Well, dear readers, today is the day. Yes, you heard it here, dear readers, today is the day Sami premieres on Amazon Prime Video and excited doesn’t quite convey how excited we all are. So, here’s the deal and this is VERY important: We’re hoping as many people as possible will watch today and tonight because the more who watch the better the algorithms on Amazon are, but here’s what really sends them climbing – once you’ve watched (whether binging all ten episodes, which would take two hours and eight minutes, or even just a few), please take the time to write an Amazon review on this first day or evening. It’s what drives this show up in the ranks and we all have worked so hard on this and want it to be as big a success as we can make it. As I’ve mentioned before, our original intention was that it be free for Prime members, but unfortunately Prime Video no longer allows that – so, we chose the least expensive route at .99 per episode or $9.99 for the series. Even we have to pay.
Now, from what we understand, it should go live at 12:01, just after these here notes are posted. But if not, it will go live at some point today. We’re just not sure how that part works. Here is the direct link to the page, but it won’t work until the show is live, so please don’t click on it before 12:01.
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0B6GRK789
So, let’s give this thing a great big send-off and thanks a million for being supportive – we’re very proud of the show!
Otherwise, I am sitting here like so much anxious fish, listening to Howard Shore’s fantastic score to David Cronenberg’s superb film, Dead Ringers. Not the faux Dead Ringers limited series, which should have been limited to no episodes, but the real deal. Earlier this evening, I watched the film for the first time in five or six years. It’s one of Cronenberg’s best, right up there with Scanners, The Dead Zone, and The Brood. It’s beautifully paced, there’s not a wasted minute, and unlike the current version, it’s intensely moving at the end. A lot of credit goes to Jeremy Irons’ performances as Elliot and Beverly Mantle – he should not only have been nominated he should have won. For me, it’s his finest ever. Genevieve Bujold is excellent as the actress that Beverly falls hard for. It’s beautifully directed and any working director today should watch it and see what classical moviemaking is all about. And here’s the funniest thing, irony-wise. With all of today’s CGI and digital tools available, isn’t it funny that the 1988 version is more convincing and less like a hat trick. The special effects in the twin scenes is extraordinary and holds up really well. The new version has a terrible score and songs that tell you what everyone is feeling, while the original has a great score that actually does what a great score is supposed to – gets under the skin of the characters and story and enhancing it at every step. If you’ve never seen it and you don’t mind a bit of violence (it’s pretty nothing compared to today’s films and especially it’s nothing in the violence department compared to the gratuitous, flatulent redo), it comes highly recommended by the likes of me.
And after that, I decided to treat myself to my every few years viewing of North by Northwest. I marvel at this film every time I see it. If there’s a more perfect movie than this, I haven’t seen it. There are other Hitchcocks that are its equal but this is certainly one of the most entertaining movies ever made, and one that was copied endlessly in the ensuing years. First of all, the script is brilliant, with laugh out loud great dialogue, suspense, drama, everything you’d ever want in a script – and the fact that it’s an original script and not based on anything makes it even more astonishing. Then there’s the cast – could you have a more perfect set of leading players than Cary Grant, Eva Marie Saint, and James Mason? I think not. Grant is so good in this, Saint has never been better or more beautiful, and Mason is one of the greatest villains in the history of movies. Why? Because he never plays it as a villain – there’s depth to the character and he’s subtle and fun, not a misstep – of course, he has some of the best dialogue in the film, classic quotable lines. Martin Landau is wonderful in the supporting role of Leonard (“Call it my woman’s intuition”), Leo G. Carroll was always a unique and incredible character actor, and then you’ve got Philip Ober, Robert Ellenstein, Adam Williams, Josephine Hutchison, Edward Platt, Les Tremayne, Edward Binns, and Ken Lynch. The photography by Robert Burks is his usual stellar work. And now we get to the two most important people. Bernard Herrmann, whose score is everything a movie score should be – from its first notes it propels us into the film with his amazing main title music and then at every step of the way it serves the film perfectly. And then there’s Mr. Hitchcock. If you ever watch it again, study the shots, when he cuts, when he moves the camera and why – it is a textbook example of everything film can do. Today’s director’s just throw everything in the air and hand it to the editor. If they can move the camera they move it every second so that the moves are meaningless. I saw this film at eleven years of age in 1959 when it went wide after its exclusive engagement at the Egyptian. I saw it at the Wiltern Theater and fell in love with it. I saw it there five times, then literally followed the film around L.A. going to wherever it played. I pretended I was being chased by an airplane. I could hum the various themes (and there was NO soundtrack album), I was, frankly, obsessed with it and still am.
Yesterday was a fine day – nothing special, but nothing terrible, for which I’m always grateful. I was up at eight and out the door at nine. I went to Hugo’s for breakfast – it was jammed, which it hasn’t been since the pandemic. It was a little irritating because I got stuck at one of their tiny two-tops. I had eggs Benedict and it was very good as were the home fries. They used to be cheaper than Art’s for breakfasts by three or four dollars – those days are gone. All prices are up by at least four bucks. Then I went to the mail place and picked up a couple of nothing envelopes, went to my nearby mall and killed time there, then came home.
Once here, I did Sami stuff pretty much all day, the final posts about our creative team. Around six, I ordered in a cheeseburger and onion rings from Fat Sal’s. The burger was surprisingly good – a bit lukewarm thanks to the DoorDasher who delivered to other people before coming here, but still tasty, as were the few onion rings. Then I watched the movies and now we wait to see if we’re live at 12:01.
Today will be an all Sami day – hopefully we’ll be live right after midnight or soon thereafter, and then I’ll be monitoring it all day and evening. I can’t think of a better way to spend a Sunday.
Then this week is getting the book approved and to the printer, keeping track of Sami and making sure everyone I know is watching it, I think on Tuesday I’m doing Donald’s radio show, and on Thursday we’re casting the workshop of the new play I’m directing.
Well, dear readers, I must take the day, I must do the things I do, I must, for example, have an all Sami day and evening. I’ll eat something at some point, but other than that it’s all Sami all the time. Can’t wait to hear your thoughts. 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, so happy that today is the day that Sami premieres.