Watching 'Play Misty for Me'

A few random thoughts on Play Misty for Me:

I’ve been meaning to watch this movie since I was renting VHS tapes at Erol’s Video Club in Springfield. I don’t know how many times I’d linger over the VHS sleeve, read the description, and eventually put it back in favor of something I wanted to see more on that particular night. This is probably my number-one also-ran from those days.

I’ve also been more interested in watching movies from the 70s lately. Unlike the 80s, which I remember pretty well and when I watched a lot of current movies, the 70s is a time I was alive, but have little functional memory of. Snippets here and there, of course, but all from a child’s point of view. It’s interesting to get an adult perspective, even if it’s through the filter or a psycho-stalker suspense movie.

It’s melodramatic and over-the-top, and certainly a prototype for Fatal Attraction. (There’s even a Madame Butterfly reference.) Unlike Michael Douglas in that movie, Clint Eastwood’s jazz deejay character isn’t cheating on anyone here; he’s just a cad.

The woman who goes from groupie to stalker in no time flat is played by Jessica Walter, an actor who I never really took notice of until her turn as Lucille Bluth on Arrested Development. She’s effective in this, especially early on, in that she pretty naturally amps up Eastwood’s frustration level whenever she appears, and always manages to take charge of their conversations. Eastwood’s good, too.

BTW, if you ever wanted to see Young Clint walk around in his tighty-whities, here’s your chance.

A couple odd, peripheral scenes to mention: In one, Eastwood’s dejay buddy is about to smoke a joint. Clint declines the offer to share, asking him to do it in the other room so he can keep a clear head. Which manages to depict the drug use without it actually being on film, as the camera stays on Eastwood and the doorway during their conversation. Maybe it was a MPAA ratings thing?

Also, no surprise, but Eastwood’s love of jazz brings the plot to a dead stop for a little while, as we see ten minutes of footage of the Montery Jazz Festival. No complaints here; it’s a wonderful glimpse.

And finally, I have to mention that there’s one brief shot where you can see one of Jessica Walter’s boobs. Not entirely unexpected for this kind of movie (it’s actually pretty restrained in that regard), but nonetheless a strange moment, since to me she’s Lucille Bluth. I have never felt more like poor, conflicted Buster than at that moment.

Rob

Monday Arrested

Lately one of my big guilty pleasures is Magic's Greatest Secrets Finally Revealed, one of the masked magician shows that, well, do what the title promises. There are some neat tricks, it's true, although most of them can be explained like this: "She's hiding somewhere. Here's where." It's full of smarmy, leering voice-overs by the boss from the X-Files, and often seems to be an excuse to show a lot of scantily-dressed assistants crouching or otherwise contorting themselves.

But hey, magic!

Anyway, the simplicity of those tricks (even many of the big ones) brought my favorite tv magician, Gob Bluth to mind--and his arch-nemesis, Tony Wonder:

Rob

25 Random Facts About Your Humble Host

Because I need a blog post, and because I’ve been tagged by everyone on this (seriously: someone tagged me as I was writing this), I feel less like surfing and more like doing something, even if it is just typing, here are 25 random things about me.

1) I used to have a rubber mouse that I named “Jeeves.” I took him everywhere for about a year.
2) Man, do I like running my fingers between my toes.
3) Once upon a time, I was better at math than I was at English. Those days are long gone.
4) I love logic puzzles. I’ve even written one, and had it published in a national magazine.
5) I interviewed Penn & Teller. Over the telephone. Even Teller.
6) I also interviewed Neil Gaiman.
7) I periodically remember some of the really cool people I’ve met through the course of one job or another, and then the memory vanishes again. It’s like meeting a whole new me, whenever I do this.
8) I have seen Mel Brooks’ History of the World Part I more than any other movie. No other one even comes close.
9) My favorite Coen Brothers movie? Miller’s Crossing.
10) I used to have a big, ugly scar on my elbow, from a skateboarding crackup. In the nearly 30 years since, either the scar has gotten smaller or my elbow as a whole has gotten a lot uglier.
11) I’ve written one full-length play, and a number of short plays. I should do more of that.
12) I’ve got a secret.
13) I make the best jambalaya I’ve ever tasted.
14) My mom makes the best lasagna I’ve ever tasted.
15) I proposed to my wife, Kathy, in Kinsale, Ireland. Not a moment afterward, a dog was struck by a car. Hilarity ensued.
16) My favorite superhero is the Flash, but I hate to run.
17) We have a waffle iron that looks like Sylvester the cat, but makes waffles that look like Tweety Bird.
18) For some reason, I don’t get the kind of headaches that someone who consumes as much caffeine as I do ought to get.
19) I’ve been going to the Philadelphia Folk Festival since 1996. Thirteen years and counting!
20) Out of all the talents I’m envious of, more than anything I wish I could carry a tune.
21) The Lord of the Rings is fine, but give me Lloyd Alexander’s Chronicles of Prydain any day of the week.
22) Whenever one of our ferrets so much as hiccups, I worry all night.
23) Homicide: Life on the Street is still my favorite TV show. But Arrested Development comes damn close.
24) Clever gets you pretty damn far with me.
25) Despite #20, I am constantly singing when I’m alone, or with my wife. She loves me anyway.

That’s 25. I'm pretty sure everyone on the planet has participated in this little slice of meme heaven already, but if you haven't, feel free to leave a link to your blog entry in the comments, or post it on Facebook, where I'll also likely see it. Or hell, just post all 25 in my comments section.

Rob

Friday Arrested

Rob

Friday Arrested Development

Rob

Kill Your Television

We watched The TV Set, starring David Duchovny, on DVD the other night. It wasn't nearly as good as I'd hoped. It was written by Jake Kasdan, of The Zero Effect and Walk Hard, which I haven't seen) and produced by Judd Apatow, of, well, everything. If follows the trials of a writer trying to get his tv series picked up as a pilot, then as a series, while the network suits (led by Sigourney Weaver) strip out everything personal about it. It's ripe territory for satire, and I loved a Kevin Bacon movie from the 80s called The Big Picture which pretty much did the same thing with movies.

Problem is, having seen The Big Picture, I didn't see anything new in The TV Set. Even worse, the "heartfelt, personal" script that the show begins with felt tin and corny. Everyone talks about how good it is, but what we see is pretty much dreck -- it's just sappy dreck instead of lowbrow, fart-joke dreck. There are some okay moments in the film (I really liked a character bit about Taxi Driver -- in fact, Arrested Development's Judy Greer gives the best performance in the movie), but the film as a whole never really gets going, and is gone like the blue pinprick of light we used to see when we turned the tv off.

Maybe the main difference is that the The Big Picture was a romantic comedy, and The TV Set plays like a comic tragedy. But it's a personal tragedy for Duchovny's character alone. In the end, his personal vision for the show has been lost. For the viewers at home, a mediocre-at-best show has been replaced with a bad one, which isn't much of a loss at all.

Rob
(And no wonder The Big Picture is better; it's a Christopher Guest movie. I didn't know that until I fetched the link.)

Development Arrested

Fox is putting Arrested Development on hold. Not entirely unexpected, but horrible news just the same. I really don't understand why a show this funny gets such lousy ratings.

Rob

Roast Beef

Arrested Development is the funniest show ever.

Rob
"You gotta lock that down!"