Doomed! The Untold Story of Roger Corman's The Fantastic Four

In 1994, Roger Corman produced a low-budget movie based on Marvel's popular comic book series, The Fantastic Four, starring Alex Hyde-White, Jay Underwood, Rebecca Staab and Michael Bailey Smith. This marked the first of what would be four live action renditions. Regardless of the fact that the three movies to follow had huge million-dollar budgets, fan boys at comic cons generally agree that the 1994 film is perhaps the best of them. Yet, the Roger Corman film was never released theatrically in theaters, commercially on VHS or DVD, and continues to sit on the shelves gathering dust. In fact, the only way anyone can watch the movie is to buy a VHS or DVD bootleg. Even worse is the fact that the movie was produced with no true intention to release the film - ever!

In the mid-1980s, German film producers, Constantin Films, bought the screen rights from Marvel Comics for an initial $250,000. Among the terms of the contract was that the studio had to produce a movie within ten years or the screen rights would revert back to Marvel. Just before the ten-year option ran out, and in order to meet the terms of the contract, executives at Constantin hired Roger Corman and hurriedly put this film into production. According to the story, executives at Marvel were not impressed at the low-budget results and in order to avoid damaging the brand the studio quietly bought the few existing film prints and negatives from Constantin Films to avoid the possibility of a theatrical or video release. Both Roger Corman (who produced the film), director Oley Sassone and the cast and crew of the film were not consulted or informed of this move, as there were indeed plans in place for a small theatrical release. (A movie trailer was made with this in mind.)

Constantin Films was able to maintain another ten-year option on the screen rights, secured funding from 20th-Century Fox, and the big budget 2005 version was the end result. A 2007 sequel and a terrible 2015 reboot followed.

While the movie was a means to tap dance around a contractual clause, fan boys today have managed to secure a primitive form or preservation by mass duplicating copies of the 1994 movie on VHS and DVD. It is estimated that every fan of The Fantastic Four, across the country, have a copy of this movie in their collection. (I had the good fortune to watch the movie at a fan gathering in Michigan a number of years ago.) If executives at Marvel or Constantin wanted to keep the movie locked away, their plan failed. To believe the film could be suppressed at this point would be futile. 

So you can imagine my pleasure when I learned that two years ago director Marty Langford produced an 84-minute documentary titled Doomed! The Untold Story of Roger Corman's The Fantastic Four, providing the view from the ground of what it was like to pour your heart and hopes into something that was never going to be seen by the general public. Practically every actor, writer, producer, director, stunt man and crew technician was approached and interviewed for commentary, providing background into the film that today you can find easily on YouTube. It is pop culture documentaries like these that I find enjoyable. Now available on DVD through Amazon.com, I recommend this to anyone who loved the 1994 Roger Corman gem. 

Dick Tracy Meets The Green Hornet

This might have slipped under the radar for fans of The Green Hornet... in April our heroes, Britt Reid and Kato, made a crossover appearance in the newspaper strip, Dick Tracy. Because newspapers across the country are cutting the budget by eliminating comic strips from their daily papers, not everyone has the advantage of keeping up with Dick Tracy. Over the past few years, artists Joe Staton and Mike Curtis have been introducing other pop culture characters into the Dick Tracy adventures -- Little Orphan Annie, etc. Thankfully, there is a website that posts Dick Tracy on the internet and if you click the link below, you can start reading the story arc. 

https://www.gocomics.com/dicktracy/2018/04/10

The Ultimate Book on Laurel and Hardy

With respect to everyone who wrote a book about Laurel and Hardy in the past, and will do so in the coming future, the latest from Randy Skretvedt, a massive 628-page cockroach killer, is a must-have. There can be no doubt that others will follow with their own tomes, documenting new discoveries and/or attempting to out-shine past endeavors, but Laurel and Hardy: The Magic Behind the Movies practically covers everything as a massive compilation of all things Laurel and Hardy. Even if you watched every Laurel and Hardy film short, twice, reading the entries under each film short and full-length motion-picture will make you want to watch the films again. 

Where to begin? 

His first edition was written back in 1987 and 29 years later, much has happened to the legacy of Laurel and Hardy. The Hal Roach films were purchased by Hallmark Cards, who wanted the film as collateral when trying to obtain funding for their Hallmark Hall of Fame television specials. They virtually did nothing with their films, and thought so little of the films that they almost destroyed the original 35mm master materials, which were saved by the eleventh hour by a Laurel and Hardy scholar and the staff at the UCLA Film and Television Archive. 

Thankfully, the rights to the Hal Roach talkies eventually returned to the custody of RHI Entertainment, the 35mm materials donated to UCLA, and restored prints are presently being funded. And this is where Randy's new book comes in to play. Adding to the continued legacy of the comedy duo that almost faded from the mainstream, decades of continued research made up this 628-page book, slick glossy paper, consisting of 800 photographic images -- many never-before-published with photos from Oliver Hardy's personal collection. Randy interviewed actors and actresses for recollections and anecdotes, and tracked down locations where the team filmed many of their famous scenes. Having access to the shooting scripts, Randy compared the finished product to determine which jokes were improvised on the set, unscripted, and which scenes were filmed but ended up on the cutting room floor.

Randy debunks the story Hal Roach told in Brownlow's Hollywood documentary, regarding the mistaken house used in Big Business (1929), how Jean Harlow's grandfather was outraged when he discovered his actress daughter appeared on camera (just shy of 18 years) showing off her figure in Double Whoopie (1929), and why they made a brief appearance in The Hollywood Revue of 1929. I was not aware that the steps used for The Music Box (1932) has become an official landmark in the City of Los Angeles (complete with special signage), an un-filmed ending for Towed in a Hole (1932) is documented in detail, and photos from a deleted scene in Twice Two (1933) adds sugar on the icing.

This is definitely one of those books that you watch a film short, laugh your head off, and then take a moment to read up on the behind-the-scenes trivia to take a deeper appreciation for the craft.

Considering only one film short remains missing in its entirety, Hats Off, the information in this book is extremely valuable. Such documentation preserves history.

Even with a dozen reference works about Laurel and Hardy on my bookshelf, each a pleasant read, Randy's hardcover will now be the first -- and probably only -- book I pull off my shelf when I need to know something about Laurel and Hardy. The retail price may be as hefty as the book itself, $80 plus postage, but with a limit print run of 2,000, do not hesitate. The book has only been available for two years and the author told me he only has 300 left. Grab your copy today.

https://www.amazon.com/Laurel-Hardy-Magic-Behind-Movies/dp/193787804X

Obscure Trivia About Robert Wagner

From September 13 to 15, 2018, Robert Wagner will be signing autographs and posing for photos with fans at the 13th annual Mid-Atlantic Nostalgia Convention. He will be joining a number of celebrities including Stefanie Powers, Loni Anderson, Barbara Eden, Diahann Carroll and Ed Begley, Jr. (It is my hope that I can talk to Mr. Begley for a spell about his father, who played the role of Charlie Chan on radio for a number of years.) The non-profit event benefits children with treatable cancer and will be among one of the first fan gatherings for Robert Wagner. Until now he never made an appearance at a convention to sign autographs for fans.

I thought I would take a few moments and provide some cool trivia about the actor.

* Robert Wagner was considered for the role of the Sundance Kid in Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid. He turned it down.

* After being submerged in an industrial strength foaming agent during the bathtub scene in The Pink Panther (1963), the actor went blind for four weeks. The studio wanted Wagner replaced, under the circumstances, but director Blake Edwards stuck by the actor and Wagner ultimately finished the picture.

* Robert Wagner has two stars on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. One for motion-pictures and one for recording.

* In his autobiography, Wagner confessed that he had a four-year relationship with actress Barbara Stanwyck, who was more than twenty years older than he. According to Wagner, she was his first great love and that she gave him more than any woman in his life.

* He was engaged to Tina Sinatra for more than a year.

* He made seven movies with his wife, actress Jill St. John. (See if you can name all seven off the top of your head...)

* Robert Wagner was asked to play the role of Tom Lopaka on the television series, Hawaiian Eye, but he instead wanted to concentrate on movies. He recommended his friend Robert Conrad for the role, which led to Conrad being cast.