Watch Party Watch: The Beautician and the Beast (1997)

Watched:  04/16/2021

Format:  Amazon Watch Party

Viewing:  First

Decade:  1990's

Director:  Ken Kwapis

Wait wait wait...  Fran Drescher plays a sassy Jewish girl from working class New York who a well-meaning functionary mistakes as a great candidate for a child-rearing role for a powerful and wealthy handsome widower?  What an entirely novel concept!  

Look, you couldn't not be aware of Fran Drescher circa 1997.  I remember my grandmother praising The Nanny at the time, and my own hip 20-something skepticism.  But a couple of years ago I found myself watching re-runs of the show, and I was like "oh, I get it.  She wants to be Lucille Ball, but in mini-skirts and leaning into Jewish stereotypes that I, as a WASP from Texas, can neither confirm nor deny."  Frankly, for what it is, it works.  I won't say the show is "smart" exactly, but it does what it does well, and I get how it lasted 6 seasons.

But... even in 1997 I was confused by The Beautician and the Beast.  It's the same thing as what she was doing on TV.  Like, pretty much exactly.  The movie is even PG from an era where comedies were PG-13, but Drescher's comedy was always flirty, not going for overt sex comedy or working blue, and so felt sanitized for network censors of the time.  So there's not even "we could never do this on TV" to separate the two.  Drescher is quoted as saying she didn't want to challenge the audience too much as she moved to movies, but I'd argue - don't just ask them to pay for what they can see every week for free.*

Friday Watch Party: Beautician and the Beast

Fran-Mania Friday!

Join us as we celebrate Fran Drescher taking her successful TV concept and doing basically the same thing as a movie.  I assume.  I've not seen this movie.  But I'm a late-arriving fan of The Nanny, and so why wouldn't this be just as good?  It's got Timothy Dalton, and I love that guy.

So, let's hope this movie is pretty good!  Even without CC, Niles, Maxwell, Sylvia, Yetta, Val and the kids.  Let's hope a repressive dictator is just as funny.

Day:  04/16/2021

Time:  8:30 Central

Amazon Link here and now!

Doc Watch: Pumping Iron (1977)

Watched:  04/15/2021

Format:  Amazon Prime

Viewing:  First

Decade:  1970's

Director:  George Butler, Robert Fiore

So, I finally watched Pumping Iron (1977)!  It was super good.  I'm not spending the energy to write it up, but if I liked Arnie before (and he's my imaginary friend, so, yes), nothing has changed.  Also, it was wild to see young Lou Ferrigno.  

Noir Watch Party: The Blue Gardenia (1953)

Watched:  04/13/2021

Format:  Amazon Watch Party

Viewing:  Second

Decade:  1950's

Director:  Fritz Lang

We'd watched The Blue Gardenia (1953) some time back, and this time I'm inclined to be kinder to the film.  It's still not my favorite, but with Anne Baxter, Ann Sothern, Richard Conte and Raymond Burr and Fritz Lang directing, you kind of expect a bit more.

Anne Baxter gets a Dear Jane letter from her solider-boy boyfriend who has met a nurse overseas, and tells her he's getting married.  She does as anyone might do, receives a call for her roommate (Ann Sothern) looking for a date, takes up the fellow on it, and meets up with Raymond Burr.  Because it's 1953, Burr is not a nice guy, and he gets Baxter drunk and takes her back to his place to take advantage of her.  

Baxter wakes up at home, unsure of what happened, but she's left her shoes at Burr's apartment, which is embarrassing enough, but also: he's been killed with a fire poker.  So.  She seems to have totally murdered a dude and left her shoes behind.

Conte plays a local reporter - a social crusading type in search of headlines, and he begins the search for the woman they dub "The Blue Gardenia".

Fritz Lang wasn't one to shy away from a good thriller, of course, and this film puts the audience in the curious spot of identifying with a woman who just killed someone, with pretty good reason, but by social mores of the 1950's - if she's arrested, who knows?  Could be the gas chamber.  And if she's acquitted for self-protection?  One can assume she'd be "ruined" by attacks on her character for having made the terrible decision to cozy up to Raymond Burr.  The film doesn't explicitly say anything about a woman's place in society in 1953, but it's not hard to understand what the assumed rules are, and how Lang and the writers used those notions to build a better mousetrap for our protagonist.  As the audience, we know it's unjust, but...

Unfortunately, Conte is written as a bit of a dingbat, apparently buying a whole lot of "I have a friend who may have done a thing" storytelling, that I'd assume anyone as old as 14 would recognize as "and I assume this friend is you?"  But it's not how it's played off.  

The movie generally *looks* great, with Nicholas Musuraca listed as Cinematographer, and who had plenty of prior experience he brought to bear in this film.  

Again, the movie is fine - it just wasn't one I'd had any particular penchant for the first time I saw it, and that was more or less how I felt on round 2.

Noir Watch: Naked Alibi (1954)

Watched:  04/12/2021

Format:  BluRay

Viewing:  First

Decade:  1950's

Director:  Jerry Hopper

Burning the last of my "it's your birthday, watch what you want" goodwill, I chose Naked Alibi (1954) - a movie I'd heard was "ehhh".  And, indeed, it was. 

But, look, I'm a Sterling Hayden stan and a Gloria Grahame nut, so this seemed like a slam dunk.  Alas.

Sterling Hayden plays a detective that in literally any other movie would be a rogue cop.or just a thug of a cop (see Hayden in Crimewave).  Here, his underlings haul in a guy for basically existing on the sidewalk after dark and seem set to pin a crime on him minus any evidence, so he loses it and slugs a cop.  But the guy is a baker, with a young wife and kids.  It makes no sense, yet Hayden decides he's a crook and hassles him.  Two of his guys get blown up by a car bomb, and he decides it must be Al the Baker, and goes about police-harassing him, including manhandling him in front of witnesses and the press, which gets him fired.

Comedy Watch: Barb & Star Go To Vista Del Mar (2021)

Watched:  04/11/2021

Format:  Amazon Streaming

Viewing:  First

Decade:  2020's

Director:  Josh Greenbaum

Delayed from summer 2020, Barb and Star Go To Vista Del Mar (2021) was released to streaming services in February for a premium fee, but is now available for a more standard fee, and if I knew how much I would like it, I would have paid the $20.  

It's *not* for everybody, but it was absolutely in my wheelhouse.  This thing - written by and starring Annie Mumolo and Kristen Wiig - is as bonkers a comedy as I've seen in a looong time.  I don't want to give you any spoilers or plot points.  Just let it unfold.

PODCAST: "Withnail and I" (1987) - a Signal Watch Canon episode w/ SimonUK and Ryan

Watched:  March 30, 2021

Format:  HBOmax

Viewing:  First

Decade:  1980's

Director:  Bruce Robinson

More ways to listen

We're discussing our personal canon when it comes to film - and what can two guys who talk endlessly at one another do better than discuss two guys who talk endlessly at one another? It's a British cult favorite, but not the best known movie here in the colonies - but maybe it should be? Join us for a sojourn in the country as we escape our normal routine!

The Signal Watch PodCast · 144: "Withnail And I" (1987) - A Signal Watch Canon episode w/ Simon and Ryan

Music:

Withnail's Theme - David Dundas and Rick Wentworth

All Along the Watchtower - Performed by Jimi Hendrix, Written by Bob Dylan

Signal Watch Canon:

The Signal Watch PodCast · The Signal Watch Canon

46

Dream Operator

Talking Heads - True Stories

When you were little

You dreamed you were big

You must have been something

A real tiny kid

You wish you were me

I wish I was you

Now don't you wake up

The dream will come true

Every dream has a name

And names tell your story

This song is your dream

You're the dream operator

It's bigger than life

You know it's all me

My face is a book

But it's not what it seems

Three angels above

The whole human race

They dream us to life

They dream me a face

And every dream tells it all

And this dream is your story

You dreamed me a heart

You're the dream operator

Shake-it-up dream

Hi-di-ho dream

Fix-it-up dream

Look at me dream

I've been waiting so long

Now I am your dream

Hard to forget

Hard to go on

When you fall asleep

You're out on your own

Let go of your life

Grab on to my hand

Here in the clouds

Where we'll understand

And you dreamed it all

And this is your story

Do you know who you are?

You're the dream operator

And you dreamed it all

And this is your story

Do you know who you are?

You're the dream operator

Watch Party Watch: Danger Diabolik (1968)

Watched 04/09/2021

Format:  Amazon Watch Party

Viewing:  Unknown

Decade:  1960's

Director:  Bava

I mean, man, you had to be there

Legal Thriller Watch: Presumed Innocent (1990)

Watched  04/09/2021

Format:  HBOmax

Viewing:  Second

Decade:  1990's

Director:  Alan J. Pakula

It's fair to say, that when I saw this at age 16 or whatever it was (I would have been 15 upon the film's release, and didn't see it in the theater) I followed the plot, but I didn't "get" the film.  Recently I was discussing this film with some folks who said it was a good neo-noir, and I should give it a shot, so I did.  What the hell else am I doing?

I'd literally forgotten I'd seen the film until reading the synopsis on wikipedia, and realized I had, in fact, seen it, but didn't remember which of the circa 1990-era adult court mystery dramas I was thinking of when and if details from the movie crossed my mind.  Firstly "Presumed Innocent" is as untelling a title as what often gets applied to noir.  Second, until about 1997, I think every fifth movie coming out was an actor in a suit going to court for some reason or other.

So, yeah, seeing a film about betrayal in a marriage and the fallout wrapped up in a mystery, semi-erotic thriller works far better at age 46 and with 21 years of marriage under your belt.  Also, realizing how *good* everyone is in this movie was a delight.  And goddamn the early passing of Raul Julia, who was amazing here.