TAXI DRIVER QUOTES

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One of these days I gotta get myself organizized

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Personnel Officer: (phone rings loudly) Harry, answer that.

Personnel Officer: So whaddya want to hack for, Bickle?

Travis Bickle: I can’t sleep nights.

Personnel Officer: There’s porno theaters for that.

Travis Bickle: Yeah, I know, I tried that.

Personnel Officer: So now what do you do?

Travis Bickle: I ride around most nights – subways, buses – but you know, if I’m gonna do that I might as well get paid for it.

Personnel Officer: So what is it? Do you need a second job? Are you moonlighting?

Travis Bickle: I… I just want to work long hours. What’s moonlighting?

Personnel Officer: Wanna work uptown nights? South Bronx? Harlem?

Travis Bickle: I’ll work anytime, anywhere.

Personnel Officer: Will you work Jewish holidays?

Travis Bickle: Anytime, anywhere.

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THE SERVANT

1963/ Director:Joseph Losey/Writers: Robin Maugham (novel)Harold Pinter (screenplay)

Cast: Dirk Bogarde, Sarah Miles, Wendy Craig, James Fox, Patrick Magee, Catherine Lacey, Richard Vernon

I had never really heard about this movie, a collaboration between director Joseph Losey and playwrite/screenwriter Howard Pinter except in passing while reading reviews of other films. I had had the DVD lying around for a couple months and decided I would pop it in one night and was so stunned by the film I felt compelled to do a post on it here at the Cafe though it tends to fall outside what I would normally write about though is one I want to promote. In fact, the film is not easy to critique and really is one that must be seen and allowed to wash over you with its dark waters and sinister shadows. I made a clip from the movie and uploaded it to youtube (see the next post… I must post videos separately from posts heavy laden with text and graphics for technical reasons), as well as uploading the trailer, as there was very little there about this marvelously malevolent story of role reversal, British class struggle moral decay and sexual decadence. Read the rest of this entry »

No need to tell you who buxom Nancy’s daddy was I hope? She grew up around stars like Elvis and the Rat Pack and all sorts of stellar talent and was signed in the early 60’s to Ol’ Blue Eye’s Reprise label. Success eluded her in the states but she gained a popularity in Europe and Japan that is still strong. She struggled for a hit in the USA and Reprise was about to drop her when things began to change for her after she met songwriter, arranger and producer Lee Hazelwood. Svengali and business whiz, Hazelwood redid not only her image into a chic mid-60’sLondon look but even convinced her to change her singing style and in 1965 she hit the American charts with the sexy and catchy These Boots are Made for Walking (a line from a western with her dad and Dean Martin). She went on to have a string of hits all arranged and led by Billy Strange. Another really big hit from this period is the duet with Hazelwood called Some Velvet Morning and it is a truly unique and slightly psychedelic little pop song. It sounds more like something from the Pink Floyd period with Syd Barrett than a top-40’s radio hit from Frank Sinatra’s little girl.

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I have been trying to find lots of images online lately. I ran across a huge collection of Warren Magazine material and old mystery comics. The stuff got me thinking of one of my old comic book artist heroes Bernie Wrightson and I decided to finish a post I had began when I started this website. Most people who have a peripheral knowledge of comics know that Wrightson was known chiefly, if not almost exclusively, for his horror comic work. Influenced by the styles of EC Comics artists like “Ghastley” Graham Ingels and Frank Frazetta he would begin doing unique covers and interiors for DC in the late 60’s then would go on to do some fine work for Warren Magazine’s Creepy and Eerie. I grew up on these stories and was thrilled to find some of them online (though the versions I have are only in Spanish) and want to share one of them here. I have another story to accompany a review of Dario Argento’s Jenifer film (for the Masters of Horror TV series) and will have that up soon.

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MORE WOMAN IN THE DUNES HERE >>

MORE ONIBABA HERE >>

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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.

VIDEO WAS DISABELD BY USER.

WILL SEE IF I CAN FIND A NEW ONE SOON.

ONE EYED JACKS

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

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

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. MORE OF MARLON BRANDO IN ONE EYED JACKS >>

Art of the Devil

2004/Director: Tanit Jitnukul/ Writers: SirLaosson Dara (writer), Ghost Gypsy (writer)

Cast: Arisa Wills, Supakson Chaimongkol, Krongthong Rachatawan, Tin Settachoke, Isara Ochakul, Nirut Sutchart, Krittayod Thimnate

Back to doing what I started this website to do and that is to do some movies reviews. Have been monkeying with widgets and MP3 players for a couple weeks now, and it is time to return to my roots, and I do so with a example of a Thai horror series that seems to be pretty popular here (in China) and back in the States right now:

Strange being as I live in China now that little by little I come to really be bored with Asian horror in a general sense, considering a few years ago I was all but obsessed with the genre. I suppose back in Seattle it was all so different and I used to rent out tons of Japanese horror from the local Asian video store. Now it seems I am in the culture itself (though mainland China can hardly be said to be representative of what is best in Asian cinema especially after Li Ang ( Ang Lee in the west) won the Oscar for Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon and now every film maker, including good ones like Zhang Yimou, are only ‘going for the gold” and replicating that fine movie ad nauseum hoping to be the next to get the big prize). I now seem a tad jaded by all the Asian “shock cinema” I have seen and now even prefer a good formula Hollywood film once in a while, which I used to detest! But that is all for another post. This post is about a film that seems to be talked about rather highly online for the most part, people want more of it. But I guess I am once again missing it.

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