Can't Seem to Shake the Shatter

German import spotted in a record store bin a few days ago.

Ghost of Serpico

David Shaber's original script for Nighthawks was developed as the basis for a second sequel to French Connection (with Richard Pryor as a wisecracking cop who teams up with Popeye), but Gene Hackman refused to reprise his role as Popeye Doyle again and the script was re-worked for Sylvester Stallone and co-star Billy Dee Williams. From the long locks and facial hair of a beefier than usual (at the time) Stallone, it's clear that the filmmakers (or the star himself) also had another famous '70s real-life and cinematic New York cop in their heads: Frank Serpico.  They're not so interested in the politics or methods of Serpico, nor the realism or tragic qualities of that film, but Stallone's sunglasses, beard, and long hair are surely meant to inspire memories of Al Pacino in his iconic role on a purely surface level.

Stallone's beard was apparently suggested by then-girlfriend Susan Anton, seen here with Warhol, receiving one of Sly's characteristic fake punches to the chin.

In one scene early on, Deke DaSilva (Stallone) and his partner Fox (Billy Dee Williams) scale a tenement via fire escape in order to make a bust.  It's reminiscent of a moment in Serpico in which Pacino uses the same method to enter a building.  I've mashed up these two scenes, as the parallels in costuming and physical appearance are rather striking.

The same scene in Serpico also has a shot of Pacino walking down a street and into building, which is similar to a shot in the actor's later vehicle, Cruising, in which he lazily swaggers home to his girlfriend (Karen Allen) after another night out in the Meatpacking District.  His appearance is completely different in terms of clothing and hairstyle from that of Serpico, but the mise-en-scene and the actor's movements are nearly identical.  In terms of performance, the two scenes reveal an aspect of an actor's bag of tricks--in this case, the way he moves to suit a character and the camera--that is not cited as often as his verbal abilities.

New York-Style

In memory of Erland Van Lidth  de Jeude, immortalized as Terror, leader of the Baldies, and owner of the most impressive onscreen display of rapid pizza ingestion.

I spent a few years in Chicago and there's probably nothing I missed more about the New York Tri-State Area than (good, easily obtainable) thin crust, New York-style pizza.

If you know of other similar moments (i.e. people chowing on slices) in NY-set movies of the era, please send 'em my way so that I may add them to this video.

I've a feeling Lenny's wasn't selling that Philly Cheesesteak when Travolta was prowling 86th St.

Can Take Him Out of Memphis, Can't Take the Memphis Out of...

Memphis native Michael Beck briefly loses his New Yawk mojo, which you can hear in this scene from the television version, then gets it back twofold in the last act.

I recall, when I first watched this scene on cable years ago, thinking that Beck's Southern twang was much more pronounced than it sounds to me now.  It does still sound different to me than the rest of his line readings as the hardened, laconic, (ironically named?) Swan, another in a long line of Western-inspired heroes in the cinema of Walter Hill.

One could argue that the aforementioned television scene should have been in the theatrical cut, as it makes clear to Swan that every gang is looking for the Warriors, under the mistaken impression that they are responsible for Cyrus' death.  It could also be surmised that Beck's slightly "off" line reading contributed to its deletion.

Trailer Not on the DVD: Shamus (1972, Buzz Kulik)

Burt's Dirty New York

Shamus.  Burt.  Gowanus.  Kentile sign.

Long before it became a beloved symbol of pre-gentrified Brooklyn, the Kentile Floors sign (and the company which it touted) were simply part of the landscape of an unglamorous, industrial section of Brooklyn, just the type of location used by Hollywood productions shooting in "Dirty New York," as was the case with 1972's Shamus, a mostly routine detective yarn with Southerner Burt Reynolds pretending to be a Brooklyn Philip Marlowe, even including a riff on the bookstore salesgirl scene from The Big Sleep.  Burt does plenty of running and leaping throughout the picture, showing off his formidable physical prowess, which is ultimately the best part of his performance.

"Where Did the Graduates of Ridgemont Go Next?"

Another one from the pre-digital vaults...

From my Vimeo description:

I wrote, edited, and performed the corny voiceover for this magazine piece, as part of one of my high school tv production courses.  The manager of a local video store let me come into the store with a garbage bag, which I proceeded to fill up with tapes to use as source clips in this video.  He only insisted that I give him a copy when it was finished.  

The video limitations are due to generational loss, as the well as the effects of copy protection, and the fact that everything is sourced from VHS.  Again, this was edited analog style, deck to deck, with 3/4" video.  No DVDS and no digital editing for several more years.

3 Shuttered New York Theaters Captured on Celluloid

Some recent screen captures I made of the Prospect in Flushing, as seen in Fulci's New York Ripper, the Beacon, as seen in Scorsese's Who's That Knocking at My Door, and the Wakefield, as seen in Mulligan's Bloodbrothers.  The Beacon remains open, but not as a movie house.  I looked through some old New York Magazine movie listings from Summer  to late 1981, which are searchable via Google, and couldn't find a time when Werewolf and Nighthawks were playing together there.  They did play at neighboring theaters around that time, however.

The scene in Bloodbrothers actually includes footage from Enter the Dragon, the matinee that Richard Gere takes his kid brother to.  Both were Warner Bros. properties so there was some synergy there. Enter the Dragon would also appear in movie-within-movie form in Polanski's The Tenant, a Paramount picture, and, if I'm not mistaken, its use in the Polanski film did not thrill Warner Bros., but I can't find verification of that at the moment.  I'm left to wonder if the Beacon really was playing Rio Bravo at that time, or if Scorsese paid someone to dress the marquee specially for his film.

Gigolo and Warriors Together Again, With a Special Thanks to Cinema Du Meep

As I've mentioned here before, Paramount did a nice little job of promoting one of their earlier properties, The Warriors, during a scene in Par's American Gigolo.  Other than the same studio, there isn't much they share, save for both having watershed synth-based scores that remain awesome 30+ years later.

Recently, over at his Facebook feed, where he manages to unearth one cool vintage newspaper ad or marquee picture after another, Cinema Du Meep posted a December 1980 ad featuring--you guessed it -Warriors and Gigolo on the same bill.  Curiously, Warriors, the earlier film by a year, appears as the first feature.  

This was actually a traveling double-bill put together by Paramount and which opened simultaneously at several local theaters, as you can see in the below New York listing.

In this old thread on the Warriors website, posters mention that the "VGV" ("Varrio Grande Vista") graffiti on the Warriors sign above is the tag of a gang portrayed in the LA-set 1979 gang feature Boulevard Nights, which you can see here.  So, it appears there was a little East Coast / West Coast rivalry which pre-dates Biggie and 2Pac.

Shatter Deux

An afternoon of record shopping in the city today unearthed a couple more appearances of the shatter font, both associated with Bay Area proto-punk outfit the Flamin' Groovies.  The compilation Still Shakin' uses the font for the title of the album.  Later, Groovies co-founder Roy Loney broke out the shatter for his 1979 effort, Out After Dark.