On Jean Rollin's THE IRON ROSE + Three Other (non-Rollin) Titles

THE IRON ROSE [La Rose de fer] (Rollin, 1973)

CHINESE TORTUE CHAMBER STORY (Bosco Lam, 1995)

DR. JEKYLL & MR. HYDE'S ROCK 'N' ROLL MUSICAL (Andre Champagne, 2003)

YOUR MOMMY KILLS ANIMALS! (Curt Johnson, 2007)

Trailers from Hell: John Landis on POINT BLANK (John Boorman, 1967)

Director John Landis on Boorman's stylistic trendsetter, POINT BLANK, featuring the preeminent iconic performance from Lee Marvin.

The film Landis mentions as having shot in the same long corridors at LAX is, I believe, INTO THE NIGHT (1985), my personal favourite of his work. I've been writing an essay articulating just exactly why, but it's nowhere near ready. Every time I take another look at the picture(usually to introduce it to a friend), the essay expands more and more.

Jerry Lewis Trailer of the Day: THE BIG MOUTH

2 x Lew Archer: HARPER (Jack Smight, 1966) / THE DROWNING POOL (Stuart Rosenberg, 1975)

Ross MacDonald’s series of Lew Archer novels span almost three decades, from 1949 to 1976, but his wiseacre private eye wouldn’t make it to the screen with that surname.

Paul Newman, brought to the attention of the property by producer Elliot Kastner (who would later fire up the Raymond Chandler-Robert Mitchum rehashes of FAREWELL, MY LOVELY and THE BIG SLEEP in the seventies), legendarily decided, if for no other reason then because of his then-recent slew of H-titled successes ([THE] HUSTLER; HUD; HOMBRE), to rechristen him Harper. William Goldman, who had suggested MacDonald to Kastner in the first place, would have no qualms over the matter (as he would no doubt say, you must cater to the Star in such incidences), and he genially constructed an adaptation, translating MacDonald’s colorful prose and tale of Los Angeles corruptibility as feasibly as could be done in pre-CHINATOWN Private Eye-dom (for instance, Julie Harris’s Betty Fraley, who majors in drug addiction with a minor in S&M in the book, was noticeably toned down). The plot, like just about every other MacDonald-Archer book, has Harper investigating the disappearance of a man/woman (with the many combinations thereof providing variety: an inordinately rich businessman here, a runaway teenager in another, etc., etc.) The stupendous cast includes Lauren Bacall (in a cheeky in-joke, slyly modernizing for Newman her former husband’s own no-nonsense P.I.) is laid up in a wheelchair throughout, while Robert Wagner, Julie Harris, Shelley Winters, Janet Leigh, Strother Martin, Robert Webber, Harold Gould, and a belly-dancing, raven-haired knock-out Pamela Tiffin enliven a labyrinthine plot that, in one way or another, indicts just about everyone for doing something sinful in the city of Angels.

The often-celebrated introduction to Newman’s character, prized by Goldman on the commentary track and inside his “Adventures of the Screen Trade”, feels, in retrospect, to be too easy of a character identifier, one used since in countless forgettable sitcoms and direct-to-video fare, and I have a feeling it was already a cliche then (for the record, Newman, fresh out of filters for his coffee-maker, roots around in the trash-can for a used one, brewing it before the requisite grimace at the filthy taste; the thing is, Newman’s undeniable twinkle as a Star betrays the notion that Harper has been weathered and anchored down by experience and bad luck. (Goldman’s commentary, as heresy as it may be for me to say it, is a bit on the self
congratulatory side, with the writer making some absurd claims -- I really doubt, for instance, that Wagner’s tearful confession of recrimination was the first time that a Leading Man stayed to offer actorly assistance to a supporting player.

Ten years later, and Harper’s sequel, THE DROWNING POOL (co-written by Walter Hill when director Robert Mulligan was on board, with the terse, “muscular” retorts being his unmistakable contribution) is a good deal better. Lethargically directed by Newman go-to-guy Stuart Rosenberg, the film, the second book in the Archer series, has Harper in New Orleans (changed from the stale L.A. in the book) helping out an old flame (Joanne Woodward) from being black-mailed. The familiar period character faces and young ingénues are many (JAWS’ Murray Hamilton, Paul Koslo, Gail Strickland, Melanie Griffith), with the titular set-piece of a mental hospital flushed with water – Newman and Strickland stuck in the center - containing reverberations of the seventies-era disaster flick (let’s not forget, Newman made two: THE TOWERING INFERNO and the better-forgotten WHEN TIME RAN OUT). Newman’s brusque breakdown due to Woodward’s death and subsequent realization of her secretive lover (Anthony Franciosa) is also choice stuff to behold, the oblivious subtext of Newman forced to play a scene with his real-life wife’s body as a corpse providing the most genuinely painful scene of the picture.

Quote of the Day: Larry McMurtry on Hollywood's Comic Book Fad (foretold in 1987)

"An industry that seems to have concluded that its best hope is to dramatize the comic-strip literature of an earlier and more vigorous era is one whose fevers have finally destroyed its nerve. With rare exceptions the pictures coming out of Hollywood today are the last resorts of the gutless."

--Larry McMurtry, foreward to "Film Flam: Essays on Hollywood" (Simon and Schuster, 1987).

Jerry Schatzberg Interview at Filmcatcher.com

I've written about the PUZZLE OF A DOWNFALL CHILD/SCARECROW/STREET SMART auteur before, but I came across this multi-parted interview whilst shuffling around the Internet tonight. The director mostly discusses PUZZLE (the conducted interview was on occasion of a rare NYC screening), but there's a few other glimpses into his other pictures, namely working with Al Pacino on the remarkable SCARECROW (and its hypothetical sequel, as Schatzberg confesses he's been working on a screenplay).

The Most Ruthless Fist Fight in Film History?

Quite possibly...

(and no, the following is not from John Carpenter's THEY LIVE.)

Barry Brown in BAD COMPANY (Robert Benton, 1972)

Watched Robert Benton's masterful BAD COMPANY just last night on Turner Classic Movies for the very first time, and became even more captivated with the performer Barry Brown. My introduction to him came via Peter Bogdanovich's DAISY MILLER (with P.B. referring to him as "the only American actor you can believe ever read a book"), but here the material demands him to be much more jocular and not so constantly sullen. Still -- through all the surface playfulness -- a potent reminder of that pervasive sadness behind those eyes remains. I don't think there's a role of his, small or large, that doesn't contain it.

When I was having a hard time thinking of a perfect actor, past or present, to portray the hero in one of my screenplays just last month, I needed only to flash on Brown (it only helped matters that the hero was an exploitation film enthusiast and a former leading man)...and problem solved.

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UPDATED:

A very informative comment from Roberta has shined a light on two essential places on the web to learn more about this troubled, but supremely talented actor who left us much too soon:

--the Yahoo! Group entitled "Club Barry" (which counts his professor/author brother James as a member)

--and, http://www.barrybrown.info/ (which devotes a comprehensive section to Brown's writing for such publications as "Famous Monsters". Be sure to check out the Bruno VeSota interview!)