Archive for the ‘Movies’ Category

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Obit watch: February 2, 2019.

Saturday, February 2nd, 2019

NYT obit for Dick Miller.

This one goes out to Mike the Musicologist: Sanford Sylvan, noted baritone. He did a lot of work with John Adams: among other roles, he was the first Chou En-lai in “Nixon in China” and Leon Klinghoffer in “The Death of Klinghoffer”.

His recordings, many with Mr. Breitman, include programs of Schubert, Fauré, Jorge Martin and Virgil Thomson, as well as a luminous, delicate 1991 release, “Beloved That Pilgrimage,” which includes Theodore Chanler’s “Eight Epitaphs,” Barber’s “Hermit Songs” and Copland’s “Twelve Poems of Emily Dickinson.” Mr. Sylvan took part in the New York premiere of Mr. Adams’s opera “A Flowering Tree” in 2009, and also performed contemporary works by composers like Peter Maxwell Davies, Philip Glass, John Harbison and Charles Fussell.

Finally, Captain Rosemary Mariner, United States Navy (ret.). She was one of the first six women to go through naval flight training, the first to fly an attack jet, and the first woman to command a naval aviation squadron. She also had a leading role in removing the restrictions on women flying combat missions.

When she retired from the Navy in 1997, Captain Mariner “had become one of the nation’s leading advocates for equal opportunity in the military,” Deborah G. Douglas wrote in “American Women and Flight since 1940” (2005).
Captain Mariner logged 17 landings on aircraft carriers and more than 3,500 flight hours in 15 different aircraft.

Posted in 1970s, History, Mannix, Movies, Music, Obits, Planes, TV | Comments Closed

Obit watch: January 31, 2019.

Thursday, January 31st, 2019

Lawrence sent me the “Variety” obit for character actor Dick Miller.

He was hella prolific. Among his credits: the pawn shop guy in “The Terminator”, the sleezy land developer in the original “Piranha”, “Gremlins”, “Chopping Mall”, “Twilight Zone: The Movie”…

…and a lot of TV guest shots, including “Police Squad!” (“In Color!”), “Dragnet 1967”, and, yes, “Mannix” (“Falling Star”, “The Cost of a Vacation”).

He also appeared in “W*A*L*T*E*R”, which is one of those curious side notes in television history.

Speaking of curious side notes, Meshulam Riklis passed away a few days ago at the age of 95. He was a prominent financier, but became somewhat famous in the 1980s for what happened after he married his second wife…

…Pia Zadora.

His devotion to Ms. Zadora included inviting Golden Globe Awards voters to private screenings of “Butterfly” (1982), a film he produced for her, and promoted her candidacy in a media campaign — all for someone considered a lightweight competing with the likes of Kathleen Turner, Howard E. Rollins Jr. and Elizabeth McGovern for best new star of the year in a motion picture.
When Ms. Zadora won the award — a shock in Hollywood and beyond — it was assumed that Mr. Riklis had somehow engineered her victory, although he and the Hollywood Foreign Press Association, which runs the Golden Globes, denied the accusation.

Posted in 1970s, Mannix, Movies, Obits, TV | Comments Closed

Obit watch: January 16, 2019.

Wednesday, January 16th, 2019

I wanted to give the Carol Channing obit a chance to shake out before posting it. I’m kind of glad I did: now they’re leading off the obit with the Hirschfeld drawing, which fills me with delight down to the bottom of my coal black heart.

By the time she returned to the role on Broadway in October 1995, Ms. Channing had played Dolly more than 4,500 times, missing only one performance — in June of that year, when she left the show for a day to fly to New York from San Diego to accept a Tony Award for lifetime achievement. She had appeared onstage in a cast, a neck brace and a wheelchair, and with viruses that would have felled anyone with lesser determination. (By her own count, she went on to surpass the 5,000 mark.)

…

Ms. Channing’s own motion picture career never really took off, although she received an Academy Award nomination and won a Golden Globe for her performance in “Thoroughly Modern Millie” (1967). She did enjoy some success on television, and in her later years she did a lot of cartoon voice-over work. But the theater was her natural home.

As Lawrence pointed out to me yesterday, she was also in “Skidoo“. (Honest to Ghu, I thought that had been released on Criterion, but apparently not.)

This one goes out to my friend Todd: Alan R. Pearlman, synthesizer pioneer and founder of ARP Instruments.

ARP’s analog synthesizers — particularly the compact, portable ARP Odyssey, introduced in 1972 — grew ubiquitous in pop and electronic music. By the mid-1970s, ARP was the leading synthesizer manufacturer, commanding 40 percent of the market and outselling its predecessors and competitors, Moog and Buchla.
ARP sounds were central to numerous songs, including Edgar Winter’s “Frankenstein,” Herbie Hancock’s “Chameleon,” Kraftwerk’s “The Robots,” Underworld’s “Rez,” Nine Inch Nails’ “The Hand That Feeds” and the early-1980s version of the theme to the television series “Doctor Who.”
The five-note signature motif of “Close Encounters of the Third Kind” was played on an ARP 2500 synthesizer, which is seen in the film. An ARP 2600, mixed with natural sounds, provided the voice of R2-D2 in the first “Star Wars” movie.

Posted in Geek, Movies, Music, Obits, Theatre | 1 Comment »

Obit watch: January 8, 2019.

Tuesday, January 8th, 2019

Rosenda Monteros, prominent Mexican actress.

She was perhaps most famous in the US as Petra, Chico’s romantic interest in the 1960 version of “The Magnificent Seven”.

Interesting side note from the obit:

“The Magnificent Seven” was shot in Mexico, where a government censor kept a close eye on the production to make sure that Mexicans were depicted positively. Mr. Sturges told The New York Times in 1960 that the censor was “an autocrat” who operated “on the theory that anything debatable should be stricken out.”
Mr. Sturges took note of one major change to the script: Instead of setting out to hire American fighters from the start, the farmers at first tried to buy guns for themselves.

Posted in Guns, Movies, Obits | Comments Closed

Obit watch: January 7, 2019.

Monday, January 7th, 2019

Brian Garfield, noted author.

He was probably best known for Death Wish and the movies based on it, but he was prolific in both the mystery/suspense and western genres. (He was also a past president of both the Western Writers of America and the Mystery Writers of America.)

Mr. Garfield was rarely involved in the film adaptations of his books, deliberately extricating himself from a process he found distasteful even though it meant giving up control. (His 1975 novel “Hopscotch,” which won an Edgar Award, was an exception: He adapted it into a comedy starring Walter Matthau in 1980.)
“I’m not really patient enough to put up with that, and I learned that the credit ‘associate producer’ means you’re the only person who’s willing to associate with the producer,” he said in an interview with the website PopMatters in 2008.

I’ve heard that “Hopscotch” is a swell movie: I haven’t seen it yet, but it is on our list.

Posted in Books, Movies, Obits | Comments Closed

Obit watch: January 5, 2019.

Saturday, January 5th, 2019

Ringo Lam, noted Hong Kong film director.

I need to rewatch “City on Fire” (and watch “School on Fire” and “Prison on Fire“). I saw it once, back when there was a theater on Riverside Drive that showed Hong Kong movies at midnight. But as I recall, when they showed “City on Fire” they somehow got the reels out of order…

Doug Johnson, longtime Houston weatherman for KPRC. Tribute from KPRC, which includes the chicken. When I was growing up in Houston, my family’s news and weather came from Ron Stone and Doug Johnson. I never met the man, but he sure seemed like (and was, by all accounts I’ve heard) a good guy.

Posted in 1970s, Movies, Obits, TV | Comments Closed

Obit watch: December 21, 2018.

Friday, December 21st, 2018

Donald Moffat, noted actor.

Mr. Moffat was rarely accorded top billing. But when he played Falstaff, Shakespeare’s bravest coward, wisest fool and most ignoble knight, in Joseph Papp’s 1987 production of “Henry IV, Part 1” at the Delacorte Theater in Central Park, he was the indisputable star. Mainly a comic figure, Falstaff, a sidekick to Prince Hal, the future King Henry V, embodies a depth more common to major Shakespeare characters.

…

On television, Mr. Moffat appeared as Dr. Marcus Polk in the ABC soap opera “One Life to Live” (1968-69), as Rem the android in the CBS science-fiction series “Logan’s Run” (1977-78) and as the Rev. Lars Lundstrom in “The New Land,” the 1974 ABC drama series about Swedish immigrants. He was also seen in episodes of “Mannix,” “Ironside,” “Gunsmoke” and “The Defenders.”

…

“All the Dead Were Strangers“. He also did shots on the good “Hawaii 5-0”, “Mission: Impossible”, and “The Six Million Dollar Man”, among many other TV credits. (Seasonally appropriate: he was “Dr. Chandler” in the horribly misguided adaptation of Arthur C. Clarke’s “The Star” for the 1985 “Twilight Zone”.)

Among Mr. Moffat’s better-known film roles were as Garry, the station commander, in John Carpenter’s “The Thing” (1982), about an extraterrestrial monster that terrorizes researchers in Antarctica; as Lyndon B. Johnson in Philip Kaufman’s “The Right Stuff” (1983), about America’s first astronauts; and as an arrogant corporate lawyer in Costa-Gavras’s “Music Box” (1989), about a Hungarian immigrant accused of having been a fascist war criminal.

And “President Bennett” in “Clear and Present Danger”.

For the record, since I’m a little behind: Penny Marshall.

Posted in 1970s, Mannix, Movies, Obits, Theatre, TV | Comments Closed

Obit watch: December 15, 2018.

Saturday, December 15th, 2018

Nancy Wilson, noted chanteuse.

Sondra Locke, Academy Award nominated actress and Clint Eastwood’s lover for a period of time (followed by an extended court battle). Apparently, she passed away in early November but it was not widely reported until this week.

Other people I know seem to have a strong negative reaction to her, but I thought she was fine in “The Outlaw Josey Wales” (which we watched recently) and “Sudden Impact” (which I need to rewatch). I also remember her being…okay…in “The Gauntlet” for what that was: a fun B-movie action thriller.

Posted in Movies, Music, Obits | Comments Closed

Obit watch: December 13, 2018.

Thursday, December 13th, 2018

Melvin Dummar, historical footnote, passed away last Sunday at the age of 74.

I’m not sure how many of my readers remember Mr. Dummar and his saga. To summarize: one night in 1967, Mr. Dummar picked up a drifter by the side of the road and gave him a ride. The drifter told him that his name was Howard Hughes. Mr. Dummar forgot about the incident until nine years later, when Mr. Hughes died…

…and a will turned up at the Morman Church headquarters that left 1/16th of the Hughes estate to the church…

…and 1/16th of the estate to Mr. Dummar. (This was about $156 million in 1976 dollars.)

Of course there were legal cases.

But after his fingerprints were found on the envelope, he testified that a stranger had given it to him at his gas station and that he had taken it to the church headquarters.
A jury decided that the will was forged, and while no one was ever officially charged, Mr. Dummar was found guilty in the court of public opinion.

…

By the time the Hughes inheritance was settled by a probate court jury in Texas in 1981, more than 600 people had made claims to the fortune, and 40 wills, all supposedly written by Mr. Hughes, had been produced and rejected. Mr. Hughes’s money was divided among descendants on both his mother’s and his father’s side.

Jonathan Demme made what is supposedly a pretty good movie (haven’t seen it yet) out of this story, “Melvin and Howard“.

Thing I didn’t know: there’s a revisionist movement, apparently led by a retired FBI agent, that claims Mr. Dummar’s story was true, and he was cheated out of his rightful inheritance by a vast conspiracy “replete with acts of obstruction of justice, witness intimidation and possible jury tampering.” Yeah. Gonna take some convincing to get me to buy that.

Posted in History, Law, Movies, Obits | Comments Closed

Obit watch: November 27, 2018.

Tuesday, November 27th, 2018

For the historical record, because I really have nothing to say about the man: Bernardo Bertolucci.

Posted in Movies, Obits | Comments Closed

Ricky Jay.

Sunday, November 25th, 2018

He was a personal hero of mine, but I never met him or even saw him perform. Somehow, it seems like he never came through Austin. (A friend of mine told me a great story about seeing him live: I hope that person will post that story on their own blog.)

I’ve said before that my three favorite magicians are Penn, Teller, and Ricky Jay. But I admired Jay as a magic historian as well.

NYT. The legendary New Yorker profile.

It is the Daileys’ impression—a perception shared by other dealers in rare books and incunabula—that Jay spends a higher proportion of his disposable income on rare books and artifacts than anyone else they know. His friend Janus Cercone has described him as “an incunable romantic.”
“Probably, no matter how much money he had, he would be overextended bibliomaniacally—or should the word be ‘bibliographically’? Anyway, he’d be overextended,” William Dailey has said. “The first time I met him, I recognized him as a complete bibliomaniac. He’s not a complete monomaniac about books on magic, but within that field he is remarkably focussed. His connoisseurship is impeccable, in that he understands the entire context of a book’s emergence. He’s not just interested in the book’s condition. He knows who printed it, and he knows the personal struggle the author went through to get it printed.”

I don’t know what else I can say, except that the world is a smaller, colder, and less interesting place today.

Posted in Books, Magic, Movies, Obits | Comments Closed

Obit watch: November 25, 2018.

Sunday, November 25th, 2018

Catching up:

Bob McNair, owner of the Houston Texans. NYT.

It’ll be interesting to see how this plays out. Does his family sell the team for tax reasons? If so, do they sell it to someone in Houston? Who? Tillman Fertitta?

Nicolas Roeg, noted director. The only thing of his I’ve watched is “The Man Who Fell To Earth” back over thirty years ago. (Lawrence, last night: “How long was the version you watched? Two hours or three?” Me: “I think it was four days.”) I just bought “Don’t Look Now” on Criterion (but we’re saving that for next October), and I’ve had the DVD of “Walkabout” for quite a while now but haven’t watched it…

Posted in Movies, NFL, Obits, Sports | Comments Closed

Obit watch: November 16, 2018.

Friday, November 16th, 2018

Roy Clark. NYT. Nashville Tennessean.

“You can go and get educated, but you can come to ‘Hee Haw’ and get another education,” Mr. Clark said in discussing the show’s far-reaching popularity in a 2016 NPR interview. “The critics all said that the only listeners that we had were country. And I said, ‘Wait a minute — I was just in New York City, and I was walking down the street and a guy yells across and says, “Hey, Roy, I’m a-pickin’.” ’ Well, I’m obligated to say, ‘Well, I’m a-grinnin’.’ ”

William Goldman, noted writer. I loved Which Lie Did I Tell?: More Adventures in the Screen Trade and I keep looking for more of Goldman’s books.

Also, I should look for a copy of “The Ghost & the Darkness” while I’m out and about this weekend.

Posted in Books, Movies, Music, Obits | Comments Closed

Obit watch: November 13, 2018.

Tuesday, November 13th, 2018

I was in cars all day yesterday, and wanted to give this a chance to shake out after it was announced

For the historical record: Stan Lee. NYT. LAT. WP.

Douglas Rain, “who performed for 32 seasons with the Stratford Festival in Ontario”.

Mr. Rain was somewhat more famous as the voice of HAL 9000 in “2001: A Space Odyssey”.

Posted in Movies, Obits, Theatre | Comments Closed

Quote of the day.

Wednesday, October 17th, 2018

I have loved that quote ever since I first read it in Martin Gardner’s annotated The Innocence of Father Brown. Gardner carries the quote out a bit more:

Exactly what the fairy tale does is this: it accustoms him for a series of clear pictures to the idea that these limitless terrors had a limit, that these shapeless enemies have enemies in the knights of God, that there is something in the universe more mystical than darkness, and stronger than strong fear.

When somebody says something like “I’ve never understood why horror films exist at all.” it kind of bothers me. And this quote is why: this is what good horror does. It reminds us “these limitless terrors had a limit”.

Likewise, I remember people arguing that “Boyz in the Hood” deserved an Academy Award more than “Silence of the Lambs” because “‘Boyz in the Hood’ is about something.” You know what? “Silence of the Lambs” is about something, too: it’s about that Chesterton quote. Buffalo Bill is the bogey man, and Clarice Starling is the knight of God. Even the climax reflects this idea: “…there is something in the universe more mystical than darkness, and stronger than strong fear.”

Posted in Books, Movies | Comments Closed

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