Bonnie Tyler, RIP.
Category Archives: tribute
Song of the Day: Feels So Good by Chuck Mangione
It certainly does. Chuck may be gone but the music continues.
Scenes That I Love: Putting On The Ritz From Young Frankenstein (Happy Birthday, Mel Brooks!)
Today, Mel Brooks is 100 years old!
Mel Brooks. What can you say Mel Brooks? Not only did he help to redefine American comedy but he was also responsible for bringing David Lynch to Hollywood. Brooks was the one who hired Lynch to direct The Elephant Man. It can probably be argued that, if not for Brooks, Lynch’s feature film career would have begun and ended with Eraserhead. Brooks not only hired Lynch but also protected him for studio interference. When the execs tried to make Lynch remove two surrealistic sequences from The Elephant Man, Brooks stood up to them. When they requested a more conventional biopic, Brooks defended Lynch’s vision and the result was one of the best films ever made.
Of course, Brooks isn’t listed in the credits of The Elephant Man. Though he produced the film, he went uncredited because he didn’t want people to assume that the movie was a comedy. By doing so, Brooks missed out on an Oscar nomination but he also ensured that the film was taken seriously. It’s hard not to respect someone who was willing to go uncredited to help make the film a success.
Though Brooks, as a producer, was responsible for a number of serious films, there’s a reason why Brooks is associated with comedy. He’s a very funny man and he directed some very funny films. In honor of Mel Brooks, here’s a scene that I love from 1974’s Young Frankenstein.
Happy birthday, Mel Brooks!
Visiting Charles Bronson’s Vermont… and a chance encounter I’ll never forget – Taking my love of movies on down the road (Part 5)!!
For most of my life, I’ve wanted to visit the state of Vermont. It started because I loved the 80’s sitcom NEWHART when I was a kid. In the show, Bob Newhart and his wife were innkeepers in rural Vermont so I just knew it had to be beautiful. And then, as Charles Bronson’s biggest fan, I learned that his favorite place on earth was his horse farm in Vermont, which was named Zuleika Farm after his daughter with Jill Ireland. This became the place that he would escape to as his filming schedule allowed. He is even buried there at the Brownsville Cemetery at the foot of Mount Ascutney. Visiting that area of Vermont that sits close to the New Hampshire border became the ultimate Charles Bronson “bucket list” item for me. In 2026, at the ripe old age of 52, I was able to mark this off my list, as my wife and I spent a few days in West Windsor, VT.
But first, if we were going to drive all the way to Vermont, I decided we should stop off in Philadelphia and see Eric Todd, the host of the THIS WEEK IN CHARLES BRONSON podcast. Eric’s vision to create a podcast dedicated to keeping Bronson’s memory alive has been so special to me. Thanks to Eric, who has allowed me to be his co-host on multiple occasions, I have met several actors who worked with Charles Bronson, and even some of his own family. Although we talk and text almost every day, this was our first time to meet in person. We had the best time over dinner, and we enjoyed meeting Eric’s wife Tina and his son Noah as well. Eric has truly become one of my very best friends!
Once we arrived in Vermont the next day, our first stop was at “Bronson Road” in West Windsor, VT. This road went right through Bronson’s farm property. It’s a private road now so we couldn’t drive down it, but we did get a couple of pictures from the corner of Morrison and Bronson!
After that, we made our way to the Brownsville Cemetery and paid our respects to the film icon and legendary action star. It’s hard to put into words exactly how I felt that day. I wasn’t there as just a fan. I was there as a person who has spent the majority of his life with a healthy obsession for the man and his work. I’ll just say it was a beautiful experience. On an interesting note, a man from Alabama stopped by to pay his respects while we were there as well. It makes me happy that Charles Bronson is still beloved over 20 years after his death.
One of the perks of being a co-host of the THIS WEEK IN CHARLES BRONSON podcast, is the fact that I’ve been able to meet Charles Bronson’s niece, Lindsay Ireland. She used to spend summers in Vermont with the Bronson’s when she was a teenager. She told me about some of Bronson’s favorite places to eat. We were able to eat at The Woodstock Inn, which was kind of fancy for Bronson’s personal tastes, but the food was great.
The place he really loved to eat was the Skunk Hollow Tavern, which is about 5 miles from the farm. I made us a reservation for “open mic” night at the Skunk Hollow Tavern on Wednesday, June 17th. Little did I know that Bronson’s stepson, Val McCallum, would be sitting in with the band that night. An incredible professional guitar player on his own, Val has been Jackson Browne’s lead guitarist going back to the early 2000’s. He also helped compose the film scores for the Bronson films MURPHY’S LAW, DEATH WISH 4, and ASSASSINATION back in the late 80’s. We got to meet him, and he even played a couple of songs for us, including “Charlie’s Coal,” an amazing song of love and respect for his “daddy.” It was a lucky and unexpected meeting I’ll never forget!
Our trip to Vermont was truly incredible, exceeding every expectation I had. I can’t wait to see where my next “movie trip” takes us. I just know it will be hard to top this one!
Villain of the Day: Klaus Wortmann (Antropophagus)
Yesterday, it was announced that George Eastman had passed away at the age of 83.
George Eastman was born Luigi Montefiori in Genoa, Italy. Montefiori began his career by appearing in Spaghetti westerns. The tall and often bearded Montefiori had the dangerous look that made him a natural for outlaw and henchmen roles. Like many Italian actors, he took an “Americanized” alias for his acting roles. He appeared in his share of American and British films (he appeared opposite Charlton Heston in Call of the Wild and played Goliath in King David) but his fans will always remember him best for the work that he did in his native Italy. Occasionally, he played a hero. He gave a particularly strong performance in — don’t laugh — Erotic Nights of the Living Dead. That said, Eastman will always be best remembered for his villians.
Klaus Wortmann is the one who will always give me nightmares. Eastman played Wortmann in Joe D’Amato’s infamous 1980 film, Antropophagus. Klaus Wortmann was a wealthy man who lived on a Greek island with his wife, daughter, and his sister. Unfortunately, when he and his family were shipwrecked, Klaus resorted to cannibalism to survive. As the movie begins, Klaus is back at his mansion and being sheltered by sister. He’s also become an obsessive cannibal. He’s surrendered his humanity. He can no longer speak and instead just growls. He attacks everyone that he sees and he does things to his victims that led to this film being banned in several countries. Also known as The Grim Reaper, Antropophagus is film that delights in showing people being ripped to pieces and George Eastman is right in the middle of it all.
And he’s absolutely terrifying.
In real life, George Eastman was a handsome man. That’s one of the things that made him such a fascinating villain in countless western and crime films. He was usually playing a total psycho but there was still something about him that made you want to get to know more about him. Klaus Wortmann, on the other hand, is a terrifying monster. Unwashed, bearded, hideously scarred, continually bathed in sweat, growling and howling as he chases his victims, Klaus is a nightmare come to life. Eastman throws himself into capturing every grimy detail of Wortmann’s twisted existence and he comes across as a creature who seems to have literally jumped out of the shadows of our greatest fears.
In many ways, Antropophagus is not a particularly good film. Not even the notoriously shameless Joe D’Amato appeared to think much of it. The story drags because there aren’t enough victims and therefore there’s a lot of travelogue padding, especially early on in the film. Along with Eastman, there are some recognizable people in the cast — Tisa Farrow, Zora Kerova, Serena Grandi (who would later co-star with Eastman in Delirium) — both most of them come across like they’d rather be anywhere but there. But when George Eastman is on-screen, the film become horrifying. No one — not the pregnant woman and her husband, not the innocent blind girl, not even the flakey card reader — is safe. By the end of the movie, Klaus is literally eating pieces of himself. It takes a talented actor to pull that off.
That actor was George Eastman.
Villain of the Day
6 Shots From 6 Films: Special Chow Yun-Fat Birthday Edition!
Chow Yun-Fat is one of the great international movie stars, and he’s my favorite living actor. Today is his 71st birthday, and I’ve been watching and reviewing his movies like crazy this month. I’ve had a ball. I’ll have new reviews to share soon, but today I’m sharing six fun screen images featuring the Hong Kong legend!
Jeeves, RIP
When I first heard that Ask.com had shut down on May 1st, my initial reaction was to be surprised that it was still around. I always figured that it had shut down in 2006, around the same time that it retired Jeeves as its mascot. After I got over my surprise, I felt surprisingly sad. Another part the early Internet is gone.
Kids today might not believe it but there was a time when people used several different search engines instead of just typing all of their queries into Google. Yahoo was the big one but people also used Lycos, Altavista, DuckDuckGo, Infoseek, AllTheWeb, and several others. And, if you wanted a personalized experience, you asked Jeeves. Jeeves would not only answer your questions and give you links but he would do so in the voice of a dryly humorous British manservant. Before AI, there was Jeeves. And Jeeves made a lot less mistakes!
Jeeves is gone now and so is a large part of the Internet’s early history. Today, we take Google for granted and no one calls this place the “information super highway” anymore. Jeeves might not seem like a big deal to those who never met him but, for many of us, he represents a time when the Internet was new and exciting, when it was a collection of niche sites as opposed to a soul-sucking Behemoth. Sadly, future generations will never know the joy of Jeeves directing them to the most comprehensive Simpsons fan site on Geocities. I feel bad for them.
RIP, Jeeves. Thanks for the memories.
Happy 63rd Birthday to Jet Li!
Back in the late 90’s, I remember seeing the trailer for LETHAL WEAPON 4 that shouted out Jet Li. As a person who was just starting to get into Hong Kong cinema, I thought he was absolutely incredible and the best thing about the movie. I was soon watching all of his Hong Kong films and having a ball! The American market loved Jet Li, and used him often in movies like ROMEO MUST DIE and THE EXPENDABLES franchise, but he never reached the quality of his best Hong Kong films like ONCE UPON A TIME IN CHINA and FONG SAI-YUK.
Happy Birthday, Jet! You’re one of the all time greats!
Patrick Muldoon, RIP
This morning, I was saddened to read about the passing of actor Patrick Muldoon. He died of a heart attack yesterday. He was 57 years old.
Patrick Muldoon will always be remembered by many for playing Jeff, the “frat boy babe stealer” from Saved By The Bell. Personally, I thought Jeff and Kelly made for a cute couple and it always bothered me that the show’s writers suddenly changed Jeff from being a nice guy to being a cheater just so Kelly and Zack could (eventually) get back together. Supposedly, years after the show aired, Muldoon still had strangers yelling at him on the street for breaking up Kelly and Zack. I felt bad for him reading that. The man was an actor and he did a good job.
Muldoon went on to play an important supporting role in Starship Troopers, making him the second Saved By The Bell actor to appear in a Paul Verhoeven film. (Unlike Elizabeth Berkley, Muldoon at least seemed to understand that he was appearing in a satire.) He also appeared in a countless number of Lifetime films, occasionally sharing the screen with Starship Troopers co-star, Casper Van Dien. Muldoon was also the first actor to play Austin Reed on Days of Our Lives.
Here he is in Starship Troopers, getting into a memorable fight with Casper Van Dien.
4 Shots From 4 Films: Special Edie Sedgwick Edition
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 lets the visuals do the talking!
83 years ago today, Edie Sedgwick was born in Santa Barbara, California.
While at a party in 1970, Edie ran into a palm reader who grabbed her hand and then stepped away, shocked at just how short her lifeline was. “It’s okay,” Edie sweetly told him, “I know.” One year later Edie Sedgwick would pass away, with the cause of death officially being an overdose of barbiturates. She only lived 27 years but, for a brief few years, she was one of the most famous women in America. She was a model and an actress and, in her way, a revolutionary. She died before she had a chance to play the roles that she truly deserved. Instead, we have only a few films that she made with Andy Warhol and a lot of speculation about what could have been.
This post is dedicated to Edie on her birthday.
These are…
4 Shots From 4 Edie Sedgwick Films
Beauty #2 (1965, dir by Andy Warhol)
Poor Little Rich Girl (1965, dir by Andy Warhol)
Outer and Inner Space (1966, dir by Andy Warhol)
Lupe (1966, dir by Andy Warhol)
Through the Shattered Lens 