From the 1960s until his death in the early 90s, German actor Klaus Kinski was known for being the enfantterrible of world cinema. Kinski was a volatile talent, an often angry and occasionally violent performer who specialized in playing extreme characters and who reportedly took pride in his ability to drive directors crazy. Kinski appeared in good films and bad films and, in every one of them, he gave the type of unique performance that only he was cable of giving.
Kinski is best-remembered for his work with his frenemy, Werner Herzog. When Herzog and Kinski weren’t making films together, they were often criticizing each other in the press and sending one another death threats. In the documentary My Best Fiend, Herzog documented his partnership with Kinski. Even while Herzog talked about the time that he went to Kinski’s home with the intent of killing him, Herzog’s affection for his frequent star was obvious. Klaus Kinski was one of an unhinged kind.
In Werner Herzog’s 1980 film, Nosferatu, Kinski played the role of Dracula. In this scene, he comes to visit Isabelle Adjani’s Lucy.
If you’re suffering from anxiety, it is nothing to be ashamed of. As today’s music video of the day shows, even Pat Benatar can get nervous! Of course, when your dentist is named Dr. Pain, who can blame you for getting nervous?
This video was directed by Mark Robinson, who also did videos for The Pretenders, Tina Turner, and Eddie Money.
For tonight’s episode of Freakylinks, we have a little something called Still I Rise. It has a zombie theme to it. Towards the end of the episode, Ethan Embry goes a little crazy, as if it’s Rex Manning Day all over again.
This episode originally aired on January 12th, 2001. And you can watch it below!
One of the coolest things about being a contributor for The Shattered Lens is the month of October and our Horror-thon. I’m constantly on the lookout for less well-known thrillers that I can watch and write about. I recently came across the 1983 made-for-TV thriller THROUGH NAKED EYES. The premise gives off some definite REAR WINDOW vibes, a favorite of mine, and I’ve always enjoyed the actor David Soul. Having never seen the film, or even heard about it before, I thought I’d give it a shot.
Soul plays William Parrish, a talented flutist who spends most of his time practicing his craft, while still carving out a few moments to pull out his binoculars and check out some of the people who live in the apartment building across the street. One night, he discovers that an attractive woman, Anne Walsh (Pam Dawber), is also watching him through her very nice telescope. Through a variety of circumstances, the two voyeurs meet and begin a relationship. By the way, did I mention that there have been a series of knife murders in the neighborhood, even in William’s own apartment building? And that the detective in charge of the investigation has our musician in his sights as the number one suspect? Of course the fun is watching the suspects and clues pile up as the story plays out!
THROUGH NAKED EYES is one of those movies that snuck up on me. It took a little bit of time for me to get into it as I watched our main character play his flute, practice his flute and sweat profusely. Set in Chicago, they are really trying to make the point that it’s HOT. Everyone is so sweaty. They’ll be having symphony practice and William’s shirt will be so wet that it looks like he just ran a marathon. It was over 100 degrees in Arkansas for 22 days this past summer, and I’ve never been that sweaty inside a building. I guess the AC was spotty in the Windy City back in the early 80s. We also spend time in Anne’s life as we follow her job as guide at the planetarium, as well as her dealings with her sleazy literary agent who’s helping her get some articles published in National Geographic. Seriously dude, that mustache is just creepy. Once we get past all this setup and the two meet, have dinner, and make love, the thriller elements start getting a lot more interesting as the stakes get a lot higher! I won’t say anymore, but I got wrapped up into the story and really enjoyed the last hour.
David Soul gives a strong performance in the film, one that I appreciated more and more as I got to know his character. To be honest, at first he seems pretty darn creepy, but he turns out to have a lot more depth than you might initially think. Pam Dawber, best known to me for MORK & MINDY, is cute, kind, and even sexier than I remembered in her role as the voyeur who had her own little obsession going on. I will admit that it sounded a lot more innocent, and less creepy, when her character explained herself. It convinced me for sure!
The supporting cast in this film is tremendous, and certainly adds to my enjoyment of the film. Fionnula Flanagan has an excellent scene where her shrink character provides a more balanced perspective on our number one suspect. Gerald Castillo is good as the obsessed cop with blinders on for everything except getting his man, who he believes is William. I recognized Castillo from his performances as cops in several Bronson films of the 80s. My favorite scene in the entire film completely surprised me and it involved a scene between William and his estranged dad, played by William Schallert. I love a good, emotional father / son scene. You can even play a game of “spot the future stars” as John Mahoney, Dennis Farina, and Ted Levine play various Chicago police officers throughout the film. It was fun every time one of them would pop up.
If it’s not obvious, I had a good time with THROUGH NAKED EYES. The film does a good job of taking its time and letting us get to know these characters in a way that helps us see them differently as the story plays out. In other words, the film’s drama is effective. It also stretches out the suspense appropriately so that we stay invested in the thriller elements as well. As a viewer, I actually cared about what would happen at the end. Nothing says you enjoy a movie like caring about the outcome, and this one was a very nice discovery for me.
Today, we offer up a bonus horror on the lens, a 1975 made-for-television movie called The Dead Don’t Die!
The Dead Don’t Die takes place in Chicago during the 1930s. George Hamilton is a sailor who comes home just in time to witness his brother being executed for a crime that he swears he didn’t commit. Hamilton is convinced that his brother was innocent so he decides to launch an investigation of his own. This eventually leads to Hamilton not only being attacked by dead people but also discovering a plot involving a mysterious voodoo priest!
Featuring atmospheric direction for Curtis Harrington and a witty script by Robert Bloch, The Dead Don’t Die is an enjoyable horror mystery. Along with George Hamilton, the cast includes such luminaries of “old” Hollywood as Ray Milland, Ralph Meeker, Reggie Nalder, and Joan Blondell. (Admittedly, George Hamilton is not the most convincing sailor to ever appear in a movie but even his miscasting seems to work in a strange way.)
“Today it is science fiction, tomorrow it will be science fact….”
So declared the trailer from 1973’s The Clones.
One of the first films to be made about cloning, this movie tells the story of Dr. Gerald Appleby (Michael Greene), who discovers that there’s another version of him living his life. Dr. Appleby and his clone both find themselves being pursued by two government agents (Gregory Sierra and Otis Brown) and a mad scientist (Stanley Adams).
TheClones requires some patience. It moves at its own deliberate pace and there’s quite a few scenes of Dr. Appleby running through the desert. That said, the film builds up to wonderfully twisted conclusion and the final roller coaster shoot-out makes everything more than worth it.
Ever since I first saw this ennui-drenched film in 2012, I’ve been recommending it to people. I’m happy to share it with you today!
As some of our regular readers undoubtedly know, I am involved in a few weekly live tweets on Twitter and Mastodon. I host #FridayNightFlix every Friday, I co-host #ScarySocial on Saturday, and I am one of the five hosts of #MondayActionMovie! Every week, we get together. We watch a movie. We tweet our way through it.
Tonight, at 10 pm et, #ScarySocial presents Piranha II — The Spawning!
If you want to join us this Saturday, just hop onto twitter, start the movie at 10 pm et, and use the #ScarySocial hashtag! It’s a friendly group and welcoming of newcomers so don’t be shy.
For today’s horror song of the day, we have Demon, a track from the soundtrack for the 1985 film, Demons. This song was composed and performed by Claudio Simonetti, who is best known as the keyboardist of Goblin.
The music video, incidentally, was directed by Michele Soavi, who also appeared in Demons as the mysterious masked man handing out free movie tickets.
