Ask 411 Movies for 12.3.07: The Column that Jumps the Snake River Gorge!

Posted by Leonard Hayhurst on 12.03.2007

Chinatown sequels, Southland Tales, Zap Brannigan, difficult actors, Fatty Arbuckle, Natalie Wood and Hulk Hogan beats up Richard Belzer

Evel Knievil passed away Friday of complications from pulmonary fibrosis and diabetes. He was 69. Knievil was a daredevil in the sixties and seventies who jumped all kinds of obstacles on a motorcycle. His son Robbie Knievil keeps the tradition alive. Knievil's life was put on the silver screen in 1971 with George Hamilton in the title role. He later played himself in 1977's Viva Knievil! with a cast including Red Buttons, Gene Kelly, Leslie Nielson and Laruen Hutton.



From YouTube this week we have the legendary footage of Hulk Hogan and Mr. T on a short lived talk show hosted by Richard Belzer in order to promote Wrestlemania I. In short, Belzer claimed more or less that wrestling was fake and wanted Hogan to put him in a wrestling move to test that. Hogan put him in a front chinlock and Belzer passed out. Hogan let him go and he dropped to the floor, cutting his head open. Belzer sued Hogan for $5 million and eventually settled out of court. He used the money to buy a villa in France. I like Belzer, but he comes off like a douchebag in this clip and it's pretty wussy in my mind to get hurt after he provoked the man and then sue him.



Q: I read your review of The Two Jakes and you mention that there was supposed to be a third film. What was it going to be and could they still make it?
-Don

A: There are two versions of what the third film could be. At the time of Chinatown the third film of the trilogy was to be called Cloverleaf and deal with the freeway system coming to Los Angeles in the middle fifties. When The Two Jakes was made the third movie was projected to be Gittes vs. Gittes based on it focusing on Jake's divorce. The subplot would deal with air pollution starting up in L.A. in the late sixties and early seventies. The Two Jakes was a big flop critically and financially. Its production also drove a rift between star Jack Nicholson, writer Robert Towne and producer Robert Evans. As I mentioned in the review, Towne was originally going to direct with Evans as the second Jake. Towne didn't think Evans was right for the part and they basically wound up firing each other. For the second proposed version set twenty years or so after Jakes Nicholson could still play Gittes, but there are no plans at this time for it and there probably won't be.

Q: On Eli Wallach:

king and queen of brooklyn----------then you use the word thrown, I think you meant throne.

Please use spell check.
-Jim, the old man

A: If you used spell check on that section you would know that it wouldn't pick it up as the word in and of itself is spelled correctly and the grammar check isn't sophisticated enough to detect such a homophone usage in that context. I always right in word and it spell checks automatically. Oh, I meant write, the spell check didn't pick that up. It was just a simple typo on my part that I didn't catch when I manually edited. Don't we have an editor for this section? Oh that's me. Never mind. I do thank you for the correction though. I figured I would get more angry emails on me dissing Brooklyn than anything else. So while we're here, let me say it was just a good-natured josh and I'm glad no one took it in a negative manner or at least had the motivation to right in about it. Ah, damn spell check.

Q: Leonard,

Great job as always. Your recent list of famous Hollywood murders and suicides reminded me of a couple of others, including Dominique Dunne about 25 years ago and the Fatty Arbuckle-Virginia Rappe champagne bottle "incident." Good to know this sort of thing was going on in Hollywood even way back in the 1920's.

Anyway, on with the questions:

1. Why do DVD releases of most major movies occur on Tuesdays? Is it some kind of deal that the studios have with the stores selling the DVDs so that the stores can drum up more business on an otherwise slow shopping day?

2. Just saw "Men in Black" on t.v. again recently with Linda Fiorentino. Why wasn't she in the sequel? Was it because she was difficult to work with as I've heard somewhere? Is that what also kept her from becoming a bigger star? In your opinion, who are some other Hollywood actors who never quite became huge stars because of their reputation for being difficult? I can think of possibly Val Kilmer.

I don't know if you can even answer these next two questions or speculate on an answer in case you expose yourself to a libel case but your recent list of Hollywood legends who are still inexplicably alive brought some thoughts into my head. I don't know if these stories have any basis in truth or are urban legends but here goes:

3. I remember reading somewhere that Natalie Wood was raped in the 1950's. Some allege that Kirk Douglas was the one who did it. Any speculation that you know of as to this rumor? If not Kirk Douglas, are there any other "suspects" whom people consider?

4. Finally, as to the 32 day marriage of Ernest Borgnine and Ethel Merman, I heard that the marriage broke up because Borgnine kept giving poor Ethel "Dutch ovens" while in bed. For real? This sounds so ludicrous as to possibly be true.

Thanks for the usual great work, Sam Spade of the Cinema.

-Fast Eddie

A: Dominique Dunne was the sister of Giffin Dunne and daughter of Dominick Dunne. Her death is often lumped in with The Poltergeist curse as she appeared in that film as the older sister. In the fall of 1981 Dunne started dating chef John Thomas Sweeney. She broke it off with him shortly thereafter. Sweeney confronted Dunne in the driveway of her house and begged her to take him back. When she refused, he choked her. Dunne was pronounced brain dead and died five days later. Sweeney served two and a half years of a six year sentence. He was last known to be working as a chef again in Seattle under the name of John Maura.



Fatty Arbunkle was one of the top comedians of the silent era, earning an unheard of $1 million a year from Paramount at his height in the early twenties. On September 3rd 1921 Arbuckle took some time off from his hectic schedule for a trip to San Francisco with two friends. They threw a party in their hotel room. One of the women who attended was an aspiring actress named Virginia Rappe. Rappe complained of abdominal pain and took ill. She died several days later of a ruptured bladder. It was put forth by another woman at the party, Maude Delmont, that Arbuckle had raped her and caused her death. She did this in order to extort money from Arbuckle, but the district attorney picked up the case. Rappe's agent stated that Arbuckle had raped her with a chunk of ice. Others at the party stated that Arbuckle merely rubbed the ice on her stomach in an attempt to ease her pain. This rumor later spun into her being raped with a Coca Cola or champagne bottle. Arbuckle was acquitted in three different trials. The jury of the last trial even issued an official apology for the trouble Arbuckle had gone through. However, his career was virtually over and he retreated into alcoholism. Arbuckle was working on a comeback when he died of a heart attack in 1933. He was 46. Some two reelers he had made were received well and Warner Brothers had signed him to make a feature.



Ernest Borgnine and Ethel Merman married on June 27th 1964 and the marriage was dissolved on July 29th. According to Borgnine, Merman was jealous of him being a bigger star than she was at the time of their marriage. On their wedding night, they were mugged by fans who wanted his autograph over hers and she just hounded him about every little thing from that point on. Merman never really publicly commented on the marriage. I had never heard the Dutch oven rumor before and couldn't find any truth to it. It's certainly something I could see in Borgnine's character.

As funny as I found that story, that is how horrified I was by the other one. According to the 2001 biography Natasha, Natalie Wood was raped by a powerful and popular Hollywood star. She never revealed this in fear of repercussions for bringing the man down and seeming unprofessional. Natalie's sister Lana says she knows who it was and might reveal the name after the man dies. The identity has never been revealed, but Kirk Douglas is considered the prime suspect. Burt Lancaster has also been alleged, but he's already passed on. The event was detailed in the television biopic Natalie Wood with a nondescript actor being the rapist.



I doubt I could be sued for libel, but they say any publicity is good publicity and I get zero publicity now.

I remember answering the question about DVD releases on Tuesdays a long time ago, but couldn't find my original answer. Tuesday and DVD aren't the most limiting search terms. There are several reasons for this. The most prominent is that marketing research reveals that consumers are most likely to buy or rent new products throughout the middle of the week. It also helps not to saturate the market as new movies are released in theaters on Fridays and do their biggest business over the weekend. Sales and rental charts are also released on Mondays for the previous week, so Tuesday is the start of the ‘sales' week basically. Also due to shipping schedules most stores get new stock in on Mondays, so they can stock the shelves overnight for a Tuesday debut.

Linda Fiorentino won her role in Men in Black from Barry Sonnenfeld in a poker game along with $1200. Depending on who you talk to she either declined the sequel or was not asked back. Fiorentino is said to be hard to work with. Kevin Smith of her starring in Dogma said that they quibbled constantly and some days she wouldn't even speak to him. He said he should have gone with Jeanne Garofalo in the lead who has a small part in the movie. However, Garofalo is also known to be hard to work with as her political beliefs and personal views can often get in the way. Her short tenure on "Saturday Night Live" was marked by her frequent arguing with producer Lorne Michaels and the other writers over various issues, including the portrayal of women in sketches.

Val Kilmer has a reputation for being very meticulous in how he prepares for roles and this often hampers filming and aggravates directors. John Frankenheimer worked with Kilmer on The Island of Dr. Moreau and then swore he would never have anything more to do with him. That movie also featured Marlon Brando who is often considered the most difficult actor ever. Stories of Brando are legendary and are a mix of his method acting and askew sense of humor. For The Score he refused to be on the set the same time as director Frank Oz and referred to him as Fozzy. Brando also walked around the set naked and played frequent practical jokes on costar Robert DeNiro because he felt he was easy to mess with.

Q: any idea what on earth is going on with 'southland tales'? It seems like this movie was not meant to be. According to BOM, its pulled in a whopping $244k, with its widest release being 63 theaters.

I know I want to see it, but its not anywhere around here. I even bought the GNs to read before seeing the movie. Will it ever have a wider release? A re-release maybe, with, ya know, commercials and stuff?

This is disappointing on so many levels.
-Manu

A: Southland Tales received scathing critical reaction at the Cannes Film Festival in 2006, which resulted in the movie not being picked up by a major distribution firm. It's being put out by Destination Films, which is the niche and art house film arm of Sony. Traditionally this means the film will only be put into art house cinemas in major markets. Even in it's limited release, and edited down from the Cannes' version, the film is still receiving bad reviews from critics and filmgoers. A DVD release hasn't been set yet. In order to set up the movie, three graphic novels were released as prequels to the film. They were written by filmmaker Richard Kelly and illustrated by Brett Weldele. The film is noted for it's quirky ensemble cast that features The Rock, Sarah Michelle Gellar, Mandy Moore, Justine Timberlake, Sean William Scott, Jon Lovitz, Cheri Oteri, John Larroquette, Kevin Smith, Wallace Shawn and Miranda Richardson. I'd try to explain the plot, but I'm not that high right now. Just watch the trailer.



Q: Hello,
The Futurama release reminded me of a question I've had for a while:
Did Phil Hartman originally voice Zap Brannigan? I am sure he did, as I remember seeing those episodes first run, and I vividly recall (or at least I think I do) noticing when Billy West took over after Phil's death, and thinking he did a pretty good job sounding like Hartman's version. I was at the Comic-Con seminar in San Diego earlier this year, and Billy West mentioned having spoken to Phil Hartman about the character, and said something odd like "Phil was originally going to voice Zap."
Any thoughts? Is Futurama being revisionist?
-Jake

A: Phil Hartman died in May of 1998. "Futurama" didn't premiere until March of 1999. Hartman was originally cast as Zap Brannigan when the series got the green light from Fox in April of 1998. West also auditioned for the character as well and Groening states on commentary on the new DVD set that the character as West does him is pretty much how his original audition was. West has stated in interviews that he did take some elements of Hartman for the character in honor of him along with a few other inspirations. West voices Fry, Zoidberg, Professor Farnsworth and a host of other characters on the show. The character itself is a take off on Captain Kirk from "Star Trek." Hartman did some test recordings, but never voiced the character in an actual episode.



Don't die.

"A Roman general in the time of Caesar had a motto - "If it is possible, it is done. If it is impossible... it will be done." And that, ladies and gentlemen, is what I live by."