Cinema, Movies and Motion Pictures

I’ve had this photo of Ernie Kovacs on my wall for a long time.  It’s from a bit where he describes adjusting a TV set as he adjusts his face.  It’s as if his face is under control by the TV adjustment knobs!

There was a recent history of American comedy on PBS.  Not only did they not show any Kovacs clips, but I think they didn’t even mention him.  Thus, their entire effort slipped down a few notches, in my estimation.

They had tributes to many influenced by Kovacs, who stole ideas from Kovacs etc. but nothing on the great man himself.

Herein, my cinema blog takes a rare excursion into the world of television.  Ernie Kovacs is my all time favorite figure in the entire history of that medium.  So I’ll make some exceptions for the exceptional.

In Summer of 1986, I was in New York for a festival of Ernie’s work at the Museum of Broadcasting,  I saw a lot more of his work than I ever had before.  I also went back there several times and watched rare Kovacs shows I hadn’t seen.  These included his Person to Person appearance with Edward R Murrow.  I also saw some of James Dean’s television acting.

You used to be able to sit at a console with a pair of headphones.  They’d bring a video over, lock it into the player and hit “play.”

They had a good book they’d published in connection with their festival/exhibition.  I’ve read that as well as the other two main books on Kovacs.  These would be David Walley’s The Ernie Kovacs Phile and Diana Rico’s Kovacsland.

I tracked down a copy of Kovac’s novel Zoomar, but haven’t got around to reading it yet, soon, soon.  I’m also a fan of his vinyl LP recording The Ernie Kovacs Album and of his work for the early MAD Magazine.  His sensibility had similarities with that of early MAD.

There’s also a CD out called Ernie Kovac’s Record Collection which compiles music he loved (and often used in his TV work).  I recently found out that it existed thus hope to find it or hear it in future days.

I’ve long had the Best of Ernie Kovacs collection on VHS.  I hear the DVD version has some extras.  I hope to see those eventually.  There’s also a more extensive DVD collection in the works.  Let’s hope it’s not too many years before it sees the light of day.

He was a master of the television medium.  It was in it’s early stages then, but Kovacs would experiment.  He’d push the envelope.  He wasn’t one to play it safe.  He’d do things like film through a kaleidoscope and set it to music.  He’d use special effects and build special “trick sets.”  Anything goes!

Some pieces were like “music videos” of their day.  One had drawers opening and household objects coming to life in time to the music.

His many  character creations included the Question Man, Miklos Molnar, the Nairobi Trio, Percy Dovetonsils, Eugene and Auntie Gruesome.  He had a good supporting cast including his second wife, the late Edie Adams.  And yes, it was sometimes his pal Jack Lemmon, inside one of the gorilla suits!

He was a famous cigar smoker and did some funny cigar ads.

He acted in films as well.  There are are few I really want to see especially Five Golden Hours and Our Man in Havana.  I’ve seen a few of the other ones.  It’s always good to see him.

He died, way too young, in a car accident, in 1962.  He was on his way home from a party.

Aside: (I always thought it was at a party at Billy Wilder’s house.  Some Internet sources say it was at Milton Berle’s house.  Does anyone have the lowdown on this?  I’m guessing maybe Berle organized the party but it was at Wilder’s home? Or maybe Berle was guest of honor or something?)

In any case, it was a big loss, very sad.  His widow, Edie Adams, worked hard to save his work.  A lot of the tapes were being taped over and thrown away.  Someday we’ll have a better idea of how much still exists.

Some of my favorite bits:

The “black out gags” a stream-of-consciousness string of lively and surprising jokes and sight gags to the tune of Mack the Knife sung in German.

A used car salesman puts his hand on the car and it crashes though the floor.  This was a notoriously expensive gag.

In one sequence he put his face up to the camera lens (as if he was looking out of the TV, as if he was trapped inside of it).  Then he said (something to the effect of): “Thank you so much for inviting me into your home.  But couldn’t you have cleaned it up a bit first?  It looks terrible!”  It was as if he was actually looking out of the TV set and into people’s living rooms!

In another bit he had an “attempt at color TV.”  The black and white images had hand written signs on them denoting their colors.  I think it was a household scene, like maybe a sofa with a sign that said “blue” sitting on it and a lamp with a sign reading yellow and so on and so forth.

He’d have parodies of TV cooking shows and games shows.  There are so many classic Ernie Kovacs bits.  I could do a whole post trying to describe them.  Better you track down the real deal.  Some stuff is online but better to track some down and watch it on your television.  Try your local library or else find some tapes or discs for yourself.

His work also has influenced my own zany puppet performances.  He was a true innovator and a very, very funny man.

Further information:

http://www.erniekovacs.net/

http://erniekovacs.blogspot.com/2007/07/vision-of-ernie-kovacs.html

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ernie_Kovacs

http://www.angelfire.com/ct3/pouruchista/kovacs.htm

http://www.nytimes.com/1982/11/17/arts/tv-why-ernie-kovacs-s-humor-grows-with-time.html

http://www.filmbug.com/db/283947

http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0468237/

plus ZOOMAR etc. (by myself):

https://picturesmove211.wordpress.com/2010/12/15/zoomar-a-novel-by-ernie-kovacs/

I got to meet Les Blank at a documentary film festival here in Detroit.  It was in  late October and early November of 2008.  They showed quite a few of his films.

He’s well known for Burden of Dreams, a film chronicling Werner Herzog’s filming of Fitzcarraldo.  He also made a short film Werner Herzog Eats his Shoe.  This act was the result of a bet Herzog lost with director Errol Morris.

Among other films, they showed “Garlic is as Good as Ten Mothers.”  This was accompanied by a sort of “odorama” where you could smell the garlic roasting.  You could taste it too.  They soon served cloves of roasted garlic to the audience.  This program was at the famous Detroit Film Theatre at the Detroit Institute of Arts.  He was there in person for a talk, a question and answer session.

Afterward, I bought a dvd of his 1978 Mardi Gras documentary Always For Pleasure.  He signed it for me.

A few days later, there was a second program of Blank’s work at 1515 Broadway in downtown Detroit.  They showed his recent feature film All In This Tea.  It focused on the tea expert David Lee Hoffman and his searches for unique and high-quality teas.

They also ran six short films including film portraits of Dizzy Gillespie and bluesman Lightnin’ Hopkins.  There was Chicken Real, an odd 1970 look at a large chicken farm.  Then there was God Respects Us When We Work, But Loves Us When We Dance.  This captured parts of a Spring 1967 L.A. “Love-In.”  It’s a unique time capsule of the “hippie spirit” and the “flower children.”

His work often deals with music or food, yet he’s covered other subjects.  These include tourism, Creoles and “gap-toothed women.”

Besides the films he directed, he edited a film on musician Harry Partch and did camera work on Easy Rider.

I’ve always loved Blank’s work but it often seemed hard to find.  This made it more of a treat when I did find it.  I love his whole vision, very free and positive with great, oddball utopian edges.  Viva Les Blank!

http://www.lesblank.com/les-blank-director-producer-and-cinematographer/

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/03/25/AR2005032504823.html

http://www.independent-magazine.org/node/465/

Update:  It took me two months to learn that Les Blank had died.  I just saw his son Harrod’s film Wild Wheels. Ah, it’s very sad.  I’ll do another post on him eventually.  Here are some obituaries and tributes.

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/04/08/movies/les-blank-documentary-filmmaker-dies-at-77.html?pagewanted=all&_r=1&

http://www.criterion.com/current/posts/2725-werner-herzog-on-les-blank

http://www.guardian.co.uk/film/2013/apr/12/les-blank-dies-documentary-music

http://www.filmcomment.com/entry/always-for-pleasure-the-films-of-les-blank-retrospective

Yes we see through our eyes, we catch the sound through our ears, we catch the spirit through our hearts.

Hooking up to culture electronically can take on many forms. 

Watching DVDs can be very different from watching film off of VHS tapes.  Watching film on the computer is something I haven’t really got into yet.  Obviously,  using the computer monitor to view video is extremely popular.  It seems to be here to stay.  Don’t talk to me about trying to watch a movie on your telephone!  The image quality seems like it’d always be too poor and too tiny.

Watching film in a theatre is the best way, in ways.  If it’s something good, in a good print and projected well, it can be bliss!  Yet watching movies on TV instead can be essential.

Some films, you’d like to see, but you don’t really care whether or not you see them onscreen.  Thus, you just wait for the DVD.  Then there are films you really want to see, but it’ll be years before it’ll come around on the screen again. Thus you settle for watching them on a television set.

Recently I tried watching a foreign film with tiny, hard-to-read subtitles.  The solution was to move my chair closer to the screen.  It worked fine.

If you don’t have a high quality and/or large screen TV, it’s good to sit a little closer now and then, to get a clear and direct view.

It’s always good to watch an entire film in one sitting, but DVDs make it easier to watch movies in “chapters.”  Some players automatically “hold your place” when you shut them down.  Turn it on again, and you’re right back where you left off.  to be continued…..

(One last point: DVD players will play audio CD’s.  When my very old and primitive CD player finally went kaput, I was having trouble finding a new one.  I finally broke down and got a $30 DVD player.  It plays my music through my stereo just fine.  The only problem is that you don’t have the TV screen, to tell you what track you’re on.  So if you want to select a track, or pick up where you left off, it can be a bit of a chore).

I recently watched an old VHS copy of John Ford’s 1936 film The Prisoner of Shark Island.  It details the travails of Doctor Samuel Mudd.  It’s based on a true story.  In the aftermath of Abraham Lincoln’s assassination, he treated John Wilkes Booth’s broken leg. 

For his troubles, he was sentenced to life imprisonment in the Dry Tortuga’s Islands.  It didn’t help him any that he had met Booth before and then lied about it.  He was a slaveholder.  Still, it seems that most of the evidence against him was circumstantial.

In the end, they let him go.  He was pardoned by President Andrew Johnson in 1869.  Historians argue about Mudd’s guilt or innocence.  Most believe that he was not part of the plot. 

Doctor Samuel Mudd

The scenes of his trial (in John Ford’s film) made it appear that he wasn’t given a fair trial.  It all gave me an eerie feeling of deja vu: no real “due process” given (angry, in the aftermath of a tragedy).  Then, sentenced to life in a prison in an island off of the Florida coast. 

Then from Melbourne, Australia I found a good review of The Prisoner of Shark Island by Peter Hourigan.  He actually commented on this: 

“Issues of expediency over justice are also frighteningly contemporary. As he convenes the military tribunal in the film, the Secretary instructs them, ‘The object of this tribunal is not to determine the guilt or innocence of a handful of rebels but to save this country from further bloodshed.’ Is this also the rational behind the Bush administration’s response to the events of 11 September? Is it their rationale (rationalisation) for Guantanamo Bay? It is a tribute to Ford’s direction that these thoughts can still arise from his film. It may have been conceived as a dramatic Hollywood drama, it may have taken only four months from its original conception to release, it may have some dramatic and acting weaknesses, but it is still alive and relevant.”

I wonder if others have?   I’m sure they will.  This movie has an eerie resonance in these times of out-posted incarcerations and secret torture sessions held in various “friendly countries.”

Peter Hourigan’s complete review:

http://archive.sensesofcinema.com/contents/dvd/07/42/prisoner-shark-island.html

homepage of Senses of Cinema:

http://archive.sensesofcinema.com/index.html

More information on Doctor Mudd:

http://home.att.net/~rjnorton/Lincoln29.html

http://www.drytortugasinfo.com/dr-samuel-mudd.html

http://www.law.umkc.edu/faculty/projects/ftrials/lincolnconspiracy/mudd.html

trailer:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QqMkx9PDMZw

There are other movies which I view differently due to recent events.  One other example is the 1967 cult film The President’s Analyst.  The “telephone company” is the ultimate bad guy.  All Americans phones are tapped.  Paranoia reigns.

That brings to mind the recent N.S.A. eavesdropping controversy.  Which American citizens was the government spying on?  Was it just suspected terrorist?   Or was it also suspected protesters or malcontents?

The President’s Analyst:

http://robie2008.wordpress.com/2008/07/18/the-presidents-analyst-1967-theodore-j-flicker/

http://www.nysun.com/arts/the-presidents-analyst-dodging-bullets-feeling/79450/

Rear Window deserves it’s standing as one of the great films.  If I put it aside and come back to it, I always get something different.

This time I especially noticed the soundtrack.  Franz Waxman did the music.  Besides his own compositions, he’s uses a lot of found music.  Radios play jazz and pop tunes.  A composer (in one of the windows across the way) works on his piano. There’s happy, noisy jazz from a weekend party.   It’s a sort of musical collage which flows as freely as the sounds on a busy city block in the Summertime.

There’s good use of street noises and bits and pieces of conversation as well.  Alfred Hitchcock was at the top of his game.  His cameo was as a clock winder.  It seems symbolic of the director at play, winding up the film to make it run.

James Stewart, Grace Kelly, Thelma Ritter, Raymond Burr and Wendell Corey are all excellent.  The various neighbors are also well cast, their parts well acted.

The other big star is the set itself.  It’s amazing.  They found ways to light it it to suggest certain times of the day: morning, noon, twilight, night etc.  It’s very ingenious, like a big puzzle.  Along with the cast, screenplay, music and direction, it becomes a basis for a poetic evocation of life in the city.

It’s also very much New York City.  I’ve been reading Celluloid Skyline by James Sanders.  I’ll talk more about this book once I finish it.

It’s an exploration of New York and the movies (both location shooting and New York recreated in California).  It has a lot to say about Rear Window and what the film has to tell us about city life.  The rear windows are those not facing the street.  They form a smaller urban world of neighbors “hiding in plain sight.”  Yet they can still be spied upon or intently watched.

 If a man has a broken leg and time on his hands, he may well spend some of that time watching what goes on around him.  This is what sets this film in motion.  You’ll have to see (or re-see) for yourself.

I’ve seen Rear Window onscreen several times.  That’s always great, when a screening presents itself.  This time, just the dvd but yes that’ll do.

http://www.hitchcockwiki.com/wiki/Rear_Window_(1954)

http://rogerebert.suntimes.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20000220/REVIEWS08/2200301/1023

Bonjour!  Yes too, hello (as they often say in America).  I decided to start a blog devoted entirely to cinematic explorations and reveries.  I had intended to do this as part of my “unrestricted” and “general” blog.

Yet, I’m enough of a film nut to give it its own playground.

      “Movie Crazy” is an old Harold Lloyd film:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Movie_Crazy

http://filmfanatic.org/reviews/?p=3448

I’ve seen a lot of his work but not this one.  It’s also the title of a book by Leonard Maltin.  It’s good to watch films like it’s good to read books.  I try to be somewhat choosy.  I try not to over do it too much.

Like the surrealists said “Here’s to darkened rooms!”

I just watched Rear Window again on dvd.  I hadn’t seen some of those extras before.  As usual, I read up on it afterward (3 different books).  A lot of people consider it Alfred Hitchock’s best.  Maybe it is.  It’s an amazing film in any case: “A plus” all the way.