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Post by TheWallsScreamedPoetry on Dec 24, 2004 19:34:09 GMT
Any of you seen it and what are your views........
Is Ray the new Hitchcock or just the new Ed Wood!?
Ray Manzarek Love Her Madly based on a story by Jim Morrison
"Love Her Madly is the feature film debut by legendary Doors co-founder and keyboardist, Ray Manzarek. Love Her Madly is set on and around the campus of the exclusive California College of the Arts. Directed by Ray Manzarek and scored to a soundtrack by The Doors and their descendants, Love Her Madly includes appearances by Ray Manzarek and essayist Michael McClure. At the film’s outset, an unidentified body draped by a blood-splattered sheet lays center stage in the school’s Greek Amphitheatre. The story unfolds in the days leading up to the murder. The five characters at the heart of this thriller/mystery are all artists: a dean of the college with a pedigree in all phases of the arts; a drama professor and former winner of the Pulitzer Prize; his two young protégés – a sculptor and a video artist; and the untamable actress who casts her hold upon all three men, but is held by none. The intrigue of tangled relationships offers ample reason for any of these characters to be suspected as either the perpetrator or the victim. It’s a whodunit in the finest film noir tradition." from Eagle Vision Website
Like Ray's book PIE I was really looking forward to LHM....bought the DVD a packet of cashew nuts and sat down to watch it with a nice glass of coke..... I have been watching movies for over 40 years and in that time I do not think I have ever see a WORSE example of the movie makers art...... a worthless excercise in induldgence...'Oh look at me I made a movie'... Your average ameoba could have done a better job......'direction'...useless...'script'...there was none...'acting ability'...what fucking acting ability!... I could have hired a camera and found half a dozen cider drinkers from the back of MFI in Stockton and in 8 hours come up with a better movie.....
The DVD extras are cool so made it worthwhile and if you watch the load of toss with the commentary on it is very enjoyable as you don't have to listen to the crap dialogue nor follow the pathetic 'non-plot'....the surprise ending was nicked from Sidney Lumet who is a director of outstanding talent unlike Ray who has as much idea about making a 'film' as my left knacker
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Post by TheWallsScreamedPoetry on Dec 24, 2004 19:39:45 GMT
Ray Manzarek performed at the Santa Cruz Film Festival's closing night after the 8:30pm, May 21,2004 screening of Love Her Madly at the Rio Theatre.
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Post by TheWallsScreamedPoetry on Dec 24, 2004 19:51:24 GMT
Really odd that Ray has been surprisingly quiet about his film making since getting in the Z list limelight with his dork pals. Once again an attempt to cash in on Jim Morrison turns to shit like all the other get rich quick schemes His R$ayness comes up with....does this mean that we will be spared 'Riders On The Storm'..."a tale of a group of young college students who go into the desert and rip off Oliver Stones Doors movie"...... He tried being Keith Emerson and sadly failed (I wish he had made it as his musical works are mostly exceptional) , he tried being Ernest Hemingway and failed and he tried being Alfred Hitchcock and it was a disaster. Now he's decided to become Jim Morrison and speak for the X-Box Generation with his pathetic nostalgia circus......as long as he leeches off The Doors he's OK but what the world will make of Cops Talk when it replaces The WASP .......I await with interest. But looks like this marks the end of R$ay's foray into the world of cinema noir.......Tommy Cooper could have done a better job......Behind The Scenes & On Set
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Post by ensenada on Jan 4, 2006 19:02:54 GMT
well stu lent me the dvd recently and i watched it last night. i watched the tour of venice first as stu said it was pretty good..and i agree it is a good dvd extra. you get to see the various doorsey locations...such as where they met on the beach and where ray, dorothy and jim used to live for a brief period. ray makes me fuckin laugh though...he is so corny....he always has to get them fuckin lines in...when talking about a bar in venice he comes out with the usual "a bar were you can plan a murder or start a religion"
the film itself is crap to be fair....the camera work looks amateurish and of shite quality and the script is lame...i have a lot of fondess for ray cos he makes me laugh (at him not with ) but he couldnt direct his way out of a paper bag. maybe he could have achieved a better "looking" film with a higher budget. but still the plot is predictable and hardly gets you excited.
i figured it was the professor after a short period...he was the only one who had the motive to kill anyone...especially when the dean finds he is a fraud and has the evidence.....everything else just seemed superflous.
my rating....
Bag o Shite....thanks for letting me borrow it stu!
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Post by TheWallsScreamedPoetry on Jan 4, 2006 19:11:48 GMT
Bag O Shite is up there with the better reviews mate......
here is what I posted on the IMDb movie site which is the biggest movie info site there is on the net.....
atrocious attempt at a movie!, 20 November 2005
Author: alex (doorsscorpywag) from United Kingdom
Ray Manzarek is a legend of the keyboards and has a Masters degree in film from UCLA but its interesting to note that he is still more famous for Light My Fire than Love Her Madly..... Truly the worst movie I have sat and watched in 45 years of watching film..... it makes Plan 9 from Outer space seem like an interesting movie....... a waste of 90 minutes of the life of anyone watching..... so utterly abysmal that it has to be seen to be believed that a group of people would spend 17 days of their lives and turn out such utter dross.... the acting is dismal, script total drivel with the end bit nicked from Sidney Lumets DeathTrap and worst of all.....it was actually shown in a cinema.... ....and I am believe it or not a huge Doors fan!
If anyone has not seen it yet it is a must as only after watching it will you then know what a load of bollocks the argument that Ray Manzarek could have made a better flick of The Doors than Olly Stone was.......He would have trouble doing a better job than a blind chimp that had fallen into a coma on the opening day of the shoot!!
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Post by stuart on Jan 8, 2006 2:00:18 GMT
well stu lent me the dvd recently and i watched it last night. i watched the tour of venice first as stu said it was pretty good..and i agree it is a good dvd extra. you get to see the various doorsey locations...such as where they met on the beach and where ray, dorothy and jim used to live for a brief period. ray makes me fuckin laugh though...he is so corny....he always has to get them fuckin lines in...when talking about a bar in venice he comes out with the usual "a bar were you can plan a murder or start a religion" the film itself is crap to be fair....the camera work looks amateurish and of shite quality and the script is lame...i have a lot of fondess for ray cos he makes me laugh (at him not with ) but he couldnt direct his way out of a paper bag. maybe he could have achieved a better "looking" film with a higher budget. but still the plot is predictable and hardly gets you excited. i figured it was the professor after a short period...he was the only one who had the motive to kill anyone...especially when the dean finds he is a fraud and has the evidence.....everything else just seemed superflous. my rating.... Bag o Shite....thanks for letting me borrow it stu! No Problem Mate
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Post by darkstar on Jan 8, 2006 3:24:01 GMT
The Internet Movie Database lists the names of the producers for "Love Her Madly." One interesting name who is listed as a "co-producer" is Alan S. Goldman. Mr Goldman has no other movie credits other than "Love Her Madly" listed on the IMDB.
Most interesting is the fact that Alan S. Goldman, C.P.A. testified on behalf of defendants, Manzarek and Krieger in Los Angeles Superior Court on September 16, 2005. Alan S. Goldman is also responsible for a Declaration of Manzarek and Kriegers accounting figures to the court on August 12 2005.
One question comes to mind as co-producer one would assume that it was Mr Goldman's money that helped finance the "Love Her Madly" project but then again Mr Goldman is Ray Manzareks' accountant so I wonder whos money really co-produced this film?
Source: www.imdb.com/title/tt0215941/fullcredits#writers
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Post by TheWallsScreamedPoetry on Jan 8, 2006 12:47:59 GMT
The Internet Movie Database lists the names of the producers for "Love Her Madly." One interesting name who is listed as a "co-producer" is Alan S. Goldman. Mr Goldman has no other movie credits other than "Love Her Madly" listed on the IMDB. Most interesting is the fact that Alan S. Goldman, C.P.A. testified on behalf of defendants, Manzarek and Krieger in Los Angeles Superior Court on September 16, 2005. Alan S. Goldman is also responsible for a Declaration of Manzarek and Kriegers accounting figures to the court on August 12 2005. One question comes to mind as co-producer one would assume that it was Mr Goldman's money that helped finance the "Love Her Madly" project but then again Mr Goldman is Ray Manzareks' accountant so I wonder whos money really co-produced this film? Source: www.imdb.com/title/tt0215941/fullcredits#writers
Anyone who sank one cent into this sorry ass excuse for a film would surely be regretting it which is why we saw a recent admission by his webamster that Riders On the Storm (his follow up film) will not be making an appearance.....bit of a shock that as I was looking 4wd to that one... Maybe his follow up book Snake Moon (written by another producer of LHM but being touted under Rays name) will have a similar fate......
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Post by TheWallsScreamedPoetry on Jan 9, 2011 13:01:08 GMT
Love Her Madly A review of the NYC film premiere as part of the New York Independent Film & Video Festival Clearview Cinemas, 239 East 59th Street, NYC September 27, 2002
Love Her Madly made its NYC premiere as part of the New York International Independent Film and Video Festival which was a big second fiddle to the New York Film Festival that just so happened to take place during the same week. I’m not too sure if this was coincidental or not.
Before the film began, Ray was introduced by the show's producers and gave an intro to what Love Her Madly was about. He stressed that it was a film noir and that the basis of it, three friends in pursuit of the same woman on a college campus, was actually suggested by Jim Morrison way back when. He also based the character of the sculptor on Morrison as well.
The film opened up to some cheesy organ sounds that were distinctly Manzarek and coalesced into a trance-like hypnotic jumbled glob of sounds and beats. It worked well unto the films' opening scene of a TV reporter at the scene of a bloody crime on the 6 o’clock news. The rest of the film worked itself backwards in time to the three gents and their relationship with the blond bombshell.
The aspiring actress’s relationship with the sculpture, a college professor and a video artist forms the basis of the film. How they all manipulate each other gives us the tension in this very tangled web.
The sculptor who is also a coffee shop owner is madly possessive of the woman. The college professor is a cocaine snorting, washed up, womanizing lout who is in jeopardy of losing his tenured position and being exposed for plagiarizing a work he received a Pulitzer prize for by his former lover and administrator at the college.
The videographer needs to raise some fast cash to pay back a loan after his bank discovers that he obtained the monies under a fake identity. He decides to do so by filming the woman in suggestive poses, and selling the images on the web without her consent to a horny fat guy.
The film’s subplots entangle and entwine off other at the sculptor’s opening art show where Ray Manzarek and Michael McClure are doing their spoken word/piano duo. The girl doesn’t show, the professor doesn’t show and the profits from the evening’s entertainment are pilfered by the videographer. The three men meet on a street corner, two giving chase on foot in suburban L.A. with one on a motorcycle holding an old fashioned barbers razor blade for the grand finale. Wheels slide, bodies crash, heads rumble, a gun bounds across the pavement and the blade ends up in someone’s hand.
The ending is unexpected and brings cheesy film noir to another level. It’s peppered with fluffy prose that is distinctly Ray, dramatic and corny at times but ironically cheeky too. The characters play off each other like stereotypical baboons. The cocaine guzzling professor on one hand, the dire, romantic sculptor and the preppy videographer give us a good cross section of generational stereotypes to poke fun at.
At the end of the film "Love Her Madly" played over the screen credits and the crowd clapped.
After the film Ray took on questions from the audience in a well mannered, affable, funny and humorous way with the screenplay writer that highlighted the following:
-the film cost $300,000 to make
-Ray financed the film
-it took 17 days to film
-it was filmed digitally
-it will be coming out on DVD in November with outtakes and a tour of Venice Beach with Ray detailing Doors sites
-a film based on "Riders on the Storm" is currently being worked on
-the entire cast is made of SAG actors and they were all paid well for their efforts
Someone asked how it felt when filming was completed and Ray chimed with a smile "Like a good fuck". Ray and Dorothy hung afterwards and talked to all.
Like a good fuck this film left you wanting more. Thanks Ray !!!! by Glyn Emmerson, NYC
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Post by TheWallsScreamedPoetry on Sept 10, 2023 14:54:59 GMT
‘Love Her Madly’ a film by Ray Manzarek.This was my review of the movie that appeared in Scorpywag shortly after its release. Michael White helpfully sent it to Ray himself but I never heard what His R$ayness thought....With the rallying cry of ‘Lets make a movie’ Ray Manzarek led his cast and crew into an intense seventeen days of 20 hour shoots and using a backdrop of his beloved LA set out on digital camera a vision he envisaged from a bygone era of Venice Beach and his long gone friend Jim Morrison. It’s just a pity all the actors in LA must have been of on their holidays. The movie starts by introducing the characters with a Ray Manzarek voice over which is so cheesy in the extreme its hard to watch the next 80 minutes. The ‘plot’ revolves around three morons who think they are the epitome of artistic cool but actually are incredibly boring twats. The most useless being the professor who gets pissed a lot and talks bollocks around a bar table with the sculptor and the video geek. All three are obsessed with Hadley a so called ‘actress’ who spends most of the film with her tits out, probably to detract from the fact she could not act for toffee. Our three heroes all have their own sordid little tales to tell and all have their own reasons for ‘murder’.
For years many Doors fans have been debating whether Ray Manzarek could have done a better job than Oliver Stone on the Morrison Bio-Pic ‘The Doors’….now they have their 90 minute answer….No Way Jose! You could argue that Ray has a masters degree in film and I failed CSE woodwork but this paltry effort is so lame that after an hour and a half your argument would be as useless as my attempts to make a lamp stand in 1971. Ray uses every little movie trick he learned at school to astound us with his brilliance from jerky camera work, slo-mo, weird angles, moving from Black and White footage to colour, gloomy night shots, close ups and lots off shots of people walking past cool buildings and fountains along with some ducks who are probably among the films best actors.The films stars take a well deserved smoke break The human ‘actors’ fill the screen with the full gamut of emotions from world weary to angst ridden but fail to portray anything more than how truly boring this film is. Supposedly based on an idea from some guy Ray met on a beach called Jim Morrison this tale of passion and revenge trundles along with lots of dramatic shouting and breaking things but is about as exciting and interesting to watch as the Xmas afternoon Queens Speech . From listening to the commentary and the behind the scenes footage which are really rather interesting it seems like all involved had a lot of fun making this so-called film but quite honestly why they wasted 17 days of their lives is frankly beyond me. From time to time various extras (probably investors that wanted a line in the movie….as in an Ed Wood production) popped up to deliver pointless sentences that added nothing to the narrative but probably helped fill ninety minutes of film stock. Ed himself would have been proud of this movie which is so bad ‘Alan Smithee’ would have nothing to do with it and would probably insist it was credited to ‘Ray Manzarek’!!
Some scenes are of minor interest….Rays missus Dorothy appears in cameo as a member of the faculty voting to sack the piss head in a non speaking role and there are some unintentionally funny scenes with video geek and sleazy porno guy. Bits of this are nicked from several much better movies including one crucial part of the plot swiped from the excellent Sidney Lumet film Death Trap which had some real actors in it but sadly no ducks!. The best sequence in the whole film has to be where Ray and Michael McClure appear as themselves performing at sculpy boys party in his bar/studio The Golden Bough (you can tell these people are artistes as they do not call their pub The Dog and Duck!) to promote his art….tickets were only $20.
During this little episode Michael gets the movies only decent line…. as after the show Hadley and video geek proceed to shout a lot and run around in the bedroom breaking things then notice sitting in the studio below, with the woman dean who has just sacked piss head…..yes it is that complicated!, Ray and Mike having an after show drink. Cue some more shouting then after they leave ….for some reason sculpy boy runs in all angst ridden and up the staircase. Michael deadpan as you come and oblivious to all the intensity going on around him shouts up the stair to sculpy boy the eternal mantra of the artist…... ‘Hey man! When are we gonna get paid!!’ Priceless …..!!
Ray describes this as a whodunnit in the finest tradition of film noir but this idle boast is as empty as the script-writers talent. It starts with a murder and as we see a blood stained sheet covering the ‘mystery corpse’ we begin the truly dull 90 minute journey which ends with us not really giving a fuck who is under the sheet…...as long as it was not one of the ducks!! All we wanna see is the end credits and hear Jim sing ‘Love Her Madly’.
To say this movie is ‘bad’ is pretty much understating it as it lurches from one truly dull set piece to the next. The tedious plot would have trouble holding the attention of a goldfish and the acting which includes a nasty bank manager cameo from the guy who played the older Private Ryan in Spielberg's WW2 romp is pretty abysmal. Madison Mason who plays the drunk Dennis Hopper look-alike is actually a respected TV/Movie and Stage actor and, apart from being the same age as Jim would have been today, has appeared in movies as diverse as last years ‘Red Dragon’, Kevin Costner’s ‘Thirteen Days’, ‘Dreamscape’ and ‘The Day After’ with Jason Robards. I doubt this on his CV will be of a great deal of help in getting him his next part! The rest are pretty much up-and-coming and unheard of and I doubt any of them will be making a big splash in 2003….. So is the movie truly that bad or am I just having a bad day as I type….no! Truly this must rank as one of the new centuries biggest stinkers and it’s hard to imagine many films over the next 97 years beating it.
But hopefully the ducks will get more work as they stole the show and deserve another ‘gig’!……………..
but having said that!!!
Extra features Thankfully the DVD is far from a lost cause as the extra features are well worth your attention. The most exceptional section being when Ray takes us on a highly absorbing tour of Venice Beach which is sadly only 20 minutes long. Setting himself down on the exact spot on the beach he shares the memory of that fateful meeting with the newly lean James Douglas Morrison and demonstrates how Jim sat among the sands and made rock history. An incredible moment and worth the DVD price on its own.
We visit the canals, a few bars, are taken to Venice pier and shown where Jim Morrison first came up with The End as a love ballad to his girlfriend Mary Werbelow. We hit Muscle Beach where Ray remembers how he and Jim fooled around on the bars whilst Dorothy was out working and keeping the two would be muzos as well as the house where Dot and Ray lived with Morrison in 1965. Knocking on the door he muses whether we will be able to get inside but sadly nobodies home so standing on the porch Ray shares the funny tale of how the trio would go shopping and having very little money would find it hard to feed themselves. Jim solved that problem by wearing a large overcoat and ‘borrowing’ steaks from the local supermart. See Winona you should have claimed you were a Doors fan!!
Ray’s greatest strength is his ability to beguile the listener with his Doors tales and I may not be prepared to pay $150 to watch the 21st century dorks but I’d pay it to go on a tour of Venice CA. if Ray Manzarek was the tour guide. One absolute treat in this section is when Ray produces one of Jim’s self produced copies of ‘The Lords: Notes On Vision’ in its blue folder and printed on separate sheets of paper as suggested to him by his friend Michael McClure.
Ray then, standing on one of the familiar Venice canal bridges, reads a few of JD’s classic muses about film and the world in general. An extra treat is that the ducks also make a cameo appearance here too!!
Ray takes a moment to explain how the movie came about after Jim shared a vision of a future screenplay with him based on himself his girl Mary, Dennis Jacobs and an unnamed UCLA professor…... which was rather cool..
Also featuring some excellent Behind the Scenes footage with all concerned having lots of fun and a superb 10 minute section of Ray and Mike McClure performing ‘Maybe Mama Lion’ and ‘Czechoslovakia’ from the films Golden Bough party sequence. Michaels silky white hair washed with a purple hue from the lights and Ray head hunched at the keyboard adding a touch of magic to Michaels words...awesome!
Another plus is the films soundtrack which includes some great music from Ray and Bruce Hanifan. It gives the movie a cool feel that the plot and the acting fail miserably to do. Added to that we get a video sample of the aforementioned soundtrack with ‘Jennifer’ as well as a couple of deleted scenes from the actual movie..which include an hilarious punch up in the pub!
Another plus has to be the excellent commentary from Ray and the movies producer Rick Valentine which is the best way to actually watch the film ...not then having to listen to the corny dialogue. A lot of very interesting facts are learned both about the movie and some of LA’s landmarks including the ‘video geeks dungeon’ which was where The Eagles first jammed together. There is no doubting Ray and Rick's love of the art of film-making but it’s just Ray is not very good at it as surely the knack of a good film is to actually keep the audiences interest and sadly I found mine drifting throughout the whole sorry mess at the most insignificant of distractions.
The packaging is poor as Eagle Rock...now called Eagle Vision….once again give us a useless one sided sheet as an insert….no information or stills from the movie...at least the price is not excessive. All in all worthwhile for a Doors fan least of all to finally bury the myth that Ray Manzarek could have directed ‘The Doors Movie’ better than Oliver Stone! AP.Scorpywag rating: Film 3/10 codswallop….gets extra point for the ducks!! DVD Extras 8/10 a lot of effort made and some very cool stuff
[/font] Ray on set with Jennifer Lothrop & Richard Danielson who 'star' in this garbage.
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Post by TheWallsScreamedPoetry on Nov 7, 2023 10:01:39 GMT
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Post by TheWallsScreamedPoetry on Nov 13, 2023 12:05:48 GMT
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Post by TheWallsScreamedPoetry on Nov 13, 2023 12:24:43 GMT
The film includes a nonspeaking cameo for Ray's missus Dorothy and a live performance by Manzarek/McClure which are about the only mildly interesting bits in the whole sorry mess.
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Post by TheWallsScreamedPoetry on Nov 13, 2023 12:37:27 GMT
IMdB ratings. I at first gave it 3 (later changed to 1*) as it was funny and Ray & Mike perform in it. Other than that it was bullshit. Ray in his desperation shows Jim's name prominently at the beginning of the film but even that can't save this sewage.
Ray by the time of LHMs releases was touting a follow up called 'Riders On The Storm' about some friends who go out into the desert to do drugs and have some adventures. As Ray was not invited to this event when Jim went with his UCLA mates it gives him the chance to involve himself in more Morrison History. Unfortunately Ray shelved the project after talking a couple of decent actors like Peter Stomare into the cast"Plot Summary for Riders on the Storm (2005) When three UCLA film students hit the road in search of knowledge, power and peyote, their vision quest becomes a dark odyssey after they become entangled in a turf war between white supremacists and a band of Native American shamans. The screenplay was inspired by a true adventure involving Jim Morrison and Ray Manzarek during the 1960's." IMDB Movie database ###LINK BELOWnewdoorstalk.proboards.com/thread/218/riders-storm-rays-new-movieThere were reviews like that good one from cast, crew & friends. Even they could not prevent it being universally panned.
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