Movies Til Dawn

You gotta see it to believe it. Here's a 1984 Howard Stern appearance on "Mid-Day Live". Coming up: the weekend numbers on "Rob The Mob" which sound promising...   Subscribe in a reader

A fresh pile of links pertaining to all things "Rob The Mob". Here's the LA Times review, published yesterday. Dig the Chicago Tribune's notice as well. Here's a nice interview I did with The Nerdist in which I discuss important stuff like Italian restaurants. Dig this interview/review from The Washington Square Review . Very important publication for an old downtowner like myself. And here's a video/podcast/weblog/on-line/did I leave anything out?/interview I did with the smart, funny and lovely Sara Stretton for "Anatomy Of A Movie" . We had quite a bit of fun during this interview which, of course, makes me reluctant to watch it. Somebody please give it a look and rate it for me, would you? Take it away, Soupy...   Subscribe in a reader

As the very important second weekend of "Rob The Mob's" theatrical life approaches, dig two pieces that I'm very happy to share with you. Here's a Los Angeles Times feature on the movie, with a refreshing emphasis on the story of how screenwriter Jonathan Fernandez discovered the story and developed it. By the way, the movie opens in LA tomorrow, Friday the 28th, at the Monica Four-Plex in Santa Monica. And here's an essay on the film by the highly controversial film scholar/critic Armond White. I've admired White's criticism over the years, not because we always like the same films (we don't) but because of his erudition, the seriousness with which he views every film and the fact that he really is one of the last of the critics who believes true film criticism matters--that it's not just about "reviewing" what's out there this week. In that sense he comes from the Pauline Kael/James Agee/Andrew Sarris world that is now, ...

Here's  an interview I did with The Moveable Feast  covering a fairly wide set of "Rob The Mob" related topics--why we used 8mm in memory, how Andy Garcia's character developed, why the hell I wanted to do a so-called "mob movie" in the first place, how the song "Love and A Gun", which Stephen Endelman and I wrote for the movie, came into being, etc.etc. And while we're on the subject of Howard Stern, here's another classic NBC bit from the mid-eighties, a fight with "Incubus", Stern's much reviled general manager at the time John Hayes who, apparently, didn't truly understand the monster he was up against. In it, Stern actually storms the General Manager's office while on-air and gets into an actual fight with him. Paul Giamatti played him in the Stern biopic "Private Parts" and they recreated the encounter, which I've also posted below.   Subscribe in a reader

Here's a very nice review of "Rob The Mob" from the website "We Are Movie Geeks". Finally someone mentions Stephen Endelman's lovely score. I got on a youtube jag this morning, killing a couple of hours watching old Soupy Sales shows and supplementing it with some Howard Stern broadcasts involving his scrappy relationship with Soupy. In an infamous show from Stern's NBC days (early 80's) he's enraged that Soupy--who had a radio show at that time which aired right before Sterns--apparently lets his staff eat lunch in the studio, which they then fail to clean up. Stern's anger, as he later admitted, had much to do with his position at NBC (where he was apparently disrespected at every turn) and the reverence with which Soupy--by then a TV and broadcasting legend--was treated. In a moment of pique fueled by a need for revenge, Stern cut the piano wires of Soupy's piano (an in-studio instrument supplied by NBC specifically for Soupy...

"Rob The Mob" debuted this weekend in New York on one screen and became the weekend's top-earning "specialty film" (which is a term that really means "lets put it on one screen and see if anyone cares"). Fortunately it seems that people do. So Millenium will be expanding the film over the coming weeks. Here's the Deadline quote from Millenium's President Bill Lee: "Millennium took crime drama  Rob The Mob  into a single location this weekend. The film, which closed the recent Miami International Film Festival grossed $11,626. Millennium Entertainment noted this from CEO Bill Lee Sunday as it reported numbers: “We’re so pleased and excited about this weekend’s grosses. By going exclusive in NY we were able to hone in on the home-town audience who indeed turned out. This is a great launch for the film. With the support of great reviews, great buzz and great word of mouth we have full confidence that as we expand to LA and Chicago this co...

More coverage, reviews etc. This from Indiewire's "The Playlist". Very nice review in "We Got This Covered" This from the late Roger Ebert, apparently via Ouija Board? A person named Max Nicholson reprinted the plot of the film from a press release , added a meaningless two sentence "review" that makes no sense, then added the sad request that you follow him on twitter/facebook etc. because "Max Nicholson desperately seeks your aprroval." Oh brother. From under which rocks do they crawl? And here's an interview that Andy Garcia and I did together last week in Miami, whilst at the film festival. Off to the theater...   Subscribe in a reader

Opening day of "Rob The Mob" is upon us. Another batch of reviews for your perusal. (Is that spelled correctly? It doesn't look right. Perusal? What does it even mean, exactly? Shouldn't it be "anything father further?") Lou Lumenick's New York Post review is terrific. As is the NY Daily News review --though it's a little brief for my taste. An excellent notice from New York Magazine. The Huffington Post has done a lovely feature on the fabulous Nina Arianda. And the New York Times has, apparently against its better judgement, given us a positive review. But you can look that one up yourself... Come see the movie this weekend! Go here for tickets.   Subscribe in a reader

"Anything further father? That can't be right. Isn't it anything father further?" Further reviews and articles about "Rob The Mob" WHICH OPENS TOMORROW, FRIDAY, MARCH 21 AT THE ANGELIKA. The Wall Street Journal did a fine piece on me and my producer William Teitler. Kirk Honeycutt's review is very good but for reasons you'll see after reading it is kind of freaking me out. Joanna Langfields "Movie Minute" review truly does take only a minute to read. Here a link to ExtraTV's coverage , featuring on-camera interviews with Andy Garcia, Ray Romano and myself. And below is a lovely dual interview about scoring the movie with my composer Stephen Endelman and my director, myself. Subscribe in a reader

Reviews continue to pour in. A pile of them for your perusal. The Hollywood Reporter digs the film. So does Indiewire's John Anderson in "TOH" (Thompson on Hollywood). Click here for Movie Nation's review. James Van Maanen's blog "Trust Movies" contains the nicest piece I've ever read about myself. Which is a little like being present for your own eulogy. Many thanks.   Subscribe in a reader

Yes, the shameless self-promotion of my film "Rob The Mob" kicks up into a higher gear as our first reviews come in, all enthusiastically positive. Click here for Variety's review. Tap here for Screen Daily. Punch this puppy to read Shockya's piece. Click this for the New York Post's Sunday feature article on the movie. And party down here for Ion Cinema's review. You may be asking: "why the above pictured pasta"? Answer: Why the f#%@ not?  (This blog does not support inappropriate language...ya' fuck).   Subscribe in a reader

At 5:28 PM on November 9th, 1965, New York City began experiencing signs of what was soon to be clear was a major emergency electrical blackout. The night the lights went out in New York is now a fond memory for those of us alive who are old enough to remember it. I hasten to add that I am not one of them, being one year and four months old at the time. But I remember hearing the story of how my father had to walk down twenty-some fights of stairs from his office at 30 Rockefeller Plaza and then up twelve flights of stairs to our apartment at 1 Central Park West, with a cold and semi-terrifying twenty-block walk through a darkened New York City sandwiched in between. The very moment that the "blackout of '65' began can now be experienced live, as it happened, by listening to the below clip. Dan Ingram, popular WABC disc jockey, was on the air spinning records (and supplying his usual frenetic commentary) when the grid began to shut down, causing the equipment to falt...

I'm in Miami, where "Rob The Mob" is the closing night gala film at the Miami International Film Festival. More on that event after it happens. Which is tomorrow night. So there. Moving right along. What's with the Chevy Impala pictured above, you might ask? (And yes, you might if you were reading this expecting more "Rob The Mob" news). Well, dig this 1960 Chevrolet commercial, wherein a driver-free Impala (brand new apparently) cruises the streets of New York City. Lots of lovely views of that New York--really the "Breakfast at Tiffany's" era landscape. And it clocks in at two minutes. Did TV commercials ever really go on that long?   Subscribe in a reader

Here's another example of the durable "Jesus, baby, you're not where you said you were, you're here with somebody else who you're doing?" genre. Nancy Wilson sings "Guess Who I Saw Today", a wonderful, very post-war Manhattan gem written by Murray Grand (cabaret guy) and Elisse Boyd (forgive me, but I know nothing about her) for Leonard Sillman's revue "New Faces of 1952". In this one, the hapless housewife stumbles into a mid-town restaurant (don't know why I think it's in midtown but it feels very East 50's for some reason) and finds her husband engaged with his paramour in a corner booth. Is this song really, as it seems to be, her telling her husband what she saw when he gets home to the suburbs? (Again, don't know why I think they live in the burbs, but I think he gets the 5:43 back to Rye or Harrison or Westport every night). Or is she composing these thoughts in her head on her own stunned, shattered train ride ...

The handsome guy on the left is Michael Pitt. The icon in the middle is Burt Young. The dork on the right is me. This was from "Rob The Mob's" premiere party this past Sunday evening. According to the site that I got this from the drink du jour at the after party was Red Bull. I was clueless. Hence I drank cheap Vodka. Here's a link to an article with more photos.   Did I mention that ROB THE MOB OPENS IN NEW YORK CITY ON MARCH 21 AND ROLLS OUT TO THE TRI-STATE AREA AS WELL AS OTHER MAJOR CITIES IN THE WEEKS FOLLOWING?   Subscribe in a reader

An often-used theme in pop tunes of the past was the notion of a man (or woman) coming upon their lover in the arms of somebody else. And why not? It has everything--love, conflict, betrayal, heartbreak...and all stuffed snugly into thirty-two bars (the common length of most older songs--though Cole Porter and Harold Arlen each dared to defy this rule--Porter with "Night and Day" and "Begin the Beguine", Arlen with "That Old Black Magic", "The Man That Got Away" and God knows how many others. Enough!) In any event, it's the "holy shit, my sweetie's doing somebody else!" moment that we're concerned with here and below I've posted the lyrics as well as a Bing Crosby recording of my favorite example of this lost genre. "Two Cigarettes In the Dark", from 1934, was written by Paul Francis Webster (lyrics) and Lew Pollack (music) for a show called "Kill That Story" and was a solid, middle-brow hit in ...

Dig the "official" music video of "Rob The Mob". This is "Love And The Gun" (or perhaps "Love and a Gun"--we never seem to get it quite clear which it is and I wrote the lyrics for Chrissakes). Stephen Endelman, the film's composer, and I whipped up this ditty to replace a recording by Italian pop diva Mina (pictured belowish, rightish, and who you must check out if you're not already in the club) which we'd temped behind several of the robbery scenes. It turns out that licensing Mina is about as simple as licensing Barbara Streisand. It's not only utterly unaffordable but the process is far too elaborate--months and months of lawyering (all in Italian of course) and that's assuming that the lawyer's are back from the generous summer holidays that all Europeans gift themselves with each year. Why don't these Diva's get real? They'd benefit from having their music grace more movie soundtracks, wouldn't...

As discussions of sex always eventually grow tiresome, so does the use of scatology to induce laughs. Therefore the two must be alternated between, each giving the other a necessary break. So... take a break from sex and dig comedians saying naughty things. Here's the complete three minute version (as opposed to the usually chopped up one minute version) of Martin and Lewis' infamous unedited radio promotional spot for their 1953 film "The Caddy." If further proof is needed that Dino was actually the funny one, roll down to one minute and thirty seconds. Dean's hilarious improv--and the timing of his delivery--is the only non-scatalogical laugh...and it's the biggest laugh in the whole thing. Who is the audience we hear laughing? Just the techies? Sounds like too many people. Were they actually subjecting a studio audience at a radio/TV show to this filth? Let's hope so.   Subscribe in a reader

I usually don't give these "youtube old-movie-clips-glued-together-by-usually-inapporpriate-music-montages" the time of day, but this one is exceptionally good...or at least exceptionally not nearly as lousy as many. It's a kind of menu of women's underwear styles, culled from pre-code movies that look--to my eye--to be firmly centered in the 1931-33 period (no twenties clips as far as I can tell). The music is a hard kicking track by the great Fletcher Henderson orchestra called "Hotter Than 'ell". And the whole thing adds up to a very useful three plus minutes spent in another boudoir in another world in another age in another...   Subscribe in a reader

Did I mention that "ROB THE MOB" OPENS IN NEW YORK CITY AT THE ANGELIKA ON MARCH 18th AND IN LA AND OTHER SUBURBAN STYLE LOCALES A WEEK AFTER THAT? To celebrate that fact,  and in keeping with our theme/experiment of using sex to desperately try to attract a little attention to this blog, here's a quite engaging, occasionally astonishing porn-flick shot in 1915 titled "A Free Ride."   Considered by porn-scholars to be one of the earliest surviving "stag" films, it is believed to have been shot in New Jersey. In it, a man who looks like a Keystone Cop (is this what all men looked like in 1915?) is driving along when he spots two horny young women ambling about. (The fact that they have no ride and no male accompanying them seems to mark them as probable strumpets). Into the car they go. Into the countryside they all go. The first step is a series of mutual urinations. (Is that how things always kicked off in 1915?) In due course the man has sex with...