Don sequiturs

Can a movie be too British?

Apparently it can.  I saw the original version of the caper movie The Italian Job recently, and it was mildly disappointing, although it does pick up at the end, where the thieves make their escape using three Mini Coopers, which seem to take on personalities of their own in a chase that plays somewhat like a live-action cartoon. 

The planning stage of the heist, though, the first hour of the film, is supposed to be amusing, and, while I like British humour -- Monty Python, Fawlty Towers, and all that -- the comedy in this film wasn't the least bit funny.  Benny Hill (as Professor Peach) probably has the best comedy bits in the film, and  even he isn't that funny in it.  It's kind of tasteless as well.  The Brits seem to find amusing the very concept of cheeky, lower-class crooks pulling off a major job (which was how much of the public reacted to the Great Train Robbers of 1963, come to think of it), and they also respond to the warped patriotism of the situation (the Brits in charge, outwitting the European authorities and the Italian mafia, using British-made motor cars), but without any actual, you know, jokes, it all falls flat if you're a Yank.   Until the Mini Coopers are unleashed, which is when, as I said, the movie takes off.  The remake did a better job of working in the comedy, but the action sequences in the last half hour of the old one hold up better than the action sequences in the new version.  It's probably worth sitting through the build-up to get to the heist sequence, but just barely.

Don't let Jimmy Carter scare you

Have a great Memorial Day, in honor of those who chose to defend this country's freedom.

From the "eBay: is there anything it can't do?" Department

So a couple weeks ago I was re-reading Peter Guralnick's two-volume biography of Elvis (actually, I skimmed it and re-read the more interesting parts) and I thought I recognized the title of one of the books he cited a few times in the first volume:  "The Rockin' 50s" by Arnold Shaw.  I went on eBay and immediately recognized from the picture of the cover that I had checked that book out from the Defiance public library and read it when I was in grade school, or maybe high school.  It's out of print, but I bought a copy on eBay from a lady in Pennsylvania (for $2.00! And shipping, of course), and now I'm starting to re-read that.  The reason the book stuck in my mind was that, despite its title, it actually pays more attention to the existing pop music milieu into which rock n' roll music erupted than to rock itself.  In fact, I don't recall any other book I've read that does a better job of describing the contrast between the music business and the music-buying (and -listening) habits of the public before and after the arrival of rock music (the author was himself in the business in the 50s, as a music publisher).  The first couple of chapters I've re-read show that the book is as interesting as I remembered it.  Good deal.

Speaking of the rockin' 50s, the recent ill health of Bo Diddley prompted me to look for videos of him on the internet for purposes of a blog post, since I'm a big Diddley fan.  I had a vinyl double album of his greatest hits put out by Chess Records in a cheap cover that fell apart about 20 minutes after I bought it (the album cover I mean, not the album, which I played a gazillion times and which I think I still have).  I replaced that with the CD The Chess Box, and then most recently replaced that with an album from iTunes that sounded like it was mixed better than The Box.   

A lot of writing on Bo emphasizes his role as "The Originator" and how much he influenced the British Invasion and early heavy metal, and how his songs have been covered by so many other artists ("I'm a Man" and "Roadrunner" by The Yardbirds, "Mona" by The Rolling Stones, "Before You Accuse Me" by Eric Clapton, "Who Do You Love" by Ronnie Hawkins and the Hawks, The Doors, Quicksilver Messenger Service, and about 800 others -- George Thorogood's version has been used recently in ads for Sam Adams beer), so much so that the quality of his music on its own terms gets overlooked (although not always -- that's what I liked about this Rolling Stone story on Bo from a couple years back).  Also, while he's most associated with the much-imitated "Bo Diddley" beat from his 1955 debut hit "Bo Diddley," a listen to a broader selection of his songs shows a great variety of styles. 

Anyways, on to the video -- unfortunately, YouTube's selection of vintage Bo videos isn't great.  There is a goofy version of "Roadrunner" where he sings the first verse then continues for a minute or so as an instrumental.   There's a slightly better clip of him from the mid-60s doing "Hey Bo Diddley" (not one of my favorites) segueing into "Bo Diddley" -- which provokes some rather lame hand-jiving amongst the live audience. 

YouTube didn't have his mid-50s appearance on Ed Sullivan performing "Bo Diddley";  luckily, though, it was posted elsewhere -- that's probably the best of the lot.  (Note to anyone reading this who is under 40 -- Ed isn't drunk in that clip; he always talked like that.)

As always, perusing the videos on YouTube led to some other finds.  For example, here's Jerry Lee Lewis doing a totally out of control, seven minute plus version of "Whole Lotta Shakin' Goin' On" on some English TV show during the 60s.  The Killer looks just awful, and it's a little disturbing to watch him as he whips the crowd into a frenzy.  Highly recommended.

This is really brilliant

I'm breaking radio silence to say merely that this video counting down from 100 to 1 with movie quotes is really brilliant. What makes it especially brilliant is that he uses great movies for the most part, Sunset Boulevard, Citizen Kane, The Wild Bunch, etc. etc. -- I recognized almost all of the clips (here's the list). Also, many of the numbers in the quotes are not mentioned in passing but are highly pertinent bits of dialogue in the film, for example 57 for The Manchurian Candidate, 50 for Cool Hand Luke, 39 for the The 39 Steps, 11 for This is Spinal Tap. Bravo, Vincent. Let's hope the suits don't order it taken down for a few days at least. (Via Ace.)