Frank Perry

No, I haven't seen it.

Uh, it's directed by Frank Perry, who made The Swimmer and Mommie Dearest.

Mm-hmm.

Um, and Play It As It Lies, and a bunch of other amazing movies.

So people can go there and read that if they'd like.

unfortunately there is an entry in the obituary section georgina lightning died she is a filmmaker who is known for the 2008 feature older than america she died at the age of 63 oh The secret film this week was my choice, and I chose the 1979 made-for-TV movie Dummy, directed by Frank Perry.

It stars LeVar Burton and Paul Sorvino.

What is it about? A deaf and dumb young man is accused of murdering a prostitute and defended by a deaf lawyer.

But yes, I received information about Dummy right around the time that Nick had asked me, what's my secret film? I couldn't

resist.

I mean, before we even get into Mr. Frank Perry, the people that were behind the scenes on this too are pretty significant.

The cinematographers, Gane Rescher, who did Star Trek II, The Wrath of Khan, Claudine, just a fantastic resume.

Right.

The Frank Perry film starring Burt Lancaster, where it's very episodic.

God, I love this movie so much.

It's so

No.

but uh sam spiegel was like ah you know this is a fucking famous story or whatever we got to make a movie out of this i'm gonna i'm gonna get prestige i'm gonna get a big award and then they they eleanor perry adapts this and and frank perry's directing uh an extraordinarily strange and lyrical and unsettling art film and spiegel is like what the fuck is this

and what's confusing about that i gotta say right up i

wanted rosemary's baby or what i guess that hadn't come out

And so I think there was probably an element of like, we got to strike while the iron's hot here.

But then they looked at the thing they had and didn't like it.

And so who does Spiegel bring in once he effectively fired Frank Perry? But Sidney Pollack.

Yeah, which is...

Starred as William of Sens, Robert Christie, with Sandra Scott as Lady Ursula.

Barry Morse was heard as the Prior, Bud Knapp as Father Theodotus, Alan King as Father Stephen, Frank Perry as Father Gervase, William Needles as Father Wolfram, Bruce Belfridge as Father Ernulfus, and Colin Eaton as Father Martin.

Eric Christmas was Henry of York, and Neil McCallum, John of Kent, the two architects.

In the parts of the four angels, Frank Petty as Michael, Howard Milson as Raphael, Lloyd Bochner as Gabriel, and Larry McCants as Cassiel.

Um, some, like, favorite releases of the year, in part because of the rarity of the films and them getting really wonderful Blu-ray releases.

I gotta start out right away with this incredible never thought it would happen Blu-ray for Frank Perry's 1969 film, Last Summer.

Uh, this is quite a deluxe Warner Archive Blu-ray.

They've really gone all, uh, all out on this one.

Got a little essay in here that's included.

So this is really, really exciting stuff, and I'll get into the extras, which are also amazing and also feature Larry heavily.

Um, he is one of those guys who's championed Frank Perry for a long time, and I've been a fan of Frank Perry's for quite a while as well, and it's just one of those things where, you know, his output is getting a little bit more well known, um, but it still feels like he's a bit underappreciated.

Uh, another one that he did that we love over at Pure Cinema is The Swimmer with Burt Lancaster, which got a great Grindhouse releasing Blu-ray, and then I think a second...

saw it on tv when i was young it's like a

fluke that a film this um mature was made in this system at this time um It was made by Frank Perry, not to be confused with the great Irish director, Frank Berry.

Most of that film is Burt Lancaster in his swimming togs, going from pool to pool in back gardens, hopping over fences and hedges and having these incredibly meaningful existential conversations with his neighbors.

You would never get a film like The Swimmer made by a Hollywood studio today.

The Train's an influence on Mission Impossible now, like Christopher McQuarrie's always referencing it.

It's really good, yeah.

yeah he's working with frankenheimer's amazing frankenheimer's amazing he's working with really interesting people though like working with you know bill forsyth and and with frank perry and with visconti and cassavetes and it's like yeah this is a guy with i think good taste but also good vision of who the next generation was and who it was worth associating himself with and not a lot of stars at the time maybe had that so that's really impressive So that's my Burt Lancaster out of

breath.

I love when I discover that someone involved in the film industry has a book that you didn't know about.

Are you familiar with Frank Perry, who directed The Swimmer?

Yeah, I saw David and Lisa a couple months ago.

I think it was the one maybe you won the Oscar for that year.

Are you gonna be testing later? Well, no, because, uh, I can't guarantee I remember what I said about him [laughs].

Frank Perry throws a one and one pitch.

It's low.

Jacoby, uh, was one of those who came over in a trade the other night that the field had brought Brett Butler to big Cleveland and someone, Barker, from the Indians to the Braves.