THE LOVED ONE

 

The Loved One is an absurd black comedy based on a book by Evelyn Waugh and borrowing also from Jessica Mitford's The American Way of Death (highly recommended). The screenplay was co-written by Terry Southern. The film has so many stars it's almost like a funeral business version of It's A Mad Mad Mad Mad World. Check out this cast -  Robert Morse, Jonathan Winters,  Rod Steiger, Dana Andrews, Alan Napier (Batman's butler Alfred), John Gielgud, Roddy McDowall, James Coburn, Milton Berle, Liberace, Tab Hunter, Bernie Kopell (Love Boat), Paul Williams, and even Jamie Farr of M.A.S.H. has an uncredited role.

While there are no actual songs in The Loved One, there are two musicians making significant appearances. 

Liberace is superb in the part of Mr. Starker who is in charge of the casket room and funeral wardrobe selections. If the top of the line products are not chosen he shows just the slightest condescension to the buyer. He appears in one other scene where top army brass have an orgy in this room with a girl in each casket. When one of the generals opens one casket, Liberace is inside. Maybe this was an earlier simpler version of "Don't Ask, Don't Tell".  

Paul Williams (pre-singer/songwriter fame), who was 25 at the time, but due to his short stature, appears as a wunderkind with an interest in rocket science. His part plays heavily into the ending of the film. This was Williams movie debut, but he appeared a very competent actor easily holding his own with the rest of the cast.

Johnathan Winters plays two parts in the film and as usual lights up both and has my favorite line in the film. He's a movie producer who is going to do his own version of James Bond and says "We're going to give them the one thing Jim Bond doesn't have, warmth". But, a real standout is Rod Steiger's over-the-top acting role as head embalmer, Mr Joyboy. I think I had more laugh out loud moments with him than any other character in the movie. If you enjoy a dark comedy and don't have any squeamishness about the business of death, then you'll really enjoy The Loved One.

WHEN THE BOYS MEET THE GIRLS

When The Boys Meet The Girls was originally a stage play and made into a movie in 1932, but has more in common with the 1943 remake starring Mickey Rooney and Judy Garland. This 1965 version stars Harve Presnell (Fargo) as a rich playboy who has to change schools to avoid marrying one of his many girlfriends, who insists he proposed to her.  When he arrives at his new school he is smitten by the local postmaster (Connie Francis) and helps save her ranch from being sold to pay for her father's gambling debts.

A good chunk of the songs in the film are the original songs written for the play by George and Ira Gershwin, with Peter Noone singing one of them "Bidin' My Time" and Louis Armstrong reprising "I Got Rhythm" at the end of the movie. There are a few other songs written especially for the movie that are sung by Connie Francis and Harve Presnell, and they also handle most of the other Gershwin numbers. The special musical stars all have their own songs. Herman's Hermits sing "Listen People", Sam The Sham and The Pharaohs perform "Monkey See Monkey Do", and Louis Armstrong sings "Throw It Out Of Your Mind", Liberace does one of his own compositions "Aruba Liberace".  In an uncredited performance, The Standells can be seen in the background of one scene playing "It's All In Your Mind".

All the musical guests are good and it's worth watching the movie just for them. Peter Noone even has a small part as a college student. I especially enjoyed Sam The Sham and The Pharoahs, although what a shame that their performance was interrupted at times with part of the storyline.

When I first ran across When The Boys Meet The Girls and saw the line-up of the special musical stars: Herman's Hermits, Liberace, Louis Armstrong, and Sam The Sham and The Pharaohs, I knew I had to get a copy and thought this would be a blast. To my chagrin, it turned out to be more of an old school musical (there's one scene that could be right out of Seven Brides For Seven Brothers) than it did any type of "beach party" or "teen" film. While I'll never watch When The Boys Meet The Girls again, it's still worth checking out if you haven't seen it, especially if you're a fan of Connie Francis or any of the other musicians in the film.

HELL ON WHEELS

 

In Hell On Wheels, Marty plays a popular race car driver/country music singer named Marty Robbins. John Ashley is his brother and his mechanic who makes Marty's car run so good he almost always wins. Their other brother (played by future congressman Robert Dornan) is a revenuer. John wants out of Marty's shadow and to become a driver himself. Ashley quits Marty's operation and opens his own garage where he plans to build his own stock car. In order to get the money for his car, Ashley becomes involved in the local moonshine operation.

Naturally, Marty sings the majority of the songs in the movie - "The Shoe Goes On The Other Foot Tonight", "This Song", "No Tears My Lady", "Would You Take Me Back Again", "I'll Have To Make Some Changes", and "Fly Butterfly Fly". Connie Smith sings two songs - "Ain't Had No Lovin", "The Hurtin's All Over" and The Stonemans perform "Five Little Johnson Girls".

Marty Robbins actually drove a race car in real life. He competed in over 35 NASCAR races entering his last race only a month before he died. So, it's a natural fit for Robbins to play a race car driver who is a county western singer. Hell On Wheels is the perfect drive-in movie because 3/4 of the movie is taken up with either singing or stock car racing leaving plenty of time to go to the concession stand or to make-out. (Do kids today still make-out or does that term seem foreign to them.....if so then how about the word necking?). Watching the film at home, all the filler (singing and racing) gets old after a while, so unless you're really into Marty Robbins or vintage stock cars going round and round the same track be prepared to use your FF button on this one.

RIO BRAVO

 

Rio Bravo is Howard Hawks and John Wayne's right wing answer to High Noon (a movie Wayne called "un-American"). John Wayne is a small town sheriff who's holding a big ranch baron's brother in his small jail until the U.S. Marshall comes through town. The only help he has is an ex-deputy who has become a drunk (Dean Martin), a young gunslinger (Ricky Nelson) and a crippled deputy (Walter Brennan).

There are a couple of song performances in Rio Bravo. Dean Martin sings ""My Rifle, My Pony, and Me" with Ricky Nelson joining in on the song. This is followed by Ricky Nelson singing the old folk song "Get Along Home Cindy" with Martin and Walter Brennan accompanying him.

Dean Martin did a pretty good job as Dude in Rio Bravo and considering he was acting with veteran actors John Wayne, Walter Brennan, Ward Bond, and Angie Dickinson, I think that says a lot about his acting ability. On the other hand, Ricky Nelson was way out of his league and it really showed. You could tell in many scenes he was really trying (several times he decided acting was running a finger up and down one side of his nose), but his character never rang true and he was rather an ill fit in the film. Something about Nelson made it look like his mother had dressed him up in his best cowboy outfit and sent him straight from the Ozzie and Harriet set to go play with the big boys. Since his acting was about the same as it was on his family's TV show, it doesn't stretch the imagination too much to believe in this scenario.

GROUPIES

Groupies is a look at the women (and a couple of men) who sleep with rock stars for the fame and notoriety it brings them. Supposedly Cinema Verite, the movie is really just a bunch of poorly edited footage that is extremely hard to watch. 

There are some musical performances interspersed throughout the film: Spooky Tooth rehearsing at The Fillmore, Joe Cocker and The Grease Band playing "Delta Lady", Ten Years After performing "Good Morning Little Schoolgirl" and "Help Me Baby", Dry Creek Road doing "Mister Sun", and Terry Reid with two songs "Superlungs" (back of dvd labels this mistakenly as "Supertones") and performing what I thought was the best song in the movie, "Bang Bang".

As with any type of reality filming, the groupies play to the camera, not really giving you a true look at who they are, but only a look at who they want you to think they are. The sound is so bad that many times it was hard to even hear/understand what the groupies were spouting off about. The only reason I can see to watch Groupies is to see the musical performances, the rest of the movie, in my opinion is a waste of time.

GOOD TIMES

 

Good Times was the directorial debut of William Friedkin (The Exorcist, The French Connection). In the movie Sonny signs a contract with evil Mr. Mordicus (George Sanders) for him and Cher to star in a film. The executive wants Sonny to do a script he has on hand, unless Sonny can come up with a better script before the movie starts to shoot. As Sonny thinks about different scenarios for him and Cher, Good Times has three mini-movies starring him and Cher in different scenarios (Western, Detective, Jungle).

Good Times features seven songs, all written by Sonny and six sung by Sonny and Cher and one solo Cher song: "It's the Little Things", "I Got You Babe" (two versions), "Don't Talk to Strangers", "Trust Me", "Good Times", "I'm Gonna Love You" and "Just a Name". "I'm Gonna Love You" a bluesy song sung solo by Cher is the only good song of the bunch, with of course, the exception of their signature song "I Got You Babe". All the other songs sound like something Sonny probably knocked off in a few minutes for the movie.

Good Times main crime is it's just boring. On Sonny and Cher's TV show, the duo could do a skit and if you didn't like it, well, it was over in a few minutes. The three mini-movies in Good Times are basically bad TV skits which run on 15-20 minutes, making for mind-numbing viewing. I thought Sonny and Cher's other film outing, Chasity, was pretty bad, but still better than Good Times. As a duo Sonny and Cher's best film outing is in Wild On The Beach where they appear as themselves singing one song. Sonny never had a lot of success in films; of course, Cher went on to appear in a string of great movies. 

ELVIS: The MINISERIES

 

Elvis: The Miniseries was a made for TV special that covers Elvis' years from high school to his 1968 Comeback Special. It was produced with the cooperation of The Presley Estate and used master recordings of Elvis songs in the production. Jonathan Rhys Meyers (Tudors, Dracula) plays Elvis and Randy Quaid plays Col. Tom Parker with Camryn Manheim and Robert Patrick co-starring as Elvis' parents and Rose McGowan portrays Ann-Margret.

Along with Elvis and Ann-Margret, the miniseries also features actors portraying Scotty Moore, D.J. Fonatana, and Bill Black as members of Elvis' band and Chet Atkins as RCA producer, plus Wynonie Harris in a club scene. All these actors do a credible job, although Chet Atkin's part is so small to be almost unnoticeable. Saving the best for last, Rose McGowan shined in her part as Ann-Margret.

Jonathan Rhys Meyers looked like he was born to play Elvis and he was also good at mimicking Elvis' speech patterns and movements. Although the movie touted original master recordings, this actually turned out to be the worst part of the movie. Meyers lip synch is ok, but  each time he does a song it's so obviously Elvis' voice that it reminded me of only Elvis and it took me out of the movie. The movie seemed fairly accurate, but of course, there's some "whitewashing" going on. One of the most glaring examples is near the first of the movie, when three 1950s teenagers (Elvis and a couple of his buddies) sum up a very liberal worldly view on race relations. I won't even go into how nice and neat they made it look when Elvis started dating 14 year old Priscilla. Rose McGowan, as mentioned above, was a standout as Ann-Margret and it's too bad she wasn't in the movie more. Watching Elvis: The Mini Series, you probably won't find out anything about Elvis that you didn't already know, but it's still a pretty entertaining three hours and a good overview of Elvis' life from his teens up to The 68 Comeback Special.