Bonnie Morgan is an actress who specializes in what she calls ‘otherworldly movement’. Remember the creepy little girl in THE RING 2 who crawled out of the well like a spider? That was Bonnie. In MEN IN BLACK 2 she doubled over and a headlike appliance was placed on her behind, given the character the nickname “Jabba the Butt”. ‘Bendy Bonnie’ is a 31-year old contortionist. She discovered she was capable of dislocating her shoulders and hips at 9 years old and eventually took her talent on tour with her actor/stuntman father and sister. Bonnie has put her unique skills to work in such films as MINORITY REPORT, HELLBOY 2, PIRANHA (she was the gal in the inner tube!), FRIGHT NIGHT, and TV’s The Sarah Conner Chronicles. Her most substantial role to date was in this year’s surprise hit THE DEVIL INSIDE as Rosa, a young woman whose body becomes twisted into all sorts of unnatural positions when she’s visited by a group of Exorcists. When I saw THE DEVIL INSIDE, the scenes involving Rosa impressed me greatly because I had the sense that there was no CGI involved in that sequence, yet I couldn’t quite figure out how this possessed character became such a human corkscrew. I recently had the chance to speak with Bonnie about the role and asked her about her unusual skills.

THE DEVIL INSIDE is available on Blu-Ray and DVD Tuesday May 15th

Interview conducted by Tom Stockman April 16th 2012

We Are Movie Geeks: I dug up my review of THE DEVIL INSIDE from January and I singled you out. I wrote “Bonnie Morgan plays Rosa, the first girl they try to exorcise and that one delirious sequence, with contortion, blood, and screaming vulgarity, is the film’s best.”

Bonnie Morgan: Oh Tom, I feel so loved!

WAMG: You know what they should do; they should make a prequel to THE DEVIL INSIDE all about Rosa. Have they talked about that at all?

BM: They haven’t actually. I believe they are working on a sequel but they haven’t told me anything specifically, but I’m on board for that idea!

WAMG: I think Rosa is still alive.

BM: Absolutely, Rose survives her ordeal. I’m not sure what state her interior is.

WAMG: I liked the movie and gave it a good review. You were so scary in it. How did you get the role?

BM: That was a straight-up actress audition. I got a call from my agent who said she was sending me in to be an Italian teenager. I have flaming red hair, very blue eyes, I look like an Irish girl. She sent in a head shot, we call it my ‘broken picture’, which is a shot of the pose I was doing laying on the bed and I have very dark hair. I bought a dark wig because I couldn’t leave it up to the imagination of the filmmakers. I play poker with a guy named Mark Fiorini. He’s an Italian who played the Pope in ANGELS AND DEMONS and he translated the Italian dialog for my audition. So I went there feeling Italian, dislocating my shoulders, speaking a little Yiddish, a little bit of whatever else I know, some profanity that wasn’t supposed to be there. The casting director thought that was very interesting. Two other actresses were looking at me and thinking “What the crap?”

WAMG: Two Italian actresses probably

BM: Possibly. So for the callback, I went in and it was William Brent Bell, the director, and two producers and the three of them had my headshots and were looking at me like three smiling kids and wondered if I could really do this and asked me if I speak Italian. I said “I speak enough to get through your script”. So they asked me to show them what I do. They didn’t say contortionist in the original breakdown, they just got that with me.

WAMG: Did you research possession cases to see how a possessed woman might act?

I’ve actually researched possession for a few other roles. I kinda seem to be the go-to girl for creepy, possessed kids. I was Samara in THE RING 2, the girl in the well, things like that. I hate to say the ‘otherworldly movement’ is my expertise but being freaky is definitely part of my business. Of course though, you research the touchstones. You build from Linda Blair. God bless her and her amazingness.

WAMG: Have you met Linda Blair?

I have not. I love her though. She does great work with animals now, and I’ve been an animal for most of my life.

WAMG: Was there any improvisation in that sequence or was that tightly storyboarded?

BM: I had very little contact with everybody before I got to Romania. By the time we got there, they looked at me and asked what I wanted to do and let me come up with some ideas of my own. Some of the more vulgar profanity was mine. I brought my sister Molly with me because on a job like that, you need a keeper to watch your back, to work with you. The scene where my shoulders dislocate in mid-air, was actually done with monofilament so that my sister was puppeteering my arms. We tried to have the Romanian effects guys help out but you need someone who knows your body, what you can do. She was just an invaluable help. The scene where I say “What is your name my daughter?” in German just freaked (lead actress) Fernanda Andrade out. She almost walked out of the room. The guys definitely gave me a pretty long leash to work with. Brent was amazing. He really knows the genre. We worked really closely and came up with some freaky stuff.

WAMG: Was there any CGI in that sequence?

BM: No, that was all me. There was one bit of CGI where the blood hits the camera, and there was a bit of wire removal. They actually cut a couple of sequences that were really cool, like one where I came charging out of that spider hole in the wall. I had no stunt doubles, they figured I was capable enough.

WAMG: Perhaps that scene will make it into the special features on the DVD

BM: I wouldn’t be surprised.

WAMG: Does it ever frustrate you that modern audiences assume that a sequence like that is full of CGI?

BM: Of course. My dad was a stuntman and stunt coordinator for years so stunts have always been in my life and that’s the bane of every stuntperson’s existence that people assume a cool stunt is enhanced with CGI. But as long as it’s entertaining audiences, we know the truth. I got a phone call right after THE RING 2 came out from a producer who wanted something like my scene in that move but “real”. I said “Uh, that was me!”.

WAMG: You said your dad was a stuntman?

BM: Yes, my dad’s name is Gary Morgan. He is kind of sci-fi royalty. He played Billy in LOGAN’S RUN. He was also in CUJO. He was the stunt double for the dog!

WAMG: What was the most physically challenging part for filming your stunts for THE DEVIL INSIDE?

BM: The location was a real challenge. It was tough. It was an uninsulated stage in Romania in December. For a contortionist, cold is our kryptonite. Your muscles will try to lock up when it’s cold. It was a 17-hour day. There was a scene where Simon yanks on my hair that hurt like Hell. It was a long day. It was taxing climbing that wall, but we got a great show.

WAMG: Oh yeah, that was the best part of the movie. When did you realize that your body moved in different directions than others?

BM: After the nuclear accident……just kidding. I was 9 years old when my sister was trying to fly me off of a diving board. She grabbed my feet and pulled them behind my head and they stuck. She was quite upset but my dad was very amused and figured we could use a contortionist in the family. I started developing an act when I was 14.

WAMG: What’s the difference between your bones and mine?

BM: Our bones aren’t that different. The big difference is the muscles and the ligaments that are attached are different. Mine are hyper-mobile and elastic so I can pull the bone out of its socket at will. Yours are going to fight to stay in or are going to tear if they come out.

WAMG: What’s the worst injury you’ve ever received on a film set?

BM: I went to the hospital when I was doing Peter Pan on stage. I was doing a swordfight with a great actor named Bruce Spence.

WAMG: From ROAD WARRIOR?

BM: Yes, the gyro captain! He laid my head the crap open. Full strength with two hands, it was like being hit in the head with a bat.

WAMG: Was he playing Captain Hook?

BM: No, he was playing the giant pirate. Jason Isaac was Captain Hook. I was playing a fairy and was Wendy’s stunt double.

WAMG: I’m glad you recovered. Thank you for taking the time to speak with We Are Movie Geeks and best of luck with you career.

BM: Thank You

In 1966 Kathryn Leigh Scott, fresh out of acting school and working part time as a Playboy bunny, was was cast as Maggie Evans the waitress-turned-governess on the ABC-TV cult serial Dark Shadows. In its prime, the Dark Shadows daytime series (which ran from 1966 to 1971) attracted 20 million viewers. The spooky, literate, romance and horror-driven show had universal appeal and came to be known as the program kids ran home from school to watch. Reruns and DVD releases of all 1,225 episodes have spawned new generations of Dark Shadows fans, who attend annual Dark Shadows Festivals where cast members reunite to celebrate the show’s unending popularity. During her tenure at the show, Kathryn Leigh Scott played several roles including Josette du Pres, the ghostly lover of Barnabas Collins (Jonathan Frid), who was killed at Widow’s Hill in the 18^th-century flashbacks. After leaving the series, she co-starred in THE GREAT GATSBY (1974), and THE GREEK TYCOON (1978) and worked steadily on television in shows such as Police Squad!, Magnum, P.I., Space:1999, The Incredible Hulk, The A-Team, and Star Trek: The Next Generation.

Kathryn Leigh Scott has written several books about the series: Dark Shadows Memories to coincide with the show’s 20th anniversary, The Dark Shadows Collectibles Book about all of the merchandise associated with the show, Dark Shadows Companion as a 25th anniversary tribute, The Dark Shadows Almanac: 30^th Anniversary Tribute, and Dark Shadows memories: The 25^th Anniversary Edition. Her newest book, Dark Shadows: Return to Collinwood, co-written by Jim Pierson with a forward by Jonathan Frid, includes hundreds of rare photographs and behind-the-scenes anecdotes from Kathryn Leigh Scott (Josette DuPres), Jonathan Frid (Barnabas Collins), Lara Parker (Angelique Bouchard) and David Selby (Quentin Collins), who all appear in cameo roles with Johnny Depp, Helena Bonham Carter and Michelle Pfeiffer in the new feature Dark Shadows to be released May 11th.

Kathryn Leigh Scott’s website with information about ordering her book can be found HERE

http://www.kathrynleighscott.com/

We Are Movie Geeks caught up with Ms Scott recently to talk about her new book and her appearance in Tim Burton’s film.

Interview conducted by Tom Stockman April 9th, 2012

We Are Movie Geeks: How are things in New York?

Kathryn Leigh Scott: Things are really good.

WAMG: And you’re getting ready for Monsterpalooza?

KLS: Right, I am indeed. Lara Parker and I are going to do that one together.

WAMG: They get a big crowd at that one. I’m going to follow the structure of your book a bit and talk about the new Tim Burton DARK SHADOWS movie first. Have you seen it?

KLS: I have not. I was invited to a screening but it coincided with the day I was flying to New York.

WAMG: The trailer premiered and I think most people, including myself, were surprised how much of a comedy it looks to be?

KLS: Yes, but I’ve said this all along, there’s a lot of inherent humor in DARK SHADOWS as we all recognize, but the show was certainly not a comedy, we didn’t play it for laughs but the humor was there, it’s always been there. I think that Tim Burton is going in that direction to bring in the audience so they wouldn’t think it was just another vampire movie. Burton always does films that are tough to categorize. If you think about it, there’s a bit of fantasy in all of them, there’s a bit of the macabre. I think it’s going to be a handsome mix.

WAMG: I think it looks great.

KLS: Everybody who has seen it says you don’t know what you’re in for.

WAMG: What can you tell us about your cameo in the new DARK SHADOWS movie?

KLS: We’re (Kathryn along with original series regulars Lara Parker, Jonathan Frid, and David Selby) guests at a party. It’s the same party where Alice Cooper is performing. It was really fun. We’ve got two little segments that were in. We worked with Johnny Depp and Michelle Pfeiffer.

WAMG: There’s a wonderful photo in your book with you, Lara Parker, Jonathan Frid, and David Selby on the set. How long has it been since the four of you were last together?

KLS: Oh, fairly recently because we’re doing these Big Finish radio dramas and those are on CD so every once in a while we all get together and out on our headphones and go to studio and do one of these dramas together.

WAMG: Jonathon Frid is 88. How is he doing?

KLS: He’s doing just fine for an 88 year old. He’s showing his age though. (Jonathan Frid died four days after this interview)

WAMG: I’ve always wondered this about Frid. When he left DARK SHADOWS in 1971, it seems like he could have become a big horror star along the lines of Vincent Price and I’m sure he was offered horror roles. But he chose to move to Canada and not make films (with the exception of Oliver Stone’s 1975 shocker SEIZURE). Do you know why?

KLS: He just wasn’t interested. First of all, I don’t think he liked the genre at all. He came on DARK SHADOWS to do a Gothic drama and it became what it became but I think he really created something that was remarkable, but I don’t think the horror genre was something he cared about. He didn’t even want to do the second DARK SHADOWS movie (NIGHT OF DARK SHADOWS) in 1972. He though the first one was too violent and he fought against that the whole time, he made no bones about that with Dan Curtis. He was very disappointed with HOUSE OF DARK SHADOWS which was quite a successful film. It saved MGM the year it came out, it was a huge success.

WAMG: They hired Dick Smith for the makeup on that one, which probably wasn’t cheap and they wanted to get their moneys worth.

KLS: Smith and Rick Baker were the go-to guys for good prosthetic effects but the film was done on a miniscule budget. We had a tiny budget.

WAMG: Where was that mansion where the movie was filmed?

KLS: In Tarrytown New York in the old Jay Gould Estate, and that is where we’re having the Dark Shadows festival.

WAMG: When is that?

KLS: The weekend of July 28^th.

WAMG: Is Jonathan Frid going to be there?

KLS: I believe so, that certainly is the plan now, we’ll see what happens.

WAMG: I’ve read that Christopher Lee has a small part in the new film. Did you meet him?

KLS: We didn’t work with him but he’s in the same scene we’re in.

WAMG: How would you compare being on the set of the new film with being on the set of the TV show over 40 years ago?

It’s the difference between a 46-year old daytime soap opera shot in a cramped studio and working at Pinewood on a lavishly budgeted film where an entire city of Collinsport has been built. When I was on Widow’s Hill searching for Barnabas and so on, it consisted of about five square feet of dirt, gravel, and rock and when you’re doing a big budget feature, you’ve got everything.

WAMG: Why does the script for the new film take place in 1972?

KLS: Jeff Graham Smith does a good job of explaining why johnny Depp and Tim Burton felt so strongly about doing that. They said that it was just a very interesting year. And it happens to coincide with the year after Dark Shadows went off the air.

WAMG: Did you meet Bella Heathcote who is playing Victoria Winters/Jossette in the new film?

KLS: Yes, and she’s only a year older than I was when I originated the role.

WAMG: Did she ask you for any advice concerning her portrayal of this character?

KLS: Oh no, none of them did nor would any actor do that because it’s 46 years ago and here’s this young girl at the beginning of her career who’s already had some experience and she’s going to make it her own. And the same is true of Johnny Depp though he’s playing as homage to the original, but he’s definitely making it his own as well.

WAMG: Bella Heathcote looks just great in the trailer.

She’s beautiful! She’s got such a winning personality, just charming, but I need to say that she plays the Jossette role and the Victoria Winters role. You remember that Maggie became the governess, so that’s kind of fun because she is playing the roles that I played.

WAMG: Okay, let’s go back in time now to June of 1966. The first episode of Dark Shadows airs. Were you in it from the beginning? Were you in the first episode?

KLS: I was in the very first episode.

WAMG: How did you get the role?

KLS: My agent sent me on an audition. I had done an audition for something called ABC Repertory Company which never came to be but I did a successful audition and they liked me very much and then not long after that, my agent sent me to meet Dan Curtis. I had several auditions. I remember at one audition Louis Evans and Alexander Wolf were there and I remember seeing Nancy Barrett at one point at an audition and then I screen-tested with Mitch Ryan and another actor who were both up for the role of Burke Devlin. I think at that point, they pretty much just decided on me. I think I was too young to realize it at the time, but I think they had already decided on me, they were just deciding on which of the two Burke Devlins to hire.

WAMG: What experience did you have at that point?

KLS: I had none! I had done a television commercial for a hair spray and I had graduated from the American Academy of Dramatic Arts and one season of summer stock and I was working in a restoration comedy that was destined to go to the Eugene O’Neil Festival. That was a very busy year.

WAMG: And weren’t you working as a Playboy Bunny as well?

KLS: I was, but by that point I was just doing that on the weekends, just trying to make enough money to pay my rent. It was a busy time in terms of auditioning. I was studying acting with Uta Hagen also.

WAMG: How did Dan Curtis come up with the concept of Dark Shadows?

KLS: He claims that he was staying at the country home of an army buddy of his and that he had a dream about a girl on a train. He also claims he saw a ghostly presence, so the house was supposedly haunted and he saw this presence. He was very open to that sort of thing.What’s odd is that in person he never seemed like the type of person who  would be attracted to having anything to do with the paranormal. He was a big bear of a man. He was a very sensitive person but he looked like a big bombastic athlete

WAMG: You were in about half of the 1225 episodes of the original Dark Shadows.

KLS: Yes, about half which means I worked a couple of days a week and when I left, I worked without a contract for about 6 months. Dan wanted me to sign another contract and I felt that I had been on the show long enough and then of course I starred in the first Dark Shadows film. I really felt I had done Dark Shadows enough. Then of course it went off the air five months later.

WAMG: How long after an episode was filmed was it aired?

KLS: They always tried to be two weeks in advance. It depended though, it there were a natural disaster, it could be delayed. We butted up against the 4 o’clock news so if anything came up we were  preempted.

WAMG: Did everyone take a break on the set to watch the show while you were filming?

KLS: No. Almost nobody watched them. David Hennessy would always watch. If you git out of your make-up in time and you went into the green room before rehearsal you might watch some, but it was rare.

WAMG: There was a ton of Dark Shadows merchandise. Trading cards, boardgames, jigsaw puzzles, etc. You wrote a book on that stuff, correct?

KLS: Yes, The Dark Shadows Collectibles Book

WAMG: Do you own a lot of that stuff?

KLS: No, I’m not a collector of anything. Once in a while, people have given me things. I think I’ve got a Josette’s music box and a couple of cookbooks.

WAMG: I saw that Josette’s music box going for a couple of hundred dollars on ebay.  Has anyone ever asked you sign one?

KLS: Always, and I’ve learned how to cram my signature so it fits on the packaging.

WAMG: Why did Dark Shadows go off the air after just five years? A lot of soaps last for decades.

KLS: I think for a number of reasons. One, I think Dan was ready to move on. Two, the show got incredibly expensive, it was much cheaper to do a talk show or a game show. And three, the audiences got confused when we started doing that leviathan thing. When we went off to do the movies, the show continued in our absence. And they were trying to do both and I think they got into some story lines that were so convoluted. I don’t think I was ever in the leviathan thing. I think that occurred when I was shooting the film. So I think it was a matter of the plots getting very complicated and the show becoming too expensive and I think it’s time had just run out.

WAMG: You were born Kathryn Kringstad. Is it true you were named after a box of tissues.

KLS: Yes, that’s true. Lady Scott Tissues, it’s in the book.

WAMG: Are you surprised at the show’s enduring popularity?

KLS: Not anymore. I certainly was. I went to France and England after I left the show to do some TV and film work and when I came back I was astonished how popular the show was after it had been off the air for fifteen years and David Selby and Lara Parker told me how phenomenal this all was with reruns on PBS stations and syndication. Then we started having Dark Shadows festivals. Lara brought me to my first one. Then I realized that the show had a last power.. I think the strength came from the stories we did. I think it all comes down to story at the end, and the stories we did, even though children watching may not have understood the references to Wuthering Heights or Picture of Dorian Gray, Rebecca, or Turn of the Screw, they still recognized that it was a good story.

WAMG: What’s next for Kathryn Leigh Scott?

KLS: I’m doing two books. One is non-fiction, one is fiction. I’ve got a couple other projects brewing and I’ve decided to go back and take an acting class. It’s been a while since I’ve acted and I’m loving it. My husband passed away less than a year ago. Next week it will be a year and this had been a year of putting my life together

WAMG: You’re keeping busy.

KLS: I am keeping busy and there have been a lot of wonderful distractions. It’s been a year when one realizes one is now flying solo.

WAMG: Well, good luck with the book and everything else and thank you for taking the time to talk to We Are Movie Geeks.

KLS: You’re welcome.

Comedian Kevin Hart has been doing stand-up comedy for over a decade and has been working his way up the ladder as a movie star with recent parts in LITTLE FOCKERS and DEATH AT AFUNERAL. He has done several stand-up TV specials for Comedy Central, including I’m A Grown Little Man (2009) and Seriously Funny (2010), and his theatrically-released stand-up concert film LAUGH AT MY PAIN was a substantial hit in limited release last year. This Friday, moviegoers can see him in his largest role yet with THINK LIKE A MAN, an ensemble comedy loosely based around Steve Harvey’s self-help book Act Like a Woman, Think Like a Man costarring  Meagan Good , Gabriele Union, Taraji P. Henson and Harvey as himself (look for our review Friday morning here at WAMG). We Are Movie Geeks caught up with Kevin Hart at the Four Seasons Hotel in downtown St. Louis as he was preparing for his Friday night stand-up performance at Scottrade Center.

Interview conducted by Tom Stockman April 13th, 2012

We Are Movie Geeks: Having fun in St. Louis?

Kevin Hart: Having a ball – just got to experience opening day madness. That was pretty crazy, all the tailgating. I’ve been up since 7am doing press and those Cardinals fans have been out there eating hot dogs and drinking. I flew in last night and went to a screening of THINK LIKE A MAN.

WAMG: You were there last night? I saw it last week.

KH: What did you think?

WAMG: You were hilarious.

KH: What did you think about the rest of the movie – be honest.

WAMG: Well, it was a little long at 125 minutes, but every time they came back to you, it was great. Did you ever get a little jealous of some of the other actors because they got to do all the love scenes with the beautiful actresses in the film, Meagan Good , Gabriele Union, Taraji Henson? They would just cut back to you for comedy relief.

KH: No, I knew that once we talked about who I was going to play in the film and what I was going to do. I was the guy who was going to carry the story along narratively so from a comedy standpoint my character’s job was to advise and give the BS to the guys, so I knew I wasn’t going to get the love scenes.

WAMG: Well you do in the last ten minutes.

KH: Yes, but even that was for comedy relief.

WAMG: Were you already familiar with Steve Harvey’s book Act Like a Woman, Think Like a Man?

KH: I read it after I got the part just to research and to know more about the actual idea of where the story came from.

WAMG: In the book, Harvey categorizes men. There’s the non-committal man, the momma’s boy, etc. Which one are you?

KH: At one point I was probably the non-committal man. I can say that, especially of the realm of business that I was in, I found it hard to stay in a committed relationship, which isn’t necessarily good but you learn from your mistakes. I can say after being that guy, you realize why commitment is so important. You gotta mess up before you can be perfect. You don’t know what perfect is if you don’t make the mistakes.

WAMG: What do you think of Steve Harvey’s 90 day rule?

KH: I don’t agree with that! No way can I wait 90 days. No way in Hell. I understand that some people feel like you can, but I don’t see why. At the end of the day, what’s going to happen is going to happen. If you put a timer on something I think you take the authenticity away of what can ever happen. That’s what makes sexual relations, or love, the best – because you can’t control it. You try to control it, I think you ruin it.

WAMG: You say this line in the THINK LIKE A MAN: “People underestimate me because I’m short”. Do you think that’s true and where does that line come from?

KH: That line probably came from my Napoleon complex that I’ve had since I was seven years old. No, I don’t feel like I’m underestimated. I just love poke fun at my height when I have the chance. Self-deprecation is the funniest comedy in the world to me. When you say things that possibly people are going to say about you first, you take it away. It was something I felt was funny. It drove the scene a little more, and I think in that scene I was standing down and everybody else was up. I was looking up because of placement.

WAMG: Who were some of your influences as a stand-up?

KH: Bill Cosby first and foremost, because of his ability to be a storyteller. I pattern my stand-up in a way I tell stories with punch lines in between. Richard Pryor just for what he’s done for comedy. Eddie Murphy for the level he took comedy to and being a rock star in the comedy realm. Dave Chappelle for wittiness. Chris Rock for just being brilliant and becoming a quadruple threat. Also Seinfeld, George Carlin.

WAMG: What about Redd Foxx?

KH: Red Fox, here’s the thing, in my era even with me coming up I wasn’t educated to Redd Foxx.

WAMG: He’s from St. Louis. That’s why I brought him up.

KH: From what he did, and that age at which he did it, if you really read his life story, the road he took to where he got was crazy. Redd Foxx lived out of a car and was homeless at one point. He was having all these problems while he was being successful. It was a different era.

WAMG: Dick Gregory would also be in that category and was another comic from St. Louis

KH: Same thing, a comedian of a different era. Just to be educated on those guys and what they accomplished at the time they did it in is huge.

WAMG: Do you know Eddie Murphy.

KH: Yes, he’s a good friend of mine.

WAMG: You two should costar in a film together.

KH: We did. We did MEET DAVE which probably made about 75 dollars! But here’s the good thing, Eddie Murphy is on a pedestal in my head. The reason why is because what it is that I’m doing now, not only has he done it, he took it to a level where nobody else can probably reach. I just put out my movie LAUGH AT MY PAIN, I did it independently theatrically. It was very successful. It did close to eight million dollars on 200 screens and I researched and EDDIE MURPHY RAW back in 1985 did 50 million dollars on 1500 screens. You gotta think, 50 million dollars today is like crazy. Nobody’s doing these type of numbers. Blockbuster movies don’t do those type of numbers but this was one man. So just to have Eddie Murphy in my life as a friend and mentor is amazing to me. I’m thankful to have him.

WAMG: Good luck with THINK LIKE A MAN.

KH: Thanks.

Buxom beauty Kitten Natividad is known to movie buffs as the last of Russ Meyer’s busty starlets, having starred in the cult director’s final two films. Kitten’s untamed beauty, personal charm, sex appeal , and cartoonish 44-25-35 dimensions has left her image imprinted on the mind of many a young man who saw her in the Meyer films or her cameos in such mainstream fare as MY TUTOR (1983) and THE WILD LIFE (1984). Kitten was also Meyer’s girlfriend the last fifteen years of his life and she appeared as a stripper at the bachelor party held by Sean Penn to celebrate his 1985 marriage to Madonna.

Francesca Natividad was born in 1948 in Juarez, Mexico, one of nine children. Her family moved to El Paso, Texas, when Kitten was 10 after her mom married a man from there. In 1969 she began stripping and got her first breast implants in Mexico when she was 21. Her stage name Kitten came from her shyness when she first began appearing on stage. In 1973 she won Miss Nude Universe and caught the eye of Meyer, who hired her to costar and narrate his film UP (1976) here she was shown sitting nude in a tree quoting the poetry of Hilda Doolittle and acting as a Greek chorus to the perverted action. Kitten got her second implants right before starring in BENEATH THE VALLEY OF THE ULTRA VIXENS (1979) and her breasts ballooned up to a 44DD. In 1999 Kitten had a double mastectomy due to breast cancer. After her breasts were removed, it was discovered that the silicone used in her implants was of an industrial grade. She has since had corrective surgery and is back to the size that her fans remember her being. In 2001 she appeared in the spoof THE DOUBLE-D AVENGER with fellow Russ Meyer girls Tura Satana and Haji. Her last film SUGAR BOXX, also costarred Tura. Currently Kitten runs her fan site Kitten Klub.

http://www.kittenklub.com/

Kitten’s St. Louis area fans will be happy to learn that she has just been announced as a guest at Contamination, the Horror, Sci-Fi, and Pop-Culture Convention that will take place June 15-17 at The Renaissance St. Louis Airport Hotel. For more details about Contamination, visit their website HERE.

http://www.con-tamination.com/

We Are Movie Geeks caught up with Kitten recently at the Cinema Wasteland Convention in Cleveland. She looked fantastic and was nice enough to sit down and answer a few questions.

Interview conducted by Tom Stockman April 1st 2012

We Are Movie Geeks: How did you get your start in showbiz?

Kitten Natividad: I started off as a Go- Go dancer. Then, because I was a Go-Go dancer, I became a stripper, and in Hollywood in 1971 they were going to film a scene at the nightclub where I was working for the movie THE NEW CENTURIONS with George C. Scott and they asked me to be one of the dancers and so that was my start. Yippee!

WAMG: What were you doing before you went to Hollywood?

KN: My career started very young, right out of High School. I was 19 years old so I didn’t really do anything before that except a brief job as a sales girl at the May Company.

WAMG: I heard a story that you were Stella Stevens housekeeper at one time?

KN: This was on my High School summer vacation. I would come to L.A. from El Paso Texas and my uncle was a janitor at a nightclub where Stella’s boyfriend worked and she need a babsitter/maid and it was only until I went back to school.

WAMG: Did Stella Stevens have some connections that helped you get started in your career?

KN: No, not really.

WAMG: Are you still friends with Stella Stevens?

KN: No although I saw her not long ago at a convention. She looked great! But I didn’t want to bother her by going up and talking to her. She was very busy.

WAMG: How did you meet Russ Meyer?

KN: At a nightclub. One of the girls brought him in to case me out, to see if I could be in his films. He took a look at me and said “absolutely”!

WAMG: What was the name of that nightclub?

KN: The Classic Cat on Sunset Boulevard

WAMG: Is that a club Russ hung out at a lot to discover his busty starlets?

KN: No, but a lot of the girls that worked in his films danced there. In Hollywood, you’d get bored with one club, so you’d move on to another. A lot of girls told Russ about me and that he just had to see me and that he’d love me.

WAMG: And then you lived with Russ Meyer for many years. Were you two together until his death?

KN: I didn’t live with him. He always came and stayed with me. His house was not livable. His house was – he’s a man and it was like a warehouse, no furniture, just cases and cases and boxes and junk. We lived together on and off and I took care of him in his old age when he had Alzheimers. It was very sad and he gave it a really strong fight.

WAMG: What was Russ Meyer like on the set of his films as opposed to the way he was at home?

KN: At home he was always Russ, always the control freak, always the director, always the tyrant. And then there were mood swings where he would be so sweet and wonderful and generous. But Russ was Russ, behind or in front or without the camera.

WAMG: Why did Roger Ebert use an alias when he wrote the Russ Meyer film UP?

KN: Because he had just earned the Nobel Peace Prize.

WAMG: I believe it was the Pulitzer Prize that he won.

KN: Oh, you’re right, God, it’s morning (laughs)! He had just won that prize and didn’t want to be associated with the sex films at that point. He didn’t want people to judge him on how kinky it was.

WAMG: Did Ebert write BENEATH THE VALLEY OF THE ULTRAVIXENS as well?

KN: Yes.

WAMG: Did you meet him?

KN: Of course. I loved him. He was very jovial. He and Russ would talk and try to do outdo each other with new words and definitions. Both men were very intelligent.

WAMG: Kitten, how did you end up as the star of both R and X rated videos?

KN: I did eventually do hardcore sex movies. They would ask me and offered me a whole lot money. And I said why not, everybody watches hardcore movies so I might as well get in on it.

WAMG: Is it true you appeared on The Gong Show?

KN: Yes, I did. It was a lot of fun. I played the upstairs maid and I took everything off down to a body stocking and Chuck Barris loved it.

WAMG: What was he like?

Oh, he was fun, easygoing. He was on top of the world. He looked it and he felt it.

WAMG: Do you enjoy doing these types of conventions?

KN: Yes, I do?

WAMG: What’s the most unusual thing anyone has asked you to do?

KN: I guess it was when some guy asked me sign his toilet seat (laughs)

WAMG: That’s kinda weird

KN: No kidding!

WAMG: If they were to film the Russ Meyer biography that Jimmy McDonough wrote (Big Bosoms and Square Jaws, the Biography of Russ Meyer), who would you like to see play Kitten Natividad?

KN: Gee, I haven’t thought of that. I guess somebody who’s very vivacious and Latina.

WAMG: What’s next for Kitten Natividad?

KN: Right now I’m just a hardworking landlady which is my second career which I love and I’m doing my coffee book which is going to be very very huge. It’s going to have 10,000 pictures with my autobiography so that will take me all over promoting that.

WAMG: Good luck with that and thanks for talking to We Are Movie Geeks.

KN: You’re welcome.

Deadly Shaolin monks, legless fighters perched atop the shoulders of armless fighters, goofy cartoon sound effects, flying guillotines, black-clad ninjas, villains with long white beards laughing with voices that don’t quite seem to match their lip movements. Welcome to ‘70s Kung Fu. Bruce Lee may be dead, but the martial arts action films he helped popularize with American moviegoers will never die. Though Kung Fu movies were actually around long before the 1970s, emerging as a popular genre in China soon after the end of World War II, the decade of the 1970’s was the Golden Age of Martial Arts cinema, when the genre was an international phenomenon.

Dan Halsted has been called “The Indiana Jones of Film Archivists”. Dan is an avid collector of 35mm films with an interest in exploitation, horror and grindhouse, but his primary passion is Kung Fu Cinema of the ‘70s. Dan is the film programmer at the Hollywood Theatre in Portland OR, and founder of the Shaolin Film Archive, whose mission is to “save and preserve 35mm films from Hong Kong, China, Japan and Taiwan produced from the 1960’s to the 1990’s.” The archive is dedicated to presenting these films to a wide range of audiences and to increase awareness of the importance and cultural significance of these films. Dan Halsted recently unearthed a treasure trove that Indiana Jones would have been proud of. The Vancouver Theater in Vancouver, Canada closed down in 1985 but  Dan discovered that there were four tons (!) of 35mm prints of vintage Kung Fun movies still stashed beneath the theater’s stage. Dan wasted no time in renting a truck and traveling to Canada to rescue these prints. Dan’s adventures in Kung Fu liberation are chronicled in his blog HERE.

http://salvagingshaolin.blogspot.com/

Four tons of Kung Fu!

St. Louis-area fans of Kung Fu and cult movies in general will be glad to know that Dan is bringing his show he calls KUNG FU AND GRINDHOUSE SPECTACULAR to Webster University’s Winifred Moore Auditorium the weekend of April 21st and 22^nd. Glorious 35mm prints of vintage Kung Fu movies on the big screen – It’s gonna be epic!

On Saturday night (April 21) beginning at 7:30pm, the show at Webster University’s Winifred Moore Auditorium will consist of:

THE GRINDHOUSE TRAILER SPECTACULAR
Climb aboard the exploitation starship as we travel to the outer reaches of cinematic insanity! In the 1970′s, distributors trying to creatively sell strange movies in over-saturated markets unwittingly created some of the most mind-blowing pieces of cinema to ever rip through a film projector. This is a lineup of the best of these trailers, presented on 35mm. All the wildest scenes, strange taglines, and oddball promotional gimmicks crammed into two minute cinematic rollercoaster rides.

and

THE MYSTERY OF CHESS BOXING (1979)

The original Ghostface Killer is on the loose! A vicious villain with an unstoppable five element technique, Ghostface is killing off all his old rivals. Meanwhile, a young student tries to learn kung fu and is taken under the wing of an old chess master. The basics of chess prove to be the same as the basics of fighting, and eventually the heroes will have to fight Ghostface Killer, who verbally insults his opponents as he annihilates them. This is the only known 35mm print of this film.

On Sunday night (April 22) beginning at 7:30pm, the show will consist of:

EIGHT DIAGRAM POLE FIGHTER (1984)

A family of fighters is ambushed by invaders in a fierce battle that leaves the family’s father and four of six brothers dead. One of the remaining brothers (Gordon Liu) swears revenge, and forces his way into the Shaolin Temple to master his pole fighting skills. When his younger sister is kidnapped by the invaders, it’s payback time. After numerous jaw-dropping fight scenes, there is a massive climactic battle that ranks among the greatest action scenes in movie history. This film is directed by martial arts master Lau Kar Leung (36th Chamber of Shaolin), stars Gordon Liu (36th Chamber, Kill Bill) and is an all-out kung fu masterpiece.

and

THE BASTARD SWORDSMAN (1983)

Every ten years, the Wu Tang has a duel with their rival clan. The chief of the Wu Tang has devoted his life to learning “The Silkworm Technique” of sword fighting, but has failed to master it. At the same time, an orphan in the clan is refused in his requests to learn martial arts until a masked stranger begins training him. Before long, all roads will converge in high-flying sword fighting excitement and surreal special effects. If you’ve never seen two kung fu masters fight it out inside a large flying cocoon, here’s your chance! It also greatly influenced John Carpenter’s “Big Trouble in Little China.”

Admission is $6 for the general public, $5 for seniors (60 +), students from other schools and Webster alumni, and $4 for Webster University staff and faculty unless otherwise noted.

Winfred Moore Auditorium on the Campus of Webster University is located at 470 E. Lockwood, Webster Groves, MO 63119

We Are Movie Geeks caught up with Dan as he prepared for his trip to St. Louis and he took the time to answer a few questions.

We Are Movie Geeks: Are you old enough to have seen Kung-Fu movies on the big screen when they were new?

Dan Halstead: No, I was too young to see kung fu movies on the big screen, I discovered them on bootleg VHS. Dubbed, cropped, and looking like fourth-generation bootleg. The funny thing about bootleg VHS, these were movies shot in cinemascope, using the widest possible aspect ratio. The movies were cropped to the size of old tv’s, but there was no pan-and-scan on bootlegs. Sometimes there would be two characters talking, each outside of the frame. They were cut off from the picture, so you’re just left staring at the background listing to the dubbed conversation.

WAMG: When did you develop your passion for Kung-Fu cinema?

DH: In my early twenties. I had always liked the few kung fu movies I’d seen, but I grew up in a small town, and didn’t have access to obscure movies. In my early twenties I would scour all the small oddball video stores trying to find these films. Now with ebay and the internet, a lot of them are a lot more accessible than in the past.

WAMG: How many 35mm prints do you have in your collection and what are your favorites?

DH: I’ll do a quick background here. When I first started programming movies, I was shocked that most of my favorite films weren’t available on 35mm. The distributors were long gone, and even in the underground world of film collecting, there were very few kung fu films. Even more disturbing was the fact that no one seemed to care that so many of these movies seemed to be lost on 35mm. The holy grail print I wanted to find was EIGHT DIAGRAM POLE FIGHTER. It’s my favorite kung fu film, and I never thought I’d find it. When I finally found it, the print was in amazing condition, it could pass for a brand new print. Some other of my favorite prints are THE MYSTERY OF CHESS BOXING, SEVEN GRANDMASTERS, THE MAN FROM HONG KONG and THE VICTIM. The last one mainly because the print was in such terrible shape when I found it. I spent days repairing it, and I didn’t think it would ever be playable for an audience. I warned the crowd before I first showed it, and they didn’t care at all, it added to the experience. The movie brought the house down.

WAMG: How long have you been showing Midnight Grindhouse films in Portland?

DH: Since 2004. I don’t do midnight shows like most people do with these movies though. I do occasional weekends, but it’s usually Tuesday nights at 7:30. There’s nothing else going on in town, and the shows pack the house. I do monthly “Grindhouse Film Festival” screenings of horror, blaxploitation, sexploitation, etc. and monthly “Kung Fu Theater” of my kung fu prints.

WAMG: Which ones have received the wildest crowd reactions?

DH: Actually the trailers receive the wildest reactions. 70s exploitation films didn’t have a marketing budget outside of their two minute trailer, plus it was an over-saturated market, so they had to make you think that the movie they’re promoting is the most amazing film you’re ever going to see in your entire life. Sometimes the greatest trailers are for movies you’d never want to actually sit through. For films, the biggest crowd reactions for horror movies are to Lucio Fulci (ZOMBIE, GATES OF HELL) and to William Lustig’s MANIAC. For kung fu, the last reels of EIGHT DIAGRAM POLE FIGHTER and THE MYSTERY OF CHESS BOXING.

WAMG: How do you come across the 4 tons of 35mm Kung Fu films in that Vancouver, Canada Theater?

DH: I bought some 35mm kung fu trailers from a guy in Canada that were in unusually great condition. He wouldn’t say where he got them, but one had a movie ticket enclosed with it. It said “Shaw Theatre”. I did some research and found out that Shaw Brothers Studio had a small chain of theaters in Canada during the 70′s and early 80′s. I tracked down the woman who had been in charge of the theaters, and she gave me a key to the Vancouver theater. It had closed in 1985, and no one knew if there was any film in there. My theory (which proved to be correct) was that the prints had been shipped in from Hong Kong to Vancouver, played the theater circuit, and then were stored at the Vancouver theater and never shipped out (shipping film back to Hong Kong is crazy expensive). I’ll show a slideshow when I’m in town, but there were over 1000 reels of film hidden under the stage in the theater. It was incredible. Most are the only known prints of these films.

WAMG: Who owned them and do you own them now? Was that a difficult transaction to get hammered out?

DH: Shaw Brothers Studio (the largest studio in Hong Kong cinema history) still owned the building. I had the films donated in return for a huge tax write-off for them. It was definitely a huge pain in the ass to figure out the donation situation, and then to pull all the film out from under the stage, organize it, ship it, and get it through customs.

WAMG: What kind of shape were they in?

DH: The films are in amazing condition. It turned out to be perfect film storage condition because of being in a nice cool place under the stage, and there’s low humidity in Vancouver (humidity is the enemy of film). Also, it’s very common with films from the 70′s for the color to be faded because of the film stock used. Hong Kong films used Fujicolor film stock, which holds it’s color much better than the Eastman SP stock that was being used in the US at the time. Also, the films hadn’t been played that much, so they weren’t as scratched up and filled with splices like so many older film prints.

WAMG: Why do you think Hong Kong films seem to hold their color better than American films.?

DH: Because of the Fujicolor film stock that was used by the Hong Kong labs.

WAMG: Why MYSTERY OF CHESS BOXING, EIGHT DIAGRAM POLE FIGHTER, and BASTARD SWORDSMAN? Are they particular good examples of Kung-Fu cinema or are those prints just in superior shape?

DH: I think they’re three of the greatest kung fu films ever made. Also, they provide a variety of kung fu cinema. EIGHT DIAGRAM POLE FIGHTER is a great example of a higher-budget Shaw Brothers film. MYSTERY OF CHESS BOXING is a low budget independent film. BASTARD SWORDSMAN is again a Shaw Brothers film, but it’s from the end of the studio’s era when they were pulling out all the stops trying to keep up with competing studios, adding special effects and really off-the-wall elements. All three films also bring the house down every time I show them.

WAMG: Give me a tease of what we can expect to see on the Grindhouse trailer reel.

DH: I don’t like to give anything away about the trailers, the less the audience knows, the better. I guarantee it’s going to be jaw dropping, exhilarating and hilarious.

WAMG: I noticed on your ‘Grindhouse Film Festival’ logo you have a poster for THE FARMER? Have you found and screened a print of that? It seems to be one of the Holy Grails of lost ’70s films. I wrote an article about it (http://wearemoviegeeks.com/2009/09/not-available-on-dvd-the-farmer/ ) three years ago and am still getting comments from guys my age dying to see it again.

DH: No, I’ve never been able to find a print of THE FARMER. There was a rumor a few years ago that a new print was going to be struck and would be available for booking. Unfortunately it never materialized though.

We hope to see everyone at the KUNG FU AND GRINDHOUSE SPECTACULAR April 21st and 22nd at Webster University’s Winifred Moore Auditorium.

Hi guys! Melissa here with an exciting new tale. THE WHOLE BANANA, an indie comedy slated to release in 2013, just wrapped up filming… and I had the chance to ask Kevin Sorbo, Kristy Swanson, Stelio Savante, and director Stephen Wallis a few questions.

In THE WHOLE BANANA, A Greek god (Kevin Sorbo) helps a struggling artist (Kristy Swanson) with her lagging love life. Dominique Swain plays Swanson’s best friend and confidant and Stelio Savante portrays Swain’s long suffering husband.  Matthew Perry will play Apollo, brother to Sorbo’s Hermes. Clint Howard (The Dilemma, How The Grinch Stole Christmas) and Sienna Guillory (Resident Evil) play Fran’s fellow nicotine anonymous addicts. Brought to the screen by Magik Shoppe Pictures, Stephen Wallis (Rain from Stars, The Wicked Within) directs and produces along with John Bennett Perry,  Stelio Savante and Tom Fox.

All stills are photo credits courtesy of Lisa Villasenor.

How did you become involved in THE WHOLE BANANA?

KEVIN SORBO: Stelio Savante, producer/actor, brought me the script an d offered the Hermes role. Laughed out loud the entire read and jumped on board.

KRISTY SWANSON: I read it and I liked it, I liked all the characters and my own “Fran”. I thought it had the potential to be a fun quirky and sweet film.

STEPHEN WALLIS: I became involved in The Whole Banana back in 2003 when John Perry, Matt Perry, Tom Fox and m yself produced the play at the Court theater in los Angeles. Deb Norton, the writer was also the lead in the play and I found it to be such a fun and rewarding experience. John and I kept in touch for several years and always looked for an opportunity for us to be able to turn it into a film. Luckily the fates aligned and we were able to put it together over the past few months.

STELIO SAVANTE: Director Stephen Wallis offered me a role and I read the script & accepted. I also told Stephen that some of my friends would be great in certain roles.  Once they joined the cast, I became an official producer and also got my agency to package the film.

KEVIN SORBO: It has me in it!!  Seriously, the cast was great!  Professional, talented group of folks on both sides of the camera. Extreme low budget. Everyone worked basically for free. This was a true indie and the team came together and ga ve their all!

Evan Kelly’s debut as a feature filmmaker is THE CORRIDOR, an independent film that crosses genres and tells a fascinating story of five friends reunited in an isolated cabin in the woods. THE CORRIDOR made it’s North American premiere during the 2011 Fantastic Fest, which is when I first discovered and thoroughly enjoyed the film. THE CORRIDOR opens theatrically on March 30th, 2012. I have had the privilege to speak with Evan Kelly about the film and his experience as a filmmaker. Continue reading below to find out what he had to say…

Travis Keune: Thanks for taking the time to speak with me, Evan. I had the privilege of seeing THE CORRIDOR as part of the Fantastic Fest 2011 lineup. Congratulations on a great film! I remember the film was very well received by the crowd. Do you feel this is a film best appreciated by genre fans, or is it something anyone can take something away from?

Evan Kelly: Travis, thanks for your interest, and I am glad that you were able to catch it at Fantastic Fest 2011. Participating in that festival was a highlight and an honor for us. Their festival audience is as knowledgeable, interested, and excited as you could hope to have. We do think that it is a film that can grab and serve both a pure genre audience as well as a much larger circle. I couldn’t even count myself as a hardcore genre fan. My own viewing history has too many holes.

My entry point to the film was the relationship between the friends — which read as familiar and true on the page — and in many ways this is a character drama with a lot of borrowed elements (thriller, scifi, horror) that all grow out of the characters and the situation. Our writer, Josh, and one of our producers, Mike Masters, are the true genre fans… so they were able to keep us all honest in making sure that the genre elements were front and center when they needed to be.

TK: THE CORRIDOR is your first feature film, written by Josh McDonald, his second feature screenplay. What can you tell us about the experience of making your first film, and how did you and Josh come to work on this project together?

EK: The project started as a personal passion project of Josh’s. With the exception of some of the gristle-ly elements of the plot, there are a lot of Josh’s own experiences in the fabric of the story. He connected with Mike Masters over their shared love of horror, and they started the collaboration.

I have worked with Mike, and with our other producer, Craig Cameron, for a long time in the commercial side of our local film industry. I think they brought me on because of, and not in spite of, my outsider’s approach to the material. They were hopeful that with interests that weren’t exclusively focused on the genre beats, that we might be able to make something that is both true to the traditions of genre cinema, but might also stand out or stand apart.

EK (continued): As for a first film experience, it was humbling. In spite of attempting to prepare in every possible way — you still end up getting blindsided by a few surprises. One unexpected way was just the emotional toll of budget filmmaking of this sort. We all aspire to perfection and want the film to just come into existence as “great.” But time and resources will always re-shape your aspirations into realities. Nothing really prepares you for having to repeatedly reach “good enough” and then have to move onward. If you don’t move on, you will burn through your resources with only a sliver of a great film to show for it. You have to make all of the film — and then apply yourself in every day that follows to move it from “good enough” back in the direction of “great.”

TK: For me, THE CORRIDOR is a wonderful combination of psychological horror and philosophical science-fiction. What do you hope the audience takes away from the film, more than anything else?

EK: We were really hoping to strike a balance between making something that people can just viscerally enjoy, while also trying to make some of the ideas resonate. There are ambiguities and openings within the story designed to let people add their own interpretations and imaginings. So if we hoped for anything, it was that people would be engaged enough to invest that part of their psyche that would help them complete the picture. There will always be parts of the audience that prefer to passively receive every piece of information. We aspire to intrigue and encourage those who want to engage a little bit, and to get them to wrestle with some of their own competing conclusions.

TK: Having seen the film, I can only imagine what all films and beyond may have influenced THE CORRIDOR. Please shed some light on the inspirations and influences that helped you shape your own vision for this film.

EK: There are many influences to THE CORRIDOR both for me, and for Josh as he wrote it. We are always reluctant to mention them — as though by identifying these cinematic high-points we are offering a comparison where we will fall short. So without presuming that we should be in the same conversation, there are some obvious ones, like THE EVIL DEAD for originating the Cabin in the Woods concept, and THE THING for some of that paranoiac implosion of male aggression and suspicion. And Josh would also cite the little more obscure LET’S SCARE JESSICA TO DEATH as an earlier example of the ‘is it/or isn’t it’ treatment of mental illness.

EK (continued): Then there is a whole other category of conversation films that are (in whole or in part) about groups of friends talking, fracturing, and mending themselves. DINER, THE BIG CHILL, BEAUTIFUL GIRLS, and ALL THE REAL GIRLS, are all examples of stories that — perhaps strangely to the outside observers of this film — were part of our discussions.

TK: I felt the cast for THE CORRIDOR was incredibly spot on, naturally capturing that uneasy sense of friendship despite a horrible tragedy having torn them apart in the past. Did any of the primary cast know each other personally prior to working together on the film?

EK: There were a couple of personal connections ahead of making the film. I know that Matthew Amyotte (Bobcat) and Glen Matthews (Jim) knew each other socially. And there had been a couple of other small connections, as well. Their success is probably most attributable to three things. Firstly, we were able to spend 3 or 4 days in rehearsal in advance of shooting. These rehearsals were mostly a discussion about the story, the characters, the dynamic and the history, but they put us all in the same head space. Secondly, we shot in a pretty isolated environment — and the guys weren’t able to escape from each other in the few off-hours, so it was an immersive experience that probably accelerated their sense of familiarity. But finally, it was just their desire to commit to the experience. This was — for all of us — most of the cast included, our first opportunity on this scale, and no-one took the opportunity lightly.

TK: I was especially impressed with your choice in handling the mysterious phenomena in which the title of the film refers, utilizing the best attributes of computer generated effects without becoming a distraction from the story. How did you go about conceiving these effects to fit your vision while staying within budget?

EK: The credit for the effects goes to our VFX supervisor, Jacob Owens. The story, certainly for the most part, called for an understated presence for the Corridor. So we were trying to work with a light touch — and to create elements in-camera where we could. As things unravel, the Corridor evolves and becomes increasingly complex, both in the story and in the execution of the effects. Although there are some mysteries in the film, we really think that all the clues about what the Corridor is — and how it acts — are in the film. Knowing what it does, and why, became a pretty clear signpost to how it should appear. After that — it was just a question of us doing our best to realize it.

TK: It appears the entire film was shot on location, in and around a wilderness cabin, in the winter surrounded by snow. In terms of making a movie, would you recommend this experience to other filmmakers versus shooting on sets and faking the weather?

EK: As a Canadian, I have always been surprised that there aren’t more films shot in winter setting. That snow-bound element was always part of the script, for its sense of isolation, remove, and barrenness. The covered landscape is so distinct and evocative. But having gone through it, I now know why there is a proportional absence of films with this setting. It is really damn hard. You would think we would know better. Even a couple of weeks before shooting we were talking about ways that we would “re-set” a field of snow for subsequent takes. Well, once you step on freshly fallen snow, it is done. You can’t rake it like sand, or fluff it up like a pile of leaves. So it really comes down to having a plan and knowing it well, and getting a lot of your coverage in a single take. Of course, at our budget and schedule, a single take is sometimes a necessary discipline.

EK (continued): But the short answer would be that I am not rushing back to the opportunity to shoot a film featuring winter exteriors. No matter how great it looks.

TK: For better or worse, what is the single most valuable lesson you’ve learned from your experience making THE CORRIDOR and how will it carry into your future films?

EK: There really was no bad lesson. There were a long series of things that are the product of experience. These would range from ways I would prepare differently to a clearer knowledge of the limits and the opportunities available.

(For example, we chose to shoot at a 2.40:1 aspect ratio to take advantage of the wide outdoor vistas and to be able to contain the actions of the 5 man ensemble in several of our frames. That was an opportunity. However, carrying that into the interior makes for tricky shooting when you need to do single character coverage. One of the characters “signs” as he speaks — and a wide frame like that can’t often hold his head and his hands in a single shot, without starting to encroach on the other characters. Not a big deal, but it was something I wouldn’t have known had I not experienced it).

The most positive lesson that I learned was the value of the team we assembled. I have heard countless stories about productions — large and small — where the drama behind the camera exceeded the drama in front of it. Our team of Mike Master, Craig Cameron (producers), Josh MacDonald (writer), and all of our key collaborators were a set of level-headed respectful people. Making a film is challenging enough. Who would want to do it with people you can’t communicate with and respect?

TK: With the theatrical release on THE CORRIDOR set for March 30th, what are your plans from here? Do you have anything specific in mind for your next project?

EK: This has been a really independent effort. We shot the film in the winter of 2010, and it is barely over two years since we wrapped our shoot. Almost every day since then, a portion of time has been spent in completing it, presenting it, or trying to get it out to a wider audience. So we are all really excited that it is reaching this final stage where our responsibilities have kind of exhausted themselves.

That said, along with the regular work that I do to keep life afloat (directing and producing commercial projects), I haven’t adequately prepared to step right into a next project.

I am looking and open for anything.

TK: If you were given your choice of any one project to undertake, whereas money and time are of no concern, what kind of film could we expect to see from you?

EK: That is a tough question to answer.

In spite of not having been an immediate or natural fit with this film at the outset, I think that there would be some consistency with aspects of THE CORRIDOR. I imagine it would be character-based and have a strong thematic spine.

I am not sure — but who knows — if it would have the physical horror elements that this film carries. I do love the allegorical value of genre films. The story can be enjoyed on its surface, or in relation to its genre tradition, or (when things are working right) for any sub-textual cultural content. There is plenty of subtext that we offer up in THE CORRIDOR, for the taking or to be left aside, depending on the appetite of the viewer.

If I had the luxury of choice, I have a real interest in the possibility of the ‘lo-fi sci-fi’ approach. PRIMER, MOON, ANOTHER EARTH and more are all great character-focused tales that take advantage of compelling narrative genre hooks.

No matter what — the only thing I intend to show is improvement.

“Like” THE CORRIDOR on Facebook. View the trailer for THE CORRIDOR below.

She’ll always be best known as Kay Lawrence, the beauty that the Gillman falls in love with the moment he spies her swimming above him in CREATURE FROM THE BLACK LAGOON (1954). Mimicking her movements in the water, the Creature performs a lustful underwater mating dance – he’s directly beneath her but she’s unaware of his amorous overtures in the murky depths of the river. It’s a desire most men (and monster kids) could relate to and Julie Adams is the actress who will always be fondly remembered as the ‘girl in the white one-piece’.

Born Betty May Adams and raised near Little Rock Arkansas, Julie was bit by the acting bug early and moved to California to become an actress. She worked as a secretary to support herself and spent her free time taking speech lessons and making the rounds at the various movie studio casting departments. She began her film career in a series of low-budget westerns starring James Ellison and Russell Hayden. She billed herself under her real name until she was signed by Universal in 1949 where she changed it to Julia, and eventually the less-formal sounding Julie. Her breakthrough role was as the wealthy fiancee of newly blinded GI Arthur Kennedy in BRIGHT VICTORY in 1951. She followed this up with major roles opposite James Stewart in BEND OF THE RIVER (1952), Robert Ryan in HORIZONS WEST (1952), Rock Hudson in THE LAWLESS BREED (1953) and Glenn Ford in MAN FROM THE ALAMO (1953). The role that would garner her cult movie immortality was of course as the imperiled–and fetchingly underclad—heroine in CREATURE FROM THE BLACK LAGOON. Julie Adams followed this up with more starring roles; FRANCIS JOINS THE WACS (1954), SIX BRIDGES TO CROSS with Tony Curtis (1956), and ONE DESIRE (1956). She cut down on her film appearances in the early 1960s to focus on television, a medium that permitted her to hold out for meatier acting assignments. She acted in hundreds of TV shows over the next several decades, including regular parts in The Jimmy Stewart Show (as Stewart’s wife), a recurring role on Murder She Wrote, and all the way up to CSI, Cold Case, and Lost. She still acted in the occasional theatrical film including TICKLE ME with Elvis Presley (1965), and THE LAST MOVIE, director Dennis Hopper’s 1971 follow-up to EASY RIDER.

Julie Adams was married to actor/director Ray Danton from 1955 to 1978 and they worked together a number of times in film and on television. Their sons Steve and Mitch Danton have both worked behind the scenes in the film business for many years.

This past October, after numerous requests from fans, Julie Adams, with help from her son Mitch, wrote her autobiography. The Lucky Southern Star: Reflections from the Black Lagoon covers her entire career and is packed with rare photographs of the actress from the movies and television shows she acted in. The book is available from Julie Adam’s website HERE and sells for $29.95, plus $3.00 for postage in the U.S., or $15 for International postage.

www.julieadams.biz

Julie Adams was kind enough to take the time to speak to We Are Movie Geeks about her life, her career, and that scaly green monster.

Julie in publicity photos from THE CREATURE FROM THE BLACK LAGOON

Interview conducted by Tom Stockman March 8th, 2012

We Are Movie Geeks: Greetings from St. Louis. Have you ever been to our city before?

Julie Adams: Yes, many years ago I performed at the Barn Dinner Theater there.

WAMG: Oh, that place is long gone.

JA: It was some time ago. We had fun there.

WAMG: I’d like to start out asking some questions about THE CREATURE FROM THE BLACK LAGOON and then discuss other films from your career. You didn’t do horror movie conventions until 2002, what was it like attending your first con?

JA: I found it amazing that people were still enjoying that movie. It’s pretty old. It was lovely. It was really fun.

WAMG: Horror fans are a special breed. We become a little obsessive.

JA: I never mind obsessive. It’s very nice when people have enjoyed the movies. That’s what we made them for

WAMG: Why do you think THE CREATURE FROM THE BLACK LAGOON has endured and has attracted such rabid fans and does it surprise you?

JA: I am surprised really, but I think so much of the credit has to go to Jack Arnold our director and to the good script. It was just well done, but I am surprised really that has survived and that people still enjoy it so much. I’m delighted.

WAMG: Does it bother you that CREATURE FROM THE BLACK LAGOON is what you’ll always be best known for.

JA: I’ve been in show business a long time and I figure whatever people love, then more power to it. Even though so many focus on THE CREATURE, they’ve also seen BEND OF THE RIVER and other things as well so no, I think we have to take it all with  a grain of salt and a good sense of humor.

WAMG: Do you wish you had acted in more monster movies?

JA: No. I think it’s wonderful that I did one that everybody loves so much but that’s enough. I really didn’t want to make that my whole career.

WAMG: They’ve made Creature toys, but more recently, they’ve made Julie Adams toys to go with them, Do you own these?

JA: I don’t think I have those but I’ve signed some of them.

WAMG: That white one piece swimming suit is as iconic a piece of movie wardrobe as Dorothy’s slippers or Travolta’s disco suit – what happened to that?

JA: People ask me that often, but I say it has gone the way of all latex. Long since disintegrated on its own.

WAMG: I guess they weren’t very visionary in those days in terms of keeping that kind of stuff.

JA: Well, who would have thought we’d even be talking about this movie all these years later. We didn’t know these things would become iconic many years later. We just made a movie.

WAMG: The Eel costume (an early version of the Creature costume featured in photos in Julie’s book) was interesting – it looks like an unfinished version of the Creature.

JA: I think they experimented for a while until they came up with something everyone liked. That one sort of looked like an eel, very smooth and so on. They tested them for different looks and then they chose the right one.

WAMG: You write that they shut down production for a couple of weeks to redesign the Creature. What was it like when they unveiled the final Creature costume?

JA: Oh, it was a real shock when we saw the Creature. And you can see from the pictures in the book that I look a little awestruck, kind of taken aback when I saw it at first. I thought it was quite wonderful, extraordinary, and a little scary which of course is exactly what is was supposed to be.

WAMG: Where were the underwater scenes filmed?

JA: That was all filmed in Florida at Wakulla Springs. I never got to be there during the shooting but I went there later to promote the movie.

WAMG: Why did they use a body double for some of the swimming shots? Was that a professional swimmer?

JA: Yes, that was Ginger Stanley. She was just wonderful. She and Ricou Browning (who wore the Creature suit in the underwater sequences) were both part of water shows in southern California and Florida and they were both just incredible swimmers of course.

WAMG: You mention you were friends with Lori Nelson, who starred in REVENGE OF THE CREATURE. Have you appeared at conventions with her?

JA: Yes, at one. Lori was a good friend and we worked together on BEND OF THE RIVER and we were always friends. Lovely person.

WAMG: Do you know if you were ever considered by Universal to star in any of the CREATURE FROM THE BLACK LAGOON sequels?

JA: Not that I know of, no. And I think it’s just as well. It makes our movie stand out more. It was the original.

WAMG: What about Ben Chapman (who wore the Creature suit in the out-of-water scenes) ? What kind of guy was he?

JA: Ben was such a great guy. He was a great friend, warm and funny. I really treasured him as a friend.

WAMG: Did you ever work with director Jack Arnold again?

JA: No, that was the only time I worked with Jack but I enjoyed it very much. He was very professional and very skilled. There was never any nonsense going on and he worked very hard. You always felt that you were doing good work with him.

WAMG: If they remade CREATURE FROM THE BLACK LAGOON would you like to have a cameo?

JA: Oh, I don’t know if I want to appear all these years later to the fans. Let’s see the original and see me as I was all those years ago.

WAMG: I think those fans would love to see you in it though, perhaps in a walk-on or small part.

JA: Well, if they ever did it and they asked me, of course I would say yes.

WAMG: Good. Enough about the Creature. Let’s talk a bit about journey from Little Rock Arkansas to Hollywood.

JA: I had my ‘Aunt Ruth’, she was really my father’s first wife who had always loved him. She owned a bathing suit shop in Long Beach and she outfitted girls for bathing beauty contests and the like. She got in touch with me in Arkansas and she knew that I had been in drama classes and she said that if I ever wanted a go at something in the movies, I could go out to her and she’d help me out. So I took her up on it. When I came to California, I came first to Long Beach. A young woman who worked with her in her shop had an appointment in Hollywood. Her name was Valerie Sorelle and so I shared an apartment with her. So that was the connection.

WAMG: So many of your early films were westerns.  Why do you think that was? Could you ride a horse?

JA: Yes, I’ve always loved horses and back in Arkansas they had horse shows at certain times of the year at a park near where I lived and I was friends with some of the people at the stables and I would ride the horses and was crazy about them, so I was already a fairly good rider and I loved doing westerns.

WAMG: So it was a good match

JA: Yes, it was kind of a natural.

Julie with Kerwin Mathews is TARAWA BEACHEAD (1958) and with Van Heflin in WINGS OF THE HAWK (1953)

WAMG: Was it difficult for an actress to get  a contract with a studio like Universal in those days. What was it like being under contract with Universal.

JA: I guess it wasn’t terribly easy but I had been out to read for Sophie Rosenstein who was the head of casting at Universal for young players. She liked me and she brought me out to assist in a screen test. It wasn’t my screen test, it was somebody else. Then she turned the camera around and shot my part of the test and from that, they brought me out to read for BRIGHT VICTORY with Arthur Kennedy. It was the story of a blinded veteran back from the war and I got the part of his previous girlfriend. It didn’t really work out, but I got that part and it was a very nice part in BRIGHT VICTORY from that. They had an option on the contract and Universal picked up the option and I was under contract which was lovely.

WAMG: Who were some of your favorite leading men to work with?

JA: I think I have to put James Stewart at the top of the list. BEND OF THE RIVER was one of my first assignments and it was great to work with such a wonderful screen actor. I remember watching him do  a close-up, I was off-camera, I though how wonderful, he was not doing anything but everything was there in his face. Great lessons for a screen actor. And of course I got to work with Arthur Kennedy and Rock Hudson and I were great friends and we did a couple of movies together. I was very fortunate.

Julie with Richard Conte in HOLLYWOOD STORY (1951) and in PSYCHIC KILLER (1975)

WAMG: You costarred with Jimmy Stewart in a TV show a couple of decades later. Didn’t you play his wife in that show?

JA: I did, I played his wife on The Jimmy Stewart Show.

WAMG: But he was at least twenty years older than you.

JA: That’s right but I didn’t care and the audience didn’t seem to care. I always said my idea of heaven was going to work with Jimmy Stewart every day for six months.

WAMG: Jimmy Stewart and Rock Hudson were both tall men.

JA: Oh yes, Jimmy Stewart was about 6 foot 3.

WAMG: Were you tall? Did that play a part in why you were cast with them?

JA: I was about 5′ 7″ which was about average so I don’t think so.

Julie with Rock Hudson in ONE DESIRE (1953) and with John Wayne in McQ (1974)

WAMG: What about Tony Curtis? What was he like?

JA: Oh, Tony was great fun. We were always good friends. I remember a couple of years later in I was in the commissary at Universal and Tony came in after we’d worked on the movie (SIX BRIDGES TO CROSS), he came rushing in and gave me a hug. Always a very charming fellow Tony, I liked him very much.

WAMG: Can you describe meeting Elvis for the first time when you worked with him in TICKLE ME?

JA: It was not that difficult because I was not really and Elvis Presley fan. I wasn’t in awe of him or anything. I’m from the South so I felt very at home with Elvis because he was a really charming young Southern gentleman. I kind of knew his type and I like him very much.

WAMG: What was it like to work with him as an actor?

JA: Completely professional. Always very prepared. As I said, such a charming fellow. There was one scene where I was in the nightclub and we did a singing number. And I was in awe because I watched him and he did it in one take, walking all around and he was really working to a playback but he he was perfect. That was amazing. I enjoyed working with him very very much. I was the “older” woman in the picture. I think I was about 35 then, and there were as lot of young ladies there and he sent all of us flowers on the first day of shooting. A lovely experience.

WAMG: You married actor Ray Danton in 1955. What Hollywood couples did you and Ray Danton hang out with?

JA: I don’t know if we really hung out with other couples. I stayed friends with Rock Hudson, and Sally Kellerman was a friend and Bob Rafelson. I even knew Robert Blake and his family. Neville Brand was a friend.

WAMG: Did you ever work with or meet Charles Bronson?

JA: No. I never worked with him. I thought he was very good, but I never got a chance to work with him.

Julie with Elvis in TICKLE ME (1965) and with Dennis Hopper in THE LAST MOVIE (1971)

WAMG: You did a ton of TV work in the 60′s 70′s and 80′s. What were some of your favorite shows to work on?

JA: I worked with Chuck Conners on The Rifleman. It was one episode but it was going to be a recurring role but it didn’t work out because of my pregnancy. I loved working on Big Valley. I got to work with Barbara Stanwyck which was just fantastic. I was so thrilled to be working with a big movie star I had seen on the screen back in Arkansas and she was such a great person as well as being such a fantastic actress. I played a villainess and got to push her around. There was a lot of good television work around in those days.

WAMG: What was it like on The Andy Griffith Show with Don Knotts.

JA: Well that was great fun. A lot of laughs. Andy Griffith was from the south so I felt right at home with him and Don Knotts was just a really funny delightful guy so I had a great time working on that show.

WAMG: I recently read a biography of Dennis Hopper and your recollection of working on the LAST MOVIE is very different from what’s described in that book. The book paints the making of that film as a drug-addled bacchanalia but you describe it much differently.

JA: I remember arriving in Peru to film that and visiting the set to see what everyone was doing and they were improvising a lot. I thought that was okay and I could do that. I had a fun time. It was very loose and I had a really fun character to play. She was very sexy and I usually didn’t get to play that kind of part. I liked Dennis. He worked very hard. There was all that stuff about all sorts of crazy things going on in Peru but I never saw Dennis being crazy or high on something. What he did after work, I have no idea.

WAMG: What inspired you to write your memoirs?

JA: I had been at a screening at the Egyptian Theater of SIX BRIDGES TO CROSS and my son Mitch and I came out of the theater and there was a fan there who asked if I had a book. Mitch and I looked at each other and an idea was born.

WAMG: What’s next for Julie Adams?

JA: I don’t really know. I’m at the stage where if I’m working, that’s fine, but if I’m not, it’s nice not to have to be somewhere at 6:30 am. I’ve got 4 or 5 conventions lined up that I’ll be attending. There’s a huge interest in the book and people are inviting me everywhere.

WAMG: The book is terrific and the photos in it are wonderful. Good luck with the book and thanks for taking the time to talk to We Are Movie Geeks.

JA: You’re so welcome.

Julie Adams, still beautiful today

Interview conducted by Tom Stockman November 18th 2011

The Writer/Director team of Jay Duplass and his brother Mark are responsible for movies like THE PUFFY CHAIR, BAGHEAD, and CYRUS. Mumblecore is the designated phrase for a loosely allied circle of young American filmmakers including the Duplass brothers that utilizes a low-budget, documentary-style approach for  independently-made films. The Duplass brother’s shooting style is quite unusual compared to most filmmakers. They shoot in sequence, the camerawork is practically all handheld, and they hardly stick to the dialog on page. Their formula is different, but obviously works and  their films have been critically praised. Jay Duplass was in St. Louis recently for a screening of his newest film JEFF WHO LIVES AT HOME at the St. Louis International Film festival. A day in the life of the pot-smoking Jeff (played by Jason Segel) who looks for signs from the universe to determine his path, JEFF WHO LIVES AT HOME is a series of comedic events that lead him to cross paths with his family in the strangest of locations and circumstances. Susan Sarandon, Ed Helms, Judy Greer, and Rae Dawn Chong co-star in JEFF WHO LIVES AT HOME which opens this Friday in St. Louis. Watch for our review soon here at We Are Movie Geeks. We caught up with Jay Duplass at the Moonrise Hotel when he was here and sat down with him for this interview.

We Are Movie Geeks: I saw your movie JEFF WHO LIVES AT HOME yesterday and really enjoyed. It started out as a stoner comedy, then went somewhere else, somewhere profound. Congratulations.

Jay Duplass: Thank you, It’s interesting, whenever people write ‘stoner comedy’ -  it surprises me. It shouldn’t because he (Jeff, played by Jason Segel) smokes pot in the first shot of the movie, but for my brother Mark and me, the character is really a neophilosopher is what he is. He just happens to smoke a little bit of pot. But the movie’s really not about that. It’s about somebody who’s stuck in his life and trying to figure things out. Trying too hard to figure things out probably so that’s interesting to me.

WAMG: Why SIGNS? (a movie Jeff references throughout the movie). Are you a fan of that movie or M. Night Shyamalan?

JD: You know I think SIGNS for us was just the funniest and most accurate way to describe who Jeff is sat the very beginning . He’s obsessed with the movie SIGNS and he’s taking it very seriously which is what the filmmaker wants.

WAMG: Have you met Shyamalan?

JD: I’ve never met him, but Jeff is totally obsesses with SIGNS because in that film things really locked in like a puzzle and Jeff wants life to be that way, and the movie is about; is his life really that way or even if you make it that way, did you just make it up in your own head.

WAMG: Did you see Shyamalan’s THE HAPPENING?

JD: I haven’t seen THE HAPPENING

WAMG: You should have had him obsessed with THE HAPPENING. It’s a goofy movie. Mark Wahlberg talks to plants. It’s just stupid. What are some of your favorite movies?

JD: I’d say my three favorite movies of all time are AMERICAN MOVIE, the documentary by Mark Borchartz, RAISING ARIZONA, and the first ROCKY. Most people don’t remember that he actually loses in ROCKY and that it’s mostly a tragic film because it’s been marred by the other 63 ROCKY films that came later.

WAMG: You make most of your movie with your younger brother Mark. Similar dynamics between Jeff and Pat (the brothers in JEFF WHO LIVES AT HOME) Who’s Jeff and who’s Pat between the Duplass brothers?

JD: If we were Jeff and Pat we would never have the wherewithal to get through the production of a feature film. I think Mark and I are just more obsessed with brothers because it’s basically like a marriage you can never get divorced from. There’s a lot of tragedy and a lot of comedy in it but Mark and I get along really well and you have to because if you’re making movies together and don’t, you’ll never get through a movie.

WAMG: I noticed your next movie is called DO-DECA-PENTATHALON, and it’s also about brothers. Brothers who compete in their own Olympics. Is that something you and your brother did?

JD: DO-DECA-PENTATHALON is actually based on a couple of brothers that we grew up with down the street. They were born about a year apart and most people know that when boys are born too close together the level of competition is wall-shattering. Basically what they did was create a 25-event pseudo-Olympics to figure out who’s the greatest athlete of all time, or between the two of them. And they ended up just beating the crap out of each other.

WAMG: So you were inspired to make a movie out of this?

JD: We were inspired. We kinda had this idea that if they had become estranged, what would it be like if they reunited in their mid-thirties, kind of chubby and out of shape and reignited this competition.

WAMG: Is this a studio film? Are there big names in this film?

No, this is a small film we made right after BAGHEAD and before we made our first studio film CYRUS that we had to put on the shelf because we got green-lit by the studios.

WAMG: Interesting. Have you always been in business with your brother? What did you guys do before you made films, or did you make films when you were really young?

JD: We made movies. We were in bands together. We made art together . We’ve always just made stuff together so making movies for us was just another extension of what we’ve always done together.

WAMG: Let’s talk about JEFF WHO LIVES AT HOME. You films have a natural unscripted feel. The movie’s less than 80 minutes so what did the script look like?

JD: Most people think we just do outlines, but we actually do full scripts. We then force our actors to throw the scripts away and improvise based on the goal they’re trying to achieve in that scene and they end up using the lines a lot but the method of execution is different because they know that the person opposite of them is not going to be just churning out the written lines so have to be truly in the moment so it gives it that extra level of naturalism that we are obsessed with.

WAMG: What’s Jeff’s story? You allude to his father’s death. Is there a back story to Jeff that we need to know a little bit more about?

I don’t think there’s anything you need to know other than what the movie says. The important thing for us is that Jeff is one of those guys who graduated from college and them moved laterally into a basement or an efficiency apartment and didn’t get the $40,000 corporate job, instead he’s working at Whole Foods part time and spending the majority of his time thinking about the nature of the universe and his place in it, but from an objective observer it kind of looks like he’s just sitting around smoking pot. It’s about that type of person who gets thrust into the world with his theories about what the universe is doing and that they eventually start to come true.

WAMG: Your first couple of films, BAGHEAD and PUFFY CHAIR had no real names and then you’ve gone to work with Oscar winners like Marisa Tomei and Susan Sarandon. What’s the biggest difference between working with actors just getting started and veterans like these guys?

The biggest difference is scheduling. Big stars have a lot going on and it’s difficult to fit them into your movie even if they want to be in your movie. But we are a bit nervous every once in a while, like when we met Sarandon for the first time, we were like “God, this woman could totally school us in every way possible “, and its interesting though when you start to work with them you realize that they are the same as you just a person in the world who’s trying to make a decent piece of art.

WAMG: What about Rae Dawn Chong? She was someone I had a thing for about 25 years ago and I hadn’t seen her in anything in a while. How did she get involved in JEFF WHO LIVES AT HOME?

JD: We had big crush on her in the ’80s too and it’s weird because a lot of people think we fell in love with her in COMMANDO and we did, but we’ve been trying to get her in a movie and she showed up in an audition tape and Mark and I thought she hovered over everyone else. Everyone was hitting it at like two or three but she was hitting it right at ten and halfway through watching the audition tape we knew it was definitely the right actress for the part and the Mark realized it was Rae Dawn Chong.

WAMG: What was she like?

JD: She was a phenomenal, spirited, energetic, individualistic dynamo who we were lucky to get in our movie.

WAMG: Jason Reitman co-produced JEFF WHO LIVES AT HOME. He shot UP IN THE AIR here in St. Louis a couple of years ago. What did Jason Reitman bring to the table?

JD: Mark and I wrote this film a while back and we weren’t sure when we originally wrote it of we had the chops to pull it off. Jason read the script, fell in love with it, and gave us the confidence that made us feel that we were ready to make the film and more importantly, and this is no joke, this is a special, strange, quirky, very emotional and funny movie with a tone that’s not easy to pin down and Jason said straight up “You are going to need someone strong to settle it into a studio environment and make sure that it gets made right and that the tone doesn’t get messed with” and he shepherded in that process for us and allowed us to make what I think is a very different movie in the studio system.

WAMG: Do you expect to work with him again?

JD: Would love to. He’s an amazing filmmaker. He’s a producer who’s a director who understands the intricacies of telling a story that is not a story that’s been told a million times. In retrospect, I realize now how bad we needed a director-producer to help us make this film.

WAMG: Was the biggest expense in the film the Porsche you guys wreck?

JD: Ummm…..probably yes. That’s the biggest single expense we ever incurred. That was probably more costly than the entire cost of PUFFY CHAIR.

WAMG: Whose idea was it for Ed Helms to sport such a hideous goatee?

JD: We had that idea pretty early on that the goatee would be annoying and aggressive looking and Ed was very excited about doing that.

WAMG: Judy Greer was really good in JEFF WHO LIVES AT HOME. I just saw her in THE DESCENDANTS, What was she like?

JD: She’s wonderful and a perfect example of the actors that we like. We tend to use comedic actors because they are very comfortable with improvisation but we’re also asking them to improvise dramatically which most people don’t. We just find that these people are super tuned in to what Mark and I love. That is tragic and comedic in the same go. They realize they don’t have to do a funny scene and then do a sad scene. They can just play it emotionally true and sad and that for some reason because of the way Mark and I frame our stories that it will also be fun and to trust in that.

WAMG: Greta Gerwig is another actress who started out in your films who I think has a big career ahead of her. Wouldn’t you agree?

JD: Yeah, I think she’s unstoppable. She’s phenomenal in everything she does.

WAMG: What’s next for Jay and Mark Duplass?

JD: This movie, JEFF WHO LIVES AT HOME, starts releasing on March 2^nd and after that we’re excited to get the DO-DECA-PENTATHALON movie out to the world. Other than that, we’re just watching people and making up stories and trying to make a movie that doesn’t suck.

WAMG: Are there some actors that you would really like to work with?

JD: We definitely have our hit list. The Streep is on our list.

WAMG: Thanks for taking the time to talk to We Are Movie Geeks and good luck with JEFF WHO LIVES AT HOME.

JD: Thank you.

I’ve now had the pleasure of screening two of Fatal Pictures’ short films, WORM and FAMILIAR. As part of my ongoing commitment to highlight and support independent filmmaking, I seized the opportunity to speak with producer Zach Green and director Richard Powell of Fatal Pictures to talk about these and other films and filmmaking in general…

Travis Keune: Your primary role is as producer, but you’ve also done some editing. Making movies is no easy task and requires a team of people with a broad range of talents. Is there a particular part of the filmmaking process that you love the most? Is there one part that you absolutely hate?

Zach Green: I love producing which is my primary hat and what I do best I feel. FAMILIAR is the first film I didn’t end up editing myself or with Richard. We hired an editor who did a fabulous job with the film. I wouldn’t say there is really a part of the process that I don’t enjoy that I’ve come across thus far, everything I do for Fatal Pictures is gratifying to me. It definitely does require a proper team of professionals to make a quality film there’s no question. Between myself and Richard we cover a great deal of range with our abilities when it comes to filmmaking.

TK: Fatal Pictures is the name of your production company. This seems to have a connection with the type of films you choose to make. What can you tell us about your vision for Fatal Pictures as it continues to grow into a successful endeavor?

ZG: The vision for Fatal Pictures is really to produce films that really make a statement and have an impact on you. They have been real stories and you can really relate and or feel what the characters deliver and portray. Our first film, entitled CONSUMPTION, was based on a true event about a cannibal from Germany.

TK: FAMILIAR is a short film you produced, which wrapped just last year, if I’m not mistaken. You seem to have a very tight working relationship with writer and director Richard Powell and actor Robert Nolan. Paint a mental picture for us illustrating how this creative trio comes up with such intriguingly dark tales.

ZG: Writer and director Richard Powell, one half of Fatal Pictures, Inc., was the writer on both WORM and FAMILIAR and would naturally be the one to come up with the incredible stories, and I set out to cast the film(s). An actress we had worked with in the past had referred me to Robert [Nolan]. I immediately contacted him to set up an audition. Through all the rehearsals and blocking we would go on to make some great short film(s) together.

TK: FAMILIAR features some pretty impressive special effects makeup, but it also reminds me some of certain early David Cronenberg films I love, which we’ve seen influence other films as well. Is there any connection there, or is it just happenstance?

Richard Powell: The term body horror has been brought up a lot in regards to Familiar but to be honest I didn’t really make the connection between our film and body horror until others started making the comparisons. I wouldn’t say Cronenberg was an influence on this film or that I was attempting to make body horror but after the fact I can understand the reaction viewers are having when making those connections. That said I have a deep respect for Cronenberg and consider him one of the more important directors in film, genre or otherwise. If I take any influence from him, it is his intellectual approach to horror, his ability to treat the genre as a mature art form capable of stimulating an audience mentally as well as viscerally.

TK: The thoughts of the main character in FAMILIAR, as is the case in WORM as well, are far more prevalent than spoken dialogue, but it works well. Clearly this is a conscious decision, but can you shed some light on the philosophy behind this decision?

RP: In WORM, the audible thoughts serve as a window into a man’s dark inner self which works against the calm, kind exterior he shows the world. This differentiation between the internal and external creates an unsettling contrast which hopefully instills a bit of fear, reflection and imagination in the audience. The horror dwells within in WORM, figuratively, in FAMILIAR literally. Each film is in essence a slightly skewed reflection of the other. In FAMILIAR the voice over isn’t simply a characters shattered psyche, it is a character, a truth which is revealed in horrifying fashion later.

TK: How can the general public view these films?

RP: WORM can be seen on the uncut genre channel American Horrors as well as at various festivals and screenings. Short films are more difficult to distribute and show as you can’t really sell them in the same manner you would a feature. The best we can do is keep people updated about screenings and festivals which we always do! At some point it would be great to release the shorts as a package but that’s still a ways off. As for FAMILIAR, it will begin its screenings/festival run in March 2012 in Toronto as part of Fangoria’s Fright Nights screening series where it will play along side BATTLE ROYALE. After that we hope the film has a long and healthy run on the festival circuit and everyone who wants to gets a chance to check it out.

TK: I understand there is a feature film, your first, being developed. What can you tell us about this?

RP: Having recently completed a feature screenplay version of WORM, we will begin to try and raise interest and funds for what will hopefully be Fatal Pictures foray in feature filmmaking. The story will again follow WORM‘s deranged high school teacher Geoffrey Dodd as he tackles the obstacles of a school day and more importantly the dark and dangerous ruminations of his mind. I’m excited to be able to really explore the depths and depravity of this character in a feature run time. The results will be a supercharged version of the short and an altogether more searing and suspenseful experience as we have the time to really toy with the possibilities of the character.

TK: If there was one specific film, in development or entirely off the radar, what one project would you love to be producing right now in your career?

RP: Aside from a WORM feature film I’d love to begin developing my scripts that don’t feature the Dodd characters and the internal monologue approach. That is ultimately the direction I aim to follow but it will be fun to always have these characters around to toy with. I am very interested in doing a Dodd family thanksgiving weekend film, who knows, maybe down the line. First is WORM, that’s my obsession.

TK: What sparked your interest in making movies?

RP: Like most filmmakers I grew up watching a ton of movies and those experiences shaped me and informed my passions. I wanted to be creative and tried my hand at everything, writing, drawing, painting, sculpting etc. I found myself drawn to illustration mostly, illustrations inspired by stories and characters I had written about previously. I loved to create narratives for my artwork but I was never really talented enough as an artist to capture in its entirety what I imagined. I discovered this when I met real artists. I kept writing and drawing and one day it clicked, I didn’t need to be the best painter, illustrator and so forth, I could use filmmaking to capture my narratives and stories and that’s how it began. I’ve come to realize there is no more expressive, imaginative art than filmmaking and I’m glad that is how I came to express my creativity.

Interview conducted by Tom Stockman February 8, 2012

Imagine my excitement when I was given the opportunity to interview Booboo Stewart, who plays hunky wolf-boy Seth Clearwater in the last two TWILIGHT movies (and in the final chapter: THE TWILIGHT SAGA: BREAKING DAWN Pt 2, which opens next November). I hadn’t actually seen any of the TWILIGHT films but I’ve been told that Seth is arguably one of the most lovable characters in the whole series and I jumped at the chance to interview a bona fide teen idol.  A little research revealed that 18-year old Booboo Stewart (real name Nils Allen Stewart Jr.) is quite a multi-talented young man. He’s not only an actor, but a comic book writer, a model, a dancer, a stuntman, and a musician. Stewart is in a band named Echoes of Angels and tours with his two sisters Maegan and Fivel, who are known as “TSC” (The Stewart Clan). He is a fan of professional wrestling and has interviewed famous wrestlers at the Total Impact Wrestling website (find it HERE).

Despite his hectic schedule, Booboo traveled to St. Louis last week to help promote the DVD and Blu-ray release of THE TWILIGHT SAGA: BREAKING DAWN Pt 1. Booboo was kind enough to take the time to talk to We Are Movie Geeks. It was actually a roundtable style interview with five other interviewers and I’ve left in some of their questions.

We Are Movie Geeks: How long have you been in St. Louis?

Booboo Stewart: Since yesterday.

WAMG: What have you been doing?

BS: Interviews mostly. I went for a stroll I the park where the Muny is.

Question: Have you read the Twilight books?

BS: Yes, I have. I read them before I went for my audition.

Q: Do you have a favorite?

BS: Probably Eclipse, it has the most romance.

WAMG: Why did BREAKING DAWN require two movies?

BS: The book is like over 700 pages long and there is so much information happening and if it were cut out it would be really disappointing for the fans.

WAMG: Is BREAKING DAWN pt 2 already in the can?

BS: Yeah, we’re all done. I’m not sure where it stands production-wise but filming-wise, it’s all done.

WAMG: Are we going to see more of the Cullens and the Wolfpack in the second part?

BS: I can’t really say too much but I can say that you are going to meet a lot of new characters.

Q: Who’s you favorite person to work with?

BS: Probably Bill Condon. He was really nice. He really took his time with every actor.

WAMG: Did he direct part 2?

BS: Yes.

Q: My friends think Twilight is for teenage girls. Do any of your friends give you trouble for being in the Twilight movies?

BS: It’s obviously aimed at girls but most of my friends think it’s pretty cool that I’m in it.

Q: I hear you write your own comic book. Is that right?

BS: Yeah. I’ve been working on this comic character for a really long time. He’s called Millennium Man and I do it just for fun, but we’ll see what happens.

Q: If you could be any comic book super hero, who would it be?

BS: Well, my favorite is Nightcrawler, but I would not want to be him because he has a hard life. I’d want to be Superman.

WAMG: What’s the craziest thing you’ve see a TWILIGHT fan do?

BS: Well, I met a girl who got my name tattooed on her arm. Not my character’s name but my name.  She was about my age.

WAMG: Are you at the point where you go out to the store and people recognize you?

BS: Yeah, people are always asking for pictures and stuff. But right now, my hair has grown out so I look different, so I can go places without being recognized as much.

WAMG: You wolf-boys in the movie always have your shirts off. How do you keep warm when you’re filming up there in Canada? I’m sure it’s not a warm climate.

BS: No, it’s freezing cold. Most of the time I have sleeveless shirts on. They put an extra layer underneath that’s cut smaller so you can’t see it. And also hand warmers but they make sticky ones so you can put them all over your body. And we put pants and jackets on between takes. But when you take your shirt off, there’s nothing easy about it.

Q: Do you do your own stuntwork in the movies?

BS: Well, when I’m fighting, I’m already turned into a (CGI) wolf, so the closest thing I do to a real stunt is like funny growls and stuff.

Q: What are the voice-over sessions like doing the wolf voices?

BS: It was really cool. I was wondering how they were going to do it. I think they did it really well because they did’t make it sound exactly how he sounded. They did one recording with our regular voices and another where we spoke as low as we could and sort of mixed it together.

Q: What was it like to work with Taylor Lautner and Rob Pattinson?

BS: Robert is a very nice person. After I got the part everyone wanted to know what Robert was like. But I never met him through the whole filming. We were together in some scenes but I was a wolf so I was never there. Finally it was at the Kids Choices Awards where I finally got to meet him. Taylor and I got to hang out a whole lot.

Q: So who were you closest to?

BS: On the set, I’d say I was closest to Chaske Spencer, he plays Sam, one of the leaders of the wolfpack. He’s like a really good dude.

WAMG: What other movie franchises would you like to get involved in?

BS: I’d love to be in LORD OF THE RINGS. Even if I were just to be killed in the background, I don’t care. I could be an elf.

Q: Are you still going to public school?

BS: I finished my school at the end of last year. I finished early and I did home schooling. There’s this really cool program called SOS where you didn’t have to be online for your schooling.

Q: What do you do to stay humble and how important is your family?

BS: They’re very important. I always have my family with me because it’s important to surround yourself with good influences.

Q: I read that you’re of Mexican, Russian, Chinese, Japanese, and Korean descent. Do you celebrate the traditions of all those cultures?

BS: No, not really. I like the different ethnic foods, but that’s it.

WAMG: My kids are too young to see the TWILIGHT movies, but they love Miley Cyrus, who you toured with. What’s she like?

BS: She’s really nice, really outgoing, like Disney outgoing. I haven’t seen her in a really long time but last time I saw her, she was cool. I did a couple episodes of Good Luck Charlie for Disney Channel that your kids may have seen.

Q: Who’s you biggest inspiration when it comes to acting?

BS: I think Jim Caviezel’s a really good actor. Also Heath Ledger.

Q: Who would you most like to collaborate with?

BS: There’s so many people. Michael Bay, he’s an awesome director. I really like Terry Gilliam and John Landis, they do really interesting movies.

WAMG: What’s next for Booboo Stewart?

BS: I finished a movie called WHITE FROG where I played a kid with autism. It’s about a family that suffers a tragic accident and my character helps bring everyone together.

WAMG: Will that be in theaters?

BS: We’ll see. It’s an indie film. We’re doing the film festival circuit with it so we’ll see what happens with it. I’m really proud to have been a part of it. I’m going on tour with my sisters in March. After that I’m filming a horror film called HOUSE OF THE DAMNED and that’s in 3-D so that will be my first time filming something in 3-D.

Q: What’s your favorite kind of music?

BS: My favorite type of music is classic rock. My favorite band is Boston. I also like to listen to old dico music like The Commodores, stuff like that.

Q: What’s it like seeing yourself on the big screen? Is it really weird?

BS: At the premiere, which we did at the Nokia Center, which holds 5000, it was a really crazy feeling. Then afterwards, knowing that millions of people around the world are going to see you in a movie is really a crazy feeling. It comes on DVD this Saturday and even more people are going to see it.

Q: Where does the name Booboo come from?

BS: It’s just a name my parents gave me when I was really little. It doesn’t have any real meaning. It just kinda stuck.

WAMG: Are you the only Booboo registered with the Screen Actors Guild?

BS: Ha Ha! I think so. If I’m not, I’d like to meet whoever else is and get my picture taken with them.

Q: The last movie’s coming out in November. Is it going to be hard to say goodbye to the franchise?

BS: It’s sad when you stop filming any movie, especially this one because it really kickstarted a lot of things for me.  It is sad but everyone has to move on and do other things. I don’t want to be stuck in one franchise so in one way it’s cool to move on.

WAMG: Is your role as Seth bigger in BREAKING DAWN Pt 2 than it was in part one?

BS: I’m not sure how they’re going to do it because if you’ve read the books, you know it’s ridiculous how many characters there are. You get introduced to a lot of new vampires so the movie’s already pushing the limit in terms of length, so everyone’s parts could be smaller in this one.

Q: What do you like to do in your free time?

BS: I love watching movies and collecting movies. I love playing video games and I love playing music, stuff like that, just relaxing.

Q: Is it hard to stay close to your old friends?

BS: Not really. They understand everything that’s going on.

WAMG: What advice would you give someone who wanted to be an actor or a singer?

BS: You have to accept being rejected. That’s going to happen no matter how famous you are. If you have ten auditions, you may get one role.

 The DVD and Blu-ray of THE TWILIGHT SAGA: BREAKING DAWN PART 1 co-starring Booboo Stewart as Seth Clearwater is available now and we certainly look forward to seeing more of Booboo in BREAKING DAWN Part 2 later this year..

Interview conducted by Tom Stockman February 1st, 2012

It looks like Hammer Horror really is back. THE WOMAN IN BLACK, the new ghost story from the rebooted Hammer studios, made over 21 million dollars in the U.S. this past weekend. This is exciting news to the many fans of the British studio, which produced so many wonderful horror films in the ‘50’s, ‘60s, and ‘70s. THE WOMAN IN BLACK is not the first film from the new Hammer, but it is the first of their films to adopt the period gothic formula of old, and its success bodes well for the studio. Hammer is the specialty genre label of its parent company, Exclusive Media.  Simon Oakes is Vice-Chairman of Exclusive Media Group and President & CEO of Hammer. He led the acquisition and recapitalization of Hammer in 2007. Nigel Sinclair is Co-Chairman and CEO of Exclusive Media, one of the industry’s leading independent production and distribution companies. Mr. Oakes and Mr.Sinclair took the time from their schedules to talk to We Are Movie Geeks about THE WOMAN IN BLACK and the future of Hammer Horror.

We Are Movie Geeks: The trailer for THE WOMAN IN BLACK makes it look like a gothic horror film in the grand tradition of the House of Hammer, certainly more than THE RESIDENT or LET ME IN. Do you think that production designer Kave Quinn was consciously trying to make this film look like a vintage Hammer production?

Simon Oakes: Good question. I think the material lent itself to that sort of production design and I’m very pleased that you raised the point of production design because I think that Kave is extremely talented and created an incredible world and when you see the movie I think you’ll see that. Everybody who has read the book, which has been a best seller for 25 years, has a sense of what Eel March House looks like, and the play has been running in England for 22 years, so that’s what we were up against. People had used their imagination . But yes, the book is a pastiche of all gothic horror of the 19th century and it’s all about material that lends itself to that, just as with LET ME IN when we had to recreate a world that was America in the 1980′s.

WAMG: You mentioned Eel March House, which in the trailer looks wonderfully scary. Was that a set that was built or did you actually find that house somewhere?

SO: There’s always a bit of cheating going on in the process as you know. The actual house is real. We found it up the East coast of England in Peterborough at the end of a causeway so that was all real. The house was all real, but we built the interiors.

WAMG: What made James Watkins the right director for THE WOMAN IN BLACK ?

Nigel Sinclair: I think what James revealed as a director was his visual acuity, his ability to understand the mood and emotion of a moment and how a human being who was experiencing what Daniel was experiencing would not need a lot of massive visual cues, just a combination of sound and light and a sensory reaction to things which, I hate to call it Hitchcockian, but it is. I think that his talents range from production design to sound design to directing his actors and understanding his story. The scenario of this tale makes it an incredible powerful story.

SO: You’re right. I think James needs to be credited on two levels. One is that he’s a technician and that he worked carefully in building his team everything from the costume and makeup to cameraman so he basically covered all of the options in terms of production for the film. Secondly, he has a sensibility about the genre and he knows that if you don’t care about the characters, then you don’t have a great horror movie, so he wasn’t shy about having the jumps and the scares and the fear and the suspense but at the same time he made sure that you’re rooting for Daniel’s character Arthur, that you actually care about him and his family and why he’s doing what he’s doing. You never once question why he’s puttuing himself in jeopardy as opposed to just getting the hell out of there. And that’s the skill that James has, understating the genre but at the same time saying “Let’s care about the story”.

WAMG: And James Watkins had made EDEN LAKE in 2008 which was a very scary film.

SO: Of course, a very good film.

WAMG: You have a built-in audience for THE WOMAN IN BLACK with the casting of Daniel Radcliffe as Arthur. Was the role offered to him or did he audition? How did he get this role?

NS: Well Simon know Daniel’s agent very well and we had been discussing internally how powerful we thought Daniel was in his legendary performances in the Potter films. We thought he demonstrated tremendous range, which is a quality we were looking for with THE WOMAN IN BLACK and we got the script to Daniel and he read it on a plane ride to New York and he told his agent that he’d like to do this movie and meet the director.

WAMG: Daniel Radcliffe is 22 years old yet in THE WOMAN IN BLACK  he’s playing the widowed father of a 5-year old son. Was the script adjusted at all to accommodate this younger actor?

NS: No, not really. The original script was written specifically toward the description in the original novella, but we took the view that he would be in his twenties. People had children younger in those days so it was conceivable and believable that he could be that character. It was a good question, because Daniel’s first thought was that he liked the script and wanted the part but he needed to be convinced as well that he could do this. James Watkins met Daniel in Los Angeles right after Daniel had read the script and convinced him that he could pull it off. When that was decided, everything else fell into place quite easily.

WAMG: How was Daniel Radcliffe to work with?

NS: There’s an old word to use to describe people like him and that is trooper. He was amazing.

SO: Daniel’s reputation is that he’s had this character and he’s grown in to extraordinary fame and prosperity and he wears it well. With some people, that could drive them over the edge, but not Daniel. He’s got a very nice personality, he’s generous, and very conscious and aware of his great opportunities.

NS: On the last day of shooting his part. Simon got on old Hammer poster from the original DRACULA from 1957 and presented it Daniel, which was a fitting gift to give to someone who has everything. On his last day, he brought everybody up to the top of the stpes, the gaffers and the crew, and said “When I left Potter, I wondered what kind of world I was jumping in to and you all have become my new family. You’ve taken me into your heart and protected me and we’ve made this movie together and I can’t image a more magic way to go next after Potter”, and it was very touching.

WAMG: Do you think Daniel Radcliffe had any familiarity with the vintage Hammer films?

NS: Oh yes, he was a Hammer fan, that’s why this worked for him. He knew all about Hammer which is why he was so excited about Simon getting him that poster. Daniel is quite a cinephile. He’s up on movies, he knows a lot about films, he comes from a film family and I can saw that he thought helping rebuild Hammer for the 21^st century was something he wanted to be part of and looking at the press he did on London for the premiere last week, he went to great lengths to describe how proud he was to be part of relaunching this great British film label.

WAMG: Was there ever talk of a cameo for Christopher Lee in THE WOMAN IN BLACK?

SO: No, not this one. Christopher worked with us on THE RESIDENT, and he’s amazing.

WAMG: Were you both Hammer horror fans as younger men? Were you able to see the Hammer classics on the big screen when they were new?

SO: Tragically yes, we’re both old enough to remember those films when they first came out. They had a huge impact on me. I’m often asked what my favorite is and I used to love the Quatermass series. They were incredible and scary and ahead of their time. And the early Hammer Frankenstein films as well.

WAMG: Now that you’ve acquired and recapitalized the Hammer brand, do you control all the old Hammer titles?

SO: Exclusive Media, which is our group  that Nigel and I are a part of, our holding company owns Hammer and all the rights and titles to some 300 movies. Some were produced with long-term distribution rights with other studios.  Some we have the direct distribution rights for ourselves. Literally everybody involved with the Hammer films, meaning Warner Brothers, Fox, Sony have become conscious of their  part in the legacy of filmmaking and we recently  announced an initiative to restore  all of the Hammer library materials to a very high standard. We’ve found that every singe of these distributors , who are all forthright corporate people, all chipped with contributions and we’re doing a restoration of Hammer materials than any film historian would be excited about. That, we feel, is testimony to this long tradition.

WAMG: Any plans on remaking any of the classic Hammer titles and which ones would you like to see remade?

NS: We certainly are looking at a rebooting of Quatermass, I don’t think there’s any problem in saying that. The character, as opposed to the film. I don’t think there’s anything else actually on the line here that we can talk about now. I love Quatermass, I also love the Hitchcock-like Hammer such as SCREAM OF FEAR that Hammer made in the early ‘60s. I love FRANKENSTEIN CREATED WOMAN, that’s a favorite Hammer film, oh there were so many.

WAMG: Good luck with THE WOMAN IN BLACK and thanks for taking the time to talk to We Are Movie Geeks.

Interview conducted by Tom Stockman January 9th, 2012

Though disarming in appearance, actor Kurtwood Smith’s two best-known big-screen roles are memorable villains. He was the psychotic Clarence in ROBOCOP in 1988 and played a very different scoundrel the next year in DEAD POET’S SOCIETY where he was the unforgettable  Mr. Perry, the overbearing bully father of aspiring actor Neil (played by Robert Sean Leonard) who meets a tragic end. He played a comedy variation on that role as the conservative, tough-loving dad on the TV sitcom That ‘70’s Show from 1998 to 2006. Smith’s other credits include FLASHPOINT, RAMBO III, TO DIE FOR, DEEP IMPACT, and roles on both Star Trek: Voyager and Star Trek: Deep Space Nine. He can currently be seen on the TV series Chaos. The Disney classic DEAD POET’S SOCIETY has been digitally restored and presented for the first time in Blu-ray High Definition this week, and We Are Movie Geeks spoke to Kurtwood Smith about the film.

We Are Movie Geeks: When you filmed DEAD POET’S SOCIETY did you realize you were making a classic?

Kurtwood Smith: I didn’t realize we were making a classic but I knew that, with Peter Weir directing, that we were making a very good film. There were so many talented people involved. Tom Schulman the writer, and of course Robin and these young actors Robert Sean Leonard and Ethan Hawke and, in particular Josh Charles. Those guys were really really talented so I knew we had a good chance of making an excellent movie.

WAMG: How did you get the role as Mr. Perry in DEAD POET’S SOCIETY?

KS: They sent the script to my agent and wanted to know if I was interested. They started out asking me if I was interested in either the part of the father or of the headmaster (eventually played by Norman Lloyd). I said I was, and then it fell apart. Peter Weir was not connected with it at the time. Then about a year later they came back and said that Peter Weir was going to direct this so I went in and read the scene for Peter and we filmed it. That was the only time I had the director do the filming of the audition himself. We talked at length about the role and then a couple of weeks later I got it.

WAMG: What was Robin Williams like?

KS: I knew Robin from before. I had worked with him doing Theater in Marin County and I’d seen him on and off over the years. I only had two scenes with him in the movie and one of those was cut. Peter had cut it and put it back in, then cut it out again. It was a scene after Neil’s funeral . We decided it was redundant and cut it.

WAMG: Have you worked with Robin Williams since then?

KS: No, I’ve seen him and seen his stage shows and recently saw him in New York in the play Bengal Tiger at the Baghdad Zoo, and we caught up a bit, but that’s the only film we made together.

WAMG: Let’s talk about the character you played in DEAD POET’S SOCIETY, Mr. Perry. Why did Mr. Perry have such a hard time with his son Neil wanting to be an actor?

KS: I think Mr. Perry thought that sort of life would be a waste. Peter Weir and I decided that, as far as Mr. Perry’s back story went, we were determined that the character be understandable. He didn’t know how to express it but he obviously loved his son and was determined that his son was going to take advantage of the advantages given him and do something with his life. Obviously Mr. Perry struggled throughout his life and he saw, as most parents do today, going into theater as a very chancy, difficult future so he was determined his son wasn’t going to waste his life that way.

WAMG: Could you relate to Neil Perry? What did your family think of your chosen profession?

KS: My family was fine with my acting career, as long as I went to college.

WAMG: Did you discourage or encourage your daughter Laurel from becoming an actress?

KS: I didn’t encourage her because I know it’s a difficult thing but at the same time it would have been improper of me to discourage her. I stressed that I wanted her to get an education and graduate from college. Then it was up to her, and she’s made it work. She does mostly commercials now.

WAMG: At the end of the day, do you think Mr. Perry blames Mr. Keating for his son’s death or does he recognize his own bullying?

KS: If we had left that scene in that I mentioned, you wouldn’t have aslked the question because it’s still clear in that scene that he blames Mr. Keating but obviously in that kind of situation he would have had to know responsible. Whether or not he’s willing to accept that, given the kind of guy that he is, he wouldn’t accept that. It would be a hard thing for him to admit.

WAMG: Were there any other scenes in DEAD POET SOCIETY featuring you as Mr. Perry that were cut out besides the one you mentioned?

KS: That’s the only one I remember. There were some scenes that were cut from the script when Peter Weir took it over. In the original script, Mr. Perry drags his son off the stage while he’s performing Midsummer Nights Dream, but we all agreed that was over the top. But I don’t recall any other scenes being shot and then cut, but that’s over 25 years ago so, who knows.

(At this point in the interview, a rep from Disney breaks in the phone line and lets me know I have only one more question left ! I haven’t even brought up ROBOCOP or any of Mr. Smith’s many great film roles – oh well – one last question:)

WAMG: Were you in THE DEER HUNTER (the IMDB has him listed as “POW in Cage ” Uncredited -Unconfirmed)?

KS: No, I was not in THE DEER HUNTER but I keep hearing that I was. I really need to go back and watch that film again and see why everyone thinks I’m in there.

WAMG: Good luck with the Blu-ray release of DEAD POET’S SOCIETY and with your future projects and thanks for talking to We Are Movie Geeks.

KS: My pleasure, thank you.

The We Are Movie Geeks Blu-ray review of DEAD POET’S SOCIETY can be found HERE

Roger Corman is a Hollywood legend! Last week, WAMG got the chance to sit down with the man himself, along with Director Alex Stapleton about their new film CORMAN’S WORLD: EXPLOITS OF A HOLLYWOOD REBEL.

CORMAN’S WORLD: EXPLOITS OF A HOLLYWOOD REBEL is a tantalizing and star-studded tribute to Roger Corman, Hollywood’s most prolific writer-director producer, and seminal influencing force in modern moviemaking over the last 60 years. Featuring interviews with Hollywood icons and cinematic luminaries, some who launched their careers within Corman’s unforgettable world of filmmaking, including Paul W.S. Anderson, Peter Bogdanovich, Robert De Niro, Peter Fonda, Pam Grier, Ron Howard, Eli Roth, Martin Scorsese, William Shatner and Jack Nicholson, along with many others, this documentary chronicles how Corman created his cult film empire, one low-budget success at a time, capitalizing on undiscovered talent, and pushing the boundaries of independent filmmaking.

Check out the interview here:

Director Alex Stapleton weaves archival footage following Roger’s illustrious career: From his early days of genre-defining classics including the original Fast and Furious, the original Little Shop of Horrors, The Crybaby Killer, The Intruder, House of Usher, and The Wild Angels (which at that point in 1966 was his 100th film) – to present day video of him and his wife Julie on location, still at work as they continue to produce and distribute films outside the studio system: fast, cheap and out-of-this-world!

Distributed by Anchor Bay Films, Corman’s World: Exploits of a Hollywood Rebel is rated R for some violent images, nudity and language. Run time 90 minutes.

CORMAN’S WORLD: EXPLOITS OF A HOLLYWOOD REBEL opens in select theaters on December 16^th

On November 27, 2011, DreamWorks Pictures presented an advance screening of Steven Spielberg’s WAR HORSE in New York City. The event, featured a live Q&A session with the director which was streamed live on MSN. Fans from around the world in over 120 countries/territories submitted questions through a live-chat function. Watch a rebroadcast here.

DreamWorks Pictures’ “War Horse,” director Steven Spielberg’s epic adventure, is a tale of loyalty, hope and tenacity set against a sweeping canvas of rural England and Europe during the First World War. “War Horse” begins with the remarkable friendship between a horse named Joey and a young man called Albert, who tames and trains him. When they are forcefully parted, the film follows the extraordinary journey of the horse as he moves through the war, changing and inspiring the lives of all those he meets—British cavalry, German soldiers, and a French farmer and his granddaughter—before the story reaches its emotional climax in the heart of No Man’s Land.

The First World War is experienced through the journey of this horse—an odyssey of joy and sorrow, passionate friendship and high adventure. “War Horse” is one of the great stories of friendship and war— a successful book, it was turned into a hugely successful international theatrical hit that is currently on Broadway. It now comes to screen in an epic adaptation by one of the great directors in film history.

WAR HORSE rides into theaters on Christmas Day, December 25th!

Website and Mobile site: www.warhorsemovie.com
“Like” WAR HORSE on Facebook: www.facebook.com/WarHorseMovie
Follow on Twitter: www.twitter.com/warhorsemovie

Interview conducted November 10th, 2011 by Tom Stockman (who had not yet seen the film)

MY COMIC SHOP DOCUMENTARY is the debut film of part-time comic-store clerk and full-time law student Anthony Desiato. Alternate Realities is the Westchester N.Y., comic shop owned by Steve Oto, a former lawyer himself. Oto had been an avid collector of comic books and original art for over 30 years when he opened Alternate Realities on June 19, 1992,and the shop is a favorite among comic book fans in that area. After working at Alternate Realities for over eight years, Desiato decided to make a documentary about the shop, specifically Mr. Oto’s relationship with his employees and his store’s loyal and eccentric clientele. MY COMIC SHOP DOCUMENTARY will play at the St. Louis International Film Festival this Saturday, November 19^th at 1:15 pm at the Tivoli Theater with Anthony Desiato in attendance. Mr. Desiato took the time to speak with We Are Movie Geeks about his documentary.

We Are Movie Geeks: How did you meet Steve Oto?

Anthony Desiato: I started out as a customer at his comic shop before I was in High School, and then I started working for him during High School.

WAMG: So how long have you worked at Alternate Realities then?

AD: About ten years.

WAMG: Is Alternate Realities considered New York’s premiere comic shop?

AD: Maybe Westchester’s premiere comic shop but as far as New York goes, there are some stores in the city, namely Midtown Comics that are the real go-to place.

WAMG: What is Steve Oto like? How would you describe him?

AD: He’s absolutely a character. I think the best way to describe him is as a man of contradictions. He’s gregarious yet misanthropic. He engages with the customers and talks to them, he enjoys the friendly rapport but at the same time, if they don’t come and pick up their books every week like they’re supposed to, he declares them dead. So he’s an interesting guy.

WAMG: When they’re declared dead, are they banned from the shop?

AD: Well, banning from the shop is the last step. Once you’re declared dead, you can come back from the dead and buy your stuff. Being banned is the last resort. Not many people have actually been banned. I’ve known Steve in a couple of different contexts. First he was the guy he sold me comics, then he was my boss, and then my film subject, but more than anything he’s been a friend and I’m grateful for knowing him.

WAMG: Does Steve Oto have a great comic book collection?

AD: He did, but he sold it.

WAMG: Did he have a lot of original art as well?

AD: He did. He had quite an extensive collection. He’s in his fifties and had been collecting since he was a child. He sold it through Heritage, the online auction house a few years ago.

WAMG: Why did he do that?

AD: I don’t know. I think it was something he’d been thinking about for a while. I think it was just time.

WAMG: What was his most valuable book?

AD: I don’t know. He had all the silver age Marvel stuff.

WAMG: What makes Alternate Realities unique as a comic shop. Is Steve Oto’s personality reflected in his store?

AD: I think that’s fair to say. More than that, what sets the store apart and what I really wanted to show in the movie is the sense of community and camaraderie at the store. For example, every Saturday night, a bunch of us go out for dinner, me and Steve and some of the customers. There’s a moment in the movie where one of the customers goes on a rant about Captain America’s costume in the new movie and this is a guy who’s normally on the quiet and reserved side. Because of the atmosphere at the store, he felt comfortable expressing himself.

WAMG: It’s funny what collectors get excited about. Are there a lot of eccentric regulars that hang out at Alternate Realities?

AD: Yes, for this film I interviewed over two dozen people. A lot of them are very quirky and colorful and that’s one of the reasons I wanted to make the movie, to spotlight this colorful group but one thing I hope the movie shows is a different side of comic book fans. I feel like every time comic book fans are depicted in popular culture, it’s a stereotype and certainly stereotypes exist for a reason and there are people who are like that but I hope the movie shows a different side, that these people don’t just talk about comic books, that they have wives and girlfriends and all of that but that was definitely something I wanted to explore. This wasn’t the case of an outsider coming and putting these people under a microscope. This is from an insider’s perspective. I’ve been reading comics since I was five. I’ve been working at the store for a decade so even if the movie does poke fun at us, there’s no malice; it’s coming from a good place.

WAMG: Is this your first film?

AD: Yes, I’m in my third year of law school. I made the film between my first and second years of law school, the summer of 2010. I didn’t have any filmmaking experience and, short of composing the music, I handled every aspect of production myself.

WAMG: Are you a comic collector yourself? What are your favorite titles?

AD: My favorite character is Superman. I tend to follow creators more than characters or publishers at this point. Anything by Jeff Johns or Brian K. Vaughn, Greg Rocco, Gail Simone, those are people whose work I really enjoy.

WAMG: How has ebay changed the face of comic book dealing?

AD: I don’t think the back issue market is as robust as it has been in the past. I think that has to do with two things. Part of it, as you said, you can get copies of all of these online. Also with rise of the trade paperbacks, the fact that you get, in a single volume, an entire arc, it makes hunting down the individual back issues less essential so ebay has played a part in that. The way the movie is set up, in different chapters or vignettes, and each one highlights different aspects of life at the store and it’s Steve who ties everything together. One of the vignettes is a segment on the man-cave, ones that our customers have cultivated.

WAMG: Did you take your camera into people’s homes?

AD: I did so you get to see some of these people’s collections. There’s one in particular that’s really intense, a guy who goes to a lot of the comic swap meets and has collected so much.

WAMG: Describe his man-cave?

AD: It’s……oh, how can I put this into words……of all the things that I’ve filmed, it left the biggest impression. It’s really just one room but it’s wall-to-wall artwork and action figures and trinkets. You have to see it to believe it. It’s all Marvel.

WAMG: Is he an older guy?

AD: Probably in his forties

WAMG: Probably been collecting for many years. It’s what happens. You start accumulating. You screened your film at the San Diego Comic-Con, is that right?

AD: Yes, the first time we showed it was at New Filmmakers New York, back in May. That’s New York’s longest running screening series. Then we showed it at the film festival at the San Diego Comic-Con.

WAMG: What was the response to your film there?

AD: It was great. The people there really seemed into it, they were engaged. A lot of laughs during the movie which is always a good thing. I do think our Q&A session was one of the longer ones. One of my goals in making this movie was to appeal to as wide an audience as possible. For comic book fans watching this, there is plenty for them to appreciate more so than “outsiders”, but at the same time it’s designed for anyone to watch. It’s more about the people than anything.

WAMG: How did you get hooked up with the St. Louis International Film Festival?

AD: Cliff at Cinema St. Louis saw an article in The New York Times about my film and contacted me. I’m really looking forward to coming to St. Louis.

WAMG: What’s your next project? Do you have something planned?

AD: No, the truth is I never set out to be a documentary filmmaker. Screenwriting is my passion, but I fell in love with the process while I was making this movie so if I found the right subject, I would absolutely love to make another documentary but as of now, I’m finishing up law school and working on distribution for MY COMIC SHOP DOCUMENTARY.

WAMG: Good luck with MY COMIC SHOP DOCUMENTARY and we’ll see you in St. Louis this weekend at the St. Louis International Film Festival.

AD: Thanks.

Interview conducted November 15th, 2011 by Tom Stockman (who had not yet seen the film)

Born in Seattle, Washington in 1921,Carol Channing made her Broadway debut in 1941 in the show Let’s Face It, and she’s been on the stage ever since, landing the star-making role of Lorelei Lee in Gentlemen Prefer Blondes in 1949 and originating the role of Dolly Levi in Hello, Dolly! in 1964. Since then, the actress with the big eyes, red lips, blonde mane and bubbly personality has been a one-of-a-kind presence on stage, in movies and on television, still maintaining a busy schedule as she approaches the age of 90. Filmmaker and Tony-Award winning producer Dori Berinstein offers a fascinating profile of a singular talent in the documentary CAROL CHANNING: LARGER THAN LIFE, which chronicles her life on an off the stage as she rehearses a new show while discussing her life in the theater, her four marriages (including a late-in-life reunion with her high school sweetheart, who she wed in 2006), her political causes, her status as a gay icon and the persona she’s created for herself. CAROL CHANNING: LARGER THAN LIFE will play at the St. Louis International Film Festival Saturday, Nov 19th at 1:00pm at the Tivoli Theater with filmmaker Dori Berinstein in attendance. Ms Berinstein took the time to talk with We Are Movie Geeks about the project.

We Are Movie Geeks: What was your inspiration for putting together a documentary with Carol Channing as a subject

Dori Berinstein: I got to know Carol and found her to be extraordinary beyond everything I knew about her already.  She’s just a one-of-a-kind, inspiring women. Someone who has grabbed life in every way and I just felt hers was a beautiful story that hadn’t been told.

WAMG: Hence the title “Larger than Life”

DB: Which she is.

WAMG: Was one of your goals with the film to introduce Carol Channing to a younger audience?

DB: She’s doing a very good job of exposing herself to younger audiences on her own. She was recently in an episode of Family Guy and was a regular on The Muppets and Sesame Street for many years and of course Free To Be, You and Me, everybody recognizes her from that. It’s quite remarkable, when I was shooting the film all over the country, so many people that I ran into, that were under thirty, were well aware, and very familiar with CC. She is am extraordinary entertainer for all ages.

WAMG: And she has that iconic voice that you still hear comedians and impressionists imitating.

DB: Oh my goodness yes.

WAMG: Were you able to include actual footage from her Broadway performances in your film?

DB: We have a tremendous amount of performance footage in this film.

WAMG: Her most famous role was that of Dolly Levi in Hello Dolly. How many times did she perform this role?

DB: Over 5000 times. She only missed half of a performance one time. You’ll have to see the documentary to find out why.

WAMG: She began that role in 1964. How did she get the part?

DB: She was a struggling actress LA and ended up auditioning for Gower Champion for Lend An Ear, which had just been announced for broadway in March of that year. Gower’s wife had spotted her in a casting agent’s office and suggested she come and audition. That was when Gower Champion, who ended up directing Hello Dolly, first saw her. Ethel Merman was originally cast as Dolly Levi, and when she was forced to drop out of the production, his first thought was to turn to Carol Channing.

WAMG: Why did Carol Channing not get the role in the movie version of Hello Dolly?

DB: Excellent question. Unfortunately there’s a long tradition of Hollywood bypassing Broadway stars for these type of roles even though Broadway performers are fully capable of taking on the role onscreen. Carol Channing is obviously a tremendous onscreen talent. She was Oscar-nominated for best supporting actress in for THOROUGHLY MODERN MILLIE in 1967.

WAMG: Streisand had just won an Oscar herself so it was probably strictly a box-office decision. You mentioned that Carol Channing was nominated for an Oscar yet she appeared in very few films. Why was that?

DB: We talk about that in the film a little bit. I think that a lot of people think of Carol Channing as a larger than life performer. There are certain parts that would allow her to be that larger than life personality on-screen. HELLO DOLLY would have worked perfectly. Muzzy in THOROUGHLY MODERN MILLIE was absolutely perfect for her. Some more subtle roles wouldn’t’ work for her. She has such extraordinary presence on on-stage, she owns the role so the stage was a more natural place for a talent like that.

WAMG: What can you tell me about her (current) marriage to Harry Kullijian?

DB: It’s the most beautiful, romantic story I ever heard.It’s just anyone’s hope that dreams can come true and to never give up. Carol, after 80 years, found true love in someone she knew as a kid.

WAMG: That will be a nice story. I’m looking forward to seeing the film. She described her 42 year marriage to Charles Lowe as “miserable”. Can you talk about that?

DB: It sounded pretty miserable. He was her agent. He was in the business of Carol Channing. He did everything he could to support her career which was terrific but as a husband, not so much.

WAMG: What is Carol Channing up to these days?

DB: Carol and Harry have a foundation that supports getting arts back into the schools and they are working tirelessly to do that. They’ve made much headway in California where art had radically been cut in schools, a disaster, and they are working so hard, not just in California, but they have taken their campaign nationally and they’re trying to make a difference and change the future because the arts have a huge impact on who we are as human beings and without the arts, the future is terrifying.

WAMG: Carol Channing turns 91 in a couple of months. How is her health?

DB: Fabulous. It’s hard to keep up with her.

WAMG: I looked at your credits. You’ve been involved in other documentaries about Broadway and showbiz and you have won three Tony Awards. Do you prefer being a documentary filmmaker or are you itching to get back to the theater?

DB: I can go simultaneously. I love them equally and completely and I can’t imagine not doing both. I’m happiest when I’m able to bring the two worlds I love so much together.

WAMG: What’s next for Dori Berinstein?

DB: I’m hard at work on several new Broadway shows and a new movie is brewing and I also do a lot of work with Dreamworks Theatrical.

WAMG: Good luck with CAROL CHANNING: LARGER THAN LIFE and we’ll see you in St. Louis on Saturday.

DB: Thank you.

Filmmaker Mike Dorsey with a photo of his grandfather, Lieutenant Colonel E.C. “Easy” Freeman

Interview conducted by Tom Stockman November 8th, 2011

Buchenwald was a German Nazi concentration camp built near Weimar Germany July 1937. It was the largest concentration camp on German soil and even though it was technically not an extermination camp, it was a site of an extraordinary number of deaths. Although it was highly unusual for the Germans to send Allied POWS to concentration camps, Buchenwald held a group of 168 aviators for two months in 1944.These soldiers were from the United States, United Kingdom, Canada, Australia and New Zealand. They all arrived at Buchenwald in August of 1944.All these airmen were in planes that had crash landed into Nazi-occupied France. Though initially rescued and hidden by French citizens, many were turned over to the Nazis by Jacques Desoubrie, a French traitor who was actually a double-agent for the Gestapo.Two explanations are given for them being sent to a concentration camp: first, that they had managed to make contact with the French Resistance, some were disguised as civilians, and they were carrying false papers when caught; they were therefore categorized by the Germans as spies, which meant their rights under the Geneva Convention were not recognized. The second explanation is that they had been categorized as Terrorfliger (“terror aviators”). The aviators were initially held in Gestapo prisons and headquarters in France. In August 1944, they and other Gestapo prisoners were jammed into boxcars and transported by train to Buchenwald. The hellish journey took five days, during which they received little food or water. They were subjected to the same sadistic treatment and abuse as other Buchenwald prisoners until October 1944, when a change in policy resulted in the aviators being moved to a regular POW camp. Nevertheless, two airmen died at Buchenwald.

This remarkable story, somewhat lost in the vast histories of World War II, is the basis for filmmaker Mike Dorsey’s extraordinary new documentary LOST AIRMEN OF BUCHENWALD. Featuring on-camera interviews with seven of the surviving Buchenwald airmen (including Dorsey’s own grandfather Lieutenant Colonel E.C. “Easy” Freeman, an American B-26 pilot), the documentary pieces together the testimonies of these brave men to tell a story that contains more drama and tension than most Hollywood films about the war. These veterans share their memories of the ordeal in a candid manner and one of the many strengths of LOST AIRMEN OF BUCHENWALD is how vivid their recollections are. They clearly describe how their airplanes were shot down, how they made their way to Paris, the details of their eventual capture, and the brutal conditions they endured at Buchenwald.  Being senior in rank, Royal New Zealand Air Force pilot Phil Lamason took control and instilled a level of military discipline and bearing. He defied the German’s order that his men work in the nearby munitions factory and refused, on behalf of his men, to help clean up after that factory was bombed by Allied planes. Dorsey’s film mixes these interviews with vintage photographs, archival films, and recently-shot footage of visits by several of the airmen to Buchenwald. LOST AIRMEN OF BUCHENWALD will play at the St. Louis International Film Festival Thursday, November 16^th at 1pm at the Plaza Frontenac Theater. Mike Dorsey will be in attendance to answer questions and took the time for a recent phone interview about the project for We Are Movie Geeks.

Vintage group photo of the Allied airmen and a recent photo of the front gate of the Buchenwald Concentration Camp.

We Are Movie Geeks: Congratulations on LOST AIRMEN OF BUCHENWALD

Mike Dorsey: Thanks

WAMG: Is this your first feature-length documentary?

MD: No. it’s my third

WAMG: What were the first two?

MD: The first was a Hollywood history and the second was on the Manson Family and their murder spree in the 1960′s.

WAMG: What was your take on the Manson family?

MD: The focus on that was more of who their victims were and how they all came to be where they were when they were killed. It’s called THE SIX DEGREES OF HELTER SKELTER.

WAMG: What inspired you to tackle the subject of these Allied soldiers that were prisoners at Buchenwald?

MD: My grandfather was one of the airmen in the group.

WAMG: So he was one of the men interviewed?

MD: Yes, he was the first one I interviewed. I grew up with this story in my family.

P-38 pilot Joe Moser before his interview.

WAMG: So there were basically seven men that are profiled. When did you film these interviews?

MD: We’ve filmed them over the past two years. Most were filmed in 2010.

WAMG: So they’re still alive then?

MD: All of them, yes.

WAMG: Have you had a chance to travel with any of these men to various screenings of the film?

MD: Yes, so far five of the seven have been at public screenings. I just got back from New Zealand over the weekend where Phil Lammason, their commanding officer, lives. I was at a screening with him.

WAMG: He must be close to 90 I imagine.

MD: He’s 93 but he’s still sharp, still gets around fine, still lives alone on his farm.

WAMG: What do these men think of the final film that you’ve made?

MD: They love it. And also, none of them knew the complete story until they saw the movie. Each guy had his own experience but nobody had all the pieces of the puzzle.

WAMG: Why do you think this story is not better known? I certainly didn’t know Allied forces had been in concentration camps. I just assumed it was all Jews.

MD: That’s the first misnomer. Obviously that was the main group but at Buchenwald there were a lot of Russian POW’s and a lot of other groups were sent there. Resistance fighters, which is why these Allied guys ended up there. They were accused of being terrorists. Political prisoners, gays. Buchenwald held a very diverse group of prisoners.

WAMG: Why didn’t any of these men write their memoirs to get their stories out?

MD: Some of them have. There’s a few books out there about them. It’s all just a matter of getting the word out. If you self-publish something, how do you get people to read it?

WAMG: Do some of these men worry that people might not believe their story?

MD: They didn’t just worry about it, they experienced it. Especially when they got home. People had a hard enough time just believing tat the camps were real and even then, people believed that it was only Jews that were in the concentration camps so they would just say “Are you Jewish?”, and they would say they were an airman, and would hear “Oh, you don’t know where you were. You’re confused. You were in a POW camp; you just think you were in a concentration camp”.

WAMG: They didn’t call it a death camp though, didn’t they refer to it as a “labor camp”?

MD: Yes, Buchenwald was not a death camp. It was not a place where you were sent to be executed. Some people were executed there, especially some of the Russian POWs. A lot of them were shot there, but it was primarily a labor camp. There were factories there. Still, 50,000 people died there, but it mostly from malnutrition, disease, being murdered by other prisoners.

A guard tower at Buchenwald, with the crematorium in the background.

WAMG: Were you able to reunite some of these soldiers that hadn’t seen each other in decades?

MD: Yes, two of them got together at a screening we did in Washington and three of them got together with my grandfather in Florida a few weeks ago. So the ones that are well enough to travel have gotten around.

WAMG: Why were these particular prisoners not treated according to the Geneva Convention?

MD: What happened was, if you were a commando dropped behind enemy lines, and the Germans caught you, then they would say that you’ve voided your rights as of the Geneva Convention, that you will not be treated as a prisoner of war. You broke the rules. These guys were airmen that had been shot down. They were all hiding with the French Resistance. The Germans claimed they should have turned themselves in as soon as they crashed, but since they were hiding with the resistance, they were labeled saboteurs and terrorists and were treated the same way they would have treated a commando who purposely dropped in behind enemy lines. It’s because they were caught by the Gestapo and not by the regular military that that happened.

WAMG: There is an amazing amount of archival footage and photographs in THE LOST AIRMEN OF BUCHENWALD. Where did you get this? Did the German government grant you access to this stuff?

MD: Yes. First, the Buchenwald Memorial is a first class museum and they were incredibly helpful. They gave us a lot of the photographs of Buchenwald. The Steven Spielberg Archives gave us some footage. A lot of it came from a new website called Critical Past which specializing in high-definition transfers of public domain footage.

WAMG: I’m always a bit startled when I see color footage from World War Two.

MD: It’s amazing isn’t it? You start to see color footage more later in the war. All the early stuff, like the D-Day stuff, is always black and white but by the time they got into Germany in late ’44 or ’45 you start seeing more color.

WAMG: What happened to the Nazi double agent Jacques Desoubrie?

MD: He was hunted down, captured, put on trial, and executed.

WAMG: Good.

MD: Yeah, he got his.

WAMG: Do you think Hollywood will ever want to produce a narrative feature about this incident? There’s certainly enough drama.

MD: I think there’s definitely that possibility. It would be nice to see it. The story especially of the commanding officer, Phil Lamason, his refusal to work. That’s the kind of stuff screenwriters usually make up.

WAMG: Has Phil Lamason written down his memoirs?

MD: Of all of the airmen, Lamason is the most humble and the least exited to talk about it. He has the Distinguished Flying Cross, but he never shows it to anybody, he never wears it.

Squadron Leader Phil Lamason with director Mike Dorsey

WAMG: Were you a World War Two buff?

MD: Yes, definitely.

WAMG: Who narrated your film?

MD: One of my friends and coworkers here at Outdoor Channel who does some of our narration here.

WAMG: How long did it take you to make this film?

MD: Two years exactly.

WAMG: How did you get in touch with the Cinema St. Louis people.

MD: I submitted it and they accepted. I like St. Louis a lot and have family in Missouri so it seemed like a natural festival to get involved in.

WAMG: What’s next for Mike Dorsey?

MD: Right now I’m keeping my options open. We’re just riding this wave first, see where it goes, see where it’s distributed, and then I’ll figure out my next project down the road.

WAMG: Best of luck with THE LOST AIRMEN OF BUCHENWALD and we’ll see you Thursday, November17th at 1:00pm at the Plaza Frontenac Cinema for the screening. Thanks for your time

MD: Thank you.

WAMG:

Interview conducted by Tom Stockman November 7th, 2011

Bill Streeter is the award-winning producer of the internet video program, Lo-Fi Saint Louis, which showcases our city’s best musicians, artists and burlesque queens. For his first feature-length documentary, Streeter chose a subject that, on the surface may have seemed like an odd choice: Brick, or specifically, St. Louis’ distinctive red brick. Streeter got the idea for his doc when his out-of-town friends kept commenting on the beauty of St. Louis’ brick buildings. The resulting film, BRICK BY CHANCE AND FORTUNE: A ST. LOUIS STORY is proof that in the right hands, a film about a subject that may seem narrow, in this case building material, can transcend its limitations and entertain and inform (read the WAMG review HERE). It’s an outstanding film and after seeing it, you will never look at our city’s buildings the same way again. BRICK BY CHANCE AND FORTUNE: A ST. LOUIS STORY will be playing at the St. Louis International Film Festival this Sunday, November 20^th at 4pm at the Plaza Frontenac Cinema. Bill Streeter took the time to talk with We Are Movie Geeks.

We Are Movie Geeks: Congratulations on your documentary BRICK BY CHANCE AND FORTUNE: A ST. LOUIS STORY. I though it was outstanding.

Bill Streeter: Thanks. I read your review. It was great.

WAMG: Thanks. I call ‘em as I see ‘em. Is this your first feature-length documentary?

BS: Yes

WAMG: What did you do before tackling this project?

BS: I have a web series called Lo-Fi St. Louis which I’ve been doing for over six years and I’ve done a lot of documentary shorts with that, probably about fifty. Short documentaries.

WAMG: Is that how you met up with Pokey LaFarge (who provides some of the music in BRICK BY CHANCE AND FORTUNE)?

BS: What happened was I met Pokey when I did a video about him real early, before he was well-known in St. Louis. You could say I helped introduce him to St. Louis about six years ago.

WAMG: And he wrote a song called Brick Thieves?

BS: I asked him to do that, it was written for the film. So was the Brick by Brick song by the Rum Drum Ramblers. Both of those are original songs. I told them about this project early when I was working on it and showed them some of the interviews and asked if they wanted to do some of the music for it and they got really excited about it. We also recorded the song that plays during the closing credits, My Country by Irene Allen, which was not original to the film but was an original recording for the film. The other music was by the Rats and People Motion Picture Orchestra. They wanted to so original stuff , but we ran out of time so they gave me bits and pieces of stuff that they had never used for anything before so I basically used what I could out of that. That’s where all the instrumental comes from.

WAMG: The music fits in well. Where does the title, Brick by Chance and Fortune, come from?

BS: Well, the obvious titles were already taken and kind of cliche, the titles that everyone wanted and thought it should have been titles, like Brick City. There was already a documentary series called Brick City, but that’s what we used as a working title when we got the grant proposal. Then there was Brick by Brick, which I didn’t like either, too much of a cliche. I wanted to come up with something that was unique and I came across this quote from Plutarch; “No man ever wetted clay and then left it, as if there would be bricks by chance and fortune” meaning you you can’t just wet clay and expect it to become bricks. I liked the phrase, it sounded poetic and it sort of reflected some of the themes of the film. There was sort of a chance discovery of the clay resource here and it became a source of fortune. A lot of people here in St. Louis made their fortune from brick industry, it was big business. It was the largest industry in the city at one time. It was responsible for a lot of the economy in St. Louis for a number of years in the late 1800′s. And we’re still living with this unappreciated fortune of all of this brick architecture today.

WAMG: It’s pretty eye-opening. Ever since I’ve seen you documentary, whenever I’m driving around, I find myself looking up.

BS: You’re not the first person to say that. One of the intents of the film, I wanted people to look at the city differently, and I think it’s succeeded.

WAMG: How long ago did you move to St. Louis from Chicago?

BS: I moved here in 2001?

WAMG: Did you notice the uniqueness of St. Louis bricks right away?

BS: Yeah, Chicago’s got a lot of brick architecture too but when I moved here I notice a lot of different styles and textures of brick that I wasn’t seeing in Chicago and I had a friend who came to visit me from Chicago and he was not a fan of red brick and he did not like seeing so much here. But I had another friend who came to visit later from California and he was just blown away by the brick here, and that was one of the inspirations for the film. He kept asking me where it came from, and that’s when I started looking into it. I found some stuff about the clay mines. And I saw a video that Antonio French had put together about the problem of brick theft in North city and that’s what made me think that there’s a story here. I realized that a lot of people didn’t know or understand how important brick was to the history of St. Louis.

WAMG: What is it, besides the rich red color that makes St. Louis bricks so desirable to thieves?

BS: They’re antique. They’re old, an old-style brick that’s not made any more. They’re solid. The other thing is that there are a lot of decorative bricks you see in the facades that they steal for their value on the resale market.

WAMG: Is it really worth driving these trucks in, what with the cost of gas, and hauling off these bricks?

BS: It’s hard to know if it is now or not because the economy has taken its toll on the building business. The economy could work either way. It could increase brick thievery even though it’s not as profitable as it once was because people are more desperate but there’s also the fact the building industry has taken such a hit that there’s less demand for even used brick and they’re not getting the prices they were getting at the peak of the building boom.

WAMG: Your film points out that the police in North city don’t give it (brick thievery) much priority

BS: Yeah, and that’s understandable, I mean there are other crimes but the other argument is the fact is that if you police the nuisance crimes, you solve the bigger crimes because you’re more involved in the community and the people committing the nuisance crimes are the same ones committing the bigger crimes. Also, I’ve had people argue that the brick thieves are doing the city a favor because these buildings are neglected anyway, but there are a number of problems with just letting brick thieves run rampant. One is they leave these buildings torn in half which is really dangerous because they could collapse at any time, with children in there to play. Also the gas and water service to these buildings is sometimes not turned off so they’re dangerous in that way as well. On top of that, some of these buildings are still occupied. I met a man who’d been in the hospital for a few days, and when he came out, someone had stolen part of his home.

WAMG: Do you think local lawmakers could introduce legislation to protect our bricks?

BS: Hard to know, there’s a limit to what the city can do. They can only impose fines up to a certain level.

WAMG: You’re bringing the problem to light though. You say the thieves are coming in from the Southern states?

BS: The reason is that the used brick they harvest here doesn’t hold up as well in some climates. Basically there’s a softer brick for the interior of the houses while they had a harder, less-porous brick for the outside that could stand up to the elements better. Usually there were three layers thick of brick and the inner core was made of a softer, cheaper brick and when they steal them, they mix all that up, don’t sort it properly, so the moisture can get into the brick and it can freeze and crack, so it only holds up in climates where it won’t freeze.

WAMG: I know that some brick homes that were built just 40 or 50 years ago in West (St. Louis) County are already starting to crumble. They used the wrong type of bricks?

They were using some of the reclaimed brick that wasn’t sorted correctly just as a cost-cutting measure.

WAMG: You point out that the Hydraulic Press Company, located at Kingshighway and Manchester, was at one time the largest brick manufacturer in the world. When did that company fold?

BS: It’s still around but they stopped making brick in 1967. The last brick plant they closed was on Hegge road but they had, at their peak brick plants and sales offices all over the country, but it was headquartered here in St. Louis. They’ve moved their headquarters to Indianapolis. Now they primarily make lightweight concrete aggregate.

WAMG: Are bricks still being produced here in St. Louis?

BS: Yes, Richards Brick over on the east side is the only one around here now. They make some of their own brick. It’s a specialized company. They mine their own clay.  They only do mining operation for about a month and then stockpile it for two years.

WAMG: When thing I was impressed with was the decorative bricks, the way the facades were spaced and embossed and inset are really works of art. Are there records of the artisans that created these? Are there famous brick artists?

BS: No, not really. There were special crews of guys that would do this and they were basically just builder contractors, not really well-documented. You’ll see their names on building permits and stuff around the city but a lot of the guys who did the facades were English. I England they have a long history of brick laying and a lot of English immigrants would come here and set up these elite crews who would design these facades. In my neighborhood in South City, they would do a whole street at once and they would go to a general contractor. They were called the ‘lump men’ or the ‘front men’ which meant they would do all of the facades on the project for a lump sum or they were called ‘front men’ if they would just do the fronts of the buildings. So they were specialist crews of English artisans. Sometimes you can distinguish between a really fine brick house and a standard brick house is that on a house that a lot of money was spent on, you’ll see the custom brick all around the house. You’ll see the textured face even on the back of the house, and that will tell you someone spent extra money on that house for that custom brickwork.

WAMG: You certainly chose the right people to interview. Did you do a lot of research before the interviews?

BS: We did some general research. We had limited time frame to work so my approach was to identify the experts and the research would be the interviews.

WAMG: Let the interview subjects guide the direction of the film.

BS: Yes, research generally just to know what questions to ask when I went in. I knew I wanted to get a geologist and hear from a couple of people with a historical perspective, architectural perspective. Some of the activists know a lot. I really relied on the preservationist activist community to help me figure out exactly who to talk to. A number of people said I should to Mimi Harris. She does brick walking tours in South City where she talks about the neighborhood including the brick and point out all the brick work. And of course Bob Archibald at the Missouri History Museum, and he was just great. His whole interview was about 45 minutes long and I asked him two questions.

WAMG: I’ve done interviews like that.

BS: Larry Giles (president of the St. Louis Building Arts Foundation) is another person we talked to and of course (architectural historian ) Michael Allen who I’ve known for several years and he’s just a good talker.

WAMG: Are there people out there that collect different types of bricks? Have they contacted you?

BS: Yeah, I collect them now too I guess. Ever since the movie came out, people have given me bricks so I collect them by proxy. There are a number of people that collect bricks.

WAMG: Do they gather and have conventions?

BS: I don’t know. They might. I know that there have been a number of books that have been publihshed that are basically catalogs of the different bricks. The bricks that people collect are usually either fire bricks or paving stones because they’re easy to identify, they have the names embossed right on them.

WAMG: Last night I typed in “collectible brick” on ebay. A 1925 ‘Convict-made’ brick from the Ohio brick plant sold for $20.

BS: If they’re embossed they’re a fire brick or a paving brick. One of the most valuable bricks people collect, and I have one because Larry Giles gave it to me, is a blue block brick from Indiana. It’s called Culver brick. It’s very distinct with a distinctive embossing, it’s kind of a weird purple red color they call blue block. It’s the same brick they use to pave the Indianapolis 500 track. There’s a replica of that brick on the Indy 500 trophy so if you can find one of these Culver bricks, it’s rare. They were all made between 1900 and 1920 so there’s a limited number out there. They go for about $100 on ebay.

WAMG: Did you know anything about bricks two years ago?

BS: Very little. I knew almost nothing, but I’ve learned a lot through this project. As much as I think I know, when I do these Q&As someone will come up with something that I didn’t know.

WAMG: BRICK BY CHANCE AND FORTUNE: A ST. LOUIS STORY will be playing at the St. Louis International Film Festival Sunday, November 20th at 4pm at the Frontenac Theater. Do you have other screenings lined up?

BS: There’s one December 17th at the Orpheum Theater (in downtown St. Louis)

WAMG: Have you entered your film in some documentary film festivals?

BS: I haven’t been accepted at any yet, Big Sky in Montana has invited me. Slamdance and others I’ll be submitting to but it’s just a matter of waiting for them. There’s a couple of architecture and design film festivals I’ll be submitting to as well.

WAMG: What’s next for Bill Streeter?

BS: I don’t have anything specific I’m working on yet. Most of my time right now is spent still working on this and promoting it. The DVD will be out next week.

WAMG: Good luck with BRICK BY CHANCE AND FORTUNE: A ST. LOUIS STORY and thanks for taking the time to talk to We Are Movie Geeks.

BS: Thank you.

The BRICK BY CHANCE AND FORTUNE: A ST. LOUIS STORY website can be found HERE.

http://www.stlbrickfilm.com/

Interview conducted by Tom Stockman November 8th, 2011.

Rin Tin Tin: The Life and the Legend is Susan Orlean’s comprehensive and moving account of the famed German Shepherd’s journey from orphaned puppy to Hollywood superstar and pop culture icon. Orlean, a staff writer at The New Yorker, spent nearly ten years researching and reporting her most captivating book to date: the story of a dog who was born in 1918 and never died.

It begins on a battlefield in France during World War I, when a young American soldier, Lee Duncan, discovered a newborn German shepherd in the ruins of a bombed-out dog kennel. To Duncan, who came of age in an orphanage, the dog’s survival was a miracle. He saw something in Rin Tin Tin that he felt compelled to share with the world. Duncan brought Rinty home to California, where the dog’s athleticism and acting ability drew the attention of Warner Bros. Over the next ten years, Rinty starred in twenty-three blockbuster silent films that saved the studio from bankruptcy and made him the most famous dog in the world. At the height of his popularity, Rin Tin Tin was Hollywood’s number one box office star.

During the decades that followed, Rinty and his descendants rose and fell with the times, making a tumultuous journey from silent films to talkies, from black-and-white to color, from radio programs to one of the most popular television shows of the baby boom era, The Adventures of Rin-Tin-Tin. The canine hero’s legacy was cemented by Duncan and a small group of others – including Bert Leonard, the producer of the TV series, and Daphne Hereford, the owner of the current Rin Tin Tin – who have dedicated their lives to making sure the dog’s legend will never die.

Susan Orlean’s previous book, The Orchid Thief, was a profile of Florida orchid grower, breeder, and collector John Laroche. The book formed the basis of Charlie Kaufman’s script for the 2003 Spike Jonze film ADAPTATION. For that film, Orlean was portrayed by Meryl Streep (in an Oscar-nominated role) and was, in effect, made into a fictional character;

Susan Orlean will be in St. Louis as a guest of the St. Louis International Film Festival. The 1925 Rin Tin Tin film CLASH OF THE WOLVES will be screened Friday, November 18^th at Webster University’s Moore Auditorium with live piano accompaniment by pianist and composer Carl Pandolfi. Susan Orlean will introduce the film and discuss and sign the book, Rin Tin Tin: The Life and the Legend, which will be available for purchase through Left Bank Books. Ms Orlean was kind enough to take time to talk to We Are Movie Geeks.

We Are Movie Geeks: Have you been to St. Louis before?

Susan Orleans: Yes, on my last book tour.

WAMG: Do you enjoy book tours

SO: Oh yes

WAMG: Why Rin Tin Tin? Why did you decide to write book about this dog?

SO: Oh, I always loved the Rin Tin Tin show when I was little and I always loved German Shepherds. What really interested me was that I discovered that Rin Tin Tin had a whole life and a whole history, particularly the background in silent films, which was amazing and surprising to me since I had only known him as a ’50s TV show character

WAMG: Your previous book, The Orchid Thief was so successful and acclaimed (and adapted into the 2005 film ADAPTATION starring Meryl Streep as Susan Orleans) What did your publisher say when you approached them with the idea about writing a book about Rin Tin Tin?

SO: It took a little bit of explaining. I wanted them to know it wasn’t just a nostalgic book about TV but actually a very complex story about a character who had a very important presence in popular culture in about every format imaginable. As soon as I made it make sense, they were all very excited about it, which was great.

WAMG: I’m fifty and barely aware of Rin Tin Tin. Was your goal to make younger generations aware of this dog?

SO: That was a collateral goal. It wasn’t my main goal which was to tell people what I thought was an incredible story about people with fascinating lives. I knew that I was swimming upstream with people under a certain age, but that’s never bothered me. So I knew that would be a nice outcome but it wasn’t my goal.

WAMG: Can you talk about Lee Duncan and how he discovered Rin Tin Tin?

SO: Lee Duncan was a young man who fought in the First World War. He had grown up in some pretty harsh circumstances and was very attached to animals. When he was in France during the war, he had been sent to inspect a battlefield that had just been taken back by the allies. When he was there, there was basically nothing left but he saw a building that had obviously been hit by artillery. He went inside and it was filled with the bodies of dogs that had been killed. He heard a sound at the back of the kennel, made his way back there and found a female who had just given birth to five puppies. So he collected them and brought them out of the kennel and back to his barracks. He kept two of them and brought them back to the United States.

WAMG: Did he name the dog Rin Tin Tin and how did he come up with that name?

SO: Yes, he did give him that name. There was a folk story in WWI about a boy and a girl who were the only survivors of a bombing in a Paris railway station. They were called Rin Tin Tin and Annette and both dolls representing the boy and girl were used as good luck charms by the GIs in the war so when Duncan found the puppies , the first thing that occurred to him were that they were like a good luck charm so named them Rin Tin Tin and Annette.

WAMG: So Duncan brought Rin Tin Tin to Hollywood and he became the number one movie star. How much was Rin Tin Tin earning and who really got the money?

SO: They each got paid but everything that went to Rin Tin Tin went into Lee Duncan’s hands but they were paid separately. In terms of today’s dollars, they were earning millions of dollars. Rin Tin Tin was paid five or six times as much as the human stars.

WAMG: Did Rin Tin Tin live an extravagant lifestyle? Do he eat steak and gourmet dog food?

SO: Actually, there was no commercial dog food at that time. He was comfortable but the rumors of him eating out of a silver bowl and having a diamond collar aren’t true. There’s a lot of Hollywood nonsense about how he lived but they certainly made sure he was very well cared for and comfortable. But a dog is a dog and he probably wouldn’t have cared if he was eating out of a silver bowl or off the floor.

WAMG: I saw on ebay an autographed photo of Rin Tin Tin sold for $150. Was that signed by Duncan?

SO: Yes, those were all signed by Duncan. These were the publicity photos that were circulated.

WAMG: The original Rin Tin Tin starred in 27 film. Are many of those silent films lost?

SO: Most of them are lost. It’s hard to believe but out of the 27 films the original Rin Tin Tin starred, there are only about six left.

WAMG: Have you seen all of those?

SO: Yes, and of course I fantasize about seeing the other ones but they are lost.

WAMG: Sometime films that are thought to be lost end up discovered so you never know.

SO: Yes, they found two in the not so distant past. I think by accident they find them or a private collector might have one and might not realize it’s the only one and they can make it available. These days it’s easy to transfer to digital so people can see it, but I don’t think they’ve found a lost RIN TIN TIN film in a while.

WAMG: The film that we’re screening next weekend here at the St. Louis International Film Festival is CLASH OF THE WOLVES. Is that one of the better Rin Tin Tin movies? Can you tell me a little about that film?

SO: I really love it. I think its really great. The plot is very coherent. You see Rin Tin Tin doing what made him so popular. Some kind of dramatic, athletic feats, some notable performances with some great acting. It’s a great example of what made him so popular. Plus it’s a restored print so it looks really nice.

WAMG: I’ll be there. I’m really looking forward to it.

SO: Great. What I don’t know is if it will be accompanied by live music or not. In some of the venues we’ve shown it with live music and it’s just so cool.

WAMG: Yes it is here, right in the program. Live piano accompaniment by Carl Pandolfi.

SO: Oh that’s fantastic!

WAMG: Did Rin Tin Tin make the transition to talkies? Were some of these sound films?

SO: He did make the transition. His contract with Warner Brothers was terminated when they shifted to talkies. They were unsure how he would transition. Then Duncan got a contract with Mascot Pictures. They were the great makers of the great serial films, and RIN TIN TIN was  a big hit in that format. And then he did make talkies between that time and before the TV show.

WAMG: And there was a radio show too?

SO: Yes, there was a radio show. People always laugh when I say it, but there was.

WAMG: That was after the original Rin Tin Tin had died. Was Duncan still controlling Rin Tin Tin at the time?

SO: Yes, he controlled him exclusively until he (Duncan) died in 1960 and he was very involved in the radio show as the person in charge of Rin Tin Tin. They usually used a voice-over actor to the barking and the noises. Occasionally they would have Rin Tin Tin do it, but more often they used a human voice.

WAMG: Where is Rin Tin Tin buried?

SO: The original Rin Tin Tin is buried in Paris.

WAMG: Have you seen his grave?

SO: Yes, and I write about going to the grave in the book.

WAMG: Lee Duncan died in 1960. Did he leave behind a lot of documents that you were able to use for research?

SO: Yes, he left a great deal of material that came very close to being thrown out, then at the last minute, somebody found it and decided that this was too valuable to throw away and it ended up in a museum in Riverside California where he was living. I feel very lucky.

WAMG: Bert Leonard revived Rin Tin Tin in the ’50s for the TV show. Can you talk about him?

SO: At the time he and Lee Duncan met, he was a Hollywood producer who wanted some of his own projects. He met Lee and even though he was not a dog person and they had very little in common on the surface, they had an immediate connection, and Bert came up with the idea that became the basis for the TV show. They just bonded. I think each of them found in the other an emotional connection that hadn’t found elsewhere in their lives. Lee never had a son and Bert never had a father, and Lee really wanted a protégé so here was this young man he felt very connected to. Bert fell in love with the idea of a show and the show became a huge success and basically changed his life from a struggling guy in Hollywood to the hottest producer in town.

WAMG: Were you able to talk to Bert Leonard?

SO: He died while I was working on that book. I did not get to talk to him but I had access to a huge amount of material including a two hours of interviews that a friend of his had recorded that were fantastic. It was essentially the interview I would have done with him so I felt like I was, in a sense, able to communicate with him much as I wish I had talked to him in real life.

WAMG: Was the character of Rusty in the movies?

SO: No, just the TV show.

WAMG: Did you talk to Lee Aaker who played Rusty on the Rin Tin Tin TV show?

SO: No, he’s a real loner. I tried to reach him but he didn’t want to do interviews so I was not able to talk to him.

WAMG: What’s next for Susan Orleans?

SO: Right now just the book tour and catching my breath. I don’t have any other big projects scheduled right now.

WAMG: Good luck with Rin Tin Tin: The Life and the Legend and we’ll see you next Friday, November 18^th at 7pm here for the St. Louis International Film Festival.

SO: I’m looking forward to the event. Nice talking to you.