More of Mr. Sutherland

Perusing all the online love for Donald Sutherland, and I keep coming across pictures I haven’t seen before. I love the first one with Gould, who made a great on-screen partner.

With Elliott Gould on the set of LITTLE MURDERS.

R.I.P. Donald Sutherland

Look, I don’t think I could have said it any better than the Canadian postal service already has in recently honoring the actor. I’ll just add: he’s not just someone I have actively watched decade after decade to great satisfaction, always seeming greater than the thing he was part of; he has been one of the most daring and yet comfortable actors to watch work. Watch almost any film the man took part in from the 60s and 70s, especially…he could be a dagger, and he could be an easygoing oasis in a sea of chaos.

Donald Sutherland will always be one of the best.

Maybe Off By A Few Years

Harlan Ellison’s novella A BOY AND HIS DOG, made into a film by actor LQ Jones in 1975 after appearing in Ellison’s 1968 collection THE BEAST THAT SHOUTED LOVE AT THE HEART OF THE WORLD, has things going to hell long before 2024, but that’s the year the story takes place, with scavengers and vast deserts and white-faced weirdos in underground cities. The film has a very young Don Johnson, and a telepathic dog voiced by the late great Tim McIntire.

But wow, the copy they’re using over on Tubi is garbage, straight off a worn videotape. Twice a tracking indicator pops up on screen. Shoddy.

Class Act - Ronald Neame's HOPSCOTCH (1980)

The immensely satisfying HOPSCOTCH has a dubbed version that Tubi is playing these days. It mostly affects the dialogue of Ned Beatty’s CIA head, who becomes apoplectic every time Walter Matthau’s protagonist one-ups his pursuers.

The film is so good (and good-natured) that it overcomes such mangling with ease. Matthau has never seemed more relaxed in a role; the writing is persistently - and dryly - funny; and the pacing is as breezy as they come. I can easily consider it an all-time favorite, and am extremely pleased to own Criterion’s version, which has all the dialogue intact.

I Didn't Expect To See You Here

A favorite in the broad spectrum of album cover art: Paul McCartney’s BAND ON THE RUN, featuring Paul and Linda, Denny Laine, and six special guests: boxer John Conteh (far right), broadcast journalist Michael Parkinson (far left), singer/songwriter Kenny Lynch (behind Paul), Clement Freud (behind Linda), and in the back, James Coburn and Christopher Lee. (Photographed by Clive Arrowsmith.)

For me, it’s playful, surprising, and very memorable. I especially like the contrast between Parkinson’s finger gun and Lee’s absolutely deadly trapped-animal glare.

Yikes!

When that fire alarm test you read about 30 seconds earlier coincides with you finishing the line from an old song you like. Heart attack c-c-c-city, baby.

Vaya Con Dios, DFW Alamos

It has been deeply frustrating and disconcerting today, having learned this morning that every DFW-area Alamo Drafthouse (and one in Minnesota) were shuttered due to the franchisee company filing for bankruptcy. If you’re not a frequent filmgoer, the Alamo Drafthouse chain is a very comfortable and technically-sound theater company that leans into a combination of new and retro programming, with incredibly satisfying “pre-show” content, food service, and in many cases, a bar. They are everything you can imagine if you said, “hey, what would make a movie theater cool?”

I haven’t been much since COVID but at the end of last December went to see POOR THINGS and GODZILLA MINUS ONE, and more recently FURIOSA. My local theater, the Richardson location, was also home to some really special monthly programs hosted by people I know and admire.

They, and the many local filmgoers who care about how they watch movies on a big screen, were left saddened by this sudden news. My understanding is that even the Alamo Drafthouse company wasn’t aware this change was coming.

I was there when it opened a dozen years ago, and I wish I could have been there more frequently of late. There are few places in my lifetime that I have felt legit comfortable in a theater. And even fewer joints that approached cinema with an unbridled joy and good-natured vibe every time.

My hope is that - if not the Alamo company itself - some enterprising businessman with a deep love of film (and very deep pockets) will come in and re-start these locations anew. For now, I’m just going to reminisce about past Secret Screenings and Dismember The Alamo presentations. There’s a lot of love out there for these folks. I hope everyone affected lands on their feet in a good Next Thing.

Frank McCarthy Saves The Day...Again

Starting YOU CAN’T WIN ‘EM ALL on Tubi, and I have a sneaking suspicion that the film cannot possibly be as good as the artwork used in its poster.

And By The Way...

It is very possible - though something that may take months or years to properly assess - that I found more to appreciate in SOLO than FURIOSA. And got more enjoyment out of THE KING’S MAN than SOLO. And was happier to have seen PEARL than THE KING’S MAN.

But don’t hold me to that. Yet.

Ah, Marketing!

I can assure you this does not happen in this film.