Angel’s Flight

Written by Joe D on August 28th, 2015

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Here is an interesting movie, Angel’s Flight. Shot in L.A. right before the destruction of Bunker Hill, the characters even discuss the immanent annihillation of the neighborhood, one character, a bartender, wishes he could write so he he could immortalize this vanishing part of L.A., the alky writer he’s talking to finally fullfill’s his dream, penning the pulp noir story of Angel’s Flight.
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Bunker Hill, Pre-Razing in all it’s seedy glory!

The same motivation the filmmakers had, capturing the sleazey leftovers of Victorian splendor, Bunker Hill. Once home to the rich and powerful, now Manses cut up into rooming houses, the last stop on the trolley of life.
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Filmmakers loved this area, check out Kiss Me Deadly, Criss Cross, The Exiles, Little Shop Of Horrors,The Indestructible Man,Act Of Violence, all shot here. This film reminds me of Touch Of Evil, the grimy bars, strippers, juke boxes,gritty streets at dusk, poetry in the trash heap.
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Gimme that old time religion!

There’s even an uptight landlady that is reminiscent of Dennis Weaver’s motel manager from Welle’s classic noir. The story? Beautiful blonde kiler, she was raped as a teen, now she obsesively paints the face of her rapist over and over. She’s a stripper to make ends meet and also to meet men, whom she then dispatches with a straight razor, revenge against the sex of the asshole that raped her. Here comes the Marlboro man, (the writer actually was the first model to represent the Marlboro Man) . He’s a wino, depressed over the death of his wife, he witnesses a murder but was too drunk to know if it really happened.
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One of my favorite shots in the movie!

The girl is all mixed up, religious, she goes to church and to a Skid Row Ministry, but anytime a guy puts the moves on her, ZZZZT out comes the razor, kind of like GoGo in Kill Bill.
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I’ll cut your ass!

Writer falls for beautiful killer but it’s too late baby. Great idiotic ending on Angel’s Flight. Guess what happens.
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Tracks Of Death!

There’s a killing in the 3rd street tunnel, a beautiful spot you can still visit and a lot of crummy Bunker Hill rooming houses right next to Angel’s Flight, maybe where John Fante lived and wrote Ask The Dust.
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What can I say, I love movies that are shot in places that no longer exist, the stuff that dreams are made of,here’s a chance to time travel.

The Metropolis Case

Written by Joe D on August 27th, 2015

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Here is a very informative documentary about early German Cinema in general and Metropolis in particular. Fritz Lang said he never paid any attention to the critics, maybe he had something there, Metropolis was panned when it came out. I read somewhere that Lang was still editing the last reels of Metropolis while the first reels were being projected at the Premier, a motorcycle messenger would race with the reels to the theater as Lang finished them! This outdoes Michael Mann for editorial craziness and gives credence to the old saying “Films aren’t finished they’re abandoned”. Anyway if you are interested in the great Expressionist heritage of German Cinema check it out.

Bring Me The Head Of F.W. Murnau

Written by Joe D on August 18th, 2015

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Here is a great documentary about German film director F.W. Murnau and the making of his early masterpiece, Nosferatu. Recently Murnau’s grave was broken into and his head was taken, authorities reported finding melted wax at the location and a possible “occult” connection was made.

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Could a group of Satanists or Magick practitioners have made off with Murnau’s head? and why? Probably because he is the man that created Nosferatu, those indelible images of the bald, animalistic vampire.

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In this great documentary an expert on the occult, Wolfgang Kistermann testifies that the producer of Nosferatu and founder of Prana films, Albin Grau, was a leader in German occult societies and had dealings with the O.T.O. , the group led by Aliester Crowley.

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Albin Grau
Perhaps this secret society is still active in Germany? Perhaps they are responsible for the violation of Murnau’s grave and the theft of his kopf? I read an interview with Murnau’s brother, he travelled to Tahiti, where Murnau had made his last film, Tabu. The Tahitians told him Murnau had offended their Gods by building a mansion on a tabu site, a place the Tahitians shunned, and the Gods had caused his untimely death in an automobile accident.

The Cabinet Of Dr. Calgari- Masters Of Cinema BluRay

Written by Joe D on August 16th, 2015

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This is a great restoration of a seminal film. Masters Of Cinema has done it again. They release high quality material. The Cabinet Of Dr. Calgari went through a rigorous restoration by the F.W. Murnau Siftung. The original camera negative was used whenever possible, I believe for most of the film except the first reel. You can see so many details that were lost, like the chalk lines on Cesare the somnambulist’s black outfit and the painted sets, costumes, and characters faces have never looked so good, so full of expression.

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Ceasare, the sensative somnambulist

It is fascinating to watch a film that takes place in such an unrealistic setting, almost all scenes were photographed in front of painted backgrounds and yet is so effective. A miraculous achievement. This film was a huge commercial hit as well. Perhaps owing to it’s unorthodox “You Must Become Calgari” ad campaign.

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It brings to mind Hitchcock’s “The Birds is Coming” campaign years later.

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Hitchcock did spend some time as a young man at Ufa Studios in Germany, maybe he was influenced by Calgari.

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A still from The Blackguard, a film Hitcock worked on at Ufa in Berlin in 1925

Tony Perkins does resemble Cesare, Cesare (Conrad Veidt) later played Maj. Strasser in Casablanca, the Nazi Bogey shoots at the airport. He was also in The Thief Of Baghdad with Sabu.

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Cesare in Hollywood, transformed into evil Nazi Maj. Strasser

There’s a story that Fritz Lang wanted to direct Calgari but wasn’t able to do so because of other commitments, I believe it, Lang later went on to direct the DR. Mabuse films and The Testament of Dr. Mabuse shares a similar theme with Calgari, the head of an insane asylum is an evil maniac, spreading mayhem and murder.Lang was not above borrowing from his peers, in Murnau’s Faust, a fantasy sequence shows rising rings of energy surrounding the transforming Faust, this same imagery was used by Lang in Metropolis during the creation of the robot Maria.

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Such an incredibly rich period of German Filmmaking! They really set the stage for fantastic, dark, atmospheric, dreamlike Cinema. Then they fled Hitler came to the USA and created Film Noir, a great legacy.
UPDATE: I recently read that Murnau’s grave had been broken into and his head was stolen. They found melted wax at the scene from candles, suggesting an occult angle. Satanists wanted the skull of the man that made Nosferatu and Faust?

Lee Marvin- M Squad

Written by Joe D on August 2nd, 2015

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Here is a TV show that starred the great Lee Marvin! Wow , a treasure trove of unwatched pieces of Lee Marvin, how cool is that! You can watch episodes on the internet or buy a 16 dvd set of the entire series. I leave that up to you, how big a fan of Lee Marvin are you? Here’s a litmus test. Anyway it looks like they shot some second unit in Chicago, Lee’s big Ford barrelling around the city, so he could do some voice over, then cut to a process shot of him driving in front of projected footage of Chicago streets while he continued his expository VO.

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Then onto the sets of Revue, a Hollywood TV production company, where Lee would slug it out with some gangsters and then to satisfy his fan base’s bloodlust blast someone with his 38 police special.

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I guess Revue later became Universal Television, where Leee Marvin would star in the first 2 hour movie made for Television, Ernest Hemingway’s The Killers, you can read about that here in a previous post. That’s probably what got me on this Lee Marvin kick in the first place.


M Squad The Take Over by superannuatedlps