Questions about Fantasia's devil, erotic-thriller goddess Shannon Whirrey and more.
Send your movie questions to FlickChick.
See Maitland McDonagh and Ken Fox review this week's new flicks in Movie Talk!
Question: I know this sounds crazy, but I saw the Walt Disney movie Fantasia for the first time recently, and I swear the big demon in the mountain sequence reminded me of someone. Something about the hands, I think. Do you have any idea what I'm
talking about? Oona
FlickChick: This so doesn't sound crazy to me, because there's a familiar actor's body language behind the magnificent demon who presides over Fantasia 's (1940) "Night on Bald Mountain" segment, set to music by Modest Mussorgsky. It's none other than Bela Lugosi (1882-1956): Disney hired Lugosi, the Hungarian actor most associated with the movie incarnation of Bram Stoker's Count Dracula, to act as a live-action reference model for the bat-winged "Chernabog." The chief animator for the sequence Vladimir "Bill" Tytla (1904-1968), born in New York to Ukrainian immigrant parents used other reference footage as well, but I completely see Lugosi in the demon's grandly theatrical gestures. On a not especially relevant but fascinating note, the Ukrainian town of Chernobyl and the Disney demon apparently derive their names from the same source: a pagan Slavonic god of darkness.
Question: Are any of Shannon Whirry's movies coming out on DVD? And what happened to her? A few years ago I saw her some TV shows, but it seems like she suddenly fell off the face of the earth. Any info on her whereabouts would be great. Thanks, and PS, love your column. Marty
FlickChick: In the 1990s, it seemed as though only one name mattered in direct-to-video erotic thrillers, and it was Shannon. Shannon Tweed was the reigning queen, and Shannon Whirry was the up-and-comer. Born in Wisconsin in 1964, Whirry didn't aspire to video vixenhood: She studied acting at the American Academy of Dramatic Arts in New York, and in the mid-1980s worked diligently in off-Broadway theater, including productions of George Bernard Shaw's Mrs. Warren's Profession and Leonard Gershe's Butterflies Are Free. None of these roles attracted the attention of her, um, body of work in the erotic zone, especially the four films she made with Gregory Hippolyte. First famous as half of the notorious porn-making duo "The Dark Brothers" (producer Walter Genert was the other), Hippolyte specialized in stylish, surreal soft-core thrillers that were undeniably a cut above the usual dreck.
In 1998, when Whirry was playing the recurring role of Velda in the syndicated Mike Hammer: Private Eye series, she told an interviewer a little defensively that she wasn't just one of those tacky tarts who lived to shuck their clothes on camera.
"If a part called for any type of nudity, I at least made sure that the woman was smart and powerful. The roles that have required nudity have either been good or interesting or they have presented me with an opportunity to work with actors I respect. I've never just whipped off my top and run down a hallway." But moving right along... as you observed, Whirry dropped out of sight in the early 2000s, and if I had to guess, I'd say she took some time off to reasses her career. She's already appeared in a U.K. miniseries about atomic scientist Robert Oppenheimer, playing his wife, and has completed two more films, Jolene and Snappers. Both are from indie diretors Dan Ireland and Jeff Balsmeyer, respectively who are better known for quirky character studies than shower scenes and soft-core high jinks.
As to Whirry on DVD, more than a dozen of her films are already available, including two of her collaborations with Hippolyte: Animal Instincts (1992) and
Animal Instincts 2 (1994). Their other two films together, Body of Influence (1993) and Mirror Images II (1994), aren't, but they're available on VHS.
Question: I remember seeing a movie concerning autism that I believe was called "Sunrise." Could you help me with any info on this movie? I believe it was made in 1979 or 1980. Kristen
FlickChick: You're looking for Son-Rise: A Miracle of Love (1979), based on the real-life experiences of Barry Neil and Samahria Kaufman. Their son, Ruan, was diagnosed with autism in the late 1960s, when prevailing wisdom was that autistic children were unreachable, unteachable and should be institutionalized. James Farentino and Kathryn Harrold play the parents, and Michael and Casey Adams (the grandchildren of director King Vidor) play Ruan. Rather than accept the grim prognosis, the Kaufmans devised a program to teach their son how to interact with others and the larger world, and eventually started the Option Institute & Autism Treatment Center of America, an educational foundation dedicated to educating other parents and professionals about working with developmentally disordered children.
The bad news is that, as far as I can tell, Son-Rise like many made-for-TV movies of the 1970s has never been commercially available on DVD or VHS. The good news assuming that your interest is in autism, rather than the movie per se is that used copies of Kaufman's book Son-Rise (1976) are easily available online, as is Son-Rise: The Miracle Continues, which Kaufman cowrote with Ruan in 1995.
Question: There's a scene in A Love Song for Bobby Long where Bobby (John Travolta) sings a song to his friends about Barbara Allen. Do you know what song that is? Is that an original or an old folk song? Raffy
FlickChick: "Barbara Allen" is a folk ballad with its roots in the U.K. Scotland or England, depending on the historian and can be traced back as far as the 17th century, when Samuel Pepys mentioned it in his voluminous diaries. It came to Appalachia with early European immigrants and exists in dozens of variations it's been sung by artists as diverse as Dolly Parton and Bob Dylan and has been featured in movies as varied as Tom Brown's School Days (1940), Songcatcher (2001) and, of course, A Love Song for Bobby Long (2004). You can see a clip of the Celtic rock band Bluehorses performing a lovely, if not 100 percent traditional, version of the song here.
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