Welcome to the 896th Edition of my series. RADIUM GIRLS has gone really well. We have one more weekend of the show June 9-11 so come on out if you are in or near the Anderson area. Details for the show are on the bottom. Friday and Saturday are at 7:30 pm while the Sunday show is at 3:30 pm and tickets are $19.
Electric Boogaloo: The Wild, Untold Story of Cannon Films (2014): I start the week off with this documentary on the film industry which was directed by Mark Hartley. This takes a look at the Cannon Film Group that went from 1967 to 1985. This mainly takes a look at movie obsessed cousins Menahem Golan and Yoram Globus who bought the company in 1979 after Cannon was having financial difficulties. They were known for a lot of B-movie action movies in the '80s. This has interviews Sam Firstenberg, Luigi Cozzi, Boaz Davidson, David Womark, Sybil Danning, Yftach Katzur, Dan Wolman, John G. Avildsen, Martine Beswick, Mark Rosenthal, Richard Kraft, Catherine Mary Stewart, John Thompson, Tom Luddy, Avi Lerner, Robert Forster, Tobe Hooper, Alex Winter, Franco Nero, Elliott Gould, Bo Derek, Olivia D'Abo, Laurene Landon, Michael Dudikoff, Molly Ringwold, Cassandra Peterson, Richard Chaimberlain, Dolph Lungren, and many others. Some of these movies were some childhood favorites but I was not really aware of this company in general. This was a pretty compelling documentary on the ups and downs of a movie studio.
The Tigger Movie (2000): Jun Falkenstein directed and co-wrote this animated movie that feature our friends from the Hundred-Acre-Wood created by A.A. Milne. The difference is that these usually center around Winnie the Pooh, voiced by Tom Attenborough, but this time they decided to give our favorite tigger, voiced by Jim Cummings, his own movie. Tigger starts to feel a little out of place when his friends can't bounce the way he can and sets out to find his own Tigger family. John Fiedler, Peter Cullen, Andre Stojka, Kath Soucie, John Hurt, Frank Welker, and many others co-star in this animated movie. Hurt provides the narration of this tale. This is a good tale for the family and was a fun movie centering around Tigger with a good message at the end.
Socrates (2018): This is my Brazilian film for the week which was directed and co-written by Alexandre Moratto. This is not a movie about the famed philosopher. Christian Malheiros stars as the 15 year old title character whose mother has suddenly died. Socrates is left to fend for himself in the San Paulo. With this, he must come to terms with his grief and other questions in his life. This was low budget as low budget as it gets but it worked just fine. The cast was not a group of experienced actors, these were a group of at risk young adults. This is a very moving story that really deserves a look. This is available to watch on Tubi and the Roku Channel.
Dry Wood (1973): This is my documentary short for the week which was directed by Les Blank and Maureen Gosling. This is a portrait of black Creole life in the Louisiana Delta. It is also set to the soundtrack of Zydeco music. These people seem to enjoy the simplicity of life with Blank doing a great job in conveying these people. This is available to watch on the Criterion Channel.
Honor Among Lovers (1931): Dorothy Arzner directed this romantic drama. Claudette Colbert stars as Julia Traynor who is a secretary for Jerry Stafford, played by Fredric March. She is caught in an office flirtation with Jerry and her relationship with her jealous boyfriend Philip, played by Monroe Owsley, where everything gets complicated. A young Ginger Rogers co-stars and provides a lot of comic relief as Doris. Charles Ruggles, Avonne Taylor, Pat O'Brien, Ralph Morgan, and many others co-star in this precode film. This is mostly of worth to see the younger stars and most notably in Colbert. This will require a lot of attention and is a pretty good look at the office workplace. This is available to watch on the Criterion Channel.
Gilda (1946): Charles Vidor directed this classic Film Noir. Glenn Ford stars as small-town gambler Johnny Farrell whose life is saved by the sinister Ballin Mundson and becomes Ballin's right-hand man. Things get complicated though for Johnny when he sees that Ballin's wife Gilda, played by Rita Hayworth, is someone he was in a relationship with at one point. Joseph Calleia, Steven Geray, Joe Sawyer, Joe Sawyer, Gerald Mohr, Mark Roberts, Ludwig Donath, Donald Douglas, and many others co-star in this film. This is a very iconic Film Noir, most notably with Rita Hayworth and the song PUT THE BLAME ON MAME. It is also very compelling with lots of twists and turns to keep out attention. This is available to watch on the Criterion Channel.
Buck and the Preacher (1972): This is part three of my Harry Belafonte trilogy. Sidney Poitier and Joseph Sargent directed this post-Civil War western. Poitier also stars as the title character who is a wagon master trying to free slaves that are still being held. He reluctantly teams up with the con-man preacher Reverend Willis Oaks Rutherford, played by Belafante, as they must learn to co-exist to accomplish the greater good. Ruby Dee, Cameron Mitchell, Denny Miller, Nita Talbot, and many others co-star in this western. Poitier took over directing duties after firing Sargent as the director for not liking his vision of the film and this would be Poitier's directorial debut. Poitier and Belafonte work very well together in this western. This is available to watch on the Roku Channel.
Modoc Nation: An Untold Sory of Survival (2021): Stephen Higginbotham directed this documentary that talks about the Modoc tribe in Northern California. This takes a look that this very tribe that to a stand in 1872 against U.S. Army soldiers to protect their land. This lead to four leaders of the tribe to be tried and executed. Mike Regan provides the narration in this documentary. My friend Bill Smith served as the executive producer while his son William Smith III also contributed a lot to this documentary. This is a very eye-opening look at a rather unknown part of our history. This can be watched at https://modocfilm.com/ .
The House on 92nd Street (1945): Henry Hathaway directed this WWII spy film. William Eythe stars as Bill Dietrich who becomes a double agent for the FBI and infiltrates a Nazi group. He is assigned to a New York spy ring and looks to track down "Christopher" before everything falls apart. Lloyd Nolan, Signe Hasso, Gene Lockhart, William Post Jr., Harry Bellaver, and many others co-star in this film. Like the events, this is rather complicated to explain. This is a very compelling film that deserves a look. This is available to watch on Youtube.
The Distance between the Stars (2022): I end the week with this short film which was written and directed by Celena Reese and features my friend Jacob Bradford. This takes place on Christmas Eve where an estranged family comes together for the holidays. While there some strange happenings occur and the family must work together to stop it. Bradford, Daniel Joseph Mueller, Paige Leigh Landers, Tiffany Douglas, Cassidy O'Neill, Tracy Bedford, Benny Karnes, and Rubie Hornedo Cuevas star in this short film. I suppose we could classify this as a holiday horror short film. This also puts an emphasis on the importance of family and what can happen when one's life centers around work. This can be viewed at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6YZPjTjYfJc .
Well, that is it for this week. Tell me what you like and dislike and I'll be back in two weeks where I feature Joaquin Phoenix, Charlize Theron, Katherine Hepburn, Treat Williams, and many others.
No comments:
Post a Comment