The Return of J.M. Dobies, Austin Classic Movies Examiner

I have revived my film column in an attempt to earn some extra loot. Since I get about a penny per page view, please visit early and often, and share these links via the social media. Thank you.

Weird Wednesday at Alamo Drafthouse: 'The Hellcats' (1968)

'Dirty O'Neil' a/k/a 'The Love Life of a Cop' (1974)

Diane McBain is completely insane in 'The Mini-Skirt Mob' (1968)

 

Dig this: 'The Todd Killings' (1971)

More, More, More J.M. Dobies, Austin Classic Movies Examiner

Stripper in love: 'A Cold Wind in August' (1961)

Teenage rebellion: 'Riot on Sunset Strip' (1967)

Bury my heart in Scottsdale: 'The Ransom' (1977)

 

Bad trip: 'Angel, Angel, Down We Go' a/k/a 'Cult of the Damned' (1969)

Alfred Hitchcock's 'Psycho' at Violet Crown

Hit man Pitt: 'Killing Them Softly' (2012)

'Try and Get Me!' a/k/a 'The Sound of Fury' (1950)

Swampsquatch: 'The Legend of Boggy Creek' (1972)

In Sickness or in Hell: 'The Night Evelyn Came Out of the Grave' (1971)

To subscribe to the Austin Classic Movies Examiner, click HERE.

J.M. Dobies, Austin Classic Movies Examiner Facebook Page

J.M. Dobies, Austin Classic Movies Examiner on Facebook, Twitter

The movie column is back.

J.M. Dobies, Austin Classic Movies Examiner now has a page on Facebook for fans and friends of the column to post about their favorite movies and upcoming classic film happenings in Austin.

In addition to linking the latest review and features from the Austin Classic Movies Examiner, the Facebook page will also feature evergreens from the first three years of the columnm including the "Greatest Hits" series (Natalie Wood's Greatest Hits, Marlon Brando's Greatest Hits, Martin Scorcese's Greatest Hits, etc.).

The regular screenings of rare 35mm prints at the Alamo Drafthouse and the Paramount Theatre's classic film series will continue to drive the column's Austin-centric approach.

'Like' It: J.M. Dobies, Austin Classic Movies Examiner Facebook Page

To follow the A.C.M.E. on Twitter, subscribe to the posts of his rock n' roll alter ego Mal Thursday (twitter.com/#malthursday). The latest episode of The Mal Thursday Show podcast, "The Ballad of Mal Thursday, Pt. 5" is currently available free on iTunes and on GaragePunk Pirate Radio.

Recommended reading:

• Scenes from a Marriage on the Rocks: Two for the Road (1967)
• Lady in a Rage: David Cronenberg's 'The Brood' (1979)
• Cannibalism, Savagery, and Unconditional Love: Jack Hill's Spider Baby (1968)
• To Put Out or Not to Put Out: The Young Lovers (1964)
• Ken Russell's Greatest Hits
• Dennis Hopper's Greatest Hits
• Paul Newman's Greatest Hits
• The Greatest Biker Movies Ever Made
• The Greatest Horror Movies of the '60s
• Made in Texas: Giant (1956)
• Angry Young Bastard: Saturday Night and Sunday Morning (1961)
• Fun and Games with George and Martha: Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? (1966)
• Don't Look Back, Ollie: I'll Never Forget What's 'Isname (1967)
• Natalie Wood's Greatest Hits

The Return of the Austin Classic Movies Examiner

After a month-long hiatus, I am back to writing my daily Classic Movies column. Partly due to my frustration with the Examiner's new "pub tool," and partly due to having to work extra schlep jobs and temp gigs to keep my family fed and sheltered, I sort of took October off. Luckily, most of the stuff I've written for the column is "evergreen," so I still managed to get page views.

Anyway, here are the best of the columns I wrote in September and November:

This Week's Classic Movie Screenings in Austin (Nov. 12-18)

Don't Look Back, Ollie: I'll Never Forget What's 'Isname (1967)

The Killers (1946) vs. The Killers (1964)

Weird Wednesday: The Twilight People (1973)

New on Blu-Ray: Tommy (1975)

Art Smut: Sexus (1964)

Air Farce: Those Magnificent Men in Their Flying Machines (1965)

A Head of His Time: Zachariah (1971)

Still Yet More from JM Dobies, Austin Classic Movies Examiner

The recent site redesign at Examiner.com has been playing havoc with links to both old and new articles (and my page views, dammit). Things seem to have settled down, so you should be able to click on the links below to read these recent pieces Austin Classic Movies column:

Weird Wednesday: Village of the Giants (1965)

Master Pancake Theater Takes on 'The Breakfast Club' at the Alamo

Joe Bob Briggs Pays a Call on the Alamo Drafthouse

Weird Wednesday: Freebie and the Bean (1974)

Director William Grefé on 'Mako: The Jaws of Death' (1976)

Jack Nicholson Is a Far-Out Stud in 'The Wild Ride' (1960)

The Pistols' Last Stand: The Great Rock & Roll Swindle (1980)

The King in Vegas: Elvis - That's the Way It Is (1970)

Elvis, Dude: Tickle Me (1965)

Elvis Rocks Spring Break: Girl Happy (1965)

Elvis Presley's Greatest Movies

Audrey in Paris: Funny Face (1957)

Exile on Madison Avenue: How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying (1967)

Bob Fosse's 'Lenny' (1974) and 'All That Jazz' (1979) at the Paramount

The Greatest Horror Movies of the 30s, 40s, and '50s

Weird Wednesday presents 'Hollywood High' (1976)

'American Grindhouse' at the Alamo

Double Noir: Where Danger Lives (1950)/Tension (1949)

Beach Bomb: The Fat Spy (1966)

Subscribe to the Austin Classic Movies Examiner HERE.

Subscribe to the British Music Examiner HERE.

Dennis Hopper 1936-2010

One of my heroes has died.

Hollywood Rebel: Dennis Hopper 1936-2010

Yet More from JM Dobies, Austin Classic Movies Examiner

Hudson Rocks 'Weird Wednesday': Pretty Maids All in a Row (1971)

Teenage Rampage: The Runaways (2010)

A History of Exploitation: American Grindhouse (2010)

SXSW Film Fest: Jonathan Furmanski, Tom Bowker Talk 'The Weird World of Blowfly'

Major Scoop: QT Fest is Coming Back to Austin

SXSW Film Fest: Director Elijah Drenner on 'American Grindhouse'

The Bowery Boys Are Back!

The Greatest Biker Movies Ever Made

Cassavetes on Wheels: Devil's Angels (1967)

Made in Texas: Roadie (1980)

Like, Crazy, Man: The Wild Party (1956)

Hollywood Hell: The Big Knife (1955)

James Bond's Greatest Hits, Vol. 1: The Sean Connery Era

Dennis Hopper's Greatest Hits

Crash-o-Rama: Jack Hill's Pit Stop (1969)

Subscribe to the Austin Classic Movies Examiner HERE.

Still More from JM Dobies, Austin Classic Movies Examiner

Cannibalism, Savagery, and Unconditional Love: Jack Hill's Spider Baby (1968)

'Look, Ma, No Arms!': Tod Browning's The Unknown (1927)

This Week's Classic Movie Screenings in Austin (Feb. 26-March 4)

Spy vs. Spy: Casino Royale (1967) and Casino Royale (2006)

Martin Scorcese's Greatest Hits

It's 'Weird Wednesday' at the Alamo Drafthouse Ritz

Turner Classic Movies' '31 Days of Oscar' for February 23-March 3

Devil in disguise: Angel Face (1952)

Sexy Beast: The Curse of the Werewolf (1961)

The Decline of Western Civilization (1981)

Oliver Reed's Greatest Hits

The Wolf Man (1941) vs. The Wolfman (2010)

Seaside Seducers: The System a/k/a The Girl-Getters (1964)

Love and Life and Death: Harold and Maude (1971)

Second City Sci-fi: The Monitors (1969)

Even More from JM Dobies, Austin Classic Movies Examiner

Clint Eastwood's Greatest Westerns

Doom Noir: Blast of Silence (1961)

Turner Classic Movies' '31 Days of Oscar' for February 8-15

'Terror Tuesdays' at the Alamo Drafthouse Ritz

Faster, Pussycat! Kill! Kill! (1966) and Rock 'n' Roll High School (1979)

Subscribe to my Classic Movies column HERE.

I promise to come up with a new blog post soon...

More from JM Dobies, Austin Classic Movies Examiner

Ann-Margret's Greatest Hits

Decadenza Italiano: Antonioni's L'Avventura (1960)

Hassle at the Castle: Frankenstein Meets the Wolf Man (1943)

Blaxploitation classics at the Alamo: J.D.'s Revenge (1976) and Black Caesar (1973)

Amadeus (Director's Cut)

Double Feature Midnight Movies at the Spider House February 2010

"Garbo Laughs!": Ninotchka (1939)

Jack Nicholson's Greatest Hits

To Put Out or Not to Put Out: The Young Lovers (1964)

Magnum Fascist: Dirty Harry

Angry Young Bastard: Saturday Night and Sunday Morning

Tuesday Weld's Greatest Hits

Teenage Pygmalion: Lord Love a Duck

Racing for Nowhere: Monte Hellman's Two Lane Blacktop

Angry Young Bastard: Saturday Night and Sunday Morning

After banging out a few items for my Celebrity Headlines column, I published a piece about something good, which is Karel Reisz's film of Alan Sillitoe's Angry Young Man drama Saturday Night and Sunday Morning, starring a young, charismatic Albert Finney. Here 'tis:

Angry Young Bastard: Saturday Night and Sunday Morning

Subscribe to the Austin Classic Movies Examiner HERE. Your comments, suggestions, and requests are welcome.

Recent articles by JM Dobies:

Tuesday Weld's Greatest Hits

The Action Pack presents the Pulp Fiction Quote-Along at Alamo Drafthouse

Teenage Pygmalion: Lord Love a Duck

Racing for Nowhere: Monte Hellman's Two Lane Blacktop

A Streetcar Named Desire

Alamo Weird Wednesday Presents Lord Love a Duck

The Austin Classic Movies Examiner (that'd be me) previews this week's Weird Wednesday selection at the Alamo Drafthouse Ritz, George Axelrod's 1966 satire Lord Love a Duck, starring Roddy McDowall and the luscious Tuesday Weld.

Click HERE to read it.

Click HERE to subscribe to the column.

Other recent articles by JM Dobies:

Tuesday Weld's Greatest Hits

The Action Pack presents the Pulp Fiction Quote-Along at Alamo Drafthouse

Racing for Nowhere: Monte Hellman's Two-Lane Blacktop

Alamo Iron Chef VI: A Streetcar Named Desire

The Best of BLOG! 2009

As promised, I published a lot more regularly here on the BLOG! in 2009, while still managing to pump out work-for-hire as the Dallas Celebrity Headlines Examiner. Sure, more than half of all posts were related to either The Mal Thursday Show or Florida Rocks Again!, and while I didn't quite manage five posts a week (more like 2.5), I still kept things up to date.

Here are some of the best posts of '09 (in other words, the ones that weren't playlists):

Two for the Revolutionary Road

Top Ten Car Movies

Harold and Maude

Texas BBQ with Spärhusen

Hail, No!

512 Brewing Company IPA: My New Favorite Ale

Attack of the Giant Leeches

Jeff Conolly Interview, Pt. 1

Jeff Conolly Interview, Pt. 2

Hoppy Birthday, Uncle Billy's!

Garage Hangover

Massholes

S. Darko

"The Oliver Reed Film Festival" Blog

Keith Moon Was Here

The Lonesome Death of the Blizzard

Jesse Garon (1994-2009)

The Year the Expos Almost Won the Pennant!

While My Turntable Gently Weeps

Au Revoir, Yogi

The Biggest Sucker in the World

Of Birthdays, Bootlegs, and Alice

The Young Lovers (1964)

Sometimes a movie doesn't work so much as a film, but rather as a time capsule that captures the mores and mindset set of an era.

1964's The Young Lovers, starring Peter Fonda, Sharon Hugueny, Nick Adams, and Deborah Walley, was one of many films of the period with "Young" in the title: The Young Doctors (1961), The Young Savages (1961), The Young Racers (1963), The Young Swingers (1963), and Young Dillinger (1965, also with Adams). It was as if the studio moguls said, "We need to get more young people into the theaters. Put 'Young' in the title. That'll get 'em!"

The story concerns the romance between two college students, working class art major Eddie (Fonda) and rich-girl-from-a-broken-home Pam (Hugueny), who meet cute, fall in love, and proceed to engage in premarital sexual intercourse. Naturally, this results in Pam's getting pregnant, and at that point, the film veers towards melodrama until its unsatisfying, aggravatingly open-ended conclusion.

Fonda's entrance on an old Triumph motorcylce foreshadows his later, iconic roles in The Wild Angels (1966) and Easy Rider (1969), but his performance here is tentative at best. Although he and Hugueny make a good-looking couple, some of the dialogue between them, such as their mock-Japanese play-acting, is truly cringe-worthy. His character is also something of a dick, and makes Pam's otherwise unmotivated actions in the third act slightly more believable.

In his autobiography, Don't Tell Dad, Fonda remembers the film as having “a small budget and not a lot of rehearsal.”

READ MORE

Au Revoir, Yogi

My wife laid it out in plain and simple terms last night: no more Boomerang for the kids.


In case you're not a big fan of '60s Saturday morning cartoons, or your cable provider doesn't provide it, Boomerang is Cartoon Network's repository for retro cartoons of all stripes, from old MGM shorts to "The Power Puff Girls" to its vast storehouse of Hanna-Barbera product.

Watching old episodes of "The Yogi Bear Show," I bonded with my daughter Lola. 3, and son Liam, 4, over the classic adventures of the gluttonous anti-hero Yogi and his little buddy-type pal Boo-Boo. Evie, however, has always found Hanna-Barbera cartoons agitating in the extreme. Not to mention objectionable on several other levels (the fine print on the Saturday Morning Cartoons of the '60s DVD set reads, "Not intended for children," due no doubt to all the smoking, sexual innuendo, and excessive violence, not to mention the creepy vibe of evil in shows like "The Herculoids").

My son would chant "Yogi Bear! Yogi Bear! Yogi Bear!" whenever a Yogi cartoon ended and some lesser 'toon like "Mush-Mouse and Punkin'-Puss" or "Richocet Rabbit and Droopalong" would begin. I would then have to fast-forward through the unfunny, ultra-violent detritus of the mid-'60s H-B assembly line to get to the next Yogi Bear cartoon.

That's alll over now, thanks to the moratorium on Boomerang and all things Hanna-Barbera (well, all things except my prized Unrelated Segments, Guilloteens, and 13th Floor Elevators 45s on H-B's '60s record label, that is). Though I have a sentimental attachment to the likes of Huckleberry Hound and the Banana Splits, I know that Evie's right. I don't want to warp my kids' minds like mine got warped all those years ago.

Sorry, Yogi.

I, Horror Host

Here are a couple of excerpts from my run as host of Surreal Cinema on good 'ol Channel 22 in NE Florida, under my nom de screen, Michael West. I'd love to do a variation on this show here in Austin. Anyway, here's a taste of my former gig as a TV horror host:

My Promo Video for The Oliver Reed Film Festival

Here's a little promotional video I made for The Oliver Reed Film Festival blog, with musical accompaniment by British punk band Menace. It's also on You Tube, but this is the director's cut.

Cheers!

The Best of BLOG!: The Glory Stompers

Originally posted 2 November 2007

Act One: Contains Spoilers

If it's one thing I can't stand, it's a movie review that gives away the entire plot. That said, the beauty of 1968's The Glory Stompers is not in the tale, but in the telling. Notably, in the dialogue, and in the wild, over-the-top performance of Dennis Hopper.

Hopper's portrayal of Chino, leader of outlaw biker gang the Black Souls, is a performance that informed every performance that followed, from Billy in Easy Rider to the Harlequin in Apocalypse Now to Frank Booth in Blue Velvet. It's a blueprint for a style of acting best characterized as "Hopperese"

Our story begins with a star-crossed couple whose relationship engenders the drama that is about to unfold. Darryl (Jody McCrea) is a member in good standing of The Glory Stompers motorcycle club and Chris (Chris Noel of Wild, Wild Winter) is his long-suffering girlfriend.

Darryl and Chris are having issues. "I want to be more than just a Stompers girl," Chris laments. As far as she's concerned, the Stompers are just a bunch of "over-age juvenile delinquents."

Darryl tries to explain, "Chris, you don't understand, they're my friends. They're like family."

"Some family."

Darryl tries to hip her on the upside of the biker lifestyle: "Don't you see? They're free. No hassles, no nine to fives..."

But she remains unmoved.

Enter the Black Souls. Hopper and company glide in on their two-wheel ponies to disrupt the proceedings. Following a cryptic hand signal from their fearless leader, the Black Souls crash the Stompers' party. Hopper, as Chino, wastes no time in menacing the female lead.

"Leave me alone," She pleads.

"Hey, baby, like I just want to, you know, dance with you, baby."

Darryl intevenes. "Leave her alone."

Chino replies, "Hey, man, you just had to tell me she was taken, man. You don't have to get physical with me."

"I don't want you to touch her again."

Chino can't believe this clod, who played "Bonehead" in many a beach party picture, is playing the tough guy. "This cat is obviously suicidal, man."

When Darryl and Chris split the scene for a little private time, the Black Souls follow at a discreet distance. Just when Chris is starting to see things Darryl's way, the Black Souls break up their romantic rendezvous with biker-type mayhem and lashings of the good old ultra-violence. After "Magoo" puts a large dent in Darryl's skull with a tire iron, it looks like the Black Souls' fun and games have taken a detour that leads straight to the gas chamber. "It's murder, baby," surmises Chino. But he's a man with a plan, as we soon discover.

Leaving Darryl for dead, the gang heads south, taking the girl with them. Making camp for the night, Chino explains it all for the benefit of his blonde-haired captive: "Here's the situation, baby. Like we accidentally snuffed out your old man. Now the only way out for me and my people is to either snuff you out, or to sell you, to some high-class Mexican friends of ours. Now, being good people, we decided to sell you."

But before the Black Souls go down to Mexico, they're going to blow off some steam at the love-in.

Act Two: Trouble at the Love-In

As the Black Souls prepare to make the scene at the love-in, Chino has to deal with his jealous girlfriend, and the rest of the Black Souls, who, with the exception of his brother "Clean-Cut," want to gang-rape their captive. Even "Mouth," the joker of the bunch, played semi-convincingly by Casey Kasem, of American Top 40 infamy, wants a piece of the action.

Chino sorts out his minions first by kicking Magoo's ass, then telling the gang, "You see this little doll here? She ain't no mama, man. She ain't no mama. Now, if any of you dudes want to hassle, just turn it on. Just turn it on!"

Since they're are no takers, Chino puts Clean-Cut in charge of guarding Chris, and heads down to the love-in with the rest of the gang.

Meanwhile, Darryl has arisen from his braining at the hands of the Black Souls, in a scene laden with Christian symbolism. He hits the road in search of his chick, enlisting the aid of Smiley, a former Stomper, played by a bloated Jock Mahoney (Tarzan's Three Challenges). Smiley hips him to the probable whereabouts of Chris and the Black Souls, and Darryl roars off to get revenge, and salvage his relationship.

At the love-in, Chino and his pals cut loose with the other swingers, including hippie chicks in body paint, and even a few Glory Stompers, unaware of the plight of their brother Darryl and his biker babe.

Darryl gets to the party a little after dawn the following morning, missing the Black Souls by an hour or so. He assembles a small posse, and rides off to give Chino his comeuppance.

Act Three: Rumble at Spahn Ranch

The final act of our drama follows the tried-and-true formula of many a Western, as the lovingly photographed California highways become a collision course where the good guys meet the bad guys in the final showdown. Not wanting to completely ruin the movie for you, o loyal readers, I will just provide a few highlights:

Chino's biker mama attempts to make up with her man after she's earned his disapproval by trying to stick a blade into the kidnapee, prompting Chino to ask her, "What are ya, knife-happy?"

She snuggles next to her man as he blows a joint, offering up her lush charms. Chino gives her the brush, telling her, "Hey, baby, I just want to get loaded."

"Chino, get loaded later."

"Get loaded later? What does that mean?" A brilliant retort, not to mention Hopper's personal credo for much of the next two decades.

In the final reel, the body count is three, all of 'em Black Souls, natch, and two of 'em Black Soul on Black Soul crimes.

This is my favorite biker movie of all time, getting the edge over The Wild Angels and even Easy Rider, which was more than just a genre film, anyway. Extra points are scored by The Glory Stompers fuzz-guitar soundtrack, performed by none other than Davie Allan and the Arrows.

The film was released on videocassette in the late '80s, but I nominate it for a deluxe DVD reissue, with commentary by Hopper, who actually directed much of the movie, and maybe Casey Kasem.

"The Oliver Reed Film Festival" Blog

The Oliver Reed Film Festival at OllieFilms.blogspot.com

As anyone familiar with me or the BLOG! can easily tell, I'm a big fan of the late British film actor Oliver Reed, who is a cult hero in the UK, but relatively obscure in the states. My wife is mystified by my fascination with the "creepy" Reed, is "creeped out" by his films, and thinks I'm "gay" for "some dead actor."

But then, one must consider the fact that she doesn't drink.

In the ten years since his death in a Maltese pub, Reed's legend has grown, making him an icon of the ladmags, due largely to his alcohol-fueled misbehavior on British chat shows in the twilight of his career. Whether he was busking "Wild One" or snogging lesbian feminist Kate Millet and telling her, "I've had more fights in pubs than you've had hot dinners," the self-proclaimed "Mr. England" was always good for a laugh.

So I dig Ollie on two levels: first and foremost, for the films, and secondly as a negative role model. If I'm having a pint or two, I find myself channeling my inner Oliver Reed, but not to the point of getting into head-butting contests or anything like that.

Over the years, I've written a number of pieces about Ollie's movies, so now all of my essays, old and new, are being collected in The Oliver Reed Film Film Festival at OllieFilms.blogspot.com, a new blog that focuses on the filmography, the actor more than the drinker. Well, actually, in Oliver's case, the two are more or less inseparable.

If you dig the essays and want to see the films, please visit The Oliver Reed Store for DVDs of Ollie's Greatest Hits.

For your listening pleasure, check out The Mal Thursday Show #6, a tribute to The Girl-Getters (a/k/a The System), with cool sound clips and the rockin' sounds of various British and American beat groups.