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The following movie "treatment" is a fan's idea of what would make a really cool Iron Man movie, as well as being a tribute. (The characters, story points and drawings are all the property and copyrighted by Marvel Entertainment). So, anyway, put your repulsors on low intensity, sit back, and enjoy!
For full image, click here
IRON MAN:
BIRTH OF THE WAR MACHINE
INTRODUCTION
For me, the Mandarin "trilogy" in issues 84-86 of TOS hit a high water mark for the series.
The early stories and artwork up till then were often awesome and thrilling, but other times just average, and occasionally, not so good. The banter between Happy, Pepper and Stark was also involving, but occasionally silly(but fun), such as when a romantically indifferent Stark, under pressure, sets up a "date" with Pepper, then, with some remorse, stiffs her when it's resolved.
However starting with issue #84, all of the elements, story, characterization and artwork, came together as it never had before. To many at the time, it may have seemed like Stark just might "tell all" and then there would be no more Iron Man. Although readers had often seen him alone in his room "charging up", suddenly the whole outside world saw his chestplate for the first time as he lay helplessly on the committee room floor. With that, and hearing Pepper describe his sacrifice and her misunderstanding, with tears, we realized that things would never be quite the same again.
His rescue of Happy from the hands of the Mandarin conveys the beautiful irrationality of friendship and brotherly love: Stark, a millionaire(billionaire no doubt by todays's standards), half dying, rises up and flies half way around the world to risk his life rescuing his ex-boxer chauffeur(who, it must be remembered, had risked his own life for his boss both here and on other occasions).
Wouldn't it be a great world if we could all show dedication and "heart" like that?
Also at the time, the Kirbyesque full pager of IM holding back the walls closing in (#86)was one of a number of scenes from Marvel Comics that were made into black light posters, and were sold everywhere from carnivals to "head" shops. For me, it was one of the defining images of the popular culture of the late '60's.
A treatment based on characters, stories and concepts created by:
Stan Lee
Jack Kirby
Larry Leiber
John Byrne
Adaption and "Homage Montages"
By
Alan Doshna
A cable TV news broadcast informs us about a congressional hearing to be held tomorrow. Millionaire industrialist Anthony "Tony" Stark will reveal heretofore confidential information pertaining to the special armor of his personal bodyguard, the mysterious "Iron Man", for the benefit of the US Military. It is presumed that this will effectively end the career of Iron Man, in the interests of domestic security.
In his hotel room, Tony Stark reminisces about events of his life leading up to the present. After inheriting his father's industrial complex, he became a man both admired and vilified. a public philanthropist, he showed little regard for his employees, but an unwavering eye on the bottom line, and focusing his business primarily on military contracts.
He narrowly escapes an angry confrontation after trying to seduce the sister of one of his bodyguards. The next day, his closest aide resigns, for reasons both personal and professional.
In the international arena, Tony travels to Southeast Asia to inspect company installations that have been the targets of sabotage by a local despot named Wong Chu.
Tony and his associates sre chased through the jungle by a group of wong's men, and is the only survivor of a land mine blast.
Tony is taken to Wong's quarters, where it is discovered that shrapnel is moving steadily towards his heart. Wong is also a man with an eye to the bottom line, so Tony is given to work with Professor Yinsen, a noted, elderly scientist heretofore thought to be dead, with the offer of having the shrapnel removed if they agree to collaborate on a secret weapon for Wong's use. Tony sees through Wong's bluff, so he and Prof. Yinsen work against time to develop their own secret weapon, a suit of super powered armor with a magnetic chest plate that will prevent the shrapnel from moving further into Tony's heart.
Also in matters of the "heart", Prof. Yinsen mentors Tony in better understanding of the value of the lives of others.
In attempting to buy time for charging up the armor, Professor Yinsen is mercilessly gunned down by Wong's men. Fully charged, Tony, clad in armor, defeats the massive Wong in hand-to-hand combat, and ignites their ammo dump, which sends Wong and his men fleeing in panic. With the help of young journalist James Rhodes, Tony finds his way to a flight back to the U.S.
Upon his return, his employees find a "kinder, gentler" Tony Stark, with a line of vision considerably above the bottom line, taking beginning steps in demonstrating greater appreciation than he had ever done previously.
While attending a circus on a date, Tony, as IM, helps round up animals that had gotten loose. He is disturbed, however, by a child who becomes hysterical at seeing him in his grey armor. After all has been taken care of, Tony's date comments that IM would look like a knight in shining armor if his were painted gold, whose advice he promptly takes.
Tony, participating in a sports car race, has not recharged his chest plate just prior to doing so, and begins to black out. The car goes out of control, careens over an embankment and crashes. He is daringly rescued by Rocky Balboa-like "Happy" Hogan, whom he promptly hires as his chauffeur.
He introduces him to his secretary, Pepper Potts, whom the enamored Happy correctly observes as having a "thing" for Tony. Pepper doesn't realize it is mutual, but so as not to endanger her life by taking on the responsibilities of marriage, he remains to her "a cool exec with a heart of steel".
In a montage of subsequent events, we see IM's armor morphing into it's familiar red and gold style.
Returning to the present, Tony observes that Iron Man's time has come and passed, that the technology can be used more effectively by the military, and that, frankly, the world simply doesn't care about Iron Man. Now that the "meal" has been finished, he can now settle in for a "slice of the American Pie" that he has denied himself for so long, aided and abetted by the military contracts looming ahead, which will reward his services handsomely.
On the first day of the hearings, as he is about to make his opening presentation, the strain takes it's toll on Tony, and he collapses in front of the horrified committee and reporters. Upon examination, the metal plate surrounding his chest is discovered, which gives rise to the perennial speculation that Tony and IM are one and the same. Happy and Pepper soon rush to his side.
Elina Vartanyan as "Pepper Potts"
The rumors are soon dispelled, however, by the "appearance" of Iron Man, which is actually Happy wearing the armor. After a near-disastrous "challenge" by a biker to a race, Happy returns to Tony's bedside. After Tony expresses appreciation and the feeling of providence in not completing his presentation, Happy mysteriously disappears into thin air. Actually, it is by means of the Transporter Beam of IM's far eastern, Fu Manchu-like adversary, the Mandarin, who has mistaken happy for the real IM. Tony is painfully (and accurately) aware of the torture that the Mandarin, armed with ten powerful rings, each capable of emitting a separate force, is capable of submitting Happy to.
Having already been flown back home to N.Y., Tony summons all the strength he can muster to make it from his hospital bed to make it over to his plant, in record time.
At the plant, he sets out to build an even more powerful suit of armor, utilizing components that he has been developing for some time, to confront the Mandarin on his own turf, as well as to strengthen his weakened heart. After testing the new armor, dubbed "The War Machine", he boards an aircraft missile set to reach the China coast within the hour. Having arrived, he makes short work of the guards at the Mandarin's castle, demolishing the surveillance system, and knocking the steel front door off it's tracks, by means of his shoulder cannons.
Once inside, the Mandarin is confronted with the fact that he has the "wrong" Iron Man. as Happy is taken away, IM is forced to deal with such "welcoming surprises" as a sub-freezing charge of gas and closing steel walls.
Tho his foe is incredibly proficient in the martial arts, IM is able to best the Mandarin in hand-to-hand combat, after which he begins searching for Happy. He overhears that the Mandarin has sold a missile to North Korea, which is being tested now. It is designed to go out of control and hit an American base, thereby fomenting war, which the Mandarin plans to take full advantage of.
IM frees Happy and programs his armor to head to the American base on Okinawa by remote control. Having done that, IM programs the airborne missile to head towards the Mandarin's castle by means of a high-frequency radio command, but not before the Mandarin makes a final attack. IM exits the castle before the missile makes contact, and razes the castle to the ground, and the Mandarin with it.
With both victory and a new lease on life in hand, over the smoldering ruins of the castle, he intones: "The Mandarin is fallen. For the sake of mankind may he never rise again".
Upon arriving back home, Tony Informs a relieved Pepper that he had to help Iron Man rescue Happy, who had been in mortal danger after being abducted by the Mandarin. Further, he has decided to retain Iron Man as his bodyguard and to postpone indefinitely the military acquisition of the technology related to him, due to the recent attack that had occured.
Later, in reverie by himself, Tony accepts the responsibility given him, with all of it's challenges and drawbacks and decides that, "For better or worse, there will always be, an IRON MAN"!
Alan Doshna as Tony Stark/Iron Man
Models and Photos courtesy of:
The William Adrian Modeling Agency |
THE ARMOUR WITHOUT, THE SPIRIT WITHIN
"The Gospel According to Iron Man"
One of the most popular comic book heroes published by Marvel Comics, which include Spider-Man, the Fantastic Four and the X-Men, is the high-tech, armor-clad super hero "Iron Man".
In his origin story, brilliant industrialist Anthony "Tony" Stark, while inspecting one of his installations in Asia, is chased through the jungle by the henchmen of a local Warlord, and after being near-fatally injured by an exploding land mine, is then taken captive.
With the help of a fellow captive, a benevolent scientist, they construct not only a metal chestplate to treat the injuries to Tony's heart, but a suit of armor that enables him to escape captivity. On arriving back in the U.S., Tony decides to use the armor for the benefit of mankind and the protection of others, as kind of a modern "knight in shining armor", and continues to upgrade it's capabilities.
In an analogy, the Apostle Paul tells us as Christians to put on the spiritual "armor of God", comparing it to the type worn by a Roman Centurion(Ephesians 4:11-18).
Unlike Superman or Batman, who came upon their powers either naturally or through intensive training, without his Iron Man armor, Tony Stark, for all of his brilliance, due to his heart condition, is like the proverbial "turtle without a shell".
Like the Apostle Paul, after being struck down on the road to Damascus(Acts 9:3:20), through the land mine blast, Tony ultimately finds his greatest strength, in a physical sense, by first being made weak(2 Corinthians 9:10).
As Christians, without our "spiritual armor", we too become like a turtle without a shell, having to face up to the dark spiritual forces of this world with our own limited physical strength(Eph. 4:12-13).
The Bible uses the human heart as a symbol of the source of human behavior(Matthew 12:34). In his early stories, Tony needed to "recharge" his magnetic chest plate to strengthen his weakened heart, or else he would he would lose his ability to function, and come close to dying. So too, do we need to be renewed(Eph. 4:23-24) and strengthened(Phillipians 4:13) in and through our relationship with God and Jesus Christ, including prayer and Bible study.
One storyline that seemed to recur from time to time was when a criminal would break into Tony's laboratory and steal one of his older suits of armor, leading to a seeming confrontation between the "old" and the "new" Iron Man. As Christians, we are constantly having to resist and fight our "old Man" or "old nature"(Eph. 4:22-24), and to become a "new creature in Christ"(2 Cor. 5:17).
On the other hand, sometimes the criminal would make off with the "new" suit of armor, forcing Tony to don one of the older suits, and to use his resourcefulness, in order to defeat the superior technology. Sometimes Christians can become "puffed up" with pride, thinking of themselves more highly than we should, due to our own works or "special knowledge" and need to return to the humility of our first calling(1 Cor. 5:6, 10:12)
When I was 9 years old, my (single)mom had to undergo a serious operation. However, I couldn't go up to visit her in the hospital, as I was too young, so I had to wait in the lobby. My brother Don gave me money to buy something to read, in the gift shop, so I bought two comic books, both of which had Iron Man stories in them. In one of them, some circus animals had broken loose, and Tony put his armor on to help restore order. However, to his shock and amazement, some children nearby became more afraid of him, in his original grey armor, than the animals running free!
Occaisonally, even while wearing our "spiritual armor", our actions can be taken wrong, or challenged, by others, who respond in a way that catches us off guard(2 Cor. 6:5-7) and we become distracted and disoriented, perhaps losing our frame of reference.
Iron Man's awareness of his sudden isolation reminded me of my own at that time, and, although I never really cared for him that much to that point, from then on, I felt a special bond to him.
We are told that Satan is a "roaring lion, seeking whom he may devour"(1 Pet. 5:8), and catches us when we least expect it. Significantly, just as Iron Man became distracted, a leopard nearby began to crouch down, preparing to attack an audience member running for safety. Letting go of his own concerns, Iron Man quickly moved between them and caught the leopard in mid-air, hurling it over to an area where it would not be able to do any harm. So too, our spiritual armor is for the protection and safety of others besides ourselves(Galatians 5:13).
As we are made in the image of God(Genesis 1:27), supeheroes like Iron Man are a source of fascination to human beings, as they provide a kind of "bridge" between "normal" and superhuman abilities. Similarly, putting on our "spirtual armour" is a comparison to putting on the divine nature of God, through his Son, Jesus Christ(Romans 13:14). |
 The Yin and the Yan of Mr. Yordan
By Alan Doshna
Considered by many to be one of the most colorful figures in Hollywood history, Writer/Producer(and sometimes Director/Actor) Philip Yordan is known for films that run the gamut of 1940's Monogram thrillers, Film "Noirs", 1950's "Cult" movies, historical epics, "Spaghetti" westerns, British sci-fi chillers and offbeat video features.
The Chicago-born Yordan was brought to Hollywood by director William Dieterle in the early 1940's, to co-write his first feature script, SYNCOPATION(1942),
and has been busy ever since.
Although much has been written about his collaborations with various writers, producers and directors, the amazing scope and resonance of his films has only been touched upon. I had originally intended to focus on his work from 1970 on, which has
received only scant attention, and to build interest at the start for contemporary readers. Intrigued at what I found, I decided to expand it into the article itself.
Long before the recent trend of producing Shakespeare in a modern context, in such films as RICHARD III, ROMEO AND JULIET, LOVE'S LABOURS LOST and even TROMEO(!) AND JULIET, Yordan wrote some of the first contemporary cinematic adaptions of the Bard's work.
HOUSE OF STRANGERS(1949) was kind of a cross between King Lear and the Biblical story of Joseph(which, by itself, was the source of the recent stage musical by Andrew Lloyd Webber,Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat). Based on a book about an Italian family that, according to Yordan "didn't make any sense at all", he decided to come up with his own original storyline, touching on some of the classic themes. Leonard Maltin had this to say about it in his Movie and Video Guide: "(The) Unique plotline has been used in various disguises for many subsequent films-most memorably, five years later in BROKEN LANCE".
Twentieth Century/Fox used this as the basis for a remake in a western setting in 1954, entitled BROKEN LANCE, which starred Spencer Tracy, and won Yordan an Academy Award for Best Original Story. The tv series Bonanza used characters strikingly similar to those in both films: the patriarch and his four sons, the youngest named Joseph.
Thus, Broken Lance can be included in an even rarer category(including the non-Yordan spaghetti western JOHNNY HAMLET(1969)), a Shakespearean western! Still another western adaption of King Lear was Anthony Mann's THE MAN FROM LARAMIE(1955) which Yordan co-scripted. Along similar, though more obvious lines, he also wrote the script for JOE MACBETH(1956) which placed one of the playwright's most famous plays into a modern gangster setting.
Although not an actual adaption, REBEL WITHOUT A CAUSE(1955), starring James Dean and Natalie Wood, has been likened to the play Romeo and Juliet. Directed by noted Yordan collaborator Nicholas Ray, and with uncredited contribution to the script by the writer, the film has influenced a later, even more direct version, the 1950's musical and 1961 film WEST SIDE STORY, which even included leading lady Wood.
 JOHNNY GUITAR (1954), also directed by Nicholas Ray, is a cross-gender western starring Joan Crawford, and a true cult film. Based on Roy Chanslor's book and scripted by Yordan, it is one of his best known works of and by itself, but whose themes and subjects have found their way into a number of amazing places.
Director Roger Corman did a quickie version of the same theme shortly afterwards in GUNSLINGER(1956) starring Beverly Garland, which, more recently was itself the subject of an episode of Mystery Science Theater 3000.
ONCE UPON A TIME IN THE WEST(1969), directed by Sergio Leone and starring Henry Fonda and Charles Bronson, also draws plot inspiration from JOHNNY GUITAR, concerning the impact of the railroads' expansion. In his Leone biography, Something About Death, author Christopher Frayling quotes Bernardo Bertolucci, one of the films' writers, this way:
"(JOHNNY GUITAR was) one of the more explicit references in ONCE UPON A TIME IN THE WEST".
CEMETERY WITHOUT CROSSES(1967) is another "spaghetti"co-written by Dario Argento, (who also co-wrote ONCE UPON A TIME...) and with Sergio Leone himself in a small role. Frayling writes: "The film owes a lot to JOHNNY GUITAR".
Other films including both female gunfighters and Leone homages include Alexandro Jodorowsky's EL TOPO(1971) and Sam Raimi's THE QUICK AND THE DEAD(1995).
Director Francois Truffaut also included an homage to JOHNNY GUITAR in MISSISSIPPI MERMAID(1969).
Another fan, Martin Scorsese, included JOHNNY GUITAR in a line of video releases bearing his name, for which he provided the on-camera introduction. He said: "Johnny Guitar is an example of a minor film grown to achieve the status of a classic. There is really no other film like it". In fact, perhaps due to the earlier film's success, author Chanslor wrote CAT BALLOU (1965) which starred Jane Fonda as a gunfighter!
An early Liverpool rock'n'roll group named Rory Storm and the Hurricanes capitalized on the then-popularity of western films and tv series by having it's leader bestow "colorful stage names on each Hurricane". Band member John Byrnes thus became "Johnny Guitar", owing to the film and it's title character.
(Another band member,one Richard Starkey, had a bit of a back door rechristening along these lines. He became known as "Rings", according to a biographer, for his "Teddy Boy habit of adorning each hand with four increasingly splendid rings". Unfortunately, however, the name of a particularly appropriate American gunfighter was already in use by a musician in another group. As it turned out, the drummer ended up appropriating it anyway, with a little switch here and a modification there, and later became a member of a popular 1960's group which had a string of hits.
His name? Ringo Starr. (The aforementioned quotes were from Alan Clayson's book Ringo Starr-Straight Man or Joker?)
Another Beatle-related connection was through scriptwriter Marc Behm who co-wrote HELP!(1965). His novel, Eye of the Beholder was originally written as a script for Yordan, although it was never produced by him. However, it was filmed twice, in France as MORTELLE RANDONNE(1983), directed by Claude Miller and starring Isabelle Adjani, and in English as EYE OF THE BEHOLDER(2000) starring Ewan McGregor and Ashley Judd.
The recent award-winning box office hit GLADIATOR was partially inspired by and was based on the same time period as was Samuel Bronston's THE FALL OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE(1964), for which Yordan was co-writer.
Yordan was nominated for an Academy Award three times: for DILLINGER(1945), DETECTIVE STORY(1951), and the previously mentioned BROKEN LANCE(1954,) for which he won. In the book Backstory 2, Interviews With Screenwriters of the 1940's and 1950's, he told author Pat McGilligan that he believes he won belatedly for DILLINGER, as the major studios in the 1940's had signed a consent agreement to not make gangster pictures at that time. The Academy took the path of least resistance, by not giving the award to the Yordan film, which was produced by the non-signatory Monogram Studios. Ironically, according to Yordan, "Darryl Zanuck (later) ran that picture again and again, and was used as the basis of many pictures at Fox. In other words, I had created a style".
He held back the script until Lawrence Tierney(RESERVOIR DOGS) was cast in the lead as Dillinger, who attained stardom in the role.
I came into contact with Philip Yordan when I was the Associate Producer of what later became THE HAUNTED WORLD OF EDWARD D. WOOD, JR.(1996). While working for the late Crawford John Thomas, who produced Ed Wood's first, aborted film CROSSROADS OF LORADO (sic)(1946), I ran across The Phantom's review of Yordan's NIGHT TRAIN TO TERROR (1986), which consisted of three compressed horror features surrounded by a wild framing device. I sent Yordan a prospectus concerning the project and a video of CROSSROADS, to see if he would be interested in doing something along those lines to bring our film to feature length.
He fell in love with the idea of doing an "Ed Wood goes to Hollywood"-type biography, before ED WOOD was a twinkle in Tim Burton's eye. He envisioned something along the lines of CITIZEN KANE, with a reporter ferreting out the real story. Unfortunately, Thomas pretty much had his heart set on doing a documentary, and didn't actually have the financing to do the type of feature Yordan had in mind. Efforts to raise financing for the project on his own were, sadly, met with indifference.
Interestingly, in BRIDE OF THE MONSTER(1956), Ed Wood let actor Ben Frommer provide his own dialogue in a police interrogation scene, which was lifted verbatim
from DILLINGER!
(cf. Nightmare of Ecstacy by Rudolph Grey).
Yordan also figures prominently in the recent, absorbing book Hollywood Exile; How I Learned to Love the Blacklist by Bernard Gordon, one of the writers adversely affected by the HUAC Hearings in the 1950's.
He hired Gordon as a surrogate writer during the 60's and 70's for numerous film projects he produced overseas, (including DAY OF THE TRIFFIDS(1962)) mostly in Spain. He is quoted on the back cover: "Everything Gordon writes about me is untrue, but I found the book fascinating".
Both Yordan and Gordon as well as numerous other Hollywood "survivors" were recently interviewed by Turner Classic Movies. According to Hank Rosenfeld, who covered the project for the L.A. Times Sunday Calendar Section("Ah, Yes, They Recall It Well", 12/26/00), "the interviews are employed as clips to tickle and teach viewers during TCM 'film festivals'".
Yordan still remains active in film. JOHNNY DILLINGER, a modern version of his classic script is in the works, and OUT OF THE BLACK, an independent feature for which he is Executive Producer,is in post production, at this writing. He has also assisted in my development of a sequel to the late Jerry Warren's WILD WORLD OF BATWOMAN(1966).
Author Rosenfeld's words in winding up his article concerning Yordan and Gordon seem especially applicable to Yordan and his films: "TCM packs up another collection of archived memories of old men who will live forever, as classics".
Philip Yordan (1913-) Filmography (With acknowledgment to Pat McGilligan)
1941: All That Money Can Buy (a.k.a.The Devil and Daniel Webster)(Uncredited contribution)
1942: Syncopation (Co-Script)
1943: The Unknown Guest(Story, script)
1944: Johnny Doesn't Live Here Anymore (Co-script)
1945: Dillinger (Story, script)
Why Girls Leave Home(Uncredited contribution)
The Woman Who Came Back(Story suggestion)
1946: The Chase(Script)
Whistle Stop(Script)
Suspense(Script)
1948: Bad Men of Tombstone(Co-script)
Tap Roots(Uncredited contribution)
1949: House of Strangers(Script)
Anna Lucasta(Co-script, from his play)
The Black Book(a.k.a.Reign of Terror)(Co-story, co-script)
1950: Edge of Doom(Script)
1951: Detective Story(Co-script)
Drums in the Deep South(Co-script)
The Enforcer(Uncredited contribution)
1952: Mara Maru(Co-story)
Mutiny(Co-script)
1953: Houdini(Script)
Blowing Wild(Story, script)
Man Crazy(Co-story, co-script, co-producer)
1954: The Naked Jungle(Co-script)
Johnny Guitar(Script)
Broken Lance(Remake of House of Strangers)
1955: Conquest of Space(Co-adaption)
The Man from Laramie(Co-script)
The Last Frontier (Co-script)(aka Savage Wilderness)
The Big Combo (Story, script)
Rebel Without a Cause (Uncredited contribution)
Scarlet Coat (Uncredited contribution)
1956: The Harder They Fall (Script, producer)
Joe MacBeth (Script)
The Wild Party (Uncredited contribution)
1957: Four Boys and a Gun (Co-script)
Men in War (Script)
Gun Glory (Based on his novel Man of the West)
No Down Payment(Script)
Street of Sinners(Script)
1958: The Bravados(Script)
God's Little Acre(Script)
Island Women(Script)
The Fiend Who Walked the West(Co-script)
Anna Lucasta(Script, from his play)
Edge of Fury(Uncredited contribution)
Murder by Contract(Uncredited contribution)
The Lost Missile(Uncredited contribution)
1959: Day of the Outlaw(Script)
The Bramble Bush(Co-script)
City of Fear (Uncredited contribution)
1960: Studs Lonigan (Script, producer)
The Time Machine (Uncredited contribution)
The Rise and Fall of Legs Diamond(Uncredited contribution)
1961: King of Kings(Script)
El Cid (Co-script)
1962: 55 Days at Peking (Co-story, co-script)
The Day of the Triffids (Executive producer, script credited to Yordan, actually by Bernard Gordon)
1964: The Fall of the Roman Empire(Co-script)
The Thin Red Line(Uncredited contribution, producer)
Battle of the Bulge(Co-story, co-script, co-producer)
Crack in the World(Uncredited contribution, producer)
Circus World(Co-story suggestion)
1965: Bikini Paradise(Uncredited contribution, producer)
1968: Custer of the West(uncredited contribution, producer)
1969: The Royal Hunt of the Sun(Script, co-producer)
Krakatoa, East of Java(Uncredited contribution, producer)
1971: Captain Apache(Co-script, producer)
Badman's River(Co-script)
A Town Called Hell(aka A Town Called Bastard)
The Ying and the Yang of Mr. Go(Uncredited contribution)
1972: Horror Express(Uncredited contribution)
1973: The Mad Bomber (aka The Police Connection)(Uncredited contribution)
1974: Psychomania(Uncredited contribution)
1975: Pancho Villa(Uncredited contribution)
1977: Brigham (aka Savage Journey)(Script contribution)
1978: Cataclysm (aka The Nightmare Never Ends, aka Satan's Supper, aka Shiver)(Director, script)
1983: Death Wish Club(aka Carnival of Fools aka Erskine Caldwell's Gretta)(Script,actor)
Scream Your Head Off(Script)
1985: Night Train to Terror(Script)
1986: Cry, Wilderness(Script, producer)
1987: Bloody Wednesday(aka The Terrorists)(Script contribution, producer)
1988: The Unholy(Co-script)
1992: Too Bad About Jack(Script)
Marilyn Alive and Behind Bars(Script)
Dead Girls Don't Tango(Script)
2000: Out of the Black(Executive Producer)
Crossroads (Crossroads Films) (Executive Producer)
Novels include:
Man of the West
Plays include:
Any Day Now, Anna Lucasta, The Bride Got Farblondjet, and The Windy City.
Special thanks to Philip Yordan, Stephen R. Golden and Jimmy Traynor
Philip Yordan passed away on March 24, 2003.
The following article is an expanded version of an oral presentation I gave at my church, which is a Christian interpretation of the phenomenon of The Beatles, and which was written at the time of the twentieth anniversary of their first appearance in the United States.  WHY THE WORLD NEEDED THE BEATLES
It has now been more than two decades since a then-unknown singing group
named “The Beatles” appeared on the “Ed Sullivan Show” one therwise ordinary Sunday
night in 1964 . Twenty years after a global hurricane called “Beatlemania”, which swept the world soon after, the impact of the Beatles - the late John Lennon, Paul McCartney, George Harrison and Ringo Starr – still persists. Magazine cover stories, newspaper articles, TV programs and even a laser show in southern California have celebrated their first appearance in the United states.
In his best-selling book, Shout! The Beatles in Their Generation, author Philip Norman writes: “Their music, that vast, nonchalant treasury, pours out in undiminished strength on record, on radio, in supermarkets, elevators; is hummed on the unconscious breath; is drummed by the fingertips of two continents”(p.13).
How could four popular musicians from England have wielded such a powerful impact on our society, even being given MBE(Membership of the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire) medals by Queen Elizabeth? Let’s look at some of the factors involved.
The world “needed “ the Beatles because of the time in which they appeared. The assassination of President Kennedy cast a pall across the United States – and the world. Political assassination was virtually unheard of in the unites states for decades. Suddenly Camelot was over. In the absence of the President’s dynamic energy, charisma and leadership, all that was left in the minds of the public was bewilderment, despair, and a vacuum.
Author Norman vividly contrasts this with the nervous anticipation of the Beatles’ first manager, the late Brian Epstein, about their first appearance on the “Ed Sullivan Show” “America, if Brian had only known it, was (in a position to be responsive to the Beatles), was moving nearer his unconscious grasp as, far away in Texas, the mechanism of a high-velocity rifle was cleaned and checked, and a vantage-point was selected. America fell to him on the morning in Dallas that the Presidential motorcade set off on its route, supremely confident and open to the sunshine, and the curbside cinema enthusiast turned his camera toward the limousine which carried a young man’s unprotected head. This was Nov. 22, the day the Beatles’ second album went on sale in Britain”(p. 104).
Now the U.S. found itself without a leader, not knowing the solutions to problems that only began to hint themselves. The world was quite a different place in 1964. Viet Nam had not yet come to a head. The drug and hippie movement, the sexual revolution were all in the future, as were the race riots and other violence that characterized the latter 1960’s women’s liberation was then virtually unheard of.
Although, for that time, they were completely different from anything that anyone had ever seen or heard before, they still represented the basic values of that time. The article “George, Paul, Ringo and John” in Newsweek, Feb. 24, 1964 states: “They have even evolved a peculiar sort of sexless appeal: cute and safe. The most they ask is ‘I Want to Hold Your Hand’(p.54). Their songs were devoid of innuendo, controversy and drugs which later crept into theirs and other’s sings. The Beatles seemed to compensate for the grief and growing problems for which there seemed to be no solution.
The world needed the Beatles because human beings have a basic lack within themselves that needs to be fulfilled from an outside source. The public frenzy that surrounded them originated neither with them, nor in popular music. “Musical hysteria is as old as music. Women shrieked, fainted and fought when Franz Liszt sat down at the piano: the German poet, Heine, to account for the frenzy turned to ‘magnetism, galvanism and electricity…of histrionic epilepsy, of the phenomenon of tickling, of musical cantharides, and other unmentionable matters’”(Newsweek). This same effect could later be seen in the influence of such entertainers as Frank Sinatra and Elvis Presley, which, can even be seen in “Gospel” music.
The world needed the Beatles because they touched a responsive chord common to most human beings – the desire to be “set apart” from others, to be considered unique, and appreciated for that uniqueness, a need especially acute in the young, young people, facing sometimes contradictory parental supervision, anonymity among peers, and characterized by and represented as stereotypes even in the mass media. A pretty, 14-year-old girl scout, nurse’s aide and daughter of a Chicago lawyer put it this way at the time: “They’re tough…Tough is like when you don’t conform. It’s not hoodlum…Jimmy Dean was in the same class as the Beatles because he was tough. You’re tumultuous when you’re young and each generation has to have it’s idols”(ibid, p.54).
It is for that reason that the then-outlandish hairdos, overall “look” and “cheeky”-type humor that they had caught on as it did. Popular singing groups had developed a nondescript, stagnant, precanned quality about them. Nationally known cartoonist and commentator on popular culture Fred Hembeck, in his publication Bah, Hembeck, put it this way: “When the Beatles conquered America in 1964, they did it with a fresh sound, a fresh look, and a fresh approach to a musical idiom that couldn’t sustain tedium for long”.
The world needed the Beatles because they created a unity among people. Brian Epstein, in his 1964 autobiography, A Cellarful of Noise, put it this way: “By 1964 it had become fashionable to be a Beatle fan. There were no longer any barriers of any sort. Grandmothers and tiny children joined the middle and teen age ranks…By the summer of this year, practically every senior citizen, king of commerce, aristocrat or charity organizer was clamouring to illuminate his name, or his industry or his promotion with the name ‘Beatle’. It became clear that if you had a Beatle at a party, you were made socially”(pp.76-77). It was exciting and satisfying to see so many people equally excited and enthusiastic. It created it’s own momentum.
The world needed the Beatles because 1964 seems more like an utopia compared to 1984, and those who wanted them to reunite actually seemed to want them as they first appeared in 1964, as though they could bring back the relative sanity of that society. Fred Hembeck opines: “…their earliest music was so joyful, so vibrant, so fresh! Yet it took ‘Sgt. Pepper”(their first album to openly refer to drugs and controversial subjects) to make them truly respectable in the eyes of the music world. Years after the fact, ‘Sgt. Pepper’ doesn’t sound nearly as exciting as it once did, while it’s the Beatles’ earliest work that remains the most timeless”(p.23).
Although the Beatles actually didn’t initiate drug abuse, shoulder length hair, and beyond on men, outlandish clothing and dabbling in Eastern religion and the occult, because of all the factors mentioned above, combined with their incredible range of talent, they became representatives of a lifestyle of change and experimentation, which has reached into every area of society.
Years after the Beatles have qualified or even changed in those and other areas, a new generation of rock performers have taken them to new extremes. Twenty years after the Beatles arrived in the U.S., Newsweek magazine ran a cover story on today’s rock music entitled “Britain Rocks America – Again”, with transvestite “Boy George” of the band “Culture Club” and Annie Lennox, with short orange hair and masculine attire, lead singer for the band “The Eurythmics”, on the cover.
The article describes the “look” of the new rock stars: “…lined up, they would form an improbable parade of ghouls, transvestites, bikers with spiked dog collars, mercenaries in battle fatigues, tie-dyed tramps and dapper young squires”(p.50). Whereas everyone seemed to look the same in the 1960’s, now everyone seemed to look the same by looking different.
The article concludes by describing this new, cynical, shock-value rock and roll culture this way: “Their pop scene can be empty, contrived, flippantly trendy. It’s emphasis on irony makes it hard to produce heartfelt music…So roll over America. Forget about nostalgia for the earnest pop optimism of the ‘60’s and face the era of cramped hopes and wild style. Here comes the rock and roll of 1984”(p.57).
America, however, and other parts of the world seem unwilling to “roll over” and play dead. Seemingly even more true today, author Philip Norman wrote several years ago: “A decade after their partnership officially ended and the magic entity split into four all-too-human fragments, rumors of a second coming persisted—even strengthened. In 1980, even more than in 1963, the world seemed to be waiting for the Beatles”(Shout, p.12). More than twenty years later, more than ten years after they broke up as a group, the world still “needs” the Beatles, perhaps, ironically, to restore things to what they were at the time of their initial impact, to remove some of the impact that they later had.
In his song “Imagine”, John Lennon envisioned a world that he believed that man could bring about, where all people could live their lives in peace. Jesus Christ came in His time to offer personal salvation and redemption, to the whole world, each man in his own time, in His spiritual Kingdom. A world which, in that time, and in reality, John Lennon will finally know.
JAMES DEAN – THE ROAD TO EDEN
Few, if any film stars have created as deep and lasting an impression over so long a time in so short a career as did James Dean. One need not walk very far down Hollywood Boulevard to be made aware and reminded of this. Posters, t-shirts, pictures, calendars all draw us in from behind display windows and sustain our memory of him.
Dean, who died at age 24 in 1955, only starred in three films: EAST OF EDEN, REBEL WITHOUT A CAUSE and GIANT, yet he has proven to be as enduring a screen presence as many who came and went before him, and more so than some. A cult following arose after his death that continues onto today, and is going strong.
“New” James Deans, from Steve McQueen to Henry Winkler to Sean Penn, have been around as long. Some, including Warren Beatty, Paul Newman, James Caan and Martin Sheen developed a style of their own, most disappeared, yet audiences continue to wait.
While it may appear that Dean burst onto the scene in EDEN, there was actually a lot of preparation and “dues” to be paid before that. He had small or bit parts in several movies, one of which, HAS ANYBODY SEEN MY GAL(1953), ironically, starred Rock Hudson, whom he was to co-star with in GIANT two years later. Additionally, there were parts in live TV programs, and he even tested “stunts” to be played on TV’s “Beat the Clock”, before being discovered in a New York play by director Elia Kazan, who cast him in the lead in EAST OF EDEN.
Dean’s biographer, David Dalton, in his book James Dean – The Mutant
King, described many instances of things that Dean experienced which are common to aspiring actors. According to Dalton: “Jimmy was often turned away because he was too short, sloppily dressed, or wore glasses.” Actor Martin Landau, a friend of Dean’s, described the mass audition or “cattle call” at which he first met him: “You get a number and file past the casting director. If they like you, they would call you back for a reading. Jimmy and I recognized each other from that common humiliating experience and believe me, it was humiliating.”
Dean tested for the role of a Polish boy being shipped off to war in the film BATTLE CRY(1954). Although the executive in charge of talent described his audition as “Electric…Fantastic!,” Warner Brothers decided it wanted a “name” for the picture, so Tab Hunter was used instead.
One way he had of coping with these and other experiences was basic and practical: learn from them and make future use of them in your acting, He once said: “An actor must interpret life, and…so must be willing to accept all experiences that life has to offer. In fact, he must seek out more of life than life puts at his feet…He must be superhuman in his endless struggle to inform himself.’ This, in addition to whatever training and study one is involved with, prepares and equips an actor for the challenges a role may present to him.
James Dean will no doubt continue to inspire and influence aspiring actors for years to come. No less important, though less obvious than his acting accomplishments are his perseverance against discouraging circumstances as well as his desire to grow and develop as an actor.
The following three PROFILES… originally appeared in the independent publication CALL SHEET:
PROFILE: JOHN CARRADINE
He was the hunter who stumbled onto the Frankenstein Monster and the old blind man, thereby severing what was to be the monster’s only true friendship – in BRIDE OF FRANKENSTEIN. He was the man who shot Jesse James in the back as he was hanging up a picture, in the picture bearing his name. He crossed the Red Sea, dryshod, as the brother of Moses in THE TEN COMMANDEMENTS. In BILLY THE KID VS. DRACULA, he…well, I’ll let you figure that one out. In about 500 films, he has appeared in more prominent roles and in more movies than any other actor.
I’m a film historian, especially regarding actor’s screen credits. One actor that has always been of particular interest to me was John Carradine, who died late last November{1989}. His career encompassed the entire Hollywood film spectrum, from some of the greatest movies of all time such as GRAPES OF WRATH down to an off-off poverty row, grade-Z ASTRO ZOMBIES and everything in between.
A Shakespearean actor with a deep, resonant voice and gaunt features, he had a theatrical bearing with which he could carry any role in his back pocket. He worked with some of the greatest directors from the 1930’s to the present…DeMille, John Ford, Fritz Lang and Coppola to name a few, as well as many of the legendary low budget favorites as Edgar Ulmer, Jerry Warren and Al Adamson.
He had also appeared with some of the greatest screen legends: John Wayne, Henry Fonda, Bela Lugosi, Robert Deniro, Elvis Presley and Woody Allen are all on this very diverse list.
I once had the privilege of meeting him backstage after a performance of Arsenic and Old Lace in Syracuse, New York. I knew that he had turned down the role of the Frankenstein Monster in 1931, which later went to Boris Karloff, because the role had no dialogue. I was curious and asked him if he would have accepted it if the monster had dialogue, such as the eloquent monster of Mary Shelley’s novel. But he firmly, yet graciously maintained that, “If it was offered to me again today, I’d turn it down...I didn’t want to be typed as a MOON…STAH. They did Boris”.
With three sons and a daughter to carry on the acting tradition, with more films and TV programs than any other actor, death, in a sense, might seem to be a mere technicality. Yet, the words of his favorite author William Shakespeare, come to mind and ring true: “We’ll not see his like again.”
PROFILES: NICHOLAS RAY
In his book “The Illustrated Guide to Film Directors”, author David Quinlan had this to say about Nicholas Ray: “A huge cult has grown around this American director in recent years, bigger than almost any filmmaker.”
One of the actresses from his most famous film, REBEL WITHOUT A CAUSE(1955), had this to say about the movie-making maverick: “Nick was way ahead of his time, wearing Levis and walking around in barefeet. I mean, they just didn’t do that in 1955. Everybody wore a suit and tie.”
Early on, Ray wanted to be an architect and won a scholarship to study with Frank Lloyd Wright. Later, he became involved in theatre and started out with Orson Welles in The Mercury Theatre, which led to directing on Broadway and working with Elia Kazan. Eventually he would work in radio, TV and film.
Probably the most predominant theme throughout his work concerned “nuclear breakoffs” from society within a variety of issues and contexts. REBEL WITHOUT A CAUSE concerned a small group of young people who form a relationship between themselves apart from their peers, parents and society in general. THE SAVAGE INNOCENTS deals with the culture clash between an Eskimo family and their customs and the “civilized” people who come in contact with them. In THEY LIVE BY NIGHT, inspired by Bonnie and Clyde, a young couple become caught up in a life of crime and later become fugitives. KING OF KINGS concerned the ministry of Jesus Christ and the founding of the New Testament church. THE ONLY LOVERS LEFT ALIVE, which Ray had considered directing but never filmed, was to have been a post-nuclear science fiction film starring The Rolling Stones.
Strangely, his last film touches on the same theme. LIGHTNING OVER WATER(1980), which was co-directed by Wim Wenders, was a filmed record of the last months of Nicholas’ life as he was dying of cancer and the small group of his admirers, including Wenders, that encouraged and worked with him. Though the film was not well received critically, it seems appropriate that the last of his “nuclear breakoffs” also happened to be a dedicated group of his fans.
PROFILES: JEAN VIGO
Although he made only four films, director/scenarist Jean Vigo has been placed by many “…in a position of eminence not only in the French cinema along with Rene Clair and Jean Renoir, but in all contemporary art…”
His biographer, P.E. Salles Gomes, describes him as “…the son of undernourished parents living in a dirty little attic full of scrawny cats.” His father, a militant anarchist, was strangled while in prison. His son was 12 years old at the time. Due to his rebellious nature, he and his friends often received a “zero for conduct” from the boarding schools they attended.
While living in the gambling town of Nice, he bought a second-hand camera and began his first film. The film, APROPOS DE NICE(1930) was subtitled POINT DEVUE DOCUMENTE( A DOCUMENTED POINT OF VIEW), capturing his unique observations of the city. Good reviews did not lead to it’s distribution, so he had to shelve plans for another film. He opened a film club while in Nice that showed works “banned or mutilated by censors”.
He did a short, TARIS, in 1931. A number of other film projects fell through. While at his lowest point, he met a successful businessman who financed the medium length ZERO DE CONDUIT(1933), based on Vigo’s boarding school experiences. It was the inspiration for Lindsay Anderson’s IF…starring Malcom McDowell.
His last film, L’ATLANTE(1934) was the story of a young barge captain and his marriage to a country girl. It depicts their lives along the inland waterways of France. During it’s filming, he had a relapse of tuberculosis, and died in his wife’s arms. The film received poor reviews from critics. It was extensively re-cut by the studio and renamed LE CHALAND QUI PASSE(THE PASSING BARGE) which was an extremely popular song of the day. The song also replaced some of the soundtrack score.
Almost forgotten during the thirties, interest in Vigo began to revive in 1945. attempts have been made to restore L’ATLANTE to its original form. That film, along with ZERO DE CONDUITE, are, according to his biographer, “among the seminal works of the French cinema.”
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