|
HEY GANG,
I attended the Bonham's auction and for me it was great
to finally meet in person Grey Smith who, had it not been for Debi Jacobson of
Limagerie fame at the Sunday preview tell me "hey that's Grey Smith"
I would have never recognized by Heritage photo alone- because he
looks 14 years old. He will no doubt prove to be the "Dick
Clark" of the poster business, no doubt by some pact made with
the ghost of George Sanders when selling paper from "The Picture Of
Dorian Gray". Other attendees of note Walter Reuben, Daniel Streben,
Glen Taranto who I was in hopes would win one of the Wheeler and
Woolsey's and several on the phone from Texas, New York, and
Chicago. Anyway, the most crowded auction I have ever
attended. Question........are there any people of color who collect
posters? Evidently not.
When the first item THE BIRDS hit hammer at
$1200 I turned around to a client behind me and asked " Don't tell me its
going to be one those kinds of auctions". Sure enough I
was flabbergasted at some of the prices achieved on item after
item. Example the onesheet of Anatomy of a Murder at something
approaching 1300 while a seller on Ebay was in his second week listing a
mint folded for 900 buy it now. That was a scenario that
repeated itself something like maybe 66 times.
When the Film Noir posters began with ACE IN THE HOLE, I
felt like the loser in line at Starbucks whose order never gets shouted out
by the cashier or goes unconfirmed by the barrista with the 5
gold hoops through a penciled eyebrow with everyone in
line looking at you like "dude you don't even count". Time
and again I was the bidder "against the pole" and time and again I would be
bidding (only a few times with those present) climbing first by $10 increments,
then $25 increments then $50 increment and twice in $100 increments only to
come back to me too high. I must have bid on 20 of the first 28 film noirs
until finally winning THE DARK PAST for a client whose wife carries a torch for
William Holden.
But the malaise set in again beginning immediately with MACAO
and repeated again and again ...........and then an extremely fine title in
excellent condition came up and bidding stopped as soon as it started. I waited
two pregnant pauses and stuck paddle in the air and won NARROW MARGIN
at a significant value. Of course auctioneer looked down at all
gathered from her bully-pulpit and for what seemed an eternity kept repeating
"last call" and "I will end bidding" which really meant......are you guys
really going to let the loser against the pole get this for cheap? I
can only surmise the phenomenon known as "group-pity" set in and the
hammer dropped. Not to sound unappreciative but I did think
GREAT! why couldn't this happen on a poster I had my eyes set.
Well, it never happened again and I knew I had to
position myself on an upcoming lot that conveyed to those present and
operators on the phone that I meant business. So just before the lot
called I stood up and leaned against the pole, summoning up every ounce of "just
try and outbid me" as I forced a slouch of indifference against my
namesake, the pole. Bidding began approaching a thousand far too
fast but I prevailed and won the nearly mint NO WAY OUT onesheet for a client
who changed his mind from Scarlet Street to OUT only
minutes before by text messaging my cell phone. However I must point out
its a lot easier and more fun when spending someone else's
money.
I stayed and stabbed at a few more, pitifully falling to
much higher bidding ending with Calcutta that slipped away by $50.
Damn! By then I had to return home, report to clients and
dashed to the LA All Media Screening of KING KONG as guest
of fellow MOPO'er Ron Magid.
Now Ron is a dyed-in-the-wool Kong'ofile. How
big? He ladies and gents wrote the script and is featured in the
two hour plus documentary on disc two of the
newly remastered DVD of the original KING KONG. He was also the owner for
a brief but amazing eight month adventure in acquiring the astounding 10
foot standee from 1933 (owned previously by, at the time, a very
recently deceased Matt Shapiro however now many are not so sure about his
expiration) and allowed me the opportunity to
successfully broker its re-sale, selling for several reasons not
the least of which it didn't fit in his house. Also Ron is the proud
owner of many props from the film and regarding the nearly religious handling of
the stegasaurus model created by legendary special effects wizard Willis
O'Brien, by Peter Jackson and company in the documentary, that quarter
million dollar piece of Cinema history was restored by Ron as a favor to owner
Forrest Ackerman. So are we all on the same page as to the level of
fandome my host is with the original KING KONG?
Well I thought it was great. It delivered everything I
thought it promised and then some. I was tearing up the last 10 mins
of the film. Honestly, at one point it was achieving "Dad? You
wanna throw catch" FIELD OF DREAMS, OLD YELLER AND THE YEARLING
sentiments which caught me by surprise as anything I've seen this
year.
The adventure aspects of the film including ships crew
running amidst and staying clear of death by squashing courtesy of 6
ton brontosaurus/patosaurus legs in a stampede all the while dodging
velociraptors hell bent on feasting on human hors d'oeuvres is the single
greatest set piece on film since Jackson's own climactic battle in THE TWO
TOWERS with the Ents or whatever the hell they were called, the
giant trees bowling with boulders to vanquish the Orc army at Helms
Deep.
The period images of New York City are dazzling, the
performances all around solid. A real shock is Jack Black's character
becomes just short of despicable but real kudos goes to Naomi Watts being
as emotionally convincing as she projects given she was acting on set to the end
of a stick, a blue screen or just air.
It could have easily been 20 minutes shorter, but film
is never dull as there is always something to marvel at on screen. The
climax atop the Empire State Building is technically brilliant, but inexplicably
not very windy. I guarantee you will feel a charge when Kong
leaps up from atop tower platform to swat a bullet spewing
bi-plane landing with a bit of a slip only to pull him self up again and
pound his chest and letting out an invincible roar as plane spirals and crashes
in the distance into the future home of Posteritati. A POV shot from
one of the attacking bi-planes as it zooms in on Big Guy
achieves a rush of exhilaration not unlike finishing a ride on a swell roller
coaster and wanting to jump back in line to go again all the while taking in the
architecture of the landmark building and 1930's NYC all of this while your
animal lover instincts are about to burst open with a flood of genuine
sadness that this poor giant monkey is about to bite it big
time.
Oh, and the opinion of my host,
Kong'ophile Ron Magid? Well in one clipped declaration: "They
remade the Jessica Lang KING KONG not the '33. Kong may fall for the
blond, but the blond does not fall for Kong. Kong is a
monster. You don't fall in love with monsters. This is a movie for
animal lovers."
And there you have it.
freeman fisher
8601 west knoll drive #7 west hollywood, ca 90069
|
- [MOPO] A FULL DAY BONHAM'S AND A RENDEZVOUS W... Flixspix
- Re: [MOPO] *****SPAM***** [MOPO] A FULL DAY ... Phil Edwards Cinema Arts
