Day 4 -- SPY NIGHT
It’s a Monday.... I’m beginning to have an energy flow problem. Here’s an update on the AICN crew in attendance. The stunningly magnificent Annette Kellerman and Cora Smith had to return to the terror that is Oklahoma. When last I saw them, they were in a misty-eyed departure mode... Annette hasn’t got it too bad, but Cora... She’s got another year of this torture, though... ya know... She’s got the summer off. Then there’s Moriarty and his group of mechanized henchmen (Salma Stalker, Free-Rider and The 2nd Brain). Well they had to pick up and return to terrorize Joe Farrell and the NRG. As much fun as QT3 is... Giving Farrell sleepless nights is what really drives Moriarty.
So basically, this meant that the crew was down by 6. Still we had myself, Father Geek, Tom Joad, Copernicus, Quint, Johnny Wad, Hooper and Maid Marion. But our numbers were in half, so I recruited Barbarella to join the group. And with Mia the psychic schoolgirl arriving this Saturday for the all night Horror marathon, and Robogeek and the Waif One attending Friday night... Well... We’re still doing pretty good.
I’ve been dying to see the spy films tonight since Quentin has been so charged about them. In particular, my interest was peaked about THE QUILLER MEMORANDUM.
Quentin strutted on out for his introduction and took the stage wearing a Late Show With David Letterman t-shirt and some funky cool shoes.
“I saw this film about a year and a half ago and it just BLEW me AWAY,” was pretty much how Quentin started off his talk. Then he launched into a bit... I just loved.
“Ok you know those video guides you can buy that claim to have seen EEEEEVERY film that’s ever been made? Well, I can’t believe that. I believe they go through and look at the titles, if they’ve never heard of it, based on the title they give it 2 to 2 and a half stars. The guides claim they’ve seen them, but that’s bullshit”
Ok, that’s pretty darn close to what he said, but... well when Quentin is in a groove he speaks very very fast and expressive and given this is all based on my brain and notebook... I don’t believe in tape recorders... they stifle the brain and create laziness.
Anyway, he then went on to explain that “the spy films were to the sixties, what the Joel Silver films were to the eighties,” the audience began snickering, “well... I’m talking in quantity not quality,” audience laughter, “but ya know, I really like some of them Joel Silver films.”
Quentin then went into a history about Quiller, how there were 20 some odd books written by Adam Hall, which Quentin considers, “some of the most interesting,” spy adventure action writing around. He felt that it was very authentic.
“Alright, how would I know that it’s authentic? Am I a Spy? No. I don’t know what spies really do, but I believe you know the truth when you see it.”
Then he started heaping praise on Harold Pinter’s script, which he felt intensified and added to Adam Hall’s story. When he got this print, he couldn’t wait to bring it here to Austin.
Then he started in on George Segal, and how if all we know of him is from the last ten or fifteen years... well... “He’s Mr Swinging Dick in this!” The film also has Alec Guinness and Max Von Sydow. Quentin also felt that the relationship between Quiller and his ladyfriend was quite reminiscent of THE THIRD MAN’s similar bits. And the score is by John Barry, and Quentin felt that it is absolutely one of his best. Then he mentioned how Barry integrated the song WEDNESDAY’S CHILD into the score throughout the film. Then... he was off...
And Trailers began...
THE BLACK WINDMILL... I don’t know but this seems like a possible followup to THE IPCRESS FILE (though it isn’t). Quentin said if he could ever find a great print of this film, he’d bring it to Austin to screen. (If you have a great print... let me know)
TELEFON... I love this film, and the trailer is really really really good. Don’t pick up the phone. My dad being the paranoid hippie that he was, made me see this film a billion times.... It stopped me from asking why we didn’t have a telephone. Later I learned about evil mother-in-laws....
THE QUILLER MEMORANDUM
Wow.... This is one of the most audience unfriendly smart pieces of spy film work I’ve ever seen. You see... in a lot of ways it’s completely non-traditional (read... GOOD) in that there is a whole bunch of stuff going on that we don’t see. And the reason we don’t see it is because Quiller doesn’t see it.
“They don’t wear the brown shirts anymore.... they look like everybody else you know...” says Alec Guinness while eating his sandwich in the Olympic stadium in Berlin. You see the film is about the Nazi underground movement in the post WWII era Berlin.
I love George Segal in this movie. But then I’ve had a soft spot for the guy ever since WHO’S KILLING THE GREAT CHEFS OF EUROPE, a film I’ve seen 15 or so times. He’s not a great actor... but one that brings a smile to my face when I see him. And in this film... he’s doing everything he does, better than I’ve seen him do it before.
When Slugsworth from WILLY WONKA shows up as a German Swim Instructor.... I started to really get into the film.
But the film goes into SUPER-Mode when Max Von Sydow has got George tied in a chair and is interrogating him while he’s a bit drugged. Anyway the whole scene just made me 100% love the movie. But when Sydow said something sinister about how Quiller should be careful who he talks to.... Quiller retorts with, “But I like meeting new people.” in the most innocent, “may I have your daughter’s hand in marriage” tone. Quickly thereafter he’s drugged again....
This time he comes out of his slumber to Max Von Sydow looking like the greasiest Nazi you ever did see popping his knuckles. Ya remember how yesterday how I said that the shot of Angie Dickenson on that bed naked in PRETTY MAIDS ALL IN A ROW was a ‘sigh moment’.... well this was one of them, “I wish that I never open my eyes to behold this” moments.
Then later there is one of the best scenes I’ve ever seen Alec Guinness in. It has him and Quiller talking about the balance of things in Berlin.
Alec takes two muffins and spaces them a good distance apart. “This is our position and their position. Right now there is a great fog between us.” He then picks a small almond or nut from the ‘our’ muffin and places it in the middle, “You... you are in the gap. Your job is to get close enough to their position that you can signal us with the location to their position, but in so doing you have to be careful that in how you signal us you do not give away our position there by giving them the advantage.” He then proceeds to eat the ‘you’ almond/nut.
A fantastic scene. And a fantastic movie. I loved it. You see, not everyone did though.... Afterwards I began talking with Father Geek about all the stuff that went on in the ‘black’ moments. When Quiller’s eyes were shut... when his conciousness was not our own. How his sudden shifts in character were not the work of a bad script, but rather an impossibly smart script the presupposed that we would understand where a scene was headed... then though we did not see it all, when we saw the aftermath we would understand what it was that we were seeing.
The problem with this, for a mass audience, is that not everyone will be paying attention like they should. This isn’t like a James Bond film where lines are drawn evenly. Where a fight scene resolves it all... No, I believe in the shadowy worlds of spies (and I do know a thing are two about spies) this film is absolutely exceptional. I can not possibly praise it high enough.
I loved the film, and when Quentin came back out... You could tell he was a bit off by how the audience had reacted to a couple of key scenes so he asked the audience if they wanted to hear his take on the film. He then went into an instant, scene for scene magnification of what we just saw. Dad and I were smiling because this was what we had just been discussing.
Then he began to introduce SOL MADRID
You see SOL MADRID stars David McCallum, Ilya Kuryakin from THE MAN FROM UNCLE. And Quentin says that while this movie isn’t exactly a “spy” film.... It is a spy film. It deals with the DEA, and basically the filmmakers wanted to make a big MAN FROM UNCLE style movie, but “didn’t wanna bring all that Man From Uncle shit with him.”
Then he went on a whole, “this movie is always a little bit better than it has any right to be. The script is always a little bit trickier than it should be, the dialogue is way better than it should be...”
Then we went into the Tarantino ‘I love Telly Savalas’ mode. He began to tell us how Telly is a big ‘faye’ in the film, but noone is as male as Telly when they’re ‘faye’. “He’s a fucking MALE, Man!” And then launches into describing a scene in the movie where McCallum is in such utter awe of how good Savalas is in their scene that he can’t help but smile, “He’s broken character because Telly is so fucking good!”
Trailers....
NAVAJO JOE -- already covered this trailer... Dying to see the movie though.. Burt looks fit as hell in this one.
JUNIOR BONNER -- Seen this trailer about a bazillion times... Can’t wait to see the movie though.
SOL MADRID....
During the credits I see Michael Ansara’s name.... Yippee.... It’s Mr Freeze and Kane from Buck Rogers.... Coooooool. I love Michael Ansara. Oh shit... Pat Hingle... cooool Commisioner Gordon and... DAMN.... It’s Khan... fucking Ricardo Montalban and Lt Russell from PORK CHOP HILL, a fantastic war film that actually had a cameo by James Dean... But maaaaaaaaan, this thing is loaded with cool people.
Too bad Stella Stevens is in it, I’ve been a Stella Stevens hater from waaaaaaaaaay back. She literally screams almost every line of hers till she meets the big H and falls in lust with H.
This is all based on a book called FRUIT OF THE POPPY, and the film has that texture of a seventies tv show. Same colors and feel. But harder. I mean... It’s a pretty good movie, but really it all boils down to Ricardo and Telly.... They are both gods of maleness. Seeing the two of them together in this film (though never in the same scene) it amplified the testosterone about 500 levels than this film would have had otherwise.
The one thing I hate about the film though is David McCallum. He is so fucking smug... doesn’t he know he’s screwing with Telly Savalas. And the way this movie wraps up... It’s kinda like THE CORRUPTOR (coming soon to a theater near you).... The wrong people die, and the wrong people live.
Here’s my favorite line of Telly’s. McCallum has just explained how... though he’s putting in only 40% of the risk... How he should be paid 50% of the final take... To which Telly says, “Oh..... I see.... Your arithmatic seems to be based on a separate plane.” I friggin loved that line.
Anyways.... that’s it for this time out... Next up is GOOD OL BOYS NIGHT.... Enjoy...
