If movies have taught me anything at all about life it is this - a lot of young women dream about becoming professional dancers. Some want to be celebrated ballet dancers or Broadway stars. Others dream about becoming high-kicking Rockettes, well-paid strippers or trophy-winning ballroom dancers. In Ted V. Mikels B-movie bonanza Girl in Gold Boots (1968), Michele (Leslie McRae) wants to be a go-go dancer.

Michele is tall, dark and gorgeous. She could be Jennifer Jones’ long lost cousin if she wasn’t so uncomfortable in her own skin. You’d expect to find Michele working behind a makeup counter at Macy’s or modeling swimsuits somewhere but when we’re introduced to her she’s working at a greasy diner with her alcoholic father. When she’s not serving food and pouring cups of black coffee for her customers, Michele is dancing to music on the diner’s jukebox. One sunny day a violent gun-toting thug called Buzz (Tom Pace) walks into the diner and spots our heroine practicing her dance moves. He promises Michele that he’ll be able to make her a star if she travels to L.A. with him. Michele’s a little weary of Buzz but after a fight with her father she leaves the dirty food joint behind and heads west with Buzz in his old white convertible.

On the way to L.A. Michele and Buzz pick up a peacenik biker named ‘Critter’ (Jody Daniels) who likes to write songs on his acoustic guitar. When sparks start to fly between Michele and Critter, Buzz gets angry and tells Michele that she has to make a choice between her budding romance with Critter or going to L.A. with him to become a go-go star. Michele can’t give up on her dancing dreams so she puts her personal feelings for Critter aside and the three misfits continue on to L.A. When they finally reach the big city Buzz’s first stop is at The Haunted House club on Hollywood Boulevard, which is decorated with horror movie props and looks more like some fabulous amusement park ride than an actual dance club. Buzz’ sister Joanie (Bara Byrnes) is the main attraction at The Haunted House club where she and her team of go-go girls dance the night away wearing gold and silver boots while entertaining a mixed crowd of young and middle-aged hipsters as well as sleazy old men.

When Michele sees the girls shaking their stuff in skimpy costumes while the audience cheers them on, she knows that this is the life for her! Later Buzz introduces Michele to his sister and the two girls hit it off right away. Joanie promises Michele that she’ll get her a job at The Haunted House club and proceeds to show her some moves while the management looks on. Even though Michele seems to dance to her own rhythm and appears more than a little awkward at times, everyone in the film is impressed by her dancing skills. Or maybe they just like looking at her curvy body in the skimpy costumes? For whatever the reason, she’s hired right on the spot.

Buzz and Critter also find work at The Haunted House club. Critter takes a janitorial job so he can stay close to Michele and keep an eye on her, while criminal-minded Buzz ends up working for the club owners as a drug pusher. You see, the sad fact is that the swinging Haunted House club is just a front for the management’s drug selling operation. Innocent Michele is unaware of this but she benefits from it on her way to becoming a go-go star. When her mentor Joanie starts to show signs of drug addiction the club owners offer Michele the job of “substitute lead dancer” for the Haunted House club so Joanie can take an unexpected “vacation.” Michele’s a little weary of taking the job at first but she’s also eager to become a dancing star. The sexy new dresses she’s been given as gifts, and the wild parties she’s starting to attend, have offered her a taste of the glamorous life and she clearly wants more.

Critter is smart enough to know that things aren’t what they appear to be at the Haunted House club and after making some extra money by selling some of his songs to the house band, Critter confesses to Michele that he’s a draft dodger and asks her to run away with him. At first Michele refuses to go but when Joanie finally collapses due to her drug use, Michele is forced to face the horrible fact that she’s working at a drug den instead of a legitimate dance cub. Things finally come to a head and Critter ends up in a nasty brawl with the creepy club owners. When it’s all over Michele and Critter leave the Haunted House club together and you hope that they’ll find their fortune and fame somewhere else. Unfortunately all that glitters is not gold in Girl in Gold Boots.

Unlike countless other films about would-be dancers trying to fulfill their dreams, Girl in Gold Boots ends on a low note. Michele gives up her dreams of becoming a professional go-go dancer to become Critter’s “war-bride” after he reenlists in the military. The former draft dodger and go-go girl finish the movie singing a downbeat song that contains the following lines:

“You can dance on the rim of a rainbow. Walk a tightrope across the sky
But you must come down, put your feet on the ground bye and bye.”

As depressing as the ending is, the young couple seems content so I guess the audience is supposed to be happy that they let go of their dreams and joined the war effort. I personally suspect that the future doesn’t hold much promise for Michele and Critter. I’ve always thought that peace loving Critter would probably get killed in Vietnam and Michele would end up back in L.A. working on Hollywood Boulevard as a go-go dancer and strung out on drugs just like her mentor Joanie.

Girl in Gold Boots is obviously not your typical dance movie but that’s why I enjoy it so much. It’s elevated by a terrific jazz influenced score by composer Nicolas Carras who created music for many of Mikels’ best films. The movie also features music by Chris Howard and The Third World and the renowned bongo player Preston Epps, who all make a brief appearance in the movie. The wild dance scenes were shot inside a real Hollywood night spot and they’re creatively edited and full of energy even though the go-go girls seem to have rather amateurish moves. This trashy low-budget dance movie is an entertaining way to spend 90 minutes if you’re looking for something fun to watch that doesn’t require very much from its viewers. Over at IMDb.com audiences have called Girl in Gold Boots “The bane of dancing films everywhere” and “worse than any other bad bad BAD movie you’ve ever seen” but don’t let the negative press discourage you from watching it. Believe me when I tell you that there are far worse movies you could spend 90 minutes with besides Girl in Gold Boots. Ted V. Mikels is one of my favorite American B-movie makers and if you haven’t had the opportunity to experience a Ted V. Mikels film yet do yourself a favor and see Girl in Gold Boots or one of the films Mikels made with Tura Satana such as The Doll Squad (1973) or The Astro-Zombies (1968).

The director is almost 80 years old but he’s still making movies. If you’re interested in buying yourself a copy of Girl in Gold Boots or want to know more about Mikels I highly recommend visiting Ted V. Mikels Official Site. The director currently sells autographed copies of the film on DVD for only $10.95.

If you’d like to see more images from the movie please see my Girl in Gold Boots Flickr Gallery

My look at Girl in Gold Boots was inspired by Ferdy On Films‘ Invitation to the Dance Movie Blogathon, which ends today. Be sure to stop by the blog and check out all the other dance inspired submissions.

Richard Widmark 1914 - 2008

I was sad to learn of Richard Widmark’s death this morning after returning from my vacation. He lived a long and productive life, but Widmark has long been one of my favorite actors and since I share my birthday with the man I’ve always felt a sort of camaraderie with him. Widmark was a truly talented actor who could play incredibly nasty bad guy such as the iconic Tommy Udo in Kiss of Death (1947) or a heroic doctor in Panic in the Streets (1950) with an equal measure of skill. He might not be “typically” attractive by Hollywood standards, but in his younger years he was a great looking man with a wicked grin and he was just lot of fun to watch. In recent years actors and directors such as Jane Fonda, Robert De Niro and Peter Bogdonavich had been trying to get him awarded with an Honorary Oscar since he had never received one, but sadly that won’t happen now and it’s a shame.

Besides Kiss of Death and Panic in the Streets, some of my favorite Widmark performances can be found in a lot of the early noir films he made and stylish crime thrillers such as The Street with No Name (1948), Night and the City (1950), No Way Out (1950), Don’t Bother to Knock (1952) and Pickup on South Street (1953), which all come with my highest recommendation, but he was also terrific in the influential sixties era police drama Madigan (1968) and he appeared in some entertaining horror films and thrillers in the seventies such as Murder on the Orient Express (1974), To the Devil a Daughter (1976), Rollercoaster (1977), The Swarm (1978) and Coma (1978). He often made sub par films more watchable just with his presence. These days’ actors with Widmark’s kind of charisma and versatility are few and far between in my opinion and he’ll be missed.

For most of my life I’ve disliked Doris Day. Doris was one of my mother’s favorite actresses and when I was a kid I had to sit through all the romantic comedies she made with Rock Hudson and James Garner numerous times, but they never really appealed to me when I was growing up. Doris was always just too blond, perky and cheerful for my liking and I found her carefree attitude just plain off-putting. I was a rather sullen, angry and rebellious kid, so I suppose that was one reason Doris and her colorful films didn’t do a thing for me when I was younger. In some ways I think I was a bit jealous of the way Doris managed to effortlessly smile through movie after movie, no matter how lackluster the material was.

About six or seven years ago something strange happened. It all started when I caught Doris Day playing an American heiress named Kit Preston in the entertaining thriller Midnight Lace (David Miller; 1960) opposite the great Rex Harrison when it was playing on television one afternoon. Midnight Lace might not be a brilliant film, but with its faux-London setting, fabulous Irene Lentz costume designs, creative photography by cinematographer Russell Metty and a suspenseful score by composer Frank Skinner, it’s an effective movie and easily one of Doris Day’s best efforts in my opinion. She doesn’t sing one song in Midnight Lace, but Doris really gets to show off her acting chops as she descends into madness while being pursued by a potential murderer.

Midnight Lace is not in the same league as the great films it borrows from such as Hitchcock’s Dial M for Murder (1954) and George Cukor’s Gaslight (1944), but if you happen to like stylish sixties thrillers, you might enjoy the movie as much as I do. Besides Doris Day and Rex Harrison, the cast of Midnight Lace also includes the wonderful Myrna Loy, a menacing Roddy McDowall, the handsome John Gavin and the always dependable John Williams as Inspector Byrnes, who’s trying to find out who’s terrorizing Doris Day throughout the course of the film. Midnight Lace managed to make me reevaluate my opinion about Doris Day and I started to really appreciate her excellent fashion sense, carefree smile and independent spirit.

Doris Day modeling the Irene Lentz fashions designed for Midnight Lace (1960)

In recent years I began watching many of her films in a new light and now I have no problem enjoying silly romantic Doris Day comedies like Move Over, Darling (1963) and Do Not Disturb (1965) or the fun spy capers she made like The Glass Bottom Boat (1966) and the underrated Caprice (1967), which I hope to review in the future. The older I get the more I’m able to completely loose myself in the charm of these often critically maligned films and I now find Doris Day’s wide smile infectious. I’ve also started listening to lots of Doris Day records recently thanks to the Swinging and Singing blog which has been sharing some rare and apparently out-of-print Doris Day recordings such as the terrific jazz soundtrack she recorded with Harry James & His Orchestra for her film A Young Man and His Horn (Michael Curtiz; 1950).

This is why I was happy to learn that the Doris Day will be receiving a Lifetime Achievement Award this weekend during the 50th Annual Grammy Awards‘ celebration. The Lifetime Achievement Awards will be handed out on Saturday in a non-televised ceremony and will probably only garner a brief mention during the actual award show that’s airing on Sunday night. This will be her first Grammy, but Doris isn’t expected to attend since the 83 year old singer and actress may be suffering from some health problems and she’s become a bit of recluse over the years, while devoting herself to numerous animal rights’ causes. I wish her well and I’m glad The Recording Academy is finally acknowledging Doris Day’s contribution to popular music.

To learn more about Doris Day I highly recommend these wonderful fansites:
- Discovering Doris! The Doris Day Fansite
- The Films of Doris Day

Normally I don’t discuss modern films here at Cinebeats, but after seeing Cloverfield on Monday night I’ve been thinking about the movie all week. I decided to follow up my viewing by reading some of the criticism the film has been receiving, which probably wasn’t the smartest idea since much of it left me cold. Thankfully I’m not alone in my excitement about the film since Tim Lucas seems to have enjoyed it as much as I did and I figured I’d weigh in myself.

As a lifelong horror fan and monster movie enthusiast I found myself reserved, but excited when the ad campaign for Cloverfield started. Compared to the boring and often redundant advertising that typically prepares you for a new film’s release (quotes from well paid critics or highlights from an otherwise lackluster production), Cloverfield used an abstruse marketing campaign designed to keep audiences in the dark about the film and its giant monster. At the same time it also borrowed from the golden age of horror movie marketing that was mastered by directors like William Castle back in the ’50s and early ’60s. I was thrilled by the mere fact that Cloverfield was an original film. At a time when remakes and sequels are the norm, and audiences have a library of classic films on DVD at their disposal, a good original horror or science fiction film should be celebrated and Cloverfield is well worth celebrating. Instead of appreciating what the film does get right, many critics seem to enjoy pointing out what they consider to be the film’s three main flaws, so I thought I’d address them in three easy to follow steps. (more…)

This week I’m kick-starting my 2008 DVD Picks of the Week with one of my longtime favorites, Cornel Wilde’s brilliantly executed and often neglected masterpiece, The Naked Prey (1966), which was released on DVD by Criterion this week. Coincidently, back in July of 2007 the inquisitive Dennis Cozzalio asked his blog readers the following question:

What movie, either currently available on DVD or not, has never received the splashy collector’s edition treatment you think it deserves? What would such an edition include?

My head swam when I was considering my response because frankly there are hundreds of films that are not available on DVD that I would love to see get released as “splashy collector’s editions.” Of late I’ve often wondered why some of the most important American films from the ’60s and ’70s featuring poignant social commentary or anti-war sentiments aren’t available on DVD so in my response to Dennis I mentioned that I’d love to see splashy collector editions of Dalton Trumbo’s Johnny Got His Gun (1971) and Cornel Wilde’s The Naked Prey (1966) among other films. At the time that I mentioned The Naked Prey I had no idea that Criterion was planning on releasing the film on DVD so you can imagine how surprised and happy I was when I discovered that Criterion would be releasing it many months later. The Naked Prey wasn’t exactly given a “splashy collector’s treatment” by Criterion, but considering that this is the first time this magnificent movie has been made available on DVD, I couldn’t be much happier with the results.

The Criterion disc includes a beautifully restored digital widescreen transfer of the film, audio commentary by film scholar Stephen Prince, the original soundtrack cues created by director Cornel Wilde and ethnomusicologist Andrew Tracey, along with a written statement about the score by Tracey, the original theatrical trailer for the film and a written record of the events of 1913 involving a trapper’s flight from Blackfoot Indians—which was the inspiration for The Naked Prey—read by actor Paul Giamatti, plus a booklet featuring a new essay by film critic Michael Atkinson and a 1970 interview with Wilde that I wish had been captured on film.

While watching The Naked Prey again I was truly stunned by the incredible look of this classic film, which is made all the more evident thanks to the fine restoration work done by Criterion. Cornel Wilde was a popular and handsome Hollywood star who appeared in some great historical dramas, crime pictures and adventure films during the ’40s and ’50s, but he only started directing his own movies later in life. It’s a shame that he didn’t spend more time behind the camera because Wilde clearly shows he’s got some extremely impressive directing abilities with The Naked Prey.

The film tells the rather simplistic tale of a group of white hunters in colonial Africa led by Cornel Wilde. When one of the men offends a tribesman they encounter, the hunters are all attacked, captured and killed, except for Wilde. Since Wilde is the only man in his hunting group who showed the natives any respect, they offer him a running start before they begin to hunt him like an animal. Thankfully luck is on his side and he manages to survive much longer than anyone expects. The Naked Prey features very little dialogue and no subtitles, even though various native dialects are heard throughout the film. Instead, Wilde uses the natural jungle sounds and the film’s effective score to tell his memorable tale.

Some potential viewers will probably assume that The Naked Prey is a typical adventure film set in Africa where the good and wise white hunters must fight off the primitive jungle savages, but frankly nothing could be further from the truth. The film does use typical conventions found in countless adventure films made before the sixties, but Wilde injects his movie with insightful social commentary about racism and oppression in South Africa, where the film takes place. Using fantastic footage he shot of the natural wildlife, Wilde was also able to smartly examine complex ideas about man’s primitive animal instincts and basic survival urges that could all be considered rather timely topics in 1966 as well as today.

The film is also just plain entertaining and stunning to look at. The African countryside and its people had rarely appeared more beautiful in a Hollywood film before. Wilde shoots their actions and rituals with an artists’ eye and the audience is asked to sympathize with the land and the human beings that populate it instead of merely fearing them. The film might appear slightly outdated now, but its final humanist message of understanding and unity is as pertinent as ever and when viewed in context of the time that it was made, The Naked Prey is truly a remarkable achievement.

Cornel Wilde was 54 years old when he directed and starred in The Naked Prey, but the actor has rarely looked better. He performs all his own stunts in the film and it’s obvious that he took good care of himself. His performance in the movie is very understated and purely physical, but that’s what makes it so impressive. With very little dialogue and character background, Wilde was able to infuse his role with a lot of life.

The Naked Prey is Cornel Wilde’s most well-known directorial effort and it was a worldwide success on its initial release. In recent years the film has often been overlooked or forgotten, but I’m glad that Criterion has finally made the movie available on DVD so more people can discover it. I’ve watched it twice in the last couple of days and I really enjoyed the in-depth audio commentary provided by Stephen Prince. Prince clearly has a lot of love for the film and he offers listeners plenty of information about the production that was new to me. The Naked Prey DVD retails for $39.95 and it’s currently available at Amazon for $29.99. You should also be able to find the film for rent online at Netflix and Greencine.

During the sixties there were literally thousands of spy spoofs made following the popularity of the early James Bond films. One of the silliest of these was Norman Abbott’s Last of the Secret Agents? (1966), which was the first and last film that attempted to make cinema stars out of the comedy team Allen & Rossi (Marty Allen & Steve Rossi). Allen & Rossi were a comedic duo that became popular on the Ed Sullivan Show during The Beatles’ heyday and they were patterned after Martin & Lewis (Dean Martin and Jerry Lewis), but their style of comedy was becoming rather dated as the sixties wore on. Last of the Secret Agents? was butchered by critics on its initial release and Allen & Rossi never appeared in a film together again. They ended their partnership in 1969 and Last of the Secret Agents? was basically forgotten.

The years have not been kind to the film and as far as I know Last of the Secret Agents? has never been released on video, much less DVD. A quick look at the film’s IMDb page shows that most viewers have given the film a 3 star rating out of a possible 10 and the comments are less then flattering, but I happen to think the movie is well worth a look if you enjoy slapstick style humor and silly sight gags, as well as sixties spy spoofs. The film doesn’t contain much comedic gold, but it’s also not the unwatchable mess that so many critics seem to think it is. If you enjoy Mel Brooks’ style of humor or the Austin Powers films you’ll probably find yourself laughing a few times while watching Last of the Secret Agents? and if you like fun-filled spy capers with good soundtracks and stylish wardrobes, then you might actually enjoy the film as much as I do.

Top: Marty Allen
Bottom: Steve Rossi with twins Kay & Ann Hughes

The plot involves Marty Allen and Steve Rossi as two American ex-pats looking for work in Europe. They soon discover that they’ve been unwillingly used as couriers for art thieves who are part of an evil organization known as THEM. They get recruited by the GGI (Good Guys Inc.) and help concoct a plan to put an end to the criminal activities of THEM. Naturally lots of chase scenes and fights take place in the process. Like any good spy film there are plenty of beautiful women that help and hinder the two stars. The film also contains a musical number performed by Steve Rossi and it ends with an appearance of Allen & Rossi on the Ed Sullivan Show.

Allen & Rossi try hard to make the film work, but they’re no Martin & Lewis and they end up being one of the film’s main problems. They don’t seem to have much chemistry here and the jokes they deliver often fall flat. I’m not sure if it’s the fault of the comedy team or the writers, but it’s a shame that the script didn’t seem to really give them an opportunity to show off whatever made audiences enjoy their stand up act so much. Since Allen & Rossi are the stars of the movie I think it’s easy for viewers to get caught up in their rather lackluster delivery and overlook all the funny performances from their costars, which is a shame.

The talented character actor Theodore Marcuse is really terrific here and especially funny as the evil mastermind Zoltan Schubach who heads THEM. His character is obviously inspired by the notorious Bond villain known as Ernst Stavro Blofeld and I’m sure Mike Myers was inspired by Theodore Marcuse’s performance as Zoltan Schubach in Last of the Secret Agents? when he created the character of Dr. Evil for the Austin Powers movies. The great British actor John Williams lends a nice sense of gravitas to the proceedings and the very funny Harvey Korman even shows up in a brief, but memorable bit as an actor playing a frazzled German Colonel.

Top: Nancy Sinatra and Carmen Dell’Orefice
Bottom: Susan Jean and Thordis Brandt

The film also features plenty of lovely female co-stars. Nancy Sinatra gets top billing here, but unfortunately she doesn’t get enough screen time. She plays Steve Rossi’s neglected love interest and she ends up spending most of her time in the film trying to get him to notice her. Rossi is a good-looking guy, but I couldn’t believe that he would turn down Nancy’s marriage proposals even if she would have gotten in the way of his swinging lifestyle. Fashion icon Carmen Dell’Orefice is really wonderful as the wicked Baby May Zoftig and she vamps it up on the set as much as possible. Unfortunately she only has a few lines in the film and I wish the director had given her more to do. Other sixties starlets and femme fatales in Last of the Secret Agents? include Russ Meyer’s lovely wife Edy Williams and the actress Thordis Brandt.

Besides the lackluster performances of the films stars Allen & Rossi, Last of the Secret Agents? is not without some other obvious problems. The stale looking set designs often make the movie look more like a television production instead of a feature length film. The movie would have really benefited from being shot on location in Europe. Last but not least, someone also should have hired a dialogue coach for the cast. There are a lot of actors in the film trying to sound like they weren’t born in America and most of them fail terribly. Since Last of the Secret Agents? is a comedy I find it easy to overlook the bad accents, but they can still be a little jarring at times.

With all its problems, Last of the Secret Agents? still has a lot to offer potential viewers including one of the funniest opening sequences that I’ve ever seen in any spy spoof. There’s also a terrific long running sight gag that takes place on a train that is very clever and just plain fun to watch. The pop art style of the film gives it a comic book feel at times and the soundtrack by Pete King and Neal Hefti is really terrific.

Top: Carmen Dell’Orefice and Theodore Marcuse
Bottom: Theodore Marcuse and evil members of THEM

The film also boasts a wonderful theme song composed by Lee Hazlewood and sung by Nancy Sinatra. I personally think it’s one of Sinatra & Hazelwood’s best songs and it was released the same year that they released their huge hit single “These Boots Are Made for Walkin.” Unfortunately the title song for Last of the Secret Agents? wasn’t a big hit and I’m sure the movies lackluster reception was a factor. In retrospect, the theme song is just as good as any of Sinatra & Hazelwood’s early recordings so I can’t understand why the song didn’t become more popular after its release.

Before making Last of the Secret Agents? director Norman Abbott had previously made a name for himself working on popular television shows like Leave It to Beaver, McHale’s Navy and The Munsters. For better or worse, he brings that same comedy sense to Last of the Secret Agents? and as I mentioned above, the film often suffers from the somewhat stale television-like quality of the production.

Last of the Secret Agents? would become a minor launching point for some of the cast and crew to go on to bigger and better spy-related productions. Norman Abbott would return to television and direct episodes of the entertaining spy spoof Get Smart and Nancy Sinatra would go on to record the popular theme song for the James Bond film You Only Live Twice in 1967. Theodore Marcuse had acted in other spy spoofs before making Last of the Secret Agents? but afterward he appeared in the Doris Day spy comedy The Glass Bottom Boat and television shows like The Man from U.N.C.L.E. and The Wild Wild West, before his unfortunate and untimely death in a car accident in 1967.

It’s a shame that Last of the Secret Agents? isn’t available on DVD and is rarely shown on television anymore. With the popularity of the Austin Powers films, as well as current interest in the James Bond series, I personally hope that Paramount will consider releasing the movie in the future. It deserves to be seen by a wider audience that might enjoy its silly charms now that over 40 years have passed since the films initial release.

If you’d like to see more images from the movie please see my Last of the Secret Agents? Flickr Gallery.

Recommended Links:
- Marty Allen’s Official Site
- Hello Dere! (Allen & Rossi fan site)
- Nancy Sinatra’s Official Site
- Lee Hazlewood Fan Site

I’m on vacation at the moment and enjoying the holiday, but I wanted to briefly mention that Curtis Harrington’s terrific 1973 thriller The Killing Kind was released this week on DVD for the first time and it’s my DVD pick of the week. Harrington is responsible for some of the most interesting and entertaining American horror movies and television productions of the sixties and seventies including Night Tide (which recently made my list of 31 films that give me the willies) as well as Games, How Awful About Allan, Whoever Slew Auntie Roo?, What’s the Matter with Helen? and Devil Dog: The Hound of Hell. The Killing Kind is one of the director’s best films and I’m really happy that it has finally found its way on to DVD thanks to Dark Sky Films, which has been releasing some great movies this year.

The Killing Kind stars John Savage (The Deer Hunter, Hair, The Onion Field, Do the Right Thing, etc.) in one of his earliest roles as a young man named Terry Lambert. Terry is an accused rapist who has recently been released from jail and is out for revenge. Savage is perfectly cast here as a sympathetic loner that you somehow sympathize with, but his innocent demeanor hides a dark and disturbed personality. Other stand out performances in The Killing Kind include Ann Sothern (Maisie, A Letter to Three Wives, The Blue Gardenia, Crazy Mama, etc.) as Terry Lambert’s overbearing mother Thelma. She carries on a strange and unhealthy relationship with her son that hints at sexual abuse. Their unusual family dynamic leads to Terry’s mental disintegration and finally has dire consequences for everyone. Luana Anders, Cindy Williams, Ruth Roman and Sue Bernard also have memorable roles here.

This extremely effective and creepy thriller might seem a little campy to some thanks to Ann Southern’s odd turn as Thelma Lambert, but I think it’s one of the smarter and more interesting movies made in the early seventies that attempted to explore the deranged mind of a sexual predator and killer. The film will remind some viewers of Hitchcock’s Psycho (1960), but Harrington brings his own insights and individual style to The Killing Kind.

Dark Sky’s widescreen DVD presentation of The Killing Kind runs 95 minutes long and contains optional English subtitles. It also features an interview with director Curtis Harrington, which unfortunately was his last since Harrington passed away earlier this year due to complications following a stroke. You can currently purchase The Killing Kind from Amazon for $17.99 (it retails for ($19.99) and it should be available for rent at online sources such as Netflix and Greencine.

Below is a clip from the interview with Curtis Harrington featured on the DVD, which also contains some scenes from the film:

I recently had the opportunity to see Norman Jewison’s extremely silly and sometimes smart 1966 comedy The Russians Are Coming, the Russians Are Coming for the first time in about 20 years when it played on TCM. When I was a kid The Russians Are Coming, the Russians Are Coming was one of my favorite comedies for reasons I can’t really explain, except it seemed to portray adults as I saw them then - easily frightened big kids who projected their fears onto their children and conformed to every bad idea that society and the government tossed their way.

I was afraid the film wouldn’t hold up after such a long period of time between my last viewing so my expectations were extremely low going into the movie but once it ended my appreciation for it remained. It’s no longer one of my favorite comedies but I really admire its undeniable charm and the way it manages to cram complex ideas into easily digested entertainment that the whole family can enjoy. Simply put, it’s a lightweight version of Kubrick’s brilliant Dr. Strangelove (1964) and it works.

The Russians Are Coming, the Russians Are Coming opens with a Russian sub running aground in a small New England coastal town. Naturally chaos erupts because the U.S. is in the middle of the cold war and only four years have passed since the infamous Cuban Missile Crisis. The Americans think the Russians are invading and the whole town pulls out their guns and comes together to form a modern day militia in an effort to stop them. Of course things aren’t exactly what they seem since the Russians in the sub are merely trying to get back home. After bouts of hysteria and plenty of violent outbursts, the panicky town’s folk and the frazzled Russian soldiers manage to come together to save the life of a young child in peril and the sub returns home.

There are some standout performances in The Russians Are Coming, the Russians Are Coming, including Carl Reiner’s terrific turn as a comedy writer trying to calm the paranoid town and the very funny Alan Arkin playing a smart Russian Lieutenant who’s trying to get a handle on the slowly escalating events all around him. Brian Keith is also very good as the town Sheriff who can’t believe the situation he’s found himself in. Arkin’s Russian Lieutenant and Keith’s small town Sheriff could have been roles written purely for easy laughs but they’re not. Viewers are asked to sympathize with both men in some ways and we do. The gorgeous John Philip Law also shows up as a Russian solider who speaks a little bit of English and ends up falling for a perky American blond played by Andrea Dromm. The two young lovebirds make a cute couple and their romance echoes themes found in Shakespeare’s classic play Romeo and Juliet, which gives the film an emotional core that I personally found rather sweet and appealing.

The beauty of The Russians Are Coming, the Russians Are Coming seems perfectly clear today as we deal with some vaguely defined idea of an enemy we’re supposed to fear enough to give up our Constitutional Freedoms and basic human compassion for. The film has often been unfairly criticized for its dated jokes, simple plot and silly slapstick style humor. But if the ideas presented in Norman Jewison’s film are so dated, simple and silly, why are people still making the same absurd mistakes outlined in a movie made some 40 years ago? If anything, the film’s basic premise and themes are as pertinent as ever. Underneath all the movie’s jokes and gentleness, The Russians Are Coming, the Russians Are Coming knows that war is a nasty business and there are rarely any victors.

The Russians Are Coming, the Russians Are Coming has often been compared to It’s a Mad Mad Mad Mad World (1963) due to it’s title, characters and a large cast that happens to have some similar actors including Jonathan Winters, but I think The Russians Are Coming, the Russians Are Coming is a much stronger film that is willing to explore big ideas that were not very popular at the time that the movie was made, while keeping its tongue firmly planted in its cheek. Apparently the movie was banned in the USSR after its release, but it was nominated for a Best Picture Oscar in 1966.

The script is based on a novel called The Off-Islanders by the American author Nathaniel Benchley who happens to be the father of Jaws author Peter Benchley. I find it amusing that both men wrote books set in small New England towns where they were raised. And both stories focus on a town being terrorized by some unknown scary “other.” It’s also worth noting that one of my favorite American filmmakers, the great Hal Ashby, also acted as an editor on the movie.

These days it can be hard to find anything worth smiling about but if you haven’t seen The Russians Are Coming, the Russians Are Coming I recommend giving it a look. It just might make you laugh. The movie is available on DVD from Amazon and it’s playing again on Turner Movie Classics Nov. 28th when the great actor Brian Dennehy hosts four of his favorite films. I really like Brian Dennehy so I was happy to discover that he selected the film to play with two other films from the sixties, Karel Reisz‘s gritty British drama Saturday Night and Sunday Morning (1960) and Bryan Forbes‘s British comedy The Wrong Box (1966). I’ve wanted to see The Wrong Box for years, but it isn’t available on DVD yet so I’ll be watching it on TCM Nov. 28th.

“I’m excited by film. It’s one of the freest, most effective means of expression. Especially in the realm of dream and fantasy!
What wonders, what joys it may hold in store for us!
Some day film may replace literature.”
- Henry Miller

One of my favorite writers is Henry Miller, who I happen to share a birthday with (Dec. 26th). I recently came across a short documentary about the man called Henry Miller - Asleep & Awake (1975, Tom Schiller), which was made when Miller was 84 years old. Some kind soul uploaded the entire 35 minute film to YouTube in four separate parts and I really can’t recommend it enough if you’re a fan of Miller’s work or just curious about him.

Besides his incredible accomplishments as an author who has managed to influence everyone from Jack Kerouac to Henry Rollins, Miller was also a member of the prestigious Cannes Film Festival Jury in 1960. He was the only Jury Member that year who voted for the erotic Japanese film Kagi (aka The Key, 1959, Kon Ichikawa) to win the coveted Jury Prize over Michelangelo Antonioni’s L’ Avventura, and in turn Antonioni and Ichikawa were forced to share the prize due to a tie vote. Henry Miller also wanted Kagi to win the prestigious Palme d’Or (Golden Palm), but the film didn’t make the final round of voting so he ended up casting his final vote for Fellini’s magnificent La Dolce Vita which helped garner that film the prestigious Palme d’Or (Golden Palm) that year.

Besides Miller’s obvious enthusiasm for Kagi, he also liked La Dolce Vita a lot and had this to say about the film to his friend, the photographer Brassai: “Fellini’s film also lasts three hours, but it doesn’t seem long. It moves faster than the others, is teeming with characters and events. You hardly ever get bored with it. What is marvelous in this film is the satirical depiction of the tabloid press. The obsessive presence of the pack of paparazzi in every circumstance.” (Henry Miller on La Dolce Vita)

In this wonderful documentary which takes place almost entirely in Henry Miller’s bathroom, Miller discusses Kon Ichikawa’s film Kagi in great detail which was based on a book by Junichirô Tanizaki, along with many other interesting topics.

Recommended Links:
- Cosmodemonic Telegraph Company: A Henry Miller Blog is a great blog devoted to Miller that also features some intersting pieces about Miller’s experiences as a member of the Cannes Film Festival Jury.
- Henry Miller: Personal Collection is a wonderful tribute site put together by Miller’s daughter Valentine.
- The Henry Miller Library is devoted to keeping Miller’s work alive and from personal experience, I can tell you that this beautiful place is well worth a visit if you’re ever in Northern California.

“This film is really in one sense about Lee Marvin. It’s about him as a character. He went out to the war and he was a sensitive 17 year-old boy and you know, he was brutalized and in a way he was expressing himself through violence. He was always trying to recapture his humanity that he felt he had lost and that’s really what the story is about. It’s about a man who comes back from the dead and tries to find his humanity.”
- Director John Boorman on Point Blank (DVD commentary)

After appearing in countless war films, westerns and crime dramas, Lee Marvin won his first Oscar in 1965 for Cat Ballou and followed it up with a starring role in the extremely successful movie The Dirty Dozen. Hollywood was impressed with Marvin’s success and they offered him complete creative control over his next film. That film would be the stylish 1967 Neo-noir crime thriller Point Blank.

The film was directed by the talented British filmmaker John Boorman who Marvin had met in London while filming The Dirty Dozen. Boorman approached Lee Marvin with a poorly adapted script of a pulp novel called The Hunter written by Richard Stark (pen name for Donald E. Westlake) and expressed interest in making a film with him. Marvin hated the original script, but he wanted to make the film with Boorman so the two men spent many long evenings in London working out the details and exploring creative concepts before finally plunging ahead with their proposal.

During this process Point Blank became a very personal project for Lee Marvin. He was involved in almost all aspects of the film including the movie’s development, story, staging, sound effects and stunts. Besides just making an entertaining movie, Marvin wanted to use various metaphors within the film to explore his deep-seated feelings about a career spent playing violent killers and a lifetime trying to come to terms with the horrible things he had experienced during WWII, where he had served as a sniper for the U.S. Marines.

In Point Blank Lee Marvin plays Walker, a reluctant criminal who stumbles into a bad situation and pays dearly for it. After being convinced to join in a criminal heist with an old friend and his wife that takes place in San Francisco at Alcatraz Prison, Walker is shot “point-blank” by his friend who wants the money and Walker’s wife all for himself. Walker seems to recover and decides to go after the $93,000 he is still owed from the job. As the film progresses we follow him on his quest to confront his would-be killer and recover his money while leaving a trail of dead and beaten bodies behind him. Of course there’s much more to this crime film once you start scratching at its stylish surface.

Lee Marvin has an incredible screen presence that can easily intimidate an audience with its animal intensity. In Point Blank he literally jumps off the screen at times, but some of the films most poignant moments are its quieter ones which critics rarely mention. Before Marvin is transformed into the angry gun carrying Walker who dominates most of Point Blank, he’s shown as a sweet love struck man, who romances his wife and seems willing to do anything to help out a friend. We also see him nervously contemplating his crimes before and after they take place. Walker might be tough and dangerous, but he’s also a thoughtful and sensitive guy with a big heart.

I think it’s clear that John Boorman and Lee Marvin wanted to present Walker as a man who was transformed by violence and disappointment. Much like the innocent 17-year-old Lee Marvin who naively went off to war and was deeply changed by what he experienced there, Marvin’s character in Point Blank is clearly not a naturally violent man, but he has no problem committing acts of violence once he has experienced it first hand. Marvin’s Walker rises from the dead as a sort of angel of vengeance in the film to pursue the money that’s owed to him, but this vengeance is tempered by Walker’s complicated inner life and throughout the course of Point Blank Lee Marvin’s character never actually kills anyone.

Walker beats a few men senseless and threatens them with violence, but he often acts more like an angel of mercy who has the ability to kill, but usually offers people his understanding instead. Thanks to Lee Marvin’s powerful screen presence these gentler aspects of his character in Point Blank are often overlooked by critics who see him as a merciless and destructive man, willing to do anything to get back the money that’s owed him.

As we follow Walker along on his violent odyssey the film often seems to veer off in abstract directions that follow no clear narrative structure, but there are plenty of visual and verbal clues that tell us a lot about the journey Marvin’s character is undertaking and his real goals. And what are these goals? If we take Boorman’s comments about the film at face value it’s clear that the money Walker is hunting for is actually a metaphor for his lost humanity, which seems forever trapped in a sort of prison of his own making. Like Lee Marvin himself, the character of Walker has been transformed by the violence and disappointment he has suffered in his life. Unfortunately he discovers throughout the course of the film that nothing, including the love of a beautiful woman and the destruction of his enemies, can return his innocence and restore his humanity. Walker can only accept his transformation and imprisonment, and learn to live with it.

Point Blank is an incredible looking film that uses bold color schemes and creative camera work in ways similar to Antonioni’s arthouse dramas Red Desert (1964) and Blowup (1966), as well as Seijun Suzuki’s Neo-noir crime thrillers Youth of the Beast (1964), Kanto Wanderer (1964) and Tokyo Drifter (1966). John Boorman has expressed that Antonioni’s films and classic noir inspired the overall look and feel of Point Blank, but I haven’t come across any indication that Boorman or Marvin were aware of Suzuki’s early films before making their movie. Much like Seijun Suzuki, as well as the French director Jean-Pierre Melville, John Boorman injects his crime film with an overall sense of malaise and turns Lee Marvin’s Walker into one of cinema’s greatest existential heroes alongside Jo Shishido’s Jo Mizuno in Youth of the Beast and Alain Delon’s Frank Costello in Le Samourai.

There is very little dialogue in Point Blank, but what is there seems extremely powerful and often very telling. Even Walker’s one word name tells the audience a lot about his character. One of the films most important moments comes towards the end when Walker finally confronts the man who seems to hold the keys to his fortune.

Brewster: You’re a very bad man, Walker, a very destructive man! Why do you run around doing things like this?
Walker: I want my money. I want my $93,000.
Brewster: $93,000? You threaten a financial structure like this for $93,000? No, Walker, I don’t believe you. What do you really want?
Walker: I - I really want my money.
Brewster: Well, I’m not going to give you any money and nobody else is. Don’t you understand that?
Walker: Who runs things?
Brewster: Carter and I run things. I run things.
Walker: What about Fairfax? Will he pay me?
Brewster: Fairfax is a man who signs checks.
Walker: No, cash.
Brewster: Fairfax isn’t going to give you anything. He’s finished. Fairfax is dead. He just doesn’t know it yet.

20 years ago today on August 29, 1987, Lee Marvin left this earth. Unfortunately like many young men who find themselves on bloody foreign battlefields far from home, a part of Lee Marvin had died many years before. Through countless roles as a ruthless killer and movie heavy, Marvin had expressed the violence that had eaten away at him in various creative ways. Point Blank was an accumulation of Marvin’s previous roles held up to a prism and projected back to the audience in a kaleidoscope of colors and action. Underlying that is the echoing silence that permeates Point Blank and seems to cut right to the very core of Lee Marvin’s character.

I personally think Point Blank is one of the greatest American films produced during the sixties, but it received a cold critical reception when it was originally released. American critics weren’t ready to see Lee Marvin as an existential hero and the film’s themes and creative ideas were too complex f