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.
CASTLE FREAK (1995)
CASTLE FREAK cannot be called an "adaptation" of H. P. Lovecraft's celebrated short story "The Outsider"; instead it can be called more accurately "inspired by" the story. For CASTLE FREAK doesn't take anything from the actual "storyline" of the story (if there can be said to be much of one anyway) but instead gives us the "impression" of "The Outsider" while still going off in an entirely different direction. The one and only scene directly from the short story is when the "creature" sees his reflection for the first time in a mirror. But, other than this, the entire film (by screenwriter Dennis Paoli) is new territory.
The story opens at the Castle D'Orsini (a beautiful, real life Italian location by the way) where an old woman (the Duchess D'Orsini) hacks off a couple slices of dry-cured meat (one likes to think it's soppressata) and a scrawny piece of bread which she brings to her son Giorgio: a deformed monstrosity chained naked in a dark dungeon cell. A nice touch occurs when the old woman places the plate on the floor in order to unlock the cell; a cat starts to nibble at the meager meal and the old woman makes no attempt to stop it. Not exactly concerned with her son's welfare, the old woman promptly whips him bloody with a cat o'nine tails before every meal. She then promptly staggers back to her bedroom and dies. Her body goes undiscovered for quite some time; and her chained son goes hungry all the while. Finally, real estate agents track down the old woman's last remaining relative: John Reilly (Jeffrey Combs), his wife Susan (RE-ANIMATOR's Barbara Crampton) and their blind daughter Rebecca (Jessica Dollarhide) who take up residence in the 700 year old Italian castello. The family atmosphere is a little strained. They are all still recovering from the fact that John has killed his young son and blinded his daughter in a car accident caused by his own drunk driving. While exploring the old castle, Rebecca unknowingly unlocks the cell containing the deformed, chained Giorgio. Later, the starving Giorgio devours the cat and then bites off his own thumb in order to slip out of his wrist shackles. He then wraps himself in a sheet and prowls the castle; just keeping out of sight of all the inhabitants. At one point, Giorgio enters the sleeping Rebecca's room at night and finds his lifelong sexual yearnings welling up inside of him -- but he is interrupted before anything can happen. However, it is later discovered that Giorgio's mother has long ago castrated him as a sort of skewed punishment for his father -- who abandoned them and ran off with the Duchess's sister to America. Yes, John Reilly is really Giorgio's half brother. A series of gruesome murders committed by the unseen Giorgio convinces the local constabulary that John Reilly is the culprit. It all leads to a standoff between the ghoulish Giorgio and the haggard John atop the rainswept parapets of Castello D'Orsino.
But apart from this admittedly mean-spirited but thankfully brief scene, the rest of CASTLE FREAK is a quite interesting examination of the themes concerning the "dark" and "light" sides of every human being. In a way, the grotesque creature chained in the castle dungeon could be seen to represent the "darker nature" of John Reilly (his half brother) which causes his irresponsible alcoholism and, ultimately the death of his own son and the blinding of his daughter. The guilt inside John Reilly is chained away deep in some dark place as much as Giorgio is chained away in his cell. The only possible outcome of the film would have to be the ultimate confrontation between John and Giorgio.
Far from his portrayal of Herbert West, Jeffrey Combs plays John Reilly as a tortured and broken man; even at one point contemplating suicide over the terrible things he's done. The inherent weakness in the character is wrestled with thoughout most of the film's running time. Barbara Crampton is appropriately shut down emotionally and extremely cold toward her husband while, at the same time, fussily overprotective of her remaining child Rebecca. Interestingly, in the film's final act Crampton takes on the role of traditional horror heroines like Jamie Lee Curtis (in HALLOWEEN) or Sigourney Weaver (in ALIEN) as she tries to defend her daughter against the slavering ghoul while John is away locked up in prison. 
The rest of the cast is adequate in their lesser roles while Jonathan Fuller as Giorgio (in rather impressive ghoul makeup by Optic Nerve) cuts quite an imposing figure in the ranks of monsterdom; never merely a clunky creature but one which demonstrates emotional depth and confusion. And the filming on location in Italy (and particularly the castle itself) make the film look much better than the usual low-budget effort. CASTLE FREAK is not the best H. P. Lovecraft film "adaptation" by a long chalk but nor is it anything like the worst. Stuart Gordon has done a respectable job bringing one more HPL flick to the haunted screen. 
I can't tell you how pleasant it was seeing The Snoop Sisters again after all these years. I hadn't seen that show since I was knee high to a gravedigger. The Snoop Sisters was one of those early 1970s rotating mystery movies-of-the-week similar to that which produced such shows as Columbo and McCloud, etc. The Snoop Sisters starred Helen Hayes and 
The two "movies" kindly provided to me by Weaverman are probably the two I would be most interested to see: "A BLACK DAY FOR BLUEBEARD" and "THE DEVIL MADE ME DO IT"; coincidentally the final two movies in the series. "A BLACK DAY FOR BLUEBEARD" is the slightly lesser of the two. The "mystery" plot itself is incidental and merely provides the maguffin for a bunch of charming and well-known character actors (many with horror genre ties) to lark about having a good time. The viewer has a good time since it's all great fun. Vincent Price himself plays a washed-up horror actor named Michael Bastion who, along with his unhappy wife Tammy Grimes, appears at a horror film retrospective of his past cinema glories. The delightful opening scene finds Helen Hayes dressed up as the Frankenstein Monster with Mildred Natwick as the Bride! 
The Snoop Sisters have been invited to the theatre by Vinnie for the horror film festival. At the movie theatre, Tammy informs Vincent that she and her vast amounts of money are hitting the road and filing for divorce; Vincent has been written out of her will. However, before the film (utilizing clips from Universal's BRIDE OF FRANKENSTEIN) has finished, Tammy Grimes is stabbed right in the theatre seat!!! Vincent Price's Michael Bastion is, of course, the major suspect but pleads his innocence as he is carted off to jail by police Lt. Ostrowski (who just happens to be the nephew of the Snoop Sisters. 
As I say, the murder mystery doesn't really matter; it's all about the fun and hijinx all these players get up to. It's also nice to see the reunion between Helen Hayes and Vincent Price; Vincent made his big pre-movie success on the English stage with Hayes in the play "Victoria Regina" as Prince Albert and, when the play toured America, it was Hayes who insisted that they bring Vincent along with them instead of recasting him with a well-known star. Besides the Snoop Sisters appearance in horror costumes, there's Vincent Price's delicious entrance at the movie theatre. A hearse pulls up out front of the theatre and a group of masked muscle men remove a coffin from the back. Upending the coffin, the brutes open it to reveal Vincent Price in full vampire make-up ready to sign autographs. Price is allowed to have great fun lampooning his own horror image. In sort of a comedic version of his earlier deadly serious turn in 
The penultimate Snoop Sisters film was "THE DEVIL MADE ME DO IT" concerning a murderous cult of Satan worshippers. This story gave Universal a chance to join in on the early 70's proliferation of Satanic cinema fun with chanting cultists in flowing black robes, pentagram amulets, jeweled sacred murder daggers, crystal balls, tarot cards and even a strange, zombie powder! Besides Hayes, Natwick, Convy and the Snoop Sisters' faithful valet Barney (Lou Antonio) the cast includes Greg (MISSION: IMPOSSIBLE) Morris (as a cop specializing in the occult), flamboyant Cyril "Captain Hook" Ritchard (as an occult shop proprietor named "The Honourable Moloch", Joan Blondell (as a dodgy medium), George (Route 66) Maharis (as a shifty cultist), and introducing Alice Cooper as a witch named Prince (!). 
This one has a stronger storyline and is a lot more involving for the viewer. It concerns a Satanic cultist who defects from his coven with a sacred pentagram amulet containing some sort of "zombie making" powder. He is killed but not before slipping the amulet into Helen Hayes luggage at the airport. Soon, the Snoop Sisters are plagued by murders and cultist attacks. 
In order to solve the mystery, the Snoop Sisters visit the Honourable Moloch at his occult shop. Moloch advises them to seek out the answer to two riddles from plastic crystal ball-wielding medium Joan Blondell 
and rock song singing witch Alice Cooper (in a skeleton suit). 
With this information, the Snoop Sisters are led to one of those huge houses up on a California hill in which the Satanists meet for their magical mumbo-jumbo. The ladies find the jeweled dagger used as the murder weapon but, before they can escape, the robed cultists show up. The sisters and Barney must don black robes and try to blend in with the sabbat. While trying to escape, they find themselves in an elevator with some real Satanist who ask if they're new to the cult because they haven't seen them here before. Yes, Mildred Natwick stalls, we're part of the coven exchange program! 
These two Snoop Sisters movies were a lot of fun; which is exactly what they were meant to be. The accuracy of the "occult" is played very fast and loose in "THE DEVIL MADE ME DO IT" and the murder mystery in "A BLACK DAY FOR BLUEBEARD" is, as I said, totally unimportant. It's the chance to have a lot of fun with some wonderful performers in a horror genre setting that makes The Snoop Sisters some really wonderful, nostalgic watching. William Devane and Katherine Helmond are perhaps criminally underutilized but the rest of the guest stars make quite an impact. Joan Blondell's Bronx-y medium has only one scene but she's great fun; it's almost like one of those blousey dames she played in countless 30's gangster films at Warner Bros. decided, by the 1970s, the new age racket was the place to be. As an Alice Cooper fan, it's always great to see him and here his one scene is also quite memorable. Alice manages to sneak in a little singing as well as providing some humour in his performance. And the outrageously camp Cyril Ritchard as Moloch lifts the entire production . . . even if his wolf ears DO seem a little overpriced! 
You just can't beat these two TV movies for some October-y Halloween viewing. 
Now I've always been a sucker for the 1939 New York World's Fair and that's definitely what drew my attention towards this book; the Fair's Trylon and Perisphere make an appearance early on and the very term "World of Tomorrow" is inextricably associated with that Fair (as well as the superb early 80's documentary about the Fair narrated by Jason Robards). The young boy and his father set out on a train to the New York World's Fair in May 1939 and soon find themselves enthralled (along with everybody else) by the confident, optimistic view of what the future would be like: glittering, gleaming supercities with robot servants, miracle food production and . . . gasp . . . television! This view of the dawning "space age" kindles a burning interest in both father and son to follow the space race through the years. While both start out on the same page, the son slowly diverges from his father's opinions as they pass through the paranoid 1950's era (son views rocket scientist Werner Von Braun as a hero while father views him as a Nazi criminal) all the way to post-Vietnam, post-Watergate era pessimism. 
Besides viewing the relationship between father and son, the book also examines how we as a culture went from the optimism for a better tomorrow (as demonstrated by the World's Fair and 50's Atomic Optimism) to what we have today: a view that sees the future as probably being worse than the past and humankind probably heading toward a post-apocalyptic ruin as seen in so many books and movies of recent years. Fies himself claims to still be an optimist: "There is a slight sense of disappointment from my generation and anyone who hoped for the promise of the space age," says Fies. "But there is also many new ideas, both actual and hypothetical, that seem to be taking the world into a better tomorrow. I want this book to show that it’s a good thing to hope and think that tomorrow might actually be better than today."
Also scattered periodically throughout the book is the boy's favourite comic book: Space Age Adventures featuring Commander Cap Crater & the Cosmic Kid. The first issue is purchased for the boy at the NY World's Fair by his father and we are treated to a reproduction of the comic book bound right into the book itself. The high quality paper which the book has been printed on so far changes to the rough newprint of the day while colour printing mistakes, fake ads and even metal staples are reproduced. The comic book adventures of Cap Carter reappear at each ten year interval of the main story as something like a "greek chorus" commenting on the world view of each succeeding decade during the space race. Cap Carter & the Cosmic Kid's battle cry "Ad Astra Per Aspera" (meaning "through hardships to the stars") takes on a different meaning as the years flow by. 
Besides the character development between father and son, Fies also manages to cram in fountains of information concerning everything from the experience of NY World's fairgoers (each visitor to the "World of Tomorrow" exhibit is handed upon leaving a pin that says "I Have Seen the Future"), geosynchronous orbit (discovered by Arthur C. Clarke) which allows communications satellites to function, vacuum tubes and transitor technology, the plans of Walt Disney to produce a "city of the future", the building of basement fallout shelters during the Cold War and the astronomical artwork of Chesley Bonestell which captivated Colliers Magazine readers. All this makes for a fascinating and entertaining read which really gives the flavour of those "space age" years from 1939 to 1975. After the first moon landing, the public somehow lost interest and the idea of a promising future sort of dissipated towards what we have now. The 1969 moon landing which had everyone glued to their television sets morphed into the later moon landings which had people complaining to the networks for interrupting their favourite regular programming to show moon footage. That was a pretty big change in only a few years. And while Fies does present this factually, he still manages to make the reader believe (without becoming a Pollyana) that their IS still optimism for a better future. It's just not the better future we had expected. It's different. It's probably better to let the author himself explain it. From his own "Author's Note":
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. 
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
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. . . 
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.