ATLRetro

At Bubbapalooza at the Star Bar back in May, Torchy Taboo told me that she was really digging this new rockabilly band called The Stumblers. Now I know Torchy well enough to know she doesn’t mess around with her rockabilly, but when this quartet hit the stage in those ace cowboy shirts and started playing, let’s just say they weren’t stumblin’. Not that would expect anything klutzy coming from a line-up like vocalist/rhythm guitarist Keith Martin (Brandy, Car Thieves, Pickman’s Model), David Stuart (Hallows Eve) on lead guitar, veteran drummer Robbie Whelan and prolific English bassist Paul Diffin (recently The Psycho-DeVilles and Linda Gail Lewis, but also London acts The Big Six, Sugar Ray Ford and The Hotshots, and The Blue Cats).

While Keith and David have punk and metal band roots, sometimes your first love is your greatest one and for them, it was the southern roots music of the ‘50s and the ‘60s. Ask the boys what they play, and they’ll tell you that they are a four-piece traditional country band. Later that night I cornered Keith in the stairwell heading down to The Little Vinyl Lounge to ask when he’d be up for an interview, and he suggested a downstairs gig Friday July 22 with Vermont country-Goddamned-music band JP Harris & the Tough Choices at The Basement underneath Graveyard Tavern.

The Stumblers front man Keith Martin. Photo Credit: Scott Lowden.

Needless to say, it’s two months later and that show is now this week. Lucky for ATLRetro readers, Keith still was more than happy to take a break from honkytonkin’ to divulge the origin story of The Stumblers, give a crash lesson in the history of “hillbilly jump,” talk about their pronounced predilection for dive bars and share some shopping tips on finding cowboy shirts as cool as theirs.

How and when did you fine fellas get together?

Robbie and I have been friends for years but had never played together. We started back in 2007 to work on what would become The Stumblers. The first go at it was great, but soon life began to kickus in the teeth with a series of personnel issues. Our bassist took a job in Florida, our lead player had to quit for personal reasons, and to top it off, Robbie was called up and deployed to Iraq. The night he shipped out, I promised Robbie that I wasn’t giving up, and that by the time he came back I would have the players we needed to keep the band alive.

During this time my other old friend David Stuart decided to come out of semi-retirement and try his formidable hand at country music. I gave him a few reference songs and he took off like a bat out of hell. My friend Mike Bourne of Atlanta Boogie told me I should “Call Paul Diffin; he lives and breathes the stuff you’re doing.” After looking up Paul on the Internet, and realizing that he was the bassist for some of my favorite English bands, I immediately called him. Two minutes into our first get-together with this new line up, I knew we had a magical combination.

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Return to the outrageous glittery days of ‘70s glam rock at The Masquerade this Friday July 22, from 9 p.m. into the wee, wee hours. The theme party promises not just classic hits from the likes of T. Rex, David Bowie, Iggy Pop and Brian Eno—we imagine there’s got to be some Gary Glitter, too—spun by Glitterdome’s DJ Tiny Tears but also live music from neo-glam bands The Sexual Side Effects, Chattanooga’s The Unsatisfied and New York’s Starbolt 9. And that’s just the tip of the sequins as attendees are fully immersed in the glam-orous life with burlesque by the always provocative The Chameleon Queen, scandalous banter by model/artist Dax Exclamationpoint, body-painting by Erick Jara’s Dreamskin Art, gilded go-go dancers on the dance floor, a glam-inspired art show by Chris Buxbaum and vivacious vendors such as Diamond Star Halo and Aries Chain Mail.

ATLRetro tracked down Amber Taylor, the creative mastermind behind this glam resurrection and lead vocalist/guitarist of The Sexual Side Effects, to find out all the dazzling details about what’s happening Friday night, what’s new with her band and whether the rumor is true that she’s about to become a TV star.

When ATLRetro first saw the profile shot for The Sexual Side Effects Facebook page, we had to do a double-take because we thought that cute chick in the middle stomping her foot was Noel Fielding. We’re guessing you’ll take that as a compliment?

If you want to get it on with Noel then the answer is yes, because chances are I want to get it on with you too 🙂

OK, let’s get to Gilded Trash? How did you get the idea and why a tribute night to glam rock in 2011?

The night is about classic Glam Rock old and new—not ‘80s hair metal. I know a lot of really great musicians around the world who are influenced and inspired by the Glam movement of the early 1970s like I am. What better way to bring all of these people from across the globe together than to have a full-blown crazy club night with burlesque queens, circus freaks and half-naked body-painted go-go dancers where they can put on a real show.

Other glam-inspired nights I have seen or been involved with have everyone playing cover songs. While this is great, this is where we bring something different to the table by showcasing original music, hopefully cultivating a classic glam revival in the music scene. Even more important than that is to give the glam experience to a new generation that is bombarded at all angles by Disney princesses, hip-hop and dance-pop that has been run through so many record label marketing groups and filters that there is no real music or emotions left. This is about bringing classic Glam Rock into the hearts and minds of the 21st century.

You’ve put together a pretty diverse line-up of live acts, DJs, go-go dancers and burlesque performers such as The Chameleon Queen? How did you decide on the line-up?

The only way to create a magical night that is this big and have as much reach is to get as many people involved as possible. The live music is the core, but we didn’t just want to have another concert, we wanted to augment the night into something beyond that. We put the word out and started getting different types of performers and components involved with the night. It doesn’t stop at bands, burlesque, dancers, drag-queens, DJs and vendors. We have so much more we want to do as far as showcasing performers in the future, but we simply have ran out of room on the bill for this first night.

A lot of credit goes to the Gilded Trash team as well—David Dominick, our production manager, and Meredith Greer, our stage manager/talent coordinator. They have been the key in cultivating the talent and organizing the night.

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Monday July 18

From 3 PM on, savor tropical sounds and libations, as well as a Polynesian dinner during Mai Tai Monday at Smith’s Olde Bar. Kingsized and Tongo Hiti lead singer Big Mike Geier is Monday night’s celebrity bartender at Sister Louisa’s Church of the Living Room and Ping Pong Parlor. Northside Tavern hosts its weekly Blues Jam.

Tuesday July 19

Paul Collins.

Power pop icon and cult favorite Paul Collins (The Nerve) plays The Earl with his follow-up and equally seminal band Paul Collins’ Beat, and New Orleans garage band King Louie’s Missing Monuments and The Barreracudas opening. Grab your horn and head to Twain’s in Decatur for a Joe Gransden jazz jam session starting at 9 PM. Johnny Roquemore and the Apostles of Bluegrass strum at Eddie’s Attic. JT Speed plays the blues at Fat Matt’s Rib Shack. Notorious DJ Romeo Cologne spins the best ‘70s funk and disco at 10 High in Virginia-Highland. Catch Tuesday Retro in the Metro nights at Midtown’s Deadwood Saloon, featuring live video mixes of ’80s, ’90s, and 2Ks hits.

Wednesday  July 20

Nat King Coal Miners bring their slightly more redneck version of the famous cocktail guitar/piano/bass trio to Blind Willie’s. If you missed ATLRetro’s recent interview with Spike Fullerton, give it a read here. Get ready to rumba, cha-cha and jitterbug at the weekly Swing Night at Graveyard Tavern. Deacon Brandon Reeves bring the blues to Fat Matt’s Rib Shack and Danny “Mudcat” Dudeck blues it down at Northside Tavern respectively. Dance to ‘70s, ‘80s and ‘90s hits during Retro in the Metro Wednesdays presented by Godiva Vodka, at Pub 71 in Brookhaven.

Thursday  July 21

Catch a rare chance to see a newly remastered 35 mm print of critically acclaimed 1975 movie SHAMPOO, directed by Hal Ashby and starring Warren Beatty, Julie Christie and Lee Grant at Cinefest tonight at 7:30 p.m. Read Dean Treadway’s Retro review here.  Rod Hamdallah alas has had to cancel his show tonight, so there’ll be no live music this Thursday at Kathmandu Restaurant & Grill. Go Retro-Polynesian to Tongo Hiti’s luxurious live lounge sounds, as well as some trippy takes on iconic pop songs, just about every Thursday night at Trader Vic’s. Seventies disco rocker Peter Frampton celebrates the 35th anniversary of his FRAMPTON COMES ALIVE LP at Classic Chastain. Party ‘70s style with DJ Romeo Cologne at Aurum Lounge. Breeze Kings and Chickenshack bring on the blues respectively at Northside Tavern and Fat Matt’s Rib Shack.Bluegrass Thursday at Red Light Cafe features The Red Light All-Stars Band.

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By Dean Treadway
Contributing Blogger

SHAMPOO (1975); Dir: Hal Ashby; Screenplay by Robert Towne and Warren Beatty; Starring Warren Beatty, Julie Christie, Lee Grant, Jack Warden, Goldie Hawn, Carrie Fisher; Thurs. July 21; Newly restored 35 mm print; 7:30 p.m.; Cinefest at Georgia State University. Trailer here.

Released in 1975, Hal Ashby’s SHAMPOO very well may rank as the great director’s most cynical film. Ashby had previously given us THE LANDLORD, HAROLD AND MAUDE and THE LAST DETAIL, and would go on to deliver BOUND FOR GLORY, COMING HOME and BEING THERE before beginning a cocaine-fueled downward 1980s slump that would end in his untimely death in 1988 at age 59. It’s been years since I’ve revisited SHAMPOO because it strikes me as a truthful, mildly funny but ugly movie. It’s hard to watch, but extremely worthwhile. I know I’ll be at Cinefest on Thursday, July 21 at 7:30 pm to check out what is probably the first 35mm screening of Ashby’s film since the old days of the Rhodes and the Silver Screen, two long-gone Atlanta repertory theaters that closed their doors in the mid-1980s. We’re lucky to have a venue like Cinefest, which seems to be cultivating a desire to expand Atlanta’s repertory movie options these days.

Star Warren Beatty also acted as producer and co-writer, along with CHINATOWN and LAST DETAIL scribe Robert Towne. As such, he labored for almost a decade to get the film made. When it finally reached screens, it arrived like a bombshell designed to blow apart the sexually revolutionary Me Decade and everything connected to it. Set in 1968, on the eve of Richard Nixon’s election to the White House (which held particular resonance to 1975 viewers, who were still reeling from the Watergate debacle that drummed Nixon out of office), SHAMPOO tells the story of a philandering self-obsessed hairdresser named George Roundy (Beatty). The beautifier and sexual partner of choice for many of his clients, George is sick of life as a mere employee at a Beverly Hills salon. And so he finally steps up to realize his ambition of opening his own hairdressing business. But he’s broke and the banks won’t lend to such a flighty guy. So he sets his sights on a private investor, an equally self-absorbed, aging millionaire named Lester Karpf (played by Jack Warden, who tellingly has the worst hairstyle in the whole film).

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Friday, July 15

Veteran rock/Texas country singer-songwriter Steve Earle & the Dukes play the Atlanta Botanical Garden, while R&B performer and former Gap member Charlie Wilson is at Classic Chastain. Randy Travis celebrates 25 years of “genuine country” at Cobb Energy Centre. Catch an IMAX movie and learn to salsa dance with Salsambo Dance Studio at Fernbank Museum of Natural History’s Martinis and IMAX. Vocalist Julie Dexter performs at Friday Jazz at The High Museum of Art from 5-10 p.m. Visit the galleries through the evening and enjoy food and cocktails. And the Plaza Theatre dishes out a Full Moon Midnight Encore of 1981 John Landis classic horror flick AN AMERICAN WEREWOLF IN LONDON. Read our Retro Review by veteran FANGORIA writer Philip Nutman here.

Saturday July 16

It’ll be honkytonk heaven at Star Bar with Shovels & Rope, BareKnuckle Betties and bassist Joel Hamilton. I hear there’ll be some table dancin’ going in, but for the full foot-stompin’ scoop, read our exclusive sneak preview with Kool Kat of the Week Julea Thomerson of the Betties here.

Also playing today at the Yaarab Shrine Center are the Atlanta Rollergirls. At 5 p.m., the Dirty South Derby Girlstake on Brewcity Bruisers, and at 7:30 p.m. it’s the Denim Demons vs. Apocalypstix. Help Daniel Timms, who was in a motorcycle accident, and Sussi “Chevy” Shavers, who was in a moped accident, recover from some serious medical bills at the Bone Breakers Ball at Elliott Street Pub and Deli. Performers include boylesque/burlesque beauties Fonda Lingue and Ruby Redmayne, and there’s a silent auction of cool art, tattoos, pin-up photography and more. Andrew and the Disapyramids stir up the surf at 529 Club with FishHawk and Winter Ransom. In case you missed our Extra Kool Kat of the Week feature with guitarist Joshua Longino, you can still catch it here. Two Atlanta classics, Michelle Malone and Col. Bruce Hampton are at Eddie’s Attic and The Five Spot. Fedora Blues performs at Fat Matt’s Rib Shack. Holliday Brothers blues it up at Hottie Hawg’s. And, of course, DJ Romeo Cologne transforms the sensationally seedy Clermont Lounge into a ’70s disco/funk inferno late into the wee hours.

The Serenaders.

Sunday July 17

The Serenaders serve up a retrobilly “dunch” gig between 1 and 4 PM at The Earl. At Eddie’s Attic, groove to Grammy Award-winning drummer Yonrico Scott‘s Band and legendary New Orleans mojo soul performer Coco Robicheaux.

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Monday July 11

From 3 PM on, savor tropical sounds and libations, as well as a Polynesian dinner during Mai Tai Monday at Smith’s Olde Bar. Kingsized and Tongo Hiti lead singer Big Mike Geier is Monday night’s celebrity bartender at Sister Louisa’s Church of the Living Room and Ping Pong Parlor. Northside Tavern hosts its weekly Blues Jam.

Tuesday July 12

It’s a full moon movie Tuesday as two 35 mm classics featuring creatures on the prowl return to the big screens of Atlanta two most Retro cinemas. Elizabeth Taylor slinks like A CAT ON A HOT TIN ROOF at the Fabulous Fox Theatre. Read Dean Treadway‘s review of the 1958 film based on the Tennessee Williams play of the same title, also starring Paul Newman and Burl Ives here, and be sure to be there by 7 p.m. for the Mighty Mo‘ organ singalong, cartoon and vintage newsreel. Then at 9:30 p.m. at The Plaza, Splatter Cinema presents AN AMERICAN WEREWOLF IN LONDON, the 1981 John Landis-directed cult favorite that introduced audiences to the full-body monster transformation with special make-up effects. Read Philip Nutman‘s review here.

Sultry and sexy ’80s torch-singer Sade performs with John Legend at Philips Arena. Grab your horn and head to Twain’s in Decatur for a Joe Gransden jazz jam session starting at 9 PM. JT Speed plays the blues at Fat Matt’s Rib Shack. Notorious DJ Romeo Cologne spins the best ‘70s funk and disco at 10 High in Virginia-Highland. Catch Tuesday Retro in the Metro nights at Midtown’s Deadwood Saloon, featuring live video mixes of ’80s, ’90s, and 2Ks hits.

Wednesday  July 13

Sade plays a second night with John Legend at Philips Arena. Vocalist Boz Scaggs sings American classics from Gershwin to Rodgers and Hart at Classic Chastain with former Doobie Brother Michael McDonald. Get ready to rumba, cha-cha and jitterbug at the weekly Swing Night at Graveyard Tavern. Deacon Brandon Reeves bring the blues to Fat Matt’s Rib Shack and Danny “Mudcat” Dudeck blues it down at Northside Tavernrespectively. Dance to ‘70s, ‘80s and ‘90s hits during Retro in the Metro Wednesdays presented by Godiva Vodka, at Pub 71 in Brookhaven.

Thursday  July 14

The Craigger White Band bring back the spirit of ’70s rock at Kathmandu Restaurant & Grill in Clarkston. All Thursday shows at the Vietnamese restaurant are free and all-ages. Go Retro-Polynesian to Tongo Hiti’s luxurious live lounge sounds, as well as some trippy takes on iconic pop songs, just about every Thursday night at Trader Vic’s. Party ‘70s style with DJ Romeo Cologneat Aurum Lounge. Breeze Kings and Chickenshack bring on the blues respectively at Northside Tavern and Fat Matt’s Rib Shack.Bluegrass Thursday at Red Light Cafe features Hunger Valley Boys.

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By Philip Nutman
Contributing Blogger

Splatter Cinema Presents AN AMERICAN WEREWOLF IN LONDON (1981); Dir: John Landis; Starring: David Naughton, Jenny Agutter, Griffin Dunne; Special Makeup Effects: Rick Baker; Tues. July 12; 9:30 PM; Plaza Theatre; Trailer here.

Yugoslavia, 1969. Teenage PA/gopher, John Landis, was working on the Clint Eastwood World War II comedy caper, KELLY’S HEROES. While traveling to one of the movie’s many locations, the film crew came to a standstill at a crossroads as a large group of locals performed an ancient burial rite. The corpse that was the subject of all the attention was being buried due to local custom because the dead was believed to be a lycanthrope – a werewolf.

The image of this ritual and the experience stayed with Landis, the future director of THE KENTUCKY FRIED MOVIE (1977) and the huge box office successes NATIONAL LAMPOON’S ANIMAL HOUSE (1978) and THE BLUES BROTHERS (1980), finally finding its place in cinema history as the basis for the classic 1981 horror flick, AN AMERICAN WEREWOLF IN LONDON.

As the movie’s been so popular since it came out in the summer of 1981, you probably know the story: two clean-cut American college students decide to back-pack around England and make the mistake of going off the beaten path and end up being attacked by a werewolf. One dies; the other (David Naughton) is mauled and becomes a werewolf and the results aren’t pretty. As the body count goes up, the victims come back to haunt the lycanthrope. Tthe scene in a London soft-porn movie theatre is both creepy, amusing and disturbing as the mutilated victims urge the titular werewolf to kill himself and end the accursed chain of predator and victim.

David Naughton begins his transformation in AN AMERICAN WEREWOLF IN LONDON. Copyright 1981 Universal Pictures.

While Landis is a huge fan of the original Universal Pictures’ THE WOLF-MAN (1941), the director also is a natural comedian and decided to see if he could balance horror with comedy – which he largely succeeded in doing.

AN AMERCIAN WEREWOLF is first and foremost a fun movie. It’s also loaded with weirdness and more than a few shock moments. And Oscar-winning make-up effects artist Rick Baker’s pioneering use of prosthetic bladder technology made the werewolf transformations physically painfully to watch (no crap CGI here, folks!). A few months later, Joe Dante’s adaptation of a trashy horror novel, THE HOWLING, came out, and FX artist Rob Bottin (best known for John Carpenter’s version of THE THING) used the same principles. These two very different werewolf movies together heralded a new breed of cinematic wolfman. Gone were the old-fashioned in-camera effects, the lap dissolves as groundbreaking monster make-up trailblazers such as Jack P. Pierce (who created Karloff’s Frankenstein monster) had to work with back in the day. Baker and Bottin’s characters stretched, howled in pain – and physically expanded in front of your eyes for the first time.

Since ATLRetro doesn’t believe in plot spoilers, no more details here for the uninitiated. For the faithful, who probably grew up watching the flick on VHS or DVD, now’s the chance, thanks to the Splatter Cinema gang, to get your werewolf fix on the big screen at The Plaza.

Just be wary of naked men stealing your balloons…

By Dean Treadway
Contributing Blogger

CAT ON A HOT TIN ROOF (1965); based on the Tennessee Williams play; Dir: Richard Brooks; Screenplay by Richard Brooks and James Poe; Starring Elizabeth Taylor, Paul Newman, Burl Ives, Judith Anderson; Tues. July 12; pre-show at 7 PM/film at 7:30 p.m.; Coca-Cola Summer Film Festival at Fox Theatre. Trailer here.

Surely, the recent passing of superstar Elizabeth Taylor is behind the programming of 1958’s CAT ON A HOT TIN ROOF at the Fabulous Fox on Tuesday, July 12.  And it’s a good choice, too. Taylor’s sultry, skimpily-dressed Maggie The Cat is one of her most iconic performances, and is certainly the definitive filmed (or televised) portrayal of scribe Tennessee Williams’ most cunning heroine.

Still, the film version of Williams’ Pulitzer Prize-winning 1955 play could be better. In it, Paul Newman plays Maggie’s husband Brick, a former football star who’s literally been crippled by booze (he spends the whole film hobbled by crutches). Living on his bloated, bellowing father’s “plantation,” he’s constantly getting jabbed from all sides. His needling father and mother (the excellent Burl Ives and Judith Anderson) are wondering why he and Maggie don’t have any children while his brother Gooper (Jack Carson) has had a whole passel of kids with his woman (Madeleine Sherwood). Meanwhile, Maggie has moved into full seduction mode; the play takes place on a hot summer day, but that’s not the only reason she’s often seen in her skivvies. She’s trying all she can do to put the fire back into their romance. But Brick won’t have any of it; the idea of he and Maggie together has become distasteful to him, because he still blames her for driving his best friend to suicide.

The problem with the film comes with this final detail. In the original play, it was pretty clear that Brick and his friend, Skipper, were engaged in a homosexual relationship, and that Maggie slept with Skipper in order to break the duo up. But none of this is alluded to in the film, because it was 1958 and the studio, MGM, would have none of it. So the central conflict in the film is incapacitated, just like Brick (Williams himself was disappointed with the film version, telling the press that the movies “would set the industry back 50 years“). And yet Paul Newman wisely conveys some pained undertones that let us know what was REALLY going on.

Paul Newman and Elizabeth Taylor in CAT ON A HOT TIN ROOF. Copyright MGM Pictures, 1958.

The film bogs down in its middle, too, but it’s always handsome to look at, thanks to the Oscar-nominated color cinematography by William Daniels. And it boasts of one of the finest supporting performances in any Tennessee Williams adaptation: that of Burl Ives, reprising his Broadway triumph as the imposing Big Daddy Tabbitt, bemoaning the family’s danged “mendacity” while suffering, as a terminal case, through what might be his last birthday celebration. Somehow, Ives escaped an Oscar nomination himself, but Taylor and Newman got one, as did the film, its director (Richard Brooks) and its screenplay (by Brooks and James Poe).

In the end, although it’s not entirely successful, the main reason to see CAT ON A HOT TIN ROOF is for Ives and for Taylor. Both are forces of nature, but for wildly different reasons, of course.  Ives blusters magnificently, while Taylor slinks around like the beautiful cat she is. The Fabulous Fox is the place to be on Tuesday, July 12 (the pre-show, with the Mighty Mo singalong, cartoon and trailers, starts at 7 p.m.); one cannot miss a chance to see the stunning Elizabeth Taylor writ large on the big screen, where her beauty and talent were always meant to be experienced.

Dean Treadway is a longtime Atlanta film analyst and film festival programmer with more than 25 years of published works. His popular film blog is called filmicability with Dean Treadway and can be perused here at https://www.filmicability.blogspot.com/.  He is also a correspondent for Movie Geeks United, the Internet’s #1 movie-related podcast, at https://www.blogtalkradio.com/moviegeeksunited.

By Philip Nutman
Contributing Blogger

FOR A FEW DOLLARS MORE (1965); Presented by AM 1690; Dir: Sergio Leone; Starring Clint Eastwood, Gian Maria Volonte, Lee Van Cleef; Sat. July 9; 3 PM and 7:30 PM; Plaza Theatre. Trailer here.

In 1965, following the spur-burning European success of his second film as director, Italian filmmaker Sergio Leone returned to the genre he had unwittingly created with 1964’s A FISTFUL OF DOLLARS – the “spaghetti western” – again working with a young actor named Clint Eastwood. Eastwood was yet to become an international star and was still working on the hit US TV show, RAWHIDE, as cattle wrangler Rowdy Yeates. But outside of America, FISTFUL had been a huge box office hit, and Eastwood as “the man with no name” was already becoming a cinematic icon – so much so, Leone was immediately given the green light to make the second of what would become known as his “Dollars” trilogy (The Plaza will screen a restored print of the ne plus ultra of the sequence of films, THE GOOD, THE BAD AND THE UGLY on August 13).

Eastwood dons the poncho again, this time with Lee Van Cleef in A FEW DOLLARS MORE.

A FISTFUL OF DOLLARS can be considered the template all further spaghetti westerns would follow: mysterious, amoral, cynical stranger either arrives in a small town and upsets the status quo, playing the various sides against each other, or said amoral, ethically-questionable stranger is after the money…the only item of value in an emotionally and politically corrupt landscape where a fistful of dollars (or more) are the only things worth fighting for…and death is always lurking outside a saloon swing doorway. The first film in Leone’s trilogy can also be considered as an experiment; with FOR A FEW DOLLARS MORE, the director escaped the typical curse of a lame sophomore effort to transcend his groundbreaking western debut and set the stage for the cinematic shake-out which he would deliver in 1966’s THE GOOD, THE BAD AND THE UGLY. The three films were finally unleashed on an unsuspecting American public in 1967, and Eastwood finally escaped his career doldrums and became a full-fledged movie star.

Lee Van Cleef in A FEW DOLLARS MORE.

The plot of DOLLARS MORE is as simple as that of A FISTFUL, but in this case, the film delves into a psychological/motivational grounding the former film lacked. It is the work of a filmmaker finding his footing as he reinvents a genre as old as American movie-making itself. The movie sets up a potential conflict between bounty hunters – Eastwood’s squinting, cheroot-smoking nameless stranger and Lee Van Cleef’s steely-eyed Colonel Mortimer.  After conflicts, the two loners team up to go after the psychopathic killer bandit, Indio (perfectly played by Gian Maria Volonte). The final scenes are killer – literally. But whereas Eastwood’s stranger is just after the money, Mortimer has a personal score to settle with scumbag Indio.  No spoilers on ATLRetro – go do yourself a favor and support the Plaza and enjoy a classic movie, even if you’re not a fan of westerns or Clint.

ATLretro Movie Trivia: Eastwood, who is highly anti-smoking, is on record as stating that if Leone wanted him to turn up his bad-ass volume, all the director had to do was get him to stick one of those stinky cigarillos in his mouth and light up. No wonder Clint had no problem shooting so many sleazy outlaws…

Contributing Blogger Philip Nutman is a regular broadcaster for the cinematic podcast The Night Crew, and for the past few months has discussed “The Wild, Wild West,” his eclectic, personal primer on cowboys movies every film lover should watch. His current verbal essay is on the other Sergio – Sergio Corbucci – director of MINNESOTA CLAY, THE HELLBENDERS…and one of the other greatest spaghetti westerns, 1968’s THE GRAND SILENCE (Here’s wishing the Plaza would screen that!)

Friday, July 8

Purchase a cool drink from a glamorous gal and support local animal shelters and rescue nonprofits when Pin-Up Girl Cosmetics in Grant Park sets up Ernie’s Lemonade Stand between 2-9 p.m. Delectable owner Kellyn Willey is this week’s Kool Kat. Blair Crimmins & The Hookers take their ’20s ragtime sound OTP to the 1935 art-deco Earl Smith Strand Theatre in Marietta. Catch an IMAX movie and swing the night away under dinosaur bones with sultry gypsy jazzy The Bonaventure Quartet (featuring Amy Pike of The Lost Continentals) at Fernbank Museum of Natural History’s Martinis and IMAX.

Come on and get swanky tonight with Las Vegas surf trio Thee Swank Bastards at Mon Cherie’s Rockabilly Lounge in Purgatory at Masquerade. Also live on stage are burlesque beauties The Chameleon Queen, Stormy Knight, New Orleans Jon, Scarlett Page, Hollie De Veaux and Kittie Katrina, plus as usual Rev. Andy spinning Psychobilly Freakout, free jello shots, vendors and a Ragin’ Rockabilly Raffle. Indigo Girls plays under the stars at Atlanta Botanical Garden (We guess they’re kind of getting Retro by now). Take your tambourine to the park as the Classic Chastain series teams the  Atlanta Symphony Orchestra with ABBA tribute band The Arrival to perform the hits of Swedish ’70s super-group.

Saturday July 9

The Mystery Men? seek to hypnotize audiences with their energetic surf sounds at 529. Surf compadrees eL fOSSIL and drive-in horror movie-inspired Kill Baby Kill from Alabama open. The Hot Rod Walt Trio is at the Jailhouse Brewing Company in Hampton. Blues pianist extraordinaire Ike Stubblefield tickles the ivories at Northside Tavern. Indigo Girls do a second night at Atlanta Botanical Garden. And of course, DJ Romeo Cologne transforms the sensationally seedy Clermont Lounge into a ’70s disco/funk inferno late into the wee hours.

Sunday July 3

Nineties Hip hop/rap duo Tag Team return to headline blues “dunch” between 1 and 4 PM at The Earl. Return to the glory days of ’80s hair metal at Lakewood Amphitheatre with Motley Crue and Poison, with oddly and appropriately what’s left of the New York Dolls opening to screw with audience’s heads.

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