Music: Four Tops' Powerful Singer Levi Stubbs Dead at 72

Levi Stubbs, whose yearning voice helped power Berry Gordy's Motown Records into one of the most successful entertainment companies in the world as lead singer for the Four Tops, has died.

His songs were pitched at the edge of his range, which gave them a pleading emotional timbre that connected with millions of listeners. It was a long slog from the Chess label in the mid-50s though, to an appearance on Jack Paar's Tonight Show where Gordy saw them and ordered his staff to sign them.

What followed were some of the most treasured songs in music history, racked up through the 60s and early 70s, a soundtrack to people's lives around the world. Among their best were "Baby I Need Your Loving" (1964), "Ask The Lonely" (1965), "I Can't Help Myself (Sugar Pie Honey Bunch)" (1965), "It's The Same Old Song" (1965), "Reach Out I'll Be There" (1966), "Standing in the Shadows of Love"(1966), "Bernadette" (1967), "7 Rooms of Gloom" (1967), "Ain't No Woman (Like The One I've Got)" (1973) and "Are You Man Enough?" (1973).

During their classic Motown phase the labels cadre of songwriters, producers, and arrangers built towering edifices of sound for the Tops and Stubbs in particular to inhabit, making them a linchpin group along with The Temptations and The Supremes in the label's golden age. By the late 60s though the Four Tops felt that they were missing out on some of the best material and jumped ship for ABC-Dunhill in 1972 rather than move with the label from Detroit to Los Angeles.

Though the big hits stopped coming by the 80s, the group kept touring with al of their original members intact - a rarity. Only when Lawrence Payton died did the group add a new member. As Stubbs took I'll with cancer, he too had to step back in recent years.

Stubbs also forayed into film in the mid 80s as the voice of the man-eating plant Audrey II  in the musical film Little Shop of Horrors.

Some of the best:

Movie News: Edie Adams - Singer, Comic Actress - Dies

Edie Adams for me will always be inextricably linked to the late great Ernie Kovacs, her first husband. Her bombshell looks and witty vivaciousness were a wonderful component of his grown-up, surreal groundbreaking TV show.

She did have a thriving career in the 60s in films like The Apartment,  It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad, World and The Best Man. She was also famous as the Muriel Cigars girl. 

Kovacs died in 1961 in a car crash (tragically their daughter also died in a car accident in the early 80s.) Here she is with Kovacs on the very last episode of Lucille Ball and Desi Arnaz's pioneering sitcom. I think this is a most appropriate clip and fittingly bittersweet.

Movie News: Paul Newman - Movie Star, Philanthropist, Race Car Driver, Political Activist, Dead at 83

Paul Newman, a movie star who straddled the end years of golden Hollywood and the new Hollywood era of anti-heroes, has died after a battle with cancer. Newman was one of the great iconic actors in film with classic roles in films in every decade through the 1990s. He was an actor who transcended his own great looks to find great depth, humanity and emotion in role after role - never succumbing to the easy Oscar bait or vanity project that could so easily have been a stock in trade. Not every movie was great, but he was great in every movie.

As a philanthropist he set up Newman's Own to sell the salad dressing he used to make for his family to the wider public - with hundreds of millions of dollars of proceeds going to charity. The Hole in The Wall Camps were set up for children with serious medical needs and both are to continue on.

As a race car driver and teamowner of the legendary Newman/Hass Team Newman was greeted with grudging respect at first and then admiration as he proved himself to be a gifted driver. Last month he set out for a lst few laps at Lime Rock race track in Connecticut, fitting for a man who won dozens of races -- most recently the 1995 IMSA GTS Class at the 24 Hours of Daytona when he was 70.

As a political activist he worked on behalf of antiwar Democrat Gene McCarthy in the 1960s and when he found himself on President Richard Nixon's enemies list declared it "...the single highest honor I've ever received..."

Back to his film work anyone loking to start to appreciate the work of the man has many places to start. 1954's Somebody Up There Likes Me showed Newman inheriting a role and a bit of an acting style from James Dean as boxer Rocky Graziano in a very traditional biopic. Newman is hot in every sense of the word in The Long Hot Summer a pulpy Faulkner adaptation that united him for the first time with future wife Joanne Woodward. His troubled brooding was center stage in Cat on a Hot Tin Roof as the Palinesquely named Brick, black sheep chafing under the control of Big Daddy in Tenessee Willaims hothouse melodrama.

After a few more smoldering hunk roles and a try at something meatier in Preminger's flawed Exodus Newman raised his art to a new level as poll shark Fast Eddie Felsen in The Hustler in 1961. Newman was always willing to show you the fatal flaw in his charismatic creations and Felsen's pigheaded cockiness was his first great example. With that in mind 1963s Hud was a ballsy bid to scotch his pretty boy image by playing an uregenerate bastard, a swaggering rapist and con man. Audiences loved it. It would be his third Oscar nomination for best actor.

The flawed detective flick Harper was followed by the flawed Hitchcock of Torn Curtain but then came Cool Hand Luke in 1967, a prison drama that cemented Newman's new status as one of the first of a coming wave of antiheros in tune with the anti-establishment 60s. His brilliant performance challenging the prison authorities and by inference society at large is indelible.

In 1969 came his first pairing with Robert Redford in the delightful Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid a new style Western that prefigured both the the buddy movies of the 80s and the blockbusters of the 90s. Another western of sorts, John Huston's 1972 quirky The Life and Times of Judge Roy Bean was less succesful in every way but a great central performance by Newman.

By 1973 and a string of mixed films he was ready to reteam with Redford in the terrific period flick The Sting, a romp full of double and triple crosses and cons galore. He worked with Robert Altman in 1976's polemical and fascinating Buffalo Bill and The Indians.

In 1977 Newman did Slap Shot, one of my personal favorites and one of the best sports movies ever as the star of a rustbest hockey team a few games away from total insolvency.

1981 gave two strong performances, Fort Apache, The Bronx as a good cop in a bad precinct in an even worse part of a bad borough of New York and Absence of Malice a somewhat silly prestige production enlivened by Newman and co-star Sally Field. The following year delivered Sidney Lumet's The Verdict with Newman excelling as an alcoholic lawyer ina screenplay by David Mamet.

In 1986 Martin Scorsese was able to entice Newman back to the Felsen character from The Hustler this time as mentor to cocky young Tom Cruise (who doesn't approach Newman's abilities at any point). Newman would win his first Oscar for the film.

In 1989 he was randy and salty as Louisiana governer Earl Long in Blaze.

Two of my favorite late career perfs by Newman were in 1994. The Hudsucker Proxy had Newman as Sidney J. Musberger in the Coen Brothers big business romp and he amply adjusts his acting style to their exaggerated mileu to great affect. He was also the grounded center of Robert Benton's sweet drama Nobody's Fool as a repentant aging ne'er do well.

With the passing of Newman one of the film world's most iconic members is gone. The humanity he brought to every single role was matched by his love of humanity itself. What a loss.

Music News: Norman Whitfield - Motown Legend - Dies

Norman Whitfield - a key member of Motown's late 60s assembly line as a writer/producer, is dead at age 65. At Motown he co-wrote classics like "I Heard it Through the Grapevine", "Just my Imagination", "Ball of Confusion", "Papa Was a Rolling Stone", "Cloud Nine", and "War" pushing the staid label into more socially conscious territory. This was echoed by his production work which took on a funkier thicker density as the 70s dawned. Away from Motown he would score hits like Rose Royce's "Car Wash" in 1977.

Music News: Pink Floyd Keyboardist Rick Wright Playing The Great Gig in The Sky

Rick Wright, a founding member of British rock band Pink Floyd, died today of cancer. He was 65. Wright was a versatile and innovative keyboardist with an influence that ranged beyond Floyd's progressive rock into techno and electronica.

Wright co-wrote several Floyd songs including the classics "Us and Them" from 1973's Dark Side of the Moon and "Shine on You Crazy Diamond" from the 1975 Wish You Were Here album. He also wrote the stirring gospel tinged track "Great Gig in the Sky" on Dark Side. "Diamond" was a tribute to Pink Floyd's original leader Syd Barrett who left the group in the late 60s having spiraled ever downward into a debilitating mental illness. Barrett died in 2006.

Wright wasn't immune to the interband tension between Roger Waters and David Gilmour. After walking out of sessions for The Wall in 1979 he returned to play live shows on the subsequent tour as a session musician. He was re-instated as a fulltime Floyd member after Waters was kicked out of the band.

"The Great Gig in The Sky" live from 1973


"Us and Them" live from 1988 (a tour I saw them on)


"On the Run" live from 1973


"Shine On You Crazy Diamond" live from 1994

Books: David Foster Wallace Dead of Suicide - Doesn't Leave 8,000 Word Note with Footnotes

Hyper-referential post-modern author David Foster Wallace ended his own life this weekend. Best known for his half-ton Pynchon in a blender Infinite Jest he also wrote a number of short story collections and essays. My own favorite is one my wife had to entice me to read, A Supposedly Fun Thing I'll Never Do Again an essay collection that suggested that new journalism and non fiction were perhaps the richest vein in Wallace's repertoire.

Though I found Infinite Jest relatively impenetrable it did have some very funny passages and wonderful turns of phrase as did all of his published writing. It also helped to usher in, for better or worse, the McSweeney's phase of literary stardom with fellow writers Dave Eggers, Nick Hornby, Jonathan Lethem, and Michael Chabon among others.

Books: Fletch, Flynn Creator Gregory Mcdonald Dies at 72

Author Gregory Mcdonald who created the characters of investigative reporter Irwin Maurice (I.M.) Fletcher - better known as Fletch - and Boston's own Inspector Flynn - has died of cancer. Fletch was a sensation when he was introduced to readers in 1974, spawning numerous books and two films starring Chevy Chase. Chase caught the hip deadpan intelligence of his character's literary origins but added the silly disguises and aliases that marked the films.

Inspector Flynn was a family man police inspector and a bit of an enigma - his mysterious past and Irish brogue setting him apart even in that most Irish of American cities - Boston. Flynn was introduced in the book Confess, Fletch and soon merited a few books of his own.

Both series petered out a bit in quality by the 90s and it's only recently that they've been re-issued. The 70s-era titles are well worth reading for fans of offbeat mystery.

Appreciation: Don LaFontaine - The Man, The Voice, The Legend

Famed voiceover star Don LaFontaine has died. LaFontaine is the ubiquitous rumbling gravelly voice of countless movie trailers. He's most famous for the magic formulation of "In a world where..." which bracketed so many trailers for films good and bad.

Appreciation: Jerry Reed Dead at 72

Jerry Reed, an amiable country star who hit it big with tongue-in-cheek novelties like "Amos Moses" and "The Bird" in the 1970s before transitioning to roles in movies like the Smokey and The Bandit series has died. Reed's hangdog style, lightning guitar playing and drawling singing style were a welcome presence on country radio and his low-key acting radiated an authenticity that "professionals" have a hard time matching.

Here's some of the best of Jerry:

Music News: Soul Superstar Isaac Hayes Dies

An Appreciation by Noah Mallin

Isaac Hayes, the biggest star of latter-day Stax records and a pioneer of the smooth string-filled soul that would mutate into disco, has died. Hayes also found a second life on film and television, most memorably voicing Chef on TV's South Park - a role that brought him to the attention of a whole new generation of fans. His belief in Scientology led him to walk away from the ribald show in protest of an episode ridiculing the the L. Ron Hubbard founded group.

Hayes co-wrote several of the hit 60s singles of Memphis groundbreaking Stax records including "Soul Man' - made famous by Sam & Dave. His own music took a cue from white psychedelia, stretching out song lengths and slowing down tempos while his rich baritone purred and often spoke lengthy introductions. Though disco would speed tempos in the other direction, the long songs and thick arrangements were clearly ingredients and Hayes loverman style would be emulated most famously by Barry White.

Hayes sense of style was unparalleled - proudly bald and black, his image was as important as his music.

Hayes biggest hit was the smash "Theme from Shaft", from the film of the same name starring Richard Roundtree. The cross-format number one hit not only cemented Hayes stardom but also led to a string of soul and r & b singers like James Brown and Marvin Gaye turning to so-called "blaxploitation" flick soundtracks as sources of hits. The song won Hayes both a Grammy and an Academy Award.

As an actor in addition to South Park on television he had memorable roles in the South Park film, in John Carpenter's Escape From New York driving a Cadillac with chandeliers on its fenders and in the blaxploitation satire I'm Gonna Git You Sucka.

His best albums include the aforementioned Shaft, the double LP Black Moses, and teh fantastic 1969 Hot Buttered Soul which contains a definite version of Burt Bacharach's "Walk on By".

Music News: Songwriter and Singer Robert Hazard Dies

An Appreciation by Noah Mallin

Back when Cyndi Lauper was going to be the superstar of the 80s and Madonna was a ho-bag writhing around in her undies, Lauper was riding a wave based on her debut album much of which consisted of cover songs. The least likely was "Girls Just Want to Have Fun" a very 80s femme freedom anthem that was originally written and recorded by Philadelphia songwriter and musician Robert Hazard. Hazard with his band The Heroes had his own hit with "Escalator of Life" in 1982.

Hazard, like Lauper's backing band The Hooters, was a regular on the Philly and South Jersey music scene and even as further success eluded him kept singing, writing and playing, moving to Florida and pursuing a country inflected folk sound.

"Escalator of Life" is a great lesser-known new wave gem with some very clever lyrics and of course "Girls" is a timeless classic. Below is "Escalator" and "Change Reaction."

TV: Estelle Getty, Salty Irascable Golden Girl, Dies

An Appreciation by Noah Mallin

Estelle Getty, who donned a white wig to play Sophia Petrillo on The Golden Girls in the 1980s and practically stole the show from her three better known castmates, has died. Getty portrayed the mother of Bea Arthur's character though in real life Arthur was actually older. Getty's broad zinger fueled performance netted her seven Emmy noms and one win. In the long years before her Golden Girls success and her initial Broadway stardom in her 60s, she worked as a secretary to make ends meet. Getty has the distinction in starring in one of my prize Thanksgiving turkeys from last year with Sylvester Stallone, Stop! Or My Mom Will Shoot.

The Golden Girls which in re-runs is one of the only watchable things on Lifetime was a proto- Sex in The City with frank talk about sex, relationships, and aging from a women's perspective. Getty, who was integral to what made the show so funny was a genuine TV pioneer.

Comedy: Legendary Comic George Carlin Dies

By Noah Mallin

I remember watching HBO as a little kid and being totally blown away by the ribald, mind-expanding commentary of George Carlin, who died today at 70. I collected a whole bunch of his cassettes by the time I was 14 including Toledo Window Box, Class Clown, FM & AM, and An Evening with Wally Londo Featuring Bill Slaszo.

Lenny Bruce had opened the door to a new style of comedy in the 1960s before his tragic death, and he payed dearly for it. Carlin was already doing comedy at this point but in a gentle, observational vein more reminiscent of Bob Newhart. By the early 70s he had transformed into a counterculture hero, sticking it to religion, government, and especially the foibles of everyday life.

He suffered his share of abuse and arrests for his profanity-laced material, as Bruce had. He also shared Bruce's penchant for drug use if not for the types.

His most famous routine is the "Seven Dirty Words" which actually led to a Supreme Court case upholding a fine against a radio station which dared to play his bit detailing the words you couldn't say on television.

Carlin would win a boatload of Grammys for his records and Cable Ace awards for his 14(!) HBO specials. He grew crankier and more philosophical as he got older but he was almost always able to locate the humor in his observations of everyday life.

There is almost no comedian working today who wasn't influenced in some way by Carlin.

Music: Bo Diddley, Founder of Rock and Inventor of a Beat, Dead

An Appreciation by Noah Mallin

When the pioneers of rock n' roll are mentioned Chuck Berry and Elvis Presley often vie for the top of the list. The late great Bo Diddley however was just as important to music. The singer, songwriter and guitarist was one of the greatest American musicians. It's one thing to name a song after yourself (which he did frequently). It's another to invent a beat. And not just any beat.

The so-called Bo Diddley beat (which had a long complex derivation before he popularized it) would underpin songs from Buddy Holly, The Rolling Stones, The Beatles, The Who, The New York Dolls, The Ramones, The Jesus and Mary Chain, George Michael and countless others.

He didn't just invent the beat, he invented himself as a glasses wearing swaggering woman-taming cowboy with a homemade square guitar. His sound was actually more varied than legend suggests ranging from ballads to outright rockers. With sidekick Jerome Green he developed an outrageous call and response that echoed in the rough and clownish contrast of Chuck D. and Flava Flav in Public Enemy. His chicken-scratch guitar style prefigured funk and he toured with a sexy female guitarist in the late 50s and early 60s who could play just as sharp as she looked named Lady Bo. In short, he was the coolest man in the world.

In 1979 The Clash asked him to open up for their US tour, but by then he was already a legend freighting his substantial back catalog of songs with him from concert to concert. It's that catalog that survives him and defines his legacy.

Neophytes should immediately seek out the two-disc Chess Records anthology and then the fantastic Bo Diddley is a Gunslinger LP to truly appreciate a musical giant who is with us no more.

Culture: Did I Mention That Harvey Korman was in The Star Wars Holiday Special?

By Noah Mallin

The late, great Harvey Korman did an awful lot of work and we were all the luckier for it. Still, nothing quite reaches the surreal heights of his appearance in alien drag in one of his three roles in George Lucas' disowned Stars Wars Holiday Special. Watch and marvel:

Culture: Comic Actor Harvey Korman Dies

An Appreciation by Noah Mallin

Harvey Korman, one of the stars of Carol Burnett's long-running TV variety show and of numerous films, died today. On Burnett's show, Korman could often be seen cracking up at the antics of co-star Tom Conway. The two became a duo, flying around the country in recent years to perform together.

Korman also shined in films where he specialized in deeply demented authority figures, not unlike another tall comic actor from across the pond John Cleese. This can best be seen in two outstanding performances for Mel Brooks -- as Hedley Lamarr in the Western spoof Blazing Saddles and as Dr. Charles Montague in the Hitchcock takeoff High Anxiety.

In Saddles Korman got mileage out of his character's name ("It's HedLEY, HedLEY!") and delivered this priceless rejoinder to the idea of killing the town of Rock Ridge's firstborn sons,"Too Jewish." In Anxiety the seemingly buttoned down Doctor goes gaga for Cloris Leachman's dominatrix Nurse Diesel.

Korman did a great deal of television in addition to his stint with Burnett. This includes doing the voice of The Great Gazoo on The Flintstones as well as appearances on The Munsters, F-Troop, The Love Boat, Ellen and on ER. He also played Bud Abbot in the TV movie Bud and Lou and appeared on the now notorious Star Wars Holiday Special.

On the Burnett Show, Korman was very very funny but also took such evident delight in his fellow performers. The famous clip of Burnett as Scarlett O' Hara is that much funnier for Korman breaking up as Rhett.

Film: Actor/Director Sydney Pollack Dies

By Noah Mallin

Sydney Pollack, best known for the big budget star-studded films he made as a director, has died at age 73. He was also a welcome presence as an actor throughout the world of film and television, appearing memorably in his own Tootsie, Woody Allen's Husbands and Wives, Michael Clayton and on the programs Will & Grace and The Sopranos among many others.

Pollack essentially straddled two worlds as a director. Like Sidney Lumet and John Frankenheimer he had cut his teeth directing for television before moving to film in the 60s but Pollack's specialty was the "prestige picture" -- usually big stars set against an inherently dramatic backdrop. The prestige pic was more often associated with an older generation of Hollywood director like Stanley Kramer. This didn't always lead to great cinema as Pollack was the first to admit. Films like Random Hearts, The Interpreter and Havana demonstrated the bloat that crept in too easily on this type of film.

On the other hand the harrowing dance-a-thon They Shoot Horses, Don't They?, the spectacular Robert Redford thriller Three Days of The Condor, the anomalous Dustin Hoffman comedy Tootsie, and the sudsy Oscar-bait romance of Out of Africa were memorable high points. His other film's include his first -- The Slender Thread in 1965 which starred Sydney Poitier as a suicide hotline operator, a well-known uncredited stint on the Burt Lancaster film The Swimmer (1968), both mountain man drama Jeremiah Johnson (1972) and Barbra Streisand romance weepie The Way We Were (1973) with frequent star Redford, The Yakuza (1974) with Robert Mitchum, a 1995 remake of the classic Sabrina and his final film, a documentary Sketches of Frank Gehry in 2006.

Though it's as a director that he's been best-known and most rewarded for Pollack initially started his career as an actor, and its as an actor that he has most consistently excelled for me. He can be slimily sinister or amoral (as in Micheal Clayton or Changing Lanes) uptight (Tootsie), a keeper of wisdom who may not be entirely trustworthy (Sopranos, Eyes Wide Shut) a flawed but lovable best friend or father figure (Will & Grace, Husbands and Wives). He was one of those actors who immediately made whatever scene they are in that much better. He was utterly believable in every role he played.

Film: Heston Dies -- Officially OK to Pry Gun From His Hands Now

An Appreciation by Noah Mallin

Actor, Civil Rights activist and former President of the National Rifle Association Charlton Heston has died at the age of 84. Heston's greatest stardom was in the 1960s and 1970s when he starred in films like Planet of The Apes and Earthquake.

Heston's political views, once liberal and pro gun control, morphed as his career cooled in the late 70s and he became a die-hard conservative opposing abortion and gun control.

Heston started in film in a silent production of Peer Gynt at the age of 16 done in 1941 by Northwestern University. His official debut was as Antony is a low-budget Chicago set Julius Caeser in 1950. It was his performance in Cecil B. DeMille's Academy Award winning The Greatest Show on Earth that made him a star.

In DeMille's final film The Ten Commandments (1956) he was a memorable Moses, competing with a bravura red sea parting and a ridiculous performance by Edward G. Robinson.

In 1958 came Orson Welles' brilliant Touch of Evil with Heston playing a Mexican born lawman south of the border with new wife Janet Leigh and stuck in Welles sinister web. Heston brings verve to his role as a paragon of straight-arrow justice in Welles dark depraved world.

He won an Oscar in 1959 for Ben-Hur an epic set at the time of Jesus and featuring the now famous chariot race. Ben-Hur became known later for it's homosexual subtext set forth by co-screenwriter Gore Vidal, and which Heston vehemently denied. Still he gives a riveting performance in a big overstuffed epic, something that would become a specialty for him in films like Antony Mann's El Cid (1962) and as John the Baptist in The Greatest Story Ever Told (1965).

Planet of the Apes in 1968 took Heston to a new pinnacle of fame in one of his best films as an astronaut who lands on the titular simian world. The film was massively successful and Heston helped sell the inverted racial allegory with a particularly bullheaded performance.

1971 saw him starring in The Omegaman a film based on the same Richard Matheson source as Will Smith's recent film I Am Legend but done in a very different way (think albinos with afros). His last great sci-fi-er was Soylent Green as a detective in a dystopian world uncovering a major conspiracy -- it's now best known for his plaintive wailed discovery of what the ubiquitous food source Soylent Green is actually made of.

Heston benefited from the disaster craze of the 70s in Skyjacked, Airport '75 and Earthquake. Though he would continue to work well into the 90s in films like Wayne's World 2 and True Lies he had become a celebrity first and foremost.

He also had a short run on TV's Dynasty and starred in knockoff soap The Colbys, which had a brief life.

Design: Claus Luthe, Star-crossed BMW Designer, Dies

By Noah Mallin

Former Head BMW designer and VW/Audi designer Claus Luthe has died at age 75. His single most classic design is the NSU Ro80 from 1967, a radical rotary-engined aerodynamic sedan that became a touchstone for many automotive designs of the 1980s and 90s including much of the Ford lineup and Audi's 100/5000.

The Ro80

Sadly the pioneering rotary engine was one of many quality sore spots that led to the Ro80's failure in the market, and NSU's takeover by Volkswagen. Volkswagen quickly made use of Luthe's talents on a variety of models across both their VW and Audi range including the first generation Volkswagen Polo and Audi 50.

Perhaps his best car of the period was the Audi 100, a lithe second generation version of their top of the range sedan. Sold in the U.S, as the 5000 it would eventually be supplanted by a car that ironically advanced most of the initial design innovations of his Ro80.

The Audi 100

In 1976 he jumped ship to BMW where he oversaw a crisply tailored evolutionary approach that coincided with the remarkable rise in world stature for the Bavarian firm which had long struggled in the shadow of Mercedes and Volkswagen.

Under his leadership, the BMW design team codified the "same sausage, different length" philosophy in which standard cues were applied to different platform sizes. His first major BMW was the 1981 E28 platform 5-series. The conservatively bluff design seems to be the antithesis of the groundbreaking Ro80 but it's distinctive elegance and menacing aspect when tricked out as the top of the range M5 made it a hit.

The BMW 5 Series

His third generation 5-series added some modern aerodynamic cues that would be fully developed into the stunning 1991 3-series re-do. By the time that model hit the market though Luthe had resigned from BMW after having been convicted in the killing of his son during an argument over the son's drug use. He continued as a consultant throughout the next decade with BMW however.

The 1991 BMW 3 Series

Film: Filmmaker and Blacklist Survivor Jules Dassin Dies at 96

An Appreciation by Noah Mallin

These last few weeks have been something of a deathwatch at Planet of Sound with great masters going left and right. Now, just a week after one of his great leading men died, writer, actor and director Jules Dassin has gone.

That leading man was Richard Widmark, indelibly brilliant in Night and The City, Dassin's bleak London-set noir and the last film he would make before his blacklisted exile in Paris.

His first feature film, Nazi Agent in 1942 was an unusually fast-paced potboiler for staid MGM. Despite the silliness of it's twin switching Nazi tricking plot it's anti-fascist stance was consistent with the views Dassin would espouse for the rest of his life.

In 1947 he made the searing prison drama Brute Force starring Burt Lancaster. Though some of the themes are laid on a bit thick (this must be the most innocent group of prisoners ever) the harsh contrast between the unhinged prison administrators and the desperate prisoners is memorable, as are the stellar performances and Moody cinematography.

The Naked City, made the following year, was a groundbreaking police procedural and a classic of American cinema. Before the postwar period studio films were usually setbound, with a modicum of location shooting added for flavor. Dassin used real New York settings exclusively for Naked City, which effected a documentary like realism that revolutionized the industry. The city itself became a character with the intricate plot allowing a peek into the lives of New Yorkers of every stripe. The exciting climax on the Williamsburg Bridge is justifiably celebrated as a great moment in film.

The follow-up, Thieves Highway, was a gritty drama of gangsters and revenge, with a nasty Lee J. Cobb as a crooked trucker and Richard Conte as the man seeking revenge on him while getting pulled into the muck himself. Prefiguring in some ways the themes of both On The Waterfront and Francis Coppola's Godfather films, its stature has grown over the years.

His last pre-blacklist film, 1950's Night and The City, may also be his best. Richard Widmark gives a tricky morally ambiguous performance as small time hood Harry Fabian -- a man determined to wrest a bigger slice of the pie only to find himself as a main ingredient in it. The extreme bleakness of the film turned off mainstream audiences but stimulated filmmakers like Martin Scorsese who would apply some of that noir bite to 70s classics like Mean Streets and Taxi Driver. A tremendously influential and watchable film.

Dassin was named by fellow director Edward Dmytryk as having joined the Communist party in the 1930s during testimony in front of the House Un-American Activities Committee. Dassin could see that his career had been torpedoed and he faced the prospect of worse punishment by fleeing to France despite only speaking a smattering of the language.

France was beginning to experience a homegrown crop of directors like Godard that were influenced heavily by the noir staples turned out by Hollywood directors like Dassin, whom they considered to be autuers. Dassin would return to filmmaking before long, making his comeback with Rififi ( Du Rififi Chez les Hommes in its native title ) in 1955. A meaty heist film with a bravura nearly silent robbery as its centerpiece, it echoes many of the notes of hopelessness and dread that appeared in Night and The City. Again, the influence on future filmmakers like Scorsese, Sidney Lumet and Quentin Tarantino is unmistakable in its frank violence and fatalist themes.

He Who Must Die (1957) teamed him with his future wife Melina Mercouri and was cited by Dassin as his favorite of his own works. A complicated tale of power and morality set in Turkish occupied Crete, the story of an authority-defying priest who causes a town to take sides must have hit home for the exiled Dassin.

The audacious Never on Sunday was a massive international hit. Dassin cast himself as an enthusiast of Greek culture who travels there in hopes of pinpointing why the luster of the ancients seems to be lacking in its present-day citizens. Fetching Mercouri plays the no-nonsense prostitute that he fixates on as the object of his educational efforts. The Pygmalion inspired comedy was a tour-de-force for Mercouri.

Dassin and Mercouri

Dassin continued his lighter touch with a wryly subtle parody of his own Rififi in 1964. Topkapi had several touches that were tongue-in-cheek set-ups of the earlier film and starred Mercuri again (as was becoming customary) along with Peter Ustinov who would win an Oscar as one of the heisters.

Dassin and Mercori were exiled from his wife's country of Greece where they both served as thorns in the side of the fascist military junta. His 1974 film The Rehearsal dramatized the uprising of students against the military but the junta lost power at the same time as the film's release. They both returned to Greece for good.

Mercouri died in 1994 but her name lived on not just in film but in the foundation Dassin ran and which became a driving force for the return of Greek antiquities.

Clips:
The closing sequence for The Naked City:



Dassin and Mercouri in Never on Sunday: