Do a google search for “Disco Painting” and this is one of the first images to come up. Entitled Disco Dilemma, it was painted by Mort Kunstler and, according to what I read online, it was used as the cover for the January, 1968 edition of a magazine called For Men Only.
(As my friend, Mark the Australian hippy, once pointed out, Kunstler is German for artist.)
A part of me wonders if that date is correct. Did they have discos in 1968? To me, this seems more appropriate for 1978 than 1968. Just check out that ascot on the bearded man over on the far left side of the picture. (The bearded man, incidentally, bears a vague resemblance to Charlton Heston. Heston famously wore a similar ascot all through Soylent Green.) According to Wikipedia, For Men Only published from “at least the 1950s to the 1970s,” which is pretty damn vague for the internet’s go-to source for information. Wikipedia also states that it started out as a “men’s adventure” magazine before going pornographic in 1970. Personally, I just think it’s amusing that there actually used to be a magazine called For Men Only. Is that a threat or a dare? If I found an old copy of For Men Only and I opened it, would it lead to some sort of Ark of the Covenant-style divine retribution?
(“CLOSE YOUR EYES! DON’T LOOK AT IT!”)
Well, regardless of when this was actually painted or if I would even be allowed to be in the same room as the actual magazine, here’s Disco Dilemma!
So, I just finished watching Thank God, It’s Friday, a movie from 1978. It’s an episodic comedy, one that follows a group of genuinely unlikable characters as they all gather in one genuinely unlikable location and proceed to have some fairly generic experiences.
For example, there’s the married couple and the husband needs to loosen up. There’s the DJ who is going to lose his job if he can’t deliver the big stars that he’s promised. There’s the short, violent guy who is upset because he’s been set up on a date with a tall woman. There’s the dental hygienist who comes across like she’s desperately trying to convince everyone that she’s eccentric when she’s really just boring. (We all know the type.) There’s the teenager girls who try to sneak into the club, despite being underage. There’s the two dorky guys who are looking for love. There’s the two dorky girls who are looking for love.
In fact, everyone in the movie is looking for love! Except for Jeff Goldblum! He just wants to get laid. He manages the club where everyone has gathered on this particular Friday. He’s a womanizer. We can tell because he wears a red jacket and his shirt is half-buttoned. Goldblum decides that he wants to break up the married couple. Boo! Hiss! But wait a minute — neither the husband nor the wife are likable or interesting. Go, Jeff, go! BREAK UP THAT BORINGASS MARRIAGE!
Oh! And Nicole (Donna Summer) is wandering around the club too. She wants a chance to perform but the DJ refuses to let her. So, eventually, she just grabs a microphone and she starts to sing. Luckily, the song she sings is Last Dance and, by singing it, she gives everyone an excuse to go home. If you’ve ever been to a karaoke night, you know that, as soon as a drunk sings Last Dance, it’s time to pay the bill and get the Hell out of there.
Last Dance was apparently written specifically for Thank God, It’s Friday. Or maybe Thank God, It’s Friday was written specifically for Last Dance, who knows? What we do know is that Last Dance won the Oscar for Best Original Song. That’s right — Thank God, It’s Friday is an Oscar winner and therefore, will always be enshrined with fellow Oscar winners like Crash, Titanic, and SPECTRE.
(Which songs did Thank God, It’s Friday beat? It defeated a song from Grease, which is a good thing because Grease is even more annoying than Thank God, It’s Friday. That’s right, I said it. And you know it’s true.)
Anyway, Thank God, It’s Friday is a really bad movie, one that is full of bad writing, bad jokes, bad performances, and indifferent direction. It’s tempting to say that the music was really good but actually, we don’t hear much of the music. The movie is often more concerned about what’s happening in the club’s parking lot than in what is happening (and being heard) on the inside. We may not hear much music but we do get to see some pretty icky racial stereotyping and who would guess that a movie about disco would be so homophobic?
(We don’t see any cocaine, though I’m sure you could probably hear the key grip and the gaffer snorting a line off-camera if you listened closely enough. A lot of the cast looked pretty wired.)
ANYWAY — here’s the important thing about Thank God, It’s Friday. Occasionally, I’ll watch a movie like Dazed and Confused or Boogie Nights or Saturday Night Fever and I’ll get jealous because I know that I’ll never get a chance to experience the 70s first hand. Fortunately, something like Thank God, It’s Friday will always be around to reassure me, “No, Lisa. The 70s sucked!”
Thank God, it’s Friday?
No, thank God the movie’s over.
“Is it Friday yet!?”
Actually, you know what? I can’t end this review without sharing this film’s trailer:
The last week or so we’ve seen Lisa Marie review two films which shares a close connection with the latest “Song of the Day.”
First there was her review of Saturday Night Fever by John Badham. Then she follows it up with the so very awful, but mesmerizing sequel by Sylvester Stallone, Staying Alive. The original film had as part of it’s disco-based soundtrack the song “Stayin’ Alive” by the group Bee Gees. The sequel literally borrows the song’s title and just runs with it.
The song itself has become not just a classic, but has also become part of pop culture both good and bad. It’s been portrayed as a great example of the disco-scene of the mid-to-late 70’s, but also become a sort of a joke to some.
No matter where one stands on the merits of this song it’s one hell of a catchy one. No matter how much we all fail every guy will try to hit the high notes achieved by Barry Gibbs. We never succeed, but we never fail not to try over and over as we sing along.
Stayin’ Alive
Well, you can tell by the way I use my walk I’m a woman’s man, no time to talk Music loud and women warm, I’ve been kicked around since I was born
And now it’s all right, it’s OK And you may look the other way We can try to understand The New York times effect on man
Whether you’re a brother or whether you’re a mother You’re stayin’ alive, stayin’ alive Feel the city breaking and everybody shaking And were stayin’ alive, stayin’ alive Ah, ha, ha, ha, stayin’ alive, stayin’ alive Ah, ha, ha, ha, stayin’ alive
Well now, I get low and I get high And if I can’t get either, I really try Got the wings of heaven on my shoes I’m a dancing man and I just can’t lose You know it’s all right, it’s ok I’ll live to see another day We can try to understand The New York times effect on man
Whether you’re a brother or whether you’re a mother You’re stayin’ alive, stayin’ alive Feel the city breakin and everybody shakin And were stayin’ alive, stayin’ alive Ah, ha, ha, ha, stayin’ alive, stayin’ alive Ah, ha, ha, ha, stayin’ alive
Life going nowhere, somebody help me Somebody help me, yeah Life going nowhere, somebody help me Somebody help me, yeah. Stayin’ alive
Not to be confused with the 2010 action film, this Losers has been described as the best “bikers-in-Viet-Nam film ever.” It was directed by Jack Starrett and, like every other biker film from 1970, it stars William Smith.
This is another short trailer, in fact, I think — at just 30 seconds — it might be the shortest trailer I’ve ever featured in this series. Anyway, Chatterbox is a film about a woman whose vagina can talk and, apparently, sing. I have never seen this film though I have seen a few isolated clips. I hope if my vagina ever starts to speak, it 1) has a less annoying voice and 2) just displays a lot more wit and personality in general. Anyway, the talking vagina is not featured in this trailer. Anyway, you wouldn’t know any of that from watching the trailer, which I think is odd. I mean, if you’re going to make a film about a talking vagina, shouldn’t the vagina be allowed to speak for itself? Just saying…
Like all good things, this trailer comes to us from Italy.
5) Disco Fever (1978)
Wow! Disco, a concorde, dirt bike racing, braless dancers, and a boring 40 year-old rock star with a cocaine-flecked beard. Could this film be any more 70s? “Disco Fever — Everything is perfect…until the music stops!”
6) American Fever (1978)
Okay, I’m either in a disco mood or else I’m running a fever because I just have to end things with a second disco film. This is an Italian film. Does anyone out there own the American Fever soundtrack?
So, I’ve recently discovered an old show calledFreaks and Geekswhich, despite only actually airing for one season over ten years ago, appears to be popping up everywhere in syndicated reruns. Freaks and Geeks was about high school students in the early 80s and basically starred a bunch of people who later went on to become famous — Seth Rogen, James Segal, and James Franco (!!!!) all got their start on this show.
Anyway, today’s scene that I love comes from an episode of Freaks and Geeks and features not only a very fit Jason Segal disco dancing but a nicely disheveled James Franco playing a rpg as well. Seriously, this whole sequence is just too adorable for words.
So, it was Tuesday night and me and Erin were watching the Killer Party movie marathon on Chiller and what should happen to come on but Prom Night? No, not the really crappy Brittany Snow film that came out two years ago. This was the original Prom Night, the one from 1980 that starred Jamie Lee Curtis.
As we watched this movie, me and Erin discovered two things. Number one, the original Prom Night is seriously one grim movie. And number two, there’s an awful lot of dancing. It makes sense. The movie only kills about four people so obviously, there had to be some serious padding to get this thing up to 90 minutes. And most of that padding is musical.
Included below is one of my favorite new scenes that I love. As Jamie Lee says, “Let’s show them what we can do…”
When the infamous epic Caligula was first released back in 1979, a disco version of Caligula’s love theme — We Are One — was also released as a promotional gimmick. If you’ve sat through the behind-the-scenes footage on the Caligula Imperial Edition DVD, this song has probably been forever branded on your brain.
And that’s not necessarily a bad thing.
This song is so over-the-top, so blatantly exploitive, so insidiously catchy, and so totally inappropriate for the film it was written for that it simply cannot be ignored. To me, this song represents everything that makes the Grindhouse great.
(As well, I hope whoever was playing bass got paid extra…)
While we’re on the subject, I’m also going to include the opening credits of Caligula because I’ve always liked the use of Profokiev’s Romeo and Juliet.
(I also love the fact that the screenplay is credited as being adapted from a script by Gore Vidal yet no one is given credit for doing the adapting, the editing is credited to “the production,” and director Tinto Brass is credited with “principal photography.”)
Through the Shattered Lens 