Well, we're back on the "let's watch animals eat people" thing, but a much newer movie! And in Florida!
Let's watch people be somewhere they shouldn't and alligators looking at it as a buffet.
Day: Friday - 04/23/2021
Time: 8:30 PM
Film. Comics. Sci-Fi. Superheroes. Pulp. Noir. History. Superman. 20th Century Archaeology.
Friday, April 23, 2021
Friday Night Watch Party: Crawl (2019) - let's watch alligators do what alligators do!
Monday, April 19, 2021
PODCAST: "Cool Hand Luke" (1967) - a Signal Watch Canon Episode w/ MRSHL and Ryan
Watched: 02/10/2021
Format: Amazon Streaming
Viewing: Unknown
Decade: 1960's
Director: Stuart Rosenberg
We're discussing our personal canon, and to that end, Marshall and Ryan do not fail to communicate about one of the best movies of the New Hollywood era. Join us as we talk prison movies, analogy, and using film to reflect upon the wider world. Come on! It's one of the greats of American cinema starring one of the greats of American cinema! Come give us a listen.
Music:
Main Title and End Title - Lalo Shifrin, Cool Hand Luke OST
Signal Watch Canon:
Sunday, April 18, 2021
Maniac Watch: Maniac (1980)
Format: Amazon Prime
Viewing: First
Decade: 1980's
Director: William Lustig
One of the interesting things about horror is that it can be used to give an actor a showcase who might not otherwise get one. Joe Spinell is not a name with which a ton of people are familiar, although he had appeared in two Rocky films. I knew him from his star turn as the villain in Starcrash.
Spinell was in a ton of stuff, but mostly not in leading roles, and mostly played a heavy. Maybe not the greatest way to stretch one's acting resume. But in 1980 he was part of the creative team that wrote and created Maniac, the movie of which he is the star (but let's agree it's weird to call him a protagonist, even if he is, kinda sorta). He created an opportunity, and he really made the most of it.
JAL recommended the film, and I'd been putting it off, but it seemed like good counter-programming to The Beautician and the Beast. Anyhoo... I get why JAL suggested it, and I did, in fact "like" it, which is a curious thing to say about a movie where a guy kills a whole bunch of people over 90 minutes.
I'm going to recommend the movie as a terrific/ whacko character study, a truly grisly horror movie (I did not watch with Jamie), and having a hell of an ending.
Plus, it briefly co-stars Signal Watch fave, Caroline Munro! Just sorta being Caroline Munro - but as a photographer!
 |
| see! There she is! |
Anyway - no spoilers. But if you like the grittiness of, say, Basketcase, this movie is for you.
Watch Party Watch: The Beautician and the Beast (1997)
Format: Amazon Watch Party
Viewing: First
Decade: 1990's
Director: Ken Kwapis
Wait wait wait... Fran Drescher plays a sassy Jewish girl from working class New York who a well-meaning functionary mistakes as a great candidate for a child-rearing role for a powerful and wealthy handsome widower? What an entirely novel concept!
Look, you couldn't not be aware of Fran Drescher circa 1997. I remember my grandmother praising The Nanny at the time, and my own hip 20-something skepticism. But a couple of years ago I found myself watching re-runs of the show, and I was like "oh, I get it. She wants to be Lucille Ball, but in mini-skirts and leaning into Jewish stereotypes that I, as a WASP from Texas, can neither confirm nor deny." Frankly, for what it is, it works. I won't say the show is "smart" exactly, but it does what it does well, and I get how it lasted 6 seasons.
But... even in 1997 I was confused by The Beautician and the Beast. It's the same thing as what she was doing on TV. Like, pretty much exactly. The movie is even PG from an era where comedies were PG-13, but Drescher's comedy was always flirty, not going for overt sex comedy or working blue, and so felt sanitized for network censors of the time. So there's not even "we could never do this on TV" to separate the two. Drescher is quoted as saying she didn't want to challenge the audience too much as she moved to movies, but I'd argue - don't just ask them to pay for what they can see every week for free.*
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)
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)
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)
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)
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
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:
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