The 100 Best Movies You've Never Seen

70577D3C-AE70-4CD7-90FE-8E702CCAC08A

Copyright © ECW PRESS, 2003 Published by ECW PRESS 2120 Queen Street East, Suite 200, Toronto, Ontario, Canada M4E 1E2 All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form by any process — electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise — without the prior written permission of the copyright owners and ECW PRESS. NATIONAL LIBRARY OF CANADA CATALOGUING IN PUBLICATION

Grouse, Richard, 1963The 100 best movies you've never seen / Richard Grouse. ISBN 1-55022-590-1 1. Motion pictures. I. Title. II. Title: One hundred best movies you've never seen. PN1993.5.A1C86 2003

791.43 C2003-902185-8

Editor: Jennifer Hale Cover and Text Design: Tania Craan Cover Photographs: Richard Beland Production & Typesetting: Mary Bowness Printing: Transcontinental This book is set in Akzidenz Grotesk and Minion

The publication of The 100 Best Movies You've Never Seen has been generously supported by the Canada Council, the Ontario Arts Council, and the Government of Canada through the Book Publishing Industry Development Program. Canada

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70577D3C-AE70-4CD7-90FE-8E702CCAC08A

RICHARDCROUSE

ECW PRESS

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The Adventures of Buckaroo Banzai in the 8th Dimension Annigoni: Portrait of an Artist Atanarjuat: The Fast Runner The Bad and the Beautiful Bedazzled

3 5

The Dish

©2

S4

Dr. Syn: Alias the Scarecrow Dogtown and Z-Boys

S

Eating Raoul

©7

©8

©9

LIST: Richard's Favorite Movie Quotes 71

13

Better Off Dead

17

Beyond the Mat

18

Eegah! The Name Written in Blood 7Z Emma's Shadow

76

LIST: Richard's Favorite Lines from '80s Comedies 19

The Experiment

Beyond the Valley of the Dolls

A Face in the Crowd

Big Bad Love

25

23

78 79

The 5000 Fingers of Dr. T

81

Biggie & Tupac

27

Foreign Correspondent

The Brave One

29

LIST: Richard's Favorite Cameos by Directors 841

Brotherhood of the Wolf

3O

Frailty

SS

Cane Toads: An Unnatural History 33

Fubar

86

Carnival of Souls

Funny Games

Bubba Ho-Tep

31

Chelsea Girls Cherish

CQ

3S

39



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March 1964 was a busy month in show business. The British tabloids reported that George Harrison had met model Patti Boyd on the set of A Hard Day's Night. Liz Taylor divorced her fourth husband, Eddie

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Fisher. Later that same month Taylor married Richard Burton, telling reporters at the wedding that "it will last forever." Barbra Streisand became a sensation on Broadway, starting a three-year run at the Winter Garden Theatre as the star of Funny Girl Dusty Springfield had a Top 40 hit with "Stay Awhile." On television Honor Blackman's last episode of The Avengers aired in the U.K. There was a fair amount of action in the movie theaters too. The first installment of the Inspector Clouseau series, The Pink Panther, was released, becoming a big hit. Disney's The Misadventures of Merlin Jones with Tommy Kirk and Annette Funicello opened in U.S. theaters. Sophia Loren could be seen starring in The Fall of the Roman Empire. But the most engaging film to hit the screens that month was director George Pal's The 7 Faces of Dr. Lao, with Tony Randall and Barbara Eden. George Pal possessed one of Hollywood's greatest imaginations. As a director he made a string of films, sometimes with very low budgets, that helped define the science-fiction/fantasy genre. In Destination Moon he told the story of a group of businessmen who send the first spaceship to the lunar surface. Pal showed us how scientists saved mankind by building a giant ark in When Worlds Collide. Using a combination of live and stop-motion effects, he created worlds and creatures that hadn't been seen before, but his films were more than a series of special effects. He may have destroyed Los Angeles in The War of the Worlds, but he managed to weave a thread of humanity through the story. He always infused his fantastic stories with real people in unreal situations. It's a technique that makes his films special. In a George Pal film the viewer can look in wonder at the special effects but still enjoy a good story, populated by real, fully rounded characters. Often the lower budget science-fiction films of the '508 and '6os fell prey to the trap of supplying visual special effects with little or no believability character-wise. Pal never believed, as so many in Hollywood did, that sci-fi films were second-class citizens compared to Westerns or musicals. From the 19405 on George Pal raised the bar for all other fantasy filmmakers.

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The source material for The 7 Faces of Dr. Lao is an obscure novel by Charles Finney, a marine who wrote the book while stationed in China. Published in 1935 by Viking Press, The Circus of Dr. Lao featured illustrations by well-known Russian illustrator Boris Artzybasheff, and told the story of a mysterious Asian magician/ringleader and his menagerie of weird and wonderful creatures. Literally the greatest show on earth (or any other planet) with a supernatural twist. The book is at times funny and satirical, painting a vivid picture of small town Abalone, Arizona, the site of the traveling circus's latest show. Finney populates his book with a cast of colorful characters. The townspeople are described in succinct, but sparkling detail. In one of my favorite passages Agnes Birdsong is described as someone who "the boys said was damned good company after she learned to smoke and drink." The star of the book, of course, is Dr. Lao, a mysterious impresario who oversees a sideshow that features such "unbiological creatures" as Apollonius, Satan, a satyr, Medusa, and the Great God Yottle. Finney is sketchy on the details of Dr. Lao's background. We never learn what kind of doctor he is, or the source of his magical powers. Seasoned wordsmith Charles Beaumont was hired to tailor the novel for the screen. As one of the main writers on the original Twilight Zone television series, Beaumont was skilled at fleshing out this type of magic realism story where ordinary people encounter metaphysical forces tinged with moral issues. He took liberties with the book, including subverting the ending. Beaumont starts the action with a ruthless businessman, Clint Stark (Arthur O'Connell) who secretly learns of a plan to build a railroad near the town of Abalone. Seeing dollar signs, he tries to buy up the town with the hope of turning a handsome profit. The shortsighted townspeople are more than happy to sell, with the exception of Ed Cunningham, a crusading newspaper reporter (John Ericson) who tries to fight Stark's plans. Along the way we meet the greedy inhabitants of Abalone, and a pre-I Dream of Jeanie Barbara Eden, who plays Cunningham's love interest. While Cunningham wages a war of words

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against Stark, a mysterious circusmaster arrives in town and takes out an ad in the newspaper. Flip-flopping between pidgin English and eloquence, Dr. Lao (Tony Randall) changes his demeanor to suit whatever situation he is in. Using his mysterious powers, he morphs into Merlin the Magician, Pan, Medusa, The Abominable Snowman, Apollonius of Tyana, and a Talking Serpent to teach the townspeople about themselves and how they can solve their problems. Beaumont's treatment of the story played fast and loose with Finney's original text, particularly in Dr. Lao's interactions with the people of Abalone. In the book he has no appreciable effect on the people who come to see his show. For the film, however, it was decided that he should transform the townsfolk with his magic, teaching them the folly of their ways. There is a lot to like about The 7 Faces of Dr. Lao. In the truest practice of satire Beaumont and Pal hold a mirror to society. The people of Abalone are stock characters who represent various types of human nature and learn about life and morality from the strange displays of Dr. Lao. Beaumont's script is never heavy-handed; he uses humor to examine the human condition. The use of Dr. Lao's sideshow attractions blurs the line between fact and illusion, questioning the very nature of human spirit. Also featured are some great (for 1964) special effects, designed by Academy Award-winner William J. Turtle. To modern eyes accustomed to Jurassic Park-style CGI, Dr. Lao's Loch Ness Monster and other creatures may look quaint, but are a wonder of stop-motion puppetry. Tony Randall's portrayal of Dr. Lao and six of his seven alter egos (John Ericson doubled as the horned god Pan in an odd dance sequence) is a marvelous bit of work. Usually I would have trouble with a Caucasian actor playing an Asian character, particularly when that character is central to the story, but Randall treats Dr. Lao with respect. His character believes in the good of his patrons, and is truly perceptive. In addition to using a stereotypical Hollywood Chinese accent, Randall also

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peppers the film with English, Southern, and French accents, thereby obscuring the doctor's mysterious past, adding intrigue to his portrayal. It is unusual for a film made at this time to promote racial tolerance, but Pal subtly does so by having the people of small town Abalone ultimately embrace the unusual Dr. Lao. The 7 Faces of Dr. Lao is appropriate for kids and adults alike.

"Our ability to manufacture fraud now exceeds our ability to detect it." - VIKTOR TARANSKI (AL PACING)

SIMONE