Before his death in November 2009, director Paul Wendkos put his name on over 180 projects, from the teen surf classic GIDGET to a spate of acclaimed made-for-television movies. His stylish and groundbreaking television movie work from 1967-1977 gave birth to nightmares and a whole generation of young directors. From the off-kilter, Dutch-angled and fish-eyed world he created for THE INVADERS to his DGA-nominated masterpiece THE BROTHERHOOD OF THE BELL, Wendkos is a true craftsman deserving of rediscovery and reevaluation.
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CRIMINALLY UNKNOWN PRESENTS: LARRY FESSENDEN IN PERSON
WENDIGO, 2001, Magnolia Pictures, 91 min. Dir. Larry Fessenden. A blue Volvo makes its way through the fading light this chilly winter evening in Upstate New York. Kim, George (Jake Weber and Patricia Clarkson) and their eight-year old son, Miles (Erik Per Sullivan), are city dwellers stealing a weekend away at a friend’s country farmhouse. But a fluke accident sets off a chain of events that alters their lives forever and conjures up the ferocious spirit of the Wendigo. Smart, genuinely scary, unforgettable. “…as if John Cassavetes had been working for Universal in the early 30′s.” Dave Kehr, New York Times
HABIT, 1996, Glass Eye Pix/Passport Cinema, 112 min. Autumn in New York. Sam (Larry Fessenden) has broken up with his girlfriend and his father has recently died. World-weary and sloppy drunk, he finds temporary solace in the arms of Anna (Meredith Snaider), a mysterious woman who draws him away from his friends and into a web of addiction and madness. A beautiful “downtown” vampire tale. “a sad and haunting film…” Roger Ebert
Discussion in between films with director Larry Fessenden.
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The Next CU:EVENT at the Egyptian Theatre. Thursday, May 6th 7:30PM
CRIMINALLY UNKNOWN: FILM CREWS AMUCK!
CU is proud to present the ultimate FILM CREWS GONE CRAZY double bill. With an ultra rare 35mm double bill of EFFECTS and THE REAL THING aka TEENAGER! With special guests Dusty Nelson, John Harrison, Joseph Pilato, Pasquale Buba, Charles Hoyes from EFFECTS and Gerald Sindell and Sue Bernard from THE REAL THING!
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Tags: American Cinematheque, Charles Hoyes, Dusty Nelson, Effects, Egyptian Theatre, Gerald Sindell, John Harrison, Joseph Pilato, Pasquale Buba, Sue Bernard, Teenager, The Real Thing
I’ve been so swamped that i missed this a while back… the press released wound up in my spam folder somehow…luckily I noticed this on Schlockmania :) MORE GRINDHOUSE SCREENINGS OF GONE WITH THE POPE!
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Bud Cort and Sally Kellerman are coming to the Aero tonight for a Q&A between two CU Altman movies… Brewster McCloud and O.C. and Stiggs….never thought i’d get the chance to see the Gila Monster Car on the big screen….
BREWSTER MCCLOUD, 1970, Warner Bros., 105 min. Director Robert Altman’s achingly funny fantasy/satire on contemporary life features Bud Cort as budding man-child Brewster McCloud, living in a forgotten corner of the Houston Astrodome. He has a dream to fly and is constantly making efforts to that end, all under the protective tutelage of guardian angel Sally Kellerman. However, life has a habit of intruding on Brewster’s dreams, both in pleasant (becoming smitten with Shelley Duvall) and not so pleasant ways (the influx of lawmen and bureaucrats who want to bring him down).
O.C. AND STIGGS, 1985, MGM, 109 min. Dir. Robert Altman. Two bored, mischievous teenagers (Daniel Jenkins and Neill Barry) torment a wealthy family headed by insurance mogul Paul Dooley in Robert Altman’s riff on the teen comedy genre. Ray Walston costars.
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Criminally Unknown William Castle Tribute Double Feature
HOLLYWOOD STORY, 1951, Universal, 76 min. Dir. William Castle. Richard Conte plays a wannabe independent producer who buys a vacant studio lot and gets embroiled in the mystery of a film director murdered there many years before.
UNDERTOW, 1949, Universal, 71 min. Director William Castle brings panache to this impoverished B-production, enlivening a fairly routine tale of a framed ex-con (Scott Brady – Lawrence Tierney’s “little” brother) looking for revenge in the Chicago underworld. Hot dishes Dorothy Hart and Peggy Dow complicate matters in time-honored tradition.
Special guest appearance by actress Julie Adams!
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Like Ray Bradbury, H.P. Lovecraft is almost impossible to get right. Stuart Gordon made two decent attempts (Re-Animator and Dagon), fine films, but they don’t really qualify as Lovecraft. The Dunwich Horror comes pretty close at times, but Dean Stockwell’s mustache gets in the way.
In the end it’s Dan O’Bannon’s The Ancestor, an adaptation of Lovecraft’s “The Case of Charles Dexter Ward”, that comes the closest. There are stretches (especially towards the end in the underground laboratory, where it gets amazingly close.), a “feeling” of dread that comes as close as anything has. (oddly, it’s that same feeling Dan managed to bring to the original draft of Alien).
The Ancestor you say..?
Don’t bother heading over to IMDB to look it up. You won’t find it. The film was taken away, re-edited and butchered beyond belief. You can find it a full screen DVD of the butchered film under the title The Resurrected.
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Robert Culp (1930-2010)
I was always going to do a big article on Robert. Anyone who knows me, knows that. Anyone who’s ever been to the screening room knows that….
Robert wasn’t Criminally Unknown, as an actor, but as a writer and director that’s just what he was. He wrote seven episodes of I SPY, the seven BEST episodes. Any I SPY event i held was always going to start out with “THE LOSER”, hit “MAGIC MIRROR” and end with “HOME TO JUDGEMENT”… in my opinion the best hour of television ever.
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Great article by Lou Lumenick in the New York Post today on Tom Schiller’s Nothing Lasts Forever! My REAL Nothing Lasts Forever article is a few days away, this is just a quick note to let everyone know that tickets are finally on sale for the April 1st screening at the Egyptian. Tom is also bringing a bunch of his 70’s SNL shorts! It’s going to be an amazing night. Get your tickets now at Fandango!
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Watching the film again this afternoon, it’s just beautiful……..magical….. and totally unique…. it’s no wonder Perry kept running out of money … I’m not even sure it’s a film…. it will sit alongside Playtime, Nashville, Husbands and The Rubber Gun as another impossible movie….another black magic deal with the devil, that simply shouldn’t exist… but thanks to David Garonzik it does, and thanks to the American Cinematheque you can see it on the big screen tomorrow :) It’s been a long strange road leading up to tomorrows west coast premiere, you’d have to be crazy to be anywhere else.
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Tags: American Cinematheque, Arthur Gorson, Carl Bradshaw, David Garonzik, Egyptian Theatre, Jamaica, Jimmy Cliff, John Cassavetes, ken loach, No Place Like Home, P.J. Soles, Perry Henzell, Roger Steffen, The Harder They Come, Wayne Jobson
March 12-17 HAUSU!! Exclusive Los Angeles run of a NEW 35mm Print at the New Beverly.
“MUST-SEE-NOW – Delirious, deranged, gonzo or just gone, baby, gone – no single adjective or even a pileup does justice to House.”, Manohla Dargis, The New York Times
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Larry Karaszewski Presents: Buck Henry In Person!
Sunday March 14th 2010 at 7:30pm at the Aero Theatre, Santa Monica
TAKING OFF, 1971, Universal, 93 min. Director Milos Forman’s first American film is a warm and hilariously subversive comedy about parents trying to cope with their runaway children. The focus is on bewildered Buck Henry and Lynn Carlin as they try to deal with daughter Linnea Heacock’s flight to Greenwich Village hippie life – and end up expanding their consciousness as much as she does!
CATCH-22, 1970, Paramount Pictures, 122 min. Dir. Mike Nichols. After their triumphant collaboration on THE GRADUATE, director Mike Nichols and screenwriter Buck Henry reunited for this adaptation of Joseph Heller’s satirical WWII novel. The all-star cast includes Alan Arkin, Richard Benjamin, Art Garfunkel, Bob Newhart, Anthony Perkins, Paula Prentiss, Jon Voight, Orson Welles and Henry himself.
Discussion in between films with Buck Henry!
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Curtis Harrington’s rarely seen masterpiece GAMES screens tonight at the Aero in Santa Monica on the back end of a Katherine Ross double feature.
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A 15 year labor of love for Sage Stallone, Bob Murawski and Grindhouse Releasing, GONE WITH THE POPE, Duke Mitchell’s long lost follow up to MASSACRE MAFIA STYLE, premieres tonight, March 12th 2010 at the Egyptian Theatre in Hollywood. Q&A between films with the cast and crew of GONE WITH THE POPE.
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Tags: American Cinematheque, bob leighton, bob murawski, duke mitchell, Egyptian Theatre, grindhouse releasing, jim lobianco, lorenzo dardado, peter milo, peter santoro, robert florio, sage stallone
Forget Twin Peaks, forget The Prisoner, Philip Martin’s Gangsters is the strangest television show ever made. It defies description, and I should know, I’ve been trying to wrestle it to the ground for weeks now. The problem is the show changes shape every time I watch it. Just when I think I finally have a handle on it, it squirms away. Short of Philip Martin dictating this article from the streets of Lahore, I’m doomed.
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Tags: alan bleasdale, alan plater, alastair reid, bbc, channel 4, david rose, david rudkin, elwyn jones, film four, ken loach, mike leigh, philip martin, Saeed Jaffrey, stephen frears
The next CU:EVENT at the Egyptian Theatre is a special screening of two Steve Tesich films Arthur Penn’s FOUR FRIENDS and Peter Yates EYEWITNESS. Thursday, March 11 – 7:30 PM CRIMINALLY UNKNOWN: STEVE TESICH
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Tags: Arthur Penn, Christopher Plummer, Craig Wasson, Egyptian Theatre, eric rohmer, four friends, michael huddleston, morgan freeman, nadja tesich, Peter Yates, sigourney weaver, Steve Tesich, Vincent Canby, William Hurt
Melodramatic… over the top… and one of my favorites. A major influence on Stephen Sondheim’s Sweeney Todd, Bernard Herrmann’s long lost score to the CU: Hangover Square, recreated from the original manuscripts, and finally out on CD this week! For years all we’ve had is the 11 minute “Concerto Macabre”
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It’s a sad state of affairs, when the two greatest films ever made by a major American director can still qualify as criminally unknown, but that’s the case with Elia Kazan’s Wild River and America, America.
Years ahead of ...
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Tags: American Cinematheque, Barbara Loden, Egyptian Theatre, Elia Kazan, Ellsworth Fredericks, Frank Wolff, Haskell Wexler, Lee Remick, Lou Antonio, Martin Scorsese, Montgomery Clift, Paul Mann, Stathis Giallelis
In March we have two CU:EVENTS at the Egyptian!
On March 11th it’s two by the late great Steve Tesich. On March 31st it's two by Jeff Burr and Duane Whitaker!
Thursday, March 11 - 7:30 PM CRIMINALLY UNKNOWN STEVE TESICH
Double Feature: FOUR FRIENDS, 1981, MGM Repertory, 114 min. Dir. Arthur Penn. Steve Tesich's largely autobiographical tale ...
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“It was almost like we didn’t care…. Fuck em.”~ Nelson Lyon
THE TELEPHONE BOOK was the stuff of legend. For years I heard people talk about ...
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