JackieGleason Tagged Articles at Cinematical

Today, Warner Home Video announced the titles that will be released in May through the studio's video on demand service, Warner Archives. Among these titles is the 1963 Steve McQueen film Soldier in the Rain, costarring Jackie Gleason, and most excitingly, the 1974 buddy comedy Freebie and the Bean.

Chances are if you aren't already shouting at the top of your lungs in excitement, you have no idea what Freebie and the Bean is. And yet, in retrospect it seems like the missing - and absolutely essential - link between the gritty potboilers of the 1970s, such as The French Connection, and the glib, profane thrillers of the '80s and '90s, in particular the early work of Shane Black. At the urging of a few well-informed buddies I went to see the film late last year at a revival theater in Los Angeles, not the least of which because it stars Alan Arkin as a Hispanic detective (i.e., The Bean), and James Caan as his determined-to-be-corrupted partner (Hence "Freebie"). And while it certainly doesn't have the palpable drama of Friedkin's film, or even the slick polish of the Lethal Weapon films (or even The Last Boy Scout, a movie with which it shares an unhealthy number of similarities), it's an amazing, explosive, almost self-destructive exercise in action, comedy, racism, and property damage, not necessarily in that order.

Let's imagine Tony Soprano in one of his 3 am near-comas. Rich food and stress is keeping him awake, as the rest of his family sleeps soundly in their Jersey mini-mansion. Having just loaded an extra-extra large hot fudge sundae into his gut, he's half-awake on the sofa, watching television. This is a scene that happened repeatedly during The Sopranos, when Tony would sometimes see an old movie that would cut him to the quick, or else plant a seed of doubt in him, tipping him off to some unsuspected treachery in his world. Tonight's screening is a weird, weird film from 1968...so damned weird that the next day, Tony wouldn't be sure if he didn't doze off during it, adding plot details from his own dream-life.

Skidoo by Otto Preminger--a resounding, loathed failure in its time--has a cult, like almost all failures do. It includes the first appearance by the reliable character actor and acting teacher Austin Pendleton. Also making her debut was the famed pioneer African-American model and Warhol star Donyale Luna (memorable from this photograph you've seen in every beauty salon, in which Luna's leanness and sinew is visually contrasted with a line of elephants). (here's a famous photo of her) Unique casting compliments a really one-of-a-kind musical/satire that shows how beyond "good" and "bad" some films are.