Trailer Park, 2015

I'm sure everyone who has been on the internet the past couple days knows all about the new trailer that was released for STAR WARS: THE FORCE AWAKENS. I had a lot of skepticism over that upcoming film--and in some ways I still do--but seeing that trailer made me actually look forward to it.

The very first thing you see in the trailer--a shot of a wrecked Imperial Star Destroyer on a desert wasteland of an unknown planet--brought to my mind a David Lean-esque type of feeling, a feeling that this was something from a grand historical epic. The voice-over from Mark Hamill will send any hardcore Star Wars fan into a frenzy, and then of course there's the trailer's revelation of an older Han Solo and Chewbacca, which I think made the entire world stop on its axis. (That shot of Han and Chewie, by the way, is based on a famous photo still from the original film).

What really makes this trailer work is that it leaves more questions than answers. That's what the best movie trailers do (are you reading this, entertainment conglomerate executives?). Who has the remains of Darth Vader's helmet? Why is the helmet still around? Who are the stormtroopers in the trailer, and who are they serving under? In the trailer Han says to Chewie, "We're home." The two of them are obviously on the Millenium Falcon, so does that mean that Han has not seen his ship in a while? And if he hasn't, then what happened to it?

There's a dozen other questions that I could ask from viewing this trailer....and that's the fun of being a fanboy, or being involved in a certain fan community. There's a sense of togetherness from following a certain movie or TV franchise, and discussing and debating it with fellow fans (when those fellow fans are not arguing or insulting one another, which happens way too often). In today's world, human beings are driven apart more and more by religion, or politics, or social issues.....yet people all over the world can come together and reach an understanding through a movie or a TV show. What does that say about the state of society in the 21st Century? (Maybe that's a blog post for another day.)

Another trailer for a major "event" movie has also been released....this one for BATMAN v SUPERMAN: DAWN OF JUSTICE (how pretentious is that title??). I've written several blogs already on how I feel about the movies based on DC comic book characters. This trailer begins with a cacophony of newsanchor-type voices debating the role of Superman on Earth. When then see a statue of Superman painted with graffiti that says "FALSE GOD". Apparently this film is going to go down the same road as the X-Men movies--the whole "Superheroes are enemies of the common folk and must not be trusted" road. I feel this is a mistake. As I have stated before, out of all the famous comic book legends, Superman is the nice one, the good & noble one, the one who is most adjusted and accepting of his role. So why, in all these 21st Century Superman movies, do they surround him with darkness and doubt?? You can make an fun, exciting comic book movie without being heavy and moody--and you can still have the audience take it seriously. Marvel Studios has proven that.

The BvS trailer says it is coming out in 2016--which means Marvel is going to have a few movies out ahead of it. It also means that fanboys on the internet are going to have plenty of time to pick it apart. This movie is supposed to be a game-changer for the DC cinematic universe, but it's hard for me to have any faith in it at this time.

I have also seen trailers for the new Terminator movie. At first I was going to dismiss this out of hand, but after seeing the previews I've got to admit I'm intrigued by the premise. It looks as if this "new" Terminator will be a remake of the first one--but this time Sarah Connor saves Kyle, instead of the other way around. (Has anyone noticed that no matter what anyone does in any of the Terminator movies, Judgment Day still always happens?)

As for the new Mad Max movie, that was another one I shook my head at when first hearing about....but the trailers make the film look so over-the-top crazy, I want to see it. The fact that Mad Max creator George Miller is involved with this is another reason for my interest.

Last year's movie summer....heck, last year's movie year....was kind of blah. This year has a chance to be more memorable.

HOOPER

In 1978, Burt Reynolds was considered the coolest movie star in the world. That may be impossible to fathom for those who have grown up in the 21st Century, but it's true. Reynolds' last movie, SMOKEY AND THE BANDIT, was an enormous hit, but the actor already had a huge following (especially among the drive-in crowd) with such films as THE LONGEST YARD, WHITE LIGHTNING, and GATOR. Reynolds had tapped into a certain sub-culture of entertainment--the country action-comedy. You can look down all you want on SMOKEY AND THE BANDIT, but the movie was very influential--it spawned many imitators, such as the TV series THE DUKES OF HAZZARD, and even Clint Eastwood got in the act with EVERY WHICH WAY BUT LOOSE (which wound up being his highest grossing movie of all time).

SMOKEY AND THE BANDIT was directed by Hal Needham, a former Hollywood stuntman who was a personal friend of Burt Reynolds. The success of that film enabled Needham and Reynolds to make a follow-up picture, HOOPER, which has just been released on Blu-ray by Warner Home Video.

HOOPER could easily be called SMOKEY AND THE BANDIT 1 1/2. Not only does the film reunite Needham and Reynolds, the leading lady of BANDIT, Sally Field, is also in it, and the Pontiac Firebird, the iconic car of the BANDIT, makes an appearance as well. Jerry Reed is not in HOOPER, but James Best plays a very Jerry Reed-like role.

As for the lead character of the film, Sonny Hooper, he's basically just like the Bandit....except instead of being the greatest gear-jammer in the world, Sonny is the greatest stuntman in the world. The opening sequence of HOOPER shows Sonny strapping protective padding all over himself while bullfighter music plays in the background. Sonny is currently working as stunt co-ordinator on a James Bond-type movie and doubling for the star, which is none other than Adam West (who plays--and spoofs--himself, long before he did it on FAMILY GUY). Sonny has to deal with an egotistical director (Robert Klein) and the fact that his long years of stunt work have taken a toll on his body. Hooper is constantly being fed painkillers by his assistant and buddy Cully (James Best).

Hooper finds out that there is a up and coming stuntman making the rounds, nicknamed Ski (Jan Michael-Vincent). In a movie made today, these guys would be at each other's throats, but in HOOPER the two men form a bond. (I think that Hal Needham--a former top stuntman himself--didn't want to show fellow stuntmen acting badly toward one another....after all, being a stuntman requires trusting in your colleagues.) Hooper gives Ski work on the James Bond-like film, and soon Ski is coming up with action sequences of his own. The director is so impressed he rewrites the entire ending, setting up a stunt involving a rocket car jumping over a gorge--a stunt so dangerous that no one is sure it will even work.

HOOPER is obviously Hal Needham's tribute to the Hollywood stuntman, and as such, is filled with all sorts of action set-pieces. The stunts performed here look even better today when one considers that no CGI whatsoever was used back then. As for Needham's portrayal of the life of the stuntman, Sonny and his crew spend most of their free time engaged in drunken juvenile hi-jinks (but nothing too nasty--this is a PG rated film after all). There's the usual bar fight, which features a cameo from Terry Bradshaw, who at the time was one of the best quaterbacks in the NFL. (Could you imagine what the reaction would be today if, say, Tom Brady appeared in a similar scene in a movie made now?) Apparently most of the situations in HOOPER were based on real-life experiences Hal Needham had as a stuntman.

As stated before, Sonny Hooper is very much like the Bandit--or rather, very much like Burt Reynolds' typical screen persona. Sonny is cocky, charismatic, and a smart-aleck--but underneath it all he's really a good guy. Sally Field is Sonny's girlfriend. Field and Reynolds were a real-life couple at the time, and just like in SMOKEY AND THE BANDIT, the two of them have great chemistry together (and Sally Field looks really good wearing shorts in this movie). Sally's dad in this picture is also a legendary stuntman who is somewhat of a mentor to Sonny, and he is played by Brian Keith, who steals just about every scene he is in.

Keith's character winds up having a stroke, which causes Sonny to reflect on his own health (Sonny's doctor tells him that if he was a horse, he'd be shot). Sonny is also badgered by his girlfriend not to perform the rocket-car stunt. In the end Sonny decides to do it anyway, one of the main reasons being that two men have to be in the rocket car (one has to drive and the other has to monitor the instruments), and Sonny wants to do the stunt with Ski.

The rewritten ending of the movie Sonny is working on has the equivalent of an entire town being destroyed--and this happens before the rocket car jump. Thus the climax of HOOPER has just about every crazy stunt you can think of, and Ski and Sonny pull off the jump, which is pretty spectacular. (This isn't the type of movie that is going to have a depressing ending.)

When it comes to 1970s cinema, HOOPER certainly isn't in the same class as THE DEER HUNTER, but then it isn't supposed to be. It is designed to be crowd-pleasing entertainment, and on that level it does work. An audience of today would view HOOPER with puzzlement or maybe even anger--this is a very politically incorrect film with a working-class American mentality. I can imagine millennials dismissing HOOPER as nothing more than a bunch of white people acting stupid. I have to admit the main reason I bought this Blu-ray was nostalgia--I loved this movie when I was a kid. If you don't get HOOPER, or you don't get why Burt Reynolds was once so popular, that's okay. There's plenty of folks who don't get superhero movies either.

DAY OF ANGER On Blu-ray

Arrow Video has just come out with a splendid Blu-ray/DVD release of the 1967 Spaghetti Western DAY OF ANGER, starring genre legend Lee Van Cleef.

In DAY OF ANGER Van Cleef is once again paired with a younger male co-star. This time it is Giuliano Gemma as Scott, a poor orphan who acts as garbageman for the Western town of Clifton. Scott is reviled by the rest of the citizens of Clifton. A stranger by the name of Frank Talby (Van Cleef) rides into town and treats Scott with respect....Talby even shoots and kills a man who is offended by Scott being present in the local saloon. Scott begs Talby to teach him about gunfighting. The older man does, and soon Talby and Scott are running Clifton....but Talby makes an enemy out of just about everyone he comes into contact with, and eventually Scott must face off against his mentor.

DAY OF ANGER was directed by Tonino Valerii, who had worked with Sergio Leone on A FISTFUL OF DOLLARS and FOR A FEW DOLLARS MORE. The movie was mostly written by Ernesto Gastaldi, whose name will be familiar with any fan of Italian Western and Giallo films. Many of the locations used in DAY OF ANGER were seen in the first two DOLLARS films, and of course Lee Van Cleef became a Spaghetti Western star due to his appearance in FOR A FEW DOLLARS MORE as Colonel Mortimer. A number of supporting actors who had roles in the Leone Westerns pop up in DAY OF ANGER, most notably the grizzled Al Mulock, who was featured in two of the greatest scenes in Italian Western history--the "If you have to shoot, shoot don't talk" segment in THE GOOD, THE BAD, AND THE UGLY and the opening gunfight in ONCE UPON A TIME IN THE WEST.

Despite the various Sergio Leone connections, DAY OF ANGER really isn't a Leone-like film. For one thing Valerii doesn't have the visual flair of a Leone. Another reason is DAY OF ANGER has no obvious humor in it whatsoever. Van Cleef's Frank Talby is more of an Angel Eyes than a Colonel Mortimer, but there is also a lot of ambiguity to him. Talby genuinely seems to like Scott, and goes out of his way help him--but at the same time Van Cleef shows that Talby is not adverse to taking down anyone who is in his way. In the course of the film Talby becomes more of a town kingpin than a mysterious gunslinger. Talby builds his own gambling establishment (complete with giant gold Colt .45s as front entrance supports!) and even gets Clifton's corrupt judge to try and form an alliance with him. It is hinted in the film that an older gunfighter like Talby may be trying to settle down and start a "home" of his own. It's an interesting plot concept for an Italian Western. Frank Talby is one of Lee Van Cleef's best roles, and the actor totally dominates whenever he is on the screen. (And yes, in this movie Van Cleef gets to wear his "Colonel Mortimer" black outfit.)

Giuliano Gemma does very well as Scott, and he even holds his own when he is in the same scene as Van Cleef (not an easy thing for any actor to do). Gemma also had a long career in Italian Westerns (I have to admit this is the first film I have seen the actor in), and in DAY OF ANGER he has a attractive screen presence--so much so that I found the early part of the film where Scott is ostracized by the community a bit hard to believe. (Now, if Tomas Milian had played the role of Scott--yeah, I could believe the townspeople hating on him.)

As for the rest of the cast, Walter Rilla is fine as Scott's "other" mentor Murph, and Christa Linder makes a big impression with the small role of Gwen, a brothel girl who is friendly toward Scott.

Arrow Video has given DAY OF ANGER the Criterion treatment. The Blu-ray contains two cuts of the film--an 104 minute Italian version, which has a English-dubbed soundtrack and a Italian soundtrack with English subtitles, and a 86 minute "international" version, which is dubbed in English. The longer cut is the far better version of the film--it contains far more plot detail. The extras include interviews with director Tonino Valerii, screenwriter Ernesto Gastaldi, and Valerii biographer Roberto Curti. Valerii compares the script of DAY OF ANGER to the story of Oedipus, and Curti talks about the film's portrayal of competitive capitalism, while Gastaldi states that the movie has no political message. There are also trailers, TV spots, a deleted scene, and a 28 page booklet with information about the film and its stars from Italian cinema historian Howard Hughes.

As for how the movie looks on this Blu-ray, it is stupendous--the days of watching crummy pan & scan prints of Spaghetti Westerns on public domain VHS tapes are long gone. The Arrow version of DAY OF ANGER looks much better than most American 1960s Westerns on home video. The sound quality is excellent, and Riz Ortolani's unusual music score gets a nice showcase here. Arrow's package includes two DVDs--each disc contains a different version of the film and the extras.

Some genre enthusiasts rate DAY OF ANGER one of the greatest Spaghetti Westerns of all time. I think the movie's reputation will certainly be enhanced by this Blu-ray. DAY OF ANGER doesn't reach the wild excesses that most Italian Westerns are known for, which might make it attractive to more traditional Western movie fans. While not too overly violent (especially compared to its contemporaries), DAY OF ANGER does have many well-staged shootouts, with the highlight being a duel performed on horseback with front-loading rifles. If you are a fan of Spaghetti Westerns you should check this Blu-ray out, and if you are a major Lee Van Cleef fan you should definitely buy it. This is one of the first Region A releases from Arrow Video, and I highly anticipate seeing what titles the company will put out in the future.

JOHN FORD: DREAMING THE QUIET MAN

A couple years ago Olive Films released a remastered version of John Ford's THE QUIET MAN on Blu-ray. Now the company has put out on home video a 92-minute documentary about that legendary film called JOHN FORD: DREAMING THE QUIET MAN. Many on the internet have wondered why Olive didn't include this feature on THE QUIET MAN release as an extra. The reason is fairly obvious--Olive wanted to make more money off of fans of THE QUIET MAN by releasing the documentary separately.

What is striking about this documentary is that it was made and produced by the Irish. Writer-Director Se Merry Doyle explores why THE QUIET MAN was so important to John Ford, and how Ford's Irish heritage influenced the movie's making. The viewer is taken to such places as Monument Valley, Portland, Maine (where Ford was born--he was not born in Ireland), and the remains of the actual Irish cottage where John Ford's father grew up.

Many of the Irish locations used for THE QUIET MAN are shown, including the village of Cong, which has now become something of a tourist trap. Local villagers who were around during the making of THE QUIET MAN are interviewed (surprisingly there are still quite a few of them left).

Rare behind-the-scenes footage of THE QUIET MAN is shown, and we get a lot of Maureen O'Hara talking about the movie. She steals the show, of course....but she still won't reveal what she whispered in John Wayne's ear at the end the film.

The documentary also has interviews with directors Martin Scorsese, Peter Bogdanovich, and Jim Sheridan, who discuss the legacy of THE QUIET MAN.

JOHN FORD: DREAMING THE QUIET MAN is a very good piece of work, and old movie buffs will eat it up, especially John Ford/John Wayne/Maureen O'Hara fans. I would not say it is great because the documentary has a tendency to ramble--it starts to make a point about John Ford or the movie, then it goes on to another tack entirely. All the information here is interesting and informative, but it is presented in a leisurely fashion, matched by Gabriel Byrne's equally leisurely narration. One thing I was kind of hoping to see was the opinions of Irish people who are not fans of THE QUIET MAN--I know there are some of Irish descent who feel the movie is a stereotypical view of their country. This feature is something of a celebration of THE QUIET MAN. It works very well when it showcases that classic movie....but it doesn't do as well when it tries to explain John Ford. Then again.....I don't think anybody ever has, or ever will, come close to properly explaining that mercurial cinematic genius.

The Pre-Code Blogathon: FIVE STAR FINAL

The "Pre-Code" era in Hollywood--which ran approximately from 1930 through most of 1934--has now become so legendary that just about any movie made in that period is looked upon as a classic. Most of the attention given to Pre-Code features revolves around their presumed salacious content, rather than any aesthetic value an individual film may have. If you take away all the salacious content from most of the famous examples of Pre-Code cinema, you really wouldn't have much left.

The storyline of my favorite Pre-Code film is built around scandal.....but the real scandal it covers is the American media. That makes the movie as relevant today as it was when it was first released by Warner Bros. in 1931. FIVE STAR FINAL isn't just a great Pre-Code film--it is a great film, period, and it was even nominated for a Best Picture Academy Award.

FIVE STAR FINAL concerns the operations of the New York Gazette, a tabloid newspaper with Joseph Randall (Edward G. Robinson) as its editor. At the start of the film we see a couple of toughs working for the Gazette asking a newsstand operator why he doesn't have their paper on top of all the others. When the operator refuses to be intimidated by them, the men literally sling mud all over his merchandise--the first example of the film's many uses of metaphor.

As we go into the offices of the Gazette, we see Randall's loyal secretary, Miss Taylor (Aline MacMahon) trying to find the editor. Three of the paper's bigwigs, Hinchecliffe, Brannigan, and French, are demanding a meeting with Randall--the paper's latest circulation numbers are down. The three men believe that Randall has made the paper too highbrow for its intended audience--Randall is said to be getting "too high for the chewing gum crowd". Randall is actually at the local speakeasy--and the first time we see him, he is washing his hands, a habit he does throughout the picture. It is an obvious metaphor, but an apt one.

Randall finally returns to work, and is castigated by Hinchecliffe to return the paper to its old ways. Hinchecliffe, Brannigan, and French are portrayed as stuffed-shirt hypocrites--they act as if they are representatives of the public trust, and above the people who read their paper, yet at the same time they want as much sensationalism and lewdness in their product as possible. (Randall refers to Hinchecliffe as "The Sultan of Slop".) Hinchecliffe tells Randall that the paper is going to run a new series of articles on Nancy Vorhees, a woman who was involved in a famous scandal 20 years ago. Vorhees shot and killed her lover, a rich playboy, when the man refused to marry her after she told him she was pregnant. Vorhees was acquitted by a sympathetic jury, and she and her child have managed to stay out of the public eye ever since. Hinchecliffe wants Randall to track down Vorhees and her child and find out what they are doing now.

Randall is disgusted by the assignment, but he goes into it full bore--it's almost as if he is punishing himself by going ahead with it. FIVE STAR FINAL is a major showcase for Edward G. Robinson as Randall. The newspaper editor is a tough guy, but not in the same way as one of Robinson's gangster characters. Despite his all-out effort to get the goods on Nancy Vorhees, Robinson still gives the man enough shadings to show that Randall hates what he and the Gazette have become.

To get information on Nancy Vorhees, Randall sends out a new "reporter", the curvaceous Kitty Carmody (Ona Munson). Kitty's journalistic abilities seem to consist of sweet-talking men into giving her the story she needs. Randall also calls upon one T. Vernon Isopod, played by none other than Boris Karloff (not too long after filming this role, Boris would be hired to play Frankenstein's Monster). The slimy, unctuous Isopod was kicked out of divinity school, and now uses his religious "knowledge" into conning people into thinking he is a man of the cloth.

The present-day address of Nancy Vorhees is discovered--she is now Mrs. Michael Townsend. We are then introduced to Nancy (Frances Starr), her husband (H. B. Warner), her daughter Jenny (Marian Marsh), and Jenny's fiancee Phillip Weeks (Anthony Bushell). The Townsends are shown to be a pleasant, ordinary family who live in a modest apartment (some viewers may think them to be too goody-goody....but this was probably done to contrast them with the overbearing staff of the Gazette). The Townsends find out that the Gazette is planning to run a series on the Nancy Vorhees case, which greatly worries them, since Jenny has no idea about her mother's past, and does not even know that Michael Townsend is not her real father. Isopod worms his way into the Townsend home by pretending he is a minister (when Randall first sees Isopod dressed as a man of God, the editor exclaims, "You're the most blasphemous looking thing I've ever seen! It's a miracle you've not been struck dead!"). Isopod finds out that Jenny is getting married to Phillip, and gets a picture of the girl from her mother ("...for the church files"). The Townsends wonder why a minister from their local church would not know the names of a couple to be married there soon...and they then realize they may have made a terrible mistake in talking to Isopod.

When Randall finds out that Nancy Vorhees' daughter is going to be married--and to a young man from a high-class family, no less--he pushes the story even harder. Miss Taylor, who acts as Randall's conscience, tries to get him to stop the stories, but to no avail. The Townsends find out that Isopod was a fake, and Phillip's parents show up, demanding that the Townsends call the wedding off. Mr. Townsend decides to go to his church to ask his minister if he can appeal to the Gazette from running the stories. While he is out, Nancy calls the Gazette personally, begging to talk to anyone in charge. Nancy is constantly put off by both Hinchecliffe and Randall (in a nice touch, director Mervyn LeRoy uses split-screens and even triple-screens to visualize the various telephone conversations). When Nancy realizes that the paper will not stop the stories, and her daughter's wedding will be ruined, she commits suicide by taking poison.

Mr. Townsend returns to find his wife dead in the bathroom. Jenny and Phillip arrive, and in a devastating scene to watch, Townsend manages to prevent the young couple from finding out about Nancy's death. After he sends them out (telling them "I'm going to join Mother"), Townsend also commits suicide. Kitty Carmody, with a Gazette photographer in tow, sneaks into the apartment, and finds the bodies of the Townsends. Kitty doesn't call the police....she calls the paper, and yells at her shaken colleague to start taking pictures.

The Gazette puts the photo of the dead Townsends on the front page of a special edition. A distraught Randall goes to the speakeasy to try and drink things off, while a devastated Jenny is told by Phillip's parents that there is no way a wedding can take place now. The look on Marian Marsh's face cuts the viewer to the bone--here is a young woman who was looking forward to her wedding day, and now her parents are dead, and her mother's secret has finally been revealed to her.

Jenny grabs a gun and heads for the offices of the Gazette. There, a depressed Randall is being congratulated by Hinchecliffe, Brannigan, and French on one of the biggest one-day sales in the paper's history. When Randall brings up the topic of Nancy Vorhees' daughter, Hinchecliffe suggests giving the "poor child" $1000. A smirking Isopod thinks that is a generous idea. Jenny arrives, demanding to see Hinchecliffe. Brannigan and French scurry away, but Randall demands that Hinchecliffe and Isopod stay.

What follows next is the highlight of the film, and one of the main highlights of the whole Pre-Code era. Quietly, deliberately, Jenny accuses the men of having killed her mother and father. As the scene goes on, Jenny's voice gets louder and louder, and the movie's editing gets faster and faster. Jenny tells the man exactly what she thinks of them and their paper, and soon she is screaming at them, as quick close-ups of the shocked men's faces are shown. Jenny pulls out her gun, but she is stopped by doing any harm by a just-arriving Phillip, who takes her away.

Randall now takes the opportunity to tell off Hinchecliffe, and quits. A satisfied Miss Taylor follows him out--but it is only a hollow victory. The final scene shows the special edition of the Gazette being swept down a dirty street, along with the rest of the trash.

FIVE STAR FINAL may be a hard-hitting look at the tabloid newspaper business of the 1930s, but it still holds up today. At 89 minutes, it is a bit long for a Pre-Code film, but it moves like lightning, as so many of the early 1930s Warner Bros. pictures did. Directors like Mervyn LeRoy knew how to make a story move, and how to tell it without an excess of extraneous material. FIVE STAR FINAL is based on a play, written by an actual newspaperman who worked on a tabloid similar to the one depicted in the story. There's a lot of talking in this film, but one never feels that the story is staid or boring. A lot of that is due to the fine cast, who handle the many lines of dialogue superbly. One thing I noticed while watching this film again is how many scenes show someone talking on the phone. It would seem that pretending to have a phone conversation would be a simple thing for an actor.....but in FIVE STAR FINAL, the cast here makes a work of art out of it, especially Edward G. Robinson. Aline MacMahon in particular is standout at this--her phone scenes reveal Miss Taylor's cynicism and disappointment at her job, and at the actions of her boss Randall. Miss Taylor has a crush on Randall, and MacMahon conveys this in an understated manner. The actress steals every scene she is in, even though for the most part she is just sitting at a desk.

The dialogue in FIVE STAR FINAL is also filled with those snappy 1930s phrases and one-liners that Pre-Code fans can't get enough of, such as that "too high for the chewing gum crowd" comment. The rhythm and pace of the dialogue matches the rhythm and pace of the movie.

As for all the typical Pre-Code ingredients one expects when watching a film of this type, there's enough of them here. The local speakeasy appears to be where most of the Gazette staff hang out when they are not working, Ona Munson's Kitty Carmody could never exist in a Hollywood movie made a few years later--at least her cleavage couldn't. Boris Karloff's Isopod isn't just a fake preacher, he's also a bit of a pervert as well. In one scene he about twists his neck trying to look at Kitty's legs. Later in the film Kitty complains about having to share a cab ride with Isopod--she tells Randall that she doesn't have any skin left on her knees. (In some ways Isopod is more frightening than most of Karloff's actual monsters.) And then there is the Gazette itself--a "newspaper" which makes today's clickbait internet expose sites look tame.

What, for me, makes FIVE STAR FINAL stand head and shoulders over most other Pre-Code films is the movie's conception of mass media as a destructive force, geared toward all of the baser instincts of its audience. The double suicide of the Townsends is horrific act--especially since the viewer has seen the couple, and their daughter, as decent folk. The beauty and innocence of Marian Marsh as Jenny makes one feel even more emotional toward her fate. In the film the character of Jenny is said to be the age of 20; in real life Marian Marsh was only 17 when she played the role, and she looked younger. Marsh had just starred with John Barrymore in SVENGALI, and many consider that her best performance....but I feel the greatest moment of her career was the climax of FIVE STAR FINAL. Her rage is so overpowering it is almost scary, especially considering that she is almost the symbol of purity. It is the explosive grief of Marian Marsh that I will always remember when FIVE STAR FINAL comes to mind.

Marian Marsh

As I have stated before, FIVE STAR FINAL would be a great film from any era. Calling it just a Pre-Code movie kind of lessens it. It still remains powerful today....and, unfortunately, so does the American media.

Favorite TV Show Episode Blogathon--"The Night The Wizard Shook The Earth"

This post is my contribution to the Favorite TV Show Episode Blogathon, hosted by Terence Towles Canote at the A Shroud of Thoughts Blog. http://mercurie.blogspot.com/2015/03/the-favorite-tv-show-episode-blogathon.html


Growing up in the late 1970s and early 1980s, I was exposed to several examples of Classic American Network television. Before the advent of cable, and reality & talk shows, old TV episodes were about the only thing that was on when I was a kid. I can't say I have one single all-time favorite TV show--there's about five or six I would put at the top, depending on my mood.

One of these top five shows is THE WILD WILD WEST, which originally ran on the CBS network from 1965 to 1969. Influenced by the James Bond/spy boom of the early 1960s, TWWW was a mixture of espionage, Jules Verne, and "B" movie westerns. The show starred Robert Conrad as American secret agent James West, and Ross Martin as his partner Artemus Gordon. West and Gordon were assigned by President U. S. Grant himself to deal with extraordinary threats throughout the American frontier of the 1870s.

THE WILD WILD WEST, in my opinion, was one of the most entertaining shows in American television history. Each episode dealt with a intriguing villain (usually played by a notable guest star) who had some sort of outlandish plan which West and Gordon had to foil. James West was the good-looking unflappable hero who wasn't just a ladies man--he was also maybe the most physical leading character on TV. Robert Conrad, who did most of his own stunts, was perfect in the role. Artemus Gordon, a former actor, was a master of disguise, and also something of a amateur scientist, making him a kind of "Q" for James West. Ross Martin, a excellent character performer, took the role of "Artie" and ran with it, making Gordon into one of the best-loved sidekicks on the small screen.

If there is one single episode that I would have to discuss when it came to TWWW, it would have to be "The Night the Wizard Shook the Earth", This was only the third episode ever aired, on 10/1/65 during the series' first season. What makes it really important was that it was the debut of West and Gordon's biggest (no pun intended) adversary, Dr. Miguelito Loveless.

Michael Dunn as Dr. Loveless and Richard Kiel as Voltaire

At the beginning of the episode, we are introduced to a well-dressed dwarf and a towering figure in black, hiding in the night-time shadows of a gloomy pier. The small man explains to his giant companion that he has the world's most powerful explosive, even though it is the size of a pebble. The two men are awaiting the arrival of a Professor Nielsen, who also has the secret of the explosive.

James West has been assigned to guard the Professor, and he attempts to fool any assassins by posing as Nielsen. (If you are wondering why Artemus didn't pose as the Professor, it may be because this was one of the show's earliest epiosdes, and the character of Artie had not been truly defined yet.) The dwarf recognizes Nielsen, however, and kills the Professor with the explosive.

West accompanies Nielsen's secretary Greta (Leslie Parrish) back to her hotel room. Greta, however, is in cahoots with the Professor's killers. She leads West into a trap, which he escapes from. West becomes suspicious of Greta and tells her that the Professor gave him the secret of the explosive before he died. West hints to Greta that he would be willing to sell the secret to the highest bidder. Greta agrees to take West to an interested party--and the viewer is now officially introduced to Dr. Miguelito Loveless.

The writer of this episode, John Knuebuhl, created the character of Dr. Loveless specifically for Michael Dunn. Knuebuhl had read about Dunn in a newspaper article and felt he would make an interesting villain for the show. The 3 foot 10 inch Dunn was not just a gimmick--he was an acclaimed actor in his own right (Dunn would even be nominated for a Best Supporting Actor Oscar for his role in SHIP OF FOOLS).

Dr. Loveless may be small in stature, but he's no pushover. When James West goes to the Doctor home and first sees him, Loveless is involved in a match with three burly wrestlers, who he makes quick work of. West finds out that Loveless is not a raving madman, but a refined, cultured intellectual who even sings (Loveless performs alongside Michael Dunn's real-life singing partner Phoebe Darin as Antoinette). Dunn's exquisite way with dialogue makes the viewer hang on his every word. Dunn makes Loveless so fascinating, he overshadows West and Gordon. (The episode hints that Loveless is developing radio, the aircraft, the automobile, and even television!)

Loveless explains to West that he wants half of California given back to him, since he claims that it was originally owned by his Spanish ancestors. Loveless threatens to kill 5,000 people with his explosive if his demands are not met. After West tell the Governor of the demands, Loveless captures him....but West uses his charms on Greta to effect an escape. West finds out from Greta that Loveless is going to set off the explosive in a clock tower next to the Governor's mansion.

West rushes to the tower and he and Loveless battle over the explosive on the scaffolding inside the tower (a scene which shows off the physical prowess of both Robert Conrad and Michael Dunn). West saves the day, and the Doctor is put in jail--but he wouldn't stay there long.

Michael Dunn made a huge splash as Dr. Loveless, and he played the role a total of ten times during the run of TWWW. In later episodes the Doctor's plans would become more and more flamboyant. In "The Night the Wizard Shook the Earth" there's nothing campy about Loveless--he's a dangerous man, and a suitable foil for the handsome West. The character of Dr. Loveless is now remembered as one of the great classic TV show villains--whenever anyone thinks of THE WILD WILD WEST, Dr. Loveless comes to mind just as much as James West and Artemus Gordon do.

The first season of TWWW was filmed in black & white, and this season was moodier and less outlandish than the second season of the show. In between the first and second seasons of TWWW, the BATMAN show premiered. I don't know this for sure, but I think the success of BATMAN had an affect upon TWWW. In the second season of TWWW, the show was in color, and the stories and villains became wilder and wilder (the bad guys in particular starting veering into BATMAN territory). In the third season things seemed to tone down a bit. The fourth season was dramatically hurt by the heart attack of Ross Martin, which caused the actor to miss several episodes. TWWW was still getting decent ratings when it was cancelled--CBS pulled the plug on it because they were worried over a Federal Commission on violence which targeted certain network TV shows. By today's standards, of course, the show looks tame....but nearly every episode had a huge fight scene where James West would take on several enemies single-handily (how James never tore his tighter-than-tight pants during any of these battles I'll never know). Compared to other action TV shows of the time, the stunts of TWWW were pretty rough--both Robert Conrad and Ross Martin were severely injured at one time or another.

THE WILD WILD WEST still runs on syndication to this day, and is available on home video (I have all four seasons on DVD). The show had such an impact on pop culture that it even warranted a horrible big-screen adaptation in 1999 (the less said about that, the better). I've loved the show since I was a kid, and I believe it still holds up very well. Robert Conrad and Ross Martin were a great team, and the combination of Western setting, action-adventure, lovely girls, and Bondian elements made every episode seem like a feature film. You can't go wrong with just about any episode of THE WILD WILD WEST, but "The Night the Wizard Shook the Earth" is a good place to start.

Ross Martin and Robert Conrad

RED ARMY

*In the interests of full disclosure, I must admit that this blog post was written by a lifelong Chicago Blackhawks fan.





One of the most powerful and feared sports teams of the 1970s and 1980s did not play for a North American professional league. The Soviet Union's Red Army Hockey Club was considered all but invincible back then, so much so that when it was defeated in the medal round by the United States team in the 1980 Winter Olympics, it was looked upon as one of the greatest upsets in sports history.

One of the leaders of that team was superb defenseman Viacheslav ("Slava") Fetisov. Fetisov's story is the main focus of Gabe Polsky's documentary RED ARMY.

Through several interviews with Fetisov, we are taken back to the time of the Cold War and Soviet domination of international hockey. We see how hard it was to become a Red Army player in the first place, and how it was even harder to be a fully-fledged member of the team. I always assumed that great athletes in the Soviet Union got special privileges, but RED ARMY shows that more often than not the players were worked like dogs (and they were just about treated like dogs as well).

After the Red Army's loss against the U. S. in 1980, the team went on to win the Gold Medal in the next two Olympics. Despite that Fetisov and his teammates became increasingly dissatisfied with their tyrannical head coach, Victor Tikhonov. By the late 80s and early 90s a number of Russian players began leaving their country to go to the West and play in the National Hockey League, and Fetisov was among them. Fetisov's arrival in North America brought on a whole new series of problems, but eventually he and his fellow Russian players were accepted in the NHL, and Fetisov went on to play on two consecutive Stanley Cup champions with the Detroit Red Wings.

After his retirement as an active player, Fetisov went back to Russia and was named Minister of Sport by Vladimir Putin. His challenge today is trying to keep hockey relevant in a country that has become chaotic since the downfall of the Soviet Union.

RED ARMY is obviously a film about sports, but don't make the mistake of thinking that only hardcore hockey fans will enjoy it. When I was a kid the Red Army hockey team was portrayed as a monolithic machine. Gabe Polsky shows the viewer that the members of that team were unique individuals in their own right, not just representatives of a repressive regime. The most unique of all is Slava Fetisov. The legendary defenseman may have spent of lot of time in the West, but he is certainly not "Americanized". Fetisov is man of few words--he shows more but not saying something than by talking. Polsky wisely keeps the camera tight on Fetisov during these quiet moments (put a camera on an American athlete and he or she will do nothing but talk). RED ARMY also shows Fetisov as a very proud man who has a bit of an edge to him (which is understandable when one thinks about the circumstances under which Fetisov has lived).

There is plenty of stuff here for hockey addicts to lap up, such as rare footage of the Red Army team in action, and interviews with hockey greats such as Scotty Bowman and several of Fetisov's Russian teammates. (If you happen to be a fan of the chant "Detroit Sucks", be warned--there's plenty of Red Wings footage toward the end.) There's even a voice cameo from the great hockey announcer Pat Foley.

For those not so sports-inclined, RED ARMY also serves as a cultural history of the late 20th Century and the late Soviet Union. The documentary does not choose political sides, but after watching it a viewer cannot help but look upon the Russian nation with sorrow--the Communist system is still cursing the country and its people to this very day. If Fetisov and his former teammates come off as a bit hard to read, one has to remember what these men went through and the times they lived in.

Entertaining, informative, and amusing, RED ARMY is an fine documentary that should be seen by even those who have no interest in competitive sports. I can't help but wonder what Producer/Writer/Director Gabe Polsky's next project will be.