Dog Star Omnibus: Anthony B. Richmond

I figured it was high time to give Chicago some Scenic Route love. Not only is it one of the most photogenic and varied urban landscapes in the country, captured in its many distinct eras as much as any of the cities covered in these pages, it's also the Dog Star Omnibus Base of Operations. So here's some hometown love, courtesy of:

(1992)

I'd always intended to cover Candyman for the Scenic Route, but my first choice for tonight's entry was Cooley High, the 1975 coming-of-age film written by Eric Monte. But the print I have is too muddy for effective Scenic Routing.

Alas.

You can get a good idea, though, of what that Cooley High blog might've looked like with a crisp transfer here. Which brings up something I wanted to mention: the whole Scenic Route schtick (celebrating the fashions, landscapes, cars, and vibes of a bygone age via the cinematic record) is explored much more comprehensively in a surprising number of blogs out there. The one immediately aforelinked is one of them; here's another. I occasionally think I should spruce this series up - get out there and take pictures of my own if the film was shot in Chicago, research the history of architecture and development in any other city, read the critical literature about gentrification, track down the location scouting notes of any of these things, quote Tom Wolfe's From Bauhaus to Our House more, throw around Baron Haussman's or Daniel Burnham's name, etc. Then I google it and see these other blogs and breathe a sigh of relief - they're all so good that it'd be redundant of me to even try. Sweet! I can focus on what I really want to do, which is to just screencap at will and not worry too much about the other stuff.

"The Candyman, a murderous soul with a hook for a hand, is accidentally summoned to reality by a skeptic grad student researching the monster's myth."

Shot on location at Cabrini-Green, mostly demolished now. Candyman is one of the last films to capture it.

What are these machines?

Giant paper-clip decor never really caught on, in the 90s or anytime, really. (High-waisted jeans were ubiquitous, of course, but thankfully no more.)

I somehow never saw Candyman until 2010 (ditto for Cooley High, actually, and I have my wife to thank for showing me both). Rogert Ebert has a thoughtful review of it here. It's not bad - it makes little sense, but a) neither does Freddy Krueger or Chucky, and b) like the Nightmare on Elm Street or Child's Play movies, they're (mostly) entertaining.

Speaking of not making sense:

THIS MAKES NO SENSE

At movie's end (spoiler I guess), the entire Cabrini Green community turns out for Virginia Madsen's character's funeral. Least they could do after she died saving one of their children, right? But then, the two that benefited most personally from her self-sacrifice / know the real reasons for the supernatural terror, for some reason toss the killer's hook into the grave.

Thus ensuring her ghost will wander angry between the worlds, ready to be used as a spirit of vengeance against any who say her name into a mirror.

I mean, from a sequel/ horror-movie-twist-ending POV, it makes a modicum of sense. But from no other POV.

SO MUCH SMOKING

So, so much.

CAST AND CAMEOS

Was this Virginia Madsen's last leading role?

I mean, she's starred in a hundred things since Candyman and is or was definitely an A-lister, I just mean as a lead. I'm sure I'm forgetting something big - please feel free to correct/ abuse me in the comments. On the strength of this performance, though, she should have gotten more. (She was a great Queen Hippolyta in the underrated Wonder Woman animated movie.)