AGENT ZERO M: MOVIE CAMERA
STYLE IN ACTION
November 24, 2009
November 23, 2009
November 20, 2009
November 17, 2009
November 16, 2009
November 15, 2009
November 14, 2009
November 10, 2009
SCI FI ASSASSIN: LOGAN'S RUN -OUT TODAY
SCI FI ASSASSIN: LOGAN'S RUNIn this Cold War-influenced classic, Logan's Run is a cautionary tale about a post-nuclear society that copes with overpopulation by killing off its citizens at age 30 (the novel and 2010 re-make set expiration around 21). Humanity has been confined for generations in a shopping mall-like dome, allowing for some very cool futuristic set design by Dale Hennesy (In Like Flint, Fantastic Voyage, Dirty Harry) and Set Decorator Robert De Vestel (Batman, Green Hornet, Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea). Spy Vibers will recognize a 70s slant on a number of elements we've explored here in 1960s design, including globe lamps and monitors and Kubrick-style white, minimal rooms. With its famous electronic score by Jeremy Goldsmith, its revealing (!) unisex wear and jumpsuit uniforms by Bill Thomas (The Black Hole), the tone of the future, like THX 1138 by Lucas and Fahrenheit 451 by Truffaut, is quite lulled into submission by consumerism and pleasure (in this case- sensual pleasure). At age 30, everyone enters a Colosseum-like chamber where they float up into an electric field that vaporizes them. To desire life and to run from this ritual is deemed deviant by society and punishable by death. Logan, the main character of the film, is indeed an assassin- a member of a sanctioned death squad that hunts down 'runners' and executes them with laser blasters. Logan is sent undercover on a mission to join the runners and expose what the government fears is an underground railroad to freedom in a place whispered about in dark alleys called Sanctuary. So begins Logan's Quest that brings him, and his community, toward self-awareness and survival. The film was released in 1976, just prior to Star Wars, and remains a stylish and evocative experience. Logan's Run is out today on Blu-ray and includes commentary by director Michael Anderson, star Michael York, and costume designer Bill Thomas. Additional cast includes Jenny Agutter, Farrah Fawcett, and Peter Ustinov. Movie trailer and score/photo video on the Spy Vibe website. We'll let the lovely Agutter guide us on a tour of the sets and costumes:
November 9, 2009
CRITERION 50% OFF SALE (ended)
CRITERION 50% SALE (ended)
News from my insider at Barnes and Noble: Starting Tuesday all Criterion Collection DVDs and Blu-ray are 50% off at Barnes and Noble shops and on-line. This offer is through the end of the year while supplies last. One of the great pleasures of my life has been working as a film programmer for schools and communities. At the center of those efforts has been the Criterion Collection. For those who don't know them, Criterion began in the days of Laser Discs as a company dedicated to searching the globe for the most pristine film sources and working with film cast and crew to package the definitive editions of important films in cinema culture. Criterion covers the great auteurs: Kurosawa, Welles, Hitchcock, Truffaut, Godard, Renoir, Fellini, Bergman, Powell, etc, and classic genre films. All of their titles exhibit an artistic flair- and flair is what Spy Vibe loves most! Criterion began releasing Blu-ray editions recently, which include The Third Man starring Orson Welles (now oop), and the wonderful NASA documentary For All Mankind. When I was a student I literally had their catalog under my pillow so I could pour over film stills and descriptions and learn about film history. Now it's all on-line. The Criterion website itself is gorgeous and fascinating, and I think Spy Vibers new to the company will discover a treasure trove there (including movie clips and direct viewing options). Because we at Spy Vibe are interested in espionage, style, fashion, architecture, design, and 1960s culture, here is just a small list of some of the films I suggest looking at during this sale:
A trio of crooks relentlessly pursue a young American (Audrey Hepburn) through Paris to recover the fortune her dead husband stole from them. The only person she can trust is a suave, mysterious stranger (Cary Grant). A deliciously dark comedic thriller, Stanley Donen’s Charade dazzles with style and macabre wit to spare. [see the Spy Vibe reflection].
The best known of Hitchcock’s British films, this civilized spy yarn follows the escapades of Richard Hannay (Robert Donat), who stumbles into a conspiracy that involves him in a hectic chase across the Scottish moors—a chase in which he is both the pursuer and the pursued. Adapted from John Buchan’s novel, this classic Hitchcock “wrong man” thriller encapsulates themes that anticipate the director’s biggest American films (especially North by Northwest- now on Blu-ray!), and is a standout among his early works. [read the review at Permission To Kill]
A cockeyed fusion of science fiction, pulp characters, and surrealist poetry, Godard’s irreverent journey to the mysterious Alphaville remains one of the least conventional films of all time. Eddie Constantine stars as intergalactic hero Lemmy Caution, on a mission to kill the inventor of fascist computer Alpha 60. [See the review on Permission to Kill].
Branded to Kill, the wildly perverse story of the yakuza’s rice-sniffing “No. 3 Killer,” is Seijun Suzuki at his delirious best. From a cookie-cutter studio script, Suzuki delivered this brutal, hilarious, and visually inspired masterpiece. Criterion presents the DVD premiere of Branded to Kill in a pristine transfer from the original Nikkatsu-scope master.
In July 1969, the space race ended when Apollo 11 fulfilled President Kennedy’s challenge of “landing a man on the Moon and returning him safely to the Earth.” No one who witnessed the lunar landing will ever forget it. Al Reinert’s documentary For All Mankind is the story of the twenty-four men who traveled to the moon, told in their words, in their voices, using the images of their experiences. Forty years after the first moon landing, it remains the most radical, visually dazzling work of cinema yet made about this earthshaking event.
A frank exploration of voyeurism and violence, Michael Powell’s extraordinary film is the story of a psychopathic cameraman—his childhood traumas, sexual crises, and murderous revenge as an adult. Reviled by critics upon its initial release for its deeply unsettling subject matter, the film has since been hailed as a masterpiece.
Now out of print- find copies locally if possible. Pulp novelist Holly Martins travels to shadowy, postwar Vienna, only to find himself investigating the mysterious death of an old friend, black-market opportunist Harry Lime—and thus begins this legendary tale of love, deception, and murder. Thanks to brilliant performances by Joseph Cotten, Alida Valli, and Orson Welles; Anton Karas’s evocative zither score; Graham Greene’s razor-sharp dialogue; and Robert Krasker’s dramatic use of light and shadow, The Third Man, directed by the inimitable Carol Reed, only grows in stature as the years pass.
After making such American noir classics as The Naked City and Brute Force, blacklisted director Jules Dassin went to Paris and embarked on his masterpiece: a twisting, turning tale of four ex-cons who hatch one last glorious heist in the City of Lights. At once naturalistic and expressionistic, this melange of suspense, brutality, and dark humor was an international hit and earned Dassin the Best Director prize at the Cannes Film Festival.
In Notorious, a brilliant allegory of love and betrayal, Hitchcock fuses two of his favorite elements: suspense and romance. A beautiful woman with a tainted past (Ingrid Bergman) is enlisted by American agent Devlin (Cary Grant) to spy on a ring of Nazis in post-war Rio. Her espionage work becomes life-threatening after she marries the most debonair of the Nazi ring, Alex (Claude Rains). Only Devlin can rescue her, but to do so he must face his role in her desperate situation and acknowledge that he’s loved her all along. Stunning performances, Ben Hecht’s excellent script, and Hitchcock’s direction at its best make Notorious a perfect film.
One of the greatest films about film ever made, Federico Fellini’s 8 1/2 (Otto e mezzo) turns one man’s artistic crisis into a grand epic of the cinema. Guido Anselmi (Marcello Mastroianni) is a director whose film—and life—is collapsing around him. An early working title for the film was La Bella Confusione (The Beautiful Confusion), and Fellini’s masterpiece is exactly that: a shimmering dream, a circus, and a magic act. The Criterion Collection is proud to present the 1963 Academy Award winner for Best Foreign-Language Film—one of the most written about, talked about, and imitated movies of all time—in a beautifully restored new digital transfer. A Blu-ray is due in January 2010!
Secluded in the French countryside, a brilliant, obsessive doctor attempts a radical plastic surgery to restore the beauty of his daughter’s disfigured face—but at a horrifying price. At once ghastly lyrical, Eyes Without a Face is a true rarity of horror cinema and has influenced countless films. The Criterion Collection is proud to present Georges Franju’s classic in a long-awaited, fully restored DVD edition.
The Man Who Fell to Earth is a daring exploration of science fiction as an art form. The story of an alien on an elaborate rescue mission provides the launching pad for Nicolas Roeg’s visual tour de force, a formally adventurous examination of alienation in contemporary life. Rock legend David Bowie, in his acting debut, completely embodies the title role, while Candy Clark, Buck Henry, and Rip Torn turn in pitch-perfect supporting performances. The film’s hallucinatory vision was obscured in the American theatrical release, which deleted nearly twenty minutes of crucial scenes and details. The Criterion Collection is proud to present Roeg’s full uncut version, in this exclusive new director-approved high-definition widescreen transfer.
In a career-defining performance, Alain Delon plays a contract killer with samurai instincts. A razor-sharp cocktail of 1940s American gangster cinema and 1960s French pop culture—with a liberal dose of Japanese lone-warrior mythology—maverick director Jean-Pierre Melville’s masterpiece Le Samouraï defines cool. Spy Vibers should look at other Melville titles.
Special-effects wunderkind and genre master Byron Haskin (The War of the Worlds, The Outer Limits) won a place in the hearts of fantasy-film lovers everywhere with this gorgeously designed journey into the unknown. When his spaceship crash-lands on the barren wastelands of Mars, U.S. astronaut Commander “Kit” Draper (Paul Mantee) must fight for survival, with a pet monkey seemingly his only companion.
John le Carré’s acclaimed best-selling novel about a cold-war spy on one final, dangerous mission is every bit as precise and ruthless on-screen in this adaptation directed by Martin Ritt. Richard Burton delivers one of his career-defining performances as Alec Leamas, whose hesitant but deeply felt relationship with a beautiful librarian (Claire Bloom) puts what he hopes will be his last assignment, in East Germany, in jeopardy. The Spy Who Came in from the Cold is a hard-edged and finally tragic thriller, suffused with the political and social consciousness that defined Ritt’s career.
News from my insider at Barnes and Noble: Starting Tuesday all Criterion Collection DVDs and Blu-ray are 50% off at Barnes and Noble shops and on-line. This offer is through the end of the year while supplies last. One of the great pleasures of my life has been working as a film programmer for schools and communities. At the center of those efforts has been the Criterion Collection. For those who don't know them, Criterion began in the days of Laser Discs as a company dedicated to searching the globe for the most pristine film sources and working with film cast and crew to package the definitive editions of important films in cinema culture. Criterion covers the great auteurs: Kurosawa, Welles, Hitchcock, Truffaut, Godard, Renoir, Fellini, Bergman, Powell, etc, and classic genre films. All of their titles exhibit an artistic flair- and flair is what Spy Vibe loves most! Criterion began releasing Blu-ray editions recently, which include The Third Man starring Orson Welles (now oop), and the wonderful NASA documentary For All Mankind. When I was a student I literally had their catalog under my pillow so I could pour over film stills and descriptions and learn about film history. Now it's all on-line. The Criterion website itself is gorgeous and fascinating, and I think Spy Vibers new to the company will discover a treasure trove there (including movie clips and direct viewing options). Because we at Spy Vibe are interested in espionage, style, fashion, architecture, design, and 1960s culture, here is just a small list of some of the films I suggest looking at during this sale:
A trio of crooks relentlessly pursue a young American (Audrey Hepburn) through Paris to recover the fortune her dead husband stole from them. The only person she can trust is a suave, mysterious stranger (Cary Grant). A deliciously dark comedic thriller, Stanley Donen’s Charade dazzles with style and macabre wit to spare. [see the Spy Vibe reflection].
The best known of Hitchcock’s British films, this civilized spy yarn follows the escapades of Richard Hannay (Robert Donat), who stumbles into a conspiracy that involves him in a hectic chase across the Scottish moors—a chase in which he is both the pursuer and the pursued. Adapted from John Buchan’s novel, this classic Hitchcock “wrong man” thriller encapsulates themes that anticipate the director’s biggest American films (especially North by Northwest- now on Blu-ray!), and is a standout among his early works. [read the review at Permission To Kill]
A cockeyed fusion of science fiction, pulp characters, and surrealist poetry, Godard’s irreverent journey to the mysterious Alphaville remains one of the least conventional films of all time. Eddie Constantine stars as intergalactic hero Lemmy Caution, on a mission to kill the inventor of fascist computer Alpha 60. [See the review on Permission to Kill].
Branded to Kill, the wildly perverse story of the yakuza’s rice-sniffing “No. 3 Killer,” is Seijun Suzuki at his delirious best. From a cookie-cutter studio script, Suzuki delivered this brutal, hilarious, and visually inspired masterpiece. Criterion presents the DVD premiere of Branded to Kill in a pristine transfer from the original Nikkatsu-scope master.
In July 1969, the space race ended when Apollo 11 fulfilled President Kennedy’s challenge of “landing a man on the Moon and returning him safely to the Earth.” No one who witnessed the lunar landing will ever forget it. Al Reinert’s documentary For All Mankind is the story of the twenty-four men who traveled to the moon, told in their words, in their voices, using the images of their experiences. Forty years after the first moon landing, it remains the most radical, visually dazzling work of cinema yet made about this earthshaking event.
A frank exploration of voyeurism and violence, Michael Powell’s extraordinary film is the story of a psychopathic cameraman—his childhood traumas, sexual crises, and murderous revenge as an adult. Reviled by critics upon its initial release for its deeply unsettling subject matter, the film has since been hailed as a masterpiece.
Now out of print- find copies locally if possible. Pulp novelist Holly Martins travels to shadowy, postwar Vienna, only to find himself investigating the mysterious death of an old friend, black-market opportunist Harry Lime—and thus begins this legendary tale of love, deception, and murder. Thanks to brilliant performances by Joseph Cotten, Alida Valli, and Orson Welles; Anton Karas’s evocative zither score; Graham Greene’s razor-sharp dialogue; and Robert Krasker’s dramatic use of light and shadow, The Third Man, directed by the inimitable Carol Reed, only grows in stature as the years pass.
After making such American noir classics as The Naked City and Brute Force, blacklisted director Jules Dassin went to Paris and embarked on his masterpiece: a twisting, turning tale of four ex-cons who hatch one last glorious heist in the City of Lights. At once naturalistic and expressionistic, this melange of suspense, brutality, and dark humor was an international hit and earned Dassin the Best Director prize at the Cannes Film Festival.
In Notorious, a brilliant allegory of love and betrayal, Hitchcock fuses two of his favorite elements: suspense and romance. A beautiful woman with a tainted past (Ingrid Bergman) is enlisted by American agent Devlin (Cary Grant) to spy on a ring of Nazis in post-war Rio. Her espionage work becomes life-threatening after she marries the most debonair of the Nazi ring, Alex (Claude Rains). Only Devlin can rescue her, but to do so he must face his role in her desperate situation and acknowledge that he’s loved her all along. Stunning performances, Ben Hecht’s excellent script, and Hitchcock’s direction at its best make Notorious a perfect film.
One of the greatest films about film ever made, Federico Fellini’s 8 1/2 (Otto e mezzo) turns one man’s artistic crisis into a grand epic of the cinema. Guido Anselmi (Marcello Mastroianni) is a director whose film—and life—is collapsing around him. An early working title for the film was La Bella Confusione (The Beautiful Confusion), and Fellini’s masterpiece is exactly that: a shimmering dream, a circus, and a magic act. The Criterion Collection is proud to present the 1963 Academy Award winner for Best Foreign-Language Film—one of the most written about, talked about, and imitated movies of all time—in a beautifully restored new digital transfer. A Blu-ray is due in January 2010!
Secluded in the French countryside, a brilliant, obsessive doctor attempts a radical plastic surgery to restore the beauty of his daughter’s disfigured face—but at a horrifying price. At once ghastly lyrical, Eyes Without a Face is a true rarity of horror cinema and has influenced countless films. The Criterion Collection is proud to present Georges Franju’s classic in a long-awaited, fully restored DVD edition.
The Man Who Fell to Earth is a daring exploration of science fiction as an art form. The story of an alien on an elaborate rescue mission provides the launching pad for Nicolas Roeg’s visual tour de force, a formally adventurous examination of alienation in contemporary life. Rock legend David Bowie, in his acting debut, completely embodies the title role, while Candy Clark, Buck Henry, and Rip Torn turn in pitch-perfect supporting performances. The film’s hallucinatory vision was obscured in the American theatrical release, which deleted nearly twenty minutes of crucial scenes and details. The Criterion Collection is proud to present Roeg’s full uncut version, in this exclusive new director-approved high-definition widescreen transfer.
In a career-defining performance, Alain Delon plays a contract killer with samurai instincts. A razor-sharp cocktail of 1940s American gangster cinema and 1960s French pop culture—with a liberal dose of Japanese lone-warrior mythology—maverick director Jean-Pierre Melville’s masterpiece Le Samouraï defines cool. Spy Vibers should look at other Melville titles.
Special-effects wunderkind and genre master Byron Haskin (The War of the Worlds, The Outer Limits) won a place in the hearts of fantasy-film lovers everywhere with this gorgeously designed journey into the unknown. When his spaceship crash-lands on the barren wastelands of Mars, U.S. astronaut Commander “Kit” Draper (Paul Mantee) must fight for survival, with a pet monkey seemingly his only companion.
John le Carré’s acclaimed best-selling novel about a cold-war spy on one final, dangerous mission is every bit as precise and ruthless on-screen in this adaptation directed by Martin Ritt. Richard Burton delivers one of his career-defining performances as Alec Leamas, whose hesitant but deeply felt relationship with a beautiful librarian (Claire Bloom) puts what he hopes will be his last assignment, in East Germany, in jeopardy. The Spy Who Came in from the Cold is a hard-edged and finally tragic thriller, suffused with the political and social consciousness that defined Ritt’s career.
November 7, 2009
MASTER SPY ILLUSTRATORS & NEW COBRAS AGENT
MASTER SPY ILLUSTRATORS & NEW COBRAS AGENT
Our Man in Vermont Steve Bissette is winding down a multi-part exploration of the career of master illustrator Frank McCarthy. In "McCarthy Does 007 (& nobody does it better), Steve offers up a fantastic review of McCarthy's spy images from the 1960s, including promotional art for Thunderball, You Only Live Twice, On Her Majsty's Secret Service, The Venetian Affair (Man From U.N.C.L.E.), and a discussion of McCarthy's collaboration with fellow artist Robert McGinnes. Head over to learn more and to check out some very cool 60s poster and album art. Steve adds praise for Peter's Illustrated 007 blog as one of the best resources of Bond art on the Internet. Spy Vibers will be familiar with Peter's complete archive of 007 artwork and will be pleased to hear that he has recently accepted an invitation to join the COBRAS. Peter, welcome to our Spy Network!
Our Man in Vermont Steve Bissette is winding down a multi-part exploration of the career of master illustrator Frank McCarthy. In "McCarthy Does 007 (& nobody does it better), Steve offers up a fantastic review of McCarthy's spy images from the 1960s, including promotional art for Thunderball, You Only Live Twice, On Her Majsty's Secret Service, The Venetian Affair (Man From U.N.C.L.E.), and a discussion of McCarthy's collaboration with fellow artist Robert McGinnes. Head over to learn more and to check out some very cool 60s poster and album art. Steve adds praise for Peter's Illustrated 007 blog as one of the best resources of Bond art on the Internet. Spy Vibers will be familiar with Peter's complete archive of 007 artwork and will be pleased to hear that he has recently accepted an invitation to join the COBRAS. Peter, welcome to our Spy Network!
November 3, 2009
NORTH BY NORTHWEST BLU-RAY
NORTH BY NORTHWEST BLU-RAY- OUT TODAY!
Spy Vibe fans of Alfred Hitchcock will be happy to hear that his classic North By Northwest is now available on Blu-ray. Although Hitchcock had already developed his trademark conventions (the maguffin, the wrong man, climax in an epic location), North By Northwest is remembered by many as the ultimate Hitchcock thriller. A suave, successful New York advertising executive finds himself mistaken as a spy and is embroiled in a web of intrigue, lost microfilm, seduction, and murder. Stars Cary Grant, Eva Marie Saint (Grand Prix), James Mason, Martin Landau (Mission Impossible, Space 1999), Leo G. Carroll (The Man From U.N.C.L.E.), and Edward Platt (Get Smart).
Hitchcock set out to create a theme endearing to Spy Vibers in North By Northwest by accentuating the main character's isolation in the lap of mid-century modernist luxury. As Sandy MacLendon points out on JetSetModern, Hitchcock created a carefully crafted world of affluence that would be recognizable to a mass audience: The director himself chose Eva Marie Saint's wardrobe from Bergdorf Goodman and jewelry from Van Cleef. Chris from Clothes On Film discusses Grant's famous grey Kilgour suit, which has been recognized by GQ as an iconic look for men. Characters were put behind the wheels of the latest chic cars by Mercedes, Lincoln, and Cadillac. But where the film really shines for design fans is in its choice of locations: Plaza Hotel/New York, estate house/Long Island, UN Building/New York, Grand Central Station/New York, aboard the Twentieth Century Limited train to Chicago, and the piece de resistance- the modernist Vandamm home in the style of Frank Lloyd Wright. According to MacLendon, Wright had agreed to design a previous Hollywood film- for ten percent of the project's budget! Never to be thwarted, Hitchock had his design crew set to work on a Wright-style house that audiences would recognize, using Wright's signature materials and lines, and through matt photography, placed it atop Mount Rushmore. They added support beams for dramatic effect, providing a way for Grant's character to climb into the house undetected. MacLendon points out that "The living room set was dressed in the best of 1958’s furniture and art, and it makes a very interesting point. The furniture is largely Scandinavian Modern. There is Chinese art, and a Pre-Colombian statue figures prominently in the action. Greek flokati rugs are on the floors. Vandamm’s spying is meant to set the nations of the world at war, but it seems they co-exist peacefully enough under his roof!"
The title sequence by Saul Bass is also noteworthy. Bass had begun to design for Hitchcock on his previous film, Vertigo, and Bass pushed the theme of modernity further for North By Northwest. As the Design Museum describes: "In 1958’s Vertigo, his first title sequence for Alfred Hitchcock, Bass shot an extreme close-up of a woman’s face and then her eye before spinning it into a sinister spiral as a bloody red soaks the screen. For his next Hitchcock commission, 1959’s North by Northwest, the credits swoop up and down a grid of vertical and diagonal lines like passengers stepping off elevators. It is only a few minutes after the movie has begun - with Cary Grant stepping out of an elevator - that we realise the grid is actually the façade of a skyscraper." The use of bold fonts and animation based on perspective accentuated the geometric, sleek modern tone of the film.
According to John Patterson at The Guardian, "North By Northwest has been called the first James Bond movie (screenwriter Ernest Lehman called it "the ultimate Hitchcock picture" while he was writing it, but no matter). And the similarities are evident. In 1960 Hitchcock himself briefly considered directing Thunderball. Ian Fleming originally wanted Grant (who was a good friend of Bond producer Cubby Broccoli) to play 007 in Dr No, and North By Northwest surely had a lot to do with that (Grant turned down the part). 1959 was also the year Fleming published Goldfinger, the first truly ridiculous Bond novel (delightful though it is), which, as the third Bond movie, would perfect the NXNW-style template from which the series would barely deviate until the advent of Daniel Craig." Patterson's review of Goldfinger notwithstanding, the idea of a Hitchcock-directed Bond has been a point of discussion among 007 fans.
The film has been ranked #7 in the top-ten greatest mystery films of all time by the American Film Institute.
Spy Vibe fans of Alfred Hitchcock will be happy to hear that his classic North By Northwest is now available on Blu-ray. Although Hitchcock had already developed his trademark conventions (the maguffin, the wrong man, climax in an epic location), North By Northwest is remembered by many as the ultimate Hitchcock thriller. A suave, successful New York advertising executive finds himself mistaken as a spy and is embroiled in a web of intrigue, lost microfilm, seduction, and murder. Stars Cary Grant, Eva Marie Saint (Grand Prix), James Mason, Martin Landau (Mission Impossible, Space 1999), Leo G. Carroll (The Man From U.N.C.L.E.), and Edward Platt (Get Smart).
Hitchcock set out to create a theme endearing to Spy Vibers in North By Northwest by accentuating the main character's isolation in the lap of mid-century modernist luxury. As Sandy MacLendon points out on JetSetModern, Hitchcock created a carefully crafted world of affluence that would be recognizable to a mass audience: The director himself chose Eva Marie Saint's wardrobe from Bergdorf Goodman and jewelry from Van Cleef. Chris from Clothes On Film discusses Grant's famous grey Kilgour suit, which has been recognized by GQ as an iconic look for men. Characters were put behind the wheels of the latest chic cars by Mercedes, Lincoln, and Cadillac. But where the film really shines for design fans is in its choice of locations: Plaza Hotel/New York, estate house/Long Island, UN Building/New York, Grand Central Station/New York, aboard the Twentieth Century Limited train to Chicago, and the piece de resistance- the modernist Vandamm home in the style of Frank Lloyd Wright. According to MacLendon, Wright had agreed to design a previous Hollywood film- for ten percent of the project's budget! Never to be thwarted, Hitchock had his design crew set to work on a Wright-style house that audiences would recognize, using Wright's signature materials and lines, and through matt photography, placed it atop Mount Rushmore. They added support beams for dramatic effect, providing a way for Grant's character to climb into the house undetected. MacLendon points out that "The living room set was dressed in the best of 1958’s furniture and art, and it makes a very interesting point. The furniture is largely Scandinavian Modern. There is Chinese art, and a Pre-Colombian statue figures prominently in the action. Greek flokati rugs are on the floors. Vandamm’s spying is meant to set the nations of the world at war, but it seems they co-exist peacefully enough under his roof!"
The title sequence by Saul Bass is also noteworthy. Bass had begun to design for Hitchcock on his previous film, Vertigo, and Bass pushed the theme of modernity further for North By Northwest. As the Design Museum describes: "In 1958’s Vertigo, his first title sequence for Alfred Hitchcock, Bass shot an extreme close-up of a woman’s face and then her eye before spinning it into a sinister spiral as a bloody red soaks the screen. For his next Hitchcock commission, 1959’s North by Northwest, the credits swoop up and down a grid of vertical and diagonal lines like passengers stepping off elevators. It is only a few minutes after the movie has begun - with Cary Grant stepping out of an elevator - that we realise the grid is actually the façade of a skyscraper." The use of bold fonts and animation based on perspective accentuated the geometric, sleek modern tone of the film. 
According to John Patterson at The Guardian, "North By Northwest has been called the first James Bond movie (screenwriter Ernest Lehman called it "the ultimate Hitchcock picture" while he was writing it, but no matter). And the similarities are evident. In 1960 Hitchcock himself briefly considered directing Thunderball. Ian Fleming originally wanted Grant (who was a good friend of Bond producer Cubby Broccoli) to play 007 in Dr No, and North By Northwest surely had a lot to do with that (Grant turned down the part). 1959 was also the year Fleming published Goldfinger, the first truly ridiculous Bond novel (delightful though it is), which, as the third Bond movie, would perfect the NXNW-style template from which the series would barely deviate until the advent of Daniel Craig." Patterson's review of Goldfinger notwithstanding, the idea of a Hitchcock-directed Bond has been a point of discussion among 007 fans.
The film has been ranked #7 in the top-ten greatest mystery films of all time by the American Film Institute.
October 31, 2009
THE MUSIC OF ITC
THE MUSIC OF ITC
The folks at Network will release a very cool soundtrack collection this week that spans a large number of our fave ITC classics. Network does an incredible production job on their products. I have the Danger Man and Prisoner sets and they are like archival treasures from the ITC vaults. Network operates like the Criterion Collection and loves to add great extras for fans. The new collection is a great way to sample a variety of theme and incidental music from series such as Man in a Suitcase, The Protectors, Strange Report, Department S, Jason King, The Champions, The Saint, The Prisoner, Gideons' Way, The Baron, Strange Report, The Persuaders!, The Adventurer and more. the CD is being released at a sale price of $21.
Tracks 1 - 6 Danger Man (half hour series) Composer - Edwin Astley
Tracks 7 - 13 Danger Man (hour series) Composer - Edwin Astley
Tracks 14 - 15 Gideon’s Way Composer - Edwin Astley
Tracks 16 - 22 The Baron Composer - Edwin Astley
Tracks 23 - 31 The Saint Composer - Edwin Astley
Tracks 32 - 37 Man in a Suitcase Composed by Grainer/Elms
Tracks 38 - 44 The Prisoner Composed by Grainer/Elms/Farnon
Tracks 45 - 53 The Champions Composed by Hatch/Astley/Elms
Tracks 54 - 61 Department S Composer - Edwin Astley
Disc Two
Tracks 1 - 6 Randall & Hopkirk (Deceased) Composer - Edwin Astley
Tracks 7 - 13 Strange Report Composer - Roger Webb
Tracks 14 - 17 The Persuaders! Composed by Barry/Trent/Hatch/Thorne
Tracks 18 - 25 Jason King Composer Laurie Johnson
Tracks 26 - 33 The Protectors Composed by Murry/Callander/Cameron
Tracks 34 - 36 The Adventurer Composed by John Barry / unknown
Tracks 37 - 44 The Zoo Gang Composed by McCartney/Thorne
Tracks 45 - 52 Return of the Saint Composed by Dee/Martin/Scott/de Angelis
The folks at Network will release a very cool soundtrack collection this week that spans a large number of our fave ITC classics. Network does an incredible production job on their products. I have the Danger Man and Prisoner sets and they are like archival treasures from the ITC vaults. Network operates like the Criterion Collection and loves to add great extras for fans. The new collection is a great way to sample a variety of theme and incidental music from series such as Man in a Suitcase, The Protectors, Strange Report, Department S, Jason King, The Champions, The Saint, The Prisoner, Gideons' Way, The Baron, Strange Report, The Persuaders!, The Adventurer and more. the CD is being released at a sale price of $21.
Consisting entirely of original as-used-in-the-series recordings (no lacklustre cover versions here!), this set contains some of the best music ever made for television. Celebrated composers Edwin Astley, Albert Elms, Ron Grainer, Robert Farnon, Roger Webb, John Cameron and Wilfred Josephs showcase their skills with a diverse range of musical styles and some legendary theme tunes. Alongside a commemorative booklet it also includes exclusive music suites from The Persuaders!, The Zoo Gang, Return of the Saint and The Baron that are not available elsewhere.
Disc One
Tracks 1 - 6 Danger Man (half hour series) Composer - Edwin Astley
Tracks 7 - 13 Danger Man (hour series) Composer - Edwin Astley
Tracks 14 - 15 Gideon’s Way Composer - Edwin Astley
Tracks 16 - 22 The Baron Composer - Edwin Astley
Tracks 23 - 31 The Saint Composer - Edwin Astley
Tracks 32 - 37 Man in a Suitcase Composed by Grainer/Elms
Tracks 38 - 44 The Prisoner Composed by Grainer/Elms/Farnon
Tracks 45 - 53 The Champions Composed by Hatch/Astley/Elms
Tracks 54 - 61 Department S Composer - Edwin Astley
Disc Two
Tracks 1 - 6 Randall & Hopkirk (Deceased) Composer - Edwin Astley
Tracks 7 - 13 Strange Report Composer - Roger Webb
Tracks 14 - 17 The Persuaders! Composed by Barry/Trent/Hatch/Thorne
Tracks 18 - 25 Jason King Composer Laurie Johnson
Tracks 26 - 33 The Protectors Composed by Murry/Callander/Cameron
Tracks 34 - 36 The Adventurer Composed by John Barry / unknown
Tracks 37 - 44 The Zoo Gang Composed by McCartney/Thorne
Tracks 45 - 52 Return of the Saint Composed by Dee/Martin/Scott/de Angelis
October 30, 2009
THIRD MAN OOP
THIRD MAN OOP
A quick Spy Vibe transmission to let readers know that the Criterion Collection Blu-ray edition of The Third Man has gone out of print. No updates so far about when they may resume production. Until then, scope out your local shops to pick up copies before they are gone.
A quick Spy Vibe transmission to let readers know that the Criterion Collection Blu-ray edition of The Third Man has gone out of print. No updates so far about when they may resume production. Until then, scope out your local shops to pick up copies before they are gone.
October 24, 2009
THE ADVENTURES OF RICHARD SALA
Secret messages dropped into hollow tree trunks in the East Bay... Unusual chalk markings at the pier... Spy Vibe meets Richard Sala in the virtual shadows to discuss our love of adventure/thrillers, evil masterminds, The Avengers, and more! Richard's new book, Cat Buglar Black is available now. He has also recently completed his four-book series Delphine for Fantagraphics.
Your books are filled with many adventure/thriller elements (including mysterious baddies, quirky henchmen, trap doors, secret chambers, assassinations, good-hearted sleuths who get more than they bargained for). Without thinking of this as formula, what are the essential conventions that make a story fun for you to write? What does the Richard Sala sandbox have in it?
That's my favorite part of writing -- when the time comes to flesh out the story and I get to start adding all those cool and spooky details. I fell in love with B-movies and comics and pulp fiction and monsters when I was very young, so I've pretty much spent a lifetime absorbing all the creepy and mysterious stuff you mention. To me, what makes a story - especially a mystery or a thriller - fun, ARE those details. If you have one character having a secret meeting with another, for example, why choose a relatively mundane place like a diner when you can have them meet at night in a toy shop or a wax museum? I'm not trying to create anything resembling realism, so I get to have fun with details like that. Does there need to be a scene in a park? Okay, but let's put a big weird statue there, and let's make a hidden door in the base of the statue that leads down underground to a secret hideout. You just keep taking things another step farther, building on things. But being careful to never go too far -- you don't want the details to become obnoxiously "cute" or irritating. You have to be able to see the line -- you don't want to annoy your audience by being overly "clever" -- and that's a line I (hopefully) learned to see by watching a show like The Avengers, which was brilliant when it came to details like that. If you look at certain shows from the 1960s - like The Avengers or Man From UNCLE or The Wild Wild West or The Prisoner - they are overflowing with that kind of imagination and atmosphere, mixing in details of mystery, horror and the fantastic in a way that is at once tongue-in-cheek and deadly dangerous. The style of those shows was a huge influence on me.
Are there particular cliffhanger serials, films, TV shows, or books that inform your experience with adventure conventions? Tell us about your faves.
Growing up in the 1960s, I was exposed to that decade's nostalgia for the pop culture of the 1930s. There was a rediscovery of a lot of things that had become passe or forgotten during the previous couple of decades, and those things were not only being brought back into the culture, but were being celebrated as "pop art". You couldn't go anywhere without seeing posters of King Kong or Frankenstein, The Marx Brothers and W.C. Fields, Flash Gordon and Doc Savage, The Phantom and The Shadow. I was aware that these things were "old" (thanks to my Dad, who was a movie buff, as well as magazines like Famous Monsters of Filmland). But, as a kid, they may as well as have been as new as James Bond and The Beatles. It was all one big, wonderful stew. So, yeah, I think it was that mixture of 1930s pop culture and 1960s pop culture that shaped my style into whatever it became.
I watched old Flash Gordon serials on Saturday mornings, and then saw Barbarella in a theatre a few years later. I'd read the 1930's adventures of The Shadow and Doc Savage, which were being reprinted in paperback, then go see Thunderball or Danger: Diabolik. I'd watch the old Sherlock Holmes movies and the latest episode of The Avengers on TV. I recognized the threads connecting these things. Magazines like Famous Monsters or, especially, Castle of Frankenstein covered these things equally. In fact, I'd read about The Avengers in Castle of Frankenstein a couple of years before it came to the US. They were always featuring articles on things we kids could only dream of seeing -- lots of European films that were much more sexy and violent than American ones. That really fired my imagination.
One of my personal favorites as a kid and one of my biggest influences to this day was the comic strip Dick Tracy, which I started cutting out of the newspaper and saving when I was in the fourth grade. I loved comic books, too, of course, but Dick Tracy is where I learned how to tell (long, complicated) stories, visually, and where I learned how much more interesting a story is if you populate it with grotesques and weird-os!
Many of your stories feature female heroes that have a tendency to dress in black catsuits, including your new book Cat Burglar Black- a title which I like to think of as a fashion statement! I know we share a love of The Avengers. (Mrs. Peel was my first crush). Tell us about your experiences and thoughts as an Avengers fan.
I may have had other crushes as a kid, but she was my first real serious one, that's for sure! I loved (and still do) everything about The Avengers. In the years before VHS or syndication, you saw these shows when they aired ONCE - maybe twice if you were lucky and they reran it. So there were lots of kids like me who would try to remember everything about the episodes they had just seen. I had notebooks where I wrote down plots and titles. Doing that I became aware of how awesomely clever and smart the episodes were -- and I loved writing down the names of the oddball characters. I tried to get cast names, but often wasn't fast enough (no IMDB or episode guides back then!). I took photos off of TV with my little Instamatic camera -- a whole ordeal that's probably worth a separate article. My brother and I would record shows on our reel-to-reel tape-recorder because it was the only way to have a record of the shows we loved. Then we'd listen to them over and over. (To this day, I can recite whole scenes of dialogue from The Outer Limits!)
I didn't have any friends (or family members) who loved The Avengers as much as me. It was truly a cult show - even back then. A lot of people didn't seem to "get it", but I did for some reason. I got caught up in the whole spy "craze". I did all the things kids do (at least kids who have just moved to a new town and haven't made any friends yet) -- I wrote away for photos, sent fan letters, joined fan clubs, purchased fanzines - which seem awfully primitive now, of course - but it was a way to get information about the show (though of course any "news" was months and months late). The newsstand movie mags of the day would print the addresses where you could write your "favorite stars". I think I wrote Patrick Macnee and Diana Rigg care of ABC, but their replies came from the UK. That was magical for me! Diana Rigg just sent a photo (which was plenty!), but Patrick Macnee also included a typed letter which he signed as well as a one-page biography(!). I can scan them for you, and you'll see the edges of the photos are damaged by tape marks, since I hung them up on my wall!
Does the black catsuit also reflect an interest in the serial Les Vampires? Did you see the modern film homage, Irma Vep?
I mentioned Castle Of Frankenstein -- which was an incredible magazine that covered fantastic cinema from all over the world. In one issue there was an article on Georges Franju's Judex that showed a photo of a woman dressed in the classic cat burglar get-up. That had a major impact on me for some reason -- just that photo, since it would be years until I'd see the film (which became one of my favorites). Also, it seemed that there were a lot of "generic" spy girls in a very similar outfit -- form-fitting black turtlenecks and pants, in movies like Goldfinger or Carry On Spying. So I always found that look attractive, with it's connotations of intrigue and danger. There was a whole ad campaign in the '60s based around that look that featured Pamela Austin in that outfit in many print ads, often tied up (try that nowadays!) -- it was something to do with cars, but all I remember is her! There's also an early episode of The Avengers where Emma has to fight off a dance class of similarly clad spy girls. That's one of my favorite episodes and in fact I "borrowed" a fairly major plot device from it for my book Mad Night. (It's the most respectful of homages, believe me!). I did enjoy watching both Les Vampires and Irma Vep, but I only saw those long after the impression of that outfit had been burned into my brain!
On Spy Vibe we often discuss the Prisoner, Bond, Gerry Anderson, Flint, Diabolik, etc. Are there other spy faves of yours? What about them inspires you?
Favorite 1960s spy (etc) movies (some I saw in the theatre, some not until years later) and TV shows: The Flint Movies (I had a Coburn poster on my wall in my teen years -- he was another hero of mine), Diabolik, UFO, The Sean Connery Bond films, The Prisoner, Man (and Girl) From UNCLE, Secret Agent. I'm crazy about The President's Analyst, The Tenth Victim and Dr. Mabuse movies. I love all the spoofs and the campy stuff, all the Euro-Spy stuff, Fu Manchu. I can watch (or tolerate) many of the lesser of these that friends & colleagues have a hard time sitting through. Casino Royale (actually a personal fave), Matt Helm, even shows like "Amos Burke, Secret Agent", which, although arguably pretty "bad", I still find fun to watch. I guess I watch for something that goes beyond "good" or "bad" -- I watch for the imagination and the outrageousness. As long as they're not boring!
Your stories are populated by such characters- they are marvelous eccentrics! We’ve seen ingenious disguises, macabre outfits and accessories, and even a character who’s chilling commands came from a small sack (was he just a head?). Does that eye for quirky detail come from favorite stories growing up? Your rogues gallery far surpasses anything from Charles Addams or Gorey.
That's very kind of you to say, although I only wish I could have created something as classic and timeless as The Addams Family! I mentioned Dick Tracy before -- and that's certainly where a lot of my desire to create oddballs and grotesques comes from. I began reading it in the 1960s, which is when a lot of the "old-time" fans or the Dick Tracy "experts" believe the strip has begun to go downhill. They couldn't be more wrong -- it was actually an incredibly fertile time for Chester Gould's imagination. It's a tragedy that almost none of that has been widely reprinted. They always reprint the older stuff, which is classic. of course. But Gould in the 1960s was being influenced by James Bond and the crazier story lines of the day, and he never let up on the violence or bizarre characters. People today wouldn't believe what was on the front of the Sunday Comics back then! The first story line I read and collected involved a leering, nervous criminal who murdered his rivals and kept their shrunken heads in a cabinet (seen often). His equally evil sister, Ugly Christine, falls to her death into a smokestack, long legs exposed, which was shown over and over again throughout the week. It was amazing stuff, full of energy and delirium. Things just got weirder and weirder until in the 1970s it almost started to seem unhinged. But for some reason no one ever reprints that stuff and that's too bad. Of course, the many, many bizarre characters on The Avengers were a big influence. So were old movies with characters like Peter Lorre, Bela Lugosi, Boris Karloff, etc. I was always crazy about all the gleefully creepy character actors like George Zucco, Lionel Atwill, John Carradine and on and on. The kind of types they always played -- that is something else I realize now has been a huge influence. The Doctor in Cat Burglar Black is definitely one of those "types".
Are you a Vincent Price fan? I was already collecting your books when I finally saw the Dr. Phibes movies, and I think reading your work helped me appreciate them that much more.
Yes! I was recently asked to compile a top ten list of horror movies and The Abominable Dr. Phibes was in there. When I first saw it, I felt a kind of Avengers vibe -- and sure enough (along with several familiar British actors), the director Robert Fuest had done some episodes. And, yes, Vincent Price can do no wrong in my eyes.
Who were your literary heroes as a boy? Did you read any of the spy series authors (007, Saint, etc)?
I read all the Bond paperbacks, though the one I remember the best as a reading experience was Dr. No, for some reason. I even remember reading the hardcover of Colonel Sun by Kingsley Amis (it was my mom's copy) which had this weird Dali-esque cover. I even read that James Bond Dossier, which I remember being very inspiring and fascinating. I was also reading every Shadow, Doc Savage and Fu Manchu paperback I could find. I read lots of movie novelizations of films I was dying to see (and thought I never might) like Scream and Scream Again and Countess Dracula. By the time I got out of high school and had moved on to college, though, I pretty much left the genre & series books behind -- and it was that way for many years until sometime in my early thirties I got hooked on hard-boiled stuff and after I'd burned through that in about ten years I was ready to rediscover the stuff I loved as a kid again. And I remembered why I wanted to be a writer and artist in the first place! Funny how those things work...
If you were a evil villain, what would you choose as your: name, evil lair, and evil scheme?
I always kind of identified with Peter Lorre, especially in Mad Love from 1935. He's not really evil - he's just in love! Beyond that, I'd have to say I've always been partial to the hooded or masked kinds of phantoms or masterminds. I always thought it would be cool to be some kind of Phantom of Suburbia, where at night you put on your cloak and jump over your neighbor's fence, then creep through various yards, trying to avoid the barking dogs or tripping over the barbecue grills or plastic kiddie pools. I'm still not sure what exactly the point would be, but it sounds fun! Seriously, I think the most interesting kinds of villains are not motivated by greed or world domination, but by neurotic quirks or emotions of jealousy or revenge. Something everyone can relate to!
Thank you to Richard Sala for spending time with Spy Vibe! Discovering Richard's work was like finding a lost treasure chest in the family attic. Growing up on the cusp of the 1960s/1970s, I remember a similar fascination with this style of stories and characters. Like Richard and fellow fans who grew up in the days before Netflix and YouTube, I also tape recorded the audio of Spy and Beatles programs when they ran on television. That way I could experience the stories again and again during the year while I awaited the next broadcast! The last time I remember pushing play and record on a tape deck next to my black and white/mono set (can modern Spy Vibers visualize this?) was to tape the sounds of On Her Majesty's Secret Service. Hearing the soundtrack still conjures up images of Bond escaping in the night and racing down the slopes for his very life! Like radio, it created a kind of "theater of the mind." In the days before the Internet, we really had to be resourceful and quick- taking notes on episodes as they aired, snapping photographs of the TV screen. I'm glad to hear I wasn't the only one doing that! I found my old Prisoner notes about two years ago and sent them to David Webb Peoples as a gift (he is writing The Prisoner film -in development).
Among my own collection of original art, a framed page from Richard's Chuckling Whatsit hangs over my couch. The shape of his ink lines, the density of blacks, the style of shading and lettering are elements that give Richard's work a kind of woodblock print vibe. His love of great thrillers and adventures is evident throughout his stories, and like The Avengers, his ever-present wit runs counterpoint to the poison daggers and shots in the dark. It's no surprise that Dr. No stands out as one of his fave Ian Fleming stories. I can imagine a comic version of the evil Dr. No on his remote island, spinning his schemes of greed, sabotage, and experiments with endurance and death- only to be buried under a mountain of guano by a delirious spy who just escaped a giant octopus! Did I mention the doctor has claws for hands and a fire-breathing dragon tank? It would all fit beautifully into Sala's oeuvre.
Spy Vibers may already be familiar with Sala's many books, and with his Liquid Television animated series Invisible Hands. To dive further into the wonderfully macabre and thrilling world of Richard Sala, I recommend slipping through your trap door to the nearest bookshop and ask for: Cat Burglar Black, Chuckling Whatsit, Delphine (series of 4 comics), Maniac Killer Strikes Again, and Peculia. Visit Richard's blog and website for more information about his projects. The complete Dick Tracy volumes and Richard's Big Book of Horror (with Steve Niles) are available from IDW Publishing. Scans of the above Avengers memorabilia are from Richard Sala's childhood collection. Current exhibit of work through December 13, 2009 at the Cartoon Art Museum in San Francisco.
Your books are filled with many adventure/thriller elements (including mysterious baddies, quirky henchmen, trap doors, secret chambers, assassinations, good-hearted sleuths who get more than they bargained for). Without thinking of this as formula, what are the essential conventions that make a story fun for you to write? What does the Richard Sala sandbox have in it?
That's my favorite part of writing -- when the time comes to flesh out the story and I get to start adding all those cool and spooky details. I fell in love with B-movies and comics and pulp fiction and monsters when I was very young, so I've pretty much spent a lifetime absorbing all the creepy and mysterious stuff you mention. To me, what makes a story - especially a mystery or a thriller - fun, ARE those details. If you have one character having a secret meeting with another, for example, why choose a relatively mundane place like a diner when you can have them meet at night in a toy shop or a wax museum? I'm not trying to create anything resembling realism, so I get to have fun with details like that. Does there need to be a scene in a park? Okay, but let's put a big weird statue there, and let's make a hidden door in the base of the statue that leads down underground to a secret hideout. You just keep taking things another step farther, building on things. But being careful to never go too far -- you don't want the details to become obnoxiously "cute" or irritating. You have to be able to see the line -- you don't want to annoy your audience by being overly "clever" -- and that's a line I (hopefully) learned to see by watching a show like The Avengers, which was brilliant when it came to details like that. If you look at certain shows from the 1960s - like The Avengers or Man From UNCLE or The Wild Wild West or The Prisoner - they are overflowing with that kind of imagination and atmosphere, mixing in details of mystery, horror and the fantastic in a way that is at once tongue-in-cheek and deadly dangerous. The style of those shows was a huge influence on me. Are there particular cliffhanger serials, films, TV shows, or books that inform your experience with adventure conventions? Tell us about your faves.
Growing up in the 1960s, I was exposed to that decade's nostalgia for the pop culture of the 1930s. There was a rediscovery of a lot of things that had become passe or forgotten during the previous couple of decades, and those things were not only being brought back into the culture, but were being celebrated as "pop art". You couldn't go anywhere without seeing posters of King Kong or Frankenstein, The Marx Brothers and W.C. Fields, Flash Gordon and Doc Savage, The Phantom and The Shadow. I was aware that these things were "old" (thanks to my Dad, who was a movie buff, as well as magazines like Famous Monsters of Filmland). But, as a kid, they may as well as have been as new as James Bond and The Beatles. It was all one big, wonderful stew. So, yeah, I think it was that mixture of 1930s pop culture and 1960s pop culture that shaped my style into whatever it became.
I watched old Flash Gordon serials on Saturday mornings, and then saw Barbarella in a theatre a few years later. I'd read the 1930's adventures of The Shadow and Doc Savage, which were being reprinted in paperback, then go see Thunderball or Danger: Diabolik. I'd watch the old Sherlock Holmes movies and the latest episode of The Avengers on TV. I recognized the threads connecting these things. Magazines like Famous Monsters or, especially, Castle of Frankenstein covered these things equally. In fact, I'd read about The Avengers in Castle of Frankenstein a couple of years before it came to the US. They were always featuring articles on things we kids could only dream of seeing -- lots of European films that were much more sexy and violent than American ones. That really fired my imagination.
One of my personal favorites as a kid and one of my biggest influences to this day was the comic strip Dick Tracy, which I started cutting out of the newspaper and saving when I was in the fourth grade. I loved comic books, too, of course, but Dick Tracy is where I learned how to tell (long, complicated) stories, visually, and where I learned how much more interesting a story is if you populate it with grotesques and weird-os! 
Many of your stories feature female heroes that have a tendency to dress in black catsuits, including your new book Cat Burglar Black- a title which I like to think of as a fashion statement! I know we share a love of The Avengers. (Mrs. Peel was my first crush). Tell us about your experiences and thoughts as an Avengers fan.
I may have had other crushes as a kid, but she was my first real serious one, that's for sure! I loved (and still do) everything about The Avengers. In the years before VHS or syndication, you saw these shows when they aired ONCE - maybe twice if you were lucky and they reran it. So there were lots of kids like me who would try to remember everything about the episodes they had just seen. I had notebooks where I wrote down plots and titles. Doing that I became aware of how awesomely clever and smart the episodes were -- and I loved writing down the names of the oddball characters. I tried to get cast names, but often wasn't fast enough (no IMDB or episode guides back then!). I took photos off of TV with my little Instamatic camera -- a whole ordeal that's probably worth a separate article. My brother and I would record shows on our reel-to-reel tape-recorder because it was the only way to have a record of the shows we loved. Then we'd listen to them over and over. (To this day, I can recite whole scenes of dialogue from The Outer Limits!)
I didn't have any friends (or family members) who loved The Avengers as much as me. It was truly a cult show - even back then. A lot of people didn't seem to "get it", but I did for some reason. I got caught up in the whole spy "craze". I did all the things kids do (at least kids who have just moved to a new town and haven't made any friends yet) -- I wrote away for photos, sent fan letters, joined fan clubs, purchased fanzines - which seem awfully primitive now, of course - but it was a way to get information about the show (though of course any "news" was months and months late). The newsstand movie mags of the day would print the addresses where you could write your "favorite stars". I think I wrote Patrick Macnee and Diana Rigg care of ABC, but their replies came from the UK. That was magical for me! Diana Rigg just sent a photo (which was plenty!), but Patrick Macnee also included a typed letter which he signed as well as a one-page biography(!). I can scan them for you, and you'll see the edges of the photos are damaged by tape marks, since I hung them up on my wall! 
Does the black catsuit also reflect an interest in the serial Les Vampires? Did you see the modern film homage, Irma Vep?
I mentioned Castle Of Frankenstein -- which was an incredible magazine that covered fantastic cinema from all over the world. In one issue there was an article on Georges Franju's Judex that showed a photo of a woman dressed in the classic cat burglar get-up. That had a major impact on me for some reason -- just that photo, since it would be years until I'd see the film (which became one of my favorites). Also, it seemed that there were a lot of "generic" spy girls in a very similar outfit -- form-fitting black turtlenecks and pants, in movies like Goldfinger or Carry On Spying. So I always found that look attractive, with it's connotations of intrigue and danger. There was a whole ad campaign in the '60s based around that look that featured Pamela Austin in that outfit in many print ads, often tied up (try that nowadays!) -- it was something to do with cars, but all I remember is her! There's also an early episode of The Avengers where Emma has to fight off a dance class of similarly clad spy girls. That's one of my favorite episodes and in fact I "borrowed" a fairly major plot device from it for my book Mad Night. (It's the most respectful of homages, believe me!). I did enjoy watching both Les Vampires and Irma Vep, but I only saw those long after the impression of that outfit had been burned into my brain!
On Spy Vibe we often discuss the Prisoner, Bond, Gerry Anderson, Flint, Diabolik, etc. Are there other spy faves of yours? What about them inspires you?Favorite 1960s spy (etc) movies (some I saw in the theatre, some not until years later) and TV shows: The Flint Movies (I had a Coburn poster on my wall in my teen years -- he was another hero of mine), Diabolik, UFO, The Sean Connery Bond films, The Prisoner, Man (and Girl) From UNCLE, Secret Agent. I'm crazy about The President's Analyst, The Tenth Victim and Dr. Mabuse movies. I love all the spoofs and the campy stuff, all the Euro-Spy stuff, Fu Manchu. I can watch (or tolerate) many of the lesser of these that friends & colleagues have a hard time sitting through. Casino Royale (actually a personal fave), Matt Helm, even shows like "Amos Burke, Secret Agent", which, although arguably pretty "bad", I still find fun to watch. I guess I watch for something that goes beyond "good" or "bad" -- I watch for the imagination and the outrageousness. As long as they're not boring!
Your stories are populated by such characters- they are marvelous eccentrics! We’ve seen ingenious disguises, macabre outfits and accessories, and even a character who’s chilling commands came from a small sack (was he just a head?). Does that eye for quirky detail come from favorite stories growing up? Your rogues gallery far surpasses anything from Charles Addams or Gorey.
That's very kind of you to say, although I only wish I could have created something as classic and timeless as The Addams Family! I mentioned Dick Tracy before -- and that's certainly where a lot of my desire to create oddballs and grotesques comes from. I began reading it in the 1960s, which is when a lot of the "old-time" fans or the Dick Tracy "experts" believe the strip has begun to go downhill. They couldn't be more wrong -- it was actually an incredibly fertile time for Chester Gould's imagination. It's a tragedy that almost none of that has been widely reprinted. They always reprint the older stuff, which is classic. of course. But Gould in the 1960s was being influenced by James Bond and the crazier story lines of the day, and he never let up on the violence or bizarre characters. People today wouldn't believe what was on the front of the Sunday Comics back then! The first story line I read and collected involved a leering, nervous criminal who murdered his rivals and kept their shrunken heads in a cabinet (seen often). His equally evil sister, Ugly Christine, falls to her death into a smokestack, long legs exposed, which was shown over and over again throughout the week. It was amazing stuff, full of energy and delirium. Things just got weirder and weirder until in the 1970s it almost started to seem unhinged. But for some reason no one ever reprints that stuff and that's too bad. Of course, the many, many bizarre characters on The Avengers were a big influence. So were old movies with characters like Peter Lorre, Bela Lugosi, Boris Karloff, etc. I was always crazy about all the gleefully creepy character actors like George Zucco, Lionel Atwill, John Carradine and on and on. The kind of types they always played -- that is something else I realize now has been a huge influence. The Doctor in Cat Burglar Black is definitely one of those "types". 
Are you a Vincent Price fan? I was already collecting your books when I finally saw the Dr. Phibes movies, and I think reading your work helped me appreciate them that much more.
Yes! I was recently asked to compile a top ten list of horror movies and The Abominable Dr. Phibes was in there. When I first saw it, I felt a kind of Avengers vibe -- and sure enough (along with several familiar British actors), the director Robert Fuest had done some episodes. And, yes, Vincent Price can do no wrong in my eyes.
Who were your literary heroes as a boy? Did you read any of the spy series authors (007, Saint, etc)?
I read all the Bond paperbacks, though the one I remember the best as a reading experience was Dr. No, for some reason. I even remember reading the hardcover of Colonel Sun by Kingsley Amis (it was my mom's copy) which had this weird Dali-esque cover. I even read that James Bond Dossier, which I remember being very inspiring and fascinating. I was also reading every Shadow, Doc Savage and Fu Manchu paperback I could find. I read lots of movie novelizations of films I was dying to see (and thought I never might) like Scream and Scream Again and Countess Dracula. By the time I got out of high school and had moved on to college, though, I pretty much left the genre & series books behind -- and it was that way for many years until sometime in my early thirties I got hooked on hard-boiled stuff and after I'd burned through that in about ten years I was ready to rediscover the stuff I loved as a kid again. And I remembered why I wanted to be a writer and artist in the first place! Funny how those things work...
If you were a evil villain, what would you choose as your: name, evil lair, and evil scheme?
I always kind of identified with Peter Lorre, especially in Mad Love from 1935. He's not really evil - he's just in love! Beyond that, I'd have to say I've always been partial to the hooded or masked kinds of phantoms or masterminds. I always thought it would be cool to be some kind of Phantom of Suburbia, where at night you put on your cloak and jump over your neighbor's fence, then creep through various yards, trying to avoid the barking dogs or tripping over the barbecue grills or plastic kiddie pools. I'm still not sure what exactly the point would be, but it sounds fun! Seriously, I think the most interesting kinds of villains are not motivated by greed or world domination, but by neurotic quirks or emotions of jealousy or revenge. Something everyone can relate to!
Thank you to Richard Sala for spending time with Spy Vibe! Discovering Richard's work was like finding a lost treasure chest in the family attic. Growing up on the cusp of the 1960s/1970s, I remember a similar fascination with this style of stories and characters. Like Richard and fellow fans who grew up in the days before Netflix and YouTube, I also tape recorded the audio of Spy and Beatles programs when they ran on television. That way I could experience the stories again and again during the year while I awaited the next broadcast! The last time I remember pushing play and record on a tape deck next to my black and white/mono set (can modern Spy Vibers visualize this?) was to tape the sounds of On Her Majesty's Secret Service. Hearing the soundtrack still conjures up images of Bond escaping in the night and racing down the slopes for his very life! Like radio, it created a kind of "theater of the mind." In the days before the Internet, we really had to be resourceful and quick- taking notes on episodes as they aired, snapping photographs of the TV screen. I'm glad to hear I wasn't the only one doing that! I found my old Prisoner notes about two years ago and sent them to David Webb Peoples as a gift (he is writing The Prisoner film -in development).Among my own collection of original art, a framed page from Richard's Chuckling Whatsit hangs over my couch. The shape of his ink lines, the density of blacks, the style of shading and lettering are elements that give Richard's work a kind of woodblock print vibe. His love of great thrillers and adventures is evident throughout his stories, and like The Avengers, his ever-present wit runs counterpoint to the poison daggers and shots in the dark. It's no surprise that Dr. No stands out as one of his fave Ian Fleming stories. I can imagine a comic version of the evil Dr. No on his remote island, spinning his schemes of greed, sabotage, and experiments with endurance and death- only to be buried under a mountain of guano by a delirious spy who just escaped a giant octopus! Did I mention the doctor has claws for hands and a fire-breathing dragon tank? It would all fit beautifully into Sala's oeuvre.
Spy Vibers may already be familiar with Sala's many books, and with his Liquid Television animated series Invisible Hands. To dive further into the wonderfully macabre and thrilling world of Richard Sala, I recommend slipping through your trap door to the nearest bookshop and ask for: Cat Burglar Black, Chuckling Whatsit, Delphine (series of 4 comics), Maniac Killer Strikes Again, and Peculia. Visit Richard's blog and website for more information about his projects. The complete Dick Tracy volumes and Richard's Big Book of Horror (with Steve Niles) are available from IDW Publishing. Scans of the above Avengers memorabilia are from Richard Sala's childhood collection. Current exhibit of work through December 13, 2009 at the Cartoon Art Museum in San Francisco.
October 21, 2009
10th VICTIM THEME
THE 10th VICTIM THEME
Spy Vibers know that I have a special thing for this film. I don't know how I came upon it as a kid, most likely on WOR TV out of NYC. I remember looking in the back of TV Guide each week for two things: Beatles films and this stylish gem from Elio Petri starring Marcello Mastroianni. Just as the tunes from the Beatles cartoon, A Hard Days Night, and Help informed my tastes, so did the 10th Victim soundtrack by Piero Piccioni. The vocal scat performance by Mina seemed to promise a kind of fantasy/romance that I could grasp as a youngster. I imagine that the style might sound odd to someone who did not grow up with it. But if you are a fan of other Italian composers who used unusual sounds, vocalizations, and instrumentation (Ennio Morricone for example), that may provide an audio context to enjoy the 10th Victim music. I found a lovely short video of the English version of the theme song, Spiral Waltz, on YouTube that offers a look at some rare stills, covers, and posters.
Spy Vibers know that I have a special thing for this film. I don't know how I came upon it as a kid, most likely on WOR TV out of NYC. I remember looking in the back of TV Guide each week for two things: Beatles films and this stylish gem from Elio Petri starring Marcello Mastroianni. Just as the tunes from the Beatles cartoon, A Hard Days Night, and Help informed my tastes, so did the 10th Victim soundtrack by Piero Piccioni. The vocal scat performance by Mina seemed to promise a kind of fantasy/romance that I could grasp as a youngster. I imagine that the style might sound odd to someone who did not grow up with it. But if you are a fan of other Italian composers who used unusual sounds, vocalizations, and instrumentation (Ennio Morricone for example), that may provide an audio context to enjoy the 10th Victim music. I found a lovely short video of the English version of the theme song, Spiral Waltz, on YouTube that offers a look at some rare stills, covers, and posters.
October 19, 2009
RETRO SPOOKY STYLE
RETRO SPOOKY STYLE
Spy Vibers may be interested in checking out a current sale over at Deep Discount. Classic horror flicks are 2 for $10, and the list includes some films that represent some of the coolest spooky style and design of the period. Any fan of the macabre, stylish work by Tim Burton, Edward Gorey, Richard Sala, Charles Addams will love the Dr. Phibes films with Vincent Price. These really are a must-see and I will write more about them in the future. Also on the list is the cult Hammer Horror classic The Vampire Lovers with the lovely vamp herself, Ingrid Pitt. Other titles include Invaders From Mars, Die Monster Die, and a grindhouse double feature I've not seen called Mini-Skirt Mob/Chrome and Hot Leather. That sounds like a contender for Mystery Science 3000. Check out the sale and enjoy some retro, stylish storytelling during the Halloween season.
Spy Vibers may be interested in checking out a current sale over at Deep Discount. Classic horror flicks are 2 for $10, and the list includes some films that represent some of the coolest spooky style and design of the period. Any fan of the macabre, stylish work by Tim Burton, Edward Gorey, Richard Sala, Charles Addams will love the Dr. Phibes films with Vincent Price. These really are a must-see and I will write more about them in the future. Also on the list is the cult Hammer Horror classic The Vampire Lovers with the lovely vamp herself, Ingrid Pitt. Other titles include Invaders From Mars, Die Monster Die, and a grindhouse double feature I've not seen called Mini-Skirt Mob/Chrome and Hot Leather. That sounds like a contender for Mystery Science 3000. Check out the sale and enjoy some retro, stylish storytelling during the Halloween season.
October 17, 2009
007 PROP REPLICAS
007 PROP REPLICAS
The Commander Bond Network announced something rather exciting today. For those of us who combed toy shops as kids for 007 toys, and more often, had to work like NASA engineers to create Bond-style gadgets cobbled from household items (cardboard and black paint make a great silencer), a better-late-than-never deal is in the works to produce officially licensed props from the films themselves. The most interesting prop listed so far is a replica of Scaramanga's golden gun. I wonder if it will assemble from a golden lighter, pen, etc? Click image below to enlarge.
From the CBN: Big Chief Products Ltd. is proud to announce a license agreement with Eon Productions/Danjaq LLC to produce a range of movie prop replicas, based on the gadgets and related items from the James Bond film series. Working in partnership with appointed exclusive distributor Factory Entertainment Ltd. Big Chief will release a comprehensive range including entry price point replicas, through to high-end collectibles. These authentic, highly detailed replicas of iconic items featured in the James Bond films are officially licensed by EON Productions/Danjaq, LLC and are based on studies and examinations of the actual screen-used props to ensure maximum accuracy.
The Commander Bond Network announced something rather exciting today. For those of us who combed toy shops as kids for 007 toys, and more often, had to work like NASA engineers to create Bond-style gadgets cobbled from household items (cardboard and black paint make a great silencer), a better-late-than-never deal is in the works to produce officially licensed props from the films themselves. The most interesting prop listed so far is a replica of Scaramanga's golden gun. I wonder if it will assemble from a golden lighter, pen, etc? Click image below to enlarge.
From the CBN: Big Chief Products Ltd. is proud to announce a license agreement with Eon Productions/Danjaq LLC to produce a range of movie prop replicas, based on the gadgets and related items from the James Bond film series. Working in partnership with appointed exclusive distributor Factory Entertainment Ltd. Big Chief will release a comprehensive range including entry price point replicas, through to high-end collectibles. These authentic, highly detailed replicas of iconic items featured in the James Bond films are officially licensed by EON Productions/Danjaq, LLC and are based on studies and examinations of the actual screen-used props to ensure maximum accuracy.
Items currently in development include 1:1 scale replicas of: Scaramanga’s golden gun from The Man with the Golden Gun (1974); the fearsome metal teeth worn by Jaws in films The Spy Who Loved Me (1977) and Moonraker (1979), and Solitaire’s tarot cards as featured in Live and Let Die (1973). Factory Entertainment will begin offering these exciting new James Bond collectibles both direct to consumer and at wholesale, worldwide from late 2009.
Big Chief director Mark Andrews said: “We are thrilled to be working with EON Productions. As fans ourselves we know people have been eager for James Bond prop replicas for many years. We are committed to delivering a range of products from the heritage era films right up to the current Daniel Craig films which people will be proud to own.” Big Chief and Factory Entertainment are each comprised of industry veterans, who are passionate about delivering high-quality limited edition collectibles and operate offices both in the UK and USA and have worldwide distribution channels.
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