1978 Walt Disney The Cat From Outer Space A Movie A Day Day 42

In my class yesterday, I mentioned that I am a sucker for movies with animals. The trailer for Secretariat brings a tear to my eye. What kid didn't want lassie to be their dog, or cry when Old Yeller or Thomasina died? Then someone asked me if I therefore liked Marmaduke. I have of course not seen that travesty, so thirty years from now I won't have to be writing about what movies I saw in the old days and then be forced to mention it. Unfortunately, that is not the case with "The Cat From Outer Space". I saw it, I admit it, and I am embarrassed. Look, it's not that it's a Disney live action film. I still like the Ugly Dachshund and Herbie the Love Bug. The problem is that it is the dregs of the Disney live action films from the seventies. Elements of the story are recycled from other Disney movies, the actors are all encouraged to mug for the camera, and a premise that might be fun for kids is wasted.

This was a year out from Star Wars and Close Encounters. It must have seemed like a brilliant idea to have a space themed kids movie for the summer. The idea of a visitor from another planet, hiding among the humans, who needs our help is not exactly original. My favorite Martian was a TV series that ran in the sixties. The Day the Earth Stood Still was big in the fifties. No one will ever think of this movie as a specimen of good science fiction or good kids movie. I am going to do some finger pointing here and it is not going to be pretty. My girlfriend made me take her to see this movie. I knew that it was not going to be any good. The Disney Studios of the late seventies had nearly run dry of creativity. They were functioning on the fumes of their past success. Most of the box office for their films came from re-releases of their classic animated films. The new animated films were passable but not great. It would be nearly a decade before the take over of Disney by other Hollywood insiders and Wall Street barons would restore the Disney brand to the status of Kingdom. The live action unit must have been a loss leader that they could take write downs on because the fantastic adventure films and clever family comedies of the sixties, gave way to stuff like this.

This movie features some well know performers who deserved better. Sandy Duncan was the go to gal for Disney films in the seventies, and she is OK for what she is asked to do. McLean Stevenson and Harry Morgan were both on the TV series M*A*S*H, in fact, Morgan replaced Stevenson, so it is amusing that they co-star in this movie. I saw Harry Morgan in yesterday's film "The Shootist" and he was a hundred times better. He is growling through this, in sleepwalk mode. The stuffed Cat they used for the flying sequence at the end did a better job than most of the actors. There is screaming and grimacing by the romantic leads, flustered glances from the supporting players and casual robotic appearances my some old timers like Hans Conreid and Jesse White.

The writers lifted the plot from My Favorite Martian, complete with telekinetic powers, transplanted some evil secret organization elements and then grafted in a plot device that Disney had used for years. In Flubber, gamblers are making bets on basketball games, in Blackbeard's Ghost, they have the football game to gamble on. If there is a story that requires quick fund raising, then they just stick in a gambling element and twist it to fit the story. Here it was completely unnecessary to the plot, but it allows some Extraterrestrial magic to be worked on a variety of games to amuse the kids. I just don't think any of it was very amusing. The special effects look like they went out of date in the 1940s.

It may be that Spielberg saw this movie before he did E.T., because there is a scene where the alien (cat) makes a motorcycle fly briefly. If there had been a moon behind it someone could have sued. I told my students that my main criteria for rejecting a movie even when it has animals in it is, is based on whether the animals talk or dance. There are very few exceptions to that rule, but I think I should add one more element to the standard. If the animals have super powers then you should give it a pass also.

The Shootist 1976 A Movie A Day Day 41

I love John Wayne. He was the biggest movie star in the world before I was born, and I saw as many of his movies as I could when I was a kid. Of course I watched him on the afternoon matinee on channel 9, or the Big Picture on channel 2. If there was a late show on a weekend night I'd try to see that too. I didn't think it was enough to see him on TV however, I really felt that the theatrical experience was required. He was an aging star by the time the seventies came along, and the parts did not always fit him well. He tried to match Dirty Harry in films like Brannigan or McQ, but his hairpiece and age made him seem out of place(by the way I saw both of those in Theaters and loved them despite the creakiness). If ever there was a character type made for an actor it was the role of cowboy for John Wayne.

By the 1970's, the Western genre was dying out. Clint Eastwood still made them, but for the most part they had returned to being "B" pictures, and after the influence of Sergio Leone, they were usually bloody as hell. John Wayne made two of his best western pictures in the 70's. "The Cowboys" allowed him to play a realistic part as an aging rancher, faced with leading a group of kids on a cattle drive. He got to be Duke, but did not have to do all of the action scenes, and he is off-screen during the climax of the film. It was a terrific film but it was not a summer release, "The Shootist" was. This was a part that fit Wayne like a glove, they used clips from a dozen of his earlier pictures to set up the back-story of the character that we meet. He is a legendary gunfighter, past his prime but with more dignity, guts and talent than anyone around as the movie starts. The film is set in 1901, so the new century is taking over for the old, and the ways of the past are not always held in high esteem. There were exceptions in this movie; a young kid who knows the history of this particular gunfighter, a couple of wanna-bees that missed the showdown in the street days of the old west, and an ornery man with a grudge who remembers the past too well. J.B. Books encounters all of them in his last days in Carson City. He is dying of cancer and trying to figure a way to do so with some self-respect.

John Wayne plays Books so easily because he had faced cancer himself. He had played all of those parts for fifty years, and he would face cancer one last time in the not to distant future. This was his final screen role and he was exactly what was called for. I love the fact that this movie was directed by the great Don Siegel. Siegel is one of the two directors that Clint Eastwood dedicated his movie "Unforgiven" to(the other being Leone). The guy that made three westerns with Clint Eastwood and directed him in his signature role in Dirty Harry, made the last movie John Wayne was ever in. There is poetry in this, and anyone that thinks the universe is a series of random accidents ought to consider the unique way these circunstance came out. It is just plain cool.

If you watch the trailer, you will see that there is no shortage of talent on the screen. Jimmy Stewart re-teams with Wayne, a co-star in the Man who Shot Liberty Valance. John Carradine has a scene as an undertaker, he must have played such a role before because he seems perfect in it. Hugh O'Brien, has a part that is not huge but it is flashy, and after playing Wyatt Earp on TV for so many years, it was great to see him in a Western on the big screen with Wayne. Richard Boone also was a TV western star, he had worked with Wayne a couple of years earlier in Big Jake. Lauren Bacall, has a really solid part in the film as the boarding house owner that gunfighter Books takes a liking to. They do the bickering flirt dance a bit, but she ultimately has to accede to his request not to argue with him about his final choice. Ron Howard was a good young actor, but in the long run it seems he made a smart choice in moving behind the camera. His earnest manner and face would probably not get him many parts when his youth left him.

It is sad to know that we live in a world where we can't expect a new John Wayne picture, but it is grand to know that even among today's young moviegoers, the name John Wayne still means something (even if they haven't seen any of his movies). I like playing the John Wayne slot machine when I am in Vegas. I don't know if Mr. Wayne would approve, but in a way, it helps us hang onto that image of him as the primo cowboy of the century. I am pretty sure I saw this movie by myself in 1976. I can't explain why that would be the case, but I did luck out because no one I knew got to see me cry at the end of this film. It is even tougher now, knowing how Wayne left us three years later. There are a lot of good quotes from the movie, but I will leave you with this visualization of the values J.B.Books shares with young Ronnie Howard's character...

The gentleman on the left is the producer of "The Shootist" William Self, the one on the right is my Dad, Kirk Kirkham. In the middle is my Dads friend Jim Hamilton. This photo was taken by my friend Ron Pascu, a old buddy of my Dad. He just shared the connection with me when he saw this post. If you click here it will take you to the magic blog for a little more detail.

The Return of the Pink Panther A Movie A Day Day 40

I spent almost as much time looking for a trailer on line as I did watching the movie this morning. There are actually several sequences that are available if someone wants to watch a movie in bits and pieces. That seems strange to me, but the world is changing and sometimes what people want is something I never would have imagined. For instance a camera in a phone that you carry around with you. Now we can record video of where we were when we were interrupted by the phone in our pockets. Anyway, what I have for you above is the opening credit sequence of the movie for today. It will have to do for now, and the truth is It will probably be more entertaining than a trailer.

This is the fourth Pink Panther film and the first one of the seventies I believe. It was the start of the successful Panther films in the second half of the decade, and it is odd that it appears not to have been one of the most popular ones. As far as I was concerned, it was ten times better than Revenge of the Pink Panther that came out three years later and on which it appears they spent more money. The series is filled with slapstick moments and silly dialogue but sometimes it seemed that the effort was too noticeable. The later films feel a lot like a clown that honks his horn more frequently as the jokes and responses fall flatter. Maybe this one works because it seems fresher and we were not bombarded with Inspector Clouseau every minute of the film. There is a nice jewel heist sequence to start off the movie, and the famous jewel makes a return appearance in the series. Clouseau does not show up for fifteen minutes. When he does appear,there is a great sight gag with a baton, pure slapstick. This is followed up by one of the funniest dialogue sequences in any of the movies. Sellar's accent and pronunciation start off the joke and then it gets more hysterical by playing with the bureaucracy of French laws for street performers.

I must have seen this movie with Art Franz, because I remember frequently doing the dialogue from the accordion player with the monkey with Art. "What are you blind?" "Yes." He did the French accent on the "Yes" better than I did. I still reference the line from time to time here at home. The slapstick sections are played pretty naturally, but this looks like it was the start of Blake Edwards indulging the jokes a bit too much; there are slow motion segments at the end of two or three bits of business that are supposed to extend the joke but to me they seem to belabor the point. The crisp karate interplay with Kato in the films becomes less interesting when we have to see plates and lamps and all manner of drywall come down on top of the actors in slo-mo.

There are some simply inspired comments and actions from Sellars during the sequence where he is pretending to be from the phone company. I am still laughing at how he diagnosis that there is nothing wrong with the phone in the entryway, so he can gain access to the study. I won't give it away but if you see it you will know. The pratfalls in the study are solid and there is a silly payoff on a glue joke. There are some similarly bright spots in a sequence in a hotel room where he is trying to search disguised as an employee with a vacuum cleaner. These segments don't become too repetitive because between them there are some scenes where Christopher Plummer as the Phantom, does his own investigation and there are some action sequences and different comedy tones to balance out the over the top Clouseau.

I enjoyed this visit from the Pink Panther more then the last one that I wrote about. I have one more Panther Film in my collection that I purchased for this summer series. Unfortunately, it looks like my memory was off and it was actually a December release and so it doesn't fit my goal for this blog. I'll tell you what though, if you don't go searching through data on line to find out, I'll sneak it in one day when I need a comedy and the other summer choices seem slim. That way we can all win. Well, the World Cup Final calls, so I'm off to root for the Netherlands. I don't really give a damn but my future son-in-law is a Van Lahr, and I don't want the octopus to be right.

The Other Side of Midnight 1977 A Movie A Day Day 39

THE OTHER SIDE OF MIDNIGHT: Movie Trailer - The most popular videos are here

This was supposed to be Fox's big movie of the Summer of 1977. This movie was promoted like crazy, the poster was everywhere, and there were stories in magazines and fashion photo layouts galore. Somewhere along the line someone forgot to ask if there really was a market for a three hour soap opera on film. This is the kind of stuff that Television had been doing for years and that specialty cable channels continue to do today. In the seventies this would have been a two or three night mini-series that would have gotten huge ratings. As a movie though it fell short of expectations, and Fox's other movie that year became the biggest blockbuster in history and changed the way movies were made and marketed. I suspect that the failure of this movie to bring in audiences was combined with the Star Wars phenomena to shift movie marketing to kids rather than adults and boys rather than girls. If you want to blame anyone for altering the view of the movie marketplace away from adult material, don't point at George Lucas, point at all the women that did not get their man to go with them to see this in 1977.

Of course it would have helped if the movie had been better. "The Other Side of Midnight" is over the top melodrama done in a fairly flat manner. Dolores looked up today while the movie was starting and commented on how dated the movie looked. I saw the credits and thought "TV" because the actors as they are listed, were also listed with the character name. This was right out of serialized drama and it makes the film feel cheap. It actually is not cheap when it comes to location and set decoration. The movie was shot in Greece and France and the U.S. and used scenic spots for romance and drama in many segments of the movie. Near the end there is a fairly suspenseful sequence shot in Greek caverns, with nice ambient lighting and some beautiful colors. Although there are a number of studio shots in the French sections, there is some good use made of public spaces that are glamorized pretty well. The costumes worn by the women are all quite glamorous. If fashion and scenery were going to be enough to make the movie a success, then it was in.

There are two major assets in the film, the leading ladies. Susan Sarandon is young and adorable and sexy in a wholesome way that the boys at war would have dreamed of. She has a great story up to the point where she meets and falls in love with the heel of the picture played by John Beck. Then her character becomes a drudge that only at the end when fighting for her life comes back to existence as a character. Marie-France Pisier is the French woman that the story actually focuses on, and for whom we are clearly supposed to care about. I had seen her in my first foreign language film "Cousin,cousine " a couple of years before. Art and I saw that picture and she was a truly beautiful woman. Here is the element that that could not be put on television, Miss Pisier takes her clothes off in every other scene. This was the selling point for the movie and that should have brought in a bundle because she looks great naked. Despite these assets the movie stalls because both of these women are in love with the dullest leading man in the history of movies. He appeared in three movies on my list for the summer blog. Those are the last times that I ever saw him. I looked John Beck up on IMDB, and he appears to have had a very nice career, primarily on television. He had broad shoulders, a big grin and not much charisma. Maybe he was just miscast in things, although his casting in this movie is one of the reasons it never transcends the melodramatics. Once again, it is a TV production with some spicy thrown in.

Dolores had no memory of seeing this movie but I did. We saw it at the Cerritos multiplex in the mall. It opened just after Star Wars did and that may be why there is very little memory of the film. I however can't forget the lengthy scene where Noelle, pursues her acting career by seducing the director of the movie she wants to star in. I am not sure what it is she does with that handful of ice that she grabs during a love scene, but I would be willing to learn. The story arc she is in involves her loving father basically selling her to a piggish dress store owner, then running away and falling in love with an American flying with the RAF before the fall of France to the Germans. (The German Occupation is treated as a distasteful background setting for her rise to movie stardom, the war is scenery.) She then plots to recover her lover or revenge herself on him, by selling herself to anyone that can restore her lost fiance to her. There is a big dramatic moment that always makes me think of Mommy Dearest, I know why we are supposed to avoid wire hangers after seeing this movie.

It is interesting to me, that Sarandon is caste in a Jean Arthur type part and is the wholesome woman waiting for her man. She is usually the voluptuous predator in the movies. A woman who knows how to use her body to get what she wants, but she works as the sweetheart also. Since I have mentioned the other stars lack of clothes, I will point out that Sarandon's love scenes are much more retrained and discrete when it comes to revealing the flesh. I did think that the light nightgown in the wind and rain late in the picture was a nice touch to add sensuality to a dramatic moment. This movie is based on a Sidney Sheldon novel, and I was never much for the works of Harold Robbins, Jacqueline Susanne or Sidney Sheldon. They were very successful in their time, but maybe it was the storytelling that makes this movie seem old fashioned. Does anyone read those novels today? Don't tell my wife, but I suspect that Stephanie Meyer may be our contemporary version of those three writers. Here today but gone...on the other side of midnight.