This is kinda high concept for a Cassavetes movie: It’s Gena Rowlands (yay) on the lam from the mob (eh?) with a whiny kid (eek).

With a cat!

But then they lost the cast. Boo.

Now that’s a nice pan.

The kid is doing the best he can? But it’s pretty horrible.

Actually… the kid’s getting better… did they film this in sequence or something?

I love these shots of 70s New York.

Now that’s a hi tone hotel.

She’s tough.

There’s a bunch of things I love about this movie. Rowlands, of course, but also just random things like how they depict cabbies being totally unfazed by picking up dames that are waving guns around. It’s like a tough guy (and gal) New York fantasy… it’s great. And it’s fun.

But.

It feels repetetive? How many mobsters is Rowlands gonna stick up before the end of this? It’s not like any of those scenes are boring or anything, but they didn’t seem to… have any effect on the story?

I’m wondering what Cassavetes and Rowlands wanted to do with this movie. Is it just a goof they did to pass the time? Did they pitch a “straight” action movie and a studio paid them?

I’m just saying that this seems like a very odd movie in their oeuvre.

Ouch:

The young boy Gloria was protecting, played by John Adames, tied with Sir Laurence Olivier (in The Jazz Singer) for the Worst Supporting Actor Razzie award of 1980.

Gloria. John Cassavetes. 1980. ⚃

This is a DVD of various videos by Factory/Crepuscule released by LTM Records.

Fascinatingly, the versions of tracks (like A Certain Ratio’s Back to the Start) are versions I haven’t heard before.

It looks like this DVD was mastered from VHS cassettes… but whatev. I love this! And the audio quality is great.

… which makes me wonder whether LTM took the audio from somewhere else, because the audio/video sync isn’t… awesome?

I’m captivated by these videos. This is music I’ve listened to all my life (er sort of), but I’ve never seen any of these people before. They’re so young! And awkward!

Vini!

With nail varnish!

Oh, Manchester. So much to answer for.

This is such a wonderful track. Marie Louise Gardens. I think it’s the best thing Durutti Column did.

Oh wow. New Order’s doing Everything’s Gone Green live, and missing most of the cues, so it lasts twice as long as normally.

And they forgot to switch Bernard’s mike on.

Oh there it is.

It’s so New Order.

By now he’s just saying random stuff.

Now I really want to watch a video of some early New Order gigs, but that probably doesn’t exist.

Malaria!

Awesome.

*gasp* Tuxedomoon!

*phew* The Jinx version was teh awesum.

Tuxedomoon 4 ever. Well, OK, Peter Principle died, so I they don’t actually exist any more, but… anyway!

Nice hairdo.

I love LTM Records — James Nice is so obsessive — but often his maximalist impulse gets in the way of creating a strong… thing. When re-releasing an album, he puts a bunch of … incidental stuff onto the CDs. Which is great! Sort of! Because you don’t want to listen to that stuff more than a couple of times, and it gets in the way of the enjoyment of the album itself.

And it’s basically the same problem on this DVD: There’s stuff here that’s absolutely classic, and there’s stuff here that’s just curiosa. And he put all of the latter towards the end, so it’s…

So my enthusiasm is dwindling. For the first hour, I had this DVD pegged as a ⚅, but nope.

Oh, this is quite spiffy. Quando Quango.

Umbrellas in the Sun. ⚃

Or is that the ghost of Frankenstein’s monster!? TSK TSK

I forgot what happened in the previous movie… er…

Right:

The film is the fourth film in the Frankenstein series by Universal Pictures and was the follow-up to Son of Frankenstein.

I guess this was like a TV serial before there were TVs — it’s got flashbacks and everything.

I’m enjoying this: Sure, it’s pretty cheesy, but it’s fun.

Poor Lon Chaney Jr. — he looks really uncomfortable under all that makeup. Especially with his eyes closed all the time.

So this is about Frankenstein’s (other?) son deciding to switch out certain of the monster’s body parts (but as you can see, some of them don’t need swapping out).

For what it is, it’s entertaining in spades.

The Ghost of Frankenstein. Erle C. Kenton. 1942. ⚃