THE MIDAS TOUCH OF WILLIAM GOLDMAN

          He wrote the screenplay for the most successful Western, Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid. He wrote the screenplay for the hardest-hitting political thriller, All the President's Men. He wrote the best fantasy comedy romance, The Princess Bride. He's one of the greatest novelists ever, and probably the most sought-after screenwriter.
          When Rob Reiner wanted to direct the film version of Stephen King's Misery, he turned to William Goldman. The result was Oscar-time.
          Goldman's sheer versatility staggers the imagination. He's the Jim Thorpe of the literary world. Everything he does generates success. Whether writing novels or screenplays--comedy, fantasy, Western, thriller, or any mix of the above--William Goldman is emphatically the man.
          One of his best works, Magic, merits particular attention. He adapted his 1976 novel into the film starring Anthony Hopkins and Ann-Margaret. It's about Corky, a small-time magician living in New York City. Timid and high-strung, Corky's bottled emotions constantly threaten to explode. Then he takes up ventriloquism, and as all true ventriloquists learn, the doors of the world open wide.
          Fats, Corky's dummy, speaks for Corky. Fats says the things that Corky can't. Rude things. Bawdy comments. Things that schmuckos need to hear. As Butch Cassidy would say, Fats has vision and the world wears bifocals.
          Strangely, right when Corky is on the verge of making it big, just when he's about to get a television pilot episode, his manager, called The Postman because he always delivers (excellently played by Burgess Meredith), informs Corky that the network wants Corky to take a standard medical exam.
          Inconceivable!
          All Corky has to do is say, "As you wish," and then he can follow the money. But he's afraid of what they'll find. So he goes into hiding. Not with Butch and Sundance and the rest of the Hole in the Wall Gang, nor even with Laurence Olivier somewhere deep in Marathon Man wondering if it's safe yet. Instead he gets a cabin by a lake with Ann-Margaret. Hubba hubba, schmuckos!
          Themes of outsiders seeking success, iconoclastic romantics looking for a way out, hunted criminals on the run, all steeped in dark, ironic humor that would make Mark Twain in equal parts jealous and proud, tie Goldman's work together.
          Papillon (1973), The Stepford Wives (1975), A Bridge Too Far (1977), Chaplin (1992), Maverick (1994), Absolute Power (1997), and Hearts in Atlantis (2001) comprise a smattering of the films he's penned.
          For fascinating viewing, check out what William Goldman has to say about his experiences in "The Writer Speaks", freely available on YouTube.

"STRANGE" MASTERS MOVIE REALM

DOCTOR STRANGE
Starring Benedict Cumberbatch,
Tilda Swinton,
Chiwetel Ejiofor,
Rachel McAdams,
Benedict Wong,
Mads Mikkelsen,
Benjamin Bratt
Directed by Scott Derrickson
Written by Jon Spaights, Scott Derrickson, C. Robert Cargill
Based on the comic books by Stan Lee and Steve Ditko
Runtime 115 minutes
Rated PG-13


          Yet another fantastic superhero flick in the mighty Marvel manner. That said, this one's different.
          For one thing, it's a superhero movie without any guns, high-tech gadgets, or mere muscles. Dr. Strange is...unique. His peerless powers as the Master of the Mystic Arts result from, of all things, reading. A novel idea for comics and film alike.
          An ideal candidate for the esoteric role of the neurosurgeon whose accident leads him to alternative medicine might have been Daniel Day-Lewis. Because that casting feat would require more magic than even Marvel can muster, they got the next best choice in Benedict Cumberbatch.
          The accident which befalls the initially arrogant doctor leads him, in a 70s way, to Eastern mysticism. Verily, the occult. Under the tutelage of the Ancient One (Swinton), in Tibet no less, the humbled Stephen Strange learns there is far more to the multiverse than his financially successful little mind had ever believed possible. Greater realities, much greater, and mind-bending, most of them in groovy black light.
          In addition to learning the ways of far out amulets and astral body travel, Strange discovers that not all those who partake in the study of deep knowledge do so with benign intent. Dark forces seek to admit into our dimension a world-devouring power which they probably shouldn't trust.
          Visually the film sometimes resembles Inception. Skyscrapers and New York City streets twisting upward at right angles, dream-like perspectives challenging the viewer. Further filmmaking inspiration may also include The Matrix. (To investigate source material for the original character, check out the 1930s Bela Lugosi flick, Chandu, the Magician.)
          Ultimately, Dr. Strange is of course another Marvel superhero movie, and as such carries certain limitations. Also, because it's the first one in a new franchise we have to wait a little bit before we get what we really want. But when we do, the result is pure movie magic.

"THE WEST" PURE FILM GOLD

          From the good folks who brought us The Civil War, this big bold 8-part documentary covering "more than two million square miles of the most extraordinary landscape."

          For anyone curious about the dream landscape west of the Mississippi, The West holds the mother lode of invaluable information.

          Directed by Stephen Ives and produced by Ken Burns, the award-winning 1996 PBS documentary is packed with real photos of real people, and features insightful commentary from historians, novelists, and politicians. Actors such as Adam Arkin, Ossie Davis, Keith Carradine, Blythe Danner, John Lithgow, and Jimmy Smits bring to life the actual words of the famous and the unknown alike. Sparing no expense, the filmmakers even include narration from Peter Coyote.

          Episode 1, The People, which leads up to the year 1806, introduces to viewers the Nez Perce, Kiowa, Comanche, Pueblo, Apache, and many other peoples indigenous to the land that "was never empty." In some cultures, wealth was measured in slaves; in others, women owned all the property. In still other cultures, there was no word "I", only "we". Trade routes extended in all directions. Buffalo robes were worn by people who had never seen a buffalo. People spoke different languages, and people worshipped different gods--sometimes unaware of each other's existence.

          Spanish soldiers washed up by storm in what is now Galveston, Texas, thirty years after Columbus, are credited as the first Europeans to set foot in the West. Having already stolen Aztec and Inca treasure in their quest to spread Christianity, the Conquistadors, armed with horses and guns, destroyed village after village in a desperate search for gold that proved a total failure. It will come as no surprise that the Spanish accidentally introduced the horse to the West. Most viewers, however, are probably not aware that the Spanish thought the land they named California was an island, and that the name refers to Califia, a beautiful queen from a supposedly mythical land of giants.

          From Lewis and Clarke to the Gold Rush to Little Big Horn, The West both covers familiar ground and explores new territory with sounds and images supporting the endlessly interesting facts that help us understand who we are today.

          "The West is not any one thing," according to historian T.H. Watkins, but rather "a tremendous collection of stories" which any thinking person cannot help but regard "without feeling a mix of pride and shame."

          It is, in the words of novelist N. Scott Momaday, "a landscape that has to be seen to be believed. And," he adds, "it may have to be believed to be seen."

          Freely discovered online.

Stewart Kirby writes for



"FEARLESS" HITS BULL'S-EYE

The Pumping Iron of PBR.

         

Part "The American Experience" and part "Wide World of Sports," this 6-part documentary series released last month on Netflix follows professional bull riders from Brazil to the Las Vegas championships.

         

With commentating from the best in the business--J.B. Mauney calls bull riding the "worst drug in the world"--Fearless features action-packed photography equally appealing to fans of the sport and those new to it.

         

Called by Sports Illustrated "the most dangerous sport," bull riding's dangers include a 140-lb man being hit by the horns of a 1,900-lb bull, getting stomped on by the hooves, tossed like a ragdoll, and all of the above.

         

According to Sean Gleason, PBR's CEO, the riders aren't necessarily insane. "They just grew up with that desire to conquer that animal for eight seconds."

         

A fascinating document of both the sport and the culture of bull riding, Fearless lets us get to know and become emotionally invested in the riders as we see them advance through (and get cut from) the circuit.

         

Because for the past several years the world's best bull riders come from Brazil, much of the show contains subtitles for viewers unacquainted with the Portuguese language. In the words of 3-time champion Adriano Moraes, the first Brazilian to dominate the sport, "It's not a fight, it's a ballet."

         

He's talking about the ability to anticipate the bull's moves. Yet in other ways, bull riding isn't like ballet at all. Dr. Tandy Freeman, the medical director of PBR, assures viewers that bull riding, with its frequently incumbent concussions and spinal damages, often results in "the same sorts of injuries you see in motor vehicle trauma."

         

For PBR champ Renato Nunes, the high risks hit home: In 1995 his brother was head-butted by a bull and went into a coma for seventeen days. When he woke up, he couldn't remember who anyone was for two years, and never fully regained walking ability.

         

Half of the 100 judged points possible in a ride are based on how well the bull jumps and spins, so because the bull can be every bit as important as the rider, cowboys want bulls that fit their style. Either way, on the circuit they ride the best bulls every weekend.

         

In some sports--boxing, notably--former champs still itch to return. Not legendary cowboy Ty Murray, though. The PBR co-founder flatly states he hasn't wanted to do it at any moment since retiring. To him, the young guys "look like candles in the wind."


Stewart Kirby writes for

SILENT BUT DEADLY: CONRAD VEIDT

His influence permeates pop culture, even though his name does not. From the fixed grin of Batman's arch-enemy the Joker, to the dark and lanky tousle-haired heroes of Tim Burton, everywhere we look, there's Conrad Veidt.

         

In Robert Wiene's The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari (1920), considered the first true horror film, Veidt plays Cesare, the Somnambulist. This hypnotized sleepwalker is revealed in a coffin-like box at a carnival in Germany by the film's title character who claims that Cesare can see the future.

         

The highly stylized angular and surreal sets, high-contrast lighting, and distorted shadows, mark Caligari as a prime example of German Expressionism in film. Johnny Depp as Edward Scissorhands in the Tim Burton film closely resembles Veidt's characterization; indeed, Burton built his career paying homage to the visual style.

         

The Hands of Orlac (1924), re-made in the US a decade later as Mad Love (a film which in turn inspired Orson Welles when making Citizen Kane), stars Veidt as a concert pianist who loses his hands in an accident and has the hands of a criminal grafted onto his wrists. This influential film is exceeded, however, by The Man Who Laughs (1928), which features Veidt in a role originally slated for Lon Chaney.

         

It was intended as a follow-up to the success of another Victor Hugo story, The Hunchback of Notre Dame (1923), also starring Mary Philbin, who plays Christine in Chaney's greatest film, The Phantom of the Opera (1925). Yet at the last minute, Chaney withdrew from the picture and the role of Gwynplaine, The Laughing Man, went to Veidt.

         

Mutilated by Gypsies as a boy with a smile surgically cut into his living flesh, Gwynplaine entertains crowds at carnivals with an outer appearance which belies his feelings. This is the face that inspired Bob Kane when he created the Joker, the face of Comedy masking Tragedy. As Ray Bradbury noted, the film still works because it speaks to the shadows inside of us: "You are the person in agony, you are the person with the permanent smile."

         

Transitioning from silent films into talkies proved successful for Veidt because he used his voice as distinctively as he used his appearance. Nor did his distinctions stop there. Forced to leave Germany after he refused to play parts in Nazi propaganda films, Veidt made financial contributions to British war relief and starred in such movies as The Wandering Jew.

         

Born January 22, 1893 in Berlin, Veidt's first film of the 118 in his career, Der Weg des Todes, was released in 1916. He played Lucifer, Ivan the Terrible, Rasputin--all the best people. Veidt liked thunderstorms, but did not like pudding. His third wife, Lili, was the love of his life.

         

Ever seen the Disney movie Aladdin? That's a re-make of The Thief of Bagdad (1940). Not that Disney ever advertises the fact. They didn't even bother to change the names of most of the characters. Veidt plays the evil wizard Jaffar, and is much more effective than the character in the cartoon.

         

Released the day after he turned fifty, Casablanca (1943) includes Veidt as Major Strasser, the Nazi commander sent to capture Victor Laszlo. By this time, German Expressionism had morphed into film noir. Yet the influence of the style can be seen in the striking use of shadows and silhouettes by director Michael Curtiz.

         

Only a couple of months later, Veidt died of a heart attack while playing golf in Hollywood.

         

To re-live the Golden Age of the Silver Screen, freely explore online.

"BOLDEST HOAX" WORTH INVESTIGATING

Over a century ago, someone made monkeys out of the British scientific establishment. Jaw-dropping bone fragments found in Piltdown seemed to pre-date all other known proto-human finds. For forty years, mainstream science thought the first person was an Englishman. Eventually the evidence was properly tested and found to be completely bogus. To this day, we still don't know who falsified the Piltdown Man fossils.

         

In the PBS documentary "The Boldest Hoax," Nova digs into the case and finds suggestions of a cover-up at Britain's Natural History Museum.

         

The year was 1912. Even fifty-three years after Darwin published Origin of Species, evolution was a mystery to most. Tiny incremental changes resulting from random genetic mutations passed on to offspring--genetic fitness being defined by the act of reproduction--proved insufficient for minds seeking a so-called "missing link" between apes and humans. The fact that we did not descend from apes, but rather share distant common ancestors, was too hard to grasp for those wishing to ape finds in Germany, France, and Spain.

         

According to Andy Currant, of the NHM, stooping to fake the pieces of Piltdown Man skull "really was a horrible, nasty, vicious piece of work" because it deeply affected so many lives.

         

While speculation on the identity of the hoaxer abounds, the most sensational suspect is none other than the creator of Sherlock Holmes. Sir Arthur Conan Doyle had both the motivation and the opportunity.

         

An ardent spiritualist who attended séances and believed in mediums (in spite of his friend Harry Houdini exposing them as frauds), when Doyle presented "spirit photographs" to the science community as evidence of ghosts, he smarted at the rebuke because he didn't want to accept that these were merely double-exposures. He lived near Piltdown and regularly visited the site. Indeed, in his 1912 novel The Lost World, Doyle states, "If you know your business, a bone can be as easily faked as a photograph."

         

A more likely culprit, however, was the man who supposedly found the bones and presented them to the NHM. Charles Dawson had even more motivation and opportunity than Doyle, and was, according to the documentary, "a cheat and a swindler" responsible for dozens of known forgeries.

         

A fascinating story of egotism and ambition, "The Boldest Hoax" exposes the all-too-human trait of seeing what we want to believe at the expense of the evidence.

         

This skullduggery for all to dig is easily discovered online.

BEASTS WITH BREASTS: FILM'S FEMALE MONSTERS

From Dracula, the Wolfman, and Frankenstein's monster, to Michael Myers, Jason Voorhees, and Freddy Krueger, the faces of horror are inescapably male. Why is that? Are there even any exceptions? Where are the female monsters in film?

BRIDE OF FRANKENSTEIN comes to mind, though it shouldn't. Elsa Lanchester appears only briefly at the end and never does anything to anybody. The scariest thing she almost does is get married. But if that gives people nightmares, it's not because of her.

Based on male monster success, lesser female versions sometimes appear by default, a last ditch attempt at cashing in. DRACULA'S DAUGHTER and AN AMERICAN WEREWOLF IN PARIS, for example.

Dr. Frankenstein, Dr. Jekyll, the Invisible Man, and the Fly exemplify the mad scientist, the brilliant man who probes too far. But we never see that with women. A woman can be a monster if there is overt humor. In PEE-WEE'S BIG ADVENTURE, Large Marge is a ghostly truck driver. DEAD ALIVE, Peter Jackson's early-career "splatter cartoon," features a hilariously grotesque mom-ster.

More often, women are relegated to four primary monster-type roles: the bad mom, the jilted lover, the bad daughter, and the helper to a more evil man. Interesting though these roles often prove, none are legitimate monsters. Mostly because we never see them as Halloween masks.

Joan Crawford inspired a bad mom two-fer: Faye Dunaway plays her in MOMMIE DEAREST, and she was the visual inspiration for Snow White's Evil Queen stepmother.

Glenn Close makes a great jilted lover in FATAL ATTRACTION, which bears close comparison to PLAY MISTY FOR ME; in both cases, the spurned woman, seeking tit for tat, is ready for the booby hatch. For her evil deeds in BASIC INSTINCT, Sharon Stone deserves a dishonorable mention. Not exactly a horror character, though.

Ultimately, the super-sexy bad woman is a cinematic cheat because emphasis on titillation simply undermines. ATTACK OF THE 50FT. WOMAN, with its voluptuously beautiful star, wasn't made for scaring.

For bad daughter movies, nothing beats THE BAD SEED. THE GOOD SON, an inferior re-make, flat out fails at ripping it off. In theory, Elizabeth Montgomery as the hatchet-wielding murderer in 1975's made-for-TV THE LEGEND OF LIZZIE BORDEN should have worked. But doesn't. In a class by itself, CARRIE. Sissy Spacek makes a painfully sympathetic daughter pushed over the edge by conniving peers and a hellishly controlling mother. It's a powerful story, but she's not the monster.

In the evil helper role, no one does better than Ruth Gordon in ROSEMARY'S BABY. Compared to her, Lady MacBeth is a rank amateur. Still, not a proper monster.

Stanley Kubrick's depiction of both the woman in the bathtub and the hand-holding twins in THE SHINING would be the Holy Grail of female monsters in film if they were the stars of the show. In the case of FRIDAY THE 13th, sort of a reverse version of PSYCHO, the monster is a woman--and who can even remember? For all the rest of the many sequels, even though Jason Voorhees died as a little boy, the bad guy is inexplicably a guy.

Keeping that little trick in mind, it's amazing we haven't seen umpteen sequels to MISERY with some dude replacing Kathy Bates as Annie Wilkes. On account she makes the Creature From the Black Lagoon look like Charlie the Tuna. Even so, we rarely see kids at Halloween all decked out for a hobbling.

In ancient times and faraway places, it's a lot less difficult to find legitimate female monsters. Winged harpies, frenzied maenads. Grendel's chunky, ticked off mother. Most recognizable of all, Medusa, the Gorgon.

When a movie monster is a man, we have no problem with that. It simply seems perfectly normal. Not so, however, when the monster is a woman.

Evidently, that just hits too close to home.

NOTE TO REGULAR READERS OF THIS BLOG:

The reason I haven't been posting for about a month is because I've been busy reconstructing my life. New residence, new employment, new everything. When the time is right, all shall be revealed. Faithful readers will be rewarded with juicy, nutrient-packed stories. Never doubt. Never fear. Sometimes I must wander off to conduct my mystical ways. But I'll be back. Oh yes. I will return.