Hello!

Michael McQuarrie has a cute one for us, a B&W Volkswagen commercial for TV that stars Dustin Hoffman.

The spot looks like one of those old magazine ads with the ‘humble’ VW appeal. Hoffman’s delivery is spot-on perfect. We like details that no car company would normally allow. When Hoffman opens the trunk, it isn’t a fluid gesture. We also hear the warp-buckle of the thin metal trunk lid. That’s the tin-can appeal, right in the ad.

I drove a VW for a number of years, so can’t complain.

On the other hand, the first thing I thought of after seeing this was a scene from  Rosemary’s Baby, a TV motorcycle ad that John Cassavetes’ ‘Guy Woodhouse’ performs in. Cassavetes plays it perfectly: Guy is okay, but nowhere near as personable or talented as Dustin Hoffman. Maybe that’s why he decides his career needed some Satanic help.

And Joe Dante circulated this very nice CBS Sunday Morning tribute to Roger Corman, that aired on TV in 2012. It’s great — in seven minutes it synopsizes the basic Corman appeal without overstatements or factual missteps. It floats some nice film clips and shows the producer-director at his congenial best.

The host is Mo Rocca.

Thanks for reading! — Glenn Erickson