BK, re: auditions. When I was an actor, I used to love helping director friends during auditions. I would volunteer to read with the actors. Directors always liked having someone competent that they trusted up their feeding the auditioner. Sometimes when you have two people auditioning, reading with each other, a bad actor could cripple a good actor's reading because of bad choices or strange rhythms. The ones I always hated were the ones that tried to act out all the business in the script while reading...and then would proceed to get lost in the script, lose pace, and just make a bollocks of everything.
re: Tarzan documentary. As always, BK, good to see my pal Rudy Behlmer. Another of my pals, Tracy Griffin,is also on it. Tracy was president of the LA Sub-ERBS, the local branch of The Burroughs Bibliophiles out here...in fact, founded the organization. I remember him when he was just a green kid fresh from Mississippi, having him up to see my library when he was trying to meet all the local Burroughs fans out here. He's become quite the Burroughs scholar and one of the movers and shakers in Burroughs fandom and writes lots of articles, not just on Tarzan, for professional film and comic genre mags.
Ex-Tarz Denny Miller and I were just emailing each other the other day about the how grey and decrepit the annual Burroughs Dum-Dums (ape language for 'gathering") have gotten over the years and how new blood is needed to keep the literary fan contingent alive. If Tracy can't do it, no one can. He actually threw two of the best Dum-Dums out here that were about three years apart. Harlan Ellison was the guest-speaker at one (where I met him) and our mutual pal, Bill Stout, did the T-shirt artwork. It was through our local Sub-ERB meetings, I met Bill. So it was good to have Tracy's insights on the films and glad he got the gig. After all, he called my screen adaptation of PRINCESS OF MARS (the very first script written), the most Burroughsian script ever! So he must know what he's talking about.
Now I don't know what real insights Johnny Weissmuller Jr. can offer but it was fascinating just looking at his craggy, worn face. Looks like he done some hard living somewhere.
Has anyone ever seen Huston's SINFUL DAVEY? Not a good film, but I was somewhat intrigued with it, the only time I've ever seen it and would like to take a look at it.
I see where TCM is having fans vote on films they'd like to see on DVD. Top five will released. Saw RANDOM HARVEST on the list. Gets my vote.
