Mark Bennett's Blog: Movies, TV and Swimming Upstream in Hollywood

This review is from: The Big Show: A tribute to my mentor and friend, Television Producer, Fred de Cordova (Kindle Edition)

I watched the Tonight Show when I was a kid and had to go to bed as soon as Johnny finished his monolog. But I still recall him calling out his producer, Fred DeCordova now and again, and the shot would cut to a dapper dark haired mystery man standing in the wings. This book is about that man and his efforts to help a new comer to the business. It's a very sweet story and full of clever one liners that are eminently steal-able, as I have done. Freddy, it turns out, had quite a vocabuary as well as resume. For anyone who has an interest in TV history, this is a great book, and it has a lot of solid info about how shows are put together and how network TV gets made. The writing is fluid and readable and the story never gets bogged down. The writer had a great trip with his friend and it comes through loud and clear. Highly recommended.

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I am grateful for Ed Robertson for his keen interest and insight into my unlikely partnership with Old Hollywood Producer, Fred De Cordova. He was one of a kind and it shows from Ed's enthusiasm. Thank you Ed for having me on your program.

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The fourth quarter of the year is by far my favorite time of year for movies as it is Hollywood's time to release the "grown up" movies. Character pieces. The stuff that moves me.

It may be my imgination but does it seem like there are, this year in particular, an abundant amount of one-off, non-recurring, stand alone pictures?! And ones that are making money? Beating out any sequels? I hope so because then the studio coffers might not be so slammed shut as it has been of late for these kinds of stories.

There will always be flicks that are underwhelming but I have been tickled at how many great movies I've seen in a row.

Gravity was first, what a roller coaster ride and the special effects were stunning. A great story, I even got vertigo and I didn't need to see it in 3D.

Then there was Captain Phillips. Possibly Tom Hanks' best performance since Cast Away. A real nail biter and the lead Somalian Pirate is an MFA Acting course in and of itself.

All is Lost. Robert Redford. No dialogue. And I was on the edge of my seat. He can retire on this one alone. The movie gave me wobbly sea legs.

13 Years a Slave. Wonderfully uncomfortable. How come we learned about Harriet Tubman in grade school and there wasn't a mention about this guy's amazing story? I guess I was in the wrong school district.

Saving Mr. Banks. Sure it's Disney but it will grab you. It's a grown up movie or it's a movie for all of us who saw Mary Poppins. Tears down both cheeks and Emma Thompson delivers as usual. Hanks is folksy as only Hanks can do and all the supporting players turn their crumbs into catering trucks. I loved this movie.

August: Osage County. If you liked Who's Afraid of Virginia Wolfe?, this is your movie. Meryl Streep is at her Streepiest and the script is glorious. A Mount Rushmore of an ensemble cast and you don't see the pitch perfect directing by John Wells. Run to see this. They don't make movies like this...ever.

Then I went to see Anchorman 2. Sure, I enjoyed the first one. Why not? I love all those great comedic actors. Well, I guess I bought in to the marketing. That's where I saw the talent. Because that department made me pay my hard earned money to sit through this flick. THAT'S TALENT!

I hope the Creative Executives at the studios noticed...

Fred was born today on October 27th, 1910 in New York City, NY. "Right now Fred is in Heaven telling Saint Peter how to do his job better." - Johnny Carson.

Saw Gravity and Captain Phillips.

Sure, this is an overused statement but these two movies are the best I've seen all year.

If you love a roller coaster ride, Gravity is your movie. I found myself unconciously holding my breath in many of the scenes. It taps into your worst fears and you feel as if you are in space with the characters. The effects are amazing yet it doesn't hinge on seeing it in 3D. Choose your poison, it's the same thrill. And by the way, it's nice to see a movie like this that also has a great story (script) too. Sandra Bullock is pitch perfect for this.

Captain Phillips. True story. Cat and Mouse. Pirates. Our hero is captured by the Pirates. There's no way out. Tom Hanks is the hero. Really? What doesn't sell you here?! Probably the best performance by Hanks since Cast Away and the Somalians, especially the leader, is an MFA acting class in and of itself. Go see it now.

Loved the trailer and was looking forward to this.

Maybe it's me but I thought the performances were solid. Loved the claustrophobia of the location, the dreariness of this rain-soaked anytown USA and the creep factor but I thought the pace was so slow you could drive a Mack truck through the pauses.

Toward the end I felt that there were scenes left on the cutting room floor that I would have liked to see that were replaced by talking heads telling me what I could have seen.

I loved Jake Gyllenhaal's character and wanted to see more of Paul Dano's. Strangely, I didn't feel anything for the two leads. Maybe Les Mis was getting in my way.

Flawed script aside and long running time, the movie does transport you.

And if you like gruesome, this is your movie.

It is 1990 and I'm a freshly minted graduate of the California Institute of the Arts.

It is hard for me to recommend taking the one way ticket, at 23, to LA with no home, no job, no contacts, very little savings, no credit or no reason but that's just what I did.

At this moment, I'm living in the fabled Laurel Canyon in a one room studio adjacent to a chalet type A-frame house. I have a Pier-One floor and a mattress on it. I have an Ikea "media centre" and a bare bulb in a tiny bathroom with a sliding "door" that moves back and forth with the slightest breeze and left any "guest" with zero privacy.

Down the skinny eucalyptus lined street in the middle of the canyon, under The Country Store, was a gourmet pizza restaurant called Caoti with its owner Ed Ladou who invented this pizza though Wolfgang Puck owned it.

Ed had a heart for my plight and as a result I spent time training as what I would become a very bad waiter.

My first guest came in. He was Val Kilmer. I was thrilled because two years prior, I was involved in classes at The Colorado Shakespeare Festival where he played Hamlet. Brilliantly, I might add. What a great conversation starter, I thought.

After some discourse, Val interjects, "Would you like to be in my movie?"

"Sure," I say, greenly adding, "But I don't have an agent."

"You don't need an agent."

Show Business is easy!

Val proceeded to tell me he would be in make-up at 6:30am and to meet him there. I excitedly shook his hand and couldn't wait for Monday morning.

On the way home it dawned on me - who's going to believe this long-haired punk who asks where the star of the movie is because he said I could be in it too?!

Oh well.

Monday morning came and I dressed in my best facsimile of a hippie.

I parked my car, straightened my brown leather head-band and marched my way up San Vacinte toward The Whisky A Go Go where the shooting is to take place.

I saw a bunch of trailers when a woman with a headset blocks my path.

Here it comes.

"Can I help you?," she says.

"Yes." And with a breath and my best self-deprecating foot forward, I add,"I know this will sound absurd but I work at Caoiti restaurant in The Canyon. Val Kilmer was my first customer. And I'm from Boulder. And he played Hamlet at the Shakespeare Festival. And I was there. Cause I'm from Boulder. And he said he'd be in make-up at this time and to meet..."

Ca-ching!

"Go on up the street. He's in the third trailer in, on the right," she says, trying to hide a grin.

"Thank you ma'am. Thank you so much."

I called her ma'am and she probably was only Thirty.

When I walked up to the trailer, I saw Val. He saw my reflection through the mirror. He jumped out of his chair, burst out the door and said accurately, "You made it."

He then tells me, we're shooting a concert scene at The Whiskey where The Doors sing, "The End," and Jim gets thrown out for saying a particular unnacceptable word. He likes what I'm wearing but suggests, since we're about the same size, to wear some of his wardrobe. I get to wear Jim Morrison's maroon velvet shirt?

This is already a thrill for this wannabe actor.

We get in and it's interesting how fast a crew notices you, especially when you're "Val's friend."

I look around the club and I see Robby Krieger, John Densmore, Eric Burden, Bill Graham the famous San Francisco Promoter (The Fillmore anyone?!) and Patricia Kennealy who was Jim Morrison's "wife," and had a shirt on that stated simply: I fucked Jim Morrison.

On the floor, we were instructed to "acid dance" while the music played. Now, I don't know if it was because my acid dancing was so fabulous or it was because I was "Val's friend," but the choreographers Bill and Jaqui Landrum whisked me up to the balcony and placed me right next to Meg Ryan.

So far, so good.

Then, because now that I'm featured, what I'm wearing causes some debate.

"The shirt's too thick and heavy. It's September. It's the hottest month in LA," says Wardrobe.

"How 'bout we take the shirt off. Are you ok with that?," asks a man in Hair and Make Up, biting on a comb.

The Jim Morrison shirt comes off, the fake sweat (which is kind of sticky I might add) is sprayed on, I am asked to smoke and look very stoned.

Let's get this straight. I look to my right and there's the star from "When Harry Met Sally" - which I have just seen - to my left: Is Oliver Stone, the director, sitting behind what's known as the "Video Village," I see the icons of sixties rock flanked around him and Val Kilmer on stage ready for the next take.

I have arrived.

After numerous takes it is about three in the morning. Val is on stage having a conference with Oliver Stone.

Just then, Val waves me over.

I trot down the steps, cut through the hundreds of extras on the floor and approach the foot of the stage.

"Come with us, we're going across the street," Val says.

So there I am, walking across Sunset Boulevard with Val Kilmer, the movie's director, Oliver Stone and one of the Executive Producers, Alex Ho.

We go to this gas station where inside, we can make ourselves shakes, sundaes, anything of the sweet sort. I go for a vanilla shake.

Standing next to me, putting nuts on top of his sundae, Oliver Stone says to me, "So you want to be an actor?"

"Yes, sir."

"Have you heard of Danny Sugarman?"

I answered honestly, "Sorry, no."

"Have you read, 'No One Gets Out of Here Alive'?"

Feeling like I'm failing a test I answer, "I haven't read it but I know what it is."

"Well, Danny's latest book is called 'Wonderland Avenue,' and it's about his life after The Doors in the Seventies. We're looking for unknowns and you look a lot like a young Danny Sugarman. So what I'd like you to do is," he pauses, "You do have an eight by ten?"

I answered yes.

"So what I'd like you to do is go to Samuel French and buy the book. Read it. And send your picture and resume to Ixtlan Productions, my production company. Tell my assistant that I told you to do it."

Show Business is easy!

"Yes sir. Thank you sir. I will. Thank you so much."

Then the director looks at Val and says to him, "And if you fuck up, I can always have Jim Jr., here, fill in for you."

We all laugh.

The shoot was quite a spectacle. Stars not associated with the movie had to stop by and check it out. James Woods stopped by and so did Dennis Quaid who was dating Meg Ryan at the time. Apparently, The Producers paid 800,000 dollars a night to block traffic on Sunset. All the marquee's were changed to fit the time period and I'm sure anyone who was around in 1966 was having a severe case of deja vu.

Back at The Whiskey, Val on his umpteenth take had to shoot the entire song in one take so Oliver could get coverage with a Steadicam.

He performed and sang the song. Now, I appreciated The Doors but it wasn't really my taste in music. When the song ended with Val writhing on the stage floor, the director yelled, "Cut." There was utter stillness. Long enough for me to overhear Robbie Krieger say to Oliver, "You know, we never had a recording of Jim on this gig but now we do." At that moment, my taste changed too.

The last moment recorded at The Whiskey was the scene where Jim gets thrown out of the club by the owner, Elmer Valentine. By this point, Val is exhausted. He sat at a table right by the door and waved me over.

"It's a far cry from Hamlet," I said to him searching for something to say.

"Not really, they're both dead."

Just beyond the door I hear, "Action," from Oliver Stone and John Capodice, the actor playing Elmer Valentine, picked Val up out of his chair - in character - and promptly threw him out.

The last day I was around in a Doors production, was the day they shot another concert scene at what was called The Olympic Auditorium.

On a lunch break I wandered into the auditorium to see the stage and sit in the bleachers by myself.

From behind me, someone says, "So you're playing me, I hear."

I turn around and see a man who looks like an older version of me. I stand up, a little puzzled.

He puts out his hand,"I'm Danny Sugarman."

"I'm supposed to read about you. I haven't got anything yet. I still have to send a picture and resume. I'm Mark Bennett."

We have small talk and the whole time I did not know that he too, was a consultant on the movie. I realize it's the first time in my life that I've already met the author before reading his book.

Show Business is easy!

After the meet and greet, I walk out and across the way I hear music. It is coming from a brick building and there's a black metal staircase on the outside leading to an open door at the top.

Not knowing any better, I had to check it out. After all, I am a musician...

I walk up the steps and there's what looks like, a guard standing outside. For some reason, or maybe it was my hippie garb but he let me in.

Inside, I saw John Densmore playing drums with his actor counterpart, Kevin Dillon, Robbie Krieger with his counterpart, Kevin Whalley and a lone Rhodes keyboard. Again, for some reason, Robbie looked at me with a shrug that seems to say - can you play? I walk up to the Rhodes and try my best to play along. Just then, Eric Burden walks in. The music stops. Some words are exchanged between the rock stars when we all begin the opening intro to "House of the Riding Sun." I realized I was playing with The Animals and The Doors at the same time.

Later, I ran down to the nearest pay phone to call my family.

Collect.

As for Wonderland Avenue? Carolco pictures went bankrupt, the script didn't hit the light of day and I never even got up to bat.

You can't win 'em all.