While attending The Abingdon Theatre Benefit “Marathon ‘33″ on Monday, October 19, I had the pleasure of personally interviewing, in her first blog interview, Lane Bradbury, the original “Dainty June” in Broadway’s “Gypsy” which starred Ethel Merman as “Rose.” Her other Broadway credits include “J.B.,” “The Night of the Iguana,” and “Marathon ‘33.” Lane has also been seen in such hit TV shows as “Gunsmoke,” “The Mod Squad,” “The Partridge Family,” “The Waltons,” “I’ll Fly Away,” “In The Heat of The Night,” “Party of Five”, and “Savannah.”  Currently, Lane is the Artistic Director of the Valkyrie Theater of Dance and Drama which brings drama and dance to at risk teens.

1. Who inspired you to become a performer? Performing was always something I did. Something was just in me that made me want to perform. As a young child I would always dance on the sofa and to spruce things up I would change my clothes, putting on my Sunday best to make the performance more colorful.

2. When did you realize you wanted to become a performer? When I was a child. Mother started taking me to ballet at age 5 so I was always gearing up for some kind of performance. Performing professionally was a natural manifestation of what I already did a lot.

3. What has been your best & worst experience in a show? My best experience was the first play I ever did, “Ondine.”  My worst experience was working with Jerry Robbins in Gypsy.

4. Is there ever a time you thought about quitting? If so what did you consider doing? I never thought about quitting. Being on Broadway was very tough and eventually that experience morphed into me focusing more on dance and doing my own thing and which ultimately led me to becoming the Artistic director of Valkyrie Theater of Dance & Drama. I bring dance & drama to at risk teens after school. I like to mix in professional people with the kids watch what unfolds.

5. Out of all the people you’ve worked with, who did you learn the most from? Dorothy Alexander, my first ballet teacher taught me and inspired me a lot.

6. Who is the one person you haven’t worked with that you would like to? At the moment, no one comes to mind, but I will let you know if I think of one.

7. What’s the best advice you given someone, but not taken for yourself? Use the negative experiences of your life and making something positive out of them. Also, bring yourselves honestly to what you are doing.

8. If you could dream about anyone while you sleep, who would it be? I just finished reading “True Compass” by Ted Kennedy. Growing up, the Kennedy family were legends and I dream that they really made a difference in this world. To me, they are the epitome of turning a negative experience into a positive one.

9. Favorite pastime? Training my new Pomeranian puppy.

10. Favorite play/musical? My favorite play is “Good Bobby” about Bobby Kennedy. My favorite musical is “Cats.”

With just a few exceptions (True Blood and So You Think You Can Dance) summer TV is a dark, dark place. It’s full of reruns and unpopular shows that networks have left to die. As the new Fall season approaches, networks are ramping up their ad campaigns, whetting our appetites with small glimpses of what’s to come.

And we all watch it. When we’re hanging out with friends and someone starts talking about House or 24, we may be quick to say, “Oh, I’m so busy! I hardly watch any TV at all!” but that’s just because, unconsciously, our sphincters are clenching in fear that our friends will find the Firefly DVDs and empty cans of Mountain Dew scattered across our bedroom.

For a while now, I’ve really been digging the advertisements networks run promoting their shows. For a moment, it makes me feel high-brow and good about all the hours and money I’ve thrown in to TV and DVDs. When I think of this stuff, I usually think of The Sopranos, which really owned us all (you can click most of the pictures for larger versions).

In this picture, you’ll recognize the bodies on the ground as characters who have died over the years — Ralph Cifaretto, Big Pussy Bonpensiero, Gloria Trillo, and Richie Aprile.

The Sopranos isn’t the only show to have used the Last Supper motif. Here are two promos from Battlestar Galactica and House…

I’m not a huge fan of House, but that picture makes me wish I was…maybe. And for BSG and The Sopranos, such an evocative image was totally appropriate for the shows. Of course, there are other shows like Bones, who start with a good idea and then SURPRISEPOKER!!1!

Booth: Bones! How much are you in for?

Bones: Fiddy bones! LOL!

But we knew they’d screw it up in the end, right? Networks like HBO and Showtime release this sort of thing a lot more than networks like FOX and NBC, so when looking for examples, I wasn’t able to find a ton of variety. Maybe you’ll forgive me.

Some of my favorite stuff is for Showtime’s Dexter (returning September 27th!). Man. That kid’s eyes…

All these shows do this stuff like they’re old pros, but then there are other shows who just use the profile pics from their Facebook pages.

Booth: “Bones! What are you doing?”

Bones: “Oh, just examining my bones, LOL! … Thursdays at 8/7c.”

If any of you are interested in this sort of thing, you should flip through the occasional issue of Vanity Fair. They’ve got a lot of good stuff. If any of you find anything out there you particularly like, send it to fuggidup@yahoo.com and we’ll post it. Unless it’s Bones. I mean, seriously?

Ok: so, I’ve been increasingly frustrated by the fact that I’m no longer writing, and that this blog is dead. Furthermore, participating in the terrific TOERIFC discussion of Black Book reminded me that there is some tremendously insightful, engaging, thought-provoking writing about film (and all kinds of other things) being done, but not by me (unless you count twittering).

So: on this thunderstormy night I sent the boyfriend to a poker tournament, and told myself I’d write. Just write. No idea what it’ll be, but let’s start with a round-up of what I’ve been watching recently. 100 words per film. I can’t promise it’ll be worth reading, but it’ll at least be something. Ready? Set? Go.

June 2nd: The Misfits (Huston, 1961)

I’ve never really understood the Marilyn Monroe cult. The fascination with her life, I mean. She was a tragic figure, but in my opinion not so intriguing. As an actress, I find her alternately infuriating and fascinating. In The Misfits, she’s the latter: child-like but obviously damaged in some way, beautiful but frail and flighty. Eli Wallach and Montgomery Clift are great too, but to me it’s Clark Gable who elevates this movie above its rather unfocused plot, which meanders quite a bit on its way to the very poignant ending.

June 5th: Terminator 2: Judgment Day (Cameron, 1991) and June 7th: Terminator Salvation (McG, 2009) – seen in the cinema.

Terminator 2: Judgment Day is pretty much everything you want from an action sequel. It takes everything that made the first movie great, turns it up to 11, and adds some delightful elements to boot. Linda Hamilton, whose Sarah Connor was a ditzy Mary-figure in the original, is fierce here: obsessive, verging on crazy, and BUILT. The bonding between JC and Arnie as his surrogate father figure is dopey and somewhat corny, but it works. And Robert Patrick is scarier and seemingly unstoppable as T-1000. There’s even a nice undercurrent about morality, and if you can punish someone for something they haven’t done yet. In one word, it’s awesome.

And then there’s Terminator Salvation. I’ll admit: I was in a good mood and was going along with it for the most part. My expectations were low, and while I don’t believe in shutting off your critical faculties entirely even for a popcorn flick, I was just trying to enjoy the ride and the wham-bam effects, despite Bale’s boring glowering, the effects-for-effects’-sake, the lack of nuance and humor… and then came the ending, and I realized just how bad this movie is. “The power of the human heart”- seriously? Worst of all, the new movie never made clear why exactly John Connor was so crucial to the Resistance. *spoilerish* in my eyes Marcus was the more valuable asset *spoilerish*. I won’t even get into the whole nonsense with Helena Bonham Carter. I think this is best treated like the sequels to The Matrix.

June 8th: Mala Noche (van Sant,1985)

I have a confession to make: for the last couple of month, roughly until I saw L’Avventura (more on that movie later), I had a hard time concentrating on movies. I was watching quite a few, happily checking off movie from the “They Shoot Pictures, Don’t They?” list, but my netbook was always close by, and I rarely managed to immerse myself in movies. All this to say to Mala Noche: it’s not you, it’s me. I’m sure I’ll give the movie another shot: it was beautiful to look at, and I usually find van Sant’s fascination with, and observation of, young boys (cf.) fascinating. But this time around, it was a letdown.

June 8th and 9th: The Woman In the Window (Lang, 1944).

Even “minor Lang” (to use a The Squid and the Whale-via-filmspotting expression), like this rather straighforward little noir, is worth watching. Especially, of course, if it stars the amazing Edward G. Robinson. I’ll admit his role, as a stodgy professor who feels just a little confined in his comfortable life, is not one of his most interesting, and he makes some head-desk worthy decisions… But those are explained by the ending, which is a bit of a cop-out but not an unsatisfying one. It’s not among the great noirs, but its a testament to the genre that even the lesser films are very entertaining. Then again, with this director and star, anything else would have been surprising.

June 10th: Birth (Glazer, 2004)

Based on the premise of this film, I dismissed it. Seemed too mystical and new-agey, But I kept hearing good things about it, and I love Glazer’s Sexy Beast, so when I saw it was on television (and on one of the few channels without commercials, to boot) I relented.

I’m glad I did. It’s an odd little movie, but while I can’t say I love it completely as a while, it’s pretty much perfect on a scene-by-scene basis, from the stunning credit sequence through the modulated reactions of everyone around Nicole Kidman’s Anna to the ending, which is anticlimactic but somehow not really disappointing. I can’t wait what Glazer does next.

June 11th A Matter of Life and Death/Stairway to Heaven (Powell & Pressburger, 1946)

Come to think about it, this is not a bad pairing with Birth. Does love transcend death? I don’t think it does, but Powell and Pressburger do make a convincing case. Powell is great, I loved the fact that Heaven was in B&W while the earth was Technicolor, and the Britain vs. US discussion is hilarious.

June 13th: The Brothers Bloom (Johnson, 2009) – seen in the cinema with my dad

Like all good con movies, this one is a con on its audience, too… But not in the way you’d expect. The events aren’t that unpredictable: what’s unpredictable is that – as, according to the movie, in all great cons – you get exactly what you want in the end. I loved how Johnson played with the notion of storytelling being a con-job (though he did lay it on a bit thick at times). Also, like Wes Anderson before him, he makes great use of Adrian Brody’s long limbs and sad-clown face. The grasp he has on the movie’s tone isn’t as firm as with Brick, but when an opening scene already makes me giddy, I don’t feel like complaining too much.

June 14th: Imitation of Life (Sirk, 1959)

I liked this much more than I thought I would, and was pleasantly surprised by the inclusion of race and sexism as topics… But is it bad that I enjoy the homage (specifically Todd Haynes’ Far From Heaven more?

June 18th: In the Heat of the Night (Jewison, 1967)

I think this is the first Sydney Poitier movie I’ve ever seen… I know, I’m terrible. He’s amazing, obviously. The movie… well, the atmosphere is great. The mystery? Let’s just say I’ve already forgotten most of it. It seemed a bit too much like a message movie to me, but since the message is unfortunately still relevant, it’s hard to blame it for that.

June 20st: Bottle Shock (Miller, 2008)

I lost some serious movie-nerd cred with this one: I picked it as a safe rental for the whole family (always difficult to find, seeing how diverse and strongly opinionated my family is)…and they hated it. I didn’t quite, but let’s face it, even Rickman can’t save this formulaic, maudlin mess. Pretty postcard pictures, though.

June 21st: The Trial (Welles, 1962)

Remember I said I had some trouble concentrating on movies? This one suffered most. Will report back one I feel I’ve actually watched it, instead of just vaguely registering some scenes. The opening is aptly unsettling though, and Perkins is well-cast.

June 24th: L’Avventura (Antonioni, 1960) – seen in the cinema

The movie that ended my funk, and the last one I’ll discuss here. As readers of this blog might know, I’m quite an Antonioni-aficionado, but since his films aren’t exactly widely available, I’ve only seen a rather narrow selection of his films. In fact, I’d only seen the four I own on DVD: L’Eclisse (my only Criterion, a lovely film), his first fiction feature, Cronaca di un Amore, which is a surprisingly inconclusive variation on the wife-and-lover-conspire-to-kill-husband theme, and two english-language films I love, Blow-Up and The Passenger. I was understandable psyched when a retrospective of his work was announced, but unfortunately I could not make it to either Red Desert or La Noche.

However, I did see L’Avventura in all its glory, up on a big screen in a dark room. It was exactly what I needed: a slow, deliberate film in which very little happens, which is absolutely worthless and uninteresting if you don’t pay it your full attention. It reminded me of why films are worth immersing yourself in, about how much you miss if you focus only on the overall plot. Don’t get me wrong: I didn’t love L’Avventura, not as much as Blow-Up and The Passenger in any case, maybe not even as much as L’Eclisse. But I love that it re-invigorated my love for film.

It’s quite amazing, really, how much Antonioni’s movies pull you in despite keeping you at a distance. They lull you into a sense of security with their everyday, ordinary details, their often uninspired, pedestrian dialogues. And then you fall into the big emptiness that lies beneath his pretty surfaces. Monica Vitti had the perfect face for his movies, really, impenetrable and cool but promising something more.

That’s it for now – I’m tired, it’s late, and this post is way too long. I know the writing is very workmanlike, but I hope to build up to insightful and sharp gradually. Most importantly: I wrote. Writing something good… well, let’s see if I can do that again soon.

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1890 Monkeyshines 1891 Dickson Greeting 1891 Edison – Newark Athlete, Part I 1893 Men in Blacksmith Shop 1894 Annie Oakley shooting at targets 1894 Edison – Chinese Laundry – November 26, 1894 1894 Edison – Kinetoscope Films from 1894-1896 1895 Arrival of a Train at La Ciotat (The Lumière Brothers) 1895 Edison – The execution of Mary, Queen of Scots – August 28, 1895 1895 L’Arroseur arrosé 1895 The Dickson Experimental Sound Film 1896 Bataille de Boules de Neige (Louis Lumière, 1896) 1896 Edison – The Kiss 1896 Fred Ott’s Sneeze 1896 Louis Lumiere – New York,Broadway At Union Square 1896 Rip Van Winkle 1897 Edison – Admiral Cigarette advertisement 1898 Turkish Dance, Ella Lola 1899 Cripple Creek Bar-room Scene (Edison) 1899 Edison – Bicyclist tricks 1900 Edison – Grandma’s Bad Boys 1901 Edison – Boxing Woman 1901 Edison – Circular panorama of electric tower – Pan-American Exposition, 14 August 1901 1901 Edison – The Martyred Presidents 1901 What Happened on Twenty-Third Street, New York City 1902 Le voyage dans la lune 1903 Life of an American Fireman – Edwin S. Porter 1903 Move On 1903 NYC Ghetto Fish Market 1903 The Great Train Robbery Part 1 – Thomas A. Edison 1904 Westinghouse Works Part 1 1906 San Francisco earthquake and fire 1909 Princess Nicotine 1910 Jack Johnson -vs- James Jeffries 1914 Cabiria Giovanni Pastrone 1914 Charlie Chaplin – The Kid Auto Race 1914 Der Golem or, The Monster of Fate 1914 Gertie the Dinosaur 1914 The Exploits of Elaine 1915 The Birth of a Nation 1915 The Italian 1916 Intolerance 1917 The Immigrant 1919 Broken Blossoms 1920 The Cabinet of Dr Caligari 1920 The Mark of Zorro 1921 Charlie Chaplin – The Kid 1921 Manhatta 1921 The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse 1922 Buster Keaton – Cops (1 of 2) 1922 Nanook of the North 1922 Nosferatu 1923 Le retour a la raison – Man Ray 1923 Safety Last! 1923 Salome 1924 Body and Soul 1924 Buster Keaton – Sherlock Jr 1924 Buster Keaton – The Navigator 1924 Peter Pan 1924 The Thief of Bagdad 1925 Battleship Potemkin – Odessa Stairs Massacre – Pram 1925 Battleship Potemkin – Son Shot 1925 Charlie Chaplin – The Gold Rush 1925 The Freshman 1925 The Lost World 1925 The Phantom of the Opera 1925 Theodore Case Sound Test – Gus Visser and his Singing Duck 1926 Flesh and the Devil 1926 Son of the Sheik 1927 Buster Keaton – The General 2 1927 It – Clara Bow 1927 Metropolis – Montage 1927 Oktober – 1 1927 Sunrise 1927 The Jazz Singer 1927 Wings 1928 Charlie Chaplin – The Circus 1928 Steamboat Willie 1928 The Cameraman – Breaking the Bank 1928 The Wedding March 1929 Luis Bunuel – Un chien andalou Part 1 1929 Man with a Movie Camera 1929 St. Louis Blues 1929 The Broadway Melody 1930 All Quiet Along the Western Front – Trailer 1930 Morocco 1931 Charlie Chaplin – City Lights 1931 Dracula 1931 Frankenstein 1931 Fritz Lang’s M, ending, 1st part 1931 Le million 1931 Little Caesar 1931 The Champ 1931 The Public Enemy 1932 Freaks 1932 Grand Hotel 1932 Love Me Tonight 1932 Shanghai Express 1932 The Music Box 1932 Trouble In Paradise 1933 42nd Street 1933 Duck Soup 1933 King Kong – ending 1933 She Done Him Wrong – Mae West 1933 Snow White 1933 The Emperor Jones 1934 It Happened One Night 1934 It’s A Gift 1934 Little Miss Marker 1934 Tarzan and His Mate 1934 The Goddess 1934 The Man Who Knew Too Much 1934 The Thin Man 1935 A Night at the Opera 1935 Bride of Frankenstein 1935 Mutiny On The Bounty 1935 Naughty Marietta 1935 The 39 Steps 1935 Top Hat 1935 Triumph of the Will 1936 Camille 1936 Modern Times 1936 My Man Godfrey 1936 Popeye the Sailor Meets Sindbad the Sailor – Part 1 1936 Rose Hobart 1936 Show Boat 1936 Swing Time – Trailer 1936 The Great Ziegfeld 1937 A Star Is Born 1937 Hindenburg disaster 1937 Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs – hi ho 1937 Stage Door 1937 The Awful Truth 1937 The Life of Emile Zola 1937 Way Out West – ‘Blue Ridge Mountains’ 1938 Bringing Up Baby 1938 Love Finds Andy Hardy – Trailer 1938 Olympia 1938 Porky in Wackyland 1938 You Can’t Take It with You 1939 Destry Rides Again 1939 Gone with the Wind 1 – kiss 1939 Gunga Din 1939 La Règle du jeu 1939 Mr. Smith Goes to Washington 1939 Ninotchka clip 1939 Stagecoach 1939 The Wizard of Oz 1939 Wuthering Heights 1939 Young Mr Lincoln 1940 Charlie Chaplin – The Great Dictator 1940 Fantasia 1940 His Girl Friday 1940 Pinocchio 1940 Rebecca 1940 The Bank Dick 1940 The Grapes Of Wrath 1940 The Philadelphia Story 1940 The Shop Around the Corner 1941 Citizen Kane – Final Words 1941 Meet John Doe 1941 Sullivan’s Travels 1941 The Lady Eve 1941 The Maltese Falcon 1942 Casablanca 1 – play it again 1942 Cat People 1942 Holiday Inn – White Christmas 1942 Jam Session 1942 Random Harvest – She’s Ma Daisy 1942 Road to Morocco 1942 The Battle of Midway 1942 The Magnificent Ambersons 1942 To Be Or Not To Be 1942 Tulips Shall Grow 1942 Woman of the Year 1942 Yankee Doodle Dandy 1943 Meshes of the Afternoon – Part 1 1943 Shadow of a Doubt 1943 Stormy Weather 1943 The Life and Death of Colonel Blimp 1944 Arsenic and Old Lace 1944 Double Indemnity 1944 Going My Way 1944 Henry V – Trailer 1944 Laura – Trailer 1944 The Miracle of Morgan’s Creek 1945 Blithe Spirit 1945 Brief Encounter – end 1945 Detour 1945 Les Enfants du Paradis 1945 Mildred Pierce – Trailer 1945 Roma Citta Libera 1945 Spellbound 1945 The Body Snatcher 1945 The Lost Weekend 1946 It’s A Wonderful Life – ending 1946 La Belle et la bête 1946 My Darling Clementine 1946 Notorious 1946 The Best Years of Our Lives 1946 The Big Sleep 1947 Black Narcissus 1947 Brighton Rock 1947 Crossfire 1947 Miracle on 34th Street 1947 Out of the Past 1948 Abbott and Costello Meet Frankenstein 1948 Bicycle Thieves 1948 Hamlet 1948 Letter From An Unknown Woman 1948 Mr.Blandings Builds His Dream House 1948 Red River 1948 The Red Shoes 1948 The Treasure Of The Sierra Madre 1949 All the King’s Men 1949 Kind Hearts and Coronets 1949 The Heiress 1949 The Third Man – ending 1949 Twelve O’Clock High 1949 White Heat – Top of the World 1950 All About Eve 1950 Gerald McBoing-Boing 1950 Harvey 1950 In A Lonely Place 1950 Rashomon 1950 Sunset Boulevard 1951 A Place in the Sun 1951 A Streetcar Named Desire 1951 An American in Paris 1951 Duck and Cover 1951 Flying Padre – Stanley Kubrick 1951 Strangers on a Train 1951 The African Queen 1951 The Day the Earth Stood Still 1951 The Thing from Another World 1952 High Noon 1952 Hurlements en faveur de Sade – Guy Debord 1952 Ikiru 1952 Magical Maestro 1952 Singin’ in the Rain 1952 The Bad and the Beautiful 1952 The Greatest Show on Earth 1952 The Quiet Man 1952 Umberto D 1953 From Here to Eternity 1953 Le Salaire de la peur 1953 Let’s All Go to the Lobby 1953 Mr Hulot’s Holiday 1 – start 1953 Roman Holiday 1953 Shane 1953 Stalag 17 1953 The Band Wagon – That’s Entertainment 1953 The Hitch-Hiker 1953 The Tell-Tale Heart 1953 The War Of The Worlds 1953 Tokyo Story 1953 Ugetsu 1954 A Star Is Born 1954 Carmen Jones 1954 Creature from the Black Lagoon 1954 Dial M For Murder 1954 House in the Middle Pt 1 1954 La Strada 1954 On The Waterfront 1954 Rear Window 1954 Sabrina 1954 Seven Brides for Seven Brothers 1954 Seven Samurai – Akira Kurosawa 1954 The Caine Mutiny 1954 The Dam Busters 1954 White Christmas 1955 Blackboard Jungle 1955 Kiss Me Deadly clip 1955 Les Diaboliques 1955 Marty 1955 One Froggy Evening 1955 Pather Panchali 1955 Rebel Without A Cause – knife 1955 Richard III 1955 Rififi 1955 The Night of the Hunter 1956 Around the World in 80 Days – Trailer 1956 Don’t Knock The Rock – ‘Tutti Frutti’ 1956 Giant 1956 Invasion Of The Body Snatchers 1956 The Court Jester 1956 The Killing 1956 The Searchers – Trailer 1956 The Ten Commandments – Trailer 1957 12 Angry Men 1 1957 Bridge On The River Kwai 1 1957 Jailhouse Rock 1957 Le notti di Cabiria – Fellini 1957 Paths of Glory 1957 Pyaasa 1957 Rock You Sinners – Brighton Rock 1957 Smultronstället 1957 Sweet Smell of Success 1957 The Seventh Seal 1957 What’s Opera, Doc 1957 Will Success Spoil Rock Hunter 1957 Witness for the Prosecution 1958 Cat on a Hot Tin Roof 1958 Mon Oncle 1958 The Defiant Ones – Trailer 1958 The Vikings 1958 Touch of Evil 1958 Vertigo – The Stairs, first time 1959 Anatomy of a Murder – Trailer 1959 Ben Hur – Trailer 1959 Les quatre cents coups 1959 North By Northwest – The Airplane 1959 Shadows 1959 Some Like It Hot 1960 A bout de souffle 1960 House of Usher 1960 La Dolce Vita 1960 Psycho 1960 Saturday Night and Sunday Morning – Trailer 1960 Spartacus 1960 The Alamo 1960 The Apartment 1961 Breakfast at Tiffany’s 1961 Dog Star Man – Prelude 1961 Judgment At Nuremberg 1961 Jules et Jim 1961 West Side Story 1961 Yojimbo 1961The Hustler 1962 Dr No 1962 How the West Was Won 1962 Lawrence of Arabia 1962 Lolita 1962 O Pagador de Promessas 1962 Ride the High Country 1962 The Manchurian Candidate 1962 The Music Man 1962 To Kill a Mockingbird 1963 8 1-2 – dream 1963 Charade 1963 Dog Star Man – Part II 1963 Shock Corridor 1963 The Birds 1963 The Great Escape 1963 The Nutty Professor 1963 The Servant 1964 A Hard Day’s Night 1964 Bande à part 1964 Deus e o diabo na terra do Sol 1964 Dog Star Man – Part III 1964 Dr. Strangelove 1 1964 Empire – Andy Warhol 1964 Goldfinger 1964 Mary Poppins – Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious 1964 My Fair Lady – Wouldn’t It Be Loverly 1964 Zulu 1965 Darling 1965 Dr. Zhivago 1965 For A Few Dollars More 1965 Repulsion – Catherine Deneuve 1965 The Sound of Music 1966 A Man For All Seasons – Trailer 1966 Alfie 1966 Blow-up 1966 Fahrenheit 451 1966 Georgy Girl 1966 La Battaglia di Algeri 1966 Persona 1966 The Endless Summer 1966 The Good The Bad and the Ugly 1966 Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf 1967 Belle de Jour – Luis Bunuel 1967 Bonnie and Clyde 1967 Cool Hand Luke – boiled eggs 1967 Far From The Madding Crowd 1967 Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner 1967 In the Heat of the Night – Trailer 1967 Mouchette 1967 Playtime 1967 Stop, Look and Listen 1967 The Graduate 1967 The Jungle Book – I Wanna Be Like You 1968 2001 Space Odyssey 1 – start 1968 Bullitt 1968 Carry on Up the Khyber 1968 If… 1968 Night Of the Living Dead 1968 Oliver! 1968 Once Upon a Time in the West 1968 Planet of the Apes 1968 Rosemary’s Baby 1968 The Producers – Springtime for Hitler 1968 Why Man Creates 1969 Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid 1969 Easy Rider – ending 1969 Goodbye, Mr. Chips 1969 Kes – cane 1969 Midnight Cowboy – I’m walking here 1969 The Italian Job – doors 1969 The Sorrow and the Pity – bourgeois 1969 The Wild Bunch 1969 Women in Love 1970 Five Easy Pieces 1970 Love Story 1970 MASH 1970 Multiple Sidosis 1970 Patton 1971 A Clockwork Orange – droog fight 1971 A Touch Of Zen 1971 Fiddler On The Roof – To Life 1971 Get Carter 1971 Harold And Maude 1971 Shaft 1971 Sweet Sweetback’s Baadasssss Song 1971 The French Connection 1971 The Hospital 1971 The Last Picture Show 1971 Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory – Pure Imagination 1972 Aguirre the Wrath of God 1972 Cabaret 1972 Deliverance – ‘Dueling banjos’ 1972 DT 1972 Frenzy 1972 Last Tango in Paris 1 1972 OffOn 1972 Sleuth 1972 Solaris 1972 The Discreet Charm of the Bourgeoisie 1972 The Godfather – offer 1972 The Poseidon Adventure 1973 American Graffiti 1973 Badlands 1973 Coffy 1973 Don’t Look Now 1973 Enter the Dragon 1973 Frank Film 1973 La Nuit americaine 1973 Mean Streets 1973 Sleeper 1973 The Day of the Jackal 1973 The Exorcist – Pt.1 1973 The Sting 1973 The Wicker Man 1974 A Woman Under the Influence 1974 Blazing Saddles 1974 Chinatown 1974 Foxy Brown 1974 The Conversation 1974 The Godfather, Part II 1974 The Texas Chainsaw Massacre – ending 1974 The Towering Inferno – Trailer 1974 Young Frankenstein – Puttin’ on the Ritz 1975 One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest – ending 1975 Barry Lyndon 1975 Dog Day Afternoon 1975 Flåklypa Grand Prix – 1 1975 Jaws 1975 Monty Python and the Holy Grail 1975 Nashville 1975 One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest 1975 Picnic At Hanging Rock – Trailer 1975 The Return Of The Pink Panther – Karate Kick 1975 The Rocky Horror Picture Show – Damn it Janet 1976 All the President’s Men – Trailer 1976 Car Wash 1976 Marathon Man 1976 Network 1976 Nuts in May 1976 Rocky – Adrian 1976 Taxi Driver – Talking To Me 1976 The Omen 1976 The Outlaw Josey Wales 1976 The Pink Panther Strikes Again 1977 Abigail’s Party 1977 Annie Hall 1977 Close Encounters of the Third Kind 1977 Eraserhead 1977 Killer of Sheep 1977 Looking for Mr. Goodbar 1977 Powers of Ten 1977 Saturday Night Fever 1977 Soldaat van Oranje 1977 Star Wars Episode IV – A New Hope – Deathstar1 1978 Dawn Of The Dead – mall 1978 DDD 1978 Every Which Way But Loose 1978 Grease – Summer Nights 1978 Halloween 1978 Midnight Express 1978 National Lampoon’s Animal House 1978 Pennies From Heaven 1978 Superman The Movie 1978 The Deer Hunter 1978 The Last Waltz – The Weight 1979 Alien 1979 All That Jazz – Bye Bye Life 1979 Apocalypse Now – Napalm in the morning 1979 Mad Max and Feral Boy 1979 Manhattan – start 1979 Monty Python’s Life of Brian 1979 Stalker – Tarkovsky 1979 Star Trek The Motion Picture 1979 The Black Stallion 1979 Woyzeck – Herzog 1980 Airplane! 1980 Atlantic City 1980 Flash Gordon 1980 Gregory’s Girl 1980 Heaven’s Gate 1980 Mon oncle d’Amerique 1980 Raging Bull 1980 Superman II 1980 The Elephant Man 1980 The Empire Strikes Back 1980 The Long Good Friday – ending 1980 The Shining – Here’s Johnny 1981 Chariots of Fire 1981 Das Boot 1981 Gallipoli 1981 Mommie Dearest 1981 Raiders Of The Lost Ark 1981 The Cannonball Run – 1 1981 The Evil Dead 1981 The Postman Always Rings Twice 1982 Blade Runner 1982 Boys from the Blackstuff 1982 Conan The Barbarian 1982 ET 1982 Fast Times At Ridgemont High 1982 First Blood 1982 Fitzcarraldo 1982 Gandhi 1982 Koyaanisqatsi 1982 Made in Britain 1982 Poltergeist 1982 Porky’s 1982 Raymond Briggs’ The Snowman 1982 Sophie’s Choice 1982 Star Trek II – The Wrath of Khan 1982 The Draughtsman’s Contract 1982 The Thing 1982 The Thing 1983 A Christmas Story – Oh, Fuuudge 1983 Return of The Jedi 1983 Scarface 1983 Terms of Endearment 1983 The King of Comedy 1983 Trading Places 1983 WarGames 1984 1984 1984 A Passage To India 1984 Amadeus 1984 Dune 1984 Ghostbusters 1984 Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom 1984 Once Upon A Time In America 1984 Paris, Texas 1984 Police Academy 1984 Repo Man 1984 Stop Making Sense 1984 Stranger Than Paradise 1984 Supergirl 1984 The Karate Kid 1984 The Killing Fields 1984 The Never Ending Story – Trailer 1984 The Terminator 1984 This is Spinal Tap 1985 After Hours 1985 Back to the Future 1985 Brazil 1985 Clue 1985 My Beautiful Laundrette 1985 Out of Africa 1985 Ran 1985 Teen Wolf 1985 The Black Cauldron 1985 The Breakfast Club – dancing 1985 The Color Purple 1985 The Goonies 1985 The Official Story 1985 Weird Science 1985 Witness 1985 Young Sherlock Holmes 1986 9 1-2 Weeks 1986 A Better Tomorrow 1986 A Room with a View 1986 Betty Blue 1986 Big Trouble In Little China 1986 Blue Velvet – start 1986 Caravaggio – Derek Jarman 1986 Ferris Bueller’s Day Off 1986 Flight of the Navigator 1986 Hannah and Her Sisters 1986 Hoosiers 1986 Jean de Florette 1986 Labyrinth 1986 Little Shop of Horrors 1986 Manon des Sources 1986 Mona Lisa 1986 Platoon 1986 Rita, Sue and Bob Too – Bananarama 1986 Short Circuit – Trailer 1986 Stand By Me – 1 1986 The Fly 1986 The Money Pit 1986 The Name of The Rose 1986 The Singing Detective 1986 Top Gun 1986 When the Wind Blows 1987 Der Himmel über Berlin Wings of Desire 1987 Dirty Dancing 1987 Fatal Attraction 1987 Full Metal Jacket – drill sergeant 1987 Harry and the Hendersons 1987 Naayagan 1987 Planes, Trains and Automobiles – waking up 1987 Robocop 1987 The Last Emperor 1987 The Princess Bride 1987 The Untouchables 1987 The Witches of Eastwick 1987 Throw Momma from the Train 1987 Withnail and I – Camberwell carrot 1988 A Fish Called Wanda 1988 Akira 1988 Big 1988 Child’s Play 1988 Coming to America – bride 1988 Dangerous Liaisons 1988 Die Hard 1988 Distant Voices, Still Lives – Trailer 1988 Mississippi Burning 1988 Rain Man 1988 The Accused – lawyer 1988 The Last Temptation Of Christ 1988 The Naked Gun 1988 Who Framed Roger Rabbit 1989 Back to the Future II 1989 Batman 1989 Born on the Fourth of July 1989 Cinema Paradiso clip 1989 Dead Poets Society – ending 1989 Do The Right Thing – 1 1989 Glory 1989 Henry V 1989 Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade 1989 My Left Foot 1989 Sex, Lies and Videotape 1989 Uncle Buck 1989 Weekend at Bernie’s 1990 Back To The Future III 1990 Dances With Wolves 1990 Edward Scissorhands 1990 Ghost 1990 Goodfellas 1990 Home Alone 1990 Miller’s Crossing 1990 Nuns on the Run 1990 Pretty Woman 1990 Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles 1990 The Hunt for Red October 1991 Beauty and the Beast 1991 Boyz n the Hood 1991 Cape Fear 1991 Daughters of The Dust 1991 Delicatessen clip 1991 Fried Green Tomatoes 1991 Robin Hood Prince of Thieves 1991 Terminator 2 1991 The Commitments 1991 The Silence of the Lambs – fava beans 1991 Thelma and Louise 1992 A Few Good Men 1992 El Mariachi 1992 Home Alone 2 1992 Howards End 1992 Leolo 1992 Malcolm X 1992 Peter’s Friends – song 1992 Reservoir Dogs 1992 The Bodyguard 1992 The Crying Game 1992 The Last of the Mohicans 1992 The Player – Trailer 1992 Unforgiven 1993 Carlito’s Way 1993 Falling Down 1993 Farewell My Concubinet 1993 Groundhog Day 1993 In the Name of the Father 1993 Jurassic Park 1993 Naked 1993 Philadelphia 1993 Schindler’s List 1993 The Fugitive 1993 The Piano 1993 The Remains of the Day 1993 The Wrong Trousers 1993 Three Colours Blue 1993 What’s Eating Gilbert Grape 1994 Chungking Express 1994 Clerks – corpse 1994 Drunken Master II – Final Fight Scene (Part 1 of 2) 1994 Ed Wood 1994 Forrest Gump 1994 Four Weddings and a Funeral 1994 Il postino 1994 Leon The Professional 1994 Muriel’s Wedding 1994 Pulp Fiction – dancing 1994 The Madness Of King George 1994 The Shawshank Redemption 1995 Braveheart 1995 Heat 1995 La Haine 1995 Nine Months 1995 Richard III 1995 Se7en 1995 Sense and Sensibility 1995 The Usual Suspects 1995 The White Balloon 1995 Toy Story 1995 Twelve Monkeys 1996 Brassed Off 1996 Fargo 1996 Jerry Maguire 1996 Romeo and Juliet 1996 Secrets and Lies 1996 Shine 1996 The English Patient 1996 Trainspotting 1997 As Good as It Gets 1997 Boogie Nights 1997 Good Will Hunting 1997 L.A. Confidential 1997 La Vita è blla 1997 Nil By Mouth 1997 The Full Monty – ending 1997 Titanic 1997 Waiting for Guffman 1998 American History X 1998 Elizabeth 1998 Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas 1998 Festen 1998 Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels 1998 Lola Rennt 1998 Rushmore 1998 Saving Private Ryan – D-day Scene (1-4) 1998 Taxi 1998 The Big Lebowski 1998 The Truman Show 1999 American Beauty 1999 Being John Malkovich 1999 Fight Club 1999 Magnolia 1999 Office Space – 1 1999 The Green Mile 1999 The Matrix 1999 The Sixth Sense 2000 Amores Perros 2000 Billy Elliot 2000 Chocolat 2000 Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon 2000 Dancer in the Dark 2000 Erin Brockovich 2000 Gladiator 2000 Meet the Parents 2000 Memento 2000 Quills 2001 Amelie 2001 Donnie Darko 2001 Kandahar 2001 Legally Blonde 2001 Lord Of The Rings 2001 No Man’s Land 2001 The Royal Tenenbaums 2001 Wit 2002 Bowling for Columbine 2002 Chicago 2002 City of God 2002 Dirty Pretty Things 2002 Spider-Man 2002 Spirited Away 2002 Talk to Her 2002 The Magdalene Sisters 2002 The Pianist 2003 Finding Nemo 2003 Lost in Translation 2003 Monster 2003 Oldboy 2004 Crash 2004 Der Untergang 2004 Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind 2004 Fahrenheit 9/11 2004 Gegen die Wand 2004 Hotel Rwanda 2004 Million Dollar Baby 2004 Napoleon Dynamite 2004 Shaun Of The Dead 2004 Sideways – Trailer 2004 Tropical Malady 2005 Brokeback Mountain 2005 Good Night, And Good Luck 2005 March of the Penguinsm – Trailer 2005 The Tulse Luper Suitcases 2005 V for Vendetta 2006 Borat – Cultural Learnings of America for Make Benefit Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan 2006 Lage Raho Munna Bhai 2006 Little Miss Sunshine 2006 The Lives Of Others

Reports from Bangkok, Thailand, June 3, 2009 announced that David Carradine, beloved star of Kung Fu and most recently Kill Bill 1 & 2 was found dead. The circumstances are yet to be revealed, but it was said at first that it was possibly suicide, as he was found hanged in his hotel room. Rumors also have it that possibly it may have involved some type of auto-erotic activity. More on that as it develops. Weird maybe, but somehow I was not shocked. The strange death of an actor who was great at strange, an always enigmatic yet thought-provoking and somehow very real guy.

His iconic wandering character Caine on Kung Fu, is a great and well-known example. Best described by Sam Jackson in Quentin Tarantino’s Pulp Fiction, Caine “just walked the earth- havin’ adventures ‘an shit”. As a boy Caine, a white orphan, trained as a Shaolin monk and learned the art of Kung Fu. On the show he was a foreigner alone and wandering the wild west of yesteryear and having encounters which often required him to defend himself with his awesome skills. It was a character he totally inhabited. It wasn’t him being extreme, but rather natural,to the consternation of many of the show’s producers. According to Brandon Cruz, formerly a child actor on the show, he would show up to the set in a cloud of dust driving his beat up Studebaker, in wardrobe, mostly his own clothes, in character and barefoot. Cupping a joint, he’d look around and say,”OK, what are we doing?” For three seasons, this was Carradine’s main job in acting, a grueling run which wore him out and eventually led to the ending of the show when he quit. He was a big but reluctant TV star by then. If you grew up in the 70’s like me, you saw Kung Fu on prime time from 1972-1975. It was a sensational show, beautifully shot and with exaggerated slow-motion martial arts action sequences. There were many guest appearances on the show by familiar actors like John Saxon and William Shatner, and some just starting out like little Jodie Foster in a particularly memorable episode. Topps even put out trading cards of the show and then parodied those with the Wacky Packages line of cards, hugely a part of pop culture at that time. Kids often had the Kung Fu lunchbox with Carradine on the lid. Young and old, people loved the show and the character.

The show reflected the 70’s craze for Zen and the mystical/spiritual nature of things. Keep in mind that people were generally unfamiliar with Asian culture. It was just the beginning of a long exploration. A breakthrough, really, considering the long history of wartime hostilities with various Asian nations. In typical TV fashion of the times, Carradine played an ethnically Chinese character but was Caucasian. Many ethnic actors were considered and turned down, even Bruce Lee. It was a wise choice in the long run to cast Carradine, as the challenge brought out his true talent. His unorthodox methods and the subtleties of his face and physique enabled him to pull it off in a fantastic way. Initially there was resistance from Asian cast members, but David’s personality and ability came to the fore and people realized it was a hit show. The producers and designers also paid much attention to getting the most authentic details down. The rest is history. The door was opened for a flood of martial arts genre material to be produced and shown to American audiences, and now the genre is firmly a part of mainstream film culture.

Over the years, I’ve been struck by several of his other more offbeat portrayals, especially brief cameos. In Robert Altman’s 1973 film The Long Goodbye, an updated noir with Elliot Gould as a wisecracking 1970’s Phillip Marlowe, Carradine shows up as a fellow jailbird when Marlowe is brought in by the cops. Carradine plays a guy apparently jailed for dope possession. He rambles on in ad-lib fashion,”You know, they don’t have murderers and rapists in here anymore. You know what they got in here? People who smoke marijuana. They’ve got people in here for possession…..possession of noses…. gonads…. possession of …life. It’s a weird world….someday all the pigs will be in here and all the people are gonna be out there.” To which Marlowe responds,” You can bet on that. Just remember Dave, you’re not in here- it’s just your body. See ya when you get out.”

Previous to this turn, he’s in Martin Scorsese’s first studio film as a director, Boxcar Bertha. The film, produced by Roger Corman, and as such a quickie low budget special, was a depression-era story of Bertha Thompson, a true-life wanderer and ne’er do well and Big Bill Shelly, a union organizer, who become outlaws together. It was another entry into the new genre opened up by the success of Bonnie and Clyde of depression crime stories, except the Corman touch meant exploitative sex and violence for the drive-in crowd. Carradine and Barbara Hershey, real-life lovers during this time, turn in performances that not only float this movie but make it more memorable than it would have been for sure. Added was the the capable and already interesting camera work and direction of Scorsese. (John Cassavetes, when Scorsese showed him the film, told Martin never to do a project like that again, that he was too talented and should do films of things that were important to him). The character of Bill meets a weird end, being crucified Christ-like to the side of a boxcar and sent hurdling down the tracks, an example for all to see. On the one hand, a message to all who would “talk union talk”, or be on the wrong side of the law. On the other, a Scorsese Christ-image for the audience to consider, a wider message about us as humans and how we treat each other. Carradine portrays each facet of Bill earnestly, as if he again inhabits the character. He seems natural even through the bizarre conclusion. More on killing Bill later.

Right after this film, Carradine again worked with Scorsese, this time a small and strange role in Mean Streets, a violent film of small-time gangsters in 1970’s Little Italy New York. It is Scorsese’s first personal feature length film. In it, Carradine is a drunk in a shirt and tie at the bar where the main characters, Charlie and Johnny Boy, played by Harvey Keitel and Robert De Niro, hang out. After pulling himself off his barstool and hoisting himself onto the bartop, writhing and mumbling incoherently, he gets down and weaves his way toward the Men’s room, overturning chairs as he goes. The object of scorn by the main wise guys, he is referred to as something out of Season of the Witch (an in-joke referring to the original title of Mean Streets). Then Scorsese cuts to Carradine slumped over a urinal trying to remain upright. A long-haired assassin enters and shoots him three times in the back. Does he simply die? No, he lunges for the guy, out of the men’s room, back out into the bar, smashing things and struggling to choke his assassin. He gets dragged further, then blasted again, this time from the front, and winds up in a heap outside the bar and exhales his last just before the bar sign and jukebox are extinguished as a foil for the soon-to-arrive cops.  With barely a line, Carradine is again an enigmatic presence. We’ll never know why he’s killed or who he is even, but it’s for sure that this sort of thing is a regular if bizarre ocurrence in the Mean Streets part of town. Why Carradine? It’s obvious- he just IS that guy on screen. When you need an enigma, you call on one.

After the success of Kung Fu and the aforementioned notable roles, he seems to have disappeared into sub-mediocrity with several schlock films including the always entertaining Death Race 2000 . A futuristic road warrior named Frankenstein, he battles his nemesis Machine Gun Joe (Sylvester Stallone). A companion movie followed later, called Deathsport, in which Carradine plays Kaz, this time a Desert Ranger 1000 years into the future, battling enemies on his Deathcycle. An added attraction in the Corman formula here is Playboy bunny/actress Claudia Jennings. These have to be seen to be believed, and are mentioned here for those who may need a good trashy double feature for some delirious 2 a.m. viewing sometime.

The most major role of his career at this point came when Tim Buckley, Hal Ashby’s first choice to play Woody Guthrie in his film Bound For Glory died, leaving the role available. Again cast as second choice, he showed up owning his character and the film is a true gem, although not totally a straight biopic of Guthrie but more of a trip through a few of the the depression years with David Carradine as Woody. The film was nominated for Academy Awards, but faced stiff competition that year from Taxi Driver, All The President’s Men, Network and Rocky, which took Best Picture. Director Hal Ashby would return later with a nomination for Coming Home in 1978, but would lose to The Deer Hunter. Carradine would be overlooked, but would continue in film for years.

In 1977, he worked with the great Swedish director Ingmar Bergman in The Serpent’s Egg, in which he plays Abel Rosenberg, a trapeze artist in 1923 Berlin. It was a big budget Bergman film in which the director was re-creating the atmospheric German cinema of the 20’s. A dark and psychological thriller, also very lavish and Cabaret-like, it was very involved, and was a different experience both for the director and his actors. The large sets and vast numbers of extras were challenging for Bergman, used to smaller productions which focused on characters.

Interviewed for the DVD release of the film, Carradine reflected positively on his performance and working with Bergman to a degree. He seemed to think the director wanted his outer mystique more than inner complexity, which worked pretty well for the type of film it was. He really was awed by working with Liv Ullmann, who remarked that David was somewhat out of his element working with Bergman. The film stands as a solid part of the Bergman works, and did very well financially. Carradine looked at it as his most artistic film experience up to that point although it got him no further in the Hollywood scene. He quotes a conversation he had with the iconoclastic director Alejandro Jodorowsky (El Topo, Holy Mountain, Santa Sangre) in which he says, “David, sometimes you need to choose between power and….eternity.” As an actor, Carradine felt that power was less important, and the eternal nature of a character was the essence of his art.

When Bruce Lee died suddenly in 1973, he left more than a few loose ends. In the late 60’s he was talking to James Coburn (just one of his celebrity martial arts students) about a story idea for a movie called The Silent Flute. Bruce would play the character of a master who guides and inspires a young unorthodox fighter who would be challenged three times on his quest to attain the Book of All Knowledge. The flute of the Master could only be heard by the one facing the trials, hence the title. Coburn was on board for a part and as a producer, but the film was slightly ahead of its time and could not get backing despite some inside track connections through Coburn. Just before his death, Coburn had been working to get the film green lit, and called Lee in Hong Kong to give him good news when it finally looked good. Lee, a huge star by then, told him, “You can’t afford me now”. The film was put in limbo.

A few years later, rights to the story were acquired by director Richard Moore and writer Sterling Siliphant, who won an Academy award for his script for In The Heat of The Night. Carradine was summoned and expressed a big interest right away, and they began to flesh it out. Carradine would play four roles in the picture -  the Flute-playing Master, the Monkey-Man, Zetan, or the possessor of the Book, and Death. The film was shot on amazing locations in Israel’s mountains and deserts. The Silent Flute, or Circle Of Iron as it was called upon release finally in 1978, is a classic. Despite some flaws in casting and the obvious lack of Bruce Lee, whose action scenes one can only imagine would have been better, Carradine felt that it was his best and very favorite film and it does have a mystical side which stands out and makes the film retain much of the original intention. He actually grew, harvested, and carved the bamboo which became the Silent Flute of the picture. Some memorable lines include, “One year ago I took a vow of silence.” “When did you break it?” “Now. Why are you following me?” And, “A fish saved my life once.” “How?” “I ate him.”  It is a must see film of Carradine’s and is also referenced later in Tarantino’s Kill Bill 1 & 2

The 80’s brought about a few bright spots in his career, more notably his role in The Long Riders (1980), a return to westerns for him, in which he plays Cole Younger, eldest of the three Youngers that rode with Jesse James. The film is a solid western directed by Walter Hill, and all three Carradine brothers and both Keach brothers, both Quaids and both Guests are also in it. It’s familiar territory for Carradine, who began his acting career with small roles in many westerns and western themed TV shows (Wagon Train, The Virginian, Gunsmoke). The highlights include Carradine fighting yet another foe, a knife fight at arms length, measured by a piece of cloth clenched in the teeth of both fighters.

Q-The Winged Serpent, a Larry Cohen film (much more on him later on this blog), came out in 1982, in which Carradine plays a New York detective. This time, he is the straight man (as much as he can be), but in un-typical fashion for this type of monster movie, the cop investigates the true nature of what he’s dealing with- a huge flying serpent from Aztec legend living in a nest atop the Chrysler building. Q swoops down and munches on the unsuspecting New Yorkers and various topless sunbathers. The fact of Carradine doing this film shows his ability to embrace the weirdness and jump in there and give it all he’s got. He fits in as a perfect presence in this, one of the essential Larry Cohen horror movies and one of the great cult movies ever.

In 1983, Carradine finished his one and only film as director, Americana. It was begun in 1973 and financed with his own money, and took the full ten years to complete. He plays the central character, a Vietnam vet returning home to a small town in Kansas. Like the Caine character, he is quiet and mysterious, and goes about fixing up an old carousel while suffering much resistance and scorn from the townspeople. It is a huge and somewhat heavy metaphor for his life. Carradine is really hitting a stride with this character, even if the film is flawed and out of time. If only the film could have come out in 1973, it would have found its audience. By 1983, Reagan was in the White House (wow, John Fogerty was right…) and Vietnam was being rehashed and rewritten over and over with very mixed results. Americana was never given a chance to screen widely but stands out now a solid entry into the existential cinema of the 70’s that was more authentic and represented a independent voice. Seeing this film is very difficult due to scarcity of tape releases and a very poor dvd release long out of print. Thanks to Rhino though, for caring enough to put that dvd out. Hopefully some responsible film person will get the rights to this and fix it up for a posthumous new release.

The rest of the decade was certainly busy for Carradine, mostly TV material, including the North and  South civil war mini-series, and Kung Fu The Movie, a return to the Caine character. Into the ’90’s he worked constantly, but had mostly minor roles, many forgettable. In 1992, he made an appearance in a great little-known film called Roadside Prophets. It was a road movie starring John Doe of the band X and Ad-Rock, or Adam Horovitz of the Beastie Boys. The two were wanderers on the road to El Dorado, in this case a casino in Nevada, riding motorcycles across country and encountering various prophetic weirdos and truth tellers along the way. Of course, they come to a clearing looking for a place to stay, and there is David Carradine, or Othello Jones, sitting on the porch of his trailer in a tux singin’ a lil’ ditty. They partake of the hash pipe and sit down to a fancy dinner and discuss the sixties, Nixon, Reagan and Roman gladiators. It’s a great sidebar in a mystical road adventure, once again propelled into the sublime by Carradine.

The 90’s also brought about yet another re-hash of Kung Fu, called The Legend Continues. From 1993 to 1997 the show ran, and featured an updating for the ’90’s as Caine’s son Peter is introduced, a big city cop joined by Caine fighting off crime and evil. Fight sequences were the focus for the newer audience, rather than the earlier philosophizing. It is certainly entertaining, but Carradine seems past it at times, and perhaps is starting to show his age.

Although he kept busy with constant TV and minor film stuff into the new century, most of it was obscure and it looked as if he would fade away finally. And then….Warren Beatty, Quentin Tarantino’s first choice to be this Bill character in his new Grindhouse ode to Hong Kong martial arts pictures, seemed not to “get” what the movie was about. He was “fired”, or let go from negotiations. Meanwhile, Carradine had heard about this project and wanted to do it, but was out of the loop. He packed up and headed back to town from his horse ranch and “showed up” wherever Tarantino would be. First at the premiere of Jackie Brown, which revived the careers of both Pam Grier and Robert Forster, and then several other events where Tarantino could be engaged in film talk. At the moment of he and Beatty’s bust, Quentin’s light bulb went off, and he decided that Carradine would make so much more sense as Bill, and having told Carradine they would work together, he knew it would be a go. Kill Bill Parts 1 & 2 was ON.

At 67 years old and a bit out of shape, Carradine worked out and got himself into the role. He was excited, invigorated. He dusted off the Silent Flute and got a Hanzo sword.  His actual appearance in the film doesn’t happen until part 2, but when he makes the scene, it’s typical Tarantino, where everything old becomes new again. In a black and white scene, Carradine is sitting on the porch of an adobe chapel in the middle of a forsaken dusty place outside of El Paso, playing….THE Flute. Inside, Uma Thurman, playing Beatrix Kiddo, a.k.a. Black Mamba, is about to get married after quitting the gang. She comes out upon hearing the tune, and asks why he’s there. Bill, in black, is there to kill her. It is a stunning moment on screen and off, as those familiar with Carradine’s connection to this material realize he’s back, and this time it’s gonna be BAD!

The iconic image of Bill from this film would be the most successful thing he would ever do on screen. Off screen, he’d appear in similar garb to Bill from the movie, as if he’d found the image so very comfortable, or was it that Bill was not so far off from the man? He even worked the bad-boy image for a while, appearing drunk in public at a screening of Bound for Glory during which he made quite a nuisance of himself. Although he worked as constantly as before following the Tarantino show, Carradine remained ever-enigmatic, with long grey hair and his shrunken-head complexion and bulging eyes. One of his very last screen appearances was no surprise, a character confined to a wheelchair in an episode of  the medical TV-drama Mental. A clip of this strange performance is included here. In Thailand, he was working on a French action film eerily titled “Stretch“. No clips of this are as yet available, but perhaps down the line we will get to see the final performance of this figure who will be missed but remembered always for his portrayals that inspire us to think, or at least scratch our heads and wonder.

“Harold and Maude” to Kick Off Weekend Retrospective Screening Series

   Cameron Crowe and Peter Bart will host a free-wheeling discussion with panelists including Jon Voight, Judd Apatow, Seth Rogen, Diablo Cody, Haskell Wexler and Jeff Berg as part of special Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences salute to Oscar®-winning film editor and director Hal Ashby on Thursday, June 25, at 7:30 p.m. at the Samuel Goldwyn Theater in Beverly Hills. The conversation will be followed by a screening of Ashby’s 1971 bittersweet romance “Harold and Maude.” The salute also will kick off a weekend retrospective screening series at the Linwood Dunn Theater, featuring five new prints of Ashby’s films from the Academy Film Archive.

   Ashby began his career as a film editor; he was nominated twice in the category, winning in 1967 for “In the Heat of the Night.” He made his directorial debut in 1970 with “The Landlord.”

   Ashby applied his unconventional storytelling style to a series of films that uniquely combine the humor and pathos of everyday life within a broad range of subjects, from returning Vietnam War veterans to Hollywood hairdressers.

   In 1978 Ashby was nominated for directing the anti-war drama “Coming Home,” a film that received eight Academy Award® nominations and went on to win three Oscars® including Actor in a Leading Role and Actress in a Leading Role for Voight and Jane Fonda. Ashby died in 1988.

For the complete schedule of the Ashby retrospective click HERE

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auch zu empfehlen www.samoqi-music.com – Sandra’s Homepage – die durchaus mit einigen Innovationen aufwarten kann… gestaltet von original Ibiza Webdudes, die haben scheint’s für Ibiza komplett alle Websites gebaut…das verzeiht dann vielleicht zumindest die Rechtschreibung… na egal, den Post hier braucht die Welt ja auch nicht.

This is a good movie, you dig!

Written By: Stirling Silliphant
Directed By: Norman Jewison

Race is a hard subject to tackle in film, I can only imagine it was harder for In The Heat Of The Night since it was made at a time when race wasn’t discussed in film. Nowadays we are used to race in film, it is a hot topic that filmmakers love to take on. But, it is a topic that still gives filmmakers trouble time in and time out. Just take a look at 2004’s Crash, a film where race has to be obvious, where everyone is a racist and in order for the audience to understand racism they must be hit over the head with fake characters and scenarios. The counter to a bludgeoning atrocity like Crash is In The Heat Of The Night. Race is the hot topic, but it’s not necessary for the film to hit you over the head with race. How can a film that is all about race manage to push race to the background so often and so successfully?

The answer is simple, Norman Jewison and Stirling Silliphant understand that race is everywhere all the time, even if it isn’t being pushed into the viewers mind. It really is amazing how well constructed the script and direction are. The movie will take on the role of a murder mystery and you become enveloped in the procedural aspect, then at the drop of a hat it can turn from a benign film to completely racist. Virgil and the Chief have a normal conversation near the end of the film, and for that time you feel a connection truly developing between the two of them, then without a moments notice Gillespie erupts with a racial comment towards Tibbs. Race is always present in In The Heat Of The Night and the film has important things to say about race, but it never shoves race down your throat, it lets you see that racism is but another aspect of life.

In The Heat Of The Night for me was driven by the ability of Sidney Poitier and Rod Steiger as actors. Both men are required to play certain types, for Steiger it is the worst that humanity can represent while for Poitier it is the best that humanity can represent. But, the performances unveil their true power when both men migrate towards the middle. Tibbs isn’t always perfect and upright, he has to admit at one point that he was pursuing one suspect above all others for personal reasons. Gillespie has moments where he floats towards respectability and kindness, where his racist veneer is shed in favor of a more humane one. Neither actor goes too far towards the middle, but that middle ground is always there. That allows the audience to identify them not as characters in a race play, but as people, and people are capable of evil, virtue and everything in between. In the final analysis, In The Heat Of The Night isn’t so much about race as it is about people in general and one relationship in particular.

While it is true that In The Heat Of The Night is a powerful movie, it did falter a bit in regards to the procedural aspect. Tibbs being a homicide detective and also somehow having the skills of a forensic pathologist was too hard to swallow. Most of all, the murder mystery is a good set piece, but held under a brighter light it isn’t all that deep.

As far as racially driven movies go I don’t know if In The Heat Of The Night is the best, but I do place it among the best. It is an exercise in how to handle racism in film, and a movie that modern filmmakers trying to tackle the same subject need to revisit. Steiger and Poitier are great, while the script and direction combine with a moody score for a film drenching with atmosphere and layering. If you need to see a movie that tackles the subject of race, then avoid tripe like Crash at all costs, go with In The Heat Of The Night instead.

Rating:

***1/2

Cheers,
Bill

Summer has begun, I’m home from University and kinda miss having like my own place, granted it was a dorm room but it was my dorm room. I’m pretty excited to be free of the academics for the season though.

Now its all about the summer lifeguarding gig, sunbathing, more blogging, and L.A.. I just can’t wait. This is the summer I turn 21 so that’s definitely going to bring something new to the vacation. Well I’m gonna head off and think of better things to blog about on here, until then enjoy this bit by the Star Pilots called ‘In the Heat of the Night’, it’s a great swede dance track that will set the summer off right:

I love this song and video. Popjustice put it best when they said: “That was simltaneously the most gay and the most straight thing we’ve ever seen.“

HOORAY FOR HOLLYWOOD:  When Nicholas Campbell, Angie Dickinson and Shawn Doyle are members of the audience, sitting a few rows ahead of Canadian uber-agent Michael Levine, Beverly Hills columnist George Christy and M.A.S.H. producer Burt Metcalfe, you know there’s something special happening on stage. And what is happening on stage at the L.A. County Museum of Art is very special indeed.

Assembled to tell tales, some tall, some small, are an illustrious clutch of Oscar winners: Classic beauty Eva Marie Saint, still-ravishing screen siren Faye Dunaway, artful cinematographer Haskell Wexler, brilliant songwriters Marilyn & Alan Bergman. Joining them is still-irrepressible funnyman Carl Reiner. Emceeing the evening is veteran film historian Leonard Maltin. And sitting between Maltin and Dunaway is the subject of all their stories, and the object of their bubbling affection: Screen director Norman Jewison.

Reiner and Saint, of course, led the all-star cast of Jewison’s classic comedy hit The Russians Are Coming, The Russians Are Coming;  even before that, Reiner had scripted Jewison’ s curious comedy about marketing immortality, The Art Of Love, with Ms. Dickinson  and Dick Van Dyke. Dunaway had co-starred with Steve McQueen in Jewison’s notorious romantic thriller, The Thomas Crown Affair.  Haskell Wexler owned the eyes behind the camera on such diverse Jewison films as In The Heat Of The Night and Other People’s Money.  And Marilyn & Alan Bergman wrote the original songs, now American standards, that graced such Jewison gems as Best Friends (How Do You Keep The Music Playing) and Thomas Crown Affair (Windmills Of Your Mind.) And all of them have some wonderful tales to tell. But the master story teller, naturally, is Jewison himself. 

When he tells us how Steve McQueen misbehaved on Thomas Crown Affair, going AWOL in a dune buggy while the cast and crew watched the light fade, Dunaway is clearly entranced. “I never knew that!” she exclaims. Thomas Crown was only her third film, she says; Warren Beattywas still locked in the editing room with Bonnie & Clyde,  and Jewison had hired her after seeing her off-Broadway in Hogan’s Goat. And when McQueen disappeared from the set, Jewison had told her to wait in her trailer until he called her. “And I did what I was told!” she adds, chuckling softly.

The  tribute to Jewison is originally slated to run 45-60 minutes, but the hush from the appreciative crowd inspires Maltin to let his all-star gabbers hold sway. Reiner, who played a leading man for the first time in his life in Jewison’s Russians Are Coming, reveals that the director had originally asked him to play the Russian sailor, a plum role that Alan Arkin eventually won. Reiner and Saint further regale the audience with tales of white-knuckle flights to Jewison locations;  Wexler reminds us of Jewison the activist and his deep commitment to U.S. civil rights; and the Bergmans praise him as one of only two directors they’ve worked with (the other, sadly, being his friend, the late Sydney Pollack) whose passion for music gives him a unique  understanding of  the potential of original music in screen storytelling.

The near-capacity crowd is clearly enthralled. Close to the front LACMA honcho Ian Birney, another transplanted Canadian, is grinning happily. Beside him sit the co-hosts of the event, Film Independent’s Dawn Hudson and Canadian Film Centre chief  Slawko Klymkiw, beaming like proud parents. Klymkiw, aided and abetted by Birney and Hudson, has initiated this event (among others) to celebrate the 20th anniversary of the Toronto film centre Jewison founded two decades earlier, and celebrated alumni Christina Jennings and Clement Virgo, among others, are sitting in the theatre with the rest of his fans.

Leonard Maltin is admittedly fascinated by the fact that in addition to international megahits as Jesus Christ Superstar and Fiddler On The Roof, this Canadian director, in his opinion, has  also produced some of the most quintessentially American films ever to come out of Hollywood. And the on-stage showbiz love-in is well into its second hour when Maltin raises the subject of another polished Jewison diamond, Moonstruck, which will be screened immediately following the tribute. And then he utters the magic phrase that so many of us have been hoping to hear.

“Let’s invite Cher up here,” says Leonard Maltin.

A gasp from the audience, a truly all-ages group from 9 to 99, as a woman seated near the front of the house makes her way to the stairs leading up to the stage,  her long black hair a perfect contrast to her stylish white designer duds and funky white fedora. Cher is on stage kissing Reiner, shaking hands with Saint, embracing Dunaway — the audience is standing now, and cheering — and greets Jewison with an enormous bear hug. Cher is in the house, and an already excited crowd is now deliriously beside themselves.

The fun is just beginning. When she confesses she was a “bad kid” on Moonstruck, Jewison smiles in tacit agreement. “But,” he interjects,” you’re a good girl tonight.” Yes, she agrees, she’s a good girl tonight. And she proves it, by telling wonderful anecdotes, revealing and occasionally touching, about the fact that Jewison had to cajole, trick and at times even threaten her to enable her to do the best screen work of her career. 

She tells tales out of school, too, stories that make Jewison laugh out loud. About how he finally got Nicolas Cage to loosen up for a scene by relentlessly goading him until Cage picked up a chair and threw it across the room. “And we were all shocked,” she recalls, ”and we all looked at Norman, waiting for him to say something, anything! …  and Norman said, ‘Action!’  And he got the scene he wanted.”

When she and Jewison weren’t at odds with other — a creative tension she now suspects he manufactured, to enhance her performance — they were a formidable tag team. For one thing, they both wanted Cage for her leading man. Cher had seen him in Peggy Sue Got Married, “and I thought he was terrific.”

And Jewison remembers thinking that the young actor, at that time, was clearly “the most tortured soul in Hollywood.”

“So of course Norman and I thought he’d be perfect for the role!” adds Cher, grinning.

When MGM balked at casting Cage, she huddled with Norman and then told her manager to tell the studio she would walk out on the picture if they didn’t hire Cage. “Which, of course, I had no intention of doing!” she add with a guilty grin.

But hey, she and Norman got the leading man they wanted. And the rest, as they say, is history.

Movie history, that is. Which brings me to another piece of movie history.  When Cher won her Best Actress Oscar for Moonstruck, she facetiously thanked her hairdresser and her make-up artist, but neglected to acknowledge the guardian angel of her performance.

On Friday night she makes up for that 20-year-old gaffe.  After a brief intermission she returns to the stage to introduce Moonstruck, and gives the speech she should have given 20 years ago at the Academy Awards. It is short, sweet and unmistakably sincere — a luscious cherry to top a spectacularly rich evening.

* * *

BEV ON THE BEACH: Who was the alabaster blonde walking on the sand with Norman Jewison yesterday? None other than CTV  charmer Beverly Thomson, who got up Friday at 3 a.m., co-hosted the morning edition of Canada A.M., and then hit the airport. An understandably bleary-eyed Thompson made it to Los Angeles in time to attend the tribute at LACMA and yesterday hit the beach to tape an exclusive interview with Jewison in Malibu. And you can see it too, tomorrow morning on CTV.

ENTER THE ACTRESS: Tony & Emmy collector Andrea Martin, fresh from her stage triumph in Mel Brooks’ musical version of Young Frankenstein, returns to Broadway tonight with Lauren Ambrose (Six Feet Under) and Oscar winners Geoffrey Rush and Susan Sarandon in a rare revival of Eugene Ionesco’s Exit The King. Rush is making his debut on the Great White Way in the absurdist comedy, playing a monarch who has only 90 minutes to live. Sarandon and Ambrose play two of his queens, and the indefatigable Ms. Martin plays the maid. Any bets as to who’s gonna get the most laughs?

* * *

NORMAN CONQUESTS: The Canadian Film Centre and Film Independent are co-hosting a tribute to CFC founder Norman Jewison next month at the Los Angeles County Museum Of Art. Veteran film critic Leonard Maltin will

host the on-stage tribute, which will be followed by one of Jewison’s several classics, In The Heat Of The Night. The saga of a black detective trying to survive in a racist southern town, Jewison’s1967 drama with Sidney Poitier, Rod Steiger and Lee Grant won five Oscars, including Best Picture. It also won a much-coveted Best Actor award for Steiger, who had been nominated for The Pawnbroker but lost to Cat Ballou’s Lee Marvin. Poitier, who already owned an Oscar for Lilies Of The Field, followed up with Stanley Kramer’s Guess Who’s Coming To Dinner, and three years later his great success as Detective Virgil Tibbs in Jewison’s hit film inspired a so-so sequel, They Call Me Mr. Tibbs, directed by Rat Pack favourite Gordon Douglas.

Sadly Rod Steiger won’t be there to toast his buddy Norman. But lots of Jewison’s admirers will be.

Stay tuned.

* * *

TONIGHT, TONIGHT: I predict T.O. taxis will do boffo business tonight. Ron James is opening his Mental As Anything tour at the Winter Garden; TIFF is presenting a free screening of Hollis Frampton’s magnum opus Hapax Legomena, which will be Introduced by York cinema prof Michael Zryd at Cinemateque Ontario; and artistic director Ken Gass is hosting the Factory Theatre spring gala –“great food, great atmosphere, and a great show.”  The show? The world premiere of Florence Gibson’s Missing, directed by David Ferry. Call Michelle at 416-504-4473 for last-minute tickets.

* * *

STARS IN OUR EYES: Add stage & screen charmer Cara Pifko, award-winning actor/director Sarah Polley, freshman MP Peter Kent, newspaper columnist and novelist Linwood Barclay and broadcaster Jane Hawtin to

PIFKO: Star Scrabbler

the Scrabble With The Stars celebrity roster this year. Previously announced luminaries set to participate in the April 6 event at The King Suites include Graham Abbey, Jaymz Bee, Mark Breslin, Dave Broadfoot, Michael Burgess, Dinah Christie, Jayne Eastwood, Don Harron, Marilyn Lightstone, Sheila McCarthy, Deb McGrath, Colin Mochrie, Gordon Pinsent, Leah Pinsent, Paul Quarrington, Jackie Richardson, Zaib Shaikh, Dione Taylor, R.H. Thomson and hosts Jeanne Beker & Barry Flatman. Call 416-777-9674 for tickets, but don’t delay – the popular fundraising Gala is almost sold out … director Larry Weinstein’s much anticipated opus, Inside Hana’s Suitcase, will premiere here April 30 at Hot Docs … and B.C. soul rocker Alex Cuba has launched a new artist-branded web-browser. Based on the Firefox platform and developed by Canadian software companies Adevia Software and Brand Thunder, the browser can be downloaded from www.alexcuba.com and www.brandthunder.com/alexcuba.

In the Heat of the Night is considered one of, if not the defining film of Sidney Poitier’s career.  It spawned an equally popular TV show, and is often earmarked as a ‘defining’ film of the 60s.  On to the tale of the tape…

Relevance:  Well, the story of the film revolves around a black detective from the North coming into the heart of the racist South to solve a murder.  And it stars the one of the original black movie stars, Sidney Poitier.  Any questions?

Legacy:  I’ve already made reference to the TV show.  Sidney’s co-star was Rod Steiger, a well respected Hollywood vet in his own right (On the Waterfront is the first film that pops into my head).  Oh, and you may be familiar with this line: “They call me Mister Tibbs!”

Craft:  A solid, ‘important’ film by the standards of the time it was made in.  From a technical point of view, it’s still very watchable.  But in terms of addressing the racial issues, very dated.  It’s one of those movies that’s very interesting to watch when you realize there’s an African-American in the White House now.  There’s a very famous scene where a white man slaps Sidney, and Sidney slaps him right back.  At the time it was shocking, now…not so much.  The look on the poor butler’s face still cracks me up; there was a damn porch monkey in the front yard!  No I’m not joking, go back and watch it.  All that said, I’m sure there’s more than enough white people who still think like the characters in the movie; I’m not naive or cynical.  I grew up driving past rows of Confederate flags to get to my grandfather’s house.  OK, I’m getting way off topic, back to the ‘movie’…

Crossover: Oscars for Best Picture, Best Director (Norman Jewison), Best Actor (Rod Steiger), Best Sound and Best Adapted Screenplay.  You add in the ‘Sidney Poitier’ factor, the score by Quincy Jones;  they don’t get much more crossover than this.

Apollo:  Now it seems pretty tame, but put it back in its historical context: 1967.  JFK and Malcolm had been dead for a few years, but RFK and Dr. King were right around the corner.  And you have this major Hollywood film where an ‘uppity Negro’ is talking back and fighting back any white person who challenges him.  In that context, I don’t even know what would be the equivalent today of doing a film like this.  With all due respect to all the other minority groups in America, the story of black people in this country carries the deepest (ongoing) connection.

Back later this month for #19…

Ganadora del Oscar a mejor película (1967)

Un tren llega pasada la medianoche a Esparta, Mississipi en una calurosa noche de verano. Poco después el comisario Sam Wood (Warren Oates) hace su ronda nocturna y todo luce tan pacífico como siempre hasta que en una calle oscura descubre el cuerpo sin vida de un empresario blanco. Lo han asesinado. El jefe de policía Bill Gillespie (Rod Steiger) inicia la investigación. En la estación de trenes Wood encuentra a un forastero que viste de traje. El hecho de que es negro y lleva consigo un puñado de dólares lo hace inmediatamente sospechoso. Cuando lo llevan a la estación de policía nos enteramos que el extraño es ni más ni menos un policía de Filadelfia de viaje en Mississipi y, para colmo de sus racistas y simplones colegas de Esparta, experto en homicidios. Gillespie encuentra gracioso su nombre de pila -Virgil- y cuando le pregunta al detective como le dicen él responde con la ya clásica frase: “Me llaman señor Tibbs“. El jefe de Tibbs sugiere que Virgil puede ayudar con la investigación lo cual es aceptado a regañadientes por el jefe Gillespie. Sin embargo a la mañana  siguiente Gillespie pilla a un lumpen sospechoso en posesión de la billetera de la víctima y orgulloso le deja saber a Virgil que puede prescindir de sus servicios. Pero Tibbs le dice tajantemente que de acuerdo a sus investigaciones forenses tiene al hombre equivocado. Gillespie no tiene otra que cambiar el cargo contra el prisionero por el de robo.   

Cuando la viuda de la víctima amenaza con suspender una obra que pondría en riesgo el empleo de varios pobladores de Esparta si es que no dejan que Tibbs conduzca la investigación Gillespie debe bajar el tono y pedirle “amablemente” al detective que colabore. Le dice:

“¡Tú eres demasiado listo! Eres más listo que cualquier hombre blanco. Y vas a quedarte a demostrárnoslo. Eres tan terco que no podrías soportarte a menos que nos avergüenzes a todos… No pienso que seas capaz de dejar pasar una oportunidad como ésta.”

Y no solo eso. Gillespie tiene que volverse la niñera de Tibbs para evitar que la airada comunidad blanca de su pueblo lo mate por el simple hecho de ser el negro más listo que hayan visto en su vida. Mientras tanto Tibbs sigue investigando y dejando a Gillespie sin sospechosos. En una escena memorable debe interrogar a un rico propietario y rival de la víctima, un tal Eric Endicott, que ofendido por la idea de ser considerado sospechoso y recordando un pasado esclavista le propina una bofetada a Tibbs. Para su sorpresa Virgil le devuelve el favor y a Endicott solo le queda rumiar su dolor físico y moral ante la inacción del atónito Gillespie. 

La forzada relación entre los policías, inicialmente obligados a trabajar el uno con el otro, va adquiriendo otros matices. En una escena crucial Gillespie debe informar al alcalde del incidente con Endicott. El alcalde le pregunta ”¿Qué hizo que cambiaras de opinión sobre Tibbs?” para luego sugerir que antaño una osadía como esa le habría costado recibir un balazo alegando defensa propia. Al oír eso Gillespie comienza a cambiar su inicial aversión racista por respeto al camarada y hacia el final de la cinta por un comportamiento abiertamente amistoso. En la intimidad nos enteramos que son dos solitarios empedernidos como deja entrever la lacónica respuesta de Tibbs (G: Gillespie, T: Tibbs):

G: Perteneces a una minoría selecta.

T: ¿Y eso?

G: Eres el primer ser humano que viene a esta casa.

T: Toda prudencia es poca.

G: Sabes muchas cosas, ¿no es así? ¿ Qué sabes del insomnio?

T: Que el bourbon no Io cura.

G: De eso no hay duda. No tengo ni mujer ni hijos. Tengo un pueblo que no me quiere. Tengo aire acondicionado del que me tengo que encargar yo mismo y un escritorio con una pata coja, y encima tengo…esta casa.¿No crees que eso puede empujar a un hombre a darse a la bebida? Te voy a decir un secreto. Aquí no viene nadie. Nunca.

G: ¿Estás casado?

T: No.

G: ¿Lo estuviste?

T: No.

G (suspirando y triste): ¿Alguna vez estuviste a punto de casarte?

T (reclinándose, más triste y pensando en lo que va a decir): A punto…

G: ¿No te sientes un poco solo?

T: No más que tú.

G: No te hagas el listo, negro.

“En el calor de la noche” ganó el Oscar a mejor película de 1967. Rod Steiger fue premiado (el 10 de abril de 1968) como mejor actor en perjuicio de Poitier, que ya había recibido esa distinción en 1964 por los “Lirios del valle” y podía haber repetido por las míticas “Adivina quien viene a cenar” y “Al maestro con cariño” lo cual es mucho decir en una época en la que era impensable hablar de un presidente negro, no existían actores como Washington (Denzel), Freeman (Morgan), Whitaker (Forest), etc. y teniendo en cuenta que acababan de matar a Martin Luther King Jr. (4 de abril de 1968). Para concluir les dejo un vídeo en el que pueden disfrutar el tema principal de la banda sonora (“In the heat of the night”) compuesto por Quincy Jones e interpretado por Ray Charles

I have a friend who recently posted a list from a website calling itself ‘Premier’ that named ‘The 100 Greatest Movie Characters of All Time.’  He was shocked and appalled that Darth Vader was languishing at #84 on the list below such spares as Private Benjamin, Doctor Evil, The Dude, and a host of others.  While I agreed that this was a travesty, I quickly noticed a few notable absences from the list, and the more I looked the more great characters were simply missing from the list, while others, such as Gollum were inexplicably placed near the top of the list.

This is where the obsessive compulsive part of my personality kicked in.  I began to look at their list with a more critical eye.  The fist thing I noticed was that some of the characters seemed to be shoe-horned into the list, and often these characters were female.  I’m not trying to say that there are no great female characters in movie history, but it may be a fair indictment to accuse the industry for not writing strong female roles, especially in the early years of cinema, and perhaps just as much today.  This may well be the case, but I don’t think the cure for it is to falsely elevate existing female roles above their actual station as ir appears that Premier did (Bonnie from Bonnie and Clyde and Private Benjamin a two good examples).

I further fed my obsession by attempting to think if all the good characters that they left off their list.  I came up with another 109 examples, some more strong than others and quite a few whose omissions were simply egregious.  Then, I sat down with all 209 names and made my own Top 100 Movie Characters of all Time list.  The biggest deficiency of my list is the fact that I have not seen all of the old classics (though I am currently on a classic movie binge).  Characters like Fred C. Dobbs of Treasure of the Sierra Madre and a few others may suffer unfairly because of this, but I have no regrets about leaving a character like Ninotchka off the list because I, my family and my friends have never heard of her (shoe-horned). 

I tried to take several things into account.  How well the character endures, how much effect the character has had on popular culture, the importance of the character and whether that role or the movie it was associated with received awards while it was out.  Accepting the possible shortcomings and the obvious advantages of my list, I am putting it out, and still argue that it is much better than the list provided by Premier.  Enjoy.

1. Don Michael Corleone of The Godfather: Part II

2. Charles Foster Kane of Citizen Kane

3. Atticus Finch of To Kill a Mockingbird

4. Scarlett O’Hara of Gone With the Wind

5. Indiana Jones of Raiders of the Lost Ark

6. William Wallace of Braveheart

7. Darth Vader of Star Wars

8. Hannibal Lecter of The Silence of the Lambs

9. Robin Hood of The Adventures of Robin Hood

10. Dorothy Gale of The Wizard of Oz

11. Rick Blaine of Casablanca

12. Oskar Schindler of Schindler’s List

13. General George S. Patton of Patton

14. Captain William Bligh of Mutiny on the Bounty

15. Maximus Decimus Meridius of Gladiator

16. Cool Hand Luke of Cool Hand Luke

17. Shane of Shane

18. Marshall Will Kane of High Noon

19. George Bailey of It’s a Wonderful Life

20. Vito Corleone of The Godfather

21. Tom Joad of The Grapes of Wrath

22. Moses of the Ten Commandments

23. James Bond of Dr. No

24. Andy Dufresne of The Shawshank Redemption

25. Jake La Motta of Raging Bull

26. Forrest Gump of Forrest Gump

27. Sparticus of Sparticus

28. Captain Jack Sparrow of Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl

29. Doc Holiday of Tombstone

30. Jefferson Smith of Mr. Smith Goes to Washington

31. T.E. Lawrence of Lawrence of Arabia

32. Ben Hur of Ben Hur

33. Jim Stark of Rebel Without a Cause

34. Rooster Cogburn of True Grit

35. E.T. of E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial

36. Batman of Batman

37. Randle McMurphy of One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest

38. Frankenstein of Frankenstein

39. Spock of Star Trek

40. Spiderman of Spiderman

41. Dracula of Dracula

42. Superman of Superman

43. Harry Potter of Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone

44. Gordon Gekko of Wall Street

45. Navin Johnson of The Jerk

46. Norman Bates of Psycho

47. Gunnery Sgt. Hartman of Full Metal Jacket

48. Karl Childers of Sling Blade

49. Butch Cassidy of Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid

50. Dirty Harry Callahan of Dirty Harry

51. Ferris Bueller of Ferris Bueller’s Day Off

52. George Taylor of Planet of the Apes

53. Daniel E. ‘Rudy’ Ruettiger of Rudy

54. Jeff Spicoli of Fast Times at Ridgemont High

55. Tarzan of Tarzan the Ape Man

56. Jake Blues of The Blues Brothers

57. John Rambo of First Blood

58. Captain Quint of Jaws

59. King Kong of King Kong

60. Willy Wonka of Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory

61. Mary Poppins of Mary Poppins

62. The Terminator of The Terminator

63. Jules Winnfield of Pulp Fiction

64. Mrs. Robinson of The Graduate

65. Rocky Balboa of Rocky

66. Tommy DeVito of GoodFellas

67. Raymond Babbitt of Rain Man

68. King Arthur of Camelot/Excalibur

69. Annie Wilkes of Misery

70. John McClane of Die Hard

71. Gunnery Sergeant Emil Foley of An Officer and a Gentleman

72. Lt. Pete ‘Maverick’ Mitchell of Top Gun

73. Mad Max Rockatansky of Mad Max

74. Sandy Olsson of Grease

75. John “Bluto” Blutarsky of Animal House

76. Jack Torrance of The Shining

77. Baronin Maria von Trapp of The Sound of Music

78. Hedley Lamar of Blazing Saddles

79. William Cutting of Gangs of New York

80. Freddy Krueger of A Nightmare on Elm Street

81. Ralphie Parker of A Christmas Story

82. Max Cady of Cape Fear

83. Regan MacNeil of The Exorcist

84. Jason of Friday the 13th

85. Mrs. Doubtfire of Mrs Doubtfire

86. Carrie White of Carrie

87. Carl Spackler of Caddyshack

88. Captain Marko Ramius of The Hunt for Red October

89. Captain Hook of Peter Pan

90. Norma Rae of Norma Rae

91. Mona Lisa Vito of My Cousin Vinny

92. Sally Albright of When Harry Met Sally

93. Marge Gunderson of Fargo

94. Sergeant Martin Riggs of Lethal Weapon

95. Crash Davis of Bull Durham

96. Marty McFly of Back to the Future

97. Inigo Montoya of The Princess Bride

98. Bo ‘Bandit’ Darville of Smokey and the Bandit

99. Lane Meyer of Better Off Dead

100. Curly Washburn of City Slickers

Just to prove that I did my homework, here are the other 109 that were considered, but did not make the list in alphabetical order (my friend hates it when I do this):

Frank Abignale Jr. of Catch Me If You Can

Gust Avrakotos of Charlie Wilson’s War

Arthur Bach of Arthur

Howard Beale of Network

Hans Beckert of M

Judy Benjamin of Private Benjamin

Travis Bickle of Taxi Driver

Blondie of The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly

Frank Booth of Blue Velvet

Borat of Borat

Erin Brockovich of Erin Brockovich

Oda Mae Brown of Ghost

Truman Burbank of The Truman Show

Truman Capote of Capote

Chance the Gardener of Being There

Margo Channing of All About Eve

Inspector Clouseau of The Pink Panther

Conan of Conan the Barbarian

Frank Costello of The Departed

Jane Craig of Broadcast News

Paul Crewe of The Longest Yard

David Crockett of The Alamo

Melanie Daniels of The Birds

Daphne/Jerry of Some Like it Hot

Donnie Darko of Donnie Darko

Rick Deckard of Blade Runner

Alex DeLarge of A Clockwork Orange

Norma Desmond of Sunset Boulevard

Phyliss Dietrichson of Double Indemnity

Dil of The Crying Game

Fred C. Dobbs of The Treasure of the Sierra Madre

Lloyd Dobler of Say Anything

Antoine Doinel of The 400 Blow

Michael Dorsey/Dorthy Michaels of Tootsie

The Dude of The Big Lebowski

Lt. John J. Dunbar of Dances With Wolves

Napoleon Dynamite of Napoleon Dynamite

Wyatt Earp of Gunfight at the OK Corral

Eathan Edwards of The Searchers

Sergeant Elias of Platoon

Dr. Evil of Austin Powers

Irwin ‘Fletch’ Fletcher of Fletch

Gaylord ‘Greg’ Focker of Meet the Parents

Fogell or ‘McLovin’ of Superbad

Axel Foley of Beverly Hills Cop

Alex Forrest of Fatal Attraction

Gandalf Of The Lord of The Rings The Fellowship of the Rings

Ghandi of Ghandi

Happy Gilmore of Happy Gilmore

Jake Gittes of Chinatown

Godzilla of Godzilla

Holly Golightly of Breakfast at Tiffany’s

Gollum of Lord of the Rings

Joel Goodson of Risky Business

Aurora Greenway of Terms of Endearment

Clark Griswold of Vacation

Annie Hall of Annie Hall

Hawkeye (Nathaniel Poe) of The Last of the Mohicans

Pee Wee Herman of Pee Wee’s Big Adventure

Sherlock Holmes of The Hound of the Baskervilles

J.J. Hunsecker of Sweet Smell of Success

Mrs. Iselin of The Manchurian Candidate

Paul Kersey of Deathwish

Lt. Kilgore of Apocalypse Now

Ray Kinsella of Field of Dreams

Roger “Verbal” Kint of The Usual Suspects

Stanley Kowalski of A Streetcar Named Desire

Eric Liddell of Chariots of Fire

Harry Lime of The Third Man

The Little Tramp of Mabel’s Strange Predicament

Logan 5 of Logan’s Run

Jerry Maguire of Jerry Maguire

John Malkovich of Being John Malkovich

Terry Malloy of On the Waterfront

Jim Malone of The Untouchables

Tony Manero of Saturday Night Fever

Kevin McCallister of Home Alone

Tony Montana of Scarface

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart of Amadeus

John Nash of A Beautiful Mind

Captain Marc Nemo of 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea

Ninotchka of Ninotchka

Danny Ocean of Ocean’s Eleven

Henri ‘Papillon’ Charriere of Papillon

Bonnie Parker of Bonnie and Clyde

Rev. Harry Powell of The Night of the Hunter

Tom Powers of The Public Enemy

Miranda Priestly of The Devil Wears Prada

Buford Pusser of Walking Tall

Matthew Quigley of Quigley Down Under

Jessica Rabbit of Who Framed Roger Rabbit?

Ellen Ripley of Alien

Ratso Rizzo of Midnight Cowboy

Rose Sayer of The African Queen

Ebenezer Scrooge of A Christmas Carol

Edward Scissorhands of Edward Scissorhands

John Shaft of Shaft

Han Solo of Star Wars

Sam Spade of The Maltese Falcon

Steve Stiffler of American Pie

Willard Stiles of Willard

Dr. Strangelove of Dr. Strangelove

Alan Swann of My Favorite Year

Catherine Tramell of Basic Instinct

Virgil Tibbs of In the Heat of the Night

Susan Vance of Bringing up Baby

Dr. Peter Venkman of Ghostbusters

Ace Ventura of Ace Ventura,: Pet Detective

Vivian Ward of Pretty Woman