A short while back I posted about Robert Mitchum's dedication and skill and authenticity with Calypso, and how he actually tried to convince director Charles Laughton to incorporate some tunes into the script to "balance" the mood.

Now my research has led me to this lost reel of footage in which Laughton indulges Mitchum and actually does incorporate a song from his album of authentic Calypso hits entitled "Calypso.....is like so."

Labels: Calypso, film, Mitchum

This first clip shows us a slightly older Rita Hayworth steaming up the screen in the Caribe-noir film The Fire Down Below, costarring Bob Mitchum (the undisputed king of all Calypso) and Jack Lemmon (inspiration for Ol' Gil). While the direction's pretty uneven, that same unevenness provides license for this kind of over-the-top dance number, opportunistically echoing the feverish performers limboing in the opening of the film. I think it's supposed to be "look how evil she is - dancin' all sexy like that - she's tryin' to seduce Mitchum!" but it's more like "huh?!?!?" Regardless- she dances her ass off, it grips one, and is absolutely worth setting your mind free with.




This one is completely different but just as why-you-watch-dance gripping. From Band of Outsiders, it's a means for Godard to set the mood for danger and tension to come by doing the opposite of danger & tension, underscoring the fun of the scene with commentary that abruptly stops only the music, not the wild track, and states in different ways just what tabulae rasa these fools playing at gangster are by describing feelings that have nothing to do with robbery. Quentin Tarantino named the production company A Band Apart after this film and it's easy to see why - Godard plays with the tools that are used to build a narrative in unconventional ways- breaking rules, even by today's standards, in order to step outside the traditional narrative to reinforce it. Plus cool music, and a great dance routine in a bleak mise-en-scene.



Get it here, BTW.

Labels: dance, film, France, Godard, Hayworth, Mitchum, tarantino

I just read John Buchan's The 39 Steps, and watched the Hitchcock movie of the same name.

Introductory Conclusion (ha!): While not starting out as a project, I would not recommend participating in absorbing both as one. Leave these units sole entities and enjoy them just the same, comforted in the knowledge that both have fallen off the copyrighter's radar screen and are now in the public domain.

The film version, produced by Michael Balcon, who produced one of my favorite films, Dead of Night, and directed by Alfred Hitchcock appears to be an almost completely new invention that utilizes only the main premise and some of the names of characters.

The novel, by proud Scotsman (by virtue of the portrayal of his countrymen and women, the opposite of Hitchcock's portrayal of brutsh stingy Scots) John Buchan, is a an extremely fast paced thriller that pits villains appropriate to today's one-worlder conspiracy theorists, against an improvised adventurer who is enlisted by a spy with several character-shaping pathologies and prejudices aiding his motivation and world view.

Along the way as we follow Richard Hannay the protagonist, there are plenty of Deus Ex Machina situations arising, such as stumbling upon the exact location at which he needed to arrive, accidentally meeting a reviled London colleague 12 hours distance from the city, and kindness from strangers that even Santa Claus couldn't engender.

This is all forgivable owing to the pacing and the tone of the writing. Hannay is the a protagonist in whose shoes on is willing to jump. The book adds up to a short thrill that grips one, and doesn't let go until the end.

Hitchcock's film, while wildly different in plot mechanisms and characters, maintains the best of the book, namely Hannay's pathological ingenuity in staying one step ahead of his pursuers. Equally gripping, with moments that provide a window into an England that is only 20 years and a World War since the original publication of the book, with the same Teutonic treacheries afoot, providing an analogous zeitgeist for the Mise en Scene, awaiting another global conflict, wile enjoying life in the interim.

So, on to the links:

Here's the book in it's entirety

Here's a link to a BUNCH of John Buchan novels I always have to laugh at the NO US ACCESS warnings!!!

Buchan's Wikipedia Bio, (he was a big shot!)

Wa-hey! Here's the Movie, and and here's where you can download it (on the left)and own the friggin' thing!




Radio Drama:
Mercury Theatre of the Air (Orson Welles)

A Criterion Collection obsessed fan's review of the Film.

Enjoy. It's the future - so far.

Labels: 1915, 30's, archive.org, England, film, Hitchcock, Scotland, Scots, Scottish, writing

From Motel Hell



Want it? Go HERE

Labels: 70s, 80s, boo, ecch, film, fun, funny, Hollywood, horror, killers, nihilism, puke, television, yaaaaaaH

When I first saw this in the film "Don't Knock the Rock" my eyeballs almost fell outta my head.

Years later, I got to meet a couple of the remaining Treniers at Resorts International, in the hole known as A.C. Nice guys. seemed a little embarassed about this performance, though - perhaps it was because they had become so lounge and mature.

We did not poon upon departing, by the way........

The entry "A Poon is a Hug" can be found here.

Labels: 1953, 1957, 1962, 50's, 78RPM, comedy, film, fun, funny, record, rock, rock n' roll, tv, video, vinyl, wonder

A friend loaned this to me back in my filmmaking days, and I thought it could be used as background music. He never got it back. It still could be.

I haven't heard it yet so bear with me. From vinyl, so anything goes. I do recommend skipping the two "unnamed" tracks (despite the fact that they're at the top of the widget). Those particular tracks are swing-ish which leads me to wonder if this is the same Hen Gates that played with Dizzy Gillespie..

It rocks tho, saxophonishly, what I've heard...... in a just-shy-of-Las-Vegas-Grind sort of way.

Rock on rockers in your rock world, rock on.


Personally, I say skip the unnamed tracks......

Labels: 1957, 33 1/3rpm, 50's, album, band, boys, classic, clear, crew, ephemera, files, film, public domain, rock n' roll, vinyl

I was looking at a site where somebody had posted a link to this as a download, and it made me wonder if it was public domain. Looking at another site today, I discovered it was.


Google Video has looooooong videos, and sure enough, someone already posted the entire film in its entirety.



The venerable Archive.org has it in a downloadable version, for those of you who wish to migrate it somewhere else.

Wonderfully enough, they also have the story (in Japanese) by Ryunosuke Akutagawa. A chap has translated it into English here.

The remake is also great...

The Outrage

With Paul Newman as a Mexican Mifune
Shatner.... as... a.... minister
Edward G. Robinson as a swindler
Laurence Harvey (Domino's Dad!) as the objectively conflicted husband


NOT ON DVD - why?!?!

Labels: archive.org, classic, film, Japan, kurosawa, lies, lying, nihilism, public domain, rashomon

Labels: coffee, film, France, Godard, life, thought