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Home Explore VOLUME 23 - NUMBER 02 MARCH-APRIL 1987

VOLUME 23 - NUMBER 02 MARCH-APRIL 1987

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Description: VOLUME 23 - NUMBER 02 MARCH-APRIL 1987

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\"So this preacher, the producer, put real maggots on people. Plugged up their ears and put maggots all over their faces. Oh my God, the letters we got on that one-the people would throw up in church. \" be saved. \"SATAN \"Now Ron's shootin' this over Tim's IS REAL\" shoulder, mostly favoring the minister. So Dr.John R. Rice I said to Ron, 'You forgot something. You are missing the greatest thing you have PRODUCED AND DISTRIBUTED BY ever seen. Look at the expression on Tim's face. That will tear you apart.' So he THE ORMOND ORGANIZATION shoots it again, and you see Tim's face and the tears comin' down. I must have seen the execution remained remarkably the tures with exhibitors and DJs, June filled this picture 50 times, and I still cry like a same. Whether the film is The Exotic . bit parts and extra roles with local minis- baby. He moves me every time. Ones or The Burning Hell, it is still 'E' for ters and religious folk. And there were \"So then you have what you call your altar call,\" June says, \"when you are so Entertainment, not to mention for Exploi- \"name\" stars like the reverends Bob Gray, moved by a preachment, or a picture, that the Lord tells you to go forth and commit tation. In the religious market, it's called Greg Dixon, or Jerry Falwell, who begin yourself to the Lord-that's an altar call. The Baptists don't even want a picture \"getting the message over,\" making a and end each picture with \"preach- unless there's an altar call. \"soul-winning picture.\" And June had ments.\" As June said to me during a \"Mter this picture the people would leamed how to exploit: a couple of blunt screening, \"This scene-forgive my lan- jump out of their seats and come forward out of the darkness. And Tim would take shocks help sell the picture, whether it's at guage-is filthy with ministers.\" the altar call, after the people had just seen him starrin' in the picture. Oh, he can take the drive-in or in the church pulpit. The Ormonds turned out a string ofpic- the altar call-he's a registered minister. I saw this happen so many times. That's \"See, the man who produced The tures during the Seventies for the religious why I said he's gotta be ordained as a preacher.\" Burning Hell was a Bible-hell-damnation market-Believer's Heaven (1974), The The Burning Hell established the Or- preacher,\" says June. \"He wanted to Land Where Jesus Walked (1975), and 39 monds in the forefront of the religious field. June took the drive-in pictures off show the maggots. The Bible tells you Stripes (1979). Some of the Baptist pic- the road, stuck them in a vault, and threw away the key. The past was forgotten. about the worm that never dies. What is tures even echoed the Ormonds' previous What were they leaving behind anyway? The bloody exclamation point that was the worm that never dies? Do you know? genres: The Grim Reaper, a religious hor- The Exotic Ones had led them into an area that was hardly liberating-the gore pic- Your conscience. It eats on you from with- ror picture (1976--\"always get a lotta ture. Of course, the genre of Baptist reli- gious pictures was no bargain, either. It is a in-the worm that never dies. bookings on this for Halloween\"); and genre of rigid, unyielding propaganda tracts centered on a black and white world \"So this preacher, the producer, put Surrender at Navajo Canyon (1980), a re- that allows little room for gray. real maggots on the people. Plugged up ligious western. Perhaps that is why the gospel of Girl their ears and put maggots all over their Savvy as she might be, June learned from Tobacco Row is so appealing. Being neither a sleazy drive-in picture nor a tme faces. It smelled so bad down there lone thing about preachers: \"They're very religious effort, it is free of the ideological restraints that make the hardcore exam- couldn't stand it. Oh my God, the letters hard to get money out of. They say, ples of either ultimately so unappealing. we got on that picture, 'How'dyagetthose 'Aren't you makin' pictures to save Even while working the Christian pic- ture circuit, the Ormonds made entertain- maggots?'-the people would throw up in souls?'\" ing, engaging movies that stand outside the genre-they are Ormond pictures, church when they saw this stuff. I don't - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - first and foremost. blame them 'cause it's yuck! But the Going and 'Coming' Show the Maggots preacher wanted this in there, and Ron While the drive-in pictures became \"bad,\" the church pictures \"good,\" said, 'Okay, we'll put it in.' Literally, you've got to explain the Bible to some In 1980, Ron's cancer recurred. \"He got people. They don't understand. very religious toward the end,\" June re- \"In a way we never quit making exploi- calls. \"He never went to bed without get- tation films because we always tried to put ting down on his knees and praying, in some of the ingredients of 'em--even thanking God for bringing him this far. in the religious pictures. Not in a bad way, He'd say, 'I got so much to do, I don't we just wanted to keep people's attention want to die.' I'd say, 'We all gotta die, and also share the Gospel. We even have Ron. But we're gonna carry on your work. advertising, just like in the theaters. We I know enough about it that we'll carry even have posters and radio platters for the on. ' \" church market. Exploitation, y'know.\" Devastated, the family knew every day Just like she would fill the drive-in pic- that Ron would die, but \"we just didn't 49

know which day.\" The Onnonds were by telekinesis. I did the same with Ron. by drawing-room discussions that weigh preparing ... The Second Coming, and I'd sit behind him, thinking my thought, heavily on the side of Christianity. The they were having a very hard time raising usual stuff. money. \"Whatta title. The complete title not saying anything. And he'd tum right is It's About the Second Coming. I put around and say, 'What!?' and I'd say, While watching The Sacred Symbol that first part on there just to protect my- 'Well, come 'ere, there's somethin' I with the Onnonds in their comfortable, self. A minister might come back an' say, wanna tell ya.' \" darkened living room, I got a strange sense 'Who are you to make a picture of the Sec- of deja vu: Flagellants from the Philip- ond Coming?' 'Cause nobody knows what ... The Second Coming (1984) pines were whipping themselves into a the second coming is until it happens. bounces back and forth between Biblical spiritual and bloody frenzy, as the gravel- You'd be surprised how careful you gotta times, the present, and the future. It is a ly, menacing voice of Ron Onnond com- be.\" delirious blend of theology, science fic- mented in a monotone on the soundtrack. tion, and special effects. If Ron threw out And then, it dawned on me where I had \"We had a little trailer. Tim would go structure and threw in strangeness in seen the same footage-in the intoxicat- out and write and give the pages to his fa- Please Don't Touch Me, Tim went the ing prologue to Please, Don't Touch Me, ther the next morning. Then they'd make old man one better in ... The Second made 25 years before. Tim even weaves corrections while I was building the set for Coming. As a friend said, \"First you're some of the Mrican footage from Un- the King Nebuchadnezzar scene. here, then you're there, soon you're in an- tamed Mistress into the mix. other place. Even though you wonder \"I said to Ron, 'If we can get this why, you don't really question. It is a vi- Guy in a gorilla suit. Girl from Tobac- done-even ifwe have to hold you up be- sion.\" ... The Second Coming was also cow Row. Jesus Christ. That's Exploita- hind the camera-we want you to take the most deceptively slick vision the Or- tion, y'know. the first shot,'\" June recalls. But Ron monds had ever produced, with a bland died. Three days after he was buried, Tim TV-movie veneer that made its construc- Epilogue started the picture. tion seem even more opaque. \"Most peo- ple write a synopsis, do an outline, go T im is at work on the latest Onnond ex- \"Ron always used to wear a safari jacket through many drafts of a screenplay,\" travaganza, A Tribute to Houdini, but when he directed, khaki with short June explained. \"But they'd write it from hopes for the day \"when we can make sleeves. Now there we are doin' the King scratch. As Ron would say, 'I am the eye of something with a good message that Nebuchadnezzar scene. We've got all the the camera.' \" would get more of a play, like Chariots of costumes, the girls, and the great big col- Fire.\" He relaxes by taking a few spins out umns. And here comes Tim with that sa- June and Tim are most proud of at the airport, much to the conste(l1ation of fari outfit on that Ron used to wear. At one ... The Second Coming, although \"it's his mother. June keeps an eye open for point I said, 'Wait a minute! Ron!' Every- been three years and it hasn't paid off. It's new projects. As is their custom, they body turned around and looked at me. the most expensive independent religious sleep in the morning and work late into Ron had just been buried. I was talking to picture ever made. Just the last shot- the night, sometimes past the break of Tim. But it was so ... natural for me to where Jesus comes down from the sky on day. Occasionally they break for a meal at talk to Ron because he was there that the horses-that cost us about $12,000. Shoney's. night anyway. I could feel his presence But it's a beautiful little religious picture. I telling Tim what to do.\" think Ron would've liked it a lot.\" June recently starred in a supper club revue doing her old vaudeville routines. June is, however, used to having an With The Sacred Symbol (1984) things The past is resurrected everywhere. AIl open channel to the director. \"I can sit be- come completely full circle. The movie is the old pictures have been dug up for the hind Tim and pass my thinking on to him a travelogue of world religion, bracketed home video market. \"When Tim saw Hollywood Varieties, I thought he'd go Original \"An invaluable addition and fascinating-an to the sociological litera- out of his mind,\" she said. \"Cost me $300 in-depth look at one of ture of one of the few the world's most impor- just to get a cassette of that picnire. But it tant symbols of success. unifying spectacles in was worth it.\" Sheds new light on the place American life.\" of movies in our li ves and - Andrew Sarris \"We all know that one ofthese days I'm how we relate to them by not gonna be here no more,\" June says. showin g the amazing inter- 432 pages, \"How I'm gonna go I don't know. We all play between the Oscar and its illustrated, gotta go, even Einstein, the greatest of political, social and cultural set- $19.50 hardcover 'em all, the Lord said, 'C'mon Einie, ya tings. A treasure trove of facts and surprising revelations. gotta go.' But, how wiD we measure the time? Who really knows, y'know? Who At your bookstore , or call 1-800-638-3030 really knows?\" The Ungar Publishing Company Right before I left Nashville, June and I ,--__ 370 Lexington Avenue, New York, NY 1001£_ _-, had a rather tense discussion concerning religious conviction, specifically my lack of it. \"Ya mean you're not saved?,\" she asked, staring right at me, smiling. \"It's not too late, ya know.\" The flight back was terrible. I really thought we were gonna crash. ~ SaM,..Thonk.s 10 0riJ Eddie King. Ormond McGill. muJJim Mur- ray ofIN Movie Poster 1'II1a. 50

by Joe Bob Briggs ing for 10 these past hundred hours, are ways suffer production delays and come in among the most curious heretical docu- over budget. And theater owners don't And Samuel hewed Agag in pieces before ments produced in the past 2000 years. I particularly like them, because the reli- the Lord in Gilgal. don't use \"heretical\" lightly. I can't imag- gious community represents a tiny fraction ine these religious fantasies being accept- of their regular customers. - I Samuel 15:33 ed by the most liberal Unitarian minister, much less by the most observant Hassidic Yet in generation after generation, pro- Bruce Beresford, the first director to rabbi, as anything resembling truth. If ducers-and this is a producer's genre- attempt this particular scrip. oJral these films were books, they would no have staked their careers on Biblical epics, moment on film, deserves-by doubt be on the Pope's forbidden list. hoping to leave these films as their one the strict letter of the Old Testament-to They're a subspecies of science fiction, lasting legacy to mankind, the film they be hacked into pieces himself. This one full ofstiffGumby-type human actors who want listed on their tombstones, the one putter across the screen in various stages of verse is the entire opening scene of King enchantment, like animated cartoons they want us to watch. What they really David, and in order to be true to the Bible, about friendly wmbies. None of them, with the exception of the 1959 Ben Hur, want to say is, \"Among other things, I was only one thing has to take place-the retains any popularity beyond the year of hacking into pieces of Agag, the defeated its release, and even the lavishly honored God's producer.\" And, taking the license Amalekite king. But what do we see? The ones (The Robe in 1953, The Ten Com- prophet Samuel storms into the court of mandments in 1956, Becket in 1964) end with the Bible that they took with every Saul and yells at him for allowing Agag to up on the curiosity shelf, checked out by other screenplay that crossed their desk, live. Then Samuel steps over to the hap- trivia experts interested in the ephemera they have rewritten the story to suit their less chained barbarian ruler, raises the of a generation. own theology. sword, and lops off his head with a single blow. What are they, then? Why do people So I've decided to take them up on make them? They cost a fortune in cos- Not what God said to do. tumes, locations, and actors (you need at their claims. What follows are theological God said to destroy him utterly. Hew least ten stars to have a respectable epic). reviews of the ten most popular and suc- cessful religious films of all time. Let's try him in pieces. They're based on a Bible that needs 15 or to figure out just what kind ofa God Holly- 20 rewrites before it can be wrenched into wood worships. Of course, we know why he doesn't ac- tually hew him in pieces. Because there a continuous narrative. They are the long- Book I: The Gospel are certain things, even when sanctioned est genre of films in existence, averaging According to by scripture and ordered by God Himself; Cecil B. DeMille that filmmakers will not do. three hours. They require animals, chil- dren, and crowd scenes, meaning they al- We take as our first scripture The Ten Biblical films, which I've been watch- Commandments (1956), produced by the granddaddy of the Biblic-al epic, the 51

man who produced more versions ofscrip- - movie has approximately 4000 bona fide ture than the Union Theological Semi- movie stars in it-my favorites are Donald nary, the man who opened this, his grand- The Ten Commandments. Pleasance as Satan and Telly Savalas as est film , by personally walking straight up Pontius Pilate-but its importance is as to the camera, before the titles, and ex- through the wilderness, Moses then the chief exemplar of the doctrine that plaining his interpretation of the Torah, hands his staff to Joshua (John Derek as God wants us all to talk like CPA's and the works of Philo, the works ofjosephus, the symbol of ultimate freedom!) and chew our food thoroughly before we and the conclusion he's made from it all- says, \"Proclaim liberty throughout t'he speak. that \" the theme of the Bible is whether land!\" Thus ends the first movie in which men should be ruled by God's law or by a God is portrayed as the head of a spiritual Book III: The Gospel dictator.\" Three hours and 39 minutes lat- Teamsters Union. Twenty-one years According to Pat Boone er, we have a complete exposition of the after its release, this movie still plays \"God is an anti-Nazi democrat\" doctrine, throughout the heartland at selected the- More people have seen The Cross and with Charlton Heston playing a sort of aters every Passover/Easter season. the Switchblade (1970) than have overwrought Moses-as-Abraham Lin- seen Rocky, but the film has been all but coln, and Yul Brynner as a goofy, power- Book II: The Gospel ignored by critics because it is shown al- hungry Pharaoh. DeMille's dramatic According to most exclusively in churches, \"Christian highlight comes when Moses, alone in the George Stevens schools,\" midwestern high schools where desert, approaches a clump of spindly religious materials are still allowed, and twigs with a Halloween-pumpkin light While we are examining the prolix, evangelistic crusades, especially those flickering inside and listens to God, speak- please turn now to the four-hour, 20- sponsored by the Billy Graham organiza- ing in a deep robot's voice, tell him to go minute version of The Greatest Story Ever tion. It has a strong reputation among back to Egypt and free the slaves. Moses Told (I 965), produced by the master of Protestant ministers as a tool to fight drug doesn't even change his expression. In- wide-screen everything, who planned this abuse, juvenile crime, promiscuity, and stead, he makes a speech on the terrible as his life's testament. To avoid the age- other social ills, but in fact it's usually living conditions and says he can't stand old problem of how to cast Jesus without shown to the \"good kids\" at the church to the idea of those people still living in filth unwanted associations, he found the then- try to get them to \"witness\" to their un- and not getting a decent wage. John obscure Max Von Sydow, who had the ad- saved friends, the drug users and hood- Derek, as a dim-witted lovesick Joshua, vantage of a blank-slate chameleon's face lums. The story itself is presented as a speaks the whole theme of the movie but the disadvantage of delivering every docudrama about the life of David Wilker- when he says, \"God made men. Men line like Jeeves the butler, merely impart- son, an evangelist from rural Pennsylvania made slaves.\" And the only mildly intrigu- ing information that rightly belongs to who waded into the middle of a New York ing subplot involves Anne Baxter, as the someone else. Although this might be the- gang war in the Sixties, converted several wily Lady Macbeth version of Nefertiti, gang members to Christianity, and report- trying to lure Moses into her bedchamber ologically defensible-he is delivering edly ended the violence. As played by Pat and castrate Pharaoh at the same time. Boone, who wanders through the slums in Edward G. Robinson , as Dathan, a dirty God's message, after all-it's more boring neon red-stocking feet because his shoes old man and overseer of the Hebrew than a Baptist deacon in Las Vegas. Von are stolen on his first night in town, the slaves, wanders around aimlessly until Sydow epitomizes the Jesus-as-breathing- process consists primarily of screaming \"I DeMille brings him in at the end to build statue style, trancelike and backed by hor- love you and God loves you\" at the Mau the Golden Calf and attempt to sacrifice rible Muzak hallelujah music. It takes Je- Mau war council until the meanest war- the virginal Debra Paget to idols in what sus 15 seconds to walk across a room , 10 lord of them all, played by Erik Estrada, resembles a Bob Fosse production num- seconds to open a door, and an agonizing breaks down and stops the killing. Unfor- ber, but Moses blows up the Calf by five minutes to do something like raise tunately, all the gang members look like throwing the stone tablets at it and killing Lazarus from the dead. When he finally they were recruited from the Southwest- all of Robinson's fellow spiritual gangsters. stands in Gethsemane and tells the disci- ern Baptist Theological Seminary, and the After 20 seconds of a western wagon train ples, \"The hour has come,\" you want to scream back at him , \"You mean the four hours have come and gone.\" And when he ends the movie by looking out at you and saying, \"I am with you always, even unto the end of the world,\" it's a threat. This 52

Become involved 'in the world's most provocative art form. the news, the views, the angles, the r--------------.., action-wrapped between the covers of Film Comment. Each issue brings it all home to you: YES! Send me FILM COMMENT. In our January/February issue you get our famous year-in-review-the best, the worst, the o 1 year (6 issues) U.s. Canada & Foreign\" highs and lows of what happened during the $14.95 Mexico past year. In March/April our experts predict the 0 2 years (12 issues) $26.95 $ 37.00 Oscar nominations ... and in May/June we let $38.95 $19.00 $ 70.00 you know just how well they did. And you get 0 3 years (18 issues) $34.00 $100.00 frank discussions with actors, directors, and $50.00 producers; world-wide festival coverage and the ·includes air mail postage. inside news of what's happening in the world of o BILL ME film. o PAYMENT ENCLOSED (Use envelope in magazine) Mail to FILM COMMENT 140 West 65th Street· NY, NY • 10023 Name Address Film Comment: We don't review films, we City State Zip review the industry. Subscribe and be apart of it now... because there's more to movies than Our advertisers would like to know your occupation the silver screen. L _Fe1187 _____________ ..J 53

one wild sex party consists of a lot of smoke, two miniskirts, and a hanging- bead dOOlway. Sample exchange: \"Aren't you sick of hating people?\" \"I like to hurt people, man.\" \"Aren't you lonely?\" \"Damn you!\" as the smitten gang member runs out of the room. I caIl this the God-wants-you-to-wash-your-hair doctrine. Book IV: The Gospel According to Sunn Classics T heater owners speak ofSunn Classics, The Green Pastures. The Bible. the first Salt Lake City-based film dis- tributor, with the kind of awe usuaIly re- In Search of Historic Jesus. Jesus of Nazareth. served for reminiscences about the first- recounting the alleged history of the continue to have the eternal and abiding week boxoffice figures on Star Wars. shroud up to the time it was discovered in faith of Jack Webb. Sunn Classics was one of the big \"four- Turin in 1898, a speculative account inter- waIl\" distributors, who would send a pro- laced with an extremely long \"reenact- Book V: The Gospel moter to your town, rent an entire theater ment\" of the life ofChrist starring the ane- According to Sambo for a day or weekend (so the theater got its mic John Rubinstein. At the end of the money no matter how many people film, they finaIly present their \"evi- One of the strangest religious movies is showed up), then launch an aggressive dence.\" They paid a Scotland Yard foren- also one of the most joyous-a musi- promotion campaign at churches, schools, sic pathologist to examine all their evi- cal called The Green Pastures (1936) whereverthey could drum up institutional dence-not the shroud itself-and made by Warner Brothers for the black support for causes that would \"change determine whether, in his opinion, Jesus theaters of the Depression. Beginning your life.\" They used very little newspa- rose from the dead. Mter pointing to with a disclaimer that we should accept per advertising. The Sunn Classics man places on a picture that would correspond the quaint religious traditions of the Deep would show up at your Sunday school to various wounds on Jesus' body, the pa- South Negro as childlike truth, it gets roil- class, or, if he could finagle it, at a full- thologist concludes that, yes indeed, ing with an enormous crowd scene on a fledged church service, and then he would through computer-image enhancement, soundstage full of black people wearing count on the word-of-mouth to pack them he can be certain that the shroud is \"con- white choir gowns and paper wings, sitting in. Time and time again, it worked. The- sistent with\" a theory of resurrection. End on papier-mache douds with fishing aters were packed from ten in the moming of movie. Presumably a prayer is said at poles. Gabriel (Oscar Polk) comes forward until midnight for these \"one time only, this point, in which everyone hopes to and shouts, \"Gangway for de Lawd God one day only\" events. The first big Sunn Classics hit was a film called In Search of Noah's Ark, made up of reporting on the latest archae- ological discoveries at Mt. Ararat in Tur- key along with fictional reenactments of the appropriate scriptures for those who wouldn't otherwise remember the story of Noah's Ark. (There was nothing subtle about 'any of the Sunn features.) It was such a hit tlley followed it up with In Search of Historic Jesus (1979), another blockbuster based loosely on the Shroud of Turin research , narrated by a Dragnet- style announcer who begins like this: \"The date: April 6, 33 A.D. The place: a hillside just outside Jerusalem. In this sealed tomb lies the body of a man who was brutally beaten, repeatedly tortured, and finaIly killed in an agonizing crucifix- ion. His name [as the camera dollies in on the tomb] was Jesus.\" Music up, roll titles. As it tums out, most of the film consists of a bearded narrator in a baby-blue V- neck sweater standing on various Biblical locations or in official-looking offices and 54

jehovah!\" And then the courtly Rex In- The American Federation of Arts Presents gram appears as God in a three-piece suit. The Deity's first words are, \"Ler the fish B IE fOR IE fry proceed!\" The rest of the movie is a sort of elementary-school pageant about. HOllYWOOD Genesis (\"Let there be some firmament,\" Turn-of-the-Century Film from American Archives says De Lawd, \"let there be a whole mess A ground-breaking program featuring seventy recently-preserved Ameri- can films unseen by the general public since their initial turn-of-the-century of firmament\") and earth-rattling singing release. Titles include exciting rediscoveries by Cecil B. DeMille, William by the Hall johnson Choir (angels singing S. Hart, Mary Pickford and others, all newly copied for this tour. \"There's no hiding place down there\") and God telling Noah to be sure and label 35mm tour begins January, 1987 all the animals, which he does by Scotch- taping cardboard signs to their sides. After Whitney Museum of American Art Museum of Fine Arts, Houston they've all entered the Ark in alphabetical New York September, 1987 order (zebras last), Noah up and says, January-February, 1987 \"Was you watchin me, Lawd?\" San Diego Museum of Art Museum of Fine Arts, Boston September-October, 1987 \"Every minute,\" God says. March-April,1987 \"Well, it's did,\" says Noah. Detroit Institute of Art For a long time God stays up in heaven Los Angeles County Museum of Art October, 1987 getting madder and madder at people like April-May, 1987 Pharaoh, who goes around saying, \"How's Ohio State University, Columbus the killin of the babies comin along?\" until Institute of North American Studies January, 1988 God goes down to show Moses how to Barcelona make Pharaoh \"let the Hebrew chillun May-June, 1987 16mm tour begins October, 1987 go,\" another excuse for a great hymn, and then, running out of time, the movie skips This traveling film exhibition is supported by the National Endowment for the Arts, the forward to Babylon, a wicked New Or- National Endowment for the Humanities, the New York State Council on the Arts, the leans njghtclub so full of sin that God de- Eugene and Estelle Ferkauf Foundation, the Arthur Ross Foundation , and the Brown cides, \"I will deliver these people no mo.\" Foundation, Inc ., and by Hilva Landsman , Barbara Goldsmith and Frank Perry, and A delegation goes up to heaven to try to James Ottaway, Jr. talk Him out of it. \"Even bein' God ain't no bed of roses,\" He tells them, but they Institutions interested in presenting Before Hol1ywood should contact: keep praying for mercy until He's forced to hear them. \"How did you humans find The American Federation of Arts Film Program out about mercy?\" He asks. \"By sufferin,\" . 41 E. 65th St., New York, New York 10021 (212) 988-7700 one of them tells him. Gabriel notices God is not talking much, and so he says, \"You look awful pensive, Lawd. Want a cigar, Lawd?\" And God finally gets a bright-idea look on his face and discovers that Christ, the agent of mercy, is the answer. The only reason I've gone into so much detail on this one is that it's thoroughly en- tertaining, the music is wondrous, and the theology is closer to what most people be- lieve about God than the more official ver- sions. A doctrine basically summed up by, \"Get out of that loose living and come on down to the fish fry. We waitin.\" Book VI: The Gospel According to Dino Modestly calling it The Bible, Dino De Laurentiis intended this to be nine hours in length, cover the entirety of holy scriprure, and be directed by the finest di- rectors in the world-until someone told him he would need 300 hours to do that and about $10 billion. So when it came out in 1%6, Dino had settled for the book of Genesis and john Huston. Huston got a little carried away, in fact, and not only di- rected but took the dual acting role of ss

God, speaking the world into existence, and Noah, saving all the animals because Book IX: The Gospel According to he's been told to do so by God, who Cinemascope sounds exactly like Noah. The first half The Robe (1953) was Twentieth Cen- tury Fox's answer to MGM, the wid- hour is spent watching Adam and Eve est-screen movie ever made, the first Cin- emascope film, shot at a ratio that was later writhe around in Eden like space aliens, shortened when Fox realized it was simply too unwieldy. Why they picked one of the followed by the segment where Huston, most personal religious stories for a screen as the voice of God, tells Cain he'll never roughly 4000 feet long and two feet high is work in this town again, followed by the lost in the musty minutes of some Fox board meeting, but despite the imperson- only part of the movie anybody remem- al soundstage look, this is one of the better sagas of the persecuted Christians, mostly bers-Huston pied-pipering the zebras, due to performances by Richard Burton, as the privileged Roman playboy who con- elephants, giraffes, camels, kangaroos, The Robe. verts to the faith, and Jean Simmons, as pelicans, polar bears, and hippos, then the woman who follows him to his martyr- running back in the rain to pick up the late estine shocking people with his quick wit dom. Filmmakers were beginning to real- turtle and help him on board as the gang- and wisdom, making the establishment ize that Romans are much more believ- way is being pulled up. Then, just when figures look foolish. (You almost expect to able than the Jews, especially when you're about to give up on the film as doz- see light bulbs appearing over the heads of engaged in debauchery, violent sport, or ens more actors try out the Max Von Sy- the disciples.) It should be called \"That war-spectacles that can be indulged and dow Method, George C. Scott almost res- Darn Jesus.\" celebrated with crowd scenes, then wiped away with a clear conscience when the cues the production as a raging, anguished magic moment of conversion occurs. Abraham. Unfortunately, Huston keeps Book VIII: The Gospel Book X: The Gospel According to cutting away from this one riveting perfor- According to Second Zimbalist mance to stately landscape shots and peo- ple who say \"thou\" and \"behold\" a lot, First Zimbalist Ben-Hur (1959), the most successful of them all, was an attempt by Zimbalist fostering the final impression of a picture- QUO Vadis (1951) was the first of the to do it again the hard way-in the actual book travelogue bound together by the huge Bible movies to succeed, be- Holy Land. Director William Wyler al- doctrine, ''Thou shalt proclaim the King cause MGM producer Sam Zimbalist was tered the formula in other ways, too: 1) James out of context.\" the first producer to get all the elements of The bad guy is a friend Oack Hawkins as Messala) who betrays his childhood bud- Book VII: The Gospel the formula right: 1} Forget the Holy dy for pure worldly ambition. 2) The crowd scenes, whether on a galley slave Land; put holy people in the Evil Land- ship at sea, the famous chariot rate, or the climactic scene in the Valley of Lepers According to Zeffirelli Rome. 2} Revel in the decadence (this where Judah rescues his wife and mother (Charlton Heston doing the role he has was Peter Ustinov's first Nero, a whining, tried to recapture ever since), are meticu- lously staged to reveal the contrast be- Millions got hooked on Sir Lew Grade's comical, self-deluded aesthete). 3} Feed 1977 miniseries Jesus of Nazareth, Christians to lions (one of the proudest tween one man and the rest of the world. apparently because the svelte Robert prides of carnivores in movie history). 4) It's easy to see why Judah finally accepts Powell, in the title role, was the first actor Turn all religious doctrine into ... a love Jesus. He's beaten the world with his will- ful strength. Jesus has saved the world ever to speak scripture without sounding story! Robert Taylor is the bloodthirsty with his willful weakness. When the love story of Judah for his family turns into a like a ninny. But all you're likely to re- playboy legionnaire converted to the faith love between the worldly man and the otherworldly, we believe it, we watch it member about it is the way Franco \"I Am by the ravishing, simple slave girl Deb- again and again, because it's the only mov- ie that does no preaching whatsoever, con- Artist\" Zeffirelli imitates every single Re- orah Kerr. Even though the attraction is tains no explicit doctrine, and reveals nothing but the eternal compelling mys- naissance painter who ever. sloshed paint not quite believable, it's better than the tery of faith. It works because Wyler didn't attempt to make a religious movie on a chapel wall, framing Mary between occasional appearances in Rome of apos- at all. He tried to make a true movie. ~ pillars, artfully amnging Judas at his prop- tles (Paul is a sort of imbecile Perry Como, er place in Leonardo's \"Last Supper\" tab- and Peter is Bozo the Clown with a shep- leau, and changing the chronology of the herd's staff). Rome burns, the lions feast, gospels so thoroughly that I'm surprised and Leo Genn, as the cynical Petronius, he didn't open the series with the crucifix- adviser to Nero, gives one of those once- ion simply for dramatic effect. He recruit- in-a-lifetime performances that obscure ed the usual 200 stars, including such un- every other movie he made. (\"Mutilate comfortable Christians as Ernest Borgnine your subjects if you must,\" he writes to as the Centurion, James Farentino as Si- Nero as he commits suicide, \"but with my mon Peter, and the caterwauling Michael last breath I must beg you, do not mutilate York as John the Baptist, but the only the arts. Brutalize the people, but do not great performances come from the bad bore them, as you have bored to death guys-Peter Ustinov as Herod the Great, your subject, Petronius.\") All the Chris- who made something ofa career out of do- tians are painfully nice, so director Mervin ing interchangeable Herods and Neros; Le Roy tries to keep them in the back- Rod Steiger as Pontius Pilate; and espe- ground as much as possible, giving Nero, cially Anthony Quinn as Caiaphas. These the utterly depraved dictator, all the great seasoned actors were apparently allowed scenes. Hence the doctrine of \"Jesus to defy the art director's symmetry and ob- wants us to smile a lot.\" Sam made so scure the background sheep long enough much money that he launched the golden to deliver the lines. For the rest, it's all a age of religious movies, an age he would backdrop foraJesus who runs through Pal- also end in 1959 with Ben-Hur. 56

JAMES G. ROBINSON PresentalionAn UFlAND/ ROTH Productiono!a CHRlSroPHER CAIN rum \"WHERE THE RlVER RUNS BLACK\" Slarring CHARLES DURNING' PETER HORTON AJA\\, NAIDU • CONCHATA FERRELL' CASTULO GUERRA' DANA DELANY DIVANA BRANDAO And Inlrodocing ALESSANDRO RABELO Music by JAMES HORNER d7w.Ediled by RICHARD CHEW Based on !he Book \"Lazaro\" b)' DAVID KENDAll Sc:reenplayby PEfER SILVERMAN and NEAlJIMENEZ Exccuti''eProducer JAMES G. ROBINSON ................ Prodot d by JOE ROTH and HARRY UFLAND Direcled by CHRISTOPHER CAIN CBS/ FOX Company Playhouse Video IS a trademark 01 the CB$ f FOX Company All Rights Reser

FunnyMan Frank by Jonathan Benair Many of you probably made the leap from indiscriminate kiddie matinee patrons to full-fledged film buffs when you began associating cer- tain films you liked with the name of the people who made them. A rousing John Ford western at a keyage or a Hitchcock lollapalooza that galvanized one to his seat are the kind of primal childhood experi- ences that converted innocent bystanders into junkies. Several of the comedies I loved best while growing up had a few things in common: the wonderful Para- mount mountain and stars logo accompa- nied by a stirring fanfare followed by the mysterious announcement \"In VistaVi- sion\" and, most importantly, the names of Norman Panama and Melvin Frank as co- writers and co-directors. Specifically: Knock on Wood and The Courtlester (ar- guably Danny Kaye's two best films, they bracket the Panama-Frank co-written White Christmos, the first VistaVision pro- duction) and Li'l Abner, the unduly ap- preciated film version of their hit Broad- way show. Well, now, Mel Frank has directed his first film since Lost and Found, his 1979 George Segal-Glenda Jackson re-teaming after their hugely successful A Touch of Class. There are very few comedy direc- tors now working who have Frank's lon- gevity and breadth of experience. Billy Wilder no longer directs, and his career, of course, shows a wider range of material, though Frank did make a couple of atypi- cal films: Above and Beyond and a west- ern, The layhawkers. Even the prolific, durable Blake Ed- wards seems an arriviste next to Frank, who's been toiling in the comedy vine- yards as a solid journeyman since the early Forties. First he wrote radio sketches with boyhood chum Norman Panama and then joined Bob Hope on the Road to Holly- wood, where they went from scriptwriting to co-producing (on Mr. Blandings Builds His Dream House) eventually to co-di- recting. When the team broke up in the mid-Sixties, Frank continued to produce, write, and direct until the late Seventies. The eight-year hiatus didn't render him inactive, however. Among other projects,

he co-wrote twO screenplays with his sive in those days [1950], who had a lot of use of English was about like my Filipino daughter Elizabeth, the 1986 Pulitzer style and a lot of class, a Hank Potter or stepchildrens,' although my father could Prize biography winner for her book on Mitch Leisen, several guys in town who speak seven languages, which he used to the life of poet Louise Bogan. were good and every single one of them live in a tenement and sell furniture. He couldn't parse a sentence, or know what When I met Frank at his office at MGM, was tied up. the fuck he was saying, in any one of the he proudly showed me a congratulatory ad seven languages, but he could get by. So \"I said to Norman: 'I know who can di- we obviously had the usual Freudian, Oe- taken by his daughter'S publishers. Frank dipal resentment of our fathers, and to us was in post-production on Walk like A Man, rect this picture, and it won't cost us a sin- our fathers were businessmen, and that's his new comedy with St. Elsewhere's Howie gle penny. Us.' So we went upstairs to the one thing we didn't want to be. We Mandel, as the abandoned scion of a rich wanted to be artists. And 1knew, and Nor- Dore Schary, who was our friend , and told man knew, and I knew that he knew I felt family who is raised in the wildemess by him the idea, and he said, 'Well, I'll go the way I did-that to be a producer was wolves. It's a genial take-off on the Grey- along with the other guys.' So, I had to go essentially to be a businessman, and to be stokerrarzan tales and the Wild Child leg- along to each one of these guys: Benny a director is to be an artist. And I couldn't end in which nasty older brother Christo- Thau, George Sidney, and finally a rough say that to him.\" pher Lloyd tries to cheat his canine Irishman who was [Louis B.] Mayer's younger brother out of his rightful inheri- right hand, Eddie Mannix, a big tough F rank launched into his explanation of tance. guy with a whiskey voice, who said: 'Lis- how he and Panama worked as direc- ten, I'm a long-shot player. You guys are tors: \"We'd have two chairs. We'll remind \"It's the first time, in a very long career, long shots. Tell you what we'll do. We'll everyone we're co-directing the picture, that this has ever happened to me, where but on anyone picture we'll tell them who somebody wanted me just to direct,\" 'the spokesman is for the team and the oth- Frank said. \"I'm not the producer, the ex- er guy is deaf, dumb, and blind. He ecutive producer; I'm not the writer. watches, he observes, and he has ways of Somebody gave me the script, a whole letting the director know anything he has bunch of scripts, by Bob Klane (Where's to say but he'll not talk directly. Only one Pappa?, Fire Sale), who started writing it guy on any picture, so we tossed a coin, back in 1980 and had five or six drafts. The and Norman won; he was the spokesman one that was given me was the most recent on the team. Now the phenomenon that one, but the one they liked upstairs was we didn't foresee was this: When you're one of the earlier ones, so we made com- on the set and Norman says 'Action!' the promises. But when I came to something out ofone of the earlier scripts that I liked, I put it in. I always protected it.\" T he desire to protect one's own written Walk Like a Man. scene proceeds, is over;and he yells 'Cut!' material is the chief reason that writers and he'd look at me, and I'd nod, and he'd become producers and directors, but it's put you on the picture, give you a top edi- say 'Print.' If I didn't nod, I'd say 'Nor- unusual for co-writers to become co-direc- tor who'll stand behind you so you'll know man,' and we'd confer. So what happened tors, as Panama and Frank did. Comedy what the fuck you're doing, tell you cam- was the guy who wasn't talking became co-directors are a relative anomaly in the era right, camera left. If after three days, the final authority on the set, as soon be- movie business, though the recent advent we don't like the rushes, you're off That's came well-known. of the Zucker-Abrams-Zucker trio proves it can still be done fairly successfully. \"I was on a certain picture, and Dorothy Frank is just that about his and former McGuire said, 'I love being directed by partner Panama's transition from co-writ- Mel Frank,' and I hadn't said a word to her ers to co-directors. on the whole fucking picture. When it be- came my turn on the next picture, I said, \"We did co-direct, and our names are 'Norman, if I feel it I've got to say \"Cut!, on as co-directors. However, we tossed a print\"-I've gotta, and I can't turn to you coin. This was my invention when we and say what did you think of it.' So he couldn't find a director, right here at Met- all.' So we said, 'Okay, sure.' Benny Thau said that's all right. He was very sweet ro. Before that we'd only produced a pic- said, 'You know, you guys aren'tCadillacs about the whole thing, but I believe one of ture, Mr. Blandings Builds His Dream House. Before that we were just writers.\" yet; you're just Chryslers.' \" the things that got in the way of our rela- And where did the coin-tossing enter tionship was that neither of us was really Frank laughs and quickly amends his into it? thrilled with the way the other guy direct- comment to: \"We were writers.\" Frank sighed and continued. \"I should ed. \" \"I always wanted to direct without even have said to Norman, 'I'll direct this pic- The alternation of responsibility pro- ture, you be the producer,' but I couldn't ceeded through the early Fifties and a var- knowing it. When we were producing, Cary Grant said to me one day, 'You say that and I'll tell you why. We both ied number of projects, including Strictly know, you should be a director. You have came from Chicago. We lived across the Dishonorable, from the Preston Sturges the look of a director.' And I made one big street from each other. Our fathers were play Callaway Went Thataway (a TV mistake when I came up with the idea say- both bom in America of foreign parents, westernlHopalong Cassidy spoof starring ing who should direct this picture [The Re- and each of them went abou t as far as fifth Fred MacMurray), Above and Beyond, a former and the Redhead]. We couldn't grade and from that point they had to go straightforward account of the pilot of the get a director. At the time we wanted a out and support themselves. They had Enola Gay, and their three with Danny $75,000 director, which was very expen- identical, horrible table manners. Their Kaye-Knock on Wood, White Christ- 59

On Danny Kaye: \"I've worked with Danny Kaye many, many, many times. And I'll never work with him again.\" nuJS; and The Court Jester. Their aborted years until they retumed with the film ver- attempt to secure the screen rights to Guys and Dolls led them to create their sion of Li'l Abner, an underrated musical own Broadway musical, Li'l Abner. whose vivid colors, extravagant costumes, \"The whole thing started when several people tried to get Nonnan and me to do and deliberately fakey sets perfectly re- the book for a musical. But when we found out in royalties the book gets two produce the look ofa color Sunday supple- percent, the lyrics two percent, etc. , we'd be splitting one percent, there was no way mentcomic. we were going to risk a year for that. We had to find A.) a new property; and B.) a During the late Fifties and early Sixties, new fonnula. We tried to get the rights to Guys and Dolls. We got Paramount to put Panama and Frank slowly separated. up a bid, there were blind bids. Frank Loesser, who we knew and who had writ- Frank co-produced a Panama-directed ten the whole dam thing, said, 'Fellows, it's going to take a million dollars,' which melodrama, The Trap, and then co-wrote, was unheard of in those days, and we didn't believe it. We worked at Para- produced, and directed his own ambitious mount then, and we worked out a deal. anti-Fascist westem, The Jayhawker, \"We went to Bing Crosby and Danny Kaye and got them to review it. It would Danny Kaye. about Quantrill's Raiders. It co-starred Jeff make a great play the weekend that sever- Chandler and Fess Parker after Burt Lan- al people flew to New York to see Guys and Dolls. Abe Lastfogel, who was the the \"Jonathan\" character. caster and Kirk Douglas couldn't agree on head of the Morris office, Mrs. Danny Kaye, our agent, and Danny's business either billing or salary. Their last two proj- manager spent two nights in a big suite at the Sherry Netherland Hotel, starting at T he one fonn of theater that is distinctly ects as a team were the well-regarded Bob eight p.m. Saturday night and ending and uniquely American is a farce in Hope-Lucille Ball comedy, The Facts of which there is a 'Jonathan' character-a Life, and the last of the Hope-Crosby road Monday morning, trying to convince Dan- stock character, a rube, who comes out of pictures, The Road to Hong Kong, ny Kaye to play Nathan Detroit. He didn't want to playa Jewish character. If the guy the backwoods into one of the big cities. with an amusing cast that included Peter had been called Dexter Detroit, there wouldn't have been any problem, but fi- He's put upon by city slickers who need Sellers (doing his Indian doctor tum), Joan nally toward the end he said yes. So we went back to Paramount with commit- something he's got and use him to further Collins, and Robert Morley. ments from Crosby and Kaye, and we put up a bid of $750,000. When they opened their evil ends, until through native Frank talked briefly about the break- up the blind bid envelope, Sam Goldwyn bid a million, and that blew it. shrewdness he outwits them, carries the up. \"One of the main things was, we had day, and wins the girl. This is the basic for- been together 28 years. That's a long time \"Then we said: 'Why the fuck do we mula in American farce-Room Service, to be together. Jack Rose [with whom have to bid on other people's properties Three Men on a Horse, The Butter and Frank later teamed to co-write A Touch of when we're perfectly capable of doing the Egg Man, June Moon, and in our case, Class, The Duchess and the Dirtwater whole thing ourselves and making it into a every Bob Hope or Danny Kaye picture, Fox, and Lost and Found] said: 'I was a movie?' Nonnan said, 'Do you know what and we applied it to Li'l Abner. partner of Mel Shavelson's for 14 years. I would make a musical book? Li'l Abner.' know because it was twice as long as my In those days AI Capp was a lot more liber- \"It took us a year, but we finally got an first marriage.' Also, Norman and I were al than he later turned out to be. We ap- okay from Capp in 1955, and by 1956 we living in London, his marriage had just proached Capp, and it took us a long time came up with a deal that made a lot of broken up, and he wanted to come back to to get him. You'd be surprised at the num- sense. Paramount put up all the money, the states and I didn't.\" ber of people who'd tried to make that but it was immediately two ventures. The into a musical and failed. Burton Lane idea was, we wouldn't take anything out Frank stayed on in Europe, where his and Alan Lerner, Lindsay and Crouse, of the company, which was owned by the professional life included an unhappy ex- Rodgers and Hammerstein-pretty good creators, which has long been my passion. perience; he produced and co-'wrote the names.\" None of them could satisfy Capp People who create the thing, not a bunch screenplay for A Funny Thing Happened with a storyline until Panama and Frank offeather merchants, should get the bene- on the Way to the Forum, but clashes with fell back on one of their favorite devices, fits of their labors. So the company had director Richard Lester soured the pro- three major stockholders: Nonnan and I, duction for him. But London produced a Michael Kidd, the director-choreog- triumph-A Touch of Class. rapher, and [lyricist] Johnny Mercer. An- I asked Frank to talk about the stellar other not-quite-so-big but nonetheless screen comedians he'd worked with. substantial stockholder was [composer] Bob Hope: Ah, well, Bob Hope is like Gene De Paul. Another, ofcourse, was AI a brother, a god. He's made a fortune out Cappo We formed a company called Triad of this personaljty he built up when we Productions and made both the play and first started with him and it was all very the picture. The deal was that the price of fresh. He still uses some of the material. the play, whatever it cost Paramount, His wealth is enormous, but he still works would become the price that the picture all the time. I don't know what it is. In his cost and we would keep all our profits. We case, my guess is that he's like a puppy were in profit from the day we opened our who never really got his share of the nip- doors. All we had to do was payoff the pie ... he was always being pushed off as a nut.\" kid. He had a bunch of brothers. I think Their Broadway venture kept Panama and Frank away from movies for three that what he's most competitive about, 60

still , is the love of one of his pare nts. Be- Segal shares with G rant is that they' re SPECIAL VIDEO OFFER! cause there's got to be a reason why a man both sexy guys and extremely attractive goes on endlessly hungry for something me n who can do broad character comedy I.V. MAGAZINE .. VOLUMES 1,2 & 3 that he feels he lacks. It can' t be money. and never lose thei r sexuali ty. I'm con- stantly looking fo r things I can do with 3 one hour cassettes for $100 \" He told me recently that he arranged Geo rge. Look, I don' t thi nk Richard to buy some tax-free bonds that would D reyfuss was all that hot a year ago, and (plus $5 shipping/handling) give him the most incred ible tax-free in- wi th Bette Midle r you couldn' t get a pic- come for as long as he lives, and I asked ture fin anced, and now both of the m are \" Elizabeth Sher has taught T. V. a few new him 'Why?,' as ifhe needed to worry, and hot again because Paul Mazursky put tricks ! \" -Steve Seid he said , 'No one can get me now,' as if the m together in a picture that was a hi t.\" \" Her guerilla approach cuts through the medium 's cool facade exposing the beauty, they ever could . And how does a new comjc like Howie blood and terror that lurk beneath.\" \"You know, I've worked with almost all Mandel, star of WaLk Like a Man, -Suzanne Stephanac of the major comed ians, starting in radio, compare to some of the talents Frank had and all these people have certain things in worked with? Had Mandel been his choice? Send money order to: I.V. StudiOS, 985 Regal Road, common-a certain sadism-which hap- Berkel ey, CA 94708 (Specify VHS, Beta, Video 8) pe ns when a comedian comes out to do a \"No, he was not,\" Frank replied. \"I one-man show. It's like a seduction. think I was his choice. He was on the pic- Offer expires June 1, 1987 T hat's why Hope always insisted on a ture before I was. I went to see hi m at the great ope ning line. If he doesn' t get a Comedy Store and the Universal Am- laugh-BANG! -right away, on rad io, phitheatre and I got to talk to him. I'd seen on his TV shows This Is Bob NB C Hope him occasionally on St. Elsewhere, but I ba-da-bum, they better fa ll down, or he's was never prepared for the kind of perfor- in tro uble. If they laugh, he' ll guarantee a mance I'm seeing on th is film . T his guy is great show. He doesn' t payout very much maybe the best improvisational talent I've in jokes because of his incredi ble sense of ever worked with, and that includes Dan- timing.\" ny Kaye. T he verisim ilitude of his move- me nts as a dog are incredible. He D a nny Kaye: \"I've worked wi th scratches and rolls over- he just becomes Danny Kaye many, many, many times. a dog, a big dog, happy to be home.\" And I'li never work with him again. \" F rank has writte n two screenplays with Could Kaye be difficult? his daughte r, neither of which are com- Frank laughed. \"That's an understate- me nt. He's a huge, huge talent, but it's edies. \"One is called Rickshaw Boy, and mechanical, more technique, not heart- fel t, bu t it's mind-boggling the techniq ues it's about a kid who comes to Peking in available to him. For instance, whe n we 1941, before the Nationalists take over. I talked to Spielberg about it. He wanted to did Knock on Wood there was a ballet se- do it, until he found out it was going to cost q ue nce. We had the best dancers in Ame r- $40 million. He said, 'Mel, you know the ica, and over and over again they would say he could have been one of the best scene with the C hinese Army? You want dancers in the world. When we did the every button to be in place, don't you?' I said , 'Oh, sure, Steven.' Funny th ing is, fencingstuff in The CourtJester, the fenc- the fi rst time I called him he comes on the line and recites the whole tlagon-with-the- ing instructor, Ralph Faulkner, who worked with everybody, E rrol Flynn and d ragon routine from The Court Jester.\" so on, said this guy's the best. You know the stuff in the film whe re he's fighting Before I left, I asked him about the gen- Basil Rathbone and going in and out of his esis of the vessel-with-the-pestle bit, trance as the fingers are snapped and he's which is probably the most fondly remem- drinking and parrying Rathbone without bered sequence from any of his films. even looking? T he re's a sense of ti ming he had. It's all there, everything's the re ex- (The genesis of that routine is Never Say cept . . . I don' t know-the re's still some- Die, co-written by Preston Sturges in 1939 thing missing.\" and starring Bob Hope, which has a similar George Segal: ''I'm very sorry (and dueling pistol gag.) only te mporarily, I'm sure) that his career \"In The Court Jester, we were satirizing has tape red off a bit. I think afte r A Touch Robin Hood, so we made a list of all the of CLass, George may have been a little bit elements and noticed in our research that in a joust it was customary for the two con- indiscreet in his choices of things to do, testants to d ri nk a toast to the kjng. So we but he has a talent that's extraordinary be- said it might be interesting to have some- cause he has this one q uali ty, along with one slip some poison in the cup. And out Cary Grant. (Grant was on the board of di- of that came the routine. We wrote it in rectors of Faberge, which fin anced A about fi ve minutes.\" Touch of Class, and he told me it was the Frank shrugged. \"Five minutes, te n minutes. What can I say? When you' re on only picture since he retired that he a roiL .. .\" ~ wished he'd done). Anyway, this q uality 61

The 12th Annual Grosses Gloss by Anne Thompson stream or specialized. Independents can movie off fast and go right to cassette. now find screens for their pictures no mat- I t was a very good year. Mter a slow ter how narrow their potential appeal, and Universal released The Best ofTunes, a start, the movie box office started siz- movies play longer if each picture screens zling in summertime, boomed in the in the size theater dictated by its actual au- terminally hard-to-position comedy star- fall, and broke industry records over dience pull. This enables small movies ring Robin Williams and Kurt Russell, in Christmas. The 1986 domestic take of with large audiences like A Room With a 872 theaters. Cinemascore, which mea- $3.83 billion was the second highest ever, View or My Beautiful Laundrette to run sures opening weekend audience reac- bested only by 1984's $4.03 billion. for a year or more. tions, gave the movie a B+ , which means There's a twist, though. According to Tom Cruise in Top Gun. Variety statitician A.D. Murphy, the 1.03 And yet, as the rise and fall of Cannon's that moviegoers liked the picture but that billion tickets sold last year represent the fortunes demonstrates, the independents Universal's advertising wasn't pulling exact average sold over the past 25 years. are much more vulnerable than the ma- them into theaters. By the time word-of- So the boxoffice pie isn't getting any big- jors. The successful foreign sales outfit mouth could catch up to it, the movie was ger, but rather than six major studios div- Producers Sales Organization, for exam- gone. The same thing happened to 20th vying it up, there are now nine major ple, went belly-up last year due to a disas- producer-distributors, plus six top inde- trously expensive production slate includ- Century-Fox's teen drama Lucas. Widely pendents. Historically, the six major stu- ing such duds as Clan of the Cave Bear, dios have dominated boxoffice receipts. praised by critics, the picture was thrown From 1980 to 1983 they commandeered 91/2 Weeks , and 8 Million Ways to Die. onto 627 screens with an ad campaign that from 82 to 89 percent of the market. But in The independents have never success- provided no clue as to what the film was the last three years their collective market about. And Columbia shelved the adult share has plummeted from 81 percent to fully challenged the studios in the past. comedy Big Trouble for more than a year 74 to only 64. Tri-Star, Disney, Orion, But international market conditions have after poor test bookings in the West and Cannon, New World, DEG, New Line, changed, and the studios, which used to South. The movie was finally released in Atlantic Releasing, and Island are rapidly be flexible enough to handle any kind of New York by Cinema 5 (which had to muscling in on the majors' territory. movie, have become (with the notable ex- front the advertising costs) to some good ception ofWarner Bros.) all-too-stolid pur- reviews and business. But the film re- The Hollywood landscape is changing. veyors of mass-market product. Several ceived orily limited distribution around Disney now boasts a full release slate and small studio gems were mishandled by the country. really belongs with the six major studios. distributors who didn't have enough faith MGM/UA, crippled by owner Kirk Kerkor- in them to give them the proper slow F or the past decade, the studios have in- ian's financial shenanigans with cable mo- build-up. A modestly budgeted movie creasingly relied on certain formulas to gul Ted Turner, has been stripped of its that isn't a pre-marketed sequel, has no decrease their risks, and 1986 was no ex- studio. Tri-Star and Orion both out- stars, or lacks a high-<:oncept marketing ception. They greenlighted sequels (Po- stripped MGM/UA, which wound up the hook is seen as a tough sell, dependent on lice Academy III, The Karate Kid Part II, year just ahead of the Cannon Group. Al- critics and word-of-mouth-two very iffY Aliens, Poltergeist II, Psycho III, Star though Tri-Star and Orion (which gar-. prospects. Most studios prefer to play a Trek /V); remakes of past hits (The Fly); nered seven percent of the 1986 market comedies of the hip, Saturday Night Live apiece) are relatively young companies school (Club Paradise, Back to School, without studio facilities, they are full-serv- Running Scared, Armed and Dangerous, ice major producer-distributors in direct One Crazy Swnmer); star vehicles (Legal competition with the major studios for Eagles, Top Gun, Sweet Liberty, Cobra, projects. And Orion, at least, is also a pe- Heartburn); and most prevalent of all, rennial Oscar contender. knock-offs of previous hits. Last summer turned up a bunch of imitations breeding The independents' rise has been made failures. Mter Purple Rain, Warners possible by the growth ofworldwide ancil- snapped up Prince's next project, Under lary markets, especially home video; by the Cherry Moon, over which the studio Hollywood's concentration on youth mov- had little control. Prince dumped director ies for the mass market, leaving classy Mary Lambert so that he could direct his adult fare largely to the indies; and by the vision himself and insisted on releasing continued boom in theater construction the picture in black-and-white with a low- (many multiplexes), which creates a great- key soundtrack. If Prince had given his er demand for product, whether main- Thirties-style Riviera travelogue a musical structure based on his already successful album, its campy charm might have been accepted by audiences. But Warners was dealing with a prince. What he wanted, he 62

got. And they got stiffed. the kids. American Anthem was all style iar, too juvenile. And three of the film- With American Anthem, Lorimar and and no heart. Audiences gave it a com- makers involved with the 1983 hit War- plete pass. Disney had a better shot with Games went back to the well for Columbia thought they had a high-con- Flight of the Navigator. More than one inspiration, all three using the same basic cept winner: director AI Magnoli (hot off critic compared it to E. T., which back in premise: smart young people in high-tech Purple Rain), plus Olympic gold medal 1982 was the exception that proved the jeopardy, Short Circuit, directed by John gymnast Mitch Gaylord and dancer Janet rule: There is a real audience ceiling on Badham, was a hit, while producer Leon- Jones (A Chorus Line) as competitor- movies aimed at young kids. Flight ofthe ard Goldberg's SpaceCamp and former lovers. It didn't matter that they didn' t Navigator fell into the same trap as last MGM chief David Begelman's The Man- have a compelling story; the glossy visuals summer's teen science movies: too famil- hattan Project were flops. and pounding soundtrack would pull in Howard the Duck. Paul Hogan in \"Crocodile\" Dundee. 63

The studios may have to abandon this platformed the release, trumpeted its studio tied with Tri-Star with a mere 10% retread mentality and rediscover their great reviews, and widened the picture as market share. In 1986, however, Para- flexibility, because the next few years word-of-mouth took its course. mount garnered a hefty 22% of the boxof- should be very interesting. The last one The Australian import \"Crocodile\" fice with 19 films, and secured five of its was distinguished by a lack of new block- Dundee turned into a royal embarrasment pictures in the year's top ten grossers. busters like Star Wars or E. T; there wer- for those unfortunate studios (including The studio's return to glory was thanks en't any $200-million movies for Holly- Fox and Warner Bros.) that turned it down in part to exclusive in-house deals not only wood to imitate. According to analyst before Paramount signed its $6 million with hot producers Don Simpson and jer- Stuart Byron, 1986 clearly demonstrates deal. The studio wisely trimmed seven ry Bruckheimer (who followed up 1984's that the industry is between cycles. minutes from the film to accelerate its action comedy Beverly Hills Cop with \"There are certain periods when the audi- pace and did some redubbing, cutting sev- 1986's top grosser, the action-romance ence is volatile,\" says Byron, \"and there eral colotful Aussie slang expressions. Top Gun) but with Eddie Murphy are periods when it is clear which three or They sneak-previewed the film widely (whose The Golden Child was the Christ- four genres they like. They simply choose and sent Australian 1V pitchman Paul mas season's most popular movie) and the from within each genre; yes to All ofMe, Hogan on a 30-day cross-country promo- prolific writer-producer-director john no to The Man With Two Brains, or yes to tional tour. The industry watched agape Hughes (who churned out one hit for E. T and no to Starman.\" as, week after week, Hogan's culture- spring, Pretty in Pink, and another for Hollywood is beginning to realize that clash comedy charmed action-loving men summer, Ferris Bueller's Day Off). The its favorite tried-and-true genres are start- as well as romantic women, until it be- studio also benefitted from owning Star ing to wear out, with no new ones emerg- came the most successful foreign picture Trek; the fourth film in the series, The ing to take their place. The Lucas/Spiel- and fall release ever, and wound up the Voyage Home, was the best-reviewed , berg-type sci-fi fantasy extravaganzas second-highest-grosser of the year. The and highest-grossing of all the Enterprise (Young Sherlock Holmes, Labyrinth, October release even lasted through the entertainments. With \"Crocodile\" Dun- Flight of the Navigator, Enemy Mine, competitive Christmas season, coming in dee and three more modest hits-the fall SpaceCamp, Howard the Duck) aren't third after Paramount's The Golden Child Oscar contender Children of a Lesser guaranteed boxoffice anymore. SNL- and Star Trek W. Its success proves three God, Ron Howard's culture-clash comedy style comedies, raunchy teen fare, and things: 1) the historical strength of the Gung Ho, and the sixth Friday the 13th slick MTv-style soundtrack movies are fish-out-of water genre; 2) the potency ofa movie-Paramount easily atoned for its also risky. Right now, anything goes, well-liked 1V personality; and 3) the ap- early-'86 misfires, which included the which is good for the movies, but makes peal of the laconic hero-outsider who has modestly-budgeted April Fool's Day, Hollywood very nervous. \"This upcom- warmth, charm and vulnerability and who Blue City, Fire with Fire, and The ing period could be as exciting as 1%7 to one-ups the city sophisticates. Whoopee Boys and the more costly dra- 1975,\" says Byron, \"which was also be- The year's third and biggest surprise mas Heartburn and Lady Jane. tween cycles.\" Those years spawned such was Oliver Stone's Platoon. Budgeted at a Paramount and Warners are the two surprise hits as Bonnie and Clyde, Easy fire-sale $6 million, it had no stars, and no studios that, over the past decade, have Rider, M.A.S.H., The French Connec- studio would touch it. john Daly, presi- most often dominated the market. They tion, The Exorcist, and American Grafitti, dent of the British indie Hemdale, backed are also widely considered to have the best and directors Robert Altman, William both Platoon (except for $2 million from distribution and marketing teams in the Friedkin, Martin Scorsese, Francis Cop- Orion) and Stone's previous film, Salva- business. No matter how bad or good their pola, and GeorgeLucas, 'The current pe- dor, which Hemdale distributed, ham- product is, they'll usually manage to riod had to end sooner or later,\" says By- pered by prints and money shortages. In squeeze out the most possible' boxoffice. ron, \"and the key to its end is Platoon, the Platoon, Orion knew it had a critic's pic- This is aptly demonstrated by the fact that first Sixties nostalgia movie.\" ture and a possible Academy contender, although Warners had a pretty bad year, it but had no idea that it would cross over to a still wound up in second place (21 films, One signal that Hollywood is moving wide, blue-collar audience so quickly. eleven percent market share). For one into uncharted waters is that 1986 The distributor had to scramble for addi- thing, Warners is cautious about where its boasted not one but three bonafide sleep- tional theaters and was criticized for not money goes. PSO took the fall for Clan of er hits, movies that took their releasing broadening the release sooner. Neither the Cave Bear, Goldcrest for Revolution companies completely by surprise: Stand Apocalypse Now ($37.9 million in rent- and The Mission, Saul Zaentz's Fantasy By Me, \"Crocodile\" Dundee, and Pla- als), The Deer Hunter ($27.5 million), nor Films for The Mosquito Coast. toon. Significantly, all three movies were The Killing Fields ($14.3 million) reached Warners' biggest disappointment was pick-ups; they were not developed by the as wide a cross-section of the American au- probably Little Shop of Ho\"ors, which studios that distributed them. Stand By dience as has Platoon. A timid investor, could have used some star voltage. The Me was orphaned when Norman Lear and Orion now fears that Platoon may beat its Geffen Company production was bucking jerry Perrenchio sold mini-major Embassy own Hannah and Her Sisters at the Os- an industry homily: Musicals are box of- to Columbia, which turned down the pic- cars. fice poison. They are expensive to make ture five days before it was to go into pro- (this one cost $30 million) and hard to ex- duction. Lear put up the $8 million to fi- L ast year, the nine producer-distribu- ecute well. And Ho\"ors, even with critics nance the film and, when it was tors each managed to come up with and sophisticated audiences behind it, completed, Columbia gladly bought its one or two hits to counteract their many didn't reach the American heartland. The worldwide rights. In conventional indus- failures. Paramount returned to the head hybrid title wasn't a draw, and neither was try terms, Stand By Me had nothing going of the pack, rebounding magnificently the sound track. Wonderful as Ellen for it. Columbia wisely released the elegi- from 1985's poor performance, when the Greene is, the film could have used a pre- ac boys' story the old-fashioned way: they sold big star like Madonna. Perhaps more 64

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publicity fuss over the picture's actual Warners into the plus column. Lucas. Even Psycho III wasn' t really a star-the camiverous plant Audrey 11- Universal (16 films, 8.5 percent) spent low-budget effort, and failed to ignite at might have helped. the boxoffice. These movies had to earn much more money on its releases. Its one hit, enormous sums of money to make back But Warners didn't spend too much on An American Tail, the most successful first their costs, but for the most part they were its other disappointments, the specialized release ofan animated film ever, proved that well-marketed. And that was the irony: films Ratboy, True Stories (financed by Spielberg can match Walt Disney at cartoon the studio lavished too much money and Warner Bros. Records), Round Midnight, marketing, but couldn't compensate for expertise on them. Seven Minutes to Heaven, and A Man its expensive release slate. Among the pic- and a Woman: 20 Years Later. Warners tures with high production and marketing Universal's more modest flops included star Goldie Hawn's Wildcats cost $3 mil- budgets were the $30-million-plus Legal lion more than it earned in domestic rent- Eagles, Neil Simon's Brighton Beach The Best of Tunes, Bullies, Clockwise, als, but ancillary markets easily brought it Memoirs, the Ridley Scott fantasy Leg- into the black, while hits like Police Acad- end, Spielberg's production of The Mon- Playingfor Keeps, and 'night, Mother. In emy III: Back in Training, Sylvester Stal- ey Pit, Alan Aida's Sweet Liberty, and the spite of the multi-Oscar winning Out of lone's Cobra (from Cannon), and Clint studio's biggest turkey, Howard the Africa, studio chief Frank Price left his Eastwood's Heartbreak Ridge brought Duck, from executive producer George post at the end of the summer, after the double whammy of Legal Eagles and Howard the Duck. RlTlCISM The two factions of Paramount's ace management team have gone their Centre Universitaire American du Cinema et de la Critique aParis very separate ways, now ensconced as competitors at Fox and Disney. Under the The Film and Critical Studies Program explores the :eadership of Michael Eisner and Jeffrey cinematographic theories and critical thought that have Katzenberg, Disney (twelve films, 10.1 influenced the study of film and other forms of expres- percent) has swiftly established itself as a sion over the past 40 years. major studio largely by turning out strong adult-oriented comedies such as Down • The broad curriculum of and Out in Beverly Hills, Ruthless Peo- th e Film and Critical ple, and The Color of Money, plus the .. Eiffe l sow his usual spate of rereleases. In a remarkable Tower in the form Studies Progra m in Pari s turnaround from the previous administra- of a serious object. encompasses not only tion, Disney has been marketing its films rationol. usef ul; men impeccably, especially Down and Out, return ilIa him in courses and seminars per- which boasted the year's cleverest market- the for m of a greol taining to film and film ing gimmick, Mike the Dog, as well as the ba roq ue d ream most inventive ad campaign. which q uite th eory but also to recent nat urally louches on th eoretical co ncepts in the Unlike Disney, Fox (21 films, 8.1 per- the bo rde rs o f Ih e cent) under Chairman Barry Diller has ir ro tionol.\" fields of linguistics, continued to suffer management instabil- psychoanalysis, anth ro- ity, with the studio's chiefs of marketing, -Roland Barthes pology, philosophy, and production, and operations forced to playa se miotics. Due to its inter- game that looks like musical chairs on the di SCiplinary nature, this program deck of the Titanic. The result is that Fox is not available at any single has failed to develop the kind of unified university in the U.s. or in anyone production vision Disney has. Diller has branch of the University of Paris. concentrated his energies on streamlining the corporate structure and organizing The Film a nd Critical Stud ies Progra m in Fox's fledgling fourth network, FBC. Pari s is sponsored by a consortium of 21 Fox has been releasing primarily weak U.s. colleges and universities and is product supplied by outside producers, in- administered by the Council on Inter- cluding Lorimar's The Boy Who Could national Ed uca tional Exchange in cooper- Fly and Power, ABC's SpaceCamp, RKO's ation w ith th e Un iversity of Paris Ill, Half Moon Street, PanzerlDavis' High- Departe ment d'Etudes et d e Recherches Cine matogra phiques et Audio-Vis uelles i£mder, and Gladden's The Manhattan (DERCAV), and th e Institut d 'Etudes Project and Wisdom. The studio fared Th e a tral e s . much better with its own product: James Cameron's Aliens sequel and David Cron- The acad emic year program is preceded enberg's remake of The Fly. Some indus- by a six-week inte nsive language p rogram try observers think Fox could have got more mileage out of both movies by re- w h ich includes a mandatory se minar in leasing them farther apart, but the studio's either literary criticism or film analysis. marketing did attract large crossover audi- Ad va nced undergraduate and gradu ate ences for what could have been two strict- students with a minimum of two years of un iversity-level French or the equivalent ly genre pieces. and w ith a 3.0 CPA both overall and in Fox did suffer two expensive in-house French, may apply. For further information write: C.I.E.E. Academic Programs 205 East 42nd Street New York, New York 10017 66

disappointments. No marketing could tract them. The thriller got mixed notices or acquires \"problem\" movies: Hem- save John Carpenter's action-mystery- and was lost in the Christmas shuffle. Tri- dale's grim drama At Close Range and ghost story-fantasy Big Trouble in Little Star distribution and marketing chief Palace's hip Fifties musical Absolute Be- China. And Jumpin' Jack Flash was a fail- Steve Randall makes a case for the release ure of production, not of marketing; date: the movie would have taken longer ginners would have been marketing chal- Whoopi Goldberg pulled the crowds, but to make less money during a less lucrative the word-of-mouth wasn't good enough season. The rest of Tri-Star's motherlode lenges for anyone. for the spy comedy to make back its high offailures reached only regional or brief re- It isn't hard to sell the likes of Back to cost. Fox had only a few million invested lease, including George Lucas' second in The Name of the Rose, which per- magaflop, Labyrinth. Sobering, indeed. School and iThree Amigos! (although formed like the art-house flower it was. Orion probably shouldn't have opened Lorimar utilized the stars of The Morning Orion (14 films, 7 percent) is distin- the picture opposite The Golden Child). After, Jane Fonda and Jeff Bridges, for a guished by a generally high caliber of Butit's easy to botch movies like the badly well-mounted old-fashioned publicity product (the company produces Woody titled thriller FIX and Jonathan Demme's blitz that overcame mixed reviews to open Allen's movies) combined with scatter- quirky comedy adventure Something well at Christmas, but failed to sustain its shot distribution and marketing. Ofcourse Wild, movies without stars or high-con- boxof'fice momentum. the problem may be that Orion produces cept storylines. Both movies were opened too wide, given their lack of immediate Columbia (17 films, 9.5 percent) would appeal, which wasted some of the best re- have had a terrible year ifit hadn't been for producer Jerry Weintraub's boffo sequel TheHere is a rare opportunity to be present on a Karate Kid II and the sleeper pick-up Woody Allen film set. For months Thierry Stand By Me, which covered the losses in- de Navacelle observed as the director curred by Out of Bounds, American An- brought his screenplay to life, re-writing, them, A Fine Mess, Armed and Danger- ous, Crossroads, Violets are Blue, Where mas~erstaging, and photographing-often Are the Children?, and Jo Jo Dancer, over and over again. The result is Your Life Is Calling. Columbia did a fine this revealing portrait of a spe- job with the modestly budgeted films cial type of filmmaking, of the Desert Bloom and That's Life! at workcreative process, and of one of Columbia could become one of the cinema's most original tal- most interesting studios. Its new chair- ents. As fascinating as it is man, British producer David Puttnam, of- unique, this book is a delight fers the hope of some new altematives to for fans, and interesting for the old rules. If he takes risks on unusual film students everywhere. movies that payoff, the rest of Hollywood could be affected in much the same way ~;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;:';~!!!i!l! that NBC chiefGrant Tinker changed the television business, by proving that bet- _ting on quality and talent is the .best poli- cy. I f Columbia hadn't released Karate Kid II and Stand By Me, then Tri-Star (18 films, 7.1 percent), a satellite of Colum- bia, would have done more business than its big sister. With the 1986 hits Short Cir- cuit, Iron Eagle, ... About Last Night, Nothing in Common, and Peggy Sue Got Married, Tri-Star has achieved its stated goal: to move from mini-major to major status. Although Tri-Star tends to have consis- tently effective marketing and distribu- tion, it did fumble the ball on a few pro- jects. The slick thriller The Ritcher was much too gory to appeal to sophisticated urbanites, but Tri-Star positioned it as ex- ercise in style, which alienated the pic- ture's core horror audience. The studio may also have miscalculated with the ac- tion thriller No Mercy, which opened at Christmas. Richard Gere isn't an action star; his appeal is primarily to women, and No Mercy was too ugly and violent to at- 67

1986 Winners & Sinners (domestic rentals in millions ofdoLlars.. source Variety; some Late December reLeases estimated by author) I t is harder than ever to define hits and flops. When a domestic dud like Universal's Howard the Duck or MGM/UA's 91/2 Weeks becomes a megagrosser overseas, how measure the film's ultimate success? Or when Islan.d .Pic~re~ earns $6.8 million in domestic theatrical rentals on 1985's Oscar-winning Kiss ofthe Spider Woman, how figure $6 mIllIon In VIdeocassette sales? Because Island took a flat advance guarantee of$1.5 million (regarded as a trend- setting deal at the time) from homevideo company Karl-Lorimar, Island only earned 25 percent royalties on the sold videocas- settes. Consider all the deals made for Kiss in worldwide ancillaries and the intricacies of the marketplace become clear. The breakeven rule-of-thumb-that a movie's negative cost should equal its domestic theatrical rentals-no longer applies; rentals are now merely a yardstick of ultimate performance. The ancillary markets~able, network and syndicated TV, home- video, and foreign sales-are driven by the North American boxoffice. A company can tally up a picture's total earnings (and judge its \"success\") only after all ancillary revenues have accrued. But this can take years, so each firm estimates potential ancillary revenues and writes off production and distribution costs as it goes along. This is how the Cannon Group almost went bust. Cannon put 43 pictures into production last year, but the company's bally- hooed \"no-risk\" formula-keep negative costs down and use ancillary pre-sales for downside protection-backfired. The SEC is investigating how the once-booming independent amortizes its costs. If revenues are overestimates at, say, double a film's cost, the short term appears to produce a small profit on a movie that, three years later, winds up taking a substantial loss. The moral of the Cannon tale is not lost on Hemdale president John Daly, who has been saved from financial fragility by the Oliver Stone sleeper smash Platoon, or on Dino DeLaurentiis, whose fledgling DEG company recently suffered dire losses from King Kong Lives and Tai-Pan. In the movie business, you have to understand the marketplace: Make hits or bust. -A.T. The Blockbuster. BLOCKBUSTER: Top Gun, 82. Mess, 2.7; Crossroads, 2.7; The Transformers, 2.6; Just Be- SMASHES: The Karate Kid, Part II, 57; \"Crocodile\" tween Friends, 2.5; The Hitcher, 2.5; The Texas Chainsaw Dundee, 51; Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home 50; ALiens, 42.5; Massacre Part 2, 2.5; Out ofBounds, 2.2; No Retreat, No Sur- Back to SchooL, 42; Platoon, 40; The Golden Child, 40. render, 2.2; Vamp, 2.2; American Anthem, 2.1; Band of the HITS: Ruthless PeopLe, 31; Ferris BueLler's Day Off, 28.6; Hand, 2; 52 Pick-up, 2; VioLets are Blue, 1.9; Invaders from Down and Out in Beverly Hills, 28; Cobra, 28; An American Mars, 1.9; Fire with Fire, 1.8; Thaf sLife!, 1.7; OffBeat, 1.7; TaiL, 22; HeartbreakRidge, 21; StandBy Me, 21; The Color of Power, 1.6; Head Office, 1.5; Wisdom, 1.5; True Stories, 1.2; Money, 20.8; Police Academy 3: Back in Training, 20.7; The The Men's CLub, 1.2; BuLLies, 1.2; Jake Speed, 1.2; Nomads, FLy, 17.5; Short Circuit, 17; Pretty in Pink, 16.6; Hannah and 1.1; Born American, 1; Playingfor Keeps, 1. Her Sisters, 16.6; Peggy Sue Got Married, 16.5; Running Scared, 16.4; AboutLastNight, 16; Gung Ho, 15.5; Nothing in BIG BUDGET DISASTERS: Howard the Duck (est. cost: Common, 13.5; Lady and the Tramp (rerelease), 11; Iron Ea- $34.5 million), 9.8; The Mission (est. cost: $24.5 million), 8; gLe, 10; Friday the 13th, Part VI: Jason Lives, 9.4; Children of The Mosquito Coast (est. cost: $25 million), 7; Legend (est. cost: $30 million), 6; Labyrinth (est. cost: $27 million), 5.3; a Lesser God, 8.7. SpaceCamp (est. cost: $20 million), 5; Brighton Beach Mem- INDIE HITS: SouL Man, 13.5; Crimes of the Heart, 12; oirs (est. cost $18 million) 4; Highlander (est. cost: $17 mil- lion), 2.8; 91/2 Weeks (est. cost: 17 million), 2.5; The Name of House, 8.6; A Room with a View, 8.2; Critters, 4.7; Blue VeL- the Rose (est. cost: $18 million), 2.5; King Kong Lives (est. vet, 3.5, She's GottaHave It, 2.6; Mona Lisa, 2.2; My Beauti- cost: $18 million), 2.2; The Manhattan Project (est. cost: $18 million) 2; Tai-Pan (est. cost: $25 million), 2; The Clan ofthe fuL Laundrette, 2. Cave Bear (est. cost: $18 million), 1.5; 8 Million Ways to Die DISAPPOINTMENTS: (in relation to cost): LegaL Eagles, (est. cost: $18 million), sub-I; Pirates (est. cost: $30 million), sub-I; Sky Bandits (est. cost: $18 million), sub-I. 26.5; PoLtergeistII, 20.4; Three Amigos, 20; Little Shop ofHor- rors, 20; The Money Pit, 16.3; Wildcats, 13.2; Heartburn, 11.8; BELOWTHE $1 MILLION MARK: The Nutcracker: The The Great Mouse Detective, 11; The Morning After, 11; Jum- Motion Picture, Desert Bloom, Rad, Fool for Love, Ginger pin' Jack Flash, 11; Tough Guys, 9.4; FIX, 8.2; Raw DeaL, 7.3; and Fred, Absolute Beginners, DreamLover,16DaysofGIo- ry, Death ofan AngeL, The Boy in BLue, Stripper, La Cage Aux The Delta Force, 7; YoungbLood,6. FoLIes lll: The Wedding, Lady Jane, Streets ofGold, Where the FLOPS: Jo Jo Dancer: Your Life is Calling, 8; Flight ofthe River Runs Black, Down by Law, Nobody's FooL, Half Moon Street, The GospeL According to Vic, Shadow Play, Eat and Navigator, 8; Sweet Liberty, 7.3; Club Paradise, 6.7; Armed Run, Link, Menage, Clockwise, Shanghai Surprise, Let's Get an4 Dangerous, 6.2; Psycho lll, 6.1; Big Trouble in Little Chi- Harry, From Beyond, 'night, Mother, Otello, Playing for na, 6; No Mercy, 6; Under the Cherry Moon, 5.8; Firewalker, Keeps, A Man and a Woman 20 Years Later, Radioactive 4.5; Manhunter, 4; Care Bears Movie II: ANew Generation, 4; The Best of Times, 3.6; Maximum Overdrive, 3.5; Murphy's Dreams. Law, 3.5; Black Moon Rising, 3.5; Quicksilver, 3.3; Lucas, 3.3; Something Wild, 3.3; Haunted Honeymoon, 3.2; Trick or Treat, 3; Wise Guys, 2.8; The Boy Who Could FLy, 2.8; Blue City, 2.8; My LittLe Pony, 2.7; A Fine 68

views of their respective seasons. Orion peccably marketed two hits, the high-con- Graduate Assistant positions are available for mispositioned FIX as a movie about spe- cept comedy Soul Man and the horrific Fall 1987 in the Film and Video Program of the cial makeup effects, hardly the picture's House. New Line Cinema (five films, 1.1 School of Communications at The Pennsylva- selling point. As for Something Wild, its percent) which has been releasing B-mov- nia State University. The program currently garish ad underlined its wild wackiness- ies for 20 years, opened the amusing offers an M.F.A. in Direction and in Screen- and the leading lady's threatening sexual- Gremlins rip-off Critters to excellent writing, an M.A. in Cinema Studies, and an in- ity-which sent potential ticket buyers numbers. Atlantic Releasing (twelve terdisciplinary Ph.D. Stipends plus full tuition running in the opposite direction. Better films, 1 percent) squeezed modest bucks are available for qualified teaching and re- marketing probably couldn't have saved out of Roben Young's rape drama Extrem- search assistants. For more information and Gene Wilder's Haunted Honeymoon (a ities, but Peter Medak's The Men's Club, application forms, contact Dr. Richard Barton, tired idea for a movie), Allan Bums' TV a casualty of the critics, died. Graduate Officer, School of Communications, film Just Between Friends, or Tim Con- 21 5 Carnegie Building, The Pennsylvania State way's The Longshot. The jury is still out Among the companies releasing spe- University, University Park, PA 16802. on Hoosiers, but many industry pundits Deadline: May I, 1987. wondered why Orion took so long to re- cialized fare, Cinecom landed the an- lease the picture, which opened in Indi- ana in October and didn't get to Los An- house hit of the year, the romantic crowd- 1 - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - geles until December and New York until February. \"It's a Rocky,\" says one rival pleaser A Room with a View. Island SCJtip~-F~ distribution executive. \"Why are they Pictures continued to distinguish itself hiding it?\" with such quality releases as the British BOOK CLUB In its first year as a distributor, DEG (eleven films, 2.5 percent) wisely tumed impon Mona Lisa, starring Oscar nomi- How to Write/Type/Seli/Protect down the $30-million disaster Pirates, which wound up being released by Can- nee Bob Hoskins, and Spike Lee's brash Your Film/TV Script! non. DEG's first year was hit and miss; its comedy She's Gotta Have It, which the most successful release, the Amold company was able to market effectively to Scriptwriting & Filmmaking books and reference Schwarzenegger actioner Raw Deal, was works for the Entertainment Industry Professional only a modest hit. David Lynch's critically acclaimed kinky thriller Blue Velvet was FREE INFORMATION impeccably handled, and beautifully demonstrates the value of a slow-release upscale blacks and whites. Island stum- Write : SFBC, 8033 Sunset Blvd ., #306C pattem working in concen with word-of- bled with its own production, Nobody's West Hollywood, CA 90046 mouth and controversial publicity. A heavyweight trio of Oscar-winning ac- Fool, thinking that Rosanna Arquette and 1 - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - tresses, helped Crimes ofthe Heart pull a healthy audience, even with mixed re- Eric Roberts had some marquee value. MOVIE views, and with its $9.5 million budget it They didn't. will easily go into profit. Nobody's Fool underscores the risks of Tai-Pan was such an unmitigated disas- ter that even DeLaurentiis admits his mis- production. More of these independents STAR take: the epic period adventure novel is are producing more of their own movies. best translated into a long-form TV mini- series, which is exactly what DEG is doing They have developed some of marketing PHOTOS with James Clavell's Tai-Pan sequel, No- expenise that the majors' have allowed bel House. DeLaurentiis' other monu- themselves to forget. As Cannon proves, One of ehe world·s largese collecrions of film mental mistake was King Kong Lives, however, the independents are very vul- personaliey photOgraphs, wieh emphasis o n which didn't even open well-the least nerable when they fail to tum out hits. If rare ca ndids and European maeerial. Send a you'd expect from a sequel. Besides the the majors flex their muscles and get back S.A.S.E. wieh wane-lise to: fact that audiences have noses for a stink- into releasing diversified slates, they could er, King Kong Lives lacked an effective hun the independents. But as long as the Mihan T. Moore, Jr. advenising campaign that sold its premise studios fail to monopolize the audience, Dept. Fe (Kong finds a mate), and the movie was the independents will have a room with a sold as if it was just another B-movie re- P.O. Box 140280 tread. Which it was, but on an A budget. Dallas, Texas 75214-0280 A mong the independents, Cannon (18 view, if not room at the top. films, 2.7 percent) distinguished itself by not releasing one hit and by not mar- Ten Best Marketed Movies of 1986 Summer '87: June 22-August 14 keting any movies well. Its pictures lasted Blue Velvet on screens for two to three weeks and then The Color ofMoney Do you want to make films disappeared, headed for cassette land. \"Crocodile\" Dundee or sit in a classroom? New World, a much more solid company Down and Out in Beverly Hills (eight films, 2 percent), produced and im- The Golden Child If you want to make films. our intensive. The Morning After interdisciplinary 8-week summer She's Gotta Have It session is for you. Soul Man StandBy Me Refine your craft while earning an M.FA TopGun in Filmmaking. A working filmmaker Ten Worst Marketed of 1986 will be your advisor. while all the other The Best of Times artists-phofographers. sculptors, Big Trouble Brighton Beach Memoirs composers. writers, and painters will FIX be your responsive audience. The Hitcher King Kong Lives Milton Avery Lucas Off Beat Graduate School Salvador of the Arts at Something Wild ~ PARD For 0 descriptive brochure and application write: Milton Avery Graduate School of the Arts, Bard College. Bax FA Annandale-on-Hudson, NY 12504 Or call: 914-758-6822. x183 - FINANCIAL AID AVAILABLE - . 69

• A Visit to 'The Home Shopping Club' by Mike Wilkins paid.) Also in the shot is a female hand, ents and children. It's a cheap bit, but hey! always with pink fingernails, moving it's a club. Happiness is, around the item-the only clue that this is Happiness is, no series ofstill photographs. The goodies One of the club's most popular items is Happiness is, change about every five minutes. an electronic flea collar. During one five- Shopping with us. minute period, more than 1200 were sold Happiness is shopping with us. The hosts, or VJs, whom you get to see (you know how many are sold because (Repeat.) every 15 minutes or so (at a desk in front of HSC sometimes displays an LED read-out the HSC logo and the American flag), of the number of orders pouring in). At -Home Shopping Club Theme Song chatter nonstop about each chess set and $25 per, that's $30k of flea collars. And, coffee \"system.\" They ad-lib for up to two whew, the heart-rending stories that ac- The Home Shopping Club, one of minutes about each piece, and they fre- companied this one. A woman from Cali- two shows broadcast by the Home quently have to reach: ''This all-in-one fornia said, \"I've recently lost a German Shopping Network of Clearwater, stereo has ten dials, and dials are very im- shepherd to fleas. I spent hundreds on flea Florida, is something that anyone interest- portant to that music lover in your family.\" dope, but it started to make him as sick as ed in the United States of America should Or, ''This Dynasty collector's plate with the fleas did. It was so sad to watch-him watch. More than any prime-time show, Krystal, Blake, and Alexis on it is num- just itching all the time. All his hair was go- more than any soap opera or late-night en- bered, and as you know, anything with a ing, all his skin was so red. The $25 I had tertainment, certainly more than any news number on it will increase in value.\" Or to spend to put him to sleep I would have broadcast, HSC gets it right. Only the after the seventh gold chain in a row, preferred to spend on an electric flea col- game shows and their offspring, the jus- \"Look at that gram weight! That's a lar. Tell your listeners, please, if you have tice and romance-for-prizes shows, come heavy, substantial chain for a 20-inch a pet, get one of these collars. I'm buying close to providing the same educational length.\" one for my new puppy. Can I have a toot value. The Home Shopping Club, which for my puppy? And for my kids?\" runs 24 hours a day, seven days a week, on Tacky, huh? Business Week's cover various cable and UHF stations (reaching story of December 14, 1986, was about Most of the viewers seem to be women about 30 million homes and growing), is home shopping in general and Home aged 30 to 80. They seem to live all over designed to sell cheap or discontinued Shopping Network in particular. HSN the country-Ohio, Pennsylvania, and goods to the people representing the bot- had sales of $160 million last year, with Maryland to Florida and South Carolina, tom half of the national income figures. profits of $17 million. They predict earn- New York to California. Men occasionally There are other home shopping formats , ings of$75 million on sales of$715 million call in but don't quite understand it all. but none work as well as HSC. for fiscal 1987. And $715 million of 14-kar- One gentleman called in to purchase an at gold chain would reach to Mars. Exxon Qwip Fascimile machine for $380. What Is The Home Shopping It transmits exact document copies over Club? A fter a host finishes his or her product the phone. Exxon has discontinued its of- pitch, the phone lines are opened, fice products business, and no doubt that's T he Home Shopping Club is a nonstop and the host talks with people who have how HSC came into its supply of Qwips. flea market of the airwaves. You can just ordered merchandise. This is when The host, not familiar with all of this, tried get porcelain figurines, smoke detectors, the fun begins. All of the pathos, joy, con- to get a testimonial. \"Hey, Tom, what collector's plates, Mickey Mouse tele- fusion , and sincerity of nuts and bolts about the Exxon name, huh?\" A woman phones, dolls and harlequins, crystal can- America comes through in these phone caller would have said, \"Exxon. Well, die holders, all-in-one stereos, cribbage calls. Folks really spill their guts, which in- that's a big and well-respected company. boards, brass trinkets, and above all, jew- spires \"kindred emotions.\" It may be I'm certainly going to be happy with any elry. Lots of it. Cubic zirconia pendants, painful for you urban sophisticates to product from them. I get my gas from clusters of very small diamonds and rubies watch (although they watch wrestling them all the time.\" Tom didn't. Tom set in white gold. Matching earrings, 14 now, don't they?), but it is pain that you'd said, \"Well, I heard Exxon was having and 18 karat gold chains, in all kinds of shell out $6.00 to see subtitled in a Ger- some troubles selling these things and was styles and lengths, veritable Mr. T starter man film. getting killed in office products.\" No toot kits. for Tom. Fortunately, the next item up Before we go to the first call, it needs to was a two-bottle set of pantyhose wash , Each item is discounted heavily from a be mentioned that the host has at his dis- and there were no male callers. stated retail price, both shown onscreen. posal a bicycle hom. To cheer up a caller, (With some jewelry, HSC will even send to cut short some long-winded wonker, or A brass cuspidor, foryou brass col- along an appraisal for more than what you just to make a point, the host gives the lectors. This cuspidor is contempo- caller a \"toot.\" Callers now ask for toots, rary yet classic. Use it for your silk not only for themselves but for friends and flowers. For an ashtray. Arrange it relatives. Toots are requested for sick par- 70

\"A seven and one-halfinch porcelain cardinal, a reminder ofspring, Ohio's state bird. And itplays the theme from 'Love Story.' Home Shop- ping Club price, $14.501\" Behind the scenes. costs nine cents apiece. They are called opportunity seekers, in the parlance of di- next to your brass umbrella stand. Who Watches HSC? rect mail hucksters, and are sent an un- Home Shopping Club price, $10.50! ending stream of sweepstakes newslet- ters, easy money wallet inserts, lottery When I heard the word \"Brass,\" I Who is the typical Home Shopping hints, and shopping surveys. They may al- dialed my phone. I didn't even know Club shopper? They are those peo- ready be winners. Their towels come from what it was that you were selling. I ple in restaurants who can't tell if the cof- inside detergent boxes, and their glass- love brass, I love your merchandise. fee they're drinking is real or ifit's Folger's ware from gas stations. Their wisdom is But you know what part gets to me? I freeze-dried crystals. They seek to get collected on T-shirts, bumper stickers, work with people ... I work with ahead in the world by studying diesel me- and refrigerator magnets. They contract people ... I work for an answering chanics, dental hygiene, or welding. They preventable diseases. service. And the way you talk to peo- try to draw \"Sparky.\" They buy life insur- . They use phrases like \"Guesstimate,\" ple. To cheer them up. I listen to the ance from Lome Greene, Roger Stau- \"Absotively, posolutely,\" and \"What can other callers, and I can tell some of bach, and Glenn Ford. They are injured I do you for?\" Their appetite is wet, and them are shut-ins, in wheelchairs, in in auto accidents and select a personal in- their interest is piqued. They have a W. C. beds. Many are sick. And you really jury anomey who has an \"800\" number Fields figurine on top of their free-stand- help them. Like that lady the other and who will not charge them anything ing veneer liquor cabinet. They have free- day that called right before she left until they receive a senlement. They en- standing veneer liquor cabinets. They- for her treatment. .. for what. . . I joy half-time shows. They wear powder rent-to-own. Any product with the word guess was ... for her illness. She said blue tuxedos to get married. They send Le in its name must be from France. They that when it was her time, it was her Ed, the quiet guy on the Bartles and clean their dentures and their jewelry in time, and she was going to wear all Jaymes advertisements, money so that he the same sonic device. those chains and ornaments lying in can make the balloon payment on his bed. mortgage, not understanding that Ed is They buy furniture with no payments just reading his lines, that there is no Bar- til July. They copy and make the recipes Thanks, Kathy, here's a toot. tles and no Jaymes, and that the product is on packaged food labels-Mock Apple made by Gallo. Pie, Tomato-Beef Casserole Bake, Italian --Conversation with Kathy, from Snack Mix-and send off for The Spoon Lawrence, MA, 10:00 P.M., EDT They call \"976\" numbers for prerecord- ed psychic advice from The Tarot of Ma- Sized Shredded Wheat All Day, Any Day dame Ruth or Jeanne Dixon. They buy Cookbook. They call the brown marks in produce nine-for-99 cents, believing each their toilet bowl \"rust stains.\" They have \"Enquiring\" minds. They purchase glam- our-length press-on fake fingernails. They made stars of Dick Van Patten, Slim Whit- man, and Ed McMahon. Robert Schuller and Leo Buscaglia tell it like it is. Their personal statements consist of stationery and clothing bearing the logos of teddy bears, cats, rainbows, flowers, unicorns, or a professional sports team. You know the type. Not people like us. HSCandMIV T hematically and organizationally, at least, HSC is an MTV for parents and grandparents. Don't laugh. MTV is really just a series of ads for record albums. A music video lasts from two and a half to four minutes. So does the length of time an item is on the HSC screen. Both have VJs who appear only every so often. Both have \"playlists\" of items that will be plugged more than once a day. The most important similarity, and a 71

I bought aportable TVfrom you several weeks ago. Now I watch your show in the car, going shopping, or waiting for my kids. I'm up to about 12 hours a day. -(Wednesday, 10 P.M., EDT) key to why both are so addicting, is that ing at an item on a pastel background for nutritional supplements, \"fire and ice\" both present their products in an order un- the Five Minutes Minimal aesthetic of pendants-but people are buying more known to the viewer. A kid may hate the HSC, one perhaps would say that the two than just things. They are buying friend- stupid Kenny Loggins' video on MTV could not be less alike. But the purpose of ship, a sense of belonging, and a sense of now, but he'll hang around because the both is to create a mood, the mood to buy. self-worth. This changes little from cult to next video may be Z.Z. Top. Something as loud and jumpy as MTV cult. \"Happiness is shopping with us.\" Likewise with HSC. A viewer may not is going to lose an HSC customer, howev- \"You're building a better life for your fam- be interested in the battery-operated tie er. And an MTV audience will be bored ily by acquiring low-income rental proper- rack now being offered but knows if the stiff with HSC. Being younger, they are ties.\" It's the same motivation. channel is switched, he/she may miss the better able (better eyes and ears, quicker In HSCs case, this feeling of commu- next Capodimonte porcelain figure, and reflexes, better memory, more brain cells, nity is induced mainly by these on-air con- they are a collector. Three minutes isn't so and a more intact substantia nigra) to inte- versations, though it has other ways, like long to wait, anyway. grate the MTV message into a \"Buy\" having its computer remember the birth- Organizational behaviorists call this message. days and anniversaries of club members phenomenon a \"variable reward sched- Ifyou want graphic evidence of the gap (even if their husbands don't). On these ule,\" and recommend it for keeping work- between parents and their children, put days, members are sent gift certificates ers motivated. If a person doesn't know on HSC, then flip to MTV. Imagine the good for more HSC merchandise. Even if when his next reward will come (but fighting that takes place over who gets to one is not purchasing an item, HSC en- knows one is coming), he is much more watch what when. But both HSC and the courages people to call in with their testa- willing to work for that reward than some- producers of music videos share some- monials (a la TV evangelism). one whose rewards are predictable. It's thing: they want their viewers' money. The VJ, or host, structures this \"con- also a way to teach lab rats weird dances, Differences in presentation are due to dif- versation\" by asking for about a minute and it is why gambling is so seductive. You ferences in target audiences, not in the about family, weather, pets, the reason for never know when you'll hit. message presented. buying and for whom the purchase is in- Both HSC and MTV are on all day, and tended, or about past purchases. The host have no beginning and no end. So it HSC vs. Other Cults of reassures them that the current purchase is doesn't matter when you start or stop Consumerism a wise one. The caller's name is used often watching. With network shows, if you by the host during this time. To the un- miss your favorite show, you havy to wait trained ear, the host's whole demeanor maybe a week to see it again. Between women giving up soap operas and call- sounds fake and insincere. This sense of times, there is lessened inducement to ing in sick for work? All this talk about community is done on a high-volume, tum on your set: But with HSC or MTV, crazy addictions. Sounds like a cult, low-margin basis. Surely the reader has re- it's the same show all the time. And since doesn't it? Indeed, HSC has a lot in com- ceived a mailing using this technique. each segment lasts only three minutes, mon with bad cults like the Moonies and you're never out of synch very iong. Also, even more things with good cults like Her- \"Greetings, Mr. John Q. Public, how this lack of organization means that you balife, Amway, Tupperware, Avon, Mary would the Mr. John Q. Public family like to be the first on Maple Street to own their can sneak peeks whenever you've got a Kay, and TV no-money-down real estate choice of a new 21-foot motor boat or a couple of free minutes-when you're salesmen (whose broadcasts have names vita-track snowmobile?\" waiting for a date, for dinner, for your kids like ''The Achievers,\" and \"You Can Do Still, one can hear the caller's genuine to come to breakfast. It\"). Those so-called direct marketing en- disappointmentwhen the VJ moves on terprises. to the next caller. This, of course, means Is it any wonder that both share a com- that the caller has to call back to get an- The main thing that a cult seeks to do is other dose ofcommunity, even if this time mon root, that of radio? MTV's connection to establish a sense of community and be- is obvious. The HSC, according to Busi- longing for its members. To make \"the ness Week, was started by owners Speer & Paxson more \"by default than design. As human connection,\" in the words of a it is doled out by one of the friendly opera- tors who take orders for merchandise (and owners of an ailing Florida AM station, bearded psychologist I know. Once you who wave from their rows of phone banks twice an hour during station breaks). they found themselves stuck with an ad- do this, getting money from them, or get- The sense of community is reinforced vertiser's electric can openers. Marketing ting them to make money for you, is easy. later when the package of merchandise ar- rives in the mail. As any shut-in or free- the can openers over the air proved so suc- This is accomplished in a number of lance writer will tell you, the two best things in the world next to TV are getting cessful that they began selling other prod- ways, from shared silly songs and rituals phone calls and getting thick mail. HSC uses the three main vectors that the out- ucts that way. In 1982, they moved from C'Tooting,\" in HSCs case), to testimon- side world has for getting into one's home: radio to cable TV, and went national in ials and back-patting, to at least a feigned 1985.\" . interest in the problems and ambitions of Looking at the voluptuous color and · cult members. What people are selling smoke, fade and jump-cut feast of MTV, differs in each case-plastics, home and and comparing it with the one camera star- health care products, spiritual well-being, 72

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I don't watch soap operas anymore. When I'm not at work, I only watch you. I'm addicted to cubic zirconia. -(Friday, 12 noon, EDT) television, telephone, and mail. Business lion (or 38 million electronic flea collars). HSC's Place in History Week talked with one woman who was This puts both of them easily into the For- getting 30 packages a month but has run tune and Forbes lists of the richest people H SC has a lasting value for TV pundits out of money and now only gets five a in America. Probably in the top 25. It's who have missed or who bemoan the month. Imagine how great it would be to more than most of the other direct market- point that the HSC shopper is the avid TV get a package every day of the week. All ing founders have, more than 99 percent watcher. It is not as if, before HSC came you ever get from the Moonies are dried of those on Lifestyles of the Rich and Fa- on, they were spending 12 hours a day up flowers and the creeps. nwus. This kind of money has already at- learning how to conduct symphonies or tracted the attention of big-money play- rearranging the works of the great thinkers HSC, as the spawn both of cults of di- ers, like Sears, Lorimar, and Fox, and between their brass duck-head bookends. rect marketing and of the KTELIRonco/ even Crazy Eddie. There are going to be No, they were watching other TV shows. Popiel tele-hucksters (and their slicer/ more networks, more items, more for- They are the Nelsons, Ozzie and Harriet. dicers, cap snaffiers, pocket fishermen, mats. It may all be a fad, like video games They made hits of Three's Company, Mr. Microphone's, etc.), has an incredible were. So to answer your question, you will Wheel of rortune, Ru:ts of Life, The Be- advantage over organizations like Amway need a different method of selling cheap verly Hillbillies, The Cosby Show. . and Herbalife. HSC has cut out the mid- goods to poor people to make your own dleman. fortune. They watch and believe TV. Televi- sion news says it is a dangerous world out- It is important to realize that Herbalife But you are on the right track. Poor peo- side. Television cop and crime shows, and Avon and Mary Kay are all pyramid ple are the cornerstone to getting rich in with their use of exteriors, say the same schemes ofsorts. The ones invited to their this country. If you can sell these people, things. The warm and touching sitcoms, seminars and motivational weekends you get rich. Unfortunately, they don't however, use only interior shots. And must be whipped into a tongue-out frenzy have much money, much education, or mostly of the home. Stay inside, says tele- so that after a few days or even weeks they much taste. So the trick is to make cheap vision, where it is safe and comfortable. can still preach the message down the pyr- and foolproof products. That's what Hen- Stay inside and watch more television. amid, to motivate and convince those who ry Ford did. He made cars cheap. That's We'll let you know when its safe again. would buy from them. That's why these what Sears, Penney, and Woolworth did. Now with HSC, one no longer has to risk do's are so extravagant. Hq has no direct it just to go shopping. way of dealing with the final buyers of its And that dream Apple Computer and product, so it must imprint a whopper of a IBM have about putting a pc in every If you are going to have a successful pitch on its upper-level representatives. home? All this high-sounding talk about television venture, these are the folks you Some of this fervor dissipates as heat loss pricing down the learning curve and user- need to tune in. And watching HSC pro- before it is communicated. But enough of friendly systems means they are trying to vides you with invaluable information these messages get heard and believed to sell to this market. Make it cheap and easy about what your target audience likes, val- be successful. ~ for a bonehead to use. Still, they are hav- ues, wants, and understands. It is the best ing trouble meaning their penetration fig- kind of market research you can have, and Now imagine if you could directly stir ures. The solution? Make pc's out of brass it's free. up your final customers the way that Her- and porcelain. Emboss flowers or locomo- balife stirs up its high-level salesmen. tives or eagles on them. Have them play It is recommended that a random two- This is what HSC does. It has the cult-like the love themes from Love Story or Dr. hour segment of HSC be videotaped and aspects of the direct marketing firms, but Zhivago. Don't have them balance check- put in one's video collection. Play it every its pyramid only has two levels, the HSC books. Have them compute horoscopes. time you get a great idea about a miniser- studio and the customers. Any motiva- Then have HSC sell them for you. ies based on the life of Henry James or tional message or strategy is directly com- about a sitcom set in a linear accelerator. municated to those with MasterCards at Some think that they are going to pros- the ready. (Could HSC have existed even per by creating upscale home shopping The tape will also provide you with a three years ago, when credit was tight?) programs. But going upscale via TV is stu- great snapshot of mainstream American pid. If there is one thing that has been life, circa 1987. It is not yet one offuturis- The results are staggering. Recently learned by the networks, producers, writ- tic aerodynamic toasters and Italian Mem- USA Today reported that HSN president ers, actors, and critics over the past 40 phis teapots, of postmodem skyscrapers Roy Speer's personal fortune increased by years, it is that TV is a lowbrow medium. A and neon friezes, of purple hair and death $596 million during the first three weeks of high-volume medium. A McDonald's rock make-up. Mainstream life is not like January. His total fortune was estimated at medium. (If you really think TV was bet- an ad for Michelob, American Airlines, $1.2 billion. ter back in the early days, perhaps it was Apple Computer, or even John Hancock because only well-off people could afford Life Insurance. Mainstream life in the Can I Get Rich Selling Cheap sets, so you could get away with upscale.) United States is still one of porcelain and Goods to Poor People on TV? Everyone has a TV, but the poor watch brass, of representational art, where beau- more TV, and there are more poor people ty rests in silk flowers and stuffed clowns, Roy Speer's partner, Lowell Paxson, to begin with. Rich people are out at par- and where all that glitters is cubic zirconia. has a fortune now valued at $935 mil- ~ ties. Yuppies are at the office. 74

Carlos Clnrens, 1930-1987 by Mary Corliss and dream builders like Ben Carre, George Jenkins, Robert Boyle, and dear H e said it about many a comely Boris Leven. We retumed in 1982, to do character, but it is best said about more research for our book, and Carlos ob- him: Carlos Clarens was one of served, \"Just think-we were here five nature's total cuties. The obituaries stated years ago, when we were both two years youngerl\" that he was the author of two definitive H e was there, and everywhere, when works ofgenre criticism, AnlllustratedHis- conviviality was called for: in Lon- don, shepherding me to lunches and tory ofthe Horror Film and Crime Movies, screenings, or in Cannes, cadging dinners and brightening the film festival with sto- and c()-{)wner, with Howard Mandel- ries of earlier days when Somerset Maugham vamped a winsome Cuban lad baum, of the Phototeque movie stills ser- one autumn at the Carlton. But even when he allowed one city to host him, Car- vice. They mentioned his work subtitling los retained his wanderlust. For most of his 20 years in New York he never even foreign films and appearing in Agnes Var- rented an apartment, instead relying on the kindness offriends and his own infec- da's Lions Love and Wemer Schroeder's tious geniality to keep a roof over his head. Of course, he never went homeless. Flocons d'Or. But those are just words. Four years ago, he finally decided to People who knew Carlos will remember \"settle down.\" He sublet an apartment on Sheridan Square, rented an office in the him for the seductive music of his compa- Flatiron District, yanked his huge stills collection out ofstorage, and opened Pho- ny. He added immeasurably to the gaiety toteque. I was happy to send clients his way; I knew he and Howard would serve of many nations. them well. Soon Phototeque was the sav- viest, and one ofthe most successful, com- His books were meticulously re- mercial movie stills agencies around. It was an irony Carlos never stopped savor- searched and written; the prose style of ing. The tumbleweed had taken roots; the princely pauper had become an entre- this gentleman of letters might be de- preneur. scribed as High New Yorker. When he Carlos' death, of a heart attack brought on by an asthma attack on the moming of chose to strap himself to his subject-as February 8, was sudden, tragic, shock- ing-preposterous, really, to his friends, he would occasionally, to the book on Hol- who couldn't imagine him aging, let alone dying so abruptly. And precisely because lywood art direction that he and I were recalls visiting the villa to screen and cri- Carlos did not suffer long-because his dying was not the slow, degenerative writing-he could focus a keen and cur- tique old films. Carlos took a degree in ar- death watch he dreaded-we are able to remember him as he was in life: full of it. ious intelligence on it. But he was too rest- chitecture at the University of Havana, As the sad news spread, New York, Lon- don, Paris, the world were immediately less to swear fidelity to one vocation, per- then went to Paris to continue his studies, filled with people like me, wishing they'd had one last meal to enjoy with him. Now son, or mood. The world was a big, where the movie muse stole him away. we have nothing to dine out on but memo- riesofCarlos. And for us, for now, thatwill gorgeous place; there were fine times, He worked closely with Henri Langlois at have to be nourishment enough. ~ good friends, and unseen movies begging the Cinematheque Franc;aise, subtitled for his attention. Carlos was the consum- movies, made many friends, broke a few mate dinner companion, exuding charm hea-rts. The continental traveler also lived in five languages and informed opinions in London, Paris, and New York, the base on any subject. He was a 19th-<:entury ra- of operations for the rest of his life. conteurwith a post-modem wicked wit- When we met in 1%7, I was 22 and he a connoisseur of gossip, a font of arcane was ... well, younger than springtime. lore and amiable prejudices, a bon vivant The following year, I took charge of The for whom the only taboo was boredom. Museum of Modem An Film Stills Ar- Oscar Wilde's self-appraisal surely applies chive, an enterprise to which Carlos gave to Carlos: he put his talent into his work even more than he took. For four years in and his genius into his life. the late Seventies he was my \"assistant,\" Carlos was protective and mysterious and I plundered his encyclopedic knowl- about his age. For many acquaintances, edge of film and his inexhaustible good the shock of his death was followed by the humor. We got a lot of work done and had surprise that this etemal, and etemally en- a lot of fun. In 1977 Carlos and I spent a gaging, child was 56. But he lived several few weeks in Los Angeles researching our full lifetimes, in a half-dozen cities. He MoMA exhibition on art direction. The was born in 1930, the baby of seven chil- excitement we felt at excavating the film dren in an aristocratic Havana family. Nes- equivalent of ancient Troy was matched tor A1mendros, who knew the Figueredo by our delight in befriending the secret Clarens clan in their pre-Castro eminence, artists of the American cinema-princes 75

by Linda Batty to volume 22, 1986 Cox, Paul See: New York Film Festival (CACTUS) This index is based on indexing rules Awards Crime and the Cinema and subject headings for film periodicals See: Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. Awards; Wilkins. Mike. Jail birds among others. 22:4 July-Aug '86. developed by the Federation of Inter- national Film Archives (FIAF), It is di- Festivals 62-69. ill. GIGs (Girls-in-gangs) films: women in prison . vided into four parts: a subject index, an B., Beth man less societies. etc. Includes favorite GIG films of Joe author index, a film title index and a See: SALVATION! HAVE YOU SAID YOUR PRAYERS TODAY Bob Briggs, Harry Medved and Jim Morton. book review index, The names of in- Bembers, Maria Luisa Criticism terviewers are included in the author See: Venice Film Festival (MISS MARY) Chute. David. The 1985 movie revue: I: new facials of 1985. index, Berlin Film Festival 22:1 Jan-Feb '86. 56-59. ill. Sorry state of film criticism. Kennedy. Harlan . Journals: Berlin bombs. 22:3 May-June ·86. current movies, etc. ©copyright 1987 by Linda Bally, All rights reserved de la IgleSia, Eloy 2. 4. 6-7. ill. De Stefano. George. Post-Franco frankness . 22:3 May-June Subjects Best Films '86 . 58-60. ill. Career. themes. etc. Harvey. Stephen and Richard Corliss. The 1985 movie revue: Distribution, Independent Abraham, F, Murray See: Independent Cinema Bachmann , Gideon , C ,IA ' : 'Central Intelligence Actor. 22:5 II : 1985 and all that. 22:1 Jan-Feb '86. 60-61 . ill. Annual Domaradzki, Jerzy bouquet of \" raspberries .\" See: Gdansk Film Festival (GREAT RACE. TblE) Sept-Oct '86 , 16-20. ill. Interview. Career. acting, etc. Ref. The ten best of 1985. 22:1 Jan-Feb '86. 59. David Chute. Donaldson, Roger THE NAME OF THE ROSE. Richard Corliss. Stephen Harvey, Richard Jameson, Elliott See: NO WAY OUT Abrahams, Jim Stein . and Anne Thompson list their 10 Best. Dorrie, Dorris Barth. Jack. Piz-ZAZ: Jim Abrahams and David Zucker See also: Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. See: MEN interviewed . 22:4 July-Aug '86. 26-29. ill. Scriptwriting/ di- Awards; Box Office; Censorship; Festivals; Guilty Pleasures Drama and the Cinema rectorial careers. Ref. AIRPLANE !; RUTHLESS PEOPLE; Birri. Argentina Fernando See: Adaptations TOP SECRET; KENTUCKY FRIED MOVIE; POLICE Aufderheide. Pat. Toronto tiempo. 22:6 Nov-Dec '86. 45-49. ill. Dreams in Films SQUAD' Birri at Toronto Film Festival's retrospective of post-Fifties Corliss. Richard. Our Town: George Bailey meets TRUE. Academy ot Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. Awards Latin American films. BLUE. and PEGGY SUE. 22: 6 Nov-Dec '86, 9-17 . ill. The Oscar mire. 22:2 March-April '86. 2. David Ansen . Stuart Blier, Bertrand notion of Smalltown , U.S.A . as a nesting place for dreams Byron. Gregg Kilday. Harlan Jacobson . Dale Pollock . Yakir, Dan . Manhandler. 22:5 Sept-Oct '86, 22. 27-29. ill. and nightmares: ITS A WONDERFUL LIFE: BLUE VELVET; Andrew Sarris. Richard Schickel. Stephen Schiff. Anne Includes interview. Career. Ref. MENAGE. PEGGY SUE GOT MARRIED: TRUE STORIES. Thompson , Kenneth Turan predict Oscar winners from the See also: New York Film Festival (MENAGE) Eating in Films nominees. Bogart, Humphrey See: Food in Films Actors and Actresses Schickel . Richard . Midsection: Bogart. 22:3 May-June '86, England Mancini . Marc. Real people. 22:2 March-April '86. 23-30 . ill. 33-46. ilL Where personal history and screen character See: United Kingdom Non-actors on screen: unknowns. non-professionals. meet. Exploitation Films people playing themselves, legend of the instant actor, etc. Box Office Chute, David. Wages of sin: David F. Friedman interviewed, Adaptations Thompson , Anne. Industry: tenth annual grosses gloss. 22:2 22:4 July-Aug '86, 32-48. ill. The sexploitation genre: White, Armond . PlayTime. 22:1 Jan-Feb '86. 7-14. ill. Stage to March-April '86. 64-67. 1985's hits and flops , including 10 definition and history: Louis Sonney. THE 40 THIEVES. screen adaptations. What's real : acting? the play? the film? best marketed and 10 worst marketed films , domestic Kroger Babb. Herschell Gordon Lewis.THE ADVENTURES Ref. A CHORUS LINE; COME BACK TO THE 5 & DIME. rentals, etc. OF LUCKY PIERRE; TbiE BLOOD TRILOGY (BLOOD JIMMY DEAN , JIMMY DEAN ; FOOL FOR LOVE; Brickman, Marshall FEAST; TWO THOUSAND MANIACS; COLOR ME BLOOD STREAMERS; INSIGNIFICANCE. Yakir, Dan . Allen 's Alley. 22:3 May-June '86. 22-27. ill. Includes RED) , etc. Adull films interview. Career. Collaborating with Woody Allen. Ref . Chute. David, Wages of sin, II : David F. Friedman interviewed . See: Exploitation Films ~ THE MANHATTAN PROJECT. 22:5 Sept-Oct '86. 56-61 . ill. Filmography. Friedman's Advertising on TV Bright, John career: softcore to hardcore. See: Commercials, Television Server. Lee. Bright star. 22:1 Jan-Feb '86, 22-30 . ill. Interview. Landis, Bill. Industry: TROMAtized . 22:4 July-Aug '86. 77-80. AIDS and the Cinema Career: scriptwriting . the Blackl ist. etc. ill. Lloyd Kaufman and Michael Herz of TROMA (film Rist . Darrell Yates. Fear and loving and AIDS. 22 : 2 March- British Cinema company) . Apr il ·86. 44-50. ill. Ref. AIDS: PROFILE OF AN EPIDEMIC; See: United Kingdom McDonough . Jimmy. Sex posed. 22:4 July-Aug '86. 53-61 . ill. AN EARLY FROST; PARTING GLANCES; LIFE. DEATH Byrne, David Softcore: 1950s & '60s sexploitation films . AND AIDS. See: TRUE STORIES I?ally . Marcia. Dr. Ruth interviewed . 22:4 July-Aug '86, 49-52. See also: Homosexuality and the Cinema Cagney, James ill. ONE WOMAN OR TWO . Allen, Woody McGilligan . Pat. Yankee Doodle diary. 22:4 July-Aug '86. 19- Wilkins. Mike. Jail birds among others. 22:4 July-Aug '86. Yakir. Dan. Allen 'SAlley. 22:3 May-June '86. 22-27. ill. Includes 24. ill. Cagney's last days: Marge. the Zimmermans. the 62-69. ill. Girls-in-Gangs films: women in prison, man less interview . Marshall Brickman's film collaborations (e.g. Halmis, etc. societies, female gangs, etc. SLEEPER; ANNIE HALL. etc.) with Allen. Cannes Film Festival Falk, Feliks Zoglin , Richard . Manhattan 's Methuselah . 22:3 May-June·86. Corliss. Mary. Journals: club Cannes. 22:5 Sept-Oct '86. 6-7. See: Gdansk Film Festival (HERO OF THE YEAR) 16-20. ill. Allen 'S earliest comedies compared to his later ill. films. Capra, Frank Festivals Allman, Robert See: IT'S A WONDERFUL LIFE See: Berlin; Cannes; Gdansk; Guadalajara; Hungarian Film White. Armond . Play time. 22:1 Jan-Feb '86. 7-14. ill. Stage to Carlsen, Henning screen adaptations. Includes COME BACK TO THE 5 & See: Venice Film Festival (WOLF AT THE DOOR) Week; Miami; National Video Festival; New York; Taormina; DIME . JIMMY DEAN . JIMMY DEAN ; FOOL FOR LOVE; Cavalier, Alain Toronto; Venice STREAMERS . See: New York Film Festival (TH ER ESE) Figueroa, Gabriel Angelopoulos, Theo Censorship Aufderheide. Pat. Toronto tiempo. 22:6 Nov-Dec '86. 45-49. ill. See: Venice Film Festival (MELISSOKOMOS. 0) Sheinfeld . Lois. Ratings: the big chill. 22:3 May-June '86. 9-14. Figueroa at Toronto Film Festival's retrospective of post- Annaud, Jean-Jacques ill. The rating system: its relation to censorship, to organiza- Fifties Latin American films. See: NAME OF THE ROSE, THE tions like Parents Music Resource Center. etc. Letters in Foley, James Apted, Michael reply (22:5 Sept-Oct '86, 72-80) from Tipper Gore, Jack Yakir. Dan. Workman : James Foley interviewed. 22:2 March- See: 28 UP Valenti. Michael F. Mayer, Alain Reitman . Stuart Byron, April '86. 16-19. ill. Career. Ref. AT CLOSE RANGE and Arcand, Denis with reply by Sheinfeld. RECKLESS . See: New York Film Festival (THE DECLINE OF THE See also: Exploitation Films Food In Films AMERICAN EMPIRE) Clouzot, Henri-Georges Tuchman, Mitch . Down the hatch in Beverly Hills. 22:1 Jan- Argentina See: MYSTERE PICASSO, LE Feb '86. 16-19. 71-72. ill. Interview. Food in the films of Paul Aufderheide. Pat . Awake. Argentina. 22:2 March-April '86, Commercials, Television 51-55. ill. Argentine cinema today. Ref. THE OFFICIAL Greenfield, Jeff. Television: hot spots. 22:1 Jan-Feb '86. 66-67 . Mazursky. STORY and TANGOS: EXILE OF GAR DEL. ill. TV commercials as a guide to U.S. national sub- Foreign Films Art Films conscious (e.g. anti-Soviet attitudes, women, etc.). Walker. Beverly and Leonard Klady. Cinema sanctuaries. 22:3 See: Independent Cinema Communism and the Cinema Attenborough, Richard Pally. Marcia. Red faces . 22:1 Jan-Feb '86. 32-37. ill. Reagan- May-June '86. 61-66. ill. History . problems of distribulion See: CHORUS LINE, A era films: ROCKY IV; RAMBO; WHITE NIGHTS; RED and exhibition of foreign and/ or independent films in the DAWN ; INCHON ; INVASION U .S.A.; DANGEROUS U.S. Distributors of \"specialized films .\" MOVES; THE HUMAN FACTOR: THE KILLING FIELDS; TARGET; ELENI. Frears, Stephen See also: Soviet Union See: MY BEAUTIFUL LAUNDRETTE Cooder, Ry Friedman, David F. Mitchell. Elvis. Sound Track: Cooder been a contender. 22:2 Chute, David, Wages of sin: David F. Friedman interviewed. March-April '86. 76-78. ill. Cooder's soundtrack work. Coppola, Francis 22:4 July-Aug '86, 32-48. ill. The sexploitation genre: See: PEGGY SUE GOT MARRIED Cox, Alex Friedman 's role in it. See: New York Film Festival (SID AND NANCY) ; SID AND Chute, David, Wages of sin, II : David F. Friedman interviewed, NANCY 22:5 Sept-Oct '86, 56-61 . ill. Filmogr. Friedman and the transition from softeore to hardcore. Fuentes, Carlos Dreifus. Claudia. Carlos Fuentes: when eternity moves. 22:3 May-June '86, 48-52. ill. Includes interview. Cinematic nature of his writing. Latin American writing generally. Gays and the Cinema See: Homosexuality and the Cinema Gdansk Film Festival Paul , David. Gdansk: Pole position. 22:6 Nov-Dec '86. 38-44 . ill. Ref. THE GREAT RACE (Jerzy Domaradzki) . HERO OF THE YEAR (Feliks Falk). CHILDHOOD SCENES FROM PROVINCIAL LIFE (Tomasz Zygadlo) . BODENSEE (Janusz Zaorski) . A CHRONICLE OF LOVE AFFAIRS (Andrzej Wajda) 76

Germany Seidenberg , Robert. Sid , the man , 22:4 July-Aug '86, 2, 4, ill. Orbits See: Nazism and the Cinema Sid Vicious films: THE GREAT ROCK 'N' ROLL SW INDLE; Harvey, Stephen, Vincente Minnelli : 1910-1986, 22:5 Sept-Oct GIlliam, Terry D,O,A,: SID AND NANCY , See: BRAZIL '86, 70-71. ill. Glrls-In-Gangs Films Yakir. Dan , Decei t of power, 22:6 Nov- Dec '86, 4-6. ill, NO WAY Kehr, Da ve, Orson Welles, 1915-1985, 22:1 Jan-Feb '86, 75-78, See: Women OUT (orig, titled DECEIT, Roger Donaldson), Greenaway, Peter ill. See: New York Film Festival (A ZED & TWO NOUGHTS) Klelowski, Krzysztof Lamont, Austin, Willard Van Dyke, 1906-1986, 22:2 March- Guadalajara Film Festival See: New York Film Festival (NO END) Stein , Elliott, Don Herm osillo and the su n, 22:3 May-June '86, Apri l '86, 79, ill, King, Stephen 53-57, ill. Th e first Guadalajara Film Festival. See: MAXIMUM OVERDRIVE Oscars Guilty Pleasures Komorowska, Maja See: Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. Awards Briggs, Joe B ob, Joe Bob Briggs' guilty pleasures, 22:4 July- Pall y, Marcia. T ightrope: Maja Komorowska interviewed . 22:1 Pennebaker, D.A. Aug '86, 70-73. ill. Jan-Feb '86, 47-51 , ill. Career, Ref. A YEAR O FTHE QUI ET See: ROCKY X Hardcore Films Pial at, Maurice See: Exploitation Films SUN, See: New York Film Festival (POLICE) Hare, David Pollack, Sydney See: PLENTY; WETHERBY Kurelshi, Hani' See: OUT OF AFRICA Hayashi, Kalzo Pall y, Marcia. Kureishi like a fox , 22:5 Sept-Oct '86, 50-55. ill. Pornography and the Cinema See: New York Film Festival (TO SLEEP SO AS TO DRE AM) See: Censorship; Exploitation Films Interview, Career, Ref. his scripl for MY BEAUTIFUL Primitive Cultures in the Cinema Hermosillo, Jaime Humberto LAUNDRETTE, Kennedy, Harlan. Amazon grace, 22:5 Sept-Oct '86, 9-15, ill. See: DONA HER LINDA AND HER SON Latin American Cinema Hollywood (Industry) Aufderheide, Pat. Toronto tiempo, 22:6 Nov-Dec '86, 45-49. ill. White cinema's current fascination with non-white and See: Industry (Hollywoo d) \"Winds of Change,\" retrospective of post-Fifties Latin primitive cultures, Ref, THE MISSION : TH E EMERALD Homosexuality and the Cinema American films at Toronto Film F.esti val.lncludes Argentine FOREST: RAMBO: OUT OF AFRICA: JEWEL OF THE Kilday, Gregg: Ho llywood 's homosexuals, 22:2 March-April Fernando Birri, Gabriel Figueroa and Tisuka Yamasaki NILE: AGUIRR E: FITZCARRALDO: GR EYS TOKE, etc. Puenzo, Luis '86 , 40-43. ill. Dilemma of homosexuais in Hollywood fi lm (DE ARLY BELOVED BR AZIL), See: OFFICIAL STORY, THE Stei n, Ell iott , Don Hermosillo and the sun . 22 :3 May-June '86 , Ratings for Films industry. See: Censorship Pal' y, Marcia, Women in love, 22:2 March-April '86, 35-39, ill, 53-57. ill. La tin American cinema at the Miami and Guadala- Ritt, Martin jara Film Festiv al s, Ref, DON A HERLINDA AND HER McGil ligan, Pat. Ritt large. 22:1 Jan- Feb '86, 38-46, ill. Interview, Lesbianism as a film subject. Career, politics, the Blacklist, etc. Rist, Darrell Yates, Fear and lovi ng and A IDS, ill. Ref. AIDS: SON , Lee, Spike Robots PROFILE OF AN EPIDEMIC: AN EARLY FROST; PARTING Glicksman , Marlaine, Lee way , 22:5 Sept-Oct '86, 46-49, ill. See: Science Fiction Films GLANCES; LIFE, DEATH AN D AI DS, Roeg, Nicholas Russo, Vito, A state of being. 22:2 March-April '86, 32-34. ill. Includes in terview , Career. Ref, SHE'S GOTTA HAVE IT See: INSIGNIFICANCE \" Mainstream cinema is plainly chicke nshit when it comes Russia to gay life and lives, and it's time we said so.\" Lesbians and the Cinema See: Soviet Union See: Homosexuals and the Cinema Ruth, Dr. Hooper, Tobe Loach, Ken Pally, Marcia, Dr, Ruth. 22:4 July-Aug '86, 49-52, ill. Intervi ew, Carson, L.M, Kit. SAW time, 22:4 July-Aug '86, 9-17 . ill. Career. See: Venice Film Festival (FATHERLAND) Lynch, David Career. Her role in ON E WOMAN OR TWO , Ref, TEXAS CHAINSAW MASSACRE I and II. See: BLUE VELVET Schell, Maximilian Marr, Leon See: New York Film Festival (MARL ENE) Hopper, Dennis See: New York Film Festival (DAN CING IN THE DARK ) Science Fiction Films Hodenfield, Chris, Citizen Hopper, 22:6 Nov-Dec '86, 62-73, ill, Mazursky, Paul Schaefer, Stephen , Journals: robots , the men, 22:4 July-Aug Tu chman, Mitch, Down the hatch in Beverly Hills, 22:1 Jan- Interview. Bi og raph y. career, influences, etc. Ref. BLUE '86, 6-7 , ill. Robot films of the 1980s, VELVET , Feb '86, 16-19, 71-72 , ill. Inte rview , Food / eating in Hou, Hsiao-hsien Mazursky's fil ms. Scott, Ridley See: New York Film Festival (A TIME TO LI VE A ND A TI ME Miami Film Festival See: ALIENS TO DIE) Stein, Ell iott. Do n Hermosillo and the sun , 22:3 May-June '86, Seidelman, Susan Hungarian Film Festival 53-57 , ill. See: MAKING MR , RIGHT Hoberman, J . Budapest's business. 22 :3 May-June '86, 68-71 , Midsection Sex and the Cinema Red time, 2'2:1 Jan-Feb '86, 31-55, Cold war/ communism in See: ExplOitation Films ill. Siesin. Aviv3 Hungary films . See: New York Film Festival (DIRECTED BY WILLI AM Hoberman , J , Budapest's business, 22:3 May-June '86, 68-71 , When the gaze is gay, 22:2 March-April '86, 31-50, Homo- WY LER ) ill. State of the industry, sexuality in the ci nema. Smalltown, U.S.A, in Films Independent Cinema Bogart. 22:3 May-June '86, 33-46. Corliss, Ri chard . Our town: George Bailey meets TR U.E, Walker, Beverly and Leonard Klady. Ci nema sanctions. 22:3 T hat's exploitation, 22:4 July-Aug '86, 31-69, Fi ve restiess voices, 22:5 Sept-Oct '86, 31-55 , David Lynch BLUE and PEGGY SU E, 22:6 Nov-Dec '86, 9-17 , ill. The May-June '86, 61-66. ill. History , problems of distribution notion of Smalltown , America as a nesting place for and exhibition of independent andl or foreign films in the (BLUE VELVET), Alex Cox (S ID AND NANCY ), Dorris dreams and nightmares, Ref. IT'S A WOND ERFUL LIFE U.S. Distributors of \"specialized films .\" Dorrie (M EN ), Spike Lee (S HE'S GOTTA HAV E IT ), Han if (Capra) , BLUE VELVET (David LynCh) , PEGGY SU E GOT Industry (Hollywood) Kureishi (MY BEAUTIFUL LAUNDRETTE), MARRIED (Fran cis Coppola) and TRUE ST ORI ES (Da vid Kilday, Gregg, Ho ll ywood's homosexuals. 22:2 March-April Festival roundelay , 22 :6 Nov-Dec '86, 33-6 1. Venice, Gdansk, Byrne) , '86, 40-43, ill. Dilemma of homosexu al s in Ho llywood film Toronto and New York Film Festivals. Soap Operas, Television industry. Miller, Cfaude Rafferty , Terrence, Television . 22:1 Jan- Feb '86, 67-70, ill. Landis, Bill. Industry: TROM Atized, 22:4 July-Aug '86,77-80, See: New York Film Festival (CHARLOTTE AND LULU ) Soaps generally . Ref, ANOT HER WORLD, ill. Lloyd Kaufman and Michael Herz of TROMA (film Minnelli, Vincente Soltcore Films co mpan y) . Harvey, Stephen . Orbits: Vincente Minnelli: 1910-1986. 22:5 See: Exploitation Films See also: Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. Sept-Oct '86, 70-71 , ill. In memoriam, Solanas, Fernando Awards; Box Office. Music See: TANGOS: EXILE OF GARDEL Jarmusch. Jim Mitchell , El vis, Sound track: Cooder been a contender. 22:2 Sound Track See: New York Film Festival (DOWN BY LAW) March-April '86, 76-78, ill. Ry Cooder's soundtrack work. Mitche\" , Elvis. Cooder been a contender, 22 :2 March-April Jasny, Vojtech National Video Festival '86, 76-78. ill. Ry Cooder's soundtrack wo rk, Glicksman , Marlaine, Good coun tryman , 22:1 Jan-Feb '86, Brody , Meredith. Video: National Video Festival: fast -forward . Soviet Union 52-55, ill. Career, 22:1 Jan-Feb '86,73-74. ill. Kennedy , Harlan . Television : Ambassador Ustinov. 22:6 Nov- Jews in Films Nazism and the Cinema Dec '86, 76-78, ill. Interview, Shooting PETER USTINOV'S Kimmel. Daniel M. Goebbels' work, 22:6 Nov-Dec '86, 74-75, Kimmel , Daniel M, Goebbels' work, 22:6 Nov-Dec '86, 74-75. RU SS IA in the Soviet Union . Th e Russian film industry ill. National Center for Jewish Film: Nazi-era anti-Semitic ilf. National Center for Jewish Film: Nazi-era anti-Semitic generally, films. films . See also: Communism and the Cinema Jolle, Roland New York Film Festival (24th) Stage to Screen Adaptations See: MISSION, THE Ha rvey, Stephen, 22:6 Nov-Dec '86, 50, 56-58. ill, DIRECTED See: Adaptations Journals BY WILLI AM WY LER (Aviva Siesin) , CACTUS (Paul Cox) , Swaim, Bob Clarens, Carlos and Mary Corliss, Journals: the PIT and the DANCING IN THE DARK (Leon Marr) , NO END (K rzysztof See: HALF MOON STREET production designer. 22:2 March-April '86, 4, 72, ill. Patrizia Kielowski) , POLICE (Maurice Pialat) , THE SCENE OF Takita, Yojiro Von Brandenstein, Ref, THE MON EY PIT, THE CRIME (Andre Techine) , THERESE (Alain Cavalier) , See: COMIC MAGAZINE Corliss, Mary, Club Cannes, 22:5 Sept-Oct '86, 6-7, ill. MENAGE (Bertrand Blier), 'ROUND MIDNIGHT (Bert rand Taormina Film Festival Kennedy, Harlan. Berlin bombs. 22:3 May-June '86, 2, 4, 6-7 , Taverni er), DODSWORTH (William Wyler), MARLENE Kennedy Harlan. Journals: Taormina of B abel. 22:5 Sept-Oct ill. Berlin Film Festival (Maximilian Schell) . '86, 2, 4, 6. ill. Ke nned y, Harlan , Taormina of Babel. 22:5 Sept-Oct '86,2, 4,6, Jacobson , Harlan . 22:6 Nov-Dec '86, 51-55, ill , DO WN BY Tarkov.ky, Andrei ill. LAW (Jim Jarmusch) , SID AND NANCY (Alex Cox) , See: New York Film Festival (SACRIFICE, THE ) Kennedy, Harlan, Weaver, the woman , 22:4 July-Aug '86, 4, 6, PEG GY SUE GOT MARRIED (Fran cis Coppola) , ISAAC Tavernier, Bertrand ill, Sigourney Weaver and ALIENS . IN AMERICA (Amram Nowak) , See: New York Film Festival (' ROUND MIDNIGHT) : Venice Schaefer, Stephen , Beyond B-Movies: the right and MR. Stein, Elliott, 22:6 Nov-Dec '86, 50-51 , 59-61. ill. THE DECLINE Film Festival (,ROUND M IDNIGHT): 'ROUND MIDNIGHT RIGHT, 22:6 Nov-Dec '86, 2, 4, ill. MAKING MR. RIGHT OF THE AMERICAN EMPIRE (Denis Arcand), CHAR- Taylor, Elizabeth (Susan Seidelman) and SALVATION! HAVE YOU SAID LOTTE AND LULU (Claude Miller) , TO SLEEP SO AS T O Pendleton, Austin. El izabeth, 22 :3 May-June '86, 28-31 , ill. YOU R PRAYERS TODAY (Beth B,), DREAM (Kaizo Hayashi), A TIME TO LIVE AND A TIME Directing El izabeth Taylor on Broadway in THE LITTLE Schaefer, Stephen, Th e director is King , 22:3 May-June '86, 2, TO DIE (Hou Hsiao-hsien) , A ZED & TWO NOUGHTS FOX ES. ill, MAXIMUM OVERDRIVE (Stephen King). (Peter Greenaway) , SID AND NANCY (Alex Cox), THE Techine, Andre Schaefer, Stephen, Robots, the men, 22:4 July-Aug '86, 6-7 , ill. SACRIFICE (Andrei Tarkovsky), See: New York Fifm Festival (SC ENE OF THE C RIME ) Robot films of the 1980s, Noble Savage in the Cinema Television Schaefer, Stephen . ROCKY X, Penny and the Nylons, 22:1 See: Primitive Cultures in the Cinema Barth. Jack. Te levision: in praise of canned laughter. 22:2 Jan-Feb '86, 2, 4, ill. ROCKY HORROR 's 10th anniversary Nowak, Amram March-April '86, 73-75, ill. Canned vs, \" live\" laughter in blow-out at N.Y.'s Beacon Theat er on Hal loween night. See: New York Film Festival (ISAAC IN AMERICA ) sitcoms. Schaefer, Stephen , Uchida banana. 22:6 Nov-Dec '86, 6, ill. Nudity and the Cinema Yuya Uchida in COMIC MAGAZINE (Yojiro Takita) , See: Exploilation Films Obscenity and the Cinema See: Censorship; Exploitation Films 77

B arth, Jack . Television: may divorce be with you. 22:5 Sept- Television: Ambassador Ustinov. 22:6 Nov-Dec '86, 76-78. Oct '86, 65-68. ill. DIVORC E COU RT . Authors PETER USTI NOV'S RUSSI A. Barth. Jack. PeeWee T V. 22:6 Nov-Dec '86, 78-79. ill. PEE WEE'S PLAYHOUSE. Ansen, David Kilday, Gregg Oscar mire. 22:2 March-Apri l '86, 2. Oscar picks. Kennedy, Harlan. Television: Ambassador Ustinov. 22:6 Nov- Aufderheide, Pat Hollywood's homosexuals. 22:2 March-April '86, 40-43. Dec '86, 76-78. ill. In terview. Shooti ng PETER USTI NOV'S Awake, Argentina. 22:2 March-April '86, 51-55. RUSSIA. Toronto tiempo. 22 :6 Nov-Dec '86, 45-49. Latin Am erican Oscar mire. 22:2 March-A pril '86, 2. Oscar picks. See also: Commercials, Television; National Video Festival; retrospective at the Festival. Kimmel, David Soap Operas, Television Bachmann, Gideon C.I.A. : Central intelligence actor. 22:5 Sept-Oct '86. 16-20. Goebbels' work . 22:6 Nov-Dec '86, 74-75. Toronto Film Festival Aufderheide, Pat. Toronto tiempo. 22:6 Nov- Dec '86,45-49. ill. Interview wi th F. Murray Ab raham (NAM E OFTHE ROS E). Klady, Leonard Barth, Jack Ref. \" Winds of Change,\" retrospective of post-Fifties Latin PeeWee TV. 22:6 Nov-Dec '86, 78-79. PEEWEE'S PLAYHOUSE. Cinema sanctuaries. 22:3 May- June '86, 61 -66. Independent American films Piz-ZAZ: Jim Abrahams and David Zucker interviewed. 22:4 Troma ci n ema. Landis, Bill. Industry: T romatized . 22: 4 July-Aug '86, 77-80. July-Aug '86, 26-29. ill. Lloyd Kaufman and Michael Herz and Troma (film Television : in praise of canned laughter. 22:2 MarCh-Apri l '86, Return of the centau r. 22:2 March-April '86, 20-22. Clouzot company). Uchida, Yuya 73-75 . (LE MYSTERE PICASSO) . Television : may divorce be with you, 22:5 Sept-Oct '86, 65-68. Schaefer, Stephen . Journals: Uchida Banana. 22:6 Nov-Dec Lamont, Austin '86, 6. ill. Includes interview with Uchida. Ref. COMIC DI VO RC E COU RT. MAGAZ IN E. Briggs, Joe Bob Orbits: Wi ll ard Va n Dyke. 22:2 Marc h-A pri l '86, 79. Joe Bob Brigg's guilty pleasures. 22:4 July-Aug '86, 70-73. Underdeveloped Countries in the Cinema Brody, Meredith Landis, Bill See: Primitive Cultures in the Cinema Video: National Video Festival. 22:1 Jan- Feb '86,73-74. United Kingdom Byron, Stuart Industry: TR OMAtized. 22:4 July-Aug '86, 77-80. Thomson, David, Listen to Britain. 22:2 March-Apri l '86, 56-63. Oscar mire. 22:2 March-April '86, 2. Oscar picks. Carson, L.M. Kit McCarthy, Todd ill. Renaissance of British film industry. Ref. 28 UP: SAW time. 22:4 July-Aug '86, I - H . TEXAS CHAI NSAW WETHERBY; PL ENTY: MY B EAUTIFU L LAUNDR ET T E; Hard Alex. 22:5 Sept-Oct '86, 36-39. Alex Cox. BRAZ IL. MASSACRE I & II. Ustinov, Peter Chute, David McDonough, Jimmy Ken nedy, Harlan . Television: Ambassador Ustinov. 22:6 Nov- The 1985 movie revue: new facials of 1985. 22 :1 Ja n- Feb '86, Dec '86, 76-78. ill. Interview. Shooti ng PETER USTI NOV'S Sexposed. 22:2 July-Aug '86, 53-61 . Soflcore. RUSSIA. 56-59. Film criticism. Van Dyke, Wiltard Out to Lynch. 22:5 Sept-Oct '86, 32-35. BLU E VELVET. McGilligan, Pat Lamont, Austin . Orbits: Willard Van Dyke, 1906-1986: 22:2 The 10 best of 1985. 22:I Jan-Feb '86, 59. March-April '86, 79. ill. In memoriam. Wages 01 sin : David F. Friedman interviewed. 22:4 J uly-Aug Ritt large. 22:1 Jan-Feb '86, 38-46. Marti n Ritt. Venice Film Festival Kennedy, Harlan . Death in Venice. 22:6 Nov-Dec '86, 34-37. il l. '86, 32-48. Un der Wei r , , . and T heroux . 22:6 Nov- Dec '86, 23 -32. THE Ref. 0 M ELI SSOKOMOS (Theo Angelopoulos), WO LF AT Wages of sin, II. 22:5 Sept-Oct '86, 56-61 . THE DOO R (Henning Carlsen) , MISS MARY (Maria Luisa Clarens, Carlos MOSQUITO COAST. Bem bers) , FATHER LAN D (Ken Loach), 'R OUND MID- Journals: the PI T and the production designer. 22:2 March- NIGHT (Bertrand Tavernier) . Yankee doodle diary. 22:4 July-Aug '86,19-24. James Cagney. Kennedy, Harlan. Journals: Evivve. Venice. 22:1 Jan-Feb '86, April '86, 4, 72. Patrizia Von Brandenstein . 4-5. Corliss, Mary Mancini, Marc Vicious. Sid Journals: club Cannes. 22:5 Sept-Oct '86, 6-7. Seidenberg, Robert. Journals: Sid. the man . 22:4 July-Aug '86, Journals: the PI T and the production designer. 22 :2 March- Real people. 22:2 March-A pril '86, 23-30. Non-actors on 2, 4. ill. Sid Vicious films : TH E GR EAT ROCK 'N' ROL L SWIN DLE; D .O.A. : SID AN D NANCY . April '86. 4, 72. Patrizia Von Brandenstein . scree n . Video Corliss, Richard See: Television The 1985 movie revue: 1985 and all that. 22:1 Jan- Feb '86, Merritt, Russell Vigne. Daniel See: ONE WOMAN OR TWO 60-61 Annua l bouquet o f raspberries, bk . rev . How ard Mandelbau m & Eric Myer, Screen Deco , 22:3 Von Brandenstein, Patrizia Our town: George Bailey meets TR U E, BLU E, and PEGGY Clarens, Carlos and Mary Corliss. Journals: the PIT and the May-June '86, 72-74. production designer. 22:2 March-April '86, 4, 72. ill. Career SU E. 22:6 Nov-Dec '86, 9-17. as a production designer. Ref. T HE MON EY PIT. Out of affluence, 22:2 March-April '86, 7-14. OUT OF AFRI CA. Mitchell, Elvis Wajda, Andrzej The 10 best of 1985. 22:1 Jan- Feb '86, 59. See: Gdansk Fitm Festival (CHR ON IC LE OF LOV E AFFAIRS) De Sta' ano, George Sound track: Cooder been a conte nder. 22:2 March-April '86, Weaver, Sigourney Post-Franco frankness . 22:3 May-June '86, 58-60. Eloy de la Pal ly. Marcia. Cinema Theroux . . . Sigourney takes control. 76-78 , 22:6 Nov-Dec '86, 18-22. ill. Includes interview. Career. Ref. Iglesia. HAL F MOON STREET. Dreifus , Claudia Pally, Marcia Weir, Peter Carlos Fuentes. 22:3 May-June '86, 43-52. McGilligan , Pat. Under Weir ... and Theroux. 22:6 Nov-Dec Fernandez, Enrique Cinema Theroux . , . Sigourney takes control. 22:6 Nov-Dec '86, 23-32, ill. Interview. Career. Ref. TH E MOSQU ITO bk . rev . Peter Besas, Behind the Spanish Lens ; and Michael COAST. '86, 18-22. Sigourney Weaver (HALF MOON STR EET) . Welles, Orson Chanan , The Cuban Image . 22:3 May-June '86, 74-78. Kehr, Dave. Orbits: Orson We lles, 1915-1985. 22:1 Jan- Feb Gehr, Richard Dr. Ruth. 22:4 July-Aug '86, 49-52. ONE WOM AN OR TWO. '86, 75-78. ill. In memoriam. bk . rev . Vale & Andrea Juno (jt. eds.), Incredibly Strange Westheimer. Ruth Kureishi like a fox , 22:5 Sept-Oct '86, 50-55, MY BEAUTIFU L See: Ruth, Dr. Films. 22:4 July-Aug '86, 81-82. Women Glicksman, Marlaine LAUN DRETTE. Wilkins, Mike. Jail birds among others. 22:4 July-Aug '86, Good countryman, 22:1 Jan- Feb '86, 52-55, Voj tec h Jasny. 62-69. ill. Girls-in-Gangs films : women in prison. manless Lee way. 22:5 Sept-Oct '86, 52-55. SHE'S GOTTA HAV E IT. Open Dorrie. 22:5 Sept-Oct '86, 42-45. MEN . societies, fema le gangs, etc. Joe Bob Briggs, Harry Medved Greenfield, Jeff and Jim Morton pick their favorite Girls-in-Gangs fi lms. Television: Hot spots. 22:1Jan-Feb '86, 66-67. TV commercials. Red faces . 22:1 Jan- Feb '86, 32-37 . Reagan-era films . See also: Exploitation fi lms; Homosexuality and the Cinema Hackman, William A Parisian in America. 22:5 Sept-Oct '86, 23-26. 'ROUND Tightrope. 22:1 Jan-Feb '86, 47-5 1. A YEAR OF THE QUIET Ifor articles on lesbianism and the cinema I MIDNIGHT. SUN . Wyler, William Harvey, Stephen See: New York Film Festival (DODSWO RTH) The 1985 movie revue: 1985 and all that. 22: Jan- Feb '86, Women in love. 22:2 March-April '86, 35-39. Lesbianism as a X-Rated Films See: Exploitat ion Films 60-61 . Annua l bouquet of raspberries . film subject. Yamasaki, Tisuka Orbits: Vincente Minnelli. 22:5 Sept-Oct '86, 70-71 . See: DEARLY BELOVED BRAZIL The 10 best of 1985. 22:1 Jan-Feb '86, 59. Paul, David Zanussi, Krzysztot The 24th New York Film Festival. 22:6 Nov- Dec '86, 50, 56-58. Pally, Marcia . T ightrope: Krzysztof Zanussi and Maja Hoberman, J. Gdansk: Po le position. 22:6 Nov-Dec '86, 38-44. Budapest's business. 22:3 May-June '86, 68-71 . H ungarian Komorowska interviewed. 22:1 Jan- Feb '86, 47-51 . ill. Pendleton, Austin Careers , Polish themes, etc. ReI. YEAR O F TH E QUI ET Film Week. SUN . Hodenfield, Chris El izabeth. 22:3 May-June '86, 28-31 . Elizabeth Taylor. Zaorskl, Janusz Citizen Hopper. 22:6 Nov-Dec '86, 62-73. Interview with See: Gdansk Film Festival (BOD ENS EE ). Pollock, Dale Zucker, David and Jerry Dennis Hopper (BL UE VELVET). Barth, Jack. Piz-ZAZ: Jim Abrahams and David Zucker Jacobson, Harlan Oscar mire. 22:2 March-April '86, 2. Oscar picks. interviewed , 22:4 July-Aug '86, 26-29. ill. Scriptwriting/ di- Oscar mire. 22:2 March-Apri l '86, 2. Oscar picks. rector ial careers. Ref. AIRP LAN E!; RUTH LESS PEOPLE ; Press releases from the Twilight Zone, 22:4 July-Aug '86, Rafferty, Terrence TOP SECRET ; KEN T UCKY FRI ED MOVI E; PO LI CE SQUADI 74-76. Television. 22:1 Jan-Feb '86, 67-70. ANO THER WORL D. Zygadlo, Tomasz The 24th New York Fi lm Festival. 22:6 Nov-Dec '86, 51-55. See: Gdansk Film Fes tival (C HILD HOOD SC ENES FROM Jameson, Richard T. Rist, Darrell Yates PROV IN C IAL LIFE ) The 10 best of 1985. 22:1 Jan-Feb '86, 59. Kehr, Dave Fear and loving and A IDS. 22:2 M arch-April '86, 44 -50. Orbits: O rson Wel les. 22:1 Jan-Feb '86, 75-78. Kennedy, Harlan Russo, Vito Amazon grace. 22:5 Sept-Oct '86, 9- 15. Primitive Cultures in A stage of being. 22:2 March-April '86, 32-34 . Homosexuali ty Films. Death in Venice. 22:6 Nov-Dec '86, 34-37. and the cinema. Journals: Berlin bombs. 22:3 May-June '86. 2, 4, 6-7, Journals: Evivve, Ve nice, 22:1 Jan-Feb '86, 4-5. Sarris, Andrew Journals: Taormina of Babel. 22:5 Sept-Oct '86, 2, 4, 6. Journals: Weaver, the woman. 22:4 July-Aug '86, 4, 6. Oscar mire. 22:2 March-April '86, 2. Oscar picks. Schaefer, Stephen Journals: beyond B-movies. 22:6 Nov-Dec '86, 2, 4. SALVAT ION! H AV E YOU SA ID YOU R PR AY ERS TO DAY and MA KING MR. RI GHT. Journals: the director is King . 22:3 May-June '86, 2. MAX IM UM OVERDRIV E. . Journals: robots , the men. 22:4 J uly-Aug '86, 6-7 . Journals: ROCKY X, Penny and The Nylons. 22:1 Jan-Feb '86, 2, 4. Journa ls: Uchida banana . 22 :6 Nov- D ec '86, COM IC MAGAZI NE. Schickel, Richard Midsection: Bogart. 22:3 May-June '86, 33-46. Oscar mi re. 22:2 March-A pril '86, 2, Oscar picks . Schiff , Stephen Oscar mire. 22:2 March-April '86, 2. Oscar picks . Seidenberg, Robert Journals: Sid, the man. 22:4 July-Aug '86, 2, 4. Server. Lee Bright star. 22:1 Jan- Feb '86, 22-30. John Bright. Sheinfeld, Lois p, Ratings: the big chi ll. 22:3 May-J une '86, 9- 14. Stein, Elliott Don Hermosillo and the sun. 22:3 May-June '86, 53-57 . DON A HER LI N DA AN D HER SON . T he 10 best of 1985. 22:1 Jan-Feb '86, 59. The 24th New York Film Festival. 22:6 Nov-Dec '86, 50-51 , 59-61 . Thompson, Anne Ind ustry: 10th annual grosses g loss. 22:2 March-A pril '86, 64 -67 . The 1985 movie revue: Oscar narcosis 22:1 Jan-Feb '86, 62-65. Probable nominees. Oscar mire. 22:2 March-April '86, 2. Oscar picks. The 10 best of 1985. 22: I Jan-Feb '86, 59. Thomson, David listen to Britain . 22:2 March-Apri l '86, 56-63 Tuchman, Mitch Down the hatch in Beverly H ills. 22:1 Jan- Feb '86, 16- 19, 71-72. Food/ eating In Paul Mazu rsky's films . 78

Turan, Kenneth IMPUDENT GIRL, THE (Claude Miller) SCENE OF THE CRIME, THE (Andre Techine) Oscar mire. 22:2 March-April '86, 2. Oscar picks, See: CHARLOTTE AND LULU See: New York Film Festival Walker, Beverly SHE'S GOTTA HAVE IT (Spike Lee) Cinema sanctuaries . 22:3 May-June '86, 6t -66. Independent INSIGNIFICANCE (Nicholas Roeg) Glicksman , Marlaine. Lee way. 22:5 Sept-Oct '86, 46-49. ill. Whi te, Armond. Play time. 22:1 Jan-Feb '86, 7-14. ill. T heater cinema. Includes interview, White, Armond to film : do adaptations work? Includes INSIGN IFI CANCE. SID AND NANCY (Alex Cox) Play ti me. 22:1 Jan-Feb '86. 4- t4. Stage to screen adaptations. ISAAC IN AMERICA (Am ram Nowak) McCarthy, Todd . Hard Alex: Ale x Cox interviewed. 22 :5 Sept- See: New York Film Festival Wilkins, Mike IT'S A WONDERFUL LIFE (Frank Capra) Oct '86, 36-39. ill. Jail birds among others. 22:4 July-Aug '86, 62-69. G irls-In- Corliss, Richard. Our town: George Bailey meets TRU E, Seidenberg, Robert. Journals: Sid, the man , 22:4 July-Aug '86, Gangs films. BLUE and PEGGY SU E. 22:6 Nov-Dec '86, 9- 17. ill. 2, 4. ill. Wyman, Bill Smalltown, USA in fil ms. See also: New York Film Festival Byrne's town, 22:5 Sept-Oct '86, 62-64. TR UE STO RIES, MAKING MR , RIGHT (Susan Seidelman) STREAMERS (Robert Altman ) Sc haefer. Stephen. Jou rn als: beyond B-Movies: the right and See: Allman, Robert Yaklr, Dan MR. RI GHT. 22:6 Nov- Dec '86, 2, 4. ill. TANGOS: EXILE OF GAR DEL (Fernando Solan as) Al len 's alley, 22:3 May-June '86, 22-27, Marshal l Brickma n, MANHATTAN PROJECT, THE (Marshall Brickman) Aufderheide, Pat. Awake , Argent ina. 22:2 March-April '86, Journats: deceit of power. 22:6 Nov-Dec '86, 4-6. NO WAY Yakir, Dan. Allen's alley. 22:3 May-June '86, 22-27. ill. Includes interview. 51-55. ill. OUT. MARLENE (Maximilian Schell) TE XAS CHAINSAW MASSACRE I and II (Tobe Hooper) Manhandler. 22:5 Sept-Oct '86, 22, 27-29. Bertrand Bl ier See: New York Film Festival Carson . L,M. Kit. SAW time. 22:4 July-Aug '86, 9-17. ill. MAXIMUM OVERDRIVE (Stephen King) (M ENAG E). Schaefer, Stephen. Journals: the director is King . 22:3 May- Includes script excerpts from CHAINSAW II. Workman: James Foley. 22:2 March-Apri l '86. 16-19. June '86, 2. ill. THERESE (Alain Cavalier) Zoglln, Richard MELISSOKOMOS, 0 (Thea Angelopoulos) See: New York Film Festival Manhattan's Methuselah. 22:3 May-June '86, 16-20. Woody See: Venice Film Festival TIME TO LIVE AND A TIME TO DIE, A (Hou Hsiao-hsien) MEN (Dorris Dorr ie) See: New York Film Festival A l len . Pally, Marcia. Open Dorrie. 22:5 Sept-Oct '86. 42-45. ill. TO SLEEP SO AS TO DREAM (Kaizo Hayashi) Includes interview. See: New York Film Festival Film Titles MENAGE (Bertrand Blier) TOP SECRET! (Jim Abrahams, David Zucker. Jerry Zucker) Yaki r, Dan. Ma nhandler. 22:5 Sept-Oct '86, 22, 27-29, ill. See: Abrahams, Jim AIRPLANE! (Jim Abrahams, David Zucker, Jerry Zucker) Includes interview. TRUE STORIES (David Byrne) See: Abrahams, Jim See also: New York Film Festival Corliss , Richard. Ou r town : George Bailey meets T RU E, ALIENS (Ridley Scott) MISS MARY (Luisa Bemberg) Kennedy , Harlan . Journ als: Weave r. the woman. 22:4 Ju ly- See: Venice Film Festival BLU E and PEGGY SUE. 22: 6 Nov-Dec '86. 9-17, ill , MISSION , THE (Roland Joffe) Smalltown , USA in films. Includes T RU E STOR IES. Aug '86, 4, 6, ill. Kennedy , Harlan. Amazon grace. 22:5 Sept-Oct '86, 9-15. ill. Wyman , Bill. Byrne's town. 22:5 Sept-Oct '86, 62-64. ill. ANOTHER WORLD (N BC-T V soap opera) MOSQUITO COAST, THE (Peter Weir) Includes interview. Ra fferty, Terrence. Television. 22:1 Jan-Feb '86, 67-70. ill. McGil ligan. Pat . Under Weir ... and Theroux: Peter We ir 28 UP (Michael Apted) AT CLOSE RANGE (James Fo ley) interviewed. 22:6 Nov- Dec '86, 23-32. ill. Thomson, Da vid. listen to Britai n. 22:2 March-Apri l '86, 56-63. Yakir, Dan. Wo rkma n. James Fo ley interview ed. 22:2 M arch- MY BEAUTIFUL LAUNDRETTE (Stephen Frears) . ill. Pally. Marcia. Ku reishi like a fox : Hanit Kureishi interviewed. WETHERBY (David Hare) Ap ril '86, 16-19. ill. Letter In repl y fro m producer Elliott 22:5 Sept-Oct '86, 50-55. ill. Thomson, David. listen to Britain . 22 :2 March-April '86, 56-63. Lewitt (22:3 May-June '86, 79) regarding Foley's description T homson, Davi d. Listen to Britai n. 22:2 March-April '86, 56-63. ill. of the way in w hich the film was made. ill. WOLF AT THE DOOR (Hen ning Carlsen) BLUE VELVET (David Lynch) MYSTERE PICASSO , LE (Henri -Georges Clouzot) See: Venice Film F~stiyal Chu te, David. Out to Lynch. 22:5 Sept-Oct '86, 32-35. ill. Klady, Leonard. Return 01 the centaur, 22:2 March-April '86, YEAR OF THE QUIET SUN, A (K rzysztof Zanussi) Includes interview. 20-22. ill. Pally , Marcia. T ightrope: K'rzysztol Zanussi and Maja Corliss, Richa rd. Our town : George Bailey meets TRUE, NAME OF THE ROSE, THE (Jean -Jacques Annaud) Komorowska interviewed . 22:1 Jan- Feb '86, 47-51 . ill. BLU E, and PEGGY SU E. Smalltown, USA in fil ms. Bachmann . Gideon, C.I.A.\" 'Central Intelligence Actor: F. ZED & TWO NOUGHTS, A (Peter Greenaway) Hodenfield, Ch ris. Citize n Hopper. 22:6 Nov-D ec '86, 62-73. ill. Murray Abraham interviewed . 22:5 Sept-Oct '86, 16-20. ill. See: New York Film Festival Interview. NO END (Krzysztof Kielowski) BODEN SEE (Janusz Zaorski) See: New York Film Festival Book Reviews See: Gdansk Film Festival NO WAY OUY (DECEIT , Roger Donaldso n) BRAZIL (Terry Gil liam) Yaki r, Dan . Jou rn als: DEC EIT of power. 22:6 Nov-Dec '86, 4-6. Besas, Peter Th omson. David. Li sten to Britain . 22:2 March-Ap ril '86, 56-63. ill. Beh ind the Span ish Lens: Span ish Cinema under Fasc ism il l. OFFICIAL STORY, THE (Luis Puenzo) CACT US (p,aul Cox) Aufde rheide, Pat. Awake , Argentina. 22:2 March-Apri l '86, and Democracy. Denver: Arden Press, 1985. 22:3 May- See: New York Film Festival 51-55. ill. June '86. 74-78. rev , Enrique Fernandez. CHARLOTTE AND LULU (Claude Miller) ONE WOMAN OR TWO (Dan iel Vigne) Chanan, Michael See: New York Film Festival Pally, Marcia. Dr. Ruth: interview. 22:4 July-Aug '86, 49-52. ill . The Cuban Image: Cinema and Cultural Politics in Cuba. CHILDHOOD SCENES FROM PROVINCIAL LIFE (Tomasz OUT OF AFRICA (Sydney Pollack) Bloomington : Indiana Univ. Press, 1986. 22:3 May-Ju ne Zygad lo) Corliss, Richard. Ou t o f affluence. 22:2 March-Apri l '86, 7- 14. '86. 74-78. rev . Enrique Fernandez . See: Gdansk Film Festival ill. Juno. V. Vale and Andrea CHORUS LINE, A (Richard Attenbo roug h) PEE WEE'S PLAYHOUSE (TV program) Incredibly St range Films. San Francisco : Re/ Search. 1986, White, Armond. Play time. 22:1 Jan- Feb '86, 7- 14. ill . Theater Bart h, Jack . PeeWee TV. 22:6 Nov- Dec '86, 78-79. ill. 22:4 July-Aug '86, 81-82. rev . Richard Gehr. to li lm: do adaptations wo rk? Includes A C HORU S LINE. PEGGY SUE GOT MARRIED (Francis Coppola) Mandelbaum, Howard and Eric Myer CHRONICLE OF LOVE AFFAIRS, A (Andrzej Wajda) Corliss, Richard. Our town: George Bailey meets TRU E, Sc reen Deco.' A CelebratIOn of High Style in Hollywood. New See: Gdansk Film Festival BLU E and PEGGY SU E. 22:6 Nov-Dec '86, 9- 16. ill. York: St. Martin's, 1985. 22:3 May-June '86 . 72-74. rev . COME BACK TO THES & DIME,JIMMY DEAN; JIMMY DEAN Smal fl own , USA in films . Includes PEGGY SU E. Russell Merritt. (Robert Altman) See also: New York Film Festival See: Allman , Robert PETER USTINOV'S RUSSIA (TV series) COMIC MAGAZINE (Yojiro Takita) Kennedy, Harlan. Television: Ambassador Usti nov. 22:6 Nov- Schaefer. Stephen. Journals: Uchida banana. 22:6 Nov-D ec Dec '86, 76-78. ill. Includes interview. '86. 6. ill. Includes interview w ith Uchida. PLEIiITY (Davi d Hare) DANCING IN THE DARK (Leon Marr) T homson, David. listen to Britain. 22:2 March-Apri l '86, 56-63. See: New York Film Festival ill . DEARLY BELOVED BRAZIL (PATR IAMADA, Tisuka Ya masaki) POLICE (Maurice Pial at) Au fderheide, Pat. Toronto tie mpo . 22:6 Nov- Dec '86, 45-49. ill. See: New York Film Festival DECLINE OFTHE AMERICAN EMPIRE, THE (Denis Arcand) RECKLESS (James Foley) See: New York Film Festival Yaki r, Dan . Workman : James Foley interviewed. 22:2 March- DIRECTED BY WILLIAM WYLER (Aviva Siesin) Ap ril '86, 16-19. ill. See: New York Film Festival DIVORCE COURT (TV series) ROCKY HORROR PICTURE SHOW, THE (Jim Sherman) Bart h. Jack. Television: may divorce be with you. 22:5 Sept- Sc haefer. Stephen. Journals: ROCKY X, Penny and The Oct '86, 65-68. ill. DODSWORTH (Wil liam Wyler) Nylons. 22 :1 Jan- Feb '86, 2, 4. ill. ROCKY HORR OR's 10th See: New York Film Festival ann iversary blow-out at New Yo rk Beacon Th eater on DONA HERLINDA AND HER SON (Jaime H umbert o Halloween night. Hermosi llo) Stein , Elliott. Don Hermosi llo and the sun . 22:3 May-Ju ne '86, ROCKY X (in progress, DA Pennebaker) 53-57. ill. Schaefer, Steph en. Journals: ROCKY X, Penny and The DOWN BY LAW (J im Jarm usch) See: New York Film Festival Nylons. 22:1 Jan-Feb '86, 2, 4. ill. EFFRONTEE, L' (Claude Miller) 'ROUND MtDNtGHT (Bertrand Tavernier) See: CHARLOTTE AND LULU Hackman, William. A Parisian in Ame rica. 22:5 Sept-Oct '86, FATHERLAND (Ken Loach) See: Venice Film Festival 23-26. ill. FOOL FOR LOVE (Robert Altman) See also: New York Film Festival; Venice Film Festival See: Allman, Robert RUTHLESS PEOPLE (Ji m Ab raha ms, David Zucker, Jerry GREAT RACE, THE (Jerzy Domaradzki) See: Gdansk Film Festival Zucker) HALF MOON STREET (Bob Swaim) See: Abrahams, Jim Pally. Marcia. Cinema T heroux ... Sigourney takes control. SACRIFICE, THE (,II ndrei Tarkovsky) 22:6 Nov-Dec '86. 18-22. ill. Includes interview material. See: New York Film Festival HERO OF THE YEAR (Feliks Falk) SALVATION! HAVE YOU SAID YOUR PRAYERS TODAY? See: Gdansk Film Festival (Bet h B ) Schaefer, Stephen. Journals: Beyond B-Movies. 22:6 Nov- Dec '86, 2, 4. ill. 79

Quiz #24: Family Ties The Carradines, the Quaids, the Dil- nancy Kit (from Christian McLaughlin, prize goes to Timothy B. Lawrence of Ions, the Penns-just four groups of San Antonio); The Fly Liquid Hand Soap brother act(or)s crowding the movie land- (Bob Collier, Chicago Heights, 111.); and Bordentown, N.J., for his Invisible Man scape. You can't check into a casting office an All the President's Men cassette fearur- these days without bumping into sibling ing Rose Mary Woods' monster scratch re- Model Kit, A 9\" x 8\" X 4\" box (empty, of teams. Some frequently appear in films mix dance version of \"The 18-Minute together (the Gish sisters); some (Shirley course) with these instructions: \"No MacLaine and Warren Beatty) never. We Gap\" (Michael Roberts of L.A.). But top want your longest list of those brother-sis- Paint, No Glue, No Assembly Required,\" ter, brother-brother, or sister-sister pairs or trios or whatever who have shared screen and the admonition to \"Read the H.G. space in a theatrical release. Actors only. No TV movies, no home movies. The Wells NoveL\" Love it. -R.C. longest list of correct entries wins a free year of the magazine. Get your list to us by April 13: Quiz #24, 140 West 65th Street, New York, N.Y 10023. On QUIZ #23, you were asked to provide ingenious promotional devices for classic films, in line with the From Beyond Pineal Gland Visor (a photo of which we are happy to publish, finally). Among our favorites were a Virgin Spring Home Preg- CONTRIBUTORS: Andy Milligan. Marcia Pally writes on CBS: p. 8. Home Shopping Network: p. Jack Barth's Farce Majeur: The Blake 71. By Joe Kelly: p. 33. Courtesy Harlan Edwards Story will be published this the arts from New York City. John Pow- Kennedy: p. 15, 16. The Memory Shop: Spring by Knobode. Jonathan Benair is p. 54 (3). MGM: p. 58, 69. Museum of a Los Angeles-based screenwriter with a ers is film critic for the LA Weekly. David Modem Art/Film Stills Archive: p. 13,51, special interest in comedy. Joe Bob 52,54 (1, 2,4),56. Movie Star News: p. Briggs is a syndicated drive-in movie crit- Thomson's book Warren Beatty andDes- 60. Courtesy June Ormond: p. 38, 39, 40, ic. Andrew Horton is a screenwriter and 42, 44, 46, 49. Paramount: p. 62, 63 (2), a professor of film and literarure at the ert Eyes is being published by Doubleday 68. Petrified Films: p. 31. Phototeque: p. University of New Orleans. Leonard 34, 35, 75. Samuel Goldwyn: p. 11. Klady is a freelance writer on film based this April. Armond White writes about Twentieth Century-Fox: p. 6, 18, 19,20, in Los Angeles. Jimmy McDonough is 22, 24. Universal: p. 12, 63 (1). Warner working on a book with Bill Landis on movies and music for New York's City Sun Bros.: p. 34, 35. and Paper. Mike Wilkins is a San F ran- cisco businessman. . PHOTO CREDITS: First Run Features: p. 4. By Bob Greene/ AUTOGRAPHED PHOTOS ATIENTION SCREENWRITERS! Professional screenplay ERRATA: Last issue's Cary Grant evaluations. Detailed written reports. We guide you up the obit identified the smooth one's birth- Hollywood legends, superstars, show biz ladder to success. ALSO available, our model feature place as Liverpool. Pace the Beatles, Cary personalities . Quality collection. Authenticity SCREENPLAY, $18 .00; GUIDE, $5 .00. Plus, AMERICAN should have been doing the Bristol guaranteed. Brochure: SCREENWRITER newsletter. AGENTS, MARKETS , Stomp; he came from the port city just be- SCREENWRITER'S TIPS. Sample, $2.00. G.P.I., Box 67, low Wales, not the one just above it. L.&M. Gross Manchaca, TX 78652. 2675-F Hewlett Ave. Merrick, N.Y. 11566 * *RARE VIDEOS Pin·Ups • POrlraits • Posters • Physique NOW AVAILABLE! Poses • Pressbooks • Western • Horror • Science Fiction • Musicals • Color Photos • RARE CLASSIC TV, MOVIES \" SHORTS. Send 22¢ 80 Years 01 Scenes From Motion Pictures stamp to: Paragon Video, P.O . Box 3478, San Mateo, CA.94403 (DEPT \" B\") Rush $1.00 FOR OUR ILL USTRATED BROCH URE 134 WEST 18th STREET, DEPT. Fe NEW YORK, N.Y. 10011 (212) 620-8160-61 80

'\" ldb Marl~oro Mar horo LIGHTS LIGHTS 100's Lt. 1[, ''l~ \"\" T 1I,j_


VOLUME 23 - NUMBER 02 MARCH-APRIL 1987

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