Movie Details
| Title: | The Girl Who Knew Too Much | |
| Director: | Francis Lyon | |
| Year: | 1969 | |
| Genre: | Pulp | |
| Times Seen: | 1 | |
| Last Seen: | 09.19.07 |
Other Movies Seen By This Director (0)
| Date Viewed | Venue | Note |
| 09.19.07 | Weird Wednesday | There is a category of movie star so touch and macho that people watch them on screen and want to fashion their lives like them. I'm talking about names like William Shatner. Chuck Norris. Bruce Lee. William Smith. When walking down the street and you see a scumbag steal an old lady's purse, ask yourself: "what would ______ do?" Different names fill that blank depending on your religion. Tonight, the Weird Wednesday theater transformed into a Church of Adam West. Right off of his Batman gig, West starred in this movie with all the trimmings that make man-pulp so chewy: he lives on a boat, he kicks ass, he kills people, he owns a restaurant, the restaurant has a funny lounge singer with awesome songs, hot asian chicks in danger fall in love with him, he drives a little sports car that spins out during car chases, and he gets mixed up in crazy situations involving a) the syndicate, b) the police, c) the cia, or d) dirty red communists (the answer of course is E) all of the above), and he comes out alright. THAT's living life the Adam West way!!! So the plot's so convoluted that it's a bad idea to even try following along. Instead, you should just look at Adam West's neck. He really has an oddly thick neck for his small head and wide frame. It's great to see his sloping brow un-hidden by any sort of cowl. especially in one shot after his stunt double's just been beaten up (roughly too I might add, they really slammed that guy into that wall!) and West's sweaty mug falls right into a close-up. That seemed to be the general camera technique in this movie though. I guess they didn't have the budget for a focus puller so the actors had to pick up the slack with their marks. Rodney noted after the movie that half of it was out of focus. Try sitting in the front row, buddy! Wests's got some great lines though, and some great readings. Hearing him answer "no" twice was a highlight for me, as was his answer when asked what his vice was: "I kill people." Man what an awesome vice to have. Mine's Doritos. that's not nearly as cool. Buddy Greco's also great as Lucky Jones, West's piano playin sorta-sidekick. Two times the movie stops so Greco can sing full songs looking directly into camera while singing and fitting in a little schtick ("you look great!" "here come da judge!"), songs with lyrics too great to remember. Something about guilt in the deep recesses of his soul and those freaky little things and some sort spot on his brain or something. It pains me that I have already forgotten this. Not a perfect movie by any means though. It felt 20 minutes longer than it actually was and the beginning was like a parade of guys in suits talking about crap I care nothing about. It all fits the mold though... I guess some people like it and others don't. I can't get enough. it's so cheap and tawdry and macho and sweaty... I want to live on a boat! OH! I can't go to sleep without remembering the one scene with the airport dude who takes West aside and lays this whole anecdote on him about pretending he's an Oil man and going all out and winding up at 4:30 AM with a half a bottle of champagne and a 300 dollar check, and how he doesn't have the money yet but he'll get it. I guess guys who own swanky Asian-trendy restaurant/lounges get that spiel all the time. West certainly played it like he did. He was very understanding too. Such an odd scene to put in a movie though. yet it kind of makes sense in this one. man, good times at the Alamo Drafthouse. So... Fantastic Fest starts in like 12 hours. I remember my notes on the first year being very in-depth, the second year being much less so. I'm really not sure how much energy and excitement I'm going to have this year, so in the coming days I might start using some sort of format to cut down on time (and probably readability). I wish I could sit here and type an hour of babble for each one but the truth is I don't feel like carrying around my notebook this year and without it I forget details and by the time I'm back home I just want to go to bed anyway... so we'll see what I end up with. I have 36 movies on my plate (and one compilation of short films and one live trivia show) so feel free to read along and see how many I end up skipping out on. Standing in line talking to people will be fun though regardless. |
