Having missed the Egyptian's 70mm presentation of both 2001 and Vertigo last week, I'm going to make the trek out to the Aero on the 23rd to catch Vertigo. My last vacation to San Francisco was heavily influenced by the film; we checked out a few of the landmarks that pop up throughout the winding plot. Anyhow, back to 70mm: A few years back I took my son to a Sleeping Beauty 70mm screening and was blown away. During the 80's I caught quite a few of the major blockbusters (E.T., Raiders, Return of the Jedi etc.) but I most remember the Cinema 21 showing of Lawrence of Arabia back in '89. I remember it was '89 because they played "So Alive" by Love and Rockets during the intermission and I hate that song. Even at 14 I could appreciate what the 70mm projection did for Lawrence of Arabia and I'm sure you'll agree if you too choose to run out to Santa Monica next weekend and catch the sceening of either Lawrence or the Hitchcock classic. While you're at it, tomorrow night they're showing an amazing Noir double as part of their Jules Dassin tribute-- Thieves' Highway and Night and the City!

OK, I'm late with this one. I've already attended three double features and I have tickets to two more. You've still got a week's worth of programming left, so get on it! Ann Rutherford gave an amazing interview last week, absolutely sharp as a tack and a total charmer. The Fritz Lang double on Sunday was amazing-- Ida Lupino was smoking hot in the first feature While The City Sleeps. Opening night was amazing... 3 hours of Jane Greer. This week I'll be at the Deadline USA/ Chicago Deadline & Walk Softly Stranger/ Chicago Syndicate doubles. My hopes are high as Abbe Lane is in Chicago Syndicate. 1955 may have been a September year for film noir, but it was a peak year for Abbe. Check out the rest of the festival lineup at the Egyptian Theater site.

So, on a walk back from the Egyptian a couple of weeks ago I had had the displeasure of running the gauntlet....Hollywood Blvd. on a Saturday Nite: females in late 80'sish formalish wear, hoar-moanally pumped young men who mad-dog everything in sight-- probably even the trees, cracks in the sidewalk and their own reflection in the windows. Hell, there were even a couple of Guardian Angles, two of the most out of shape guys imaginable. In fact, that gave it kind of retro twist, as I haven't seen GA's since 1990 or so.

Anyhow, we passed the old Frederick's of Hollywood building-- it's now another "classy" "party" palace.  The facade is still intact, one of the nicest on the Blvd, but the interior is now just another one of those places plushed up to make the bridge and tunnelers think they might rub elbows, or whatever, with Sienna Miller. 

I prefer Hollywood Blvd. in the day time, as it's had the same vibe for many decades.  

"Hollywood Blvd. my foot. A lot of bit players out of work and fish faced blondes trying to shake a hangover out of their teeth."
--Raymond Chandler, Bay City Blues

OK, so I rest my case. The Blvd. by day still delivers... a huge let down for tourists, a real dream ender.

A couple of days later I stumbled upon this LP with the tag intact. I thought it really embodied the yesterdays of classic Frederick's. Tacky yes, but no dream ender...

Film fans in Los Angeles take note, the Egyptian is screening some very rare and completely amazing Giallo this month.

For those of you unfamiliar with the genre a quick search on Wikipedia comes up with this:

Giallo (pronounced IPA: ['ʤallo]) is an Italian 20th century genre of literature and film. It is closely related to the French fantastique genre, crime fiction, horror fiction and eroticism. The term is also used to mean an example of the genre, in which case it can take the Italian plural gialli. The word giallo is Italian for "yellow" (see Wiktionary: giallo) and stems from the genre's origin in paperback novels with yellow covers.  

All genres have their fair share of crap to wade through, but I feel Giallo is one of the most difficult. It's a catch all genre that DVD companies and, in the past, tape traders padded full of dull "action films," painful "horror" and sleep inducing "sexploitation." Aaah, but like a good Roughie, when you find the right film, it's well worth the wade through the dirty waters. Although the Egyptian festival is by no means complete, it's an amazing selection.There are so many interesting, if not great, Giallos that it would take an annual festival to really do it right....Anyone listening???

So, this year's festival is winding down.  This is the final full week of programming; there is one more double next Thursday, including an amazing Richard Widmark classic.  Anyone not familiar with Mr. Widmark's career take note, this showing of Night and the City is a great starting off point.  Anyone familiar with his work should come out and pay respects as he passed on March 24th after a lengthy illness...

Last Friday my young Sylvian got a nice earful from unannounced guest speaker James Elroy.  My wife Esther spotted his mug when were eating across the street at Musso & Frank, so we kinda figured he was in the area for Hell's Five Hours & The Night Holds Terror, but we didn't know he'd do a number before the 1st feature.  The always lovely Coleen Grey (who starred in Hell's Five Hours) spoke between the films; she's quite a charmer.  Fortunately she wasn't chastised by Kenneth Anger this time around.  Previously at a showing of Nightmare Alley, Mr. Anger abruptly corrected her from the audience about some detail or another, leaving her a bit befuddled.