Month: July 2019

Moviedrome Mondays: The Good, the Bad and the Ugly (1966)

by John Charet

At the end of this blog entry, readers will find a youtube video link of Moviedrome presenter Alex Cox introducing director Sergio Leone’s 1966 iconic spaghetti western The Good, the Bad and the Ugly. At the same time, they can also read the transcript (read here). The episode’s original airdate was August 28, 1988 (read here). Though he considers it to be one of his favorite spaghetti westerns (read here), I think he may have changed his mind later because in an interview promoting his book about the subgenre (10,000 Ways to Die), he gives off the vibe that it has not aged well (read here). As for myself, I love the film, even though I rank it lower than it’s two predecessors – A Fistful of Dollars and For a Few Dollars More. If any of you readers are interested in reading my list of my favorite Sergio Leone films, read here.

Here is a youtube video link of Alex Cox’s Moviedrome intro to The Good, the Bad and the Ugly.

Here is a a youtube video link to the film’s US trailer

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Moviedrome Mondays: The Man Who Fell to Earth (1976)

by John Charet

Below I posted a youtube video link that I found of Moviedrome presenter Alex Cox introducing the late great director Nicolas Roeg’s (who sadly passed away last year) 1976 cult science-fiction drama The Man Who Fell to Earth to go along with the obligatory transcript (read here). The episode’s original airdate was August 21, 1988 (read here). Not much to say here except that I agree with everything that Cox says about Roeg’s films – like a fine wine, his films improve with age – is perhaps the highest compliment that he pays to them. Despite calling him not only the most interesting, but the best of the British director working at that time (read here), I think he always ranked the other late great British filmmaker Ken Russell much higher (read here). Nevertheless, Cox’s statements about the former were said in 88, whereas his words on the latter were written in 2011 when Russell died. If any of you readers are interested in reading my list of my favorite Nicolas Roeg films, read here.

Here is a youtube video link to Alex Cox’s Moviedrome intro to The Man Who Fell to Earth. P.S. I do not know If the audio or quality is a little-off, but I personally feel that this youtube video link is in fine quality.

This youtube video link may be the film’s U.S. trailer

This youtube video link may be either another U.S. trailer for the film or it’s UK trailer (not sure though)

This is a youtube video link to the Big Audio Dynamite song (E=MC2) that pays homage to some of Nicolas Roeg’s films – Cox briefly mentions it in his intro.

Moviedrome Mondays: One from the Heart (1981)

by John Charet

Since I could not find a youtube video link of Moviedrome presenter Alex Cox’s intro to director Francis Ford Coppola’s experimental 1981 romantic musical drama One from the Heart, I will have to make do with a transcript of it (read here). The episode’s original airdate was August 14, 1988 (read here). While Cox does not hate One from the Heart, he does feel that it’s straightforward love story meshes uneasily with it’s (actually) $26 million budget (he said $25 million), which was spent on lavish sets and dance numbers. At first, I thought he was out of his mind when he dismissed Tom Waits and Crystal Gayle’s songs as awful, but thankfully, he elaborates on this by implying that it is not so much the songs as it is with it’s relationship to certain scenes in the film. Personally, I adore One from the Heart for all the elements Cox sees as drawbacks. Along with Peter Bogdanovich’s At Long Last Love and Martin Scorsese’s New York New York, Coppola’s One from the Heart is a daring entry within the musical genre that (sadly) could have only been made during a period that appreciated such genius whether it be a success or folly – apparently all three of them ended up in the latter category. The period I am talking about here is obviously the New Hollywood era (1965-1983). Hit or miss (and I count myself in the former group), One from the Heart makes Damien Chazelle’s La La Land (with all due respect to him, the film and it’s supporters) look like the bland overrated tripe that it is. If any of you readers are interested in reading my list of my favorite Francis Ford Coppola films, read here.

I do not know what is considered to be the actual original theatrical trailer for it, but here is a youtube link to one of the American ones below

Though it says 2003 on the description, I think the youtube link to this one below may have came much earlier than that

And finally, here is a youtube link to screenwriter Larry Karaszewski’s Trailers from Hell (also read here) commentary for another one below