Big news on the silent film discovery front: a few days ago it was announced that twenty-odd minutes of lost footage from Metropolis has been found in the form of a complete print dating back to 1928. 
The first perfect episode of Moonlighting comes from the pen of the same writers who did “The Dream Sequence Always Rings Twice,” Debra Frank and Carl Sautter, and, it too, plays like a miniature movie. The episode begins with a bang-up opening sequence in which a woman puts a spell on a man and he dies on the spot. At Blue Moon, Maddie and David are at it again, this time over a discussion of art, high and low, and each other’s definition of “poetry.” 
When Maddie brands David a philistine, he’s able to use her words against her as an unexpected client arrives— the young woman of the opening sequence, whose name is Kathleen Kilpatrick. She claims she’s a leprechaun who’s being hunted for her gold. Maddie doesn’t want to take the case, but David calls Maddie on her lack of imagination, i. e. “poetry.” Agnes has a hilarious line that never fails to get me, right before the first “station break.” The bulk of the episode has us starting to believe that Kathleen is a leprechaun, playing out like Miracle on 34th Street— each beat has the audience cheering her on. This episode softens Maddie (and even David: particularly in his parting advice to Kathleen) and makes Agnes DiPesto look normal (!). There are plenty of laughs, with little-to-none missing their target. There are some nice character touches too, as when David describes the way Kathleen casts spells by holding up her hand “like early Diana Ross”— the exact reference that David Addison would use. The silly chase at the airport is highly pre-9/11 and has several moments in which, despite the villain being right on their heels, the trio have what seems like several minutes in between his catching up to them for which to concoct a new scheme to get away! But no matter, it’s all in good fun, and this was exactly the kind of material that no one was doing on television at the time.
A disturbing opening has a gun going off and blood spattering on a collage of magazine covers featuring Maddie Hayes at various stages of her modeling career (employing the real life Cybill Shepard’s image). The back-and-forth between Maddie and David in the opening (and most of the first act) is not quite up to par— the bread-and-butter of the series— but includes some of the winking to the audience that became a big part of the series. Also prevalent is the hopelessly obvious soft focus on close-ups of Cybill Shepard. When the mystery gets going in act two, we’re brought into the Hitchcockian plot, that at least for this episode, takes precedence over Maddie and David’s shenanigans, ever so slightly lowering the humor level. The line “Where’s the duchess?!” and David’s retort however becomes funnier with each viewing.
I ranked eleven episodes of Moonlighting *** or above, here's capsule reviews of the first three:
Odd, and therefore memorable, series episode in which a woman wearing a black veil, whose face had been disfigured, shows up at the Blue Moon Detective Agency, in order to hire David and Maddie to find the recently paroled man who threw acid in her face (she claims she wants him found because she “always loved him"). This episode seemed to rerun quite a bit while the show was on, so it must have done well in the ratings. It opens hilariously with some off-topic commentary on “9-to-5-er” boredom (When the staff disappears Agnes Dipesto says they’re at lunch and Maddie says “Lunch? It’s not even 10:15?” to which Agnes replies “OK then. Brunch?”). Again the showdown between Maddie and David begins with the oft-repeated argument as to whether the case should be taken, which comes to a dramatic head with some character development from Maddie— she had once been the object of an unhealthy obsession herself. We get back on comedic track when Maddie mentions the phrase “Let’s be friends” prompting David to offer his interpretation of this most-dreaded of female turndowns: “No kissy, no huggy, no horizonty.” A very farfetched series of plot twists and turns mark this episode— that you just go with— punctuated by a Hitchcockian score.
The black & white episode, the Orson Welles episode, the “Blue Moon” episode. In the old abandoned Flamingo Cove nightclub, whose heydey was in the 1940s, Maddie and David are told about the famous murder that took place there, in which a singer and a trumpet player both blamed each other for her husband’s murder. The episode shows two versions of how the “Flamingo Cove Murder” might have happened— Maddie’s version shot in glossy MGM style and David’s, shot in down-and-dirty Warner Bros. style. This show begins with Addison’s opinion as to why he’s glad that there’s a little dishonesty in the world (and the unexplained logic seems to make sense!). Just before the show goes to black-and-white, Maddie and David have a "car fight" in which he calls her a sexist and she ends up shouting: “Not another word, not another sound, not another peep until we get back to the office!” Then there’s a beat, and David says: “peep.” Back at the office David gives his “sexiest sexist speech” on how he likes to “satirize, scrutinize, fantasize, etc. etc.” Maddie. The main drama is well written and a nice homage, if somehow a shade forced (especially the humor in the second story). Cybill Shepard shines in this episode, particularly in her singing scenes, while Bruce Willis seems out of place. I still think this is a terrific (as well as ambitious) episode, just one I rarely go back to. 
It was dedicated to Orson Welles, who filmed a brief introduction to explain to the audience that the episode would be in black & white (even then I thought this was absurd— did TV execs think that 1985 audiences were that unsophisticated?). However, because of the silliness of such a necessity, Orson Welles was given a primetime platform to essentially say goodbye— the greatest director of the black-and-white era, espousing the need to take an artistic chance.
There's a lot of hours in between the BBQ and the fireworks— best spent with a little classic TV! I offer, Moonlighting Seasons 1 & 2. Moonlighting remains one of the relatively few classic shows that managed to get the whole run out on DVD, based on the efforts of an avid fan base. Season One was just five episodes, so, as with the DVD, I’ll combine the two for my ranking below. Season one’s best episode was “The Next Murder You Hear,” about a talk show host who is apparently murdered while on the air. Season two remains the series best season; although the single greatest epsiode, “Atomic Shakespeare,” would make its appearance in season three. The classic episodes of season two include: “The Lady in the Iron Mask,” the Orson Welles introduced black & white episode “The Dream Sequence Always Rings Twice,” “Somewhere Under the Rainbow,” “Portrait of Maddie,” “Atlas Belched,” “’Twas the Episode Before Christmas,” “The Bride of Tupperman,” “In God We Strongly Suspect,” “Every Daughter’s Father Is A Virgin,” and the Whoopi Goldberg/Judd Nelson guest-starring season finale “Camille.” I’ll be revisiting Moonlighting over the next few blog entries and reviewing these episodes. Below is my ratings of each season one and two episode based out of **** stars.
On Sunday July 13, TCM is playing one of Ingmar Bergman's most well-known films, Wild Strawberries.
This dream sequence, with its striking sound design (it plays mostly silent, with punctuations of sound effects and music at dramatic beats), is the single most memorable sequence in the film. Except for Bunuel (and Dali’s Spellbound dream sequence) this kind of dream sequence was little seen in cinema up to this point. The dream is seen through the eyes of the main character, experienced by him, and makes a strong impression on the viewer. It can seem dated today, even pretentious. But Sjostrom conveys such bewilderment and wonder that we’re drawn into the scene as any other well-played dramatic scene might register.
As Isak travels with his daughter-in-law we get to know more about his current relationships. Additionally, we see a series of characters in various stages of life, notably a bickering middle-aged couple. These little character vignettes strengthen the film, adding depth to it’s themes and support of the central characterization. Among these is a surprising one— Isak takes time out to visit his mother, who’s 96. We also see Isak’s relationship with his childhood sweatheart thorough a flashback and in a modern version thorough a young outgoing girl who Isak picks up along the way (both roles are played by Bibi Anderson).
Heritage Auction Galleries, based in Dallas Texas, hosts three major vintage movie poster auctions annually (in the months of March, July, and November) amidst many throughout the year. Among this month's one-sheets for auction include posters of silent era films, 40s noirs, 40s westerns, and 50s sci-fi. The one-sheets include a significant number of Hitchcock titles, among them the classic Saul Bass Vertigo poster.
The hits, the misses of summer movies 2008, so far... Easily on the misses side would be Speed Racer (an abysmal $42.9 million-to-date, domestic), The Love Guru ($26.1 million to-date domestic), and Narnia: Prince Caspian (a not-even Horton Hears A Who! total to-date of $137.8 million domestic). Thankfully, Prince Caspian's international numbers ($275.6 million to-date) assure the continuation of the series. The hits: Iron Man, Indy, Sex and the City, and relatively: The Incredible Hulk and Zohan. Overachievers also certainly include What Happens in Vegas.