Film: The Lonely Lady (1983)
Rated: R
Written by:
Harold Robbins (novel)
Ellen Shepard (screenplay)
Directed by:
Peter Sasdy
Starring:
Pia Zadora as Jerilee Randal
Lloyd Bochner as Walter Thorton
Bibi Besch as Veronica Randal
Jared Martin as Goerge Ballantine
Ray Liotta as Joe Heron

By Rob R. (and Bo from Last Blog on the Left)

Rob’s Pre-screening Memories: The scrambler. It was the bane of existence for every young boy growing up in the 80s. For us, it was a torture device similar to the medival  iron maiden or the cat’s paw.

For those who did not grow up in that tome frame or did not poses hormones that raged like a ‘roided-up UFC fighter, the scrambler was used to twist and distort images on premium cable channels that to which you did not subscribe. But do not underestimate the power and perseverance of pre-teen boys first learning about sex.

Like the Pavlovian pooch that never learns that it’s “treat” is hooked up to an electric charge, we continued to revisit it, hoping that for whatever reason we would somehow be rewarded.

Now, if it was merely treated to a blank screen, we would have moved on, but no…. This scrambler offered not one, but two tiny teases that kept us coming back for more…

Sadly, this was only one of many times Pia was offered a hot dog in the film.

1) For perhaps 1/100th of a second, we would be treated to a glimpse of the channel. That meant, if we tune in at just the right time, we could perhaps get flashbulb-fast view of perhaps a nipple, if the late night soft-core offerings were being screened.

2) The sound was still crystal clear. This meant that every groan or sloppy kiss would violate our ears like a siren’s song.

This all leads me to The Lonely Lady. It was a film that in its TV Guide ratings, had a bold “N” at the end of the blurb, which any youth knew promised “nudity.” It starred the era’s it girl, Pia Zadora, a celeb not afraid to show skin in an era in which not every young starlet posed for pics on her iPhone and broadcasts it over the Internet.

One fateful weekend, I got wind that our area was to recieve a “free preview” weekend, in which The Movie Channel was to unleash its contents of late-night lewd, lascivious pictures– heretofore banned from viewing – into our neighborhood, into our homes. Pia Zadora was going to be in my very living room.

The premeditation of my dance with the premium channel devil was in motion. The TV Guide was hidden so my parents would be unaware of the gift the cable gods were about to bestow on our household. The fateful evening came and I feigned sleep at an earlier-than-usual hour, and they were none the wiser.

Once I heard them retire for the evening, I slowly crept downstairs, sensitive to every creak and whistle echoing through my home. Bathed in the warm glow of filth that I was sure to watch, I sat with the old-style cable box in front of me, finger nervously resting on a “family friendly” alternative (as if my parents would come downstairs and buy my excuse of wanting to watch a late-night “Faulty Towers” episode on PBS).

Accepting one of six Razzies the film won.

There was little plot I recall, or even cared about at the time. For one, I was too busy trying to discern if that sound was a floorbaord above or the wind outside; and I really did not care to see Pia give her acceptance speech at the Osca…I mean, and “awards show.” I just wanted her to slip into something more naked.

I do recall that the sex was not as titillating as I would later come to appreciate in films like Fanny Hill. In fact, I remember being a little more scared than excited. A particular scene with a garden hose gave me pause every time my weekend chores involved watering the lawn. Though there was a certain shower scene that seemed to help keep me from all the water-based activities altogether.

Ray Liotta, not a good fella.

It was certainly not the casual, bare-breasted shennanigans promised in films like My Tutor, Screwballs, or Joysticks — late-night staples that would pique the interest of young, corrupt minds. In fact, even though it displayed ample amounts of skin, it was, I recall, far too disturbing to leave me with loving mental imprints that could be stored away for later use.

In an empty theater, no one can hear you scream.

New memories: Yeah,there is little wonder I turned out the way I did. Filled with countless freak-outs (dig that mental breakdown, man!), corrupt sexual encounters and general depravity,The Lonely Lady can certainly be appreciated as a morally bankrupt camp classic (a la Showgirls), but that glimpse of female nudity comes with a heavy price. Thankfully, one of its stars, Jared Martin, who played the lusty George Ballentine was along for the viewing this go-round to remind me it was only a movie. Now, if only I could have learned this decades ago, my folks would have a much cheaper therapy tab.

Download Natuskashi’s ‘The Lonely Lady’ podcast here

Or, wallow in our dirty, dirty on-site player below:

Our Featured Guest: Jared Martin

Jared returns to Natsukashi to discuss a film for which he has much to say. The Lonely Lady was nominated for 11 Razzies, of which it won six. 

 on viewers on television, starring in series such as Fantastic Journey, as “Lusty” Dusty Farlow in Dallas, and, Martin’s personal favorite, as the lead in the popular syndicated sci-fi series War of the Worlds as Dr. Harrison Blackwood.

Martin is the co-founder and creative director of the Big Picture Alliance in Philadelphia, a non-profit youth development media program which fosters an appreciation of film in underserved communities.

As a writer and photographer, his poetry has been anthologized and his photographs exhibited in both group and single shows. He has written the novel Sand Wasp, two photo-narratives “Dazhengzhou, a 1000 Year Old Chinese Village” and “Letter From Zibo” and is completing a third ‘Caprivi”. While acting he began recording events with a camera. He has been exhibited in group shows, and his image “Temple Workers” was awarded the National Association of Photoshop Professionals best Landscape Photograph of 2008. NAPP also selected ‘Man Admiring his House’, and “Approaching Storm” as featured Images of the Week.

A Renaissance man in the truest sense, we consider Jared an invaluable contributor to our little podcast, and we thank him for sharing all of his stories and insight from his massive resume of films and television. Below are some pictures of his photography, and you can click through them to get to his site.

Film: The Legend of Billie Jean (1985)
Rated: PG-13
Directed by:
Matthew Robbins
Written by:    
Mark Rosenthal and Lawrence Konner
Starring:     
Helen Slater as Billie Jean
Christian Slater as Binx
Keith Gordon as Lloyd
Richard Bradford as Pyatt

 By Shelley Stillo

Pre-screening memories: I stayed home from school a lot when I was young. I don’t know if my parents were lazy (throw a big enough fit….), ’80s permissive, or if they were just sympathetic. I suspect it was sympathetic.

You see, from a pretty early age, I was the teased kid. I started watching horror and sci fi in grade school. By third or fourth grade I was identifying as a Dr. Who fan, conventions and all. By fourth grade, I had a best friend geeky enough to play “Lost Boys” with me on weekends (we would write our own elaborate, soap opera-esque plots for the “Lost Boys” characters and act them out. She was Michael’s (Jason Patric) girlfriend, I was David’s (Keifer Sutherland), though I think we both secretly lusted over the more age-appropriate Coreys).

I wouldn’t trade geekdom for the world. But it made for a rough childhood. 90% of the time, when I whined to stay home from school, it was because I was afraid of bullies, and my parents knew it. They had a heart; I had a lot of sick days.

That’s why you’ll hear me say, “I think I was home sick in bed…” so often on this podcast when I’m asked how I first encountered a movie. “Home from school” was where I was when I first encountered The Legend of Billie Jean. Before watching it again, I had very vague memories of this film. I remembered an image, and the themes, and that is it. The image I remembered was of the colossal Billie Jean statue burning near the end of the film.

As for the themes, I remembered that the movie was about outlaw teenagers in some kind of epic struggle. Despite the famous use of Pat Benetar’s “Invincible,” throughout the film, it took me years to figure out where these flashes of memory had come from (of course, once I did, I couldn’t hear the song without aching to see the film again). Now that I have seen the film again, I am not surprised that my bullied young self had such an affinity for it. Billie Jean might have been the town heart throb, but her family and her friends were outcasts, and I wasn’t at all shocked to find that the whole film is triggered in by an act of bullying.

New Memories: The plot has an element of absurdity to it that gave it an “only in the 80s quality” for me that I loved. But that absurdity is pleasantly mixed with a sense of earnestness—even when what is happening on screen is pushing silly, everything feels real and feels palpable.

The experiences Billie Jean and her friends, especially her little brother Binx (Christian Slater) and her overzealous young neighbor Putter (a pre-Lisa Simpson Yeardley Smith) are often dead serious even when the scenarios are not: Billie has to fight off an attempted rape, Binx is fascinated yet frightened by the possibilities of violence, and the needy Putter is the victim of abuse.

However, these instances are not the “issues” that drive the films, they’re simply the realities these characters contend with day in and day out. And as such, they ground the action without stifling it with “meaning.” There are also elements of Neverland (of the Peter Pan, not the Michael Jackson, variety) in the film that I’m sure appealed to me as a child, and appeal even more to me now, such as the character’s temporary home in an abandoned mini-golf course, or the introduction of the character Lloyd (Keith Gordon), whose home resembles a Universal horror film prop closet. These settings lend an air of Goonies-esque fantasy to this much grittier Texas based film.

But seeing it again has convinced me that it is the “golden rule” theme of how you treat others that appealed to me most when I caught this film during one of my numerous experiences with playing hookie. Now that I have seen the film, I can understand why I identified with its ethic of “fair is fair” treatment, and why such a mantra would have been so resonant that I have felt this film for so many years, more than I have remembered it.

Download Natsukashi’s: ‘The Legend of Billie Jean’ podcast .

or, you listen right here, because fair is fair:

Our featured guest: Richard Walden

We here at Natsukashi love us our Richard Walden. How can you not?  The man is warm, gracious and always happy to help us walk through the films from his resume. Richard returns to join us after his Continent Divide podcast earlier this summer, and here dishes on working with the young cast of then-up-and-coming actors, the parallels between Billie Jean and another strong female protagonist who controversially cut her hair, Felicity (on which Richard also worked).

His most recetly worked on Percy Jackson and the Olympians: The Lightning Thief, from Harry Potterdirector Chris Columbus and starring Uma Thurman, Pierce Brosnan and Rosario Dawson. He’s also recently worked on Ramona and Beezus, a film adaptation from the popular Beverly Cleary “Ramona” book series.

Film: The Good Earth (1937)
Not Rated
Directed by:
Sidney Franklin
Written by:
Talbot Jennings, Tess Slesinger
(based on the novel by Pearl S. Buck)
Starring:
Paul Muni as Wang Lung
Luise Rainer as O-Lan
Walter Connelly as Uncle
Tilly Losch as Lotus

By Marilyn Ferdinand of Ferdy on Films

Pre-screening memories: Marilyn makes her return to Natsukashi after she recalled a particular scene in this Oscar-winning film with great clarity. Unfortunately, that scene never actually appeared in the film at all.

Since this film spins the tale of a Chinese family who falls upon hard times — and yet every lead character is of European descent — we thought we would take this opportunity to discuss race issues of early American cinema.

So we invited a favorite guest of the site, Mr. Rodney Kageyama (who previously joined us for his thoughts of co-starring in the 1986 film Gung Ho), to join us. Not only is Mr. Kageyama the founder of one of California’s first Asian-American theaters, he has joined many panel discussions on this issue and, in particular, this very film.

What followed was a friendly, insightful, funny, and revealing chat about Asian roles in early cinema, and look at what, if any, progress has been made in the half-century since.

New memories: For the rest of the conversation, you will just have to listen to the podcast. But we also wanted to thank both Marilyn and Rodney for returning to our little broadcast, and we cannot wait to have them back for more.

Dowload Natsukashi’s The Good Earth episode right here,

Or use our handly little in-house player thingy:

Our featured guest: Rodney Kageyama

You can check out Mr. Kageyama’s bio at our previous posting of Gung Ho right here. What we had failed to mention, though, is perhaps one of his most important roles, the one of a survivor of Non-Hodgkin lymphoma in 2008.

As a docent for the Japanese American National Museum, he has a vast knowledge of history from an Asian-American perspective, and we loved the opportunity to speak with him again.

Film: Mischief
Rated: R
Directed by: Mel Damski
Written by: Noel Black
Starring: Doug McKeon as Jonathan
                   Kelly Prestonas Mailyn
                   Catherine Mary Stewart as Bunny

By Rob R.

Pre-screening memories: Every kid has a list of films they can recall that were placed near the top of their parents blacklist.

Mischief was one that was vaulted to the top upon its release.

Perhaps it was the timing. The early 1980s had saturated the screen with temptations of “t and a” and the promise of illicit thrills for the hormone-drenched males.

Or, perhaps it was this trailer…

“There’s no time like the first time,” was the end tag. Seven words the sealed the deal for my parent’s watchful eyes.

The film could have walked off with more Oscars than Titanic, but there was no way in hell their son was going to see it. They would happily accompany me to another screening of Rambo, where flesh was on display the way it was meant to be seen: sweaty, bloody and being shredded apart by shrapnel.

Throughout the years, I was able to catch pieces of the film, but never in its entirety, only through late-night,interrupted airings and watered-down made-for-TV edits.

When I was old enough to see it, it had faded from memory and was no longer help the illicit thrill that it had been for the underage version of myself.

Post-screening memories:I cannot express how wildly off the mark not only my parents were, but the entire marketing department at 20th Century Fox. For it was not the Porky’s-esque romp in raunch that it was purported to be, but possessed a tenderness uncommon for films of the era. Even today, its Wikipedia entry unfairly classifies this as a “teen comedy,” noted for a “full frontal” by one of its female stars.

Sure, as a youngster, this may have been the only mental notes I would have taken during a screening, but its grossly underselling a film that could soundly stand toe-to-toe with similar comedies at the box office today.

This crass bio unjustly lumped a film that overflows with heart, humanity, and male bonding seldom seen since.

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A note about the Natsukashi‘Mischief’ podcast:We had such a great time chatting with the fim’s leads, we had to break it into two podcasts. BothDoug and Cathy were more than gracious with their time, so we had to break  it up and make it a two-parter. We think their tales will make it well worth the listen.

Download the Natsukashi ‘Mischief podcast with Doug McKeon’ right here,

or listen in our player below

Download the Natsukashi’Mischief with Catherine Mary Stewart’ podcast here

or listen to part two in our player below

Our featured guests: Doug McKeon and Catherine Mary Stewart

Doug McKeon: Breaking into show business at an early age, McKeon had worked with the a number of industry legends before he was even old enough to graduate high school.

After starring in the soap The Edge of Night, Doug graduated to television films, in which he co-starred with Burt Young, Susan Dey and John Ritter. And for his first two cinematic projects (Night Crossing and On Golden Pond), he shared the screen with John Hurt, Jane Alexander, Jane Fonda, Kathryn Hepburn and Henry Fonda.

Mischiefwas his next big-screen role, but McKeoncontinued to share his demonstrate his talents on the small screen as well, starring as Ray “Boom Boom” Mancini and co-starring with Jason Robards and Eva Marie Saint in Breaking Home Ties.

Doug has since ventured behind the camera, writing and directing the well-received The Boys of Sunset Ridge and directing the family drama Come Away Home.

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Catherine Mary Stewart: If there was a cult-classic poster girl for the 80s, if Stewart did not have the crown, she was certainly in the running, starring in such beloved films as The Apple, The Last Starfighter, Night of the Comet, Dudes and Weekend at Bernies.

On television, she starred alongside Anthony Hopkins, Roddy McDowall, Candice Bergen, Angie Dickinson and Rod Steiger in the popular Jackie Collins mini-series Hollywood Wives.

Stewart continued to star in film and television in the years following, starring alongside some of the greats, but her primary focus was on raising her children. She has recently starred in the controversial The Girl Next Door and 2009’s Love N Dancing with Amy Smart and Billy Zane.

Thanks to both Doug and Catherine for lending us their time to chat about their film.

Film: Vision Quest
Rated: R
Directed by: Harold Becker
Written by: Terry Davis (novel), Daryll Ponicsan (screenplay)
Tagline: All he needed was a lucky break. Then one day she moved in.
Starring: Matthew Modineas Louden Swain
                   Linda Fiorentino as Carla
                   Michael Schoeffling as Kutch
                   Ronny Cox as Louden’s Dad

By Rob R.

Pre-screening memories: My genetic makeup ensured that wrestling was never to be a sport in which I would excel, much less even consider. Cursed with legs even chickens found sad and shoulders that extended out just past my ears, my physique was not one that would easily intimidate opponents above the age of 7.

That did not stop me from appreciating the sport in all its incarnations. From superstars such as Jerry “The King” Lawler, “Rowdy” Roddy Piper and “Superfly” Jimmy Snuka to the local meets at the area high school.

I participated in team sports — a stint in baseball here, a little lacrosse there –  but there was always something about the individual drive and focus from the sport that interested me (I would later find an outlet to put this interest into practice in the form of long-distance running).

Louden Swain was the jock I wanted to be. There was an earnestness, a sense of wonder, a sweetness to him absent from the jock stereotypes that populated many of the teen-oriented films of decade.  There was a sandpaper-like edge of realism to the film under that glossy marketing of it being “Madonna’s first on-screen role,” (though a certain soft-core porno later released would prove this to be false).

The film prompted me to purchase the book on which it was based, only to find the pages held an altered version of what I witnessed on the screen. The book’s open-ended conclusion I actually found much more engaging, as it prompted me to fill in the blanks of Louden’s destiny.

New memories: Red Rider, why you never made it big in the US, and yet Stryper went platinum will remain a mystery to me. Their haunting “Lunatic Fringe” (see video below) served as Louden’s reoccurring theme song with its ghostly synthesizer, punctuated with driving, staccato power chords. It was also great to see Madonna in her slutty-looking early days, with more curves and arms that did not look as though they were forged by a blacksmith.

Music aside, I realized that my memories of the book superseded that of the film, and as good as the film still is, I liked the fact that Louden’s fate was one that I decided.

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Download the podcast here: ‘Vision Quest’ with its author Terry Davis

Or stay on the mat here and listen to it below:

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Our featured guest: Author Terry Davis

Terry Davis hit the ground running as an author and has since seldom slowed down, as a wrestling coach, college professor, columnist, biographer and motorcycle specialist.

Though retired from teaching, he is currently penning screenplays and contributes columns to his local paper.

His novel Vision Quest won immediate accolades, including author John Irving, who deemed it “The truest novel about growing up since ‘Catcher in the Rye.” Davis had much to say about the transition of his work from page to screen, as well as his time spent on the set of the film.

A big Natsukashi “thank you” to Mr. Davis for joining us and for creating a character that resonated with us for so many years.

Eddie and the Cruisers (1983)

Directed by: Martin Davidson
Written by: Martin and Arlene Davidson
Based on the novel by P.F. Kluge
Starring: Michael Pare as Eddie Wilson
               Tom Berenger as Frank Ridgeway
               Ellen Barkin as Maggie Foley
               Joe Pantoliano as Doc Robbins

Tagline: Rebel. Rocker. Lover. Idol. Vanished

By Rob Rector

If you were a teen during the first few years of MTV (which we now forget, but the ‘M’ once stood for Music, not M-barassingly shallow youth). The release of a new video was treated like a movie premier. You would gather around a friend’s house to watch that spaceship launch as it debuted a new favorite-to-be.

You would make sure the VCR was recording the right channel so after that three-minute movie, you could immediately rewind it and watch it over and over again to perfect your air instruments.

And if you were even the most casual viewier, the name Bruce Springsteen was certainly no stranger. There are not enough gigs on my hard drive to summarize my slavish devotion to all things Bruce – from spending summers as an early teen dancing on a roof of an outdoor bar as the raucous strains of “Rosalita” played in the salty beach breeze; being old enough to attend concerts in which I could worship my idol up close; the excitement of meeting a guy who wired Bruce’s home security system (Bruce and wife Patty Scialfa have their help all over their home every year for a barbecue where he cooks for them! How cool is that?); choosing “If I Should Fall Behind… (Wait for Me)” as my wedding song and inviting Bruce to attend (astonishingly, he declined).

During all this time, there were droughts where we would get no tunes from The Boss, so we would settle for anything even remotely similar.

Enter John Cafferty and the Beaver Brown Band, aka the voice of Eddie and the Cruisers for the film of the same name. It wasn’t Bruce, but it was about the eighth- or ninth-best thing to listening to actual Bruce tunes.

In 1983, the little film came and went to the theater (I don’t even recall it appearing on local screens), but it was one of those lightening-in-a-bottle instances in which it received a breath of new life courtesy of one Home Box Office, which I think ran it on a loop with Beastmaster for months on end.

Music aside, there is very little of the film I recall. I remember it starring the dude from another favorite “Streets of Fire,” cementing Michael Pare’s place as the coolest living actor of the time for me. I think Diane Lane was in this or the sequel, but that could be “Streets of Fire” devotion bleeding over in my brain and the fact that I wanted Diane Lane to star in every film of my youth.

What I do recall is the video phenomenon that accompanied the film. There were two videos released: one featuring Pare lip-synching the entire song, as in the movie, the other starring the song’s real vocalist Cafferty and his bandmates aping “Springsteen style,” right down to the muscle shirts, bandanas and even the larger saxophonist who bared more than a slight resemblance to one Clarence “The Big Man” Clemons. I remember how disappointed I was when the latter version was screened, for I wanted to live in the dream. At least Pare vaguely resembled the rough-and-tumble look of a hungry-hearted rocker, not the scrawny incarnation that sang through his bangs into the mic, ala Cafferty.

Even though it was all some Milquetoast copy of Bruce, for a young kid, it would do. The accompanying cassette tape of the soundtrack would ultimately meet its demise in my boom box after succumbing to exhaustion (as did its followup “Tough All Over”. I did not want the videos, nor the liner notes to remind me of the actual ridiculously named band. I just wanted to close my eyes and pretend that it was the same artist that made me climb onto the rooftops and dance in the dark on those hot summer nights.

How dark was this trip ‘on the dark side? Will it ruin Rob’s memories of his ‘tender years?’

As always, you can download it here, or just listen online:

By Rob Rector

I know this is breaking format a bit, but I think this merits a post. Two people viewing the same film: one has a 10-year history with its characters, one going into the theater cold. I coerced my editor Jen Ellingsworth to chat with me after we screened the new “Sex and the City” film, for she was a die-hard fan and I thought Vera Wang was a social disease. So, here is our discussion, following a brief preamble:

Anticipating the anguished emails of readers who may take umbrage to any critiquing whatsoever of their beloved characters from “Sex and the City,” I opted for a different (read: cowardly) approach to this review which enlists the talents of my editor, one Jen Ellingsworth – perhaps the target audience for this show.

My theory is that if the producers wanted to make a film that catered specifically to the audience, it would have been released in the comfortable confines of its HBO home. Since it was debuting at the multiplex, however, it should be fair game for a standard critique on how it stands up as a film. (For example, if Pixar films are for children, shouldn’t they be open to adult reviewers?)

Since I was a virgin to “Sex” – I have never watched an episode, nor was I overcome with any desire in which to do so – I felt the thoughts and comments of one who had spent many an hour with our fab foursome would be of relative importance.

So below is the podcast of our post-screening conversation over a few rounds of martinis and Budweiser.

As always, you can dowload the episode right here.