Category Archives: Movies

Where art thou Sound of Music?

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THE SOUND OF MUSIC, Daniel Truhitte, Charmian Carr, 1965, TM and Copyright (c)20th Century Fox Film Corp. All rights reserved. Courtesy: Everett Collection.

Oh my gosh, what a wasteland modern Hollywood is! I was flipping through the channels, desperately  seeking to be entertained by something. Its pretty bad when you’ve gotten too old for the Lone Ranger and Laramie. Yesterday I discovered 17-3 Charge plays several hours of CHiPs in the afternoon. That’s good for about an hour. Whenever I start thinking about the dearth of wholesome, quality, family fare, I think of the Gold Standard: The Sound of Music.

Seriously though, without trying to sound like an old “Stay off my lawn!” geezer, what has Hollywood come up with in the ensuing 55 years? Its still #1 in ticket sales. They always want to talk about the newest and greatest highest “grossing” movie, but that’s only because of ticket price inflation. As far as butts in theater seats, I’m pretty sure SOM is still number 1. It reminds me of the pop song American Pie. Its a good song, don’t get me wrong, but the reverence in which it is held shows how bad the competition is. We should have had more songs in 50 years that were capable of using metaphor, parable, poetry and analogy than just this one song. It stands out cause, ‘Baby, baby, baby! Yeah, yeah, yeah!’ is so weak.

In the 70’s Benji was a wholesome family movie.  Low budget, but nice. There were a bunch of good movies, but I wouldn’t call them family fare. John Wayne movies, Clint Eastwood movies, the first Star Wars movie. ET? A few Disney flicks, Lion King, the Little Mermaid, but those weren’t movies adults could get into also, just the kids. A few live action Disney movies over the years, but nothing in the last 40 years. I’ll have to come back later and add to this list the ones that will inevitably come to me, but as of right now its a desert.

[Charmian Carr was an interesting bird. She made one more movie after SOM with that nut job Anthony Perkins and that was it! If ever there was a natural for the movies it was her. Exquisitely beautiful with those glacier blue eyes, a wonderful charisma,  she puts 99% of Hollywood to shame. She chose instead some area of decorating as a career as I understand it. Of all the obnoxious louts that the industry forces on us, to have a gem like that getaway…. and then God took her home at just age 74. And in the movie Ralph chooses the Nazis over her, my ass. Not a chance.]

Brooke Shields

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Brooke Shields

I led off with this photo (even though it just seems “fuzzy”) because it really captures a lot. I’m guessing she’s about 20 here (15?). This girl caused a lot of trouble for society in the 70s. She made a movie called ‘Pretty Baby‘ (1978) for heaven’s sake, about a 12 year old prostitute. Sure it was creepy. Never seen it myself. For Hollywood it was quite original. Creativity isn’t what Hollywood’s about. Using people, chewing them up and spitting them out, going for the lowest common denominator, that’s what Hollywood’s about. Her mom was taken to society’s woodshed repeatedly. Which is kind of funny when you think about it.

America was shocked to see a 12 year old portray a prostitute. It was all pretend. That’s what Hollywood is, a very expensive game of dress up. A year or 2 later Johnny Gosch and Eugene Martin from Iowa were getting kidnapped for real and forced into a living hell of real life prostitution. Did America get upset about that? Or all the thousands of other kids living a similar hell? No. But play a game of pretend, hold their eyelids open and force them to watch, and society blanches. Societal nimrods.

Right after this movie you can find pictures of an underage Brooke at the ultra swank Studio 54 nightclub. Real life exploitation of a teenager. Did anyone get upset? No. Did they get upset about the abuse of hundreds of other kids in Hollywood? No. That was kept under the rug. They didn’t have to look at that. The “right” people were making money off of that. Brooke was born May 31, 1965. She wouldn’t be 21 until 1986. About the time of the photo above. She’d lived a lifetime by then. I buy very, very few movies for myself. ‘Brenda Starr‘ (1989) is one I’m going to buy. She made that one in 1988 when she was only 23, you would have swore she was in her thirties if you didn’t know better! (Corrections on the Brenda Starr timeline below.)

But like I said earlier, Brooke caused a lot of squirming for society. People don’t like to look at themselves. She made ‘The Blue Lagoon‘ (1979), 13 years old and naked when she made that one. ‘Wanda Nevada‘ (1979), that was a creepy little film once again. Hollywood couldn’t get enough of young Brooke. Bob Hope specials, Calvin Klein ads, “Nothing comes between me and my Calvin’s”. A few years ago I saw her in a very funny commercial (I don’t remember the product but she was funnier that hell), and one thought came to mind. She came off as completely sane. Normal. Balanced. Self-deprecating. Didn’t take herself too seriously.

I remember thinking at the time, I’m glad for her. Despite adults using her her whole life, she used them back. She kept it in context. Realized it was pretend. I hope I get to read her book, ‘There Was a Little Girl: The Real Story of My Mother and Me‘ (in fact I ordered it just now). Like I said earlier, I really like the lead off photo. Its a “bridge” photo. That period between childhood and adulthood. That just happened to be a little more turbulent than for most kids. Glad she survived.


Next favorite.

1970: American child film actress, Brooke Shields. (Photo by Alan Band/Keystone/Getty Images)


My favorite.

I thought these photos represented a wide range of looks for Brooke. What’s funny is I really like her candid’s. The ‘blue jeans and sweater’ Brooke more than the glamour puss Brooke. Its hard to imagine someone being photographed more than her. She was a big deal 40 years ago. A very big deal. I just saw the movie ‘Brenda Starr‘ a few years ago. It has an absolutely tawdry past! You can see for yourself at the link I provided. It really reminded me of the problems Tom Laughlin had making and releasing the original ‘Billy Jack‘ movie. Tough guy Laughlin found out what it was like to buck the “mob”. Hollywood is run by a mafia, not Italian, Jewish. You can’t say that of course, it would be denied all day long. But it ekes out once in awhile. Like when John Travolta said “Hollywood is run for the benefit of homosexual Jewish men” (And for a few straight ones like Harvey Weinstein, notice how he never spent a day in jail?). Marlon Brando said something similar once. He and Travolta were big enough they could get away with it. Others who blurted out the truth were never heard from again. But as I say, the story of Brenda Starr, filmed in ’86 and not released in the U.S. until ’92 is a fascinating one. Both that one and Billy Jack tried to go outside the studio system. They found out what happens if you don’t give the ‘mob’ their cut. But as I mentioned above, Brenda Starr was so good I was going to buy it. That’s when I found out the legal hell it was in. There is 1 copy of it on Amazon for $716.04. That’s when I knew something was up.

[Finishing up this post I realized just how long and deep Hollywood’s pedophilia roots run. Tatum O’Neal, Linda Blair, Drew Barrymore, Corey Haim, Corey Feldman, Macaulay Culkin, Brooke Shields and a gazillion others I don’t begin to know about! Reading her book ‘There Was a Little Girl’ has been fascinating. I’m just halfway through. It sounds like she “divorces” her mother at some point. Brooke’s life was forever scarred by her drunk of a Mom. The entertainment industry was actually a stabilizing force, if that gives you an idea about how bad her mother was. But in relation to pedophilia, Brooke seems to have escaped any “me too” lecherous moments. The other thought so far, is how would things have been if she’d had a ‘normal’ mother? In a nurturing relationship?]

Various Charlie’s Angels lineups… and the winner is!

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From Wikipedia: “Charlie’s Angels was an American crime drama television series that aired on ABC from September 22, 1976 to June 24, 1981, producing five seasons and 110 episodes. The series was created by Ivan Goff and Ben Roberts and was produced by Aaron Spelling.
Starring: Kate Jackson, Farrah Fawcett, Jaclyn Smith, Cheryl Ladd, Shelley Hack, Tanya Roberts, David Doyle.” [Good grief men! This is the original Charlie’s Angels, not those cheap imitations. Sign in, tell us your favorites and why in the comments section! You don’t have to use your full name. My favorite was Shelley Hack. Followed in a close second by Farrah. Then Cheryl Ladd (she seemed so nice). See how easy that was?) Did you like how Wikipedia with a straight face called it a ‘crime drama’? No it wasn’t! It was a jiggle show for men! And we loved it! 


Numero uno: Jaclyn Smith, Shelley Hack and Cheryl Ladd! (2 blondes do make a right!)

This was done in a complete spirit of jest of course. As someone growing up in that time, they were all 6 fun, nice and wonderfully entertaining women that made television great again! The group I chose was just… something else.

Beaver, the Caddy

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A wonderful episode of Leave it to Beaver was on the other morning where Beaver and Gilbert were caddying for 2 businessmen at the Mayfield Country Club. This was the final season and it really showed the growth of Theodore’s character. Mr. Langley is having Beaver shave strokes off his scorecard for what Beaver thinks is a $5 or so bet. His conscience bothers him enough for that, but really troubles him when he finds out he was party to fudging a $500 dollar bet!

Beaver decides to visit the businessman later at his office and tells Mr. Langley what’s bothering him. Mr. Langley sees what he has done by not being a good role model, straight and true. He thinks for a moment, and then asks Beaver to be his caddy one more time, he thinks he knows a way to set things right. He and Mr. Howard play again and this time he makes sure he loses so that the $500 is returned to Mr. Howard. All is right with the world and Mr. Langley does the right thing and does his part to affirm how important it is to do the right thing as a man.

It was such a well done episode it got me to thinking. During the time the show ran (1957 – 1963), Hollywood was all about honor, the ‘code of the west’, doing the right thing and adults as role models. That time period was especially full of westerns. A  child then learned when you fought, you fought fair, you didn’t shoot people in the back, and your handshake was better than a piece of paper. It showed why America was better than the rest of the world. Character.

A boy could learn a lot about being a man by watching the Lone Ranger and Roy Rogers. Try that watching today’s TV. Let me know how that works out.

In just a few years in the late 60’s, things went south. Westerns became filled with these “anti-heroes”, the Lone Ranger and Roy Rogers were gone. Hollywood embraced degenerates like Sergio Leone, Martin Scorsese, Quentin Tarantino and others that would shoot kids and harm women. That was unthinkable before, even the most evil of villain had a line he wouldn’t cross. Not anymore.

50’s and early 60’s television and movies really showed how Hollywood back then was interested in supporting the family, building character and being an asset to society. Something changed. In less than a decade good became square. Wholesome became sappy. Christians became bigots. Doing the right thing was for suckers. Wise, sensible and responsible husbands and fathers like Ward Cleaver became non-existent on the big or little screen. Every father became a fool, an idiot and a bumbling buffoon.

Its like someone threw a switch and the culture war was on. The only thing I am sure is, is that America lost. The battle and the war.  For reasons that aren’t clear to me, Hollywood decided to stick a knife in decency. 

 

Marlo Thomas was ‘That Girl!’

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Marlo Thomas came to television at an interesting time. She was 29 when ‘That Girl!‘ started in 1966. That year was still sort of in what I call ‘old America’. Pre-revolution. TV was nice and simple, non-controversial. That’s the way shows were in 1966. Marlo Thomas, attractive to the max and always wonderfully dressed. She had a personality that was so endearing and this low raspy voice.

From IMDB: “Born in Detroit, Michigan on November 21, 1937, Marlo was christened Margaret Julia Thomas. Raised within the mad Beverly Hills whirl of the entertainment business as the daughter of show business legend Danny Thomas, she was initially dissuaded from an acting career and began a half-hearted adult life as a school teacher. Quickly switching to acting, however, Marlo began with early TV appearances in the late 1950’s on such series as “Dobie Gillis,” “77 Sunset Strip,” “Thriller” and “Zane Grey Theatre”. The [new] pilot was seen by ABC, and they had her tested for another sitcom lead and passed with flying colors. This one stuck did not fail. Audiences adored “That Girl” with the romantic entanglements and struggling ambition of Ann Marie, a single, independent and very trendy young lady in the real world as an actress wannabe. Marlo became an instant household name (as did co-star Ted Bessell) and earned a Golden Globe (“Best TV Star”) and four Emmy nominations during the five-year run of the groundbreaking show.”

[More importantly I just discovered this very moment something vitally important. While Marlo looks ravishing in every picture, she looks even more stupendously scrumptious in the pictures without bangs! Her best pic is the B&W where she’s wearing the white sleeveless top about 7 rows down. I mention this simply as how funny it was as a new student of hers. She took my breath away in the early years of That Girl with bangs, its hard to describe when I saw her in the next stage of her evolution.]

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I just love watching the reruns for the clothes she wore. I swear she had the best fashion of any show back then. I’ll always wonder how much was due to her and how much was due to the designer for the show? Either way, the other thing I noticed later in life was the immense sex appeal she had. Strange how I missed it back then… she was sexy because she didn’t try to be sexy.

THAT is just a really great photo. You’ll notice its a photo of a photo. That’s a fav.

Very nice.

Walton’s Mountain!

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What a series The Waltons was. Today’s episode was ‘The Emergence’. John-Boys first love (Marcia Woolery) was back in his life, upsetting his countenance. She had him wrapped around her little finger. Marcia was played by Tammi Bula. In another episode she enticed the new preacher at a founder’s day picnic wearing hot pants and a halter. She played a femme fatale well. Today she’d be about 70 years old! She played on 7 episodes of The Waltons. She did a handful of other shows in the 70’s. Quality TV, that’s what that was, I tell you what. I think America peaked in the 70’s, been going downhill ever since. That’s when wages peaked too. I know fashion has been on a downhill slide ever since. Who knew.


Really bad photo of the cast. They totem poled 3 groups there.

Once upon a time

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The other morning TCM was showing an animated film (the second ever made) from 1939 called Gulliver’s Travels. I’m looking at this thing and I can’t believe what I’m seeing. Each frame is an artistic masterpiece. The poor quality prints on this page give you a hint, but don’t begin to convey the beauty of the original film. I’m looking at the images that litter the internet and I can’t figure out what’s going on. A little digging and I find out that Fleischer Productions didn’t renew the copyright and the film’s copyright lapsed, it fell into the public domain!

Hollywood being the cheats they are, never considered working out a deal to make copies from the high quality originals. They made these cheap bootlegs! All these copies of Gulliver’s Travels appeared on VHS looking worse than anything Rankin-Bass ever turned out. Flat, washed out crap. Which is kind of ironic. Max Fleischer produced it in Florida where he wouldn’t have to pay unionized artists. He made Gulliver in 1/3 the time and 1/2 the budget of the first animated, Disney’s Snow White. He was trying to cheat the artists who made this masterpiece, and he ends up getting cheated because he forgot to renew the copyright!

The other thing I noticed besides the quality of the artwork, was the incredible way they reproduced the motions of Gulliver as if he was a live person. It turns out he was, in a way. The crew for Fleischer Productions came up with a technique they called “rotoscope“. They filmed a live actor and traced over him! No wonder it looked so real, it was. Nowadays they put a man in an expensive suit with sensors that feeds information to a computer called “motion capture“. These guys did it better in 1939! (A comparative stone age.)

But what tied it all together was what I saw on the CNBC business channel later that same morning. They were talking about the earnings report released that morning touting how well Disney was doing. The only way Disney survives is because people are so ignorant of what quality is. Its 50 years since Disney turned out anything worth a damn animation wise, and almost that long for live action. Walt Disney at the time dismissed Gulliver as second-rate. I’ve seen parts of Snow White, and it certainly didn’t knock my socks off. Gulliver did though.

My point isn’t to insult Walt, but it is to suggest he’d be rolling over in his grave if he could see what his company had turned into. Like so many things, the “old school” was a good school. Young kids have no way of knowing how things could be. How things were done 80 years ago. I think its part of how they get fooled today in many other areas. All they are left with is a vague feeling they’re getting the shaft.


This image only gives a hint of the attention to detail. The richness of color, shadows, subtlety.

 

7th Street Theater

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Talk about your missed opportunities. “This program was the first ever prime time Christian drama series in the history of broadcasting. It follows the life of five Christian actors who perform a weekly stage show for their community.” It ran a sporadic 3 seasons over a period of 7 years from 2007 – 2014. Of all the garbage Hollywood puts out this was an opportunity for the Christian community to get behind and whole heartedly support a Christian show. When I discovered it 8 years ago I immediately saw that DVDs of it should be in every church library.

It could have been the beneficiary of “write-in” campaigns to be put on local cable outlets. Binge showings to spread the word could have been shown at indie theaters on community night. There are few more splintered bodies in this nation then Christians. The lack of a coherent voice in any number of areas is obvious. The prolife movement, family building, schooling, Christian rights… the tower of Babble seems to fit in there somewhere. So the next time you turn on the television and are greeted by a barrage of loud, crude, vile “entertainment”, think for a moment what could have been.

Just last night I saw a move from 2008 called, ‘The Secrets of Jonathan Sperry‘. It was put out by Rich Christiano, the twin brother of Dave, who was the force behind ‘7th Street Theater’. In the movie (a solid 4 of 5), young Dustin is suffering the trials of teen angst out the wazoo. The evil bully Nick, the love of his life Tanya, being raised by a single mom, I mean serious angst. Along comes Mr. Sperry (Gavin MacLeod) who asks Dustin to mow his lawn (for $3 whole dollars, it was set in 1970).

Little did Dustin know of Mr. Sperry’s nefarious plans! Just kidding, Jonathan Sperry saw a fatherless young boy he knows from church who might need some male mentoring. One thing leads to another and after befriending Dustin and his pals, Mr. Sperry ends up leading them in a youth group bible study. That actually happened back then, I know. God often imparts a little wisdom to Christians like Jonathan, which allows him to help guide Dustin through the trials of growing up. The movie also starred Robert Guillaume as the cantankerous Mr. Barnes. Its great to find out these guys you knew from Love Boat and Benson were also Christians.

For some reason that same wisdom that is so evident among individual Christians, often is vacant in Church leadership. Like in their failure to support this dynamic duo of Christian entertainment.


Johanna Jowett, Shane Willimon, Hugh McLean

As a side note, I’ve actually kept track of what shows have ever said the name of Jesus (this one did) in this supposedly Christian nation. The Charlie Brown Christmas Special. Little House on the Prairie did from time to time. The Waltons did once in the pilot movie, once in the series. Walker Texas Ranger several times. And oddly enough, Doctor Quinn Medicine Woman. The other thing that occurred to me just now, everyone of those shows ran on CBS I believe.

Come to think of it, Little House ran on NBC. But I digress. There were also a number of shows that portrayed themselves as Christian but clearly weren’t. Highway to Heaven with Michael Landon was one of those. On this show angels were dead people who went around helping people. A lot of people have no idea just what kind of creature angels are. But I do feel confident in saying that these fearsome beings are not simply people who have assumed room temperature.

Another was 7th Heaven, they were allergic to Jesus also. Perhaps the most blatant anti-Christian was Touched by an Angel with Roma Downey. At 5 minutes till on each episode the miscreant would be healed by the fiery redhead when she would stand in front of him and say ‘Gawd!’ in a stern voice while a hair light would shine from behind. Somehow this would heal our guest of the week of his lack of compassion or generosity. All it did was make me appreciate ravishing redheads from the Scottish isles. There is only One thing that makes Christianity ‘The Way’ and that is Jesus, or Yeshua if you prefer.

399619 02: Actor Robert Guillaume attends the screening of the 25th Anniversary restrospective of the television series “Roots” at the Academy of Television Arts and Sciences January 15, 2002 in Los Angeles, CA. (Photo by Frederick M. Brown/Getty Images)

Sad sack

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“I’m not stupid, I’m smart! I can do things!” I’ve always been kind of interested in John Cazale, in a perverse sort of way. Few people can photograph as homely as that man. Or have ever had such an expressive face. A quick read of his bio shows he appeared in 5 films that all were nominated for Academy Awards. What are the chances? He died at the ripe old age of 42 with Meryl Streep at his bedside. Al Pacino said he was first attracted to Cazale because people always surrounded him because of his congenial manner. The opening quote is from The Godfather of course. Fredo Corleone trying to explain why he sold out the family to the Miami Jew, Hyman Roth. Spell check may not recognize his name, but anyone interested in filmdom will.


Dog Day Afternoon

“Why did you tell them, baby?”

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The Killing (1956)

By gawd that’s what film is for! I just happened to catch the tail end of this Sunday morning treat, and what a treat it was! Sterling Hayden and his mugs pull off the ultimate heist, they take a racetrack for a cool $2 million dollars. They were gonna get away with it too, but somebody told a dame! A secret is no longer a secret if you told a woman. Elisha Cook tells Marie Windsor who then tells her thugs and they all die in a horrible shootout à la Reservoir Dogs.

Sterling Hayden who hadn’t arrived yet with the dough, is the lone survivor. He’s at the airport with a large suitcase (the $2 mil), and the airline will not let this huge suitcase be carry on! After much arguing Hayden agrees to let it be checked luggage. As he’s standing at the gate on the tarmac, he’s watching his suitcase precariously balanced on the luggage tram as it heads out to the idling plane.

‘Tinkles’ the dog picks that moment to leap out of Aunt Martha’s arms and bolts in front of the tram driver who swerves to avoid the dog. The suitcase with the loot falls to the taxiway breaking open in the fall. The prop wash of the idling planes immediately blows the $2 million all over creation! A decidedly dejected Hayden watches in disbelief, slowly walking to the exit before authorities figure out it was his suitcase.

The ‘film noir’ examples shown on Turner Classic Movies never received the accolades or the budgets of the studio darlings. Filmed in less expensive black and white and cast with underdogs, they often over achieved compared to the glossy, vacuous big budget films when looked at with the hindsight that 60 or 70 years brings. Director Stanley Kubrick himself on Taxi Driver had to film the aftermath of the bodies following the big shootout (the films union cameraman refusing to do the handheld camerawork Kubrick wanted).

The climatic scene where the fortune blows down the runway, reminiscent of The Treasure of the Sierra Madre when the gold dust blows helplessly across the desert. The ill-gotten gain never to be had by anyone and keeping the curse alive. No, film noir went beyond the clichés, the remakes, the boring storylines. Film noir was honest about their film’s motivations; greed and sex. I respect that. The rest of the Hollywood crap factory is about deceptions.