it's friday the 13th nite!

 

days flow with poetry & wine

 

queen boxer [1972]

 

hong kong kung flu flix are a lot of fun.  the plots almost always lean toward revenge.  bad guys sometimes get their comeuppance by wronged good guys in the most spectacular fashion.  the fight choreography is a twin to dance choreography, if a bit more vicious & bloody.  this movie is no exception.  the queen in this movie is, for the era of its release, a rare thing.  a woman fighter.  & this movie is rarer, for that era, still for being directed by a woman, feng-chi yu.  

billed as bruce lee's real-life sister, ha ha, actress judy lee [chia ling], is out to avenge the murder of her brother.  an ax wielding group of thugs hired by the local mobster did the killing.  lee is an unstoppable force.  her kicks, punches & physical prowess bests any & every goon that steps in her way.  she is marvelous to witness as she tears thru the scenery leaving the ruined bodies of bad dudes behind.  we are introduced to her powers when she is accosted by aforementioned goofballs who try to assault her in the street.  she doesn't kill these dorks but she does make them spit out a few teeth.

soon lee gets the blessing of her father to wreak her revenge.  she partners with another man, ma yung, played by david wei tang, a social reformer who is hellbent on breaking the grip of the local gangsters in his town.  but there is no lovey-dovey between our two heroes.  these two run a parallel line toward the beasts that must be bested.  nor does this movie have any nudity or sexual assaults.  just straight up bone crushing, flesh gashing revenge taking purity.

& when we get to the final reel there is an army of lee kicking ass on the thugs & lead gangster.  she had taken a vow to revenge her murdered brother on the pain of her own death.  even more so, would be the music used in this film.  isaac hayes' 'theme from shaft' is the stolen theme for this pic!  & i love the film grain & burns on the print of this movie.  those added to the effect that i was at the grindhouse or drive-in watching a print made of a print of a print of this movie.  damn, that brought tears to my eyes!  

she freak [1967]

 

yeah, this movie might be an anticlassic, penned & produced by exploitation impresario david f. friedman, but it is frankly boring.  this is a total ripoff of tod browning's great movie freaks [1932].  friedman copped to the steal, in plain speak.  but what the hell.  for this movie we have a waitress in a greasy spoon, jade, who not only must deal with a dead-end job, but the advances of her boss, who is the owner/manager/cook of the diner.  what's an ambitious girl to do when the odds are stacked against her & her immediate prospects look grim.  

soon a suave salesman swoops into the diner.  he is running lead to a traveling carnival.  oh yeah?  jade inquires about a job with the carnival.  the salesman is charmed by jade.  she may not, in her own words, be able to dance & sing but surely she most have some kind of something to get a job with the carnival & get out of her small town & away from that diner.  

sure enough jade succeeds in getting a job.  she makes friends with some of the carnies & performers, including burlesk - yes that's how it's spelled on the sideshow marquee - dancer moon.  soon jade charms the pants off the resident grease monkey & troublemaker, blackie, & the well-off carnie steve.  where did steve get his money?  why ask.  so then anyway, jade loathes the sideshow workers who are steve's close friends.  guess what happens next.

if you've seen browning's movie you know what happens to jade.  but man, it takes a very long time to get to it.  even so, i found this movie fascinating because it is a document of late 1960s life.  the fairgoers all seemed surprised to find themselves on camera.  you see that when more than a few enter the frame they turn toward the camera with curiosity & surprise.  that's because i suspect the filmmakers shot at a real carnival with real customers.  & this movie was made for the drive-in crowd so there is a bit of cheesecake, a little bit of violence & blood, & a sleazy mien that kept me watching even when i found the movie slogging!   

the lone guitar of the apocalypse

 

today is halloween!

it's a few minutes past the witching hour but it is halloween!  the day when the membrane between the living & the dead is at its thinnest.  so welcome your dead.  it is a good day.  anna & i will need to make a candy run before those trick 'r treaters arrive.  forecast calls for rain.  but that never stopped trick 'r treaters!  so but then, however you observe, or not, this wonderful day i wish you a very haunted & happy halloween!

boo!

let us have a cup of earl grey, hot

when i found out the death today of sir patrick stewart my mind immediately replayed one scene of his from all the roles stewart has played.  stewart was a shakespearean-trained actor who brought wit & grace to even the smallest role.  he was better known as capt. jean-luc picard of the starship enterprise.  he was magnificent as picard but one must remember that the great speeches & lines of dialogue spoken by stewart as picard were penned by some of the finest writers of any TV series.  but you need a voice & presence to say them.  stewart had those in great abundance.  & as we remember sir patrick stewart as capt. jean-luc picard let's remember too his favorite drink, earl grey served hot.  i can list so many movies great & small, so many TV series as well that were lucky to have stewart play in them.  we all can, i believe, & we all have our favorites too.  stewart lived to a good age of 86.  not a bad run, indeed.  but it is his part as a maitre d' of the restaurant l'idiot in the steve martin vehicle, L.A. Story [1991] that i instantly thought of this afternoon when i read the news that sir patrick stewart passed away.  

stewart is simultaneously hilarious & menacing.  his exquisite voice gives this encounter just the right amount of absurd humor.  & he brilliantly balances menace with the other brilliant comedic actor in this scene, steve martin's wincing befuddlement.  these couple of minutes of this movie have tattooed itself onto my memory.  in short, stewart steals the show!

godspeed sir patrick stewart