Merry New Year;
Christopher Walken's Striptease
Christopher Walken's Striptease
Dear Friends and Readers,
Many best wishes from the home of Mike and Mike, for good health and prosperity in the new year. Thanks for your enduring friendship and support, and we hope your holiday season has been full of love.
I have a small cinematic gift to share today, that should bring a smile to your face. It's the striptease number expertly and deliciously performed by Christopher Walken in the 1981 classic modern musical, "Pennie From Heaven."
When the film opened at Manhattan's Zeigfield theater, with it's enormous panoramic screen, to middling reviews, I rushed with other gay friends to catch it. My gay card would have been revoked otherwise.
If you've never seen "Pennies From Heaven" on the big screen, you'll have a chance to feast your eyes upon it on February 7 at the Pacific Film Archive in Berkeley. Don't miss this rare opportunity to see it in a theater, and get your gay card renewed for 2010.
Here's Walken's dynamic song-and-dance, set to "Let's Misbehave":
That should have whetted your appetite for more glorious footage from the film, so here's another snippet. It's Bernadette Peters performing the "Love is Good For Anything That Ails You" number with dozens of talented shakin' and quakin' kids:
Herb Ross's remake is fair to middling, and too self-conscious for my tastes where the original UK series was far more moving, melancholic rather than played for the awkward laughs that Steve Martin and his crew simply can not avoid. That's not to take anything away from triple-threat Walken and his zesty striptease! But get yourself a copy of the original BBC-TV serial starring Bob Hoskins. A big improvement over Martin.
ReplyDeletehey jay,
ReplyDeletewhy not join me at the PFA next month, when they screen the movie? we can argue over its merits and you can tell me how it compares to the original BBC series? i'm trying to pack the PFA, and recruit for the film. it needs all the fans it can find.