Fritz the Cat

The Inimitable Fritz the cat from the sixties cult cartoon character by Robert Crumb.

A hypocritical swinging college student cat raises hell in a satiric vision of various elements of the 1960's.
A persiflage on the protest movements of the 60s. It's hero is the bold and sex-obsessed tom-cat Fritz the Cat, as created by the legendary underground artist Robert Crumb. Quitting university Fritz the Cat wanders through the hash, Black Panther and Hell's Angels scenes to find to himself.

Fritz the Cat is a 1972 American animated film written and directed by Ralph Bakshi as his feature film debut. Based on the comic strip of the same name by Robert Crumb, the film was the first animated feature film to receive an X rating in the United States. It focuses on Fritz (voiced by Skip Hinnant), an anthropomorphic feline in mid-1960s New York City who explores the ideals of hedonism and sociopolitical consciousness. The film is a satire focusing on American college life of the era, race relations, the free love movement, and left- and right-wing politics. Fritz the Cat was the most successful independent animated feature of all time, grossing over $100 million worldwide.

Fritz the Cat had a troubled production history and controversial release. Creator Robert Crumb is known to have had disagreements with the filmmakers, claiming in interviews that his first wife signed over the film rights to the characters, and that he did not approve the production. Crumb was also critical of the film's approach to his material. Fritz the Cat was controversial for its rating and content, which viewers at the time found to be offensive. Its success led to a slew of other X-rated animated films, and a sequel, The Nine Lives of Fritz the Cat, was made without Crumb's or Bakshi's involvement.

In a New York park, hippies have gathered with guitars to sing protest songs. Fritz and his friends show up in an attempt to meet girls. When a trio of attractive females walk by, Fritz and his friends exhaust themselves trying to get their attention, but find that the girls are more interested in the crow standing a few feet away. The girls attempt to flirt with the crow, making unintentionally condescending remarks about black people, while Fritz looks on in annoyance. Suddenly, the crow rebukes the girls with a snide remark and walks away. Fritz tries to pick up the girls by convincing them that he is a tormented soul, and invites them to "seek the truth", bringing them up to his friend's apartment, where a wild party is taking place. Since the other rooms are crowded, Fritz drags the girls into the bathroom and the four of them have group sex in the bathtub. Meanwhile, the police (portrayed as pigs) arrive to raid the party. As the two officers walk up the stairs, one of the partygoers finds Fritz and the girls in the bath tub. Several others jump in, pushing Fritz to the side where he takes solace in marijuana. The two officers break into the apartment, but find that it is empty because everyone has moved into the bathroom. Fritz takes refuge in the toilet when one of the pigs enters the bathroom and begins to beat up the partygoers. As the pig becomes exhausted, a very intoxicated Fritz jumps out, grabs the pig's gun, and shoots the toilet, causing the water main to break and flooding everybody out of the apartment. The pigs chase Fritz down the street into a synagogue. Fritz manages to escape when the congregation gets up to celebrate the United States' decision to send more weapons into Israel.

Fritz makes it back to his dormitory, where his roommates ignore him. He sets all of his notes and books on fire. The fire spreads throughout the dorm, finally setting the entire building ablaze. In a bar in Harlem, Fritz meets Duke the Crow at a billiard table. After narrowly avoiding getting into a fight with the bartender, Duke invites Fritz to "bug out". When Duke steals a car, Fritz is eager to join the illegal activity. Following a wild ride, Fritz drives the car off a bridge. Before the car crashes into the water and rocks below, Duke saves Fritz's life. The two arrive at an apartment owned by Bertha, a crow and former prostitute turned drug dealer. When Fritz arrives, she shoves several joints into his mouth. The marijuana increases his libido, so he rushes off into an alley to have sex with Bertha. While having sex, he comes to a supreme realization that he "must tell the people about the revolution!" He runs off into the city street and incites a riot, during which Duke is shot and killed, and Fritz is chased by several cops.

Fritz hides in an alley where his fox girlfriend, Winston Schwartz, finds him. She drags him on a road trip to San Francisco. On the road, she stops at a Howard Johnson's restaurant, and disenchants Fritz by her refusal to go to unusual places. When the car runs out of gas in the middle of the desert, Fritz decides to abandon her. Fritz meets up with Blue, a heroin-addicted rabbit biker. Along with Blue's horse girlfriend, Harriet, they take a ride to an underground hide-out where several other revolutionaries tell Fritz of their plan to blow up a power station. When Harriet tries to get Blue to leave, he hits her several times and ties her down with a chain. When Fritz objects to their treatment of her, he is hit in the face with a candle by the group's leader, a lizard. The group throws Harriet onto a bed and rapes her. In the next scene, Harriet is sitting in a graveyard, naked and traumatized. Fritz puts a coat over her and gets into a car with the leader to drive out to the power plant. After setting the dynamite, Fritz suddenly has a change of heart. The lizard lights the fuse and drives off as Fritz tries to get the dynamite out of its tight spot and fails. The dynamite explodes, blowing up both the power plant and Fritz. At a Los Angeles hospital, Harriet (now a nun) and the girls from the New York park come to comfort him. It is in this scene that, as John Grant writes in his book Masters of Animation, Fritz realizes that he should "stick to his original hedonist philosophy and let the rest of the world take care of itself."[1] In the final moments of the film, the audience sees Fritz have sexual intercourse with the girls from the park again.

The Nine Lives of Fritz the Cat (R) (1974)

Imdb Link - Fritz the Cat (1972)

Smokey and the Bandit 2

Second film in the Smokey and the Bandit trilogy, with Burt Reynolds

Smokey and the Bandit

Smokey and the Bandit - first of three sequels starring Burt Reynolds;

Bo Darville, aka The Bandit, is a semi-retired trucker legend, working in a trucking rodeo. He is approached by a shady father and son tycoon team (Big and Little Enos Burdette) who are planning a big party. Only problem is, in 1978 America, due to arcane liquor laws, it was illegal to ship Coors beer east of Texas, let alone east of the Mississippi...and the Burdettes wanted some for their Atlanta, Georgia shindig. 400 cases of it.




The Burdetts offer The Bandit $80,000 dollars to get the brews in Texarkana, Texas and bring them back to Atlanta in 28 hours. Enter Cledus Snow, "The Snowman." Bandit convinces Cledus to drive the beer truck, while he will run blocker--distracting Smokey, just like in their heyday. With Cledus convinced, the decoy is revealed...a 1977 black Pontiac Trans Am with gold eagle paint scheme and a Hemi engine, one of the most iconic automotive symbols in American film history.

Like the Battle of Troy is to Odysseus, securing of the brew is just the beginning. Now, they just gotta get it home. How hard could that be? They would have made it with hours to spare, save for their paths crossing with the disruption of the wedding of the soon to be blushing new couple, Deputy Buford T. and Mrs. Carrie Justice, Jr. Seems the almost-Mrs. Justice got second thoughts at the altar, and "danced back up the aisle", apologizing to Junior all the way. On her way out of the church, she flags down the first car to pass...Bandit Darville's Trans Am. She hops in, wedding dress and veil (for awhile at least), flapping in the T-tops. She introduces herself to The Bandit, who eventually names her Frog, as she's prone to hoppin'. Hey, you try getting out of a wedding train in a 70s American muscle car going 110 miles an hour.

Back at the Justice wedding, the father of the groom is beside himself with rage. As he exits the church, Sherriff Buford T. Justice--OF TEXAS!!--is informed that the harlot who has embarassed him in front of his town sped away at harrowing speeds...in a black Trans Am. The pursuit is on!!

Cledus is making good time in the beer truck, although an unscheduled swim with his co-pilot (Bassett Hound Fred) and a truck stop fight with a group of grizzled bikers lose him valuable minutes. Meanwhile, chemistry is sparking up ahead between Bandit and Frog. He even takes his hat off, which he only does for one thing...and one thing, only. As Texas turns to Arkansas, suddenly something becomes apparent...Sherriff Justice is still in pursuit, and he loses another marble with each new insult to his police vehicle.

Many, many police cruisers are destroyed. An unfinished suspension bridge is jumped...and then, not. Diablo sandwiches. The rocking chair. Hot Pants. Finally, the entire Georgia State Police force, complete with helicopter, join the chase. In a stunning climax of events, the deadline is met...and the money is collected from Enos and enos. OK, not really. A double-or-nothing deal is struck for some Boston clam chowder (in 18 hours), and off run Bandit, Frog, and the Snowman in their new candy apple red Cadillac. Bandit, via the police band of his ever-present CB, finally presents himself to Buford...eventually. Tipping him off to their next destination, they speed away...heading north to New England. Sherriff Justice peels out of the parking lot, leaving Junior behind...obediently chasing Daddy. Who else, after all, is going to hold his hat?

Prizzi's Honor

Prizzi's Honor - a Romantic Crime Comedy

Starring: Jack Nicholson, Kathleen Turner, Robert Loggia

Prizzi's Honor is a 1985 American black comedy film that tells the story of a mob hit man and hit woman who fall in love, even though they have been hired to kill each other. It stars Jack Nicholson, Kathleen Turner, Robert Loggia and Anjelica Huston.

The movie was adapted by Richard Condon and Janet Roach from Condon's novel. It was directed by John Huston. Its score, composed by Alex North, adapts the music of Giacomo Puccini and Gioachino Rossini .

Pauline Kael wrote of it: "This John Huston picture has a ripe and daring comic tone. It revels voluptuously in the murderous finagling of the members of a Brooklyn Mafia family, and rejoices in their scams. It's like The Godfather acted out by The Munsters. Jack Nicholson's average-guyness as Charley, the clan's enforcer, is the film's touchstone: this is a baroque comedy about people who behave in ordinary ways in grotesque circumstances, and it has the juice of everyday family craziness in it."

It won the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress (Anjelica Huston), and was nominated for Best Actor in a Leading Role (Nicholson), Best Actor in a Supporting Role (William Hickey), Best Costume Design, Best Director, Best Film Editing (Kaja Fehr and Rudi Fehr), Best Picture and Best Writing, Screenplay Based on Material from Another Medium.

 Cast;

* Jack Nicholson as Charley Partanna

* Kathleen Turner as Irene Walker

* Robert Loggia as Eduardo Prizzi

* Anjelica Huston as Maerose Prizzi

* William Hickey as Don Corrado Prizzi

* C. C. H. Pounder as Peaches Altamot

* John Randolph as Angelo "Pop" Partanna

* Lee Richardson as Dominic Prizzi

* Michael Lombard as Rosario Filangi "Finlay"

* George Santopietro as Plumber

* Ann Selepegno as Amalia Prizzi

* Lawrence Tierney as Lt. Hanley

* Vic Polizos as Phil Vittimizzare

* Dick O´Neil as Bluestone

* Sally Boyar as Casco Vasorne

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A Shot in the Dark (1964)

When rich M. Ballon's spanish driver is found shot dead, Inspector Jacques Clouseau is the first official on the scene. All evidence suggests Maria Gambrelli, the maid, to be the murderer. But Clouseau, being attracted to the beautiful girl, is convinced that she is hiding something. So, he has her released from jail and tries to follow her secretly. Things do not work out the way the inspector wanted and people keep being murdered, and each time innocent Maria seems to be the killer. But with someone important wanting Clouseau and nobody else to cover this case, his tolerance-challenged boss Charles Dreyfuss is close to losing his mind when casualties keep turning up. And Clouseau keeps on causing trouble without knowing it.

 A Shot in the Dark saw the great Peter Sellers reprise what is probably his most iconic role as the inept Inspector Clouseau. It's always obvious why Sellers is so well remembered for this role, as he's absolutely great in it. His mannerisms and quirks help to add to the personality of the character, and despite the fact that this man is overblown to comic book proportions, Sellers succeeds in making the role believable and, more importantly, very fun to watch. The majority of the humour in the film is of the slapstick variety, and while that can be very funny if done the right way; it's not my favourite type of humour. That being said, A Shot in the Dark does many of it's gags correctly, and while the film isn't consistently hilarious; there's enough good humour to ensure a good time to whoever's watching it. Also abundant in this film is classic Brit-flick style, which is great in my opinion. From Hammer Horror to Ealing comedy, I'm a big fan of classic British movies and so this film fits into that nicely.

 

The plot follows the accident-prone detective as he investigates the case of 'a shot in the dark', which resulted in the death of a man at a country house. The facts add up rather quickly to the maid, Maria (Elke Sommer), who was found at the scene of the crime with a smoking gun in her hand. Things are never that simple when Clouseau is on the case, however, and, convinced that she is a decoy to protect someone higher up the food chain, he proceeds in investigating this open and shut case. Aside from Sellers, this movie also features the talents of Herbert Lom, Elke Sommer and George Sanders, among others. This makes up a good support cast for yours truly, as I'm a big fan of horror and all of these are names in the British section of that genre. The plot of A Shot in the Dark is relatively simply done, but it always manages to find time for gags and humorous set pieces, and even when it appears to be slowing down; you can always count on another laugh being just around the corner. I don't love this movie, but it's definitely very good and marks a highlight in British comedy during the sixties.

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