The Three Faces of Neville

In 1954, Richard Matheson first published his sci-fi/horror novelette, I Am Legend. The book is no stranger to modern motion pictures. It first found its way onto the big screen in 1964 in an Italian-made film called The Last Man On Earth, starring Vincent Price. Just seven years later Warner Brothers updated and retooled Matheson's story in a big-budget release called, The Omega Man featuring 1970s sci-fi hero, Charlton Heston. Matheson's tale of a vampire plague leaving only one uninfected man alive to battle any remaining vampire/zombies, may have also inspired a generation of "Night of the Living Dead" films and it's many clones. In this current world of remakes and CGI visual effects it's no wonder that Warner Brothers has dusted off "Omega Man's" 1971 screenplay along with Matheson's original concept and given modern-day Sci-fi hero, Will Smith a crack at portraying Robert Neville. As Neville, Matheson's protagonist, Smith picks up where Heston left off, as a military doctor trying to find a cure for this man-made virus gone amok. Smith wanders the streets of post-plague New York, a solitary man but for the company of his faithful German Shepherd, Sam. Together they hunt for food and supplies all before nightfall, to avoid the hives of "dark seekers" (Matheson's Vampires) who prey at night. As Neville, Smith finds the time to daydream about his life before the plague wiped out civilization, his lost family and his failed attempt to save mankind from the impending plague. What works best in this latest version are the solitary moments Neville experiences early on in the film, which thanks to Smith's skill full performance are at times both light and touching. Something both Price and Heston failed to do in the previous two film versions. This latest filming of I Am Legend is at its best a much better version of '71's "Omega Man." What the original "Omega Man" lacked in suspense and striking visuals, this Legend has in spades. What this new version could have used is more of what made Matheson's novel so intriguing. Matheson's Neville was no doctor, but rather a lone victim who can't quite understand what has happened to the world around him. So he spends much of his days raiding libraries and performing amateur experiments trying to find some scientific reason as to why humanity has succumbed to this bizarre illness. And as for his nights, they are spent hunting and killing the Vampires who are trying to put an end to his unique survival. Of the three filmed versions of Matheson's story, only Price's "Last Man on Earth" comes closest to telling what its author had originally intended. But even in that cheaply made film, a warfare plague is used in place of Matheson's original idea of an illness brought about by vampires and how it was scientifically possible for them to replace all of mankind. Maybe in another thirty years a new sci-fi cinema star will emerge and finally bring Matheson's original and much darker intentions to the silver screen!

Shoulda Been Nominated!

For years I've been screaming at my TV set whenever the yearly crop of Oscar nominations are announced. For there is almost always a list of performers and artists whose work continues to go unrecognized by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. But through the years I've also pondered how certain films and performances from the past were neglected by the Academy as well. I'm sure politics and outside forces played their parts equally in the past as they still do today, but I still find it amazing sometimes that certain performers and certain films went virtually unnoticed at Oscar-time. One such performance and film that comes to mind, is Boris Karloff in the 1968 film Targets. Made by Roger Corman's 1960s low-budget film company and directed by Peter Bogdanovich in his debut as a director, the story of how the film came to be is as almost as interesting as the movie itself. Bogdanovich had worked previously with Corman as a writer on two earlier films, when the producer offered the young talent a chance at directing a feature. Karloff had owed Corman two-days of work as an actor, and the producer was determined to get his money's worth. He proposed to Bogdanovich that he write a script utilizing Karloff for the two-days of filming, and then splice in unused footage of the horror star from a recent Karloff/Corman collaboration The Terror, and then shoot an hour of new footage without Karloff and somehow find a way to tie it all together and make a new Karloff Picture! Bogdanovich jumped at the chance to direct and then went about the task of writing this puzzle of a picture with his then wife, Polly Platt. And what Bogdanovich and Platt came up with was not only brilliant considering the filming conditions just described, but also a suspenseful tension filled 90 minutes in the dark with an understated, yet towering performance by the film's legendary star. Karloff basically plays himself as an aging out-of-fashion horror star from the past named Byron Orlok, who has announced his retirement from movies, since the violence in the real world around him has far exceeded the horrors he is famous for portraying on screen. Bogdanovich cuts back and forth from Karloff's exit from the big-screen to a young all-American boy gone bad (based on the Charles Whitman shootings at the University of Texas) as he slowly and methodically kills his family and others for no apparent reason at all. The long slow tracking shots, the use of natural sound with no music score (all brilliantly edited by Verna Fields) gives Targets a slightly documentary feel that would later figure greatly into the films of the 1970s. The uneasiness of the shooter scenes are at time absolutely chilling as in the end, when Bogdanovich finds a way to bring Karloff and the young assassin together for the films climax. Karloff again proves his weight in gold in the final scene, as he does throughout the entire film. It is here that I found myself wondering why his performance went unnoticed by the Academy in 1968. But, as Bogdanovich would later tell that even after the film was picked-up by Paramount Pictures for release (normally all Corman produced films were distributed through the low-budget AIP), it failed at the box-office probably due to the recent assassinations of both MLK and RFK. If the film were made today, any aging actor playing the Orlock role would no doubt get a nomination out of sympathy as often older actors do these days, but back in '68 it would have been genuinely deserved. It would have been nice if the man who created one of the most enduring images in film history had been recognized by the industry for such a valedictorian exit.

Boris Karloff Movies

"You've got your slavery, and little good may it do you! Now vote, damn you!"

Today, being the first Monday in November is traditionally Election Day. And like the quote from 1776 used to title this posting, I'd like to hearken back to a point made in a previous posting about that film. (See "Mr. Secretary, New York abstains-courteously." from 7/4/2006) We used any excuse to exploit a theme when running films on the monitors in our store, be it a holiday or celebrity death or even the start of a war. I remember during the run-up to the second Gulf War, when the country was sharply divided over calls to invade or not to, films like Battleground, Sands of Iwo Jima and even anti-war films like Paths of Glory all made the rounds on our TV screens. I recall one irate customer storming out because I chose to run the latter film starring Kirk Douglas. I meant no disrespect, I just though if we were going to do this we might as well be fair to all sides of the argument. And of course Election Day was no exception. From presidential biopics like, Abe Lincoln in Illinois and political corruption films like All The President's Men to comedic looks at the election process in films like The Candidate and Dick, there was no shortage of films to show on the subject of politics. One of my all-time favorites was the 1964 film version of the Gore Vidal play, The Best Man. Starring Henry Fonda and Cliff Robertson, The Best Man is a darkly satiric look at the election process in this country back in the days when national party conventions actually meant something and served a purpose. Henry Fonda plays liberal candidate for President, William Russell, who faces a fight for the party nomination against an opportunistic reactionary politician in the form of Cliff Robertson. The two vie for the endorsement of a former president played brilliantly by Lee Tracy, who earned an Oscar nomination for reviving the role he also played on the Broadway stage. Of course there are skeletons in both men's closets and whether or not each will use the damaging information he has on each other is the basis for the film's plot. Fonda's unique resolution is one that students of politics today should watch just to see how the outcome of political conventions could bring surprises back in those days. I often think of The Best Man every four years when the now two-hour paid political advertisements that disguise themselves as party conventions bore us all to tears. I sit and watch these pre-approved candidates from both parties who are so rarely as interesting as the men who have come before them both on and off screen.