Well, dear readers, today is a day I like to call Monday. But even if today wasn’t a day I like to call Monday, what else are you going to call Monday – Stella? Sherman? Sylvia? No, I’m afraid that you have to call Monday Monday – certainly that’s what the Mamas and the Papas called it. In any case, today is a day I like to call Monday. Actually, today is still Sunday as I write these here notes, but by the time they’re posted it will indeed be a Monday kind of Monday. As I type, I’m listening to Ye Olde iPod, which is currently playing the soundtrack from The Prize, by Jerry Goldsmith. I’d like a Prize, can someone send me one? I just don’t get enough Prizes. If someone is going to send me a Prize can they please apprise me of that or any other fact. Well, enough small talk. I’m bored of small talk and from now on I shall only make large talk. Speaking of large talk, yesterday was an all right day. I got up early and did the long jog. I then showered, had a telephonic conversation, got some things straightened out with the singer I’ve been working with, and then headed over to the Hollywood Collector’s Show in Burbank. Perhaps they should change the name to the Burbank Collector’s Show and have it in Hollywood. Just a suggestion. I’d been warned that parking was going to be nigh unto impossible due to the construction they’re doing (which they were doing three months ago), but I found a place to park easily. The reason for that became clear as soon as I walked in the front door – there weren’t really very many people in attendance. I walked around seeing who was sitting where. I said hi to Ruta Lee, then made my over to Druxy and Roger Corman. Mr. Corman was already packing up because he didn’t really want to wait to see if the attendance was going to improve. Druxy introduced me to him. I’d met him years ago when he wanted to buy The First Nudie Musical, but I wouldn’t have expected him to remember that. Seated next to him was Miss Barbara Steele, who I’d met several times when Bay Cities was putting out the soundtrack to Black Sunday. We had a nice little chat. Then I said hello to some dealer friends. I saw Pogue’s friend Denny Miller and was going to say hello, but he had one guy at his table the entire two hours I was there. I saw the still cute as a button Cynthia Gibb, Meredith Salinger, Barry Bostwick, Mickey Dolenz, Billy Mumy, Tom “Billy Jack” Laughlin, Tommy Kirk (who doesn’t even resemble what he used to look like), Richard Kiel, Angela Cartwright, Christopher Atkins, Linda Evans (looking lovely), Pamela Sue Anderson, Nancy Allen, and many others. But the highlight for me was catching up with Tony Dow, who back in 1984 hosted a documentary I produced and directed for KABC called Weekday Heroes. He remembered me instantly, and said he’d just watched the show last week. His wife Lauren was with him and she remembered me, too. We reminisced about how much fun the shoot was and who was there that day, and it was just great to see him again. We swapped personal information and I think we’ll try to get together one of these fine days. The other highlight was Leslie Nielsen. He had a small line when he first got there, but about twenty minutes later I looked over and there was no one at his table, so I went and said hello and told him who I was and that we’d done The Creature Wasn’t Nice together. It took him a second to connect the dots, but he did, and we had a very nice little chat. He looks very frail these days, but he is still undeniably Leslie Nielsen. Afterwards, I stopped and got a Subway turkey sandwich and came home and ate it and a few sour cream and onion Quakes, whilst sitting on my couch like so much fish.
Yesterday, I finished watching An American In Paris on DVD. I have to say it, the film has never been one of my favorites like, say, Singin’ In The Rain, but it does have great sequences, like I Got Rhythm, I’ll Build A Stairway To Paradise, and the ballet. As I said yesterday, the transfer is, for me, a waste of time, a brown mess that does not resemble its three-strip Technicolor look or the IB Tech prints of the film. Yes, this transfer is much sharper than the previous DVD, but without accurate color, I just don’t care. I then watched some of Gigi, but I had to shut it off because it, too, is a mediocre transfer. Shame on Warner Bros. for not having someone in its employ who actually knows what these films should look like or who can, at the very least, put up a reference print so they can match the color timing. I then watched a home-grown DVD of a motion picture entitled Three On A Couch, starring Jerry Lewis, Janet Leigh, Mary Ann Mobley, Gina Golan, and, most importantly, Leslie Parrish. By this point in the mid-1960s, Jerry’s popularity was on the wane, and this film is evidence of that. The set-up to the film takes an excruciating thirty minutes. It could have been done in ten. Then, once the actual plot kicks in, there are a couple of genuinely laugh out loud sequences, with Jerry playing a brother AND sister – I really was howling at a lot of it. Once those sequences are over, however, there’s another hour left. The film clocks in at 110 minutes and if it had been 90 minutes it might have had a chance. The anamorphic transfer is pretty nice, with excellent color.
What am I, Ebert and Roeper all of a sudden? Why don’t we all click on the Unseemly Button below because it’s a Monday kind of Monday and I must get my beauty sleep.
Today, which is a Monday kind of Monday, I shall do the long jog, and then I have errands to do, writing to do, and I must try to finish this new musical number I’m working on for Nudie – I’m really enjoying writing it and it’s really going to help this whole act one sequence (in the film it’s the sequence that begins with rehearsals (right after my speech to the cast) and culminates with the first day of shooting. The number is about what it’s like to work in the adult film world and it will weave in and out of the rehearsal scenes that I’ve already written (basically the same as the film, but with some cuts and additions) – it’s the kind of stuff that really helps make this more of a stage musical. Other than that, I have no real plans, so I’m sure I’ll either go out and grab a bite to eat, or I’ll bring something in – either way, it will be a reasonable meal.
The rest of the week will be taken up with prepping the new Kritzerland release, rehearsing, doing more planning for the Bacharach benefit, and a couple of meals, and then on Saturday the last LACCTAA event of this year.
Now wait just a darned minute. Let’s all put on our pointy party hats and our colored tights and pantaloons, let’s all break out the cheese slices and the ham chunks, let’s all dance the Hora and the Samba, because today is the birthday of dear reader JMK. So, let’s give a big haineshisway.com birthday cheer to Mr. Bossa Nova himself, JMK. On the count of three: One, two, three – A BIG HAINESHISWAY.COM BIRTHDAY CHEER TO MR. BOSSA NOVA HIMSELF, JMK!!!
Well, dear readers, I must take the day, I must do the things I do, I must, for example, do the long jog, do errands and whatnot, write, and eat. Today’s topic of discussion: Who are your all-time favorite screen comedians and what are your favorite films of theirs? Let’s have loads of lovely postings, shall we, on this Monday kind of Monday.