Let's round up some of our favorite movies and/or overall cinematic experiences from 2020, and do a Year In Review. Today I was thinking of Lupe Velez. Do you remember her? We binged-watched her "Mexican Spitfire" series way back in January. Given all that's happened since then, it seems like five years ago rather than one, but Lupe was quite a discovery, a great comedienne with a volatile yet hilarious onscreen persona. I remarked at the time that she seemed to be a forerunner of Lucille Ball, and once I watched her in the original "Mexican Spitfire", I needed to see more, and ended up ordering all the sequels from the Libe.
This was in the first week of January if I remember correctly, and Lupe Velez helped get me through a very difficult time, because Pearl was in the hospital then and we weren't sure she was going to make it. But she did and was back home a week later, and I will always remember the Mexican Spitfire films because they lifted me up during that time, and Lupe Velez, in hindsight, represented Pearl's fighting spirit. Nobody can tell me that actors are just "entertainers". I get mad when I hear that, because movies are human stories and the actors are portraying all of us. And even if they are "just entertainers", what could be more noble than to bring some laughs or some dramatic diversion to people, to take them away from their troubles?
We lost Neil Peart the same week. It was a rough start to the year. Then Kobe Bryant was killed two weeks later, and two months after that the pandemic hit and the year melted down completely. In retrospect, Pearl was fortunate to get sick when she did, because as bad as her illness was, she might not have made it out of the hospital had she needed treatment just a few weeks later, when covid hit full force in March. In January, it was still just a news item of infected people on an ocean liner.
So we were very fortunate.
Sometime around April I was forced to switch over to Youtube as my main source for movies, due to the closure of the library. Once upon a time I swore I'd never watch a movie on a computer, but I had to adapt, and as things turned out it wasn't too bad for watching old public domain pictures, so we ended up watching a ton of them. We went on extended runs of sci-fi and horror cheapies, clicking on anything we could find, and in the process we discovered Roger Corman, the director I'd once thought of as The Worst Filmmaker of All Time.
Boy was I wrong, and as we screened Corman Classics like "A Bucket of Blood", "It Conquered The World" and "The Undead" it turned out that Ol' Rog was in fact an excellent filmmaker, with an original style, who began his career with witty, low budget horror and sci-fi flicks, and graduated in the early 1960s to full-scale productions filmed in Technicolor, such as "The Tomb of Ligeia" and "Premature Burial". Those two were part of his Edgar Allen Poe series, which he made with Vincent Price. I'd guess we saw about a dozen Roger Corman movies in 2020, and it's ironic that my opinion of "the world's worst director" did a complete 180 in the worst year of our lifetime.
So, our two major discoveries of the year were a megatalented Latina comedienne, unjustly forgotten now (but a big enough star in her time to have a hit franchise), and Roger Corman, whose singular vision as a director, writer and producer defy the cliches ascribed to him. I fell prey to them myself, as noted, until I actually watched his movies. Most of them rock, some are exceptional, especially the ones written by Charles B. Griffith. ////
We also watched a ton of other horror and science fiction flicks on Youtube, including the classic "I Was A Teenage Werewolf" starring Michael Landon, and it's sequel "I Was A Teenage Frankenstein", which we liked even better.
We went on a TV Movie binge for a few weeks, and re-watched "Night Terror" - the ultra suspenseful chase movie staring Valerie Harper and Richard Romanus, that first aired as a Movie of the Week in 1977. It scared me so bad when I was 17 that I'd been looking for it on Youtube for years. I finally found it in 2020 and it holds up just as well 43 years later. I also found another TV Movie I'd been seeking for ages, "The Neon Ceiling" starring Lee Grant and Gig Young. This one was broadcast way back in 1971. I saw it as an eleven year old, and never forgot it's emotionally charged central theme of adult dysfunction. The script is too complex to unpack tonight, but it's quite simply one of the top TV Movies ever made, and it left it's mark. Many folks besides me have remarked on it's staying power, and in watching it all these years later, it is Gig Young's performance that is indelible, as the owner of a diner in the Mojave desert who has run away from his past. ////
Well, the hour is late, and it is not possible to cover an entire "best of" in one night, but there's a few for ya.
Elizabeth, I see you have a new camera lens. You also posted a portrait from five years ago, of one of your models pictured against a snowy backdrop. That is a great shot, and a strong contrast of colors between the girl's red coat and black hair. So maybe you are getting ready to do some more fashion photography? That's my guess, but I'm super glad in any case, because I always love to know that you are "in action", in whatever artistic form. And it's been a while since you've had the chance to do a photo shoot, so I'm sure you are raring to go.
Post 'em when you've shot 'em, as always. :):)
That's all I know for tonight. See you in the morning. Tons of love.
xoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxo :):)
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