A Message to UVa: DISBAND YOUR FRATERNITIES--THEY ARE SCUM!

I try to avoid tirades on here, and avoid talking about my alma mater. But I couldn't be happier to see UVa's rotten, worthless, disgusting fraternities getting suspended. It should have happened LONG, LONG ago. When I was a student there, I was always acutely aware of those trashy frat thugs--entitled, misogynistic, hateful, tacitly racist little sheep. They were klutzy (and/or robotic workaholics) on their own, but in packs, they were dangerous, drunken Neanderthals. Their arrogant expressions practically shrieked "Do you know who my DAD is?"

The university kowtowed to them for fear of losing their filthy rich parents' endowments, allowing the worst of their inhuman behavior to go largely unpunished. I would like to voice my sincere hope that UVa's frat houses are bulldozed, the frat system abolished, and any criminals among their chicken-gutted ranks be sent to the meanest of America's penal institutions. I would love to see how big and brave and tough these guys are when confronted with a 6', 5" cellmate from Detroit who is about to turn his ass out.

To UVa's fraternities, and to any staff members who enabled them, I send my sincerest FUCK YOU.

http://www.cnn.com/2014/11/22/us/university-of-virginia-sexual-assault-allegations/index.html?eref=rss_topstories

For Sale- From the George Pal Estate- "The Wonderful World of the Brothers Grimm" Stylized Cast Portraits Painted by Joseph Smith

From the estate of producer/director George Pal (The Time Machine, The War of the Worlds) comes a set of twelve (12) large, framed original portraits by illustrator Joseph Smith depicting the stars of Pal's Cinerama film The Wonderful World of the Brothers Grimm, in-character. Smith hand-painted several nearly identical sets of these stylized portraits to advertise the film. With the help of his wife, Smith built on the portraits by gluing pieces of actual fabric, beads, a toy crow on actress Beulah Bondi's shoulder, etc. to give them a unique, semi-three-dimensional quality. The set is comprised of portraits of actors Laurence Harvey, Barbara Eden, Carl Boehm, Yvette Mimieux, Clare Bloom, Walter Slezak, Oskar Homolka, Jim Backus, Buddy Hackett, Terry-Thomas, Russ Tamblyn, and Beulah Bondi. 

This set of paintings was on display in George Pal's Beverly Hills home for years. 

Sample images of the actual portraits for sale here are shown below. (To see a full set of similar paintings, refer to the hardbound Wonderful World of the Brothers Grimm program book. It is not the exact same set--the types of fabric used, etc. vary, but most of their details match closely.) 

NOTE: The copyright notices are NOT on the actual paintings, only on the photos accompanying this listing. 

Joseph Smith's other distinguished credits as a movie poster artist include films like Ben-Hur, Spartacus, and Earthquake, among many others. 

Serious inquiries are welcome. 

  

Finding True Love in L.A.

Healthy advice about dating in Los Angeles from a longtime Angeleno friend of mine: "If the best that Charlize Theron can do here is Sean Penn, that should tell you something."

We Screamed, Screamed For Our Lives! And Loved Every Second of It!- LACMA'S William Castle Retrospective

How often do you leave a theater drunk with the sheer joy of what you've just experienced? I'm dazed and dizzy from the opening night of LACMA's William Castle Festival, a screening of Castle's inimitable The Tingler. The Museum pulled out all the stops in ways that would warm the long-dead director's heart: staff members were dressed as nurses and doctors at the entrance, and patrons were offered photo ops with a life-size Tingler. Castle's daughter, Terry, did a hilarious Q & A before the film began with another Tingler sitting on her lap. 

The audience's response was INCREDIBLE--this B-picture, over fifty years old and originally shot in two weeks, killed tonight. The totally receptive audience went berserk, won-over by Castle's and star Vincent Price's charisma and charm, and by the movie's sheer wonderful ludicrousness. When Price begged the viewers to "scream, scream for their lives," we all did. . . When the end title came up, we cheered and applauded madly, completely enamored of the bizarre catharsis of laughter and screaming we had communally experienced. Sheer, epic, unrelenting FUN. 

And I won a Tingler t-shirt. All for five bucks. 

THANK YOU, WILLIAM CASTLE!!!!!!!

THANK YOU, LACMA!!!!!!!

I can't recommend this series highly enough--for further information, check out LACMA's own Castle page:

http://www.lacma.org/series/let-there-be-fright-william-castle-scare-classics

A Message to the Family of WILLIAM CAMERON MENZIES, Wherever You Are

Earlier this year, the great movie production designer/director William Cameron Menzies (Gone With the Wind, Things to Come, The Sea Wolf, ad infinitum) was inducted into the Society of Illustrators' Illustrators Hall of Fame. Sadly, the Society was unable to locate any members of Mr. Menzies's family to present his award to. I am posting this message-in-a-bottle in the hopes that one of Menzies's descendants will read this and contact me. If you are out there and reading this, write to me via this blog and I will put you through to the appropriate parties.

HAPPY FATHER'S DAY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Happy Father's Day, indeed!

"Rick is dead! The People's Poet is dead!" R.I.P. Rik Mayall.

"This house will become a shrine, and punks and skins and rastas will all gather 'round and hold their hands in sorrow for their fallen leader. And all the grown-ups will say, 'But why are the kids crying?' And the kids will say, 'Haven't you heard? Rick is dead! The People's Poet is dead!'"

British TV comedy has lost one of its leading lights today, Rik Mayall, who has died at 56. Mayall's series "The Young Ones" was television's dark Yellow Submarine--unfettered imagination at work, where literally anything could happen at anytime--and Mayall was its rudder. His character, Rick, was the epitome of the worthless, trendy, self-important collegiate "radical" who can't do wrong right. Whether fantasizing about his superhero alter ego, "The People's Poet", or getting pummeled by his roommate Vyvyan's mum, Rick embodied the worst attributes of the pretentious scenesters of his own era and today. Half of the imbeciles wandering around Williamsburg, Brooklyn could be Rick's twins.

His performances were priceless.

"What the Devil Hath Joined Together"- Thanks for the kind words

I'm pleased and flattered by the warm critical reception that my visual essay, "What the Devil Hath Joined Together", from Arrow Video's Blu-Ray of Brian De Palma's SISTERS, has been receiving. Here are some of the notices:

I was delighted to be name-checked and to get some praise from my favorite British paper, The Guardian:

http://www.theguardian.com/film/2014/jun/22/sisters-review-philip-french-brian-de-palma-hitchcock

“Arrow stack the disc with plenty of new extras. 'What the Devil Hath Joined Together: Brian De Palma's Sisters' is a magnificent 47-minute visual essay by author Justin Humphreys (Names You Never Remember, With Faces You Never Forget.) It covers a lot and is almost as complete as a full commentary.”
- DVDBeaver.com

“Next up are a pair of video essays by film critics Justin Humphreys (on the production, references, and influence of Sisters) and Mike Sutton (on De Palma's career as a whole). Running 50 minutes and 30 minutes respectively, that sounds like it might be a slog, but both are incredibly informed, detailed, and entertaining pieces that fill in plenty of gaps about the making of the film and De Palma's career.”
- Fangoria.com

“Arrow has also provided a nice collection of extras that include an excellent documentary `What the Devil Hath Joined Together: Brian De Palma's Sisters' - A visual essay by author Justin Humphreys.”
- Cinemaretro.com

“Content wise, `What the Devil Hath Joined Together: Brian De Palma's Sisters' is a detailed account of the `making of' Sisters and an insightful analysis of the film.”
- 10KBullets.com

“Two thumping great video essays (voice-over plus stills and some movie clips) make up the meat of the extras. Justin Humphreys's What the Devil Hath Joined Together is an exhaustive 46-minute look at Sisters, exploring its themes, leitmotifs, casting and Hitchcockian ingredients.”
- TheLeastPictureShow.wordpress.com (Julian White)

“As always, Arrow contextualise the film exceedingly well, although compared to previous releases some of the wonderful interviews feel cut short, for whatever reason that might be.  We get two excellent video essays voiced by critics Justin Humphreys on Sisters and Mike Sutton on DePalma's career, five interviews with actress Jennifer Salt, writer Louisa Rose, editor Paul Hirsch, unit manager Jeffrey Hayes, and actor William Finley (via an audio-only interview), a trailer and promotional material gallery. . . The visual essays prove to be almost as good as a commentary. . . with excellent points made by both Humphreys and Sutton.”
- TheDarkSideMagazine.com

“Another improvement over the Criterion DVD is the special features, which were only text based in the former edition. Arrow has actually put together some great new material here, starting with a rather lengthy visual essay by Justin Humpheys entitled What the Devil Has Joined Together. This 47-minute piece covers the film's production history in rather extensive detail while also going over the various influences that made their way into the film. He also covers the development of De Palma's visual language, as displayed throughout the film, focusing on the editing and various visual tricks, including the use of the split screen. He examines some of De Palma's work from around that time, including Greetings and Hi, Mom , and talks at length about the performers he worked with during this period. He also of course examines the film's music, and then even points out the many technical mistakes (most of which are related to the film's low budget.) Taking the place of a commentary I found it a rather thorough and illuminating examination of the film and De Palma's early career.”
- CriterionForum.org

"This Arrow release gives Sisters the respect it deserves, with strong supplemental features – a lengthy video essay the clear highlight."
- Totalfilm.com

"A fantastic watch. Very well-done by Justin Humphreys."
- Razorwire Reviews

“The extras, listed in full below are excellent, with Justin Humphreys’s efficiently comprehensive 47-minute visual essay being the standout.”
- Frightfest.co.uk

Shut The Fuck Up and Stay Home: An Open Letter From All the Intelligent Moviegoers of the World to the Cackling Morons That Ruin Screenings in Hollywood

Over the last fifteen years, there has been a steadily rising tide of complete and utter twits who come to pre-1980 movies just to mock, laugh at, and otherwise deride them. This is the equivalent of paying to see something to bully it, and bullying it is--low, juvenile, and ass-backwards behavior from alleged human beings.

Why do these people pay to see old movies at all? If you don't respect or like them, why see them? If you don't like ballet, do you go see one and holler out "Your arabesques suck!" with a bunch of your spoiled, emaciated, bearded pals and guffaw like a complete yahoo? If you hate football, do you go to the Super Bowl and shriek "That pass was so-o-o-o shitty!" during the odd quiet moment? The difference is that movies have always been considered "entertainment" and not art by Americans and therefore unworthy of serious consideration. Francois Truffaut pointed that everyone has two jobs: their regular job and movie critic. This has never been truer than now, and never have people had less right to consider themselves worthy of the title.Going to old movies just to ridicule them is like booing your own team.

What specifically got me riled about this horrible trend was two recent screenings in Hollywood: Jacques Tourneur's CAT PEOPLE and the Film Noir TENSION. These are not MY FRIENDS NEED KILLING or AMERICAN NINJA movies--these are real movies, well worth the appreciation and polite attention of adults. This isn't MST3K territory. It goes without saying that CAT PEOPLE is phenomenal--a masterful example of how far a low budget and enormous amounts of talent and imagination can go. TENSION was a decent Film Noir--not a masterpiece, but a solid film. Yet the audiences laughed. And laughed. And laughed. And then laughed some more. This is the kind of behavior that makes Easterners look down their nose at L.A.--these audiences reflect badly on their town, behaving like a bunch of hick philistines.What made this all the more disturbing and insulting was that it was obviously a REVIVAL screening, and therefore any audience member with a grain of sense would have realized that the fashions, speech, social mores, etc. of the periods in which the films took place would be different than those of their own benighted time. But, no: they couldn't stifle their horrible, selfish desire to be undeservedly seen and noticed at all times or their flagrant stupidity for the 80- or 90-minutes that the films each ran. Instead, they make going to the movies feel like riding the subway.

What astounded me even more was hearing an audience laugh at the Boris Karloff version of THE MUMMY at a recent screening. One particular moment was astonishing--a bunch of drips in the audience cracked up when Karloff's Ardath Bey entreats a character not to touch him, explaining that it's "An Eastern prejudice." It's a fact that certain very, very strict Muslims and Jews at the time the film was made felt that being touched by someone outside of their faith makes them unclean, forcing them go through a complex purification ritual. (In the film, it's a cover for the fact that Karloff's character is partially disintegrating.) In a town that prides itself on multiculturalism, this sort of audience response seems acutely embarrassing.

What utter lack of comprehension makes the rubes who behave like this think it's OK--that that's how you should comport yourself in public? And what makes them superior to these films? What have they actually accomplished that can BEGIN to equal those movies? What works of art have they brought into the world that could come close to even Jacques Tourneur's least film (which CAT PEOPLE sure as hell isn't) or the lowliest film noir? And these aren't isolated incidents. These jabbering trolls are everywhere. They are just another symptom of America's lack of interest in its own history--and its lack of effort at understanding or contextualizing our history--and, worse still, the breakdown of any kind of common courtesy or consideration for other people.

Speaking for the moviegoers of the world to the people who laugh incessantly through old movies in public, WE HATE YOU, you boorish morons. You are incapable of an adult thought. You are a pack of inbreds. You spoil what should be a joyous experience and a treat. Your affected jadedness conceals a deep insecurity--if you had any self-respect, you would gladly show enthusiasm for something publicly that didn't involve having a mob of cretins like yourself behind you. I can't heap enough contempt on you. How hard is it to laugh WITH a movie and not AT it?

Go home. Stay there. Play in traffic. Do ANYTHING but come to great old movies.You don't deserve them.

RIP Mary Grace Canfield

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Up7KHbJTmoo&list=PLAfexIpGwftG6aeLXI2aPzTRRGw3gDlVl

I was saddened tonight to hear that actress Mary Grace Canfield has died. Though those who remember her generally do for her ongoing role on "Green Acres," I will always venerate Ms. Canfield for her poignant and ego-less performance as Miss Foley in "Something Wicked This Way Comes" (1983). It is a thankless part: Miss Foley's homeliness is built into it, and rubbed-in in, but in an ultimately humanizing and touching way.

"Our teacher was Miss Foley," the film's narrator, the adult Will Halloway (Arthur Hill), says. "We couldn't believe it, but folks said, once, before we were born, she had been the most beautiful woman in town." Vanity and pipe dreams are the heart of the tale of hellish trickery that is "Something Wicked. . ." and nowhere are they embodied more painfully than in Miss Foley. Once gorgeous, she is reduced to aged spinsterhood, yearning for her lost charms. There is a scene where Foley discovers a crude, incredibly nasty, and devilishly accurate caricature of herself that one of her students has drawn. Every time I see the film, I think of how it must have pained Mary Grace Canfield to look at that drawing, and, every time, I respect her more deeply as an actress.

Happy Valentine's Day, Everybody!

"Romance is dead - it was acquired in a hostile takeover by Hallmark and Disney, homogenized, and sold off piece by piece." -Lisa Simpson. 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BJ-gYx7hXZg

AMERICAN POP Q & A with Ron Thompson at the Egyptian-- Tony/Pete Speaks!

On January 7th, actor Ron Thompson, he of the "poimanently puckehed" hands, finally got to take a bow for his bravura performances as Pete and Tony in Ralph Bakshi's AMERICAN POP. In the thirty-three years since the film's release, he had never been announced at a single screening of it, until that night. I moderated the Q & A with him at the Egyptian Theatre. Here, for the delight and delectation of animation buffs out there, is a video of it, shot by Jay West:

http://beyondthemarquee.com/28663/

George Pal's Puppetoons: The Long Road to High-Def

In the 1930s, animator George Pal was virtually the Walt Disney of Europe, producing a string of extraordinary stop-motion featurettes (mostly soft-sell commercials), later christened "The Puppetoons" and "Madcap Models." Filmed using "replacement animation" techniques where puppets' heads and limbs were replaced from frame-to-frame, these phenomenal little films were uniquely stylish and musical, and imbued with Pal's distinctively whimsical charm. Pal emigrated to American in 1938 where he continued producing the series for Paramount Pictures. (His American films were repeatedly nominated for Academy Awards and won once.) 

But since the Puppetoons departed movie theaters after their original run in the 1940s, seeing them in a form that even vaguely approximated their original Technicolor beauty has been next to impossible. A lucky few have seen them in their original glory at Los Angeles revival screenings. Most of the people who have seen a sizable chunk of Pal's American output only saw them as shoddy, ragged black and white 16mm dupes on seven a.m. kiddie shows fifty years ago. When I began researching Pal's life and films for his authorized biography, finding the entire run of the Puppetoons became like a quest for some arcane, seldom-seen, and nearly-extinct creature.

The only widely-available source for them on video was the Pal compilation THE PUPPETOON MOVIE, but that only delivered a fraction of Pal's oeuvre. To see the rest, I was forced to scavenge high and low--to sweat, bleed, and dig. I watched a tattered, black and white, silent (oy!) 8mm print of Pal's Dr. Seuss adaptation "And To Think That I Saw It on Mulberry Street" on a projector with a chattering gate that I had to steady by jabbing a pencil next to it. The dilapidated, splicey 16mm print of "The Truck That Flew" was also monochrome, but at least it had sound. I practically did somersaults from unbridled joy when some animation aficionado friends loaned me their second- and third-generation VHS copies of some decent color copies of shorts like "Date With Duke" starring Duke Ellington. Then came the motherlode: a multi-disc DVD set containing every last one of Pal's American Puppetoons that some hardcore animation collectors had assembled. The prints used for it were generally beet-red and missing their original Paramount titles, but I WAS ACTUALLY ABLE TO SEE THEM. Sasquatches, Jersey Devils, and Chupacabras have nothing on the elusive North American Puppetoon. 

Now, at long last, B2MP, a boutique video label, has released THE PUPPETOON MOVIE in a two-disc limited edition Blu-Ray, which I cannot recommend highly enough. With a goodly portion of its content rendered in high-def, this set is a revelation for fans of animation, Pal, the Puppetoons, and even Dr. Seuss. Splitting at the seams with extras, the highlight of the set for me is the new transfers of seven of Pal's shorts that have never before received a proper video release. Highlights include Pal's adaptations of Dr. Seuss's afore-mentioned "Mulberry Street" and "The 500 Hats of Bartholomew Cubbins." The lush color, stylish, sleek animation, and gorgeous design (one-third-European folk art, one-third Dr. Seuss, and another third Art Deco) are restored to a peak of quality that they haven't experienced in nearly seventy years. (Theodore Geisel devotees might be disconcerted by the lack of adherence to the Dr. Seuss "look," but bear in mind that his now-archetypal style was only beginning to gain widespread popularity when these shorts were filmed. The name "Dr. Seuss" didn't carry the sacredness that decades worth of readers have conferred upon it.) 

B2MP has made a quantum leap forward in rectifying the gross widespread neglect that the Puppetoons have received on video. THE PUPPETOON MOVIE itself, which contains Pal masterpieces like "John Henry and the Inky-Poo," "Tulips Shall Grow," and "Tubby the Tuba," here outclasses its previous incarnations on VHS, laserdisc, and DVD. Also included in the set is a high-def transfer of Pal's first feature film THE GREAT RUPERT, looking and sounding better than previous substandard versions. The extras on the set are plentiful, including a rare and particularly interesting filmed interview with Pal, discussing among other things his film THE POWER. 

It's my profound hope that, someday, someone will release Pal's entire American run of animated films on DVD or Blu-Ray--maybe even with a gaggle of his European shorts thrown in. (Note: Pal produced many shorts in France, Holland, and elsewhere that have seldom--if ever--been seen in the United States. Photos and sometimes only titles offer clues to them, but they remain mostly buried.) For now, though, THE PUPPETOON MOVIE Blu-Ray set is the single finest presentation that this outstanding series has ever received on video. The fifty-dollar price tag might seem off-putting in this age of free content, but it is worth every last cent. To my fellow Puppetoon-seekers and enthusiasts, and to animation-lovers everywhere, this set is requisite viewing.  

The set is available directly from B2MP at: 

http://b2mp.net/products/the-puppetoon-movie-blu-ray/

And here is a sample of this set's visual quality:

http://www.dailymotion.com/video/x1gnri4_and-to-think-i-saw-it-on-mulberry-street_shortfilms