Movie star Toshiro Mifune and director Akira Kuroswa on the set of Seven Samurai.
I love director Akira Kurosawa. He’s one of the all time greats. His movies RASHOMON (1951), IKIRU (1952), SEVEN SAMURAI (1954), THRONE OF BLOOD (1957), THE BAD SLEEP WELL (1960), and YOJIMBO (1961) are some of the greatest movies ever made. His work has inspired so many great filmmakers, and so many great movies, including THE MAGNIFICENT SEVEN (1960), A FISTFUL OF DOLLARS (1964), and STAR WARS (1977) just to name a few.
On Kurosawa’s 115th Birthday, I share one of my favorite scenes, from one of my favorite movies (SANJURO), featuring two of my favorite actors (Toshiro Mifune & Tatsuya Nakadai). Enjoy my friends, and rest in peace, Mr. Kurosawa!
One of the great character actors of all time, M. Emmet Walsh, would have been 90 years old today. Walsh lived a good long life, passing away on March 19th, 2024, three days short of what would have been his 89th birthday. The great movie critic Roger Ebert created his own movie rule that featured Walsh. He called it the “Stanton-Walsh” rule, which also honored the great Harry Dean Stanton. The rule went something like “no movie featuring Harry Dean Stanton or M. Emmet Walsh in a supporting role can be altogether bad.” High praise indeed.
When I think of Walsh, I picture his characters in movies like FAST-WALKING (1981), BLADE RUNNER (1982), MISSING IN ACTION (1984), and RAISING ARIZONA (1987). I’ve tried to forget one of his scenes in FAST-WALKING, but I’m afraid it’s a hopeless cause! His characters always stand out. The movie I first saw him in was the Coen Brothers’ BLOOD SIMPLE (1984). Fox 16 out of Little Rock played this often in the 80’s. The advertisements heavily featured Walsh’s amazingly sleazy private detective character, with his cowboy hat and his slimy grin. It’s a truly amazing performance.
On his birthday, I share one of his great scenes from BLOOD SIMPLE. Rest in peace, Mr. Walsh! And enjoy, my friends.
George Foreman was one of those guys who I expected would be around forever.
When I was growing up, I knew George Foreman as the good-natured boxer who would throw punches for 12 rounds and then make jokes immediately afterwards. On HBO, he was usually the commentator who showed the most concern for the well-being of the fighters in the ring. On that infamous night in 1997, when Oliver McCall had an apparent mental breakdown while facing Lennox Lewis in the ring, while the other ring announcers spent their time talking about how bad the night was for the sport and how Don King was destroying the integrity of HBO Boxing, George Foreman was the only one to express any concern about what was happening in Oliver McCall’s head and to say that he hoped McCall would be okay once the fight ended. That made a big impression on me. George Foreman may have fought for a living but he never gave up his humanity.
It was only later that I saw the clips of young George Foreman, fighting Ali in Zaire, and I realized how intimidating Foreman had been before he made his comeback in his 40s. Foreman said that losing Ali in Zaire hurt, both because of the defeat and also Ali’s constant taunting. Foreman, who famously declined to join in the protests when he was on the 1968 U.S. Olympic team, resented Ali’s claim that Foreman was a sell-out. (These were the same accusations that Ali tossed at every opponent that he fought but for Foreman, someone who had struggled with poverty when he was younger and who credited boxing with saving him from a life of crime and prison, they especially stung.) Foreman could have joined Joe Frazier in spending his entire life bitter over his treatment by Ali but Foreman forgave him. When the documentary about the fight, When We Were Kings, won the Oscar for best documentary, Foreman was at the ceremony with Ali and helped his former opponent step up the stairs to the podium.
George Foreman in Zaire
It’s always hard to believe that the scowling and uncommunicative Foreman of the 70s was the same George Foreman who became an American institution, selling the George Foreman Grill and proving that he still had what it took to be a champion at age 45. Foreman credited finding religion with giving him a new outlook on life. At the same time he was making his comeback in the ring, Foreman was working as a minister and working with at-risk youth in Houston. He was a man who found success but he was also a man who gave back.
Foreman didn’t win every fight. He lost to Ali in Zaire and to Jimmy Young in Puerto Rico. After he made his comeback, he lost to Evander Holyfield, Tommy Morrison, and Shannon Briggs. Holyfield and even Morrison won their fights fair and square. (Morrison was booed after he won not because he didn’t deserve the victory but because he was Tommy Morrison.) A lot of people, including me, felt that Foreman was robbed by the judges when it came to the Briggs fight but Foreman accepted the decision with grace. As I get older, I feel more and more appreciation for what George Foreman accomplished. He made a comeback when most people had written him off and he did it with humor and humility.
Yesterday, Big George Foreman passed away at 76. I’ll miss him.
As a teenager of the late 80’s who was absolutely obsessed with movies, I spent a lot of time in the local videos store in and around Conway, Arkansas. I would meticulously go through their entire inventory. Nobody wanted to go with me to the video store because they knew they were going to be there for awhile. That’s where I first became obsessed with Charles Bronson, and he’s been my obsession to this day, over 20 years after his death.
The video store was a place where I also discovered a lot of other amazing actors. It would always go something like this; I would see a person’s name on a movie that looked good. I would watch the movie and enjoy it. I would go back to the store and notice that person was in a lot more movies. I would then try to watch them all. This pattern started with Bronson, and then moved on to actors like Clint Eastwood, Roy Scheider, Burt Reynolds, Rutger Hauer, and yes, Wings Hauser. On a side note, I always thought it was pretty cool that two of my favorite actors had practically the same name, Hauer and Hauser. The video stores were full of movies starring Hauser that I thought looked good. My preferred box art would generally feature Hauser holding a gun (see picture at the top), and usually with generic sounding titles like DEADLY FORCE (1983), HOSTAGE (1986), NO SAFE HAVEN (1987), DEAD MAN WALKING (1988), and MARKED FOR MURDER (1990). When I rented a movie “starring Wings Hauser” in the 80’s through the early 90’s, I had a pretty good idea what I’d be getting. It would usually be a low budget movie, with some solid action and some sexy ladies, all anchored by a likable and charismatic performance from Wings Hauser. Those are the types of low budget, action movies that I really loved and Hauser did a bunch of him. I know they aren’t great movies, certainly not of the same quality of Hauser’s own best work in movies like VICE SQUAD (1982) and THE SIEGE OF FIREBASE GLORIA (1988), but I enjoyed them so much growing up.
While my favorite Wings Hauser movies featured him as a cop, we watched him in so many different types of roles. I remember our family renting TOUGH GUYS DON’T DANCE (1987). None of us knew what the hell was going on in that movie. Hauser would co-star in movies like BEDROOM EYES II (1989), OUT OF SIGHT, OUT OF MIND (1990), and BEASTMASTER 2: THROUGH THE PORTAL OF TIME (1991). I’d watch them all. Hell, he even directed a graphic slasher flick called THE ART OF DYING (1991). That movie is nuts! No matter the quality of the movie, I always enjoyed seeing Hauser on screen.
When YELLOWSTONE hit it big on TV a few years back, my wife Sierra loved the character Rip Wheeler. Since Rip is played by Cole Hauser, I took that as an opportunity to introduce her to his dad Wings Hauser. I never watch an episode of YELLOWSTONE that I don’t think of Wings Hauser and those old times at the video store. The first Wings Hauser movie I introduced my wife to was VICE SQUAD, but we watched quite a few of his movies over the last couple of years. It has been fun revisiting the films and sharing them with her.
Wings Hauser will always have a special place in my heart, because I spent a lot of time with him. Today, as a tribute to him, I share my story and a scene from DEADLY FORCE. It’s just a fun car chase scene featuring Wings in one of his low budget action movies. This is the Hauser I loved the most. Rest in peace, sir!
Wings Hauser, the great character actor who brought his unhinged intensity to many a film, has passed away. Rest in Peace.
Today’s scene that I love comes from what may be Hauser’s best-known film, 1983’s Vice Squad. In this scene, the Vice Squad thinks that they have busted Ramrod, the sadistic pimp played by Hauser. In this scene, Hauser makes Ramrod into an intimidating figure even as he’s being arrested. Martin Scorsese once said Wings Hauser deserved an Oscar for his performance in Vice Squad and he was right.
I just read the news that Peter Engel passed away yesterday. My Retro Television reviews started with four Engel-produced shows, California Dreams, One World, Hang Time, and City Guys. Right now, I’m reviewing one of his later shows, Malibu CA. I would be lying if I said all of those reviews have been positive. I loved California Dreams and Hang Time won me over but the only good thing about Malibu CA is that it’s not Pacific Blue.
But here’s the thing. Peter Engel, regardless of what I may think of some of his later shows. made pop cultural history with Saved By The Bell. When I was a kid, you couldn’t turn on a TV without finding Saved By The Bell reruns playing somewhere. (Myself, I only wish Saved By The Bell: The New Class was as easy to find.) Today, Saved By The Bell has faded a bit from our collective memory, a relic from the childhoods of many elder millennials and their Gen-X siblings. That reboot on Peacock was never quite as good as I used to tell myself it was. But the original show can still be found on Prime, just as California Dreams and Hang Time can be found on YouTube. The Engelverse will live forever.
Gene Hackman has passed away. He was 95 and reportedly found dead in his Santa Fe home, along with his wife and dog. That’s what the authorities are saying. They also say there’s no sign of foul play. I’m sure there will be a lot of online speculation about what that all means. That’s the way of the world nowadays and it’s a shame.
Gene Hackman was one of the greats. He went into acting after a stint in the Marines and, according to most accounts and his own interviews, he never lost that grit and that expectation of professionalism from everyone he worked with. A former roommate of Robert Duvall’s, a close friend of Dustin Hoffman’s (from the days when they were both unknown stage actors), Hackman went from doing episodic television to becoming one of our best film actors. He was hardly a traditional leading man but his talent was undeniable. His Popeye Doyle was the classic eccentric cop. His Lex Luthor was a great comedic villain while his performance as Little Bill Daggett in Unforgiven proved to be the perfect portrayal of the authoritarian impulse. Interestingly enough, he was reportedly set to make his directorial debut with The Silence of the Lambs but he withdrew from the project, saying he didn’t like the violence. (Reports vary on whether he would have also played Lecter or Jack Crawford.) Hackman was a liberal but of the old-fashioned, blue collar variety. He once said starring in The French Connection changed his whole view of policing. It takes courage to admit to having changed your mind on anything. It’s not something that a lot of celebs have the guts to do anymore.
I’ve always respected that Hackman retired under his own terms. Faced with spending the latter part of his career appearing in movies like Welcome to Mooseport, he said, “I’m done.” Someone would have to be the once great star who humiliated himself by taking the lead role in Dirty Grandpa but it wasn’t going to be Gene Hackman.
Gene Hackman, RIP. He had a great career and gave us many great performances and that’s all we can really ask of an actor.
Strumming my pain with his fingers Singing my life with his words Killing me softly with his song Killing me softly with his song Telling my whole life with his words Killing me softly With his song
I heard he sang a good song I heard he had a style And so I came to see him, to listen for a while And there he was, this young boy A stranger to my eyes
Strumming my pain with his fingers Singing my life with his words Killing me softly with his song Killing me softly with his song Telling my whole life with his words Killing me softly With his song
I felt all flushed with fever Embarrassed by the crowd I felt he found my letters and read each one out loud I prayed that he would finish But he just kept right on
Strumming my pain with his fingers Singing my life with his words Killing me softly with his song Killing me softly with his song Telling my whole life with his words Killing me softly With his song
He sang as if he knew me In all my dark despair And then he looked right through me as if I wasn’t there And he just kept on singing Singing clear and strong
Strumming my pain with his fingers Singing my life with his words Killing me softly with his song Killing me softly with his song Telling my whole life with his words Killing me softly With his song
Strumming my pain with his fingers Singing my life with his words Killing me softly with his song Killing me softly with his song Telling my whole life with his words Killing me
He was strumming my pain Yeah, he was singing my life Killing me softly with his song Killing me softly with his song Telling my whole life with his words Killing me softly with his song
Gene Hackman is a tremendous, multiple Oscar winning actor who has been in some of the best movies ever made. Of all that great work, the movie that means the most to me is HOOSIERS (1986). If you don’t believe me, just go ahead and follow me on X. I’m easy to find. My handle is @Hoosiers1986. I’ve shared before that my dad was a high school basketball coach at small schools here in Arkansas that weren’t much different from the one in Hickory, IN depicted in the film. Growing up in the Crain household, basketball was my life and my dad and HOOSIERS have always been such inspirations to me.
On his 95th birthday, I wanted to share this video I found of Hackman discussing his role as Coach Norman Dale in HOOSIERS, which includes clips from behind the scenes and of the film itself. I had never seen this material before so I found it especially interesting. He tells a really special story about a lady he met while on location. It was quite touching. Happy Birthday, Mr. Hackman! Enjoy!
Happy Birthday in heaven to Randolph Scott, who was born on January 23rd, 1898. The picture above is from probably my favorite Randolph Scott film, RIDE LONESOME (1959). Scott made so many great movies, but my personal favorites are the series of westerns he made with director Budd Boetticher from 1956 – 1960. I highly recommend that you search those films out!
Randolph Scott made the film RIDE THE HIGH COUNTRY with director Sam Peckinpah in 1962 and then retired from acting. Through his work in film and his excellent investments, he would pass away in 1987 as one of the richest men in Hollywood. I’m so glad that my movie hero Charles Bronson was able to work with Scott in the 1954 film RIDING SHOTGUN. Rest in peace, Mr. Scott!
Through the Shattered Lens