Today would have been the 91st birthday of international screen icon, Jean-Paul Belmondo.
Belmondo spent the majority of his career in France, where he was one of the early faces of the New Wave and also a prominent action star, famed for doing his own very dangerous stunts. In America, he was best-known for his starring turn in Jean-Luc Godard’s Breathless. In Breathless, Belmondo was the perfect existential outlaw, living life day-by-day and obviously doomed but still so incredibly magnetic and stylish.
In tribute to Belmondo, here is a scene that I love, the final moments of Breathless, with Belmondo and Jean Seberg.
4 (or more) Shots From 4 (or more) Films is just what it says it is, 4 (or more) shots from 4 (or more) of our favorite films. As opposed to the reviews and recaps that we usually post, 4 (or more) Shots From 4 (or more) Films lets the visuals do the talking.
121 years ago today, the great American character actor Ward Bond was born in Benkleman, Nebraska. In a career that last nearly forty years, Ward Bond appeared in more than 200 films and he currently holds the record for being the actor to appear in the most films nominated for Best Picture. (He appeared in 13 nominated films, two of which won.) He did 22 films with John Wayne and was a favorite of both John Ford and Frank Capra.
It’s time for….
4 Shots From 4 Ward Bond Films
Gone With The Wind (1939, dir by Victor Fleming, DP: Ernest Haller)
It’s A Wonderful Life (1946, dir by Frank Capra, DP: Joseph Walker and Joseph Biroc)
The Searchers (1956, dir by John Ford, DP: Winston C. Hoch)
Rio Bravo (1959, dir by Howard Hawks, DP: Russell Harlan)
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 Freevee!
This week, Ponch rides with Getraer!
Episode 1.21 “Crack-Up”
(Dir by Phil Bondelli, originally aired on March 9th, 1978)
After causing an accident that lands Officer Baker in the hospital, street racer and tow truck drive Niles (Joey Aresco) has a psychotic break and decides that he wants to put as many police officers in the hospital as possible. He starts driving recklessly in his tow truck, all the better to get the attention of highway patrol officers. Soon, Officer Grossman has joined Baker in the hospital.
Meanwhile, with his partner laid up, Ponch faces his greatest nightmare. His temporary partner is none other than Sgt. Getraer! Getraer tells Ponch that he expects Ponch to do everything by the book. He expects Ponch to follow orders and observe official procedure. Ponch, however, is more concerned with saving lives and getting results than following the book. Ponch is a rebel!
And that’s fine, except for the fact that there’s never been anything about Erik Estrada’s performance that has ever made Ponch seem like he’s actually the rebel who everyone claims he is. Estrada plays Ponch as someone who is quick to smile and quick to brag on himself and quick to get annoyed if a motorist doesn’t pull over for him. In short, Estrada has always been convincing when he plays Ponch as being a jackass but far less convincing when it comes to convincing us that Ponch is a cop who deliberately breaks the rules for the greater good.
While Getraer and Ponch get on each other’s nerves, Baker lies in bed and insists that he’s ready to get back on his bike. Wanda (Phyllis Diller), who is visiting her husband in the hospital, frequently stops by to tell jokes. When I saw this episode was going to be co-starring Phyllis Diller, I cringed because CHiPs seems like the type of show that would screw something like that up. But actually, Diller gives a really good performance as Wanda and her scenes were the best in the episode. She told a lot of jokes but, as she admitted to Baker, she was only joking to distract herself from worrying about her husband.
In the end, things work out. Baker gets back on his bike. Getraer and Ponch come to respect each other. And, eventually, Niles the mad mechanic is captured. To be honest, it’s kind of weird that it took so long to capture Niles. After Baker was injured, Niles called the police to say that someone has stolen his car an hour or so before. He also got another mechanic, Ray (Gary Sandy), to lie and provide him with an alibi. But then, Niles went driving around in his tow truck and that’s what he was driving when he injured Grossman. So, really, a smart cop would have said, “Hey, that stolen car belonged to a tow truck driver and now, another office has been injured by someone driving a tow truck! Maybe we should go talk to that guy again….”
This episode was better than I was expecting, largely due to Phyllis Diller and the comedic interplay between Officers Grossman and Baker. As always, the California scenery was the real star of the show and the state looked lovely.
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, a man from the past returns to haunt Castillo.
Episode 2.9 “Bushido”
(Dir by Edward James Olmos, originally aired on November 22nd, 1985)
This week’s episode opens with yet another intricately plotted drug bust going awry. This time, a dealer ends up dead, a DEA Agent ends up knocked out and tied up in a bathroom, and $50,000 goes missing. Watching the tapes of the bust, Castillo is shocked to spot a familiar face on the scene. Castillo says that Jack Gretsky (Dean Stockwell) was his partner when he was working for the CIA in Vietnam. Gretsky has long been thought dead but there he is, on tape and ruining Castillo’s bust.
Realizing that Gretsky was sending him a message, Castillo decides to deal with the situation personally. After visiting two CIA agents (Jerry Hardin and Tom Bower) who work out of an adult novelty shop, Castillo tracks Gretsky down to a Buddhist temple. The two of them talk. Gretsky reveals that he’s married to a Russian woman and that he has a son. He asks Castillo to watch over them if anything happens to him. The stoic Castillo agrees and then gives Gretsky a hug. Castillo says that he has to arrest Gretsky. Gretsky says he knows and then pulls a machine gun, forcing Castillo to kill him. The CIA agents are happy to no longer have to deal with Gretsky.
A day later, the coroner’s office calls Vice and says that Gretsky was terminally ill with cancer and probably only had a few days left to live. When Crockett and Tubbs go to tell Castillo, they find his badge and a note sitting in the office. Castillo is fulfilling Gretsky’s final wish and protecting his wife (Natasha Schneider) and his son, Marty (Robin Kaputsin). Castillo sees it as being a part of the samurai code by which he lives his life. Meanwhile, a rogue CIA agent named Surf (David Rasche, giving a wonderfully unhinged performance) is working with the KGB to track down Gretsky’s family.
Directed by Edward James Olmos, Bushido is a wonderfully odd episode. With a combination of skewed camera angles and deliberately eccentric performances from Dean Stockwell and David Rasche, this episode plays out with the relentless intensity of a fever dream. (The opening drug bust even features Zito burying himself in the sand and using a straw to breathe until its time to emerge and knock out one of the bad guys. It’s weird but it’s great.) Olmos contrasts Castillo’s trademark stoicism with the more verbose characters played by Stockwell and Rasche and, as a result, Castillo emerges as an honorable man who hides his emotions because he knows that’s the only way to survive in his world. To fall in love like Jack or to get cocky like Surf can only lead to one’s downfall.
After a few uneven episodes, Bushido is a nice reminder of what Miami Vice was capable of at its best.
As some of our regular readers undoubtedly know, I am involved in hosting a few weekly live tweets on twitter and occasion ally Mastodon. I host #FridayNightFlix every Friday, I co-host #ScarySocial on Saturday, and I am one of the five hosts of Mastodon’s #MondayActionMovie! Every week, we get together. We watch a movie. We snark our way through it.
Tonight, for #MondayActionMovie, the film will be 1990’s Aftershock! Selected and hosted by Rev. Magdalen, this movie is about life after an eclipse! So, you know it has to be good!
It should make for a night of fun viewing and I invite all of you to join in. If you want to join the live tweets, just hop onto Mastodon, pull up Aftershock on YouTube, start the movie at 8 pm et, and use the #MondayActionMovie hashtag! The live tweet community is a friendly group and welcoming of newcomers so don’t be shy.
I was torn about whether or not to listen to Pink Floyd’s Dark Side of the Moon during the eclipse because — bleh! — Roger Waters. But then I remembered that the other members of the band hate Roger Waters as well and I was able to use that to justify things. I mean, seriously, some things are just made for eclipses and that’s certainly true of the somewhat silly and portentous but still effective Dark Side of the Moon.
(Silly, portentous, and effective is also a good description of Pink Floyd as a whole.)
So, with that in mind, here is today’s special Eclipse Day song of the day. Actually, I guess I should say that these are today’s songs of the day because technically, they are two separate songs. But they might as well be two.
In honor of the eclipse that I will probably not be able to see because of the clouds and the rain, today’s scene that I love comes from 2014’s A Field In England. This film may (or may not) take place during a solar eclipse. I won’t try to explain everything that is happening in the scene, beyond stating that this particular field in England is home to some interesting mushrooms. I encourage you see to watch the film for yourself.
The prediction down here is that it’s going to be cloudy and rainy today so we probably won’t have the best view of the eclipse. That’s okay, though. I’m always tempted to look straight at the sun during an eclipse and, apparently, that’s one reason why my eyesight gets worse with each passing year. My friend Tammy says that it doesn’t matter because it will still get dark so we’ll know the eclipse is happening, even if we can’t see it.
Welcome to Late Night Retro Television Reviews, a feature where we review some of our favorite and least favorite shows of the past! On Sunday, I will be reviewing the Canadian series, Degrassi Junior High, which aired on CBC and PBS from 1987 to 1989! The series can be streamed on YouTube!
Mr. Colby returns!
Episode 2.12 “He’s Back”
(Dir by Clarke Mackey, originally aired on March 21st, 1988)
Mr. Colby (Marcus Bruce) is back, substituting for Ms. Avery.
The last time that Mr. Colby substituted at Degrassi, he ended up sexually harassing Lucy. Despite the attempts of L.D. and Wheels to convince her otherwise, Lucy decided not to report Mr. Colby. She just wanted to put the experience in the past and move on. However, this episode opens with Lucy being woken up by nightmares, in which Colby is the central figure. When Lucy sees Colby in the office, asking for Ms. Avery’s lesson plans, she freaks out.
Still, she refuses to go to the principal about what happened. She still just wants to move on. After her trouble with shoplifting during the first season, Lucy has finished up her community service and is now volunteering at a daycare out of the kindness of her heart. She’s trying to build a new life for herself but, when it becomes obvious that Colby is now grooming Susie (played by Sarah Charlesworth), Lucy realizes that she can no longer be silent.
“You want to see Mr. Lawrence?” the school secretary says when she sees Lucy, Susie, and every other girl in Colby’s class standing in front of her. “This better be important.”
It is, Lucy replies.
This is a pivotal episode as far as Lucy’s development is concerned. In this episode, Lucy shows that she’s gone from being spoiled and self-centered to someone who actually does care about other people and who wants to make the world a better place. If you know the history of this show and the characters, there’s something a little sad about the scenes in which she goes to Wheels for support. Those of us who have seen School’s Out (and this is a spoiler for those of you who haven’t so consider yourself warned) know that Wheels is destined to go to prison for killing a kid while driving drunk. We also know that Lucy is destined to be temporarily blinded and crippled in that same accident. In this episode, though, both Wheels and Lucy still have their entire future ahead of them.
This episode was a good example of what Degrassi Junior High did so well. So many teen shows would have wrapped up this storyline in one episode and certainly, they would have never address Lucy’s lingering trauma. Instead, Lucy would have done gone to the principal on her own, Colby would have been fired, and the entire thing would have never been mentioned again. Degrassi Junior High, on the other hand, understands that it’s not always easy to do the right thing, especially when you just want to put it all behind you and get on with your life. With its portrayal of Lucy’s lingering trauma and her reaction to seeing Mr. Colby back in the school, Degrassi Junior High proves itself to be one of the most honest shows about growing up.
I want to wish a Happy Eclipse Day to all who plan to celebrate! Supposedly, it’s going to be cloudy and rainy down here while the eclipse is going on. That’s okay. I’ve seen an eclipse before. When I was six years old, I looked straight at an eclipse. And now, I wear contact lenses. Draw your own conclusions!
Anyway, here’s what I watched and listened to this week!
Through the Shattered Lens 