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, we pay tribute to the year 1964 with….
4 Shots From 4 1964 Films
Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb (1964, dir. Stanley Kubrick, DP: Gilbert Taylor)
A Hard Day’s Night (1964, dir by Richard Lester, DP: Gilbert Taylor)
Goldfinger (1964, dir by Guy Hamilton, DP: Ted Moore)
Strait-Jacket (1964, dir by William Castle, DP: Arthur E. Arling)
Welcome to Late Night Retro Television Reviews, a feature where we review some of our favorite and least favorite shows of the past! On Tuesdays, I will be reviewing Pacific Blue, a cop show that aired from 1996 to 2000 on the USA Network! It’s currently streaming everywhere, though I’m watching it on Tubi.
This week, a loved one dies.
Episode 3.21 “Till Death Do Us Part”
(Dir by Michael Levine, originally aired on April 12th, 1998)
When two robbers invade a high-end clothing store and shoot a security guard, they also accidentally shoot and kill Linda, Victor’s fiancée. In fact, Linda was trying on a wedding dress when she was shot. She was accompanied by Chris. In typical Pacific Blue style, even though Victor is the one who has just lost his fiancée, Chris also gets a chance to tell everyone that it’s also something that she’ll never recover from because she was the one who was actually there when it happened. Chris is so upset that she initially refuses to even change her clothes, even though they’ve been splattered with Linda’s blood. The show seems to think that this makes Chris into a strong character. Personally, I think it makes her someone who is so self-centered that she even has to make the death of someone else’s fiancée all about her. I can only imagine how Victor feels seeing Linda’s blood all over Chris’s shirt.
As for Victor, he goes on a rampage, tearing up Santa Monica until he finds the man who shot Linda. Victor ignores regulations. He breaks rules. He nearly shoots the killer in a parking lot and his partner Cory promises to back him up if he pulls the trigger. In the end, Victor is not a cold-blooded murderer. He allows the killer to be arrested. He tells the killer that he can’t wait to witness his execution. (Good luck, Victor. You’re in California!) But, as the episode ends, it’s mentioned that Internal Affairs is going to want his badge.
(Apparently, that will be dealt with in next week’s episode, which is also the season three finale.)
Watching this episode, I can found myself asking myself if all the other cops in Santa Monica have been fired. I didn’t see anyone other than the bicycle cops investigating the robberies or the shootings. I didn’t see anyone from Homicide looking into Linda’s murder. Instead, the entire episode was full of people trying to look tough while wearing bicycle shorts.
Welcome to Retro Television Reviews, a feature where we review some of our favorite and least favorite shows of the past! On Tuesdays, I will be reviewing Saved By The Bell: The New Class, which ran on NBC from 1993 to 2o00. The show is currently on Prime.
This week, Weasel’s found love again. Or has he?
Episode 1.11 “Weasel Love”
(Dir by Don Barnhart, originally aired on November 20th, 1993)
Weasel’s online girlfriend, Natalie (Stephanie Dicker), moves to California and enrolls at Bayside. At first, she looks and acts just like Tori Spelling during Tori’s time on the original Saved By The Bell. However, Megan, Vicki, and Lindsay give her a makeover that …. actually, makes her look significantly worse. But everyone at Bayside insists that it makes her look better so Weasel starts to feel insecure. Tommy D, Scott, and Mr. Belding (really?) give Weasel a makeover to team him how to be cool. That coolness goes to Weasel’s head and soon, he and Natalie aren’t speaking.
Uh-oh! Natalie and Weasel are both in the school band! Natalie plays piano. Weasel plays saxophone. (Needless to say, we never actually see Natalie’s hands when she’s playing piano.) How is the band going to win that trip to New York if Natalie and Weasel aren’t capable of performing a duet together?
Well, maybe Tommy can hop on the computer and send Natalie a message “from Weasel” apologizing. Natalie is touched but later, Weasel reveals that he didn’t write the message. But Weasel and Natalie still talk through their differences and the band wins that New York trip!
As for this episode’s B-plot, Tommy D and Scott trick two of the nerd characters into leaving the band so that they can replace them. As I watched Scott and Tommy trick the nerds into thinking that they were losing their hearing, it occurred to me that it takes a lot of charisma to make a schemer likable. Mark-Paul Gosselaar and Mario Lopez had that charisma, which is why the first Saved By The Bell worked despite Zack being a sociopath. Robert Sutherland Telfer and Jonathan Angel on the other hand….
(Actually, in all honesty, Jonathan Angel was likable as Tommy. He had the goofy dumb guy thing down. Telfer, however, didn’t have Gosselaar’s cocky charm. As a result, Scott usually comes across as being more desperate than confident.)
Anyway, this was another dumb episode. There’s no consistency when it comes to how characters like Weasel are portrayed so it’s really had to care about their lives one way or another. This episode, Weasel got a girlfriend. Even though I haven’t seen the remaining season one episodes yet, I can guarantee that she will never be mentioned again.
Finally, the band sounded terrible. Leave them in New York.
Today would have been the 102nd birthday of character actor Philip Stone. While Stone appeared in a lot of films, he’ll probably always be best-remembered for his subtly menacing turn as the ghostly Grady in 1980’s The Shining. Here he is, having a conversation with Jack Torrance (Jack Nicholson) and letting him know that he’s always been caretaker.
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 would have been Rod Steiger’s birthday. It’s time for….
4 Shots From 4 Rod Steiger Films
On The Waterfront (1954, dir by Elia Kazan, DP: Boris Kaufman)
The Pawnbroker (1965, dir by Sidney Lumet, DP: Boris Kaufman)
In The Heat of the Night (1967, dir by Norman Jewison, DP: Haskell Wexler)
The Illustrated Man (1969, dir by Jack Smight, DP: Philip H. Lathrop)
Welcome to Late Night 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 CHiPs, which ran on NBC from 1977 to 1983. The entire show is currently streaming on Prime!
This week, it’s lasers and horses in Los Angeles!
Episode 5.15 “Bright Flashes”
(Dir by Leslie H. Martinson, originally aired on January 17th, 1982)
Two dorky university science students — Scotty (Mark L. Taylor) and Richard (Jerry Houser) — have invented a laser that they use to temporarily blind people before robbing them. They blind Ponch in the middle of a race. They blind a group of people in front of a bank. The only person they don’t blind is old cowboy actor Wayne Cato (George Lindsay) but, when Wayne doesn’t chase after them, everyone except for Baker treats him like he’s a coward.
Uhmm, excuse me …. the man is in his sixties! It’s not his responsibility to go chasing after every crook in Los Angeles. Maybe the Highway Patrol should do their job!
Wayne feels so guilty that he does chase the robber when they show up to rob yet another bank that he’s standing in front of. Baker joins in and gets to live his fantasy of ditching his motorcycle for a horse.
This episode was a rare case of Baker getting to the be the main character even though Erik Estrada was healthy and present as Ponch. It was a bit of a silly episode. Why everyone got so angry with Wayne Cato was never really explained. (What was a 60-something retired cowboy to do?) The funniest thing was the ultra cheap laser special effects, none of which seemed to land anywhere near anyone’s eyes.
Again, it was a silly episode. But at least Baker got to ride a horse.
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, Miami Vice comes to a close.
Episode 5.21 “Too Much, Too Late”
(Dir by Richard Compton, originally aired on January 25th, 1990)
Tough NYPD detective Valerie Gordon (Pam Grier) returns to Miami after she learns that her friend Yvonne (CCH Pounder) has become addicted to crack cocaine and has been using her teenage daughter, Lynette (Malinda Williams), to pay her dealer, Swayne (John Toles-Bey). Returning to Miami also allows Valerie to meet up with her former lover, Tubbs. Tubbs is happy to see her again and even starts to think about marriage. When Yvonne turns up dead, Valerie insists that Swayne killed her. However, Crockett isn’t so sure. Eventually, it turns out that Lynette murdered her own mother and that Valerie has been trying to frame Swayne for the crime. Both Swayne and Lynette are arrested. Valerie returns to New York where, she tells Tubbs, she is going to turn in her badge and retire from the police force.
Meanwhile, Switek tries to resist the temptation to start gambling again. He even goes to meetings of Gamblers Anonymous but, when he’s stuck alone in his apartment and dealing with the guilt that he still feels over Zito’s death, Switek finds himself overwhelmed. Soon, he is again placing bets.
This was not intended to be the final episode of Miami Vice. Switek giving into his gambling addiction and Tubbs growing increasingly burned out were all plot points that were obviously designed to lead straight into Freefall. Even Tubbs’s decision to return to New York makes a lot more sense once we know that Valerie is there. However, NBC did not air this episode during the show’s original run because of its subject matter. Yvonne selling her daughter for crack was considered to be too controversial. As such, it didn’t air until the show went into syndication. That’s a shame. This was a strong episode, one that featured the melancholy atmosphere that made Miami Vice so memorable in the first place.
Well, that’s it for Miami Vice. It’s a show that started out strong. The first two seasons were consistently outstanding. The third season was entertaining, even if it was obvious that the show was starting to run on autopilot. The fourth season is where the show lost itself. As for the fifth season, it had its flaws but it was a definite improvement over the fourth season. While it was obvious that Don Johnson was eager to move on, the fifth season still provided enough good episodes that the show managed to redeem itself before it finally ended.
I’m going to miss Miami Vice. Even at its worse, it had style to burn.
(I should mention that the whole reason I started reviewing Miami Vice back in 2023 was because I assumed Ron DeSantis would be elected President in 2024 and that people would naturally be curious about a show set in Florida. Whoops.)
Next week, something new will premiere in this time slot. What will it be? I’ll let you know as soon as I know. For now, let’s just take a moment to remember Crockett, Tubbs, and Elvis.
Hi, everyone! Tonight, on twitter, I will be hosting one of my favorite films for #MondayMania! Join us for 2018’s Killer Body (a.k.a. The Wrong Patient)!
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!
Through the Shattered Lens 