TERRIFIC TEAM-UP IMAGE: BATMAN & JOKER (THE BRAVE & THE BOLD)

 

HAPPY NATIONAL GHOST HUNTING DAY 2025 (9/27)

 

I READ SAMUEL GARZA BERNSTEIN'S CESAR ROMERO: THE JOKER IS WILD

Author Samuel Garza Bernstein's Cesar Romero: The Joker Is Wild (from University of Kentucky Press) grants a vast, adoring look at one of classic Hollywood's most revered performers.  

What makes the hardback (288-pages) biography flow so well is that Bernstein never judges the Cuban American actor (an epitome of "Latin lover" status), but rather creates a thorough ascent for him, covering his rocky relationship with his father, his early links to New York and New Jersey, his prolific periods as a dancer and stage actor, and then his big break into prominent movies, beginning with the box-office slip, The Devil is a Woman, and the box-office smash, The Thin Man, but Bernstein also references (via text and photos) such varied gems as Captain from Castille, The Lost Continent 1951, Around the World in 80 Days 1956, Latitude Zero, The Racers, Judgment Day, Mortuary Academy, Week-End in Havana, Springtime in the Rockies, Vera Cruz, The Proud and the Damned and the moving Deep Waters. 

Romero's mega-success as Batman's the Joker is handled with great, insightful gusto, conjoined with respectful commendation of the performer's feature-length appearances as the heroic Cisco Kid, his costarring role as mobster A.J. Arno in Disney's Dexter Riley trilogy (headlined by Kurt Russell), and his stellar stints as the perfidious Don Estaban de la Cruz on Disney's Zorro, as arms dealer Amos Armat on Buck Rogers in the 25th Century and as the venerable Peter Stravos on Falcon Crest.  

Romero's sexual orientation is referenced, with an implied, romantic tie to Tyrone Power, but to his credit, Bernstein never mars his text with wild speculation or pompous confirmations, allowing readers to draw their own conclusions. 

As a wonderful bonus, The Joker Is Wild includes a comprehensive, year-by-year list of Romero's movies and television appearances, all of which brim with encyclopedic enthusiasm and accuracy, for Bernstein isn't only a polished writer, but one who respects the past and the intricacies and nuances that define it. As such, he paints Romero for what he is and remains: indisputable, cinema royalty. 

Cesar Romero: The Joker Is Wild is available at Amazon and Barnes & Noble. 

HAPPY JOHNNY APPLESEED DAY 2025 (9/26)

 

GOODBYE, CLAUDIA CARDINALE

You were a leading lady who held a pinup relegation, having teamed with the vivacious Brigitte Bardot in the bawdy western, The Legend of Frenchie King.    

You were also magnetizing in Once Upon a Time in the West, 81/2, The Leopard, Rocco and His Brothers, Lost Command, Fitzcarraldo, Circus World, Cartouche, Escape to Athena, The Magnificent Cuckold, The Professionals, The Pink Panther, Son of the Pink Panther, Blonde in Black Leather, Girl with a Suitcase, All Roads Lead to Rome, Fiasco in Milan, Mafia, Sandra, Bebo's Girl, A Girl in Australia, The Artist and the Model, The Butterfly Affair, The Immortal Bachelor, Big Deal on Madonna Street, Julien's Law, The Facts of Murder, Time of Indifference, The Love Makers, A Summer in La Goulette, La scoumoune, The Iron Prefect, A Fine Pair, Sex Quartet, A Man in Love, Don't Make Waves, Blindfold, The Red Tent, Blood Brothers, Bankers Also Have Souls, Claretta, Blindfold, The Skin, The String, The Ruffian, Mayrig, Father of the Godfathers and the illustrious list goes on. 

You emoted in ways that stayed with a viewer, not only per your obvious beauty, but in deeper ways ... ways that stirred the soul. Perhaps that's why you stood out among the pack, the reason you became an icon. Your prestige will grow even further, dear Claudia, now that you've left us, filling the hole in our hearts with eternal, celluloid dreams. 

FOR THE FUN OF IT: RODDY MCDOWALL/CAESAR

 

I SAW ALIEN: EARTH (2ND TINGLING REFLECTION)

I commented on FX/Hulu/Noah Hawley's Alien: Earth's opener in August (see post), but upon experiencing the entire season (and pleased to report that it wasn't blunted by Dune: Prophesy's gnawing verbosity), I'm sad to see it go, since it's been artful, creepy and multi-layered. In other words, each episode was so tasty that it made me salivate for more. 

In a large way, the series captured the mood of Ridley Scott/Ron Shusett/Dan O'Bannon's Alien. Certain segments within the stretch, in particular the startling flashback, "In Space, No One ...," echoed the 1979, 20th Century Fox blockbuster when it came to its sequestered, USCSS Maginot menagerie. The wee, spidery-eye specimen (T-Ocellus), rather reminiscent of O'Bannon's beachball creature from Dark Star, was a discomforting, scene stealer, but so were those plump, spine-tingling, flying insectoids (as well as their unsettling, cocoon-ish nest), with the tried-and-true Xenomorphs (in chestburster and facehugger forms) still dominating. (H.R. Giger would no doubt be proud that his 1976, Lovecraftian blueprint still holds its nightmarish grip fifty years after its conception, and perhaps it's even more unsettling in the bright light of day.)    

Another important part of Alien: Earth rode off its Peter Pan motif, pulling J.M. Barrie's fable back to its roots, which as some do know, holds a dark side, as Scott Chambers' Neverland Nightmare has shown.   

Sydney Chandler's intuitive hybrid Wendy, aka Marcy Hermit, was an ideal conduit for the Neverland darkness. (BTW: Her relationship with her brother, Alex Lawther's Joe D., was convincing for its cynicism and therefore, heartfelt.) The way she communicated with an "affectionate" Xenomorph, using her soothing trills and throaty coos, was mesmerizing. In the same vein, the way she and her hybrid "lost boys" contended with not only New Siam's otherworldly beasts, but adult deceit (the residue of "the real monsters") was as enthralling, as it furthered the heart-pounding terror.

As with Scott's Prometheus and Covenant, a Frankenstein motif was there, too, thanks to those hybrids, but it came as well through Timothy Olyphant's synthetic Kirsh and his cyborg rival, Babou Ceesay's Morrow. The rights and entitlements of such cognitive "machines" (of the many contentions and loyalties that denote them), tapped Philip K. Dick's Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?/Blade Runner, which also alludes to Mary Shelley's mythology. In the end, whether the characters were organic, man-made or both, they were no more than corporate puppets for Samuel Blenkin's Pan-ish Boy Kavalier (of Prodigy) and Sandra Ye Sencindiver's Yutani (of Weyland-Yutani), each an engineering, Prometheus and/or Victor Frankenstein understudy in his/her own ambitious right.

With all this said and ruminated upon, it should come as no surprise that the Alien franchise is one of my favorites. There isn't an entry I dislike or feel apathetic about (and that includes David Fincher's much maligned Alien 3). Though I'd like to see another big-screen chapter, Hawley's home-viewing extension has allowed me to experience a new, Alien installment weekly. (This treat reminded me how Ultraman, Space Giants and Johnny Sokko served me a nice, pre-supper serving of daily kaiju when I was a kid.) Because of this, I do hope Alien: Earth is renewed, and if it should be (thanks to a positive rating's grab for FX/Hulu/Disney+), I trust that the new season doesn't take forever and a day to descend. 

WELCOME AUTUMN 2025 (9/22)

TRACY, MELISSA & BIO-MECHANIK

Featured are my lovely friends and coworkers, Tracy & Melissa, displaying another anthology in which my storytelling appears: Eighth Tower's Dark Fiction edition of Bio-Mechanik: Stories inspired by H.R. Giger's art. 

I sure do appreciate the ladies' support. It means so much to me.💛

BTW: Bio-Mechanik: Stories inspired by H.R. Giger's art is available (in both hardback and paperback) at Amazon, along with a satisfying, audio presentation for those who order: 

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0FFTRCLNM?ref=ppx_yo2ov_dt_b_fed_asin_title

 

TERRIFIC TEAM-UP IMAGE: BATMAN & AQUAMAN (THE BRAVE & THE BOLD)

SALLY THE ZOMBIE CHEERLEADER'S SCHOOL OF HORROR: THE STEPFORD WIVES 1975

I conversed with a fellow at the gym about A.I. movies that were produced before the A.I. label became fashionable. I referenced The Stepford Wives, if only for its android inclusion, which in turn, got me itchin' to rewatch the 1975 original. What should I then come upon during my search? Well, none other than a Sally the Zombie Cheerleader's School of Horror presentation of the famed film. Oh, goodie!

The Stepford Wives, for those not in the loop, is directed by Bryan (Seance on a Wet Afternoon) Forbes and based on Ira (Rosemary's Baby/The Boys From Brazil) Levin's bestseller, adapted by William (Magic/Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid) Goldman. It stars Katharine Ross as photographer Joanna Eberhart, who relocates from Manhattan to Stepford, Connecticut with her daughters and husband, Walter, played by Peter Masterson. The move, however, is a ruse, since Mr. Eberhart and his pals plan to replace their wives with subservient, robotic counterparts within the unassuming niche. (Along with Masterson, the complementing cast includes Paula [Saturday the 14th] Prentiss, Patrick [Silent Night, Bloody Night] O'Neal, Tina [Gilligan's Island] Louise, Franklin [The Jeffersons] Cover and William [Spontaneous Combustion] Prince, among other recognizable performers.) 

For the movie's wraparounds, Sally (assisted by her endearing teacher's pet, SkeleKat, and interrupted by her darling, derogatory dolls) is in top-drawer, instructional form as she lectures her fond Fleshies on the production (offering tasty trivia and delicious goofs, with running, behind-the-scenes notes and enviable, "zombot" ambitions), assuring that one and all come away with a zesty A+. 

It's not too late to the join the class (thanks to its enduring documentation), but be warned: At this stage of the technological game, The Stepford Wives may be closer to reality than not!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sisp0Q5BHZs