Just One More Thing...

 Just One More Thing…

Hello and welcome to Cinema Wellman. I am your host, David.

        The “Director’s Corner”/Wes Anderson Lovefest episode has been moved to next month because I thought of something I wanted to do that I now “need” to rewatch all 11 films again.

Not much of a chore, so I’m looking forward to it.

Today instead, you’ll get “Just One More Thing…” a first of a possible series of episodes that may pop up from time to time as needed.

I say “as needed” because all I’m really going to do today is tell you stuff that I FORGOT to mention during previous episodes. 

Kind of like what Tony Reali did at the end of “PTI” back in the day as “Stat Boy,” where he’d tell the hosts everything they got wrong or neglected to say.

I’ll be my own “Stat Boy” today since Reali is busy.

It doesn’t happen every episode, but now and then I’ll finish a show and kick myself because I forgot to mention something.

I started keeping a list (what a shock!), and, when the list contains enough items, I’ll do a “Just One More Thing…” episode to fill in all of the blanks.

I chose the title because it's a catchphrase of the best TV detective of all time; Columbo.

Columbo, played by the great Peter Falk, appeared to be totally disorganized and scatterbrained, but he was far from either. 

Columbo would ask question after question, often exasperating the killer. He would actually have the crime solved from the start, but he always needed proof, which was usually provided by the murder themselves. 

When it seemed like he was done with his questioning, he’d begin to walk away, then turn around and return saying, “Just one more thing.”

It was a brilliant show that always had the best killers!

And the first episode ever was directed by none other than Steven Spielberg.

Always a movie connection here at Cinema Wellman.

Before we get to what I missed in those previous episodes, I wanted to mention the passing of an actor who always entertained me and usually made me smile.

Unless he was playing someone really, really evil.

The great Donald Sutherland left us this week at the age of 88.

Sutherland’s acting career spanned six decades, and he played all kinds of characters (regardless of your definition of that word).

While younger people know Sutherland for his chilling portrayal of President Snow in The Hunger Games series, he began creating memorable characters in the 60s.

Some of our favorites include:

*Vernon L. Pinkley in The Dirty Dozen

*Hawkeye Pierce in M*A*S*H 

*Sergeant Oddball in Kelly’s Heroes (Hippies in WWII?!)

*John Klute in Klute

*John Baxter in Don’t Look Now

*Dave Jennings in National Lampoon’s Animal House

“Now I’m waiting for reports from some of you…Listen, I’m not joking. This is my job!”

*Matthew Bennell in Invasion of the Body Snatchers

And, yes, President Snow

Donald Sutherland won a Primetime Emmy for Supporting Actor in a Miniseries or a Special for Citizen X, but he was never even NOMINATED for an Oscar.

Sutherland was given an Honorary Oscar (just like Edward G. Robinson, Peter O’Toole, Alfred Hitchcock) by the Academy to try to make up for all those times they screwed things up. 

Let’s now move on to those previous omissions from earlier episodes.

Apparently, this is information that I thought you could not do without.

#1: Something that was brought to my attention AFTER our “Once is MORE than Enough!” episode by my sister, Vanessa, is the possible inclusion of Million Dollar Baby on that list of great films that one screening is enough because of the subject matter. 

I agree with V 100%, and if you haven’t seen Million Dollar Baby, I won’t spoil anything, but it won four Oscars (Picture, Director Clint Eastwood, Actress Hilary Swank, and Supporting Actor Morgan Freeman). 

If they gave Oscars for making you sob uncontrollably and have some of your soul ripped from you, it would have won a fifth. 

#2: When Hannah and I did our “Final Destination, Please” episode we spoiled just about everything as we detailed our “favorite?” deaths from the series.

What we neglected to spoil was the fact that (and I’m spoiling it here) is that the end of the last movie is the beginning of the first movie!

At the end of Final Destination 5, Sam and Molly get on Flight 180 and see Alex Browning and some of his classmates being removed from the plane. 

Well done, FD!

#3: While eviscerating Road House during the “Worst” section of our May screening episode, I think I neglected to mention that this new updated refresher reboot, whatever you want to call it, actually used the tagline from Road House 2!!

Not the tagline from the Patrick Swayze original, the tagline from the 2006 actioner Road House 2: Last Call.

The tagline; “Take it outside.”

Which is interesting because technically the bar in that Jake Gyllenhaal dumpster fire is an outdoor bar!

So, there’s another thing to hate about that movie. 

#4: In that same episode, we kind of loved The Fall Guy. 

Something we loved that we forgot to share is that the movie being made in The Fall Guy is titled Metalstorm.

When I first saw this, it made me laugh because it reminded me of the title of a really terrible 80s sci-fi action movie titled, Metalstorm: The Destruction of Jared-Syn.

That was definitely on the drive-in circuit in high school. I’m sure Andrew remembers it well. 

Although if it was the second film of the night, maybe not.

Well, it turns out that it was no coincidence! The filmmakers of The Fall Guy purposely used that title.

I guess if you’re going to make a movie about a little-known TV show from the 80s, you may as well also name your movie within the movie after a little-known sci-fi movie from the 80s.

I certainly appreciated it. 

#5: In last week’s “Friends of Cinema Wellman” episode, we spoke about Edith Head and her brilliant career as a costume designer.

I mentioned that she worked on both color and black and white films, but what I forgot to mention is that her trademark glasses weren’t tinted blue for fashion reasons.

The glasses were tinted with a special blue tint that would make things look “black and white” when you looked through them. 

Head could design colorful costumes for black and white productions and look through her glasses at her creations to see what they were going to look like on screen in black and white. 

How about that?

Larry also sent some positive notes about that episode and mentioned that his dad once told him that Edith Head was an often-used crossword clue because of the number of vowels and their versatility. 

I did not know that!

And, lastly, also from last week’s episode:

#6: While speaking about Edward G. Robinson, I mentioned that casting him in the Biblical epic The Ten Commandments (“Where’s your messiah, now!” which he didn’t say, but should have) was one of the worst casting choices ever.

I should have added that John Wayne playing a Roman centurion in The Greatest Story Ever Told was even more preposterous. 

He has one line, and delivers it in true John Wayne drawl, “Truly this man was the Son of God.”

So cringy.

And I also meant to add that Edward G. Robinson wasn’t good enough to be nominated for an Oscar in the minds of the Academy, but he was good enough to be the inspiration for an animated frog villain on “Courageous Cat and Minute Mouse.”

The interwebs will prove that!

It’s worth 10 minutes of your time. The animation is dreadful, and Minute Mouse is so much like Mickey that I’m surprised they never got sued. 

Well, that is a wrap for the first of a possible who knows how many “Just One More Thing…” episodes.

I guess it depends on how much we forget to include in the future.

We hope you’re back with us next week when we break down the Best & Worst of the films we screened here in Cinema Wellman in the month of June.

The good news…we didn’t watch Road House.

Until then, take care.