The original 1988 bubblegum musical comedy, starring Ricki Lake, satirises racism and body-conformism with left-field flair
Baltimore is the “Town Without Pity” of Gene Pitney’s song in John Waters’ classic 1988 high-camp bubblegum musical comedy now on re-release, about a youth TV pop show of the early 60s whose executives are resisting integration and black music even as their teen fans demand it. It’s a film that satirises racism and body-conformism, and 35 years on, it looks more than ever like a left-field riposte – part critical, part supportive – to the extravagant nostalgia of Grease, American Graffiti and TV’s Happy Days.
Hairspray spawned a stage musical version and a remake, but neither had the flavour of this first film. Despite the high production values and relatively family-friendly script, Hairspray has the spirit of provocation in Waters’ early underground movies, a spirit which survives most obviously in the gross-out scene where a...
Baltimore is the “Town Without Pity” of Gene Pitney’s song in John Waters’ classic 1988 high-camp bubblegum musical comedy now on re-release, about a youth TV pop show of the early 60s whose executives are resisting integration and black music even as their teen fans demand it. It’s a film that satirises racism and body-conformism, and 35 years on, it looks more than ever like a left-field riposte – part critical, part supportive – to the extravagant nostalgia of Grease, American Graffiti and TV’s Happy Days.
Hairspray spawned a stage musical version and a remake, but neither had the flavour of this first film. Despite the high production values and relatively family-friendly script, Hairspray has the spirit of provocation in Waters’ early underground movies, a spirit which survives most obviously in the gross-out scene where a...
- 6/7/2023
- by Peter Bradshaw
- The Guardian - Film News
Cynthia Weil, who teamed with husband Barry Mann to write such pop classics as “You’ve Lost That Lovin’ Feelin’,” “On Broadway,” “We Gotta Get Out of This Place” and dozens of other hits for the likes of the Drifters, the Ronettes, Dolly Parton and B.J. Thomas, died Thursday. She was 82.
Weil’s daughter, Dr. Jenn Mann, said via publicist Sarah Schlief: “My mother, Cynthia Weil, was the greatest mother, grandmother and wife our family could ever ask for. She was my best friend, confidante and my partner in crime and an idol and trailblazer for women in music.”
Weil and Mann, who were married for 62 years, were among the most important songwriters in the early days of rock ‘n’ roll. They won a pair of Grammys and were Oscar-nominated for Best Song for “Somewhere Out There,” the Linda Ronstadt-James Ingram duet from An American Tail. The couple would share...
Weil’s daughter, Dr. Jenn Mann, said via publicist Sarah Schlief: “My mother, Cynthia Weil, was the greatest mother, grandmother and wife our family could ever ask for. She was my best friend, confidante and my partner in crime and an idol and trailblazer for women in music.”
Weil and Mann, who were married for 62 years, were among the most important songwriters in the early days of rock ‘n’ roll. They won a pair of Grammys and were Oscar-nominated for Best Song for “Somewhere Out There,” the Linda Ronstadt-James Ingram duet from An American Tail. The couple would share...
- 6/2/2023
- by Erik Pedersen
- Deadline Film + TV
Mick Jagger became a household name with The Rolling Stones in the mid-1960s. He’s remained the epitome of frontman cool ever since. Jagger’s biggest hit song in the 21st century was a song he basically gave away to Matchbox Twenty. The tune didn’t resonate the same way as some of the Stones’ songs that weren’t quite No. 1 hits, but it put him back on the charts.
Mick Jagger | Dimitri Hakke/Redferns Mick Jagger’s biggest hit song of the 21st century was Matchbox Twenty’s ‘Disease’
Jagger co-wrote nearly every Rolling Stones song dating back to their early years. His 2001 solo album Goddess in the Doorway helped spur his biggest hit of the new millennium.
Matchbox Twenty singer Rob Thomas was a background singer on the record (per AllMusic). He brought “Disease” to one of the recording sessions and ran it past Jagger. The singer...
Mick Jagger | Dimitri Hakke/Redferns Mick Jagger’s biggest hit song of the 21st century was Matchbox Twenty’s ‘Disease’
Jagger co-wrote nearly every Rolling Stones song dating back to their early years. His 2001 solo album Goddess in the Doorway helped spur his biggest hit of the new millennium.
Matchbox Twenty singer Rob Thomas was a background singer on the record (per AllMusic). He brought “Disease” to one of the recording sessions and ran it past Jagger. The singer...
- 5/12/2023
- by Jason Rossi
- Showbiz Cheat Sheet
The Rolling Stones eventually developed into a band capable of writing their own No. 1 hits, but they relied on cover songs and kind composers giving them music on many of their early tunes. John Lennon and Paul McCartney gave the Stones the song that became their first hit. Mick Jagger and Keith Richard gave away a top-10 hit to another musician before The Rolling Stones notched a top-10 tune of their own.
(l-r) Keith Richards and Mick Jagger | Keystone Features/Hulton Archive/Getty Images Mick Jagger and Keith Richards gave away their first top-10 song, ‘That Girl Belongs to Yesterday’
The Beatles mined the catalogs of Buddy Holly and Chuck Berry for some of their earliest hits. The Rolling Stones were no different. They relied on cover songs early in their career. A Berry cover (“Come On”) became the band’s first charting single in July 1963. Their version of Holly...
(l-r) Keith Richards and Mick Jagger | Keystone Features/Hulton Archive/Getty Images Mick Jagger and Keith Richards gave away their first top-10 song, ‘That Girl Belongs to Yesterday’
The Beatles mined the catalogs of Buddy Holly and Chuck Berry for some of their earliest hits. The Rolling Stones were no different. They relied on cover songs early in their career. A Berry cover (“Come On”) became the band’s first charting single in July 1963. Their version of Holly...
- 5/4/2023
- by Jason Rossi
- Showbiz Cheat Sheet
Burt Bacharach was one of the most distinguished and successful composers of the last century.
Working most fruitfully with the lyricist Hal David, his addictively intelligent songs embodied unconventional time signatures, shifting chords and a fusion of pop and rock, jazz, and Latin elements. With Bacharach’s adventurous song structures married to David’s words, often bittersweet lyrics as though from a cinematic school of realism, the duo were like the personification of New York’s Brill Building hit factory.
Although not all these songs were with David, Bacharach, who has died aged 94, enjoyed more than 50 UK Top 40 hits, and more than 70 in his native US. A remarkable 38 of these tunes were with the classically trained former gospel singer Dionne Warwick with whom the pair began working in 1962. Several of Bacharach’s compositions were bigger hits in the UK than in America.
The pair first hit the charts in 1957 with...
Working most fruitfully with the lyricist Hal David, his addictively intelligent songs embodied unconventional time signatures, shifting chords and a fusion of pop and rock, jazz, and Latin elements. With Bacharach’s adventurous song structures married to David’s words, often bittersweet lyrics as though from a cinematic school of realism, the duo were like the personification of New York’s Brill Building hit factory.
Although not all these songs were with David, Bacharach, who has died aged 94, enjoyed more than 50 UK Top 40 hits, and more than 70 in his native US. A remarkable 38 of these tunes were with the classically trained former gospel singer Dionne Warwick with whom the pair began working in 1962. Several of Bacharach’s compositions were bigger hits in the UK than in America.
The pair first hit the charts in 1957 with...
- 2/11/2023
- by Chris Salewicz
- The Independent - Music
When the sad news of Burt Bacharach’s death came down Thursday morning, your first memories of the songwriting genius likely depended on your age. If you grew up in the Sixties, you probably remember the hits he wrote with Hal David for artists like Gene Pitney, Dionne Warwick, and B.J. Thomas. Children of the Eighties are likely more familiar with Christoper Cross’ “Arthur’s Theme (Best That You Can Do),” Neil Diamond’s “Heartlight,” and the Dionne Warwick charity single “That’s What Friends Are For.”
But if your...
But if your...
- 2/9/2023
- by Andy Greene
- Rollingstone.com
Songwriter, composer, producer and arranger Burt Bacharach, a dominant force in American popular music for half a century, died of natural causes in Los Angeles on Wednesday. He was 94.
Bacharach’s publicist Tina Brausam revealed the news on Thursday.
As a tunesmith, the nonpareil melodist Bacharach found fame in every medium.
His songs — many of them written with lyricist Hal David — became chart-topping successes, particularly in the hands of vocalist Dionne Warwick. Among ’60s songwriting duos, only Lennon-McCartney rivaled Bacharach-David in terms of commercial and artistic achievement. Bacharach collected six Grammys as a writer, arranger and performer from 1967-2005.
His music was ubiquitous on screens both big and small in the ’60s and ’70s, and he was recognized by the Academy Awards and Golden Globes for his work on “Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid” (1969) and “Arthur” (1981). He collected a 1971 Emmy for a TV recital of his work.
On Broadway,...
Bacharach’s publicist Tina Brausam revealed the news on Thursday.
As a tunesmith, the nonpareil melodist Bacharach found fame in every medium.
His songs — many of them written with lyricist Hal David — became chart-topping successes, particularly in the hands of vocalist Dionne Warwick. Among ’60s songwriting duos, only Lennon-McCartney rivaled Bacharach-David in terms of commercial and artistic achievement. Bacharach collected six Grammys as a writer, arranger and performer from 1967-2005.
His music was ubiquitous on screens both big and small in the ’60s and ’70s, and he was recognized by the Academy Awards and Golden Globes for his work on “Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid” (1969) and “Arthur” (1981). He collected a 1971 Emmy for a TV recital of his work.
On Broadway,...
- 2/9/2023
- by Chris Morris
- Variety Film + TV
Burt Bacharach, the velvety smooth composer and orchestrator whose partnership with lyricist Hal David brought swanky sophistication to pop music in the 1960s, has died. He was 94.
Bacharach died Wednesday of natural causes at his home in Los Angeles, publicist Tina Brausam announced.
Bacharach composed the music for some 50 top 10 hits, including six that reached No. 1. Among his most celebrated efforts were “Walk on By,” “Raindrops Keep Fallin’ on My Head,” “What the World Needs Now Is Love,” “What’s New Pussycat?” “(They Long to Be) Close to You,” “Alfie,” “This Guy’s in Love With You” and “Do You Know the Way to San Jose?”
He and David were dubbed the “Rodgers & Hart of the ’60s.” Many of their songs were popularized by Dionne Warwick, whose singing style inspired Bacharach to experiment with new rhythms and harmonies, composing innovative melodies for such tunes “Anyone Who Had a Heart” and “I Say a Little Prayer.
Bacharach died Wednesday of natural causes at his home in Los Angeles, publicist Tina Brausam announced.
Bacharach composed the music for some 50 top 10 hits, including six that reached No. 1. Among his most celebrated efforts were “Walk on By,” “Raindrops Keep Fallin’ on My Head,” “What the World Needs Now Is Love,” “What’s New Pussycat?” “(They Long to Be) Close to You,” “Alfie,” “This Guy’s in Love With You” and “Do You Know the Way to San Jose?”
He and David were dubbed the “Rodgers & Hart of the ’60s.” Many of their songs were popularized by Dionne Warwick, whose singing style inspired Bacharach to experiment with new rhythms and harmonies, composing innovative melodies for such tunes “Anyone Who Had a Heart” and “I Say a Little Prayer.
- 2/9/2023
- by Duane Byrge and Lisa de los Reyes
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
What a great title to revisit — John Ford’s ‘Kabuki’ western is less about action and more about form and tradition — especially the way the truth gets plowed under in ‘the West,’ which is of course America reduced to a mythological keepsake. John Wayne, James Stewart and Lee Marvin’s characters seem to know they are playing roles that never change. We might question the values but there’s no denying that said values prevailed as the country’s consensus self-image. Paramount’s new 4K makes a great-looking movie look even better, Pilgrim — and we don’t tolerate no disloyal debates ’bout film grain North of the Picket Wire.
The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance
4K Ultra HD + Blu-ray
Paramount Presents
1962 / B&w / 1:85 widescreen / 123 min. / Street Date May 17, 2022 / Available from Amazon
Starring: John Wayne, James Stewart, Vera Miles, Lee Marvin, Edmond O’Brien, Andy Devine, Ken Murray, John Carradine, Jeanette Nolan,...
The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance
4K Ultra HD + Blu-ray
Paramount Presents
1962 / B&w / 1:85 widescreen / 123 min. / Street Date May 17, 2022 / Available from Amazon
Starring: John Wayne, James Stewart, Vera Miles, Lee Marvin, Edmond O’Brien, Andy Devine, Ken Murray, John Carradine, Jeanette Nolan,...
- 5/14/2022
- by Glenn Erickson
- Trailers from Hell
B.J. Thomas, the vocalist who mixed the stylish sophistication of a pop crooner and the down-home soul of a country singer on songs like the 1969 smash “Raindrops Keep Fallin’ on My Head,” died Saturday in his Arlington, Texas home at the age of 78. A rep for Thomas confirmed the singer’s death. The cause of death was lung cancer, which Thomas had publicly revealed he had in March.
Thomas’ multi-genre success included major hits on the adult contemporary and Christian music charts, the latter of which would earn him five...
Thomas’ multi-genre success included major hits on the adult contemporary and Christian music charts, the latter of which would earn him five...
- 5/29/2021
- by Stephen L. Betts
- Rollingstone.com
Phil Spector, the monumentally influential music producer whose “Wall of Sound” style revolutionized the way rock music was recorded in the early 1960s, died Saturday at the age of 81. Spector’s life was tumultuous and ultimately tragic; as groundbreaking as his studio accomplishments were, those achievements were all but overshadowed by his 2009 conviction for the murder of actress Lana Clarkson.
Spector’s death was confirmed by the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation. “California Health Care Facility inmate Phillip Spector was pronounced deceased of natural causes at 6:35 p.m.
Spector’s death was confirmed by the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation. “California Health Care Facility inmate Phillip Spector was pronounced deceased of natural causes at 6:35 p.m.
- 1/17/2021
- by Keith Harris
- Rollingstone.com
It’s a game I’ve played for some time, creating a soundtrack for each of my novels. I suppose once it was solely a distraction activity, and certainly an indulgence, but now it feels an important part of my writing process. After the first draft, and during the first readthrough to take stock, I start gathering tracks that evoke the tone of the novel, or the characters, or particular scenes. I often include references to specific music in my stories and books, and often they’ll make it into the soundtrack playlist, but not always – the soundtrack is usually less literal than that.
Like many writers, even if I begin a novel with a clear, detailed plan, that may only really cover plot and structure, whereas themes only emerge after the first draft. During a readthrough I’ll spot threads or commonalities, which will often have been included unconsciously,...
Like many writers, even if I begin a novel with a clear, detailed plan, that may only really cover plot and structure, whereas themes only emerge after the first draft. During a readthrough I’ll spot threads or commonalities, which will often have been included unconsciously,...
- 7/23/2020
- by Tim Major
- DailyDead
Our 75th guest! The legendary filmmaker John Sayles joins Josh and Joe to explore some of his favorite movies.
Show Notes: Movies Referenced In This Episode
Ulzana’s Raid (1972)
Django (1966)
The Birth Of A Nation (1915)
City Of Hope (1991)
Return of the Secaucus 7 (1980)
The Challenge (1982)
Avalanche (1978)
Eight Men Out (1988)
Piranha (1978)
The Howling (1981)
The Wizard Of Oz (1939)
The Killers (1964)
The King And I (1956)
Time Without Pity (1957)
The Incredible Mr. Limpet (1964)
Ben-Hur (1957)
The Ten Commandments (1956)
Two Women (1960)
Sunset Boulevard (1950)
Citizen Kane (1941)
Spartacus (1960)
Fixed Bayonets! (1951)
The Steel Helmet (1951)
Merrill’s Marauders (1962)
Targets (1968)
Touch Of Evil (1958)
2001: A Space Odyssey (1968)
Woodstock (1970)
Crime In The Streets (1956)
The Bad Seed (1956)
The Abominable Dr. Phibes (1971)
Fedora (1978)
Dune (1984)
The Cotton Club (1984)
Choose Me (1984)
Raising Arizona (1987)
El Norte (1983)
Yellow Sky (1948)
Apocalypse Now (1979)
The Irishman (2019)
A Beautiful Day In The Neighborhood (2019)
The Thing (1982)
Chinatown (1974)
Manhattan (1979)
Duck Amuck (1953)
Goodfellas (1990)
Humanoids Of The Deep (1980)
Cockfighter (1974)
Dynamite Women a.k.a. The Great Texas Dynamite Chase...
Show Notes: Movies Referenced In This Episode
Ulzana’s Raid (1972)
Django (1966)
The Birth Of A Nation (1915)
City Of Hope (1991)
Return of the Secaucus 7 (1980)
The Challenge (1982)
Avalanche (1978)
Eight Men Out (1988)
Piranha (1978)
The Howling (1981)
The Wizard Of Oz (1939)
The Killers (1964)
The King And I (1956)
Time Without Pity (1957)
The Incredible Mr. Limpet (1964)
Ben-Hur (1957)
The Ten Commandments (1956)
Two Women (1960)
Sunset Boulevard (1950)
Citizen Kane (1941)
Spartacus (1960)
Fixed Bayonets! (1951)
The Steel Helmet (1951)
Merrill’s Marauders (1962)
Targets (1968)
Touch Of Evil (1958)
2001: A Space Odyssey (1968)
Woodstock (1970)
Crime In The Streets (1956)
The Bad Seed (1956)
The Abominable Dr. Phibes (1971)
Fedora (1978)
Dune (1984)
The Cotton Club (1984)
Choose Me (1984)
Raising Arizona (1987)
El Norte (1983)
Yellow Sky (1948)
Apocalypse Now (1979)
The Irishman (2019)
A Beautiful Day In The Neighborhood (2019)
The Thing (1982)
Chinatown (1974)
Manhattan (1979)
Duck Amuck (1953)
Goodfellas (1990)
Humanoids Of The Deep (1980)
Cockfighter (1974)
Dynamite Women a.k.a. The Great Texas Dynamite Chase...
- 4/7/2020
- by Kris Millsap
- Trailers from Hell
On April 28th and 29th 1971, George Jones and Tammy Wynette spent two days at Nashville’s Columbia Recording Studios laying down tracks for what would be the married couple’s first duets album. Titled We Go Together, the LP was Jones’ first for Epic Records, the label to which Wynette was already signed. Released in October 1971, just days after Jones inked a 10-year pact with the label, We Go Together reached Number Three on Billboard’s Top Country Albums chart, and yielded the couple’s first chart hit as a duo.
- 4/29/2019
- by Stephen L. Betts
- Rollingstone.com
Second Amendment or not — someone needs to keep handguns away from Maggie Simpson.
The eternal baby who once shot down Springfield’s richest man is trigger-happy again in a new custom animation for The Simpsons that marks the Fox stalwart’s 636th episode this Sunday. It’s the one that will break the tie with CBS’ Gunsmoke for the longest-running primetime scripted series in U.S. history. Check out the whip-crackin’ clip below.
The Simpsons noted the looming historic airing at the end of last week’s episode, when Homer went meta and told the children that their series was about to pass Gunsmoke. But Bart, of course, played Captain Bringdown by noting all those radio episodes the Dodge City-set Western did. D’oh!
Come to think of it, didn’t The Simpsons start out as a radio show back in the late-’40s? Guess it just seems like it’s been around that long.
The eternal baby who once shot down Springfield’s richest man is trigger-happy again in a new custom animation for The Simpsons that marks the Fox stalwart’s 636th episode this Sunday. It’s the one that will break the tie with CBS’ Gunsmoke for the longest-running primetime scripted series in U.S. history. Check out the whip-crackin’ clip below.
The Simpsons noted the looming historic airing at the end of last week’s episode, when Homer went meta and told the children that their series was about to pass Gunsmoke. But Bart, of course, played Captain Bringdown by noting all those radio episodes the Dodge City-set Western did. D’oh!
Come to think of it, didn’t The Simpsons start out as a radio show back in the late-’40s? Guess it just seems like it’s been around that long.
- 4/27/2018
- by Erik Pedersen
- Deadline Film + TV
Get it together, Adam Levine. Get. It. Together. Based on the poll that followed last Tuesday’s recap of The Voice’s Top 12 results show, you really, really dislike Mark Isaiah. But, reading between the votes, isn’t it actually the teen’s coach that we’re most eager to eliminate? If the kid couldn’t get together a passable rendition of Drake’s “One Dance,” shouldn’t Adam have steered him in another direction? While we’re on the subject of the Maroon 5 frontman, his selection of Shania Twain’s “Man! I Feel Like a Woman” for Lilli Passero...
- 5/2/2017
- TVLine.com
We still love John Ford's bitter-sentimental look back at the lost Myth of the West. John Wayne and James Stewart are at least thirty years too old for their roles, but everything seems to be happening in a foggy reverie, so what's the difference, Pilgrim? Great comedy and Lee Marvin's marvelous villain, plus the assertive 'print the Legend' message that's been hotly debated ever since. The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance Blu-ray Warner Home Video / Paramount 1962 / B&W / 1:85 widescreen / 123 min. / Street Date October 13, 2015 / 14.98 Starring John Wayne, James Stewart, Vera Miles, Lee Marvin, Edmond O'Brien, Andy Devine, Ken Murray, John Carradine, Jeanette Nolan, John Qualen, Willis Bouchey, Carleton Young, Woody Strode, Denver Pyle, Strother Martin, Lee Van Cleef Cinematography William H. Clothier Production Designer Eddie Imazu & Hal Pereira Film Editor Otho Lovering Original Music Cyril J. Mockridge Writing credits James Warner Bellah & Willis Goldbeck from a story by...
- 10/20/2015
- by Glenn Erickson
- Trailers from Hell
Songs On Screen: All week HitFix will be featuring tributes by writers to their favorite musical moments from TV and film. Check out all the entries in the series here. When we talk about underrated directors, it's hard not to mention Walter Hill. Hill is an underrated director, the way Michael Ritchie and Peter Yates were underrated directors, the way Roger Donaldson, Joe Dante, and Fred Schepisi are underrated directors. They’re all underrated because it’s only when you look at their filmographies that the numbers start to total up and you realize, boy, he directed a lot of really good movies. In Hill’s case, that list includes "The Warriors," "48 Hours," "The Long Riders," "Southern Comfort,: "Hard Times," "Trespass," and "Wild Bill." Some great. Some solid. (My personal favorite of those is Hard Times, a pulpy film about bare-knuckle boxers in the Great Depression.) There were clunkers...
- 6/25/2015
- by Michael Oates Palmer
- Hitfix
There’s probably no older musical tradition than that of the story-song. Since the dawn of time, minstrels and balladeers have written and sung songs that recited history, immortalised tall tales, and provided a way to make sure that timeless stories would never be forgotten.
The tradition of the story song has endured throughout the centuries. The idea of using music to enhance a story is one that continues to entice singers and songwriters. The stories that lie at the centre of such songs are fondly remembered by all who hear them; ask any country music fan to tell the story behind “A Boy Named Sue” or a rock fan to summarise “Born In The U.S.A.” and you’ll get a perfect recitation.
With Hollywood’s constant pursuit of well-known properties to adapt into films, you’d think that story songs would be well-tapped as film material. That’s not the case,...
The tradition of the story song has endured throughout the centuries. The idea of using music to enhance a story is one that continues to entice singers and songwriters. The stories that lie at the centre of such songs are fondly remembered by all who hear them; ask any country music fan to tell the story behind “A Boy Named Sue” or a rock fan to summarise “Born In The U.S.A.” and you’ll get a perfect recitation.
With Hollywood’s constant pursuit of well-known properties to adapt into films, you’d think that story songs would be well-tapped as film material. That’s not the case,...
- 1/13/2014
- by Alan Howell
- Obsessed with Film
Brrrrrr. Why am I chilly? Because it's December? Or is it because Cruella de Vil's cheekbones are icy shards of sinew, and I'm dreaming of snuggling them? You just don't know.
Thank God for 101 Dalmatians, the swingin', droll-as-hell Disney animated classic from 1961. Though on the surface 101 Dalmatians is a simple tale of a quaint London couple who own dalmatians and find themselves tangling with dognappers, it's also a showcase of sophisticated characters who are fun and real, even if some of them are talking dogs who've developed a doggy Amber Alert system called The Twilight Bark. Dodie Smith's classic children's book remains timeless in cinematic form, and really sassy too, on occasion. Here are five other reasons 101 Dalmatians may be the Best. Movie. Ever.
1. Cole Porter would've given his gay left nut to write, "Cru-ella! Cru-ella de Villll!"
A quick plot refresher: Struggling songwriter Roger owns an upstanding dalmatian...
Thank God for 101 Dalmatians, the swingin', droll-as-hell Disney animated classic from 1961. Though on the surface 101 Dalmatians is a simple tale of a quaint London couple who own dalmatians and find themselves tangling with dognappers, it's also a showcase of sophisticated characters who are fun and real, even if some of them are talking dogs who've developed a doggy Amber Alert system called The Twilight Bark. Dodie Smith's classic children's book remains timeless in cinematic form, and really sassy too, on occasion. Here are five other reasons 101 Dalmatians may be the Best. Movie. Ever.
1. Cole Porter would've given his gay left nut to write, "Cru-ella! Cru-ella de Villll!"
A quick plot refresher: Struggling songwriter Roger owns an upstanding dalmatian...
- 12/3/2012
- by virtel
- The Backlot
Lyricist behind some of the greatest pop hits of the 20th century
By contrast with his songwriter partner Burt Bacharach, whose suavely youthful looks belonged in a 1960s Martini ad, the lyricist Hal David, who has died at the age of 91, resembled a president of a suburban Rotary Club: a conservative, suit-and-tie figure from an earlier generation, modest and unassuming in conversation. But it was David's words as much as Bacharach's melodies that captured an audience for such songs as Anyone Who Had a Heart, I Say a Little Prayer, Walk on By, (There's) Always Something There to Remind Me, Alfie, Trains and Boats and Planes, (They Long to Be) Close to You, Raindrops Keep Fallin' on My Head and Do You Know the Way to San Jose?
Their period of greatest productivity, between 1962 and 1968, coincided with the heyday of their partnership with Dionne Warwick, the gospel-trained singer who gave voice to their finest collaborations.
By contrast with his songwriter partner Burt Bacharach, whose suavely youthful looks belonged in a 1960s Martini ad, the lyricist Hal David, who has died at the age of 91, resembled a president of a suburban Rotary Club: a conservative, suit-and-tie figure from an earlier generation, modest and unassuming in conversation. But it was David's words as much as Bacharach's melodies that captured an audience for such songs as Anyone Who Had a Heart, I Say a Little Prayer, Walk on By, (There's) Always Something There to Remind Me, Alfie, Trains and Boats and Planes, (They Long to Be) Close to You, Raindrops Keep Fallin' on My Head and Do You Know the Way to San Jose?
Their period of greatest productivity, between 1962 and 1968, coincided with the heyday of their partnership with Dionne Warwick, the gospel-trained singer who gave voice to their finest collaborations.
- 9/2/2012
- by Richard Williams
- The Guardian - Film News
The new slate of stars competing in the next season of Dancing with the Stars has been released. And Ok, it’s a little bland. For every Ralph Macchio and Wendy Williams you have your Chris Jericho’s and Chelsea Lane’s (seriously who is this person?). But there is one person, one Queen, who has been cast on the show that we will almost certainly tune in and root for. There is no font big enough to announce her, but we’ll try: Kirstie Alley (That is seriously the biggest font this blog will let me use.) I lahlahlahlooooove Kirstie Alley. I was one of exactly one people who watched her Showtime show Fat Actress (the same sentence can be applied to the Showtime show Episodes), and have always felt badly for her given the media’s scrutiny of her weight fluctuation. The media has been all too cruel to Kirstie,...
- 3/1/2011
- by Michelle Collins
- BestWeekEver
Sylvia Anderson is well known as the pioneering producer who co-created many iconic sci-fi shows of the 60s and 70s.
These included the marionette puppet programmes Stingray, Thunderbirds, Captain Scarlet & The Mysterons and Joe 90 and the live-action series UFO, The Protectors and Space:1999.
Sylvia, now 72, provided the voices for many of the characters, notably Thunderbirds super-agent Lady Penelope who was driven around in her six-wheeled, hi-tech, pink Rolls-Royce (registration FAB1) by a chauffeur called Parker.
Sylvia has now teamed up with composer and record producer David Courtney on a live show called My Fab Years to promote her new biography of the same name.
David Courtney will host the shows and talk to Sylvia about her life, aided by unique archive film footage of many of the classic TV shows she helped to create.
Courtney has worked with some of the music industry's legends such as Roger Daltrey, Sir Paul McCartney,...
These included the marionette puppet programmes Stingray, Thunderbirds, Captain Scarlet & The Mysterons and Joe 90 and the live-action series UFO, The Protectors and Space:1999.
Sylvia, now 72, provided the voices for many of the characters, notably Thunderbirds super-agent Lady Penelope who was driven around in her six-wheeled, hi-tech, pink Rolls-Royce (registration FAB1) by a chauffeur called Parker.
Sylvia has now teamed up with composer and record producer David Courtney on a live show called My Fab Years to promote her new biography of the same name.
David Courtney will host the shows and talk to Sylvia about her life, aided by unique archive film footage of many of the classic TV shows she helped to create.
Courtney has worked with some of the music industry's legends such as Roger Daltrey, Sir Paul McCartney,...
- 12/3/2009
- by David Bentley
- The Geek Files
In the buttery light of Mad Men's Sterling Cooper offices, Mother-Jonesing upstart Peggy Olson holds a clue to an upcoming episode's foray into the increasingly happenin' 1963. Is it a sexy-lady fountain pen that calls to mind the indefatigable derriere of Joan Holloway? Or maybe a Gene Pitney-themed lollipop, one that reinforces Peggy's relative infancy and inability to cope with the British Invasion? A Chinese finger-trap? The teensy testicles of Roger Sterling? Thanks to spoiler photos posted today on Ontd, the telltale object, as well as Peggy's warlord grip, are revealed after the jump.
- 8/20/2009
- Movieline
Scott Walker -- 30 Century Man
BERLIN -- "Scott Walker -- 30 Century Man" is presented as a straight documentary about an American pop singer who had one U.K. hit in the 1960s as a member of a boy band and has gone missing ever since, but it plays like the slyest of spoofs.
According to Stephen Kijak's film, Walker is a shadowy legend in the music business whose determination to make albums in the face of almost complete indifference by record buyers ranks him alongside Brian Wilson as a lost god of rock.
There might be genuine Walker fans who wish to see their forgotten hero given his due, but those who have not acquired that strange taste will find the film hard to take unless it is viewed as a dead-on parody. It could achieve must-see status among pop ironists. The film is screening here in the Panorama Documentaries section.
There was a small group of American singers in England in the '60s who were well-liked because they were so screamingly funny, such as Gene Pitney, P.J. Proby and Walker. Unheralded at home, they had big, tortured voices, featured overwrought arrangements on their records, took themselves with absolute seriousness and spoke the most amusing twaddle.
Walker arrived as part of The Walker Brothers, a boy band in which no one was named Walker and who were not brothers. They had a big hit with "The Sun Ain't Gonna Shine Any More," a Bob Crewe and Bob Gaudio song that Frankie Valli had recorded earlier without success. They made a couple of albums, followed by solo outings by Scott, and then it was all over.
Although no one else appears to have been curious, Kijak's film asks just what this missing genius has been up to for the past 20 or 30 years. He has a satirist's ear for the telling comment.
David Bowie, the film's executive producer, talks about how influenced he was by Walker even though he bursts out laughing when he's played one of his songs. Legendary transsexual arranger Angela Morley, previously Wally Stott, says Walker would ask for a bit of Sibelius here and some Delius there, but when she played one of the star's tracks, she asks, "Is that one of mine? It's so long ago."
Brian Eno, Jarvis Cocker, Damon Albarn and others rhapsodize about Walker's poetry and imagery, and naturally Sting is on hand to observe of Walker's songwriting: "It reminds me of the darkness behind the romanticism." Of course it does.
Walker's perfectionism over precisely the right sound he demands for his records is demonstrated by showing him listening patiently to a man punching a slab of meat and directing him on the pace and speed of the strikes so that in the end it sounds exactly like a man punching a slab of meat.
Walker is seen at length talking about his music and how he can't listen to it once it's been recorded, though the film allows him to wail away ad nauseum. "It's a nightmare. I never listen to it again," he says. As Neil Innes said in "The Rutles", he's suffered for his music, now it's our turn.
SCOTT WALKER -- 30 CENTURY MAN
Missing in Action Films
Credits:
Director-screenwriter: Stephen Kijak
Producers: Mia Bays, Stephen Kijak, Elizabeth Rose
Executive producer: David Bowie
Director of photography: Grant Gee
Editors: Grant Gee, Mat Whitecross
Running time -- 95 minutes
No MPAA rating...
According to Stephen Kijak's film, Walker is a shadowy legend in the music business whose determination to make albums in the face of almost complete indifference by record buyers ranks him alongside Brian Wilson as a lost god of rock.
There might be genuine Walker fans who wish to see their forgotten hero given his due, but those who have not acquired that strange taste will find the film hard to take unless it is viewed as a dead-on parody. It could achieve must-see status among pop ironists. The film is screening here in the Panorama Documentaries section.
There was a small group of American singers in England in the '60s who were well-liked because they were so screamingly funny, such as Gene Pitney, P.J. Proby and Walker. Unheralded at home, they had big, tortured voices, featured overwrought arrangements on their records, took themselves with absolute seriousness and spoke the most amusing twaddle.
Walker arrived as part of The Walker Brothers, a boy band in which no one was named Walker and who were not brothers. They had a big hit with "The Sun Ain't Gonna Shine Any More," a Bob Crewe and Bob Gaudio song that Frankie Valli had recorded earlier without success. They made a couple of albums, followed by solo outings by Scott, and then it was all over.
Although no one else appears to have been curious, Kijak's film asks just what this missing genius has been up to for the past 20 or 30 years. He has a satirist's ear for the telling comment.
David Bowie, the film's executive producer, talks about how influenced he was by Walker even though he bursts out laughing when he's played one of his songs. Legendary transsexual arranger Angela Morley, previously Wally Stott, says Walker would ask for a bit of Sibelius here and some Delius there, but when she played one of the star's tracks, she asks, "Is that one of mine? It's so long ago."
Brian Eno, Jarvis Cocker, Damon Albarn and others rhapsodize about Walker's poetry and imagery, and naturally Sting is on hand to observe of Walker's songwriting: "It reminds me of the darkness behind the romanticism." Of course it does.
Walker's perfectionism over precisely the right sound he demands for his records is demonstrated by showing him listening patiently to a man punching a slab of meat and directing him on the pace and speed of the strikes so that in the end it sounds exactly like a man punching a slab of meat.
Walker is seen at length talking about his music and how he can't listen to it once it's been recorded, though the film allows him to wail away ad nauseum. "It's a nightmare. I never listen to it again," he says. As Neil Innes said in "The Rutles", he's suffered for his music, now it's our turn.
SCOTT WALKER -- 30 CENTURY MAN
Missing in Action Films
Credits:
Director-screenwriter: Stephen Kijak
Producers: Mia Bays, Stephen Kijak, Elizabeth Rose
Executive producer: David Bowie
Director of photography: Grant Gee
Editors: Grant Gee, Mat Whitecross
Running time -- 95 minutes
No MPAA rating...
- 2/19/2007
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
IMDb.com, Inc. takes no responsibility for the content or accuracy of the above news articles, Tweets, or blog posts. This content is published for the entertainment of our users only. The news articles, Tweets, and blog posts do not represent IMDb's opinions nor can we guarantee that the reporting therein is completely factual. Please visit the source responsible for the item in question to report any concerns you may have regarding content or accuracy.