Charlie Chan At Treasure Island vs. The Zodiac Killer

Written by Joe D on December 26th, 2014

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OK here’s a weird one for you fans of Film Forno. Charlie Chan At Treasure Island, actually a pretty cool movie, directed by the super genius of genre filmmaking Norman Foster. Foster directed the amazing Mr. Moto films with Peter Lorre, also Zorro Tv show for Disney, episodes of Batman, and was greatly admired by boy genius Orson Welles , who brought him to RKO to work on some projects. Anyway it turns out that this film was a favorite of the infamous Zodiac killer of San Francisco. According to a book on Zodiac by Robert Graysmith, Leigh Allen (Graysmith has pegged him as Zodiac) loved this film as a boy. It takes place in San Francisco, it features a villan named Dr. Zodiac, who answers the phone ” This is Zodiac speaking.”

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Dr. Zodiac

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And Chan says of him” is not ordinary criminal. He is a man of great ego. Criminal egoist find pleasure in laughing at police.” Words that fit the later Zodiac exactly! The Treasure Island in the title was a man made island north of Yerba Buena Island, constructed for the 1939 S.F. World’s Fair.

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A lot of the action takes place there. Later it was converted into a naval barracks and base. Leigh Aleen spent time there as a youth as his father was an officer.

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But even without the strange Zodiac connection the film is worth checking out. Very atmospheric and featuring Ceasar Romero who would later play the Joker on TV’s Batman, maybe re-uniting with Norman Foster as well.

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Watch it for yourself and see courtesy of YouTube.

Two In The Wave

Written by Joe D on December 22nd, 2014

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Here is the trailer for a documentary I saw on Netflix. It examines the relationship between Truffaut and Godard and places it in a historical context. It’s very informative and worth watching. It ends without touching on a very interesting point though, late in life after these two geniuses were on the outs, hadn’t spoken in years, Godard wrote to Truffaut. He need to sell Breathless, his breakthrough film, to raise money for a new project. The only problem was Truffaut had written the scenario and was therefore a part owner of the film. Godard needed him to sign off on the sale which Truffaut did, helping out the former friend that he now “hated”. If you are interested in the New Wave of 50+ years ago, check it out.

How William Friedkin cast Fernando Rey in The French Connection

Written by Joe D on December 16th, 2014

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I found this on Youtube. It’s a great story and more common than you would think. Hollywood logistics. But Rey is excellent in the role, the contrast between the sophisticated European enjoying a gourmet meal while Popeye is outside in the rain on stakeout, drinking bad coffee is delicious. So hats off to Friedkin for being open to making a mistake work for him. an important tool in the bag of tricks of any artist.

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Touch Of Evil

Written by Joe D on December 10th, 2014

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Look at this amazing color still from the production of Touch Of Evil, how cool, it makes it seem like it could be happening today not 57 years ago. That alley is probably still there in Venice, CA. Everybody talks about the opening shot, which I love, but the shot that also blows my mind is in the love nest apartment, where Quinlan plants the dynamite in the bathroom, check that out, it’s another very, very long take and the overlapping dialog plays like a radio play. It’s so masterfully done you don’t realize you’ve just watched a 5 minute take (or whatever legnth it is.) Watch it with the sound off then you can pay attention to the staging, there’s a lot of off camera dialog that directs your attention outside the frame. As Claude Chabrol said”Off screen dialog is extremely powerful.”
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Another side note, I recently re-watched Godards Alphaville, Akim Tamiroff is in it as well as Toch Of Evil. In TOE he winds up dead with his tongue grotesquely protruding from his mouth, in Alphaville he keeps sticking out his tongue in the scene in his hotel room with the Seductress 3rd class and Lemmy Caution. Did Godard direct him to do that as a reference to TOE? The Cahiers du Cinema gang were the first to praise Welles movie as a masterpiece, the studio didn’t like it. He was a bit too far ahead of his time once again.

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