Hello!

1974: →  David Niven and friend show ’em how it’s done.

Ha! The perceptive Joe Baltake (for February 22) writes about self-appointed ‘Oscar analysts,’ “a breed of nobodies who are multiplying faster than rodents.” I wasn’t going to comment on the Oscars at all, but if doing so gains me entry into such a select group…

I did a pretty good job not paying much attention to the Oscars this year, I guess because the crop of films overall seemed less involving than ever. The best show I saw was Roma, and I’m pleased that it got so much attention. I still like to star-gape as much as anyone, I suppose. I know folk that attend Oscar parties and play guessing games with the winners, which sounds like a good excuse to get together with friends. For the past few years I’ve DVR’d the show and listened to most of it from the next room while I putter on-line. Then toward the end I fast- and skip- forward from the beginning, stopping to see what people look like, to see the fancy montages, the ‘In Memoriam’ piece, and the most dramatic awards. I get to skip the interminable commercials and some of the more mawkish acceptance speeches. If the next day’s news tells me that something outrageous occurred, I’ll go back and look for it.

This year’s stripped- down experiment is a good idea. I liked the more international scope of the show — a lot of Spanish was spoken. The political statements were less tacky, perhaps because without the usual single host in charge, no single viewpoint was enforced. The montages were fewer and not particularly well done, and the ones intended to be funny, weren’t.

I love Obit montages, as I have as much emotional attachment to favorite actors as does anyone. I compared the Academy’s In Memoriam montage to a full list of celebrities that passed away last year, and quickly realized that there was no way to do that piece shorter than ten minutes — they had to skip plenty of beloved actors. Because the time constraint makes a comprehensive montage impractical, perhaps the concept needs to be re-thought. TCM’s ‘Remembering’ montages are more satisfying, even with their funereal style that intersperses fussy atmospheric visuals in between clips of the departeds.

The obit format has another difficult problem, no matter who’s in charge or what the style is. It’s natural to build the emotion to a big finish that places emphasis on ‘special’ stars, ending with someone guaranteed to be universally mourned. Unfortunately, that only reminds us that even in death, Hollywood celebrities must follow a pre-determined billing, a stellar pecking order. It brings back Billy Wilder’s joke about the news reported some Hollywood people killed in a plane crash. Wilder noted that ‘other’ people that perished with the noted celebrity were effectively billed as, “Additional Dying By…”

My Oscar enthusiasm can be gauged by the fact that I turned off the broadcast the moment the Best Picture was named, but that’s only a symptom of Awards Show burn-out. I saw most of the movies nominated this year and can only say that they seemed overloaded with social messages, some more worthy than others. The nominees that focused on old-fashioned entertainment were all about celebrity superstars. I was impressed by Roma, which is genuine movie art. The show that most engaged me emotionally was the documentary about Fred Rogers.

Congrats to the winners!  And that concludes this frivolous Oscar report from CineSavant’s Rodent Nobody!

←   We happily return our attention to the important news now crossing CineSavant’s editorial desk: associate Gary Teetzel found this impressive behind-the-scenes Gorgo photo at a Facebook page called Facebook Monsterland. I think it shows us the nearly finished ‘baby’ Gorgo head piece. Or does it still need work?  The throat area doesn’t seem quite final.

The operator / monster actor’s head would have to be positioned inside Gorgo’s neck, it seems safe to say. We note the wiring hanging below the rubber helmet-mask, which perhaps leads to solenoid mechanisms to flap Gorgo’s ears, open and close his eyes and move his hinged jaw; his eyes are electric too. That’s pretty fancy animatronic work for 1959 or 1960. The featurette on the VCI Gorgo disc has a very brief 8mm shot of a similar Gorgo head, but this is much clearer. The only BTS shots I’ve ever seen from the English movie are views of the Thames River miniature landscape in American Cinematographer. Even that article lacks the kind of detail we’d like to see.

Thank you Gary, and thanks for reading! — Glenn Erickson

Hello!

I wasn’t going to continue with the ‘Movie Tie-In Novelty Songs’ thread I had going, but frequent collaborator ‘Bee’ located a particularly elusive item: Livingston & Evans’ “Vertigo” tune, recorded by Billy Eckstine.

It’s … awful. So awful, somebody ought to slug it in over the main titles in place of the Bernard Herrmann music, just to find out how low film vandalism can sink. Here’s one of the better lyric lines:

“Oh, this Vertigo that has me spinning like a top — where will it stop?”

My associates seem pretty excited about the Scream Factory announcement for a new Blu-ray of the Val Lewton The Body Snatcher. The undisputed classic with Boris Karloff, Henry Daniell and Bela Lugos is probably Daniell’s best picture and is easily among Karloff’s top five. Although we’re glad that Scream is continuing with its Lewton releases, this one seems especially important: it’s said to be a 4K scan from the original negative.

The Body Snatcher was very popular and in demand for screenings way after its initial release. It was re-issued theatrically more than once, even into the 1950s. Once the older prints wore out, it stopped looking particularly good; when RKO put on a huge RKO retrospective at the County Museum in 1977, all they could come up with on the title was a crummy 16mm copy, full of splices. The 2003 DVD was no great shakes either, so we assumed that it was one of those unfortunate movies that had simply been printed to death. Amazon says that the disc is due on March 26, so we won’t have long to wait… and then, if we’re lucky (try your best Karloff accent) we’ll never be rid of Toddy. Hope not!

Gary Teetzel also sends forward a link to the Warner Archive Collection’s upcoming DVD of the strange, part-talkie MGM version of Mysterious Island from 1929. We’re hoping this will someday be restored — it was originally (partly?) in 2-strip Technicolor. Stills have always looked incredible, especially the steampunk alien civilization at the bottom of the sea, populated by fanciful duck-like creatures. The first one on the left is NOT named Huie, Dewey, Louie, or Howard.  I’ll be asking to review this show for sure. Full details are at the WB Shop.

And finally, a shout-out to pal Craig Reardon for his birthday gift of the terrific art book Reynold Brown: A Life in Pictures. I never knew much about poster illustrators before a Cinefantastique article back in the late 1980s … but once you get a look at Brown’s work, it seems to be everywhere. His character and action paintings are unequalled; I was surprised to see that some ’60s posters that I assumed were knock-offs are indeed Reynold Brown originals: Reptilicus, Planet of the Vampires, The Day of the Triffids, etc. The bright yellow backgrounds are the first clue!

Thanks for reading! — Glenn Erickson

Hello!

Thank providence for the long Presidents’ Day weekend — I respect those gentlemen of the past more than ever now.

Just a couple of links for the day, courtesy of the helpful Charlie Largent:

Janus Films, the film library associated with The Criterion Collection, now has a catalog of all their holdings on site with numerous images. Usually they’re listed right under the film info but sometimes you need to scroll to ‘Details:’ Janus Films Reference. Criterion of course licences plenty of its product from studios and other outside vendors, but it’s good to have this handy reference to what’s actually in the Janus library on film and videodisc.

And Charlie has come through with an even more interesting resource, an online repository of movies called Rarefilmm: the Cave of Forgotten Films. Most are in fine shape; going through the very long list I was shocked to see several titles I’ve been looking for seemingly forever, including an excellent copy of a Georges Franju movie. Just be advised that the alphabetized list doesn’t skip initial words like ‘the’ and ‘la,’ so that La maison sous la mer (1947) is placed under ‘L,’ not the expected ‘M.’ Good hunting, and let me know if you see something great that I should check out!

Thanks for reading! — Glenn Erickson

Hello!  CineSavant continues with its gloriously inessential  Movie Tie-In kick.

You think you’ve heard some weird music in your time? A lot more obscure and sometimes-listenable Movie Tie-In novelty songs came in this week… I haven’t time to try and track down the suggestions submitted without links, but some of the new titles are quite surprising. I’ve amended the ‘already accounted for’ list below the new arrivals, and dropped some titles that fall outside the hard definition (not actually heard in the movie itself). Selections with (✓) I would actually want to listen to more than once.

New Today:

Vaughn Monroe’s Hercules for the Steve Reeves film (Earl Baucom).
✓  Thurl Ravenscroft and the Tinglers’ The Tingler for the Vincent Price film (Earl Baucom).
Thurl Ravenscroft and the Tinglers’ 30 Foot Bride (of Candy Rock) (Earl Baucom).
Mitch Miller’s The Guns of Navarone (nice choral orchestration, but what laughable lyrics… for the Gregory Peck Film Rick Notch, Bart Steele).
✓  The Skatalites’ really original take Guns of Navarone (Charlie Largent).
Dewayne Blackwell, T. G. Sheppard and Clint Eastwood’s Make My Day tie-in for Sudden Impact (Brian Thibodeau).
Rod McKuen and Bob McFadden’s The Mummy for the Hammer film? (Dan Mottola).
✓  Dean Parker, Joe Lipman Orchestra’s Vera Cruz vocal, and
✓  Tony Martin’s Vera Cruz vocal for the Burt Lancaster film (Pete Apruzzese of Big Screen Classics).
Ringo Starr’s Blindman not heard in his spaghetti western (Lee Broughton).
Alice Cooper’s The Man with the Golden Gun not considered for the James Bond film (Lee Broughton).
Blondie’s The Spy Who Loved Me also not considered for 007 (Stuart Feldstein).
The Tubes’ Attack of the 50 Foot Woman inspired by the film and here just for fun… (Lee Broughton).
The John Barry Seven’s Zulu Stamp and
✓  Monkey Feathers, neither used in Zulu (Owen Greenwell).
Claude King’s The Comancheros for the John Wayne film (Craig Reardon).

… and finally, a whole series sent in by efelesijr, who ought to write a book!

The Rockin’ Ramrods’ Don’t Fool with Fu for The Face of Fu Manchu.
Johnny Cymbal’s Robinson Crusoe on Mars for the George Pal film.
Roy Castle’s Dr. Terror’s House of Horrors for the Amicus film.
Pat Boone’s To the Center of the Earth for Journey to the Center of the Earth.
James Stewart’s rather gloppy The Legend of Shenandoah, a tie-in for Shenandoah.
Nat King Cole’s Marnie for the Hitchcock film … interesting!
Fred MacMurray, The Sherman Bros’ The Flubber Song for The Absent Minded Professor.
The Three Stooges’ Have Rocket, Will Travel for their comeback sci-fi film.
Judy Harriet, Les Baxter’s Goliath tie-in with Goliath and the Barbarians.
Andy Griffith’s There’s No Time for Sergeants for the film of the same name.

Wait… just under the wire, Earl Baucom sends in an authentic tie-in song — a children’s song — for the sci-fi classic Them!  Them! is sung by an almost unrecognizable Art Carney. If his name weren’t on the record, I wouldn’t have believed it. What possible connection could there be, besides the one word?  Earl links back to an earlier (2006) Greenbriar Picture Shows article documenting the whole thing.

Earl also sent in Robert Mitchum’s cover version of his song Thunder Road. Even though it’s a classic and a favorite, it’s an official cover version, not a sideways tie-in, so it doesn’t belong in this list and I’d never include it.

Already listed:

✓  Nino Tempo & Pete Rugolo’s Jack The Ripper (Bill Shaffer). Johnny Horton’s Sink the Bismarck.
✓  Gene Pitney’s The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance.
WB soundtrack cue Have You Heard of Bonnie and Clyde?
✓  Georgie Fame’s The Ballad of Bonnie and Clyde.
The Nightmares’ Oooh I’m Scared for Horrors of the Black Museum, and
The Headless Ghost (Earl Balcom, efelesijr).
Rod McKuen and Bob McFadden’s Dracula Cha Cha Cha for The Brides of Dracula, plus
✓  the Italian precursor by Bruno Martino, Dracula Cha Cha Cha (also Earl Balcom).
The White Suit Samba for The Man in the White Suit (Edward Parker Bolman).
✓  Anthony Restaino’s The Web from The Brain that Wouldn’t Die (also Edward Parker Bolman).
Ricky Nelson’s Restless Kid for Rio Bravo (also Todd Everett).
Johnny Cash’s Thunderball unused in the 007 movie Thunderball (again Todd Everett).
Phil Harris’s The Thing loosely tied-in with The Thing from Another World (Bill Shepard).
Freddie Martin’s 1932 Trouble in Paradise , connected to the Ernst Lubitsch film (Jonathan Gluckman).
Petula Clark and Joe Henderson’s The Card from the Alec Guinness movie of the same name (Randall William Cook).
Anne Leonardo’s Sinbad for The 7th Voyage of Sinbad (also Randall William Cook).
Johnny Burnette’s One-Eyed Jacks not from the Marlon Brando movie (Tony Convey).
A dreadful 55 Days at Peking (Mark Throop).
✓  Mack David, Burt Bacharach and Jack Jones’ Wives and Lovers, not heard in the movie of the same name.
✓  Mack David, Burt Bacharach and The Five Blobs’ The Blob (a cheat, heard in the show but legendary just the same) (John Black, Cameron Mackert).
✓  The Fortunes’ The Ghoul in School from Werewolf in a Girl’s Dormitory (also a cheat… John Black, John Hall).
Tony Casanova’s Diary of a High School Bride (also John Black).
Bette Davis’s What Ever Happened to Baby Jane? (Brendan Carroll, who says a 45 was released as well, a duet with Debbie Burton).
Alvino Rey’s The Bat (Charlie Largent).
Big Boy Groves’ Bucket O Blood for the Roger Corman/Dick Miller movie (efelesijr).

Meanwhile, if you’re within 500 miles of Topeka Kansas, there’s something happening I can strongly recommend for the weekend of February 22 & 23, the Kansas Silent Film Festival. They’ve got a full schedule of fine silent fare — and it’s free! (They’re really hoping for NO SNOW.) Rare items include entertaining items from Charlie Chaplin, Roscoe Arbuckle, Buster Keaton, famed swimmer Annette Kellerman, John Ford, Marion Davies, and restored Laurel & Hardy silent.

The silent title that makes me want to hop on a Topeka-bound plane is the Complete Metropolis with a live accompaniment by the Alloy Orchestra. I’ve experienced the group’s incredible metallic score for the Fritz Lang film, and it’s sensational. The full Program is viewable online.

The Kansas Silent Film Festival has been a special event for many years; CineSavant’s online associate Bill Shaffer takes charge of a lot of the details. I really wish I could jet out there … what I discovered in Topeka makes me ashamed of what we call hospitality in Los Angeles.

Thanks for reading! — Glenn Erickson