Gregory Walcott, who was born 98 years today, appeared in a lot of good films over the course of his long career. He had supporting roles in major blockbusters. He was a friend and frequent collaborator of Clint Eastwood’s. In 1979, he played the sheriff in the Oscar-nominated Norma Rae.
That said, he will probably always be most remembered for playing Jeff, the patriotic pilot, in Ed Wood’s 1957 masterpiece, Plan Nine From Outer Space. Walcott gave probably as good a performance as anyone could in Plan 9, though that didn’t prevent the film from wrong being declared one of the worst ever made. Walcott, for most of his career, was not a fan of Plan 9 but, in the years before he passed away in 2015, Walcott’s attitude towards the film mellowed considerably. He even appeared in Tim Burton’s Ed Wood.
In this scene from Plan 9, Walcott shows how to deal with a smug alien.
Welcome to Retro Television Reviews, a feature where we review some of our favorite and least favorite shows of the past! On Saturdays, I will be reviewing Welcome Back Kotter, which ran on ABC from 1975 to 1979. The entire show is currently streaming on Tubi!
This week, Gabe is really poor and Epstein has a chance to get really rich!
Episode 3.5 “Buddy, Can You Spare A Million?”
(Dir by Bob Claver, originally aired on September 29th, 1977)
Gabe tells Julie a joke about his Aunt Brenda, who believed in reincarnation. Brenda went to a psychic to find out what had happened to her late husband, Sidney. Sidney’s spirit informed Brenda that he woke up every morning and made love.
“Are you in Heaven?” asked Brenda.
“No,” Sidney said, “I’m a bull in Montana.”
Welcome back….
Continuing this season’s weird thing of keeping Barbarino separate from his fellow Sweathogs, this episode finds Barbarino in the hospital. It’s nothing serious. He’s just getting his tonsils out. However, since Barbarino is not in school (and not even in the 11th Grade until he passes that makeup exam), he is not around to contribute his weekly quarter to the Sweathogs’s lottery fund. Gabe reluctantly contributes a quarter in Vinnie’s name so that Epstein can buy a ticket.
Gabe’s reluctance turns to frustration when the ticket turns out to be a winner! The Sweathogs split the money amongst themselves but all Gabe gets is a quarter from Barbarino. As the father of newborn twins, Gabe could really use some of that money. Finally, after Julie basically calls him a wimp to his face, Gabe heads down to the hospital to demand his share of the money. As Gabe puts it, Barbarino gave him his word about sharing the money.
“My word ain’t worth nothing,” Barbarino says but we all know that Vinnie Barbarino isn’t as tough as he pretend to be. Barbarino does the right thing and agrees to split his share with Gabe, 50/50.
(Except, of course, I think it’s debatable whether it was the right thing because Gabe only put in a quarter because Barbarino wasn’t there to do it himself. He essentially loaned Barbarino the quarter and Barbarino paid him back. So, really, Gabe should stop whining.)
Because his ticket won, Epstein is entered into a million dollar lottery. Epstein and Horshack go to Gabe’s apartment to watch the drawing. The million dollars is won by Juan Ep — EVERYONE GOES CRAZY! — uh oh, the announcer can’t make out the handwriting!
“Epstein!” everyone yells at the TV.
“Juan Eppinger!” the announcer says.
Congrats, Juan Eppinger! Unfortunately, Juan Epstein is not Juan Eppinger. Esptein looks like he’s about to cry, making this kind of a depressing ending.
Fortunately, Juan’s misfortunate does not keep Gabe from telling a stuffed animal a joke about his Uncle Eddie, the bank robber.
This episode felt a bit off, just because Barbarino belongs with the Sweathogs and the Sweathogs belong with Barbarino and keeping them all separate throws off the chemistry that made the first two seasons so successful. I’m going to assume this was due to Travolta also doing Saturday Night Fever while working on Welcome Back, Kotter. I imagine the show had to work around Travolta’s suddenly very busy schedule and this was not an easy task. But still, without Barbarino, the Sweathogs are just lacking something and turning Horshack’s weirdness up to 11 is not substitute.
Next week …. Barbarino finally takes his makeup exam!
As some of our regular readers undoubtedly know, I am involved in a few weekly live tweets on twitter. I host #FridayNightFlix every Friday, I co-host #ScarySocial on Saturday, and I am one of the five hosts of #MondayActionMovie! Every week, we get together. We watch a movie. We tweet our way through it.
Tonight, for #ScarySocial, Deanna Dawn will be hosting 2019’s Polaroid!
If you want to join us on Saturday night, just hop onto twitter, start the film at 9 pm et, and use the #ScarySocial hashtag! The film is available on Prime. I’ll probably be there and I imagine some other members of the TSL Crew will be there as well. It’s a friendly group and welcoming of newcomers so don’t be shy.
4 Shots From 4 Films is just what it says it is, 4 shots from 4 of our favorite films. As opposed to the reviews and recaps that we usually post, 4 Shots From 4 Films is all about letting the visuals do the talking.
Today is the birthday of director John McNaughton! It’s time for….
4 Shots From 4 John McNaughton Films
Henry: Portrait of a Serial Killer (1986, dir by John McNaughton, DP: Charles Lieberman)
The Borrower (1991, dir by John McNaughton, DP: Julio Mucat and Robert C. New)
Normal Life (1996, dir by John McNaughton, DP: Jean de Segonzac)
Wild Things (1998, dir by John McNaughton, DP: Jeffrey L. Kimball)
After 60 years, The Rolling Stones are still at it, making music and filming music videos.
Their latest music video stars Nicholas Hoult and was directed by Calmatic, who has also done videos for Lil Nas X, Kendrick Lamar, Pharrell Williams, and Zayn Malik.
Welcome to Late Night Retro Television Reviews, a new feature where we review some of our favorite and least favorite shows of the past! On Fridays, I will be reviewing Friday the 13th, a show which ran in syndication from 1987 to 1990. The show can be found on YouTube!
This week’s episode of Friday the 13th is …. well, it’s not that good. Let’s talk about it.
Episode 1.14 “Bedazzled”
(Dir by Alexander Singer, originally aired on February 22nd, 1988)
With Jack and Ryan out of town to attend an astrology convention, Micki has got the antique store to herself …. or, at least, she does until she agrees to babysit a bratty kid named Richie (Gavan Magrath). Even worse than Richie are Jonah (Alan Jordan) and Tom (David Mucci), who claim to be telephone repairmen but who are actually at the store because they want to retrieve a cursed lantern that was taken from them by Jack and Ryan.
(Incidentally, they kill the real telephone repairman before showing up at the store. The real repairman is played Timothy Webber, who played Mo in Terror Train. Meanwhile, Dave Mucci played Wendy’s thuggish boyfriend in Prom Night. So, if nothing else, this episode is a footnote of sorts in Canadian slasher history.)
The cursed lantern is probably the lamest antique that the show has featured up to this point. Using the lantern, undersea divers can find hidden treasure. But after finding treasure, the lantern then has to set someone on fire. (Basically, after hidden treasure is found, anyone who is touched by a beam of the lantern’s light will burst into flames.) The man problem is that the lantern is so big and bulky that Jonah just looks silly whenever he picks it up and aims the lantern’s fiery light at anyone. It is a seriously awkward and rather impractical weapon, one that appears to not only be impossible to aim but also next to impossible to run with as well. Add to that, it turns out that the beam of light can diverted by a mirror so it’s not only a lame item but an easily defeated one as well.
It’s a shame that this episode isn’t better. Micki may have the best hair and the best fashion sense of anyone on the show but it’s rare that she ever really gets an episode all to herself. But this episode saddles her down not only with forgettable villains and an impractical cursed item but it also forces her to deal with a bratty kid. The kid survives his night at store and, by all logic, he should be traumatized for life. Instead, he tells his mother about everything that happened and his mother laughs about what a great imagination he has. Seriously, though, shouldn’t Micki have some magic wand that she could use to erase Richie’s memory or something? It seems kind of dangerous to let a kid that bratty know that the store is full of magic items.
Anyway, this was a forgettable episode so I’m keeping the review short tonight! Fortunately, next week’s episode will be much better.
Welcome to Retro Television Reviews, a new feature where we review some of our favorite and least favorite shows of the past! On Fridays, I will be reviewing T. and T., a Canadian show which ran in syndication from 1987 to 1990. The show can be found on Tubi!
(Dir by Don McCutcheon, originally aired on January 30th, 1990)
Who is Wendell?
Wendell (played by Wayne Robson) is beloved figured in this show’s fictional Canadian city. Wendell lives on the streets, sleeping in a tent in an alley and spendinh his days eating whatever food he happens to come across. Wendell is good-natured and he doesn’t take it personally when the local teenagers toss a half-eaten apple at him. Wendell is such a nice guy that, when he comes across a duffel bag full of money, he doesn’t keep the money for himself but he instead starts handing it out to random people. It’s his way of thanking everyone for helping him and everyone is very polite about waiting their turn to be handed some money.
Way to go, Wendell!
Unfortunately, the duffel bag belonged to two incompetent crooks named Errol (Gareth Bennett) and Fritz (Dominic Cuzzocrea). Now, when I say incompetent …. listen, T and T has featured it’s share of dumb criminals but there have never been any dumb as these two. Not only do they lose the duffel bag but they also continually lose track of Wendell. They’re the type of crooks whose ammo clips regularly fall out of the guns. These guys may be incompetent but they do fire a gun at T.S. at one point. T.S. escapes injury but, as he explains to Amy, shooting at him makes things “personal.”
T.S.’s plan to protect Wendell and catch the bad guys is to have his friend Decker wear a fake beard and pretend to be Wendell. It’s a good plan, except the bad guys come up with a similar plan and, as a result, there are two fake Wendells wandering around and T.S. has to figure out which one to beat up. T.S. gets so confused that it gives the bad guys time to to get the drop on him. Fortunately, the bad guys once again fail to load their guns correctly, which gives T.S. and Decker time to knock them both out with one punch.
This was not a particularly complicated episode. Nor was it a very suspenseful one, as the bad guys were such idiots that they never came across as being any sort of threat. More time was spent with Wendell teaching Joe how to live on the streets than on the villains trying to get their money back. (Why is Wendell teaching Joe how to live on the streets? It was T.S.’s idea, which leads me to wonder if T.S. is planning on kicking Joe out of the gym at some point in the near future.) As for Amy, she spent most of this episode setting up her new office and getting annoyed with the perfectly nice guy who had an office across the hall. The show may be called T and T but it’s usually one T who gets to do anything.
This was a bit of a forgettable episode but Mr. T did yell, “Hey, fool!” after the bad guys attempted to shoot him so that was kind of fun.
Yesterday, the American Society of Cinematographers announced their nominations for the best of 2023. The winners will be announced on March 3rd.
Feature Edward Lachmann, ASC for “El Conde” (Netflix)
Matthew Libatique, ASC, LPS for “Maestro” (Netflix)
Rodrigo Prieto, ASC, AMC for “Killers of the Flower Moon” (Apple TV+)
Robbie Ryan, ISC for “Poor Things” (Searchlight)
Hoyt van Hoytema, ASC, FSF, NSC for “Oppenheimer” (Universal Pictures)
Spotlight Eric Branco for “Story Ave.” (Kino Lorber)
Krum Rodriguez for “Citizen Saint”
Warwick Thornton for “The New Boy”
Documentary Jeff Hutchens for “Murder in Big Horn”, Episode 1
Curren Sheldon for “King Coal”
D. Smith for “Kokomo City”
Limited or Anthology Series or Motion Picture Made for Television Dan Atherton for “Great Expectations” – “The Three Keys” (FX)
Sam Chiplin for “The Lost Flowers of Alice Hart” – “Part One: BLack Fire Orchid” (Prime Video)
Ben Kutchins, ASC for “Boston Strangler” (Hulu)
Igot Martinovic for “George & Tammy” – “Stand by Your Man” (Showtime)
Jason Oldak for “Lessons in Chemistry” – “Book of Calvin” (Apple TV+)
Tobias Schliessler, ASC for “All The Light We Cannot See” – “Episode 2” (Netflix)
Episode of a One-Hour Regular Series Ricardo Diaz for “Winning Time: The Rise of the Lakers Dynasty” – “The Second Coming” (Max)
Rob C. Givens for “Gotham Knights” – “Daddy Issues” (CW)
M. David Mullen, ASC for “The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel” – “Four Minutes” (Prime Video)
Cathal Watters, ASC, ISC for “Foundation” – “In Seldon’s Shadow” (Apple TV+)
Glen Keenan for “Star Trek: Strange New Worlds” – “Hegemony” (Paramount+)
Episode of a Half-Hour Television Series Julian Court, BSC for “The Diplomat” – “The James Bond Clause” (Netflix)
Carl Herse for “Barry” – “Tricky Legacies” (Max)
Jon Joffin, ASC for “Schmigadoon!” – “Something Real” (Apple TV+)
Blake McClure, ASC for “Minx” – “I Thought the Bed was Gonna Fly” (Starz)
Andrew Wehde for “The Bear” – “The Bear” (Hulu)
Music Video
Scott Cunningham, ASC for “Gorilla” (performed by Little Simz)
Jon Joffin, ASC for “At Home” (performed by Jon Bryant)
Andrey Nikolaev for “Tanto” (performed by Cassie Marin)
The Denver Film Critics Society has announced their picks for the best of 2023! The winners are listed below in bold.
Best Film
Barbie
Killers of the Flower Moon Oppenheimer
Past Lives
Poor Things
Best Director
Emerald Fennell – Saltburn
Greta Gerwig – Barbie
Yorgos Lanthimos – Poor Things Christopher Nolan – Oppenheimer
Martin Scorsese – Killers of the Flower Moon
Best Lead Performance by an Actor, Female
Lily Gladstone – Killers of the Flower Moon
Greta Lee – Past Lives
Carey Mulligan – Maestro
Margot Robbie – Barbie Emma Stone – Poor Things
Best Lead Performance by an Actor, Male
Bradley Cooper – Maestro
Paul Giamatti – The Holdovers
Barry Keoghan – Saltburn Cillian Murphy – Oppenheimer
Jeffrey Wright – American Fiction
Best Supporting Performance by an Actor, Female
Emily Blunt – Oppenheimer
Danielle Brooks – The Color Purple Da’Vine Joy Randolph – The Holdovers
Rachel McAdams – Are You There God? It’s Me, Margaret
Rosamund Pike – Saltburn
Best Supporting Performance by an Actor, Male
Rober De Niro – Killers of the Flower Moon
Robert Downey Jr. – Oppenheimer Ryan Gosling – Barbie
Charles Melton – May December
Mark Ruffalo – Poor Things
Best Sci-Fi/Horror
The Creator Godzilla Minus One
Poor Things
Talk to Me
They Cloned Tyrone
Best Animated Film
The Boy and the Heron
Elemental Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse
The Super Mario Bros. Movie
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutant Mayhem
Best Comedy
American Fiction Barbie (TIE)
Bottoms
The Holdovers Poor Things (TIE)
Best Visual Effects The Creator (TIE)
Godzilla Minus One Guardians of the Galaxy Vol 3 (TIE)
Oppenheimer
Poor Things
Best Original Screenplay Greta Gerwig & Noah Baunmbach – Barbie
Samy Burch – May December
Emerald Fennell – Saltburn
David Hemingson – The Holdovers
Celine Song – Past Lives
Best Adapted Screenplay
Andrew Haigh – All of Us Strangers
Cord Jefferson – American Fiction Tony McNamara – Poor Things
Christopher Nolan – Oppenheimer
Eric Roth & Martin Scorsese – Killers of the Flower Moon
Best Documentary Feature
20 Days in Mariupol
American Symphony
Beyond Utopia
Kokomo City Still: A Michael J. Fox Movie
Best Original Song
Dance the Night – Barbie
I’m Just Ken – Barbie What Was I Made For – Barbie
Keep It Moving – The Color Purple
Road to Freedom – Rustin
Am I Dreaming – Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse
Best Original Score
Jerskin Fendrix – Poor Things Ludwig Göransson – Oppenheimer
Mica Levi – The Zone of Interest
Daniel Pemberton – Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse
Robbie Robertson – Killers of the Flower Moon
Best Non-English Language Feature
Anatomy of a Fall Godzilla Minus One (TIE)
Past Lives
The Taste of Things The Zone of Interest (TIE)
Through the Shattered Lens 