Well, dear readers, might I just say “owwww” and “garn” because today, it seems, is Eliza Doolittle Day. Yes, you heard it here, dear readers, today, it seems, is Eliza Doolittle Day and wouldn’t that be loverly? I tell you I could have danced all night just knowing it’s Eliza Doolittle Day. Yesterday, it seems, was not Eliza Doolittle Day and therefore I did not dance all night, although I did do the Limbo (obmil, spelled backwards). I was awakened by the ringing of the doorbell and as I got out of bed I was heard to mutter “owwww” and “garn” as I opened the door for she of the Evil Eye. I then did a two-and-a-half mile jog, did errands and whatnot, picked up a couple of packages, then came home.
I then swam in the pool for about forty-five minutes – it was like taking a nice, long bath but in a pool. After that, I did some work on the computer then sat on my couch like so much fish.
Yesterday, I watched a motion picture on DVD entitled When a Stranger Calls. I’d heard about this movie forever but it always sounded too scary for me and it was always described as a “slasher” movie and I don’t go in for that sort of thing. Well, first of all, it’s hardly a slasher movie since no one gets slashed – what gore there is is kept off-screen almost entirely (you see some blood in one brief shot, but that would be G-rated by today’s standards. What the movie has is suspense. Really nail-biting suspense, but probably not for today’s moviegoers who would be bored to tears by it, just as they’re bored to tears by Psycho. The fact is Psycho and movies like When a Stranger Calls have been ripped off so many times by lesser lights, that their novelty isn’t apparent anymore. And, of course, it’s very simple to sit in your TV room and watch this on your screen and be complacent, because you are in control in that environment. What all these kiddies don’t understand but will twenty years from now when that generation looks back at this generation’s favorite scary movies and laughs at them, is CONTEXT. These movies weren’t viewed on a TV screen, they were viewed in movie theaters – DARK movie theaters filled with people squirming in their seats. Why? Because this kind of film (and comedy) is a SHARED movie-going experience. I remember seeing Alien the week it opened – what made that film so damn frightening? The shared experience of an entire audience not knowing what was going to happen next. The fear in that theater was palpable, and I’m sure it was for When a Stranger Calls. So, while it may seem tame and even mediocre for today’s kiddies, it obviously wasn’t back then. Back then, it must have been a nail-biting and squirming delight. The first twenty minutes of the film is a textbook example of how to build suspense. Not by having things jump out at you – not that cheap thrill – but just building the creepy factor with every shot. The set-up is simple: A babysitter arrives and is told the two kids are upstairs asleep and that she should try not to wake them since it took a long time to get to sleep. The interesting thing is we don’t know anything about this girl, but we’re immediately on her side and empathetic the minute the phone rings and she gets a disturbing hang-up, followed by another call immediately, wherein the caller says, “Have you checked the children?” She gets several more of those, hears noises (turns out to be the icemaker in the refrigerator, and she finally attempts to get the parents on the phone, but they’ve left the restaurant at which they were dining. She calls the police. They say there’s nothing they can do, really, but tell her that if she can keep him on the phone for a minute or more, they might be able to trace the call. Eventually, he calls and she does keep him on the phone. When he finally hangs up, the police call back and say they were able to trace the call and… SPOILER ALERT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
The caller is in the house. The entire sequence works really well. Then the movie flips forward seven years and we find that the killer (he’d killed the two children) has escaped from the mental institution. We then follow that story, as a private investigator (Charles Durning) tries to find him (he wants to kill him). That cat and mouse game is the second act of the film, and while the comments by the teens at the imdb would lead you to believe it’s terrible, it actually works quite well, and I’m sure it worked really well back in 1979. Colleen Dewhurst appears in this section of the film. Then in the third act, the killer finds the babysitter, who is now a mom of two children. Though the final scare (and it’s a good one) is very contrived, the whole final sequence is quite good. Carol Kane does a very good job as the terrified babysitter and then mom.
Where the film fails is in the secondary casting – outside of Kane, Durning, Dewhurst, Rachel Roberts (one quick scene) and Tony Beckley as the disturbed killer, the rest of the cast is rather amateurish. The script isn’t brilliant but gets the job done, and Fred Walton’s direction is quite good in the two big set piece sequences. Helping immeasurably is the score by Dana Kaproff – it’s written for strings, piano, and percussion, and is just terrific in keeping you on the edge of your seat. The film was remade in 2006 and the brilliant filmmakers took the first twenty minutes of the original and made that the entire film. That, of course, is an immediate fail.
After that, the Family Hollis arrived and we went to sup at Genghis Cohen. It was not the restaurant’s finest hour – I’m thinking the main chef may come on at six and we were there at five. The orange chicken was excellent, but the Kung Pao chicken wasn’t good at all, the green beans were not quite up to their usual greatness, nor was the Crackerjack shrimp. Melody LOVES the orange chicken and she ate at least half of the original order, so we ordered a second portion for all of us to share – that was at six and the difference was instantly apparent – it was brilliant and perfect. I’ve learned my Genghis Cohen lesson – after six only. Then we all went to see Doug Haverty’s play, Aftershocks. I’d seen a staged reading of the play at Theatre West and hadn’t cared for it much, mostly because it was so horribly acted there. I know he did further work on the show, but I don’t remember it well enough to know how much or exactly what was changed.
I won’t say too much, other than one of the cast members simply wasn’t up to the part or the play and that really hurt the production, along with the meandering direction. The other two actors were fine and had the third been up to them it would have helped the play and the production. After that, I came home, had some berry good berries and some carrots, which were orange. I then realized it was midnight and Eliza Doolittle Day and immediately said “owwww” and “garn,” not necessarily in that order. Well why don’t we all click on the Unseemly Button below because I really must get some beauty sleep.
Today, the only work I really have to do is to prep our new release. But the master is coming to me so late that I just don’t know if it will be possible to announce in the morning. I was hoping to have it sometime yesterday, and I’m sure it will arrive at some point today, but we’ll see if we can get it all together in time, as I have to also get all the information to the online dealers. Otherwise, I’ll jog, eat something light but fun, and relax.
Tomorrow, it’s Dr. Chew for my permanent porcelain cap, and then the rest of the day and week is hopefully printing out a LOT of orders, figuring out the show order, writing the contextual commentary, meetings, meals, seeing shows, and other stuff.
Well, dear readers, I must take the day (Eliza Doolittle Day), I must do the things I do, I must, for example, jog, prep, and relax. Today’s topic of discussion: It’s free-for-all day, the day in which you dear readers get to make with the topics and we all get to post about them. So, let’s have loads of lovely topics and loads of lovely postings, shall we, whilst I hit the road to dreamland where I shall dance all night and be loverly.