Just watched American Werewolf in London for the first time in 16/17 years and I’m surprised by how good it was.
Had all the Landis hallmarks; rock music, cameos, pop references, SFX, crashes, etc.
Enjoyed the movie, enjoyed Blues Brothers recently after not having seen it for years. I know about ‘Into the Night’, ‘Martin’, the ‘Thriller’ video, the ‘See You Next Wednesday’ refence, and the death on ‘The Twilight Zone’ and wonder was it this last that took him off the boil? or was he just a director suited to a small window of time in film-making?
My question - was Landis (as evidenced by his look) a throwback to 60’s preppy thinking who couldn’t move on?
Has he done something in the last 20 years that looked like it was made in the last 20 years?
I’m told that the *Twilight Zone * lawsuit really threw him off his stride. Then again, he made *Trading Places * during that lawsuit, and American Werewolf not all that long afterwards, and both were successful. During the nineties, I know he made Innocent Blood, a not-bad vampire movie…
…but since the TZ disaster, it’s true, he hasn’t made anything you’d call a cult favorite. Could be that certain doors got closed to him after that; before the TZ suit, he and Steven Spielberg were said to be quite chummy. After the TZ situation broke, Spielberg did everything he could to distance himself from the TZ movie, Landis, the lawsuit, and the whole thing, even going so far as to spend the better part of two years out of the country (scouting locations for Indiana Jones and the Temple Of Doom, among other projects).
Frank Marshall ( along with Kathleen Kennedy ) produced quite a few Spielberg movies. Marshall produced TZ:The Movie. I own the book outlining the production and accident, going into serious detail regarding how the children were hired, who demanded the chopper go lower, and so on.
Frank Marshall also went “scouting” for several years. To Europe. Till it blew over. Shoddy stuff all around. You wanna run with the big dogs, you better take your licks like one. I have seen the dailies from a wider shot, not the grisly close-up ( which purportedly shows the decapitation for 1-2 frames before the blades strike the water, creating a watery blur ). I see the chopper lower, we hear John Landis clearly demanding that it go lower.
I adored American Werewolf in London. I felt it was stylish and clever. I also despise a guy who didn’t have the balls to stand up and take his licks. Landis and Marshall are the worst, weakest whorish part of the film industry.
That cannot be true. “An American Werewolf in London” was made two years before the “Twilight Zone” accident, and released a full year before.
And I must agree with Cartooniverse. The evidence overwhelmingly indicates that Landis was responsible for the deaths of those three people, and he’s never owned up to it. I’ll go further: he knowlingly broke child labor laws and deliberately put those two children, as well as Morrow, in danger, for the stupidest of reasons. I’ll grant he was acquitted, but all accounts were that it was in no small part due to the incompetence of the prosecuting attorney, who late went on every talk show she could and claimed the jury acquitted Landis for his celebrity. (Like anyone cares who John Landis is.) Frankly, he should count his lucky stars he didn’t go to prison.
I saw Jenny Agutter do Equus, in Fairmount Park in Philadelphia in a theatre in the round. Peter Firth played the boy, Anthony Perkins played Dr. Dysart.
It was riveting theatre, until the last 10 minutes. Then it was both deeply frightening theatre and wildly erotic theatre. That woman. Oh… oh god. -sigh-