David Carradine, whose "Kung Fu" series and "Kill Bill" movies made him a cult figure, has been found dead in his Bangkok hotel room. He reportedly killed himself by hanging.
He had recently starred in Yellowbook TV commercials and was in Thailand filming a movie, "Stretch." He was 72.
Frank Warner
In a year when the motion picture industry is ignoring the recession, MGM has announced it’s fighting to avoid bankruptcy. It’s at least $4 billion in debt.
You have to wonder if Sony and Comcast’s part ownership of MGM took the company’s eye off of making good movies. Does it even make films anymore, or is MGM only in the casino business?
Frank Warner
Turner Classic Movies showed “The Fighting Seabees” (1944) today as part of its Memorial Day tribute to those who fought and died in the cause of life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.
What surprised me was John Wayne (as Wedge Donovan) doing a jitterbug with an unnamed blonde in one of the early scenes. He even executes some flashy “aerials,” tossing the girl over his hips, between his legs, upside down, and then over his head. He doesn’t pretend to be an expert (“What do I do now?”) but that has to be one of the best swing-dance film sequences ever done with a top movie star. And who was the girl? No one seems to know.
Dancer Adele Mara taught Wayne the steps for “The Fighting Seabees.” A year earlier, Wayne apparently did another jitterbug scene with Jean Arthur in “A Lady Takes a Chance.” I haven’t seen that one.
He sang “The Wild Colonial Boy” in “The Quiet Man,” but who knew the Duke could dance?
Frank Warner
By now, everyone has seen the new “Star Trek” movie, with Chris Pine and Zachary Quinto playing James T. Kirk and Spock. It’s fun, and it’s a box-office blockbuster.
It’s the best “Star Trek” movie to date, and I mean that as high praise. But inevitably, the big question is, is this latest “Star Trek” movie better than 1977’s original “Star Wars” movie?
You choose. Which is better?
Frank Warner
In what has to be the most disgraceful statement ever by a major film star, Jackie Chan has told the Chinese dictatorship that the Chinese people are incapable of handling freedom.
We haven’t heard much about this yet on this side of the world, but last weekend (April 18), Chan started a whirlwind when he told Communist government officials at a Chinese economic forum in Hainan:
“I’m gradually beginning to feel that we Chinese need to be controlled. If we are not being controlled, we’ll just do what we want.”
Chan went farther, describing conditions in democratic Taiwan and relatively free Hong Kong as “chaotic.”
Public furor. These are the kind of statements that mindless Americans and Europeans who fancy themselves intellectuals toss around casually at Hollywood galas and Hague conferences, but the thinking classes of China are not amused.
Already, Albert Ho, a Hong Kong legislator is referring to the most popular movie star on Earth as “racist” for implying the Chinese are comfortable only in chains.
“People around the world are running their own countries,” Ho said. “Why can’t Chinese do the same?”
The Hong Kong Tourism Board, for which Chan has been unpaid ambassador since 1995, is hearing scores of complaints.
Mainland anger. Even on the totalitarian Chinese Mainland, where the freedom-repression debate has been simmering for at least the 20 years since pro-democracy demonstrators were murdered by the hundreds near Tiananmen Square, Chan’s sentiments are catching public scorn.
“I guess Jackie Chan has never experienced the lack of freedom, and has not been cruelly controlled,” commentator Li Hongbing wrote on The People’s Daily, a Communist Party -- yes, Communist Party -- online publication.
Hu Xingdou, Beijing Institute of Technology economics professor, added:
“It’s easy to sacrifice freedom when you’re treated like a V.I.P. or some high-level official every time you come to China. I’m sure Jackie Chan has never thought about the suffering of the little people who have no power.”
Boot licker. Some suspect that Chan was sucking up to the Communist dictatorship because his recent film, “Shinjuku Incident,” was banned in China as too violent. He appears willing to kiss any number of bloody jackboots if the slavemasters of China open his box office to 1.4 billion slaves.
What a sickening sell-out.
Frank Warner
Chris Tookey of The (London) Daily Mail is overwhelmed by the new “Star Trek” movie, which officially opens May 7. The film is directed by J.J. Abrams.
The result is not only by far the best of the 11 Star Trek movies, it must rank as the outstanding prequel of all time. …
We see space battles, planets sucked into black holes, chases, space aliens. Stupendous special effects and a magnificent score by Michael Giacchino make it a treat for the eyes and ears.
The picture moves at a terrific pace, and is a satisfying tale of good versus evil, with Eric Bana a highly hissable villain. He’s the Romulan Nero. …
The script feels remarkably fresh, no small achievement in itself, and takes an ingenious turn with the introduction of a time travel theme, and a highly effective reappearance of 78-year-old Leonard Nimoy, who was of course the original Spock and brings considerable dignity and grace to his scenes, which are far more than cameos.
This is space opera on a mythic scale, and it’s stirring stuff.
Promising picture. I haven’t seen a science fiction movie review this enthusiastic since the first “Star Wars,” but the idea of seeing James T. Kirk and Mr. Spock in their 20s is intriguing. This could be great.
Frank Warner
U.S. soldiers who once guarded prisoner Saddam Hussein in Iraq have given Trey Parker and Matt Stone, creators of “South Park,” a signed photograph of the dead fascist dictator.
The GIs gave the picture to Parker and Stone because, during Saddam’s three years in prison, he was ordered to watch the movie, “South Park: Bigger, Longer and Uncut,” again and again and again.
The film depicts Saddam as a gay boyfriend of Satan.
Frank Warner
The other night I caught a look at “Three Daring Daughters,” a 1948 movie with Jeanette MacDonald and Jose Iturbe. I was shocked to hear “(Get Your Kicks on) Route 66” in it.
How old is that song?
I thought the song was from the 1950s, when the word “kicks” was popular among the beatniks and cool cats. It turns out “Route 66” was written in 1946 by Bobby Troup. Nat King Cole recorded it that same year.
Name those towns. The words “Get your kicks on Route 66” were easy to think up, Troup once said. But it was hard to expand the idea into a full song, so he filled up the lyrics with names of towns along the Mother Road.
If you ever plan to motor west,
Travel my way, take the highway that is best.
Get your kicks on Route Sixty-six.It winds from Chicago to L.A.,
More than two thousand miles all the way.
Get your kicks on Route Sixty-six.Now you go through Saint Looey
Joplin, Missouri,
And Oklahoma city is mighty pretty.
You see Amarillo,
Gallup, New Mexico,
Flagstaff, Arizona.
Dont forget Winona,
Kingman, Barstow, San Bernandino.Wont you get hip to this timely tip:
When you make that California trip
Get your kicks on Route Sixty-six.
Name drill. In “Three Daring Daughters,” orchestra conductor Iturbe plays piano while Jane Powell sings “Route 66.” Iturbe is playing himself here, in a love affair with the divorced mother of three played by MacDonald.
Another unusual thing about the movie is that Iturbe’s name is spoken a zillion times in it. “Jose Iturbe, Jose Iturbe, Jose Iturbe.” The same thing happens in the musical “Anchors Aweigh.” What kind of contract did this man have?
While you’re thinking of Route 66, check out these photos.
Frank Warner
Just when we needed more nuclear power most, 30 years ago today, the United States was traumatized by a partial meltdown of the Unit 2 reactor on Three Mile Island, Pennsylvania.
The nation had been reeling for six years from the Arab oil embargo that doubled gasoline prices overnight. As we considered expanding nuclear power as one path to energy independence, Hollywood released “The China Syndrome,” a movie in which an atomic plant accident threatened to contaminate “an area the size of Pennsylvania.”
The motion picture, with Jane Fonda, Jack Lemmon and Michael Douglas, was out less than two weeks before the TMI disaster, and though the incident killed no one directly and maybe one or two indirectly, fact and fiction conspired to raise fears that nuclear plants might not be safe enough for civilized society.
Then Chernobyl. That was the end of licensing new nuclear power plants in the U.S. If there was any doubt about it, the Soviet’s 1986 Chenobyl nuclear accident, which killed 56 firefighters and probably gave cancer to another 4,000 people exposed to radioactivity, would shut the door on atomic power. The Chernobyl plant was different from Western generators, but that didn’t matter.
So today, the United States finds itself in a deep economic recession that started with too many Americans trying to buy homes they could not afford and ended with oil and gasoline prices rising so high that all the debt came crashing down. Those gasoline prices might have been much more stable had we long ago provided enough cheap and CO2-free energy for large numbers of hybrid cars.
On March 28, 1979, the United States should have been planning a second 100 nuclear power plants for 1999 and 2009. Instead, we stalled at about 104 nuclear reactors providing 20 percent of our electricity.
The French model. Meanwhile, France went ahead with building nuclear plants that now provide 78 percent of its electricity. Belgium is 55 percent nuclear; Sweden, 52 percent; and Switzerland, 40 percent.
With nuclear power, France, Belgium, Sweden and Switzerland are all much better prepared for energy disruptions caused by gougers and despots. Thanks to TMI and its related irrationality, we’re not.
Frank Warner
For an Irish moment, watch "The Quiet Man."
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