Desuko Movie Spot

Packing Up and Moving.

2010-03-16T10:29:00.000-07:00

After using Blogger for quite a while, the Desuko Movie Spot is finally moving on up. We've got a new look, some new features and even some new reviews, all at a new address: desukomoviespot.com. (But don't worry. Even though I've exported everything to the new site, this one will still be around for a while, just in case. But all future updates will take place over at the new place.) Be sure to reset your links accordingly and join us over there!

Nine (2009).

2010-03-12T10:51:00.000-08:00

The Scoop:
Rob Marshall tries to recapture some of the magic of "Chicago" with "Nine," the film version of Arthur Kopit and Maury Yeston's 1982 Broadway musical, but is ultimately sabotaged by the thin source material.

At the center of the story is Daniel Day-Lewis playing Guido Contini, a world famous Italian film director who deals with personal and professional crises by turning to the many women in his life. If that plot sounds familiar, that's because it is swiped wholesale from Federico Fellini's much better "8 1/2."

The women who parade through Contini's life and fantasies -- each offering their brutally honest advice while belting out big musical numbers -- are his wife (Marion Cotillard), mistress (Penélope Cruz), mother (Sophia Loren), leading lady (Nicole Kidman), costume designer/confidant (Judi Dench), fondly remembered first sex partner (Fergie) and a novice American reporter (Kate Hudson). Cotillard and Cruz really steal the show here (which isn't hard to do against Day-Lewis' mopey screen presence) and Dench has some nice moments as well. Kidman is bland, Hudson is out of her league, Fergie doesn't do much but sing and dance (thankfully), and frankly I'm not sure how the glorious Loren got through this with a straight face.

The songs are fun but insubstantial, except for Cotillard's great "Take It All," which was written specifically for the film. However, Marshall, cinematographer Dion Beebe and choreographer John Deluca redeem even the weakest numbers with some energetic stagings.

But besides Cotillard and Cruz, the real stars of the show are art directors Simon Lamont, Peter Findley and Phil Harvey, and costume designer Colleen Atwood who create a vibrant, detailed and glamorous simulation of mod 1960s Rome. "Nine" may not have much going on under the surface, but thanks to them it's wonderful to look at.

Best Bit:
Cotillard laying it all out for the Oscar-nominated "Take It All."

Side Note:
Oddly enough, the play's title song "Nine" was one of several musical numbers cut from the film.

Companion Viewing:
"8 1/2" (1963), if you want to see this sort of thing done right the first time.

Links:
IMDb.
Official site.

Take a Look:
The trailer:

"Take It All":

The music video for Kate Hudson's "Cinema Italiano":

Catalina Caper (1967).

2010-03-05T09:37:00.000-08:00

The Scoop:
Get your flippy-floppies, people, because we're going on a boat!

The 1960s was awash in "Beach Party" knockoffs, and "Catalina Caper" was one of the worst of the bunch. While on a sunny summer vacation to Catalina Island, a group of groovy teens stop an inept group of upper crust thieves who are trying to smuggle some sort of valuable scroll out of the local museum, while rocking out to the occasional musical guest star. The intentions here are good and the acting and filmmaking are technically competent, but the story is a sorry mishmash.

If you're a B-movie fan, you find a lot of familiar faces here, including Tommy Kirk ("Mars Needs Women"), Del Moore ("Bachelor Father"), Jim Begg ("Village of the Giants"), Sue Casey ("Beach Girls and the Monster"), Michael Blodgett ("Beyond the Valley of the Dolls") and even Wonder Woman's" Lyle Wagonner. The musical numbers come courtesy of the Cascades, Carol Connors and the wildly out of place Little Richard.

These '60s teens-in-the-sun movies are always a fun diversion and worth your time -- even the ones with as many shortcomings as this one. It's worth checking out, even for the unintentional laughs.

Best Line:
"Look! The water fuzz!"

Side Note:
The Cascades' song "There's a New World Just Opening For Me" was written by Ray Davies of the Kinks.

Companion Viewing:
"Beach Party" (1963).

Links:
IMDb.
Daddy-O's Drive-In Dirt.

Take a Look:
Little Richard! On a boat! Singing about scuba diving! I know, right?

Grace of My Heart (1996).

2010-02-26T11:54:00.000-08:00

The Scoop:
This film got dismissed by a lot of critics, but it probably is writer/director Allison Anders' best work.

The story follows the emotional journey of a Carole King-ish songwriter (Ileana Douglas) who goes through years of turmoil throughout the 1960s and 1970s before finally finding her own voice, both personally and professionally. The men in her life are played by Matt Dillon, Eric Stoltz and John Turturro, but it's Douglas, who isn't nearly as big of a star as she should be, who steals the show. She gives a wonderful performance, to compliment Anders' fine script. And the original songs, written by Burt Bacharach and Elvis Costello, capture the sounds of the times wonderfully and will have you humming them long after the movie is over.

There is also more fun to be had by trying to figure out which characters are based on which real-life music industry figures from the '60s and '70s. An all-around winner.

Best Line:
"He smokes some grass. He uses some psychedelics. He uses peyote, but he is down on hard drugs."

Side Note:
The list of cameos in this film seems to go on forever, including Bridget and Peter Fonda, and a host of rock/folk musicians -- Chris Isaak, J Mascis (from Dinosaur Jr.), Jill Sobule, Shawn Colvin, China Kantner and members of Redd Kross.

Companion Viewing:
"Gas Food Lodging" (1992).

Links:
IMDb.
Watch it on Hulu.

Take a Look:
A fan-made trailer:

"God Give Me Strength," which should've won an Oscar but didn't. (Vocals by Kristen Vigard):

"My Secret Love":

Gilda (1946).

2010-02-23T19:39:00.000-08:00

The Scoop:
After knocking around Hollywood in bit parts for years, Rita Hayworth's career finally exploded after playing the title role in "Gilda."

A small-time American hood (Glenn Ford) finds work in a South American casino only to come between the crooked owner (George Macready) and his singer girlfriend (Hayworth). Then the fireworks begin. There are a lot of plot shenanigans going on, but the real meat of the film is the explosive love triangle centered on Gilda.

Director Charles Vidor and a small handful of screenwriters put together a sultry, vaguely noirish cocktail with this one. Ford and Macready hit all the right notes as the lusty men brawling over Gilda, but Hayworth is the one who steals the show. She didn't have much range, but she definitely had a lot of presence. Her performance is still one of the sexiest of all time, making this much more erotically charged than most films of the period. It's a little slow in stretches, but still a good watch.

Best Bit:
Hayworth's hair toss while performing "Put the Blame on Mame."

Side Note:
Hayworth and Ford had so much quickie sex between takes that the Columbia Pictures executive in charge of the production not only had to keep them apart when not doing scenes, but also had to bug her dressing room in order to enforce the punishment.

Companion Viewing:
"Casablanca" (1942).

Links:
IMDb.
Fan site.

Take a Look:
The trailer:

Gilda sure knows how to make an entrance:

"Put the Blame on Mame" (Hayworth's vocals were dubbed by Anita Ellis):

"Amado Mio":

The Rage: Carrie 2 (1999).

2010-02-19T15:48:00.000-08:00

The Scoop:
This sequel to the great Stephen King flick "Carrie" is a bit of a stretch -- Amy Irving is back, and so is the troubled, telekinetic teen girl, but this doesn't quite measure up to the original.

Irving reprises her role as Sue, the sole survivor of Carrie's prom night rampage, who is now a high school counselor. She spends a lot of time working with troubled student Rachel (Emily Bergl), whose best friend just committed suicide. And, oh yeah, she is also Carrie's long-lost half-sister, who inherited the same telekinetic abilities. As if that wasn't bad enough, she's a loner misfit who the "in" crowd wants to publicly humiliate at a big party. If you can't guess where things go from here, then you need to be hit with a big stick.

Bergl is pretty good as Rachel, but the script by Rafael Moreu is boring, cliched and abysmal in portraying the pressures of high school. Plus, the doggie ER scene is silly, and a mental institution called Arkham? Puh-leeeze. And let's not forget the hereditary explanation of the telekinesis.

But at least music supervisor Richard Winn gets bonus points for the terrific Billie Holiday soundtrack.

Stephen King, of course, had nothing to do with this completely unnecessary sequel, which should be your first warning sign. Stay away!

Best Bit:
The black veins popping up across Rachel's body.

Side Note:
This is Bergl's first film. She had previously only had a small part on the television series "Wasteland." She has since returned to the small screen as a regular in "Men in Trees" and "Southland."

Companion Viewing:
"Carrie" (1976).

Links:
IMDb.
Carrie... A Fan's Site.

Take a Look:
The trailer:

Cannibal! The Musical (1996).

2010-02-16T19:16:00.000-08:00

The Scoop:
This ultra-low budget parody of 1950s movie musicals, released by Troma, is an early effort by "South Park" creator Trey Parker. It plays very fast and loose with the real-life story of frontiersman Alferd Packer, who killed and ate the rest of his traveling party while snowbound in the Rocky Mountains in the winter of 1882-83. And, true to the title, there are musical numbers (including a love song to a horse), though not nearly enough to sustain the somewhat amateurish storytelling. While there are some pretty funny parts (the Japanese Indian tribe, for instance), the quality of humor is nowhere near the brilliant levels Parker and co-conspirator Matt Stone later reached in "South Park." It's worth a look for hardcore fans, but otherwise a bit tedious. For great non-"South Park" work from Parker and Stone, check out "Orgazmo" instead.

Best Line:
"Fudge, Packer?"

Side Note:
Parker and Matt Stone were students together at the University of Colorado at Boulder while filming this movie in 1993. The short order grill at the university student union is named after Packer.

Companion Viewing:
"Orgazmo" (1997) and "South Park: Bigger, Longer and Uncut" (1999).

Links:
IMDb.
Official site.
Badmovies.org.
The Independent.

Take a Look:
"That's All I'm Asking For":

"Shpadoinkle":

"When I Was On Top of You":

American Movie (1999).

2010-02-09T18:26:00.000-08:00

The Scoop:
We Americans sure like to dream big, don't we? This is the nation that gave birth to the notion of social mobility. We like to think that we, too, can be rich, famous or powerful, no matter what our humble beginnings. Of course, we Americans also don't think that we could possibly have any shortcomings that could possibly get in our way. So, while we may be a nation of Bill Gateses, we are also a nation of Mark Borchardts.

"American Movie" is a terrific documentary from Chris Smith that follows demented Wisconsin hoser Borchardt and his best buddy Mike Schank as they try to make Borchardt's "great American movie," titled "Northwestern," and a short film, "Coven" (pronounced "Coh-vin"). The result is a hilarious (often unintentionally) look at a typical American schmuck with big dreams.

If Borchardt can ever get his shit together long enough to finish a film, he could well make his mark as the Ed Wood or Coleman Francis of his generation. Unfortunately, shit keeps getting misplaced.

"American Movie" offers a rare first-hand glimpse an outsider cinema artist of the Wood/Francis type at work. And in the process, it shows us a little bit about our own dreams as well.

Best Line:
"There's some corny dialogue that would make the Pope weep."

Side Note:
The soundtrack, performed Schank, features covers of music by Bach, Metallica and "Mr. Bojangles."

Companion Viewing:
"Coven" (1997) and "Ed Wood: Look Back in Angora" (1994).

Links:
IMDb.
Official site.
Salon.

Take a Look:
The trailer:

Mike proves why he's the best second banana in the film business:

In this deleted scene, Mark shares his love of Burger King:

Rodan (1956).

2010-02-04T18:41:00.000-08:00

The Scoop:
This is Toho's follow-up to the success of "Godzilla, King of the Monsters" (1954) and "Godzilla Raids Again" (1955), and if you can get past the endless stock footage of nuclear testing at the beginning, you're home free.

Well, almost. From there, you have to contend with the lead character's ridiculous, film noir-esque voice-over narration and a much delayed appearance of the monster (a giant winged thing that stomps on stuff, pretty much just like in every other Toho monster movie). Even by the cheesy low standards of vintage kaiju flicks, this one is pretty tepid. But on the plus side, among the American voice over cast is George ("Mr. Sulu") Takei in his first professional acting job.

Best Line:
"If this thing you call Rodan is extinct, why is it still alive?"

Side Note:
This was Toho's first full-color monster movie.

Companion Viewing:
Any other Godzilla film.

Links:
IMDb.
Monstrous.

Take a Look:
The American trailer:

Rodan hatches:

RKO 281 (1999).

2010-01-29T08:20:00.000-08:00

The Scoop:
This HBO original, which won a Golden Globe for Best Television Movie, tells the behind-the-scene stories of Orson Welles' crusade to make "Citizen Kane." (RKO 281 was the production number assigned to "Citizen Kane" by the studio.) Although it is a little on the short side at just over 80 minutes and rushes through many of the details, it features several great performances and offers an engaging look at the friendship between Welles and Herman J. Mankiewicz.

Liev Schrieber gives a surprisingly good performance as Welles, John Malkovich is up to his usual schtick as Mankiewicz, and Marion Davies is another one of those bimbo roles Melanie Griffith was born to play. And even though James Cromwell's interpretation of William Randolph Hearst borders on Don Corleone territory, it isn't distracting.

Most importantly, this film makes the point that "Citizen Kane" was as much about Welles himself as it was about Hearst. Director Benjamin Ross and writer John Logan highlight many of the contradictory foibles -- both his storytelling genius and his self-destructive arrogance -- that would make Welles a major figure in film history, but would also eventually ruin him creatively.

Best Line:
"It is not my life you sabotaged with your movie, Mr. Welles. My battle with the world is almost over. Yours, I'm afraid, is just begun."

Side Note:
Based on the documentary "The Battle Over Citizen Kane" (1996).

Companion Viewing:
"Citizen Kane" (1941).

Links:
IMDb.
Logan's script.

Take a Look:
Welles and Bernard Herrmann (Kerry Shale) tackle the score:

Welles and Mankewicz discuss Heart's involvement in the death of director Thomas Ince (followed by scenes from "The Cat's Meow," a film about the Ince case):

The Bloody Pit of Horror (a.k.a., The Crimson Executioner) (1965).

2010-01-26T07:19:00.000-08:00

The Scoop:
In this bargain basement Italian production, a group of models, photographers and assorted hangers-on visit an old castle for a photo shoot, only to run into the demented owner who thinks he's possessed by the spirit of the Crimson Executioner, a 17th century torturer.

Despite the poor acting and technical incompetence, this is charming in its own sleazy way and is most notable for the presence of Mickey (Mr. Jayne Mansfield) Hargitay, who plays the owner. He camps it up big time, and the camera obviously loves his oiled-up body. He's the highlight of the movie, although the torture and titillation, which are very tame by today's standards, hold a certain cheesy charm on their own terms.

Don't you dare call yourself a bad movie lover if you haven't seen this one yet.

Best Line:
"Mankind is made up of inferior creatures, spiritually and physically deformed, who would have corrupted the harmony of my perfect body."

Side Note:
Hartigay won the Mr. Universe title in 1955 and followed that up with a string of B-movies, including "Hercules vs. the Hydra" and "Lady Frankenstein." His rocky six-year marriage to Mansfield was tabloid fodder throughout the late 1950s and early 1960s,, and their daughter Mariska Hartigay has won both an Emmy and a Golden Globe for starring in "Law and Order: Special Victims Unit."

Companion Viewing:
"Baron Blood" (1972) and "Lady Frankenstein" (1971).

Links:
IMDb.
Cool Cinema Trash.
Images Journal.

Take a Look:
The trailer:

Mickey chews some scenery:

Zero Hour! (1957).

2010-01-22T08:04:00.000-08:00

The Scoop:
Stop me if you've heard this one before -- a cross-country flight is put in peril when the entire crew and several passengers get sick with food poisoning and it's up to shaky, battle-scarred former fighter pilot Ted Styker to land the plane with a little help from a tough-as-nails pilot on the ground.

This is better known as the plot of "Airplane!" but the Zucker-Abrahams-Zucker team didn't think it up themselves. While their film was a spoof of '70s disaster movies like the "Airport" series, they lifted their plot, characters, and even whole scenes and chunks of dialogue, wholesale from "Zero Hour!"

Dana Andrews plays Stryker, a decorated Canadian World War II pilot whose post-traumatic stress disorder keeps him out of the air until he's forced to board a cross-country flight to keep his wife (Linda Darnell) from leaving him. Naturally, the fog gets thick and the fish is bad, so Stryker winds up in the cockpit and it's up to Capt. Treleaven (Sterling Hayden, channeling Jack Webb) to talk him through it.

ZAZ skewered this thing so thoroughly that it's hard to watch it seriously now. But on its own, its a taut little thriller that's marred slightly by hamminess and some unintentional humor. Still a load of fun, though.

Best Bit:
The ventriloquist act, which belongs in a ZAZ movie.

Side Note:
The pilot is played NFL Hall-of-Famer Elroy "Crazylegs" Hirsch.

Companion Viewing:
"Airplane!" (1980), of course.

Links:
IMDb.
A transcript annotated with notes on what was later used in "Airplane!"

Take a Look:
The trailer:

A side-by-side comparison of "Zero Hour!" and "Airplane!":

The House Bunny (2008).

2010-01-19T09:11:00.000-08:00

The Scoop:
In "The House Bunny," Anna Faris is great as a Playboy bunny turned sorority house mother, but the rest of the film needs a lot of help.

Faris plays Shelley, an aspiring centerfold who gets kicked out of the Playboy Mansion and is taken in as a house mother by the nerdy, awkward sisters of Zeta Alpha Zeta. She helps them have their sorority house by giving them makeovers and making them popular, while they show her that there's more to life than being an airheaded nude model.

The script from Karen McCullah Lutz and Kirsten Smith (based on an idea by Faris) has plenty of good one-liners, but the beyond that it is clunky and filled with just about every cliche you can imagine. There are some good performances, particularly from Faris, Emma Stone and Kat Denning. But they can't outweigh the wooden presence of Hugh Hefner (as himself, of course) and Tyson Ritter (the lead singer of All-American Rejects). Nor can it outweigh the fact that no film with a PG-13 rating is able to get to the truly good material to be found in either sorority houses or the Playboy Mansion. And let's not get into the questionable gender politics.

In fact, "The House Bunny" feels less like a contemporary story and more like a throwback to the popular comedies of 30 years ago. (It's no coincidence that the sorority's name is abbreviated ZAZ.) But unfortunately it falls just a bit short of being worthy of their company. Yet it is a little fluffy, mindless fun for a rainy day of movie watching -- if you can get past the premise that a woman's highest goal should be to meet a guy.

Best Line:
"Do you know where the crapper is? I have to do a very mysterious thing in there."

Side Note:
Celebrity offspring alert! Tom Hanks' boy Colin plays Shelley's love interest, Oliver, and Rumer Willis (daughter of Bruce Willis and Demi Moore) plays Joanne, the Zeta girl who won't give up her back brace.

Companion Viewing:
"National Lampoon's Animal House" (1978) and "Clueless" (1995).

Links:
IMDb.
Official site.
Missives From Marx.

Take a Look:
The trailer:

"American Idol" star Katherine McPhee (who also plays Zeta girl Harmony) leads her costars in singing the sadly non-ironic theme song:

Ocean's 11 (1960).

2010-01-15T07:43:00.000-08:00

The Scoop:
It's Vegas, baby! The Rat Pack was groovy, and this film presents them at their height.

All the usual suspects are here (Frank Sinatra, Dean Martin, Sammy Davis, Jr., Angie Dickinson, Joey Bishop, Peter Lawford) as well as a few other familiar ones (Cesar Romero, Norman Fell, Henry Silva, Akim Tamiroff), in this tale of Danny Ocean (Sinatra at his coolest) who brings together his old army buddies to pull off a daring heist -- robbing the five major Las Vegas casinos simultaneously at the stroke of midnight on New Year's Eve. Director Lewis Milestone keeps the pace lively and fun, and the camaraderie between the Rat Packers is palpable on screen. Even though it clocks in at more than two hours, it flies by when you feel like you're in the company of old friends.

If you're a fan of old school Vegas or vintage midcentury modernism, this film has everything you need. Sure, Steven Soderbergh's 2001 remake might have had some good action and the presence of Clooney, Pitt, Damon, et al., but it still can't touch the original for great music, plenty of swingin' attitude and vintage Vegas atmosphere.

Best Line:
"I'm so drunk, I don't think I could lie down without holding on!" (This is a punchline to an old Dean Martin routine, which was borrowed by Shirley MacLaine when she ad-libbed her cameo appearance.)

Side Note:
Because all the stars were such good pals, they ad-libbed big chunks of the dialogue, with a lot of the material coming from in jokes and private references.

Companion Viewing:
"Swingers" (1996) and "Ocean's 11" (2001).

Links:
IMDb.
Fan page with sound bites.

Take a Look:
The trailer:

Sammy Davis Jr. sings "Ee-O 11":

Mister Rock and Roll (1957).

2010-01-12T13:39:00.000-08:00

The Scoop:
Plot? Who needs plot?

This celebrity vehicle for pioneering rock 'n' roll deejay Alan Freed keeps only the barest essentials of a plot in what is essentially a film version of his radio show. Freed, playing himself, announces each song, then the performers lip sync their way through their numbers. And what a lineup it is - Chuck Berry, Little Richard, Frankie Lymon and the Teenagers, LaVern Baker, Shaye Cogan and, for some reason, Lionel Hampton.

There are also a couple of inconsequential scenes of a magazine writer who gets herself involved with a clean cut rock singer, but you can safely skip those. It's all about the music.

Freed seriously tones down the raucousness of early rock music, but the film does get points for showcasing both black and white acts, a rarity in the old days. "Mister Rock and Roll" isn't the best of the early rock movies, but there are some essential performances.

Best Line:
"If I'm guilty of anything, I'm guilty of being present at the birth of rock 'n' roll!"

Side Note:
Directed by Charles S. Dubin, best known for his long career in telvision, having directed episodes of "Murder, She Wrote," "Matlock" and "The Father Dowling Mysteries."

Companion Viewing:
"Go, Johnny, Go!" (1958).

Links:
IMDb.
An introduction to Alan Freed on RareSoul.

Take a Look:
The trailer:

The whole film (part 1):

Coyote Ugly (2000).

2010-01-08T08:08:00.000-08:00

The Scoop:
Naïve small town girl moves to the big city looking for fame, only to come face-to-face with the harsh realities of trying to make it in the big time. But thanks to a new love and some quirky friends she meets along the way, she finds her niche in an unexpected place and finally succeeds in living her dreams.

Yeah, we've all heard this tired tale -- quite literally -- a thousand times before, but for some reason Jerry Bruckheimer thought we needed to hear it again in "Coyote Ugly."

Bruckheimer produced this twaddle from writer Gina Wendkos ("The Princess Diaries") and director David McNally ("Kangaroo Jack") about aspiring songwriter Violet (Piper Perabo) who moves to New York City to make it big in the music industry. After getting doors slammed in her face all over town, she has a too-cute meeting with Australian hunk Kevin (Adam Garcia) and finds work with gruff Coyote Ugly bar owner Lil (Maria Bello). The bar's big attraction is the hot women (Bridget Moynahan, Izabella Miko, Tyra Banks) dancing it up on top of the bar and giving the male customers plenty of attitude. Of course, all this helps Violet get over her stage fright and live her dreams -- which apparently just consists of selling one mediocre song to LeAnn Rimes.

There are only two reasons to watch this movie (unless you're a bad movie aficionado, in which case you'll find hundreds of reasons). The first is the jiggling women on the bar top (if you're into that sort of thing). The bar sequences, for all their predictability, are actually staged pretty well and inject the only sort of life or energy the film has. As soon as the narrative steps outside the bar, the whole movie just deflates like a balloon on the morning after the party.

The second reason is the performance of John Goodman as Violet's over-protective father. Like every other character, Bill is a one-dimensional caricature, but in Goodman's hands he transcends the source material and becomes closer to a fully-realized person than the audience has any right to expect. Goodman polishes this turd like the solid professional he is.

But other than that, it's a wash. You might enjoy some of it along the way, but you'll hate yourself in the morning.

Best Bit:
Ellen Cleghorne's cameo as the music company receptionist.

Side Note:
The real life Coyote Ugly bar was opened in New York in 1993 by Liliana Lovell, who was the basis of Bello's character in the movie. After the success of the film, Lovell franchised the operation. At its height, the chain boasted 19 bars across the United States. Fifteen are still in operation today, but that includes three in Europe.

Companion Viewing:
"Flashdance" (1983).

Links:
IMDb.
Cinema de Merde.
Movie Mistakes (warning: this is a long one).
The chain's official site.
The Urban Dictionary definition.

Take a Look:
The trailer:

Just the bar dancing scenes:

Meatballs (1979).

2010-01-05T07:43:00.000-08:00

The Scoop:
Maybe it’s because I was raised on them, but the juvenile comedies of the late ‘70s and early ‘80s are a lot more entertaining than those that came before or after. The masters of the genre were Ivan Reitman, John Landis, Harold Ramis and the alums of the original “Saturday Night Live” cast. You can see their best work in “Animal House,” “Caddyshack” or “The Jerk” but, sadly, not in “Meatballs.”

Directed by Reitman (and written by Ramis, Len Blum, Dan Goldberg and Janis Allen), “Meatballs” is the episodic, disjointed story of a summer among the misfits at Camp North Star. Bill Murray stars as activities director Tripper alongside a bunch of folks you’ve probably never heard of. Murray sleepwalks through this, his first film role, but as he’s proved repeatedly in his 30+ year career, he can still do that and be entertaining. The rest of the film is fun too, although pretty insubstantial; there’s no plot to speak of and many of the jokes fall flat. Despite some nice moments between Tripper and Rudy (Chris Makepeace), “Meatballs” really isn’t essential viewing.

Best Bit:
Tripper explains the perks of rival Camp Mohawk.

Side Note:
This was filmed at Camp White Pine in Haliburton, Ontario, during summer camp season. The real life campers were used as extras in several scenes.

Companion Viewing:
"Stripes" (1979) and "Caddyshack" (1980).

Links:
IMDb.

Take a Look:
The trailer:

It just doesn't matter!

Desuko Movie Spot's 3rd Anniversary.

2009-12-11T13:08:00.000-08:00

Tomorrow marks the big third anniversary of this blog, so it's time for that annual tradition of making an index of all of the year's posts. (The first part of the index can be found here.) This is also a handy time to announce our brief holiday hiatus. Thanks for all your support and readership in the past year, and we'll see you again in the first week of January!

200 Motels (1971).

April Fool's Day (1986).

Bettie Page: Dark Angel (2004).
The Black Room (1935).
Bluetopia: The L.A. Dodgers Movie (2009).
Bug Buster (1998).

Can't Stop the Music (1980).
Celebration at Big Sur (1971).
Charade (1963).
The Chase (1994).
Cobra Woman (1944).
The Concorde: Airport '79 (1979).

Deep Impact (1998).
Derailroaded: Inside the Mind of Larry "Wild Man" Fischer (2004).
Dragnet (1954).
Dr. Goldfoot and the Girl Bombs (1966).

Earth vs. the Spider (1958).
Equinox (1970).

Festival Express (1970).

Gamera (1965).
Gamera vs. Barugon (a.k.a., War of the Monsters) (1966).
Gamera vs. Gaos (1967).
Gamera vs. Viras (a.k.a., Destroy All Planets) (1968).
Gamera vs. Guiron (a.k.a., Attack of the Monsters) (1969).
Gamera vs. Monster X (a.k.a., War of the Monsters) (1970).
Gamera vs. Zigra (1971).
The Ghost of Slumber Mountain (1918).
The Gorilla (1939).
The Green Slime (1968).
Gymkata (1985).

The Happening (1967).
Hercules and the Captive Women (1961).
The Hidden Fortress (1958).
Homicidal (1961).
How the West Was Won (1962).

I Married a Witch (1942).
In the Bleak Midwinter (a.k.a., A Midwinter's Tale) (1995).
It (1927).
I Walked With a Zombie (1943).
I Was a Teenage Werewolf (1957).

Jail Bait (1954).
Jawbreaker (1999).

Kill the Umpire (1950).
Kingdom of the Spiders (1977).

Let the Devil Wear Black (1999).
Listening to You: The Who at the Isle of Wight (1970).
Love's Labour's Lost (2000).

Manhatta (1921).
Martin (1977).
Mighty Joe Young (1949).
Mission to Mars (2000).
The Mole People (1956).
Monsters vs. Aliens (2009).

Night of the Lepus (1972).
The Notorious Bettie Page (2005).

Pandora's Box (1929).
Purple Rain (1984).
Puttin' On the Ritz (1930).

Ratatouille (2007).
Red Zone Cuba (a.k.a., Night Train to Mundo Fine) (1966).
Rock Around the Clock (1956).

Scooby Doo: The Mystery Begins (2009).
Scorched (2002).
Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band (1978).
The Sidehackers (a.k.a., Five the Hard Way) (1969).
The Skydivers (1963).
Suburbia (1984).
Succubus: Hell Bent (2007).

The Tale of Despereaux (2008).
Terror Firmer (1999).
The Trial (1962).
The Trip (1967).

Uncle Sam (1996).
Up (2009).

Watchmen (2009).
The Wild Angels (1966).
The Wizard of Oz (1925).

Guest Blog: Vince's Quiz.

Hercules and the Captive Women (1961).

2009-12-08T19:05:00.000-08:00

The Scoop:
Herc is up to his usual shenanigans in yet another Italian muscle epic, the third entry in the "Hercules" series that Joseph E. Levine brought to America. Unfortunately, Steve Reeves isn't around, so Hercules is played by Reg Park, who mostly sleepwalks through the role. Seriously, several important plot points rely on Hercules being asleep. And when he's awake, he mostly just throws things and looks confused.

The title is somewhat misleading, since there's only one captive woman and she doesn't figure too much into the plot. Instead, the story concerns Hercules trying to overthrow an evil queen (played by Fay Spain) who is ruling the hidden island of Atlantis. All the Atlanteans worship the god Uranus, leading to plenty of unintentional crude humor in the dialogue.

This one is actually somewhat fun, if you don't think about it too much.

Best Line:
"Uranus has abandoned us!"

Side Note:
This was the first of Park's five films. He did two more as Hercules, and one each as Maciste and Ursus, a couple of Italian Hercules-knock off characters.

Companion Viewing:
"Hercules" (1958).

Links:
IMDb.
Eccentirc Cinema.

Take a Look:
The trailer:

The full film:

Dragnet (1954).

2009-12-04T15:50:00.000-08:00

The Scoop:
Man, I love me some "Dragnet."

After the success of his 1940s radio series and 1950s TV series, Jack Webb brought "Dragnet," his life's work, to the big screen in this enjoyable adaptation. The story, involving the investigation into a gangland murder, uses the luxury of its expanded budget and running time to offer much more detail about the nitty gritty of detective work and the legal process than the television series. But the hard-boiled, straight-as-an-arrow Boy Scout spirit makes the big screen leap intact, and it positively sizzles.

Ben Alexander reprises his role as Friday's partner Frank Smith, while Webb also directs from a script by Richard L. Breen.

This was the first of three "Dragnet" feature films. It was followed first by a color film in 1966 that paired Webb with Harry Morgan and served as the springboard for the late '60s TV series. And then came the 1987 entry starring Dan Aykroyd and Tom Hanks, which doesn't even deserve to be considered part of the canon.

With excellent direction, the film captures some of the same mix of earnestness and cheesiness of the series, without being quite as camp as some of the 1960s TV series. Of course, by then the generation gap sparked by the counterculture was enough to make Webb's brand of law and order seem downright outdated. But in this film, in its element, it's still exciting stuff.

Best Bit:
Friday explains the deductions on his paycheck.

Side Note:
This was the first feature film ever spun off from TV show.

Companion Viewing:
The '50s TV series.

Links:
IMDb.
Badge 714.

Take a Look:
Friday and Smith lay the smack down:

Sgt. Friday gets his $20 worth:

Deep Impact (1998).

2009-12-01T07:44:00.000-08:00

The Scoop:
The less commercially successful of 1998's two killer asteroid movies, this is the more creatively successful (not that "Armageddon" provided much competition in that area), creating what could be termed a kinder, gentler disaster movie.

Téa Leoni is an ambitious television reporter on the trail of a government cover-up, only to discover that the fact being covered up is the existence of a giant comet on a collision course with Earth, which the government is trying to destroy without alarming the public. The story gets out, though, with all the usual results.

Director Mimi Leder and writers Bruce Joel Rubin and Michael Tolkin shift the focus away from the pyrotechnics in favor of the human reactions to impending disaster (and a less-than-happy ending), creating a film that, though occasionally predictable, still manages to stand out among its genre. The cast is filled with solid actors, but the standouts include Robert Duvall as the gruff astronaut leading the comet destruction team; Morgan Freeman, lending his commanding presence to the role of the president; and Elijah Wood and Leelee Sobieski as the young amateur astronomer and his girlfriend who discover the asteroid.

Sure, "Deep Impact" is still a Big Dumb Blockbuster, but it is at least one with more heart than one would otherwise expect.

Best Line:
"Look on the bright side. We'll all get high schools named after us."

Side Note:
The scene of the president's address to the world originally included the line, "This is not armageddon." But that was cut out when the studio realized that the film would be in theaters around the same time as "Armageddon."

Companion Viewing:
"Armageddon" (1998).

Links:
IMDb.
Disaster Movie World.

Take a Look:
The trailer:

BOOM! The money shot. (Spoilers!):

Turkey Day Marathon, Day 5: Red Zone Cuba (1966).

2009-11-27T08:08:00.000-08:00

One of the many fun things about the late, great "Mystery Science Theater 3000" was their annual all-day Turkey Day Marathons for Thanksgiving. Hour after hour after hour of bad movies -- what's not to love? So this year we're doing a Desuko Turkey Day Marathon of our own -- five days of Desuko reviews of movies that have been featured on MST3K. Here's experiment #619, "Red Zone Cuba." (Originally published Aug. 7, 2009):

The Scoop:
This is yet another Coleman Francis/Anthony Cardoza turd, only this time it is apparently Francis' grand artistic statement.

Back in the '60s and '70s, just about anybody could get John Carradine to appear in their film for about the cost of a ham sandwich, so Francis apparently blew his budget on that, and then wasted the whole thing in the first two minutes of the movie. In the opening scene, Carradine turns up as a grizzled railway worker who is telling this story to a nondescript bystander. After this incredibly short day's work, Carradine disappears from the movie forever, but not before croaking the horrendously awful theme song.

From there, the real story starts. An escaped convict (played by the auteur himself, who also wrote, directed, produced and edited this red-baiting debacle) gets mixed up with five or six revolutionaries who try to invade Cuba. After an excursion that makes the Bay of Pigs look like an epic triumph, our intrepid non-heroes get captured, and a couple of them try a semi-daring escape before getting hunted down by a half-hearted posse back in the States.

At least, that's what the plot seems to indicate. Mostly, "Red Zone Cuba" just meanders from scene to scene, without much differentiation between one setting and the next. In fact, if this film is to be believed, Cuba is just a little town in the California desert. And I think the guy with the cigar and glued-on beard is supposed to be Fidel Castro.

Best Line:
"I'm Cherokee Jack!"

Side Note:
Apparently Cherokee Jack's plane is still in use, and is currently being flown out of a small airport in Alaska.

Companion Viewing:
"The Beast of Yucca Flats" (1961) and "Invasion U.S.A." (1952).

Links:
IMDb.
The Agony Booth.
Daddy-O's Drive-In Dirt.

Take a Look:
Just try to be entertained. I dare you:

Red Zone Cuba: the first 5 minutes @ Yahoo! Video

The MST3K version:

Turkey Day Marathon, Day 4: Gamera vs. Barugon (1966).

2009-11-26T07:54:00.000-08:00

One of the many fun things about the late, great "Mystery Science Theater 3000" was their annual all-day Turkey Day Marathons for Thanksgiving. Hour after hour after hour of bad movies -- what's not to love? So this year we're doing a Desuko Turkey Day Marathon of our own -- five days of Desuko reviews of movies that have been featured on MST3K. Here's experiment #K04 and #304, "Gamera vs. Barugon." (Originally published March 9, 2009):

The Scoop:
The flying turtle madness continues!

Let's move on to the second installment in the Gamera franchise, "Gamera vs. Barugon." This time around not only is the action in color, but Gamera also makes the leap from nuclear-spawned menace to friendly protector of the Earth, just like Godzilla did in his series a decade earlier.

The bad guy role is filled by Barugon, a four-legged dinosaur/lizard/dog type thing who shoots a hilariously non-menacing rainbow ray from his back, and who can also freeze things with his tongue. Quite the odd combination, but trust me, this is one of least strange things we'll see in this series.

Some treasure hunters set the plot in motion when they bring a giant opal back to civilization, only to discover that the opal is actually an egg. Pretty soon, out pops Barugon, who proceeds to stomp the crap out of the parts of Tokyo that hadn't previously been stomped in the other kaiju movies. Finally, Gamera shows up to put the critter in his place.

On the human side we get the usual roles we're used to seeing in these movies -- committed scientist, bland girlfriend, rigid military brass, etc. They're played ably enough by the likes of Kojiro Hondo, Kyoko Emani, Yuzo Hayakawa and Takuya Fujioka, but there's really not much for them to do. Even Gamera doesn't get much to do other than show up at the end to lay the smack down.

This is pretty much the Barugon show from start to finish, resulting in what is easily the most boring of the Gamera series.

Best Line:
"That monster destroys everything with his tongue!"

Side Note:
The original Japanese title is "Daikaiju Keto: Gamera tai Barugon" (literally translated, "Giant Monster Duel: Gamera Against Barugon"). When American International Pictures bought the film for U.S. distribution in the late 1960s, they cut 14 minutes of footage and retitled it "War of the Monsters." In the 1980s, Sandy Frank secured the video distribution rights. He restored the missing footage, redubbed the dialogue and retitled the whole thing "Gamera vs. Barugon." So which version should you see? Frankly, it doesn't really matter since the missing footage is so yawn-inducing, it doesn't actually detract from the movie. But it sure makes it go by quicker.

Companion Viewing:
Any other Gamera or Godzilla film you can get your hands on.

Links:
IMDb.
1,000 Misspent Hours.
The Shrine of Gamera.

Take a Look:
The opening titles:

The MST3K version (from their KTMA season):

Turkey Day Marathon, Day 3: The Mole People (1956).

2009-11-25T07:49:00.000-08:00

One of the many fun things about the late, great "Mystery Science Theater 3000" was their annual all-day Turkey Day Marathons for Thanksgiving. Hour after hour after hour of bad movies -- what's not to love? So this year we're doing a Desuko Turkey Day Marathon of our own -- five days of Desuko reviews of movies that have been featured on MST3K. Here's experiment #803, "The Mole People." (Originally published Feb. 6, 2009):

The Scoop:
How dreary can the subterranean world be? Very.

This lovely little film starts off with a professor giving the audience a strange, rambling lecture on the history of various crackpot theories about ancient civilizations underground. When the story finally gets started, we find an archeological team headed by smug know-it-all John Agar that discovers an underground colony of albino Sumerians and their mole-like slaves. Agar's sidekicks include Hugh Beaumont (TV's Ward Cleaver) and the evil underground high priest is Alan Napier (best known as Alfred the Butler from the "Batman" TV series).

When the heroes' chief weapon in a flashlight, you know you're in trouble.

Luckily, this foolishness doesn't last long before the mole slaves revolt, the albino society crumbles and Agar and Beaumont escape in just the nick of time, along with their Sumerian love interest, played by the luscious Cynthia Patrick.

"The Mole People" isn't as bad as some critics make it out to be, but that's not saying it's a good film, either. Director Virgil Vogel put together a solid, if unremarkable, genre piece that only suffers because some of the absurdities in László Görög's script. If you can get past the questionable science and the fact that the mole people look like beatniks dressed for trick-or-treating, it's not a bad little film.

Best Line:
"Do you think anybody's ever tried to smoke dried mushrooms?"

Side Note:
The professor from the beginning is Dr. Frank Baxter, who in the mid='50s left his job teaching English at the University of Southern California to lend his authoritative aura to introducing various educational TV shows. In addition to his star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, he was also the recipient of the first ever Golden Gavel from Toastmasters International.

Companion Viewing:
"She" (1935).

Links:
IMDb.

Take a Look:
The trailer:

Science! Brilliant!:

The MST3K version:

Turkey Day Marathon, Day 2: The Beast of Yucca Flats (1961).

2009-11-24T07:43:00.000-08:00

One of the many fun things about the late, great "Mystery Science Theater 3000" was their annual all-day Turkey Day Marathons for Thanksgiving. Hour after hour after hour of bad movies -- what's not to love? So this year we're doing a Desuko Turkey Day Marathon of our own -- five days of Desuko reviews of movies that have been featured on MST3K. Here's experiment #621, "The Beast of Yucca Flats." (Originally published April 8, 2008):

The Scoop:
Forget about all the hype about "Plan 9 From Outer Space" being the worst movie of all time. There are plenty of other contenders for that title that are far more deserving, and "The Beast of Yucca Flats" is one of them.

Not only is this writer/director (and bottom-of-the-barrel-scraper) Coleman Francis' first film (produced by good pal and eternal lead actor Anthony Cardoza), but it also stars the inimitable Tor Johnson. A respected nuclear scientist (played by Johnson, which immediately shoots down any credibility the film might have) wanders too close to an A-bomb test and is turned feral. It's then up to the local sheriff and a pal to hunt him down.

Or something.

Believe me, after five minutes, you won't even bother to keep track of the plot anymore. That's because what plot there is simply involves the actors wandering aimlessly about the desert landscape to no good purpose. And because all the audio got accidentally erased during postproduction, all the dialogue is summarized in nonsensical voice-over narration.

There was nowhere for Francis' career to go from here but up. So his two follow-up movies -- "The Skydivers" from 1963 and 1966's "Night Train to Mundo Fine" (better known as "Red Zone Cuba") -- are still incompetent in their own right, but at least are a marked improvement over this one. Simply having meaningful action and onscreen dialogue will do that.

Best Line:
"Flag on the moon. How did it get there?"

Side Note:
Between directing projects, Francis tried to make his living as a bit actor, playing blink-and-you'll-miss-them parts in a number of films, including "This Island Earth" (1954) and "Beyond the Valley of the Dolls" (1970).

Companion Viewing:
"The Creeping Terror" (1964).

Links:
IMDb.
The Astounding B-Monster's interview with Anthony Cardoza.
Daddy-O's Drive In Dirt.

Take a Look:
Thrill to this exciting hand-to-hand combat!

The YouTube gods have blessed us with the entire film. Repay them by watching it, won't you?

The MST3K version:

Turkey Day Marathon, Day 1: Boggy Creek II: And the Legend Continues (1985).

2009-11-23T15:29:00.000-08:00

One of the many fun things about the late, great "Mystery Science Theater 3000" was their annual all-day Turkey Day Marathons for Thanksgiving. Hour after hour after hour of bad movies -- what's not to love? So this year we're doing a Desuko Turkey Day Marathon of our own -- five days of Desuko reviews of movies that have been featured on MST3K. Here's experiment #1006, "Boggy Creek II." (Originally published Feb. 19, 2008):

The Scoop:
"Gross-out" movies may be all the rage these days, but simply making poop jokes or constructing horror scenarios that break a few taboos is not all that gross. True grossness comes from other, somewhat unexpected places, usually involving ugly people and their bodily functions. Something like this movie.

Although it is labeled part two, this film is actually the third in the series about the Boggy Creek Creature, a sorry attempt to build a horror franchise around an allegedly real Bigfoot-like monster that stalks the Arkansas wetlands. The plot this time around concerns a University of Arkansas researcher who takes some of his students into the wilderness to find the monster. Mostly he just relates incidents from the earlier movies, from which footage is taken to pad out the running time.

But this has the distinction of being probably the grossest movie you'll ever see. There are lots of inbred hillbilly stereotypes, big hairy guys without much clothes, ugly people sweating profusely, and the piece de resistance -- a hick so scared by the creature that he steps in his own diarrhea in the outhouse and has to have his wife hose him off. The Arkansas Tourism Board has their work cut out for them to counteract the effects of this movie.

Best Line:
"I've seen the little creature!"

Side Note:
Written, produced, directed and starring Charles B. Pierce, who made a string of low budget crap in the '70s and early '80s. Most of the films featured Jimmy Clem, the fat, ugly guy who plays Crenshaw in this movie.

Companion Viewing:
"The Legend of Boggy Creek" (1972), "Return to Boggy Creek (1977), "The Giant Spider Invasion" (1975) and "Squirm" (1976).

Links:
IMDb.
Some information on the Fouke Monster, the inspiration for the films.

Take a Look:
The trailer:

The MST3K version:

I Walked With a Zombie (1943).

2009-11-20T07:37:00.000-08:00

The Scoop:
This is, quite simply, the greatest voodoo movie ever made. I realize that's not saying much, given the consistently sorry state of the genre, but even if they weren't all so bad, this film would stand out above the rest.

One of greatest triumphs of legendary producer Val Lewton and director Jacques Tourneur, the story follows Frances Dee as a nurse who travels to Haiti to care for the comatose wife of plantation owner Tom Conway. But the wife's condition isn't necessarily medically explainable, and the nurse turns to the local voodoo priest for help.

Lewton was a master at taking lurid b-movie fare and turning it into moody, exciting art. His best work came in a short stretch in World War II during his partnership Tourneur. The pair created a singular aesthetic that seemed to work every time out. "I Walked With a Zombie is a prime example -- their trademark creepy atmospherics and a complicated love triangle highlight this classic -- but "Cat People," "The Ghost Ship" or "Bedlam" would work just as well. So just watch them all.

Best Bit:
The first walk across the cane fields.

Side Note:
Very, very loosely based on Charlotte Brontë's novel "Jane Eyre."

Companion Viewing:
"White Zombie" (1932), "Cat People" (1942) and "The Seventh Victim" (1943).

Links:
IMDb.
The screenplay.

Take a Look:
The trailer:

Roky Erickson's classic (and much covered) tune, based on the movie:

Uncle Sam (1996).

2009-11-17T08:54:00.000-08:00

The Scoop:
Celebrities can do embarrassing things when they're down on their luck. So, before Robert Forster got a career boost from being in "Jackie Brown" and Isaac Hayes got one from being on "South Park," they both starred in this slasher dreck.

Sam (David Shark Fralick), a Gulf War vet who is bitter because he was killed by friendly fire in Iraq (hey, who wouldn't be?), returns from the dead on the Fourth of July to terrorize a generic Small Midwestern Town. Sam's worshipful nephew must team up with Sam's old army buddy Chef (er, I mean Jed, played by Hayes, who doesn't even get to sing here) and a blind kid in a wheelchair to stop him. Forster is a politician of some sort who gets to die one of the most humiliating deaths in slasher-dom. Joining them on the humiliation train are Timothy Bottoms, P.J. Soles and Bo Hopkins.

The script by veteran schlockmeister Larry Cohen is not even up to his usual z-grade standards and the direction by William Lustig is just as bad. The effects are especially low-rent -- in one shot, the strings are literally showing. Good for laughs, but not scares.

More interesting to me, though, is that "Uncle Sam" was shot almost entirely in my (adoptive) hometown of La Verne, California. Lots of films have been shot here over the years -- almost all of them better -- but none of them show quite as many recognizable locations as this one. All you La Vernians who read this blog should really check out the film so you can see plenty of Heritage Park, downtown (including exteriors of Warehouse Pizza) and some of the familiar houses along both D Street and Second Street.

Best Bit:
The unintentional comic relief of the blind wheelchair kid.

Side Note:
"Uncle Sam" pretty much put an end to future film production in La Verne. When the crew set off some major pyrotechnics at 2 a.m. one night on a residential street without informing anyone beforehand -- resulting in lots of broken house windows and angry neighbors -- the city council stopped granting film permits.

Companion Viewing:
"Jack Frost" (1997).

Links:
IMDb.
Eccentric Cinema.
All Things Zombie.

Take a Look:
The trailer:

Festival Express (1970).

2009-11-13T08:18:00.000-08:00

The Scoop:
The stretch from about 1967 to 1971 was a hotbed for innovative music, and it was the heyday of the festival concert. But it was also the heyday of the concert film, and every festival worth its name – Woodstock, Monterey Pop, Big Sur, even Altamont – had a film attached. The result of this huge archive of film, of course, is a valuable time capsule of that era. “Festival Express” is a latter-day addition to that genre.

In the summer of 1970, a short festival tour was organized across Canada, featuring the Grateful Dead, The Band, Janis Joplin, Buddy Guy, Ian & Sylvia, the Flying Burrito Brothers, Bonnie & Delaney, Sha Na Na and Mashmakhan. (Traffic and Ten Years After also were part of the tour, but don't appear in the film due to a conflict over music rights.) Everyone on the bill traveled together by train across country. It was an arrangement that was clearly a hit with the performers, who created a traveling commune, spending the long days living, eating and, most importantly, jamming together. And the film crew was there for all of it.

The tour itself was a financial disaster, not just because of the expense of the train, but also because it was dogged by protests and bad press along the way from kids who demanded that all the shows be free. The business side wound up in chaos, which is why all the film footage of the tour ended up on the shelf for more than 30 years. Which is a shame, because the footage is fantastic.

With the benefit of three decades of hindsight, director Bob Smeaton includes new interviews with the promoters and many of the performers to put the footage in context. But at times the interviews intrude too much. The film is at its best when the footage from 1970 speaks for itself. The live performances are uniformly excellent, as the musicians were obviously energized by the creative cauldron inside that train (which a couple of the interviewees describe as “heaven”). But the real treat is the train footage, which is full of great jamming from a host of talented musicians, and which also offers an extensive offstage glimpse of the people involved – something the other classic concert films of the era can’t match.

Especially poignant are the performances by Joplin. She was at the top of her game, and because she died shortly after the tour, these are among her last ever performances.

Regardless of whether you’re a fan of the era, “Festival Express” is still a must-see if you’re a fan of live music. Plus, there’s lots of rail footage too if you’re a fan of train movies, so everyone wins!

Best Bit:
The liquor run in Saskatoon.

Side Note:
The guitar used by Jerry Garcia during "C.C. Rider" is the same one that was played by George Harrison during the Beatles' rooftop farewell performance the year before.

Companion Viewing:
"Woodstock" (1970) and "Monterey Pop" (1968).

Links:
IMDb.
Official site.
DocumentaryFilms.net.

Take a Look:
The Grateful Dead perform "C.C. Rider" with Ian & Sylvia and others:

The Band doing "Slippin' and Slidin'":

Rick Danko, Janis Joplin, Jerry Garcia, Bob Weir and others jam on "Ain't No More Cane":

Kill the Umpire (1950).

2009-11-10T08:19:00.000-08:00

The Scoop:
William Bendix was a fantastic character actor who built a fine career in the 1940s and 1950s playing distinctive supporting parts in a variety of different films. He specialized in playing gun-toting heavies in classics like “The Blue Dahia” and “The Glass Key,” as well as playing the lovable schlub/best buddy in plenty of war movies. Unfortunately, he didn’t get to tackle lead roles too often, but when he did (most memorably in "The Life of Riley" and as the Sultan of Swat in “The Babe Ruth Story”) it was always worth a watch.

That’s why his presence is the best thing about the otherwise forgettable “Kill the Umpire.”

Bendix plays Bill Johnson, a former ballplayer who still gets so wrapped up in the game that he can’t keep a steady job because he keeps sneaking off to the ballpark during work hours. After losing one too many jobs, his wife threatens to leave him if he doesn’t do something to shape up. Bill’s father in law, a retired major league umpire, comes up with the idea of sending Bill to umpiring school so that he can make a living in the game he loves. What follows is a lot of slapsticky, sitcom-ish comedy and moralizing about the importance and integrity of umpires as Bill finally finds a steady life for himself.

The script by Frank Tashlin and direction by Lloyd Bacon are amiable and competent, but also silly and predictable. (When the opening theme incorporates the melody of “Three Blind Mice,” you know exactly what you’re in for.) Baseball has been a constant presence on the big screen since the beginning, but stories focusing on umpires have been rare, so it’s good to see that aspect of the game highlighted, even if it’s only superficially.

And it lets Bendix put his flair for comedy to work. Plus he’s surrounded by a solid cast of fellow character actors (lots of familiar faces, including Ray Collins, Una Merkel and William Hawley) who do a lot to save the film from itself. But ultimately “Kill the Umpire” falls a little flat with its ridiculous situations and hokey theme.

It’s a treat to see Bendix get a chance to carry a film himself, even if the material doesn’t live up to his talents.

Best Bit:
The three-headed steer. (Don’t ask.)

Side Note:
The uncredited actor playing Harry Shea, the catcher whose bobbled play is at the center of the rhubarb at the end of the film, is none other than Alan Hale Jr.

Companion Viewing:
"Safe at Home" (1961).

Links:
IMDb.
AZ Snakepit.

Take a Look:
The trailer:

The Hidden Fortress (1958).

2009-11-06T11:50:00.000-08:00

The Scoop:
Stop me if you’ve heard this one before – a grizzled warrior must help a feisty princess escape from the clutches of an evil empire, with the help of a pair of bumbling accomplices who prove to be heroic in spite of themselves.

That’s the plot of Akira Kurosawa’s wonderful “The Hidden Fortress.” But throw in a naïve farm boy, an amoral smuggler and a Wookiee and you’ve got seed for Obi-Wan Kenobi’s rescue of Princess Leia from the Death Star in “Star Wars.” George Lucas has famously cited “The Hidden Fortress” as the inspiration for his first “Star Wars” story, from which the rest of his complicated universe sprang.

Besides the spine of the plot, several other details were borrowed by Lucas, especially the early scenes introducing bickering peasant buddies Tahei and Matakishi, which resurfaced in R2-D2 and C-3PO’s adventures on Tatooine.

But while it’s fun to play “spot the inspiration,” it’s a mistake to judge “The Hidden Fortress” solely in the light of “Star Wars.” It’s another rousing samurai adventure from Kurosawa that more than stands on its own.

Toshiro Mifune is incredible as always as Makabe, the wise, battle weary general who must protect tomboyish teenage Princess Yuki (Misa Uehara) and her kingdom’s stash of gold, then smuggle them to safety in neighboring Hayawaka. Their native land of Azikuzi has been overrun by armies from Yamana, but once in Hayakawa, Yuki will be able to use the told to rebuild her army and take back her lands.

They find their ticket out with appearance of Tahei (Minoru Chiaki) and Matakishi (Kamatari Fujiwara), who just want to escape from the war and return to their homes in Hayakawa. Thanks to their unwitting assistance, the foursome is able to stay one step ahead of the pursuing Yamana soldiers, but not without plenty of hardship and comic relief on the way.

This isn’t Kurosawa’s best samurai epic, nor is it one of the first that springs to mind when thinking about his classics – but don’t consider that an insult. “The Hidden Fortress” easily stands alongside the likes of “The Seven Samurai,” “Yojimbo” or “Rashomon.” But if it doesn’t quite reach their heights, it’s still better than most other action/adventure fare from lesser directors. Kurosawa was one of the masters of cinema; we’d expect nothing less from him.

Best Bit:
The escape on horseback.

Side Note:
It wouldn't be a Kurosawa samurai classic without Mifune -- the two made 16 films together in a 17 year stretch from 1948 to 1965.

Companion Viewing:
"Star Wars – Episode IV: A New Hope" (1977) and "The Seven Samurai" (1954).

Links:
IMDb.

Take a Look:
The Japanese trailer:

The big duel:

Scooby Doo: The Mystery Begins (2009).

2009-11-03T08:07:00.000-08:00

The Scoop:
So why waste your time on this? What’s the point of bothering with a made-for-cable, third generation live action adaptation of a hack cartoon, which is squarely aimed at tweens? Really, why bother?

Well, it turns out that this disposable entertainment has a thing or two to recommend it.

A Cartoon Network original, “The Mystery Begins” is the third live action version of “Scooby Doo,” following two big budget big screen stinkers. It’s a prequel, telling the story of how the gang got together at Coolsville High School and solved their first mystery together.

Unadoptable shelter dog Scooby (voiced by Frank Welker) accidentally gets sprung from his cage and runs off in search of someone who’ll take him in. He wanders through a cemetery at night, where he sees two ghosts rising from their graves. In a panic, he runs right through the basement bedroom window of high school burnout Shaggy (Nick Palatas) who naturally takes a liking to him and tries to sneak him into school the next day in human clothes. This winds up causing a free-for-all in the school bus, which eventually lands Shaggy in detention with football team captain Fred (Robbie Amell), drama club diva Daphne (Kate Melton) and brainy geek Velma (Hayley Kiyoko). Of course, the ghosts pick that exact time to disrupt the school pep rally, and the chase is on.

The “mystery” is just as paper-thin as you’d expect, both from a “Scooby Doo” story and a tween movie. But it’s the small, fresh details that keep this from being a complete waste.

Most intriguing is the dynamic between the four kids which -- not only because it grows out of detention hall, but also because of the way it develops the relationships between members of four different high school social cliques – owes a big debt to “The Breakfast Club.” It’s actually hand led quite well for tween fluff, and the cast nails it with gusto. This is where the real story is, not in the formulaic ghost hunting shenanigans.

The interesting upshot of this is that it makes the title character almost entirely irrelevant in his own movie. Unfortunately, director Brian Levant and writers Daniel Altiere and Steven Altiere try to compensate for this by making Scooby completely obnoxious, thrusting him into all sorts of situations where he isn’t needed, and making him the vehicle of lots of sophomoric, unfunny humor. That’s all bad enough, but to top it all off, the CGI work on Scooby is atrocious.

There are also some obligatory details, like the origins of the Mystery Machine (which is pretty much what you’d expect) and Scooby Snacks (which is actually a nice little twist. And Shaggy’s status as a flat-out stoner is hinted at even more strongly than before (but because this is still ostensibly children’s entertainment, he still can’t be shown for what he really is).

However, some entertaining new wrinkles are added. Like the fact that Shaggy is a few years older than the others and, thanks to being held back in school so much, is basically an adult still attending high school. Or the casting of Velma as an Asian.

However the biggest departure from the “Scooby” mythos is that the ghosts are actual undead spirits, and not mere mechanical tricks. But don’t feel too disoriented – the villain behind those vengeful spirits is straight out of the Hanna-Barbera playbook and even gets to deliver the signature “meddling kids” line after his capture. Because there are some classics you just don’t want to mess with.

Best Bit:
The gang's ridiculously over-the-top undercover disguises -- Daphne as a goth, Fred in hip hop gear (think Brian Austin Green), Velma as a hot chick, and Shaggy and Scooby as trash cans.

Side Note:
Welker is a veteran cartoon voice actor who has been working steadily since the 1960s. His roles include most of the Decepticons in the original "Transformers" series and numerous roles in "Tiny Toon Adventures" and "Animaniacs" -- not to mention playing Fred in the original "Scooby Doo" series.

Companion Viewing:
The original Hanna Barbera cartoons from the early 1970s.

Links:
IMDb.
Official site.

Take a Look:
The trailer:

Hayley Kiyoko's video blog, made during production:

The Green Slime (1968).

2009-10-30T08:47:00.000-07:00

The Scoop:
Flora, a “class two asteroid” suddenly takes a left turn starts hurtling toward a collision course with Earth. The only man qualified to stop this menace and save the world is studly rocket jock Jack Rankin (Robert Horton), who must team up with arch-nemesis Capt. Elliott (Richard Jaeckel) to destroy the killer rock. They’re successful, but they find out on the way home that they’ve mistakenly picked up an alien slime that spawns silly tentacle creatures with a taste for human flesh. Meanwhile, in between rousing bouts of square-jawed heroism, Rankin and Elliott fight over sexy doctor Lisa Benson (Luciana Paluzzi).

So basically, this starts out as “Armageddon” and then turns into “Alien.”

This Japanese production is filled with the cheap effects and clunky performances you’d expect from your favorite Godzilla movie, but with a cast of American and Italian actors. It’s completely laugh-worthy, of course, but the best thing about it is the swinging title by Richard Delvy, quite possibly the best theme song of any movie ever.

Best Bit:
Besides the theme song? It's the groovy welcome back party. It's too swingin' for Earth, so they had to hold it on a space station.

Side Note:
All the extras are American military personnel who were based in Japan at the time.

Companion Viewing:
"The Wild, Wild Planet" (1965).

Links:
IMDb.
BadMovies.org.
Monster Island News.

Take a Look:
The trailer:

The theme song!

Night of the Lepus (1972).

2009-10-27T14:04:00.000-07:00

The Scoop:
Starring Stuart Whitman, Janet Leigh, DeForest Kelley, Rory Calhoun and some of the deadliest rabbits outside of Monty Python, “Night of the Lepus” is one of the pioneering films in the ‘70s wave of eco-horror films and, needless to say, probably the silliest.

When Arizona rancher Cole Hillman’s (Calhoun) land is overrun with rabbits, he gets his university president pal Elgin Clark (Kelley) to call in heroic wildlife researchers Roy and Gerry Bennett (Whitman and Leigh) to find a nonpoisonous, environmentally friendly way to control the population. Unfortunately, the couple’s daughter Amanda (Melanie Fullerton) switches around some of the rabbits her parents are experimenting on, resulting in a plague of giant man-eating bunnies terrorizing the desert Southwest.

Director William F. Claxton and writers Don Holliday and Gene R. Kearney (working from what must be an absurd novel by Russell Braddon) throw in just about every genre cliché available, and while there is the occasional good moment, it’s just not enough. The fairly talented cast just sleepwalks through every scene and the script lets a lot of important pieces of plot happen offscreen. And no matter how much the breathless introduction tries to convince us how threatening rabbits can be, it’s all undercut by the ridiculous premise and bad slow motion effects.

“Night of the Lepus” is definitely a must-watch, but for all the wrong reasons.

Best Bit:
The bunny attack inside the miner’s shack.

Side Note:
The studio was afraid that if the audience knew the movie was about killer rabbits, they wouldn't watch it. So the novel's title ("The Year of the Angry Rabbit") was changed and no rabbits appeared on the original theater posters.

Companion Viewing:
"Kingdom of the Spiders" (1977).

Links:
IMDb.
The Agony Booth.
BadMovies.org.

Take a Look:
The trailer:

Some random clips:

Charade (1963).

2009-10-20T15:28:00.000-07:00

The Scoop:
Two of Hollywood's classic romantic leads, Cary Grant and Audrey Hepburn, team up for this great suspense thriller, their only cinematic pairing.

Hepburn is Regina Lampert, a widow who discovers that her dead husband had a secret past and a big stash of hidden loot. Pretty soon, all his old cohorts are chasing her through Paris and it's up to Grant to save her -- if she can trust him. Where's the money hidden? Who will the killer strike next? The viewer is kept guessing right up to the end and Hepburn and Grant keep the romantic sparks flying. The supporting cast is filled with familiar faces, including James Coburn, George Kennedy and Walter Matthau.

Produced and directed by Stanley Donen, best known for his musicals, "Charade" is smart, witty and stylish. The script by Peter Stone is great, as is the music by Henry Mancini. Top notch all the way. This is one of the best films Hitchcock never made.

Best Bit:
Just pick any bit of banter between Hepburn and Grant. It's all great.

Side Note:
At the British Academy Awards, this performance earned Grant a nomination for Best Foreign Actor -- even though he was born and raised in London.

Companion Viewing:
"Suspicion" (1941) and "The Usual Suspects" (1995).

Links:
IMDb.
Sweet Sunday Mornings.
The screenplay.

Take a Look:
The deadpan trailer:

Time for a shower!

Succubus: Hell Bent (2007).

2009-10-16T08:10:00.000-07:00

The Scoop:
Can I cut to the chase here? This movie is a big old freakin' waste of time. As a serious horror/thriller, it's a complete pile of twaddle. As a campy bad movie laughfest, it has a few moments, but mostly fails at that too.

While on spring break in Cancun, a completely douchey womanizing film student cleverly named Adam (Robert Mann) meets a mysterious hottie cleverly named Lilith (Natalie Denise Sperl). When he returns home, she turns up at one of his parties and starts leaving corpses in her wake. Turns out she's a succubus, a female demon who consumes the souls of men. (In case you weren't tipped off to that by the title, it's literally spelled out for you in the movie. Literally. Because nothing says "tense climactic battle" like a little impromptu spelling bee.) Sperl isn't so bad as Lilith, and is even kind of sexy. But everything else about the movie is just plain wrong.

The brain child of writer/director Kim Bass (who got his start writing for "In Living Color," oddly enough) is completely amateurish on every level. The script is horrible and cliché-ridden, the direction and editing are muddled, and the acting is wooden at best. All the male actors look like they came out of the same cookie cutter from Pricks 'R' Us. And for a movie with a lot of sex in it, there's absolutely no nudity. You do get to see plenty of Mann's pasty, mole-filled back, though.

"Succubus: Hell Bent" is completely insulting to women, film students, ambulance drivers and most other intelligent people. Oh, and did I mention that there's a demonic fighter jet dogfight? Betcha weren't expecting that!

Save yourself and get out now!

Best Bit:
Gary Busey's cameo as the whacked-out demon hunter. I'm not sure Busey knew he was really shooting a movie. Also look for really horrible cameos by David Keith, Lorenzo Lamas and Kelly Hu.

Side Note:
Want a mythology lesson? Here are the real stories behind succubi and Lilith.

Companion Viewing:
"Serpent's Lair" (1995).

Links:
IMDb.
Official site.
Dr. Gore's Movie Reviews.
1,000 Misspent Hours.

Take a Look:
The trailer. You've got to love any movie in which the leads are the last two actors credited, and the first four combined have about 10 minutes of screen time, max:

Can't Stop the Music (1980).

2009-10-13T08:35:00.000-07:00

The Scoop:
Forget "Vegas in Space." Forget "Paris is Burning." Hell, even forget "Purple Rain." This is officially the gayest movie ever made.

It's the same old trying-to-be-a-star plot that's been rehashed far too many times, but this time is stars the Village People on the downside of their popularity. And the fact that they seem to be trying so hard to convince the world that they're not gay just makes the flames coming out of the screen that much more obvious. Add to that the bad dialogue, flashy disco costumes (which, the film would have us believe, the guys wear in their daily lives, too) and the career launch of Steve Gutenberg as a struggling composer, and you've got a righteous stinker. A flaming stinker, even.

Want to know who to blame? How about producer/writer Allen Carr, director Nancy Walker, and of course the Village People's musical svengali, Jacques Morali.

This is one of the quintessential bad movies.

Best Line:
"James is the name, and flame's my game!"

Best Musical Number:
The deliriously campy "Y.M.C.A." number, which is (sadly) the only one of their good hits that made it into the film.

Side Note:
Gutenberg's character, Jack Morrell, is just a thinly-veiled version Morali.

Companion Viewing:
"Breaking 2: Electric Boogaloo" (1984), "Purple Rain" (1984) and "Glitter" (2001).

Links:
IMDb.
Cool Cinema Trash.

Take a Look:
The fabulous trailer!

Do the Milshake!

Let's do the Y.M.C.A.!

The Wild Angels (1966).

2009-10-09T08:43:00.000-07:00

The Scoop:
For one brief, shining moment this was the quintessential Biker Movie -- until the release of the far superior "Easy Rider" a few years later.

Peter Fonda plays Heavenly Blues, the leader of a biker gang from Southern California. When his buddy Loser (Bruce Dern) gets his bike stolen, they try to retrieve it, only for Loser to wind up badly hurt in the hospital. The gang tries to bust him out, only to have Loser die in the process. They hold a makeshift funeral and have a mourning party in an old church, which eventually leads to a confrontation with the local upstanding conservative citizens. And that's it. Pretty basic, really. Nancy Sinatra and Diane Ladd co-star in the obligatory girlfriend roles, while the rest of the gang is made up of various B-movie misfits and hangers-on.

While the plot and characters of "The Wild Angels" don't amount to much, the attitude and celebration of biker culture shine through. Despite its poor production values, it is a classic of its kind.

Best Line:
"We want to be free! Free to do what we want to do! We want to be free to ride! To ride our machines without being hassled by the man! We want to get loaded! And we want to have a good time! And that's what we're gonna do! We're gonna have a good time! We're gonna have a party!"

Side Note:
Rumor has it that Laura Dern was conceived on the set of this one.

Companion Viewing:
"Easy Rider" (1969) and "The Wild One" (1954).

Links:
IMDb.
Motherfucking Masterpieces.

Take a Look:
The opener:

Party!

Peter Fonda sticks it to The Man in one of the all-time great movie speeches:

The Notorious Bettie Page (2005).

2009-10-06T08:56:00.000-07:00

The Scoop:
Unlike “Bettie Page: Dark Angel,” this can be considered a true biopic of the iconic pinup queen. However, also unlike that film, “The Notorious Bettie Page” lacks a bit of sizzle.

Yet that’s not to say that Mary Harron’s film isn’t worth watching. Particularly exciting is Gretchen Mol’s performance in the title role. For all her fame and influence, Bettie Page is an idol who is frozen in amber for us. All we know of her comes from hundreds of still photographs and just a few film shorts, most of which are devoted more to particular fetishes rather than Bettie’s own considerable personality – and all of which came for just a short period of her life.

But Mol fills in the blanks wonderfully well. She bears a remarkable resemblance to Bettie and recreates the photogenic personality we know from all those pinups. But she also expands on that to bring to life a complex character who maintains a childlike innocence about her powerful sexuality, but who enjoys exercising it nonetheless. Plus, she’s not afraid to go the full monty with a refreshing exuberance.

The supporting cast -- which includes Chris Bauer as Irving Klaw, Lili Taylor as Paula Klaw, and David Straithairn as Sen. Estes Kefauver – is also excellent.

Also of note is the cinematography of Mott Hupfel. His rich black and white photography creates a gritty, noir-esque vision of 1950s New York that also faithfully recreates the look and feel of Page’s pinup work with the Klaws. For the Miami sequences, Hupfel switches to a brilliant, pastel-filled color palette that matches the sunny world of Bunny Yeager’s photos of Bettie.

So where’s the problem? Mostly it’s in the screenplay by Harron and Guinivere Turner, who also teamed up for "American Psycho." There is an evocative opening sequence introducing us to the world of 1950s adult bookstores, but the script quickly devolves from there into a clichéd naïve-country-girl-in-the-big-city take on Page’s pinup career. While we see all of the key moments in Bettie’s life from her start in modeling in New York in 1953 to her religious awakening in Miami in 1959, there is not depth or understanding to it. Also absent are all but a few hints of some of the darker, more extreme aspects of Page’s combustible sexuality.

Nowhere does the film really get under Bettie’s skin. So, consequently, it can’t get under the audience’s skin either. At the end of the film, Page remains just as much of a mystery to us as she was at the beginning, despite Mol’s best efforts to give us a glimpse at the real Bettie Page.

The film also avoids dealing with the mess of Page’s post-modeling life, which included evangelic missions, paranoid schizophrenia, an attempted murder trial, years in a psychiatric institution, followed by some messy copyright battles over her image in the 1990s. (She died in seclusion in 2008 at the age of 85). But that’s just as well, because that’s not the Bettie Page we want to remember.

We want to remember the Bettie staring back at us from all those classic pinup shots – energetic, confident and just as enticing to men as to women, generation after generation. “The Notorious Bettie Page” makes a spirited effort to capture that Bettie, but falls just a bit short.

Best Line:
"I'm not ashamed. Adam and Eve were naked in the Garden of Eden, weren't they? When they sinned, they put on clothes."

Side Note:
This film is filled with improper camera technique on the part of the actors playing the photographers. While most of the cameras being used are period accurate, the actors are just waving them around without any clue of how they were supposed to be handled.

Companion Viewing:
"Bettie Page: Dark Angel" (2004) and "I Shot Andy Warhol" (1996).

Links:
IMDb.

Take a Look:
The trailer:

RAWR!

Scorched (2002).

2009-10-02T10:39:00.000-07:00

The Scoop:
Let's cut to the chase. Gavin Grazer and Joe Wein's film "Scorched" is just another one of those self-consciously quirky indie comedies that tries too hard to be clever for its own good.

In a nondescript California desert town (apparently named Desert, California), three disgruntled employees of the local bank each plot come up with their own plans to rob the bank, and execute their heists on the same weekend. There's Stewart (Paolo Costanzo) and his numbskull pal Max (David Krumholtz) who "borrow" $250,000 from the mini-vault to use on an all-or-nothing roulette bet in Las Vegas. Sheila (Alicia Silverstone) enlists new firefighter pal Max (Ivan Sergei) to empty out the ATMs to get back at her ex-boyfriend, the douchebag bank manager Rick (Joshua Leonard). And then there's Woody Harrelson in the role he was born to play -- Woods, the spaced-out desert rat assistant manager who wants to get revenge on infomercial con artist Mr. Merchant (John Cleese) by cleaning out his safe deposit box. Also mixed up in the shenanigans are new employee Doleman (Marcus Thomas) and his free-spirited pal Shmally (Rachel Leigh Cook).

The plot, which relies on such improbabilities as the banks lack of 24/7 video cameras and the fact that ducks live wild in the desert, plays out pretty much as you'd expect. The comedy is pretty half-baked, unless your idea of fun is watching Woody Harrelson try to hold his own while acting opposite various animals. And, except for Silverstone and Costanzo, everyone else pretty much mails it in.

Sure, there are worse ways to spend 90 minutes of your life. But there are also lots of better things you can do with your time than spending it on this well-meaning but forgettable trifle.

Best Bit:
Jeffrey Tambor's cameo as the spaced-out bank executive.

Side Note:
The horned toad Woods is talking to in the desert at the beginning is actually an Australian bearded dragon, which is not native to California.

Companion Viewing:
"Love and a .45" (1994).

Links:
IMDb.

Take a Look:
Something put together by a Rachel Leigh Cook fanboy:

Thanks to a kindly overseas bootleg site, you can watch the whole film with Korean(?) subtitles:

Bettie Page: Dark Angel (2004).

2009-09-29T21:26:00.000-07:00

The Scoop:
Along with Marilyn, Elvis and James Dean, Bettie Page was one of the quintessential 1950s icons. She may not have gotten the acclaim during her own time that those others did, but that's only because she was the epitome of sexuality in that era -- a sexuality that the nation's moral guardians tried so hard to keep under wraps. But her fans wouldn't be deterred and for years after her abrupt retirement from modeling, they kept her legacy alive with pinup shots and film shorts hidden in dresser drawers and under mattresses until the world was ready for her re-emergence in the 1990s.

"Bettie Page: Dark Angel" is ostensibly a biopic, but only in the loosest sense. Produced by Cult Epics -- the current distributor of most of her film loops -- the movie is built around faithful recreations of some of Bettie's most infamous "lost" shorts. Interspersed with the recreations are scenes from her life during that period, with the focus squarely on her bondage work with Irving Klaw, although there is brief lip service paid to her shoots with Bunny Yeager. But these scenes have all the awkward writing, stilted acting and cardboard quality production values that you've come to expect from the non-sex scenes of your favorite old pornos.

So the results are uneven, to say the least. But luckily, you're probably not watching this movie for the dramatic scenes.

The recreations are campy fun and star Paige Richards not only is a dead ringer for Bettie, but also brings along her years of experience in softcore porn to really sell it. She doesn't have the same presence as Bettie, but no one could. She comes close, though, which goes a long way toward making this cheapo production watchable.

Best Bit:
The kindergarten quality recreation of the Kefauver hearings.

Side Note:
The theme song is by Chris Stein of Blondie. He was signed to do the whole score, but then backed out. The swinging burlesque score used in the film is by Danny B. Harvey and Zack Ryan.

Companion Viewing:
"The Notorious Bettie Page" (2005).

Links:
IMDb.
Official site.

Take a Look:
The trailer:

A montage:

I Was a Teenage Werewolf (1957).

2009-09-22T19:58:00.000-07:00

The Scoop:
This cult classic follows a formula pretty common in the late 1950s -- take a conventional B-movie concept and weld it onto a teen alienation story derived from "Rebel Without a Cause." Obviously, the B-movie theme this time around is lycanthropy.

A young Michael Landon (in tremendous spasms of scenery chewing) is Tony, a typical '50s version of a troubled teen who is sent to psychologist Dr. Brandon (Whit Bissell) to get his head straight. Unfortunately, the doctor is secretly a mad scientist who wants to use Tony as the test subject for some hypnotic devolutionary mumbo-jumbo that turns people into werewolves. In completely predictable fashion, Tony turns hairy, terrorizes his small town, turns on Dr. Brandon, then is put down by the authorities.

The make-up isn't bad, but otherwise the movie's huge financial success at the time has colored its perception today, making it far too overrated. Especially bad is the "Eeny Meeny Mieny Mo" song.

Best Line:
"It's my belief that these legends and myths died out with the invention of electricity."

Side Note:
Landon later returned to spoof this material in an episode of "Highway to Heaven" called "I Was a Middle-Aged Werewolf."

Companion Viewing:
Producer Herman Cohen's follow-up films, "I Was a Teenage Frankenstein" (1957), "Blood of Dracula" (1957) and "How to Make a Monster" (1958).

Links:
IMDb.
HorrorFind.

Take a Look:
The trailer:

The full movie, part one:

Love's Labour's Lost (2000).

2009-09-15T07:54:00.000-07:00

The Scoop:
One of the joys of seeing Shakespeare on stage, even after 400 years' worth of productions, is the range of experimentation that is still possible with the material, even if the risks don't always pay off. On film, however, the risks have traditionally been kept to a minimum, with most productions being set either in a generic 19th century European countryside, or in Elizabethan dress.

So, on that level, it's a breath of fresh air to watch Kenneth Branagh's take on "Love's Labour's Lost," which he stages as a 1930s movie musical. For all of Branagh's Shakespearean bonafides, it's a bold move to have the Bard's words broken up by musical numbers set to the songs of George Gershwin, Jerome Kern, Cole Porter and others. However, this is one experiment that falls flat.

But first, for the uninitiated, here's the story in a nutshell. The King of Naverre (Alessandro Nivola) and his three buddies (Matthew Lillard, Adrian Lester and Branagh) agree to give up the company of women for three years to devote themselves to their studies. However, the French princess (Alicia Silverstone) shows up on a diplomatic mission with her attendants (Natasha McElhone, Carmen Ejogo and Emily Mortimer). As you might guess, various wackiness ensues before a bittersweet ending. The play is one of Shakespeare's early comedies that doesn't carry the weight or beauty of his later, more famous work.

The biggest problem with the film is that Branagh's concept requires such wildly different skill sets from his cast that none of them can do it all. So, despite the presence of a talented ensemble, nothing quite hangs together. The actors are either good at the poetry (Branagh, McElhone and the wonderful old pro Richard Briers) or the song and dance (Lester and Nathan Lane, who seems to be channeling all four Marx Brothers). And then there are the unfortunate few (namely, Silverstone and Lillard) who can handle neither. As a result, every scene seems strained as everyone on screen is trying too hard to reach out of their comfort zone to deliver something they may not have training in. And then there's the performance of Timothy Spall as Don Armado, who chews the scenery into tiny pieces.

But for all of that, it is still a lovely film to look at, thanks to the art direction of Mark Raggett, the costumes by Anna Buruma and Alex Thomson's excellent cinematography. There are even a few good directorial touches from Branagh. It's not quite enough to offset the problems with the acting, but it's still good to see a play from outside the usual cinematic Shakespearean canon on the big screen, even if most of the text has been cut.

Best Bit:
The best Shakespearean bit is Branagh's dynamite delivery of the "From women's eyes" soliloquy. The best musical bit is the Gene Kelly-ish sensuality and bravado of the "Let's Face the Music and Dance" number.

Side Note:
Shakespeare's ending to "Love's Labour's Lost" is notoriously inconclusive, which is something Branagh addresses with a montage showing what happened to the characters after the end of the story. However, many scholars now believe that this play is just the first part of the story, which was finished by Shakespeare in a play called "Love's Labour's Won" that is now lost to history.

Companion Viewing:
"Pennies From Heaven" (1981) and "Everybody Says I Love You" (1996).

Links:
IMDb.
The complete play.

Take a Look:
"I Won't Dance":

Branagh doing what he does best (by which I mean the soliloquizing, not the tap dancing):

Nathan Lane doing what he does best (by which I mean the Broadway-zing, not the soliloquizing):

"Let's Face the Music and Dance" (complete with Spanish subtitles):

Behind the scenes featurette:

Let the Devil Wear Black (1999).

2009-09-11T07:51:00.000-07:00

The Scoop:
All you really need to know is that this is an update of "Hamlet" set in the L.A. Jewish underworld.

It's a promising concept, but ultimately falls flat. Jack (Jonathan Penner) is depressed about his father's death, especially when his mother (Jacqueline Bisset) marries his uncle (Jamey Sheridan). Thanks to a mysterious informer and a little detective work, Jack discovers that his uncle killed his father, then plots out his revenge. Meanwhile his girlfriend (Mary-Louise Parker) slowly goes insane.

The problem is that nothing seems to hang together. There's very little plot progression and, in fact, if you didn't know the basic story of "Hamlet" you'd probably have not idea what was happening at all. Only the barest outline of the "Hamlet" story remains, replaced with a lot of scenes that go nowhere and with reams of pretentious, pseudo-philosophic, pseudo-gritty dialogue. It's slow and dreary, and even at 89 minutes if feels way too long.

Not content with being a wannabe Shakespeare, director Stacy Title (who also co-wrote with Penner) also tries to be a wannabe Tarantino. And "Let the Devil Wear Black" is nothing more than just another late entry in the wave of Tarantino imitations that flooded indie cinemas in the '90s.

Best Bit:
"If brains were cars, you'd have a boat."

Side Note:
The title "Let the Devil Wear Black" of course comes from Shakespeare's play -- Hamlet says it to Ophelia in Act III, Scene 2.

Companion Viewing:
Kenneth Branagh's "Hamlet" (1996) for a good treatment of the original play, and Ethan Hawke's "Hamlet" (2000) for another updated version.

Links:
IMDb.

Take a Look:
The trailer:

Some NSFW bullshit philosophy:

Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band (1978).

2009-09-08T08:35:00.000-07:00

The Scoop:
With Beatles Rockband coming out tomorrow, we're in the midst of another one of those periodic waves that flood our culture celebrating the Beatles' legacy. It is most definitely a legacy that deserves celebrating, but sometimes it's worth remembering that not every appropriation of the Beatles is a work of genius.

Take, for instance, this... thing. How was this ever a good idea? Pop stars of the '70s (including the Bee Gees, Peter Frampton and Earth, Wind & Fire) gather to cover Beatles songs and participate in some sort of plot cobbled together from references to Beatles lyrics. And the resulting film is even worse than the description sounds.

It was directed by Michael Schultz (who was also responsible for "Car Wash" and "Carbon Copy"), written by Henry Edwards (who had no other film credits after this) and the non-musical cast includes George Burns, Donald Pleasance, Sandy Farina and Steve Martin.

Despite an interesting touch or two (such as the inspired casting of Aerosmith as the evil enemy band), this is only good for unintentional laughs and not much else. Provided you can stomach the desecration of such great music.

Best Line:
"Could Billy survive 10,000 volts? It was a lot more than normally came through his guitar. Frankly, he was shocked. Stunned and unconscious, only the power of true love could revive the injured Billy."

Side Note:
The "Guests of Heartland" read like a who's who of the mid-1970s pop charts, including Leif Garrett, Jose Feliciano, Donovan, Yvonne Elliman, Rick Derringer, Seals and Crofts, Dr. John and dozens of others. Hidden in the crowd - and carefully omitted from the end credits - are George Harrison and Paul and Linda McCartney.

Companion Viewing:
"Xanadu" (1980) and "Across the Universe" (2007).

Links:
IMDb.
Fan site.
Trading cards!.
The history of the trumpet.

Take a Look:
The trailer:

Sandy Farina plays Strawberry Fields, singing "Strawberry Fields Forever":

Summer Rerun: Dante's Inferno (2007).

2009-09-04T08:18:00.000-07:00

The busy minions at Desuko World HQ are taking a well-deserved summer vacation, so in the meantime, enjoy these favorite posts from the past. [Originally published July 18, 2008]

The Scoop:
One unintended consequence of the electronic media age has been a change in the way we experience classic (i.e., pre-20th century) literature. Now it's all about the adaptation. (Of course, these adaptations make sense for the filmmakers, who get cheap access to familiar material and don't have to deal with authors who demand royalties or protest changes in the script.) More and more, one's first encounter with Shakespeare or Dickens or countless other authors is through a film or television adaptation of one of their works. If audiences aren't rushing to the cineplex for their first tastes of these classics, they are getting them in the classroom -- teachers typically now accompany their reading assignments with screenings of films based on these works to help students better understand them. Shakespeare has now become inseparable from Olivier or Branagh, and Jane Austen from the starlet du jour.

All of which brings us to this version of "Dante's Inferno."

Italian poet Dante Alighieri's "Comedy" -- his epic tale of his journey through hell ("Inferno"), purgatory ("Purgatorio") and heaven ("Paradiso") under the tutelage of his idol, the Roman poet Virgil and Dante's beloved Beatrice -- is notoriously resistant to onscreen adaptation. Except for a couple perfunctory stabs from the silent era and a BBC miniseries from the 1980s, little straight adaptation has been done of the poem. More commonly, elements of the "Comedy" have been used as inspirations or jumping-off points for newer works. (One typical example is the 1935film "Dante's Inferno," a turgid morality play in which Spencer Tracy plays a carnival barker wrestling with the ethics of his profession. The attraction he shills for, a ride based on "Inferno," is shown in only a few scenes, primarily as a comment on the action of the main story.)

So give filmmakers Sean Meredith, Sandow Birk and Paul Zaloom credit for attempting a full adaptation of "Inferno." One reason adaptors have stayed away from Dante is his work's resistance to modernized spins on the material (something that has become a staple of filmed Shakespeare, for instance). But the threesome give it a try, mixing in modern situations and personalities with the arcane issues and obscure historical figures used by Dante. Credit should also go to them for doing it in the form of a puppet show.

In this version Dante (voiced by Dermot Mulroney) wakes up hung over in a seedy alley, not knowing how he got there. He his approached by Virgil (James Cromwell), who leads him down a sewer into the pit of hell, where they encounter pimps and whores, corporate malfeasance and urban decay to go along with the medieval horrors chronicled in the original.

The puppetwork, using paper figures that manage to be terrifically expressive, is wonderful, but many of the other creative choices fall flat. For every update that works (portraying the Maleboge demons as hypervigilant T.S.A. agents, or mounting Ulysses' story as a puppet show within a puppet show) there are a handful that don't (Lucifer's fondue pot, or the multiple references to the rock band Styx).

Pacing is a problem as well. By the film's halfway mark, Virgil and Dante have raced through the first seven pits of hell, then spend the last half in a leisurely stroll through the final two pits, including plenty of non-Dante tangents along the way. Also, purists may be offended that (spoiler alert!) Dante's trip through hell ends with him back on earth rather than preparing to scale the mountain of purgatory.

But in all it's an admirable effort to try to make a 700-year-old epic poem relevant to modern audiences. The somewhat basic approach may make it cringe-worthy for Dante aficionados. But that makes it ideal for use in a high school classroom, giving another generation an opening to understanding a monumental piece of literature.

Best Bit:
The Pope John Paul II cameo.

Side Note:
Zaloom is better known as Beakman from the TV show "Beakman's World."

Companion Viewing:
"Dante's Inferno" (1935).

Links:
IMDb.
Official Site.

Take a Look:
The trailer:

A song and dance number explaining the grip lobbyists hold on Congress:

Summer Rerun: F For Fake (1974).

2009-08-31T08:11:00.000-07:00

The busy minions at Desuko World HQ are taking a well-deserved summer vacation, so in the meantime, enjoy these favorite posts from the past. [Originally published Nov. 27, 2007]

The Scoop:
Orson Welles was the consummate trickster. Already a successful theater director, he burst into the public eye in 1939 with his infamous "War of the Worlds" radio broadcast, a pioneering piece of pseudo-documentary hucksterism. From there it was onto the capital of illusion, Hollywood, where he began a film career in which he repeatedly played with the audience's notions of the boundaries reality and imagination, and celebrated the power of magic.

In the documentary "F For Fake," which would ultimately prove to be his final directorial effort, he turns his lifelong fascination with trickery and illusion toward investigating the case of notorious art forger Elmyr de Hory and his equally notorious biographer (and Howard Hughes diary forger) Clifford Irving. As they tell their stories for his camera, Welles interweaves his own philosophizing on the power of fraud and the nature of art. Plus, as if that weren't enough, the careers of Hughes and Welles himself get mixed in for good measure.

And then there's the final 20 minutes or so, in which Welles detours into telling the story of Oja Kodar, which transcends all the indulgence and trickery that came before.

The result is an essay, really, more than a film -- but one that is sprawling and fascinating.

In the end, "F For Fake" becomes a fitting tribute to his career -- both thought-provoking and self-serving, dishing out equal parts brilliance and self-indulgence. And utterly ignored by the mainstream.

Best Bit:
There's lots of good, quotable stuff here, but the discourse on the cathedral at Chartes stands out.

Side Note:
The excerpt of "War of the Worlds" that Welles includes is actually a recreation, not the original broadcast, and even includes some rewritten lines.

Companion Listening/Viewing:
Welles' original "War of the Worlds" (1939) and "The Blair Witch Project" (1999).

Links:
IMDb.

Take a Look:
The trailer:

The Chartes monologue:

Summer Rerun: Watchmen (2009).

2009-08-28T08:41:00.000-07:00

The busy minions at Desuko World HQ are taking a well-deserved summer vacation, so in the meantime, enjoy these favorite posts from the past. [Originally published March 31, 2009]

The Scoop:
When Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons' "Watchmen" was released in 1985, it became a landmark in the emerging genre of graphic novels and has cast a long shadow. Not only did it enlarge the storytelling possibilities in the comics field, but its effects have also been felt in the larger popular culture, particularly the way films and television shows have handled superhero themes. It was also very much a product of its times, delving deep into the Cold War anxieties of the mid-1980s.

All of which make any sort of film version of "Watchmen" especially problematic. As written by David Hayter ("X-Men") and newcomer Alex Tse and directed by Zack Snyder ("300"), the film is full of thunder and excitement, but runs up against a few walls.

The story takes place in a darker, alternate version of 1985 America in which costumed adventurers and vigilantes are common place and, after their halcyon days in the 1940s, have become increasingly distrusted by the public for enforcing the oppresive policies of the U.S. government, led by Richard Nixon in his fifth term as president. Against the backdrop of escalating nuclear tensions between the U.S. and Soviet Union, the hero-turned-military-mercenary The Comedian is murdered. As the sociopathic vigilante Rohrshach tries to solve the crime, he and his former compatriots (including Nite Owl, Silk Spectre, Dr. Manhattan and Ozymandias) uncover corruption and a global power grab.

The novel's genius lies in its multi-layered storytelling, which is rich in symbolism, literary allusions and a wonderfully fleshed-out cast of supporting characters. The history of this alternate world is also richly detailed, providing a running commentary on the main story and rewarding careful attention. All these elements combine to debunk the idealized superhero mythos, turning a cynical eye to the corruption possible when so much power is concentrated in the hands of flawed human beings. It is a world that is less about Superman and more about Travis Bickle.

Accordingly, a faithful film adaptation is a pretty tall order. The Cold War paranoia has lost much of its edge in the nearly quarter century since its release, as had the shock of the novel's innovations. The filmmakers do their best to honor the source material, but come up with a mixed bag.

For the sake of brevity and to not alienate those who haven't read the novel, the filmmakers sweep aside much of the complex backstory for the film. While this serves to keep the focus on the current generation of heroes, it also diminishes the psychological realism of the piece. Consequently, a lot of the characters' actions exist in a vaccuum, and much of Moore's original message is lost. Almost all of the cast of minor characters is lost, too, making the proceedings seem so much thinner and one-dimensional.

And then there's the violence. While the novel and the film are each especially violent, they wind up being two different creatures. Snyder and his writers toned down many of the more brutal passages of the book in favor of Snyder's patented garish fight choreography. Limbs shatter and blood gushes in gruesome slow motion. It's hypnotic and balletic, but ultimately just eye candy. The amoral brutality that Moore used to illuminate his hard-edged characters is replaced by empty and gratuitous exercises in CGI wizardry.

But it's not all bad. The novel's greatest weakness -- its convoluted, inorganic ending -- is given a minor revamp here to better effect. It's still not wholly satisfying, but it is definitely a step in the right direction. There is also terrific cinematography by Larry Fong (a veteran of "300" and "Lost") that vividly brings to life some of the best parts of Gibbons' original artwork.

The acting, too, is solid. With the exception of a wooden turn by Malin Ackerman as the second Silk Spectre, this is a talented ensemble. Billy Crudup (as Dr. Manhattan) and Jackie Earle Haley (as Rohrshach) are particularly great.

In total, "Watchmen" is not completely successful, but it's not a failure, either. Just be sure to read the book first, to fully appreciate the story's rich possibilities.

Best Line:
"Never compromise. Not even in the face of Armageddon."

Side Note:
Having been in development for decades, "Watchmen" has had numerous actors, writers and directors attached to the project at various times. Among the directors considered were Terry Gilliam, Darren Aronofsky, Paul Greenglass and Michael Bay. Among the candidates to play Rohrshach were Robin Williams, Simon Pegg, Daniel Craig and Doug Hutchinson.

Companion Viewing:
"V For Vendetta" (2005) and "The Incredibles" (2004).

Links:
IMDb.
Official Site.
Watchmen Wiki.
The Annotated Watchmen.

Take a Look:
The trailer:

Trailer #2:

Summer Rerun: Return of the Living Dead 3 (1993).

2009-08-25T08:03:00.000-07:00

The busy minions at Desuko World HQ are taking a well-deserved summer vacation, so in the meantime, enjoy these favorite posts from the past. [Originally published April 6, 2007]

The Scoop:
One would think that this was just another hack-job horror sequel -- and one would be right, up to a point. But his film has a little something extra which makes it stand out from the crowd.

A rebellious teenager (J. Trevor Edmond) gets into a fight with his Army officer father ("Emergency's" Kent McCord) -- who works at a top-secret base studying the gas that turns corpses into the living dead -- and runs away with his girlfriend Julie (Mindy Clarke). They don't get too far before Julie gets fatally injured in a motorcycle accident. Of course, her dunderheaded boyfriend has the brilliant idea of breaking into dad's lab and using the gas to bring her back to life. The results are unique -- she appears to be okay, but slowly begins showing signs of encroaching zombie-ism. There are some great scenes in which Clarke and director Brian Yuzna communicate the poignancy of the ongoing transformation and its effect on the couple's romance. Unfortunately, these alternate with scenes filled with the purest, lamest horror sequel clichés. Imagine two screenwriters -- one an Oscar winner, the other a brain-dead moron -- being asked to write scripts on the same premise, then randomly splicing the two scripts together and allowing all the seams to show. The result would be something like this movie. Still, Clarke is pretty sexy and does a decent job with the "good" material -- plus, the scene where she prepares to kick evil zombie butt by piercing herself with scrap metal has a certain S&M kick to it.

This film also manages to somehow to have three "endings" -- two scenes that would've been perfectly good resolutions to the story, and one which really is the end. If it had closed after the first "ending," the film might arguably be called a sleeper classic. Even if they had finished with the second "ending," the filmmakers could have saved some face. Unfortunately, they let the final act drag out far too long.

Best Bit:
The piercing scene.

Side Note:
Clarke was a regular on "Days of Our Lives" and has made guest appearances on "Seinfeld," "Sliders" and "Xena: Warrior Princess."

Companion Viewing:
George Romero's orginal living dead trilogy -- "Night of the Living Dead" (1968), "Dawn of the Dead" (1979) and "Day of the Dead" (1985) -- as well as the first "Return of the Living Dead" (1985).

Links:
IMDb.
The Flesh Farm.
Robert Llewellyn's Classic Films.

Take a Look:
The trailer:

Guest Blog: Answers to Vince's Quiz.

2009-08-21T08:18:00.000-07:00

Remember the quiz that Vince from Vince's Quiz so graciously guest blogged for us? Well, here are the answers! He chose the stars of the films listed in my Blogger profile as my favorites. Rascally guy...

1. Hal 9000 (voiced by Douglas Rain) (2001: A Space Odyssey)

2. Marlon Brando (Apocalypse Now)

3. Jack Webb (Dragnet)

4. Cary Grant (His Girl Friday)

5. Sally Kellerman (M*A*S*H)

6. Uma Thurman (Pulp Fiction)

7. Harvey Keitel (Reservoir Dogs)

8. Carrie Fisher (Star Wars)

9. John Goodman (True Stories)

Summer Rerun: 200 Motels (1971).

2009-08-18T08:39:00.000-07:00

The busy minions at Desuko World HQ are taking a well-deserved summer vacation, so in the meantime, enjoy these favorite posts from the past. [Originally published Jan. 6, 2009]

The Scoop:
Part rock opera, part tour exposé, part vanity project, part absurdist theater, part experiemental music video -- Frank Zappa's "200 Motels" can be a tough nut to crack.

Zappa and the early-1970s version of his band, the Mothers of Invention, had an ongoing fascination with the life of a touring rock band. This fascination found its way into their music, and their shows became increasingly elaborate musical theater pieces full of songs, skits and jokes centered around sex, drugs and other outrageous behavior. It was all based on things they had done themselves, or on the stories that made the rounds among other groups. This exploration of the lifestyle finally culminated in "200 Motels."

Beneath all the madness and surrealism of the film, there is a plot of sorts -- Zappa (played by Ringo Starr) and the Mothers (who all play themselves) roll into the generic American town of Centerville looking for a good time. There, they cross paths with a pair of groupies (Janet Ferguson and Lucy Offerall), the devil (Theodore Bikel), a nun (Keith Moon) and a host of other strange characters.

Many of the situations come right from the Mothers' tour experiences, and much of the dialogue is based on transcripts of conversations captured by Zappa and his cassette recorder during downtime on the road. The result is surprisingly genuine, despited the intentionally stilted delivery of the troupe of non-actors and Zappa's notorious ironic detachment from his material.

Musically, the work here comes from one of Zappa's most fertile periods, and it finds following two different creative strands. With the Mothers, he creates some straight-ahead, powerful blues rock that would not sound out of place alongside the Allman Brothers, Zeppelin or even Sabbath. These songs are interspersed with FZ's more experimental compositions, performed by the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra. These pieces represent a turning point in his avant garde career, both looking back to the studio-bound "sound sculptures" of his early albums and also foreshadowing the orchestral work he would do in earnest a decade later.

For Zappa neophytes, "200 Motels" (both the film and the soundtrack album) is probably not the best introduction to the man's work. But for fans it is essential and rewards close, repeated viewings.

Best Line:
"The fuckin' devil's got an English accent. I seen him three weeks ago on TV. So you know, you can just take this big needle here and hang it in your ass as far as I'm concerned!"

Side Note:
Offerall and Pamela Miller (who plays the Interviewer) were members of the GTO's (Girls Together Outrageously), a groupie collective/performance art troupe/singing group whose music was produced by Zappa. Miller would go on to become Pamela Des Barres, author of the infamous memoir "I'm With the Band."

Companion Viewing:
"Head" (1968).

Links:
IMDb.
Understanding 200 Motels.

Take a Look:
The trailer:

Welcome to Centerville (a real nice place to raise your kids up)!

Jimmy Carl Black (the Indian of the group) performs "Lonesome Cowboy Burt":

Summer Rerun: Targets (1968).

2009-08-14T07:29:00.000-07:00

The busy minions at Desuko World HQ are taking a well-deserved summer vacation, so in the meantime, enjoy these favorite posts from the past. [Originally published Dec. 14, 2006]

The Scoop:
While "Targets" presents the story of a moral crossroads, it also represents a cinematic crossroads -- the end of the brilliant Boris Karloff's career and the start of Peter Bogdanovich's.

In his writing and directing debut, Bogdanovich crafts this cautionary, semi-autobiographical tale of aging horror movie star Byron Orlok (played by Karloff), who decides to leave the business when he realizes his life's work can't compare to the real horrors taking place on America's streets everyday. The clips of Orlok's past work are taken from the classic performances of Karloff, and to complete the real-life parallels, Bogdanovich even casts himself as the young director making Orlok's last film. There is also a parallel plot concerning a troubled young man who goes on a shooting spree that is sadly all too familiar in our post-Columbine world. These two plot strands cross when the young shooter takes refuge in a drive-in theater that turns out to be the site of Orlok's last public appearance before retirement.

This film offers an interesting exploration of the role of the entertainment media in the social upheaval of the late-'60s (it was released in the late spring of 1968, shortly after the assassination of Martin Luther King, but before the shooting of Robert Kennedy) that has grown even more prescient today. And Bogdanovich challeges the viewer by filming from the point of view of the shooter, putting the audience in the killer's shoes.

Despite his obviously failing health, Karloff gives the strongest, most human portrayal of a career marked my more depth than most horror actors'. In a perfect world, this swan song performance would've been recognized with an Oscar. Instead, the poverty-stricken Karloff followed his performance here with appearances (confined to a wheelchair) in a quartet of bad Mexican cheapies, filmed over the course of a couple weeks, before dying in 1969. But forget those duds -- this is the true, final summation of one of the truly great acting careers in film.

Best Line:
Karloff's summation, "Is that what I was afraid of?"

Best Bit:
The staging of the freeway shooting scene.

Side Notes:
1) Bogdanovich originally offered the lead role to Vincent Price, who turned it down. 2) The film showing in the drive-in at the end of the movie is "The Terror" (1963), in which Karloff costarred with a young Jack Nicholson. 3) The victim who dies in the phone booth is none other than Mike Farrell, who went on to a more distinguished career in television, starring in "M*A*S*H" and "Providence."

Companion Viewing:
Two of this film's cinematic descendents -- "Taxi Driver" (1976) and "Natural Born Killers" (1994).

Links:
IMDb.
Wikipedia.
Horror-Wood.

Take a Look:
A kinda spoiler-y TV spot:

Here's Boris Karloff spinning a classic scary tale:

And then there's this...

Guest Blog: Vince's Quiz.

2009-08-11T08:03:00.000-07:00

Today we have a guest blog from Vince, the proprietor of Vince's Quiz. He's a man of few words, so let's get right to it. Leave your guesses in the comments. And, if you want to try for the extra credit, you can guess why he chose these nine in particular. Answers to follow in a couple of weeks, or sooner if there are a lot of guesses. Good luck!

Who are these actors ? / Qui sont ces acteurs ?

1.

2.

3.

4.

5.

6.

7.

8.

9.

Red Zone Cuba (a.k.a., Night Train to Mundo Fine) (1966).

2009-08-07T08:22:00.000-07:00

The Scoop:
This is yet another Coleman Francis/Anthony Cardoza turd, only this time it is apparently Francis' grand artistic statement.

Back in the '60s and '70s, just about anybody could get John Carradine to appear in their film for about the cost of a ham sandwich, so Francis apparently blew his budget on that, and then wasted the whole thing in the first two minutes of the movie. In the opening scene, Carradine turns up as a grizzled railway worker who is telling this story to a nondescript bystander. After this incredibly short day's work, Carradine disappears from the movie forever, but not before croaking the horrendously awful theme song.

From there, the real story starts. An escaped convict (played by the auteur himself, who also wrote, directed, produced and edited this red-baiting debacle) gets mixed up with five or six revolutionaries who try to invade Cuba. After an excursion that makes the Bay of Pigs look like an epic triumph, our intrepid non-heroes get captured, and a couple of them try a semi-daring escape before getting hunted down by a half-hearted posse back in the States.

At least, that's what the plot seems to indicate. Mostly, "Red Zone Cuba" just meanders from scene to scene, without much differentiation between one setting and the next. In fact, if this film is to be believed, Cuba is just a little town in the California desert. And I think the guy with the cigar and glued-on beard is supposed to be Fidel Castro.

Best Line:
"I'm Cherokee Jack!"

Side Note:
Apparently Cherokee Jack's plane is still in use, and is currently being flown out of a small airport in Alaska.

Companion Viewing:
"The Beast of Yucca Flats" (1961) and "Invasion U.S.A." (1952).

Links:
IMDb.
The Agony Booth.
Daddy-O's Drive-In Dirt.

Take a Look:
Just try to entertained. I dare you:

Red Zone Cuba: the first 5 minutes @ Yahoo! Video

Pandora's Box (1929).

2009-08-04T08:15:00.000-07:00

The Scoop:
Silent screen legend Louise Brooks had her signature performance as Lulu in this German masterpiece. She entices, she allures, she arouses, and today, 80 years later, she still breaks hearts, both male and female alike.

Brooks' performance, still among the sexiest and most charming ever in screen history, anchors G.W. Pabst's tearjerker about a reckless party girl who gets her comeuppance at the hands of Jack the Ripper.

Once you get beyond Louise Brooks, the rest of the film is fairly conventional, but very well executed. Based on a pair of popular German plays by Frank Wedekind, some of the subject matter went beyond the bounds of what Hollywood was doing at the time, although the basic "rise and fall of an evil, heartbreaking woman" plot -- and the troubling view of women's sexuality it presented -- was a cliché even by that point. But there are also good performances by Fritz Kortner and Francis Lederer, as the father and son who get ruined by Lulu's lust. And director Pabst does a superb job of holding it all together and bringing out the best in his leading lady. And as if that wasn't enough, her haircut became iconic and started a fashion trend.

The strong-willed Brooks, who was beginning to make a name for herself in Hollywood, fled to Germany to make "Pandora's Box" out of frustration over the lack of good roles available back home. The powers that be in Hollywood never forgave her for that, though, and this movie, which launched her to superstardom, also marked the effective end of her acting career.

This film, and Brooks in particular, contain all the elements of which greatness is made, and provide a marvelous swan song for the silent era.

Best Bit:
Lulu and Alice's dance.

Side Note:
Countess Anna, played by Alice Roberts, is believed to be the first lesbian character depicted in film. Roberts didn't realize her character was gay until filming began, and although she wanted to walk off the film, she was persuaded to stay and not break her contract.

Companion Viewing:
"It" (1927).

Links:
IMDb.
Lenin Imports.
Senses of Cinema.
Silent Volume.

Take a Look:
Watch it on the YouTube installment plan, beginning here:

Kingdom of the Spiders (1977).

2009-07-28T11:02:00.000-07:00

The Scoop:
This entry in the late-'70s wave of evil spider movies is pretty much just like all the others -- except this one has William Shatner, which really puts it over the top.

The Shat plays a studly cowboy veterinarian with the soap opera ready name of Rack Hansen who goes to a small Arizona town to investigate a rash of unexplained livestock deaths. It turns out, of course, that the deaths are caused by a gang of angry tarantulas who eventually take over the town, give everyone the willies and deliver an Important Ecological Lesson along the way. Basically, it starts out like "Jaws" and ends up like "The Birds."

Veteran Z-grade exploitation star John "Bud" Cardos directed this and does a technically credible job. But the script from Alan Caillou and Richard Robinson is a turd, the supporting cast (including Woody Strode, Tiffany Bolling and Altovise Davis) is overwrought and Shatner has the smarm set on overdrive. Plus just about every '70s ecological disaster film cliché is crammed onto the screen.

In other words, it's a hoot. But if you have issues with spiders and couldn't stomach the other spider movies, you won't be able to stomach this one, either.

Best Line:
"I don't think DDT's gonna kill 'em."

Side Note:
Cardos worked a lot of jobs behind the camera during his career on the fringes of Hollywood. But of most relevance here was his experience as a bird wrangler for Hitchcock on "The Birds."

Companion Viewing:
"The Giant Spider Invasion" (1975) and "Tarantulas: The Deadly Cargo" (1977).

Links:
IMDb.
X-Entertainment.

Take a Look:
The trailer:

Check out opening. It has everything you need -- an awesome theme song, star quality bovine acting and sexually charged banter about animal vaccinations. And, believe it or not, the movie's just getting warmed up:

The Gorilla (1939).

2009-07-24T09:33:00.000-07:00

The Scoop:
I watch this crap so you don't have to.

Why should you bother watching "The Gorilla"? This one is only for the morbidly curious who want to see Bela Lugosi's career in mid-decline. Here he plays straight man (as does the similarly-declining Lionel Atwill) to the tragically unfunny Ritz Brothers who are trying to solve the mystery of a serial killer in an old mansion.

They don't get much more boring than this. Even eight hours of Andy Warhol's camera trained on the Empire State Building will entertain you more than "The Gorilla."

Seriously, I can't recommend this movie to you less. I shouldn't even be writing about it, and you shouldn't even be reading about it. As it is, we've all just wasted a few precious minutes of our finite lives on it, not to mention all the irreplaceable fossil fuels we've just burned up by using our computers to deal with it. Let's all just cut our losses now and move on. Please, just move on.

Best Line:
"But how could a monkey write those notes to Uncle Walter?"

Side Note:
The costumes were designed by Gwen Wakeling, who would go on to create Barbara Eden's iconic costume for "I Dream of Jeannie."

Companion Viewing:
"The Bat Whispers" (1930).

Links:
IMDb.
1,000 Misspent Hours.

Take a Look:
Here's a taste. Now imagine 66 straight minutes of this:

You best watch out. Bela regulates the fridge:

Cobra Woman (1944).

2009-07-21T08:42:00.000-07:00

The Scoop:
This technicolor extravaganza is campy B-movie jungle adventure fun at its best.

Maria Montez, who really deserves to be a bigger drag queen icon, plays twins (one good and one evil, of course). It seems that the evil twin, Naja, is the priestess of an ancient island cobra cult and when she discovers the existence of good twin Tollea, she has her kidnapped for no good reason. Tollea's fiancé Samu (Jon Hall) sets off to rescue her with his trusty native pal Kabo (Sabu) by his side. Lon Chaney Jr. also lurks around the edge of the action. Plus, there's a chimp!

All the swashbuckling, campy fun and beautiful native girls on display here make this a perfect time-waster. (In fact, Kenneth Anger once called this is all-time favorite film, which should give you an idea of what you're in for.) Noir master Robert Siodmak stepped outside of his comfort zone to direct this with gusto from a completely inept script by Gene Lewis and Richard Brooks. It's so wrong it's right.

Best Bit:
The cobra dance. Oh yes. You must stick around to watch Maria do her cobra dance.

Side Note:
Famed Shakespearean stage actor Fritz Leiber, near the end of this life, has a small unbilled part.

Companion Viewing:
"Voodoo Woman" (1957).

Links:
IMDb.
1,000 Misspent Hours.

Take a Look:
The trailer:

"I have spoken. King Cobra!"

Ratatouille (2007).

2009-07-14T08:41:00.000-07:00

The Scoop:
Food lovers will find a lot to like in "Ratatouille," Brad Bird's second feature for Pixar.

The film takes us inside the gourmet kitchens of Paris as Remy (Patton Oswalt), a culinarily gifted rat, helps nervous apprentice chef Linguini (Lou Romano) move up in the world of high cuisine, woo fellow chef Colette (Janeane Garofalo), please the notorious food critic Anton Ego (Peter O'Toole) and stay one step ahead of his conniving boss Skinner (Ian Holm).

The world of the busy kitchen is lovingly recreated, with plenty of attention paid to the preparation of the ingredients, culinary aesthetics and the simple joys of cooking. This is a top-notch Pixar production in other ways too, particularly in the character design, the excellent voice performances and a couple of bravura chase sequences.

Where "Ratatouille" stumbles, however, is in its predictable, cliched story. The plot doesn't offer any surprises. This may not be entirely the fault of Bird, who took over the project from original writer/director Jan Pinkava midway through. But it still amounts to possibly the weakest story in the Pixar repertoire.

That's not a reason to avoid "Ratatouille" but unless you're enamored with the world of gourmet cuisine, you might not be revisiting it very often.

Best Line:
"I defrauded a major corporation. I robbed the second largest bank in France using only a ballpoint pen. I created a hole in the ozone layer over Avignon. I killed a man -- with this thumb."

Side Note:
The shop with the dead rats in the window is an actual exterminator's shop in Paris called Destruction des Animaux Nuisibles, which has been in business since 1872.

Companion Viewing:
"The Tale of Despereaux" (2008).

Links:
IMDb.
Official site.
Fan site.
A recipe for ratatouille from Cooking for Engineers.

Take a Look:
The trailer:

Anton Ego will eat you alive. But he won't swallow.

The Concorde: Airport '79 (1979).

2009-07-10T08:16:00.000-07:00

The Scoop:
This (mercifully) final installment in the "Airport" series reaches a zenith of silliness -- surpassing even the jumbo-jet-on-the-ocean-floor of "Airport '77" -- and provides most of the fodder for the hilarious "Airplane!"

A goodwill flight from Washington to Moscow is interrupted by missles, fighter planes, Charo's chihuahua and other intrigue. Along the way, the French pilot (Alain Delon) has lots of sex, Jimmie Walker gets high and plays the saxophone, Martha Raye gets tossed around the bathroom, Avery Schreiber makes funny faces and, best of all, George Kennedy dogfights with a pair of F-15s armed only with a flare gun. But wait, there's more! The seemingly endless cast list also includes Robert Wagner, Sylvia Kristel, Susan Blakely, David Warner, John Davidson, Eddie Albert, Cicely Tyson and a host of others.

It's all total trash. But it's highly entertaining trash. There's not a whole lot more to say about it except, damn, what a turkey. (But I mean that in the nicest possible way.)

Best Line:
"Well, it's called the 'cockpit' for a reason..."

Side Note:
The concorde used in the film was sold to Air France after the production, and it is the same plane that crashed on takeoff from Paris in July 2000, becoming France's worst air disaster.

Companion Viewing:
"Airplane!" (1980) and the other films in the "Airport" series.

Links:
IMDb.
Cool Cinema Trash.
The Agony Booth.

Take a Look:
The trailer:

Charo!

Bluetopia: The L.A. Dodgers Movie (2009).

2009-07-07T07:36:00.000-07:00

The Scoop:
Fandom for a sports team is a hard thing to explain to the uninitiated. There certainly isn't anything logical or rational about it, but it's something that becomes ingrained at an early age and is a passion that runs deeper than anything. It isn't about going to games for a fun getaway or to be "seen." It's about being there, win or lose (especially when they're losing), through sun or rain. It's an unbridled love for anyone wearing your uniform.

“Bluetopia” is the story of the 2008 Los Angeles Dodgers season, but this isn’t your typical documentary. It’s an all-access look, not only with the players in the clubhouse and their off-field lives, but also with the stadium operations and what happens behind the scenes. But even better than that are the interviews with the lifelong fans, talking about their love for the team. This is, at heart, as story about fandom, and offers a snapshot of the state of Dodgers Nation.

Besides the usual suspects like the players, general manager Ned Colletti and owners Frank and Jamie McCourt, there are also interviews with the likes of clubhouse manager Mitch Poole, Roger “The Peanut Man” Owens, Joe Beimel’s parents and, of course, Vin Scully. But there are also visits with the owner of a Dodger-themed tattoo shop, former gang members working with Homeboy Industries, three little old ladies who love Russell Martin, and doctors and cancer patients at the City of Hope.

But the pivotal moment, of course, is the arrival of Manny Ramirez, and we get to see his first entrance in the clubhouse, the media crush and the reaction of his new teammates (including Andruw Jones sulking in the background).

What’s most memorable about the film, though, are the small moments. The guy who wants to get all of Dodger Stadium and the L.A. skyline tattooed on his back. The joy on the face of Clayton Kershaw’s mother while watching his Major League debut. The rookie hazing costumes. The teenager who catches a batting practice home run and manages to parlay it into an autograph from Chan Ho Park.

Don’t expect any objectivity with this documentary. It’s a celebration of the Dodger experience, and the portions with the team personnel definitely have the feel of PR spin. But what makes “Bluetopia” are the moments with the fans. They come from all walks of life and don’t have much in common but their love for the Blue. But that’s all it takes. That’s what true fandom is all about.

Best Bit:
The excitement of Mateo, the little boy who was attending his first game.

Side Note:
Want your own True Blue tattoo? The shop is on Hollywood Boulevard, not far from the stadium. While you're there, be sure to pick up your Pavilion Pimp gear.

Companion Viewing:
A game at Dodger Stadium, of course, from the field or loge level with a little radio to hear Vin Scully's call.

Links:
IMDb.
The Trolley Dodger.

Take a Look:
The trailer isn't embeddable (what's up with that?), so here's a link.

Derailroaded: Inside the Mind of Larry "Wild Man" Fischer (2004).

2009-06-30T13:04:00.000-07:00

The Scoop:
If you haven’t become acquainted with Larry “Wild Man” Fischer, this is an excellent opportunity to do so.

Fischer was born with the double whammy of manic depression and paranoid schizophrenia, but buried inside that troubled mind is a strongly melodic musical sensibility. After an adolescence filled with family troubles and a stay in a mental institution, Larry found himself on the streets of Hollywood in the mid-1960s, where he survived by offering his songs – frenzied, a cappella outbursts of childlike enthusiasm mixed with the pathos of his life story – to passersby for a dime. He was found and befriended by Frank Zappa, who helped corral Fischer’s chaotic musical (and personal) energy for his memorable, if not always listenable, 1968 debut album, “An Evening With Larry ‘Wild Man’ Fischer.” After falling out with Zappa, the Wild Man continued his music career through partnerships with Rhino Records and Barnes & Barnes, punctuated by troubled interpersonal relationships and a growing cult of fans.

This documentary, by Josh Rubin and Jeremy Lubin, covers all this rich history, following the 60-year-old Fischer through his transient daily life as he tells stories, makes up songs, spins his paranoid theories and occasionally acts out. There are also revealing interviews with Wild Man acquaintances and fans, such as Mark Mothersbaugh, Billy Mumy and Robert Haimer of Barnes & Barnes, Dr. Demento, Weird Al Yankovic, Irwin Chusid and Gail Zappa.

Listening to Fischer’s music can be a difficult experience. Even those songs with professional backing sound raw, primal and disturbing. But they can also be fun and catchy; once you get one in your head, you’ll be humming it for days.

And therein lies the trouble, not just in considering Fischer, but also other mentally ill songwriters like Daniel Johnston, Roky Erickson or Wesley Willis. How much are fans and collaborators supporting the efforts of talented (although troubled) musicians, or how much are they simply exploiting the talents of people who can’t otherwise look out for themselves? And how much of their musical talent is merely a manifestation of untreated mental illness?

These are questions with no easy answers, and ones which Rubin and Lubin mostly choose to ignore. “Derailroaded” is a fascinating look at the inner workings of a talented, but very difficult man. But any insights into the larger questions will have to wait for another time.

Best Bit:
Wild Man's two performances of the title song. When he sings it on the beach at the beginning of the film, it comes off as just a fun, catchy little earworm. But when we see him do it again in concert near the end, it becomes something more, a desperate cry of pain from someone who has no tools to articulate it properly.

Side Note:
Because of his split with Zappa (allegedly prompted by Fischer throwing a glass bottle at then-infant Moon Unit), his debut album has not been re-released on any format since 1968. If you want to hear it, you have to either spend big bucks on eBay, or hunt it down on a torrent site.

Companion Viewing:
"The Devil and Daniel Johnston" (2005) and "You're Gonna Miss Me" (2005).

Links:
IMDb.
Official site.
eFilmCritic interview.
The Wild Man discography.

Take a Look:
The strange four-way conspiracy between Wild Man, Weird Al, Dr. Demento and Barnes & Barnes, that exists only in Larry's mind:

"Merry Go Round," Fischer's biggest hit:

Jawbreaker (1999).

2009-06-25T09:27:00.000-07:00

The Scoop:
Rose McGowan seems born to play the queen princess ice bitch sex goddess, and this role just cements that reputation.

A catty '90s update of "Heathers," "Jawbreaker" finds McGowan as Courtney, the leader of a vengeful high school clique who accidently kills one of her friends then enlists others to help her cover it up. She hits all the right notes in her performance, creating a character that is both fuckable and detestable at the same time. The supporting cast, which includes veterans like Pam Grier, P.J. Soles and Carol Kane, is solid as well. And, as a bonus, we even get a cameo by the Donnas as the prom band.

Director Darren Stein's script may be filled with a few too many clichés, and may be a little too derivative of other teen revenge comedies, but it works well as light, sugary entertainment. And it is all carried by McGowan's terrific performance.

Best Line:
"I mean, food's cool and all. It tastes good and you need it to live, but the mere act of eating involves thoughts of digestion, flatulation, defecation -- even, shall we say, complexion defection."

Side Note:
William Katt and P.J. Soles, who play Mr. and Mrs. Purr, costarred together in "Carrie" (1976) while Charlotte Ayanna, who plays their daughter Liz, costarred in "The Rage: Carrie 2" (1999).

Companion Viewing:
"The Doom Generation" (1995) and, of course, the much better "Heathers" (1989).

Links:
IMDb.
The drinking game.

Take a Look:
The Donnas!

A Marilyn Manson cameo (big surprise!):

The opening sequence:

It (1927).

2009-06-19T08:50:00.000-07:00

The Scoop:
Here she is -- Clara Bow in all her glory.

Although she was already a rising star, her role as "the It girl" catapulted her career into the stratosphere. Her performance as the free-spirited store clerk looking for love in the big is still a landmark, raising the film above its purely mercenary origins. "It" was conceived a not-quite-blatant promotion for Elinor Glyn's advice book-cum-novel of the same name, which set forth her vision of how young women should act to nab the men of their dreams (essentially an early version of "The Rules" or "Mars and Venus," or any of the other bogus relationship help books that still pop up from time to time).

Unfortunately, Clara's stay at the top would be short-lived. In spite of her charismatic presence, she wound up becoming one of the many victims of the film industry's shift to sound production. She could never quite shake her strident Brooklynese accent (think Fran Drescher through a megaphone) and the clunky early sound recording equipment forced her to bottle up her energetic acting style and stand still while on camera. Her final film, "Hoop-La," came out in 1933, just six short years after her success with "It."

Glyn's book may be a relic of the Roaring Twenties, but Clara and the movie still live on. Delectable.

Best Line:
"Sweet Santa Claus, give me HIM!"

Side Note:
Look out for a cameo by a pre-fame Gary Cooper as a newspaper reporter. Like so many of the young men in Clara Bow movies, he wound up as her sexual partner.

Companion Viewing:
For a couple of other great silent screen sirens, check out "Pandora's Box" (1929) with Louise Brooks and "A Fool There Was" (1915) with Theda Bara. To compare "It" with Clara's sound work, there's "The Wild Party" (1929), which features a great concept and Clara's bubbly personality both squashed by the limitations of the medium, and "Call Her Savage" (1932), her best talkie performance.

Links:
IMDb.
Silents Are Golden.
The Clara Bow Page.

Take a Look:
That Clara, she's a charmer:

A trip to the carnival:

Mighty Joe Young (1949).

2009-06-16T10:28:00.000-07:00

The Scoop:
Sixteen years after the fact, the team behind the landmark "King Kong" -- producer Merian C. Cooper, director Ernest B. Schoedsack, special effects guru Willis O'Brien and actor Robert Armstrong -- return to their old stomping grounds to give the story a fresh, more kid-friendly twist with "Mighty Joe Young."

Blowhard producer Max O'Hara (Armstrong, essentially reprising his "King Kong" role) travels to Africa looking for wild animals to include in his latest vaudeville production. (Never mind the fact that vaudeville was all but dead by the late 1940s. Don't question Hollywood storytelling!) He and his guide Gregg (Ben Johnson) luck out by finding a 12-foot gorilla who was raised by a young woman named Jill (Terry Moore). Jill and her ape, now dubbed Mr. Joseph Young, are persuaded to travel back to America and go into show business. The show is a success for a while, until unruly audience members taunt Joe and push him too far. He goes on a rampage, then goes on the lam as Jill, Gregg and O'Hara try to keep him one step ahead of the cops and get him back to Africa.

Besides the same basic plot, "Mighty Joe Young" also shares the same thematic concerns as "King Kong" -- namely, the exploitation of Third World cultures and the tragedy of humankind's encroachment on nature. But the script by Ruth Rose gives these themes a lighter, more fun twist, complete with the happy ending that Kong deserved but never got. The biggest drawback is a final act that drags on a bit too long.

But the real treat here is the charming stop motion animation that brings Joe to life. While the character was designed by O'Brien, who got top billing, the majority of the actual animation work was done by his apprentice, the legendary Ray Harryhausen, who got his big break here. While the style isn't as smooth and expressive as most of Harryhausen's later work, it is still terrific, bringing a tender and almost humanistic side to Joe. And because Joe is smaller in stature in Kong, that means a lot more interaction with the human characters, which is pulled off skillfully thanks to the special effects team.

The end result is a wonderful companion piece to "King Kong" that is engaging and enjoyable. Forget the 1998 remake and stick with this one.

Best Bit:
The first nightclub sequence, which is highlighted by a bravura tracking shot through a set that is quite literally larger than life. The set was too big to be built as it was envisioned, so the tracking shot is actually an optical composite of several smaller sets.

Side Note:
Terry Moore had a long and varied career after this film. She was nominated for a Best Supporting Actress Oscar in 1953 for "Come Back, Little Sheba," then made the jump to television with guest roles in everything from "Rawhide" and "My Three Sons" to "Knight Rider" and "Murder, She Wrote." She even played a villain in the original "Batman" series, and was one of the executive producers of "America's Funniest Home Videos." In the 1970s claimed that she had had a long--term secret marriage to reclusive billionaire Howard Hughes.

Companion Viewing:
"King Kong" (1933) and "Son of Kong" (1933).

Links:
IMDb.
This Distracted Globe.
The Seventh Voyage.
A closer look at Joe's getaway van from I Love Trucks.

Take a Look:
A horribly colorized version of the strongman scene. (All these guys are playing themselves, by the way):

Some clips of Terry Moore's scenes:

Up (2009).

2009-06-09T08:09:00.000-07:00

The Scoop:
Pixar has been around long enough now, and it's aesthetic has become firmly established enough, that the easy approach to evaluating each new film is to compare it Pixar's earlier releases. "Up," however, changes the expectations just a bit.

When we first meet Carl Frederickson (Ed Asner) he is a child in the Great Depression watching newsreel footage of his idol, explorer Charles Muntz, sharing his discoveries in Paradise Falls, somewhere in South America. The oddball Carl soon finds his match in fellow Muntz lover Ellie (Elie Docter). A montage quickly shows their life together -- fixing up their dream house; trying to save money to visit Paradise Falls, but never quite having enough; losing a baby and living childless; and finally Ellie's death, which leaves Carl alone and bitter.

This sets the stage for the main action, in which Carl not only escapes from the greedy developers who want to take his house, but also from the prison of his later years, by using balloons to fly his house away to Paradise Falls. Accidentally hitching along for the ride is overeager Nature Explorer scout Russell (Jordan Nagai). When they finally reach South America, they find a talking dog (Bob Peterson), a legendary bird and a few secrets about Muntz himself (Christopher Plummer). And, of course, it wouldn't be a Pixar movie without some lessons about the nature of family and cherishing the adventures of life.

The technical quality of Pixar's animation continues to evolve. While the characters are highly stylized takes on familiar animated "types," and the look of the scenery and camera work is the studio's most naturalistic yet. The aerial scenes are especially breathtaking.

Although there are some significant plot holes in the script by writer/directors Peterson and Pete Docter, they shouldn't be any concern for the young viewers who are ostensibly the main audience for "Up." But with the usual mix of comedy and action that are Pixar's hallmarks, Peterson and Docter have mixed in liberal doses of pathos, too. The many small compromises that get in the way of Carl and Ellie's dreams are vividly presented, as is the narrowness of Carl's later years. It's handled with a light enough touch to pass over the heads of younger kids, the message is unmistakable for the adult viewer.

It's this mix of humor and heavy subject matter that helps easily supplant "The Incredibles" as the most "adult" of Pixar's offerings so far. And it is also what makes "Up" so difficult to compare with Pixar's earlier efforts. Perhaps it is simply heralding the maturation of Pixar's vision, as the studio's earliest kiddie audiences are now moving into adulthood.

While "Up" may not be as flat-out fun as other Pixar films, the same message of living adventurously is still there, although it is delivered with some of the bitter pills of growing up.

Best Line:
"My name is Dug. I have just met you, and I love you. "

Side Note:
Of course, helium-filled balloons can't really pick up a house like that. And certainly not as many as shown in the movie. It would take a factor of more than 600 times more balloons to lift that much weight.

Companion Viewing:
"The Wizard of Oz" (1939).

Links:
IMDb.
Official site.

Take a Look:
The trailer:

Terror Firmer (1999).

2009-06-05T10:46:00.000-07:00

The Scoop:
After decades as an underground cinema phenomenon, I suppose you can do anything you want to do.

Witness this little movie from our friends at Troma (which company co-founder Lloyd Kaufman directed, cowrote and stars in), in which every one of their familiar trademarks is thrown into a blender with the lid off. Weird sex, grotesque violence, drugs, familiar characters, hilarity, even a blatant ad for the company's website -- it's all here, coming at the viewer a mile a minute, along with bits of Kaufman's filmmaking philosophy and his take on film history.

Eventually the mayhem settles down enough to outline a basic plot -- the oddball denizens of a low budget movie set are being threatened by a mysterious serial killer. The cast is led by Will Keenan and Alyce LaTourelle and features such familiar faces as Debbie Rochon, Ron Jeremy, Lemmy, Joe Franklin and Kerry Kenney.

As with everything else produced by Kaufman and his partner Michael Herz, the right people will love this while everyone else is disgusted and appalled. It's sprawling and chaotic and not quite their best work. But if you are looking for the quintessential Troma movie, this may well be it.

Best Bit:
The hermaphrodite tolerance PSA at the end, which stars Trey Parker and Matt Stone as a hermaphroditic couple and is narrated by Lemmy.

Side Note:
Somehow, this is supposedly based on Kaufman's book "All I Need to Know About Filmmaking, I Learned From the Toxic Avenger."

Companion Viewing:
Troma, Troma, Troma!

Links:
IMDb.
Official Site.
Badmovies.org.

Take a Look:
The trailer:

Some typical highbrow Troma hijinks. (Warning -- contains graphic violence and a naked fat guy):

Building hermaphrodite awareness:

The Sidehackers (a.k.a., Five the Hard Way) (1969).

2009-06-02T14:25:00.000-07:00

The Scoop:
This film blows the cover off the new sport of sidehacking -- guys racing motorcycles with homemade sidecars welded on to them. Obviously, it never quite caught on. And with films like this promoting it, it's no wonder.

What vague plot there is concerns a mostly-shirtless racer with the improbable name of Rommel (played by Ross Hagen) who seeks revenge against rival rider J.C. (Michael Pataki) for killing his girlfriend (Diane McBain). The beginning features an extended clichéd montage of the lovers romping through a meadow -- and the laughs just keep coming from there.

Weird and violent, with plenty of bad direction by Gus Trikonis (who later found a home directing several episodes of "Baywatch") and bad camera work by cinematographer Jon Hall (who wouldn't work on another film for 20 years). There were a slew of bad biker films flooding the drive-ins in that period, but this was among the worst.

Best Line:
"That's the nice thing about little girls -- they can grow up to be women."

Side Note:
Rumor has it that Goldie Hawn (who was married to Trikonis at the time) was an uncredited extra in this film, but not even the awesome power of the internet can confirm whether this is true. Keep an eye peeled while you watch it and judge for yourself.

Companion Viewing:
"The Wild Angels" (1966).

Links:
IMDb.
Daddy'O's Drive-In Dirt.
The Screengrab.

Take a Look:
Some bits and pieces:

You can watch the whole thing on the YouTube installment plan, starting here:

Some real life sidehackers. Don't try this at home, kids!

Suburbia (1984).

2009-05-26T13:26:00.000-07:00

The Scoop:
Back before she hit the (relatively) big time with "Wayne's World," Penelope Spheeris made several films chronicling the lives of disaffected punk kids in and around Southern California. This was the best.

Evan (Bill Coyne) is a bored, disaffected teen with troubles at home, so he runs away to join a band of young punks living in a desolate abandoned housing tract. The kids make an impromptu family of their own, stealing food when they need it and hanging around the punk clubs (including great appearances by the Vandals, D.I. and T.S.O.L.). But this antisocial idyll can last for long, and it eventually comes crashing down, with dire consequences.

Through Spheeris' vision, the suburbs become a bleak, nihilistic wasteland that drives its children to drop out of society -- and these teens are all too happy to go along for the ride. One of the remarkable things about this film is the way the script doesn't point fingers or lay blame at any one group for the kids' predicament, but instead offers a straightforward, honest look at their lives. Another remarkable facet is the collection of authentic performances by the unknown cast. Spheeris cast real punk kids off the street rather than professional actors because, she said, it would be easier to teach a punk to act than to teach an actor how to be a real punk. Her instincts paid off here.

Best Line:
"Happy Easter, asshole!"

Side Note:
One of those unknown punks in the cast was Michael Balzary, who grew up to find fame as Flea, bass player for the Red Hot Chili Peppers.

Companion Viewing:
"The Decline of Western Civilization" (1981).

Links:
IMDb.
The '80s Movies Rewind.

Take a Look:
The trailer:

Up your ass!

T.S.O.L. performs:

More music from D.I.:

Puttin' on the Ritz (1930).

2009-05-22T07:20:00.000-07:00

The Scoop:
This dreary, stagy backstage musical chronicles the life of a vaudeville singer (played by real life vaudeville star Harry Richman) who hits the big time, forgets the little people who helped him, then eventually goes blind after drinking bad alcohol. Oh dear god, will the melodrama never stop?

Richman isn't a bad singer, although his style, typical of the vaudeville stage at the time, seems a little foreign to modern ears. His acting is a little over the top, though. But his costars -- including Joan Bennett and James Gleason -- hold their own better. The film was directed by Edward Sloman and the story was supplied by John W. Considine Jr., with the script by William K. Wells and Gleason.

Released during the depths the Great Depression, this surely did nothing to cheer up its audiences. Even the greatness of Irving Berlin's title song can't help it, although it was the first in a long line of films to use it. But at least the '30s slang is really goofy.

Best Line:
"Yer lettin' a society dame make a chump outta ya!"

Side Note:
Richman tried to create a movie career for himself with this film -- obviously, it didn't work. He only starred in two other movies. Unimaginatively enough, every character he played was named Harry.

Companion Viewing:
"Comet Over Broadway" (1938).

Links:
IMDb.

Take a Look:
In one of the few peppy moments of the film, Richman performs the title tune:

Mission to Mars (2000).

2009-05-19T18:56:00.000-07:00

The Scoop:
Elements of "2001: A Space Odyssey," "Apollo 13," "Close Encounters of the Third Kind" and "Contact" collide in Brian De Palma's uneven space adventure about the first manned expeditions to Mars.

A scientific expedition, led by Don Cheadle, meets disaster on the Red Planet's surface, prompting international space station commander Tim Robbins to put together a rescue party (which includes Gary Sinise, Jerry O'Donnell and Connie Nielsen). The rescuers' rough, year-long journey to the surface takes up the bulk of the film's plot and nearly grinds it to a halt with its tedium. (Even De Palma's trademark suspense sequences are subpar here.)

After they finally make a hair-raising landing, the movie finally gets in gear for its intriguing final act, when the rescuers find the sole survivor (Cheadle) ranting madly about extraterrestrial intelligence. The action from this point is really the only reason to watch "Mission to Mars," even if you have to trudge through a clumsily expository introduction and the endless rescue journey to get to it.

What emerges is an exploration of the mythology surrounding the Cydonia Face (which has prompted true believers to adopt the movie as vindication of their conspiracy theories) and an explanation of life on Earth that eschews the obtuse spiritual speculations of those earlier films.

The screenplay-by-committee, full of predictable action and the occasional plothole, is the weakest link here. The actors are all strong, especially Cheadle, but unremarkable. And De Palma seems to be mailing it in, although he does rise to the occasion in a couple of key scenes. On the plus side are some good CGI effects and Ennio Morricone's incredible score. The sum total isn't exactly a winner, but it is enough to make "Mission to Mars" an interesting failure.

Best Line:
"You're just not man enough to wear jewelry."

Side Note:
The film is rife with scientific errors, not the least of which is the fact that all the planets are rotating in the wrong direction in the giant solar system model.

Companion Viewing:
"2001: A Space Odyssey" (1968), "Close Encounters of the Third Kind" (1977) and "Contact" (1997).

Links:
IMDb.
Movies For Guys.
The case for the Cydonia Face as an alien construct.
The case for the Cydonia Face as a natural phenomenon.
Wikipedia article on Cydonia.

Take a Look:
The slightly spoiler-riffic trailer:

A sample of Morricone's score:

Some square-jawed heroism (and spoilers):

How the West Was Won (1962).

2009-05-12T16:32:00.000-07:00

The Scoop:
This is a big story told on a big canvas.

The tale of America's westward expansion is told through three generations of a single family, with plenty of exciting action, gorgeous photography and even a history lesson to boot. There are stars galore to suit the larger-than-life subject matter -- James Stewart, Gregory Peck, John Wayne, Debbie Reynolds, Henry Fonda, Richard Widmark, Robert Preston and Walter Brennan, just to name a few.

Filmed in Cinerama -- the wide screen megaformat that was a precursor to the modern IMAX format -- the cinematography still manages to dazzle even on the small screen at home; but it's the type of movie that should only be seen in letterbox, or not at all. The Cinerama process does wonders for the wide-open vistas of the West, and directors Henry Hathaway, John Ford, George Marshall and Richard Thorpe use that to full advantage. Cinerama's one drawback is the way it minimizes intimacy and human scale, but that hardly matters here. The crew of directors have found ingenious ways to work around it -- every frame is permeated with a sense of proud heroism that never grows preachy.

It's a corny sort of Americana, but it's one that's executed well. However if the story drags too much for you, you can just lose yourself in the fabulous visuals. A true American movie.

Best Bit:
The white-knuckle river rapids scene.

Side Note:
The uncredited narrator is Spencer Tracy.

Companion Viewing:
Something else equally epic from the same period -- say, "Ben Hur" (1959) or "It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World" (1962).

Links:
IMDb.
Fan site.
Wikipedia explains the Cinerama process.

Take a Look:
The trailer. Check out the cast of gazillions:

The train robbery:

Remember when movies had overtures and intermissions? Those were the days...

Dr. Goldfoot and the Girl Bombs (1966).

2009-05-08T15:51:00.000-07:00

The Scoop:
Don't you just love the tagline on that poster?

Anyway, in this cheap Italian-produced sequel to "Dr. Goldfoot and the Bikini Machine," the nefarious doctor (Vincent Price) is back and making robot women again -- only this time, they explode. The plot involves another attempt to take over the world and it doesn't really make much sense.

In place of Frankie Avalon in the swinging teen heart-throb spy role we get Fabian trying to keep his fading career alive. Also along for the ride are Laura Antonelli (paid to do nothing but look gorgeous, and succeeding) and the terribly unfunny Italian comedy team of Franco and Ciccio (who never got popular in America for good reason).

Even with the addition of more girls, this terrible, slapsticky sequel can't even live up to the low standards of the first. It's so bad that Price has to stop the movie about 20 minutes through to deliver some pointless exposition directly to the audience, because it would be too hard to actually work it into the story. The final chase devolves into a bad silent movie (literally) before eventually taking a Strangelovian twist.

Watch it for the girls (and maybe a touch of '60s mod style), but otherwise stay away. Stay far away.

Best Line:
"Ah yes, an exact reproduction -- programmed for love and destruction!"

Side Note:
Directed by horror maestro Mario Bava, who obviously would do anything for a buck (or a lira).

Companion Viewing:
"Dr. Goldfoot and the Bikini Machine" (1965) or the "Batman" TV series.

Links:
IMDb.
Giallo Fever.

Take a Look:
The trailer:

The Chase (1994).

2009-05-05T20:12:00.000-07:00

The Scoop:
How could something with such a great premise be so bad -- so earth-shatteringly, jaw-droppingly bad?

A convicted killer (Charlie Sheen) escapes police custody in Los Angeles, takes an heiress/socialite (Kristy Swanson) hostage and begins a high speed chase to Mexico and freedom. Tons of cops wind up on his tail, as do several TV news crews, who broadcast the chase live.

The television news' obsession with high speed freeway chases should be such a perfectly ripe topic for parody -- a softball any idiot could hit out of the park. And yet this movie utterly fails at its mission. It's not just that the script and acting are bad, because those are fairly run-of-the-mill problems. This movie tries hard to cross the boundary into full-scale Ed Wood style ineptitude -- all the freeway signs are obviously fake (what was wrong with the real freeway signs, anyway?), none of the police cars or uniforms match, and the list just goes on and on.

Writer/director Adam Rifkin, who was coming off the hilarious "The Dark Backward" (1991) really blew it here. The definitive parody of freeway chases is still waiting to be made.

Best Bit:
The best part isn't even in the movie proper -- it comes after the end credits, with Charlie Sheen in a clown suit reciting the "I love the smell of napalm" speech from his dad's film "Apocalypse Now" (1979).

Side Note:
Punk icon Henry Rollins has a supporting role as a cop, but watch for the cameo appearances. These include Anthony Keidis and Flea of the Red Hot Chili Peppers, Cary Elwes and porn star Ron Jeremy.

Companion Viewing:
"Canadian Bacon" (1996).

Links:
IMDb.
Wapedia.

Take a Look:
"That is a lot of puke."

This totally happens during all those high speed chases, doesn't it?

The gripping climax (spoiler alert, as if you really care by this point):

Purple Rain (1984).

2009-04-28T07:48:00.000-07:00

The Scoop:
It's hard to tell who should get top billing for this film -- Prince or his momumental ego.

In this excessively transparent vanity project, The Artist Then Still Known as Prince plays "The Kid," a Minnesota rocker on the rise. All the co-stars (including Morris Day, Apollonia and most of the rest of Prince's extended entourage) pretty much play themselves. It's supposed to have some basis in Prince's real life rise to fame, but that's probably pretty tenuous at best. The situations are full of age-old entertainment biopic clichés, and quite frankly, Prince's character comes off as a major asshole. (Then again, that last part might be entirely true.)

But the plot is beside the point anyway; "Purple Rain" is all about the music, and it features one of the best soundtracks albums out there. Besides the title track, there's "When Doves Cry," "Let's Go Crazy," "I Would Die 4 U" -- it's a virtual greatest hits album. And the versions used in the film were all recorded live, giving them an urgency that could only be supplied by Prince and the Revolution at their creative peak.

There may be a lot of creaky backstage melodrama and Prince-puffery to wade through, but at least there's great wall-to-wall music and those kooky '80s fashions to keep you occupied. "Purple Rain" is a classic in its own idiosyncratic way.

Best Bit:
The oh-so-wacky "What's the password" bit. Come to think of it, that's probably the worst bit, too.

Side Note:
The symbol painted on the side of the gas tank on Prince's motorcycle is actually an early version of his "unpronounceable symbol" name.

Companion Viewing:
"Krush Groove" (1985).

Links:
IMDb.
The screenplay.
The '80s Movie Rewind.

Take a Look:
The trailer:

Who's on first?

Martin (1977).

2009-04-24T07:16:00.000-07:00

The Scoop:
Indie horror maestro George A. Romero takes a low-key approach in this meditative, nontraditional addition to vampire lore, before reaching a genuinely shocking conclusion.

John Amplas is the sympathetic, sexually dysfunctional Martin, who may or may not be an 84-year-old bloodsucker stuck in permanent pubescence. However, in Romero's world, none of the usual vampire trappings are real -- Martin doesn't even have fangs. Instead, Martin subdues his young female victims with a hypodermic needle, then has sex with them while cutting them and draining their blood.

There are some suspenseful sequences, although the majority of the film centers on Martin's brooding over his sexuality and the religious mania of his elderly cousin who wants to "cure" him. The film's sole weak spot is the poor performances by the still-unknown cast (except for long-time Romero collaborator Tom Savini, who has a small supporting role and created the makeup effects.)

"Martin" is very much a product of its time, focusing on thought-provoking themes of sex, religion and identity rather thrills, jolts or gore. These strengths are the strengths of the best 1970s films. The film is also one of the high points of Romero's body of work, although it is largely forgotten today in favor of his zombie series.

Best Line:
"First I will save your soul. Then I will destroy you!"

Side Note:
Amplas is a Romero regular, appearing in five of the director's films, as well as serving as casting director for "Dawn of the Dead" (1978).

Companion Viewing:
"Nadja" (1994) and "The Addiction" (1995).

Links:
IMDb.
Fan site.
Classic-Horror.com.

Take a Look:
The trailer:

I Married a Witch (1942).

2009-04-21T08:51:00.000-07:00

The Scoop:
The eternally sexy Veronica Lake tries her hand at comedy (a big change of pace for her) with "I Married a Witch" and comes out a winner.

The spirits of a witch (Lake) and her father (Cecil Kellaway), burned at the stake in the 17th century, visit the 20th century to exact revenge on the descendant (Frederic March) of their persecutor (March again). Instead, the witch falls in love with the modern guy. This amusing little film with the feather-light touch of director René Clair flies by at a breezy 77 minutes. And it also served as the inspiration for the "Bewitched" television series 20 years later.

And all that would be enough to recommend this film. But it is raised a notch by Lake's presence and sex appeal, which prove that there was a lot more to her than just being a noir moll.

Best Line:
"'Twould be nice to have lips... lips to whisper lies... lips to kiss man and make him suffer. Father, why cannot I have lips, and eyes, and hair?"

Side Note:
The production got uncredited help from Preston Sturges (who produced) and future blacklistee Dalton Trumbo (who co-wrote). However both men eventually left the production before it was finished.

Companion Viewing:
"Bewitched."

Links:
IMDb.

Take a Look:
She just won't take "no" for an answer:

They call it witchcraft...

Monsters vs. Aliens (2009).

2009-04-17T08:54:00.000-07:00

The Scoop:
Dreamworks scores again with this fun, energetic throwback to 1950s-era creature features.

After a Susan Murphy (voiced by Reese Witherspoon) is hit by a meteor on her wedding day, she grows to 50 feet tall. She is captured and sent to a secret government facilty where she meets a misfit group of monsters straight out of your favorite B-movies -- Dr. Cockroach, a half man/half cockroach mad scientist (Hugh Laurie); The Missing Link, a prehistoric amphibious creature (Will Arnett); B.O.B., a gelatinous blob (Seth Rogen); and a giant insect named Insectosaurus. They are quickly called upon to fight an invasion by the crackpot alien Gallaxhar (Rainn Wilson).

Also in the cast are Paul Rudd, Keifer Sutherland, Stephen Colbert and Amy Poehler.

The plot is simple and fast-moving, and directors Conrad Vernon and Rob Letterman (plus a small army of co-screenwriters) keep the gags coming at a breakneck pace. While this is enough to entertain the kids, the adults will enjoy spoofs and allusions to films from "The Amazing Colossal Man" and "The Blob" to "Vertigo" and "Dr. Strangelove." It is also refreshing to see a lead female character who is not a girlfriend or a princess, but a real woman who gets to be heroic in her own right.

The animation is excellent, except for Susan's absurdly large eyes and a few gratuitous shots designed for the 3-D audience (the first, a clever nod to the 3-D "House of Wax"). A few of the jokes fall flat, but they are more than outweighed by the ones that work. Throw in a couple of well choreographed battle scenes (particularly the one the rages across the streets of San Francisco and onto the Golden Gate Bridge) and you've got yourself a winner.

Best Line:
"I am brave. I'm a brave president!"

Side Note:
Keep your ears peeled for the Wilhem scream during the fight with the Gallaxhar clones.

Companion Viewing:
"Mars Attacks!" (1995).

Links:
IMDb.
Official Site.

Take a Look:
The trailer:

Homicidal (1961).

2009-04-14T18:08:00.001-07:00

The Scoop:
Producer/huckster extraordinaire William Castle's attempt to cash in on the success of Alfred Hitchcock's "Psycho" is actually surprisingly good in its own right.

A young woman returns to her family mansion in a small town to claim her half of an inheritance. However, her brother and their elderly nanny's caretaker (don't ask) have other ideas.

Even though the killer is identified in the first 10 minutes, the script keeps the viewer guessing about motives until the end, and the sly visual references to "Psycho" make the blatant plot appropriations more palatable.

This is all enough on it's own to make a fun film, but then there's Castle's gimmick this time around. It's the "fright break," in which the film pauses for 45 seconds right before the climactic scene to that viewers who are too scared can retreat to the lobby and stand in the "Coward's Corner."

Shot in the cheesy tourist trap town of Solvang, California, "Homicidal" also features one of the most dysfunctional cinematic families this side of "Spider Baby," as well as a great, campy performance by Joan Marshall.

It's films like this that give B-movies a good name.

Best Bit:
Karl, the nerdy hero (played by Glenn Corbett), overreacts to some minor vandalism in the flower shop: "What kind of mind would do something like this? More like an animal than a human being!"

Side Note:
The bathrobe worn by the justice of the peace was reused by Castle for the 1963 film "13 Frightened Girls!"

Companion Viewing:
"Psycho" (1960) and "Die, Mommie, Die!" (2003).

Links:
IMDb.

Take a Look:
The low budget trailer:

Two dollars extra for the music? What a rip-off!

The fright break, followed by the big reveal, which seems strangely familiar. (Warning: spoilers!):

Metapost: Spring Break.

2009-04-03T11:30:00.000-07:00

Spring is bustin' out all over here at Desuko World Headquarters, so we're going to take a break next week. Look for new reviews starting April 14 or so. In the meantime, go play outside or something!

The Ghost of Slumber Mountain (1918).

2009-04-03T08:54:00.000-07:00

The Scoop:
This short film by the legendary Willis O'Brien (best known for creating the original King Kong) and his partner Herbert Dawley is one of the earliest examples of stop-motion animation on film.

The plot is simple -- two young boys ask their Uncle Jack to tell them a story, and he weaves a yarn about meeting the ghost of an old hermit on a mountain trip, who gives him magical binoculars which let Jack see into the prehistoric past. The prehistoric scenes, featuring O'Brien's stop-motion dinosaurs and birds, will probably seem crude by today's standards (not to mention the standards of O'Brien's later works), but still exude a certain charm. The seeds of O'Brien's later, more famous, work can already be seen. And if you watch it with a certain sense of humor, the rest of the plot becomes bizarrely entertaining.

The project started life as a feature, but after the usual "creative differences" Dawley cut down the film to 18 minutes and removed O'Brien's name. O'Brien would get the last laugh, though, by taking many of the concepts and models from "The Ghost of Slumber Mountain" and using them for 1925's "The Lost World," his breakthrough film that launched his long, legendary career.

Best Line:
"I tried to convince Joe to take off his clothes and pose as a faun."

Side Note:
Besides writing and producing the film together, O'Brien and Dawley also costar in it -- O'Brien as "Mad Dick" the hermit, and Dawley as Uncle Jack.

Companion Viewing:
"The Lost World" (1925).

Links:
IMDb.
1,000 Misspent Hours.

Take a Look:
The full film: