Hello!

CineSavant is back after our break, and expecting to be back on full review track on Saturday. Meanwhile, the 4 reviews that were posted while we were gone are dutifully linked above. Many thanks to Charlie Largent for helping CineSavant stay on track.

It was a great break, enough to make one forget life back home for a few days — how does this computer work?   Since my head isn’t sufficiently together to write a new review today, I thought I’d opt for a quick travelogue and personal reportage. It was a rewarding trip …

The place was Buenos Aires, which is now enjoying late summer, August-like weather. Other Americans were down there eager to avoid the cold of places like Chicago and New York. The streets of the central city are exceedingly safe and the districts most like to attract tourists like us could indeed pass for boroughs of Paris. It’s a cosmopolitan, international place and not at all behind the times, as indicated by this impressive street-level movie ad near a bus stop on Avenida Callao.  ↗  We had fun negotiating with Argentinian pesos, but most of our fellow travelers paid with U.S. credit cards, no problem.

Public buildings and a great many restaurants, stores and businesses are just beautiful to look at. Cafes, ice cream parlors, churrerios had distinctive interiors, often appointed with fine woodwork and floor tiles.  →  The Ateneo book and record store appears to be a converted opera house / movie theater, which makes for a spectacular interior.

That giant flower-thing is ‘Floralis Generica,’ a 75-foot sculpture by Eduardo Catalano, engineered in aluminum by Lockheed’s Argentina division and erected in 2002. It’s kinetic — its petals were made to open at dawn and close at dusk. The nighttime view at the top of the column was taken after an Electronica music concert held on the grounds;  ↑  we passed through what must have been 10,000 kids, students and (to distinguish them from me) young people on their way home. The most mellow atmosphere imaginable. Police helping to direct traffic, all benign.

At the last minute before the trip I asked author and all-around film guru Alan K. Rode for a connection with the Argentinian film archivists that rescued the long version of  Metropolis 18 years ago. Within a few hours I had some good news. Film professor María Elena de las Carreras forwarded contact info for Fernando Martín Peña, who was instrumental in getting the surviving Metropolis print from private hands. Fernando also gave me contact information for Paula Félix-Didier, the other main force that got the uncut Fritz Lang classic back to Germany.

Fernando Martín Peña extended an invitation that we took up immediately; I was able to meet him at one of his archival screenings at MALBA (Museo de Arte Latinoamericano de Buenos Aires). He has an entire film program going there. We attended a 7pm showing of a rare print of El Camino del Infierno (The Road to Hell), which turned out to be a noir-inflected 1946 soap opera about a strange marriage that ends in murder. Señor Peña is the main collaborator with our Film Noir Foundation’s restoration of several Argentinian noirs and their resurrection on disc media, like  El vampiro negro and  Los tallos amargos. It was just long enough to say hello and express my admiration and approval. One can exchange e-mails, but there’s nothing like trying to make personal contact.

In Buenos Aires, even museum screenings observe Latin hours … when the show broke at 9:30, it was time for dinner for many patrons. Our schedule didn’t make room for the big city nightlife, but we noticed that the last MALBA screening began at midnight — a Spanish print of El gabinete del Dr. Caligari. Had I been able to stay up, I may have been able to see the film’s elaborate original inter-titles — in Spanish.

We can promise more film and disc-related content on Saturday, but choose to finish today’s column in a completely self-indulgent way. The trip to Buenos Aires was planned to overlap my birthday and our 50th wedding anniversary. Family-wise, I normally keep a low profile online, for simple privacy’s sake. For instance, I freely showcase my daughter’s car and her dog, but not her. I figured this 50th year marker was a big enough excuse to stretch that general rule.

Back on St. Valentine’s Day in the Bicentennial year of 1976, we had an old-fashioned big church marriage. The great idea of celebrating our 50th on the other side of the world was that of my wife María. So here I post two very personal photos from that day. I was just out of college. The movie job that changed my life was months away. We had the expected gallery of Ushers and Maids of Honor. Four of the Ushers were film-school friends, with whom I’ve shared 40 years of career ups and downs.

The standard photo of the wedding court has some great faces. I’ll list my UCLA film school cohorts, with comments on their film achievements. Left to right across the eight tuxedo’ed males in the top row, the first is screenwriter Steve Sharon. He worked for years with Clint Eastwood and was the principal writer on Eastwood’s final Dirty Harry movie. The second Usher is Steve Nielson, who would later edit over 50 movies, including a number of weird cult titles. The fourth Usher is my best man Clark Dugger, who at UCLA did film studies for parapsychologist Dr. Thelma Moss, worked for designer Charles Eames and later became a noted art and architecture photographer.

The foolish 5th face is me; even then I knew that this marriage was the best thing I ever did.

Tuxedo number 6 is Randy Cook, or Randall William Cook, a multi-talent already into a career that would see him doing stop-motion animation, acting, special make-up design, animation production with the Disney people, and a dream assignment as one of the key visual effects names on Peter Jackson’s Tolkien trilogy. After earning 3 consecutive Oscars for those shows, Randy directed second unit for the ’05 remake of King Kong.

The 8th and last Usher on the right is Bob Birchard, or Robert S. Birchard. When I first met him in 1971 he was already a noted expert on silent filmmaking with a specialty in early western studios. He corresponded frequently with Kevin Brownlow. Bob got me my first feature editing job, before my own brief time in special effects. He became a busy editor but was better known as a central force in a big community of film collectors and historians, and a key figure in the film society Cinecon. He passed away too early in 2016.

The picture to the right is an 8mm blow-up. The school friend that took the wedding photos was Hoyt Yeatman,  →  who would later supervise the visual effects on many big pictures, earning an Oscar in the process and also directing a big feature of his own. Hoyt’s photochemical effects on my UCLA project 2 helped me get my important toe-in-the-door job with Douglas Trumbull; I reciprocated by getting Hoyt his first industry entree on the same show. Trumbull took one look at the Texas Instruments calculator that Hoyt had jerry-rigged to become an automatic animation controller, and okayed his hire. It was amazing that we both received entry-level screen credit … something unheard of before Lucas and Spielberg.

It’s also worth noting that friend Craig Reardon resurrected these images from faded negatives … a big help.

All these people have IMDB pages … having their good examples and counsel was a big help in a career spent trying to stay employed.

Okay then, thanks for sticking with CineSavant through my much-appreciated break … you’ll probably see a photo or two of the beloved car again soon, but I’ll stick more to disc news and the inspirations of CineSavant’s generous correspondents.

Thanks for reading! — Glenn Erickson

Hello!

We’ve done this twice before, and now we’re doing it again … it’s the way of the world.

Yes, CineSavant is taking another break. CineSavant Reviews will continue, but the CineSavant Page is going dark for a few days. The same thing happened last September. It’s nothing sinister, negative, or suchlike, so no need for concern. I’ll be happy to explain later, the nefarious things I was up to.

Several new reviews should be posted at Trailers from Hell during the break, even though this Column won’t be updated. Yes, new reviews, it’s just that they probably won’t be promoted here or on my Facebook page for a couple of spins of the wheel.

The place to check for new reviews will be my CineSavant Archives Page at Trailers from Hell. Every new review posted shows up there first; its TFH’s tally of what exactly we’re up to. How many reviews go up will depend on if I have one or two prepped in time, and if any of the other CineSavant reviewers kick in.

Sorry for the break. DVD Savant and CineSavant have been up for 26 years without a whole lotta interruptions. Not that we can’t be tempted away . . .

Watch this space too. The CineSavant Column will be back very soon.

Our custom for these breaks is to invite that old rascal Sierra Charriba ↗ to step in and say a few friendly, reassuring words. They tend to be the same words, as Michael Anderson Jr. shot him stone dead 161 years ago. Charriba’s too busy burning and pillaging right now to make a personal appearance, but I did get his permission to convey a message to all readers that dare set foot on his land, which he reminds us is 3 times the size of Texas.

Charriba was of course his aggressive, confrontational self. What a card:

“CineSavant will be back!   Who you send against me now?”

See you a little later, Thanks for reading! — Glenn Erickson

Hello!

Just some quick items today, sorry that time is tight around here. The reviews took longer to write; interesting pictures will do that.

The dependable Gary Teetzel linked to this Stephen Colbert clip with actress Katherine La Nasa — who we are presently enjoying in The Pitt.

The whole interview is good but the fun for fantasy fans, Gary says, begins around the eight-minute mark. While discussing her husband Dennis Hopper the talk moves to Vincent Price. Ms. LaNasa relates an anecdote that ‘weirded Vincent out.’  Colbert title-drops  The Tingler to praise ‘the really really nice’ Vincent Price. It’s short and sweet and Ms. LaNasa is a charmer.

Three months is probably too early to start plugging a book, but film historian Jason A. Ney took in our review of  The Narrow Margin and jumped to tell me about his upcoming Screen Classics book on its director, favorite Richard Fleischer.

Many of us have Fleischer’s own book, which concentrates on anecdotes with stars. We know Jason Ney through his excellent audio commentaries. I’ve asked to review  unpromising movies because I knew that Jason’s track would make them interesting. I’d expect a good read and some some good revelations on director Fleischer.

Ney’s book doesn’t come out until May 12. More details are up at its Amazon page …

Thanks for reading! — Glenn Erickson

Hello!

Here’s a link to a 1960 ‘documentary’ TV show that will be of interest to fans of Japanese movies, with some Hong Kong coverage thrown in.

It’s been posted by the stock video company  Periscope Films, an outfit that appears to have access to anything and everything; their amazing resources include Hollywood home movies. We linked to an excellent example for this Column  two years ago.

The TV series for the documentary is called At Home Abroad. It was produced by Bing Crosby and hosted by Jack Douglas, who narrates a tour of Japanese movie and TV studios, and lets us ‘meet’ actor Tatsuo Saito and singer Inoue Nobuo. Of big appeal are giant marquee exhibits touting both Japanese and U.S. films; we also see footage of a rehearsal for an action film scene.

They also jump to Hong Kong to show us the building housing the Shaw Brothers, plus some film footage there. The signage on the streets of Tokyo is interesting: an English message outside a theater showing an Italian import says — ‘dialogue in Italian.’ The biggest surprise is the finish — a speech by film critic Donald Richie!

And second up is a link offered by swiped from David J. Schow, about the ‘glamorous’ work of film archive preservation.

The Museum of Modern Art and The Academy Archive were granted custodianship of the film archives of Russ Meyer, the self-proclaimed nudie filmmaker who passed away in 2004. Ol’ Russ kept a lot of film in his house up in Lake Hollywood, and this MoMA article goes over the investigation of rooms bursting with his work. No nudie glamour, just a lot of cardboard boxes and Goldberg cans. Although we wonder if the pool we see was used for any movie shoots.

The detailed little article outlines what a process that looks like painstaking hard work. They even catalogued Meyer’s home movies.

The label Severin Films is presently remastering the Russ Meyer library on 4K … we reviewed  one of his biggest hits just one year ago.

Thanks for reading! — Glenn Erickson

Hello!

In the last CineSavant Column we posted a link to a stereophonic recording of the James Bond Theme, without knowing exactly where it came from. As expected, CineSavant readers did know, and wrote in.

Michael McQuarrie reveals that the link to the cue came from an album called  John Barry Themependium Volume 1 (Spies and Other Secret Agents). Michael adds that it’s the first of a series of 4 CDs. Although they claim ‘Original Recordings’ a few clearly don’t sound like it.

Correspondent Richard MacDonald offers more welcome information:

Hi CineSavant — the stereo version of the James Bond theme that you posted a link for appeared on The Best of James Bond 30th Anniversary Limited Edition (1992) – disc 2, track 1. Yes it is credited to The John Barry Orchestra. The liner notes say it was released as a single in October of 1962 in the UK (Columbia DB 4898) and on April 15, 1963 in the US (United Artists 581).   Best, Richard MacDonald

Then we heard from advisor Bill Shaffer, who reached into his archive of exhibitor’s film material:

Hi Glenn, I can confirm that the ‘James Bond theme in Stereo’ you linked to is indeed the work of the John Barry Seven. It’s the same one I found in 1963 as a 45 rpm mono record in my dad’s Press Kit for Dr. No.  ←
He brought it home from a pre-screening in Kansas City and he was very excited about the film’s prospects as the first of a series. United Artists’ promotional team must have done a great job selling it.

The Press Kit was in a plain blue folder with inside pockets and a label on the front that just read “DOCTOR NO.”  Inside were publicity stories very much like the ones in the pressbook, but these were all typed out in multiple pages. There were 4 or 5 b/w stills, a copy of the Signet paperback book and the 45-single of the theme. There were also a set of ad slicks with women posing and saying lines like “James Bond 007 has my number…” They were models, not the actresses in the film. I never saw any of these ads used to promote the film later.

I also snagged a copy of a vinyl record full of radio spots for that film.  →  It was too big for the Press Kit; I think all of the spots on the disc are in the Media Promo section of the Bond Blu-ray for Dr. No. I’m sure I found the radio album in Dad’s office. Don’t know what happened to the 45, but I no longer have it. The Press Kit folder in these photos is not the original.  ↓  I put it together from what I remembered.   — Best from Kansas!   (snowed in here at 4 degrees!)

Does that mean that those black-cover James Bond Signet paperbacks were already out in ’62, before the first Bond film?  Someday Bill is really going to open up his archive … it’s going to be impressive.

Second-up — Gary Teetzel forwards a link to an article at Toho Kingdom, interviewing Jeffrey Angles, the author-editor of the new book that CineSavant reviewed late in November,  The Luminous Fairies and Mothra.

The book translates the original Japanese story for the Toho film  Mothra, which was initially published in a magazine. Its three parts were written by three well-known authors. Angles explains that his new book was launched after the success of his translations of the original novelizations for Godzilla ’54 and its sequel Godzilla Raids Again.

Angles goes into a lot of detail … including comments on how the final film’s storyline diverged from that of the 3-part magazine serial.

And finally, also from Gary Teetzel is another good link. It’s for something safe and sane, good for children, and beneficial to society. This week, anything along those lines is welcome.

It’s a half hour public service video for kids, but one with an unique pedigree. Gary explains:

Glenn . . . So am I the only one who didn’t know that  Reanimator’s  Stuart Gordon directed a children’s safety video?

It stars Andrea Martin and Meshach Taylor, and is hosted by none other than Count Floyd, complete with coffin. Greg Cannom worked on the makeup and plays the alien seen at the end. — Gary

It’s from 1988, sponsored by a maker of cough syrup. It was produced in cooperation with the American Academy of Pediatrics. Gary called it ‘Stuart Gordon meets SCTV.’  We never tire of Joe Flaherty; Andrea Martin’s marvelous pre-teen girl impression reminds us of Gilda Radner.

Thanks for reading! — Glenn Erickson