tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-176269622024-03-14T02:20:19.189-04:00Tim Lucas / Video WatchBlogUnknownnoreply@blogger.comBlogger1633125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-17626962.post-1453588395926916892024-02-23T14:21:00.000-05:002024-02-23T14:21:17.209-05:00NEW BOOK FROM TIM LUCAS Available Now!<div class="x11i5rnm xat24cr x1mh8g0r x1vvkbs xtlvy1s x126k92a" style="caret-color: rgb(5, 5, 5); color: #050505; font-family: system-ui, -apple-system, BlinkMacSystemFont, ".SFNSText-Regular", sans-serif; font-size: 15px; margin: 0.5em 0px 0px; white-space: pre-wrap; word-wrap: break-word;"><div dir="auto" style="font-family: inherit;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj54OFJj5r-drsl7cMOn8DO_xC2PFxks99ssr_XlMr-DWLlzHQGXYPe5TiCcMMlsfgnspQaoV6lLbTUDI_pIVj-djfT5XWSPbTgSEvmQq7XHkh9oNp_sUDEZ-iYRCxRs_gmKY9nX5flAspP_luexLhsmfuHyAB1hueRvKlfYNASpWCA2ectjee2/s1360/NOZONE%20Cover.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1360" data-original-width="855" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj54OFJj5r-drsl7cMOn8DO_xC2PFxks99ssr_XlMr-DWLlzHQGXYPe5TiCcMMlsfgnspQaoV6lLbTUDI_pIVj-djfT5XWSPbTgSEvmQq7XHkh9oNp_sUDEZ-iYRCxRs_gmKY9nX5flAspP_luexLhsmfuHyAB1hueRvKlfYNASpWCA2ectjee2/w251-h400/NOZONE%20Cover.jpg" width="251" /></a></div></div><div dir="auto" style="font-family: inherit;"><b>Now available at Amazon in hardcover and softcover is NOZONE: REVIEWS OF ART, CULT, AND GENRE CINEMA 2003-2012. It collects all of the "NoZone" columns I wrote for SIGHT & SOUND magazine over an almost-10-year period - plus one never-before-published column on a popular horror title! </b></div></div><div class="x11i5rnm xat24cr x1mh8g0r x1vvkbs xtlvy1s x126k92a" style="caret-color: rgb(5, 5, 5); color: #050505; font-family: system-ui, -apple-system, BlinkMacSystemFont, ".SFNSText-Regular", sans-serif; font-size: 15px; margin: 0.5em 0px 0px; white-space: pre-wrap; word-wrap: break-word;"><div dir="auto" style="font-family: inherit;"><b>This is my first collection of archival writings since THE VIDEO WATCHDOG BOOK in 1992, and the first in a projected series of Bear Manor Media books collecting the best <span style="font-family: inherit;"><a style="color: #385898; cursor: pointer; font-family: inherit;" tabindex="-1"></a></span>of my past 50+ years of writing about film. The second will follow shortly, and I am compiling another now.</b></div></div><div class="x11i5rnm xat24cr x1mh8g0r x1vvkbs xtlvy1s x126k92a" style="caret-color: rgb(5, 5, 5); color: #050505; font-family: system-ui, -apple-system, BlinkMacSystemFont, ".SFNSText-Regular", sans-serif; font-size: 15px; margin: 0.5em 0px 0px; white-space: pre-wrap; word-wrap: break-word;"><div dir="auto" style="font-family: inherit;"><b>Each of the reviews in this illustrated 422-page book is has been been meticulously restored to be faithful to their original appearance in print while also putting back material previously cut from them for reasons of space. They have also been annotated to include the latest information about the films' present availability on home media. </b></div></div><div class="x11i5rnm xat24cr x1mh8g0r x1vvkbs xtlvy1s x126k92a" style="caret-color: rgb(5, 5, 5); color: #050505; font-family: system-ui, -apple-system, BlinkMacSystemFont, ".SFNSText-Regular", sans-serif; font-size: 15px; margin: 0.5em 0px 0px; white-space: pre-wrap; word-wrap: break-word;"><div dir="auto" style="font-family: inherit;"><b>I've always considered my NOZONE columns one of the highlights of my 50+ year career as a critic. I felt very privileged to be writing regularly for S&S and the time I spent before their readership encouraged me to raise my game. I'm extremely proud of this work and I believe you'll enjoy it too.</b></div></div><div class="x11i5rnm xat24cr x1mh8g0r x1vvkbs xtlvy1s x126k92a" style="caret-color: rgb(5, 5, 5); color: #050505; font-family: system-ui, -apple-system, BlinkMacSystemFont, ".SFNSText-Regular", sans-serif; font-size: 15px; margin: 0.5em 0px 0px; white-space: pre-wrap; word-wrap: break-word;"><div dir="auto" style="font-family: inherit;"><b style="font-family: inherit;">Available from <a href="https://www.amazon.com/Nozone-Reviews-Genre-Cinema-2003-2012/dp/B0CW1RHM5N/ref=sr_1_1?crid=1VUP1ZFOEGS3E&dib=eyJ2IjoiMSJ9.Z86M13pzIMC5QUYbegdx8fAw0lnWvX6mxfBQoWERIUeEixuhRz8EJkR67WpTSJRQ36BrKIJs4242gPdRGQbBzxskPR8WPV72D__U4HAtM3XWbAUbPOz2gpfdE3kxbTmqikaPubDHKG3JEyg3eeO-IRTW9z-ZSV3N7vExQ6a7G8O3m4Y5j6LfKwSLY7c7HGEYFartmCMzgwmw_UtPFqMY7ywMhJ-cvh51AhQXY6GFDyk.XNKKp5ck-P_v8L0LnVQaRZEAernvpTiwV7PDWW0o8jQ&dib_tag=se&keywords=tim+lucas&qid=1708715580&sprefix=Tim+Lucas%2Caps%2C106&sr=8-1">Amazon</a> or direct from <a href="https://www.bearmanormedia.com/search?q=Tim+Lucas">the publisher</a>. (</b><b style="font-family: inherit;">At the moment, the Amazon hardcover price is $10 off the Bear Manor Media website price!</b></div><div dir="auto" style="font-family: inherit;"><b style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></b></div><div dir="auto" style="font-family: inherit;"><b style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></b></div><div dir="auto" style="font-family: inherit;"><b style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></b></div><div dir="auto" style="font-family: inherit;"><b style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></b></div><div><b style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></b></div></div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-17626962.post-3190683264195265092023-07-07T16:29:00.002-04:002023-07-07T16:29:28.715-04:00IMPORTANT UPDATE<p><span style="color: red;"><b>UNTIL FURTHER NOTICE:</b></span></p><p><b>We will no longer be able to fill orders received from outside the USA. </b></p><p><b>Also, for the moment, we are not filling orders of any kind.</b></p><p><b>I am trying to solve the problem of how to update and downsize this website as is manageable without Donna or other workers. Nine months since her passing, I am still trying to sort out the identity of our web host to open a dialogue with them. I have tried working with a company that supposedly solves such problems, but we are still faced with problems they told me were resolved. </b></p><p><b>The only reason I want to keep this website going, frankly, is to keep Donna's digital products legacy alive and in the hands of our customers. I'm told by various customers that they cannot access their digital goods as things are now, so it's only right that I commit to receiving no further outside income from this site until our technical issues can be resolved. </b></p><p><b>Thank you for your kind patience.</b></p><p><b>Tim / VW</b></p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p>Unknownnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-17626962.post-50545931237405524332023-04-28T16:49:00.002-04:002023-04-28T16:51:33.354-04:00GOOD NEWS! VIDEO WATCHDOG DIGITAL SALES WORKING AGAIN<p>Since Donna's untimely passing last October, this website has been stumbling along in disabled order. I've been able to continue fulfilling physical orders, however - for reasons unknown - customers purchasing our digital goods were unable to open them.</p><p>A couple of months ago, I hired a service to identify and repair the problem - which required me to identify various affiliates I didn't know we had and the various usernames and passwords that Donna used to interface with them. This has taken an eternity to do. </p><p>Today I was notified today that <b>all of our known issues have finally been resolved</b>.</p><p>To the best of my knowledge, I've refunded every PayPal order that reported inability to access and make use our digital products. Please let me know if you're still having any problems with the present set-up. I can be reached at <b>tim@videowatchdog.com</b>.</p><p><br /></p>Unknownnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-17626962.post-28176420329891961142023-04-17T18:35:00.000-04:002023-04-17T18:35:00.477-04:00THE BOOK OF RENFIELD Returns... in a Newly Revised Edition <div class="x11i5rnm xat24cr x1mh8g0r x1vvkbs xdj266r x126k92a" style="caret-color: rgb(5, 5, 5); color: #050505; margin: 0px; white-space: pre-wrap; word-wrap: break-word;"><div dir="auto"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: medium;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg5fmhBB5gC0dlOvfRXQ1wVaWNrkrfK0-2rknm0cFsGtIZj0_ni30YiznNSAGD7QLomwUm-7eGugnoEF9w4RZDrASeXARtLutT0JU-vM0a4XvjRecUtrQ6lNyU1Dwc-68fa9VrkGxd8GI7iBRNLV9NmDfq9mWamW3soWnc12YUBpcUH5GbE6A/s790/Book%20of%20Renfield%20cover%20high%20res.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="790" data-original-width="526" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg5fmhBB5gC0dlOvfRXQ1wVaWNrkrfK0-2rknm0cFsGtIZj0_ni30YiznNSAGD7QLomwUm-7eGugnoEF9w4RZDrASeXARtLutT0JU-vM0a4XvjRecUtrQ6lNyU1Dwc-68fa9VrkGxd8GI7iBRNLV9NmDfq9mWamW3soWnc12YUBpcUH5GbE6A/w426-h640/Book%20of%20Renfield%20cover%20high%20res.jpg" width="426" /></a></div><br />If that new RENFIELD comedy from Universal has left you pining for a more serious treatment of Bram Stoker's classic character, my 2005 novel THE BOOK OF RENFIELD: A GOSPEL OF DRACULA - which incorporates material from Stoker's DRACULA, making it technically the first-ever "mash-up" novel - is finally back in print, but in a form its readers have never before enjoyed.</span></div></div><div class="x11i5rnm xat24cr x1mh8g0r x1vvkbs xtlvy1s x126k92a" style="caret-color: rgb(5, 5, 5); color: #050505; margin: 0.5em 0px 0px; white-space: pre-wrap; word-wrap: break-word;"><div dir="auto"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: medium;"><a style="color: #385898; cursor: pointer;" tabindex="-1"></a>Though the novel has always enjoyed a very high readers' rating at both Amazon and Goodreads, I've returned to the original text and corrected a number of things that didn't sit right with me, revising not only wording and language, but rearranging some content and also adding some passages I had deleted from the first edition. It's now a longer, smoother and, in my opinion, more satisfying telling of this terrifying and heart-wrenching story of how and why R. M. Renfield was chosen by Dracula to serve as his vanguard at Carfax Asylum.</span></div></div><div class="x11i5rnm xat24cr x1mh8g0r x1vvkbs xtlvy1s x126k92a" style="caret-color: rgb(5, 5, 5); color: #050505; margin: 0.5em 0px 0px; white-space: pre-wrap; word-wrap: break-word;"><div dir="auto"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: medium;">In addition, I've written a lengthy Afterword that tells the story behind this book, and I'm proud to note that my friend STEPHEN R. BISSETTE has also contributed a most wonderful Foreword to the package.</span></div></div><div class="x11i5rnm xat24cr x1mh8g0r x1vvkbs xtlvy1s x126k92a" style="caret-color: rgb(5, 5, 5); color: #050505; margin: 0.5em 0px 0px; white-space: pre-wrap; word-wrap: break-word;"><div dir="auto"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: medium;">This new edition is published by Riverdale Avenue Books, and as such it represents my reunion with publisher-editor LORI PERKINS, who was my literary agent for both this novel and my first, THROAT SPROCKETS. She tells me that the book's first-ever HARDCOVER printing will be available for ordering very shortly; however, the DIGITAL edition is available NOW through Amazon! (Here's the <a href="https://www.amazon.com/Book-Renfield-Gospel-Dracula-ebook/dp/B0C26857KT/ref=sr_1_1?crid=37W79AMD97JX3&keywords=book+of+renfield&qid=1681768211&sprefix=book+of+renfie%2Caps%2C456&sr=8-1"><b>link</b></a>.) An AUDIO BOOK edition, another first, is also forthcoming...</span></div><div dir="auto"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: medium;"><br /></span></div><div dir="auto"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: medium;"><br /></span></div></div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-17626962.post-38033575261802265212023-02-04T16:42:00.002-05:002023-02-05T03:42:00.390-05:002023 UPDATE - PLEASE READ<p>Hi, folks. It's me again, popping back with a brief status report.</p><p>It's now a week shy of four months since I lost Donna. I've been able to step up and fill some of the sizable gaps she left behind - but not all. She used to say "I'm little, but I'm mighty!" and boy, she wasn't kidding. She was the office manager for GENII Magazine; she ran the VW web site (filling all the orders by hand, the day they came in); she had Amazon and eBay stores; she made my dinners; and she also found time to be a good friend to a good many people. She also maintained water distillers and room humidifiers and dehumidifiers throughout the house, which were beneficial to us and our cat Janie. I've tried but have found out that it's simply impossible to do all this AND my own work, so I've had to design (so to speak) my own plan for living, which has sadly had to admit defeat where some of these daily tasks are concerned. Wrestling with water for an hour a day is simply not for me, and her Amazon and eBay stores are now kaput, largely because Amazon and eBay refused to accept her death as a reason for tardy service or the impact of her loss on my ability to keep filling orders. Just as I was finally mastering this source of additional income, they decreed I hadn't moved fast enough to suit them and dismantled both stores.</p><p>But it's WATCHDOG business I need to discuss now.</p><p>I've never claimed to be even half the computer genius that Donna was, and I'm having a problem at the moment with sales of our digital wares, the books and back issues. Customers are telling me that they place their order, their money is taken, but their passwords are not working - so they cannot access the product they've bought. Resetting their passwords doesn't help. Obviously, this is unacceptable but the problem has defeated every attempt that I and a couple of others have made to try to correct it.</p><p>Donna's digital innovations with VW's back issues and especially the BAVA Book were her pride and joy. It's my wish and intention to preserve these, her legacy. </p><p>Next week I plan to open discussions with a respected web hosting service to upgrade our service and make the site easier for me to maintain in the future. For the moment, I would advise everyone to NOT order our digital products until things are back in working order. I hope this won't take long. </p><p>I am able to fill orders for physical copies of the magazine, my books and the MONSTER KID HOME MOVIES DVD, but the availability of back issues may be phased out as the inventory is taking up room in the attic I'd like to clear. </p><p>Stay tuned for updates and the return of Video WatchBlog.</p><p>Tim Lucas</p><p> </p>Unknownnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-17626962.post-38537707106776771812022-12-02T18:42:00.000-05:002022-12-02T18:42:17.775-05:00My Own SIGHT & SOUND Top 10 Greatest Films (in order of release)<span class="strong"><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhbVbuPCBZ3s6K2tiRRYCw0ELqdIdSo4oxD0DHWSYUbqn53XBrIGCf1jkmV-Chmth9WxptGRbFKYW-Qrb8Lknz7LrKSROoHWiW4eSZDdRTx1jpJ4sG8pKIm4vdftAK5LkJ_Xknjmf7yDoeuWWQPB0wYQB8sbBIKn4I-jFwugoAe_prkELQxlg/s1200/jeannedielman1.0.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="800" data-original-width="1200" height="426" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhbVbuPCBZ3s6K2tiRRYCw0ELqdIdSo4oxD0DHWSYUbqn53XBrIGCf1jkmV-Chmth9WxptGRbFKYW-Qrb8Lknz7LrKSROoHWiW4eSZDdRTx1jpJ4sG8pKIm4vdftAK5LkJ_Xknjmf7yDoeuWWQPB0wYQB8sbBIKn4I-jFwugoAe_prkELQxlg/w640-h426/jeannedielman1.0.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><b>Delphine Seyrig in Chantal Akerman's JEANNE DIELMAN. </b></td></tr></tbody></table><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; font-family: times; font-weight: bold; text-align: center;"><br /></div><span style="font-family: times; font-size: medium;">Yesterday SIGHT AND SOUND magazine announced the winners of their once-per-decade poll among critics and directors of the Greatest Films of All Time. The Top 20 contenders on this latest critics' poll, beginning with #1, were as follows:</span></span><div><br /></div><div><div style="text-align: left;"><span class="strong" style="font-family: times;"><li style="box-sizing: inherit; caret-color: rgb(60, 60, 60); color: #3c3c3c; font-family: canada-type-gibson, sans-serif; font-size: 16px;"><span style="box-sizing: inherit; font-style: italic;">Jeanne Dielman, 23 quai du Commerce, 1080 Bruxelles (1975)</span></li><li style="box-sizing: inherit; caret-color: rgb(60, 60, 60); color: #3c3c3c; font-family: canada-type-gibson, sans-serif; font-size: 16px;"><span style="box-sizing: inherit; font-style: italic;">Vertigo (1958)</span></li><li style="box-sizing: inherit; caret-color: rgb(60, 60, 60); color: #3c3c3c; font-family: canada-type-gibson, sans-serif; font-size: 16px;"><span style="box-sizing: inherit; font-style: italic;">Citizen Kane (1941)</span></li><li style="box-sizing: inherit; caret-color: rgb(60, 60, 60); color: #3c3c3c; font-family: canada-type-gibson, sans-serif; font-size: 16px;"><span style="box-sizing: inherit; font-style: italic;">Tokyo Story (1953)</span></li><li style="box-sizing: inherit; caret-color: rgb(60, 60, 60); color: #3c3c3c; font-family: canada-type-gibson, sans-serif; font-size: 16px;"><span style="box-sizing: inherit; font-style: italic;">In the Mood for Love (2000)</span></li><li style="box-sizing: inherit; caret-color: rgb(60, 60, 60); color: #3c3c3c; font-family: canada-type-gibson, sans-serif; font-size: 16px;"><span style="box-sizing: inherit; font-style: italic;">2001: A Space Odyssey (1968)</span></li><li style="box-sizing: inherit; caret-color: rgb(60, 60, 60); color: #3c3c3c; font-family: canada-type-gibson, sans-serif; font-size: 16px;"><span style="box-sizing: inherit; font-style: italic;">Beau Travail (1999)</span></li><li style="box-sizing: inherit; caret-color: rgb(60, 60, 60); color: #3c3c3c; font-family: canada-type-gibson, sans-serif; font-size: 16px;"><span style="box-sizing: inherit; font-style: italic;">Mulholland Drive (2001)</span></li><li style="box-sizing: inherit; caret-color: rgb(60, 60, 60); color: #3c3c3c; font-family: canada-type-gibson, sans-serif; font-size: 16px;"><span style="box-sizing: inherit; font-style: italic;">Man With a Movie Camera (1929)</span></li><li style="box-sizing: inherit; caret-color: rgb(60, 60, 60); color: #3c3c3c; font-family: canada-type-gibson, sans-serif; font-size: 16px;"><span style="box-sizing: inherit; font-style: italic;">Singin’ in the Rain (1952)</span></li><li style="box-sizing: inherit; caret-color: rgb(60, 60, 60); color: #3c3c3c; font-family: canada-type-gibson, sans-serif; font-size: 16px;"><span style="box-sizing: inherit; font-style: italic;">Sunrise: A Song of Two Humans (1927)</span></li><li style="box-sizing: inherit; caret-color: rgb(60, 60, 60); color: #3c3c3c; font-family: canada-type-gibson, sans-serif; font-size: 16px;"><span style="box-sizing: inherit; font-style: italic;">The Godfather (1972)</span></li><li style="box-sizing: inherit; caret-color: rgb(60, 60, 60); color: #3c3c3c; font-family: canada-type-gibson, sans-serif; font-size: 16px;"><span style="box-sizing: inherit; font-style: italic;">The Rules of the Game (1939)</span></li><li style="box-sizing: inherit; caret-color: rgb(60, 60, 60); color: #3c3c3c; font-family: canada-type-gibson, sans-serif; font-size: 16px;"><span style="box-sizing: inherit; font-style: italic;">Cléo From 5 to 7 (1962)</span></li><li style="box-sizing: inherit; caret-color: rgb(60, 60, 60); color: #3c3c3c; font-family: canada-type-gibson, sans-serif; font-size: 16px;"><span style="box-sizing: inherit; font-style: italic;">The Searchers (1956)</span></li><li style="box-sizing: inherit; caret-color: rgb(60, 60, 60); color: #3c3c3c; font-family: canada-type-gibson, sans-serif; font-size: 16px;"><span style="box-sizing: inherit; font-style: italic;">Meshes of the Afternoon (1943)</span></li><li style="box-sizing: inherit; caret-color: rgb(60, 60, 60); color: #3c3c3c; font-family: canada-type-gibson, sans-serif; font-size: 16px;"><span style="box-sizing: inherit; font-style: italic;">Close-Up (1990)</span></li><li style="box-sizing: inherit; caret-color: rgb(60, 60, 60); color: #3c3c3c; font-family: canada-type-gibson, sans-serif; font-size: 16px;"><span style="box-sizing: inherit; font-style: italic;">Persona (1966)</span></li><li style="box-sizing: inherit; caret-color: rgb(60, 60, 60); color: #3c3c3c; font-family: canada-type-gibson, sans-serif; font-size: 16px;"><span style="box-sizing: inherit; font-style: italic;">Apocalypse Now (1979)</span></li><li style="box-sizing: inherit; caret-color: rgb(60, 60, 60); color: #3c3c3c; font-family: canada-type-gibson, sans-serif; font-size: 16px;"><span style="box-sizing: inherit; font-style: italic;">Seven Samurai (1954)</span></li><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: times; font-size: medium;"><span class="strong">You can find the remainder of this list elsewhere online. I was among the many critics asked to contribute and can attest that making my selections was a painful process. I believe the results would change drastically were the scope widened to a Top 20 or 25, which would likely introduce a broader range of genre cinema. In assembling my list, my main considerations were to be properly observant of the word "greatest" and the whole </span>broad chronology of cinema from the silents forward. Being limited to ten selections forced me to omit the silent era in the long run, nor could I (or would I have wanted to) pick one from each decade, which would have forced me outside the scope of what felt right to my mind and heart. Although the S&S poll made no such restrictions, I personally felt the selection of short films to be inappropriate and felt obliged to limit myself to only one documentary. With each selection, I've included a note of explanation. </span></div><div><span class="strong" style="font-family: times;"><b><br /></b></span></div><div><span style="font-size: medium;"><span class="strong" style="font-family: times;"><b><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjahUpgFSlTo1amnsy4nEXsLmBzueXMMNOvVdKUo8cC3Y3cRX3QR8YmuarIsMzLhKa8V1SJEHGR9gTcYkgGmQb5e3pMUWnmHjloGRJQqKU-S-5mXA8bQmyXNDkfZayjxZNIpIFjm69zAaGw7-Qs4cJvWWXZjdbWmbVI5md1Ze-6wtQY7Zi93w/s1439/King-Kong-1933-3.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1080" data-original-width="1439" height="480" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjahUpgFSlTo1amnsy4nEXsLmBzueXMMNOvVdKUo8cC3Y3cRX3QR8YmuarIsMzLhKa8V1SJEHGR9gTcYkgGmQb5e3pMUWnmHjloGRJQqKU-S-5mXA8bQmyXNDkfZayjxZNIpIFjm69zAaGw7-Qs4cJvWWXZjdbWmbVI5md1Ze-6wtQY7Zi93w/w640-h480/King-Kong-1933-3.jpg" width="640" /></a></div><br />KING KONG</b></span><br style="font-family: times;" /><span class="strong" style="font-family: times;">Year</span><span style="font-family: times;">: 1933</span><br style="font-family: times;" /><span class="strong" style="font-family: times;">Director(s)</span><span style="font-family: times;">: Merian C. Cooper & Ernest B. Schoedsack</span><br style="font-family: times;" /><span class="strong" style="font-family: times;">Comment</span><span style="font-family: times;">: Having seen the film again recently in a theatrical setting, I am all the more impressed by its tremendous leap of imagination. Yet what most impressed me is the fact that - once Kong is introduced - the film never stops in its exciting forward movement. For a 1930s picture, and early 1930s at that, this is generally unheard-of.</span></span><div><span style="font-family: times; font-size: medium;"><br /></span><span class="strong" style="font-family: times;"><b><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjFVjw21o3G-gFJEFymrQZxppAnXet6KyrcJ0M2P4EywkZ8E_toM-XbXABltFuRRjqCznR4Txtq5Fx4fy_H3PvB8ilvIPVCxZvSRQiZ5IvqxlpSvZBuJOs47h1EMIYSHN_Bmi1K8icqyymoYhkJTqz5eDGEStNA_LuGuVh9NIql2B3dWOP8ZA/s272/Forbidden%20Games.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="185" data-original-width="272" height="435" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjFVjw21o3G-gFJEFymrQZxppAnXet6KyrcJ0M2P4EywkZ8E_toM-XbXABltFuRRjqCznR4Txtq5Fx4fy_H3PvB8ilvIPVCxZvSRQiZ5IvqxlpSvZBuJOs47h1EMIYSHN_Bmi1K8icqyymoYhkJTqz5eDGEStNA_LuGuVh9NIql2B3dWOP8ZA/w640-h435/Forbidden%20Games.jpg" width="640" /></a></div><br /><span style="font-size: medium;">JEUX INTERDITS / FORBIDDEN GAMES</span></b></span><span style="font-size: medium;"><br style="font-family: times;" /><span class="strong" style="font-family: times;">Year</span><span style="font-family: times;">: 1952</span><br style="font-family: times;" /><span class="strong" style="font-family: times;">Director(s)</span><span style="font-family: times;">: René Clement</span><br style="font-family: times;" /><span class="strong" style="font-family: times;">Comment</span><span style="font-family: times;">: It was important to me to include at least one title to represent the relationship between people and animals, so this one was slugging it out against UMBERTO D., BAMBI, and AU HASARD BALTHASAR. I ultimately chose this film because it's also about the world of childhood in an historical moment that discouraged anything but the numbest adulthood. This is a powerful, uncompromising film that nevertheless preserves its senses of innocence and poetry; I'm very pleased to have found room for Clement on my list, and this particular film also encompasses a spirit I also recognize as Cocteau.</span><span style="font-family: times;"> </span><br /></span><span class="strong" style="font-family: times;"><b><br /></b></span></div><div><span class="strong" style="font-family: times;"><b><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh9wkk6zIA_ED4N7mksBt_lvDW6e5GOURkgElu07Lu9ukAOEQVYNtcWRF-nQGRPB7uKw-3jNpAuF84Lc2cLbJHjT5tN7AXxrZOLJPjQMlIl7jAxVUT3IR2bk3l3zGYtc7zx0sfJdG0VI-oTSh7sjcQEtUEs_AM7y7osbdOIqdYA7pQmuOtKoA/s1920/Mystery%20of%20Picasso.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1447" data-original-width="1920" height="482" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh9wkk6zIA_ED4N7mksBt_lvDW6e5GOURkgElu07Lu9ukAOEQVYNtcWRF-nQGRPB7uKw-3jNpAuF84Lc2cLbJHjT5tN7AXxrZOLJPjQMlIl7jAxVUT3IR2bk3l3zGYtc7zx0sfJdG0VI-oTSh7sjcQEtUEs_AM7y7osbdOIqdYA7pQmuOtKoA/w640-h482/Mystery%20of%20Picasso.jpg" width="640" /></a></div><br /><span style="font-size: medium;">LE MYSTÈRE PICASSO / THE MYSTERY OF PICASSO</span></b></span><span style="font-size: medium;"><br style="font-family: times;" /><span class="strong" style="font-family: times;">Year</span><span style="font-family: times;">: 1956</span><br style="font-family: times;" /><span class="strong" style="font-family: times;">Director(s)</span><span style="font-family: times;">: Henri-Georges Clouzot</span><br style="font-family: times;" /><span class="strong" style="font-family: times;">Comment</span><span style="font-family: times;">: In coming up with my list, I found it very difficult to balance narrative cinema and documentary; it disturbed me that I could find no room at all for non-narrative cinema. It seemed to me that my list had to be all of one kind, or nothing. Then this film occurred to me, which is a marvelous composite of all three, and an invaluable record of the creative process of one of the great geniuses of 20th century art. This is the kind of film whose negative I can easily imagine trying to save from a burning building.</span><span style="font-family: times;"> </span></span><br /><span class="strong" style="font-family: times;"><b><br /></b></span></div><div><span class="strong" style="font-family: times;"><b><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjg9rzGqc5J0XrcOJ1jJ4_vmiQT5jAqoZaUhEfg1dAiuSMUkrP55ejBJwOqs6nR0U7FTEtg-BDQgJS8m4IBW3tiYbKiH6qfoMzvRBLXXN5e0rjC4LKWR1l5DGlHuWRsbMJ3XKtSxTnURQq2Kqe27Gar58xTJY5ClB5QfoScEzNajt7wxOFkew/s2155/Last%20Year%20at%20M.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="900" data-original-width="2155" height="268" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjg9rzGqc5J0XrcOJ1jJ4_vmiQT5jAqoZaUhEfg1dAiuSMUkrP55ejBJwOqs6nR0U7FTEtg-BDQgJS8m4IBW3tiYbKiH6qfoMzvRBLXXN5e0rjC4LKWR1l5DGlHuWRsbMJ3XKtSxTnURQq2Kqe27Gar58xTJY5ClB5QfoScEzNajt7wxOFkew/w640-h268/Last%20Year%20at%20M.jpg" width="640" /></a></div><br /><span style="font-size: medium;">L'ANNÉE DERNIÈRE À MARIENBAD / LAST YEAR AT MARIENBAD</span></b></span><span style="font-size: medium;"><br style="font-family: times;" /><span class="strong" style="font-family: times;">Year</span><span style="font-family: times;">: 1961</span><br style="font-family: times;" /><span class="strong" style="font-family: times;">Director</span><span style="font-family: times;">: Alain Resnais</span><br style="font-family: times;" /><span class="strong" style="font-family: times;">Comment</span><span style="font-family: times;">: The single greatest film on my list. Anyone who reads the published screenplay by Alain Robbe-Grillet must admit that Resnais was more of a conductor of this film than its auteur; with the exception of a single excision, all of its direction stems from the written word. So I feel Robbe-Grillet should share the directorial credit. For me, this film is an ideal distillation of the conscious and subconscious, open to any number of interpretations, an art object in and of itself.</span><span style="font-family: times;"> </span><span style="font-family: times;"> </span></span><br /><span class="strong" style="font-family: times;"><b><br /></b></span></div><div><span class="strong" style="font-family: times;"><b><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhwHYNNeJQ9ccY8oxD0tOWWYU6qQYAxLsmlmaFjut95cG3z8Gx_YXq2ZhXnGln4n4g2TcmHRzPhtgcY74GjoBK653Ppvp6-cOEhZegNI5OgWnhZH23LW07IQBVfuT1gIvykZz_z4x6rPWEgR4ZyMIxdY1RK-PFnWfp1Nz_eTVb5lQDuSwDxag/s1024/TobyDammitTerenceStamp.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="576" data-original-width="1024" height="360" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhwHYNNeJQ9ccY8oxD0tOWWYU6qQYAxLsmlmaFjut95cG3z8Gx_YXq2ZhXnGln4n4g2TcmHRzPhtgcY74GjoBK653Ppvp6-cOEhZegNI5OgWnhZH23LW07IQBVfuT1gIvykZz_z4x6rPWEgR4ZyMIxdY1RK-PFnWfp1Nz_eTVb5lQDuSwDxag/w640-h360/TobyDammitTerenceStamp.jpg" width="640" /></a></div><br /><span style="font-size: medium;">HISTOIRES EXTRAORDINAIRES / SPIRITS OF THE DEAD</span></b></span><span style="font-size: medium;"><br style="font-family: times;" /><span class="strong" style="font-family: times;">Year</span><span style="font-family: times;">: 1968</span><br style="font-family: times;" /><span class="strong" style="font-family: times;">Director(s)</span><span style="font-family: times;">: Roger Vadim, Louis Malle, Federico Fellini</span><br style="font-family: times;" /><span class="strong" style="font-family: times;">Comment</span><span style="font-family: times;">: In my initial drafts of this list, I included Fellini's TOBY DAMMIT as a stand-alone short, as it is sometimes shown. After much consideration, I came to the conclusion that I find this segment works best as the culmination of its original three-story anthology form. It's long been the going idea to embrace the Fellini episode and dismiss the other two, but I find those two among the most personal work from either director. I've written an entire book in defense of SPIRITS OF THE DEAD (2018, Electric Dreamhouse/PS Publishing), in which I show that all three Poe tales tell essentially the same story and that they need each other. It is also important to note that the English version is the only way anyone should watch the Fellini episode (French works just as well for the Vadim and Malle segments), as it preserves Terence Stamp's vocal performance for his greatest character and the often impenetrable morass of language assailing him from the time he reaches the airport in Rome.</span><span style="font-family: times;"> </span><span style="font-family: times;"> </span></span><br /><span class="strong" style="font-family: times;"><b><br /></b></span></div><div><span class="strong" style="font-family: times;"><b><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiWxGVTFLcanchwkgj436AiBBiwcq16W-JcnR9OtRVaqgJJ8BrYSuWzIxAuR1AlNnSLNHzVmGUaUzABp4Z7rfvNbhuVkcM3IAKSqk6RLfCi5UHJpt28LWV_Hu28M91qh5VRtPhFD0nq_NWsMpEQohqyscb1GRWOdUYgOyPjAgkRYy7-lzUO7w/s1200/My%20Night%20at%20Maud's.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="675" data-original-width="1200" height="360" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiWxGVTFLcanchwkgj436AiBBiwcq16W-JcnR9OtRVaqgJJ8BrYSuWzIxAuR1AlNnSLNHzVmGUaUzABp4Z7rfvNbhuVkcM3IAKSqk6RLfCi5UHJpt28LWV_Hu28M91qh5VRtPhFD0nq_NWsMpEQohqyscb1GRWOdUYgOyPjAgkRYy7-lzUO7w/w640-h360/My%20Night%20at%20Maud's.jpg" width="640" /></a></div><br /><span style="font-size: medium;">MA NUIT CHEZ MAUD / MY NIGHT WITH MAUD</span></b></span><span style="font-size: medium;"><br style="font-family: times;" /><span class="strong" style="font-family: times;">Year</span><span style="font-family: times;">: 1969</span><br style="font-family: times;" /><span class="strong" style="font-family: times;">Director(s)</span><span style="font-family: times;">: Éric Rohmer</span><br style="font-family: times;" /><span class="strong" style="font-family: times;">Comment</span><span style="font-family: times;">: Rohmer is one of the most important directors in my personal pantheon, and this is the first film on my list to star Jean-Louis Trintignant, my favourite actor, and one who starred in at least a half dozen other films I could have included. I most identify with him here. It's 90 minutes of people talking in different rooms but it conjures just as much suspense as one might want from Hitchcock or Clouzot, but with different stakes. My list leans somewhat toward the fantastic, but what I find endlessly appealing about this film is how well it evokes the magic that dwells just below (or above) the skin of reality: friendship, community, religion, Christmas, bookishness, morality, moral dilemma, the need to know and admit what we want. This film led me to read Pascal, far off my beaten path, just as Rohmet's later THE GREEN RAY led me to finally read Jules Verne, who became a much greater obsession.</span><span style="font-family: times;"> </span><span style="font-family: times;"> </span></span><br /><span class="strong" style="font-family: times;"><b><br /></b></span></div><div><span class="strong" style="font-family: times;"><b><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEignOAgbxZt_0aafDisL1BQtU8J5tiDLZ3ku-6YNoIgZ1LQtnZmvQyxKiLLpBnFdT_QEHXMc_TMrXW05KLHoqB43Ae9W4MzSpCDMir0KRSHfHlKoUDMbqhslBpI_0p6f5EjahuD8kLA0AoEKMIDpBpXnD-SE_h57ESuPz1JJ4_tdxNCVXwOoA/s1280/once-upon-a-time-in-the-west.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="541" data-original-width="1280" height="270" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEignOAgbxZt_0aafDisL1BQtU8J5tiDLZ3ku-6YNoIgZ1LQtnZmvQyxKiLLpBnFdT_QEHXMc_TMrXW05KLHoqB43Ae9W4MzSpCDMir0KRSHfHlKoUDMbqhslBpI_0p6f5EjahuD8kLA0AoEKMIDpBpXnD-SE_h57ESuPz1JJ4_tdxNCVXwOoA/w640-h270/once-upon-a-time-in-the-west.jpg" width="640" /></a></div><br /><span style="font-size: medium;">ONCE UPON A TIME IN THE WEST</span></b></span><span style="font-size: medium;"><br style="font-family: times;" /><span class="strong" style="font-family: times;">Year</span><span style="font-family: times;">: 1969</span><br style="font-family: times;" /><span class="strong" style="font-family: times;">Director(s)</span><span style="font-family: times;">: Sergio Leone</span><br style="font-family: times;" /><span class="strong" style="font-family: times;">Comment</span><span style="font-family: times;">: I first saw this film at the age of 12, intending to see the co-feature (Elvis Presley in CHARRO!) and due to a mix-up in scheduling having to sit through the Leone first. I hadn't seen any of the DOLLARS films yet; I didn't much like Westerns. Unexpectedly, it towered over me as no other film had done; I was terrified by the sheer symphonic magnificence and force of it, the depth of its passion for cinema. I didn't know the Western genre well enough to catch its scholarly quotations and references, but once it was over, I felt ravished by it. I staggered out without seeing the co-feature because I knew no other film could stand up to what I'd just experienced. I look back on this as the first adult decision of my life. When I see it now, with a hundred or more Westerns in my frame of reference, it only gets bigger, richer.</span><span style="font-family: times;"> </span><span style="font-family: times;"> </span></span><br /><span class="strong" style="font-family: times;"><b><br /></b></span></div><div><span class="strong" style="font-family: times;"><b><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi6SHUo-uitLmd6P65fTWOLQIAzkOwKCQ5jH1iwwMDagHqj19rrnSwnFh0NjHWEqmjchjq-V_kpLJmzIfEmypcvFlO8ma18n8NflfbxEPvNTunDdCeEfVB0a8lJGDmgac2lXI02k_XDB_fnNKChnxfe7rveORd0zOCIAMiEFbsjEPvvNHTBNg/s1020/Devils.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="433" data-original-width="1020" height="272" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi6SHUo-uitLmd6P65fTWOLQIAzkOwKCQ5jH1iwwMDagHqj19rrnSwnFh0NjHWEqmjchjq-V_kpLJmzIfEmypcvFlO8ma18n8NflfbxEPvNTunDdCeEfVB0a8lJGDmgac2lXI02k_XDB_fnNKChnxfe7rveORd0zOCIAMiEFbsjEPvvNHTBNg/w640-h272/Devils.jpg" width="640" /></a></div><br /><span style="font-size: medium;">THE DEVILS</span></b></span><span style="font-size: medium;"><br style="font-family: times;" /><span class="strong" style="font-family: times;">Year</span><span style="font-family: times;">: 1971</span><br style="font-family: times;" /><span class="strong" style="font-family: times;">Director(s)</span><span style="font-family: times;">: Ken Russell</span><br style="font-family: times;" /><span class="strong" style="font-family: times;">Comment</span><span style="font-family: times;">: Ken Russell had to be represented here, as my late teens and twenties coincided with the period of his great reign in British cinema. His WOMEN IN LOVE (which brilliantly streamlined Lawrence's novel to its most essential material) had the greater personal impact on me, but I recognize THE DEVILS as his magnum opus, a harrowing, dizzying, non-stop tour de force that helped solidify my thinking as regards politics, organized religion, and the idea that Hell is other people. Above and beyond this, I tend to find it faultless on every level: it's a masterpiece of design and conviction, full of exquisitely etched performances and host to any number of Marlovian "mighty lines."</span><span style="font-family: times;"> </span><span style="font-family: times;"> </span></span><br /><span class="strong" style="font-family: times;"><b><br /></b></span></div><div><span class="strong" style="font-family: times;"><b><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjuWQ0UCfk0EaiQmIZm0EUfCixBFB8rdzAr9IidMtbrmY7fuJ48maTxDtbDV9LuG-ubWQELNoA8Fz7i1jMqND0CD2nj_e-kBho9ARQQhW5rzRgeciW8NngAJa3sdP5AFAbKqsStg7wflV66UOz9YpDBFxnMAn_6sQFDj0DY1FM-fL5ZY2sTEA/s1200/Three%20Colors%20Red.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="649" data-original-width="1200" height="346" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjuWQ0UCfk0EaiQmIZm0EUfCixBFB8rdzAr9IidMtbrmY7fuJ48maTxDtbDV9LuG-ubWQELNoA8Fz7i1jMqND0CD2nj_e-kBho9ARQQhW5rzRgeciW8NngAJa3sdP5AFAbKqsStg7wflV66UOz9YpDBFxnMAn_6sQFDj0DY1FM-fL5ZY2sTEA/w640-h346/Three%20Colors%20Red.jpg" width="640" /></a></div><br /><span style="font-size: medium;">TROIS COLEURS: ROUGE / THREE COLORS: RED</span></b></span><span style="font-size: medium;"><br style="font-family: times;" /><span class="strong" style="font-family: times;">Year</span><span style="font-family: times;">: 1993</span><br style="font-family: times;" /><span class="strong" style="font-family: times;">Director(s)</span><span style="font-family: times;">: Krzyszof Kieślowski</span><br style="font-family: times;" /><span class="strong" style="font-family: times;">Comment</span><span style="font-family: times;">: When I discovered Kieślowski's films with THE DOUBLE LIFE OF VÉRONIQUE, it was the first time I fully identified with a film on a spiritual level; I felt not only that I had seen something extraordinary, I actually felt seen. This feeling that his films were showing me the world as I see and experience it continued to the end and was most powerfully conveyed in RED, which allowed him to work with Jean-Louis Trintignant and the remarkable Irène Jacob. For me, the greatest of all narrative themes is an unexpected meeting of two people that changes their lives, or their awareness of life; it doesn't have to be a love story, as this film proves, but love is involved somewhere, somehow that it's left to us to decide. With an assiduous use of orchestrated details and manufactured coincidence, Kieślowski exposes the invisible net encompassing all of us, discernible in bits of coincidence and layered harmonics that point to some form of intelligence. Of the three films in THREE COLORS, the whole trilogy is most important to its overall clarity and success, but it stands on its own as a very great film.</span><span style="font-family: times;"> </span><span style="font-family: times;"> </span></span><br /><span class="strong" style="font-family: times;"><b><br /></b></span></div><div><span class="strong" style="font-family: times;"><b><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgOMBfOU3X0kF9xoWp3dcEAAsCzYTQcrb3x-TCJutYHViiOuZ1l7x2zYr8l8BJKDe0veIBwswYD-PELLR0C93Fi-w9TbdAz876bAXPwVPJzIp6bG1ZXbOO0Tt0lE916LkQSGqNAtTlxc0T3Bhv4qcDh9h2Vxyaxg_eeQnVIFq7uWQ4euZgMNQ/s1245/Synecdoche%20NY.png" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="535" data-original-width="1245" height="276" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgOMBfOU3X0kF9xoWp3dcEAAsCzYTQcrb3x-TCJutYHViiOuZ1l7x2zYr8l8BJKDe0veIBwswYD-PELLR0C93Fi-w9TbdAz876bAXPwVPJzIp6bG1ZXbOO0Tt0lE916LkQSGqNAtTlxc0T3Bhv4qcDh9h2Vxyaxg_eeQnVIFq7uWQ4euZgMNQ/w640-h276/Synecdoche%20NY.png" width="640" /></a></div><br /><span style="font-size: medium;">SYNECDOCHE, NEW YORK</span></b></span><span style="font-size: medium;"><br style="font-family: times;" /><span class="strong" style="font-family: times;">Year</span><span style="font-family: times;">: 2008</span><br style="font-family: times;" /><span class="strong" style="font-family: times;">Director(s)</span><span style="font-family: times;">: Charlie Kaufman</span><br style="font-family: times;" /><span class="strong" style="font-family: times;">Comment</span><span style="font-family: times;">: When I first saw this densely layered film about an artist's life (or even THE artist's life), I laughed all the way through it - partly from catching the subliminal touches that showed how rapidly time was passing, and also because I recognized so much truth in it - divine truth, bitter truth, awful truth. I couldn't wait to see it again. The second time, I watched it alone late at night and found myself weeping through it, as much as I'd laughed before. For the past 15 years, I've been scared to see it again, afraid that it might not be all I'd built it up to in my memory, but I needn't have worried. Watching it again while compiling my list, along with several other runners-up from this more recent era, I found myself laughing and also weeping at times but always profoundly impressed by the scope and concentration of Kaufman's idea, its execution and sensitive casting. Those 15 years have only served to make time's haste seem all the more merciless, and the maze of art stacked up around the protagonist at the end poor recompense for a life mostly untasted.</span><span style="font-family: times;"> </span><span style="font-family: times;"> </span></span><br /><h3><span style="font-family: times; font-size: medium;"><br /></span></h3><h3><span style="font-family: times; font-size: medium;">Further Remarks:</span></h3><p><span style="font-family: times; font-size: medium;">The older I get, the more oppressive the word ‘greatest’ becomes. Generally speaking, I avoid writing about what I perceive as obvious greatness. I prefer to live with its mystery and focus on genre films. <br /><br />"Greatest" suggests a colossus, a thing of immense weight and stasis, yet some of the greatest films I've experienced have been an unexpected, furtive and fleeting kiss in the dark. That's an idea I determined to preserve in my list, which to me is as much a list of great affairs as of great movies. I feel a list such as this should dispense with any fantasies of objectivity right away, and embrace subjectivity; such a list should serve as an X-ray snapshot of the individual curator and be exchangeable with others like a mix tape. It should tell others "This is who I am."<br /><br />Who I am is a man now in my sixties, who started going to the movies for entertainment in my single digits, and who fell in love specifically with horror and fantasy cinema. At the end of childhood, I experienced a series of films that were quantum leaps in my education; they overturned my thinking, changed my life trajectory, and revolutionized my set ideas about what a movie can and should be. So it was toward those forms of greatness that I gravitated. After choosing this as my basic guideline, dozens of movies I habitually call my favourites fell off the list (some, like LA JETÉE and GHOST WORLD, just by a hair); of course, to compile such a list at all means agreeing to betray one’s own heart. It kills me that there's no Bergman, no Antonioni, no Godard or Kubrick here, but we know they remain great. Likewise, there are fewer of the more obvious planets of my known galaxy present than you might expect - no Mario Bava, no Jess Franco, no Joe Sarno - all of whom I've written hundreds of pages about. They are great in a different way, and I understand and appreciate this. Zuławski and Borowczyk came close.<br /><br />I started by assembling a list of the most meaningful films to me from each decade, 1910 to 2010. This in itself was murder. Then I began to whittle away, trying as best I could to represent the whole timespan of cinema. The 1910s through the 1930s were easy, though TIH-MINH was ultimately scratched; a magnificent recent discovery, but my guiding light was impact rather than sentiment. Likewise, in the case of the 1940s, despite no shortage of worthy titles, they all fell short of the too-many titles I felt necessary to include from the 1960s (for me, cinema’s richest decade), so I bent my rule on their behalf. <br /><br />I didn't pick any titles on the basis of self-evident stature or for their ability to entertain. Each of them has, in some way, been a lightning bolt in my life that caught me in its cross-hairs, showed me who I am or could be, or expressed to me in some way that I’m not alone. <br /><br /><br /></span></p><p><br class="Apple-interchange-newline" /></p></div></div></div>
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Unknownnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-17626962.post-78225885409700225192022-11-21T00:00:00.203-05:002022-11-22T21:12:01.845-05:00New Cult Movie Releases from Germany's Anolis Entertainment<p><span style="font-family: times; font-size: medium;"><b>The German Blu-ray</b> label Anolis Entertainment GMBH recently released a very nice, uncut and English-friendly disc of Viktor Trivas' <i>Die Nackte und der Satan</i> (1959), better known abroad as THE HEAD. In addition to the familiar English dub, it includes the original German soundtrack with English subtitles, which makes it possible for the rest of us to appreciate the talented cast's performances on an entirely new level. I was honored to be asked to provide an audio commentary for the set, which is presented with optional German subtitles, and there is a German commentary as well by Anolis' resident cult film experts Into Strecker and Mirko Rekittke. The disc has been released in a choice of different covers, including two standard covers and a keep case edition. Best news of all: unlike some of the other Anolis titles, it is <i>region-free</i>.</span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjFIBcEVos2MhpenhyeBihz2qqBLQDedLcXp4DILxr8uvvfcRSlvoOkv1yyPUvA8Dcas2vXpQLFiaceCEDpjQ2W3VbmCz5uvuDmzqwQbfIuZvy31HRgb015eVrSP4sxazlDag9isD8mYtsi0eMArzmynRkGtWF1Klq64mzd-2V9yHquN3Dlng/s729/2022_07_31_Nackte_Packshots.png" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="529" data-original-width="729" height="464" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjFIBcEVos2MhpenhyeBihz2qqBLQDedLcXp4DILxr8uvvfcRSlvoOkv1yyPUvA8Dcas2vXpQLFiaceCEDpjQ2W3VbmCz5uvuDmzqwQbfIuZvy31HRgb015eVrSP4sxazlDag9isD8mYtsi0eMArzmynRkGtWF1Klq64mzd-2V9yHquN3Dlng/w640-h464/2022_07_31_Nackte_Packshots.png" width="640" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiv1QK5ywIeCRaxbjKTxL6Jx8u8hwvOSF7P5y8Ebnk8uSmOLIx-zhUQydLhYI5zxSKUH5hKz2U4426PLzVhT2LAOLi1JQuwJDl2U3Ybn5W_C8P48n_Yoz3fusC4CXgCXHXzcAwxrhUm1ik3RN2H3Wv2wNNSrvBaTGD7OlERpx9hItAHVT_uvw/s864/2022_08_21_Nackte-Satan_KeepCase_Pack.png" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><br /><img border="0" data-original-height="864" data-original-width="619" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiv1QK5ywIeCRaxbjKTxL6Jx8u8hwvOSF7P5y8Ebnk8uSmOLIx-zhUQydLhYI5zxSKUH5hKz2U4426PLzVhT2LAOLi1JQuwJDl2U3Ybn5W_C8P48n_Yoz3fusC4CXgCXHXzcAwxrhUm1ik3RN2H3Wv2wNNSrvBaTGD7OlERpx9hItAHVT_uvw/w286-h400/2022_08_21_Nackte-Satan_KeepCase_Pack.png" width="286" /></a></div><span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="font-family: times;"><b>When the kind</b> folks at Anolis recently sent my contributor's copies of the HEAD disc, they also included some of their other new titles. </span><span style="font-family: times;">What first attracted</span><span style="font-family: times;"> my attention in my Anolis care package were two other releases: </span><i style="font-family: times;"><span>KATAKOMBEN DES GRAUENS </span></i><span style="font-family: times;">("Catacombs of Terror") and </span><i style="font-family: times;"><span>DER TURM DER SCHREIENDEN FRAUEN</span></i><span style="font-family: times;"> ("The Tower of Screaming Women"), which we know respectively as Bernard L. Kowalski's ATTACK OF THE GIANT LEECHES (1959) and Bert I. Gordon's TORMENTED (1960), neither of which I believe has enjoyed an HD release in the US to date.</span></span><div><span style="font-family: times; font-size: medium;"><br /></span></div><div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh-OzOFA8eRWs_kqinucoo31N4c2mOcUb9IdsfunctAhB9jqAz_7113sjm7c9LylTS8EzoaqOYVbMNGmobifv1Ba6HB9zGBjDBZdD09o05gTSSwBfC-FzujsrACg9yJ1plIuqy00TogKC3tFrrKh661YCApCb5k5OML2RrItuZ1CoExbVoPQg/s999/2022_10_02_FGG08_Katakomben_Pack.png" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: medium;"><img border="0" data-original-height="999" data-original-width="804" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh-OzOFA8eRWs_kqinucoo31N4c2mOcUb9IdsfunctAhB9jqAz_7113sjm7c9LylTS8EzoaqOYVbMNGmobifv1Ba6HB9zGBjDBZdD09o05gTSSwBfC-FzujsrACg9yJ1plIuqy00TogKC3tFrrKh661YCApCb5k5OML2RrItuZ1CoExbVoPQg/s320/2022_10_02_FGG08_Katakomben_Pack.png" width="258" /></span></a></div><span style="font-family: times; font-size: medium;">Produced by Gene Corman and executive produced by Roger Corman, <b><a href="https://www.amazon.de/Katakomben-Grauens-Fluch-Galerie-Blu-ray/dp/B0BGNMCRL1/ref=sr_1_fkmr2_1?__mk_de_DE=ÅMÅŽÕÑ&crid=34OEFVDM1YD2A&keywords=katakomben+des+grauens+mediabook&qid=1668977708&sprefix=katakomben+des+grauens+mediabook%2Caps%2C127&sr=8-1-fkmr2">ATTACK OF THE GIANT LEECHES</a></b> is presented by Anolis as a two-disc media book with the B-picture pressed on Blu-ray (where it runs 63m) and on DVD (where it plays at 25 f.p.s. ad runs only 60m). Obviously, it's a B-picture but Kowalski—whose previous AIP features were HOT CAR GIRL and NIGHT OF THE BLOOD BEAST (both 1958)—does an extremely capable job of filling that length with earnest actors, memorable characters, an appreciably early ecological message, and some of the most lurid, unforgettably gruesome and perversely erotic imagery of the 1950s.</span></div><div><span style="font-family: times; font-size: medium;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: times; font-size: medium;">Ken Clark (SOUTH PACIFIC, who later starred in Mario Bava's THE ROAD TO FORT ALAMO) has the lead role as Steve Benton, the warden of a Florida everglades preserve, whose swamplands become the site of various disappearances. When local grocer Dave Walker (Bruno ve Sota) pursues his two-timing wife Liz (ATTACK OF THE 50-FOOT WOMAN's Yvette Vickers) and her lover Cal (Michael Emmet) out there with a shotgun, he sees them attacked by giant monsters with human-like arms lined with suckers. The police don't believe Dave's story, charging him with murdering the couple, who have in fact been dragged down to an underwater cave where they and others become the centerpieces of an ongoing feast. Steve has a vocational commitment to preserve the wildlife at the location, so others take the problem into their own hands.</span></div><div><span style="font-family: times; font-size: medium;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: times; font-size: medium;">Scripted by actor Leo Gordon and scored by Alexander Laszlo with the same grating electric keyboard he brought to NIGHT OF THE BLOOD BEAST, ATTACK OF THE GIANT LEECHES is notable for Clark's eloquent leadership and manly central presence; those who appreciate such things would probably favor his bare chest over William Holden's in PICNIC any day. However, it's really the eerie atmosphere and the solid character performances of ve Sota, Gene Roth (as a smug and boastful sheriff), Jan Shepard (KING CREOLE, as Clark's fiancée), and especially Vickers (never more sultry than when modeling her nylons or submitting to the monsters' voracious sucking) that rivet the viewer. Doing much of the heavy lifting behind that atmosphere is art director Daniel Haller, who at this point had been working with Roger Corman since 1958's WAR OF THE SATELLITES. His creepy underwater cave may have been high school play-level stuff in its actual substance, but DP John M. Nickolaus (who later shot Corman's THE TERROR and several of the most memorable OUTER LIMITS episodes, including "The Zanti Misfits") lights it like gangbusters, turning it into its own panoramic level of Hell.</span></div><div><span style="font-family: times; font-size: medium;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: times; font-size: medium;">Here in America, GIANT LEECHES is a public domain title, which has consigned its fate to a series of ignoble DVD releases and enrollment in MYSTERY SCIENCE THEATRE 3000's Hall of Shame. This anamorphic 1.66:1 presentation isn't likely to knock anyone's socks off, but when we see how sharp the main titles are (long with a handful of later individual shots, possibly post-production inserts), it becomes evident that whatever visual shortcomings we notice are the fault of the original film stock and inadequate location lighting. Suffice to say, if this is a title that matters to you, you won't find better elsewhere. The optional German soundtrack is vintage. The extras include a German commentary by Ingo Strecker and Alexander Iffländer (no subtitles), a US trailer, a poster gallery, and a colorful illustrated booklet (including UK and Mexican posters and lobby cards) with German text by Strecker.</span></div><div><span style="font-family: times; font-size: medium;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: times; font-size: medium;"><b><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgI6i8RVKJMEZCmspqMoRET9JN79K7m2X7BLFNEIIkr5pxwheerbG0_BFro5mIaHmDStz4fV_I1LTQ9-eMKy13DxCqWdVM_R7FSH1hev-z78n0ekV-nnSqR_SIExg9KGnt8lRO_f4EJcbtKgcmT6WhWRRKiF8xrR_gRKNfMyBie2bPpz6ObzQ/s999/2022_03_27_Turm-Frauen_Pack-kombi.png" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="835" data-original-width="999" height="334" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgI6i8RVKJMEZCmspqMoRET9JN79K7m2X7BLFNEIIkr5pxwheerbG0_BFro5mIaHmDStz4fV_I1LTQ9-eMKy13DxCqWdVM_R7FSH1hev-z78n0ekV-nnSqR_SIExg9KGnt8lRO_f4EJcbtKgcmT6WhWRRKiF8xrR_gRKNfMyBie2bPpz6ObzQ/w400-h334/2022_03_27_Turm-Frauen_Pack-kombi.png" width="400" /></a></div>Bert I. Gordon's</b> <b><a href="https://www.amazon.de/Turm-schreienden-Frauen-Softbox-Card/dp/B09WQQRBFJ/ref=sr_1_fkmr1_1?__mk_de_DE=ÅMÅŽÕÑ&crid=3VWXX8WN72RZ3&keywords=der+turm+der+schreienden+frauen+mediabook&qid=1668977646&sprefix=der+turm+der+schreienden+frauen+mediabook%2Caps%2C129&sr=8-1-fkmr1">TORMENTED</a></b>, based on an original script by George Worthing Yates and Gordon, was Mr. B.I.G.'s first venture outside the giant monster territory he'd carved out for himself at Allied Artists and then AIP. Set on an unnamed beach with a disused lighthouse poorly matted into the scenery, it stars 1950s science fiction stalwart Richard Carlson as Tom Stewart, "the world's greatest jazz pianist," who sounds like your run-of-the-mill cocktail piano player and has somehow attracted the romantic interest of two statuesque blondes, the self-described "second rate songstress" Vi Mason (Amazonian cover girl Juli Reding) and the born-into-money Meg Hubbard (Lugene Sanders) to whom he's newly engaged. The blonde getting the largest share of screen time is actually little Susan Gordon, the filmmaker's daughter, who plays Meg's nine year-old sister Sandy, who's got a crush on Tom and discovers that he had something to do with Vi's death when she threatened to tell Meg of their love affair. As the day of the wedding approaches, Tom is beset by a series of hauntings by Vi, which take the form of footprints in the sand, voices on the breeze, a severed taunting head, and even a disembodied hand that ambulates across the rug like a tarantula to claim the ring he intends for his bride. </span></div><div><div><br /></div><div><span style="font-family: times; font-size: medium;">For all its novelty in Gordon's early catalogue, this is basically the umpteenth retread of the Poe idea of a man haunted by a guilt that manifests tailor-made torments only he can perceive. For some reason, the script doesn't entirely blame Vi's death on Tom, who simply hesitates too long on a scary precipice and fails to rescue her from a fall he had no part in. The filmmakers probably thought this would help to make Carlson a more sympathetic protagonist, but there's nothing likable about him; it's hard to imagine him being any less likable had he actually pushed Vi to her doom and cackled about it. Carlson was probably the costliest item on the budget, but his performance offers little than some melodramatic eye-darting when others catch him in lies, and overplayed reactions to his hauntings which always involve him hiding his face behind both hands. We hear a lot about "jazz" in the dialogue but the only real jazz is in the dialogue of actor Joe Turkel (PATHS OF GLORY) who plays a jive-speaking incidental who sets out to blackmail Tom. The storyline is further padded with Mrs. Ellis (Lillian Adams), a blind housekeeper who is last shown at the end of the picture gawking like everyone else at the surprise washed up on the beach. The movie's primary source of interest, without exaggeration, is Juli Reding as the first character to be done away with; she's an absorbing sight in her sheer voluptuousness and hardly someone a story should be quick to disembody. The scene where Tom recovers her body from the sea only to watch her breathless abundance as it turns into a heap of seaweed is a scrap of fetishism at its finest. While Susan Gordon earns every bit of her screen time with a performance more competent than those of many of her more experienced elders, the character of Sandy feels shamelessly written to order for her and is anything but to the film's ultimate advantage. As the film goes on, it begins to end sections of the film with fades to black which give the film the feel of a failed TV pilot or early TV movie. Even Sandy's accidental witnessing to one of Tom's murders, which should add to the film's dramatic tension, fails to generate any real suspense because it's all-too-obvious that the film is playing everything too safe to venture into actual child endangerment. It's worth noting that the performance of Harry Fleer as Meg's father Frank (who disapproves of Tom, as well he might) is rather obviously dubbed by Paul Frees. It's hard to imagine how bad his line readings must have been to make such glaring voice-over work seem preferable. </span></div><div><span style="font-family: times; font-size: medium;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: times; font-size: medium;">Anolis' 1.66:1 presentation of the B&W film utilizes an archival German print with a different title sequence than appears on the Allied Artists prints we're used to seeing. It's not a 2K or 4K restoration but the gain of pictorial detail over other available sources is noticeable and the audio quality is fine. The German audio option is sourced from the print seen and is, once again, vintage. The 75m feature is accompanied by an audio commentary by Ing Strecker and Mirko Rekittke, a nice 6m interview with Susan Gordon (who died in 2011), German and American trailers, a Mick Garris TRAILERS FROM HELL commentary, and various galleries. </span></div></div><div><span style="font-family: times; font-size: medium;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;"><b>I've saved the</b> best news of all for last. Also on Anolis' roster of recent releases is </span><i style="font-family: times;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><b><a href="https://www.amazon.de/s?k=bestien+lauern+vor+caracas+mediabook&sprefix=bestien+lau%2Caps%2C149&ref=nb_sb_ss_ts-doa-p_1_11">BESTIEN LAUERN VOR CARACAS</a></b> </span></i><span style="font-family: times; font-size: medium;">("Beasts Lurk in Caracas"), better known to us as Hammer's THE LOST CONTINENT (1968). While a very nice Blu-ray of this title was recently issued in the States by Shout! Factory, including an excellent audio commentary by LITTLE SHOP OF HORRORS editor Richard Klemenson, Anolis's release—available in a choice of no less than four different cover designs (see below)—represents an outstanding and utterly unexpected restoration of the film, extending the picture from its US theatrical running time of 87m 4s and its extended UK length of 97m 3s to an international composite running time of 99m 52s!</span></div><div><span style="font-family: times; font-size: medium;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: times; font-size: medium;">The additions—nearly all of which involve some form of mayhem, eroticism or sexual suggestion—were reportedly found in a surviving 35mm German print and carefully inserted into the HD master. There is a slight but noticeable degradation of quality in that this footage was derived from an archival print instead of the original camera negative, but it's nice to be able to readily identify what has been restored and from where; there are some shots added to the scene of the crew moving the explosive PhosB canisters out of wet storage that were evidently only used in the German release print. In these bits, the dialogue is subtitled in English as no English soundtrack exists for these moments. Anolis has done an outstanding job of including this material without disrupting the musical soundtrack, and their composite version is the most fun I've ever had with THE LOST CONTINENT, a beloved Hammer title since my first viewing of it in August 1969. </span></div><div><span style="font-family: times; font-size: medium;"><br /></span></div><div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiWb6wEucBjzWvFxibUyfc81SA9l0odVFseFOm60HvqJ-8ifKrqc9AEGh3C02OorQu78PzSeng4obUY2ZDr2Xpve_ZxObpBWjFExBuXkKTARXfZQ0HGUnHz_ycx2lvC_X1dH5I_GBHZLu_wzlHkgh6tfuyjGpOCyzNw1I34wBRljtL0oVOrdA/s999/2022_10_02_BestienCaracass_Packshots_Foren.png" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="362" data-original-width="999" height="232" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiWb6wEucBjzWvFxibUyfc81SA9l0odVFseFOm60HvqJ-8ifKrqc9AEGh3C02OorQu78PzSeng4obUY2ZDr2Xpve_ZxObpBWjFExBuXkKTARXfZQ0HGUnHz_ycx2lvC_X1dH5I_GBHZLu_wzlHkgh6tfuyjGpOCyzNw1I34wBRljtL0oVOrdA/w640-h232/2022_10_02_BestienCaracass_Packshots_Foren.png" width="640" /></a></div><span style="font-family: times; font-size: medium;">The balance of the <i>BESTIEN LAUERN VOR CARACAS</i> set is just as welcome, including two German-language commentaries (no subtitles), and roughly an hour's worth of James McCabe-directed featurettes interviews with virtually every last surviving member of the film's cast and crew: actors Dana Gillespie, Norman Eshley, and Sylvana Henriques (who was badly injured on-set during her first day, leading her to be written out of the movie!); music arranger Carlo Martell and uncredited love theme composer Howard Blake (who gives us an exclusive piano performance of the piece you'll want to applaud), and special effects technicians John Richardson and Peter Hutchinson. These interviews, which are both very informative and amusing, check all the boxes of things we might be left wanting to know after viewing the film. Also included are the UK trailer (in 1.37:1 and 1.85:1–which surprisingly credits star Hildegard Knef as "Neff" and includes some of the long-missing shots restored to this release), a very entertaining German trailer (which, among other things, misidentifies actor Tony Beckley), and US TV spots, as well as German and Belgian press books and a really nice photo gallery. The MB cover editions also include a second disc containing more than two hours of German film trailers in standard definition.</span></div><div><span style="font-family: times; font-size: medium;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: times; font-size: medium;">Needless to say, this German disc release (like all other Anolis releases) is Region B, unplayable on Region A players—in fact, I've found myself unable to provide my usual frame grabs for any of these titles with my present set-up. If you're an ardent fan of THE LOST CONTINENT, as I am, you can consider <i>BESTIEN LAURERN VOR CARACAS</i> an essential double (or triple) dip and—since it goes beyond mere cosmetology to include more than 12m of footage never before shown on US theater screens—one of 2022's most important film restorations.</span></div><div><span style="font-family: times; font-size: medium;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: times; font-size: medium;"><br /></span></div>
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Unknownnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-17626962.post-51310678084646751952022-11-17T12:50:00.000-05:002022-11-17T12:50:21.397-05:00Kino Lorber's FRENCH NOIR COLLECTION Reviewed<div><h1><span style="font-family: times; font-size: medium;"><a href="https://www.kinolorber.com/product/french-noir-collection-speaking-of-murder-back-to-the-wall-witness-in-the-city-aka-le-rouge-est-mis-le-dos-au-mur-un-temoin-dans-la-ville-blu-ray"></a><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://www.kinolorber.com/product/french-noir-collection-speaking-of-murder-back-to-the-wall-witness-in-the-city-aka-le-rouge-est-mis-le-dos-au-mur-un-temoin-dans-la-ville-blu-ray"></a><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjg04J-06MbdIHlYXx54HgnpejVTt9wCSKqacjw4iFf4gIL9BMfuuW1SPFs6HF5q5F70zXbQlYKgh8DwKav9D1iLCsoGr2uebnFij_jAuzCE4lAa3bRkoMhItu1yzvUbX4PTqvxLXRXpI5uO8Wnj8MTOnzPJrQj_BwVjR_efYrGCH3Iayl-gQ/s2476/Fnech%20Noir.jpg" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2476" data-original-width="1588" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjg04J-06MbdIHlYXx54HgnpejVTt9wCSKqacjw4iFf4gIL9BMfuuW1SPFs6HF5q5F70zXbQlYKgh8DwKav9D1iLCsoGr2uebnFij_jAuzCE4lAa3bRkoMhItu1yzvUbX4PTqvxLXRXpI5uO8Wnj8MTOnzPJrQj_BwVjR_efYrGCH3Iayl-gQ/w256-h400/Fnech%20Noir.jpg" width="256" /></a></div>FRENCH NOIR COLLECTION</span></h1><h1><span style="font-family: times; font-size: medium; font-weight: normal;">1957-59, Kino Lorber BD</span></h1></div><div><span style="font-family: times; font-size: medium;">Includes:</span></div><div><span style="font-family: times; font-size: medium;"><b>SPEAKING OF MURDER</b> (<i>Le rouge est mis</i>, "The Red Light is On," 1957, 1.37:1, 85:41)</span></div><div><span style="font-family: times; font-size: medium;"><b>BACK TO THE WALL</b> (<i>Le dos au mur</i>, 1958, 1.37:1, 94:25) <b>WITNESS IN THE CITY</b> (<i>Un témoin dans la ville,</i> 1959, 1.66:1, 89:36)</span></div><div><span style="font-family: times; font-size: medium;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: times;"><b><span style="font-size: large;">Kino Lorber’s often</span></b><span style="font-size: medium;"> tempting FILM NOIR: THE DARK SIDE OF CINEMA series (now eleven volumes strong) has collected more than 30 B&W crime and suspense films from the Gold and Silver ages of Hollywood. While the genuine </span><i style="font-size: large;">film noir</i><span style="font-size: medium;"> classics tend to score individual releases, these compendiums have cast a wider and deeper net, gathering up under-appreciated gems and taking care to pair them with expert contextualizing commentaries. Now Kino Lorber has extended their reach into international terrain with the release of FRENCH NOIR COLLECTION, which collects three outstanding (if lesser-known) Gaumont releases in what I can only hope will become a parallel continuing series. This is the sort of release I'm used to having to order from Amazon.fr, often without English subtitles, and brother, are we lucky to have it. </span></span></div><div><span style="font-family: times; font-size: medium;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: times; font-size: medium;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhCB_1eatHVjLJtZwCpjFyZXZXQeiUeFB0syPenOmentKCYlKBAuBvuMsVUzswqfrdmN5OuF09YQrByfC7x5v0bmvPvFujQpFqbfa0HeiZJX8vjgsV94zzBLESbmsUfre_fCDfAJcBUPQBPitM8v5nBJ3BuKC6bsMS5z2rz74kXfT4u-MrY5A/s783/Screen%20Shot%202022-11-17%20at%2010.42.42%20AM.png" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="582" data-original-width="783" height="476" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhCB_1eatHVjLJtZwCpjFyZXZXQeiUeFB0syPenOmentKCYlKBAuBvuMsVUzswqfrdmN5OuF09YQrByfC7x5v0bmvPvFujQpFqbfa0HeiZJX8vjgsV94zzBLESbmsUfre_fCDfAJcBUPQBPitM8v5nBJ3BuKC6bsMS5z2rz74kXfT4u-MrY5A/w640-h476/Screen%20Shot%202022-11-17%20at%2010.42.42%20AM.png" width="640" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEinFU_7XImHGiefhqZfGuJ4mCQPLQqDTHWsGzm0l8xCMPJ5OQnXD1lC_MBpCO6Jz-DodCP8lwbo6FuBSZdYY0iH0a8HKRHvhHDAEeUL1bMlrfvZtWWSzdGZKxczPdemahq1gDLBak90KUUsxuLjGQjwHkBx_RxJ66IE6ty11qzTOCuqAt5uRA/s777/Screen%20Shot%202022-11-17%20at%2010.45.43%20AM.png" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="580" data-original-width="777" height="478" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEinFU_7XImHGiefhqZfGuJ4mCQPLQqDTHWsGzm0l8xCMPJ5OQnXD1lC_MBpCO6Jz-DodCP8lwbo6FuBSZdYY0iH0a8HKRHvhHDAEeUL1bMlrfvZtWWSzdGZKxczPdemahq1gDLBak90KUUsxuLjGQjwHkBx_RxJ66IE6ty11qzTOCuqAt5uRA/w640-h478/Screen%20Shot%202022-11-17%20at%2010.45.43%20AM.png" width="640" /></a></div><br /></div>While the films included all date from the late 1950s, by which time American <i>film noir</i> was somewhat past the grand climax proposed by such pictures as KISS ME DEADLY (1955) and SWEET SMELL OF SUCCESS (1956), French <i>noir</i> was plainly at its peak. As good as it often was, the earliest examples of international <i>noir</i> were often imitative of American examples; for instance, Luchino Visconti’s OBSESSION (<i>Ossessione</i>, 1943) or Bernard Borderie’s initial Lemmy Caution adventure POISON IVY (<i>Le môme vert-di-gris</i>, 1953). However, when French <i>noir</i> in particular began looking away from the Hollywood model and focused on telling hard-bitten stories of struggling people forced into lives of crime, prostitution, and betrayal, they couldn’t be beat in terms of hard-bitten authenticity. Anyone expecting to find parallels to late 1950s American <i>noir</i> in this collection will be startled by the unflinching brutality, frank adult language, sexual candor and acknowledgment of marginal gay characters in their storytelling, which is actually more evocative of 1970s American cinema. Even admirers of a <i>noir</i> classic such as Orson Welles' TOUCH OF EVIL (1958) must admit that its dense, nightmarish, borderland atmosphere is unnatural, something as calculated for dramatic effect as the Crazy House sequence in Welles' THE LADY FROM SHANGHAI (1947); however, the world proposed by the three Gaumont titles gathered in this set is virtually documentarian, showing us a Paris that 1) no longer exists and 2) which is strangely alien to American eyes because it’s not the traditional tourist’s view of Europe's greatest city, but rather the Paris once known to its working-class locals. These films slap your face and remind you that the French didn’t have to invent <i>noir</i>, it was always part of their language and landscape. It also speaks well of these films that all three were scripted, or based on writings by outstanding authors of French crime and suspense fiction.</span><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div></div><div><span style="font-family: times; font-size: medium;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh_1vnGNHOjPMdG0m8IUyjTsFsDTZWpk-6lIhoGVLxqBCzqpGtfWuKvI_ycOxdTcEOUqOcbP7gHz0xPZthl09vuSXkOIqQSuArKboC-CGkm5sc1ZGXzt2GkcIZ0EZajlBXuI5hKDs-ceCWG0I8A1TS_X_5NlooSG5EspHL0eMDORsb2_tdr8w/s774/Screen%20Shot%202022-11-17%20at%2010.54.15%20AM.png" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="583" data-original-width="774" height="482" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh_1vnGNHOjPMdG0m8IUyjTsFsDTZWpk-6lIhoGVLxqBCzqpGtfWuKvI_ycOxdTcEOUqOcbP7gHz0xPZthl09vuSXkOIqQSuArKboC-CGkm5sc1ZGXzt2GkcIZ0EZajlBXuI5hKDs-ceCWG0I8A1TS_X_5NlooSG5EspHL0eMDORsb2_tdr8w/w640-h482/Screen%20Shot%202022-11-17%20at%2010.54.15%20AM.png" width="640" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgv929aN--C2JIqkJ1hvVV0aj4WOrJWVAkx6o-EXNH5uZ8nPsva1CmgCvWOV-vJvObgffWOyiXOjcWXE6MghX6oraBBo-i7dJMyfB-yAfrn52Vph9aOepkuOmRjSKu2KiSCr1pXkaiG0I0DeqRXwuoHoKLWuOuzN8ryDKPYYcUawyDIBNNlOA/s777/Screen%20Shot%202022-11-17%20at%2010.46.10%20AM.png" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="584" data-original-width="777" height="482" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgv929aN--C2JIqkJ1hvVV0aj4WOrJWVAkx6o-EXNH5uZ8nPsva1CmgCvWOV-vJvObgffWOyiXOjcWXE6MghX6oraBBo-i7dJMyfB-yAfrn52Vph9aOepkuOmRjSKu2KiSCr1pXkaiG0I0DeqRXwuoHoKLWuOuzN8ryDKPYYcUawyDIBNNlOA/w640-h482/Screen%20Shot%202022-11-17%20at%2010.46.10%20AM.png" width="640" /></a></div><br /></div>The set not only starts out impressively well but ascends in quality and impact as one advances from film to film. SPEAKING OF MURDER, presented as the lone title on Disc 1, presents the indomitable Jean Gabin in a story based on a novel by Auguste le Breton, the author responsible for his prior hit, RIFIFI (1955). Gabin takes the lead as Louis, the boss of modest but lethal crime ring headquartered behind the façade of his service station garage. It’s after hours, when “the red light is on” (the translation of the original French title), that their illegal business is conducted. Opening with an everyday scene that suddenly erupts in a brazen and violent daylight theft, the film maintains a steady simmer as it builds to a major extended heist sequence. When Louis’ gang (which includes the great Lino Ventura as the tommy-gunner Pepito) ends up killing two men and injuring two pursuant police cyclists, he is soon after betrayed to the authorities, with Louis’ younger brother Pierre (Marcel Bozzuffi, who has eluded, even been protected from becoming directly involvement with the gang) being wrongly perceived as the most likely snitch. As push comes to shove, Louis must decide whether his fealty is stronger to his own flesh and blood or the men who loyally follow his orders.</span></div><div><span style="font-family: times; font-size: medium;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: times; font-size: medium;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgyoaAYe-W1bkpl5MS6kI4G1CHwjGDwB7m18Y7QwRwHBaCXDQRSE3OnO4xbbbRtqodlh5L_Rf7WcykZJ4atUd9QyPyKbULNMzKChb3rKaBzUhvIgL0-Z-rOIT8XQ1XK2IQUaqiO1iMf67EXU7tBmZm5j-YIxwn28bXEAWefmvIvs5USNrowRA/s776/Screen%20Shot%202022-11-17%20at%2010.49.06%20AM.png" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="583" data-original-width="776" height="480" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgyoaAYe-W1bkpl5MS6kI4G1CHwjGDwB7m18Y7QwRwHBaCXDQRSE3OnO4xbbbRtqodlh5L_Rf7WcykZJ4atUd9QyPyKbULNMzKChb3rKaBzUhvIgL0-Z-rOIT8XQ1XK2IQUaqiO1iMf67EXU7tBmZm5j-YIxwn28bXEAWefmvIvs5USNrowRA/w640-h480/Screen%20Shot%202022-11-17%20at%2010.49.06%20AM.png" width="640" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjDNWEZX4CSvprhDHZIhGKLdWNVmeonN_9uwN-Uw-HqqpqasGdNFXHw11wKGRuVZjsdQfXvgVG_gRZtjLH3g3yr4I2bA-u0krI_LiUk_Vkh2TazFBtzGwwyLapDFQGPoXaoDmyJYZSXF-SSigWyc2BY4cEFd6OPOUGBWFk8q4g_kNeMqaMiNA/s780/Screen%20Shot%202022-11-17%20at%2010.50.09%20AM.png" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="584" data-original-width="780" height="480" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjDNWEZX4CSvprhDHZIhGKLdWNVmeonN_9uwN-Uw-HqqpqasGdNFXHw11wKGRuVZjsdQfXvgVG_gRZtjLH3g3yr4I2bA-u0krI_LiUk_Vkh2TazFBtzGwwyLapDFQGPoXaoDmyJYZSXF-SSigWyc2BY4cEFd6OPOUGBWFk8q4g_kNeMqaMiNA/w640-h480/Screen%20Shot%202022-11-17%20at%2010.50.09%20AM.png" width="640" /></a></div><br /></div>Directed by Gilles Grangier (who, two years later, would direct Gabin in his Silver Bear-winning Best Actor Performance in Archimede le clochard, 1959), the film also marks the screen debut of Annie Girardot "de la Comédie Française" (THE APE WOMAN, SHOCK TREATMENT), introduced wearing only a pajama top as Pierre's girlfriend. She, like virtually everyone else in the story, is forced into duplicity and corruption of character by economic considerations. Future director Jean-Pierre Mocky is also featured in a supporting role. </span></div><div><span style="font-family: times; font-size: medium;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: times; font-size: medium;">Of all the pictures in the set, SPEAKING OF MURDER is the most obviously constructed around the central performance of a vividly written character. While its dramatic goals are entirely within the traditional guidelines of <i>noir</i>, it's not as overtly stylized as its generic definition might suggest. On the contrary, this is a realistically presented story in which everyone is caught in a more or less inescapable trap. As in Martin Scorsese's most memorable films, the film casually yet effectively charts the schism between the mob's warm family ties and cold professional ethos. While the bulk of the film maintains a stimulating simmer, it builds to a chillingly tense and well-staged showdown between Louis, his brother, and an unhinged Pepito. Denis Kieffer's main theme, with its trumpet solo by Georges Jouvin, strongly recalls the later Jackie Gleason theme, "Melancholy Serenade." Also included on the disc are trailers for the main feature (including alternate takes of scenes), and other related KL releases PORT OF SHADOWS, <i>TOUCHEZ PAS AU GRISBI, RAZZIA SUR LA CHNOUF</i>, MAIGRET SETS A TRAP, MAIGRET AND THE ST. FIACRE CASE and THE SICILIAN CLAN - all of which KL has released separately. These should have been given a "Play All" option.</span></div><div><span style="font-family: times; font-size: medium;"> </span></div><div><span style="font-family: times;"><b><div class="separator" style="clear: both; font-size: large; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhNJPfgRcXbRZylcbGJPtAgQ2Ujr7hIf9iVr0HXa232u62--ht8x0R8u1N4RmxGngBD2AWXNtEnUfAJuXPuWuZ7vzWy_Goui5dIZuN0ESNbvjEMI7R-I7U5LnwA0zLDAfYo_gLLuVYyB_Q12scntTumsWGUs8ws7P8WMEKMYFBiKuaTRu7Pcg/s801/Screen%20Shot%202022-11-17%20at%2011.32.46%20AM.png" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="586" data-original-width="801" height="468" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhNJPfgRcXbRZylcbGJPtAgQ2Ujr7hIf9iVr0HXa232u62--ht8x0R8u1N4RmxGngBD2AWXNtEnUfAJuXPuWuZ7vzWy_Goui5dIZuN0ESNbvjEMI7R-I7U5LnwA0zLDAfYo_gLLuVYyB_Q12scntTumsWGUs8ws7P8WMEKMYFBiKuaTRu7Pcg/w640-h468/Screen%20Shot%202022-11-17%20at%2011.32.46%20AM.png" width="640" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; font-size: large; text-align: center;"><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhhWQ-C4Q8NVksQMaGmQ3bVmlTHFZ4xLVQOpCMk5sjQtX_B5eD9PdkMGBIj_qGaTCdqqOQHEnM3I4jbTohd8hxFHRBkM9QhKy0pKp1jZvTT7ctK6g7b0s5LS0inf6BxkHxyXEm6x4DexXR9bbkgkTwDKgRTUNWQp0378xsf7wvZAzFAz2Z4_g/s805/Screen%20Shot%202022-11-17%20at%2011.33.21%20AM.png" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="589" data-original-width="805" height="468" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhhWQ-C4Q8NVksQMaGmQ3bVmlTHFZ4xLVQOpCMk5sjQtX_B5eD9PdkMGBIj_qGaTCdqqOQHEnM3I4jbTohd8hxFHRBkM9QhKy0pKp1jZvTT7ctK6g7b0s5LS0inf6BxkHxyXEm6x4DexXR9bbkgkTwDKgRTUNWQp0378xsf7wvZAzFAz2Z4_g/w640-h468/Screen%20Shot%202022-11-17%20at%2011.33.21%20AM.png" width="640" /></a></div><br /></div><span style="font-size: large;">As good as</span></b><span style="font-size: medium;"> SPEAKING OF MURDER is, the two films on Disc 2 are arguably even better. Both are directed by Édouard Molinaro, perhaps best-known for directing the original </span><i style="font-size: large;">LA CAGE AUX FOLLES</i><span style="font-size: medium;"> (1978) and, among my readers particularly, DRACULA AND SON (with Christopher Lee, 1976). BACK TO THE WALL—based on the novel </span><i style="font-size: large;">DÉLIVEREZ-NOUS DU MAL</i><span style="font-size: medium;"> ("Deliver Us from Evil") by Frédéric Dard (whose voluminous work was most popularly filmed by director Robert Hossein in THE WICKED GO TO HELL, 1955, and BLONDE IN A WHITE CAR, 1958) and adapted by Jean Redon (EYES WITHOUT A FACE) was Molinaro’s feature film debut and it’s a corker. </span></span></div><div><span style="font-family: times; font-size: medium;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: times; font-size: medium;">BACK TO THE WALL was Molinaro's first feature film and it's hard to think of a more audacious, fully realized debut. The film's first 17m is a tour-de-force, unfolding with almost no dialogue; the only sound we get is incidental and does not pertain to the events unfolding in the foreground. The film opens with gripping music as a snap-brimmed, trench-coated man (Gérard Oury) exits a palatial villa and heads out for a night ride, whose spectral glide through the city streets quietly underpins the main titles. He goes into the city, dons dark gloves and enters a stranger's apartment, where he either murders the male tenant or discovers his corpse. (The scene cuts away briefly to a comic counterpoint in the building's lobby at the critical moment.) Either way, our intruder then proceeds to meticulously dispose of the corpse, and we are almost 20m into the film before he takes us into his confidence with some furtive, savory narration.</span></div><div><span style="font-family: times; font-size: medium;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: times; font-size: medium;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhOhD7BLFuxBIHUAuJ1uoJA-1e9ppeUcc5w9jHgMm08V-F1IsKEc3d_fEoEXD2yxGfYs_nBJstckwW6u2irsIGSbSqbiwMit-bpgphYSFGy2u1JfKveA_6mJNVSKc19ezdnHjph9EDzbJCYGwbNSawK5OCcOjjqsyxP7_DqkoQoD1sziUDu7Q/s803/Screen%20Shot%202022-11-17%20at%2011.42.16%20AM.png" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="586" data-original-width="803" height="468" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhOhD7BLFuxBIHUAuJ1uoJA-1e9ppeUcc5w9jHgMm08V-F1IsKEc3d_fEoEXD2yxGfYs_nBJstckwW6u2irsIGSbSqbiwMit-bpgphYSFGy2u1JfKveA_6mJNVSKc19ezdnHjph9EDzbJCYGwbNSawK5OCcOjjqsyxP7_DqkoQoD1sziUDu7Q/w640-h468/Screen%20Shot%202022-11-17%20at%2011.42.16%20AM.png" width="640" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj_oD37e6D3s0fY1PxfFVDb6nUWJmb3UTBvHNIRCmm034z4Zz61oUX3EJJbwpY6U1Ns-PtMZqy500sB4MW1QtR-yEBoB9eU0l_S9N6EUa-XB0txO4yRHvwUx7IDoaleOjXwirV0N-qPg4tDTOnwFYv1x4ye1ydDNWXusBnzqVjCYRQtmfTMdw/s799/Screen%20Shot%202022-11-17%20at%2011.46.12%20AM.png" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="579" data-original-width="799" height="464" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj_oD37e6D3s0fY1PxfFVDb6nUWJmb3UTBvHNIRCmm034z4Zz61oUX3EJJbwpY6U1Ns-PtMZqy500sB4MW1QtR-yEBoB9eU0l_S9N6EUa-XB0txO4yRHvwUx7IDoaleOjXwirV0N-qPg4tDTOnwFYv1x4ye1ydDNWXusBnzqVjCYRQtmfTMdw/w640-h464/Screen%20Shot%202022-11-17%20at%2011.46.12%20AM.png" width="640" /></a></div><br /></div>Jeanne Moreau (in the same year she made THE LOVERS and ELEVATOR TO THE GALLOWS) stars as Gloria, the wife of wealthy industrialist Jacques Decrey (Oury) who learns she is having a romantic affair with a young actor Yves Normand (Philippe Nicaud). Decrey, having the confidence of wealth and position, decides to make his duplicitous mate suffer by blackmailing the actor and then the pair of them, forcing them into a situation of mental cruelty that turns worse as his wife has to begin taking money from her husband to pay her supposed blackmailer. The supporting cast includes fine performances by Claire Maurier (as Ghislaine, an overlooked barmaid who also loves Yves) and the difficult-to-identify actors who play the quirky private detective hired by Decrey and his wife, who flaunts her infidelities in his face. Gorgeously photographed with impressively deep blacks by Robert Lefebvre (whose career ranged from CASQUE D’OR to GIRL’S DORMITORY and several José Benazeraf films including I AM FRIGID… WHY?), BACK TO THE WALL is a Hitchcockian <i>noir</i> masterpiece whose reputation stands to soar in light of this new release.</span></div><div><span style="font-family: times; font-size: medium;"><br /></span></div><div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgnY3DHl5CdPPzyC9uj94QxC5E79hSnfVFxfhWgBXpxJgrBnICar86crOkXwY3GUwGOek96gDRTemc0HofB3HDtGrwowr5NZwkFA37cpaky3pqORSKroB4utgKTzZ_FAHktklV3JR3Ycg7SRv98I33SxAYg1ORnBzpkdBDyxAIua943CR7lnQ/s965/Screen%20Shot%202022-11-17%20at%2012.01.45%20PM.png" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="578" data-original-width="965" height="384" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgnY3DHl5CdPPzyC9uj94QxC5E79hSnfVFxfhWgBXpxJgrBnICar86crOkXwY3GUwGOek96gDRTemc0HofB3HDtGrwowr5NZwkFA37cpaky3pqORSKroB4utgKTzZ_FAHktklV3JR3Ycg7SRv98I33SxAYg1ORnBzpkdBDyxAIua943CR7lnQ/w640-h384/Screen%20Shot%202022-11-17%20at%2012.01.45%20PM.png" width="640" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhgV7j-M7ty67wrWnx-5smA2uYtfbTY-eb3yRsII-smugNOpaKHemzEHyg-DfIMGKFYoW5Zv6We-hAwg-MZGxtICXtCtw5hPCiSMTB6aePDeCKQYjGVy_IKbrZd_IUiQmrqx2017nsoBi2OCUou30gcee5YlWlBatyZ4jlAoFfQ7pHvislvHQ/s967/Screen%20Shot%202022-11-17%20at%2012.08.47%20PM.png" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="582" data-original-width="967" height="386" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhgV7j-M7ty67wrWnx-5smA2uYtfbTY-eb3yRsII-smugNOpaKHemzEHyg-DfIMGKFYoW5Zv6We-hAwg-MZGxtICXtCtw5hPCiSMTB6aePDeCKQYjGVy_IKbrZd_IUiQmrqx2017nsoBi2OCUou30gcee5YlWlBatyZ4jlAoFfQ7pHvislvHQ/w640-h386/Screen%20Shot%202022-11-17%20at%2012.08.47%20PM.png" width="640" /></a></div></div><br /></div><div><span style="font-family: times;"><b><div class="separator" style="clear: both; font-size: large; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgcjQDrDlPxmwnNlqMCOOL4K9uqGzyklFqpMHE7_WLNX0bAppExtoI78mj6OGjYGEsmCKsSRZVYqWAPWqwrcy2uS72b3a0QCyNE2YEWFOr8N072fTTPR9NjPBiRGhca4kCXZYH3Af7yGhQ9gtYnUUS2kBrpkqE2N7WQmlpvwoeC0Hh36-W4qQ/s967/Screen%20Shot%202022-11-17%20at%2012.20.41%20PM.png" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="587" data-original-width="967" height="388" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgcjQDrDlPxmwnNlqMCOOL4K9uqGzyklFqpMHE7_WLNX0bAppExtoI78mj6OGjYGEsmCKsSRZVYqWAPWqwrcy2uS72b3a0QCyNE2YEWFOr8N072fTTPR9NjPBiRGhca4kCXZYH3Af7yGhQ9gtYnUUS2kBrpkqE2N7WQmlpvwoeC0Hh36-W4qQ/w640-h388/Screen%20Shot%202022-11-17%20at%2012.20.41%20PM.png" width="640" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; font-size: large; text-align: center;"><br /></div><span style="font-size: large;">Remarkably, this praise</span></b><span style="font-size: medium;"> is (if anything) truer of WITNESS IN THE CITY, which came along a couple of films later in Molinaro’s career. A star vehicle for Lino Ventura, here playing a wounded man on the run, this is an atmospheric suspense piece to beat most others, scripted by the famous crime-writing team of Pierre Boileau and Thomas Narcejac (LES DIABOLIQUES, VERTIGO, EYES WITHOUT A FACE), photographed by Henri Decäe and drenched in voluptuous jazz by Barney Wilen, a tenor saxophonist who had previously worked with Miles Davis on the soundtrack for Louis Malle’s ELEVATOR TO THE GALLOWS. (The Barney Wilen Quintet features Kenny Clarke, Kenny Dorham, Paul Rovere and Duke Jordan.) Again, the film opens with a stunning set-piece as yet another scheming industrialist (Jacques Berthier) commits a murder by forcing a woman (an early, brief appearance by Françoise Brion) to her death from a speeding train car. When the suave, contemptible killer is declared innocent of this crime in a court of law, the dead woman’s husband Ancelin (Ventura)—in another magnificently sustained, mostly silent sequence—enacts his revenge and meticulously stages the murder scene as a suicide by hanging. (The sudden introduction of heavy percussion during this scene anticipates the murder-jazz vibe of Quincy Jones' score for IN COLD BLOOD, 1968.) On his way out of the house, Ancelin is surprised by a taxi driver summoned to the house by a prior call. The driver narrowly escapes being hushed by a bullet, and the remainder of the film documents Ancelin’s attempts to hail the right taxi and silence the only witness to his act of justice. </span></span></div><div><span style="font-family: times; font-size: medium;"><br /></span><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhCAPMzAGdZnWbRwyvyNcmJHCVJWl45YjBTgHb5vpVBD4MGyz1-XtRdz7t6vWs7I8Ogoiq_MlOhC_4yQZyI6WdMXCRyfPVNVRaVDi58t0wcf_04XbGs1sKzDYnIRHFI9d_c4jNBnQb8IG08P9ldZtcPbx4AZQeW9DCEA0RVAWOI5GCgXF0rhg/s963/Screen%20Shot%202022-11-17%20at%2012.19.42%20PM.png" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="581" data-original-width="963" height="386" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhCAPMzAGdZnWbRwyvyNcmJHCVJWl45YjBTgHb5vpVBD4MGyz1-XtRdz7t6vWs7I8Ogoiq_MlOhC_4yQZyI6WdMXCRyfPVNVRaVDi58t0wcf_04XbGs1sKzDYnIRHFI9d_c4jNBnQb8IG08P9ldZtcPbx4AZQeW9DCEA0RVAWOI5GCgXF0rhg/w640-h386/Screen%20Shot%202022-11-17%20at%2012.19.42%20PM.png" width="640" /></a></div></div><div><span style="font-family: times; font-size: medium;"><br /></span></div><div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgz9JwrgFUMawsnR_Jctd8e2BuR-RXuccPHCCrXCOd-icXfE1qmezw_SmepkOYapE74x_EoPYyVjoLET_xXMvRilKkOxg7WFTBs2x7pGzQAbQtNjP2iC8P6LCZvszpz_wl-OReB4dzOJJxQNib1fSWrAX2O0LSHJ9UNnX_4BW_FzwAjU7mOEw/s972/Screen%20Shot%202022-11-17%20at%2012.15.33%20PM.png" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="579" data-original-width="972" height="382" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgz9JwrgFUMawsnR_Jctd8e2BuR-RXuccPHCCrXCOd-icXfE1qmezw_SmepkOYapE74x_EoPYyVjoLET_xXMvRilKkOxg7WFTBs2x7pGzQAbQtNjP2iC8P6LCZvszpz_wl-OReB4dzOJJxQNib1fSWrAX2O0LSHJ9UNnX_4BW_FzwAjU7mOEw/w640-h382/Screen%20Shot%202022-11-17%20at%2012.15.33%20PM.png" width="640" /></a></div><br /></div><div><span style="font-family: times; font-size: medium;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh5V0kgSREX2Vj6LZqWwHa-Ty-MIyC5XQ3aKuinC7p-sIsO8_T7wI2cq-gUzYoFTts6-M8k5iXeUdUgvAKPr7jEVHcfGkFnxiP8pkK1KuZz3aYIVR0AlE9vX1ItfsuWL944AteOUswrrNP2E2P814ToOIFmg2iS7k3mfpZ5n3ck3o7287w_kQ/s964/Screen%20Shot%202022-11-17%20at%2012.15.04%20PM.png" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="583" data-original-width="964" height="388" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh5V0kgSREX2Vj6LZqWwHa-Ty-MIyC5XQ3aKuinC7p-sIsO8_T7wI2cq-gUzYoFTts6-M8k5iXeUdUgvAKPr7jEVHcfGkFnxiP8pkK1KuZz3aYIVR0AlE9vX1ItfsuWL944AteOUswrrNP2E2P814ToOIFmg2iS7k3mfpZ5n3ck3o7287w_kQ/w640-h388/Screen%20Shot%202022-11-17%20at%2012.15.04%20PM.png" width="640" /></a></div><br />The film proceeds virtually without a traditional hero for its first half-hour, long enough for us to invest our conflicted concerns in Ancelin's’s fate for the remainder of the film. This early part of the film is also the more traditionally stylized. Then, with the introduction of taxi driver Lambert (Franco Fabrizi) and his switchboard operator girlfriend Liliane (JULIET OF THE SPIRITS’ Sandra Milo), the film takes a more documentarian turn to authentic locations and our traditional hero turns out to be just one charismatic face among many, all of them night drivers for Radio-Taxi of Paris. (This was an actual company employing some 400 drivers, who are thanked in the credits for their production assistance.) It’s unusual for a <i>noir</i> film to use night scenes to generate such a warm and prevalent sense of bonhomie and brotherhood, and when one of their own is injured in the line of duty, the other drivers (led by veteran actor Robert Dalban) band together to track down and apprehend Ancelin, some of them not emerging from their mission unscathed. The idea of an entire taxi squad mobilizing to stop someone who has harmed one of their own puts a surprisingly upbeat spin on a reel-long climax that recalls the resolution of Fritz Lang’s M (1930), and the film is thrilling in the way it captures an automobile's careening, almost three-dimensional prowling of the city by night. This is one of the very best films to carry the Boileau-Narcejac brand. </span></div><div><span style="font-family: times; font-size: medium;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: times; font-size: medium;">The second disc also includes trailers for BACK TO THE WALL, <i>LES LIASONS DANGEREUSES '60</i>, VIVA MARIA!, THE VALACHI PAPERS, A PAIN IN THE ASS and ILLUSTRIOUS CORPSES, which generally feature Moreau, Ventura or Molinaro. I'd be derelict in my duty if I didn't mention that this release's QC shows some carelessness, with occasional typos in its subtitling and some notably inaccurate accounting of the films' running times, which are actually more generous than they read. But these are minor quibbles considering that the set presents us with beautiful presentations of three major discoveries in this genre, each of which whets the appetite for more of the same. </span></div><div><span style="font-family: times; font-size: medium;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: times; font-size: medium;">If you're drawn to films of human conflict, style and emotion, consider FRENCH NOIR COLLECTION an essential purchase. </span></div><div><span style="font-family: times; font-size: medium;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: times; font-size: medium;"><br /></span></div><div><b style="background-color: white; color: #1c1e21; font-family: times, "times new roman", serif;">(c) 2022 by Tim Lucas. All rights reserved.</b></div>
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Unknownnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-17626962.post-24975086255404401392022-11-11T15:15:00.003-05:002022-11-11T15:19:03.118-05:00Arrow's GOTHIC FANTASTICO Part 4: THE WITCH aka THE WITCH IN LOVE (1966) <div><span style="font-family: times; font-size: medium;"><b><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj_kYyGThQLcfI_fXTkB4maYrQdxX-DSDNNdKrU183MXigNsEe4gWTPUJVgKsOP58nfnIu_K-HJ0eFq2D5z2l3_7c_mnsz0YqIaaICCyiXzPSl5F0K-mx9iXnutIz9C4JnHyzrwVosnxq-qv0b-MQAOid9djDWXLOOJmSAltQoPoF5ZVFdlrg/s500/Gothic%20Fan.jpg" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="500" data-original-width="395" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj_kYyGThQLcfI_fXTkB4maYrQdxX-DSDNNdKrU183MXigNsEe4gWTPUJVgKsOP58nfnIu_K-HJ0eFq2D5z2l3_7c_mnsz0YqIaaICCyiXzPSl5F0K-mx9iXnutIz9C4JnHyzrwVosnxq-qv0b-MQAOid9djDWXLOOJmSAltQoPoF5ZVFdlrg/s320/Gothic%20Fan.jpg" width="253" /></a></div>Damiano Damiani’s THE</b> WITCH aka THE WITCH IN LOVE (<i>La stregha in amore</i>, 1966) is the ringer of the GOTHIC FANTASTICO set, being a contemporary story and, ironically, the only truly supernatural film in this particular grouping. LADY MORGAN’S VENGEANCE and THE BLANCHEVILLE MONSTER foreground gaslighting situations which masquerade as supernatural events (the former eventually becoming truly supernatural to square things), and THE THIRD EYE is a modern-day psychological horror scenario about a titled family living in an oppressive ancestral villa.</span></div><div><span style="font-family: times; font-size: medium;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="font-family: times;">THE WITCH is not only a contemporary tale, it boldly aspires to art rather than common entertainment, originating from a celebrated short novel by Mexican author Carlos Fuentes. Though the film doesn’t make a great show of being anything other than Italian, the witch it presents is of Spanish origin and closely attuned to the character created by Fuentes. Instead of the usual Italian villa found in this genre, the story takes place largely inside a spacious yet claustrophobic Italian apartment as bedecked in art nouveau as the Tanz Akademie in Dario Argento’s SUSPIRIA (1977). These attributes pose major contradictions to this genre yet THE WITCH clings to Italian Gothic through its assertions of morbid agoraphobia, aristocratic privilege, and the tenuous veil separating idle perversions from availability to supernatural intrusions. </span></span></div><div><span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="font-family: times;"><br /></span></span></div><div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgYLUmleN4so4BnZFwBjS5NyrpLH501MRvHO9Wljf15vc8PIgpXRIZ_auBT3JHTCErVEntG_nu2BRjbetnyuHYDKwgSFSJG9UHTINP9c7z2dsoojP7jUU-RucdCUk-xjk3R3RBwfEuBRHkS24wLofWe3fZ-dfw5a5VwiMx0vCOHfy139lS4iA/s1035/Screen%20Shot%202022-11-11%20at%202.59.46%20PM.png" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="563" data-original-width="1035" height="348" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgYLUmleN4so4BnZFwBjS5NyrpLH501MRvHO9Wljf15vc8PIgpXRIZ_auBT3JHTCErVEntG_nu2BRjbetnyuHYDKwgSFSJG9UHTINP9c7z2dsoojP7jUU-RucdCUk-xjk3R3RBwfEuBRHkS24wLofWe3fZ-dfw5a5VwiMx0vCOHfy139lS4iA/w640-h348/Screen%20Shot%202022-11-11%20at%202.59.46%20PM.png" width="640" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjfeHDt7rSTcgI6e_UxM0sZlyBDR-Qso6DDANOJ87usnVJTzLG-C3mrd0OdmKQUEgbwDsLdebJzY7wTWLUin4w3NfG7istPS-ulgUPMIhFI3CFR9GvBNs7nk_gwxcukRvldO3A8qFk4-OzKZa4S6K1tRhVjSfYqeGdT-tGFJXBbtgzQ_fG2IQ/s1034/Screen%20Shot%202022-11-11%20at%202.57.37%20PM.png" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="561" data-original-width="1034" height="348" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjfeHDt7rSTcgI6e_UxM0sZlyBDR-Qso6DDANOJ87usnVJTzLG-C3mrd0OdmKQUEgbwDsLdebJzY7wTWLUin4w3NfG7istPS-ulgUPMIhFI3CFR9GvBNs7nk_gwxcukRvldO3A8qFk4-OzKZa4S6K1tRhVjSfYqeGdT-tGFJXBbtgzQ_fG2IQ/w640-h348/Screen%20Shot%202022-11-11%20at%202.57.37%20PM.png" width="640" /></a></div><br /></div></div><div><span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="font-family: times;">If we observe the history of Italian Gothic overall, into its silver and bronze ages, THE WITCH seems an obvious fork in the road that connects Antonio Margheriti & Sergio Corbucci’s CASTLE OF BLOOD (an earlier story of a live character’s interaction with others who are not quite alive nor real) with later examples such as Margheriti’s THE UNNATURALS (<i>Contronatura</i>, 1969), Mario Bava’s LISA AND THE DEVIL (1973), and Luigi Batzella’s NUDE FOR SATAN (<i>Nuda per Satana</i>, 1974). It's an obscure title not easy to accommodate yet it's a key ingredient of what would come along subsequently.</span><span style="font-family: times;"> </span></span></div><div><br /></div><div><span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="font-family: times;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhD0XJNIX6M4wye_ecBJQlzK7GRFboMofxbcECQu1UXMyYeb1FJ9VSDDuyVryV9znYFBg-uLx6qwz4BUsW_BjyLma2iCrVqoMrmPJzFRLn2gNJqfeQPpGv-b8j8glqBTTLElImVOWzStgrhoNM7CJwK9iYzccOkyXDKxc8aYglXZ9GoIrwU6Q/s1040/Screen%20Shot%202022-11-11%20at%202.45.44%20PM.png" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="562" data-original-width="1040" height="346" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhD0XJNIX6M4wye_ecBJQlzK7GRFboMofxbcECQu1UXMyYeb1FJ9VSDDuyVryV9znYFBg-uLx6qwz4BUsW_BjyLma2iCrVqoMrmPJzFRLn2gNJqfeQPpGv-b8j8glqBTTLElImVOWzStgrhoNM7CJwK9iYzccOkyXDKxc8aYglXZ9GoIrwU6Q/w640-h346/Screen%20Shot%202022-11-11%20at%202.45.44%20PM.png" width="640" /></a></div><br />Scripted by Ugo Liberatore (who had a hand in writing Giorgio Ferrani’s MILL OF THE STONE WOMEN, 1960), THE WITCH attends the journey of academic and serial womanizer Sergio Logan (Richard Johnson) as he is inexplicably tempted outside his relationship with Lorna (Margherita Guzzinati) by the curiously persistent presence of an older woman in his orbit. When this curious stranger has the brass to specifically require a man of his explicit description when placing a newspaper ad for a personal librarian, Logan takes the bait to find out more about this human enigma. She identifies herself as Consuelo Forente (Sarah Feratti, at age 55-56 embodying a much older, almost reptilian yet still sensual woman) and she seems to already know everything about Sergio, personally and professionally. She is looking for a man of his precise qualifications to impose order on the library of her late husband, a devotée of occult and erotic texts. As a serial womanizer who knows the fair sex well, he picks up on an unpleasant sexual vibe from the aging Signora, whose preservation under glass of the remains of her dead husband is only the first of her many surprises. </span><span style="font-family: times;">Sergio is determined to walk out on his prospective employment… until Consuelo introduces him to her smoldering, smoky-gazed daughter, Aura (Rossana Schiaffino). To make a long and involving dance more perfunctory, Aura succeeds in baiting Sergio, even though he is exposed to a strobing warning sign embodied by fellow tenant Fabrizio (Gian Maria Volonté), a tragic, broken man who is obviously Sergio’s predecessor in this web of erotic intrigue.</span></span></div><div><span style="font-family: times; font-size: medium;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="font-family: times;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiwh5F25ye38WhKU-64cQOb_a8mJWF6t7lVrPYSHQfg75HqSH4u5pd8MeLSabAQINLQuxBSHrR3e1KQuLANJQEWiFSniS5a-QWMe0hjMs3xU8Z8RLNamKkQjxsv8La7gC7Dn8FxX7H83aFW5cb9ocfIoKmo-c9AFZKkmlWZRmEHNPkIPVk7pQ/s1035/Screen%20Shot%202022-11-11%20at%202.59.13%20PM.png" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="560" data-original-width="1035" height="346" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiwh5F25ye38WhKU-64cQOb_a8mJWF6t7lVrPYSHQfg75HqSH4u5pd8MeLSabAQINLQuxBSHrR3e1KQuLANJQEWiFSniS5a-QWMe0hjMs3xU8Z8RLNamKkQjxsv8La7gC7Dn8FxX7H83aFW5cb9ocfIoKmo-c9AFZKkmlWZRmEHNPkIPVk7pQ/w640-h346/Screen%20Shot%202022-11-11%20at%202.59.13%20PM.png" width="640" /></a></div><br />THE WITCH is also notable in the context of GOTHIC FANTASTICO as the only film in which the actors were allowed to be credited under their actual professional names. Though Richard Johnson was British, all the other cast members were Italian and their honest billing points to the fact that this film was aiming higher than the exploitation market. All four of the film’s primary performances are first-rate, with Johnson’s gaining a certain resonance from his earlier casting as the rational core of Robert Wise’s THE HAUNTING (1961). It's tempting to declare that Volonté steals the film as he brings much more to his performance than would have been scripted, but the whole house of cards would have collapsed without the</span><span style="font-family: times;"> </span><i style="font-family: times;"><span>pas de deux</span> </i><span style="font-family: times;">portrayals of Ferrati and Schiaffino, each with a cobra-like fascination in its own right.</span></span></div><div><span style="font-family: times; font-size: medium;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: times; font-size: medium;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhNrATHFWVhibUjnKvKeskfSAIPiJtcQa2v4voN6RWXFqwOslg5sAwyToem355Wm8QzlCM0LHrJTV7zFP3cmrg0o2ubKlVJzqUJ_x_rWC9oCvGA_ig6hlm4wXZqUE-UxjJXfOcV387PwG6rA12d_xbtimi712Np4zHBuXP-ZZEQrG-INOZvcg/s1034/Screen%20Shot%202022-11-11%20at%202.52.06%20PM.png" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="559" data-original-width="1034" height="346" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhNrATHFWVhibUjnKvKeskfSAIPiJtcQa2v4voN6RWXFqwOslg5sAwyToem355Wm8QzlCM0LHrJTV7zFP3cmrg0o2ubKlVJzqUJ_x_rWC9oCvGA_ig6hlm4wXZqUE-UxjJXfOcV387PwG6rA12d_xbtimi712Np4zHBuXP-ZZEQrG-INOZvcg/w640-h346/Screen%20Shot%202022-11-11%20at%202.52.06%20PM.png" width="640" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhCG2fD3X9ciZ-ouwfplzkdzGqhNPei3oxAtZQ-eatDZJWvmZEzD44xntnUrcGR_CU6NDbDsa7353MJbIkk6t4i0AL3LtFQhBxxjW44wS_3zaZFevEVRxIcq9jN9prxrXvSkhSQiWHlcy4rhPhxDRZz7uvNdRq-BGOlnuNKg10HcxSRDnE-7A/s1032/Screen%20Shot%202022-11-11%20at%202.50.14%20PM.png" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="562" data-original-width="1032" height="348" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhCG2fD3X9ciZ-ouwfplzkdzGqhNPei3oxAtZQ-eatDZJWvmZEzD44xntnUrcGR_CU6NDbDsa7353MJbIkk6t4i0AL3LtFQhBxxjW44wS_3zaZFevEVRxIcq9jN9prxrXvSkhSQiWHlcy4rhPhxDRZz7uvNdRq-BGOlnuNKg10HcxSRDnE-7A/w640-h348/Screen%20Shot%202022-11-11%20at%202.50.14%20PM.png" width="640" /></a></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgaW9ruMxFDisnfgrTULhR6ADmfvejmqbVxwuENKIRqAir-NWKTcaXR2773btPXoGxnY7CG6G-hAcAPCaQopw0cz6fGkdIOHRhVOe9hBlCkUZvvwmoDgZjAOhb_uYHsE1Kt82kQfV1PAm0tfjQ5ancxJpoSCSDKRvW3PWExVW6n3WzE88sPFA/s1034/Screen%20Shot%202022-11-11%20at%202.55.58%20PM.png" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="564" data-original-width="1034" height="350" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgaW9ruMxFDisnfgrTULhR6ADmfvejmqbVxwuENKIRqAir-NWKTcaXR2773btPXoGxnY7CG6G-hAcAPCaQopw0cz6fGkdIOHRhVOe9hBlCkUZvvwmoDgZjAOhb_uYHsE1Kt82kQfV1PAm0tfjQ5ancxJpoSCSDKRvW3PWExVW6n3WzE88sPFA/w640-h350/Screen%20Shot%202022-11-11%20at%202.55.58%20PM.png" width="640" /></a></div></div><br />Made in the immediate wake of THE THIRD EYE, THE WITCH finds Damiani advancing beyond the lewd raciness that got Guerrini’s hand slapped, by patiently orchestrating a more erotic Italian Gothic cinema, which was forgiven in part by its art-house pretensions and also its imaginative and tasteful execution; at one point, Aura decides that she and Sergio should undress one another without using their hands - and in another scene, Fabrizio works out his mounting tensions with Aura by fencing with her. You may notice that the film is visually designed to lead the viewer, like Sergio, around by the nose through the sensuous choreography of its camera movement and the gestures and body language of its characters, particularly those played by Ferrati and Schiaffino, the story’s conjurors. In this way, DP Leonida Barboni (who would die only four years later, in 1970) shows the influence of the younger Gianna di Venanzo (EVA, 8 1/2, L’ECLISSE), who had died at the much younger age of only 45 as THE WITCH was being made in early 1966. The film is also notable for its interest in the sensual life of aging bodies, which later became a particular hallmark of the films of another Spanish master, José Ramón Larraz.</span></div><div><span style="font-family: times; font-size: medium;"><br /></span></div><div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg0ro93HNWA8ifdWjpgRliga_oj9rIkqmxV3qOIp0suf9j0b-3sISMsNic3VoLbjBNSLGrQ0fhDvGDTR4xPoQQFSqrpmq0U-Po1SZpFxfpnQCm4q9pvxX7RFZw-Z3F8qgTDEyOs9A1ksadP_V4nOoA3TXBHAWGFfDGRhpIkR9lwZxoKgzLV5A/s1035/Screen%20Shot%202022-11-11%20at%202.52.38%20PM.png" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="562" data-original-width="1035" height="348" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg0ro93HNWA8ifdWjpgRliga_oj9rIkqmxV3qOIp0suf9j0b-3sISMsNic3VoLbjBNSLGrQ0fhDvGDTR4xPoQQFSqrpmq0U-Po1SZpFxfpnQCm4q9pvxX7RFZw-Z3F8qgTDEyOs9A1ksadP_V4nOoA3TXBHAWGFfDGRhpIkR9lwZxoKgzLV5A/w640-h348/Screen%20Shot%202022-11-11%20at%202.52.38%20PM.png" width="640" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjilh7WqPRsggPRiwgKEnOQi33K5Npl-m0P4Ik79HwaEKrYjNZ0kycGAkIx2Xoy5RhC6gxM0uBRmf-vUZCpbslwjcxw8yS91N6iRV61rQh8hXjSJgmTtuchNPK3R5lUb0TIYVhCyGuM-vcej9I6VLc0ikxOKSo9CKqKQkwxyftBv8VCyso1BQ/s1033/Screen%20Shot%202022-11-11%20at%202.56.43%20PM.png" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="560" data-original-width="1033" height="346" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjilh7WqPRsggPRiwgKEnOQi33K5Npl-m0P4Ik79HwaEKrYjNZ0kycGAkIx2Xoy5RhC6gxM0uBRmf-vUZCpbslwjcxw8yS91N6iRV61rQh8hXjSJgmTtuchNPK3R5lUb0TIYVhCyGuM-vcej9I6VLc0ikxOKSo9CKqKQkwxyftBv8VCyso1BQ/w640-h346/Screen%20Shot%202022-11-11%20at%202.56.43%20PM.png" width="640" /></a></div><br /></div></div><div><span style="font-family: times; font-size: medium;">Mark Thompson Ashworth’s introduction admits that THE WITCH was the only film in this set that he felt challenged his confidence to properly discuss it. Indeed, while the film’s few extras acknowledge the picture’s ambition and ambiguity, and have much to say about its relationship to the other three movies, they fall somewhat short of engaging with the movie’s own bracing uniqueness - but this isn't to say they offer no food for thought. </span></div><div><span style="font-family: times; font-size: medium;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: times; font-size: medium;">Kat Ellinger's commentary encompasses multitudes of cinematic/literary forebears and parallels; she relates the film not only to Italian Gothic traditions but also Damiani’s earlier work (such as THE EMPTY CANVAS/<i>La noia</i>, 1964) and the more morbid highlights of American <i>noir </i>cinema, particularly Billy Wilder’s SUNSET BOULEVARD (1950). She also discusses the Fuentes novella but only in brief, preferring to leave listeners to the experience of discovering for themselves the interesting ways it varies from the film. While she summons any number of other valid reference points, from Huysman’s AU REBOURS to Losey’s EVA (a very apt catch), the film’s own constantly morphing, mercurial nature doesn’t allow her the time to fully explore the many avenues of thought opened up by these connections. Consequently, there are times where we find ourselves being told about far more familiar films (for example, Don Siegel’s THE BEGUILED or Tony Scott's THE HUNGER) rather than THE WITCH itself. Ellinger also touches on the Damiani film’s curious distinction of being mistaken by many viewers (and cataloguers) as a straightforward drama rather than as the accomplished genre film it is, which may well be why such an accomplished film remains so little-known among the genre's fans. Also included are a 24m 25s video essay by author and academic Miranda Corcoran (which goes deeply into the history of Witchcraft before coming round to the topic at hand), and another vigorous on-camera dissection of the film by Antonio Tentori.</span></div><div><span style="font-family: times; font-size: medium;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: times; font-size: medium;"><b>Rounding out this</b> rewarding four-disc set are an 80-page illustrated book containing some sharp new writing by Roberto Curti, Rob Talbot, Jerome Reuter, Rod Barnett and Kimberly Lindbergs. So little has been written in-depth about these films in English that the booklet is a real treat, though it feels a trifle over-illustrated. Also included is a reversible folded mini-poster reproduction of the Italian poster art for HORROR and THE THIRD EYE.</span></div><div><span style="font-family: times; font-size: medium;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: times; font-size: medium;">The set and booklet were produced by Kat Ellinger and Michael Mackenzie and the restorations were supervised by James White and James Pearcey.</span></div><div><span style="font-family: times; font-size: medium;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: times; font-size: medium;">Amazon is presently offering GOTHIC FANTASTICO at 50% off <a href="https://amzn.to/3Eqcn2P"><b>here</b></a>.</span></div><div><span style="font-family: times; font-size: medium;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: times; font-size: medium;"> </span></div><div><span style="font-family: times; font-size: medium;"><br /></span></div>
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Unknownnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-17626962.post-69768469318470413552022-11-10T18:54:00.003-05:002022-11-10T18:58:02.712-05:00Arrow's GOTHIC FANTASTICO #3: THE THIRD EYE (1965)<div><span style="font-family: times; font-size: medium;"><b><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgnpRuwfBrlRzEnhe3mAazdeaKa_x6qo493lTInUeGVaczE6DiiHtSisWAPvOF5XTZn0B5lz10sblDnQyYRAPWo6qRddz8_VtZc1dEkwObC9JupePMHUA43NgCof4MXj02BGP4DCOkOaWRfc4TFIL4b-eCML9fmh5Dmcrsk8BhEHoX7ZTeHJA/s500/Gothic%20Fan.jpg" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="500" data-original-width="395" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgnpRuwfBrlRzEnhe3mAazdeaKa_x6qo493lTInUeGVaczE6DiiHtSisWAPvOF5XTZn0B5lz10sblDnQyYRAPWo6qRddz8_VtZc1dEkwObC9JupePMHUA43NgCof4MXj02BGP4DCOkOaWRfc4TFIL4b-eCML9fmh5Dmcrsk8BhEHoX7ZTeHJA/s320/Gothic%20Fan.jpg" width="253" /></a></div>THE THIRD EYE </b>is yet another<b> </b>important Italian Gothic that somehow eluded international release and recognition till the last 15-20 years, at which time unsubtitled copies from an Italian TV broadcast began to appear on the US trading circuit. Even in Italy, the Mirko Guerrini film ("diretto di James Warren") had experienced a somewhat delayed impact. It was actually shot in 1965 and represented the first lead performances by theretofore supporting players Franco Nero and Erika Blanc; however, it was an usually candid film for 1965, a true turning point in the genre, and was found objectionable by the Italian censors and suppressed until certain cuts were made. Though the film has never been fully restored to its pre-release form, it remains a shocking picture for its time. </span></div><div><span style="font-family: times; font-size: medium;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: times; font-size: medium;">Produced by Luigi Carpentieri and Ermanno Donati (who financed the first Italian horror film, 1957’s <i>I Vampiri </i>aka THE DEVIL’S COMMANDMENT), and given a second-hand musical score by Francesco de Masi (lifted from the partnership’s other production THE GHOST, which adds to its dark obsessive undercurrent), the story concerns the domestic problems of Count Mino Alberti (Nero, acting as "Frank Nero"), a handsome taxidermy buff whose engagement to Laura (Blanc, acting as "Diana Sullivan") is overcast by his morbid Oedipal attachment to his mother (Olga Solbelli, acting as "Olga Sunbeauty"), who finds the beautiful blonde unworthy of a man of his station.</span></div><div><span style="font-family: times; font-size: medium;"><br /></span></div><div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhHLQSK7Hmnkz98su4rivcsSuGKf8Dw4GmsMwPfCqd4gvuSsVDuP7EAuc0O_eSgFTUQXYwlDG8MTM3QQHoryO7SgoF4EB3ZyO20IPmlhv91B5WWwSkGc5t88gHblp6dFxDdmwXPSQ7t7MO7OEXfsmaQ4CWO34CN5zriHjWpc-casZo9o0c-mw/s1035/Screen%20Shot%202022-11-10%20at%205.23.16%20PM.png" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="553" data-original-width="1035" height="342" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhHLQSK7Hmnkz98su4rivcsSuGKf8Dw4GmsMwPfCqd4gvuSsVDuP7EAuc0O_eSgFTUQXYwlDG8MTM3QQHoryO7SgoF4EB3ZyO20IPmlhv91B5WWwSkGc5t88gHblp6dFxDdmwXPSQ7t7MO7OEXfsmaQ4CWO34CN5zriHjWpc-casZo9o0c-mw/w640-h342/Screen%20Shot%202022-11-10%20at%205.23.16%20PM.png" width="640" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><span style="font-family: times; font-size: medium;">Station is also an all- consuming issue with the household maid Marta (Gioia Pascal) who is also biased against Laura as an obstacle to her dreams of marrying Mino herself and earning a place in the family she has served since childhood. Marta sabotages Laura’s sportscar (her cutting of the cables cleverly intercut with Mino’s tearing a large bird open manually) leading to the drowning death of Mino’s fiancee before his eyes, a trauma compounded in parallel by the death of his mother after a private showdown with Marta. Mino becomes unhinged and begins to act out his psychosis, which involves luring strippers and prostitutes back to the family villa to be seduced in a double bed whose veiled neighboring mattress holds the corpse of Laura, necessary to inspire him sexually. (His revelation of the corpse beside them is reserved for the right psychological moment, as with the mirror attachment of Karl Boehm's mirrored camera attachment in Michael Powell's PEEPING TOM, 1960). Marta assists his murders and their clean-up in exchange for the power of position, but Mino's promise to marry her is forgotten at once when Laura’s lookalike younger sister Daniella (also Blanc) arrives at the villa.</span></div><div><span style="font-family: times; font-size: medium;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgvlkXiIpXEAsq1NBhSOMUeQ7n0glenIKaWZKrR_8UfNzM14VANlGfMWFNRBMfA8G0XyeomJBBx_oQt72BZbHMoesZCogr2wtRiF5x2Ne0_o0D1JrtEFBmbclTW8NjZ_kEdH73xpOGV30yohiH3IljMwgByRTeb3Eh6jkM2aj366lVyqYZniQ/s1034/Screen%20Shot%202022-11-10%20at%205.16.39%20PM.png" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="559" data-original-width="1034" height="346" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgvlkXiIpXEAsq1NBhSOMUeQ7n0glenIKaWZKrR_8UfNzM14VANlGfMWFNRBMfA8G0XyeomJBBx_oQt72BZbHMoesZCogr2wtRiF5x2Ne0_o0D1JrtEFBmbclTW8NjZ_kEdH73xpOGV30yohiH3IljMwgByRTeb3Eh6jkM2aj366lVyqYZniQ/w640-h346/Screen%20Shot%202022-11-10%20at%205.16.39%20PM.png" width="640" /></a></div><br /></div>If the scenario (written by Carpentieri under the name of 15th century serial killer Gilles de Rey) sounds familiar, this is because Joe D’Amato later remade it as BEYOND THE DARKNESS (<i>Buio omega</i>, 1980), one of the most gruesome and flagrantly sexual Italian horror films of the 1980s. In this earlier incarnation, which omits any graphic representation of the acid baths awaiting Mino’s cold conquests, the black-and-white film is still startling for its violent and erotic candor; it would never have been considered by a US distributor at the time because it’s in no way suitable for children. It's also the most pronounced of the four features in this collection as an elegant segue from classic Italian Gothic into contemporary, bloodletting horror.</span></div><div><span style="font-family: times; font-size: medium;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: times; font-size: medium;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh06e2naUsKjfs9rS_cdTvfI3KIsKyoaVJcqhS7j-ufNl8DzMGXhueE3EBqKRQ_c6gF6lJM_oBiB78ofHwr7kM4lQso5zZvFrCkqVYZgssAjcgGsTZFasZY0Uio3VTL_2b1UJeW8oiWm8CepvoiUDDelfEV5YVM40GB57B_R7Zw3k9YG4AgMw/s1034/Screen%20Shot%202022-11-10%20at%205.15.01%20PM.png" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="560" data-original-width="1034" height="346" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh06e2naUsKjfs9rS_cdTvfI3KIsKyoaVJcqhS7j-ufNl8DzMGXhueE3EBqKRQ_c6gF6lJM_oBiB78ofHwr7kM4lQso5zZvFrCkqVYZgssAjcgGsTZFasZY0Uio3VTL_2b1UJeW8oiWm8CepvoiUDDelfEV5YVM40GB57B_R7Zw3k9YG4AgMw/w640-h346/Screen%20Shot%202022-11-10%20at%205.15.01%20PM.png" width="640" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiGzSJJgaoMWbHGomTjZGfvP3N7h4FyvSqjehZkksCMOlKA1xGsZS_oNbf3-Eij8Sn25nfDMCEbUpVCKy6for1Nq2mmDDQi0ksqkr6gGmcgmeZK7WC1ni_BZ-jgUuw-JJpVTNDhi77jBf4fHS6Pil7CyjPMPwyxHJRMVuBMhhvobFhKIc-PRw/s1034/Screen%20Shot%202022-11-10%20at%205.19.13%20PM.png" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="555" data-original-width="1034" height="344" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiGzSJJgaoMWbHGomTjZGfvP3N7h4FyvSqjehZkksCMOlKA1xGsZS_oNbf3-Eij8Sn25nfDMCEbUpVCKy6for1Nq2mmDDQi0ksqkr6gGmcgmeZK7WC1ni_BZ-jgUuw-JJpVTNDhi77jBf4fHS6Pil7CyjPMPwyxHJRMVuBMhhvobFhKIc-PRw/w640-h344/Screen%20Shot%202022-11-10%20at%205.19.13%20PM.png" width="640" /></a></div><br /></div>While Guerrini’s direction of suspense sequences is appropriately baiting and alluring, sometimes recalling the best of Hitchcock, he is less attentive to character development. If we watch the film in English, the characters (each of whom takes center stage as a protagonist at some point) parade their shallow make-up all the more. Laura, who should be the film’s heart, isn’t part of the film long enough for us to know her, nor is her replacement Daniella cultivated in any sort of personable way, which prevents us from feeling any empathy for them or for Mino’s trauma or psychosis. Nero’s performance has its moments and works best in Italian but in the third act, as he flees the villa with Daniella in tow, his rantings sail way over-the-top and become ludicrous, especially in English. In an interesting thwarting of expectation, cinematographer Alessandro D’Eva (working as "Sandy Deaves") strives to make the film terrifying in settings of broad daylight, without the usual emphasis on eerie shadows, and this too seems part of the film’s decisive move outside the traditional realm of Italian Gothic. In addition to a single startling split diopter shot, the climactic image of the police flashlights spilling over the hillside and tumbling down the beachfront like so many fireflies is particularly impressive.</span></div><div><span style="font-family: times; font-size: medium;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: times; font-size: medium;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg4OjmVNn8uYd2vMN8xubotMGEUrNKG_tbvR_eCOMyZs_n9eNG0KnFB8Ttj1jL3enIvwo6aYUT87ogf6VIdIGTUvDX-WkHkTvebJ5QYNdMj3p54-ewiVGIaG2PVmFw6N7RKOPnZOPrjDQ9lzZLSXBgIfGcXs-qxlrY4nImdT5QpmH7Ll__TGQ/s1032/Screen%20Shot%202022-11-10%20at%206.37.32%20PM.png" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="555" data-original-width="1032" height="344" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg4OjmVNn8uYd2vMN8xubotMGEUrNKG_tbvR_eCOMyZs_n9eNG0KnFB8Ttj1jL3enIvwo6aYUT87ogf6VIdIGTUvDX-WkHkTvebJ5QYNdMj3p54-ewiVGIaG2PVmFw6N7RKOPnZOPrjDQ9lzZLSXBgIfGcXs-qxlrY4nImdT5QpmH7Ll__TGQ/w640-h344/Screen%20Shot%202022-11-10%20at%206.37.32%20PM.png" width="640" /></a></div><br /> </span><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi41ZogEdHkRK_xyb6Q-I8zNl_nzBCDCmHcPORo-Oq8dHa2l6mITsK-8UAWgJrCJxq7aqTIwy_HHGWPt5xPvwVO0xre-YVftOE4zu_-yISEZHBi1bauySMOY_uD8aJl-aOk7EYZT3cEQeie6fZ4RJ-S-7cfvvM2yHJic5ylEQn1j68n1CMMbA/s1033/Screen%20Shot%202022-11-10%20at%205.19.54%20PM.png" style="font-family: times; margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em; text-align: center;"><img border="0" data-original-height="558" data-original-width="1033" height="346" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi41ZogEdHkRK_xyb6Q-I8zNl_nzBCDCmHcPORo-Oq8dHa2l6mITsK-8UAWgJrCJxq7aqTIwy_HHGWPt5xPvwVO0xre-YVftOE4zu_-yISEZHBi1bauySMOY_uD8aJl-aOk7EYZT3cEQeie6fZ4RJ-S-7cfvvM2yHJic5ylEQn1j68n1CMMbA/w640-h346/Screen%20Shot%202022-11-10%20at%205.19.54%20PM.png" width="640" /></a></div><div><span style="font-family: times; font-size: medium;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: times; font-size: medium;">When I first saw THE THIRD EYE many years ago, in Italian without subtitles, I was startled by how far it went, how much it prophesied Italian Gothic's future propensities for shock and eroticism, which became so much more pronounced in its silver and bronze ages. Alas, as time has passed, and as the film itself has acquired subtitles and revealed all its narrative meaning, I find that its initial shocks have dimmed slightly while its camp value has become much more obvious. This aspect resides mostly in Nero's performance which, while silly and laughably demented at times, also has a few boldly iconic moments—such as his bold advance toward nightclub dancer Marina Morgan, whose eyes are as accentuated by makeup as his are naturally. His character has obvious antecedents in Mark Lewis (PEEPING TOM), Norman Bates (Anthony Perkins, PSYCHO) and Charles Campbell (Grant Williams, THE COUCH), but if we look at the similar characters that would follow in Italian and especially the Spanish Gothic for the next 20-30 years, like John Harrington (Stephen Forsyth, HATCHET FOR THE HONEYMOON) or Juan (Renaud Varley, A BELL FROM HELL), it is Nero's performance the later roles most seem to invoke. </span></div><div><span style="font-family: times; font-size: medium;"><br /></span><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjgSs4VUEClqV1LKFcHWzC_qI9o6BuTNF6UnR10anQQvu_BEJMW9s-WyooP3M8-h_bkihmFEBH_CLKZuTWCU-VR6wH0nCRhXAGYkZoxS9kt7yxQR39Dx8U11WOHWlFcesZNoqoEilB8sQLrnssDv_5cGVpTdPdumwNtrHKjrSjS3KKpci0-Jw/s1031/Screen%20Shot%202022-11-10%20at%205.22.16%20PM.png" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="556" data-original-width="1031" height="346" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjgSs4VUEClqV1LKFcHWzC_qI9o6BuTNF6UnR10anQQvu_BEJMW9s-WyooP3M8-h_bkihmFEBH_CLKZuTWCU-VR6wH0nCRhXAGYkZoxS9kt7yxQR39Dx8U11WOHWlFcesZNoqoEilB8sQLrnssDv_5cGVpTdPdumwNtrHKjrSjS3KKpci0-Jw/w640-h346/Screen%20Shot%202022-11-10%20at%205.22.16%20PM.png" width="640" /></a></div></div><div><span style="font-family: times; font-size: medium;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: times; font-size: medium;">Rachael Nisbet has recorded a very useful commentary for the film, which puts all the contributors into their proper context and speaks persuasively about the film's qualities while acknowledging its few detriments - which include its title, Mino's subjective description of his own experience of his ritual murder sprees, which she admits is poorly developed. (The film would have done well to stick with its original title, THE COLD KISS OF DEATH.) Lindsay Hallam provides the film's visual essay, "Necrophilia Becomes Nostalgia" (12m), which focuses on the film's narrative, its several debts to PSYCHO, and how the rise of all forms of Gothic cinema took place in historic parallel to the social anxieties surrounding changing gender roles in the 1960s. There is also a 15:14 second interview with Erika Blanc, who recalls her involvement in the film with strong and amused memory, noting for example that she was required to wear purple lipstick to make her lips look more luscious in monochrome. She explains the story behind her "Diana Sullivan" alias (which she chose herself), her good rapport with her fellow players and co-workers, and Franco Nero's solitary nature on the set as he studied English between scenes because he wanted to go to America ("Mamma mia! He did what he set out to do"). There is also an image gallery, though this is a rather grandiose way of describing one German still and one Italian locandina. </span></div><div><span style="font-family: times; font-size: medium;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: times; font-size: medium;">Taken as a whole, these extras form an effective bouquet that enhances the main feature—an arresting, if ultimately imperfect distillation of the Italian Gothic's </span><span style="font-family: times; font-size: medium;">most passionate excesses.</span></div><div><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><div><br /></div>
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Unknownnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-17626962.post-82928250911673737112022-11-09T00:00:00.001-05:002022-11-09T00:00:00.163-05:00Arrow's GOTHIC FANTASTICO Part 2: HORROR aka THE BLANCHEVILLE MONSTER (1963)<div><span style="font-family: times; font-size: medium;"><b><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg_n8Jxx8rsM0EtaJ_aWJXQELllyKqOaLbWLt_vzism1gNkOIMmntdDVkP7NUB_qqjOkyGAo3ZNetPCxx7-3lzaN_tgUc6O0SDPz27bLOM_rEHxoojdnLF_g8urUmNnhQgLlxUv2TRuAXWNrI_0fcg04ZMqH8IW585CBd1IPaX_VwsdnbB-BA/s500/Gothic%20Fan.jpg" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="500" data-original-width="395" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg_n8Jxx8rsM0EtaJ_aWJXQELllyKqOaLbWLt_vzism1gNkOIMmntdDVkP7NUB_qqjOkyGAo3ZNetPCxx7-3lzaN_tgUc6O0SDPz27bLOM_rEHxoojdnLF_g8urUmNnhQgLlxUv2TRuAXWNrI_0fcg04ZMqH8IW585CBd1IPaX_VwsdnbB-BA/s320/Gothic%20Fan.jpg" width="253" /></a></div>The second film</b> collected by GOTHIC FANTASTICO was (like LADY MORGAN'S VENGEANCE) denied a US theatrical release, albeit for different reasons. Alberto de Martino’s derivative but beautifully-made THE BLANCHEVILLE MONSTER (which was first given a modest UK theatrical release under its original title, HORROR) alleged that it had a narrative basis in the works of Edgar Allan Poe; this led American International Pictures—as they did with other Poe pictures made in other countries during this period—to acquire and then downplay (if not suppress) the title, either by shelving it or sending it directly to television, in order to preserve and protect Roger Corman’s and AIP’s reputations as the contemporary cine-stewards of Poe’s good name.</span></div><div><span style="font-family: times; font-size: medium;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: times; font-size: medium;">Newspaper records show that THE BLANCHEVILLE MONSTER (which includes elements from “The Premature Burial” and Poe’s hypnosis tract “A Tale of the Ragged Mountains”) made its first US TV appearance, courtesy of AIP-TV syndication, on Monday, October 26, 1964 in the New York-New Jersey region, at which time Corman had just completed THE TOMB OF LIGEIA and announced his intention to retire from the Poe series. This release marks the first time it has ever been accessible in the US from 35mm elements. On a visual level alone, it is a revelation with powerfully dimensional deep focus photography by Alejandro Ulloa (</span><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;">THE MONSTER OF THE OPERA, THE VIRGIN OF NUREMBERG, THE DIABOLICAL DR Z).</span></div><div><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: times; font-size: medium;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiATWfhZMVIyDcdJn49oFnP2lzDUMlc0i7czEYBBrz0axomPlTy2Ir0cmHh7ce7A2CWpVh36y0ucBFXWOBtm2yqVNUSEv21NOZUyv05-zprcTrPImbmDgof-9kXnp3hDCqfCw67Ax1Vr0_1vrKe_LcuIu8yaakoqYiBrVyb6oNO9mWmUNwEzQ/s1028/Screen%20Shot%202022-11-07%20at%207.12.02%20PM.png" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="557" data-original-width="1028" height="346" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiATWfhZMVIyDcdJn49oFnP2lzDUMlc0i7czEYBBrz0axomPlTy2Ir0cmHh7ce7A2CWpVh36y0ucBFXWOBtm2yqVNUSEv21NOZUyv05-zprcTrPImbmDgof-9kXnp3hDCqfCw67Ax1Vr0_1vrKe_LcuIu8yaakoqYiBrVyb6oNO9mWmUNwEzQ/w640-h346/Screen%20Shot%202022-11-07%20at%207.12.02%20PM.png" width="640" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div>Something that distinguishes THE BLANCHEVILLE MONSTER from its companions in this set is that, despite sharing the same screenwriter as LADY MORGAN’S VENGEANCE (Giovanni Grimaldi, again writing as "Jean Grimaud" and aassisted by Bruno Corbucci as “Gordon Wilson, Jr.”), it was actually an early Spanish-Italian co-production. Though unmistakably an Italian Gothic, it leans heavily on its Spanish side due to its familiar Spanish locations (including the Monasterio de Santa Maria la Real de Valdeiglesias in Madrid, later featured in FRANKENSTEIN’S BLOODY TERROR, TOMBS OF THE BLIND DEAD, and THE LORELEY’S GRASP) and sets (I noticed a familiar staircase and room from THE AWFUL DR. ORLOF, 1961). It also features a predominantly Spanish cast: Gerard Tichy (a Spanish actor of German descent who was later featured in Bava’s Spanish thriller HATCHET FOR THE HONEYMOON), Leo Anchoriz, Paco Moran and, in her first of many memorable horror film appearances, the marvelously elegant and imperious Helga Liné. At the same time, some of its interiors appear to have been filmed in the same twin-staircased villa previously used as the setting for Bava’s THE WHIP AND THE BODY (<i>La frusta e il corpo</i>, 1963). </span></div><div><span style="font-family: times; font-size: medium;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: times; font-size: medium;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhE8TPGkxwATeG9AViu5NRj65U-YcHkt7_BkYwmd3o45gxgUNHxc6OCfg5PAZZfLiNjFgxXz2Sj2-VbjUShp59hARhACyGYtuccQ7sjbJx6GcVEpAkOsXlMuZJvz0GD30EGnyRKXW7Or1GD9qPFlvp3dWq9UL57e8EwoXAsSw2l664d2HvyRA/s1034/Screen%20Shot%202022-11-07%20at%207.18.19%20PM.png" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="559" data-original-width="1034" height="346" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhE8TPGkxwATeG9AViu5NRj65U-YcHkt7_BkYwmd3o45gxgUNHxc6OCfg5PAZZfLiNjFgxXz2Sj2-VbjUShp59hARhACyGYtuccQ7sjbJx6GcVEpAkOsXlMuZJvz0GD30EGnyRKXW7Or1GD9qPFlvp3dWq9UL57e8EwoXAsSw2l664d2HvyRA/w640-h346/Screen%20Shot%202022-11-07%20at%207.18.19%20PM.png" width="640" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgvXlbInu0RN7lba0cn9eSboJtvbRAs7ZhfIhpnEje8R1IWiwnXIPrdqTwD_9FmTsWoy7xLefW9fF10iy9tYYl_wuj7t6TaRtA4sZHuKFHUgHdSe7F48ju39Rmg4DZ5xFYtHi2zxw4eesFDUuuREwunRkKlz7gJdN1uMC0RsKNvUzoOA3s3SA/s1033/Screen%20Shot%202022-11-07%20at%207.11.30%20PM.png" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="558" data-original-width="1033" height="346" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgvXlbInu0RN7lba0cn9eSboJtvbRAs7ZhfIhpnEje8R1IWiwnXIPrdqTwD_9FmTsWoy7xLefW9fF10iy9tYYl_wuj7t6TaRtA4sZHuKFHUgHdSe7F48ju39Rmg4DZ5xFYtHi2zxw4eesFDUuuREwunRkKlz7gJdN1uMC0RsKNvUzoOA3s3SA/w640-h346/Screen%20Shot%202022-11-07%20at%207.11.30%20PM.png" width="640" /></a></div></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="text-align: left;"><br /></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: justify;"><span style="text-align: left;">The setting of the story differs, depending on whether you're watching the film in Italian or English; a Spanish option is not included. In Italian (HORROR), the story is set in England, 1884, according to the opening caption, and the family name is Blackford—“one of the oldest and noblest families in Scotland.” In English (THE BLANCHEVILLE MONSTER), the family name is de Blancheville and the villa and its grounds are somewhere in northern France, or Brittany. This is the only instance known to me when a name was altered in the English dubbing to make it sound</span><span style="text-align: left;"> </span><i style="text-align: left;">less</i><span style="text-align: left;"> </span><span style="text-align: left;">English. Curiously, in the titles of both versions, the Spanish actors are credited by their real names while the Italian artists languish under Anglo-Saxon aliases.</span></div></span></div><div><span style="font-family: times; font-size: medium;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: times; font-size: medium;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiXROVvE_FgCUYkQy9OErAzTpajhdtnx_WAJpXtjGbr8XRtSp-OQk4iHwsSyUfMRJBmJlfQuv7d_MbHyOt5YL_IxG2PlbEqIz9XUhNiebkc7NzZ_ye58VdGvrdXNZHopfgeSgXMANeIl5E29tD_LnIt4r8fWmH3oan5c7nuCACOgaNBvCD1Fw/s1034/Screen%20Shot%202022-11-07%20at%207.10.56%20PM.png" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="557" data-original-width="1034" height="344" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiXROVvE_FgCUYkQy9OErAzTpajhdtnx_WAJpXtjGbr8XRtSp-OQk4iHwsSyUfMRJBmJlfQuv7d_MbHyOt5YL_IxG2PlbEqIz9XUhNiebkc7NzZ_ye58VdGvrdXNZHopfgeSgXMANeIl5E29tD_LnIt4r8fWmH3oan5c7nuCACOgaNBvCD1Fw/w640-h344/Screen%20Shot%202022-11-07%20at%207.10.56%20PM.png" width="640" /></a></div><div><span style="font-family: times; font-size: medium;"><br /></span></div>As the film opens, the blonde and vivacious Emelie (Ombretta Colli acting as “Joan Hills”), newly graduated from college, is traveling by coach in the company of two friends, the siblings Alice (Iran Eory, a Spanish and Iranian-born actress) and John Taylor (Vanni Materassi acting as “Richard Davis”), who have given up their plans to return to Dublin to accompany Emelie to her ancestral castle in Scotland. There, they are warmly greeted by Emelie’s older brother Rodéric (Tichy, who is given to ponderous solitary poundings of his harpsichord) whom she has not seen since childhood. Emelie will turn 21 in one week, thus inheriting the castle and its surrounding properties, which pretty much telegraphs any and all explanation needed of the unusual events attending her return. Home is not quite as Emelie remembers it; her father has died, the avuncular family butler she remembers has retired, and her beloved maid Dorothy has been gone to reside with relatives, and been replaced by the younger, colder, darkly beautiful Eleonore (Line). As if the new gangster-faced butler Alistair (Moran) wasn’t enough, a mysterious Dr. Atwell (Anchoriz, a Spanish Vincent Price if you will, paying nominal homage to actor Lionel Atwill) puts in a first-night appearance and engages Miss Eleonore in hushed conversations they don’t wish anyone, including Rodéric, to overhear. </span></div><div><span style="font-family: times; font-size: medium;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: times; font-size: medium;">For Emelie and John, the next days lend themselves to courtship. Meanwhile, dark and stormy nights, corridor creepings<i> à la</i> candelabra, clocks tolling the midnight hour (twice!), and unexplained cries ensue as Alice, in a billowing see-through nightie, somewhat eclipsing Emelie as our most essential heroine, seeks her brother’s room in the depths and heights of the castle - where the breaths of the actors is frequently visible. She accidentally stumbles upon the shocking sight of Eleonora administering a sedative to a horribly disfigured monster. Fainting into Rodéric’s arms, Alice is later persuaded that she saw no such thing, though the lord of the manor soon makes the admission that his and Emelie’s (supposedly dead) father still lives, maddened and burnt beyond recognition from a house fire, and has now escaped somewhere into the woods enveloping the castle. Emelie determines to find him, to bring him home, till Rodéric breaks the news that she is the one he most wants to kill. Evidently, it’s an old Blackford legend that the family is foretold it will perish in its tenth generation when the last female descendant turns 21. The only way to perpetuate the family bloodline is to do away with the only Blackford capable of giving birth—how’s that for a Catch-22?</span></div><div><span style="font-family: times; font-size: medium;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: times; font-size: medium;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgdS-5HvNW33XtuijdE-KzJiQCNmOYvhZUrBqhG5dWAEZPbMGjGJ3_HdbtbxKx7mrCcyqyStI1xW5U_JfpZLJRzPHx-5Tfuhgnr1Jo8myhQq0OZkO299rCMOUeBGcnwG3pPuNW9E-7pHiPgH5dBkcvdBKQxfKFNi93a1SHjWXB05epVlPsacQ/s1034/Screen%20Shot%202022-11-07%20at%207.16.43%20PM.png" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="557" data-original-width="1034" height="344" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgdS-5HvNW33XtuijdE-KzJiQCNmOYvhZUrBqhG5dWAEZPbMGjGJ3_HdbtbxKx7mrCcyqyStI1xW5U_JfpZLJRzPHx-5Tfuhgnr1Jo8myhQq0OZkO299rCMOUeBGcnwG3pPuNW9E-7pHiPgH5dBkcvdBKQxfKFNi93a1SHjWXB05epVlPsacQ/w640-h344/Screen%20Shot%202022-11-07%20at%207.16.43%20PM.png" width="640" /></a></div><br />In a magnificent sequence, truly the atmospheric and poetic equal of anything in Bava’s BLACK SUNDAY (<i>La maschera del demonio</i>, 1960), Emelie is awakened by her monstrous father and led to the family’s astounding crypt (the previously noted Monasterio, nicely anticipating the abbey ruins of Corman's THE TOMB OF LIGEIA, 1965) where she's told to entomb herself for the good of the family. She reads the legend carved into the crypt wall and faints, whereupon she’s found by Dr. Atwell and Alistair, who carry her back to the castle. When John and Alice later discover Emelie walking in her sleep toward the crypt and snap her out of it, John begins to suspect Dr. Atwell of controlling the lady of the house through Mesmer's newfound practice of hypnosis, despite his being in the clear when attempts on Emelie’s life are made. This causes a rift between John and his sister, who has begun to feel romantically inclined toward the doctor. Emelie’s troubles culminate in her being discovered dead, to all appearances, despite her inner voice beseeching the guests at her funeral to realize that she’s still alive. The film's climactic sequence recalls Dreyer’s VAMPYR by way of Corman’s THE HOUSE OF USHER and PREMATURE BURIAL but it has its own sense of melodramatic grandeur, paid off with a special demise for its unmasked villain.</span></div><div><span style="font-family: times; font-size: medium;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: times; font-size: medium;">While HORROR/THE BLANCHEVILLE MONSTER can’t be called one of the best Italian Gothics, it’s directed, played, and also edited with appreciable style and sensitivity, and will be filed away by many as a special comfort food. In the world of Italian Gothic, presence is often equal—if not more important—to performance. Though this film is very well cast and acted with sincerity, even with some delicacy (particularly in the Italian version), Helga Liné dominates this one in a way she would few other films. She’s mostly familiar to fantastic cinema buffs for her work with Paul Naschy and Amando de Ossorio in the 1970s, but she's almost a different actress when filmed in black-and-white—a purer, higher creature of cinema. The Italian version works better than the English one with more clearly crafted dialogue that dissolves all the little confusions which sometimes arise when meaning is less important than matching lip movements. The score by Carlo Franci (Freda’s THE WITCH’S CURSE, HERCULES AGAINST THE MOON MEN), reportedly augmented with cues by Giuseppe Piccillo) is notably lacking in the usual obsessive melodic motifs found in such films, but it does its job in its own low-profile way.</span><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;"> </span></div><div><span style="font-family: times; font-size: medium;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: times; font-size: medium;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgAkEsO_Lu2xUA8sCpUCzcONozRpUntqburyOqL31mNs87uoLPuRfrOdDP2FDVYFPddN5zfIFoQsaD5pDFO6SX4daD0KEAh2Uo7SjPW5MZ-desQbrQpcxDhF80IT3UN2w8P9qwc7lvKCEeQI-DPVK-qip2UhjGb0IEY2T7xM6QZ2WufP_XGQA/s1037/Screen%20Shot%202022-11-07%20at%207.09.24%20PM.png" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="561" data-original-width="1037" height="346" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgAkEsO_Lu2xUA8sCpUCzcONozRpUntqburyOqL31mNs87uoLPuRfrOdDP2FDVYFPddN5zfIFoQsaD5pDFO6SX4daD0KEAh2Uo7SjPW5MZ-desQbrQpcxDhF80IT3UN2w8P9qwc7lvKCEeQI-DPVK-qip2UhjGb0IEY2T7xM6QZ2WufP_XGQA/w640-h346/Screen%20Shot%202022-11-07%20at%207.09.24%20PM.png" width="640" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhEDLu4srHg-qlGOxhlDs2ia-U47zcdwPP1srEtE5mKTlTjEBwT1E4U5TYGkLk5VhdrFeVNj5NykNzo-jvYVKD8vcBrDxN0n2C1Z0s2qFo8avuKQ-vQJDZ70jX6YJWsY3PS-5PtRlzNvPohVBgytl1iRhVOig_jVo5JfOwPqs7LKkNqKZ4n2g/s1036/Screen%20Shot%202022-11-07%20at%207.10.23%20PM.png" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="552" data-original-width="1036" height="342" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhEDLu4srHg-qlGOxhlDs2ia-U47zcdwPP1srEtE5mKTlTjEBwT1E4U5TYGkLk5VhdrFeVNj5NykNzo-jvYVKD8vcBrDxN0n2C1Z0s2qFo8avuKQ-vQJDZ70jX6YJWsY3PS-5PtRlzNvPohVBgytl1iRhVOig_jVo5JfOwPqs7LKkNqKZ4n2g/w640-h342/Screen%20Shot%202022-11-07%20at%207.10.23%20PM.png" width="640" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgm_--dwQXvNIU_q0V0O_2DYUX78DPm6TOsb3J6qoP3JDZSXVeqbLtxko93K9Fk2_BRh1HDXa1M21vLDyZGQBJf20ZYSdBFMlHgiW_-2kCQHUAz9PYAakmIdPxX-eobSepYWuym2q1hF_FJ7XrQWeD2P-0yP17C1BInTn4cxp9vKbnYLCHt7w/s1032/Screen%20Shot%202022-11-07%20at%207.13.14%20PM.png" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="552" data-original-width="1032" height="342" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgm_--dwQXvNIU_q0V0O_2DYUX78DPm6TOsb3J6qoP3JDZSXVeqbLtxko93K9Fk2_BRh1HDXa1M21vLDyZGQBJf20ZYSdBFMlHgiW_-2kCQHUAz9PYAakmIdPxX-eobSepYWuym2q1hF_FJ7XrQWeD2P-0yP17C1BInTn4cxp9vKbnYLCHt7w/w640-h342/Screen%20Shot%202022-11-07%20at%207.13.14%20PM.png" width="640" /></a></div></div><br /></div></span><span style="font-family: times; font-size: medium;">HORROR was produced by Italo Zingarelli, one of Mario Bava’s oldest friends in the film business and one of the very few who attended his very private funeral. While the film’s special effects are credited to Emilio Ruiz del Ruiz, Bava was rumored to have been responsible for the film’s miniature and matte effects of Castle Blackford, filmed in post-production back in Rome. The daylight long shot of the carriage rolling onto the grounds of the castle early in the film, reprised as the coach leaves at the end, is a beautifully rendered matte shot lent additional verisimilitude by a foregrounded veil of tangled birch wood. Other trick shots based nearer the castle are well designed and sold with a careful alignment of visual elements, though their bonding with double exposures of simulated rainfall falls short of being convincing in the same ways as similar shots in Bava’s DR. GOLDFOOT AND THE GIRL BOMBS (<i>I due mafiosi dell’ FBI</i>, 1966).</span></div><div><span style="font-family: times; font-size: medium;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: times; font-size: medium;">The extras are led by a relaxed and sometimes humorous audio commentary by Australian filmmaker (producer, director, editor, cinematographer) Paul Anthony Nelson, who establishes a comfortable familiarity with Italian Gothic, its many classics and practitioners. His talk offers welcome career details about the various principals (a few of whom passed away at fairly young ages) and likens the film not only to Corman’s Poe pictures but also earlier works by Bava and Freda, and to JANE EYRE and some novels of Jane Austen. There’s also a 20m visual essay on the film by pop culture historian Keith Allison, well-scripted and spoken, that explores the feature’s relationship to Corman’s reinvigorated approach to Poe and explores how other films in the early 1960s fostered more psychological, even experimental approaches to macabre storytelling. Author and filmmaker Antonio Tentori holds court with a nearly 14m discussion of Alberto de Martino’s work, HORROR in particular, and additionally perceives a strong connection to the work of Riccardo Freda. Also included are an eyesore representation of the film’s AIP-TV US credits, only moderately changed from the original, as well as an Italian trailer and an image gallery consisting of only two poster images.</span></div><p><b>NEXT UP: THE THIRD EYE!</b></p><p><b><br /></b></p>
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Unknownnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-17626962.post-84176839369295106632022-11-07T16:05:00.000-05:002022-11-07T16:05:51.570-05:00Arrow's GOTHIC FANTASTICO Part 1: LADY MORGAN'S VENGEANCE (1965)<div><h1><span style="font-family: times; font-size: medium;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgcNxdnnM9pKD-nzevu90-qTa2ryO5DVH6gzVkH5UpHMGhJ7HknrVZjUA1IINXSLzlgTLxMRNePiYZBInEiyEAcptxqqlAhVcbRYb_qhyCC_gV5yARivGn2EdSWKadbx-vtrdWxrxsBgXn9ifOB_3o1h2i_yBeQG2bLQvIQeHaDIDFYAyG7lw/s500/Gothic%20Fan.jpg" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="500" data-original-width="395" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgcNxdnnM9pKD-nzevu90-qTa2ryO5DVH6gzVkH5UpHMGhJ7HknrVZjUA1IINXSLzlgTLxMRNePiYZBInEiyEAcptxqqlAhVcbRYb_qhyCC_gV5yARivGn2EdSWKadbx-vtrdWxrxsBgXn9ifOB_3o1h2i_yBeQG2bLQvIQeHaDIDFYAyG7lw/s320/Gothic%20Fan.jpg" width="253" /></a></div>GOTHIC FANTASTICO: FOUR ITALIAN TALES OF TERROR</span></h1></div><div><span style="font-family: times; font-size: medium;"><i>1963-1966, Arrow Video (UK & US)</i></span></div><div><span style="font-family: times; font-size: medium;"><i>Disc One: LADY MORGAN’S VENGEANCE (La vendetta di Lady Morgan, 1965), 86m 1s</i></span></div><div><span style="font-family: times; font-size: medium;"><i>Disc Two: THE BLANCHEVILLE MONSTER (Horror, 1963), 88m 07s</i></span></div><div><span style="font-family: times; font-size: medium;"><i>Disc Three: THE THIRD EYE (Il terzo occhio, 1966), 87m 07s</i></span></div><div><span style="font-family: times; font-size: medium;"><i>Disc Four: THE WITCH aka THE WITCH IN LOVE (La strega in amore, 1966), 109m 22s</i></span></div><div><span style="font-family: times; font-size: medium;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: times; font-size: medium;"><b>With the release</b> of this thematic four-disc set, Arrow Video takes a significant leap toward the complete representation of classic Italian Gothic cinema on disc. If we take all past and present international DVD and Blu-ray releases into account, very little of the genre’s golden age now remains out of reach, the most notable omission being Riccardo Freda’s THE GHOST (<i>Lo spettro</i>, 1963). While the B&W titles collected here aren’t quite front rank material, nor is any directed by one of the genre’s most valuable players, all four are bristling with the stuff that makes this genre so endlessly attractive and fascinating: ornate and often familiar villa settings, potent character casting, rich psychological subject matter, and romantic, often perverse storylines whose recurring motifs, chambers, and corridors suggest mirror reflections into other films and situations.</span></div><div><span style="font-family: times; font-size: medium;"><br /></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjUWtUUVQDZJUcPdbRElWGXDvu2tbg1ypHSL-mTVO1O_BLVm09XEEgxwig4K8p-8kQnw0z3BlLDQVoCaLUio8a7iYXybZcY4KEWdjdJDLydYL_YYbIZKt0Gc0MbE-1Fm_JrIUs6SCQsuf8sWAuVul9RmzjrZqoBxkBZj1W1qWgVH-lPj-AqtA/s1034/Screen%20Shot%202022-11-07%20at%203.23.57%20PM.png" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="558" data-original-width="1034" height="346" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjUWtUUVQDZJUcPdbRElWGXDvu2tbg1ypHSL-mTVO1O_BLVm09XEEgxwig4K8p-8kQnw0z3BlLDQVoCaLUio8a7iYXybZcY4KEWdjdJDLydYL_YYbIZKt0Gc0MbE-1Fm_JrIUs6SCQsuf8sWAuVul9RmzjrZqoBxkBZj1W1qWgVH-lPj-AqtA/w640-h346/Screen%20Shot%202022-11-07%20at%203.23.57%20PM.png" width="640" /></a></div><br /><div><span style="font-family: times; font-size: medium;"><span>The films are not presented chronologically, though their chronology is only slightly askew. They start with Massimo Pupillo’s LADY MORGAN’S VENGEANCE, the third and last of a troika of horror pictures directed by Pupillo (as “Max Hunter”) in 1965; it was preceded by TERROR CREATURES FROM THE GRAVE (</span><i><span>Cinque per un medium</span></i><span>, also by “Hunter”) and BLOODY PIT OF HORROR (</span><i><span>Il boia scarlatto</span></i><span>, credited to “Ralph Zucker”). It was scripted by Giovanni Grimaldi, who had previously written the important Italian Gothics THE BLANCHEVILLE MONSTER and CASTLE OF BLOOD (</span><i><span>Danza macabra</span></i><span>, 1964). I suppose all of the films gathered here could be said to hail from the latter days of classic Italian horror, but LADY MORGAN has remained stubbornly and undeservedly obscure; not only was it deprived of a US or UK theatrical or television release, it was never accessorized with an English dub. </span></span></div><div><span style="font-family: times; font-size: medium;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: times; font-size: medium;">It stars Italian Gothic veterans Paul Muller (NIGHTMARE CASTLE), Erika Blanc (KILL, BABY… KILL!) and Gordon Mitchell (BLOOD DELIRIUM) in villainous roles, while the virtuous central character of Lady Susan Blackhouse is played by Barbara Nelli. The young, dark-haired Susan is in love with a young seaman, Pierre Brissac (Michel Forain, pictured above), but her father Sir Neville (Carlo Kechler) has arranged her marriage to another nobleman, Sir Harold Morgan (Muller). When Pierre is lost overboard (in fact, thrown overboard by Harold’s evil associate Roger, played by Mitchell), he is assumed dead and Susan submits to the marriage, so long as she is allowed the time to properly accept Harold as her husband. Naturally, her acceptance ironically coincides with the recovery of Pierre from the sea, his amnesia forestalling things until Harold, Roger, and their icy blonde hypnotist confederate Lillian (Blanc, in a beautifully modulated early performance) have gaslighted the new Lady Morgan into escalating states of self-doubt, induced madness and finally suicidal depression, in hopes of sharing the opulent spoils of the Blackhouse estate.</span></div><div><span style="font-family: times; font-size: medium;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: times; font-size: medium;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg03k8RkgEGAXHIILExASyPpBkkZABZB6krUsaTYrS8fGBDlt42LxzsmVrxQdqgSaNfYrHEuvD_X_XGlgk1-NYK0ucpWHeMqYRMg3p63iRUts_qaKjjQgOLwIhV-s_F7SttJd-WbXG9GiK8wnUPLDpflGDZK9DCWr-_64pXLZ17MgKG3RbKNA/s1035/Screen%20Shot%202022-11-07%20at%203.28.51%20PM.png" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="559" data-original-width="1035" height="346" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg03k8RkgEGAXHIILExASyPpBkkZABZB6krUsaTYrS8fGBDlt42LxzsmVrxQdqgSaNfYrHEuvD_X_XGlgk1-NYK0ucpWHeMqYRMg3p63iRUts_qaKjjQgOLwIhV-s_F7SttJd-WbXG9GiK8wnUPLDpflGDZK9DCWr-_64pXLZ17MgKG3RbKNA/w640-h346/Screen%20Shot%202022-11-07%20at%203.28.51%20PM.png" width="640" /></a></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjy7lylMHymoNDpCETDSybsC2qenBm1hwzkvVN6IDxqtX2AvgpRAZoM6OQiyt6oyclxcl5TWNIQG2aIBp3sRv9IY0d5YfDZXHXxzQSHtAJUSaOpo23t33ScfLpJd_81_yoAG7Z3GHtlEiAKsquhhCMZr0fmaFCOshyMw4_owrCEGpNdoYnlvA/s970/Screen%20Shot%202022-11-07%20at%203.25.12%20PM.png" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="547" data-original-width="970" height="360" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjy7lylMHymoNDpCETDSybsC2qenBm1hwzkvVN6IDxqtX2AvgpRAZoM6OQiyt6oyclxcl5TWNIQG2aIBp3sRv9IY0d5YfDZXHXxzQSHtAJUSaOpo23t33ScfLpJd_81_yoAG7Z3GHtlEiAKsquhhCMZr0fmaFCOshyMw4_owrCEGpNdoYnlvA/w640-h360/Screen%20Shot%202022-11-07%20at%203.25.12%20PM.png" width="640" /></a></div><br />LADY MORGAN'S VENGEANCE was shot at the same blocky villa later used as the sanatorium setting of Fernando di Leo’s SLAUGHTER HOTEL (<i>La bestia uccide a sangue freddo</i>, 1971), and also, given its use of the name Blackhouse, it could be said to complete a Giovanni Grimaldi trilogy of “Black” supernatural tales with the original <i>Horror </i>version of THE BLANCHEVILLE MONSTER and CASTLE OF BLOOD, which respectively involve the <i>Blackford</i> and <i>Blackwood</i> families, perhaps acknowledging the inspiration of the metaphysical writings of Algernon Blackwood as much as Edgar Allan Poe. </span></div><div><span style="font-family: times; font-size: medium;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: times; font-size: medium;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjUFPyDPwk-yRnTowa2ypc_l0JI15P9cGdMYZ8ld1gGvjx0tbXyto3RcFeD6ZXoX9uhZL1ZAGEps4MG4zaZgWKuMQXKP6zAwf_sRw_RylRLPBUltfC9-Z6-H4-hlemvNo4QTG_tpMnnSKud3Fmol2mQ0kq2YnK0R7jqJt1WMm6yfaFSEJPX8A/s1031/Screen%20Shot%202022-11-07%20at%203.31.31%20PM.png" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="557" data-original-width="1031" height="346" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjUFPyDPwk-yRnTowa2ypc_l0JI15P9cGdMYZ8ld1gGvjx0tbXyto3RcFeD6ZXoX9uhZL1ZAGEps4MG4zaZgWKuMQXKP6zAwf_sRw_RylRLPBUltfC9-Z6-H4-hlemvNo4QTG_tpMnnSKud3Fmol2mQ0kq2YnK0R7jqJt1WMm6yfaFSEJPX8A/w640-h346/Screen%20Shot%202022-11-07%20at%203.31.31%20PM.png" width="640" /></a></div><br />What's most remarkable about LADY MORGAN’S VENGEANCE is its unusual structure, which has the recovered Pierre return to the Blackhouse villa precisely halfway through the film, where Lady Susan greets and seduces him, only to reveal (roughly 17 minutes later) that she is in fact dead, the victim of the three villains who in turn were killed by her vengeance and now haunt the castle as vampires. This sets up an enjoyably wild last act, in which Muller, Blanc and Mitchell portray some of the most unusual vampires ever to be given screen time; there is nothing traditional about them, as they skulk almost comically around in their hollow-eyed bloodthirst, and they beat Udo Kier to the act of lapping up spilled cruor from the cold marble of Italian villa floors by nearly a decade. Ultimately, no one here gets out alive but there is ultimately a heartfelt reunion beyond the grave for Pierre and Susan, so the tragedy resolves in a happy and just ending. Luciano Catenacci (who subsequently played the bald burgomeister Karl in Bava’s KILL, BABY… KILL!, 1966, as “Max Lawrence”) appears in two brief scenes as the Blackhouse family’s doctor.</span></div><div><br /></div><div><span style="font-family: times; font-size: medium;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhN4ApVcqkHEvjjbRwUEdaZaN2U4jQ-qqWI7XItIRD7KJWSwPVPWJfLhZkkSipB-hl9WOS1TNOmTvY6wqNa6qhRj_j3jvwoP47fKMPlH-KvNXlya7eq-vLnT6-RfsmlY0dgaAvtqmJo7dtYVY00lOkaIJ4g_WAYX6ug7LBJS9BAnTwViZ7X0Q/s1034/Screen%20Shot%202022-11-07%20at%203.29.28%20PM.png" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="551" data-original-width="1034" height="342" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhN4ApVcqkHEvjjbRwUEdaZaN2U4jQ-qqWI7XItIRD7KJWSwPVPWJfLhZkkSipB-hl9WOS1TNOmTvY6wqNa6qhRj_j3jvwoP47fKMPlH-KvNXlya7eq-vLnT6-RfsmlY0dgaAvtqmJo7dtYVY00lOkaIJ4g_WAYX6ug7LBJS9BAnTwViZ7X0Q/w640-h342/Screen%20Shot%202022-11-07%20at%203.29.28%20PM.png" width="640" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjV6FJ8R-pxipE11FWUG2kqaYCTDfsEGkA8BbZm6DJUR8f3Htnrmnk691e816VQO3VwKtNDLYJ5kzsOku9bCrKEA52t13UX6krZK7ol0LErLeFPT0MjsvsfFOUjMdOa7xyQuiLNHBX76OgNyyIDP34YVCNJLTqy1kUaHK2mb9KcryGv9E25Ng/s1032/Screen%20Shot%202022-11-07%20at%203.30.34%20PM.png" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="562" data-original-width="1032" height="348" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjV6FJ8R-pxipE11FWUG2kqaYCTDfsEGkA8BbZm6DJUR8f3Htnrmnk691e816VQO3VwKtNDLYJ5kzsOku9bCrKEA52t13UX6krZK7ol0LErLeFPT0MjsvsfFOUjMdOa7xyQuiLNHBX76OgNyyIDP34YVCNJLTqy1kUaHK2mb9KcryGv9E25Ng/w640-h348/Screen%20Shot%202022-11-07%20at%203.30.34%20PM.png" width="640" /></a></div></div><br />All three of Pupillo’s horror pictures are good fun, with scenes that offer equal appeal to viewers in search of craft or camp. That said, he was in no way committed to the genre and reportedly abandoned it when approached by a producer who admitted he was told that his script could only be funded if Mario Bava or he agreed to direct it; to Pupillo, this was no compliment. Nevertheless, there is a good deal of craftsmanship here, with all the actors reaching deeply into themselves for their performances—with the exception of Mitchell, whose performance wins one over anyway with its Jack Balance-Level of brazen, face-rattling grotesquerie. </span></div><div><span style="font-family: times; font-size: medium;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: times; font-size: medium;">The film was often strikingly photographed by Oberdan Troiani (“Dean Troy,” whose other favorites include THE GIANT OF METROPOLIS, also with Gordon Mitchell, and HERCULES AGAINST THE MOON MEN) and includes some delicious trick shots in which the vampiric ghosts interact with solid victims. It also features the first horror score of Piero Umiliani, who had previously composed the music for Mario Monicelli’s BIG DEAL ON MADONNA STREET (1958) and Mario Bava’s baroque western THE ROAD TO FORT ALAMO (1964). While much of the score is derived from a simple if insistent romantic theme reprised on guitar, harpsichord and with orchestra, the film’s most important scenes are enlivened by some uncanny electronic cues. I also noticed small jabs of familiar, frenzied accompaniment that may have been sampled from another soundtrack. (Riz Ortolani's THE VIRGIN OF NUREMBERG, perhaps?) </span><br /></div><div><span style="font-family: times; font-size: medium;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: times; font-size: medium;">It should be mentioned that all four films in this collection have been treated to 2K restorations from their original camera negatives. This doesn’t mean that all four are equal in visual quality, given the variables of cinematography and elements preservation in each case, but they are all better than any other copies in prior circulation. In the case of LADY MORGAN’S VENGEANCE (whose Italian title is subtitled as THE VENGEANCE OF LADY MORGAN onscreen), it's presented in anamorphic 1080p 1.85:1 with Italian audio in mono and optional English subtitles.</span></div><div><span style="font-family: times; font-size: medium;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: times; font-size: medium;">The nature of LADY MORGAN’s screenplay and the lurid detail invested by Pupillo allows audio commentator Alexandra Heller-Nicholas to build an academic response to the picture with emphases on its relevance to such timely topics as gaslighting, domestic violence and female agency within Italian Gothic constructs. There’s also a nicely complementary video essay by Kat Ellinger that digs well down below the picture’s surface to prove there is more going on here than mere entertainment. More than twenty minutes are spent in the company of actor Paul Muller (who recalls much of his early adventures in theater and film, but nothing really about the movie at hand—except that he didn’t really enjoy kissing actresses) and a half-hour archival audio interview with the elusive Pupillo, who sounds more humble and cultured than you might expect the director of BLOODY PIT OF HORROR to be. He explains the facts behind his confusing “Ralph Zucker” alias, and also discusses his non-horror filmography. We also get the first of two generous visits with actress Erika Blanc, who looks back on her film career with awe, wonder and no small amount of humor. She recalls that she was still newly married to husband Bruno Gaburro when this film was made, and wasn’t happy about having to kiss Paul Muller and Gordon Mitchell. I was delighted to hear her comments on a fresh viewing of this film, particularly her seasoned admiration for the work she obviously put into her performance as Lillian. A <i>cineromanzo fumetti</i> comic of the film, originally published in the April 1971 issue of SUSPENSE, is also included, along with a modest image gallery.</span></div><div><span style="font-family: times; font-size: medium;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: times; font-size: medium;"><b>NEXT UP: THE BLANCHEVILLE MONSTER!</b></span></div><div><span style="font-family: times; font-size: medium;"><b><br /></b></span></div><div><span style="font-family: times; font-size: medium;"><b><br /></b></span></div>
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Unknownnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-17626962.post-87429746924106451162022-10-31T00:00:00.249-04:002022-10-31T00:00:00.169-04:00INCREDIBLY STRANGE FILMS Redux<div><i><span style="font-family: times; font-size: medium;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg8FDTnXQw6P9Kh4FYZwDo_akI1rK9mAPCgQ4heGHJ3RZ2zgBnWwnB3SoJwDx2i-fzWD7by26NCHG7oqAjTreFrGGW73PCKc1Y-aF_n4DnWxpeSIGcCFVccF1MDeKvmuMKnEwSS0ZANagDj9b8WzfcZ1vTfBxsD4XmnzWIr58bQY3qWHxLosg/s500/Incredibly%20Strange%20box.jpg" style="clear: left; display: inline; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="500" data-original-width="420" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg8FDTnXQw6P9Kh4FYZwDo_akI1rK9mAPCgQ4heGHJ3RZ2zgBnWwnB3SoJwDx2i-fzWD7by26NCHG7oqAjTreFrGGW73PCKc1Y-aF_n4DnWxpeSIGcCFVccF1MDeKvmuMKnEwSS0ZANagDj9b8WzfcZ1vTfBxsD4XmnzWIr58bQY3qWHxLosg/w336-h400/Incredibly%20Strange%20box.jpg" width="336" /></a></span></i></div><div><span style="font-family: times; font-size: medium;"><i style="font-family: -webkit-standard;"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: medium;">The following collects my notes on the other major features gathered together in Severin Films' impressive and absorbing box set, THE INCREDIBLY STRANGE FEATURES OF RAY DENNIS STECKLER. I've already covered the earlier WILD GUITAR and THE INCREDIBLY STRANGE CREATURES WHO STOPPED LIVING AND BECAME MIXED-UP ZOMBIES (the latter in five-part detail); the others in the set are THE LAS VEGAS SERIAL KILLER (1986); the X-rated hardcore titles THE MAD LOVE LIFE OF A HOT VAMPIRE (1970), NAZI BROTHEL (1970), LOVE LIFE OF HITLER'S NAZIS (1971), COUNT AL-KUM (1971), DR. COCK LUV (1970), THE SEXORCIST'S DEVIL (1974), RED HEAT (1981); and three latter-day shot-on-videotape projects, SUMMER FUN (1997), the 257m homeward documentary READING, PA (2006), and ONE MORE TIME (2008), the last being a supposed sequel to THE INCREDIBLY STRANGE CREATURES... I've tried to tackle the last disc of films but I just couldn't stick with them at this time. Likewise, I'm not feeling drawn to the hour-long-or-less adult titles (which, incidentally, were made by a guy who allegedly turned down Bernard Fein's invitation to work on HOGAN'S HEROES because he felt it wrong to depict Nazis humorously) but may check them out at some future date. </span><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;"> </span></i></span></div><div><span style="font-family: times; font-size: medium;"><i style="font-family: -webkit-standard;"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;"> </span></i></span></div><div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEjzSfGCv9pl7LOkDF9fvO4W0APOo5fqsaYBcitQo6JR8aQsuKmJrOOaK75XRNFYrLKW-2zFSAm5uf0zby3OrHnzutVy5hH7sPZr8vBtQwckpUtK5lwYb0kqMrT-APvThkYqNzyq8CshlcQ3dA4CWHyrVh1hm_SC21MKZErFZ8rwlsTPGW2NOw" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="" data-original-height="559" data-original-width="1035" height="346" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEjzSfGCv9pl7LOkDF9fvO4W0APOo5fqsaYBcitQo6JR8aQsuKmJrOOaK75XRNFYrLKW-2zFSAm5uf0zby3OrHnzutVy5hH7sPZr8vBtQwckpUtK5lwYb0kqMrT-APvThkYqNzyq8CshlcQ3dA4CWHyrVh1hm_SC21MKZErFZ8rwlsTPGW2NOw=w640-h346" width="640" /></a></div><span style="font-family: times; font-size: medium;"><b><div><span style="font-family: times; font-size: medium;"><b><br /></b></span></div>THE THRILL KILLERS</b> (1965, 69:57, 1.85:1): In the wake of THE INCREDIBLY STRANGE CREATURES…, Ray Dennis Steckler stepped away from the juvenilia of carnival, monsters and rock ‘n’ roll with this startling shift into brutal criminality and violence—perhaps prompted by his erstwhile partner Arch Hall Jr.’s surprise drive-in hit THE SADIST. The story, which opens <i>à la </i>WILD GUITAR with starstruck visits to Hollywood landmarks, is fairly simplistic: an ambitious, out-of-work Hollywood actor (Joe Bardo) and his sexy wife (Liz Renay) are having marital problems when they run afoul of a surplus of deranged killers who have escaped jail (Gary Kent, Herb Robins, axe-wielding Keith O’Brien and “Cash Flagg” as Mort “Mad Dog” Click) and dispatch other characters early on. Carolyn Brandt, playing yet another long-legged damsel in distress, brings a striking sense of dance choreography to her action scenes, and—past a certain point—the action scenes are virtually non-stop, interrupted only by appropriate preludes of suspense. Filmed in 35mm by the ISC team, in mildly stylized black-and-white, this is undoubtedly Steckler’s best-looking film, graced with impactful cutting and an impressively consistent forward drive. The climax includes a remarkably effective dummy death and an audacious, improvised stunt sequence wherein “Mad Dog” Click takes to horseback like a natural to flee a pursuant motorcycle cop, despite Steckler’s avowal that he’d never been astride a horse in his life. Also making a potent impression is Laura Benedict (Gary Kent’s girlfriend at the time) in her only screen role as the manager/cashier at a lone truck stop restaurant with the usual Stecklerian décor; she never made another picture though she leaps off the screen like a west coast Juliette Gréco. There are self-referential moments peppered here and there, with brazen (and not particularly flattering) cameos by the film's producer George Morgan and erstwhile producer Arch Hall, Sr., and a wham-bam swan song appearance by the unforgettable Atlas King. </span></div><div><span style="font-family: times; font-size: medium;"><br /></span></div><div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEhb5cRQS5NsjSLvd_YamBOzuEbgymCQ5mXC3gzYzinkNozXNPWFUOHBXgYj_xg_viF9ey3T_Vm1bhLznVPJaP_XL2fu_OmpXMEECr78BBF4ev_X89GZSrh5blSqposCO66zuTTwQ4PtymYrJzx_a458xrTqyw1uaDMpAYmnLw-4lVRcGLUccg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="" data-original-height="557" data-original-width="1036" height="344" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEhb5cRQS5NsjSLvd_YamBOzuEbgymCQ5mXC3gzYzinkNozXNPWFUOHBXgYj_xg_viF9ey3T_Vm1bhLznVPJaP_XL2fu_OmpXMEECr78BBF4ev_X89GZSrh5blSqposCO66zuTTwQ4PtymYrJzx_a458xrTqyw1uaDMpAYmnLw-4lVRcGLUccg=w640-h344" width="640" /></a></div><span style="font-family: times; font-size: medium;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: times; font-size: medium;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="text-align: left;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEj45mYwnMCSvMQkiLdGJqyOahVzEUt3_TZBRlqVdGdLoFtK3HJgjf3FcyWFP874yrUPcb1QN7ESn4awHaCCA1VtlAelKRpK-dsNU7k-fwReGC-iwDAt4hiwOZlrTka4edQzDKmbyZObEcbWj86IBSQ--wzHPuCJRrZTmmQGVnKbHOQCc8vDWQ" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="" data-original-height="557" data-original-width="1035" height="344" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEj45mYwnMCSvMQkiLdGJqyOahVzEUt3_TZBRlqVdGdLoFtK3HJgjf3FcyWFP874yrUPcb1QN7ESn4awHaCCA1VtlAelKRpK-dsNU7k-fwReGC-iwDAt4hiwOZlrTka4edQzDKmbyZObEcbWj86IBSQ--wzHPuCJRrZTmmQGVnKbHOQCc8vDWQ=w640-h344" width="640" /></a></div><br /><div style="text-align: justify;"><b>RAT PFINK A BOO BOO</b> (1966, 67:05, 1.85:1): The first 40 minutes or so of this celebrated silliness is dead serious, depicting a woman being bullied after dark by another trio of psychotic toughs - very much a continuation of what Steckler was doing with THE THRILL KILLERS, but then pulls what must be the screen's most abrupt whiplash switcheroo. When rock ‘n’ roll star Lonnie Lord (Ron Haydock, introduced signing autographs for three female fans with his right hand outside the Capitol Records building, while holding his guitar in the other) learns that his girlfriend CeeBee Beaumont (Carolyn Brandt) has been abducted by these unhinged lunatics, he sits down with gardener Titus Twimbley (Titus Moede), plays a mopey song on his guitar (the lyrics confusingly frame the abduction as the girlfriend’s rejection of him), and then the two men go behind a locked door to emerge as the pervious-to-bullets superheroes Rat Pfink and Boo Boo. This film actually predated the ABC-TV hit series of January 1966 and was likely inspired by the 1965 “An Evening with Batman and Robin” reissue of the original BATMAN Republic serial, yet it’s very much attuned to what the TV show became. Carolyn Brandt, when showcased in joyous mode in romp sequences with Haydock, set to Haydock's own Gene Vincent-influenced <span style="text-align: left;">music, is a revelation here; it wouldn't be out-of-line to liken her pop appeal and spontaneity to Anna Karina. The attraction of fun—which THE INCREDIBLY STRANGE CREATURES… seemed to warn against—gets the better of Steckler here, but that’s not to say it isn’t just as infectious to the viewer. If you've not seen this film, be advised it's more layered than you may be expecting and hard not to embrace. The wonderful Bob Burns guest stars as his gorilla alter ego, Kogar. </span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="text-align: left;"><br /></span></div></span></div></span></div><div><span style="font-family: times; font-size: medium;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEj8QGoLa0h4zrgMS5wgO89bmG7aYocOLKxbcqvlVUt7VkoEMjo_VwLuso3HW2qqLC7XHpzjLc0jR202IhI8fjT5FEgO62xaWefiknVblOeKk-EALEYipnhkveTIuCgwj0sREwFDifZM0Z4gvwk3sznPiL-Ien6aZQMEuEGtnZ-8n36yOrRsMg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="" data-original-height="580" data-original-width="776" height="478" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEj8QGoLa0h4zrgMS5wgO89bmG7aYocOLKxbcqvlVUt7VkoEMjo_VwLuso3HW2qqLC7XHpzjLc0jR202IhI8fjT5FEgO62xaWefiknVblOeKk-EALEYipnhkveTIuCgwj0sREwFDifZM0Z4gvwk3sznPiL-Ien6aZQMEuEGtnZ-8n36yOrRsMg=w640-h478" width="640" /></a></div><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: times; font-size: medium;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEj8SlXWli9t4GKD81OU24csgb9FCL51LheRBNW6shTNQULFeYAMFPbzS3a3bbr34h5BP22ij2F-WV5o79D26nj6_y6rHxO2Z2mwDqnh05bUkhvU5nO5ESIevqZoSE7ACgt22-LiDk7bhD79WMAQa9pYQhGxr4qFq4TaqJB1z24Eep95JdZC9Q" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="" data-original-height="578" data-original-width="772" height="480" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEj8SlXWli9t4GKD81OU24csgb9FCL51LheRBNW6shTNQULFeYAMFPbzS3a3bbr34h5BP22ij2F-WV5o79D26nj6_y6rHxO2Z2mwDqnh05bUkhvU5nO5ESIevqZoSE7ACgt22-LiDk7bhD79WMAQa9pYQhGxr4qFq4TaqJB1z24Eep95JdZC9Q=w640-h480" width="640" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><b>THE LEMON GROVE KIDS!</b> (1968, 78:15, 1.33:1): Also known as THE LEMON GROVE KIDS MEET THE MONSTERS. Steckler’s love letter to the Bowery Boys and his San Diego neighborhood was produced as three two-reelers (“The Lemon Grove Kids,” “The Lemon Grove Kids Meet the Green Grasshopper and the Vampire Lady from Outer Space” and “The Lemon Grove Kids Go Hollywood!”), then collected and released theatrically as a feature-length film. This is wholesome, wacky, fun-loving entertainment best suited to children, particularly the children of an earlier, simpler time—not unlike, say, Barry Mahon's kiddie matinee fodder if notably smarter. Made when Steckler’s own kids were young (and already acting onscreen), I suspect he made these shorts mostly for their pleasure, as something to perhaps infect them with the movie bug as he had been, and also to preserve the magic of that time of young parenting for Carolyn and himself. This is probably his most personal work yet, of all the material in this set (despite the return of Rat Pfink and Kogar in COLOR), I relate to it least though it does reveal another, warmer side of the artist: his deep love of people, neighborhoods, community - and of course, filmmaking. In his commentary, Steckler relates a heartbreaking story about his admiration for East Side Kids/Bowery Boys actor Huntz Hall, whom he briefly befriended, invited into his life, and wanted very much to feature in one of his movies. The cast includes Carolyn Brandt (as the Vampire Lady, and reprising her RAT PFINK role of CeeBee Beaumont), Ron Haydock, Bob Burns, Titus Moede, and the final credited appearance of Cash Flagg. Steckler’s direction credit is shared with Peter Balakoff and Ed McWatters.</span></div><div><span style="font-family: times; font-size: medium;"><br /></span></div><div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEhJKnuZooXEa_2flNlXt-hIMEzjTMRTWhhqT-pA-LZeKX4wbqcAJSAKw11WoX27KMLWhGoTNlte_lv-Hp4RWliX18Slhnc56dlD-y0Y83E3j9DTp_Hay86Ga8o3TT9iAo93K0lNy2_FzJlMMTkcTokGFpvl59MOztl01mkkmC8hHvNoPo4jxg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="" data-original-height="558" data-original-width="1034" height="346" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEhJKnuZooXEa_2flNlXt-hIMEzjTMRTWhhqT-pA-LZeKX4wbqcAJSAKw11WoX27KMLWhGoTNlte_lv-Hp4RWliX18Slhnc56dlD-y0Y83E3j9DTp_Hay86Ga8o3TT9iAo93K0lNy2_FzJlMMTkcTokGFpvl59MOztl01mkkmC8hHvNoPo4jxg=w640-h346" width="640" /></a></div><span style="font-family: times; font-size: medium;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: times; font-size: medium;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEgEtgA_3jxMWUACK89PH-_AODA_Nw8XrWFqyMNjoHFJApUyw06CMBzPFMy9Wp68uNYQ8U2yfJXNTq2lJXCJq0sQMNjiDJ9k-g5nZ5s-sR0d7K2ZQJx3jjqBEHxnjprTDEoil2YUOoo_VfI--jKWDSGRQEt8KAS112QdK1cRLNYZPMRb1jEgVQ" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="" data-original-height="564" data-original-width="1033" height="350" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEgEtgA_3jxMWUACK89PH-_AODA_Nw8XrWFqyMNjoHFJApUyw06CMBzPFMy9Wp68uNYQ8U2yfJXNTq2lJXCJq0sQMNjiDJ9k-g5nZ5s-sR0d7K2ZQJx3jjqBEHxnjprTDEoil2YUOoo_VfI--jKWDSGRQEt8KAS112QdK1cRLNYZPMRb1jEgVQ=w640-h350" width="640" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><b>BODY FEVER</b> (1969, 77:45, 1.85:1): Ever since Arthur Conan Doyle admitted to Sherlock Holmes’ predilection for a seven-percent cocaine solution, the private eyes of detective fiction have been designed according to their personal eccentricities. John D. Macdonald’s Travis McGee, for example, headquarters on a houseboat and, one year before he first came to the screen in the person of Rod Taylor in Robert Clouse’s DARKER THAN AMBER (1970), Steckler made this film, starring (under his own name, this time) as downtrodden LA gumshoe Charlie Smith, who worships Bogart and wiles away his down time aboard a sailboat called the Rogue. Though this film, like his others, was made on a negligible budget and without a finished script, it has a pretty strong backbone thanks to the improvisational grit of experienced actors like Bernard Fein, Coleman Francis and Herb Robins. No one would ever mistake this as anything other than an American film yet it draws visual inspiration from Franju’s JUDEX (the ever-lithe Carolyn Brandt cat-burgles in a snakeskin leotard and mask), Lelouch’s A MAN AND A WOMAN (in its warm yet non-explicit sex scenes), and scenes of joyous, exuberant running whose roots may extend to Richard Lester’s Beatles films or perhaps Louis Malle’s ZAZIE. Shot in Los Angeles and Utah, most of the interiors were shot in Steckler’s and Brandt’s own home and the strangely measured naivete, humor and grit of the piece (about Smith’s risky attempt to recover and neutralize a large bag of stolen heroin) gives this one a somewhat Frenchified, Cassavetes-like feel and pegs this one as the KILLING OF A CHINESE BOOKIE of his filmography. </span></div><div><span style="font-family: times; font-size: medium;"><br /></span></div><div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEicThwQM2lfR7UVjpNGCjH1LNiwaIcogRPeC3GfLVOZV3qBjX_kdDtuK5Ss6YYxJbqPDO3IfSMSaZUL06kxXxryQxZxkUgBhX3HeEyqZtitkwdTjjbIZe1iRhYKOQNoqoM_u5yiNOQ_JuNTqIHELS8xvs9kctw9I02VV7qD5PJ6VHl9brK9PA" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="" data-original-height="584" data-original-width="996" height="376" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEicThwQM2lfR7UVjpNGCjH1LNiwaIcogRPeC3GfLVOZV3qBjX_kdDtuK5Ss6YYxJbqPDO3IfSMSaZUL06kxXxryQxZxkUgBhX3HeEyqZtitkwdTjjbIZe1iRhYKOQNoqoM_u5yiNOQ_JuNTqIHELS8xvs9kctw9I02VV7qD5PJ6VHl9brK9PA=w640-h376" width="640" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEiLeZFJHx1YawfhlhkHzI-S5sIjlX_JTW8aJMMrI7PzNsGZF4hcJhKIawk08uzMRkA7OYXEsBscNMsmP4riW6y4Qes1fvIuv8WGRlzsNwjNecdclFHFRN_c5i6XtmfohSQD2YfXo2IOKmYRg4-hq8r8mY9hzwX88k0mwpfmDk2nexhqQAbKaw" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="" data-original-height="584" data-original-width="850" height="440" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEiLeZFJHx1YawfhlhkHzI-S5sIjlX_JTW8aJMMrI7PzNsGZF4hcJhKIawk08uzMRkA7OYXEsBscNMsmP4riW6y4Qes1fvIuv8WGRlzsNwjNecdclFHFRN_c5i6XtmfohSQD2YfXo2IOKmYRg4-hq8r8mY9hzwX88k0mwpfmDk2nexhqQAbKaw=w640-h440" width="640" /></a></div><br /></div><span style="font-family: times; font-size: medium;"><b>SINTHIA THE DEVIL’S DOLL</b> (1970, 77:04, 1.85:1): Scripted by actor Herb Robins, Steckler photographed and directed this highly experimental skin flick as “Sven Christian,” an alias that hints at the Bermanesque elements in the storyline. In psychoanalysis, Cynthia Kyle (Shula Roan aka moonlighting schoolteacher Bunny Allister) struggles to come to terms with an emotionally confused past in which she, sexually jealous of her mother, killed both her parents en flagrante by setting their bed afire. Instead of telling the story in a straightforward way, Steckler (and Robins) opt to delve inside Cynthia’s psychosis, opening up in a feverishly, color-saturated mindscape recalling earlier works by Bergman (THE MAGICIAN, THE HOUR OF THE WOLF), Roger Corman (THE TRIP), Curtis Harrington (NIGHT TIDE), numerous Jess Franco titles yet to come (EUGENIE DE SADE, THE OTHER SIDE OF THE MIRROR, etc), and particularly the shorts of Kenneth Anger. The supporting cast features Gary Kent and Maria Lease (familiar from her appearances in Joe Sarno and Al Adamson films). Dumped as it was onto the sexploitation circuit, this daring and surprisingly accomplished psychodrama went unrecognized as anything exceptional but this is one of the outstanding examples of the kind of art film that could and should have been sanctioned more often by the then-new X rating. </span></div><div><span style="font-family: times; font-size: medium;"><br /></span><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEhPhVLzHl7tsjrKk8R1FdCriO9yKyFEiADQlfl3EF6h9zrFxfbhG2XXYvPFKLQ9D08q2jUSfMfnd8U2I5iy60JSnN5ljeKyymV3XvMxI8rrkUdhKBq6CcfMwZyTd5H5cJkFZhwSsFP4udUPOxjsS3eYbSf_zZAlNHyltG2rWcYMUYOYlC0wlQ" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="" data-original-height="583" data-original-width="774" height="482" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEhPhVLzHl7tsjrKk8R1FdCriO9yKyFEiADQlfl3EF6h9zrFxfbhG2XXYvPFKLQ9D08q2jUSfMfnd8U2I5iy60JSnN5ljeKyymV3XvMxI8rrkUdhKBq6CcfMwZyTd5H5cJkFZhwSsFP4udUPOxjsS3eYbSf_zZAlNHyltG2rWcYMUYOYlC0wlQ=w640-h482" width="640" /></a></div></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEhEt7Z1l13M5-hWb2RR7xEoWLqVltvTjU9gmr_mV1eDzzAF5vpemxXH-e5Uay8Zp1NliZnA-ljWserdO9RUY1Pn0F_k4Pymdqe5A6OK0wHGOjMusv8PTSE4Q5HIkds0byCJS7c929l0gvlSHZnWPI0Qw76VOg6PCJ9w6NvLCiJ47ztYcq0I6A" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="" data-original-height="533" data-original-width="778" height="438" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEhEt7Z1l13M5-hWb2RR7xEoWLqVltvTjU9gmr_mV1eDzzAF5vpemxXH-e5Uay8Zp1NliZnA-ljWserdO9RUY1Pn0F_k4Pymdqe5A6OK0wHGOjMusv8PTSE4Q5HIkds0byCJS7c929l0gvlSHZnWPI0Qw76VOg6PCJ9w6NvLCiJ47ztYcq0I6A=w640-h438" width="640" /></a></div></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div><span style="font-family: times; font-size: medium;"><b>BLOOD SHACK </b>/ <b>THE CHOOPER</b> (1971, 55:10 / 70:10, 1.33:1): With its direction credited to “Wolfgang Schmidt” (because Steckler had determined that he could no longer even “give away” any film he’d properly signed), this picture was reportedly filmed produced for “about $500” in Death Valley, California. Carolyn Brandt plays herself, albeit as a down-on-her-luck horror movie star who, after two unhappy marriages and a stalled career, inherits some sparse desert ranch property from the beloved “Uncle Jim” who produced her past matinee hits. (The dead uncle’s office is this film’s shrine to past Stecklermania, and by the time we reach this feature in Severin’s box set we realize that these pressbooks and photos taped to the walls in all Steckler features were his way of anticipating this digital compendium.) A stone’s throw from her inheritance is the shell of a dumpy, supposedly 150-year old house with nothing more than a hideously soiled mattress inside; the barren, birch-veined property is said to be the host of a terrible Indian curse. Whenever someone enters the place, a murderous shadow figure known as “The Chooper” is manifest to claim their lives with (I guess the first weapon that came to hand) an Excalibur-like sword. </span></div><div><span style="font-family: times; font-size: medium;"><span> </span>Co-written with Ron Haydock (who essentially authored Brandt’s voiceover narration and also stars in the one-note role of Tim Foster, a neighboring landowner who wants to buy her allegedly water-rich property), the lack of a real script is more noticeable here than in other Steckler pictures yet his camera eye finds intermittent beauty and wonder in the scenic desolation; he somehow succeeds in creating Hellmanesque western cinema from its confluence of random visual action (including documentation of at least one local rodeo) and improvisational business between the actors, including his two young daughters Linda and Laura. Even without a script, Steckler manages to allude to rising tensions between corporate and native America as it approached its "Bicentennial" year, juxtaposing the ancient curse with images of a rodeo flag “that never looked more American” and the star-striped, red-white-and-blue slacks that Brandt sports in the last act.</span></div><div><span style="font-family: times; font-size: medium;"><span> </span>BLOOD SHACK is the tighter, more polished presentation with a more traditional orchestral score, but THE CHOOPER is more fascinating, being ultimately more personal, more meta, in its candid references to the filmmaker’s earlier work. At 12:15, this film actually made me jump when the actress engulfed in black shadows (Laurel Spring) brings her <i>own</i> hand suddenly into the light. </span></div><div><span style="font-family: times; font-size: medium;"><span> </span>Aaron AuBouchon’s commentary is a well-argued defense of THE CHOOPER. Steckler’s own commentary is unexpectedly lazy and mechanical and also disingenuous when he boasts of subconsciously borrowing from THE MISFITS while elsewhere denying that he took anything from PSYCHO, when the otherwise unnecessary character of property caretaker Daniel (Jason Wayne) is presented as a likely schizophrenic who invites the Chooper to keep on choppin’ ‘em down and he’ll keep buryin’ ‘em. In the end, he’s nothing more than a red herring, while the real Scooby Doo villain behind the Chooper turns out to be the most obvious suspect. If only Steckler had embraced his tendency to self-myth-making and revealed himself (or Uncle Jim) to be the Chooper, pretending to kill people to have something to make a film about! Also, try to count how many times the male characters lose their hats on the windy locations. It’s virtually a subplot. Worth noting is Steckler’s comment about seeing this film ideally on a big screen “in widescreen,” as it’s correctly represented here in 1.33:1 and would have been miserably cropped in even the most lenient widescreen ratio.</span></div><div><span style="font-family: times; font-size: medium;"><br /></span></div><div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEjcIl93tLqJKnxtX0MQvEUMpOhY6XCyvx_RQKvbQx3mR9XsDjndK20oIJhMBo7xmo2IbVUoscQYzI58PmhU7e6HwnUzZisC4vQca0pWJSZWhq5RqpG1XHd4wjccK2tU1wyOd0Au27J-X0rbuYcmw4xrx-y6gvRtkvm7-asu0tKs3V5Byab5sQ" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="" data-original-height="582" data-original-width="777" height="480" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEjcIl93tLqJKnxtX0MQvEUMpOhY6XCyvx_RQKvbQx3mR9XsDjndK20oIJhMBo7xmo2IbVUoscQYzI58PmhU7e6HwnUzZisC4vQca0pWJSZWhq5RqpG1XHd4wjccK2tU1wyOd0Au27J-X0rbuYcmw4xrx-y6gvRtkvm7-asu0tKs3V5Byab5sQ=w640-h480" width="640" /></a></div><span style="font-family: times; font-size: medium;"><b><br /></b></span></div><div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEgvigJvoiyOsGseYRCMpe4hD1G9KXg_S72umOjrhFJxqfFiIiQn-3CbVHqFwuoEGzMSDpf9kL5l0-5scrWIH9C4evVRxuJRwOmXr5Jq-tUxPQa7W0lv6KGNnOpLht3r4gvEhWeBCLcx8e4ZM1N7c7P196S5uerxZ18T0m5fqxWghHCyXeMhDg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="" data-original-height="582" data-original-width="775" height="480" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEgvigJvoiyOsGseYRCMpe4hD1G9KXg_S72umOjrhFJxqfFiIiQn-3CbVHqFwuoEGzMSDpf9kL5l0-5scrWIH9C4evVRxuJRwOmXr5Jq-tUxPQa7W0lv6KGNnOpLht3r4gvEhWeBCLcx8e4ZM1N7c7P196S5uerxZ18T0m5fqxWghHCyXeMhDg=w640-h480" width="640" /></a></div><span style="font-family: times; font-size: medium;"><b><br /></b></span></div><div><span style="font-size: medium;"><b style="font-family: times;">THE HOLLYWOOD STRANGLER MEETS THE SKID ROW SLASHER</b><span style="font-family: times;"> </span></span><span style="font-family: times; font-size: medium;">(1979, 70:52</span><span style="font-family: times; font-size: medium;">, 1.33:1): Also from “Wolfgang Schmidt,” this badly-titled, no-budget, essentially silent picture actually serves up an interesting idea: in Los Angeles, a middle-aged man (Pierre Agostino) mourning the loss of a loved one, poses as a photographer to gain intimate access to a series of models and hookers, whom he sees as the artifacts of a world in moral decline; he is surprised to find himself attracted to a severe-looking woman (Carolyn Brandt, divorced from Steckler by this time) who manages a miserly used book shop next door to the Flick Theater (showing DEEP THROAT and THE DEVIL IN MISS JONES)—when not moonlighting as the city’s other serial killer, who goes around knifing drunks and vagrants for much the same angry, disillusioned reason. Again, Steckler’s refusal to properly script the film (binding everything together with elliptic narration) prevents this idea from achieving its full potential, but as seen in the context of this retrospective box set, the film conveys a powerful illustration of Hollywood’s 15-year decline from the days of his earliest pictures, with their awestruck depictions of the Capitol Records building and the handprints outside Grauman’s Chinese Theater now replaced by porn theaters, liquor stores and escort services. By extension, the film holds up a judgmental mirror to the plummeting standards of American exploitation cinema and mourns Steckler’s earlier sense of artistic vitality and creative hope with a souring, if still diligent, sense of craftsmanship. Agostino also stars in the subsequent </span><span style="font-family: times; font-size: medium;">THE LAS VEGAS SERIAL KILLER (1986, 76:11, 1.33:1), which plays like a half-hearted postscript to this film, recycling a couple of scenes from the earlier picture (as well as rodeo footage from THE CHOOPER) while vainly pursuing the former glitz of Hollywood to Las Vegas. By this time, Carolyn Brandt had moved on and Steckler had lost the glue that held his cinematic universe together. </span></div><div><span style="font-family: times; font-size: medium;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: times; font-size: medium;">The INCREDIBLY STRANGE FEATURES box set contains a veritable banquet of extras on each of its 10 discs; for a complete breakdown of the contents, and for the best available price on the set, I recommend you go directly to Severin Film's official store <a href="https://severinfilms.com/products/incredibly-strange-steckler-box"><b>here</b></a>. I will mention, however, that all of the films listed above (with the exception of SINTHIA, unfortunately) are accompanied by Steckler's own (previously released) personal commentaries, which are relaxed, playful and consistently informative. Also provided are feature introductions and commentaries by Joe Bob Briggs, which are highly listenable and well-organized but generally poke fun and repeat Steckler's anecdotes. THE THRILL KILLERS features a commentary by Christopher Wayne Curry, author of THE INCREDIBLY STRANGE FEATURES OF RAY DENNIS STECKLER (a book heretofore unknown to me), while BODY FEVER offers a track by DEAD EYES OF LONDON blogger David Dent. These both feature a lot of spirited play-by-play and are addressed to fans in search of entertainment and background trivia rather than critical insight. My own tastes favor the commentary tracks for RAT PFINK A BOO BOO and THE CHOOPER, which are the work of Aaron AuBuchon, a professor of film studies at Webster University in St. Louis. Of all the set's commentators, he has the most catholic grounding in myriad cinematic reference points; he doesn't anchor Steckler to genre, or make fun of him, even when calling into question some of his creative quirks and decisions. He finds it all very stimulating and his stimulation is infectious. My only regret is that he wasn't tapped to talk over every movie in the set. I hope he's working on a book. </span></div><div><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;"> </span></div><p><br class="Apple-interchange-newline" /></p>
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Unknownnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-17626962.post-25704866496303243152022-10-12T00:29:00.009-04:002022-10-13T16:52:21.054-04:00IMPORTANT ANNOUNCEMENT<p><b><span style="font-size: large;">DONNA MARIE GOLDSCHMIDT LUCAS</span></b></p><p><b><span style="font-size: medium;">November 7, 1955 - October 10, 2022</span></b></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;"><b>AT PRESENT, VIDEO WATCHDOG IS NO LONGER ACCEPTING OR ABLE TO FILL PHYSICAL BACK ISSUE ORDERS. I BELIEVE THE DIGITAL EDITION SALES ARE AUTOMATED AND MAY CONTINUE. I WILL RETRACT THIS STATEMENT IF IT IS FOUND TO BE UNTRUE. </b></span></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;"><b>PLEASE UNDERSTAND I AM SIMPLY NOT PREPARED TO HANDLE ANYTHING BEYOND AUTOMATIC TRANSACTIONS AT THIS POINT. </b></span></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;"><b>VIDEO WATCHBLOG WILL CONTINUE AS SOON AS I AM ABLE TO RETURN TO MY WRITING. </b></span></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;"><b>AS YOU KNOW, DONNA WAS ONE OF A KIND - IRREPLACEABLE. SHE AND I THANK YOU FOR YOUR MANY YEARS OF LOYAL ATTENTION AND ENTHUSIASM, AND THE LIFE YOU MADE IT POSSIBLE FOR US TO SHARE FOR SO LONG.</b></span></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;"> <b> - Tim Lucas </b></span></p><p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj-1-FMeRF9pI6MbMc6YxItUp5AwLuTZZO0u4yg1lwFr-CkTbxpDrVvmH393e4MDFWQWAdtnjxyUNSf3VUEr3tGr7l4L8xbsgjmKF2S9z0LMuhEqbv-BEyEzHoDIAeQTBMorDUKOkdNQwKn1p1NxCg3be2AKIYI2y2hpM20xrohi09GPTgx5Q/s618/Donna%20and%20me%20by%20Linda%20Wylie.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="618" data-original-width="618" height="639" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj-1-FMeRF9pI6MbMc6YxItUp5AwLuTZZO0u4yg1lwFr-CkTbxpDrVvmH393e4MDFWQWAdtnjxyUNSf3VUEr3tGr7l4L8xbsgjmKF2S9z0LMuhEqbv-BEyEzHoDIAeQTBMorDUKOkdNQwKn1p1NxCg3be2AKIYI2y2hpM20xrohi09GPTgx5Q/w639-h639/Donna%20and%20me%20by%20Linda%20Wylie.jpg" width="639" /></a></div> Photo by Linda Wylie.<br /><p></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="font-family: times;">My love of 48 years, the designer of MARIO BAVA ALL THE COLORS OF THE DARK, and the publisher and art director of every VIDEO WATCHDOG publication, Donna Lucas unexpectedly passed away Monday morning </span><span style="font-family: times;">at Mercy Health - Anderson Hospital in Cincinnati, Ohio, becoming unresponsive during </span><span style="font-family: times;">a routine test in preparation for later heart valve surgery. She served as the office manager to GENII Magazine for the last few years of her life. She is survived by two brothers and four sisters, their respective spouses, children and grandchildren and a vast number of people who loved her from up close and afar - none closer than me.</span></span></p><p><span style="font-family: times; font-size: medium;">We hoped to correct her heart problem and keep this thing running for at least another twenty years, but she has been taken from us. Our talents dovetailed perfectly, but I do not have her gifts, so necessary to keep this website functioning. Do check back occasionally to see if our status has changed. </span></p><p><span style="font-family: times; font-size: medium;">Please forgive this sudden and unhappy ending to our story, but if you know anything about us at all, you know it was one of the most beautiful ever told. </span></p><p><br /></p>Unknownnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-17626962.post-41359511383084256882022-10-06T11:31:00.004-04:002022-10-06T20:03:10.555-04:00Random Notes on Recent Viewings<p><span style="font-family: times; font-size: medium;"><span style="background-color: white; caret-color: rgb(5, 5, 5); color: #050505; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: medium;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjQbEAYnNn-zkLg3zpaIDoz4IWH8TIyuCf7ptyY_biNqlo361IpVYBtLlu-QJHjgwRm4r34EWjs3MVu1wG_iPeCA-SYHu43DYI6tefxFemn7yFR0rVxdHuDv8f7lkKupt7cSQamsSkirZwatajqov14b1snkeDTKfPvHwFZa2-VlN8cEPTgfA/s1000/O&H%205.jpg" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1000" data-original-width="707" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjQbEAYnNn-zkLg3zpaIDoz4IWH8TIyuCf7ptyY_biNqlo361IpVYBtLlu-QJHjgwRm4r34EWjs3MVu1wG_iPeCA-SYHu43DYI6tefxFemn7yFR0rVxdHuDv8f7lkKupt7cSQamsSkirZwatajqov14b1snkeDTKfPvHwFZa2-VlN8cEPTgfA/w283-h400/O&H%205.jpg" width="283" /></a></span></div><span style="font-family: times; font-size: medium;">I’m now up to the last disc in Volume 5 of THE ADVENTURES OF OZZIE AND HARRIET. Only a few appearances by neighbor Thorny (Don Defore) in this, his last season; the show is opening up to new friends like Lloyd Corrigan’s Wally Dipple, Lyle Talbot’s devilish Joe Randolph and Mary Jane Croft as the funny-voiced Clara, not to mention the fledgling musical performances of son Ricky Nelson. I’ve not said anything about these releases since the first two, where I found a number of <span style="caret-color: rgb(5, 5, 5); color: #050505; white-space: pre-wrap;"><a style="color: #385898; cursor: pointer;" tabindex="-1"></a></span><span style="background-color: white; caret-color: rgb(5, 5, 5); color: #050505; white-space: pre-wrap;">episodes tampered with musically; it appears to have been done either to recover copyright of the restored elements or to cover periods of silence. However, this unnecessary revisionism stopped with the third volume and the restoration work has generally been sublime ever since. One of the real treats of having the entire series presented in original broadcast order is seeing, for the first time, a surprising number of episodes that disappeared from active rotation in syndication. The funny thing about these rarely seen episodes is that there is usually some content in them that may have later judged as distateful - for example, Hal Smith’s pre-Otis drunk character routines, Ozzie and Harriet trading cute kitchen banter about someday getting a divorce, some sexy appearances in several episodes by Joi Lansing, or Ricky making an off-hand reference to how Coke tastes even better with a little rum in it. (“How do you know that?” Ozzie inquires. “I, uh, read it in a book somewhere,” ad-libs the 16 year-old). Which just goes to show that the “wholesome” image that led to the show’s rejection by the counterculture in the 1960s was really only engineered in selective syndication.</span></span><p></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="font-family: times;"><span style="background-color: white; caret-color: rgb(5, 5, 5); color: #050505; white-space: pre-wrap;">Around the time of Season 4, the sponsors must have noted an absence of displays of affection between the family members; suddenly, Ozzie and the boys kiss Harriet whenever they leave the house or say good morning or good night. And in Season 5 there is a noticeable new emphasis on the family's musical heritage, with Ozzie and Harriet singing some sweet duets, the entire family banding together as a sort of barber shop quartet, and of course Ricky's coltish first attempts at rock 'n' roll. </span></span><span style="background-color: white; caret-color: rgb(5, 5, 5); color: #050505; font-family: times; white-space: pre-wrap;">There are some real surprises too - like an episode I saw last night in which Harriet’s women’s club takes up sculpting. Ozzie assumes they’ve all shown up at the Nelson house to sculpt him, so he dresses up as a suitable model in classical Roman garb, only to return downstairs to the living room and find the women sculpting another live model - none other than a pre-Hercules Steve Reeves! Funny thing: when Reeves finally speaks, he’s dubbed (by the series’ frequent supporting player and radio announcer Jack Wagner)! <span style="caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); color: black; white-space: normal;">I believe it's during Ricky's first singing performance of "I'm Walking'" that I spotted another bodybuilder in the audience: Brad Harris! Another</span> episode, “The Duenna,” features the original Lina Romay, who was fun to see in this context. Halfway through the series, older son David’s maturing personality seems a little withdrawn, helped along by Ricky’s blooming talent and personality, while Ozzie has developed into a remarkable physical comedian and a pleasingly complex character: a sentimentalist but also a profoundly competitive and insecure man whose pride and boastfulness inadvertently set many plots in motion. This was also the season with show writer Jay Sommers (later the creator of GREEN ACRES) really stepped up to bat with many scripts according him top billing. Especially notable, I think, is “The Reading Room” in which Ozzie’s paternal editorializing about how today’s young people should spend more time reading the old classics leads to the family surprising him with a new reading room in the attic, which leads to fears that he may have outgrown his usefulness to the family - hilarious, but also a little existential and frightening, as Ozzie is once again hoisted on his own petard. Just great television.</span></span></p><p><span style="font-family: times; font-size: medium;"><span style="background-color: white; caret-color: rgb(5, 5, 5); color: #050505; white-space: pre-wrap;">* * *</span></span></p><p><span style="font-family: times; font-size: medium;"><span style="background-color: white; caret-color: rgb(5, 5, 5); color: #050505; white-space: pre-wrap;">When I learned the Criterion Channel was showing a new 4K restoration of Lou Reed and John Cale's SONGS FOR DRELLA performance, I watched it immediately. Originally shot in 16mm, it looks much better now than it used to, and it still sounds great. For me, the most powerful songs are up front ("Open House" always kills me), but the silent artistic connection and tension between Cale and Reed hold the viewer for the duration. What I wasn't prepared for is how young they both </span><span style="caret-color: rgb(5, 5, 5); color: #050505; white-space: pre-wrap;"><a style="color: #385898; cursor: pointer;" tabindex="-1"></a></span><span style="background-color: white; caret-color: rgb(5, 5, 5); color: #050505; white-space: pre-wrap;">look. This was 1990, which doesn't feel that long ago; but Lou's been gone now for almost ten years. A stinging reminder that 30 years is nothing, and that's why I agree with Andy when he says "the most important thing is work."</span></span></p><p><span style="font-family: times; font-size: medium;"><span style="background-color: white; caret-color: rgb(5, 5, 5); color: #050505; white-space: pre-wrap;">* * *</span></span></p><p><span style="font-family: times; font-size: medium;"><span style="background-color: white; caret-color: rgb(5, 5, 5); color: #050505; white-space: pre-wrap;">We’ve spent the last several nights watching the Showtime limited series THE MAN WHO FELL TO EARTH. Some months back I saw a trailer for it and wasn’t attracted, but needing another series after SUCCESSION, we chose this one. Though allegedly based on the Walter Tevis novel, it’s actually a sequel to the Nicolas Roeg film with an (excellent) mostly black cast including Chiwetel Ejiofor, Naomi Harris and Clarke Peters, with Bill Nighy appearing irregularly as the elusive </span><span style="caret-color: rgb(5, 5, 5); color: #050505; white-space: pre-wrap;"><a style="color: #385898; cursor: pointer;" tabindex="-1"></a></span><span style="background-color: white; caret-color: rgb(5, 5, 5); color: #050505; white-space: pre-wrap;">Thomas Jerome Newton, the character played in the film by David Bowie. Each episode takes its title from a different Bowie song, a structure which plays out surprisingly well. (Little winks to the Bowie mythos also turn up now and then.) There are little annoyances I could pick on, but most of these become surprisingly relevant to points raised by the story and illustrate the differences between basic alien and earthly temperaments. The important thing to say is that this show is a rarity among science fiction dramas of our time: a serious work of actual science fiction, not just a space opera, one that tackles the most pressing problems of our time; it’s also a worthy sequel though it does clear away some of the mystery that so nicely adhered to the obliqueness of Roeg’s storytelling. The show concludes in such a way that it could have a follow-up season if demanded, while also managing a satisfying closure on its own. Recommended.</span></span></p><p><span style="font-family: times; font-size: medium;"><span style="background-color: white; caret-color: rgb(5, 5, 5); color: #050505; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></span></p>
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Unknownnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-17626962.post-89612391367926588862022-10-03T00:00:00.002-04:002022-10-03T12:04:07.450-04:00The Passion of Ray Dennis Steckler - Part 5<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: medium;">As morning breaks, Steckler gives his viewers a moment to absorb what they have seen by inserting some early morning shots grabbed on the fly. In his commentary, Steckler speaks of his attraction to photographing little poetic moments of reality that he's unlikely to remember otherwise and which others might never see otherwise, moments that have the impact of professional still photography. These shots are a perfect illustration of what he means and other similar moments are to be found in his other films as well.</span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: medium;"></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: medium;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgamoxmp6YTaAxzWTAvdvtrS5JoRs98i8Y5wdOEbyKNgY-AW7N6sPDzl4XOmA9JDR8e3dZvsMoq9-Gl_hctfsCV-R5SYSMITB1Nv8aqGKBe-hpcdmUBZvey6PtoWFxuxNbzy8Kj4W_5x9sMIw9kPjglX0lZLBx1Z0cfMhvs7j7NaJCtCyJNlg/s1019/Screen%20Shot%202022-09-28%20at%205.45.19%20PM.png" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="575" data-original-width="1019" height="362" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgamoxmp6YTaAxzWTAvdvtrS5JoRs98i8Y5wdOEbyKNgY-AW7N6sPDzl4XOmA9JDR8e3dZvsMoq9-Gl_hctfsCV-R5SYSMITB1Nv8aqGKBe-hpcdmUBZvey6PtoWFxuxNbzy8Kj4W_5x9sMIw9kPjglX0lZLBx1Z0cfMhvs7j7NaJCtCyJNlg/w640-h362/Screen%20Shot%202022-09-28%20at%205.45.19%20PM.png" width="640" /></a></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: medium;"><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhKu8YBDDv-RAQcScvwmFUr_tXUw5NhkPz1tvPEw_iforVf8HL8saeUtOxfK-VeYKFSm0yFj5SQSZtfJTgZpQ8n-xEaVRytzoOWWZDEruadmfhM0SqdaTe-iWcvbUw_03O5LHvw6l5uDTe79Kz-YXXq50JzGWtA6i5xllwMAUcNqWjhXLQO7Q/s1017/Screen%20Shot%202022-09-28%20at%205.45.39%20PM.png" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="583" data-original-width="1017" height="366" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhKu8YBDDv-RAQcScvwmFUr_tXUw5NhkPz1tvPEw_iforVf8HL8saeUtOxfK-VeYKFSm0yFj5SQSZtfJTgZpQ8n-xEaVRytzoOWWZDEruadmfhM0SqdaTe-iWcvbUw_03O5LHvw6l5uDTe79Kz-YXXq50JzGWtA6i5xllwMAUcNqWjhXLQO7Q/w640-h366/Screen%20Shot%202022-09-28%20at%205.45.39%20PM.png" width="640" /></a></div></span></div><p><span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="font-family: times;">Jerry wakes up late and, after a brief talk with Harold, who’s still under the hood trying to get his heap of junk running. (Shall I stretch the metaphor to recall that Jerry was himself "under a hood" during his own misadventure? Maybe not.) Either way, Harold returns his “kiz” and Jerry drives over to Angie’s house, where he finds Madison grilling burgers and his Angel sunbathing by the kidney-shaped pool. She's forgiving of his actions but remains “a little mad” about the way he acted. Jerry admits to some confusion about his actions on his own part. When Angie admits “I sure would like to know what happened after I left,” she raises a parasol into frame and twirls it, reigniting the hypno-whirl in Jerry’s mind.</span></span></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="font-family: times;">Steckler remembered this being a spontaneous decision, prompted by the presence of the parasol at the location, and its incorporation into the scene has an eerie, nightmarish logic that's purely visual. When the parasol is lowered, Angie has become Marge. Jerry starts to strangle her—and only Angie’s mother’s scream and Madison’s rush to her defense prevents Jerry from strangling Angie herself to death. In an editing toggle well ahead of its time, obviously anticipated by Steckler during filming, Marge and Angie flash in and out of his subjective perceptions. Madison succeeds in breaking his death grip and the spell clouding his mind, and Jerry—shocked and ashamed of his own behavior—flees the scene.</span><span style="font-family: times;"> </span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: medium;"></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: medium;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEipR7Jd4WJk0oR23XNuMq0khIHqEZ0B9ximW-vSuAvakBPzV6IYUOpEGWjHU4JB9-JWd7caJIQ3_MO6hj1saeIy6UNPvyjmKR5CC6lwmYT1_flGlB7EYUJR3BGjET_CJLy-jrxWIf28rrlXs7xMiCI6sb1_16Q6pdzf6dCJOrp9TBk-tRluGw/s1004/Screen%20Shot%202022-09-28%20at%205.59.02%20PM.png" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="576" data-original-width="1004" height="368" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEipR7Jd4WJk0oR23XNuMq0khIHqEZ0B9ximW-vSuAvakBPzV6IYUOpEGWjHU4JB9-JWd7caJIQ3_MO6hj1saeIy6UNPvyjmKR5CC6lwmYT1_flGlB7EYUJR3BGjET_CJLy-jrxWIf28rrlXs7xMiCI6sb1_16Q6pdzf6dCJOrp9TBk-tRluGw/w640-h368/Screen%20Shot%202022-09-28%20at%205.59.02%20PM.png" width="640" /></a></span></div><span style="font-family: times; font-size: medium;"><br />Needing a location that would reflect Jerry's growing sense of loneliness and isolation, Steckler opted to take his minimal crew to the original Angel’s Flight Railway incline at 351 S. Hill Street in the Bunker Hill district of Los Angeles. It had previously been used in such films as THE INDESTRUCTIBLE MAN (1956) and the aforementioned NIGHT HAS A THOUSAND EYES (1948). Steckler could recall no conscious reason for shooting there; it was just something he wanted to do, but since he likely had the latter film in mind, the location would have followed, if only subsconsciously. Also, if we consider Jerry's term of endearment for Angela, his “Angel” has indeed taken flight from him (or rather, he from her) and the location externalizes her with a sad and lonely space he can inhabit. Angel's Flight ceased operations in 1969—a parallel of sorts to the seedy run-down majesty of the Nu-Pike. Quietly accompanied by the sound effect of an egg-beater to suggest the rollercoaster-like ascent and descent of the railcars, and a spiritual called “Roll On,” it’s a haunting, fugue-like moment of penitence and respite in Jerry’s nightmare.<o:p></o:p></span><p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: medium;"></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: medium;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgT3F6z_Zrwz6Prherg2zId5M8EoV4dPHbtzFlWTQ7l2EuEafXcMBO1yV1vShdSqNOwheBw5Mu7myttfN8kB_CtjpZ10XLttjL4QWhi39jL1kLTZgEdOnnjuhnRe3IP_jvBAch3owZNCthONXHwUFT_cClg-5K_rDclkekHQYNc0gvcCPAJXg/s1020/Screen%20Shot%202022-09-28%20at%206.03.14%20PM.png" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="580" data-original-width="1020" height="364" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgT3F6z_Zrwz6Prherg2zId5M8EoV4dPHbtzFlWTQ7l2EuEafXcMBO1yV1vShdSqNOwheBw5Mu7myttfN8kB_CtjpZ10XLttjL4QWhi39jL1kLTZgEdOnnjuhnRe3IP_jvBAch3owZNCthONXHwUFT_cClg-5K_rDclkekHQYNc0gvcCPAJXg/w640-h364/Screen%20Shot%202022-09-28%20at%206.03.14%20PM.png" width="640" /></a></span></div><span style="font-family: times; font-size: medium;"><br />While leaving the location, Jerry happens to overhear a transistor radio report of the Hungry Mouth murders and the ongoing police search for the killer. With the movie’s energy now on the brink of failing, it returns to the Nu-Pike where we are treated to Carol Kay’s infectious twist number, “The Shook-Out Shake.” Though it’s hardly the film’s best choreographed sequence and offers no thematic support of the narrative, it’s certainly the picture’s most catchy, memorable song and its best bid for a hit. <o:p></o:p></span><p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;"><o:p><span style="font-family: times; font-size: medium;"> </span></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: medium;"></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: medium;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgVDqhS0oQlNCoiL9mLDD-8imeVtJSReZw9CCLaFkShMsqLNo1FTYhJgmx3tFSyJW-Z-u-po6ELv7gJyxH9uS55xOQZN-JIEdh2BsApSaSj8wNCh5nI-VuvHakv5qBU38C_YmDhGhb-U13NbrnSzrFVmv-Q-vJil1-mJVkG4zrqN9hDhxGV_w/s1020/Screen%20Shot%202022-09-28%20at%206.26.34%20PM.png" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="574" data-original-width="1020" height="360" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgVDqhS0oQlNCoiL9mLDD-8imeVtJSReZw9CCLaFkShMsqLNo1FTYhJgmx3tFSyJW-Z-u-po6ELv7gJyxH9uS55xOQZN-JIEdh2BsApSaSj8wNCh5nI-VuvHakv5qBU38C_YmDhGhb-U13NbrnSzrFVmv-Q-vJil1-mJVkG4zrqN9hDhxGV_w/w640-h360/Screen%20Shot%202022-09-28%20at%206.26.34%20PM.png" width="640" /></a></span></div><span style="font-family: times; font-size: medium;"><br />The showgirl Stella pays a visit to Madam Estrella, showing her the newspaper headline about the murders of the two dancers and slyly mentioning that she saw Marge running out after a consultation the night before. She asks Estrella what she foretold for her, and she replies, “Nothing—because she wasn’t here last night!” After casually mentioning that she has a date tonight, Stella just as casually mentions to Estrella: “If I didn’t know you better, I’d almost say you had something to hide”—not realizing she’s thus signed her own death warrant. Ditzy showgirl.<o:p></o:p></span><p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;"><o:p><span style="font-family: times; font-size: medium;"> </span></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: medium;"></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: medium;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhiv8lyANC-2pJp3M32G6wOLrOYnxyF1y8XVzKOCShb6zqVYSCTELdRSZHVOm7eG38VSPEhwv-roPivkqQTRHW241jYTYwcvHGyq2NBb0wlYn47ddZKUUxyNTSw-jTKF6_mXnPKq7ijkV0J8uYrhO1RdwHyrhpihSksKDXI4955l4tuI82c3w/s1018/Screen%20Shot%202022-09-28%20at%206.42.44%20PM.png" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="575" data-original-width="1018" height="362" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhiv8lyANC-2pJp3M32G6wOLrOYnxyF1y8XVzKOCShb6zqVYSCTELdRSZHVOm7eG38VSPEhwv-roPivkqQTRHW241jYTYwcvHGyq2NBb0wlYn47ddZKUUxyNTSw-jTKF6_mXnPKq7ijkV0J8uYrhO1RdwHyrhpihSksKDXI4955l4tuI82c3w/w640-h362/Screen%20Shot%202022-09-28%20at%206.42.44%20PM.png" width="640" /></a></span></div><span style="font-family: times; font-size: medium;"><br />Terri Randal’s scat-like “Choo-Choo-Cha-Boochie” is the next musical number, performed solo, without dancers needing additional choreography. Something in common regarding all the on-screen musical performers: they all lip-synch their songs faultlessly. Randal does a particularly good job with tongue-twisting lyric and she appears to be the only artist in the movie whose song made it to record—not this one, but rather the 45rpm single “It’s Incredible” b/w “Mixed-Up Zombie Stomp,” both composed by Libby Quinn (Elizabeth Q. Greene) and released on the REL Recording Company label in 1964. </span><span style="font-family: Cambria;"><o:p></o:p></span><p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: medium;"></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: medium;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi5jXWVzf5sbM1WWI92o5Kh-N-GaAgeK3qrSAB8tHWB0S9S1czgF_VYCuafk_c79dA1AWRDUQtR_fOoeMPdywIB9IXkznBroWiZ8smUlnSrfPvvowuW-eXUxwzWY3P6PPbD9i_xMitRAbc1P8gcwF33nxbK0jXQ5KdgPtZuhI3x-NfpAB8jmg/s995/Screen%20Shot%202022-09-28%20at%206.40.25%20PM.png" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="578" data-original-width="995" height="372" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi5jXWVzf5sbM1WWI92o5Kh-N-GaAgeK3qrSAB8tHWB0S9S1czgF_VYCuafk_c79dA1AWRDUQtR_fOoeMPdywIB9IXkznBroWiZ8smUlnSrfPvvowuW-eXUxwzWY3P6PPbD9i_xMitRAbc1P8gcwF33nxbK0jXQ5KdgPtZuhI3x-NfpAB8jmg/w640-h372/Screen%20Shot%202022-09-28%20at%206.40.25%20PM.png" width="640" /></a></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: medium;"><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhz5w_aQHVKeeRaPeerjnMmychK8v3W4NT5MtSkm6zeEC7mJK-L2RwbYmLUjswFW0Vzg2ZoYe8y26q9FbLO-mXvbLeygneIlXLy8RY1GfcxJEsA-t2UFnjnzUhUKDFarz1LQutbUQ74OU0mulx4JmhwZi7tiksvUU-vgYbv2LdiJ3M1VeAr9Q/s1025/Screen%20Shot%202022-09-28%20at%206.55.56%20PM.png" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="581" data-original-width="1025" height="362" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhz5w_aQHVKeeRaPeerjnMmychK8v3W4NT5MtSkm6zeEC7mJK-L2RwbYmLUjswFW0Vzg2ZoYe8y26q9FbLO-mXvbLeygneIlXLy8RY1GfcxJEsA-t2UFnjnzUhUKDFarz1LQutbUQ74OU0mulx4JmhwZi7tiksvUU-vgYbv2LdiJ3M1VeAr9Q/w640-h362/Screen%20Shot%202022-09-28%20at%206.55.56%20PM.png" width="640" /></a></div><br /></span></div><span style="font-family: times; font-size: medium;">Jerry tracks Carmelita down to the backstage apartment she shares with Estrella. Throughout this scene, Jerry is filmed so that he is constantly framed outside and inside Carmelita's vanity mirror. Steckler's commentary asserts that he was simply making himself visible even when he paced offscreen, but it's also an eloquent illustration of his now-divided nature. He demands to know what happened last night behind the curtain.</span><p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: medium;"></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: medium;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjCJPfXKvUnvyuReOAQT1-Pbf8l3yY7N618ymRmDctxceWi0sUvpnNm8voU7oefsY1Eoh3lSQY8JvOtmsZzVxvA-hvH773B0LQTFzCTTPIuBK5UniDU1mTCroEQFpj42xjoi2dTb8fDnBCtBp9dUSIellWa0-TuanJxai-ZK6pYeIa8-FBNPw/s1021/Screen%20Shot%202022-09-28%20at%207.12.35%20PM.png" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="587" data-original-width="1021" height="368" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjCJPfXKvUnvyuReOAQT1-Pbf8l3yY7N618ymRmDctxceWi0sUvpnNm8voU7oefsY1Eoh3lSQY8JvOtmsZzVxvA-hvH773B0LQTFzCTTPIuBK5UniDU1mTCroEQFpj42xjoi2dTb8fDnBCtBp9dUSIellWa0-TuanJxai-ZK6pYeIa8-FBNPw/w640-h368/Screen%20Shot%202022-09-28%20at%207.12.35%20PM.png" width="640" /></a></span></div><span style="font-family: times; font-size: medium;"><br />“Well, if you really must know what happened behind those curtains, why don’t you go behind them?” she challenges him, sensibly.</span><div><span style="font-family: times; font-size: medium;"><br /></span><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: medium;">At this point, the camera adopts Jerry’s POV as he approaches and parts the curtains, once again revealing the spinning Hypno disc. His senses are flooded with images of Estrella compelling him to obey and her recent meeting with Stella, who now must be destroyed. </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: medium;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;"><o:p><span style="font-family: times; font-size: medium;"> </span></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: medium;"></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: medium;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgsogX3qS8AeZfSC8qfX5cvhZ3IUP5beIUFr1wCRyHjafy_uo1ZNKY7aRZ0oST_t7yxgqJ_0IUsMhGY4wpYP4hr90O-afHeTlarZSXD133uTR04Ltg5fwJ7LwrcOrDRBUy0Rgl01bPQRVp3t75Osq0Xf1R1mgiyPmR2o55QZeEPPcIwJ5ieFg/s1021/Screen%20Shot%202022-09-28%20at%207.16.36%20PM.png" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="582" data-original-width="1021" height="364" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgsogX3qS8AeZfSC8qfX5cvhZ3IUP5beIUFr1wCRyHjafy_uo1ZNKY7aRZ0oST_t7yxgqJ_0IUsMhGY4wpYP4hr90O-afHeTlarZSXD133uTR04Ltg5fwJ7LwrcOrDRBUy0Rgl01bPQRVp3t75Osq0Xf1R1mgiyPmR2o55QZeEPPcIwJ5ieFg/w640-h364/Screen%20Shot%202022-09-28%20at%207.16.36%20PM.png" width="640" /></a></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: medium;"><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg2KqMS1ub8Xmy5Q7X1HGrzc4hdhRRG6zReLq5H-BhE8H-chTmc2NlqHjXxFnfO-f16ZmX4xQJ-6KKSCZwEObE7t-qn2ndrHmwItceuIQxeVDcBYcTXXC3YcuEEeA-EO600NOIKvh7fiQ3rCHsUzYtTovAesdUny4Bwn5vj9hBPnqCsbAVU4Q/s1008/Screen%20Shot%202022-09-29%20at%203.51.55%20PM.png" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="581" data-original-width="1008" height="368" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg2KqMS1ub8Xmy5Q7X1HGrzc4hdhRRG6zReLq5H-BhE8H-chTmc2NlqHjXxFnfO-f16ZmX4xQJ-6KKSCZwEObE7t-qn2ndrHmwItceuIQxeVDcBYcTXXC3YcuEEeA-EO600NOIKvh7fiQ3rCHsUzYtTovAesdUny4Bwn5vj9hBPnqCsbAVU4Q/w640-h368/Screen%20Shot%202022-09-29%20at%203.51.55%20PM.png" width="640" /></a></div><br /></span></div><span style="font-family: times; font-size: medium;">I don’t want to spoil the ending for anyone who hasn’t experienced the film already. Suffice to say, the story surprisingly sticks to its guns and remains a tragedy, but it builds to an exuberant ending nonetheless. Before it concludes, the film packs its last ten minutes with a full ouse of stylistic surprises: a striking reveal of the Jerry-zombie wielding a flashing blade in the dark that seems to prophesy every single scare in John Carpenter’s HALLOWEEN (1976); an abrupt turn-of-the-tables on Madam Estrella as her imprisoned horde of acid-test rejects escape and run amok (providing Steckler with the perfect opportunity to break the fourth wall with zombies-in-person theater invasions in subsequent reissues; and—just when you least expect it—another music-and-dancing extravaganza, this one set to another instrumental, "The Mixed-Up Zombie Stomp" (again anticipating Tenney's THE HORROR OF PARTY BEACH, which features a Del-Aires song called "The Zombie Stomp"). As some key characters are murdered, the film intercuts the massacre with topsy-turvy images of the Sky Wheel, the Nu-Pike's double ferris wheel which, as mentioned before, had claimed actual lives of its own. The sequence of the police arriving at the amusement park and shooting down the so-called “zombies” benefits from Tom Scherman’s original rubber mask designs (which recall some of the bizarre characters from Revell’s “Weird-Oh” model kits) and the tight editing of Don Schneider, whose dynamism looks forward to George A. Romero’s muscular cutting on his own zombie films, NIGHT OF THE LIVING DEAD (1968) and DAWN OF THE DEAD (1979).</span><div><span style="font-family: times; font-size: medium;"><br /></span></div><div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhBADkXfW_1fFVITSfWF6k9qXJVHW5-Lc_-J7g-Ywk_-2gVZ_I5D2Ef9CJZ_lB0GlhwzeH8jXWjksW3_I8NKLD5Z7RG1gUSyAropKRUNAnl02HfGbNz28po5Vn3l2ueEuikYsGpaQPcRNXYSxZvQ06MfyCVZ35vrUZMc-Nxjm2BgoGue7a-vA/s1010/Screen%20Shot%202022-09-28%20at%207.30.10%20PM.png" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="582" data-original-width="1010" height="368" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhBADkXfW_1fFVITSfWF6k9qXJVHW5-Lc_-J7g-Ywk_-2gVZ_I5D2Ef9CJZ_lB0GlhwzeH8jXWjksW3_I8NKLD5Z7RG1gUSyAropKRUNAnl02HfGbNz28po5Vn3l2ueEuikYsGpaQPcRNXYSxZvQ06MfyCVZ35vrUZMc-Nxjm2BgoGue7a-vA/w640-h368/Screen%20Shot%202022-09-28%20at%207.30.10%20PM.png" width="640" /></a></div><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;"><br /></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: medium;"></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: medium;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjQYKsQgnZ2g__GujiX_PGKBWZSwsMHIOblOd6lv-Ge6-HXg_eJxj4pqW-hT8wqn0EELTxuIoLkfghKbqzxQs0TCG3WRoZDGUHhb8VGAv0tLzbymWc5b-1Nc4muDtCIk08XdiQ5GnwOB6GzXDIy5hN4y8GPAteMEPuZlw7K8r5dJiQxyzzYnw/s1022/Screen%20Shot%202022-10-02%20at%204.48.19%20PM.png" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="587" data-original-width="1022" height="368" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjQYKsQgnZ2g__GujiX_PGKBWZSwsMHIOblOd6lv-Ge6-HXg_eJxj4pqW-hT8wqn0EELTxuIoLkfghKbqzxQs0TCG3WRoZDGUHhb8VGAv0tLzbymWc5b-1Nc4muDtCIk08XdiQ5GnwOB6GzXDIy5hN4y8GPAteMEPuZlw7K8r5dJiQxyzzYnw/w640-h368/Screen%20Shot%202022-10-02%20at%204.48.19%20PM.png" width="640" /></a></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: medium;"><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh6k6jgqSFYNo34Aw6dye2dCzagdALTKOLF18hPPZxLqsN3Vj6NoojduDjTkt7hxj3dWEJZneLFGmbfwiFoAatGTS-4uqxx74yqBImwd3Cj4RodlpeiM_yhcZIzfBOPAeiOmUDdNVjVZjyc0Xu2z61reO4GLbbmnq3uVZDZJHc1RusNQ2nN8Q/s1020/Screen%20Shot%202022-10-02%20at%204.47.44%20PM.png" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="577" data-original-width="1020" height="362" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh6k6jgqSFYNo34Aw6dye2dCzagdALTKOLF18hPPZxLqsN3Vj6NoojduDjTkt7hxj3dWEJZneLFGmbfwiFoAatGTS-4uqxx74yqBImwd3Cj4RodlpeiM_yhcZIzfBOPAeiOmUDdNVjVZjyc0Xu2z61reO4GLbbmnq3uVZDZJHc1RusNQ2nN8Q/w640-h362/Screen%20Shot%202022-10-02%20at%204.47.44%20PM.png" width="640" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgr70XtQfeg9q4s06W08LzYL8PgF4uazNABrhZOuBfAaRQpoRHIgvfiIAd0IEjHLUnrvLU0Al-QJ3IjHHdPNQ_xqKHTDRd8tJ4J1oCpHTEV4ZZZkvqEUMuNuSFp2dG4qvVxKTjE7AoUhZ5K2qoXuU46q6rq-8_UwYW5H1zldXzvDxqRhwU-EQ/s1025/Screen%20Shot%202022-10-02%20at%204.48.41%20PM.png" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="584" data-original-width="1025" height="364" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgr70XtQfeg9q4s06W08LzYL8PgF4uazNABrhZOuBfAaRQpoRHIgvfiIAd0IEjHLUnrvLU0Al-QJ3IjHHdPNQ_xqKHTDRd8tJ4J1oCpHTEV4ZZZkvqEUMuNuSFp2dG4qvVxKTjE7AoUhZ5K2qoXuU46q6rq-8_UwYW5H1zldXzvDxqRhwU-EQ/w640-h364/Screen%20Shot%202022-10-02%20at%204.48.41%20PM.png" width="640" /></a></div><br /></div></span></div><span style="font-family: times; font-size: medium;">THE INCREDIBLY STRANGE CREATURES… doesn’t end happily, but it resolves its case study in irresponsibility and carelessness in bigger-than-life fashion. In the last few minutes, Steckler takes all of Mother Nature’s fury onto his own shoulders in a truly heroic culmination.</span><p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: medium;"></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: medium;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhSEkf6HqmHL_m2uAG3ume69EXcWaNLDC_-5q6VLpE3_aATnTqfkFNojOGxFyjQqfhz6Z2VDU19c6AZAKertu3-iS1iQFn10ZVFwj9IioMW_1aE-Vz7-IzcD_9qvtCjgNVuDlwOMyZ6u1gSmeX1gKo-v2aNJeWOy4ClBVZjAPYQFfP4QxuKgg/s1021/Screen%20Shot%202022-10-02%20at%204.16.44%20PM.png" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="581" data-original-width="1021" height="364" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhSEkf6HqmHL_m2uAG3ume69EXcWaNLDC_-5q6VLpE3_aATnTqfkFNojOGxFyjQqfhz6Z2VDU19c6AZAKertu3-iS1iQFn10ZVFwj9IioMW_1aE-Vz7-IzcD_9qvtCjgNVuDlwOMyZ6u1gSmeX1gKo-v2aNJeWOy4ClBVZjAPYQFfP4QxuKgg/w640-h364/Screen%20Shot%202022-10-02%20at%204.16.44%20PM.png" width="640" /></a></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: medium;"><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiKCAqk4OfuU7WEIYFJEg9_vxjYkfiRFl6SmzECE5X7Ff1jA4KEdpGgendTd2dkEk4VV516bpWzGNCvrxZUVCULsYeI-6sc-TJHbnmDbneXWV3XfkW2zkESdRmG8B-gz6SvAg6bP293VhuI8gq_k86_kOEJ82qSD8GYlP3OVcoLbSapSSXQgg/s1018/Screen%20Shot%202022-10-02%20at%204.24.39%20PM.png" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="580" data-original-width="1018" height="364" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiKCAqk4OfuU7WEIYFJEg9_vxjYkfiRFl6SmzECE5X7Ff1jA4KEdpGgendTd2dkEk4VV516bpWzGNCvrxZUVCULsYeI-6sc-TJHbnmDbneXWV3XfkW2zkESdRmG8B-gz6SvAg6bP293VhuI8gq_k86_kOEJ82qSD8GYlP3OVcoLbSapSSXQgg/w640-h364/Screen%20Shot%202022-10-02%20at%204.24.39%20PM.png" width="640" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgGqeyovF3hMNWoPo3bOZueM9hOOyOS_5EHQ5HZF2qEJPdJy-D8xWyKC1nlqt359LBqUgKxDuqxUXG2oUhP2rZyMDWKmUDeqiQIBypnnnxp4h5Pa3Ed_oHdna1eLlOmMt6Hxatm-qbFWX6fC2P6Y9m79X_MaDrdoV0pvEA0kaEyNp23W_JJBQ/s1018/Screen%20Shot%202022-10-02%20at%204.25.04%20PM.png" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="582" data-original-width="1018" height="366" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgGqeyovF3hMNWoPo3bOZueM9hOOyOS_5EHQ5HZF2qEJPdJy-D8xWyKC1nlqt359LBqUgKxDuqxUXG2oUhP2rZyMDWKmUDeqiQIBypnnnxp4h5Pa3Ed_oHdna1eLlOmMt6Hxatm-qbFWX6fC2P6Y9m79X_MaDrdoV0pvEA0kaEyNp23W_JJBQ/w640-h366/Screen%20Shot%202022-10-02%20at%204.25.04%20PM.png" width="640" /></a></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjp_K1u5tYIT2rWhDY--ww539LqSfY_qkTxA2elCMUPmGRiIwyoZslLtKCGFPaGpEb7v6R7JYLLYQDtaetxcUUXjES2GTbK-3wxSDkUnUq60YEuO0Di4y-59V6nOQcijl_CAtU1mqxG9PsCRM6BDBjXbkTCtvZbM0MLmkd9cTYB0cJo00tXCA/s1020/Screen%20Shot%202022-10-02%20at%204.26.33%20PM.png" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="580" data-original-width="1020" height="364" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjp_K1u5tYIT2rWhDY--ww539LqSfY_qkTxA2elCMUPmGRiIwyoZslLtKCGFPaGpEb7v6R7JYLLYQDtaetxcUUXjES2GTbK-3wxSDkUnUq60YEuO0Di4y-59V6nOQcijl_CAtU1mqxG9PsCRM6BDBjXbkTCtvZbM0MLmkd9cTYB0cJo00tXCA/w640-h364/Screen%20Shot%202022-10-02%20at%204.26.33%20PM.png" width="640" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgs9F1zTlEDtEB6VMhurrt5ET0T1B3h7m-DvB3hcPsj6U-VTiai_crsKuTNw342bAbYtEiNcCNlcKYisvNd1n2vv0lnXg_Boiw6_sXrZtTRLMxFw5UW6i5yzMecBTQTWpMxp4KUvNiVc7G7a4pqbeukZDyX_za9oEos6dfGVirt76WzjywrZQ/s1020/Screen%20Shot%202022-10-02%20at%204.32.14%20PM.png" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="578" data-original-width="1020" height="362" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgs9F1zTlEDtEB6VMhurrt5ET0T1B3h7m-DvB3hcPsj6U-VTiai_crsKuTNw342bAbYtEiNcCNlcKYisvNd1n2vv0lnXg_Boiw6_sXrZtTRLMxFw5UW6i5yzMecBTQTWpMxp4KUvNiVc7G7a4pqbeukZDyX_za9oEos6dfGVirt76WzjywrZQ/w640-h362/Screen%20Shot%202022-10-02%20at%204.32.14%20PM.png" width="640" /></a></div><br /></div></div></span></div><span style="font-family: times; font-size: medium;">No stunt men were involved; this is real Lillian Gish and Richard Barthelmess in WAY DOWN EAST stuff with Steckler dead center, his performance ascending to heights that recall Brando or Nicolas Cage at their most self-involved. Just as impressive, Atlas King, Sharon Walsh, Madison Clarke and a couple of cops doggedly pursue him through the same salt water assaults in a sequence that encompasses several perspectives, including an impressive high-angle viewpoint in depth. Though its not at all a similar setting, when Jerry finally ascends a high rock, I don't think there's any question that Steckler is summoning a memory of the tragic finale of KING KONG (1933); the sequence follows much the same trajectory and pushes the same emotional buttons.</span><p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: medium;"></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: medium;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhAvdmMZGHShTbRkPEwaofk3bt3h0bk6_ttt9_99q_V3piQ9g1ULTKA_QIBBOvb3vj2MARJJbVKpnAIzVZ_PUnJY_Cs-QZsFZqL6sHGjNuFFDtpCqpKg9NkoVYTWmyemn9nxhug8PJE7s-shdjH_KjIJstcs7_-WR_vKN3Vw3JKFE-nMzf4-w/s1018/Screen%20Shot%202022-10-02%20at%204.36.02%20PM.png" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="576" data-original-width="1018" height="362" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhAvdmMZGHShTbRkPEwaofk3bt3h0bk6_ttt9_99q_V3piQ9g1ULTKA_QIBBOvb3vj2MARJJbVKpnAIzVZ_PUnJY_Cs-QZsFZqL6sHGjNuFFDtpCqpKg9NkoVYTWmyemn9nxhug8PJE7s-shdjH_KjIJstcs7_-WR_vKN3Vw3JKFE-nMzf4-w/w640-h362/Screen%20Shot%202022-10-02%20at%204.36.02%20PM.png" width="640" /></a></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: medium;"><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg5qkmuNyLIVSydooYBgzKxPIT36wv_W1nv8m_Tj1PIa_H85NvFUesRS-qAUw9Gibo3_ErvWxSdW9JgwJBoAjcsBO_hzbkSCh-B6mOFTWJgu4PhOwAp8_VlflyFWpn0mf3FxhAYKHvIundm58sRNYpwrIYqNKeSLWN_B7o9sT6xWOZWoWAJeg/s1019/Screen%20Shot%202022-10-02%20at%204.57.07%20PM.png" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="579" data-original-width="1019" height="364" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg5qkmuNyLIVSydooYBgzKxPIT36wv_W1nv8m_Tj1PIa_H85NvFUesRS-qAUw9Gibo3_ErvWxSdW9JgwJBoAjcsBO_hzbkSCh-B6mOFTWJgu4PhOwAp8_VlflyFWpn0mf3FxhAYKHvIundm58sRNYpwrIYqNKeSLWN_B7o9sT6xWOZWoWAJeg/w640-h364/Screen%20Shot%202022-10-02%20at%204.57.07%20PM.png" width="640" /></a></div><br /></span></div><span style="font-family: times; font-size: medium;">His pursued of careless fun now behind him, as misunderstanding as he himself is misunderstood, Jerry finally awakens to the real world of responsibilities and other people's feelings. Alas, it's too late and he loses his girl, his dream, and his friends in this ultimate showdown with forces larger than he. When we see Ray Dennis Steckler standing atop that crag rising out of the sea, he not only lights the candle on the cake but presents a powerful heroic metaphor for the filmmaker at bay, surrounded and diminished by all the adversities life can hurl at him. And yet, in the end—with a little help from his friends—he has somehow prevailed. Exactly what he's accomplished is ultimately for others to decide but, in one last show of pride, he plants a flag in this new (and perhaps greatest) level of accomplishment.</span><p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: medium;">It reads "Made in Hollywood, U.S.A."</span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;"><br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: medium;"></span><span style="font-family: times; font-size: medium;">THE INCREDIBLY STRANGE CREATURES WHO STOPPED LIVING AND BECAME MIXED-UP ZOMBIES!!?, whose very title seems astonished (if not baffled) by its 81-minute appendage, has outgrown its reputation as a bad film and demands to be regarded and discussed more seriously. A snapshot of American pop sponteneity, as it briefly existed during the first surge of the French <i>nouvelle vague</i> and on the cusp of the British invasion, it stands out today as a master class in low-budget technique. It also strikes me as a powerfully confessional, autobiographic, and defiantly individual work and—despite these lofty accolades—one of the most ebullient, entertainingly accessible examples of bizarre cinema we are likely to ever see. </span><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: medium;"><span style="font-family: Cambria;"> </span> </span></p>
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="background-color: white; color: #1c1e21;"><b><div><br /></div><div><span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); color: black; font-family: times;">Severin Films' Steckler box set is </span><a href="https://severinfilms.com/collections/box-sets/products/incredibly-strange-steckler-box" style="font-family: times;">available here</a><span style="caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); color: black; font-family: times;"> on their website at significant savings.</span></span></div><div><span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); color: black; font-family: times;"><br /></span></span></div><div><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="background-color: white; color: #1c1e21; font-size: medium;"><b>Coming soon: THE THRILL KILLERS, RAT FINK A BOO BOO and more!</b></span></span></div><div><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="background-color: white; color: #1c1e21;"><b><br /></b></span></span></div><div><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="background-color: white; color: #1c1e21;"><b><br /></b></span></span></div><div><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="background-color: white; color: #1c1e21;"><b><br /></b></span></span></div>(c) 2022 by Tim Lucas. All rights reserved.</b></span></span><br />
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</div></div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-17626962.post-75228274790979071462022-10-01T00:00:00.001-04:002022-10-01T16:55:03.606-04:00The Passion of Ray Dennis Steckler - Part 4<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: medium;"></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: medium;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEim3nOEwyuHn_DDDXwexiyKWPmPj8pWnH4i1wcXrbygizdEUx9eSujsOTe_zAR2EG_rqBTesaiZkj7XiwZhqXaz-3S4zQ14XTKbkMMZP21mqU-ZZBjjAIGPGviaaMVy-KLgLBUhG1oNhxR_BCjA0vmOGqToSFEENNPAOKlfFguVhFO72zukiA/s1024/Screen%20Shot%202022-09-28%20at%201.06.33%20PM.png" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="586" data-original-width="1024" height="366" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEim3nOEwyuHn_DDDXwexiyKWPmPj8pWnH4i1wcXrbygizdEUx9eSujsOTe_zAR2EG_rqBTesaiZkj7XiwZhqXaz-3S4zQ14XTKbkMMZP21mqU-ZZBjjAIGPGviaaMVy-KLgLBUhG1oNhxR_BCjA0vmOGqToSFEENNPAOKlfFguVhFO72zukiA/w640-h366/Screen%20Shot%202022-09-28%20at%201.06.33%20PM.png" width="640" /></a></span></div><span style="font-family: times; font-size: medium;"><br />After leaving Madam Estrella’s tent, our fun-seeking trio scan the seedy setting for their next thrill. Jerry and Harold are both drawn to a carnival barker’s exhibit of “girls, girls, girls… 20 girls and only 10 costumes” while Angie—obviously not so keen about seeing her boyfriend ogling other women—casts a contrary vote for “the fun house.” (It’s at this point when Jerry begins to address his “Angie Baby” as “Angel.”) Under pressure, she agrees to stand idly by as the men watch the pitch for a couple of minutes—but a couple of minutes is all it takes for the barker to introduce gypsy sensation Carmelita (Erina Enyo). When this “one and only woman of mystery” steps onstage, Jerry experiences a sudden, almost mystic connection—illustrated with sequential shots of both that bounce back and forth until their eyes alone fill the screen.</span><div><br /></div><div><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: medium;"></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: medium;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjbK62gOnC2p3wZU-dyNhzrmzp-7NWEEhPCVRgqFE65SeH_PY8jVJxClhN0zNZtZ6NthmX35OjwE06XooPqbak1_x0nVLywGt3ZwMMhrO7c-lQG2e3b72bJgxfg73S3C4NVtHYGBeCLqvn1Vu6_34gVl7PZ_HiLigbkBq6SOdoDrJnkkb3_EQ/s1019/Screen%20Shot%202022-09-28%20at%201.23.16%20PM.png" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="582" data-original-width="1019" height="366" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjbK62gOnC2p3wZU-dyNhzrmzp-7NWEEhPCVRgqFE65SeH_PY8jVJxClhN0zNZtZ6NthmX35OjwE06XooPqbak1_x0nVLywGt3ZwMMhrO7c-lQG2e3b72bJgxfg73S3C4NVtHYGBeCLqvn1Vu6_34gVl7PZ_HiLigbkBq6SOdoDrJnkkb3_EQ/w640-h366/Screen%20Shot%202022-09-28%20at%201.23.16%20PM.png" width="640" /></a><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg65kQPAT6IAAtt6959P1BMTfHafY333ld_xtoLlYmFmEEyhRw0qNsXjuFIs7zWcxqQlXC8tJebGdUoad4qZkfCPb8UdK1WzWDt7VYW9djxN5zjhX-csiDM5NfJGgH2on_c9ORszf6tS0JQKk9BYLnGCX6jBBCeydvjBeCybyGZnAajHBDGqA/s1001/Screen%20Shot%202022-09-28%20at%201.23.35%20PM.png" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="584" data-original-width="1001" height="374" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg65kQPAT6IAAtt6959P1BMTfHafY333ld_xtoLlYmFmEEyhRw0qNsXjuFIs7zWcxqQlXC8tJebGdUoad4qZkfCPb8UdK1WzWDt7VYW9djxN5zjhX-csiDM5NfJGgH2on_c9ORszf6tS0JQKk9BYLnGCX6jBBCeydvjBeCybyGZnAajHBDGqA/w640-h374/Screen%20Shot%202022-09-28%20at%201.23.35%20PM.png" width="640" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj9cmT9GrFQcQpzzSDcaKrlS4V_MhhxMUf2kjyqoABO1-XehLGMbruPieFtLsnt0blYpaOfLk1A1uHn6PfZw9oQHpOUV3av1tmcfJXhl5bsx6IyzSCXUKM52acJBFXH_WdGeiWfEuQHtiNgmkIk_LxdM2_D00LYPGm7r4Ddf-4HMb4ZrmB9lw/s1022/Screen%20Shot%202022-09-28%20at%201.23.55%20PM.png" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="581" data-original-width="1022" height="364" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj9cmT9GrFQcQpzzSDcaKrlS4V_MhhxMUf2kjyqoABO1-XehLGMbruPieFtLsnt0blYpaOfLk1A1uHn6PfZw9oQHpOUV3av1tmcfJXhl5bsx6IyzSCXUKM52acJBFXH_WdGeiWfEuQHtiNgmkIk_LxdM2_D00LYPGm7r4Ddf-4HMb4ZrmB9lw/w640-h364/Screen%20Shot%202022-09-28%20at%201.23.55%20PM.png" width="640" /></a><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhKjIHg0SzLMAGKdsf2nOJrDzOLSx7SowyuUqsBabliq5T54zp2VymFpsklYbdvXZpNT3vobRKLYYGG8XT6Nf6r7f9zCqHTf4K-f81_zCdrN7ouWL6mexh-MTReRsOLUehLEbpcO35P245avGWfLHS3jA5cY6oyiyVuqGuNQoqSonSg0MkI9A/s1021/Screen%20Shot%202022-09-28%20at%201.24.56%20PM.png" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="581" data-original-width="1021" height="364" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhKjIHg0SzLMAGKdsf2nOJrDzOLSx7SowyuUqsBabliq5T54zp2VymFpsklYbdvXZpNT3vobRKLYYGG8XT6Nf6r7f9zCqHTf4K-f81_zCdrN7ouWL6mexh-MTReRsOLUehLEbpcO35P245avGWfLHS3jA5cY6oyiyVuqGuNQoqSonSg0MkI9A/w640-h364/Screen%20Shot%202022-09-28%20at%201.24.56%20PM.png" width="640" /></a><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgA4KcZukeHysZOn475kCRrD2aR27OzVO_hYEYsXnTMkgnYy_zsZwO22tkAgwM91cr2PYLP0pq4XaKJsAOrvCFwqInORElsRnyT_0wLNZgXnASoU9wan3q5KqgrknaYM7UR_BHo-43_D_7AjqaBikM5ILG-3kB10YedP4dpf8Q8x7QsyiKbhA/s1022/Screen%20Shot%202022-09-28%20at%201.26.23%20PM.png" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="581" data-original-width="1022" height="364" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgA4KcZukeHysZOn475kCRrD2aR27OzVO_hYEYsXnTMkgnYy_zsZwO22tkAgwM91cr2PYLP0pq4XaKJsAOrvCFwqInORElsRnyT_0wLNZgXnASoU9wan3q5KqgrknaYM7UR_BHo-43_D_7AjqaBikM5ILG-3kB10YedP4dpf8Q8x7QsyiKbhA/w640-h364/Screen%20Shot%202022-09-28%20at%201.26.23%20PM.png" width="640" /></a></div><br /></div></div></div></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: medium; text-align: left;">Jerry is entranced. Estrella is shown observing this connection from a distance and, when Carmelita briefly looks away from Jerry in her direction, Estrella nods her approval. (We later learn that Carmelita is Estrella’s kid sister.)</span></div><p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: medium;">This is literally the turning point in the film and analogous to the origin of all evil, beginning with Adam’s temptation in the Garden of Eden. It’s another probable accident, nevertheless a conscious artistic decision, that Steckler or his cameramen more tightly composed the subsequent shot of the three main characters at their point of divergence with only a portion of Madam Estrella’s sign visible to the right—the portion that reads “Adam.”</span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: medium;"></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: medium;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi51icPy5Sua96-KeBegm_HQANYG6XE0rTTvjrTq4jvfuH3WE_RbaRSu3QTabZxfeijwYdWf3_U_LqDDw6SKDrFodwh7v3kep-ZufyaZ2Yw5xfk3aETBeogFuV9WoA5i46ujPcIWDIn4Xpc3jN6KEdmEcvxJcetLUnQrb3E90AJ7S2jAC21Mw/s1019/Screen%20Shot%202022-09-28%20at%201.29.27%20PM.png" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="584" data-original-width="1019" height="366" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi51icPy5Sua96-KeBegm_HQANYG6XE0rTTvjrTq4jvfuH3WE_RbaRSu3QTabZxfeijwYdWf3_U_LqDDw6SKDrFodwh7v3kep-ZufyaZ2Yw5xfk3aETBeogFuV9WoA5i46ujPcIWDIn4Xpc3jN6KEdmEcvxJcetLUnQrb3E90AJ7S2jAC21Mw/w640-h366/Screen%20Shot%202022-09-28%20at%201.29.27%20PM.png" width="640" /></a></span></div><span style="font-family: times; font-size: medium;"><br />Angie is miffed with Jerry insists on seeing Carmelita’s performance. “I thought we agreed that what I say goes,” he reminds her. When Angie tartly protests that “It’s not that show you’re interested in, it’s that stripper,” the camera cuts away to an animated midway decoration of a witch riding her broomstick with a black cat aboard, accompanied by mocking laughter that suggests the very forces of darkness behind the amusement park are mocking Jerry’s “Angel” as a catty witch.</span></div><div><span style="font-family: times; font-size: medium;"><br /></span><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: medium;">When she storms off in indignation, he doesn’t follow her like a puppy—even at his best moments, “he wouldn’t be Jerry if he did.” Instead, he hands over his car keys to Harold, like a man intoxicated, and asks him to see her safely home. He then proceeds to pursue this embodiment of sexual mystery to his doom. The film is exactly 30 minutes into its running time as he buys his ticket to disaster.</span><span style="font-family: Cambria;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: medium;">Inside the tent (I say it's a tent but the production couldn't afford to actually erect such a thing), a crowd of ticket holders is treated to much more than the usual hootchie-cootchie show. We’re immediately treated to a full-on production number headlined by dancer Patrice Michaels. The film carries no wardrobe credit, so we can only assume that the dancers’ outfits in each number were found at Western Costume or some comparable outlet; however, the imaginative sets were designed by Mike Harrington and the dance numbers choreographed by Bill Turner (Carolyn Brandt’s dancing partner “Bill Ward”) and Allan Smith—and then filmed all in one day, with three cameras rolling simultaneously, after a single rehearsal of each. </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: medium;"></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: medium;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjmeK_ytvs7c-HoHjuWizTd3QHgbpqklME-A1M0KN8VnmkHajhUahV_4e98HeYjvmIdWr7uDdjytY715Aa_R8k9_9ccNkiPirgLOJDPAdDGE8AT9smWaQiwwsAmtAlqxU3JVuvopoo3idNE7ARf4-I-wAVS1q_JSrKAIiQ0DlAtb4CgTTIffg/s1021/Screen%20Shot%202022-09-28%20at%201.49.20%20PM.png" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="582" data-original-width="1021" height="364" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjmeK_ytvs7c-HoHjuWizTd3QHgbpqklME-A1M0KN8VnmkHajhUahV_4e98HeYjvmIdWr7uDdjytY715Aa_R8k9_9ccNkiPirgLOJDPAdDGE8AT9smWaQiwwsAmtAlqxU3JVuvopoo3idNE7ARf4-I-wAVS1q_JSrKAIiQ0DlAtb4CgTTIffg/w640-h364/Screen%20Shot%202022-09-28%20at%201.49.20%20PM.png" width="640" /></a></span></div><span style="font-family: times; font-size: medium;"><br />The dances were the first material to be filmed and actually feature lead actress Sharon Walsh with different hair. When that initial day of filming ended early, leaving Steckler time to shoot some other scenes, he ended up firing his original leading lady when she chose to keep a date with her drummer boyfriend rather than shoot scenes for her first starring role in a movie. Steckler immediately pulled Walsh out of the chorus line and gave her an offer she didn’t refuse—and she’s fantastic; one of the best actors in the picture actually.</span><p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: medium;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjv1b0-4QjULHhZ8f6-uyCEN-jIN-neg0SlMsSi-8X-JBaySEbMKuth82p1flStda2Ca8KY9gGvbAyCX3BpokxjQPerXhCimZgzvNzVcnFF0fewDK5_PMpn2vFSODoSHivQb2k1mTQj_rL2pUz2rWbpYrDRnVHqfw45MxdBJfBohhbTkp5ebw/s1017/Screen%20Shot%202022-09-28%20at%202.06.44%20PM.png" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="584" data-original-width="1017" height="368" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjv1b0-4QjULHhZ8f6-uyCEN-jIN-neg0SlMsSi-8X-JBaySEbMKuth82p1flStda2Ca8KY9gGvbAyCX3BpokxjQPerXhCimZgzvNzVcnFF0fewDK5_PMpn2vFSODoSHivQb2k1mTQj_rL2pUz2rWbpYrDRnVHqfw45MxdBJfBohhbTkp5ebw/w640-h368/Screen%20Shot%202022-09-28%20at%202.06.44%20PM.png" width="640" /></a></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;"><br /></p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh0klbCySgqJyyWnnynZZiuuxHcsHJcxZpeuDa_3Cvs-Kx3AG-qsH2rXlikNpBrOPvo9calzJAfZuROrIMY9Od7zCQIw8_QOiQNiJWljwv699vVcR95jQ62LLWkOiCdAp5KZvXQKbs-CKRPpS6QeA1VpO0uWpOFp4QLO_HVrwOFGGDzrXHPyw/s1019/Screen%20Shot%202022-09-28%20at%202.13.16%20PM.png" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="582" data-original-width="1019" height="366" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh0klbCySgqJyyWnnynZZiuuxHcsHJcxZpeuDa_3Cvs-Kx3AG-qsH2rXlikNpBrOPvo9calzJAfZuROrIMY9Od7zCQIw8_QOiQNiJWljwv699vVcR95jQ62LLWkOiCdAp5KZvXQKbs-CKRPpS6QeA1VpO0uWpOFp4QLO_HVrwOFGGDzrXHPyw/w640-h366/Screen%20Shot%202022-09-28%20at%202.13.16%20PM.png" width="640" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><b><span style="font-size: medium;">That's Sharon Walsh at the left. </span></b></td></tr></tbody></table><span style="font-family: times; font-size: medium;"><br />Patrice Michaels, wearing a Vegas showgirl outfit augmented with black plumage, is introduced dead center in an array of six black doors spaced by Corinthian columns, her back turned to camera. After sashaying to-and-fro camera, she proceeds to open each door, admitting the other dancers one by one. (Sharon Walsh is behind Door #2.) Each of them is chewing gum, a spontaneous idea of Steckler’s to help them dance in shared time with absolutely no music playback on set. All of the film’s music was provided by Roy Youngman of Rel Records, which also brought to the film a ready fund of such musical talent as Carol Kay, Teri Randal and Don Snyder. Though the dance number has been ridiculed by some historians, it’s an audacious thing in its own right and something of a technical tour de force within its own severe limits. Granted, it’s as out-of-left-field as it can be, considering the film’s genre and subject matter, but it’s also clearly the work of a man who sees this film as his calling card to the industry at large, and he’s packing as much of what he can do into the picture as will fit. If it compares poorly to the level of craft that goes into an MGM musical, granted, but with very little money, second-hand costumes, and single rehearsals, it’s remarkable how much Steckler accomplishes.</span><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;"></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhciyhDSREu1PVyfMYQZaMjhx_YgSD4PKz92hFMgvqIxbQ9A_Ab-StKF5sn9r0vSz-ipxcVBCN-64Fj5FJftfFZMuVeCgUb7T2HC21cTdpM8JGlp5Glaxi1pur9UGdfdQKEAawUTEYA9NfMxEVGgwAc_lG6Em8BkA7kbVSTt8gqfiQhkBDzOw/s1022/Screen%20Shot%202022-09-28%20at%202.25.14%20PM.png" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="584" data-original-width="1022" height="366" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhciyhDSREu1PVyfMYQZaMjhx_YgSD4PKz92hFMgvqIxbQ9A_Ab-StKF5sn9r0vSz-ipxcVBCN-64Fj5FJftfFZMuVeCgUb7T2HC21cTdpM8JGlp5Glaxi1pur9UGdfdQKEAawUTEYA9NfMxEVGgwAc_lG6Em8BkA7kbVSTt8gqfiQhkBDzOw/w640-h366/Screen%20Shot%202022-09-28%20at%202.25.14%20PM.png" width="640" /></a></div></div><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: medium;">After the dance number, we get a sweetly played little set-up for a later scene as the rakish carny barker (Neil Stillman) approaches one of the dancers, Stella (Tony Camel), for a date backstage. The scene then dissolves to another musical number, this one “Not You,” a country-flavored torch ballad nicely sung by attractive Carol Kay. If one listens attentively to the lyric, Kay might well be expressing emotions that Angie's character is anticipating at this time ("It only hurts / when I kiss someone new / Someone that's... not you"). </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Cambria; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;"><o:p> </o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: medium;">Released February 10, 1964, THE INCREDIBLY STRANGE CREATURES... was correctly billed as "The First Monster Musical!"—unless you count Universal's 1943 and 1962 versions of THE PHANTOM OF THE OPERA. The earlier version was especially qualified, offering far more music for stars Nelson Eddy and Susannah Foster than opportunities for menace by Claude Rains. On June 1, 1964, Del Tenney's THE HORROR OF PARTY BEACH would make a similar boast, calling itself "The First Horror Monster Musical!" The movie does beggar the question of why it opted for such a schizophrenic profile, but the reasons behind Steckler's choice are not so difficult to imagine. First of all, the young audience of this era was equally attracted to monsters and pop music (witness the success of Top 40 songs like "The Monster Mash" and "The Martian Hop," from 1962 and 1963 respectively), and Steckler was ahead of his time in playing both cards. Tenney's film would be the first to follow, and AIP's own BEACH PARTY musical series would eventually go the same route with PAJAMA PARTY (1964, featuring Tommy Kirk as a visiting Martian) and THE GHOST IN THE INVISIBLE BIKINI (1965). Secondly, we shouldn't overlook the fact that Steckler had been cohabiting with Carolyn Brandt for several years at this point, and her interests in music and dancing were a likely influence on the material—and not just to give her something to do. Finally, it also seems that, as a storyteller, Steckler had difficulties sustaining feature-length stories in his films generally. (His 1965 film THE THRILL KILLERS was originally about the three insane prison escapees only, with his top-billed "Mad Dog Click" character added at the last minute to fill the story out.) By adding the songs and dance numbers, INCREDIBLY STRANGE CREATURES... is not noticeably padded and the songs are well-selected in terms of supporting the dramatic material thematically. They offer a virtual libretto for the story.</span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: medium;"></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: medium;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiQntqGf-uaAj9qDnmc-YLuyfp0d97oZf3wEwUDO7IDeOSCF_oECrUoFvrzCs0Fd3Oh8sgd7Dp7ddIg3JOpunOVq2bzAPe2F-IDHo3IZ1Ioz730dETBdR9jT0ZoTKRuWMiR2900tDRFm9a8lzhZgR6O-CK9YSZRPiUYQG6j875WPE8JL7hQQA/s1023/Screen%20Shot%202022-09-28%20at%202.28.28%20PM.png" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="538" data-original-width="1023" height="336" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiQntqGf-uaAj9qDnmc-YLuyfp0d97oZf3wEwUDO7IDeOSCF_oECrUoFvrzCs0Fd3Oh8sgd7Dp7ddIg3JOpunOVq2bzAPe2F-IDHo3IZ1Ioz730dETBdR9jT0ZoTKRuWMiR2900tDRFm9a8lzhZgR6O-CK9YSZRPiUYQG6j875WPE8JL7hQQA/w640-h336/Screen%20Shot%202022-09-28%20at%202.28.28%20PM.png" width="640" /></a></span></div><span style="font-family: times; font-size: medium;"><br />Then Carmelita takes the stage to perform her number. By all rights, this performance should be the show topper, but it falls short of this. Erina Enyo shows no particular talent as a dancer or stripper. The song used to accompany her performance is Dale Jimmerson’s jaunty “The Pied Piper of Love,” which suits the situation thematically (“Follow me, follow me,” Jimmerson sings) but is anything but ominous, or even persuasive. During the performance, Madam Estrella’s grotesque familiar Ortega taps Jerry on the shoulder and hands him a handwritten note from Carmelita, inviting him to meet her in her dressing room after the show. Jerry can’t wait and ends up poking his nose into the wrong dressing room, upsetting the other girls between their costume changes. “The show’s out there, not in here,” one of them chides him.</span></div><div><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;"> </span><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: medium;">But Jerry soon finds the object of his mystification in a nearly pitch-black room that appears to be Madam Estrella’s parlor. There Carmelita leads him behind a curtain (we'd call it a Lynchian curtain today) that, once parted, ensnares him in the vertiginous clutches of a spinning Hypno-swirl wheel. The scene then dissolves to a broader room of the darkness surrounding the inviting vortex, inhabited by Madam Estrella, Ortega, and Carmelita.</span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: medium;"></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: medium;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgpOzV-nU_dRl9vHDFgXJiy3eDm1A-3OtTPifCGuyYv-yUzdhJGzVwXfwbkJWlJGasuBeBqyztEh-TqxtP7jRy6HLlBgfHMOTOx-B8_yM90TL9WjHw3gtNiT4O_2JPZ3Je0imHT1hrlnoPhbXr17DdQBZRjoSY7qh_MtuvZGvD4dVFKv_kObA/s1021/Screen%20Shot%202022-09-28%20at%202.46.01%20PM.png" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="576" data-original-width="1021" height="362" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgpOzV-nU_dRl9vHDFgXJiy3eDm1A-3OtTPifCGuyYv-yUzdhJGzVwXfwbkJWlJGasuBeBqyztEh-TqxtP7jRy6HLlBgfHMOTOx-B8_yM90TL9WjHw3gtNiT4O_2JPZ3Je0imHT1hrlnoPhbXr17DdQBZRjoSY7qh_MtuvZGvD4dVFKv_kObA/w640-h362/Screen%20Shot%202022-09-28%20at%202.46.01%20PM.png" width="640" /></a></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: medium;"><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjshkI1Mtw5wOOtKWFi3MDFm-IniiWrf35bk5senEq1uU51w_45tX9_bVhWLrGMTBcAtCwAabKM0vAPzTH_-csIQixb55nhAuJdGXTRfCpOVBqDsFdGg_azvgx7TPuJsGtPj-oIZOyeapEetFV2VG-KDFlC274Za6cPOTbWY6bzmG7xav5dPg/s1021/Screen%20Shot%202022-09-28%20at%202.47.50%20PM.png" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="577" data-original-width="1021" height="362" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjshkI1Mtw5wOOtKWFi3MDFm-IniiWrf35bk5senEq1uU51w_45tX9_bVhWLrGMTBcAtCwAabKM0vAPzTH_-csIQixb55nhAuJdGXTRfCpOVBqDsFdGg_azvgx7TPuJsGtPj-oIZOyeapEetFV2VG-KDFlC274Za6cPOTbWY6bzmG7xav5dPg/w640-h362/Screen%20Shot%202022-09-28%20at%202.47.50%20PM.png" width="640" /></a></div><br /></span></div><span style="font-family: times; font-size: medium;">As Estrella invades his thoughts with directions of how to think and feel, the camera very subtly tips to one side. “See only that which I choose to show you,” she bodes, and the shadows enveloping Jerry’s head narrow to a belt of light crossing his face from eye to eye. As her words take root in his consciousness, compelling him to go “deep into the spinning hole,” the shots of Jerry’s eyes begin to zoom in and out, suggesting a literal brain fuck, accompanied by a sound effect similar to a shy man’s gulp. Mock Brett O’Hara’s faux gypsy phrasings if you will; she sells this scene like gangbusters; the scene evokes macabre memories of John Farrow’s film of Cornell Woolrich’s novel NIGHT HAS A THOUSAND EYES (1948), which—like this film—whose female protagonist shares with Jerry a fearful, paranoid attitude toward the stars. <o:p></o:p></span><p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="font-family: times;">But what is the purpose of Madam Estrella’s taking control of Jerry? Steckler answers this question without breaking his own spell as the scene cuts to Marge returning to her Hungry Mouth dressing room. Steckler subtly tells us that we are still occupying Jerry’s unhinged perspective because the camera documenting her movements itself performs a full circle, spinning weightlessly around her image in a Hypno-twirl of its own, as she slumps into her chair. Bravely, Steckler leaves the exposition of events to his technique, his </span><i style="font-family: times;">mise-en-scène, </i><span style="font-family: times;">rather than to his dialogue or some other blunt basis.</span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;"><o:p><span style="font-family: times; font-size: medium;"> </span></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: medium;"></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: medium;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi0PEyZOcz_HI8bQ_aDG40ndHzOnaaXnk_ZBEF2Rfbjrmziez4n6hjSqZS_L-85jP7zMbCksFAM8dxZW1pNexi7jR95-8nxMl5yEpEt_yWoPEoJCk-QWQVlUx9wYyOcjUEN38Ew-Rj_IO3S2iToY4XxrPQPRs1w9yC1yrHXJPVbw3m1BiHR8A/s982/Screen%20Shot%202022-09-28%20at%203.31.17%20PM.png" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="579" data-original-width="982" height="378" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi0PEyZOcz_HI8bQ_aDG40ndHzOnaaXnk_ZBEF2Rfbjrmziez4n6hjSqZS_L-85jP7zMbCksFAM8dxZW1pNexi7jR95-8nxMl5yEpEt_yWoPEoJCk-QWQVlUx9wYyOcjUEN38Ew-Rj_IO3S2iToY4XxrPQPRs1w9yC1yrHXJPVbw3m1BiHR8A/w640-h378/Screen%20Shot%202022-09-28%20at%203.31.17%20PM.png" width="640" /></a></span></div><span style="font-family: times; font-size: medium;"><br />Meanwhile, outside this dressing room, James Bowie’s stand-up comedy routine grinds miserably on, as in a circle of Hell in a David Lynch movie. It doesn’t matter than his jokes aren’t funny; everything he says relates to his unhappy marriage, which makes his routines pointedly pertinent to Jerry’s breaking of faith with his “Angel,” whose earlier palm reading predicted that such an entrapment awaited him. Bowie then introduces the next musical performer, Don Snyder, who offers an acoustic rendition of his song “How Do I Stand with Your Heart”—which again seems to offer a subtle yet emphatic parallel to Jerry’s dilemma: “I’m walking blind through this wonderland / just because I love you so.”</span></div><div><span style="font-family: times; font-size: medium;"><br /></span><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: medium;">If we take the song as a guide to Jerry’s own sublimated feelings, starting with the morose tenor of the piece, he’s gone his own way not only because “what he says, goes” but because he’s frightened of the depth of his feelings for Angela, which could mean the end of his life of “fun.” He’s also likely intimidated by the prospect of becoming family to Angela’s disapproving, conservative mother, a possibility driven still more deeply home by the fact that, off to Snyder’s right as he performs his confessional song, in none other than Joan Howard (who plays Angela’s mother) in a dual role.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;"><o:p><span style="font-family: times; font-size: medium;"> </span></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: medium;"></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: medium;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg7ZCcAeedFA4AMBK01IcR3Uhp3eY822Ql5Z6MXyHvgJY45NGuogwQEXzaOt1hYk0cpOBewKJLfCcUJRV2kaoVrz6PY6NGBLo1L6k-aPizuJLvHUFunQSk1mMS6MGanqapJnX55Nbn8Z0QaU8uvPsnou9UOOA8RySFuJ1isrAql_pPjV222zg/s1016/Screen%20Shot%202022-09-28%20at%203.53.24%20PM.png" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="588" data-original-width="1016" height="370" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg7ZCcAeedFA4AMBK01IcR3Uhp3eY822Ql5Z6MXyHvgJY45NGuogwQEXzaOt1hYk0cpOBewKJLfCcUJRV2kaoVrz6PY6NGBLo1L6k-aPizuJLvHUFunQSk1mMS6MGanqapJnX55Nbn8Z0QaU8uvPsnou9UOOA8RySFuJ1isrAql_pPjV222zg/w640-h370/Screen%20Shot%202022-09-28%20at%203.53.24%20PM.png" width="640" /></a></span></div><span style="font-family: times; font-size: medium;"><br />During Snyder’s performance, there is a cutaway behind the curtain as Bill asks dancing partner Marge if her fight with the manager is still getting her down. “It’s not that,” she admits, “it’s something that happened on the midway tonight… I’ll tell you after the show.” She never gets the chance. During their performance, Jerry emerges from behind the curtain, the hood of his sweater pulled up, blank-faced, and stabs Marge and Bill to death.</span></div><div><span style="font-family: times; font-size: medium;"><br /></span><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: medium;">Of course, Madam Estrella is puppeteering Jerry to settle her own petty scores and also to make her own prophecies come true, but there is also a certain Freudian interest attached to the fact that Steckler has Jerry programmed to kill the character played by Carolyn Brandt, his real-life wife, rather than Angela or even her adversarial mother. Steckler’s own audio commentary and other witnesses interviewed in the Severin box set, such as Carolyn Brandt and Gary Kent, admit that the Steckler-Brandt marriage was rocky from the start; despite their mutual devotion (they were together eighteen years, married for ten), they had children immediately and were oppressed not only by financial difficulties but by Steckler’s wrestlings with his dreams and his demons, particularly his frequent affairs with other women. These very personal problems seem to lie at the heart of this film, where everything goes wrong at the moment Jerry's spirit of fun and adventure insists on his right to stray from Angela. In this regard, his stabbing of Marge is a symbolic injury dealt to his wife, and the film becomes his confession and his penitence.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: medium;">We don’t see Jerry flee the scene of his crime. We don’t see whether he remembers doing the dirty deed or not. Instead, the film cuts to him sleeping restlessly in bed, so restlessly that his tossing and turning wakes Harold, whose pillow appears to be at the foot of the same bed. They’re sharing the room like two little boys, and the scene suggests that Jerry has subconsciously taken refuge in his own past innocence. Steckler shot this scene in his young daughter’s bedroom and a further note of the ridiculous is struck by the head of a Flintstones “Dino the Dinosaur” toy poking its purple head out of the shadows. As he sweats and squirms on his mattress, we dissolve into his dream...<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;"><o:p><span style="font-family: times; font-size: medium;"> </span></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: medium;">As I watched this presentation for the first time, Jerry’s dream sequence is where I first felt myself in the undeniable grip of a master. Remember as you're watching: this is 1963; this is a guy who can’t even afford to shoot in 35mm; and no one on the screen has acted onscreen before. (Steckler himself is just directing here, replaced as Jerry by the male dancer Bill Turner, because Ray had to admit he was too physically clumsy himself to pull it off.) As the spinning spiral bores inside the dreamer’s head, we’re treated to an initially Felliniesque array of the film’s many women, with Marge lounging at the front of them all, her face painted a murderous shade of red. Other women’s faces are painted white, blue, even black and they mock and plague Jerry; a few of them don’t even play a specific role in this film. Angie appears, beckoning to Jerry and then commanding him, like a dog, to “come over here”—as if his nightmare is that she’s become the dominant partner in their relationship, not that he’s lost her.</span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: medium;"></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: medium;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj_prsRr0TjD9lpyoYlnBITwM7Ol-HUy7MKk4DTL6oZuINvRhQZYuakyRioBXtqgb1az1NZYMqtPCa-S2FsBXXGVBhb9VNroiDfcuPCS4lZar-91-fDrVoYd1VNls7KSeFwkI_0HtzSPHapV6njO5AqzQrH2VlC_-1Fb0q58UHx6zXbIn9XKw/s1017/Screen%20Shot%202022-09-28%20at%205.16.45%20PM.png" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="584" data-original-width="1017" height="368" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj_prsRr0TjD9lpyoYlnBITwM7Ol-HUy7MKk4DTL6oZuINvRhQZYuakyRioBXtqgb1az1NZYMqtPCa-S2FsBXXGVBhb9VNroiDfcuPCS4lZar-91-fDrVoYd1VNls7KSeFwkI_0HtzSPHapV6njO5AqzQrH2VlC_-1Fb0q58UHx6zXbIn9XKw/w640-h368/Screen%20Shot%202022-09-28%20at%205.16.45%20PM.png" width="640" /></a></span></div><span style="font-family: times; font-size: medium;"><br />The women stand together in military formation with arms outstretched, alternately locking Jerry in and setting him free like pivoting amusement park turnstiles as they twist this way and that. He sprints and darts among them like a gazelle, his own face painted in a diagram of red, black, blue and white. They finally trap him in the center and raise him up like a crucified Christ hoist on a petard of female flesh.</span></div><div><span style="font-family: times; font-size: medium;"><br /></span><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: medium;"></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: medium;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjPkMy9YY0dlUhYzBCd6IGqhBghjx6GSi8zIcwb7xnptp_IJ5p6iqNL7zssDN2Ot04Sm7NA2TufD01Kq-gkfsB2S67BHTE37uGktSSKqtweXzug5UxebV2a6eD6QKs5VWfkC2zaYchoHM6AtV6PqYnveWjWX6hSwT22dHoAjXv0M45q9GwZag/s1015/Screen%20Shot%202022-09-28%20at%205.20.27%20PM.png" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="583" data-original-width="1015" height="368" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjPkMy9YY0dlUhYzBCd6IGqhBghjx6GSi8zIcwb7xnptp_IJ5p6iqNL7zssDN2Ot04Sm7NA2TufD01Kq-gkfsB2S67BHTE37uGktSSKqtweXzug5UxebV2a6eD6QKs5VWfkC2zaYchoHM6AtV6PqYnveWjWX6hSwT22dHoAjXv0M45q9GwZag/w640-h368/Screen%20Shot%202022-09-28%20at%205.20.27%20PM.png" width="640" /></a></span></div><span style="font-family: times; font-size: medium;"><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgD2mXh-a8MVb_SdfIavPbOB2T--TdpjSjYXYXP1Ebm9KczZoMzmdTV0u2gorjqS0lo-WVEZivSrLRHgLkLRO4y8ow7JUiYRVC3MfpwzH3P91yKg61UVI9ioq4xfpXUaYnll1ixjCnwNG0ynbjVhmkm56CAdi7HDACZkLNAcPhmUD_zrmUTXA/s1022/Screen%20Shot%202022-09-28%20at%205.39.13%20PM.png" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="579" data-original-width="1022" height="362" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgD2mXh-a8MVb_SdfIavPbOB2T--TdpjSjYXYXP1Ebm9KczZoMzmdTV0u2gorjqS0lo-WVEZivSrLRHgLkLRO4y8ow7JUiYRVC3MfpwzH3P91yKg61UVI9ioq4xfpXUaYnll1ixjCnwNG0ynbjVhmkm56CAdi7HDACZkLNAcPhmUD_zrmUTXA/w640-h362/Screen%20Shot%202022-09-28%20at%205.39.13%20PM.png" width="640" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg71HAv418ASz8zZiCiu4tFSsg0g2Cc8anRBlsk4T24vSlHFLbhOpDQwpGpUU440K8vfCqKtmM2ytGqKBRZ-KYJzrDyUAIV7fWbvViwflPlDDpDZupAxIcqOKlNIn0nCN86R71IJGVlFcWUSzz14W6YEJ_7forNP6hmkN-3K6jV-1CUr6mHUA/s1017/Screen%20Shot%202022-09-28%20at%205.40.36%20PM.png" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="580" data-original-width="1017" height="364" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg71HAv418ASz8zZiCiu4tFSsg0g2Cc8anRBlsk4T24vSlHFLbhOpDQwpGpUU440K8vfCqKtmM2ytGqKBRZ-KYJzrDyUAIV7fWbvViwflPlDDpDZupAxIcqOKlNIn0nCN86R71IJGVlFcWUSzz14W6YEJ_7forNP6hmkN-3K6jV-1CUr6mHUA/w640-h364/Screen%20Shot%202022-09-28%20at%205.40.36%20PM.png" width="640" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgqbRSn8KfqmBWE77XeWOranf6QVAdtHRVyOX4vHjGoMS8Gg9nEOG4qMcqV13hDIC_eZu1DWyHwozGGI3A4JxrduISdSjAfrM5FNSSpB6xj-d4Yl8_CFntMRYbQQY1bwYWCqAH0PYPWFpQ8iUlT053qY0xiKAV37g0cwENkGmZ9hjBzlBHu0w/s1014/Screen%20Shot%202022-09-28%20at%205.41.37%20PM.png" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="580" data-original-width="1014" height="366" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgqbRSn8KfqmBWE77XeWOranf6QVAdtHRVyOX4vHjGoMS8Gg9nEOG4qMcqV13hDIC_eZu1DWyHwozGGI3A4JxrduISdSjAfrM5FNSSpB6xj-d4Yl8_CFntMRYbQQY1bwYWCqAH0PYPWFpQ8iUlT053qY0xiKAV37g0cwENkGmZ9hjBzlBHu0w/w640-h366/Screen%20Shot%202022-09-28%20at%205.41.37%20PM.png" width="640" /></a></div><br /></div></div></span><span style="font-family: times; font-size: medium;">Steckler filmed this sequence with A, B and C reels, allowing the imagery to optically overlap with impressions of smoke, studio lighting, impressionistic tauntings, and cutaways from Jerry's subconscious to his conscious memories of being spun about similarly with his two friends aboard the Octopus. When the women finally drop him, the dream Jerry sprints away and, at one point, drops to the floor of the stage—in the exact same spot, in the exact same pose Marge struck on the floor at the moment of her own drunken embarrassment. After brief encounters with a couple of women and foretellings of numbers yet to be performed in the film, Jerry is superimposed with the spirit of the dead Marge imploring him to “help.” Obviously, it’s too late for her, so how—<i>who</i>—can he help?<o:p></o:p></span><p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: medium;">The dream sequence runs roughly three-and-a-half minutes, and it looks and feels radically different to any other dream sequence to emerge from the horror genre at or prior to this time. Certainly there were earlier horror films that braved this form of expression, like John Parker and Bruno ve Sota’s DEMENTIA (1955) and the Pathé Color delirium sequences of Roger Corman’s Poe pictures (1960-65)—but Jerry’s dream is not merely illogical, symbolic or “psychological”; it’s actually psychedelic, with kaleidoscopic layered imagery and layers of interpretation. The only earlier work it even vaguely resembles would be the short films of Kenneth Anger. It’s four years ahead of Corman’s THE TRIP (1967).</span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;"><br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;"><b>To be continued...</b></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-family: times;">Severin Films' Steckler box set is </span><a href="https://severinfilms.com/collections/box-sets/products/incredibly-strange-steckler-box" style="font-family: times;">available here</a><span style="font-family: times;"> on their website at significant savings.</span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-family: times;"><br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-family: times;"><br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-family: times;"><br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;"><b style="background-color: white; color: #1c1e21; font-family: times, "times new roman", serif;">(c) 2022 by Tim Lucas. All rights reserved.</b></p></div>
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Unknownnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-17626962.post-2287285820848142072022-09-30T14:18:00.000-04:002022-09-30T14:18:45.132-04:00The Passion of Ray Dennis Steckler - Part 3<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="font-family: times;"></span></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="font-family: times;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjb6-NU7u3CU8IBlRbCGlaN-wIdin6GUGd_mpIgOkKbvhghNpWZ9JYLxxXzCMzOmxaxErH2H-271DLkKE3IpZ4kBpm4hkQsGq9OTTEbKm02zclT2Br9iHJ0bCBZpKvthbweIeHzWPqT4TmyQPMgd58HLeHI-1CvDexcfuhQehPvZxaZj2o2rA/s2844/Incredibly%20Strange%20Creatures%20poster.jpg" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2844" data-original-width="1858" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjb6-NU7u3CU8IBlRbCGlaN-wIdin6GUGd_mpIgOkKbvhghNpWZ9JYLxxXzCMzOmxaxErH2H-271DLkKE3IpZ4kBpm4hkQsGq9OTTEbKm02zclT2Br9iHJ0bCBZpKvthbweIeHzWPqT4TmyQPMgd58HLeHI-1CvDexcfuhQehPvZxaZj2o2rA/w261-h400/Incredibly%20Strange%20Creatures%20poster.jpg" width="261" /></a></span></span></div><span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="font-family: times;"><b><i>The following text is my own subjective reading of Ray Dennis Steckler's THE INCREDIBLY STRANGE CREATURES WHO STOPPED LIVING AND BECAME MIXED-UP ZOMBIES!!? (1964, 81:33). Please do not read until after you have seen the film and given it some thought on your own. - TL</i></b></span></span><p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="font-family: times;"><br /></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="font-family: times;">The film opens with a black screen and the sounding of thirteen strikes on a tinny gong. If this baleful sound represents a deliberate step into the realm of bad luck, the gong tolls for Jerry—the protagonist of the film—rather than Ray Dennis Steckler, who plays him (under his alias “Cash Flagg”) and understood how fortunate he was to be able to direct and star in his own crazy movie, a dream that countless souls never get to realize. </span><span style="font-family: times;">Jerry has not yet been introduced (and won’t be, until nearly eight minutes into the picture) but we’re already deep inside his head. </span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="font-family: times;">The images kick in with what could pass for an ambitious crane shot, looking down upon the Cyclone Racer, the wooden dual-track roller coaster at the Nu-Pike (originally The Pike) amusement park in Long Beach, California, which was in operation from 1902 to 1979. In 1954, The Nu-Pike was considered the fifth largest amusement park in America, but it wasn’t exactly a wholesome place. As this film’s weird dreamscape suggests, its family-friendly side went apace with a shadowy one that encompassed gambling, peep shows and prostitution. Then, in 1955, along came Disneyland and The Nu-Pike soon lost what little luster had. Notice that the screen is literally bisected diagonally between the park and the Pacific coast, the place where Jerry feels most alive and where he will die within slightly more than 81 minutes. </span><span style="font-family: times;">Billed as “The World’s Greatest Ride,” the Cyclone Racer itself was itself on course to obsolescence; it was discontinued in 1968.</span><span style="font-family: times;"> </span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: medium;"></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: medium;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjblbULhxd1oRWaLhPJqyZE7h8paA9Xcol4S0tbwnOOyx6ZhhwqLW46_XoFG26ihgW8fETZM-EJADdOgssaoZmkHWUzRjg4RsBt4Cl5K1wOmPcEV0R_UUbpFaB7wvzM8yWjB9zR6CRHnkujFuoX0Ntaa-zfDC4HcxnpSa54cQ6ErkkKdWl-pg/s1018/Screen%20Shot%202022-09-27%20at%204.41.08%20PM.png" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="581" data-original-width="1018" height="366" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjblbULhxd1oRWaLhPJqyZE7h8paA9Xcol4S0tbwnOOyx6ZhhwqLW46_XoFG26ihgW8fETZM-EJADdOgssaoZmkHWUzRjg4RsBt4Cl5K1wOmPcEV0R_UUbpFaB7wvzM8yWjB9zR6CRHnkujFuoX0Ntaa-zfDC4HcxnpSa54cQ6ErkkKdWl-pg/w640-h366/Screen%20Shot%202022-09-27%20at%204.41.08%20PM.png" width="640" /></a></span></div><span style="font-family: times; font-size: medium;"><br />A pair of dissolves take us closer to the park and to the midway attraction identified as Madam Estrella, a gypsy fortune teller played by Brett O’Hara. She’s more interested in sitting in the lap of her boozy customer (producer George J. Morgan, in real life a teetotaler) and kissing him than in reading his fortune, but even pissed to the gills he has no interest in her or (as the trailer dubs it) her "wart of horror." He only comes around because he's got his eye out for her prettier sister Carmelita. Estrella is so incensed by this admission that she sics her hideous henchman Ortega (Jack Brady) on him. A misshapen funhouse mirror of a man, Ortega drags the boozehound into the next room and holds him down while Estrella dumps hydrochloric acid (helpfully labelled "Poison") on his face. As we’ll eventually find out, this is how Estrella has managed to hold onto a whole roomful of unwilling suitors.</span><div><span style="font-family: times; font-size: medium;"><br /></span><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: medium;"></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: medium;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhXFhHad5H9hQ6peZSdjrlcXkb9JDn9hESbF28mzusJ3T2gshrDTP87cXevtOtHOQT-_7xkOUtLyizByIH4dvKZ4sFTAJOfNgBByVzXcWXBQZd96HrTn2QnkljbE0gs7FhSKZygIl71wPth2TmDfQ_WJP6-22ymfLixQHlDcwqomOxrzjvFVg/s1026/Screen%20Shot%202022-09-27%20at%204.27.19%20PM.png" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="583" data-original-width="1026" height="364" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhXFhHad5H9hQ6peZSdjrlcXkb9JDn9hESbF28mzusJ3T2gshrDTP87cXevtOtHOQT-_7xkOUtLyizByIH4dvKZ4sFTAJOfNgBByVzXcWXBQZd96HrTn2QnkljbE0gs7FhSKZygIl71wPth2TmDfQ_WJP6-22ymfLixQHlDcwqomOxrzjvFVg/w640-h364/Screen%20Shot%202022-09-27%20at%204.27.19%20PM.png" width="640" /></a></span></div><span style="font-family: times; font-size: medium;"><br />If I read the palm of this scene, I see that Estrella is Spanish for “star,” and indeed her little hovel is decorated with a homely chart of the constellations. It’s interesting that Steckler would cast his producer (who gave him $38,000 to make the film and give him a small role) in opposition to the star, which can be read as a metaphor for himself, since his Cash Flagg persona is top-billed in this opus; though Morgan facilitated the making of this dream opportunity, the star nevertheless disfigures and consigns him to a closet along with several others of his own kind. Steckler is showing us that his path to this moment was paved with disappointments.</span><div><span style="font-family: times; font-size: medium;"><span><br /></span><span>After the main titles we return to the Nu-Pike for another of this real place's imaginary attractions, namely the dancing duet of Marge Nielson and Bill Ward, headliners at its imaginary nightclub, the Hungry Mouth. Marge is played by Carolyn Brandt (Steckler’s wife at the time), a professional dancer under the name Carol Lynn who previously played the unbilled dancer accompanying Arch Hall Jr.’s performance of “Vickie” in WILD GUITAR (1962).</span></span></div><div><span style="font-family: times; font-size: medium;"><span><br /></span></span></div><div><span style="font-family: times; font-size: medium;"><span><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEidvE_Rgob0k3c_xhVXpLSiJMnCaarjPYdRxuA6lwe6n-8sl9JXOH06e44l3oTMinGJInn2loGI9LrRT8AHlEc3teZq7vWjL35vDTpo4ym8jTMfvwRgULIVc29QfKYVDmnRYKLqrgCYQYH3kiwrrhdyli6sc4v1-4kPREMD6k9Z-2QItkZtSQ/s967/Screen%20Shot%202022-09-26%20at%205.19.47%20PM.png" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="573" data-original-width="967" height="380" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEidvE_Rgob0k3c_xhVXpLSiJMnCaarjPYdRxuA6lwe6n-8sl9JXOH06e44l3oTMinGJInn2loGI9LrRT8AHlEc3teZq7vWjL35vDTpo4ym8jTMfvwRgULIVc29QfKYVDmnRYKLqrgCYQYH3kiwrrhdyli6sc4v1-4kPREMD6k9Z-2QItkZtSQ/w640-h380/Screen%20Shot%202022-09-26%20at%205.19.47%20PM.png" width="640" /></a></div><br />As soon as she gets offstage, we cut to her dressing room where we see a filthy teddy bear—there must be some personal story attached to this—and a pressbook for WILD GUITAR prominently affixed to a wall; they share virtually every shot of her. She seeks immediate refuge from some unaddressed heebie-jeebies in a bottle of booze. When she sees a harmless black cat in her dressing room, she literally screams and pleads with her boss (Gene Pollock) to take it away. He advises her to stop drinking; he reminds her that the mistakes in her last night’s performance nearly cost her her job. She promises to try “... just for you,” and he answers “I’d rather you do this just for yourself”—one of those rare lines that seem to hover, pregnant with a meaning whose clarification we will have to wait out. “Maybe so, maybe not,” she muses, taking another sip from her glass.</span></span></div><div><span style="font-family: times; font-size: medium;"><br /></span><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: medium;"></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: medium;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgcy9VRzSIcsJFOo1pLkP3wsZJ6EXjoYYrzughgCiBv_GAduScZ9PfbE6_FFUCIdFln8Z0b0bX6gklBu_PLQcK2_ySjBlv4yVC2poN-tnRYIxyRl7APw-_bI_rLsioOrfsPHcdQIJP3Mz73ajvuUOpNN_1eC3wQDiB_k9e8EX-Vf0pfUCOG1A/s1018/Screen%20Shot%202022-09-27%20at%204.58.48%20PM.png" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="581" data-original-width="1018" height="366" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgcy9VRzSIcsJFOo1pLkP3wsZJ6EXjoYYrzughgCiBv_GAduScZ9PfbE6_FFUCIdFln8Z0b0bX6gklBu_PLQcK2_ySjBlv4yVC2poN-tnRYIxyRl7APw-_bI_rLsioOrfsPHcdQIJP3Mz73ajvuUOpNN_1eC3wQDiB_k9e8EX-Vf0pfUCOG1A/w640-h366/Screen%20Shot%202022-09-27%20at%204.58.48%20PM.png" width="640" /></a></span></div><span style="font-family: times; font-size: medium;"><br />It’s at this intersection of indecision that the film belatedly introduces its best-bud protagonists, roommates Jerry (Flagg/Steckler) and Harold (Atlas King). It’s time to for them to pick up Jerry’s girlfriend Angie, but he’s hesitant as he sits in his favorite chair toying with a little puppet-like figure. Her mother hates him and he knows this. Harold, a Greek immigrant with a tall Pompadour and an amusingly thick accent, suggests that maybe they’d like him more if he got a job.</span></div><div><span style="font-family: times; font-size: medium;"><br /></span><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: medium;">“You gotta do something, y’know?” Harold presses him.</span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: medium;">“Why?” Jerry questions. “The world’s here to be enjoyed, not to make you depressed. That’s what work does, Harold. It makes you feel depressed.”</span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: medium;">He turns the nose of the doll in his hand down so that its sulking attitude matches that of a dour sculpture on the end table beside him. These are bad mojo objects that resonate with the gong, Estrella’s crystal ball, the alcohol and the black cat. The scenes seem to be lining up and locking together, like the constellations charted on Estrella’s wall. </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;"></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiq_EytFkLS8XmFr11IkwvBE7y2mkB8KW3wExMmTnGcl32LZ9LtAPxVqA2ms2sx9jKfhyKCw9cL5HSSLNtnMrUoAgswbLVJdMofnspiWhenK-DpQ1l0UPiWF8W1FOYZpXcK2s8MalEIXSujOl7nxy4QMC7STf16Ity4W0cZoP0D0NdH26zTMw/s1022/Screen%20Shot%202022-09-27%20at%205.02.23%20PM.png" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="584" data-original-width="1022" height="366" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiq_EytFkLS8XmFr11IkwvBE7y2mkB8KW3wExMmTnGcl32LZ9LtAPxVqA2ms2sx9jKfhyKCw9cL5HSSLNtnMrUoAgswbLVJdMofnspiWhenK-DpQ1l0UPiWF8W1FOYZpXcK2s8MalEIXSujOl7nxy4QMC7STf16Ity4W0cZoP0D0NdH26zTMw/w640-h366/Screen%20Shot%202022-09-27%20at%205.02.23%20PM.png" width="640" /></a></div><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: medium;">Jerry and Harold agree to seize the day. They burst out of their sad little apartment (which, according to Steckler's commentary was his and Carolyn's own residence at the time) and drive out to Angie’s more cheerful-looking suburban home.</span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: medium;">As we meet Angie (Sharon Walsh), she’s on the phone, turning down a date to go to the beach with another boy, Phil. When she hangs up, her conservative and overly worried mother (Joan Howard) speaks up for Phil—“such a nice boy”—and denigrates Jerry for having “no education, he’ll never be able to make a living.” Angela counters that Jerry is “fun and exciting” and that her mother is “way ahead” of her or any plans she might have. They're “just having fun, that’s all.”</span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: medium;">Jerry arrives and honks. “He doesn’t even come to the door for you!” her mother exclaims. We cut to an underlining close-up of Angela as she counters, “He wouldn’t be Jerry if he did.” </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: medium;"></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: medium;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjsNCwsMVO7sbp5pIlLIvopEqNYIqVRHqkocDOQyRnxS96MHcQWHX-HJQ6VodcgivJ44jChI09cAoW8B2DEpAZktZ0e4X_ASn6wiJ7DPkaMf3G46eh5SR80yw-DRMs75RknVZOJ8PQKoPooh8p_hJAoSNx2rtv0tfwWoNKRDCNQ51P3thqgAw/s1023/Screen%20Shot%202022-09-27%20at%205.24.53%20PM.png" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="582" data-original-width="1023" height="364" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjsNCwsMVO7sbp5pIlLIvopEqNYIqVRHqkocDOQyRnxS96MHcQWHX-HJQ6VodcgivJ44jChI09cAoW8B2DEpAZktZ0e4X_ASn6wiJ7DPkaMf3G46eh5SR80yw-DRMs75RknVZOJ8PQKoPooh8p_hJAoSNx2rtv0tfwWoNKRDCNQ51P3thqgAw/w640-h364/Screen%20Shot%202022-09-27%20at%205.24.53%20PM.png" width="640" /></a></span></div><span style="font-family: times; font-size: medium;"><br />Legend has it that Sharon Walsh stepped into the role of Angela at the last minute, literally recruited by Steckler from the film's dancing girls when his first choice preferred to keep a date with her drummer boyfriend than star in his film. Walsh nails this scene and every other and the film is inconceivable without her inner strength and moral compass.</span></div><div><span style="font-family: times; font-size: medium;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: times; font-size: medium;">Outside, Jerry is sitting on the hood of his crummy blue station wagon (the same one driven by Steckler's "Mad Dog" Click in THE THRILL KILLERS) as Angie steps out. Amiably, Jerry asks her stoic brother Madison (who’s washing his car) “How’s college?”</span><p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: medium;">“Fine, you should try it sometime,” he answers.</span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: medium;">“No, thanks,” Jerry grins, sliding onto the ground. “The world’s <i>my </i>college.”</span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;"><br /></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: medium;">And then our three protagonists—Jerry, Angie and Walter—head out into the world… but settle on the Nu-Pike, which of course isn’t the world at all. However, it will represent an education for Jerry. As the friends approach the park’s entrance, Steckler allows the entire word ENTRANCE to fill the wide screen so that the dual, more baleful meaning of the word has a chance to sink in. Directly below the word we see two slightly overlapping parked cars, one black and the other white, which seem to propose a kind of crossroads. </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: medium;"></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: medium;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhJWGWv0GVCeke11BNfRZYBecDWYQS1wvIxzGjYcME3SmzFKY962de05IC7kagDPMtWuQOV105gnkIt9SuT-NGvpM1iOvlcAFFx3hhpfTQ5GHqih29GMsjwQVwjXDy64jDI4j-G3sJw0bgp2R-XvAttLtxb7pRwzVGZeUHfYuM0sUqQ7iAhgg/s1017/Screen%20Shot%202022-09-27%20at%205.34.09%20PM.png" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="579" data-original-width="1017" height="364" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhJWGWv0GVCeke11BNfRZYBecDWYQS1wvIxzGjYcME3SmzFKY962de05IC7kagDPMtWuQOV105gnkIt9SuT-NGvpM1iOvlcAFFx3hhpfTQ5GHqih29GMsjwQVwjXDy64jDI4j-G3sJw0bgp2R-XvAttLtxb7pRwzVGZeUHfYuM0sUqQ7iAhgg/w640-h364/Screen%20Shot%202022-09-27%20at%205.34.09%20PM.png" width="640" /></a></span></div><span style="font-family: times; font-size: medium;"><br />These may be nothing more than accidental details, but I would admit that a good deal of the meaning I’m reading into the film is probably accidental. Nevertheless, this material didn’t just happen. It didn't feel right to Steckler until it was framed and cut this way. According to him, he took a completely intuitive approach to directing the picture—arriving on the set each morning and only deciding what he was going to do that day after he'd spent some time on his own, absorbing the feel of the set or location. <o:p></o:p></span><p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: medium;">They bypass the rides to go directly to the beach, where Walter stands apart as Jerry and Angie frolic, actually running and skipping along the water’s edge like a couple of kids. These same three characters will converge here again as the sand in Jerry’s hourglass finally runs out, and once the sea’s eventual meaning is known to us, we can read these images of Jerry and Angie as two people skirting the very edge of death. Steckler said that, as a teenager, he was greatly influenced by James Dean and his last film REBEL WITHOUT A CAUSE, which was released only after his premature death at the age of 24. He made this film at the age of 25 and I suspect that his feelings about Dean’s premature death are somehow tied up in the fabric of this film and its implicit recommendation of using, rather than wasting, one’s time. In so doing, Steckler seems to have accidentally (or intuitively) become one of the earliest American directors—if not the first—to incorporate a “romp” sequence, which would be so important as a filmic expression of the 1960s zeitgeist, and so central to the mythos of The Beatles, The Monkees, and other pop groups yet to emerge. (Appropriately, one of Steckler's sidelines to his feature career would be as a director of music videos.)</span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: medium;"></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: medium;"><br /></span></div><span style="font-family: times; font-size: medium;"><span>The following montage of Nu-Pike amusement rides make clear that the park’s particular brand of amusement is more closely allied to terror than laughter; the rides all seem pledged to skirt the very edge of death—and that edge was occasionally crossed in the Pike's (and later Nu-Pike's) history, in face and fiction. The first ride we see is the Kiddie Land Hi-Ride, also known as the Moon Rocket or Space Capsule at different points in the park's history. In a 1975 episode of EMERGENCY!, paramedics were summoned to the Nu-Pike to rescue a heart attack victim stuck aboard this towering ride by a jammed cable.</span><span><o:p></o:p></span></span><p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: medium;">Vilmos Zsigmond actually took his 16mm camera aboard the Cyclone Racer to joltingly chronicle its death-defying descents. In 1958, 19 year-old George Doig of Torrence, California’s defiance of death was itself defied when he fainted aboard the harrowing ride, his head tipping outside the car at a steep turn and getting crushed when it slammed into a rail. This incident would surely have been part of the ride’s legend at the time of filming, and perhaps a close correlative in Steckler's mind to the autocrash fate of James Dean on September 30, 1955—67 years ago to the day of this very posting. On the Severin disc at 14:18, you’ll notice the star poised at the very peak of the ride’s ascent, which can be read as an indication of the ups and downs of playing the Hollywood game or may also suggest that Jerry and his friends are already in the thrall of Madam Estrella several minutes before meeting her.</span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: medium;"></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: medium;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjP5DJqaxDeSjosDaFQ1Bn8KOpQcIpJEj3iILlBdw8pGGKAVeCVMVClyXSLmYSMNuoYagCn9LYrmJmRWFMrviASWPPYrnVPSahEwjA2ZVTUbKIlsOLjpT-lBpe0i5U3mhsI0obqyrPyanpMuDxxHkWLvLltfRhYcMiqYDpAQsha4FzfLG-5mg/s1021/Screen%20Shot%202022-09-27%20at%206.26.12%20PM.png" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="582" data-original-width="1021" height="364" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjP5DJqaxDeSjosDaFQ1Bn8KOpQcIpJEj3iILlBdw8pGGKAVeCVMVClyXSLmYSMNuoYagCn9LYrmJmRWFMrviASWPPYrnVPSahEwjA2ZVTUbKIlsOLjpT-lBpe0i5U3mhsI0obqyrPyanpMuDxxHkWLvLltfRhYcMiqYDpAQsha4FzfLG-5mg/w640-h364/Screen%20Shot%202022-09-27%20at%206.26.12%20PM.png" width="640" /></a></span></div><span style="font-family: times; font-size: medium;"><br />Another ride on the lot, a double-decker ferris wheel known as the Sky Wheel, claimed its own share of lives in 1949-50. As described in an account posted online at polaris93.livejournal.com, the author’s cousin and her date were aboard the ride, their seat almost at the top of its wheel when “the seat just ahead of theirs <i>broke away from its mount and, invested with a large freight of angular momentum, shot out into the night and plunged down in a long ballistic arc to the concrete, over a hundred feet below.</i> The four young people in that seat died horribly, crushed under their seat and/or splashed across the concrete, blood leaking everywhere… Anne and her date, wondering if they’d be next to fly off into the night and down to their deaths, hung there close to the top of the ferris wheel for some time as the employees and managers of the Pike figured out what to do.” <o:p></o:p></span><p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: medium;">Meanwhile, in her dressing room, Marge continues to drink as the lame house comedian (James Bowie) gives others reason to. Marge’s alcoholism inevitably ruins her performance—which Steckler depicts with dizzy POV shots that break the fourth wall to reveal production lighting—and she dashes offstage in embarrassment. Her boss catches her taking another drink and orders her to take the next show off and come back for the third; if she screws that one up, she’s fired. She puts down her drink and turns to the nearest source of solace available to her: an astrology magazine that inspires her to consult Madam Estrella. </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;"><o:p><span style="font-family: times; font-size: medium;"> </span></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: medium;"></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: medium;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhtUppQ5lrrsRK021URCr30PvjaqTe8bpbuPBZbLc5GZzzAqE6qAi5K4xT1UP4AFeRQmQPrBOqtvV79h23ABDV8geEF-uBBU5RmcUHYDCDUEI_xl-CjaRWXdO6uB1F_ZlKml5DwkNtbolJ7Cv9M102nEbyBEvx_JqxlyOjXeTl0FXRfOHuHwg/s1021/Screen%20Shot%202022-09-27%20at%207.11.07%20PM.png" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="588" data-original-width="1021" height="368" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhtUppQ5lrrsRK021URCr30PvjaqTe8bpbuPBZbLc5GZzzAqE6qAi5K4xT1UP4AFeRQmQPrBOqtvV79h23ABDV8geEF-uBBU5RmcUHYDCDUEI_xl-CjaRWXdO6uB1F_ZlKml5DwkNtbolJ7Cv9M102nEbyBEvx_JqxlyOjXeTl0FXRfOHuHwg/w640-h368/Screen%20Shot%202022-09-27%20at%207.11.07%20PM.png" width="640" /></a></span></div><span style="font-family: times; font-size: medium;"><br />After some additional views aboard the Cyclone Racer as night falls, we see Jerry attracted to the hootchie girl stage as Marge, dressed in a dark hat and coat, urgently cuts across the midway toward Estrella’s tent. Though the following scene's master shot encompasses the entire scene, Marge’s card reading (supposedly a Tarot reading, though Estrella deals out round playing cards) is covered with an impressive variety of high and low angles. When her inquiries are answered with an Ace of Spades (the “death” card), the master shot crosses the line by reversing the seated positions of the two characters, disorienting to the scene’s defined geography but necessary to show Marge running out through the <i>wrong</i> door, which occupies the space previously defined by the camera's placement. Finding herself in Estrella’s private apartment, she finds another door indicating an exit but, as she opens it, a crazed hand thrusts out through cell bars! Terrified, she turns and runs past Estrella, making her escape but dropping her purse in the process. As she bolts out of Estrella’s showfront, she accidentally knocks Harold to the ground, and at last our binary storylines—one embracing life, the other eluding death—finally intersect like crossed stars. <o:p></o:p></span><p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;"><o:p><span style="font-family: times; font-size: medium;"> </span></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: medium;"></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: medium;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgrPx-gUtaQkn2_NYmVuiqMVJjIUZFgHDz1pmaZKjhzlP2hngmTzEFB7nQGpq8Vjhx6aePwvYWuB4sP7REf8KO89DtgF1SiB13WxveLLrh3gjCAGHvV39gQ8wFMSmx6cvBIGYQ1VBjrLkMBwEbemK_5ajGpDQ17MEcRyED850Em4eg79wHFxQ/s1003/Screen%20Shot%202022-09-27%20at%207.18.37%20PM.png" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="590" data-original-width="1003" height="376" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgrPx-gUtaQkn2_NYmVuiqMVJjIUZFgHDz1pmaZKjhzlP2hngmTzEFB7nQGpq8Vjhx6aePwvYWuB4sP7REf8KO89DtgF1SiB13WxveLLrh3gjCAGHvV39gQ8wFMSmx6cvBIGYQ1VBjrLkMBwEbemK_5ajGpDQ17MEcRyED850Em4eg79wHFxQ/w640-h376/Screen%20Shot%202022-09-27%20at%207.18.37%20PM.png" width="640" /></a></span></div><span style="font-family: times; font-size: medium;"><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiXzuDzeDXZnFj5pAN394v4Qvvb0thkqBtCAS3YkXFXE8dzkgjM3LveFqaEVLLjfg4C1Gqj-iEf2vJJZSz4UYpMPVnSR-m-E9dvfur8S6Xk5KlCLkuNdGVdh08lGqIZ0TcPqRcQer-7KxMpAAhYagP2prUzYt276sK34cgGzDpP0_K6H8ffLg/s992/Screen%20Shot%202022-09-27%20at%207.28.09%20PM.png" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="578" data-original-width="992" height="372" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiXzuDzeDXZnFj5pAN394v4Qvvb0thkqBtCAS3YkXFXE8dzkgjM3LveFqaEVLLjfg4C1Gqj-iEf2vJJZSz4UYpMPVnSR-m-E9dvfur8S6Xk5KlCLkuNdGVdh08lGqIZ0TcPqRcQer-7KxMpAAhYagP2prUzYt276sK34cgGzDpP0_K6H8ffLg/w640-h372/Screen%20Shot%202022-09-27%20at%207.28.09%20PM.png" width="640" /></a></div><br />For the price of “feefty cents,” Madam Estrella reads Angela’s palm. Once again, the film's three man camera crew of Joseph V. Mascelli, Vilmos Zsigmond and Laslow Kovacs offer up a spellbinding array of camera angles within the tight space. Estella foresees that Angie will be “lucky in love… I see only one husband for you… I see your mother will not approve of man you choose for a husband.”</span></div><div><span style="font-family: times; font-size: medium;"><br /></span><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: medium;">Jerry pats Angie Baby’s hand smugly.</span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: medium;">Estrella then looks into her crystal ball for insights into her more immediate future. Watching the film for the first time, we may be forgiven for distrusting Estrella’s crystal ball predictions as midway phony baloney—after all, she’s been introduced as a carny hooker not above disfiguring the would-be clients who reject her advances; however, on secondary viewings, we realize her forecast (“someone… yes, it is you… by water… now I see a man… I can no longer see you… now a man moves… yes, you are lying on the ground… by water…”) is genuine prophecy and this deepens our perception of her as someone forced into the peripheral shadows and horrors of life by her gift (or curse), her powers of perception. <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;"><o:p><span style="font-family: times; font-size: medium;"> </span></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: medium;"></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: medium;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgjtuCLa25ODN0BMD0TribgAge1R5sGOxWqnm6JMjwl6MjvvniHpKbKr_3NYTe1TH9ruULgt7S-65ojcfFZDzdIGehhxyCczCCU_lvrM0zfXhOCunO7hAcJuxqwz9OPN_lnw2f0QGNa35cUmP92HwssO46ese-D42N1JW29ICrzH6kfaMm84g/s1012/Screen%20Shot%202022-09-27%20at%207.37.33%20PM.png" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="588" data-original-width="1012" height="372" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgjtuCLa25ODN0BMD0TribgAge1R5sGOxWqnm6JMjwl6MjvvniHpKbKr_3NYTe1TH9ruULgt7S-65ojcfFZDzdIGehhxyCczCCU_lvrM0zfXhOCunO7hAcJuxqwz9OPN_lnw2f0QGNa35cUmP92HwssO46ese-D42N1JW29ICrzH6kfaMm84g/w640-h372/Screen%20Shot%202022-09-27%20at%207.37.33%20PM.png" width="640" /></a></span></div><span style="font-family: times; font-size: medium;"><br />It’s generally accepted that most 80-to-90-minute films should state (or at least allude) to their story's theme before the end of Act 1 (ie., about 20-30 minutes into the picture). As we arrive at the end of this film’s first third, what this seemingly meandering but actually quite focused narrative is telling us is that amusement is evasion. Evade the real world long enough and it will come looking for you, and the bait on its hook will be your own idle curiosity. </span><span style="font-family: Cambria;"><o:p></o:p></span><p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: medium;"><b>To be continued... </b></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: medium;"><b><br /></b></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Cambria; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;"><o:p> </o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Cambria; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;"><o:p></o:p></p></div>
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</div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-17626962.post-9728180256831978012022-09-29T19:15:00.005-04:002022-09-30T12:42:17.881-04:00THE PASSION OF RAY DENNIS STECKLER - Part 2<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-size: medium;"></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; font-family: Cambria; text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhiBx2bXIb3NNmq7cil5wDXfrBtT1WRK1vOp1MHvwSpzlbSn4jcMuAsGlWI_ps27BsZlnpHl6gj03CXYvrrCqIS8hKOPPMPmDDvFwrcatcFs6IZdB7mXCofTjoMP7I0MaS3cK2yRzs09K9VgBGKjTbMuHS658bRi7HO69tPASgioGcPQGuk8g/s1007/Screen%20Shot%202022-09-27%20at%207.33.12%20PM.png" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="583" data-original-width="1007" height="370" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhiBx2bXIb3NNmq7cil5wDXfrBtT1WRK1vOp1MHvwSpzlbSn4jcMuAsGlWI_ps27BsZlnpHl6gj03CXYvrrCqIS8hKOPPMPmDDvFwrcatcFs6IZdB7mXCofTjoMP7I0MaS3cK2yRzs09K9VgBGKjTbMuHS658bRi7HO69tPASgioGcPQGuk8g/w640-h370/Screen%20Shot%202022-09-27%20at%207.33.12%20PM.png" width="640" /></a></span></div><span><br /><span style="font-family: times; font-size: medium;">In all candor, till now I’ve never felt particularly drawn to the cult of Ray Dennis Steckler. I have a vague memory of seeing it in the early days of home video, when it would have been a pasty presentation, either pan&scanned or cropped right down the middle. Nothing about it spoke to me or stuck with me at that time. Part of the fault would have been the crude presentation, but consider too that the outstanding references of that time were books like the <i>Cult Movies</i> books, <i>The Psychotronic Encyclopedia of Film</i>, and the Medved brothers’ <i>Fifty Worst Movies of All Time</i>(which called it the worst film of all time) and <i>Golden Turkey Award</i> books. Even Lester Bangs’ enthusiastic 1973 essay (included in his book <i>Carburetor Dung and Psychotic Reactions</i>) praises it with a put-down: “Like BEYOND THE VALLEY OF THE DOLLS and a very few others, it will remain as an artifact in years to come [to] which scholar and searchers for truth can turn and say ‘<i>This</i> was <i>trash</i>!”” <o:p></o:p></span></span><p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: medium;">It was the fashion of that time, 40+ years ago, to write about such outlying films as objects of folly, as freaks of a nature dictated by the Hollywood norm. Until recently, my outstanding memory of Steckler’s THE INCREDIBLY STRANGE CREATURES WHO STOPPED LIVING AND BECAME MIXED-UP ZOMBIES!!? (1964) was not the film itself but of making a compilation of unbelievably bad musical production numbers for a friend, in which I included three from the Steckler film, which I’m not even sure I ever made it through. The title doesn’t exactly encourage us to take it seriously. </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;"><o:p><span style="font-family: times; font-size: medium;"> </span></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: medium;">But times have changed. Not only has the literature about such films dramatically evolved and broadened over time, but the work of filmmakers such as David Cronenberg, David Lynch, Guy Maddin, Darren Aronofsky, Lars von Trier and Yorgos Lanthimos (to name only a few) have bent the norm of contemporary cinema itself. Our access to an inconceivably wider range of films via discs and streaming has also ripped off our blinders and extended our reach within and without; not only have we become more sophisticated in our selections, we are now reinventing the familiar through senses far more cultured than they were once upon a time. <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;"><o:p><span style="font-family: times; font-size: medium;"> </span></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: medium;">Watching THE INCREDIBLY STRANGE CREATURES WHO STOPPED LIVING AND BECAME MIXED-UP ZOMBIES!!? from Severin Films’ THE INCREDIBLY STRANGE FILMS OF RAY DENNIS STECKLER box set, I felt myself in the grip of a very special experience that, for whatever reason, simply wasn’t available to me before. The booklet notes explain that the movie “was scanned and restored in 4K from its 16mm camera reversal AB rolls. One such reel could not be located and therefore was scanned from the corresponding reel of its 16mm dupe negative.” The restoration by Sebastian Del Castillo, with color correction by Steve Peer, turns up the heat on Steckler’s fever dream, giving even its most down-to-earth scenes the richness of vintage Kodachrome photography. It’s unbelievably beautiful. The framing is correct and we’re no longer looking at a blown-up, blown-out 35mm print source; imperfections are no longer being fired into our retinas twenty-four times per second. For the first time we have unobstructed access to the purity of effort and vision that went into this film, well ahead of its time, and we can now also readily compare it to other, later films whose obvious spiritual alliances change its category and raise its value. </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: medium;"></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: medium;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiyAfZn33bD5PtD0QhIAxoNL3zRUm3c5peFws3357PbudF-cNJi-LDAq7sk24J-OCUQqW2gqf4ZBfPk5Brox4BbmEHBD92i1gmv8qchXeAEvrP2HpRNY4KhfK9CX5KQBEUc_okSqOtUZiQC6THcKRnKTfkQfo53sVLjVFVD0__jXe5hVuU3lg/s1021/Screen%20Shot%202022-09-28%20at%201.23.00%20PM.png" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="581" data-original-width="1021" height="364" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiyAfZn33bD5PtD0QhIAxoNL3zRUm3c5peFws3357PbudF-cNJi-LDAq7sk24J-OCUQqW2gqf4ZBfPk5Brox4BbmEHBD92i1gmv8qchXeAEvrP2HpRNY4KhfK9CX5KQBEUc_okSqOtUZiQC6THcKRnKTfkQfo53sVLjVFVD0__jXe5hVuU3lg/w640-h364/Screen%20Shot%202022-09-28%20at%201.23.00%20PM.png" width="640" /></a></span></div><span style="font-family: times; font-size: medium;"><br />The films of David Lynch in particular—with their Hollywood settings, their nostalgic tone, their interest in the disturbing people who inhabit the margins and shadows of mainstream life, and their fascination with fugue states and otherworldly production numbers—offer an invaluable regulator through which to process this delirious work. <o:p></o:p></span><p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: medium;">I was so captivated by THE INCREDIBLY STRANGE CREATURES… that I couldn’t just review it; it was important for me to chronicle what I saw as I watched it, and watched it again with its delightful director’s commentary. Steckler addresses his most costly ($38,000) and famous film like he’s on a comfortable raft floating down a mnemonic river to eternity, looking back at sets and locations and people that he brought together a lifetime ago in an inexplicable ceremony of art. He wasn’t overthinking it (that’s my job) at the time, and he’s not interested in starting now; he was just seizing the day and making a movie—not to get rich, as so many others do, but just because he loved making movies. He speaks tenderly of almost every face that passes by, the few that stuck with him and the many others who drifted away, and sometimes offers us a background story that makes the whole feel even more miraculous. The film has a screenplay credit, but it was apparently no more than a general outline; he says he came to the set early each day, coming in as early as 4:00 or 5:00 in the morning, just to be there alone and get a feeling about what he was going to do on a given day. He learned later that directors like Antonioni did the same thing. He approached it as a work of intuition, a dredging of his subconscious, of his life and his era, and it was the best he could do under the circumstances. </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;"><o:p><span style="font-family: times; font-size: medium;"> </span></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: medium;">The disc also includes an introduction and a second audio commentary by drive-in movie reviewer Joe Bob Briggs (John Bloom). I haven’t listened to his entire commentary, which was done in character, but I heard enough to know that he takes a fairly knowledgeable approach even though he’s principally there to amuse. A fair amount of the information he shares can also be found in the Steckler commentary, but it's on a different wavelength; some viewers may prefer to approach the film as a hoot. Also included are trailers and radio spots for the film and its 1971 reissue version TEENAGE PSYCHO MEETS BLOODY MARY. </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: medium;">Severin Films' Steckler box set is <a href="https://severinfilms.com/collections/box-sets/products/incredibly-strange-steckler-box">available here</a> on their website at significant savings.</span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: medium;"><b>Next up: THE INCREDIBLY STRANGE CREATURES... How I See It.</b></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: medium;"> <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;"><o:p><span style="font-family: times; font-size: medium;"> </span></o:p></p>
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Unknownnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-17626962.post-56027846930795392632022-09-26T18:49:00.006-04:002022-09-29T19:17:56.858-04:00The Passion of Ray Dennis Steckler - Part 1<p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi4-eiqY8q77_jN2Fn2Q_3Ftj0Om2dvGD1p15Y6N63ZHMwTiquSNwT-tIEsi9JLZexLcIJwBMBdFMwWhomhT6KGDZUOKNMBP2j-YLHkgRfW1QbNGspBuz7BGq1ItJcK5Y8FcMRc72XFAyv0BsezNIK9koN7yY5sncttNpAkPfjpzNZvRwlQ3Q/s1446/RDSBoxSet_1800x1800.jpg" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1446" data-original-width="1391" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi4-eiqY8q77_jN2Fn2Q_3Ftj0Om2dvGD1p15Y6N63ZHMwTiquSNwT-tIEsi9JLZexLcIJwBMBdFMwWhomhT6KGDZUOKNMBP2j-YLHkgRfW1QbNGspBuz7BGq1ItJcK5Y8FcMRc72XFAyv0BsezNIK9koN7yY5sncttNpAkPfjpzNZvRwlQ3Q/w385-h400/RDSBoxSet_1800x1800.jpg" width="385" /></a></div><span style="font-family: times; font-size: medium;">In the last few years, Severin Films has redefined the perimeters of cult-themed Blu-ray box sets with such monolithic releases as Kier-La Janisse's weighty ALL HAUNTS BE OURS Folk Horror compendium, two separate volumes of THE EUROCRYPT OF CHRISTOPHER LEE, the impressively thorough and indispensable THE DUNGEON OF ANDY MILLIGAN, THE COMPLETE LENZI/BAKER GIALLO COLLECTION and - to bring things back full circle - a recent HOUSE OF PSYCHOTIC WOMEN set containing four rare titles covered in Janisse's recently revised mastertome of the same name. These megablocks of infotainment may be pricey, but - packed as they are with commentaries, location tours, interviews and other archival catnip - they can't be accused of under-delivering; each one sucks you in like a carnival barker inviting you behind a curtain that cloaks a black hole. You come out the other end, eventually, an enriched individual.</span><p></p><p><span style="font-family: times; font-size: medium;">Everyone's viewpoint differs, so I won't name names, but you don't necessarily get this level of experience with every box set that comes along - at least I don't. Not every performer or filmmaker lends themselves to such detailed examination, but I find the work Severin is doing to be not only well-packaged and pitched equally to all sides of fandom but tastefully curated, as well. They know what's good (or at least interesting) and they know their audience.</span></p><p><span style="font-family: times; font-size: medium;">Severin's latest mega-set is THE INCREDIBLY STRANGE FILMS OF RAY DENNIS STECKLER, a 10-disc, 20-film set laden with alternate cuts, deleted scenes, interviews, trailers and audio commentaries in its detailed coverage of a 46 year career. The set starts out quite innocently with movies like WILD GUITAR, his trash-classic THE INCREDIBLY STRANGE CREATURES WHO STOPPED LIVING AND BECAME MIXED-UP ZOMBIES, THE LEMON GROVE KIDS, and RAT FINK A BOO BOO (not a typo, at least not mine), then steers through his sex-and-violence phase of the 1970s and '80s (including some graphic examples with titles like NAZI BROTHEL and COUNT AL-CUM), and ends up in a final port including more personal late works such as SUMMER FUN, ONE MORE TIME, and the 257-minute autobiographic epic READING, PA.</span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgAEuKbUGQFiqnSwOaBDV-zLhFTkh3zYqIS6C8g8ruqyMbM6vHpthsRblCqUDTXkdZfbiejeq_WAaHGj0r6KXhf-Jz9Tt1inLjh260baV2FBU6IyNlwUfke_VYImXXUgkGO8MawRQWeFQBNEoFldUQ1sC8tK_DznlDVbIWFE1mJs1gEYXU9zw/s965/Screen%20Shot%202022-09-26%20at%205.04.12%20PM.png" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="581" data-original-width="965" height="386" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgAEuKbUGQFiqnSwOaBDV-zLhFTkh3zYqIS6C8g8ruqyMbM6vHpthsRblCqUDTXkdZfbiejeq_WAaHGj0r6KXhf-Jz9Tt1inLjh260baV2FBU6IyNlwUfke_VYImXXUgkGO8MawRQWeFQBNEoFldUQ1sC8tK_DznlDVbIWFE1mJs1gEYXU9zw/w640-h386/Screen%20Shot%202022-09-26%20at%205.04.12%20PM.png" width="640" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiVGalqJKVOOpTAIYcpkO0UK5cvRWxgdBhEjUMNow3A7h1C_96dgVpD6UxHgBKJ5tOOO306kO5AHJMG6w3CsoGcOKiklogqv9rWDy4m1bBMvxrXmzM00u291To4ACf6sr98zShGmVZY3xbGsDaJSQfoyO_aBRGv3ZBtIWTtnwx3Upf8Gr78kw/s972/Screen%20Shot%202022-09-26%20at%205.04.47%20PM.png" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="581" data-original-width="972" height="382" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiVGalqJKVOOpTAIYcpkO0UK5cvRWxgdBhEjUMNow3A7h1C_96dgVpD6UxHgBKJ5tOOO306kO5AHJMG6w3CsoGcOKiklogqv9rWDy4m1bBMvxrXmzM00u291To4ACf6sr98zShGmVZY3xbGsDaJSQfoyO_aBRGv3ZBtIWTtnwx3Upf8Gr78kw/w640-h382/Screen%20Shot%202022-09-26%20at%205.04.47%20PM.png" width="640" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><img border="0" data-original-height="579" data-original-width="962" height="386" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEin2wZ6pY20Pup0g5aS7jZQyqlM5LrLlllHeow3H2JIInYe_no4vntMlmXXbQT-yEfc6pM4fGdXZ8L133NiJ0sT0WHF4Tg5VeisjDgfEKtQ01s0XizWYTuug0GbnLF26GDxJj3Vea2a9iCRf9iHbH5CX0pDTLe933UMHeSbC0AURvb5gnXkSQ/w640-h386/Screen%20Shot%202022-09-26%20at%205.05.33%20PM.png" width="640" /></div><p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: medium;">Born in January 1938 in Reading, PA, Steckler got his first breaks in 1961-62, working as an assistant cinematographer or full-fledged cinematographer on such films as THE WORLD'S GREATEST SINNER, WILD ONES ON WHEELS and EEGAH!. Steckler also played a supporting role in EEGAH! and impressed Arch Hall Sr. and Jr. with his resourceful know-how on both sides of the camera. Perhaps most importantly, he proved himself especially savvy in his ability to stage and sell a song visually, which allowed Arch Jr. to perform his song "Vickie" without looking too foolish. In fact, it went over so well, it got reprised in the Halls' next Fairway-International production.</span></p><p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiGsKuVvo-SQjK6qeKbzirVmLE_b_cX47CvMIh1gGwga5VN1rztlAbYbFaO46Viu7IELX5I6RKcwLS6Yqfxv0Skl2usag4k3ySUWsTTn4JaX9OKzPtne5K56w_FxN-U1QZusqtiF_bGdV8r82SwocE16k-ZRbPlXoB3JFklxwBAEpzrn8S-qA/s968/Screen%20Shot%202022-09-26%20at%205.11.42%20PM.png" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="579" data-original-width="968" height="382" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiGsKuVvo-SQjK6qeKbzirVmLE_b_cX47CvMIh1gGwga5VN1rztlAbYbFaO46Viu7IELX5I6RKcwLS6Yqfxv0Skl2usag4k3ySUWsTTn4JaX9OKzPtne5K56w_FxN-U1QZusqtiF_bGdV8r82SwocE16k-ZRbPlXoB3JFklxwBAEpzrn8S-qA/w640-h382/Screen%20Shot%202022-09-26%20at%205.11.42%20PM.png" width="640" /></a></div><p></p><p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: medium;">This was WILD GUITAR (1962, 89:24), the earliest film included in this set and Steckler's directorial debut. Telling much the same "Star is Born" story as THE GIRL CAN'T HELP IT (1955) or JAILHOUSE ROCK (1957), this is a redundant but nevertheless inventive poke at the evils of the music industry in which Bud Eagle (Hall Jr.), a starry-eyed kid from the sticks, arrives in Los Angeles carrying just a suitcase and guitar. The opening deluge of local scenery feels genuinely, sweetly star-struck and also somewhat in love with the city's working class (epitomized here by Marie Denn as waitress Marge). Standing on the sidewalk outside Dino's Lodge (then a famous spot thanks to weekly exposure on TV's 77 SUNSET STRIP), Bud can't resist combing his outrageous pompadour <i>à la</i> Edd "Kookie" Byrnes. </span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjfdkUhT4rEJnTxMzcUJtVG3tu67McCCX6XkKmF3FowlTvHq9A1hnIOGuwi1CI5wvFpRxoB_AnBJYRoNQiHVBIleXOL6aiyp-ekLx5NzanlwMgdUWow-wzcGQYoVVixHRluDuKwW6u_7ZyWE_5WdcnTej03OeMDVvm-QfPmaE06ll3rCvny7g/s964/Screen%20Shot%202022-09-26%20at%205.10.25%20PM.png" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="581" data-original-width="964" height="386" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjfdkUhT4rEJnTxMzcUJtVG3tu67McCCX6XkKmF3FowlTvHq9A1hnIOGuwi1CI5wvFpRxoB_AnBJYRoNQiHVBIleXOL6aiyp-ekLx5NzanlwMgdUWow-wzcGQYoVVixHRluDuKwW6u_7ZyWE_5WdcnTej03OeMDVvm-QfPmaE06ll3rCvny7g/w640-h386/Screen%20Shot%202022-09-26%20at%205.10.25%20PM.png" width="640" /></a></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj70s4BfflJjRxMbMzRRy7udYW5TW0SkowOdwG_XuGJsh6yekJRudSrwsgya_FFdP_937dNb-5EsAsnAycv5M-yAIPvLe-t1QBP_nyvNX1pYRgNQ_2JiRFZSopMIJC12fKQoUfU7z0XIqN7yEbR1PsdiItUAaaXsvUVRpO7hT-kqKTxoJNesw/s964/Screen%20Shot%202022-09-26%20at%205.10.50%20PM.png" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="581" data-original-width="964" height="386" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj70s4BfflJjRxMbMzRRy7udYW5TW0SkowOdwG_XuGJsh6yekJRudSrwsgya_FFdP_937dNb-5EsAsnAycv5M-yAIPvLe-t1QBP_nyvNX1pYRgNQ_2JiRFZSopMIJC12fKQoUfU7z0XIqN7yEbR1PsdiItUAaaXsvUVRpO7hT-kqKTxoJNesw/w640-h386/Screen%20Shot%202022-09-26%20at%205.10.50%20PM.png" width="640" /></a></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEili90WJGAK8YE5gaFHVfvDru-Ts-4RIMcHou-uRXlYt3TW3kn1g9f_rLFRDOB3ViCDCHA_i3bvZMpB1Tjx4LlXIzuMzCTEdzBFTg-GG95UI6h2w2xcXbRoKk0spk9LPsASdDYqizgMKgyqfpS8uGOiGm-wNA0emiaBTf_DQyRsR9iejYvHlw/s964/Screen%20Shot%202022-09-26%20at%205.11.08%20PM.png" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="582" data-original-width="964" height="386" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEili90WJGAK8YE5gaFHVfvDru-Ts-4RIMcHou-uRXlYt3TW3kn1g9f_rLFRDOB3ViCDCHA_i3bvZMpB1Tjx4LlXIzuMzCTEdzBFTg-GG95UI6h2w2xcXbRoKk0spk9LPsASdDYqizgMKgyqfpS8uGOiGm-wNA0emiaBTf_DQyRsR9iejYvHlw/w640-h386/Screen%20Shot%202022-09-26%20at%205.11.08%20PM.png" width="640" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: large; text-align: left;"><br /></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: medium; text-align: left;">With no more than 15 cents in his pocket, Bud has a meet-cute with professional dancer Vickie Wills (Nancy Czar) and tags along to her afternoon gig at a TV studio. When another musical guest bails out at the last minute, Bud seizes the opportunity to perform and proves such a hit that he's immediately signed to a Faustian contract with Fairway Records mogul Mike McCauley (Arch Hall Sr, acting as "William Watters" and delivering dialogue he'd written as "Nicholas Merriwether"). Arch Sr.'s willingness to use his own company's name for that of a fictionally criminal racket is akin to American International Pictures' depiction of themselves as a bunch of corporate assholes in 1958's HOW TO MAKE A MONSTER. Steckler (as "Cash Flagg") plays the role of Stake - McCauley's slick, hyper-tanned, gun-toting toady - with Henry Silva-like nonchalance. The budget is so low that the offices of Fairway Records is basically a storage closet at the TV station, decorated with 8x10s of Mitch Miller and a display of 45s on the King, Sun and Challenge record labels.</span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: large; text-align: left;"><br /></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj1VSYrpp7WU8dxUmdpN88X7dxjeYLcYk8itKLq8N_lrv_0IrTg-bFDjYB7Abt-qayOLL1Zy_YkLbfUEWorrAQ-RkrOwh3If6YIZ7_t7-nPp4dXCCY505dsQlAdwl8YMJ3mEaEZSk_gNo3cGdnRjQbQ0WXNZ-Z8jpSDFqyw6U49lNhRxbBtfQ/s964/Screen%20Shot%202022-09-26%20at%206.13.11%20PM.png" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="580" data-original-width="964" height="386" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj1VSYrpp7WU8dxUmdpN88X7dxjeYLcYk8itKLq8N_lrv_0IrTg-bFDjYB7Abt-qayOLL1Zy_YkLbfUEWorrAQ-RkrOwh3If6YIZ7_t7-nPp4dXCCY505dsQlAdwl8YMJ3mEaEZSk_gNo3cGdnRjQbQ0WXNZ-Z8jpSDFqyw6U49lNhRxbBtfQ/w640-h386/Screen%20Shot%202022-09-26%20at%206.13.11%20PM.png" width="640" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh5o9B8YsbflxpQnNaPMJ7RVblH4m7YpmqurQlcGA4bxDUTAdv9sd8RSTVY_O6-Li72v9Eto7353DiHBxJ9SaO6c2J6ige3FjdG7mEmwwa6WgDoU_wPgFrk-Vx1si1wAY9Upk0_cXuGwm5TceOER91C9tg_FIG-CR62Gzqa5Qy4dw2JXZTLYA/s962/Screen%20Shot%202022-09-26%20at%205.03.32%20PM.png" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="580" data-original-width="962" height="386" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh5o9B8YsbflxpQnNaPMJ7RVblH4m7YpmqurQlcGA4bxDUTAdv9sd8RSTVY_O6-Li72v9Eto7353DiHBxJ9SaO6c2J6ige3FjdG7mEmwwa6WgDoU_wPgFrk-Vx1si1wAY9Upk0_cXuGwm5TceOER91C9tg_FIG-CR62Gzqa5Qy4dw2JXZTLYA/w640-h386/Screen%20Shot%202022-09-26%20at%205.03.32%20PM.png" width="640" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: medium;">McCauley ("Call me Mike") presents Bud with a new guitar, a pile of nice suits and a wood-paneled playpen of his own, but he's cut off from all contact with the outside world, made to keep writing new songs and just do as he's told. Before you can blink an eye, Mike's PR machine drives the world Bud Eagle crazy, to the point where all the teenagers are wearing eagle (or hawk or turkey or chicken) feathers in their hair as they twist and watusi. He even hires a pack of cynical teenagers from all over the country to head his fan clubs. One night a drunk shows up at Bud's sanctum - Don Proctor (Robert Crumb - no, not that one), the has-been hit singer who preceded him in this circle of Fairway hell - who tells him what's really going on, leaving Bud to decide which path he wants to take. Surprisingly, in a manner that feels especially true to Steckler's personal laws of dramatics, Bud decides to give the villain a chance to redeem himself and - though the film's <i>dramatis personae</i> includes many a criminal type - we don't doubt for a minute that he eventually will. Along the way, Steckler finds time to introduce a pack of Bowery Boys-like hoods who make a miserable attempt at kidnapping Bud (once again, all is forgiven) and he skillfully delineates a sweet up-and-down romance between Bud and Vickie whose high point is a magical date in an after-hours ice-skating rink. (He may be zany but he's also got an eye for poetic moments.) Nancy Czar is far from my idea of a female lead, but this is a movie that honors and celebrates the modestly talented people who will never know the Big Time. What matters here is that she dances her little heart out and the cinematography heralds her as a goddess. </span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiiIV9UQX651av8Mo7rnjbGer2hiD7ixvXpeC7H9Bax4gHCYUo1_zTFsqTS2e86m1qcavHRDVdm4C4baxPuNXItaQ4MJHyU-OBuSwG4K7c4rAfYQKcxNKkpZaLG0aiS8hSHHeKolyfzwGJEJMJ2wjHOppXdn-cQoopHhNeaLTmGNXyRYGdaiA/s816/Screen%20Shot%202022-09-26%20at%206.18.22%20PM.png" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="525" data-original-width="816" height="412" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiiIV9UQX651av8Mo7rnjbGer2hiD7ixvXpeC7H9Bax4gHCYUo1_zTFsqTS2e86m1qcavHRDVdm4C4baxPuNXItaQ4MJHyU-OBuSwG4K7c4rAfYQKcxNKkpZaLG0aiS8hSHHeKolyfzwGJEJMJ2wjHOppXdn-cQoopHhNeaLTmGNXyRYGdaiA/w640-h412/Screen%20Shot%202022-09-26%20at%206.18.22%20PM.png" width="640" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgDx5T7akUQIp7fQ-pKofMqyCPhI-CYd2QBRrep5ah19F5LwZcfJnyEudVNHi9kZX0vmxa_ptolMVbsA3MFQ3A9_goSoMvEnJjVdvV700zYjjoCGvYNMXGaAb3um8IhdaVEQiWqvFbB9-eCtQwGB3lG2k2j7MzdVSbhnkE9T9VMoZsRGlAyBw/s966/Screen%20Shot%202022-09-26%20at%206.19.05%20PM.png" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="578" data-original-width="966" height="382" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgDx5T7akUQIp7fQ-pKofMqyCPhI-CYd2QBRrep5ah19F5LwZcfJnyEudVNHi9kZX0vmxa_ptolMVbsA3MFQ3A9_goSoMvEnJjVdvV700zYjjoCGvYNMXGaAb3um8IhdaVEQiWqvFbB9-eCtQwGB3lG2k2j7MzdVSbhnkE9T9VMoZsRGlAyBw/w640-h382/Screen%20Shot%202022-09-26%20at%206.19.05%20PM.png" width="640" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgDcGXFG5bEbjwedM2Y9DWDHS2PZ0grvVhKrccku4P9ek3qwT41FHS_sCykNvfh3MppPYmFHIXdFg-NwGnyYFyVlkgYUsuDPb0bD0V-6RI_fcffye-ej8MajoCar6yiRm9EpeQBZBgXameZBgCS1H_pALR8yUkjsiZQ-k4UGvPY5iUEehJ4FQ/s891/Screen%20Shot%202022-09-26%20at%206.19.56%20PM.png" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="583" data-original-width="891" height="418" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgDcGXFG5bEbjwedM2Y9DWDHS2PZ0grvVhKrccku4P9ek3qwT41FHS_sCykNvfh3MppPYmFHIXdFg-NwGnyYFyVlkgYUsuDPb0bD0V-6RI_fcffye-ej8MajoCar6yiRm9EpeQBZBgXameZBgCS1H_pALR8yUkjsiZQ-k4UGvPY5iUEehJ4FQ/w640-h418/Screen%20Shot%202022-09-26%20at%206.19.56%20PM.png" width="640" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEht77Vc7HkktYZQuoGmvlkxI8b4uMidhX6eJ0K5wxKs8gfn2Jn_pP7nxh1C3xUKkNeWZyTqBLJhmztpHJCt84uznYui9otsHnGMRimbcmXbdSTaJAnld3TyJtGjoo3vSaWCjEyM-OALnhk65IMcNO8A4Jq8BXOE83kfuxJcM_3o3gBvgSMR9A/s951/Screen%20Shot%202022-09-26%20at%206.04.58%20PM.png" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="543" data-original-width="951" height="366" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEht77Vc7HkktYZQuoGmvlkxI8b4uMidhX6eJ0K5wxKs8gfn2Jn_pP7nxh1C3xUKkNeWZyTqBLJhmztpHJCt84uznYui9otsHnGMRimbcmXbdSTaJAnld3TyJtGjoo3vSaWCjEyM-OALnhk65IMcNO8A4Jq8BXOE83kfuxJcM_3o3gBvgSMR9A/w640-h366/Screen%20Shot%202022-09-26%20at%206.04.58%20PM.png" width="640" /></a></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhFeiZhutIbD7XGCNi8kc_Bc3QDnfe0-wCNquVytZVwegqfgpElvnbGzvTpYPPWdKlWmRe-9C6ZvMG1xCMb79Yi8s2wLz2o4KWPjyYcrHLRL2HC5LhRt15WZTf9mjKC1NfD1oX6cCIkOATUKJGVe_unZe11hkuJEbUREhQIOszeeVDT2PnrVQ/s941/Screen%20Shot%202022-09-26%20at%206.05.18%20PM.png" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="585" data-original-width="941" height="398" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhFeiZhutIbD7XGCNi8kc_Bc3QDnfe0-wCNquVytZVwegqfgpElvnbGzvTpYPPWdKlWmRe-9C6ZvMG1xCMb79Yi8s2wLz2o4KWPjyYcrHLRL2HC5LhRt15WZTf9mjKC1NfD1oX6cCIkOATUKJGVe_unZe11hkuJEbUREhQIOszeeVDT2PnrVQ/w640-h398/Screen%20Shot%202022-09-26%20at%206.05.18%20PM.png" width="640" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="text-align: left;"> </span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: justify;"><span style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: medium;">Though WILD GUITAR was technically a work-for-hire, it's a tribute to the sheer force of Steckler's personality that the film comes across as a trailer for the faces, characters, musical numbers, meta self-references, and inside jokes that would turn up in his later pictures. It also helps that Steckler was working with cameraman Joseph V. Mascelli (author of THE FIVE C'S OF CINEMATOGRAPHY) and two talented Hungarian emigrés, Vilmos Zsigmond and Laslo Kovacs, who would soon revolutionize the art of cinematography; they functioned as a literal three-man camera crew during the difficult-to-stage musical sequences, three cameras simultaneously filming, which allowed for all sorts of cutaways and sophisticated detailing rarely if ever seen in films of this station. It's no WITCHFINDER GENERAL, but it's not bad for a kid still looking forward to his 25th birthday.</span></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: justify;"><span style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: justify;"><span style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: medium;">Severin's presentation of the film was sourced from Nicholas Winding Refn and is a 4K restoration of its 35mm camera negative. As you can see from these frame grabs, it looks swell.</span></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: justify;"><span style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: justify;"><span style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: medium;">The extras on this one include a 35m interview with Arch Hall Jr., who comes across as surprisingly eloquent and knowledgeable; the Ray Dennis Steckler episode of British TV's THE INCREDIBLY STRANGE FILM SHOW; and a lengthy "interview" with the man himself circa 2004, in which he rambles in a chain of vignettes separated by black-outs. This bonus might have benefited from some tightening up, but this package is not about giving us less. </span></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: justify;"><span style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="font-family: times; text-align: left;">Severin Films' Steckler box set is </span><a href="https://severinfilms.com/collections/box-sets/products/incredibly-strange-steckler-box" style="font-family: times; text-align: left;">available here</a><span style="font-family: times; text-align: left;"> on their website at significant savings.</span></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large; text-align: left;"><br /></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large; text-align: left;"><b><br /></b></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: justify;"><span style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><b>Next up: THE INCREDIBLY STRANGE CREATURES WHO STOPPED LIVING AND BECAME MIXED-UP ZOMBIES!!? (1964).</b></span></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large; text-align: left;"> </span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><br />
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Unknownnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-17626962.post-52841267316153790462022-09-13T17:37:00.000-04:002022-09-13T17:37:10.511-04:00Jean-Luc Godard (1930 - 2022) <p><span style="background-color: white; caret-color: rgb(5, 5, 5); color: #050505;"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: medium;"></span></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: medium;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjeQKKXzOPmOs29vlUP-QtqCC2oM58N_eIQE-JMlOqlM4Cd8hFBGMLqITmv5VUaDkAgV9XQK9-7BBCLscooCUnr0DP1kN1KB5fI6FagxeNOxCitWl7UqquRCNDBti25V2J6Tf33MFgPiL6RqsWf7nLDm3rRVDw_ktIN-Lqo31kKsKSVqDHzmg/s1800/JL%20Godard.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1800" data-original-width="1440" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjeQKKXzOPmOs29vlUP-QtqCC2oM58N_eIQE-JMlOqlM4Cd8hFBGMLqITmv5VUaDkAgV9XQK9-7BBCLscooCUnr0DP1kN1KB5fI6FagxeNOxCitWl7UqquRCNDBti25V2J6Tf33MFgPiL6RqsWf7nLDm3rRVDw_ktIN-Lqo31kKsKSVqDHzmg/w512-h640/JL%20Godard.jpg" width="512" /></a></span></div><span style="font-family: times; font-size: medium;"><br />I am seeing reports all over my news feed that Jean-Luc Godard has quit smoking.</span><p></p><p><span style="background-color: white; caret-color: rgb(5, 5, 5); color: #050505;"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: medium;">No, not really, but I find this subterfuge of mine more acceptable than the abounding rumor that he has died.</span></span></p><p><span style="background-color: white; caret-color: rgb(5, 5, 5); color: #050505;"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: medium;">About this, I can only say perhaps for you, but not for me. I still have films from all his many periods still to discover and rediscover, so we have much unfinished business to conduct.</span></span></p><p><span style="background-color: white; caret-color: rgb(5, 5, 5); color: #050505;"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: medium;">Godard is a true critic of the cinema in that his films really cannot be viewed, only re-viewed so, in terms of our discreet rapport, he will almost certainly outlast me.</span></span></p><p><span style="background-color: white; caret-color: rgb(5, 5, 5); color: #050505;"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: medium;"><br /></span></span></p>
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="background-color: white; color: #1c1e21;"><b>(c) 2022 by Tim Lucas. All rights reserved.</b></span></span><br />
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Unknownnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-17626962.post-32122523321589848742022-08-23T02:05:00.001-04:002022-08-23T02:05:15.659-04:0055 Years Ago Today: THE TRIP Released<p><span style="font-family: helvetica; font-size: medium;"></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: helvetica; font-size: medium;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh_-QeM2thz81UQ2AOQb-l_f_T9aOTV90YNT6VhKmQP78WABqpnVrB9fGlgLqdGQsNIk28NV--EBCgma7CEAOnS9cNte03EHJ0qIQQNmxZYogJmIckch2mQloGEtP8sfb5irQiGl6fcvzbFMVqGpBMBdBIcQqHy7wKoVdYcJHPfO8kyNa5v_A/s1280/Trip%20take%20it.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="682" data-original-width="1280" height="342" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh_-QeM2thz81UQ2AOQb-l_f_T9aOTV90YNT6VhKmQP78WABqpnVrB9fGlgLqdGQsNIk28NV--EBCgma7CEAOnS9cNte03EHJ0qIQQNmxZYogJmIckch2mQloGEtP8sfb5irQiGl6fcvzbFMVqGpBMBdBIcQqHy7wKoVdYcJHPfO8kyNa5v_A/w640-h342/Trip%20take%20it.jpg" width="640" /></a></span></div><span style="font-family: helvetica; font-size: medium;"><br />Yes, it was 55 years ago today that Roger Corman's THE TRIP (1967) was first dropped into movie theaters, just in time for the Summer of Love. To boost our celebration of that fateful day, I'm going to share with you <b><a href="https://fortyfourclovers.com/2022/08/23/the-man-with-kaleidoscope-eyes-the-greatest-film-not-yet-made/?fbclid=IwAR2QJAaYtYX6MgjwZF0Lfr8TZ0zlvREv5wFMZw-6H4cWb0ne2Laa0V4YkwM">this link</a></b> (which I was just sent) which will lead you to a particularly lovely and incisive review of THE MAN WITH KALEIDOSCOPE EYES, written by Patrick Moroney - a self-described "actor, writer and movie buff from Brisbane"! </span><p></p><p><span style="font-family: helvetica; font-size: medium;">Enjoy!</span></p><p><span style="font-family: helvetica; font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p>Unknownnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-17626962.post-4875275755440240132022-08-16T00:00:00.001-04:002022-08-16T00:00:00.154-04:00Beverly Gray on THE MAN WITH KALEIDOSCOPE EYES<p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhdMXNoa-ERf4_rOK1BEwYzC7C7EX8Fay_angYEXTND7eXeXXw7o3bP09hz9r79pLMXh_uSnNBFgTszsltxEsRf4MAV8xv0sngNnTdq0hx6xU-uRsSiDD1epWO8MKGAZMB04EYcSSNKkrCOXJWRICNMnXQfqoOJR0uihAzt2jxr84G5kyH2zw/s500/corman-blood-sucking-flesh-eating-500h.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="500" data-original-width="333" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhdMXNoa-ERf4_rOK1BEwYzC7C7EX8Fay_angYEXTND7eXeXXw7o3bP09hz9r79pLMXh_uSnNBFgTszsltxEsRf4MAV8xv0sngNnTdq0hx6xU-uRsSiDD1epWO8MKGAZMB04EYcSSNKkrCOXJWRICNMnXQfqoOJR0uihAzt2jxr84G5kyH2zw/w266-h400/corman-blood-sucking-flesh-eating-500h.jpg" width="266" /></a></div><br />On her blog BEVERLY IN HOLLYWOOD, Roger Corman biographer Beverly Gray has shared <b><a href="https://beverlygray.blogspot.com/2022/08/roger-corman-man-with-kaleidoscope-eyes.html?fbclid=IwAR240C17Ic_LComdWvw1DyOrdYHqCPFdyUlqWWxnMw7y9BMFDYQBJqJFQPQ">some interesting thoughts</a></b> in my new novel THE MAN WITH KALEIDOSCOPE EYES. <p></p><p>In addition to Electric Dreamhouse's release of the hardcover first edition and ebook, we are also offering signed and personalized hardcovers here through VIDEO WATCHDOG! </p><p>Find out more <b><a href="https://videowatchdog.com/home/HTM/mwke.html">here</a></b>!</p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p>
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="background-color: white; color: #1c1e21;"><b>(c) 2022 by Tim Lucas. All rights reserved.</b></span></span><br />
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Unknownnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-17626962.post-72074780139399450002022-08-15T13:45:00.002-04:002022-08-15T13:48:34.250-04:00Found on YouTube: KILLERS THREE (1968)<p><span style="font-family: times; font-size: medium;"><span style="background-color: white; caret-color: rgb(5, 5, 5); color: #050505; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span></span></p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgFYa_Tcr0jPU8MFu6tT5dF5TkqDb78vbNxk1zvz5oQiarWdqTcutFwjNi3zgd_mTTRaYF0VeK5Y4irahM4AgHJ5D4kDh5t2oeBkaB8rD8sZZ-wMiW7Wl0Og4GWO37jq29-OIW7yt7G7MEZAVsB1w9EDSEwKzsrYtn3YXqgEOtT9ynvec6zqQ/s650/Screen%20Shot%202022-08-15%20at%201.19.39%20PM.png" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="507" data-original-width="650" height="500" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgFYa_Tcr0jPU8MFu6tT5dF5TkqDb78vbNxk1zvz5oQiarWdqTcutFwjNi3zgd_mTTRaYF0VeK5Y4irahM4AgHJ5D4kDh5t2oeBkaB8rD8sZZ-wMiW7Wl0Og4GWO37jq29-OIW7yt7G7MEZAVsB1w9EDSEwKzsrYtn3YXqgEOtT9ynvec6zqQ/w640-h500/Screen%20Shot%202022-08-15%20at%201.19.39%20PM.png" width="640" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><b><span style="font-size: medium;">Maureen Arthur, dick clark, and Robert Walker in KILLERS THREE.</span></b></td></tr></tbody></table><span style="font-family: times; font-size: medium;"><span style="background-color: white; caret-color: rgb(5, 5, 5); color: #050505; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br />KILLERS THREE is an AIP release that got past me in its initial release in late 1968, early 1969; I’ve always wanted to see it. It was a Dick Clark production (make that a dick clark production, in keeping with a trademarked font applied to his name throughout) and he also plays the standout role in the film, which added to its strange allure. I learned earlier this week that it was available free on <b><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vn7Et3exUBU">YouTube</a></b> in watchable quality and made a date with it last Saturday night.</span></span><p></p><p><span style="font-family: times; font-size: medium;"><span style="background-color: white; caret-color: rgb(5, 5, 5); color: #050505; white-space: pre-wrap;">Despite a talented cast that includes Robert Walker, Diane Varsi (between roles in WILD IN THE STREETS and BLOODY MAMA), Norman Alden, John "Bud" Cardos and Merle Haggard in his screen debut, it doesn't amount to much. It’s basically a BONNIE AND </span><span style="caret-color: rgb(5, 5, 5); color: #050505; white-space: pre-wrap;"><a style="color: #385898; cursor: pointer;" tabindex="-1"></a></span><span style="background-color: white; caret-color: rgb(5, 5, 5); color: #050505; white-space: pre-wrap;">CLYDE rip-off about two homecoming soldiers (Walker, clark) who return to their impoverished town in North Carolina to work as moonshine runners and contrive to steal $200,000 and head off (with Walker’s wife Diane Varsi and young son) to California. Things go wrong and people die, causing them to become fugitives with Varsi's brother Haggard (who plays a highway patrolman) in visual pursuit of them as his rollicking three-verse ballad of their misadventure is played and played and played until we memorize it. I assume the film was meant to be a contemporary story but it’s set do deep in the south that it’s hard to tell if it’s the 1960s or twenty, thirty years earlier. Some local acting talent was employed but the resulting performances were evidently so thickly accented or mumbled that these scenes were overdubbed with selections from the Mike Curb soundtrack album, causing the country and rock tracks to merge uncomfortably. The rock tracks at least help to certify the time frame. Mr. clark, who was fine in 1959's BECAUSE THEY'RE YOUNG, again proves himself a capable actor as the deranged member of the trio, but there are moments in which he seems to drop the stitch of his character; he was wearing a lot of hats in this film, so it's understandable. The little boy, Tony, who was apparently cast for his ability to shed tears on cue, had to be dubbed by a voice actress at Titra; he sounds like an anime character. Here's a link to the film's<b><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HKbUmU_dDWM"> trailer</a></b>, should you care to gauge your interest.</span></span></p><p><span style="font-family: times; font-size: medium;"><span style="background-color: white; caret-color: rgb(5, 5, 5); color: #050505; white-space: pre-wrap;">Kevin Thomas of the LA TIMES, in a surprising rave review, noted that the film opened in theaters about 12-14 minutes shorter than the running time originally announced, and indeed it appears to have sacrificed some nudity and blood to give it a bigger audience grab. Were the film to be released to Blu-ray today, this deleted material just might find its way back into the picture, as has happened with numerous other AIP releases of this period. It just might make the difference between a hard-hitting picture and a mamby-pamby one. </span></span></p><p><b style="background-color: white; color: #1c1e21; font-family: times, "times new roman", serif;"><br /></b></p><p><b style="background-color: white; color: #1c1e21; font-family: times, "times new roman", serif;">(c) 2022 by Tim Lucas. All rights reserved.</b></p>
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Unknownnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-17626962.post-33402671232309274992022-08-06T17:41:00.004-04:002022-08-06T17:41:45.095-04:00RIP Clu Gulager (1928 - 2022)<p><span style="font-family: times; font-size: medium;"><span style="background-color: white; caret-color: rgb(5, 5, 5); color: #050505; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: medium;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhgqhZib9po9EiQkGXCWXutUlzjV2YsmOENf0VoBB0ocFFM3HZWpOQ-0jD6IIYy7gX8T1EOPP5CYVlEzXibQsBmJ8YsHiuy0mGdf3xnj8uPKX_anaYFYFlLG8KNQlozox-KGbLwsiNWBg87LRUfO87E3PuaHr5fcptBJMB2VEkyA46gGskizQ/s500/CLu.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="500" data-original-width="381" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhgqhZib9po9EiQkGXCWXutUlzjV2YsmOENf0VoBB0ocFFM3HZWpOQ-0jD6IIYy7gX8T1EOPP5CYVlEzXibQsBmJ8YsHiuy0mGdf3xnj8uPKX_anaYFYFlLG8KNQlozox-KGbLwsiNWBg87LRUfO87E3PuaHr5fcptBJMB2VEkyA46gGskizQ/w305-h400/CLu.jpg" width="305" /></a></span></div><span style="font-family: times; font-size: medium;">It’s sadly time to bid a fond farewell to the great Clu Gulager. I once had the pleasure of meeting him and his son, director John Gulager, when the New Beverly Theater (Clu’s home away from home) invited me to host a Q&A after a screening of Dario Argento’s INFERNO. As his legend comfirms, he sat in the front row of the theater and I was aware of his intent presence throughout. Afterwards, he came up to me with some wonderful words on the evening. I told him that I’d just <span style="caret-color: rgb(5, 5, 5); color: #050505; white-space: pre-wrap;"><a style="color: #385898; cursor: pointer;" tabindex="-1"></a></span><span style="background-color: white; caret-color: rgb(5, 5, 5); color: #050505; white-space: pre-wrap;">recently seen THE KILLERS again and the absolute truth, as I saw it: that he stole the picture and every single scene from Lee Marvin! He replied, with the voice of a repentent school boy, “No sir, no one ever steals a scene from Mr. Marvin!” He had my heart after that, and I quickly coralled him and John into a photo that I think </span><span style="caret-color: rgb(5, 5, 5); color: #050505; white-space: pre-wrap;"><a class="oajrlxb2 g5ia77u1 qu0x051f esr5mh6w e9989ue4 r7d6kgcz rq0escxv nhd2j8a9 nc684nl6 p7hjln8o kvgmc6g5 cxmmr5t8 oygrvhab hcukyx3x jb3vyjys rz4wbd8a qt6c0cv9 a8nywdso i1ao9s8h esuyzwwr f1sip0of lzcic4wl gpro0wi8 q66pz984 b1v8xokw" href="https://www.facebook.com/howard.s.berger?__cft__[0]=AZW5uwsrIBu5O1EGfFQwoA26AKIzzA4lAgsl-nnySrItfii6UZpVbe-jzb4QQe1nBaQgIQIp2hIPcuBjMDC9qV10l5K6YCC-J8pfPWClEvEAYfvl9HDpLzn9aO8UDX_rCe4&__tn__=-]K-R" role="link" style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; color: var(--accent); cursor: pointer; display: inline; list-style: none; margin: 0px; outline: none; padding: 0px; text-align: inherit; text-decoration: none; touch-action: manipulation;" tabindex="0"><span class="nc684nl6" style="display: inline;">Howard S. Berger</span></a></span><span style="background-color: white; caret-color: rgb(5, 5, 5); color: #050505; white-space: pre-wrap;"> was kind enough to take. (I don't seem able to find it just now.) Clu actually steals most scenes he’s part of, simply by being the most authentic person on screen, whether that means being organized, committed, lethal, or sweet as can be. He’s only in THE LAST PICTURE SHOW briefly but the sexual heat he emanates just by entering a room is startling. Donna and I have recently been enjoying his appearances as the deputy sheriff on THE VIRGINIAN, the most recent one being the Season 3 episode that shoukd have introduced his character but was held back till Episode 19. He doesn’t get many opportunities to cut loose on THE VIRGINIAN, but his character has an aura about him that seems to emanate from the chortle in his voice, an assurance that we’re only seeing about half what he can really do... and then sometimes he outdraws another actor (in a way that feels genuine, not just written that way) or jumps on a horse or competes with Doug McClure for the girl of the week where we see the fuller breadth of his talent suddenly leap to life. So many stories today on my newsfeed of what a great guy he was. No one could miss it. Wish I’d known him better, but so, so grateful for the evening we shared and the moment we had. My deepest sympathies to Clu’s family and to everyone his life touched.</span></span><p></p><p><span style="font-family: times; font-size: medium;"><span style="background-color: white; caret-color: rgb(5, 5, 5); color: #050505; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></span></p>
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