Let's flash back to 1962 and the family film, The Runaway...the story of a young homeless boy and his dog who hitchhike across the country with a kindly priest. Directed by Claudio Guzman and featuring cinematography by Haskell Wexler, The Runaway had a mostly "no star" cast. The only really recognizable face belonged to Cesar Romero, who played the priest. There was a fair amount of advance publicity for the film, including a Dell comic book adaptation.
Do you remember this film? No? Well, there may be a reason for that. It was never released.
Exactly why is a little fuzzy. It apparently had distribution problems that prevented it from ever getting near your neighborhood movie emporium. It has been rescued from obscurity, however, by the devoted folks at Turner Classic Movies. They're running it on Sunday. November 30, at 8 PM Eastern Time.
This is not a recommendation that you watch or TiVo. I've never seen the film either and have no reason to believe it's any good...or even so bad it's good. Could be wonderful, could be dreadful. Who knows? But if you're intrigued at all about the nature of a movie that sat unseen in a film vault somewhere for half a century, there it is.
And if you'd like to read that Dell comic, the TCM people have put it up on their website. The artist is Tom Gill and I have no idea who wrote it.
Fred Kaplan thinks that there's hopeful news in the list of folks who comprise Obama's transition team. It's not a covey of "yes men," which is a nice break from the previous tradition.
The fine PBS TV series Nature, which brings us amazing footage and narratives, supplements its work with a comic book that's available to classrooms, educators, students, etc. This coming Sunday, they debut a new and engrossing episode, "The Wolf That Changed America," which I highly recommend. You can see a preview of it here and you can read or download the Nature comic book adaptation — scripted by me, drawn by Tom Yeates — on this page.
Hey, wanna do a nice thing for a stranger? Sure you do. After all, you're a nice, decent human being. The stranger is a lady who must be terrific because her son is a great guy and a pal of mine. Go read this and then send a postcard to spread a little cheer where it'll do some good.
November 22, 2008
