July 3, 2005
-
Welcome To Retro-ville by Eddie
The Stardust cafe on San Fernando, Burbank. Any Angelenos know the story with this place? Is it open/being renovated? It was hard to see riding past…
For some reason this weekend has taken on a distinct ‘past catching up with the present’ feel…
First of all, I finally got around to buying The Avengers ’66 Box set. I grew up watching this in England in the sixties, but back then the series’ humor and sense of the absurd was totally lost on me. It’s summed up in the episode ‘How To Succeed…At Murder’: How does ‘ministry agent’ John Steed gain information from his captive? Interrogation? Torture? Have them stand on a box with wires attached, and a hood on their head? Nope, he tickles the information out of them! Classic.
I leafed through this book, but decide to hold off buying it (it’s actually 9 bucks cheaper on Amazon). At a glance it looks like a great read, and a worthy chronicle of Russ Meyer’s career. Meyer, like Bakshi, was one of those mavericks who did it his way. Easily dismissed as an ‘adult’ film maker (even the book jacket does him this disservice), movies like Mudhoney, and Faster, Pussycat! Kill! Kill! show that not everything he did was about titillation…
…well okay, I guess a lot of it was
No trip to Retro-ville would be complete without a soundtrack. This cost me seven bucks and (apart from ‘Sugar Sugar’) yep – the tracks suck. Shoulda bought the Banana Splits album instead
Comments (5)
Eddie, just curious. Did you get this ’66 box set because it containted your favorite episodes? I plan on getting “The Best of the Avengers” in the future.
What’s wrong with a bit of titallation eh?
I got the ’66 box set because there was an episode (‘The House That Jack Built’) that I was dying to see again.
But overall, my favorite episodes are on the Avengers ’67 (Set 2, Vols 3 & 4). The episodes include ‘The Superlative Seven’ and ‘The Living Dead’ which are awesome.
Also worth noting that the ’66 sets are black and white, while The Avengers ’67 sets are in color.
Eddie, I was looking at that book just the other day and would’ve bought it, except my sense of Midwestern guilt kicked in and I felt embarrased taking it up to the checkout counter. Guess I’ll hafta order it off of Amazon and ask for a brown paper wrapper…And I think Meyers would’ve been totally comfortable being described primarily as a titillator. As far as I can tell, he really didn’t have any pretensions to being a great auteur of cinema, he just liked making movies about girls with giant boobs.
Mr. BH, I wasn’t suggesting he was a great auteur…I just think to label him as ‘the king of the sex film’ doesn’t really tell it all, and may put people off seeking out his films. ‘Beyond The Valley Of The Dolls’, ‘Mudhoney’ ‘Motor Psycho’, ‘Finders Keepers, Lovers Weepers’…not everything he did was totally about sex. Anyone looking for giant boobs in ‘Finders Keepers…’ will want their money back.