Billy Sheehan Movies

Billy Sheean: Basic Bass features the respected musician offering a variety of tips designed to help the viewer more easily acquire the skills necessarily to play the instrument. ~ Perry Seibert, All Movie Guide

This home video captures an hour-long concert by the jazz fusion trio Niacin, featuring Billy Sheehan on bass (formerly with David Lee Roth and Mr. Big), Dennis Chambers on drums (who has worked with George Clinton, John Scofield, Stanley Clarke, and John McLaughlin), and John Novello on keyboards (whose credits include sessions with Mark Isham and Chick Corea). This concert, taped in Japan, features ten songs, including a cover of the Motown classic "You Keep Me Hanging On." ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide

Previously filmed in 1931 under its original title, Theodore Dreiser's bulky but brilliant novel An American Tragedy was remade in 1951 by George Stevens as A Place in the Sun. Montgomery Clift stars as George Eastman, a handsome and charming but basically aimless young man who goes to work in a factory run by a distant, wealthy relative. Feeling lonely one evening, he has a brief rendezvous with assembly-line worker Alice Tripp (Shelley Winters), but he forgets all about her when he falls for dazzling socialite Angela Vickers (Elizabeth Taylor). Alice can't forget about him, though: she is pregnant with his child. Just when George's personal and professional futures seem assured, Alice demands that he marry her or she'll expose him to his society friends. This predicament sets in motion a chain of events that will ultimately include George's arrest and numerous other tragedies, including a vicious cross-examination by a D.A. played by future Perry Mason Raymond Burr. A huge improvement over the 1931 An American Tragedy, directed by Josef von Sternberg, A Place in the Sun softens some of the rough edges of Dreiser's naturalism, most notably in the passages pertaining to George's and Angela's romance. Even those 1951 bobbysoxers who wouldn't have been caught dead poring through the Dreiser original were mesmerized by the loving, near-erotic full facial closeups of Clift and Taylor as they pledge eternal devotion. A Place in the Sun won six Oscars, including Best Director, Best Adapted Screenplay, and Best Cinematography, although it lost Best Picture to An American in Paris. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Billy Wilder's Sunset Boulevard ranks among the most scathing satires of Hollywood and the cruel fickleness of movie fandom. The story begins at the end as the body of Joe Gillis (William Holden) is fished out of a Hollywood swimming pool. From The Great Beyond, Joe details the circumstances of his untimely demise (originally, the film contained a lengthy prologue wherein the late Mr. Gillis told his tale to his fellow corpses in the city morgue, but this elicited such laughter during the preview that Wilder changed it). Hotly pursued by repo men, impoverished, indebted "boy wonder" screenwriter Gillis ducks into the garage of an apparently abandoned Sunset Boulevard mansion. Wandering into the spooky place, Joe encounters its owner, imperious silent star Norma Desmond (Gloria Swanson). Upon learning Joe's profession, Norma inveigles him into helping her with a comeback script that she's been working on for years. Joe realizes that the script is hopeless, but the money is good and he has nowhere else to go. Soon the cynical and opportunistic Joe becomes Norma's kept man. While they continue collaborating, Norma's loyal and protective chauffeur Max Von Mayerling (played by legendary filmmaker Erich von Stroheim) contemptuously watches from a distance. More melodramatic than funny, the screenplay by Wilder and Charles Brackett began life as a comedy about a has-been silent movie actress and the ambitious screenwriter who leeches off her. (Wilder originally offered the film to Mae West, Mary Pickford and Pola Negri. Montgomery Clift was the first choice for the part of opportunistic screenwriter Joe Gillis, but he refused, citing as "disgusting" the notion of a 25-year-old man being kept by a 50-year-old woman.) Andrew Lloyd Webber's long-running musical version has served as a tour-de-force for contemporary actresses ranging from Glenn Close to Betty Buckley to Diahann Carroll. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

This musical romance is set during the Great Depression and centers upon the rocky marriage between a flapper script girl and her band-leader spouse. Prior to the big stock market crash, they spend much of their time touring. She tires of it and returns to her country home. Unable to find new bookings, he soon joins her and brings with him his acerbic, cynical manager. The bandleader finds the pastoral life a crashing bore and so heads for the big city to find fortune. Fortunately, by the story's end, he succeeds and happiness is the result. Songs include: "Crazy Rhythm," "You Were Meant for Me," "Goodnight Sweetheart" "Sweet Georgia Brown" and "What Can I Say After I Say I'm Sorry." ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide

Billy Sheehan: Advanced Bass features the respected musician showcasing a variety of techniques designed to help anyone improve their skills on the instrument. He discusses aspects of playing including neck bends, harmonics, and tapping. ~ Perry Seibert, All Movie Guide