What To Watch? - Jan 7 - Bites of the Old & Bits of the New

 

    Fifty years ago next Tuesday - and it was also a Tuesday back in '72 - ABC's Movie of the Week rocked the ratings with The Night Stalker. Introducing reporter Carl Kolchak to the world - a career-defining role for already veteran stage and screen actor Darren McGavin - the movie was based on a then-unpublished novel by Jeff Rice, and adapted into a screenplay by Richard Matheson.
     I was a few months shy of my 11th birthday, and this movie, especially as a tv movie, seemed to take us all by (pleasant) surprise.
     Here's a reasonable copy sitting on YouTube: The Night Stalker (1972  1h 14m)

     I think it still holds up, but I doubt that I can ever see it again with fresh eyes. I'd be interested in hearing from anyone who's watched it for the first time in many years, and especially for anyone who's just now/recently watched it for the first time. In 1972 it was an intense tv experience, with nary a wasted scene, delivered in what was then a very fresh format.
     The following year they very nearly caught lightning in a bottle a second time, with the sequel The Night Strangler, which was then followed by a single season of a tv show that immediately devolved into increasingly hard to swallow formula. None of that touches the films, though. Cumulatively, it was what inspired Chris Carter to create The X-Files.
     Over the years I've come to realize that poor Jeff Rice didn't come out half as well from all this as he should have. The emphasis remained on the films, all the more so since the publisher and promotions department delayed the publishing of the first book until after the second one was written (which was done in reverse order, with Matheson writing a screenplay and Rice adapting that into a novel), so that

both books had a shot at landing in the top two sales spots, at least briefly, in 1974. Accordingly, especially as he had name recognition going back to I Am Legend, along with various, high-profile film and tv credits - many of them based on his original works - Matheson was most broadly credited when it comes to Carl Kolchak. This despite Carl, and the story that launched this franchise, being Rice's creation. So, the books were, in the eyes of the public, almost an afterthought; a marketing spin-off and redundancy of the "real" material - the tv movies.
     Now, onto new items!
     This week is the penultimate episode of this short (six episode) final season of The Expanse over on Amazon Prime. So very much in play, they're plainly going to leave us waiting to see how and where they'll get to more of the story. (Or, I suppose, renew the desire to go for the source novels.)

     This Sunday will be the (tenth and) final episode of serial killer sequel Dexter: New Blood on Showtime. While the season did slide into old problem territory, there's enough (appreciated) fan service in the mix that I've been willing to roll with it. I've avoided reading any interview material with the cast and crew, so I've honestly no idea if they intend to go any farther with it. I can see at least two paths this could continue under, and I'm curious to see what they've decided on -- not that I'm in a rush to get to Sunday night!
     I haven't watched it yet - haven't found myself in the mood for problematic fantasy romantic comedies recently - but a 2021 Australian film got its Netflix debut this past Saturday. In Long Story Short (2021  R  1h 34m) a chronic procrastinator wakes up the morning after his wedding to find that every few minutes he jumps ahead to the next year of his life, leaving him increasingly disassociated from his life and family as he has no recollection of the events of the previous year. He's soon in a desperate race to try to salvage his life and hold onto it. As a procrastinator who is often far less than mindful of his day-to-day life, this sort of allegory should be very much on-target... if and when I get around to watching it.

     Also on Netflix since the 1st is a science fiction thriller set in the not distant future, where there are humanoid robots. A private detective is hired to find an eccentric businessman's missing daughter. The detective teams up with an advanced A.I. named Jane to better navigate the world of this case. It's Zone 414 (2021  R  99m).

     This was out in theaters back in early September this past year, where it suffered at least in part the way most films have in the past nearly two years, with most of us having the sense to stay out of enclosed spaces with strangers during a pandemic. The reviews were generally savage, but especially these past two years, for anything but the most high-profiled items, the sample pool is both shallow and suspect. My general sense is that this is going to feel like a conceptual retread of Blade Runner, with much more of an emphasis on sexual and other gratifications in a world where simulated human beings are in the mix.
    Arriving today on Amazon Prime - released in theaters back in December - is a film based on J.R. Moehringer's Pulitzer-winning memoir. George Clooney directs, Ben Affleck, Christopher Lloyd, Tye Sheridan and Lily Rabe star, in The Tender Bar (2021  R  1h 44m).

     Family drama, coming of age story, the trailer already feels almost too thick with story and perhaps the trailer a little too revealing. I'm avoiding reading up on it so as to not spoil more than the trailer already appears to.
     I'm going to close this week with a film that's roughly 52 years old, which I only became aware of recently. It's a western from 1970, starring Lee Van Cleef, Warren Oates, Forrest Tucker, Kerwin Mathews, Mariette Hartley and Armando Silvestre. It seems fairly clearly one of the then new wave of

hyper-violent and gritty westerns of the period, immediately reminding me in tone of Peckinpah's ground-breaker from the previous year, The Wild Bunch (1969). (Quick digression, I see that a remake of that film was reportedly in the cards for this year, with Peter Dinklage, Michael Fassbender and Jaimie Foxx - reportedly replacing Will Smith - attached. This was something Mel Gibson was going for, with him directing, and co-writing the screenplay. Much of this was proposed late in 2018, and my general take is that  the deal's quietly died, though it may simply have ended up going into a pandemic-induced coma.)
    Barquero was directed by Gordon Douglas Brickner, who in a career spanning some 50 years began as a teenage actor, then went on to direct a surprisingly broad genre mix of films. These ranged from Our Gang films, at least one musical, various comedies, westerns, romantic comedies, war films, and even the giant ant sci-fi feature Them! Over the years he directed films starring Alan Ladd, Elvis Presley, Doris Day, Clint Walker, Jerry Lewis, and multiple films starring Frank Sinatra, including at least one with the Rat Pack (Robin and the Seven Hoods), James Coburn (In Like Flint), Sidney Poitier (They Call Me Mister Tibbs!), and even  Jim Brown in the blaxploitation sequel Slaughter's Big Rip-Off.

     Having seen him almost exclusively (during the '60s and '70s in primarily and increasingly comedic roles, it was especially interesting to see Forrest Tucker dispatching baddies with his Bowie knife, and getting critical information from their surviving companion by threatening to feed him to voracious ants, all the while remaining oddly affable. Again there's that problem of lacking fresh eyes, though, as - especially in a western, 19th century setting, I don't know that I can see and hear him without importing at least some of his Sergeant O'Rourke persona from F Troop. Someone who lacks other associations may very well take him in as being a bully with a sadistic streak, whose easy manner is borne of his intimidating size.
     As there's a fairly good copy of it just hanging out on YouTube (where I watched it), I'll set that up here. Again, it's Barquero (1970  1h 48m). Initially there's an odd, horizontal line visual texture to it - almost as if it were projected on a ropy, woven, looped rug, but that smooths out and disappears after a few minutes. I didn't find it that distracting after a minute or two, and a short time into the film I suddenly realized it was gone.

     Beginning and ending this week's piece with items from half a century ago may be part of my way of compensating for finding myself in this so far somewhat dingy sci-fi future year of 2022. May it soon endear itself to us all, though even then I expect I'll remain tensed for a sucker punch until it's in the history books next January 1st. Until next week, take care! - Mike