Seb Palmer

What a great fun movie! A fabulous Lalo Schifrin score. Charles Bronson, being Charles Bronson. Jacqueline Bisset being sexy, alluring and evil. A great cast. Great settings.

From the wah-wah guitar and flute, to Chuck’s fab suit (dig those lapels!), the gritty urban settings, juxtaposed with the luxury of dirty money, and the complex McGuffin of a plot, this film really delivers.

There’s layer upon layer of intrigue in the story, which works well to drive what is otherwise essentially a genre/mood piece. I don’t know if this was true at the time, but in retrospect, this film partakes of a zeitgeist I’m particularly fond of. At least in celluloid form.

Bronson lives in relative luxury, retired from being a crime journalist, and trying to write a novel. He lives in the interesting Lido Hotel, a place that’s slightly sleazy, but also rather grand. Impeccably dishevelled, perhaps, like Bronson himself?

There are a lot of good actors here, even in the lesser parts (Burr deBenning**, as the unfortunate beat cop, for example; a very young Jeff Goldblum, as a hoodlum***). And the stars all deliver. John Houseman, as Procane (whose ledgers, the confessional journals of a master criminal, it transpires, are the McGuffin), reminds me a bit of Ray Milland.

Maximilian Schell – dig the whiskers! – is great fun, as Procane’s private doc/shrink, who eventually turns on his super-rich possibly hypochondriac employer.

I’m having a bit of a Bronson-fest at the moment. And I have yet to be disappointed. It turns out I’m not in bad company, in my admiration for this unusual actor’s complex and slightly baffling charm:

Like lots of films of this type, about sleazy crime and vast sums of filthy lucre, etc, it prob won’t stand up to much scrutiny. But that’s hardly the point. It’s entertainment. And damned good entertainment at that.

This particular film seems to me unusually rich, in ideas, settings, scenarios, and suchlike. Which make it that bit more fun than some films that might ostensibly be deemed similar.

It’s definitely worth checking out Lalo Schifrin’s very groovy title theme.

There are lots of interesting little nuggets in this movie. Why, for example, are Procane’s cronies named after famous modern painters; Whistler and Constable? Surely that’s not accidental? Not that it necessarily signifies anything…

*Look carefully, and you’ll see this is clearly a doctored photo. It illustrates a great little incidental scene – and this film is enriched by many such baubles – in a rather unusual specialist car body shop.

**I recognised DeBenning from the Columbo episode By Dawn’s Early Light. I added DeBenning to the Wikipedia page (see above screenshot) on the film, as he wasn’t credited!

***Goldblum has, of course, an even more prominent hoodlum role in Deathwish.

The Amazon Flex app, which is leading me a merry dance in many ways, recently, today took me ‘off-road’. Hardcore!

*I should’ve taken some photos. But it was a bit too hairy… I figured I just needed to keep on keeping on.

I can’t recall exactly what prompted me to suddenly want to listen to some Huey Lewis & The News. But I’m glad the urge came upon me.

The best songs on this album – Hip To Be Square and The Power Of Love – are six star affairs. All time classics, of the Pop variety.

The album isn’t uniformly brilliant. And there are things about the production – the drum sound (and as a drummer, that really matters to me!) – that date it. Some of the keyboard sounds, likewise.

Huey mentions his version (and the songwriter’s original) of ‘Doin’ The Best For My Baby’, on his What’s In My Bag Amoeba Records video… This, and numbers like Happy To Be Stuck With You, are real feel good heart warmers. Not classics, perhaps? But solid, and yet also cosy!

There are, however, a few ‘album tracks’ here that I’ve grown to really love. The acapella ‘Naturally’ is really wonderful. ‘Forest For The Trees’ speaks to me, as a person who’s battled depression (thanks, Huey & co!).

And the final track, ‘It’s As Simple As That’, really speaks to me. With its themes of money struggles, ageing, married life, and so on. This last is written by Tower of Power dudes, Kupca and Castillo…

FOOTNOTE

This is very interesting, and worth reading. In the linked piece Huey talks about his recent hearing loss, and such ideas as gratitude. He’s a terrific person.

Ali and Sofi visited Antonio today. It’s always nice to have them over.

I’m still ill with this g’damn cold. I spent most of the day in bed sleeping. Rest and recovery!

But we played Scrabble, England vs Spain, in the afternoon. That was fun. Antonio is a real out for blood competitive dad! They won.

Hannah dropped the girls off in the morning, and collected them later. Poss’ about 5pm? Nice to see my sis’ as well!

I watched a bit of the current Masters Snooker; Neal Robertson coming back from 5-1 down, to beat John Higgins(?), 6-5. I only saw the final frame.

Also watched Dillinger, and part of Convoy. Dillinger was excellent. Convoy? Silly, but kind of fun, as well.

Pic

I have to admit, I love this film. Yes, it’s a twisted cinematic love letter to crime and guns. But it’s so very well shot (boom-boom!), well acted, and well directed. And I just really enjoyed watching it.

There’s an amazing scene where Dillinger goes on a family/home visit. To see his parents/siblings. Can this be real? In the movie he does this right after a taunting telephone call to (?), the G-Man hunting him. Surely the cops’d be watching all his family/connections?

Whatever the truth, it makes for a terrific scene. ‘Welcome home, son.’

Set in the Depression era, 1933, which it also beautifully depicts/evokes…

Whilst trying to find online versions of several movies – The Stone Killer, Truck Turner – I stumbled upon an iconic scene from Superfly, featuring Priest (Ron O’Neal) and Eddie (Carl Lee).

Looking into Carl Lee’s life (and death; drug-related, alas), lead to his father ‘Canada’ Lee, pictured above. And that in turn lead to Orson Welles…

The above portrait is just, er, well… Awesome! It kind of puts me in mind of this early Picasso self-portrait:

I wonder if Welles’ photographer knew of and was referencing the Picasso painting? The photo is actually the better or more dramatically framed composition.

Studio miming to a full multi-track studio production? … it’s fun to see and hear, whatever.

Properly bonkers later Carpenters , covering Klaatu. Utterly mad! But somehow quite charming… Unfortunately I have visions of Mars Attacks type alien dudes laying waste to our furry friendly MOR emissaries of cosmic peace…

And here’s Klaatu’s 1976 original:

I have a fairly uninteresting anecdote about this track, which is this… whilst hitchhiking around France with a pal, Ben, aged about 18-19 years old (poss’ c. 1990?), we got a lift from an off-duty French Foreign Legionnaire officer, in a flashy car, (full of fishing gear), who was listening to this track. I don’t know whose version. For some reason it freaked me out a bit, at the time!

I got another Airfix 1/76 Panther Tank model, either for Xmas or – I think the latter – my birthday. I was looking at wrecked Panther photos, thinking I might do a wee diorama.

That lead me to the story of Klaus-Dieter Flick’s actual Panther, which was the cause of a political kerfuffle some years back. And that in turn lead me to Arno Breker…

As well as collecting weaponry, Flick also owned originals or copies of Nazi-era Breker sculptures. I find all this kind of thing quite interesting. For example, I really like the TV series Selling Hitler, about the faked Hitler diaries…

Starz

Ha! I’m listening to this in the car driving to work and what should come on as track number three? ‘Superstar’, which I listened to only yesterday, on the Carpenters 1971 album.

This is actually surprisingly good. I came to know of Midler’s musical side – having vaguely been of aware of it all along – thanks to a collaboration with Tom Waits:

And whilst that’s a wonderful song, and a terrifically fun slice of musical theatre, it didn’t make me rush out and explore Midler’s music. In fact I much prefer Waits’ work with Crystal Gayle, on the OST album that accompanies Francis Ford Coppola’s bizarre movie, This One’s From The Heart.

But here we find Midler in the company of all sorts of folk, from a pre-solo career Barry Manilow, to Miles’ alumni, Ron Carter, on bass. I found out, via Facebook, that Carter was actually depping for Milt Holland.

The material is pretty varied, and mostly very good. The first real bump in the road, and what I’d feared the whole thing might be like, is The Leader Of The Pack…

I found this on rhino.com:

It was in the early 1970s when Midler began to cement her legend with a gig at the Continental Baths, a notorious gay bath house where her piano accompanist was none less that [sic] future fellow legend, Barry Manilow. He would go on to produce Midler’s first solo album, The Divine Miss M, released in December 1972. The rest truly is history.

…

The Carpenters are a funny ol’ proposition. Essentially a wet dream of a family talent show duo, gone platinum, and then gone wrong.

Richard and Karen Carpenter.

Both immensely talented on their primary instruments, piano and drums. Both good singers. Well, one good, the other exceptional.

I’m not that enamoured of Richard’s songwriting, to be honest. He’s kind of goofy, rather square. Like that haircut. And, most notably on his own compositions, always showing off his accomplishments.

They’re best when they let Karen take the vocal lead, and play very strong material. So doing Bacharach and David is clearly going to work. And there are lots of other great individual songwriters and teams – Nichols and Williams, for example – that help them really shine.

Superstar and Druscilla Penny, which come in that order, are an interesting pair, and make an intriguing counterpoint: Superstar is the more earnest Karen lead number. Druscilla is Richard showing off and coming off rather naff. Both ostensibly deal with groupies. Karen sings from the perspective of the groupie, as sad sophisticate, whereas in Druscilla Penny Richard mocks the silly or unfortunate Pop Chick.

Neither are the albums best. But Superstar is nearer the better end. Druscilla Penny, like Saturday, is more of a ‘hey, don’t forget I’m here’ period piece, Richard grinning and waving from behind his keyboards.

On track right, The Dick Carpenter/Bettis team turn in the much better ‘One Love’. Which is also much more in keeping with the vibe of the best of the album.

Rainy Days And Mondays and Let Me Be The One are two of the real standout cuts. Both are from the Nichols/Williams team. Makes me wonder, ought I perhaps check this out:

The Bacharach/David medley is good. Very good, in parts. But it’s got the feel of something they’d do live; a crowd-pleaser. On the more home-based and personal/reflective album format, it feels a bit rushed. I’d rather have heard them spend a bit longer on each piece. A suite, perhaps, rather than a patchwork medley?

Other great tracks include For All We Know, and Sometimes… tender and melancholy. For me that’s what the Carpenters do best. Some folk call it cheesy. I think it’s utterly gorgeous. Truly beautiful.