Remakes: The Maltese Falcon

When you think of movies staring Humphrey Bogart, The Maltese Falcon better come to mind. But how would you feel if I told you the movie that launched Bogart to leading-man fame was a remake? And, what would you say if I told you that wasn't even the first re-make of that film?

The first version: The original Maltese Falcon film (1931) was based on the Dashiell Hammett novel of the same name, and was made in a time before there were regulations on what could be depicted in film, otherwise known as the pre-code era. It featured many of the overt homosexual characters and sexually suggestive situations from the book, pushing the boundaries of what was "socially acceptable" at the time. So despite it's popularity, this film was banned (like so many others) when the Hays code was instituted.

The first remake: The banning of the 1931 Maltese Falcon created an opportunity for the film to be made in accordance with the Hays code in 1936. This time it would be called Satan Met a Lady, star Bettie Davis, and be a comedy that had almost nothing to do with the source material. Needless to say, people didn't care for it much. But since Satan Met a Lady didn't make many overt references to the source materials, they wouldn't have to wait long to try again!

The classic: The overt homosexual characters, sexually suggestive situations, and other pre-code grittiness of the original film still couldn't be carried over to a movie in the 40s, but many other elements did make it into the 1941 version. That plus Humphrey Bogart's Sam Spade becoming an icon for the time period, stellar performances across the board, and a masterful noir presentation from cinematographer Arthur Edeson, and you get the version that's cemented our cultural lexicon as the only Maltese Falcon.


What this film says about remakes: Even if most of the sexual overtones and general seediness is stripped out of your remake, you can still make a gold standard film. One that might beat out all other versions in the memories of film lovers for generations to come. (Especially if your best competition is buried in a film vault somewhere because of the "morality" police...)

Remakes: Shot-for-Shot Title Sequences

Adult Swim is responsible for some pretty amazing short subject stuff, but The Greatest Event in Television History series tops the list for us. Each of the shot-for-shot remakes of 80s sitcom title sequences are better than the next. If you've not seen them, please indulge and marvel below:

Heart to Heart:

Too Close for Comfort:

Simon & Simon: 

Bussom Buddies:

Remakes: Psycho

My grandma watches mostly romance movies or the occasional action flick, so when she suggested we watch the Psycho remake because it was finally on cable (way back in 1999), I was taken aback. But, we'd both seen the original (and I'd seen all the sequels), so my grandma and I decided to watch Gus Van Sant's remake of Psycho... for 20 mins before she shut the TV off in anger.

The plot unfolds something like this: It's seriously a shot for shot remake of the original, so if you've seen the original, you know what's what. (If you've not seen the original, it's a horror masterpiece, go watch it right now!)

Why did they remake it?: Gus Van Sant has admitted this was mostly an experiment to see what would happen if you tried to remake a genuine classic without straying from the original.

The only reason to watch: This is the PERFECT illustration of why remakes should vary from the originals. No matter how much people scream "they weren't women in the original", remakes are the best when they're loving reinterpretations of their source material rather than tediously unimaginative reminders of them.


What Grandma thought: Grandma and I only watched as far as the scene were Vince Vaughn jerks off over Anne Heche taking a shower. To be clear, Grandma wasn't mad about the masturbation, she was furious that the subtlety of the original had been swapped out for hamfisted obviousness. So, even though Van Sant claims that his goal was to see what a "shot-for-shot" remake would look like, he also (though possibly unintentionally) illustrated why you can only make a shot-for-shot remake if you fully understand your source material. Hitchcock's Psycho makes us question what's really going on in Norman's mind through the end of the film, fucking with the audience's ability to trust what they're seeing and creating engaging internal conflict for the viewer. Van Sant lets us know that Norman is emotionally unstable from almost the first moment he's on screen, which removes all the conflict you feel watching the original and replaces that conflict with nothing. And that's exactly what you feel while watching this film: nothing.

Best use for this film: When you hear people arguing that something being remade is terrible solely because it differs from the book*, play, film or whatever source material, ask the person making that argument if the 1998 Psycho is their favorite ever remake; and then take warming evil pleasure in watching them squirm.


*I didn't even touch on how Psycho was a novel first. A trashy, sort of boring novel that the film totally deviates from...

First Clue: April's Mystery Movie

Clue #1: This month's movie is a remake! This month's movie is one of those movie remakes that we might love more than the original.

Tape Freaks Presents: April's Mystery Movie at the Trylon microcinema, Wednesday, March 5th@ 7:00pm, only $5!

****Purchase advance ticket here****

Blacksploitation Double Feature: Dolemite & The Human Tornado

Rudy Ray Moore films are controversial in almost every single way they could be. Moore brought his raunchy comedy routines featured on his (very successful) party records to all his films along with gratuitous amounts of nudity, outrageous clothing, ridiculous plots lines, asinine sex scenes, inexperienced crews, and ham-fisted acting. And even though his films could be argued as problematic, there's also no denying they were intensely popular, still have cult followings, and went on to influence culture for decades after their releases.

Dolemite's plot unfolds something like this: Dolemite is serving a 20 year sentence for being in possession of drugs and stolen furs when his good friend, Queen Bee, uncovers evidence that he was set up! Notorious gangster Willie Green had wanted Dolemite out of the way so he could take over his club. The warden releases Dolemite on the condition that he bring in Green, and that's exactly what he intends to do, even if he, Queen Bee, and a band of Kung Fu fighting vixens have to go through every “rat soup eatin' motherfucker” in South Central to do it!

Where did the Dolemite character come from?: Originally, the Dolemite character belonged to Rico, a wino that frequented Dolphin's of Hollywood where Moore was employed. By Moore's own recounting, he paid Rico to put the Dolemite character on tape so Moore could use it in his own comedy act. Moore put Dolemite on one of his comedy records and it was an instant hit. After releasing a few more records in the same style, and saving up some seed money from touring, he put together a script and crew to produce a feature film to showcase his successful character. Once the movie hit theaters, it was another instant hit.

The production value: I had not seen this movie in it's entirety before we picked up the Vinegar Syndrome re-release, but I knew the production was notoriously bad, and somehow I was still shocked by exactly how bad it was. However, there's no denying the magnetic charm the movie oozes through all the booms dropping in to frame, edges of sets being fully in frame, and terribly blocked action. Those are all things we've seen before to varying degrees, but there's a big difference between this movie and other bad films we've watched: we actually know why this movie ended up like it did!

The director says the movie's shit: This was director D'Urville Martin's first venture in directing and according to the people on set with him, he was very vocal about how bad he thought the film was, and was convinced that the movie would never make it to theaters. (Moore has since said that had Martin known the movie would be successful, by any metric, he would have put earnest effort into it.) Moore on the other hand had experience with people disregarding his ideas as laughable. He had to distribute his first (and very successful) party record featuring Dolemite himself, so he knew this movie could have legs no matter what anyone else said. And that's why there's an undeniable charm in spite of the abysmal production; Moore and a handful of others were giving as earnest of a performances as they were capable of whenever they were on screen, and it absolutely shows through.

The sequel is better than the original: Every once in a while, the sequel is better! With an experienced director taking the project seriously (and consequently a crew that took the project more seriously), The Human Tornado is the better of the two films.

The Human Tornado's plot unfolds something like this: After being run out of town by a racist sheriff, Dolemite and company flee to LA seeking refuge from his friend Queen Bee. When they arrive on the scene, they discover the mafia has taken over Queen Bee's club and kidnapped her top performers! Even with the law hot on his tail Dolemite, and his crew of Kung-Fu fighting badasses, are ready to save Bee's club and her top acts from the mob, and they're gonna look good doing it too.

A committed director makes a difference: Cliff Roquemore had at that point only directed theater productions, but his commitment to this film shows. Not to say this is a less ridiculous movie, but the production value is FAR higher than the first installment, and it makes a difference. (Though, there's one MAJOR exception, just keep reading...) The fight scenes are tighter (and weirder), the editing is better (likely due to more coverage), the cinematography is better (Dean Cundey worked on this for a min), Roquemore even brought some real actors with him (namely a young Ernie Hudson). They upped the ante on everything from the night club performances to the sex scenes. It pretty well illustrates that working with a director who has a vision for the film makes a huge difference, even if you're making b-level movies.

This woman's style is 20 years ahead of this film!

The director's sons: I, Dolomite features an interview with Cliff Roquemore's sons, as he had died in 2002. And I'll say, it's not often that I tear up while watching special features, but they are so fantastically proud of their father's largely unrecognized theater career, and get so emotional talking about it at one point, it just broke my heart. Directors that take low-budget films seriously are few and far between, we wish Roquemore would have had the opportunity to direct more films, because he likely would have been another Lary Cohen level fave of ours. 

Jimmy Lynch

The sets: Co-star Jimmy Lynch was responsible for most of the set decoration and manipulation for The Human Tornado (as well as some of the most outrageously wonderful wardrobe, that's a one sleeved jumpsuit that he made to the left). There's a particularly over the top sex-scene that features an entire room coming down around Dolemite and his lover, and Jimmy was responsible for all of it. The bed writhes, doors rattle, the ceiling falls on the couple, and it looks really good. It's a far cry from the first movie where the opening takes place in a room that you can CLEARLY see is a set the entire time.

Things to watch for: Every opportunity for a naked Rudy Ray Moore seized with gusto, the best bad-movie brawl ever committed to film, over the top villains, sensational costumes, and the worst stand-in you'll ever see.

The stand in: This is the major exception to the improved production. Ernie Hudson had agreed to appear in this film while his play was preparing to open in Minneapolis. So when shooting for The Human Tornado started running a little (a lot) long and Hudson's play was due to open, he had to bow out. Roquemore decided the best fix was to have Ernie's brother stand in for him on the rest of the picture. And that would be a fine idea, if the two of them looked even remotely alike. (You'll just have to watch this one to see what we mean, because I just spent WAY too long looking for a screen cap of that on the internet, and I seriously don't think there is one...) 

Further viewing: There are interviews and documentaries of every single caliber on Rudy Ray Moore all over the internet, but we got most of our information for this post from the Vinegar Syndrome documentary, I, Dolemite, comprised of archival and recent interviews with cast and crew. The documentary is broken into four segments covering the first four of Moore's films, and are included in the corresponding movie's special features. Every segment highlights some fantastically interesting stuff and if you're a fan, or into amassing that kind of knowledge, we highly recommend these discs. (They're all available here, and elsewhere on the web.)

The legacy of these films: Rudy Ray Moore is generally considered the godfather of rap. His comedy monologues were basically rhyming themed poems, recited in character, with music he wrote playing behind them. (He also wrote music to play behind his long-time friend and comedy partner, Lady Reed's comedy of the same style.) When you look back at early 80s hip-hop, that's the basic formula, only instead of having access to musicians in clubs to back performances, early hip-hop was backed by people manipulating previously recorded music on turntables. But hip-hop of the 80s was notoriously tame. Gangsta rap that came along in the 90s was a direct push back against that tameness, and samples of Moore's raunchy party records ran rampant through the albums of that time. There's a frequently cited quote from Snoop Dogg that pretty well encapsulates how much Moore's crass verse and singularly flamboyant style impacted his career: "Without Rudy Ray Moore, there would be no Snoop Dogg, and that's for real." We don't doubt it, and it makes us wonder what gangsta rap would have looked like without Dolemite.

A footnote instead of a Godmother: When researching Moore, I was overwhelmed by the information available on him and his career. So when it came time to look into his partner in comedy, Lady Reed, I was crushed to discover she doesn't have so much as a Wikipedia page. I spend at least three hours using every research trick I know to turn up something, ANYTHING on her. Nothing. There are some youtube videos with tracks off her comedy records, but that's it. If there's one reason to buy Vinegar Syndrome's reissue of Dolemite, it's because there's a long (though badly filmed) interview with Lady Reed when she's a grandmother. She talks about how she was writing for Rudy when he convinced her to take the stage herself, what touring with a bunch of dudes was like, about the two of them taking turns working the door at clubs to be sure they didn't get ripped off, she even recites some of her routines off the cuff. It's interesting to hear her talk about being part of something that would become so influential in her own words, and it truly makes us wish there was more of her words available to us. But suffice to say, if Moore is the godfather of rap, Lady Reed is the godmother.

Final thoughts: Moore employed a far more diverse cast and crew than any other film we wrote up this month (we didn't even touch on the rumors that he employed many gay men to his crews), and together they made films they wanted to see but weren't being made. They made these films without the support of studios and they were intensely successful! The films they made are perfect illustrations of why we love "bad" cinema, boom mics in frame and all.

Third Clue: March's Mystery Movie

Clue #3: This movie is a pretty straight forward action movie with some seriously impressive car stunts by a hollywood stunt legend.

Tape Freaks Presents: March's Mystery Movie at the Trylon microcinema, Wednesday, March 1st@ 7:00pm, only $5!

****Purchase advance ticket here****

Blacksploitation: The Spook Who Sat by the Door

You could easily argue us out of categorizing this as a straight up Blacksploitation movie. But if you did, you'd still have to admit that the filmmakers utilized elements from the genre to disguise their subject matter. Either way you look at it, the elements of this film fit the genre, and this becomes a singularly significant (an excellent) Blacksploitation film that deserves a larger audience.

The plot unfolds something like this: The CIA has decided it needs to diversify, so they set about hiring their first Black agent. And although they have no intention of actually hiring any of the candidates, they're putting on quite the show running the 100 or so men through basic training and everything. But this is the exact kind of opportunity Dan Freeman has been waiting for, and he is absolutely ready to seize it. He alienates the other candidates and presses forward in the perfect balance to genuinely impresses the white recruiters, eventually earning him the job that was never actually on the table. And the CIA has exactly what they needed: a token Black man. They stick him in the basement making copies and trot him out to anyone they need to impress with their diversity. Freeman plays the token roll for a few years before abruptly announcing his departure from the agency to pursue other opportunities. No one bats an eye. Now it's Freeman who has exactly what he needed this whole time: the keys to overthrowing the kingdom. All he needs now is foot soldiers, and he knows just where to start. He hits his old neighborhood in Chicago and starts convincing local hoodlums who already fight for nothing, to start fighting for something. It doesn't take long before has an army who's armed, loyal, covert, and trained in the same methods as CIA operatives themselves. They'll never see them coming.

The best parts: The direction in this film solidifies our wish that Ivan Dixon had directed more films. He implements some directing tricks that are not easy to effectively use, and he does so flawlessly. It makes us ill to think what he could have done with a solid script. The acting in this film is also really solid, there's no ham-fisted performances glued together with action and wardrobe, everyone delivers a genuine performance and most are fantastic. The cinematography and editing are fantastic as well, especially during an effectively realistic, and pretty long, riot scene. Really it's a movie with only one glaring flaw.

The only problem: We watched this movie, with it's epic story, interesting action, surprisingly realistic riot scene, superb direction and dynamic acting, and yet something major was not gelling. Honestly, we're used to watching movies that are bad in really easily identifiable ways, so this one was a conundrum for us, explicitly because it worked on almost every level. It wasn't until we'd had lot of discussion about it that we realized the problem: every single character was written as a hollow representation of a person. Characters do change over the course of the film, but they have almost no arcs or deep emotional revelations because of that change. (Or if they do, we don't get to see it on screen.) That might work in certain kinds of films, but The Spook Who Sat by the Door is presented as a deadly-serious drama that is incidentally heavy on the purely entertaining elements, in this instance it just makes the film feel off balance. It might be the very first time we've encountered this as the only flaw in a film that is otherwise very enjoyable. 

Pulled from theaters: This is the second movie we've covered in this theme that was pulled from theaters after it's release. This movie was pulled for a very different reason; it was viewed as being genuinely dangerous. When people talk about it now, they often say this movie was basically a DIY guide to overthrowing a government, but that's kind of overstating the content of the film. Never the less, the only reason you can watch this film now is because someone had stashed away a copy and mislabeled it, so it escaped destruction. Seriously, that's how much someone didn't want this film seen. 

Not a guide exactly: No mistake, this is a pretty solid primer on what gorilla insurgencies looks like, but it's far from a DIY guide. (I mean, unless you're able to get a job in the CIA, then it kind of is...) But if we're talking about overthrowing a government with the landmass and military power as ours, it's a far cry from a how-to movie. But it is full of interesting perspective that's presented in a way that connects big ideas. And that's something that the powers that be absolutely Do. Not. Want., and that's the number one reason you should watch it.

Cast and crew: This film started as an independent production, therefor was able to have a much more diverse crew (because studios weren't trying to staff the crew from the start). Notable on the crew side of this production: Ivan Dixon directing & producing, Sam Greenlee writing & producing, and Cheryal Kearney decorating set. Notable cast members include a young Paula Kelly, J.A. Preston, and of course Lawrence Cook. There's also a notable white guy on this one, Michael Kahn editing. (Side note: researching the crews of these films has taken loads of time, and LOADS of guessing/taking peoples word for things in interviews, so if you're reading this and have additional info on the crews that fall under this theme, I would L-O-V-E to hear about it in the comments.)

As big as it's one flaw is, The Spook Who Sat by the Door is otherwise a really great movie and we truly recommend it. And you can watch it on youtube! See how good it is for yourself:

*Total tangent, analyzing this movie unlocked the final piece of why I hated Fear no Evil so much. That was a movie that failed on every. single. level. and I will never forgive it.