Part 1

I was born the year that Alfred Hitchcock released his black and white Masterpiece, Psycho. This fact hasn't been lost on me as my favorite type of films have always been psychological thrillers, mysteries, and anything resembling Film Noir. I wasn't allowed to see the film as a child but finally got my chance as a teenager when the film was re-released into theaters in the seventies, Back in the day they used to do this and it's something I wish the current studios would adopt instead of putting their money into these awful remakes of classic films that are released these days. The film made a major impression on me and is still one of my all time favorites. I wasn't really a film fanatic until my teen years as my early love that is also still with me was Music. I couldn't get enough and listened to everything that was available on vinyl and Top 40 radio that I could get my hands on either by buying, borrowing, or going to the local library and using a listening station. I also lived in a house where everyone had different tastes, so I got to listen to everything from Opera to Country to Motown to the British Invasion sweeping the country. My family were also big Movie fans and I thank them for taking me along whenever they needed a little company as I became the companion to take to the films that others didn't want to see.

My earliest film memories are waiting for Easter every year, not for the chocolate bunnies but, because they showed The Wizard of Oz on the Sunday night before going back to school after April break. Seeing this film was magical for me as I wanted to go to that wonderful place over the rainbow. I didn't realize at the time that what I was seeing was all fake and that the people weren't real. I loved the little people, Glinda the Good Witch, and all Dorothy's friends she met on the way to Oz. I also had strong feelings toward Miss Gultch, who I disliked greatly, when she turns into the witch somehow it all made sense to the young me. I was repulsed and fascinated by her and her winged monkey friends and cheered when Dorothy threw water on her, successfully melting her down to a puddle of nothing and bringing light back to the world. The fact that the film made me cry every time I watched it was also something that I couldn't explain. How could something that I knew the outcome of still move me each time I saw it. Another film I watched as a child and still watch every Xmas Eve is It's A Wonderful Life, this one also had a similar effect on me. Watching it today I'm still taken but the themes explored like suicide and the Noir edge it has and the fact that this also moves me and makes me cry in ways I still can't explain and I do view it every year with the same results.

My other early memories and what got me completely addicted to the medium was the actual attending movies outside the home. My first love being the Drive-In. I was raised in a lower middle class home where something like going out to the movies was a big deal, treated like attending the Opera or theatre for the well heeled, in my house, it was going to the Cinema that was the special night out. Initially it was the Disney movies like Pinocchio, The Jungle Book, and the Absent Minded Professor that the family would attend together but I was more impressed when my Dad would take me with him to see movies made for men that you wouldn't take the wife to see like The Good, The Bad, and the Ugly or The Wild Bunch, Dad loved Westerns but I loved all the  crime dramas like Dirty Harry, The Mechanic, and Charley Varrick. We saw all those films together and I can still tell you what theatre we went to and what double bills we saw for this also was time when they had a lot of 2 for 1 specials on Monday and Tuesday nights to get people into the Cinema. I loved the ritual and still do as the theatre slowly goes dark and the big red curtains open to reveal the screen. The only thing that has changed there for me is the introducing of TV ads mixed in with the trailers, I find this a violation of the Cinema going experience akin to talking during a film. I attended countless films with my Dad back in the day and still continued to go to the movies with him for Birthday's or Father's Day right up until his death in 2008. There was always something he wanted to see that might be a little too violent or colorful, language wise, that my Mom would pass on so I would step up to the plate and be his sidekick for the night.

My Dad's Mom was another early partner in crime for my movie obsessions. We got on like a house on fire and I would spend a weekend a month staying with Nana to help her with the housework and any chores that might need doing, my payment was a Sunday matinee of my choice at one of the local movie houses. Nana and I had similar tastes and I remember an early Hitchcock moment came about when we went to see Frenzy in 1972 but I was sworn to secrecy as my Mom would have not been pleased that she took me to such an adult picture that she herself wouldn't go see. So we devised a plan to keep the peace. We told her we went to see Bluebeard instead. This did begin my obsession with Hitchcock and I saw the re released Psycho soon after with my Dad in tow. 

Around this time I also started to spend a lot of time with my older brother Steven. He was instrumental in opening up the world of Repertory Movie Houses to me. I remember going to the Orson Welles Cinema in Cambridge and seeing a double bill of In Cold Blood and Touch of Evil then we took a break and returned for a Midnight showing of Pink Flamingos. Needless to say these three films made quite the impression on me and I became a fan of all three directors. Along with the Orson Welles Cinema, there were two others among many that were my go to cinemas of choice, the Cinema 733 and the Harvard Square Theatre. All three of these movie houses would show double, sometimes, triple bills that changed almost daily, and also had midnight showings on weekends. I spent countless hours of my youth inside these places. There were a few others that could be relied on to have interesting things on display as well like Off the Wall Cinema, Central Square Cinema, the Paris Cinema, Coolidge Corner Cinema, The Brattle Cinema, and the Nickelodeon. Remember now that this was before VCR's and Cable. If you caught a film you liked on TV they were usually cut and there was no widescreen or letterboxing of films until the Laserdisc revolution in the 90's, but these movie houses showed everything you could want to see, every genre out there plus a week of this actor or actress or this Director, so I was able to start tracking who and what I liked and then wanting more in that style. Sadly only a hand full of these Cinemas remain across the country today and I do try and patronize them the best I can and will always support them when they risk a loss by bringing something to light that might not be a money maker but is important to show in a theatre and try to help it find an audience. So kudos to those brave individuals.

I also want to give a shout out to two local Boston channels and their hosts for showing, as best they could, great films, uncut, and in most cases the first 40 minutes without commercial interruptions and they are Channel 38's  The Movie Loft, hosted by Dana Hersey and Five All Night with former Bozo the Clown, Frank Avruch. I was able to see many films that were difficult to see at that time and Channel 38 also ran the entire Alfred Hitchcock Presents series in the 80's which being to young the first time around, I had never seen.

On top of this a lot of local libraries and museums would host free movie nights. I saw Orson Welles  Magnificent Ambersons for the first time at the Brookline Library, David Lynch's short films at a Food Co-op in Allston, where you put what money you could in a hat on the way out, and Fritz Lang's Metropolis at the Peabody Essex Museum in Salem. These were the times then, you really had to seek the rare films out unlike today when rare items keep coming out restored on DVD. I'm so proud of the people out there who keep pushing to release new prints of great films as I feel there is so much dreck out there these days and people really long to see these out of print gems. One genre I collect is anything Film Noir and I'm proud to be a member of the Film Noir Foundation. It is organizations like this one that are preventing some great films from being lost forever. It's nice to see the studios throwing us a bone as well lately by realizing that there is a market for this stuff and releasing accordingly.

It was during the VCR revolution in the 80's that I got to start playing with video cameras and doing small, mostly music video type projects. I was in a band at this time and I used to describe my song writing as "mini-films". There was no way with the costs at that time that I could even attempt to make a movie so I would fixate on a subject and just write a song with that storyline. I worked in the electronic music medium so I would use sound effects and theatrics to put over the feel of a short film. I always loved artists like David Bowie, who through music brought in so many other theatrical touches to what they did so when I got to work this way there were no boundaries. I worked as a VJ at this time and really started to get my editing chops down as I had to mix music videos with film scenes and comedy bits to form short attention themes during the evenings shift. I also hosted video compilation parties where I would choose a theme or three and weave together a seamless two hour "film" to show to guests. My goal was to try and keep people in their seats and interested throughout the showing. This meant creating the three acts as it were and a flow that had high and lows and also the big finale. Again, this was great training for me and I did eventually take some proper editing courses so I could get a handle on the growing trend of digital editing on computers. I have never been to "film school" as I feel I spent my time in Rep Houses which to me were the best film schools around. Other than the mechanics of it all, it's all about ideas, and if you got them super but if not, there is nothing you can do to prop up emptyness. I see it time and again today, a film might have a great look or new effects in play but without ideas to hang it all on it is just a masturbatory exercise where you leave out the audience.

(To be continued... )