First Article For The MacGuffin Film Blog - "An Introduction"

I'm pleased to say that I'll be joining the crew at The MacGuffin Film Blog as a contributing writer.  One of the things I'll be doing for them is a weekly column on Action films.  You can read more about it in the actual article by clicking the bird below.

Interveiw for The Backroom Comic Podcast

I recently was asked to go on the local video podcast show, The Backroom Comic Podcast and talk about my comic book The Serpent Whispered, and some of the ideas behind creating it.  We also get a little into some of the behind the scenes aspects of making the comic itself.  And of course we give a nod to "Serpent" artist Brian 'Alberthies' Thies and his recent gig on The Amazing Spider-Man.  Click on the picture below, give a watch and leave a comment telling me what you think.

New Store Location for THE SERPENT WHISPERED #1.

THE SERPENT WHISPERED #1, is now on sale at the Comics Dungeon in Wallingford (Seattle), WA.

Across 110th Street

Across 110th St. opens just like the preview in the video above.  Two white men, one with a walking cane, and the other, Uncle Paulie from the Rocky films, enter a tenement in Harlem, NY.  Inside an apartment room they are greeted by several African-Americans, who are situated around a table, counting and sorting a pile of money.  The scene is identifiable as a typical moment in any gangster film, members of the Italian Mafia, which owns New York, are meeting with their subjugated counterparts in Harlem to collect their portion of the week's earnings from such gangster doings as, the pimping of women and drugs.  The scene feels cozy, there is a sense of common friendliness between both races as the most important thing is held center stage between the both of them, money.  As they count the week's earnings, prepping it for a suitcase departure, there is a knock on the room door.  Two African-Americans dressed as police officers are standing in wait.  They enter the room with guns drawn demanding the money.  When a moment's mistake causes the situation to turn bad, the two fake cops gun down everyone in the room and take off with the money, killing two pursuing police officers on their way to the getaway vehicle parked across the street.

This opening scenario of course gives way to the film's plot as we are taken to a party in uptown Manhattan where the Italian Mafia agrees that the money must be recovered and a message must be sent to the inhabitants of Harlem, the people across 110th Street (an unofficial boundary line), that the Mafia is in charge and you don't steal from them.  The man sent to make sure the job is done, is the disgraced son-in-law of the Don, Nick D'Salvio, played by Anthony Franciosa, who's been given this last chance at redemption.  Nick pursues the job like an abused child given the opportunity to abuse back.  He carries a zealousness for racism and power that clearly is dishing out what has been dished to him by his own superiors.  In order to complete the job Nick must use the help of their Harlem, African-American counterparts, men who clearly do not like Nick and his attitude of racism but understand the Mafia is bigger and have no choice in the matter.

Meanwhile, as Nick is pursuing the culprits in his own manner, two detectives are assigned the case from the police department, Capt. Mattelli played by Anthony Quinn, and Lt. Pope played by Yaphet Kotto.  Being a situation of racial tensions in a time coming off the Civil Rights Movement, it is decided by the officials higher up that the African-American detective, Lt. Pope, should take the charge of leading the investigation.  Aging veteran Capt. Mattelli is immediately offset by the situation, not only is he Pope's senior with more years experience, Mattelli displays a stubborn sense of prejudice.  In one of the few scenes that helps distinguish, Across 110th St, from other Blaxploitation Action films Capt. Mattelli, at the scene of the crime has just been introduced to Lt. Pope and told by his superior officer, Jack, that Pope is in charge, Mattelli is taken by Jack into an adjacent room where the reality of the situation is explained to him, not only is the matter a racial one, but when Mattelli threatens to quit because of the situation it is also explained anyone over the age of fifty is being pushed out of the department.  At the end of the conversation Jack says to Mattelli, "I don't know Frank, I make peace with my reality.  You're gonna have to make it with yours."  The camera moves in for a close up as we watch Mattelli take this in, instead of a quick cutaway we stay on Mattelli for eighteen seconds until he finally says, "What's his name?"  The fact Mattelli asks this question now indicates his inner prejudice, not just because of race but because of age, until now he didn't care who Lt. Pope was only that Mattelli would not be in charge.

As the two detectives make moves through Harlem in search of the killers a cold reality of stations in life and the role law enforcement plays in that world is exposed.  It is much to the dismay of the by the book attitude of Lt. Pope, who's refusal to play along with the game becomes a catalyst for the film's haunting conclusion.  At the center of everything, Nick D'Salvio's hunt for the criminals, Pope and Mattelli's own search, and the lives of the criminals themselves, is the head of the Harlem mob, Doc Johnson, played by Richard Ward.  While the Italians might run things on the surface, Doc Johnson holds a firm grip on his territory and his people.  This point is firmly illustrated in Doc's ability to casually laugh, as if he's truly getting a kick out of it, at everyone despite the situation.  His cool demeanor is not one of arrogance outright, but that of a person who understands how the marionette actually works.  Doc and his men may be helping Nick find the criminals, but in the end it's Doc's playground, a point that echoes as we see the film's fading images.

One of, Across 110th St.'s strongest points, is the third element running through the narrative, the criminals.  At the beginning of the film when those two men dressed as police officers enter that room, we are introduced to the scenario that drives the plot.  We are given nothing prior about the men who commit the crime, simply the act of; one that might give the audience a sense of nihilism towards these characters.  However, as the film progresses the three criminals' lives are given to us in fragments, we see their day to day struggles without ever being given their life stories.  It's enough to create a sense of purpose and reason for their actions as the forward motion of the plot takes place elsewhere.  Like most title songs for movies, we are told in lyrics actions that are mirrored on screen in some form, if we take a look at the lyrics for Across 110th St. written and sung by Bobby Womack we can see that the narrative is told from the point of view of the criminals.

I was the third brother of five, doing whatever I had to do to survive.

I'm not saying what I did was alright,

trying to break out of the ghetto was a day to day fight.

Been down so long getting up didn't cross my mind.

I knew there was a better way of life that I was just trying to find.

You don't know what you'll do until you're put under pressure,

across 110th street is a hell of a tester.

Through giving the lyrics a point of view the filmmakers, and songwriter, place a sense of centrality as well as empathy around the criminals.  Other characters may have their own motivations, or reasons for being involved, but ultimately their purpose for being in the film is because of the criminals and the criminal's motivations.

The Action in Across 110th St. is bloody, visceral and surprisingly intense for a film from 1972.  This is due in part to the fact that this film was the first to put into production the Arriflex 35 BL camera.  A smaller, more lightweight camera, the 35 BL allowed for tighter, hand held shots, freeing up mobility and giving a documentary style to the cinematography that's more commonly used these days than it was back then.  One of the film's best examples of the camera's ability to enhance the experience of spectacle through action and violence is the brutal scene of criminal Henry J. Jackson's vicious beating by Nick D'Salvio.

At times Across 110th St. may feel or even look like a typical 1970's Police Procedural film, or at others like a Blaxploitation Action film, but it crosses boundaries of various genres, ones that also include Urban Drama, Social Commentary, and Tragedy, and in so doing creates in a sense a film that stands beyond genre, and ephemera and becomes something more timeless, a Classic.

Preview Pages from The Serpent Whispered #1

The Serpent Whispered, Issue #1 is now available for purchase!

I am pleased to announce that my first published comic book, THE SERPENT WHISPERED #1 is now available for purchase online at IndyPlanet!

Copies are also available for sale at Arcane Comics, and Zanadu Comics in the Seattle area.  (More stores coming soon!)

THE SERPENT WHISPERED is an Action/Suspense Comic Book miniseries with all Art by Alberthies and Written and Lettered by me.

Series Overview:
As the nation collapses in a second Civil War one City has adopted measures to protect themselves from from the ensuing destruction.  Inside the City walls however, lies a war for control and power.  As the battles rage inside and out, two men over two generations will fight to protect the City from crime, chaos, and themselves.

Issue Summary:
Over the years the City has seen its share of violence and crime, and through those darkest times Captain Simon Trent has been the beacon of light for peace and order.  Times can change.  The year is 1989 and in the wake of a new breed of serial killer, Simon Trent, with no clues and growing accusations of his involvement, is up against his greatest challenge yet, the truth.  Will he find it in time, or will it find him?

Cemetery Without Crosses - (Une Corde, Un Colt); 1969

Three men on horseback race across a desert landscape, we pull back to see a posse of riders are in hot pursuit.  One of the three men being chased, Ben, deviates from the other two and takes his own course.  He arrives at a small solitary house, set against a hillside, where a woman, Maria, is waiting for him.  Before action can be taken the posse of men arrive, grab Ben, and hold Maria, making her watch as they tie his hands behind his back and place him on top of a horse, under a tree, with a noose around his neck.  After Ben is dead the posse pulls him down, leaving him on the ground for Maria, who seethes with anger.  The other two men being chased arrive at Ben and Maria's house to Maria burying Ben, they enter the house and dump two bags of gold on a table, which they divvy up between themselves and Maria, who now gets Ben's share of the heist they just pulled off.  With a cold precision Maria takes the money to Ben's longtime friend, Manuel and presents him with an offer of paid revenge.

Cemetery Without Crosses, directed by French actor, Robert Hossein, is both one of the most tragic and  artistic films the Spaghetti Western genre had to offer.  Not quite as surreal as Giulio Questi's Django, Kill, or as hopeless as Sergio Corbucci's The Great Silence, Cemetery is perhaps the best example for the genre of a film that says everything in pictures and music and very little in dialogue.  Taking a stripped-down narrative, a woman obsessed with revenge and the man she hires to carry it out, and adding several tropes of the genre, such as gangsters, quick-draws, and post-apocalyptic settings, Hosseing then forgoes the rest and takes us on a left turn away from typical Spaghetti Western territory.  One of the film's strongest scenes comes around a dinner table,  Manuel, who has reluctantly taken the revenge job, has infiltrated the family of gangsters he is to betray.  Inviting him to dinner they all sit around as he eats and stare, the scene plays out completely silent.  Manuel grows more and more paranoid as he is eating and looking around at them staring back.  Frustrated he reaches for a can of mustard and squeezes it just hard enough that the top pops off and a Jack-in-the-Box pops out, causing him to jump.  The rest of the table erupts in hysterical laughter.  Manuel, having been played a prank on, has been accepted as one of them.  In an interview with Robert Hossein for a featurette entitled "Ein Strick...ein Colt", he claims the scene was directed by his longtime friend, Sergio Leone.

To a better effect the same technique is used again later in the film in a scene that marks Cemetery as a standout from typical Italian Exploitation.  Maria and Manuel stare at each other from opposite ends of main street in a dusty ghost town, as the two men who were once Ben's partners take advantage of a prisoner.  The score echoes a melodramatic struggle between Manuel, who wants to do the right thing by his conscious, but also wants to help the bereaved of his once best friend find her solace, and Maria who's obsession for revenge has led her to such a vicious and personal betraying act, but can not, and will not, let it be stopped now.

Untypical of most Spaghetti Westerns, Manuel, the film's protagonist and revenger, in most cases takes a back seat to Maria, who's motivations are what pushes the film through to it's harrowing conclusion.  He simply reacts to what is taking place around him, going about the pursuit of his job as if he knows it's inevitable but cares little in seeing it get there any faster.  Perhaps a man with nothing better to do, and a longing for a woman who ended up in the arms of his best friend?  Manuel offers what little voice of reason there is, carrying the wisdom of having walked the path of violence and revenge before; something we are only told through simple dialogue and intimations.  He knows with Maria it is a hopeless cause, and ignores what appears to be his better judgment to see the scenario through to the end.

The action in Cemetery is sparse, precise, and very tame for the genre's usual standards of hyper-violence.  What makes it an action film is not so much the physical proximity of gun play and fisticuffs but the way the story itself plays out the characters and the melodrama as a center piece for scenes of excitement that do take place.  Hossein attempts to give us reason to care about the action, the violence, and it's consequences not just applaud it as spectacle.  The spectacle it does provide is as cunning and terse as anything witnessed in the best of the genre.  As an actor, Hossein gives Manuel's persona as a killer a mysterious and methodical background, something that is only personified by his wearing of a black glove, that he keeps in a jewelery box, on what is thought to be his shooting hand.  When the moment comes to draw guns his opponents receive a wicked, rope-a-dope style treatment.




Unfortunately as of now the film has not received a proper American release, and is out of print from foreign sources:  Une Corde, Un Colt - Cemetery Without Crosses - The Rope and the Colt and Xploited Cinema.