Thirteen Women is a slasher. The only thing about it that doesn’t fit that mold is a lack of blood, though it does have a kill count, pretty sorority girls, and a dark secret that’s come back to haunt them. Just like the more common examples of the genre, it gets far too stuck in bad performances and absurd plot developments. There’s little to get out of it, especially if you want more graphic violence.
Myrna Loy as Ursula Georgi and C. Henry Gordon as Swami Yogadachi both try way too hard to be witchy and creepy, coming off as cartoonish. The two have a romance for like one scene, which just seems like someone’s trying to fit in as many tropes as possible. “They’re a man and a woman, so they must kiss!” There is a clear attempt to give some layers to Ursula, but her solution to her plight is to just be evil and act like any other horror baddie, with Loy just having this eternal menace that comes off as not understanding the story or how to play this role.
Some of the sorority girl characters are better acted and have more interesting material. Irene Dunne as Laura Stanhope and Florence Eldridge as Grace Coombs are an example. They talk about the letters they’d received predicting a grizzly end and discuss whether they’re real. You also get the sense Laura is more so trying to keep a level mind, so someone is. Laura is a mother and a decent amount of the movie is her worrying about her kid. That relatable goal makes her very compelling. You can feel for her and understand the angst this must cause her. Dunne supplies a sharp performance, giving the movie some edge as a drama about coping with intense stress. She often shows her feelings on her face and body.
There’s a few really strong lines in the movie. One is, “You two are stumbling in a dark, material world. I am above it, as Yogadachi was. Death means peace, freedom. I shall meet him… gladly.” “Well, I shan’t.” While moments like this hint towards some deeper focus of death, living, and what it means to be in peace, these are mostly dropped for a little action and fighting. The ending of the movie is clearly trying to say something, but really just comes off as laughable. Other good lines are, “Depression or not, personally, I’m mad about this world.” The following quote is edited to avoid spoilers, “They’re all I’ve got. How can I help it with things I don’t understand striking out of the dark wh–where you can’t do anything, imagining that–that every little breath taken may be the last!?”
The opening scenes concerning the “Raskob sisters” are very suspenseful, especially when we see Mary Duncan as June Raskob’s nervous face as she approaches the dangerous stunt. See her face when the drumroll starts and she is making concerned faces to someone. Overall, moments of slow suspense, like wondering if a certain thing will happen, are solid. The big dumb action fair or scenes of basically nothing of use happening should’ve been removed. Speaking of which…
I watched this movie for my latest obsession, Peg Entwistle. I love her, though her acting is mediocre and hammy. She may as well not be here due to how little she gets. Apparently instead of four minutes of screentime, she originally had sixteen before a cut. It’d be nice to see those missing scenes, especially because it seems quite a whole lot was removed, including two of the thirteen girls mentioned in the title. That’s right, we only ever see eleven. Some of the shown eleven have very minimal roles, so it’d be nice to have gotten more development, such as in seeing the bond they have. The fact they were in a sorority together, as opposed to other connectors, suggests a familiarity with each other. They’re honorary sisters and either should stick together or dig up old issues from the past.
SPOILERS
When one of the Raskob sisters jumps from the trapeze, seeing her in slow motion with no music makes for a chilling moment. It’s a little ridiculous June wouldn’t have warned anyone of the letter she received that predicted this. Interestingly, Entwistle’s character actually survives the movie while so many others. Even her character in the book this is based on doesn’t make it. Entwistle herself didn’t live to see this movie released.
My favorite character here is Helen Dawson Frye, played by Kay Johnson. She projects a lot of confidence, though you can tell how broken she is by both her friends’ and her child’s death. She seems to not know what else to do other than to have a light heart towards the letter saying she’d kill herself. She bags the great and somber line, “Yes. That’s why she’s getting us all together– To laugh it all away. I haven’t laughed in so long.” She later has a surprisingly dark moment of pointing a gun at her chest, then she starts doing what sounds like a mix of laughing and crying. She also mirrors the other mother here.
Laura’s son almost dies a few times. The intensity and simultaneous casualness is so creepy. The son might just be living his normal life, only for us to know something nearly happened. At least Ursula had beef with the titular women. That son didn’t do anything, so he would’ve only been killed to make Laura suffer, possibly only for a little before her demise. The ending seems to try to make Ursula a little sympathetic. She says that the sorority girls she’s been killing off picked on her for being only part-white. Laura in turn doesn’t deny that, though does seem apologetic. The message here seems to be to not discriminate, though that is muddied by having the non-white character be a vindictive killer who seems to blame all white people. Thus, the movie isn’t better than the average racist media of the time for showing minority groups as villainous, scheming, and unable to relate to white people.
The acting is also particularly bad here. Ursula’s laugh is a notable silly part. She then runs to the end of the train and jumps off, thus following the great tradition of villains getting killed off very suddenly and sometimes in a ridiculous way. Her seeing Swami’s face before she jumps is also quite novel. Her having a gruesome death was foreshadowed, but why not have something like her trying to escape authorities, slipping on something, and falling off? She just throws herself away to get the movie to an end.
OVERVIEW
While perhaps the film is saying something worthwhile about racism, such a message gets caught up in hokey performances and a dreadfully dull and by the numbers story. There are a few worthwhile segments, so many it’s possible with the deleted scenes a better film could be made, though Loy’s portrayal makes that difficult.
ON THE CORNER AND OFF THE WALL
Entwistle’s character in the book is a lesbian, so here’s hoping the deleted scenes of the movie show that, which I highly doubt, but it’s fun to dream as the Peg Entwistle fan I am.
She’s the Man is a pretty outdated and amusing for it drag comedy. Despite being (loosely) based on a Shakespeare play, which was based on the common crossdressing convention, the movie understandably goes for the 2000s teen crowd. It’s frankly barely even based on the aforementioned play. The storyline is also pretty formulaic, though there’s a few small twists. This is fine if the actors can carry the dialogue and scenes, making the story work. Amanda Bynes as Viola Hastings consistently has an awkwardness to her, like she is going through the motions. Apparently, Bynes didn’t like having to play a male, but that isn’t channeled anywhere useful, like by utilizing that to make Viola seem uncomfortable. A lot of the time, Viola doesn’t seem uncomfortable with inherently presenting male. It’s also way too hard to buy her as not someone in disguise or looking like the person she’s pretending to be, her brother Sebastian.
Channing Tatum as Duke Orsino initially comes off as a generic brand jock, though later shows some more intrigue, mainly from being insecure. One highlight is how he doesn’t like that someone seems to be graphically talking about women a lot, a la in a dehumanizing way. While Tatum is fine, he doesn’t distinguish himself enough from this character type.David Cross as the wonderfully named “Horatio Gold” steals the show, as Cross usually does with ease. He’s not as sharp in children’s media as he is in adult’s, but he’s still a lot of fun, especially relative to everything else here. He doesn’t take all this very seriously.
There’s many contrivances, like Sebastian conveniently going to London for a time period, which doesn’t make sense how he’d get away with it. Many of these concern pure comedy moments of it seeming Viola might get caught as a girl, only to find a work around. Whether or not these are “funny” is up to viewer discretion. The movie as a whole wouldn’t work if people pointed out that Viola and Sebastian obviously look nothing alike.
It was nice to see Viola not willing to put up with her boyfriend being rude to her. That later leads to Viola’s mom seemingly being attracted to Viola’s ex-boyfriend, a high school student. Viola being a tomboy doesn’t serve much of a purpose. Maybe it could fuel Viola thinking everything will go swimmingly as Sebastian, only to realize she doesn’t like a lot of elements of masculinity? Kissing booths are so creepy. Are they real things?
One of my favorite tropes in female-as-male crossdressing films is when a girl falls for the main character, typically because they seem different than other men, which appears accidentally gay. The complicated and changing romantic dynamics of certain people being interested in others, sometimes one person publicly and another privately, is quite funny and a clever way to get laughs and more importantly forward the plot.
SPOILERS
Viola imagining herself playing soccer in a long poofy dress is effective out of context, showing someone who feels so out of their element, but seeing as Viola is fine with being a girl, this doesn’t make much sense. What would work better would be to have her present as male in an environment where she would normally be presenting as female. Apparently this dream is something a lot of real trans men can relate to.
Viola’s male friends and peers look pretty fake when all it takes to get them, including Viola’s ultimate love interest, to like her is by having some women speak highly of her in public. They later show more layers and realism. It seems Viola was initially dismissed for being a small man, but everyone, especially Duke, came to really respect her because of that moment. A smaller moment of a minor character showing interest in an “unattractive” woman suggests the movie is criticizing strict views of what an attractive straight man should want.
Something that’d be nice to see more often is when a man falls for a woman dressed as a man, we see him be into her as a man. In these mainstream films where that would be too racy, the best we get is the man seeming uncomfortable with the situation. Here, Duke generally is just very awkward coming off as emotional or vulnerable. The subtext of Duke being uncomfortable with crushing on a “man” is almost bursting to the surface, but is barely subdued.
It’s a little bizarre the real Sebastian wouldn’t acknowledge how weird it is he’s being treated like he’s been there a while or say or do anything that would expose he hasn’t been there. It is of course absurd seeing a principle out a student in the middle of a big game, especially with the student proving as much by showing their nude body, but fortunately this isn’t supposed to be taken seriously. It’s funny that Viola would say she likes Duke before revealing she’s a girl. It doesn’t make sense Viola would be allowed to compete, considering girls aren’t supposed to play. Viola’s ex complaining about losing is fun.
Viola and Duke talking later does show some grayness to both characters that adds a little spice to this story. Duke is upset about all that Viola has done and he’s right. Viola did manipulate him, mainly in her attempts to get him to date her as she was acting as Sebastian. She was also dishonest in general. Duke says he misses his roommate. Viola says he is still here, then touches her heart. Duke then says things will be easier if she is a girl full-time. This seems just made for people to read subtext into. My favorite part is Duke’s last comment implied he would be accepting and open to Viola presenting as a male and that he may think she did this because she likes expressing herself as a man sometimes.
OVERVIEW
Beyond those looking for a light comedy of the era, She’s the Man does feature some novel and almost certainly accidental trans allegories, like being uncomfortable with others seeing your body or going through hijinks to prevent certain people from knowing a certain identity. There is also a good feminist message about not prejudging women as bad at sports.
Tangerine on the surface functions as a tried and true comedy about brassy ladies who are seldom willing to not be big personalities, though is more notable and memorable for its subjects. Kitana Kiki Rodriguez as Sin-Dee Rella and Mya Taylor as Alexandra turn in quality dramatic performances when need be. They do seem like real people at points, though in ways they can conversely fill the archetype of loud and boisterous paired with more quiet and subdued. They make the film, especially when they’re funny. Still, the comic sequences don’t play into the larger story. Particularly scenes that are just trying to get laughs could be removed.
The movie looks a little strange, mainly in the color, due to being shot on an iPhone. If it wanted a “street look”, there probably was a better option, as the film just looks a little flat. Movies like Bamboozled had a more interesting and complimentary aesthetic. Sean Baker’s directing however is very strong, creating a dynamic look that helps distract from the cheapness of the other factors.
Sin-Dee does have a few moments of over animation which take her out of relatability. She is also sometimes very unlikable. Her violent behavior towards one character is somewhat played for laughs, when it really is horrific. Obviously, someone can have valid feelings and an electric personality, while being abusive, but the movie not showing her as in the wrong is objectionable. Especially because seeing as she was doing this to a prostitute, it could be implied this is considered okay, as prostitutes are depicted as “used to it” or “mattering less”.
SPOILERS
Mickey O’Hagan as Dinah is numb and unflinching to all that happens to her, seemingly because it’s all happened so much. This is sadly barely touched on and doesn’t fit well with the more comedic scenes. Dinah never gets very much focus. A unifier between her, the two leads, and Razmik is that all four are working more or less throughout the film and are worse for wear by the end. Sex is also a big focal point of the issue here. Sin-Dee, Dinah, and Alexandra get in conflict with each other because of someone having sex with someone else. Those three women seemingly got into those situations by just doing their job or what’s expected of them. By contrast, Razmik is mainly responsible for his own downfall. It seems he left his family’s holiday dinner as he wanted to give head to a hooker, which feels like a contrivance to get him in trouble. When Razmik does so to Alexandra, we focus on him doing it for a long time, perhaps to let us take in as much as possible what this act would be like.
Us seeing Sin-Dee without a wig, then Alexandra giving her hers is a powerful moment due to it showing the two in a vulnerable position, taking off a projection of femininity. Them opening up like this is seemingly what could cause their friendship to improve, though it’s questionable if they’re even in a different place than at the start. It seems Alexandra knew it was wrong beforehand to sleep with Sin-Dee’s boyfriend and now she still knows that. Sin-Dee arguably only changes if she will take to heart her friend doing this, but she didn’t learn anything else, like from dating pimps, abusing another prostitute, or making life harder for a random client. She possibly doesn’t even learn anything about Alexandra, due to the ending implying they’ll makeup.
OVERVIEW
Due to the fluid nature of the structure, especially with certain prominent characters being out of the picture other than for certain moments, there seems to be little point to the narrative itself. What does Sin-Dee’s behavior accomplish for her or the other characters? Not much, we just see her and others deal with her, then move on with no or little growth. The point is clearly to see a real human struggle not often focused on, the life of a black transgender prostitute. It’s not some big tragedy or significant embrace of any of those factors, but just letting us see these events play out.
Thus, if Tangerine was made in a society without racism, transphobia, or objections to sex work, it would not be exceptional. It’d seem like a pointless movie about some misadventures, with the most interesting part being a handful of good performances. Seeing as we don’t live in that world, the movie is very much worth seeing, though there are other similar movies that have more to say and also are better stories. The Watermelon Woman is one favorite.
The Unholy Three doesn’t relent with captivating performances and interesting drama. Despite this, there are some issues with both. Lon Chaney is consistently intimidating, but sympathetic as “Professor Echo”, a wonderful name. This is exemplified by how masculine and dominating he looks normally, as opposed to when he’s dressed as and pretending to be an old woman. Chaney really sells it as “Mrs. O’Grady”. If he had played an actual old lady, you could imagine no one knowing it was him. As is common for the time, some of the negatives he does are not forgivable, like how little he respects Mae Busch as Rosie O’Grady. Still, the movie could’ve been a lot worse at getting you to root for a villainous person. Chaney’s low moments are humbling to the character and relatable, with the exception of things like the misogyny. His treatment of some, like Rosie, make him impossible to like or support. Echo is colored in interesting ways where in some regards he’s very moral, being against killing people, but in others he’s not.
Rosie’s goals are a little narrow minded and typical of what you’d expect from a woman in a movie written by and about men. There were plenty of opportunities to show her emotions that weren’t taken, though Busch does serviceably with what she has to work with. Harry Earles as Tweedledee is the other really great performance here. He is someone you love to hate and has this sense of bitter energy, like his appearance contrasts or causes a hateful and selfish person. Even in Harry’s earliest scene, his explosive temperament is on display.
Victor McLaglen as Hercules comes off as disappointing in how he is less distinguished and noticeable than the other members of the “Unholy Three”. A few more moments to shine definitely should’ve been given to him, though this element of his character is used as a strength later in the story. He laments how the flexibility of the others, who both use disguises drastically different to how they really are. That makes it easier to escape situations. He is just a normal person and is at a greater risk. Some of his behavior later could be read as a response to this attitude, though this isn’t delved into directly or anymore. For the most part, Hercules just plays off of the more energetic and interesting Echo and Tweedledee. Matt Moore as Hector McDonald is the weakest prominent character, just being a little nervous and awkward.
Despite being a drama, the movie finds time to let our characters have a little fun. It understands that a lot of stuff here, such as Earles dressing like a baby, is entertaining and we want to see him do things. There’s one point where he grabs onto a necklace and doesn’t want to give it back. It’s funny to think Tweedledee was hoping they’d let him keep it. There’s some fun lines like, “If you tip that boob off to who we are, I’ll lay some lilies under your chin!”
The opening of the film is reminiscent of director Tod Browning’s later work Freaks. It features similarly abled people. Browning’s direction is beautiful in many shots, like when the main trio come together to become “The Unholy Three”. Focus on their shadows shows how nefarious what they’re doing is. It is a little silly they’d name themselves at all, as that makes them seem like comic book villains. That name also overemphasizes how bad they are. “Look at us, we’re sooo against God!”
SPOILERS
Echo stopping Hercules from letting a detective in because Tweedledee is smoking while dressed as a baby is a funny bit. There’s really great suspense when everyone is really nervous about whether the detective will discover the necklace they stole. You do genuinely feel for Hector when Rosie says she doesn’t love him, and later when she says she actually does. Why would Rosie tell the Unholy Three she has a plan for them? Obviously they would try to stop her. It’s a shame we didn’t get to see much of how Rosie feels about being kidnapped and essentially forced to leave her boyfriend. She takes it all lighter than you’d think.
Echo giving his voice to Hector in the courtroom is pretty silly, but such a well filmed and interesting idea as to be an enjoyable sequence and not sink the movie’s engagement. Hercules and Tweedledee’s fates are far too predictable. They turn on each other, then get killed for being so evil. Boring! It’s a shame this wasn’t tied to Hercules’ resentment at not having a disguise. It is good that he strangles Tweedledee to death. He utilizes his two main attributes, lacking the morals of Echo and the obvious brute strength over Tweedledee. The most interesting part of this scene, though not for the right reason, is Hercules’ ridiculous and comical facial expression. Busch’s face watching this is even more over the top and seems destined to be featured in a gif. Outside of this scene, we get Echo’s look of shame, sadness, and contentment around the end. They are strong highlights here, letting you read so much of the character off of Chaney’s face. The music and cinematic lighting make for a powerful climax in the courtroom.
Echo basically did whatever he could to stop Rosie from being with Hector, being willing to ruin Hector’s life, then we’re supposed to feel sorry for Echo when Rosie leaves him? Why would Rosie have any fondness for Echo? At the end, she seems really happy with him and a little content with potentially spending her life with him, though the reason Hector got arrested in the first place was because of Echo. She should hate him. If the movie wanted him to be likable, why not have him be unknowing of Hector getting framed, then against the plan when he finds out? If they wanted to keep Echo gray, why not have it so he’s very reluctant to this idea being proposed by his accomplices, but he’s threatened by them in some way, so he decides to go with this instead of taking personal risk?
OVERVIEW
This movie would make more sense in sound, so you could better appreciate things like the ventriloquism. Appropriately, this movie was remade in sound and is Lon Chaney’s only talkie. The Unholy Three successfully balances many tones, from comedy to drama to tragedy. The ending wraps this all up nicely and emphasizes the whole flick as a powerful and moving experience, despite some issues. “That’s all there is to life, friends… a little laughter… a little tear~”
Skip to links if you don’t care about the reading.
For those not in the know, fan albums are the attempts of me and many others to take songs and put them on an album, typically they’re made to improve upon something, such as an existing album or to take non-album tracks and put them on an album.
I’ve decided to make a few revisions to my earlier fan albuming of the great Buddy Holly. 50s LPs’ common track sequencing is better than I’ve given it credit for, so I’ve decided to respect that. Thus, all these albums have twelve or thirteen tracks. I’ve also left alone the two official albums, so they can be slotted in. Conveniently, the amount of tracks recorded before those albums and the ones after fit the twelve or thirteen track rule nicely, so I won’t have to have pre and post “the main two” album tracks on the same LP. I’m unsure of what to do with the later official albums by the Crickets without Holly. Maybe I’ll do a stray track version and also a version that fixes the weak sequences?
As I like to do, I want to define what counts as a band track or a solo track. Based on the nature of these recordings, every track without Bob Montgomery is more or less solo Buddy, seeing as he was clearly the intended star of the show and most recordings credit him as a solo artist. However, seeing as there were band names and bandmates that have been unfortunately understated historically, “The Two Tones” name will be utilized for the period where the backing band was reasonably in flux, such as when Bob, Sonny, Jerry, and the various bass players were sometimes there and sometimes not. The members were mostly just Buddy’s friends and not session players. When Jerry and Joe are present, that’s what counts as “The Crickets”. Originally, I was going to utilize the fact that every Crickets track has Jerry and say he was the only necessary player to make something the Crickets, but defining a band by one person drives me crazy.
This next idea might be a little controversial. Seeing as Holly’s fellow musicians had identities and musical statements, I’ve decided to include recordings where Holly is backing another vocalist, specifically one of his bandmates. I will not be including every track to ever feature Holly, just the ones where someone was really in his circle. If Buddy and the Crickets formed in the 70s, they might’ve taken this approach, with someone else occasionally getting vocals for the sake of it. Finally, let’s have a little fun and build some alt history around this! There is certainly a lot of untrue information below, so be warned!
The History of Buddy Holly, as it pertains to his LPs
A young boy named Buddy Holley became interested in music in the late 40s. After recording a twelve-track album at home in 1949, he submitted it to Columbia Records to be released, but they responded back saying, “This sound quality is worse than a Charley Patton record.” Upon asking for the tracks back, Columbia admitted that confusing it for their own material, they junked it. Fortunately, one track was preserved on what Holley had intended to be a single for the album, “My Two-Timin’ Woman”. While future historians were hopeful there’d be a b-side, on the other end was merely “Chattanooga Choo Choo” by Glenn Miller and His Orchestra, albeit falsely credited to Buddy. As his interest in music grew, Holley began performing with artists. The first notable one was Bob Montgomery. While initially only doing informal jams, in mid 1952 they decided to become an official group. The two credited themselves, “Buddy and Bob” and at points under both of their full names. For the sake of symmetry, an “e” was added to the first letter of their names. Due to another artist being named “Buddey Folley and Bobe Montgomeery”, this was changed the other way, with both “e”s being removed. The two failed to obtain a recording contract, though continued to tape informal performances. Frequently during Montgomery’s hyena howling, the tape recorded burst, rendering the material lost. In a later interview, he went on to say, “I wish I wasn’t too cowardly to simply destroy all our recordings upfront, instead of being sneaky about it.”
Interested in other projects, Montgomery would occasionally leave the group. After a particularly thoughtless incident of him not showing up to a performance, Holly fired him. He was replaced by Jack Neal. During a recording session where the two cut two tracks, Montgomery returned to announce that he had a car now. Back in the fold, Buddy and Bob would continue to record and busk. Deciding to expand their group, the duo searched for more players. They only got as far as up the street, as Bob’s car broke down. Through the window they saw high school associates Sonny Curtis, Larry Welborn, and Don Guess, allegedly under the name, “The Beatles”. After a sprint under the name “Buddy & Bob & The Pidles”, Holly decided the name was too long and Montgomery’s name should be removed. After a disagreement and a power struggle, Montgomery left and took Welborn with him. When asked why, Welborn said, “I won’t be on some of these recordings, so I gotta go for this story to make sense.” After offering some wine and chocolates, Buddy won back the two, though not consistently. Curtis and Guess also were inconstant, with different people being available at any given time.
By the time thirteen tracks were finished, the group signed with Sun Records, who would distribute, after Buddy Holly strummed his guitar for three hours to get the record deal while Bob Montgomery and Sonny Curtis whistled “Sweet Adeline”. They were surprised this worked as they needed the talent scout to fill in on fourth. In trying to think of a name for the group, Buddy Holly came up with “Buddy Holly and his Holy Buddies”. Montgomery wanted it to go “Bob Montgomery is the most important member of this band.” Curtis reached a compromise between the two with “The Two Tones”. Holly thought his name would be included, which the others disagreed with doing. The encounter went as follows: “But there’s three of us, that name suggests there’s two. “Okay, then it refers to guitar tones.” “What’s that to do with anything?” “I don’t know, but we’ll kick you out if you keep at it.”
BUDDY HOLLY & THE TWO TONES – FOR THE LOVE OF TEXAS (Cover and title of re-release. Original omitted Holly’s name and was in a white sleeve.)
While the record didn’t make great waves commercially, it was considered strong enough for a follow-up to be put into motion, though the boys would have to record their own way as before. Holly tired of the folk sound and was determined to move on. Deciding to embrace more of the new genre of rock upon hearing Elvis Costello, Holly recruited drummer Jerry Allison. “He was so small, but could bang so loud,” he later said. Montgomery and Welborn soon left the group due to not wanting to leave folk. Holly, Curtis, Guess, and Allison proceeded to complete the album, with one folk side and one rock side.
BUDDY HOLLY & THE TWO TONES – BABY, WON’T YOU COME OUT TONIGHT? (Cover and title of re-release. Original omitted Holly’s name and was in a white sleeve.)
Decca, impressed with Holly’s singing ability, offered him a contract. It was agreed between him and Decca that he should be the sole singer and namesake. Curtis and Guess promptly left for this reason. “I’ve finally done it, I’m a star!” Due to poor rehearsals, Holly and Allison were fired and Curtis and Guess were brought in as a new act. When they didn’t gel as a duo, Holly was brought back in to stabilize them. Curtis’ country leanings proved problematic for what Decca wanted, so in Holly’s willingness to be the lead, accepted the poppier sound, as that meant he could sing lead. After a stint with percussionist Doug Kirkham, Allison was brought back as to quote Guess in an interview, “He was able to hit the drum.” The single “Blue Days, Black Nights” proved a success and more material was produced. Guess was considered to be an ill fit and flexing his clout, Holly had him briefly fired. As Curtis began to exert dominance, he had Guess come back. Holly then fired him again, to which Curtis again rehired him. After being rererefired and rererehired, Curtis proceeded to quit along with Guess.
Holly, not wanting to be pigeonholed to being considered part of a band, recorded some material with session men. Unbeknownst to him, Guess was among them, having been since hired by Decca for such recordings. It’s suspected by Holly historians that he had not noticed him due to having grown out a Walrus mustache. To the horror of the singer, the record was credited as “Buddy Holly & The Two Tones”. WIth the record done, Holly took two takeaways from his experience, he is sick of the Two Tones name and the material without Allison is simply too lacking for that reason. And thus, Jerry would be affixed to the fold, rendering Holly a member of a band.
Wanting to leave the band name behind him, Holly left Decca. Working on ideas for songs, Allison and Holly jammed out a series of covers over one night. Looking for a reliable bassist, they then got Larry Welborn. When asked why he rejoined due to originally leaving over a disagreement with the musical direction, Welborn simply said, “Money.” Despite these recordings not being intended for release, Sun Records obtained them through a bootlegger whose name, while not identified, used the pseudonym, “Todd From Germany”. For a quick buck due to his success at Decca, the material was released. While Holly was horrified, finally something was credited to “Buddy Holly”. The release just credited to “Buddy Holly” was a misprint that Holly himself witnessed. Afterwards, the name was changed to “Buddy Holly & The Two Tones”.
Upon release of Rip It Up, Holly shamefully announced it was a failure and he feared the worst for his career. Welborn promptly quit, but Allison later claimed to have had enough faith in Holly to think things would work out. Despite this, he auditioned to appear in other bands, though he was only accepted by vocal groups, who promptly fired him after hearing him sing. While Holly stayed home and practiced music, Allison was more sociable, often trying to meet new people. Through this he met Niki Sullivan. When Holly discovered Sullivan shortly thereafter, he was impressed. Allison later confessed that he thought Sullivan was Holly due to their similar appearance, and when he learned of his mistake, he pretended he knew all along. A recording of the “That’ll Be The Day” track was overdubbed with Sullivan’s vocals before being sent to producer Norman Petty. Petty liked the song so much that the group was recruited to record more. Needing a new bassist, Buddy Holly searched, ultimately finding the teenage Joe B. Mauldin. Upon Sonny Curtis turning down the offer, Niki Sullivan was christened as the group’s rhythm guitar player.
Before committing to the band, Petty had them back other artists, often without Niki, who was often not interested. These recordings were later released on an album. During the sessions for the group’s first LP, Norman Petty made a deal. Allison discussed it in a 2001 interview, “Norman knew that as just one act, our airplay was limited, so tracks were credited to different names: ‘Buddy Holly’, ‘The Crickets’, ‘Buddy Holly & The Crickets’, ‘B. Holley’, ‘Buddy, Jerry, n’ Joe’, ‘Buddy & The Hollies’, etc.” “That’ll Be The Day” was released as “The Crickets”, to distinguish it from the recent tarnish to Holly’s name and became a huge hit. Fans often confused Buddy for Niki, which frustrated Buddy as Niki was apparently absent from many tracks and thus didn’t deserve to be considered the star of the show. Niki in turn was sick of being pelted with flowers on the street. Still, the group was rejuvenated. They kept working and ultimately finished…
BUDDY HOLLY & THE CRICKETS – THE “CHIRPING” CRICKETS (Same as official version) (Cover and title of re-release. Original omitted Holly’s name.)
The success of the record caused the band to hit the road and begin touring extensively. While some feared this would cause Holly to become irritated, the opposite happened. He was so happy to be winning that he was reported as always having a smile, saving kittens from trees, and fixing Niki Sullivan’s glasses. Still, the touring and lack of obscurity caused the others to become exhausted. This got to the point of everyone wanting to take a break. To aid in stress, outtakes from the first album were used to fill some slots on the second Crickets album. Notably, the material was incomplete to the point of lacking much guitar. Speaking of guitar, Niki Sullivan while on break fell in love with a pretty fair maiden, whose name he did not know. He thus quit the group. Holly, Allison, and Mauldin then cut a few tracks from scratch and Holly overdubbed guitar lines on the outtakes.
BUDDY HOLLY & THE CRICKETS – BUDDY HOLLY (Same as official version) (Cover and title of re-release. Original omitted The Cricket’s name.)
Buddy Holly was praised for its distinct and innovative playing and more emotional and ballad-driven tracks, which had been considered not commercial enough for The “Chirping” Crickets. In the views of some, it was considered Holly’s magnum opus. Holly finally felt like he had made it. When Joe asked how he felt about an LP being credited to just his name, Buddy was said to act like he didn’t care, then was later heard cheering on the toilet. He licensed his image to commercials and merchandise and received increasing respect from his bandmates. He had essentially made two teenagers celebrities. Thus, Jerry and Joe had begun to show interest in recording their own music or backing other artists. They had to put a pause on this for the time being, as the next Buddy Holly & The Crickets record was due soon. In exchange for more money, they had to get the album out as soon as possible. The result focused on more lighthearted songs, even featuring two novelty numbers with lead vocals by Jerry Allison. Holly was lukewarm on them, but wanted to keep the peace, especially as that meant there were two fewer songs to come up with. This also meant he had more pull for a controversial decision.
Holly became interested in session players or otherwise new talent he hadn’t worked with. He felt limited by mostly having worked with teenagers with often different interests to him. To dip the toe in this new sound, he had three lead guitar parts played by Tommy Allsup, who was recruited as the band’s new guitar player, replacing Niki. Sonny Curtis had asked to rejoin, but was turned down. Joe was frustrated at not being featured on “Heartbeat”, which instead included George Atwood on bass. Buddy said Joe’s performance wasn’t up to his liking.
After listening to what had been finished, The Crickets felt they could do better. Unsure of where to go, the group focused on a second album of backing other people. Buddy was not particularly interested, but put his name to it, anyways. In looking for options for the next proper LP, Joe and Jerry felt they should reconnect with their past and start out by jamming with people they used to play with or see where trends were going with teenagers (which they of course were in tune with, being teenagers themselves). Buddy was interested in pop, especially that didn’t originate from Texas and thus he became interested in the New York music scene. Hoping to get a fresh start, Buddy formed a new band in secret consisting of Allsup, George Atwood, and Bo Clarke on drums, all of whom had appeared on the last Crickets record. This lineup cut two tracks before Holly felt it wasn’t working and fired them. Due to contracting reasons, Allsup remained a Cricket.
Holly was given a reminder his album of backing other artists was late. He then formed a new band with Sanford Bloch on bass, Ernest Hayes on piano, and Panama Francis on drums. After some recording, Francis proved an issue and was replaced with Phillip Kraus. After some recording, Kraus proved an issue and was replaced with Clifford Leeman. Holly returned to The Crickets and powered through to the end. The tracks without The Crickets would be saved for a solo project.
Niki Sullivan is not on this record.
BUDDY HOLLY & THE CRICKETS – THE SOUND OF THE CENTURY
TRACKLISTING
SIDE A
“Well… All Right” (3-31)
“Take Your Time” (4-5)
“Fool’s Paradise” (4-6)
“Think It Over” (4-7)
“Real Wild Child”
“Mona” (3-28)
SIDE B
“Lonesome Tears” (4-8)
“It’s So Easy” (4-9)
“Oh, You Beautiful Doll”
“Heartbeat” (4-10)
“Come Back Baby” (4-15)
“Reminiscing” (4-16)
“That’s My Desire” (From Buddy Holly (1958) bonus tracks)
Norman Petty – organ (tracks 2-4), percussion (track 9), piano (track 13)
Vi Petty – piano (tracks 3-4)
The Roses (Robert Linville, Ray Rush, David Bigham) – backing vocals (tracks 3-5, 7-9)
Glen “Bob” Clarke – drums (tracks 5, 9)
Tommy Allsup – lead guitar (tracks 7-8, 10)
George Atwood – bass (track 10)
King Curtis – tenor saxophone (tracks 11-12)
Al Caiola – guitar (track 13)
Donald Amone – rhythm guitar (track 13)
William Marihe – backing vocals (track 13)
Robert Bollinger – backing vocals (track 13)
Robert Harter – backing vocals (track 13)
Merrill Ostrus – backing vocals (track 13)
Abby Hoffer – backing vocals (track 13)
The Sound Of The Century was finished late, but still received massive acclaim, which put the pressure on for the group to best themselves. Holly, still determined to try a new style, went to his band, saying he wanted to go to New York and embrace more trends. Tommy felt Buddy had a stronger musical vision and thus wanted to go with him. The group, unable to meet in the middle, said they’d split for now. Jerry and Joe could continue as the Crickets, while Buddy would finally go solo. He was said to have missed them and that it’d be strange not having their names or the band listed on his future records. Buddy returned to work. After some recording, now with strings, asked to be included by executives, Bloch, Hayes, and Leeman proved to be an issue and were fired. With neither the backing other artists album or his solo album done, Holly felt desperate. He considered calling Joe, Jerry, and maybe Niki or Sonny, to finish his records, but he wasn’t willing to give up so easily and would try something slightly less desperate.
Following a lead, Holly went to Clear Lake, Iowa to the “Surf Ballroom”. He went to see up and coming country artist Waylon Jennings. He knew he had teamed up with Atwood and Clarke. During their performance, Buddy fell in love with Waylon’s style. Despite allegedly having intended to take the others and leave Jennings, Holly instead decided to have the three of them and Allsup back him. When asked why Buddy was asking for the others back, he said he wanted to do what was most comfortable for Waylon. Thus, the quintet did two tracks Waylon was working on. Buddy liked them so much he wanted them on his solo album, instead of the secondary release. Waylon then became sick and was unable to play, which caused the others to finish both records without him. Holly & His Buddies Volume 2 was released to decent rates, though not being considered as interesting or desirable. Holly was at least proud to have released it before 1958 and to have received a letter of congratulations from Jerry and Joe, who sent him a copy of their new single credited to “Sonny Curtis & The Crickets”.
BUDDY HOLLY – TRUE LOVE WAYS
TRACKLISTING
SIDE A
“Love’s Made A Fool Of You” (4-11)
“Wishing” (6-20)
“Early In The Morning” (4-12)
“Now We’re One” (4-14)
“When Sin Stops”
“That’s What They Say” (5-28)
SIDE B
“True Love Ways” (4-17)
“It Doesn’t Matter Anymore” (4-19)
“Raining In My Heart” (4-21)
“Moondreams” (4-23)
“Jole Blon”
“What To Do” (5-24)
PERSONNEL
Buddy Holly – lead vocals (tracks 1-4, 6-10, 12), rhythm guitar (tracks 1-2), lead guitar (tracks 5-6, 11-12)
Tommy Allsup – lead guitar (tracks 1-2), guitar (tracks 5, 11)
George Atwood – bass (tracks 1-2, 5, 11)
Bo Clarke – drums (tracks 1-2, 5, 11)
Unknown – rhythm guitar (track 2)
Al Chernet – guitar (tracks 3-4)
George Barnes – lead guitar (tracks 3-4)
Sanford Bloch – bass (tracks 3-4, 7-10)
Ernest Hayes – piano (tracks 3-4, 7-10)
David “Panama” Francis – drums (tracks 3-4)
Phillip Kraus – drums (tracks 3-4)
Sam Taylor – alto saxophone (tracks 3-4)
Helen Way – backing vocals (tracks 3-4)
Harriet Young – backing vocals (tracks 3-4)
Maeretha Stewart – backing vocals (tracks 3-4)
Theresa Merritt – backing vocals (tracks 3-4)
Waylon Jennings – lead vocals (tracks 5, 11)
King Curtis – saxophone (tracks 5, 11)
The Roses (Robert Linville, Ray Rush, David Bigham) – backing vocals (tracks 5, 11)
George Tomsco – guitar (tracks 6, 12)
Stan Lark – bass (tracks 6, 12)
Doug Roberts or Eric Budd – drums (tracks 6, 12)
Al Caiola – guitar (tracks 7-10)
Doris Johnson – harp (tracks 7-10)
Clifford Leeman – drums (tracks 7-10)
Abraham Richman – tenor saxophone (tracks 7-10)
Sylvan Shulman, Leo Kruczek, Leonard Posner, Irving Spice, Ray Free, Herbert Bourne, Julius Held, Paul Winter – violins (tracks 7-10)
David Schwartz, Howard Kay – violas (tracks 7-10)
Maurice Brown, Maurice Bialkin – cellos (tracks 7-10)
True Love Ways was another hit. Holly had already gotten started on recording demos in his apartment for his next record. Due to slimy deals that resulted in him making very little money, he had to start touring as soon as possible. Holly then bought a bus from 1927 and hit the road. They were stressful and cramped and resulted in Clarke and Atwood quitting. Jennings, feeling indebted to Holly, said he wouldn’t leave. The group soon found the young and spirited Carl Bunch, who Holly called “Jerry 2”. Unable to find a bassist as soon as anyone would like, Jennings was recruited. Touring continued to be a stressful endeavor, with everyone missing the ease of flying. As much could be said for Carl, who got frostbite. Possibly due to a reported disliking of Carl, Holly then chartered a flight for only him, Jennings, and Allsup. Ultimately and infamously, through contrivances, Waylon and Tommy were replaced by popular artists Ritchie Valens and The Big Bopper. The plane soon crashed after takeoff. Holly’s body wasn’t found.
Those that knew Holly, and even those that didn’t, were shattered. Norman Petty, not to turn down an opportunity to make money, licensed several old recordings of Buddy Holly, mainly from the Two Tones era, and overdubbed them with a band called The Fireballs. These were considered shoddy and like cash-ins, with people really wanting new material. Petty then found the apartment tapes and overdubbed them. Jennings insisted on being an advisor for the sake of accuracy and managed to convince Petty to not overdub certain tracks, as he had heard Buddy say he wanted things “As they had been – stripped back.” He only got Petty to go along with this when he said it would cost less.
Giant was considered a fitting tribute to Holly, feeling like a culmination of his different styles. His past band members and friends were reported to have liked the record. After Holly, Waylon Jennings and Tommy Allsup started solo careers. Niki Sullivan tried continuing his career, but soon essentially retired. Most of the minor players became session men and were always eager to do interviews and shows that focused on Holly. Jerry Allison, Joe B. Mauldin, Sonny Curtis, and to a lesser extent Norman Petty weren’t so inclined to remain in the shadow of their friend and mentor, and their story continues…
BUDDY HOLLY & THE CRICKETS – HOLLY & HIS BUDDIES VOLUME 1
TRACKLISTING
SIDE A
Jim Robinson – “A Whole Lot Of Lovin’”
Jim Robinson – “It’s A Wonderful Feeling”
Jack Huddle – “Starlight”
Jack Huddle – “Believe Me”
Sherry Davis – “Broken Promises”
Sherry Davis – “Humble Heart”
Fred Crawford – “By The Mission Wall”
SIDE B
Buddy Knox – “Swingin’ Daddy”
Buddy Knox – “Whenever I’m Lonely”
Gary Dale Tollett – “Go Boy Go”
Gary Dale Tollett – “Gone”
Gary Dale Tollett – “The Golden Rocket”
Gary Dale Tollett – “I Overlooked An Orchid”
Gary Dale Tollett – “Look To The Future”
Gary Dale Tollett – “Honey Honey”
PERSONNEL
Jim Robinson – lead vocals (tracks 1-2)
Buddy Holly – guitar (tracks 1-15)
Jerry Allison – cardboard box (tracks 1-2), drums (tracks 2-15)
Vi Petty – piano (tracks 2, 4)
Joe B. Mauldin – bass (tracks 1-4, 7-9, 14-15)
The Roses – backing vocals (track 1)
The Bowman Brothers – backing vocals (tracks 2, 4, 7)
Jack Huddle – lead vocals (tracks 3-4)
Sherry Davis – lead vocals (5-6)
Jack Vaughn – rhythm guitar (tracks 5-6)
Unknown – bass (tracks 5-6)
The Picks – backing vocals (tracks 5-6, 14-15)
Gene Medley – backing vocals (track 6)
Fred Crawford – lead vocals (track 7)
Norman Petty – organ (track 7)
Buddy Knox – lead vocals (tracks 8-9)
Gary Dale Tollett – lead vocals (tracks 10-15), guitar (track 14)
This is a passion of mine and if one person likes what I do, I’ll feel honored. I like suggestions on what artist to cover next, so if you know of one you’d like me to look at, feel free to suggest ‘em!
At least by modern standards, The Most Dangerous Game is hard to take seriously. Its drama is heavy handed, with strong music overemphasizing big moments, a comically villainous antagonist, and a strong jawed male lead. Joel McCrea as Bob Rainsford gets some unintentional laughs in how he never seems to show fear or even emote. It’s as if McCrea wanted to look good, so insisted his character have almost no “faults” by some strange standard. Still, off of the thrills and scope of the scenes in the jungle, the movie is hard not to love. Even the scenes indoors or other settings look really creepy and intimidating, creating a very striking scenery. The directing adds to this, with some intense shots, like someone in the background watching another in the foreground, which creates a sense of dread. There’s also a lot of darkly lit closeups.
Fay Wray as Eve Trowbridge works as someone for Bob to work off of, but lacks much character or substance. If this story was a book, she could be naturally replaced with us hearing thoughts in Bob’s head. She covers some stereotypes of how women typically are in these movies, but she doesn’t get stuck in those too badly. She has a few highlights. Leslie Banks as Count Zaroff can never be taken seriously, always a mustache twirler. He often overacts his scenes. The character is written reasonably well, with his self-centered obsession with experiencing thrills and being a destined hunter playing into his decisions often. He says his father said his hand was “made for the trigger”. Some of the lesser moments are scarier, like when he asks one of his minions to smile. The smile looks very unnatural.
The final act is decent, but goes into some dull directions of essentially everyone running around a lot. It sometimes does pack in some excitement, but that’s not very consistent. Before that final act, there’s too much setting up the characters, which doesn’t really matter at the end of the day. Throughout, there are scenes like Eve calling Bob over silently while Zaroff plays the piano and other bits that at least serve to give the actors slightly more range and things to do that are pleasant to look at. The movie is another overwhelmingly dull.
SPOILERS
There’s a great early scene of screaming and panic befalling those on the ship, with graphic shots of bodies hitting the water and people being eaten by sharks, all filmed with quick cuts and peak intensity. We see a lot of people die horrible deaths. This is all the more terrifying because everyone seems really afraid and as minor characters, they don’t have plot armor. When Bob and Eve are being hunted later, they don’t seem that afraid. The intense brutality of this all is minimized by Bob. Right before all this happens, he says he’s a hunter and not prey and nothing will ever change that, being really oversold foreshadowing.
When someone Bob is on a piece of wreckage with is pulled down by a shark, he barely tries to help them and doesn’t even really seem to care. He later says that his “best friends” were killed on the boat, however he never seems traumatized or shaken by any of it. Based on how he acts, you’d think at worst maybe his friend’s friend died unfortunately and he was just hearing about it, instead of seeing people die in front of him as they scream. When a very worried Eve tells Bob that Zaroff has been keeping her and her brother from leaving, Bob says that maybe he enjoys their company, like what she’s saying isn’t terrifying in its implications. Eve later telling her brother to get an early night, as if concerned Zaroff will do something bad, is a really chilling moment.
Wray does a pretty good job when her character discovers her brother is dead. It’s hard for someone that’s never experienced that to know how someone would act, but it is believable what happens, where she seemingly has a second of disbelief, then starts raising her voice and hitting Zaroff, then she’s taken away by force and begins screaming. Her yelling as she leaves the room is a chilling moment and a highlight of this adventure. When we next see her, she’s distracted by many other things, so it makes sense she might be more focused on her own and Bob’s safety, than her brother’s death. It is a shame that at no point after she is taken away screaming does she mention her brother. When she’s on the boat at the end, why not show her crying over that?
When Bob and Eve are taken into the jungle, Bob says they’ll win, Eve says the others didn’t, then Bob raises his voice with, “We will!” This is a great point that finally shows some insecurity from the lead. He doesn’t seem confident that they will, but it makes sense he’d want to at least try to believe it. Eve later foolishly almost steps on a tripwire that would’ve gotten her killed and she knew about. When that tripwire plan fails, as it was likely to, it appears the leads had no backup plan on how to get Zaroff. Zaroff shooting an arrow right beside Bob and talking to him as Bob silently listens is another great scene.
At one point, Eve starts running away, which doesn’t seem terribly like her. There’s no reason to get away at that moment and Bob obviously would be someone she should stick with, as he knows what he’s doing. The structure of the game itself is a little dull. Instead of stakes escalating, a lot of time is spent on things being tried, then just failing. This problem is eventually corrected when the baddies start getting closer and closer, then eventually it seems Zaroff really does kill Bob. It’s also nice that Bob and Eve are forced down a path that Zaroff’s other victims were killed at, despite originally making a point to avoid it.
It would’ve been a shame if Bob had done everything you’d expect an average person to do, then survive. He does do some things differently, namely jump into the waterfall. It makes me wonder if the only reason Bob was written to be a talented hunter was so that that could be used to explain how he would manage to survive when no one else before him did. The waterfall fight is also really intense. Zaroff playing the piano, only for Bob to unexpectedly and quietly walk in is a tense and sharply directed moment. Bob does manage to really look like a badass by seeming so composed and intelligent, instead of before where he just seemed unable to emote. “You have beaten me!” “Not yet.” is a great line.
Zaroff seems to be lacking in principle. As per his word, he should’ve let Bob go, but he was still trying to kill him at the end, probably because Bob might tell the authorities about him. That weakens some moments where he empowers Bob, such as by giving him a knife, as he wants to be fair. While him saying he’s principled is all well and good, why not have a twist where he proves he’s not in a more dramatic and apparent way? He says he won’t kill Eve, but what if at one point he tries to and is stopped by Bob, thus giving Eve a real reason to be afraid and the both of them to doubt they’d be allowed to get off the island even if they won the game?
Zaroff ultimately suffers a lame death, being mostly taken out by being stabbed by an arrow, then falling into his dogs. Doubly foolish is he seems to have not intended to actually let Bob leave, but he does give him a key and instructions on how to escape. The last shot of Bob and Eve driving off into the distance is a pretty one. It is a novelty that they never explicitly end up together romantically.
OVERVIEW
The Most Dangerous Game is frankly very silly. Still, it’s so much fun that it’s hard not to love for how wacky it can be, while having genuinely beautiful cinematography and direction.
For those not in the know, fan albums are the attempts of me and many others to take songs and put them on an album, typically they’re made to improve upon something, such as an existing album or to take non-album tracks and put them on an album.
Obviously I’m stepping away from some of the more obscure artists I cover to one of the most famous of them all, George Harrison. I’ve been intrigued by him, especially the material from around 1965 onward, which can feel more like a solo George song in a sea of Lennon and McCartney, than part of the same artist. Thus, I decided to make playlists of songs that either have George’s lead vocals or are instrumentals that are basically dominated by him to overall make an alternate history where George was a solo artist from square one. This version of mine is less radical than some others I’ve seen. A common thing is to either cut out songs that don’t seem to fit the mold, sort tracks by essentially when they were written, and things of that sort. I wanted to keep things in recording order and separate the Beatles era from the early solo era, as they feel distinct.
The most radical thing I’ve done is take the All Things Must Pass album and non-album tracks from around that time to make four single disc albums, instead of one triple album. Generally, the earlier the song was written that was recorded in that time period, the earlier it shows up. I think that my version flows much better than the original album. Starting with 1973’s Living In The Material World, Harrison’s albums were single discs and had barely any stray tracks, so they’re left alone. I may do a sequel to this that covers what few strays there were for the last twenty-eight years of George’s career. Immediately below is a brief narrative that also explains some of the strange stuff here. Lots of information here is made up.
The History of George Harrison from 1961-1973
Liverpool bar band The Silver Beetles toured around trying to hit it big, mostly playing covers. The two clear leaders, bassist Paul McCartney and rhythm guitarist John Lennon, had begun to write songs together and develop a distinct style to lead guitarist George Harrison and drummer Pete Best. Wanting to fit in, George would write a little, but felt it was out of his depth. Soon enough, the differences became too much and the band split. The group remained friends. Paul and John continued to work together, mostly writing songs for others. When they got a record deal with EMI in 1962, then later a hit single, they asked the label to consider George. They agreed, though gave him little creative freedom, which frustrated George. George cut four successful singles, with ample help from John and Paul.
Two of the recent single tracks, “Don’t Bother Me” and “Roll Over Beethoven”, were successful enough to warrant George an LP. At the insistence of EMI, half that LP would consist of live recordings and most of the album would be covers. The live tracks were recorded with John, Paul, and session drummer Ringo Starr. The three made minor appearances on the studio material, with it mostly being filled out with session men. The Burning Hot George Harrison (1964) was released to little attention and George would decide to stop recording for the time being and try to find something that he identified with stronger.
Touring around and trying new styles, George became more confident and wrote many songs. In 1967, he returned to EMI, destined to record an LP of entirely originals. Seeing as this had become more trendy, and with the support of John and Paul, he got his wish. This new project, which George called his first “real” album, still was backed with a mix of John, Paul, Ringo, and session players. It’s All Too Much was a big hit and allowed George more creative freedom for the future. His upcoming albums were the bizarre soundtrack album, Wonderwall Music, which divided him between those that loved Indian music and psychedelia, and those that wanted more conventional music; The Inner Light, which was more conventional and acclaimed than his previous work; and the even more bizarre Electronic Sound. Electronic Sound would be Harrison’s first album to feature no John, Paul, or Ringo and also to receive mostly negative reviews. George endeared himself to some, and garnered hatred from others by saying he just wants to do what he wants while he can and that no matter what he does, he will one day fall off the map.
Harrison had felt he had grown beyond John and Paul, so decided to not use them on his next project. While his close friends, namely Eric Clapton, had appeared on his songs before, here they would be used a lot more. All Things Must Pass garnered mixed reviews, with some saying it came off as incomplete. As much could be said for the side release, Apple Jam. However, 1971’s The Concert For Bangladesh and 1972’s Beware Of Darkness were considered returns to form. Some theorized Harrison was making a point to essentially swap between a “mainstream” release and a polarizing release. This was continued with the extremely stripped-back Breaking Up That Old Gang Of Mine and the “conventional” Living In The Material World, both from 1973. Both had a more positive reception than his worst regarded material, though less than his best as those that weren’t willing to put up with his weirder tendencies had already gone.
Starting with 1974’s Dark Horse, some would claim Harrison was either trying to make bad, alienating music, or was going commercial. Harrison would often give contradictory answers. The first clue was when he took a break from recording and rereleased some of his early albums with differences. Both Pass and Gang Of Mine featured overdubs to some tracks to make them feel more complete and the latter included a non-album single and b-side. Regardless of Harrison’s intentions, all of his music, especially the 1961-1973 era, has in time become more consistently loved and acclaimed, detailing an artist that didn’t want to follow the rules and was willing to be daring. Some have noted the reason the works might be liked better now is the lesser releases, as well as the proper ones, can be obtained for cheap, instead of being the expensive new releases they once were.
TRACKLIST & LINKS
1963 singles + The Burning Hot George Harrison (1964) – Spotify, YouTube
TRACKLISTING
SINGLES
“Don’t Ever Change (Pop Go the Beatles, 27 August 1963)”
“Chains”
“Do You Want To Know A Secret”
“Devil In Her Heart”
“Cry For A Shadow”
“You Know What To Do”
SIDE A
“Don’t Bother Me”
“I Forgot To Remember To Forget (From Us to You, 28 May 1964)”
“Roll Over Beethoven”
“Three Cool Cats”
“Everybody’s Trying To Be My Baby”
“Crying, Waiting, Hoping (Pop Go the Beatles, 6 August 1963)”
SIDE B
“The Sheik Of Araby”
“Nothin’ Shakin’ (Pop Go the Beatles, 23 July 1963)”
“Glad All Over (Pop Go the Beatles, 20 August 1963)”
“So How Come (No One Loves Me) (Pop Go the Beatles, 23 July 1963)”
Breaking Up That Old Gang Of Mine (1973) – Spotify, YouTube
TRACKLISTING
SIDE A
“Almost 12 Bar Honky Tonk (Take 1)”
“Cosmic Empire (Day 2 Demo; Take 1)”
“Get Back (Take 1)”
“Going Down To Golders Green (Day 1 Demo; Take 1)”
“Mother Divine (Day 2 Demo; Take 1)”
SIDE B
“Om Hare Om (Gopala Krishna) (Day 1 Demo; Take 1)”
“Tell Me What Has Happened To You (Day 2 Demo; Take 1)”
“Wedding Bells (Are Breaking Up That Old Gang Of Mine) (Take 1)”
“Bangla Desh”
“Deep Blue”
“Miss O’Dell”
Breaking Up That Old Gang Of Mine (1973) alt version – YouTube
TRACKLISTING
SIDE A
“It Don’t Come Easy”
“I’ll Still Love You”
“Almost 12 Bar Honky Tonk (Take 1)”
“Cosmic Empire (Day 2 Demo; Take 1)”
“Get Back (Take 1)”
“Going Down To Golders Green (Day 1 Demo; Take 1)”
SIDE B
“Mother Divine (Day 2 Demo; Take 1)”
“Om Hare Om (Gopala Krishna) (Day 1 Demo; Take 1)”
“Tell Me What Has Happened To You (Day 2 Demo; Take 1)”
“Wedding Bells (Are Breaking Up That Old Gang Of Mine) (Take 1)”
“Bangla Desh”
“Deep Blue”
“Miss O’Dell”
Living In The Material World (1973) comes here, unaltered – Spotify, YouTube
This is a passion of mine and if one person likes what I do, I’ll feel honored. I like suggestions on what artist to cover next, so if you know of one you’d like me to look at, feel free to suggest ‘em!
Multiple Maniacs is arguably something best understood with auteur theory. The acting is undeniably and consistently very bad, with the aesthetic and visual look trashy and cheap. This comes down to moments like the characters walking on loud and distracting leaves. However, all of these play as strengths. Writer and director John Waters has created a captivating world of outcasts and misfits. The filmmaking matches that style, with everything being as shoddy and bizarre as possible, sometimes seeming like it was deliberately unapproachable, at least to the average person.
“Yeah, but they got puke eaters, lesbians, mental patients and stuff. You’ll see two actual queers kissing each others like lovers on the lips.” A potential message here could be that people can look at anyone “different”, whether they be gay or mentally ill or a murderer, as being cut from the same cloth. That is absurd, so the film opts to laugh at that and have fun with it. Characters like the glorious portrayal of protagonist “Lady Divine” embrace anything distinct or weird and love it, as if made to be unlike anyone else. It’s hard not to be electrified by how animated she is, though she doesn’t take away from the atmosphere set by the other much worse performances. She goes far to being disgusting and deranged.
The opening credits are extremely cheap and dingy, being very solid mood setting. The movie afterwards opens on David Lochary as Mr. David with a mic. He is hilarious in how terrible he is at acting. The atmosphere just gets moldier and moldier. A naked woman not really doing anything disgusts people. One of the men watching two men kiss at the show seems really into it. One person says they have no choice other than to see the “main attraction”, when there’s nothing stopping them from just leaving. This is arguably a commentary on how people want to be “normal” and many can pretend to be, yet they do have darker parts of themselves, at least liking gross things. Otherwise, why would these people have wanted to see this show in the first place? “Dykes” and “Faggots” are emphasized as part of the attraction more than anything else. Maybe that was considered most shocking?
The camera is sometimes out of focus or shaking. When David’s talking to a girl, there’s silence for the first second. It shows them getting in character. There’s a handful of times when someone messes up their lines. More structurally, how is the beginning of the film particularly related to the rest of it? It makes sense if the whole movie is about Divine’s cavalcade, but the cavalcade suddenly is mostly irrelevant. More likely than everything here having some deep meaning was that it was all made cheap and things like Waters’ vision and Divine’s performance really support the vehicle. Without Divine, the other actors might not be able to carry this story and Waters’ films progressively looked more professional.
The rest of the movie feels almost improvised and like it’s not important. It just fits as much raunchiness in the time as possible. There’s long conversations about nothing. The story is sometimes cliché and always camp. Some particular favorite lines are, “Then we just lay there and made love.” “And fucked.” Another is, “I love you so fucking much that I could shit.” Finally, “Gay? I’m no lesbian, at least not until a little while ago.” Tellingly, the movie ends with a focus on Divine. There’s a powerful performance of her raving about nothing at the end. It’s hard to look away and summarizes how manic the whole film is.
SPOILERS
There’s an entrancing and horrific quality to the patrons yelling as Divine threatens their lives. Later, two vagrants struggle to pick Divine up and then there’s a cut to her already being held up. There’s a surreal and unreal quality to Divine being sexually assaulted as saxophone music plays. Obviously her skirt wasn’t pulled up. That error might have been intentional. Who knows with this film? Why didn’t David resist being stabbed? Was that deliberate? Did he not know how to act that scene? Again, who knows?
This film blends what could be thought of as “high art” and low degeneracy. An example of this and probably the best scene in the flick is the church scene. The character of Divine is explored as she discusses her love of Jesus and compares herself to him. We see scenes of Jesus. The scenes of Jesus look very cheap, probably by design. Many of the actors look dirty and unwashed. The set is the woods somewhere and when Jesus turns a little fish and bread into a plentiful amount, they’re in containers that you’d buy at a supermarket. She then has a sex scene with a woman she just met. The woman speaks of Jesus’ sacrifice and we cut from the sex scene to the crucifixion of Jesus. This is Divine’s moment of divinity. Arguably this sequence is too needlessly shocking, but it shows how Divine sees herself and how there is value to this “community theater” style, with the scrappiness conveying a spirit and youthfulness hard to capture elsewhere.
OVERVIEW
For better or for worse, the ending devolves into some pretty random events that don’t feel connected to anything else. At least the opening of the movie sets the mood. Some may like that randomness. No matter what, it shows that Multiple Maniacs is more about spectacle than story. It does have plot development and some interesting things to say, especially with the religious imagery, but is really just some enlightened performances and creative visuals. It’s a very fun and watchable film.
Blonde Venus makes the gamble of sacrificing a traditional structure for the sake of focusing more on these handful of characters and what they get up to in a more fluid manner. It’s almost like if you wanted to make a movie about a few days in the life of a couple, and then you picked two horrible people right before things were about to go wrong for them. Thus, not having much of an endpoint and really being more about rolling through the events works very well. Marlene Dietrich is very ill suited to this movie and specifically this interpretation of the story for a few reasons. For starters, Dietrich is so gorgeous that she doesn’t come off as an everywoman. When she’s performing, she is very much larger than life. It’s a bit hard to believe why her character of Helen Faraday wouldn’t be committing herself to stage performances when she both seems to love them and they basically always work out for her. You can tell Dietrich loves performing, though her character seemingly doesn’t.
As we’ve seen in movies like Morocco, here Dietrich has genderbending qualities. In this movie, while she almost always dresses and acts femininely, seeming content as a housewife, near the end she dresses in a masculine outfit and flirts with a woman. Every outfit Dietrich wears looks amazing on her, like it was meticulously designed to be as perfect as possible, which doesn’t make her feel like a real person. Maybe Helen was supposed to be just like Dietrich? However, the differences are too distinct. At other points, Dietrich does a serviceable job when she has little to do or little to emote. The big emotional moments usually fall flat, as she has very little range. She sometimes seems very wooden. Some of the simple moments, or ones where she has an exaggerated bombastic nature to her, like how she might act in front of an audience work better, which is usually all that is asked of her. You can believe she was probably included in the movie for her great scenes on stage, as she’s a wonderfully charismatic entertainer and singer. “Hot Voodoo” is a favorite of her songs. Unlike in Morocco, her performance never makes the movie hard to enjoy.
Herbert Marshall as Edward ‘Ned’ Faraday is also deeply unlikable, but also very convincing as just a typical well-intentioned guy trying not to lose what is important to him. Marshall allows the script to emphasize the nature of his actions, while he just carries them in an impactfully simple manner. You instantly hate him when in the beginning he won’t leave a group of naked women alone, saying he’ll only do so if they later cook dinner for him. The power of the script comes through when you relate to him later, even if you don’t like him. Cary Grant as Nick Townsend is the least corrupt adult. He has a degree of selfishness that causes him to do some bad things, but he has devilishly good looks and a warm center that is really endearing. It’s a shame he isn’t in more of the film to do his bidding. Especially in the final act, he could’ve offered an interesting perspective. Dickie Moore as Johnny Faraday gives a solid child performance. He acts like a real kid and serves to showcase how his parents’ actions are being received.
The movie focuses on some relatively brutal behavior, more intense than audiences would’ve expected from reasonably sympathetic protagonists, especially parents. Perhaps the message is what can become of reasonably normal people? With a lot of what Helen and Ned do, you can understand the rationale, even if it’s problematic.
Opening the movie on naked women swimming creates a heavenly and otherworldly atmosphere. As stated earlier, this story doesn’t work as being “otherworldly”. On its own, it’s still a nice and very daring pre-code scene. It’s also pretty funny that Helen is wearing makeup while swimming and it looks perfect. One of Marshall’s strongest acting moments is when he recalls this scene and clearly has great affinity for it. Helen describing how he kissed her is a romantic moment, though soured by how the only reason they ended up together was because of how much of a creep Ned was being.
Dietrich gets some good laughs. “My name’s Taxi Belle Hooper. Taxi for short.” “Do you charge for the first mile?” Later there’s, “Say, is that your kid?” “I’ll give you three guesses, Sherlock Holmes.” There’s an awkward moment between Helen and Nick where various plot-related questions and answers are rattled off, like no one could think of a more natural way to get this information out. There’s several sharp and jarring time skips. Especially confusing is that no one ever looks older or any different over these spans of many months.
SPOILERS
Dietrich gives a beautifully cold delivery of the line, “It was a lie.” When Ned says Helen was a bad mother, it’s a shame we didn’t see anything to support this until after he says that. The emotional center of the film is Helen’s love for her son Johnny. This leads her to helping him and hurting him. Seemingly unable to process being without him, she takes him on the run. She can’t get money and thus he has to live in poverty with her. However, she appears to try her best to make sure he’s always being looked after, somehow getting caretakers when she isn’t able to be with him. The one time she seemingly couldn’t get one, she left him asleep. Ultimately, she gets clarity of how bad she’s been to him and turns herself in. Always trying to keep confidence, she mocks the authorities, saying they were never going to catch her, so she had to do it herself.
Her mocking them, later when she is distant from Johnny when she thinks she won’t get to see him again, and afterwards acting like she doesn’t care about not being able to see Johnny all seem like attempts to not appear vulnerable and act like she has control, even when she clearly doesn’t. At her lowest point, she seems delighted to be killing herself soon and giving her money to someone else. Those two things give her power at a point when she has so little. When she does get to see Johnny, she has had time to forget about how bad she was to him and is also overwhelmed with emotions, so she is willing to reconcile with her ex-husband. Johnny has consistently been what humbles his parents. Helen might feel sincere happiness being with her son, but this suggests all this might happen again, as nothing has been learned.
“I kind of wish now I’d never met you. I take that back. A little of you is worth a lifetime with any other woman.” is a great line by Nick. Later, he summarizes the whole film with, “I wish I was necessary to your happiness.” Helen and Ned seem unwilling to look vulnerable and thus do foolish things. Nick has real power in his wealth and is thus not afraid to look bad. There is real sincerity to his words and that feeling of wanting someone who either doesn’t want you or doesn’t love you and how you can want to compromise so much to make that work is very relatable. Perhaps the earlier encounter between Helen and Nick was supposed to suggest she really did love him, but we saw so little you could think Helen was using him for his resources?
Just like how Ned was a peak asshole in the beginning, he also is at the end, wanting to make Johnny forget his mother. Ned saying he didn’t know much about women in the past suggests he’s had many bad encounters with them and thus women are the problem, as opposed to him.
OVERVIEW
Despite its flaws, it’s hard not to be captivated by Blonde Venus’ dark story and Dietrich’s persona. It’s easy to see why characters in her movies fall for her, despite issues. She’s just so stunning. This is also ironic as she’s by far the worst actor here.
The greatest strength and weakness of Wall-E is its simplicity. The way that that’s a problem is how basic the story and its structure are. The lack of innovation there makes for a movie that is a little dull, due to lacking many tricks up its sleeve, as you pretty much always know what’s going to happen next. The best types of family movies have more that can appeal to an adult. This film does provide that, just not in the storyline. The animation and by extension aesthetic are very pretty, reminiscent of classic sci-fi, while giving its own twists. The dark subject matter it depicts has a soft edge to it, like it’s something a child would imagine, which creates a very unusual and extremely relatable feeling. Someone that worked on the movie said a planet filled with trash is the type of dystopia a child would imagine.
It is arguably a little strange seeing a robot character, the protagonist of Wall-E, be so much like a human child. An added “edge” to make him feel more distinct, but still inspired by that would help a lot in making him interesting. His almost complete lack of speaking makes for an endearing character, especially as we can sense whatever it is he’s thinking or feeling. Especially to a fan of silent cinema, this is not new, but it does add to the otherworldly and innocent sense. If this movie was made for adults with a human lead, you can imagine them doing something like getting hurt and cursing, which would create a very different vibe and make it too human. Also, as someone with difficulty speaking, I’ve always found Wall-E very relatable.
The character of Eve does have a few particularly sharp moments, such as when she is at her most vulnerable. Her character development is otherwise weak, with her dramatically switching from her more aggressive self to being a lot softer. The first thing she does when she meets Wall-E is too out of character with how she later is and makes her harder to relate to. There’s no reason she couldn’t have been simply neutral when meeting Wall-E, instead of how she is. Their romance is also very straightforward and uncomplicated. While not “realistic”, it mirroring a child’s understanding of a relationship is heartwarming. Thus, it works. Some of the character development the leads do have is emphasized very nicely with the romance. In fact, the scene of them where Wall-E has a fire hydrant is so warm and cinematic as to capture an undefinable sense of joy and love and be the best scene of the whole movie. It’s a work of art.
The vintage sounding song playing over a shot of space at the beginning sets the mood very well. Wall-E and the humans only have these artifacts to grasp to in terms of understanding their society and their future. This leads to contrast as the positive music continues over shots of the trash. Shots like the overly pristine ship and the planet of trash are very memorable images that also tell us about how the characters and their worlds are. It’s believable why Wall-E might be reluctant to be cleaned after living on a dirty planet, as it’s familiar to him and not apparently wrong. Seeing as he may be lonely, Wall-E just sorting things works as a way for him to ground himself and keep busy.
The appearance of old footage of live action people suggests this movie is set in the future of our current society. The intended message is that this is the future if we don’t take care of the planet. Otherwise, it is a little confusing why there would be live action people here. The little comedy moments throughout the film come off as forced and really aren’t needed.
SPOILERS
“A moment to be loved a whole life long.” playing as Wall-E sleeps alone in his dark place is really saddening. It doesn’t make much sense why Wall-E would fall for Eve, who is so hostile, so it seems likely he’s just falling for the first robot he sees. Wall-E accidentally destroys a lot of stuff and gets him and Eve labeled “rogue robots”. This really could’ve gotten Eve in a lot of trouble. This seems to go into a more common theme of the misfit robots seeing Wall-E as a leader, with them all essentially saving the day, showing the common but effective narrative of outcasts being what is ultimately needed to straighten out society. The complacency of humans has made them fat and apparently reliant on computers, which could’ve stopped them from ever feeling fulfilled. In fact, the antagonist is a well intentioned robot following humans’ now outdated orders.
When Eve shoots a “halt” sign, I hope she wasn’t killing a fellow robot. After never talking loudly, it’s chilling to hear Eve shout “No!” when Wall-E is injured. The humanity of her comes out here more than ever. Interestingly, if Wall-E was a human, he would’ve been killed by his injury, though instead he makes a full recovery later. Wall-E briefly being reset at the end doesn’t amount to anything. It just seems designed to tug on the heart strings. Admittedly, it does work at making you feel sad. It also mirrors the beginning when Eve was cold and Wall-E had life to him. The ending could’ve gone for something that plays off of the themes of the narrative before and not be so random feeling.
OVERVIEW
One reason the leads have so much personality is because they barely talk, which gives a pretty and surreal vibe throughout the whole story. WALL-E does work best as a movie for kids. It thrives off of the sense of innocence and simplicity the story and tone have, with things frankly not ever being too serious. A strong message is sent with what we learn. Adult media could easily have been too heavy handed. Still, it would’ve been very much ideal to have a bit more depth here, at least some twists so you don’t really know what’s going to happen next.
The Filme Diary 