The rantings, rememberances, and railings of a middle-aged pop culture junky. This blog will cover what's good, what's bad, what used to be good, and what is imponderable to my aging grey matter, as well as the odd, cool and curious related to movies, tv, music, books and whatever else strikes my fancy.
Stieg Larsson's Millenium Trilogy was a huge international success, and made everyone hungry for more Scandinavian crime fiction. Now, since he is no longer with us, the search is on for the next Larsson. One fellow whose name is being touted as such is Norweigian author Jo Nesbø.
While his books share the same darkness of of mood and setting, I don't think this is quite right. In fact, I would call Nesbø the Norweigian Michael Connelly. Nesbø's main character Harry Hole has much in common with Connelly's detective Harry Bosch. Both are lone wolf cops with damaged pasts and unhealthy tastes for alcohol. Both writers' styles are rooted in the hard-boiled conventions of the past, but feature lots of psychological exploration of the main character.
However, as much as I love Mr. Connelly, I think Nesbø is the better writer, and may be one the best crime fiction authors writing today. I have read the four Harry Hole novels available in the US: The Redbreast, Nemesis, The Devil's Star and The Snowman and they are all superior examples of modern crime fiction. His stories are complex, fast paced, cinematic, full of emotional depth, and thoroughly compelling. He also manages to throw in a nice dollop of humor and many pop-culture references into the mix. Nesbø also likes to experiment stylistically, often playing with time-frame and form. But the main thing that makes his books so readable is the character of Harry Hole. A character as flawed, haunted, and morose as Harry has no right to be likable, but Nesbø does such a great job putting us inside Harry's head that we can't help but embrace him. Here, Nesbø talks about Harry:
The Snowman is the latest Harry Hole novel to be released in the US, and Knopf is trying to play up the whole "next Stieg Larsson" angle. I think this is a mistake. Nesbø is a far better writer than Larsson, and The Snowman itself has much more in common with The Silence of the Lambs than The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo. The book spent a couple weeks on some hardcover bestseller lists, but is now down in the mid-twenties on the New York Times hardcover fiction list. This book deserves a huge audience, and it is by far his best book yet. The story has heavy horror overtones, and is nearly impossible to put down. Granted, it's a bit easy to spot the identity of the killer early on, especially if you've read a lot of crime fiction, but this is acceptable since Nesbø manages to keep the story moving at such a break-neck pace. Here, Nesbø talks about the book's plot:
There's also a wonderfully cinematic trailer for the book:
If that doesn't make you want to read the book, nothing will. It also makes you want to see the movie, of course, which doesn't exist yet. However, it looks like there may be one in the future. Already, a stand-alone thriller of Nesbø's called Headhunter has been made into a film and debuts in Norway in August.
All this bodes well for Nesbø's continued success. He's huge in Norway, but whether or not he catches on in the US remains to be seen. He certainly deserves to to be as successful as Larsson, if not more so.
You've probably never heard of Peter Lee Lawrence, and quite honestly, there's no reason you should have unless you are a fan of Spaghetti Westerns and Italian-Spanish films of the 1960s and 70s. But I'm here to make the case that he was a talented guy who deserves some credit, even if it is as a mere footnote in movie history.
Born Karl Hirenbach in Bodensee, Germany in 1945, Lawrence was extremely prolific during a short career, having appeared in seventeen westerns over nine years, not to mention other films. During this time, he was romantically linked to popular actress Erica Blanc, and married to actress Cristina Galbo. Unfortunately his life was cut short at the age of 29 in 1974. Although his death remains somewhat a mystery, it's been reported that he committed suicide as a result of a brain tumor.
Perhaps had he lived, Lawrence may have been more famous, because he was a fairly charismatic actor with a distinctive look. A handsome young fellow with very full head of blond hair, he resembles a slightly more rugged Bobby Sherman or Justin Bieber. He often played psychotic delinquents as in Garringo or A Few Bullets More, playing Billy the Kid. But in my opinion, he is best at playing the dandy, or to quote one character in Revenge of the Resurrected, the "fancy cupcake." Of course, he's always a fancy cupcake who is a dead shot.
Which brings us to the latest Wild East DVD double feature, pairing two PLL films, Hands Up Dead Man, You're Under Arrest and Revenge of the Resurrected. These are two later Lawrence films, neither very remarkable, but they showcase the fancy cupcake at his most typical.
Hands Up Dead Man, You're Under Arrest stars Lawrence as Confederate soldier Kid Johnson who watches helplessly as Union Captain Grayson slaughters surrendered soldiers. Later, Kid learns to be a crack shot and becomes a Texas Ranger, whose first big assignment is to stop Grayson, now a greedy land-grabber, from strong-arming ranchers into selling their land. Kid comes to town, disguised as foppish perfume salesman (really!), and enlists the aid of a black-clad bounty hunter called Dollar, played by Espartaco Santoni, and comical priest Bambo, played by Frank Augostino. Grayson, who is played by the awesome Aldo Sambrell, now has a crippled right hand, covered by a black glove, thanks to his last run-in with Kid, but strangely does not remember him! Grayson tries various means to stop Kid from spoiling his plans, including employing his beautiful red-headed minion Maybelle, played by the lovely Helga Line. Meanwhile, Kid gives the movie it's title by shooting all of Grayson's men, then handcuffing and arresting them.
Not much intricacy in the plot here, but it's the way the story is handled that makes the film memorable. The direction, credited to Spanish hack Leon Klimovsky but actually done by producer Sergio Bergonzelli, is off-kilter and strange, often resembling that of low-budget genius Demofilo Fidani. The film's opening is rough and gritty, but the rest of the film has a lighter, almost campy quality to it. This starts with inclusion of a very effeminate hotel clerk/bartender, and an odd homo-erotic subtext. Dollar and Kid seem to flirt with each other at times, and both Dollar and one of Grayson's henchmen are dressed as if they've wandered in off the set of the Al Pacino movie Cruising. To quote Seinfeld, "not that there's anything wrong with that;" it just makes for a unique viewing experience. To top thing off, the good guys lob perfume samples which are actually bombs at the bad guys during the film's action climax.
With Italian westerns, a movie can sink or swim on the basis of its musical score, and despite a less than memorable main title theme, Alessandro Alessandroni's music helps keep the action afloat. Lets face it, I'm not sure this is exactly a good spaghetti western, but it is memorable, if maybe for a lot of the wrong reasons.
Revenge of the Resurrected is a much more serious, competent affair, but unfortunately, not as entertaining as the previous film. Released two years later than Dead Man, it has a more American look and feel, as well as a much more interesting plot.
Lawrence plays Kit, a young artist, who also happens to be a whiz with a pistol, who manages to escape a stagecoach robbery in which his father is murdered by the bandits. Kit vows revenge against the bandits and wanders into the nearest town. Kit remembers small details of the bandits outfits, such as a design on a holster, and makes sketches of them. He gets a job as a stable boy, and starts to identify the killers, all who turn out to be prominent town members . Kit posts $1 bounty rewards for the men to expose them, under the name "The Resurrected," and the bad guys panic.
While the set-up and plot are solid, the execution is rather bland. Much is made of hiding the identity of the gang's ringleader, but it is easy to figure out early on. There just isn't any sense of mystery or suspense here. One of the biggest problems is that because the bad guys are all "respectable citizens"
there really isn't any sense of menacing villainy here. Once the ringleader is exposed, he just doesn't seem like much of a threat of Kit and is defeated easily.
Wild East's presentation of both films is very good, with the print quality of Hands up Dead Man being the superior of the two. A number of trailers are included in the package.
Overall, a nice two-film tribute to an overlooked spaghetti star. Wild East is promising another Lawrence double bill soon featuring two earlier films, Killer Caliber 32 and Killer Adios.
Here's the trailer for Hands up Dead Man, You're Under Arrest. Don't freak out, it's in Italian.
Todays Wall Street Journal reports on a new kind of rap gaining popularity in England known as "Chap Hop" I have to admit I feel slightly ahead of the curve here, as friend sent me a video of a song called Fighting Trousers by a fellow named "Professor Elemental" about a month ago. I enjoyed it, and thought it a funny, odd, quirky little thing, kind of a one-off rap parody No, friends, apparently it's a movement. Thankfully it's a movement full of humor, cleverness and invention. Fans of Monty Python, Weird Al, and Bonzo Dog Doo Dah Band should enjoy it. Unfortunately, I don't think the teenagers of America will soon be trading their baggy jeans, sneakers, gold chains and baseball caps for porkpie hats, Meershaum pipes, tea and cricket bats. But it would be really cool if they did! Here's a fun sample from Mr. B the Gentleman Rhymer, "Straight Outta Surrey."
Just found out that the excellent spaghetti western Arizona Colt aka The Man from Nowhere which I talked about in a previous blog is now available to watch for free on YouTube or right here.
Not a bad way to waste a couple of hours. Enjoy.
While I think there will always be some demand for good old fashioned paper books, there's no that the advances in technology are changing how we relate to the written word. One wonders if there will come a time when people will become so attached to their Kindles and Nooks that the book will have to be re-introduced to the younger, more technologically savvy generation in an appealing way:
But remember, there was a time when even the book was a new technology, and we needed help figuring out how to adapt to it:
But I agree with Dave, reading a Kindle is just not the same as reading a book. I mean, where are the pages? I need pages.
Of course, the Kindle will never replace books. For most people, movies already have. Check out the
Spaghetti Westerns are some of my favorite films. Those of you who aren't familiar with the genre should check outThe Spaghetti Western Database. I've been trying to catch up with some of the more recent DVD releases, and today I finished watching Wild East Productions' Arizona Colt double bill.
The first film is Arizona Colt, also known as The Man From Nowhere, from 1966, directed by Michele Lupo, and starring one of the more clean-cut spaghetti stars, Giuliano Gemma. This early film is still trying to pass itself off as an American western, but shows signs of the new genre, especially the amoral "hero," the missing cache of stolen gold and the very sadistic Mexican villain, played by the brilliant Fernando Sancho. Those wanting a crash course in great genre actors are hard pressed to find a more loaded cast of familiar faces, including Roberto Camardiel as the comedy sidekick Double Whiskey, Rosalba Neri as the bad girl who is unfortunate enough to fall for Nello Pazzafini as the evil henchman Clay. The film is a tad slow moving and a bit overlong, but builds to a great final fight between Gemma and Sancho. The film has a nice sense of humor and some great action, as well as a very hummable score by Francesco DeMasi. Overall, a nice example of the early days of the genre. Except for a credit sequence and few random moments of print damage, this version has great vibrant color and very good picture quality.
The second half of the double bill is Arizona Colt: Hired Gun from 1970, starring Anthony Steffen in the title role this time. Oddly this film has almost nothing to do with the original film except the name and some of the supporting cast. This is director Sergio Martino's first spaghetti, and he displays a very unsure hand here. Arizona and his drunken pal Double Whiskey (again played by Roberto Camardiel) are enlisted by a rich landowner to kill the Mexican bandit Chico, played by the great Aldo Sambrell. He also must save the rancher's less than virginal daughter, played by Rosalba Neri, from the bandit's clutches. Or so he thinks.
This one has the more grubby, dusty look that became common by this later period. By now, comedy-westerns like They Call Me Trinity, had become popular, so this one starts out with a very light-hearted tone. the comedy is not as goofy as some films of the era, so it is tolerable, but soon the film changes tone and becomes grittier and more violent, complete with several torture scenes and long gun battles. Steffen gives one of his more bored performances here, but Sambrell is great, and Neri looks smokin' hot. Unfortunately, this late in the game, the movie stands as a typical spaghetti, not necessarily a good one, since it really doesn't offer anything that by now we haven't already seen. The film has a really goofy theme song that doesn't fit the latter half of the film, but you'll probably find yourself singing it anyway. The film is presented in a beautiful print, and looks wonderful, and it is probably perfectly acceptable entertainment if you haven't seen too many of its' ilk. it certainly isn't as bad as some people have claimed. Overall, this is an very enjoyable double bill, even if the first film is 10 times better than the second one.
It's really easy to see the drastic changes in style that have occurred in a mere four years by looking at the trailers for the two films!
For years, I had another blog which didn't really amount to much, but now I'm ready to share my thoughts and interests with the world once again. Stayed tuned for more.
