Back in 2015, I reviewed a turkey called ZOMBIES ON BROADWAY , which paired Bela Lugosi with the “comedy” team of Wally Brown and Alan Carney, RKO’s cut-rate answer to Abbott & Costello. Well, it seems the studio threw together this unlucky trio again, along with co-star Anne Jeffreys and adding horror icon Lionel Atwill in another attempt at a scare comedy titled GENIUS AT WORK. Glutton for punishment that I am, I recorded it, then watched, expecting another bomb… and instead found a fairly funny little ‘B’ movie that, while not on a par with ABBOTT & COSTELLO MEET FRANKENSTEIN , is a whole lot better than the aforementioned ZOMBIES fiasco!
Brown and Carney are back in their screen personas as doofuses Jerry Miles and Mike Strager, which they played in all eight of their films together. This time around, they’re radio sleuths hosting a show called ‘Crime of…
Last night, I watched Sunday’s Lifetime premiere film, Her Worst Nightmare!
Why Was I Watching It?
I recorded Her Worst Nightmare off of Lifetime on Sunday night. I watched it on Monday because I desperately needed to make some space on my DVR! (Seriously, I’ve got like 5 hours of recording space left…)
Plus, I have to admit that I really liked the title. Judging from the poster above, the film was originally called Degrees of Fear but I actually preferred Her Worst Nightmare. Honestly, if the word nightmare appears in the title, there’s no way that I’m not going to watch.
What Was It About?
A year ago, Dakota (Claire Blackwelder) was kidnapped and held prisoner by a brutal sociopath. Though she was eventually rescued and her kidnapper was sent to prison, Dakota is still struggling to deal with the trauma of what she’s been through. Now a college student, Dakota is still paranoid and withdrawn. With a student reporter trying to get her to talk about her experiences and a possibly lecherous professor (Trevor St. John) constantly trying to get her to come out and have a drink with him, Dakota doesn’t know who to trust.
It especially doesn’t help that it appears that, once again, someone is stalking Dakota. Has her kidnapper escaped or is something else happening? Dakota is determined to find out!
What Worked?
In the lead role, Claire Blackwelder gave a sympathetic performance and she did a good job of portraying Dakota’s paranoia. It was impossible not to empathize with Dakota and Blackwelder’s performance really held the film together.
Meanwhile, Trevor St. John was hilariously self-satisfied in the role of Prof. Campbell. We’ve all had a teacher like him, the handsome professor who goes out of his way to let you know that 1) he’s only a few years older than you and 2) he likes to hang out at the same places that you do and 3) he’d love to have office hours with you at any time during the semester.
Her Worst Nightmare was a relatively restrained film. Usually, I complain whenever a Lifetime film is too low key. I usually like my Lifetime melodramas to be totally and completely over-the-top. But, in the case of Her Worst Nightmare, the restrained approach actually worked. It generated suspense and, like Dakota, I found myself looking at every corner of the screen, keeping an eye out for any possible threats.
What Didn’t Work?
I have to admit that I wasn’t particularly shocked when the identity of Dakota’s stalker was revealed. That’s one of the drawbacks of having a small cast. There’s only so many possible suspects and, once you discount all of the obvious ones, it’s pretty easy to guess who it’s going to be.
“Oh my God! Just like me!” Moments
Whenever Dakota was feeling paranoid, I was like, “Been there.” Unlike Dakota, I’ve never been kidnapped and held prisoner but I very well could have been if luck had not been on my side. Anyone who has ever been stalked or who has ever escaped from an abusive relationship will be able to relate to Dakota.
Lessons Learned
Just because you’re paranoid, that doesn’t mean that people aren’t out to get you. Actually, to be honest, I already knew that before I watched the film but sometimes, the best thing that a film can do is remind you of something that you already know to be true!
Love and Rockets was an English alternative band, made up of all of the members of Bauhaus who were not named Peter Murphy. From 1985 to 1998, before breaking up to pursue other projects, Love and Rockets released 7 studio albums. Though Love and Rockets always struggled to escape the shadow of Bauhaus, the band was still responsible for some of the best music of the late 80s and 90s.
Their best known song was So Alive, which was a number one hit in both the United States and Canada. The video is highly regarded by aficionados of long legs and backlighting everywhere.
The song was written by the song’s lead vocalist, Daniel Ash. As Ash explained in an interview with Xsnozie:
“I’d gone to a party on Saturday night, and I was married at the time, and I saw this woman over the other side of the room, and I was completely transfixed which is very odd because I was freshly married. It was very weird, but I was completely infatuated by her and so much so that I couldn’t go near her to even speak to her, it was just this overwhelming thing. I can’t explain it to this day. That’s why the first line is, ‘I don’t know what color your eyes are.’ Because I didn’t get that close, I just saw this person in the distance.”
The video was the first to be directed by Howard Greenhalgh, who would later direct the video for Soundgarden’s Black Hole Sun.
And yes, Love and Rockets did take their name from the comic book series by the Hernandez Brothers.
Note : This is the original, unedited version of a piece I wrote For Daniel Elkin’s Your Chicken Enemy website. As always, I share this here in case interested parties, should such a thing exist, wish to compare the “rough draft” with the finished piece. Mr. Elkin always provides valuable input and suggestions that I think improve things considerably, and if you do read them both back to back, or side by side, or whatever, I’m confident that you’ll agree.
“Art is always about ‘something hidden.’ But does it help us connect with that hidden something? I think it moves us away from it.”
So begins anarchist theorist John Zerzan’s widely-discussed (in some circles, at any rate) essay “The Case Against Art.” Zerzan, being one of the leading scholars and spokespeople of the “anarcho-primitivist,” or “Green Anarchist” movements…
The paperback covers below were all done by the artist, Art Sussman. In the 50s and the 60s, Sussman’s unique and often surreal style was featured on books of every genre, from science fiction to mystery. Below is just a sampling of this artist’s memorable output:
This past week saw another great musician pass away.
Ed King was an integral part of the three-guitar sound that made the Lynyrd Skynyrd sound so unique among the other blues-inspired American rock bands of the 70’s. Some have called Ed King the backbone of the band.
He was great either on bass guitar or as the third guitarist. The latter becoming the signature sound of the band’s most popular song and one of their most requested: “Free Bird.”
While it’d be simple enough to commemorate Ed King’s passing with another listen to that hit song, it’s on another much simpler song of the band’s that best typifies the member of Lynyrd Skynyrd. He who helped give them their signature sound and whose laid-back attitude finally convinced him that it was time to leave the band when the atmosphere around it began to turn mean and violent.
Some fans of Lynyrd Skynyrd don’t have good things to say about Ed King. They think he bailed on the group just when they were reaching the pinnacle of their success and popularity. But as the song “Simple Man” says, “Oh, take your time, don’t live too fast.”
That was Ed King. It’s time you joined the rest of your band mates waiting for you up above.
Simple Man
Mama told me when I was young “Come sit beside me, my only son And listen closely to what I say And if you do this it’ll help you some sunny day”
“Oh, take your time, don’t live too fast Troubles will come and they will pass You’ll find a woman and you’ll find love And don’t forget, son, there is someone up above”
“And be a simple kind of man Oh, be something you love and understand Baby be a simple kind of man Oh, won’t you do this for me, son, if you can”
“Forget your lust for the rich man’s gold All that you need is in your soul And you can do this, oh baby, if you try All that I want for you, my son, is to be satisfied”
“And be a simple kind of man Oh, be something you love and understand Baby be a simple kind of man Oh, won’t you do this for me, son, if you can”
Oh yes, I will
“Boy, don’t you worry, you’ll find yourself Follow your heart and nothing else And you can do this, oh baby, if you try All that I want for you, my son, is to be satisfied”
“And be a simple kind of man Oh, be something you love and understand Baby be a simple kind of man Oh, won’t you do this for me, son, if you can”
Baby, be a simple, be a simple man Oh, be something you love and understand Baby, be a simple kind of man
Lisa tells me that today is Tarzan Day so, in honor of the Lord of the Jungle, today’s music video of the day is Toy-Box’s Tarzan and Jane.
106 years ago, Tarzan made his debut in an issue of The All-Story. Created by Edgar Rice Burroughs, Tarzan was actually John Clayton, Viscount Greystoke. Born to British nobility, Tarzan was raised in the jungle by a tribe of apes. Tarzan’s great love was an American named Jane Porter. After marrying Jane, Tarzan would divide his time between England and Africa, always returning to the jungle whenever the hypocrisy of civilization became too much for him to deal with.
The character of Tarzan would go on to star in numerous films and television shows. He’s been played by everyone from Johnny Weissmuller to Buster Crabbe to Ron Ely. In the music video for Toy-Box’s Tarzan and Jane, he’s played by Amir El-Falaki. El-Falaki was one half of Toy-Box. The other half, Anila Mirza, plays Jane.
Toy-Box was a Danish pop group. They never achieved much fame in the United States but they were briefly big in Scandinavia. Tarzan and Jane was their biggest hit, especially after it was re-released in 1999 to coincide with the release of Disney’s animated Tarzan. Tarzan was not anything special but it will always be remembered for unleashing the Phil Collins ballad, You’ll Be In My Heart, on an unsuspecting world.
Four years after the release of Tarzan and Jane, Toy-Box broke up but they have recently reunited and performed for a series of 90s concerts.
After spending last week watching, live tweeting, and a reviewing all of SyFy’s shark movies, I kind of took this week off. I’ll get caught up next week,
The important thing is that October is right around the corner!
Through the Shattered Lens 