Leonard Nimoy (1931-2015)

When I was about six-years-old our family adopted a new dog named Blue. Blue’s previous owner seemed a strange man. He claimed blue was the dog’s favorite color and that “Star Trek” was his favorite show. I don’t believe I’d ever heard of a dog having a favorite television show before. In fact, dogs hardly seem to even notice the TV in my experience. But hey! We were open-minded people. On his first night with us, Blue was a nervous wreck, so at 7 p.m., when syndicated shows began in our area, we turned the TV to “Star Trek” to see if the dog responded. The dog didn’t even notice the television was on, but “Star Trek” somehow became one of the shows that ended up playing in our house on a regular basis. And no, that dog never sat down and watched with us.

We were never what would be described as Trekkies, or Trekkers, as it were. We just kind of watched it if we happened to stumble upon it while flipping through the channels. I remember when it switched from early evening syndication to late afternoon. The release of the first movie was kind of a big deal for my brother and I. We were disappointed with its slow pace like so many others—although later in life, I would come to appreciate what Robert Wise was striving to achieve.

Mike Nichols (1931-2014)

If someone were to create a cineaste major for higher education (which may have been done), the introductory courses would most certainly contain a few movies from Mike Nichols. The renowned director redefined cinema with movies like “Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?” (1966), “The Graduate” (1967)—for which he won his Best Direction Oscar—and “Carnal Knowledge” (1971). In fact, Nichols’s films would populate every level of such an education trajectory.

He dabbled in nearly every genre, including broad comedy “The Birdcage” (1996), tragedy “Silkwood” (1983) and “Wit” (2001), political satire “Primary Colors” (1998) and “Charlie Wilson’s War” (2007), war “Catch-22” (1970), science fiction “The Day of the Dolphin” (1973), confidence “The Fortune” (1975), horror “Wolf” (1994), heart-wrenching drama “Regarding Henry” (1986), satirical melodrama “Postcards from the Edge” (1990), farce “What Planet Are You From?” (2000) and even stand-up/sketch comedy “Gilda Live” (1980). He helped lead the cinematic feminist movement by directing the female-led, Oscar-nominated “Working Girl” (1988). He directed a couple of terrible movies, but an inordinate amount of his films are masterworks.

Penny Thoughts ‘14—The Longest Yard (1974) ***

R, 121 min.

Director: Robert Aldrich

Writers: Tracy Keenan Wynn, Albert S. Ruddy

Starring: Burt Reynolds, Eddie Albert, Ed Lauter, Michael Conrad, Jim Hampton, Harry Caesar, John Steadman, Charles Tyner, Mike Henry, Jim Nicholson, Bernadette Peters, Pervis Atkins, Tony Cacciotti, Anitra Ford, Michael Fox, Joe Kapp, Richard Kiel

Long before 7’2” tall actor Richard Kiel portrayed one of the most famous James Bond henchmen in “The Spy Who Loved Me”, he appeared in a smaller role in the Burt Reynolds prison football comedy “The Longest Yard”. You wouldn’t have noticed from his performance as Jaws in the two Bond films in which he appeared, but Kiel had a very clear speaking voice. Seeing him speak in “The Longest Yard” is somewhat shocking, because you’re really expecting him to sound a little more like he has marbles in his mouth.

Joan Rivers (1933-2014)

I became aware of Joan Rivers as I did most celebrities as a child; she was on TV. It didn’t matter if they were a movie star or a television star, a comedian or rock star. I saw them on TV. Rivers was a TV presence. I knew she was a comedian, but I never seemed to catch her act when I was young. Today I know why.

Word came today from River’s daughter and business partner in some endeavors, Melissa that the comedy legend had passed away at the age of 81. The television host went into cardiac arrest during a medical procedure on September 3. She had been rushed to Mount Sinai Hospital in New York after experiencing complications during throat surgery at New York Medical Clinic on August 28. Accounts on what had occurred had been vague, but Melissa updated fans with a statement today after her mother’s death. “She passed today surrounded by family and close friends,” Melissa continued, “My mother’s greatest pleasure in life was to make people laugh.”

Although my own personal experience with the comedian was peripheral in my youth—with her performance as Dot Matrix in the Mel Brooks “Star Wars” skewering “Spaceballs” comprising most of my knowledge of her—I would later in life come to appreciate her contribution to the entertainment industry as a whole. Rivers was the first female to sit in the host chair of “The Tonight Show”, having filled in on several occasions for longtime host Johnny Carson. It was long assumed that Rivers was being groomed to replace Carson when she was offered her own late night program on another network. Her show failed, and the incident went down in the annals of the dramatic late night history as resulting in NBC “banning” the comedian from appearing on any of their shows for multiple decades. On a recent appearance on “The Tonight Show starring Jimmy Fallon”, Rivers down played the history as water under the bridge.

Penny Thoughts ‘14—All Night Long (1963) ***

NR, 91 min.

Director: Basil Deardon

Writers: Nel King, Peter Achilles, William Shakespeare (play “Othello”)

Starring: Patrick McGoohan, Keith Michell, Marti Stevens, Paul Harris, Betsy Blair, Richard Attenborough, Bernard Braden, Harry Towb, María Velasco, Dave Brubeck, Johnny Dankworth, Charles Mingus, Bert Courtley, Keith Christie, Ray Dempsey

So for a few days now, I’ve been searching for a way to remember actor/director Richard Attenborough, who passed away earlier this week. Attenborough was a renowned actor and director.

As an actor he was best known in his early career as a military man in such pictures as “The Great Escape” (1963), “Guns at Batasi” (1964), “The Flight of the Phoenix” (1965), and “The Sand Pebbles” (1967). He also appeared in “Doctor Doolittle” (1968), “10 Rellington Place” (1971), Satyajit Ray’s “The Chess Players” (1977), and Otto Preminger’s “The Human Factor” (1979). He was perhaps best known to modern audiences, however, for his late career rolls as John Hammond in Steven Spielberg’s “Jurassic Park” (1993) and “Jurassic Park: The Lost World” (1997), and as Kris Kringle in the 1994 holiday remake “Miracle on 34^th Street”.

Penny Thoughts ‘14—Dark Passage (1947) ***

NR, 106 min.

Director: Delmer Daves

Writers: Delmer Daves, David Goodis (novel)

Starring: Humphrey Bogart, Lauren Bacall, Bruce Bennett, Agnes Moorehead, Tom D’Andrea, Clifton Young, Douglas Kennedy, Rory Mallinson, Houseley Stevenson

Earlier this week, we lost two Hollywood legends. While Robin Williams dominated the media coverage, it was quietly announced the next day that Lauren Bacall had also passed away. She was 89. She died in New York of an apparent stroke.

Robin Williams (1951-2014)

Comedian and actor Robin Williams has lost his lifelong battle with his own inner demons. The voice of the Genie in Disney’s “Aladdin” was found dead today in his California home of an apparent suicide. Williams’ acting and stand up was often characterized as manic, which may have been due to his battles with his own personality. It was no secret that Williams battled depression for most of his life. Early in his career this led to substance abuse, a hurdle he eventually overcame. It’s a shame that what fueled the comedy he used to bring joy into so many lives is probably what also took his life in the end.

I was first introduced to Williams through the “Mork & Mindy” television show in which Williams portrayed an alien from the planet Ork who crash landed on Earth and came to live with a single woman named Mindy. The series was a spin-off of the popular show “Happy Days” where Williams originated the character of Mork. Williams’ manic nature made him seem as if he really were an alien from another planet. For a time his alien greeting “Nanu nanu” became a cultural maker.

A-Dub II iPod (2010-2014) R.I.P.

A-Dub II iPod died Thursday, July 17, 2014. He was the primary music source device for film critic, author and pest technician Andrew D. Wells.  He was an iPod classic 160G, almost big enough to hold all the music Mr. Wells wished to be available to him at all times. A-Dub died suddenly when the charging device he was attached to malfunctioned and overheated the unwitting media player.

A-Dub was a sturdy music media device born at an Apple, Inc. manufacturing facility in 2010, who performed dutifully for a music lover who holds music in the highest regard, second only to movies. Out of respect for the art form, Mr. Wells never demeaned the music on his iPod by over-crowding it with movies. Despite the insistence of the film studios to rule every media platform in a home, A-Dub was solely dedicated to providing music of every style and genre.

A-Dub was responsible for enriching Mr. Wells’ life with such classic albums as Wu-Tang Clan’s “Enter the Wu-Tang (36 Chambers)”, John Mellencamp’s “Scarecrow”, Bruce Springsteen’s “Nebraska”, Neil Young’s “Everybody Knows This is Nowhere”, Dire Strait’s “Brothers In Arms”, and AC/DC’s “Back in Black”. A-Dub also carried more recent classics to Mr. Wells’ ears, like Kings of Leon’s “Only By the Night”, Kurt Vile’s “Wakin On a Pretty Daze”, Sharon Jones and the Dap Tones’ “Give the People What They Want”, Frank Ocean’s “Planet Orange”, Stardeath & White Dwarves’ “The Birth”, and No Joy’s “Wait to Pleasure”.

Penny Thoughts ‘14—Alien (1979) ****

R, 117 min.

Director: Ridley Scott

Writers: Dan O’Bannon, Ronald Shusset

Starring: Sigourney Weaver, Tom Skerritt, Ian Holm, Veronica Cartwright, Harry Dean Stanton, Yaphet Kotto, John Hurt, Bolaji Badejo, Helen Horton (voice)

Designer: H.R. Giger

Is it possible that “Alien” would’ve been nearly as successful were it not for the amazingly original designs of Swiss surrealist artist H.R. Giger? Now, that I’ve asked it, I realize it’s an absurdly stupid question. The answer is—of course not. Giger was awarded an Oscar for his work along with the visual effects team. He was remembered for the rest of his life for an art style that without the movie would’ve kept him only on the fringe of knowledge to the public, only known to those within the dark niches of the art world.

Penny Thoughts ‘14—The Talented Mr. Ripley (1999) ***

R, 139 min.

Director: Anthony Minghella

Writers: Anthony Minghella, Patricia Highsmith (novel)

Starring: Matt Damon, Gwyneth Paltrow, Jude Law, Cate Blanchett, Philip Seymour Hoffman, Jack Davenport, James Rebhorn, Sergio Rubini, Philip Baker Hall, Celia Weston, Rosario Fiorello

I wasn’t a huge fan of “The Talented Mr. Ripley” when it first came out. I felt Ripley’s success as a manipulator and murderer was almost too random and although Matt Damon played the role well, I couldn’t see him becoming the master of skills that Patricia Highsmith’s ultimate anti-hero would eventually become. I also didn’t feel there was enough suspense, especially considering the almost accidental success of the character. Upon a second viewing 15 years later, I liked it better. It was easier to observe the nuances of the character this time around, but I still feel the world around him lacked equivalent nuances. The later film “Ripley’s Game”—starring John Malkovich in the role of an older Ripley that seems written expressly for the strange character actor—is a much better example of what Highsmith’s character is all about.

Philip Seymour Hoffman (1967-2014)

I was participating in one of those silly Facebook games the other day. One of your friends puts up a cut and paste post where they add a poster from a certain director’s films. If you like the post, that person will give you a name. You then post a poster of your favorite film from that director. One of my lifelong best friends gave me the name Cameron Crowe. It was a director I didn’t have to think about. “Almost Famous” was my choice. However, in reposting this to my wall I felt the need to point out the performance by Philip Seymour Hoffman of noted music critic Lester Bangs. In such an excellent movie, somehow it was his small role as Bangs that stuck out in my mind as something that needed note.

Philip Seymour Hoffman was found dead yesterday in his New York City apartment at the age of 46 of an apparent overdose. He leaves behind 2 daughters, Tallulah and Willa, and one son, Cooper, with his girlfriend, costume designer Mimi O’Donnell. Early in 2013, Hoffman entered a drug rehabilitation program. It is said that he had struggled with substance abuse for quite some time. It never seemed to affect his work, however, which was held in high regard throughout the film and stage communities.

Penny Thoughts ‘13—In Memoriam: New York City 9/11/01 (2002)

NR, 62 min.

Featuring: Rudolph W. Giuliani

I lived near and in New York City for seven years of my life. I left NY in 1997. I have a great many friends who reside there. If the world were a perfect place, I’d still live there. I loved the city. It just didn’t fit into the other plans in my life. If I could work it in there, I would. There’s no greater place on Earth.

Penny Thoughts ‘13—Magnum Force (1973) ***

R, 124 min.

Director: Ted Post

Writers: John Milius, Michael Cimino, Harry Julian Fink, R.M. Fink

Starring: Clint Eastwood, Hal Holbrook, Mitch Ryan, David Soul, Tim Matheson, Kip Niven, Robert Urich, Felton Perry, Maurice Argent

Today was the first day of school. That meant an early morning for everyone. Our youngest took the bus for the first time this morning. Everyone was up for it, including myself. I’d planned on getting off to bed early last night. I had written an obituary entry for this blog about the great Elmore Leonard. I already had a review in the bag for today’s entry, and then I learned of the news that Leonard was not the only cinematic influence who passed away yesterday.

Penny Thoughts ‘13—Manhunter (1986) ***½

R, 121 min.

Director: Michael Mann

Writers: Michael Mann, Thomas Harris (novel “Red Dragon”)

Starring: William Petersen, Dennis Farina, Kim Greist, Tom Noonan, Joan Allen, Brian Cox, Stephen Lang, David Seaman, Benjamin Hendrickson

I’ve been meaning to get back to Michael Mann’s 1986 crime drama “Manhunter” ever since watching NBC’s “Hannibal” early this summer. Of all the Hannibal Lecter related movies, this is the one that series made me think of the most. Perhaps that because the central character here is Will Graham, the same as in the TV series. Of course Edward Norton played Graham in the remake of this as “Red Dragon” a decade and a half later. But it is William Petersen’s Graham that seems more like the one presented by Hugh Dancy in the television series.

James Gandolfini (1961-2013)

The first movie in which I ever noticed actor James Gandolfini was one of his earliest. In the Tony Scott/Quentin Tarantino action love story “True Romance”, Gandolfini played a low level mob enforcer who was sent by Christopher Walken’s Vincent Coccotti to track down a suitcase of drugs that had made its way from Detroit to L.A. He drives the brutal scene in which he beats Patricia Arquette’s Alabama nearly to death in a hotel room. It’s not a very big role, but that scene marked the entry of a powerful and charming actor into the major Hollywood spotlight.

Penny Thoughts ‘13—Thumb Snatchers From the Moon Cocoon (2013) *½

NR, 7 min.

Director/Writer: Bradley Schaffer

Voice: Evan Hyde

Cinematic legend Ray Harryhausen passed away at the age of 92 Wednesday. He was known for the stop motion animation work he did for live action movies. His credits ranged from “Mighty Joe Young”, to “Earth vs. the Flying Saucers”, to the original “Clash of the Titans”. Working mostly in B genre pictures, Harryhausen was practically a household name, a rarity for a filmmaker working his entire career in special effects. Nevertheless, Harryhausen was thought of as one of the pioneers of filmmaking and many within and without the filmmaking community admired him.

Roger and Me

In 1989, a then unknown documentary filmmaker named Michael Moore released his first film about his attempts to sit down and have a conversation with then GM CEO Roger Smith about his decision radically downsize the auto manufacturing company’s Flint, Michigan plant in Moore’s hometown. Moore’s earnest style and his signature of breaking the documentarian’s rule of placing himself into the facts of the subject matter marked the birth of a new major filmmaker. As a teenager growing up in Topsham, Maine at the time, it might’ve seemed unlikely that I would care about such a film let alone even know about it. But I did. The reason I did is because of another man named Roger.

Roger Ebert is universally thought of as the pioneer of modern film criticism. Without his efforts it is unlikely a seventeen year old in Topsham, Maine would ever have sought out a documentary about the economic downturn of a Michigan city that he’d never heard of. I hadn’t yet fully developed the obsession with film that Ebert had a very large part in cultivating, but I did watch “Siskel & Ebert & The Movies” almost every Saturday morning to find out what was opening and if it was any good or not.

Penny Thoughts ‘12—M|W 9|11 (2011) ****

NR, 1 min.

Director: James Kelly

This image is not from the film “M|W 9|11”. Image courtesy of fabuloussavers.com

I don’t believe there will be a year when September 11 is not a painful day. It is a day we all feel the need to reach out to each other and let each other know that we remember the horrors that occurred in 2001. It was the day the Towers fell, the day we seem to have lost our final innocence. Perhaps, that’s too dramatic. Innocence is something born into the world every day. However, even kids who weren’t yet born on that fateful day seem to have some knowledge of it and the darkness it cast over our nation.

R.I.P. Tony Scott (1944-2012)

It was widely reported this morning that on August 19, 2012 Hollywood director and producer Tony Scott died at age 68. The British-born director jumped to his death from the Vincent Thomas Bridge near Long Beach, Calif. according to the Los Angeles Police Department. Officials said a suicide note was found in his car. 

Scott started his filmmaking career with his older brother Ridley making award-winning commercials. They formed a production company together, Scott Free Productions. Scott is responsible for some of Hollywood’s biggest blockbuster hits.

He was best known for directing the Tom Cruise Navy flying thriller “Top Gun” in 1986. His distinctive style included his knack for lighting his films as if they all took place during the “magic hour”, when the setting sun shrouds everything in a golden light.

The Dark Mourning

In light of this morning’s tragic events in Aurora, Colorado, A Penny in the Well will not be posting a review today. I do, however, offer some commentary on what happened.

I attended a midnight screening of “The Dark Knight Rises” last night, as record numbers did across the nation today. I woke this morning after four hours of sleep because of my late night activity to learn of the horrors that occurred at the Century 16 in Aurora. It was a jolt that brought me immediately back to the Columbine massacre that occurred 13 years ago. At that time, I was living in Colorado and working as a manager of a movie theater. There are almost too many coincidental connections there for me process it.