Harris Yulin Movies
Solemn, soulful-eyed character actor Harris Yulin made his 1963 off-Broadway debut in Next Time I'll Sing for You. Though Yulin remained a frequent visitor to the New York theatrical scene (he made his Broadway bow in a 1980 revival of Watch on the Rhine), he preferred to live and work in his home state of California. As one of the founders of the Los Angeles Classic Theater, he became a mentor and spiritual advisor for a number of film stars with theatrical aspirations. His own movie work includes the roles of Wild Bill Hickok in the 1971 revisionist Western Doc, Bernstein in the 1983 remake of Scarface, and King Edward in 1996's Looking for Richard, a contemporary spin on Shakespeare's Richard III. On television, Harris Yulin has been seen as Senator Joseph McCarthy in Robert F. Kennedy and His Times (1985) and as girl-chasing TV anchorman Neal Frazier in the weekly WIOU (1990). ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- 1973
Based primarily on the "Silver John" tales of Manly Wade Wellman, this enthusiastically silly low-budgeter tells the story of young John (Hedge Capers), a balladeer who returns home to find that his Grandpappy (Denver Pyle) -- also named John -- has decided to do battle with the Devil by playing a special tune (penned by Hoyt Axton, no less!) on a silver-stringed guitar. Unwisely, the elder John chose silver dollars to make his strings, realizing too late that modern-day dollar coins contain no silver at all (due, of course, to an evil government conspiracy), and his soul is lost. The younger John decides to follow the old man's path -- only not quite as stupidly -- and creates his own silver strings (this time genuine). In his travels, he encounters an undertaker who made a deal with a witch (Susan Strasberg) in exchange for gold; an evil gatekeeper named O.J. and his "Big Ugly Bird" (depicted via stop-motion animation); and a cotton plantation run by a voodoo overlord. He eventually reaches Washington, D.C., presumably to do battle with the ultimate evil: the Army Corps of Engineers. Sticking to the essence of the Appalachian ghost stories on which Wellman's stories were based, director John Newland (erstwhile host of One Step Beyond) conjures some delightfully bizarre images despite the painfully low budget, but one wonders exactly where he was going with this. This film is also known as Who Fears the Devil. ~ Cavett Binion, All Movie Guide
- 1971
- R
Most westerns wrap their stories, legends really, with a light clothing of history and period. Any history found in them is usually a mix of legend and fantasy. By way of contrast, in this film, an attempt is made to accurately portray the lives and persons of Doc Holliday, Wyatt Earp, and the now-legendary events that took place in the town of Tombstone. Those looking for fast-paced action will be disappointed in this film, as it deals more in psychological character studies than action. Sheriff Wyatt Earp (Harris Yulin) is shown to be a fairly ordinary politician, and the romance of Doc Holliday (Stacy Keach) and Kate Elder (Faye Dunaway) is highlighted. As it must, however, the film concludes with the well-known gunfight at the O.K. Corral ~ Clarke Fountain, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Stacy Keach, Faye Dunaway, (more)
- 1970
The third (and last) of author Norman Mailer's experiments in cinéma vérité filmmaking created between 1968 and 1970, Maidstone stars Mailer as Norman T. Kingsley, a celebrated filmmaker who is often described as "the American Buñuel." Kingsley and a large retinue of friends, actors, and colleagues have descended on his estate in Upstate New York to work on his latest project, a sexually provocative drama. At the same time, Kingsley is planning to launch a campaign for president, and he's visited by a large number of guests eager to discuss his political perspectives, including journalists, academics, and a handful of African-American radicals. Also on hand is Kingsley's ever-present posse of hangers-on nicknamed "the cash box," led by his half-brother Raoul (Rip Torn). As a British television reporter records the proceedings for an upcoming profile, a shadowy group of American intelligence agents questions if the nation might be better off without the possibility of a Kingsley candidacy. In the film's final reels, Mailer and his cast and crew drop their collective improvisation and discuss their work so far before the camera, but Torn takes it upon himself to give the film the ending he feels it needs by attacking Mailer with a hammer. Fascinating if only for its remarkable portrait of Mailer's legendary ego in full flight, Maidstone would be the writer's last stab at filmmaking until he was hired to direct a film adaptation of his novel Tough Guys Don't Dance in 1987. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Norman Mailer
- 1970
- NC17
Rated "X" upon its initial release in 1970, End of the Road would probably rate at most a hard "R" today. Stacy Keach stars as Jake Horner, a college professor beset with a wide variety of emotional problems. He seeks out help in therapy, conducted by unorthodox psychologist Dr. D (James Earl Jones). This treatment turns out to have a disastrous effect on Horner, leading him into the arms of Rennie Morgan (Dorothy Tristan), the wife of a fellow teacher. End of the Road was adapted from a story by John Barth. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Stacy Keach, Harris Yulin, (more)
For this last program in the three-part American Photography: A Century of Images documentary that aired on PBS, directors Muffie Ellen and Meyer Hovde show how the American perception of war was once again heavily influenced by photography. The war this time was in Vietnam. Throughout the final decades of the 20th century, artists manipulated photographs, from the Marilyn Monroe series by Andy Warhol, to the computer graphic renderings on home computers of the '90s. The program also tackles the issue of privacy and surveillance photos that can be taken from satellites overhead or from unseen places within a person's house. Highlights of this program include archival motion picture footage and numerous archival photos. Written by Ronald Blumer and narrated by Harris Yulin, major corporate funding of this documentary was provided by Kodak. ~ Steve Blackburn, All Movie Guide
This is the first program in the three-part American Photography: A Century of Images documentary that aired on PBS. As this program shows, until the 20th century, photography was limited mostly to professionals. Then the advent of consumer cameras and rotogravure (a process of printing photographs in newspapers) changed everything. The exponential increase in photographs meant that public events and the private lives of families were being documented for posterity to a degree never seen before. Mass media photographs began to influence politics and fashion. Advertisers and propagandists alike learned how to manipulate photographic images to alter reality. Written by Ronald Blumer and narrated by Harris Yulin, major corporate funding of this documentary was provided by Kodak. ~ Steve Blackburn, All Movie Guide
This is the second program in the three-part American Photography: A Century of Images documentary that aired on PBS. Directors Muffie Ellen and Meyer Hovde show that in the 1930s photographs aided the proliferation of magazines that had a nationwide readership, the opinions of whom were significantly impacted by the photographs they saw weekly in such periodicals as Life and Time. The realities of the Depression and World War II were brought into the living rooms of Americans via photography. In the postwar era, photography didn't simply capture reality; it helped create the reality of an economic boom by spurring a consumer spree through the magic of advertising photos. Highlights of this program include archival motion picture footage and numerous archival photos. Written by Ronald Blumer and narrated by Harris Yulin, major corporate funding of this documentary was provided by Kodak. ~ Steve Blackburn, All Movie Guide
- PG
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Ghostbusters
Bill Murray, Dan Aykroyd, Harold Ramis and Ernie Hudson star as a quartet of Manhattan-based "paranormal investigators". When their government grants run out, the former three go into business as The Ghostbusters, later hiring Hudson on. Armed with electronic paraphernalia, the team is spectacularly successful, ridding The Big Apple of dozens of ghoulies, ghosties and long-legged beasties. Tight-lipped bureaucrat William Atherton regards the Ghostbusters as a bunch of charlatans, but is forced to eat his words when New York is besieged by an army of unfriendly spirits, conjured up by a long-dead Babylonian demon and "channelled" through beautiful cellist Sigourney Weaver and nerdish Rick Moranis. The climax is a glorious sendup of every Godzilla movie ever made-and we daresay it cost more than a year's worth of Japanese monster flicks combined. Who'd ever dream that the chubby, cheery Stay-Puft Marshmallow Man would turn out to be the most malevolent threat ever faced by New York City? When the script for Ghostbusters was forged by Dan Aykroyd and Harold Ramis, John Belushi was slated to play the Bill Murray role; Belushi's death in 1982 not only necessitated the hiring of Murray, but also an extensive rewrite. The most expensive comedy made up to 1984, Ghostbusters made money hand over fist, spawning not only a 1989 sequel but also two animated TV series (one of them partially based on an earlier live-action TV weekly, titled The Ghost Busters. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
Ghostbusters 2
Ivan Reitman's sequel to the phenomenally successful Ghostbusters is looser and more self-assured than the original. The film opens with a title reading "Five Years Later" and finds the ghostbusters living in hard times. A restraining order has forbidden the boys to partake in paranormal warfare, and as a result they have had to seek other lines of work. Ray (Dan Aykroyd) and Winston (Ernie Hudson) spend their time performing at children's' birthday parties, and Egon (Harold Ramis) is busy conducting experiments investigating the effect of human emotions on the environment, leaving ghostbusting behind. Venkman (Bill Murray) and Dana (Sigourney Weaver) have split up. Venkman now hosts a local cable show called "The World of the Psychic." Dana, now divorced and the mother of a little baby named Oscar, works as an art restorer in a museum -- and this is where the plot kicks in. While Dana is restoring a portrait of a 16th-century tyrant by the name of Vigo the Carpathian, the portrait becomes hexed. The evil Vigo wants to return to life by taking over the body of Dana's little child. Vigo has enlisted Dana's boss, Janosz Poha (Peter MacNicol), to compel Dana to cooperate. Soon dirty sludge and slime flow through the streets of Manhattan, and the ghostbusters have to reunite to save the city from a funky paranormal evil. ~ Paul Brenner, All Movie Guide
Bill Murray, Dan Aykroyd, Harold Ramis and Ernie Hudson star as a quartet of Manhattan-based "paranormal investigators". When their government grants run out, the former three go into business as The Ghostbusters, later hiring Hudson on. Armed with electronic paraphernalia, the team is spectacularly successful, ridding The Big Apple of dozens of ghoulies, ghosties and long-legged beasties. Tight-lipped bureaucrat William Atherton regards the Ghostbusters as a bunch of charlatans, but is forced to eat his words when New York is besieged by an army of unfriendly spirits, conjured up by a long-dead Babylonian demon and "channelled" through beautiful cellist Sigourney Weaver and nerdish Rick Moranis. The climax is a glorious sendup of every Godzilla movie ever made-and we daresay it cost more than a year's worth of Japanese monster flicks combined. Who'd ever dream that the chubby, cheery Stay-Puft Marshmallow Man would turn out to be the most malevolent threat ever faced by New York City? When the script for Ghostbusters was forged by Dan Aykroyd and Harold Ramis, John Belushi was slated to play the Bill Murray role; Belushi's death in 1982 not only necessitated the hiring of Murray, but also an extensive rewrite. The most expensive comedy made up to 1984, Ghostbusters made money hand over fist, spawning not only a 1989 sequel but also two animated TV series (one of them partially based on an earlier live-action TV weekly, titled The Ghost Busters. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
Ghostbusters 2
Ivan Reitman's sequel to the phenomenally successful Ghostbusters is looser and more self-assured than the original. The film opens with a title reading "Five Years Later" and finds the ghostbusters living in hard times. A restraining order has forbidden the boys to partake in paranormal warfare, and as a result they have had to seek other lines of work. Ray (Dan Aykroyd) and Winston (Ernie Hudson) spend their time performing at children's' birthday parties, and Egon (Harold Ramis) is busy conducting experiments investigating the effect of human emotions on the environment, leaving ghostbusting behind. Venkman (Bill Murray) and Dana (Sigourney Weaver) have split up. Venkman now hosts a local cable show called "The World of the Psychic." Dana, now divorced and the mother of a little baby named Oscar, works as an art restorer in a museum -- and this is where the plot kicks in. While Dana is restoring a portrait of a 16th-century tyrant by the name of Vigo the Carpathian, the portrait becomes hexed. The evil Vigo wants to return to life by taking over the body of Dana's little child. Vigo has enlisted Dana's boss, Janosz Poha (Peter MacNicol), to compel Dana to cooperate. Soon dirty sludge and slime flow through the streets of Manhattan, and the ghostbusters have to reunite to save the city from a funky paranormal evil. ~ Paul Brenner, All Movie Guide
