What's your fave Philly-set movie?

In this week's Agenda section, I wrote about Brian DePalma's Blow Out, which screens this Sunday at the Art Museum and stars a young and studly John Travolta: Hometown boy Brian DePalma's Blow Out is more an homage to movie-making itself than the thriller it bills itself to be. Jack Terry (John Travolta) is a Philly-based sound technician who inadvertently witnesses the possible assassination of a governor while searching for sound for his current B-movie project. Sure, the film geekery is great, especially while dissecting the confluence of sound and image. But the best part is seeing early '80s Philadelphia in all its gritty glory.

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What's your fave Philly-set movie?

POSTED: Friday, October 2, 2009, 7:15 PM

Filed Under: Movies screening

In this week's Agenda section, I wrote about Brian DePalma's Blow Out, which screens this Sunday at the Art Museum and stars a young and studly John Travolta:

Hometown boy Brian DePalma's Blow Out is more an homage to movie-making itself than the thriller it bills itself to be. Jack Terry (John Travolta) is a Philly-based sound technician who inadvertently witnesses the possible assassination of a governor while searching for sound for his current B-movie project. Sure, the film geekery is great, especially while dissecting the confluence of sound and image. But the best part is seeing early '80s Philadelphia in all its gritty glory.

Watch the trailer below:

It's oft considered the best of the Philly-set movies, and while I love it and few scenes top the Bicentennial parade sequence (you can catch a few shots in the trailer), I don't think it would top my list. Sure it would have an entry, but wouldn't have the number one spot. So what else would be on there?

Frederick Wiseman's High School, a direct doc shot at Northeast High School in 1968 is a fascinating time capsule of the period and a landmark in verite-style filmmaking.
Mannequin for totally sentimental reasons. Kim Catrall starts out as an Egyptian princess, turns into a mannequin because she's too forward thinking for her time and ends up in the arms of Andrew McCarthy. Please, pretend like you don't smile every time you see the Wanamaker building. For the record, I also like Mannequin II.
The Philadelphia Story, a controversial decision because it definitely wasn't shot here and technically takes place somewhere like Devon. But Carey Grant is one of the few actors who can pull off hitting a woman and still come out the good guy and Katherine Hepburn is one of the few actresses who can take it.
I guess I have to add Rocky. Look, even though its the most played out symbol of the city, save the Liberty Bell, every time I was homesick during college, I would go to work at the video store and subject my co-workers to marathons (sans Rocky II. I think Rocky II is stupid).
Number Two on my list, no matter what, is definitely Witness, which mostly takes place in Amish Country but starts out at 30th Street Station. Harrison Ford is a cop set to protect and tiny Amish Lukas Haas after he witnesses a murder by a corrupt cop. Harrison's got no where to run, so he hides out with Haas and hot Amish mom Kelly McGillis. No matter what I'm doing, if Witness is on TV, I will drop everything and watch it. Holy hell, I love Witness. Behold my favorite part:
But my number one all-time-favorite Philly-set movie has got to be ' drum roll please ' Trading Places. Why? It's hilarious, with both Eddie Murphy and Dan Akroyd at their peak, not to mention Jamie Lee Curtis and the always excellent Denholm Elliot as butler Coleman. It's also one of those movies that could ostensibly be set anywhere. But Philadelphia has a reputation for both its blues: both bloods and collars. And there are very few cities that can pull off the necessary dichotomy. It's a Philadelphia movie through and through. Plus, how often do you get a comedy with gorilla sodomy scenes? Not often enough.

So what are you favorites? I know I left off some big ones (i.e. Philadelphia, Invincible) You can use this Wikipedia entry as a cheat sheet. Furthermore, Jay Schwartz of Secret Cinema and local film writer Irv Slifkin are teaming up to add another possible entry to the list. On Thursday, October 15, they'll screen Trick Baby, a semi-Blaxploitation film shot all around the city. Watch the trailer below:

Here's what Slifkin has on the Secret Cinema site:

Even though it's often been placed in the "blaxplaitation" category, this surprisingly sturdy con artist tale is anything but. Yes, it features a predominately all-black cast and indeed, it takes place throughout the seedier African-American sections of Philly. But it's more an urban take on The Sting than anything else. Based on the novel by former pimp Iceberg Slim (originally under the pseudonym "Robert Beck"), the story centers on the exploits of Johnny "White Folks" O'Brien (Kiel Martin), a con from Philly who is the son of a black prostitute mother and white john, and who hates his derisive nickname "Trick Baby." O'Brien's partner is "Blue" Howard (Met Stuart), a veteran schemer from the old school. The two pull off a series of dupes, but really set their sights on a big haul. That comes in a real estate scam in which O'Brien tries to pull in some racist white businessmen on an investment fraud.

Much like Blow Out, the screening ties in with the Print Center's Streets of Philadelphia: Photography 1970-1985, which John Vettese wrote about a couple weeks back

Blow Out, Sun., Oct. 4, 2 p.m., $5-$8 after museum admission, Philadelphia Museum of Art, 2600 Ben Franklin Parkway, 215-763-8100, philamuseum.org. Trick Baby, Thu., Oct. 15, 8 p.m., $8, The Print Center, 1614 Latimer Street, 215-735-6090, thesecretcinema.com.

Scooter

Posted 2009-10-05 10:57:31

My uncle is in Trading Places -- he's one of the paramedics that carries Randolph Duke off the trading floor towards the end of the movie.



Trick Baby is definitely more of a con-man story than a Blaxploitation movie.  It's a fun movie, but even if it wasn't, it would be worth a watch for the shots of early '70s Philly.

Drew Lazor

Posted 2009-10-02 15:58:58

Trading Places!

Posted by Molly Eichel @ 7:15 PM Permalink | Post a comment

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