"Who is that guy?!" Fun City Edition

Here's a series of 3 opening credits sequences to imaginary television shows taking place in the Fun City universe, starring some of the many character actors--and some leading men--of the New York-set films of the late '60s - early '80s.  The music on the soundtrack is 3 different iterations of Billy Goldenberg's theme song from "Harry O," a San Diego-set p.i. show starring David Janssen.  So, this clip is both ode to the consummate, often unheralded character players, as well as to the lost art of the television opening credit sequence.

The video was originally part of the pre-show reel for the Deuce's 35mm screening of Night of the Juggler.

Troika: The Towers, The Forty-Deuce, & KONG

This is a pre-show reel I put together for my friends who curate the monthly "DEUCE Film Series" at the Nitehawk Cinema in Brooklyn.  As they were showing a rare 35mm print of John Guillermin's King Kong (1976) on 9/11, they asked for a reel that paid tribute to the Twin Towers.  Since the series is devoted to the vibrant street and movie culture of 42nd Street, particularly in its '70s - '80s heyday, I felt compelled to include some Deuce moments, alongside the Towers. As you will see the intent was not to be comprehensive in terms of Towers footage.  The emphasis is on the '70s and '80s and genre films so as to connect back to the "DEUCE Film Series" and its primary focus. Throughout the video, pay close attention to the movies listed on the marquees.

Windows (1980), directed by the late, great Gordon Willis, who served as his own d.p. here.

Dirty Old New York aka Fun City, Part V

This is the conclusion of the Dirty Old New York Subway / aka Fun City series that I started working on nearly two years ago.  I think I've got the obsession--at least in this format--out of my system.

Barbara Streisand ventures out to Fun City in Irvin Kershner's Up the Sandbox.

The video begins with a Rocky-style recap of the previous segments, with new footage inserted to represent some of the motifs explored in the earlier videos.  The effectiveness of this recap is dependent on viewers having seen and remembered Parts I - IV.

In this latest edition, viewers will note my continued pre-occupation with now-obsolete, antiquated, and/or analog technologies--tube televisions (and static), vinyl records and turntables, 3/4" video cassettes, top loading VCRs, etc.

There is some nudity in Part V so it may be NSFW depending on where you work.

Master playlist from Subway thru Fun City I, II, III, IV, & V: 

A Fine Madness

Aaron Loves Angela

Across 110th Street

After Hours

All That Jazz

American Pop

An Unmarried Woman

The Angel Levine

Arthur

Author! Author!

Bad Timing

Badge 373

Bananas

Basket Case

Beat Street

Blank Generation

Bloodbrothers

Born to Win

The Boys in the Band

The Brother From Another Planet

Bye Bye Braverman

Bye Bye Monkey
C.H.U.D.

Contract on Cherry Street

Coogan’s Bluff

Coonskin

Cops and Robbers

Cotton Comes to Harlem

Crazy Joe

Cruising

David Holzman’s Diary

Death Wish

Defiance

Desperate Characters

Devil’s Express

Dog Day Afternoon

The Dogs of War

Downtown ‘81

Dressed to Kill

The Driller Killer

Dutchman

The Education of Sonny Carson

Emanuelle Around the World

Emanuelle in America

Exorcist II: The Heretic

The Exorcist

The Exterminator

Eyes of Laura Mars

Eyewitness

Fame

The Fan

Fatso

Fear City

Fingers

The First Deadly Sin

Fort Apache The Bronx

The French Connection

Fritz the Cat

From Corleone to Brooklyn

The Gambler

The Gang That Couldn’t Shoot Straight

Girlfriends

Gloria

God Told Me To

Going in Style

The Goodbye Girl

Greetings

Hair

Hanky Panky

Harry and Tonto

Heavy Metal

Heavy Traffic

Hell Up in Harlem

Heroes

Hey Good Lookin’

Hi Mom!

The Hot Rock

The Hunger

Husbands

I, the Jury

The Incident

Jeremy

Joe

John and Mary

King Kong

The King of Comedy

King of the Gypsies

Kiss Me Goodbye

Klute

Kramer vs. Kramer

The Landlord

The Last Detail

The Last Horror Film

Law and Disorder

Liquid Sky

Little Murders

Loving

Loving

Maniac

Marathon Man

Massage Parlor Murders

Mean Streets

Midnight Cowboy

Ms. 45

Network

New Order's "Confusion" video

New York Ripper

Night Shift

Nighthawks

Nightmare

The Odd Couple

One Trick Pony

Oriental Blue

The Panic in Needle Park

The Possession of Joel Delaney

Prince of the City

Putney Swope

Q: The Winged Serpent

Report to the Commissioner

Rich Kids

Rosemary’s Baby

Saturday Night Fever

Scarface

The Sentinel

Serpico

The Seven-Ups

Shaft

Shamus

Sisters

Smithereens

So Fine

Splash

Staying Alive

The Stone Killer

The Super Cops

Superbitch

Superfly

Superman

Superman II

The Taking of Pelham 1-2-3

Taking Off

Taxi Driver

The Telephone Book

They All Laughed

Three Days of the Condor

Three the Hard Way

Times Square

To Find a Man

Tootsie

Trash

Up the Down Staircase

Up the Sandbox

Variety

Vigilante

The Wanderers

The Warriors

Where's Poppa

Who is Harry Kellerman and Why Is He Saying Those Terrible Things About Me?

Who’s That Knocking at My Door? 

Wild Style

Willie and Phil

Windows

Winter Kills

Wolfen

You’re a Big Boy Now

Zombie

Who is Harry Kellerman and Why Is He Saying Those Terrible Things About Me (1971, Ulu Grosbard)

Unfortunately, a mostly terrible film with an equally terrible title, I'd wanted to see this initial film collaboration between Ulu Grosbard and Dustin Hoffman for years.  I was finally able to scratch this itch with the surprising DVD release of the film by CBS (by way of Paramount Home Media). Hoffman's folk music hero (a la Dylan) Georgie Soloway is just about his least convincing screen performance.  Where Grosbard and Hoffman effectively combined their talents years later on Straight Time, transforming Hoffman into hardened criminal Max Dembo, they fail spectacularly with Harry Kellerman.  The movie mostly takes place in the frazzled mind of suicidal Georgie, as he encounters family, friends, employees, and his mostly useless Austrian shrink (Jack Warden) and employs some arty, non-linear editing techniques, which will be familiar to students of both New Waves, European and American.  It is, of course, not entirely clear which meetings are actually occurring and which occur only in Georgie's head.  

The lone bright spots are the early '70s footage of New York City, which includes early morning aerial footage of the skyline, with the World Trade Center under construction (in the film, we see 1 tower partially constructed, with no sign of the other), and Barbara Harris' Oscar-nominated role, which amounts to 2 scenes.

The goofy DVD cover, which appears to be trying to evoke Napolean Dynamite's marketing campaign, includes an image that does not appear in the film.  I initially thought it was a photoshop job, but then considered that it might have come from a publicity still.  Sure enough...

Now that CBS and Paramount have released Harry Kellerman, The April Fools, and The War Between Men and Women, please, please give us The Challenge and Darker Than Amber, both titles in the CBS library, which remain unavailable on DVD in any region.

In another sign of our increasing prudishness when it comes to all things sex, the film which features a couple scenes of brief nudity, has been re-rated for the new DVD from GP (pre-cursor to PG) to R.

A final note: my mother met and spoke with Rose Gregorio (Mrs. Ulu Grosbard) at the hair salon a few months ago.  Rose told her a great anecdote about The Swimmer (which the actress appears in) after Mom related to her that I was a big fan of that film.  Here, she appears in a few scenes as the former Mrs. Kellerman.  Rose was quite good in Frank Perry's Dummy, which I wrote about earlier.

To Find a Man (1972, Buzz Kulik)

When she discovers she is pregnant, 16-year-old Rosalind (Pamela Sue Martin) returns home to New York from boarding school and asks her childhood friend Andy (Darren O'Connor) to help her obtain an abortion.  Made just prior to Roe v. Wade, Buzz Kulik's 1972 coming-of-age-film To Find a Man offers an illuminating look into the process of getting an abortion in New York City before the landmark Supreme Court decision, while also providing some nice showcases to Hollywood veterans Lloyd Bridges, Tom Bosley, and Tom Ewell. O'Connor, who who had only a couple more acting gigs before studying law, is excellent as Andy, the brainy kid next door, a little goofy, yes, but not lacking in confidence.  He hasn't put the moves on Rosalind, but it's not because he's an awkward nerd who's afraid of girls.  It seems that it's just not his major pre-occupation, as it is for his slovenly schoolmate Pete (a chubby, long-haired, pot-smoking Miles Chapin). Rosalind is beautiful, but spoiled and not very bright, or as her father (Lloyd Bridges) puts it so delicately after a few drinks, "She's got most of her brains in her tits."  Despite director Kulik's television pedigree, a tv movie this is not!  That said, as was so often the case in the early days of the ratings system, it received a GP (later PG) rating, in spite of its having a fair share of adult language and content. 

Martin matches O'Connor with her performance and in contrast to her character's aforementioned shortcomings, she is not mean-spirited and she remains a sweet and likable presence throughout; in short, she's more complex than my description makes her sound.  The young stars' fine work culminates with the film's pitch-perfect ending in a wintry Central Park.

For fans of Glynnis O'Connor, it's a trip to see some of the same mannerisms and vocal inflections in the person of Darren O'Connor. 

Until it showed up recently on streaming services such as iTunes and Amazon, To Find a Man was sadly lost for all intents and purposes. Part of an underrated wave of teen pictures of the 1970s, of which I'd also include Jeremy (starring Darren's younger sister Glynnis), To Find a Man is moving and affecting without being overly sentimental or cloying.  It has many of the best qualities of the films of this era--progressive in its ideas, shot and performed in a docu-realist fashion, and frank while also maintaining a layer of ambiguity.  It is not saddled with the irony and myriad pop culture references of so many of the teen films of the '80s nor does it wrap everything up in a shiny bow.

Working from a novel by S.J. Wilson, veteran scribe Arnold Schulman was an appropriate choice to write the film adaptation, as he had earlier written (and been Oscar-nominated for) the original screenplay for Love With the Proper Stranger, a film which had dared to take on much of the same material nearly ten years earlier. '70s stalwarts, David Shire and Andrew Laszlo were on hand for scoring and cinematography duties respectively.  Shire's score is appropriately melancholy, but also jaunty and hummable in parts. Laszlo covers some of the same "dirty old New York" turf that he would return to in The Warriors.

Chemistry of another kind.

While the "New Hollywood" was largely the domain of young men both in front of and behind the camera, To Find a Man is refreshing in that it offers audiences a chance to see old-timers like Bridges, rather than his boys Beau and Jeff, outside of the confines of the studio era.  The work of Bosley, Bridges, and Ewell opposite young O'Connor is the highlight of the film for me, with each moving the narrative in unexpected directions.  Bridges and Ewell are particularly moving and I found myself re-watching their scenes a second time, and shedding a tear or two, as they both perhaps see something of their younger selves, or something they wished they still had, in the boy verging on manhood.  

A fine post-Sea Hunt, pre-Hot Shots performance is given by Bridges pere.

It's just one of many fine films of the era that have slipped through the cracks in terms of availability and by the fact that they haven't been written into the popular narrative of what one unfortunate written account dubbed "easy riders, raging bulls."  I guess, though, that it is the nature of such narratives to simplify and narrow the criteria so that it all can ultimately fit nicely into an hour-long made-for-IFC Channel talking head piece.

"Well, what the hell is this?!  In order to get an abortion here, you gotta make an appointment before you're pregnant!"

....anyway, have a look at Larry Karaszewski's informative "Trailers From Hell" piece on the film and rent / download the feature before it's taken down.  Thanks, Larry...where in the hell did you unearth that trailer anyway?!

It wouldn't be a "dirty old New York" movie without a little mugging.

Kulik returned to New York to shoot Columbia's Shamus the next year, including scenes on the grounds of the future, first-ever Brooklyn Whole Foods in Gowanus!