Friday, April 16, 2021

Friday Watch Party: Beautician and the Beast


Fran-Mania Friday!

Join us as we celebrate Fran Drescher taking her successful TV concept and doing basically the same thing as a movie.  I assume.  I've not seen this movie.  But I'm a late-arriving fan of The Nanny, and so why wouldn't this be just as good?  It's got Timothy Dalton, and I love that guy.

So, let's hope this movie is pretty good!  Even without CC, Niles, Maxwell, Sylvia, Yetta, Val and the kids.  Let's hope a repressive dictator is just as funny.

Day:  04/16/2021
Time:  8:30 Central

Thursday, April 15, 2021

Doc Watch: Pumping Iron (1977)




Watched:  04/15/2021
Format:  Amazon Prime
Viewing:  First
Decade:  1970's

So, I finally watched Pumping Iron (1977)!  It was super good.  I'm not spending the energy to write it up, but if I liked Arnie before (and he's my imaginary friend, so, yes), nothing has changed.  Also, it was wild to see young Lou Ferrigno.  

Noir Watch Party: The Blue Gardenia (1953)




Watched:  04/13/2021
Format:  Amazon Watch Party
Viewing:  Second
Decade:  1950's
Director:  Fritz Lang

We'd watched The Blue Gardenia (1953) some time back, and this time I'm inclined to be kinder to the film.  It's still not my favorite, but with Anne Baxter, Ann Sothern, Richard Conte and Raymond Burr and Fritz Lang directing, you kind of expect a bit more.

Anne Baxter gets a Dear Jane letter from her solider-boy boyfriend who has met a nurse overseas, and tells her he's getting married.  She does as anyone might do, receives a call for her roommate (Ann Sothern) looking for a date, takes up the fellow on it, and meets up with Raymond Burr.  Because it's 1953, Burr is not a nice guy, and he gets Baxter drunk and takes her back to his place to take advantage of her.  

Baxter wakes up at home, unsure of what happened, but she's left her shoes at Burr's apartment, which is embarrassing enough, but also: he's been killed with a fire poker.  So.  She seems to have totally murdered a dude and left her shoes behind.

Conte plays a local reporter - a social crusading type in search of headlines, and he begins the search for the woman they dub "The Blue Gardenia".

Fritz Lang wasn't one to shy away from a good thriller, of course, and this film puts the audience in the curious spot of identifying with a woman who just killed someone, with pretty good reason, but by social mores of the 1950's - if she's arrested, who knows?  Could be the gas chamber.  And if she's acquitted for self-protection?  One can assume she'd be "ruined" by attacks on her character for having made the terrible decision to cozy up to Raymond Burr.  The film doesn't explicitly say anything about a woman's place in society in 1953, but it's not hard to understand what the assumed rules are, and how Lang and the writers used those notions to build a better mousetrap for our protagonist.  As the audience, we know it's unjust, but...

Unfortunately, Conte is written as a bit of a dingbat, apparently buying a whole lot of "I have a friend who may have done a thing" storytelling, that I'd assume anyone as old as 14 would recognize as "and I assume this friend is you?"  But it's not how it's played off.  

The movie generally *looks* great, with Nicholas Musuraca listed as Cinematographer, and who had plenty of prior experience he brought to bear in this film.  

Again, the movie is fine - it just wasn't one I'd had any particular penchant for the first time I saw it, and that was more or less how I felt on round 2.


Noir Watch: Naked Alibi (1954)




Watched:  04/12/2021
Format:  BluRay
Viewing:  First
Decade:  1950's
Director:  Jerry Hopper


Burning the last of my "it's your birthday, watch what you want" goodwill, I chose Naked Alibi (1954) - a movie I'd heard was "ehhh".  And, indeed, it was. 

But, look, I'm a Sterling Hayden stan and a Gloria Grahame nut, so this seemed like a slam dunk.  Alas.

Sterling Hayden plays a detective that in literally any other movie would be a rogue cop.or just a thug of a cop (see Hayden in Crimewave).  Here, his underlings haul in a guy for basically existing on the sidewalk after dark and seem set to pin a crime on him minus any evidence, so he loses it and slugs a cop.  But the guy is a baker, with a young wife and kids.  It makes no sense, yet Hayden decides he's a crook and hassles him.  Two of his guys get blown up by a car bomb, and he decides it must be Al the Baker, and goes about police-harassing him, including manhandling him in front of witnesses and the press, which gets him fired.

Tuesday, April 13, 2021

Comedy Watch: Barb & Star Go To Vista Del Mar (2021)



Watched:  04/11/2021
Format:  Amazon Streaming
Viewing:  First
Decade:  2020's
Director:  Josh Greenbaum

Delayed from summer 2020, Barb and Star Go To Vista Del Mar (2021) was released to streaming services in February for a premium fee, but is now available for a more standard fee, and if I knew how much I would like it, I would have paid the $20.  

It's *not* for everybody, but it was absolutely in my wheelhouse.  This thing - written by and starring Annie Mumolo and Kristen Wiig - is as bonkers a comedy as I've seen in a looong time.  I don't want to give you any spoilers or plot points.  Just let it unfold.



Monday, April 12, 2021

PODCAST: "Withnail and I" (1987) - a Signal Watch Canon episode w/ SimonUK and Ryan




Watched:  March 30, 2021
Format:  HBOmax
Viewing:  First
Decade:  1980's
Director:  Bruce Robinson




We're discussing our personal canon when it comes to film - and what can two guys who talk endlessly at one another do better than discuss two guys who talk endlessly at one another? It's a British cult favorite, but not the best known movie here in the colonies - but maybe it should be? Join us for a sojourn in the country as we escape our normal routine!


Music:
Withnail's Theme - David Dundas and Rick Wentworth
All Along the Watchtower - Performed by Jimi Hendrix, Written by Bob Dylan

Signal Watch Canon:

46

Dream Operator
Talking Heads - True Stories



When you were little
You dreamed you were big
You must have been something
A real tiny kid

You wish you were me
I wish I was you
Now don't you wake up
The dream will come true

Every dream has a name
And names tell your story
This song is your dream
You're the dream operator

It's bigger than life
You know it's all me
My face is a book
But it's not what it seems

Three angels above
The whole human race
They dream us to life
They dream me a face

And every dream tells it all
And this dream is your story
You dreamed me a heart
You're the dream operator

Shake-it-up dream
Hi-di-ho dream
Fix-it-up dream
Look at me dream
I've been waiting so long
Now I am your dream

Hard to forget
Hard to go on
When you fall asleep
You're out on your own

Let go of your life
Grab on to my hand
Here in the clouds
Where we'll understand

And you dreamed it all
And this is your story
Do you know who you are?
You're the dream operator

And you dreamed it all
And this is your story
Do you know who you are?
You're the dream operator




Sunday, April 11, 2021

Watch Party Watch: Danger Diabolik (1968)




Watched 04/09/2021
Format:  Amazon Watch Party
Viewing:  Unknown
Decade:  1960's
Director:  Bava

I mean, man, you had to be there

Legal Thriller Watch: Presumed Innocent (1990)




Watched  04/09/2021
Format:  HBOmax
Viewing:  Second
Decade:  1990's
Director:  Alan J. Pakula

It's fair to say, that when I saw this at age 16 or whatever it was (I would have been 15 upon the film's release, and didn't see it in the theater) I followed the plot, but I didn't "get" the film.  Recently I was discussing this film with some folks who said it was a good neo-noir, and I should give it a shot, so I did.  What the hell else am I doing?

I'd literally forgotten I'd seen the film until reading the synopsis on wikipedia, and realized I had, in fact, seen it, but didn't remember which of the circa 1990-era adult court mystery dramas I was thinking of when and if details from the movie crossed my mind.  Firstly "Presumed Innocent" is as untelling a title as what often gets applied to noir.  Second, until about 1997, I think every fifth movie coming out was an actor in a suit going to court for some reason or other.

So, yeah, seeing a film about betrayal in a marriage and the fallout wrapped up in a mystery, semi-erotic thriller works far better at age 46 and with 21 years of marriage under your belt.  Also, realizing how *good* everyone is in this movie was a delight.  And goddamn the early passing of Raul Julia, who was amazing here.

Saturday, April 10, 2021

Pig Watch: Babe (1995)




Watched:  04/05/2021
Format:  DVD
Viewing:  Unknown
Decade:  1990's
Director:  Chris Noonan

When Jamie and I started dating, I recall one of the things we agreed upon was Babe (1995), the movie about a polite little pig who unwittingly dodges the carving knife over and over while a quiet farmer recognizes his potential and figures him for an excellent sheep dog pig.  

I don't recall exactly why I saw Babe, but for a streak from 1995- 1999 or so, I was at the movies 3 times per week or so, watching a good chunk of mainstream cineplex content, but also hitting Austin's Dobie and Village theaters to catch the "college rock" options when it came to movies.  What I can remember is my utter shock at how *good* the film was.  I hadn't read any reviews, I really expected it to be a goofy little kids movie, and I kind of stumbled out into the sun afterwards unsure of what I'd seen.

And, believe me, sitting around drinking beers with your pals fresh back from summer and saying "you know what was really good that I saw this summer?  Babe, the movie about the talking pig."  This is early-days film school where everyone's trying to prove they've seen the coolest, artiest stuff and where people rolled their eyes at you for talking about techniques from Star Wars, so  - to suggest that a movie was something that they had decided it was not - was taken about as well as the idea of a pig herding sheep.