If you’re a fan of the films of Otto Preminger, Roger Corman, or Mario Bava – or, like me, all three – you will be saddened to learn of the death earlier this week of John Phillip Law, who was an iconic presence in the films of all three directors.
For Preminger, he played a poor white farmer in Hurry Sundown (1967), and an acid-dropping hippie in Skidoo (1968).
For Corman, he played the symbol of Germany’s best, Baron von Richtofen, supplanted by Germany’s worst, the Nazis, in Von Richtofen and Brown (1971). He also appeared memorably for another Roger – Vadim – as the blind angel Pygar in Barbarella (1968).
Equally iconic, if not more so, was his appearance as the jumpsuit-clad comic book villain Diabolik in Mario Bava’s Danger Diabolik (also 1968, above).
For a far more detailed consideration of Law’s legacy, see Tim Lucas’s Video Watchblog here and here.
Thursday, May 15, 2008
JPL is RIP
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3 comments:
I was really upset to hear about Law, I'd just gotten into his films and had re-watched "The Russians Are Coming" recently.
(I was also a bit upset to see If Charlie Parker Was a Gunslinger basically steal your post. http://tsutpen.blogspot.com/2008/05/john-phillip-law-dies-at-70.html)
Speaking in defense of my co-conspirator, Stephen Cooke, I was unaware until I saw this that he had used the same image, but I will not condemn him for it. I mean . . . please. If you'd like I can point you to at least a dozen blogs that routinely . . . and, I would add, without attribution . . . use images from our much-despised hole in the blogosphere. That is a-okay with me, I'll state, because if y'haven't noticed, that's a common practice in this racket, all moral considerations aside.
This is the blogosphere, after all. Right? We're talkin' about a rip'n'run, live off the land, Viet-cong muthafuckin' high-caliber enterprise, baby. High caliber. Riight? Complaining about the absence of ethical daylight in this Reeperbahn of the mind is like complaining about childishness on Sesame Street, or shallowness at the friggin' Academy Awards.
In other words:
It wouldn't be.
What it is
Wit'out it.
Riiiiiight?
Now, the only other scrap of evidence you can cite in this unconscionably brutal assault on poor Stephen is his linking to the same Tim Lucas article in the very fine Video Watchblog. OKay, fine. Since your tirade carries with it the suggestion that there is in fact a multitude of extant Obits and Appreciations on this crummy actor from which he could have chosen to link, I would only ask you to name one . . . Oh Enn Eee . . . one other such article (and wire service Obits don't count . . . cuz I says so), then I'll cede you the point. Until then, I must defend my collaborator (well . . . I didn't collaborate on that post, but you get the idea).
And let's be realistic. We're talking about John Phillip friggin' Law. I mean, it ain't like there's a helluva lot to work with. Yeah yeah yeah, I know. Well, sentimentality only covers so much; after that, once you get past the big time directors whose movies this guy sailed into for God only knows what reason, whattaya got left?
So dry your eyes, Sydney (if that is your name). While this is an unfortunate incident, I will assure all who need assurance that Stephen Cooke intended nothing nefarious on his part. I hereby apologize, on his behalf, to those who require it.
Except you.
Doesn't look like a swipe to me.
Yes, it's true he used the same image as I did, but there are only so many good images of JPL as Diabolik out there.
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