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Well known animal rights activist too.
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Posted: |
Feb 2, 2023 - 11:53 PM
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By: |
Bob DiMucci
(Member)
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GAS-S-S-S co-starred several actors who were to make names for themselves in later years, including Bud Cort, Talia Shire, Ben Vereen, and Cindy Williams, who made her feature film debut in the picture. In the film, an experimental nerve gas is accidentally released from a defense plant in Alaska, and the aging process of everyone over 25 is speeded up to such an extent that they are doomed to die within a matter of days. As alarmed reactionary elements in Dallas turn Texas into a police state, “Coel” (Robert Corff) and “Cilla” (Elaine Giftos), both under 25, set out to find a new life. After their car is stolen by a modern-day Billy the Kid (George Armitage), they realize that many of their own generation are simply repeating the patterns and prejudices of their elders. Eventually teaming up with four other young people—“Hooper” (Cort), “Coralie” (Shire), “Carlos” (Vereen), and “Marissa” (Williams)—they head for a hippie commune that has been set up in an old Indian pueblo in New Mexico.
Cindy Williams and Ben Vereen in GAS-S-S-S
Roger Corman directed this 1970 counterculture film, his last for American International Pictures. Country Joe & the Fish provided what little background score was in the film. The song score, with many of the songs composed by the Fish’s Barry Melton, was released on an American International Records LP. The album had a gray market CD release on the Reel Time label in 2011. The film didn’t get much distribution, but since it only cost $300,000 to produce, it probably broke even.
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Posted: |
Feb 4, 2023 - 12:22 PM
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By: |
Bob DiMucci
(Member)
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Maggie Smith and Alec McCowen co-starred in the 1972 comedy-adventure TRAVELS WITH MY AUNT. McCowen plays stodgy banker "Henry Pulling," who gets involved in the zany adventures of his aunt, "Augusta Bertram" (Smith), a flamboyant, redheaded septuagenarian. On one journey, Augusta and Henry share a cabin with American hippie “Tooley” (Cindy Williams), and when Augusta retires, Tooley asks Henry to stay and talk. She gives him a cigarette and, unaware that it is marijuana, he smokes it and becomes expansive and relaxed.
Alec McCowen, Cindy Williams, and Maggie Smith in TRAVELS WITH MY AUNT
George Cukor directed the film. The score by Tony Hatch has not had a release. The $3.2 million production was a minor loser at the box office.
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Posted: |
Feb 4, 2023 - 11:24 PM
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By: |
Bob DiMucci
(Member)
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In THE KILLING KIND, “Terry” (John Savage) has recently been released from prison, doing two years for his participation in a gang rape in which he swears he wasn't a willing aggressor. Returning home, Terry moves in with his loving mother, “Thelma” (Ann Sothern), who doesn't believe her son is guilty, hoping to reconnect with the dear boy as he tries to restart his life. Running a boarding house, Thelma tries to keep order around the property, setting strict rules for her latest renter, aspiring model “Lori” (Cindy Williams), but domestic peace is broken by Terry's demons, who urge the ex-con to follow-up on unfinished business concerning his crime.
Cindy Williams in THE KILLING KIND
Curtis Harrington directed this 1973 thriller, which has an unreleased score by Andrew Belling. With this picture, Cindy Williams received her first poster credit for a film.
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AMERICAN GRAFFITI takes place on one of the last summer nights of 1962, when teenagers cruise the main drag of their small California town as rock and roll music and the wry comments of disc jockey Wolfman Jack blare from their car radios. For two recent high school graduates, popular senior class president “Steve Bolander” (Ron Howard) and his more studious friend, “Curt Henderson” (Richard Dreyfuss), this is their last night in town, as they are flying east to a prestigious college in the morning. Steve, whose father is prominent in the Moose Lodge, delivers the organization’s scholarship check to Curt, but his friend is having second thoughts and confides that he may instead attend the local city college for a year. Ready for change, Steve is surprised by Curt’s revelation and suggests to his girlfriend “Laurie” (Cindy Williams), who is Curt’s sister and the head cheerleader, that they should date other people while he is away.
Ron Howard and Cindy Williams in AMERICAN GRAFFITI
A scene in which Steve assures Laurie he is staying in town and not going with Curt was shot in one take. Ron Howard and Cindy Williams had already been released from shooting and were in their street clothes when they were told to put their costumes back on so they could shoot that scene.
Even though Steve was supposed to be a year older than Laurie, Ron Howard was actually seven years younger than Cindy Williams. Different sources report that Williams originally sought the roles of either the blonde “Debbie” (played by Candy Clark) or “Carol” (played by Mackenzie Phillips), reportedly even willing to have braces put on her teeth for that role. The latter part seems like an unlikely fit, however, since “Carol” was supposed to be 12 years old and Williams was nearly 25 at the time.
Cindy Williams in a screen test for AMERICAN GRAFFITI
The film was conceived, directed and co-written by George Lucas, who, like his main characters, graduated from high school in 1962. Lucas worked with a $780,000 budget, about ten percent of which was used to secure the rights to forty-two original rock and roll songs that were popular between 1955 and 1962, which he used to underscore almost every scene. It took fourteen months for attorney Tom Pollock to negotiate the music rights. The copyright holders for many of the songs were hard to find, and some wanted more money than the project could pay. Co-producer Gary Kurtz, who was a friend of Dennis Wilson of The Beach Boys, secured rights to play two of the group's songs in the film for an affordable price. Pollock was able to get permission to use the song “Chantilly Lace” from the mother of The Big Bopper, the seminal rock and roll musician who died in 1959.
Three songs performed by Flash Cadillac and The Continental Kids were recorded specifically for the film. The mix of other songs, which was regarded by many as one of the notable features of AMERICAN GRAFFITI, was created at producer Francis Ford Coppola's San Francisco American Zoetrope Studios by sound man Walter Murch, Lucas, and Kurtz. They recorded the songs five different ways to simulate the sound each would make on car radios in various situations, such as from inside a car or as two automobiles passed each other. Although this was a groundbreaking technique in soundtracks, Universal studio heads were not initially comfortable with the idea.
The film’s song score was released on a double LP set by MCA Records, which has seen many CD reissues. AMERICAN GRAFFITI was the third highest-grossing film at the U.S. box office in 1973, pulling in $116 million. That made it Universal’s second-highest grossing film of all time up to that point, exceeded only by AIRPORT.
Cindy Williams was nominated as Best Supporting Actress by the British Academy of Film and Television Arts, losing to Ingrid Bergman for MURDER ON THE ORIENT EXPRESS. Williams also received a Best Supporting Actress nomination from the National Society of Film Critics.
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I consider "American Graffiti" one of the greatest feature films ever made, with great performances and one of the greatest hot rod races ever captured on film.
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