“Rolling Thunder” Director John Flynn Takes Robert Duvall on a Revenge Ride in 1973’s “The Outfit”

Theater poster for 1973’s “The Outfit”

In 1978, a year that saw the release of two very well-known post-Vietnam films, Michael Cimino’s “The Deer Hunter” and Hal Ashby’s “Coming Home,” there was a third film about Vietnam veterans that I loved much more than the aforementioned efforts, a truly nasty affair called “Rolling Thunder,” directed by a virtually unknown talent named John Flynn. Flynn had teamed up with screenwriters Paul Schrader and Haywood Gould to tell the story of a Vietnam POW named Charles Rane who returns home to even more grisly reception than any character in Cimino or Ashby’s post Vietnam films. Major Rane in “Rolling Thunder” seeks revenge after his family is murdered and recruits an old friend from his days as a POW to help him out. It is an unsentimental, ugly film that is punctuated by some of the most original and intense moments of violence seen in films of that era.

Five years earlier, John Flynn made his first revenge film, a brutal, unconventional action film called “The Outfit.” Written by Flynn and Donald Westlake (Point Blank, Payback), it is the story of ex-con Earl Macklin (played with superb quiet rage by Robert Duvall) who gets out of jail just after the titular “outfit” has murdered his brother Ed. It seems that the stint that Earl just did in jail was due to robbing a bank which was run by the “outfit,” and as payback, they have killed his brother who was also in on the job. Earl is pissed but doesn’t want blood from the outfit; he wants money, specifically $250,000, and he’s going to get it from the different illegal interests that the outfit controls, but he’s going to need help. In tow is his gal, Bett (the ethereally gorgeous Karen Black), who comes along for the ride and although she originally tries to betray Earl, Bett is sticking by his side because I guess because Earl needs someone to interpret his sullen grunts and erratic behavior. Earl also needs some muscle, so he pulls in his old pal Jack, who is played by everyone’s favorite 70s smiling southern goliath, Joe Don Baker. In fact 1973 was quite the banner year for Baker, having just starred in his biggest role as Sheriff Buford Pusser in “Walking Tall” and as another piece of nasty business, the hitman Molly in “Charley Varrick.” Together they hit the road and try and to make revenge happen, one score at a time.

“The Outfit” progresses in the same way that many revenge and action films do, but it is the construction of the three main characters above along with the multitude of film noir veterans that Flynn populates this film with that really makes it watchable. These immensely talented actors bring so much to the smallest amount of screen time. Character actor Elisha Cook fills up a scene as does the great Jane Greer, who plays Earl’s grieving sister Alma. As for our Mr. Big, Mailer, Flynn went with an actor who spent an entire career playing villains and heavies, Robert Ryan. Mailer runs his empire with a dour, unhappy tone similar to that of our hero, Earl. Like Earl, he also is not too thrilled with his woman, and like Earl, he especially isn’t pleased about getting threatened. After Earl demands his appeasement in the form of 250 large, Mailer agrees to the amount, but then welches so you shouldn’t be surprised when Earl and Jack do not go away quietly. The welch happens in one of the most interesting action scenes in the film, which takes place in a homeless shelter. As the deal goes awry, a fire alarm is pulled, and a sea of homeless men, firemen, and thugs flood the street as Earl and Jack make their escape. It is that scene and the many shakedowns that Earl and Jack perform that highlight Flynn’s unique directing style in this genre. The action is never too slick; Jack and Earl are not flying out windows on jetpacks here, nor are they comical as they dole out violence, and there are some dialog inconsistencies for these brooding, silent characters, but all in all they say what needs to be said and not much more. They are professional and do what they have to do in get the job done. There is a large amount of violence in the film, but it is rarely gratuitous, as in one early scene when Earl blows the hand off of a member of the outfit for burning his woman Bett with a cigarette. Though shocking, I think that goes far in setting up that character’s limit for vengeful acts.

Official trailer for 1973’s “The Outfit”

Though “The Outfit” tips its hat to film noir with some of the characters, the primary structure is that of action and to be more specific, a 70s buddy film. As with many 1970s buddy films, the women are not femme fatales, but they also only get to hang in the background for most of what happens during the course of this film. Though Bett is a fully flushed out character, she doesn’t get into the action that often and is curiously absent from a few key scenes. This is something that Flynn definitely would improve on with in his later film, “Rolling Thunder,” with his character named Linda, a gun-toting Texas woman who does a lot more than just tag along. Unlike the films of the early 1970s, women’s liberation was in full effect by the late 1978, even in male dominated action films, so Linda can thus be a fairly tough customer. Given that “The Outfit” was shot in 1973, Bett does get to plow into some bad guys with the car, but otherwise, she seems there to just provide a voice of reason and in one brutal scene, she even becomes a punching bag for Earl. Like Flynn’s “Rolling Thunder,” “The Outfit” is completely unapologetic about its male character’s actions. These are tough, insensitive men who almost seem anachronistic even for 70s film standards, which should make this an uncomfortable watch for a lot of folks.

If you’re me, when you think of early 70s manly films about revenge, you almost immediately think of Mike Hodges superb 1971 British gangster film “Get Carter.” And although “The Outfit” is not as tightly woven together as “Get Carter,” it does have the same caustic intensity and shocking violence of Hodges’ film and is well worth your time for nothing else if only to see a solid performance from the always brilliant Robert Duvall in the middle of two major films: the career-making Godfather and the nifty Conversation.

John, Paul, George, Ringo and ADOLF!: 1976’s “All This and World War Two”

The 1976 Poster for “All This and World War II”

Film scholars seem to always look back at the 1970s as that glorious time when the studio system fell, and the freaks took over the asylum. In fact, it was this kind of, “just let the inmates do what they want,” attitude that gave us masterpieces like “Easy Rider” and “Mean Streets,” but it also gave us films that make one wonder if the entire hospital administration just ran away. I imagine the pitch that Russ Regan, the president of 20^th Century Fox Records, gave to the empty board roam went as such, “So, everyone loves the Beatles right? And it is the bicentennial, right? And everyone is super patriotic right now, so why not get clips of old Twentieth Century films and newsreel footage from World War Two and lets glue it all together and make a hit that won’t cost a ton of money?…right?”

The first problem, besides the concept of the film, was the reality that many filmmakers discover when trying to acquire original versions of Beatles songs: the cost. The 2010 Steve Carrel comedy “Dinner for Schmucks” paid out 1.5 million dollars for the use of the Beatles “Fool on the Hill,” and if you are talking about an 86 minute long movie that is comprised of nothing but Beatles songs, well even in 1976 dollars I doubt that they could’ve done all this with a total budget of just 1.3 million. Immediately, producers scrapped the idea of Beatles performing the songs, and instead convinced many of the 70s top musical stars such as Elton John, Tina Turner, Rod Stewart, and (gulp) Helen Reddy to record versions of the Beatles classics. This may have been the only intelligent production move because the soundtrack eventually made more money than the film, a phenomenon which had happened before with Gordon Parks, Jr.’s 1972 Curtis Mayfield scored blaxpolitation film, “Superfly.”

Helming this mess would be first time director, Susan Winslow, who had just worked as a researcher on the 1975 Phillip Mora documentary, “Brother Can You Spare a Dime,” which also blended newsreel footage and film clips in a nostalgic and satirical way, that time about the great depression. I guess that subject wasn’t dour enough for film audiences, so let’s turn to everyone’s favorite war for some smiles and a gentile poke in the ribs.

The film opens with Germany preparing for war, manufacturing munitions and mounting Panzer tanks as the smooth rock sounds of Southern California’s Ambrosia performs “Magical Mystery Tour” in the background. At one key point, “Load up for the mystery tour” is sung while solider loads his rifle…yikes. Though this sounds like a bad idea, and it is, it pales in comparison to the musical/visual matchups that later follow in this film. I would suppose that the overarching peace sentiment of the film was due to our withdrawal from Vietnam a year earlier in 1975, but there are just too many scenes coupled together that I feel are supposed to make you get a tad happy about our involvement in the big show. For example, I assume Hitler is played off as a bad guy here as “Fool on the Hill” is added during newsreel footage of Adolf gazing out from his mountain home above Berchtesgaden, but why is “Maxwell’s Silver Hammer” being played as Americans line up at the recruitment office? There are a lot of contradictory moments in this film that seem to come out of a need to play some of the songs that had been recorded as opposed to writing songs based on the footage that was to be used. By the time you get to Elton John performing “Lucy In The Sky With Diamonds,” while allied planes get ready to bomb Germany, you know that we are not dealing with surrealism here but a truly deranged mess of a movie that has no central idea.

If the horrors of war were to be contrasted against genuine human suffering for the sake of comedic irony, then why aren’t we seeing actual human suffering in the film? With the notable exception of Japanese Americans being taken to internment camps (with The Brothers Johnson performing “Hey Jude” in the background?), you never actually see a person in peril or pain, so what you are left with is a bunch of fair to poor Beatles covers and a poor excuse for an anti-war work of art that does not even have the courage to make the audience endure true suffering to complete the satire.

Bovine Ska and Rocksteady 9/24/14: The Passing of Tito Simon

R.I.P. Tito Simon

The last few weeks have been hard for lovers of Jamaican music as Hopeton Lewis and Jackie Bernard have both left this earth. It brings us great sadness to bring the news that another reggae star has died, as Tito Simon passed away on Saturday Sept 20^th, 2014 in Jamaica from a sudden heart attack. Born as Keith Foster in St. Mary Jamaica in 1948, Tito would record ska, soul, and reggae recordings during his career. He recorded and wrote under a ton of aliases including Sugar Simone, Lance Hannibal, and also under his birth name. However, he was most commonly known and referred to as Tito Simon.

In 1961, Tito moved to England and began his recording career in 1964 with Dandy Livingstone as the duo Sugar ‘N’ Dandy. Together, the two would record ska tracks with the Carnival label. There has been a rumor over the years that Sugar ‘N’ Dandy was actually just Dandy Livingstone recording solo and having his voice doubled to appear as a duo, as duos were very popular at that time in Jamaican music. What we can say is at the time of Tito’s passing Dandy took to social media to express his sadness for the loss of his “singing partner, ” Sugar Simone, aka Tito Simon.

To answer the rumor of “Was there vocal doubling on Sugar N’ Dandy tracks?” We received this message from Dandy Livingstone himself a few weeks after the show that finally answers the question:

“Hi Generoso,Tito Simon and I only did one session together. The songs were….. “Only Heaven Knows” and “Let’s Ska.”The late Roy Smith and I did two sessions. Those dates produced three songs…….1.One Man Went to Mow 2.Time and Tide 3.I’m Not Crying Now…….The remainder were doubled by me. Nuff greetings from Jamdown”

After Sugar ‘N’ Dandy, the two parted ways for solo careers, and Tito took a two-year break from recording. In 1967, he returned to the music industry, singing very briefly with the Jetliners, who only have one single to be found. As for his return as a solo artist, in the same year, Tito began recording great soul tracks, which were released on Sue Records. After the solo soul tracks, Tito took another two year break from recording. When he returned to the music industry this time, he began recording in yet another style, reggae, which is what he is best known for.

During the show we played Tito’s reggae recordings for the Dr. Bird and Upfront labels, starting with Tell Me, released on Dr. Bird in 1969. In1972, Tito returned to Jamaica and worked with Clancy Eccles. With Clancy, he would record some of his most popular tracks. We’ll first hear Easy Come Easy Go off of the Just LP released on Horse in England in 1973

On September 24^th, we did a full retrospective of Tito’s career, from those early recordings as Sugar ‘N” Dandy through his soul music period and his subsequent triumphs in reggae. R.I.P. Tito.

Listen to the full spotlight and the show via the WMBR archives here: LISTEN HERE

This link will be active until 10/6/2014.

Do You Want To Make Chicken Cacciatore? Generoso Will Show You How!

In the Fierro household we love chicken cacciatore, that very hearty Italian chicken dish that could also be made with a rabbit if you happen to have one handy. Cacciatore does mean “hunter’s style” so this is not a delicately made entree, its one that is normally made in the middle of the woods but that doesn’t mean its anything less than delicious. Wine, onions, mushrooms. olive oil, garlic and a bit of time are all you need to make this delicious entree. Generoso will show you how, step by step as always!

Bovine Ska and Rocksteady 9/17/14: Honoring Jackie Bernard of The Kingstonians

R.I.P. Jackie Bernard

We are again saddened by the passing of another Jamaican legend, Jackie Bernard, the lead singer and founder of the seminal vocal group, The Kingstonians. Jackie had fallen on hard times over the last decade and according to Jackie’s sister, Monica Bernard-Kelly, Jackie passed away from a pneumonia at the Kingston Public Hospital on Sept 14th. Rafael Ruiz, a Spaniard living in Jamaica, began a foundation in January of 2014 for Jackie, who had been diagnosed with diabetes and was struggling to afford medication and treatment to battle his disease and Jackie was living in an unfurnished one room house in Maxfield, Kingston. The foundation was able to help improve his living conditions and help him get better medical attention, and for that we are grateful and send much respect to everyone involved in the Jackie Bernard Foundation.

The Kingstonians were founded in 1966 by Jackie Bernard and his brother Footy, along with their friend Lloyd Kerr, who originally recorded under the name, The Apostles, for Derrick Harriot’s Move and Groove Label, but that was short lived. As the Kingstonians, they saw early success at JJ Johnson’s JJ label, but would continue to record for other producers as well, including Coxone Dodd, Leslie Kong, and again with Derrick Harriott. With Harriot, they released a compilation of singles in 1970 under the album titled, Sufferer, which was the record that heightened the success of the trio. Sufferer gained much popularity in England, where it was released and distributed by the Trojan label. After finding success with Derrick Harriot, they would return to JJ, who was also having great success with another stellar vocal group, The Ethiopians. Over the next ten years of the 70s, Jackie Bernard would record as both a solo artist and with his fellow Kingstonians for his own Stun King label, where he would arrange and produce his own work with the writing support of his brother Footy.

On the September 17th edition of the Bovine Ska, we presented Jackie’s best work with the Kingstonians, along with his impressive solo releases to help give you an understanding of the immense talent that Jackie was. R.I.P. Jackie.

Listen to the full spotlight and the show via the WMBR archives here: LISTEN HERE

This link will be active until 9/30/2014.

The Kids Are Not All Right: The Political 1978 Spanish Horror Film, “Who Can Kill A Child?”

The 1978 Spanish Poster for “Who Can Kill A Child?”

The politics of “Quién puede matar a un niño?” (“Who Can Kill A Child” released in the US as “Island of the Damned) director Narciso Ibáñez Serrador become very clear only five minutes into the film; a heavy handed montage of real atrocities against children from World War Two to Vietnam to the famine in 1970s Central Africa that sets up the premise of this flawed but unique horror film.

Based on ideas from the then unwritten novel, “El juego de los niños” (Juvenile Game) by science fiction writer, Juan José Plans, “Who Can Kill A Child” follows the tradition of many zombie films in that it has a group of infected humans who begin to exhibit some traits of murderous behavior. It also draws from the tradition of the haunted house film but uses an island as its particular chamber of horrors. But what truly separates this film from its predecessors in those genres is that its subjects and its choice of scenery appear more normal than one could imagine before everything invariably turns to hell. Expertly shot by a young José Luis Alcaine, who would become the cinematographer of choice for Pedro Almodovar and Bigas Luna, this film has the visual aesthetics of an idyllic day trip to a Spanish resort island where everything appears, but firmly places the idea in the mind of the viewer, that the eventual dystopia could happen anywhere.

The plot involves two English tourists, Tom, a biologist, and Evelyn his wife, who are vacationing through Spain before the birth of their third child. They spend a festive day in a coastal town but are blissfully ignorant of the fact that bodies from a nearby island they plan on visiting the next day are washing up on the shores of their vacation spot. After reading a headline of war, there is some small talk from the clerk in the photography shop of how “children are always ignored victims of war and famine,” but the couple feign their concern and go on their way. The next day Tom and Evelyn rent a small rickety boat and travel alone to Almanzora, an island four hours off the coast, for some peace and quiet. I get that they are ignorant, but really who does this with their six-month pregnant wife anyway? After their midday arrival, they begin to notice that the town is fairly deserted except for some exceptionally adorable children, which draws some concern. Soon after finding refuge in an empty bar, the couple witnesses the lone adult they encounter viciously and gleefully beaten with his own cane by one of the children. They now begin to understand that things are not well in this “village of the damned.”

Given that we are now dealing with a group of evil children doing unnaturally bad things, I have to address the difference between the inceptions of the behavior of the little assassins of the John Wyndham novel from 1957, “Village of The Damned” and “Who Can Kill a Child.” In “Village of The Damned,” it is made clear that a specific military incident produced the unnatural evil effects of the children, but in “Who Can Kill A Child,” we are led to believe by his use of the aforementioned montage of grotesque documentary footage that opens the film, that Serrador wants you to believe that these concerted attacks by the damned children are an almost evolutionary product of generations of child-killing by adults who show no concern for their well being. In fact, in the novel “Juvenile Games”, Plans, uses the military spraying of a yellow dust as the agent of behavioral change but Serrador admits in a 2007 interview that “this was not necessary to show that children as a race needed to become more active in their fate without the use of a chemical.”

The unique horror that eventually ensues in the Serrador film comes from contrast of the innocence and beauty that is evident in the children’s faces and their picturesque town against the vile actions that the children mob performs. Almost all of the violence, with the exception of one notable scene, occurs during the day, which jolts the viewer differently than most horror films do in that genre because you normally cringe as you wait for the fall of darkness, which despite building some tension also prepares you for the eventual shock as opposed to here where the horror can come at any moment. Our protagonists, Tom and Evelyn are chased through the town during broad daylight by a horde of blood-thirsty Brady Bunch looking maniacs, but through the use of close-ups that show their playful indifference, the horror really hits home. And in a truly brilliant turn, you even begin to fear the one child you do not see, the one that is growing inside of Evelyn.

The key to this film is that once Tom finds a gun, the question arises; Even if warranted, “could you kill these adorable children if you could see their faces?” or “is wartime death of children a necessity that people have gotten used to after thousands of years of war and famine?” These are the political questions that Serrador presents to the viewer, and he does so pretentiously but is very successful by utilizing the genre of horror to carry this message.

Serrador later stated that if he had to make this film over again, he would’ve put the documentary montage at the end instead of the beginning, so that the violence that the children exact on Tom and Evelyn would almost seem justified after thousands of years of violence that adults have reaped on children. Again a heavy handed way to end a film, but given that this was made just two years after the death of Franco, it would mark the beginning of many Spanish films that would ask similarly hard questions about the true casualties of war.

Bovine Ska and Rocksteady 9/10/2014: Remembering Hopeton Lewis

We were very saddened to hear about the passing of legendary vocalist, Hopeton Lewis, on September 4th. Hopeton had passed away at his home in Brooklyn last Thursday after a long battle with kidney disease. Hopeton was a guest on the Bovine Ska and Rocksteady back in 2006, a very sweet and reverent man, who had been almost exclusively performing non-secular music for the last thirty years. When we spoke back then he still had great affection for his earliest cuts for Merritone, Treasure Isle and Dynamic. There are his landmark tracks such as his first hit, 1966’s “Take It Easy,” which many people consider the very first rocksteady tune ever recorded, and the track he would record the same year, “Cool Collie,” the very first Jamaican record to openly speak about the positive effect of marijuana.

Hopeton Lewis was born in Kingston and raised in Burnt Savannah, Westmoreland. At the age of 6, he began signing for the Burnt Savannah Holiness Church, which was his starting point for his passion for music. As a young boy, he returned to Kingston to live with his grandparents. At the age of 15, his grandparents passed away, and Hopeton was left on his own to survive in Kingston. As a young man, he quickly entered the music industry in order to fulfill his love for singing and also to try to earn a living. He began his recording career as a member of the vocal group, The Regals, by cutting a side at Coxsone’s Wincox label. Not much came of it, so he took his smooth voice and began a solo career at Merritone where he scored a hit with the aforementioned “Take It Easy.” which stayed at the top of the charts for weeks and sold over 10,000 copies!

Hopeton Lewis’ “Take It Easy” LP on Merritone

After leaving Merritone in 1967, Hopeton had brief stops at “JJ’s” and “Fab” before finding more success with Duke Reid at his Treasure Isle label. Besides singing backup for many of the Duke’s established artists, his turn at lead vocals there would result in a Festival Song Competition winner with “Boom Shaka-Laka.” He would move to Byron Lee’s Dynamic label and the hits kept on coming as “Grooving Out On Life,” the title track from his full length LP released in 1973 became a signature song for Hopeton.

On the September 10th edition of the Bovine Ska, we took you on a musical trip through Hopeton’s career and tried to help you get a better picture of his progression as one of the most talented vocalists in Jamaican music history.

Listen to the full spotlight and the show via the WMBR archives here: LISTEN NOW

This link will be active until 9/23/2014. Enjoy!

Veal Marsala Is So Delicious, Learn to Make It, The Generoso Way!

Have you ever eaten veal marsala and thought…I wonder if Generoso could teach me how to make veal marsala. And then did your mind wander and thought…If only Generoso could be in his hot little kitchen, sweating profusely, wearing the same apron he uses when he spray-paints positive messages on the seats in the back of the bus. Well, your thoughts are my command as I show you how to make this tasty sweet Italian dish using just the right inexpensive ingredients. Let me know how yours turns out in the comments below! Music supplied by Boccherini because he owed me a favor. His Concerto for Cello and Orchestra In B flat Major.

The Writers of American Graffiti Direct a Lovecraftian Giallo: 1973’s “Messiah of Evil”

Give credit where credit is due, husband and wife team, Willard Huyck and Gloria Katz, wrote two of the most entertaining films of their generation, George Lucas’ American Graffiti and Steven Spielberg’s “Indiana Jones and The Temple of Doom”. Now, let’s step back a second and immediately take some credit away from them, as they also wrote and directed the disastrous “Howard The Duck” and “Best Defense”, the 1984 “comedy” that almost singlehandedly destroyed Eddie Murphy’s career before it started. Now that we have established that you have two very talented people who occasionally make some serious errors in judgment, let’s get to their only horror film, a film that despite having some shortcomings, is a surprisingly brilliant surrealistic horror film, Messiah Of Evil.

“Messiah” opens intensely with a frightened man running down the street, we aren’t sure who or what he is running from, suddenly the running man is rescued by an innocent-looking young girl who allows him into her backyard. As the man collapses from exhaustion, the girl of course leans over and unemotionally slices his throat. After watching “Messiah of Evil”, I came to learn that the dead man is another iconic American director of the 1970s, Walter Hill, a friend of Gloria and Willard’s, who was also pretty busy in 1973, having just written John Huston’s “The MacIntosh Man.” Why kill Walter so early? Maybe Katz and Huyck saw into the future and wanted to stop Hill before he made “Another 48 Hours”.

After setting the tone of the film with such an opening scene, you are hammered with the sight of an over lit long hall, where the film’s protagonist, the ethereally beautiful, Arletty (Marianna Hill) is wandering in an almost dreamlike state. After a fairly horrific stop at a cadaver filled gas station (just a bit worse than an average South Jersey rest stop) Arletty soon makes her way to coastal town of Point Dune, California to visit her painter/father but instead finds just his empty, eerie home that is complete with pop-art murals of straight ahead suited people. She also finds her father’s diary but only reads enough to realize that dad doesn’t want his little girl trying to find him. So now if that piece of information mixed with the opening scenes hasn’t tipped you off yet, things in Point Dune are not too Norman Rockwell.

The Awesomely Intense Trailer For “Messiah”

To make matters infinitely more scary, Arletty meets a sort of now-era sophisto named Thom (a stoic Michael Greer) and his two groupies/traveling companions, the savagely hip 70s sexy Toni (Joy Bang) and Laura (Anitra Ford) who are interviewing the clairvoyant hobo, Charlie (sure, every town has one, they just don’t care to interview them) about the upcoming weirdness involving the centennial return of “the dark stranger,” who will inspire the town into a murderous frenzy. Charlie also warns Arletty about her father who has become one of the town’s crazies (I use the word “crazies” as they act the closest to the villains of the same-named Romero film.) All this weirdness gets to Toni and Laura, and they split the company of the well-coifed Thom to only meet with some really well filmed giallo-style ends. I must say that these scenes are the visual horror gems of the film; sensational buildups to a stark zombie-like finishes. I say “zombie-like” because I feel that our ghouls are more vampire than zombie but their ends look like the work of cannibalistic consumption. OK, too geeky, the point is, they’re dead. Of course, the “stranger,” (or possibly the titled “messiah,” were not sure here) a kind of H.P. Lovecraftesque demonic minister from the days of the Donner Party, has now returned and yes, all hell has broken loose. The police arrive and fire at the crowd of ghouls but fail in stopping the onslaught. The stranger/messiah/vampire/zombie bites Thom, so Thom and Arletty finally do the right thing and split for the coast.

Without giving away the ending of the film, what does transpire is left to the viewers interpretation. Did this actually happen and the trauma broke Arletty so badly that she ended up in a sanitarium? Or, is this entire film the creation of a woman whose mind has decayed while in a sanitarium? And what was the political statement that Katz and Huyck are making here? The one thing that Romero, the father of the modern zombie has taught us is that zombies show up hungry, they are also showing up with a defined political agenda. We know that the older well-suited, square ghouls in “Messiah” have recruited Arletty’s failed artist father to their ranks, but they only seem to be hungry to eat the hip, young people; Thom, Arletty, Toni, and Laura. Was this a post-hippie statement that the establishment was coming after the remains of the Love Generation?

Though I am not sure of its underlying purpose, what I am sure about is that “Messiah of Evil” remains as one of the few real giallo-inspired films produced in the U.S. from that time. A film that purposely does not contain an ounce of humor, and is unrelenting in its grim tone, a rarity for its time. It is also a testament to writer/directors Katz and Huyck, who in 1973 could simultaneously fill our hearts with joy, giving us the iconic California film, “American Graffiti”, and at the same time give us a very different trip to California with “Messiah of Evil”.

Bovine Ska and Rocksteady 8/27/14: Spotlight on the SEP Label

This August 27th, 2014 edition of the Bovine Ska and Rocksteady radio show on WMBR featured a two hour retrospective on Lindon Pottinger’s SEP Label, so you know what that means…Yes, two hours of classic skaand rocksteady produced by Pottinger from 1963 to 1967.

“Ska Is Here To Stay” by Karl Bryan from 1963

Years before entering the music industry, Sonia Durrant and Lindon Pottinger had experience with accounting. After their marriage, the two began to open businesses together in Jamaica, ranging from a bicycle store to a shop that sold Sonia’s homemade patties. However, their business focus shifted in 1961 when Lindon began producing records, and as his career progressed, he eventually established Golden Arrow, Gaydisc, and the label that is the focus of our spotlight tonight, SEP, the record label bearing Sonia’s initials. Upon the creation of the record labels, Lindon also opened a recording studio in the Pottinger home. This would be the first recording studio to be opened and owned by an Afro-Jamaican. The records from the Pottinger’s labels sold at the Tip Top record shop on Orange Street, which increased their presence on the growing music center in Kingston.

This show focuses just on the SEP releases, featuring tracks from all SEP artists including Roy and Millie, Lord Tanamo, and Winston Samuels.

Here is a link to hear this radio show from the WMBR Archive. The link to this show will be active until September 10th, 2014. LISTEN NOW

LILY & GENEROSO 4EVER!

Author: Generoso Fierro