Movies That Fell Through the Cracks # 59

I first noticed the quirky wonder of actor Christopher Walken in 1978's THE DEER HUNTER and by 1982's one-off TV comedy/drama entitled WHO AM I THIS TIME with Susan Sarandon, still one of my all-time favorite shows, he had completely won me over. Ever since, in projects ranging from THE PROPHECY to THE COUNTRY BEARS to the masterful WEAPON OF CHOICE music video, he's been enjoyable performer to watch.

Did you know he started out as a child star, though? IMDB says so! Or that his name was appearing above the title long before DEER HUNTER, including in this bizarre 1973 low budget sci-fi thriller, THE MIND SNATCHERS (aka THE DEMON WITHIN aka THE HAPPINESS CAGE) The plot is vaguely the story of a military experiment at controlling soldiers' emotions via CLOCKWORK ORANGE-style tactics.

Walken is top-billed with another quirky actor, the British Joss Ackland, as the mad scientist and third string old school leading man Ralph Meeker as the General. Ronny Cox who did DELIVERANCE around that same time also appears.

Behind the scenes, it's more interesting as one of the producers is listed as the legendary Broadway producer Joseph Papp, founder of the New York Shakespeare Festival! Equally legendary record producer Phil Ramone is one of the folks listed as being responsible for the film's score!

Based on a play by playwright Dennis Reardon who had worked with Papp before, THE MIND SNATCHERS turned out to be one of the final projects for veteran TV director Bernard Girard.

My First Bogey

Often the young folk come up to me and ask, "Mister Booksteve, sir? What, pray tell, was the first book in your vast and virtual library? Huh? Tell me, tell me, tell me! What was it, huh? Come on, don't hold back, vat de HECK vas it, sailor?" Or words to that effect.

Well, that's hard to say. The first actual book I remember getting was a Bennett Cerf riddle book when I was roughly six but I'm sure there were books before that. A friend of my mother's gave me what turned out to be a rare edition of THE LITTLE ENGINE THAT COULD around that same time. I was eleven when I spotted Steranko's HISTORY OF THE COMICS in a store window while my dad and I were waiting for a bus and just had to have it! Jules Feiffer's re-issued THE GREAT COMIC BOOK HEROES and THE PENGUIN BOOK OF COMICS quickly followed. But does having a few books around the house constitute a "library?"

The book that I have long considered to be the cornerstone of my actual collecting days is in fact the book seen here--the 1974 reissue of Clifford McCarty's 1965 book BOGEY--THE FILMS OF HUMPHREY BOGART.

The Bogart cult had begun not long after the actor's 1957 passing, first exclusively amongst film buffs but quickly branching into the mainstream with the appearance of Jean Luc-Godard's BREATHLESS in 1960, in which Jean Paul Belmondo's character pays tribute to his idol throughout. By the time of this book's initial release, Bogart had ascended to a cultural icon with posters adorning college dorms throughout the world.

Things spiked again in the early seventies with Woody Allen's play and film, PLAY IT AGAIN, SAM in which Bogart's ghost is a major character. BOGEY was re-released and all of the classic movies started getting a lot of TV airplay again which is where I discovered them. The Allen film was probably what first piqued my interest and I remember running across this book in the basement of a bookstore soon afterwards right next to the whole Citadel Press line of filmography books!

At a cover price of $4.95, I bought it and devoured it, using it regularly as an adjunct to TV airings of Bogart's pictures. Then I discovered Errol Flynn and went back to pick up THAT volume in the series. Soon I was buying at least one film or comics based book per week--sometimes several! I started haunting used bookstores and actually had to beg my parents for my very first bookcase because the Library was growing! The economy may have slowed that growth finally and necessitated selling off large chunks of books and comics but at least once a month there are still new books coming into Booksteve's Library 35 years after BOGEY first appeared.

Here's looking at you, book!

UPDATE-Completely unbeknownst to me, Humphrey Bogart is TCM's Star of the Month for December! If you haven't yet discovered Bogey (or as more commonly spelled, "Bogie") Turner Classic Movies is running 64 of his films including DEAD END on Wednesday.

Captain Tootsie Rules!

Haven't posted any of the Captain's strips in quite awhile so here's a trio for your Saturday afternoon enjoyment!

Prince of Stories

We haven't done a random book off the shelf in awhile and technically we still aren't. Today's book is one of the growing stack of books we need more bookcases for so until we get them, they're just sitting around.

PRINCE OF STORIES-THE MANY WORLDS OF NEIL GAIMAN is a 546 page 30 dollar hardcover book from late 2008 that we picked up for less than ten bucks recently at Half-Price Books. Written and compiled by critic Hank Wagner, Novelist Christpher Golden and artist Stephen R. Bissette, it is a lovingly obsessive look at every single comic, short story, novel, article, interview, film and TV show that fan-favorite New York Times Best-Selling author Neil Gaiman has ever written. It offers detailed synopses, some critical reference, lots of trivia and behind the scenes minutiae and even some new interviews and comment from Neil himself. If you don't already know or like Neil Gaiman I can't imagine you would even pick this volume up but if you do you will appreciate all the love and, if you're like me, may even be pointed to some Gaiman works you haven't yet read! Rounded out with an intro from sometime collaborator Terry Pratchett (currently my son's favorite author), a cover by Gaiman's traditional cover artist (or untraditional depending on how you look at it) Dave McKean and some wisely chosen color and black and white photos and illustrations, it's a niche item for sure but if you're a Neil Gaiman fan, you need this book! I wish many more individual authors got references like this.

Random Panels of Comic Book Weirdness # 69

Not all THAT weird this time around, I guess but still...How often does one see a comic book superhero--in this case the decidedly lower tier DC hero AIR WAVE--admit (as he does here in a late DETECTIVE COMICS appearance) that another hero might have been better for the rescue he just completed?

Comics Creator Photos of the 1970's

Earlier today, I ran across some hitherto forgotten clippings that I took from the old pre-CBG TBG back in the 1970's--a treasure trove of vintage newspaper photos of comics creators of the period. I tried to enhance them as much as possible when i scanned them but the yellowed look remains for most. 53 of them (out of about 80) are posted in a photo album on my FACEBOOK page but I'm not sure if you can access that if you aren't FB friends with me. Since many of you ARE FB friends with me, however, I thought I'd bring it to you attention. Let me know what you think. Here are just a few.

In these pics--Jack Kirby with Jerry Siegel, Neal Adams and, in the group shot, Don Glut, Mike Gold, Joe Orlando, Mike Grell, Paul Kupperberg, Martin Pasko, Don MacGregor, Jennette Kahn, Stan Lee and Len Wein

UPDATE***UPDATE***UPDATE

Here's the public link to the photo album. You do NOT need to be on Facebook or be one of my Facebook friends to see it!
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=348863&id=859435075&l=dd280aeafa

Congrats to Brittany Rose!

Some of you may be familiar with my photo blog, BRITTANY ROSE AND ME which consists almost solely of cute pictures of my friend Brittany Rose....by Me (thus the name, you see). This morning we congratulate our muse for turning pro as she just had her very first paid professional model shoot this past weekend! We wish her all the best at this exciting time for her! If you haven't checked the blog (or haven't been there lately) take a look back over the pictures and someday you'll be able to say you knew her when! Here's a brand new cell phone shot I took of her yesterday, post-shoot.

http://brittanyrosepictures.blogspot.com/