Girls, Can You Believe It Took Me This Long To See "Targets????????????????????????????"

                                     I had heard about "Targets" for years.  It was the remarkable debut of a promising then new director named Peteer Bogdanovich.  He went on to do "The Last Picture Show," in 1971, and then "Paper Moon," in 1973.  After that his career imploded.  What a sad end to such talent.

                                      "Targets" surprised me in several ways.  I had always imagined it was shot in black-and-white, but it was not.  Also, I had thought there would have been more of an interaction between Bobby, the killer, and Byron Orlock, the horror star played brilliantly by Boris Karloff in what was his final film role.  What a way to go out!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

                                        Based on the Charles Whitman 1966 University of Texas shooting, the film shows Bobby evolving from having "funny ideas" into a full-fledged mass shooter.  The title is so apt, because the viewer sees him lining up his shots--as targets.  He starts with his family, then goes on to kill anyone he can.  It is chilling and disturbing to watch; it must have been in 1968, but you can bet this did not show up at any theaters in New Brunswick, New Jersey, back then!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

                                       What is even more chilling about "Targets" is its prescience, for who could have, then foreseen, Columbine, Sandy Hook, and the Virginia Tech shootings?  And the wheel keeps going, spewing out more victims, while some arcane laws do not allow for accountability or still fail to take these incidents seriously.  And how about gun control?

                                          Bobby, played by Tim O'Kelly, may be a serial killer on the make, but he is so amateurish, leaving an entire arsenal of guns atop the gas tower he poses during the day while committing his atrocities.  But it is the fall of night, the seediness of Los Angles, and the terror that can erupt in a seedy L.A. drive-in that Bogdanovich and his cinematographer, the talented Laslo Kovacs, capture so well.  The final dissolving shot is just brilliant and says it all.

                                             "Targets" is a must for those who take cinema seriously.  But it also demonstrates that as used to as we seem to be to such incidents, this film still has the power to unnerve.

                                                  Don't miss it, darlings!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

If I Had Gone Into Show Business, I Might Have Ended Up Like This!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

                                                                                

                               That's right, girls!  Singing in a sleazy Atlantic City night club in New Jersey, drinking in between performances, and talking to anyone who will listen, like Dorothy Comignore as Susan Alexander in "Citizen Kane."  The movie makes it look fascinating but is it really?  What does Susan have now, compared to what she had?  At least she does not have to do jigsaw puzzles anymore!

                              Or I could be in some sleazy Manhattan night club, straddling the piano in a glamorous thirties gown, and singing "I'm Just A Black Sheep Who's Blue," like Dorothy Dell as Bangles Carson in "Little Miss Marker."

                                Some choices, huh?  Maybe it is a good thing I did not go into show business.

                               Oh, honey!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

                               "Why don't you come and take me away from it all??I'm just a black sheep who's blue!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!"

I Will Not Be Here For The Next Several Days!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

                                Like the sign says, I am having a colonoscopy on Wednesday, so I will be off this blog for some time.  I don't want to do it, but it is that time.  Tomorrow is the prep, which is still horrible: God grant me the strength to get through it. Then Wednesday I go and have the procedure.

                                    So much fear and things to worry about.  And yet I must go through this.  I would honestly rather do this than the alternative.

                                       May I return to write more about interesting items, new movies yet to be seen, and books having been and being read.  And anything else that should come up.

                                         Wish me luck, girls!  I will report on what happens when I return!

                                           "Oh, Mommy, Mommy, don't let the hurt me!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!"

                                          Heeeeeeeeeelllllllllllppppppppppppppp   meeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I Finally Saw "The Third Man!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!"

 

                         The above shot has been famous to me for years, ever since I saw footage from this film used in Peter Jackson's 1994 film, "Heavenly Creatures," a film I need to see again.

                             The teen girls in that film, a young Kate Winslet and Melanie Lynsey are obsessed with this film and go to see it constantly.  I can understand their obsession for this film, but not the reasons behind it.

                                Every frame in this masterpiece is pure gold.  So much so that, while Carol Reed gets directorial credit, I have to wonder if Orson Welles himself had a hand in its making.  So many of the shots rival what Welles did in some of his films.

                                  Welles is a mystery figure who does not appear till midway through the film, revealed by a cute cat.  Alida Valli is attractive and haunting as Anna, who loves Harry Lime in spite of his singular negative qualities.  Same with Joseph Cotten, who once again proves himself to be Hollywood's most underrated actor.  I must admit I prefer Valli in the role of the repressed lesbian recruiting young girls in "Les Yeux Sans Visage."

                                      Everything I have heard about this film is true--the footage in the sewers, the haunting amusement park, that iconic Ferris wheel, and the ride Lime and pulp novelist Holly Martine (Cotten) take on that Ferris wheel.  The images in this film are stunning, the plot striking, and it all came from the pen of Graham Creene.

                                        But it took Carol Reed and who knows who else to get it all on film.  Cinema is much better for it, since it can be looked at again and again.

                                          If you have seen it, you get what am I saying!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

                                         If you have not, then what are you waiting for??????????????

                                       

Darlings, There Are Two Good Reasons To Watch "Swamp Thing" Tonight! And Both Are Adrienne Barbeau!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

                                      Adrienne has been famous for her "assets" for decades.  So, you can bet Baby Gojira is really excited that "Svengoolie" is showing "Swamp Thing" tonight at 8PM.

                                       The monster is actually a metaphor for the state of Florida, the people who live there, and what the state has become--or always was--in general.

                                          To think Adrienne was the original Betty Rizzo in "Grease."  Who could have been more perfect?  How I would have loved to have seen that performance.  Stockard Channing, indeed!  Are you kidding????????????????

                                               First time I can remember being more excited about a cast member than monster in one of "Svengoolie's" films.  Oh, I forgot, tonight The Sven Squad is hosting this movie, and while I think it will be perfect for them, with Adrienne getting lots of attention, they could easily have hosted and livened up last week's clunker, "Village Of The Giants."

                                                  This is a screening not to be missed.  The morning after, girls will be stuffing their bras so they can look the size of Adrienne!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

                                                     Believe me, chests do get you someplace in this business, darlings!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Oh, My God, That Norine Schmittlapp!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

                       Just days after posting on the passing of Joanna Petet, I had a dream last night about the movie "The Group."  In the dream, my mother was telling me I could not see it, and I told her I was because I wanted to go to Vassar and become one of "The Group"--specifically Libby, the high-powered literary agent, played by Jessica Walter, with just a foreshadowing of Evelyn Draper.

                        This was just a dream, but in reality, when the film was coming to the Albany Theatre in New Brunswick, back in 1966, my mother took me to see something I cannot recall, but I saw coming attractions of "The Group."  Oh, my God, darlings, when I saw the scene of Joanna Petet as Kay locked in the closet and screaming, I shouted to my mother, "I want to see this!"   Of course, my plea fell on deaf ears.

                         But, girls, there is so much you can learn from "The Group."  Like the clinical details of intercourse, pessary fittings and breast feeding.  How to wear a sanitary belt, what books to read, and stop acting like a Bohemian tramp like Norine, played by Carrie Nye, who was ousted by "The Group," and, embittered, tries to take Harald from Kay.

                          I mean, girls, the book and movie are just a primer for adult development.

                        But that Norine!  You really have to watch out for her!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

                         And all Norines out there!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Is This The Greatest Funeral Scene In Film History??????????????????????

                      It may be, darlings, but actually I prefer the one in 1965's "Doctor Zhivago."  It comes early on, and is a haunting, poetic with music and choral singing and a superb sense of viewing death from the eyes of a child.

                      Now, the above, is from Douglas Sirk's 1959 redo of "Imitation Of Life," one example where the remake becomes the definitive version.  Annie Johnson, played by the great Juanita Moore, has sacrificed her life for her daughter, Sarah Jane Johnson, so she can pass for white.  This, after the child from an early age, disses her and breaks her heart.  Well, Annie dies of that broken heart, but what no one knows is she has been putting money away so she can have the funeral of funerals. 

                     And does she ever!  Oh, my God, girls, marching bands, pounding drums, trumpets everywhere, and the voice of the great Mahalia Jaackson singing "Trouble In The World," as the biggest hearse in history carries Annie's coffin down the main street of the town.

                      But, wait!  The whole thing is capped by a now repentant Sarah Jane (Susan Kohner, who received an Oscar nomination) weeping and wailing alongside her mother's coffin, expressing sorrow now for the way she treated her mother.  Too little too late, Missy!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

                        Lana Turner, who plays a glamorous stage actress, and Sandre Dee, playing her entitled blonde daughter with the pink princess phone I always wanted, pull Sarah Jane in the car with them.  They should have left her on the street, for how she treated her mother.  Breaking her heart, killing her by running off to Vegas to become a cheap showgirl!  Not even I did that, darlings!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

                          Great or not, this funeral scene has to be seen to be believed!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

                         Like the song in "Chicago" says, "If you're good to Mama, Mama is good to you!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!"