Well, dear readers, I must write these here notes in a hurry, for she of the Evil Eye will be here all too soon and I would like to get a semblance of sleep. Let me just talk about the horrid little movie I watched last night on the Tube of You, entitled The Dark, a “horror” film about some giant “thing” who rips people’s heads off with his hands and shoots cartoon rays from his eyeballs that either incapacitates people or makes them disappear. This shocking creature is supposedly from outer space but it looked to me like a tall hulking person with bad skin and long fingernails. Now, there is a reason for that, which I’ll go into in a minute. Why William Devane thought it was a good idea to make this movie is unknown to me – perhaps it paid well, but since it looks like it cost about fifty cents to make, well – also Keenan Wynn, Cathy Lee Crosby, Richard Jaeckel, Biff Elliot, Casey Kasem (I’m not making this up), AND Miss Vivian Blaine in a one scene role that must have taken twelve minutes to shoot. There’s actually little blood, you don’t ever really see much, but it IS shot in scope with some of the worst and fuzziest images you’ll ever see, there are “voices” that you hear on the soundtrack – can’t tell if they’re part of the score or not – that I believe are saying in scary tones, “The dark, the dark”. The score is by the very nice chap, jazz pianist Roger Kellaway and it’s not very good, the acting is ludicrous from all concerned, nothing makes any sense. Apparently, if one is to believe Wikipedia, Tobe Hooper was the director but was fired for being behind schedule – not sure I believe that. EDIT: He was indeed fired after three days. He was replaced by John “Bud” Cardos, who deserved an Oscar for worst director of any film from the 1970s, this one shot at the end of 1977 and released in July of 1979 to some of the worst reviews ever written. Yes, it actually had an actual release and played many theaters in L.A. including the beautiful Picwood, which would soon be demolished. In Hollywood, it played the non-beautiful Vine. There is narration at the top of the film and at the end that is completely incoherent but is letting us all know it’s a creature from outer space. Unfortunately, that decision wasn’t made until shooting was almost finished. In the words of whomever wrote the Wikipedia entry and perhaps quoting someone who knew, the “thing” as written in the script and filmed until the change was a hulking HUMAN, a retarded hulking HUMAN who lived in the basement, locked up, and who escaped.
And then, there’s John “Bud” Cardos, actor of no distinction who appeared in a fifteen or so low-budget films and four TV appearances, he was also a stuntman, and then a director of such classics as Soul Soldier, Drag Racer, Kingdom of the Spiders, The Dark, Mutant, Outlaw of Gor, Skeleton Coast, and Act of Piracy – I’m sure many of you have seen all of those. So, why did I keep watching all eighty-eight minutes? Because the entire film was shot right here, on location, in Los Angeles. I had hopes, oh yes, I had high hopes that we’d get some great late 70s views. In the first scene, we do see a brief shot of the Tiffany Theater on Sunset, when Dino’s was still next door. And right after that, you do get a shot of someone coming out of a movie theater but thanks to the brilliant direction of John “Bud” Cardos, we don’t see the name of the theater – according to the imdb, it was the Cine-Cienega on La Cienega, formerly the Warner Playhouse and several other names. There are lots of driving scenes, scenes in buildings, in front of buildings, but thanks to the brilliant direction of John “Bud” Cardos there is not a single establishing shot in the entire film. You never know WHERE you are. Establishing shots are there to let the audience know. William Devane gets some food at a drive-in. Think we see an establishing shot that lets us know WHICH drive-in? Nooooo. We just get a close-up of the car. Now, they had to pay something or get permission to shoot there, so why NOT get a wider shot. Same with the buildings – well, the whole damn movie. Can you even imagine if we didn’t have an establishing shot for these here notes? People would be SO confused.
Otherwise, I got about six hours of sleep, got up, answered e-mails, got dressed, moseyed on over to bank number one and was in and out in less than three minutes, then walked to my bank and was in and out in less than three minutes, came home, ordered from Shanghai Rose – orange chicken and Schezwan string beans and some white rice. It arrived. The orange chicken wasn’t very good but I ate about two-thirds rather than let it go in the trash completely, but the string beans were really tasty. After that, I wrote about eight or nine pages and then sent the first forty-eight pages to Muse Margaret. She’ll be reading them this morning. Then I had a couple of telephonic conversations, watched the movie, and here we are.
Today, I’ll be up by eight and out the door by eight-thirty, I’ll breakfast, do some errands and whatnot, maybe put some gas in the motor car (I lasted six weeks on my last tank of gas), come home, hopefully talk to Muse Margaret, maybe do some writing, make some telephonic calls, I’m getting back the hard drive and I’ll watch those sections where I asked for changes, just to make sure they’re okay, and then I can watch, listen, and relax.
Tomorrow, I’m getting a much-needed haircut from a new gal that Robert Yacko goes to, so that will be interesting, but the rest of the week will really be writing, presuming Muse Margaret actually likes the pages, checking to see what’s what at the mail place, and doing whatever needs doing, and I think I have a lunch on Friday.
Well, dear readers, I must take the day, I must do the things I do, I must, for example, be up by eight and out the door by eight-thirty, have breakfast, do errands and whatnot, maybe get some gas, come home, hopefully hear from Muse Margaret and maybe do more writing, get the hard drive, make telephonic calls, watch the replacement sections for Drat! The Cat! and then watch, listen, and relax. Today’s topic of discussion: What are your favorite Chinese dishes with only vegetables? Let’s have loads of lovely postings, shall we, whilst I hit the road to dreamland, where there will hopefully be many establishing shots.