The Millie is Disowning a 60's Teen Surfer Movie.

For Those Who Think Young is pathetic.

(Please do take note that this coming from someone who thoroughly enjoys Dr. Goldfoot and His Bikini Machine.)

I adore my mind-smushing entertainment of the 60's. I really do. I welcome almost any cheaply-made, poorly written, horribly acted film with open arms.

But, this was seriously just pathetic.

First problem: James Darren.

I am NOT a fan of James Darren. I tolerate him in Gidget and Gidget Goes Hawaiian because of the OTHER people starring in those films. In this movie he was just bloody annoying. Usually, James Darren takes the films he stars in QUITE seriously. He's always trying to insert some "dramaticness" into otherwise perfectly mindless perfection. In this movie, he was almost the complete opposite. He was stinkin' trying to be Frankie Avalon. He even had his haircut (The Frankie cut is copyrighted. People are not supposed to steal it. ;-D). But, James Darren is NOT Frankie. Frankie always comes across as realizing, that, yes he is in spaceship with a chimpanzee (see: Sergeant Deadhead) and yes, he realizes his character is a complete idiot. That's why he's so cool. James Darren is not cool.

That's another problem: This movie tried to almost completely copy the AIP formula.

Now, I love tons of Mind-Smushing Entertainments, not just AIP stuff (Columbia made a lot of awesomeness too). But, this was a pretty obvious rip-off of the Beach Party films. They took all the random pieces and just smashed them back together, but it was weird how they did it. It was like someone said, "Hey, the Beach Party movies have this many minutes of surfing, this many minutes at the 'hang-out' listening to the unfunny comedian try to be funny, this many minutes of conflict between main girl and guy...." Because, all the surfing was smooshed into one long montage. We had to listen to Woody Woodbury go one for like 20 minutes (who the heck is Woody Woodbury?!). And all the conflict is confined to a small space of time.

It was just weird.

Good parts of the movie: Well, the side-kicks (who weren't really side-kicks after the first two minutes, because someone forgot to write them back in) were stinkin' awesome! Nancy Sinatra (pre-Boots, with dark brown hair) and GILLIGAN (I'm sorry, but I never call Bob Denver anything but Gilligan).

Otherwise...

And, another thing. HOW MUCH DID PEPSI PAY TO HAVE THIS MOVIE MADE?! It was like one long commercial. Everywhere you looked the Pepsi logo appeared (it was like a creepy nightmare or something...;-D) and people were singing Pepsi's motto...

Anyways. I hereby declare that this movie is no longer a part of the Mind-Smushing Canon. Take note students of the genre.

-Millie

IT'S SO SAD.

Who would have ever thought that a cartoon about an oddly eyeless old man voiced by Thurston Howell III could be so poignant. ;-D

(This is clearly the coolest Christmas Carol ever....ONLY BEHIND Scrooge with Alastair Sim!)

EVERYONE LOAD UP ON RAZZLEBERRY DRESSING! IT'S CHRISTMAS TIME!

-Millie

Happy 95th Birthday, Mr. Sinatra!

 

Frank Sinatra was born on December 11th, 1915. NINETY-FIVE YEARS AGO! Wow! What was the world like 96 years ago?! What did people do without the overwhelming coolness that is Sinatra?! I can't imagine.

There is a quote from the liner-notes of The Heart of the Matter (a random compilation album I own) that I simply adore. It describes The Chairman of the Board so very well!

Sinatra was like some kind of inexplicable Big Bang, all sound exploding out of him and respectfully being bestowed upon a longing audience. His genius aligned with the planets and he sang about the moon and the stars like they were his personal playthings.

That's kind of the essence of complete and utter coolness.

 Happy Birthday to my favorite singer ever....

-Millie

I'm off to the beach!

I'll be back on Wednesday night!

The wunderbar Pacific Ocean on the coast in the Northwest is freezing cold even in the middle of July. But I still love it (/swim in it. ;-D).

See you all later! :-D

-Millie

Photo of the Day!

Be still my heart!

It's Ingy and Jean Simmons together...chatting about life, science, philosophy, the brilliance of that movie they saw together last night (Gidget Goes Hawaiian actually...;-D)! *sigh* I WANT TO BE THERE!

This Gun For Hire

This movie is complete brilliance. It was complete brilliance in 1941. It will ALWAYS be complete brilliance.

Trivia: The alternate title for the film was actually Baby-Faced Brilliance.*

*It's definitely not recommended that you listen to any trivia I give you. Just like a Hitchcock flashback....I'm liable to be completely lying to you. ;-D  

I adore Film Noir. MOST Film Noir.

Film Noir that is utterly nonredeemable and depressing for no reason I do not adore. (Born To Kill, I am looking at you!)

Film Noir that is "awwwwww happy" is my favorite of all. I could watch Laura every. single. day.

And then there are Noirs that are not in anyway "awwww happy", but are still quite amazing. This Gun For Hire is one of those. It's fascinating. No matter how many times one watches it, it is still always a must-be-completely-involved-in-the-story kind of movie. There is no room for finger-puppet making during this movie.

Which isn't a problem at all, because it's a completely engrossing film. The opening scene starts out and Alan Ladd is already giving milk to little kittens, beating up women, helping disabled children, and killing random unarmed people. One begins to understand that this movie is going to be STINKIN' CRAZY.

And pretty Wowzie Kazam.

The acting in This Gun For Hire is really amazing. Veronica Lake and Laird Cregar both stand out brilliantly. And of course there's Alan Ladd. It's really shocking to me that he was fourth-billed. This may be his debut film, but it is definitely my favorite performance from him. He is an unapologetic, coldblooded killer. BUT, YOU FEEL SO SORRY FOR HIM. Oh my gosh. The poor little thing. Can you believe that horrible police officer, Robert Preston?! Why the heck is he persecuting this lonely, misunderstood hitman?! I mean, Alan's nice to cats. AND HE DOESN'T KILL SMALL, DISABLED CHILDREN. What more can you ask for?! Nobody can be completely perfect.

Aww, look at their cute, little innocent faces.

Note: this description does NOT include Robert Preston, who I always forget is even IN this movie. Sheesh. ;-D

I'm not going to say any more about this film, because I of course, do NOT want to give anything away, but really. You should go see it. I can't even think of any regret anyone could have after viewing it. There is not one single flaw in the entire film. AND it's only 81 minutes long, WHAT?! Yeah.

Those of baby-faced brilliance just being cool

 -Millie

Hi.

Today I was at Red Robins and my seat was at the perfect angle, so that I was facing two walls. One, with a  poster of James Dean....and the other with a poster of Steve McQueen.

Best. Seat. Ever.

(No, I have not blogged in approx. two years, and yes, this is my first post back. HAVEN'T YOU MISSED ME?! ;-D)

My final final is this Wednesday...THEN WE BE HAVING CHRISTMAS PARTY HERE AT CLASSICFOREVER!

-Millie.

P.S. Can anyone give me like a three sentence summary of Walt Whitman's "Leaves of Grass"?! I need it before 8AM. No time for SparkNotes. THANKS! ;-P