"I've seen your smile in a thousand dreams."

I sure do wish we'd seen more of "fem lead" Lois Chiles in the movies. Audiences might also remember her for a later turn as a hit and run driver haunted by her victim's corpse in Creepshow 2..."Thanks for the ride, lady!"

Back in the saddle!

This announcement is interesting because it still credits original director Philip Kaufman, who was fired and replaced by Clint early in production. Also, Clint is clean-shaven here whereas he wears a beard throughout the finished film.

"He aims to please."

Cliff MacMillan of Shout! Factory confirms that his company will be releasing the long-misunderstood Ralph Bakshi film Coonskin (aka Street Fight) to DVD (possibly Blu?) so we can finally say goodbye to those distasteful gray-market DVDs that crop up even on sites like Amazon. The DVD will have a reversible cover with the less controversial video title Street Fight on one side and the original Coonskin on the other. The onscreen title will be Coonskin, as it appeared on original prints.

I used to have the half-sheet version of this poster, but it was sadly ruined in an apartment flood. The artwork is reminiscent of the below key art and reminds me that I need to pick up the recent Warner Archive release:

"...who wrote songs and was shot."

Joe Hill came up in the comments section of an article on Olive Films' upcoming Paramount-licensed DVDs at Dave Kehr's site. I remembered I had an ad for this on my hard drive and now I really want to see it. I like the use of red, white, and blue in this poster in light of Mr. Hill's Swedish roots and labor activism (which his critics would use to deem him "un-American") and subsequent execution for a murder that evidence suggests he had no part in.

Joan Baez sings "Joe Hill" at Woodstock:

Prince Redux

When I watch shows like The Wire and The Shield, both of which I count as all-time favorites, I see Sidney Lumet, Jay Presson Allen, and Robert Daley's fingerprints all over them.

"River Deep - Mountain High"

After seeing an amazing clip of Tina performing (with Ike) "River Deep - Mountain High" in the superb new Phil Spector doc, I must track down this Soul To Soul:How fantastic is it that Tina's "top" was deemed family-friendly enough to get the much sought-after G rating?:

Redford's Loose

Just got done with the handsome Criterion Downhill Racer package, part of my Barnes & Noble "50% Off Criterion Sale" bounty (total price for Racer: $9.10 after tax). There's really no other time to buy Criterions except during these sales.

You'll be hard-pressed to find a big time Hollywood star portray a bigger jerk than Redford's Dave Chappellet of Racer. It's one of many fascinating aspects of this character study told with refreshingly little sentimentality and "rah-rah" heroics...in short, another gem from the late '60s - early '70s. It was an impressive and brave move on the part of Redford to play such a heel, coming off one of his biggest popular successes in Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid. In the meantime, he also managed to act in Tell Them Willie Boy is Here, completing a trio of 1969 films that earned him a BAFTA Award for Best Actor in a Leading Role. I dare say that the two lesser known films of Redford's '69 look better in hindsight than Butch and Sundance.

Anyway, I don't have any materials from Racer in my collection, but here are some choice promo stills from the release of the second Redford and Michael Ritchie collaboration, The Candidate:

Lock up your daughters, folks!

A faux McKay campaign office set up across the street from the Sutton Theatre where the film premiered. Read through the comments on the link above to learn about the sad fate of the Sutton, one of many historic New York theaters to be demolished in favor of a shiny glass condominium.

Toback (in beard)

A prequel.

"The only adult she admires is Johnny Rotten."

The Film Society of Lincoln Center has some pretty special screenings planned this summer and I'm particularly excited about the Dennis Hopper tribute coming up, which includes the rare double bill of American Dreamer, the doc on Hopper directed by L.M. Kit Carson & Lawrence Schiller, and Hopper's own Out of the Blue starring Hopper and the inimitable Linda Manz.

Perhaps the best part about these screenings will be the in-person appearances by Carson, Schiller, and Manz. Personally, I viewed The Wanderers and Out of the Blue many times in my teens and early 20s and am really looking forward to hearing Manz speak about her experiences making such exceptional films in so short a period of time. Her other major starring role in this period was, of course, Days of Heaven--quite an impressive troika for a career let alone three years. She's been out of the spotlight since making a mini-comeback in the late '90s with Gummo (not a favorite of mine) and The Game. Out of the Blue is easily her most fully-realized and most searing performance. It's a tough, angry, and dark film that's not for the faint of heart and Manz goes to all those very dark places as CeBe, a teenage girl whose tragic circumstances have built up more pain and rage inside her than any person should have to withstand.

Apparently, she made a few extra bucks during the filming of Gummo by selling her Elvis jacket from Out of the Blue to Chloe Sevigny. I wonder what happened to her even cooler Baldies jacket from The Wanderers:

I had this one-sheet on my college bedroom wall for a long time:

Years later, I was watching a documentary on the Minutemen and one of the interview subjects (Dave Markey) had the poster on his wall in the background.

Now Playing: September 3, 1982

Can you imagine movies like Chan is Missing and Gregory's Girl enjoying their "4th Big Month" in August 2010?

I've posted from this set before, but I suppose based on some of the comments, I should offer a reprise: