There are many bad things about the 21st century so far, but one great thing is that all kinds of interesting stuff from the 20th century can no be seen on DVD and Blu-ray - and formerly lost films (and books about them) seem to be turning up all the time.
First, in videos, there's Sid Caesar. . .Yes, indeed, this blogger has already ordered the comprehensive collection, Sid Caesar -The Works, which represents quite the compendium of incredibly funny sketches from The Admiral Broadway Review, Your Show Of Shows and Caesar's Hour. Interviews and extras include the 2014 Paley Center For Media Tribute with Mel Brooks, Carl Reiner and Billy Crystal, the feature film Ten From Your Show Of Shows and the 1967 Reunion Special.
Much of this set's content I laughed loudly at during a wonderful Sid Caesar tribute program I saw in 1984, when the Museum Of Broadcasting, during a stay in Los Angeles, presented a Sid Caesar tribute. It will be FANTASTIC to see these classic shows again! Arguably only the cast of SCTV equals the blazing ensemble brilliance of Sid Caesar, Imogene Coca, Howard Morris, Carl Reiner and Nanette Fabray!
The set includes:
• Excerpts From Caesar's Writers
• The Chevy Show, Featuring Sid Caesar
• Mel Brooks: In The Beginning – The Caesar Years
• The Paley Center For Media 2014 Tribute, Featuring Mel Brooks, Carl Reiner And Billy Crystal
• The 1983 Episode Of Nightcap, With Sid Caesar, Mel Brooks And Carl Reiner
The first 1,500 who order Sid Caesar -The Works from ShoutFactory.com will receive an exclusive bonus disc, Sid Caesar: Extra Portion, which contains 13 more sketches from Your Show Of Shows and Caesar's Hour:
Shifting gears from the Golden Age of Live TV to early cinema, we ask the question, when was the first sound film? This writer is not sure of when the first was produced - pioneering filmmaker Alice Guy Blache experimented with sound technology very early - but the earliest ones to be released on DVD are the Thomas Edison films made using his invention, the Kinetophone, back in 1913. And they're on DVD, thanks to the incredible and painstaking work done by the Library of Congress, spearheaded by Geo. Willeman and working with Jerry Fabris of the Thomas Edison National Historical Park as well as technicians in the Library of Congress - Audio Visual Conservation's video and audio labs.
This includes eight complete Edison talking films from 1913, one for which the sound element does not survive, and a 25 minute documentary about their production, hosted by Geo. Willeman. Ben Model produced this with Greenbriar Picture Shows and has released it on Undercrank Productions. We hear the first run of copies sold out at this weekend's Cinefest at the Rome Theatre in NY, but The Kinetophone: A Fact! A Reality! can be ordered via the Undercrank Productions page, as well as Amazon and/or other online vendors. By all means, get a copy of The Kinetophone: A Fact! A Reality!, quite the eye-opener and of great interest to anyone fascinated by the histories of filmmaking, technology and audio recording.
There are so many books out on aspects of classic movies it's tough to know where to start. A flurry of 'em, quite a few available on TCM's web page, are out or soon to be out.
The Laurel & Hardy Movie Scripts, annotated by Hal Roach Studios and Laurel & Hardy expert Randy Skredvedt is an outstanding collection of screenplays from the great comedy team's short films. They are hilarious on film and also very funny on the printed page.
And, speaking of Laurel & Hardy, there's a new book all about the character actor who, at the age of 21, under lots of makeup, portrayed the uber-evil and dastardly Barnaby with undeniable relish in The Hal Roach Studio's 1934 feature film version of Babes In Toyland, starring Stan & Babe.
Henry Brandon, King Of The Bogeymen is penned by Bill Cassara and Richard S. Greene, two friends of the chameleonic actor, who was nothing if not prolific and frequently totally unrecognizable from one part to the next. Henry Brandon, King Of The Bogeymen is another labor of love which has paid off.
Two fun new books represent opposite poles in showbiz. . . the raucous comedy team of Dean Martin & Jerry Lewis and the Philadelphia socialite turned movie star turned Princess of Monaco Grace Kelly.
Michael Hayde, co-author with Chuck Harter of a superb book on comedian Harry Langdon, has done it again with his latest, Side By Side, on the phenomenon that was Dean Martin & Jerry Lewis. As a fan of Martin & Lewis' hilarious appearances on The Colgate Comedy Hour, I am delighted that this book focuses on their television work, as well as their appearances on radio. Martin & Lewis were toned down for feature films!
The latest from Mary Mallory of LA Daily Mirror and the Hollywood Heritage Museum, Living with Grace: Life Lessons from America's Princess, gives the ever-upbeat Grace Kelly her due. The press release elaborates, "Poised, cultured, and unforgettable, Grace Kelly had the aura of a princess, even before she was crowned. She exuded grace, polish, flair, and serenity as a fashion icon, actor, and humanitarian. Living with Grace is a captivating look at this elegant woman who has been an inspiration for many and whose legacy enlightens a new generation of fans. Seldom seen photos and outtakes are complemented by inspiring quotes from and about Grace and the famous roles she played. These words and images highlight what made her so iconic on film and in life."
Rare photos are illustrated by quotes from interviews with Princess Grace and remembrances from her friends and colleagues, in Monaco and movies.
One of our favorites on this blog, Leonard Maltin has a new book, Hooked on Hollywood: Discoveries from a Lifetime of Film Fandom. Some of the first film history books read cover-to-cover by many of us were penned by Leonard, so we, big fans of his Classic Movie Guide, are always happy to hear from him.
Wrapping up today's post, shall note the splendid book we're deeply in the midst of at this writing - not a new release but most noteworthy - Tracey Goessel's 2015 biography, The First King Of Hollywood The Life Of Douglas Fairbanks.
Thus far, find this nothing short of a fantastic read about the restless, ambitious, charismatic and athletic young man who started on stage and then made his name in a series of wildly popular light comedies for Triangle before starring as the swashbuckler of swashbucklers, in such action pictures as Robin Hood, The Thief Of Bagdad and The Black Pirate. . . Highly recommended!
This is a stellar weekend for movie buffs on both coasts, with Rome, New York's Capitolfest in full swing and the Broncho Billy Silent Film Festival at the Niles Essanay Silent Film Museum starting tonight.
The Friday night program will pay tribute to the one, the only Max Linder, the first bonafide comedy star of the silver screen.
The always dapper Max, star of 238 films, was one of the greatest movie comedians who ever lived and among the very few who preceded Chaplin as a star of his own series, beginning in 1905. Before John Bunny and Mack Sennett, there was Max Linder.
Tonight's program, with accompaniment by pianist David Drazin, shall include the following Max Linder comedies. TROUBLES OF A GRASSWIDOWER will be presented in a 35mm print.
One of these days, this writer and silent comedy buff would love to see a restoration and screening of Max Linder's hilarious sendup of The 3 Musketeers, Douglas Fairbanks and swashbucklers in general, The Three Must-Get-There's.
San Francisco Silent Film Festival? Pordenone? TCM Classic Film Fest? MoMA NY? Throwing down the gauntlet!
The Broncho Billy Silent Film Festival is in the Niles Historic District (of Fremont) where the early cowboy star Broncho Billy Anderson and comic Charlie Chaplin made movies for the Essanay Studios. There will be very rare screenings of drama, comedy, action, silent serial stars and travelogues to exotic lands, as well as the recently discovered A TRIP DOWN MARKET STREET filmed shortly after the 1906 earthquake.
In addition to tonight's Max Linder program, Robert Bloomberg and Eric Kurland will be presenting early 3D films on Saturday, including Bob's 3-D doc on the 1906 and 1989 bay area earthquakes. A Sunday panel discussion, "Heroes and Villains- Film Collectors and Movie Pirates" will feature a panel of collectors/film detectives/archivists/restoration experts Jon Mirsalis, Peter Conheim and Kathy Rose O'Regan. The program concludes with screenings the spoof CAPTAIN CELLULOID VS. THE FILM PIRATES and THE GREAT TRAIN ROBBERY in a unique surprise presentation, both with musical accompaniment by Jon Mirsalis.
Go here to check out the Broncho Billy Silent Film Festival schedule, as well as buy advance tickets and festival passes.
Heard the outstanding news that there was not an empty seat in the house at Nelson Hughes' program of Slapstick Comedy Treasures from the Library of Congress in NYC last night!
That means this blogger feels at peace with the world, unlike Alice Howell in the following mayhem-filled frame grab.
This Blogmeister is happily Way Out West, visiting his home of six decades, Northern California and enjoying many terrific events along the way. For classic movie fans, Charlie Chaplin Days at the Niles Essanay Silent Film Museum is not to be missed. The 2018 Niles Charlie Chaplin Days were fantastic and featured such special guests as David Totheroh, the grandson of Chaplin's cameraman, movie locations expert John Bengston and The Chaplin Guy, Jason Allin, whose impersonations of Charlie and Martin Short are dead-on.
Also saw Budapest Noir, a rare current movie I liked a great deal, starring the charismatic and Gerard Depardieu-like Kolovratnik Krisztián.
Even given the both geriatric and surprisingly rude audience that elbowed us every step to our balcony seats at San Francisco's Castro Theatre that night, this was a great time at the movies, capped by Eddie "The Czar Of Noir" Muller's interview with the film's ace director, Éva Gárdos. Will waive the "I don't like current films" rule whenever one of Gárdos' top-notch 21st century movies gets a theatrical run or a revival, whether in San Francisco, CA or Woodstock, NY.
Much classic movie-related goodness is forthcoming on both coasts (in New York, at Film Forum) and more epic events are happening this month. It says something about the spirit of Northern California that Niles' Broncho Billy Silent Film Festival, the horror movie memorabilia-filled Creatures Con and science fiction dom's Worldcon in San Jose all transpire in the same few days. Is there a possibility that friends and colleagues will be presenting tres cool 16mm movie fun at the last two events? Maybe.
While missing our humble abode and not humble mascots (A.K.A. los tres gatos), it has been rejuvenating to see old friends, family and explore former haunts. Escaping the Northeast's sweltering temps and bizarre summer thunderstorms has been not too shabby as well. . .
Classic movie buffs in NYC get a treat on Friday evening: a program of silent comedies, curated by Nelson Hughes and rescued from decades in the cinematic Twilight Zone by painstaking restoration work from The Library of Congress.
On the program: a 1916 Plump & Runt 2-reeler co-starring a youthful yet rotund Oliver Hardy with Billy Ruge, more than a decade before Hardy teamed with Stan Laurel at the Hal Roach Studio. This was just one of dozens of films Hardy appeared in during his years working in Jacksonville, FLA for the Vim Comedy Company.
There will also be films starring the amazingly unsympathetic rapscallion Billie Ritchie and the World War I era and 1920's Queen of Slapstick, the hilarious Alice Howell.
It's not just classic movies, animation and music that represents what we at Way Too Damn Lazy To Write A Blog was good about the 20th century, but also history and vintage photography. We assume the incredible shot of blogmeister favorite New York City seen above was snapped in 1949, as The Barkleys Of Broadway was released in the fall of that year.
Here's another cool photo, adeptly capturing the lights fantastic at the RKO Palace! Now I want to see Sailors Beware starring Martin & Lewis AND the live comedy revue hosted by Helzapoppin' stars Ole Olsen & Chic Johnson! Standup comic Jackie Miles opens!
At the Brooklyn Fox Theatre, a rockin' Alan Freed show, headlined by master guitar slinger Bo Diddley.
We do know who took these great shots at the 52nd Street jazz club The Three Deuces: these offer just a taste of the work by the brilliant photographer William Gottlieb.
Last but not least, this wonderful photo taken outside the Apollo Theater. Guess this would be winter 1968-1969. No doubt a fabulous time was had by all who attended this concert.
If any photography buffs have read this post, by all means contact us here with more info on those incredible photos; we at Way Too Damn Lazy To Write A Blog love 'em.
Monsieur Blogmester a.k.a. Paul F. Etcheverry in his natural habitat, which could also be a curry joint in San Francisco.
Yes, we've been on hiatus. Unfortunately, this hiatus has not been spent eating bagels in front of Russ & Daughters in New York City while Madame Blogmeister is inside, selecting a bounty of smoked salmon and other astonishing food to bring back to the ol' homestead in Ulster.
This blogger has been out of action largely due to a sick computer. The "old reliable" MacBook Pro, due to a security vulnerability in the High Sierra system, is now a "hacked Mac," out of action and currently sporting a firmware lock. If only Mountain Lion - or a new operating system named Pete Puma - could be brought back to devour the rogue code. . .
Lots has happened since our last post. On the positive side, a computer on the 21 day disabled list makes it easier to avoid the putrid, fetid, tribal, tres toxic cesspool that is social media, and the epic San Francisco Silent Film Festival presented serious big screen glory last weekend at the Castro Theatre to close out May with style.
Alas, missed the festival entirely in 2017 and 2018, after a few years of, due to a lengthy illness in the family, just catching a handful of the programs. This year's "it costs too much to go" call turned out to be quite the mistake, as the dean of silent film history and preservation, filmmaker/author/scholar Kevin Brownlow, was the festival's special guest and celebrated his 80th birthday there. Oh well. . . hope to make it to the 2019 San Francisco Silent Film Festival. Until then, we'll watch our Charlie Chaplin Blu-rays, Undercrank Productions DVDs and Cartoon Roots compilations curated by silent animation expert Tommy Jose Stathes. . .
Also pleased that the mighty Golden State Warriors and Cleveland Cavaliers are yet again in the NBA Finals and the one, the only Madison Bumgarner a.k.a. The Sheriff recovered from a broken pinky to pitch for the San Francisco Giants.
While our cats Yogi and Raymond fight in the background, we await the date of the next (and as of yet unannounced) KFJC Psychotronix Film Festival at Foothill College. We look forward to schlepping boxes bursting with 16mm film reels to yet another rilly big shoe!
The scuttlebutt is that the next
KFJC Psychotronix Film Festival at Foothill will transpire either on the last Saturday of July or the first Saturday in August. Robert Emmett will make an official announcement on KFJC's Saturday morning Norman Bates Memorial Soundtrack Show. Before this show, my co-programmers/curators Sci Fi Bob Ekman and Scott Moon shall present a mini-Psychotronix program to celebrate the re-opening of the New Rheem Theatre in Moraga on June 30.
On the extremely negative side, three tragic and untimely passings have saddened us here at Way Too Damn Lazy To Write A Blog.
The rotten news: chef and TV host turned writer and documentary filmmaker Anthony Bourdain, San Francisco 49er receiver
Dwight Clark, of "the catch" fame, and guitar genius Phil Emmanuel have passed.
The Anthony Bourdain Parts Unknown programs top the very short list of this blogmeister's favorite TV shows - no, that would be his only favorite current show - while Madame Blogmeister has several of Bourdain's enjoyable, lively and well-written books in hardcover. He would no doubt scoff and give both a dirty look and a middle finger salute to anyone suggesting his death is a blow to the forces of cultural, literary and cinematic literacy - and yes, that's a cultural literacy that includes Iggy Pop & The Stooges, The Bad Brains, James White & The Blacks, Lou Reed's band featuring guitarist Robert Quine and Richard Hell & The Voidoids - but that's how it feels.
It appears Mr. Bourdain's passing was a direct result of the deadly combination of a failing relationship with more than a few close encounters with Ol' Man Depression too many. We can only hope for the best for the surviving family members of Mr. Bourdain, as well as those of the recently passed fashion designer Kate Spade, also a suicide. The family members are on the receiving end of a most rotten deal. Ol' Man Depression is a killer and a destroyer of families.
If you or anyone you know is considering suicide or self-harm or is anxious, depressed, upset, or needs to talk, there are people who want to help:
In the United States:
Crisis Text Line: Text START to 741741 from anywhere in the USA, at any time, about any type of crisis
The National Suicide Prevention Lifeline: 1-800-273-8255
San Francisco Bay Area sports legend Dwight Clark, a much-loved, bonhomie-filled and by all accounts devastatingly funny fellow, passed after a lengthy battle with ALS.
One positive has been the outpouring of love and support by Dwight's friends and family through his illness.
Music (and especially guitar) aficionados shall recite a riff-filled rosary for the great Phil Emmanuel, brother of fellow guitar slinger Tommy and among the truly super-talented musical families, along with the Carlings of Sweden and the Marsalises of New Orleans. So, to at least attempt to close today's depressing post on a positive note, actually A BUNCH of positive notes (including 16th and 32nd notes), here are Phil & Tommy Emmanuel, doing what they do so well.
When that topic for the day's post is truly elusive, more elusive than the Elusive Butterly Of Love sought by Bob Lind, about all that can be done is to say "I've got it - let's find cheesy print ads and post 'em!
Here's a post-flapper era Lucky Strike ad, featuring a couple that gets fully dressed post-whoopee faster than Joan Crawford and Clark Gable in Possessed. "Everybody's doing it!"
Here's a doozy promoting Crunchie candy bars: a "bright sunny day + beach + exciting biting of Crunchie = subsequent hours and hours of sex" advertisement which very likely sold lots and lots of chocolate bars to hopeful Brits. At long last this writer understands that joke in the Monty Python's Flying Circus episode The Cycling Tour in which Michael Palin, as the gloriously clueless "Mr. Pither," says "severely damaged my Crunchie."
In the "it sounded like a good idea at the time" department, here's a 1957 print ad for Kool-Aid, found in the DesignCrowd blog's 100 Year Evolution Of Print Advertising. While this golden color works for a lager beer from Munich or Canada, the implications for a tall frosty glass of Kool-Aid prove less than appetizing. Don't know what lasted longer, the Edsel or "Golden Nectar" Kool-Aid.
Then again, Rheingold Beer, with the aid of the accordion-wielding Miss Rheingold of 1956, maybe could have gotten away with calling the New York brew "golden nectar," as long as it was also dry. . . extra dry!
Admittedly, the following Lucky Strikes ad isn't cheesy by any stretch of the imagination, due to the presence of Marlene Dietrich.
There's some truth in advertising here as well. It is not a stretch to imagine Marlene chain-smoking backstage after delivering 27 consecutive songs for an adoring audience - and pondering the set list for the next performance. Maybe the boys in the back room will have cases of Rheingold Beer and Lucky Strikes.
What we at Way Too Damn Lazy To Write A Blog would have really liked in a print ad would have been an even longer, ridiculously long cigarette holder, Tex Avery MGM cartoon long, followed by a sign saying "Long Darn Cigarette Holder, Isn't It?" The one Audrey Hepburn as Holly Golightly in Breakfast At Tiffany's uses, which barely fits in the film frame, would be a start.
There must have been a favorite cigarette holder of Tallulah Bankheadexactly along those lines, but, alas, Tallu didn't do cigarette commercials. She did, however, do radio shows with Groucho Marx!
Even before he hosted You Bet Your Life, Groucho did his share of print ads. He was quite an avid reader, so this one for G.E. lightbulbs seems appropriate. One wonders if when Groucho did these ads, "Chico needed the money."
Watching Richard Fleischer's amazing thriller The Narrow Margin on TCM's Noir Alley recently, realized that Way Too Damn Lazy To Write A Blog has never devoted an entire post to movies with trains in them or set on trains. Fritzi Kramer of Movies Silently wrote an entertaining post on the origins of the Silent Movie Myth: Tied to the Railroad Tracks - that damsel in distress image from stage, deftly spoofed both by the likes of Mack Sennett's studio and, 45 years later, Jay Ward's Dudley Do-right of the Mounties cartoons - so by golly, we'll give this the old college try, starting with a musical interlude!
Since one of the first American-made movies to be a boffo hit was Edwin S. Porter's The Great Train Robbery, this sounds like a plan. So let's do the locomotion, first with Bulgarian-French Scopitone queen Sylvie Vartan.
Shifting from French Scopitones to animation, The Fleischer studio made lots of cartoons on trains over nearly 30 years in production, including many that preceded talkies. One of the numerous cartoons from the Fleischer studio's late 1920's Inkwell Imps series, Koko's Toot Toot, features Koko The Clown as an engineer.
Kitty From Kansas City, a 1931 Max Fleischer Screen Song cartoon, stars the one, the only Betty Boop and features crooner/comedian/actor Rudy Vallee.
Betty hosts her own train in The Betty Boop Limited, at least the second train cartoon - well, that we know of - featuring Betty. We assume Miriam Hopkins didn't want the job - and we are certain Marlene Dietrich and Josef von Sternberg were NOT interested, either! La Boop, under contract to Paramount Pictures, no doubt had to do this cartoon, since the Fleischer Studio's #1 rival Walt Disney and ace animator Un Iwerks had already made Mickey's Choo-Choo in 1929.
In addition, Disney made at least one train cartoon prior to Mickey's Choo-Choo. That would be the 1927 silent Hungry Hoboes, starring Oswald The Lucky Rabbit.
Since today's compendium of clips and cartoons will have one unifying factor, locomotives, we'll post arguably the greatest train cartoon ever made, the 1936 Max Fleischer Color Classic Play Safe, featuring the distinctive Fleischer visual style and a terrific score by Sammy Timberg.
Animation buffs have been arguing over The Fleischer Studio’s ‘Setback’ Camera vs. Disney realism for eight decades and maybe shall do this for at least eight more decades. Whether you prefer the Disney or Fleischer approaches, the multiplane camera or the revolving tabletop mini-sets, Play Safe remains one of the most imaginative cartoons to emerge from the Fleischer Studio.
As far as feature films set on trains go, this blogger's favorite, hands-down, remains Richard Fleischer's classic Narrow Margin, co-starring macho tough guy Charles McGraw with macho tough gal Marie Windsor. Yes, that's right - Richard Fleischer, son of Max Fleischer and nephew of Dave, the producers of the last three cartoons.
The very first train film this blogger was ever aware of was a silent movie starring comedian Monty Banks, Chasing Choo Choos. If Mr. Blogmeister remembers correctly, first saw this in one of the Robert Youngson comedy compilation features.
The Robert Youngson comedy compilation features, Laurel & Hardy’s Laughing 20's and Four Clowns in particular, constituted this writer's introduction to the films of The Hal Roach Studio.
There are so many Roach comedies involving trains - Get Out & Get Under, Now Or Never (Harold Lloyd), Berth Marks (Laurel & Hardy), Young Ironsides (Charley Chase), Sundown Limited, Railroadin’ and Choo-Choo (Our Gang) and Show Business (Thelma Todd & Zasu Pitts), just to name a few - it would take further posts to come close to getting into all of them.
A significant portion of one of the funniest of all Charley Chase talkies, Young Ironsides (1932), co-starring Muriel Evans, is notable for a hilarious scene that transpires on a train and features a recalcitrant green vegetable.
The mention of daredevil Harold Lloyd recalls another intrepid, triple-jointed acrobatic comedian from silents, Al St. John, who, very likely in response to John Ford's big budget epic of epics The Iron Horse, starred in the stellar silent comedy The Iron Mule. Roscoe Arbuckle, Al's uncle and frequent co-star (at Sennett and Comique) directed. And whenever there's a post-1922 Arbuckle and/or St. John picture, it's worth looking carefully for Buster Keaton, known to make cameo appearances in his friends' films.
And speaking of Buster Keaton, had the pleasure of seeing Buster's epic of epics to out-epic The Iron Horse, The General in one of the San Francisco Silent Film Festival programs and was completely, entirely blown away. If one is lucky enough to have an opportunity to see it on the big screen with an audience, don't miss it. The General is truly spectacular and loses a fair amount of its magic when viewed on the small screen.
One guy who very likely saw The Iron Horse, The Iron Mule and The General was cartoonist, animator and movie director Frank "Tish Tash" Tashlin. Among a slew of excellent Looney Tunes cartoons Tashlin directed, Porky's Railroad tackles the "modern vs. old reliable" storyline, bringing creative uses of pacing, editing, camera angles and great gags to the process.
Back to features, a big screen epic that very likely loses a great deal of its impact seen on TV, iPad or (God help us) smart phone is Cecil B. DeMille's 1939 Paramount opus Union Pacific, starring Barbara Stanwyck and Joel McCrea. Haven't seen it and thus cannot comment further with any authority or knowledge, but . . . WOW - the iconic Babs and McCrea are on hand and if the film is 1/10 as cool as the titles, it's movie fun exemplified. And besides, the Fleischers spoofed it with the Popeye cartoon Onion Pacific!
Out the same year as Union Pacific: one of the last British feature films of Alfred Hitchcock, The Lady Vanishes. Did Hitchcock have a thing about trains? Yes - both the prim Sir Alfred Hitchcock who made Number Seventeen and The Lady Vanishes and the not-so-prim Sir Alfred of Shadow Of A Doubt and Strangers On A Train. There are Hitch cameos three of the films!
Given that Hitchcock's 1936 feature Sabotage is not at all prim and in fact shockingly diabolical in its denouement, the character of Bruno Anthony in Strangers On A Train, played brilliantly by Robert Walker, remains the personification of the all-American movie psychopath and just one among several in the Hitchcock catalog: bloodthirsty scum of the earth, yet unnervingly clever.
It was no accident that when Patricia Hitchcock made an in-person appearance at an SRO screening of Strangers On A Train at the Stanford Theatre in Palo Alto, CA many years ago (but decades after the film's original theatrical release), the line ran around the block!
Now just what the link between The Master Of Suspense and mid-1960's pop music is, we don't know, have no idea, but while this blogmeister can't remember a specific episode of The Monkees TV show that takes place on a train offhand, what the hey, who cares, Last Train To Clarksville is a great tune - one of their best!
A fellow 1960's pop music star and recording artist, Little Eva, gets the last word on today's post.
It's a don't worry, we'll think of a title kind of day and, as we're enjoying listening to The Norman Bates Memorial Soundtrack Show on KFJC, the topic of today's post shall be trailers a.k.a. coming detractions.
While we're not big fans of sunshine, lollipops and rainbows at Way Too Damn Lazy To Write A Blog, we do like trailers from bad movies. No, let's make that trailers from very bad movies.
Have seen many of these movies in their entirety on Mystery Science Theater 3000, Cinema Insomnia or the live Cinematic Titanic and Rifftrax shows.
The following trailers are some lulus, and they come in extra cheesy flavors, just the way we like them at Way Too Damn Lazy To Write A Blog. We're amazed these fly-by-night production houses could even afford to make a trailer!
Then again, in the words of Mr. Lobo of Cinema Insomnia, they're not bad movies, just "misunderstood".
There's always the trailer to alert one to NOT watch the feature.
Some trailers actually show the ending of the film!
Others tip off the entire idea of the movie, in this case, "say, since that Batman TV show is the biggest boffo thing in showbiz, let's get a girl with ample cleavage and have her wear a Batwoman mask, then find a bunch of kids to dance the frug. Who needs a storyline?"
Continuing this cornucopia of cheap cinematic crap, the "coming detractions" trailer from The Mighty Gorga. Can a hard-working independent filmmaker produce a "rampaging dinosaur" epic on a budget of $1.50 and a three hour shooting schedule? No - definitely and emphatically!
If there could be a list of WTF??? and "why why why did this get produced???" movies, The Wild Women Of Wongo might be #1. Too bad Arthur Q. Bryan was not available to narrate the trailer in the voice of Elmer Fudd.
The YouTube channel of Something Weird Video, a company that specializes in the netherworld of "misunderstood" low, lower and no budget grindhouse movies, is the motherlode of schlock, trash and exploitation trailers.
Something Weird Video has assembled a vast lot of cinematic car wrecks one can't stop rubbernecking at - and we mean that as a compliment.
Here's a trailer for an indescribably terrible movie about a guy who, after a car accident, ends up as a preacher and ends up with a floozy - the cheap floozy to end all cheap floozies, strictly non-Screen Actors Guild variety. One imagines Doris Wishman, director/writer of Bad Girls Go To Hell and many more proudly sleazy (produced on-time and on-budget) exploitation flicks watched this one and took notes on how to make the tawdry storyline even more tawdry, with even less of a budget, less actors, less dialogue and less clothing.
The 7th Commandment was directed by Irvin Berwick, most certainly not a fan of sunshine, lollipops and rainbows, who also helmed the nearly as atrocious Monster Of Piedras Blancas. Funny, for some reason, it's always a pretty girl seen undressing before the gruesome murderous monster appears, as opposed to, say, Billy Sands, Maurice Gosfeld or Allan Melvin.
How does one close a post dedicated to flicks that will never, ever, be seen as part of the TCM Classic Film Festival? It is clear that, back in the 1980's, some fellows in the Twin Cities were watching these cinematic rejects and seeking the actual coming attractions trailers for said B-movies, as the boys of the KFJC Psychotronix Film Festival were doing in California.
Among the films this blogger has seen on Mystery Science Theatre 3000, Cinema Insomnia and Creature Features (and could not find a trailer for on YouTube), most infamous would be the one made by an El Paso fertilizer salesman, Manos: The Hands Of Fate.
Now THAT'S a great way to get the weekend started on the wrong track!
