Martin Scorsese's American Boy

Filmed in January 1977, American Boy is a wonderful 55-min documentary about Scorsese's friend Steven Prince, a fast-talkin' New York hipster who appeared in Taxi Driver as a gun salesman, and New York New York as a record producer. Prince spins stories of his life, from his childhood when he tuned a fast buck selling bagels to wealthy New York Jews, to his adventures as road manager for Neil Diamond when he was just 21, and his experience with drugs from which he developed a serious dope habit.

Prince knows how to tell a funny story, but behind the hollowed out eye sockets there's a kind of world weary wisdom - Prince had watched a kid get electrocuted when setting up a stage show, and he himself shot a hopped-up stick-up man six times when he was working the til of a gas station. Prince rightly describes himself as a "survivor" and in one of the final scenes Scorsese tries to push his subject's buttons by asking him to describe his relationship with his dying father - something that is obviously painful for Prince, but he holds tough and remains composed. Watching the film I wondered if Scorsese had been a fan of Portrait of Jason, Shirley Jackson's 1967 indie documentary about a black, gay hustler. Certainly Quentin Tarantino has seen American Boy - the scene in Pulp Fiction where Uma Thurman gets an adrenaline shot into the heart is lifted directly from one of Prince's anecdotes...

Lost In Space

I've just completed a marathon run of the 1st season of 60's cult sci-fi series Lost In Space. Lost In Space follows the adventures of the intergalactic pioneering Robinson Family who leave an increasingly over populated Earth to begin a new human settlement on the planet Alpha Centauri. However, their mission has been sabotaged by devious robotics engineer Dr. Zachery Smith who unwittingly becomes a stowaway on the Robinson voyage. Each week, the Robinson Family along with co-pilot Major Don West and an all-purpose robot face danger and adventure as they make their way across the galaxy to find a new home...

Lost In Space was an Irwin Allen production for CBS that ran for 3 seasons, clocking up some 83 episodes, airing between September 15, 1965 and March 6, 1968. It never enjoyed the street cred. that Star Trek has, mainly because the show made no bones about being silly and fun. Most of the comedy is provided by Johnathon Harris who plays the lazy, self-serving, conniving and devious Dr. Smith who's often selling out the family to some alien race in exchange for a ride back to Earth. Smith's funniest moments are his put downs to the Robot ("Quiet, You Hulking Mass of Mechanical Ignorance!") or his oft repeated mantra - "Oh, the pain, the pain"

Most people when recalling Lost In Space will remember the gaudy, candy-colored planetscapes that were featured on the show every week, but Season 1 was shot in black & white. Lost In Space, unlike Star Trek dealt with fantasy elements as well as sci-fi themes and was often absurd in its logic. Among the special guests who appeared in the first season included Warren Oates as a cosmic cowboy, Michael Rennie (the alien from Day the Earth Stood Still), and a 14 year old Kurt Russell as an alien prince. Forbidden Planet's Robby the Robot also appeared as a special guest star in the episode entitled "War of the Robots"

Fox's Season 1 boxset collects all 29 episodes spread across 8 discs, plus as an extra, the original unaired pilot. Image and audio quality is very good, I imagine the materials were not as pristine as what Paramount used for their Star Trek series collections but the transfers are generally strong.

Aliens - the Teaser trailer

The Alien series hits Blu-Ray in October and while the first film is my favourite of all the Alien films, I'm most excited about seeing Aliens on Blu-Ray. Aliens has always suffered from a dark, grainy image on DVD so it will be interesting to see how the Blu-Ray will handle it... Since the announcement of the Alien series hitting Blu-Ray, I've been listening to the group commentary from Aliens. This is the second time I've tuned in to this commentary and it's a good one - lots of fascinating insights into the production of the film from James Cameron along with the cast & crew.

Incidentally, the teaser trailer for Aliens remains my favourite trailer of all time. This one dispenses with dialogue (which the other trailers for Aliens have) and instead features a brilliant montage of clips from the film set to a terrifying atonal score. It must have been quite an experience to see this in cinemas in the Spring of '86. If you have the Alien boxset, the teaser trailer can be found on Disc 9, or check out the clip below...

A Scream In the Streets

Students of Trash Cinema who regularly make pilgrimage to 42nd Street would do well to seek out Something Weird's DVD of A Scream In the Streets, (aka Girls In the Streets) a low down dirty-ass exploitation roughie from 1973. The plot - and I use the term loosely - concerns Ed Haskell, a hard-nose cop who's been assigned a new partner, Bob Streeker (?), a hot-head who hates doing things by the book. Together they patrol the streets of suburban LA in search of a serial rapist who's MO is raping and killing young girls whilst dressed as a woman...

Watching A Scream In the Streets you get the feeling that the production probably started out as a thriller in the vein of the new hard edge cop films that were emerging - Dirty Harry and The French Connection, but along the way got turned into a sexploitation flick - considering that every 10mins or so the story grinds to a halt for some borderline-hardcore sex. The direction, credited to Carl Monson is mostly flat and insipid, although the film does break out in two sequences - a Peckinpah-style shootout (cue meaty squibs and slow-mo), and a car chase that's sabotaged by some amateurish undercranking. As for the cops, its a wonder that these guys are not directing traffic, totally inept at law enforcement and spending most of the film bitchin' rather than arrestin'. Of course none of that hardly matters, A Scream In the Streets delivers plenty of sleazy thrills, and a jaw-dropping final shot (a splitscreen freezeframe, no less!) which suggests that that the film makers were probably not taking any of this seriously in the first place. Yep, I liked it.

This being a Harry Novak production, its not surprising the source print used for Something Weird's DVD is in great shape - sharp, bright and showing minimal wear and tear. The extras are the usually treasure trove of Something Weird flotsam and jetsam, and be sure to watch the extra called Harry Novak Crime Stopper, a highly amusing shot-on-video trip to the office of Harry Novak by the Something Weird crew.

Kingdom of the Spiders

When cattle in a small town in Arizona turn up dead for no apparent reason, local vet Robert "Rack" Hansen (William Shatner, beefy) along with scientist Diane Ashley (Tiffany Bolling, gorgeous) investigate the mysterious circumstances only to discover that a shift in the balance of nature has given rise to a strain of highly aggressive tarantulas intent on feeding on the town folk...

Made in 1977, in the wake of Jaws, Kingdom of the Spiders is a superior example of the nature vs. man genre that was so popular in the 70's (Frogs, Squirm, Grizzly etc). The premise may sound schlocky on paper, but the film is anything but, delivering some real menace and suspense, successfully importing elements from The Birds and Night of the Living Dead, and bravely playing out with a quietly devastating ending. Interestingly the film's premise is close to the 1974 zombie film The Living Dead At Manchester Morgue, both films explore the consequences of mankind's interference with the natural order - in the case of Kingdom of the Spiders, pesticides have destroyed the tarantula's place in the food-chain, so they turn to humans for food.

Director Jon "Bud" Cardos gets great mileage out of the story with some slick low angle shots of spiders creeping around, and in particular two striking set pieces involving a crop-duster, and descent into a darkened cellar. Besides excellent work from Shatner and Bolling, the film benefits greatly from the extended cast - 5,000 Mexican tarantulas who are marvelous - there's no Fulci fakery here à la The Beyond, these creepy-crawlies are the real deal.


Worth applauding also the human extras who allowed themselves to be covered and crawled upon by spiders - no mean feat. Incidentally, Wes Craven would go one better in his 1980 film Deadly Blessing by placing a spider in Sharon Stone's mouth. Animal lovers should note that there is extensive stomping and other punishments doled out to the spiders, and the film if remade today would have to make extensive use of CGI to satisfy the American Humane Association. One to savour indeed.

My copy of Spiders is the 2002 Goodtimes DVD which was a good budget disc for its time, but can now be discarded for Shout! Factory's magnificent 2010 edition, with a superior transfer (and in its OAR finally) and worthwhile extras - commentary, interviews and some Super-8 onset footage). The film is best avoided by those with a sensitive disposition to the eight legged freaks of this world, but for those looking for a solid 70's chiller, Kingdom of the Spiders is highly recommended.

Wong Kar-Wai's Blueberry Nights

When Lizzie (Norah Jones) discovers her ex boyfriend has moved on with another woman, she winds up at a cafe by owned Jeremy (Jude Law) who provides a sympathetic ear and blueberry pie. Deciding on a new career in a new town, Lizzie gets out of New York and heads south to Memphis and onto Las Vegas, swapping her sad story for someone else's - a depressed, alcoholic cop (David Strathairn) who can't accept the separation from his wife (Rachel Weisz); and a young woman (Natalie Portman) who works out her complex, strained relationship with her father by gambling...

Another meditation from Wong Kar-Wai on the impossibility of relationships, 2007's My Blueberry Nights is like the lip-smacking title, a treat. Its stylish, sexy and full of regular Wong Kar-Wai hooks - food, music (listen out for a mournful harmonica refrain of the main theme from In the Mood for Love), dazzlingly shot by Darius Khondji, (while Kar-Wai's perennial cameraman Christopher Doyle was away shooting a Gus Van Sant film) and featuring the director's signature motion-blur technique, lending the film a dreamlike ambiance. Performances across the board are excellent - Norah Jones is impressive and like her music, is low-key and natural, while Natalie Portman in particular is marvelous to watch.

Some critics greeted the film with a lukewarm reception complaining that the film didn't have any of the playful, free-wheeling style of Wong-Kar Wai's previous films, and while there's some truth to this - there's no Ashes of Time style narrative trickery at work here, My Blueberry Nights is a thousand times more cool and sophisticated than anything currently coming out of Hollywood and for this alone, the film is one to savor.

Panic in Year '88 - Miracle Mile

One of the great secret gems of 80's Cinema, Miracle Mile (1988) begins with a fascinating premise - Harry a young jazz musician, (played by ER's Anthony Edwards) late for a midnight date answers a ringing pay-phone. Its a wrong number, but the stressed caller declares that a catastrophic nuclear missile strike on the US is imminent. Faced with the news that warheads are about to rain down on Los Angeles, Harry along with his date, Julie (Mare Winningham) attempt to make their way to a rendezvous point where a helicopter is waiting to take them away from the city and annihilation...

The enigmatically titled Miracle Mile (actually named after a district of LA) remains one of the best and most intelligent treatments on nuclear attack. The knockabout romantic comedy of the opening act fades to a very dark, absorbing thriller, that thankfully sees its way to its conclusion without blowing it. Its fast, beautifully paced and directed (by Steve De Jarnatt who has worked almost exclusively in TV), and impressively mounted - the eerie, depopulated streets of a sleeping city, give way to apocalyptic traffic jams and random violence as the film progresses. Well cast too, Edwards is especially good as the nerdish, boyish Harry, unwittingly thrust into the hero role, and there's good stuff from Mare Winningham, Mykelti Williamson (Heat and Ali) and Denise Crosby (of Star Trek, The Next Generation fame).

MGM's R1 DVD of Miracle Mile is typical of their treatment of marginal catalogue titles, its extras-free, but sports a very good clean transfer, sharp, colorful and with smooth blacks (most of the film takes place at night). Inexplicably, MGM have issued a fullframe transfer of the film, rather than presenting it in its original 1:85, but its a minor compromise and compositions are not affected. Audio is fine, and the excellent, urgent soundtrack by Tangerine Dream is well represented. Miracle Mile is deserving of the Criterion-treatment, however unlikely, so for now, the current DVD is highly recommended.

Obsession - the Films of Jess Franco

2011 should bring us Steve Thrower's much anticipated Jesus Franco biography (published by FAB Press, so you know its gonna be good) but in the meantime, Franco fans should seek out a copy of Obsession - The Films of Jess Franco, an exhaustive study of the legendary Spaniard's films. Quite simply, this is the kind of book Euro-Cult devotees need to have. The backbone of the book is a film-by-film walk through Franco's filmograhy, beginning in 1952 with some films Franco worked on in various roles, neatly divided into different eras ("The Harry Alan Towers Years", "The Porno Holocaust Years"). Each film is given a (pleasingly) short synopsis and critique. Following the filmography is a feature on Soledad Miranda, and interviews with Franco's closest collaborators, ending with a talk with the great man himself. As well as the intelligent, insightful commentary, the 256-page book is illustrated throughout with rare stills and poster art. Published in May 1993, Obsession - the Films of Jess Franco is sadly well out of print these days, and commands a high sum from marketplaces. Not to worry, some good soul out there has professionally scanned the entire the book and I've uploaded my copy here. You'll need the free CDisplay Comic Reader program to read the book. Enjoy !

Ulysses

Today is Bloomsday, an annual commemoration of the life and art of James Joyce, and a celebration of the day, June 16th 1904, on which his most famous work, Ulysses takes place. Joyce's massive, modernist epic of the human condition may not readily lend itself to a cinematic adaptation, but in 1967 director Joseph Strick and screenwriter Fred Haines bravely stepped up to the mark and delivered an excellent film of Leopold Bloom's great odyssey around Dublin.

Putting the book aside for the moment, Strick's Ulysses, about an ordinary day in the life of an Irish Jew, is marvellous. It's witty, playful, adventurous and stylish. Strick's direction is fast and frenetic (it is after all about a man going places), shot in gorgeous, luminous black and white (in Cinemascope no less!) by Wolfgang Suschitzky (father of Cronenberg's favourite cameraman Peter Suschitzky) and scored with a fine, eccentric soundtrack by Stanley Myers.

For every adaptation of a novel for the screen, there is the question of how faithful the film stays to the book. It must have proved a huge challenge for Strick but thankfully most of the major episodes from Joyce's novel are retained for the film, although much of Joyce's leisurely divergences, over-lapping episodes and mind-bending literary experiments have been left in the book. Only in the surreal sequence where Bloom and Stephen Dedalus visit a whorehouse, does Strick attempt to import some of the more hallucinatory writing from the book, but otherwise a relatively accessible film has been fashioned from the text. Most importantly, the book's most celebrated section, Molly Bloom's monologue has been retained in all its glory, four-letter words and references to cock-sucking intact - the film shares a place in movie history with Michael Winner's I'll Never Forget What's 'isname (1967) for the Cinema's first utterance of the word "fuck". As Molly, Barbara Jefford, is magnificent, breathing life and sensuality into the character. So too are Milo O'Shea, as Leopold, and Maurice Roëves as Stephen Dedalus, and look out for a young Fionnula Flanagan giving Bloom a tantalizing peak at the holiest of holies!

Perhaps the most controversial split from the book is its setting. The story set at the beginning of the brave new world of the 20th century has been transported to a contemporary Dublin of the late '60's. Scholars of the book may scoff at this change but one of Joyce's wishes for the book was that if Dublin had been razed to the ground during World War I, the city fathers would be able to rebuild and restore the city straight out of the pages of Ulysses. So too, the film offers a tremendous testament to the places and faces of Dublin of 1967, and I think Joyce would have agreed with this notion of leaving a lasting portrait.

"His heart was going like mad and yes I said yes I will Yes"

Ulysses, is available on R2 DVD courtesy of Arrow. The 2.35 transfer is a revelation, sharp, beautiful and struck from a print free of damage. Audio is fine and clear and besides a booklet of notes which comes with the DVD, that's it for extras. Considering the book has a fearsome reputation for being a difficult read - there's a mini-industry of notes and study aids to assist readers wade through Joyce's labyrinth, Joesph Strick's Ulysses is a wonderful primer for the book, and is in my opinion one of the very rare instances where you should consider seeing the film before tackling the book. Highly recommended.

Farewell Easy Rider (Dennis Hopper 1936-2010)

The world became a little bit less interesting today with the news of Dennis Hopper's passing. Obituaries and send-offs for the great man are everywhere so I'll just say that I first saw Dennis Hopper in Apocalyspe Now when I was 14 or 15, probably followed by Easy Rider or Blue Velvet. I've been a fan since. Glancing over his filmography in preparation for writing this post, I was again astonished by the wealth of movies he appeared - more personal favourites Hopper films and performances include, The Trip, The Last Movie Mad Dog Morgan, Tracks, The American Friend, Out of the Blue, Rumble Fish, Colors, The Texas Chainsaw Massacre II, River's Edge, Paris Trout, True Romance. Hopper worked with many of the greats of Hollywood - Nicholas Ray and James Dean (Rebel Without A Cause), George Stevens (Giant), John Wayne (The Sons of Katie Elder), Paul Newman (Cool Hand Luke), Clint Eastwood (Hang 'Em High), Sam Peckinpah (The Osterman Weekend), Orson Welles (on the unfinished The Other Side of the Wind), Robert Altman (O.C & Stigs), Sean Penn (The Indian Runner).

Aside form his film work, Dennis Hopper was an accomplished photographer. His b/w photos are well worth seeking out - when Hopper wasn't shooting his friends (Jane Fonda and Paul Newman), he was quite brilliantly capturing the moods, tastes, faces and places of ordinary American life. His 1961 photograph Double Standard, shot from behind the wheel of car, with its gas stations, open roads, and small town life makes me think of Jack Kerouac's On the Road, or The Last Picture Show. And music fans will instantly recognize at least one Hopper photograph, which was by chosen by Morrissey to front a compilation of Smiths music.