Shogun and More

Shogun is back. The mini-series based on James Clavell’s novel encores, starting tonight, on the pay-cable channel Encore - nearly 32 years to the day that it was first broadcast on NBC.

The series, starring Richard Chamberlain was a huge hit at the time. It certainly was with me. I had read the novel and thoroughly enjoyed the television version. I am interested to see how well it plays three decades later.

Chamberlain, as James Blackthorne, is a British navigator shipwrecked in Japan. Blackthorne, who comes to be known as Anjin-san (Pilot in Japanese) immerses himself in Japanese culture becoming a Samurai and assisting Toranaga (Toshiro Mifune) in becoming Shogun.

The series was indeed a huge hit. I even remember seeing Toranaga For President bumper stickers, at the time.

Clavell wrote a number of novels set in Asia, including King Rat, about a Japanese prison camp in Singapore; and Tai Pai and Noble House both set in Hong Kong. he also co-wrote the screenplay for The Great Escape.

I met Chamberlain, after he returned from shooting the series in Japan. He was doing a play at the Solari Theatre in Beverly Hills and I was helping my friend Steve shoot publicity stills for the show. We each worked house left and house right with cameras, firing away through rehearsals.

The play was Fathers and Sons by Thomas Babe (there are a number of plays titled Fathers and Sons). The play is set in Deadwood in the 1880s. Chamberlain is Wild Bill Hickok. The story revolves around an attempt by Jack McCall – ostensibly Hickok’s illegitimate son - to kill Wild Bill because he abandoned Jack and his mother and somehow causing Jack to sleep with his mother.

It is Oedipus in the Old West.

Directed by Robert Alan Ackerman and featuring what seemed like every western character actor in Hollywood, it also starred Dixie Carter as Calamity Jane. She was terrific. I had not met her before, but we spent a good part of the afternoon together having a long lunch while we waited for some tech issues to be dealt with before another run-through at which I would again be shooting photos. I think I was a little smitten. It was a great afternoon.

Steve and I shot a number of plays for Rudy Solari, including Simon Gray’s bleak comedy, Otherwise Engaged with William Shatner. It was odd casting and I don’t think it quite worked. Captain Kirk as an urbane London publisher who only wants to spend the afternoon listening to classical music: I think you see my point.

The Solari Theatre is no more, it is now the Beverly Hill’s Canon Theatre and Rudy Solari, who had a long career as an actor on television, passed away in 1991. He was only 56

Denver Film Festival Day 3

Hal Holbrook. What a wonderful actor. He received the 2009 Excellence in Acting Award for a lifetime of wonderful performances. This accompanied the screening of his newest film, "That Evening Sun". I was interested to hear him talk about acting (as I always am when actors talk about acting). I was intrigued to hear him say (at the age of 84) that his director taught him something about acting; a director who cannot be even half Holbrook's age. He said that the director, Scott Teems, taught him 'not to protect the character.' Think about that, particularly if you are an actor, it is great advice.

It is clear that Mr. Holbrook has great reverence for acting (he talked about making certain that you have respect for the audience) and a great love of his wife, Dixie Carter. She is in the film but was not in attendance at the screening.

Seeing him and then her on screen reminded me of when I met her. It was in the middle 80s sometime, in Los Angeles. We had lunch, I think, but then I was also shooting pictures of a play she was in. My friend Steve and I were shooting publicity and production stills for a play titled "Fathers and Sons" with Richard Chamberlain as Wild Bill Hickock and Dixie Carter as Calamity Jane. It was at the Solari Playhouse in Beverly Hills and the lunch and discussion with her at some place around the corner from the Solari was one of those great get-togethers I remember. I was quite taken with her (as is easy to be) - and she was terrific as Calamity Jane.

Terry and I also saw an interesting documentary (we always try to see a lot of documentaries) titled "So Right, So Smart". It is the best 'sales job' for business and industry to implement green practices I have ever seen - a capitalist case for instituting sustainable practices.