“He’s having a slight attack of rigor mortis right in the middle of my living room floor”
— this is my favourite of the bunch so far. But what’s with the title? High Tide is boring. No wonder the Spanish renamed it Ambición perversa — sure, it’s over the top but at least awakening one’s curiosity.
This was another LP that my mum loved. DiscoGS lists 57 versions of this record, the earliest of them released in 1967. The orchestra is credited as Большой Симфонический Оркестр Всесоюзного Радио, which was its official name between 1966 and 1974. So let’s think Suites were recorded in 1966—1967. In our house, however, we had a 1971 pressing. I even remember the time (1971?) when it was squeaky new.
Since it was the only Grieg vinyl we had (Holberg Suite and Piano Concerto in A minor would come later), my mum referred to it just as a “Grieg”. “Put on a Grieg please.” My all-time favourite was «Шествие гномов» (March of the Trolls)*. As it was the last track, I had to wait. But it was well worth it.
It still is.
Edvard Grieg Peer Gynt Suites Nos. 1 & 2, Lyric Suite
Эдвард Григ Пер Гюнт. Две сюиты из музыки к драме Г. Ибсена Лирическая сюита, соч. 54
This piece, Troldtog (literally, “troll procession”), is known in English as either March of the Trolls or March of the Dwarves. I prefer the former translation, while the Russian «Шествие гномов» means “procession of the gnomes”.
†
I suppose Soviet bureaucrats couldn’t leave «Норвежский марш» (“Norwegian march”) as such, they needed to insert peasants somewhere, as in “Workers and Peasants”. Thus «Норвежский крестьянский марш» (“Norwegian peasant march”). The original title, Gangar, is simply “march”, not even “Norwegian”.
Sex, drugs, rock’n’roll, profanity, graphic violence, politically incorrect jokes — in other words, “something to offend just about everyone”. I must say Fritz the Cat didn’t offend me that much. Perhaps it haven’t aged that well then. The thing is, at 78 munutes, the film is way too long for the message, if there was any. I don’t mind sex between anthropomorphic barnyard animals, I’d appreciate (proportionally) more rock’n’roll, and I really could live with less violence. Cut it to 20 minutes, I say, and we’ll talk. Of course, Billie Holiday and Bo Diddley are great. Some of them jokes still work —
We interrupt the Israeli–Arab war for this special announcement. The President, after conferring with Israeli Prime Minister Golda Meir, has agreed to send more arms to Israel, based on the return of New York City and Los Angeles to the United States.
— and some of them don’t. “Radical left”, what radical left? By now, there’s no left left in the US.
Even bigger problem for me is that I didn’t find the protagonist lovable, or charismatic, or interesting in any way. The only character I sympathised with was Harriet the horse, maybe because she reminded me of the donkey from The Bremen Town Musicians.
How come that even the observant dentist Dr. Swangron (John Qualen) failed to notice that the titular scar migrated to the wrong cheek? Never mind that. The girls are beautiful. Henreid is pretty good in a double role of a chain-smoking baddie and, er, another guy, both of them psychoanalysts. Watch out for that orchid scene.
Confused plot and too many dead or wounded dragons for my liking. It’s the romance between a Hawaiian strongwoman princess and a pansexual mermaid, coupled with a wicked sense of humour, that makes this comic worth checking out.
There is no particular reason why this 1945 B-movie acquired a cult following while scores of superior films were forgotten. An unconvincing story with a few loose ends left untied, perhaps because the film creators ran out of little money they had, it is nevertheless worth watching if only for Ann Savage as Vera.
Picked up on a trip out west by a man (Tom Neal) fleeing from a death scene, she instantly and spectacularly gets on his and the audience’s nerves.
Wow. That calls for redefinition of what “villain” is. To me, Vera is a female version of Ostap Bender who, just like the Great Combinator in The Twelve Chairs, effortlessly takes control of a texbook patsy, in this case, Al. If anybody was getting on my nerves, it was this latter, on account of his incurable stupidity and repetitive voice-over narration. Against all odds, I kept hoping that Vera’s machinations would eventually succeed.
Happy New Years, we’ve celebrated several of them. Here are some things that we’ve seen in January:
18 January: «Este mar mío» @ Auditorio José Antonio Ramos, Parque Doramas, Las Palmas de Gran Canaria
Canarian singer-songwriter José Manuel Pérez “El Patillas” opened the new season of Musicando in the company of Gonzalo Macías (guitar), Carlos Meneses (double bass) and Néstor Ramos (drums).
