The Classic/Retro Pop Culture Thread

Discussion in 'TV & Media' started by The Old Mixer, Jan 11, 2016.

  1. gblews

    gblews Vice Admiral Admiral

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    Oh I will, thanks. :)
    Oh, really? Here is what I previously wrote:
    To which you replied:
    I cannot see how anyone would not conclude that your reply above might mean (or at least raises the question) that you may think that because of slavery, and circumstances surrounding slavery, as described in my post above, should be "accepted", or overlooked, or dismissed, because "that was the world they lived in".
    Oh, I realize Jefferson was very much a human being, unfortunately. The problem was that he didn't see all humans as actually being human. That includes Sally Hemmings, his children with her, as well as all of the other slaves he owned. Because a person does not do to "humans", what Jefferson did to them. I hope you're getting this.

    And you think whatever it was Jefferson felt for Sally was real love? If you do then I'd say, at the least, you've been watching too many movies -- and that's giving the benefit oft the doubt. Real life does not work like you may think it does, even real life in the 1700 and 1800's.

    But in order to see Thomas' treatment of Sally Hemmings as the crime that it was, one must first see Sally as "human", and for some, that is a difficult hurdle over which to leap. ;)
     
  2. RJDiogenes

    RJDiogenes Idealistic Cynic and Canon Champion Premium Member

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    We just had another couple of guys doing this. It seems to be pretty easy to impersonate a cop in this town.

    Then he should put on a costume and come up with a cool name instead of impersonating a cop!

    Guy's got to make a living.

    And he was given probation. I think a psych eval would have been more appropriate. :rommie:

    Apparently Amanda handles wardrobe duties.

    And has apparently set up Revenge Town in record time-- unless Colonel Richmond is just very slow. "Oh, by the way, Emmett Stark escaped eighteen months ago."

    When I saw this not long ago, I was sure that Artie was playing them as he teased drinking or not drinking the coffee. Then when he drank it, I was sure he had taken an antidote or something and was faking being knocked out. I was disappointed when he had actually fallen for it.

    Surreal deserted towns were pretty common in the 60s. Star Trek even did a surreal deserted starship. :rommie:
     
  3. The Old Mixer

    The Old Mixer Mih ssim, mih ssim, nam, daed si Xim. Moderator

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    _______

    Dragnet 1968
    "The Big Starlet"
    Originally aired February 1, 1968
    Wednesday, May 9 (last occurred in 1962): Friday and Gannon, working the day watch out of Juvenile Division, talk to Mrs. Wade (Amzie Strickland), who's searching for her 16-year-old niece, Patty Lee Bundy, who's been in Hollywood for three weeks. They proceed to a "psychopathic" coffee shop (in Wade's words) where Patty was seen by somebody from the home town, and talk to a friend of Patty's, Jo-Elle (Jo Ann Harris), who, speaking a groovy dialect that betrays no trace of a Kryptonian accent, leads them to Eva Graham (Susan Seaforth), an older, largely unsuccessful actress who nonetheless has a nice pad and had taken Patty in for a time. After talking to Graham, they run a make on her and find that she has a record for prostitution and pornography. They check with the arresting officers, whose extensive porn library soon gains a production that Patty Lee has appeared in; and the vice officers have studied said library thoroughly enough that they have a good idea of who produced it despite the lack of a credit.

    They eventually track down the producer (Lyle Talbot) and question him. He points them back to Graham, indicating that she would have known where Patty was all along. Confronting Graham armed with the truth about her profession, they get her to reluctantly divulge a number, which they track down to an apartment, where they arrive to find Patty--whom they've surmised had been very upset with what she saw of her first picture--lying on a mattress on the floor, having taken an overdose of pills. A suicide note on her body reads only "To whom it may concern".

    Dragnet59.jpg
    Another case of the arrest not having been made in-episode.

    _______

    The Wild Wild West
    "The Night of the Undead"
    Originally aired February 2, 1968
    In the teaser, Jim is spying on a voodoo ceremony when it appears that a sacrifice is about to take place, so he intervenes by shooting the machete out of the hand of the masked girl who'd just walked across hot coals barefoot. Instead of attacking Jim, the attendees walk out in a trance. Jim tries to stop one of them, a big guy named Tiny Jon (Roosevelt Grier), who's unphased by a shot in the chest that he takes during the struggle, still overpowering Jim and continuing to walk away. Afterwards, Jim finds that the sacrificial victim was a wax dummy. Still later, Tiny Jon turns up at the morgue.

    Jim pays a visit to Dr. Eddington (John Zaremba), a colleague of the scientist they've been looking for, and finds that the wax dummy had been in his likeness. And while I'm unclear as to when we were meant to catch on, the sandy brown hair and distinctive upturned nose of his daughter, Mariah (Joan Delaney), made it obvious to me that she'd been the girl at the ceremony. Jim figures things out soon enough, when she walks outdoors in a trance. He follows her journey via boat to the bayou manor of a former colleague of Eddington and the other scientist whom the two of them had helped to discredit, Dr. Articulus (Hurd Hatfield). Jim is put to work in the underground cavern where Articulus has his potion made, which turns people into what Jim describes as "mock humans".

    Meanwhile, Artie has conducted his own investigation via two disguises. In his first disguise, as a bumbling, English-accented nebbish, he manages to clear out a bar full of rowdy patrons who've been bullying him when he whips out the voodoo coin that he's carrying. In his second disguise, as a Corps of Engineers officer (whose look seems to be riffing on Teddy Roosevelt), he pays a visit to Stately Articulus Manor via the front door, but is quickly recognized by a female accomplice of the doctor's named Phalah (Priscilla Morrill), who'd made his acquaintance while he was in his previous disguise.

    Jim and Artie each escape and run into each other, then are taken prisoner again, then escape again, and do something with the potion plumbing that causes the place to blow sky-high...but not before Jim, Artie, and Mariah escape, and Phalah, who's demonstrated concern for Mariah, shoots Articulus.

    IMDb indicates that Stately Articulus Manor was the Barkley home from The Big Valley. Contributors also point out that Artie's use of the word "robot" and reference to glowing Christmas tree ornaments are anachronistic.

    _______

    Not that way, they were trying to pay at the office.

    :lol:
     
    Last edited: May 30, 2019
  4. RJDiogenes

    RJDiogenes Idealistic Cynic and Canon Champion Premium Member

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    "Yes, ma'am. No argument there, ma'am."

    And Friday and Gannon spent the rest of their careers working the night watch out of Porn Division.

    Interesting that he was found guilty of creating "obscene material." No mention of the kid being underage.

    And Night of the Living Dead would be released later this same year. Coincidence? I think... so.

    "Roosevelt." :D How very formal. :mallory:

    Speaking of anachronisms. :rommie:

    The more they overthink the potion plumbing....

    Robots, definitely. Depends on what made the ornaments glow, though. I think the use of candles on Christmas trees goes way back (even though it's a pretty dumb idea).
     
  5. The Old Mixer

    The Old Mixer Mih ssim, mih ssim, nam, daed si Xim. Moderator

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    _______

    55 Years Ago This Week



    Selections from Billboard's Hot 100 for the week:

    Leaving the chart:
    • "Can't Buy Me Love," The Beatles (10 weeks)
    • "Don't Let the Rain Come Down (Crooked Little Man)," The Serendipity Singers (14 weeks)
    • "Suspicion," Terry Stafford (15 weeks)

    New on the chart:

    "Try It Baby," Marvin Gaye

    (#15 US; #6 R&B)

    "Good Times," Sam Cooke

    (#11 US; #1 R&B)

    "Keep on Pushing," The Impressions

    (#10 US; #1 R&B)

    "The Girl from Ipanema," Getz / Gilberto

    (#5 US; #1 AC; #29 UK; 1965 Grammy Award for Record of the Year)

    Total Beatles songs on the chart: 3

    _______

    I was afraid I might be striking too humorous a tone in covering an episode that ends in a teen suicide, but there was something hypocritically pervy about the vice officers who, in their crusade to keep smut off the streets, collect, study, and become thoroughly versed in said smut.

    Good point. Maybe he had plausible deniability and/or wasn't arrested and tried based on that specific production.

    :lol:
     
  6. gblews

    gblews Vice Admiral Admiral

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    Sam was probably my favorite single artist of the 60's. I still don't know which I liked more, his songwriting, or his matchless singing. In their list of 100 Greatest Singers of the Rock Era, Sam was ranked no. 3, I believe. His influence stretched from Otis Redding to Rod Stewart, to contemporary artists like Leon Bridges. He was in the first (or second) group of artists inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.

    He wrote "standards' of the rock era, "Wonderful World", "Cupid", "Chain Gang" songs you still hear used in commercials today. His Change Gon' Come is one of the most hauntingly beautiful and evocative songs of it's era. and tying back into the recent discussion about rock's role in the civil rights movement,Sam was one the artists who actually did have an impact on the movement, most assuredly through his rhetoric as well as songs like "Change"

    He was among the first, or possibly THE first, pop artist to run his own record company and own his own publishing.

    One of his compilation albums is called, "The Man Who Invented Soul". That title is quite apropos
    I loved this song. Astrid Gilberto's laid back delivery meshed perfectly with Stan Getz' soft tenor playing. Saxophone has always been my favorite jazz instrument and even though Getz was never my favorite tenor player, his "tone" definitely was my favorite in jazz. It was soft and fat and beautiful.

    Gets, along with Paul Desmond, for my money, were the gold standard on tenor sax in terms tone.
     
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  7. RJDiogenes

    RJDiogenes Idealistic Cynic and Canon Champion Premium Member

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    Kind of average.

    Yeah, man.

    Ah, a song about car trouble. :rommie:

    I absolutely love this song. It's a real time travel song for me.

    I wonder if they go undercover. :rommie:
     
  8. TREK_GOD_1

    TREK_GOD_1 Vice Admiral Admiral

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    Although an oldies playlist favorite, its sort of lost favor as a great track over the decades.

    Wonderful song. Sets such a visual picture beyond what a first hearing would inspire.
     
  9. The Old Mixer

    The Old Mixer Mih ssim, mih ssim, nam, daed si Xim. Moderator

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    _______

    50 Years Ago This Week




    And The Old Mixer is the size of a bell pepper. That's more like it--I'm freakin' huge, man! And spicy.


    Selections from Billboard's Hot 100 for the week:

    Leaving the chart:
    • "Don't Let Me Down," The Beatles w/ Billy Preston (4 weeks)
    • "Stand!," Sly & The Family Stone (8 weeks)

    New on the chart:

    "Listen to the Band," The Monkees
    (#63 US)

    "It's Getting Better," Mama Cass

    (#30 US; #13 AC; #8 UK)

    "My Pledge of Love," The Joe Jeffrey Group

    (#14 US)

    "Ruby, Don't Take Your Love to Town," Kenny Rogers & The First Edition

    (#6 US; #6 AC; #39 Country; #2 UK)

    "Crystal Blue Persuasion," Tommy James & The Shondells

    (#2 US; #27 AC)


    And new on the boob tube:
    • The Ed Sullivan Show, Season 21, episode 32, featuring Smokey Robinson & the Miracles, Gwen Verdon, Mason Williams, Alan King, and Lesley Gore
    • Star Trek, "Turnabout Intruder" (series finale)

    _______

    I shan't argue with any of that. Definitely a seminal artist of the era.

    You're clearly much more versed in jazz than I am. I just got the album. It's all very pleasant and relaxing, but all very much background music to my ear. There's not much to make one track stand out from the next for me.

    Definitely not one of his timeless classics. But we can tell by the name of the album that he's got one of those coming up....

    If "car trouble" is a metaphor for the struggle for empowerment and civil rights, yeah.... :whistle:
    Fun Fact...
     
  10. Tallguy

    Tallguy Rear Admiral Rear Admiral

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    Woah. I had no idea Kenny Rogers went back that far.

    And I'm older than "The OLD Mixer". *sigh*
     
  11. RJDiogenes

    RJDiogenes Idealistic Cynic and Canon Champion Premium Member

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    Lots of reasons to love this song. The vivid imagery, the music and lovely vocals. It also conjures up a very strong memory for me, of a Summer day at our house in Dorchester, walking down the hallway as a warm breeze blows the curtain in the front window, and that song plays on the radio of a passing convertible. Ahhh....

    Yeah, you're a little out of control there. :rommie:

    Pretty nice, but I never would have guessed it was the Monkees.

    Pleasant, but nothing special.

    Not bad.

    This is really good. Plaintive and gripping and tragic. Certainly the high point for Kenny, as far as I'm concerned.

    I love this one. Very 60s.

    Works as well as anything else. :rommie:

    The enduring power of the arts.

    I remember being surprised when I learned that as well. Kenny Rogers is not exactly one of my favorite performers and that is a great song.
     
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  12. The Old Mixer

    The Old Mixer Mih ssim, mih ssim, nam, daed si Xim. Moderator

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    _______

    Dragnet 1968
    "The Big Clan"
    Originally aired February 8, 1968
    Tuesday, May 11 (last occurred in 1965): Friday and Gannon are working the day watch out of Frauds Division, Bunco Section, jawing with Captain Lambert about how the Gypsy community has been in a chaotic state of flux since their king died. The king kept things under control by having or claiming to have police connections. They answer a call from Dallas Andrews from the San Francisco Gypsy community (Virginia Gregg), who wants the detectives to help her son-in-law, Billy, who's the son of the deceased king, become recognized as the new king by busting his rivals' readers and leaving his alone, in return for his help in keeping the readers under control. This includes offering the detectives a "cut" of complaining customers' money. Friday plays along.

    Back at HQ, Friday and Gannon talk to Mrs. Sager (Lillian Bronson), an old woman who describes in great detail the con via which a spiritual reader known as Mother Maria swindled her out of $15,000 of life insurance money she'd gotten from her deceased husband. Friday and Gannon display their familiarity with such scams by anticipating many of the details of her story. She then identifies Mother Maria in their book of Gypsy mugshots (Lillian Adams).

    They put out a warrant on Mother Maria on the suspicion that the Gypsies have a leak that provides them with police information transmitted via teletype. Sure enough, Dallas Andrews quickly contacts them about their interest in Mother Maria. Friday has a meeting with Dallas and Billy (Don Dubbins). They lay out the details of their operation and Friday's expected role in it, opening with an $11,000 bribe. Friday's end of the deal includes him doing what he can to settle things with Sager, as Maria is one of theirs. Along the way, Friday learns Maria's current whereabouts.

    Teams of male and female officers are assigned to operate the locations on the list that Billy and Dallas gave Friday. Friday and Dorothy Miller bust Mother Maria at her new location, just as another elderly victim of the same scam comes by for an appointment. Back at HQ, Friday brings in Dallas and Billy for a meeting in front of Lambert. They want to know what's going on with so many of their locations being busted along with those of their chief rival. When they ask what bonehead arrested Mother Maria, Friday tells them that he did. When they start to realize that the heat's on them, they object that they came of their own free will. Lambert promises that they won't leave the same way.

    Dragnet60.jpg
    Dragnet61.jpg

    _______

    The Wild Wild West
    "The Night of the Amnesiac"
    Originally aired February 9, 1968
    To clarify, Jim and the stage that he's riding in while escorting the vaccine are attacked in the teaser. First Jim is assaulted by a big bruiser of a fellow passenger named Irish (Jerry Laveroni), giving us a Bondian brawl in the confined (but relatively roomy-looking) passenger compartment; then the driver is shot via rifle by Furman's brother, Silas (Kevin Hagen); and after Jim gains control of the stage, he's shot in the temple. Crotty and his men take the vaccine from a strongbox stored on top of the stage.

    Back at the train, Artie and the Official of the Week, Colonel Petrie (George Petrie), learn that the vaccine has been stolen, and we learn that they anticipate an epidemic in the additional days it would take to ship another supply out West. The ransom note leads them to Furman Crotty (Ed Asner!), who was put away by Jim and Artie two years prior.

    A wandering not-good Samaritan with a mule (Gil Lamb) finds the unconscious Jim and takes his hat, shirt, vest, and gunbelt, but isn't feeling so pervy as to take his pants or shoes. So when Jim comes to, we have not just amnesiac Jim West, but shirtless amnesiac Jim West. The next stranger he meets is Cloris Colter (Sharon Farrell), who takes him in after he rescues her from an assailant. Later, at the saloon where Cloris works a gaming table, some bandits who participated in the stage raid try to kill Jim. After the fight, Artie--disguised as a traveling magician while tailing the released Crotty--rides right by Jim on the street without seeing his face. Artie's bag of tricks includes a bouquet of flowers that spew knockout gas after being pulled out of his hat.

    All is not well in the Crotty family--Furman kills Silas as Silas tries to kill him. Cloris eavesdrops on the outlaws and learns West's name as well as the name of the man behind the outlaws. Jim, desperate to find out who he is, sends her to arrange a meeting. They set up an ambush instead, but Crotty's chief henchman, Rusty (John Kellogg), makes the mistake of wanting to engage in a shoot-out with West, who demonstrates that his lack of memory hasn't left his shooting skills wanting. By this time Artie is hot on Jim's trail, having spotted his gun belt in a pawn shop, learned who sold it to the proprietor, and tracked the man down to retrieve Jim's other belongings. Hearing of the shootout, Artie finds Jim, who doesn't recognize him and treats him as a potential enemy. But when Crotty's men try to sneak up behind Artie, seeing his partner in danger snaps Jim's memory back into place.

    Jim, Artie, and Cloris are taken prisoner, and learn that Crotty has ransomed vials containing only well water to the government, as his plans involve letting the riff-raff die and remaking the country in his own image. Left alone, the trio free themselves of their ropes but surmise that they're on the platform of a scale that's rigged to blow if it registers less than their combined weight (462 pounds). They manage to draw over enough barrels to get off the scale, but come up a little short, so the place shortly goes up anyway. Following that, Jim and Artie mop up Crotty and his gang.

    In the coda, Jim decides to feign a relapse of his amnesia to get him and Artie out of having to attend a party being held by a senator and his wife, in favor of a double date with Cloris and a friend.

    _______

    He goes back a smidgen farther:


    Been using that handle somewhere or another since I was in my 20s. It becomes increasingly accurate.

    I have to wonder how you and your pal Squig would feel about the album. It uses words and phrases, but most of them are in Portuguese…including the opening section of the full-length version of "The Girl from Ipanema":


    Watch what you say...The Unborn Mixer also has thin skin!

    I could tell by Mike's voice. This one isn't bad, but it demonstrates that even at this late point with more control over their music, they were still derivative. They seem a bit late to the party in riffing on Sgt. Pepper.

    Yep, a pretty underwhelming "other Top 30 single" for Mama.

    Pretty much sums it up.

    Would this song be where you got your notions about Kenny going into bars and gunning people down?

    Indeed, it's got sign o' the times mojo. It's also Tommy's last major classic with the Shondells, though we'll have a couple more Top 30s coming from them this year.

    ETA: It's six o' clock, do you know where your Stooges are? One sign o' the timesy gag in a 1945 short that they showed involves a society type throwing a party to show off her new-fangled television receiver! "You'll not only hear the broadcast, but you'll actually see it, on this screen."
     
    Last edited: Jun 2, 2019
  13. The Old Mixer

    The Old Mixer Mih ssim, mih ssim, nam, daed si Xim. Moderator

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    The Old Mixer, Somewhere in Connecticut
    _______

    55th Anniversary Album Spotlight

    The Beatles' Second Album
    The Beatles
    Released April 10, 1964
    Chart debut: April 25, 1964
    Chart peak: #1, May 2 through 30, 1964

    TheBeatlesSecondAlbum.jpg

    The album opens with its first of five covers from the British album With the Beatles that were left off its American counterpart, Meet the Beatles!...the George-led Chuck Berry song "Roll Over Beethoven"...a Canadian import of which was briefly on the singles chart around the time that this album was released.

    Next up is Lennon-McCartney original "Thank You Girl"...originally the B-side of "From Me to You" in the spring of 1963 on both sides of the pond...and at the time of this album's release, the charting B-side of "Do You Want to Know a Secret" on Vee-Jay in the States.

    After that is a trio of covers from With the Beatles...the first being John and George's powerful rendition of Smokey Robinson & The Miracles' 1962 hit "You Really Got a Hold on Me":


    This is followed by the George-led "Devil in Her Heart," a gender-swapped cover of an obscure 1962 B-side by a girl group called The Donays.

    Following that is John's smokin'-hot rendition of Barrett Strong's 1959 classic "Money (That's What I Want)"...which had the more prestigious place of closing With the Beatles.


    Closing side one of this album is "You Can't Do That," the B-side of the Beatles' newest single, "Can't Buy Me Love". "Can't Buy Me Love" was at the top of the chart and "You Can't Do That" was charting separately when this album was released.

    Side two opens with Paul's howlin' tribute to one of his greatest influences, rock 'n' roll pioneer Little Richard. At the time, the Beatles commonly closed live shows with "Long Tall Sally":


    American audiences were getting this and the next number--both recorded during the sessions for A Hard Day's Night--a couple of months ahead of their UK release as two of four tracks on the Long Tall Sally EP. The other spankin'-new release on this album is the John-led, Lennon-McCartney-penned, Walken-approved "I Call Your Name":


    Next is our final cover from With the Beatles, John's rendition of the Marvelettes' 1961 chart-topper "Please Mr. Postman".

    The final two songs on the album are both sides of a single that Capitol must have regained control of by this point, though the A-side was still on its way down the chart on the Swan label when the album was released. The single's B-side was Lennon-McCartney original "I'll Get You":


    While the A-side, closing this album, was the Beatles' early signature hit and recent American chart-topper "She Loves You"--Yeah! Yeah! Yeah!

    Not bad for a hodge-podge of odds and ends tossed together by Capitol...but of course, it was still the Beatles, and I'm sure that the American record buyer of 1964 had little cause to complain about this release.

    _______
     
    Last edited: Jun 2, 2019
  14. RJDiogenes

    RJDiogenes Idealistic Cynic and Canon Champion Premium Member

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    Joe Friday versus the Gypsies. This was all very odd. At least he didn't visit Maria Ouspenskaya at her caravan in the fog.

    "Grazed." :rommie: It's amazing how often Western heroes get "grazed" in the temple, resulting in minor, but plot-complicating injuries.

    Hmm.

    Another hazard of the trade. I just saw this happen to Paladin a couple of weeks ago.

    Good thing it wasn't Amanda.

    Aww, so sweet.

    I always get amnesia when I'm expected to attend a party.

    I don't know how much I'd like the album, but that full-length version of "Girl From Ipanema" is cool. The bilingual aspect puts me in mind of "Guantanamera," another song with a similar beauty.

    We have nice soft blankets waiting for you in L&D. :D

    You may be thinking of "Coward of the County," a loathsome song that advocates vigilante murder over pacifism. This song doesn't advocate violence, although it does reference it in its depiction of the horrifying despair of a crippled war veteran.

    The one about them as plumbers? I love those old-fashioned TVs with the little doors on them. :D

    Coincidentally, I saw Beatlemania last night. It was good, but not as good as the Beatlemania I saw some years ago. Those guys were like clones (and their show was somewhat more elaborate).

    It's kind of amazing how many covers they did when they were first starting out.
     
  15. The Old Mixer

    The Old Mixer Mih ssim, mih ssim, nam, daed si Xim. Moderator

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    _______

    55th Anniversary Cinematic Special

    From Russia with Love
    Directed by Terence Young
    Starring Sean Connery, Pedro Armendariz, Lotte Lenya, Robert Shaw, Bernard Lee, and Daniela Bianchi
    Premiered October 10, 1963 (UK); April 8, 1964 (US)
    General US release: May 27, 1964
    FWIW, I did do a 55th anniversary rewatch of Dr. No last year, but I wasn't covering 55th anniversary business in as much detail at the time, so I didn't write it up.

    Typical of the earlier Bond films, From Russia with Love is much closer to the Fleming book than will become the norm over the course of the film series. It's perhaps second only to On Her Majesty's Secret Service in its faithfulness to the source material, and thus feels more grounded than most of the other films, relatively speaking. The major difference in the overall plot is that the film makes the bad guys' scheme a plot by SPECTRE to pit the British and Russians against each other, while in the book it was simply a Russian plot against the British. The film has SPECTRE operation-runner Rosa Klebb (Lotte Lenya) working for the KGB counterintelligence branch SMERSH as a cover; and offers another nod to Bond's recurring nemesis from the early novels when Bond, upon learning that Grant (Robert Shaw) is an enemy operative, initially assumes that he's working for SMERSH.

    Series First: This one gives us our first pre-credits teaser, Dr. No having opened with the gun barrel logo leading straight into the credits. But here the barrel circle diminishes and the screen goes to back, rather than widening to reveal the first shot of the teaser as will be the case starting with Thunderball. Bond only sort-of appears in the teaser...the man that Grant kills in a SPECTRE training exercise is disguised as Bond, and hence played by Connery until the Scooby Doo reveal. Walter Gotell, who'll become a familiar face in the recurring role of General Gogol in the Moore era, makes his series debut as Morzeny, who runs the training camp.

    The credits sequence, which features the credits being projected onto the body of a belly dancer, uses an instrumental version of the title song that includes a segment of the James Bond Theme. The version sung by Matt Munro is saved for the end of the film.

    More Series Firsts: Our first appearance of Blofeld, physically portrayed here by Anthony Dawson (previously Prof. Dent in Dr. No) and voiced by Eric Pohlmann...collectively credited as "?," with the character's ever-changing face remaining unseen until You Only Live Twice. It's also the first appearance of the white Persian cat that will visually tie the various seen and unseen Blofelds together.

    Early Installment Weirdness: There's more continuity here than will become the norm, with SPECTRE scheme-planner Kronsteen (Vladek Sheybal) referencing the title character and events of the previous film. We get something a lot like the Q Branch scenes of later films when Morzeny is showing Klebb the training camp, with SPECTRE trainees using deadly weapons against live targets.

    Also in the "unusual amount of continuity with the previous film" department, Bond's first scene has him on a date with Sylvia Trench (Eunice Gayson), who'd originally appeared in Connery's famous introductory scene in Dr. No. We also see Bond's Bentley...his personal car in the books, but written out of the film series in Goldfinger in an offhanded way that suggested it was supposed to be a company car.

    A Huge Series First: Desmond Llewelyn makes his series debut, here identified as Boothroyd, the character from the books played by Peter Burton in Dr. No. Llewelyn will become a beloved fixture of the series under the better-known alias of Q:

    Bowing out of the role in 1999's The World Is Not Enough, Llewelyn appeared in 17 Bond films. His run is rivaled only by Lois Maxwell, who appeared in the most consecutive Bond films (14)...Desmond having not appeared in 1973's Live and Let Die.

    Pedro Armendariz, who was terminally ill during filming and died months before its release, delivers as one of Bond's more memorable allies from the books, Turkish station head Kerim Bey. A detail I never noticed before: The picture of Churchill on Bey's desk.

    The parts with Bond arriving in Istanbul and checking into his hotel play a lot like the similar scenes in Dr. No. Here Bond outsmarts himself by calling the desk to get another room after he finds all the bugs in his first one...playing right into SPECTRE's hands, as they put him in the bridal suite where they have a movie camera hidden behind the mirror.

    The Gypsy girl fight stands out as perhaps the most iconic scene from the film:

    John Barry's "007 Theme" makes its debut during the subsequent assault on the Gypsy camp. Not to be confused with the "James Bond Theme," it will become a recurring piece in action sequences of the early film series, making its final appearance in 1979's Moonraker after being absent from most of the '70s films.

    The movie poster of Anita Ekberg that camouflages Krilencu's escape hatch had been one of Marilyn Monroe in the book. And the Lektor decoding machine was originally known as the Spektor, the name having been changed for the film for obvious reasons. As I recall, the Spektor in the book was treated as a not-particularly-valuable MacGuffin that was being used as an obvious lure. Here the Lektor is treated as a more serious objective, not only by the British but by SPECTRE.

    I get a giggle out of Bond telling Tatiana (Daniela Bianchi) that he has to keep a meeting with Kerim on the train because it's tea time...literary Bond was outspoken in his loathing for tea. We get one of film Bond's rougher scenes with a woman when he slaps Tatiana for information after Kerim's murder. It's a nice, subtle touch that she's clearly still upset about this in the dining car.

    The other major difference from the novel is how the film adds two action sequences after what had been the climax of the book--Bond's train compartment fight with Grant:

    We'll be getting similar fight sequences in Live and Let Die and The Spy Who Loved Me.

    Bond restores some of his gentleman cred when he makes an effort to bring the drugged Tatiana along for his escape from the train. The first part of the added escape sequence is the famous helicopter chase, inspired by a scene from North by Northwest:

    The second part has SPECTRE pursuing Bond and Romanova by boat:


    The bit at the end with Bond fighting Klebb in the hotel room played a much more pivotal role in the book, where it ended with Bond succumbing to a wound from the poison-tipped shoe dagger, leaving his fate hanging. This was Fleming's attempt to give himself an out from continuing the series. The scene in Dr. No in which Bond is issued his Walther PPK, with a reference to a jamming incident that caused him to spend six months in the hospital, is picked up from the book, which was the next in the series. In the book, that incident was the conclusion of the From Russia, with Love novel.

    NOT QUITE THE END

    JAMES BOND

    WILL RETURN IN
    THE NEXT
    IAN FLEMING THRILLER..
    "GOLDFINGER"

    _______

    Yeah...assuming it was based on reality, all the stuff about American fortune tellers being networked in a Gypsy Mafia was news to me.

    What I found novel about this episode is how Friday effectively went undercover as himself.

    Yeah, and they milked it for an awkward man-love moment.

    :lol:

    :lol:

    I was thinking of how you were under the impression that there was a multiple shooting involved in the climax of "Coward," when I always took it as a brawl. Apparently there is an acknowledged ambiguity in that part of the song...
    ...though I'd argue that the final iteration of the song's refrain, "Sometimes you gotta fight when you're a man," more readily evokes a fistfight than a shooting incident. But I was reminded of your take on "Coward" by the following lyric from "Ruby"...
    ...which I'd say leaves much less room for ambiguity.

    Filling albums with covers was the norm in those days. Three of the Beatles' first four British albums are roughly half-full of covers. But the covers found on the early albums barely touch upon the years that Beatles primarily played covers in clubs. There's a lot more of their cover repertoire to be found in the BBC collections.
     
    Last edited: Jun 3, 2019
  16. gblews

    gblews Vice Admiral Admiral

    Joined:
    Apr 13, 2004
    Location:
    So. Cal.
    I let out a little yelp when I scrolled down and saw this photo of the cover of The Beatles Second Album. That album and the Vee-Jay release might be their least freaked out over, albums released in America. I still have my originals of these both
    John had a real thing for Smokey songs. I think I've mentioned before in this thread that he was quoted saying All I Gotta Do was his attempt at writing a Smokey song. After hearing this, I wished Smokey had covered "Do".

    Truly is a great cover of this song.
    Wow, never knew this was a cover and I've never heard the original, I don't think.
    "Smokin-hot" is the right term. Song is played with wild abandon, something the band did a lot, especially in the early day

    George named this song as one of his favorite to play. When I saw the YouTube tutorial on how to play the song, it's easy to see why. The lead guitar part is one of those 'fun to play' parts. This song also stands out for being one of the band's most "bluesy" originals, IMO.
    Songs like this are a big reason Paul (and John) were both in Rolling Stones' top 10 of 100 Greatest Singers of the Rock Era.
    What do you mean, "Walken-approved"?
    This might be my favorite of all of the Beatles' covers. I LOVED the original. It's one of my all time favorite songs, but I honestly like the Beatles version just as much. They do a few little things with the song that are different from the original that really work great..
    Yes, it was a strange little album, especially following Meet The Beatles which had mostly originals. But as you say it was still the Beatles. and these guys were one of the great cover bands, ever.

    I always recall being shocked that these British guys did MUCH better covers of American records, particularly soul and r&b tunes. I could be wrong about this, but I really believe that so often when Americans covered soul and r&b songs, the purpose was not so much to do a great alternate version of the song, but to create a version that could be "marketed" to a particular segment of the record buying American populace.

    However, British bands, though recording these songs for profit as well, were more likely to choose songs and perform them, more as an homage to the song or the song's writer or original performer.
     
  17. The Old Mixer

    The Old Mixer Mih ssim, mih ssim, nam, daed si Xim. Moderator

    Joined:
    Feb 4, 2002
    Location:
    The Old Mixer, Somewhere in Connecticut
    I like freaked-out Beatles. :p

    Nor have I...to YouTube!

    It was the B-side of a song called "Bad Boy" that wasn't the Larry Williams song that the Beatles also covered. And it was apparently the Donays' only record...I have to imagine the songwriter was pleased that the Beatles covered it!


    Used to be quite the meme.

    I just realized that with the early releases from the A Hard Day's Night sessions, we're starting to hear George's 12-string guitar work...a distinctive development in not just the band's sound, but that of rock going forward.

    Its WIki page says that it was Motown's first #1, but on the Tamla label.

    Indeed!
     
    Last edited: Jun 3, 2019
  18. RJDiogenes

    RJDiogenes Idealistic Cynic and Canon Champion Premium Member

    Joined:
    Jun 11, 2003
    Location:
    RJDiogenes of Boston
    Have you read the books? I've only read the first one.

    SPECTRE has obtained Rollin Hand technology.

    So that's where Stephen King got the idea.

    One of the things that makes movie Bond a more sympathetic character.

    Ditto.

    Who else could he be? :rommie:

    :rommie:

    Oh, yeah. True, the lyrics are kind of ambiguous. Somehow I remember him grabbing a gun, but that doesn't actually happen. But even so, the repudiation of pacifism remains, which is something that became an escalating theme in comics and movies and so on throughout the 80s and beyond.

    Also true, but here it's not an endorsement, but an illustration of the tragic state this man has come to.
     
  19. The Old Mixer

    The Old Mixer Mih ssim, mih ssim, nam, daed si Xim. Moderator

    Joined:
    Feb 4, 2002
    Location:
    The Old Mixer, Somewhere in Connecticut
    Devoured many times when I was younger. I got into Bond at least as much through the books as the films.

    That, or Rollin Hand obtained...say, maybe that's why Phelps got rid of him and his secret wife--I could totally see those two as SPECTRE agents!

    Save that the way it was played, movie Bond was clearly bullshitting about it. "Well, uh...it's tea time!" The phrase "tea time" coming out of Connery's mouth automatically has a humorous ring to it.
     
  20. plynch

    plynch Rear Admiral Rear Admiral

    Joined:
    Apr 28, 2007
    Location:
    Outer Graceland
    Playing long sets is a lot of material. Figure 12 tunes per hour if you do some banter, song stories, schtick in between, which the Beatles don't from what I've seen. So you do covers too unless you have a ton of originals and they're awesome and your fan base knows them. People like songs they're familiar with. Duke Ellington with his amazing originals also played covers of current hits live.