NEW FILM SEGMENTS SHOT IN ROANE COUNTY TENNESSEE

Veteran film and television director Harry Thomason is planning a film about the last ride Hank Williams, Sr. took, and has already begun collecting film clips for the production.

It is most probable that the ’52 Cadillac, driven by 18-year-old Charles Carr, with Hank asleep in the back seat, came through Roane County Tennessee sometime on New Year’s Eve 1952. They were on their way to Canton, OH and points north, for new bookings intended to be a new beginning for Hank’s career.

On the anniversary of that occurrence, December 31st, Bill Landry coordinated/directed, and Doug Mills filmed several local vintage automobiles driving around the area. This footage was procured by Harry Thomason for his planned movie "The Last Ride”. Thomason called Bill on Wednesday, but Bill was still able to get the needed cars, including a baby blue ’53 Cadillac convertible belonging to Rex Walls. The car is basically like the one Hank Williams was riding in as he passed this way. filmed several local vintage automobiles driving around the area. This footage was procured by Harry Thomason for his movie “

See more of the story and photos on the Princess Blog!

See more photos HERE!

KLAATU AND GORT REMADE IN IMAX

It was rainy again Thursday, so Judy and I decided to take in a movie at The Pinnacle in Knoxville’s Turkey Creek shopping area. It was our first IMAX adventure for just a regular movie. However, “The Day the Earth Stood Still” is not a “regular” movie. It is the remake of one of my favorite movies of all time!

Here are the original and remake trailers:

I will say no more about the new movie until later in this post.

When you see this…“SPOILER ALERT”…

Read no further if you intend to see the movie!

I will give you my opinion on the remake later.

The Pinnacle is a beautiful theater, with a large concessions and entertainment area. This theater is where most IMAX premieres of movies made either about Knoxville, East Tennessee, or by local celebrities occur. The theater is very clean and beautifully decorated. This includes the restrooms…even at the risk of Judy fussing at me; I took a couple of photos! I just love the new hand dryers!

They not only have the intense XLERATORs, they also are trying out the ultra-modern dyson airblade! I’ve been fascinated by the Xlerator since our Key West trip to the Green Parrot! My first thought was that my hands are going to be blown off!

After the movie, Judy and I made a stop at the restroom, and when we met outside, I had discovered a “Friday the 13^th” poster. I couldn’t resist getting her in the shot!

We then made other stops at Bath and Body Works (my aftershave), Wal-Mart, and even all the way over to West Town Mall for some blush…not for me!

Then it was time for a late/early lunch/dinner at Wild Wings! I had been “Jonesing” for spicy wings for some time!

Yuengling 12 oz. drafts were going for $1, so we indulged, and Judy made her “shandies”!

I got smart with the waitress, saying I wanted a regular size beer, and she had to prove to me the cup contents would fill a 12 oz. glass! I apologized, but look at the photo…doesn’t seem likely does it?

Now this is when the movie discussion began…between bites of hot wings and wiping our faces, we talked about the movie. It soon dawned on me that Judy had slept through a key event in the movie, an event that occurred about 10-15 minutes into the film!

She has a tendency to dose off watching TV, and I rarely know it until the show is over. If we are watching a recorded program, I realize she’s asleep when I have to wake her to advance through the commercials. I had no idea she would dose off in an IMAX movie, which cost a few dollars more than normal movies!

I was somewhat upset for two reasons: I once took a girl out to an expensive steak dinner, only to discover when we got home that she was bulimic and in the bathroom throwing up my money! I kind of related this to Judy’s falling asleep in this expensive movie!

Secondly, I assumed she had been anticipating the movie as much as I was. We had just watched the 1951 version a few days prior to going, so I was looking forward to comparing notes and impressions!

I liked the remake a lot. As a matter of fact, I went to the movie not wanting to like it. I loved the simplicity of the original movie and the concept, so I doubted that Scott Derrickson could out direct Robert Wise! I also seriously doubted that GORT or Klaatu could be improved! However, here’s the thing – they are based on the same theme, but are two completely different interpretations!

“SPOILER ALERT” “SPOILER ALERT”

First, the spaceships are different! The original was saucer-like, making the eerie whirring noise that you have heard in movies for decades! The new ship is a sphere, with multiple smaller spheres, or arks (you’ll eventually understand this term if you see the movie), appearing in various places around the globe.

In the remake, Klaatu is shot almost immediately and whisked off to a government controlled facility for surgery, examination, and interrogation. GORT comes out at the shot and waves his hand over Klaatu, and Klaatu speaks to him (unintelligible) and he then assumes the position…like in the original. There is no “klaatu barada nikto” exchange in this movie! So, don’t go expecting it for nostalgia sake, and don’t dislike the movie because of it! To do so is to short change yourself, and overlook the updated storyline and very creative circumstances surrounding it.

No, Keanu Reeves is no Michael Rennie, but he does do a good job of depicting a non-sympathic alien, devoid of human feeling. True, it’s basically Keanu’s normal acting style, but it comes off well as the Klaatu of the 21 century! Klaatu’s appearance, which is that of a human, is simply an acceptable disguise hiding an alien shape, and allows mankind to look upon him without fear. Therefore, to show human feelings would be totally out of context – he’s almost Spock-like in this version. (Some say God came as a man (Jesus) to prevent us from being afraid too!)

In the original, Klaatu is not shot until toward the end, and it requires the heroine to interact with GORT to save the world.

In the remake, the world is not to be destroyed…just mankind and all he has made…the spheres are arks for the other living creatures that are to be saved!

Klaatu can stop the annihilation, but not as easily as he did in the original, and there is a terrible cost to mankind for being saved! To me, this is the only loose end in the movie…if things are left in place, what’s keeping mankind from cranking them up again!?

The “earth stood still” for 30 minutes in the first movie; it stands still much longer in the second, and that’s where it leaves us.

I remember Klaatu saying the “creator” in the first movie, giving hope to the world that God existed. The remake offers no such hope…Klaatu only says he cannot bring back the dead, however, there was no rapture of the living and/or dead believers prior to the wrath of GORT, nor was there any type of interference from a superior being!

One last spoiler – Klaatu never calls the robot GORT…it is an acronym assigned to the entity by the government!

I must say that I thoroughly enjoyed the modern version! It stayed close to the intent of the original movie, only instead of trying to save us and the universe from nuclear disaster, it came to get rid of a species that was not only determined to destroy its own kind, but other species right down to the very planet beneath their feet.

In the original, the “universe police” were trying to protect themselves by destroying everything, but this time they endeavor to save the planet and every living thing except mankind. “If you live, the planet dies. If you die, the planet lives,” Klaatu explains.

“The Day the Earth Stood Still” is the ultimate “save the planet” movie, and, if you believe in a “higher being” and an “end time”, I suppose that one day this same scenario will play out along a similar storyline.

THE PRINCESS THEATER

Before I leave my innocence behind and move off to the Air Force, I thought I had better do an installment on the Princess Theater in Harriman. I had almost forgotten about it, although I pass its empty shell most days, but I found a video clip on YouTube last night that brought it all back (clip at the end of the post). I sure hope there is a renaissance of the theater for nostalgia sake, if not because it might help bring people back down town.

“Walley” Worlds have killed the small town, not to mention the sprawling urban shopping areas that get closer and closer with each passing year. It seems that one day there will be no divisions between the cities and the small towns, just more urban area to incorporate. Maybe by the year 3000 the whole country will just be called the “Great City of the United States!” Such a sad day and I am glad I will not be around to see it.

The Princess Theater was the highlight of entertainment during the days of my youth. Oh, there were other theaters, skating rinks, a bowling alley, a drive-in theater, and a number of drive-in restaurants, but none of those holds fonder memories than the 50s and 60s movies I saw at the Princess.

There are fond memories of seeing the early Disney movies like “Bambi,” released in 1957, “Old Yeller” in 1958, “Sleeping Beauty” in 1959, and the other classics.

There was also the first 3-D movie I ever saw “The Creature from the Black Lagoon” in 1954. It was not so much scary to me as erotic – Julie Adams in that white bathing suit was just hot and I wished I was the monster!

While logic would dictate that I saw some of these at the Mi De Ga Theater in Waverly, Tennessee, the blender of time will always make me think I saw them all at the Princess.

Oh, and the horror classics of the time still shine the most in my memory. Vincent Price, Lon Chaney Jr., Peter Cushing, Boris Karloff, and Christopher Lee all gave me many a restless night, but I could not stop watching. Again, these movies, while they kept me awake at night, were also very erotic to me in some strange way. There was just something about carrying off a helpless beauty or sneaking into her bedroom – oh my! You know how the adolescent mind works – remember?

I remember the popcorn smell of the theater and the sticky/tacky touch of the floor between the seats and the little squishy sounds it made when you walked over it.

I remember the low hum of teenage voices, just under the movie sounds, whispering in the ears of their dates or remarks made out loud meant to make an impression on some pretty girl.

I remember leaning out from an end seat and looking down the carpeted aisle illuminated by the little lights on the sides of the seats. I do not know why I liked to look down the aisles, but maybe it was the colorful carpet in the unique lighting. For some strange reason it was a safe place to me, and I loved being there among friends and acquaintances – sharing the experience of being in a movie theater.

Occasionally, there was a live show, or at least a prelude show to build up the intrigue in the up coming horror show. “If you frighten easily, or if you have heart problems, or if you are here alone, I advise you to leave now!” This, of course, only made you want to see the movie that much more. “The screen will flash red just before a scary scene to warn you. That will give you time to hide your eyes!”

“Okay, okay,” everyone would shout, “get on with it!”

The popcorn and the Coke tasted so good as you crammed your mouth full of the salty, buttery food and soaked it down with the icy, sweet, and syrupy liquid. And Goobers and Sugar Babies! Oh, my gosh, what I would give for a pack of Goobers right now!

Well, some just nibbled the corn, one kernel at a time, but I was like a hamster, bulging out my cheeks and not swallowing until it was thoroughly chewed! This must have been an added attraction for my dates!

I think back on those days and nights and the calculated strategy of trying to sneak an arm up and around a girl’s neck, and let it rest there on a fake rabbit collar, gently rubbing the Ban Lon sweater sleeve with your hand, and inhaling the White Shoulders perfume. Come to think of it, this could have been the beginnings of my shoulder problems. Girls do not realize that this position is really uncomfortable and within the first two to three minutes your arm usually went to sleep, but you would not move it for the world. To a young boy it was worth the pain just to get into position to slide into first base!

This position was also a point of some status – to be seen out with one whom you thought to be the prettiest girl in school, with your arm around her at the movie.

Finally, I remember the balcony – a place I was only allowed after the 60’s and after I married the manager’s daughter. Before then it was just for the “Colored” folks, who occasionally dropped off empty cups and popcorn boxes onto us snobby “white” folks below. I am so glad that time ended; otherwise I would have never got to enjoy a movie from the balcony, which was closed to everyone except family.

So, here is a piece that was posted on YouTube in 2006 about the efforts to bring the Princess back to her glory. Here is hoping that happens! My grandchildren also deserve fond memories of her as well.