FILTHY HARRY and the Clint Eastwood impersonations of Joe Dimmick

Throughout his decades in the show business industry, Clint Eastwood has become an cultural icon, playing a vast variety of tough guy characters, ranging from cowboys to cops to curmudgeons to chair yellers.  Meanwhile, actor Joe Dimmick has become an icon in his own right, playing a vast variety of Clint Eastwoods.



Dimmick is the owner of "Dimmick's Doubles," a celebrity lookalike company he founded in 1979 and of which Dimmick himself is the biggest draw.  Dimmick's Eastwood impressions, beginning in 1977 when he answered a "Variety" ad, have led him to a certain degree of squinty-eyed fame and fortune, as Dimmick has portrayed Clint characters in commercials, television and even films, playing Eastwood archetypes in Mel Brooks' ROBIN HOOD: MEN IN TIGHTS and the action comedy ACES GO PLACES 2.  (In the latter, his character of "Filthy Harry" is hired by a Henry Kissinger impersonator.)



But his biggest role as "Clint Eastwood" is in the 1987 film FILTHY HARRY, a feature-length epic Dimmick wrote, produced, directed and starred in that serves as an excuse to both parody DIRTY HARRY and give brief showcases to many of "Dimmick's Doubles" themselves, as impersonators of Joan Collins, Tom Selleck, Burt Reynolds (as "Slick") and more show up in minimal-to-supporting roles. 


FILTHY HARRY is, as you can probably guess, not a "good" movie.  The jokes are stale and terrible, the impersonations are only vaguely convincing (Stallone is laughable) and the performances are, to be kind, amateurish.  But it also has a strange likeability about it -- there's nothing mean-spirited about the impersonations, and there's nothing in the film other than some comic violence that would give it anything more than a "G" rating if the MPAA ever touched this thing. 

Mike Sullivan pretty much nailed it in his "Shock Cinema" review when he called it "an abject failure" as a comedy, but "any film where a Yamaha keyboard actually receives an on screen credit during the opening...has earned the right to be watched sober at least once."  It's a ridiculous vanity project that's basically just an advertisement for a company that allows you to hire a mediocre Whoopi Goldberg impersonator, but it's about the most affable mindless monstrosity that you could imagine.


(This 2003 article even suggests there was a sequel, called MAGNUM FARCE, but this may have just been an offhanded comment Dimmick made.  Anyone have any ideas if this exists?)

A brief guide to the music videos of FLETCH

I know, I've been gone for a while.  My apologies to the two or three people that actually noticed -- I hope you've been watching something good! 

You probably have.  There's a lot of neat stuff out there.

Anyway, when I started this vanity blog, my plan was to keep it updated constantly, several times a day, like a real-life website that multiple people were in charge of.  That worked for a while, thanks to the ability to plan things on the weekends and have them slowly leak out during the week.  Soon, however, it became more of a burden than something fun -- which was the whole point of starting this in the first place.

After a few false re-starts, I think I'm ready to commit again, though this time, I'll just be posting sporadically -- whenever I find something notable enough to write about.

Without further ado...

I miss the time when a movie's soundtrack provided a music video for just about every dang song on it.  I have no idea if this tactic worked as a merchandising device, though evidence suggests it didn't, as with few exceptions, most music from '80s movies is remembered only in the context of the movie itself. 

FLETCH, the 1985 cinematic adaptation of Gregory McDonald's series of detective novels starring Chevy Chase as the titular character, had not one, not two, but three music videos devoted to the songs on the soundtrack.  I hadn't realized this until recently, having only been aware of the video for Harold Faltermeyer's Art of Noise-y instrumental theme music, which features Faltermeyer wandering around a beach and occasionally playing synthesizer.  It's "integrated" into the movie in that, er, it's set on the beach, where part of the film is, and one point, he seems to be calling Fletch.  Sort of.



The prolific Will Harris, he of the AV Club's excellent "Random Roles" feature, pointed out this second music video, which is significantly more nuts.  Stephanie Mills sings the "actual" theme from FLETCH in a bizarre performance art space that's probably best described as "'80s futurism."  Clips from the film show up via video screens and sound samples.



But look!  Defenseless babies!  No, I kid.  Things do, however, get even weirder with our final FLETCH video, that actually seems to feature new footage with Chase shot for the video itself.  At least, I don't remember a scene in FLETCH where the lead character ran into a tent and watched George Wendt appearing in a crystal ball operated by Dan Hartman.  There is leather.  And random glitter.  And it feels like it was meant for a DEATHSTALKER sequel.




I could be wrong, though. It's been a while since I've seen the film.

C. Larry Roberts' 1975 experimental short "I Was a Teenage Travelogue"

Utah filmmaker C. Larry Roberts passed away in 1988 at the age of 43, a talented life cut short after directing a documentary on Steven C. Stewart, the writer and star of Crispin Glover's IT IS FINE! EVERYTHING IS FINE.  Roberts' little-seen 1975 short film, now on YouTube, is an endearingly bizarre, trippy ride filled with stock footage, shots of '70s Utah and psychedelic sequences, and delivered with great tongue-in-cheek narration.  

Isaac from "Children of the Corn" sings Lionel Richie as a leprechaun for your St. Patrick's Day

Happy St. Patrick's Day! Here's John Franklin, best known as Isaac from Children of the Corn, dressed as a leprechaun singing Lionel Richie's "Stuck on You" on a 1983 episode of "Kids, Incorporated" because the world is full of wonder.

Jeff Hale, animator of "Sesame Street"'s Pinball Count and the Lenny Bruce short "Thank You Mask Man," dies at 92

Jeff Hale, the England-born animator who created the Lenny Bruce short "Thank You Mask Man" and worked extensively for animation that appeared on "Sesame Street," passed away in February at the age of 92.  Cartoon Brew has the full story, but here is one of his most noteworthy works, a compilation of the "Pinball Count" shorts (with vocals by the Pointer Sisters!) that appeared on "Sesame Street" starting in 1976.  12345, 678910... 11, 12...