Batman (1989) opened 30 years ago

This article from CNN.com reminded me of when Batman opened in the summer of 1989, thirty years ago. https://www.cnn.com/2019/06/22/entertainment/batman-movie-changed-the-comic-character/index.html

It was the biggest movie of the summer. I remember going to see it with my birth father; we didn't see movies together that often, but he liked action films and this and Indiana Jones 3 were the ones we saw together that summer.

I eventually saw Batman four times in the theater, including several times with some other neighborhood friends who hadn't seen it yet. There were trading cards to go along with the movie, and I remember tying to collect all 200 of them.

I remember the scenes people were talking about - people loved the Batwing flying over the moon to give a "bat-signal", and people loved The Joker, including me; he was more interesting to me than Michael Keaton's Batman character.  I also remember someone saying "I prefer Marvel comics to DC". If I had a crystal ball to see into the future, I would have told him, "Just wait another 15 or so years and you'll see Spider Man, X-men, and almost every other Marvel hero on the big screen".

Five Easy Pieces (1970)

At the start of the film we're introduced to Jack Nicholson's character, an oil rigger who lives in a trailer park with his waitress girlfriend Rayette (Karen Black). Jack goes out drinking and fools around with other women (including Sally Struthers), while Rayette dreams of becoming a country singer.

Jack learns that his father is not in good health, so he travels to to his hometown on a road trip with Rayette.

As the movie unfolds, we learn that Jack comes from a more upper class family, and at one point in his life he was interested in becoming a pianist, which he didn't pursue.

I like how Jack's character interacts with his sister (Susan Anspach) and his father who doesn't recognize him anymore.  His brother is played by Ralph Waite.

While the film focuses on Jack's point-of-view mainly, I think Rayette is an equally important and memorable character in the film.

Her character seems to represents a life that Nicholson wants to put behind, but he doesn't know how.

The ending is open-ended and sad and leaves you wondering what will become of the characters.

I cared more about what would happen to Rayette than I did Jack's character.  I didn't like Jack's character. He may move on to pursue he dreams, but the way he treats Rayette throughout the movie is pretty awful. After all of the time he spent with his family, he still remains selfish and impulsive up until the very end. 

The movie Nashville (1975) features a character that longs to be a country singer (Barbara Harris' character); in the end of the film, she leads the entire crowd in song after a tragedy. I like to think that her character and Rayette from Five Easy Pieces are the same people. 

Another review of this movie from What I Watched Last Night

The St. Valentine's Day Massacre (1967)

Jason Robards as Al Capone, about to slug a couple of mugs

A rare big-budget, big-studio (20th Century Fox) classic directed by Roger Corman, where we learn almost everything we ever wanted to know with the main characters associated with the infamous shootout from 1929, including south side gangster Al Capone (Jason Robards) and his rival, north side gangster Bugs Moran (Ralph Meeker).

To prepare for this movie, I booked a tour on Chicago's Untouchables Tour Bus, a popular attraction in the city. It takes visitors to famous gangster sites, including the site of the St. Valentine's Day Massacre (SVDM). According to the guides, the Corman film gets almost all the facts right, right down to the German Shepard dog who was left behind in the garage.

The title card says it all

The SMC Cartage Company storefront is recreated.

I love the sets in the film, and there's some great period music to set the mood. I wonder if Corman ever had the idea to shoot this in black-and-white; I'm sure the studio pushed for color.

An old fashioned motor coach on Clark Street (where the SVDM took place)

Corman does a great job of staging the numerous shootouts in the movie: windows shattering, glass flying everywhere. Just when we think the gunfire is over, there's more. George Segal, his first film after Virginia Woolf, plays one of the Bugs Moran's henchman "Goosey" Peter Gusenberg; you can tell he's having fun with that tommy gun.

Some of the scenes are violent, including the gun-down of Polish gangster Hymie Weiss in his "flower shop", which was just a front for his bootlegging business. . As I learned on the tour bus, Hymie's flower shop was right across the street from the most well-known and one of the oldest Roman Catholic churches in the city: Holy Name Cathedral, which is still an active congregation (photo below)

Sidenote: If you visit Chicago and go to the cathedral today, you can still see a bullet hole from one of the shootouts that took place right outside. (photo below)

Jason Robards is excellent as Capone and is intense as he erupts in a fit of rage after discovering one of his associates was bumped off. In another scene, we see Capone about give gangster Joe Aiello a "Sicilian necktie", which is what someone gets when their necks are sliced open and their tongue is pulled through the neck.

Corman regular Dick Miller and Little Shop of Horrors co-star Jack Nicholson have bit parts as Capone gangsters posing as cops and only appear toward the end of the film during the SVDM sequence. Bruce Dern has a small part as Johnny May, family man who gets messed up in the Moran gang (and is killed in the SVDM).

As each character makes his first appearance, a voice over biography is given by narrator Paul Frees, who is famous for all of his cartoon narrations such as George of the Jungle and many others.

Bugs Moran (Ralph Meeker)
avoids the bloodshed
intended for him

As the day of the SVDM unfolds, our narrator tells us what every one of the victims was doing "on the last morning of his life..." Which is really satisfying and makes us feel like we have gotten a taste of each of these gangster's lives.

The final ten minutes of the movie leading up to the massacre are exciting, even though we know what will happen. We see Bugs Moran go into a cafe for some coffee; while he's in there, the SVDM takes place. Al Capone is not happy that Bugs got away, let me tell you; I'll just say he whips out a baseball bat and starts swinging.

I recommend this film especially if you want to learn more about these gangsters.

If you have time check out this 5-minute video I took from the bus tour; the guide gives a good overview of the entire ordeal, which pretty much is how the movie plays out. Way to go! You can also get a chance to see the neighborhood where the massacre took place.

The SMC Cartage Building was torn down right around the time this movie came out. The old Mayor Daley didn't want Chicago associated with gangsters. But it still is no matter what. Bricks from the building were saved by some collectors; a few bricks can be seen at the Mob Museum in Las Vegas.

Today the actual site is a parking lot. Across the street, the “look-out” stations where Jack McGurn stayed are still there.

2122 N. Clark Street, Chicago

Nearby buildings give a taste of the era

Check out the gray building below in the 2011 photo and again in the 1929 photo. This was right next door to the SMC Cartage building.

2122 N. Clark St - Source: Google Maps

Here is another review of this movie from Cinemachine

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This post is part of the Roger Corman Blogathon hosted by
Forgotten Classics of Yesteryear

Top 10 Box Office Stars of 1976 (USA)

1932| 1933| 1934| 1935| 1936 | 1937 | 1938 | 1939 | 1940 | 1941 | 1942 | 1943 | 1944 | 1945 | 1946 | 1947 | 1948| 1949 | 1950 | 1951 |1952 | 1953 | 1954 | 1955 | 1956 | 1957 | 1958 | 1959|1960 | 1961 | 1962 | 1963 | 1964 | 1965 |1966 | 1967 | 1968 | 1969 | 1970 | 1971 | 1972 | 1973 | 1974 | 1975 | 1976 | 1977-present

The rankings come from Quigley Publishing Co.'s annual list (since 1932) of top money making stars in the USA, which based on a poll of hundreds of theater executives. The list does not rank stars only on how much cash their films made, but on what theater owners say about who attracts audiences on their star power alone.

Since this is the year I was born, this will be the last year that I'll post box office stars with photos.

1. Robert Redford

2. Jack Nicholson

3. Dustin Hoffman

4. Clint Eastwood

5. Mel Brooks

6. Burt Reynolds

7. Al Pacino

8. Tatum O'Neal

9. Woody Allen

10. Charles Bronson

1932| 1933| 1934| 1935| 1936 | 1937 | 1938 | 1939 | 1940 |
1941 | 1942 | 1943 | 1944 | 1945 | 1946 | 1947 | 1948| 1949 | 1950 |

1951 |1952 | 1953 | 1954 | 1955 | 1956 | 1957 | 1958 | 1959|1960 |
1961 | 1962 | 1963 | 1964 | 1965 |1966 | 1967 | 1968 | 1969 |
1970 | 1971 | 1972 | 1973 | 1974 | 1975 | 1976 | 1977-present

Roger Corman's The Little Shop of Horrors (1960)

A horror classic from the 60s that does not take it self too seriously.

Even the trailers market it as a comedy-horror film. Much of Roger Corman's B-movie is meant to be comical. The entire concept is more funny than scary - a strange venus flytrap-like plant emerges and suddenly becomes dependent on human blood, needing to eat people, or parts of people, to survive---and grow. Seymour (Jonathan Hayes) finds the plant one day and brings it into his place of employment - a flower shop, showing it to his boss, the cynical Mushnick (Mel Welles) and Audrey (Jackie Joseph).

They are all unimpressed until the plant starts to grow, and as a flower shop attraction - brings in business for the shop. How does a seemingly innocent venus flytrap become a horror? Well, first Seymour accidentally cuts himself and discovers the plant's needs...then, well, you get the picture. The plant eats more than blood throughout the movie. There is a certain scene involving a sadistic dentist who ends up as supper for the plant. A young Jack Nicholson plays one of the dentist's patients, in a funny scene.

The film was re imagined and staged as a musical and remade into a funny - yet still creepy - musical film in 1986 with Rick Moranis as Seymour and Steve Martin as the dentist.

There are some differences between the original film and the stage/movie musical. In the original, more people end up as plant food. And Seymour and Audrey both get eaten in the stage musical, but survive in the movie (in the director's cut, they die).