Trog Directed by Freddie Francis Written by Aben Kandel; original story by Peter Bryan and John Gilling 1970/UK Herman Cohen Productions
First viewing/FilmStruck
[box] Dr. Brockton: Malcolm, get me my hypo-gun – quickly![/box]
Joan Crawford’s swan song doesn’t leave us wanting more of the same, that’s for sure.
A group of three hunks goes exploring a cave in their underwear (seriously). There they encounter a strange creature who kills one of them. Crawford plays a kindly scientist who believes that the creature, whom she calls “Trog”, is the missing link between ape and man. She sets out to prove this by teaching him to speak. In the meantime, evil real estate developer Michael Gogh seeks to rid his neighborhood of the beast by fair means or foul.
Trog gets way too much screen time for a guy wearing one of the ape suits rejected by 2001: A Space Odyssey. The movie is epically bad in every way. The special effects and dialogue are especially ghastly. So naturally I had to watch before FilmStruck leaves us. Recommended to the like-minded.
And Everything Is Going Fine Directed by Steven Soderbergh USA/2010 Washington Square Films
FilmStruck/First viewing
[box] I was raised as an upper-class WASP in New England, and there was this old tradition there that everyone would simply be guided into the right way after Ivy League college and onward and upward. And it rejected me, I rejected it, and I ended up as a kind of refugee, really. Spalding Gray [/box]
I’ve loved all the filmed monologues of Spalding Gray. It was a cinch I’d love Soderbergh’s post-mortem look at his career.
Steven Soderbergh directed Gray’s Anatomy (1996), Spalding’s final monologue film. He returned to the subject to make this documentary six years following the artist’s suicide. The film includes many clips from various performances and interviews. Gray is as charismatic as ever.
If you already love Gray, this is a must-see. If you are not acquainted with him, I would recommend starting with Jonathan Demme’s Swimming to Cambodia (1987) in which Grey tells the story of his experiences as as actor in The Killing Fields (1984).
I watched this on FilmStruck. A complete version is also currently available on YouTube.
Burden of Dreams Directed by Les Blank Written by Michael Goodwin 1982/USA Flower Films
Repeat viewing/FilmStruck
[box] Werner Herzog: It’s not only my dreams, my belief is that all these dreams are… are yours as well… and the only distinction between me and you is that I can articulate them… and that is what poetry or painting or literature or film-making is all about, it’s as simple as that… and I, I make films because I have not learned anything else and I know I can do it to a certain degree… and it is my duty because this might be the inner chronicle of what we are… and we have to articulate ourselves otherwise we would be cows in the field.[/box]
Perhaps the best “making-of” documentary ever made focuses on the mad dreams of a great filmmaker.
In 1977, German director Werner Herzog travelled to the Amazon to scout out locations for his long-planned project “Fitzcarraldo”. That film tells the story of an Irish Caruso lover who decides to build an opera house in the middle of the jungle where his idol can sing. No financing being available, Fitzcarraldo decides to raise money by harvesting rubber. To get his product to port he must move it from one tributary to another. This he decides to do by dragging a steamboat about a mile over a steep hill to the other river.
Herzog being Herzog there was nothing to do but to actually have hundreds of indigenous people physically drag the boat over the hill, with a little help from a faulty bulldozer. The filming was plagued by one disaster after another. Malfunctioning equipment, drought, illness, and discontent among the Indians stretched the process into a five-year ordeal.
Herzog selected documentarian Les Blank to record the shoot. The result captures both the passion of the director and the beauty of the jungle and its people.
No complaints about this wonderful film. If you have ever seen or hope to see Fitzcarraldo (1982) or have any interest in dreamers, this is a must-see film. It really should be on The List.
The FilmStruck film came with a really good audio commentary with Les Blank, editor Maureen Gosling, and Werner Herzog.
I’ve been a classic movie fan for many years. My original mission was to see as many movies as I could get my hands on for every year from 1929 to 1970. I have completed that mission.
I then carried on with my chronological journey and and stopped midway through 1978. You can find my reviews of 1934-1978 films and “Top 10” lists for the 1929-1936 and 1944-77 films I saw here. For the past several months I have circled back to view the pre-Code films that were never reviewed here.
I’m a retired Foreign Service Officer living in Indio, California. When I’m not watching movies, I’m probably traveling, watching birds, knitting, or reading.
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