Passages
- jbeall
- Joined: Sat Aug 12, 2006 9:22 am
- Location: Atlanta-ish
Re: Passages
Bodybuilding magnate Joe Weider, who got a then-unknown Arnold Schwarzenegger his first role in Hercules in New York.
- GaryC
- Joined: Fri Mar 28, 2008 3:56 pm
- Location: Aldershot, Hampshire, UK
Re: Passages
Rick Hautala, US writer mostly in the horror genre, most often with novels and short fiction, but with some screenplay credits as well.
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- Joined: Fri Aug 19, 2005 9:34 pm
- Location: Boston Ma
- Contact:
Re: Passages
Ruth Ann Steinhagen whose shooting of Philadelphia Phillies first baseman Eddie Waitkus inspired Bernard Malamud's novel "The Natural" which was filmed by Barry Levinson in 1984.
- Donald Brown
- Joined: Tue Nov 02, 2004 3:21 pm
- Location: a long the riverrun
Re: Passages
Journalist Anthony Lewis.
- Polybius
- Joined: Wed Nov 03, 2004 10:57 pm
- Location: Rollin' down Highway 41
Re: Passages
He clearly had a long and full life but I'm still saddened that a man who did so much to make the world a better place has left it.
Gideon's Trumpet has a justifiably high reputation but Make No Law is a really fine book, as well.
Gideon's Trumpet has a justifiably high reputation but Make No Law is a really fine book, as well.
- zedz
- Joined: Sun Nov 07, 2004 7:24 pm
Re: Passages
Legendary Motown producer Deke Richards. Apart from his individual credits, Richards was the key member of the writing / producing collectives The Clan and The Corporation, which means he's basically responsible for any Jackson 5 recording worth remembering, plus The Supremes' 'Love Child'.
- dx23
- Joined: Tue Nov 02, 2004 8:52 pm
- Location: Puerto Rico
Re: Passages
Simpsons writer-producer Don Payne
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- Joined: Tue Feb 24, 2009 3:20 pm
Re: Passages
Writer Paul Williams, Father of Rock Journalism & Early Champion of Philip K. Dick.
- knives
- Joined: Sat Sep 06, 2008 6:49 pm
Re: Passages
I thought that was the other Paul Williams for a second there.
- Roger Ryan
- Joined: Wed Apr 28, 2010 12:04 pm
- Location: A Midland town spread and darkened into a city
Re: Passages
Williams wrote some marvelous pieces for his magazine CRAWDADDY in the late 60s/early 70s; material that stands up today as quality rock journalism. His writing on the Beach Boys' (then-unreleased) SMiLE sessions was critical to understanding how the project fell apart and what it might have been.Arthur House wrote:Writer Paul Williams, Father of Rock Journalism & Early Champion of Philip K. Dick.
He wrote me a very pleasant e-mail in March, 1999 complimenting me on a review I had done of the opening show of Brian Wilson's first solo tour. By that time he was in the very early stages of Alzheimer's, but his comments indicated he was still thrilled by the music that inspired him as a young man.
- flyonthewall2983
- Joined: Mon Jun 27, 2005 3:31 pm
- Location: Indiana
- Contact:
Re: Passages
Robert Zildjian, who oddly enough was the founder of Sabian. You know these names likely because you went to high school with band geeks.
- Duncan Hopper
- Joined: Mon Dec 21, 2009 5:16 am
- Location: http://www.eldiabolik.com
- Contact:
- colinr0380
- Joined: Mon Nov 08, 2004 4:30 pm
- Location: Chapel-en-le-Frith, Derbyshire, UK
Re: Passages
That's terrible news. He is on the commentaries for a couple of episodes on the most recent Simpsons DVD set, the 15th. I'd particularly recommend his commentary on the "Simple Simpson" episode (i.e. where Homer becomes an avenging superhero, the "Pie Man") for Don Payne's contribution, as he really seemed to be the driving force behind the comic book antics of that episode. Sadly, the commentators all talk there about how much they would like to revisit the characters from this episode (along with Bart as "the Cupcake Kid"), which I guess will not happen now.dx23 wrote:Simpsons writer-producer Don Payne
I know people will bring up his rapacious Uncle Monty in Withnail & I ("I mean to have you even if it must be burglary!")or his role in The History Boys, but for me his most memorable performance was as a bound and gagged foil to Frank Drebin in Naked Gun 2 1/2!Duncan Hopper wrote:Richard Griffiths
Last edited by colinr0380 on Sat May 18, 2013 12:53 pm, edited 2 times in total.
- Forrest Taft
- Joined: Thu Mar 15, 2007 8:34 pm
- Location: Stavanger, Norway
Re: Passages
That's the first Griffiths role I thought of too. The first meeting between wheelchair bound Dr Manheimer and Frank Drebin always makes me laugh: "Don't get up".colinr0380 wrote:I know people will bring up his Uncle Monty in Withnail & I or his role in The History Boys, but for me his most memorable performance was as a bound and gagged foil to Frank Drebin in Naked Gun 22 1/2!Duncan Hopper wrote:Richard Griffiths
- colinr0380
- Joined: Mon Nov 08, 2004 4:30 pm
- Location: Chapel-en-le-Frith, Derbyshire, UK
Re: Passages
Or the moment when his bad guy impersonator strips off his bald cap to reveal a mane of long blonde hair, which he tosses back while laughing evily!
- Roger Ryan
- Joined: Wed Apr 28, 2010 12:04 pm
- Location: A Midland town spread and darkened into a city
- flyonthewall2983
- Joined: Mon Jun 27, 2005 3:31 pm
- Location: Indiana
- Contact:
- colinr0380
- Joined: Mon Nov 08, 2004 4:30 pm
- Location: Chapel-en-le-Frith, Derbyshire, UK
Re: Passages
I've only just stumbled across this whilst reading through Glenn Kenny's blog - Ric Menello, co-director of the Beastie Boys' "Fight For Your Right To Party" video and screenwriter of the most recent James Gray films including Two Lovers and the upcoming Lowlife (EDIT: Now officially titled The Immigrant for its Cannes screening).
Here's the interview from Glenn Kenny's site reminiscing with a friend about Menello.
Here's the interview from Glenn Kenny's site reminiscing with a friend about Menello.
Last edited by colinr0380 on Sat May 18, 2013 12:56 pm, edited 1 time in total.
- MichaelB
- Joined: Fri Aug 11, 2006 6:20 pm
- Location: Worthing
- Contact:
- Duncan Hopper
- Joined: Mon Dec 21, 2009 5:16 am
- Location: http://www.eldiabolik.com
- Contact:
Re: Passages
This did indeed seem inevitable, but still very sad news.
- knives
- Joined: Sat Sep 06, 2008 6:49 pm
Re: Passages
That's unfortunate. I always assumed he'd live to ridiculous lengths.
- Finch
- Joined: Mon Jul 07, 2008 5:09 pm
- Location: Edinburgh, UK
Re: Passages
Any films of his you'd recommend to the uninitiated like me?
- colinr0380
- Joined: Mon Nov 08, 2004 4:30 pm
- Location: Chapel-en-le-Frith, Derbyshire, UK
Re: Passages
He did lose long time partner Lina Romay early last year, so it was kind of sad to think of him being on his own without her support.
Finch, I've only seen a small handful of his films but it might be worthwhile tracking down The Awful Dr Orloff from his early period (which takes the basic theme from Eyes Without A Face and puts it into a Hammer-style gothic setting) and then compare it against the 1988 Faceless (which is also an Eyes Without A Face adaptation set in contemporary Paris and features an eye-popping cast including Telly Savalas, Stephan Audran, Helmut Berger, Brigite Lahaie, Caroline Munro and Anton Diffring!)
Virgin Among The Living Dead is often regarded as one of his best achieved films. It certainly has a wonderful dreamy atmosphere and an excellent twinkly-creepy soundtrack!
A lot of his films fall into different 'eras', so it depends what you most respond to: there is the Christopher Lee era (The Bloody Judge, the last two Fu Manchu films, Count Dracula, Eugenie)
The Soledad Miranda period - I would highly recommend Vampyros Lesbos as one of Franco's best films - it features a nightclub sex show in front of a polite middle class audience (soon to be kind of a Franco trademark! But most effectively done here as one woman is undressing and moving another like a mannequin to the fantastic score) Soledad Miranda is stunning and the film also features Dennis Price, the lead opposite Alec Guinness in Kind Hearts and Coronets, in a small part. Unfortunately Soledad Miranda died quite young after only a couple of films with Franco (she is kind of the exploitation film equivalent of the similarly gone-too-soon Françoise Dorléac).
Then the Lina Romay period begins with the pretty good Female Vampire and never really ended!
Otherwise it sort of comes down to whether you want to see relatively famous faces taking a career slide into some quite weird films! Do you want to see Rita Moreno (West Side Story, Singin' In The Rain) in Voodoo Passion? Or Klaus Kinski as Jack The Ripper in the film of the same name, or playing the Marquis de Sade in the framing scenes of Justine? How about Mercedes McCambridge (Johnny Guitar, All The King's Men, the voice of the devil in The Exorcist) playing against Herbert Lom as the butch warden of the women in prison movie 99 Women (she is also in Justine as well, trying to seduce the heroine!) Plus don't forget that at any time Franco himself could pop up in an acting role! He's not great, but not quite as bad as Tarantino's acting appearances in his own films are!
Franco basically tried his hand at every genre in his career, usually with a hefty injection of sex: from spy thriller to cannibal film, to goofy comedy (Killer Barbys features the titular pop group in what can only be described as an attempt to do a live action Scooby Doo film with gore and lesbianism!), women in prison films; tie in entries to the Fu Manchu, Emanuelle and Ilsa series; lesbian vampire films; period pieces, voodoo films, etc. It is probably best not to tackle any of the more recent "One Shot" films, which are apparently quite poor but the 80s Franco has a few high points (Devil Hunter and the fantastically goofy slasher film Bloody Moon were notorious video nasties in the UK).
EDIT: Forget the above, for a good primer watch this Eurotika episode dedicated to Franco from back in 1999.
Finch, I've only seen a small handful of his films but it might be worthwhile tracking down The Awful Dr Orloff from his early period (which takes the basic theme from Eyes Without A Face and puts it into a Hammer-style gothic setting) and then compare it against the 1988 Faceless (which is also an Eyes Without A Face adaptation set in contemporary Paris and features an eye-popping cast including Telly Savalas, Stephan Audran, Helmut Berger, Brigite Lahaie, Caroline Munro and Anton Diffring!)
Virgin Among The Living Dead is often regarded as one of his best achieved films. It certainly has a wonderful dreamy atmosphere and an excellent twinkly-creepy soundtrack!
A lot of his films fall into different 'eras', so it depends what you most respond to: there is the Christopher Lee era (The Bloody Judge, the last two Fu Manchu films, Count Dracula, Eugenie)
The Soledad Miranda period - I would highly recommend Vampyros Lesbos as one of Franco's best films - it features a nightclub sex show in front of a polite middle class audience (soon to be kind of a Franco trademark! But most effectively done here as one woman is undressing and moving another like a mannequin to the fantastic score) Soledad Miranda is stunning and the film also features Dennis Price, the lead opposite Alec Guinness in Kind Hearts and Coronets, in a small part. Unfortunately Soledad Miranda died quite young after only a couple of films with Franco (she is kind of the exploitation film equivalent of the similarly gone-too-soon Françoise Dorléac).
Then the Lina Romay period begins with the pretty good Female Vampire and never really ended!
Otherwise it sort of comes down to whether you want to see relatively famous faces taking a career slide into some quite weird films! Do you want to see Rita Moreno (West Side Story, Singin' In The Rain) in Voodoo Passion? Or Klaus Kinski as Jack The Ripper in the film of the same name, or playing the Marquis de Sade in the framing scenes of Justine? How about Mercedes McCambridge (Johnny Guitar, All The King's Men, the voice of the devil in The Exorcist) playing against Herbert Lom as the butch warden of the women in prison movie 99 Women (she is also in Justine as well, trying to seduce the heroine!) Plus don't forget that at any time Franco himself could pop up in an acting role! He's not great, but not quite as bad as Tarantino's acting appearances in his own films are!
Franco basically tried his hand at every genre in his career, usually with a hefty injection of sex: from spy thriller to cannibal film, to goofy comedy (Killer Barbys features the titular pop group in what can only be described as an attempt to do a live action Scooby Doo film with gore and lesbianism!), women in prison films; tie in entries to the Fu Manchu, Emanuelle and Ilsa series; lesbian vampire films; period pieces, voodoo films, etc. It is probably best not to tackle any of the more recent "One Shot" films, which are apparently quite poor but the 80s Franco has a few high points (Devil Hunter and the fantastically goofy slasher film Bloody Moon were notorious video nasties in the UK).
EDIT: Forget the above, for a good primer watch this Eurotika episode dedicated to Franco from back in 1999.
- MichaelB
- Joined: Fri Aug 11, 2006 6:20 pm
- Location: Worthing
- Contact: