Week of October 9 to October 15 (Mann)

What’s on at the Tropic
by Phil Mann

Did you ever wonder how George Hamilton became a Hollywood icon? No? Well never mind, it’s still a damn good story.

It’s the basis for MY ONE AND ONLY, coming to the Tropic today. Renée Zellweger stars as George’s mother Annie Deveraux, a lovely, flighty Southern belle, and Kevin Bacon is his father, Dan Deveraux, a womanizing band leader. (The Hamilton stage name came later.)

Zellweger is really the centerpiece of the movie, which is a mother-son road trip across America in a powder-blue 1953 Cadillac convertible, the fin-ist car ever made. Annie has left her husband, for reasons that you might guess, and lit out with their teenage sons, George and his brother Robbie.

What is it about road movies? Seems like the participants always have fun, or at least adventures. When you’ve got a ditzy blonde and two creative boys on Route 66, it’s bound for glory. George, you might be surprised to learn, is the serious one. He wants to be a writer. His favorite book is Catcher in the Rye. He’d like to settle in one place and make friends. But the tug of mom is too strong, and there’s never a dull moment with her as she searches for a
replacement husband/sugar daddy.

It’s “a completely appealing, beautifully preserved memory piece... a great story and a great crowd-pleaser,” says the San Francisco Chronicle. Hit the road to Eaton Street yourself.

The Quentin Tarantino - Brad Pitt vehicle, INGLOURIOUS BASTERDS, that spell-checking nightmare, stays on for another week. Like most Tarantino movies, it bears a second watching. I was surprised to find that, compared to his other movies, this one is not long on gore. In an opening scene (and in the movie trailer), Aldo Raine (Pitt) brags about killing Nazis, and I expected to see lots of their blood. But the driving force of the film is not violence but tense confrontations, and an inventive – entirely ahistorical – plot. I’d say it’s more wacky than wacking, if you know what I mean.

Also held over are two delightful documentaries about strong women and their creative works.

In THE SEPTEMBER ISSUE it’s Anna Wintour and Vogue magazine.You probably noticed in this week’s news that Conde Nast is closing down Gourmet magazine. After seeing The September Issue you might wonder if Vogue is next in line.

Molly Berg’s TV sitcom, the subject of the fascinating YOO HOO, MRS. GOLDBERG, is, of course, long gone. But the sitcom concept that she mothered lives on.This week will be your last chance to catch this piece of history.

The Monday night classic series for October is “Terror at the Tropic.” This week it’s the goofy mashup ABBOTT AND COSTELLO MEET FRANKENSTEIN (1948). Joining Bud and Lou are Lon Chaney Jr. as Dracula, and Bela Lugosi as Wolfman. It’s an All Star monster cast, and a rare comedy/horror gem.

[from Key West, the newspaper - www.kwtn.com]