Whatever Happened To...

Every year I like to ask: what happened to THE COMEBACK TRAIL? And more urgently, what happened to SONS OF THE NEON NIGHT? The De Niro film looks like a hoot; Juno Mak’s latest looks like something far greater.

R.I.P. Robert Towne

Damn it, look at the best of the man’s credits, films he wrote and ones he improved upon, and it’s mind-boggling.

BONNIE AND CLYDE DRIVE, HE SAID CISCO PIKE THE GODFATHER

THE LAST DETAIL CHINATOWN THE PARALLAX VIEW SHAMPOO

THE MISSOURI BREAKS MARATHON MAN HEAVEN CAN WAIT REDS

Not Completely Random

Framing. Movement. Background. Stuff.

UPGRADE.

WESTERN.

A WHITE WHITE DAY.

APPLESAUCE.

THE MILL AND THE CROSS.

THE GREAT BEAUTY.

HEADSHOT.

R.I.P. Bill Cobbs

Always a pleasure watching him work.

THE COLOR OF MONEY.

Yeah...

This one kind of got to me.

More of Mr. Sutherland

Perusing all the online love for Donald Sutherland, and I keep coming across pictures I haven’t seen before. I love the first one with Gould, who made a great on-screen partner.

With Elliott Gould on the set of LITTLE MURDERS.

R.I.P. Donald Sutherland

Look, I don’t think I could have said it any better than the Canadian postal service already has in recently honoring the actor. I’ll just add: he’s not just someone I have actively watched decade after decade to great satisfaction, always seeming greater than the thing he was part of; he has been one of the most daring and yet comfortable actors to watch work. Watch almost any film the man took part in from the 60s and 70s, especially…he could be a dagger, and he could be an easygoing oasis in a sea of chaos.

Donald Sutherland will always be one of the best.

Maybe Off By A Few Years

Harlan Ellison’s novella A BOY AND HIS DOG, made into a film by actor LQ Jones in 1975 after appearing in Ellison’s 1968 collection THE BEAST THAT SHOUTED LOVE AT THE HEART OF THE WORLD, has things going to hell long before 2024, but that’s the year the story takes place, with scavengers and vast deserts and white-faced weirdos in underground cities. The film has a very young Don Johnson, and a telepathic dog voiced by the late great Tim McIntire.

But wow, the copy they’re using over on Tubi is garbage, straight off a worn videotape. Twice a tracking indicator pops up on screen. Shoddy.

Class Act - Ronald Neame's HOPSCOTCH (1980)

The immensely satisfying HOPSCOTCH has a dubbed version that Tubi is playing these days. It mostly affects the dialogue of Ned Beatty’s CIA head, who becomes apoplectic every time Walter Matthau’s protagonist one-ups his pursuers.

The film is so good (and good-natured) that it overcomes such mangling with ease. Matthau has never seemed more relaxed in a role; the writing is persistently - and dryly - funny; and the pacing is as breezy as they come. I can easily consider it an all-time favorite, and am extremely pleased to own Criterion’s version, which has all the dialogue intact.

I Didn't Expect To See You Here

A favorite in the broad spectrum of album cover art: Paul McCartney’s BAND ON THE RUN, featuring Paul and Linda, Denny Laine, and six special guests: boxer John Conteh (far right), broadcast journalist Michael Parkinson (far left), singer/songwriter Kenny Lynch (behind Paul), Clement Freud (behind Linda), and in the back, James Coburn and Christopher Lee. (Photographed by Clive Arrowsmith.)

For me, it’s playful, surprising, and very memorable. I especially like the contrast between Parkinson’s finger gun and Lee’s absolutely deadly trapped-animal glare.