IN TIMES OF STRESS, ONE (AT LEAST THIS ONE) TENDS TO RETREAT TO SOMETHING FAMILIAR AND COMFORTING. My viewing matter tends to veer away from intellectually and artistically challenging films and instead go towards things like umpteenth viewings of THE MARY TYLER MOORE SHOW, ALL IN THE FAMILY or KATE AND ALLIE. Maybe that explains my sudden impulse a week ago to buy the two volumes of SATURDAY MORNING CARTOONS of the 1960s & 1970s. These are two double disc dvds which collect cartoons many of which I haven't scene for a quarter of a century. The only time I willingly awoke early in the morning was on Saturdays when I was a kid because that's when all the great cartoons were on and I didn't want to miss them. Is this a uniquely American phenomenon? I don't know if they had the same ritual of Saturday morning cartoons in the more civilized countries but here in the U.S. of Ayyyyyyyy we kids woke up earlier, tore downstairs in our pajamas, poured ourselves a big bowl of the sugariest cereal we could find and turned on one of the three major networks to see our favourite Saturday morning ONLY cartoons! I recall that this cartoon avalanche lasted until early afternoon when the last good show on would be THE LAND OF THE LOST. After that, the lousy networks would stop the cartoons and put on some lame sports program with golf or something. Then it was time to change the channel from VHF to UHF and decide whether to watch horror host Dr. Shock's Mad Theater and Horror Theater on Channel 17 or Creature Double Feature on Channel 48.

But back to the Saturday morning cartoons and the dvds in question. The first of the pair I watched was, of course, SATURDAY MORNING CARTOONS 1970s and I'll tell you cuz why. I was a kid during the 70's so these were the ones I REALLY watched on Saturday mornings. The 1960s dvd, while containing fantastic cartoons I watched as well, had long before gone into syndication so I saw them every weekday after school (or when I was home sick). I know it's a subtle difference but those of you out there of the same age can relate, I'm sure.

So what about the 1970s cartoon dvd. Well, it's full of those cartoons which I parked myself in front of the TV every Saturday morning to see: The Jetsons, The Batman/Tarzan Adventure Hour (I watched Batman and tuned out for Tarzan), Hong Kong Phooey (number one super guy), Goober and the Ghost Chasers (a Scooby-Doo knock-off which I freely admit to never having seen before), Speed Buggy, Wheelie and the Chopper Bunch (I never liked THAT either), Yogi's Gang (the one where Yogi and practically ever other Hanna-Barbera funny animal character flew around in that ark), The Amazing Chan and the Chan Clan (voiced by Keye Luke himself), The Roman Holidays (Never even HEARD of this Flintstones knockoff in ancient Rome and I wish I hadn't now!), Josie and the Pussycats, The New Scooby-Doo Movies (the ones with a guest star each episode), and The Funky Phantom. The goofiest part is that I actually remember seeing this specific episode of Josie and the Pussycats (the one with a Captain Nemo-type zipping around in a submarine playing Bach's Toccata and Fugue on the organ) and the Scooby-Doo guest-starring the Harlem Globetrotters! This 1970s set also includes fine mini-documentaries on The Amazing Chan and the Chan Clan as well as The Funky Phantom. Oh, and there's something hilarious printed on the outside cover of the dvd: on the back it says: "Saturday Morning Cartoons - The 1970s is intended for the Adult Collector and is Not Suitable for Children". Now, what is THAT all about?!?!? These are the same cartoons that were shown SPECIFICALLY for children back in the day, weren't they??? Were they Illuminati-controlled broadcasts back then???

On to the SATURDAY MORNING CARTOONS 1960s disc. As I said, these weren't experienced by me on Saturday mornings but instead were on Monday through Friday intermittently throughout the 70's. Most of these Hanna-Barbera funny animal cartoons were to be found on the late, lamented UHF station Channel 48 (1965-1983). So this dvd brings back childhood memories of a different sort: UHF viewing either after school or when home sick in bed (or at least I purported to be sick when I stayed home). Here we find a nice mix of Hanna-Barbera funny animals as well as the more serious adventure-oriented cartoons. The list includes: Top Cat, Atom Ant, Precious Pups, The Hillbilly Bears, The Peter Potamus Show, Secret Squirrel, Squiddly Diddly, Winsome Witch, The Flintstones, The Porky Pig Show, Quick Draw McGraw, Snooper & Blabber, Augie Doggie & Doggie Daddy, The Jetsons, Marine Boy, Space Ghost, Dino Boy, The Herculoids, Frankenstein Jr. & the Impossibles and The Magilla Gorilla Show with Punkin Puss & Ricochet Rabbit. The dvd also includes an entire bonus episode of The Quick Draw McGraw Show (this time featuring El Kabong) as well as a pair of fine mini-docs on The Herculoids and Frankenstein Jr. & the Impossibles.

The fact that each of these two DVD sets has "Volume 1" plastered on the cover gave me the hope that Warner Bros. is going to treat us with more dvds in the future. And lo and behold -- THEY ARE. I've just learned that Warner Bros. is releasing a second volume of both 1960s and 1970s on October 27th that will include more of the same as well as stuff like The Banana Splits, Penelope Pitstop, Shazzan and Tom and Jerry. There's nothing like sitting back to six hours of mind-numbing cartoons (on EACH dvd set) for chasing away the reality blues! And just in case you think I've gotten this nostalgia bug totally out of my system . . . BEWARE!!!! I just bought the Season One dvd of ROOM 222!!! I'll be on Denise Nicholas overload!

QUICK! NEW STUFF TO LISTEN TO OVER AT BATHED IN THE LIGHT FROM ANDROMEDA! HURRY! QUICK!!! BE THERE OR BE SQUARE!

ON A PERSONAL NOTE, I need to mention my dear friend Peg Loiacono who died last night of cancer at the age of 76. I first met Peg when the Sizzler I worked at closed down and I transferred to the nearest one. As usual my shyness was a barrier to making new friends but Peg somehow knew how to draw me out with her sense of humour and easygoing nature. Peg could size up people pretty fast and she must've somehow seen through my normal miserable bastard facade. Soon, not only were we good friends but also she became like a second mother to me. Peg was the traditional Italian mother who would welcome ANYONE into her home and immediately try to feed them. Within five minutes of entering her front door, you felt like you were family. That's the kind of person she was; she was a giver. Peg had gone through a lot in her life: she lost her husband to cancer 25 years ago and, in 2000, her son Richard was killed in Colorado. The last decade has also seen the death of a brother and two sisters. The loss of her son shattered her but she still managed to go on.

On top of all this, Peg was also a lot of fun and a million laughs. I have to say that, for those of you who never met Peg -- you was robbed! She was a soul worth knowing. Every visit was punctuated with laughter. Even at her age, Peg always seemed young. One of her favourite songs was Bob Seger's "Old Time Rock and Roll" and she loved to dance around the living room when we played one of the mix cds I had made for her. Peg was always joking and laughing -- and boy, she could curse like a sailor which would send the whole room roaring with laughter. Every time I would drive up to her house, I would sit down at her kitchen table and we'd talk over a cup of coffee while she would usually be making a big pot of homemade sauce. I can't even begin to estimate how many movies we watched. "What've we got today", she would ask as I'd plop down a bag full of videos and, later, dvds. Or how many card games of rummy or "Spite and Malice" did we play . . . everytime she'd lose she'd always call me a "cheatin' bastard" while she laughed. It's the laughter that I'll remember most. We did so much laughing over the years.

It was only a couple months ago when she discovered she had cancer and her daughter Donna (who had now moved back into Peg's house to take care of her) told me the prognosis was poor. The last time I saw Peg was when Donna and her family invited me over for dinner. But 99% of the time I spent sitting next to Peg's bed holding her hand and talking. As the night was over, I gave her a kiss and said goodbye. As I stood up from my chair, she kept holding on to my hand as if she didn't want to let go. I think somehow deep down she must have known we would never see each other again and we were really saying goodbye. Despite all the evidence, I never let myself think that she would go and tonight, when I got the message that she was gone, I was still shocked and devastated and totally unprepared. Peg, I loved you so much. You truly were like a second mother to me and I can't think what I'm going to do without you. I only know that the world is a much bleaker, emptier place for me now. My heart is broken and I can't stop crying. I'm going to miss you so much.

ALL YOU CATS AND KITTENS NEED TO SHAKE ON OVER TO OUR SISTER BLOG "BATHED IN THE LIGHT FROM ANDROMEDA" WHERE COOL CATS LIKE DR. JANOS RUKH CALL DOWN THE ROCKIN' SOUNDS OF MAD MIKE'S MONSTERS AND MOLDIES. GUARANTEED TO FLIP YOUR WIG AND POP YOUR TOP! DIG?

Hometown Tales: The Town on Fire

What could be better than a ghost town that officially no longer exists? A ghost town that's been on fire for over 40 years! Here longtime favourite podcast HomeTown Tales provides a vidcast of Centralia, PA.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY MAESTRO! INGMAR BERGMAN (1918-2007)

HAPPY 65th BIRTHDAY DENISE NICHOLAS!!!

NEVER AS A KID DID I HAVE THE SLIGHTEST INTEREST IN WATCHING TARZAN MOVIES AND GOD KNOWS THEY WERE ON ALL THE TIME. That's why it was such a pleasant surprise when our friend Weaverman sent me TARZAN'S NEW YORK ADVENTURE (1942). This was one of the series of Tarzan movies featuring Johnny Weissmuller in the title role and frankly, even though I did watch an episode or two of the 60's Tarzan TV series with Ron Ely, Weissmuller will always be Tarzan to me. This despite his rather oddly uneven nipples. Seriously, take a look next time; one of Weissmuller's nipples is noticeably higher than the other. This is the first thing I noticed about a Johnny Weissmuller Tarzan movie. The second thing I noticed about it was that it was pretty entertaining. It ain't CITIZEN KANE, of course, but neither is THE MAGNIFICENT AMBERSONS. This Tarzan film is is one many typical 40's movie series that succeeded in getting bums in seats for years.

Johnny Weissmuller's Tarzan is thankfully still paired with Maureen O'Sullivan as Jane and the erotic playfulness is in full force. Particularly in the scene where Tarzan scoops Jane up in his arms and carries her into the jungle treehouse's bedroom! No nude swimming in this one (O'Sullivan DID swim nude in the earlier TARZAN AND HIS MATE which I definitely need to see!) but the pair do take a dip along with their adopted son Boy (Johnny Sheffield of the later Bomba the Jungle Boy series). In fact, the studio must've liked the swimming scene so much that they re-insert it at the end of the film -- the exact same scene! The family's normal jungle idyll is disrupted by the arrival of a gruff, not-to-honest safari hunter who manages to piss off Tarzan almost immediately. As if that wasn't enough, he then manages to kidnap Boy and fly him to New York. Tarzan and Jane have been previously knocked out in a huge jungle fire and are rescued just in time by their faithful chimp Cheetah. When they find out Boy has been taken, Tarzan and Jane gather together some gold and head for New York. The nice touch is that, owing to Jane's previous knowledge of civilisation, Tarzan allows Jane to take the lead and he follows her. Various comic and serious adventures ensue -- from Tarzan taking a shower fully clothed to a suspenseful courtroom custody battle to Tarzan's leap off the Brooklyn Bridge. Tarzan eventually tracks Boy down to a travelling circus and frees him with the aid of some friendly elephants.

TARZAN'S NEW YORK ADVENTURE is directed by Richard Thorpe with economy and snappy pacing. Thorpe's early directorial efforts include several "forgotten horrors" like MURDER AT DAWN (1932), SECRETS OF WU SIN (1932) and GREEN EYES (1934) as well as a couple other Tarzan flicks and THE THIN MAN GOES HOME (1944) with William Powell & Myrna Loy. Then Thorpe apparently was given bigger budgets and colour when he helmed the adventure films IVANHOE (1952) and KNIGHTS OF THE ROUND TABLE (1953) as well as a rather good Esther Williams musical ON AN ISLAND WITH YOU (1948). However, he will always be best known to me for directing one of my all-time favourite musicals: THREE LITTLE WORDS (1950) starring Fred Astaire, Red Skelton and Vera-Ellen. Johnny Weissmuller and Maureen O'Sullivan by this time appear to have their roles down cold and they have developed a really nice chemistry together full of humour and affection (and the aforementioned sex). Child actor Johnny Sheffield as Boy isn't even annoying. Hell, they must've caught me on a good day. The supporting cast features three-time Oscar nominated (SONG OF BERNADETTE (1943), THE FARMER'S DAUGHTER (1947) & JOHNNY BELINDA (1948) character actor Charles Bickford as nasty hunter Buck Rand. Bickford's credits include 1939's OF MICE AND MEN with Lon Chaney Jr. and King Vidor's DUEL IN THE SUN (1946) otherwise known as "Lust in the Dust". Paul Kelly plays pilot Jimmy Shields who first goes along with Buck Rand and then turns against him and aids Tarzan. Kelly is probably best known for his real-life prison term for manslaughter in 1927 when he was involved in a love triangle and, after pummeling the cuckolded husband in a fistfight, caused the guy's death. Kelly began his acting career as a boy in 1911 and successfully managed to not only keep working from teenager to adult but ALSO managed to still have a career AFTER his jail term. That career also included classic gangster film THE ROARING TWENTIES (1939) with James Cagney, the Inner Sanctum series entry DEAD MAN'S EYES (1944) with Lon Chaney Jr. and classic film noir THE FILE ON THELMA JORDAN with Barbara Stanwyck. Also aiding Tarzan is Connie played by Virginia Grey -- whose long and varied career includes a small role in 1939's THE WOMEN (as a perfume counter clerk), the Marx Brothers' THE BIG STORE (1941), WHISTLING IN THE DARK (1941) with Red Skelton and Conrad Veidt, Universal's HOUSE OF HORRORS (1946) with Rondo Hatton and Martin Kosleck, the Abbott & Costello comedy MEXICAN HAYRIDE (1948), Budd Boetticher's THE BULLFIGHTER AND THE LADY (1951), Douglas Sirk's ALL THAT HEAVEN ALLOWS (1955) with Jane Wyman & Rock Hudson and even Sam Fuller's THE NAKED KISS (1964). The supporting cast is rounded out by veteran Oscar-nominated character actor Chill Wills who also provided the voice for Francis the Talking Mule! Wills' credits include MEET ME IN ST. LOUIS (1944) with Judy Garland, LEAVE HER TO HEAVEN (1945) with Gene Tierney, John Ford's RIO GRANDE (1950) with John Wayne, GIANT (1956) with James Dean, Elizabeth Taylor & Rock Hudson, and the 1970 episode of Rod Serling's NIGHT GALLERY entitled "The Little Black Bag" in which a futuristic medical bag is sent back in time. Sharp-eyed genre fans will note walk-on cameo roles by Miles Mander (RETURN OF THE VAMPIRE, WUTHERING HEIGHTS, the Sherlock Holmes films THE PEARL OF DEATH and THE SCARLET CLAW, the 1943 PHANTOM OF THE OPERA, classic film noir MURDER, MY SWEET and THE PICTURE OF DORIAN GRAY), Willie Fung (MASK OF FU MANCHU), Darby Jones (as the memorable gaunt walking dead in Val Lewton's I WALKED WITH A ZOMBIE) and the wonderful, spectacular, marvelous, beloved Mantan Moreland!

TARZAN'S NEW YORK ADVENTURE was a surprisingly entertaining hour and change; especially when Tarzan decides to stop pussyfooting around New York society and to do things HIS way. Then the action truly amps up. Now if only I can get my hands on TARZAN AND HIS MATE. . .

BLAND BLAND BLAND. I try to focus on the good whenever I talk about movies here but there's just not that much to praise about MR. ROCK 'N' ROLL: THE ALAN FREED STORY. Apparently this was a 1999 made-for-TV movie; I was unaware of that fact when I first started watching it but it soon became abundantly clear to me. But here I was tuning in blissfully unaware. Here, I thought, is a biopic starring Judd Nelson as legendary 50's radio DJ Alan Freed: the guy who supposedly coined the term "rock and roll". The poop is that Nelson wanted very much to play the part since he was so into that classic 50's rock and roll music. So why is he so completely bland and almost preoccupied during most of the movie?!? Granted, Judd Nelson is not Spencer Tracy but I kinda like the guy and expected something more than basically a walk-through. I can't really be too harsh on Nelson, though, since he probably realized that he was starring in a mediocre property.

I'm tempted to write that the teleplay by Matt Dorff (based on the probably better John A. Jackson book "Big Beat Heat: Alan Freed and the Early Years of Rock & Roll") rushes through too many events; but the truth is that the film on encompasses a few years and there isn't THAT much ground to cover. So why does the film seem like the rushed Cliff's Notes version of the story?!? Director Andy Wolk (whose career seems to be solely in the realm of TV writing and directing) somehow manages to make the viewer feel like the movie is glancing over every single event depicted while, at the same time, scenes seem to drag on and overstay their welcome. The main problem, I think, is too much time is devoted to the "love story" angle between Judd Nelson's Alan Freed and his girlfriend/wife (played by TWIN PEAK's Madchen Amick). While Amick provides more of a performance than Nelson does, it's the screen time devoted to their romantic ups and downs that feels like wasted screen time (as well as feeling to THIS viewer probably made up out of whole cloth). This, of course, is a major weakness in the script. Surely there is more than enough eventful scenes to be gotten from the early history of rock and roll and the struggles Alan Freed had with radio stations, sponsers, communities, television, stage shows, censorship, juvenile delinquent riots and the payola scandal without wasting valuable screen time on a frankly lukewarm-written romantic angle. Sadly, the very moment Nelson meets Amick, the viewer can predict every single event that will occur in their relationship: the meet cute, Freed will "charm" her into marriage, she will feel neglected when Freed hits the big time and spends less time with her, they'll grow farther apart as she rots in her big house with the kiddies while Freed travels all over the country, eventually he will have an affair with a hoyden (Hi, Paula Abdul!) and she will leave him. Nothing new here so why devote SO MUCH screen time towards showing us what we've already seen 100 times before?

As far as the performances go, Judd Nelson does have one or two moments when he seems to wake up from his somnambulism to provide a little fire. However, the distressing thing is that there is absolutely NO attempt to make Nelson sounds even remotely like the real Alan Freed. The Moondogger himself had a rather gravelly voice while Nelson speaks in quite a high register. This, in itself, isn't too bad but Nelson demonstrates absolutely zero personality as a radio DJ; the radio voice he uses is no different from his everyday voice. Now, we all know how bombastic and animated classic radio DJs were; but here Nelson introduces these so-called explosive, dangerous new rock and roll records like he's reading the school closing notices on a snow day. I can only hazard a guess and say that maybe Nelson had become disappointed by the project, the script and the director, by the time the cameras rolled and was merely putting in his time. There is, however, no real excuse for that. No matter how silly or insipid the film, troopers like Peter Cushing, Bela Lugosi or Boris Karloff still didn't walk through a part but gave it their all regardless. Madchen Amick as Freed's wife Jackie is rather better but one wonders what such a looker is doing with nebbishy Nelson. The aforementioned Paula Abdul appears as "the other woman" and her character serves no other purpose but to break up Freed's marriage; at least that's how it all plays out to this viewer. 50's teen idols Fabian and Bobby Rydell also have cameos. The famous musicians of the era are impersonated, of course, by other actors. The best of the lot is Leon portraying Mr. Excitement himself Jackie Wilson. Probably the only warmth in the film is the genuine friendship that can be felt between Leon and Judd Nelson in their scenes together. Particularly good is a scene in a restaurant where some rascist guys at the next table are grumbling loudly about Freed sitting at a table with a black man. This is one of the few instances where Judd Nelson wakes up long enough to confront the two bigots. Leon seems to make something of a mini-career portraying famous musicians; besides Jackie Wilson in this film, Leon has also portrayed Little Richard and David Ruffin of the Temptations. Other famous rock-n-rollers appear in smaller roles. Walter Franks as Little Richard and Joe W. Davis as Buddy Holly are pretty good in their micro-appearances in the film. James C. Victor as Jerry Lee Lewis is horrendously over the top; granted, The Killer was known for mugging at the camera but not THIS much! The portrayals of Bill Haley (Michael Daingerfield), Bo Diddley (Michael Dunston) and Frankie Lymon (LeRoy D. Brazile) are less successful. Alan Freed's career is backed by mob boss Morris Levy (David Gianopoulous) whose performance, shall we say, reminded me of the similar sleazy character in Pat Benatar's "Love Is A Battlefield" video -- in other words, slimy and cartoonish.

While there apparently was at least some attempt to evoke the era of the fifties, that attempt fails rather badly. People (including Madchen Amick) don't behave the way people did in the 50's; they act more like people from the 90's who are at a 50's-themed dance. Madchen Amick stops short at the Arsenio Hall "whoop whoop" propellor arm . . . but only just. The career of Alan Freed is well-deserving of a true major motion picture biopic but this isn't it. There have been one or two but they strangely were not very successful either. Maybe someday.

THE MALTESE FALCON (1931). Paleocinema's Terry Frost has a pet peeve. . .and that is blogger's who do movie lists of "The Top 10 Remakes" and ignore things like the 1941 MALTESE FALCON directed by John Huston and starring Humphrey Bogart -- which IS a remake, folks, but people often forget that fact. The truth is that Dashiell Hammett's classic detective story of the fabled black bird was made TWO TIMES before the 1941 version we all know and love. That version, in fact, is one of my favourite films. So why am I talking about the OTHER version??? Well, what could I possibly say about the 1941 classic that hasn't already been said. But the first version from 1931 has not had nearly as much said about it so I thought what the hell.

As I said, the 1931 MALTESE FALCON was the first film version of Dashiell Hammett's novel. The second, a couple years later, was the rather light-hearted SATAN MET A LADY featuring Bette Davis and Warren William (of Universal's THE WOLF MAN as well as Perry Mason and Philo Vance movies). Naturally, neither of these films can hope to compare to the classic 1941 version. But the 1931 film (awkward, flimsy and routine as it is) isn't a total loss. The screenplay by Maude Fulton and Brown Holmes sticks relatively well to the original novel; you'll be surprised when you watch it to hear quite a few direct quotes from the novel that would also be used in Huston's 1941 version. It's also interesting to note the scene in which Sam Spade is awaked by a phone call saying his partner Archer has been murdered; the same scene in John Huston's 1941 version is shot very similarly to the same scene in the 1931 version. The direction by Roy Del Ruth isn't much to write home about; it suffers from the long, awkward silences and forced badinage which many early talkies display. Roy Del Ruth (1893-1961) wasn't exactly known for his mystery/suspense credentials; other than the horror B-picture THE ALLIGATOR PEOPLE , I know Del Ruth mostly for directing the Eleanor Powell musicals BROADWAY MELODY OF 1936, BROADWAY MELODY OF 1938 and BORN TO DANCE. As an early talkie detective movie, THE MALTESE FALCON plays out only slightly better than average. There is never any sense of danger or, indeed, any mystery or suspense. In fact, the players mostly behave rather flippantly; perhaps in style at the time but today it can be a little annoying. One interesting note is the added-on final scene of the film which finds detective Sam Spade (newly appointed to the District Attorney's team) visiting femme fatale Ruth Wonderley in her prison cell. There is none of the sense of tragedy or emotional wrenching which Humphrey Bogart and Mary Astor evinced in 1941. Instead, Spade is rather cavalier towards the woman he's turned in and comes across as quite the bounder.

The cast itself handles the proceedings, on the whole, adequately. Sam Spade is no Humphrey Bogart here; instead we find Ricardo Cortez (1899-1977) cast in the role of Hammett's detective. The aforementioned flippancy is amped up considerably by Cortez's performance; which is a shame since one gets the feeling that Cortez's Sam Spade COULD have been better had he been reigned in. Cortez plays Spade as a ladies man which, frankly, could have worked if not for the over-played flippancy. Ricardo Cortez was a silent film actor (appearing in the silent SORROWS OF SATAN) who would go on to appear in the sound films THE PHANTOM OF CRESTWOOD, THIRTEEN WOMEN (a personal fave with Myrna Loy, Irene Dunne and the Hollywood-Sign-leaping Peg Entwhistle) as well as the Boris Karloff horror-meller THE WALKING DEAD. The femme fatale role of Ruth Wonderley (the character is never known as Brigid O'Shaunnessey) is played by decidedly NON-femme fatale type Bebe Daniels (1901-1971) who would be more at home when she appeared in the musical 42ND STREET. Daniels is not terrible but she seems outmatched by the role which Mary Astor would make her own a decade later. A pleasant surprise is finding the wonderful Una Merkel (1903-1986) in the role of Spade's secretary Effie. Merkel, as usual, gives the most naturalistic, unaffected performance of the film with her easy-going breeziness. Merkel appeared in Roland West's sound remake THE BAT WHISPERS (more on Roland West in a minute) as well as DESTRY RIDES AGAIN (with James Stewart & Marlene Dietrich), the classic ON BORROWED TIME (with Lionel Barrymore), 42ND STREET, BORN TO DANCE (again with James Stewart & Eleanor Powell), THE BANK DICK (with W.C. Fields) and THE MAD DOCTOR OF MARKET STREET (with Lionel Atwill). Merkel is probably one of two actors who would've fit right in with the cast of the 1941 MALTESE FALCON (more on the second in a minute). The wife of Spade's partner Archer is played by noted comedienne Thelma Todd (1905-1935) who would be found dead several years later inside her car. Whether it was suicide or murder is still not known; however director Roland West was considered a suspect for years. Todd is probably best known screen roles nowadays are probably her appearances in the Marx Brothers' comedies MONKEY BUSINESS and HORSE FEATHERS.

How can one compare the performances of Peter Lorre and Sidney Greenstreet as Joel Cairo and Casper Gutman respectively to the 1931 version's Otto Matieson and Dudley Digges. Again, Matieson and Digges aren't bad in the roles; just undistinguished. In a pre-code movie like this, one would expect Joel Cairo to be played rather floridly but Matieson barely shows us any dandified behaviour. Effie tells Sam that there's a "beautiful" client waiting in the outer office that's a "knock-out"; Otto Matieson doesn't really fit THAT bill! Otto Matieson (1893-1932) would only make one more film after this (MEN OF THE SKY) before he would be killed in a car crash. Dudley Digges (1879-1947) as Casper Gutman can hardly be called fat but here he is as "the fat man" played by Sidney Greenstreet a decade later. Admittedly, Gutman is never referred to as "fat" in the 1931 film so that's merely a minor quibble. Digges does sport a rather amusing pair of spit curls encroaching upon his male pattern baldness. Dudley Digges (also seen as the "chief detective" in James Whale's THE INVISIBLE MAN) does play up the possibility of a homosexual relationship with his gunsel Wilmer "who is like a son" to him. The 1941 film really doesn't go there but here in pre-code 1931 the acting and script really seem to be stating this relationship unambiguously. And here, Wilmer is played by the incomparable Dwight Frye (1899-1943) who was all over those classic Universal horror movies from DRACULA (as Renfield) to FRANKENSTEIN until his untimely death from a heart attack. Frye is certainly the second actor from the 1931 version who would have fit right into the cast of the 1941 version. Elisha Cook Jr. was perfect as Wilmer but, had he been somehow unable to appear in the film, Frye would've been an apt replacement. Frye as Wilmer was also luckier in the sense that he isn't humiliated at every turn the way Bogart's Sam Spade humiliated Elisha Cook Jr.

Is the 1931 MALTESE FALCON worth watching. Well, yes. Will you be disappointed by it? Most certainly. Especially if you know and love the 1941 classic. But for any true fan of the book or the movie (which admittedly is essentially the book filmed), the pre-code 1931 MALTESE FALCON is worth a look. Although it REALLLLLLLLLLLLY should have been much spicier -- being a pre-code film and all. Ah well. If it (and SATAN MET A LADY) had been any better, we may never have gotten Huston's 1941 version. And THAT would've been the TRUE crime of the century!

WISHING GLORIA STUART A HAPPY 99th BIRTHDAY!!! James Whale dressed her in a long satin-y gown so that, when she was being chased through the Old Dark House by Boris Karloff, she would give the appearance of a flame flickering through the darkened halls. Here's to 99 flames on the candles of Gloria Stuart's birthday cake this July 4th.

1959: SOME FAVOURITE FILMS FROM 50 YEARS AGO. If I was to schedule a movie marathon for myself of my faves from 1959, here is what I'd probably screen.

ANATOMY OF A MURDER - Directed by Otto Preminger and nominated for 7 Oscars, this film tells the tale of a jaded lawyer who takes up a murder case of a husband who killed a man for raping his wife. Groundbreaking at the time for its simple, matter-of-fact discussion of such rarely mentioned subjects as sperm production and, most notably, women's panties! The cast is superb: James Stewart as the fed-up lawyer, Lee Remick as the hoyden of all hoydens, Ben Gazzara as the husband, veteran character actor Arthur O'Connell as the drunk has-been lawyer, Eve Arden as the wry secretary, George C. Scott as the shark-like prosecutor. . .hell, it even has one of my favourite character actors John Qualen as Deputy Sheriff Sulo! Another spectacular bit of stunt casting is having non-actor Joseph Welch play Judge Weaver; Welch was the real-life attorney who represented the Army in the famous McCarthy hearings that led to the downfall of witch-hunting Senator Joe McCarthy. Welch is famous for disgustedly berating McCarthy with the quote: "Have you no sense of decency, sir? At long last, have you left no sense of decency?" Duke Ellington provides the jazz score (as well as making a cameo in the film). One of the best courtroom dramas.

GHOST OF DRAGSTRIP HOLLOW - Note that I didn't say BEST films up there . . . I only said my faves. And for some reason this dippy movie has appeal to me. Direct from our friends at American International Pictures we have a movie that crams several different genres into one in an effort to make as much money at the box office as possible. It's a teenage/juvenile delinquent comedy that mixes in the AIP horror genre, the "feeling" of one of their beach pictures, heavy doses of middle-of-the-road 50's rock and roll music and drag-racing hot rod gangs! Basically, a Los Angeles teenage car club bops around town getting into trouble, drag-racing, fist-fighting, dodging the cops and THEN somehow or other they end up inside a haunted house giving a Halloween party! This film stars nobody and was directed by nobody (actually a man with the rather unfortunate name of William J. Hole Jr. -- um, I suppose we should be grateful his middle initial wasn't "A"!). It is, in fact, probably the quintessential example of this type of movie which AIP was so expert on putting out and which teenagers, desperate to get out of the house away from the parents and Uncle Miltie on the boob tube, would flock to the drive-ins to munch popcorn and make out to!

HOUSE ON HAUNTED HILL - Probably my favourite of William Castle's directorial efforts, this one features a rich guy who promises a group of people a cash prize if they can stay overnight inside a locked haunted house. Vincent Price, of course, is the perfect casting for the sly rich guy, Carol Ohmart (later featured in the cult classic "SPIDER BABY") is perfect as his flinty wife, male ingenue Richard Long (of TV's "Nanny & the Professor") fulfills leading man duties while Elisha Cook Jr. is his usual twitchy self as the lone survivor of a previous attempt. There is also a cameo by Leona Anderson as the blind scary hag; Anderson is the "singer" of one of my favourite awful records called "Music To Suffer By" which makes Mrs. Miller sound like Leontyne Price! The famous Castle gimmick of "Emergo" found a fake paper skeleton wheeled out over the audience during a key scene (which rowdy kids promptly pelted with popcorn boxes). While there is little REAL supernatural goings-on in the film, it's still a fun rollercoaster ride by a master huckster.

I'M ALL RIGHT, JACK -- One of the sharpest British comedies/satires. A naive bumbler (Ian Carmichael) from a rich family decides he wants to get into business but finds he isn't really suited for anything and has to start at the bottom on the shop-floor of a munitions factory. Unknown to him, he is being used as a pawn by his rich uncle to cause worker unrest and cause a strike so that the rich uncle can get a valuable arms contract. A biting satire of both labour and management, Ian Carmichael heads a knockout cast including Peter Sellers as the Hitlerian-looking Communist union leader Mr. Kite as well as British comedy-acting titans Dennis Price, Margaret Rutherford, Richard Attenborough, John Le Mesurier, Milles Malleson and my beloved Irene Handl! It's sad to see that the business world hasn't really changed in half a century! But that's what makes this film STILL funny!

NORTH BY NORTHWEST - Another classic Hitchcock film featuring another "wrong man" situation. Cary Grant is an advertising exec who gets mistaken for a spy, has to go on the run because people are trying to kill him and then gets mixed up in a murder. Grant is perfect in the lead role ably assisted by Eva Marie Saint, evil James Mason, even evil-er Martin Landau and Leo G. Carroll. Another classic Bernard Herrmann score. One of Hitch's best.

PLAN 9 FROM OUTER SPACE - Definitely NOT the worst movie ever made! (After all, there's MANOS, HAND OF FATE, THE KILLER SHREWS, NINE MONTHS and VAN HELSING to consider). We all know the tale: Ed Wood has a couple minutes of unused Bela Lugosi footage and inserts it into his magnum opus of "grave robbers from outer space". For the record, the flying saucers WERE NOT paper plates or hub caps; they were in fact actual flying saucer model kits picked up in a hobby shop. Besides the great Lugosi (who is badly mimicked throughout most of the film by a chiropractor with a cape held over his face) we have the cult icons Vampira (Maila Nurmi) and Tor Johnson as well as the typically marvelously inept sets and directing of Edward D. Wood Jr. But the film is NEVER dull and is a hoot from start to finish. Anyone who REALLY thinks this is the worst film ever made is "stupid! Stupid! STUPID!!!!"

RIDE LONESOME - Another in the classic series of Budd Boetticher minimalist westerns starring Randolph Scott as the grizzled old cowpoke. This time Scott is a bounty hunter who is taking a wanted murderer back to be hanged. But it's not as easy as that as he rescues a woman from an Indian attack, picks up a couple of shifty characters to give him more muscle should the Indians attack again and also has to contend with the murderer's brother trying to free him. Oh, and did I mention that the Indians themselves are after the murderer so that they can turn him in and get "amnesty" as a reward? Randolph Scott is perfect as usual as the elderly western hero who has seen it all. The rest of the cast is filled out by Karen Steele ("Star Trek - Mudd's Women"), Pernell Roberts (Bonanza, Trapper John M.D.), James Best (THE KILLER SHREWS, The Dukes of Hazzard), Lee Van Cleef and James Coburn.

RIO BRAVO - One of the greatest westerns of all time. Howard Hawks' deliberate riposte to Fred Zinnemann's HIGH NOON, this is the director's own take on what happens when an outlaw and his men come back to town to take revenge of the lawman. Rather than Gary Cooper being abandoned by the town and facing them alone, this time it's John Wayne as the lawman aided by hid drunken deputy Dean Martin, young hotshot Ricky Nelson, grizzled old Walter Brennan and flashy Angie Dickinson. Ward Bond and Claude Akins round out the stellar cast.

SLEEPING BEAUTY - Animated Disney venture which, admittedly, isn't really a great film; it's actually half a great film. The first half is rather a lot to wade through but the climactic second half battle against Maleficent (one of the out and out BEST Disney villains EVER!) is a classic. Voiced by Eleanor Audley with a sense of threat AND sly humour, Maleficent is that rare thing: A Disney villain that is actually SCARY!

SOME LIKE IT HOT - Billy Wilder's wild romp about a couple of musicians (Jack Lemmon & Tony Curtis) who witness a gangland killing and have to disguise themselves as women (in an all female band) in order to hide from the mob. Marilyn Monroe is funny (if looking slightly unwell) as bubble-headed musician Sugar Kane and who can resist veteran gangster legend George Raft as Spats?!?! Features one of the best final lines in a movie by classic silent comic Joe E. Brown.

SUDDENLY, LAST SUMMER - Joseph Mankiewicz directs this Tennessee Williams adaptation which is actually campy and rather bad but immensely watchable. The hothouse delirium of Williams is there, all right, but the screenplay was "altered" -- the REAL play was too hot to adapt wholesale to the screen in 1959 -- and the ending is really dopey! Poor Montgomery Clift (post-car accident) is somewhat somnambulant while Elizabeth Taylor chews up the scenery like there's no tomorrow. Really, the saving grace of the picture is Katharine Hepburn's portrayal of the praying mantis-like controlling mother Mrs. Venable; who can resist her urging Clift to cut up Liz Taylor's brain!!! Not me! The cast also features the great character actors Mercedes McCambridge (JOHNNY GUITAR, THE EXORCIST) and Albert Dekker (DR. CYCLOPS, KISS ME DEADLY). Mankiewicz was impatient and cruel to the fragile Montgomery Clift during filming and, famously, Katharine Hepburn asked the director (and her old friend Mankiewicz who actually introduced her to Spencer Tracy) on the last day if all shooting had been completed. Mankiewicz said yes and Hepburn replied "You're sure?". When Mankiewicz assured her that the picture was finished, Hepburn spit right in the director's eye and vowed never to work with him again for the shabby way he treated Clift.

THE BAT - The umpteenth adaptation of Mary Roberts Rinehart's hoary old dark house stage play, this one ain't all that good either but there's something about it that I've always liked. Of course, it's got Vincent Price teamed up with Agnes Moorehead (something we didn't see enough of despite the fact that BOTH had been associated with Orson Welles' Mercury Theatre) in a film which must have seemed old-fashioned even at the time. But that's really the film's charm. The cast also features Gavin Gordon (who played Lord Byron in James Whale's BRIDE OF FRANKENSTEIN) as well as former "Little Rascal/Our Gang" child star Darla Hood. The story doesn't really matter; there's a maniac called "The Bat" running around killing people in an old dark house. There's also a wacky, rock & roll theme song by lounge-meister Alvino Rey. What more do you need?!?

THE HOUND OF THE BASKERVILLES - Ahh, when Hammer Horror was new. Fresh from their triumphs with CURSE OF FRANKENSTEIN and HORROR OF DRACULA, Hammer Films decided to produce this fine adaptation of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's famous Sherlock Holmes story. The major problem with ANY adaptation of THE HOUND is that Holmes disappears from great chunks of the action; a severe handicap for any Sherlock Holmes film. However, Peter Cushing as Holmes and Andre Morell (PLAGUE OF THE ZOMBIES) as Watson are so eminently watchable we hardly notice. Add to the mix SIR Christopher Lee as the beleaguered Sir Henry Baskerville (plus a demonic black hound from hell) and this is one of the nicest adaptations of that novella. All the best of Hammer went into this film: James Bernard's classic score, Roy Ashton's makeup, Bernard Robinson's miraculous sets and Jack Asher's masterful photography together make this a sumptuous feast. Classic Hammer horror director Terence Fisher helms with distinction but the film, not being the "horror" film audiences expected from Hammer, wasn't successful at the time. However, nowadays fans see it for what it is: a Hammer classic. Because of the film's relative failure, a proposed series of Sherlock Holmes films from Hammer starring Peter Cushing never came to fruition. Our loss.

THE MONSTER OF PIEDRAS BLANCAS - How many times did THIS play on Creature Double Feature during my 70's youth?!? Classic 50's b-movie horror that basically has a much nastier version of the Creature from the Black Lagoon. Only this time, instead of wanting to swim with Julie Adams, this monster would rather decapitate you and leave your body to wash up on the California coastal town of Piedras Blancas (yes, it's really there). I remember as a kid, this was pretty strong stuff; the monster routinely carries around severed heads! The local lighthouse keeper leaves the monster meat in the vain hope that his daughter will be safe from the monster's attack. The rest of the town, presumably, is on its own! Veteran 50's horror/science fiction actor Les Tremayne stars. A greatly beloved (if nasty) monster icon from the fifties.

THE MUMMY - Speaking of Hammer, after their mega-successful adaptations of Universal's Frankenstein and Dracula movies, what would you expect but for Hammer to do an adaptation of THE MUMMY. However, it's not the classic 1932 Boris Karloff vehicle that's being adapted here; instead, it's the later 1940's Mummy series of pictures that ultimately starred Lon Chaney Jr. as Kharis. Peter Cushing stars as the Egyptologist who battles Christopher Lee as the cloth-wrapped mummy controlled by George Pastell's vengeful Mehemet Bey ("He who robs the graves of Egypt DIES!"). Oddly, James Bernard was not tapped to provide the musical score; however Franz Reizenstein's lush score is absolutely perfect for an Egyptian Mummy movie. Jack Asher is behind the camera while Bernard Robinson handles the superb set design and Roy Ashton returns to provide the makeup effects. The beloved Hammer horror actor Michael Ripper has one of his showiest and funniest scenes.

UKIGUSA aka DRIFTING WEEDS aka FLOATING WEEDS - The great Yasujiro Ozu directs this story of a travelling theatre troup arriving in a seaside Japanese town. The ageing head of the troupe (Ganjiro Nakamura) looks up his old flame with whom he had a son; however the son is told the man is actually his uncle. An actress in the troupe becomes jealous and manipulates a young ingenue into seducing the son. Ozu (who co-wrote the screenplay) painstakingly composes each scene and provides a magically gripping experience for the viewer. The film unfolds almost musically with a rhythm all its own.

I REALLY WASN'T PLANNING TO WRITE A THING ABOUT THE DEATH OF MICHAEL JACKSON. Truthfully, I have never been a big fan of him but I have always found something worthwhile in ALMOST every album he's produced in his nearly 45 year career (this appreciation stops with the "HIStory" double cd). I may never have been a fanatic about his music but the truth is that, looking at my ipod, I have 17 songs from his solo career in there (and that's NOT counting songs from The Jackson 5). So, whether consciously or no, I must have been at least a casual fan.

You know, I was frankly stunned to hear that Michael Jackson was dead. Farrah's death has been expected for a while now but Jackson's came out of the blue and was so unexpected that it really was unbelieveable at first. I grew up in the 70's and loved the Jackson 5 songs when I was a kid and enjoyed "Off the Wall" and "Thriller" when they came out in high school. While there was less to like after that, I found several songs I liked on his albums from "Bad" all the way up to "HIStory (Disc 2)" (believe it or don't). In fact, I've always said that my favourite Michael Jackson song actually comes from "HIStory" Disc 2, if you can believe it: a song most people probably don't know called "Stranger in Moscow".

Most people have had a hard time separating his music from his personal life. I never have. I have always found I can enjoy music for its own sake regardless of the fact that, for instance, Richard Wagner was a raving anti-semite or even that Phil Spector is a convicted murderer. The person can be someone I would never want to spend any time with but I can divorce myself from the individual and still be swept away by the prelude from "Die Meistersinger" or find the production on The Ronettes' "Be My Baby" to be a work of pop genius. I can enjoy the music of someone whose personal views I find reprehensible, whose political or social beliefs are totally opposite to my own. As long as it doesn't intrude on the music, I can judge the music on its own terms without the failings of the person who created it intruding upon it. That's what music is supposed to be: something above ourselves which can uplift, soothe or inspire us regardless of the all-too-fallable human who created it.

Which brings us to Michael Jackson. This man was certainly a freak show but it cannot be denied that he had a talent for making music. As for the child molestation charges, I have gone back and forth between agreeing with those who think he's a sicko that should be locked up and those who don't believe any true molestation happened. The truth is the man was never convicted on any of the charges and I still believe in one of the foundations of this country which states that we are all innocent until proven guilty. Maybe that makes me naive but (while I never intensely studied the allegations) his guilt was never proven in a court of law. Surely, a lot of money CAN buy off witnesses. But it is ALSO true that a lot of money draws certain types of people to see what they can GET. It has been fairly well-established that Michael Jackson had a horrible father and basically had no childhood at all. In the words of The Atlantic's Andrew Sullivan: "There are two things to say about him. He was a musical genius; and he was an abused child. By abuse, I do not mean sexual abuse; I mean he was used brutally and callously for money, and clearly imprisoned by a tyrannical father. He had no real childhood and spent much of his later life struggling to get one. He was spiritually and psychologically raped at a very early age - and never recovered. Watching him change his race, his age, and almost his gender, you saw a tortured soul seeking what the rest of us take for granted: a normal life. But he had no compass to find one; no real friends to support and advise him; and money and fame imprisoned him in the delusions of narcissism and self-indulgence." Many of the people who came into close contact with Michael Jackson for any amount of time have described him much like one of his lawyers did as "a 12 year old in a 45 year old's body". This was clearly a very messed up individual but, in the words of my good friend Daddy Pax: "don't judge him too harshly, his life was probably not as black and white as you think it may have been." It is not normal to sleep in a bed with little boys; but if sleep is all that they did (and there have been no convictions proving that anything else happened besides sleep) then nothing criminal has been shown to have taken place. And while the thought of any other 45 year old man taking a nap with little boys would seem ludicrous, there is some reasonable justification to think that a "mentally stuck as a 12 year old" adult could, in fact, have done just that without committing any abuse. While this does make Michael Jackson a freak (which NO ONE, I think, will dispute), it doesn't make his a pervert. The truth is, frankly, that we'll probably never know. For all those who allege that abuse took place, there are just as many who allege (among them Macauley Culkin) that the idea is ridiculous. The truth is, I don't know WHAT happened and neither do you. All I know is the guy's music and that's all I'm qualified (or justified) in judging.

Most of the founding fathers were slaveowners; one of the most reprehensible, horrific and disgusting crimes ever perpetrated upon human beings. This doesn't mean that we should throw out the Constitution which they wrote. The ideals of which they wrote are still worthwhile even if the flawed humans who wrote it didn't manage to live up to those ideals. I think Michael Jackson was a hot mess but this also doesn't mean I think we should throw out the good music he's left us. Again, I don't know why I'm writing this since I never planned on posting a thing about Michael Jackson's death. It's probably just my usual altruistic belief that it's very easy to ACCUSE someone of something without proving it; the result being that many lives can be ruined without proof of any wrongdoing. This is what the Catholic church's Inquisition was very good at -- and the Protestant witch trials AND bad old Senator Joe McCarthy & HUAC. Accusations are much too easy. I still believe that we have a responsibility to provide proof before we act on allegations.