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I recievied an invitation from both Chick Young at Trash Aesthetics and Gilligan over at Retrospace to participate in something called a "meme", but I am so out of touch I have no clue what that is (but that has never stopped me from getting involved before). Seems it originated from Piper and Brian over at Lazy Eye Theatre blog (a couple of the more active LAMBers) and there have been good fantasy film festivals so far by Chick, Gilligan and Barbarella apologist Becca at No Smoking in the Skull Cave. I do not know if Tal at Taliesen Meets the Vampires has contributed as of this moment, but I will plug his excellent site anyway, free of charge. The rules (as laid down by the crew at the Lazy Eye site) are:

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1) Choose 12 Films to be featured. They could be random selections or part of a greater theme. Whatever you want.

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2) Explain why you chose the films.

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3) Link back to Lazy Eye Theatre so I can have hundreds of links and I can take those links and spread them all out on the bed and then roll around in them.

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4) The people selected then have to turn around and select 5 more people.

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So, there you have it, now lets get on with the Uranium Cafe Film Festival . I think it was supposed to be some 12 day marathon, but we here at the Cafe know a lot of you have to work and maybe forking out a movie ticket each night for twelve days can be tough in these days of fiscal woe. So we are having a double feature each night for six days (with Chili Cook Off and Pentacostal Healing Revival over the weekend). Here are the films I decided to play and it was not easy to select 12 from the many I would want to see on the big screen ( I assume we are fantasizing that this is on some big screen venue and not over at my place on the sofa):

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Day 01 Japanese Cult Cinema/Matango-Branded to Kill

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Day 02 Exploitation Classics by Jack Hill/Switchblade Sisters-Spider Baby

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Day 03 Drifters and Desperados/Hombre-The Wild Bunch

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Day 04 Psychotic Women Haters/The Boston Strangler-Frenzy

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Day 05 Cops on the Edge/Bullitt-Dirty Harry

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Day 06 Monsters from Space/The Thing-Alien 3

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Branded to Kill-

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I have only been able to see this 1967 film by Seijin Suzuki in Japanese without subtitles so I really do not know what is going on all the time, but the film has a reputation for being “absurdist” and surrealistic anyway, so I am not sure if subs would help, and the experience of watching this visually mesmerizing movie is rewarding enough. The truth is Nikkatsu studios actually fired Suzuki for this film and the conflict following got him blacklisted by Japanese studios. It is the story of a hit man who himself becomes the target of another ruthless hired killer and of course a super sexy and dangerous girl. I don’t know what else you need to know, check it out. A longer essay of this odd movie is in the oven.

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Matango (aka, Attack of the Mushroom People)

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Matango is a 1963 film by Ishiro Honda and is a departure of sorts for the man who made the best of Godzilla and Toho monster movies. Bleak and claustrophobic the action and drama centers around a group of ship wrecked young Japanese people who suddenly realize there are reasons there are no birds and turtles on the foggy, dismal little island they find themselves on. Also released as Attack of the Mushroom People it found its way into late night TV in the 70's (I saw it on Project Terror in San Antonio as a wee lad) and eventually into VHS And DVD cult-dom, though never having been distributed in movie houses in the States. A longer review and critique is coming soon as I recently came into the original Japanese language version.

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Spider Baby -

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I understand a remake of this 1964 (though released in 1968) Jack Hill film is in the works, with Hill as a producer. I once had a signed copy of Spider Baby by Jack Hill but my buddy Matt inherited that when I left for China some years ago. The story revolves around f a family who suffer from a congenital disease that causes them to eventually regress in mental condition to imbecility. Gee, sounds familiar. It is a black comedy with some creepy moments and fine b/w photography. Lon Chaney Jr and Sid Haig appear in the film. I don't really know how the remake will turn out but will check it out if I can since Hill is producing it, and his original never got the distribution or attention it should have until only recently.

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Switchblade Sisters-

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Both Spider baby and Switchblade Sisters are films cited by Quentin Tarantino as heavy influences, though with Switchblade we can see a more direct influence on his work and the film was restored and released on his Rolling Thunder Pictures label in 1996. A gang deb flick with lots of great dialog and over the top acting, including squeaky voiced Robbie Lee, it is the type of action movie Hill became more associated with than horror/suspense pieces likeSpider Baby. It is really fun to watch and some consider it to be Hill's best film. There is a fight scene in the jail between the guards and the Dagger debs and you have to watch for the male stand in for the butchy female jail guard. Gets no better.

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Hombre-

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A psychological western starring a brooding Paul Newman as a "half-breed" Apache who inherits a hotel and suddenly finds himself reluctantly in the white man's world with a hair cut. Directed by Martin Ritt and based on a novel by Elmore Leonard, this is a moody and depressing film (and that is a thumbs up in other words from me) that deals with issues under the surface other than cowboys and Indians. Hardly a music score is to be heard and Richard Boone is menacing as the bad guy. No one is perfect and everyone finds themselves in the middle of the desert where a glass of water is more valued than the stolen loot most of them are trying to salivate over. A great film I have not not seen in way too long.

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The Wild Bunch-

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A totally great western (and film period!) by Sam Peckinpah about a group of mercenaries led by William Holden that try to get a kidnapped girl back from Mexican bandits and revolutionaries. The film is most famous for it cinematography and editing, using slow motion in ways that had not been done much before (like showing hordes of drunk Mexican soldiers being blasted to bloody smithereens). The men are all tough and ruthless, and there is a fine line between the good guys and bad guys. The violence is basically splatter film material and the acting and dialog is great from start to finish. Expect a longer critique one day. I love this movie.

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The Boston Strangler-

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I actually went to 1st grade in Boston at the time Albert DeSalvo (and perhaps another man as modern police theory speculates) was finishing up a series of 13 murders of women, many, though not all, found with stockings around their throats. While The Boston Strangler has receiived some criticism because of its liberty with the facts of the case that does not deter me from recommending this well made suspense film. Tony Curtis is out of character and does great here as the killer, and Henry Fonda is equally in fine form as police detective John S. Bottomly. A lot of unnecessary split scene photography and I have never subscribed to the “split personality” disorder, especially as it is shown here, but so what. It’s a just a movie and a damn good one at that.

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Frenzy-

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As far as I know 1972’s Frenzy was Hitchcock’s only R rated film. Of course back then it took much less to get an R rating than it does now. It is one of my favorite Hitchcock films outside all of his work with Jimmy Steward. Jon Finch plays Richard Blaney, a man with anger management issues who soon finds himself the fall guy for a series of neck tie stranglings that have been terrorizing the citizens of London, where the film was shot. Along with the iconic shower sequence in Psycho Frenzy contains one of Hitchcocks most graphic murder sequences. Finch is great as his life unravels and there is no where he can turn as all the evidence begins to point towards him. The ending is a classic ending where the killer is undone and apprehended and shown humiliated, rather than the stock ending of today’s film where the killer simply has to be killed off himself in some action scene or worse a hostage scene where the cop has had to lay down his weapon. Whatever happened to endings like this?!

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Bullitt-

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1968’s Bullitt created so many of the genre formulas for the 70’s cop movies and TV shows that is hard to image that they all seemed to come from one film essentially. Steve McQueen plays Bullitt, a outsider cop having issues with insubordination and driven by an instinct to bring the bad guy to justice (of any type) regardless of who is in the way, including corrupt city officials, here played by Man from U.N.C.L.E.’s Robert Vaughn. Of course the most famous sequence is the car chase, pitting Bullitt’s Ford Mustang against the hitmens’s Dodge Charger. Contrary to legend McQueen did not do the bulk of the stunt driving but he is still cool. Action packed and gritty with Jaqueline Bisset as his sensitive, artsy girlfriend who comes to realize Bullitt lives in a world she knows nothing about. The movie serves as a template for my next cop on the edge selection…

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Dirty Harry-

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“Dirty” Harry Callaghan, like Bullitt, is a cop more concerned with justice than with city politics and the rights of murderdous bad guys. Clint Eastwood with his .44 Magum is immortal in the role (and I do not think Clint is compensating for anything), and while the film is not really as good as Bullitt story wise in my opinion, it revived the spirit of the outsider cop film established by Bullitt and cop movies and TV shows have never been the same since. Reni Satoni is simply great as well as the serial killer Scorpio (based somewhat less than loosely on real life serial killer Zodiac). Full of classic quotes and action it is really the only one of the Dirty Harry franchise I really like. The other ones just got sort of cheesy and Callaghan became comic bookish, whereas here the character, like his Sergio Leone loner cowboy, simply stands mythic in proportions to the world around him. -

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The Thing-

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There was once a time in my life where I took acid for recreational purposes. I know, I know by looking at this site you may find that hard to believe, but one night my cousin and I returned to the basement TV room at his family’s place in Lexington Kentucky and while “peaking” we surfed and stumbled across John Carpenter’s 1981 successful remake of The Thing on early cable TV. Well, this film is a mind blower without hallucinogens so you can image the impact it had on me. I am sure I have seen this movie at least 20 times and was thinking of seeing it again here later this week. With nary a stock teenager or beautiful woman (other than Adrienne Barbeau as the voice of the computer chess game) to be found in all of Antarctica the ice bound crew of a weather station (or something) led by Kurt Russell as MacReady must contend with a shape shifting alien from outer space that seems all but unstoppable as it takes over the crew one member at a time. The special effects by Rob Bottin still stand up against any of the computer generated effects of today (and I like computer effects mind you). The action takes place in a totally claustrophobic atmosphere (really the best for any horror film) and the tension between the men becomes palpable as they all try to figure out who is and who is not a “substitute” for a real man. The film is not scored by Carpenter this time but by the maestro Ennio Morricone and is it one of my favorite soundtracks. The film bombed at the box office as it had to compete with Steven Speilberg’s E.T. but has endured and became very influential along with Bladrunner and Alien in reviving quality Sci-Fi films. And on a closing note, I am older and wiser now, please do not watch this on LSD, okay kids.

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Alien 3 -

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Sigourney Weaver returns as Lt. Ripley in 1993's 3rd installment on the Alien story, which has become my favorite and the one I have watched the most. The first two are great films as well while the Alien Resurrection thing is totally forgettable except for the swimming aliens. This was David Fincher’s first film (and the pressure was enormous I understand) and he did a bang up job with this dark and existential horror/sci-fi classic. Again, the mood is totally claustrophobic (like the 1st Ridley Scott Alien film) as there is no way off the prison colony she finds herself on alongside rapists and murderers and a really grumpy warden. The creature preys alone (in contrast to James Cameron’s army in Aliens) but is faster and more clever (as it was hatched from a dog) than the one that terrorized the crew of the Nostromo. A great well shot film with the character’s nerves pushed past the breaking point as the creature starts offing them one at time at its leisure. Some people criticize the religious and philosophical undertones to the film but they are the elements draw me to this film over and over. Well, that and the creature ripping the wailing inmates to bloody shreds.

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And don't forget, the big chili cookoff and pentecostal revival. Retain your ticket stubs for one free bowl of Texas chili and the casting out of two demons.

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• Bob: [referring to Rio's busted gun hand] It's been six weeks. That hand ain't gettin' no better. I say we lay for Longworth with shotguns and then go rob that bank. Rio: Ambushin' folks ain't exactly my style, Bob. Bob: I'd say your style's gettin' a bit slow. We brought you along because you're supposed to be the big man with the iron; but now, I think I could even out pull you. Rio: [Putting his hand on his gun butt] You're probably right, Bob. You probably could get six into me by the time I get that one into you.
• Deputy Lon Dedrick: You got a lot of guts, ain't you kid? Rio: You're the one with the gut Lon.
• Longworth: You've been tryin' to get yourself hung for the last fifteen years Kid. This time I think you might have made it.
• Bob: What about Longworth? Rio: Nothin' about him. In the mornin' I'll kill him and then we'll rob that bank.
• Rio: You may be a one eyed jack around here, but I've seen the other side of your face.
• Deputy Lon Dedrick: You ain't gettin' no older than tomorrow.
• [Longworth has tied up and whipped Rio] Rio: You better kill me. Longworth: No, there's no need for that. [smashes Rio's gun hand with a shotgun butt] Longworth: Your gun days are over. Put him on a horse.
• Louisa: You think that to kill him, will make you a man?Rio: Well, I don't know 'bout that. But I know that I thought about him every day for five years. And that was the only thing that kept me going.
• Bob: This is part that's goin' to tickle you; the sheriff in that town is named Dad Longworth.
• [Rio has just bluffed his way out of jail with an empty pistol] Rio: Looky here, Lon; wasn't loaded.
• Bob: Harvey Johnson's about to be a famous name in these parts. You're about to be gunned down by a man named Rio.
• [Modesto is attempting to stop Bob from double crossing Rio] Bob: I'm real disappointed in you, Modesto; pullin' a gun on an old saddle pal like that. Chico: One more word and I will kill you! Bob: One more word, huh? Let me see if I can think of one. How about g-r-e-a-s-e-r? Greaser? [Modesto pulls his trigger and realizes that Bob has unloaded his gun during the night] Bob: Lookin' for these, Modesto? (throws cartridges at him)Harvey: (laughing) Eat 'em, greaser. Chico: (throws his gun at Bob) Banditos! Bob: You had a good life, Modesto. (shoots him)
• Rio: Get up! Get up, you scum suckin' pig!
• Rio: I don't know, Dad. You may not want me around too long. You may be retired from robbin' banks, Dad; but I'm still in business.
• [Bob and Harvey are watching Longworth whip Rio] Harvey: We better get down there and do something. Bob: Do something? Not this old horse; Longworth's got enough shotguns down there to start a war. Besides, this might help get some of that snot-nose out of him.

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Get up! Get up you scum sucking pig! Get up!

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ONE EYED JACKS

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1961/Director: Marlon Brando/Screenplay: Charles Neider (novel) Guy Trosper (screenplay)

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Cast:Marlon Brando, Karl Malden, Katy Jurado, Pina Pellicer, Ben Johnson, Slim Pickens, Elisha Cook Jr, Tim Carrey, Larry Duran, Sam Gilman

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This 1961 Western is really a pretty good movie I never get tired of watching while at the same time not a perfectly flawless work. It deserves some of the criticism it gets yet is in no way deserving of the harsh abuse sometimes thrown at it. It is Brando’s only work as a director and the movie has so much historic behind the scenes drama that it rivals the epic adventure on the screen. Stanley Kubrick was slated to direct the film originally and Sam Peckinpah was to write the script. Kubrick fired Peckinpah who used his idea for the film as the inspiration for his later Pat Garrett and Billy the Kid. There were a couple more script writers before the script got to a workable state by Guy Trosper. However Kubrick and Brando simply could not work together and Kubrick bitterly left and Brando took over chores as director under the guidance of his own film company. His first big decision was to replace Spencer Tracy as Dad Longworth and replace him with movie pal Karl Malden. They worked on several films together including A Streetcr Named Desire and On the Waterfront.

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Critics claim Brando was not secure with his job as first time director and the movie is famous for having set records at that time for the amount of film used by Brando for all his retakes. It was said to be six times the amount usually used and his finished product was a five hour psychological Western that the studio felt was too long and rambling. They trimmed it down to its current running time of almost 2 ½ hours much to Brando’s chagrin and he was so devastated he never directed again. To be fair I am not sure if this move would have worked at five hours long and feel the studio had some rights in making the movie presentable to the general public. But that said, I would like to see some of the missing footage and see the alternate ending were Pina Pellicer’s fragile character Louisa is shot in the back by Dad Longworth and dies. This was Brando’s vision of the ending and the studio gave it the definitely more up beat ending it has now.

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Maybe Brando was inexperienced as a director but he seems to have gotten the feel for it quick enough and the movie ultimatley is very entertaining and well made and I have always held this movie in high regard. In fact it is stunning in some ways both visually and narratively. Peckinpah's script originally based the Johnny Rio character on Billy the Kid and Brando did not want to play such an obvious outlaw and instead crafted the morally ambivalent Rio into one of the most genuinely interesting film characters in history. The cinematography is beautiful and it is the only Western I can think of that takes place on a beautiful ocean coast. It looks like the beaches around Monterey or Carmel. The color is lush and the acting is perfect and the dialog and delivery is priceless.

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The basic plot is one of deep revenge after Johnny Rio is deserted by friend and fellow bank robber Dad Longworth in Sonora Mexico. Longworth high tails it north with all the horses and gold and no boots rather than risk his life returning with fresh horses to pinned down Johnny Rio. After five long years in a stinking hell hole of a Mexican prison he escapes with compadre Chico Modesto played by Larry Duran. He wastes no time in turning all his attention to tracking down and getting his revenge on the man who betrayed him. Along the way he hooks up with saddle tramp bandits Ben Johnson and Sam Gilman. Johnson is excellent as the shifty, cowardly, and ruthless Bob Amory. Together they plan a bank job in the city where Dad Longworth is now the "redeemed" sheriff. He rules the town with a high hand and lots of hair trigger back up shot-gun led by brutish deputy Lon played by Slim Pickens.

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Rio works his way back to the edge of Dad’s life enough to charm and shame his innocent step-daughter played convincingly by demure Pina Pellicer. Her mother is played by Katy Jurado and she is protective of her little girl and was suspicious of the overly charming Rio from the first time they all had dinner together. Things go askew when Dad crushes Rio’s trigger hand after Rio guns down the always freaky Tim Carrey in a great barroom scene. Carrey is drunk and manhandling a bargirl, at one point shoving her face in a bowl of chili extolling "thats 's how you gotta treat 'em". Rio is guilt ridden over his own misdeeds the night before with Louisa and confronts the less subtle mysogonist. He throws some good looking punches (he was once a boxer) at bigger Carrey and orders him as he lays on the floor to “Get up you tub of guts!” After his hand is shattered he convalesces at a tiny fishing village run by some Chinese fishermen and some good and tense interaction occurs between the stir crazy cowboys as they wait for Rio’s hand to heal. In one scene (included in clip form here) Rio becomes enraged at Bob Amory simply for referring to Louisa as a “little jumpin’ bean” and in the best line of the movie commands him to “Get up! You scum sucking pig. Get up!”

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It may not be a stretch of a movie watchers imagination to guess Rio has a change of heart and decides to forego his once consuming revenge after learning Louisa is pregnant. He cancels the bank job and decides to ride north and lay low but this does not sit well with Amory and Harvey. Loyal Chico Modesto is murdered and Amory and Harvey clumsily try to pull off the bank job alone and a little girl is killed. Elisha Cook Jr. nails Amory before he eats some hot lead himself and Rio is captured on the outskirts of town and sentenced to be hanged without a trial. The great scenes go and on and despite some implausibility’s here and there one can go with it and enjoy it thoroughly. The break out scene is great and Rio whoops the bigger and pot bellied Lon to pieces in the cell. Of course it ends in a shoot around a water fountain and Dad Longworth is killed and Rio high tails it to the wilderness with the promise of returning one spring night.

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Though the movie is long at 141 minutes the time does not drag by at all. The little synopsis I laid out above hardly does the scenes justice. It is truly an epic western and an underrated movie but it definitely has gained a reputation as a true cult classic with a devoted following.

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On a sad closing note lovely Pina Pellicer committed suicide not long after the movie was released. She and Brando had an affair during the filming and to what degree this played a part I am not sure. I have read strange stories of how Brando gave her amphetamines to increase her nervous appearance for the camera but I do not know if these stories are true. He is a much maligned man in many ways and I tend to like his work but I am not sure about all the stories I hear about his personal life. Some seem unbelievable. I could not find that much information on Pellicer on the net nor could I find a decent still of her from the movie and the picture posted below is from another film. I was surprised really and will do some research and see if I can at least find some good pictures. Her performance here was so sweet and delicate. It is a tragic footnote to an otherwise immortal film.

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