We may (note the emphasis on the word "may") be looking at an opportunity to end the Iraq War sooner rather than later, and in a way that will enable American prestige to go relatively unsullied in the process. Read this blog post by Kevin Drum.
Beyond the Valley of the Dolls is a fascinating movie. I'm not sure if it's a good fascinating movie or a bad fascinating movie or even if the distinction matters. In some ways, it's so bad it's good and in others, so good it's bad. I do know it's about one-tenth as much fun to watch when you aren't in a hip audience with a great sense of humor...so in a way, the new DVD is disappointing. It doesn't come packaged with a hip audience with a great sense of humor.
The film was, of course, made by the grand lecher, Russ Meyer, with a script by Roger Ebert, who could match him leer for leer. It started out to be a sequel to the original Valley of the Dolls (which also just came out on in a new DVD deluxe edition) and then turned into an unrelated parody, not just of Valley of the Dolls but of everything else that occurred to Meyer and Ebert at the time. Some of the parody is so expertly done that you aren't certain all the actors even knew they were in a spoof, and there have been filmgoers who've watched the entire movie without realizing it.
First time I saw BVD, as everyone calls it, it was on a double feature with Valley of the Dolls at the old Criterion Theater in Santa Monica. It was a matinee and the place was filled with little old ladies and others who didn't "get it." It was one of my strangest moviegoing experiences because I was the only one laughing and others were turning around, telling me to shhh. Like I was ruining this fine dramatic film for the rest of them.
I knew it was funny but I didn't know how funny until I attended a late screening at the NuArt one evening. The place was packed with people who "got it" and Russ was there with a couple of starlets and — to use the kind of descriptive term I usually hate — the NuArt rocked that night. We all had the best time, savoring every little oddment, howling at every cliché and every line of deliberately unnatural dialogue. It was like reading a good Kurtzman Mad comic for the second or third time, noticing things you hadn't noticed the first time through. When folks laughed in the NuArt, others would suddenly get a joke they hadn't realized was there.
I've seen it a few other times with good audiences, including a time up at U.C.L.A. maybe a dozen years ago when they brought in Meyer, Ebert and all the major cast members who were willing to show their faces. There was a miserable splice-filled print and that almost added to the fun. The great cartoonist Carol Lay and I were seated behind star Dolly Read and her husband, Dick Martin, who were in hysterics. Their laughter bolstered ours — you know how that works — and for a time there, I thought the Martins, Carol and I were going to have to take turns administering C.P.R. to each other. After nights like that, watching the film alone, as I just did on DVD, is just disappointing.
I purchased the DVD mainly for the special features, which include "making of..." documentaries and two commentary tracks — one by Ebert, one by a bevy of cast members. I thought both tracks were disappointing. Ebert's especially was dry and only occasionally informative. You can learn a lot more about the making of the movie by reading this article that he has up on his website. If you'd like to order a copy of the DVD, you can do so here...but I warn you: This is only a great movie when you see it with a big audience. Viewed alone or with a small group, it can be rough going.
Although I worked a few times for Aaron Spelling — and almost worked for him a few more times — I didn't know him well enough to write anything of real substance about the man. In our brief encounters, he seemed to me like a down-to-earth guy who just happened to have more money than everyone else in his zip code, combined. Like many other TV producers with mega-hits, he was well aware that this was a temporary state; that the day would come sooner or later when no one at the networks would take his calls, so he had to enjoy (and milk) the success while he had it.
It has always struck me that most men in his position — note the word "most" in there — are a little baffled as to why these three of their projects made them zillions whereas these eight over here crashed and burned in spectacular failure. But of course to keep the transitory success alive as long as possible, they don't often admit their puzzlements out loud, at least to potential customers. The one time I had any sort of extended conversation with Mr. Spelling, he had just had a TV-Movie air to disastrous ratings and near-libelous reviews. I don't recall which one it was but I do remember him looking at some Nielsens, shaking his head and muttering, "Gee, I thought that one would work." Fortunately for Spelling, enough of them did work that he made out just fine.
Before we get to today's fun, two of the commercials I linked to in the last few days have been "corrected" by their uploader. He has thoughtfully fixed the sync problems in them and I've replaced my links with the new versions. Click here to go back and see the fixed version of the Speedy Alka-Seltzer spot with Dick Beals and click here to see a more in-sync version of the Post Raisin Bran commercial. (I don't mean 'N Sync is performing it...but isn't that kind of where those guys are headed?)
For today, we have another McDonald's commercial. It's some time in the early eighties and the chain needs an energetic guy who can sing and dance to appear in commercials for their newest concoction, the McDLT — a major scientific breakthrough in hamburger creation. It's a burger with lettuce and tomato on it but they've invented a brilliant way to keep the burger warm and the lettuce and tomato cool: It's a package that keeps them separate until you buy the thing and put the lettuce and tomato onto the hamburger. Must have taken them years to think of that.
Anyway, they need a guy for their commercials so they scout about and come up with a kid named Jason Alexander...
June 25, 2006
