Movies Of Christmas Past

Containers of leftovers stacked in the fridge mark Thanksgiving's passing and the approach of Christmas's apoplectic apex. Tis the season for the celebratory cinephile to emerge. Everyone has their favorite holiday movie, but my taste goes to the more bizarre. less popular films. Imagine that?


Here are my bizarro Top Five:
1. Santa Claus Conquers the Martians (1964) - Odd, but I remember being 10 and watching this at the Westmont Theater on a rainy weekend afternoon just before Christmas. That would have been 1964. Could this have gone right to kids' matinee fodder? Probably, it's a very bad film. So bad, I just have to see it whenever it airs, usually on Mystery Science Theater. Great trivia - an 8-year-old Pia Zadora plays the Martian girl


2. Go (1999) - A strange film with three intertwined story lines jumping between LA and Las Vegas involving a drug deal. Now that says Christmas! Timothy Olyphant plays a santa-hat wearing drug dealer who kidnaps Katie Holmes - Mondo Outre.


3. A Christmas Wish (also released as The Great Rupert - 1950) - This movie gives bad a bad name. However it has two redeeming factors. The first is the film's hero, Rupert, a trained squirrel. Rupert is done in stop motion animation. The second is a scene in which Jimmy Durante performs his classic Inka Dinka Doo. Good night Mrs. Calabash, where ever you are! The film was produced by the great George Pal known for such sci-fi classics as The Time Machine and The 7 Faces of Dr. Lao. 

4. The Ref (1994) A black comedy with Denis Leary, Judy Davis and Kevin Spacey that always tickles my funny bone. My favorite scene is when burglar/intruder, Leary, has Spacey and Davis tied up in their bedroom. They are still bickering about what the family needs. Leary says, "You know what this family needs? A f**kin' mute!"






5. We're No Angels (1955) This is my favorite Christmas movie of all time. Humphrey Bogart, Aldo Ray, and Peter Ustinov, prisoners on Devil's Island, stumble into the village's general store during their escape attempt. They end up befriending the hapless shopkeeper (Leo G. Carroll) and his family. Luckily villainous Uncle Andre (Basil Rathbone) shows up as the focus of their murderous larceny.


I present these for your edification and the chance to experience something deliciously different this holiday season, . As ever - BB




"We came here to rob them and that's what we're gonna do - beat their heads in, gouge their eyes out, slash their throats. Soon as we wash the dishes." - Humphrey Bogart as Joseph in We're No Angels

Giving Thanks

As we approach Thanksgiving Day, my musing turns to giving thanks. Past blogs concerning this holiday have focused on arcane trivia and myths. This year I will reflect on that for which I am grateful. Of course, I must include some arcana. What did you expect...rubber biscuit?

What constitutes the first Thanksgiving on this continent blurs in the mist of time. In 1565, Spanish gave thanks for their settlement in St. Augustine, FLA. In 1578, Martin Frobisher, held a formal Thanksgiving after he and his crew survived a perilous journey from England to the northern Canadian coastline searching for the Northwest passage. Another was staged in 1607 in Jamestown, Va. and there again in 1619. In 1620, the Pilgrims gave thanks for landing safely in Novus Orbis. Many looking for a fresh start in this land gave thanks after their arduous adventure.

These were not celebrations, but religious services. They thanked the Lord for success in uncertain lands with dangerous risks. What we call the first Thanksgiving, held in the Plymouth Plantation in 1621, was more a Harvest Home festival. Rather than fasting and prayers, it involved feasting and merrymaking.

In the 390 years since that event, Americans have done what we do best. We have adapted, absorbed and morphed other traditions into a unique amalgamation - the American Thanksgiving. We have also done what we do worst - commercialized and corrupted it into a pre-Christmas, ubercapitalistic sell-a-thon. But thy focus begets thy vision. I will endeavor to accentuate the positive, eliminate the negative and won't mess with Mr. InBetween.

Giving thanks is the keynote of the season. It have much to be thankful for, but will abridge my list to the most important.  First on that list is my muse, Kristin. Next is family and friends. Without your mirth, love and joi de vivre, life would be just existence. So thank you all - as ever BB

"Rejoicing in our joy, not suffering over our suffering, makes someone a friend." - Friedrich Nietzsche


PS - on a more selfish note, I would not have been fortunate enough to experience the exhilaration and satisfaction of performing in front of an audience without the support of my friends and my muse. A special thank you for that - this is a photo of my gig at Leadbetters this past Saturday.

Homage

From Old English, via French,  homage was originally a feudal oath of fealty. Contemporarily, it can mean a tribute to a person or style. One obvious example can be seen in  Spielberg's salute to the cliff-hanger serials of the 30's and 40's, Raiders of the Lost Ark.


A less obvious tribute is The Coen brothers, The Big Lebowski.  This cult classic makes obeisance to the 1946 film, The Big Sleep, based on Raymond Chandler's novel . I came across this while researching my guise for last weekend's Americanized celebration of Samhain. Upon reflection, the similarities became apparent. My dismay at not realizing this on my own still haunts me.


Both concern the blackmail situation of a wheelchair-bound millionaire involving two of his household's alluring, yet iniquitous females (both daughters in Sleep, a daughter and trophy wife in Lebowski). My favorite cinematic twist involves the protagonists - Philip Marlowe, the street-wise, clever private dick and the Dude,  the stoner slacker.


In Chandler's book, Geiger, the used-book seller, who becomes an early murder victim, is involved in pornography. The 1946 movie ignored this to avoid running afoul of the industry's Hays commission. The Coen brothers allude to this with pornographer Jackie Strayhorn. As for the nihilists, what story isn't embellished with negation of one or more putatively meaningful aspects of life. To quote the Dude, that must be exhausting.


Other small nods to Sleep exist in Lebowski. One of my favorites, is the PI who tails the protagonist. In the 1946 film, this character is played by Elisha Cook, Jr. In the 1998 film, Jon Polito plays the part. He refers to the Dude as a brother shamus. This 20's slang of unknown origin for a private eye is used several times by Bogie.


As a street-wise, clever stoner slacker, I appreciate how these similarities tie the films together - kind of like a nice rug - as ever BB


"If my books had been any worse, I should not have been invited to Hollywood, and if they had been any better, I should not have come." - Raymond Chandler