I saw Disney’s 1994 animated-cartoon Lion King (decent enough but calm down), and then I took the kids to see the Lion King Broadway musical sometime in the spring or summer of ’98 (okay but enough already). Now I’m supposed to get excited 20 years later over yet another version of the ’94 original because the CG animation techniques are live-actiony?

The family crowd will pour into the plexes, but the “lion cub destined to be king of the animals gets banished by his evil uncle” story has always been ridiculous. Lions are predators who are out to fill their bellies so why the hell should various African species bow down to a killing beast who would just as soon eat them as look at them? Bambi made some kind of sense — this doesn’t.

Yeah, yeah…I get it. This is a movie about proud African heritage and manifest destiny — a talking-animal version of Black Panther.

When I watch Cary Grant in North by Northwest I’m always aware this was his crowning big-screen moment of the ’50s, his last great role and the last film in which he could make a case for looking late 40ish and perhaps a suitable sexual partner for Eva Marie Saint (he was 54 when Alfred Hitchcock shot NXNW in ’58 — she was 34), and after this he was more and more the silver fox and starting to go gently downhill with grace and elegance (nobody believed he was an appropriate romantic match for Audrey Hepburn in Charade) but heading there regardless, and of course destined to retire by the mid ’60s. So North by Northwest was really the last shining moment of his career…the last VistaVision moment when everything was truly in place.

The best part of Thanksgiving Day is the morning. Chilling in the den or kitchen, that warmish snug feeling (it’s 18 degrees outside as I speak), a coffee or a hot chocolate with a spritz of whipped cream, writing or web surfing, awesome aromas from the kitchen, “Back Street Girl” or one of Bernard Herrmann‘s scores on the Sonos. It doesn’t get much better than this.

Then you leave for the gathering or the gathering comes to you and it’s like “okay, here we go.” Entirely pleasant blah-dee-blah blah. You have to tell yourself not to look at the phone. Then you have to say “no” to nearly everything, to this or that serving or portion size or creamy, gleaming, gravy-covered whatever. The aromas are the best but the food…better to pass. Just say “no,” “no, thanks,” “no, thank you” and “Oh, that looks magnificent but maybe later.” And ignore anyone who likes Trump. Slip into the bathroom to check the phone. Take a walk after dinner. Pretend to watch the football game but focus on your phone. And after four or five hours, guests are allowed to go home.

Tragedy this day, 55 years ago. The brutal kind, to put it mildly. Instant cut-to-black at age 46. At least it was quick.

People who make it into their graying, neck-wattled, bent-over years experience a hundred or a thousand signals a day that say “things are slowing down, you’re becoming a bit more vulnerable, your gleaming years are behind you, it’s all downhill from here on, life can be dull and dispiriting, time for a nap,” etc. I sensed that resignation every time I visited my parents in their assisted living facility.

I guess I’m saying in a very narrow way that there might be a very slight upside in being spared all that, and in making a fast, decisive, sudden exit when the sky is blue and you’ve got a full head of hair and millions in the bank…wham.

You’re here and then you’re not here. Then you’re somewhere else…maybe.

That being said, all hail Kirk Douglas and Norman Lloyd! God, forgive me — I just used an exclamation point.

DATE: 11.22.18
FROM: Jeffrey Wells, Hollywood Elsewhere
TO George Feltenstein, SP VP of Theatrical Catalog Marketing, Warner Bros. Home Entertainment
RE: Warner Archives Bluray of The Thing From Another World (’51)

George,

Can you please convey what’s happening with Warner Archive’s forthcoming Bluray of The Thing From Another World? There seem to be delays.

I ordered it a couple of weeks ago on Amazon. I know I did! But now there’s no record of the order.

The Thing‘s Amazon page now says “currently unavailable…we don’t know when or if this item will be in stock.”

Jeffrey Wells, Hollywood Elsewhere

Feltenstein reply: “There is no official street date at the present time for The Thing From Another World due to an industry-wide replication capacity problem. People are working diligently to get things back on track ASAP and we apologize for any confusion. Once we know of a concrete street date we will let all know through all possible channels (including right here). Rest assured The Thing From Another World is forthcoming.

“To be clear, this situation is more complex than the usual supply/demand issue, and it has created many problematic delays for a large amount of releases from many different companies.

“I believe the issue is now being rectified, and I have seen online posts on various forums from consumers acknowledging they have are receiving notices from Amazon that their orders will be arriving next week, and I expect their product page will be re-activated accordingly.”

In its own backyard, Hollywood Elsewhere has identified why a fair amount of movies are vapid, insipid and formulaic to a fault. The reason is because of the cinematic preferences of two HE commenters — one called “Roscoe Coltrane” and another who goes by the name “Kit Reyes.” These guys aren’t literally the cause of shitty movies, of course, but they’ll do for metaphors.

Yesterday people were talking about the failure of Widows, and Roscoe posted the following: “I’ll be honest. I want to see this. I want to support Viola Davis. But I fucking refuse to be depressed at the movies. I fucking refuse. Too much shit going on in the world. I can’t get up for two hours of melodrama. Even well acted and shot melodrama.”

About ten hours later Reyes chimed in as follows: “I agree with you completely. That’s why, as dumb as Aquaman looks, people will watch it. Because people who don’t follow this site really just want to have a good time, and there’s absolutely nothing wrong with that.”

To which I replied, “Yes, there is something wrong with that. As in a whole lot wrong ‘Just show me a good time, don’t bring me down and let me pop a Percocet’ attitudes encourage the very worst kind of jizz-whizz, jack-off filmmaking. The people who buy movie tickets based on this attitude are the reason so many films are trite and shallow and soul-draining. So thank you, Kit, for doing your part. And you too, Roscoe! Thanks for Aquaman and Otto Bathurst‘s Robin Hood! Films like this make me ten times more depressed than you ever felt because of this or that dreaded melodrama.”

Those Green Book dissers I wrote about three days ago need to review a History vs. Hollywood entry that compares the plot of Peter Farrelly‘s film to what actually happened between Don Shirley and Tony Lip 56 years ago. Seriously, jerk-offs…take three minutes and read it. It won’t kill you.

Sometime in ’75 or ’76 a dispute about character and responsibility arose between myself and cartoonist-musician Chance Browne. It stemmed from an accident that happened on a wooded hillside near the Wilton reservoir. Here’s an account that I believe to be honest and reasonably thorough:

Chance, myself and a likable, somewhat eccentric fellow named Mike Connors (currently living in Michigan) were hiking around the reservoir for some reason. Our nature-tripping motive may have had something to do with Chance having recently bought (or been gifted with) an expensive pair of big binoculars, or nothing to do with this — I can’t recall. But he definitely had them looped around his neck.

[Click through to full story on HE-plus]

Remember when Warner Home Entertainment pushed back the release date of the 2001: A Space Odyssey 4K Bluray, from 10.30 to 11.20? Which Digital Bits editor Bill Hunt said was probably “just an issue of replication under capacity causing delays in getting enough product finished for street date”? Well, I ordered the damn thing a while back, fully expecting a delivery sometime yesterday.

Forget it. Not only did I not find the package on my doorstep but Amazon hasn’t even shipped it yet, due to WHE not keeping up with demand, etc. WHE has now dropped the ball twice with this disc. Thanks, fellas, much obliged, etc.

For what it’s worth (probably not much), I agree with Michelle Wolf that the recent decision by the White House Correspondents’ Association to not invite a comedian to next April’s event is craven and cowardly. Author Ron Chernow has been invited to be the featured speaker. The WHCA honchos are plainly sucking up to the Trump administration, and probably hoping to persuade the President, who hasn’t attended since assuming office, to drop by. Which will increase ratings and drive sales.

The family of the late William Goldman is hosting a celebration of his life a week and a half from now. In midtown Manhattan. I’m mentioning this because the invite reads “please let us know if you would like us to share this invitation with anyone else who should receive it.” Meaning that their roster of Bill’s soulmates, respected colleagues and fond acquaintances is less than complete. If you and he had some kind of profound give-and-take at one point or another, write me and I’ll pass your information along.

Late last night Paul Schrader described the traditional role of the U.S. President as a “global puncher…we make things happen.” His follow-up was “what happens when an insecure someone who sees himself as a counter-puncher rather then a puncher is put in this position?”

In response Jon Jost wrote that the U.S. role “has been that of empire builder, extortionist and military monster getting its way. After WW2 we were left standing while everyone else was wasted, so we rigged the global economy to run on U.S. [spending and investments], and enjoyed military dominance. Ever since we have used economic blackmail backed with military force to get our way, which seldom was in the locals’ interest, although we had a major propaganda system (including Hollywood) to convince the world that we wore the white hat.

“In reality we were just plain greedy and evil, and a survey of, oh, Central America, South America, Africa and much of Asia proves the point. We are rapists and murderers.”

Edward Havens reply: “So no other civilization in the history world ever conquered the known world and used their power to get their way? America simply perfected what Alexander the Great, Julius Caesar, Caesar Augustus, Genghis Khan and King James I could only dream of doing. And like every other empire, the American empire will fall…if the descent hasn’t started already.”

Don McLaren reply: “As diabolical as the U.S. has been at times, we were still probably the most benevolent hegemon in history.”