Tag Archives: Musical

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The Bootleg Files: Dames at Sea

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BOOTLEG FILES 849: “Dames at Sea” (1971 made-for-television musical starring Ann-Margret, Ann Miller and Anne Meara).

LAST SEEN: On YouTube.

AMERICAN HOME VIDEO: None.

REASON FOR BOOTLEG STATUS: There could be a rights issue preventing its release.

CHANCES OF SEEING A COMMERCIAL DVD RELEASE: Not likely.

In 1966, the tiny Caffe Cino in New York City’s Greenwich Village offered “Dames at Sea, or Golddiggers Afloat,” a good-natured send-up of the 1930s Warner Bros. musicals. With music by Jim Wise and lyrics and a book by George Haimsohn and Robin Miller, this 50-minute mini-production presented an unknown 18-year-old Bernadette Peters as Ruby, a send-up of the kid-in-the-chorus-who-becomes-a-star role that Ruby Keeler played in the yesteryear extravaganzas.
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You Have to See This! Shredder Orpheus (1989)

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Now Available at Vinegar Syndrome.

The best way to summarize “Shredder Orpheus” is if “Gleaming the Cube” and “Videodrome” had a torrid violent, sexual love affair while high on shrooms that projected new wave music videos in to their brains, all the while the pair ended their rendezvous with a round of skateboarding. Courtesy of Boom! Cult and AGFA, Robert McGinley’s VHS SOV genre film is simultaneously oddly entertaining but also incredibly mind numbing. It’s a dystopian tale that seems to be working toward some kind of coherency at times, but occasionally gives up in exchange of using the budget to showcase skateboarding. In lieu of story there are just aimless scenes of people skateboarding.

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Wish (2023)

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I say this with the utmost honesty, that despite the initial criticism of “Wish” looking like generic AI produced junk, I was very optimistic about it. I defended it often. I loved Ariana DeBose in “West Side Story,” I’m a big fan of Chris Pine, I love Alan Tudyk, so its just so sad that Chris Buck, and Fawn Veerasunthorn’s “Wish” really does end up feeling like Disney is going for the bare minimum with audiences. In a year filled with humongous milestones like the 100 year anniversary and the SAG and WGA strike (which hurt their image with a lot of audiences), you’d assume Disney would pull out all of the stops for their newest animated movie.

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Z-O-M-B-I-E-S 3 (2022)

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In 2020’s “Z-O-M-B-I-E-S 2,” heroine Addison spent a lot of her arc trying to figure out if she was perhaps the “Great Alpha” werewolf. When that was a bust, we were left on a cliffhanger as Addison was left pondering on her origins. And we were given a clue—from outer space. The idea of Addison perhaps being an alien makes a ton of sense considering the character guidelines the movies follow, and with the final movie in Disney’s “Z-O-M-B-I-E-S,” Disney works fast to seal up any and all lingering questions about Addison and Zed.

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Z-O-M-B-I-E-S 2 (2020)

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The follow up to the surprise 2018 hit musical is a superior movie in every way possible. Although there didn’t seem to be much that they could do with a follow up, “Z-O-M-B-I-E-S 2” does a darn good job in amplifying what was so great about the first one; the writers are great at adding on to the whole mythos of the town of Seabrook offering even more characters, more potential for more monsters, and give cheerleader Addison her own arc. While in the original she sought to fit in with the zombies, now she’s looking for her own group, unsure of where she really belongs after her experiences with Zed and Zombietown.

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Z-O-M-B-I-E-S (2018)

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It’s an allegory for class divide. That’s basically all “Z-O-M-B-I-E-S” is. That doesn’t mean it’s not a good movie, but once you can get past the clumsy symbolism of the way the zombies are supposed to be the more impoverished individuals, while the humans are meant to be the upper echelon, “Z-O-M-B-I-E-S” is actually kind of a fun horror comedy musical. You wouldn’t think that they could really pull off a zombie horror comedy for kids, but Disney and director Paul Hoen do a pretty darn good job of it. Even if 2013’s “Bunks” is better.

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