The Day Before the Hard Day's Night

Why have I never heard of The Beatles: The First U.S. Visit (1994)? Or even it's predecessor, What's Happening! from 1964. It seems that the brothers Maysles (Monterey Pop, Gimme Shelter) were given full access to the Beatles for their first 1964 visit to America. They shot a documentary for TV called What's Happening!, a piece of slang that they taught Murray the K. Then, in 1991, it was re-cut to add the Ed Sullivan show performances.

The whole thing seems a lot like outtakes from A Hard Day's Night. The boys riding on a train, cutting up, telling jokes, smoking cigs. Screaming girls outside the limos, and at the show. Goofing on the questions at press conferences, listening to themselves on Paul's transistor radio.

It's neat to see them respond to a stupid question from the press ("Are those really wigs?") with a stupid answer ("Yes, we're all bald"). Then you see Paul reading the Q&A in the paper, pause, and conclude, "It's funny." He's not entirely sure, maybe he could have come up with a better one. Because they are all trying very hard to be entertaining, to be clever, to be cool. I'm surprised at how earnest they seem. Just once does John look at the camera and say, "I just don't feel like laughing."

The performances are always amazing. These guys were such performers, turning out tight versions of the songs we know so well, then rolling right into the next one, or putting their heels together and taking a deep bow. Really reminds you of what is was all about.

You don't get a lot of the boys singing or playing offstage, although George plays a little blues number in the hotel, and John blows a few notes on a melodica. And those few notes later became "Strawberry Fields".

Not as funny as Hard Day's Night, but real.

Deadlier than the Male

10th Victim (1965) is just ridiculous. Set in The Future, Marcello Mastrioanni and Ursula Andress are pitted against each other in the Big Hunt - where humans are the prey, and each prey takes a turn as hunter.

It is directed by Elio Petri, who doesn't ring any bells, but produced by Carlo Ponti. He produced tons of stuff, but I seem to associate him with Euro-cool swinging 60s movies, like this one. I can sum it up in one image: Do you know the Ericofon, that odd horn-shaped plastic phone with the rotary dial on the underside of the base? This phone will be the standard in The Future. Also, Op Art, jumpsuits, hats with see-through plastic visors, and brassieres that shoot bullets.

It soon becomes obvious that this isn't a dystopia film like Logan's Run, but a sex farce. Sure, Ursula Andress is trying to kill Mastroianni, but isn't that always the way between a man and a woman?

This movie isn't quite up there with Modesty Blaise, Danger: Diabolik or Barbarella, but would make a good second feature for any of them. 

Dee-Lites

Speaking of streaming movies that one watches mainly because they are streaming and you don't have anything better in mind: Detective Dee: Rise of the Sea Dragon (2013). Not that there's anything wrong with it - it's Hark Tsui, after all.

It is a prequel of the first Detective Dee movie, so Dee is played by Mark Chao instead of Tony Leung Kar Fai, although Carina Lau reprises her role as empress. It takes place in the port city being threatened by a sea monster. The local Chamber of Commerce hires a courtesan, Angelababy (Tai Chi Zero) as a sacrifice. Newcomer Dee and the town's chief detective both fall under her spell - Tsui uses one of his surrealistic touch to show her as a Chinese goddess with slow motion ribbons in her hair. It gets even more surrealistic when she is nearly kidnapped by the Gill-Man.

The gimmick in the Detective Dee movies is that the amazing, mystical events have material causes; in this case, disgusting parasites, which only can be cured by drinking the urine of the royal eunuchs. So, along with fantastic elements, there's quite a bit of silly humor.

Also, great fights, but that goes more or less without saying.

Surrealistic fantasy, goofy humor and an attempt to provide real-life explanations for everything, all made with Hark Tsui's touch. This is a silly spectacle, and nothing more, which makes it a perfect streaming watch when you have nothing on your mind.

Take Me Home Mountain Road

As I said, Ms. Spenser has asked for and gotten more scary movies. Here's another one suggested by the man known as Curt from Mountain View (they call him that on podcasts because they can't pronounce his last name): Incident On and Off a Mountain Road (2005).

A woman driving along a lonely mountain road crashes into a car and soon finds herself stalked by a giant, disfigured slasher. Yep, this is a slasher film, and I am watching it. But it's not the average slasher film - this woman used to date a survivalist, and has some skills up her sleeve, as well as some inner strength.

This is a one-hour, made for TV movie from the Masters of Horror series, directed by Don Coscarelli, I wouldn't have guessed it, but he directed Bubba Ho-Tep, the best Elvis-meets-the-Mummy film ever to star Bruce Campbell. He adapted Incident, like Bubba, from a story by Joe Lansdale. We've always like his Weird Wild West stuff, although it does give me nightmares.

I had to close my eyes for some scenes (one that involves eyes, in fact), but this is a smart, well-made slasher film for those who like that sort of thing. For those who don't it's only 60 minutes long.

Good Night, Gracie

In exchange for all the girly movies (horror and suspense) I am watching , I'm making her watch guy films, mostly musicals, like Grace of My Heart (1996). I've been planning to watch this story of a singer-songwriter loosely based on Carol King, for a while, and an interview with the star Illeana Douglas on Projection Booth brought it all home.

It starts in the fifties with Douglas the teen daughter of a wealthy family. She is going to a talent show where her mother wants her to sing "You'll Never Walk Alone" in a white prom dress. But another contestant, a black girl singing the blues, convinces her to sing "Hey There, You with the Stars in Your Eyes", and trades her the white dress for a slinky black cocktail number.

This blues singing inspiration, by the way, is played by Jennifer Leigh Warren, who I went to school with. Never would have recognized her, but she is great, even though she didn't do her own songs. Neither does Douglas, she's dubbed by Kristen Vigard. But that's fine.

So Douglas wins the talent show and gets to go to New York with a recording contract. But nobody will record her: Female singers aren't selling that season and nobody wants a singer who records her own songs. Finally, John Turturro (in a role inspired by Phil Spector) gets her to let a male doo-wop group record her song. When it's a hit, he moves her into the Brill Building and it's off to the races.

The film is a mix of Douglas' quest to be recognized as a singer and a songwriter, her problems with men, and the changes in the world as the sixties roll in. Her first husband is her self-centered writing partner Eric Stoltz. Then she had an affair with married older man Bruce Davison. Finally, she moves out to California with Brian Wilsonish Matt Dillon. She gets something from each of them, but really, she needs better taste in men. She does stay in touch with Jennifer Warren, and gets an English songwriting partner, Patsy Kensit. In fact, one of the best little scenes is those two doing a song for Bridget Fonda as a Leslie Gore type, a deeply closeted lesbian coming apart at the seams. Her song, "My Secret Love" was actually written by Leslie Gore, along with Larry Klein and David Baerwald.

Most of the songs, in fact, are written by a writer from the day paired with a modern day writer. Carol Sager with Dave Stewart, Larry Klein and Gerry Goffin, and the first pairing of Elvis Costello and Burt Bacharach. It's the songs that the movie lives or dies on. I don't even think that they are really that great songs. But they are sold with utter conviction and beautiful production. Illeana Douglas even says at one point, "It's very melodramatic," and she's right - beautifully, breathtakingly melodramatic.

I should mention that the movie is full of great performances, and Douglas is a lot of fun to watch. She's funny looking, as at least one character in the movie says, but beautiful. She hasn't been in very many movies, but she's great in this.

Fear of the Hunter

It turns out that neither Ms. Spenser nor I had seen the Robert Mitchum Cape Fear (1962). We remedied that recently. For those who haven't seen it, or the De Niro re-make, it stars Gregory Peck as a lawyer in picturesque Cape Fear NC. Robert Mitchum is Max Cady, a man that Peck put in prison. He has just gotten out and wants lets Peck know that he plans to make him suffer, along with his wife and daughter.

Peck is connected in the community - he gets the police chief to try to roust Cady, but all attempts fail. Even when he brutally beats a B-girl, she won't testify. She's too scared. So the only thing left to do is set a trap and kill him.

Maybe someone else can clarify, is Peck's reaction supposed to be kind of sleazy? First, try to use your political connections. When that doesn't work, try to kill him. I guess restraining orders hadn't been invented.

Anyway, he's scared. Everyone is scared. Mitchum is one scary guy. He's big, he loves violence and he "doesn't give a damn." This would be a good film with someone else in the role: it's got some pretty locations and the tension is kept high. But Mitchum takes it to another level.

However, Ms. Spenser wanted to see his "Love/Hate" knuckle tattoos, so we queued up The Night of the Hunter (1955). It introduces us first to the environment with an aerial view of a river in the midwest - the Ohio? Then we meet Mitchum who is thanking the Lord God for the widows that he's killed, for the good Lord provideth. We also meet John and Pearl, two little kids whose dad (Peter Graves!) just committed murder with robbery and lets the kids know where the money if they promise not to tell anyone, including their mother (Shelley Winters!), who he figures is soft-headed.

Graves ends up in prison with Mitchum who's just doing a few months for car-theft. (Do they really put death-row inmates in with short-timers? Maybe they did in the Depression.) When Graves is executed and Mitchum gets out, he decides to go meet the widow. His courtship and marriage to Winters is one of the most chilling parts of the movie - he convinces her that she is an unclean sinner in a way that is almost as menacing as Max Cady beating the loose woman.

I want to go light on spoilers - if you haven't seen this, you should. But he eventually starts chasing the children and they set off down the river. The film takes a somewhat impressionist feel here. This was Charles Laughton's first and only time directing. He doesn't always seem like he's completely in control of his medium - there's a touch of amateurism here. But the movie is full of odd touches - the unfamiliar lullabies and children's songs, the glimpses of the animal world, the world of shadows and moonlight, and they get much stronger here. But there are other scenes of rare beauty and horror, like the underwater corpse with the flowing hair.

Here's a little spoiler: In the end, when Mitchum gets what's coming to him, it's pretty slapstick. It starts out tension-filled and scary, with Mitchum lurking around singing an old hymn, and the children's protector harmonizing along. But when it ends, it was like waking up from a nightmare and wondering what was so frightening.

Night of the Hunter was really fascinating, Cape Fear really scary. I suppose we should watch the De Niro version next. We'll see if we can stand the tension.

Neighbor of the Beast

We continue to delve into the Joe Dante oeuvre with The Burbs (1989). It stars Tom Hanks as an ordinary guy who wants to spend his vacation week at home in his little cul-de-sac. His wife (Carrie Fisher) thinks he should go to the lake, but his obnoxious slob of a neighbor, Rick Ducommum, is happy to hang out with him and raid his pantry.

The neighborhood seems like a nice place - the worst menace might be the old guy (Gale Gordon!) who lets his poodle poop on other people's lawn. There's survivalist gun-nut Bruce Dern and his hot wife Wendy Schall and stoner Corey Feldman who is sort of painting his family's house while they are away. Oh yes - then there's that house at 669 Mayfield that is kind of run-down, dark and menacing, with the funny noises and lights in the basement. Nobody knows who lives there - they never come out. But Hanks' son has seen them, late at night, in the rain, digging in the backyard...

It is kind of a comedy of manners mixed with horror. The neighbors all speculate about the creepy family like kids talking about a haunted house, then start daring each other to ring the doorbell. It goes on from there. The only hint as to what they find that I will give you is that it involves Henry Gibson.

This is all very Joe Dante - the look is very stylized, all on one studio lot. The script is clever and layered, with a nice mix of normalcy and doom. There's even a Dick Miller role. Some people consider this one of his best.

I wouldn't go that far. It's good, but not best. I loved it while watching, but I'm not sure it's as rich or deep as it could have been, or as biting. It reminds me a lot of the Belushi-Ackroyd Neighbors from 1981, which I also liked but didn't love. The same kind of suburbia disturbed comedy.

In conclusion, the Corey Feldman character, who treats the whole disaster as a spectacle, is my favorite.