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Dig A Hole: John Phillip Law

May 16th, 2008 by Scott Marks

John Phillip Law & Skidoologist Christian Divine

John Phillip Law’s brief vogue began with The Russians are Coming, The Russians are Coming (1966) and ending with The Last Movie (1971). Last July, Law was at L.A.’s Aero Theatre to introduce a screening of Skidoo!, Otto Preminger’s notorious hippies meet the mob debacle. We should all look that good when we turn 70. Hell, I should have looked that good at 30!

Law died at his Los Angeles home, his former wife, Shawn Ryan, told the Los Angeles Times. The cause of death was not announced.

His mother, actress Phyllis Sallee , married L.A. County Sheriff’s Deputy John Law and on Sept. 7, 1937 the couple announced the birth of a son. A born Angelino, Law decided on acting after taking drama classes at the University of Hawaii.

The strikingly good looking 6′ 5″ actor moved to New York in the early 1960s where he studied with Elia Kazan at the Lincoln Center Repertory Theater and landed bit parts on Broadway.

Leaving New York, Law took the longest route imaginable to make it in Hollywood. He made a right turn at Italy where, while working on a pair of comedies, he happened to catch Norman Jewison’s eye. The director cast him as the cuddly, chocolate cake-eating Red in The Russians are Coming Squared. Teenage girls were soon lining up to see Hollywood’s newest version of a cute commie.

It was back to Italy for an unbilled role in Marco Ferreri’s L’Harem. (On the basis of Tales of Ordinary Madness and Don’t Touch the White Woman!, I’ll see anything by Marco Ferreri.) He next assumed the lead in Mario Bava’s Diabolik based on the famed Italian comic strip. Law seems to be having a ball and I’ll take Diabolik over any of Frank Miller ’s graphic novel adaptations.

His worst film, possible one of the worst ever, brought him a cult following. Jane Fonda spent a good portion of her life apologizing for Barbarella and for all the wrong reasons. It’s a monstrosity containing arguably the worst art direction ever to come out of Paramount Pictures. I don’t care how good the drugs were in the 60s, they weren’t reason enough to see Barbarella.

Law’s debut film for Otto Preminger, Hurry Sundown (1967), the first major motion picture with black actors ever to be shot on location in the South, must have been a nightmare to work on. The cast and crew received death threats from the Ku Klux Klan, had their car tires slashed, and had to be protected by armed state troopers. It wasn’t worth all the trouble.

Law plays a combat vet who refuses to sell his farmland to a cannery. Even the film’s scandalous oral saxophone sex isn’t enough to redeem it. Instead of Preminger’s traditional dispassionate multi-character POV we’re handed a current events newsreel.

Say what you will about Law’s #2 Otto, Skidoo!, it’s Laura compared to Hurry Sundown. JPL plays one of them long-haired hippies, the type that causes Jackie Gleason to ask is his daughter’s new boyfriend is “some faggot.”

As if kissing Rod Steiger in The Seageant and appearing in a belated sequel to Hawaii weren’t bad enough, Law committed career hari-kari after assuming the title role of Jacqueline Susann’s The Love Machine. With a screenplay by Samuel Taylor (Vertigo, Three on a Couch), cinematography by Charles Lang (Peter Ibbetson, The Man from Laramie, How to Commit Marriage) and featured roles for Robert Ryan and Shecky Greene, how could they miss? Oh, yeah. They hired Mr. Liza Minnelli to direct.

The film received a lot of advance hype, most of it created by Miss Susann, proclaiming it a searing tell all expose of a TV newsman who bangs his way to the top. It’s not as dizzying as The Oscar (what is?) and Law has nothing on Stephen Boyd. At least JPL knew he was making a piece of crap. Haven’t seen it since it opened and there isn’t much chance that this will make it to DVD any time soon.

Can’t comment on Dennis Hopper’s The Last Movie and after a Ray Harryhausen rehash in 1974, Law found steady work abroad, returning to mainstream American movies for an occasional appearance in a near-blockbuster (The Cassandra Crossing, Tarzan, the Ape Man).

Bonus Points: His name appeared on a 1982 Love Boat boarding list with fellow passengers Burty Convy and Corey Feldman.

While speaking with fellow Law students, David Elliott mentioned a Los Feliz mansion known as The Castle John and his brother Tom, who had been the road manager for Peter, Paul and Mary, rented in the early 60s. According to the L. A. Times, “The brothers rented rooms to up-and-coming singers and artists, including Bob Dylan, Andy Warhol and Tiny Tim, turning the home into a vibrant salon of emerging pop-culture icons. Life at the Castle, as it was known, was documented in Flashing on the Sixties, a 1987 collection of photos and text by Tom’s former wife, Lisa Law.”

My review of the Skidoo! screening highlights the actor’s appearance: “The only Skidoo! star to appear was John Phillip Law who, during the course of a 20 minute pre-show interview, managed to drop the name of every film he ever appeared in. He claimed to have got on quite well with the ill tempered director. He joked that Tom Tryon was probably still in a mental hospital after the thrashing he took during the making of The Cardinal. According to Law, he could have had the lead in Easy Rider or the Joe Buck role in Midnight Cowboy. Fortunately for viewers across the world, he landed The Love Machine instead.”

John Phillip Law is survived by his brother, a daughter, Dawn, and a grandson.

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STOP! Before you Skidoo!, read this

August 3rd, 2007 by Scott Marks

At long last…

SKIDOO! One Sheet

For years it was Alfred Hitchcock’s Rope.

There were five “lost” Hitchcock films: Rope, Rear Window, The Trouble With Harry, Rear Window and Vertigo. The Master owned the rights and refused to allow any of these titles to be shown until after he died and the reissue proceeds would go into a trust fund set up for his grandchildren.

My friend Rick secured 16mm prints of three of the four Paramount’s and introduced me to L. B. Jeffries, Dr. and Mrs. McKenna and a stiff named Harry. Vertigo took a bit more work (in more ways than one). It first arrived in the form of a Best of CBS telecast. What the hell did an 8-year-old know from “If I let you change me, than will you love me?” In the early 80s, long before most civilians owned VCRs, Rick once again came through with a fuzzy letterbox VHS copy.

A few years later an acquaintance hipped me to a screening of a 35mm dye transfer print of Vertigo for a class at the School of the Art Institute. Forget about that washed out 1984 reissue print or the feeble 70mm blow up of 1996, the Art Institute delivered my definitive screening.

After decades of searching, I finally caught up with Rope in 1984 when the Hitchcock estate released the 5 prohibited films as a package. Years later a video box for the film mocked me as I stood in line at a convenience store. The film withheld me for over 20 years was now anybody’s for the taking providing they had a major credit card and three bucks.

Rope’s spot at the top was replaced by Jerry Lewis’ forbidden The Day the Clown Cried, a film Mr. Lewis personally assured me I had as much chance of seeing as the Chicago Fire. (Honestly, Rope was always a close second to Clown, a film I’ll probably spend a lifetime longing to see.)

For years, two Otto Preminger films (Porgy and Bess and Skidoo!) rounded out the second and third slot. With the exception of a program booklet, I had never seen so much as an image from the Gershwin adaptation. Last year, LACMA screened a pristine dye-transfer roadshow print of Porgy (complete with a magnetic soundtrack) that I had to fight to stay awake during. It’s easily Otto’s worst. I’d sit through The Moon is Blue twice before ever dipping into P&B again.

I sure in hell didn’t want to sign off on Otto’s career with Porgy the mess. There was always the Holy Grail of Ottodom: Skidoo!

SKIDOO! LP Album

Continue reading STOP! Before you Skidoo!, read this

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