Hello!

It’s pretty clever …. Joe Dante circulated this 1960s TV spot reportedly written by comic Stan Freberg.

The direction is excellent — most spots trying to look hip like this one, quickly date, but this one is as funny as ever. We always thought that Clayton Moore and Jay Silverheels were spot-on with their performances, and here they show a sense of humor as well.

And another western parody, this one from Michael McQuarrie.

It’s a spoof of Spaghetti westerns and operetta, with stand ins for the characters of For a Few Dollars More. The joke isn’t particularly deep but the production and direction are excellent. We also liked the use of music.

The skit is from the Italian RAI TV organization. I’m told that it was originally posted by Italo Western expert Tom Betts.

No English subs … but Leone fans will get every joke.

Thanks for reading! — Glenn Erickson

Hello!

Here I am, linking to an article I don’t like. I don’t think it reads as if written by AI; I just don’t agree with much of anything in it. It’s about Sam Peckinpah, with his personality and career spun to create an attractive image for a site called ‘Drunkard.’

The first tip-off is all the strange misinformation. Ride the High Country was Mr. P’s first feature?  It won three Oscar nominations?   I can generate plenty of sincere praise for some of Peckinpah’s films, but the phrase ‘he directed a handful of this country’s finest motion pictures’ doesn’t resonate. ‘He changed the way movies were written?’  I don’t think so.

‘Born and raised in the quiet suburbs of Northern California‘  After reading about Sam’s upbringing in ranch houses in historical mining country, that doesn’t sound right.

The text wants to elevate Peckinpah’s status by the fact that he was a big drinker, that his rough language made him cool. The author assures us that most criticism of Peckinpah is wrong, including that by his key biographers. For my money all four books by the Peckinpah bio posse paint strong, well-considered portraits of a very problematic artist. Ah the joys of drunken escapades in the California mountains. The joy of a movie sequence without dialogue or music, where bandits finish that last bottle of whiskey before going out to fight. Booze and guns, what could be better?

According to the author, evil studio executives sabotaged Peckinpah’s career, which made Sam’s outrageous behavior logical and appropriate. The examples in the article stroke Sam’s legend; the stories I heard first-hand from film crew people make one want to never meet the man.

The article builds on the fan opinion of Peckinpah, seeing his rebellion as justified and his self-destruction as somehow glorious. I agree that he’s a legend, but the glorious part escapes me. Admittedly, some of my favorite movies were made by very flawed people. Here’s to them.

Joe Dante just offered up this link … it’s like a much-needed public service message.

As a kid I lived on big Air Bases with multiple theaters one could walk to, or in a small city with a variety of theaters. But when I visited my grandmother in Henderson, Nevada, I saw the small-town theater experience — a little, clean family business with good projection and a grateful clientele. I saw  Hercules in the Haunted World there, my second exposure to a director whose name I would learn years later.

Rustin Thompson uploaded this little film, which is a movie trailer but doesn’t play like one. It’s only a couple of minutes long but it really makes one feel sorry for today’s kids. Nothing was better than wishing and hoping for Saturday, and the experience of a matinee in a real movie house.

Thanks for reading! — Glenn Erickson

Hello!

Once again Michael McQuarrie surfaces with a good link. This is to a vintage audio recording called “Vincent Price Witchcraft & Magic”.

I had never heard of this record album, but according to CineSavant cohort Wayne Schmidt, it was a serious part of his childhood:

“I love this album. I’ve had it since it first came out, asked for it for Christmas. I ended up with two copies.  I still have one, but unfortunately they’re very delicate vinyl due to the length of each side. So the records are very scratchy and not pleasant to listen to.

FORTUNATELY Amazon had it as a download for purchase years back, and here’s the weird part . . . I was very familiar with the album. I’m listening to the mp3 when suddenly it starts going into an additional part not on the record. But it cuts off after a minute abruptly without finishing this new bit. I suspect when they digitized it they were using the original tapes and it had an unused outtake at the end of one side and no one caught it. Either that or Mr. Price was pontificating from the spirit world and someone rudely cut him off.

The album also came with a nifty booklet, and the Amazon’s mp3 purchase thoughtfully scanned it and made it part of the download.

I recommend it! It’s whimsical but also historically accurate, with some gruesome descriptions of witch tortures and what-have-you.” — Wayne

Thanks for reading! — Glenn Erickson

Hello!

It’s disc round-up time here at CineSavant, mainly because the place suddenly has a surfeit of attractive product to review.

Not pictured and for that reason mentioned up top are titles being prepped by reviewer Charlie Largent, Kino’s new disc of Elvis in King Creole and Deaf Crocodile’s splendid new box of Fairy Tales from DEFA.

The selection shown above has one holdover from a few weeks back, and a load of titles that arrived in just the last few days. Going in no particular order:

Two 3-D releases — the much-awaited Martin & Lewis comedy  Money from Home ( 3-D ) from Kino, and the extended  The Bubble ( 3-D ) from Kino Cult;
Two horror pix from Vinegar Syndrome, Abel Ferrara’s  Body Snatchers ( 4K ) and Frank LaLoggia’s  Lady in White ( 4K );
From Arrow, Wolfgang Petersen’s take on the Iliad,  Troy ( 4K );
From MGM-Alliance, Kyle Balda’s  The Sheep Detectives and Phil Lord & Christopher Miller’s  Project Hail Mary ( 4K );
From Severin Films, Mick Jackson’s atom shock feature  Threads ( 4K );
From Leomark, another PD copy of Sam Peckinpah’s  The Deadly Companions;
From Kino, Burt Kennedy’s  The War Wagon ( 4K ) and José Giovanni’s  Birds of Prey;
and from the Warner Archive Collection, Frank and Eleanor Perry’s  Last Summer, Josef von Sternberg’s   Macao, Raoul Walsh’s Captain Horatio Hornblower, André de Toth’s  Crime Wave and Mervyn LeRoy’s  Random Harvest…

… that should keep us good and busy.

Thanks for reading! — Glenn Erickson