Favorites :: Ensemble Casts :: The Cracked Eggs in Shane Black's Hard-Boiled Neo-Noir The Nice Guys (2016)

As each trailer broke for Shane Black's The Nice Guys (2016) my expectations kept nudging for the roof. And they soon got so high I had to try and rein them in because there was no way the film could be that good -- I would've settled for half as good, honestly. Well, caught this last night and I am still buzzing on it today. This was so, so, SO good, you guys. Violent, hilarious, and in the end an extremely endearing picture all wrapped around a mystery secreted inside a conspiracy tucked in the middle of a vintage porn loop lost in the smoggy haze of 1977 Los Angeles. Crowe and Gosling are just great, exceeding even my wildest expectations, but Angourie Rice kinda stole the movie out from under them. And once you see it, and you really should, you will find that was no small task. That kid is gonna be a ha-yuge star someday. 

A friend asked if it was as good as Black's similar Kiss Kiss Bang Bang (2005). I think it compares very favorably with that film but it will require at least one more viewing to make the call on which one was better because I fear I missed some things, drowned out by the audiences laughter, my own included. And I also look forward to seeing it again just to soak up all the little period details: from the busted up Hollywood sign (destined to be torn down and replaced the very next year), to the Smokey and the Bandit and Airport '77 billboards, to the decadence of the porn producer's party, to the AMC pacer at the auto show, to the books on the shelf and the records on the wall in Holly's bedroom. And I encourage you all to go and see this movie, especially those that are always bitching about how there's nothing to see anymore except superhero movies, animated kids movies, or the sequel to the latest YA book adaptation. C'mon, people, lets make sure it isn't another decade before we get a treat like this from Black and co. again. These nice guys deserve at least a five picture franchise. Go. See this. NOW!

The Nice Guys (2016) Misty Mountains :: Silver Pictures :: Waypoint Entertainment :: Warner Bros. / EP: Ken Kao, Michael J. Malone, Hal Sadoff, Anthony Bagarozzi / P: Joel Silver, Ethan Erwin, Aaron Auch / D: Shane Black / W: Shane Black, Anthony Bagarozzi / C: Philippe Rousselot / E: Joel Negron / M: David Buckley, John Ottman / S: Russell Crowe, Ryan Gosling, Angourie Rice, Matt Bomer, Margaret Qualley, Yaya DaCosta, Keith David, Beau Knapp, Kim Basinger

Favorites :: Ensemble Casts :: ALOHA! Where the Soft Island Breeze Brings Strange Melodies of Mystery!

Douglas Mossman

 Mel Prestidge

The Rotating Sign

The Shell Bar

Andre Phillipe

The Arthur Lyman Combo

The Outdoor Office

The rotating pool of secretaries

(Because you'd never know who might show up.)

Poncie Ponce

Grant Williams

Connie Stevens
 

Robert Conrad

Anthony Eisley

And together, they made a show called...

In a series of wonderful discoveries while beta-testing the Warner Archive streaming site one of the most pleasant surprises was finding several seasons of Hawaiian Eye tucked away in the TV section. Honestly, aside from hearing Tom Servo belt out the theme song a couple of times on Mystery Science Theater, I had never seen -- hell, heard of this show before, but after giving a couple of episodes a spin I found myself both hopelessly and helplessly addicted.

(Video courtesy of Dentu-Cream and jaava44.)

For those of you also unfamiliar with the show, the series can basically be summed up as the point on the graph where Hawaii 5-0 and Magnum P.I. meet -- or more appropriately, the series that planted the seed for those later programs' germination. 

Producer William T. Orr basically put ABC on the map back in the 1950's with a series of westerns (Maverick, Lawman) and the detective series, 77 Sunset Strip, which Orr quickly spun-off into three more shows in the same vein, Bourbon Street Beat, Surfside 6 and Hawaiian Eye, with each set in a different exotic locale (Hollywood, New Orleans, Miami, Hawaii -- but the majority of every one of them shot on the Warner lot), and in an ingenious twist, each existing in the same TV universe, leading to several cameos and cross-pollination of plots and characters. 

Hawaiian Eye (-- a Polynesian spin on private eye, dig? --) centered around a trio of hard-drinking, lady-killing, thin tie-wearing, and two-fisted do-gooders -- Tracy Steel (Eisley), Tom Lopaka (Conrad) and Greg MacKenzie (Williams) -- who own and operated a private investigation and security firm based out of a resort hotel, where they also served as the house dicks for the free room and board, with the comedy relief ably aided and abetted by the hotel's lounge singer, Cricket Blake (Stevens -- who always wore the ginchiest damned hats), and Kim (Ponce), a local cab driver who seemingly knows everybody and everything on the islands. (Apparently a fourth partner, Troy Donahue, migrated over from Surfside 6 in the last season but I never made it that far before the beta-test expired.) 

Now, each episode usually only focused on just one of the detectives getting in and out of trouble -- though I found the rare episodes where all hands were called for -- mostly to get gal-pal Cricket out of danger or off the hook -- to be my favorites. (I'm assuming this formula allowed for multiple script-shooting on a daily basis to get the 30-odd episodes needed for each season. Heh. Remember when TV shows had more than 12 episodes a season?) And speaking of the highly adorable Cricket, each and every episode also allowed a brief and welcomed hiatus from the action for a musical interlude:

 

Ah, Cricket, my Cricket. You are the Most-Ut! *sigh*

(Video courtesy of therealexx.)

Anyways ... Of all those spin-offs, Hawaiian Eye had the most staying power, lasting four seasons. And the majority of the credit for that, I think, goes to the cast (-- how Eisley went from this to The Navy vs. the Night Monsters, The Mighty Gorga and Monstroid baffles me to no end), who expanded these caricatures into characters, and who, together, also brings a sense of family endearment to this dangerous enterprise, allowing the audience to invest themselves in the outcome that much more. And in this day an age of crime-fighting TV shows where the audience is drowning in forensic goobledy-gook and reveling in the sadism of the villains -- no matter how much you white-wash it by focusing on the heroes trying to stop them (c'mon, admit it, you're watching for the former not the later) -- I find these throwbacks and happy-endings to be a welcome respite. Highly formulaic? Sure. But also highly entertaining and highly recommended. 
 

Hawaiian Eye (1959-1963 / 134 Episodes) Warner Bros. Television :: American Broadcasting Company (ABC) / EP: William T. Orr / AP: Stanley Niss, Howie Horwitz, Charles Hoffman / S: Anthony Eisley, Robert Conrad, Connie Stevens, Grant Williams, Poncie Ponce

Favorites :: Ensemble Casts :: Leave Your Name and Number after the Beep and I'll Get Back to You...

James Luisi

Gretchen Corbett

Stuart Margolin

Joe Santos

Noah Beery Jr.

The Trailer

The Firebird

The Answering Machine

And James Garner

And, together, they made an offbeat,
neo-noir detective show called...

There a ton of other regular reoccurring characters, too, with Tom Atkins, Joey Tata, Pat Finley, Bo Hopkins, Isaac Hayes, James Whitmore Jr., and Rita Moreno that only make me love this show even more. Also, save your arguments, but, this is the greatest instance of character and theme music fusion the boob tube has ever produced.

Video courtesy of Constantine Chernabog.

Favorites :: Ensemble Casts :: Defying Death in a Patent Leather Jumpsuit Never Looked So Good!

Red Buttons

Dabney Coleman

Cameron Mitchell

Marjoe Gortner

Albert Salmi

Leslie Nielsen

Lauren Hutton

Gene Kelly

and Evel Knievel

And, together, they made this whole six-pack of the awesome...

What he said.

See this. See it Now!