CineSavant Column

Tuesday September 12, 2023

 

Hello!

Leave it to associate & research fanatic Gary Teetzel to come up with yet another arcane, head-scratching Kaiju– related video.

This commercial for the trading firm Marubeni features a surprise cameo by a veteran movie star not known for making paid public appearances.

Marubeni: Share the Challenge!

Hmmm . . . do you think the likeness of the surprise guest was properly licensed?  It’s nice to know that today’s advertising Mad Men believe in this kind of nostalgia. They have be seriously over-thinking their ‘indirect marketing’ ploy . . . but we like the ’60s look given the special effects.

 


 

Correspondent Michael McQuarrie finds more than his share of interesting items online. In this case he’s surfaced with a Hollyood scandal magazine with articles on Elia Kazan’s Commie Trouble and George Raft consorting with gangsters like Bugsy Siegel.   The writers don’t sign their work. The rag slanders Mario Lanza and drags poor Gail Russell through the slime … ya just want to offer her moral support and encouragement.

Michael also saw a cover for an old TV Guide and felt certain that it served as the template for the TV Guide cover seen in Tarantino’s Once Upon a Time in Hollywood.  We agree:

 


 

And finally, we happily link to a post on the Brenton Film website, a reprint from the #49, Summer 1994 issue of Grand Street Magazine. The author is the respected film scholar, author and collector William K. Everson.

Everson’s aim with  Raymond Rohauer: King of the Film Freebooters is to demolish the memory of an acknowledged film pirate. We learn that Rohauer’s efforts did help to preserve some films, especially those of Buster Keaton, but that can’t begin to compensate for his wicked, dishonest ways.

Today we have our share of film collectors that stand in the way of reasonable film preservation, most often by refusing to cooperate with archives. Everson waited until Rohauer was gone to air his thoughts; I wonder if we’ll ever hear the facts separated from the rumors about today’s collectors / hoarders, that for various reasons withhold film history from the public.

Thanks for reading! — Glenn Erickson