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TERRIFIC TEAM-UP IMAGE: FRIDAY THE 13TH, DRIVE-IN QUARTET

 

PIN-UP TIME: SIGOURNEY WEAVER (INTERVIEW MAGAZINE)

 

An Alternate Reality: I saw Fallout

I often wonder about the stuff politicians promote. This includes wind turbines and the rise of dead dolphins and whales, but we're told it's the fault of men in rickety boats that cause the sonic pulsations that kill. Then there are those bits and pieces that seem to be ushering another world war, but we're told that there's no good guy or bad guy on either side, and if any friction exists, it's only to secure a benevolent end. Hmmm.

Fallout is an Amazon/MGM Studios series that touches upon similar, grave ambivalence. It's based on a Bethesda, if-the-Cold-War-bombs-dropped video game, but since I'm not into video games, I had to take the eight-part series (produced/adapted by Graham Wagner and Geneva Robertson-Dworet) at face value, after my dear friend, Leslie Foster, recommended I watch. I've got to say, based on the show's scenarios (some grim, some satirical), it makes clever use of bureaucratic claims and lies. (Gosh, maybe it's not so alternate-reality, after all.) 

Fallout consists of several, genetically enduring, Los Angeles factions: the 1950s-styled, underground, vault dwellers, whose high-tech inhabitants hope to establish a better world for the dystopic surface derelicts, and on that surface dwells an Iron Man brotherhood that abides by a revamped, Arthurian code for its merciless means to protect and serve. Beyond the knightly sect is a group of dangerous rebels, which dares to invade the subterranean annals, and there's a scattered patch of nomads called the Ghouls, who look frightful, but can heal themselves faster than the Wolverine (as long as they get a steady dose of medicinal juice to prevent them from going 28 Days Later insane). 

Those who fill these factions make the diverse plot congeal: the optimistic, vault denizen, Lucy MacClean (Ellie Pernell); her respected dad, Overseer Hank (Kyle McLaughlin); her truth-seeking brother, Norm (Mosies Arias); the ambitious, overseer-in-wait Betty Pearson (Leslie Uggams); towering, knight-by-default Maximus (Aaron Clifton Moten); his backup compatriot, Dane (Xelia Mendes-Jones); sometimes-screwy/sometimes-square squire, Thaddeus (Johnny Pemberton); the man-with-a-secret-component-in-his-head, Dr. Siggi Wilzig (Michael Emerson); and The Ghoul, aka Cooper Howard (Walton Goggins), who was once a big-time, cowboy star, but now roams the dusty plains doing what his fictional persona would've shunned. There's also Howard's wife, Barb (Frances Turner), who plays real nice when it comes to home life, but in the vault-selling business, digs deep into the apocalyptic grime. (There are many other characters who figure in, some who stay and some who go, but they each help entrench the eclectic mythology.) 

For the record, The Ghoul isn't the only one to hold a flipside. In other words, some folks who appear good turn out bad and vice versa. To add to the pervading duality, magisterial habits may sound good at the outset, but are never in the best interest of the commoners of any faction. Who caused this or that doesn't matter as much as the tireless double crossing. 

Also, by the final episode, the culmination of winners and losers is debatable due to the series' open-ended resolution, so a sequel is probable. In any event, for those craving a cynical, socio-political mix of Brave New World-meets-Logan's Run-meets-A Boy and His Dog (with a dash of Forbidden Planet-meets-The Good, the Bad and the Ugly-meets-Alternative 3), Fallout might be your cup of tea. Take a sip and see. 

FOR THE FUN OF IT/TERRIFIC TEAM-UP IMAGE:

GODSPEED, TERRY CARTER

You were the original Colonel Tigh on the original Battlestar Galactica. That, in itself, grants you legendary status. 

And yet even without that galactic connection, you covered more than enough artistic ground to make audiences notice.

For instance, prior to Galactica, you graced another Glen A. Larson series, McCloud, playing the by-the-book Sgt. Joe Broadhurst to Dennis Weaver's titular namesake. 

Roles in Benji; Foxy Brown; Company of Killers; Nerosubianco (Attraction); Two on a Bench; and the horror hit, Abby, also flavor your career. 

For further distinction, you guest starred on The Six Million Dollar Man; The Fall Guy; The Highwayman; Falcon Crest; One West Waikiki; Julia; Mr. Belvedere; The Jeffersons; 227; Combat!; Dr. Kildare; The Bold Ones: The New Doctors; That Girl; Naked City; Mannix; Parrish; The Defenders; The Phil Silvers Show; First Person; For the People; Search; The Cop and the Kid; The Most Deadly Game; Bracken's World; Breaking Point; while gaining a high-profile, mid-1960s, newscaster stint, in addition to performing as director/producer of the celebrated bio, A Duke Named Ellington. 

You lived to a ripe, old age, Mr. Carter, and with age, acknowledgement of your contributions will only expand. Thanks for your creative longevity and with such, all the precious memories you instilled.  

TERRIFIC TEAM-UP IMAGE: DRIVE-IN, DOOMSDAY QUARTET

 

Collection Recommendation: Mr. Lobo's Cinema Insomnia (The Ghastly Love of Johnny X)

Mr. Lobo's Cinema Insomnia tosses the spotlight on the cool, cult classic, The Ghastly Love of Johnny X!

This 2012 epic, directed/produced by Paul (That Little Monster) Bunnell, who cowrote with Steve Bingen, Mark D. Murphy and George Wagner, is a musical, JD, sci-fi, horror extravaganza, which combines Teenagers from Outer Space, The Wild One, Psycho Beach Party and Grease, and like Tim Burton's heartfelt bio-pic, Ed Wood, uses black-and-white photography (filtered through glorious Ghastlyscope) to tell its impassioned tale. 

The titular character is an exiled, alien greaser (the leader of a biker gang called the Ghastly Ones), played with steely stoicism by Will (Tromeo and Juliet) Keenan. It appears that our anti-hero possessed a resurrection suit that holds the ability to jolt life into Johnny's dad, the defunct rock 'n roll legend, Mickey O'Flynn, played by Creed (The Office) Bratton. However, the bulk of the suit remains with Johnny's vivacious ex-girlfriend, De Anna Joy Brooks' Bliss, who's on the lam with wholesome soda jerk, Les Williams' Chip. Can Johnny X regain the precious garment in time for a highly publicized, O'Flynn concert, but moreover, how will he make amends with his long-lost love? 

The prime, supporting cast makes the movie's impetuous ingredients bounce with further fluidity (all abetted by Ego [Ernest] Plum's catchy compositions) and consists of Reggie (Phantasm I-IV) Bannister's shrewd promoter, King Clayton; Jed Rowan's pugnacious Sluggo; Heather Provost's side-kicking Lily Raquel; Kate (Boogeyman 3) Maberly's avid groupie, Dandi Conners; Kevin (Invasion of the Body Snatchers 1956/78) McCarthy's Grand Inquisitor; and iconic singer/songwriter Paul (Phantom of the Paradise/Battle for the Planet of the Apes) Williams' eminent, talk-show host, Cousin Quilty.

As a humorous, hosting wraparound, Mr. Lobo helps guest-starring Bunnell, a professed extraterrestrial, get hitched at Shankweiler's Drive-in during a screening of his film (with a peculiar, Kongarella catch, no less), or else he'll face intergalactic deportation. During this raucous ride, Mr. Lobo shares spaced-out trailers and commercials, graced by appearances from the lovely Claudia Bunnell and Nicole M. King's always supportive and cheerful Sally the Zombie Cheerleader. 

As a prodigious bonus to the Cinema Insomnia hijinks, this special-edition release contains an extra disc featuring Johnny X utterly unedited. Wow! And for further embellishment, the Blu-ray comes with a heap of special features, audio commentaries and Easter Eggs, plus handmade, Ghastlyscope, "prop" glasses, just like those worn in the episode. 

Seize this "truly mad concoction" today!

https://osi74.square.site/product/-cinema-insomnia-the-ghastly-love-of-johnny-x-/168

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Collectible Time: Film Masters' Tormented Special, Blu-ray Edition

Allied Artists/Bert I. Gordon's Tormented is sheer, modernized Poe (for cool circa 1960). It's cowritten by Gordon with noted, sci-fi scribe, George Worthing Yates, though is much more subtle in its scares than the filmmakers' giant-monster terrors, forging a slow-burn, psychological vantage, as Richard (Creature from the Black Lagoon/It Came From Outer Space) Carlson's jazz pianist, Tom Stewart, wrestles with the "tell-tale" specter of a woman he wouldn't rescue, played with revengeful relish by Julie Reding. (Tormented's additional cast furthers its quality, presenting an impressive who's who of both lead and character actors, including Lugene Sanders, Gene Roth, Susan Gordon, Joe Turkel, Vera Marshe, Lillian Adams and Harry Fleer [who's dubbed by famed narrator, Paul Frees.]) 

Film Masters has just released this perennial, drive-in/UHF staple in a 4K transfer taken straight from its 35mm elements, accompanied by terrific extras: a Ballyhoo Motion Pictures documentary by Courtney Joyner; a visual essay by the Flying Maciste Brothers; a full-color booklet on the film's production by Tom Weaver; a commentary track by Gary Rhodes and Larry Blamire; an archival interview with Gordon; restored, original and recut trailers; a Mystery Science Theater 3000 roast of the film; plus the unaired, pilot wraparound of Gordon's Famous Ghost Stories, which included an edited cut of Tormented, hosted by Vincent Price.

In addition to its Poe allusions, Tormented holds a thematic kinship with George Stevens/Theodore Dreiser's regret-ridden A Place in the Sun, but because of its seashore (Cape Cod) relegation, it feels even more so like a jazzy counterpart to Curtis Harrington's Night Tide (thanks in no small part to Albert Glasser's tense, trumpeted score). I do hope that Film Masters considers Night Tide for restoration, but for now, having Tormented receive the royal treatment is more than a step in the right direction. In fact, its a spectral dream come true. 

Delve in, my friends. Tormented is the type of macabre masterpiece that demands possession and guarantees revisitation.