The Comic Critic Reviews "The Good, the Bad and the Ugly."

I was still in elementary school when my family moved outside our school district while our new house was being built. My parents didn’t want us to change schools, so they didn’t inform the district. Instead, we carpooled with our father as he dropped us off at our different schools. He had a lot of kids, and the schools opened at different times. A few of us would wait with him at the Pinecone Café, a little dive along Highway 99. My dad would give us each a quarter, and we became good at playing the lone pinball machine, Evil Knievel. We had only one quarter and needed to make it last. There was also a jukebox that remained silent because most of the men there were just like my father, just easing into morning with a simple cup of coffee, a bear claw, and a newspaper. But I was curious and had plenty of time, so I read through the music selections. I recognized many of them. One choice made my eyes go wide. I found something my young little mind never conceived would ever be on a jukebox. Not even the magic thrill of Evil Knievel pinball was a match for my desire to listen to this selection. To this day, I still wonder what some of the men in the café thought when the theme for The Good, the Bad and the Ugly greeted them in the morning. In the mornings that followed, I wondered if they placed private little bets with themselves, which it would be, the pinball? Or the theme? I know that for me, it was a dilemma I faced every day.

 Sergio Leone is credited with creating the subgenre of Spaghetti Western. But what he did, other filmmakers have done; that is, you take an existing genre and spin it on its head with out-of-the-box thinking. In this case, by showing that a Western doesn’t have to be filmed in the American West, and that your heroes and bad guys follow the expected tropes established in the genre. The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly is the third in a series of Sergio Leone films. The previous were A Fistful of Dollars and For a Few Dollars More. It’s argued that each stands alone, and they are not formal sequels. But many would agree that that The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly has come to represent the ultimate in Spaghetti Westerns. When I saw it the first time as a kid, I didn’t care about all that. I was riveted by these highly interesting characters doing their best to out-best each other through wits and action while seeking a treasure in gold. Alliances shifted, revenges sought, and you couldn’t see what was coming next. It was thrilling to watch. And the music! Ennio Mirricone scored all three of Sergio Leone’s movies and has gone on to score hundreds more. The sound of his work is as familiar to my ears as Mozart or Beethoven. And it took root in my head during The Good, the Bad and the Ugly. When I started to buy music for myself, a CD of The Good, the Bad and the Ugly soundtrack was one of my first purchases.

The Return of Stickman - Easter 2016

I came up with this comic last week and I thought it would be perfect to send out on Easter. If you find a related news article, I would be very surprised.

The Return of Stickman #1594

You should have no problem finding the news item that inspired this strip.

The Comic Critic Reviews "Spellbound"

I’ve always loved watching Spellbound. The chemistry between Ingrid Bergman and Gregory Peck has us rooting for both of them as they fall in love. The fatherly figure who looks like a clone of Albert Einstein provides the perfect oiling of comic relief to keep the gears’ entertainment turning smoothly. The dream sequence has Salvador Dali’s fingerprints all over it. Spellbound was very well received. Of its six Oscar nominations, it won for Best Music. This might be in part because Spellbound was the first movie to make use of the Theremin. The haunting quality of the instrument was the perfect overtone for a suspense thriller involving psychoanalysis. Spellbound was beat out for Best Picture by Going My Way which won seven of the ten Oscars for which it was nominated. I mention that because so many things get lost if you don’t mention them, like twenty minutes. That’s how long the footage for the dream sequence was before David Selznick edited it down to two. We’ll never know what that amazing footage, collaboration between Hitchcock and Dali, might have looked like; it’s lost to the cutting room. But the two minutes that are in Spellbound held riveting imagery that I’ve never forgotten.

The Comic Critic Reviews "Run Silent, Run Deep

I’ve seen Run Silent, Run Deep multiple times. It’s one of those rare movies that has legs. Yes, the special effects might seem a little corny with large models and obvious wires. But back in the day, its special effects were cutting-edge and riveted audiences. And today, even though you see the wires, your eyes are glued to the screen as you watch events unfold. The world of the 21st Century forgets how young those crews were who manned those ships during WWII, so we don’t consider Clark Gable and Burt Lancaster as a little old to be playing their roles. But WWII officers in their late twenties were considered old men, and when this film came out in the Fifties, people still remembered that and it was mentioned in the reviews. Still, audiences forgive older actors, wires and other minor inaccuracies when the story is vivid enough to capture our imaginations. Run Silent, Run Deep captures the audience. I think that elusive quality is why so many of the elements of this film found their way into other celluloid naval yarns. Run Silent, Run Deep is also the film debut of Don Rickles. I’d list it as one of my top-ten favorite submarine movies.