more stressful than the free-for-all of "Ocean's...") but I'm such a completist. I even have had the novelization for years now, but I never read it because I wanted to see the movie "spoiler-free"!
Sigh. Moving on.
And now we come to "Robin And The Seven Hoods", a film that works despite Sinatra having frozen out Peter Lawford and forgotten about Joey Bishop apparently. Bing Crosby plays the part meant for Lawford and Peter Falk2 shows up as Sinatra's arch foe in this "Robin Hood Meets Guys And Dolls" musical. It has better pacing than "Ocean's..." and finally Sinatra gets a song (a big hit too- Cahn and Van Heusen's "My Kind Of Town [Chicago Is]") in a Rat Pack movie, but it still feels more like these guys are going through their paces. Except for Sammy's "Bang Bang" number (one of the great Sammy Davis, Jr. production numbers imho), this doesn't really have the electricity that the original "Ocean's..." has.

"4 For Texas" is ridonk, as David Spade said about something on some show in 20063. As lightweight as the other films are, this is, quite simply a paycheck between other paychecks for Sinatra and Martin. Who are the only Rat Packers in this one. Might as well have called it "Wild West Marriage On The Rocks" or "Cannonball Run 2: With Horses, In The Old West". Featuring The Three Old Stooges, who don't have Curly, because he died. And Victor Buno as the evil, effeminate fat guy.
In addition there are "Extras" including Cool Rat Pack Playing Cards Available Nowhere Else • 10 Exclusive Behind-the-Scenes Photo Cards • 8 Color Lobby Card Reproductions from Sergeants 3 • 18-Page Reproduction of the Original 1960 Ocean’s 11 Press Book • Free Limited-Time Mail-in Poster Offer from all four movies! I assume there are also the original extras from the dvd releases of "Ocean's..." and "Robin4..." featuring commentary from Frank Jr. and more.

"Frank Sinatra: The Golden Years" covers a time just after his comeback with "From Here To Eternity", a time when he would alternate between ring-a-ding-ding musical comedies and really intense dramas. Not unlike the way he would release albums... a "Songs For Swinging Lovers" here, a "Frank Sinatra Sings For Only The Lonely" there. Let's take a look at what you get...

"The Man With The Golden Arm" Long available on poor, public domain dvds/vhs', this Otto Preminger classic features a powerhouse cast of Sinatra, Kim Novak, Eleanor Parker, Arnold Stang, and the mighty Darren McGavin in a tale of a recovering junkie trying to go straight by becoming a jazz drummer (!). As strange as this backwards logic sounds (what, was "Opium den owner" taken?), the film works thanks to Preminger's direction, the cast being on fi-yah, and a incredible soundtrack from Elmer frickin' Bernstein. True story: at my marriage, myself and my groomsmen walked down the aisle to the theme from this movie. Because the James Bond theme would have been too obvious.

"Marriage On The Rocks" is just as weak as "4 For Texas" except that unlike "4" it doesn't have Ursula Andress or Anita Ekberg. So why would I watch this again? If the choice is between these two movies, I'll take Sweden- and Switzerland- to paraphrase a Bob Hope move title.

"None But The Brave" was Sinatra's one-and-only directorial effort. This film is a pretty good little WWII film about a group of American and Japanese soldiers who need to cooperate in order to survive being stranded on an island in the Pacific. I like that Sinatra's character is more support than anything else, bringing out his costars Clint Walker and Brad Dexter to shine a little more. The film that Dexter saved Sinatra's life (he nearly drowned!) on.

"Some Came Running" Or the only Sinatra film that has ever made me cry. Shut up. This 2nd Sinatra-based-on-a-James-Jones-novel (after "From Here To Eternity") stars Frank as a discharged soldier/writer who comes back to his hometown to visit his brother and ends up accidentally forcing people to examine their own hypocrasy. This is the first time Dean Martin was ever in a film with Sinatra and the scenes between the two of them really spark (you kinda keep waiting for them to run off together) but it's really Shirley Maclaine you should keep your eyes on. Her character of the floozy who Sinatra has drunkenly picked up (and now wants nothing to do with) tears your heart out, especially when she is pleading for Sinatra's character to take an interest in her. Probably my favorite Vincente Minelli non-musical.

"The Tender Trap" is one of the two Sinatra films based on plays (the other being "Come Blow Your Horn") that only work for me as a vehicle for a great Cahn and Van Heusen title song. Basically about a ladies man who meets his match with a young kook (Debbie Reynolds), this movie has a great opening with Sinatra walking out of the clouds singing the title song. It also has nice direction (Charles Walters, who directed Frank in "High Society") and a good supporting cast (including Celeste Holm, also from "High Society"). It's just in this and "Come Blow..." you can feel the plot machinery turning to make the character fit Sinatra better. A decent film, but not a great one.

There is also two other Sinatra releases from Warners- Frank Sinatra: The Early Years and Frank Sinatra & Gene Kelly Collection. Both are good representations of the young Frank, but that time of his career makes my teeth itch (the only ones I like out of all of these are "On The Town" and "It Happened in Brooklyn" and I can get those seperately). But I've included the links because I've realized in my old age that I'm a little snobby5, and people who aren't would probably enjoy these as well.

But, in case you were wondering, I find young Sinatra both in acting and voice a little stiff. He swung much more easily in both acting and music, after Ava Gardner took the wind out of his sales.

Just one man's opinion. Don't be hatin'.

Wow, just look at this guy! When I was 5 or 6, "Mannix" was the first show I can remember knowing the theme to, as well as knowing the basic gist of the show. Which, there wasn't much, I'll admit. Private eye. Good with his mits or a gun. Cool secretary. Great car. Loud jacket.

But sometimes, that's enough. Mannix was created by William Link and Richard Levinson (also created "Columbo") and developed for television by Bruce ("Mission Impossible") Geller. Originally it was a show that hinged on the friction between a modern (they have a computer!) detective agency ("INTERTECT") and it's star employee from the old school of private eye-ism6, Joe Mannix. And this is what this Season One box set covers.

You still get the awesome guy-ness of Mike Connors, but without the cool secretary Gail Fisher, which is a minus. I think, ultimately after the first season they must have realized that the pull was Mannix punching some lowlife's lights out and not a study of the resistance to modernization as seen through the prism of the private eye genre. This is just a guess, as Joseph Campanella is a fine character actor and does good work here with what he's given, as Joe's boss at the agency, Lew Wickersham. I just think the creators decided to go with the main character in a place he would flourish, on his own, running his own business.

"Mannix" was a solid ratings grabber every year it was on and was only taken off the air, because of a network crack down on violence on television. I guess "The Six Million Dollar Man", which premiered the year before "Mannix" went off the air, didn't qualify as violent since it involved a cyborg beating up foreign spies, aliens and Bigfoot.

Here are some great TV Guide covers from the run of this terrific seventies show...

Mannix be trippin' yo.

I like this one as it shows that Mannix was possibly extraterrestrial in nature.

For more info and a couple of great articles on the struggle to get this thing on dvd, please check 2 great articles written by Neely Tucker at The Washington Post here and here.

Read the articles, watch the dvds. It's time well spent.

1. Transcript courtesy of "The most official unofficial Stan Freberg Website" and Freberg's own autobiography "It Only Hurts When I Laugh" . So don't sue.

2. Columbo! Recognize! Holla!

3. And I thought to myself, "Oh, that's what the 14-yr old girls in LA are saying this year. Good to know... good information."

4. Love that name! ;>

5. Oh, y'think?

6. Real word. Look it up.

Earle Hagen Tribute #3- The Mod Squad

2008-05-28T10:14:00.001-07:00

Jeez this thing frickin' moves... just listen to the bass line... one of the few times I don't despise "hip sixties organ" in a piece of music.

Earle Hagen tribute #2- THE DICK VAN DYKE SHOW

2008-05-28T10:12:00.001-07:00

Possibly the one of the most famous sitcom themes ever.

Hey I said possibly.

I know, I know... With Pollack, "Laugh-In"'s Dick Martin and now composer Earle Hagen, it's been the "celebrity 3"...

2008-05-28T10:09:00.001-07:00

... but still I'd like to honor Hagen if only to post some of my favorite TV themes he composed. In this first, we see the opening credits of "I Spy" one of the great spy themes- movie or television- I've ever heard. This episode - So Long, Patrick Henry- was written by star Robert Culp, directed by Sean Penn's father Leo and guest stars the late Ivan Dixon (who you can read more about here http://youknowtheface.blogspot.com/2008/03/and-name-is-ivan-dixon.html).

Enjoy!

Sydney Pollack in The Sopranos

2008-05-27T18:20:00.001-07:00

Here's a clip from The Sopranos showing what a great, subtle acting job this guy could do. Watch what he does to this macabre, comedic monologue about what got him into prison... I know I talk a lot about how great I think big, hammy actors like Welles, Vincent Price and Shatner are.

But don't think I don't like method acting. What Pollack does here shows how an actor trained in Meisner's method can bring a trancendent matter-of-factness to the most bizarre lines...

Listen to how he gets to the phrase "...I had to commit."

He will be missed.

What Do They Say About Two Partners In A Film Production Company Dying Within Months Of Each Other?

2008-05-26T22:01:00.000-07:00

Sorry, I'm being really flip, but it's hard to process this news. Sydney Pollack was one of those guys (like Coppola and Scorsese) who I assumed would be around forever. I love some of his movies and some I don't, but he was one of the most solid character actors and film buff/film fan/film supporters show biz has ever seen.
As much as I enjoy "Three Days Of The Condor", "The Yakuza", and "Tootsie", there are many more of his films that I think are okay ("The Electric Horseman", the "Sabrina" remake) or not very good at all ("Out Of Africa" makes my teeth itch... or maybe it's just that my teeth are prone to itchiness). But have you seen him in "Death Becomes Her"? "Husbands and Wives"? "The Player"? An episode of "The Sopranos" playing an oncologist in a prison hospital for murdering his wife?

In each one, he is unmistakable. A big guy, lots of presence, but really showing what he's got in the quiet moments.

His last role was in a film he co-produced with the late Anthony Minghella, "Michael Clayton". His part as the head of a law firm, who probably knows what's going on, but has long ago made his peace with the gray areas of law is truly great subtle acting.

Here he is winning an Emmy (he got his start directing television) for an episode of the Bob Hope Chrysler Theatre.

And here's the obit from the New York Times...

Sydney Pollack, Film Director, Is Dead at 73
By MICHAEL CIEPLY
Published: May 27, 2008

LOS ANGELES — Sydney Pollack, a Hollywood mainstay as director, producer and sometime actor whose star-laden movies like “The Way We Were,” “Tootsie” and “Out of Africa” were among the most successful of the 1970s and ’80s, died Monday at home here. He was 73.

The cause was cancer, said the publicist Leslee Dart, who spoke for his family.

Mr. Pollack’s career defined an era in which big stars (Robert Redford, Barbra Streisand, Warren Beatty) and the filmmakers who knew how to wrangle them (Barry Levinson, Mike Nichols) retooled the Hollywood system. Savvy operators, they played studio against studio, staking their fortunes on pictures that served commerce without wholly abandoning art.

Hollywood honored Mr. Pollack in return. His movies received multiple Academy Award nominations, and as a director he won an Oscar for his work on the 1985 film “Out of Africa” as well as nominations for directing “They Shoot Horses, Don’t They?” (1969) and “Tootsie” (1982).

“Michael Clayton,” of which Mr. Pollack was a producer and a member of the cast, was nominated for a best picture Oscar earlier this year. He delivered a trademark performance as an old-bull lawyer who demands dark deeds from a subordinate, played by George Clooney. (“This is news? This case has reeked from Day 1!” snaps Mr. Pollack’s Marty Bach.) Most recently, Mr. Pollack portrayed the father of Patrick Dempsey’s character in “Made of Honor.”

Mr. Pollack became a prolific producer of independent films in the latter part of his career. With a partner, the filmmaker Anthony Minghella, he ran Mirage Enterprises, a production company whose films included Mr. Minghella’s “Cold Mountain” and the documentary
“Sketches of Frank Gehry,” released in 2006, the last film directed by Mr. Pollack.

Mr. Minghella died in March, at the age of 54, or complications from surgery for tonsil cancer.

Apart from the Gehry documentary, Mr. Pollack never directed a movie without stars. His first feature, “The Slender Thread,” released by Paramount Pictures in 1965, starred Sidney Poitier and Anne Bancroft. In his next 19 films — every one a romance or drama but for the single comedy, “Tootsie” — Mr. Pollack worked with Burt Lancaster, Natalie Wood, Jane Fonda, Robert Mitchum, Al Pacino, Dustin Hoffman, Meryl Streep, Tom Cruise, Harrison Ford, Nicole Kidman, Ms. Streisand and others. A frequent collaborator was Robert Redford.

“Sydney’s and my relationship both professionally and personally covers 40 years,” Mr. Redford said in an e-mailed statement. “It’s too personal to express in a sound bite.”

Sydney Irwin Pollack was born on July 1, 1934, in Lafayette, Ind., and reared in South Bend. By Mr. Pollack’s own account, in the book “World Film Directors,” his father, David, a pharmacist, and his mother, the former Rebecca Miller, were first-generation Russian-Americans who had met at Purdue University.

Mr. Pollack developed a love of drama at South Bend High School and, instead of going to college, went to New York and enrolled at the Neighborhood Playhouse School of the Theater. He studied there for two years under Sanford Meisner, who was in charge of its acting department, and remained for five more as Mr. Meisner’s assistant, teaching acting but also appearing onstage and in television.

Curly-haired and almost 6 feet 2 inches tall, Mr. Pollack had a notable role in a 1959 “Playhouse 90” telecast of “For Whom the Bell Tolls,” an adaptation of the Hemingway novel directed by John Frankenheimer. Earlier, Mr. Pollack had appeared on Broadway with Zero Mostel in “A Stone for Danny Fisher” and with Katharine Cornell in “The Dark Is Light Enough.” But he said later that he probably could not have built a career as a leading man.

Instead, Mr. Pollack took the advice of Burt Lancaster, whom he had met while working with Mr. Frankenheimer, and turned to directing. Mr. Lancaster steered him to the entertainment mogul Lew Wasserman, and through him Mr. Pollack landed a directing assignment on the television series “Shotgun Slade.”

After a faltering start, he hit his stride on episodes of “Ben Casey,” “Naked City,” “The Fugitive” and other shows. In 1966 he won an Emmy for directing an episode of “Bob Hope Presents the Chrysler Theater.”

From the time he made his first full-length feature, “The Slender Thread,” about a social work student coaxing a woman out of suicide on a help line, Mr. Pollack had a hit-and-miss relationship with the critics. Writing in The New York Times, A. H. Weiler deplored that film’s “sudsy waves of bathos.” Mr. Pollack himself later pronounced it “dreadful.”

But from the beginning of his movie career, he was also perceived as belonging to a generation whose work broke with the immediate past. In 1965, Charles Champlin, writing in The Los Angeles Times, compared Mr. Pollack to the director Elliot Silverstein, whose western spoof, “Cat Ballou,” had been released earlier that year, and Stuart Rosenberg, soon to be famous for “Cool Hand Luke” (1967). Mr. Champlin cited all three as artists who had used television rather than B movies to learn their craft.

Self-critical and never quite at ease with Hollywood, Mr. Pollack voiced a constant yearning for creative prerogatives more common on the stage. Yet he dived into the fray. In 1970, “They Shoot Horses, Don’t They?,” his bleak fable of love and death among marathon dancers in the Great Depression, based on a Horace McCoy novel, received nine Oscar nominations, including the one for directing. (Gig Young won the best supporting actor award for his performance.)

Two years later, Mr. Pollack made the mountain-man saga “Jeremiah Johnson,” one of three closely spaced pictures in which he directed Mr. Redford.

The second of those, “The Way We Were,” about ill-fated lovers who meet up later in life, also starred Ms. Streisand and was a huge hit despite critical hostility.

The next, “Three Days of the Condor,” another hit, about a bookish C.I.A. worker thrust into a mystery, did somewhat better with the critics. “Tense and involving,” said Roger Ebert in The Chicago Sun-Times.

With “Absence of Malice” in 1981, Mr. Pollack entered the realm of public debate. The film’s story of a newspaper reporter (Sally Field) who is fed a false story by federal officials trying to squeeze information from a businessman (Paul Newman) was widely viewed as a corrective to the adulation of investigative reporters that followed Alan J. Pakula’s hit movie “All the President’s Men,” with its portrayal of the Watergate scandal.

But only with “Tootsie,” in 1982, did Mr. Pollack become a fully realized Hollywood player. By then he was represented by Michael S. Ovitz and the rapidly expanding Creative Artists Agency. So was his leading man, Dustin Hoffman.

As the film — a comedy about a struggling actor who disguises himself as a woman to get a coveted television part — was being shot for Columbia Pictures, Mr. Pollack and Mr. Hoffman became embroiled in a semi-public feud, with Mr. Ovitz running shuttle diplomacy between them.

Mr. Hoffman, who had initiated the project, argued for a more broadly comic approach. But Mr. Pollack — who played Mr. Hoffman’s agent in the film — was drawn to the seemingly doomed romance between the cross-dressing Hoffman character and the actress played by Jessica Lange.

If Mr. Pollack did not prevail on all points, he tipped the film in his own direction. Meanwhile, the movie came in behind schedule, over budget and surrounded by bad buzz.

Yet “Tootsie” was also a winner. It took in more than $177 million domestically and received 10 Oscar nominations, including for best picture. (Ms. Lange took home the film’s only Oscar, for best supporting actress.)

Backed by Mr. Ovitz, Mr. Pollack expanded his reach in the wake of success. Over the next several years, he worked closely with both TriStar Pictures, where he was creative consultant, and Universal, where Mirage, his production company, set up shop in 1986.

Mr. Pollack reached perhaps his pinnacle with “Out of Africa.” The film, based on the memoirs of Isak Dinesen, paired Ms. Streep and Mr. Redford in a drama that reworked one of the director’s favorite themes, that of star-crossed lovers. It captured Oscars for best picture and best director.

Still, Mr. Pollack remained uneasy about his cinematic skills. “I was never what I would call a great shooter or visual stylist,” he told an interviewer for American Cinematographer last year. And he developed a reputation for caution when it came to directing assignments. Time after time, he expressed interest in directing projects, only to back away. At one point he was to make “Rain Man,” a Dustin Hoffman picture ultimately directed by Mr. Levinson; at another, an adaptation of “The Night Manager” by John le Carré.

That wariness was undoubtedly fed by his experience with “Havana,” a 1990 film that was to be his last with Mr. Redford. It seemed to please no one, though Mr. Pollack defended it. “To tell you the truth, if I knew what was wrong, I’d have fixed it,” Mr. Pollack told The Los Angeles Times in 1993.

“The Firm,” with Tom Cruise, was a hit that year. But “Sabrina” (1995) and “Random Hearts” (1999), both with Harrison Ford, and “The Interpreter” (2005), with Nicole Kidman and Sean Penn, fell short, as Hollywood and its primary audience increasingly eschewed stars for fantasy and special effects.

Mr. Pollack never stopped acting; in a recent episode of “Entourage,” the HBO series about Hollywood, he played himself.

Among Mr. Pollack’s survivors are two daughters, Rebecca Pollack and Rachel Pollack, and his wife, Claire Griswold. The couple married in 1958, while Mr. Pollack was serving a two-year hitch in the Army. Their only son, Steven, died at age 34 in a 1993 plane crash in Santa Monica, Calif.

In his later years, Mr. Pollack appeared to relish his role as elder statesman. At various times he was executive director of the Actors Studio West, chairman of American Cinematheque and an advocate for artists’ rights.

He increasingly sounded wistful notes about the disappearance of the Hollywood he knew in his prime. “The middle ground is now gone,” Mr. Pollack said in the fall 1998 issue of New Perspectives Quarterly. He added, with a nod to a fellow filmmaker: “It is not impossible to make mainstream films which are really good. Costa-Gavras once said that accidents can happen.”

Again, this has hit me like a ton of bricks. The talent pool just got a little shallower.

My thoughts and prayers go out to his family and friends.

If You're Talking Webcomics About Breakfast Cereal Characters, One Name (And One Name Only) Applies- Mr. Jones' Brother Beej!

2008-05-22T10:12:00.001-07:00

Hi there pop culture fans... well, ideally, this is the last chapter of that epic saga that united a nation (and destroyed an empire) Breakfast Of The Gods. What can one say about the creator of this "Lord Of The Rings For Generation X" that hasn't been said already by the LA County Sheriff's Department in various warrants and complaints filed with the district attorney's office?

Perhaps young master Jones will explain better...

Ladies and gents, friends and family, solicitors and debt collectors:

Mr. Jones's brother here and it's my pleasure to announce the launch of the third and final volume of my webcomic trilogy Breakfast of the Gods - the epic adventure that stays crunchy in milk.

For the uninitiated (though, by now, there can't be many of you guys left), Breakfast of the Gods is an illustrated saga starring a bowlful of familiar faces from your breakfast table. A critical success and a commercial non-entity (for obvious reasons), the series stands as both a pop culture-drenched labor of love and a minefield of serious copyright infringement.

When Book One: The Last Good Morning opens we find trouble brewing in Cerealia, a land eternally bathed in morning sunlight. The king and his wizard adviser have disappeared and a shadow of evil has fallen over the land.The old sailor Cap'n Crunch, noblest soul in the land, steps up to lead the fight against Count Chocula's forces of darkness.

In Book Two: O Cap'n, My Cap'n, stakes were raised as we met the determinedly neutral bar owner Toucan Sam, journeyed into the depths of Castle Chocula, witnessed the temptation of the Trix Rabbit and the ultimate fate of Cap’n Horatio M.Crunch.

Now, as Book Three: Apocalypse Yum begins, the sides have been drawn and the battle begins in earnest. What follows promises to be the most important battle of their lives as well as the most important meal of the day.

Humor your old pal and check in with my magnum opus. Just think, a year from now, I'll finally shut up about the whole thing and we can all go on to rich, rewarding lives full of television, environmental upheaval and economic despair.

'

Til then, smooches!
Mr. Jones' Little Brother Beej

So won't you join me as we read this final chapter (again ideally) on my brother's obsession with his childhood?

If you must visit one Comedy Film Nerd site let it be...

2008-05-19T08:58:00.000-07:00

Run by, among others, fiends Chris Mancini and Graham Ellwood, this site brings together two of my favorite pop culture subjects that I nerd-out* about- comedy and film. As with every other sentient creature in the known universe, they have a myspace page here. But what I really like about it, is that it reminds me of one of the things I loved about living in LA ("Drinking 24 hours a day?" you ask... "What? Oh, you're thinking of Louisiana... but you can drink 24 hours a day in Los Angeles too... just ask Daniel Baldwin." I reply).

It seemed like, when the missus and I lived there, that everyone we knew in stand-up loved movies. Or maybe it was the comics we knew, but we used to go opening day (and when we were running a booked room in Westwood, opening night after the show) to whatever interesting movie was opening that day. So I have fond memories of seeing "Primal Fear" with **Dana Gould, seeing various movies with my late fiend Charlie Shannon (who I talk about more here), and watching "Rio Bravo" with writer Ben Schwartz, Patton Oswalt and Jeff Garkin.

Er- Garlin. Jeff Garlin. Seriously, I totally know him. Like, he was at my wedding.

Oh shut up.

The point is, it was great to be in a community of like-minded funny people who were passionate about movies and the culture of show biz. Having moved away from LA, I find that I miss that community more than I miss screenings at The Museum Of Radio And Television, The Egyptian, The Arclight or shopping for used Criterion dvd's at Amoeba Records.

Yeah, yeah, yeah I tend to get a little sentimental about that time of my life. I met my wife there and really enjoyed the business of show ("And you were doing what exactly in that business?" you ask... "Hey, open mikes and managing movie theaters count pal!" I offer as a blistering reply).

Summing up, enjoy the funny and the pop culture erudition from the good people at http://www.comedyfilmnerdsdotcom.com/, not just because I recommended it, but because this country needs change and it's the right thing to do, pilgrim.

*Webster verifies this is a word. And by "Webster", I mean a frighteningly tiny male who resembles a child, but may indeed, be of another world.

**Cue creepy name drop music here.

Perhaps The Most Important Docudrama Detailing What Alcoholic Multi-Billionaire Arms Industrialists Are Doing To Help The World

2008-05-19T08:17:00.001-07:00

Yes, "Iron Man" was awesome-riffic, but more importantly it revived the career of Robert Downey, Jr., put Jon Favreau in a much better position to direct his own projects and gave Jeff Bridges at least ONE summer blockbuster to add to his belt of interesting performances in little seen films.

Also, it made Gwynneth Paltrow sort of watchable again.

But why didn't they have the guts to put this haunting ballad from the original cartoon into the film?

Did they only have enough in the music budget for one "Iron Man" song, and, well, the Black Sabbath song does speak to the core demographic...

sigh.

Back... and sides!

2008-05-19T06:30:00.000-07:00

Since we last spoke I've been going through some changes...
this is from when I last posted...

this was just taken an hour ago.

Sure, I've let myself go. But, now I solve murders in my fancy seventies car I can barely get into.

So, what's the harm, really?

The Future Of Funny Actressing

2008-03-26T10:46:00.000-07:00

From Funny Or Die, the comedic breakdown that is Rachael Harris on the acting breakdown that is Amy Walker...

Enjoy!

http://www.funnyordie.com/videos/4b54ede450

The Future Of Actressing

2008-03-26T10:43:00.000-07:00

Sometimes, I think about what I miss about the showbiz... and then I see something like this, and those feelings are burned away in a bright, indulgent light.

Some Questions Regarding Sheryl Crow Possibly Joining Fleetwood Mac...

2008-03-26T10:37:00.000-07:00

Remember when Joe Walsh joined The Eagles and all of a sudden they include "Life's Been Good" in their repertoire?

Do you think Lindsay Buckingham is really going to want to play rhythm guitar on "All I Wanna Do"?

Or sing harmony on "Everyday Is A Winding Road"?

I don't see it.

The Funny Thing About The Vanity Fair "See? Women ARE Funny!" Mea Culpa Cover (A Clarification).

2008-03-19T09:01:00.001-07:00

It's not that Amy Poehler has her hand on Tina Fey's breast. It's that it's not Sarah Silverman's hand or breast being used!

Because that would be, let's face it, the obvious choice.

Subtle, Annie Leibovitz.

Subtle.

Director Anthony Minghella Has Passed Away.

2008-03-18T09:58:00.000-07:00

One of the great pretenders to the David Lean throne, Minghella's best film (in my eyes) was "The Talented Mr. Ripley" if only for marrying the improbable pop culture sensibilities of Chet Baker, Patricia Highsmith and what Matt Damon can do given good material and a good director.

The New York Times, printing the AP's obit has more...

Anthony Minghella, Director, Dies at 54

By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
Published: March 18, 2008
Filed at 10:20 a.m. ET

LONDON (AP) -- Oscar-winning director Anthony Minghella, who turned such literary works as ''The English Patient,'' ''The Talented Mr. Ripley'' and ''Cold Mountain'' into acclaimed movies, has died. He was 54.

Minghella's death was confirmed Tuesday by his agent, Judy Daish. No other details were immediately available.

''The English Patient,'' the 1996 World War II drama, won nine Academy Awards, including best director for Minghella, best picture and best supporting actress for Juliette Binoche.

Based on the celebrated novel by Canadian writer Michael Ondaatje, the movie tells of a burn victim's tortured recollections of his misdeeds in time of war.

Minghella (pronounced min-GELL'-ah) also was nominated for an Oscar for best screenplay for the movie and for his screenplay for ''The Talented Mr. Ripley.''

His 2003 ''Cold Mountain,'' based on Charles Frazier's novel of the U.S. Civil War, brought a best supporting actress Oscar for Renee Zellweger.

The 1999 ''The Talented Mr. Ripley,'' starring Matt Damon as a murderous social climber, was based on a novel by Patricia Highsmith. It earned five Oscar nominations.

Among his other films were ''Truly, Madly, Deeply'' (1990), and last year's Oscar-nominated ''Michael Clayton,'' on which he was executive producer.

Minghella was recently in Botswana filming an adaptation of Alexander McCall Smith's novel ''The No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency.'' It is due to air on British television this week.

The book is the first in a series about the adventures of Botswanan private eye Precious Ramotswe; a 13-part television series was recently commission by U.S. network HBO.

Producer David Puttnam said Minghella was ''a very special person.''

''He wasn't just a writer, or a writer-director, he was someone who was very well-known and very well-loved within the film community,'' Puttnam told the BBC. ''Frankly he was far too young to have gone.''

Minghella also turned his talents to opera. In 2005, he directed a highly successful staging of Puccini's ''Madama Butterfly'' at the English National Opera in London. The following year, he staged it for the season opener of New York's Metropolitan Opera. It was the first performance of the Met's new era under general manager Peter Gelb.

Jeff Ramsay, press secretary to Botswanan President Festus Mogae, called Minghella's death a ''shock and an utter loss.''

He said the director had been coming to the country ahead of the detective film and learning about Botswana.

Ramsay said Minghella had told him how he had been forced to shoot ''Cold Mountain'' in Romania and that it had ''seemed wrong.'' He said this made the director ''more sure that the film could only be shot in Botswana.''

Born the second of five children to southern Italian emigrants, Minghella came to moviemaking from a flourishing playwriting career on the London ''fringe'' and, in 1986, on the West End with the play, ''Made in Bangkok,'' a hard-hitting look at the sexual mores of a British tour group in Thailand.

He worked as a television script editor before making his directing debut with ''Truly, Madly, Deeply,'' a comedy about love and grief starring Juliet Stevenson and Alan Rickman.

In a 1996 interview with The Associated Press, Minghella said ''English Patient,'' which starred Binoche, Ralph Fiennes and Kristin Scott Thomas, was the pinnacle of his career at the time.

''I feel more naked and more exposed by this piece of work than anything I've ever been involved with,'' Minghella said.

He said too many modern films let the audience be passive, as if they were saying, ''We're going to rock you and thrill you. We'll do everything for you.''

''This film goes absolutely against that grain,'' he said. ''It says, `I'm sorry, but you're going to have to make some connections. There are some puzzles here. The story will constantly rethread itself and it will be elliptical, but there are enormous rewards in that.'''

As always my prayers and thoughts got to his friends and family.

Spring Will Be A Little Awesome This Year...

2008-03-17T08:46:00.000-07:00

Let's take a look at some upcoming springtime films, shall we*? And by "springtime", I mean, "until the new Indiana Jones movie opens".

And I've meant that for 30 years.

4/4- Leatherheads- Or Clooney does Coens. It is sad how much I like George Clooney's taste in projects after "Out Of Sight" through "Michael Clayton". Okay, maybe not "Solaris". And I never saw "The Good German". Gimme a break. Anyways, this film hasn't had a great trailer yet, but the optimist in me thinks they're saving the best gags so we don't get burned out by the time we see the movie. Hey, I said I'm an optimist.

4/25- Harold & Kumar Escape From Guatanamo Bay. The only real reason to watch any of the "H & K" films is sitting astride a unicorn in the picture above. You can either get on the NPH train now, or watch sadly as it leaves you behind in Loserville on it's way to Awesome-rifficton, USA. Your choice.

4/25- Baby Mama. I'm a big fan of what Tina Fey has done with her sitcom, and I'm hoping that this movie will duplicate that and her first written cinematic epic "Mean Girls". This film, however, is only starring Tina Fey, not written by her. The writer/director Michael McCullers has co-written the last two "Austin Powers" movies and was a writer on SNL during the late 80's/early 90's. Already they have me at "and Steve Martin as the boss".

5/2- Iron Man. I could talk about how awesome the trailer looks, or how great it is that recovering addict Robert Downey, Jr. is playing alcoholic multi-billionaire superhero Tony Stark, or the rumor that he will reprise the role in "The Incredible Hulk" (setting up more films in the Marvel Universe to crossover). Instead I will just quote the theme song to the sixties Iron Man cartoon...

Tony Stark, makes you feel

He's a cool exec with a heart of steel

As Iron Man, all jets ablaze

He fights and smites with repulsor rays

Amazing armor! That's Iron Man!

A blaze of power! That's Iron Man!

The film will lose major cool points without this song somewhere in it.

5/9- Speed Racer. Amazing trailer. Great cast. But what about the theme song lyrics?

Here he comes

Here comes Speed Racer

He's a demon on wheels

He's a demon and he's gonna be chasin' after someone.

He's gainin' on you so you better look alive.

He's busy revvin' up a powerful Mach 5.

And when the odds are against him

And there's dangerous work to do

You bet your life Speed Racer

Will see it through.

Go Speed Racer

Go Speed Racer,

Go!

He's off and flyin' as he guns the car around the track

He's jammin' down the pedal like he's never comin' back

Adventure's waitin' just ahead.

Go Speed Racer

Go Speed Racer,

*Yes. We shall.

Dave Stevens, creator of The Rocketeer, has passed away.

2008-03-12T14:19:00.000-07:00

One of the greats Dave Stevens just passed away. One of the other greats, Mark Evanier, writes a very moving obituary in his comprehensive pop culture website... here are his thoughts about the man behind the rocket in italics-
Illustrator Dave Stevens, best known for his "good girl" art and The Rocketeer, died yesterday following a long, wrenching battle with Leukemia. Dave was born July 29, 1955 in Lynwood, California. He was raised in Portland, Oregon, then his family relocated to San Diego, where he attended San Diego City College and became involved in the early days of the San Diego Comic Book Convention, now known as the Comic-Con International. His skills as an artist were instantly evident to all, and he was encouraged by darn near every professional artist who attended the early cons, but especially by Jack Kirby and Russ Manning. In 1975, when Manning began editing a line of Tarzan comic books to be published in Europe, Dave got his first professional assignment, working on those comics and also assisting Russ with the Tarzan newspaper strip. Soon after, he worked on a few projects for Marvel (including the Star Wars comic book) and a number of underground comics. Later, he also worked with Russ on the Star Wars newspaper strip.

In 1977, Dave went to work for Hanna-Barbera where he drew storyboards and layouts, many of them for the Super Friends and Godzilla cartoon shows and bonded with veteran artist Doug Wildey, who produced the latter. Wildey and Stevens became close friends and in 1982, when Dave created his popular character, The Rocketeer, he modelled the character's sidekick, Peevy, on photos of Doug. Dave himself was Cliff Secord, who donned the mask of The Rocketeer, and other friends appeared in other guises.

The Rocketeer made Dave's reputation and also spawned a resurgence of interest in fifties' figure model Bettie Page, whose likeness Dave used for the strip's heroine. But the strip was not profitable for Dave, who was among the least prolific talents to ever attempt comic books. It wasn't so much that he was slow, as his friends joked, but that he was almost obsessively meticulous, doing days of study and sketching to create one panel, and doing many of them over and over. Even then, he was usually dissatisfied with what he produced and fiercely critical of the reproduction. Friends occasionally pitched in to help with the coloring but some begged off because they knew it was humanly impossible for anyone, including Dave himself, to produce coloring that he'd like. Eventually, he sold most of the rights to Disney for a Rocketeer movie that was produced in 1991. Dave served as a co-producer of the film and did a brief cameo, but the endeavor was not as lucrative for him as he'd hoped, and it pretty much ended Dave's interest in continuing the character.

Most of what Dave did after that fell into the general category of "glamour art," including portfolios and private commissions. Many of these were illustrations of Bettie Page who, though once thought deceased, turned out to be alive and living not all that far from Dave. They met and Dave became her friend and, though he was not wealthy, benefactor. Deciding that too many others had callously exploited her likeness, Dave voluntarily aided Ms. Page financially and even took to helping her in neighborly ways. One time, he told me — and without the slightest hint of resentment — "It's amazing. After years of fantasizing about this woman, I'm now driving her to cash her Social Security checks."

Dave was truly one of the nicest people I have ever met in my life...and was certainly among the most gifted. Our first encounter was at Jack Kirby's house around 1971 when he came to visit and show Jack some of his work. As I said, Kirby was very encouraging and he urged Dave not to try and draw like anyone else but to follow his own passions. This was advice Dave took to heart, which probably explains why he took so long with every drawing. They were rarely just jobs to Dave. Most of the time, what emerged from his drawing board or easel was a deeply personal effort. He was truly in love with every beautiful woman he drew, at least insofar as the paper versions were concerned. (Dave was married once...for six months to the prolific movie actress, Brinke Stevens, and she retained his last name after they divorced.)

Dave's illness these last few years was a poorly-kept secret among his friends, but he insisted that it be kept quiet, and struggled to make occasional public appearances. We tried to get together for dinner every month or so but it wound up being more like every six months. The last time, he joked that it was lucky he had such a reputation for slow production. Now that he was unable to work for weeks at a time, no one noticed that his output had declined. His main efforts went towards an "Art of Dave Stevens" book he was struggling to assemble. Mostly though that evening, we talked about comics and comic artists. Dave was a fan in the very best sense.

I don't really know how to end this and maybe I don't want to...because it will mean another level of loss regarding one of my closest friends. As long as I can keep writing about him, I feel he's still with me in some manner. And the thought of losing a great guy like Dave Stevens is just too, too sad. He was truly loved and admired by all who knew him. I'll post information about a memorial service, if and when I hear about that kind of thing.

I cannot overstate how much of a fan I am of the Rocketeer books that Stevens did. If you've read the reviews I've done of what I refer to as "MetaPoMoAdventureLiterature" and The Rocketeer was one of the first comics I read where I thought "this guy has read a lot of the same stuff I have".

The movie, although not as good as the books, had me at the insertion of Howard Hughes and an Errol Flynn knock-off played by Timothy Dalton.

My thoughts and prayers go to his friends and family.

Not "Spaced"... More Like "Stunned"

2008-03-05T16:37:00.000-08:00

The good people at Fox ("we cancelled 'Firefly' and 'Drive' and completely burned out the creators of 'Arrested Development'") have announced with noted auteur McG that they are buying the rights to Simon Pegg, Edgar Wright, and Jessica (formerly Stevenson) Hynes' genius sitcom "Spaced". Unlike the NBC take on Ricky Gervais and Stephen Merchant's "The Office", the creators of "Spaced" will not be consulted at all.

Because that worked so poorly with NBC's "The Office".

wouldn't you want to see an American show that would look like this?
okay, forget how this looks and just watch some of it on the you tube and you'll
see what i mean.

Creator/co-star Simon (Shaun Of The Dead, Hot Fuzz) Pegg weighs in at number one Pegg fansite Peggster.net...

SIMON'S OFFICIAL STATEMENT REGARDING THE US SPACED
UPDATE:
At the time of writing I was not aware that Jessica and myself, will in fact receive some payment for the use of our ideas. The issue however remains one of principal and respect rather than one of compensation.

Thoughts on the subject of an American Spaced. Feel free to skip to the end.

Now that the pilot has been officially announced, I thought it might be a good idea to clarify my position on the subject. The whole affair seems to have inspired some spirited debate and some heartening displays of loyalty and love. All this for a show which is almost 10 years old, is all rather wonderful and a vindication of all the blood, sweat and tears (both of joy and pain) we shed in the show's creation. It was always our aim to create a comedy which spoke to its audience on such a personal level, it almost felt one on one. It would seem the fan reaction to the news that Fox has appropriated the format, confirms at least, that we succeeded.

As far as remaking TV shows for different territories is concerned, I don't have a problem. The Office remake being a perfect example. Yes, the original British version is a wonderful and compact piece of comedy writing and performance, but I think it's bit much to expect a large scale American television audience to fully relate to the minutiae of day-to-day business life in an obscure British suburb. I'm sure if you're reading this, you are the type of person who takes pleasure in the variety of entertainment you enjoy, relishing the differences between our various cultural touchstones but there is a massive audience out there, which perhaps isn't as culturally savvy (euphemistic phrase for 'geeky') as we are and need their signifiers to be a little more familiar. So, Slough is replaced by Scranton, and the office archetypes become a little more archetypal to an American audience. The spirit of the show remains intact. The performances are uniformly great and the show scores big ratings and wins EMMYs, whether we as comedy purists prefer the original or not. The success of the remake is born out by it's undoubted success and appeal.

My main problem with the notion of a Spaced remake is the sheer lack of respect that Granada/ Wonderland/Warner Bros have displayed in respectively selling out and appropriating our ideas without even letting us know. A decision I can only presume was made as a way of avoiding having to give us any money, whilst at the same time using mine and Edgar's name in their press release, in order to trade on the success of Shaun of the Dead and Hot Fuzz, even professing, as Peter Johnson did, to being a big fan of the show and it's creators. A device made all the more heinous by the fact that the press release neglected to mention the show's co-creator and female voice, Jessica Hynes (nee Stevenson). The fact is, when we signed our contracts ten years ago, we had neither the experience or the kudos to demand any clauses securing any control over future reversioning. We signed away our rights to any input in the show's international future, because we just wanted to get the show made and these dark days of legal piracy seemed a far away concern. As a result, we have no rights. The show does not belong to us and, those that do own it have no obligation to include us in any future plans. You would perhaps hope though, out of basic professional respect and courtesy, we might have been consulted. It is this flagrant snub and effective vote of no confidence in the very people that created the show, that has caused such affront at our end. If they don't care about the integrity of the original, why call it Spaced? Why attempt to find some validation by including mine and Edgar's names in the press release as if we were involved? Why not just lift the premise? Two strangers, pretend to be a couple in order to secure residence of a flat/apartment. It's hardly Ibsen. Jess and I specifically jumped off from a very mainstream sitcom premise in order to unravel it so completely. Take it, have it, call it Perfect Strangers and hope Balkie doesn't sue. Just don't call it Spaced.

It's a shame, since the pilot is now a certainty, whether we like it or not, a simple phone call and a few reassurances might have helped to at least curtail the tide of indignation from fans and creators alike. I have, as of yet, heard nothing.

Simon Pegg

Maybe the audience should go on strike this time.

Okay that was weak, but you know what I mean.

The Best Part Of A Balanced Breakfast Of The Gods...

2008-03-05T06:01:00.000-08:00

Well, another month has gone by and with it, a brief respite from my brother's relentless entertainment onslaught. So won't you join me, James Mason (and Pat Boone) as we "Journey to the Center of the- sorry, that's the voiceover to the trailer for "Journey To The Center of The Earth".

Let's see what BJ's flogging now... yes, there was probably a better choice of words...

Readers, friends and fans, it is my great pleasure to announce the completion of Book Two of my web comic trilogy "Breakfast of the Gods." That's 60 pages done and 30 more to go (sigh).

You can jump to the last five page installment here:

http://www.webcomicsnation.com/poyorick/botg2/series.php?view=archive&chapter=26400

Or read the whole issue from the start here:

http://www.webcomicsnation.com/poyorick/botg2/series.php?view=archive&chapter=19415

But wait, there's more! I've added inside front and inside back covers, a back cover, and four more cast bios! Get the dirt on Quisp, Jean La Foote, Fruit Brute, and the Cookie Crook here:

http://www.webcomicsnation.com/poyorick/botg2/cast.php

And the best part of all of this? You won't be bugged by me again for at least a month!

Enjoy, everybody!
Brendan

Please read this or our mom will say I'm not supportive Brendan's "funnybook".

The Godfather 2 of Comedic Music Videos

2008-02-27T19:59:00.001-08:00

Enjoy more innappropriate comedy!

Perhaps you've seen this video from Sarah Silverman?

2008-02-27T19:53:00.001-08:00

Pretty funny wouldn't you say? Well just wait for the sequel...

Another Of Robin Williams's Impressions Becomes Irrelevant...

2008-02-27T18:36:00.000-08:00

...but when, since say 1978, has a William F. Buckley impression been relevant?

Here, Buckley appears in his one-man show version of Samuel Beckett's "Endgame".

Sadly, Mr. Buckley passed away today from emphysema. Our thoughts and prayers go out to his friends and family.

In case you missed this...

2008-02-26T09:52:00.001-08:00

Here's the ultimate Busey/Seacrest/Garner/Linney Oscar showdown-

Future Analysis Of Oscars '08

2008-02-26T08:45:00.000-08:00

My son, Future, watched The Oscars the other night and has written down, what I think, is the finest minute-by-minute commentary on the awards show ever by a two-year old boy.

Gimme a break, I'm his dad.

Here's what he had to say in italics below...

I like milk... Dada, where's Diego(editor's note: "Diego" is one of Future's favorite shows "Go, Diego, Go" aka "Gogo")? Wanna see Giants' "1,2,3's"(editor's note: "Giants' '1,2,3,'s' " is Future's favorite children's video "They Might Be Giants' Here Comes the 1, 2, 3's")? "Wonder pets(editor's note: "Wonderpets" is another of Future's favorite shows)?" "Backyardigans"(ibid)?

Oh good, Jon Stewart's on... Love his take on Hillary and Obama... Dada, milk? Milk?

Mmmm, milk... Cookies? Cookies, da- What is that on Travolta's head? Is he from space?

Poppy (editor's note: "Poppy" is Future's pacifier) tastes good... why is it taking so long to bring on the supporting actor Awards? I mean, c'mon, do we need to sit through anymore of Gil Cates' plan B montages, so he can justify what he paid to make them in case the strike wouldn't end by showtime?

I mean c'mon... good poppy though.

Wow "Once" got best song! I thought "Enchanted" was a shoo in! And The Coens got best adapted screenplay!! I thought the Academy was going to throw Paul Thomas Anderson a bone! I guess all bets are off now...

...Dada! Aminal cracker, peese!

Mama, quit it... have to go Dada, sleepy, nite-nite. Tell me if Diego won...

Like I said the kid's a genius.

Characters More Welcome Here Than At USA Network

2008-02-19T22:02:00.000-08:00

What's up with the American Movie Classics channel these days? I had virtually written it off after they replaced the original host Bob Dorian (he was Robert Osbourne, before Robert Osbourne was cool) and then replaced any hope of watching actual classic movies on the channel.

Then "Hustle" came along. A stylish British crime dramedy, that played like a cross between the "Ocean's Eleven" remake and any stylish, British crime series. Giving work to Adrian (best "Bobby" in Sondheim's "Company". Ever.*) Lester, Marc Warren , the mighty Robert Vaughn, and, of course, the cockney guy who looks like an older, gone-to-seed Christopher Reeve, if Christopher Reeve were cockney, had red hair, had gone to seed and had lived.
I'm just sayin's all.

Then AMC kicked it up a scootch with the premiere of "Mad Men", one of the most difficult, great shows I've ever seen. I initially started watching it because I'll watch anything set in late fifties/early sixties-verse of Manhattan**, but quickly realized that this show was nothing more than a study of the struggle to maintain one's character in a world that doesn't have easy answers to difficult, hard-to-communicate questions. A show that seems to be about advertising during the transition from Eisenhower to Kennedy, but instead plunges you headlong into people trying to hold onto their souls.

It takes me a couple of weeks to work up the energy to watch this show. I'm never disappointed, but I'm always drained.

Worth watching if only to see a bunch of young unknowns work with the original "brash young man" Robert Morse.

This year finds AMC's new show "Breaking Bad" getting critical notice and with good reason- Bryan Cranston is on fi-yah in this show. Unfortunately this brought out too many "Who knew the father on 'Malcolm In the Middle' had this in him?" articles, when really, if you've seen him as Buzz Aldrin in "From The Earth To The Moon" or any of his other gazillion dramatic parts he's played you'd know that the real question would be "Who knew the bad guy on that episode of 'Airwolf' could play this wacky dad on 'Malcolm In The Middle'?"

Well, I knew. But that's me. Ask me how to balance a checkbook. That's a different story. "Breaking Bad" tells the story of a high school chemistry teacher who, when he receives a terminal diagnosis, turns to cooking up crystal meth in an RV to help his family survive his eventual death. These days, I'm not such a big fan of "edgy for edgy's sakes" shows and films. Maybe in my twenties, but not now.

This show wouldn't be of interest to me if it were only "high school teacher's descent into Hell", which is kind of how it's being advertised. In fact, it is a show that defies description. But one thing I can say about it is how hopeful? It seems to be? You kind of have to watch it to get what I'm talking about, but it seems that, while the characters in "Mad Men" remain lost in their struggles against the moral abyss, Cranston's "Walter White"*** seems like he's got a strong plan and purpose to his life, albeit flawed.

Really flawed. Kids, don't try this at home.

All of the above gives me hope for basic cable I haven't had in awhile. See here for my disappointment at USA Network (with the exceptions of "Monk" and "Burn Notice") and their laughable "characters welcome".

*controversial... I know. But watch this clip from the You Tube- http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fUfX6BYm08o
**"Down With Love" anyone? No? Just me? Sigh. ... again?
*** With alliteration like that? Are you kidding me? If this were a comic book, he's be a super hero.

Perhaps Penny Peyser knows Jack's Function...

2008-02-13T12:55:00.001-08:00

Longtime readers (all five of you) remember I've written about one of my showbiz heroes Jack Sheldon before (find it here- http://yourfiendmrjones.blogspot.com/2005/06/whats-jacks-function.html). And now, firend of the late, lamented Charlie Shannon (who I write about here- http://yourfiendmrjones.blogspot.com/2006/03/future-jones-says-glarphle.html) actress Penny Peyser ("The In-Laws" [the good, original version] and one of my brother and mine's favorite 80's private eye shows "Crazy Like A Fox")has made a documentary about the great trump-edian entitled "Trying To Get Good".

See people talk about how funny/talented/genius-ish Jack Sheldon is! See those people turn out to be people like Billy Crystal! Clint Eastwood! Merv Griffin! Johnny Mandel! Etc!

And see more about seeing the film at www.TryingToGetGood.com ...

you'll be glad you did!

A Question About Two Guys, A Girl And A Pizza Place.

2008-02-11T09:03:00.000-08:00

Do you think Richard Ruccolo is doing okay? I mean, at about 3 in the morning, when reruns of "Monk" or "Firefly" are on? Or when the bazillionth showing of "Van Wilder", "Slither", "Just Friends", "Serenity", or "The Amityville Horror" remake come on cable? I hope he's healed. I mean, even Suzanne Cryer is the "yada yada girl".

Again, just a question.

The Annual Vanity Fair Hollywood Issue Is Out...

2008-02-11T08:49:00.001-08:00

...and this year they're doing a tribute portfolio to Hitchcock films with today's stars in yeserday's movies. And while I have a few quibbles (what no "Family Plot"?), the big question I have is for the last picture featured.

But let's look at some of the others, shall we?

"Lifeboat" is recast with Hitchock veteran Eva Marie Saint (leaving Tippi Hedren and Barbara Harris to wonder "Did the voicemail malfunction?"), Julie Christie, Ben Affleck's brother, Ben Foster, James Brolin's son and, of course, Omar Metwally and Tang Wei.
"Dial M For Murder" is redone with Charlize Theron in the Grace Kelly part and Central Casting's idea of a thug playing the thug part. Was Steve Buscemi unavailable?
"The Birds" attack Jodie Foster, who is reminded of certain members of the press, and is, therefore, prepared.
"Marnie" is played here by Naomi Watts. One wonders if a character who is neurotic blonde with huge, debilitating issues would be out of her range. And then one remembers every character she's ever played...
Here we see a "To Catch A Thief" with Robert Downey Jr. in the Cary Grant part and Gwyneth Paltrow in the Grace Kelly part. And in the disbelieving audience part, me. I mean, forget that this is one of my favorite Hitchcock movies for a second (and to see this version, I would have to).

The scene this is supposed to duplicate has Grant and Kelly sitting on the sofa inches away from each other, as fireworks go off.

Is Gwyneth Paltrow so much taller than Robert Downey, Jr. (sitting down, mind you), that they have to pose them awkwardly, standing a mile a part from one another, so that Paltrow can be in a trench behind the furniture?

Because this Madame Tussauds' exhibit of "Short Guy and Tall, Skinny Girl" seems a little... stiff wouldn't you say?

I know, I know Vanity Fair had to cut a deal with the studio making "Iron Man" and promote the film somehow... but this would be as awkward as putting Terrence Howard in the Kelly part and Jeff Bridges in the Grant role.

They'd still promote the film, but would the photo "tribute" make any sense to anybody?

Just a question.