Saturday, October 3, 2026
The Original Dick Van Dyke Show Opening
It was 65 years ago today, on October 3, 1961, that The Dick Van Dyke Show debuted on CBS. Among many other things, The Dick Van Dyke Show is well known for its opening, in which Dick Van Dyke trips over an ottoman or some variant thereof. As fans of The Dick Van Dyke Show well know, this was not the original opening of The Dick Van Dyke Show. Instead, the original opening featured photos of the characters and still shots of scenes to a jazzier version of the theme written by Earle Hagen. The opening in which Dick Van Dyke trips over the ottoman was introduced at the start of its second season.
Friday, October 2, 2026
Beyond the Border: Latino Representation in Hollywood (2026)
What makes Beyond the Border: Latino Representation in Hollywood remarkable is that it features a number of Latino actors and directors discussing Latinos and their relationship with the American film industry. Among those featured are comedian and actor John Leguizamo, director Gregory Nava, actor Esai Morales, author Luis I. Reyes, actor and director Edward James Olmos, and actor Jimmy Smits. While I might be biased, a highlight for me was Daniel Villareal discussing various locations important in Chicano film history (I have been friends with Daniel for some time) and Ingrid Oliu discussing Stand and Deliver (1988).
Beyond the Border: Latino Representation in Hollywood does a fairly good job of covering the history of Latinos in Hollywood. It covers such important figures as actress Dolores del Rio, Gilbert Roland, Rita Moreno, and Dolores Huerta. It also covers the phenomenon of brownface, in which Caucasians and foreign actors being cast as Latinos, the various Latino stereotypes that existed for much of film history, and the fact that Latinos are still underrepresented in Hollywood.
As might be expected, Beyond the Border: Latino Representation in Hollywood spends a good deal of time on Chicanos and Mexicans. This should come as no surprise as people of Mexican descent comprise the majority of Latinos in the United States, not to mention Mexico neighbours the United States. For that reason, Chicanos and Mexicans have historically been more represented in American films than other Latinos. Beyond the Border: Latino Representation in Hollywood does devote a good deal of time to the boom in Chicano movies that took place in the Eighties and Nineties, and included such movies as Zoot Suit (1981), El Norte (1983), Stand and Deliver (1988), Blood In Blood Out (1993), and others.
If Beyond the Border: Latino Representation in Hollywood has one flaw, it is that of omission. Despite how important she is in the history of people of Mexican descent in American film, Lupe Vélez is never mentioned by name. Lupe Vélez was arguably more popular than Dolores del Rio, and while Miss del Rio often played non-Latina roles, the majority of Lupe Vélez's roles were identifiably Mexican. And while her "Mexican Spitfire" movies arguably capitalized on Mexican stereotypes, they also featured a heroine who kept her career and something of her independence after marriage. Indeed, it featured a mixed marriage at a time when mixed marriages were still illegal in much of the US.
Beyond the Border: Latino Representation in Hollywood also fails to mention The Lawless (1950) or The Ring (1952), two films that are seminal in the history of Chicanos in Hollywood. The Lawless (1950) centred on Chicano fruit pickers in California and may be the first American film in which the term "cholo" appears, although it is used in a derogatory fashion. The Ring (1942) centres on a Chicano from a poor Los Angeles neighbourhood who tries to improve himself through boxing. It portrays the segregation that existed in Los Angeles at the time, as well as the racism. For me, failing to mention Lupe Vélez, The Lawless (1950), and The Ring (1952) are serious oversights in any documentary on Latinos in American film.
Despite these oversights, Beyond the Border: Latino Representation in Hollywood does a very good job of covering the representation of Latinos in Hollywood, and there will be much to learn for many people. It is certainly worth watching for anyone who in interested in film history or Latino history.
Thursday, October 1, 2026
The Late Great Peter Max
Psychedelic artist Peter Max died at the age of 88 on September 14, 2026, at the age of 88. In 2021, he had been diagnosed with advanced dementia.
Peter Max was born Peter Max Finkelstein on October 19, 1937, in Berlin. His family fled Nazi Germany for Shanghai when he was still a baby. They lived there for ten years. They spent some time in Tibet before migrating to Haifa, Israel, where they lived for many years. They spent a few months in Paris before settling in New York City. Peter Max was 16 at the time. He attended Lafayette High School in Brooklyn where among his classmates were actor Paul Sorvino and baseball legend Sandy Koufax. He studied art at at the Art Students League, the School of Visual Arts, and Pratt Institute.
It was in 1962 that Peter Max opened an art studio in New York City called "The Daly & Max Studio" with Tom Daly. It was not long before Peter Max saw a good deal of success. He designed the flyers for the second "Be In," a political gathering in Central Park in New York City held On March 26, 1967. There were mass marketed posters featuring his psychedelic designs. He worked on campaigns for the American Cancer Society, General Electric, and Gibley Gin, as well as a campaign for pre-recorded cassette tapes. He designed the poster for the movie Paint the Wagon (1969) and covers for the Manhattan Yellow Pages.
In the early Seventies, Peter Max closed his studio for a time so he could get back to painting. After his return to public life, He did the art for a United States postal stamp commemorating Expo '74 in Spokane, Washington. He painted a series of portraits of the Statue of Liberty. He also designed bilingual welcome signs to be put up at the borders of the United States.
Peter Max provided artwork for several events, including Earth Day, the FIFA World Cup, the Grammy Awards, several Super Bowls, the U.S. Open, and the Winter Olympics. He painted portraits of six different presidents. Despite claims that Peter Max's work was not taken seriously, it had been displayed at such museums as the Art Institute of Chicago, the Denver Art Museum, the Modern Art Museum in Munich, and the Museum of Modern Art in New York City, among others.
Given how ubiquitous his artwork was in my early childhood, Peter Max was probably the first artist outside of comic books of whom I was aware. He was definitely my favourite artist when I was growing up. His artwork was certainly colourful, and I swear there are some of his paintings where he uses every single colour visible to the human eye. His artwork also often utilized various American icons, from the Statue of Liberty to George Washington to various presidents.
Peter Max is perhaps the artist most associated with the late Sixties and the early Seventies, and it is difficult picturing the era without his artwork. He certainly had a strong influence on the era. The popularity of Peter Max's artwork was such that it saw a rise in popularity of similar artists and psychedelic artwork in general. Peter Max was not responsible for the art of the movie Yellow Submarine (1968). That was Heinz Edelmann, who pioneered psychedelic artwork. That having been said, if not for the popularity of Peter Max's work, it seems likely that Yellow Submarine (1968) may have looked entirely different. Peter Max was also not responsible for 7Up's famous psychedelic 7Up ad campaign. Other artists were responsible for that art in that campaign, including Pat Dypold and psychedelic art pioneers John Alcorn and Milton Glaser. Again, it seems likely that the 7Up Uncola campaign may not have taken shape as it did if not for the popularity of Peter Max's artwork. While several artists worked in psychedelic art, Peter Max was the best known and the most popular.
Wednesday, September 30, 2026
The Late Great Gerrit Graham
Gerrit Graham, who appeared in such cult classics as Phantom of the Paradise (1974) and Used Cars (1980), died on September 15, 2026, at the age of 77. The cause was complications from lung disease.
Gerrit Graham was born on November 27, 1948 in New York City. Growing up, he lived in St. Louis; Grosse Pointe, Michigan; and Chicago. He attended Columbia University in New York City, but did not graduate. While there he was a manager of the university’s theatre company, the Columbia Players.
Gerrit Graham made his film debut in Brian De Palma's movie Greetings in 1968. His second movie was directed by Brian De Palma as well, Hi, Mom! (1970). In the Seventies, he appeared in the movies Beware! The Blob (1972), Phantom of the Paradise (1974), Bobbie Jo and the Outlaw (1976), Tunnelvision (1976), Special Delivery (1976), Cannonball! (1977), Demon Seed (1977), Pretty Baby (1978), Old Boyfriends (1979), Home Movies (1979), and Used Cars (1980). He was a regular on the short-lived TV show Stockard Channing in Just Friends. He guest starred on the TV shows The Rookies; Harry O; Baretta; Medical Story; Starsky and Hutch; Future Cop; Dog and Cat; and Laverne & Shirley.
In the Eighties, Gerrit Graham had a recurring role on Dallas during the 1988-1989 season. He guest starred on the shows New Wave Theatre; The A-Team; The Dukes of Hazzard; Whiz Kids; The Twilight Zone; Fame; St. Elsewhere; Sidekicks; Throb; Sledge Hammer!' Miami Vice; My Two Dads; Dear John; Tales from the Crypt; The Young Riders; The Nutt House; Sugar and Spice; China Beach; and Parenthood. He appeared in the movies The Creature Wasn't Nice (1981), Soup for One (1982), Class Reunion (1982), The Annihilators (1985), The Man with One Red Shoe (1985), TerrorVision (1986), Chopping Mall (1986), Last Resort (1986) , Ratboy (1986), It's Alive: Island of the Alive (1987), Walker (1987), Police Academy 6: City Under Siege (1989), Big Man on Campus (1989), C.H.U.D. II: Bud the Chud (1989), Martians Go Home (1989), Night of the Cyclone (1990), and Child's Play 2 (1990).
In the Nineties, Gerrit Graham appeared in the movies Frozen Assets (1992), Sidekicks (1992), This Boy's Life (1993), Philadelphia Experiment III (1993), The Pornographer (1994), My Girl 2 (1994), Stuart Saves His Family (1995), The Break (1995), Magic in the Mirror: Fowl Play (1997), and One True Thing (1998). He had a regular role on the show Now and Again. He had a recurring role on Parker Lewis Can't Lose and was a voice on the animated series Fievel's American Tails, The Critic, and The Pink Panther. He guest starred on the shows The Wonder Years; Stat; Reasonable Doubts; Davis Rules; A Different World; TV's Bloopers & Practical Jokes; The New WKRP in Cincinnati; Likely Suspects; Civil Wars; Seifneld; Family Matters; Star Trek: Deep Space Nine; Moon Over Miami; Babylon 5; Rebel Highway; Diagnosis Murder; Lois & Clark: The New Adventures of Superman; The Larry Sanders Show; and Law & Order He was a guest voice on the animated shows The Tick, Dumb and Dumber, and Gargoyles.
In the Naughts, he guest starred on the show Third Watch. He appeared in the movies Building Girl (2005), Chaotic Ana (2007), and Stick It in Detroit (2008). His last movie appearance was in Cove Road (2012), where he was billed as Bud T. Chud.
Gerrit Graham was an enormously talented actor. I have no doubt he will always be best remembered as the flamboyant, camp, neurotic glam rocker Beef in Phantom of the Paradise. He will also be well-remembered as the overly superstitious and eccentric used car salesman Jeff in Used Cars. While his best known roles are comedic in nature, Gerrit Graham could play other sorts of roles as well. In Pretty Baby, he played Highpockets, the abusive boyfriend of Hattie (Susan Sarandon). In Demon Seed, he played Walter Gabler, a computer scientist concerned by the AI program Proteus VI. Over the years, he played a wide variety of roles, both comedic and dramatic, including aspiring country singer Perman Waters in Cannonball!, commune leader Magic Ray in Bobbie Jo and the Outlaw, and Fred Hughes, the ruthless right-hand man of Carter McKay (George Kennedy) on Dallas. Gerrit Graham could play a wide variety of roles and he could play all of them well.
Tuesday, September 29, 2026
Hammer Horror on TCM in October 2026
Well, it's almost October, when Turner Classic Movies will show several classic horror movies. Of course, among these will be several from Hammer Film Productions, perhaps the most beloved studio of classic horror fans besides Universal. Unfortunately, I am somewhat disappointed in how TCM is handling the
Hammer Horrors this year. The bulk of them are being shown very late at night or early of a morning, and none of them are being shown in the days leading up to Halloween. Indeed, for the first time in years (maybe more than a decade), TCM is not showing The Devil Rides Out (1968). My advice to Hammer fans is to set their DVRS or stock up on coffee or Red Bull! Anyway, here's when Hammer Horror movies will be airing on TCM next month.
Thursday, October 1:
8: 45 PM The Nanny (1965)
Thursday, October 15:
11:45 PM The Brides of Dracula (1960)
Friday, October 16:
1:30 AM Blood from the Mummy's Tomb (1971)
3:15 AM Dracula Has Risen From the Grave (1969)
5:00 AM Dracula A.D. 1972 (1972)
6:45 AM The Curse of Frankenstein (1957)
8:15 AM Dracula (1958)
9:45 AM The Mummy (1959)
Saturday, September 26, 2026
El Super (1979)
El Super (1979) was based on a stage play by Iván Acosta. It was directed by Leon Ichaso, who was himself a Cuban exile. It was truly an independent film and produced on a shoestring budget of around $30,000, a small amount for a movie even in the Seventies. With such a small budget, El Super (1979) was shot in actual apartments and on the streets of New York City. It was shot in the winter of 1978, when it ws particularly cold and there was a good deal of snow on the ground.
What sets El Super (1979) apart even from other independent films of the Seventies is that almost all of the dialogue is in Spanish. Roberto and Aurelia never learned English. When a building inspector visits, Roberto has to call Cuco to act as an interpreter. Of the main characters, only Roberto and Aurelia's daughter Aurelita and Cuco are fluent in English, and Cuco only moderately so.
El Super (1979) is also set apart from other movies in that it has no real plot. It is instead a slice of life of Cuban exiles living in New York City in the late Seventies. It plays out as a series of vignettes, all of which could have easily been taken from real life. And while Roberto hates living in New York City and longs for the day Castro is out of power so he can return to Cuba, there is as much comedy as there is drama in El Super (1979). And despite the fact that it is focused on Cuban exiles, El Super (1979) is not a particularly political film. Instead, it focuses on the everyday struggles of Roberto and Aurelia.
El Super (1979) has an excellent cast, although with the exception of Elizabeth Peña, I doubt most Americans have heard of them. Raimundo Hidalgo-Gato had considerable experience on stage, and was a member of the Centro Cultural Cubano de Nueva York. Zully Montero had appeared on radio and the theatre as well. Elizabeth Peña came from an acting family and graduated from the High School of Performing Arts in New York City. Like Aurelita, she had no real experience of Cuba. Her parents had migrated to the United States when she was only a year old.
El Super (1979) premiered at the Miami International Film Festival. It was later screened at the Venice Film Festival and the Mannheim-Heidelberg International Filmfestival, where it tied for the Grand Prize with Családi tüzfészek (1979). It received overwhelmingly positive reviews from critics.
Although El Super (1979) is identifiably movie from the late Seventies, it is still relevant today. Roberto's dissatisfaction with is life, the generation gap between Roberto and Aurelia and their daughter Aurelita, and the day-to-day problems of hm and his family are still things with which modern day viewers can identify, regardless of their ethnicity or nationality. In El Super (1979), Cuban exile is not played as high drama, but a fact of life with which to be dealt. As mentioned earlier, El Super (1979) is the first feature film to centre on Cuban exiles. It is also one of the first American films to be shot almost entirely in Spanish. Between its high quality and its subject matter, El Super (1979) would become a cult film and is now regarded as a classic.
Thursday, September 24, 2026
The Late Great Anjanette Comer
Anjanette Comer was born on August 7, 1939, in Dawson, Texas. When she was 16 she was named queen of the Corsicana Fair and Rodeo. She studied acting at the Pasadena Playhouse. It was there that she was discovered by agent Byron Raphael. She made her television debut in an episode of My Three Sons in 1962. She made her movie debut in Quick Before It Melts in 1964.
During the Sixties, Anjanette Comer starred in the movies The Loved One (1965), The Appaloosa (1966), Banning (1967), Guns for San Sebastian (1968), In Enemy Country (1968), and Rabbit, Run (1970). On television, she guest starred in the shows The Donna Reed Show; Gunsmoke; Ben Casey; Arrest and Trial; Dr. Kildare; Bonanza; Combat!; The Young Lawyers; Then Came Bronson; The Mod Squad; and Love, American Style.
In the Seventies, Anjanette Comer appeared in the movies The Firechasers (1971), Blood Feast (1972), The Baby (1973), Lepke (1975), The Manchu Eagle Murder Caper Mystery (1975), and Fire Sale (1977). She guest starred on the shows The Most Deadly Game; Banyon; Love, American Style; Columbo; Mannix; Search; Doctor Simon Locke; Police Story; The Wide World of Mystery; Petrocelli; Harry O; S.W.A.T.; Barbary Coast; The Blue Knight; Jigsaw John; Baretta; and Barnaby Jones. She appeared in the mini-series McNaughton's Daughter, as well as such TV movies as Terror on the 40th Floor and Dead of Night.
In the Eighties, she guest starred on the shows Mike Hammer and Hotel. She appeared in the TV movie The Long Summer of George Adams. In the Nineties, she guest starred on the shows Jake and the Fatman; Profiler; and The Practice. She appeared in the mini-series The Streets of Laredo and the TV movie Perry Mason: The Case of the Reckless Romeo. She appeared in the movies Netherworld (1992) and Underneath (1995).
In the Naughts, Anjanette Comer appeared in the TV movie The Pennsylvania Miners Story. She appeared in the movies Screen Door Jesus (2003) and Possessed (2005). Her last two movies were A Bird of the Air (2011) and Zombie Bloodlines (2026).
I must confess that I had a crush on Anjanette Comer. She had an ethereal quality, as if she came from another world. This proved particularly useful in her role as Aimee Thanatogenous, the naive funeral home cosmetician more comfortable with death than life in The Loved One. Although it could be her best known role, Anjanette Comer could play many, very different roles. She was the somewhat duplicitous Trini in The Appaloosa. In The Baby, she played yet another very different role, that of the earnest, but guilt-ridden social worker Ann Gentry in The Baby. Her work in television could be equally impressive. She was nominated for the 1964 Emmy for Outstanding Performance in a Supporting Role for An Actress for her role as a prostitute in an episode of Arrest and Trial. In the TV movie Dead of Night she appeared in the segment "No Such Thing as a Vampire," in which she played a woman who may or not be the victim of a vampire attack. In the Combat! episode "Weep No More," she played a mute French woman. Anjanette Comer was not simply another pretty face, but an actress of considerable talent who could play a wide variety of roles.
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