Passages

[MichaelB]

And if you want to see a film on which Cruising was undoubtedly a pretty strong influence, Piotr Domalewski's third feature Operation Hyacinth has just gone straight to Netflix after a premiere in Gdynia last month - it's about a very similar undercover investigation into a series of gay serial killings, the twist being that this is mid-1980s Poland and the fact that virtually everyone in the police force is wildly homophobic makes progress somewhat challenging.

[Speakeasy]

After reading this I remembered a film that was an influence on William Friedkin’s Cruising. What was it?

New York City Inferno (Jacques Scandelari, 1978), that’s it.

Sorry, but this sounds apocryphal. I highly doubt Friedkin has ever even heard of NYCI.

[L.A.]

IMDb’s Trivia states NYCI being an inspiration for Cruising.

Also curious to see it because:

The soundtrack is arranged by Jacques Morali, and features officially-licensed songs by the Village People.

[Knife Eater]

After reading this I remembered a film that was an influence on William Friedkin’s Cruising. What was it? 🤔

New York City Inferno (Jacques Scandelari, 1978), that’s it.

Sorry, but this sounds apocryphal. I highly doubt Friedkin has ever even heard of NYCI.

According to an interview excerpt that was shared on Twitter a while back by Evan Purchell of the Ask Any Buddy podcast, New York City Inferno's cinematographer, François About, was acquainted with Friedkin and showed him footage from Inferno. (IIRC, the poster for one of About's other films, And God Created Men, is visible during one of the club scenes in Cruising.)

[MichaelB]

It's worth noting that Friedkin was married to Jeanne Moreau at the time (1977-79), and that they lived together in France (La Garde-Freinet, near Saint-Tropez, to be precise).

So I'd argue that it's not at all hard to believe that a man who was preparing to make a film set in NYC's gay underworld might have been at the very least aware of a French film set in the same milieu, since it could well have come out when he was based there.

[MichaelB]

The Film Polski database has just published its annual list of pretty much everyone involved with film and television in Poland who's died in the last twelve months.

There was a distinct lack of really big names who passed away this year, although Zygmunt Malanowicz and Piotr Machalica will be familiar by at least face if not name to Polanski and Kieślowski fans as, respectively, "the younger man in Knife in the Water" and "the impotent husband in Dekalog 9". And Wiesław Gołas was a big local star, but I'm not sure his fame crossed borders to any especial extent. The playwright Jerzy Przeździecki was the subject of a piece I wrote during a journalism course that I took in my teens, which was my first ever writing on Polish culture - the whole class reviewed the play in question (playing locally) and we had to read our work out to everyone else, which meant that his surname was duly mangled every conceivable way that it could have been.

[therewillbeblus]

Jerry Remy at 68. This one hurts for all us Red Sox fans

[flyonthewall2983]

English music journalist Malcolm Dome

[therewillbeblus]

Aaron Beck, developer of Cognitive-Behavioral Therapy, probably the most widely-respected and pioneering modern psychotherapist

[agnamaracs]

Pat Martino

[yoloswegmaster]

Dean Shek, a prominent actor who appeared in multiple films from the Shaw Brothers and Golden Harvest and was a co-founder of Cinema City Enterprises.

[Orlac]

Dean Shek, a prominent actor who appeared in multiple films from the Shaw Brothers and Golden Harvest and was a co-founder of Cinema City Enterprises.

There's something very poigniant about HK personell passing on (Roy Horan being another example) because after so many movies, they seem like close friends.

[colinr0380]

Lionel Blair, at 92. More famous as a light entertainer but he turns up in small parts in a few, mostly music-centred, films in the 1960s, notably A Hard Day's Night and the Gerry O'Hara film Maroc 7. Also later in the 1980s he was in Absolute Beginners.

His last film was unfortunately in that Danny Dyer film Run For Your Wife which got savaged by Mark Kermode, as part of the astonishing cameo cast of light entertainers of a certain generation: June Whitfield, Richard Briers, Robin Askwith, Bill Pertwee, Russ Abbott and Les Dennis, Maureen Lipman, Barry Cryer, Wendy Craig, Vicki Michelle etc, etc. Plus Sylvia Syms and Donald Sinden! And Judi Dench as a Bag Lady! And...ahem...Noel Edmonds and Cliff Richards. Plus Rolf Harris, which probably makes it impossible to see now.

But I'm mostly reminded of Lionel Blair through those rather naughty double-entendre laden puns about him and his team captaining of Give Us A Clue that kept cropping up as a punchline on I'm Sorry I Haven't A Clue!

[Dr Amicus]

Bob Baker Most famously co-writer on several Dr Who stories, including creating K9, and co-writer on the Wallace and Gromit films (after the first).

[Jack Kubrick]

Dean Stockwell

[therewillbeblus]

Dean Stockwell

One of the greats who accomplished such range in his career- even as a child star venturing from straight-edged roles into the weird of The Boy with the Green Hair and continued on that path of bizarre cameos (Blue Velvet), hammy perfs at once genuine and hilariously cartoonish (Married to the Mob, securing the kind of supporting nom that should be carved out for these performances each year), and sincere introverted characterization with effortless restraint (Paris, Texas). RIP

[domino harvey]

Highly recommend Down to the Sea in Ships for anyone curious about his early onscreen work. He’ll always be the other guy from Quantum Leap to me though

[colinr0380]

So many great roles: in the 1960s Compulsion and Long Day's Journey Into Night (even Psych-Out, starring against Jack Nicholson and Henry Jaglom).
The 1970s: Dennis Hopper's film maudit The Last Movie; the starring role in Lovecraft adaptation The Dunwich Horror (which might be the biggest starring role he ever had); and supporting Dennis Hopper again in Henry Jaglom's excellent film Tracks.
The 1980s: Quantum Leap and Blue Velvet of course, but also Dune, two Francis Ford Coppola films in Gardens of Stone and Tucker: The Man and His Dream (playing Howard Hughes!) and To Live and Die In L.A.
The 1990s, starring in another film directed by and starring Dennis Hopper (although Hopper eventually Alan Smithee'd his directorial credit on it) in Catchfire (aka Backtrack) (yes that is Vincent Price in the trailer in the other 1990 final screen role of his career along with Edward Scissorhands); and he's a very solid presence as a supporting actor, and most sensible character out of everyone on that aircraft, in that TV mini-series adaptation of Stephen King's The Langoliers); along with another Coppola film with The Rainmaker
The 2000s, in Roman Coppola's debut film CQ, and a really good (and again eminently sensible, sort of defusing the main character's antics by default) foil to the antics of Joaquin Phoenix's rebel without a cause in Buffalo Soldiers.
The 2010s his final role was in Gregg Turkington's film Entertainment.

[beamish14]

So many great roles: in the 1960s Compulsion and Long Day's Journey Into Night (even Psych-Out, starring against Jack Nicholson and Henry Jaglom).
The 1970s: Dennis Hopper's film maudit The Last Movie; the starring role in Lovecraft adaptation The Dunwich Horror (which might be the biggest starring role he ever had); and supporting Dennis Hopper again in Henry Jaglom's excellent film Tracks.
The 1980s: Quantum Leap and Blue Velvet of course, but also Dune, two Francis Ford Coppola films in Gardens of Stone and Tucker: The Man and His Dream (playing Howard Hughes!) and To Live and Die In L.A.
The 1990s, starring in another film directed by and starring Dennis Hopper (although Hopper eventually Alan Smithee'd his directorial credit on it) in Catchfire (aka Backtrack) (yes that is Vincent Price in the trailer in the other 1990 final screen role of his career along with Edward Scissorhands); and he's a very solid presence as a supporting actor, and most sensible character, in that TV adaptation of Stephen King's The Langoliers); along with another Coppola film with The Rainmaker
The 2000s, in Roman Coppola's debut film CQ, and a really good (and again eminently sensible, sort of defusing the main character's antics by default) foil as the General father of the love interest in Buffalo Soldiers.
The 2010s his final role was in Gregg Turkington's film Entertainment.

He reinvented himself so many times. I'm fascinated by his collaborations with Neil Young, as he co-directed the incredibly bizarre Human Highway, and Young's album After the Gold Rush is a soundtrack to an unproduced script written by Stockwell.

[hearthesilence]

Not only did he inspire "After the Gold Rush" with his writing, he was apparently there when they recorded it for the album. I won't deny he had his bad years, but from a distance he lived a charmed life. Anchors Aweigh was one of his very first movies and he got to act with Gene Kelly and Frank Sinatra.

I mentioned this elsewhere, but he was also a central figure in Stars in My Crown, a favorite of mine, and I hope they re-play it if they program any tributes on TCM or elsewhere. The '80s was quite a comeback - I knew him as a TV star first, but I was surprised to find him in Paris, Texas, Blue Velvet and then The Player from 1992...all three were essentially rebounds for their respective auteurs as well. And Sidney Lumet's Long Day's Journey into Night is still a favorite on multiple levels - among Lumet's films, among O'Neill's plays, etc. - and all four leads including Stockwell are tremendous.

[L.A.]

Graeme Edge, Moody Blues drummer and co-founder at 80.

[Feego]

Gavan O'Herlihy, son of Dan O'Herlihy and best known as the vanishing older brother from Happy Days.

[colinr0380]

Novelist Wilbur Smith, whose books often about colonial times (though there was a run of Ancient Egypt ones too) only got a few adaptations to the screen during the late 1960s to mid 1970s: The Dark of the Sun starring Rod Taylor and directed by Jack Cardiff, and two films directed by Peter Hunt and starring Roger Moore with 1974's Gold and 1976's Shout At The Devil, in which Moore co-stars with Lee Marvin. I keep expecting them to turn up as Indicator announcements (though only casually expect it: I have never looked at the rights situation in detail to see if that were possible), as they would probably be perfect fits for that label.

Shout At The Devil is based on the second of the "Courtney" series of books, mainly following the professional hunter post Boer War and eventually the next generations on different adventures. The other big series was the "Ballantyne" one, and there were occasional crossovers between the various characters.

My dad was a fan (and Wilbur Smith along with Clive Cussler and Stephen King were monolithic mainstays of the shelves of WHSmith, and libraries) so I read a few of the books growing up. I remember quite liking Men of Men (itself the second in the "Ballantyne" series) but likely few of these books would fly today, with their resolutely white protagonist focus and love of animal hunting.

Although I am trying to remember exactly which book it was I read during the late 90s that first taught me about having to urinate on an injured person to remove toxic poison, where the white and black protagonists somehow 'bond' by having to do it on each other! I think it was Elephant Song? Anyway, whatever book it was would probably be recommended to those into urolagnia!

[Habit Rouge]

Music photographer Mick Rock. You may not recognize his name, but you've seen his images.

[flyonthewall2983]

Scott Bakula on Dean Stockwell