Well, dear readers, we are already in the thick of November and it’s only the 2nd. Yes, you heard it here, dear readers, we are already in the thick of November. Not the thin of November, mind you, no, we are in the thick of November. I started off November with one of those days when things go incredibly wrong and incredibly right. Early in the day, I knew that the CDs of The Last Starfighter weren’t going to be ready on time, even though I was told that they would absolutely be ready. Late in the afternoon, what I knew proved to be true – there were machine issues at the pressing plant and they were going to do their damndest to have them for me this afternoon, but with no guarantees. I lit into Lalo (the plant manager) quite heavily, telling him strongly that they’d been late on every single CD release we’ve done with them. I told him that for every day he was late that we’d be taking money off the invoice, because I was ultimately going to have to pay someone to come and pack up the CDs and take them to the post office. When I placed the order I let everyone know in no uncertain terms that it had to be the 1st, that my schedule was so tight that I couldn’t have any screwups or it would cause me real grief. I should have an update by ten this morning, and I will keep you all posted. No matter what happens, I don’t see any way these will get shipped before Friday, because Thursday my day starts at nine in the morning, and I won’t get home until after six. We’ll still be shipping at least ten days before street date, so that’s good, but it just frosts me to deal with such amateurish people. That was the incredibly wrong part of the day. The incredibly right part of the day was the ease I had in booking the instrument rentals and cartage for my session next Monday. Those folks are professionals, let me tell you that. And then, the mix for Kevin’s CD went very well indeed, and much quicker than I thought it would. It’s really going to be a nice CD and I think listeners will really feel the excitement of the performance. The CD will be our first release of 2006 and will start preorders the first week of January. The only other news, or non-news, is that I have heard nothing about how the first set of auditions (the pre-screening) went today. We’re having a production meeting this evening, and everyone had best start understanding that I need to be kept in the loop for everything, especially stuff as important as the casting sessions. I’ve been feeling a complete lack of communication between everyone, and I shall be very strong about that in tonight’s meeting. After all, we’re only four weeks away from beginning rehearsals for the play. One other completely weird thing that happened yesterday – I gave my cousin a copy of Rewind yesterday morning. Later, I had a message saying that the wrong book was contained within the Rewind dustjacket. That totally freaked me out, as I had just opened a new box of books and that was the first copy I pulled. However, when I got home, I went through the box pretty thoroughly and apparently that was just a freak accident – the rest of the books were indeed Rewind and not The Story of Abelard and Heloise. I wonder if the author of The Story of Abelard and Heloise has a copy of Rewind sitting in an Abelard and Heloise dustjacket?
Last night I watched a motion picture on DVD entitled Wages of Fear, un film de Henri-Georges Clouzot, director of Diabolique. To this day, Wages of Fear remains one of the most gut-wrenchingly suspenseful films of all time. It achieves its suspense without a thumping loud musical score, without fancy and ridiculous camera moves and editing and CGI. The suspense works because the story and characters work – it’s that simple. How wonderful to have a film that takes a leisurely fifty-five minutes to set up the story, the place, and the people, so that when the actual main part of the film begins, we know the characters, know their deal, know their milieu, and have been prepared for what’s about to happen for the next ninety minutes. Yes, Wages of Fear is long – 147 minutes – but it never feels padded and every scene is important in the fabric of the film. Yet, when this film was released in the US in 1955, fifty minutes of it were cut and the film’s running time was 97 minutes. Most of the cuts were in the film’s opening fifty-five minutes, and those cuts rob the film of its power. The cuts, interestingly, were not so much for time, as for a perceived anti-American bias, as well as much of the film’s truly nihilistic bits, and also for some perceived homosexual overtones. Happily, the full-length version has been available on video since 1991, and it is that version that is presented on the new Criterion DVD (the older Criterion DVD was also full-length – this transfer is a bit sharper and cleaner, and if you love the film, you’ll want to upgrade). The cast is, in a word, brilliant, every single player. Yves Montand has never been better, and Fulco Lulli and Peter van Eyck are wonderful as well. But it is Charles Vanel who gives the film’s finest performance – to watch his character go from a strutting, cocky, dangerous braggart to a mewling coward is a lesson in great screen acting. For those who don’t know, the basic plot of the film is four men driving two trucks filled with nitro-glycerin over 300 miles of treacherous road. Those sequences will have you squirming in your seat. And if you want to know how bad this film would be if remade, you need look no further than William Friedkin’s 70s rehash, Sorcerer. Instead of natural sound creating the tension, we’ve got an overblown Tangerine Dream score, overblown sound effects, and “hey, look, I’m a DIRECTOR” direction. Interestingly, if it were remade again today, it would be even worse – one can only imagine – a Joel Silver production, directed by Tony Scott, music by Hans Zimmer, starring Brad Pitt and George Clooney. I just got an incredible headache just writing that sentence.
What am I, Ebert and Roeper all of a sudden? Well, why don’t we all click on the Unseemly Button below because, after all, we are already in the thick of November and if I don’t finish these here notes, it will already be December.
Yesterday, I completely forgot to put up the answers to our Unseemly Trivia Contest, and heaven knows we know you’ve all been waiting for them with both bated and baited breath. Here was the question:
This hugely unsuccessful musical had a hugely short run. One of its cast members was not really known for musicals, and this cast member would, in fact, go on to have a successful motion picture career in a variety of films including one classic horror chiller. Another one of its cast would go on to win a Tony Award for a hugely successful musical. Another of its cast would also go on to win a Tony Award for another hugely successful musical. And its composer, in addition to writing theater music, was also responsible for a very famous motion picture theme.
Name the hugely unsuccessful musical.
Name the cast member who was not really known for musicals, who would go on to have a successful career in motion pictures, including one classic horror chiller.
Name the two cast members who would go on to win Tony Awards for two different hugely successful musicals.
Name the composer.
And the answers are:
The Moony Shapiro Songbook
Jeff Goldblum (who would go on to star in our very own Pogue’s The Fly)
Judy Kaye (The Phantom of the Opera), and Gary Beach (The Producers)
Monty Norman (credit with writing The James Bond Theme)
Despite the simplicity of the question, we only had two people even attempt a guess, only one of which was correct. It used to be much more fun when people would at least make a stab at guessing. In any case, our High Winner is FJL, who will be receiving a sparkling prize.
Today, of course, I had hoped I’d be going to the post office to ship all the Starfighter CDs, but instead, I’ll be taking care of other things, including having a meeting with my co-director for the LACC show. If the CDs arrive in the late afternoon, I guess I’ll try to get some of the packaged up after the meeting, although, as I said, I won’t be able to get to the post office until Friday morning.
Well, dear readers, I must take the day, I must do the things I do, I must write, I must do errands, I must pick up a package or three, and I must attend to many things. Today’s topic of discussion: It’s Ask BK Day, the day in which you get to ask me or any dear reader any old question you like, and we get to give any old answer we like. So, let’s have loads of lovely questions and loads of lovely answers and loads of lovely postings as we continue being in the thick of November.