This is my entry in the Disaster Blogathon hosted by Dubsism and Me



Stephen King has been off and on one of my favorite authors.  (I published a blog piece last year on how he influenced me, which you can read here.)  One of my favorite novels of his is The Stand, which was published way back in 1978.  In the summer of 1984 I had a job as a security guard in a manufacturing plant.  Since my main duties were to watch out for the computer room (this being back in the days when computers took up whole rooms and probably had less processing power than your current smart phone, but were extremely valuable), I had a lot of free time.  One of the books I read that summer was the original publication of The Stand.

In 1990, twelve years after the publication of the original, King brought out the "Complete and Uncut" edition of the book, in which he included much of the stuff that his publishers had forced him to leave out.  (Apparently, according to his preface, the publishers balked at releasing a 1200 page manuscript by a relatively new author and forced him to reduce it to a more manageable 800 page book, still a big book for a fledgling author, but compare that to the average book King puts out today.)

Was King a psychic?  The current spread of the Coronavirus is not near as devastating a disaster as the one described in the book, but one can't help but think of the current situation in the world today if one reads the book's first part (or watches part one of this miniseries).  Note: I would be less than honest if I did not tell you that King himself has recently tried to distance himself from comparisons of the "Super Flu" or "Captain Trips" described in The Stand from the current virus.  But when this blogathon idea first came to my attention back in November, it was the first film I thought of, and now it seems almost prescient that I chose it.

The book and film are both, by necessity, America-centric.  King himself, in the novel, never really delved into what happened in the rest of the world after he outbreak of the "Super-Flu".  Maybe the same thing happens in Russia and China and the rest of the world in some fashion. To be sure it's hard to imagine that some people didn't take the Super-flu with them outside of the continental United States.  That is the only flaw I see in the story however. 





The Stand (1994):

The whole thing starts with a mistake.  OK, so its not really all that much of a mistake.  The US military and the government have been working to create a lethal virus, ostensibly to be used in warfare.  But it is a series of mistakes and mishaps that gets it out into the open.  A mishap inside the military compound releases the virus and a security guard at the gate is told to shut down the complex.  But instead he panics and goes back to his home and gathers up his wfe and baby and hightails it before the override security can shut the gates.


Not long afterward the virus is everywhere.  In Manhattan, Larry Underwood (Adam Storke) arrives to visit his mother.  He recently left home to become a singer in Los Angeles, but he has overspent his advancement and has gone home to escape  his creditors.  And in rural Maine Frannie Goldsmith (Molly Ringwald)is helping her father who has come down with the disease.  Eventually only she and her nebbish admirer Harold Lauder (Corin Nemec) are survivors in the town.  Into this cast of characters is also cast Nick Andros (Rob Lowe), a deaf mute who is stuck in rural Arkansas after being attacked by a gang of hoodlums.

On the other side, there is a malcontent named Lloyd Henreid (Miguel Ferrer) who has been jailed after a foiled holdup in which his partner killed the store owner.  Lloyd's partner is killed, but Lloyd ends up in prison as an accessory.  There is also a character known only as Trashcan Man (Matt Frewer), an arsonist who likes setting fires to things.



The second part of the movie involves the gathering of these assorted characters.  Nick meets up with a good but retarded man named Tom Cullen (Bill Fagerbakke).  Frannie and Harold eventuall hook up with Stu and an older man Stu encountered, Glen Bateman (Ray Walston).  All are being haunted by dreams of both Abigail who is calling to them and Randall who scares the shit out of them.

Eventually the good guys end up having to move to classier digs, since after all there's not much room for them all at Abigail's home/farm, and they pack up to move to Denver, where the rest of whats left of the good guys end up meeting them.

While both sides try to recreate society in their own way, the good guys eventually have to come to the conclusion that the Las Vegas contingent isn't going to sit on their haunches and expect a mutual piece.  What happens next constitutes the second two parts of the movie. Even though the good guys would like to coexist with the bad guys and have it be let each other alone, they know the truth that Flagg and Co. are not going to let it be such a mutual co-existence.

There are some traitors among the good guys, as to be expected.  And eventually the Denver group decides to send spies to see what's going on.  But Flagg is a bit more cognizant of their intentions than they would like to believe.

My favorite TV series is, without a shadow of a doubt, the early 2000's TV series Monk.

If you've never seen an episode imagine Sherlock Holmes with more quirks and emotional deficiencies than you could shake a stick at.  Adrian Monk (Tony Shalhoub) is a former police officer who has gone downhill since the murder of his wife.  He was already a little quirky even before, but after her death he became almost catatonic.




With the series premiere, Monk is gradually working his way back to some semblance of normal.  At least as normal as an OCD compulsive, phobia-laden man can be.  With the help of his personal assistant (and nurse), Sharona Fleming (Bitty Schram), Monk becomes an essential go-to guy when the San Francisco police department is stumped (which happens just about as often as it did when Sherlock Holmes was brought in as a consultant for Scotland Yard).





He also is the favorite of many bigwigs in the city and state government.  In fact, even though initially Capt. Leland Stottlemeyer (Ted Levine) and his assistant L. Randy Disher (Jason Gray-Stanford) are resentful and reluctant to allow Monk to help in cases, both gradually develop a respect for him over the span of the series.




A few years after I became a devoted fan of the series I happened across a book "Mr. Monk Goes to the Firehouse" by Lee Goldberg.





This was the first in a series of books that Goldberg wrote with the "defective detective" as its star.   Goldberg went on to write a total of 15, both within the span of the history of the TV series and after the TV series ended.




My initial reaction when I first read "Mr. Monk Goes to the Firehouse" was that Goldberg had just taken the script (which he was co-author of, BTW, with William Rabkin) of an episode of the TV series and just novelized it, albeit with a few changes.  When I stated as much on my (now retired) book review blog ...and then, I read... as such, however, the author himself kindly informed me that the book came first and the script for the TV show was adapted from it.  [And I really appreciated him taking the time to correct me.  Made me feel good that anyone famous would even acknowledge I existed.  :-) ]

Anyway, I read all those books, even though I never got around to reviewing all of them on that blog.  (I didn't lose interest in reading, just lost interest in keeping up with multiple blogs.  This blog, The Midnite Drive-in was the winner in the blog derby.)  Unfortunately, a few years back Goldberg stepped away from the Monk novels and the reins were taken up by another author Hy Conrad.  I understand the need to not be bogged down with a series like that, but I definitely liked Goldberg's novels better.

Anyway, aside from those novels, Goldberg also wrote three of the TV screenplays for the series, along with co-author Rabkin.    The first to be aired was "Mr. Monk Goes to Mexico", the second episode of season 2.  The second to be aired was the fifth episode of season 3, "Mr. Monk Meets the Godfather".  And the last episode that Goldberg was involved with writing was the episode which was referred to above: "Mr. Monk Can't See a Thing", airing as the 4th episode of season 5.

Mr. Monk Goes to Mexico (original air date: June 27, 2003):




 Adrian Monk absolutely hates leaving San Francisco.  This can be seen throughout the series.  Occasionally he is called on to visit locations that remove him from his staid environs, and to a number he is always so far out of his element that he can be very hard to deal with, by either Sharona, his nurse (in the first seasons), or Natalie, his assistant (in later seasons).

But at least for the most part he hasn't had to leave the state of California.  But the mysterious death of the son of a bigwig in San Francisco (and, by chance, a good friend of the mayor) draws him to Mexico.  The son died when his parachute failed to open during a parachute jump, but the doctor in the morgue, Dr. Alameda (Jorge Cervera, Jr.) who is doing the autopsy, insists that he drowned... in mid-air, no less, since he was talking with others just before he jumped.  Thus the local constabulary in Mexico, Capt. Alameda (Tony Plana) and Lt. Plato (David Norona) are confused.  Enter Monk who, although reluctant, is able to make the trip because he has 18 suitcases full of stuff that he can't live without (including three or four with just bottled water, the only brand of water he drinks.)

But someone wants him off the case.  Or rather someone wants him dead.  First his entire suitcase collection is stolen (including his cherished water).  Then on several occasions someone tries to run him down while walking on the street.  With severe dehydration setting in (since he won't drink the water, and not just the local water, but any water than is not the brand he drinks, which seems to be unavailable.)

Monk does his usual investigations including talking with an obnoxious spring breaker, T.J. (Shiloh Strong) who challenges him to a drinking contest before he will hand over any information he has.  Of course, Monk doesn't drink, but Sharona does and whips the whippersnapper up one side and down the other of the pitcher of beer.  She later suffers from a hangover and the mysterious appearance of a bunch of fiesta beads.  (Even if you've never been to a Mardi Gras celebration you probably know how she got those beads, but she doesn't initially know.)

As he tries to solve this case, despite being hampered by his aversion to drinking the local water, Monk observes several things that lead him to discover the true culprit.  Which may leave you kicking yourself when you realize how well you have been fooled by the red herrings that Goldberg throws at you.  Should have been obvious from the start, I think, but I admit I didn't see it coming.


Mr. Monk Meets the Godfather (original air date: July 23, 2004):





In a barbershop that is actually a front for a Mafia numbers gambling racket several gangsters are shot and killed.

"Fat Tony" Lucarelli (Lochlyn Munro) and his "associate" (read: bodyguard) Vince (Oleg Zatsepin) approach Monk and Sharona in an effort to get them to discuss solving who committed the crime with Tony's uncle.  Tony's uncle is Salvatore Lucarelli (Philip Baker Hall), the local "godfather" of the SF Mafia.  He suspects the culprit is one of two rival gangs and wants Monk to find out.  Seeing the potential for causing gang warfare, however, Monk refuses.

But the FBI stick their fingers in the pie in the person of Agent Colmes (Rick Hoffman) who convinces Monk that if he works on the case the FBI will help to get him reinstated as a police officer (his dream).  Despite Stottlemeyers's objections, Monk agrees, because after all, the carrot that the FBI guy waves in front of his face is just what he wants.

There was  witness of sorts to the crime.  A government mint employee across the way from the barbershop.  Supposedly he saw the guy who went into the barbershop, and the culprit was wearing a jacket worn by the local Chinese tong (the Asian Mafia).

But when Monk goes to visit the tong leader he determines that they are innocent.  When a Molotov cocktail is thrown in to the building while he is there, however, it is apparent that someone else is not so convinced.

The true culprit behind everything, in true Monk fashion, has nothing whatsoever to do with who we think is involved.  Although this episode is the least of my favorites of the three episodes Goldberg wrote I have to admit I really liked the character of Fat Tony who is admittedly (by himself, at least) to be "very persuasive".  (Or maybe it's really Vince who is the persuasive one... You only have to see Vince to know he could convince you to do whatever Fat Tony wants...)

Mr. Monk Can't See a Thing (original air date:July 28, 2006):





The third and final episode in which Goldberg was credited is the one which was based on the aforementioned novel "Mr. Monk Goes to the Firehouse".

Monk and his assistant Natalie goe to the firehouse because Monk wants to be sure that the plethora of smoke alarms he has in his house are in working order.  Unfortunately while Monk is there a fire alarm goes off and all but he elderly Rusty (Art Evans) go off on a call.

While Rusty checks out the alarms (by puffing on a cigar and exhaling on them) a guy walks in like he owns the place.  When Rusty confronts him the guy hits him with a shovel, killing him.  When Monk tries to stop him, the guy throws solvent in his face, blinding him.

Monk of course is distraught at the loss of his eyesight, and receives no encouragement from the eye doctor who says he doesn't know if Monk's eyesight will return.  In order to get Monk focused on  things other than his potential perpetual blindness, Stottlemeyer forces Monk to focus on helping solve the crime of who killed Rusty and what the culprit was after.

Monk's acute powers of observation help him when he realizes that one of the fireman's jackets and helmets that were there when he came in the first time are now missing.  But finding the jacket and helmet later are of no real help because the homeless man who has them just found them abandoned.  Which causes Monk to wonder why someone would kill a man to steal the equipment and then later abandon it.

By far the most complex and thus most entertaining of the triplet of episodes, the story has many twists and turns.  And just when you think its about time for Monk to utter his iconic phrase "Here's what happened".... Bam! Another twist.

Goldberg has written dozens of scripts and story lines for TV shows and has written probably at least 100 novels (I'm too lazy to actually count, but he has written a lot.)  Aside from the series he wrote involving Monk he also has written several involving the TV series "Diagnosis: Murder",  "The Dead Man" series written with his co-author of the Monk episodes, William Rabkin, and one that just caught my eye and I intend to seek out,  a non-fiction book titled Unsold TV Pilots.  (I'm intrigued by just what doesn't sell on TV considering what actually makes it.  I once wrote a couple of blog entries years ago that I called "Spinoff Hell" in which I discussed some of the more obscure spinoffs that successful TV shows inspired.)

Here's hoping Goldberg sticks around (which may be for some time, because although I can't actually find his birth date online, he looks to be a fairly young chap)  I really like the stuff he writes.

Quiggy

This is my entry in the Richard Matheson Blogathon hosted by Wide Screen World and Moon in Gemini


"The last man on Earth sat alone in a room.  There was a knock at the door..."  (The shortest horror story ever written).


This is the story of a man and his (arguably) masterpiece of speculative fiction.






Richard Matheson (1926-2013) was one of the most prolific authors of the 20th century.  He was a favorite of Rod Serling who used Matheson's stories or original teleplays for no less than 16 episodes of the classic TV series The Twilight Zone, beginning with  the 11th episode of the first season ("And the Sky Was Opened", based on Matheson's short story, Disappearing Act.)  An incomplete list of Matheson's output for TZ would also include what eventually became the fan favorites of "Nightmare at 20,000 Feet", "The Invaders". "Nick of Time", "Third from the Sun" and my personal favorite "Once Upon a Time".

Not only are his short stories fodder for film adaptation, several of his novels have made it to the big and small screen.  The Incredible Shrinking Man?  That was Matheson.  The Legend of Hell House?  Matheson.  What Dreams May Come?  Also by Matheson.  And for you romantic ladies (and men), Somewhere in Time, the Christopher Reeve / Jane Seymour movie was based on a Matheson book.  Plus such TV series as Rod Serling's follow up to The Twilight Zone, Night Gallery went to the Matheson well, as well did The Outer Limits, the Showtime series Masters of Horror and even a British TV series, Journey to the Unknown.

Matheson's third novel (the first two are largely unknown and probably forgotten by most people except real Matheson completists) was a book called I am Legend, the story of one man left alone in a world that is full of vampires.  (That was the original novel premise.  More on the movie adaptations and what they changed later.)  The novel, as indicated in the heading of the first chapter of the book takes place about a half a year after some catastrophe has drastically changed the human race.  It is never really explained, but sometime late in 1974 some disease started to kill off the human population of Earth.  (The events of the novel start 5 months after the events in January of 1976).

In the book, Robert Neville, a former factory worker (although that is pure speculation based on some bits of text, we never really know what Neville did before), is holed up in his house where he manages  to survive.  He goes out at daytime looking for surviving victims of the plague or whatever it is, the survivors having been turned into vampires.  For most of the novel he is alone, except for the vampires who continually show up outside his door each night shouting for him to "come out, Neville!"

Eventually Neville does try to learn a bit about the nature of the beast, such as it is.  For instance what makes the vampires detest garlic?  Why do they avoid mirrors?  Why are some of them afraid of the Christian cross, but others are not?  (He discovers that particular thing is only true of Christian vampires, but also discovers that Jewish vampires, while not deterred by a cross are deterred by a Torah, and Islamic vampires shy away from a Koran.)  He spends much of the novel trying to investigate what the origin of the plague that killed off most of the population and turned the rest into vampires.  Fortunately for him he has a whole library of book nearby to aid in his quest, but the reality is at the end he doesn't understand it any better than he did when he started. (Note: Unlike the movies, in the novel Neville was NOT formerly connected to anything in the science field).

When Hollywood came to call, they were interested in the one man against the rest of the world concept.  Unfortunately, as will be seen, they really didn't care about the vampires as much as they did about the idea of plague victims.  Throughout all three versions that hit the theaters, the "vampires" morphed into something else entirely.  For instance, in the Heston movie "The Omega Man", the enemy pretty much is just a radical religious sect of people who suffered deformities caused by the plague.  You really even couldn't call them zombies.  Sure, they are seeking the blood of Heston's Neville, but only for retribution from the harm he and the scientists have caused which made the world as desolate as it is, not as an element of survival.






The Last Man On Earth (1964):

The problem I have with The Last Man on Earth, aside from the subpar acting on nearly everybody's part, including, unfortunately, Vincent Price, is the fact that the plague victims are supposed to be vampires (witness the garlic, mirrors and stakes through the heart), but they act more like zombies.  (In fact this movie was one of the noted inspirations for George Romero's classic zombie flick, Night of the Living Dead, so that should tell you something.)

The movie changed the main character's name from Neville to Morgan.  THe original script was written by Matheson himself from his novel.  When casting came around, Matheson saw the Morgan/Neville character as a virile, macho he-man.  He was leaning towards Jack Palance as his odds on favorite to play his novel's hero, but casting decided to go with Vincent Price.  Although Matheson agreed that Price was a good actor, he was not what Matheson viewed his character as being.

That in itself would have been discouraging, but the producers added insult to injury by bringing in another scriptwriter, William F. Leicester, to make changes in the script.  The result was that Matheson asked that his name be removed from the credits, opting to use the pseudonym of "Logan Swanson".

Of the three "official" versions of the book, The Last Man on Earth is the least interesting.  It's not entirely bad, however.  Just the quality suffers a little.  (and it doesn't help that Rome, the setting for this version,  doesn't look a bit like the Los Angeles of the following two movies or the setting of the novel).

The Omega Man (1971):

Charlton Heston is Neville, the star of the movie.  He plays a military scientist who, through a series of unfortunate events, becomes immune to the virus that has turned the rest of the world into albino religious nuts.  He goes out by day, hunting the plague victims and holes up in his penthouse at night while the plague victims, led by Anthony Zerbe, assail his fortress.  The basic premise of the novel of them being vampires was rejected in favor of them being just creatures who can't see in the daylight.  And instead of them seeking the blood of Heston for survival, they are only out to take out the last remaining member of a society that caused the plague to befall the Earth in the first place.

One of the added features is that Zerbe has formed a "Family", a pseudo-religious cult that seeks to eradicate all remaining evidences of advanced technology, which they see as evil.  As such, when at one point Neville is captured by the Family, they sentence him to be burned at the stake, much like the witches of Salem.  He is rescued by what turns out to be a crew of remaining members of the former world who, although not immune to the plague, have managed to stay free from it for the past year or two.  They are holed up in the outskirts of the town, and one member of the group, Lisa (Rosalind Cash), has a brother  Ritchie whom she thinks can be saved from the plague by Neville.

In this part we also see a change from the original novel.  In the novel, Neville never actually finds any survivors (although he briefly does hook up with a woman who may or may not be what she seems.)  The movie has to have a happier ending, so indeed there is some hope for the future at the end.  This is Hollywood sticking its fingers in the pie, because at the end of the novel it appears that there is no hope for a return to a society that Neville would call normal.

(For a more in-depth insight into this movie, see my review of The Omega Man that I wrote a few years ago.)

I Am Legend (2007):

Once again, Neville is cast as a true scientist.  Will Smith garnered the role, and he searches for a cure to the plague. The original plague was started by an altruistic scientist who had morphed a virus into a supposed 100% cure for cancer.  Once again altruistic science goes awry, as it often does in apocalyptic fiction, and the cure takes on a life of it's own, turning it's people into pseudo vampires.  (Vampires whose bite transfers the virus to it's victims.)  This particular version comes as close as it gets to transferring the book's vampires to film, although in this film the "vampires" are barely sentient, more like animals.

This version benefits from a bigger budget in many ways.  First the CGI vampires are much more menacing than actors in make-up could do.  It was also a pretty good choice when Will Smith came on board as Neville.  (A far cry from the original expected star;  rumors circulated that when the idea of a remake came about 10 years earlier, Arnold Schwarzenegger was going to be cast in the lead.  This rumor was accepted about as reluctantly by Matheson's fan base as the decision to cast Michael Keaton as Batman was prior to that movie's premiere.)

In all three movies, there is a happy ending of sorts in that the main character manages to pass on a cure to the plague before his own untimely death.  As stated before this is Hollywood's finger in the pie.  The novel was not so optimistic.

As a footnote, there was also a made for direct to video movie I Am Omega, which was released basically to cash in on the then current release of I Am Legend, but since I never found a copy of it prior to press time I can't tell you much about it.

Drive home safely, folks.  And be careful of whom you see on the road.

Quiggy

This is my entry in the April Showers Blogathon hosted by MovieMovieBlogBlog



"Who is Philip K. Dick?"  This question may cross your mind, especially if you are not a science fiction fan.  35 years ago the question might have even puzzled some sct-fi fans. (Dick had a following, to be sure, but even I, as an avid reader of sci-fi, was unaware of him until the Science Fiction Book Club made his last novel the featured selection one month.)  But today, it is probably a lot rarer to find people who have never even heard the name, even if they are not familiar with his work.  After all, Dick has been a hot commodity for sci-fi extravaganzas since the first adaptation of his work appeared on the big screen in 1982.  To be sure, even if you don't know who Philip K. Dick is, you have heard of his work, since almost a dozen adaptations of his novels and short stories have hit the theaters over the years.

The current TV series being produced by Amazon, The Man in the High Castle, is only the most recent film version of Dick's work (that being based on Dick's Hugo Award winning novel of the same name).  A list of movies you may have seen that were inspired by Dick's work include Total Recall (both the 1990 Schwarzenegger extravaganza and the recent remake, and to some extent the TV series Total Recall 2070), the Tom Cruise film Minority Report, director Richard Linklater's animated film version of A Scanner Darkly, and a handful of others, including today's entry, Blade Runner.  (BTW, later this year a sequel to the original Blade Runner is due to hit the theaters).

Dick had a fan base throughout his writing career, but he died in 1982, before the release of even the first theatrical film adaptation of his works, so he didn't get to see how his popularity increased over the years.  His works generally carried a theme of what it means to be human and what is reality.  You can really get some insight into Philip K. Dick by reading one of his biographies, the best of which, in my opinion, is a 2006 book, Counterfeit Worlds: Philip K. Dick on Film, which includes an overview of his life.







Blade Runner (1982)

Blade Runner is a (seemingly) never ending conundrum of a movie experience.  It was released in 1982.  But the director, Ridley Scott, apparently was never satisfied with it.  In 1992, he released "The Director's Cut", which eliminated Harrison Ford's voice-over and added a few scenes that had been left on the cutting room floor.  But even that was apparently unacceptable, so in 2007, "The Final Cut" was released.  In all there have been 7 versions of the film, some with very minor alterations, but still...  The Final Cut is the one that Scott likes the best, but I have always preferred the original theatrical release, mostly because Ford's narration adds a bit more of a film noir feel to the movie.  (The other two major versions cut this out).  My review will cover the Final Cut (although I miss the voice-over, there are key changes in the final cut that intrigue me)





The film takes place in the future of 2019 (from a 1982 view, 37 years in the future).  There seems to be a problem with overpopulation in the film, and the world is rather stark and gritty.  Rain is constantly falling and I think the rain adds a certain feel to what the movie is.  Rain as a metaphor can be seen as a cleansing agent, and if any world ever need cleansing it is the Los Angeles of 2019 as seen in this film.  Personally, I think it would take a rain of Biblical proportions to clean up this reality...






In this vision of the future, androids, called replicants, are almost identical to humans.  They are used as slave labor.  In the pre-history, from the movie's standpoint, a bunch of replicants banded together and tried to start a revolution, and as a result, a law was made that banned replicants from Earth.  This wasn't a "replicants must use the inferior bathrooms outside the establishment" type of banning, like the racist South did to the black people in the first part of the 20th century.  Replicants were under a death penalty if they were found on Earth, and a special unit of the police force, called "Blade Runners" was formed to hunt them down and exterminate them (called "retirement".)

The movie opens with an interview of Leon (Brion James), a suspected replicant.  The interview involves using a "Voight-Kampff machine", which supposedly, by way of several questions and readouts from it's screens, can determine whether a subject is human or a replicant.   During the interview Leon shoots his interviewer, thus exposing the fact that he is indeed a replicant.

Leon (Brion James)

Rick Deckard (Harrison Ford) is forced by his former boss to come out of retirement to hunt down this, and three other replicants; Leon, Zhora (Joanna Cassidy), Pris (Darryl Hannah) and Roy Batty (Rutger Hauer) have escaped from off-world and come to Earth, illegally.  (BTW, I'm not sure why Roy gets a last name, but the others don't, but I'm sure the reason is probably subversive...)

Deckard (Harrison Ford)

Zhora (Joanna Cassidy)

Roy Batty (Rutger Hauer) and Pris (Darryl Hannah)

At first, Decard is accompanied by Gaff (Edward James Olmos), an officer of the police force who speaks only in a cityspeak dialect and has an affinity for creating origami figures out of scraps of paper.  These origami figures aren't just random, however.  The first one is a chicken which he creates while Deckard tries to talk his way out of the job of hunting down the replicants.

Gaff (Edward James Olmos)

Deckard and Gaff go to Leon's apartment where they find a stash of pictures.  Why would an adroid, who only has a four-year life span, want to hold on to pictures?  This becomes part of the driving force of the picture, making it not just a cop tracking down criminals movie, but essentially dwelling on the Philip K. Dick theme of what defines a human.

On another track of the same theme, Deckard visits the Tyrell Corporation, where Dr. Eldon Tyrell (Joe Turkel) has Deckard use his Voight-Kampff device on his secretary, Rachel (Sean Young).  After a long session with the machine, Deckard determines that Rachel is a replicant.  But Rachel is a special "new prototype" replicant, one which has been given extensive memories, thus she thinks she has had a past, including growing up.  Once again, the "phildickian" theme comes into play.  Is she truly human just because she has memories? No.  Which calls into question, for those of us with the imaginative side anyway, are any of our memories truly our own... creepy, huh?

Rachel (Sean Young)

As to why these replicants came to Earth in the first place, that is revealed gradually over the course of the movie.  Roy Batty, as the leader, is very close to his expiration date (and if you question how, or why the replicants know they have an expiration date, you are in my same boat).  They have come to demand that Tyrell give them an extension on their lives.  They need a contact to get them in to see Tyrell, and they go to several people who are involved in the process to find a contact, killing each contact after their use to the replicants is done.

Ultimately, Deckard eventually terminates Zhora, Leon and Pris, leading to a final battle between Deckard and Roy Batty.  The replicant becomes a bit philosophical at the end:




"I've seen things you people wouldn't believe.  Attack ships on fire off the shoulder of Orion. I watched C-beams glitter in the dark near the Tannhauser gate.  All those moments will be lost in time.. like tears in rain. Time to die."

Spoiler Alert! The ending of the original theatrical release had Deckard and Rachel leaving together, heading North.  Gaff had left a telling origami of a unicorn, indicating that he had been at Deckard's apartment but had not retired Rachel.  In the final cut, a previous sequence involving a daydream of Deckard thinking about a unicorn was included, which seems to imply that Deckard himself is also a replicant (otherwise how would Gaff know about the unicorn memory...?)  The final cut deletes the actual scenes of Deckard and Rachel leaving, making their future less predictable.  Will Gaff eventually track down the pair and eliminate them both? We don't know.

One added note:  It's still raining at the end of this movie (unless you see the original cut, but those scenes take place outside the city).  I guess the cleansing is ongoing...

Hope you folks enjoyed the flick.  If my engine isn't waterlogged by now, its time to fire up the old Plymouth and head home.  Until, next time, watch out for replicants.  (Or if you are a replicant, then watch out for blade runners...)

Quiggy

Around the World in 80 Days is not so much a movie as it is an event, and one in which producer Michael Todd worked tirelessly to bring to the screen.  The background to this film is almost, if not more, interesting than the movie itself.  Robert Osborne of TCM fame gives an 8 minute long introduction on my DVD that enlightens with panache.

This was the ONLY movie that Michael Todd produced.  Given that it won the Academy Award for Best Picture, that is rather impressive on it's own.  The movie also has a plethora of cameo appearances. (Some 50 or so are listed on the wikipedia page, and there are probably even more, since I only can identify by sight about ½ of those on THAT list).  Todd was apparently quite the expert at talking people into doing appearances for him in this film.

In particular was the addition of Cantinflas (a Mexican playing a Frenchman, without, I might add, even trying to pretend that he was French).  Cantinflas had never made an English language film before, and in fact, had not made a film in which he was not involved in all aspects of the filming for quite some time.  But Todd got his Passepartout.  As well as his Fogg.  It seems David Niven was the only person Todd considered for the part, and Niven was enthusiatic about playing him.  But both of those are the stars.

Niven and Cantinflas

As far as cameo roles (and according to Osbourne's commentary, Todd's movie was the first to co-opt the term "cameo role"), the list is astounding.  People who have no lines, as well as certain roles that are a bit meatier than you would expect for a role termed as "cameo" fill out this film.  Just a smattering of names to drop : Frank Sinatra, Peter Lorre, Marlene Dietrich, Caesar Romero, John Carradine, Charles Boyer, George Raft, Victor McLaglen, Buster Keaton,  Sir John Guilgud, Noel Coward and many more.

Sinatra as a piano player, one of the many "cameos"

The picture really does not convey all it's magnificence on a small screen, even in wide screen format.  To do it justice, you really should view it on the big screen.  I vaguely recall seeing it that way on a re-release when I was a wee lad.  I don't think I knew half of what was going on, but I have memories of some magnificent vistas.  The film was the first to use Todd-AO film process, which incorporated the stle of Cinerama, but instead of having to use three separate cameras to capture the scenes, it only used one.

If you are blessed with a big screen TV and surround sound capabilities, I highly recommend this film for family movie night.  Even if you don't have $$ coming out the wazoo for that, it's still worth a look.



Around the World in 80 Days (1956)

The movie starts out with a bit of trivia, designed to show how the world has shrunk, in effect since man first walked on the Earth.  Included is a monologue, delivered by Edward R. Murrow, and a viewing of the Georges Méliès' film adaptation of Verne's moon trip novels, called A Trip to the Moon.  Also included is a wistful conjecture that man may actually make it to the moon in the near future.  (The movie was made in 1956, and the actual first moon landing was still in the future).  Gradually the movie gives way to the actual film we came to see.

Phineas Fogg

It is set, at the beginning, in Victorian London.  Phileas Fogg (David Niven) approaches the Reform Club, and we are given evidence of his punctual nature by the fact that he checks his watch as he steps in the door.  Around the club we see various patrons engaged in being very, very conservative British aristocrats.  At the same time we are introduced to Passepartout (Cantinflas) as he is engaged in navigating a bicycle (what is known as a "penny-farthing", the one with the over-sized front wheel) around the city, as well as his attraction to those of the opposite sex.

Passepartout

Passepartout is in search of a job.  While waiting in the employment office, he observes a despairing valet (Sir John Guilgud) announce to the employment agent (Noel Coward) that he cannot take any more of his job, at which he has been employed only 20 days.  The frustrating employer, as it turns out, is our Mr. Fogg, who is particular about every aspect of his life, from the time he takes his meals to the temperature and level of water of his bath.  Passepartout volunteers for the job and is immediately hired (the employment agent has a hard time keeping Fogg supplied with valets...)

Meanwhile back at the reform club, discussion during a game of whist centers on the recent robbery of the Bank of England, of which one of the members at the table is the President (Robert Morley).  The discussion turns to the size of the globe where the culprit could had, which leads to Fogg stating that you could navigate the entire globe in only 80 days.  A wager is made in which Fogg agrees to prove his statement, rather impulsively stating that he will leave that very evening.

At the Reform Club

Fast forward a bit, because the next scenes are of Fogg and Passpartout in Paris, where they are busy trying to engage a train trip.  But a kink in the plans causes Fogg to have to abandon the train trip in favor of using a hot air balloon.  This is good, in a sense, because, at least according to the story, Fogg gains some time in his itinerary due to this development.  (We also get to see some of the first magnificent vistas for which you will wish for the big screen...)

The duo land in Spain where, due to a need to use a visiting dignitary's private boat, Passepartout is engaged to perform in a bullfight.  There are some very comedic acrobatics when Cantinflas enters the ring.  (He was among other things an acrobat).

In the bullring

Meanwhile a police inspector named Fix (Robert Newton) has begun a systematic attempt to find some way to arrest Fogg whom he suspects is the bank robber involved in the previously mentioned Bank of England robbery.  He will doggedly pursue Fogg, and use his wiles to get to be a passing acquaintance who just happens to be on the same ships and trains that Fogg is using for his wager.

Inspector Fix

At every point, there is some predicament that seems to interfere with Fogg's potential success at winning his wager, including a train that is derailed, a ship that sails without him but with Passeportout aboard), and the need to rescue a princess (Shirley MacLaine, looking astoundingly young and beautiful in only her third role) from a sacrifice ritual.  Aouda, the princess, becomes their companion through out the rest of the journey.

Fogg, Fix and Aouda

Spoiler Alert!  If you don't already know the ending and  want to watch the movie before you know the ending stop now! As I intend to reveal an important fact, as well as the ending.

When Fogg finally arrives in England, Fix finally gets his proper papers to have Fogg arrested.  This causes an extra delay, which Fogg thinks causes him to lose his bet.  He is released, but he goes about normal business as if he had lost.  Passeportout discovers, however, that during the journey they had gained a day by crossing the International Date Line from the West to the East.  Meaning that Fogg wins the wager, that is IF he can make it to the Reform Club before the final bell tolls on the clock.



The question that is skimmed over, in case you missed it, is, if they crossed the International Date Line, and Fogg's itinerary was actually a day ahead, wouldn't he have noticed long before he got to London that he was running a day ahead of schedule? Everything was planned according to a set schedule, and Fogg, if anything, is a perfectionist about being on time.  This little slip can be blamed on Verne, since it is the key fact at the end of the novel and the filmmakers were faithful to that part of the book, at least.

That little bit does not reduce the enjoyment of the movie, for me, anyway.  I just tend to be a nitpicker sometimes...

Well, it's time to pack up the timetables and cruise on home.  The old Plymouth is dependable for at least that short distance.  Have a safe trip home kiddies.

Quiggy