Due to unforeseen circumstances, our chummy discussion of Dino De Laurentiis’ “Orca” (1977), which was to have taken place this evening on @[100063986017424:2048:Roy’s Tie-Dye Sci-Fi Corner], has been postponed. Keep a glittering eye on Roy’s Facebook page for further developments.
Someone left Richard Harris’ fish cake out in the rain.
On the evening of July 22, 1977, as I stood in line in the lobby of the Boyd Theatre in Bethlehem, PA, the doors to the auditorium swung open, and the audience for the previous showing began to file out. Someone in line asked, “How was it?” He received the flat, noncommittal response, “It was a big fish.”
Even at the age of 11, I knew “Orca” was going to suck. Heavily promoted on the back of every Marvel comic for weeks, the poster art featured an improbably large, breaching killer whale, looking all the world like a mottled Moby-Dick, splintering the hull of a ship, against the backdrop of an entire seaside village in flames, and a miniscule seaman (presumably Richard Harris) defying this vengeance-fueled juggernaut with a harpoon the size of a toothpick. The entire enterprise bore the unmistakable aroma of desperate hyperbole.
This week on “Roy’s Tie Dye Sci Fi Corner,” we finally honor a long-term request from viewer Lesley Siedt to sink our teeth into “Orca.”
Clearly intended to inspire awe, the Marvel ad couldn’t disguise the fact that “Orca” was a transparent “Jaws” cash-grab, with perhaps a little “King Kong” and maybe some “Death Wish” tossed into the mix. Executive producer Dino De Laurentiis’ “Kong” remake had only just been in theaters in December, and “Death Wish” made him a mint in 1973.
Either way, the audience is clearly meant to sympathize with the aquatic avenger. And why not? Harris’ character is a jerk. And supposedly the actor wasn’t much better on set. He insisted on performing his own stunts, nearly getting himself killed, spent most of the shoot inebriated, contemplated murdering his wife and her suspected lover, and punched out producer Luciano Vincenzoni. If only the actual film had conveyed as much drama. On Rotten Tomatoes, its current approval rating is 9 percent.
You can’t argue with the cast, which includes, beside Harris, Charlotte Rampling, Will Sampson, Bo Derek, and Keenan Wynn. But nobody behaves in a way that makes sense, and at the end of the day, there’s little to do but get picked off one by one.
Composer Ennio Morricone clearly perceived it as a western, providing an underscore of melancholy guitar, an air of heartbreak in the strings, and none other than Edda dell’Orso lending her wordless soprano, so indelibly associated with “Once Upon a Time in the West.”
I’ve got to hand it to my parents. We were a moviegoing family, and we saw everything, the good, the bad and the ugly. As my stepfather, bearing equally low expectations, observed, “If it’s produced by De Laurentiis, it’s got to stink.” A gross generalization, admittedly, but he was kind of right: approached in the correct frame of mind, a De Laurentiis film seldom disappointed.
We’ll blubber over this tragic tale of lost love and the destructive consequences of reckless greed on the next Roy’s Tie-Dye Sci-Fi Corner. Bring your seals (of approval) to the comments section, when we livestream on Facebook, this Friday evening at 7:30 EDT!
https://www.facebook.com/roystiedyescificorner
Haven’t seen the movie? It’s even better dubbed in Hindi.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S3tn22nvY7A
The Boyd Theatre was my favorite venue in the Lehigh Valley at which to view movies. It was the only theater that did the big movies justice, an old-fashioned movie palace that somehow still offered decent projection and stirring sound. Opened in 1921, it was demolished only this year. What rises in its place? A 14-story “luxury apartment” building. Nice job, Bethlehem. It breaks my heart a little every time I think that the Boyd’s gone.
http://cinematreasures.org/theaters/7852
Abandoned Boyd Theater, Bethlehem PA. Built in 1920
byu/Mr_Chubblez inurbanexploration
Pathetic Earthlings… who can save you now?
Cue the Queen soundtrack (on vinyl, of course) and join us as we discuss the Dino De Laurentiis cult classic “Flash Gordon” (1980).
We’ll talk about Flash’s colorful history, from Alex Raymond’s hit comic strip, to the fondly-remembered Buster Crabbe serials, to an unsuccessful early attempt by George Lucas to obtain the rights, so that he could direct a feature film. (Poor George had to create “Star Wars” instead.)
And of course, we’ll extensively fetishize the movie itself, which at times plays like “The Wizard of Oz” on mushrooms. With a campy script by Lorenzo Semple Jr., an unlikely director (Mike Hodges of “Get Carter”), and lurid set and costume design by Fellini favorite Danilo Donati, “Flash” is the film “Barbarella” only wishes it could be.
Max von Sydow, Brian Blessed, Timothy Dalton, Topol, Ornella Muti, Mariangela Melato, Peter Wyngarde, and any number of familiar faces from sci-fi and fantasy films of the ‘70s and ‘80s join a buff, gee-whiz Sam J. Jones as Flash – now a quarterback for the New York Jets (because a Yale-educated polo-player is just too effete?) – and Melody Anderson as Dale Arden.
Jon Haag will be our guest on the next Roy’s Tie-Dye Sci-Fi Corner for a colorful celebration of this gaudy, fleet-footed mash-up of art deco and pop art. Go, Flash, go! Lashes and bore worms will be dispensed in the comments section, when we livestream on Facebook, this Friday evening at 7:00 EST!
What do you say about this fab-fashion free-association, with one go-go boot in “The Avengers,” and one calfskin glove in a fish bowl full of hallucinogens?
Roy and I grope our way through an elaborately booby-trapped funhouse during last night’s discussion of “The Final Programme” (1973). As always, the viewers toss us a rope, even as they yank the rug out from under us in the comments section. It’s all exquisitely-tailored jackets and altered states here:
Next time, we’re back to Friday, as we tackle another heavily design-driven film, Dino De Laurentiis’ primary-colored spectacle, after Alex Raymond’s classic comic strip, “Flash Gordon” (1980). Sam J. Jones and Melody Anderson are bolstered by a flamboyant supporting cast, including Brian Blessed, Timothy Dalton, Topol, Ornella Muti, Mariangela Melato, Peter Wyngarde, and Max von Sydow – the best possible choice in resurrecting Ming the Merciless. Oh yes, and the music is by Queen!
Our special guest will be Jon Haag, whose lair is an amorphous catacomb of sci-fi and ‘70s pop culture memorabilia. If you haven’t thought about something for 50 years, chances are The Haag has it.
“Flash,” like “Superman” and “Popeye,” came along at a time when big budget, big screen adaptations of two-dimensional comic heroes was still a fresh idea. Its legacy proved to be no flash in the pan.
We strike an uneasy alliance on Mongo, on the next Roy’s Tie-Dye Sci-Fi Corner. Camp it up in the comments section, as we livestream on Facebook, this Friday evening at 7:00 EST!
Aaron Copland (92) Beethoven (95) Composer (114) Film Music (124) Film Score (143) Film Scores (255) Halloween (94) John Williams (188) KWAX (229) Leonard Bernstein (101) Marlboro Music Festival (125) Movie Music (139) Opera (202) Philadelphia Orchestra (89) Picture Perfect (174) Princeton Symphony Orchestra (106) Radio (87) Ralph Vaughan Williams (85) Ross Amico (244) Roy's Tie-Dye Sci-Fi Corner (290) The Classical Network (101) The Lost Chord (268) Vaughan Williams (103) WPRB (396) WWFM (881)