“Staff Notes” Archive
Irv Slifkin | Staff Notes
Smooth-talking and amiable as they come, you’d think James Garner pretty much made his living playing himself on the big and small screen. But one of the revelations of The Garner Files, the new autobiography written by the actor with Jon Winokur, is that Garner is not who he appears to be. At least, not all the time.
In fact, Garner calls himself a “curmudgeon,” then sets out to prove himself worthy of this description that he has given himself throughout The Garner Files. He does a nice job making his case, reveling in laying forth his no-holds-barred philosophies on show business, racing, golf, politics, people he’s worked with and, well, life.
Born James Bumgarner in 1928 in storm-heavy Norman, Oklahoma, Garner escaped a fractured early life—his part Cherokee Indian mother dying when he was four, physical abuse from his stepmother, apathy leading to his becoming a high school dropout—to look for guidance by joining the Merchant Marines, then winning two Purple Hearts while fighting in the Korean War. A move to Los Angeles, a non-speaking part in a stage production of The Caine Mutiny Court Martial, and some swimsuit modeling helped get into the entertainment business.
Garner pulls no punches, particularly when it comes to his travails in front of the camera and behind-the-scenes in show biz. Maverick, he insists, was a landmark show that tweaked the typical western formula with humor. While Garner loved playing the part of the black-clad gambler, he hated working for Warner Brothers, who overworked and underpaid him, then hired Jack Kelly to play his brother and gave the performer a better contract. This action persuaded him to take the studio to court to get out of his deal.
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Irv Slifkin | Staff Notes
Strange things can happen anywhere, but things that occur in movie theaters tend to be REALLY strange.
Case in point: Years ago, I was a regular guest on a popular morning radio show. We would take calls each week, allowing listeners to comment on different topics. One topic we rolled out was “What is the weirdest thing that ever happened to you in a movie theater?”
The response was so great that we repeated the topic a few times.
I’ve had some weird experiences myself. Like the time I went to see a forgotten comedy called Head Office on a snowy evening in January 1985. It starred Danny DeVito and Judge Reinhold, and that’s pretty much all I remember about the movie. I was the only one in the Orleans Theater when the movie started. I sat towards the back of the auditorium. Two guys walked in a few minutes later, and proceeded to take seats near the front of the theater. About midway through the movie, something hit me square in the head—it was a sticky piece of Dot candy. The impact stunned me, and I realized I was the target of one of the two incredibly accurate morons sitting upfront. The gooey cherry-flavored confection must have been hurled from at least 75 feet away. I stood up—stunned as much by their accuracy as their audaciousness—and yelled, “Yo! What the hell is your problem?!” Both chuckled and made a beeline for the exit. Into the frosty night they went, leaving me and my wet, red Dot all alone in the theater.
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Edward Frebowitz | Staff Notes
Last week Movies Unlimited unveiled our first Facebook Fan Only Offer. It was such a huge success that we decided to offer a second Facebook Fan Only offer. This week it's a holiday themed offer.
Not a Fan of Movies Unlimited on Facebook? Head over to our Facebook page, click the LIKE button to become a fan, then, we will show you this weeks exclusive offer.
Already a member of our Facebook community? Great, you are also invited to check out this weeks fan only offer. Feel free to share the special with your Facebook friends.
Why become a fan of Movies Unlimited? Win DVDs, last week we gave away a new DVD of Jerry Maguire, trivia, movie reviews, special fan only offers, and great information and articles on movies.
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Jerry Frebowitz | Staff Notes
Here are 10 trivia facts about Jerry Maguire from 1996, which originally appeared as our Mystery Movie Quiz on our Facebook page. There are hundreds of pieces of behind-the-scenes information about this movie. Please feel free to comment and add more trivia we might have missed.
1. This movie was a unique Hollywood record-breaker.
Not only was Jerry Maguire a huge success for Tom Cruise, this movie shattered his previously standing record of having appeared in four consecutive movies to take in more than $100 million. Jerry Maguire made it official at five sequential box office smashes. Oddly enough, the role of Maguire was written for Tom Hanks, who has himself appeared in more than 20 100-plus-million-dollar movies (some way over that number) throughout his career.
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George D. Allen | Staff Notes
I have a personal relationship with Jesus.
To be more specific, lest the huffing and puffing get too heated right out of the gate: what I mean is that I have a personal experience related to the intersection of Jesus, entertainment, and controversy, which makes the treatment of the Christian savior in motion pictures of particular interest to me. I’ll pocket that story until the end, though, so we can move more quickly into this rumination of Jesus on film.
Talking Jesus and movies is a little like talking politics and movies. I haven’t had any trepidations about occupying this space with pieces involving the latter coupling (go here, and here, or even here to see what I’m talking about), but I will admit that putting words to screen on the former was a job that lent itself easily to much procrastination.
Why? Because even more so than mixing thoughts on movies and politics, venturing into the thorny thicket of Jesus Cinema presents two distinct and intimidating handicaps from the start. There’s the search for an original approach to the subject matter—sort of like what the writer faces trying to discover something “new” to say about Citizen Kane or Psycho—and then, there’s the reality that most people come to the conversation with hardened (if not positively confrontational) opinions about which movies dealing with Jesus are:
…worthwhile;
…meaningful;
…intelligent;
…reverent;
…and, on the flip side of the coin, positively blasphemous.
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Irv Slifkin | Staff Notes
Out of the cycle of 1970s buddy cop action comedies like The Super Cops, Cops and Robbers and Freebie and the Bean comes Busting, a 1974 effort soon releasing on DVD. Elliott Gould and Robert Blake play the Los Angeles vice cops who often ignore the law in order to get their man. In this case, the man is Alan Garfield, a scuzzy mob kingpin. The cops’ vice squad antics involve busting prostitution rings, gay bars and massage parlors. While the film could easily fated into the obscurity of others of its time and ilk, it sticks out today thanks to its energy, its cynicism and its principal characters’ reckless disregard for the law. Additionally, the film boasts a great cast of supporting actors that includes Antonio “Huggy Bear” Fargas, Michael Lerner, Sid Haig and former model Cornelia Sharpe.
The movie, just coming to DVD now, was the first feature written and directed by Peter Hyams. The filmmaker went on to have a decades-long career as a workmanlike director, usually delivering solid genre films with a glossy sheen. Beginning with 1984’s 2010, he’s been one of the few directors who also act as their own director of cinematography—Steven Soderbergh is another.
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Edward Frebowitz | Staff Notes
Have you ever had a question about a movie? Are you interested in Movie Trivia, quizzes and general movie information and fun? If you answered yes, we would like to invite you to join our Facebook community, (currently 6800 members and growing) where we're offering a special "Facebook Fan Offer" available only to our Facebook fans -- and can only be seen by clicking the "Like" button on our Facebook page.
Head over to our Facebook page, click the like button at the top of the page to become a fan, and an exclusive offer will be revealed. Once a fan, you can take advantage of the special offer, and/or share it with your Facebook friends. Check back often for exclusive fan-only deals, contests, and much, much more.
George D. Allen | Staff Notes
My first indication that editor/filmmaker Robert Larkin was a cool guy (apart from his past patronage of Movies Unlimited) came years ago when I learned he had sold his independent feature film Just Work to Troma (who promptly branded it with the more exploitation-friendly moniker Viral Assassins). What? You sold the movie you made to the guys who put out The Toxic Avenger? Awesome!
That’s the fan’s (and friend’s) reaction, of course—though, as any filmmaker could tell you, the behind-the-scenes details of selling one’s film often turn out to be more emotionally (and financially) nuanced.
Bob racked up an additional cool factor once I’d watched his film, because you could sense that he had all the right artistic heroes—including David Lynch and Stanley Kubrick—but he was not an artist out to steal (as the great Francis Ford Coppola might advise him to do) but to pay affectionate homage while cultivating his own voice.
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Irv Slifkin | Staff Notes
Nicholas Ray was a tough guy who made tough films like They Drive by Night, Rebel Without a Cause, In a Lonely Place, The Lusty Men, On Dangerous Ground, The Savage Innocents and 55 Days at Peking. Schooled in architecture by Frank Lloyd Wright, writing by Thornton Wilder, music by Lead Belly and Woody Guthrie, radio by John Houseman and directing by Elia Kazan, he was a master of shooting movement within a frame and making pictures for the widescreen format.
Yet despite all of his artistic accomplishments—and there were many more—the way Ray himself viewed his notable career is reflected in the subtitle of Patrick McGilligan’s new book Nicholas Ray: The Glorious Failure of an American Director. In his own estimation, he was a terrible disappointment in life and as a filmmaker. In fact, Ray is on record as saying he never made a completely successful film, whether due to studio interference or his own excesses and demons.
While the body of Ray’s work—the director’s 100th birthday was recognized in September—certainly belies this point, his personal life, as reported by veteran Hitchcock, Cukor, Eastwood, Altman and Oscar Micheaux biographer McGilligan, was often in a shambles.
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Irv Slifkin | Staff Notes
On a quiet Tuesday night, in a beautifully restored “art” theater in the Philadelphia suburbs, I went to see a screening of Terry Gilliam’s 1995 science fiction film 12 Monkeys, starring Bruce Willis, Brad Pitt and Madeleine Stowe.
I was not the only one sitting in that art deco treasure of a movie house, wanting to take a second look at this complex, challenging film on the big screen. There was an audience of 50 or so others who paid their $9.50 for the privilege, even though it was readily available for $2.99 on demand or reasonably for sale or rent on DVD or Blu-ray.
It was a good thing that people still wanted to see “old” films in the theaters, and they would go out of the way to do so, I thought. In fact, this particular theater had done quite well in the past, showing Laurel and Hardy movies, Three Stooges shorts, Hitchcock classics and past summer blockbusters like Jaws and Aliens.
The composition of the audience was a generally well-balanced group of college-aged kids, young professionals, middle-aged couples, thirtysomethings and a few senior citizens.
Shortly after I nestled into my comfy seat, next to two co-workers also attending the screening, the film started. A loud rustling of a plastic bag behind me became an intermittent annoyance throughout the film, as well as the occasional tapping of feet at the back of my chair. It was coming from two women sitting behind me. No talking, thankfully, but acts still equally verboten in movie theaters.
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Chris Cummins | Staff Notes
This week's movie poll on MovieFanFare asks you to pick what your favorite Thanksgiving movie scene is. But while we are on the subject of the holiday, I thought I would give you the reader a chance to sound off about what films you feel thankful for.
So here's what I'd like you to do: in the comments section of this post, let me know what movie you feel gratitude for and why.
These don't have to be holiday-specific films (like the pictured Planes, Trains and Automobiles). Mainly I'm looking for you to tell me about movies that you cherish all year round and the various reasons why you love them so.
Whether you are grateful for the warmth that watching a classic like Casablanca gives you or just thankful that J.J. Abrams didn't screw up the Star Trek franchise, I can't wait to hear what you have to say.
Happy Thanksgiving!
Irv Slifkin | Staff Notes
He’s been the Phantom of the Opera, Captain Nemo, Simon Legree, Van Helsing and Chief Inspector Dreyfus in The Pink Panther movies.
Yet, in many cases, his familiar mug will elicit such responses from audience members as “Oh, it’s that guy again!” or “I’ve seen that actor lots of times, but I forgot his name.”
Well, the guy’s name is easy to remember: It’s Herbert Lom.
His given name was somewhat more challenging. He was born Herbert Charles Angelo Kuchacevich von Schluderpacheru in Prague on September 11, 1917. Call it 17 Syllables on a Lom. He first appeared on-screen in a single Czech film, but his career picked up when he moved to England in his early 20s. Soon, he was getting lots of supporting work—most of it, like the rest of his career, in villainous roles.
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Tags: James Garner