Matt Helm's Rat Pack Wheels

My fascination with the early Sixties, before everything around here went to hell in a VW bus, is well documented.  Give me the Space Race, the New Frontier, topless-only Playboy centerfolds, and Dean Martin over the Beatles (let's leave the Stones out of this argument, because it won't help me make my point).

My father loves Dean Martin - Jerry Lewis comedies.  Go figure, he's not French.  If one was being shown saturday afternoon on Channel 9, he and I watched it.  So I was already familiar with the tipsy smoothie bit by the time I discovered Matt Helm.  Dean's secret agent was supposedly America's answer to James Bond, but it seemed more like the answer to Maxwell Smart, and a precursor to a certain International Man of Mystery. With all the busty women, lux interiors, secret compartments, in-car video phones, and gunplay what's not to like for a kid like me.  Dean Martin did four Matt Helm flicks, each a lesser version of its predecessor.  If you are willing to spare only a little time, watch the first film, "The Silencers".



Heck, just watching that trailer gives you a clear idea how much Mike Meyers ripped Helm off with his retro-anachronistic Austin Powers.  And in none of Helm's four films will you hear the words "groovy" or "far out".

In case you were wondering what ol' Dino might've driven when rolling onto the Paramount backlot to get made up for Helm, he probably drove this space age beaut, a 1962 Ghia L6.4, lightly customized by Hollywood car smith George Barris for Mr. Martin.

This was his, or so we're told.  Italian coachwork by Ghia, power train by Chrysler.  Real leather.  Real wood.  All style.  Early sixties style.

It's up for auction here.  I wonder where the secret compartments are.

Caine's Arcade

If you were ever a little boy, this video will thrill you. If you are a father, it is mandatory viewing.

The lesson I took away from this video is, as a father, it behooves me to enable my son to follow his dreams, act out his wishes, pursue his pursuits. That's what Caine's dad did for him when he gave him the majority of the frontage of his auto parts store in East L.A., so that Caine could build his own game arcade out of old cardboard and odds and ends.

The coda to this, and by far the least important part of the story, is that over $100,000.00 so far has been raised on line because of this arcade. It will go towards Caine's college fund and other scholarships. Read the entire story at www.cainesarcade.com.

You Only Live Twice

Took my son to a car show today, and was thrilled to see a pristine 1967 Toyota 2000GT in red. It was on display as a "halo" car for the manufacturer, which was drumming up excitement for some upcoming sports cars. None of those cars can hold a candle to the GT, which was made in hen's teeth numbers (350) and was, for its time and country of origin, incredibly advanced. Double overhead cam, Lotus-designed double wishbone suspension, limited slip differential, all at a time when the Beatles were still recording the White Album! Here it is, in white, lovingly filmed by modern day Japanese car porn purveyors.

It was so advanced in fact, that it was given an unforgettable cameo appearance in the James Bond film of its debut year, You Only Live Twice.

OK, maybe it's more forgettable than the big flying magnet, but I wanted to talk about cars.

Dambusters

This advert was on regular rotation on the 4 channels available on the telly when I lived in London in the early 90s. Although I was a Tennent's Extra Lager drinker at the time, when I was at another pub, I occasionally ordered a Carling's, on the strength of this ad. And it IS quite a strong ad.

Apparently, the dambusting technique was pioneered by the Brits as part of the Allies' plan to take out Nazi industry. Wonder how successful it all was. In any event, as I've said before, "Love beer. That is all."

Woody Allen's Manhattan

Paragraph 1: George Gershwin's iconic Rhapsody in Blue plays over pristine black and white images of classic New York tableau ... (nah, too declarative. And "iconic" and "classic" in the same line? Bleah.).

Let's see ... Paragraph 1: If you could only choose one movie opening to say everything there is to say about a city and person who lived in it ... (mmm. Who am I, Bill Moyers?)

Uh. Paragraph 1: Woody Allen, in his day, was New York City's biggest fan and greatest ambassador. In his love letter to Gotham, Manhattan, he can be found making some bold, and pitch-perfect artistic choices, even within the first three minutes. (Oooh, I love this ...). Truly one of the great opening scenes in the history of cinema, we start with the New York Philharmonic playing Gershwin's Rhapsody in Blue. Need anything more be said about that piece? The voice over, often considered a sign of laziness in a screenwriter, here isn't really a voice over at all. It's just Isaac Davis struggling to come up with a paragraph to open his oft-promised, never-started novel. Black and white, was there ever a more flattering way to depict images seriously? (Wait, where the hell am I even going with this? Maybe I should try Queens).

I just learned that my favorite Woody Allen film, Manhattan, is being released on Blu-Ray. I am looking forward to sharper blacks, crisper whites, clearer jazz, and the same sharp crit of pseudo-intellectual bourgeoisie and urban male neuroses that I was so captivated by when I first watched it amongst other film geeks in college. But most of all, I am looking forward to this in high-definition:

Isaac Davis's darkened apartment, he descending a spiral staircase, and his 17 year old girlfriend, played by a sublime Mariel Hemingway, seated far to the left, thumbing through an oversized book. Both are bathed in the only light sources, reading lamps, in the room. Man I love that image, a portrait of a man wandering through his things, struggling to find his way through mid-life, destination known.

Now more than ever, I feel like I live in that darkened room.