Daily Archives: July 10, 2022

Lisa Marie’s Week In Review: 7/4/22 — 7/10/22

Posted on by Lisa Marie Bowman

James Caan.  L.Q. Jones.  Tony Sirico.  Lenny von Dohlen.  Gregory Itzin.  Larry Storch.  We lost a lot of talented performers this week.  To all of them, I say thank you for the performances and thank you for the memories.  As long as people watch movies, their names and their talent will never be forgotten.

This week has been hot.  Yesterday, it was 106 degrees at its hottest.  Today, the high was 101.  My hope i that eventually, the temperature will only get up to 99 and we’ll get some relief.  Having grown up in the Southwest, I’m used to hot summers but that doesn’t make them any more fun.

Speaking of summer, my summer job of recapping Big Brother for the Big Brother Blog began this week.  It’s always difficult to keep up with everything this time of year but I still love it.

Here’s what I watched, read, and watched this week:

Films I Watched:

  1. Ambulance (2022)
  2. Blood Games (1990)
  3. The Deep House (2021)
  4. King of the Lost World (2005)
  5. Nitram (2021)
  6. A Very Brady Sequel (1996)

Television Shows I Watched:

  1. The Andy Warhol Diaries
  2. The Beatles: Get Back
  3. Big Brother 24
  4. The Challenge USA
  5. Euphoria
  6. Goliath
  7. Hanna
  8. Hawkeye
  9. Inspector Lewis
  10. Invasion
  11. Loki
  12. Nine Perfect Strangers
  13. Ozark
  14. Phoenix Rising
  15. Severance
  16. Stranger Things
  17. Succession

Books I Read:

  1. A Time To Remember (1986) by Stanley Shapiro

Music To Which I Listened:

  1. Bee Gees
  2. Berlin
  3. Gram Parson
  4. The Hues Corporation
  5. Iggy Pop
  6. Kid Rock
  7. Lupe Fiasco
  8. Lynard Skynard
  9. The 1975
  10. The Prodigy
  11. Pulp
  12. Radiohead
  13. Sharon Van Etten
  14. Sleeper
  15. t.A.T.u.
  16. Underworld
  17. Yvonne Elliman

News From Last Week:

  1. Actor James Caan Dies At 82
  2. L.Q. Jones, Actor in Sam Peckinpah Classics and Director of ‘A Boy and His Dog,’ Dies at 94
  3. Tony Sirico, an Eccentric Gangster on ‘The Sopranos,’ Dies at 79
  4. Actor Lenny Von Dohlen passes away
  5. Gregory Itzin, 24 and Star Trek actor, dies, aged 74
  6. Comedian Larry Storch, star of “F Troop,” dead at 99
  7. DJ Tim Westwood Is the Subject of Six Alleged Bullying and Sexual Misconduct Complaints, BBC Confirms
  8. Iconic Norman Rockwell works of art are taken off the White House walls
  9. ‘Big Brother’ host Julie Chen Moonves still supports husband Les: ‘He is a good man’
  10. Detained WNBA star Brittney Griner pleads guilty to drug charges in Russia
  11. Just Stop Oil protesters damaged Constable’s The Hay Wain in gluing stunt, gallery says, as eco zealot faces accusations of hypocrisy for racking up 50,000 air miles jetting to Bali, Australia and the Canary Islands

Links From Last Week:

  1. Our Wild Flaming Sardinian Feast! Here’s Video Of A Spectacular Tableside Meal In Sardinia!

Links From The Site:

  1. Erin shared Planet Comics, Black Mask, The Wind In His Fists, Had I But Groaned, Real Detective, One Star General, and Fourth of July!  She also shared some fireworks pictures!
  2. Doc shared music videos from Lupe Fiasco, 1975, Sharon Van Etten, Ozzy Osbourne, t.a.tu, and The Brady Bunch!
  3. I shared scenes from Casino, The Sopranos, and The Godfather!
  4. I reviewed A Time To Remember, The Lost City, Soon To Be A Major Motion Picture, American Siege, The Plot To Kill The President, Ambulance, The Burning of the White House, and The Thing Called Love!
  5. I wished all of you a happy 4th!  (And it was!  People were respectful with the fireworks this year!)
  6. I shared my week in television and an AMV of the Day!
  7. Jeff shared a music video from Sam Kinison and reviewed Seven in Darkness, Body Language, Cocaine Wars, Class Warfare, Powerplay, A Dangerous Place, and The Girls From Thunder Strip!

More From Us:

  1. Ryan has a patreon!  Consider subscribing!
  2. At Days Without Incident, Leonard shared The Promise!
  3. At her photography site, Erin shared mushrooms, playground, sign, legs, Come Inside, Tree From A Dream, and Happy 4th of July!
  4. At my music site, I shared songs from Underworld, Sleeper, Pulp, Radiohead, Berlin, t.A.T.u, and Carrie Underwood!
  5. I wrote about Big Brother for the Big Brother Blog!

Click here to check out last week!

Seven in Darkness (1969, directed by Michael Caffey)

Posted on by Jedadiah Leland

A group of blind people, led by teacher Alex Swain (Barry Nelson), are flying to a convention for the blind in Seattle.  When their flight is knocked off-course by an unexpected storm, the plane crashes into a remote forest.  The plane’s crew and the one sighted passenger are all killed in the crash, leaving the eight blind passengers to fend for themselves.  The plane is perched on the edge of a mountain, there are wolves all around, and no one can see the surrounding terrain.  And one of the passengers is pregnant and could give birth at any minute!  To Alex’s resentment, the group turns to Mark (Sean Garrison) to help them survive in the wilderness.  Mark was blinded while serving in Viet Nam and he’s still haunted by what happened during the war.  At first, he resists being thrust into a leadership role but finally, it becomes clear that he has no choice.  Under Mark’s leadership and despite Alex’s protestations, the eight survivors try to find their way back to civilization.

Filmed for television and based on a novel by Leonard Bishop, Seven in Darkness is a tense and well-acted movie.  It’s not easy to watch the survivors feeling around in the darkness, trying to find their way to safety.  That we can see what they don’t makes things all the more suspenseful.  Even more importantly, the film does a good job of presenting the survivors of being individuals.  Even though they all share a disability, they still have their own personality quirks, strengths, and flaws.  Surprisingly the stand-out amongst the cast is none other than Milton Berle, cast in a dramatic role and giving a nuanced performance as the angriest of the survivors.  Watching Seven in Darkness, you come to care about all of the survivors and you get very wrapped up in whether or not they’re going to be able to make it to safety.

Seven in Darkness was the first film to be shown as a part of ABC Movie of the Week.  It can be found on YouTube.

 

Scenes I Love: L.Q. Jones Meets Robert De Niro in Casino

Posted on by Lisa Marie Bowman

Yesterday, the great western character actor, L.Q. Jones, passed away.  He was 94 years old.

Though he was probably best known for the films that he did with Sam Peckinpah and for directing the darkly humorous sci-fi film, A Boy And His Dog, Jones also appeared in Martin Scorsese’s 1995 film, Casino.  Playing the role of county commissioner Pat Webb, Jones went toe-to-toe with Robert De Niro and more than held his own.  Reportedly, Scorsese asked Jones to rewrite much of his dialogue, in order to give it a western authenticity,

From Casino, here is a scene that I love:

Though Ace would disagree with me, he really should have just taken Webb up on his suggestion to give his brother-in-law a “position further down the trough.”  That pride was not only Ace’s undoing but also the end of Bugsy Seigel’s vision of Las Vegas.

Interestingly enough, this scene always makes me think of the scene where Sen. Pat Geary (also of Nevada) tried to bully Michael Corleone in The Godfather Part II.  In that film, the Corleones were able to put the senator in his place.  In Casino, however, it turns out that Pat Webb is right and Ace and the gangsters in Kansas City never really do figure out how things work in Vegas.