This is not exactly a recommendation since I've only seen a few minutes of it...but Friday night (or Saturday morning, depending on your point of view), Turner Classic Movies is running The World's Greatest Sinner. This is one of those movies that film buffs often discuss even though few of them have seen it. It was made in 1962 but never really released. No matter how few people tune in to see it on TCM, their number will probably be greater than all the people who've seen it to date.
The film was a vanity production, written and directed by Timothy Carey, who popped up in a number of films by Stanley Kubrick or John Cassavettes. He stars, as well, playing an insurance man who quits his job and becomes a Rockabilly star and a cult leader. The legendary Paul Frees was the narrator and the music was done by Frank Zappa, who later called it "the worst movie ever made" and urged his fans not to seek out copies.
Is it all that awful? I dunno. I've seen about five minutes of it in clips over the years and while nothing in those clips was inconsistent with that description, you hate to label a movie that way without actually seeing all or most of it. Is it so awful it's funny? Same answer. But its trailer did include this blurb...
That's quite a claim for a movie that wasn't released and which very few people ever heard of. In fact, it's enough to make me want to see the thing. So I've set my TiVo. Whether I'll watch the film it records remains to be seen.
I was interviewed this afternoon for an hour on Inkstuds, a comic book talk radio show hosted by Robin McConnell and heard on CITR radio in Vancouver, Canada. The topic? Jack Kirby, of course. You can hear it over on this page if you're not sick of hearing me talk about Jack Kirby.
Here it is, people: The best video I've seen this entire election. And before any of you start muttering about Hollywood Liberals...I've actually talked politics with two of the three men in this video and I would have bet on Cindy McCain endorsing Barack Obama before I'd have put money on these guys...
Veteran stage actor George S. Irving will be honored on December 8 with the 17th Oscar Hammerstein Award for Lifetime Achievement in Musical Theatre.
As this piece notes, Mr. Irving made his Broadway debut in the chorus of Oklahoma! and won a Tony Award for his performance in Irene, along with appearing in dozens of Broadway shows including Gentlemen Prefer Blondes, Two's Company, Can-Can, Bells Are Ringing, Call Me Mister, An Evening With Richard Nixon and..., I Remember Mama, The Pirates of Penzance and Me and My Girl. But I hope someone will mention at the ceremony that he's worked extensively as a cartoon voice actor, including his stint as a cast member of the show, Underdog.
Tom Fagan is dead at the age of 76, and I probably need to explain to most of you who he was. Tom was a longtime resident of Rutland, Vermont and he was the mover and shaker most responsible for that city's famous annual Halloween parades. As he explained in this interview last year, he'd always loved Halloween and he had a vision for what the town's parade could be and set about to make it happen.
A lot of it involved filling the streets with comic book characters. Fagan promoted the idea in comic books and to comic book companies...and by the early seventies, the parade was awash with superheroes and villains. Writers and artists from the industry journeyed to Rutland to participate in the festivities, often in costume, and art began to imitate life: Many comic book stories were done that were set in Rutland involving DC and Marvel heroes actually attending. The illo above is from an issue of Batman in which the Caped Crusader went there...and the guy you see him talking to is Tom Fagan.
I never got to attend one of Tom's public parties but I always heard great things about them. We corresponded briefly in the seventies and you could tell from the way he wrote about the events that he was very proud of what he'd created. Here's a link to an obit in the local paper there.
Today, we have five minutes of commercials for Gulf gasoline, several of which feature Professor Ludwig Von Drake. Paul Frees supplied the professor's voice and one of his spots was announced by Gary Owens. (Goofy utters a couple of syllables in the first one and I think that's Hal Smith.) Fill 'er up!
October 24, 2008
