Movie Time: Five Minutes to Live

It's Movie Time! 

Today's cinema themed post takes us back to 1961 for a crime thriller that features the film debut of Johnny Cash.

You mean "Ring of Fire" Johnny Cash?

"I Walk the Line" Johnny Cash?

That Johnny Cash?

Yep, that Johnny Cash. 

And get a load of this: he plays a psycho-killer!! 

Not Johnny Cash?

Yep, he does.

From 1961, it's Five Minutes To Live! 

Roll the credits! 

Hey, is that Johnny Cash singing the theme song?

Yes it is! 

Fred Dorella has a plan to rob a bank. 

He's gonna walk into the bank by himself and speak with Ken Wilson, the vice president of the bank who will give him a sack of money and Fred will simply walk out.

Now why will Ken just give Fred a sack full of money?

That's where Johnny Cabot comes in.

Johnny Cabot (played by Johnny Cash) is a high strung psychopath, always teetering on the edge of a violent outburst.

After Ken has gone off to work and little Bobby has scampered off to school, Johnny lures Ken's wife Nancy into her home and holds her hostage with instructions to kill her if Fred doesn't call every five minutes.

After each phone call from Fred, Johnny reminds Nancy she has 5 minutes to live if Fred doesn't call again.

Hey! That's the title of the movie!

Johnny also sings to Nancy part of the theme song too! 

Well, surely Ken won't let Nancy die, right?

Well, it seems that Ken has a mistress he has been scheming to run off with. He's even cooked up a scheme to run off with his girlfriend to Las Vegas but wasn't sure what to do with the wife.

Crazy Cabot putting a bullet between her eyes would solve all sorts of problems.  

Fred had been casing the Wilson household for days and didn't see that twist coming. But he thinks that maybe Ken doesn't have the guts to see through letting Nancy get murdered.

Ken tries to stare down Fred but yeah, he gives in with seconds to spare. 

"Is this over yet?"  
Sorry, Nancy, no it's not.

But Nancy is far from safe.

Johnny Cabot is walking a razor's edge between barely functioning humanity and a murderous psychotic desire to kill... something. Anything.  He may not want to wait for Fred's phone check in.

While quivering with the need to kill this woman, Johnny spends the time tormenting, torturing her and threatening to sexually assault her.  

While he's successful coerced Ken into handing over a sackful of money, Fred's shifty dodgy self has not escaped the notice of Ken's boss who realizes something is up. 

When the boss intervenes, Ken tries to interfere to help Fred escape to keep Nancy alive. But no go! Fred is arrested and Ken is beside himself with worry that Nancy is going to die when Fred does not make his next phone call.

Back home at hostage central, little Bobby comes home for lunch. (OK, he's a little kid. How did he get out of school to come home for lunch?)

Bobby's presence is a trigger for Johnny's anxiety and pyshosis.  Johnny is prepared to kill anyone at anytime but he's got a thing about kids being in danger that really, really upsets him. A lot!

Then the police show up and Johnny just goes total bug nuts, grabs Bobby as a hostage and attempts to flee. 

The police open fire and what the hell? Bobby gets shot and slumps dead to the ground.

You gotta be kidding me! 

Enraged that the kid got killed, Johnny opens fire on the police who return the favor and down goes Johnny Cabot in a hail of bullets, his evil miserable existence brought to an end.

Oh, don't worry about Bobby. He's seen enough crime shows on TV to know to play dead to escape from Johnny.

Oh, what a scamp! 

And the movie ends with Ken and Nancy going away on a romantic getaway to Las Vegas.  (Hey, that's where he was going to take his mistress, right? Yeah, just don't tell Nancy, OK?)

The "It's That Person Who Was In That Thing" Department

The role of Fred Dorella was played by Vic Tayback. Tayback was one of those character actors who was in a lot of things but mostly came to prominence in the 1970's as diner owner Mel in the TV series Alice. But for us sci-fi nerds, Vic Tayback's most memorable role was as mob boss Krako in the Star Trek episode "A Piece of the Action") – Jojo Krako

Why does li'l Bobby look and sound like Opie Taylor? Because it's future Oscar winning film director Ron Howard.  Ron steals the movie if you ask me. He's such an adorable li'l scamp.

 After it's initial release in 1961, Five Minutes To Live was released again in 1966 under the title Door To Door Maniac. 

The name Cay Forrester appears twice in the credits, once as an actress in the role of Nancy Wilson and secondly as the film's screenwriter. With roles limited for middle aged women in Hollywood, Cay wrote herself a nice juicy dramatic part as the imperiled Nancy.

And how was Johnny Cash as the murderous psycho maniac Johnny Cabot.  He is sufficiently weird and frightening but I will say it's a good thing he had that music career to fall back on.

Let's wrap things up with a trailer for the film's 1966 Door To Door Maniac re-release.

Your Friday Video Link: Skyline Drive

Your Friday Video Link this week is a video of a road trip.

On  May 3, 2024, Meandering Miles on the back of his motorcycle discovered a mysterious road just west of Pueblo, CO.

Skyline Drive is a single lane road that runs for 3 miles up to 800 feet above the canyon floor.

The views are spectacular even if the ride can be a little unnerving.

But see for yourself.  

Anyone who has every ridden with me knows I do NOT like having to cross bridges that are very narrow, very long or very high.

Or worst yet, all three. 

So watching this ride up on a narrow road along a twisty ridge high up in the sky really made my anxiety crawl around inside my skin.

But damn, that is a spectacular view.

Hey, let's ride it again. This time in a CAR! 

Is it scarier from a motorcycle or a car?

The music soundtrack on the 2nd video was a bit much.

I preferred the natural ambiance of the 1st video. 

That is that for this week's Your Friday Video Link.

Until next time....

OH MY GOD!  Let's drive Skyline Drive ONE! MORE! TIME!

This one is with a car AND a drone!

OK, seriously, that is it! 

Until next time, remember to be good to one another. 

Dave-El's Spinner Rack: Batman by Matt Fraction, Jorge Jiménez and Tomeu Morey

Time to take a spin around Dave-El's Good Ol' Spinner Rack. Let's see what's new with  Batman by Matt Fraction, Jorge Jiménez and Tomeu Morey.

Issue #5 starts with Bruce Wayne and Dr. Annika Zeller going out on a....

Is it a date?

Let's see if our billionaire philanthropist and our brilliant neuroscientist can figure it out. 

OK, there seems to be some debate on whether or not this is a date.

Well, the good doctor and her "not a date" Bruce Wayne have other things to worry about when she is targetted by assassins.

Specifically a horde of ninjas with swords on motorcycles and a woman who can transform in to a flock of birds.

Just another goddam night in Gotham City.

Car chases are not an easy thing to effectively pull off in comics but damned if Jorge Jiménez and Tomeu Morey don't draw up quite a doozy of a car chase.

With split seconds to respond to save Dr. Zeller's life, it's up to Bruce Wayne, not his Dark Knight alter ego, to take action.  With super fast stunt driving, running, fighting... careful, Bruce, your cape is showing.

Actually, we go through the whole issue without Batman and it's such a whirlwind of action, mystery and witty banter, I didn't miss 'im.

Hey, are they on a date?

Bruce observes, "Skirt. Heels. You absolutely thought this was a date."

Since every appearance of Dr. Zeller before now had in her baggy pants and crocs, yeah, he may have a point.

Issue #6 gets the Bat back in action as Hugo Strange turns up with his butt ugly Monster Men.

Batman also has to contend with Robin problems.

Damien Wayne is in the shit for calling Bruce Wayne "father" while Damien was dressed as Robin.... right in front of Dr. Zeller.

Later Bruce gives his son a stinging rebuke like something Dr. House would say.  “Science has yet to conceive of a device so sophisticated as to calculate the massive sum of things that you... don’t... know.”

I know some commenters online think Bruce was being too hard on Damien but given Damien's penchant for arrogance and overconfidence, I think he had it coming. It's not the sort of thing he would say to Dick, Jason or Tim.

Speaking of Tim...

And Tim Drake announces he's taking a break from being Robin to spend more time with Bernard, his boyfriend.

Issue #6 ends with the revelation of a current guest in Dr. Zeller's lab where she is working to help cure violent psychosis: it's the Joker.

The Joker is so damn unbiquitous in the DC Universe, it's hard to be too surprised by this revelation.

But I've been more than happy with Matt Fraction's take on Batman so far.

I'm more than willing to give him to benefit of the doubt.

--------------------------------------

Next week in Dave-El's Spinner Rack, you can just go to hell!

With the Justice League! 

What happens when Mr. Terrific leads a team into the very pit of damnation? 

We'll find out next week. 

Absolutely Something

WAR! 

Good god y'all! 

What is it good for?

Absolutely... something?

I'm sure it's something... important.

Hold on, I have a list around here somewhere.

OK, we're several days into this war that is not a war but it is a war unless it's not then maybe....

Stop. Let me try again.

<deep breath>

OK, we're several days into this fuckery...

(Yeah, that's better.) 

Several days into this fuckery in Iran and Donald Trump and his clown car full of snivelling syncophants are tripping over each other why this fuckery is happening and what are the goals of this fuckery and how the fuck will the fuckery end.

One thing is clear: people gonna die! 

     

The United States has had casualties in this fuckery and when asked about them, Lord Farquaad I mean Donald Trump said, "It is what it is."

Such a sensitive caring man, our Li'l Donnie.

Another Trump acolyte posting about the war/fuckery dead added a flag emoji and the comment, "FREEDOM IS NEVER FREE!!!"  

So people are getting injured and dying all because of... something? I swear I had a list somewhere.

I have a list in my post on Saturday that mostly attributed der Führer's motives for this war -slash- fuckery to Trump being pissed off about something.

Yeah, you think I'm just having some fun with you, huh? Donald Trump is focused like a laser on the mission to keep Iran from getting nuclear weapons.

And making them pay for interfering in our 2020 election.

Wait! What?

Yep! Li'l Donnie helpfully added an item to my list by claiming Iran engaged in election interference to make him look bad.

Look, for all the muddle about why Li'l Donnie decided to sick the military on Iran, I still hold to my position I posted about on Saturday that this whole mess owes it's existence for the same reason any mess Trump stirs up tends to exist: to service his ego.

His insatiable desire to look tougher than he is and think he's smarter than he is coupled with his toddler level lack of impulse control is what gets us (as of now)  6 American serivce members dead.

And that school that got shelled that upset Andrea upset on Saturday? That death toll is now up to 153 children.

Dead children! To make Li'l Donnie Trump feel better about himself. 

Meanwhile, the base of MAGA cultists who voted his sorry fat ass into office are fractured.

Some of them distinctly remember Trump telling them there would be no foreign wars on his watch. This attack on Iran feels like he might've been lying to them?

Others are re-writing their memories to twist themselves into bizarre leaps of logic to testify all this mess with Iran is perfectly in line with Trumpian MAGA theology.  

Want another reason why we are are war?

GOD!

Yeah, it seems dome military leaders are telling their troops that this assault on Iran is “all part of God’s divine plan.”

Reportedly one commander extolled his  vision that Trump “has been anointed by Jesus to light the signal fire in Iran to cause Armageddon and mark his return to Earth.”

I understand if none of this is actually making you feel any better.

Yep, we got some nutsy koo-koo Christian fundementalists with their fingers on buttons and triggers just eager to set the world on fire to bring Jesus back.

As if Jesus would want to spend time with these fucking wahoos.

Back here at home, Andrea is worried that all this violence will lead to World War III.

I've tried to re-assure her this dust up will likely stay confined to the Middle East and she shouldn't worry about the conflict expanding out from....

What the fuck? Iran struck Europe?!?!

Yep, Iran launched a drone strike on Cyprus to attack an U.S. army base there.  

So....

I don't think I can cope with this right now.

Tomorrow's blog post is about comic books! YAY!

Batman goes out on a date! That should be fun!! 

Yeah, I'll focus on my comics why the world burns.

Well, I guess it's worth it if Li'l Donnie Trump feels better about himself. 

Tuesday TV Touchbase: Scrubs and The Fall & Rise of Reggie Dinkins

This week's Touchbase takes a look at a couple of sitcom debuts.

Let's start with NBC's  The Fall & Rise of Reggie Dinkins.

This series stars Tracy Morgan as Reggie Dinkins, a once popular and successful NFL quarterback who was brought down by a gambling scandal. Reggie is looking to rehabilitate his image, earn the respect of his son and maybe win back the heart of his ex-wife. So Reggie has decided to make a documentary about his life.

Which brings us to Daniel Radcliffe as Arthur Tobin, an Oscar winning director who has made the questionable life choice of directing this cooky concept.

About halfway through the half hour pilot, my wife Andrea said, "I'm not feeling this."

And I agreed with her.

Not only were there few laughs but I couldn't escape the feeling that this territory had been explored already but on better,funnier shows.

Tracy Morgan playing a guy looking to improve his rep, gain the respect of his kids and the love of his ex? Did that one that on the sadly gone & it seems forgotten The O.G. that ran for 4 seasons on TBS.

Tracy Morgan playing a celebrity past the peak of his fame and lacks all impulse control? Done that on 30 Rock where it was funny.

Andrea was prepared to cut bait half way through the pilot but I presevered to finish the episode which gave us the only real laugh out loud moment, a flashback to Arthur Tobin's post Oscar win gig directing a Marvel movie where he has a total meltdown. 

I find it funny how "Marvel movie" has become a trope in shows about people in show business (actors, directors, etc).  A person landing a "Marvel movie"...

1) has grasped the brass ring of success, achieving a pinnacle of fame and fortune

2) been consigned to the nadir of their career, an interminable purgatory of dread and self loathing.

Or 3) both 1 and 2 at the same time.

Anyway, The Fall & Rise of Reggie Dinkins is not for us. 

Despite all the reviews I've seen that have described this show as sharp, witty, funny.  Well, good for them.

For Andrea and I, this has been the debut of The Fall & Rise of Reggie Dinkins on the Tuesday TV Touchbase.  And it's exit. 

Next up is the return of Scrubs and spoiler: we did feel this one.

It's been 15 years since the series finale of Scrubs at the end of season 8*.

*Wait! Wasn't there a 9th season? Yes, there was and we don't talk about that.

Zach Braff, Donald Faison and Sarah Chalke are back as J.D., Turk and Elliot and some things haven't changed and others have.

The J.D./Turk bromance? Still a thing!

The J.D./Elliot romance? NOT still a thing.

It seems that J.D. and Elliott did get married as glimpsed in J.D.'s flash forward fantasy at the end of season 8 but something somewhere somehow went wrong and J.D. and Elliot are divorced. 

And not amiacably. 

Well, as a fan, I think that sucks. But I do recognize that the new dynamic does provide all sorts of avenues for drama and even comedy in the revived series.

The new Scrubs has Turk and Elliot still working at Sacred Heart Hospital but J.D. has a private practice as a concierge doctor to the idle rich. One of his patients gets admitted to Sacred Heart which brings J.D. back to his old stomping grounds.

Head nurse Carla (who is still married to Turk and they have 4 daughters) is happy to see J.D. again. "Bambi!" (Judy Reyes is listed as a "special guest star" and Carla is a recurring character since Judy is busy over on High Potential. Which will be back with a new episode tonight. Yay!) 

Dr. Cox (John C. McGinley) is still there, tasked with wrangling a new batch of newbies but forced to reign in his ascerbic wit by an ever watchful H.R. person played by Vanessa Bayer (who is always funny in everything she does).

Cox finagles J.D. to return to Sacred Heart and replace Cox as Chief of Medicine.  

Wait! Newbie is in charge of the hospital? OK, there are too many lines on Zach Braff's face to call him "newbie" but yeah, he's in charge now.

J.D.'s flights of fantasy and his need to please people run headlong into the realities of modern healthcare. J.D. comes to terms with the reality there is only so much money and so much time and not everyone gets what they want and they can't save everyone. But he is dedicated to fighting the battles where he can to save as many as he can. J.D.'s sense of hope maybe tempered but it's not gone.  

Like the original series, the revived Scrubs effectively balances comedy with drama, channeling what made the original series work and merging it with a new direction with the trio of J.D., Turk and Elliot at it's core. 

Oh, there is a new cast of interns and nurses who have potential to be interesting but they need time for us to get used to them. 

Overall, I'm counting the revival of Scrubs as a win.

That is that for this week's Tuesday TV Touchbase.

Until next time, remember to be good to one another and try to keep it down in there, would ya? I'm trying to watch TV over here.   

Trans Kansas Express

Donald Trump's war fuckery against Iran is still a thing and I will have some more thoughts about that in some other post (after Saturday's hastily assembled post on that subject.)

But there's some fuckery going on here on the home front that I feel compelled to address.

So onward!

________________________________

On Saturday morning, my Tik Tok For You Page was inundated with videos about the Kansas driver's license problem.

What Kansas driver's license problem, I wondered.

What fresh hell is this?

So here's the deal: 

The Republicans in the Kansas State Legislature passed S.B. 244, a new law requiring driver's licenses must indicate a driver's assigned sex at birth.

Letter were sent out last week advising people who updated the gender marker on documents like their driver's licenses or birth certificate that starting right now (not a date in the future but immediately), those documents are no longer valid.

Recipients of those letters were informed they needed to surrender those documents immediately and be issued corrected replacements. 

The letters people received specified “that the legislature did not include a grace period for updating credentials. This means that once the law is officially enacted, your current credential will be invalid immediately.”

Unlike most bills in most states that go into effect at some specified later date, the Republicans in Kansas wrote this bill specifically to go into effect immediately upon passage of the law.  

S.B. 244 provides a penalty for failure to comply with this law: you go to jail.

6 months of jail time.

Beyond the driver's license problem, S.B. 244 goes on to provide other sweeping restrictions to the trans gender community in Kansas.

S.B. 244 also mandates that any “multiple-occupancy private space” must be segregated by gender assigned at birth, including restrooms, hospital rooms, dormitories, locker rooms, and more.

The law puts a bounty on the heads of trans gender people. Anyone who believes they were in a bathroom with someone who is trans gender can sue for damages of at least $1,000. 

The state's Democratic governor did veto the legislation but the Republicans hold a super majority in the state house and quickly acted override the veto. 

Republicans acted super fast to draft this legislation and just as super quick to pass it. That is some goddam urgency there. What the hell, guys? Are trans gender people setting fire to Kansas or something?

Here's some more fuckery from this punitive law. If a trans gender person did try to comply with the law to get  a NEW I.D. that has a gender marker with their assigned gender at birth:

1) It cost $48 to get that new I.D.

2) It takes 45 days to get the new I.D.

Which means even if you try to comply with the law, you're still out of compliance with the law for any activity that requires you to have an I.D. 

Like driving a car. 

Rep. Abi Boatman is a Democrat from Wichita who is the only transgender member of the Kansas Legislature. She had to endure a lot of shit as Republicans rammed through this legislation.  In a statement made on the floor of the house, she said “I have sat here for five and a half hours and listened to this entire room debate my humanity and my ability to participate in the most basic functions of society. From the bottom of my heart, I hope none of you have to ever sit through something like that.”

Well, that was a moving and poignant appeal to basic decency and human respect. 

Decency? Respect? When there are trans gender people to fuck over? Forget that shit! Republicans made S.B. 244 a reality and declared victory! 

In case you're wondering what is the legal basis for this law, well, there isn't one. Christian nationalist Republicans harrumphed and thumped their King James Bibles to underscore why S.B. 244 is such an urgent necessity. 

Well, it seems to me and anyone with a dime's worth of sense that this damn bill is unconstitutional and Kansas is gonna get sued.

Which means Kansas taxpayers will being paying for lawyers to defend a law that is an affront to the basic rights of American citizens and human beings.

To me and I hope you, that seems like a really bad idea.

Of course there are Republicans who hold control over other state legislatures that could eye what Kansas did and think, "Hey, now that seems like a pretty good idea."

Such as say the Republican dominated legislature of North Carolina?

It is an election year and since Republicans ain't gonna do anything about the cost of food, energy and medical care, they gotta do something to keep their phony baloney jobs. 

Doctor Who Stuff

Yesterday's impromptu political/current events post ate into my blogging time so today's post is a link to a couple of Doctor Who themed videos on You Tube.

First up is The Whoniverse Show and an interview with Doctor Who composer supreme Murray Gold. 

I love the part where Murray Gold discusses the "Eurovison" episode ("The Interstellar Song Contest") and his high expectations about the  haunting ballad sung by Cora Saint Bavier about how her planet Hellia was devastated by the Corporation.

And then that damn Dugga Doo song stole all the attention.

I hope you stuck around after the Murray Gold interview as Russell T Davies chats with British drag queen Tia Kofi about various companions.

Hell! We brought up the Dugga Doo, didn't we? 

So you know what THAT means?

Because I apparently hate you all....

Next up is a video for something I normally avoid.  A fan putting up a list of things about Doctor Who that I normally find irritating and poorly thought out.

But I opted to watch this one about every  Doctor's DEFINITIVE episode and while some of the choices surprised me, I can't say I disagree with the assessments made here. 

One last note before we wrap up today's post.

Apparently the word is that Russell T Davies has written at least 3 versions of the script for the 2026 Doctor Who Christmas special.  

It seems that other than the BBC asserting that Doctor Who does have a future, the exact details of that future are still up in the air, leaving RTD scrambling to be ready for any number of contingencies.

It goes without saying the Christmas special has not yet gone into production.  I'm starting to worry that the project holiday episode may not be a sure thing.

So we're in the standard position Whovians are used to being: in the dark and uncertain.

Let's try to keep hope alive. 

It's what the Doctor would want.