Saturday Trailer: Move – 1970

Of course you all remember MOVE, the 1970 urban neurotica fantasia starring Elliot Gould at the height of his Time magazine “Star For An Uptight Age”….

The Goat Boy Unbanned

From John Lahr’s famous New Yorker piece on Bill Hicks:

On October 1st, the comedian Bill Hicks, after doing his twelfth gig on the David Letterman show, became the first comedy act to be censored at CBS’s Ed Sullivan Theatre, where Letterman is now in residence, and where Elvis Presley was famously censored in 1956. Presley was not allowed to be shown from the waist down. Hicks was not allowed to be shown at all.

Even though Letterman acknowledges regret over the incident on the Hick’s documentary, IT’S JUST A RIDE, I always thought the ultimate karmic due would be to simply play the entire appearance. In an encouraging sign of the new times, David Letterman is doing just that. From the Bill Hicks website:

“The Late Show with David Letterman has scheduled a telecast of the never-aired October 1, 1993 Bill Hicks appearance. The show was pre-taped Jan. 26th (with Bill’s mom as a guest) and will air Friday, January 30th on your local CBS affiliate. We’d like to acknowledge and thank Bill’s many fans and everyone who has had a hand in keeping Bill’s comedy and philosophy alive. We hope everyone can tune in and experience what you may have missed or what you barely remember — Bill Hicks performing for a national audience on network television.”

UPDATED: Just watched it. I gotta give Letterman enormous credit. What a mensch. Though he didn’t admit he removed the piece because one of his sponsors was…a Pro-Life group. Anyway, Mary Hicks ruled all. You can watch all of Letterman’s segment right here. Here’s Bill Hick’s final censored TV appearance and marvel at his prescient genius.

President Obama’s First Week: A

I’ll give him bonus points just for getting in there. And within a week, he started to dismantle the Bush administration by a wide-ranging stimulus package; closing down Guantanamo Bay; releasing federal funds for abortion; slicing some of the military’s more fanciful Star Wars projects; and writing a letter to Iran’s madman prez, with at least the symbolism of diplomacy, which in turn will hopefully align swaths of the world with us again. So good work, Mr. President! Now, about the prison-industrial complex and the War on Drugs…

Favorite Scene Theatre: 7 Faces Of Dr. Lao (1964)

In perhaps questionable tribute to the Chinese New Year of the Ox, here’s a wistful contemplative moment from George Pal’s magical fantasy film, 7 FACES OF DR. LAO, based on the 1935 novel by Charles G. Finney, adapted by TWILIGHT ZONE scribe Charles Beaumont and starring Tony Randall in his greatest screen performance, the only one in which he was allowed to show his theatrical range. Originally cast with Peter Sellers — and we can only mourn that possibility — Randall came onboard at the last minute when Sellers dropped out.

Of course, questions of racism and stereotype must come up when a caucasian plays an asian, but given that 1964 Hollywood was less than enlightened, and the new cinema revolution was around the corner, it’s no surprise that an actual Chinese actor wasn’t cast; I could see Keye Luke as a great Dr. Lao (or Bruce Lee a possibility in his later years…). I’ll only defend Randall’s casting as a role any actor would covet, getting to assay seven different parts, from a mystic doctor to a sad wizened Merlin to a lustful Pan to a frightening Medusa. And the film is also about bigotry in the Old West, against Lao and the local Native Americans, so Pal is very aware of these issues — and the hero of the film is Chinese. Even Dr. Lao’s initial pidgin English voice is only a ruse for the locals, one of the delightful facets of this strange unpredictable character.

This is a terrific, unheralded imaginative film with some actual adult themes that may surprise you, especially the sad scene with soothsayer Apollonius telling an arrogant old spinster her probable bleak future; it’s almost painful to watch. Then it’s very erotic, particularly with Barbara Eden (delicious) encountering her sexual id, Pan, within the tents of Lao’s travelling circus. And even cooler, the film won an Academy Award for its nifty special effects, primarily Jim Danforth and Wah Chang’s beautiful stop-motion animation along with William Tuttle’s superb make-up. With all that magic, there’s even an incredibly catchy score by Leigh Harline.

George Pal never developed a strong directorial style outside of his powerful imagination, but Beaumont’s screenplay — much taken from Finney’s novel — is literate, satirical and fantastical (though a tad preachy at the end which feels like studio interference). The scene above is probably the heart of the movie and one that effected me most when I viewed it over the years on TV. It’s a nice philosophical pause and right when it threatens to become mawkish…you’ll see. There’s no doubt that this is one of the best fantasy film performances ever, and I’d rank Tony Randall a notch or two below Gene Wilder as Wonka; both are entirely unique and upredictable. And if you haven’t seen the 7 FACES OF DR. LAO yet, well, you’re missing the circus…

Happy Year of the Ox Solar Eclipse

How often does that happen? Speaking of a New Moon on Monday:

The Vodka Ad

And the phone rings and the voice on the other end says, “How would you like to be this year’s vodka man?” And I said, “No, I’m an artist, I do not do commercials, I don’t pander, I don’t drink vodka and if I did, I wouldn’t drink your product.”

He said, “Too bad, it pays fifty thousand dollars.”

And I said, “Hold on, I’ll put Mr. Allen on the phone.”

How To Lose The War On Terror

MEHTAR LAM, Afghanistan (Reuters) – Thousands of Afghans protested against President Hamid Karzai and the United States on Sunday over reports of fresh civilian deaths caused by U.S.-led troops during a raid against Taliban militants.

The issue of civilian casualties is sensitive in Afghanistan and has eroded public support for Karzai’s government and the foreign troops backing it.

Assadullah Wafa, a Karzai adviser investigating the deaths, said on Sunday that “16 civilians, many of them children and women, were killed” in the operation.

Charles H. Schneer RIP

When people ask me, what does a producer do? I point to folk like Charles H. Schneer, who produced every single Ray Harryhausen movie minus his first, THE BEAST FROM 20,000 FATHOMS (1954). Without the belief and perseverance of Schneer, Harryhausen may not have had the career he did. Few stop-motion artists were able to control film after film through four decades like Harryhausen. This was in large due to Charles H. Schneer, who did the dealing and found the money for each of Harryhausen’s classic films. Schneer clearly loved stop-motion as much as Ray Harryhausen, and he freed up his talent. Sadly, Charles Schneer passed on last week at the ripe age of 88. I’m glad he produced so many influential movies, including my favorite fantasy film of all time, THE SEVENTH VOYAGE OF SINBAD (1958).

“Remarkable.”

This is unarguably the cutest four minutes ever committed to film.

The Ghost Of GOP Past

“We are being told that we have to hope he succeeds, that we have to bend over, grab the ankles … because his father was black.”

Yes, the leading intellectual of the Republican Party, Rush Limbaugh, spreads more of his moral Christian insight to a legion of bigoted, irrelevant fans. And this is the man with whom poor, misunderestimated George W. Bush had a special breakfast with last week to honor him for his service. Welcome to the septic tank of history.

How President Obama Really Feels Today

The Empire No More

MLK

Bush OUT!

The Company Way

What with the biggest financial crookery in the history of history, and the lay-offs and the stagnation, and our robot guv’nr terminating the state, it’s nice to go back to a simple day when to keep a steady job all you had to do was play things “The Company Way” — from the sparkling 1967 film adaptation of HOW TO SUCCEED IN BUSINESS WITHOUT TRYING: