Finding Mr. Goodbar

Over at the always fab FINDADEATH.COM there is a summary of the real victim of the "Goodbar" murder.

Click here to see photos of the victim's singles bar haunt on 72nd Street (now) and screengrabs of the SNL 1977 skit advertising the "LOOKING FOR MR. GOODBAR SLEEPYTIME PLAYSET" where (as the announcer tells Gilda Radner playing a child) every little girl can "win" by "getting killed".

The film is currently out of print on VHS and has never been released on DVD/Blu Ray (Is the studio too cheap for pay for the disco music rights featured in the film?)

Watch the clip below if you've forgotten how great young Richard Gere looked in a jockstrap.



The next clip is the title sequence with the theme song.

"Little Flower" frenzy

I really love this 1993 film, Household Saints.
Act 1 shows Tracey Ullman and Vincent D'onofrio being thrown together in an arranged marriage by their blue-collar immigrant parents in NY's Little Italy. The superstitions of the Old Country go hand in hand with early 1950s Catholicism and torment poor Tracey when she is stuck living with her overbearing Mother-in-Law, played by theatre legend Judith Malina.




In one grueling scene, the old lady convinces a pregnant Tracey that she has "marked" her unborn child by looking out the window at a blind man. Then, pumped up with power, the Old Lady shows Tracey how she can reverse the curse by praying to Jesus's grandmother St. Anne. Tracey pleads: "Holy St Anna, Mother of our Blessed Virgin, Please Keep me from giving birth to a chicken."

By the 1960s in Act 2, Tracey and Vincent are raising their daughter who to their dismay becomes obsessed with the secrets revealed at Fatima and later as a teen (played by Lili Taylor) becomes obsessed with becoming a nun, or better yet, a saint in the mode of St. Therese of Lisieux, "the little flower".

Once I met Tracey Ullman at a book signing and she seemed not as enthused with the latter part of the film (which focuses on Lili Taylor) and all its religious fanaticism. When I told her how much I enjoyed this flick, Tracey asked me, "Were you raised Catholic? Oh ! that's why! Catholics love that film."

I suppose you really do need to be raised in a blue-collar, tight-knit multi-generational familial setting of deeply religious types to appreciate and be moved (or horrified) by this film. As a kid, I too wished that I could see some holy vision and experience the supernatural. Religious faith was handed down like a recipe - completely accepted and never analyzed.

Now all those years later, this film is a tender reminder that no matter what life brings and how culture changes, there will always be those people who can rework a tragedy and find a tenet, or see some miracle in the madness.

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 Scenery Diet " - by Pia Zadora

One of my faves!

The Lonely Lady is a 1983 film directed by Peter Sasdy and adapted to screen by Ellen Shepard from the novel written by Harold Robbins. Some consider it one of the worst films ever made mainly because of its clichéd storyline. Its plot and bad acting won it a Razzie.

Jerilee Randall (Pia Zadora) is an innocent schoolgirl living in the San Fernando Valley who dreams of becoming a famous writer. Shortly after winning a trophy for her creative writing, she meets the son of a famous screenwriter, Walter Thornton (Lloyd Bochner), at a party. She goes home with the son, along with some other friends. During a late evening pool party, Jerilee is sexually assaulted with a garden hose nozzle by one of the "friends" (Ray Liotta). Walter Thornton arrives after the assault has taken place and saves her from further attacks. A friendship develops between them, and they soon marry, despite the disapproval of Jerilee's mother (Bibi Besch).

The marriage begins to fall apart when she rewrites one of his scripts leading to his humiliation and erectile dysfunction. Divorce is inevitable when Walter scorns Jerilee during an argument and accuses her of enjoying her prior garden hose assault.

As the years pass, Jerilee has several bad affairs while trying to get her screenplay produced. She is coerced into a hot tub three-way with a producer and his aggressive wife. Jerilee is so traumatized by this experience that she showers while fully clothed (rubbing off the shame?). This scene leads to her nervous breakdown sequence where she sees the callous people of her past appear as faces on the keys of her typewriter which she tosses to the floor.

The film ends with Jerilee finally successful and winning a prestigious award (Oscar-ish) for her screenplay of a film called the "The Hold-outs". At the live awards telecast, she admits to her ex-husband Walter Thornton (in attendance) that she has never learned "the meaning of self-respect." Jerilee Randall then refuses to accept the award, and walks out of the auditorium with her newfound dignity.

trivia:

• Pia was fresh off her Golden Globe award win for her work in the incest drama "Butterfly" - a win which many Hollywood insiders contributed to as having been "bought" by her billionaire hubby (gee, ya think?)
  
• "music coordination" is credited to The Scotti Brothers (Tony Scotti began his career as an actor, portraying Tony Polar, in the 1967 cult camp classic "Valley of the Dolls".)
• When touring the talk show circuit to promote this film, Pia Zadora repeatedly portrayed it as "a cross between Rocky (1976) and Emmanuelle (1974)".