cigarjoe
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Brainstorm (1965) Is He or Isn't He?
Directed by William Conrad (My Blood Runs Cold (1965), Two on a Guillotine (1965), Naked City TV Series (1958–1963), 77 Sunset Strip TV Series (1958–1964)). himself a veteran actor in Classic Noir, i.e., (The Killers (1946), Body and Soul (1947), Sorry, Wrong Number (1948), Tension (1949), Cry Danger (1951), The Racket (1951), 5 Against the House (1955)). Written by Mann Rubin (screenplay), and Lawrence B. Marcus (story). Cinematography was by Sam Leavitt (Crime in the Streets (1956), The Defiant Ones (1958), Anatomy of a Murder (1959), The Crimson Kimono (1959), Cape Fear (1962)) and music by George Duning (Gilda (1946) stock music, Blind Spot (1947), The Big Heat (1953), The Lineup (1958), Screaming Mimi (1958), Naked City TV Series (1958–1963));
The film stars Jeffrey Hunter (Fourteen Hours (1951), Man-Trap (1961)) as Jim Grayam, Anne Francis (Bad Day at Black Rock (1955), Girl of the Night (1960)) as Lorrie Benson, Dana Andrews (6 Classic Noir ) as Cort Benson, Viveca Lindfors (Backfire (1950), This Side Of The Law (1950)) as Dr. Larstadt, Kathie Browne (City of Fear (1959)) as Angie DeWitt, and Strother Martin (The Asphalt Jungle (1950), Scandal Sheet (1952), Kiss Me Deadly (1955), The Big Knife (1955), Harper (1966)) as Mr. Clyde.Jim Grayam (Hunter), a brilliant moon rocket systems research analyst for Benson Industries "an Einstein from the East", is driving back from the lab in the San Fernando Valley late at night. He comes upon a car parked upon a railroad crossing.
Inside the car is a beautiful woman Lorrie Benson (Francis). A train is fast approaching the doors are locked and the woman is not responding to his frantic attempts to awaken her. Grayam in desperation grabs a rock, breaks the window, and drives off the crossing just before the streamliner roars through.
Jim Grayam (Hunter)
train's a-coming
He opens her purse, checks her I.D. finds out her name is Lorrie Benson and that she lives in Beverly Hills. He drives her to her hilltop mansion.
"everything that belongs to me stays mine."
Cort Benson (Dana Andrews ) and Lorrie Benson (Anne Francis)
When Lorrie comes to she announces that she finally got the courage up to attempt suicide. She is distraught because her husband is a manipulating sadist. "everything that belongs to me stays mine." Cort Benson (Andrews) her husband and Jim's boss, offers Jim a reward of $1,000 for saving his wife's life. Jim rejects the money. Tell his boss at the lab that "he likes to earn his money, not stumble upon it by accident." Lorrie call him up thanking him for the other night and telling Jim that he really shook up her husband who she states "thought everyone had a price tag."
When Lorrie begins to take a serious shine to Jim, Cort begins a campaign of discreditation (has a woman claim that he has been making obscene phone calls) and subterfuge that questions Jim's mental stability that actually does have some basis from an incident from Jim's past. It appears to his coworkers that he's having a nervous breakdown.
The Company orders that Jim is evaluated by Dr. Elizabeth Larstadt (Lindfors), a therapist. She does some tests and finds him to have a volatile personality. Jim figures that he'll outsmart them all and begins a personal campaign to fake temporary insanity so that he can murder Benson, in a sort of demented impulse, escape the murder charge and have Lorrie and her millions to himself.
Dr. Elizabeth Larstadt (Lindfors)
Arrested, charged, tried, and declared insane he's shipped off to a mental institution whose head headshrinker is Dr. Elizabeth Larstadt. Thinking now that he'll play along with Larstadt and gradually convince her that he's cured, Jim is stunned when Lorrie comes to visit the institution and tells him that she can't see him anymore. He is then really sent off the deep end to Noirsville when he watches her embrace and kiss her husband's chauffeur through a barred window.
Noirsville
Mr. Clyde (Martin)
Screencaps are from the Warner's On Demand DVD, Conrad delivers a straightforward noir tale with a few stylistic flourishes 7/10.Full review with more screencaps here: http://noirsville.blogspot.com/2017/03/brainstorm-1965-is-he-or-isnt-he.html
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Note that I say 1959 for two reasons; the number of noirs was fairly steady until the drop off between 1959 and 1960 and the fact Odds Against Tomorrow was released in 1959 and feature two iconic noir performers in Ryan and Grahame, as well as Winters (but yea this last reason shows how sentimental I am)!.
There was a drop but then a small uptick again in 1962. (But again) how many of those "B" and "C" independent films between 1959 and 1968 do we ever see on TCM or hear about? There could be more of them that premiered played for a week and then slipped into obscurity.
To me two things were happening, a hole was punched at the bottom of the noir barrel with the slow shutdown of B production and a lot of that talent was pouring into TV Crime shows. At the top whiffs of noir style were evaporating off into psychological thrillers, suspense, horror, drama, syfy, exploitation, and "social message" type pictures.
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One of the things I really like about this movie is that it's told mostly from the point of view of the female lead.
I can't think of many noirs which are like that. Let's see...
Undercurrent: Katharine Hepburn
Lured: Lucille Ball
The House on Telegraph Hill: Valentina Cortesa
Sorry Wrong Number: Barbara Stanwyck
There are some which alternate the points of view, like The Strange Love of Martha Ivers and In a Lonely Place.
However, seems to me that most other noirs are from the male point of view. Nothing wrong with that, because in a lot of noir, it's the main character who meets the femme fatale, etc. Still, it's a nice change to see some noir which takes a different point of view.
Doesn't Raw Deal (1948) have the voice over narration from Claire Trevor?
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I want to include my vote for Noir Alley, a great idea, mind you, but a poor time slot. Sunday morning at 10:00 A.M. Eastern time? That's 7:00 A.M. Pacific time. May I suggest Saturday or Sunday evening at 6:00 P.M. or Sunday Night at 10 P.M leading into Silent Movies at midnight Eastern time.
Agree didn't they do "Darkness Before Dawn" in the same or similar slot. Sunday Morning at 10AM is a great time slot for musicals, lol.
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Party Girl is considered another...From the many and varied books written about Film Noir the often quoted time frame that these films fit into is usually 1941 to 1958 some occasionally stretch to 1959. Who came came up with this initially, and why is it so strictly adhered too? Anybody got a guess?The more Noirs I watch the more I'm questioning this. I'm beginning to come around to a different thought, and that is that Classic American Film Noir stretched from say 1940 to 1968 (1968 being the last general use of B&W film in production) here is the breakdown by year of Black & White Noirs (there may be a few more to add in, in that 1959 to 1969 stretch I'm still finding more (the 1959 cut off possibly for major studio production but independent productions continued):1940 (5)1941 (11)1942 (5)1943 (5)1944 (18)1945 (22)1946 (42)1947 (53)1948 (43)1949 (52)1950 (57)1951 (39)1952 (26)1953 (21)1954 (26)1955 (20)1956 (19)1957 (12)1958 (7)1959 (7)1960 (2)1961 (3)1962 (8)1963 (1)1964 (5)1965 (7)1966 (2)1967 (2)1968 (1)1969 (1)I'm also thinking now that the Color Film Noirs within this 1940-1968 time frame were the first Neo Noirs so that the two sub genres/styles actually overlap. The catalyst for this new alignment is when I read a quote about Neo Noir that said that if the filmmakers made a conscience decision to film in black and white when color was the norm then it was an artistic decision and not one of necessity for budget purposes, Same the other way if B&W was the norm for low budget B Noirs then it was an artistic decision to film it color.The color film Noir the first 30 years (again there maybe a few more in these early years but they as a whole really up ticked in the 1980s and 1990's):1945 (1)1947 (1)1948 (1)1953 (2)1955 (3)1956 (3)1958 (1)1966 (1)1967 (1)1969 (1)1970 (2)1971 (4)1972 (1)1973 (0)1974 (2)
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I like Gloria Grahame also for Classic Noir but Audrey Totter and Marie Windsor both come a close second, followed by Lizabeth Scott, Evelyn Keyes, and Ida Lupino.
Here is breakdown of the numbers of Film Noir that it's most popular Femme Fatales appeared in (BTW there are more actresses with 4 or less films that I left out).
Joan Bennett - 5
Joan Crawford -10
Linda Darnell - 5
Rhonda Fleming - 5
Gloria Grahame - 9
Susan Hayward - 5
Rita Hayworth - 3
Evelyn Keyes - 7
Ida Lupino - 16
Dorothy Malone - 7
Agness Morehead - 6
Ruth Roman - 6
Lizabeth Scott - 7
Anne Sheridan - 4
Barbara Stanwyck - 9
Audrey Totter - 9
Claire Trevor - 10
Marie Windsor - 5
Shelley Winters - 11
For Neo Noir here are my favorites:
Kathleen Turner - Body Heat
Linda Fiorentino - The Last Seduction
Isabella Rossellini - Blue Velvet
Ellen Barkin - Siesta
Joanne Whalley - Kill Me Again
Virginia Madsen - The Hot Spot
Lena Olin - Romeo Is Bleeding
Rosanna Arquette - The Wrong Man
Laure Marsac - Hit Me
Patricia Arquette - Lost Highway
Gina Gershon - This World, Then The Fireworks
Hilary Swank - The Black Dahlia
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Ok, but none of that takes away from how well-done and enjoyable ( and noirish) Huston's Maltese Falcon is.
Actually I wake Up Screaming released just a few weeks later was far and away more Noir-ish visually than The Maltese Falcon.
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would you believe that? i live in scandinavia and turner classic movies (nordic version) no longer air classic movies, but has instead started airing 21st century flicks, sometimes perhaps once a week there will be an airing of an older flick, but not any of the great classics. i used to watch tcm regularly since i prefer older movies, and i find it pretty funny a channel including the words "classic movies" in the title no longer air classic movies.
ADRIAN! ADRIAN!
waste,
of space.
You sure you were not just watching the 31 Days of Oscar
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Top Twelve
Once Upon a Time in The West
The Good The Bad And The Ugly
The Wild Bunch
The Searchers
Hombre
McCabe & Mrs. Miller
The Tall T
Man Of The West
The Ox Bow Incident
Ulzana’s Raid
High Noon
Ride Lonesome
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I seem to remember some reference to cost accounting being made by one of the characters in Mirage ... maybe it was Walter Abel. That may have impressed the idea into Peck's head.
Joe's comments about Matthau and Kennedy are interesting. The first time I saw Mirage, it was on NBC (I think) as one of their "Saturday Night at the Movies" or something similar, back in the 1960s. That was the first time I ever saw Matthau and Kennedy. So my first impression of Kennedy was that he was a tough guy, but I saw Matthau as kind of a comedian.
I would like to give a plug to Robert Harris, as the psychiatrist. His scenes with Peck are pretty good.
It was the opposite for me I'd never seen Mirage or Slaughter on 10th Avenue, and knew Matthau from the Odd Couple and other comedies.
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It's been a while since I saw Mirage, Joe, but I recall thinking that it was a fun thriller if, indeed, one that you might not be inclined to take too seriously story-wise. (Hardly unique for the thriller genre). It's certainly enjoyable as a slick time waster.
I'm a little surprised you're so rough on it.
Well, I've seen Mirage twice now. The first time I let it all slide as a time waster.
This second go round I was paying more attention. Stillwell is supposed to have amnesia, but he somehow he thinks he's an accountant, thinks he's lost two years of his life, uses a telephone exchange that's two years old, when he goes home to his refrigerator it's completely empty, when he checks it with the detective later its full. He goes to his accounting office in Manhattan but there is no door. The doorman who knows him the first time is replaced by another who doesn't. We find out later that he was a research scientist, so where did he get the idea that he was an accountant? Was he an accountant two years ago and switched field to a research scientist?
It's almost as if they (the filmmakers) wanted you to think that the Major and his cronies were trying to make Stillwell think he was going insane, which doesn't make any sense either if they were trying to get at that formula. The other question is why doesn't Shela just tell him what they want. It didn't help that I watched Brainstorm (1965), where Danna Andrews is trying to do just that to Jeffrey Hunter.
Another observation that is interesting is that your perceptions of actors in films are subjugated to the time period and way in which they get imprinted in your memory. For example I've hardly ever seen any of Dick Powell's musicals. I first saw Powell in Murder My Sweet and they subsequently all his Film Noirs so I imprint-ed him as a hard boiled tough guy. In this film I've imprinted both Matthau and Kennedy as light comedy actors so it's hard to get around this imprinting and take them too seriously, Matthau is even being a bit of a goof in this. I have since seen Matthau playing the bad guy in Slaughter on Tenth Avenue (1957) and of course later his Charley Varrick (1973) but he's always gonna be type cast as a comedy actor in my mind. It's a similar scenario for Kennedy.
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Mirage (1965) Big Budget Bust
The film is a bit of a mess, it's never explained why Stillwell thinks he was an accountant, when he really was a research scientist, or why he thinks he has an office where there is none. It's almost as if the creators couldn't make up their minds which way to go, or they left some key parts of the novel (that I've never read) that would have explained all this out. 1966's Mister Buddwing also set in Manhattan with James Garner does the amnesia trope way better.The whole love story with Shela has zero chemistry and feels both rushed and tacked on. There is some nice noir-ish cinematography that bookend the piece and good NYC location work but for a noir way too much in the middle seems to be either on what looks like Hollywood sets or shot in broad daylight. It's a film where nothing seems to gel. Screencaps are from the Universal DVD. Worth a watch if you can rent it 6/10.Full review with more screencaps here: http://noirsville.blogspot.com/2017/03/mirage-1965-big-budget-bust.html
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A 1965 Neo Noir thriller directed by Edward Dmytryk (Murder, My Sweet (1944), Cornered (1945), Crossfire (1947), The Sniper (1952)). Screenplay was by Peter Stone. Cinematography was by Joseph MacDonald (The Dark Corner (1946), Call Northside 777 (1948), The Street with No Name (1948), Panic in the Streets (1950), Fourteen Hours (1951), Niagara (1953), Pickup on South Street (1953), House of Bamboo (1955)). Music was by Quincy Jones (The Pawnbroker (1964), In Cold Blood (1967)).
The film stars Gregory Peck (Spellbound (1945), Cape Fear (1962)), Diane Baker, Walter Matthau (Slaughter on Tenth Avenue (1957), Charley Varrick (1973)), George Kennedy Leif Erickson, Walter Abel, and Kevin McCarthy.
A lower Manhattan skyscraper has a blackout. David Stillwell (Peck) an accountant decides to leave by the darkened stairs rather than wait for the lights to come back on. He meets a woman Shela (Diane Baker) on the landing, She seems to know him but he does not know her. Alarmed, she flees down from the street level into a sub-basement.
Splattered on the pavement outside is the body of peace activist Charles Calvin (Walter Abel) an apparent suicide. When Stillwell returns to the stairwell, there is no sub-basement. A man coveralls in the building's power plant, Willard (George Kennedy), tells him to leave.
At Stillwell's apartment, a stranger, Lester (Jack Weston), pulls a gun on him. He orders Stillwell to go meet "the Major" and to take his briefcase with his papers. Stillwell swings his briefcase at the gun man catching him off guard. He knocks him out and dumps him in a janitorial closet out in the hall.
Reporting this assault to NYPD he gets agitated by basic questions about his background information. He storms out and finds a psychiatrist, Dr. Broden (Robert H. Harris). He realizes he has no memory, Broden tells him that amnesia for two years without being aware of it is impossible.
Stillwell sitting by Columbus Circle spots a sign for the AAA Detective Agency. In the office is Ted Caselle (Walter Matthau). He tells Stillwell that he's his first case. With Caselle's and Shela's help Stillwell begins to remember and piece his life back together.
The film is a bit of a mess, it's never explained why Stillwell thinks he was an accountant, when he really was a research scientist, or why he thinks he has an office where there is none. It's almost as if the creators couldn't make up their minds which way to go, or they left some key parts of the novel that would have explained all this out. 1966's Mr. Buddwing also set in Manhattan with James Garner does the amnesia trope way better.
The whole love story with Shela has zero chemistry and feels both rushed and tacked on. There is some nice noir-ish cinematography that bookend the piece and good NYC location work but for a noir way too much in the middle seems to be either on what looks like Hollywood sets or shot in broad daylight. It's a film where nothing seems to gel. Screencaps are from the Universal DVD. Worth a watch if you can rent it 6/10.Full review with more screencaps here: http://noirsville.blogspot.com/2017/03/mirage-1965-big-budget-bust.html
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Can't say I'm a fan of this film, mainly because the Mitchum persona isn't used to its noir potential. Of course in 1946 the director didn't know that decades later Mitchum would become a noir icon.
Agree, not a fave of mine either.
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"The Paleface" (1922)--Clueless butterfly watcher Buster Keaton takes on a tribe of Indians evil oil barons are trying to evict. Amusing Keaton short has a couple hair-raising stunts someone performed. Best part--Keaton outwitting an Indian trying to burn him at the stake.
Source--YouTube.
One of the sequences in this was the inspiration for the Jack Elam - fly sequence in Sergio Leone's Once Upon A Time In the West
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The Love Statue (The Love Drug) (1965) The Beat Turns OnIt's a curious melange of the relationship between Paul and Emily in Breakfast at Tiffany's, drug pushing in The Man With The Golden Arm, and the surreal sequences of withdrawals in both Stakeout On Dope Street, and Lost Weekend. It also portrays possibly the first predator Gay pickup of a drunk, sort of a date rape without the date, it's a creepy sequence.The film also captures that curious fringe time between the end of The Beats and the beginning of The Age Of Aquarius. A non union film, The Love Statue was shot guerilla style on the streets of New York, it also captures nicely the Greenwich Village Art Scene and NYC circa 1965. Director Durston informs us that the films original title "The Love Drug" could not be used because theater managers would not put it on their marquees. It's a "C" picture throughout showing some humorously pathetic attempts at some "European" style but it's a film with a lot of heart. Some of the performances and sequences are well done others are lacking in ability or clunky, but it's still a fun watch.Star Peter Ratray reminds me of Matt Damon, his performance is excellent. Harvey J. Goldenberg has an aura of Woody Allen, he's quite funny when he's critiquing Tyler's work. Beti Seay's Lisa gives off a Laura Petrie, Mary Tyler Moore vibe, but it's her evil twin. The uncredited actor who plays Josh the pusher is quite good also. Hisako Tsukuba couldn't speak a word of English so her lines are all done phonetically, but it adds to the overall "spaciness" of her character. Director Durston in the extras on the DVD tells us that he did indeed drop acid prior to directing the film in order to give it authenticity.Apparently the film had some added sexploitation scenes inserted once The Motion Picture Production Code was canned. The Secret Key has restored the film to it's original premier version. The Love Statue, according to Durston had a two week original run. A curious artifact 6/10.Full review here in Film Noir and Gangster thread and also with more screencaps here: http://http://noirsville.blogspot.com/2017/03/the-love-statue-love-drug-1965-beat.html
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The Love Statue (The Love Drug) (1965) The Beat Turns On
Dig this. There's this struggling loft dauber in The Village named Tyler, he's kept in bread by this angel, Lisa, a leotard dancer grooving her stuff at The Bitter End Café down around the corner.
Tyler is a snagged stag. This chick Lisa is jazzing it with Tyler, whenever she makes the scene at the loft. This arrangement of lustful convenience with no real love, has both Tyler and Lisa blowing their jets.
Tyler's creativity is not the only thing he's struggling with apparently his sex life with Lisa is also sputtering. They have another row. Things get rough and Lisa hits him over the head with a vase. Lisa tends to his wounds, sticks a wad of bills in his hand, puts on her rags and splits. Tyler runs up to the roof and screams that he doesn't want her money. He throws the wad of cash down to the street. Lisa struts back and picks it up out of the cobblestones and tells Tyler to pick her up after her set.
Tyler (Ratray) and Lisa (Seay)
"I don't want your money"
Stan, Tyler's crazy sculptor buddie drops by schlepping buckets of clay. He's a sort of cheep creep. He got evicted from his studio and needs a place to crash. Tyler gives him shelter from the storm.
"Tyler you're getting some style." After helping him carry in his clay, Tyler heads down to The Bitter End Café. At the cafe he catches Mashiko (actually Hisako "Choco" Tsukuba - was in 1964 "Big In Japan") a Japanese torch singer doing her number.
The Beats are cool with her and her song thinking she's The End even though they can't dig a word. Tyler is spotted by some of his friends and waved over to their table.
Bitter End Buddy: What's the kick?
Tyler: Hey you know same old thing.
Josh: Lisa huh? Our little sex symbol putting you down?
Tyler: Nothing seems to be going right. I can't paint, I can't do anything. I feel Like I'm being smothered, you know what I mean?
Josh: Yea I'm hipped man you're bugged, and I know what you need.
Tyler: What's that?
Bitter End Buddy: Nothing, Josh was just jiving, aren't you Josh?
Josh (to the stage): Hey Mashiko come over here.
Bitter End Buddy: Why don't you cool it man.
Josh: Buddy don't sweat it. Come over here honey, Mashiko I'd like you to meet Ty. Honey you were groovy. Honey our boy Ty here has a problem, you think we could sort of help him out? Guide him up the path to eternal freedom.
Bitter End Buddy: Why don't you lay off.
Josh: Why don't you lay off Batman, I'm just looking out for Ty's welfare. Ty's got problems and we're all concerned right, ain't that right Mashiko? He needs a release and it's up to us to show our brothers the light. Dig me.
Tyler: Come on cut it out.
Josh: You need a new dream right? New revelations, put yourself in old Daddy Josh's hands.
Mashiko: You wish to experience new horizons make you feel the power of the earth and of the sky.
Bitter End Buddy: The sky above and the mud below.
Tyler: Hey what is all this jive?
Mashiko: In my world dreams become true.
Josh: Anamorphic images.
Bitter End Buddy: Dig my man Webster.
Josh: Mythic revelations.
Tyler: Hey ah, maybe I'm drunk but I don't get what you're rapping about at all.
Josh: LSD
Tyler: LS what?
Mashiko: LSD it's the newest thing in dreams.
LSD the newest thing in dreams Bitter End Buddy: Instant psychoanalysis babe.
Tyler: Aaay, if you're talking about what I think you're talking about, no you got the wrong pigeon, I like my nightmares just the way they are.
Josh: Man you don't know until you get (snaps fingers) turned on yourself.
Tyler: Ah you're pushing Josh, I said forget it.
Mashiko: If you should change your mind. You can reach me anytime (gives him her card).
Tyler splits the table, content on being a just a juicehead. He orders a double from Arnie a waiter. Lisa comes on doing her "leo-tart" dance shaking her buns of steel booty hypnotically for the beats. Tyler, now drunk, stops the dance and asks the audience "now that you've seen the merchandise do I have any bids." Lisa kicks him off the stage and walks right over him.
Lisa's "leo tart" dance
Tyler, stumble/stomps out of the café, later, sloppy drunk he's passed out along an iron fence on a Greenwich Village street. In what may be the first depiction of a predatory gay pick-up, a homosexual man tries to take advantage of Tyler offering him a tar bar/kick stick and asking him if he'll let him "help" him back up to his apartment. It's sort of an attempted date rape without the date. Tyler's not that drunk figures it out and begs off.The Predator Gay Pickup
Later Lisa drifts up to the loft and she and Tyler, after an attempt at sex, have another war of words. Lisa verbally castrates him and Tyler throws her out.
Frustrated, Tyler remembers Mashiko's offer, and finds her card and the address to her pad. He runs out of the loft passing Stan on the stairs who is bringing a model up to pose. At Mashiko's there's an acid party going on, there Tyler makes it with Mashiko and drops acid he turns on, tunes in, and drops out.
Acid Party
Three days later at the loft Stan has finished a sculpture of a goddess in clay. Lisa is desperately questioning him frantic about Tyler's disappearance, thinking she should call the fuzz. Stan tells her not to worry.
Tyler has been on a three day acid trip. Mobile again, but still tripping, he stumbles out of Mashiko's into The Village and he hallucinates his way back to the loft (accompanied by a crazy bongo leitmotif) where he imagines that Stan's clay sculpture comes alive, and that he has made love to her.
He finally comes down when laying on the floor of the loft, Lisa pokes him awake with her high heel. Lisa tells him that she has been terribly worried, then she tries to embrace him, but Tyler rejects her, telling her that "it's over Lisa." He takes off out of the loft and heads up to Central Park free from manipulating Lisa and high on life. Lisa is stunned and incensed.Lisa comes back down to the loft later while Tyler is still out traipsing about Central Park and destroys everything even Stan's precious sculpture. Stan arrives back at the loft sees all the destruction and totally freaks out killing Lisa with his knife. When Tyler finally gets to the loft he finds Lisa's body amongst the wreckage. He panics and flees into the city.
Wandering about lower Manhattan slightly dazed, he spots Stan's model and follows her down into a subway station, onto an uptown train. Desperate he finally convinces her to help him, telling her to call if she hears from Stan.
When Stan finally calls she sets up a rendezvous at Central Park. When Tyler confronts Stan, he pulls his knife and abducts his model, dragging her into his lead sled and taking off upstate for a little dam in Noirsville.
The Love Statue is an interesting and curious melange of Breakfast at Tiffany's, The Man With The Golden Arm, Stakeout On Dope Street, and Lost Weekend. Capturing that curious fringe time between the end of The Beats and the beginning of The Age Of Aquarius. A non union film, The Love Statue was shot guerilla style on the streets of New York, it also captures nicely the Greenwich Village Art Scene and NYC circa 1965. Durston informs us that the films original title "The Love Drug" could not be used because theater managers would not put it on their marquees. It's a "C" picture throughout showing some humorously pathetic attempts at some "European" style but it's a film with a lot of heart. Some of the performances and sequences are well done others are lacking in ability or clunky, but it's still a fun watch.
Directed by David E. Durston, written by David E. Durston and Robert A. Poore. Cinematography was by Amin Q. Chaudhri, Music by Sandy Barnett (musical director), and Rudy Traylor (music editor). The film stars Peter Ratray as Tyler, Tyler, Beti Seay as Lisa, Harvey J. Goldenberg as Stan, Nancy Norman as The Model, Gigi Darlene as The Statue, Hisako Tsukuba as Mashiko, Coleman Younger as Nick, Mario DeRosa as Gay guy on street, and Liz Otto as Loud woman at bar.
Peter Ratray reminds me of Matt Damon, his performance is excellent. Harvey J. Goldenberg has an aura of Woody Allen, he's quite funny when he's critiquing Tyler's work. Beti Seay's Lisa gives off a Laura Petrie, Mary Tyler Moore vibe, but it's her evil twin. The uncredited actor who plays Josh the pusher is quite good also. Hisako Tsukuba couldn't speak a word of English so her lines are all done phonetically, but it adds to the overall "spaciness" of her character. Director Durston in the extras on the DVD tells us that he did indeed drop acid prior to directing the film in order to give it authenticity.
Apparently the film had some added sexploitation scenes inserted once The Motion Picture Production Code was canned. The Secret Key has restored the film to it's original premier version. The Love Statue, according to Durston had a two week original run. A curious artifact 6/10.Full review with more screencaps here: http://noirsville.blogspot.com/2017/03/the-love-statue-love-drug-1965-beat.html
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cigarjoe, I respect you, but - don't we already have a thread about this?
How come we need a second one?
I hate it when there are two threads at the same time about the same thing.
Blame the search engine, I put in Noir Alley and nothing came up, I don't live on these boards, so I didn't recall there was a thread
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If you get the all region Spanish DVD on Amazon it's about $10 the Audio: English, Spanish - All Regions [DVD] why wait, or worry.
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Don't remind me.
Something against Muller or Noir?
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Hosted by Eddie Muller Sunday Mornings TCM schedule below :
http://1166199035.rsc.cdn77.org/TCM-00125_NoirAlley-Schedule.pdf
I Just Watched...
in General Discussions
Posted