VENICE BEACH: A WINDY WINTER DAY

These are a few shots taken last week between rain storms down at Venice Beach.
photos copyright Ray Ramos Photography

PHOTO LA: JANUARY 2010

Some images from this years PHOTO LA @ The Santa Monica Civic Auditorium.
Photos copyright Ray Ramos Photography

 

SALVADOR'S CYNTHIA GIBB DROPS ME A LINE: HOW COOL IS THAT?!

Wow, Ray. Great blog on the film (SALVADOR: 01/13/2010.) It really was all that and more and something that I am awed by. I was so blessed to be a part of it and it changed my life forever. Thank for your interest. CG

NBC: LENO - CONAN AND NOW ROCKFORD??

I think NBC is on acid? Because they are really trippin' hard! Sure we all know about the late night wars with Jay Leno & Conan O'Brien. With Leno out of his weekly 10 PM slot, the need for the peacock to fill that time void with some new content is at defcon 5.  Now, I just heard that they intend to fill an hour of it with a new version of (can you believe this?) ... THE ROCKFORD FILES!!?? One thing I can say is, "ARE YOU GUYS NUTS?" You can't do the Rockford Files without the legendary JAMES GARNER (not to mention writers, Roy Huggins & Stephen J. Cannell!) Didn't you guys waste loads of money trying to bring back THE BIONIC WOMAN & NIGHTRIDER??? I hear the guy who created HOUSE is gonna be the showrunner on this bad, bad idea! Look, they tried to remake, THE NIGHT STALKER & THE FUGITIVE, without Darren McGavin & David Janssen and guess what?  Just admit it, you guys need to remake yourselves..."Hey, I'm just sayin?"

8 MILLION WAYS TO DIE, THE BLACK MARBLE: LA COPPER: DRUNKEN DOUBLE FEATURE

Police work can make even a good cop an alcoholic, at least in these two good movie gems: THE BLACK MARBLE and 8 MILLION WAYS TO DIE. Both movies based on bestsellers by Joseph Wambaugh and Lawrence Block
respectively.

1980's The Black Marble, (a term used by a suspect, as someone with no luck) is a Wambaugh's version of a love story... a cop love story. Robert Foxworth plays Sgt. A.M. Valnikov, the most Russian cop you'll ever meet on the Hollywood beat; he sings, he dances and he also has a serious "potato juice" drinking problem... if you know what I mean? This cop would make Foster Brooks look like a Mormon (what... dated reference?) Paula Prentiss (I've dug her since WHERE THE BOYS ARE? What another dated reference?) plays Sgt. Natalie Zimmerman  his new no nonsense (& against her wishes) partner, both are divorced and unknowingly longing for a little love. Then there's perhaps the greatest piece of work in The Black Marble... Harry Dean Stanton.  Stanton plays, Philo Skinner a dog groomer who's into his bookie for some serious money, desperate he masterminds (and I use that word "mastermind" very loosely) a dog napping of a popular show dog to get him out of his jam. Stumbling on to this quirky case, it gives Foxworth a chance to put aside some of his demons (along with the possible chance for love with his new partner.)  Prentiss (always great) doesn't disappoint as her tough, icy exterior slowly melts away as she reluctantly gives her heart away to her down on his luck partner. She finds that his drinking is due to memories of a series of torcher murders involving children and the death of his ex-partner. Both are great in this picture and they really bring Wambaugh's characters to life, but as great as they are (and they are) it's the Harry Dean Stanton show, no one plays a desperate character like Harry Dean. The finale between Stanton and Foxworth, in a dog kennel is like no other... it's both hilarious and pathetic. It's a chase scene that's a long way from say; Bullet or Dirty Harry. Directed by Harold Becker who also helmed Wambaugh's more somber piece, THE ONION FIELD, does another great job here, making great use of Hollywood circa 1980. Also look for James Woods in a funny cameo as a street violinist (making this his third Wambaugh film adaptation; The Choir Boys & The Onion Field.)

Los Angeles goes "Miami Vice style" in 8 WAYS TO DIE, is based on the Lawrence Block novel, featuring his popular print, private eye character Matt Scudder. Jeff Bridges gives yet another slam bam performance, as the former sheriff's detective, who's loses his badge (& his family) due to his hard drinking ways. After Bridges hits bottom after a bad drug bust, that forces him to fatally use his weapon on a suspect at the family dinner table, he joins AA. Now sober (one day at a time), he  moonlights as unlicensed a private eye, Bridges suddenly finds himself working for Sunny, a beautiful hooker (the leggy, Alexandra Paul) who's desperate to get out of the business, unfortunately for her, Bridges lets her out of his sight and she soon winds up leaving the business the hard way; dead. Bridges now wrecked with guilt, goes on a black out bender and wakes up in the hospital, barley able to talk or walk. Having failed his client, he knows that he has to get back on the wagon to solve her murder. Bridges, soon finds himself playing a deadly game of chess, with a slick, snow cone loving drug dealer Angel Molonado (in a scene stealing performance by then newcomer Andy Garcia.) Caught in the middle of this 80's noir, is 80's sex symbol Rosanna Arquette, playing another hooker, she's a real tough cookie (or as Bridges calls her "the Pete Rose of the house", because she's what he calls a "player manager.") Bridges and Garcia use Arquette as a ping pong ball that bounces between the two as they try to out smart each other, with her in the middle. The films climax features an intense shootout (reminiscent of the final scene in Howard Hawk's western, RIO BRAVO.) The script was co-written by none other than Oliver Stone and is surprisingly the last film directed (with great zest) by the late, Hal Ashby (who's credits include such 70's classics: Shampoo, Being There, The Last Detail, Bound for Glory, Coming Home and Harold & Maude.) Oddly this great LA crime drama is not yet released on DVD.

Both The Black Marble and 8 Million Ways to Die, feature great Los Angeles film locations that really give you a feel for the city and the times that they were shot.  But after watching these heavy drinking heroes, you might want to have some asprin handy!

RIO CONCHOS: A DAMN MACHO WESTERN!!

Veteran director Gordon Douglas helmed this gritty, two fisted 1964 Twentieth Century Fox western, starring one hell of a great cast; Richard Boone, Stuart Whitman, Tony Franciosa, Jim Brown and Edmond O'Brien. Boone portrays Lassiter, a former Confederate officer who's now settled in Texas. He's a man who hatred for the Indians, might only be rivaled by John Wayne's Ethan Edwards in John Ford's The Searchers. Boone's family was massacred by the Indians and now he spends his days and nights hunting them for revenge. Boone's renegade activities do not go unnoticed by the local military authorities and he's brought in against his will to the local fort. But it turns out that the army wants to recruit him (against his will) to help them find a shipment new rifles that have been hijacked and are now feared on there way to the Indians. The army it turns out suspects that Boone's former commanding officer (O'Brien) may be the culprit in the crime. The bitter loner, Boone is forced to team up with two soldiers; the bourbon voiced Stuart Whitman and the brawny, Jim Brown (the former football star in a great motion picture debut) on the dangerous mission to retrieve the rifles and take down the gunrunners if possible or die trying. Tony Franciosa steals the movie as Martinez, the most double crossing bandito this side of Eli Wallach (and the best man with a knife since Jimmy Coburn in The Magnificent Seven.) An old acquaintance of Boone's, that he runs into while locked up in the brig. Boone saves Franciosa neck from the hangman's noose, by insisting that  come on the mission or it's a deal breaker. With a plot that was a mix of John Wayne's The Comancheros & Robert Aldrich's The Dirty Dozen (that it predates, also featuring Jim Brown) this western really packs a punch. Boone was an actor who's rugged presences was so large that he didn't need a gun, as they say to be tough... he just was.
A macho cult classic, RIO CONCHOS was probibly the most action packed violent western of it's time (and featuring a great rousing score by Jerry Goldsmith.) Sadly it only avalible on VHS, but it occasionally airs on The Fox Movie Channel. Like those missing rifles, it's worth going on the mission to find it.

THE ACADEMY STILL OWES JAMES WOODS AN OSCAR!!

If you only watch one James Woods movie IN YOUR LIFE!... make it Oliver Stone's 1986 epic guerrilla style masterpiece SALVADOR. This gonzo adventure follows a of burnt out photojournalist, Richard Boyle (Woods) and his out of work DJ pal Doc Rock (Jim Belushi, who's never had a part like this again) as they drive the sorriest-looking Mustang convertible ever seen on film down to the killing fields of El Salvador. Woods gives a tour de force performance (as well as being Oscar nominated) as a man who's lost everything in his life, and who's last chance for redemption seems to be only to be found in El Salvador. This film was only Stone's second directing effort, and he gave it everything he had. You feel as if this "crazy bastard" just plooped his actors right into the middle of the real revolution (and I think some of his actors felt that way too?)  This film also featues great supporting performances by John Savage as a samurai war photographer, who'll do anything to "get the shot" and ends up paying the ultimate price for it and the lovely, Cynthia Gibb as an American nun, who's all too sweet & fearless for her own good. Based on actual historical events (including the political assassination of Archbishop Oscar Romero) and loosely based on real-life photojournalist, Richard Boyle exploits (the real Boyle, co-wrote the script with Stone) this film makes no bones of who the bad guys are and history tells us now, that it looks like they were right. The DVD features a great documentary on the film and its turbulence on the set; from Stone scraping everything he had to get the picture made, to the love hate relationship between the director and his star Woods. And even more was interesting was Woods real life animosity for the man that he was portraying in the film. A whole generation has come and gone since the bloody events in this film have happened (approximately 75,000 El Salvadorians were killed between 1980 and1992.) Damn, it just goes to show you, that so many things in the world, never ever change. If you get the chance, do yourself a favor and see SALVADOR, it'll stay with you longer than anything in 3-D.