Parkland Picks with Popcorn #6

 

PPP: From Hell It Came, Urban Cowboy, and A Gathering of Eagles

FROM HELL IT CAME (1957) --- “Omnivorous” entered my vocabulary via 1964 TV listing for From Hell It Came, the word used to describe a tree feeding upon those upon whom “It” wishes to revenge itself. Other sci-fi had worse premises, few duller at executing them, though there is sedative effect and capacity to carry one back to sweet sleep of childhood, my daytime summon to Morpheus a mirror to what happened sixty years before when Hell’s omnivore was late night uprooted by Channel 12 out of Winston-Salem. Why endless dialogue to explain circumstance obvious to most childish of minds? An uprooted tree now ambulatory seeks those who oppressed it in life. Why take 71 minutes to explain such so clinically? From Hell It Came seems a cynical enterprise, fraud practiced upon 1957 children’s allowance and those who’d come to a drive-in to actually watch movies. Co-feature was The Disembodied and that wasn’t much better. Ones who care tend to be completist. They want all or nothing of 50’s science-fiction, none too obscure so long as it is sci-fi. I understand such mentality up to point of Reptilicus on multi-disc Blu-Ray with foreign version plus American release as part of package, for which many will rejoice. Merit matters less with sci-fi because what we want is fantastic content, a monster or two preferred, credible monsters optional, in fact the less credible the better. From Hell It Came played TCM in HD, and I see also that Warner Archive has a Blu-Ray. Any and all that is monstrous sells, it seems, and more power to their continuing to do so.

URBAN COWBOY (1980) --- Were there discarded mechanical bulls for sale after vogue for them passed in the early eighties? I recall a few let go after bars learnt their lesson a hard surface way, folks thrown, more than a few intoxicated, heads conked, shoulders broke. You had to sign a release to ride, but many sued anyhow. Hard truth to all: Don’t try imitating movies, no matter how popular. Urban Cowboy was made forty-five years ago. Seemed at the time it would rinse off by-then stink of disco and give us back to nature that was country/western, music of the people if show-bizzed out of natural state. “Gilly’s” of filming location fame went south when the site went Hollywood, doom assured by Andy Warhol and like metropolitans slumming by to profane the sawdust. John Travolta of Jersey origin seemed on surface wrong but proved just right and got the Texas spirit plus dance he adapted from Saturday Night Fever and Grease prior, a star after fashion of his idol James Cagney, who Travolta palled with and regarded his role model in addition to boyhood idol. Urban Cowboy stands among outstanding modern Texas treatments Giant, Hud, maybe others I’ve forgot or haven’t seen so far. Robert Evans of Godfather and Chinatown fame produced. I wish shelf life for such talent were longer then, H’wood set so on self-destruct to coke out generations of talent. Mickey Gilly looked back on Paramount trucks filling up his honky tonk lot when work started, the place never to be the same again. Initially an average size, Gilley and shadowy partner Sherwood Cryer added on till environ was five acres big, capacity three to four thousand at post-Cowboy peak.

Everyone wanted to experience Gilley’s and would drive from states away to do so. Gilley and Cryer “turned sideways” as former later put it, sued one another, followed by fire to swallow whole of the business, Cryer figured to have struck the match, or arranged for blaze. He and Gilley are both gone, Cryer’s name besmirched by suspicion re fire loss, though some defend him at You Tube comments and elsewhere. Seems to me based on Cryer’s legend and repute that he was sort of a Longhorn Moe Green. I’ve sometimes wondered what it would have been like to be raised in Texas, or Arizona, places like that. One could speculate as much of New York or Jersey after seeing Saturday Night Fever, but by my reckon you could keep Gotham other than for access to Automats, picture palaces, or closer proximity to 16mm collectors and memorabilia shows (and even Automats are years gone now --- so are poster shows for that matter). Point is culture of both NY and Texas are so distinct as to stamp anyone hailing from them, but then one could say a same of any distinct point of origin. Are there states regarded as plain vanilla and therefore unworthy of movies set within them? Drifting off subject I realize, but Urban Cowboy does make me sort of wish to have known Texas for more than just a couple of visits there. Like Saturday Night Fever, Urban Cowboy has compelling conflicts beside the music, dance, and Gilley glitz. Travolta vs. Scott Glenn over Debra Winger has real tension for Glenn being wiry and dangerous, this the actor’s breakout part. Industry today would be bleak ground for a Scott Glenn equivalent, him and certainly his “Wes Hightower” character the very definition of “problematic.” There was a soundtrack for Urban Cowboy to bode for country among biggest waves music ever rode, though some said purity of the form was watered by west (and east) coast finagling. No style was ever “pure” to begin with, but Cowboy at least helped give country/western urban appeal, and so far has kept it that way.

A GATHERING OF EAGLES (1963) --- Was A Gathering of Eagles a last hurrah for US military preparedness? Well, maybe not if you consider the Top Gun movies of much later. Eagles is sober/serious in showing sacrifice men made to keep us safe from enemy attack. Would we have been eventual targets had these guardians stood down? Cold war protection policies would be called into question because of course nothing actually happened during their watch, that being whole idea of standing watch of course. Rock Hudson, Rod Taylor, and guarding crew make message clear with aid of Air Force hardware made available when films did not disparage them, a relationship not to last much longer. In fact, A Gathering of Eagles soon seemed a relic in terms of attitude if not execution, off radars since 1963 save a Universal By-Demand disc from old elements, but at least they are intended scope and not “adapted,” so on a good enough screen or wall mount, it will do. A Gathering of Eagles is essentially Rock Hudson doing what Gregory Peck did in Twelve O’Clock High, only these aren’t combat missions, but test alerts where tension comes of speed getting aloft and preventing errors that would queer a real response if one were needed. Stress on personal lives is focal, Hudson’s marriage in jeopardy, Barry Sullivan drinking too much, ousted because of it, then attempting suicide, Rod Taylor too right a guy to drive junior officers ruthlessly as he should. Strategic Air Command is no place to be soft says Rock, relationships be hanged where performance must come first. Enforcer to that is Kevin McCarthy, counting seconds upon which rank and authority hang. Procedure is the show here, A Gathering of Eagles all-systems go to maintain attention and interest.