Classic Ross Amico

Tag: Roy’s Tie-Dye Sci-Fi Corner

  • Raiders of the Lost Ark Secret of the Incas & More

    On the 40th anniversary of the release of “Raiders of the Lost Ark,” enjoy last night’s discussion of a movie that heavily influenced it, “Secret of the Incas” (1954).

    We’re taking Friday off next week, but Roy will be back with his son, Ryan, for a special Father’s Day edition of Roy’s Tie-Dye Sci-Fi Corner, on Sunday, June 20 – with the topic to be announced.

    Then Roy and I will reunite for yet another riveting conversation, about “Dimension 5” (1966), a time travel-espionage-thriller starring Jeffrey Hunter, France Nuyen, and Harold “Odd Job” Sakata, on Friday, June 25.

    Time travel always increases our chances of punctuality. The Facebook livestreams begin at 7 pm EDT.

    https://www.facebook.com/roystiedyescificorner

  • Raiders Secret Incas Roy’s Tie-Dye Sci-Fi

    There was an eighth face revealed at the end of last night’s discussion of “7 Faces of Dr. Lao.” That’s right, I’m talking about the Big Shave. The statutes have run out, and Baby Face Amico is once again roaming the streets.

    Join us next week, as we celebrate the 40th anniversary of the release of “Raiders of the Lost Ark” with a conversation about “Secret of the Incas” (1964), a film that had a significant influence on the later Spielberg blockbuster. Charlton Heston dons the fedora and leather jacket as he pursues fortune and glory in the Peruvian jungle.

    Throw us the idol, we’ll throw you the whip, on the next Roy’s Tie-Dye Sci-Fi Corner. Once again, we’ll be raiding a lost art, next Friday evening at 7:00 EDT.

    https://www.facebook.com/roystiedyescificorner

  • Dr Lao & A Beard’s Farewell: Roy’s Sci-Fi Corner

    Hair today, gone tomorrow.

    Watch for an eighth face by the end of our discussion of “7 Faces of Dr. Lao” (1964), on tonight’s Roy’s Tie-Dye Sci-Fi Corner. To mark my one-year anniversary as Roy’s regular cohost, I’ll be releasing my beard into the wild.

    Satisfy your voyeuristic tendencies, and maybe see me get nicked into the bargain, as we discuss George Pal’s hallucinatory classic, featuring Tony Randall as the presumed Eastern impresario of an itinerant Western circus AND each of its allegorical attractions.

    There will be more tears shed than at the end of “E.T.” Join us in bidding farewell to my best friend in all this world. The big shave will be livestreamed on Facebook. Leave your aloe in the comments section, alongside your razor-sharp insights, this Friday evening at 7:00 EDT.

    https://www.facebook.com/roystiedyescificorner/

    Thanks to Colin Curless for this bit of “fan art” – now actually a few months out of date!

  • Live Shave & “7 Faces of Dr. Lao” Discussion

    Live Shave & “7 Faces of Dr. Lao” Discussion

    It’s the event we’ve all been waiting for. (You know it’s true.)

    Join me tomorrow evening on the next “Roy’s Tie-Dye Sci-Fi Corner,” as I take it all off. That’s right. The Covid beard is going.

    Tune in at 7:00 EDT for the LIVE SHAVE, which will coincide with Roy and my conversation about “7 Faces of Dr. Lao” (1964).

    George Pal directed this outlandish Western allegory, with Tony Randall starring as the titular Eastern trickster AND each of the featured attractions in his bizarre traveling circus – each one somehow reflective of the townsfolk’s individual foibles.

    Think of it as “Something Wicked This Way Comes” meets “Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory,” with perhaps just a touch of “Blazing Saddles,” or at least “The Apple Dumpling Gang.” Barbara Eden plays Marian the librarian, or her equivalent, and two-time Academy Award nominee Arthur O’Connell – who looks an awful lot like Willy Wonka’s Jack Albertson – is the jaded idealist turned ruthless capitalist determined to buy out the town. Along the way, everyone is offered important insights into themselves (not everyone learns) and the underlying miracle of existence. Just watch out for the Loch Ness Monster!

    The screenplay is credited to Charles Beaumont, who was responsible for some of the best “Twilight Zone” episodes. However, late in his sadly foreshortened life a number of Beaumont’s friends were known to have stepped up to help out with his workload. It’s rumored that the legendary Ben Hecht may have lent a hand.

    Originally, Pal envisioned Peter Sellers for the lead. Thankfully, Sellers was too expensive. In his place, MGM imposed one of its contract players. It’s a real tour de force for Randall. Definitely don’t go into it expecting Doris Day or “The Odd Couple!”

    The “7 Faces” will be capped by an eighth this week, as I am shorn, on the next Roy’s Tie-Dye Sci-Fi Corner. Fight for my discarded whiskers in the comments section, as we livestream on Facebook, this Friday evening at 7:00 EDT!

    https://www.facebook.com/roystiedyescificorner

  • Them! Giant Ants Invade Roy’s Sci-Fi Corner

    Them! Giant Ants Invade Roy’s Sci-Fi Corner

    This Memorial Day weekend, I hope you’ll join us at a special time, as the U.S. brings all its might and intelligence to bear against invading giant ants. Now that’s one hell of a picnic!

    The Army, FBI, top scientists, and local law enforcement all coordinate to save our bacon without a single rumble of conspiracy. Furthermore, the citizenry accepts lockdown with a degree of maturity and responsibility inconceivable in 2021. Temporarily deferred freedoms are always most easily assimilated when the sewers are flooded with giant ants. For once, it’s all of us against “Them!” (1954).

    Easily the best and most intelligent of the nascent Atomic Age giant bug movies, “Them!” manages to get everything right: a solid cast, good pacing, pitch perfect tone, and truly crawly animatronics. Keep a sharp eye out for walk-ons by fresh faces soon to become weekly regulars in living rooms across America, actors like Leonard Nimoy, Dick York, Richard Deacon, and William Schallert. Basically, anyone wearing an Army helmet is on the cusp of fame. Fess Parker makes the most memorable impression in a single scene that supposedly secured his casting as Davy Crockett.

    Of the principals, Academy Award nominee James Whitmore bands together with James Arness (the extraterrestrial menace in “The Thing,” soon to embark on the gig of a lifetime as Marshal Matt Dillon on “Gunsmoke”) and everyone’s favorite Kris Kringle, Academy Award winner Edmund Gwenn. Gwenn plays a somewhat absentminded, but wholly authoritative and respected myrmecologist. In the 1950s, apparently, people still believed in science. A film that could very easily have turned into “Santa Claus Conquers the Giant Ants” instead winds up being probably one of the top-five science fiction movies of the decade.

    Furthermore, its influence can still be felt in everything from the “Alien” franchise to any number of CGI giant bug fests of the past 25 years. This is one movie that really has legs!

    Nevermind those Brood X cicadas – there will be plenty of high-frequency, outsized shrieking, as we chat about “Them!” on the next Roy’s Tie-Dye Sci-Fi Corner. Leave your songs and whistles in the comments section, as we livestream on Facebook, this Sunday evening at 7:00 EDT!

    https://www.facebook.com/roystiedyescificorner/

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