…I just want to observe that you can get “The Day of the Dolphin” on blu-ray from Amazon at a not unreasonable price (affiliate link).
Archive for the ‘Movies’ Category
I have no joke here…
Wednesday, January 12th, 2022Obit watch: January 7, 2022.
Friday, January 7th, 2022Very quick, because I have only a tiny bit of downtime between doctor’s appointments: Sidney Poitier. THR. Variety.
More later, maybe, depending on how long this second appointment takes and how long it takes to get more than breaking news obits.
Obit watch: January 6, 2022.
Thursday, January 6th, 2022Lawrence N. Brooks. He was 112 years old, and, at the time of his death, was the oldest surviving veteran of WWII.
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Mr. Brooks said he considered himself fortunate to have been spared combat duty when later in the war troop losses forced the military to send more African American troops to the front lines. In 1941, fewer than 4,000 African Americans were serving in the military; by 1945, that number had increased to more than 1.2 million.
“I got lucky,” he said. “I was saying to myself, ‘If I’m going to be shooting at somebody, somebody’s going to be shooting at me, and he might get lucky and hit.’”
By way of Lawrence: Willie Siros, noted Austin SF fan, book collector, book dealer, and a personal friend. (Apologies if that Facebook link is wonky: for some reason, I can view it on my phone, but I can’t view it on the big computer even in incognito mode. At least, not without logging into my non-existent Facebook account.)
Peter Bogdanovich. Ordinarily I would wait until tomorrow, but it looks like they had this one in the can. (And it has already been corrected once.) THR. Variety.
Before the end of the ’70s, however, Mr. Bogdanovich had been transformed from one of the most celebrated directors in Hollywood into one of the most ostracized. His career would be marred for years to come by critical and box-office failures, personal bankruptcies, the raking of his romantic life through the press and, as it all unspooled, an orgy of film-industry schadenfreude.
“It isn’t true that Hollywood is a bitter place, divided by hatred, greed and jealousy,” the director Billy Wilder once observed. “All it takes to bring the community together is a flop by Peter Bogdanovich.”
I wouldn’t mind seeing “Paper Moon”. I saw “What’s Up, Doc?” many many years ago, and would welcome seeing it again. And we’ve watched “Last Picture Show” recently. I’d also like to read those MoMA monographs.
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Random thoughts.
Wednesday, January 5th, 2022I think it is time that we admit “Imagine” is a bad idea.
Not just a bad song, which it is, but we should admit it is just a bad idea in general and toss it on the dustheap of history. No more airplay, no more covers, no acknowledgment that this song even exists.
I have no strong opinion about Lennon’s other songs. But I have left instructions in my will telling my pallbearers to open carry at my funeral, and that they should use any degree of force necessary to stop “Imagine” from being played.
Today’s example of why I feel this way.
I happened to note this the other night, and I’ve seen other people point it out since then. But for the record: 2022 is the year of “Soylent Green”.
(Make Room! Make Room! (affiliate link) was set in August of 1999, for comparison’s sake.)
Obit watch: January 3, 2022.
Monday, January 3rd, 2022Richard Leakey, paleoanthropologist.
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Dan Reeves, former Dallas Cowboys running back and later NFL coach.
Reeves played and coached with the Dallas Cowboys during a stellar period when they won two Super Bowls, one when he was a player-coach and one when he was an offensive coordinator, working for Coach Tom Landry. After several seasons as an assistant to Landry, he was hired as the Broncos’ head coach in 1981, replacing Red Miller.
Over 12 seasons in Denver, his teams had a record of 110-73-1 and were among the best in the American Football Conference. Led by quarterback John Elway, they lost the Super Bowl in 1987, 1988 and 1990 by wide margins to the New York Giants, the Washington Redskins and the San Francisco 49ers.
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Jeanine Ann Roose. She was the young “Violet” in “It’s a Wonderful Life”, and…that’s it.
She went on to attend UCLA, becoming a psychologist and later a Jungian analyst, according to TMZ, which quoted her as once having made a comparison between her life and the movie’s story line.
“It’s a Wonderful Life was the only movie that I was in and it been an amazing lifetime experience to have been in such a collectively meaningful picture. … It became clear that my desire was specifically to help others who were struggling with finding meaning in their life — not unlike Clarence in the movie who helps George see the meaning of his life,” she said.
Max Julien. He was “Goldie” in “The Mack” (opposite Richard Pryor). Other credits include “Mod Squad”, “The Bold Ones: The Protectors”, and “The Name of the Game”.
Obit watch: December 27, 2021.
Monday, December 27th, 2021Man, you take some time off for Christmas, and Death decides to be even busier than usual.
As an expert on insects, Dr. Wilson studied the evolution of behavior, exploring how natural selection and other forces could produce something as extraordinarily complex as an ant colony. He then championed this kind of research as a way of making sense of all behavior — including our own.
As part of his campaign, Dr. Wilson wrote a string of books that influenced his fellow scientists while also gaining a broad public audience. “On Human Nature” won the Pulitzer Prize for general nonfiction in 1979; “The Ants,” which Dr. Wilson wrote with his longtime colleague Bert Hölldobler, won him his second Pulitzer in 1991.
Dr. Wilson also became a pioneer in the study of biological diversity, developing a mathematical approach to questions about why different places have different numbers of species. Later in his career, Dr. Wilson became one of the world’s leading voices for the protection of endangered wildlife.
Jean-Marc Vallée. THR. Credits include “Dallas Buyers Club” and the “Big Little Lies” series. (Hattip: Lawrence.)
Desmond Tutu, for the historical record.
Sarah Weddington, attorney in the Roe v Wade case. (Hattip: Lawrence.)
Wanda Young, of the Marvelettes.
I’ve read (and thoroughly enjoyed) Rogue Warrior and, believe it or not, Leadership Secrets of the Rogue Warrior and The Real Team: Rogue Warrior (affiliate links). Oddly enough, though, I never met Mr. Marcinko. I say “oddly” because he was actually one of the guests of honor at a convention Lawrence and I went to years back, but I never sought him out. Both of us were busy hanging out with one of the other guests.
Bruce Todd, former Austin mayor.
Todd served two terms as mayor, first elected in June 1991 and retired in June 1997. In his time as mayor, he and the council considered issues such as airport relocation, wilderness preservation and transferring the city-run hospital to Seton. He also helped recruit major employers to the city, like Samsung, AMD and Applied Materials.
He also helped pass the city’s no-smoking law, banning cigars and cigarettes in all restaurants and bars.
Todd also led the effort to get the U.S. Airforce to transfer then-Bergstrom Air Force Base to the city when the base was being decommissioned. He succeeded and also worked to pass a $600 million bond election to transform the base into Austin-Bergstrom International Airport.
(Hattip: Lawrence.)
This is a little old, and has been touched on by other folks, but I did not find a good obit until now: Edward D. Shames.
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Entering combat as a sergeant with Easy Company, he was among its many paratroopers who found themselves scattered and lost upon hitting the ground behind Utah Beach before dawn on D-Day.
“I landed in a bunch of cows in a barn,” he recalled in a July 2021 interview with the American Veterans Center. “I had no idea where I was.”
He rounded up his men and found a farmhouse. The farmer didn’t speak English and he didn’t speak French, but he took out his maps and, through the farmer’s gestures, found that he was in the town of Carentan, some five miles from a bridge where he was supposed to have touched down. When he got there with his men, he received a battlefield commission as a second lieutenant for his resourcefulness.
Mr. Shames was the last surviving officer of Easy Company.
Obit watch: December 23, 2021.
Thursday, December 23rd, 2021He was “Enrico Rossi” in 113 episodes of “The Untouchables”. Other credits include two episodes of “Get Smart”, the good “Hawaii 5-0”, “Mission: Impossible”, “The Rockford Files”, four episodes of “Quincy M.E.”, the Andy Sidaris film “Picasso Trigger”…
…and “Mannix”. (“Deadfall”, season 1, episodes 17 and 18. We have not seen this yet, as we are saving season 1 until after we’ve watched seasons 2 through 8. But this is kind of a legendary episode: Joe Mannix gets into a bloody fight with his boss at Intertect.)
Robbie Roper. He was a high school quarterback in Georgia and one of the top recruits in this year’s class.
He was only 18 years old, and passed away after a routine surgery.
Obit watch: December 22, 2021.
Wednesday, December 22nd, 2021She was most famous as “Truly Scrumptious” in “Chitty Chitty Bang Bang”. She did some TV work, including “Mission: Impossible” and “Run For Your Life”.
She also did a fair amount of theater:
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Obit watch: December 15, 2021.
Wednesday, December 15th, 2021Frank “Frankie” Little Jr., a guitarist and songwriter with the O’Jays.
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Little was only with the band for a short time, The O’Jays said in a statement to Rolling Stone. He worked with Levert on a handful of songs, including 1964’s “Do the Jerk” and 1966’s “Pretty Words.”
“He came out with us when we first ventured out of Cleveland and traveled to Los Angeles, but was also in love with a woman in Cleveland that he missed so much that he soon returned back to Cleveland after a short amount of time,” the band said.
Mr. Little died sometime around or prior to February of 1982, but his death was not announced until recently, when his remains were identified.
The partial remains — first discovered in February 1982 in a garbage bag behind a now-shuttered business in Twinsburg, Ohio — were identified as Little’s using DNA provided by a close relative, police said in a statement Tuesday.
“In October 2021, the DNA Doe Project provided the names of potential living relatives, who were able to provide Frank’s name,” Twinsburg police said, adding that Little’s identity was later confirmed by a medical examiner who ruled his death a homicide.
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Cara Williams, actress. 55 credits in IMDB.
High points include “The Defiant Ones”, “We Go to Monte Carlo”, “The Man From the Diners’ Club”, and the wife of Harry Morgan’s character in “Pete and Gladys”.
Very quick note on film.
Tuesday, December 14th, 2021I initially wasn’t going to blog this, but decided to throw it up here just for the sake of discussion:
The 2021 list of films added to the National Film Registry.
My quick takes: I like “Stop Making Sense”, and it is a great concert film, but is it of “cultural, historic or aesthetic importance”?
I approve of “Strangers on a Train”, but I haven’t seen that since the days UT had a film program…
“The Long Goodbye”? Seriously? Do not get me started on that one.
I have never seen “Pink Flamingos”, and I’m not really that interested in John Waters films in general. But I’m reminded of Roger Ebert’s review:
Obit watch: December 9, 2021.
Thursday, December 9th, 2021Christmas trivia.
Friday, December 3rd, 2021Not too long ago, I found a used DVD of “The Detective” at Half-Price Books.
“The Detective” is a movie I’m kind of interested in, and I only paid $5 for the DVD. It is based on a novel by Roderick Thorp, and stars Frank Sinatra as a NYPD detective named Joe Leland.
Most of what I’ve read about the movie says that it was well regarded: it was praised for being a more mature approach to movies about police work, as well as dealing with non-mainstream subjects. (And check out that supporting cast.)
I think I’m going to end up watching it by myself, as I suspect it will be a tough sell to the Saturday Night Movie Group. (We’ve already watched one Sinatra detective film, “Tony Rome”, which was…not great.)
What does this have to do with Christmas?
In 1979, 13 years later, Roderick Thorp published a sequel to The Detective called Nothing Lasts Forever, also featuring Joe Leland (affiliate links). By this time, Detective Leland has retired from the NYPD, and decides to go visit his daughter in Los Angeles for Christmas.
Yeah, you guessed it. As I understand it, there were initially discussions about having Frank Sinatra play Joe Leland again (he was 64 when the book came out) but he turned the role down, and they eventually wound up with Bruce Willis. Also, the book sounds like it is a lot darker, just based on the Wikipedia summary.
Two of Thorp’s other novels were adapted for film, but none of those is set in the Die Hard Cinematic Universe (DHCU). (“Rainbow Drive” sounds like it could be interesting, but it is hard to find.) Thorp died in 1999.
And now you know…the rest of the story.
Because it’s just not Christmas until we see Hans Gruber fall from the Nakatomi Tower.
Obit watch: November 30, 2021.
Tuesday, November 30th, 2021Arlene Dahl, actress, “author, beauty expert, astrologist, and fashion and cosmetics entrepreneur”.
47 credits in IMDB, but I wanted to call this out because of her resume, and because that’s a nice photo at the top of the NYT obit.
Tommy Lane, actor and stuntman. Acting credits include the original “Shaft” “Live and Let Die”, and “Cotton Comes to Harlem”.
David Gulpilil, Australian actor. (“Crocodile Dundee”, “Walkabout”, “The Right Stuff”, among other credits.)
Your loser update: week 11, 2021 (with bonus firings).
Monday, November 22nd, 2021Sorry. I’m running a little behind, as I was tied up much of yesterday with various things, including going to see “Dune”.
(Random thought: it is refreshing to know that, thousands of years in the future, even on desert planets, there will be coffee.)
Anyway, NFL teams that still have a chance of going without a win this season:
Detroit.
The Lions play the semi-hapless (3-7) Bears on Thanksgiving Day. I’m thinking this is a toss-up, though ESPN seems to favor the Bears.
In firings news: Dan Mullen out at Florida. 34-15 in four seasons and they were in the national championship game last year, but (as Easterbrook often says) “what have you done for me lately?” (Answer: gone 5-6 this year and 2-6 in conference.)
Chip Lindsey out at Troy. 15-19 in three seasons, and 5-6 this one. Sensing a trend?
Obit watch: November 18, 2021.
Thursday, November 18th, 2021…
Philip Margo and some of the others in the group didn’t have a lot of confidence in the resulting recording.
“We were embarrassed by it and tried to convince Hugo and Luigi not to release it,” he said in an interview quoted in “The Billboard Book of Number 1 Hits” by Fred Bronson. “They said it would be a big record and it was going out.”
They were right. It hit No. 1 on the Billboard chart in December 1961, remained there for three weeks and became a cultural touchstone. A whole new generation was introduced to it in 1994 when a version turned up in the Disney movie “The Lion King.”
“Now that it’s current, we’re current,” Mr. Margo said at the time. “I am thrilled.”
Mr. Frishberg, who also played piano and sang, was an anomaly, if not an anachronism, in American popular music: an accomplished, unregenerate jazz pianist who managed to outrun the eras of rock, soul, disco, punk and hip-hop by writing hyper-literate songs that harked back to Hoagy Carmichael and Johnny Mercer, by way of Stephen Sondheim.
His songwriting wit was for grown-ups, yet he reached his widest audience with sharpshooting ditties for kids as a regular musical contributor to ABC-TV’s long-running Saturday morning animated show “Schoolhouse Rock!”
Among his credits: “I’m Just a Bill”.
Lawrence sent over an obit from Slam Wrestling for Joe Cornelius. In addition to his wrestling work, he helped with fight coordinating on “The Avengers” and also made some uncredited movie appearances. Perhaps his best known work was as the titular character in “Trog”.
Heath Freeman. He had some roles on “Bones” and “NCIS”. According to THR, he was only 41.