For the better part of the past year, it’s been my privilege to be privy to a plan to make an independent movie about Phil Tucker’s making of ROBOT MONSTER. A filmmaker named Matthew Muhl has written a script and outlined a plan for making his film about the March 1953 event, and he has started a Kickstarter fund for this project. To be clear, this movie is not based on my book but is Matthew’s own project with his own script. Head on over, and check out a video he’s put together on the project with narration by original ROBOT MONSTER cast member and all around cool guy Gregory Moffett!
Movies
Robert Hardy, RIP
Anyone who saw All Creatures Great and Small almost had to love it, and anyone who loved it had to think the best character was played by Robert Hardy. Siegfried Farnon was a fictional version of a real person created by James Herriott, pen name of a real life veterinarian who wrote fiction based on himself and his friends.
Siegfried was not the main character, but he was the dominant one. Employer of James and big brother of Tristan, his dominant, boisterous, hotheaded and contradictory personality was basically just hilarious and endearing. Veteran actor Robert Hardy brought him to life and made Siegfried unforgettable, a performance that no one could have improved on. Rest in peace, Mr. Hardy, and thank you for Siegfried.
Adam West, RIP
Rest in peace, not-so-dark knight. You brought joy to many, many people.
Kino Lorber Studio Classics . . . There is None Higher
They were already bringing movies like The Magnetic Monster and The Neptune Factor to Blu-Ray. Then they recently announced their new 4K restoration of The Man With No Name trilogy. And now they’re going to bring The Outer Limits to Blu-Ray.
Kino Lorber, you are officially awesome. You win.
Happy Birthday, ATTACK OF THE CLONES
Got to love that clone battle, and that spider robot in the thumbnail is a seriously awesome bit of Star Wars design. And the two scenes of Ewan McGregor verbally sparring with first a bounty hunter and then a Sith Lord are some of my favorite moments of the Saga. Fun, underrated movie in my humble opinion.
I’m on The Online Movie Show With Phil Hall
Check it out! Phil Hall is one of the few people to write anything about Phil Tucker’s Space Jockey and I quoted him thusly in my book. Recently I’ve been happy to make his acquaintance and was interviewed for his wide-ranging cinema podcast, The Online Movie Show With Phil Hall. It’s a fun little chat, and Phil asks all the right questions about Robot Monster, Phil Tucker, and related subjects. Many thanks to Phil for having me on!
It’s Super Bowl Sunday . . .
. . . and it’s a shame that the Packers are not playing, because I’m just going to have to post this anyway:
The Motorcycle Boy Reigns
I saw Rumble Fish back in 1994, was stunned, and was also stunned that hardly anyone had seen it or written about it in the decade after its release. It’s a real love-it-or-hate-it experience, but it definitely clicked for me. Amazing visuals and sounds, and some outright surrealism in what was ostensibly a Hollywood movie. There’s nothing quite like it, and Criterion is bringing it to Blu-Ray in April.
Trouble at Melody Mesa
I briefly mentioned this 1949 movie in I Cannot, Yet I Must because it was directed by Merle Connell, one of Phil Tucker’s collaborators. I said that it is a must for anyone who likes a really bad Western. I stand by that statement:
RUNESTAD WRITES 