Monthly Archives: June 2014

Quote of the Week

Posted by Marisa on

His noir work in 1957, however, was limited to a two-minute morsel in the Russell Rouse prison yarn House of Numbers. Star Jack Palance, himself a scary guy in most roles, looks positively intimidated by Carey in a scene in which they play San Quentin cellmates. Carey sets the mood by spitting a cigarette butt into the commode. He fidgets with a transistor radio in his pocket. With another weirdly concocted brogue (he is playing an inmate named Frenchy), he tells a story about beating another prisoner with his tray in the mess hall for trying to steal his milk. And then he offers with a warped grin, “You been to any other colleges? I have. I spent six years in Sing Sing and four years in Joliet. I’m taking a postgraduate course. This is my second time here.” The film was actually shot in San Quentin State Prison using real prisoners as extras, but no one in it – real or staged – played an inmate with such – er, conviction. House of Numbers is worth viewing just for Carey’s tiny but tasty part.

– Carl Steward, “Timothy Carey: Noir’s Wildest Card,” Noir City Annual #2: The Best of the 2009 Noir City Sentinel (Film Noir Foundation, 2010)

House of Numbers

Pic of the Day: “The Boy and the Pirates” revisited

Posted by Marisa on

Turner Classic Movies ends this month’s spotlight on pirate films tonight with Bert I. Gordon‘s The Boy and the Pirates (1960)! 7 pm Pacific, 10 pm Eastern.

The Boy and the Pirates (1960)

Morgan, that scurvy dog, will be very upset with you if you miss it. Very. So unless you’re in the mood for a red-hot poker in your face, take my advice – don’t.

 

Pic of the Day: “Beach Blanket Bingo” revisited

Posted by Marisa on

Today I needed to see a pic of Timothy punching someone out. So here he is as South Dakota Slim from Beach Blanket Bingo (1965). He is protecting Sugar Kane (Linda Evans) at all costs, which is weird because minutes earlier he was attempting to cut her in half with a buzzsaw. A whack on the head will do that to you, I guess.

Beach Blanket Bingo

I’m not sure who the unfortunate punchee is. It’s been a week full of weirdness, and I just needed to see Tim sock it in the jaw. Carry on!

Eli Wallach 1915 – 2014

Posted by Marisa on

Carey’s final project as a film director is Godfarter III (1989), an audition piece for [Francis Ford] Coppola, who was looking to cast the role of an elderly Mafia don for The Godfather: Part III (1990). Coppola considered Carey too young for the part (and may also have been put off by Carey’s earlier eccentricities on The Godfather). Carey tried to convince the director that he could tackle the role of Don Altobello, but it wasn’t meant to be, and Eli Wallach was eventually cast in the part.

– Harvey F. Chartrand, “Timothy Carey, The World’s Greatest Director!”; Filmfax Plus #102 (April/June 2004)

Eli Wallach as Don Altobello, The Godfather: Part III (1990)

Timothy as Don Altobello, Godfarter III

Pic of the Day: “Play It Again Sam” revisited

Posted by Marisa on

Today’s pic is a rather unusual one. It’s another shot from a film that Timothy does not actually appear in, Herbert Ross’ Play It Again, Sam (1972), starring Woody Allen and based on his stage play. There is super-cute Diane Keaton, and just to her right is a flier for a screening of The World’s Greatest Sinner (1962).

Play It Again Sam

The film takes place in San Francisco, and we know that Sinner had several underground screenings there. It would be great to know which screening the flier is actually from. I must thank once again Tim’s old friend Michael Murphy for bringing this to my attention!

Pic of the Day: “Unwed Mother” revisited

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Today’s pic is another from Unwed Mother (1958), directed by Walter Doniger. Timothy’s sweaty, disheveled abortionist looks here like he just wandered in from a German Expressionist film of the 1920’s.

Unwed Mother

Tim’s brief appearance is definitely the highlight of this moralistic melodrama. Check it out on DVD and also on Fandor.

Quote of the Week

Posted by Marisa on

GUASTI

Then… this man actually made music with his anus?

BOSKORSKY

Of course… his colon was a polytongued organ and he could fire it as if from a magaxine of a gune. At least a dozen tropes of musical modes of which he chose only those that had artistic merit. It’s amazing La Pet became so wealthy from his fete or rather his rectum, I should say, he bought the Moulin Rouge, where he performed. He was the toast of the continent!

(STANDS)

All dressed-up in top hat, tuxedo and tails… on stage a spotlight was always on his backside of his pants, which was split, of course, so the audience could hear every note… I know, because I had the honor of seeing and hearing him perform… (STARTS DANCE) he was incomperable, (In Russian): Fantastic… tell you, truly a legend in his own time, monsieur La Pet. The Fart. (HUMMS the French Anthem)

GUASTI

(IN ECSTACY)

Wow! Wow! Wow!

JUDGE

(POUNDS GAVEL)

Order, order in the court.

CURTAIN COMES DOWN

– Timothy Carey, The Insect Trainer (1988; final draft 1993). Presented as it appears in the script verbatim, with Tim’s spelling and syntax intact.

The Insect Trainer

Pic of the Day: “The Great Train Robbery” revisited

Posted by Marisa on

Today we take another regretfully poor-quality look at the Sheriff of Cochise episode “The Great Train Robbery” (nice title originality there, guys). It was first broadcast on October 5, 1956. Mean, mean train robber Stark is not taking any guff from the hapless conductor (Jess Kirkpatrick).

The Great Train Robbery - 1956

Kirkpatrick began his Hollywood career in 1930, when he provided the singing voice for Phillips Holmes in the Tay Garnett drama Her Man. He became a reliable (but often uncredited, as here) character player in films and on television for decades, working steadily until a few years before his death in 1976.

 

Video of the Week: Trailers From Hell on “The Killing of a Chinese Bookie”

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This week’s video is another in the fabulous Trailers From Hell series. This time, award-winning screenwriter Larry Karaszewski examines John Cassavetes‘ The Killing of a Chinese Bookie (1976).

Timothy is barely glimpsed in his scene at the Crazy Horse West, bathed in red light, but he’s there. This is a fine, thoughtful look at a great film. Please check out more of the Trailers From Hell; they are stellar!