Today, the Shattered Lens wishes a happy 81st birthday to the one and only Jimmy Page!
In honor of one of the world’s greatest guitarists, today’s song of the day is one of the few Led Zeppelin songs that I like. Page originally came up with the lyrics for the song while driving through Morocco but clearly, Kashmir was a better title.
Oh, let the sun beat down upon my face And stars fill my dream I’m a traveler of both time and space To be where I have been To sit with elders of the gentle race This world has seldom seen They talk of days for which they sit and wait All will be revealed
Talk in song from tongues of lilting grace Sounds caress my ear And not a word I heard could I relate The story was quite clear
Oh, baby, I been blind Oh, yeah, mama, there ain’t no denyin’ Oh, ooh yes, I been blind Mama, mama, ain’t no denyin’, no denyin’
All I see turns to brown As the sun burns the ground And my eyes fill with sand As I scan this wasted land Try to find, try to find the way I feel
Oh, pilot of the storm who leaves no trace Like sorts inside a dream Leave the path that led me to that place Yellow desert stream My shangri la beneath the summer moon I will return again As the dust that floats high in June We’re moving through Kashmir
Oh, father of the four winds fill my sails Cross the sea of years With no provision but an open face Along the straits of fear Oh, when I want, when I’m on my way, yeah And my feet wear my fickle way to stay
Ooh, yeah yeah, oh, yeah yeah, But I’m down oh, yeah yeah, oh, yeah Yeah, but I’m down, so down Ooh, my baby, oh, my baby Let me take you there Come on, oh let me take you there Let me take you there
Songwriters: James Patrick (Jimmy) Page / John Bonham / Robert Anthony Plant
In 1925, on this very date, Lee Van Cleef was born in Somervillve, New Jersey. In honor of what would have been Lee Van Cleef’s 100th birthday, here he is with Klaus Kinski and Clint Eastwood in For A Few Dollars More.
There’s not a lot of dialogue in this scene but when you had actors like Eastwood, Kinski, and Lee Van Cleef, you didn’t need a lot of dialogue to make an impression.
4 Or More Shots From 4 Or More 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 lets the visuals do the talking!
Today, on what would have been his 97 birthday, we pay tribute to director Ulu Grobsard with….
4 Shots From 4 Ulu Grosbard Films
The Subject Was Roses (1968, dir by Ulu Grosbard, DP: Jack Priestley)
Straight Time (1978, dir by Ulu Grosbard, DP: Owen Roizman)
True Confessions (1981, dir by Ulu Grosbard, DP: Owen Roizman)
Georgia (1995, dir by Ulu Grosbard, DP: Jan Kiesser)
In the 1980 remake of The Jazz Singer, it only takes the film seven minutes to find an excuse to put Neil Diamond in blackface.
Of course, the film was a remake of the 1927 version of The Jazz Singer, which featured several scenes of Al Jolson performing in blackface. In fact, Al Jolson in blackface was such a key part of the film that it was even the image that was used to advertise the film when it was first released. Back in the 20s, Jolson said that wearing blackface was a way of honoring the black artists who created jazz. (As shocking as the image of Al Jolson wearing blackface is to modern sensibilities, Jolson was considered a strong advocate for civil rights and one of the few white singers to regularly appear on stage with black musicians.) Regardless of Jolson’s motives, less-progressively minded performers used blackface as a way to reinforce racial stereotypes and, to modern audiences, blackface is an abhorrent reminder of how black people were marginalized by a racist culture. You would think that, if there was any element of the original film that a remake would change, it would be the lead character performing in blackface.
But nope. Seven minutes into the remake, songwriter Jess Robin (Neil Diamond) puts on a fake afro and dons blackface so that he can perform on stage at a black club with the group that is performing his songs. The group’s name is the Four Brothers and, unfortunately, one of the Brothers was arrested the day of the performance. Jess performs with the group and the crowd loves it until they see his white hands. Ernie Hudson — yes, Ernie Hudson — stands up and yells, “That’s a white boy!” A riot breaks out. The police show up. Jess and the three remaining Brothers are arrested and taken to jail. Jess is eventually bailed out by his father, Cantor Rabinovitch (Laurence Olivier). The Cantor is shocked to discover that his son, Yussel Rabinovitch, has been performing under the name Jess Robin. He’s also stunned to learn that Yussel doesn’t want to be a cantor like his father. Instead, he wants to write and perform modern music. The Cantor tells Yussel that his voice is God’s instrument, not his own. Yussel returns home to his wife, Rivka (Caitlin Adams), and tries to put aside his dreams.
But when a recording artist named Keith Lennox (Paul Nicholas) wants to record one Yussel’s songs, Yussel flies out to Los Angeles. As Jess Robin, he is shocked to discover that Lennox wants to turn a ballad that he wrote into a hard rock number, Jess sings the song to show Lennox how it should sound. The arrogant Lennox is not impressed but his agent, Molly (Lucie Arnaz) is. Soon, Jess has a chance to become a star but what about the family he left behind in New York? “I have no son!” the Cantor wails when he learns about Jess’s new life in California.
I’ve often seen the 1980 version of The Jazz Singer referred to as being one of the worst films of all time. I watched it a few days ago and I wouldn’t go that far. It’s not really terrible as much as its just kind of bland. For someone who has had as long and successful a career as Neil Diamond, he gives a surprisingly charisma-free performance in the lead role. The most memorable thing about Diamond’s performance is that he refuses to maintain eye contact with any of the other performers, which makes Jess seem like kind of a sullen brat. It also doesn’t help that Diamond appears to be in his 40s in this film, playing a role that was clearly written for a much younger artist. Still, when it comes to bad acting, no one can beat a very miscast Laurence Olivier, delivering his lines with an overdone Yiddish accent and dramatically tearing at his clothes to indicate that Yussel is dead to him. Olivier was neither Jewish nor a New Yorker and that becomes very clear the more one watches this film. It takes a truly great actor to give a performance this bad. Diamond, at least, could point to the fact that he was a nonactor given a starring role in a major studio production. Olivier, on the other hand, really had no one to blame but himself.
Still, I have to admit that ending the film with a sparkly Neil Diamond performing America while Laurence Olivier nods in the audience was perhaps the best possible way to bring this film to a close. It’s a moment of beautiful kitsch. The Jazz Singer needed more of that.
Just for the hell of it, I went on a little Robert Duvall marathon for his birthday on January 5th. I started the marathon off with his superior western with Kevin Costner, OPEN RANGE (2003). Next up was Duvall’s excellent crime film with Joe Don Baker and Robert Ryan, THE OUTFIT (1973). Duvall was in badass mode in this one. Based on one of Richard Stark’s “Parker” books, this was my first time to watch the film and damn, it was excellent. After that, I watched the bleak THE ROAD (2009), starring Viggo Mortensen, where Duvall just had a small part. It was a downer. I finished off the marathon late in the evening with A FAMILY THING (1996). I remember when this movie came out in the 1990’s because it was co-written by Billy Bob Thornton. Thornton was still a year away from his massive success with the movie SLING BLADE, but I knew him from his writing and co-starring in the superior crime film ONE FALSE MOVE (1991), as well as his small role in TOMBSTONE (1993). As an Arkansan, I knew Thornton was from Arkansas so I had taken a particular interest in him. But I was only 22 years old when A FAMILY THING was released, and a movie about a couple of old guys resolving family issues didn’t seem that appealing to me. As a guy into his 50’s, the entire concept seems more interesting to me now, so I gave it a spin for the first time to close out the marathon.
The story opens up in rural Arkansas with Earl Pilcher Jr. (Robert Duvall) getting the shock of his life when his beloved mother writes a final letter to him and instructs her local pastor to deliver it a few days after her death. The letter tells Earl that his biological mother was a black woman named Willa Mae who died in childbirth. It seems that Earl’s dad had gotten Willa Mae pregnant, and since he came out white, his “mother” was able to raise him as her own without having to tell him the truth. The letter also tells him that he has a half-brother named Ray Murdock (James Earl Jones) living in Chicago. It’s her dying wish that he meet Ray and get to know him as family. Pissed at his dad, and wanting to honor his mom, Earl heads to Chicago to meet Ray. Earl knows that Ray is a cop so he’s able to track him down. They immediately don’t like each other, but through a variety of circumstances, Earl ends up staying at Ray’s house for a couple of days. While there, he meets Ray’s wise, old Aunt T., Willa Mae’s sister (Irma P. Hall) and his sullen son Virgil (Michael Beach). Will the two men continue to push each other away, or will they eventually find the family connection that exists under all that messy past?
I was surprised how deeply I was affected by A FAMILY THING. I’d be lying if I said I didn’t get teary-eyed a couple of times. The movie may use issues of adultery and racism to get the ball rolling, but more than anything else, it seems to understand that life is messy and that people are messy. We’ll disappoint ourselves, we’ll disappoint other people, and other people will disappoint us. There’s a reason that many people find their love in dogs and cats instead of people, because real relationships can be tough. The truth about my own life is that I could not have appreciated this film in 1996 at only 22 years of age. I was too naive. That’s no longer the case in 2025, and I can now truly relate to this story of two men who share a painful history, find common ground, and decide it’s worth moving forward together because family really does matter.
A movie like A FAMILY THING has no chance of working without a great cast, and this movie is a thespian jackpot. Robert Duvall is spot on perfect as the good ole guy from Arkansas, with a little bit of a racism engrained down deep into his soul, who now has to deal with the fact that he is half black. The scene where he confronts his dad about the lies that had been told to him all his life is as good as it gets. James Earl Jones matches Duvall in the even trickier role as the man who has always known about his “white” half brother Earl. This man has buried his hatred away for Earl’s father for decades, who he blames for the death of his own mother, and now has to deal with those feelings being dredged back up to the surface when Earl shows up in Chicago. Jones perfectly balances his character’s desire to keep the past in the past, with his decency as a man who doesn’t want to just throw Earl out on the street. He eventually softens towards him no matter how much bitterness he has for Earl’s dad. And neither Duvall or Jones even give the best performance in the film. That honor goes to Irma P. Hall as the blind, but extremely perceptive Aunt T. She sees through all of their bullshit, as she states to each of them on different occasions, and encourages them to get to know each other because they’re family. As they play games of racism and bitterness, she reminds them they are brothers no matter the color of their skin. It’s the performance of a lifetime and was at least worthy of an Oscar nomination in my opinion.
Overall, A FAMILY THING may compress the amount of time and potential therapy it would take to resolve the type of family history presented here, but it does find a certain truth in the power of relationships. Earl and Ray don’t have to recognize the fact that they are brothers. As a matter of fact their lives are just fine without each other. But it’s their willingness to embrace the messy truth and find a way to connect with each other that makes the movie meaningful to me!
I’m sitting here right now, at 2 in the morning, looking out my bedroom window for any sign of the snow storm that the local media has been warning me about for an entire week. The snow may not be here yet but the freezing cold is. Today’s music video of the day feels appropriate.
Welcome to Late Night Retro Television Reviews, a feature where we review some of our favorite and least favorite shows of the past! On Wednesdays, I will be reviewing Monsters, which aired in syndication from 1988 to 1991. The entire series is streaming on YouTube.
It’s Rex Manning Day on Monsters!
Episode 3.4 “Cellmates”
(Dir by Stephen Tolkin, originally aired on October 21st, 1990)
Timothy Danforth (Maxwell Caulfield) is a rich American kid who has gotten in trouble while visiting Mexico. He was arrested after hitting a kid with his car and then punching out the kid’s father, who just happened to be a cop. After Danforth was arrested, the cops looked inside his car and found a lot of drugs. Convinced (perhaps correctly) that Danforth is a drug dealer and a smuggler, the cops promptly toss him into a filthy jail cell.
The cocky Danforth is convinced that his father will soon free him from the prison. However, in the next cell, an old man (Ferdy Mayne) says that Danforth has been tossed into a special cell. It’s a cell that is reserved for the worst of the worst. The Old Man says that no one ever leaves the cell. At first, Danforth laughs off the old man’s claims but, at night, the Old Man dissolves into a puddle of liquid that enters Danforth’s cells and attempts to attack him. Danforth survives but when he tells his lawyer and his jailers about what happened, the authorities respond by chaining Danforth to a wall, leaving Danforth at the mercy of the Old Man.
It’s a pretty good thing that Danforth is such an unlikable and downright loathsome character because, otherwise, this would be a really disturbing episode. Instead, Danforth is a stereotypical rich kid who thinks that he can get away with anything and that the rules don’t apply to him. He shows no remorse about having hit a kid with his car. He’s cocky and arrogant from the minute we see him. He’s exactly the kind of guy who gives Americans abroad a bad name. In the end, it’s hard not to feel that he really doesn’t have anyone but himself to blame for his predicament. He’s a victim of his own very bad choices and he’s so confident that he’s untouchable that his final fate feels like karma.
This is a pretty simple episode. A bad guy falls victims to his own stupidity. There’s nothing likable about Timothy Danforth, though Maxwell Caulfield certainly does a good job in the role. Caulfield plays Danforth as being an incredibly spoiled brat, someone who has never been held responsible for his actions and who can’t believe that he’s actually in real trouble. Surprisingly, Caulfield almost gets you to feel sorry for Danforth at the end of the episode. Danforth really had no idea what he was getting himself involved with. That said, in the end, bad decisions are bad decisions and Danforth has no one to blame but himself.
This was an effective episode, with a lot of atmosphere and a good performance from Maxwell Caulfield. So far, Season 3 of Monsters is off to a good start.
In the 1931 Best Picture nominee Arrowsmith, Ronald Colman stars as Martin Arrowsmith, a doctor who is trying to save lives without compromising his ethics.
Arrowsmith is mentored by the famed bacteriologist, Max Gottlieb (A.E. Anson) and married to a nurse named Leora (Helen Hayes). At first, Arrowsmith makes his living as the local doctor in Leora’s small hometown in South Dakota. However, Arrowsmith is ambitious and wants to do more with his life and career than just take care of a small town. He wants to cure the world of disease. When he’s offered a position at the prestigious McGurk Institute in New York, he enthusiastically accepts. Having just suffered a miscarriage, Leora supports Arrowsmith’s decision and travels to New York with him. No matter what happens, Leora is always there to support her husband, even when he doesn’t seem to appreciate it.
When Arrowsmith thinks that he’s discovered an antibiotic serum that appears to be capable of curing all sorts of diseases, he attempts to stay true to the methods taught to him by Dr. Gottlieb. He takes his time. He tests carefully. He doesn’t rush out and give the serum to everyone. However, Arrowsmith finds his methods continually sabotaged by his colleagues, who hope to raise money by telling the press about a miracle serum that can “cure all diseases!” When Arrowsmith later finds himself combatting an outbreak of the Bubonic Plague in the West Indies, he again tries to employ the scientific method but finds himself being pressured by government officials to give his untested serum to every single person on the island. Eventually, Arrowsmith’s ethics are pushed to their limits when even Leora falls ill.
Arrowsmith was based on a best-selling novel by Sinclair Lewis, though the plot was changed to make the story more palpable for film audiences. In the novel, Arrowsmith is a bit of cad who regularly cheats on his wife. In the film, Arrowsmith is passionate and driven but the exact nature of his relationship with wealthy Joyce Lanyon (Myrna Loy) is left so ambiguous that it actually leaves one wondering why the character is in the film at all. What both the film and the novel have in common is an emphasis on the importance of science and the scientific method. Arrowsmith’s idealism runs into the harsh reality of life during an epidemic. Government officials are more concerned with saying that they’ve done something as opposed to considering whether their actions have ultimately done more harm than good. In its way, Arrowsmith predicted the COVID era.
Arrowsmith was the first John Ford film to be nominated for Best Picture and its financial success allowed Ford the freedom to go on to become one of Hollywood’s most important directors. Seen today, Arrowsmith feels a bit creaky and self-important, with little of the visual flair that Ford brought to his later films. Ronald Colman’s performance as Arrowsmith seems a bit stiff, especially when compared to the much more lively (and sympathetic) performance of Helen Hayes. Arrowsmith is a big and serious film and, if we’re going to be honest, it’s a little bit boring. Still, it’s interesting to see the issues of today being debated 90 years in the past.
As for the Oscars, Arrowsmith was nominated for Best Picture, Adaptation, Cinematography, and Art Direction. It lost in all four of the categories in which it was nominated. That year, Best Picture was won by Grand Hotel, which curiously didn’t receive any other nominations at all.
“You always have all the answers, Green Arrow … well, what’s your answer to that!?”
Green Lantern and Green Arrow were always mismatched as friends. Green Lantern was an upstanding citizen of the universe while Green Arrow was the former millionaire who now fighting for the working man. In Green Lantern/Green Arrow #85 (August, 1971), they discovered that the Green Arrow’s arrows were being used by junkies to commit crimes so that they could pay for their habit. They were buying the arrows from Speedy, who was the Green Arrow’s own sidekick! Speedy had gotten hooked on heroin.
Along with a three-issue arc of The Amazing Spider-Man in which Harry Osborne developed a pill addiction, Green Lantern/Green Arrow #85 was one of the first comic books to deal with drug addiction and it featured one of its own heroes getting hooked on a very real drug. Both artist Neal Adams and writer Denny O’Neil wanted to deal with the issue realistically. Neal Adams’s cover, featuring not just paraphernalia but Speedy in the act of shooting up, was considered to be very risky in 1971. Today, it’s the moment that DC finally made the move into exploring more mature storylines.
Through the Shattered Lens 