Eggshells

I recently saw this at London's Frightfest, and it may well be the dullest film I have ever had the misfortune to view there. From one rambling, pointless conversation to the next, nothing of interest happens, apart from a guy having a sword-fight with himself. There may be some who would say that if you didn't like it, you probably didn't understand it, like it's the "emperors new movie", or something. These hypothetical people can get lost. I can't imagine that fully comprehending the film would make it any less dull. I didn't want to understand the presence in the basement, I just wanted it to do something. The film is really only of interest to Tobe Hooper fans, and people who like artsy sixties movies. By the way, I did ask Tobe Hooper what the meaning behind the title was, and he said it just meant "a very delicate situation".

The Wedding was performed in the Park by Rabbi Clyde T. "Mickey" Sills. As a student, I remember him giving a sermon about the wedding scene at the Hillel. He was a wonderful story teller and was one of the 16 Rabbis arrested in 1964 with Martin Luther King In St Augustine, Florida for Swimming in a pool with blacks. The sheriff poured acid into the pool.

In any event, he gave a wonderful sermon in about 1969 about performing a wedding next to the Courthouse which must have also housed the jail. As I recall, it was about creating a joyful and solemn occasion in the park under the Wedding Canopy (Huppah) while the prisoners were entertaining themselves heckling the wedding.

Woolridge Park is located between W 9th Street and W 10th Street on the West Side of Guadalupe St. The Travis County Courthouse address is 1000 Guadalupe Street. The current "high rise" county jail is adjacent to the county courthouse. The address is 509 W. 11th. I believe that it moved there after the movie was filmed.

Rabbi Sills now leads a Congregation in Oregon.

My dad went to film school in Austin, Texas in fact he was a freshman the year after Tobe Hooper graduated. He told me that as part of a class he had to watch 'Eggshells.' What he liked most about it was that it showed the power of editing, just simple cuts and that was all it needed. There was one scene in particular, of a man having a sword fight with himself he would swing the sword, and BAM! cut he would appear on the other side ready to parry, the scene probably took hours to choreograph but for the primitive effects it was truly remarkable.

I would love to try to find a copy of it somewhere, i may just have to go to Austin to get it.

Eggshells (1969)

** (out of 4)

Normally I start my reviews off with a brief description of the plot but that's not really needed here because there isn't one. Basically you've got a couples sitting around and talking about various deep topics including war and haunted houses.

EGGSHELLS was Tobe Hooper's first feature film and it's easy to see why it has been forgotten. Usually whenever director's make a name for themselves their early works come back into play but that never happened with EGGSHELLS and it pretty much remained a mystery until here recently when it got a re-release. The film isn't awful. The film certainly isn't great. It's just pretty much in the middle without anything overly interesting in it outside of the film's the director would make after it.

This is one of those films where there's no plot but instead hippies are sitting around talking about "deep" stuff that no one but stoned hippies would find deep. Most of the conversations had here are pretty boring and none of them are interesting enough to really grab your attention and hold it throughout the running time. Just take a look at the discussion of haunted houses and you'll see how silly it actually is and how pointless it is.

The film really drags at spots and especially the final ten-minutes of the movie. I'm going to guess Hooper was trying to deliver some sort of weird acid trip but that doesn't happen and instead of being entertained the viewer will be looking at his watch. EGGSHELLS is technically well-made and it features some nice performances but that's not enough to keep you glued into the film.

I saw this film in Austin, Texas, where it was shot, back in the hippie days when I was in college. I just want to comment that I remember being impressed because it was "different" from the Hollywood movies I'd grown up seeing. It was the first movie I saw that struck me as somebody having fun making the movie, rather than whether or not the movie itself was good. I hesitate to comment much on the movie because it has been about 35 years since I saw it. But I can say that many times over the years it has popped back into my mind and I've thought "Hey, I'd like to see that one again." I don't remember anything about the plot. In fact, I'm pretty sure there is not much, if any, plot in the usual sense. What I do remember vividly is a great sequence of a paper airplane sailing through the air the way anybody who has ever folded and thrown one would LIKE for it to fly!