Although I was devastated to learn that the Italian soundtrack maestro had to cancel last month’s appearance at the Hollywood Bowl (what would have been his first), the man has given us plenty to savor without his physical presence. What a cinematic music legacy. He’s in my Pantheon of film composers, next to John Barry, Bernard Hermann, Akira Ifukube, John Williams, Nino Rota, Jerry Goldsmith and Phillip Glass.

In honor of his 81st birthday, what better way to celebrate his eclectic output than this archetypal groovy Morricone theme to Mario Bava’s DANGER: DIABOLIK (1967), one of the great comic-book pop-art movies of the decade, starring my pal, John Phillip Law. I was once talking to John about the film and told him in awe, “You’re one of the few people on the planet who Ennio Morricone wrote a theme song for.” John just laughed in his booming Diabolik voice…Salud Maestro!

I can honestly say without hyperbole that I have seen the face of a Goddess in the form of Raquel Welch, whose 1970 TV special, RAQUEL! must be considered the pinnacle of the musical variety oeuvre. Yes, yes, we all knew about her dynamic thespic graces and feral full-bodiness, but did you know she could sing and dance too? Leave it to the multi-faceted Welch to interpret “California Dreaming” with thoughtful new lyrics (“I looked into a church and set my mind at ease.”) and an unthought of space-age performance dance a’ go-go in NASA-realistic Bob Mackie outfits.

The literal peak of the special must be Raquel! as a sacrificial Goddess leading a troupe of costumed Zodiac figures in an epic rendition of “Aquarius” set on the steps of an actual Aztec pyramid in Teotihuacan. You’ll wonder who or what was sacrificed to produce this spectacular pop desecration. I can almost see the virgin blood spilling down the stone ruins as Raquel! guides us through the astrological spirit world as only someone of her mystic power could. The Aztec dance number threatens to achieve almost 30 seconds of artful subtly as the camera pulls back from the pyramid lined with colorful zodiac characters, flying away from Raquel!’s distant Goddess frame overlooking the sacred temple until the entire ancient landscape spreads out in windy silence. Aquarius.

And if that’s not enough to alter the history of song interpretation, how about Raquel! schlussing like George Lazenby’s stunt double through blankets of powdery Aspen snow as she sings Helen Reddy’s “Peaceful”? She then launches her own brand of fabulous vocal earnestness on “The Sounds Of Silence” and “Raindrops Keep Fallin’ On My Head.” That’s not all folks. You’ll know you have approached the lip of Valhalla once John Wayne saunters out to to teach Raquel! how to properly shoot and kill using stock footage before we cut to our dynamic duo visiting a Mexican orphanage, dispensing their own brand of Amurrican charity, Movie Star style. All these brave children live in her heart now.

Oh and did I mention Tom Jones? Perhaps I shouldn’t because only he manages to douse Raquel!’s talent bonfire — she doesn’t need HIM.

This is not all fun and wonder though. As Raquel! savors her version of “Everybody’s Talkin’” we get a rarified glimpse into her fish-bowl existence of press and flesh huggers as she dispenses the fruits of her wisdom tree, even dissing Hugh Hefner with a pithy, succinct, “I don’t agree with his philosophy, but the paper it’s printed on is very good.” This is a wonderful introspective glance at her mad-cap, pell-mell, jet-set, famous-person life-style. And she eschews the phrase “sex-symbol” since to her mind, that’s what they call a bosomy star who doesn’t fit into easily quantifiable categories. Did the Duke and those orphans know that the same year Raquel! was delivering her cosmic message to the masses, she would also play the title role of the X-rated, MYRA BRECKENRIDGE, featuring a scene with her in a Miss America bikini as she woops it up anally raping a male actor with a strap-on dildo? Perhaps it best they didn’t know; the turbulent 1970 universe could only handle so much cultural schizophrenia.

Speaking of climaxes, RAQUEL! winds up to her special’s penultimate number as she sings and shimmies with Bob Hope in a Western duet massacre of “Rocky Racoon” replete with Welch as Mae West and Hope as…Bob Hope. Did television audiences know that Mae West herself was also in MYRA BRECKENRIDGE? The synchronicity is astounding. But not as glorious as the close-ups of Hope’s comedic grace in full bloom — all he has to do is mug and swallow with iconic nose in profile and the laugh machine responds like opening night at The Dean Martin Celebrity Roast. The Beatles must have been awed by this teaming of two celebrity giants warbling “Rocky Racoon” and I sense the subtle genius of Bruce Villanch behind these bits of comedy revue gold.

But what the Goddess giveth, she taketh awayth. And as Raquel! and Hope strolled off together into the back-lot sunset, I wanted to follow them — nay, HER, this complex multi-media babe on all her global spanning adventures through time and space. And I won’t be sated until every man, woman and child on planet Earth has witnessed this 1970 Lost Ark of the Pop Covenant…O’ Raquel!

It’s obvious, I know. But I need a quick laugh. So do you. And this clip is an easy lay. I’m pleased that Christopher Guest found a niche spot for the unflappable arrogant ignorance of Fred Willard in their string of docu-comedy classics. I was a fan of Willard’s since the brilliant tv talk show parody from 1977, FERNWOOD 2 NIGHT, where he played Martin Mull’s clueless co-host, Jerry Hubbard (who you can watch in action here). Willard had a fantasy career resurgence after his scene-stealing role as Buck Laughlin, the jock sportscaster from BEST IN SHOW (2000) and though he is brilliant there (“How much do you think I can bench-press?”), I think this is the funniest scene of Fred Willard’s film career.

So Obama passed a Health Care bill within his first ten months, something no politician has been able to do in Washington ever — with total Republican opposition. Reveals much about their inner nature. Is the bill perfect? Hell no! The Stupak amendment blocking funds from abortion is in place, but eventually the GOP dinosaurs will die off and that will be amended. If I hear one more whine of “He’s not doing anything!” I’m checking myself into the hospital…

Here’s a stunning poster for THUMB TRIPPING, 1972’s forgotten proto-EASY RIDER starring Michael Burns and Meg Foster as free spirits who decide to take every ride offered to them on the road, with serio-comic results. Bruce Dern plays the driver whose car you shouldn’t get into and though he’s only in the film for minutes, he graces the exploitive version of the ad campaign. Here’s the original, free-wheelin’ poster design. Where have you gone, Joe Levine?

Posted in Film ]]> http://christiandivine.wordpress.com/2009/11/07/who-could-forget/feed/ 2 CAD thumb_tripping 205030.1020.A http://christiandivine.wordpress.com/2009/11/07/saturday-song-pet-shop-boys-ennio-morricone/ http://christiandivine.wordpress.com/2009/11/07/saturday-song-pet-shop-boys-ennio-morricone/#comments Sat, 07 Nov 2009 08:38:11 +0000 christian http://christiandivine.wordpress.com/?p=6196 ]]>

Another reason I love The Pet Shop Boys. Name me another pop band who in 1987 had the vision to collaborate with soundtrack maestro Ennio Morricone. In honor of the nation’s present madness and Morricone’s recent cancellation of his first Hollywood Bowl concert, here’s my favorite PSB track ever from their disc, “Actually,” the epic and haunting “It Couldn’t Happen Here.” But apparently it can…

Never mind if you don’t have any. You’d just end up on a death panel anyway. Sarah Palin’s even more insane spiritual cousin, Michelle Bachmann, she of “We will slit our wrists in a blood covenant” to stop Health Care (what a GOP master plan for the nation!), is proudly calling out for “freedom loving Americans” i.e., wacko tea-baggers, to line up on the Capital steps to further marginalize themselves from the national debate. Good.

Sometimes you come across a talkbacker on Ain’t It Cool News who shines a light:

I Miss This Decade Already: It will no doubt be remembered as a decade of boundless imagination. The period of time when we finally sought to unravel such puzzling cinematic mysteries as: Why does James Bond like to have sex with different women? Why does The Joker wear clown makeup? What’s the deal with Spock and Uhura? Who REALLY killed Uncle Ben- can we trust the events of the first film? But what if, after two failures, Skynet sent back an even MORE ADVANCED Terminator?! Did Lex Luthor ever get out of prison and, if so, was he still interested in real estate? We know how he turned out, but what was Boba like at age 10? Did the events of Weapon X really unfold as depicted in X-Men 2, or was that film simply jerking us around? What happened when Rocky entered his fifties- did he just stop boxing?