Motorcycle Day/Summer of Darkness -- July 11, 2026

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Since I got out of the hospital, I have been watching a lot of movies on TCM. On Friday we started with Motorcycle Day and moved on to Summer of Darkness, which is happening every Friday.

1:30pm PDT

The Wild One (1953)

1 hr 30 mins|Drama|TV-14

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I have always found The Wild One to be an odd movie. If it had been made a few years later, the score might have used rock'n'roll. Some of the actors seemed to be chewing large chunks of scenery. On the other hand, Brando showed all of his charisma. Lee Marvin was a force of nature. 

László Benedek directed. 

3:00pm PDT

The Born Losers (1967)

2 hrs|Action|TV-14

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I loved "Billy Jock," the Mad Magazine (July 1974) of Billy Jack. Many years later I saw Billy Jack on television I was not surprised how much it resembled the Mad version. 

Yesterday I saw Born Losers, the first Billy Jack movie. The acting was mostly wooden. The leader of the bikers was a good villain. His Number One was played by William Wellman, Jr. There were lots of girls in bikinis. There was lots of violence. I don't think I'll watch it again unless I am very bored.

Directed by TC Frank (Tom Laughlin).

5:00pm PDT

Viva Knievel! (1977)

2 hrs|Action|TV-PG

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We may have lasted as long as ten minutes. 

7:00pm PDT

The Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Story (1951)

1 hr|Documentary|TV-G

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The longest preview of coming attractions I have ever seen. I always thought Dore Schary had a funny name.

8:00pm PDT

They Live by Night (1949)

2 hrs|Crime|TV-PG

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Great movie. I forgot how many helicopter shots they used. Cathy O'Donnell was moving. We switched back and forth between this and the Giants-Rockies game.

This was the first movie that Nicholas Ray directed.

9:45pm PDT

Looney Tunes: Rhapsody Rabbit (1946)

10 mins|Comedy|TV-PG

Missed it. I am happy that TCM has been showing Warner Brothers cartoons.

10:00pm PDT

Gun Crazy (1950)

1 hr 45 mins|Crime|TV-PG

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Another great movie. I'll watch it any time. 

Richard Chamberlin, RIP -- April 6, 2025

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Richard Chamberlin died in late March. I never watched Doctor Kildare, but I read a reprint of the Mad Magazine version. I never saw Shogun or The Thornbirds. I loved Richard Lester's Three Musketeer movies, where he played Aramis.

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Peter Weir's The Last Wave was the first Australian New Wave (sorry) film that my fiancée attended. We saw it at the Bridge Theater. It made a deep impression on both of us.

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He seems to have had a propensity for the works of Alexandre Dumas, père.

Dennis Weaver 100 -- June 4, 2024

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I don't remember Dennis Weaver on Gunsmoke. I didn't watch McCloud. I did enjoy the Mad Magazine version. I love his performance as the creepy motel clerk in Orson Welles' Touch of Evil.

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Tom Smothers, RIP -- December 30, 2023

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Tommy Smothers has died. My parents had a Smothers Brothers album and I just barely remember their television show. I remember when CBS canceled it, and I remember Mad Magazine calling them the "Smothered Brothers." I learned something about comic timing from them. 

Kate Jackson 75 -- October 29, 2023

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Actress Kate Jackson was born 75 years ago today, on 29-October-1948. I remember when Charlie's Angels premiered in 1976. I liked the way she played the smart one. The Mad Magazine version was excellent.

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I did not watch The Rookies or Scarecrow and Mrs King. 

Richard Roundtree RIP -- October 26, 2023

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When Shaft came out, I and all of my friends, white, black, Asian, Hispanic or other wanted to be like Richard Roundtree, even though we were not old enough to go see an R-rated movie. I later learned that Gordon Parks was a great director. 

The music by Isaac Hayes helped. I also liked the Mad Magazine version.

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Charles Bronson 100 -- November 3, 2021

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Actor Charles Bronson was born 100 years ago today, on 03-November-2021. He was born in the coal country in Pennsylvania and worked in the mines from a young age. He served as a gunner on B-29s during World War II.

I remember enjoying his movies and the Mad Magazine versions of his movies. He always looked like a guy you should not mess with.

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Note that Bronson is billed fourth, but his picture is on the poster.

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Clarence Williams III, RIP -- June 7, 2021

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I was sad to learn that actor Clarence Williams III, who starred in The Mod Squad on television has died. Co-star Peggy Lipton died in 2019, so that leaves Michael Cole as the only living member of the team. 

Clarence Williams III was the grandchild of  composer/pianist/publisher/producer and band leader Clarence Williams, whose name is all over early jazz and blues recordings, and jazz and blues singer Eva Taylor. 

I remember the show only vaguely, but "The Odd Squad" in June, 1969 was one of my favorite Mad Magazine television satires. You could always tell which actresses Mort Drucker really liked.

Jaclyn Smith 75 -- October 26, 2020

 

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Beautiful actress Jaclyn Smith was born 75 years ago today, on 26-October-1945. I remember when Charlie's Angels premiered in 1976. Jaclyn Smith was my favorite. The Mad Magazine version was excellent. I don't remember seeing her in other movies or television shows. 

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William Conrad 100 -- September 27, 2020

 

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Actor William Conrad had a long career in radio, movies and television. I probably first heard of him when he narrated episodes of Rocky and Bullwinkle. Later when I listened to old radio shows on KSFO, I heard him in Gunsmoke, where he played the original Marshall Matt Dillon, and in anthology shows like Suspense and Escape. Later I saw him in films noir like The Killers. I don't think I watched any of his television shows, even though Cannon was set in San Francisco. I enjoyed the Mad Magazine satire, "Cannonball." 

Mort Drucker, RIP -- April 13, 2020

Mad Magazine, December 1972

Mad Magazine's Mort Drucker has died.  It was not because of COVID-19.  When I read Mad, his film and television parodies were my favorite feature.  I could tell which actresses he liked.

Mad Magazine, RIP -- July 9, 2019

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I was devastated to learn that Mad Magazine is going to cease publication.

The October-November 1952 issue of Mad, published in August, was the beginning of a great American tradition. EC, famous up to that time for horror comics, moved in a new direction. Published by Bill Gaines and edited by Harvey Kurtzman, Mad introduced sharp satire (Humor in a Jugular Vein) to comic books.

Mad became a magazine in 1955. Legend said it was because of the growing controversy about comic books, but it was done to satisfy Kurtzman's ambition.

I read Mad for many years and it certainly influenced my sense of humor. I know some movies better through reading the Mad parodies rather than seeing the movies themselves.

Peggy Lipton, RIP -- May 11, 2019

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I was sad to learn that actress Peggy Lipton, who starred in The Mod Squad on television has died.

"The Odd Squad" in June, 1969 was one of my favorite Mad Magazine television satires. You could always tell which actresses Mort Drucker really liked.

Burt Reynolds, RIP -- September 6, 2018

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Burt Reynolds has died.  I didn't see many of his movies in the theater.  I remember Deliverance and The Longest Yard, but he was frequently mentioned in Mad Magazine and could be pretty funny in real life.  I managed to avoid seeing all the Smokey and the Bandit movies.

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Grauman's Chinese -- Alfred E Newman -- June 3, 2018

The cover of the August, 2018 Mad Magazine seems like a fitting end to my Grauman's Chinese series.  I hope I'll get to go there again and photograph some more signatures.

Iconic City Hall -- Dirty Harry -- November 30, 2015

The San Francisco Arts Commission sponsors the Art on Market Street Program, which has local artists put up a series of works on bus shelters on Market Street.  Iconic City Hall is a series by Kelli Inouye which depicts movies that have used San Francisco's beautiful City Hall.


Don Siegel directed Clint Eastwood in five movies.  The most famous is probably Dirty Harry from 1971.  I didn't like the politics, but I admired Eastwood's performance and the San Francisco settings, which included City Hall.

I read the Mad Magazine version, "Dirty Larry," before I saw the movie.  

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Mike Nichols, RIP -- November 22, 2014

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When I was a kid, there were radio shows dedicated to comedy.  They played a lot of Tom Lehrer and some Bill Cosby and a lot of Mike Nichols and Elaine May.  I liked their delivery, but I didn't understand a lot of their humor till I got older.  Then I learned that the team had broken up years before and that he had become a director.  She had become a writer and director too, but I didn't see any of her work till later. 

Nichols directed all sorts of movies in all sorts of genres.  I didn't understand Catch-22 till I read the Mad Magazine version.  I didn't see Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? till I was older.  I didn't understand a lot of The Graduate till I got older.  Angels in America was my favorite recent work. 

I never got to see any of the plays he directed. 

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Francis Ford Coppola 75 -- April 7, 2014

Francis Ford Coppola was born 75 years ago, on 07-April-1939.  I think the first movie of his that I saw was Dementia 13 on Creature Features, a late night horror show on KTVU Channel 2. 

I was too young to see The Godfather when it came out, but I read the Mad Magazine version over and over again. 

The first movie of his that I saw in a theater was The Conversation.  It was on a double bill with something totally unrelated.  I can't remember where I saw it. 

I saw Apocalypse Now  at the Strand, a Market Street house that was very popular with homeless people.  It seemed appropriate, especially when a character mentioned the unspeakable things going on in Kurtz's compound. 

I saw Hammett, which Coppola mostly reshot after Wim Wenders left the project, at the Metro on Union, I think.  I liked the book better. 

We saw The Cotton Club at the Bridge on Geary.  I liked it.  My then-fiancée, who tap dances, liked it.  Critics did not like it. 

I don't know how many times we saw "Captain EO", with Michael Jackson, at Disneyland. 

I've seen his other movies, including the three Godfathers on television.  I would like to see Godfather and Godfather Part 2 in a theater. 

We went to see Abel Gance's Napoleon, with a score by Coppola's father Carmine, at the Opera House. 

Coppola opened a restaurant in the Sentinel Building in North Beach.  Boss Abe Ruef had his office in the building. 

The photo of Coppola with his Godfather Academy Awards and the poster are from www.listal.com.