Movies Til Dawn

In the annals of 70's New York cinema, no film is quite as iconic as Al Pacino's first starring vehicle, "Panic in Needle Park", directed by former fashion photographer Jerry Schatzberg. Shot on the upper west side in and around the actual neighborhood that at the time was a haven for heroin addicts (Broadway and 72nd--though apparently the real 72nd street location was shot a few blocks south in the mid-60's...due to it being full of heroin addicts I presume?) the film is a still powerful, verite look at the drug culture of the era. It's also filled with the streets of New York in that time--a great travelogue of a devastated city that didn't feel anything much like the one we now know. Pacino's performance doesn't really deserve the reductive term "performance" which implies an actor is behind it. It is so naturalistic, so totally without artifice that I've never noticed it's "him". Bobby is a real person. Pacino in...

Continuing our NYC Cop/70's theme, here's an excellent collection of every variation on the theme to "Barney Miller", the best cop show of the era and certainly the funniest in history. I posted last week about another NYC cop show, the short-lived "Joe Bash" which was created by "Barney" co-creator Danny Arnold. Dig the Jack Elliot and Allyn Ferguson theme in all its incarnations.   Subscribe in a reader

The official poster and release date for "Rob The Mob" has been posted on Indiewire. They manage to get most of the information about me wrong (my film "Two Family House" was made in 2000, not 2006 and was as far away from a crime drama as can be--unless you consider the theme of racial intolerance as qualifying it as such). Nonetheless, thank you Indiewire for...uh...posting the poster. Below I've posted a very good mini-doc (twelve minutes) on the making of "Serpico", the 1973 Al Pacino/Sidney Lumet classic. Lumet talks about the way it was shot (quickly), the pleasure he and Pacino had in working with each other and a bunch of other crap. Why have I posted it? New York in the early 70's was much like NY in the late eighties/early nineties. And young Al and Michael Pitt share certain method instincts--both in performance and in work styles. They also shot at a lot of lousy New York locations, like we did. Thus do I consider "Serpico...

The Miami International Film Festival has announced its 2014 schedule and it turns out that "Rob The Mob" will be the closing night film. This is either a seriously prestigious spot on the program or it's like being seated near the kitchen in a restaurant. But I think it's the former so many thanks to MIFF for sponsoring what is, in effect, our world premiere. As Miami has a major Cuban population (and as this post would be too short without finding something else to take up some space) dig this deeply strange clip from the CBS archives. In it, drunken has-been swashbuckling movie star Errol Flynn appears on a show called "Front Page Challenge" and provides a  firsthand account of Castro's takeover of Cuba. Flynn was apparently there and clearly supportive of the rebels and he somewhat disingenuously walks a fine line between saying he helped and supported the "cause" while denying that he knows anything about the executions without trial...

"Rob The Mob" opens in New York on March 21, a scant eight weeks away. In celebration of our abrasive portrait of a dying Italian-American way of life, I thought I'd share three of my favorite "Family Guy" Italian-American moments. Seth Macfarlane's consistently offensive Italian-American jokes are--to my mind--weirdly poignant. He mocks IA's with a ferociousness that  can only be born of love. Dig: To say nothing of: And of course:   Subscribe in a reader

Here's the sort-of great Jimmy Roselli (see an earlier 'Meatball' post for more info on this cavier of meatball) singing "Little Pal"--a particular favorite of the wise guys as its narrative concerns a father saying goodbye to his little son as he prepares to "go away" on some unspecified trip. Steaming pile of schmaltz though it is, I defy you to stay stone-faced and tear-free through this recording. As Orson Welles once said (referring not to this song but to Leo McCarey's great 1936 tearjerker "Make Way For Tomorrow" ) "It could make a stone cry."   Subscribe in a reader

It's hard to believe that the late 80's/early 90's reign of New York's first (and only) African-American mayor, David Dinkins, was so politically calamitous that Rudy Giuliani's 1993 Mayoral campaign to unseat him was largely a comedy roast, a kind of Max Bear V. Primo Carnero slug match with Dinkins simply taking whatever hits Rudy cheerfully threw at him while reeling helplessly around the ring. (And if anyone gets the Bear/Carnero reference, then e-mail me and i'll send you ten dollars. Yes, that's right. TEN BUCKS). The Dinkins administration unfortunately coincided with the very worst years of New York City's crime, racism, unemployment and general garbage-y sense of self. This was a New York where I recall walking past a brownstone in the West 70's off Central Park West and seeing a handmade sign stuck in the second floor window that read:  "$500K or best offer".  It was a New York where I got mugged on Madison and 64th street on...

In my never-to-be-quenched thirst for anything and everything 'period' New York, I came across a deeply obscure item that I thought worth sharing. It's the pilot episode of a New York police drama called "Joe Bash" which aired on ABC in 1986 and was almost instantly cancelled. Starring Peter Boyle as an everyday workmanlike patrolman, tired and embittered by what he saw as an increasing worthlessness in his life's work, it was the creation of "Barney Miller" auteur Danny Arnold, one of 1970's television's biggest creative forces. I remember seeing this the night it aired and thinking it very strange and quite quirkily wonderful. Having rewatched it for the first time in almost thirty years, I now simply find it very strange. It presents nothing in the way of a true New York feel. The portraits of urban lowlifes (aka hookers and crazies) are unconvincing. And the music pretty much kills every scene--it's wallpapered with dreadful 80...

Lou Monte was a true homegrown New Jersey-bred Italian-American post-war super-meatball. But rather than getting lumped in the pile of proliferating paisans--Jimmy Roselli, Tony Bennett, Buddy Greco and Vic Damone were all competing for the runner-up to Dean Martin's throne--Monte opted for going the novelty route, creating shamelessly pandering and quite amusing Italian-American comedy numbers, steeped in stereotype and self-deprecation. But as IA's rarely take themselves as seriously as other ethnic groups (unless, of course, you cross some invisible boundary and find yourself inexplicably turned against with a viciousness reminiscent of Joe Pesci in "Goodfellas"--I'm allowed to point this out as an IA of long-standing who's worked both sides of the resentment aisle)--they chose to embrace Monte as a true son of the tribe, carrying on a proud tradition of commedia Italiana. And if you don't like it, don't let the door hit you in the ass on your w...

Did you know that in addition to movies getting reviewed, their trailers now get reviewed? I guess I sort of knew this but didn't want to focus on the fact. Why? Because there's no clearer indication that movies are now inescapably heading in the direction of the three minute and under bite-size view. I mean, how can you review a trailer? It's contents are deliberately misleading, aimed for an entirely different effect than a proper film and dedicated solely to claiming a stake in your already overloaded brain in order to perhaps remember to see the film that they represent at some future date on some platform--theatrical, digital, telephonic--or others yet to be invented. But trailers are most likely a better use of your time than the old-fashioned two-hour three-act white elephant known as a movie. Trailers are fun, short, not too demanding on the viewer and sometimes funny/sweet/scary in ways that fulfill what we used to expect from a two-hour experience. So I guess t...

Yesterdays post about the newly minted term (and genre) "fiasco flick" seemed to provoke a mild spate of interest and opinion. "Big Deal On Madonna Street" was invoked--a wonderful fiasco flick if ever there was one. Louia Malle's terrific "Elevator To The Gallows" (pictured above) also occurred to me--the entire plan unravels due to a screwed up elevator? Jesus, what a fiasco. "The Great Escape?" Perhaps. Indeed, why not? I think it fits the criteria that is gradually evolving about what qualifies a movie for admittance to the fiasco pantheon. A few general rules might include: 1) The main characters should be appealing. You should either feel for them due to their stupidity or arrogance ("Madonna", "Dog Day"), admire them for their gall ("Great Escape", "Pope Of Greenwich Village") or failing either of those you should at least find them funny in a dreadful sort of way (as is everyone in "F...

fiasco     (fɪˈæskəʊ)   —  n    ,  pl   -cos   ,  -coes a   complete   failure,   esp   one   that   is   ignominious   or   humiliating [C19:   from   Italian,   literally:   flask   ;  sense   development   obscure] What is a "Fiasco Flick? The term originated--I believe--at a test screening of "Rob The Mob" at the Sony Lincoln Square Theater in New York City a couple of months ago. The focus group that was recruited was asked a series of questions to help determine what people thought of the film, how and if they would recommend it, how best to describe it etc. I'm glad to report that a resounding ninety-six percent rated it very highly and said they would urge a friend to see it. (What about the four percent naysayers? There's an old film adage that I've always believed: for absolutely every movie ever made, there's one person s...

Apropos of my Saturday post re: the peculiarly wonderful Youtube genre of old movie clips of actors dancing to incongruous and anachronistic pop hits, here are two more that rate higher to me than most. First, courtesy of a reader, is a James Cagney vid, set to--ready?--" Wake Me Up Before You Go-Go" by Wham, an early 80's chart topper written by George Michael. That's followed by the first of these oddities that truly got me...Laurel and Hardy dancing to Santana. Viz:   Subscribe in a reader

From the time I first saw it broadcast on the Z Channel (LA's first true cable movie channel), Sidney Lumet and Frank Pierson's "Dog Day Afternoon" has been one of my favorite of all movies. Repeated viewings have never done anything to soften this opinion--the film holds up as well if not better than most of the acknowledged classics of the period. For those of you who don't know the film (is this a possibility?), it tells the true story of a bank robbery gone terribly awry in Brooklyn during the sweltering summer of 1972. Lumet shot the location of the bank in which almost all of the action takes place in a converted warehouse, thus allowing him the flexibility of 'flying' walls inside (thus making shooting easier than if it had been a real bank) and tying the inside together with the outside street (where multitudes of onlookers and cops gather almost instantly after the  doomed robbery begins). Much of Al Pacino's performance was, if not exa...

Where did the idea of cutting footage of actors dancing in old movies and setting the whole thing to a completely incongruous, anachronistic pop tune emanate from? Youtube is packed with examples of this sub-genre of memory-montage-dance pieces and they range from the gimmicky-funny to the truly sublime. But who do we credit/blame for the whole thing? I believe the answer is the "Jump In the Saddle Band" who, in 1983, had a completely unexpected major pop hit "The Curley Shuffle"  , a tribute to--well, you know who Curley was. The song climbed to number 15 on the Billboard 100 and the accompanying music video--this was in the prime of the early MTV years--became a staple at Shea Stadium, where they played it on the Diamond Vision screen during the seventh inning stretch (I was there for one of those showings and the entire park was chanting "Nyuck Nyuck" in unison). Here are two videos. The first is the very best I've ever seen of this pec...

New York in the early 1990's was a far cry from the clean, relatively crime-free, stroller filled, latte fueled town we now know. Graffiti covered fifty percent or more of all surfaces: violent crime was an astounding seven-hundred percent hire than it is now. Racial unrest, class warfare, homelessness--it was all one big post-Ed Koch Dinkins-era party, one that now provokes odd spasms of nostalgia in New Yorkers of a certain age (the kind who deplore the "Disneyfication" of Times Square, mourning the lost neighborhood of hookers, pimps and pushers). "Rob The Mob" is set squarely in that time. Here's a trip down memory lane. And the immortal:   Subscribe in a reader

What do we mean when we apply the word 'meatball' to a male singer? What are we really trying to say? The 'meatball', such as it is, is a round, plumply packed combination of meats and bread, seasoned to taste. And it is an Italian-American staple, found in a large round dish on the table of your Aunt's house every Sunday along with pasta, ribs, a roast, the large salad that nobody ever eats, canolis etc. But "Meatball" was also the casually racist word used to describe a handsome, young(ish) Italian American crooner from a certain period. Vic Damone, Tony Martin, Jerry Vale, Lou Monte...only Sinatra rose above the derogatory reference, in part because everybody was scared shitless of him.  Had Tony Bennett not moved away from novelty material in the mid-fifties, he would have probably become the meatball king--to say nothing of the sausage. But I digress... Like their namesake, 'meatballs' were oftentimes round, plumply packed and found i...