Well, dear readers, I am sitting here like so much fish, still listening to the wonderful music of Louis Glass, his fifth symphony and now his Fantasie for piano and orchestra. His music has a very English pastoral quality and since I’m frequently in an English pastoral state of mind, I’m all for it. I’m currently in an English pastoral state of mind, relaxing as I write these here English pastoral notes. Before I continue, has anyone noticed that this is the final day of February? I really do not like February due to its irritating brevity and the fact that one has to pay all the first of month bills two days early. But tomorrow is another month, namely March, and it is my fervent hope and prayer that March will be a month filled with health, wealth, happiness, creativity, and all things bright and beautiful. Other than that, I can tell you about two motion pictures, though. I’ll dispense with the first as quickly as possible: It was entitled The Other Man and starred Liam Neeson, Antonio Banderas, and Laura Linney. It’s one of those fractured timeline movies that doesn’t play fair with the audience so they can have a “surprise” at the end. I went along with it for the first twenty minutes and then it just got sillier and sillier and then became completely risible. I couldn’t understand a single word Mr. Banderas said and given the script that was probably a good thing. But the second movie, which I hadn’t seen in quite some time, was wonderful – Harold and Maude. I’ve had the Blu-ray since it came out but have never watched it and I still haven’t because I just watched it on Amazon Prime. While I’d heard of it, I missed it during its original run, so when I was cast in the Peter Nichols’ play Forget-Me-Not Lane opposite Bud Cort, I didn’t really know who he was. I quickly learned that the film had a huge cult following. Like the movie Smile, everyone thinks Harold and Maude was some huge hit. It wasn’t. Paramount didn’t have a clew as to how to sell it – they opened it at the Village Theater in Westwood a few days before Christmas with a not very big ad that was a amateurish as the ads for the LA run of The First Nudie Musical. It played the Village the same exact number of weeks as Nudie Musical – two. That was at the end of December 1971 into early January of 1972. Then a few weeks later it went wide with a new ad that was barely better than the original. And to give you an idea of just how little Paramount thought of it and how little business it did at the Village, the wide release had the worst theaters around town – in Hollywood it was at the horrid little dump of a theater, the Holly. The Embassy on Western, which was a rat hole, the tiny 150-seat Cine-Cienega on La Cienega, and a very small number of other theaters, but no further run on the west side except a small theater in Santa Monica, plus some drive-ins, on a double bill with Goodbye, Columbus. And a week later it was gone, playing bottom half of double bills at bottom of the barrel theaters. So, it’s amazing that anyone saw it, but they did via word of mouth, but a small group and the fact that Paramount kept putting it on the bottom half of double bills, which is how I finally saw it, because I heard so much about it from Bud. NOW everyone thinks it was a big hit and a crown jewel from Paramount but let us never forget how they treated that film and of course my film. Much later, the revival houses got it. The film holds up very well and the humor is just as black now as it was then. Above all, Bud is amazing in it and so is Ruth Gordon and especially Vivian Pickles, who is hilarious as Bud’s mother. Bud and I became close pals all during the run. He didn’t really drive so I picked him up (he was staying with Sally Kellerman at the time) and took him to rehearsals. We dined out ofter after the show at the little coffee shop downstairs. And opening night, Groucho came and saw the show because Bud and he were great friends. And then came the memorable evening when Bud called and said to get over to Groucho’s because Groucho felt like singing. That episode along with many others is in There’s Mel, There’s Woody, and There’s You. Then I didn’t see Bud again until 2015 in New York, when we did the Kritzerland shows there. I dined with friends at Joe Allen one night and this guy kept staring at me and staring at me and he finally came to the table and asked if I remembered him – I didn’t recognize him until he said his name – Bud Cort. Here is the opening day ad for Harold and Maude.
See what I mean? And just a year later, this ad appeared in the LA Times’ Sunday Calendar.
Yesterday wasn’t much of a day. I got seven hours of sleep, got up, answered e-mails, but stayed in all day due to more rain – not like last week’s but enough that I didn’t want to drive anywhere. It rained on and off during the day and evening. I ordered the tri-salad from Art’s Deli thanks to a twenty-percent coupon from DoorDash. It was very good and very filling, not necessarily in that order. I had a telephonic conversation, saw the close captioning for two episodes and Sami and caught a couple of mistakes to fix, but they got most of it right. So, on to the next two. I was restless for most of the afternoon until I finally sat on my couch and watched the motion pictures.
Today, I’ll be up when I’m up, I’ll do whatever needs doing, I’ll continue the hunt for a piano player, I’ve chosen most of the songs already, so that’s good, but we can’t get the flyer done until I know the musical director. I’ll eat, I’ll hopefully pick up some packages and perhaps two important envelopes, and then I can watch, listen, and relax.
The rest of the week is more of that, maybe some meetings and meals, and then we’ll see what the weekend brings.
Well, dear readers, I must take the day, I must do the things I do, I must, for example, be up when I’m up, do whatever needs doing, continue the hunt for a pianist, eat, hopefully pick up packages and two important envelopes, and then watch, listen, and relax. Today’s topic of discussion: What are your favorite cult movies like Harold and Maude, things that became cult favorites despite not catching on in their initial releases? Let’s have loads of lovely postings, shall we, whilst I hit the road to dreamland, trying to keep my English pastoral mood whilst finishing these here English pastoral notes.