Ask 411 Movies for 2.12.07: The Column That Puts You in a Hurt Locker!
Posted by Leonard Hayhurst on 02.12.2007
Orson Welles, Dub Taylor, product placements, Zyzzyx Road, No Holds Barred and a little bit of nudity, as usual
I got a card to Sam's Club. They have a 55-gallon drum of motor oil. I picked up Snake's on a Plane on DVD packaged with the movie soundtrack.
In our bit of weirdness from YouTube this week we go back to the movies. Well, it's actually outtakes from a wine commercial featuring Orson Welles. A rocked off his ass, three sheets to the wind Orson Welles.
Anna Nicole Smith died last Thursday in a hotel room in Florida. She was 39. Cause of death was not released as of the time of this posting. Smith gave birth to a daughter in September and lost her twenty year old son shortly thereafter under mysterious means. Smith had her own reality show on E! and was probably best known for her marriage to octogenarian millionaire J. Howard Marshall. She served as a model for Playboy and Guess Jeans before her weight went out of control. She later tamed her weight through the use of Trim Spa, which she served as a spokeswoman. Smith did appear in a few films including The Hudsucker Proxy, Naked Gun 33 1/3, To the Limit and Skyscraper. Not to be flippant, but it was hard to find a nice, tasteful picture of her.
Singer and actress Barbara McNair passed away on February 4th of lung cancer. She was 72. McNair's biggest film roles were playing Sidney Poitier's wife in the sequel They Call Me Mister Tibbs! and as a nun working in Elvis Presley's clinic in the king's last film Change of Habit. In 1969 she was the first African American woman to be given her own variety series. It was in syndication until 1972.
Singer Frankie Laine died last Tuesday of complications from hip surgery. He was 93. Lane ties into our column by singing the theme song to "Rawhide" and the theme to Blazing Saddles
Q: Leonard -
I saw you mentioned Dub Taylor in your recent article on 411mania.com. I thought it might interest you that there is a feature length production about his life and contributions as a character actor that will be released in April. The article was interesting to us, we're doing lots of research on the B-western, obviously, because of his contributions. Anyway, just wanted to drop you a line for the interesting read.
Best,
James Kicklighter
Assistant Director/Executive Producer
That Guy: The Legacy of Dub Taylor
http://www.thatdub.com/
A: That sounds like an awesome project and I wish you a lot of luck with it. I almost previewed Taylor last week, but didn't. That works out, because I can go over him this week. Be sure to let me know if I get anything wrong.
Dub Taylor was born Watler Clarence Taylor III on February 26th 1907. Friends called him by his first initial "W" and that eventually turned into "Dub." He started out in vaudeville and made his film debut in Frank Capra's 1938 film You Can't Take it With You. From there Taylor became the sidekick to actor Bill Elliot in a series of films as Cannonball. He left the series when Tex Ritter came in as Elliot's partner. He then played Cannonball in films starring Russell Hayden, Jimmy Wakely and, as mentioned last week, Charles Starrett. In the fifties, Taylor broke away from the Cannonball character and became a popular character actor in movies and television. In the sixties, Taylor became part of director Sam Peckinpah's stable of actors appearing in his films Major Dundee, The Wild Bunch, Junior Bonner and Pat Garrett and Billy the Kid. Taylor continued to work steady in the seventies and eighties even with the Western fading out. He often lampooned his image, such as in a series of bubblegum commercials and joining the cast of the country music and comedy variety series "Hee-Haw." Taylor had become a Western icon by the nineties and a small revival in the genre saw him landing bit parts in major films late in his career including Back to the Future III, My Heroes Have Always Been Cowboys and Maverick. He died in 1994 of congestive heart failure. Among his other films are Bonnie and Clyde, Them!, A Star is Born, No Time for Sergeants, Spencer's Mountain, The Cincinnati Kid, Bandolero!, The Undefeated, A Man Called Horse, Support Your Local Gunfighter, Gator, 1941 and Used Cars.
Q: Lord Leonard Hayhurst:
When the heck can we expect to see the Hulk Hogan classic No Holds Barred on DVD ?! C'mon, there's been far worse b-movie junk put out on DVD over they years. It was New Line theatrical/video release, but would they own the rights to it still or do you think Vince McMahon was smart enough to have a clause for the rights to revert back to him at some point? This movie deserves a DVD release !!
Thanks for the great columns!
-Justin
A: I'm a deacon, but I didn't know I was a lord. Shouldn't I have a fiefdom or something?
I could find no information on No Holds Barred coming out on DVD anytime soon. Vince McMahon was a producer on the film and in fact him and Hogan did a complete rewrite of the script before filming. Rights to the film seem a bit dicey between New Line and WWE. New Line did distribute the film to theaters and on VHS and laserdisc. WWE had pay per view rights to the film and packaged the airing of the movie with a cage match pitting Hogan and Brutus Beefcake vs. Randy Savage and Zeus from the movie, played by Tiny Lister. If WWE did put the film out they could do a great multi disc set, but then the question becomes who would buy it.
Q: Happy Belateed birthday movie trivia god. How old did you turn anyway?
It's been long time since I turned in a question (way back when about the Negotiator). Anyway, Here's my question, but it's been bouncing through my head. What was the first movie to have actual female nudity (that was not a porn movie), whether it be the breasts or the vagina, the first movie to show the male gender, and the first sex scene? Were they mainstream and did well?
Keep up the good work.
-Ed
A: Thanks for the well wishes. I'm a spry 28 now.
We actually covered your questions a few months ago. The first nudity ever on film by a woman was the 1897 French film After the Ball, Bath. Men and women were both seen nude in the 1914 movie Hypocrites. The first feature length sex film in the US was 1913's Traffic in Souls. It was sold as a dramatic expose of white sex slavery rings in New York.
The first nudity in a mainstream film by a major star was Australian swimming champion Annette Kellermann in 1916's Daughter of the Gods. If you want something more revealing, such as pubic hair, you have to move to the dying days of the Hays Production Code with the British film Blowup that did well in the United States. David Hemmings plays a photographer who argues with a topless Vanessa Redgrave over a role of film and has a romp with two nude wannabe teen models. The first male nudity also comes from Britain with Alan Bates and Oliver Reed having a wrestling match near a fire in 1969's Women in Love. The film that broke the Production Code's back was 1965's the Pawnbroker in which black actress Thelma Olive showed her breasts as a prostitute. The film received many accolades and award nominations for star Rod Steiger and director Sidnely Lumet. I'll Never Forget What's'isname from 1967 featured a scene of implied oral sex, which also happened in Charlie Bubbles from the same year. Thanks to filmsite.org for the info.
Q: In the latest issue of Entertainment Weekly, there is an interesting article on how the movie Zyzzyx Road is the lowest-grossing movie of all time at $30. In the article is a sidebar on the four films it beat to have that title: Sweet Jane, States of Control, The Jimmy Show, and The Dark Hours. Unfortunately, they don't say how much those movies made. Could you find out?
-James
A: I get Entertainment Weekly and know of the story you speak of, but let's catch up the masses. Zyzzyx Road was a low budget film starring Leo Grillo as an accountant who hooks up with a nymphet played by Katherine Heigl. They knock out her old boyfriend played by Tom Sizemore and drive out to the desert to kill him. Wackiness ensues. Due to a Screen Actor's Guild clause that allows productions to pay members a lower wage if the film gets released theatrically the movie was put into a theater in Dallas for one showing every day for a week. In that time it grossed only $30 in ticket sales. The gross of the other films I found through imdb.com.
Sweet Jane (2000): Samantha Mathis plays a junkie diagnosed with HIV and bonds with Joseph Gordon Levitt who has the same disease. It's total domestic gross is listed as $967.
States of Control (2001): A depressed housewife does some naval gazing and eventually throws herself to the wild side and challenges her normal life. I could not find a box office gross anywhere, but reviews of the film were generally good.
The Jimmy Show (2002): Frank Whaley is a bored grocery store worker who tries to be a stand up comic. Ethan Hawke plays his buddy. It pulled in $703.
The Dark Hours (2005): A violent sex offender goes after his former therapist and her family. It did $423.
Q: Hello Leonard,
I've been stumped in regards to identifying a film for an acquaintance. Thus far we have eliminated The Eliminators. Any ideas?
'When I was a kid there was a movie I would watch that was like an 80's/70's fantasy/sci-fi type thing. The only things I really remember is that there was a guy who had like a grenade launcher for an arm and whenever he shot it colored smoke would come out of the grenade. Also, it might have had an "Alice in wonderland"/oz type plot. I think the main character may have been a girl, and then I think she met friends (including grenade launchy guy).'
Thing is, I know I have seen this too. But for the life of me I can't recall any other details.
--
Sincerely,
~ J. Tithonus Pednaud
Purveyor of Peculiar Physical
Phenomena and Puzzling Prodigies.
www.thehumanmarvels.com
A: Pednaud recently started writing his Cinema Sideshow column here on 411. Be sure to check it out.
The first movie I thought of from your description was Return to Oz from 1985, followed by The Adventures of Baron Munchausen from 1988. Hell, I'll even throw The Never Ending Story on the list. That was blatant false advertisement. Neither seem right and research proved fruitless. Possibly someone out there in reader land might no more.
A long time ago a friend of mine asked me about product placements in movies. I thought that would make good column filler and needing column filler this week I said let's use it. So we will look at some notable movie product placements and the stories behind them.
In one of the most famous product placements ever Reese's Pieces boosted their sales by 65% by appearing in E.T.. Urban legend has it that the Mars Company pulled their M & M's from the movie because they thought it would flop or that they didn't want their candy associated with aliens. In reality Hershey just outbid them for the product placement. The novel of the movie of the film actually mentions M & M's as the candy eaten.
Back to the Future didn't do much for the sales of the DeLorean DMC 12 because they had already ceased production. The movie did make the car a cult favorite. It was chosen due to its ‘futuristic' design and appearance. In earlier drafts of the script the secret ingredient to time travel was to be Coca-Cola. This was dropped and it should be mentioned that star Michael J. Fox was a spokesman for Pepsi and that brand does factor into the original and second film. In fact the whole trilogy has tons of product placements. Another real notable one is Joe Flaherty as a diligent Western Union man delivery Doc's message to Marty and Mattel hover boards in part two. In the first movie California Raisins negotiated to be a primary sponsor. However, it was determined that a bowl of raisins would look like a bowl of dirt on film and nothing could be thought to do with them. The only showing they have in the movie is when Marty jumps over a park bench advertising them.
Don Knotts left "The Andy Griffith Show" for a five picture deal with Universal. The first of which was The Ghost and Mr. Chicken. A repeated gag in the film was that a piano in a haunted house was stained with blood and nothing could clean it not even Bon Ami. Universal wanted clearance from the company before using the line, but didn't make any progress. Finally, Knotts himself had his secretary call the company and eventually they made it to the president. Knotts explained the bit and the president loved it. He gave his consent and Bon Ami rose from obscurity and near disappearance. Oddly enough the mascot of the cleaning product is a yellow chicken.
1949 saw the Marx Brothers in their last official film together Love Happy. In an early example of blatant product placement Harpo is chased across buildings with various advertising billboards. In the end he escapes on Mobil Gas' flying red horse logo.
In one of the few good gags in Demolition Man starring Sylvester Stallone and Sandra Bullock it's revealed in the future that Taco Bell will win the great restaurant wars and that all restaurants in the future will be Taco Bells. For some foreign releases of the film all references to Taco Bell were changed to Pizza Hut with dubbing and digital editing. YUM! Brands owns Taco Bell and Pizza Hut along with Long John Silver's, A&W and KFC. The biggest product placement of a fast food joint in a film has to be Harold and Kumar Go to White Castle where getting to the burger chain was central to the plot. However, there is no White Castle in Cherry Hill, New Jersey where the movie is set. Hot Dog Heaven also featured in the film only exists in two cities in Ohio.
Don't die.
"I don't care about winning an Oscar. I'm just an actor who can play parts and make people believe them."
