Showing posts with label 1995. Show all posts
Showing posts with label 1995. Show all posts

Wednesday, October 22, 2025

On this day in television history - Fallen Angels (1995):


Fallen Angels

Season 2. Episode 3.
Episode entitled: A Dime a Dance.
Released October 22, 1995.
Directed by Peter Bogdanovich.
Written by Allan Scott.
Created by William Horberg.
Based on the short story: The Dancing Detective by Cornell Woolrich.
Theme music by Peter Bernstein.


Cast:

Jennifer Grey, Eric Stoltz, Richard Portnow, Wayne Grace, Douglas Roberts, Estelle Harris, Louise Stratten / L.B. Straten, Jeanine Jackson, Antonia Bogdanovich, Barbara Howard, Bill Moseley, Bernard Hocke, James Intveld, Miguel Ferrer, Sandie West.

On this day in movie history - A Dream Is a Wish Your Heart Makes: The Annette Funicello Story (movie & book):


A Dream Is a Wish Your Heart Makes: The Annette Funicello Story

directed by Bill Corcoran,
written by John McGreevey and PJ Torokvei,
based on the book by Annette Funicello and Patricia Romanowski,
was released in the United States on October 22, 1995.
Music by George Blondheim.
Cast: Eva LaRue, Len Cariou, Frank Crudele, Jack Gilardi, David Lipper, Don S. Davis, Louis Ferreira, Andrea Nemeth, Frankie Avalon, Annette Funicello, Linda Lavin, Austin Basile, Ahnee Boyce, Jay Brazeau, Victoria Brooks, Stefania Ciccone, Demetri Goritsas, Elysa Hogg, Gary Jones, Lorraine Landry, Hrothgar Mathews, Alexandra Purvis, Claire Riley, Suzanne Ristic, Greg Rogers, Nina Roman, Domenico Sansalone, Michelle Skalnic, Blair Slater, Kavan Smith, George Touliatos, Scott Augustine, Kim Bailey, Talia Derksen, Laura Jenkins, Ben Newcombe, Kelli Stewart, Rene Tardie, Kimberly Wallace, Virginia Funicello, Joe Funicello, Glen Holt, Gina Portman, John Portman, Jason Gilardi, Jack Gilardi Jr., Rob Stewart, Dick Clark, Shelley Fabares.

Recommended reading:


A Dream Is a Wish Your Heart Makes: My Story

By Annette Funicello, with Patricia Romanowski.

Published 1994.
Published by Hyperion.
ISBN-10: 0786860200
ISBN-13: 978-0786860203

Description:

When on a spring evening in 1955 Walt Disney saw a pretty, talented twelve-year-old performing in her dance school's annual recital, he knew he'd found just what he'd been looking for: the twenty-fourth and last member of the cast of the new children's TV series he was planning. Only a few months later Annette Funicello set a pair of black felt ears atop her brown curls and marched onto the set of The Mickey Mouse Club, and into the hearts of millions of Americans. From then on, nothing would ever be the same.

Whether as a Mouseketeer, as a Top-Forty singing idol, as the reigning sweetheart of the classic Beach Party films, or as the familiar "Skippy Mom" of TV commercials, Annette (who almost instantly became known by her first name alone) has been a beloved star for nearly four decades. In her charming autobiography, A Dream Is a Wish Your Heart Makes, the wholesomely sexy (and eternally youthful) girl next door looks back with equal parts of wit, wistfulness, and wonder on her remarkable career, and gives us a privileged look behind the scenes at some of the most cherished landmarks of our popular culture.

As the shy only daughter of a close-knit Italian family, Annette was unprepared for the phenomenon The Mickey Mouse Club would prove to be, and in these pages we learn not only about the thrill of appearing on the show but also about the pleasures and challenges her own status of favorite Mouseketeer brought. It was through Walt Disney's encouragement that she later undertook her successful recording career, and in her account of her years as a teen idol we learn what it was like being the youngest member of Dick Clark's arduous Caravan of Stars tour, as well as the difficulties her popularity placed in the path of her first romance with Paul Anka (who presented her with the sublime gift of "Put Your Head on My Shoulder," which he wrote in her parents' living room). Next came the movies, and a series of beloved Disney films (including her own and her fans' favorite, Babes in Toyland), until, with Mr. Disney's blessing, she headed for the beach and a role in the epochal Beach Party. Even though, as Annette confesses, she never really liked the beach (it frizzed her hair), she was delighted to be enthroned with her friend Frankie Avalon as one of the great cinema couples.

At the peak of her career Annette chose marriage and motherhood, and for over twenty years appeared only occasionally in films and TV shows. By the late 1980s, however, she was eager to perform again, and along with Frankie made a new beach film, Back to the Beach, and launched a triumphal comeback tour. It was during this period, after she experienced a series of puzzling symptoms, that she discovered she had multiple sclerosis. Her subsequent struggles with her condition, and her ultimate decision to make it public, bring A Dream Is a Wish Your Heart Makes to a poignant and inspiring conclusion that will draw her even closer to the millions of fans who, from the start, have dreamed along with her.

Sunday, October 19, 2025

On this day in music history - Time, by Fleetwood Mac (1995):


Time

Album by Fleetwood Mac,
released October 19, 1995.

Track list:

Talkin’ To My Heart; Hollywood (Some Other Kind Of Town); Blow By Blow; Winds Of Change; I Do; Nothing Without You; Dreamin’ The Dream; Sooner Or Later; I Wonder Why; Nights In Estoril; I Got It In For You; All Over Again; These Strange Times.

Wednesday, October 15, 2025

On this day in television history - Fallen Angels (1995):


Fallen Angels

Season 2. Episode 2.
Episode entitled: The Professional Man.
Released October 15, 1995.
Directed by Steven Soderbergh.
Written by Howard A. Rodman.
Created by William Horberg.
Based on the story by David Goodis.
Theme music by Peter Bernstein.


Cast:

Brendan Fraser, Bruce Ramsay, Peter Coyote, Bernard Hocke, Alpheus Merchant, Joe Chrest, Wayne Pére, Raoul Flambe, David Ward, John Mese, Miguel Ferrer, Mike Malone/Flambe.

Monday, October 13, 2025

On this day in movie history - Jade (1995):


Jade

directed by William Friedkin,
written by Joe Eszterhas,
was released in the United States on October 13, 1995.
Music by James Horner.


Cast:

David Caruso, Linda Fiorentino, Chazz Palminteri, Richard Crenna, Michael Biehn, Donna Murphy, Ken King, Holt McCallany, David Hunt, Angie Everhart, Kevin Tighe, Victor Wong, Robin Thomas, Victoria Smith, Jay Jacobus, Bud Bostwick, Darryl Chan, Ron Ulstad, Buddy Joe Hooker, Bobby Bass, Sandy Berumen, Dick Ziker, Ron Yuan.

Wednesday, October 8, 2025

On this day in television history - Fallen Angels (1995):


Fallen Angels

Season 2. Episode 1.
Episode entitled: Love and Blood.
Released October 8, 1995.
Directed by Kiefer Sutherland.
Written by Evan Hunter, Frank Pugliese.
Created by William Horberg.
Based on the story by James Ellroy.
Theme music by Peter Bernstein.


Cast:

Mädchen Amick, Edward Bunker, Maurice Dunster, Bernard Hocke, Barbara Howard, Michael O'Dwyer, Johnathon Schaech, Kiefer Sutherland, Walter Terry, Danny Trejo, D. Danny Warhol.

Monday, October 6, 2025

To Die For (1995) – the season of the witch:


To Die For


First impressions, in one word? You really want to know?
Four letters, begins with C …
Cold. Cold. C-O-L-D. Cold. Yeah.
– Illeana Douglas, as Janice Maretto.
 
If you want to see a convincing and chillingly accurate on-screen portrayal of a 
Malignant Narcissist and Sociopath, then look no further than To Die For (1995).


There’s an exchange that sums up the problem at the core of the central character, Suzanne Stone (Nicole Kidman).
Her boss, Ed Grant (Wayne Knight), at the small WWEN local cable station, says:
“Well, Suzanne, I sure pity the person who says no to you.”
Ed is joking when he says it.
Suzanne looks directly at him, her face blank, emotionless, no humor in her voice, as she responds:
“No one ever does.”
She snickers after saying it, but it’s not out of humor; she’s smug.
That’s the problem.
No one has ever said no to Suzanne.
Suzanne gets whatever Suzanne wants.
Suzanne will do anything and everything to get her own way.
The end justifies the means.
It’s Suzanne’s way – or else!
She craved attention all her life.
It started with a spoiled child.
Posing for cameras.
Made to feel like she’s better and more special than everyone else.
Entitled.
Enabled.
Over-indulged.
Now Suzanne is a grown woman.
A fully-developed demon, with the attitude that the rules and laws don’t apply to her.
That she can do and say whatever she pleases.
People around her are to be used, destroyed and discarded, at her will.
Suzanne’s sister, Faye (Susan Traylor), is quietly resentful.
Often just there in the room, watching Suzanne with scorn and bitter understanding.

Suzanne lands a job at the cable station, where she handles basic tasks.
Her boss eventually gives in and lets her have the on-screen spot as the weather reporter.


It’s a go-nowhere job, but Suzanne sees it as a spring-board to TV stardom.

She uses the station’s equipment to create her own documentary, Teens Speak Out, focusing on the lives of three high-school teenagers:


Jimmy Emmett (Joaquin Phoenix), Russell Hines (Casey Affleck), and Lydia Mertz (Alison Folland).

Trouble starts when Suzanne’s husband, Larry Maretto (Matt Dillon) says no to her.


How dare he?
What was he thinking?
Larry is an average guy who wants a quiet, normal life.
He’s doing well with the restaurant business he runs with his father.
He wants Suzanne to quit her job at the cable station and help him at the restaurant.
But Suzanne has ideas of her own.
Helping with her husband’s restaurant business and living a simple life would mean the spotlight isn’t on Suzanne.
She wouldn’t be the center of attention.
It flies against Suzanne’s selfish, narcissistic IT’S ALL ABOUT ME mindset.
And she can’t and won’t have that.

As Larry is sharing his business ideas with Suzanne, she detaches.
We see Larry through her eyes, as she gets tunnel vision.
Almost as if she is viewing her husband through the scope on a gun.
Suzanne has him in her sights, and not in a good way.


Larry is doomed from that moment.
By saying no to Suzanne, by not letting her just have her way, Larry has signed his own death warrant.
It gets him murdered.
Too cunning to bloody her own hands, Suzanne decides to use the three teenagers in her documentary.


Gullible and naïve, they make easy targets for the predatory and manipulative Suzanne.
They unwittingly become her Flying Monkeys.
She makes Lydia believe they are best friends, taking her on shopping trips to the mall.


Then she seduces Jimmy.
Using sex and the promise of a life together, an exercise in Breadcrumbing and Future Faking, to keep him on her side.


She fills Jimmy’s head with lies, claiming that Larry is physically abusive towards her, pretending to be the victim, as she turns on the theatrical tears as easily as a faucet.
The sympathy ploy.
When Jimmy gets nervous about committing murder, she triangulates him with his friend, Russell.
Jealousy and the fear of losing Suzanne finally sways Jimmy.


What follows is murder by proxy, through third-party involvement.
Jimmy, with the help of two accomplices, pulls the trigger, but Suzanne is the puppet master, pulling all their strings.

On the night Larry is killed, Suzanne is on TV giving the weather report.
She concludes with a special dedication to her husband.
We’re given a look behind Suzanne’s superficial mask of charm.
We see the sadistic, malicious glee burning in her eyes, as she declares her love for Larry, on their first wedding anniversary, knowing what is happening to him.


After the murder, when the trio have served their purpose, Suzanne coldly discards them.
 
To Die For was directed by Gus Van Sant, and released in the United States on October 6, 1995.
The screenplay was written by Buck Henry, who plays the role of a cynical school teacher.
The script is an adaption of the source novel, by Joyce Maynard, who appears in a cameo role, as Suzanne’s lawyer.
The novel is Joyce Maynard’s fictionalized retelling of the true Pamela Smart case.
 
The movie is highly stylized and entertaining.
Most of the time, we’re watching a mockumentary, straight-to-camera monologues, in a series of edited interviews, from witnesses to the sordid and tragic events.


The story is both dark in its subject and darkly funny.
The moment where the hapless Jimmy, gazing blank-eyed into camera, can only grunt as Suzanne prompts him to respond, is hilarious.


In the end, there’s no sympathy for Suzanne, and it’s impossible not to empathize with Janice Maretto (Illeana Douglas), sharing her feeling of schadenfreude, as she dances over the ice maiden’s icy grave, and Donovan sings Season Of The Witch over the end credits.


Nicole Kidman threw herself into the role of Suzanne Stone and gives one of the best performances of her career.
She doesn’t miss a step as the amoral, spoiled, high-maintenance, petulant, treacherous wannabe.
A callous sociopath.
This is Suzanne Stone’s world and it’s all about her, evident in the scene when the family are gathered in the house with the police.
Suzanne notices the TV cameras and news reporters outside.
She checks her hair, as she glides out of the house to bask in the glare of the spotlight.
She’s the center of attention, being photographed, on TV … exactly the way she likes it.
Whenever a camera lens is focused on Suzanne, she puts on her best shiny mask.


It’s reminiscent of the end of Sunset Boulevard (1950), where the insane Norma Desmond (Gloria Swanson) says:
“Alright, Mr. DeMille, I'm ready for my close-up.”

As William Shakespeare wrote: All that glitters is not gold.

 
The supporting cast includes:
Dan Hedaya and Maria Tucci, as Larry’s parents.
Kurtwood Smith and Holland Taylor, as Suzanne’s parents.
George Segal, as a TV executive.
Gerry Quigley, as the cable station camera operator.
David Cronenberg, as a hit man.
Tim Hopper and Michael Rispoli, as the police detectives who uncover the truth.


The music is by Danny Elfman.

To Die For is sharply edited, with a brilliant script and excellent performances.

It is also an intelligent portrayal of the dangers of celebrity culture, 
toxic self-absorption, and malignant narcissism.

For further research on the Pamela Smart case:

Teach Me to Kill: The Shocking True Story of the Pamela Smart Murder Case, by Stephen Sawicki.

Deadly Lessons, by Ken Englade.

Till Death Do Us Part: Love, Marriage, and the Mind of the Killer Spouse, by Dr. Robi Ludwig and Matt Birkbeck.

Evil Women: Deadlier Than the Male, by John Marlowe.

Skylights and Screen Doors, by Dean J. Smart.

Murder in New Hampshire: The Pamela Wojas Smart Story (1991), a TV movie, directed by Joyce Chopra, starring Helen Hunt and Chad Allen.

Crime of Passion: The Pamela Smart Story (1996), episode from the documentary series American Justice.

To Die For (2012), episode from the Reel Crime/Real Story documentary series on Investigation Discovery.

Captivated: The Trials of Pamela Smart (2014), an HBO documentary, directed by Jeremiah Zagar.

From Student Seduction to Murder (2016), episode from the USA Network series Corrupt Crimes.

Pamela Smart: An American Murder Mystery (2018), a three-part documentary on Investigation Discovery.

Killer Intellect (2021), episode from the Deadly Women series, on Investigation Discovery.