Lynda Carter Watch: Bobbie Jo and the Outlaw (1976)

they misspelled Lynda Carter's name.  Well done, person in 1976.

Watched:  02/07/2021

Format:  TCM on DVR

Viewing:  First

Decade:  1970's - and very much so

Director:  Mark L. Lester.  Go figure!

So, this came up on Prime, and I'd been meaning to watch it because it starred a pre-Wonder Woman Lynda Carter (reason enough), and then I found out it co-starred Marjoe Gortner, who you may remember from Starcrash.  And then the movie started and it said it was directed and produced by Mark L. Lester, and my brain about melted, because he's the guy who brought us one of my favorite movies: Commando.

Here's the thing - I wasn't expecting a ton out of this movie and was pretty sure I wouldn't finish it - but it was... okay?  Fine?  Nowhere the disaster I was expecting.  Like, it's a legit movie trying to do a thing, and it's competent, which I figured it would be when I saw Lester's name attached.  Which, honestly, was maybe a little disappointing, because I figured it was going to be terrible enough for a Friday night screening.  But, alas, it is not.  

Bobbie Jo and the Outlaw (1976) is part of the trend of movies that's -frankly - existed since the gangster pictures of the 1930's, but returned in force as stories of misfit individuals railing against normalized society (and winding up on the wrong side of the law).  The genre exploded with the counter culture adopting the idea with Cool Hand Luke and Bonnie and Clyde in 1967, and this movie borrows heavily from the latter film.

Bobbie Jo is a car-hop in New Mexico when she meets Lyle Wheeler, a smart but possibly crazy guy who idolizes Billy the Kid.  She's had it with her nagging mother and humdrum life, and decides Marjoe Gortner is her ticket out.  As one does.

The movie does a pretty good job of bringing the "crime spree" part up a bit later in the movie, letting Bobbie Jo and Lyle find their groove, do some peyote, and get up to basic shennanigans before it becomes clear Lyle stole the very cool muscle car their driving, and he's got no real jobby job.  They recruit Bobbie Jo's sister, her boyfriend and a nerdy pal and hit the road, eventually deciding to do some crimes - which Bobbie Jo is *delighted* about.  It's all fun and games.

There's a Buford T. Justice cop that goes in hot pursuit (which frankly makes no sense as he'd be leaving his jurisdiction, the FBI is nowhere to be seen, and he winds up accidentally killing a bunch of innocent people - which is never mentioned again).  

Anyway, the movie is predictable enough, because it wants to show that an outlaw like Lyle is too good or too much for this world, and Lynda Carter must survive in order to mourn him, gorgeously.  

It does feel a bit too reminsicent of Bonnie and Clyde at times, but I'm not entirely sure how you avoid the comparisons when it's two stories of outlaw lovers robbing places and trying to stay ahead of the law in the open spaces of the West.  You're gonna face some convergent evolution, even if you never saw Bonnie and Clyde.  

Watching the movie does make you wonder: wait, how was Lynda Carter *not* a bigger deal when she hit Hollywood?  Famously, she had less than $100 left when she was cast for Wonder Woman and otherwise wasn't finding any work.  This film was released in 76', and WW originally aired in 75', and I'm honestly not sure which shot first.    Wonder Woman premiered in late 75 and this movie came out in March of 76' and was an indie picture, so could have take a while to get assembled.  But before all that, her work is spotty.

Carter can sing, she can dance, she can act, and she - frankly - looks like Lynda Carter.  Maybe she didn't have the right mid-70's earthy qualities movies were looking for?  She's more old school in her approach than, say, Faye Dunaaway, but it sure *seems* like someone would have been smart enough to work with her.  Carter's part here is underwritten - she's mostly there to tell the audience that Lyle is sympathetic and not a sociopath (he is obviously a charistmatic sociopath, but I'm not sure the movie knows this, and thinks he's romantic).  But if you're more used to the polished Lynda Carter, it's a kick to see her getting high and playing with guns.  

Anyway - for a movie I was expecting to mostly suffer through, it was okay.  Maybe not the first thing I'd direct you to, but.  Anyway. 

Watch Party Regret Watch: Mannequin 2 - On the Move (1991)

Watched:  02/05/2021

Format:  Amazon Watch Party

Viewing: First

Decade:  1990's

Director:  Stewart Raffill

This movie wasn't very good.  Jenifer agrees.

These days, if a movie does well, studios understand that if they're going to make a sequel to a popular-ish film, the *best* thing to do is to try to go bigger and better.  Give the audience a reason to get them to come back.  However, Mannequin 2: On the Move (1991) is very much of the era where the reason for a sequel to exist was so that as many pilot fish left over from the first film can gorge themselves on the good will of the first movie and not care at all if the sequel will be worth the film it's printed on.

Pretty much nobody is back from the first movie - and I don't just mean Andrew McCarthy and Kim Cattrall.  The actual producers, up and down, aren't the same.  The director is new.  You have the same store as the location, and you have Meshach Taylor back as "Hollywood".  That's it.  So no one cares, no one is trying, and the end product may be less than ideal.

Anyway, there MUST have been a script, because there are costumes and whatnot, so someone knew what they'd need for shooting.  But it sure doesn't feel like there's a script - it feels like people dicking around in front of the camera.  Except for Kristi Swanson, who is actually at least trying here (despite a bizarre wig that seems inspired by a Rick James groupie's hair).  And, yeah, Meshach Taylor, but he was kind of dicking around in the first movie, too.

But there's only small bits in the 90 minute run time that actually reach the level of "funny bit" or "joke that might make one crack a smile".  The rest is weird mugging no one asked for and maybe one of the lest charismatic leads I can remember in anything that wasn't one of those movies with people fighting in a sci-fi wasteland.  And the weird thing is:  normally that guy is fine.  He's been in lots of stuff - stuff you've seen.  But here - he's working with nothing, and I guess that was a problem.

I don't regret making other people watch the movie.  At least we all suffered together.

Noir Watch: The Postman Always Rings Twice (1946)

Watched:  02/06/2021

Format:  TCM on DVR

Viewing:  unknown

Decade:  1940's

Director:  Tay Garnett

The Postman Always Rings Twice (1946) is among the top ten films I'd recommend in a "what you need to know about noir" seminar.  It's got an earned place among the noir canon, and even though I've read the book and seen it half-dozen times, I find myself thoroughly enjoying every time I return to it.  It simply works.  

It shares a certain headspace with Double Indemnity, which makes sense as both started as novels by James M. Cain.  There's not just a gritty realism in how characters are and behave, it's matched by the worlds Cain created that seem not far off from our own.  Roadside diners, insurance offices.  Heck, throw in Mildred Pierce and you're in the suburbs and building up comfortable eateries.  

All it really takes is infatuation to become an obsession, and everything can go off the rails.  

Friday Night Amazon Party: Mannequin 2 - On the Move

 

You. Will. Know. Pain.

Day:    02/05/2021

Time:  8:30 PM Central

Source:  Amazon Watch Party

Link here to watch, friendos

I've never seen this.  It's a 13% critics score on RT.  Metacritic doesn't even register it.

It's the second in a series of movies that asks "hey, would you @#$% a store mannequin?" and tells the tale of yet another fellow who absolutely would.

Christopher Plummer Merges With the Infinite

 

Actor Christopher Plummer has passed at the age of 91.  

Look, it's hard to get through Plummer's filmography, because he's been working for decades upon decades, and has been in so many memorable films - and I think he's amazing in the recent Knives Out.

But I also credit him with making me realize actors could be many things.  In 1987 or 1988, when I saw the comedic reboot of Dragnet on VHS, I remember snapping to "that... that's Christopher Plummer" as we were watching the movie.  I mean, I only knew him from Sound of Music and as a "serious" actor.  Seeing him in something so goofy, and what they were doing to leverage his gravitas, was kind of fascinating to me as a kid.  Anyway - it taught me a little something about actors and their range, and their desire to be more than one thing.  I won't say at age 12 or 13 that I stretched the idea beyond that - but over the years, watching him appear in film and after film, pulling off whatever was in front of him, was amazing.  

Of course, I didn't know at the time, either, he had entered this phase of his career and was just as likely to appear in serious drama as, say, Starcrash.  (He's actually very good in Star Trek VI).

But, man, what a life.  He'll be missed.

Ida Lupino at 103

 

Today marks Ida Lupino's date of birth, 1918.  She's a favorite here at The Signal Watch, and I probably go on about her too much, but that's just how we're gonna be.  I will defend this decision forever.

Noir Re-Watch: The Unsuspected (1947)

Watched:  02/03/2021

Format:  TCM on DVR

Viewing:  4th?

Decade:  1940's

Director:  Michael Curtiz

Michael Curtiz directed innumerable good to great movies, and we find ourselves watching his output a few times per year one way or another, but since finding The Unsuspected (1947) as part of my "let's watch all the Audrey Totter stuff we can find" quest, I'm a little surprised it just isn't more widely discussed.  The cinematography alone is noteworthy, courtesy industry veteran Elwood Bridell.  Add in a Franz Waxman score, and multiple hooks for a story, and it already has plenty to recommend it before you point out Claude Rains stars.

Ida Watch Party Watch: Jennifer (1953)

Watched:  02/01/2021

Format:  Amazon Watch Party

Viewing:  First

Decade:  1950's

Director:  Joel Newton

Co-watched w/ JeniferSF

A thriller which lifts elements from plenty of Gothic mysteries, borrows from noir, and has an ending that's maybe whatever the opposite is of deus ex machina, Jennifer (1953) has some great things going for it, but was not my cup of tea, exactly, but I found myself actually fairly wrapped up in the mystery.

Starring the lovely and talented Ida Lupino, with photography by James Wong Howe (one of the best to ever DP a movie), it still feels oddly like a B- picture, and maybe it was.  The film runs (blessedly) short, relies upon a small cast where Lupino is the biggest star, and we see only a handful of locations.   

Lupino wasn't quite done with movies at this point, and two of my favorite of hers follow this one: Private Hell 36 and the phenomenal The City That Never Sleeps.  She'd just come off two great films with Robert Ryan, Beware, My Lovely and the icy On Dangerous Ground.  By the time she hit her 40's in the late 1950's, she was more or less transitioning to TV where she'd remain for the rest of her career - as, at the same time, she took to directing as much or more than acting.*

PODCAST: "Soul" (2020) - a Pixar Watch featuring Pixar Lighting Lead Ryan Michero! (and NathanC and me)

 

Watched:  01/30/2021

Format:  Disney+

Viewing:  Second

Decade:  2020

Directors:  Pete Docter, Kemp Powers (co-director)

For more ways to listen

Ryan and Nathan are joined by Pixar Lighting Lead, Ryan Michero, to talk about "Soul", now available on Disney+. We take a deep dive into the technical wizardry and challenges of "how does one light a conceptual construct?" to discussing the process and storytelling that makes Pixar the best there is. Join us for a conversation with one of the folks who makes the magic happen!

 

The Signal Watch PodCast · 137: "Soul" (2020) Pixar Watch w/ Ryan Michero, NathanC and Ryan

Music:

Born to Play - John Batiste, Soul OST

The Great Before/ U Seminar - Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross, Soul OST

NPR Fresh Air episode

Disney History Playlist

The Signal Watch PodCast · Disney History with NathanC

Television - some stuff I've watched

I'd originally started this post at the end of last year in order to relay what all we'd been watching.  At this point, it's kind of hard to remember through the haze that was 2020 and the endless hours in my spot on the sofa what I put my eyeballs on.  As you may know, I mostly watched movies, and baseball came back in July.  I even gave a go of becoming a fan of Korean baseball, but kinda failed at that.

In general, I don't binge TV shows (and quietly judge people on twitter complaining when shows come out once per week), but this year has been a year unlike others.  And I did plow right through some shows that I might otherwise have ignored.  

For example - I watched all of something called The Great Flower Fight, which I can't say I even liked, but at the start of the pandemic, it was the right show at the right time.  As was Love is Blind.

Frankly - I do not get how TV is funded in this era of a million channels and streaming services.  What constitutes a win versus a cancel.  It's all just a big mystery to me.  There's so much stuff out there, and while the same percentage of it is watchable, with the sheer volume, there's a lot of decent TV in existence at this point.  But, yikes, there's a lot of stuff on, and somebody is watching it.  

None of these shows are recommendations, but the list is what I've watched over the past 12 months or so between baseball and movies.  Some of it's pretty bad - but I somehow stuck it out. 

I'm also not looking for recommendations - and I know you all have them.  Good!  Say them very quietly inside your head and give a knowing smile to yourself.  Ahhh....  there's that familiar glow of a recommendation.

Anyway - here's my best possible stab at a list

• Doom Patrol
• Filthy Rich
• The Righteous Gemstones
• Supergirl
• Star Trek: The Next Generation (select episodes)
• Star Trek:  Picard
• Star Trek: Lower Decks
• Star Trek:  Discovery (Season 3)
• Fargo Season 4
• The Great Flower Fight
• The Vow (the NXIVM  doc)
• The Mandalorian
• Imagineering Doc
• One Day at Disney
• One Day at a Time
• Disney Galleries - Mandalorian
• Into the Unknown: Making Frozen 2
• DuckTales
• On Pointe
• The Expanse
• The Good Place
• Lego Masters
• Brooklyn 99
• Love is Blind
• WandaVision
• What We Do in the Shadows
• Schitt's Creek
• The Amber Ruffin Show
• Reruns of The Nanny
• Reruns of Seinfeld
• a whole lotta KXAN News @ Noon

I'm just listing things here that I watched enough of to say I enjoyed it by finishing the series or season.  Unlike, apparently, a lot of you, I don't generally watch shows for a few seasons to see if they get good.  

So, yeah, I also tried a lot of shows, watched a few episodes and stopped.  For whatever reason, they just didn't settle with me.  Of the best items - probably Fargo Season 4, which was goddamn art, people.  So, there you go.

I want to go back and try a few shows now that I'm numb to COVID times.  It was not the best time to be watching Tales from the Loop, for example.  I avoided catching up with Chernobyl altogether.  I couldn't even muster the willpower for Lovecraft Country, which I may pick up soon.