"It's About Time" to Discover Marc Platt

Marc Platt is an extremely talented singer, songwriter and producer based in California. He’s been providing in the know fans with excellent music since the 1980s, when he fronted the outstanding power pop ensemble The Real Impossibles. Platt recently released Beat on the Street, an EP that offers a half dozen examples of his rock and roll bona fides. "Joe Strummer," the record's memorable opening salvo, is a strong track that manages to rock out and be socially conscious at the same time, while also name-checking the late great Clash guitarist-vocalist. The low-key 1960’s singer-songwriter vibe of the lovely “Did You See Her Smile” will make you feel like you're hearing a lost gem from Neil Diamond’s early period.

“On Lonely Avenue” and “As The City Sleeps” are noir-tinged songs that benefit from Platt's passionate vocals and atmospheric production. The very cool, echo-laden “Surf In The Rain” is a fusion of punk, surf music and garage rock, featuring his deft guitar work. Then there’s the glorious pop tune "The Beat," which Platt co-authored with the late John Ferriter of The Tearaways. The songs featured on Beat on the Street are superbly crafted tales of love, loss, heartache and joy. Here's hoping we’ll get a full-length release from Mr. Platt in the near future, as this marvelous EP will definitely whet your appetite for more music from this marvelous artist. Beat on the Street is an absolute must listen.

To tide you over until Platt's next release, Rum Bar Records has released a remastered edition of It’s About Time by The Real Impossibles. This fantastic power pop outfit was founded by Platt during the 1980s, and featured a lineup of stellar musicians during their existence, including bassist Probyn Gregory, guitarist Robby MacDonald, and drummer Brian Glasscock. Peter Case of The Plimsouls also recorded some tracks with the band. It’s About Time features 13 prime slices of power pop from throughout the band's history, including the guitar infused "Talkin' Bout You," a song that Bryan Adams wishes he'd written and recorded during his MTV heyday. The hard-driving "Turn My World" and the country-flavored "Here And Now" are also highlights of this terrific collection. Platt's Neil Diamond influence surfaces again on a fine power-punk cover of "Cherry Cherry."

If you're pining for the kind of songs bands like The Alarm, The Romantics, The Producers and The Knack gave us back in the day, look no further than the melodic pop-rock tunes “Something To Learn” and “Is It Love,” or the modern rock flavored "Firing Line." Then there's the crunchy “Won’t Let You Down” and “Guess You Feel It Too” both of which sound as if The Blasters decided to have a jam session with The Georgia Satellites and invited The Fabulous Thunderbirds along for the ride. You'll find so many jangly, guitar-infused tunes on the album, you'll be spinning it relentlessly, whether you're re-discovering the band, or hearing their incredible music for the first time. It's About Time from The Real Impossibles and Beat on the Street from Marc Platt are now available from Rum Bar Records. You can find Rum Bar Records at: https://rumbarrecords.bandcamp.com. To give you a taste of these fine releases, here are links to "Surf In The Rain" from Marc Platt's excellent Beat on the Street, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h2MFS9083FE, and "All Over This World" from The Real Impossibles' wonderful It's About Time: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NiWJkiGMKEw. 

Miracle Mile: Fate, Love & the Apocalypse

Many apocalyptic thrillers and disaster films tell their story on an epic-sized canvas. Movies like Airport, The Poseidon Adventure, Independence Dayand Deep Impact feature a sprawling cast of characters fighting for their lives to survive ships or airplanes in peril, natural disasters, rampaging monsters or alien invaders. Miracle Mile (1988), writer-director Steve De Jarnatt's end of the world tale, travels a different road. The film relates its story on a much smaller scale, and it's a unique, offbeat entry in the pantheon of end of the world thrillers.

Anthony Edwards in Miracle Mile

As the movie opens, we meet a Los Angeles based musician named Harry. While visiting the La Brea Tar Pits museum, he meets Julie, who works at a local diner. The two hit it off and spend the afternoon together. They agree to meet later that evening for a date after Julie's shift as a waitress is over. A power failure in Harry's building causes him to oversleep, and miss their rendezvous. When he gets to the diner hours later, Julie has left the premises, believing that he's jilted her. Harry uses the payphone (hey, this is the 1980s, remember?) outside the coffee shop to call her, and leaves her a message. He apologizes for missing their date and asks her to meet him later.

That's when fate intervenes. The phone rings, and Harry picks it up. A frenzied voice on the other end of the line starts talking about an impending nuclear attack, and says that we're going to retaliate. It turns out that Chip, the caller, works at a military base. He dialed the wrong number, and thought he had reached his Dad. Before Harry can confirm Chip's story, there are gunshots on the line, and a voice tells him "Forget what you just heard," before breaking the connection. Harry goes back into the diner, and tells everyone there what just happened. The reactions of the customers there vary from some of them thinking he's crazy to others taking him deadly seriously. If what Harry heard is true, they've got just over an hour to get out of the area before the attack happens.

The group in the diner plans an escape, thanks to a customer named Landa, who's a stock trader and has some connections, thanks to her having dated a guy from the Rand Corporation. As the time for the attack inches closer, Harry works his way across the city to find Julie before the coming apocalypse. Can he save her in time? Is there really a nuclear attack imminent, or was the phone call a hoax? Is Harry dreaming the whole thing? One thing's for sure: Harry knows that Julie is the love of his life, and he's got to find her before the doomsday clock runs out.

The cast is fantastic. Anthony Edwards is marvelous as Harry, and Mare Winningham is terrific as Julie. The two knew each other before working on the film, and they have excellent chemistry.  The rest of the stellar cast is filled with familiar faces, including Denise Crosby, Diane Delano, Mykelti Williamson, Kurt Fuller, and Danny De La Paz. They're all wonderful in the movie. The scenes in the diner feel a bit like a classic TV drama from the 1950s. They have the aura of a Playhouse 90 or Twilight Zone episode. According to Denise Crosby, who I met a few years ago at a convention, the cast was actually able to re-hearse these scenes before production, and it gives the early portion of the film a natural, low-key, one-act play kind of vibe. 

Miracle Mile is a unique combination of genres; it starts out as a 1980s “meet cute’ love story, then morphs into a doomsday thriller, an action movie, and finally, offers us a very 1970s style downbeat climax. The story's tonal shifts puzzled some of those who initially attempted to produce the film. Steven De Jarnatt's script had been circulating in Hollywood for years, and it was known as one of the best unproduced screenplays in the pipeline. According to De Jarnatt, at one point the film was being developed at Warner Brothers as the basis for Twilight Zone: The Movie, but it never came to pass, because the writer-director balked at changing the film’s ending. De Jarnatt eventually bought back the script and attempted to get the project off the ground himself, when producer John Daly and Hemdale Films stepped in, and worked with him to produce the movie.

De Jarnatt does a solid job with the film’s direction. The effects are a bit dated, because this is the pre-CGI age, but cinematographer Theo van de Sande does a great job evoking the night-time world of Los Angeles, aided by the effective, deeply moody score provided by Tangerine Dream. Miracle Mile offers a fascinating “what if” scenario. What if you knew you only had a very short time to live? What would you do with the moments you had left? If you enjoy doomsday thrillers, Miracle Mile is a little something different for the genre. It’s a very personal disaster film. You might find yourself thinking about just how much of what happens to Harry and Julie is fate, and if in fact, it really happened at all. The movie is available in a marvelous Blu-ray edition from Kino Lorber with a number of great extras, including a commentary with writer-director De Jarnatt, and a cast reunion featurette. Here’s a link to the trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RNXZX8JRb6o.

This post is part of the Disaster Blogathon, hosted by my fellow bloggers over at Dubsism and The Midnite Drive-In. I’d like to thank them for allowing me to join in on the fun! Follow this link for more info, and to check out the other entries in the blogathon: https://dubsism.com/2020/06/10/the-disaster-blog-a-thon-is-here/.

Bava's Cool, Stylish "Danger: Diabolik"

Mario Bava is probably best known as the director of horror films like Black Sunday and giallo thrillers like Blood and Black Lace, but he also made sword and sandal movies, science-fiction tales and even a Western. Bava was a master at creating stylish and atmospheric films, which ended up looking much more impressive and expensive than their often modest budgets. He directed one of the best comic book adaptations ever made. Danger: Diabolik (1968) is a colorful, action-filled adventure based on the Italian comic book, or fumetti, created by siblings Angela and Lucianna Giussani. The series follows the adventures of a master thief, Diabolik, and his accomplice, Eva Kant. Diabolik began publication in 1962, and became one of the most successful comics ever published in Europe, selling more than 150 million copies.

The initial cinematic adaptation of Diabolik was begun by producer Tonino Cervi and director Seth Holt. The cast featured Jean Sorel as Diabolik, Elsa Martinelli as Eva Kant and George Raft as Diabolik's enemy, Richness. After Raft dropped out due to health problems, and was replaced by Gilbert Roland, production on the film started up again. Dino De Laurentiis, who was distributing the movie, scrapped the project after being disappointed with the footage completed by Holt. De Laurentiis began again with a new script, cast and crew, and hired Bava to direct the film. John Phillip Law, who was set to co-star in De Laurentiis' upcoming production of Barbarella, was cast as Diabolik, while Marisa Mell took over the role of Eva Kant. Celebrated composer Ennio Morricone (The Good, The Bad & The Ugly) was brought on board to write the score, and editor Romana Fortini, cinematographer Antonio Rinaldi, and set designer Carlo Rambaldi also joined the project.

The film begins with Diabolik's heist of ten million dollars from a convoy overseen by police Inspector Ginko. Despite Ginko's careful preparations, including the use of a decoy convoy containing paper instead of money, the master thief and his lover/accomplice, the beautiful Eva Kant, steal the loot and escape capture. Thus begins a cat and mouse game between Diabolik and Ginko that runs throughout the film. The inspector even makes a deal with the notorious gangster Valmont to aid him in his pursuit and capture of Diabolik. Over the course of the story the clever Diabolik evades capture (using a variety of gadgets and very fast cars) and pulls off some increasingly spectacular thefts. When Eva is kidnapped by the evil Valmont, will Diabolik's luck run out? Can our resourceful (and death-defying) anti-hero rescue his one true love Eva, and pull off the biggest gold heist of all time?

John Phillip Law & Marisa Mell

Danger: Diabolik is filled with kinetic action sequences, eye-popping set pieces and marvelous work from the cast. The athletic Law (best known to genre fans in the US for playing Sinbad in the Ray Harryhausen production The Golden Voyage of Sinbad) is excellent as Diabolik, and Marisa Mell is lithe, sensual and seductive as Eva Kant. The two actors (who reportedly dated offscreen) have great onscreen chemistry; you can definitely feel their passion for one another. Michel Piccoli is solid as Diabolik's nemesis Inspector Ginko, the indispensable Terry-Thomas is wonderful as a government official, and Adolfo Celi (who portrayed James Bond's nemesis Emilio Largo in Thunderball) is appropriately slimy as the villainous Valmont. Even though Diabolik is a thief and a terrorist (he blows up all of Italy's tax offices in the film!), we end up rooting for him, because's he's a charming rogue with his own code of conduct. He's the kind of guy who seems to specifically target corrupt governments and remorseless bad guys with no sense of honor.

Bava does a fantastic job with the film. The movie looks far more expensive than its limited budget, thanks to some spectacular matte paintings, skillful use of miniatures, an inspired color palette, and some inventive camera tricks by Bava and his crew. Ennio Morricone's terrific music effortlessly matches the tone of the film, effectively using instruments like electric guitar and sitar, as well as some talented vocalists, to underscore the action and not overwhelm it. The movie has an off the wall sense of humor, but never becomes quite as deliriously campy as the Batman television series, the James Coburn "Flint" films or Dean Martin's "Matt Helm" movies. Danger: Diabolik has a style all its own. I think it's one of Mario Bava's best films, and it's most certainly one of the most well-done (and affectionate) comic book adaptations ever made.

If you like the spy films and television series of the 1960s and 1970s, (or are a Mario Bava fan) I think you'll really enjoy Danger: Diabolik. The move has influenced a variety of comic book artists and filmmakers including Stephen Bissette, Edgar Wright and Roman Coppola, and the Beastie Boys famously integrated clips from the movie into their video for their 1998 song "Body Movin." The film has recently been released in an outstanding special edition from Shout! Factory, which includes a featurette on the history of the original comic strip and the film's production, and a pair of audio commentaries, including one by Bava scholar and Video Watchdog editor Tim Lucas with star John Phillip Law. Here's a look at the trailer, even though it really doesn't do justice the this unique film: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jNyrLfODNyg.