SUSPENSE: THE ULTIMATE COLLECTION -- DVD Review by Porfle

 

Originally posted on 5/7/09

 

I'm fascinated by the early days of television, and you can't get much earlier, or more fascinating, than SUSPENSE: THE ULTIMATE COLLECTION.  

This is Jurassic TV, a primitive-looking, melodramatic thriller anthology that premiered in 1949 and lasted for 260 live, half-hour episodes until 1954. Ninety of those episodes have been unearthed and are now available in this 12-disc set which spans the series' entire run. 

As in any anthology series, the quality of the writing varies--in fact, some of the stories are clunkers. But for the most part, these episodes are consistantly exciting and imaginative, and live up to the series' title with stories that quickly establish a suspenseful situation and then keep us on edge till the end. 

Several stories are adapted from the works of authors such as Robert Louis Stevenson and Edgar Allan Poe. Rod Serling's contribution, the eerie "Nightmare at Ground Zero", is a tense and unsettling atom-bomb tale that really stretches the limits of live television. 

Knowing that these teleplays were performed live gives them the immediacy of theater combined with the intimacy of television. You can imagine the actors and crew rushing into their next set-ups during a slow dissolve, and sometimes you can hear them doing it, too. 

Gaffes by these skilled actors are few, while the occasional technical blooper is unavoidable. In "The Comic Strip Murder", a piece of equipment can be seen moving past a high-rise balcony like a UFO. In "The Parcel", a stock clip of a crowd enjoying a ballgame runs out before the director can cut to Ray Walston, Royal Dano, and Conrad Janis sitting in a bleacher mock-up. Cues are missed, boom mike shadows flit across walls, focusing is done on the fly, and sometimes you can even spot an errant crew member where he shouldn't be. But mistakes like this are part of the appeal of watching live television, and the fact that there are so few of them in this smoothly produced and directed (mostly by Robert Stevens) series is impressive. 

Most of the stories are grounded in reality, with the occasional foray into the supernatural. The very first episode in this collection, "A Night at the Inn" with Boris Karloff, is an unabashedly nutball tale of a gang of thieves stalked by knife-wielding, turban-wearing Indians for stealing a sacred idol's jeweled eye, until the indignant idol itself shows up to reclaim it. Another episode, "Black Passage", features none other than Stella Adler as a hot-blooded Latin vampire and a very young William Prince as the unwary suitor of her equally bloodthirsty daughter. 

Hardboiled crime drama rubs shoulders with frequent doses of Hitchcock-style mystery and creepiness, along with the type of macabre irony often found in EC comics. Richard Boone gives a super cool performance as a homicide cop closing in on a medical examiner whose guilt has been inadvertently captured on film in "Photo Finish." In "My Old Man's Badge", Barry Nelson plays a beat cop who singlehandedly takes on a drug-smuggling ring to avenge his father's murder, and in "Dead Fall", he's framed for passing industrial secrets to the Commies. 

On the darker side, "Dr. Violet" gives us Hume Cronyn as the proprietor of a carnival murder museum who takes a chillingly active part in his exhibits, while "Dead Ernest" generates suspense by showing us a catatonic man mistakenly pronounced dead and lying on a morgue slab awaiting the embalmer. 

One of the main pleasures of watching this collection is its incredible array of familiar faces, from past, present and future stars to the great character actors, often doing brilliant work. Ray Walston (billed as "Wallston" in one episode) and Royal Dano appear several times. Leslie Nielsen, just beginning his career as a dramatic actor which would later give way to comedy, stars in "The Brush Off" with future "Superman" star George Reeves. Boris Karloff shows up more than once and Bela Lugosi gives a delightfully florid performance in an adaptation of Poe's "The Cask of Amantillado." 

Other notable names include Paul Newman, Otto Kruger, Kim Hunter, Anne Francis, Lee Marvin, Harold J. Stone, Conrad Janis, Eileen Heckart, Walter Matthau, Eddie Albert, Lloyd Bridges, Mike Kellin, Ward Bond, James Whitmore, Vic Morrow, Jackie Cooper, Brian Keith, Darren McGavin, Franchot Tone, Jack Klugman, Tom Drake, Gene Lyons, Cloris Leachman, Mildred Natwick, Lilli Palmer, Eva Marie Saint, Richard Kiley, Joan Blondell, Jack Palance, Eva Gabor, Peter Mark Richman, Jayne Meadows, Robert Webber, and many more. Several of them make multiple appearances. 

These episodes are kinescopes, meaning that a monitor was filmed during the live performances so that copies of each episode could be sent to various network affiliates (this was before videotape or cable). This gives the show a somewhat murky picture and sound quality that is unavoidable; otherwise, however, I think these DVDs look very good. 

The 12 discs are contained in six attractive slimline cases which were originally released in three seperate sets, and contain all 90 episodes of the show that are known to exist. The final episode, "The Funmaster" with Keenan Wynn, is the only non-live entry and was aired in 1958, four years after the show's demise, presumably in an effort to revive it. 

The musical score for "Suspense" is performed almost entirely on Hammond organ (with the occasional piano, tubular bells, etc.) in the style of the early soap operas, and sounds similar to the music in Herk Harvey's CARNIVAL OF SOULS. As a bonus, almost every episode contains the original commercials for the show's sponsor, Auto-Lite automotive products, featuring dulcet-toned announcer Rex Marshall and a delightfully corny assortment of cartoons and animated clips.

SUSPENSE: THE ULTIMATE COLLECTION is over 43 hours of pure, unadulterated nostalgia that I found irresistibly entertaining. Whether you're a fan of early TV, or simply curious about what the medium looked like before it began to earn nicknames like "vast wasteland" and "boob tube", this time capsule from television's infancy should give you just the sort of buzz you're looking for. Buy it at 

 

 

SUSPENSE: THE ULTIMATE COLLECTION -- DVD Review by Porfle

TROLL 2: THE 20th ANNIVERSARY NILBOG EDITION -- DVD Review by Porfle

Originally posted on 10/15/10

 

It's been so long since I saw the original TROLL, all I remember about it is that it stars Shelley Hack and Sonny Bono, takes place in an apartment building with a troll in it (not Sonny Bono), features John Carl Buechler as both director and makeup effects creator, and, as I was reminded recently, has a kid in it named Harry Potter, Jr.  Oh yeah, and there's a pretty cool performance by a little girl named Jenny Beck who at one point gets to be possessed by the title creature.


The in-name-only sequel, TROLL 2, has none of these things.  It does, however, share one quality with the original--one of the best performances comes from the kid in the lead role, in this case Michael Stephenson as Joshua Waits, a boy who is visited by the ghost of his deceased grandfather, Seth (Robert Ormsby).  Grandpa Seth reads Josh scary bedtime stories about trolls--or, as he calls them, goblins--who assume human form and trick people into eating a gooey substance that turns them into half-human, half-plant hybrids, which is the goblins' favorite food.


Nobody, including Josh's mom (Margo Prey) and step-dad (George Hardy) and his big sister Molly (Connie McFarland), believe him about Grandpa Seth's ghost or his warning that the goblins are real.  So when the family travels to the tiny town of Nilbog (catchy name) on a house-swapping vacation and all the local citizens turn out to be goblins looking for their next meal, it's up to Josh and his ghostly gramps to hold the ravenous little buggers at bay until the rest of the clueless family wises up and takes action.




TROLL 2 may have been made in 1990, but in spirit it's still a product of the 80s.  From the cheesy score, to sister Molly's awful aerobic workout dance, to her horny boyfriend Elliott (Jason Wright) and his chums who are like braindead refugees from a dull edition of "USA's Up All Night", the film is steeped in that golden decade's kitschy goodness.  Not surprisingly, the film known by some as "the best worst movie ever" also glows with the same cheapo charm of a million other junk films of the era that I rented on VHS or watched on late-night cable between used car commercials.


Horror-wise, there's not much on the scary side going on here, with the trolls--sorry, goblins--resembling a bunch of fat little kids in oversized Halloween masks.  These are designed to resemble the ones in the first film but clearly lack John Carl Buechler's artistry.  There's no gore to speak of, since anyone who ingests the tainted goblin-goo instantly starts bleeding green tree sap and literally vegging out. 


The creatures themselves are actually scarier in their mock-human forms, coming off as a cross between the hostile yokels from DELIVERANCE and the pagan farm punks of CHILDREN OF THE CORN.  When they surround the Waits family in their vacation house and start slowly closing in, it's a little like something out of NIGHT OF THE LIVING DEAD.

 


Technically, TROLL 2 is pretty amateurish, with camerawork, direction, and editing that are definitely not so hot.  Yet it remains well-paced and watchable throughout, the story moving at a pretty snappy clip with few draggy spots and little or no padding.  The smalltown locations in Utah are certainly atmospheric--just being in this crummy little flyspeck burg would seem nightmarish enough even without the trolls (sorry, goblins).


As for the acting, most of the leads seem to have been recruited from grade-school plays, yet they invest their roles with conviction.  I love the awkward, stilted dialogue scenes between Molly and her boyfriend Elliott, who infuriates her by insisting on dragging his buds along on the trip.  While these guys aren't so hot in the acting department either, they do make good plant food.  One of them even ends up as a potted plant in the lair of Miss Creedence Leonore Gielgud, who turns out to be the evil queen of the trolls (sorry, goblins). 


Deborah Reed, whose acting dial is clearly stuck on "eleven", mugs her way through this role with the eye-rolling gusto of a horror-movie hostess.  When she's surrounded by her warty minions in the bowels of her inner sanctum, sporting a Technicolor makeup job and playing to the back row like Margaret Hamilton on PCP, the film resembles a particularly demented Sid and Marty Krofft production.




Also of note is Michael Stephenson as Josh, who makes up for his lack of acting polish with an intense performance that oftens has him emoting his little buns off.  There's a nice nightmare sequence early on in which his family turn into goblins as he begins to bleed chlorophyll and sprout branches through his fingers and chest.  Best of all, though, is when a famished Mom, Dad, and Molly sit down to eat a poisoned dinner and Josh has to act fast in order to stop them.  His solution, which was pretty much the last thing I expected, had me howling.



The Blu-Ray/DVD combo labeled "The 20th Anniversary Nilbog Edition" is from MGM and 20th-Century Fox.  The Blu-Ray is in English 5.1 DTS-HD master audio and English mono.  Features as listed on the box are feature film in high definition, 1080p, lossless audio, smart menu technology, and original theatrical trailer.  I reviewed the DVD only, which contains the feature film in standard definition with English mono sound, plus the trailer.  Both discs are in 1.85:1 widescreen and offer English, Spanish, and French subtitles. 


Like a Halloween spook-house slapped together by a bunch of enthusiastic but drunk neighborhood slobs, TROLL 2 is dumb as a doorknob but engagingly lively and fun right up to its startling conclusion.  (And it's one of the few films I've seen in which bologna plays an integral part in the finale.)  Although the whole thing threatens to fall apart any second, it never does.  In fact, for all its faults, the chewing gum and baling wire ingenuity that holds this creaky creature feature together somehow makes it more entertaining than your usual big-budget bomb.    

TROLL 2: THE 20th ANNIVERSARY NILBOG EDITION -- DVD Review by Porfle

THE SIMPSONS: THE FOURTEENTH SEASON -- DVD Review by Porfle

Originally posted on 12/23/11

 

Whenever I hear that heavenly chorus singing the title as the camera's eye descends upon the town of Springfield--followed by one of the greatest TV sitcom themes of all time (thanks to Danny Elfman)--I know I'm in for a half-hour of almost supernaturally blissful cartoon comedy.  With 20-Century Fox's 4-disc DVD set THE SIMPSONS: THE FOURTEENTH SEASON, I get to experience this heady sensation 22 times! 

That may sound a little over-the-top, but aye carumba!, I love this show.  Breezy, colorful, and as addictive as only the most delectable mind candy can be, the irreverent and sharply satirical (yet often heartfelt) adventures of Homer and Marge Simpson and their kids Bart, Lisa, and Maggie easily earn a spot in the top ten greatest situation comedy series of all time.  Maybe even the top five.  Top three?  Arguably.

Some fans insist that the long-running show has long been running on fumes, but by season fourteen it was still going strong, netting an impressive array of guest stars, winning Emmys, and serving up some of its most memorable episodes with all the familiar panache.  As usual, each one reels us in with some intriguing situation which seems to be the main plotline until it unexpectedly veers into something entirely different.
 


A family jigsaw-puzzle obsession leads to Homer and Marge's sudden breakup; a disastrous trip to the Springfield Botanical Gardens morphs into a heartwarming love story between baby Maggie and eternal loser Moe the bartender ("Moe Baby Blues").  When movie star Ranier Wolfcastle holds an estate sale to pay off his debts, this gag-filled opening gives no indication of the trauma that will ensue when Marge is mugged on the way home and becomes a trembling agoraphobe hiding out in the family basement ("The Strong Arms of the Ma").

The season comes charging out of the gate with an outstanding Halloween episode, "Treehouse of Horror XIII", featuring three scarifying stories: "Send in the Clones", in which Homer acquires a magic hammock that generates even dumber duplicates of himself; "The Fright to Creep and Scare Harms", which tells what happens when the Old West's baddest outlaws rise from the grave to menace Springfield just after Lisa has succeeded in wiping out all handguns; and "The Island of Dr. Hibbert", a twist on the old H.G. Wells tale which has the Simpsons and other characters being transformed into manimals. 

This is followed by one of the series' most celebrated episodes, "How I Spent My Strummer Vacation."  After an inebriated Homer is caught dissing his family life on the reality show "Taxicab Conversations", Marge and the kids decide he needs a break and ship him off to a Rock 'n' Roll Fantasy Camp presided over by none other than guest voice talent Mick Jagger, Keith Richards, Elvis Costello, Tom Petty, Lenny Kravitz, and Brian Setzer.

"Barting Over" marks the milestone 300th episode (or does it?) with Bart suing to become an emancipated minor and becoming pals with skateboard ace Tony Hawk after moving into his own loft apartment. In "Pray Anything", Homer's ongoing turbulent relationship with God is further explored when he's awarded ownership of the church in an accident suit and turns it into party central. 

"Three Gays of the Condo" finds him exploring the world of homosexuality, not to mention his first guy-guy kiss, when yet another tiff with Marge results in him rooming with two gays including guest voice Scott Thompson ("The Kids in the Hall").  Marge's unconscious resentment of Homer surfaces with a string of attempts on his life in "Brake My Wife, Please", featuring the voices of Steve Buscemi, Jackson Brown, and Jane Kaczmarek. 



Other episodes in this collection include "Bart vs. Lisa vs. the Third Grade", "Large Marge" (a hospital mix-up results in Marge being given huge fake boobs), "Helter Shelter", "The Great Louse Detective", "Special Edna" (regular Marcia Wallace voices Bart's lovelorn teacher Miss Krabappel), "The Dad Who Knew Too Little", "I'm Spelling As Fast As I Can", "A Star is Born Again" (widower Ned Flanders has an affair with Marisa Tomei's sexy movie star character Sara Sloane), "Mr. Spritz Goes to Washington" (Krusty the Clown runs for Congress), "C.E. D'oh", "'Scuse Me While I Miss the Sky", "Dude, Where's My Ranch?", "Old Yeller-Belly", and "The Bart of War."

Some of the guest voices not already mentioned: Kelsey Grammer (returning as Bart's eternal nemesis Sideshow Bob), Tony Bennett, Jan Hooks, Adam West and Burt Ward, Baha Men, Larry Holmes, David "Squiggy" Lander, Little Richard, Elliot Gould, Pamela Reed, Ken Burns, Lisa Leslie, blink-182, George Plimpton, Jim Brooks, Helen Fielding, Joe Mantegna (as mobster Fat Tony), "Monty Python" star Eric Idle, "Weird Al" Yankovic, David Byrne, Andy Serkis, Jonathan Taylor Thomas, and Stacy Keach.

In addition to some beautifully designed menus featuring the entire cast being hosted for "dinner" by ravenous aliens Kang and Kodos, the set is overflowing with a wealth of fun special features.  These include an introduction by creator Matt Groening (bo-ring!), audio commentaries on all episodes, deleted scenes, lots of featurettes, sketch galleries, and several Easter eggs that can be accessed by pressing the "up" button on individual episode menus.  The packaging itself is an eye-pleasing double-sided pictorial foldout containing a sizable information booklet.  The only snag is having to fish the discs out of those snug built-in pockets.

Watching THE SIMPSONS: THE FOURTEENTH SEASON is similar to taking a trip through a theme park brimming with childlike delights, like Six Flags or Knott's Berry Farm (but not Dollywood, because Ned Flanders wouldn't approve) without the inconvenience of finding a parking space or having to walk.  If you're a Simpsons fan, the rewatchability factor is pretty much endless. 

THE SIMPSONS: THE FOURTEENTH SEASON -- DVD Review by Porfle

GONE WITH THE WIND 75TH ANNIVERSARY ULTIMATE COLLECTOR'S EDITION -- Blu-ray Review by Porfle

(Stills used in this review are not taken from the Blu-ray disc. This review was originally posted on 10/16/14.)

The year 1939, many believe, was the pinnacle of creativity in Hollywood, and MGM's super-production GONE WITH THE WIND is widely regarded as the finest film to come out of it. Unfortunately, I haven't had much luck over the years with trying to like it as much as I'm supposed to.

Watching the cut up, squeezed onto a small screen, interrupted by frequent commercials, and spread out over two nights version on network TV was underwhelming. Years later, my neighbor loaned me the 2-volume VHS version but I can't even remember if I watched it or not.

So I was determined that now, with the GONE WITH THE WIND 75TH ANNIVERSARY ULTIMATE COLLECTOR'S EDITION from Warner Bros. Home Entertainment in my hot little hands, I was going to sit down and, for the first time, really, really watch this undying classic. Like, definitively watch it, paying undivided attention to it and everything.

This time I think I finally got the most out of it that I'm ever going to get. The bottom line is that I find GONE WITH THE WIND not all that moving as drama, but as impressive as a movie can be when it comes to mind-boggling spectacle and sheer Hollywood movie-making magic--the quintessential "movie-movie."

Visually, it's simply one of the most gorgeous works of art ever concocted for the screen. Bold, impressionistic use of Technicolor coupled with exquisite special effects, set design, camerawork, and lighting combine to create an endless succession of stunning images.

Much of what we see in this recreation of the Old South before, during, and after the Civil War is purely the work of MGM's technical department, and watching these images unfold for close to four hours, especially in the first half before the intermission, almost felt like stuffing myself with some rich dessert.

The story, taken from Margaret Mitchell's wildly popular novel, takes place in an antebellum fairytale land ("Here in this pretty world, Gallantry took its last bow" the film's scrolling introduction tells us) of genteel, benevolent plantation masters, contented slaves, and a generation of young ladies and gentlemen whose leisure hours are filled with elegant parties and breathless romantic infatuations.

Probably the most breathless of them all is the Tara plantation's teenaged princess Scarlett O'Hara (Vivien Leigh), a spoiled, silly young girl who expects to get her own way even if that includes stealing handsome Ashley Wilkes (Leslie Howard) away from his intended bride and 2nd cousin Melanie Hamilton (Olivia de Havilland).

But a chance meeting with dashing rogue Rhett Butler (Clark Gable) during a party at the Wilkes' family mansion Twelve Oaks will usher in a new era of turbulent romantic entanglements in Scarlett's young life, one which will be intertwined with the encroachment of the Civil War and its devastating effect on an entire civilization soon to be "gone with the wind."

When war comes, it's here that Scarlett's character finally gains some dimension after being thrust into a chaotic world of violence and terror. Caught in an Atlanta that's under attack, she helps tend wounded soldiers until the enormity of war's horror (a famous wide shot of hundreds of injured men is still staggering) drives her away. But then she must deal with a weakened Melanie's painful delivery of her child while Northern forces close in.

Her frantic flight from the burning city in Rhett's carriage along with Melanie, her baby, and young slave girl Prissy (an endearingly funny Butterfly McQueen) is a thrilling high point of the film as they're menaced by crazed scavengers as well as exploding munitions and collapsing ruins.

Fans of KING KONG can even watch the Great Wall from that film go up in a final blaze of glory in one specatacular sequence. Like much of GONE WITH THE WIND's visual splendor, it's the kind of dazzling imagery that you just can't get with CGI. The later scenes at the ruins of Twelve Oaks and Tara, where Scarlett discovers just how lost her former life is, have a bleak, haunting quality that's nightmarish.

It's shocking to see such an idyllic, "pretty" existence so ruthlessly destroyed. When GONE WITH THE WIND is dealing with things like war's destructive and pointless waste in such effectively graphic terms, its easier to accept the film's initial idealization of the Old South way of life. The fact that this involves something of an idealization of slavery itself remains problematic. And yet, I once knew a black woman who counted this as her all-time favorite movie.

It helps that the black characters are all sympathetic even though largely stereotypical, and that the funny but wise Mammy (Hattie McDaniel, who won an Oscar for Best Supporting Actress) is more of a caring maternal figure to Scarlett than the rather aloof Mrs. Ellen O'Hara (Barbara O'Neill).

At any rate, all of this changes after the war ravages Scarlett's world and forces her to scrounge in the dirt, figuratively and literally, for her very existence while carpetbaggers try to wrest Tara from her grasp. In desperation she begins using men such as family friend Mr. Kennedy (Carroll Nye), whom she seduces away from her own sister, and finally the wealthy Rhett Butler, who offers financial support in return for the pretense of a tempestuous romance.

The rest of the story is a maelstrom of torrid emotional conflicts, deceptions, and assorted tragedies, most of them resulting from Scarlett's undying selfishness. Even as she enters middle age she's still the coquettish belle of the ball in her own mind. She uses people like pawns to further her own ends and is hardly an admirable heroine save for her tenacity and, in some cases, a reckless kind of courage.

I've never been able to make myself care much about Scarlett and I still find her generally insufferable, although Vivien Leigh's performance is so utterly perfect that it's a wonder to behold. The same holds true for the stalwart Clark Gable, whose manly and mostly honorable Rhett Butler is the main reason for me to stick with the sometimes turgid second half of the story. I can't imagine any other actor being able to pull off the role as well--his delivery of Rhett's celebrated final line is an unparalleled moment in film.

GONE WITH THE WIND is dense, intoxicating, a one-time-only convergence of creative forces that's almost otherworldly. It's like a cinematic fever dream. Maybe that's why I've always had trouble remembering previous viewings--as do other dreams, it drifts back into the ether when I awaken from it.

Warner Bros. four-disc, limited and numbered GONE WITH THE WIND 75TH ANNIVERSARY ULTIMATE COLLECTOR'S EDITION set adds to the excitement of the movie itself with some fun extras. Upon opening the box you get a handsome, richly-illustrated book about the film's opulent costuming entitled "Forever Scarlett: The Immortal Style of Gone With the Wind." In addition to this there's a music box with a picture of Rhett and Scarlett, and one of Rhett's monogrammed handkerchiefs.

Disc one is the Blu-ray restoration of the movie itself, which also contains a commentary track by film historian Rudy Behlmer and the original mono soundtrack.

Disc two features the TV-movie "Moviola: The Scarlett O'Hara War" which we reviewed HERE. There are also numerous other extras including:

"The Making of a Legend: Gone With the Wind"
"1939: Hollywood's Greatest Year"
"Gone With the Wind: The Legend Lives On"
"Gable: The King Remembered"
"Vivien Leigh: Scarlett and Beyond"
"Melanie Remembers: Reflections by Olivia De Havilland"
Cast and production bios, trailers, newsreels, and more

Disc three contains a documentary entitled "Old South, New South" which addresses, in depth, the issue of race in the film and in reality. There's also more newsreel footage of the film's Atlanta premiere.

Disc four is a flipper featuring the lengthy and exhaustive documentary "MGM: When the Lion Roars", hosted by Patrick Stewart.

Finally, the keepcase contains instructions on how to obtain your own digital HD copy of the film.

GONE WITH THE WIND is presented in its original non-widescreen format with Dolby Digital 5.1 soundtracks in English, French, and Spanish, and subtitles in several languages.

Full coverage of the "Gone with the Wind 75th Anniversary Ultimate Collector’s Edition" can be found HERE.

 
Stream rare and hard-to-find movies and TV shows at Warner Archive Instant; purchase discs at Warner Archive Collection. Even more at www.wbshop.com or www.wbultra.com

GONE WITH THE WIND 75TH ANNIVERSARY ULTIMATE COLLECTOR'S EDITION -- Blu-ray Review by Porfle

THE CHRISTINE CONRADT INTERVIEW

 

(This interview originally appeared online in 2005 at Bumscorner.com.)

 

When she's not playing a flesh-eating ghoul as in the upcoming zombiefest LAST RITES, she turns out screenplays for wicked flicks such as GHETTO DAWG 2:OUT OF THE PITS and A KILLER UPSTAIRS. She's the talented and prolific CHRISTINE CONRADT, and she just gave us the lowdown on all sorts of cool movie-type stuff!

Christine Conradt has won the Marguerite Roberts Screenwriting Award and placed seventh in the internationally recognized Writer's Digest Writing Competition. In addition to working as a reader and consultant, covering more than 200 screenplays and novels for small production and distribution companies, she also finds time to write numerous screenplays of her own, many of which have been turned into feature films. Two of these, GHETTO DAWG 2:OUT OF THE PITS (one of my favorite films of the year) and A KILLER UPSTAIRS, have just been released on DVD.

Christine recently made some time in her busy schedule to sit down and talk to us Bums about ghetto dawgs, serial killers, zombies...all sorts of neat stuff!


porfle: What led you to explore the subject matter of GHETTO DAWG 2?

Christine: I was actually approached by a friend of mine who was attached to direct GD2. Integration Entertainment wanted him to write the script and direct the film, but he was in the middle of another project and didn't have time to write the script, so he called me and asked me to meet with the producers.
I hit it off with them and wrote a draft. As it turned out, some things changed, and my friend didn't end up directing it... but I was impressed with what the Crook Brothers did. When I saw the rough cut, I emailed the producers at Integration and told them that I thought the directors -- and the cast-- did a really good job.


porfle: How did you achieve such realism in the dialogue and overall atmosphere?

Christine: I wasn't on the set when it shot in New York, but I can tell you that the most of the dialogue was changed by the actors and/or directors. They took what was on the page and really made it their own. I don't know how much was ad-libbed and how much direction the actors were given, but that gritty, realistic feel comes from them taking lines on a page and saying them the way they would say them -- or the way they feel their characters would say them.



porfle: So the filmmakers didn't always stick that closely to the script?

Christine: There was a lot of improvisation. The amount of improvisation is really up to a director and the producers... I've worked with other directors and producers that go over dialogue so closely before shooting that if the actor changes a line, they do another take and ask the actor to say the line as written. Some don't operate that way... On a low budget like this too, a lot of times the dialogue needs to change based on locations that you don't anticipate having during the writing phase, or the lack of locations you thought you'd get.



porfle: Were you directly involved in the making of the film?

Christine: No.



porfle: The original title was CHERRY. What does this refer to?

Christine: For a brief amount of time, it looked like funding for GD2 wasn't going to happen. At that point, the producers and I worked out a deal where I could shop the script myself to other production companies as a spec. So I retitled it 'Cherry' since
GD2 was a title Integration had. Before it could sell, funding came through and Integration ended up making it as GD2. It's not in the movie, but the dog's name was 'Cherry.' It was also a double entendre... Donte was cherry (a virgin) until he finally brought himself to pull the trigger.



porfle: Was this a spec script that was seen as a potential sequel to GHETTO DAWG? Or did you write it specifically as a sequel to that film?

Christine: When the producers at Integration and I sat down to talk about the project... they told me they wanted a sequel to Ghetto Dawg but they wanted entirely new actors, a new story, and no relation to the original-- except the title of course, and the same "feel." So I watched Ghetto Dawg to get a sense of what kind of film it was, and then wrote from scratch.


porfle: Certain scenes have a Martin Scorcese vibe to them.  Were you influenced by his films while writing GD2?

Christine: I wasn't specifically influenced by Scorsese during the writing... I think much of the scenes you refer to are a product of what the directors did with the script. That comes much more from the Crook brothers than it does from me.



porfle: (SPOILER) I love the last shot before the fade-out -- Big Daddy shoots an index finger at the unfortunate Donte with a self-satisfied smirk as Tyrone's dog sits beside him, and life in the pits goes on. Did you ever have an alternate, less downbeat ending in mind?

Christine: Actually, the end of the movie is different from what I put in the script. In the script, Cherry actually dies, Donte is arrested (like he is now), and Brynn doesn't get away. Angel's thug finds her and kills her. So the ending you see in the movie -- while still a downer -- is much more uplifting than the one I came up with.



porfle: Do you see yourself exploring this territory again in the future? Or is GD2 your final word on the subject?

Christine: Actually, I'm in negotiations right now to do a theatrical feature that is also a gang drama. I can't talk about it yet, but it's being directed and produced by an extremely talented music video director named Geo Santini. I would love to talk to you more about it once all the deals are in place and I am allowed to speak about it publicly. It has a very gritty, dirty RESERVOIR DOGS feel to it and I think it will be a terrific film.



porfle: When not writing urban dramas, you specialize in thrillers. What got you interested in the genre?

Christine: I actually love thrillers and horrors most... I am a big fan of the Law & Order series and Ann Rule books. I'm fascinated by the psychology of serial killers, so I think it was natural I would gravitate toward that genre.



porfle: Do you miss the days of the thriller anthology series on television ("Alfred Hitchcock Presents", "The Twilight Zone", etc.), as an outlet for talented writers?

Christine: I grew up on those shows and can attribute many sleepless nights as a child to Alfred Hitchock!
I do miss them... but I think there's much more opportunity now for talented writers to showcase themselves. With 200 television channels and the ability to make movies for so much cheaper on digital, if you have a great thriller with an original twist, there is definitely a way to get it in front of an audience.


porfle: You wrote A KILLER UPSTAIRS, which was just released on DVD, for the Lifetime Channel. Did the finished product turn out as you envisioned it?

Christine: Yes... actually AKU was my first project for Lifetime although I worked with the same producers on A Perfect Nanny for USA a few years back. The producers are very involved in the development process and we spend hours hashing out every detail from dialogue changes to blocking as the script is being written, so there are no surprises on those films.

It's always a thrill for me to see the finished product though... because even when you see photos of the location and meet the actors and all of that, it's still never quite the same as you envision it in your head.


porfle: How did you end up playing a zombie in the upcoming horror film LAST RITES, in which two rival street gangs must join forces against an army of flesh-eating ghouls?

Christine: Well... a fellow USC Film School grad and very good friend of mine (Todd Ocvirk-- who co-directed a film titled KOLOBOS which is somewhat of a cult classic now) is co-producing LAST RITES. In film school, there were only 5 girls in my class, so when it came time for everyone to find actors for their student films, there weren't many female leads to choose from so I got asked a lot. During our sophomore year, Todd made a kick-ass zombie movie and I was one of the zombies. When he was getting ready to shoot LAST RITES, he called me and asked me if I wanted to play a zombie 'for real' this time. I told him I'd love to and I showed up on the set and let the make up artists do their thing. I was in the middle of my own projects, so I was only on set for one day, but it was so much fun to stumble around in torn up clothes and spit up black gunk... I hope there's a sequel to LAST RITES so I can do it again!



porfle: Was this your first time in front of the camera?

Christine: No... I'd done several student films and I was actually an extra on The Bold & the Beautiful for a little while during the time I was in college. I enjoy acting. I'm a completely different person as soon as a camera is on me!



porfle: What was the makeup process like?

Christine: Wow. Crazy. The make up artists were so good, you'd think you were on the set of a studio film. It took about 2 hours to do hair and make up.
One make up artist spray painted my neck and hands and arms green while another one worked on applying make up on my face. Some of the other zombies are much more mutiliated than I was... I think they kind of wanted to keep the female zombies with a little bit of sex appeal (in a twisted way), so the guys ended up with the crazy teeth and holes in their faces. My hair is pretty long and when I sat down, the girl doing hair said, "I'm going to ruin your hair today."
And I told her to go for it. I ended up with the biggest, teased out hair style I've ever seen. It took me forever to get all the spray and stuff washed out.



porfle: One of the stars of LAST RITES is fan-favorite Reggie Bannister of the PHANTASM series. What was it like working with him?

Christine: Unfortunately because of my limited time on the set, I didn't have the chance to really get a sense of the leads and how they worked. Most of the time while they were blocking, the zombies were all refilling their mouths with what we called "zombie juice."



porfle: Can you give us a preview of some of your upcoming projects?

Christine: I have several coming on Lifetime. A LOVER'S REVENGE just aired and may still be airing off and on. The one after that is called MURDER IN MY HOUSE starring Barbara Niven and Gary Hudson. I was actually invited to set in Canada as that one was filming, so I got to spend quite a bit of time getting to know the cast and crew. I think it will be really good, so I'm looking forward to that one coming out in early 2006. The one after that (A PERFECT MARRIAGE) is shooting right now and then I have two more in the works. I'm really excited about the upcoming gang drama which will hopefully go into production in Feb.
2006. I'm also working on a couple of spec scripts that I would like to co-produce myself.



porfle: What advice would you give to someone who aspires to writing screenplays for a living?

Christine: Well, my best advice would be to stick with it. I actually wrote an entire article for Tailslate.com about this very subject. Writing for film and T.V. is an extremely competitive industry, and it's easy to get discouraged. You have to really love what you're doing, and not care about the money, and I think that is key. People who get into it for the money, get out as soon as they realize that you can spend years starving while you're trying to sell that first script. I've been there... I actually took out a loan to live on for six months so that I could have time to write every day. That's a huge gamble, but in my case, it paid off. The script I wrote during that time never sold, but it got me A KILLER UPSTAIRS. Every writer has a different story of what worked for them, so you just have to find what works for you.



porfle: Thank you very much for speaking with us. We'll definitely be on the lookout for future films that feature your name in the credits!

Christine: You're very welcome.


Some of Christine Conradt's films that we've reviewed:

GHETTO DAWG 2: OUT OF THE PITS
A LOVER'S REVENGE
CHRISTIE'S REVENGE
HOTEL CALIFORNIA

THE CHRISTINE CONRADT INTERVIEW