Duel (Steven Spielberg, 1971, made-for-TV)

You know how Tom Cruise bragged about all the running he does in movies? In Duel, 47-year-old Dennis Weaver runs down a road at full speed, and he does it wearing dress shoes.

Weaver's name in this, David Mann, was a little too obvious. He's driving through the desert in his Plymouth Valiant when a murderous truck driver begins chasing and stalking him, trying to murder him. That's pretty much the whole movie. 

My brother, sister and I sat in the living room watching the world television premiere in 1971. This may be the first time I've seen it in 52 years. I think we were impressed by it, but we were at a stage of life where we kept making fun of Dennis Weaver's helpless rage.

Made-for-TV, Spielberg had to shoot some additional footage for it to be long enough for a theatrical release in Europe. Europeans demanded a full 90 minutes which was apparently the version now on The Criterion Channel. 

I don't know. It might make a double feature with The Wages of Fear.

Arch Oboler's Five (1951)

The first nuclear apocalypse movie. Five people survive the end of the world, most of it destroyed by radiation rather than the nuclear explosions themselves. There were six people counting the baby, although one of them had died by the time the baby was born.

Arch Oboler was a prolific writer working in radio. He apparently did pretty well for himself---the movie was filmed at his home, Cliff House designed by Frank Lloyd Wright. He wrote the short radio drama, "The Chicken Heart", another end of the world story.

Had a bit more diversity in the cast than you'd normally see. It had a Black guy, a Nazi and a polite older guy. But it was four men and one woman. And a baby.

It was better than I expected. I thought it would be a poor man's Day the World Ended, the Roger Corman movie made years later. It was dialogue driven, not surprising in a movie made by a radio guy.

Andrew Neil on Russell Brand

The British right-wing is different from the American right-wing. Here's an interview on YouTube with Andrew Neil from The Spectator magazine about Russell Brand. He dismissed the conspiracy theorists defending him and pointed out that Brand isn't funny. He thought there was something wrong with Britain that they turn people with no talent and no ability into celebrities. He cites Jimmy Savile. Savile would have been repulsive and untalented even if he hadn't been a psychopathic sexual predator, necrophile and probable child killer.

I didn't realize Brand had been a stand-up comic. They've shown video of him performing and, no, he wasn't funny. A comedienne asked about him said she loved his work, but it was his delivery she liked, not the content.

Lost Horizon (1937)

I'd seen this a few times when I was a kid. They'd show it every year or two at the university a few blocks from me. 

It didn't make sense to me. Who were all the servants? Who built the place? Who did the yard work? It wasn't Shangri-La for them, now, was it? One of the Occidentals even tries to murder a household servant. 

 

There were people who thought it was Communistic, but it was really pro-colonialist.

A small planeload of Westerners flee an uprising in China. The plane is hijacked by an Asian pilot. It crashes in the Himalayas. The passengers are taken to Shangri-La. Everyone there lives in peace and harmony.

This exchange got a laugh from the college kids. Ronald Coleman asks Chang (H.B. Warner) about how things work there:

"You have no disputes over women?"

"Only very rarely. You see, it would not be considered good manners to take a woman that another man wanted."

"Suppose somebody wanted her so badly that he didn't give a hang if it was good manners or not?"

"Well, in that event, it would be good manners on the part of the other man to let him have her."

    

They live hundreds of years. They don't really do much. Some of them frolic a little. They have time to develop their hobbies. The "natives" are ruled over by a white Catholic "lama" (Sam Jaffe.)

Got off to a slow start. It was half an hour before they got to the place. 

Directed by Frank Capra. 

A semi-restored 2 hour thirteen minute version is free on Tubi but only nine more days.

Fool's Parade (1971, James Stewart, Strother Martin, George Kennedy)

James Stewart. Strother Martin and Kurt Russell are fresh out of prison in 1935 West Virginia. They're put on a train out of town. James Stewart is given a cashier's check for $25,000 which is what he was paid over forty years for his prison labor. Corrupt prison official George Kennedy is out to finish them off so the corrupt bank president won't have to pay out the money.

Anne Baxter as a patriotic down-on-her-luck prostitute. Katherine Cannon as a teen forced into prostitution.

The Big Lebowski's David Huddleston as the corrupt banker. 

They ex-convicts are driven out of town. Stewart and Martin are going to use the money to open a store together. I'm not sure what Kurt Russell's role was in this.

I never heard of. It was nice-looking. It looked like 1935 to me, but I'm not sure how plausible the ending was. James Stewart's last movie for several years while he went to work on TV.

James Stewart walking into a bank with dynamite strapped to his body didn't have the same associations in 1971 that it does today. 

Free on Tubi.

TV listing, first episode of Star Trek

 

Russians bootleg Barbie

And good for them.

The Russian news service RT is reporting that Barbie is freely available on rutube.ru, Russia's answer to YouTube. Dubbed in Russian. It's been shown in Russian movie theaters. One of the advantages of the switch to digital projectors. 

"The full 1 hour, 54-minute movie was uploaded to the video hosting site in 1080p quality and featuring a full Russian dub. The leak came a day before the film’s planned international digital release."

It wasn't being released in Russia anyway. They weren't going to make any money from Russian audiences.  It doesn't hurt Hollywood if they watch it for free if that's what you're worried about.

Drew Barrymore's anti-union daytime talk show

Showbiz411 reports briefly on Drew Barrymore's talk show being back on the air in spite of the strikes.

Barrymore was going to host an MTV Movie & TV awards show, but she backed out because of the strike, then she goes back to her TV show.

From Showbiz 411:

Dominic Turiczek and his friends won tickets to today’s taping of the first episode of the new season. He didn’t know about the WGA strike but he does now. On his way in. Turiczek was handed a WGA strike pin. But when he got inside the taping, he was thrown out.

Today’s taping included Brooke Shields, a member of SAG AFTRA, which is on strike, and her producer, Ali Wentworth, wife of George Stephanopolous, promoting their documentary which is not part of any strike. No one seems to know about bad optics. This is a bad look, ladies, and not going to win friends or Emmy voters.

Ironically, WGA strike pins are available on Amazon. I didn't look anywhere else.

Hitchcock's Family Plot (1976)

It was better than I remembered. I haven't seen it in years. Not as good as Frenzy, but it was okay. Hitchcock was known for using landmarks and regional stereotypes to make it clear or remind people where the movie is set. In this, his last movie, he did the opposite. It was set in Northern California, but the cars didn't even have California license plates. He wanted everything generic. 

The sexual innuendo wasn't amusing and was a little disturbing come from Alfred Hitchcock in old age. 

But even the scene of the car speeding out of control down a winding mountain road--it was obviously undercranked and filmed in front of a blue screen--worked pretty well.

Barbara Harris as a fake psychic medium. Her boyfriend, Bruce Dern, investigates her clients so she can reveal what he's learned as psychic revelations. A wealthy believer want to find her nephew who was given up for adoption decades earlier.

Meanwhile, William Devane and Karen Black kidnap people and collect diamonds as ransom.

Older viewers might recognize Marge Redmond from 1970's Cool Whip commercials and Katherine Helmond from Soap and Who's the Boss.

Kutcher and Kunis' unconvincing apology

Well, that took about five minutes. Ashton Kutcher and Mila Kunis posted a video apologizing for their letters to the judge supporting their serial rapist friend, Danny Masterson. I wondered if Kutcher would be visiting his old friend in prison, but it doesn't sound like he will. 

The video was posted on Instagram which I know nothing about. I looked for it on YouTube and watched it here:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5Do3624Wrj8

This is an anti-Scientology YouTube channel I've never seen before. Aaron Smith-Levin is the host. He's apparently in contact with Masterson's victims. He's far more critical of Kutcher and Kunis than anyone else I've seen and he makes some pretty good points.

Celebrity letters to judge in Danny Masterson case

Letters written to the judge before sentencing in the Danny Masterson case can be found here:

https://tonyortega.substack.com/p/letters-from-ashton-kutcher-mila

According to the comments, eight of the seventeen letters were from Scientologists. The letter below from Ashton Kutcher mentions Masterson's support for 9-11 Firefighters. He was referring to a Scientology scam you can read about here. The anti-drug stuff was also a Scientology thing.

It's hard to imagine letters like this having any effect and they obviously didn't.

Honorable Judge Olmedo,

My name is Ashton Kutcher I am an actor, investor, philanthropist, and most importantly a father. I met Danny Masterson when I was 20 years old in 1998. He instantly became a friend, dedicated co worker, and role model to me. And has remained as such for 25 years.

As a friend, Danny has been nothing but a positive influence on me. He's an extraordinarily honest and intentional human being. Over 25 year relationship I don't ever recall him lying to me. He's taught me about being direct and confronting issues in life and relationships head-on, resolving them, and moving forward. Danny is a person that is consistently there for you when you need him. We've traveled around the world together, raised our daughters together, and shared countless family moments. Not only is he a good friend to me I've witnessed him be a good friend to others and the kind of brother others would be lucky to have.

As a role model, Danny has consistently been an excellent one. I attribute not falling into the typical Hollywood life of drugs directly to Danny. Any time that we were to meet someone or interact with someone who was on drugs, or did drugs, he made it clear that that wouldn't be a good person to be friends with. And for me, that was an implication that if I were to do drugs, he wouldn't want to be friends with me, which is something I never would want to risk or jeopardize. I am grateful to him for that positive peer pressure. He also set an extraordinary standard around how you treat other people. There was an incident where we were at a pizza parlor and a belligerent man entered who is berating his girlfriend. We had never met or seen these people before, but Danny was the first person to jump to the defense of this girl. It was an incident he didn't have to get involved i:i but proactively chose to because the way this man was behaving was not right. He has always treated people with decency, equality, and generosity.

After 9-11 Danny was a huge advocate for support of the Firefighters effected by the event, rallying his friends and coworkers to pitch in however they could. Danny had his daughter a year before I had mine. He set a standard of being a hands on dad. We have spent countless hours together with our kids and he is among few people that I would trust to be alone with my son and daughter. He's also a dedicated and loyal husband with unwavering commitment to his wife.

We have spent hundreds of hours working together. Danny takes his job seriously. He is kind, courteous, and hard working. He treated everyone from the grips to the teamsters to the actors to the caterers as equals. He showed up on time all the time and always pulled his weight. We have also traveled around the world together promoting our work. I can honestly say that no matter where we were, or who we were with, I never saw my friend be anything other than the guy I have described.

While I'm aware that the judgement has been cast as guilty on two counts of rape by force and the victims have a great desire for justice. I hope that my testament to his character is taken into consideration in sentencing. I do not believe he is an ongoing harm to society and having his daughter raised without a present father would a tertiary injustice in and of itself. Thank you for taking the time to read this.

Best,

Ashton Kutcher

Dirty Mary, Crazy Larry (1974)

I never understood Peter Fonda's appeal. He wasn't believable in any role, especially playing a Hell's Angel. Peter Fonda plays someone named Larry. He does this bad fake laughing throughout the movie. He and his partner (Adam Roarke) take the wife and child of a grocery store manager (Roddy McDowall) hostage and rob the store. At least they got through that part quickly. The rest of the movie is just them in a Dodge Charger with Susan George fighting constantly and being chased by police led by Vic Morrow.

I saw this on HBO when I was thirteen. It made an impression on me then, but it's just crap. Based on a novel. They needed a literary source for this?

Available in The Criterion Channel.

The Last Run (1971) George C. Scott

George C. Scott as an aging former getaway driver for the mob. He's hired to drive an escaped Mafia hitman across Spain and into France. It turns out the Mafia only broke him out of prison so they could murder him.

Had a scene of George C. Scott driving a lovely 1950's BMW 503, a two door convertible sportscar, being chased by a Jaguar sedan and, perhaps strangely to American viewers, a Dodge Dart. 

Dodges must have been rather chic in Europe back then. In Bunuel's That Obscure Object of Desire, a rich guy rides in the back of a chauffeur-driven Dodge Dart.

These were hitmen setting out to ambush a car on a two-lane highway. I would have expected them to be heavily armed, like with submachine guns, but one of them climbed out of a wrecked car with just a revolver. 

John Huston started out as director but quit because George C. Scott kept arguing with him. Scott never picked up his Oscar for Patton (1970) but it may have still gone to his head. Richard Fleischer took over as director. 

Spain looked beautiful.

With Tony Musante and Trish Van Devere as his gun moll. Colleen Dewhurst who was married to Scott as a Spanish prostitute. 

Available with some other '70's car movies on The Criterion Channel.

Danny Masterson gets 30 years to life

It's prison for Danny Masterson, convicted of two counts of rape. The third charge ended in mistrial. 

He's 47. He'll be eligible for parole when he's 77. 

We'll see how good a friend Ashton Kutcher is now, if he'll visit Masterson in prison, maybe send him art supplies.

Massacre at Central High (1976)

I broke down and watched Massacre at Central High. The new kid starts killing the wealthy proto-frat-boy bullies terrorizing the school, which was okay with me, especially after the attempted rape. He starts out making everything look like an accident, but it picks up later. Realistically, it would have been better if he had just convinced everyone to press charges. 

It was very cheap. Roger Ebert was the one critic who liked it. There were no adults in it until the very end and most of them were dancing at a reunion-like event.  

Directed by a guy from Holland. I once saw a French movie about high school and there was a pitcher of milk sitting on each table in the school cafeteria. In this movie, there was a large bowl of fruit on an outdoor table during lunch, so that may have been a Dutch thing. 

 

Available on The Criterion Channel.

Child's Pose (Romania, 2013)

The wealthy, overbearing mother of a bratty son in his 30's tries to help when he hits and kills a young teenager while driving. It didn't sound like it was his fault, but he was speeding and is facing a few years in prison. She's not the most likable person in the world and the son is no picnic either. 

You have to feel for a guy facing prison and his mother trying to keep him out of the slam. I wasn't sure what to think about his mother's advice to him, to lie in his statement to police, especially when she told him that right there in front of the cops. She later meets with a witness who will change his story for a price. 

The witness soliciting a bribe is another rich guy gloating that his car was bigger and faster than her son's. The lower class family whose child was killed doesn't want anything from her. 

Romania should have stayed Communist.

Bad Fever (Dustin Guy Defa, 2011)

My advice to filmmakers: Even if your movie gets shown in theaters, most people will watch it on TV. So don't use such small print in your opening credits.

Something very different from Utah's thriving regional cinema. It turns out that Salt Lake City has a seedy underbelly.

Story of a would-be stand-up comedian with no hope of success. He walks around muttering anecdotes into a tape recorder. Maybe his delivery was the problem. He meets a young woman who lives in an abandoned school who wants to videotape him naked.

I watched it on the Criterion channel. I first watched a video of the director discussing his work. This was about someone with an unattainable dream. But society tells him that his dream is important and he shouldn't give it up. 

The girl in it uses a SVHS camcorder. I think I have one like it I bought twenty years ago for $30 from a guy on Craigslist. He used it to record services at his church. I may have overpaid. So it was a plausible camcorder for a homeless person.