Passages

[okcmaxk]

Gerrit Graham - Beef in Phantom of the Paradise

Steals Used Cars for most of the film and caps it off with the greatest stunt by a non-professional (besides a house falling on Tom Green).

The best scene in Greetings is his JFK monologue, and he’s equally great in Hi, Mom!.

[beamish14]

Gerrit Graham - Beef in Phantom of the Paradise

Being the husband of Jenny Agutter in Child’s Play 2 was brilliant casting.

I’ve always been curious about how he earned all those writing credits on Disney animated films like The Little Mermaid. He also wrote Robert Downey, Sr.’s episode of the 1980’s Twilight Zone revival

[flyonthewall2983]

I remember him in Parker Lewis Can’t Lose

[colinr0380]

I think the first thing I saw him in as a kid was as a bad guy in Police Academy 6: City Under Siege!

Of course his rock star Beef in De Palma's Phantom of the Paradise (and his big musical number. With the same electrical fizzing and crackling sound effects that were later used in Carrie!) is the big one, but he also turns up as the expendable victim trying to save Julie Christie from her computerised house in Donald Cammell's Demon Seed.

And I presume at least domino will fondly remember him turning up as the father of the family in the 1986 comic-horror double bill of TerrorVision and Chopping Mall (doing sort of the opposite of Demon Seed, and letting the killer robots run amok on his watch!)

Plus he is apparently somewhere in Louis Malle's 1978 underage prostitute film Pretty Baby!

[colinr0380]

Stephanie Cole, best known for theatre and TV work (Her roles in Tenko and the retirement home set sitcom Waiting For God are big ones, along with her supporting character in Open All Hours).

Film-wise, she does appear down the cast list of Richard Attenborough's 1999 film Grey Owl, and made early appearances in Martin Campbell's 70s sexploitation film Eskimo Nell, the Bryan Forbes directed sequel to National Velvet, International Velvet and Harley Cokeliss's That Summer! (which is the rarest of the three films that Ray Winstone appeared in during his debut year of 1979, along with Quadrophenia and Scum)

But most interesting is that she is part of the impressive cast list of the 1992 BBC Screen Two TV film Memento Mori, which was the last film from The Innocents director Jack Clayton.

[colinr0380]

It would also be remiss not to mention the passing of Bonnie Greer as well, who I'll most remember as one of the regular cultural commentator guests on the BBC's Review / Late Review / Newsnight Review programme throughout the early 2000s. It was easy to criticise some of the opinions offered up on that programme, but I sorely miss having something that actually delves deeply into cultural topics and discusses the meanings of the current arts scene, rather than simply just doing advertorials promoting them. There was a yawning gulf left behind on television once that show disappeared.

Here's an episode from 2000 featuring her, which focuses on a production of Hamlet, J.G. Ballard's novel Super-Cannes, and the initial response to a new show called "Big Brother" that was just starting up.

[The Elegant Dandy Fop]

Gerrit Graham - Beef in Phantom of the Paradise

Steals Used Cars for most of the film and caps it off with the greatest stunt by a non-professional (besides a house falling on Tom Green).

The best scene in Greetings is his JFK monologue, and he’s equally great in Hi, Mom!.

The scene where Gerrit Graham scams the family by pretending they killed his dog is one of the highlights of Used Cars.

My introduction to Gerrit Graham was probably his role as Franklin Sherman in The Critic. Will forever associate him with this moment.

[The Narrator Returns]

“Take that, Guernica!”