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I have been lucky enough just to see these movies at all. But upon re-watching Greaser's Palace I am starved for more.. There was a DVD of that.. I don't think there is anymore. I have the great Putney Swope DVD but still I persist. Where are these movies and when can we expect to see some more releases of them?

Information on good writing on his work would also be great to me.

thanks

well, as far as i know, there is no plan to re-print "greaser's palace", which has been a cornerstone film in my life. I'm sure , SURE, you can find a cheap used copy, cause very few people have the same opion as me, hahaha.

luckily, Scorcese's (sp?) restoration foundation recently poured some money into fixing and preserving Downey's "Chafed Elbows" and one other early work, maybe "Babo 73". Downey did a new edit of "Pound" a few years back for Anthology Film Archives, but, there's no plan for release of that either.

(the screenings were wild, as many of Downey's old cast of character's showed up, including "lamey homo" from greaser's..) He recently did a documentary about an art park in, i believe, Philadelphia, but it doesn't really have the Downey vibe of old, which is not surprising of course...
he is def. not fond of remembering those times, and doesn't rate his earlier films highly, whether it be the work themselves or his life at that time, but he remains, i truly believe, one of the unheralded influences of the 2 generations that followed him.

anthology has a copy of the greaser's script, which is like, if i remember correctly, 10 pages. hahaha. i will see if i have a scan of it somehwere, and if i do, i'll post it.

best

putney

thank you thank you thank you (Putney.. alright!)

I have some pretty ragged copies or Pound and Chafed Elbows from karagarga.net
But its worth it. They have the Ralph Machio Mad Magazine one for rent down the road. I think I will brave that tonight.

When I first saw the Trailer for There Will Be Blood I kept telling all of my friends "he's doing a young Greaser!" I wasn't exactly right about that. I was really hoping it was going to get alot easier for me and everyone else to see Sticks and Bones and everything before Chafed Elbows. I know almost nothing about that early early stuff. anyway thanks abunch. Fingers crossed.

putney wrote:well, as far as i know, there is no plan to re-print "greaser's palace", which has been a cornerstone film in my life. I'm sure , SURE, you can find a cheap used copy, cause very few people have the same opion as me, hahaha.

Keep laughing...

broham wrote:I have some pretty ragged copies or Pound and Chafed Elbows from karagarga.net

Stupid question perhaps, but -- how on earth does one go about getting an invite to join there? I mean, without knowing someone, as there seems to be no other way....

If I ever get my ratio up the invites come pretty regularly. I backed the wrong horse when I started out though so it will be a while. It is totally a great site though. Good luck

Faux Hulot wrote:

putney wrote:well, as far as i know, there is no plan to re-print "greaser's palace", which has been a cornerstone film in my life. I'm sure , SURE, you can find a cheap used copy, cause very few people have the same opion as me, hahaha.

Keep laughing...

A torrent of this also just appeared on CinemaObscura for those in the know...

What can I say? I am a sucker for the hard copy. Not at those prices but I will continue looking.

holy cow, who in their right mind spends 200$ on a dvd (and keep in mind, in my younger days, i was someone who didn't see the problem spending $1,000 on a record..not saying i DID, just i could sort of understand it...)

that makes me feel ...old. i just don't understand.

"up the academy" is a downey film only in that he got the job and some of his cronies are in it, and well, it has "some" of his vibe, but, he was in bad shape then. the "gong show movie" is of the same vibe (although he shadow-directed that....)

i appreciate the p.t.a. reference!! it still astounds me, i have yet to see a critic who has noticed the profound influence of downey on p.t.a.'s films...
if you watch through downey's films and then p.t.a.'s once again, the influence is apparent.

(i've always thought the first 20 minutes of "fire walk with me" was truly downey-esque, in it's running jokes into the dead-zone quality.)

"how many syllables mario" is an incredibly influential bit of dialogue, hahaha
(yes, i'm still laughing...)

putney

Macintosh wrote:A torrent of this also just appeared on CinemaObscura for those in the know...

Great, another site where I can't register.

If you guys end up with a spare invite, I'll buy you a milkshake... or something...

For the uninitiated, here are two clips of Greaser's Palace:

Greaser's Palace - Spitunia

Greasers Palace - Bingo Gas Station

One of the all-time-great out-the-window movies. It's painful when stuff like this goes OOP.

I just realized this should have gone in the filmmakers section probably. whoops.

I should also say to those who aren't lucky enough to be "initiated" yet
Get lucky! hehe. These movies are great. Putney Swope is one of my favorites and I couldn't recommend it enough.

Faux Hulot wrote:

Macintosh wrote:A torrent of this also just appeared on CinemaObscura for those in the know...

Great, another site where I can't register.

If you guys end up with a spare invite, I'll buy you a milkshake... or something...

PM me with an email address and i'll send you an invite there.

Greaser's Palace is awesome (double it up with El Topo ) and Putney Swope is cool....I bought Up the Academy based on Downey as the director, and it kinda stinks. There's some worthwhile moments and weirdness throughout, but I got the vibe that there was some studio intervention?

I need to buy the HVE release of Putney Swope, I didn't even know it exists till I saw it at Borders....and Hugo Pool, opinions on that one?

I, uh, I just registered (awesome forum, btw!), so I'm probably not worthy of it buuuut: Can I also PM you for an invite, Macintosh? Pretty please? Anyone else?

I don't have an account at either KG, Obscura or Cnmtk... I'll understand if you can't, just don't ban me for pleading out loud.

Anhedionisiac wrote:I'm probably not worthy of it buuuut: Can I also PM you for an invite, Macintosh? Pretty please? Anyone else?

Sure, gimme an email and i'll send you an invite.

I was a cameraman on Greasers Palace oh so many years ago. Still one of the funniest most original satires out there. We shot it in Santa Fe, New Mexico on a ranch. We had more fun then you can imagine. I noticed someone referencing the script as being 10 pages. Actually it was 45 or so pages, and the film is pretty much a faithful replica, though Downey did a fair amount of improv. Too many stories to tell, but if anyone has a question or three, I'd be happy to try and answer.

Thanks for replying, I wish I had a good question to ask. Maybe in the style of the Chris Farley show:

Remember that shot when greaser leaves the saloon, after getting wind that Lamy was back in town .. that was awesome!

heheh

Thank you though, I have been so curious about what portion of his movies is totally pre-planned.

forrestmurray wrote:I was a cameraman on Greasers Palace oh so many years ago.

Sir, i want to thank you thank you thank you. seriously, that film is one of the defining experiences of my life.

i'm sorry i misrepresented the script. what i saw was something Downey gave Anthology film archives, it was in his handwriting, so maybe it was his own first draft? (i was involved with the Downey retrospective there about 3 or 4 years ago, so we were scouring the archives.)

you profoundly changed the course of my life with this film, thank you so much.

putney

I have heard some great things about "America" although I haven't seen it yet. I know its somewhere inbetween "up the academy" and "hugo pool" which are two that I have seen. Ofcourse I will take a chance on any of his films, but the Vhs's are hard to find in my city, internet included.

Does Putney or anyone know whether he did any Interviews or other writings(especially in the seventies)? I would like to know what his influences were. Feel free to speculate, friends.Thanks again.

broham wrote:Does Putney or anyone know whether he did any Interviews or other writings(especially in the seventies)?

i do, but all are in storage now, as i moved to another country in the past year, but, i will soon get them, scan them, and post them...
if you want to see real "Downey sr." really, you don't need to go past '72, i would say... get greaser's palace and putney swope, and from the various "shadow world dealers, a copy of "chafed elbows", those are your best bet. if you live in nyc, look for anthology archives to have some sort of retrospective within the next year or so, i believe...

("america" is interesting if you've seen his other earlier wokr, but not a good introduction, nor is "up the academy", or even "hugo's pool...)

putney

All hands,

I'm the guy that worked with Bob on Greaser's Palace, and also America a number of years later. I was na actor in America, playing Bobby Bolero, the twin brother of Buddy Bolero. Our job was to continually try to con money out of the lotto winner who was the lead player. There are many wonderful Downey-isms in the film, but it is less well structured than Putney, or Greasers palace. I really wanted it to be seen as I had a fairly major role, and thought it would be fun to be an actor for a change, but alas it was just barely distributed. But as always if you want a totally original, satiric take on American culture (or Gulture), Downey's your man.

Forrest Murray

forrestmurray wrote:I was an actor in America, playing Bobby Bolero, the twin brother of Buddy Bolero. Our job was to continually try to con money out of the lotto winner who was the lead player.

I will look forward to seeing you when I get the chance!

RE: Film Archives retrospective, I was there last week and got to see some amazing films by Greg Pope. Although I am not there often enough maybe I will get lucky. Thank you all for being so generous!

1991 interview (w/ mention of our friend murray )

"stuff that jack nitzsche had thrown out of other movies"
I absolutely never would have guessed that score wasn't written specifically for the film.

Also, found an interview in a book by Joseph Glemis (I think, I dont have it here) called "film director as superstar" in which he talks alot about spending most of his army time in the stockade and once pitching against yogi berra, haha. Its a unique book featuring lots of great interview with different directors in 1969. Unfortunately that excludes Greasers Palace.

Anthology Film Archives has restored prints (via Film Foundation) of Chafed Elbows, Babo 73 & No More Excuses (including the "lost" but still unrestored Moment to Moment!) coming up in a few weeks (September 12-18) as part of their "Robert Downey: A Prince" series, and to anyone that is lucky enough to attend, please continue to make us all jealous by sparing no small detail from your post-screening recap! I am already drooling over here.