Obituary: David Lynch (1946-2025)

 

With great sadness the Slammer mourns the passing of David Lynch whose work both inspired and sometimes frustrated us with its ambiguity over the years. 

(From wikipedia)

His first feature-length film was Eraserhead (1977), which found success as a midnight movie. Lynch was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Director for the biographical drama The Elephant Man (1980), the mystery Blue Velvet (1986) and the neo-noir Mulholland Drive (2001). His romantic crime drama Wild at Heart (1990) won the Palme d'Or at the Cannes Film Festival. His other credits include the space opera Dune (1984), the neo-noir Lost Highway (1997), the road movie The Straight Story (1999) and Inland Empire (2006).

Lynch and Mark Frost created the ABC series Twin Peaks (1990–91), for which he received five Primetime Emmy Award nominations, including Outstanding Directing for a Drama Series and Outstanding Writing for a Drama Series. Lynch co-wrote and directed its film prequel, Twin Peaks: Fire Walk with Me (1992), and a third season in 2017. He acted in Twin Peaks, Lucky (2017) and Steven Spielberg's The Fabelmans (2022). He also guest-starred in TV series such as The Cleveland Show (2010–13) and Louie (2012). He directed music videos for artists such as X Japan, Moby, Interpol, Nine Inch Nails and Donovan, and commercials for Dior, YSL, Gucci and the New York City Department of Sanitation.

Lynch also worked as a musician, releasing solo albums and a variety of collaborations; a visual artist, including painting, furniture design, and photography; and author, publishing the books Images (1994), Catching the Big Fish (2006) and Room to Dream (2018). A practitioner of Transcendental Meditation, he founded the David Lynch Foundation to fund meditation lessons for students, veterans, and other "at-risk" populations. A lifelong smoker, he was diagnosed with emphysema in 2020, and died in January 2025 after being evacuated from his home due to the Southern California wildfires. The adjective Lynchian came into use to describe works or situations reminiscent of his art,[2] with the Oxford English Dictionary noting his penchant for "juxtaposing surreal or sinister elements with mundane, everyday environments, and for using compelling visual images to emphasize a dreamlike quality of mystery or menace".

Personally, my first Lynch film was Eraserhead I saw at a midnight show and I loved it, followed by The Elephant Man which one of the best films ever made in my opinion. I did love most of his films and projects over the years but not all. Wild at Heart did not interest me, it seemed violently excessive and his last full length film Inland Empire I really disliked thinking it showed he needed to have some restraints put on him to keep his ideas in focus. I was obsessed like everyone else with Twin Peaks and like the new more recent series of that quite a bit as well. If nothing else, Lynch was always challenging us to see things in his odd, often disturbing way. 

Vandemonium (plus) Ann Magnuson 1987 Cinemax

A lost classic of early cable, this almost impossible to see Cinemax Special is AMAZING. I am a fan of Ann Magnuson, so my enthusiasm is expected and this is the project that endeared me to her early on. I recorded it on VHS and it now resides in a digitized crappy looking file on my computer. 

The story is that of a biker chick (Magnusson) on her way to the red-neck-orama (or something) with her boyfriend (Meatloaf) when she has a terrible accident and flies off the bike and into the world of van art. Trying to find her way home before the show start (Vulcan Death Grip - Also Magnuson) she meets version of Stevie Nicks, Gala Dali, Shirley Maclaine and a televangelist (also all played by Ann). The comedy special also has appearances by Eric Bogosian and Joey Arias as Salvador Dali(!). In the end the good fairy (also Magnuson) appears and tells her she had the power to get home all along. Oh and she has a talking bong throughout. 

So, yes, this 30 minute of WTF, art references and pop culture parody as only Ann can pull off. I, of course, made everyone I ever met watch this so they would understand why I would occasionally scream « ES SURREAL! » and demand to see the « pizza sex machina ». This may not be for everyone, but it’s wildly funny and out there. So why is is impossible to see now?

One reason this has fallen into obscurity might be it’s timing. It wasn’t broadcast at a time where Cinemax could have created a cultural phenomenon out of a 30 minute special from a New York performance artist. Another reason was it might have only been shown once because of some odd controversy from one of the jokes. This is all from my not very strong memory, but there were a lot of AIDS activists upset because the bong tells Ann who has just shook herself out of the televangelist character that they better get out of the TV van quickly « before they find out who we are and sentence us to an AIDS camp ». This was an especially sensitive time for people with AIDS… putting them (and all gay people) into camps was an actual plan the religious right was promoting. However, in another case of humourless and misguided outrage, the fact this was a joke bringing that to light and mocking it - not encouraging it was completely missed. Most of the special still dates well enough but I think this one problem will forever sink the chance of this brilliant special ever getting restored and up for sale again. 

The Man From Earth (2007)

directed by: Richard Schenkman

written by: Jerome Bixby

David Lee Smith as John Oldman

Tony Todd as Dan

John Billingsley as Harry

Ellen Crawford as Edith

Annika Peterson as Sandy

William Katt as Art Jenkins

Alexis Thorpe as Linda Murphy

Richard Riehle as Dr. Will Gruber

It’s rare to find a new film worthy of being a cult film but I think this film with it’s simple premise, intimate feel and interesting cast and history is one of them.

The writer, Jerome Bixby had been working on this idea for decades and completed it on his death bed. His son worked tirelessly to make the production happen. The story about a man who reveals to a group of close friends that he is possibly 14 000 years old is not the first time the author visited this material. In the 60s he wrote the Star Trek episode «Requiem for Methusleh» which covers some of the same themes. Some of the actors are from various later Star Trek incarnations, in fact, and the show evens gets a mention during the film. 

The filmmaking is really well done, the low budget helps rather than hurts the production. The entire drama takes place either in or in front of a cabin in the woods. It never falls into a «filmed play» mode, but really squeezes out solid cinematography in a limited space. The lead actor, David Lee Smith gives a great underplayed performance. He has an emotional distance and quietness that sells the idea he might really be as old as he claims and there is a real honesty to the character. As he unfolds his story, at first framed as a science fiction he may be writing, it becomes more and more clear he believes it and more to the point, those hearing start to believe it as well. 

The problems with the story are more things that bother me personally than maybe actually faults in the movie's structure. 

«spoilers coming»

While the telling of story is fascinating, some of it’s details bothered me. The concept that he was «one man telling a story from one point of view, from the perspective of a single person only in one place at a time», is brilliant but somewhat sullied by a revelation that he may have been the inspiration for the Jesus Christ mythology. This is told in a compelling way and the objections of the obligatory biblical literalist friend don't feel forced. In the same sort of vein, the guests leave for the most part either believing or disbelieving what they have heard and even at this point, there is cause for us the audience to feel ambiguous as well. A compelling story is not proof of such an amazing claim. I liked that. Sadly, not everyone has left the party and while John is telling his soon to be ex girlfriend before he moves on (he leaves every decade or so for a new life as people start to notice he isn’t aging) and mentions one name too many. The psychologist who has been called in to assess John’s sanity recognizes the name as that of his father, a Harvard professor who left he and his mother almost 60 years ago. This is not thrown in willy nilly… in fact it explains why in his questions, he seems to be stuck on John’s impressions of fatherhood. Also, Dr. Gruber has lost his wife the day before and has brought a gun to the cabin. At first it seems like a test for John, then maybe a means to commit suicide and finally a possible reason might be he suspected John was his father all along and wanted to kill him. In a very well done shot, we are shown the gun actually has no bullets in it. This mystery is thankfully never solved as, upon having it confirmed that his father is an immortal from caveman times, he has a heart attack and dies (He was complaining of pains and tiredness throughout the film). Smith's characters is very affected by his death, but in a quiet, in character, understated way. He had to have known for years this man was his son and for some reason, chosen to be near him and risk exposure. 

This revelation, though well done, is not an asset to the story, in my opinion. I would have preferred everyone (including us) leaving with their own ideas as to what has just happened and him deciding to give a little more time to the woman who loves him but he can never love the same way after losing so many people over possibly 14 000 years of life on earth. 

We Are Your Children

Chilling. But hey, we're not all dead, so Ha Ha! Also, lest we forget, his roots were in Scientology.
Why didn't Railsbeck (Everybody's favorite Ed Gein) get an Emmy? WTF?!?!? I BLAME THE SYSTEM!!!

Hooray for the Hallowe'en countdown!

Manson Vampire

Robert Quarry as Deathmaster..... savor the bogus hippie goodness! I do have to say, when you see it in its entirety, they got the whole cult mumbo jumbo right.



Directed by frequent shower-upper-in-stuff Ray Danton.

Missing Link

In my heart of hearts, I always knew that there was a link between Ed Wood and John Waters, my two favorite directors and now I have proof! Ladies and Gentlemen, I present to you Henry Bederski , the only person to act for both directors! Sadly, his IMDB page is all the info I could find on the man, so I'm going to tack on this scene from FEMALE TROUBLE to make the blog look bigger. Enjoy!

Trailer Park

It is rare that I get excited about a movie based on the trailer, but I can't wait for ZOMBIE STRIPPERS to be released. From the trailer, I can gather that it has two plot devices that I really enjoy in cinema:

1) Zombies

2) Strippers

I know that this movie will probably suck, but what a concept! You just know Ed Wood is smiling down from Heaven.

"Tell Frank, Dean & Sammy...to wait!"

yup-- that's right. Neely O'Hara (Patty Duke) wows them at the Cystic Fibrosis Telethon - and Joey Bishop tells the stage manager to tell the Rat Pack to cool their heels.

watch the beads frame her boobs. classic.



Patty admitted on The View that she didn't do her own singing on the film soundtrack.

That's probably why she sounded "like a frog" when she DID do her own vocals on the "Patty Duke sings Songs from Valley of the Dolls" solo LP.



You know you're part of a cult film when they imitate your flubs 40 years later. Here's Kate Flannery of NBC's The Office doing a wicked Neely.

Lost "Boys" - finally coming to DVD

Mart Crowley's The Boys in the Band will (finally) be released on DVD in May 2008!

Written for the stage before Stonewall and produced for film while the riots happened, this film was one of the first to include a nearly entirely gay ensemble. Considered by many to be a landmark in gay representation in cinema, it has left many confused as to why it took so long to be released on DVD.

Historically and politically significant despite (or because of) the pervading self-loathing and wallowing self-pity of its gay characters, The Boys in the Band is a stage-bound, hyperventilating comedy-drama about eight friends who get together for a simple birthday party. What ensues during the course of the evening are enough emotion, acid-laced barbs and self-analysis to last a lifetime.

The film starred the entire original stage cast, many of which have since died of AIDS related illnesses.

Here is the roll-call:

Peter White (alan) He is still working in features (Flubber, Armeggedon) & TV.

Larry Luckinbill (hank) married Desilu heiress Lucy Arnaz. He still acts, as recently as 2003 on Broadway in Cabaret as tragic "Herr Shultz".

Kenneth Nelson (michael) 1930-1993
He died of AIDS in London, but worked in films thru 1990.

Leonard Frey (harold) 1938-1988
He got an Oscar nom for Fiddler on the Roof role - died of AIDS in NYC - worked in tv and films thru 1987.

Cliff Gorman (emory) 1936-2002
He died of leukemia in NYC (worked thru 1999 in films & TV).

Frederick Combs (donald) 1935-1992
He died in LA of AIDS (worked in tv/theatre).

Keith Prentice (larry) 1940-1992
He died of cancer in Ohio (acted in Mary Martin's The Sound of Music on Broadway -- and in 1980's Cruising).

Robert La Tournex (cowboy)
He died of AIDS in 1986.

***

"What I am, Michael, is a 32-year-old, ugly, pock-marked, Jew fairy. And if it takes me a while to pull myself together and if I smoke a little grass before I can get up the nerve to show this face to the world, it's nobody's goddamn business but my own."
-Harold, on explaining his lateness to his own birthday party

The Texas Chainsaw Massacre (1974)

THE TEXAS CHAINSAW MASSACRE
by Chris Parcellin (2000-10-31)
1974, Rated R, 83 minutes, Vortex/Henkel/Hooper Productions

In a rural Texas community, a "family" of deranged white trash animals is slaughtering people.

The story unfolds as innocent, doe-eyed Sally (Marilyn Burns) and her annoying hippie friends are cruising along in their filthy van when they fall into the clutches of our fabulous dismembering heroes. The youngsters themselves are a bunch of whiney, self-absorbed, post-flower child punks. Believe me, when they begin dropping dead you won't shed a tear.

The real fun group here is the pack of homicidal looneys who capture them!

As you can imagine, "standing-out in the crowd" is a tall order in the most dysfunctional household since the Manson Family. But the utterly charming Leatherface (Gunnar Hansen) is a real showman with power tools. (The stocky lad also gets points for his cute, squeaky Mickey Mouse-sounding voice.) In a flashy gang of brutal sadists, he has "star" written all over him.

Leatherface wastes no time in killing the twenty-somethings, including wheelchair-bound Franklin (Paul A. Partain), who is the first to get a taste of the chainsaw treatment. Our man Leatherface has a neat trick of hiding behind a steel door in the rear of his house while the young pinkos wander in -- thinking the place is abandoned. Then he springs out at the stunned peaceniks and drags them back into his fabulous meatlocker/kitchen. Bon Apetit!

The only one to escape is Sally, who is probably a total loss as a human being judging by her maniacal laughing as she speeds off in the back of a pickup truck. But even her over-the-top "I've gone kooky!" act is overshadowed by Leatherface's exquisite whirling-dervish-with a-chainsaw turn in the middle of the highway as the film ends. Charisma? You bet.

"Based-on a true story," this is a black-humored, unflinching look at the Ugly American at his psychotic worst. And Tobe Hooper is at his twisted best as a writer and director on a low budget. Lord knows he's gone on to direct some real dogs, but this film possesses more true scares than the entire "Horror" section of your local videostore, or a week of "Oprah" re-runs.

Shiny Apple! Fishy Apple!

Oh sweet Golan and Globus!!

Tonight I was watching Gordon Ramsay's Kitchen Nightmares on BBC America. It's an episode from October 2007 and Gordon is saving a Brighton UK restaurant from ruin. The place is owned by a former actor named Allan Love and it's called 'Love's Fish Restaurant'.

I look on imdb and I almost flipped out to see in Love's sparce 80s/90s film credits is listed "The Apple".

OMG! It's him! He's 27 years older and pudgy but that smile is unmistakable. Allan Love was not only one the leads, but he sang the title song! He played "Dandi"- one of the corrupting forces at Mr. Boogaloo's International Music (the "BIM") that leads an innocent singing duo from Moose Jaw, Canadian obscurity to fame, drugs, and sex parties...and over-the-top musical numbers.

The Apple is a 1980 film spectacle (set in the distant future of 1994!) that makes Xanadu look coherent.

Thanks Chef Ramsay for dishing up a great plate of nostalgia for me.