A COLD DAY IN HELL...new western just out on dvd

This new western "stars" Michael Madsen....at least he's the biggest name in the cast and the only recognizable one at that. However, he's barely in the pic and it mainly revolves around a character called William Drayton, played by Jim Hilton who isn't that bad. However, the movie is not that good, the acting over all is poor and just about when I was ready to give up on the movie it gave up on me....the dvd froze. Seems this is some kind of sequel to the 2009 western ALL HELL BROKE LOOSE (which I have not seen or attempted to watch) top-lining David Carradine and featuring many of the same actors in the same roles as in "Cold Day." Christopher Forbes has almost as many credits on "Cold Day" as the Campagna Brothers have on SIX REASONS WHY. (See blog entry dated 2-26-09.) He co-produced, directed, co-wrote the script, co-wrote the music, did the cinematography and edited the flick. Wonder if he scouted the locations also? In a blurb on the front of the dvd jacket, Stuart Alson of "Independent Film Quarterly" says "3:10 TO YUMA rides up next to TRUE GRIT" and his blurb on the back of the dvd jacket says, "The best film Michael Madsen has starred in since RESERVOIR DOGS." What movie did this guy Alson watch? But then again, I didn't get to see the entire movie and I suppose it could have gotten much better at the end.....and…if frogs had wings their butts wouldn't hit the ground when they hop.

Don't get me wrong....I like westerns. I love westerns and I applaud people who get them made, but making bad ones only sets the genre back.

STEVE MCQUEEN, one of my all time favorites

Just finished watching Steve's last movie.....THE HUNTER. Sadly, it didn't improve with age. I was wanting it, the first time I saw it and today, to be so much better. Steve was reunited with his Mag7 costar Eli Wallach and his THE GETAWAY costar Ben Johnson. Sadly, they both weren't in that many scenes with him. Steve was dying when he made TH which was released in August of 1980...he passed away 3 months later. Movie could have been better if they didn't dwell so much on his character's bad driving. Still all in all....a bad Steve McQueen movie is better than most other movies.

I actually met the "bounty hunter" that Steve's character and the movie was based on...Ralph "Papa" Thosrson. "Papa" was a big bear of a man but gentle as a lamb....more of a Grizzly Adams look-alike than McQueen....and he can be seen in a bar scene near the end of the film.

I was working for the LA County Probation Department at the time and after one of my probationers failed to report I went looking for him knowing that he lived with "Papa" Thorson (who had all kinds of felons living with and working for him.) I was hesitant to make the home call but went ahead. I walked up on the porch and knocked on the door and the biggest person I had ever seen outside of pro wrestling stood there filling the door way. It was all I could do to introduce myself without shaking and after I told him who I was and why I was there, he said in one of the friendliest voices I had ever heard..."Come on in and we'll solve this problem right now." Then, he took me to his dining room (the one in the movie looked very similar) that had all kinds of characters sitting around its table...and then proceeded to dress down my probationer right in front of everyone there. Needless to say everyone listened and up until he got off probation my guy never gave me a bit of trouble. I think my guy was either a petty thief or got caught kiting checks. (Kind of looked like Tracey Walter who played the scum Rocco Mason in TH, but with darker hair.) That sure was one heckuva day.

Periodically, Thorson would call me up and ask how my/his guy was doing and would often ask me to come by for a bar-b-cue. Each time I politely declined....telling him how much I would like to but my supervisor would never approve it. He never once said or hinted that I could come by and no one would know. he had too much integrity. Shame there wasn't a better movie based on his exploits. "Papa" made "Dog" look like a sissy. He was called "Papa" because he took care of so many of the people he brought back and often put them up until they got a job or had a place to stay.

Rome

Here is some spaghetti related music you might enjoy....furnished by my friend Lauren at EMI.
Danger Mouse & Daniele Luppi present: ROME - album release date 16th May.
Featuring vocals by Jack White and Norah Jones.

United by their shared passion for classic Italian film music, Danger Mouse and Italian composer Daniele Luppi created the ROME album over an intense songwriting period using vintage equipment and original musicians from films such as The Good, the Bad and the Ugly and Once Upon a Time in the West. Every effort was made to replicate the recording practices of the 1960s/70s golden age.

For all its cinematic qualities, what follows is a complex, nuanced pop record with intensity and darkness as well as uplift and light. It’s an ambitious work with a uniquely modern sound that has been achieved through traditional, vintage processes. It is, above all, a fully realised album, perfectly formed and hauntingly beautiful.

Check out a trailer for ROME, including interviews with Danger Mouse, Daniele Luppi, Jack White and Norah Jones here:

HERE-TO-FORE (UNKNOWN BY ME) JAMES COBURN FLICK

Recently I watched James Coburn in THE INTERNECINE PROJECT a movie, up until a few days ago, I had never heard of before finding it at Interact in Pasadena. Costars are Lee Grant, Keenan Wynn and Harry Andrews. Story involves Coburn as a Professor and former secret agent who is given the job opportunity of a lifetime: advisor to the President of the US. Of course o'l Jimmy has some skeletons in his closet (or else there would not be a movie) that need eliminating, namely the four people aware of his shoddy past. So, in order for him to make sure no one will ever know about his past dirty life, he hatches an ingenious plan to get rid of his four nemeses by getting them to unknowingly kill each other in the course of a single night. Interesting to find out how they will do it. And...it manages to make a long sequence in which one man sits alone in a room waiting for the phone to ring quite suspenseful. 
Good film, even with it's 70's music and 70's pacing, and with a very good performance by JC (has he been bad?).....a movie that would never get green-lit today. DVD contains an interview with writer Jonathan Lynn (directed MY COUSIN VINNY) which is interesting in itself and is about both TIP and other projects Lynn has worked on. In passing, Lynn talks about the actor Harry Andrew's performance in the film...he feels it was a little over the top and somewhat homophobic.....considering Harry was homosexual. Never knew that...never ever heard that before and frankly I don't care. I've always liked Andrews, and like JC, was always good in every part he played. TIC was released originally in 1974...for Jimmy a year after HARRY IN YOUR POCKET and a year before BITE THE BULLET.

Robert Horton

In the late 50's and early 60's Robert Horton was one of my favorite tv cowboys and if an episode of WAGON TRAIN came on that didn't say "Tonight Starring Robert Horton" I wouldn't bother watching it and you can imagine my dismay when he left the series to "branch out on his own." Watching him in the opening credits, posted above, and hearing him sing the main theme to A MAN CALLED SHENANDOAH almost always brings tears to my eyes. His vocals are impeccable and the background scenes remind me of one of my favorite spaghetti westerns....Sergio Corbucci's classic THE GREAT SILENCE which was filmed a few years later. I had the fortune of meeting Robert at the 2004 Golden Boots...the year he received his Golden Boot (way too late) and was delighted that he signed one of my old TV Guides with a picture of him from Wagon Train on the cover. Very nice man. Very friendly man... but I, to me, felt a sense of sadness about him and I feel this even more when I hear him sing A MAN CALLED SHENANDOAH. Needless to say when he left WAGON TRAIN, a mistake on hind sight, the series, to me, died with his departure. To the "Powers That Be" out there...."SHENANDOAH" is crying for a dvd release.

the name CRUMMETT

Crummett is not that common a name and is a name you don't hear mentioned much...so you can imagine my surprise when on last week's episode of TNT's wonderful and very (and I do mean very) well done cop show SOUTHLAND (that NBC which needs a hit gave up on) I heard my last name mentioned in a start of a shift squad briefing about half way through the episode (#9 of 10). I was so taken aback at hearing it that I had to rewind my DVR to make sure that I had hear it. When the squad leader was handing out beginning of the shift assignments he said in passing..."Crummett and so and so do this and that." Don't remember what the assignment "Crummett" got or who his partner was, but I did hear Crummett. Kudos to the writer(s). For a really enjoyable and fast hour tune into this show and better yet rent or buy each season's box set.

the book "BRADY, BRADY BRADY"

No, the book "BRADY, BRADY, BRADY" is not about the life and times of Scott Brady but about the tv show THE BRADY BUNCH ..written by Sherwood Schwartz creator of the show and his son Lloyd. Interesting way they did the book...Sherwood wrote about creating the show and putting it together and finally getting it on the air and Lloyd wrote about the show after it aired...he went from Dialogue Coach (for the kids) to producer and director. Book confirmed what I had always heard about Robert Reed. He was an Asshole with a capital A and always was in disagreement with everyone about almost everything. Apparently, Reed was disliked universally all over H'wood. "Well," you say, "why would you read a book about the Brady Bunch written by the creator of GILLIGAN'S ISLAND?" Well...it so happens that I met both Sherwood and Lloyd back in the early 70's when I was kind of involved in the development of different quiz shows...as a somewhat professional freelance quiz show contestant. One day I get a call from Dick Clark Productions asking me if I could meet Dick and some others at the Universal Sheraton Hotel for some run throughs for a quiz show they were developing. Much to my delight when I got there....so was Dick Clark and the Schwartz's (who were going to co-produce the show with Dick who was, needless to say, going to be the host). I cannot for the life of me remember what the name of the show was or the format but it was going to have celebrity guests as a part of the game since Abbe Lane was there, too. She still had it (beautiful and sexy) and was very funny and down to earth as were Dick and the Schwartz's....everyone had a great sense of humor. We even joked about how many people called her Abby Road (after the Beatles's Album). I had a great time, picked up some extra cash and went home. The show never sold and that was the one and only time I ever met Dick Clark and the Schwartz's. And, if you can believe it....totally forgot about it until I saw the BRADY, BRADY, BRADY book. Book is worth the read if only for how hard it is to sell a tv show and the many travails of doing a tv show for five years. A book about the life and times of Scott Brady might be interesting too.