Classic Ross Amico

Category: Daily Dispatch

Road Trip with “The Car” & House on Haunted Hill

You might say Roy and I were “men possessed” last night during our road trip with “The Car” (1977).

Of course, as with any road trip, after a while the fatigue begins to set in, you start to get punchy, not all the witticisms land, and by the end you’re just looking for a restroom.

Still, some of the comments were good. As Phil Merkel observed, “If Satan possessed a Car, what he’d do would be to drive at 25 miles per hour in the fast lane with the left blinker on.”

The conversation is archived for posterity here:

Next week, our topic will be William Castle’s camp classic “House on Haunted Hill” (1959), one of Vincent Price’s most entertaining films. Price plays an eccentric millionaire who invites five people to a spooky mansion for a “haunted house party” in honor of his fourth wife’s birthday. Anyone who can make it through the night will receive $10,000.

It’s evident from the start the millionaire and his wife despise one other. Furthermore, the guests are given party favors in the form of tiny coffins with pistols inside. That’s a pretty good indication that you should probably leave.

Even so, the Price is right, when we discuss “House on Haunted Hill,” on the next Roy’s Tie-Dye Sci-Fi Corner. Post your comments in Emergo as we livestream on Facebook, this Friday evening at 7:00 EDT!

https://www.facebook.com/roystiedyescificorner

Watch the haunting trailer now!

October 9, 2021
“The Car” (1977) So Bad It’s Good Movie Review

Be forewarned: “The Car” (1977) is a movie you won’t want to watch alone. Not because it’s scary, but because it’s hilarious!

Stock up on plenty of alcohol and chips and call your best buddy in the world, and get ready for a fun evening of so-bad-it’s-good, “Mystery Science Theater 3000”-style one-upsmanship. Then join Roy and me tomorrow night for an exhaustive discussion, which will fortify us with more than we thought we ever needed to know about this motorized cult classic.

James Brolin (father of Josh, husband of Barbra) plays the deputy sheriff upon whom it falls to rid a sleepy desert community of an implacable, homicidal, seemingly driverless Lincoln Continental with tinted windows. Who cares about horse power, when it’s fueled by Satan! No one is safe – not even indoors. And those ‘70s cop cars are just so flammable.

Even in the surprisingly crowded field of possessed vehicle entertainment (“Duel,” “Killdozer,” “My Mother the Car”), “The Car” has dirt in its carburetor. But that’s what makes it so damned fun.

If you don’t have any beer and you don’t have any friends, or if you have zero tolerance for this kind of thing (in which case I am sorry for you), you really get all you need from this trailer, which never fails to brighten my day:

“The Car” is one of those movies that hurts so good.

We continue with our celebration of Halloween, on Roy’s Tie-Dye Sci-Fi Corner, as we check under the hood of “The Car.” Hitch a ride in the comments section, when we livestream on Facebook, this Friday evening at 7:00 EDT!

https://www.facebook.com/roystiedyescificorner

Wow, look what I found! The soundtrack by Leonard Rosenman (“East of Eden,” “Rebel without a Cause,” “Fantastic Voyage”). It opens, appropriately, if not unpredictably, with a quotation of the “Dies Irae,” which is woven throughout the score. Rosenman does his best to rachet up the tension – remember, he’s the one credited as the first composer to bring twelve-tone music to the movies (in “The Cobweb,” in 1955) – but nothing can really help “The Car.” Can it?

Hoooooooonk! HonkHonkHoooooooonk!

October 7, 2021
Erlkönig Sand Art A Spooky Halloween Treat

In case you didn’t happen to see it in the comments under last night’s post, a shared video of a shadow-puppet interpretation of Franz Schubert’s “Erlkönig,” John M Polhamus has one-upped me with his discovery of this one, rendered in sand-art! It’s spooky, more imaginative in concept and execution, and truer to Goethe’s text (well, maybe except for the wolves, which were a nice touch). Thanks, John, for the Halloween chill!

October 6, 2021
Ernie Kovacs Surreal TV Genius

Yesterday I shared Ernie Kovacs’ irreverent demolition of Victor Herbert at the hands of an inexperienced Italian television crew (on “Enna-B-C,” no less), with an orchestra of improbable musical instruments, like a Gerard Hoffnung cartoon brought to life.

Kovacs was born in Trenton, New Jersey, in 1919. He got his start in radio there, on WTTM, in 1941. It was in Philadelphia that he first broke into television, at WPTZ, in 1950. It wasn’t long before he moved into the New York and national markets. Though none of his shows seemed to last very long (the network quashed his morning show to make way for “Today”), it seems like he was everywhere at once, reincarnated on show after show, doing freeform television specials, appearing as a panelist on “What’s My Line,” and filling in for Steve Allen on “The Tonight Show.” There was no one zanier or more surreal on American television.

As a young man doing summer stock in Vermont, in 1939, Kovacs became seriously ill with pneumonia and pleurisy – so ill, in fact, that he was not expected to survive. During his convalescence, he developed a lifelong love of classical music, thanks to broadcasts over the radio. Kovacs would go on to use or parody the classics in many of his silent skits and abstract visual routines.

Here, Ernie puts some of the zing back into Tchaikovsky’s “1812 Overture”:

PHOTO: Kovacs with Edie Adams, his wife

October 5, 2021
Ernie Kovacs Show David Frankham & More

I located David Frankham’s appearance on Ernie Kovacs! Edie Adams sings Victor Herbert’s “Ah! Sweet Mystery of Life,” with interpolations of Wagner and Kovacs as Nelson Eddy. Frankham (right) plays a melting violin at 5:27. Louis Jourdan follows on the kettledrums, and none other than André Previn pops in to conduct the orchestra at 5:44! No Kovacs sketch is complete without gorillas and firehoses.

October 4, 2021

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