Wednesday, December 28, 2011

A 95 minute Car Commercial....




...and that's exactly what Pamela Tiffin's  1964 film The Lively Set was, a :95 minute commercial for Chrysler's Turbine car. It has since become a cult film among car enthusiasts.
It does boast a catchy soundtrack penned by Pamela's State Fair co-star Bobby Darin.

This was Pamela's second outing with James Darren, the first being United Artists' For Those Who Think Young which was another long commercial for Pepsi-Cola.

The Lively Set's story is slight as it involves Darren's character of Casey developing the turbine powered vehicle, being hired by a wealthy playboy (Peter Mann) to drive it in a race. Pamela is merely window dressing as Eadie, Darren's love interest.

It's all standard teen drive in fare from the mid-60's and in my opinion a waste of Pamela Tiffin's talents.

The supporting cast includes Joanie Maxwell, Doug McClure, Marilyn Maxwell, Carole Wells and a pre-Mission: Impossible Greg Morris as a highway patrol officer.




As always Pamela looks fetching throughout the entire picture and she and Darren make quite a sexy couple..just wish they were both cast together in better movies.

Special Alert: Just watch how many times Pamela's hair-do changes from scene to scene...


Special Drinking game: Every time Pamela's character says "Casey" take a swig of your favorite alcoholic beverage..you'll be drunk before the :95 minutes are up...I promise!



Monday, December 26, 2011

The Pleasure Seekers: Last airing this year on FMC ~ December 28th, 2011


This coming Wednesday marks the last scheduled airing for Pamela's 1964 film, The Pleasure Seekers on the Fox Movie Channel. If you do not know Fox Movie Channel is making some modifications to their schedule.

Beginning in January they will be airing newer films from the Fox film library with limited commercials under the banner FX Movie Channel. This new format will air every day from 3 pm until 3 am. Their older films will continue to air from 3 am until 3 pm. I don't know if the older films will have limited commercial breaks as well. 

It seems to me that Fox Movie Channel is slowly going the AMC route. The only classic, commercial free cable network to stand now is TCM. 

With all of these changes I don't really know if FMC plans on continuing to air The Pleasure Seekers, but they have been more than generous in it's airings of the film for the past 3 years, airing it commercial free and in it's original aspect ratio giving many like myself a chance to preserve it as Fox themeslves has yet to see fit to release it in any home video format here in the U.S.

If you haven't done so already rev up those DVR's for the film's December 28th airing on FMC at 11:30 am.

Straziami Ma Di Baci Saziami





In 1968 Pamela Tiffin starred in what would arguably become one of her most popular and well known Italian films. A film that is considered by many a comedy classic in Italian cinema, Straziami Ma Di Baci Saziami casts Pamela opposite Ugo Tognazzi and Nino Manfredi as "Marisa" a young factory worker from the Italian countryside who starts an affair with "Marino"(Nino Manfredi), a humble barber, much to the chagrin of her parents who oppose the union.

When the small village she hails from gets wind of the affair "Marina" takes off for Rome. In Rome she accepts a job as the assistant to "Umberto" (Ugo Tognazzi), a deaf mute tailor. "Umberto" falls for "Marisa" and proposes to her. She hesitantly accepts his proposal of marriage. Meanwhile "Marino"distraught over his breakup with "Marina" attempts to commit suicide and is hospitalized.



He slowly overcomes his depression and luck is on his side when he wins the lottery. He soon decides to leave for Rome to find "Marisa". He finds her and they rekindle their romance, however "Marisa" is now married to "Umberto" and can't leave him out of obligation.

They both decide the only way they will only be together is too kill "Umberto"...with unexpected results.

I will not spoil the plot twist in this one as it is both funny and ironic.

Here in it's entirety is Pamela Tiffin, Nino Manfredi and Ugo Tognazzi in Dino Risi's Straziami Ma Di Baci Saziami. Enjoy!


Tuesday, December 20, 2011

Pamela Tiffin Movie Music: Summer and Smoke




Kritzerland Records, an online music label specializing in film scores and theater cast albums have made an expanded edition of Elmer Bernstein's score for Pamela Tiffin's motion picture debut, Summer and Smoke it's 100th release.



This special edition is limited to a pressing of 1,500 and once it's gone...well, it's gone. It truly is one of Elmer Bernstein's most beautiful and classic scores and well worth the $19.98 suggested retail price.




All the tracks are the original full length versions as heard in the film taken directly from the source masters, provided directly by Paramount Pictures.



This is a fine addition in celebrating the 50th anniversary of the film. This year also saw the DVD debut of the film in a wonderful re-master released thru Olive films.

Full CD release details can be found here.

Full DVD details can be found here.

Thursday, December 15, 2011