From the Couch Hole: In a Land That Knows No Parting

Previously on FTCH, the Thunderbolts* upon inspection became the New Avengers for the good times. The escape artist grabbed the Holy Grail and the Baja Cabo Citrus. Happy 200th FTCH. Thanks to the loyal weekly readers that make this so much fun to write. This week was extra busy and being in Austin last weekend put me behind on my projects. It was our first 100 degrees of the year with many more to come. This week it was mission impossible until the blue eyes crying in the rain brought the seeds of doom. Goldfinger, like everybody, loves fudge and double chocolate cookies. Remember, FTCH is the pain reliever that hospitals use most.

Pop Culture Ephemera

• Mission: Impossible (1996) (Directed by Brian De Palma): “My team. My team is dead. They knew we were coming, man. They knew we were coming and the disk is gone.” – Ethan Hunt. Growing up, I knew the Lalo Schifrin theme and the “this message will self destruct” story structure part of the television show. I can’t remember the plot of a single episode. This came out during my Tom Cruise boycott of the ’90s. I have missed this, even with the boycott lifted, until this past week. Being a Brian De Palma film, it’s got lots of Hitchcock twists. Tom Cruise as an innocent man accused of killing his spy team and on the run is ’90s Hitch. The plot takes a backseat to the action scenes. I can’t summarize the plot beyond, Cruise is accused of killing his team who aren’t all dead and one or more are trying to steal a computer disk. The film is essentially just three action sequences – the diplomatic gathering, stealing the disk, and the train chase. When it’s done, it’s fun, but I’m not going to remember much about it by tomorrow.

Buy Mission: Impossible – 6 Movie Collection Blu-ray

• Doctor Who – “The Seeds of Doom: Part Six” (1975) (S.13 E.26) (BBC): “A Krynoid on the outside; a madman lurking inside – not a happy situation.” – Doctor Who. What a great finish to a great story from a great season. This story has to rank among my favorites. I’ve seen it in broken pieces before, and this is the first time I recall watching it start to finish. The story begins in Antarctica as The Thing. It moves to England as a straight horror film of Invasion of the Body Snatchers and the “body snatchers” are plants. The first half was superior, but the story and acting is above average straight to the end. Anyone wondering about the Tom Baker era of the show would be well served to start with this story. Once you get past the simplistic resolution to the story, this is the type of tales I want repeated more often.

Buy Willie Nelson – Red Headed Stranger CD

• Willie Nelson – “Blue Eyes Crying in the Rain” (1975) (from Red Headed Stranger): “When we kissed goodbye and parted / I knew we’d never meet again.” It’s hard to imagine that in 1975, even with a great track record of albums in the early ’70s, that Willie Nelson wasn’t the man we know today. This cover of a 1946 song written by Fred Rose and previously a big hit for Roy Acuff would become Willie’s first #1 Billboard country hit as a performer, and it would win him his first Grammy. The song was covered by greats like Elvis, George Jones, and Olivia Newton-John, but this version has become the dominate one. In an era where country was about to take a huge leap forward, this represented a portion of the audience that still appreciated the roots of the country genre.

• Goldfinger (1964) (Directed by Guy Hamilton): “Man has climbed Mount Everest, gone to the bottom of the ocean. He’s fired rockets at the Moon, split the atom, achieved miracles in every field of human endeavor… except crime!” – Goldfinger. Since first seeing this at some point in the late ’70s on the ABC Sunday Night Movie, I’ve consistently ranked it in my Top Three Bond films. Seeing it on the big screen solidified my feelings about the film. The plot is as accessible as any of the Connery films with fewer locations and stopping the destruction of Fort Knox as the goal. The franchise was still finding its legs in the first two installments. This third entry has everything that has continued into the current century. Connery is still in his early thirties, an age that they seem reluctant to return to with future Bonds. The only drawback is the Bond debut of the Overly Talkative Explainer Villain. I’m willing to overlook that because Oddjob and Pussy Galore are present. It’s just a pleasure to go along for the ride.

• Mission: Impossible 2 (2000) (Directed by John Woo): “If you look at Hunt’s operational history, and I have, you’ll notice that he invariably favors misdirection over confrontation.” – Sean Ambrose. Tom Cruise had appeared with almost every major director in the ’90s during my boycott. It was his appearance in a John Woo film that got me to break the logjam. I have a love for this film based mostly on all of the Hong Kong touches that Woo includes in this film. The doves, the gun play, the martial arts, the femme fatale, and even the music all feel like this is one Chow Yun Fat appearance from being a true Hong Kong blockbuster. Imagine if Jet Li or Donnie Yen had been cast instead of Cruise. Just swap casts with Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon (2000) from the same year and you might have the best action film ever. That’s totally ignoring the plot, which has something to do with a Chimera virus that could kill everyone. The first half of the movie is just an update of Hitchcock’s Notorious (1946). It’s also upped the mask game since the first one. The melding of Mission: Impossible with James Bond is complete by the final chase scene. I’m not sure why this doesn’t get much love; it seems to be why they made popcorn.

Best of the Rest

• The 1951 cover of “Blue Eyes Crying in the Rain” represents everything I love about country-western music and Hank Williams Sr. in the ’50s. I didn’t live through the decade, and I certainly didn’t live in Texas in my youth. Somehow this puts me in the place and time that exists only in American Independent films. In some time-machine scenario, I’d be in a parlor in the South in 1951 with a beer in hand listening to this song on a radio.

• Entertainment Weekly (3/28/97): “Best Commercials of All-Time” #21: MCI “Parents” (1982): “Have you been talking to our son on long distance again?” I’m not sure that the concept of “long distance” means anything to someone under 30 years old. MCI was at the infancy of a 10- to 12-year run as a long-distance phone company when this ad debuted. It was a clever parody of an AT&T commercial. It is a one-note joke that somehow made an impact, won a Clio Award, and would turn the company into a “Friends and Family” juggernaut until the cell phone caught hold.

• Their getting the brand back together. The announcement that MAX will become HBO MAX is worth a chuckle at best. In the bigger picture, it took less time for Coca Cola to revert back to Coke Classic from New Coke. The threat to initially brand under Discovery+ probably tested negatively enough for them to stick to shortening to MAX. It hasn’t caught on. Most people including me still tag on HBO when describing the streamer. My only surprise was it not becoming HBO MAX+.

Sunday Morning Tuneage Flashback

• On the Sunday Morning Tuneage from 6/4/2007 to 7/12/2009, I ranked my 100 Favorite Films of All-Time. I did one per week with the arbitrary rule that they had to air on television that upcoming week. It ended up being a pretty representative list in retrospect. A few were ranked out of order, but I stick with that list for that point in my life. The 2009 stats check out.
  
  6 – Alfred Hitchcock films.
  5 – Steven Spielberg films.
  4 – Stanley Kubrick films.
  4 – Billy Wilder films.
  
  I’m going to attempt the impossible over the next 20 weeks. I’m going to use that old list as a template and rank five films a week, without planning it all out ahead of time. Remember, these are “favorite” and not necessarily “best” movies. Enjoy critiquing me along the way.
  
  2025 Running Stats (#16-100)
  • 4 – Directed by Francis Ford Coppola
  • 3 – Directed by Terry Gilliam
  • 3 – Directed by Rob Reiner
  • 3 – Directed by Steven Spielberg
  • 3 – Directed by Quentin Tarantino
  • 3 – Directed by David Yates
  • 2 – Directed by James Cameron
  • 2 – Directed by Brian De Palma
  • 2 – Directed by John Hughes
  • 2 – Directed by Terry Jones
  • 2 – Directed by Stanley Kubrick
  • 2 – Directed by Sergio Leone
  • 2 – Directed by Kevin Smith
  • 2 – Directed by Billy Wilder
  • 1 – 1900’s
  • 2 – 1920’s
  • 1 – 1930’s
  • 3 – 1940’s
  • 4 – 1950’s
  • 7 – 1960’s
  • 20 – 1970’s
  • 17 – 1980’s
  • 17 – 1990’s
  • 8 – 2000’s
  • 4 – 2010’s
  • 1 – 2020’s
    
• FAVORITE MOVIES OF ALL-TIME (2009)
  • 20. Some Like It Hot (1959)
  • 19. Brazil (1985)
  • 18. The Graduate (1967)
  • 17. The Thing (1982)
  • 16. The Godfather, Part II (1974)
    
• FAVORITE MOVIES OF ALL-TIME (2025)
  • 20. The Shining (1980) (Directed by Stanley Kubrick): We’ve crossed the line where now any remaining film is one I’ve considered my Favorite Movie at some point. This might have been the first adult book that I read and then saw in the theaters. I learned the difference between film and book didn’t have to be a black/white decision. I love them both equally.
  • 19. Apocalypse Now (1979) (Directed by Francis Ford Coppola): The fact that my friends and I went to go see this for my 12th birthday party says a little about my parents and a lot about the adult I’ve become. It’s the first time I realized a movie could be about the journey as much as the destination.
  • 18. Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid (1969) (Directed by George Roy Hill): Is there a special ranking spot for the Most Likable Cast Ever? Redford, Newman, and Ross. William Goldman’s screenplay is a lesson in how to balance letting actors act and pushing a narrative forward.
  • 17. Dracula (1931) (Directed by Tod Browning): There aren’t many of the Universal Horror films on here. I enjoy them all, but they haven’t had the rewatch potential of others. This is the rare one that still entertains me today after at least a dozen viewings. Bela Lugosi is perfectly cast and sets the tone for every future Dracula.
  • 16. Alien (1979) (Directed by Ridley Scott): Combining a top tier horror film with a top tier science fiction film was more groundbreaking than we knew in 1979. It’s a masterpiece in creating suspense. I still watch it yearly.

Buy The Shining Blu-ray

1975 in Review

• May – Hong Kong Phooey #1 (Charlton Comics): Art by Frank Roberge. The cartoon aired from September to December 1974. The first comic book appearance wasn’t until May 1975. The comic book was a series of two to three-page vignettes more than a couple longer stories like the show.
• May 12 – The Houston Aeros beat the Quebec Nordiques for the World Hockey Association Championship. This is their second straight championship. Gordie Howe (42) scored two goals in the 7-2 victory in Game Four to sweep the series.
• May 11 – About 75,000 gathered in Central Park in New York City to celebrate the end of the Vietnam War with many artists popular when the war started. Performers included Bob Dylan, Jefferson Starship, Pete Seeger, Paul Simon, and Joan Baez. The day was a little bit of a mess since the organizers were forced to pay $14,000 to clean up the park afterwards.

What the Hell Did I Put in My Mouth?

“Love is like a dying ember
And only memories remain
And through the ages I’ll remember
Blue eyes crying in the rain”- Willie Nelson