Netflix Instant Spotlight: Horn Section favorites

"Why the Hell isn't THIS on DVD yet?"




It is the most frequently asked question here at The Horn Section, and the films that provoke it are often rarely scheduled on cable and/or very hard to locate on VHS.




With the new, improved and greatly expanded library at Netflix, they couldn't help but hit a few Horn Section favorites.   Here's a partial list of blasts from Horn Section past now available for streaming: (you can read the original reviews by clicking the titles):

BLOOD AND LACE (1971):  Never officially released on either VHS or DVD, but very influential.  Fans of NIGHTMARE ON ELM STREET and the original HALLOWEEN will see that director Philip S. Gilbert managed to beat Craven and Carpenter to the punch on elements of his only feature.  And how many chances will you get to see Len "Uncle Leo!" Lesser as a creepy handyman, Vic "stow it!" Tayback playing the ass kicking hero, and Melody Patterson still trying to look underage five years after F TROOP....all in the same place!



FAST BREAK (1979): And you thought the greatness of Gabe Kaplan was confined to the small screen and the poker felt.  Think again!  As far as film coaches go, Mr. Kaplan can go toe to toe with Walter Matthau, Ken Howard or anyone else you want to name.  Gabe leads his team, including Bernard King and Mavis Washington, to new heights, but hey, who wouldn't be inspired by the man who put Robert Conrad in his place?



CALIFORNIA PASSAGE (1950):  Forrest Tucker, the man the Academy Award should really be named for, teams again with Adele Mara,  his best leading lady.  As was usually the case with Republic, a top notch supporting cast and solid action.  Estelita Rodriguez has two songs and makes you wish there were more films to remember her by.





SUGAR HILL (1974): It's a cast of familiar, rather than big box office, names in this sleeper, but it is still a lot of fun, with delightfully menacing performances from Don Pedro Colley (his Baron Samedi tops Geoffrey Holder's IMO) and Zara Cully.




ST. LOUIS BLUES (1958): Eartha Kitt, Nat King Cole, Cab Calloway, Pearl Bailey, Mahalia Jackson, 11 year old Billy Preston(!) and Ella Fitzgerald all in the same film.  Need I say more?  If you're a fan of Kitt's, you'll want to see her finest screen performance, and while this bio of W. C. Handy gets carried away taking dramatic license at times (far from the only music bio to do so) it's still a must see for the cast, which also includes Ruby Dee and Juano Hernandez.



THE LANDLORD (1970):  Here's the DVD success story of the bunch, and Hal Ashby's debut is available for streaming too.  Was unfairly neglected for a long time, but now looks better with each passing year.  So does Diana Sands' performance.  Also with Beau Bridges, Oscar-nominated Lee Grant, Pearl Bailey, Mel Stewart and SUGAR HILL's Marki Bey.


A much more comprehensive list of Netflix Instant goodies can be found at Rupert Pupkin Speaks.  He's at 14 posts and counting!  Happy streaming.  Number 56 is up next!

Film Review: NORMAN...IS THAT YOU? (1976)

"Why the Hell isn't this on DVD yet?" -- Number 35

NORMAN...IS THAT YOU? (1976 MGM) Starring Redd Foxx, Pearl Bailey, Michael Warren, Dennis Dugan, Tamara Dobson, Vernee Watson, Jayne Meadows, George Furth, Barbara Sharma. Directed by George Schlatter.

Redd Foxx is the owner of a successful dry cleaning business. What, Fred G. Sanford as George Jefferson? Well, not quite...but the "G" stands for "gay son". Foxx is licking his wounds after wife Pearl Bailey runs off with his brother and business partner, so he pays son Michael Warren a surprise visit, not knowing about Warren's alternative lifestyle or his live-in lover, flaming Dennis Dugan.

Being an "old fashioned man in a brand new world", Foxx reacts to this second system shock in as many days as might be expected. No, he doesn't have the Big One....he hires hooker Tamara Dobson in an effort to 'straighten him out', something that Warren's BFF Vernee Watson is already attempting to do on her own.

Foxx's only starring role on the big screen, and also the only film directed by long-time TV producer (LAUGH-IN) George Schlatter, NORMAN...IS THAT YOU? is an oddity in many ways. This Broadway adaptation was shot on video, later transferred to film, and it shows, with the stock looking older than other films of the era, but fitting for the sitcom-level proceedings. Very few films were being made about homosexuality even in the freewheeling, un-PC 1970's, and even fewer films were getting the green light with a Broadway source that lasted only 12 performances.

In adapting the play by Ron Clark and Stan Bobrick, Schlatter (also his only screenplay to date) made several changes, with the play's Jewish family becoming a black family and the setting moving from New York to Los Angeles. One revision mars a pivotal scene, when a drafting becomes a Navy enlistment. Perhaps necessary to modernize the film, as the draft had been eliminated since the play's premiere (1970) but really contrived as presented here given the character's situation.  The biggest flaw is the lack of chemistry between Warren and Dugan, with the former particularly unconvincing in his role and the latter shamelessly stereotypical.  At no time do you believe these two have been a couple for a year.

If you're a Redd Foxx fan, though, you're in for a treat. The salty comedian gets several long monologues, priceless scenes in a bookstore (buying 8 books on homosexuality) and park (as he reads the books out loud to himself) and spends a big chunk of the film bantering with Dugan as he attempts to understand Warren.  Foxx and Dugan actually have more chemistry than either of the film's romantic couples.

Bailey, wonderful in ST. LOUIS BLUES and THE LANDLORD, sadly has little to do here and doesn't even show until the final third of the film. Tamara Dobson gets her one outright comedy role (unless you're counting CHAINED HEAT) but little screen time. She's charming and expressive enough to make you wish she'd had more and better screen opportunities. With Madame in tow, Wayland Flowers has two bizarre scenes early and later gets 5 minutes of screen time for his unfunny nightclub act--about 4 1/2 too many if you ask me.

It's cheap looking, a relic of its time and uneven, and most of the "surprise" twists (i.e. Bailey handling "the news" worse than Foxx, and Foxx and Dugan bonding) won't raise an eyebrow from a modern audience, but damned if Foxx and company don't wring some good laughs out of it. NORMAN...IS THAT YOU? has a following due to the subject matter, dated campiness and offbeat cast.  It also boasts a solid soundtrack featuring Smokey Robinson and Thelma Houston.

So.....why isn't this on DVD yet?

Has a really cheap look due to the video-to-film transfer, was a box office flop when released, and the source material was also a big stage flop as well.

Considered a relic of its time that hasn't aged well at all by many, and like many films of its era, very un-PC. Director and screenwriter Schlatter was much more at home producing variety shows for television, and is out of his element here. He bats .500 in using LAUGH-IN alumni, using Barbara Sharma to good effect in the bookstore scene, but forgetting that even a little Wayland and Madame goes a looooong way.

Foxx and Bailey have little chemistry as a romantic couple, and Warren and Dugan have no chemistry at all. Matter of fact, Adam Sandler and Kevin James were more convincing in I NOW PRONOUNCE YOU CHUCK AND LARRY---incidentally, directed by Dennis Dugan.

Why it should be on DVD:

What a great cult cast of performers who made very few features: Foxx, Bailey, Dobson, and Dugan. Fans of Foxx's standup and SANFORD AND SON in particular will want to see his lone starring role on the big screen.

Dobson may not have that much screen time, but she wears the skimpiest outfit she ever wore onscreen.  Less is definitely more.....

A definite curio with some laugh out loud moments from Foxx and Dugan, this is at least an interesting failure. It's also worth a look for the choices made by writer-director Schlatter in adapting the stagy source to the screen.

There was enough of a following for this to receive two different releases on VHS, the second as part of the Soul Cinema series in 1999. This is one of the few in the Soul Cinema series not on DVD yet--and why the Hell not?

Film Review: THE LANDLORD (1970)

"Why the Hell Isn't this on DVD yet?" -- Number 29











THE LANDLORD (1970 United Artists) Starring Beau Bridges, Lee Grant, Diana Sands, Pearl Bailey, Lou Gossett Jr., Marki Bey, Robert Klein, Walter Brooke, Melvin Stewart. Directed by Hal Ashby.


Beau Bridges is a poor little rich boy who decides it is finally time to spread his wings at 29. He leaves his bluenose family behind to purchase a dilapidated Park Slope apartment house with the idea of evicting the mostly African-American tenants and turning the place into a giant bachelor pad. Beau doesn't get off to a great start: he is chased down the street while unpacking, extorted by a chain smoking 8 year old boy, and then finds himself staring down the barrel of Pearl Bailey's shotgun. But he eventually grows fond of his tenants and begins fixing the place up, to the consternation of his racist parents. He grows especially fond of activist Gossett's wife Diana Sands, formerly Miss Sepia of 1957 and now a hairstylist. While Gossett is in jail, Bridges and Sands share a one night stand in a rent party's aftermath.  Later, after Gossett is released, Sands discovers she is pregnant.

Hal Ashby was one of the major directors of the 1970's (his other credits include BEING THERE, THE LAST DETAIL, HAROLD AND MAUDE and SHAMPOO) and THE LANDLORD fits right in with his other quirky projects from the get-go. Scriptwriter Bill Gunn helps create two surrealistic worlds through Bridges' eyes: his apartment building, and his family's home--which is loopier and even cartoonish. Aside from one rent party sequence with rapid-fire editing (a scene that may have influenced Spike Lee) in which Bridges hears from various directions what it's like to be black, there's little that could pass for lecturing.

Instead, Ashby and Gunn explore race relations at the dawn of the 1970's through unconventional interactions: Bailey and Grant (as Bridges' blue blood mother) bond over pot liquor; Bridges brings his biracial girlfriend Bey (SUGAR HILL) to a family fundraiser, to muted reaction at best; Sands and Bridges struggle with a mutual attraction, in early scenes with Bridges clearly intimidated, then later with Bridges exhibiting more alcohol-fueled confidence.

Performances are uniformly outstanding.  Bridges exudes boyish charm despite the occasionally frustrating ignorance of his character; scenes with Grant and Brooke convince us he comes by it honestly. Bailey (ST. LOUIS BLUES) who sadly had few feature film roles, is wonderfully eccentric, and Gossett covers the range from menacing to hilariously deadpan to heartbreaking.

Best of all is Broadway star Diana Sands, who starred in several interracial
 romances on stage (THE OWL AND THE PUSSYCAT, WE BOMBED IN NEW HAVEN) and screen (DOCTORS' WIVES, GEORGIA GEORGIA). Sands gives a remarkably layered performance. She's alternately sexy, subtly strong (in scenes with both Bridges and Gossett), and finally bitingly sad, when she realizes the level of Bridges' irresponsibility and ignorance. Grant received an Oscar nomination, but that nomination really should have gone to Sands.  It's her best screen performance IMO.

Ashby's camerawork is a little too flashy at times in his debut (uncomfortably aping THE GRADUATE in the final reel), and Gunn's script gets a little over the top in scenes with Bridges' family, but these are minor gripes, maybe even nitpicking. Overall THE LANDLORD remains a lost classic of the early 1970's, one of the very best films of its year. It is a perceptive and unpretentious study of racial and class differences and perhaps even the most puzzling exclusion from DVD of its decade.


So....why isn't this on DVD?


This is one time when I can't think of one damned reason.  Seriously, this is a classic.


Why it should be on DVD:


Imagine an early Scorcese or Coppola film not being on DVD. Can't, can you? It's the only Hal Ashby film of the decade that hasn't been released yet.

Not to put down any of the great flicks of the 'Soul Cinema' series, but THE LANDLORD is a better drama than any of them. Yes, even COOLEY HIGH.

Diana Sands is one of the most underappreciated actresses of all time, and Hal Ashby one of the most underappreciated directors. This is an opportunity to see some phenomenal work from both. Don't miss it.

Film Review: ST. LOUIS BLUES (1958)

"Why the Hell isn't This on DVD Yet?" -- Number 17

ST. LOUIS BLUES (1958 Paramount) Starring Nat “King” Cole, Eartha Kitt, Mahalia Jackson, Cab Calloway, Pearl Bailey, Ruby Dee, Juano Hernandez, Billy Preston and Ella Fitzgerald. Directed by Allen Reisner.

In what would be his only lead in a feature, legendary crooner Nat “King” Cole plays legendary songwriter W.C. "Will" Handy.  When we first meet Handy, he's in childhood (played by 11 year old Billy Preston) and being admonished by his stern minister father (Juano Hernandez) for being late to church and for buying a cornet.  To Reverend Handy there are only two kinds of music, "the devil's and the Lord's" and he destroys the instrument. But Will’s love for the blues doesn’t go away easily, and after the adult Handy returns from his studies he confesses to his fiancée Elizabeth (Ruby Dee) that he’s also been performing in minstrel shows. Will’s songwriting talent brings him to the attention of sexy nightclub singer Gogo Germaine (Eartha Kitt), and soon Handy is writing songs and performing with Gogo in a local club, The Big Rooster. Handy’s night life is a complete secret to his father—until a church choir member (Mahalia Jackson) spots him there while cleaning up one night.

ST. LOUIS BLUES boasts perhaps the largest cast of music legends ever assembled for one dramatic film, and we aren't talking cameos (as in, say, THE BLUES BROTHERS). While Cole is a bit wooden at times, this fits the film’s presentation of Handy as a reserved man who grew up under a dominating and strict father.  Pearl Bailey sings a few lines of the title song (sadly, she doesn't finish it) and has a plum role as Handy’s verbose and understanding Aunt Hagar. Cab Calloway surprisingly doesn't sing, but he is solid as always dramatically as the shady owner of the Rooster.

However, the real standout here is Eartha Kitt, in probably her best screen performance with the best-written role in this uneven script. Kitt’s Gogo Germaine is an assertive diva who dresses provocatively, but avoids all the bad girl stereotypes we expect.  She doesn't try to steal Cole away from "good girl" Dee, as she’s interested in him professionally, not sexually. She also rebuffs Calloway’s advances: firmly focused on her career yet using only her musical talent to get ahead. Refreshingly, for all her ambition she doesn't step on people to reach the top, always giving Handy full credit for his songwriting.  Kitt was never sexier, and while she had a tendency to overact in some of her later roles, she hits just the right note here from start to finish. She’s also given the script's most memorable lines when confronting Reverend Handy on his prejudice in a wonderfully delivered speech.

It’s a good thing Kitt and Bailey are here to spice things up, because the overall tone is too restrained for a film about "the Father of the Blues"--the "one pure art form to originate in America". The late Allen Reisner was almost exclusively a director of episodic television. ST. LOUIS BLUES was his second and last film (his other feature, ALL MINE TO GIVE, was also too melodramatic at times). He directs the musical sequences very well but the pacing lags here—he was perfect for hour-long television dramas.

Also, typical of film bios of the time, (melo-) dramatic license is taken, and the embellishments haven't aged well.  For example: while it is true that Handy suffered his first onset of blindness as a young man (he was 30; he later regained his sight, then lost it for good after a subway fall in his old age), his ailment comes across as hokey and contrived as presented here. It is even implied that the blindness is retribution for his "sinful" nightclub exploits, and that he is healed by the gospel. You also won't find any mention of the real W. C. Handy's fight against racial prejudice--the Paramount suits of 1958 probably weren't ready for this to be an element in the script. Instead the film Handy struggles against the prejudices of his father as a substitute, a longtime staple of music bios (i.e. THE BUDDY HOLLY STORY).

So----why isn’t this on DVD?

It is a low-budget black and white film from 1958 and the sum isn't quite the equal of its parts. Strictly average direction and the overly melodramatic elements of the screenplay have not aged well. This tendency towards melodramatic license afflicted other screen biographies of the period, too, such as MAN OF A THOUSAND FACES and THE SEVEN LITTLE FOYS.

Why it should be on DVD:

ST. LOUIS BLUES isn’t that well known, but it should be. This is a once in a lifetime cast. You have Cole, Kitt, Bailey, Ella Fitzgerald (an anachronistic but still welcome cameo) and Mahalia Jackson, all with at least one song (multiple songs for Kitt and Cole) and performances by other legendary jazz musicians such as Teddy Buckner, clarinetist Barney Bigard, and as mentioned earlier, young Billy Preston on the organ.

Future Catwoman Eartha Kitt's best screen performance IMO; this a must see film for sure if you're a fan of hers.  Orson Welles once called her "the most exciting woman in the world"; seeing this film, I understand why.

Eartha Kitt and Ruby Dee are both still with us in their eighties, and a commentary would be fascinating to hear. How great it would be to have a DVD release with not only that, but perhaps a more fact-based featurette on W. C. Handy's life and a "making of" featurette too. Me, greedy? Nah......

Incredibly, ST. LOUIS BLUES was never even released on VHS! A DVD release is long overdue; especially with the film’s 50th Anniversary less than a year away.