The Great Cutter! George Tomasini!
He worked in many genres and they all came out great, his fantasy work with George Pal, The Time Machine, The Seven Faces Of Dr. Lao, Houdini. All great. I was watching Cape Fear with Robert Mitchum and Gregory Peck, end credits roll, edited by George Tomasini. Plus he edited a major share of Hitchcock’s Hollywood output. Everything from Rear Window to The Birds, including Psycho with it’s famous shower scene. Anyway I will one day soon write a piece just about George. So when I checked out Mr. Tomasini’s IMDB page I saw a film listed I had not seen, The Turning Point. I thought, ” I’ll have to check that out one of these days.” Then I was cruising around the internet and ran into a blog about Bunker Hill, On Bunker Hill, this site features great images of the old neighborhood that stood just north of downtown before it was demolished. A real dreamscape used as backgrounds by many film noir masters. I then found a link to Angel’s Flight Goes To The Movies, and there was A Turning Point! Then to top it off it’s on Netflix streaming! So I checked it out. Directed by super talented William Dieterle, the man behind such classics as The Devil and Daniel Webster, and Portrait of Jennie, this is a really well written story, excellently paced by Tomasini, it has some incredible scenes, including one of the best assassinations ever filmed. A crooked cop trying to do right is set up for a hit, and the shooter is then shot by two truck driving killers(one of whom is the Professor from Gilligan’s Island). There’s a lot of great location photography all over Bunker Hill.

And a climactic scene at what I think is the old Olympic auditorium, a boxing match featuring an appearance by the second most decorated veteran of WWII, Neville Brand.

This was two years after D.O.A. where Brand tortured Edmond O’Brien, Edmond is sort of the star of The Turning Point but really it’s William Holden. Check this gem out, great writing, directing and editing and all on Netflix streaming!

Maestro Of Psychic Cinema! William Dieterle

This is a film I’ve heard about for many years and now finally it can be seen, thanks to Netflix streaming. Written by the great Terrence Malick a couple years before he directed his masterpiece Badlands, Deadhead Miles is a paean to the open road, a picaresque tale of two and eventually one traveler. That one traveler is played by Alan Arkin, a terrific performance and one of the weirdest Southern accents ever. Arkin is the driver of the big rig of destiny. Beautiful cinematography, 35mm, rich color,awe inspiring landscapes, 1971 locations make this movie a kind of low ball visual feast. And a cool country music score, by Tom T. Hall. A great supporting cast, including some real gems.

But the reason I knew about this movie is that a friend of mine worked on it. Bud Smith, great editor of such films as The Exorcist, Putney Swope, Cat People, Zoot Suit, Sorcerer, Personal Best and many other films, told me about his time on Deadhead Miles. Bud was hired to edit the film, he stayed in Los Angeles while the crew shot on location and sent the film back. Bud cut the film as it came in. At the end of the shoot the director took a few weeks off to recuperate from the rigors of a road movie. When he came into the editing room Bud was ready with his first cut of the movie. They screened it. The director said,” Can you take that all apart and put it back in dailies?” Bud said, ” You mean there’s nothing in there that you like?” ” Yes, that’s exactly what I mean.” “Well, I guess you got the wrong guy to work on your film.” And with that Bud left. Tony Bill , the producer, wisely duped Bud’s cut before having it disassembled and after a little while Mr. Bill fired the director. The new editor used Bud’s original cut for a lot of the film which then languished in obscurity until now. So check it out, a unique film.

Mike Kaplan, flanked by Two Giants Of Film, Abraham Polonsky on the left, Mike Hodges on the right
Mike Kaplan , a very cool film executive, filmmaker and all around maven reminisces about his days working with Stanley Kubrick : HERE

I am fortunate in having met Mr. Kaplan a few years ago through a mutual friend, Robert Downey Sr. Mike took Bob and me to a screening of Robert Altman’s excellent film The Player. Altman was there and was very gracious, Mike was working with him on the marketing of The Player. Mike also was instrumental in getting the wonderful Croupier released here in the US, an excellent film by the supercool Mike Hodges. It launched the career of Clive Owen. So check out Mike’s Tales of Kubrick, they’re great stories, insights into one of the 20th Century’s great Film Artists.

There was a great article in the New York Times this weekend about restoring Penn Staion Manhattan to it’s former glory. The original was razed in 1963, a horrible crime against the people of NYC, driven by greedy real estate interests.

I used to commute through that station and one evening while waiting for a train to arrive, I sat in the depressing waiting room and someone stole my hat from right next to me as I dozed off. I used to watch hookers steal slices of pizza from the little pizzeria in that same subterranean waiting area. Anyway it was an incredible work of Art, all girders and glass with a delicate filigree feel and I’m sure the people of the greater metropolitan NY area would benefit from it being restored. So I started thinking what films feature the station in it’s original state. Off the top of my head I came up with a couple. First Stanley Kubrick’s Killer’s Kiss, the film opens in Penn Station. And you can watch it in HD on Netflix streaming. Another great movie that used the location, The 10th Victim, the opening of this film is shot outside the recently demolished station, Ursula Andress runs by the rubble.

Ursula in front of another magnificent structure, an interesting contrast, in Rome they preserve the great edifices of the past, in the USA nothing is safe from the wrecking ball of Greed.

I will try to find some more examples of this magnificent structure captured in the celluloid time machine.

Opening Of Killers Kiss

Johnny with Don and Dewey, that’s Don SugarCane Harris on the left
When FZ was makingPeaches in Regalia he asked Johnny to get him Sugar Cane Harris to play on the album. Johnny did, although FZ had to pay SugarCane’s bail, and Johnny’s son Shuggie played on it as well. Zappa returned the favor by getting Johnny a contract with Kent records for his great Cold Shot album.

Johnny with his son , incipient guitar genius Shuggie

Johnny was a white kid who grew up in a black neighborhood and basically lived as a black man. Black people assumed he was black, even my mailman, an ex-jazz drummer, told me that when he was a kid The Johnnie Otis TV show was the first time he saw black musicians on TV. Johnnie had a hit with Harlem Nocturne with his big band, then Willie and The Hand Jive with his Rock/ R&B outfit, and he would have been rich if he had gotten his fair share of Hound Dog, the original version of which he produced for Big Mama Thornton, but Leiber and Stoller ripped him off on a technicality. Farewell Great Johnny O, we all here on Earth will miss you but we’re all better off for your having been here.

Atmospheric Imagery thanks to veteran cinematographer Hal Mohr

This is a strange noir story of a boy’s 17th birthday and the night that he becomes a man.

Barrymore witnesses his father getting a savage beating from a crippled newspaper man, it sends him out into the night, the big city, thirsting for revenge.

John Drew Barrymore aka Barrymore Jr.

He goes to all the noir city hotspots, first a prizefight, his prey is a sports writer, thus serving up another staple of the noir canon, the figure of the newspaperman and the paper itself, their role in the Big City. While at the fight Barrymoore makes the acquaintance of a drunken PHD, a Doctor of Philosophy that aids him in his quest for “Al Judge” the evil columnist that caned his prostrate father. A spectator at the fight hands a bottle of liqour to the drunken doctor and I recognized this large individual as Robert Aldritch, who had worked as an assistant director with Joseph Losey on M and The Prowler. The pair of new friends follow Al St. Judge to a bar, lose him and wind up at another noir touchstone, The Nightclub! Complete with Jazz band and black vocalist. Here Losey masterfully limns a disfunctional relationship between the doctor and his mistress in a few deft strokes that tell you so much about them.

The second Mrs. Charles Foster Kane, Opera Singer Susan Alexander

The women is non other than Dorothy Comingore, Susan Alexander of Citizen Kane. She dances with Barrymore, a harbinger of her sister’s kissing him later in the film, his sexual initiation is with two women old enough to be his mother. An artifact of Losey’s relationship with his own mother, described in a biography as a “sexual predator”. Outside the restaurant Barrymore bumps into the Jazz singer telling her “she’s the best singer in the world” and ” really beautiful even if she is a…” (nigger).

Beautiful Jazz Singer! Mauri Lynn

The look on her face triggers instant regret in Barrymore, he didn’t mean to insult her, he just revealed his own upbringing and cultural limitations. A great shot follows of his anguished face in the rear window of a taxi that pulls away and disappears into the Stygian Night Of the City. A wonderful scene between Barymore and the sister of Comingore occurs at the apartment, again a motherly /sexual love thing happens. After a nighttime visit to the graveyard shift of the newspaper, Barymore finally tracks St. Judge down and has it out with the evil cripple. St. Judge reveals some startling information about the foibles of Barrymore’s father viv a vis his recently deceased sister, so unsettling the teenager that he puts down the gun and tries to leave but the rotten reporter reveals the depth of his depravity and turns the gun on our young hero, a struggle ensues , a shot is fired, the handicapped columnist hits the deck. John Drew returns to the apartment of lonely older women where the sister comforts him but his new “friend” the doctor throws him out threatening to kill him if he gets him involved in the case. Losey’s bleak view of humanity on display. Young John winds up back at home the cops show up and he pulls agun, threatening to kill himself, OK, nowadays the cops would open fire on the poor sap but back then they waited for him to work it out with his old man, the father reveals the boy’s real mother isn’t dead, she just met a new guy and split. “Don’t you hate her?” the teen asks. “No, I love her. ” The dad replies. The end! And it’s available for streaming on Netflix!

Cry Danger, you get Dick Powell, Rhonda Fleming and a host of great noir character actors, shot in some amazing 50’s L.A. locations, including a trailer park within view of City Hall! Pretty cool. Robert Parrish’s directorial debut. Shot by the always good Joe Biroc, he was Aldritch’s cameraman for a lot of films.

5 Steps to Danger OK, this is by no stretch of the imagination a great movie, maybe not even a good movie.  Made fast and cheap, the things it has going for it are as follows: Sterling Hayden, Ruth Roman, driving around the desert in a 50’s Packard convertible! That is cool  as hell. If you like these actors, check it out.

The Killer Is Loose, an interesting film by Budd Boetticher , Wendell Corey plays a sort of nerd serial killer, maybe the first one in Cinema. Joseph Cotten is the cop that put him away, killing Corey’s wife in the process so now “Foggy” wants revenge. A weird flick but worth checking out.

Plunder Road, Hubert Cornfield’s excellent gold heist movie.

More to come. Same Bat time, same Bat channel.

This is an outrage! The star of the great Franklin Pangborn, a pioneer in gay cinema has been destroyed. There should be a protest to get it restored to it’s original lustre. It’s at the NE corner of Sunset and Vine.

Photos by Zach Fine

Here are two noirish films I found on Netflix streaming. Both worth watching. Caught is a sort of poor man’s Citizen Kane, being a thinly disguised story of a very rich man, in this case Howard Hughes. Robert Ryan portrays him excellently and I’m sure he had opportunity to observe Hughes during his time at RKO. But the star of the film is the lovely and talented Barbara Bel Geddes. She plays a carhop with designs on being a model and winds up married to an insane millionaire. James Mason appears as a sympathetic doctor and love interest. The ending has to be seen to be believed, if I told you what happens you wouldn’t believe it. It could never happen today.

This film was directed by an emigre from France, fleeing Nazi persecution, Max Ophuls.  I hear tell that Robert Aldritch directed some additional scenes for this film but I don’t know which ones. I’ll look into it. Martin Scorsese restored this film at UCLA archives a few years before he made his Hughes film, The Aviator. Unlike Hearst I don’t think Hughes tried to destroy anyone’s career over this film, maybe he was too far gone in his mental illness to notice.

The next attraction on our double bill is House Of Strangers, a study of an upwardly mobile Italian family in old New York. This clan is ruled with an iron fist by it’s patriarch, portrayed by the great Edward G. Robinson. He turns in a wonderful, if somewhat stereotyped performance. His rise to riches as a banker (shades of A.P. Gianini) destroys his family pitting brother against brother in a quest for power. The main sibling is played by Richard Conte, the only brother the father doesn’t denigrate. Conte plays a lawyer with a habit of ending his pronouncements “Period”. Like “I’m going to the theater with you. Period!” No arguments. It’s a funny bit. The thing I really like about this film is the honest portrayal of the characters, the father is a tyrant, he calls one son “Dumbhead”, he treats his oldest son like a slave, making him wash is back in the tub while he  sings opera. But in spite of his evil side, you can’t help but like Eddie G. , you know he’s bad but he’s sort of charismatic, charming. He’s always telling his sons that he built everything for them and they will get it all when he dies. A very accurate portrait of just such a person.

The brilliant director Joseph Mankewiscz  limns his character with an unerring eye. Lest I forget Susan Hayward appears as a rich chick out for kicks and goes slumming with Conte. I am not a big fan of her work but I must say here she turns in a very good job. I like her in this movie. Flashback structure, Gothic old house, speakeasies, lots of shadows, Noir without a detective, family noir. Check it out.

And you can see it on Netflix! A documentary about the legendary Maxwell Street in Chicago, a Sunday carnival, flea market fish fry, outdoor dancehall, preacher zone, crazy place that’s long gone. You can see the amazing, reclusive Robert Nighthawk performing on the street, although I was bummed that they cut away from him whenever he played a solo, it’s too bad because he had one of the most unique electric slide guitar styles of all time. I didn’t know the editor personally, the late Howard Alk, but I worked on the Isle of Wight documentary with his collaborator Murray Lerner. They did Festival together and I believe Alk edited Reynaldo and Clara, Bob Dylan’s foray into directing. Anyway check it out, See the man with a chicken on his head, the 2 fingered guitar player, Robert Nighthawk, and many other vanished attractions!

He was famous for wearing white gloves while directing, he made the monumental Hunchback Of Notre Dame starring Charles Laughton,the great Devil And Daniel Webster and Portrait Of Jennie, the film that David O. Selznick drove him insane over. But nevertheless Dieterle was a Cinematic Poet 1st class. I discovered several more interesting noirs that I will list soon, including an HD version of Stanley Kubrick’s early outing Killer’s Kiss, check out the opening scene shot in the demolished/rebuilt Penn Station in Manhattan.

Anyway more Noir gold to be revealed soon, stay tuned.

and Sophis Loren at possibly her most beautiful! Maybe the sexiest woman of all time! You have to see her in this film. I saw this film many years ago at the Bleecker Street Theater, and now thanks to Netflix and my home theater I see it again projected on a large screen, I am speechless at how great it is to be able to watch films projected at home. In this case I never thought I’d see this film projected ever again. It’s not like revival houses are running it every year. But it is worth seeing. And I get to practice my Italian, a double bonus. Check it out 4 stories of Love, Eros, from 4 maestros, created in Roma at the peak of the Italian Film Renascence. Stupendo!

The late, great Raymond Scott

Special Thanks to Zach Fine for the photos.

The Hearst Building on 8th Avenue, The fancy glass tower was added a few years back. It’s a luxury high rise, home to such luminaries as Michael Mann

I also met an older gent there who had worked on Movietone Newsreels, (The bar was about a block away from Hearst Movitone HQ on 8th), Funny, considering Citizen Kane’s fake newsreel opening and Orson’s relationship to WR Hearst.

I just ran across this on Youtube the other day. Orson Welles last interview, on the Merv Griffin show. I guess Orson was friendly with Merv, he was always on his show.  I had heard that Orson was at a fancy banquet, left went home and stopped at Pink’s hot dog stand on La Brea. Then he went home with two chili dogs, ate them and expired. A little research reveals the source of this myth, supposedly Welles held the record for hot dog consumption at Pink’s - 18 of them!

But here he is on TV  about two hours before he passed. Check it out, see the great man in his last moments on planet Earth.