This 1972 western starred James Coburn, Telly Savalas, and Bud Spencer in the main roles. Set in the middle of the Civil War, it revolves around Fort Holman, a fortress in the Southwest that commanded the Santa Fe Trail.

The film opens with the arrest of two men for looting. The commander of the Union forces recognizes one of them as an old friend, Colonel Pembroke(Coburn). The second was Eli Sampson(Spencer). Pembroke had commanded Fort Holman, only to surrender to Confederate forces led by Major Ward(Savalas) without a shot being fired.

No one knew why Pembroke had done such a thing, but he’d been through a court-martial, found guilty, and now that he’d been captured, was due to be hanged. His friend wants to know why he surrendered so easily, but instead of telling, he puts forth a plan to retake the fort and convinces the Major he can have all the credit and possibly a promotion to General for it.

His choice of men is limited to a group scheduled to be hanged of charges ranging from horse stealing to poisoning a number of soldiers with bad drugs to murder of an officer and the rape of his wife. They are given the choice of hanging or risking their lives for a pardon of all crimes. The only one he seems to be able to trust is his old co-looter, Sampson.

They are no sooner away from the fort than they are already talking of taking off for Mexico. Along the way, Pembroke drives off the horses when they are asleep with the excuse that they are entering Confederate territory and the horses are U.S. branded. Then he tells them the real reason they are after the fort.

Five hundred thousand in buried Confederate gold that Ward doesn’t know about and a hidden entrance to the fortress that only Pembroke knows.

Spencer is to be their inside man when they find a dead Confederate with papers identifying him as a Rebel spy ordered to the area.

This film doesn’t have much action until the climactic battle where we learn Pembroke’s REAL reason for attacking the fort. But it builds so nicely and good acting jobs all around that it’s a very good watch.

A simple revenge tale with fine music(By Riz Ortolani) of fuzz guitars and a small orchestral arrangement.

Directed by Tonino Valerii from a script by Rafael Azcona and Ernesto Gastaldi, he handles the action sequence well with Gatling guns and dynamite heavily used. Some have called this a spaghetti western Dirty Dozen and I can see that.

Recommended. It has also appeared in the U.S. under the title Massacre At Fort Holman.

Here’s the Italian trailer. It will give a taste of the film:

Some formidable names to conclude the series (now at 100 actors and 100 actresses):

Patrick McGoohan, Orson Welles, David Niven, Robert Vaughn, James Coburn, Edward Everett Horton, Walter Huston, Alan Arkin, Vic Morrow, Peter Falk, George Sanders, Steve Buscemi, Ralph Meeker, Joe Shishido, Broderick Crawford, John Turturro, Charles Bronson, Jackie Gleason, Ben Gazzara, Peter Lorre.

Image sources: IMDb, Dr. Macro, Google Images, and my own screen shots.

(related posts: 20 Actors, 20 (more) Actors, 20 Actors (coda), 20 Actors (encore), 20 Actresses, 20 (more) Actresses, 20 Actresses (grand finale), 20 Actresses (ultimo), 20 Actresses (encore))

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Bruce Lee, circa 1972.

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There are certain moments in life that you never forget.  Oddly, I still remember the evening when as a kid I got a glimpse of Bruce Lee on the tube in Game of Death. It was the immortal scene where Lee, at all of  5′ 7″, squares-off against 7′ 2″ basketball great Kareem Abdul-Jabbar and his unending Plastic Man-like reach.  My heart was pounding out of my chest, and I couldn’t take my eyes off the sinewy, screaming, leaping Bruce Lee– I’d never seen anything so crazy and exciting in all my short life.  He seemed more full of life, energy and determination than anyone I’d ever seen– yet, I was watching a man onscreen who had already passed away.  It seemed almost unbelievable that he was gone– I think that pretty much sums up the effect he had on a lot of people.  He was so skilled, entertaining and charismatic that you couldn’t take your eyes off him, because if you did– you might quickly miss out on something that’s never been seen before.  You were sure there was no one person in the world that could take Bruce Lee out.  He seemed to be invincible onscreen– which makes his mysterious passing all the more ironic.

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Original caption from 1966-- Bruce Lee, who plays Kato in ABC-TV's Fridays, (7:30-8 P.M., EST) springs into three of the basic positions of Kung Fu, the ancient Oriental art of self-defense of which Bruce is a master.

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There’s an interesting bit about Bruce Lee’s relationship with another Hollywood icon he hung out with– Steve McQueen.  Among the many stars that Bruce Lee counted as his pupils and friends (James Coburn, James Garner, etc.) none were bigger than McQueen.  Obviously both were highly competitive guys, so when Bruce Lee’s star began to rise it caused notable tension between the two that almost destroyed their friendship.

Bruce Lee was quickly becoming a hot commodity and his movie deal to make the now iconic Enter the Dragon was said to be considerably more than what Steve McQueen was pulling down for his current project, Papilon.  Apparently, this got McQueen’s nose out of joint.  Adding fuel the fire, Bruce apparently began to brag around town that he was going to be a bigger star than McQueen– which prompted the King of cool to fire-off an autographed picture to his little buddy Lee signed– “To Bruce, my biggest fan.”

Another bit– Bruce Lee is often credited with having taught Steve McQueen Jeet Kune Do, but McQueen was actually trained in the Korean art of Tang Soo Do by 9th degree blackbelt Pat E. Johnson. Apparently McQueen was not one to be messed with– unless you wanted to be peeled like a banana. Though he refused to test for his belt (worried he might find himself at the wrong end of a lawsuit, he didn’t want his martial arts awesomeness officially documented in case he ever had to crack open a can of whoop-ass on someone), those who were around at the time say he’d easily rank at the 3rd degree black belt level. Steve McQueen’s son, Chad, took lessons from family friends Chuck Norris & Bruce Lee– an honor I’m sure he could not have fully fathomed at the time.

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Bruce Lee on the set of "The Way of The Dragon", 1973.

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Bruce Lee and fellow martial arts legend Chuck Norris on left — Bruce Lee  & actor James Coburn on right

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Hollywood Actors James Coburn & Steve McQueen (in head to toe denim, topped with a Lee 101J)  were pallbearers at Bruce Lee’s Seattle funeral.

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Steve McQueen straightens a plaque on the casket at Bruce Lee's funeral, James Coburn is seen behind.

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At Bruce Lee's funeral on Capitol Hill, Grace Lee, mother of Bruce Lee, reaches out to touch her son's casket. At rear is an unidentified student of Lee's, with actors Steve McQueen and James Coburn, both pallbearers at the funeral on July 31, 1973.

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Es muy posible que una película como Charada (Charade) nunca ocupe un puesto en ninguna lista de las mejores películas de la historia, y probablemente no lo merezca si nos atenemos a su importancia en el desarrollo del cine, su influencia posterior, la ausencia de interpretaciones intelectuales en su argumento, y demás razones que nos importan más bien poco cuando nos sentamos ante la pantalla. Aunque nos hagan disfrutar una y mil veces, este tipo de films seguirá viéndose desplazado por el prestigio de egregios castigos firmados por Resnais, Pasolini, Bertolucci, Antonioni o, incluso, Robert Altman. Y es que, a veces, el género humano merece todo el aburrimiento que le caiga encima.

        Charada es, sencillamente, un fiestón para los que buscan una buena historia que les mantenga clavados a la butaca durante un par de horas. Desde su inicio, con la escena que sirve de prólogo, los fantásticos títulos de crédito, la música de Henry Mancini, y el plano de una pistola apuntando a Audrey Hepburn, la película de Donen es como una montaña rusa que no da un momento de respiro. En el impresionante guión de Peter Stone -basado en una historia del propio Stone y de Marc Behm, autor de esa esa joya de la novela negra que es La mirada del observador (The eye of the beholder, 1980)- caben la intriga, la acción, el humor, el romanticismo, las sorpresas constantes y unos cuantos cadáveres, y el resultado, de la mano de Donen, es un manual de ritmo cinematográfico al que ni se acercan las películas actuales del género. Y, cómo no, al frente de un reparto de lujo (Walter Matthau, James Coburn, George Kennedy), Cary Grant y Audrey Hepburn, él veinticinco años mayor y qué más da.

        Donen intentó repetir la fiesta tres años después con Arabesco (Arabesque, 1966), pero la cosa no acabó de cuajar. Yo, desde luego, volveré de vez en cuando a repetirla.

              Editada en DVD por Universal.

Halloween movie night, part 1 of 2

Data
Title: Monsters, Inc.
Year: 2001
Length: 92 minutes
Directors: Pete Docter, David Silverman & Lee Unkrich
Writers: Andrew Stanton & Daniel Gerson, with Robert L. Baird, Rhett Reese & Jonathan Roberts, story by Pete Docter, Jill Culton, Jeff Pidgeon & Ralph Eggleston
Starring: John Goodman, Billy Crystal, Mary Gibbs, Steve Buscemi, James Coburn
Music: Randy Newman
Distinctions: Oscar for Best Song (“If I Didn’t Have You”); currently #242 on IMDb’s Top 250

My reaction
Synopsis: a human toddler sneaks through her closet into the monster world
How I saw it: in the theater, 2001; on video many times (have on DVD), most recently yesterday
Concept: Indifferent.
Story: Great.
Characters: Great.
Dialog: Great.
Pacing: Great.
Cinematography: Great.
Special effects/design: Great.
Acting: Good. Okay from the voices, great from the animators.
Music: Good.
Subjective Rating: 9/10 (One of my favorites). It’s remarkable how re-watchable this remains after all these years.
Objective Rating: 9/10 3.6/4 (Great).

After his 1975 ninjitsu-fueled The Killer Elite bit box-office dust, Sam Peckinpah sought redemption in a script penned by an industry pro. Despite a lifetime of work in romantic comedies, screenwriter Julius Epstein (Casablanca, Arsenic and Old Lace) was commissioned to write the adaptation of Willi Heinrich’s German war novel, The Willing Flesh. In 1977, Peckinpah got a hold of Epstein’s adaptation and Cross of Iron became the only war film of Peckinpah’s prolific career.

The film takes place in 1943, in the Russian front. Peckinpah favorite James Coburn plays the highly decorated and recently promoted Rolf Steiner. Just as he arrives to camp after another successful mission, Prussian Captain Hauptmann Stransky (Maximilian Schell) arrives to take Steiner’s position. When Steiner’s squad, led by the brave Lieutenant Myer, engages in gruesome combat with Russian troops, Meyer is killed in action. Stransky reports to the figurehead that it was he who led the troops and requests to be awarded the Iron Cross. Steiner is called upon as a witness to Stransky’s valor and, naturally, he refuses to play ball.

War pictures, like prison films, typically feature highly diverse casts, and Cross of Iron is no exception. The two genres also resonate with similar senses of space, which is important in so much as character development is concerned. Prison blocks and battlegrounds both provide terribly oppressive environments, perfect for character tension to peak.

Coburn maintains a blue-collar swagger in his portrayal of Steiner. A born leader, Steiner displays commitment to his duties and expert tact on the battlefield. However, he is also a man rich in wisdom and justice. Unlike Prussian aristocrat Stransky, Steiner is in touch with reality, well aware of how war can rot a man’s conscience.

Cross of Iron is a bold entry among 70s war pictures for many reasons. Namely, Peckinpah’s sympathetic portrayal of the enemy is something distinctly uncharacteristic of Hollywood. Also uncharacteristic of war pictures at the time was the overt homosexuality in the film. Peckinpah challenges our traditional notion of what heroism means with a tale of sexually repressed men in uniform. Stransky cements his perverse notion of heroism when he professes to Steiner that “Without the Iron Cross, I couldn’t face my family.”

The film’s ending is a bit clunky, but it doesn’t actually detract from the film’s visceral punch. Anyhow, the ending is a little dodgy because the budget ran dry. Many are not aware that Cross of Iron was funded with dough put up by a West German porn producer. After all the money was gone, Peckinpah turned to Coburn to basically “improvise” the last scene. Well it’s at least better than the studio hack-job on Peckinpah’s Pat Garrett & Billy the Kid (1973). But we won’t go there — not today anyhow.

Go see this one!

Looker is a 1981 science fiction film written and directed by Michael Crichton. It starred Albert Finney, Susan Dey, James Coburn and featured former NFL linebacker Tim Rossovich as the villain’s main henchman. The film is a suspense/science fiction piece which comments upon and satirizes media, advertising, TV’s effects on the populace, and ridiculous standard of beauty. Though spare in visual effects, the film is notable for being the first commercial film to attempt to make a realistic computer generated character, for the model named “Cindy.” It was also the first movie to create 3-D shading with a computer, months before the release of the better-known Tron.

Kim Carnes recorded her own version of the title song for her album “Voyeur” (1982). The title song in the movie was performed by Sue Saad.

Amazon Specials!

#100!

Data
Title: The Great Escape
Year: 1963
Length: 172 minutes
Director: John Sturges
Writers: James Clavell & W.R. Burnett, based on the book by Paul Brickhill
Starring: Steve McQueen, James Garner, Richard Attenborough, James Donald, Charles Bronson, Donald Pleasence, James Coburn, Hannes Messemer
Music: Elmer Bernstein
Distinctions: currently #100 on IMDb’s Top 250

My reaction
Synopsis: WWII POWs plot a massive escape attempt to distract German resources
How I saw it: on video (rented from Netflix), yesterday
Concept: Great.
Story: Good. The plot is great, but the details start to seriously fall apart at the end.  I had to look it up online to even see if the plan worked.
Characters: Indifferent. I had no investment in any of these people. Also, after looking online, it seems that the people on which the characters are based were actually pretty interesting. But in the movie we get “I like to ride bikes.”
Dialog: Good.
Pacing: Bad.
Cinematography: Indifferent.
Special effects/design: Great.
Acting: Good. Attenborough is great. Most of the other leads are just okay.
Music: Bad. “…this land belongs to you and me!” So. Very. Obnoxious.
Subjective Rating: 5/10 (Indifferent). Lots of potential, but a pretty boring movie.
Objective Rating: 6/10 2.5/4 (Okay).

I managed to get a head start to the Cary Grant week on Sky Movies, as “Charade” is on anytime TV so it made for a good movie to watch when I woke up early on a Sunday morning. It was very charming and funny, no I am not just talking about Cary Grant I am referring to the whole movie.

The basic plot is romance and suspense in Paris, as a woman is pursued by several men who want a fortune her murdered husband had stolen. Who can she trust? The woman is Regina Lampert (Audery Hepburn) was befriended by Peter Joshua (Cary Grant) but did he want the money too? With Tex Panthollow (James Coburn) and others on the case trying to track the money down.

This movie really was made up from a fantastic cast and it was brilliant to see some of the actors in their younger days those being James Coburn and Walter Matthau, whom i’d only seen in more recent movies. So was very good to see them back in the day to put it. Audery Hepburn was her usual elegant self, some fantastic outfits were worn by her in this movie. Cary Grant was very charming, and so funny as well. Hepburn and Grant had fantastic chemistry with each other on screen you could really not ask any more from them both. They really responded well with each other, which was delightful to watch. Who would not want Cary Grant saying this to you “How about making me vice president in charge of cheering you up?” – everyone would love to have Cary cheer them up.

The story takes quite a few twists and turns with a few deaths along the way as the search for the money hots up, who will save the day? I bet everyone can guess who that will be. I have to admit that I really loved the reference to “My Fair Lady” with Cary Grant using “On the Street where you live” after he took Audrey Hepburn back to her apartment. Even though Hepburn did not star in the movie until a year later, maybe this was just a little hint of what was to come? But yes that was a very geeky movie fan moment from me, as I noticed it straight away.

I think this was a very good movie to start off my Cary Grant week, as he was fantastic in it. One of his last movie roles as well, he was 59 years old in this movie but really did not look it. So I am now looking more forward to the other four Cary Grant movies I have sky+ for the rest of the week.

This fantastic car, an evolution of  the 250 GT Tour de France, is one of the best-loved 12-cylinders ever built: it has a total displacement of 2953 cc, punches out 280hp and features 3 carburettors. It was styled by pininfarian, who also designed the latest addition to the Ferrari range and has been named the California in honor of this special car. This baby achieved an astonishing euro 7,040,00 million, which is an all-time record for this model which was once owned by actor James Coburn.

In like Flint is a 1967 film, the sequel to the spy film “our Man Flint”. The plot of the movie is basically a super-spy Flint (James Coburn) takes on a cabal of women plotting to rule the world – now this is my kind of movie-. James Coburn (can we say swagga?) is great in this movie despite the bad reviews and of course I’m in love with the fine costumes. Although I have yet to see the original, this is one of my favorite movies.

-INi

El último western del maestro Peckinpah (1973)

El sólido James Coburn y el sorprendente Kris Kristofferson estelarizan “Pat Garrett & Billy The Kid” (Sam Peckinpah, 1973). Junto a ellos actúan Bob Dylan, Jason Robards, el “indio” Fernández, Slim Pickens y Katy Jurado (entre otros). La historia de Patrick Floyd Garrett y William Harrison Bonney (aka Henry Antrim aka Henry McArty aka Billy The Kid) transcurre en el ocaso del siglo antepasado en la inmensidad del suroeste gringo. Coburn y Kristofferson dan vida a dos especímenes en vías de extinción, forajidos y antiguos compañeros de andadas vueltos enemigos. Uno debe perseguir al otro. La película inicia cuando el hombre de la ley (Pat) visita al Kid en su guarida. Mientras beben unos tragos tienen el siguiente diálogo (PG: Pat Garrett, BtK: Billy The Kid):

PG: ¿Puedo hablarte claro?

BtK:Para eso has venido.

PG: La ciudadanía…quiere que te vayas. Que salgas del país.

BtK: ¿Me lo dicen o me lo piden?

PG: Te lo pido yo.  Dentro de cinco días te obligaré a hacerlo.  Porque voy a ser el sheriff del condado de Lincoln.

BtK: El viejo Pat. Sheriff Pat Garrett. Vendido al clan de Santa Fe. ¿Cómo te sientes?

PG: Es… como si los tiempos hubieran cambiado.

BtK: Los tiempos, tal vez. Yo no. Oye, ¿por qué no te quedas? Tenemos algunos días, ¿no?

PG: No, tengo que regresar.

Se levanta para abandonar la cantina. Lo detiene la voz del Kid:

BtK: Adiós, Pat.

PG, dándose vuelta: Adiós, Bill.

BtK: No abuses de tu suerte.

PG, deteniéndose y mirando al Kid: No me preocupa mi suerte.

Garrett abandona el lugar…

Uno de los miembros de la banda del Kid, refiriéndose a Garrett: ¿Por qué no lo matas?

BtK: ¿Por qué? Es mi amigo.

La banda sonora compuesta e interpretada por Bob Dylan es uno de los puntos fuertes de este western:

Un gran momento de la película sucede cuando Garrett forma una “cuadrilla” con su antiguo compinche, el sheriff Colin Bear (Slim Pickens) ¡y la señora Bear! -que no es otra que una aguerrida Katy Jurado- y va en pos de los secuaces de Billy que se han atrincherado en una choza. Muy al estilo Peckinpah los involucrados (sobretodo Pickens y la Jurado) dejan hablar a las armas. Lo peculiar es que la señora Bear se carga a los criminales a punta de escopetazos. Nada de avisos previos. Detrás de ella el viejo Bear responde heroicamente el fuego de uno de los pistoleros pero también recibe dos balazos a las primeras de cambio. Luego se da vuelta y camina rumbo a la orilla del río con aire trágico pero resignado. A lo lejos se observa el crepúsculo. Cuando llega junto a la corriente y se sienta inician los acordes de la mítica “Knockin´on Heaven´s Door” anticipando el desenlace fatal. La Bear (Jurado) lo alcanza. Solo atina a llorar desconsoladamente.

Realmente la película está al nivel de esa otra joya que es “The wild bunch“. Y de igual manera que en esa cinta en esta otra lo inevitable se cierne sobre el futuro de ese par de cínicos, desalmados y moralmente ambiguos personajes tan idos y traídos por el cine: El Kid y el sheriff Garrett.

…right here:

“A Very Brave Witch… And More Great Halloween Stories For Kids!” (Scholastic)
Fall is my favorite season, Halloween my favorite holiday. So what better way to gear up for that most wonderful time of the year than by enjoying a few Halloween-themed children’s classics. All eight of the stories on this disc are worthy of being there, but my favorite is a tie between Tomi Ungerer’s “The Three Robbers” and the absolutely classic Robert Bright tale “Georgie.” Ungerer’s illustration work on “The Three Robbers” is an art school nerd’s dream, and Bright’s sweet tale about a ghost looking for a new house to haunt in “Georgie” is children’s book storytelling at its best. Kids will enjoy each of this set’s eight tales, but these two stories in particular will resonate with both the children of today and the kids of yesterday.

“Chicka Chicka 1-2-3… And More Counting Fun!” (Scholastic)
If you grew up in the early eighties, chances are some of the first books you cracked open were written by Bill Martin, Jr. We may be adults now (reluctantly), but we can pass on the writing of Martin with DVDs like this. Collected here are four stories about numbers and counting, starting off with Martin’s “Chicka Chicka 1-2-3″ (which is illustrated by Milwaukee-based artist Lois Ehlert). Also included are Rosemary Wells’ “Emily’s First 100 Days Of School” and David M. Schwartz’s “How Much Is A Million?” and “If You Made A Million.” Still, I have to play favorites here and admit that Martin’s story is the best, mostly because of its nostalgia.

“Bad Boy Bubby” (Blue Underground)
If you’ve never heard of this movie its premise alone should be enough to grab your interest: After spending 35 years locked in an apartment by his deranged mother, the “demented man-child” Bubby has finally broken free of his prison and is ready to discover the “wonders of sex, crime, rock & roll, and pizza.” Christ, that describes the life story of some people I know. Anyway, the end result is as demented as you hope it to be, so if you’re looking for something you’ve never seen before (If you have seen something like this before, WHERE?!?), give it a try.

“Circle Of Iron” (Blue Underground)
Did you know that Bruce Lee co-wrote a screenplay with James Coburn shortly before his death in 1973? Yeah, me neither. But he did, and the result is this marriage of martial arts and magic starring David Carradine, Christopher Lee and Roddy McDowall. Released in 1978, some five years after Bruce’s death, viewers definitely get a sense from the film’s style that we’re getting dangerously close to the 1980s, and away from the Golden Age of kung fu cinema. It’s definitely dated, but still holds up as a solid action film some thirty years later.

“Tokyo!” (Liberation Entertainment)
An anthology film that collects the work of three directors: French directors Michel Gondry (“Eternal Sunshine Of The Spotless Mind”) and Leos Carax (“The Lovers On The Bridge”), and South Korean director Bong Joon-Ho (“The Host”). All three directors used the city of Tokyo as the backdrop for their tales of transformation (Gondry’s “Interior Design”), anarchy (Carax’s “Merde”) and rebirth (Joon-Ho’s “Shaking Tokyo”). Similar in theme to films like “Four Rooms” and “New York Stories”, it’s not entirely fair to judge this movie in anything but its entirety. And, as a whole, the film does work. But, just as is the case with those earlier comparisons, some of the stories are stronger than others. Oddly enough, the segment I enjoyed the most was from the director I knew the least about: Leos Carax. Still, check it out for yourself; your favorite (and least favorite) story might surprise you.

“Billie Holiday: The Life And Artistry Of Lady Day” (Idem Home Video)
A fairly narrow history of Lady Day that seems to use more footage and audio of the era than it does of the woman herself. If you’re not familiar with Billie Holiday or her work, this will serve as a good 101 course to bring you up to speed. But if you’re a fan of her work and have even a general knowledge of her life story (fame/addiction/death), this disc might not be as essential to your collection. Extras include a discography and bibliography, as well as select lyrics from some of her more well-known songs. Also collected are a handful of scenes from the 1947 film “New Orleans” in which Holiday appears as a maid. Starring in a few scenes alongside Louis Armstrong and other jazz musicians, these extras were a nice addition that I hadn’t seen before. But if you’re a huge fan of Holiday and that era of jazz, chances are you already own “New Orleans” in its entirety.

“History On My Arms w/ Dee Dee Ramone” (MVD Visual)
Three separate documentaries are collected here to look into the life and times of late Ramones bassist Dee Dee Ramone (Douglas Glenn Colvin). The first is director Lech Kowalski’s 2003 documentary “Hey Is Dee Dee Home.” The footage was originally filmed in 1992 for Kowalski’s documentary “Born To Lose: The Last Rock And Roll Movie”, but after Dee Dee’s overdose in 2002, the director pieced together what footage he had of the bass player and released this hour-long documentary. More about his addiction than his music, the film is now merely documentation of what fate Dee Dee would face just a decade later. Next up is the half-hour “History On My Arms” short, which is essentially some of the more light-hearted segments that were taken out of the full-length. These 27 minutes concentrate more on the music than any other segment. And finally, the 22-minute short “Vom In Paris” is an interview with drummer Vom Ritchie about a night he spent with Dee Dee in Paris in 1989. Also included is an audio CD titled “Dee Dee Blues” which collects a handful of live blues recordings Dee Dee made himself with nothing more than a guitar and a microphone.

“My Breakfast With Blassie” (Video Service Corporation)
In 1983, less than a year before he succumbed to cancer, Andy Kaufman made a parody of “My Dinner with Andre” called “My Breakfast with Blassie.” Shot at Sambo’s restaurant in Hollywood, Kaufman meets with legendary wrestler “Classy” Freddie Blassie (who, of course, is “The King of All Men”) to discuss personal hygiene, fame, and why eating pancakes is bad for you. As incredibly boring as that may sound, you’d be surprised at how entertaining it truly is. It’s like sitting next to two insane men in a diner and listening in on their equally-as-insane conversation. Of course, I’m a fan of both Kaufman and Blassie, so I admittedly go into this review with a bit of bias. But the real shock for me was how Blassie steals the show from Kaufman, providing more hilarious one-liners and anecdotes than the comedian himself. At one point he refers to their Thai waitress as having come from “the Orient.” And he does it to her face! Blassie’s brash attitude plays along well with Kaufman’s attentive interest in all things wrestling, resulting in a bizarre mixing of the minds in a short film we’ll probably never see the likes of again.

“Porn Stars Of The 80’s” (Blue Underground)
There was seriously a late-night cable talk show about porn? Sadly, yes, and its name was “Midnight Blue.” Collected here are the “best” (?) clips of that show from the decade we’d all like to forget: the 1980s. Cameo “appearances” and interviews with well-known stars of the era (Ron Jeremy, Nina Hartley, et al.) are interspliced with smart-assed commentary from magazine publisher/TV host/porn czar Al Goldstein (who is as slimy a human being as you’d expect a porn czar to be). I have to be honest here: this disc left me feeling embarrassed for anyone who actually ever watched this show. Seriously, if you want porno, watch porno. Don’t watch some gold chain-wearing sleazeball interview ghastly gutter-hookers as he tries to justify the legitimacy of pornography. It’s sex, Al! It doesn’t need a commercial!

“Porn Stars Of The 90’s” (Blue Underground)
Exactly like the review above only with slightly better production quality, Christy Canyon, and a fatter (and even more disgusting, if you can believe that) Al Goldstein.

Integrating children’s books and pornography since 1976,

-Shady

This article was taken from “Psychology Today…” And as it reviews one of the most over-looked and important people in modern psychiatry today, namely Dr Oz Janiger, I wanted to re-post it here. For in these times of chemically induced placidity, where one’s problems can be simply swept under a carpet of medication, this story is a shinning beacon of hope for those looking to “go beyond” what they are told they can be.

Oscar Janiger (February 8, 1918 – August 14, 2001) was a University of California Irvine Psychiatrist who was best known for his LSD research, which lasted from 1954 to 1962.

One could argue that there are basically three types of psychiatrists (listed from most common to least common): those who try to keep sick people relatively comfortable and quiet; those who try to make sick people well; and those who try to help “normal” people grow beyond “normality.” Dr. Oscar Janiger was certainly of the third category.

Back in the days when LSD was still seen as an important, legal tool for studying the functioning of the brain and getting a glimpse at the underlying structure of the mind, Dr. Janiger supervised psychedelic sessions with over 1000 volunteer clients in his southern California office. These were not psychotherapy sessions. They were opportunities for guided self-exploration, with supportive, knowledgeable people nearby to help if needed. Many of these clients were (or were to become) well-known: the actors Jack Nicholson, James Coburn and Rita Moreno, the classical composer Andre Previn, erotic writer Anais Nin, writer-philosophers Alan Watts and Aldous Huxley…. All came to Oz, as he was known, not for a cure for mental illness, but out of curiosity about what they could learn by shining this powerful light upon themselves and their sense of “reality.” By all accounts, nobody was disappointed by the resulting insights. Cary Grant got so excited in one of his sessions (he had over 70 with Oz) that the sophisticated star defecated on the good doctor’s carpet! Insight affects people in strange ways sometimes!

If we want to blame someone for the psychedelic excesses and subsequent legal backlashes of the 60s, the natural focus of our attention would probably be Timothy Leary (focus of a previous profile). Leary felt that everyone would benefit from this sort of experience. Intoxicated by the fame and power of his hippy-guru status, Leary went around the country encouraging his audience to “turn on, tune in, and drop out.”

Janiger, Huxley, and others were opposed this approach. They felt that LSD was too strong and too unpredictable to give to people who didn’t know what they were getting themselves into, with nobody there to help if things went wrong. In hindsight, this group was certainly correct. But it’s hard to keep a good secret. In fact, it was Janiger’s most enthusiastic client, Cary Grant, who first told Timothy Leary about the wonders of LSD. Then Leary told everyone else.

The vision that Janiger and his group had was of something more like the Mysteries of Eleusis-rituals performed each year in Ancient Greece (from around 1400 BC to 400 AD). These rituals were open to all Greeks, from slaves to emperors. Before being allowed to participate however, hopeful initiates had to undergo a week of preparation. This preparation, common to all societies that use psychedelics ritualistically, helps to ensure that no one will have a bad trip. Much of the week is spent cleansing the mind and body of toxins (i.e., the sorts of guilt and psychological conflict that can cause bad experiences). Afterwards, all were sworn to the strictest secrecy – punishable by death. This experience then held a sacred place in the life of those lucky enough to have been initiated – a source of strength and solace forever. In a follow-up study conducted by Rick Doblin of MAPS many of Janiger’s clients reported the same sorts of benefits.

Oscar Janiger died in 2001, at 83 years of age.

by Christopher Ryan

If you would like to see where I sourced this article from, please click here.

If you would like to find out more about how psychedelics are changing the way in which patients suffering from posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD), pain, drug dependence, and anxiety and depression associated with end-of-life issues, then please click on the MAPS (Multidisciplinary Association for Psychedelic Studies) logo below… And if you like what you see, please help them achieve their goals by making a donation to their cause.

Thank you for your time.

Sergio Leone est un réalisateur italien, né le 3 janvier 1929 à Rome (Italie pour ceux qui ne connaissent rien à la géographie), mort le 30 avril 1989 à Rome (toujours en Italie), alors qu’il préparait une adaptation de Salisbury “Les 900 jours de Leningrad”…

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1984

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1971

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1968

Anecdote : la trilogie “il était une fois…”devait être liée à la précédente (la trilogie de “l’homme sans nom” ou “des dollars”) par la première scène de Il était une fois dans l’Ouest. En effet, les trois personnages qui accueillent Charles Bronson à sa sortie du train devaient être interprétés par Clint Eastwood, Lee Van Cleef et Eli Wallach. Cependant Eastwood, dans un souci de carrière professionnelle, ne souhaitait pas mourir dès la première scène du film, Sergio Leone n’a pas pu poursuivre cette idée malgré l’accord des deux autres comédiens.
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1966

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1965

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1964

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(je trouve qu’il ressemble un peu à Alfred Hitchcock sur cette photo…)
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FILMO
Réalisateur

1959 : Les Derniers Jours de Pompei (Gli Ultimi Giorni di Pompei) co-réalisé avec Mario Bonnard
1960 : Sodome et Gomorrhe co-réalisé avec Robert Aldrich
1961 : Le Colosse de Rhodes (Il Colosso di Rodi)
1964 : Pour une poignée de dollars (Per un pugno di dollari)
1965 : Et pour quelques dollars de plus (Per qualche dollaro in piu)
1966 : Le Bon, la Brute et le Truand (Il buono, il brutto, il cattivo)
1968 : Il était une fois dans l’Ouest (Once Upon a Time in the West — C’era una volta il West)
1971 : Il était une fois la révolution (A Fistful of Dynamite — Giù la testa)
1975 : Un génie, deux associés, une cloche (Un genio, due compari, un pollo)
1984 : Il était une fois en Amérique (Once Upon a Time in America)
1989 : Les 900 jours de Leningrad (film pas fait…)
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Producteur

1973 : Mon nom est Personne (Il mio nome è Nessuno) de Tonino Valerii
1975 : Un génie, deux associés, une cloche (Un genio, due compari, un pollo) de Damiano Damiani
1977 : Qui a tué le chat ? (Il gatto) de Luigi Comencini
1979 : Un jouet dangereux (Il giocattolo) de Giuliano Montaldo
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Ah yes, Hudson Hawk. Rarely has a movie been so bitterly and savagely vilified, not only by critics, but even by many of the people involved in making it.

Richard E Grant, for example, who plays one of the main pair of villains alongside Sandra Bernhard, is scathing about the production in his book of published diaries, With Nails.

In fact, long before the film opened, in 1991, there were brutal reports in the press about problems on set, with suggestions that star and co-writer Bruce Willis – then at the height of his early-career fame thanks to the Moonlighting TV series and the first two Die Hard movies - was letting his ego run wild on set, with the film’s director Michael Lehmann (who was himself a hot property after making the acclaimed 1989 film Heathers) sidelined as a result.

It’s certainly true that the movie was one big vanity project for Willis and his pal and co-writer, musician Robert Kraft and that the film that emerged from the troubled shoot was somewhat uneven.

And yet, I’ve always had a soft spot for Hudson Hawk.

It’s far from perfect but no way on earth is it half as bad as the hatchet-job reviews that met the film’s original release would suggest. In fact, it’s very funny, if you can tune in to its off-the-wall humour.

Indeed, that wackyness - along with the fact that, whether it was warranted or not, Willis provided the Press with plenty of ammunition to let them take him down a peg or two after his meteoric rise to stardom – was a big part of the problem for the film. You see, it was marketed as a Die Hard-style action movie when, as anyone who has seen the film knows, it’s actually a surreal, slapstick comedy.

In fact, it’s almost Pythonesque at times. For example, at one point master thief Hudson Hawk (Willis) and his partner in crime Tommy “Five Tone” (Danny Aiello) jump out a upper-floor window to escape their pursuers and then we cut to them simply landing on chairs in the next scene.

Like I said, it’s certainly an uneven film. It’s funny, it’s hip and it’s pretty smart, dealing in a Da Vinci Code-style conspiracy long before Dan Brown made such a thing flavour of the month. Willis and Aiello make for charismatic (if admittedly slightly smug) heroes and there are some pretty impressive stunts and action sequences. It also has some notable co-stars, including James Coburn as a corrupt CIA agent and a pre-NYPD Blue David Caruso in a very small supporting role.

On the downside, Grant and Bernhard were two of the most annoying (and not in a good way) villains ever to grace to big screen. And Andie McDowell as an undercover nun, who at one point impersonates a dolphin… well, the less said about her the better.

Hudson Hawk was a massive box-office flop at the time and ”won” several Razzie awards. However, the film has gradually built up a cult following over the years and is now no longer universally hated. It is is even, according to Willis in an interview on the latest DVD special edition, in profit.

I started this blog entry by saying that I’ve always had a soft spot for the film. And, in a funny way, it holds some special memories for me of a certain period of my life.

I saw it twice on the big screen when it was first released in 1991 (admittedly the second time was more by accident than design due to a breakdown in communications during a night out with pals) and therefore probably personally contributed half its total UK box office take.

And I remember, in the early 90s, haunting a few USENET newsgroups (going by the net nickname Kerr Avon) and, in particular, the CINEMA-L LISTSERV group, trying to convert non-believers to the cult of “Hud Hawk” – which helped while away many enjoyable hours in a job (my first after leaving university) that I hated.

But enough of the nostalgia, here is the film’s signature scene, in which Willis and Aiello carry out one of their trademark heists, which require split-second timing – but rather than use stopwatches to synchronise themselves and keep on schedule, they like to utilise the rythm method…

Now this is a perfect double feature for tonight’s journey to Joe Dante’s Movie Inferno. Two sharp social satires, COLD TURKEY (1971), a rarely screened film that seemed like it played every Sunday night on TV when I was growing up. The caustic comedy starring Dick Van Dyke and Bob Newhart, about a town that stands to inherit millions if they give up smoking for a month, was written and directed by Norman Lear (with Randy Newman’s first soundtrack), but actually filmed in 1968. The studio didn’t know how to sell this scathing downbeat satire and of course, it mocked the tobacco industry at a time when Malboro had ads on television. I can’t wait to revisit it on the big screen replete with Dante’s insight. After that, one of my favorite films of the 1960’s, THE PRESIDENT’S ANALYST (1967) starring James Coburn and a fantastic cast in one of the best American paranoid satires ever. Here’s my Retro-View with a more explicit treatsie on this beloved film. So what else do you need? A wiretap? Get thee to the New Beverly tonite! We’ll be watching…

So almost every day I go to Fashion Square mall for about a half hour. I buy a diet coke from the food court, and just wander around and daydream. It’s become part of my new routine. While I have yet have an actual conversation with anyone at the mall(such a thing would ruin it for me) I do have the typical interactions with food court workers one might expect:

girl at counter:(spoken in spanglish)
Do you want your usual small diet coke?

me: Let’s live dangerously today. Make it a medium

They also give me the mall employee discount because they assume I work at the mall. At first I was flattered when the guy at Johnny Rockets told me I “looked like I worked in the movies.” I assumed that perhaps he thought I could be a handsome actor like James Coburn until I realized all he meant was that he thought I looked like someone who works at the mall movie theater(a pasty teenage slacker with a bow tie.)

I’ve always been a mall person. I really don’t know why. I find it relaxing and inspiring. I think maybe it’s because I had a totally 80’s mom(she seriously looked like a character on the show “Dynasty”) who used to take me to the mall all the time while she would shop for clothes. So it could be some subconscious narcissistic attempt to get back to a childhood point in life.

It could also be that I like to go into the Brookstone store and use the massage chairs.

When the late Jimmy Coburn (1928-2002), Heaven rest his circumnavigably CinemaScopic choppers, smiled, the whole world watching him could not to save its collective life help smiling by contagion (and you Winged McCartneyites, recall him here):

Lanky, charismatic and versatile actor with an amazing grin that put everyone at ease… - IMDb Mini Biography by firehouse44

And seldom more so than in watching what for some of us is his Desert Island first-among-equals, The President’s Analyst from 1967, showing on Turner Classic Movies tonight at 8pm Eastern (check local listings).

From the movie Not from the movie

Mark Bourne reviewed the 2004 DVD at Film.com:

If Philip K. Dick had worked for Mad magazine, he might have come up with The President’s Analyst.

In this mordant comic satire (which is also a bottle of distilled, carbonated 1967), the president of the United States is “overworked, overtired, overburdened.” So the FBI and CIA grudgingly join forces to press Manhattan psychoanalyst Sidney Schaefer into service. At first the mod, urbane Schaefer is ecstatic at such an august promotion, and the job of unburdening the “great man” is an exhilarating rush.

But soon he discovers that he’s been dropped down the rabbit hole into a spy-vs.-spy world of espionage, counter-espionage and counter-counter-espionage, where paranoia really is the most sensible response. After the strain of his top-secret sessions drives him to a nervous breakdown, he flees to the outside world.

Once there, his insights into the president’s brain make him the priority target for international abductors and assassins (such as the Canadian Secret Service disguised as a Beatles-like rock group ). Worse, the FBI (headed by a sour, morality-obsessed J. Edgar Hoover homunculus) wants the hapless shrink dead in the interests of homeland security.

Coburn plays Schaefer with a wry straight-man comedic prowess that both complements and counterpoints his super-spy spoofery in Our Man Flint (‘65) and In Like Flint (‘67). 1967 being the year of Sgt. Pepper and Monterey, The President’s Analyst played straight to its youth audience. Its impudent cynicism lampoons the squares and their Cold War tribalism, obsolete values, police-state bureaucracies and robotic conformity. Schaefer learns that drugs and sex are freeing, and that the running joke we call The Establishment is more neurotic than even Abby Hoffman could have imagined.

Schaefer’s disorientation and increasingly legitimate paranoia — even his girlfriend (Joan Delaney) isn’t what she seems — thrust him from one set piece to another.

He hides out with a suburban family of militant, self-described political “liberals” armed to the teeth against right-wing “fascists” who “oughta be gassed.” The father (William Daniels) boasts that they’re for “Negro” rights, yet Mom (Joan Darling) offhandedly calls going out for Chinese food “eating Chink”;

Arte Johnson’s Dragnet-clone FBI agent reprimands their wire-tapping boy for using such bigoted argot. One minute Mom is asking Schaefer if he reads Gourmet magazine, the next she’s delightedly kick-boxing international killers while dead-eye Dad blasts away with his .357 Magnum. (Earlier, he admonishes his son to never confuse the family’s “car gun” and the “house gun.”)…

Here’s the Diary of a Mad Movie Fanatic blog in 2008:

Irreverent, pungent, often bizarre, but always funny satire, with lots of unexpected twists and lots of brilliant gags. The President’s Analyst has the courage of making fun of everything that is considered sacred in America. It spares no punches as it spoofs things like gun control, bureaucracy, espionage, sex, religion, the civil rights movement, the sexual revolution, psychoanalysis and family values. Don’t worry, it doesn’t matter if you are a man or a woman, black or white, liberal or conservative, there is something here to offend everyone. Kudos to director-writer Theodore J. Flicker for keeping the narrative moving at a breakneck pace. James Coburn gives a hilarious, extraordinary performance. I hope I’m not overselling it, but I just thought the movie was simply marvelous. You blink and you will miss a joke (hint: pay attention to the backgrounds). The Production Design is terrific. More relevant now than ever before.