Philip Marlowe Movie Week: Farewell, My Lovely

Back again amateur flatfoots for Day 4 of Philip Marlowe Movie Week. As you know, it is best if Marlowe is handled by a tough guy. Someone scrappy, smart and handsome doesn't hurt. To be honest I would have never picked Eliott Gould to play Marlowe but truth be told he did a fair job. This time around we have a vintage rough and tumble fella in the form of Robert Mitchum tackling the role and with all it entitles. This is Farewell, My Lovely.

Sheesh, almost nodded off there.

This is the second adaptation of Raymond Chandler's novel closer the the source material unlike the original Murder, My Sweet in 1944 with Dick Powell. In a town with police corruption, hotels rented by the hour or the month, gambling dens, and murder over jewel heists, Marlowe is always there for the little guy.

We join Marlowe (Robert Mitchum of Out of the Past, The Night of the Hunter, El Dorado, Cape Fear, The Yakuza and The Big Sleep) in a shabby room at a rundown flophouse. Sitting with him Lt. Nulty (John Ireland of Gunslinger, No Time to Kill, The Cheaters, Rawhide and Sundown: The Vampire in Retreat) listening to Marlowe telling the assorted details of the past few days of his case. A gorilla of a man in a suit named Moose Malloy (Jack O' Halloran of King Kong, Superman, Superman II, Dragnet and The Hero and the Terror) stringently insisted that Marlowe was for hire to track down his former girl Velma. The only lead they have is now a black owned bar. Malloy keeps talking about not seeing his girl for 8 years. Easily an ex-con Malloy loses his patience and starts tossing bouncers and at 6'6" that is not that difficult. Marlowe watches his back but again they didn't find Velma and no one seemed to know one way or the other.

The lady or the liqueur?

Working an additional case is over murder name of Lindsay Marriott (John O' Leary of The Heart Is a Lonely Hunter, All the President's Men, Airplane! And The Last Starfighter). With a little know-how, Marlowe figures out that Marriot was in the blackmail racket. Still looking for Velma, Marlowe sees both cases just getting muddled with a sojourn attempting to make sense of any of the half truths, double crosses and homicides piling up.

Shockingly enough, Marlowe has several attempts with his life with a visit with an infamous madame in a brothel to a gunfight on a gambling boat, Philip is convinced he has really stepped in it now.

Can Marlowe solve this ongoing conspiracy and collection of murders? Is the whole city against him with every crooked cop looking to punch his ticket?

A few points about the flick. While Marlowe is in his thirties in the novels, Mitchum was 58 playing the character. Mitchum is also the only actor to play Philip twice on screen, this film and The Big Sleep in 1978. This was Jerry Bruckheimer's first full production after only have two previous credits as an associate producer.

The 70s moved to revival of the film noir and hard-boiled detective movies with the same feel as Chandler's novels like Gumshoe, Chinatown and The Black Bird. Marlowe's wheels was a black 1940 Buick Special. Kinda wish they hit up Mitchum for Marlowe years prior.

Wouldn't mind retiring out here.

Philip Marlowe Movie Week: The Long Goodbye

Welcome back sleuth spotters for Day 3 of Philip Marlowe Week. A slight break yesterday as my co-host and I were working on Rotten Ramblin' On's sixth podcast. So while we did battle with a barrage of B-Movies, the film of the day got skipped. You have my apologies, gentle readers. With that in mind let's get back to the gumshoe known as Marlowe. This time around of all people Eliott Gould steps in the shamus' shoes and it might be a tight fit. Based on the 1953 novel The Long Goodbye, Philip helps a buddy of his across the border to Mexico only to get pinched by the cops the moment he walks in the door back home. Accusations of murder, conspiracy and aiding and abetting. This is The Long Goodbye.

Bloody finicky cat!

Our neo-noir (a more current film using elements of film noir such as style, theme, content and even media that has not been in use since the 1940s and 1950s) opens with Marlowe (Eliott Gould of M.A.S.H., Harry and Walter Go to New York, A Bridge Too Far, The Muppet Movie, The Devil and Max Devlin, E/R, Bugsy and Ocean's Eleven) having to feed his very finicky cat (Morris the Cat) when his best friend Terry Lennox (MLB All-Star Jim Bouton) asks Marlowe for a lift from L.A. To Tijuana. Hope he is getting some gas money out the deal. No sooner does Marlowe return home he is met by two detectives accusing Lennox of murdering his wife Sylvia. The two jog his memory but Marlowe refuses any cooperation thinking it is a bum rap so they toss him in the jug for three days for obstruction.

That's not Gene Wilder!!

The cops tell him that Lennox killed himself as a guilty conscience so they spring him. Marlowe calls it bull but what can you do? After a quick drink at the bar, Marlowe checks in with Eileen Wade (Nina van Pallandt of American Gigolo, Cutter's Way, The Sword and the Sorcerer, Time Out and Tales of the Unexpected) on a missing person's case. Her husband has up and left and the police really don't seem to have any interest in this, given the copious amounts of runaways, homicides and car thefts so they have a lot on their plate as it is. This blonde bombshell claims her husband Roger (Sterling Hayden of The Asphalt Jungle, The Killing, Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb and The Godfather) while a brilliant novelist tends to go on drunken tears and be missing for days on end but this time he has been gone for too long. Eileen needs Marlowe to suss him out, hose him down and get him home. Sounds like a cake walk, right? Interestingly enough, the late Lennoxes also used to reside on the same neighborhood right up the beach. Coincidence?

Roger's behavior is erratic hiding over in a mental facility and the doctor seems to be holding him there against his will. Wade blurts out to Marlowe that he knew the Lennoxes socially to a level that gets Marlowe thinking there is a lot more to Terry's suicide and Sylvia's murder. Should Marlowe keep stepping on toes and peeping through windows for the truth? Does he let his friend's death go overlooked?

A few points of interest in the film. As this is a Roger Altman movie, the camera is always in motion. The man never believed in static shots (a shot on an person, place or thing that has no action and is held still, later inserted from editing) Gould completely improvised the police custody scene when he smears fingerprint ink all over his face and dialogue surrounding most of it.

Both David Carradine and Arnold Schwarzenegger are uncredited in the film as David is Dave a.k.a. Socrates, a guy being held for smoking some doobage and Arnold is a strong arm and at 6'3" that could make about anyone cringe. Sterling Hayden wrote his own scenes and his character's home was actually Altman's house. The gorgeous car Gould is driving around is a 1948 Cabriolet Lincoln Continental Convertible that was actually his car.

This film is one of five Gould made with Altman including: MASH, The Long Goodbye, California Split, Nashville and The Player. Not too shabby, huh?

 

Giving the copious amounts of nudity in the film I would skip letting the kids watch it.

Live-in mob delivery.

Shut Up Wesley Week: Datalore

Welcome back readers of mine for Day 2 of Shut Up Wesley Week. A brief break into the week as my co-host and I were recording another Rotten Ramblin' On podcast and if you haven't already heard it, give it the once over but please excuse the chirping birds that I COULD NOT drown out no matter how much I tried with Soundforge. That being said we travel on with the crew of Enterprise D to the thirteenth episode of Season 1 to Omicron Theta (CRONNNNNN!!!!!!) to the site of Data's birthplace as it were. The same place 26 years ago the crew of the USS Tripoli science vessel surveyed and came back with an android. This is Datalore.

Data, did you just beef?

For some nagging reason or plot device, Lt. Cdr. Data (Brent Spiner) has been given the memories of 411 colonists and does not know why but wishes to investigate. As this is in route to the Starbase the Enterprise is set to get computer dianostics, Picard (Sir Patrick Stewart of Dune, Excalibur, Safehouse, X-Men, X-2, Star Trek: Generations and Blunt Talk) sees no reason to skip shedding light on this mystery. With the away team on the surface. They soon discover what once was a thriving farmland seems almost barren and desolate. Think Death Valley. As they progress, La Forge (LeVar Burton) notices a rock formation that looks man made and nothing shall escape the awesome might of his banana clip, ah I mean visor. Finding a fully-functional laboratory and papers clearly showing this once housed Dr. Noonan Soong who developed his positronic brain that processes all of Data's functions and memory. Furthermore they encounter a disassembled android of Data's exact likeness. The crew head back to the ship with boxes of Data clone.

Here is where we will be rid of that accursed ring!!

Later in machine shop, a team of engineers go to work rebuilding this android under the supervision of Lt. Cdr. Argyle (Biff Yeager of F/X 2, The Golden Girls, Batman Returns, Scrubs, Gilmore Girls and Hart of Dixie) and they believe that he has the same parts as Data but they need comparative information to do a thorough examination. In order to check his vital circuitry Data tells Dr. Crusher of a guarded secret of having an off switch and asks her to keep it confidential. Seems rational or he would just get interrupted every time he had a dispute or query.

This new android calling himself Lore claims that Data was built first as Lore has an easier grasp of contractions, emotions and almost human interaction, the very concepts that elude Data. Claiming Data's lack of perfection annoyed Dr. Soong and he created Lore. Lore acts dodgy, states he is programmed to serve but there is a hint of disdain in his voice and he has some sort of twitch around his eye seems to occur often...(probably when he attempts to decieve.) Similar to each other, Acting Ensign Wesley Crusher(Wil Wheaton) can see many distinctions of difference and unknowingly irks Lore.

A conflict in Lore's quarters allows Lore to incapacitate Data and swap uniforms so none are the wiser but "Data" claims Lore has behaving most erratic and tells Wesley that he had to shut "Lore" off by the same means he wanted private as though this is just one of those things. Wesley convinced this is a load of Targ (Klingon pet lizard dog species) droppings presents his case to his mom and the Captain. The captain seems vexed with Wesley and dismisses his concerns stating to not question superior officers without having facts rather than a hunch or gut instinct.

Lore is later discovered speaking with a crystalline entity that wiped out the colonists according to Lore it attacked them unprovoked... methinks otherwise as Wesley is convinced that Lore is playing them for suckers. Can Wesley be vindicated? Will Lore slay the humans? Can Data stop Lore?

A few comments on the episode. Michael Dorn stated in many conventions including the one I attended as a wee lad, that Season 1 was all about how can we smack around Worf including the slap down of Lore vs. Worf. Many a trip to "Planet Hell" as the cast called it.

The line, "Shut Up Wesley!" is spoken by both Captain Picard and Doctor Crusher in this episode has become the catchphrase of the fans that found young Crusher irksome in the source of photo memes, video clips and even horrible remix music. Honestly with such history Wil should just title a book Shut Up Wesley as a memoir but that is just one fellow's opinion. 

Scram kid, yer botherin' me.

  

007 Week: Goldeneye

A fine welcome to you fans of MI-6 and their main protagonist to Day 4 of 007 Week.  So far we have gone over 3 Bonds so why not a fourth?  Like the Doctor in Doctor Who, each Bond brings something different to the table.  Better dress, succinct quips and more gadgets that are forever lost to Q branch due to one mishap or another.  Perhaps he is stockpiling toys in the unlikely event he may need them down the road.  Today we move from a gentleman that missed his Bond opportunity clear back in 1987 because of supposed 7 year contract but his show was cancelled after 6 episodes of its fifth season.  The man I rattle on about would be Pierce Brosnan.  This is Goldeneye.

EXTREEEEEEEEEEEEEMMMMMEEEEE!!!!!

Xenia Onatopp: You don't need the gun, Commander.
James Bond: Well, that depends on your definition of safe spoiler.






In 1986, two 00s were assigned to infiltrate and detonate an illegal Soviet biochemical weapons plant.  007- James Bond (Pierce Brosnan of Nomads, Remington Steele, Taffin, Live Wire, Mars Attacks, Tomorrow Never Dies, The Tailor of Panama and The Matador) and 006- Alec Trevelyan (Sean Bean of Patriot Games, Airborne, Ronin, Extremely Dangerous, The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring, Troy and National Treasure).  Separated and mining the facility, Trevelyan is captured by the Soviets and shot in the head.  Bond narrowly escapes with assault rifle blazing, a chase to his plane and a massive explosion leveling the facility.

Yes, that was rather foolhardy of him.

Nine years later, Bond receives his evaluation of performance and is assigned to look into a crime syndicate known only as Janus.   Monte Carlo hosting an event showing off a new prototype combat helicopter able to withstand EMPs  Xenia Onatopp (Famke Janssen of Lord of Illusions, Dead Girl, City of Industry, The Gingerbread Man, House on Haunted Hill, X-Men, Nip/Tuck and Hansel & Gretel: Witch Hunters) and now General Ourumov (Gottfried John of Mata Hari, Of Pure Blood, A Case for Two and Space Rangers) claiming a Cold War weapon known as Goldeneye capable emitting an EMP that was destroy a country's electronic records, vehicles, batteries and early warning weapon systems.
Will Bond be able to stop the mastermind's organization, end the world of Goldeneye and get the girl in the end?

And now the fact finding portion of the movie's review.
Inspired by the career of Director-General of MI6, the first woman to ever head up the organization is what the M role was based on for Dame Judi Dench (A Study in Terror, Theatre 625, A Midsummer Night's Dream, A Fine Romance, Henry V, As Time Goes By, Casino Royale and J. Edgar).  Lois Maxwell made famous playing Moneypenny suggested a female M as far back as 1985.  Ten years later, it came to fruition.

Famke Janssen stated in an interview with Jay Leno that she did some of the driving stunts and broke a rib during the sauna fight.  47 men were killed in this movie making it one of the highest kill count for James Bond has had in a single Bond movie.   This was also the first completely original  James Bond movie without reference material from any Ian Fleming novel or even short story.

It was said that The Rolling Stones were offer the chance to sing the title song but they took a pass and it fell to Tina Turner.   Definitely could have done worse for herself.

Dalton?  Poor fellow got the boot.

Mickey Rooney Week: Quicksand

Hey there all and greetings to Day 3 of Mickey Rooney Week.  Y'know for a change I think we will review a Mickey Rooney movie where he has lead role and would be his first time challenging his goody two shoes persona he had been known for.   Hows-about a story where a lad gets in over his head with debt, criminals and the law and all for a shallow girl?   Sounds like quite the caper I agree, but I think I can sweeten the pot with a Peter Lorre sighting as well.  Did I mention it is film noir?   This is Quicksand.

Jeepers, boobies!

Daniel 'Dan' Brady: I feel like I'm bein' shoved into a spoiler, and if I don't get out soon, it'll be too late. Maybe it's too late already!



How much trouble can one guy get into? Oh brother you got no clue at all.    A struggling auto mechanic Dan Brady (Mickey Rooney of The Black Stallion, Donovan's Kid, Rudolph and Frosty's Christmas in July, Arabian Adventure and One of the Boys) just bragged to his co-worker about dropping his squeaky clean girlfriend as he goes ga ga for an obvious femme fatale Vera Novak (Jeanne Cagney of Yankee Doodle Dandy, The Time of Your Life, Don't Bother to Knock,  A Lion Is in the Streets and Town Tamer) who wants to be adored and fawned after.  Dan strapped for cash boosts 20 clams from the till because he can just get the money back from his buddy who he hasn't ran into yet.

Whudda mean no Laser Tag??!!! Gyp!

That night on the Santa Monica pier Vera and Dan have a swell time in spite of her old boss of the penny arcade Nick (Peter Lorre of M, The Maltese Falcon, My Favorite Brunette and Arsenic and Old Lace) but sorry fellas no action shown in this 50's film so fade to black.   Dan never runs into Chuck to get his funds and finds out the shop's book keeper arrived two days earlier than expected so Dan hatches a brillant scheme that he will buy an expensive watch and pawn it for the money he could get from it then sneaks the scratch into the till.  That is a minor felony but hey no worries, he is bound to get into crazier circumstances.

 A day later Dan forgot he put the auto shop down as his work address and an investigator for the store tells Dan he has 24 hours to pay the money to avoid grand larceny charges.  Dan also seem to space the concept of serial numbers.    On a binder at the local bar, Dan spots the local bingo caller Shorty, clearly tanked and a wallet full of cash.   Dan gets Shorty (heh) and swipes the cash.  He runs into Vera and Nick squabbling and Dan gives him a licking but leaves his handkerchief behind.  The same one he used in the robbery.
Nick meets with Dan about the robbery and demands a car for himself or this goes to the cops, see?  Without no choice in sight, Dan swipes a car off the lot only to be spotted by his sleazebag boss who in turn blackmails the lad for the marked up price of the car or this goes to the cops.   Anyone seeing a pattern with the people Dan interacts with?

I had just a few comments about the film.  This role was meat and potatoes for Rooney allowing him to step out of the goody goody image and gives an amazing performance.  Sadly the ladies Cagney and Barbara Bates don't have anything new to the table and didn't grant the same moral quagmire that Rooney and Lorre's executions on screen.  The dolls of the flick got the typical good girl and bad girl bird cage with no wiggle room in between.   I have to say while there was a fair amount of product placement in the film, for the most part it was low key and most of this film was shot on Santa Monica with almost all exterior scenes on the old pier.  Low cost, great pace and spectacular showmanship is all these ingredients found in Quicksand.  Well at least the film that is.

Don't forget tomorrow, yer givin' me a sponge bath.

A Dash of Film Noir: The Asphalt Jungle

What’s going on teen gang and welcome back to Day 3 of A Dash of Film Noir Week.   Apparently I cannot stay away from the Sterling Hayden films as I am about to review a directorial from John Huston (The Maltese Falcon, The Treasure of the Sierra Madre, The Red Badge of Courage, The African Queen, Fat City and The Man Who Would Be King) movie now.  Full of capers, heists, double crosses and a bit of gun play.  So put up some scratch, get the gear and let’s make this gig go like clockwork.  This is The Asphalt Jungle.

Got your swag here, Mac but you know my price.

May Emmerich: Oh Spoiler, when I think of all those awful people you come in contact with –downright criminals-  I get scared.

Alonzo D. Emmerich: Oh, there’s nothing so different about them. After all, crime is only… a left-handed form of human behavior.

Doc Riedenschneider (Sam Jaffe of Gunga Din, 13 Rue Madeleine, The Day the Earth Stood Still, Ben-Hur and Ben Casey) is out of the clink after a seven year stretch when he heads to a Midwestern town that looks a bit like Cincinnati but is never named to a bookie named Cobby (Mark Lawrence of Helen of Troy, Kill Her Gently, The Detectives, The Untouchables, Johnny Cool and Johnny Tiger) to arrange a pow wow with a lawyer named Emmerich (Louis Calhern of Duck Soup, Notorious, Julius Caesar, Blackboard Jungle and Forever, Darling) to put enough cabbage together to hire a crew to steal jewelry that totals over a million buckaroos. 

HellOoOOoOooOO Niece!

Doc needs 50 large to get him a safe cracker, a wheel man and a thug.  Emmerich agrees to front cash for the heist and then nonchalantly what fences he would use if he were a criminal.  Doc snags a safe cracker name of Louie Ciavelli (Anthony Caruso of Watch on the Rhine, A Gun in His Hand, Baby Face Nelson and Death Feud) a pro but cautious fellow that never works without some people he can trust and recommends Gus Minissi (character actor James Whitmore of The Law and Mr. Jones, Planet of the Apes, Chuka, The Shawshank Redemption and The Relic) as their getaway driver and lastly Dix Handley (Sterling Hayden of The Killing, Dr. Strangelove, The Godfather and Deadly Strangers) a strong arm with a whole lot of attitude.

And now I had just a few comments to be made here.  With the intricate planning and heist in play you have an intense scene over 11 minutes long.  No cutaways but a slight fade to progress time and each character looks like they have been through the wringer.  Hayden’s hard guy performance switches so many gears from the thug with the gun to the man that would do anything for his gal.  I started laughing when Mark Lawrence hit the screen because the only other character I know he has done is Ziggy from Key Largo. 

The biggest attention grabber of this movie is still Doll Conovan (Jean Hagen of Adam’s Rib, Singin’ in the Rain and The Shaggy Dog).  This lady must cling to the spotlight opposite young Marilyn Monroe and they both bring their a game in their scenes it was amazing.   Make no mistake here people this film is all Sam Jaffe but his supporting cast was astounding.  Oh and FYI, no musical score during the whole heist which for me gives a better element of realism.  Today we would be slammed with techno or hip hop with the score is going down.

This guy makes loan sharks seem warm and cuddly.