5 Off My Head: Siri Says 1958

My "Siri Says" series always starts and comes and goes and stops in fits and starts, but after last week's enormous 2016-a-thon -- where I named my 25 favorite movies of that absolutely fabulous year in film -- I'm feeling like pushing the rock a little further down the hill, checking off one more year in the history of cinema. So I asked Siri today to give me a number between 1 and 100 and (after several answers that we'd already done) she gave me the number "58." Which means today I'll be talking The Movies of 1958!

I've probably admitted this before in one of my other posts about the end of the 1950s but this period in movies, save a couple of bright spots, isn't especially my bag. It's all Rat Pack and technicolor Movie Musicals and bloated war epics, blah blah blah. Most of the mainstream respectable shit reduces me to groans. (Except Paul Newman, who reduces me to... different groans.) But on the sidelines there's some fun sci-fi / horror happening, and I've been known to enjoy me a sword-and-sandal picture now and again. This year introduced both Steve Reeves as Hercules and Christopher Lee as Dracula! Neither of those make my top five though...

My 5 Favorite Movies of 1958

Vertigo

(dir. Alfred Hitchcock)

-- released on May 28th 1958 --

Invention For Destruction

(dir. Karel Zeman)

-- released on August 1958 --

The 7th Voyage of Sinbad

(dir. Nathan Juran)

-- released on December 23rd 1958 --

Mon Oncle

(dir. Jacques Tati)

-- released on November 3rd 1958 --

Cat on a Hot Tin Roof

(dir. Richard Brooks)

-- released on August 29th 1958 --

------------------------------------------------

Runners-up: The Fly (dir. Kurt Neumann), I Want To Live! (dir. Robert Wise), Touch of Evil (dir. Welles), Bell Book and Candle (dir. Richard Quine), The Blob (dir. Irvin S. Yeaworth Jr.), Hercules (dir. Pietro Francisci), Dracula (dir. Terence Fisher), Elevator to the Gallows (dir. Luois Malle), Terror in a Texas Town (dir.Joseph H. Lewis), The Long Hot Summer (dir. Martin Ritt), A Time To Love and A Time To Die (dir. Douglas Sirk)

Never seen: South Pacific (dir. Joshua Logan), The Hidden Fortress (dir. Kurosawa), The Left Handed Gun (dir. Arthur Penn), Indiscreet (dir. Stanley Donen), The Defiant Ones (dir. Stanley Kramer), Separate Tables (dir. Delbert Mann), Damn Yankees (dir. Abbott / Donen), The Young Lions (dir. Edward Dmytryk), Bonjour Tritesse (dir. Preminger), Lonelyhearts (dir. Donehue), Attack of the 50 Foot Woman (dir. Juran), The Magician (dir. Bergman)

------------------------------------------------

What are your favorite movies of 1958?

The 13 Snakes of Halloween #6

.

Oh my god, Medusa turned Olive Oyl into stone! Whatever will Popeye do? Will he just toss her into the river and move in with Bluto his real true love?

Bah, I guess not. He's a tricky devil! Everybody knows all an ancient villainess needs is the promise of a good facial and she'll toss aside all of her evil schemes. Women! Anyway here's the whole thing:

.

.
That 1961 cartoon represents the first credit that IMDb gives to the character of Medusa. Doesn't it seem like it must be incorrect that she was never in anything before that? That seems crazy to me. I suppose creating the snake-hair is a difficult special effect, maybe it just took time. Since then the Greek Gorgon's popped up all over the place of course - Ray Harryhausen's take for the 1981 Clash of the Titans has yet to be topped though.

She still terrifies me. I'm not even going to bother doing a "Which is hotter?" between her and the version from the 2010 remake because that is not even a question I mean come on.

Nobody really gives her tragic back-story it's due though - it's always just "Chop the bitches head off!" She's a rape victim who's further tormented by her rapist's wife, for god's sake! I think we should get a full-on Medusa movie, that's what I think. Wait, what's that? We're only interested in Hero's Journeys, you say? Of course. Silly me. Nevermind. Sorry, Uma! No movie for you. Keep looking.

Previously

#1 - Anaconda

#2 - The Witches

#3 - Pee Wee's Big Adventure

#4 - Temple of Doom

#5 - Whedon Snakes

.

Thursday's Ways Not To Die

.

RIP Ray Harryhausen

.

Thank you for the monsters.

.

Bruce's Guide To Watching The Evil Dead Movies

.

From an interview with Ash himself over at AICN today:

"It all depends on what you like. If you like straight horror then the first one is for you. If you’re an original gorehound, that’s the one for you. You know, raped by vines, that sort of crap. And if you like the weird hybrid of horror, go to Evil Dead 2. And if you like adventure comedy (go to Army of Darkness)… it’s like Ray Harryhausen. So, I tell people, “If you’re not sure what you like, start at Army of Darkness and then go backwards and stop whenever it gets too horrible.”

Two days til the remake!

.

I Am Link

.

--- Lady Hardy - Tom Hardy's longtime girlfriend Charlotte Riley has landed the lead lady role in Tom Cruise's sci-fi action movie All You Need Is Kill for the very talented but as of late kind of lost director Doug Liman. Go forever gives me hope he'll re-find his footing. Tom Cruise on the other hand... anyway, she's presumably had Tom Hardy's penis inside of her so she deserves our respect.
 
--- Golden Goddess - David Fincher is not going to make a Cleopatra movie starring Angelina Jolie. My guess is the studio probably wasn't keen on his idea to dial down the scope, saying that the giant epic thing has been played out. Ang Lee is now rumored to be up for the gig. I think Angie ought to just mush this together with that 3D Cleopatra rock musical that Soderbergh had talked about doing, that's what I think. Jolie's already camp, just by being Jolie.

--- Scalped - Elijah Wood's remake of the sleazo-slasher Maniac has been picked up by IFC and will probably get a release here in the US before the end of the year. I'm going to go as Frank Zito for Halloween! All I need is a greasy t-shirt and a bloody-wigged mannequin, right?

--- Girl Power - Super awesome news over at The Film Experience - Nat's taking a vacation for the next week or so and besides the regular stand-in's he's got two totally awesome guest bloggers - Bachelorette's writer/director Leslye Headland and eternal awesome actress Melanie Lynskey will each take over TFE for a day! How cool is that?

--- Clay Maker - I've never watched one of these video chats between AICN Harry Knowles and somebody of note that he's been doing for awhile, but a conversation with Jurassic Park's dino-creator Phil Tippet about Ray Harryhausen might just get me over that hump.

--- Pond Jumper - Sean Durkin, who burst outta the gate with the exceptional Martha Marcy May Marlene, is teaming up with the writer of the mostly exception trilogy Red Riding to make a four-part miniseries for British TV called Southcliffe about a bunch of shootings taking place on one day in a small town. Still no idea if Durkin still plans on making an Exorcist miniseries as had been announced back in May. Let's hope the light of day and the wrath of millions made him think wise.

--- Tight Time - There were two co-directors behind the first two [REC] movies - Paco Plaza and Jaume Balagueró. Plaza made the third [REC] movie all by himself, and as you can tell from my review, I loved it. (It's available on demand right now, go watch it). This freed up Balagueró to go and make something called Sleep Tight, which is a thriller about an apartment building's doorman setting his psychotic sights on one of his building's residents. It apparently got terrific reviews in their homeland of Spain, and it's now been picked up for a release here in the US in late October. Awesome! I do believe that next up for the duo they trade off and Balagueró makes the fourth [REC] film while Plaza gets to make his own thing. Teamwork!
.

Happy 91, Ray Harryhausen!

.

I Am Link

.

--- Five-nal - What the fuck is 5nal Destination even supposed to mean? Who are these moronic people who think that mutilating words equals hip? I can just picture it now: three kids walking through the mall, they see the movie's poster, and wham, the fact that it says 5nal instead of Final just blows their minds and they empty their pockets right there and then! Good grief. Anyway besides that news we've got word on what the opening death sequence, almost always these movies highlights, is gonna be. It sounds huge, and possibly awesome. So perhaps the 5nal worked its mojo on me after all! Nope... still looks like Anal.

--- UnPegged - Over here there's a couple of choice quotes from Edgar Wright, including where his adaptation of Ant Man stands - he's holding off on writing a second draft til all the Scott Pilgrim stuff is over - and on why he didn't cram his co-conspirators in awesomeness Simon Pegg and Nick Frost in said Pilgrim movie.

--- Little Monsters - If you live in London then you're an asshole if you don't go to this show of Ray Harryhausen's creations. Bring it to New York please!

--- Double Decker Baloney Sandwich - You'd think that Michael Stephenson would be sick of talking about Troll 2 by now, but he's got the stamina of a bull - here's yet another fun interview with him talking about Best Worst Movie and his experiences touring with the delightful doc for the past... oh, four years or so.

--- Second Activity - The trailer for the Paranormal Activity sequel has arrived! I haven't watched it yet but apparently it spoils the ending of the first film, so beware of that if you're a newbie. Although why anyone who hadn't seen the original would care enough to watch a trailer for the second film I don't know.

--- Unto Alien - You know what movie is fun to watch over and over again? Timecrimes. I've seen it like four times and it's entertaining and spooky and totally engaging every single time. The director of that movie, Nacho Vigalando, has revealed his next movie will be about spooky extraterrestrials, and BD has some info on it.
.

Happy 90, Ray Harryhausen

.

.

And thanks for all the monsters.
.

Looks Can Kill

Apparently a slew of low-quality scans of the posters for the Clash of the Titans remake popped up briefly online today only to have the studio swing in on their winged horses and tell everybody to take them down. I really don't get why they do this junk - the stuff is out there and is not gonna go away, so why don't you just make haste and release hi-res versions of the images so we're not staring at crappy ones? Like these four:

You can see all eight right here.
For now, at least.

As for the images, I like what I am looking at. It struck me the other day that somehow some way I have become very enthusiastic about this movie. As much as I do enjoy the original it's the sorta flick that could, in the right hands - not that I'm sold on director Louis Leterrier, mind you - really benefit from an update. I'm not knocking Harryhausen's great great stop-motion work in the old movie, I love it I do, but as an entirely separate entity the story could exploit the hell outta new CG effects and show us something really really cool.

Plus Sam Worthington in a skirt. Ka-ching!
.

Burton & Harryhausen

I figure some of y'all might enjoy this too but this is more just to remind me to watch these when I get the chance - via this post at Cinematical which called it to my attention here's a chat between Tim Burton and Ray "Ray fuckin' Harryhausen" Harryhausen.

.

.
.

.

.

Happy Birthday, Ray Harryhausen

.

Visual effects pioneer Ray Harryhausen turns 89 today. I hope kids still watch his movies these days. They do, don't they? If you have a kid and you aren't making them watch Jason and the Argonauts and The Golden Voyage of Sinbad and Clash of the Titans and It Came Beneath the Sea and so on, you are a bad parent. I mean that. Harryhausen's little clay monsters opened up my imagination maybe more than anything else that I grew up seeing. He made the impossible seem not only possible, but beautiful.

.