"Summer in the City" by The Lovin' Spoonful

Many of you know that summer is my least favourite season of them all. It is hot. It is muggy. It is uncomfortable. I would really be happy if we simply skipped summer and went straight from spring to autumn. It is for that reason that I have always been mystified as to why so many songs about summer portray the season as some kind of joyous time full of fun. I have to disagree with George Gershwin. In summertime, the livin' isn't easy.

That having been said, there is one song I believe does capture something of the reality of the season, at least as it is here in Missouri. In "Summer in the City" by The Lovin' Spoonful the singer describes the back of his neck as getting "dirty and gritty". He refers to the sidewalk as "hotter than a match head". The first stanza, at least, sums up summer perfectly for me. Now it is true the song's portrayal of summer nights are a bit more pleasant than I've experienced, but then The Lovin' Spoonful were from New York City, where I assume it is cooler than it is here in Missouri. At the very least "Summer in the City" is more accurate than 99% of the other songs about the summer.

Anyhow, without further ado, here is "Summer in the City" by The Lovin' Spoonful.

Why I Don't Like Hulu's Watchlist

For years now the shows and movies any given Hulu user wanted to watch were sorted into one of three sections: there was Shows You Watch for shows one is currently watching; there was the Queue, for movies one wants to watch; and there was Favourites, for one's favourite shows and movies. Unfortunately last week Hulu rolled out its new Watchlist to all of its users. Watchlist consolidates the functions of Shows You Watch, the Queue, and Favourites into one list. Allegedly Watchlist is supposed to make watching shows and movies on Hulu easier. According to Ben Smith of Hulu, "Watchlist dynamically tailors the order of your content to match how you watch TV and suggests actions for you."

Unfortunately for Hulu, a quick search on Twitter and on Google reveals that there are a lot of users who not only dislike Watchlist, they absolutely loathe it. In fact, looking at the various tweets I would say that reaction to Watchlist has been overwhelmingly negative. Many users have made it clear that they want the Shows You Watch, the Queue, and Favourites back. There is even a hashtag, #bringbackthequeue. There is also a petition on Care 2 Petitions demanding that Shows You Watch, the Queue, and Favourites be restored, although it only has 167 signatures so far.  It seems fairly clear to me that Hulu users really don't like Watchlist. What is more, I have to say that I believe their complaints are legitimate.

Indeed, while I don't necessarily hate Watchlist, I do dislike it and I much preferred using Shows You Watch, the Queue, and Favourites. The problem with Watchlist is that it actually makes it more difficult to watch shows While the shows I am currently watching are at the start of the queue, to watch something I'm not currently watching I have to scroll through several movies and even shows I haven't watched in a while. This is not nearly as handy as having three different sections, each with its own function. I wanted to watch a movie? I went to the Queue. I wanted to watch something new, I went to Favourites. I wanted to continue watching a show I have been watching for a while, I went to Shows You Watch. It's hard for me to understand how Hulu thought Watchlist would be easier to use than that. Indeed, the fact that Watchlist is harder to use than Shows You Watch, the Queue, and Favourites is the major complaint many users have about it.

Of course, users might not be quite so angry about Watchlist if it wasn't rather buggy. I seem to be unable to add shows to my Watchlist as I am supposed to be able to. I suspect the only way I will be able to add a show is to actually watch it. This makes it very hard for me to plan ahead and add shows I want to watch in the future, as I would with the old Favourites section.

Other people have had the exact opposite problem. Reading various tweets on Twitter and complaints elsewhere on the internet, it seems that some people found their Watchlists filled with shows they had never watched and had no intention of watching. Yet others discovered many of the shows they regularly watch and many of their Favourites were missing from Watchlist, even though the shows were still available on Hulu. It seems in many cases that Watchlist does not function the way that it is supposed to.

The outrage with regards to Watchlist has been so great that I do feel sorry for Hulu Support. In my experience Hulu has some of the best customer service around. Hulu Support has always been polite and helpful to me, and they have always solved any problem I might have. Sadly, right now they taking the brunt of anger over a decision to change Hulu in which they had no say whatsoever. 

I can only guess that in creating Watchlist Hulu was was trying to do something similar to Netflix's "My List" or Amazon Prime's own "Watchlist". That having been said, one thing I always preferred about Hulu to Netflix and Amazon Prime is the fact that it was so much easier to organise shows and movies with Shows You Watch, the Queue, and Favourites. Both Netflix's My List and Amazon Prime's Watchlist are difficult to navigate and are much less easily organised than Hulu's Shows You Watch, Quene, and Favourites were. Sadly, Hulu's Watchlist is a hot mess like Netflix and Amazon Prime's lists.

It should be little wonder, then, that many Hulu users are angry. While I have no plans to cancel my account any time soon, I have seen many state on Twitter and elsewhere that they plan to do so. I really think Hulu ought to do something before they lose very many customers. In fact, I think they really have only two choices available to them. One is to entirely forget about making improvements to Watchlist and simply restoring Shows You Watch, the Queue, and Favourites. The other is to make Watchlist something into which one must opt in. If you don't opt in, then you have Shows You Watch, the Queue, and Favourites instead. At this point I think the worst thing for Hulu to do is to force users to keep a Watchlist they loathe.

The Valley of Gwangi (1969)

 (This post is part of the Ray Harryhausen Blogathon hosted by Wolffian Classics Movies Digest)

When most people think of Ray Harryhausen's films, they most often think of his various fantasy movies, classics such as the Sinbad movies, Jason and the Argonauts (1963), and Clash of the Titans (1981).  If they think of one of his other movies, it is generally going to be one of his early sci-fi films, such as The Beast from 20,000 Fathoms (1953) or Earth vs. the Flying Saucers (1956). Unless he or she is a classic movie buff or a Ray Harryhausen fan it is not often that a person will mention The Valley of Gwangi (1969). This is a shame, as The Valley of Gwangi is one of Ray Harryhausen's more enjoyable films.

The Valley of Gwangi was a bit of an anachronism when it was released. It was an old time monster movie with a unique twist. Like earlier films such as The Lost World (1925) and The Beast from 20,000 Fathoms it involved a dinosaur. Like King Kong (1933) it involved the capture of a rare and dangerous animal who then gets loose to terrorise civilisation. Unlike many earlier monster movies it was set in the American West at the turn of the 20th Century, pitting cowboys against an Allosaurus (although it resembles a Tyrannosaurus a great deal). While The Valley of Gwangi was in many respects an old time monster movie, it was also a Western, one of the first examples of the Western blended with a fantastic genre.

While Ray Harryhausen conceived most of the films on which he worked, the original idea for The Valley of Gwangi originated with someone else. Ray Harryhausen's mentor was legendary special effects and stop motion pioneer Willis O'Brien, the man responsible for the effects in the classics The Lost World and King Kong. Mr. O'Brien conceived a scenario originally called The Valley of the Mists, in which cowboys capture an Allosaurus in the Grand Canyon. The cowboys place the dinosaur in a Wild West show, where it is billed under the name "Gwangi" Gwangi eventually escapes and terrorises the town, before finally being forced off a cliff by at truck. Most of Willis O'Brien's original scenario would find its way into The Valley of Gwangi, although the time frame was moved from  contemporary times to the turn of the 20th Century. Willis O'Brien's scenario referred to the dinosaur as an Allosaurus, although Willis O'Brien's storyboards for the scenario appear to have drawn upon Charles R. Knight's famous painting of a Tyrannosaurus Rex. Ray Harryhausen remained faithful to Willis O'Brien's vision of Gwangi in making his own Gwangi more resemble a Tyrannosaurus.

Sadly Willis O'Brien was unable to sell Gwangi (as the project was eventually renamed) to any studios before his death in 1962. Willis O'Brien's scenario would inspire a similar film that involved dinosaurs and cowboys. Mr. O'Brien wrote the screenplay for The Beast of Hollow Mountain (1956), but for some reason did not provide the stop motion special effects for the film. The Beast of Hollow Mountain was set in Mexico at the Turn of the 20th Century and involved cowboys who investigate the disappearance of cattle and farmers in the region, only to learn an Allosaurus is to blame. The film was made on a very low budget, and in both English and Spanish. Although largely forgotten now, The Beast of Hollow Mountain was the first film with stop motion effects to be shot in colour, as well as the first to be shot in wide-screen format.

After having created stop motion effects for Hammer Films' One Million Years B.C. (1966), Ray Harryhausen reunited with Charles H. Schneer, the producer with whom he had made everything from It Came from Beneath the Sea (1955) to First Men in the Moon (1964). All of Messrs. Harryhausen and Schneer's films had been released through Columbia Pictures, but they were not able to interest the studio in The Valley of Gwangi. Charles H. Schneer then turned to Warner Bros., who had distributed One Million Years B.C. in the United States. Fortunately Warner Bros. agreed to the project.

The Valley of the Gwangi would prove to be one of the most complicated films that Ray Harryhausen ever made. In fact, The Valley of Gwangi would set the record for the most stop-motion animation cuts in any Ray Harryhausen film, 335 stop-motion cuts. The most complicated effect in the film (and perhaps in any Ray Harryhausen film) is perhaps where the cowboys lasso Gwangi. The lassoing sequence alone took four months to complete. It took Ray Harryhausen around two years to complete the stop-motion effects for The Valley of Gwangi.

Unfortunately, while Ray Harryhausen was working on the stop-motion effects for The Valley of Gwangi, changes were taking place that would have a overall negative impact on the film's future. Charles H. Schneer had made the deal for The Valley of Gwangi not long after Warner Bros. had merged with Seven Arts Productions. In 1969 Warner Bros.-Seven Arts was sold to Kinney National Company for more than $64 million. This naturally meant a change in management at Warner Bros. Sadly, the new management were not enthusiastic about The Valley of Gwangi. Upon its release on September 3 1969 they gave the film almost no promotion. It often played on double bills with films for which the audience was often hardly the sort to  appreciate a cross between an old fashioned monster movie and a Western.

Worse yet, reviews for The Valley of Gwangi often were not kind. Ann Guarino of The New York Daily News wrote, "The Valley of Gwangi is just ho-hum..." In The New York Times, Howard Thompson described The Valley of Gwangi as a "run-of-the-mill monster rally" and wrote, "The first half is strictly standard, filled with human intrigue and mischief. Only when the obviously animated beasts from the past get into the act, about midway through, does the picture perk up, in a craggy wasteland."

Between the lack of promotion from Warner Bros. and the generally mediocre reviews from critics, it should come as no surprise that The Valley of Gwangi was a failure at the box office. As a movie that at its core is about a dinosaur who is captured and then escapes it was in many respects a relic of another era. Monster movies of its sort were out of fashion for much of the Sixties. As a movie that blended Westerns and science fiction it was in some respects a bit ahead of its time. The 1935 Gene Autry serial The Phantom Empire and the classic Sixties TV show The Wild Wild West were very nearly the only examples of the "Weird Western" subgenre at the time. In the late Sixties movies were expected to have sex and relevance, neither of which The Valley of Gwangi had.

Fortunately The Valley of Gwangi would be redeemed in the end. The film resurfaced at matinees in the Seventies and also began appearing regularly on television. The film finally found its audience, people who could appreciate a film in which cowboys fight dinosaurs. To wit, Ian Nathan's review of Valley of Gwangi in Empire Magazine from 2006  is glowing compared to those from 1969. While no one today would necessarily place The Valley of Gwangi on the same level as such Ray Harryhausen classics as The 7th Voyage of Sinbad or Jason and the Argonauts, it is not the mediocre film critics in 1969 would have one believe it to be.

Indeed, The Valley of Gwangi contains some of Ray Harryhausen's best work. The sequence in which the cowboys attempt to rope the Allosaurus is one of the most memorable sequences he ever created, right up there with the fight with the Children of the Hydra's Teeth in Jason and the Argonauts and the fight between the cyclops and the dragon in The 7th Voyage of Sinbad. What is more, it is not the only great sequence in the film. We get to see Gwangi fight lions. We get to see Gwangi fight an elephant. As mentioned earlier, The Valley of Gwangi had more stop-motion cuts than any other Ray Harryhausen movie.

And while The Valley of Gwangi may have been derided upon its release in 1969, seen today it has a charm that many better reviewed movies released that year wholly lack. It is true that the film's story owes a good deal to The Lost World, King Kong, and other monster movies of years gone by. It is true that, other being set in the American West at the turn of the 20th Century, in many respects The Valley of Gwangi is not particularly original. That having been said, it is still a very entertaining film with some interesting characters (indeed, James Franciscus plays a fairly unlikeable character) and plenty of action.

While The Valley of Gwangi is hardly as good as The 7th Voyage of Sinbad or Jason and Argonauts (let's face it, few films are), it is still a thoroughly entertaining movie with some of Ray Harryhausen's best work. And, honestly, how many people (at least Ray Harryhausen fans) can resist the lure of cowboys fighting dinosaurs? The Valley of Gwangi may be one of Ray Harryhausen's lesser known films, but it deserves to be better known.

Michael Cimino Passes On

Michael Cimino, director of the Oscar winning film The Deer Hunter (1978) and the notorious Heaven's Gate (1980), died on July 2 2016. A cause has yet to be determined.

There is very little known for certain about Michael Cimino's early life. He varied in the dates he gave for his birth, including February 3 1943, November 16, 1943, and even February 3 1952. Many sources give his date of birth as February 3 1939. He grew up in Long Island, New York. Michael Cimino attended Michigan State University, where he earned a degree in graphic arts. He then went to Yale where he earned  a bachelor of fine arts degree and then a graduate degree.

After graduating from Yale, Michael Cimino went into advertising. In 1965 he shot an ad for Pepsi set at Disneyland, using the then current "Pepsi Generation" slogan. He shot a rather famous ad for United Airlines with the tag line "Take Me Along" in 1967.  He also shot commercials for Eastman Kodak, Kool Cigarettes, and L’Eggs.

After several years in advertising he left to take up screenwriting. He co-wrote the science fiction classic Silent Running (1972) with Deric Washburn and Steve Bochco and the Dirty Harry movie Magnum Force (1973) with John Milius. He wrote the screenplay for Thunderbolt and Lightfoot (1974), which also marked his directorial debut. He followed Thunderbolt and Lightfoot with the Vietnam War film The Deer Hunter. The Deer Hunter won five Academy Awards, including Beset Picture Best Director, Best Actor in a Supporting Role (for Christopher Walken), Best Editing (for Peter Zinner), and Best Sound.

Unfortunately, Michael Cimino's next film would very nearly end his career. Heaven's Gate ran over its shooting schedule by a year and ultimately cost four times its allotted budget. Worse yet, upon its release Heaven's Gate was almost universally panned by critics and proved to be a disaster at the box office. Costing $44 million, it only took in $3.5 million.

Michael Cimino's career never quite recovered from Heaven's Gate. He only directed a few more movies in his career. Year of the Dragon (1985), The Sicilian (1987), Desperate Hours (1990), and The Sunchaser (1996) were released to negative reviews and largely indifferent audiences. His last work as a director was the segment in the portmanteau film Chacun son cinéma ou Ce petit coup au coeur quand la lumière s'éteint et que le film commence (2007).

Following the failure of Heaven's Gate Michael Cimino's reputation never recovered. Some critics even questioned whether The Deer Hunter deserved the Oscars it won. That having been said, I think in some respects Michael Cimino may have been judged too harshly. Oh, there is no doubt that Year of the Dragon, The Sicilian, Desperate Hours, and The Sunchaser are rather poor movies, to say the least, but then I think The Deer Hunter is still a fine movie and Heaven's Gate, for all its faults, has its good points. Quite simply, Michael Cimino had a gift for visuals. Even at his absolute worst, Michael Cimino's films are beautiful to look at. And while it does not seem quite so apparent in his later films, Mr Cimino had some talent as a screenwriter. He co-wrote Silent Running and Magnum Force, and wrote Thunderbolt and Lightfoot and The Deer Hunter. All four films could be considered classics in their genres. While Michael Cimino will probably always be remembered for Heaven's Gate, it was not the sum total of his career.

The 7th Voyage of Sinbad (1958)

(This blog post is part of the Sword and Sandal Blogathon hosted by Moon in Gemini)

There is perhaps no stop motion animator and special effects wizard as well known as Ray Harryhausen. He left movie lovers a wealth of classic films whose effects are still incredible in this era of computer-generated imagery. In his early days he worked in the genre of science fiction, creating such classics as The Beast from 20,000 Fathoms (1953), Earth vs. the Flying Saucers (1956), and 20 Million Miles to Earth (1957), but arguably it would be his fantasy films for which he would become best known. Jason and the Argonauts (1963), The Golden Voyage of Sinbad (1974), and Clash of the Titans (1981) are today regarded as classics. The first of his classic fantasy films is also regarded by many as one of his best. Arguably The Seventh Voyage of Sinbad (1958) changed the course of Ray Harryhausen's career forever.

Curiously given its status as a classic and one of Ray Harryhausen's very best films, it would take some time for The 7th Voyage of Sinbad to reach the screen. In many respects Mr. Harryhausen was an auteur, more often than not developing his own projects. Among the projects he had developed was one based upon the Sinbad the Sailor stories from  The Book of One Thousand and One Nights. It was in 1949 that Ray Harryhausen wrote a two page outline entitled "Sinbad the Sailor" and made drawings of possible sequences for the film, including Sinbad fighting a dragon and a sword fight with a skeleton. While Ray Harryhausen took the project to the various studios, he could not interest anyone in the project. Unfortunately in Hollywood fantasy was out of vogue in the early Fifties.  The project remained dormant until Ray Harryhausen mentioned it to producer Charles H. Scheer, with whom he had made It Came From Beneath the Sea (1955), Earth vs. the Flying Saucers (1956), and 5 Million Years to Earth (1957). Charles H. Schneer not only took an interest in the idea, but was enthusiastic about it. 

After having shot their first few films in black and white, it was Mr. Schneer who suggested that The 7th Voyage of Sinbad be shot in colour. As hard as it may be to believe, Ray Harryhausen was initially resistant to the idea, but Charles H. Schneer convinced him with the argument that the subject really demanded colour and that shooting it in colour would help at the box office. The 7th Voyage of Sinbad then become Ray Harryhausen's first feature film ever shot in colour.

The 7th Voyage of Sinbad would also mark another first for Ray Harryhausen. Beginning with The Beast from 20,000 Fathoms, Ray Harryhausen developed his own stop-motion animation technique that allowed for better interaction between live-action subjects and stop-motion animated models. This technique would remain unnamed until The 7th Voyage of Sinbad, when it was finally given the name "Dynamation" (a portmanteau of "dynamic animation"). Although it was not the first film in which Dynamation was used, The 7th Voyage of Sinbad was the first to use the term in its promotional materials.

Not surprisingly The 7th Voyage of Sinbad would prove to be a complicated film to make. It took Ray Harryhausen 11 months to complete the stop-motion effects for the film alone. In contrast, Charles H. Schneer had decided to shoot the live action sequences in only three weeks. Much of the film was also shot in Spain. Shooting in three weeks in Spain would make the film difficult enough to make, but The 7th Voyage of Sinbad would face yet other hurdles while it was filmed. When Ray Harryhausen and cinematographer arrived in Barcelona to begin shooting, they were told by production supervisor Luis Roberts that there was no equipment to be had--no lights, no electricals. Two cameras were coming from Los Angeles. Unfortunately when the cameras arrived it turned out that they had been damaged. Fortunately a film being shot by Paramount in the area had gone into liquidation and so they were able to get everything they needed for around  £20,000. 

Over the course of the filming of the live action there would be other problems. Wilkie Cooper had to shoot using a new Kodak stock, which presented some difficulties. Indeed, it would be some time before they could see any rushes as the negatives had to be sent to Technicolor in London. Ten minutes into shooting at the Alhambra the lights failed because someone had forgotten to get fuel for the generators. When they moved to Majorica lights and other equipment were damaged when they were unloaded from a ship. With the various accidents and a very tight shooting schedule, it was not unusual for the cast and crew to shoot throughout the night. Fortunately, The 7th Voyage of Sinbad was completed on time.

The score for The 7th Voyage of Sinbad was composed by the legendary Bernard Hermann. Mr. Hermann was already a well established film composer at the time, having scored such films as Citizen Kane (1941), Jane Eyre (1943), The Day the Earth Stood Still (1951), and many others. He was already on his way to becoming the composer most identified with Alfred Hitchcock, having composed the scores to The Trouble with Harry (1955), The Man Who Knew Too Much (1956), The Wrong Man (1956), and Vertigo (1958). Bernard Hermann would go on to create the scores for Ray Harryhausen's films Mysterious Island (1961), The Three Worlds of Gulliver (1960), and Jason and the Argonauts (1963). Ray Harryhausen regarded Bernard Hermann's score for The 7th Voyage of Sinbad to be the best of the scores Mr. Hermann had composed for his films.

The screenplay for The 7th Voyage of Sinbad was written by Ken Kolb, drawing upon groundwork laid by Ray Harryhausen. At the time Ken Kolb had worked only in television, writing episodes of such shows as Medic, Have Gun--Will Travel, and Peter Gunn. The 7th Voyage of Sinbad was his first screenplay. While the film is titled the 7th Voyage of Sinbad, it actually draws little upon the story of that title in The Book of One Thousand and One Nights. Instead, it draws upon bits and pieces of the various Sinbad the Sailor stories. The incident with the Cyclops would appear to be drawn from an incident with a man-eating giant in "The Third Voyage of Sinbad". The encounter with the roc (the giant bird in the film) comes from "The Fifth Voyage of Sinbad". The sword duel with the skeleton does not appear to have been drawn from the Sinbad stories at all, but instead was entirely a creation of Ray Harryhausen. Ray Harryhausen would repeat the battle with a skeleton in Jason of the Argonauts, although giving that film's heroes an entire army of them to battle.

Despite its difficulties in making it to the screen, The 7th Voyage of Sinbad would prove very successful upon its release on December 23 1958. The film received overwhelming positive reviews. Indeed, today it is one of the few films to be rated 100% at the review aggregator site Rotten Tomatoes. It also proved highly successful at the box office. Made on a budget of $65,000, it made $3.2 million at the box office.

Ultimately The 7th Voyage of Sinbad would prove very influential as well. Arguably it sparked a cycle towards fantasy films that lasted into the Sixties. In the wake of the success of The 7th Voyage of Sinbad there would emerge such films as Hercules (1959) and a host of other Italian sword and sandal films, The Thief of Baghdad (1961),  Jack the Giant Killer (1962), Lancelot and Guinevere (1963), and Ray Harryhausen's own Jason and the Argonauts. The film also marked a shift in Ray Harryhausen's career. He went from making primarily science fiction movies to the fantasy films for which he is best known. Had The 7th Voyage of Sinbad not been a success, it seems certain we would not have Jason and the Argonauts or Clash of the Titans, let alone The Golden Voyage of Sinbad or Sinbad and the Eye of the Tiger. The film would also have a lasting impact on various directors through they years, including Sam Raimi, John Landis, Peter Jackson, Steven Spielberg, and George Lucas.

Given its influence there should be little wonder that The 7th Voyage of Sinbad should be considered one of the greatest fantasy films of all time. Indeed, alongside Jason and the Argonauts it is considered Ray Harryhausen's crowning achievement. It is not a simple case that it features some of the most spectacular stop motion effects on film. It also benefited from a strong screenplay and good performances from its cast. The live action sequences having been shot in only three weeks and with a budget of only $65,000, The 7th Voyage of Sinbad is a triumph in artistry. 

Robin Hardy Passes On

Robin Hardy, best known as the director of the classic The Wicker Man (1973), died on July 1 2016 at the age of 86.

Robin Hardy was born on October 2 1929 either in Surrey or London (sources disagree as to which one it was). He studied art in Paris before going to work for the  National Film Board of Canada. He made educational programme in the United States, some of which would air as episodes of Esso World Theatre on National Educational Television (NET), the forerunner of PBS. He returned to Britain in the late Sixties and formed a production company that made commercials and informational films with Anthony Shaffer.

The Wicker Man grew out of Robin Hardy and Anthony Shaffer's desire to produce a horror film. Mr. Shaffer read the novel Ritual by David Pinner, in which a devout Christian police officer investigates the ritual murder of a girl in a small, rural village. David Pinner was paid  £15,000 for the film rights to Ritual. As Mr. Shaffer set out to adapt the novel, however, he soon discovered that a faithful adaptation would not work well on screen. He then developed a plot that was only loosely based upon the novel Ritual, drawing upon the practices of pagan Celts in Julius Caesar's account of his wars in Gaul and other works on Celtic paganism. Robin Hardy and Anthony Shaffer decided that the pagan practices would be portrayed objectively and with as much accuracy as possible. They also wanted their film to be more literate and intellectual than most horror movies.

Starring Sir Christopher Lee as Lord Summerisle and Edward Woodward as Sgt. Howie, The Wicker Man would be severely cut upon its initial release and its distribution was spotty at best. Regardless, the film developed a cult following and would eventually see much of its footage restored throughout the years. The Wicker Man is currently considered one of the greatest horror films ever made.

In 1978 Robin Hardy and Anthony Shaffer published a novelisation of The Wicker Man. His novel The Education of Don Juan was published in 1981. In 1986 his second film, The Fantasist, was released. The film centred on a serial killer who lured his victims by way of the telephone. He wrote the musical Winnie, which centred upon Winston Churchill. It played in London in 1988. He co-wrote Forbidden Sun (1989) with Jesse Lasky Jr. and Pat Silver. Like The Wicker Man it touched upon the subject of paganism. His novel Cowboys for Christ was published in 2006. The book centred on the Christian pop group of the title who encounter Celtic paganism in modern day Scotland. The book was a partial sequel to The Wicker Man. Robin Hardy adapted the novel as his final film, The Wicker Tree (2011).  Mr. Hardy was working on a third film that would follow up The Wicker Man and The Wicker Tree, Wrath of the Gods.

For a time after the release of The Wicker Man Robin Hardy made commercials in the United States. He was also involved in the historical theme park business for a time.

It would be fair to say that The Wicker Man overshadowed nearly everything else that Robin Hardy ever did. Given its influence that should come as no surprise. Iron Maiden based a song around the film. In 2012  the National Theatre of Scotland produced the musical An Appointment with the Wicker Man, about a theatre group trying to put on a play based on the movie. The video to Radiohead's recent single "Burn the Witch" drew inspiration from The Wicker Man. Several directors have been influenced by The Wicker Man, including Edgar Wright and Ben Wheatley. The Wicker Man has been described as "the Citizen Kane of horror films". If one must be known for only one film, then The Wicker Man would be one. While much of Robin Hardy's work remains obscure, he will always be remembered for one of the greatest British films of any genre.

Godspeed Noel Neill

Noel Neill, the first woman to ever play Lois Lane in a live action film and an actress who appeared in many B-Westerns, died July 3 2016 at the age of 95.

Noel Neill was born in Minneapolis on November 25 1920. Her father was father, David Neill, was an editor at the Minneapolis Star-Tribune. Her mother, LaVere Neill was a former dancer in vaudeville. She started performing while still young. When she was only four she was enrolled in a performing arts school. She was already appearing in local stage productions by the time she was five.  By 1929 she was appearing on radio dramas on local Minneapolis radio stations. As a teenager she toured country fairs singing, dancing, and playing banjo, often with childhood friends The Andrew Sisters. As a teenager she also had a modelling career. In the late Thirties she wrote for Women's Wear Daily, but she would not be following her father into a career in journalism.

Instead, in 1938, following her graduation from high school, Miss Neill and her mother made a road trip to Los Angeles. It was not long after her arrival that she got a job singing with Bob Crosby's band at the Del Mar Racetrack. She made her film debut in an uncredited role in Mad Youth in 1940. It was in 1941 that she signed a seven year contract with Paramount Pictures. She appeared in various uncredited roles until 1942 when she received her first credited role in the "Henry Aldrich" movie Henry and Dizzy. She continued to appear in small, uncredited roles as well as in such films as Salute for Three (1943), Henry Aldrich's Little Secret (1944), Fun Time (1944), Are These Our Parents? (1944), Here Come the Waves (1944), and The Stork Club (1945).

Noel Neill moved from Paramount to Monogram, where she found herself cast in the recurring role of Betty Rogers in producer Sam Katzman's "Teen Agers". In the films Betty was a reporter for the school newspaper. She played Betty in the films Junior Prom (1946), Freddie Steps Out (1946), High School Hero (1946), Vacation Days (1947), Sarge Goes to College (1947), Smart Politics (1948), and Campus Sleuth (1948). She also appeared in other films beyond the "Teen Agers' movies. She made her debut in a Western with Over the Santa Fe Trail in 1947, playing opposite Ken Curtis. She also appeared in the sci-fi serial Brick Bradford (1947), based on the comic strip of the same name. Miss Neill appeared in such films as College Queen (1946), Glamour Girl (1948), and Are You with It? (1948).

When Sam Katzman began casting for the serial Superman, he quite naturally thought of Noel Neill for the role of Lois Lane, her reporter character in the "Teen Agers" films being quite similar. It was then in 1948 that Noel Neill became the first woman to play Lois Lane in a live-action film. She would reprise the role of Lois Lane in the sequel to Superman (1948), Superman vs. Atom Man (1950). In both films Kirk Alyn played Superman. In between Noel Neill appeared in various B-Westerns and other films, including Adventures of Frank and Jesse James (1948), Gun Runner (1949), The Sky Dragon (1949--the last Charlie Chan film), Forgotten Women (1949), and The James Brothers of Missouri (1949). She made her television debut in an episode of The Cisco Kid.

In the Fifties she appeared in such films as Abilene Trail (1951), Whistling Hills (1951), The Greatest Show on Earth (1952), Montana Incident (1952), and The Lawless Rider (1954). She guest starred on The Lone Ranger, Fireside Theatre, and Racket Squad. In the meantime, in 1952, a television series, The Adventures of Superman, debuted in 1952. The series starred George Reeves as Superman and Phyllis Coates as Lois Lane. For the second season Phyllis Coates was not available, having committed to another project. As a result Noel Neill was once more cast in the role of Lois Lane. She played the role for the remainder of the series. Sadly, the series was unable to continue following the untimely death of George Reeves.

Following The Adventures of Superman Noel Neill more or less retired from acting. She started a career in public relations and worked in the television department at United Artists. She continued to make appearances in various Superman projects, including a brief appearance as Lois Lane's mother in Superman (1978), as well as appearing in an episode of the TV show Superboy, and the movie Superman Returns (2006). She also appeared in the comedy Surge of Power (2004).  She also appeared frequently at conventions and on the lecture circuit.

Noel Neill was the first actress to play Lois Lane in a live-action film. Indeed, for many she was the quintessential Lois Lane. She played the role with a vibrancy lacking in some of the actresses who succeeded her. Miss Neill's Lois Lane was headstrong, assertive, intelligent, and hard working. It was in  many ways a progressive role at a time when most women on television were wives and mothers who did not work outside their homes. It should come as no surprise that in interviews Noel Neill said that she had been told by many young women that they had chosen to pursue a career in journalism because of her portrayal of Lois Lane. Of course, Miss Neill played other roles beyond Lois Lane. She was in the similar role of Betty Rogers in the "Teen Agers" movies, and she played many a feisty cowgirl in B-Westerns.

I never had the opportunity to meet Noel Neill, but I know people who have. All of them have said the same things about her. She was a very nice woman with a great sense of humour. She always had time for her fans, and was always ready with a smile. If Noel Neill's fans loved her, it is probably because she loved them right back. She certainly will not be forgotten.