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Posted: |
Sep 24, 2021 - 1:00 AM
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By: |
Bob DiMucci
(Member)
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In the 1994 crime drama SUGAR HILL, Wesley Snipes plays drug lord “Roemello Skuggs,” who spends a lot of his time brooding. He broods about his mother, who OD’ed in front of him when he was a kid. He worries about his addict father “A.R.” (Clarence Williams III), who’s wasting away because of drugs and bitter memories. He’s frustrated with his brother “Raynathan” (Michael Wright), who’s become his hot-headed business partner on the streets. He’s concerned about the impending gang war that the mob is provoking and the strain it’s placing on his oddly personal relationship with his Mafia connection “Gus Molino” (Abe Vigoda). Last but not least, he’s confused about his deepening feelings for “Melissa” (Theresa Randle).
Leon Ichaso directed the film. Terence Blanchard provided the score, but only two tracks from it showed up on the Fox Records soundtrack CD, which otherwise was filled with hip hop, funk, and soul tunes. The film had a domestic gross of $18.2 million.
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Posted: |
Sep 24, 2021 - 1:35 PM
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By: |
Bob DiMucci
(Member)
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GEORGE WALLACE was a biopic that followed the polarizing Alabama governor through racial segregation, presidential elections, an assassination attempt and personal trauma. Gary Sinise had the title role, and won an Emmy for his efforts as Outstanding Lead Actor in a Miniseries or a Movie, as did Mare Winningham, the Outstanding Supporting Actress, for her portrayal of his wife “Lurleen Wallace.” The pair also won Screen Actors Guild Awards. Clarence Williams III plays “Archie,” a fictional black servant at the Governor's mansion who serves as a kind of Greek Chorus, and is Wallace's sounding board, as neither of his two wives were.
John Frankenheimer won an Emmy for his direction of the film. Gary Chang provided the unreleased score. The film aired in two parts on Turner Network Television on 24 & 26 August 1997. The night that the Emmy Awards were given out to this film, George Wallace died of a heart attack.
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Posted: |
Sep 25, 2021 - 12:12 AM
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By: |
Bob DiMucci
(Member)
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In HOODLUM, Laurence Fishburne plays the historical figure Ellsworth “Bumpy” Johnson, a low-level street thug just released after a stretch in Sing Sing, who finds himself running the numbers when Harlem's longtime “Queen,” Stephanie St. Clair (Cicely Tyson), is attacked by the men of rival mobster Dutch Schultz (Eli Roth), led by black enforcer “Bub Hewlett” (Clarence Williams III). Eventually, Queen is jailed in a power play. Bumpy and his motley crew -- childhood friend Illinois Gordon (Chi McBride), the ominous, horribly scarred bagman Whispers (Paul Benjamin), and the Queen's bodyguard Tee-Ninchy (Eddie “Bo” Smith, Jr.) -- must take on not only the megalomaniacal Schultz, but also the suave, sleepy-eyed Lucky Luciano (Andy Garcia) and their gangs of ice-pick wielding toughs.
Clarence Williams III in HOODLUM
Although the film is set in New York, director Bill Duke shot the movie in Chicago because it still has buildings that are of the type that were in Harlem in the 1930s, unlike present day New York. Elmer Bernstein’s score was released by RCA Victor. Loud/Interscope Records released a CD of hip-hop songs “Inspired by the Motion Picture.” The film grossed just $23.5 million in the U.S., keeping it out of the top 50 films of the year.
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Posted: |
Sep 25, 2021 - 12:31 PM
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By: |
Bob DiMucci
(Member)
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On the first day of the twentieth century, an infant is discovered in the coal room aboard a luxury liner, The Virginian. The worker who discovers the child, "Danny Boodmann" (played by Bill Nunn), names him "1900" or more accurately "Danny Boodmann T.D. Lemon Nineteen-Hundred." Eight years later, the boy loses his "father" in a ship accident but discovers an amazing ability to play the piano, and a legend is born. It is indeed THE LEGEND OF 1900, a fable by director Giuseppe Tornatore (CINEMA PARADISO) based on a dramatic monologue by Italian novelist Alessandro Baricco. The story is about a musical prodigy (Tim Roth) who spends his life aboard a ship, sailing back and forth between the U.S. and Europe, entertaining the passengers with his unique talent, but never sharing it with the rest of the world. Clarence Williams III plays famed ragtime and jazz pianist “Jelly Roll” Morton.
Tim Roth, Pruitt Taylor Vince, and Clarence Williams III in THE LEGEND OF 1900
Ennio Morricone's score for the 1998 film was released by Sony Classical. Although THE LEGEND OF 1900 grossed nearly $21 million overseas, in the U.S. its take was a miniscule $167,000.
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Posted: |
Sep 26, 2021 - 3:42 PM
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By: |
Bob DiMucci
(Member)
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In REINDEER GAMES, Ben Affleck plays “Rudy Duncan,” a man imprisoned for stealing cars who is about to get his freedom. His cellmate “Nick Cassidy” (James Frain) is also near the end of his five-year term. Nick has a relationship with a woman who has been writing to him in prison, and he is looking forward to getting out and meeting her. But as the day of freedom approaches, tragedy strikes for Nick. When Rudy leaves the prison, he sees the lady of letters, “Ashley” (Charlize Theron) waiting. After a few moments of wrestling with his conscience, Rudy jumps off the bus and runs over to her. He then introduces himself as Nick.
What follows seems too good to be true. Rudy is happy; he's in the arms of a beautiful woman who wants to look after him, and the only problem is the fact that he lied about his identity. That problem soon becomes pretty major, as the happiness is spoiled when Ashley's brother “Gabriel” (Gary Sinise) and his gang crash the party. They are planning to rob a casino and they know that they now have the man who can help them—Nick. The fact that Gabriel has a gang that includes “Jumpy” (Danny Trejo), “Merlin” (Clarence Williams III), and “Pug” (Donal Logue) reaffirms that notion.
Clarence Williams III in REINDEER GAMES
John Frankenheimer directed this 2000 crime drama. The film was cut by twenty minutes before its planned theatrical release date of December 1999 because of both a poor test screening and the MPAA's objections over a torture scene. John Frankenheimer's preferred version was dark, gritty, and sexier. The film was released in February 2000 in its shorter 104-minute version. The $42 million production grossed just $32 million world-wide. Frankenheimer's original version was released a year later on DVD with the twenty minutes restored as his "Director's Cut". REINDEER GAMES was John Frankenheimer's last feature-length, theatrically distributed film.
Jerry Goldsmith was signed to write the musical score for the film, which would been his fourth feature for John Frankenheimer. However, the producers of the film did not like the direction that Goldsmith had in mind for the music (a synth score), and Goldsmith left the project after writing a few demos for the film. Alan Silvestri was then hired in late 1999 to score the film. Silvestri had only a month to score the picture, with the music being recorded in early January 2000. Silvestri’s score was released by Music Box Records in 2015.
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Posted: |
Sep 27, 2021 - 4:03 PM
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By: |
Bob DiMucci
(Member)
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MYSTERY WOMAN was the name of a series of 11 made-for-television mystery films aired by the Hallmark Channel between 2003 and 2007. The films starred Kellie Martin as “Samantha Kinsey,” an avid murder-mystery fan who inherits a bookstore in the first film. Her extensive knowledge of murder-mystery books assists her in her amateur sleuthing. She is aided by “Cassie Hillman” (Constance Zimmer in the first film, replaced by Nina Siemaszko), an assistant to the District Attorney, and personal friend of Samantha's. Also helping is “Philby” (J.E. Freeman in the first film, Clarence Williams III in subsequent films), caretaker of the bookstore. He is later revealed to have worked in a secret agency for the government identified as O.S.D. Level 6. He is like a father figure to Samantha. Samantha is the nemesis of “Chief Connors” (Casey Sander). The often-foiled police chief is quick to arrest before Samantha usually proves him wrong.
Casey Sander, Nina Siemaszko, Kellie Martin, and Clarence Williams III in MYSTERY WOMAN
The series was created and co-written by Michael Sloan. The films had various directors, including Kellie Martin herself on two of them and Georg Stanford Brown on one. Joe Kraemer scored all of the films. MYSTERY WEEKEND was the second film in the series and the first with all the regular cast members.
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Posted: |
Sep 28, 2021 - 10:39 AM
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By: |
Bob DiMucci
(Member)
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Lee Daniels’ THE BUTLER follows Cecil Gaines (played as an adult by Forest Whitaker), the man who worked his way up from being a childhood plantation slave to the highest level of butler within the White House ... a job that spanned 34 years and eight Presidents. At 15, Cecil (Aml Ameen) is hungry and breaks into a hotel for a piece of cake. A kindly waiter named “Maynard” (Clarence Williams III) takes him under his wing and teaches Cecil how to be a waiter and bartender. Maynard gets a call from the White House, and instead of taking the job, he recommends Cecil. The cast also includes Alex Pettyfer (as a brutal slave owner), Vanessa Redgrave (Cecil's first White House serving trainer), Nelson Ellis as Martin Luther King, and Cuba Gooding, Jr. and Lenny Kravitz (as fellow White House butlers).
Clarence Williams III and Aml Ameen in Lee Daniels’ THE BUTLER
Lee Daniels directed the 2013 film. Rodrigo Leão’s score claimed two tracks on the Verve Records song-track CD. The $30 million production finished in the top 50 films of the year world-wide, with a $177 million gross.
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You covered "The Mod Squad" series, but skipped the show he was on for all four seasons: "The Rookies".
By the way way, "Deadfall" had a rejected score (if you wanted to also mention that, since you brought up Goldsmith and "Reindeer Games"):
http://rejectedfilmscores.125mb.com/list.html
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