duaneiac

Disc 1

This looks like what might have happened had Ed Wood dedicated his life to opera instead of film -- Plan Nine From Mefistofele, perhaps?

Went to a Half-Price Books store today to take advantage of their Labor Day sale. There I found a couple of used LPs: The Old Dude & The Fundance Kid -- Budd Johnson & Phil Woods (with Richard Wyands, George Duvivier and Bill Goodwin), a 1984 album and, according to the liner notes, Budd Johnson's final recording session as he died in Oct. of that year. And a couple of new CD items But I also stopped by a nearby Rasputin's store on the way and picked up a handful of used CDs:

Welcome to the modern world, where image is everything, talent is secondary and media exploitation is the only way to fame and fortune, no matter what field one pursues. I wouldn't fault this film in particular for being "exploitative". Has any Hollywood biography of a musician, be it W. A. Mozart, Billie Holiday, Patsy Cline, Ray Charles, Brian Wilson etc., completely adequately explored the musical end of things? Movies are not illustrated lectures, they are entertainments. Could one not argue that Chet Baker himself cashed in on the "junkie-outlaw image" for a long part of his career? Any one who saw Let's Get Lost and was inspired to buy the soundtrack album at least added a very good Chet Baker CD to their collection, so that's a good thing.

I suppose this album is telling you what to do only if your name happens to be "Junie Moon"

In very tiny print on the poster, you might see "Directed By Fritz Lang". This was his first film made in America. Fritz Lang is heard on a DVD commentary track being interviewed by Peter Bogdanovich and he said this 1936 film was loosely based upon a 1933 lynching which, for what it's worth, occurred within walking distance of my home (and I once worked with a man who was there when it happened). The film is kind of stodgy and dated and does not really show much of Fritz Lang's style, but Sylvia Sidney gives a good performance.

"the only Southern women I've known who talked like that were...the type of woman that she played" Then Ms. Leigh's choice of accent was appropriate for the role she played. That's about all one can ask for. It's been at least 20 years since I saw GWTW, but as I recall, her accent was consistent throughout and did not come and go, which seems to happen a lot with American actors attempting a "British" accent. Sometimes an actor playing a "type" might be just what one wants. James Cagney, Edward G. Robinson and Humphrey Bogart were all really good actors with varying degrees of versatility, but if a film called for a gangster "type", they would be the go-to actors and they would handle that "type" of role perfectly. Speaking for myself, watching them portray those "types" is not only "good enough", it's wonderfu.

But this phenomenon goes back at least to Vivien Leigh who used a very convincing Southern accent in GWTW, long before TV was a mass medium able to spread American entertainment programs around the world. Sure she must have had speech coaches on such a big budget, high profile film, but American actors would have had access to similar Hollywood speech coaches at the time, and over the following decades, if they needed to perfect a British accent. Perhaps the lack of exposure most American film audiences had to British films -- although a number of British actors became genuine Hollywood movie stars: Laurence Olivier, Rex Harrison, Ronald Coleman, James Mason, etc. -- allowed them to accept even the most hit-and-miss attempt at a British accent by an American actor.

As I recall, this one is a real stinker: It's titled Centerpiece not Centerpie. The best pic of it I found online was of a cutout, which may tell you something about how quickly (and thankfully) this album disappeared.

A good movie, although Donald Sutherland is miscast. Why is it most British actors can adopt an American accent (even geographically specific accents) with seeming ease, yet American actors so often fail miserably when attempting any semblance of a "British" accent? Most of the film deals with how the robbery will be done, as the thieves have to acquire copies of four keys which will unlock the two safes carrying a gold shipment on the train. Sean Connery is to be given credit because he actually did some of his own stunt work on the top of a moving train -- something you could never pay me enough money to do! Correction: Sean Connery apparently did all of his own stunt work on top of the moving train. I listened to the commentary track by Michael Crichton and he said they built the train with extra wide roofs and with a sand-papery like skid-resistant surface. Still, there was one point where Mr. Connery fell down on the roof and Mr. Crichton, viewing from his chair inside the train, wasn't sure if it was an acting choice or a real slip. It was a real, and potentially dangerous, slip.

And Mr. Vache with a larger sting ensemble:

This is an album I have heard of, but never heard. Any one have thoughts to share about this one?

A good, but not great noirish film. Stirling Silliphant's screenplay is nicely structured to set up the flashbacks which fill the audience in on the main character's backstory/plight and Jacques Tourneur makes some nice transitions between the present and past in those scenes. The suspense may not be as great as the poster touts, but the movie held my interest all the way through. Anne Bacroft was very good. Even today she is probably not as appreciated as an actress as she should be. Even Aldo Ray is good and I can't say he's ever been a particular favorite of mine. James Gregory is cast as an insurance investigator, but it kind of feels like "Inspector Luger, The Early Years". At only 79 minute, this is a movie well worth your time. Al Hibbler sang the title song.

This one is actually a favorite of mine: Calling this "a dramatic reading" is the understatement of the year. This, my friends, is ACTING!!!! I like to picture Mr. French getting Buffy and Jodie all tucked in bed and then getting them ready to doze off on a pleasant trip to slumberland by reciting for them something like this: Why couldn't all the famous TV domestic servants have recorded an album like this? I'm sure there would have been a market (me, at the very least) for say, Ann B. Davis Sings Tom Waits or The Best of Jack Kerouac as Read by Shirley Booth

Pianist Derek Smith is the latest to leave us this month. The British born pianist moved to the US and for many years in the 1960's was the pianist in NBC's The Tonight Show band when that program was based in NYC. As a leader or sideman he recorded with such notables as Dick Hyman, Scott Hamilton, Milt Hinton, Jack Wilkins, Louie Bellson, Clark Terry and Buddy DeFranco. http://www.legacy.com/obituaries/nytimes/obituary.aspx?pid=181137152

I have this one too -- At long last, you can hear Hoss, Little Joe and Papa Ben Cartwight sing all your holiday favorites Pernell Roberts apparently wanted nothing to do with this bit of merchandising, for even though he is pictured on the cover, it is explained that Adam had to be away somewhere on that particular Christmas. The album is actually kind of a story with music as friends and neighbors (who as I recall, carry a lot of the singing duties) of the Cartwights come over to the Ponderosa for a Christmas Eve party. There's even some funny old spinster who flirts with Ben. It's the next best thing to having to endure sitting through an entire episode of this show (which I hated, but my dad loved so we ended up watching it every week -- this was way back in the old days, kids, when most homes only had one TV set). I guess this album came before the pinnacle of Lorne Greene's "singing" career, the classic, "Ringo". While doing an image search for the above album, I also came across this -- Apparently, it was a single released only in Germany and the Netherlands.

A couple more from my collection -- While they weren't exactly Steve & Eydie, this album does have a certain charm, especially if you happened to grow up when this show was such a hit. I guess I knew that Gene Barry could sing because I heard him on the Original Cast Album of "La Cage Aux Folles", but I never knew he had previously recorded an entire album.

There's one autobiography I really regret never came to fruition and that is Louie Bellson's. His second wife, Francine, was from the SF Bay Area, so they lived here part of the year and Mr. Bellson performed quite often in the area. At every gig of his I went to, he always made time after the show to meet and greet the fans. I asked him on one occasion if he had ever thought about writing a memoir. He said he was at work on one with a co-writer. A couple of years later, while he was on stage, I asked Francine (she always staffed the table selling all sorts of Louie Bellson merchandise) if there was any news on that book. She gave me a disgusted look and said the co-writer had exited the project -- and her tone made clear she did not want to discuss it further. It's a shame, because here was a man who had had a lifetime of great experiences, musical and otherwise. He played in all the biggest bands of the big band era -- Dorsey, Goodman, James, Ellington, Basie -- not to mention having led his own big bands. He played with all the great names of jazz through his association with Norman Granz. He was married to Pearl Bailey and there must have been a ton of stories he could have told about her. When they were wed in 1952, they must surely have been the most famous interracial couple in America -- what was that like, I wonder. A book about his life, told from his perspective, would have been a wonderful read, but one we will sadly never get to experience.

Medium Ensembles need not apply . . .

He ain't whistlin' Dixie!