Well, dear readers, today we begin doing our faux documentary for the DVD release of The First Nudie Musical. The director, Nick Redman and I are going to Hollywood, California to revisit many of the places that were used to shoot the film (and rehearse and cast the film). Speaking of Nudie Musical (and I am), I watched the DVD of You Light Up My Life last night. What has that to do with the price of tomatoes or Nudie Musical you might ask, and I might tell you because why should I hold such a thing back from you? Well, just before we started shooting our little film, Cindy started dating a fellow named Joe Brooks. Joe had gotten wealthy writing commercial jingles, and he’d done the music for, I think, The Lords of Flatbush film. Just prior to shooting, one of our investors fell out, and Joe became our final investor (shares were $15,000!). He spent time on the set, and talked to me a lot. He’d just written a new film which he was raising the money to do; he thought the song he’d written for it was going to be a number one hit – yeah, right, I thought. Cindy was going to play the lead. Anyway, Joe was/is a strong personality, and Cindy was/is a strong personality, and at one point he even asked if I’d direct his film, because I worked well with Cindy, and he was concerned she wouldn’t take direction from him, or that they’d have problems on the set. I said, of course. However, by the time he made the film they’d broken up, and he was back to being the director. The reason I mention all this is because I’d actually never seen the film before – and I didn’t quite realize that he’d used almost my entire crew and several of the Nudie stock company. Same sound man, same art director and costumer, same production manager, and on and on, not to mention Stephen Nathan, the star of Nudie.
Isn’t that funny? Of course, as you all know, Mr. Brooks was correct about the number one hit song thing, and he even retitled his film with the name of the song. Go know.
Last night I dreamed I was at Manderly. I also had a weird but pleasant dream. In this dream, my daughter was seven or eight, and we were at the beach getting ready to go to temple (in fact, I don’t think my daughter has ever set foot in a temple). All the things at the beach were circa the 50s even though this had to be the mid-to late 70s. Anyway, we were passing by several shops and there was a sign I’d never seen, which said, “Fresh homemade donuts”. I said, “Let’s go get some.” Then a friend of mine, Becky Logan (who I haven’t seen in many years) and a friend of hers were suddenly there, and we all went upstairs to this donut place. I bought my daughter a chocolate eclair with fresh whipped cream, a glazed donut for me (it most certainly was a dream because in life I would have had a chocolate donut, or anything with fresh whipped cream), and I think Becky and friend got a jelly donut. Then I woke up. That was kind of a boring dream, wasn’t it. I feel that dream could have used a little plot, don’t you? I feel we should all click the Unseemly Button below and perhaps then we can have a little plot.
I must tell you, dear readers, we have not had even one guess in our handy-dandy Unseemly Trivia contest. Not one guess. Now, go to it, do your homework, or, at the very least, make a guess.
Today is Super Bowl Sunday. I guess that means we all need to eat our food from bowls, yes? Or, perhaps it means that we should all go bowling. Most certainly, I, BK, will not be watching football, because I do not like or appreciate football and therefore it would be unseemly of me to watch said football. Perhaps I will go have a freshly made donut in a bowl – that would be super.
Last night I watched the DVD of Belle de Jour. I had not seen the film, billed as an “erotic masterpiece” and considered brilliant by many. I found it slow going and, while ultimately it is certainly an interesting film, I just couldn’t get with it. That happens every now and then – I’ve heard for so many years that something is a “classic” or “masterpiece”, and then I actually see the thing and, to my mind anyway, it just doesn’t fall into that territory for me. I will say that Miss Catherine Denueve is ravishingly beautiful. Interestingly, there is not one note of music in the film, and I think music would have helped it. Not blatant or overused music, just something subtle. Subtle never enters into the music for the other film I watched, Town Without Pity, which is pretty terrible. The score is basically variations on Mr. Dimitri Tiomkin’s song, Town Without Pity – it’s sung, of course, by Gene Pitney, and it’s played instrumentally over and over again until you want to rip your eyes out of their sockets. Of course, after watching it, I sang, “Oh, it isn’t very pretty what a Town Without Pity can doooooo” the entire rest of the evening.
I had fun at the rare book fair yesterday. I know many of the dealers, so it’s always nice to see them (several from the UK). I saw a book I really really really wanted, a first edition that is unbelievably rare in any form, but in dust jacket and in really nice condition, a virtual impossibility. And yet, my friend Nigel Williams from London had it in his case. I’d never even seen the thing before (I have a fourth printing, but the dust jacket for later printings is different, and besides later printings are worthless). The book is one of my all-time favorite mystery novels, a novel that, in fact, caused a great brouhaha on its release, and changed the face of mystery novels forever. Miss Agatha Christie’s The Murder of Roger Ackroyd. It may seem a bit quaint today, but I still love it, and if you’ve never read it, I recommend it wholeheartedly. It’s a Poirot, but not in the same way that you’re used to. It’s devilishly clever and I’m just an unabashed fan of Miss Christie’s writing.
Well, I must go get ready to go to Hollywood, California and then to eat all my food from a super bowl.