Friday Forgotten Film: Sharky's Machine

To put it mildly, Burt Reynolds has had an interesting career. His charismatic presence with early recurring roles on the Gunsmoke and Riverboat TV series got many people's attention (mine included as a kid). He parlayed that into larger and larger film roles. His rendition of the Lewis Medlock character in John Boorman's adaptation of the great James Dickey novel, Deliverance, was the breakthrough impetus for that big screen vocation. Its impact skyrocketed him during the 70s, and his subsequent films successfully propelled him to the #1 box office crown. The world was his oyster. Then, the 80s collided with it like a bad meteor movie. The evidence becomes painfully clear when the films of that span are mentioned (some of which were purely for the paycheck). Among them, Stroker Ace, Paternity, Stick, Rent-A-Cop, and/or any of the Cannonball or Smokey and the Bandit sequels (among others) will tell you which direction his path then headed.

The rest of this post has been updated and moved to my current blog, found here.

Friday Forgotten Song: Riders on the Storm by The Doors

Two things drove me to write this. The first started the idea fermenting in my sub-conscious (something my wife thinks happens way too often and too much below the surface for her comfort). The second simply inspired it to emerge via my fingers on the keyboard. I'll start with the latter since it deserves the shout-out. My good friend (and the only person I know) from one of those tiny northeastern states published a wonderful music post recently. SFF (from the Musings of a Sci-Fi Fanatic blog) wrote eloquently about the 80's group Cutting Crew and their important Broadcast album from 1986. It's a recommended read. While his primary focus remains all things science fiction, I really enjoy his insights and ruminations on music.

The rest of this post has been updated and moved over to my current blog, found here.

Friday Forgotten Film: Red Sun

It's funny how fish-out-of-water story concepts make their way on to films. Specifically, when characters and cultures find themselves literally on foreign soil. For instance, East meets West tales have been almost a staple in television and film through the decades. One manner deployed in such tales can have a lone protagonist struggle their way through a foreign culture as a method of discovery or exposition in the yarn (and for the audience). This was effectively done in the Kung Fu TV series (1972-75), and the 1990 film Quigley Down Under. You'll note that my examples purposely looked at the western ilk. I know it's not a genre with universal appeal, but it remains a favorite of mine through the years.

While I've wandered into crime/mystery literature of late, I guess I feel that style of writing has a kinship with the western. Like the venerable oater, crime fiction shares similar core motifs of "love, danger, and death". Honor and a code of ethics can also be attributed to both. Each genre has a tremendous versatility in their morality plays to express a point of view and comment on history, injustice, and the commonality among societies and peoples. For me, those parallels make another very effective reason why Joss Whedon's short-lived 'space' western series, Firefly, was so damn good (and why the Fox Network canceling it seems so dimwitted years later). In fact, some of the great fiction writers of recent time have penned great stories in both the crime and western sets (Elmore Leonard and Robert B. Parker would be two of the very best).

The rest of this post has been updated and moved over to my current blog, found here.

Friday Forgotten Film: The Uninvited

As a rule, I'll watch some or all of a decent movie again if it is replayed on network or cable television. That is, if I'm channel-surfing and not pressed for time. So-so or terrible films don't get repeat showings, ever, in my home. I avoid them like the plague (e.g., Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen). Now, the truly great ones I'll see again and again (this is something that generally causes my wife's eyes to roll, btw). However, there are a small handful of films that certainly qualify for the great category but I've only seen them once due to circumstances beyond my control. For this forgotten post, the 1944 British ghost story, The Uninvited, qualifies nicely on these terms. In my mind, this film is one of those haunted stories that used to be so original and plentiful way back in the day, but aren't anymore (I don't count the U.S. studio trend of remaking Asian ghost stories being anywhere close to original -- it's why I suggest Ju-on to friends instead of The Grudge).

The Uninvited (not to be confused with the 2009 film of the same name, which was itself an American remake of the South Korean Janghwa, Hongryeon film, aka A Tale of Two Sisters) starred Ray Milland, Ruth Hussey, Donald Crisp, Gail Russell, and Alan Napier (who, if you're old enough, will recognize as Alfred from the 60's Batman TV series). It told the tale of a brother and sister (Milland and Hussey) who buy a house on the Cornish seacoast only to find that it's very much of the haunted variety. Incidentally, outside of the moors, locating this story (and manor) at the edge of a foggy cliffside is a perfect setting for a tale like this one. Essentially, ghost stories are mystery thrillers. IMO, this type of story is why they resonate more broadly with people who usually aren't into the horror genre. Those normally not into the more chilling works of H.P. Lovecraft, Edgar Allen Poe, or Stephen King are more apt to manage their way through and enjoy a classic ghost story than the other ilk. This explains why the superb crime/mystery writer Michael Koryta could effortlessly swing over to the supernatural with his latest work, So Cold the River (a recommended read, if Jen and I say so), and seemingly never skip beat with his readers.

This article has been moved and updated to my current blog, and can be found here.

Friday Forgotten Book, Film, & Song: 4th of July Edition

In honor of the upcoming 4th of July holiday, I decided that a forgotten post was warranted (plus giving credit to blogger pattinase's excellent Friday Forgotten Books series). Because we're into the second half of the year, and have a three-day weekend, I thought this one should be a triple-header, as well:

Book: During my earlier Stephen King-reading years, if it had his name on it, even in reference, it got my attention. Whatever it was. In the early 80's I came across a recommendation by Mr. King about a certain book he thought was pretty ferocious. It was titled Red Dragon. Later, the publisher would begin advertising it with this quote by the famed writer of horror:

"The Best Popular Novel to be Published in America Since The Godfather"

As Vincent Vega would put it, "That's a bold statement." Its author, Thomas Harris, I recognized as the one who wrote the thriller Black Sunday (I'd seen the 1977 film and subsequently read the book it was based upon). Hmm... If it piqued the horror-meister's awareness, perhaps that 1981 book was worth reading... I innocently thought.

This segment has been updated and moved to its own post on my current blog, found here.

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Film: During the mid-70's, in my condensed stint as a movie theater projectionist, I had the pleasure to show The Great Waldo Pepper for a one-week period in '76. I've never forgotten it. Since someone in their right mind over at Universal is finally releasing this underrated film in a widescreen version come August (fans have had to live with the crappily cropped Goodtimes Home Video disc for years), I'm spotlighting it here. This is director George Roy Hill's homage to the aerial barnstormers of yesteryear, as told through another remarkable William Goldman screenplay. The film's wonderful story also contains some of the best aerial photography around, and more than a few of its stunt flying sequences have got to be seen to be believed. Plus, it's great to watch the results of Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid collaborators Hill, Goldman, and Redford again. For me, director Hill really knew how best to deploy Robert Redford on film (perhaps, even better than Sidney Pollack did). It's well worth catching.

Song: You're a Friend of Mine remains one of my favorite One Hit Wonders. Written by Narada Michael Walden/Jeffrey Cohen and released in 1985, I appreciate this unlikely duet (Clarence Clemons and Jackson Browne) for its sheer joy and exuberance with regard to friendship (one of the good qualities of the blogosphere, too). Not to mention, it has that telltale and unashamedly 80's vibe to it that makes it one infectious tune to listen to. Having Jackson Browne's then girlfriend singing in the music video is not a bad thing, either. If you're interested, the song's lyrics can be found here.

I hope everyone has a wonderful and safe holiday weekend.

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Friday Forgotten Book/Film: FAIL-SAFE

I'm of a generation that grew up during the height of the Cold War, and thankfully weathered time to witness the ushering of that era's end. From that conflict, there has been a mountain of fictional material (books and films) produced from the period. Many, drawing upon the fear and dread from that confrontation. A generation's expectation that it could only end when each of the superpowers finally launched their nuclear payloads at one another is at its full bleak glory in many of those works -- and may seem bizarre (or perhaps, even quaint) to the younger age groups. I'll submit that Eugene Harvey and Burdick Wheeler's 1962 novel, FAIL-SAFE, epitomized a good portion of this anxiety, and did it well. The old bestseller should lay on top of that particular old-world-view book stack. The synopsis of the novel, that of the accidental triggering of a strategic bomber air-wing strike against the Soviet Union caused by computer glitch (and its horrifying and terrible solution in the tale), was close enough story-wise to a another book. Peter George's (aka Peter Bryant) earlier 1958 novel, Red Alert. So much so, that it caused its author to sue the tandem of Harvey and Burdick.

The rest of this post has been updated and moved over to my current blog, found here.

Friday Forgotten Film: The Dirty Dozen

It was the summer of '67, I being a dozen years old then, that I really became aware of (and secretly wanted to be as cool as) the actor Lee Marvin. I can recall it as if it were only yesterday. I went to the Warner Theatre in Huntington Park in June/July of that year to take in Robert Aldrich's The Dirty Dozen. Growing up, I had seen Marvin plenty of times before in reruns of M-Squad, plus his guest appearances as the heavy on TV shows of the time (Rawhide, Bonanza, etc.) and older movie westerns (Comancheros, The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance, etc.). But, it was here in this action/war film that the real impression of the man was ingrained into my susceptible psyche. I'll stipulate for the record that being cool then is a dimensional shift away from what that means today. It was definitely a more masculine era back then (for better or for worst).

[Coincidentally, this actor and film would seem the antithesis to Carrie Bradshaw and the Sex and the City 2 movie which also opens today. All I can say is, what great timing! ;-)]

The rest of this post has been updated and moved over to my current blog, found here.

Friday Forgotten Bo... Novella: Rita Hayworth and Shawshank Redemption

By the year 1982, I'd read all of author Stephen King's novels (including the Hugo Award winning non-fiction work, Danse Macabre), in chronological order (except for Carrie)*. So when I came upon his newest that summer, Different Seasons, I thought I knew what I'd be getting: another of his horrific, but imaginative, tales that would make me shudder by the time I'd close the novel. But, this book would throw the proverbial curve at me (to say the least). Different Seasons was King's first collection of four novellas put into one bound print volume. Each of these, likely the first novellas of this or any kind I'd ever read, were very different affairs of fiction. Even the table of contents had an unexpected design to the book. Each of the novella titles had a seasonal lead (I still have the original Viking Press hardcover sitting in my book shelf). From the original Table of Contents page:



This post has been updated and moved to my current blog, which can be found here.

Friday Forgotten Movie: Sorcerer

Whether some films are doomed to failure because of bad timing on their release, or in combination with a lack of understanding by those (few) that initially see it, it is a continual shame when a great film is left on the trash heap of history. Such was the case for the forgotten gem from 1977, director William Friedkin's Sorcerer. It remains a movie lost to time and notoriety (due of its difficult shoot in a jungle location in the Dominican Republic, and a host of travails in getting it completed), and being the production where its director earned his less-than-affectionate nickname, "Hurricane Billy." Big name stars (or soon to be big names) either wanted the lead role or turned it down. Although I was one of those few who actually saw this film in a darkened theater on its short-lived first run, the film has never really left me. It made that much of an impression. Still, I can't take credit for identifying it for this week's forgotten post.

The rest of this post has been updated and moved over to my current blog, found here.

Friday Forgotten Movie: A Man Could Get Killed

This being April and all, some Spring-strangeness seems to be at work around me (or maybe it's just my allergies). One of my all-time favorite stars is James Garner, and I've been thinking of him as of late. I firmly believe he's been one of the most underrated (though well known) TV and film actors. Like many my age, my first introduction to the man came as a kid via his starring role in the Maverick TV series. IMO, Garner has been such a versatile performer over the decades that he's been taken for granted in many of his roles (and forgotten somewhat for his earlier work). His acting chops allowed him to appear in all sorts of westerns, war films, private detective TV/movies, comedies, and dramas. You name it, he's done it. Just about all of his work has been so consistently top notch (even if the some of the movies were not). He played the only character I know of who figured a way to dispose of Bruce Lee in a film. His performances in whatever TV show or movie always seems to be accomplished with such relaxed ease, too (though, it's well known that this Oklahoma born actor has been one of the hardest working people in Hollywood). If I catch one of his films on cable, I'll stop whatever I'm doing and watch. If a repeat of an old Rockford Files episode shows up on syndicated TV, I've got to see which one it is and squeeze some time with the vaunted character he crafted (and I'll go on record to say it is the height of arrogance by a studio to think Dermot Mulroney can fill Garner's shoes in a new Rockford Files series).

The rest of this post has been updated and moved over to my current blog, found here.