CHINATOWN - "It's Chinatown" (1974)

Tonight I've got a real classic for you, the 1974 film titled "Chinatown."

I actually just wanted to watch it again, so I might as well do this too!

"Chinatown" is a beautifully shot, complicated and compelling movie that I have no desire to tell you much about, except to go see it yourself!

Jack Nicholson is in fine form as private investigator Jake Gittes, and "Chinatown" is actually my favorite of Jack's films!

Diane Ladd is Ida Sessions posing as Evelyn Mulwray, and she wants Jake to get some dirt on her cheating husband who is really not her husband!
You might remember Diane Ladd from "National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation." She's sill working these days too!

Hollis Mulwray is the chief engineer for the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power, and one of the most boring people on the planet, and the last person you'd expect to be having an affair. Hollis's speech is so riveting, this guy is reading the funnies instead of listening.

Jake doesn't get it either!

Jake follows Hollis around trying to come up with something!

This shot is fantastic! You'll probably have to click on it make it larger to see what Jake's seeing through the camera lens.

What a great headline!!

Hollis Mulwray meets an untimely demise, and everything starts getting ugly pretty fast!

This scene is not pleasant to watch!

 Director Roman Polanski is a whole story unto himself and plays the perfect sleazy weasel with the knife that slices Jake's nose!

After that, Jack wears a bandage on his nose for about half the movie!

Faye Dunaway done away with her clothes for this scene. She is the 'real' Mrs. Mulray!

Here's what renowned filmologist Horton Richards has to say about this movie!

"Not only is it a classic on so many levels (complex plot, great acting, attention to symbolism), I also consider "Chinatown" the beginning of the Neo-Noir movement.....

 ......It was when Hollywood once again started taking seriously the movies of the '40s (in particular), but they approached noir with some new sensibilities that had been introduced in the Sixties & Seventies counterculture, including no longer relegating them to B-movie status."

"It's Chinatown!"
That's all you really need to know!

THE THREE STOOGES / "Three Missing Links" - 1938

Here's a wild one for today... The boys end up in Africa starring in a jungle adventure with the actress and director. Things go south almost immediately as the boys visit the medicine man.

It all begins here, in the office of B. O. Botswaddle, president of Super Terrific Productions, better fasten your seat belt...

So, the boys are janitors, they show up when B.O. is going over a new movie with his actress and director. On orders to 'keep it down' the guys clatter around as they 'clean.' For example, Curly uses a rake to clean off the desk before he uses a seltzer bottle and squeegee to wash it down! Anywho, they get severely fired before they're hired to star as two cavemen and a gorilla in the movie because of their primitive behavior!!

They arrive in Africa to their location, but the natives that brought the supplies in have disappeared! Wonder why?..

The boys go exploring and come across the medicine man's hut/store, they rush inside to see what's going on in there...

Curly notices that something's cooking in a huge pot. He asks the doc 'what's cooking' and finds out that it's a fat missionary!!

Then, he starts eyeballing Curly, telling him that he would make some great soup!! The boys make a hasty retreat back to the camp.

Curly's having trouble putting up the tent, so Moe holds the stake, that way, Curly can get a good shot at it... What could possibly go wrong?! To me, the funniest thing here is Larry watching the unfolding disaster that's about to take place.

Don't forget about this gag, the lion licking the boys' feet while they sleep...

Okay, so it's time to start shooting the movie, Moe and Larry play the cavemen who are in love with the jungle girl. A real gorilla wanders onto the set but everyone thinks it's Curly, who's getting into costume in his tent.

The director calls 'action' for a scene where the cavemen fight a gorilla. After being hit by Moe and Larry's clubs, the gorilla flattens the boys! The director tells them that they're doing a terrific job!!

Then Curly comes out of the tent and lights a cigar. Moe and Larry figure out that they have been battling a real gorilla and split the scene!

Curly goes to the set and thinks that another actor's trying to get in on the action. After he get's in the ape's face, he ends up on his back!

The angry gorilla chases Curly into a cave but gets a rock broken on his skull and goes down for the count...

The boys end up at the medicine man's place where the ape slips in. As a last resort, Curly offers him some love candy, and after Curly eats some to show that's it's good, he tries to put the make on the gorilla who scampers away into the jungle followed by our Stooge!

Join us again on Wednesday when Eegah!! will conjure up more cool junk for us...

CORONET BLUE - "A Time To Be Born" (1967)

This evening's Lucky Seven Eleven Saturday Night Special might have an odd name, but is really a Scintillating piece of work. It's a TV series called "Coronet Blue," that was on for thirteen episodes in 1967, and yet another show brought to my attention by Lord Litter in Berlin. I don't know how he keeps doing it, but he somehow keeps finding me this stuff!

"Coronet Blue" was another show about a man trying to find out who he is and how he got here. The very first episode was titled "A Time To Be Born."

They say never look back, but sometimes you have no choice when you don't know what's in front of you!  Frank Converse is a fellow named Michael Alden whose life is about to be changed forever!

Michael is mixed up with the wrong people, and he's been called to have a meeting with the boss lady up on the top deck of this ocean liner. Bernice Massi is the evil woman in the shades known as Margaret. Bernice only has a handful of acting credits, and she was also a singer who appeared on "The Ed Sullivan Show."

It's not explained, but Margaret's henchmen unceremoniously toss Michal Alden overboard, and by some miracle he manages to survive!

He washes up on shore, and is rescued, but the event has given him amnesia and now it's time for him to try and figure out who he is, and what happened. The only clear memory he has are the words "Coronet Blue."

He doesn't really know what his name is, so before he leaves the hospital to try and find his life, he chooses the name Michael Alden, which is a combination of the first name of his Doctor and the name of the institution he's been in, and the first thing on his list is to try and find out what the connection to the words "Coronet Blue" is.

So just like a few months ago when the only Corona most people knew about was a beer, a coronet is also a crown, and in this case, a thorny one!

The owner of the club called The Blue Coronet is very proud of his crown symbol and has it plastered everywhere.

It's all Michael can think about!

Michael then starts hanging out in this hip club called "The Searching i"

Joe Silver is Max Spier, the owner of the "The Searching i," and a guy Michael can turn to when he needs help in nine of the episodes. Joe Silver was born on September 28, the same day as me, only twenty-six years earlier. His career included stuff like the parasite flick "Shivers," and other wild films with one word titles like "Rabid," "Crash," and "Deathtrap."

Michael doesn't even realize yet that his every move is being watched!

Michael goes to the home of the owner of "The Blue Coronet," only to find that the owner is out of town in San Francisco, and there is a grand party going on in the house even though he's not there.

At the party Michael meets wild child and poor little rich girl Alix Frame. Alix was played by Susan Hampshire who was in "The Andromeda Breakthrough," the creepy "Night Must Fall," 

and was also featured in my "25 Reasons To Watch Olde Movies Part 6."

 

Alix still lives with her Father, and brings Michael home with her!

Alix's Dad Paul Frame is played by Donald Woods who was also in the classics "Beast From 20,000 Fathoms," "13 Ghosts," and so much more!

Paul Frame owns a boat dealership, and he gives Michael a job working in the showroom. It's here, while assisting a customer from Argentina, that Michael discovers that he's fluent in Spanish!

Michael is slowly putting small pieces of his life back together!

After this series was over, Frank Converse went on to be in 49 episodes of "N.Y.P.D." as Detective Johnny Corso, and spent the next 43 years constantly working on TV. Frank finally stopped working in 2012, and is now 82 years old!

It's a troubled relationship, but Michael and Alix are falling in love!

The party's over when this ass who has been tailing Michael takes a potshot at him, but shoots and kills Alix instead!

"Coronet Blue" is without a doubt, a different kind of show with a swinging soundtrack, and I had to check a couple of times to make sure it was made in the U.S. and not Britain. It also looks like film and not video, and is really unlike any other show I've seen lately, and if you don't believe me, then you can check it out for yourself at the always dependable Internet Archive!