Disc Reviews

There seems to be so much information and films about Helter Skelter and the atrocities Charles Manson and his followers committed.  Though the notorious Sharon Tate murder took place decades ago, it continues to be a crime that fascinates people to this day.  As interest in the story continues to thrive in the media, whether it be in books or various films, it seems it’s getting harder to find a fresh spin on the story, or at least one that will garner more attention.  Manson’s Lost Girls is a new extension to the story about the events that led up to the fateful night that would forever leave its mark on America pop culture, but does it bring anything new to the table?  Well, it doesn’t present a new perspective on the crime spree, but sadly its execution is a well-polished mess that simply doesn’t add up.

Manson’s Lost Girls starts off strong by introducing us to Linda (Mackenzie Mauzy) who is on the run, attempting to escape Manson and his followers; unfortunately in the process she has to leave her daughter behind.  Yeah, from the get-go we see that Linda is a pretty awful mother considering she seems to have no problem leaving her kid behind with a group of drug addicts and killers, all so she can save her own hide. As a way to grip the audience, this works on getting us into the story, problem is from the start we know Linda is a terrible parent and simply makes it difficult for us to have any sympathy towards her.

Bob Newhart is one of the last in a dying breed of comedians, at least on television. He had a reserved, almost deadpan delivery that drew your attention not because of raunchy material or manic display of hijinx. He was obviously comfortable with being the brunt of all of the jokes. His half embarrassed and half sly-dog grin become a staple in our living rooms for four decades. Newhart was his second situation comedy following a respectable run as a stuttering stammering psychologist with a wacky set of patients and friends. The Bob Newhart Show ran from 1972 to 1978. Just four years later Bob was back on our television screens with Newhart, and it was as if he hadn't missed a beat. Newhart would better those six years by running from 1982 until 1990. Bob Newhart may not have a ton of range as a comic actor, but the television personalities he created in both The Bob Newhart Show and Newhart were lovable enough to bring great success to both of the shows. One could safely admit that he was really playing the same character in both, and the final episode of Newhart pretty much acknowledged that fact with one of the more clever series finales in television history. Bob Newhart will always be remembered as a television icon.

Dick Loudon (Newhart) once worked as a successful advertising executive. He gave up the lucrative job to follow his dream of becoming a writer which led to a nice run of "how to" books. Now he's ready to try his hand at something else. He and wife Joanna (Frann) buy an historical Vermont inn and try their luck as innkeepers. Their second maid was Stephanie Vanderkellan (Duffy), the spoiled daughter of a super-rich New England family. Dick also does a local television show called Tool Time Vermont Today, which is produced by Stephanie's boyfriend, the equally superficial Michael Harris (Scolari). The two of them take "cute" to a pretty much nauseous level. The inn is kept in shape by their inherited handyman George Utley (Poston). George reflects the town's slow and often naive lifestyle. He has a hard time identifying with anything but being a handyman. He's kindhearted to a fault and pretty much becomes a part of the Loudon family.

“’Have gun, will travel’ reads the card of a man. A knight without armor in a savage land…”

Those words ended every episode of Have Gun Will Travel, sung by Johnny Western in a time that such words could be sung without irony. Outside of Richard Boone’s black-clad, craggy, Rhett-Butler-gone-to-seed gunfighter, that song was all I could really recall about this venerable Western from television’s golden age. Would it, like so many revisited shows from my youth, ultimately disappoint? Or would it hold up fifty years after it was originally broadcast, viewed as it would be by the far more jaded, cynical man I’ve grown into?

What are you willing to do to save the life of someone you love? Would you sail across an ocean? Battle a cyclops or fire-breathing dragon? Or maybe smuggle a substantial amount of drugs across the United States-Mexican border. In Crossing Point, one man is pitted across immeasurable odds to accomplish such a task. Young lovers Michael and Olivia are enjoying a vacation in Baja with close friends. A clear romantic, Michael is ready to leave behind his club days and commit to the love of his life. Their happily ever after is derailed after Olivia is abducted by a drug cartel, and Michael is tasked with smuggling their product across the border into the United States in 12 hours.

With no resources and no assistance, he must figure out how to accomplish this task. Meanwhile, Jesus Valencia, a police detective, is investigating a string of suspicious deaths of visiting foreigners and stumbles upon the operation. In order to complete his task and save his Olivia, Michael must bust the police, coyotes (not the animals), and rival cartels, all while the clock continues to count down.

I was entirely too young to remember even the syndicated run that my mother was watching in the late 1960’s. Under more normal circumstances that would not matter as I could introduce myself to this world with the DVD release. That was before 1987 and the release of Brian De Palma’s classic film. Honestly, I simply can’t watch these episodes without thinking of that movie. For an entire generation that film has defined these characters and that time. It’s unfortunate, really, because this 1960 series had a lot going for it, particularly when you look at what else was on television at that time. Never before had such brutal violence in such a starkly real world graced the black and white sets of America. When I read articles about the controversy surrounding these depictions, I am forced to smile a little. By today’s standards these shows are quite tame. Still, the flurry of protests the show spawned were quite real. Italians were also vocal in their belief that the show went too far in portraying nearly every bad guy as being of Italian descent. I have to admit some of these accents make Father Sarducci sound good. Complaints went as far as the US Attorney General. My, have things changed. I am also of Italian heritage and gladly sit down to an hour of Tony Soprano, eating it up about as fast as a bowl of tortellini and gravy. While there are still those of us who feel racially exploited, most of us embrace the mob mythology of The Godfather and Goodfellas. We can accept the difference between reality and fantasy. And so I watch these episodes as if I were some remote viewer, not only from a different time, but a different place.

The Untouchables took on a perhaps too convincing appearance of reality. Remember that the audience was made up of folks who grew up getting their news from newsreels at the local theater. It was a stroke of genius to have real life news reporter Walter Winchell narrate the series. Everything from that narration to the gritty dark photography carried a documentary style feel to every minute of the action. You can only imagine why too many Americans thought it was too violent. The show wasn’t too violent. It looked and felt too realistic. Robert Stack literally becomes the persona of Elliot Ness. The show was also based on a book that was co-written by Ness himself but was highly fictionalized by the time it reached millions of homes each week. In truth Ness’s team didn’t exist long after bringing down Capone for tax evasion. In the series the team becomes a strike force of sorts against an entire mug book of criminals real and imagined.