I typically shy away from doing R.I.P posts. I just really do not know what to say that will do justice to the person’s life. The net right now is inundated with obits and tributes to these two extraordinary people who passed away recently within about a week of one another. They both have had such a impact on a certain area of my life I felt the need to say a little something. No mini-bios or anything like that. Maybe another day. For now just let me express my sadness at their deaths, though both did live long and adventure filled lives of the type the rest of us mere mortals can only dream of.

When I started the Uranium Cafe I had in mind a sort of Famous Monsters of Filmland styles site. Sometimes I veered off and did some posts that pandered to things a little too perversely sexual or gory and in my mind I would think “would Forry do this type of thing for FMF?” I am not against that sort of things and so that is one reason I set up a new site that will focus on gore and more overt sexual themes, since it is not the direction I want the Cafe to go to forever. I always felt FMF was tasteful and well written with loads of editorial insights and humor. Forrest J. Ackerman was always polite in his assessments of films and actors. I can hardly recall him panning a film, even when a film deserved nothing more than to be blasted to bits he had favorable things to say. I once had volumes of FMF and spent my nights reading and rereading the articles and looking at the B/W pictures. When the magazine was revived later it was still a head above the competition. A hard working and kind man who is surely missed by many people who wished they could have shaken his hand.

I think like a lot of people I learned about Bettie Page through the art work of the late Dave Stevens. I was pulled into his painstakingly drawn pen and ink images and when I realized the Betty character was based on a real person I did some research (before i knew what the Internet even was) and soon became slightly obsessed with the woman. I also knew her from the painting by Olivia de Barardinis which used to be in the pages of Club magazine of all places. Of course I only looked at Club for “research” purposes. Luckily Bettie items were popular in Seattle where I lived for ten years and in little time I had a nice little collection of items that I often took out and went through. Sadly, all the things I once owned are long gone. And not to sound too philosophical or stoic, but the feelings and impressions I have inside will never be gone. She had a special charm and charisma. Even in her darker stuff she did for Irving Klaw she had that special gitl next door quality that was equally suited for a Playboy Playmate, which she was as well.

I think one task that blogs like this one and others have is to keep the memory of such great people alive and vibrant for future recorders and archivists. You can certainly expect to hear more about them in the future herea the Cafe. I just got in issues 1 to 10 of Famous Monsters of Filmland and am editing portions for a special post to Forry. I have a tribute to Bettie here already and you can search for it in the search box as I do not want to advertise my own blog in a remembrance post. They are tricky things for me and I hope I gave some due respect to two of my special influences in life. See you later Forry and Bettie.

DANIEL GRIFFITH Says:

Greetings Uranium Willy and K. Gordon Murray fans,

An ALL-NEW, ten minute promo trailer for THE WONDER WORLD OF K. GORDON MURRAY entitled, “Citizen Murray”, will be available online December 19, 2008 (at kgordonmurraymovie.com). There will also be more information regarding the documentary on the ‘official’ website… as well as Rob Craig’s own kgordonmurray.com website!!!

The feature-length documentary will be completed and released in the fall of 2009, which marks the 50th Anniversary of K. Gordon Murray’s most successful Kiddie Matinee release, the 1959 mexican fantasy “SANTA CLAUS”.

The documentary features ALL-NEW interviews with Murray’s family, childhood friends, business associates, actors, directors, and a few surprise guests. I have spent the past two years traveling the US collecting interviews and other visual material to help shed some light on this obscure subject. This includes the discovery of ‘lost’ film footage, as well as the use of more than 250 ‘rare’ photographs covering every year of Murray’s life (and behind the scenes photos from his films). More to come…

And remember…. THE WONDER WORLD IS COMING!!!!!

Best,
DANIEL GRIFFITH
Director/Producer
BALLYHOO MOTION PICTURES

I have been hearing about this infamous falling out between Led Zeppelin maestro Jimmy Page and filmmaker, writer Kenneth Anger for decades now. Sadly the only the material I can find on the net still seems to the same variety of articles that appeared in rock fan magazines back in the seventies. This is actually one of the few great legends in the world that I have some sort of  connection with. Well, in a sort of incalculably indirect  way. I saw Page with Zeppelin back in 1977 in Ohio, and briefly met Anger at a book signing at the fantastic Scarecrow Video store in Seattle, where he signed my special copy of Hollywood Babylon with the Aleister Crowley quote Do What Thou Wilt from The Book of the Law. I had a nice little collection of Crowley books, most from Samuel Llewellyn  Press at one time, though I doubt it could compare to the collection by Anger and of course the filthy rich Jimmy Page who was reputed to have had at one time the 2nd largest collection of Crowley books and memorabilia in the world, including Crowley’s Boleskin House, perched on the cheery shores of Loch Ness in Scotland. It was one of three fantastic houses a then young Page owned (all have since been sold I believe). He also owned a house in the Kensington district of London called the Tower House, designed by Victorian architect William Burgess and formally owned by Richard Harris, and it is in this house  that the drama between Anger and Page unfolded.

Anger had been inside the rock circle for some time, in part due to his avant garde (a fancy word for confusing usually) films such as Scorpio Rising which had a score of old rock music that actually prevented the film from being shown publicly for decades due to copy write issues. He met Anita Pallenberg who was seeing soon to be deceased Rolling Stones guitarist Brian Jones. She would later become Keith Richards’s common law wife. The Stones took a liking to Anger and his liberated views views on life and vast knowledge of occult matters, and in particular his passion for British occultist Aleister Crowley. Their public image would shift from Brit bad boys to decadent and sinister rockers during their time with Anger. Their song Sympathy for the Devil from On Her majesty’s Satanic Service was inspired by conversations with Anger. Jagger would even score an Anger film called Invocation of My Demon Brother. I have seen the film and it is a really horrendous soundtrack in my opinion. Some repetitive experimental sounds on what sounds like an early Moog synthesizer. Jagger is a good musician as well as singer and could ahve done something a little better maybe.

Jimmy Page had developed his own interest in matters occult and with Crowley in particular. He owned an occult bookstore called the Equinox and, as mentioned, out bid other rock dignitaries like David Bowie in the purchasing of Boleskin Manor. Page and Anger met at an auction of Crowley memorabilia in about 1973 and a friendship was formed. Anger asked Page if he would be interested in scoring his latest and most ambitious film project Lucifer Rising (or whatever the working title may have been) and Page enthusiastically accepted. Anger was allowed access to a film editing facility in the basement area of the Tower House that was set up to edit scenes for The Song Remains the Same, the Led Zeppelin concert film. Exactly what the reasons for Jimmy’s alleged loss of interest in the project are depend on what source you are reading. A lot of things were said later in the press that seemed fueled by resentment on both men’s part. Essentially after a period of time the friendship began to cool off and  Anger returned to one day to find himself locked out of the lower area of the house he was working in. The rest of the house had always been off limits to Anger. as well as the general public, being ast the tiem the only of William Burgess’ houses not open to the public. It seems there was a domestic quarrel between Page and his girlfriend (perhaps Charlotte Martin who Page had a long a stormy, though little publicized,  relationship with, including marrigae and divorce) the night before and it was she who locked Anger out. Anger claimed he could not reach Page despite repeated attempts and Swan Song offices did not communicate with him as they are known to do with people and the public regarding Led Zeppelin issues. He eventually gathered his belongings and called the offices to inform them Page was fired as the film’s composer. In interviews following the incident Anger blamed Page’s lack of productivity (after more than year he had produced only 23 minutes of music that Anger found too morbid) on his increasing use of heroin. In some interviews (there is a brief comment by Anger on youtube but the video was all “psychedelic” looking, so I did not link it) Anger does not seem that bitter and says Page is a beautiful person who has let his drug use get control of him. In other statements he has also said Page has a good work ethic and commitment to projects, but that he had basically became a junky and now behaves like a junky in unpredictable ways and asocial ways.

Page seemed surprised by his firing and has said he had been kept busy with Zeppelin matters and getting Swan Song off the ground and thought Anger was happy with the music he had so far produced and that he had more than the 23 minutes but not in a final stage of production. Page was less hostile in press statements than Anger was (what do you think with a name like that, right? Though he was born Kenneth Wilber Anglemyer) but seemed disappointed byt he whole affair. The simple truth is that Page did have a drug problem and it did affect his decisions and performances in later Zeppelin periods. Too what degree that affected this situation, or did not,  we can only speculate. However it did not seem like an appropriate issue for someone as normally  polite as Anger to keep bringing up publicly.  It simply made him appear vindictive and simply too bitter.

Anger would eventually enlist the help of ex-protégée Bobby Beausoleil in getting a finished soundtrack for the film. This was no simple task since Beausoleil had been a California prison since 1969 for a Mansion Family related murder. It was a prior murder of Gary Hinman over a bad drug deal and  not of Sharon Tate. A soundtrack of Jimmy’s completed 23 minutes was released in the early eighties on Anger’s own Boleskin House Records, catalog number BHR666 and was limited to a release of 1000 copies on clear blue vinyl and these are considered almost priceless now to vinyl collectors.

Well, I have linked the composition here and you can be the judge of it all. Page plays all the instruments, including guitars, ARP synthesizers, percussion and the theremin (or sometimes theramin, the musical instrument that responds to hand motion). There is some interesting vocal sections near the beginning area that sound like the chorus in 2001: A Space Odyssey when the apes are flipping out around the monolith. The intro to In the Evening from In Through the Out Door is supposed to from some of the recording sessions. It has also been said that some of the incidental music from Death Wish II was based on what Page was working on during the Lucifer Rising sessions. For years I had always heard of this mentioned to as “the Black Album” and it was the substance of myth. Along with the myth of the album were the myriad rumors that began during this period of the late seventies that jimmy’s involvement in black magic had led to the bands misfortunes, such as the death of Robert Plant’s son, Robert’s serious car accident, Page’s health issues and declining ability to work and perform as he once had and finally the death of John Bonham at Page’s house. These rumors and legend still persist in the history of the band. Both Page and Anger, as far as I can tell, got over their period of conflict and moved on with their lives though the friendship was over. In later interviews the men had good things to say about each other and any mention of a black magic curse is done tongue in cheek by the both of them.

Here is the album in almost it’s entirety. I had to trim a couple minutes off of it even after reducing the size so it would fit into the 50 megabyte limit I have for daily downloads at my file hosting site. I have only listened to this piece a few times and like it overall, though some of the production is a little rough. I do not know if in the end the music stands up to the legends that surround it, but it is certainly something worth hearing once or more. The scratchy sounds you are hear are surface noise from the vinyl it was recorded from.

DOWNLOAD COMPLETE SONG HERE - PART 0NE

DOWNLOAD COMPLETE SONG HERE - PART TWO

Note of 2 January 09: Well, it seems my file hosting site at Boxster.com will not allow free downloading of files anylonger, or at least music files. I thought that was what sites like that were supposed to be all about. So I am really sorry about this. To go back and redo all the sites I have added MP3s to and find a new host seems like just too much work. I am tired of all this redoing stuff. When and if I come up with a viable solution I will be back posting downloadable music. Until then you will just have to settle for a free listen. Very sorry.

Kenneth Gordon Murray was born in the American heartland of Bloomington Indiana in 1922. His father was a funeral home director and young Ken,or Kagey, spent much of his time in the company of local carnival and circus workers who camped in the Bloomington area during the cold winters. By the time he was a teenager he was running bingo parlors and getting the knack for smooth talking the authorities. By the end of the thirties Murray was getting his circus pals small roles in films through casting directors he knew. His first big show business break was  helping to cast several height impaired persons (midgets, dwarves or whatever they are called) in 1939’s The Wizard of Oz. This would lead to him helping to cast circus folk for Cecil B. DeMille’s The Greatest Show on Earth. By this time Murray had moved to Hollywood with his wife Irene and learned some of the ropes of film production. While hardly worthy to tie the boot straps of someone like DeMille this did not stop Murray from heading to Miami Florida to set up his own production company humbly called K. Gordon Murray Productions.

It is from Miami that Gordon’s company would import and redub over two dozen foreign films, mostly from Mexico. He redubbed Santo the Wrestler films for American matinee audiences as the character Samson. I honestly thought it was a whole other character for the first half of Samson in the Wax Museum. Then my Sherlock Holmes type reasoning kicked in and I thought, “just how many silver masked wrestler detectives from Mexico were there?” In no time I deducted that Murray had simply changed Santo to Samson. I was proud of myself for that one. I finally got in a copy of Little Red Riding Hood Meets the Monsters and will watch it eventually and do a post on it. His films are rather obscure and hard to find. He reissued them under various titles and most slipped off into public domain oblivion since he failed to manage them or even copy write many of them. Later the IRS would seize what films of his they could get their claws on and that only added to the difficulty in finding suitable prints of many of his imported and original films.

His films fall roughly into three categories. His imported and redubbed films, usually Mexican wrestling and horror movies.  Then there are his fairy tale films which earned him the title of King of Kiddie Matinees. A couple of his more noted kiddie titles were Santa Claus, which enjoyed a long and lucrative run, and Puss and Boots, which I would love to see because I have read it is simply an abominable production. The last category consists of about a dozen original exploitation type films like Shanty Tramp which had an X rating. All told Murray released some 60 productions that many people feel are almost all true cult classics. it is almost impossible to find many of them any more, though Something Weird Video is releasing little by little many that were once thought long lost.  Almost all are  lacking in any real quality or even enthusiasm. truly bad but mesmerizing productions. One’s tongue falls out of their mouth in disbelief a couple times a reel. Ed wood Jr. suddenly seems like David Lean in comparison. The dubbing of the films (such as the Santo ones I have seen) are often quite hilarious. In fact I recently started watching Santo and the Diabolical Brain (considered one of the better ones) and it was subtitled and in the original Spanish and it just did not seem as cool as the cheaply dubbed Wax Museum one I had watched the night before. As silly as they sound Murray basically “invented” the looping style of dubbing that evolved into the system still used in modern pictures.

Somehow his names winds up in occult circles as well. Reportedly there are Satanic like cults built up around his films. Whacked out devil worshippers and  black magic types see secret messages in hs movies I guess. I read this on the site dedicated him called Welcome to the Wonder World of K. Gordon Murray, which was supposed to be the title of a children’s themed TV show he did not get off the ground. He seems to be a real genuine independent film maker and gimmick maker. Not too much about him on the net though. I can only find the one portrait posted above which I edited because it was so washed out looking. There is a documentary on his life and films that is to be available soon and there is some info on that online, but again, not too much. He was just one of those crazy, workaholic film makers that the stuff of legend is made of. True film making legend. Expect a post on Little Red Riding Hood Meets the Monsters shortly as well as a couple more Santo reviews and a study on the immortal, the timeless, the trend setting Robot vs. the Aztec Mummy.

KING KONG ESCAPES

1967/Director: Ishirô Honda/ Writer: Takeshi Kimura

Cast: Rhodes Reason, Mie Hama, Linda Miller, Akira Takarada, Eisei Amamoto

I was lucky that before all my BT download problems began a month or so back I downloaded a batch of classic Toho kaiju films. Kaiju is the term for Japanese monster films, and in particular those wonderful ones with guys in rubber suits judo flipping one another all over Tokyo. I was pleasantly surprised with King Kong Escapes, the 2nd King Kong film from Toho after King vs Godzilla. It has all the trademarks of a great Toho kaiju film, such as finely detailed miniatures,  and was directed by Ishiro Honda, who turned out some of the best monster films for Toho. One thing that makes this Toho monster film a little more enjoyable than some is the drama between the human being is better than usual.

First there is the crew of the US Explorer. Led by all American he man Commander Carl Nelson (Rhodes Reason) and his 2nd in command Jiro Nomure (played by Toho standard Akira Takarada) the submarine must make an emergency landing near Mondo Island, home of none other than King Kong. They arrive ashore with the head of the medical department Lt. Susan Watson (Linda Miller) who earlier got the crew to shape up by warning them she had plenty of Castor oil to administer. In no time they encounter Kong who gets himself into a kung fu style brawl with Gorosaurus. Of course Kong falls for the blond Lt. and gets all dreamy eyed looking at her. He picks her up to adore her and then she begins to speak English very loudly and slowly and orders him over and over, “Put me down Kong. Down! Put me down!”, and he does since all you have to do is speak English loudly and slowly and anything in the Universe will understand.

There is of course an evil element to the film, as there always is in a good Toho film. Usually some sinister, secret organization (usually led by aliens) is up to no good and they either need to employ or eliminate one or more of the kaijin. In this case the bad guys are led by Dr. Who  played by Eisei Amamoto, who has developed a gigantic Mecha-Kong to excavate all the Element X he desires so he can then sell it to the highest bidder and they can construct enough nuclear weapons to bully the combined powers of the US and the USSR. He is in serious negotiations with the mysterious Madame X, or Madame Piranha,  (Mie Hama) who is from “some unknown Asian country”. The country is never named and it is comical at times how the script avoids identifying the rogue nation, though we can assume it is either commie China or North Korea (remember this is 1967 and you are still better dead than red). Mecha-Kong can not endure the effects of Element X and shuts down and so Dr. Who falls back on Plan B, kidnapping the real King Kong to excavate the mineral. Exactly why humans and human designed machines cannot be used is never explained.

Kong is kidnapped and soon Dr. Who has Commander Nelson on his tail, along with the UN. In these old Toho films the UN seemed to have unlimited power. In some scenes just by saying “I’m with the UN” a person is given charge of entire military units. Nelson and his friends wind up at the North Pole, where Who’s headquarters are, and soon wins over the “Oriental Mata Hari” with little effort, simply by laying back on the sofa and acting rude and arrogant seems to make her weak. She suddenly abandons all her plans for herself and “her country” and sets the good guys free, and of course is offed by Dr Who.

Kong escapes slave labor and swims back to Tokyo and of course Mecha-Kong arrives later and they have it out on Tokyo Tower. There are lots of fun bits in this film and all the actors ham it up and have a great time. The real center piece is Kong’s horrible costume. The mask appears to be made of nothing but papier-mâché and in a couple scenes when Kong runs it is just hilarious. His fingers never seem to move and his eye lids look like window blinds opening and closing. Mecha-Kong looks pretty darn good and the monster battles in the film are above average. Mie Hama is so very cute and she and Dr Who add a James Bond element to the film. Mie would star in 1967’s Bond flick You Only Live Twice, along side  Toho actress Akiko Wakabayashi,  as the coquettish secret agent Kissy Suzuki. If you are not a fan of Toho monsters move along, but if you are and have not seen this one yet then please do. I doubt you will be disappointed. I have about a dozen more Toho monster films to throw at you so stay tuned. Sadly I was not able to get a copy of Ishiro Honda’s Rodan and am going to see if that is available from a Rapidshare site. I watched Ghidrah last night and the Rodan in it looked different, more chickenish than I recall the original version being. This calls for some serious research.

Here is a first for the Cafe really. Normally I would prefer to do my own essays and commentaries but in this case I am just going to copy and paste a short mini bio about Mie Hama from IMDB. When I do do something like this I will always credit the site I got the information from. I am sure I could do a fitting little essay but I a little pressed for time and energy. My personal feelings is that she is totally adorable in that virginal sense. In fact I was almost repulsed that she fell for hairy, crass 007 (Sean Connery) in You Only Live Twice. Her story is rags to riches in a sense. I do not mean untold riches, but going from a ticket collector to one of Japan’s leading ladies virtually over night is a Cinderella story in my book. Now that I’ve shared my personal feelings and I fell a little less guilty here is the info I swiped from IMDB:

Biography for Mie Hama
Date of Birth
20 November 1943, Tokyo, Japan
Height
5′ 4½” (1.64 m)

Mini Biography

Mie Hama was born in Tokyo, Japan on November 20, 1943. She first started out working as a bus fare collector. While working, she was spotted by producer Tomoyuki Tanaka , and was soon employed at Toho Studios. She appeared in a bevy of drama and sci-fi films, including Kingu Kongu tai Gojira (1962), where she became the Giant Ape’s “Damsel in Distress.” She is probably best known in Western Cinema as Bond girl Kissy Suzuki, starring alongside actor Sean Connery in the 007 film You Only Live Twice (1967). That same year, Kingu Kongu no gyakushû (1967) was released, thus, she portrayed the spellbinding “Bond-girlish” villainess Madamn Piranha. Her extended wardrobe and enchanted bed chambers contributed to the film’s “James Bond-ish” atmosphere. In addition, Hama would sometimes be referred to as “Funny Face,” due to her appearances in Japan’s “Crazy Cats” movies.

She became of the most popular actresses in Japan’s “Golden Age” of Cinema, but has done little acting when Japan’s cinema world experienced severe financial problems. However, she did return to appear in a few films in the 1970s and 1980s, and she is seen, most recently, working as an active environmentalist.
IMDb Mini Biography By: Oliver Chu

Trivia

Because of illness during filming, Mie Hama (Kissy Suzuki) was doubled in a diving scene (in “You Only Live Twice”) by no less than Diane Cilento - Sean Connery’s wife at the time.

Had actually appeared in almost 70 movies before she got married to 007 in You Only Live Twice.

The first Asian woman to appear in Playboy.

Was the first Asian Bond girl.

Has been called the Japanese Brigitte Bardot.

Her first name is pronounced “Mee-yay.”

When producers for “You Only Live Twice” warned Mie that because she wasn’t learning English quickly enough, she was going to be fired from the film, she solemnly told them that, because of her shame, she would then commit ritual suicide. Whether she was bluffing or not, the producers decided not to risk it, and she was kept on the film.

THE MONSTER WALKS

1942/ Director: Frank R. Strayer/ Writer: Robert Ellis

Cast: Rex Lease, Vera Reynolds, Sheldon Lewis, Mischa Auer, Martha Mattox, Sidney Bracey, Willie Best  (as Sleep ‘n’ Eat)

There is not really much to say about this movie but I can give it a marginal recommendation if you enjoy bad movies or early cinema. I do, but I am aware that what I like is not everyone’s cup of tea.  It would have made it to my new Quikie category except for the fact that while watching the credits I noticed the name of Sleep ‘n Eat and recalled it from the days when I used to really read up on films. But we can go into that in part two of this post. This film was made in 1932 and has all the trademark characteristics of a film shot in those days: stiff, melodramatic acting, terrible sound quality and poor music score, static photography (a scene often being shot for minutes from one camera angel), and loads of stereotyped characters. The film is supposed to be a remake of a 1927 silent film called the Cat and the Canary and is basically a whodunit that takes place in an old mansion over the course of one night during a thunder storm. After family members gather for the reading of a will left by the estate’s owner, an eccentric scientist, tensions develop amongst some of the family and staff who feel cheated because the man’s daughter, Ruth Earlton (Vera Reynolds) has basically received the entire fortune. Most upset is the deceased man’s invalid brother  Robert Earlton (Sheldon Lewis) who is receives only the assurance that he can still live in the house and get care,  and his staff Mrs. Krugg and her sinister son Hans (Martha Maddox and Mischa Auer).

Ruth’s fiancé Dr. Ted Carver (with a classic film name of Rex Lease) has accompanied her and is somewhat suspicious when she later alarms everyone with hysterical screaming, claiming she saw a hairy arm trying to grab her in her bed. He claims that while is a hysterical female she is not prone to nightmares. And why not be suspicious of a hairy arm when in the basement there is kept the dead doctor’s experiment in evolution, an ape… a gorilla. Of course it is obvious the “ape” is nothing but a chimpanzee not much larger than the one that played Cheetah in the Tarzan movies. I had really hoped that this was going to be a man in a gorilla suit movie and was sorely disappointed to see a chimp play the monster. Later the ‘ape” strangles the wrong woman, Mrs. Krug, and it gives actor Mischa Auer a grand chance to overact as he mourns her death and his mistake, sense he is in fact the one controlling the ape’s deeds under the behest of brother Robert. Well there are not many surprises and the ape of course kills his tormentor, Hans,  at the end and all is settled nicely overall. Brother Robert dies and Ruth and Ted wind up all hugs and snuggles. I did not hate the film and usually like these types, but I cannot recommend it to everyone. You must have a taste for old movies and bad acting and dialog to appreciate a film like this. It is a bad movie but one I enjoyed for the most part.

Appearing in the film as Exodus, the chauffer, is black actor Willie Best, often billed as Sleep ‘n Eat. I remembered his name from the days when I actually had to read books and magazines to get film information. There is not a wealth of information on the net about him, but I thought I could do a little tribute to this guy, who really was talented but had a difficult, though relatively prolific, film career that ended in obscurity.

There was a time when black actors in Hollywood actually had names like G. Howe Black and Stephin Fectchit. Especially prior to the 1960’s it would hard to point to a black actor who ever had a significant role in any motion picture. Among the actors who possessed genuine talent but never had the chance to show was Willie Best, who was billed under one of the most denigrating of all names in movie history. As unbelievable as it may sound he was cast for many years simply as Sleep ‘n Eat. While a talented actor and comedian, as well as musician and song writer, Best is sadly remembered for his myriad portrayals as lazy, simple minded and cowardly porters, servants and janitors. The lazily drawled line “yussuh”, expressed with drooped mouth and half awake eyes, can be traced back to many of Best’s characters. They are not necessarily by any stretch the roles Best would have wanted to portray, but as he stoically confessed in a 1934 interview, “ I often think about these roles I have to play. Most of them are pretty broad. Sometimes I tell the director and he cuts out the real bad parts… But what’s an actor going to do? Either you do it or get out.”

He was praised by Bob Hope for his acting ability and comedic timing and played in  some Hope films… as a half witted butler of course. He also played in a few Shirley Temple films, doing the same thing. He was busted for drugs in the early 1950’s and his career all but skreeched to a halt. He found some work here and there in television and as the civil rights era dawned he found himself the target of disdain by many of his fellow blacks, who saw what he did as an embarrassment to blacks. He was considered to be no more than the character he portrayed in his films. He died alone and in obscurity in a a home for aging actors and now lies in an unmarked grave in Hollywood, far from his home and roots in Mississippi. The closing lines of the film above, The Monster Walks, are so horrible and racist I was stunned to hear them. The dialog centers on the dead doctor’s experiments in evolution and when Exodus (Best’s character) realizes that he may be descended from apes he says something like “Well I had an uncle who looked like that (the chimp) but he was a lot slower.” It was a terrible line and left me wondering what the reaction of the audience in 1932 might have been.   Sadly it was probably hysterical laughter. There is hardly anything on Willie Best on the net that I could find with a basic search. I think this guy deserves more than what he got out of his years of hard work in Hollywood.

WILLIE BEST’S UNMARKERD GRAVE AT

PIERCE BROTHERS VAHALLA MEMORIAL PARK, HOLLYWOOD

While the bulk of Paul McCartney’s fine song catalog is made of “silly love” songs he has been known to step off into some deep waters once in a while. The persona of Paul as the likable and cute faced Beatle  often contradicts another side to the man. He is a tough business man and leader. It is more or less considered he was running the affairs of the Beatles towards and the end and was the first to officially call it quits and proceed with legal actions to dissolve the Beatles as an entity. He is an outspoken vegetarian and animal rights activist and is known to voice his political opinions on other matters as well, such as when he wrote Give Ireland Back To The Irish in response to events of Bloody Sunday on January 30, 1972. The song was released less than a month later and was the first single released by Paul and Linda’s new band Wings, with Irishman Hugh McCullough on guitar. It was banned by the BBC but Paul persisted in trying to get airtime for the song and it would eventually reach a position of 16 on the U.K. charts with limited airplay. While the song has a definite political message it is also a rousing rock tune and sounds much better than the other material released on Wings first overly stripped down solo album Wildlife. The song was not released on the album but does appear on newer CD versions as a bonus track.

Also banned by the BBC in 1972 was the bouncing party number Hi Hi Hi, which was also a single release only. The song was reported to have the lyrics “get you ready for my body gun”  (though Paul says the lyrics are misunderstood) and while the lyrics are not spelled High High High it is generally assumed and never outright denied by McCartney (as far as I, a former super McCartney fan, know) that the chorus infers getting a good buzz on. While the songs are early on in the solo McCartney catalog and possess a roughness that along with the albums McCartney and Ram,  would vanish after Band on the Run, I think they are pretty good rock songs and while very tame by today’s standards were banned nonetheless.

Another song I do not have a copy of to make an MP3 is from 1993’s Off the Ground called Big Boys Bickering. Again the song is not on the album but does appear on the Japanese release. Wings had long disbanded and Paul’s sound now is more typical of his professional and polished style. Even when he sings “fucking it up” about six times it sounds sort of  nice and inoffensive. But not inoffensive enough to not get the song banned from airways. Paul said he had considered using the lyrics “mucking it up” but the subject matter, environmental destruction of the planet, was something he really felt passionate about and nothing less than “fuck” would express his rage. I did find a video version of the song, uncensored of course.

Music Playlist at MixPod.com

TRACKS: GIVE IRELAND BACK TO THE IRISH-HI HI HI

PAUL PERFORMING BANNED SONG BIG BOYS BICKERING

Even his deceased wife Linda has had a song banned by the BBC from her posthumously complied and released solo album (from 1973 material) Wide Prairie called The Light Comes From Within. Paul has campaigned for the song, a response to Linda’s often bitterly hateful critics in Britain and America,  to receive airplay, but look, it has the lines:

You say I’m simple
You say I’m a hick
You’re  fuckin’ no one
You stupid dick

I dunno, maybe the BBC has something in this case.

I was lucky to see Paul and Linda perform in San Antonio Texas in the Alamo Dome in the early 90’s and it was a great show. And all those people who ragged on Linda all the time were in fact dicks. I thought they were a great rock-n-roll couple and I really liked the early solo material and Wings albums.

Mario Bava was born one day after the beginning of WWI in San Remo Italy in 1914. His father was Eugenio Bava and it was at the side of his father that Bava would learn the tricks of his trade in the world of set design and cinematography. Eugenio was a master film technician during the period of Italian silent cinema and a creator of film special effects. Mario would work for several years as his father’s assistant and apprentice. Like his highly creative father Mario was an artist who painted and sculpted and developed a fine sense of design that made him one of the great arrangers of the “mise en scene”, or what can be explained as the total scene one views in a film, as it is shot and framed by the camera. This includes the arrangement and placement of not only the actors but of all parts of the set as well as choices for color and position of props. It means in one sense that nothing you see on the screen is accidental in the same way nothing placed on a stage for a play is accidental or random. There is no denying that at his peak Bava's stage sets were revolutionary in regards to lighting and shading, and yet at the same time they seem to pay homage to a bygone era of not only Italian cinema but of old Hollywood as well.

His transition from set design to cinematographer was gradual and almost accidental. Bava gained not only artistic recognition behind the scenes but was seen as a man who could work fast and on a small budget as a director after he finished a small number projects that were abandoned half way through (or less)by their original temperamental directors. He received no directing credit for these films. One was I Vampiri (I Vampire). Bava was working as cameraman and optical effects designer when Riccardo Freda left the project over time disputes. Bava finished half of the 12-day shoot in only two days. A professional conflict seemed too developed between Freda and producers and Bava, who producers were beginning to favor. Freda abandoned another project after only two days of directing. Bava finished the film to the delight of producer Lionello Santi, who gave Bava the opportunity, at age 46, to direct his first film with near complete freedom. Drawing on his fascination with Russian literature he chose a short story by Nikolai Gogol entitled “Vij” to film and which Bava changed significantly into La Maschera del Demonio (translated in Britain as The Mask of Satan or as it was released in the States, Black Sunday).

Bava’s true strength rested not on his beautiful B/W work (which harkened back to the finest horror films of Universal studios) but in his unbelievably lush and atmospheric Technicolor films. His first color film in 1961 was the sword and sandal epic Hercules in the Haunted World . While as far as the story went it was a slightly above average Hercules epic it was the hallucinogenic and fantastic cinematography and camera work that made the film one of the best of the genre ever made (and believe it or not I was lucky enough to see this film on a fine print in a small theater in Seattle and it was lovely). He would go on to film some of the greatest color gothic horror movies to ever come out of Italy (or anywhere else for that matter) over the next few years, including I Tre Volti Della Paura (Black Sabbath) and Terrore Nello Spazio (Planet of the Vampires). Also during this period he made Blood and Black Lace and The Whip and the Body. These and a few others from this period show Bava in control of his craft and as his work became increasingly more violent and erotic conflicts developed with American International Pictures. There seemed to an issue as well with the consistently downbeat tone of his films and their endings, usually which meant the deaths of all heroes, and they were becoming viewed by commercially concerned AIP as unmarketable matinee fare. During this period he did one more b/w film that I have never seen, unfortunately, called the Girl Who Knew Too Much ( La Ragazza Che Sapeva Troppo-1963)I have seen scenes from it and it is sometimes argued as being the first gaillo film. The scenes I have seen look great and I am looking to find this film and will report back when I finally get the chance to see it.

Bava did one more film for AIP I have never had much interest in seeing even though it starred one of my favorite B-actors, Vincent Price, Dr. Goldfoot and the Girl Bombs. His next 1966 movie, Kill, Baby… Kill! is a stylish, nice looking film with dreamy sequences and the reappearance of a haunting looking little girl bouncing a ball that drives people to suicide. Though a low budget film it has become rather influential in its theme and technique, and directors as varied as Fellini, Scorsese and David Lynch have admitted to using the film for inspiration. Money ran out for the film and towards the end and Bava, actors and crew finished the film without pay.

In 1966 Bava’s father and mentor died and the distress over the loss combined with personal and professional problems Bava took a two year break from filmmaking. He returned to the process in 1968 with one of his last great stylistic films based on a European comic book called Danger Diabolik. It is an action type movie about a jewel thief and adventurer who has a bunch of James Bond like gadgets to get him out of trouble and Marisa Mell running around in some tight white hot pants to help get him into trouble. Like the other films here it has been many years since I saw this really nice looking work and it is hard to give a good comment on it from memory alone. It is one of the last movies where he used his trademark lighting and slick sets before he shifted gears and went into a series of psycho-thriller movies such as A Hatchet for the Honeymoon (1969), Five Dolls for an August Moon (1970), Twitch of th