Film Forno

Yowza! What a crazy movie! I had heard about this one for years and finally got a chance to see it a couple months ago on TCM. It’s a very good film.

Losey Directs

For one thing it has about 3 or 4 plots stitched together like Dr. Frankenstein’s monster,The Damned takes place in a small seaside town in England , visiting American MacDonald Carey floats in on his yacht and is bewitched by young & beautiful Shirley Anne Field. Her incestuously jealous brother ( Oliver Reed) doesn’t take kindly to the attention Carey is paying his sister so he and his Teddy boy gang kick Carey’s ass good and proper almost like he was rooting for the opposing soccer team!

Ollie the Sadistic Fop!

Anyway Carey bumps into sculptress Vivica Lindfors and her pal super top secret scientist Alexander Knox, they live in the town, Lindfors up on a bluff overlooking the sea where she creates cool kind of organic apocalyptic sculpture and Knox in an underground bunker surrounded by barb wire, soldiers, guns, guard dogs, and searchlights where he creates mutated children.

a Sculpture By Frink from the same period

Some how Carey and his young concubine fleeing the gang wind up in a subterranean compound habituated by radioactive children, genetically engineered to survive in a post nuclear apocalyptic world!

Oliver Reed bullies the sculptress by smashing some of her work (it’s incredible sculpture made for the film by Elisabeth Frink) then Ollie winds up in the Atomic Children’s Ward as well. The ending is bleak, bleak, super bleak with the added amorality of the government killing people, torturing these children, doing whatever evil horrible things it wants to in the name of National Security. Rings a Bell, n’est pas?

Here Comes The Government

Joseph Losey had a strange, uneven career. He went to the same high school as Nicholas Ray. His first feature was The Boy With The Green Hair I saw it on Million Dollar movie as a kid and it’s stayed with me all these years, I should watch it again. Losey was named by the Commie witch hunt HUAC, but he never named names like a lot of others. Instead he moved to England and made the rest of his films in Europe. I recommend this film, it has made me want to check out some of Losey’s earlier works like The Prowler and The Criminal and even though I swore I’d never watch it, his remake of M.

Once again inspired by the wonderful blog Cinebeats I am posting something I have been wanting to write about for some time. Vincent Price! The master of 60’s horror, Roger Corman’s Poe-etic icon, mad scientist, mad magician, mad sculptor, reincarnated warlock, horny Inquisitor, bon vivant, gourmand, art connoisseur extrodinare! A Renaissance Man, Lover Of Laura, Drinker of Malmsey. The Last Man On Earth.

The Man

Where to begin? OK some years back I was showing my visiting sister-in-law the sights of Southern california. We were in Santa Monica and stopped into a vintage clothing store. I found a tuxedo jacket that looked cool and purchased it for $10. A little while later back at my house my sis-in law was checking out the jacket. She pulled an inside pocket out and there was a label, it said this jacket had been custom made for Mr. Vincent Price!

The Jacket

The date of creation was printed as well. July 20, 1969. That’s the day that Neil Armstrong landed on the moon. I happen to remember this because it’s also my birthday( the day not the year) .

The Label

I was pleasantly surprised to say the least having grown up a fan of V. P. Cut to about one year ago. There is a deserted cement slab and foundation around the corner from my house. I live in Echo Park. I’ve always wondered about it, it’s been like that for as long as I’ve been here (15 years). One day I was speaking to a neighbor, he’s an older guy maybe 70 or so named Fred. He told me the story of the cement slab. It was a house, lived in by his friend a sculptor named Lowell Grant. Fred used to help Lowell instal sculptures around L.A.

Where the Sculptor Lived and Died

One day in the 70’s there was a terrific explosion! Lowell’s kiln exploded, killing him and burning down his house which has remained vacant to this day. You can see it in the movie Mi Vida Loca, a gang hangs out there. I googled the name Lowell Grant and I got an IMDB hit. Lowell had made sculptures for a Vincent Price movie back in 1963 Diary Of A Madman.

Based on a Guy de Maupassant story about an invisible creature called a Horla that inhabits humans and forces them to commit horrible murders. I saw it when I was a kid and thought it was pretty scary but I found a VHS recently and it’s not that great. It was produced by Robert E. Kent and Edward Small, I guess they were trying to cash in on the success of other Vincent Price Horror films, these two guys finished up their careers with the exploitation flick The Christine Jorgenson Story (more about that in a later post).

Creation Of A Mad Sculptor

I am going to photograph some of Lowell’s public art and post the pictures one of these days.

Anyway back to V.P. , he has a strange connection to the famous Black Dahlia murder case. This case has fascinated people for years and I consider The Black Dahlia the spirit of Los Angeles, the muse to many creators, a human sacrifice to the arcane supernatural mechanisms at work just beneath the surface of the City.

The Black Dahlia

I use her as a character in my film One Night With You. Anyway VP operated an art gallery in Beverly Hills in 1943/44. He exhibited works by Man Ray among others. Man Ray was a friend to Dr. George Hodel, a major suspect in the Black Dahlia Murder.

Dr. George Hodel

Price’s friend and fellow art maven Frank Perls gave a show to Fred Sexton a sculptor who made the Maltese Falcon statue for Hodel crony John Huston.

The Stuff That Dreams Are Made Of

Sexton lived at Hodel ‘s creepy lair on Franklin Ave. and is considered a co-suspect by Hodel’s son who wrote a book about the case. The house was bugged by the LAPD back in the early 50’s, transcriptions of the wire recordings show Dr. Hodel discussing Vincent Price with someone.

Lair of The Black Dahlia Killer

Steve Hodel’s book is called Black Dahlia Avenger and now there is a new book called Exquisite Corpse about the Surrealist aspect to the crime and all the Hollywood connections to it. Check out these websites for fascinating information on the crime and the web of connective tissue that emantes from it. http://www.blackdahliaavenger.com/
http://exquisitecorpsebook.blogspot.com/

Rialto Pictures has done it again! They re-released a classic film from the early 60’s. Jean Pierre Melville’s Le Doulos.

Super Cool Graphic

They resurrected Melville’s Army of Shadows last year, another gem. I really like their technique, find a super cool film that was never released here ( or minimally released) make a few restored prints and do a limited traveling theatrical exhibition. This keeps the overhead low and gives people all over the country ( at least in the big cities) a chance to see these films in a theater. Also it generates interest for DVD sales! A win/win situation.

Doulos means hat

So I went to the Friday night 10:30 pm show at the Nuart Theater in Santa Monica and it was at least 3/4 full! Right On! The movie is great , a little convoluted with a lot of characters and a big expositional flashback, probably all inherited from the Serie Noir novel it was based on but worth the effort. Jean Paul Belmondo gives an austere focused performance. He is incredible, sharp as a razor and ruthless but with a deep sense of honor.

Shooting Star Belmondo

Watching this film I was made aware of his astounding versatility. He can be very funny, ice cold, sexy, cool and pull off dangerous stunts, and his persona leaps off the screen, you want to know him, be his friend or depending on your orientation, sleep with him, in a word he is a movie star. A star of the ice blue super cool part of the Spectrum. Melville the americanophile delivers his noir take on a Hollywood Gangster Film. The Hat, the Trench Coat, symbols oF The Detective, the Lone Wolf that operates outside of the Law but is subject to his own strict moral code.

Le Car American

Characters drive around Paris in big American cars, just like Melville did. The atmosphere of this film is astounding, fog, train whistles screaming at you and hurtling out of the mist like Forces of Fate, oblivious to the lives of the insignificant men pursuing their nefarious ends under their trestles, struggling like ants over gold, jewels, money, women, power, death.

Trains Rush By like the Crushing Fates Of Greek Tragedy

Betrayal, Loyalty, Revenge, Love, Need. The pieces on the Chessboard. A man digs a hole like an animal with his bare hands and buries jewels wrapped in a handkerchief, a block of bank notes and a pistol swathed in an oil cloth. The spoils of a murder he’s just committed.

Digging Like an Animal

And the Police, doggedly pursuing the criminals who treat them with studied indifference, cooly facing long stretches in prison, The Police prying, forcing information with intimidation, blackmail, whatever it takes. Trying to turn a crook into a doulos or finger man, a rat. There is a famous scene at Police HQ where Silien (J.P. Belmondo) is being interrogated, the inspector circles Silien like a bird of prey, sniping at him , trying to trip him up, his two detectives chime in from time to time, the camera dances with them all in the confined glass enclosed space and without noticing it, a 10 minute scene has played out before you, all without cutting once! a masterpiece of camera movement, blocking, dialog, looks, sounds.

The One Take Scene
I feel it’s a direct homage to Orson Welles’ Touch Of Evil. Everyone always talks about the opening shot of that film but it’s the scene in the love nest apartment where Quinlan plants the dynamite and his partner discovers it that blows me away, and that’s the scene I think Melville is referencing. Check it out, the dialogue is so perfectly deilvered you’ll have a hard time noticing it doesn’t cut! Melville’s attention to detail is superb as well, the locations, cars , clothes, casting. This film was made at the Rue Jenner Studio. The Studio Melville owned in Paris! How cool is that the guy had his own studio! The set pieces are all excellently executed, a caper gone wrong, a sly set-up to throw blame on the wrong men, A tense scene at a nightclub where Belmondo pulls the bad guy’s girl, right from under his nose. These scenes click like clockwork.

Bad Guy’s Babe in Belmondo’s Bed

It’s also full of textures, sensual moments, tactile pleasures.

Sensual. Tactile Elements

At the end of the film there is a shot of a hat falling, rolling towards the camera. Suddenly in the middle of a camera move the image freezes. Did Melville not want us to see what the camera was panning to reveal? Why did he freeze? I think it gives a horrible finality, to freeze like that in the middle of a move.

The Final Frame
A lot of films end with freeze frames but this one had a powerful effect on me. Check it out and see if you agree now that you have the chance.

Always Adjust Your Hat

Calling all Film Forno Fans in the greater New Orleans area. ONWY was just accepted to the 2007 New Orleans Film Festival. We are super excited and raring to go down to the Big Easy, one of the coolest spots on the planet. If you dig music, food, architecture, birthplace of the cocktail, hey great human culture! Go to New Orleans! See the Zulu King! Come during October and check out our film! Spend some scratch in the cradle of Jazz, the Crescent City, they need your support! I’ll post details as we get them but we hope to see y’all there!

Mina

Here’s a clip of the wonderful Mina singing Amore, Amore. That’s the writer of the song Pierro Picconi at the pipe organ. Picconi wrote a myriad of scores for great italian films, (like The 10th Victim). And that’s the super genius composer Gianni Ferrio conducting. Gianni is one of the best arrangers of italian pop music and soundtracks from the Golden Age of italian Cinema. I met Gianni at his villa outside Roma when Daniele Luppi and I interviewed him. He’s an incredible person, so cool, so brilliant.
p.s. If this song doesn’t move you, jump in a hole, pull your dirt blanket up under your chin and sleep the Big Sleep.

This post is about the super talented Art Director Albert S. D’Agostino. He designed the sets for some great Universal horror films of the 30’s, like The Raven with Boris Karloff and Bela Lugosi and The Invisible Ray also with Karloff and Lugosi.

We’ll put the embalming machine right there.

Then he moved over to my favorite studio, the crazy house RKO. Here he worked on some more masterpieces of supernatural atmosphere, all of Val Lewton’s classics- The Cat People, The Leopard Man, I Walked With A Zombie, Curse Of The Cat People.

The Cat People

Who ordered The Zombie?

While at RKO he was made head of the Art Department and he is credited on hundreds of films including some incredible noirs like Out Of The Past, The Spiral Staircase andClash By Night.

One Of My All Time Favorites

And Howard Hawk’s The Thing From Another World! His credits are mind boggling. I’m attaching a scan of an article from the summer 1971 issue of Cinefantastique by Gary D. Dorst written at the time of D’Agostino’s death. If anyone has any more information about him or knew him please let me know, I’d love to get more information on Mr. D’Agostino.
Here’s a link to a great article about him:http://www.filmreference.com/Writers-and-Production-Artists-Ch-De/D-Agostino-Albert-S.html
And here is the scan of the CineFantastique article

Albert D’Agostino – CineFantastique

p.s. Our last names are very similar, I always wondered if we might be related.

I bought a few videos at Jerry’s since he’s closing up shop. One of them was Mario Bava’s Operazione Paura (USA Title: Kill, Baby… Kill!). What an amazingly cool movie. This is the first time I’ve seen it and it ranks up there with Black Sunday.

Excellent Locations

Bava was a supreme visual artist as the screenshots will attest. He studied to be a fine artist but followed in his father’s footsteps and became a Cinema Artist instead. His father Eugenio was a sculptor and the father of Italian Cinematographic Special Effects, in fact according to the excellent commentary by Bava expert Tim Lucas, Eugenio invented the so-called Schufftan Process on Cabiria years before Schufftan used it on Metropolis!

Bava’s father gave him the ripple glass used in this shot

The apple didn’t fall far from the tree as Mario uses many incredible in camera effects in his films. Effects that he designed and executed himself! The only person around today that does this kind of thing is Michel Gondry. But back to our movie. There are so many painterly compositions in this film. I’ve selected a few paintings I was reminded of.

Mario studied Art History and he grew up in Roma, surrounded by great art and it’s evident here. Some of the artists brought to mind by Kill, Baby… Kill are Peter Breughel the elder, Piranesi, di Cherico, and Salvador Dali.

An etching by Piranesi

A CinePainting By Bava

Existential town squares, surreal crumbling landscapes, strange scenes of medieval village life are all brought to mind.

Here’s one in the Studio

This film was made for next to nothing but looks so incredible, Bava was a true “painter with light” as a cameraman and director.

All The Colors Of The Dark

His use of colored gels in composing a scene is unequaled, as well as his beautiful camera moves, always in the service of telling the story, never drawing attention to themselves. He would use ripple glass in front of the camera, or a distorting mirror, or shoot through a painting on glass, or as I mentioned earlier use colored lights to create an effect. All done In camera! Nowadays it’s all put together on a computer after the shoot is over and at much greater expense.

Child’s Play

The music is by Carlo Rustichelli, an old school Italian composer, he scored many peplums (Muscle man films, Machiste, Hercules, Samson). But according to Lucas he only wrote one piece expressly for this film. A beautiful piece that works perfectly. The instruments are Celeste, Vibraphone, Harp, and Fender Bass, and usually there’s a child’s laughter playing over it. Great! There is also some pipe organ pedal music used. My friend Danieli Luppi ( a great Italian composer) told me that many of these film scores were done at a studio in Rome called Forum. It’s in the basement of a church and when the church was empty they would use it’s pipe organ! It gives an even more chilling aspect to horror movie music to know it was recorded in an old church. The rest of the score is cobbled together from other Bava films and other uncredited composers. Tim Lucas says the producers ran out of money halfway through the shoot. People had to work for free and Bava was never paid! So when it came time to score the movie there was no dough! Bava had to call in some favors and get whatever music his friends could give him. I’d like to talk about the Italian method of film scoring vs. the american way. The Italian composer would read the script and write themes, sometimes he’d record the music before the film was shot! The american on the other hand has a stopwatch and some idiot director yelling at him” OK on this frame I want a sting! When her eyes move I want a change in the music!” It’s so micro managed you lose the musical flow! When you edit a movie you are creating a visual music out of the shots, there’s a rhythm, a pace, a heartbeat, it’s musical. So when you put a piece of music against a scene magic happens, things coincide, sync up, play as one. I personally like the Italian way better.

The Haunted Villa

The Inn

Visions Of Hell

The locations chosen for this film are so great, they convey the atmosphere perfectly, also this is a period piece set in 1907, today that means $100 million dollars! The budget for this film was about $50,000! Fog machines and fake cobwebs add a lot of creepiness, but they have to be lit right or else they look bad.

The Kill Baby at the Window

A Daliesque composition

There is an amazing sequence in the film where the hero Dr. Eswai is confronted by the ghost of a little girl in her mother’s haunted villa. The female lead Monica Schuftan disappears, he hears her cry from another room and rushes to save her, he enters a Moebius strip of time and space rushing from room to room, trying to reach Monica but always entering the room he just left. He sees someone exiting just as he enters, he runs faster finally catching up to the fleeing phantom, he grabs the guys shoulder and turns him around only to discover, himself! Super Cool!

Moebius Chase Scene

Also a dream sequence made of distorted shots that works really well.

In Dreams

After this Bava was picked by Dino DeLaurentis to direct Diabolik. Dino wanted to give him a large budget but Bava refused. He knew if he accepted a lot of money he’d have to accept the control that went with it and that was not for him. He enjoyed making films his way, he evolved a technique of special effects so he could create anything his imagination came up with and for very little money. Lamberto Bava, Mario’s son said all the Italian intellectuals and big time filmmakers would go to see Bava’s films. Luchino Viscounti gave Operatzione Paura a standing ovation when he saw it.

Have a Ball, Baby

And Federico Fellini lifted the figure of the little girl and her ball symbolizing evil and dropped it into his film Toby Dammit a year later. Bava a super talented creator worked in genres looked down upon by the critics of his day, he worked with miniscule budgets and a lot of unknown actors, that’s why he was able to accomplish so much. Like another of my favorite artists, Chester Himes, who wrote genre detective stories brought out in cheap paperback editions but enabling him to give free reign to his creative spirit. If you like horror, if you’re interested in seeing pure creativity splashed across the silver screen, if you love film, see Kill, Baby… Kill!

What a bummer! My favorite video store is closing down! I just found out that they will close their doors for good on Tuesday after 20 years of operation.

Now What was it I was going to rent?

This is a place where you could find really obscure stuff, a lot of things only available on VHS. Tapes with stickers that said “$400 if lost or damaged”. Jerry and his wife are being forced out, victims of escalating rent and other expenses.

Jerry & Mary

Some corporate crap house will no doubt take over his space. Yuck! Many’s the night a small crowd would be gathered by the counter talking film, watching a bizarre clip Jerry would be playing on a monitor by the door. “Hey Jerry can you show my friend the opening of Cemetary Without Crosses?”

Wait a minute, I reserved Showgirls! Give it back!

I would recommend movies to people if they showed an interest. When an actor died news people would call Jerry for a clip. Writers and directors would rent reference films , researching projects, ripping off, I mean getting inspired by old films. Jerry was interviewed about William Castle, Ed Wood, his favorite movie-King Kong, Wah Chang, etc., etc. He always knew the name of every obscure character actor, he was always talking about particular episodes of long forgotten TV shows. He’s a great source of Hollywood history.

Filmed in Percepto! You are the clerk!

I’d see lots of Celebrities in there. One Time Leonardo DiCaprio was shining a laser pointer at passing cars from the parking lot!

Hey Mister! Are you a Celebrity?

Maybe Jerry will offer a phone in information service. ” Hello, Jerry’s video info!” ” Yeah, umm, who was the guy that played Gort in The Day The Earth Stood Still?” I guess running a video store can get to be a grind, when I asked Jerry “What are you going to do now?” he replied” As little as possible!” So lift up a stein of Belgian Beer and toast the passing of a movie oasis, an island of cool films that’s sinking beneath the waves of corporate media.

So Long Old Friend

Before there was The Matrix, before V for Vendetta, there was John Carpenter’s They Live. A super cool concept, alien mind control working through Television, Billboards, Newspapers, all media. The Aliens run everything and they keep the humans hopping like hamsters on a wheel. I watched some of Halloween last night and I started thinking about John Carpenter, I really like Starman my old pal Jack Nitzsche did the score for that movie and it’s very cool. Mark Boone Junior , star of One Night With You and prominently featured in the upcoming 30 Days Of Night is in Carpenter’s Vampires. He gets cut in two by a vampire when he answers the door and he slowly slides apart. I saw Carpenter once at Musso and Frank’s, the oldest restaurant in Hollywood. I had gone there with Boone to meet a producer when Carpenter called Boone to his table. His hair is white as snow, he wears jet black welders goggle type glasses and he can’t stand sunlight, kind of like a vampire from his film. I guess he got over exposed to ultra-violet radiation while making The Thing ( his masterpiece) and now he must stay covered like a Bedouin when outdoors.

Look Familiar?

But back to They Live, like I said a great idea, the film is crazy, there’s a fight scene between Rowdy Roddy Piper and Keith David that goes on for a very long time, I found it on Youtube so I’m including it and the trailer. Roddy finds some sunglasses that enable the wearer to see the aliens among us and see their mind control techniques in action. Also Roddy has one of the best action lines in action movies. ” Gentlemen, I’ve come here to chew bubblegum and kick ass. And I’m all out of bubblegum!” A guilty pleasure.

Trailer

World’s Longest Fist Fight

I guess the biker movie motif has got me. Writing about The Wild One got me thinking about this other biker flick The Born Losers. It’s pretty badly made, some of the worst grade Z lighting in any flick ever! Especially the scenes with Jane Russell. ( What is she doing in this movie???) But what it does have going for it is , Billy Jack, the first appearance of this drive- in icon. Part Indian, part Green Beret he’s a back to nature ass kicker. There’s a scene where he’s standing off the whole biker gang at a gas station, he uses the cardinal rule of street fighting, make a weapon out of whatever’s at hand, ( car antenna, bottle, etc.) in this case he douses a downed biker with gas and threatens to light him up with a Zippo unless they let him and his chick get away. The lead chick , Vicky Barrington, is a strange one, she rides around on a motorcycle in a bikini and boots, she’s a spoiled rich brat, she is constantly wisecracking, even to the bikers that want to rape her! And she wrote the script! Several young girls get raped by the polymorphously perverse biker gang. Vicky gets it from a singularly unappealing deaf mute who goes around making noises like ” Unnnggghhhhoooouuuuggggnnn!” Wacko!

Dig those white shades on The Leader Of The Pack
The gang members tounge kiss each other and one hirsute member is always asking the other guys to take a shower together! Where other movies skirt around the piratical homosexuality this movie embraces it with a big sloppy kiss! The greatest scene by far though is where a badly beaten Billy Jack returns to rescue Vicky from the bikers, he’s got a gun and he tells the leader he’s going to count to 3. Danny calls his bluff, Billy Jack: “One!” Danny:”You can’t get all of us”Billy Jack :”Two!” Danny: “I’m going to rip your guts out, half breed” Billy Jack: “Three!”, BLAM!!! He shoots Danny right between the eyes! Splitting his groovy white sunglasses in two! Insane! We’ve all seen this scene before, it never ends with the bad guy getting shot! Except this time! It’s a mind blower! This movie was very successful, it was made for zilch and looks it but it raked in mucho dinero at the box office, probably at Drive-Ins across the USA. I can’t really recommend it, it’s up to you, I’m posting the trailer YOU make up your mind. It definitely falls into my new category: CRAPTASTIC.

Today is the 20th anniversary of Lee Marvin’s death, to celebrate the greatness of Mr. Marvin a group of bloggers are writing about him and some of his films. I’m taking on The Wild One. Wait a minute, you might say, isn’t that a Brando film? Well yeah but Lee comes in and steals the show!

Scene Stealer
Brando looks like he was drawn by Tom of Finland. His costume is so fetishized , boots, tight jeans, black leather jacket, black leather gloves, motorcycle cap, tee shirt, slave bracelet! Did this film give birth to this homoerotic costume? Guys were wearing this in Friedkin’s Cruising.

Vision Of Homoeroticism

But Lee is all crazy macho clown prince of anarchy. The coolest striped shirt in Cinema. A WWII leather flight helmet and goggles. He’s like the Trickster character of Mythology.

The Trickster
Crazy, violent, with a wild sense of humor. His first words to Brando are ” Hello Sweetheart!” and he keeps saying ” Johnny, I love you. Let’s drink some beers and then I’ll beat the Christmas out of you!” Crazy man!

Let’s drink some beers and I’ll beat the Christmas out of you!

These bikers are sort of like crazed Beatniks, more than savage killers. They’re almost proto-hippies, talking jive, dancing, playing. This film was a huge cultural phenomenon.

Slip me Some Skin, Pops!

The Juke gets a lot of Screen Time. Dig that crazy 78 it’s playing

One of my older friends told me that when lt came out, his older brothers went to see it and the next day they all bought motorcycles. Brando is driving a 1951 Triumph Thunderbird. A cool machine.

Black Rebel Motorcycle Club, That’s where the band got it’s name

I heard he was taught to ride by a black stuntman named King Kong. I also heard that Mr. Kong was having a red hot love affair with blonde bombshell Barbara Payton! Back in the uptight 50’s, Zowie! Lee looks to be driving a stripped down Harley Flathead. Also cool. The movie starts off with the usual motorcycle antics. Riding, run in with the Law, terrorizing a tiny town, then Brando meets the uptight girl. They’re about to leave, the energy’s getting low when Big Bad Lee Marvin shows up! He kicks the film into overdrive, really boosting the octane with his crazed, funny, dangerous portrayal of Chino. Once he and Johnny were in the same gang but alas no more. Now they must kick the shit out of each other everytime they meet. Super Psycho Timothy Carey shows up as a henchman of Lee’s, he throws a beer in Lee’s face to wake him after Brando knocks him out.

Wake up Chino!
Carey is great in Kubrick’s Paths Of Glory and really chews up the scenery in de Toth’s Crime Wave, another noir in the Vol. 4 collection I’ve been writing about. But really this movie is more important as a cultural landmark than a great piece of Cinema. It changed our society in several ways. It was based on a story in Life magazine about a group of bikers that terrorize a small California town and from what I’ve heard the story was exaggerated to sell more magazines.

Ring Around the Square Chick!

The top stars of this time, at least the ones that appealed to the teenagers like Brando and James Dean, exposed their sensitivity, they cried,they were a bit gender confused, Brando always wanted to be beaten in every role he played back then.

Beaten Brando

Not Lee Marvin, he was 100% macho, take it or leave it. Michael Parks, one of the stars of my film One Night With You and star of the late 60’s motorcycle Television series Then Came Bronson told me that when he saw The Wild One he didn’t care for Brando, it was the other guy, Lee Marvin that he wanted to be like. Happy Anniversary Lee, we miss you down here on Terra Firma.
p.s. Check out more Lee Marvin blogs at:
http://www.moviemorlocks.com/blog?action=detail&entry_id=8a258bcb14afce0a0114b0216bed0002

Save me a place in Valhalla, Daddio!

Bridget Fossey

Once in a great while a film comes along that rocks you to your very roots. Forbidden Games is such a film. It is by the great Rene Clement. He created several master works like, Purple Noon (The original Talented Mr. Ripley), and Rider On The Rain with Charles Bronson but this one is my favorite . I first saw this film when I was a young lad, it played on The Million Dollar Movie back in New York on WOR Channel 9. I must offer thanks to the unknown programmer of that show. I saw Peter Brooks Lord Of The Flies, Bergman’s Virgin Spring, De Sica’s Two Women, Bunuel’s Robinson Crusoe, Losey’s Boy with The Green Hair, and Fellini’s La Dolce Vita all on The Million Dollar Movie and it made me a cinephile for life.

The Peasant and The Princess

Forbidden Games starts with a long line of people on a country road, they’re fleeing Paris as the Nazi’s approach. We meet a young couple with a beautiful daughter, the little girl has a puppy she cherishes. Suddenly a sound from the sky, a German Messerschmidt fighter plane, it strafes the refugees, killing the girls parents and the puppy. The girl wanders away in shock carrying the tiny dog. She’s found by a farm family and brought into the farm house. These rough hewn folk marvel at her finery and her beauty. The young son of the farmers immediately falls in love with this rare jewel that’s appeared like a vision in their midst. The little girl tries to cope with her parents demise in a strange way.She and the boy create a fantasy cemetery burying the puppy and any other deceased creatures they come across. The imagery is powerful, romantic, emotionally intoxicating. It’s like a fairy tale come to life.

A Fairy Tale Come To Life

Clement understands that by using children as protagonists, we (the audience) experience the film as children. We re-experiance the time of our innocence and our most vivid impressions of life. The music is by the wonderful guitarist Narcisco Yepes. I had the good fortune to see him play at Alice Tully Hall in New York and he was incredible. He played a 10 string classical guitar of his own design.

Check out his music, it’s great and check out this film it’s tragic beauty will touch your soul. Below is a clip from the film, sorry about the lack of subtitles.