The Boris Karloff blogathon is now loose upon the world. You can read more about the week-long event here and the first post here, which includes a message from Boris’ daughter Sara Karloff.
I’ll be contributing at least one post sometime this week, although I hope to get two done if time permits. I do love me some Karloff.
Hope to hear from some of you here or on Facebook, Twitter, or wherever else. And I’m looking forward to reading some of the more than 100 various bloggers who are joining in.
One of the great true Hollywood stars has died. Although Newman’s film appearances were rare the last couple of decades… the body of work, the iconic roles he left behind is impressive. Here’s a clip from my favorite Newman movie, Martin Ritt’s Cool Hand Luke (1967). Now… if you’ll excuse me, I’ve got a parking meter to vandalize and 50 hardboiled eggs to gulp down.
John Boorman’s 1967 neo-noir, Point Blank, comes on like a riot, simmers into a coiled narrative fighting stance, then springs into the weird currents of existentialist no exits in its closing, haunted moments. It’s some kind of pop brutalism, my favorite Boorman film (Deliverance and the flawed The Emerald Forest aren’t too far behind, though), and a wonderfully intoxicating mix of Hollywood action fused with sidewinding avant-garde film techniques. But most importantly it stars Lee Marvin. Oozing drop-dead cool and tick-tock detachment, Marvin’s laconic though physically commanding performance holds steady throughout, smoothly delivering that snap, that “it” quality that only the great movie stars are able to harness. This is an action film when physicality actually meant something, when meat and bone inhabited physical space, and the violence carried with it weight not measured in pixels and glossy poses.
The first video is the original theatrical trailer. The second one is a short clip from when Walker (Marvin) hits a San Francisco go-go club hunting for the man who double-crossed him.
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