ABCs at the Movies: The Doubles Round!

[Fran]

From IMDb:  "Pacific Heights" is unusual among psycho-thrillers because of its completely different approach to psychological terror. Instead of a Freddy Krueger or a Michael Myers, we have Michael Keaton as a psychotic tenant who makes life hell for his landlords Melanie Griffith and Matthew Modine. Knowing every legal loophole in the book, his weapons of choice are restraining orders and civil suits, not butcher knives and chainsaws. Driving them to increasingly desperate measures to evict him, Keaton dreams up new and more sadistic methods to torment them.

I've always thought "Pacific Heights" is rather underrated. It's got a mite more intelligence than you'd expect from Hollywood's hijacked psycho-stalker genre. John Schlesinger directs it all with confidence, but then he's an old hand in this area. And Michael Keaton is wonderfully malevolent. His presence makes the entire movie.

I've always enjoyed the course the film takes us on. Even if it occasionally gets into some muddy areas along the way, "Pacific Heights" is compelling to the very end.

Modine and Griffith play Drake Goodman and Patty Palmer. A young and naive yuppie couple, they renovate a Victorian house in San Francisco. Truthfully, the house is more than they can afford, but can (barely) make ends meet by renting out two downstairs apartments: one to a nice Japanese couple and the other to businessman Carter Hayes (Keaton).

Hayes moves in without permission or even a downpayment. He locks himself in, not paying any rent. He has a roommate, who hammers away to all hours of the night. He changes the locks. Breeds cockroaches. Drives away the other tenants. And because no money is coming in, Drake and Patty's legal status is becoming all the more shakier, as is their relationship.

"Pacific Heights" is a film that comes with a certain appeal when looked at closely enough. The idea of a tenant being able to have more power than a landlord is scary stuff. I didn't always believe some of the stunts the film pulls. Unleashing hordes of cockroaches is perhaps going a little too far, even for a psycho-thriller. Even a tenant who knows how to manipulate the law for his own purposes would have to face culpability sometime.

And yet at the same time, "Pacific Heights" is a constant source of fascination. Hayes leads Drake and Patty through a wonderfully complex legal minefield. It's surprisingly the film's threats of foreclosure and mounting bills that are more effective than its outright sinister approaches.

[southendmd]

Plot:  Documentary film covering Neil Young's October 22nd, 1978 concert performance at the Cow Palace. [San Francisco]

User comment:  This movie captures the electrifying spirit of Neil Young & Crazy Horse in the best era of their carer! Direction is great and the performances of all the songs are mind blowing! Cortez The Killer, Hey Hey - My My & Powderfinger are played in a way that the only thing you can do is wish you have been in Cow Palace too in 1978! The stage set-up is excellent and Neil wants to show with the gigantic speakers and mikes that the music is the star here and not the musicians! A must see for all rock fans and the DVD edition is a great chance to once again yell: Rock N' Roll will never die! If you like rock music we will love this, one of the greatest rock music movies ever put on screen

[memento]

From IMDB: Charlie MacKenzie is a dedicated San Francisco coffeehouse poet, whose poems revolve around his numerous failed relationships. Every one that ends on his doing because of some weird, inexcusable paranoia. His best friend Tony and mother May can only criticize him for his wrong-doings. But Charlie believes he very well may have found the perfect woman in Harriet, a meat butcher with a heart of gold. But Charlie begins suspecting something about Harriet that may not be so perfect.

[Fran]

From IMDb:  San Francisco Police Lieutenant Virgil Tibbs is called in to investigate when a liberal street preacher and political candidate is accused of murdering a prostitute. Tibbs is also battling domestic woes, including a frustrated wife and a rebellious adolescent son.

[southendmd]

Plot:  The absurd true story of the legal battle over the "Million-Dollar Baseball." Barry Bonds' record setting 73rd home run ball sparks a melee in the stands at Pac Bell Park in San Francisco. One guy caught the ball, another guy ended up with it. Who is the rightful owner? The lawyers can't agree; the fans can't agree; even the wisened professors of property law can't agree. This is a story documenting the hilarious lengths to which someone will go for a baseball, and the few fans that will put their lives on hold for years, staking everything on one judge's decision.

[memento]

From the NY Times: The Vagabond Prince is set in Bothalia, one of those mythical Balkan kingdoms which proliferated in pre-1920 films. Promised in marriage to Princess Athalia (Katherine Kirkwood), whom he has never met, Bothalian Prince Tonio (H.B.Warner) yearns to experience "real" life before committing himself to matrimony. Tonio heads to San Francisco, where he takes a menial job at a Barbary Coast dive. Here he rescues Fluffy (Dorothy Dalton), a cabaret singer, from the unwanted advances of a masher. Impressed by Tonio's courtly European manners (but not yet aware that he is a prince), Fluffy does not reveal that she is a "sinful" saloon chirp but pretends instead to be an artist's model. Each unaware of the other's true identity, Tonio and Fluffy become engaged. When the truth comes out, Fluffy nobly walks out of Tonio's life, rather than force him to relinquish his crown for her sake. But Tonio's waterfront pals kidnap Fluffy and bundle her off to Bothalia, where she and the Prince are finally wed.

[Lynne]

From Wiki:

The Wild Parrots of Telegraph Hill is a 2005 documentary film about a population of feral parrots- cherry-headed and blue-crowned conures - in San Francisco, and about Mark Bittner, the man who takes care of them. The movie was directed, produced, and edited by Judy Irving. The film is based on a book of the same name, written by Bittner (ISBN 0-609-61055-4). In May 2007 the documentary aired on the award winning PBS series Independent Lens.

[oilgun]

Plot: H.G. Wells has just invented a time machine but hasn't tried it out yet. When he discovers that one of his friends is actually Jack the Ripper, Jack makes his escape using the time machine. Herbert follows Jack into late 1970's [San Francisco] where he meets Amy, a bank clerk, who teaches Herbert about life in 70's while they pursue Jack, who is enjoying the more violent society in which he continues his murderous activities.

[southendmd]

Plot:  While drying out on the West Coast, an alcoholic hit man befriends a tart-tongued woman who might just come in handy when it's time for him to return to Buffalo and settle some old scores.

Trivia:  Though much of the film takes place in San Francisco, only one day of filming took place there.

=aside= Lynne
I loved the Parrots!

[Fran]

From IMDb:  This was the fifth and last "Dirty Harry" movie, with Clint Eastwood again playing the hero, Inspector Harry Callahan, cleaning up the streets of San Francisco from all the scumbag criminals. I've always found "The Dead Pool" to be one of the best in this series.

=question=
Should we stay in SF or more on?
Your choice.