The Hot Club

A leftover from St. Pat's Day - Louisiana Steve called Jameson's 'Irish Wine'. Said Steve, "Because when the bottle is empty, the Irish whine."

Conversations overheard: A guy spots a young thing in stripes and says, "If I was 20 years younger…" Behind him a voice says, "30 Years."

Brendan popped in and said, "Sex is evil. Evil is sin. Sin is forgiven, So baby let me slip it in."

My spy tells me that some of the cast members of The Sopranos were at Pane E Vino on Federal Hill having dinner. Two couples were dining together when one of the men spotted the entourage and screamed out "Big Pussy!"

Foot Joy asked me if I knew how President Bush would handle the bird flu epidemic. FJ said, "He'll bomb the Canary Islands."

Brendan likes movies and challenged me to stump him with a line from a film. So I gave him an easy one - "What we have here is failure to communicate." He knew it was Cool Hand Luke. So then I gave him a tougher one - "Mook. What's a mook?" Brendan was stumped even when I gave him the hint that it was by the director who is the king of Mafia movies. And the first film starring Harvey Keitel and Robert DeNiro. It's from Martin Scorsese's Mean Streets.

Contraire had a movie question for me: What was the name of the gorilla film that came out after the original King Kong? I said, "Mighty Joe Young." Later Contraire admitted to me that he doesn't ever go out to movies nor does he rent them. He waits until they show up on TV.

So we got into movie talk and I said that Burt Reynolds has had a long career for an ex-Florida State running back. I mentioned Deliverance as putting Reynolds on the map. Wise remembered The Longest Yard, which he thought was earlier but I said Deliverance came first. Foot Joy agreed saying that they came out within a couple years. He was right. Deliverance was 1972 and The Longest Yard 1974. And FJ knew that the first King Kong remake was out in 1976.

Then I pointed out that Burt Reynolds got his start as the young blacksmith on Gunsmoke (he replaced Dennis Weaver who played Chester). Foot Joy recalled Burt in the buff for Cosmo.

We moved on to William Shatner and the great Twilight Zone episode where he's just out of a mental hospital and sees a creature on the airplane wing trying to tear up the engine. Joking Joe recalled it was "Terror at 32,000 Feet". John Lithgow had the same role in Twilight Zone - The Movie. Joe said Shatner was on Lithgow's 3rd Rock from the Sun. Lithgow remarked that during his plane ride he saw a creature tearing up the engine. Shatner said, "You, too?"

MOVIE REVIEW - THE STENDHAL SYNDROME (2000)

This recent effort by Dario Argento stars his daughter Asia (pronounced A-sea-a). She is a cop with the Stendhal Syndrome, which causes a person to become disoriented and even hallucinate. The movie has elements of Vertigo and Freeway. Asia as Anna Manni (Animal?) is hunting down a serial rapist named Alfredo Grossi (Thomas Kretschmann).

Argento produced, directed, and wrote the screenplay. The Master of Giallo (yellow) - horror with colors - has delivered another interesting effort. Giallo supposedly has to do with the yellow tape that police put around crime scenes.

Ennio Morricone of spaghetti western fame does the music. And for the first time in memory, Argento employs computer-generated special effects done by Sergio Stivaletti.

At one point Asia Argento wears a blonde wig and looks like a young Ellen Barkin.

This is well worth a look as are most of Argento's movies which are strong on color and atmosphere.