Unpublished Playboy interview with Stanley Kubrick/Bernard Knowles.
Interview by Anonymous.
Early in 1968, Playboy magazine contacted me about the possibility of interviewing Stanley Kubrick. It was an offer I eagerly accepted. 2001: A Space Odyssey had just opened, and critics, whether they loved the film or hated it, were united on one point: nothing like it had ever been see on a movie screen before.
But was that really true?
Fifty years ago, a new movie superhero entered the national consciousness. The nation was Mexico, and its hero was the masked wrestler known as El Santo. After first gaining fame in the ring and then in comic books, Santo next took on the challenge of film. It was in this medium that the wrestler would cement his legend as a larger than life action hero.
Plot:Frustrated insurance salesman Clarence Hilliard (played by Timothy Carey, who also wrote and directed) writes a Nietzche-esque pamphlet that claims, “all men are gods,” and then forms a rock ‘n roll band to help push his agenda. Not long after this, politics beckon, and Clarence ditches his guitar and makes a run for the presidency.
In the mid fifties, a Civil Defense short was created to address what can only be called The Tidiness Gap. Since the film was intended for the outlying suburbs and towns not immediately in the kill zone of a ground zero explosion, the whole issue of large metropolitan areas being vaporized is discretely sidestepped. The short also tends to focus on the atomic heat or “thermal wave” from a nuclear explosion, and doesn’t have a great deal to offer on the other affects from the blast like… well, for one thing, radiation.
All these years later, it comes as something of a surprise to realize that Hazel might have been our first line of defense against nuclear attack. Perhaps the Civil Defense seal should have been replaced by The Good Housekeeping Seal of Approval.
Darkness. Flare of acetylene torch — revealing a man sitting on the floor, wedged in between two pieces of bulky equipment. The headgear he is wearing has been ripped open, revealing his face, a single stream of blood trickling down his forehead. He waits in the darkness, the only light the glare from the torch. [...]
Blood Freak isn’t for everyone, but the next time Thanksgiving rolls around, try popping it in the DVD player. After watching the film, you might find yourself experiencing a surprising level of empathy with the turkey cooking in the oven, and if nothing else, Blood Freak might drive away a few unwanted relatives.
Santo may not be for everyone, or maybe he’s an acquired taste, but more than likely if you didn’t watch his films as a kid, the attraction may never be there for you. It’s easy to pick these movies apart and laugh at the crazy plots and goofy sets, but there’s also a winning kind of sincerity to them and a willingness to throw everything into the the movie — not just the kitchen sink, but werewolves, vampires, the living dead, Frankenstein’s monster, you name it.
In 1966 the Anti-Megalosaurus Force (AMF) was established to defend Japan from Monsters. Who knew? Not just a bunch of flummoxed army guys wearing white gloves, but an elite force — 4072 members strong. Talk about a thankless job. The only profession taking more of a beating than the AMF when Godzilla makes landfall, is the home insurance industry, which has been busy selling policies between monster rampages.
Jim Rutherford
Nancy Louise Rutherford
Lou Aguilar
The Misfits
