John Travolta sings!
Actually, I guess that’s not a surprise. He did co-star in Grease and all that. Still, it’s kind of interesting to see Travolta doing the sensitive singing teen idol routine. Why is he dressed like Prince Valiant? It was the 70s, I guess.
Enjoy!
Today’s music video of the day is the latest from the Black Crowes. Enjoy it and spare a thought for those of us at the North Texas branch of Through the Shattered Lens because we are about to get hit by snow and 8 degree weather.
The last time we had weather this bad, we had rolling black-outs and were actually off-line for a few days. So, if you don’t see me or Erin or Jeff around for a while, don’t worry. We’re just waiting for the sun to come out!
Enjoy!
Today’s song of the day comes from David Lynch’s short film, What Did Jack Do? Can a monkey singing about love make you cry? Let’s find out.
From David Lynch’s Mulholland Drive, here is one of the most haunting moments ever captured on film.
RIP, Rebekah Del Rio and David Lynch.
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 birthday, we take the time to pay tribute to one of our favorite directors. Needless to say, when it comes to David Lynch, there’s an embarrassment of riches.
Here are….
8 Shots From 8 David Lynch Films
Eraserhead (1977, dir by David Lynch, DP: Frederick Elmes, Herbert Cardwell)
The Elephant Man (1980, dir by David Lynch, DP: Freddie Francis)
Blue Velvet (1986, dir by David Lynch, DP: Frederick Elmes)
Twin Peaks: Fire Walk With Me (1992, dir by David Lynch, DP: Ron Garcia)
Lost Highway (1997, dir by David Lynch, DP: Peter Deming)
The Straight Story (1999, dir by David Lynch, DP: Freddie Francis)
Mulholland Drive (2001, dir by David Lynch, DP: Peter Deming)
Inland Empire (2006, dir by David Lynch, DP: David Lynch)
Thought Gang was a musical collaboration between two much-missed artists, David Lynch and Angelo Badalamenti. This video was directed by Lynch and it starred none other than Angelo Badalamenti himself!
Enjoy!
Welcome to Retro Television Reviews, a feature where we review some of our favorite and least favorite shows of the past! On Mondays, I will be reviewing Miami Vice, which ran on NBC from 1984 to 1989. The entire show can be purchased on Prime!
This week, the British are coming!
Episode 5.11 “Miami Squeeze”
(Dir by Michelle Manning, originally aired on February 17th, 1989)
There’s a new drug lord in Miami. He’s a British dandy named Sebastian Ross (Robert Joy) and it’s impossible to take him seriously as a legitimate threat. The show continually tells us how dangerous Sebastian is. When the son (Daniel Villarreal) of anti-drug Congresswoman Madeleine Woods (Rita Moreno) attempts to double-cross Sebastian, Sebastian blackmails the Congresswoman and also tries to make Castillo look like a dirty cop. Castillo ends up getting shot, all as a result of Sebastian’s schemes.
And yet, despite all of that, it’s impossible to take Sebastian seriously. He’s just a ridiculous character, a drug dealer who dresses like an Edwardian gentleman and who carries a can and who speaks with a remarkably bad British accent. (Robert Joy is himself Canadian. I should mention that Joy is also a very good character actor. He’s just miscast here.) As a character, Sebastian threw off the entire episode. When you include Rita Moreno acting up a storm, this episode almost felt like a self-parody.
Joey Hardin (Justin Lazard), the undercover cop from Line of Fire, returned in this episode. Sonny recruited him to go undercover in order to infiltrate Sebastian’s organization. Considering that Joey was a returning character and that there was a lengthy scene of Sonny asking if Joey felt confident enough to put his life on the line, it was kind of surprising that Joey didn’t really do much in this episode. One got the feeling that perhaps this was meant to be a backdoor pilot for a show featuring Joey as an undercover cop who could pass for a teenager. There’s nothing wrong with that, of course. Who wouldn’t want to keep a franchise going? But Joey ultimately felt like a red herring and a bit of a distraction.
This episode was a misfire.
Hi, everyone! Tonight, on twitter, I will be hosting one of my favorite films for #MondayMania! Join us for 2019’s My Sister’s Deadly Secret!
You can find the movie on Prime and Tubi and then you can join us on twitter at 9 pm central time! (That’s 10 pm for you folks on the East Coast.) See you then!
Janis Joplin would have been 83 years old today. Here she is, singing about cars.
Today’s scene that I love is from the 1961 Roger Corman-directed Edgar Allan Poe adaptation, The Pit and The Pendulum!
Not only is that pendulum nightmarish as Hell but check out that set design! One can see that Corman definitely took some inspiration from the work being done in the UK by Hammer. Watching this scene, it is easy to see why Corman devoted so much of the early 60s to directing Vincent Price in various Edgar Allan Poe adaptations.
Enjoy!
Through the Shattered Lens 