The Blob (1958)

If the stories I’ve heard are true there is a five-gallon bucket somewhere in the United States that contains a batch of red silicone still moist from the 1958 production of The Blob.   Supposedly it is brought out and displayed at the annual Blobfest in Phoenixville PA where many of the scenes for the movie were shot.   The Blob is one of many science fiction movies of the 1950’s that told of some unknown horror coming from outer space that endangers the world.  A lot of these were extremely low budget and featured extremely bad special effects even taking into account the time they were produced. 

American President

Not too long ago I was reminded of one of my favorite romantic movies, The American President.  The film stars Michael Douglas as President Andrew Shepherd and Annette Bening as Sydney Ellen Wade, a lobbyist for an ecological group.  President Shepherd is something unusual in the U.S. Presidency, though not in movies, a single father.  Shepherd is nearing the end of his first term, up for re-election and wondering if the real reason he was elected was due to a sympathy vote after his wife died of cancer during his campaign.  Now, after a little over three years of widowhood, he spots Sydney at a meeting taking place at the White House and decides he would like to ask her out.  The problem, obviously, is that he is the President of the United States.  His life is a fish bowl and there is a dignity that goes with the office that makes it difficult to have close friends.  His oldest and best friend now refuses to call him anything other than “Mr. President” even during their private games of pool.  So just how does a President ask a woman out on a date?  What happens when that date is successful and they find themselves strongly attracted to each other?

Hairspray (1988)

You may have seen the musical.  You have most likely seen the movie starring John Travolta, Queen Latifah, and Nikki Blonsky, but have you see the movie that started it all?  The original 1988 comedy Hairspray, directed and written by John Waters, featured Ricki Lake as Tracy Turnblad and Divine as Edna Turnblad.  This movie has a grittier, earthier feel than either the musical or the 2007 movie.   This is not too surprising as Hairspray was the first film by John Waters to receive less than an “R” rating.  Prior to this film John Waters had been justly known in Hollywood as “The King of Bad Taste.” Hairspray was the first John Water’s films to even attempt to appeal to the general public. 

Repo Man (1984)

It is likely that if I mentioned the name of Mike Nesmith most of us would think of the 1960’s band The Monkees.  Some of us might think to recall him for his work with the First National Band, or some of his solo musical works.  You might even remember him as one of the pioneers of the modern music video.  It might come as a surprise to you that he was the executive producer of a film that the magazine Entertainment Weekly named #7 on its list of the “Top 50 Cult Films of All-Time.”  The film is Repo Man starring Emilio Estevez as Otto, a street punk having a bad day, who is tricked by Bud (Harry Dean Stanton) into becoming a repo man and brings him into the strange and dangerous world surrounding the repossession of automobiles.

Somewhere In Time

Love knows no reason, no boundaries, no distance. It has a sole intention of bringing people together to a time called forever.
-- Unknown

 

Perhaps the quote above was in the mind of Richard Matheson, the author of the book “Somewhere in Time” or in the thoughts of the writers of the screenplay for the film; perhaps not.  It could easily be applied to this story of Playwright Richard Collier (Christopher Reeve) and Actress Elise McKenna (Jane Seymour) and the love that lasted both their lives.   The difficult question posed by the story is understanding just when their love began?  Did it begin at the moment Richard first saw her, after the 1972 opening performance of his play when she presses a watch into his hands; or when Elise first meets him at the elegant hotel where he eventually returns the watch to her sixty years earlier? Theirs is truly a love that transcends time itself.

Brazil

I remember the first time I became aware of the movie Brazil.  I was reading through “Variety” magazine in an effort to keep up with the films of the day when I suddenly came across a strange full-page advertisement.  It didn’t say much.  It was a full page sheet bordered in black with the question, “Dear Sid Sheinberg, when are you going to release my film Brazil?  Terry Gilliam.”  At the time, I had not heard of the film Brazil and did not know the controversy surrounding its release in the United States.

Little Big Man

First Line: “I am, beyond a doubt, the last of the old-timers. My name is Jack Crabb. And I am the sole white survivor of the Battle of Little Big Horn, uh, uh, popularly known as Custer's Last Stand.”

 

Even though Little Big Man is a comedy it was one of the first movie westerns to portray Native American’s in a positive light and our treatment of them as the horror it often was.

Alan Rickman 1946 – 2016

Allan RickmanJanuary 14, 2016 marked the passing of Alan Rickman.  Rickman was best known in recent years as  Severus Snape in the Harry Potter Movies.  One of his earliest roles to command attention was that of the villain Hans Gruber in the first Die Hard. You might also remember him as Alexander Dane in Galaxy Quest, the classically trained actor resigned to be forever remembered for playing an alien in a television series.     Like his Galaxy Quest character Alan Rickman was a classically trained actor who was equally at home on stage as he was on screen, though he preferred the stage and often passed up choice movie roles to appear on stage.  

The link below will provide a list of films and other materials featuring Alan Rickman.

 

Alan Rickman

David Bowie 1947 – 2016

David BowieOn January 10th of this year we lost one of the most the most innovative musical performers of the late 1960’s on: David Bowie.  David Bowie managed to re-invent his stage persona and musical style to fit the times and keep himself relevant.  Bowie was not just a talented musician and singer.  He was also a talented actor and he starred in a number memorable and now classic films.  In his first major role his acting ability and unique looks brought the alien character of Thomas Jerome Newton to a life in The Man Who Fell to Earth.  And few who have seen the film Labyrinth can forget him as the King of the Goblins in his M.C. Escher inspired castle.

Below I have provided a link which will bring up a list of Monroe County Public library’s holdings wish feature the music, writing or acting talent of David Bowie.  Mr. Bowie, you will be missed.

 

David Bowie

Sophie Scholl: The Final Days

While I was growing up in the 60’s and 70’s I learned in my history classes about the horrors of what happened in Germany during WWII.  However in these classes the German people were painted with broad sweeping strokes of black as supporters of the Nazi movement and Hitler.  I never learned of people such as Oskar Schindler, the German industrialist who managed to save the lives of so many of the Jewish people.  Nor had I heard of groups, such as “The Swing Kids,” “The Edelweiss Pirates,” “The Solf Circle,” and “The Kreisau Circle.”  All of these were groups of German Nationals who were either vocal opponents of the Nazi doctrine or actively fought against them as part of the underground resistance in Germany.  In fact there were a lot more “subversive groups” in Germany than I was aware existed.  Another group I had never heard of was one founded by Hans Scholl and his sister Sophie known as “The White Rose.”

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