Well, dear readers, here is something to ponder whilst pondering the imponderables – why is it, I ask you, that every thriller of the the last thirty years is deemed “Hitchcockian?” Every one. Why? Because I have no clew as to what they mean by that because Hitchcock would never have made any of these films and he certainly wouldn’t have made them as poorly as most of these are. Take for example last night’s viewing of a motion picture entitled Bad Influence, which some wag on a Facebook classic films group, who is an online blogger/critic spoke of this and two other Curtis Hanson films as his trio of Hitchcockian films – The Bedroom Window, Bad Influence, and The Hand that Rocks the Cradle. I’ve seen all three and while it’s simplistic to call The Bedroom Window “Hitchcockian” there is not a thing, style-wise, that’s even in the ballpark of Hitchcock and add to that a ridiculous script riddled with holes, and, well, no. The Hand that Rocks the Cradle was certainly a decent suspenser, but Hitchcockian? No. That leaves last night’s Bad Influence, a rather silly film that’s enjoyable on some level, not boring or anything, and actually does have one small Hitchcockian element, which is that it’s a bad riff on Strangers on a Train, but with none of that book or film’s grace, brilliance, or style. But this guy is an auteur guy so Hanson can do little wrong. I thought he was an okay director – I can’t say I actually loved any of his films and that includes the one EVERYONE loves, L.A. Confidential – I like it, I’ve seen it a couple of times, but I don’t find it brilliant. Anyway, Bad Influence is worth watching for Rob Lowe and James Spader’s performances – this film began shooting in the shadow of Lowe’s infamous tape thing but that’s all in the past and largely forgotten. Kathleen Wilhoite is fun as Spader’s secretary, and my old pal Tony Maggio has a nice part as a rival employee in Spader’s office. Tony was an LACC Theater Academy student, then began teaching there part time, then full time, eventually becoming the head of the department – sadly, short-lived as that happened right before the pandemic. He’s no longer there and that department has really turned into something that’s not of interest to me, something I thought I’d never say.
Yesterday was a day that began with a really irritating text volley that got more irritating as it went on, although I cut it short pretty quickly. I got six hours of sleep, the helper came by and picked up a couple of things to ship, and then I made the mistake of the day – I ordered food from Norm’s. I first went to Norm’s in my LACC days because there was one only about a mile from the campus. It was terrible then and the handful of times I happened to eat there subsequently were equally terrible. But it is, for some wacko reason, beloved by LA people, mostly, I think, because of the Googie style buildings rather than the food. There was a huge outcry when the La Cienega branch almost closed. Then a couple of years ago, they opened a Norm’s in Encino and for about twelve minutes it was hip and everyone went, which is what these people do. Most of the people who post about these places that eventually fold and die scream and yell about it but they NEVER go if one should reopen, like the failed attempt to resurrect the Hamburger Hamlet. And true to form, Norm’s closed last month, not even two years after it opened. Ironically, I ordered an appetizer selection from there not three days before they bit the dust and it wasn’t half bad. Well, that location probably had better cooks or whatever. I ordered from the other Valley Norm’s in Van Nuys. I got the steak combo – a small steak, three fried shrimp, three small chicken tenders, a baked potato, soup, and salad. Well, it may well be the worst lunch I’ve ever suffered through and it certainly wasn’t cheap. The steak was a joke, a think piece of shoe leather, probably not even three ounces. I ate it like a good soldier, drowning it in ketchup. The fried shrimp were tiny and a one-bite deal. They were okay, but not as good as the Encino fried shrimp, which were much bigger. Same with the chicken tenders – much better in Encino. It was all fairly sickening. The baked potato was fine – hard to ruin a baked potato – and I loaded it up with butter. I had one bite of the soup, which was dreadful (gumbo) and I would have enjoyed the tiny salad more had the lettuce not been so tired – their 1000-Island dressing was actually pretty good. And that was food, and it made me nauseous for most of the afternoon. At this point, as I write these here notes, I’m thinking of having a sandwich just to get the damn taste of Norm’s out of my mouth. We’ll see if that happens, probably a Subway would do the trick.
Most of the day was spent proofing and I wanted to finish but I’ve still got about 100 pages to go. I must say, I haven’t found many errors – just a handful of tiny things, so that’s good. Then I had to upload all ten Sami episodes to a place called Film Hub and that took the entire evening – and I haven’t finished, one to go, once nine is finished uploading – it’s halfway there. Film Hub is rather like CD Baby – I let that latter handle all the digital streaming platforms for the releases we have where we own those rights. They take a small bit o’ money, but we’ve done pretty okay doing it that way. Film Hub does the same sort of thing but for features and web series and shorts. They make it available for all streaming platforms – you can either do an all-in or you can select those which you think are the best bets for the show. In our case, we’ll not make it available to Amazon since we’re doing that ourselves, but we will make it available to places like Apple+, Hulu, iTunes, anyplace we think there might be interest. It’s up to them whether to pick it up or not, but we’re hoping we may get a couple. We’re also in the midst of submitting the show to various festivals – we’ve already been accepted into one and we’ve submitted to about ten others. And that was the day and evening.
Today, I’ll be up by eleven, I’ll absolutely finish proofing, I’ll pray for a gargantuan major miracle, I’ll eat something good that I can trust, I’ll see if anything’s arrived at the mail place and if there’s something worth picking up I’ll go gather it up. And then at some point I’ll be able to watch, listen, and relax. I’ve done a free seven-day trial for some streaming thing called Screenpix – no commercials and a ton of movies I’m interested in seeing, including several that I haven’t seen since they were released. Even if I were to keep it, should I not get through everything in seven days, it’s only 2.99 a month, so I could just keep it for a month.
The rest of the week is more of the same – Sami stuff, book stuff (it will be designed this week, but not by Grant – I’m done with that – too much delay and waiting – the company that does the eBooks for me will get my version of what Grant does, and they’ll have one of his PDFs so they can make sure I measured everything correctly and I’ll also send them a PDF of an Author House galley so they have that, too. I’ve set it in the Garamond font, which is easy on the eyes – not the same as Grant uses but I know what his font is and if we want to use it I’m pretty sure this company will have it. It should be pretty easy and quick for them to confirm everything, then it can off to Author House and we can get this puppy done. I could, however, also forego Author House and do it through Amazon Direct because everything will be to their specs anyway. I would have to know they can do hardcover and I’d have to know the author cost of getting them. Lots of decisions to make this week.
Well, dear readers, I must take the day, I must do the things I do, I must, for example, be up by eleven, finish proofing, pray for a gargantuan major miracle, eat, check to see if there’s anything at the mail place, and then I can watch, listen, and relax. Today’s topic of discussion: What movies would you consider ARE Hitchcockian – right off the top of my head I’d say Mirage with Gregory Peck and Diane Baker. Let’s have loads of lovely postings, shall we, whilst I hit the road to dreamland, where I will perhaps have Hitchcockian dreams.