Video Madness (Tony Curtis Edition)

Eight years before Burt Lancaster and Tony Curtis starred in SWEET SMELL OF SUCCESS, they shared the screen briefly in another movie:



Even in a bit part with no lines and only a few seconds of screen time, Tony Curtis jumped off the screen.

Tony Curtis, 1925-2010

I don't really do obituaries, but I can point you in the direction of a very beautiful and heartfelt one, HERE.

Tonight I'll be watching SOME LIKE IT HOT.

Dennis Hopper 1936-2010

I don't do obits. As far as honoring the dead, I say we all go watch a Dennis Hopper movie this weekend. My suggestion is RED ROCK WEST. Great effin' movie. Or you could always queue up BLUE VELVET.

(needless to say, this clip is NSFW)



RIP, man.

Lena Horne (1917-2010)

A classy, beautiful lady. We're glad there was you, Lena.

"She's a' losin' her sight, boy," Merlin Olsen, 1940-2010

I can't quite explain my love for LITTLE HOUSE ON THE PRAIRIE. Yeah, I'm one of those ironic hipster Gen-Y/Gen-X types who "loves" the show in a snickering ironic way, watching mostly to make fun of and laugh at it (Classic LITTLE HOUSE snark includes: "Mline? I'm going... mline?"; the mime who rapes Sylvia episode; the classic Laura "Turn and run away" maneuver; Albert's death by nosebleed; the baby battering ram; etc.).

But secretly... secretly I kind of love it in just an ordinary, sincere, genuine, straight-forward kind of way. Not jokingly, but for true. I might put up an ironic front when I tell friends I love LITTLE HOUSE, but on the inside, I love it for real.

So I'm sadden to hear today that Merlin Olsen, a.k.a. Jonathon Garvey, has passed away. Jonathon Garvey was the best. He never got sanctimonious like Pa sometimes would. He was always a good friend to the Ingalls. And, my God, the poor man suffered so freaking much (i.e.: his wife dying in the horrific blind school fire) and yet he still managed to keep on living and being there for others.

As much as I loved Pa and Ma, I really loved Jonathon Garvey. He was this huge guy (the real Olsen was a former pro football player), a giant among mortals in Walnut Grove, and yet he was so gentle and kind. Whether he was saving Walnut Grove from anthrax or telling Seth Barton about Mary's blindness, Jonathon Garvey was the quiet, unassuming best friend of Walnut Grove. I'd like to think that Charles Ingalls is playing his fiddle right now, welcoming Jonathon to heaven while Rev. Alden says a few comforting words. Yeah, I guess that's a little sappy, but I told you, I'm a sincere fan of LITTLE HOUSE. Sappy is allowed. Rest in peace, Merlin Olsen.

Kathryn Grayson, 1922-2010

Jean Simmons (1929-2010)

May this beautiful and talented woman rest in peace.

I don't really do obituaries because, frankly, I'm not that great at them and there are plenty of other people out there who write wonderful obits and mine wouldn't add anything that you couldn't get somewhere else and better.

When a great film artist such as Miss Simmons dies, I think the best thing to do to honor that person's life is to simply go and watch his/her movies. So that's what I say now. Go and watch some of Jean Simmons's movies and see what made her so great.

Here she is in "Guys and Dolls":



Not a great voice, admittedly, but not bad for a non-professional singer. In fact, she really sells the song. I think "Guys and Dolls" might be my favorite Jean Simmons performance. She grounds the whole crazy cartoon world of Damon Runyon with a realness that is at times heartbreaking.

Also, I just watched David Lean's "Great Expectations" (1946) for the first time the other day and I have to say, when the very young and ethereally beautiful Simmons was on screen she was electric. The movie suffers greatly once Estella is grown and played by an adult actress. No matter what Valerie Hobson does in the film, she simply cannot match the presence of young Jean Simmons. Young Estella is unforgettable: other-worldly in her beauty, proud and haughty but irresistibly bewitching -- like Young Pip, we, the audience, can't get her out of our minds.

"Do you think she is pretty, Pip?"


More than pretty. Miss Simmons was a rare and unforgettable actress, as talented as she was beautiful. She will be missed.

They are the last of my old time friends

There's this moment in Cameron Crowe's Almost Famous where Kate Hudson's Penny Lane is drunk and overdosing on Quaaludes in a hotel suite in Manhattan, depressed over being dumped by Stillwater guitarist, Russell, and Patrick Fugit's character comes in to rescue her (and to also proclaim his undying love for her) and she says wistfully, sadly: "You're the last of my old time friends." And then she goes on to tell him where all the other band aids and roadies from the Stillwater tour -- her friends -- have gone. Everyone has left her -- everyone except Fugit's character, William Miller.

With the passing of Karl Malden today, I'm feeling a lot like Penny Lane.