Now Playing: DEATHDREAM
Who'da thunk it? A SUPERTRAIN fan page. I don't really remember much about SUPERTRAIN--I likely was watching whatever was on the other channels then--but I do recall the hubris surrounding it. SUPERTRAIN is one of TV's most notorious failures. It was created during Fred Silverman's reign as head of programming at NBC--a reign that plummeted the network into last place with a frighteningly lame slate of terrible shows. Not just bad shows, but expensive ones too. SUPERTRAIN, which was basically a ripoff of THE LOVE BOAT set aboard a powerfully fast passenger train, was, at the time, one of TV's most expensive shows, mostly because of the large sets and elaborate train models. It ran only ten episodes, but never more than four consecutive weeks, as NBC fiddled with the format and timeslot in an effort to perk up the ratings. You can learn more about the show--and check out some neat vintage logos and TV Guide ads--at the Web site I've linked to above. I'd like to see a SUPERTRAIN DVD box set. Gotta dig that Fred Williamson guest shot!
Over the weekend, I roadtripped to St. Louis to pick up my hot new ride--a used '94 Nissan Lumina that I bought from my brother and sister-in-law. It's got a few problems, but seems to be running and looking good so far. Monday night I ran into a bit of a problem when the sunroof opened and refused to close. After three hours of fiddling with it well into the night, Grady, Chicken and I managed to get the damn thing shut, although hell if I know how we did it. Blind luck played a big part, I think, although those guys seemed to have a good idea what they were doing. Thanks to those friends for their help, as I would definitely have been screwed without them.
Last night turned into an impromptu Crappy Movie Night when Chicken called and said he was bored. Chicken, Grady, Stiner and SuperLar and his lady came by for Michael Dudikoff Night: AMERICAN NINJA and AVENGING FORCE. NINJA is, of course, a Cannon classic that led to several sequels. It has a lot of action and a charismatic turn by the late Steve James as Dudikoff's sidekick, but FORCE is the real gem in Dudikoff's filmography. For some reason, MGM has yet to release AVENGING FORCE on DVD, but it needs to come out, especially since I only have an LP pre-record on the Video Treasures label that has been played too many times. AVENGING FORCE is a terrific movie, again co-starring James and directed by NINJA's Sam Firstenberg, who has made a lot of entertaining flicks, including AMERICAN NINJA 2: THE CONFRONTATION and BREAKIN' 2: ELECTRIC BOOGALOO. AVENGING FORCE not only contains some crackerjack action scenes, atmospherically shot in the Louisiana swamp, but ups the suspense by creating some truly vicious bad guys for Dudikoff to fight. Led by that great ham John P. Ryan, who played the dad in the first two IT'S ALIVE pictures, the villains are racists, white slavers and child killers who totally lack a conscience. There's also one amazing stunt where Dudikoff's character is standing on the roof of a large farmhouse, is shot in the leg with an arrow, and falls off the roof onto the porch roof, bounces off and onto the unpadded ground. Firstenberg shoots it all in one continuous long shot, and I don't know how the stuntman did it without getting hurt. It's pretty spectacular. There's a lot of Dudikoff out on DVD now, but his best film, AVENGING FORCE, isn't, and neither is the very good PLATOON LEADER, a Vietnam War action pic that, I believe, is the only film directed by Aaron Norris that Aaron's brother Chuck isn't in.
For Tolemite, I recommend DEATHDREAM, a rocky low-budget horror movie filmed in Florida that features a creepy performance by Richard Backus as a zombie named Andy. He's not a standard Romero-style zombie and the character is as much a vampire as he is a zombie. Andy is an American G.I. killed in Vietnam who supernaturally returns to his hometown, seemingly just because his grief-stricken mother (played by FACES' Lynn Carlin, who later provided the voice of Richard Thomas' spaceship in BATTLE BEYOND THE STARS) wants him to. Beyond looking abnormally pale, Andy acts very strangely, not eating or sleeping, refusing to speak to anyone, and generally creeping out his family, especially after he strangles to death the family dog. His father (John Marley, also in FACES and best known as the guy who wakes up with the horse's head in THE GODFATHER, a part he parodied in an SCTV episode) is the only one who acknowledges Andy's behavior, which grows worse when he goes on a killing spree to acquire the human blood he needs to keep it together. "It" being his skin, which is in a constant state of decay and begins peeling when he needs nourishment.
Directed by Bob Clark (A CHRISTMAS STORY) and written by Alan Ormsby (CAT PEOPLE) with makeup effects by Ormsby and Tom Savini (DAWN OF THE DEAD), DEATHDREAM is a bit ragged in its cinematography, dialogue and performances, but does a nice job of presenting Andy's "illness" in both a horrific sense and as a metaphor commenting on the then-current Vietnam War. Backus wears the makeup well, looking and acting very creepy, and might have been a good choice for the role later played by Keir Dullea in Clark's BLACK CHRISTMAS, one of the best horror films of the 1970's. That isn't a criticism of Dullea, but Backus has a similar look and placidity to his acting.
LAND OF THE DEAD opens this weekend, which I'm looking forward to, but if you're interested in a more low-key zombie movie that focuses more on its message than on action, DEATHDREAM is an interesting picture that has been well-served on DVD from Blue Underground, who graces the disc with two commentary tracks (one by Clark, which I didn't listen to, and an informative one by Ormsby), new interviews, a trailer, deleted scenes, a poster and still gallery and more. An excellent presentation of a relatively obscure film that deserves to be more widely seen.