Blog

There are times when a “dueling” duo of films (Dante’s Peak vs. Volcano, Mirror, Mirror vs. Snow White and The Huntsman, Mission To Mars vs. Red Planet, etc.) are the result of different studios trying to beat each other to the punch at the box office — and then there are those impossible-to-explain, zeitgeist-in-hindsight moments when multiple films on the same subject tumble off the assembly line for no good discernible reason. After peeping both Dummy and Voices, I can definitively say that this double dose of 1979-based “deafsploitation” is my absolute favorite example in “dueling cinema” history. (Well — there is that early ’70s triple movie title threat of GGas-s-s-s, Sssssss and Sweet Sweetback’s Baadasssss Song, but that’s another story.)

These two weird, weird gems are now surprisingly both on the Warner Archive DVD label, and I couldn’t be more thrilled to have them unleashed onto an unsuspecting public.

I discovered Dummy during a late-night IMDB jaunt — one of those wormholes when I lose a few hours checking out the filmography of an actor or filmmaker, seeing what weird entries there are that I’ve never heard of, clicking on the cast listing of one of the unheard-of films, looking at the misshapen filmography of one of the cast members, and so on and so forth down the rabbit hole. I’ve discovered many a mind-melting title that’s next to impossible for even a skillful movie locator like myself to track down in the real world (Allen & Rossi Meet Dracula And Frankenstein, anyone?) — and Dummy came up while I perused the work of Frank Perry, the amazing director of Play It As It Lays, Last Summer, Mommie Dearest and Diary of a Mad Housewife.

Just from the title alone, Dummy sounds like a great time. Turns out it’s a “true story” TV movie-of-the-week about Paul Sorvino as a deaf lawyer defending LeVar Burton as a deaf-mute defendant on trial for murdering a prostitute. How on earth could this possibly NOT be a smackum-yackum good time?!?! Thankfully, it delivers exactly the kind of bizarro whipcrack-paced TV movie thrills I was expecting: a minimum of fuss, a maximum of forward narrative momentum, and a bevy of familiar character actors hangin’ out.

Paul Sorvino is a treat here, as his realistic portrayal of a deaf person with a fast-paced job requires him to deliver dialogue as a cross between Prof. Stephen Hawking’s talking computer and Bill Cosby’s old “novocaine” routine (“My boddom libb-ip iz on the ph-flor-or!”). It’s very unsettling at first, but then, as the film wears on, you start to wonder if you haven’t ever hear real-life hearing-impaired people speak in the same way, and it becomes part of the window-dressing of the film. Check out this scene between Sorvino and Burton, and you’ll see what I mean:

Keep reading WATCHIN’ STUFF: A Double Dose of ’70s “Deafsploitation”!

Every once in a while, you come across something on YouTube that shatters your reality, and thwarts your attempts to reconstruct your fragile headspace, as you keep dwelling on how creepy it all is.

What follows is the Last Year At Marienbad of local TV commercials: multiple layers of hazy meaning, a vast array of personal interpretations to take away, a cascading fountain of juicy mystery.

It also seems like the kind of spot that would be playing on the fictional cable station in Cronenberg’s Videodrome (during the commercial breaks for “Samurai Dreams”!). Anyway, enough chatter — take a feverish gander:

There’s so many haunting individual moments in this one commercial that it almost does me no good to describe them, for repeat viewing and discovering each subtle shade of wrong is the best part! However, I have to give it up for the moment that comes at 0:04. And 0:20. AND 0:28!!!!

Let’s also not forget that, just as an anonymous commenter said on Videogum’s post about this same commercial back in ’09, “the Girl on the box for the pierogies looks like she is taking a dump.”

CLICK HERE TO BUY TICKETS FOR “BOLLYWOOD BLOODBATH”, FRIDAY, OCTOBER 14TH, 8PM @ THE CINEFAMILY!

This Friday, October 14th, Cinefamily once again visits one of it’s favorite stomping grounds: the weird, wild and wooly world of Hindi horror: a phantasmagorical boiling cauldron of ectoplasmic ghost stories, remakes of Hollywood fright fare jam-packed with musical numbers, crispy-fried effects designed to gouge your third eye — and of course, truly incredible soundtracks. And the good folks at B-Muisc/Finders Keepers Records’ new compilation BOLLYWOOD BLOODBATH covers the as yet unheard sounds from these movies’ music scores. Here’s a sneak preview, enjoy! Take a gander at an excerpt from the compilation’s liner notes:

“After what seems like a thousand years of blood, sweat, tears (and a lot more blood) the zombified disc disciples at Finders Keepers (Kreepers!) unveil one of their most exquisite, exhumed, ectoplasmic, and existentially essential collections yet. This musical mausoleum of malformed freak funk and dreadful dis-cothèque pop has been resurrected from the maligned cinematic subculture of Bombay’s bloodthirsty horror film industry, and witnesses the cognoscenti of the Bollywood pop scene at their most creative, destructive and experimentally effective.

Bollywood Bloodbath features India’s finest composers, such as Bappi Lahiri, R.D Burman, Sonik Omi, Sapan Jogmohan and Laxmikant Pyarelal making the kind of radical risk-rock that would under normal circumstances have studio security escorting these overworked maestros off set for a well-earned break or a relaxing exorcism. Take all the most oblique, indigenous characteristics of your favorite Bollywood musicals then condense them into a bubbling serum and watch the Jekyll and Hyde transformation commence as these A-list composers create bloodcurdling B-Music for the films they never thought the outernationals would see or hear.

Keep reading A Bloody Bollywood Buffet!

CLICK HERE TO BUY TICKETS FOR “AN EVENING WITH PABLO FERRO”, TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 27TH, 8PM @ THE CINEFAMILY!

Our guest blogger Marcus Herring joins us for another post on one of his favorite filmic subjects! Marcus, take it away…

THE TRAILER IS BETTER THAN THE MOVIE: THE LONG, EXTRAORDINARY CAREER OF PABLO FERRO

Once upon a time, it was quite common to hear someone remark that their favorite thing about going out to the movies was watching the trailers — or “the previews”, as they used to say, before the Internet made everyone more savvy with industry terminology. Now, I don’t want to pass any overt judgement on the current state of cinema, but I just don’t hear anyone make that comment anymore. One thing I do hear these days is that the trailers “show the whole movie.” That’s debatable, but one thing’s for sure: most modern trailers follow a highly predictable formula.

Not all trailers used to be better back in “the good old days.” Some old trailers are real duds, but many achieve a kind of high art unto themselves. I bet you can think of a couple of ’70s trailers off the top of your head that are actually better than the movie. Exorcist II? Perhaps Zabriskie Point? I prefer not to speculate that this phenomenon is a result of the movie just not being very good, as there is an art to cutting an amazing trailer, and some editors really have a knack for it. It is undeniable that there was an experimental zeitgeist that pervaded the ’60s and ’70s — which led some film editors to produce some really awesome trailers.

It’s uncommon to know who cut what trailer. There are never on-screen credits for them specifically, so it’s more or less an anonymous task. There is at least one artist, however, who really made a name for himself with some of the most creative film trailers ever assembled: Pablo Ferro. Pablo’s more popularly known for his work as a master title sequence designer (Dr. Strangelove and The Thomas Crown Affair among countless others) and occasionally an actor as well (Greaser’s Palace), but Pablo also crafted a number of the most memorable trailers of all time.

Keep reading The Genius Film Trailers of Pablo Ferro!

Sometimes the “hiding in plain sight” thing catches even The Cinefamily by surprise. The rather incredible Internet Archive (found at archive.org) is a humungous repository of free knowlegde that’s different from Wikipedia in that it is an ever-expanding library of deposited materials (rather than a living encyclopedia), all free of charge. Its video section — in which you can either download items or stream them — contains a bounty of weird ephemeral stuff. I just discovered a treasure trove of “The Computer Chronicles”, a long-running PBS show based out of Northern California, about the evolution of the computing revolution. I’m a sucker for old-school tech, as I’m sure many of you reading are as well, so this was quite a find. One episode in particular caught my eye, from 1984, on new computer games.

Watch the entire episode of “The Computer Chronicles: Video Gaming”!

Keep reading WATCHING STUFF: “The Computer Chronicles”