Know this guy?

He's a cast member of the movie in question, but not one of its four stars. If not for him, however, it wouldn't exist. (This isn't a still from the film, either-- it's in color-- but a picture taken during shooting.)

If that's too tough, maybe this sound clue will help. If not, you're out of luck, because this movie is so well-known I don't dare give away any more.

If it is enough for you to at least think you know the movie, send me the title in an email by late Sunday night. If you're correct, you'll know the great delight of seeing your name in next week's in-bred winner's circle.

Last week's movie in question was Hollywoodland (2006), a "what-if" mystery based on the death of actor George "Superman" Reeves, with Adrien Brody, Diane Lane, and, in the starring role, Ben Affleck, giving the finest performance of his career to date. Not that most of us here believe that's a long, crowded list, judging from the comments included with many responses. Some, like Sam Landman, confessed to being "anti-Affleck" before seeing this film (me, too, actually), with the bluntest (and funniest) assessment coming from Justin Cullen-Benson: "The best part about the movie is you get to watch him get killed three different times."

I think another quiz winner, Bill Kelly, put his finger on the reason Affleck is so good as George Reeves: "He did a great job playing someone not too unlike himself." Or, as J. Hoberman said in his Village Voice review, "[Adrien] Brody has to act to make it in Hollywoodland; Affleck simply is."

Many quiz winners also voiced a similar dissatisfaction with Brody and his plotline in the movie, one that I share. The movie comes alive every time it goes back in time to tell Reeves' story, but the present-time private-eye story isn't at the same level of inventiveness or quality. The good parts, however, are so good that it's still worth a look, especially if you remember the original show and Reeves, one of the most likable bad actors there ever was.

(And as quiz champeen Wayne Palmer pointed out, "We're all getting older when Diane Lane, the cute little girl from A Little Romance, is cast as the older woman.")

So congratulations and a big red S to the following quiz winners: Wayne Palmer, Jack Sparks, Peter Schilling, Jim Youngdahl, Mark Gisleson, Bob Aulert, Bill Kelly, R. Vincent Moniz Jr., Sarah Maki, Kaylee Mund, Sam Landman, Alex McCown, Elizabeth Grace, Justin Cullen-Benson, Matt Melton, Vince Tuss, Kent Hofmeister, Sarah Bergstrom, and Diane Lake. And special congrats to Stacy Sarette, who wins this week's grand prize, The Very Best New Adventures of Gumby Vol.1!

Here are some pictures I found while trolling Google images with the words "stinko rotten."

And you thought he only sucked at comedy-- back cover of Chamaeleon Church's 1969 MGM album, with drummer/keyboardist Chevy second from the right

It was looking like we might finally be rid of him, but Chevy Chase has returned, if only to find a new bottom to hit. There's a new biography of him-- authorized, of course (and currently #1,540 in Books at Amazon)-- and through a press release, he's pimping it with a grim remembrance of childhood whippings. While there's nothing funny about the act described (or that papers like the Washington Post are printing the p.r. verbatim as "news"), it's odd that we're now supposed to think of Chevy-- both the most disliked SNL cast member and guest host ever-- as a sympathetic character.

Reopening the wound to help flog a book must have at least taken his mind off the beating his last movie, his first starring vehicle in ten years, took at the box office. It played four theaters for one week, making a cool $2,800. You read that right: $700 a theater, $100 a day. Make the ticket price a round ten bucks, and you could even count how many people went to see it. (Except that Chevy probably went a lot, and maybe even bought tickets for non-existent "friends.")

For those who will tell you he used to be great, show them this and remind them of Johnny Carson's line: "Chevy Chase couldn't ad lib a fart at a bean-eating contest."

P.S. Time is currently accepting questions for Chevy to use in their upcoming 10 Questions-- send him a good one here.

Grindhouse (2007), starring Kurt Russell and Rose McGowan. $100 million was spent so two precious auteurs could make an indulgent homage to the cheapest genre of them all-- the directors they try to emulate could have made 300 movies with that kind of dough, and most would have been more enjoyable. The viewers who understand that it's a parody still won't be impressed by the accurate trailers and film glitches because they're just not funny, and Miramax found out the hard way that most people didn't get it at all-- audiences bitched about the way the movie looked (they believe the added flaws were real), and didn't grasp the double-feature concept and left after the first of the movie's two parts. When the company previewed it as two separate films, however, audiences hated it even more. (I understand-- they saw the whole thing.)

The best of the real grindhouse schlock often had a strong emotional content, mostly negative but undeniably genuine, and it gave the stuff its spark and perverse charm. Grindhouse is all slickness with no emotional content at all-- it's just a couple of out-of-gas wonder boys slumming with the help of state-of-the-art everything, including money. The directors of those old pictures would laugh in the faces of Tarantino and Rodriguez for wanting to make shit when they could make something good, a chance most of those guys never got even once.

Terror in the Midnight Sun aka Invasion of the Animal People (1959 - USA-Sweden). You want real grindhouse fare?-- here it is, in all its spliced-up glory. It's also known as Space Invasion of Lapland. Imagine a movie where every indoor scene begins and ends with elegant people struggling with enormous fur coats and every exterior is set in a blizzard. And when the monster finally goes on a Kong-like rampage, the citizens mount up their reindeer and get the hell out!

A fairly recent mystery movie.

First, a sound clip featuring the star. As far as I'm concerned (and I never liked him before), he gave an Oscar-worthy performance in this film, but I wonder if even his fervent fans will recognize his voice in this scene.

Here's three snapshots to further jog your memory:

If you think you know this movie, then by all means send me an email by late Sunday with its title. If you're correct, then you, too, can thrill to the sight of your name striking a mighty pose in next week's winner's circle.

Because the 1975 film version of his novel One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest didn't tell the story from the viewpoint of the silent Chief Bromden, Ken Kesey claimed to never have bothered to see it. Kesey was also outspoken about Jack Nicholson being wrong for the hero, Randle Patrick McMurphy. (Jack won his first Oscar for his performance.) Speaking for everybody else in the world, the old prankster shouldn't have been so hard to please-- it's a great movie, made at a time when Nicholson could do no wrong.

(Kesey originally sold the rights to Kirk Douglas, an enjoyable but hammy leading man who was getting old even in the '60s. Besides, if Ken really wanted to bitch about a bad choice for McMurphy, check this out-- he looks like he's about to break into song, maybe "Teenage Lobotomy.")

Cuckoo's Nest was director Milos Forman's first American success, and the cast was filled with well-known character actors making early screen appearances, like Danny DeVito, Christopher Lloyd, and Deadwood's Brad Dourif. (Not to mention cult favorites Will Sampson, seen above with his broom, and Michael Berryman.) It also has a fine, underappreciated score by Jack Nitzsche.

And no movie ever made electroshock look less enjoyable.

If I wanted a nice welcome back present, I got it: more responses than any other quiz. So thanks and congratulations to the following: Digen Varma, Wayne A. Palmer, Joe Rosenberg, Dean E. Carlson, Peter Schilling, Ben Ellis, Vince Tuss, Eric Swenson, Carolyn Blomberg, Maggie Ripsin, Mark Gisleson, Tim McDonough, Jason Johnston, Dennis Lynch, Dave Uri, Amy Smith, Stacy Sarette, Ward Canfield, Kent Hofmeister, Darren Tobolt, Jack Sparks, Matt Melton, Fred Lorence, Matt S., Jon Colliander, Corey Anderson, Margoux May, Nick Caster, Tim Smit, Holly Roberts, and Bob Teig. And special congrats to Erica Christoffer who wins the grand prize: a Blades of Glory prize pack including a track jacket, t-shirt, and sweatband!

Wow! Such a turnout tells me that my return was a success. And way too easy!

This is a once-and-awhile feature I started years ago mainly as an excuse to post some groovy comic-book covers from the old days. All of them include at least one of Fred's favorite kinks-- mine, too!

Bondage for kids who saw through Batman and Robin

Suggested interspecies, intergalactic oral intercourse

Satanic handjobs

Neck-rophilia

(All covers from the Golden Age era A-1 Comics, scans from The Grand Comic Book Data Base, greatest website ever.)

(Look closely and be amazed-- you can see Larry's reflection!)

Brando, Sinatra, Pacino . . . Bob Hope? Also Beatles, seven U.S. Presidents, even Oprah. And every one of them will be featured giving one of the worst interviews of their lives, because the interviewer was Larry King.

I wonder if the McCartney interview is the one where Larry began by asking if John wrote "Yesterday," then asked Sir Paul's wife of the moment, "So you got a fake leg-- what's dat like?"

P.S. Here's another fine moment of Kingliness, courtesy of Harry Shearer and Le Show.

According to the Internet Movie Database, it's this:

Or at least the 1913 version-- nine were made between 1897-1931. They were all based on a play known for its famous line, shown in the above poster: "Father, dear father, come home with me now."

No video version of it is known to exist, which made what happened on imdb a few months ago even stranger. Users began noticing that no matter what they were looking up, in the "Recommended" section would be this 94-year-old short feature. Some of the recommendations were downright bizarre (and probably not safe for work).

The imdb finally fixed it, and Ten Nights in a Bar Room has sunk back into obscurity. But thanks to the power of the repeated title, I now can't wait to see it-- calling Criterion!

From the 1931 version-- it looks pretty enjoyable, too