"Cisco Pike" -- the great lost LA film?

one of my fondest l.a. "movie location" bits was driving down yucca ave heading towards gower and realizing that i was driving the same route as the black ferrari right before it crashed into the police roadblock. i felt "as one" with chris mulkey for a brief moment.

it's just sort of blah, like the mediocre cousin to who'll stop the rain

I give it more credit than that, but they're all "death of the hippie dream flicks"

the real 'great lost LA film' = Greaser's Palace

Enhh... I'd have to vote Model Shop for "great lost LA film"

Superstar - The Karen Carpenter Story

IT nerd news! Today, Cisco revealed their new logo!

http://www.frederiksamuel.com/blog/images/cisco_logo.jpg

This post just gave me a flashback to the time I walked into the army surplus store in Silver Lake and realized it was the store from Falling Down.

That surplus store was only 15-20 meters downhill from the original location of Amok Books. When I saw Falling Down I recognized that store immediately.

finally got around to seeing this - I enjoyed it quite a bit actually. I like the "guy wanders around LA meeting various weirdos" genre, its a rich tradition.

i'd wager that those who liked cisco pike would also like straight time -- dustin hoffman newly sprung from jail and hanging around seedy 1977 l.a. doing crimes with harry dean stanton and gary busey, and screwing a 19-year-old theresa russell. it came out on dvd recently, and showed tonight at the los angeles film festival, with dustin, harry dean, theresa, the director, and the DP giving a talk afterwards. also in attendance was the real-life ex-con who "designed" the action in the robbery sequences. this film was dustin's vanity project for the production company (first artists) he had with steve mcqueen, barbra streisand, paul newman, and sidney poitier; he was set to direct but fired himself when things started going tits up with the script.

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0078326/

director ulu grosbard has an interesting resume:

http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0343260/

"But here's a jimmy joke about your mama that you might not like:
I heard she was a Cisco Pike"

That was back when, often instead of "novelizations"(do they do those any more?), the actual screenplay would be published, before or soon after the film came out, in drugstore paperback (not fancyass expensive trade pb), so I read that, was fascinated (as with transcript of Don't Look back, etc), even though could see plotline was for shit, and basically seemed like a pretext to get all these cool characters and settings boogieing on down the Pike. Film itself was sometimes not as good as script, but Awesome to see the elusive-beyond-Texas-and-sometimes-Cali Sir Doug (don't remember if band was Quintet, he was hard to keep up with), and he says something like "Hey Cisco, you still playing that freaky music?" (*sings* a parody of the kind of freaky guitar solo he himself played)And Kristofferson's always been a natural screen presence ("actor"? Good enough, it's the way he adjusts his vibe, man, the singing voice is harder to tune, being awesomely arhythmic, for one thing). Holds his own with Hackman, Stanton, the once-ubitquitous Karen Black, oo-owee (where is she?)

Awesome to see the elusive-beyond-Texas-and-sometimes-Cali Sir Doug (don't remember if band was Quintet, he was hard to keep up with)

Well, Sahm is called "Rex" in the movie, but yeah, the band was the Quintet, and Atwood Allen co-wrote "Michocan," the song heard in the movie. This right before the band broke up the first time.

Karen Black's hanging out at the Church of Scientology

Straight Time sounds interesting, will have to check out

where is karen black? she's in l.a., doing a play.

Karen's career as a playwright was launched in May 2007 with the opening of "Missouri Waltz" at the Blank Theater in Los Angeles, a play in which Black stars as well. Conceived as a play with music, rather than a musical, the play contains songs by Harriet Schock. The play is a bittersweet comedy about two ghosts who haunt their ancestral home in New Madrid, Missouri.

Straight Time is great! Blue Collar is also good.

All of these films used to be shown on British TV, when British TV was good

yeah I love Blue Collar - Pryor's best movie?

I love the whole 'Death of the hippie dream' era, but CS is kinda blah. A nice lost L.A flick from that period is 'The Outside Man' ('Un Homme est mort') with JL Trintignant.

Enhh... I'd have to vote Model Shop for "great lost LA film"

model shop is playing at the aero on the 27th, in a double feature w/ demy's bay of angels.

How about The Serial?
Loved the book, never saw the film but it can be yours for only $2500.
http://www.amazon.com/Serial-Martin-Mull/dp/B00001U0G1

I love Model Shop.

I love Bay Of Angels too, though the opening shot is significantly better than the rest of the film! I will be in NY for this double bill, though.

model shop out on dvd
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/09/06/movies/homevideo/06kehr.html?_r=1

strangely hypnotic film, <3 anouk aimee

A nice lost L.A flick from that period is 'The Outside Man' ('Un Homme est mort') with JL Trintignant.

― baaderonixx

otm, super cool flick with ann-margret in fading sex kitten role

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5uNN-7wUUSc

I saw CP in a good 35mm print yesterday. Kinda surprised Hackman was onscreen for maaaybe 20 minutes, but i found his offbeat dirty cop v convincing, and KK really holds the screen in his first real role (apparently a late sub for Seymour Cassel?). Also Harry Dean Stanton's first meaty part.

That is some gallery of supporting players: Viva, Joy Bang, Allan Arbus, Antonio Fargas, Severn Darden, Doug Sahm...

FAO UK pikelets - on Talking Pictures TV tonight at 11.20pm.

Saw this recently on Tubi. I've never seen Hackman give a bad performance and he doesn't break his streak here. Kristofferson's really good, too, as is Harry Dean Stanton, and Antonio Fargas is great in his one, maybe two scenes. I've never understood the appeal of Karen Black, though.

Watching it now

For the first time

Man, Gene Hackman was YOUNG

Makes me think, vaguely, of The Model
Shop

watched this right after KK died, it’s so good

I've never understood the appeal of Karen Black, though.

Voluptuous Horror, IIRC.