It was 1976. Our young country was celebrating its 200th birthday, stronger than ever. The "Whip Inflation Now" craze had reached a fevered pitch. "I Will Survive" had yet to become the anthem for women everywhere. It was the year before Star Wars, and the people were still relying on primitive, low-tech films such as The Godfather and Chinatown for their blockbuster entertainment.
And in Palm Springs, California, a legend was about to meet his destiny. Duke Mitchell, lounge singer/comedian/voice actor/auteur, was working on his second film, GONE WITH THE POPE, a gritty crime drama. The film is described as his version of "The Godfather." Unfortunately, the limited budget was running out, and he could not complete his vision.
Five years later, he passed away. His film had been lost forever... Until the mid-90's. A young film editor named Bob Murawski had recovered more than a dozen reels of film and soundtrack. In between jobs, he worked on assembling the pieces Mitchell had filmed until he had a completed film to screen. In between that, he won the Oscar for his editing on The Hurt Locker. And now you know the rest of the story.
Duke Mitchell joins such honored directors as Ed Wood, Coleman Francis, Harold P. Warren, and Tommy Wiseau. The auteurs with a strong vision, a very limited budget, and a great deal of determination... who also make completely mind-boggling movies. For GONE WITH THE POPE, 24 years belatedly, will enter the collective consciousness alongside THE ROOM, "MANOS" THE HANDS OF FATE, and RED ZONE CUBA.
The movie takes place in some sort of hazy dream world where normal logic doesn't apply. It centers on Duke Mitchell's Paul, a small-time mob hitman brought out of jail to perform 7 hits in 2 cities. He is introduced as some sort of Gandhi or Jesus, beloved by all of the prisoners and giving them all long wet kisses on the cheek. In exchange for the hits, he gets three of his closest friends, disciples if you will, release from jail with him.
When he completes his job, he is able to escape on his private yacht with his friends. While sailing from Los Angeles, he decides that they should all go to Italy to kidnap the Pope. Eventually, he figures he can hold the holy man hostage for $1 from every Catholic in the world per day.
Like THE ROOM, it's a little hard to describe the insanity without spoiling all of the surprises. If you've seen the trailer, you know there's a nude 400 pound woman in the movie. The context is equally bizarre and perhaps the "highlight" of the movie. Paul's friend wants to get laid. Paul's solution? Pick up the first woman he sees in the park. She's hot and ready. Paul and his friend strip down and wrestle with her for several minutes before running out of the room giggling. The nude 400 pound lady proceeds to break the door off of its hinges.
But perhaps you're not a chubby chaser, and this scene is not your cup of tea. Perhaps you would prefer Paul's out-of-place rants against Pope Pius' lack of action against the Holocaust. And maybe you'd like a side of his promise to kill 100 priests for all of the Jews that died in the Holocaust. And then the plot to kidnap the Pope is as childish and idiotic as the plot to kidnap Hitler in HITLER DEAD OR ALIVE. Perhaps the film takes place in the same universe as THE INVENTION OF LYING, where people's words are taken at face value.
And not unlike THE ROOM or PLAN 9 FROM OUTER SPACE, the film stumbles around like a drunk person, occasionally crashing into a plot point and unable to stop rambling about its feelings. The film seems about half an hour longer than it actually is. I started to nod off, further degrading the line between dream and reality. The plot itself sort of dies a slow death. They kidnap the Pope, chit-chat with him, rant about the Holocaust, and then let him go, like a fish back into the sea.
Nothing, however, can prepare you for the incredible, shocking ending of GONE WITH THE POPE. No one will be allowed admission for the last 10 minutes. If you die from fright, you will receive a free coffin.
These photos appeared on Monster Zero Message Boards yesterday from a Flickr account. A message under these photos read:
"great detail I was told by a good friend in the movie biz. that this was one of the design's they were considering for the new 3D Godzila....! if you have new info on this movie, i would like to post it . thanks "
Considering the Godzilla 3D project was the brainchild of GODZILLA (2012) executive producer Yoshimitsu Banno, it's possible Legendary films may have access to use these molds (and considering how Toho considers that anything done on Godzilla eventually reverts back to them, it's extremely likely). Does that mean that they will be used or even considered? No, but it does offer some potential ideas of what the new Godzilla design may look like, considering they come from a project headed by one GODZILLA's (2012) executive producers.
The Wonderful World of Joesph Lai: An Exclusive Interview with Mike Leeder
Mike Leeder was kind enough to grant us and one other blog the exclusive rights to print the unedited version of his interview with IFD Head Joesph Lai which appeared in condensed form in Impact Magazine. This is the only actual interview that has even been done with Joesph Lai, most things you read about Joesph Lai and IFD around the internet has been made up by loons, liars, and people who don't know the first thing about IFD. Mike also sent along some great images which I'll be adding a little later today into the body of the article.
You might not recognise his name straight away, but trust me when I say you’ve probably seen several of his movies. Joseph Lai (Lai Sun-lan) is the head of the Hong Kong based Production & Distribution Company IFD Films & Arts. Yes, the company that gave the world all those Ninja movies starring Richard Harrison and various ‘gwailo’ actors and martial artists. Lai also gave many Hong Kong action directors including Phillip Ko (Ko Fei), Paul Wong (Wong Kwan) and Ridley Tsui (Tsui Po-wah) their first shots at directing movies. He also gave western martial arts actors including Bruce Fontaine, Kenn Goodman, Steve Brettingham, Michael Miller, Wayne Archer and even myself the opportunity to play leading roles in his movies. Lai, currently the Vice Chairman of the Hong Kong Movie Producers Association, is fully aware of the limitations of his movies; he doesn’t regard his movies as high art and doesn’t expect other people to. But as anyone who worked on any of his movies will admit, they were great fun, and they’re very entertaining to watch. I caught up with Joseph Lai at his Tsing Yi based office for the following interview.
The
Joseph Lai
Interview
By
Mike Leeder
Mike Leeder: Mr. Lai, thanks for talking to me. How did you first get involved in the film industry?
Joseph Lai: I’ve always been interested in movies, since I was a little kid, I used to watch all the old black & white Cantonese & Mandarin movies. As I got older and went to college, I got more and more interested in drama. I studied all aspects of theatre and drama, from performance to theory, front stage and back stage, all of which has served me well over the years. As for getting into the film industry, it’s thanks to my sister Terry Lai, who owns Intercontinental Film Distributors (one of the largest independent distributors of non Chinese movies in Hong Kong). They were starting to make the move into producing their own films, shot in Hong Kong but with English dialogue and featuring Western cast’s aimed for the international market. They hired American actors like Chris Mitchum (‘Fatal Score’, ‘Lethal Hunter’) for these films, and brought me in as an assistant director initially, but I also helped with translating, scriptwriting and many other things. It was hard work, but a great opportunity to learn everything I needed for the film industry. In about 1973, we also started to buy European films for distribution in Hong Kong, Taiwan, Thailand, the Philippines, Indonesia and so on. We did quite well with these films, but I also began to realize there was a gap in the market that we could fill. At this point there were very few Hong Kong companies that did much in the way of international distribution, and I knew that these films had a lot of potential for distribution in Europe, the Middle East, Africa and South America.
Mike Leeder: IFD was very much of the first Hong Kong companies to get proper worldwide distribution for their movies. Why do you think that was?
Joseph Lai: I think that too many companies were short-sighted, they were concentrating only on the local market and thought that international distribution was either an impossible dream, or just too much hassle. In fact, IFD was the first Hong Kong Production Company to attend film markets likes Cannes, MIFFED and the American Film Market (AFM). IFD was the first Hong Kong company to become an AFM member, Golden Harvest had become a member earlier but that was through registering itself in America, but we were the first Hong Kong registered company to become a member. At that time the AFM had very strange policies, such as your membership was only allowed if you were making English language films, and at that time we were the only company in HK making English language movies.
We couldn’t compete in Hong Kong with companies like Golden Harvest and the Shaw Brothers, they owned their own cinema chains throughout the territory, but we were the first company to really get good distribution deals overseas, soon followed by co-productions. One of first major co-production partners was Korea, they really liked Chinese Kung Fu action, and we found that it was cheaper to shoot there than in Hong Kong. We raised financing and cast some of the most popular Kung Fu actors at the time including Chen Hsing, Carter Wong and this Korean guy, Casanova Wong, in our very first production there, ‘The Magnificent’. The film did very well, and we went on to make many more co-productions with Korea, movies with Dragon Lee, Gordon Liu, Carter Wong and then later we did co-productions with Taiwan, Thailand and many other countries, At first we were just making Kung Fu movies, and I began to realize that only having Mandarin dialogue versions with subtitles wasn’t enough, some countries wouldn’t buy subtitled movies. So we started dubbing our films into English, I think that was another first for our company, to start offering English language versions of all our movies. The way we looked at it was, that there are many more people around the world who speak English, and would rather hear dialogue than read it. So we hired a lot of British people from the Radio & Television companies to come and work for us, ‘moonlighting’ as dubbers and doing the English dialogue for us. Looking back now, I can say that we could have done better sometimes, but at the time and with very limited budgets, I think we did a good job, and our films sold very well.
Mike Leeder: Why do you think that your films sold so well in the international market, when even now there are so many ‘prestigious’ Hong Kong movies have never officially been released in the West?
Joseph Lai: I think that because we were realistic when it came to selling our movies, we didn’t ask for outrageous prices or try to impose restrictions on companies. If you wanted to buy only the video rights for our movies for your country, that was not a problem to us. Some Hong Kong companies, would insist that if you bought their films, the film would have to get at least a limited theatrical release first and then after so many months it could be released on video. You can’t do that in every country or with every company, that can affect your relationship with buyers if you are imposing restrictions on them like that. We also built lasting relationships with distributors, they would come back to us time and time again for product. Our films might not have been the best films of all time, but people knew what they were getting with our films. We delivered on everything we offered them, so distributors came back for more.
Mike Leeder: Now initially IFD comprised yourself, Thomas Tang and Godfrey Ho, who was pretty much your director for all seasons. How did the three of you come to work together?
Joseph Lai: I knew Thomas from college, so I brought him into the business first and we were working together and then Godfrey came along, he was this very young enthusiastic director at the time. He’d worked for companies like Shaw Brothers and for other independent companies and producers. He came to us at IFD, and we worked as a team for several years on a lot of different movies and projects, before eventually Thomas and Godfrey left and set up their own companies, with Thomas setting up Filmmark and Godfrey continuing to do some work for us both before forming his own company. Godfrey has done so many projects, he is teaching Film now at Hong Kong Polytechnic!
Mike Leeder: IFD was the first company to really take advantage of the marketability of those hooded assassins, the Ninja, after the first Cannon Ninja films beganto do well, and the Ninja would go on to play an important role for your company and its filmography.
Joseph Lai: How do you know that? You know too much! (Laughing) I know we made so many different Ninja movies, ‘Ninja Terminator’, “Ninja Squad’, ‘Ninja Hunt’, ‘Ninja this’ and ‘Ninja That’..I really can’t remember all of them. When I travelled overseas I would always check out the cinemas and video shops in Europe and America to see what the audiences were responding to..I saw this movie by Cannon Films, called ‘Enter the Ninja’ And I didn’t really think it was very good, the action wasn’t special but the audience really liked it and it did very well for them. I thought that we could make movies like this very easily, Hong Kong is the best place for Kung Fu or martial arts action movie making, we know how to shoot martial arts action very well. We can always double someone for special moves, it’s even easier if they are wearing a mask!We can double them for everything!
I came back to Hong Kong and told Godfrey ho that we were going to make Ninja movies, and he didn’t really know what ‘Ninja’ were at that time. We worked out we could shoot the fight scenes with really skilled fighters and stuntmen, and then shot pick ups with the real actors, it would be easier that way. Ninjas wearing hoods, it really made it easier to shoot spectacular action and then have an actor pop up for dialogue and close ups.
Mike Leeder: Now the man who became immediately identifiable with your Ninja movies was Richard Harrison, a former Spaghetti western actor, he’d previously worked in Hong Kong on the Shaw Brothers ‘Marco Polo’ and ‘Boxer Rebellion’ movies. You used him as the ‘Hollywood’ star of such films as ‘Ninja Terminator’, ‘Ninja Hunt’, ‘Ninja Squad’, ‘Ninja Silent Assassin’ and so many movies. When you first hired him, did he have any idea of how many movies he would be starring in?
Joseph Lai: I don’t think he knows exactly how many movies we would end up using him for. (Laughing) It’s even hard for me to say just how many movies he appeared in for us, we did everything from ‘Ninja Thunderbolt’, ‘Ninja Operation’, ‘Ninja Dragon’, ‘Ninja this’ & ‘Ninja that’. At the time, the market was so strong, the demand for action and martial arts and especially Ninja movies was almost too much. Even though we could work fast, we couldn’t supply enough movies to met demands and that was when we began thinking of some of movies we already had in our vaults, or movies from countries like Korea and Thailand for instance, could we update or change them by editing new footage into them by adding Ninjas or western actors, so we could market them internationally. Back then some buyers didn’t want movies with all Chinese or all Asian leads, they wanted movies with Western leading actors. So we bought a lot of Korean and Thai movies and began to redevelop them, try and package them so we could sell them internationally by changing certain ideas and adding new elements.
Richard Harrison wasn’t a really big star, but he was marketable, distributors knew who he was and said he was recognisable. Godfrey had worked with him on the movie for Shaw Brothers and had been able to keep a little bit of contact with him. We got in touch with him and invited him to come to Hong Kong and work on some movies for us. I think he enjoyed being in Hong Kong, and seemed happy to stay longer and do more movies for us. At that time, we had so many movies we were trying to remarket that one of my production team suggested that we should use Richard for all of them. He was very easygoing, he didn’t charge us too much money and he was in Hong Kong, so why don’t we use him as much as we can? And we did! He would shoot a couple of days a week for each movie, I think we did at least 20 movies with him this way. But he knew what we were doing, he might not know the exact number of movies we released that feature him, but he knew that is what we were doing, we were resourceful, we only had limited budgets.
Mike Leeder: Your movies might never be classified as ‘high art’ but they’re always entertaining, even if they can sometimes be hard to follow, with various subplots etc. I remember watching Golden Harvest’s ‘Hot War’ movie a few years ago, and thinking that while it had a big budget and a big name cast. The film came across like an approximation of an IFD movie, but one that took itself far too seriously and wasn’t half as enjoyable as many of your movies.
Joseph Lai: We have never said that our films are the best, that our films are the biggest and most epic movies of all time. But our films have always delivered on much of what they promise. We make our films for the audience. I believe that film can be an art form at times, but not every film, only a limited number can be regarded as art. It’s called the film industry, you have to provide the product that the audience and the distributors want in order to survive. You might make the most thought provoking, incredible movie of all time, but nobody goes to see it. We roll with the audience, they want kung fu, we’ll give them kung fu, they want Ninja’s, we’ll give them Ninjas! They want Kickboxing a few years later, we turned to making Kickboxing movies. Why? Because that’s what the audience wanted. Action is a universal language, drama is much harder to sell internationally. A lot of our audience isn’t really there for anything but the action, they don’t want the story to get in the way of the action. The buyers from the Philippines & Korea, you know how they used to be, they would time the action sequences, the gaps in between the action, they knew that the audience wanted to see action! Our films have probably sold to many more territories than a lot of other Hong Kong companies films have done. The films were warmly received by the audience, and especially by the distributors.
Mike Leeder: Now you also gave a lot of stuntmen and action actorssuch as Phillip Ko, Paul Wong, Ridley Tsui, and Hung Yan-yan etc their first chances to officially action choreograph and direct, working for IFD.
Joseph Lai: I think we were the first company to give Philip Ko the chance to direct. He had done a lot of 2nd unit or action unit work for companies, choreographing the action scenes and we gave him the chance to direct dramatic scenes too. It was the same thing with Tsui Po-wah (Ridley Tsui), he had been doing some work for us as a stuntman and action performer in some of our movies, I felt that he had a lot of skill as a stuntman and fight choreographer, but that he would also be able to handle directing dramatic scenes. I told him if you want to be a real director, you must do more than just action.
Mike Leeder: Now the demand for ‘Ninja’ movies changed after a certain Jean-Claude Van Damme burst onto the market with ‘Bloodsport’ & ‘Kickboxer’, and following the success of those movies. You also started making kickboxing movies yourself.
Joseph Lai: Yes, those two Van Damme movies did very well internationally. And several distributors started asking us if we had any kickboxing movies for them. It was very easy for us to make this kind of movie, so we put down our Ninja weapons and picked up some boxing gloves for these kind of films. We started hiring many of the Western martial artists and actors who were in Hong Kong at the time, I think a lot of them were your friends, people like Bruce Fontaine, Kenn Goodman, Nick Brandon, Steve Brettingham etc. We hired them to come in and work on our movies as the leading actors, and filmed new footage with them. We built a boxing ring at our studio and started making these kind of movies.
Mike Leeder: I remember shortly after I first arrived in Hong Kong, I visited the old IFD offices in the Garley building on Nathan Road, so I could drop off my information and Bruce Fontaine (‘Kickboxer King’, ‘Operation Condor’) was there and he showed me a file that contained photographs and resume from a young man, who was named Jean-Claude Van Varenberg when he dropped off his materials to you.
Joseph Lai: Oh yes that’s true! (Laughing) Yes, Van Damme did come to our office many many years ago when he first came to Hong Kong, he was very enthusiastic and hungry to make martial arts movies. He had a good look and very good skills, he offered us the chance to sign him up for some films at a very good price. But at that time we were already deluged with so many projects, we were making so many films and had contractual obligations to various distributors that we had to fulfil. I couldn’t just stop making those movies so I could do films with him. I remember talking to him about this, and saying we would have to think things over and develop the right project for him. I think back then he felt, we should have and could have dropped everything we were doing to start shooting movies with him the next day. (Laughing) So he went away and in Hollywood, through Cannon Films he got to make ‘Bloodsport’ and then ‘Kickboxer’, both of which shot in Hong Kong, and then of course we ended up making movies that were influenced by his films. It’s just the way the world is sometimes.
A lot of the western martial artists we used on films, worked on movies like ‘Bloodsport’ & ‘Kickboxer’, and then did movies for us. There was a Thai boxer, he looked like Sylvester Stallone, we called him Bruce Stallion I think. He was in ‘Bloodsport’ with Van Damme, and many movies for us. (Joseph is referring to Paula Tocha, who was credited as Bruce Stallion in several movies for IFD, and faced off against Jean-Claude Van Damme in ‘Bloodsport’, as well as later on “Death Warrant’ and ‘In Hell’)
Mike Leeder: Now in addition to the Kickboxing & Ninja movies, you experimented with gangland dramas like ‘Euro Crossing’, prison movies like ‘Soldier Champion’ and even costumed superheroes in ‘Catman 1 & 2’, and even ‘Robocop’ with ‘Robo-Kickboxer’.
Joseph Lai: You know too many of our movies! (Laughing) I think you worked on some of these, yes? (Laughing) We wanted to make more varieties of movies, so we started experimenting within the action movie genre. It’s like for the last few years we have done a lot of cartoon based projects and not so much live action martial arts. The market has changed somewhat, it’s no longer all about Stallone, or Schwarzenegger or Van Damme, now a lot of the time its real actors and they also make action movies. We had to diversify, or we’d go under.
Mike Leeder: How did you find working with the Western martial arts actors and stuntmen you used on so many of these films, people like Bruce Fontaine, Steve Brettingham, Jonathan Isgar, Kenn Goodman, Nick Brandon etc.
Joseph Lai: It’s funny, you could always tell which people were the ones who really wanted to be actors or stunt performers, and the ones who were just doing it for fun. Sometimes we’d be shooting, and people who had been hired for an important role wouldn’t turn up as they had made other plans. I preferred working with the professional western action actors.
There were two Americans, Bruce Fontaine and Kenn Goodman, they did a lot of work for us at IFD, they did several films in supporting roles for us, and then when we made ‘Kickboxer King’, they played the leading characters, and we also let them do some of the fight choreography for that film. I think it was the first time they really got to do any choreography. Both of them were very talented martial artists, they both went on to work for Jackie Chan on ‘Operation Condor’. But I think they probably got to show more of what they could do action wise in some of our films, then many of the bigger movies they made.
There was an Australian actor, Jonathan Isgar? I think that was his name, he did a few movies for us, a couple were action comedies where he played an old man, and he was also the star of the two ‘Catman’ movies we made. (Laughing)No, don’t laugh, those two movies sold very well, people liked the character! He also worked with Jackie Chan!
Nick Brandon, he did a few films for us as a supporting actor like ‘Kickboxer King’, and was the lead in ‘Robo Kickboxer’, but I think he liked being behind the scenes more. He was one of the sailors on ‘Dragon: The Bruce Lee Story’, in the opening fight.
Another English guy, Steve Brettingham. He also did a lot of movies for us, he played supporting roles and then got to be the lead in a few films. He was in ‘Kickboxer King’, ‘Year of the Kingboxer’, ‘Kickboxer from Hell’, he did a lot of films for us. He was trying to be the new Van Damme, he had a very good physique like a bodybuilder, but he could fight too! But he was funny, he wanted to be in the movies, and especially as the star, but then he was always complaining about them.
I know you also did a few movies for us too?
Mike Leeder: Your last major film (at time of interview) was a co-production with Germany, ‘Royal Destiny’. How did this project come about and are you still interested in co-productions for future projects?
Joseph Lai: Ah yes, ‘Royal Destiny’ was our co-production with a German company. It featured a German leading actor and actress, and we supplied local talent including Byron Mann (‘The Corrupter’, ‘Invincible’), and Ridley Tsui for the film, who handled the action scenes and some of the drama. It was interesting having a German crew working side by side with the Hong Kong crew, I think we both learnt something from each other. As for future co-productions, if the projects are interesting, there is always an opportunity for co-productions.
Mike Leeder: Do you see IFD moving back into live action movie making?
Joseph Lai: Yes, we are looking into it. The trend for realistic action is coming back, people want to see real action, not overly exaggerated or lots of special effects. If it’s a science fiction movie like ‘The Matrix’, people can understand the action being unrealistic, but if you’re doing a movie that’s set in the real world, sometimes if the action is too big, it can pull you out of the movie, you don’t believe in it anymore. Trends move in a circle, and I think IFD will be back on the screen again soon.
Thanks to Mr. Joseph Lai for taking the time to talk to me.
__________________
An edited version of this interview appeared in Impact magazine www.impactmoviemagazine.co.uk In addition to serving as Far Eastern Editor for Impact, Hong Kong based Producer/Casting Director Mike Leeder has worked in front and behind the camera on such projects as Jet Li’s ‘Fearless’, ‘Rush Hour 3’, Yuen Woo-ping’s “True Legend’, “The Mummy: Tomb of the Dragon Emperor’, ‘Bodyguards & Assassins’, ‘Ip Man 2’, ‘The Bodyguard: A NewBeginning’, ‘Underground’, ’10 Dead Men’ and many other projects.
As first reported early in the year by Blood Disgusting and confirmed today by Variety Online (and several other Hollywood news sites): Warner Brothers and Legendary Productions are making an all new Godzilla film! Apparently Yoshimitsu Banno, the director of Godzilla vs the Smog Monster will serve as one of the executive producers.
The official press release from Legendary includes quotes from the three key players in the deal.
Thomas Tull, Chairman and CEO of Legendary:
"Godzilla is one of the world's most powerful pop culture icons, and we at Legendary are thrilled to be able to create a modern epic based on this long-loved Toho franchise. Our plans are to produce the Godzilla that we, as fans, would want to see. We intend to do justice to those essential elements that have allowed this character to remain as pop-culturally relevant for as long as it has."
Hideyuki Takai, President of Toho Co., Ltd.:
"Godzilla is a signature Japanese character which we have nurtured over the years. It is a great honor to reach an agreement with Legendary Pictures, the parent to many a blockbuster film, and we are delighted in rebooting the character together to realize its much anticipated return by fans from all over the world. We are anxious to find out where Godzilla's new stomping will take us."
Jeff Robinov, President, Warner Brothers Pictures Group:
"Godzilla is emblematic of the kind of branded, event films for which Warner Bros. and our partners at Legendary are best known. We have enjoyed a great deal of success together to date and this newest opportunity represents yet another chance for us to collaborate on a property that is very clearly in their wheelhouse."
Stay tuned to HK AND CULT FILM NEWS for all the latest news on this developing story.
6 count them, Six! Marx Brothers movies in a row. Either heaven or hell depending how you feel about the Marx Brothers. To me it's a bit much of a good thing but I'll try to catch one or two at least.
March 30
Three Kurosawa film is a row including the Magnificent RAN. Just in case you missed his retrospective last week.
1:45am Ran(1985) An aging lord's decision to retire brings out the worst in his sons. Cast: Tatsuya Nakadai, Akira Terao, Jinpachi Nezu, Daisuke Ryu Dir: Akira Kurosawa C-163 mins
Kurosawa's version of King Lear. Not to be missed. And followed by...(See below)
March 31
4:30am King Lear (1971) An aging king mistakenly exiles the one daughter who loves him and divides his kingdom between the other two. Cast: Paul Scofield, Irene Worth, Cyril Cusack, Susan Engel Dir: Peter Brook BW-138 mins, TV-PG
Shakespeare and Scofield a match made in Heaven.
April 1
8:00pm Adam's Rib (1949) Husband-and-wife lawyers argue opposite sides in a sensational women's rights case. Cast: Spencer Tracy, Katharine Hepburn, Judy Holliday, Tom Ewell Dir: George Cukor BW-101 mins, TV-G
Tracy and Hepburn at their best. Throw in Judy Holliday and you have a film you can watch over and over.
2:15am To Have And Have Not(1944) A skipper-for-hire's romance with a beautiful drifter is complicated by his growing involvement with the French resistance. Cast: Humphrey Bogart, Walter Brennan, Lauren Bacall, Dolores Moran Dir: Howard Hawks BW-100 mins, TV-G
Bogart and Bacall. Do I really have to say more? OK, have you ever been stung by a dead bee?
4:15am The Men Who Made the Movies: Howard Hawks(1973) Film clips and an exclusive interview capture the career of Hollywood's most efficient director of Westerns and screwball comedies. Cast: Cary Grant, John Wayne, Howard Hawks Dir: Richard Schickel BW-55 mins, TV-PG
I have no idea if this is any good or not but the subject is my hero and one of the greatest directors who ever worked in Hollywood. Screw the Tivo I'll be staying up just to see it.
April 2
Nothing I'm interested in...Hey, it happens.
April 3
12:00pm Little Big Man (1970) An American pioneer raised by Indians ends up fighting alongside General Custer. Cast: Dustin Hoffman, Faye Dunaway, Martin Balsam, Richard Mulligan Dir: Arthur Penn C-140 mins, TV-14
"Sometime the magic works and sometimes it doesn't." In this case it does. If you don't know what the hell I'm talking about you need to watch this film. If you do you will want to watch it again.
10:00pm Point Blank(1967) A gangster plots an elaborate revenge on the wife and partner who did him dirty. Cast: Lee Marvin, Angie Dickinson, Keenan Wynn, Carroll O'Connor Dir: John Boorman C-92 mins, TV-14
Stark (OK, Westlake) via Marvin and Boorman. I have never figured out why in all the versions of the Parker books they have never called him Parker in the movies. He's Walker in this outing but he's still bad assed Parker.
11:45pm Friends Of Eddie Coyle, The (1973) An aging hood turns police informer, with deadly results. Cast: Robert Mitchum, Richard Jordan, Steven Keats, Peter Boyle Dir: Peter Yates C-102 mins, TV-MA
One of the great underrated gangster pictures. Don't see it often but when it pops up on TCM make sure you catch it.
1:30am Serpico (1973) A rookie risks his life going undercover to ferret out police corruption. Cast: Al Pacino, Tony Roberts, John Randolph, Jack Kehoe Dir: Sidney Lumet C-130 mins, TV-MA
Lumet takes on the New York Police Department. I must admit I like Prince of the City better but this runs a close second.
April 4
Easter specials all damn day..
8:00am Godspell (1973) Contemporary hippies relive the story of Christ's ministry and crucifixion. Cast: Victor Garber, David Haskell, Lynne Thigpen, Jerry Sroka Dir: David Greene C-102 mins, TV-G
The only one that even interests this New York Jew boy a little.
April 5
12:15pm Fury (1936) An innocent man escapes a lynch mob then returns for revenge. Cast: Sylvia Sidney, Spencer Tracy, Walter Abel, Bruce Cabot Dir: Fritz Lang BW-93 mins, TV-G
One of the few great Hollywood productions by this master German film maker.
6:00pm Bad Day At Black Rock (1955) A one-armed veteran uncovers small-town secrets when he tries to visit an Asian-American war hero's family. Cast: Spencer Tracy, Robert Ryan, Anne Francis, Dean Jagger Dir: John Sturges C-82 mins, TV-PG
Spencer Tracy proves he can out act almost every actor in Hollywood with one arm tied behind his back.
1:30am Shane (1953) A mysterious drifter helps farmers fight off a vicious gunman. Cast: Alan Ladd, Jean Arthur, Van Heflin, Brandon de Wilde Dir: George Stevens C-118 mins, TV-G
Is there anybody who doesn't know that this film didn't work when it was about the love between the mother and the stranger until they re-cut it as a love story between the stranger and little boy... Come back Shane, Come back.
Infinity Entertainment Group in Association With Retromedia Entertainment Proudly PresentsEvil Toons: 20th Anniversary Edition
First They Undress You, Then They Possess You! -- Cult Classic Animates DVD May 4th
LOS ANGELES - May 1, 2010 - Who Framed Roger Rabbit meets The Evil Dead in the 1990 cult classic Evil Toons: 20th Anniversary Edition, starring the late David Carradine, animating DVD May 4 from Infinity Entertainment Group.
To receive a large amount of money, four hot teenage girls must spend the night in an old haunted house. Soon after arriving, a strange man comes by to deliver an old book full of magic incantations.
Reading the contents aloud, the group accidentally brings a cartoon character (a wolf-like monster) to life which desires the blood of young ladies! In their struggle to survive, the girls do whatever it takes to return the creature back to the book.
Co-starring with Carradine (Kung Fu, Kill Bill: Vol. 1 and 2) are Dick Miller (Gremlins, Tales From the Crypt: Demon Night, The Flash), Arte Johnson (Rowan & Martin's Laugh-In), Monique Gabrielle (Chained Heat, Bachelor Party) and Michelle Bauer (Hollywood Chainsaw Hookers, Voodoo Dollz).
Evil Toons: 20th Anniversary Edition is presented in anamorphic widescreen with an aspect ratio of 16 x 9 and Dolby Digital. Special features include director's commentary track; original trailer; original work-print; special "Making Of" video documentary; original Nite Owl Theater segment; and Evil Toons Suite by Chuck Cirino.
Retromedia Entertainment was launched in 2001 by CEO Fred Olen Ray, a well-known writer, director and producer of films across a broad range of genres. Among his most successful works are the award-winning films Invisible Mom, starring Dee Wallace, and Inner Sanctum, starring Tanya Roberts and Margaux Hemingway, both of which became "The Number One Most Rented" DVD titles in the U.S., according to the RIAA. The latter film earned Ray the Wall Street Journal headline "B Movie Makes A-Movie Money." Ray also directed the award-winning Black Horizon, starring Michael Dudikoff and Ice-T; Armed Response, starring David Carradine; and Hollywood Chainsaw Hookers, called the "4th Coolest B Movie of All Time" by Maxim magazine.
Infinity Entertainment Group, headquartered in Los Angeles, Calif., is a multi-service home entertainment retail distributor specializing in independent films, television programming, special-interest, documentaries, anime and music. Clients include Smithsonian Networks, MOJO HD, Falcon Picture Group, Bandai Entertainment, Roxbury Entertainment, SJ2 Entertainment and Retromedia. Hit titles include the iconic Route 66 television series, now available on DVD for the first time, and Spike Jones: The Legend. The company was launched in 2006 and is a division of Infinity Resources, Inc., a privately-held, multi-channel marketing and service enterprise with general offices based in suburban Chicago, Ill.
Evil Toons: 20th Anniversary Edition Retromedia/Infinity Entertainment Group Genre: Cult/Horror Rated: R Format: DVD Only Running Time: Approx. 83 Minutes (Plus Special Features) Suggested Retail Price: $14.98 Pre-Order Date: March 30, 2010 Street Date: May 4, 2010 Catalog #: IEG2193 UPC Code: #617742219395
8:30am Kiss Me Deadly (1955) Detective Mike Hammer fights to solve the murder of a beautiful hitchhiker with a mysterious connection to the Mob. Cast: Ralph Meeker, Albert Dekker, Paul Stewart, Juano Hernandez Dir: Robert Aldrich BW-106 mins, TV-PG
I was about 12 when I saw this film. I read all the Mickey Spillane books I could get my almost teenage hands on. I wanted to be Mike Hammer. I don't think I've seen this film since, but I still want to be Mike Hammer so it couldn't be too bad.
4:15pm 12 Angry Men (1957) A jury holdout tries to convince his colleagues to vote not guilty. Cast: Henry Fonda, Lee J. Cobb, Ed Begley, E. G. Marshall Dir: Sidney Lumet BW-96 mins, TV-PG
Sidney Lumet teaches us how you take a crackerjack stage play and turn it into a crackerjack movie without moving out of the one room setting.
8:00pm Lawrence of Arabia (1962) A British military officer enlists the Arabs for desert warfare in World War I. Cast: Peter O'Toole, Alec Guinness, Anthony Quinn, Jack Hawkins Dir: David Lean C-227 mins, TV-14
The exact opposite of 12 Angry Men. As big as all outdoors. Vast spaces of desert filled with action. The thing I remember most about seeing this film during it's theatrical opening was the entire audience rising up en mass to rush to the water fountain during the intermission. You can feel every grain of sand in your face. Add to that a stunning performance by Peter O'Toole makes this a not to be missed film.
March 21
8:30am Ma And Pa Kettle (1949) On the verge of eviction, the hillbilly family wins a slogan contest and moves into an automated home. Cast: Marjorie Main, Percy Kilbride, Richard Long, Meg Randall Dir: Charles Lamont BW-76 mins, TV-G
Long long before the Clampetts there was Ma and Pa Kettle.
8:00pm Outrage, The (1964) A Mexican bandit's crimes receive wildly different interpretations from four witnesses. Cast: Paul Newman, Laurence Harvey, Claire Bloom, Edward G. Robinson Dir: Martin Ritt BW-96 mins, TV-PG
Rashomon lite. Why they would run this during a month dedicated to the great Akira Kurosawa is beyond me. It would be a good film if it wasn't for Kurosawa's original.
10:00pm Magnificent Seven, The (1960) Seven American gunmen hire themselves out to protect a Mexican village from bandits. Cast: Yul Brynner, Eli Wallach, Steve McQueen, Charles Bronson Dir: John Sturges C-128 mins, TV-PG
Another Kurosawa rip off. This time much better done. Again, this might be a great film if it wasn't for Kurosawa's Seven Samurai. All right I admit it I love the Magnificent 7 just as much as I love Seven Samurai (and what a musical score!) but I just want to make sure Kurosawa gets the credit he deserves.
March 22
10:00pm Maltese Falcon, The (1941) Hard-boiled detective Sam Spade gets caught up in the murderous search for a priceless statue. Cast: Humphrey Bogart, Mary Astor, Gladys George, Peter Lorre Dir: John Huston BW-101 mins, TV-PG
THE GREATEST FILM EVER MADE! The stuff dreams are made of.
12:00am Shootist, The (1976) A dying gunfighter tries to set his affairs in order. Cast: John Wayne, Lauren Bacall, Ron Howard, James Stewart Dir: Don Siegel C-99 mins, TV-14
John Wayne's last film, and by far his greatest.
March 23
TWELVE count them 12 Akira Kurosawa films in a row. And right in the middle...
8:00pm Rashomon (1950) In medieval Japan, four people offer conflicting accounts of a rape and murder. Cast: Toshiro Mifune, Machiko Kyo, Takashi Shimura, Masayuki Mori Dir: Akira Kurosawa BW-88 mins, TV-PG
9:30pm Seven Samurai(1954) Japanese villagers hire a team of traveling samurai to defend them against a bandit attack. Cast: Toshiro Mifune, Takashi Shimura, Kuninori Kodo, Yoshio Inaba Dir: Akira Kurosawa BW-207 mins, TV-14
You watched The Outrage and the Magnificent 7 now watch the originals in all their glory. Oh and don't forget...
1:00am Yojimbo (1961) A samurai-for-hire sets the warring factions of a Japanese town against each other. Cast: Toshiro Mifune, Eijiro Tono, Seizaburo Kawazu, Isuzu Yamada Dir: Akira Kurosawa BW-111 mins, TV-14
Based on the works of Dashiell Hammett. And the blue print for Leone's A Fist Full of Dollars and later, Walter Hill's Last Man Standing. Again see this original in all it's glory.
March 24
11:30am Nevada Smith (1966) A part-Indian cowboy avenges his parents' murder. Cast: Steve McQueen, Karl Malden, Brian Keith, Arthur Kennedy Dir: Henry Hathaway C-131 mins, TV-14
Based on a very small section of the novel The Carpetbaggers. This is actually a prequel in the life of the Alan Ladd character in the movie version. I rather watch the Carpetbaggers but this is a good companion piece. Too bad TCM didn't run them back to back.
March 25
10:00pm Ordinary People (1980) When a young man drowns, his family fights to recover from the trauma. Cast: Donald Sutherland, Mary Tyler Moore, Timothy Hutton, Judd Hirsch Dir: Robert Redford C-124 mins, TV-MA
Robert Redford proves he can direct and Mary Tyler Moore proves she can act.
March 26
6:30pm Suddenly (1954) Gunmen take over a suburban home to plot a presidential assassination. Cast: Frank Sinatra, Sterling Hayden, James Gleason, Nancy Gates Dir: Lewis Allen BW-76 mins, TV-PG
Supposedly Sinatra bought the rights and all the copies to this film after Kennedy was assassinated, and nobody saw it again till after Sinatra died. I can believe it. A tight little film.
(Note: This review originally appeared at Bumscorner.com in 2005.)
Seeing the front cover picture for DROP DEAD SEXY (2005), which shows Crispin Glover and Jason Lee lugging the dead body of a beautiful blonde, I immediately thought "Weekend At Bernadette's." But this isn't about two guys trying to pass off a corpse as alive--the writers were actually able to come up with something a little different, thank goodness, and for the most part, it's pretty entertaining.
Lee and Glover star as Frank and Eddie, two dumb 'n' dumber Texas boys who try to earn some extra cash on the side by performing certain illegal tasks for a corpulent strip-club owner named Spider (Pruitt Taylor Vince), who gives new meaning to the term "shifty-eyed." Frank works for a used car dealer named Big Tex (Burton Gilliam), dancing around in the street in a cowboy outfit with a big cartoony head, while Eddie makes his living as a gravedigger (or "subterranean architect" as he likes to put it, proudly proclaiming: "People spend the rest of their lives in my holes!") Their latest task for Spider is to drive a pickup full of bootleg cigarettes to Mexico to sell them, with the promise of ten percent of the take. Spider tells Frank that he'll kill them if they mess things up, which is no problem until Frank stops in the middle of nowhere to take a leak and the truck explodes, destroying all $250,000 worth of Spider's cigarettes.
They decide to hide out for a while at Frank's boyhood home, where they find his mother, Ma Muzzy (Lin Shaye--she's the one who made you want to throw up in THERE'S SOMETHING ABOUT MARY and KINGPIN) stuffing her beaver--she's an taxidermist. Later, while scanning the newspaper, Frank notices an obituary for Crystal, the recently-deceased young wife of the town's richest man, Tom Harkness (Xander Berkeley, who played the milk-drinking stepdad in T2), and the picture shows her wearing a hugely expensive-looking necklace. Eddie recalls seeing her wearing it right before he buried her, and suddenly a lightbulb goes off in Frank's head--all they have to do is dig her up, grab the necklace, fence it, and pay back Spider, keeping whatever's left over for themselves. ("What if she's not dead?" Eddie worries.) Easy, right? Wrong, because she isn't wearing the necklace, and when the night watchman shows up before they can re-bury her, they end up having to take her with them back to Frank's house, which will be a direct violation of Ma Muzzy's rule against having girls in their room.
This, of course, is where the main complications of the story commence, especially when Frank hatches a new plan to ransom Crystal's body back to her wealthy husband. Meanwhile, Eddie is becoming a bit too infatuated with the beautiful dead woman lying on his bed, and for a few brief moments we get the idea that this movie is going to head off into some really weird directions. Fortunately, though, Eddie's interest remains platonic, and when he finally recognizes her as one of his favorite strippers at a club called "The Mean-Eyed Pussy Cat", the boys begin to investigate her past. This is where DROP DEAD SEXY stops being a total farce and morphs into a murder mystery. Eddie's pal, the coroner (Brad Dourif) informs them that Crystal had swimming pool water, not lake water, in her lungs when she was examined, but that the police didn't follow this up. Frank and Eddie suspect the husband of murder and hatch a plan to bring him to justice while ripping him off at the same time. What follows is still pretty funny but a lot of attention is paid to this increasingly complicated plot, which I didn't mind since it's pretty well handled and supplies a few nice surprises, and leads up to a cool shootout at the end. And the lead actors are so good in their roles that when the movie changes tone somewhat, they don't miss a beat.
The best thing about DROP DEAD SEXY, in fact, is the comedy team of Jason Lee and Crispin Glover. Lee displays a great "Bud Abbott" straight-man style here, but he's a lot funnier--he's forever impressed with his own brilliance even as everything he does backfires, and his reactions to the constant stupidity of his partner are often priceless. Crispin Glover, as usual, seems to have just dropped in from another planet. I find him fascinating to watch in whatever he does, and his deadpan portrayal of a laconic, hypersensitive, terminally-confused Texas boy is a wonder to behold and manages somehow to be restrained and over-the-top at the same time. I love the scene where Frank and Eddie visit the coroner, because it gives us a chance to see two of Hollywood's finest oddballs, Crispin Glover and Brad Dourif, trading dialogue over the dead body of a beautiful naked woman who, oddly enough, is holding a glass of white wine, while Jason Lee looks on in utter consternation. (You just knew there had to be some necrophilia in this movie, right?)
