Author Archives: Jedadiah Leland

Before Woodstock: T.A.M.I. Show (1964, directed by Steve Binder)

Posted on by Jedadiah Leland

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Five years before Woodstock, there was T.A.M.I. Show.

In 1964, a concert was held over two days at the Santa Monica Civic Auditorium.  Free tickets were distributed to local high school students and the best footage from the two shows was edited into one movie.  Distributed by American International Pictures, T.A.M.I. Show was one of the first concert films.

T.A.M.I. stood for Teenage Awards Music International but no awards were given out during those two days.  Instead, 12 of the most popular music acts of 1964 performed on one stage.  The Beatles may not have been there but almost every other hitmaker of the year showed up.

Among the highlights of T.A.M.I. Show was the performance of James Brown and The Famous Flames, which many consider to be one of the best musical performances ever captured on film.

James Brown’s performance was followed by The Rolling Stones.  Though Keith Richards once claimed that trying to follow James Brown was the biggest mistake of their careers, T.A.M.I. Show was the first time that many American teenagers actually saw the Stones perform.

Also performing: The Supremes, at the height of their popularity.

The Beach Boys’ performance has become semi-legendary because, as a result of copyright issues, it was edited out of prints of T.A.M.I. Show following the initial theatrical run.

For years, T.A.M.I. Show was unavailable for home viewing but finally, in 2010, Shout Factory released this landmark of movie and music history on DVD and they even included the long censored footage of the Beach Boys.  For music lovers, T.A.M.I. Show is a must-see record of the rock scene in between the start of the British invasion and the rise of the counterculture.

“It’s A Shame To Get It Shot Full Of Holes.” Hannie Caulder (1971, directed by Burt Kennedy)

Posted on by Jedadiah Leland

hannie-posterA century before Beatrix Kiddo killed Bill and The Deadly Viper Assassination Squad, there was Hannie Caulder.

Hannie Caulder (played by Raquel Welch) lives at a horse station on the Texas/Mexico border.  When the outlaw Clemmons brothers — Emmett (Ernest Borgnine), Frank (Jack Elam), and Rufus (Strother Martin) — arrive at the station following a disastrous bank robbery, they brutally murder her husband and take turns raping her.  After setting the station on fire, the Clemmons Brothers leave Hannie for dead.

What they do not realize is that Hannie has managed to crawl out of the burning building.  The next day, when a bounty hunter named Thomas Luther Price (Robert Culp) approached the burned out remains of the station, Hannie begs him to teach her how to shoot a gun.

“If I taught you the gun,” Tom says, “you’d go out and get your ass shot off!”

“It’s my ass!” Hannie replies.

“It’s a shame to get it shot full of holes,” Tom says, “It’s as pretty a one as I’ve ever seen.”

Tom refuses to teacher her how to handle a gun but he does allow her to ride with him.  Before she mounts Tom’s second horse, Hannie sees that there is a body lying across the saddle.  “I hope you don’t mind riding with a dead man,” Tom says.

After Tom realizes that she was raped, he agrees to her how to shoot.  But first, he takes her into Mexico to meet a former Confederate gunsmith named Bailey so that Bailey can make her a gun.  Bailey is played by Christopher Lee.  In a career that spanned 70 years, Hannie Caulder was the only Western that Christopher Lee ever appeared in.  At first, it’s strange to see Christopher Lee in a Western, using his Winchester rifle to gun down a group of bandits who threaten his family.  But Lee is a natural and eventually, you stop seeing him as Dracula in a western and you just see him as Bailey.

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As Bailey and Tom watch Hannie practice her shooting, Bailey says, “Fine-looking woman.”

“She wants to be a man,” Tom responds.

Bailey nods.  “She’ll never make it.”

As an actress, Raquel Welch was often miscast in roles that were only meant to highlight her looks.  She was always at her best when she played tough characters who were not afraid to fight and Hannie is one of her toughest.  While the film certainly takes advantage of her appearance (she spends a good deal of it wearing nothing but a poncho), Welch also gives one of her best performances.  Even with Culp, Borgnine, Elam, and Martin acting up a storm, she more than holds her own.  She not only looks good with a gun but she knows how to use it too.

Though the film was obviously influenced by the violent Spaghetti westerns that were coming out of Italy at the time, Hannie Caulder was directed by Hollywood veteran Burt Kennedy.  Kennedy was best known for comedic westerns like Support Your Local Sheriff  and Hannie Caulder awkwardly mixes drama with comedy.  Scenes of the Clemmons Brothers bickering and grizzled old west types doing a double take whenever Hannie walks by are mixed with Peckinpah-style violence and flashbacks of Hannie being raped.  If the film had a director more suited to the material, it could have been a classic but under Kennedy’s direction, the end result is uneven but always watchable.

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In Memory of Abe Vigoda: “It was only business. I always liked him.”

Posted on by Jedadiah Leland

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Mark Twain famously said, “The reports of my death have been greatly exaggerated.”

Actor Abe Vigoda could have said the same thing. One reason why Abe Vigoda was such a popular figure was because he had a sense of humor about being so frequently mistaken for dead.  Twice, in 1982 and 1987, his death was incorrectly announced.  For many people, Abe Vigoda will always be best known for appearing on David Letterman and Conan O’Brien to let people know that he was not dead.  There was even a website and a twitter account devoted to keeping people updated on whether Abe Vigoda was alive or dead.  When it was announced, earlier today, that Vigoda had died at the age of 94, many media outlets pointed out that the story was for real this time.

Before he become an internet meme, Abe Vigoda was a great actor who stole scenes in both the best film and one of the best sitcoms of the 1970s.  Before Abe Vigoda was a late night television guest, he was Detective Phil Fish on Barney Miller.  Before he was Fish, he was Tessio in The Godfather.  And before he was Tessio, he was Ezra Braithwraite on the original Dark Shadows.

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Abe Vigoda as Ezra Braithwraite

For me, Vigoda will always be the quietly intimidating Sal Tessio.  Who can forget his final scene in The Godfather, in which he asks Robert Duvall’s Tom Hagan if he can get him off the hook “for old times sake.”  Watch the scene below.  This is great acting.

Rest in peace, Abe Vigoda.  Thank you for the memories.

4 Shots From 4 Films: The Elephant Man, Blue Velvet, Twin Peaks: Fire Walk With Me, Mulholland Drive

Posted on by Jedadiah Leland

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.

Happy birthday, David Lynch!

4 Shots From 4 Films

The Elephant Man (1980, directed by David Lynch)

The Elephant Man (1980, directed by David Lynch)

Blue Velvet (1986, directed by David Lynch)

Blue Velvet (1986, directed by David Lynch)

Twin Peaks: Fire Walk With Me (1992, directed by David Lynch)

Twin Peaks: Fire Walk With Me (1992, directed by David Lynch)

Mulholland Drive (2000, directed by David Lynch)

Mulholland Drive (2000, directed by David Lynch)

 

 

Remembering Chuck Wepner: The Real Rocky (2011, directed by Jeff Feuerzeig)

Posted on by Jedadiah Leland

The Real RockyDuring his professional boxing career, Chuck Wepner had more than a few nicknames.  Some people called him “The Bayonne Brawler,” because he was from Bayonne, New Jersey and he was a street fighter.  After a 1970 loss to Sonny Liston, Wepner became known as “The Bayonne Bleeder” because of the amount of blood that he shed in the ring.  However, after 1976, most people knew Chuck Wepner as “the real Rocky.”

In 1975, the largely unknown and little-regarded Chuck Wepner was given the opportunity to challenge Muhammad Ali for the world’s Heavyweight title.  For the fight, Ali was paid $1.5 million while Wepner received only $10,000.  For Ali, it was supposed to be an easy title defense.  For Wepner, it was not only his biggest payday but also his chance to prove that he belonged in the ring with the champ.

During the fight, Wepner shocked everyone by holding his own.  In the ninth round, Wepner knocked Ali down and it briefly looked as if the Bayonne Bleeder was about to become the world’s Heavyweight champion.  Returning to his corner, Wepner told his manager, “Start the car. We’re going to the bank. We are millionaires!”

His manager replied, “You better turn around.  He’s getting back up and he looks pissed off.”

When Ali got back on his feet, he came at Wepner with everything he had.  Despite getting decisively outboxed and getting his nose broken during the final rounds, Wepner still went 15 rounds with Ali before the referee stopped the fight and declared Ali to be the winner by technical knockout.

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Sitting in a bar and watching the Ali/Wepner fight was a struggling actor named Sylvester Stallone.  A few days after the fight, Stallone wrote the first draft of his screenplay for Rocky and the rest is history.  However, when Wepner would later try to get paid for inspiring one of the biggest box office hits of all time, Stallone claimed that Wepner had not provided any inspiration at all.  Eventually, Wepner took Stallone to court and the case was settled for an undisclosed account.

ESPN Film’s The Real Rocky is an hour-long documentary about Chuck Wepner and his life both before and after Rocky.  Featuring extensive interviews with Wepner himself and a group of veteran boxing journalists, The Real Rocky attempts to answer the two questions that haunt Wepner’s career: Was Chuck Wepner the real Rocky and did Wepner really knock down Muhammad Ali?

After the fight, Muhammad Ali claimed that Wepner did not knock him down but instead that Wepner had tripped him.  In the documentary, Wepner continues to insist that he did knock Ali down and even says that, if asked, Ali will back him up.  However, the documentary features a close-up of a photo that appears to show Wepner throwing a punch while standing on Ali’s foot, which would mean that Ali was right and Wepner did trip him.  The Bayonne Bleeder knocking down Muhammad Ali is a great story but it probably did not happen.

As for whether or not Wepner was the real Rocky, the documentary leaves little doubt that he was.  Along with the obvious parallels between Wepner vs. Ali and Balboa vs. Creed, the documentary reveals that Wepner later fought an exhibition match with wrestler Andre the Giant, a match that was later recreated in Rocky III.  Even after the first movie, Stallone was still borrowing from Wepner’s life.

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After his retirement from the ring, Wepner struggled with drug addiction and briefly did some time in prison.  In the documentary’s most bittersweet moment, Wepner talks about being locked up in East Jersey State Prison, just to discover that Stallone was also at the prison, shooting a movie where he played a prisoner.  After being released, Wepner went back to his job as a liquor salesman, a job that he still holds today.

The Real Rocky is an engrossing documentary that allows Wepner to tell his story in his own words.  With Stallone on the verge of winning an Oscar for his latest (and probaly) last performance as Rocky Balboa, now is a great time to watch this documentary and spare a few thoughts for the real Rocky, Chuck Wepner.

In Praise of Alan Rickman: The January Man (1989, directed by Pat O’Connor)

Posted on by Jedadiah Leland

JanuarymanposterLast week, when the world first learned of the death of the actor Alan Rickman, it was shocking to realize just how many great roles he had played.  He made his feature film debut as Hans Gruber in Die Hard.  He played Colonel Brandon in Sense and Sensibility, Severus Snape in the Harry Potter movies, the Sheriff of Nottingham in Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves, Hilly Kristal in CGBG and Marvin the Paranoid Android in Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy.  He even played Leonard Nimoy Alexander Dane in Galaxy Quest.  But the first time I ever saw Alan Rickman, he was playing Ed the Painter in The January Man.

As The January Man begins, the new year is barely a day old and already Manhattan is in a panic.  Over the past 11 months, a serial killer has terrorized the city, killing one woman per month.  His latest victim, Allison Hawkins (Faye Grant) was murdered on New Year’s Eve.  Now, it’s January and everyone in New York City is waiting for the killer to strike again.

Mayor Flynn (Rod Steiger, bellowing his lines as only an Oscar-winning “great” actor can) is upset because Allison was a friend of his daughter, Bernadette (Mary Elizabeth Mastrantonio).  Flynn orders the police commissioner, Frank Starkey (Harvey Keitel), to put his brother on the case.  Nick Starky (Kevin Kline) was the best detective in New York but Frank framed him on corruption charges.  Now, Nick is working as a fireman and does not want to return to police work.  However, Nick tells Frank that he will investigate the murders on one condition: Nick wants to make dinner for Frank’s wife (and Nick’s former lover), Christine (Susan Sarandon).

After cooking an octopus for Christine, Nick works the case.  His unorthodox methods get on the nerves of Capt. Alcoa (Danny Aiello, bellowing almost as much as Rod Steiger) but also wins him the heart of Bernadette.  Helping him investigate the case (and repainting his office) is his neighbor, Ed (Alan Rickman).  Ed is not only a painter but he’s also a computer expert who figures out exactly where the killer is going to strike next.

The January Man was Alan Rickman’s second film and followed his debut in Die Hard.  Other than sharing a similarly sarcastic sense of humor, Ed the Painter is the exact opposite of Hans Gruber.  Gruber was a murderer who would do anything for money.  Ed is an artist who wants only to paint and hang out with Nick Starkey.

When I first saw The January Man, I was seven years old and I was on an airplane flying to London.  I was too young to really understand what was happening in the movie but I knew that Ed was my favorite character because he was the one who got all the funny lines and he spoke with a British accent.  When he told one of his models “Don’t molest anything,” I thought it was hilarious even though I did not really understand what he was talking about.  (Years later, I would watch The January Man on HBO and I would discover that Ed made his living painting nudes and that Bernadette and Nick were having sex, all information that was edited out of the airplane version.)

After I heard that Rickman had died, I rewatched The January Man for the first time in years.  I discovered that The January Man is a terrible movie that tries to unsuccessfully to mix slapstick comedy with brutal serial killer action but Alan Rickman still gives a really good performance, the best in the film.  (A close second would be Mary Elizabeth Mastrantonio, whose smile lights up every scene in which she appears.  She married the movie’s director so at least she got something good out of appearing in The January Man.)  That Alan Rickman is one of the film’s few bright spots is a testament to his talent as an actor.  Alan Rickman was such a great actor that he even made The January Man watchable.

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RIP, Alan Rickman.

4 Shots From 4 Films — In Memory of Alan Rickman

Posted on by Jedadiah Leland

4 Shots From 4 Films

Die Hard (1988, directed by John McTiernan)

Die Hard (1988, directed by John McTiernan)

Closet Land (1991, directed by Radha Bharadwaj)

Closet Land (1991, directed by Radha Bharadwaj)

Galaxy Quest (1999, directed by Dean Parisot)

Galaxy Quest (1999, directed by Dean Parisot)

Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azbakan (2004, directed by Alfonso Cuaron)

Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azbakan (2004, directed by Alfonso Cuaron)

Rest in peace, the great Alan Rickman.

In Memory of David Bowie

Posted on by Jedadiah Leland

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Last night, when I heard that David Bowie had died, I immediately flashed back to the summer of 2003.  I spent that summer hanging out with my friend Jay.  I was an aspiring writer and he was the musician who got all the girls.  Jay was also a David Bowie fanatic whose cover of The Man Who Sold The World was at least as good as Nirvana’s.  When I think about that summer, I remember the all-night bull sessions, smoking in Jay’s backyard, watching reruns of Hawaii 5-0 and agreeing that McGarrett was one cool dude, and the weekly poker games where I always seemed to lose.  But mostly, I remember David Bowie providing the greatest soundtrack anyone could want.

Over his 50 year career, David Bowie reinvented himself many times.  When he released his first single in 1964, he did so under his real name.  He was 17 years old when Davie Jones and the Queen Bees released Liza Jane.

By the time he released Space Oddity in 1969, Davie Jones had become David Bowie.  Space Oddity would introduce the world to Major Tom, a character to whom Bowie would return in the future.

1970’s The Man Who Sold The World is often erroneously believed to be a retelling of Robert Heinlein’s novella, The Man Who Sold The Moon.  In 1997, Bowie himself said that the song was about being young and feeling incomplete.

Life on Mars? was once described by BBC Radio 2 as being “a cross between a Broadway musical and a Salvador Dali painting.”

1975’s Golden Years, with its chorus of “run for the shadows,” is one of my personal favorites.

In 1977, David Bowie appeared on the final Bing Crosby Christmas Special.  He and Bing performed Peace on Earth/Little Drummer Boy.  At the time, Bing was quoted as saying about Bowie: “clean-cut kid and a real fine asset to the show. He sings well, has a great voice and reads lines well.”

In 1980, Major Tom returned in Ashes to Ashes.

Rather than grow stagnant as an artist, David Bowie was always reinventing himself.  In 1997, he proved he was still a force to be reckoned with when he released I’m Afraid of Americans.

In November, David Bowie released Blackstar.  In the song’s video, Major Tom made his final appearance.

Lazarus was the last single that David Bowie released during his lifetime.  The video was released three days before he died and feels like it was his way of saying goodbye.

Rest in peace, good sir.  And thank you for the music and the memories.