U2 – Wide Awake in America

u2 wide awake in america

I first bought this EP, in tape form, from a used record shop for about $3.00. I wore the sucker out playing it on my way to and from high school.

It is really more of a CD single than any real album. Though the sticker price would have you wish for more. It has two live cuts and a couple of B-side singles.

The first track, a live cut of “Bad”, from the newly released (back in 1985) album, The Unforgettable Fire, is tremendous. It has a real laid-back feel to it, with a nice groove running throughout. Adam Clayton’s bass moves the song along while Bono is at his best as a frontman.

Bono sings the song like a preacher at the apocalypse. You can almost see him standing on the edge of the stage, thousands of fans reaching out to him in front, while fires ablaze from behind.

Another live track comes next, A Sort of Homecoming. It doesn’t have quite the same magical feel of “Bad”, but is still played quite well, and is actually quite fun. What with the bouncy chorus, sing-along chanting, you actually forget the darkness of the lyrics.

The final two cuts, Three Sunrises, and Love Comes Tumbling are studio offerings that didn’t make the cut for The Unforgettable Fire. It is easy to see why. They are slower ballads, with little passion in the delivery.

But if you can find the album in the bargain bin, the live version of “Bad” is more than worth a listen.

To read an essay I wrote on U2 featuring some stories culled from this album click here.

Steve Kimock Band – Eudemonic

steve kimock eudemonic

The first time I saw Steve Kimock play was during the summer of 1998. He was one of two guitarists (the other being Mark Karan) filling the big gap left by Jerry Garcia in the Grateful Dead reincarnation The Other Ones.

Kimock’s stage presence was slight. Sitting on a stool, guitar in his lap, head bent down he looked more like some Buddhist monk contemplating the mysteries of the universe on a lonely mountain than a rock star.

In fact, many Deadheads were complaining about his lack of presence during this tour. This always seemed ironic to me considering that Garcia had spent the last decade of his life, standing motionless on stage, with his chin resting on his chest.

While others complained about how Kimock looked on stage, I was awed by his chops as a guitarist. His playing was both fluid and tight. Technical and yet full of emotion. Much like Garcia himself, in his better days.

Soon after The Other Ones show, I did some tape trading for a live KVHW show. This was a short-lived band Kimock formed with Babby Vega, Alen Hertz, and Ray White. Again I was knocked out by Kimock’s virtuosity on guitar.

For whatever reason, though Kimock’s name was often batted about in musical conversations amongst online groups, I never gained another piece of his music. Various albums, live tapes, and concerts landed on my list of things to get but never managed to materialize into reality.

So, it was with great anticipation that I found myself with the Steve Kimock Band’s newest release, Eudemonic. The dictionary says the title means “producing happiness and well-being.” That’s a lot to ask for in 66 minutes of music. I definitely had a few moments of happiness brought to me by the music on this album, but I’ll leave my well-being to a higher authority.

I have to admit right upfront here, that I’m not a fan of instrumental music, especially instrumental rock music. Sure, I’ve got some classical music, your Beethoven some Mozart, and whatnot. But I generally regulate this to background music; something to play when I’m a little sad, or to back me up during a romantic dinner. But with the music coming out of my car stereo, or pulsating through my home, my music life consists of some lyrics, some singing.

Don’t get me wrong I can totally dig a 10-minute improvised jam in the middle of a song, but in the end, I want it to come back to a melody, a hook, a chorus. Walking down the road, I need a lyric to sing.

Eudemonic, in fact, feels like the middle jams to some really great songs. I just keep waiting for them to go somewhere, to have a crescendo and soar back down to a rousing final verse or a sing-a-long chorus.

The instrumentation is admittedly quite good. I still hear the passion and performance behind the Kimock guitar, and the rest of the band plays extremely well. Alphonso Johnson especially proves his ability to hit the right groove on bass.

The standout songs are the retro groove opening track, “Eudemon“, the moe. inspired “Ice Cream”, and the bouncy “Bouncer”. The songs are often lengthy, averaging about 6 minutes per song. There is plenty of grooves laid down in all the songs, I just wish there was either consistency throughout the entire album or a bigger hook-to-song ratio.

Fans of instrumental guitar rock will have a lot to dig into with Eudemonic. The jams are flowing, and Kimock is a fine guitar player. It is, in fact, my predilection for turning instrumental music into background fodder that gets me in trouble here. There is just too much going on here, musically, to allow it to stay in the background. A person needs to really listen to the interplay between musicians on this album. Because of this, I’m afraid Eudemonic is something that will probably not get a lot of play around my house. But for those of you willing to take the time to dig into a piece of music, there are many treasures to be found.

2 Days in the Valley Soundtrack

2 days in the valle

Once in a while, I’ll leave the movie theatre and head straight to the music shop, knowing I simply must purchase the soundtrack album. I leave thinking the music was just so perfect, so wonderful, that it would simply be a shame to not have it in my collection.

Usually, the soundtracks turn out to be absolutely friggin’ brilliant. To this day I play the Swingers soundtrack and dig nearly every swinging note. When I’m jonesing for some classic 90’s grunge I always turn to the soundtrack to Cameron Crowe’s less-than-stellar film, Singles.

But sometimes, as it turns out, the music on a soundtrack turns out to be better suited for the cinema. The songs fit the scene perfectly but taken outside of the Hollywood lights, the sounds fail to perform. Somehow the mix of images, lights, and sounds gelled, but when left alone, the music falls flat.

The soundtrack to 2 Days in the Valley is one of these disks. I literally walked straight out of the movie theatre and into the record shop and picked up the soundtrack. While watching the film all I could think about is how great the music is.

Truth be told, some of the songs are fantastic. Wilson Picket’s “Hello Sunshine“ and Otis Redding’s “Down in the Valley“ kick out the R and B jams like only they could. One of Lyle Lovett’s greatest and saddest songs “Nobody Knows Me“ is included in the package.

Both Taj Mahal’s “Rolling on the Sea“, and Erin O’Hara’s “Down in the Valley” are very listenable, but fail to be enough to make me want to dig out the album to listen to just them. Other songs, such as Morphines‘ “Gone For Good“, seemed wonderful in the cinema. That song fit the scene perfectly, and brought home the loneliness of the moment, but left playing in my car, or the home stereo, and it just seems rather sappy, kind of silly.

The few bits of the score included failed to gain any interest. And songs like Scott Reeder’s “Gold” are barely palatable. They are the type of songs that go unnoticed in a movie, playing in the background, but get quite annoying when played on their own.

Ultimately I have the Lyle Lovett song on his own album and the two remaining standouts aren’t enough to make me shuffle through the rest to play this album often.

Neil Young – Silver and Gold

neil young silver and gold

Neil Young’s first acoustic album in seven years, Silver and Gold sounds shamefully thrown together. His last acoustic effort (not counting the MTV Unplugged release) Harvest Moon is one of my all-time favorite albums. There is some lovely songwriting in there, with some nice backup singing by the likes of James Taylor and Linda Ronstadt. It was a throwback to Young’s most successful album, Harvest. And it sounded marvelous.

In the time between Harvest Moon and Silver and Gold, he released some seven albums. He paid tribute to Kurt Cobain, rocked live with Crazy Horse, recorded with Pearl Jam, and wrote the soundtrack to a Jim Jarmusch film, all of which were pretty ragged, electric, and very loud.

I was very excited to get some more acoustic Young, but find myself disappointed with this release. That’s not to say it is a bad album, for there are several really good tunes here. The opening track, “Good to See You“ is a fun, jaunty little thing. His ode to his first band, “Buffalo Springfield Again“ is a great deal of fun, and makes me wish that band really would get back together, though I’ve never been much of a fan.

It is when Young decides to sing a ballad that things get difficult here. Eight of the ten tracks on the album are slower numbers. With the exception of “Silver and Gold“ (a song I included in my wedding reception music) and “Razor Love“, the slow songs are boring. There is nothing to set them apart musically, and the lyrics don’t say anything particularly moving.

It is an album worth buying for the standout tracks. But you would be better off importing those tracks onto a mix tape, or your iPod and then selling back the album to someone else.

The Postman Always Rings Twice

the postman always rings twice posters

Unlike the other classic masters of crime fiction (Hammett, Chandler, and even Christie if you must) James M Cain wrote not from the perspective of the cop, or the detective, but from the side of the criminal. He wasn’t really interested in the methods of detection, but in the methods and reasons crimes were committed.

There is no Phillip Marlowe or Hercule Poirot out to solve the case in Cain’s fiction. The righteous bringers of justice are regulated to a secondhand role in his stories and are often as slimy and unrighteous as the criminals.

In his first novel, The Postman Always Rings Twice, Cain weaves a complicated plot in a very simple manner. This was never meant as anything more than a pulp novel, its aim was to titillate, shock, and most important of all, sell gobs of books.

Though told in the first person by a main character, the book is all action. There is some internal dialog, but it sheds very little light on who the characters are, and what motivates them.

It is in fact, perfect for a screen adaptation. This is probably why it is credited as the story at least 5 times on the Internet Movie Database. The lack of complicated internal thought processes, and the predilection for talking and doing, make it the ideal movie. That, and great lumps of sex and violence.

The two most famous screen adaptations are the 1946 Lana Turner/John Garfield version and the steamier Jack Nicholson/Jessica Lange released in 1981. Everyone refers to that one as a remake of the 1946 version which gets me riled up for some reason. To me, it is simply another version of the novel, rather than a remake of the old film. There are about 8 million versions of Hamlet out there, but no one refers to the next one as a remake of an earlier film. It’s simply another version of the play. But perhaps this is because I’m a fan of the novel, and I probably shouldn’t make too big a deal out of it.

The plot takes on several turns but is essentially about lust and violence. Drifter Frank Chambers lands a job at a roadside diner owned by Nick Papadakis (Smith in the 1946 version). Chambers falls immediately in lust with Nick’s unhappy wife, Cora. They cook up a plot to kill Nick making it look like an accident. Complications ensue.

The biggest difference between the two pictures is that the 1981 version has got more sex. The book is loaded with sex, or should I say simulated sex or rather off-screen (or off-page) sex. Due to the prevailing censorship at the time the novel was written the sex had to be hinted at, double entendre’d, and written in such a way as to let everyone know what they were doing and not get banned from bookshelves. Even with that, it was still quite controversial at its time.

The 1946 version hints at all the deep-seated passion going on without actually showing us anything more than a few kisses. (Though on a side piece of trivia, audiences were shocked that Garfield obviously used his tongue in one of the kisses) By 1981 Hollywood was no longer under the strenuous Production Code and morals had loosened up more than a bit through the 60s and 70s and the new version of Postman all the sex was brought out front.

The kissing gets more passionate, there is touching, rubbing, and a good deal of nakedness. The steamy sexuality of the characters now scorches off the screen. They even added a new sex scene that wasn’t in the book, just for kicks.

But even with all the nakedness and sexing, this newer version doesn’t have all the lust of the original. Though Cain was unable to fill in all the sexy details of their affairs, the raw sexuality burns through each page. The characters are led by their passions and you can feel it in every word and deed. In the same way, though nary a thigh is even shown in the 1946 version, the passions full of lust are ignited on screen. Turner and Garfield exude sensuality without any sex that far surpasses what Nicholson and Lange can manage with a movie filled with on-camera love scenes.

The violence remains pretty much the same in both versions. As a culture, we Americans have always seemed to have less of a problem with violent deeds than with any amount of sexuality. Neither film is particularly graphic in its violence, though murder and attempted murder appear throughout both plots.

My biggest problem with the 1981 version is that first-time screenwriter, David Mamet, tries to fill out the characters and give more story to the story. In the book, Nick is not a bad man, and we are given no real reason why Cora would be unhappy enough in the marriage to kill. Mamet offers a few small scenes to try to show the darker side of Nick, not enough for the audience to truly hate him, but enough to give some justification for his murder.

Likewise, Frank is a pretty worthless drifter in the novel but is given a more tender side through the pen of Mamet. Both of these additions serve to lessen the story, not give it greater depth. Cain wrote characters full of selfish lust. Frank and Cora’s passion for each other moves them to do horrible deeds, not out of any love for each other, but for reasons all their own. While it seems admirable that Mamet would attempt to bring human reasons for the character’s actions, it only serves to muddle the story. The local news and true crime shelves are filled with real-life atrocities committed for no real reason at all.

The 1941 version sticks very close to the novel’s plot. There are a few minor changes, I’m sure, and some things left out due to the time restraints of the film. But mostly it sticks closely to the book.

Sadly the great ending of the novel is removed from the 1981 version. This makes the end a little more sad, but the great irony of Cain’s closing is all but lost.

I wrote a more detailed review of the 1981 version when a new Blu-ray of it was released, for Cinema Sentries which you can read here.

Blind Boys of Alabama – Higher Ground

blind boys of alabama higher ground

I bought the Blind Boys of Alabama’s 2002 album Higher Ground on one of those whimsical, spur-of-the-moment kind of deals. You know the type; you go into Borders, or Barnes and Nobles, or whatever big chain you prefer to whittle away your troublesome hours amongst the pop culture references. They’ve got various albums on the compact disk sitting in stands around the shop, already cued up in a CD player, waiting for you to press play and then purchase.

This particular album was just sitting there, waiting for me to gather a listen. I had heard good things about the Blind Boys before, and even though I had previously not had any luck enjoying one of their straight gospel affairs, this new disk looked most promising.

Look there, it’s got Robert Randolph on pedal steel throughout, and Ben Harper guesting on a couple of tracks. They cover Stevie Wonder’s “Higher Ground”, Jimmy Cliff, and even a Prince tune. You can’t go wrong with that.

I was mostly right.

The thing is, and this has happened to me several times before, “Higher Ground” sounded fantastic while I was listening to it in Borders. It’s like how jeans seem to look better while you are looking at yourself in the store mirror, albums sound better while using store headphones. Yet when you take them home, your butt looks too big, the zipper doesn’t go all the way up, and the music sounds like crap.

Truth be told, the album opener, a cover of Curtis Mayfield’s “People Get Ready” is pretty stinkin’ spectacular. If I must be honest with you, dear reader, I might have to admit that they beat the pants off of the original. It’s the kind of performance that makes me want to raise my hands and shout to the lord of the blind boys,

“Hallelujah!”

There is some nice vocal harmony, with a sweet high part sung by Ben Harper. Robert Randolph and the Family Band add some nice licks, but play for the song and not to show off their musicality.

While certainly, Mayfield’s song is a spiritual one, it is also a political one. Inspired by the 1963 Civil Rights March on Washington Mayfield’s lyrics speak out to a generation tired of war, to a race tired of being downtrodden, to a people ready for something to happen.

The Blind Boys cut out the politics and sing it straight as a spiritual. They make it sing. In the final chorus, they nail a raved-up harmony singing,

“I believe”

And you can hear 60 years of faith coming out in their voices. And in that moment, if only for that moment, we all believe, too.

There are other tracks that tread on similar, higher ground. This rendition of “Wade in the Water” stirs me to my very pancreas. The bass vocals are as about as perfect as one could hope to find from a blind, black man from Alabama. “While Many Rivers” to Cross doesn’t quite reach the power, and humility of the Jimmy Cliff version, there is a weary wisdom in the gravely voices that come out of the Blind Boys that make it a classic in their own right.

The album is at its best when the instruments accentuate the strength of the Boy’s singing. An a cappella band for many years, the Blind Boys have an enormous presence, vocally. When Robert Randolph et al, ramp it up as a blues band, the album suffers. Nowhere is this more apparent than in the Stevie Wonder classic “Higher Ground”. While Randolph is a fine guitarist, and he shows off more than a fine pair of chops during this number, the Blind Boys seem out of place. The lyrics have spiritual significance, but the song is more of a rock/funk number than down-home southern gospel. The vocals can’t latch onto any significant meaning because the guitar drowns them out.

Yet at the same time, numbers like “Precious Lord”, and “Spirit in the Dark” suffer from a lack of musical interest. The Blind Boys sing it like they are in the choir, but there is no interest in the music, there is no soul in the soul.

When they are able to find a balance in both the vocals and the music, the results, are…well…heavenly.

The Harder They Fall (1956)

the harder they fall

I friggin’ love Humphrey Bogart. In fact, he tops my Top 10 list of greatest actors. He played cold-blooded villains, cynical but good-hearted tough guys, down-on-his-luck schmucks, and romantic leads with the same grace and passion. It doesn’t hurt that he’s been in some of the greatest movies ever made. With a resume that includes Casablanca, The Maltese Falcon, The Big Sleep, the Treasure of the Sierre Madre, and the African Queen it’s no wonder Bogart comes out as the actor starring in the most films on the AFI top 100 films list.

In fact, until now, I’ve loved all of the films I’ve ever seen starring Humphrey Bogart. I do my very best to catch any film in which he had a role. Being that he acted in some 74 movies during his career, I’ve still got a bit to go.

It was with great anticipation that I watch any Bogart film. You just can’t go wrong with a Bogie movie, I often say. Recently, I grabbed a worn-out VHS copy of his last film, The Harder They Fall. It pains me to say, but I can no longer claim that I’ve never seen a Humphrey Bogart picture that was less than wonderful.

It’s not that The Harder They Fall is a bad film. In fact, there were some rather good moments. It’s just that when compared to the other Bogart films I have seen this one falls well below the bar.

What pains me, even more, is that some of its failures lies in the hands of Bogart himself. Yet before we take the man off of his pedestal, I must remind the reader that at this point in his life, he was dying of cancer. It had not been diagnosed yet, but there is little doubt that Bogart’s insides were being eaten alive during filming. Legend has it that a sound-alike dubbed his lines during post-production.

His illness shows through the performance. He looks tired, and haggard throughout.

But you say “The character is tired and haggard, so shouldn’t the actor act that way?”

“Yes,” of course, I’ll answer, “but Bogart practically made a career of tired, haggard characters yet in films like Casablanca or Treasure of the Sierra Madre he embodied the characters and made them look tired.” Here, you see an actor who is a master craftsman performing at a much lower level than we’ve come to expect.

But, look, I spit on no man’s grave. Remember a fine actor’s better performances; let a dead man have his dignity.

There is a film in there, besides a Bogart performance. The plot concerns a down-and-out sportswriter, Eddie Willis (Bogart) hired as publicity man for an up-and-coming boxer (Mike Lane) who can’t actually box. The boxer, Toro Moreno, is a giant of a man who looks menacing but punches like a girl (and not a girl like Maggie Fitzgerald in Million Dollar Baby). You see Toro is mob-connected boxing promoter Nick Benko’s (Rod Steiger) fighter. Benko plans to buy every fight Toro boxes all the way up to a championship bout in which, betting on the other fighter, Benko will make a bundle.
The story is actually a good one, and with a little tweaking it could have been a great film. But the writing never really sparkles, and the direction never rises above the material.

Steiger’s performance is the films saving grace. He manages to come off completely ruthless, and immoral while still making the audience love the character. He out acts Bogart in every scene, and even with a tired, sick Bogart that is still quite an accomplishment.

Bogart may look tired on the screen, but his presence is still a formidable one. His lines don’t shine like they might in The Big Sleep, and his character isn’t quite as iconic as Rick in Casablanca, but he still manages to outperform most of the actors who’ve put their faces on a theatre screen.

I’ll take an average Bogart performance over Tom Cruise’s best roles any day.

The Ladykillers (1955)

the ladykillers poster

As part of the ongoing transition of the blog, I have decided to add a weekly feature: The Classic Movie Review of the Week. I’ve always reviewed classic movies, so I’ve decided to do a full-length review of one classic movie each Monday.

The Coen Brothers have a very unique sense of style. Their films are often visually arresting, filled with violence and a bizarre sense of humor that is both black and hyperkinetic. Nearly each of their films has tackled a different genre.

Their first film, Blood Simple, is filled with violence, double crossings, betrayals, and lots of shadows. You could call it an update of the traditional film noir. In fact, many of the Coen Brothers’ films are influenced by noir, both from the cinema and many of the detective novels that spawned them.

Miller’s Crossing, though primarily a gangster picture, takes much of its plot from two Dashiell Hammett novels: The Glass Key and Red Harvest. Likewise, the plot twists that go nowhere in The Big Lebowski are reminiscent of many of Raymond Chandler’s works, and IMDB notes that the film was inspired by Robert Altman’s version of Chandler’s The Long Goodbye. Though, being a Coen film, they move the time frame up and make it a stoner flick. It’s The Big Sleep meets Fast Times at Ridgemont High.

The Coen’s have also created their own versions of such genres as the screwball comedy (Hudsucker Proxy with Jennifer Jason Lee doing her best His Girl Friday impression), the musical (O’ Brother, Where Art Thou?), cartoon shorts from Looney Tunes (Raising Arizona) and the true life crime drama (Fargo, though in true Coen Brother’s style they claimed it was based on real events, though they actually made it all up.)

In 2003 they hit on new territory with the romantic comedy, Intolerable Cruelty. Though filled with some classic Coen moments their take on this genre fell flat. Being the first film in which someone other than the brothers took partial screenplay credits (Sam Raimi takes co-writing credit on Hudsucker Proxy, but he is an old Coen collaborator.) The results of relinquishing some control of the story created what is easily the brother’s worst picture up to that point.

Their next picture likewise took over some unusual ground for the genre. They remade the 1955 British crime comedy, The Ladykillers. It stunk, and that badly.

Working with other writers = not very good.
Remaking somebody else’s film = crapola.

Here’s hoping their next picture is a complete original.

The Ladykillers was bad enough that it made me wonder what the Coens saw in the original that made them think updating it was a good idea. I checked out a copy from the excellent local library to see how it faired.

After watching it I can see how it appealed to the Coen Brothers. It is a bit absurd, quite funny, and rather violent, in a twisted kind of way.

This time Alec Guinness stars in the Tom Hanks role as a criminal mastermind who poses as a genteel professor renting a room in a feeble old ladies’ home. His gang of thieves (which includes a very young Peter Sellers in one of his earliest film roles) plot their crime while pretending to be a band rehearsing in the home. The house, it seems, is the perfect location for a hideout after they rob an armored car. The old lady will provide a perfect alibi.

The setup is really just a means to create some pretty humorous comedy involving the gang of criminals being befuddled by a harmless, clueless old lady. The comedy is rather British, which doesn’t always translate to an American state of mind. I found it to be rather smiling funny, rather than bowling over, spitting popcorn on my carpet funny.

The real fun for me was watching Alec Guinness act the role of a smarmy, conniving crook. He really chews on his role, creating such a vile villain, it becomes difficult to believe that the old lady (whose character is called Mrs. Wilberforce, and who I really must stop referring to as an old lady) would let him into her house, no matter how gentlemanly his manners make him seem. It is a part a long way from Obi-Wan Kenobi or Colonel Nicholson, and it is nice to see him play such a bad guy.

Katie Johnson (who plays Mrs. Wilberforce, who I really must stop referring to by her character name) does a lovely job playing an eccentric, out-of-touch, and really rather lovely lady. And it is a treat to see Peter Sellers before he was Inspector Clouseu or Dr. Strangelove.

In the end, I’m still unsure as to why the Coen Brothers chose this film to remake. Or why they chose to remake any picture at all, since their greatest skill lies within crafting interesting stories. The original was an enjoyable picture and covers similar territory as many of the Coen pictures. Yet there are so many other films that cover the same kind of ground, which could have been chosen. Perhaps it was just obscure enough that they figured that most audiences wouldn’t have anything to compare their remake too, unlike remaking say The Maltese Falcon or something. Although John Turturro could really do something with the Peter Lorre part.

Blackboard Jungle (1955)

blackboard jungle poster

Ten years ago Larry Clark released his controversial film, Kids (1995), about teens having sex, doing drugs, and generally acting like delinquents. The world was shocked (SHOCKED, I tell you) that a film would depict teenagers behaving so badly. Surely, it was an exaggeration. There were exposes on the national news shows, and lines formed outside the theatres picketing and boycotting the pictures.

I had just graduated from high school a few months before I saw the film, and while I found the picture to be a good one the only shock I felt was that of disbelief that parents were so unaware by their children’s behavior. Those kids seemed a lot like the ones I went to high school with. Of course, kids were, and are, having sex and doing drugs. The quarterback of our football team bragged about having sex on the 50-yard line. Another used to tell us about having sex underneath the soundboard in the light booth of the auditorium (sorry Mrs. Patton). The headbangers used to make bongs out of stolen beakers from the chemistry lab.

They say similar reactions came from screenings of the 1955 classic Blackboard Jungle, and its depictions of juvenile behavior in an inner-city high school. After watching the film all I can say is that parents seem to be as unaware of their children then as they are now.

It’s not that the film is a bad one, in fact, it is rather good, it just seems strange that anything appearing in the film was controversial at one time. It feels tame by today’s standard.

It’s like Rock Around the Clock, the Bill Haley song that opens and closes the film, apparently caused quite a stir amongst moviegoers and critics alike. With songs by shock rockers like Marilyn Manson and Trent Reznor filling up the airwaves and movie soundtrack it’s hard to imagine how such a tame “oldie” could ever create the smallest wave of shock.

What we get from the actual film is a story about a high school teacher who takes his first job in an inner city school filled with all kinds of hoodlums. The teachers and staff that have been there for years are all content with simply maintaining some type of order. Of doing little more than surviving, and certainly not trying to do any actual teaching.

The new teacher, Richard Dadier (played superbly by Glenn Ford) actually cares about his students and wants them to succeed both academically and as fellow humans. Though he takes more than one beating (both philosophically and literally) he never gives up his task of being a teacher, of being a guide to those students.

The always impeccable Sidney Poitier, in one of his earlier roles, plays Greg Miller, an obviously intelligent student who acts as a leader for one of the school gangs. Dadier sees in Miller a chink in the student’s resistance and attempts to pull him into his side. Miller resists at first, but in a move that must be obvious to even the most half-hearted filmgoer, he eventually proves a powerful ally to the teacher.

It is here that my biggest complaint about the film lies. Much of the plot turns are telegraphed to the viewer way in advance. There is no doubt about how the film is going to end, nor even much of how it is going to get there. The film could use some real surprises, or at least bring to the table something deeper, or more original in terms of story.

That being said it is still an interesting ride to ride out, by the means in which the story is told. The acting is filled with fine, nuanced performances highlighted by Ford and Poitier’s scenes together. Director Richard Brooks adds some real tension to scenes in which we already know the outcome.

It is interesting to see films seeking to enlighten an audience by turning a blind eye to juvenile delinquency. It becomes preachy at times even beginning the film with a card noting the problem of the unruliness of the nation’s teenagers and that this must be stopped. That, along with some of the more trite plot points, it can sometimes feel like you’re attending a sermon, not watching a movie. It is to the director’s credit and the fine performances that the film mostly rises above the material and presents a solid piece of filmmaking.

Dr. Katz: Professional Therapist

dr katz

Editors Note: Dr. Katz is now available on DVD (But sadly not Blu-ray) so you may purchase your copy at the movie seller of your choice. The Midnight Cafe does not condone piracy.

My good friend Jamison recently sent me the entire series of Dr. Katz: Professional Therapist on DVD. This has brought much joy to my heart because none of the episodes from this series are yet available on DVD. My friend bought it off of Ebay from someone who essentially put his dubbed off the TV VHS tapes into the DVD format. The quality ranges from really quite excellent to something more akin to rather unwatchable garbage. Most of the episodes have that old VHS tape that’s been sitting in the attic for a bit too long look. But it’s Dr. Katz on DVD and I’ll take what I can get.

The other, quite humorous, but in this collection is that whoever mastered the DVDs didn’t manage to edit out most of the commercials. A few of the episodes are presented commercial-free and look quite professional. The rest retain the commercials, but the creator has done us the favor of fast-forwarding through them. This creates a nice nostalgic effect to the collection, reminding me of my days of recording favorite TV shows and fast-forwarding through the commercials myself. He even does the guesswork on when the commercials will end, and the show will begin. Many times he’ll hit play only to find another commercial coming on. Or he’s a little slow on hitting the play button, fast-forwarding through the first few moments of the show.

The commercials themselves are also quite interesting. Craig Killborn is still hosting the Daily Show, Comedy Central is overhyping their sure-to-be hit show “Bob and Margaret” and Dell computers with 8 megs of RAM and 10 gig hard drives sell for only $2600!

The show itself is classic. It’s one of my all-time favorite television comedies. The set-up for the show has Jonathan Katz playing Dr. Jonathan Katz, a professional therapist (high concept, I know). His patients consist of guest stars who are generally professional comics, whose “problems” are generally bits from their acts. Other characters are Dr. Katz’s perpetually lazy son, Ben (H Jon Benjamin), and his sarcastic secretary Laura (Laura Silverman – how did they come up with these character names?). There is also the bartender and regular customer at a local pub Dr. Katz frequents (Julianne Shapiro and Will LeBow respectively).

Ben: “I’m saying, Dad, that it’s lonely at the top. So if you wanna ride my gravy train, you better hop on, now.”
Dr. Katz: “Why do you think this is the top? I mean, you could be lonely for any number of reasons.”
Ben: “What are you trying to say?”
Dr. Katz: “I’m saying, you’re a lonely guy. … Don’t blame it on being at the top.”

The best part of the show is the interaction between Katz, Ben, and Laura. The three have great chemistry and often feel more like three hilarious friends sitting around trying to one-up each other. I doubt the show ever had much of a script, for it all seems rather improvised on the spot.

Ben: “I bought a, uh, one of those fake fountains. You plug it in, and the water runs constantly.”
Dr. Katz: “A urinal.”

The only problem with the show is when the guests aren’t all that funny. In the early days, the guests consisted solely of stand-up comics. Generally, these guys are spot-on hilarious, doing their best bits. But, sometimes the guest is more annoying than funny (Judy Tenuta anyone?) Since an individual guest’s bits can make up 1/4th of the show, a bad guest could really drag the show down. This is especially true when as the show got a popular, non-comedian to appear. I loved Julia Louis-Dreyfus on Seinfeld, but here she says nothing funny, and her only gag seems to be that she goes to the toilet a lot while she’s pregnant. Katz makes the most of poor guests, though, and milks the material for all its comedy potential.

Dr. Katz: “Hold on one second, Ben, let me play the Devil’s advocate here, just for one minute.”
Ben: “No Dad, don’t, okay please, I don’t like the Devil’s advocate thing; you’re too good at it.”
Dr. Katz: “What about ‘Duck Duck Goose’?”
Ben: “Okay, you got a deal.”

In the last season, the show did what too many television shows do when running out of steam: it tinkered with its own premise and added characters. While in the previous five seasons, the only people with speaking parts were the main characters and the guest patients. In season 6 suddenly there are miscellaneous extras popping up. Why suddenly is there an exchange between Ben and his dentist? Todd, the video store clerk has become running regularly into this season as well. The actor portraying Todd (Todd Barry) had previously been a patient on the show. While the bits between Todd, the clerk, and Ben are usually funny, it is an additional character to a show flooded already with too many characters, and not enough time.

These are minor complaints in what is one of the funniest series to have ever hit the airwaves.