The Essential Geek Library: The Film Classics Library

It was 1974 and the videocassette recorder was, at least for home use, still on the distant horizon. If movie fans wanted to relive a favorite classic movie, they had few choices. The could wait for an art-house re-release. They could hope to catch it on late-night local TV.

Or they could buy Richard J. Anobile’s Film Classics Library.

Published by Avon and selling for the then-substantial price of $4.95, Anobile’s Film Classics Library was the closest thing to owning a copy of a favorite film that most of us fans could imagine … up until the time we could actually own a copy of a favorite film.

Looking back from the perspective of today’s instant access for movie fans – Want to see a movie? Pop in your disc. Watch it on On Demand. Stream it online. – Anobile’s books were ingenious and just what we needed back then.

Each movie was recreated in the pages of the oversize paperback through every line of dialogue and more than 1,000 frame blow-ups.

The books were, in a way, like comic books. Anobile took images and dialogue from the movies and reproduced them, in sequence, in such a manner that readers could relive the films.

Everything was included except for movement and audio. Opening and closing credits are included, as are lap dissolves and fades, which, Anobile noted, preserve the feel of the film.

I spent hours of my adolescence studying these books, looking at the still shots and reading the dialogue.

I still own two of the entries from the series, covering James Whale’s “Frankenstein” and Alfred Hitchcock’s “Psycho.” I remember but don’t own Anobile’s recapturing of “Casablanca.” Checking around online today, it appears editions of “The Maltese Falcon” and Buster Keaton’s “The General” were also released.

A few other movies and TV shows, including “Star Trek,” received a similar treatment before the advent of VCRs. None of those later books could match the classic appeal of the FIlm Classics Library.

The essential geek library: ‘Cult Movies’ by Danny Peary

Back in the old days, everything you wanted to know about movies and TV shows and comic books – their makers, their history, their detractors, their weird variations – wasn’t available for perusal at the click of a mouse.

No, children, we had books back then, and they were wonderful resources.

For a few decades, I amassed a collection of books about movies and TV and comics. They were my encyclopedias, my Bibles. I read and re-read them, memorizing facts and committing the photographs to memory.

So I thought I would occasionally mention some of these books here for you. Maybe you’ve got your own copies. Maybe you can find them in used bookstores or on Amazon. Maybe some will still be in print.

Danny Peary’s “Cult Movies” is a good place to start. Published in 1981 and subtitled “The Classics, the Sleepers, the Weird and the Wonderful,” Peary’s book lives up to its name. The dozens of movies he writes about in the first book (three volumes total were published) range from beloved classics like “The Wizard of Oz” to still-at-the-time controversial films like “The Texas Chainsaw Massacre” to “2001” to “Vertigo.”

Peary devotes three or four pages to each movie. He lists the cast and key creative positions and gives a synopsis. He then goes into detail about what made the movies cult films.

Peary tells how director George Romero made “Night of the Living Dead,” from its hardscrabble production to its difficult distribution to its reception by audiences and critics.

He has real insight into the movies he covers.

“Pessimistic and unsentimental, ‘Living Dead’ is so effective because it is totally without pretension,” he notes. “It works on basic fears: unrelenting terror, monsters, darkness, claustrophobia. ‘Aliens’ attack us on American soil; protectors, even blood relations, turn on one another.” He notes how the black and white photography, a side effect of its low budget, made it more effective in some ways (anyone see the recent black-and-white presentation of the pilot for “The Walking Dead?”) but worked against it (Columbia Pictures wouldn’t distribute the film because it wasn’t in color) in others.

Peary, who is still actively writing, although not books about movies, brings the right amounts of reverence and criticism to these great but oddball movies. He and his books are what every modern-day movie and pop culture blogger aspires to be.

Unsung actors: Jonathan Banks

Who’s badder than Jonathan Banks? Nobody.

He’s one of the coolest yet most unsung actors in Hollywood.

Banks is enjoying a little limelight in a recurring role in the hit series “Breaking Bad” these days, but for years he was best known as the creepy henchman of the bad guy … or, infrequently, the offbeat good guy.

Amazingly, Banks’ TV resume goes back to the mid 1970s and appearances on everything from “Barnaby Jones” to “The Waltons” to “Little House on the Prairie!” In the latter, according to IMBD, he played Jed in a 1980 episode.

His career in movies really took off in 1982, however, with his role as a doomed cop in “48 Hours.” He’s a cohort of Nick Nolte’s cop character who gets killed off early.

Two years later, Banks played what I think of as his best henchman role in “Beverly Hills Cop.” He’s the guy who kills Eddie Murphy’s friend at the beginning of the movie and he’s the guy who gets tossed into a buffet table at a tony private club.

Banks brought a dead-eyed menace to the role that sticks with me 30 years later.

For four years beginning in 1987, Banks had his best TV role (sorry, but I haven’t seen him in “Breaking Bad” yet) as federal agent Frank McPike in “Wiseguy.” As McPike, Banks was gruff and no-nonsense as the “handler” for Ken Wahl’s Vinnie Terranova, a federal agent who goes deep undercover in criminal organizations.

Banks’ McPike is the guy who, with more than a little attitude, pulled Terranova’s butt out of the fire during the run of the series. When Wahl left the show, McPike shepherded his replacement.

Here’s to Jonathan Banks, tough guy first class.

‘Avengers’ release date set; Daredevil next recruit?

Considering that “Iron Man 3” doesn’t come out until May, with a string of new Marvel movies to follow, you’d think the news about our favorite big-screen comic book movies would slow down just a bit.

Nope!

In recent days fans have seen a couple of developments:

Release date for “Avengers 2.” Marvel/Disney has confirmed a May 1, 2015 release date for Joss Whedon’s follow-up to this summer’s megahit. That’s on the heels of the announcement that Whedon had been signed not only to direct the sequel but develop a live-action TV series set in the big-screen “Avengers” universe and generally help the Marvel movie process move along through June 2015.

Daredevil likely back in Marvel’s hands: As we’ve noted here before, Marvel’s moviemaking division has big-screen rights to only some of the company’s characters. Others were long ago farmed out to other studios, which is why Fox is making a steady stream of X-Men-related movies and Sony/Columbia rebooted this summer with “The Amazing Spider-Man.”

Well, director Joe Carnahan had been gearing up for a gritty “Daredevil” reboot for Fox that promised to have a 1970s Hell’s Kitchen vibe. Carnahan said this week that his movie isn’t going to happen, leading some to expect that the rights to the blind superhero will revert to Marvel before Fox gets a chance to mount another effort.

Meaning that Marvel can include Daredevil in its on-screen universe now. Maybe even cast Matt Murdock in “Avengers 2” or his own movie.

As Marvel slowly requires some of its characters – apparently the Punisher is already back under the Marvel tent – the possibilities are endless.

Here’s a wish list for new members once Joss Whedon presents “Avengers 2:”

Black Panther. Gotta have the stalwart king of the African nation of Wakanda on the team.

Wasp and Ant-Man. Janet and Hank were original members of the group. An “Ant-Man” movie is in the early stages now. We need them in “Avengers 2.”

Daredevil. Why the heck not? New York is their mutual home turf.

Vision. The rumors flew, shortly after “The Avengers,” that the android Avenger would be included in upcoming installments, perhaps in some way personified by Clark Gregg of Phil Coulson fame. Make it happen, Joss!

Scarlet Witch. The references to Coulson’s cellist girlfriend in “The Avengers” got some people thinking Wanda, longtime Avenger and Vision’s wife, would make an appearance eventually. Yes, please.

 

Carlo Rambaldi, designer of ‘E.T.,’ dies at 86

Time slips on past us and, as the visionary directors, writers, designers and illustrators of classic films grow older, fans are inevitably going to be faced with their passing.

Like “Star Wars” illustrator Ralph McQuarrie, who died in March, Carlo Rambaldi’s work is, at least, immortalized on film. Rambaldi worked with Steven Spielberg to create the title character for the 1982 classic “E.T. The Extra-Terrestrial.”

The Washington Post notes that Rambaldi created three E.T. robots (probably a reference to remotely controlled E.T. faces, heads and necks) two costumes worn by actors and gloves that doubled for E.T.’s hands.

Nowadays, of course, E.T. would be a computer-generated creature, as in “Avatar.”

In the Post story, by the Associated Press, Rambaldi is quoted expressing his skepticism about CGI. There’s little doubt that mechanical effects that created creatures as diverse as E.T. and the shark from “Jaws” gave actors a real, physical presence to act opposite on the set.

Rambaldi won visual effects Oscars for “E.T.,” “Alien” and the 1976 “King Kong” remake.

 

Whedon to develop ‘Avengers’ universe TV show too

Well, duh.

In a perfect case of reverse-engineering, Disney and Marvel announced today that Joss Whedon, who got his start in TV and then directed “The Avengers” to good effect – and $1.5 billion in worldwide box office – will not only direct “Avengers 2” but oversee the development of the live-action TV series set in the “Avengers” movie universe.

It makes perfect sense, and some of the people reacting online tonight are sharing the same line of reasoning that had settled, like a fog, into my brain. Whedon, who made great TV series like “Buffy the Vampire Slayer,” “Angel” and “Firefly,” has moved on, we told ourselves. He’s not going back to TV after having directed one of the biggest movies ever.

Well, turns out that way of thinking was wrong, wrong, wrong.

Now I doubt we’ll get Joss Whedon, showrunner, or Joss Whedon, director, or much more than Joss Whedon, occasional screenwriter, on this series.

But the man knows how to make a TV series with wit, action and service to multiple characters.

Turns out that was the strength that made him so right for “The Avengers.”

So here’s to a happy, anticipatory “Well, duh.”

Joss Whedon will be helping create the “Avengers” universe live action TV series.

Of course.

‘Close Encounters’ and Muncie, my hometown

There’s been a long history between my hometown, Muncie, Indiana, and Hollywood.

Sometime I’ll do a fairly comprehensive look at the many mentions of Muncie in movies and TV shows ranging from the 1960s “Tom Slick” cartoons to “The X Files” and “Angel.”

In the meantime, though, I wanted to note the special relationship between Muncie and Steven Spielberg’s “Close Encounters of the Third Kind,” the 1977 UFO thriller. The movie was airing on SyFy this afternoon and I got sucked into watching some of it.

The movie wasn’t filmed here in Muncie, although there was discussion of that happening. Local officials and Columbia Pictures apparently negotiated for a while and rumors swept through town that the city bought new police cars specifically to seal the deal. It didn’t happen, although the city got some publicity from having the first half of the move set locally.

If you haven’t seen it, Spielberg’s movie is about the the first meaningful contact between humans and aliens. The movie opens with a team of scientists, led by Lacombe (Francois Truffaut), discovering mint-condition World War II-era fighter planes in the Mexican desert.

The scene moves to Indiana as we see air traffic controllers in Indianapolis communicating with the pilots of two airliners that have near-misses with some unexplained object. Then we’re in Muncie – the on-screen title still gets me a little goose-bumpy – at a rural farmhouse where single mom Jillian runs into the woods to find her toddler son, Barry, who has happily followed something out of their house and into the dark.

In the suburban Muncie home of Roy Neary (Richard Dreyfuss), a power company lineman, Neary is trying to persuade his kids to go to see “Pinocchio,” the re-issue of the Disney classic. They’re more interested in playing miniature golf, however.

Before long, Neary is sent to investigate the cause of a power outage and his truck is buzzed by low-flying UFOs. He gives chase along with half the Muncie police department. Thus begins his obsession. It is one he shares with dozens, maybe hundreds of others.

Some random thoughts, from a Muncie-centric perspective:

The Neary house, while looking like a shambles, has some authentic touches, including some Ball State University merchandise.

At one point, radio scanner traffic says Harper Valley. There’s no Harper Valley around Muncie. But if there was, they would have a dandy PTA, I bet.

There is a Cornbread Road – where Neary is sent to work on a power outage – and you can bet it was chosen for inclusion in the movie because of its quaint name.

The McDonald’s and Shell station look just right for the period.

The hillbillies – softly whistling “She’ll be coming around the mountain when she comes” as they wait for the UFOs to appear – are a nice touch but one that caused a lot of consternation at the time among local people who didn’t want to be represented onscreen by hill folk. Especially when one of them, played by character actor Roberts Blossom, says, “I saw Bigfoot once.”

There’s no toll road right outside Muncie, and certainly no nearby toll gate that divides Indiana and Ohio.

The movie got the police emblems on the patrol cars right, though.

There’s not much in the way of hillsides around Muncie, and certainly no mountainous overlook that cops and Neary could watch from, first as the UFOs fly over and then as lights come back on below.

The look of The Muncie Star wasn’t quite right, although its gargantuan size was. Holy crap, newspapers were big back then.

Neary’s “Ball U” T-shirt was a nice touch. I had one right about that time. They were a slightly naughty hit.

On the second night, when a newly fired Neary and a crowd of Muncie residents go back to the hill to wait for the alien ships to reappear, the collective mental seed that compels them to seek out the UFOs is destined to take them out of Muncie.

By the time Neary becomes obsessive about his encounter and begins building replicas of Devil’s Tower, Wyoming – scene of the ultimate Close Encounter – in his mashed potatoes and in a huge mound of dirt in his family room, his family bails on him and so, frankly, did I.

“Close Encounters” is a terrific movie that builds to a touching climax. I can’t help but be more interested, however, in the early scenes and what they indicate about my town.

 

The greatest movies ever shown?

A couple of days ago, Sight and Sound, the prestigious magazine published by the British Film Institute, re-issued its list of the greatest movies of all time and made some headlines with a change at the top.

“Citizen Kane,” Orson Welles’ undeniably great 1941 story of a newspaper tycoon, has long set atop the list, which is made up through a poll of cinema experts. But the new list moved “Kane” down a notch in favor of “Vertigo,” Alfred Hitchcock’s 1958 psychological thriller.

My tastes are more pedestrian than those BFI and Sight and Sound poll, obviously. Of the top 10, I’ve seen “Citizen Kane,” “Vertigo,” “2001” and “The Searchers” – my foreign film experience has been limited, frankly to Kurosawa classics and the more offbeat genre outings – and agree those all belong pretty near the top.

But “Vertigo” the greatest movie of all time?

There are different measures of great, obviously. But I think I’d include other Hitchcock films, notably “Strangers on a Train” or “Rear Window,” as avidly as I’d include “Vertigo.”

Anyway. People love lists and love to debate the greatest movies, music, books and other works of art.

Ultimately, it’s all personal. I’m not going to complain one bit if you want to include “The Empire Strikes Back” at the top of your personal list. It would be pretty high on mine too.

The new top 10, according to Sight and Sound:

1. “Vertigo”
2. “Citizen Kane”
3. “Tokyo Story”
4. “La Regle du jeu” (“The Rules of the Game”)
5. “Sunrise: A Song of Two Humans”
6. “2001: A Space Odyssey”
7. “The Searchers”
8. “Man with a Movie Camera”
9. “The Passion of Joan of Arc”
10. “8 1/2″

Happy birthday ‘The Shadow’

It’s the birthday of our favorite sinister, scary pulp magazine hero. This week in 1930, the character of “The Shadow” was created to serve as narrator of the “Detective Story Magazine” radio show.

On July 31, 1930, “The Shadow” made his debut on the air. The character caught on and publishing house Street and Smith hired Walter Gibson to write a series of pulp magazine stories that debuted in April 1931. He wrote under the name Maxwell Grant.

The character had a fabulously complicated story and history – even multiple secret identities – and enjoyed decades in the pulps and on the radio.

The character has been brought back periodically for comic books, which is appropriate since much about him – his fearsome reputation among crooks, his long cape-like cloak – influenced other famous characters like Batman, not unlike Doc Savage influenced Superman.

Besides a series of movies in the 40s, the character got a big-screen treatment in 1994 in a movie starring Alec Baldwin. It wasn’t bad but was far from a hit.

I’ve noted before my admiration for “The Shadow.” While the pulp stories are fairly typical of their time – and maybe not as good as the best of “Doc Savage” or “The Avenger” – the images of the character are undoubtedly iconic.

So happy birthday Shadow!

 

‘Dark Knight Rises’ spoilers? We’ll know soon

I haven’t yet seen “The Dark Knight Rises” and I won’t even see it when it opens Friday because of a prior commitment. So almost everyone reading this will know before I do if there’s any truth to the spoilers circulating in the last couple of days.

In other words, keep in mind I have no idea if these spoilers are true. But based on what I’m reading, at least some of them are pretty accurate.

Oh yeah – SPOILERS!

The movie’s ending indicates more adventures of the Dark Knight are going to happen. We already know Warner Bros. wants to reboot the character after Christopher Nolan finishes his trilogy. The studio would love to build to a billion-dollar Justice League movie.

So after months of speculation that Joseph Gordon-Levitt would inherit the Batmantle in this movie … early indications sure make it sound like that happens, at least in some respects. Some reviews have outright said the ending sets up an “offshoot” movie, which certainly makes it sound like a continuation that isn’t another movie about Bruce Wayne.

A villain returns … but not the one you might think. Although the Joker survived “The Dark Knight,” Heath Ledger’s untimely death made it impossible for him to make even a small appearance in the movie. Rumors persisted that Nolan would include Ledger nonetheless, perhaps through unused footage or CGI.

Nolan is saying this week that Ledger is not in the new movie in any form. But early indications are that Cillian Murphy returns as the Scarecrow for at least one scene.

Batman bites the dust? Considering that in the comics Bane breaks Batman’s back and puts him out of commission for a while, everybody expected something dire to happen in this movie.

But I’m thinking David Letterman was kidding when, in a recent interview with Anne Hathaway (Selina Kyle in the movie), he says that Batman gets killed. Anyone who watches Letterman – who, during his days as a weatherman in Indianapolis forecast “hail the size of canned hams” – knows that’s typical of his humor.

I do believe that “The Dark Knight Rises” brings Bruce Wayne’s story to an end. I just don’t think the movie kills him off.

We’ll see this Friday. Well, at least some of us will.