Films That Matter
A Law Unto Themselves
The front door to an apartment swings open... an unseen figure walks through the living area and approaches a beautiful blonde woman wearing a robe as she walks around the bathroom... he then deliberately empties the barrel of his revolver into her – this is the jarring cold opening to the film noir Illegal (1955), and one thing is for sure, it knows how to grab your attention. Funnily enough, this was the third adaptation of the 1929 play “The Mouthpiece” by Frank J. Collins, following Mouthpiece (1932) and The Man Who Talked Too Much (1940) – and they say movies are remade too much today. Flash to Victor Scott (Edward G. Robinson), a district attorney who is wise to all the angles and is graced with a silver tongue. With an unyielding desire to win (he got it from growing up and fighting his way out of the slums), he argues every case like it is his last.
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It’s Halloween
HalloweenOctober 31, 2017The penultimate movie to watch on October 31st, John Carpenter’s 1978 motion picture Halloween is the king of the slasher horror genre, fusing a villain of pure evil with suspenseful subtlety that keeps the viewer on the edge of their seat. Co-written by John Carpenter and Debra Hill (who also produces), the simple yet effective story begins with a young Michael Myers murdering his sister on Halloween night, 1963, in Haddonfield, Illinois. Committed to the Smith’s Grove Sanitarium, the Myers home, even fifteen years later, sits empty, dilapidated and believed by most community members to be haunted.
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Star Pick with Lee Meriwether
Feeling Wolfish?The Wolf ManOctober 25, 2017It was an absolute pleasure sitting down with Lee Meriwether at Trekonderoga, the Ticonderoga, New York, convention that is all things Star Trek, this past August. An icon in the industry for the sixty plus years, Meriwether won Miss California in 1954, following it up by winning the Miss America pageant in 1955, the first year it was televised. Joining the Today Show soon after, it did not take long for her to nab her first major role in the 1959 sci fi horror flick 4D Man. Splitting time between television and the silver screen, she made guest appearances or had recurring roles on shows such as Dragnet, Leave It to Beaver, The Jack Benny Program, The Man From U.N.C.L.E., Perry Mason, The Fugitive, The Time Tunnel (all thirty episodes), Mission: Impossible, and of course, Star Trek – playing the mysterious Losira in the 1969 episode, “That Which Survives”. On the film front, Meriwether took over the role of Catwoman from Julie Newmar for Batman: The Movie (the first feature film, though there were two serial features created in the 1940s), also making two appearances as Lisa Carson soon after on the Batman series, she also starred opposite Andy Griffith in Angel in My Pocket, as well as John Wayne and Rock Hudson in the western The Undefeated, both motion pictures were released in 1969.
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Catnip
Cat PeopleOctober 13, 2017In 1942, RKO Pictures set up a horror unit under producer Val Lewton, a former journalist, novelist and poet who had gone on to become a story editor for David O. Selznick. It was his job to develop low budget horror pictures for under 150,000 dollars, with the studio providing the titles for the films. His first task, the strangely named Cat People, almost seems like a joke. A way for RKO to compete with the popular Universal horror films of the time, Lewton hired writer DeWitt Bodeen (I Remember Mama), director Jacques Tourneur (Out of the Past), cinematographer Nicholas Musuraca (I kid you not, both Out of the Past and I Remember Mama), and composer Roy Webb (Notorious, Marty) – a quality ensemble. And, Lewton supervised everything, the type of producer who would do re-writes on scripts, aid with editing and be involved in every other minute detail of the production process. In a unique twist, the films Lewton created with RKO have become synonymous with him and his distinct style, rather than the directors’, a rare occurrence to be sure.
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Star Pick with Guy Boucher
Mission StatementThe MissionOctober 10, 2017It was an absolute pleasure sitting down with Guy Boucher just prior to the beginning of the 2017-2018 National Hockey League season. At a charitable event for The Children’s Treatment Centre, he was one of the roasters of Ottawa Senators’ assistant coach Marc Crawford, in what can only be termed a hilarious evening. With an impressive start to his coaching career, Boucher began in the Quebec Major Junior Hockey League, capping it off by winning the Paul Dumont Trophy in 2009 – awarded to the personality of the year, while with the Drummondville Voltigeurs. The success brought with it a head coaching job with the Hamilton Bulldogs in the American Hockey League, the affiliate of the Montreal Canadiens, where he took home the Louis A. R. Pieri Memorial Award (coach of the year) in 2010.
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Star Pick with Tia Carrere
No Replicant RequiredBlade RunnerOctober 3, 2017The last few years have been a dream for fans of films and television series of the 1980s and 90s, as it seems like more and more are getting sequels (often after many long years), usually with at least a portion of the original cast (and often the director back in either the same role or that of producer) returning to play a part left behind long ago. Think, in no particular order, Dumb and Dumber, Full House, Mad Max, Rocky (Creed), Star Wars, Wet Hot American Summer (actually early 2000s), Jurassic Park, and, as of this Friday, add Blade Runner to the list. Returning to the silver screen thirty-five years after the original, Ridley Scott this time puts his executive producer cap on, with Denis Villeneuve taking over directorial efforts, while Harrison Ford delves into the Rick Deckard character once again. . . though, you’ll have to wait to hear more on that. As a lead-in to the long awaited sequel, the original 1982 picture is the focus today.
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Star Pick with Michael Dante
Gone with the Winds of ChangeGone with the WindSeptember 28, 2017It was lovely sitting down with veteran actor Michael Dante at Trekonderoga this past August. In the business for more than sixty years, it was not his original path in life. A top baseball player, he was signed by the Boston Braves out of high school. As fate would have it, he travelled a less expected path, finding his way, through interesting circumstances, into his first feature film, Robert Wise’s Somebody Up There Likes Me, in 1956 (with legendary names like Newman, Duvall and McQueen). Leading to an impressive career, Dante has graced the silver screen in such films as Westbound, Seven Thieves (Edward G. Robinson, Rod Steiger, Joan Collins, Eli Wallach), Kid Galahad (Elvis), The Naked Kiss (with famed director Samuel Fuller), Apache Rifles, Willard, as well as playing the title character in Winterhawk. . . this is just a small sampling of his work.
