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Posted: |
Dec 16, 2018 - 3:17 PM
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By: |
Bob DiMucci
(Member)
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ANY WHICH WAY YOU CAN marked the theatrical directorial debut of Buddy Van Horn, whose association with actor-director Clint Eastwood spanned more than fifteen years. Van Horn had served as a stunt coordinator and second unit director on previous Eastwood movies.
This film was a sequel to 1978's EVERY WHICH WAY BUT LOOSE. Clint Eastwood, Sondra Locke, and Geoffrey Lewis reprised their characters of "Philo Beddoe," "Lynn Halsey-Taylor," and "Orville Boggs," respectively. This time, Philo wants to retire from barefisted fighting, but some East Coast mobsters want him to take on "Jack Wilson" (William Smith). When he turns down their money, they kidnap Lynn to force him to fight.
This was the fifth film to co-star Clint Eastwood and Sondra Locke. According to Locke's autobiography, Eastwood took mega-doses of vitamins and ate boiled potatoes like popcorn to bulk up for his role as a street boxer.
The 1980 film has grossed nearly $71 million over the years. Warner Bros./Viva Records released the song-track LP, which featured two vocals by Sondra Locke, singing "One Too Many Women In Your Life" and "Too Loose". The LP has not been re-issued on CD.
Manis the Orangutan, Clint Eastwood, Sondra Locke, Ruth Gordon, and Geoffrey Lewis in ANY WHICH WAY YOU CAN
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Posted: |
Dec 18, 2018 - 12:45 AM
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By: |
Bob DiMucci
(Member)
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In the 1986 crime comedy RATBOY, several shady and shallow people try to profit, one after the other, from a physically deformed teenager whose face looks like a snout of a rodent and who lives hidden in a city garbage dump, alone and miserable.
RATBOY marked the directorial debut for actress Sondra Locke, who also starred as “Nikki Morrison.” However, it was originally slated to be the directorial debut for Rob Thompson, who also wrote the screenplay. The 11 March 1983 Daily Variety announced that Edward R. Pressman was producing the film on a $2 million to $3 million budget with rock singer Iggy Pop starring as “Ratboy.” However, nothing came of that.
Wanting to make a film without Eastwood, Sondra Locke had her agent send her many scripts. She was drawn to the comic fable of Ratboy, but felt it was not the right acting vehicle for her. However, the story began to haunt her, and she decided to direct it.
Warner Bros. Pictures already owned the screenplay, but had forgotten about it after the deal with Pressman fell apart. However, the script needed to be updated. Originally, the story was set in New York City in the publishing world and the “Nikki Morrison” character was writing a book when she stumbled upon “Ratboy.” Locke believed Hollywood was a better setting, so “Nikki” became a freelance journalist trying to make a name for herself through the discovery of “Ratboy.”
Since Eastwood’s Malpaso Production company crew was not working on one of his films at the time, Locke decided to use them for her picture, preferring to work with a crew she already knew. She later came to regret that decision, because Eastwood wanted to control everything she did "to the degree that it was unreasonable" according to Locke.
Locke cast four-foot, six-inch tall actress Sharon Baird in the title role of “Ratboy” after a long search. Baird had been an original member of the Mouseketeers on television’s "The Mickey Mouse Clu" (1955-1958) and had acted in television programming aimed at children throughout the 1960s, 1970s and 1980s.
Makeup artist Rick Baker designed the look of the “Ratboy” character. Baird spent five hours in makeup each day before she was ready for the camera. While in the makeup, Baird was only allowed to drink through a straw and some days she spent eighteen hours in the makeup.
Sondra Locke and Sharon Baird in RATBOY
Principal photography began in September 1985. The film was shot in Los Angeles, and in Marin County in Northern California, including at Mount Tamalpais State Park and Point Reyes Station. The 15 February 1987 Los Angeles Times reported the film’s budget was $8 million.
French critics loved RATBOY when it played at the 1986 Deauville Film Festival, praising it as “the revelation of the festival.” However, when Warner Bros. test screened it in the United States, American audiences hated it. Consequently, plans for a nationwide release in late summer 1986 were scrapped. Locke attributed the poor test scores to the fact that American audiences “don’t quite know what to make of something that’s not mainstream.”
RATBOY opened exclusively in New York City at the Gemini Theater on 17 October 1986, earning $2,740 in its first week and $2,000 in its second week. The film opened in Los Angeles on 20 March 1987, playing exclusively at the Beverly Center Cineplex. The film earned $6,000 in its first week there and $3,000 in its second week.
Fourteen songs were heard in the film, and Lennie Niehaus' score did not get a release.
Sondra Locke was conspicuously absent when Clint Eastwood was sworn in as mayor of Carmel, CA on April 8, 1986, citing conflicts with RATBOY's production schedule. She'd actually been in Tennessee visiting her mother-in-law on her deathbed, but told columnists a different story because she didn't want to draw attention to the fact that she was still legally married to Gordon Anderson. Margaret Anderson passed away April 24, 1986
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Posted: |
Dec 18, 2018 - 1:58 PM
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By: |
Bob DiMucci
(Member)
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In 1990's IMPULSE, "Lottie Mason" (Theresa Russell) is a vice cop who has just the right looks to be a decoy for the whore-mongers on the streets of Los Angeles. While she is attempting to help "Stan" (Jeff Fahey), the District Attorney, set-up a drug buy with a witness he needs for another case, they seem to have mutual attraction to each other. The vice-squad is led by the corrupt "Lt. Joe Morgan" (George Dzundza), who hits on "Lottie," but she cant stand him.
Director Susan Locke shot the film in Los Angeles, except for a second unit scene filmed in New York City. Among Los Angeles locations were the streets of Hollywood and Sherman Oaks, the City Building, the Los Angeles Police Department headquarters in downtown, the West Hollywood Sheriff's Department jail, and several well-known but now defunct clubs and restaurants, including Victor Hugo’s in Beverly Hills, Nucleus Nuance in Hollywood, and Café Figaro and the Studio One nightclub in West Hollywood.
Lisa Kudrow made her acting debut on the film, but her part ended up on the cutting room floor. Producer Albert S. Ruddy estimated the budget to be $9 million in “hard production costs,” with another $1 million added for “overhead.”
During filming, Sondra Locke was notified that Clint Eastwood, her companion during the previous eleven years, had locked her out of her house and announced their breakup. Their subsequent lawsuits were front-page news.
IMPULSE received mixed reviews. The film played in only 155 theaters and grossed less than $2.6 million. Michel Colombier's score did not get a release.
Sondra Locke on the set of IMPULSE
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Posted: |
Dec 18, 2018 - 2:29 PM
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By: |
Bob DiMucci
(Member)
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After the commercial failure of the two theatrical features she directed, Sondra Locke next directed for television, with the 1995 ABC made-for-TV movie DEATH IN SMALL DOSES, about a husband (Richard Thomas) accused of poisoning his wife. Her final directing job was on the 1997 direct-to-video thriller TRADING FAVORS, about a seductive woman (Rosanna Arquette) with a violent boyfriend who steals a car and entices a teen (Devon Gummersall) to join her in a robbery.
Locke returned to acting in 2000 in the theatrically unreleased drama CLEAN AND NARROW, about an ex-convict who tries to make an honest living and take care of his girlfriend and her mentally slow brother. THE PROPHET'S GAME was a 2000 direct-to-video crime drama starring Dennis Hopper and Stephanie Zimbalist, in which Locke had a supporting role. After that, for 17 years Locke remained off the screen until returning to act one last time in director Alan Rudolph's RAY MEETS HELEN, Rudolph's first film in 15 years. In this 2018 release, Locke played "Helen" to Keith Carradine's "Ray." In the film, they each happen upon large sums of money which give them the chance to re-invent themselves. Although the film received scant distribution, Slant magazine found Locke to be "adept, informing Helen with an absurdist intelligence that’s reminiscent of Elaine May’s characters."
Sondra Locke and Keith Carradine in RAY MEETS HELEN
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