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Rondo and Bob
USA 2020
produced by Joe O'Connell for Nickel Pickle Films
directed by Joe O'Connell
starring Ryan Williams, Kelsey Pribilski, Joseph Middleton, Adam Littman, Red Wassenich, Kyle Hanson, Gary Kent, Larissa Dali, Margaret Hoard, Dixie Sefcak Rhodes, Scott Dean, Lee Smith, Madelyn Morton, Sonny Carl Davis, Kiersten Dolan, Amanda Dolan, Josiah Swanson, Payton Swanson, Landon Swanson, Daylyn Swanson, Eli Laurence, Ron Braley, Carolina Naranjo, Kerstin Washburn, Sam Peirce, Caleb Stratton, Charles Rosenbusch, Eric Rhoades, Jacob Peirce, Glenn Schiller, interviewees: John Kelso, Dee Wallace, Alison Macor, Louis Black, Michael Finnell, Peter Szilagyi, Fred Olen Ray, Marcos E. González, Michael Peal, Deborah Pastor, Sidney Brammer, William Vail, Edwin Neal, Allen Danziger, John Dugan, Andy Lalino, Ed Guinn, Chris Bonno, Terry Evans, Craig Muckler, Daniel Pearl, Del Howison, Stuart Gordon, David Gregory, Peter Locke, Joe Bob Briggs (= John Bloom), Paul Driscoll, and in archive footage: Robert A. Burns, Rondo Hatton
written by Joe O'Connell, based on the lives of Robert A. Burns, Rondo Hatton, music by Rob Larson, Faris Nourallah, Jacob Peirce, special makeup effects by Nickel Pickle Films
documentary
review by Mike Haberfelner
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In the 1940s, Rondo Hatton was on the rise as a star in horror movies,
owed mainly to his face distorted by acromegaly, a result most possibly of
a poison gas attack during his deployment in France in World War I. The
first film that fully exploited his natural creepy looks was the Sherlock
Holmes movie Pearl of
Death, soon to be followed by The
Spider Woman Strikes Back, House of Horrors and The
Brute Man, among others. He died in 1946 of a heart attack, aged
51, a direct result of his acromegaly. Robert A. Burns was only born lm
1944, and it's safe to say the two men have never met. Robert grew up to
become an art director on horror classics like The
Texas Chainsaw Massacre, The
Hills Have Eyes, The Howling
and Re-Animator, as well as
fun obscurities like Tourist Trap and Microwave Massacre.
And he even took a lead role in the 1985 movie Confessions of a Serial
Killer. Now other than the fact that the two men are probably
under-appreciated heroes of the horror genre, they have little in common,
Robert A. Burns looked as "normal" as Rondo Hatton looked
creepy, and while Burns had a somewhat bizarre and macabre imagination
that often creeped out others, Hatton according to all accounts was the
most likeable person off-screen. Burns though was the authority on Rondo
Hatton, having researched the man's life and career extensively in his
early years, up to the point where he tracked down and became friends with
Hatton's widow. And through this fascination, Hatton and Burns' life
stories, even if separated by decades, are told as parallel timelines, up
to their respective tragic deaths ... Now this is quite a
fascinating documentary, first and foremost of course for horror fans, but
its approach makes it also very engaging to a larger audience, as the film
doesn't purely rely on talking head testimonies, but also on a plethora of
film clips from classic and not so classic movies, plus extended
re-enactments of key scenes of both men's lives, with Robert A. Burns
played by Ryan Williams, Rondo Hatton by Joseph Middleton, and Hatton's
wife/widow Mae, the link between the two men, by Kelsey Pribilski. And
even if it can be argued the film may have taken some artistic licence
with some of the scenes, it's only to further the story, not distort the
facts. And the result is a highly entertaining documentary that really
ticks all the right boxes.
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review © by Mike Haberfelner
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Robots and rats,
demons and potholes, cuddly toys and shopping mall Santas,
love and death and everything in between,
Tales to Chill Your Bones to is all of that.
Tales to Chill Your Bones to -
a collection of short stories and mini-plays ranging from the horrific to the darkly humourous,
from the post-apocalyptic to the weirdly romantic,
tales that will give you a chill and maybe a chuckle,
all thought up by the twisted mind of screenwriter and film reviewer Michael Haberfelner.
Tales to Chill Your Bones to
the new anthology by Michael Haberfelner
Out now from Amazon!!! |
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