The Godfather Coda: The Death of Michael Corleone (2020)

This article looks at Francis Ford Coppola's reissue of The Godfather Part III on its 20th anniversary.

A while back, one of my colleagues on this site wrote a nice retrospective about the three movies that comprise the Godfather series. The Godfather, released in 1972, is rightfully regarded as a classic that made stars out of basically everyone who appeared in it, gave Marlon Brando probably his most famous role as the title character Vito Corleone, and put its director Francis Ford Coppola on the A-list. On an especially sweet note, Coppola’s father, Carmine, would become famous thanks to the music he and Nino Rota did for the first two films; they even won Oscars for their score for The Godfather Part II.

The first film is a violent but well-acted look at a family who manages to gain the audience’s sympathy despite being entrenched in a lifestyle of crime. Coppola’s struggles with Paramount Pictures during production, such as the casting of Brando and Al Pacino as his son Michael, along with making the film a bona fide epic while the studio was going for something lower budgeted, have only made the movie that much more of a triumph. The film redefined the gangster genre, leading to the classic TV series The Sopranos, among other things. It also managed to actually be superior to the 1969 Mario Puzo novel it was adapted from. This coup of a movie being better than the book would be repeated just three years later when Coppola’s pal Steven Spielberg put out his classic movie Jaws. The Godfather Part II came out two years after the first film and Coppola took advantage of the carte blanche that Paramount had promised him as incentive to make it. What made the second film unique was the way it told two stories: One of Michael as he continues to preside over his family, and the other of his father at the same age (Robert De Niro). The movie nicely shows the parallels of how Vito begins his rise to power, while Michael continues to gain power but lose his humanity. Coppola and Puzo’s script took the themes of the previous film even further. The movie’s final shot of Michael sitting alone after wiping out or alienating most everyone has always been one of the best final shots in any film for me. The result was a sequel that many say is even better than the first, and personally, the only other sequels I felt achieved that goal have been The Bride of Frankenstein and Aliens.

Both films, along with The Conversation (which came in between the two Godfather movies) and Coppola’s follow up to Part II, Apocalypse Now, ensured that he would be praised as a genius as well as one of the heads of what critics have called the American New Wave of cinema during the 1970s, which included Coppola’s pals Spielberg, George Lucas, and Martin Scorsese. Not surprisingly, Paramount Pictures, which distributed the Godfather films, offered Coppola a chance to direct a third if he wished. Coppola originally declined, but changed his mind by the end of the 1980s. Because of massive debt he had accumulated (for among other things, what he spent on making Apocalypse Now), Coppola decided to accept Paramount’s long-standing offer of a third Godfather film. Alas, despite massive hype, The Godfather Part III premiered on Christmas Day 1990 and overall failed to be the classic drama that its two predecessors were. Coppola himself would state that Paramount rushed him in order to complete both the script and the shooting of the film in order to make that illustrious release date. There’s also the well-known fact that he drafted his daughter Sofia to play the pivotal role of Mary, Michael Corleone’s daughter, after his original choice Winona Ryder backed out due to exhaustion. This has all led to Part III being relegated to a punch line, while the previous two films can be found on most everyone’s list of classic movies. As it turns out, Coppola has elected to issue a revised version of the third entry on the 30th anniversary of its release. He even changed the title to the one he and Puzo had originally wanted: The Godfather, Coda: The Death of Michael Corleone. Overall, this new version is basically the same as the original, although there are some differences. First of all, the original film states that it takes place in the year 1979, while the newer one doesn’t state a year. This actually takes care of a nit with the film because it depicts the deaths of both Pope Paul VI and his successor John Paul I, both of whom died in 1978. The original film begins with Michael writing a letter to his children, but in Coda it begins with his meeting with Archbishop Gilday (Donal Donnelly). That meeting was past the forty-minute mark in the original film, but it sets the story into motion faster. The next scene is Michael dictating his letter, before jumping right into the celebration for him where we meet his nephew Vincent (Andy Garcia), the son of Michael’s late eldest brother Sonny (James Caan). The original version has Michael getting a medal at a church before the party. Most of the other changes are simply slight trimmings of moments, such as the hit on the meeting room in New Jersey, although I was a tad disappointed to see that Coppola took out the moment of one of the dying dons calls Joey Zasa (Joe Mantegna), the perpetrator of the massacre, an SOB.

The only other big change is the final scene. In the original, Michael, having been saddened by the loss of Mary, is sitting alone in a villa before dropping to the ground dead. Coda, however, has him sitting in the villa, but the scene fades to black with these words on the screen: “When the Sicilians wish you ‘Cent’anni’… it means ‘for long life’… and a Sicilian never forgets.” After that, we get the ending credits. This certainly struck me as bizarre, considering that the film was retitled The Death of Michael Corleone and now ends without Michael actually dying. I’ve read some reviews, though, which interpret this change as Michael living with what he’s done, including killing his brother Fredo (John Cazale) at the end of Part II, and how it all culminated with the death of his child. In other words, a living death. While Coppola welcomed the chance to revisit this film (hey, he’s already redone Apocalypse Now twice by now, so why not?), I still can’t rank Coda as highly as the first two Godfather movies. This is because the Vatican/Immobiliare plot of the film is still convoluted. Especially disappointing for me, though, is that Bridget Fonda’s journalist character just disappears from the film in both versions after her romp in the hay with Vincent.

This brings me to probably the most criticized element of Part III: Sofia Coppola’s performance. I can’t say the performance itself bothered me, and truthfully, it wouldn’t have mattered if Winona Ryder played her because the performance was always overshadowed by the god-awful romance Mary embarks on with her first cousin Vincent. To this day, I still don’t know what possessed Coppola to think such a plot element would be compelling. Perhaps he was attempting to evoke Greek dramas, but all it succeeded in doing was making audiences go “Ew!” On an equally bizarre note, Michael tells both of them to end their affair, saying it’s “dangerous”, when the word “sick” would be more appropriate. The only good thing about all this is Sofia would follow in her father’s footsteps and become an Oscar-winning filmmaker herself.

On the plus side, the film is nicely shot by its cinematographer Gordon Willis, who lensed the previous two films as well. The climactic scene at the opera house has a nice atmosphere to it and it’s also appropriate, as the first two films have always been described as operatic. Pacino certainly gives it his all, as do both Diane Keaton and Coppola’s sister Talia Shire reprising their roles as Michael’s former spouse and sister, respectively. Yes, it would’ve been nice to see Robert Duvall play Michael’s remaining brother again, but it wouldn’t have made the script any better. This is probably evident in how wasted George Hamilton is as Michael’s attorney. Eli Wallach is nicely cast as a don who was an old friend of Michael’s father (even if he isn’t given much to do), and Garcia’s Vincent, despite his yucky affair with his cousin, makes a nice addition to the Corleone family.

While Part III remains not as loved as its two predecessors, there has been the occasional inquiry over the years as to whether there will be a fourth Godfather movie. Coppola continues to doubt there will be, and with his father’s passing in 1991 and Puzo’s passing in 1999, I don’t see that changing. In fairness, this isn’t the first time Coppola has done some tinkering with the Godfather films. In 1977, he rearranged the footage of the first two films into The Godfather Saga, which aired as a miniseries on TV, and had extra scenes not seen in the original versions. Coppola would later add Part III to that to create The Godfather Trilogy: 1901-1980, which made its debut on home video in 1992, when the original film turned 20. Overall, Coppola deserves credit for at least trying to make The Godfather Part III a better film, considering both what he had and that it’s now been three decades after the fact. Considering the note Part II ends on, I think anyone would’ve been hard pressed to find some way to continue this storyline. Nonetheless, in the case of both versions, there are nice moments and great potential, but it falls short compared to what came before.

The Boys

This article looks at the successful Amazon series.

In the past few months, the Amazon series The Boys has generated a lot of buzz. The show, based on the comic series by Garth Ennis and Darick Robertson, and co-produced by Seth Rogan, basically takes the superhero craze that Disney and Marvel have run with for years now and turns it on its ear. So much so that, unlike those movies, this series is definitely not for kids too young to vote. Imagine a superhero series directed by Rob Zombie and that should give you an idea of what The Boys is like. The show deals with an Avengers/Justice League-esque super-powered group called the Seven that are hailed as heroes by the public. The Seven is endorsed/controlled by a corporation called Vought International. The septet themselves are: Homelander (Antony Starr), who dresses like Superman and is the arrogant, self-proclaimed head of the Seven, and who privately goes by the name John. Queen Maeve (Dominique McElligott), a Wonder Woman-esque hero, who was once romantically involved with Homelander. Her secret identity is Maggie Shaw. A-Train (Jessie T. Usher), also known as Reggie Franklin, who can run at super-speed like the Flash and is determined to not be outdone in that field. The Deep (Chace Crawford), also known as Kevin Moskowitz, who’s the Aquaman of this group. Black Noir (Nathan Mitchell), who dresses in black and says nothing. Translucent (Alex Hassell), who has the power of invisibility. Starlight (Erin Moriarty), also known as Annie January, who becomes the latest member of the Seven as the series begins and who has light-emitting powers.

The series wastes no time putting superheroes in a different light as it begins with A-Train accidentally killing a girl by violently running into her. This sends the girl’s boyfriend Hughie (Jack Quaid) into despair, to the point where the short-tempered Billy Butcher (Karl Urban) recruits him to be one of the “boys” of the title. This title group is dedicated to bringing down the superheroes, or Supes as the public calls them. With the reluctant assistance of his acquaintances Marvin “Mother’s” Milk (Laz Alonzo) and Frenchie (Tomer Capon), Butcher explains to Hughie that his beef with the Supes started when Homelander took his wife Becca (Shantel Van Santen) from him.

We soon see that there are other reasons why the Supes, despite their public displays of heroism, may not exactly be heroic. For instance, Homelander’s egotism eventually leads to him to leave dozens of people to die in a plane crash. He even blackmails Maeve into keeping silent about it, as she’s afraid he’ll kill Maeve’s former girlfriend Elena (Nicola Correia-Damude). At the same time, Starlight is beginning to realize that entering the Seven is not the great adventure she thought it would be, when she has to contend with sexual harassment from the Deep. This eventually leads to Vought’s VP Madelyn Stillwell (Elisabeth Shue) forcing him to take a sabbatical from the Seven. Stillwell likewise proves herself calculating in her efforts to keep the Seven, and by extension, the public under her thumb. She entices Homelander with sex to ensure that he keeps up his public image for her.

Soon, Starlight and Hughie meet and begin a romantic relationship. Despite Butcher’s distrust of her, Starlight and Hughie soon agree to work together to stop the machinations of Vought.

The Boys’ work soon leads to the death of Translucent as well as the revelation that Vought is controlling the Seven with a drug known as Compound V. They also gain a new ally when they rescue the mute Kimiko Miyashiro (Karen Fukuhara), who herself has healing powers thanks to the Compound V that Vought gave her. Starlight even confronts her mother Donna (Ann Cusack), who admits giving her the substance to ensure that her little girl would be a celebrity. The first season ends with Homelander ending Stillwell’s manipulation of him by killing her, although this doesn’t stop Homelander from asking the villainous Doppelganger (Dan Darin-Zanco) to assume her form in a later episode to appease him. Homelander later expresses his gratitude by killing Doppelganger as well. He also shows Butcher that Becca is alive and well by taking him to Becca’s home, which he shares with her son, who was fathered by Homelander. Season two begins with the void left by Translucent’s death being filled by the ambitious Stormfront (Aya Cash), who quickly becomes the world’s favorite new Supe. She even has a sexual relationship with Homelander when he discovers that she was one of the first to get Compound V, which is why she was a young adult in Nazi Germany. This upbringing also explains her racist ideology, which she acts upon at times. Her previous superhero name was Liberty, who the Boys learn murdered without remorse during the ’60s. As Stillwell’s replacement Ashley Barrett (Colby Minifie) tries to maintain the Seven’s image, Butcher attempts to get Becca back. But she doesn’t want to abandon her son Ryan, who like his dad has superpowers. But the Boys also discover that Vought has been developing super-villains in secret in order to ensure that the Seven will always be needed in the world. One such villain has the ability to telekinetically make people’s heads explode. This tidbit is seen at the end of the episode “Butcher, Baker, Candlestick Maker” when the Boys and Congresswoman Victoria Neuman (Claudia Doumit) are about to get Vought scientist Johan Vogelbaum (John Doman) to testify against the Supes before Congress, only to see his head and others in the courtroom explode.

Eventually, A-Train, having seen Stormfront for the racist that she is, is able to get the Boys info that allows them to expose her true self to the world. Season two ends with Stormfront going down thanks to Ryan using his powers, although sadly, at the cost of Becca’s life (but before that, we see Starlight, Maeve, and Kumiko all kicking Stormfront’s ass). But this makes Neuman a hero herself, as Homelander, Maeve, Starlight, and the rest of the Seven present a united front to the world. As for the Boys, Butcher takes Ryan to a place of safety (in government hands), Mother’s Milk happily reunites with his family, and Starlight and Hughie are apparently still together. We also learn that Neuman herself is the supervillain with the head-exploding telekinesis. Season 2 ends with her using that ability on the head of the Church of the Collective Alistair Adana (Goran Visnjic), just after he speaks to her on the phone about getting tax-exempt status.

The show has a lot of interconnecting storylines to it, and the cast has certainly made the show worth watching. There are even a few surprise cameos, such as Haley Joel Osment as a former child star/Supe who comes to a violent end. With all the various subplots involving conspiracies, backstabbing, etc., The Boys can certainly be seen as timely. Season 2 ends on a nice, ominous note that makes the viewer want Season 3, whenever the damn pandemic allows.

Sir Sean Connery (1930-2020)

Here is my tribute to the legendary Sir Sean!

This Halloween brought the sad news of the passing of cinema great Sir Sean Connery. As has been thoroughly documented over the decades, Sir Sean was best known for being cinema’s first—and, for many, best—James Bond. It was also well-known that the actor developed an intense love/hate relationship with the character within just a few short years of playing him. A recent article in Rolling Stone did a wonderful job of illustrating how this complex relationship between actor and character would end up forging the unique movie legacy Sir Sean left behind. Connery already had two classic movies before he signed on to play Bond in the first 007 movie Dr. No. One was Disney’s 1959 film Darby O’Gill and the Little People, in which he had a supporting role of a rugged caretaker who becomes smitten with the daughter of the title character (Albert Sharpe), who has begun talking with a group of leprechauns. The movie quickly became a St. Patrick’s Day viewing tradition, and not surprisingly, its status increased once Connery began playing Bond.

The same year that Dr. No was released also saw Connery playing a small part in 20th Century Fox’s star-studded film The Longest Day. That film was an expensive depiction of the D-Day invasion, which also boasted stars like John Wayne, Robert Mitchum, and Henry Fonda.

But once Dr. No came out, the public’s perception of Connery quickly shifted. His depiction of a spy contrasted with previous such depictions in cinema. For instance, the Bond series pushed the envelope in terms of sex and violence, so much so that the Vatican would condemn the series. However, the public soon became enamored with the films, due in no small part to Fleming’s Bond books being endorsed by John F. Kennedy, among other political luminaries. As a result, Bond producers Albert Broccoli and Harry Saltzman were able to proceed with the follow-ups they were hoping to make. At the center of it all, of course, was Connery’s work as Bond, which made such an impact that it prompted Fleming to give Bond a Scottish background in the books.

However, Connery made it known that he wanted Bond to be a jumping off point to allow him to make other, different films. One of the first of these was his role in Alfred Hitchcock’s Marnie. While Connery wanted to work with Hitchcock, he raised eyebrows in the industry when he asked to read the script before agreeing to do it. Connery’s reasoning was that he wanted to be sure that Marnie did not have the same tone as other Hitchcock films such as Notorious or North by Northwest, both of which were influential in how the Bond series turned out. Marnie itself, in which Connery plays a businessman who blackmails an employee (Tippi Hedren) into marrying him in order to understand her motivations, was a not great success upon its initial 1964 release. But the movie, while having some slow moments, is still an interesting character study and has a nice, romantic musical score by Bernard Herrmann. Over the decades, Marnie has earned a more positive reputation, and today I view it as Sir Sean’s first great film after he started playing Bond.

Marnie was also overshadowed by the enormous success of the third Bond film Goldfinger, which was released a few months afterward. The latter film ensured that Bond was here to stay as a figure of pop culture, and along with the previous Bond flick From Russia with Love, probably has Sir Sean at his Bond best. But Connery would do another, atypical film following Goldfinger and that film was 1965’s The Hill. This was a dark, gritty World War II drama in which Connery plays an officer sent to a military prison in Libya. He and the other prisoners (among them Ossie Davis, Roy Kinnear, Alfred Lynch, and Jack Watson) must endure such tasks as climbing the hill of the title wearing full backpacks. After a prisoner dies, Connery ends up prompting the others to revolt against the camp’s brutal staff sergeant (Ian Hendry). Like Marnie, The Hill ended up overshadowed by Bondmania (the fourth 007 movie Thunderball came out later that year), but critics were becoming more and more convinced that there was much more to Connery than Bond.

The love/hate relationship between Connery and Bond probably reached its nadir during the making of the fifth Bond film You Only Live Twice. As filming of it commenced in Japan, media interest in Connery was insanely high, and at one point, a reporter even followed the actor into the restroom in order to conduct an interview with him. This was one of numerous factors that prompted Connery to announce that this would be his final Bond film. As the next film in the series On Her Majesty’s Secret Service commenced without him, Connery made several films. One of these was the successful crime drama The Anderson Tapes, which reunited him with Sidney Lumet, who directed him in The Hill (and would later direct Connery in The Offence, Murder on the Orient Express, and Family Business).

But Bond ended up calling Connery back when his 007 successor George Lazenby prematurely left the role after just one film. Following a thorough search for another Bond, United Artists became adamant that the next film had to have Connery in it. Intense negotiations resulted in Sir Sean getting paid over $1 million to play Bond for a sixth time in Diamonds are Forever. That was an enormous payment for an actor in 1970, and the deal also made headlines when Connery donated every penny of it to the Scottish International Education Trust, which he co-founded. The deal also rewarded Connery with United Artists’ promise to fund two films of his choice. One of these was set to be a film version of Shakespeare’s Macbeth. Sadly, plans for that film fell through because Roman Polanski had released his own film version of the play during this period. The other was the aforementioned The Offence.

After the success of Diamonds, Connery’s cachet would keep rising as the 1970s went on. This is why the bizarre science fiction film Zardoz would gain a cult following and why he won critical acclaim for playing an Arab with a Scottish accent in The Wind and the Lion. He followed that with his brilliant turn in John Huston’s The Man Who Would Be King, in which he and Sir Michael Caine played charming rouges who attempt to become rich by manipulating the native peoples of a town in Kafiristan. While their attempts end in failure, Connery and Caine were a great match, which endeared their characters to audiences.

Sir Sean followed this triumph with an equally memorable turn as Robin Hood in Robin and Marian. This film turned the Robin Hood legend on its ear by having Robin become disenchanted with King Richard (Richard Harris) and return to England after Richard’s death during the Crusades. There, Robin is reunited with Maid Marian (Audrey Hepburn), who while initially fed up over Robin taking off for the Crusades years earlier, is soon swept away by him again as he and Little John (Nicol Williamson) attempt to bring hope to the people of Nottingham again. Robin is also reunited with Nottingham’s sheriff (Robert Shaw), who’s become a slightly more thoughtful figure in the years since Robin’s absence. The film’s somber tone, which sharply contrasted with that of previous Robin Hoods, initially confused audiences. But it would become more highly regarded over the years. But from day one, the two leads were praised as perfect casting, and Connery’s scenes with Shaw were as great as the ones they shared in From Russia With Love.

Other memorable films followed, such as The Great Train Robbery and Time Bandits. While Connery had the occasional dud, such as Meteor, his stature earned him a nice salary to playing Bond one last time in the Thunderball remake Never Say Never Again. The film didn’t do anything Thunderball didn’t do better, but Sir Sean’s scenes with Barbara Carrera were quite sexy. His career would reach a new level during the mid-1980’s with his roles in the cult smash Highlander and the medieval drama The Name of the Rose, both of which were released in 1986. Connery would follow up these films a year later with the smash The Untouchables, which won him an Oscar for playing a policeman who agrees to help Eliot Ness (Kevin Costner) end Al Capone’s (Robert De Niro) reign of terror over Prohibition-era Chicago. While some say Connery’s Oscar was more of an honorary one, the movie itself is exciting and superior to the 1959-1963 TV series of the same name.

Another great role quickly followed when Sir Sean played Indiana Jones’s father in Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade. As with Star Wars, the main inspiration for Indy was Saturday matinee serials, but what drew Steven Spielberg to direct all four films in the series was his desire to direct a James Bond picture. Last Crusade would bring him a bit closer to that goal when he succeeded in getting Connery to play Indy’s old man, which proved a great move, because Sir Sean’s scenes with Harrison Ford are wonderful. One of the best parts of the movie is when Indy learns that love interest/villain Elsa Schneider (Alison Doody) was intimate with both him and his father. This may have been cringe-inducing with another actor playing Indy’s dad, but Connery made this a delightful aspect of Last Crusade.

While it would’ve been interesting to see Sir Sean play Bond in On Her Majesty’s Secret Service (as Bond marries in that story), by Last Crusade, it was obvious that Connery himself had become much bigger than Bond. He would have other successes such as The Hunt for Red October, Rising Sun, and The Rock. He also voiced an impressive looking dragon in the fantasy Dragonheart. Sir Sean would even make age a non-issue with his onscreen romances in First Knight and Entrapment. He even had a great turn as the title character in the drama Finding Forrester. Connery would be knighted in 2000, something many felt was long overdue. Sir Sean’s final onscreen appearance was 2003’s The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen. The film was a disappointment, but Connery was perfect casting as Allan Quartermain. However, his unhappy experience during the making of that film would lead him to announce his retirement from acting. But Connery’s status as a beloved icon continued to endure. He would even voice and provide the likeness for Bond in the terrific video game adaptation of From Russia With Love, released in 2006. That same year, Sir Sean was awarded the American Film Institute’s Life Achievement Award.

While Connery himself wasn’t immortal, he left behind a legacy that will surely live forever. Farewell, Sir Sean, you shall be missed and please tell Sir Roger we said hi.

the Edgar Allan Poe films-Part II

This is the second half of my look at the film series that I think is Roger Corman's crowning achievement.

Roger Corman kept his Edgar Allan Poe series going strong with four additional films in the series. The Raven (1963)

The fifth entry in the series took on a more flamboyant, lighthearted tone. The title bird pays a visit to a grieving widowed sorcerer named Dr. Erasmus Craven (Vincent Price). Craven helps whip up a potion that restores the raven to its original human form, a wizard named Bedlo (Peter Lorre), who explains that he was turned into a raven by another sorcerer named Scarabus (Boris Karloff). Craven agrees to help Bedlo confront Scarabus when Bedlo reveals he saw the spirit of Craven’s late wife Lenore (Hazel Court) at his castle. They’re joined by Craven’s daughter Estelle (Olive Sturgess) and Bedlo’s son Rexford (Jack Nicholson). Not long after they arrive, Scarabus kills Bedlo, although the latter reveals to Rexford that this was all a ruse and he’s simply hiding in his raven form. Craven, on the other hand, is anguished to realize that his wife faked her death to run off with Scarabus. He also is forced surrender his magical powers in order to stop Scarabus from torturing Estelle. This leads to Craven and Scarabus having a duel of magic. This results in the castle getting burned to the ground. Everyone manages to escape, although Scarabus loses his powers and Craven rejects Lenore’s attempts at making amends. The film ends with a quote from the famous Poe poem of the same name, when Craven refuses to turn Bedlo back into a human, saying, “Quoth the raven… nevermore!” The actors reportedly improvised many of their lines, although it took some time for Karloff to adapt to this method, as he was known for being well-prepared when he was on the job. The duel between Price and Karloff is certainly a highlight, although the latter’s health issues made the moments where he was supposed to be floating in the air difficult. It’s also fun to see Nicholson years before Easy Rider made him a star, although he and Lorre reportedly butted heads during filming. A sidenote: The Raven finished filming a couple of days ahead of schedule, so Corman used that remaining time to whip up his infamous quickie The Terror, which starred Karloff and Nicholson. Unlike the Poe films, The Terror more accurately reflects the reputation for cheapness Corman received in some quarters, although it quickly became a drive-in and late-night TV staple. The Haunted Palace (1963)

While there is indeed a Poe poem entitled “The Haunted Palace,” this movie actually owes more of a debt to the H.P. Lovecraft book The Case of Charles Dexter Ward, although portions of Poe’s poem are quoted in the movie. This film begins with Joseph Curwen (Price) being discovered as a warlock by the people of 1765 Arkham, Massachusetts and subsequently burned at the stake. His final words are a promise to get revenge on his executioners and their descendants. Jump to 1875 when Curwen’s great-great-grandson, Charles Dexter Ward (also Price) arrives in Arkham with his wife Anne (Debra Paget). They reveal to the hostile townspeople that they’ve inherited Curwen’s palace. Despite pleas from the town doctor Willet (Frank Maxwell), the couple go to the palace. Ward gets a feeling of deja vu as the palace seems familiar to him. He also notes the portrait of his ancestor along with the strong family resemblance. They also meet Simon (Lon Chaney, Jr.), the palace’s caretaker, who all but insists they make themselves at home. As Anne begins to note changes in her husband’s personality, Willet informs the couple of Curwen’s death and a book he possessed called the Necronomicon. Curwen used the spells in the book to create a race of super-humans by mating mortal women with elder gods. The doctor also states that Curwen’s attempts to do so led to many of the populace being deformed. Not surprisingly, the townsfolk are convinced Ward is the reincarnated form of Curwen, and Willet implores the couple to leave town. But Charles insists on staying, and possessed by his ancestor, he summons the spirits of two other warlocks, who have also possessed their descendants, one of which is Simon. They attempt to resurrect Curwen’s mistress Hester, although Curwen says Charles is fighting him. He also attempts to rape Anne, and when that fails, he tries to tell Willet she’s insane. The film ends with the townspeople destroying the castle while Charles is seemingly free of his ancestor’s grasp once the portrait is destroyed, although the film’s ending suggests otherwise. While it’s fun to see Price and Chaney Jr. share the screen (previously, there were both in Abbott and Costello Meet Frankenstein, but had no scenes together) this entry is unique in that it was the first Corman film to use the then-revolutionary zoom lens. Although this created its own issues, as it required more lighting than usual. The Masque of the Red Death (1964)

This entry is often regarded as the best-looking in Corman’s Poe series. Prince Prospero (Price) rules his village with an iron fist of fear. One night, he takes two villagers, Ludovico (Nigel Green) and Gino (David Weston) into custody with plans to execute them. But Ludovico’s daughter (and Gino’s lover) Francesca (Jane Asher) pleads with Prospero, prompting him to take her to his castle as well. At the same time, Prospero realizes that a woman from his village has a disease known as the Red Death and promptly orders the village burned to the ground to prevent it from spreading. Prospero’s companion Juliana (Hazel Court) makes no secret of her jealousy of Francesca as the prince cleans her up and dresses her nicely to attend the party he’s throwing. Francesca soon discovers the satanic cult Prospero and Juliana are part of, while Gino and Ludovico refuse to fight each other for the amusement of Prospero and his guests. Juliana soon gives Francesca a key to free Gino and Ludovico, although they’re quickly recaptured by Prospero. He brings them before his guests and again tries to make them kill each other for amusement. Their defiance leads to Prospero killing Ludovico and tossing Gino out of the castle. Gino goes through the woods and encounters the red-cloaked figure known for representing the Red Death. Juliana is later killed by a falcon after drinking from a chalice and announcing she’s the wife of Satan. The remaining villagers beg Prospero for asylum, but he responds by having his soldiers kill them. A guest named Alfredo (Patrick Magee) fights with another guest while wearing an ape costume, and Gino attempts to rescue Francesca. But he’s assured by the red-cloaked figure that she’ll be fine, and tells him not to re-enter the castle. Prospero soon notices the figure in his castle, because he ordered no red be worn at his party. The prince later realizes that he’s infected when he removes the figure’s mask to see his own bloodied face beneath. He dies while Gino, Francesca, and some of the prince’s guests escape. Corman initially wanted this film to be the second in his series, but it took some time for him to be satisfied with the script. This entry was also a co-production between American International Pictures and Anglo-Amalgamated in England. This was no doubt why the film had a slightly longer shoot than the others (five weeks rather than three). Corman later expressed his dissatisfaction with the climatic ballroom sequence because of the different working methods of the English crew as opposed to those from Hollywood. Still, the ballroom itself is a nice set. Price and Court are good as always, with Asher and Magee matching them. The Tomb of Ligeia (1964)

The final entry in Corman’s Poe series is also, according to some, the best. The script was written by Robert Towne, who would go onto fame as the writer of Chinatown. Widower Verden Fell (Price) feels haunted by the spirit of his late wife Ligeia (Elizabeth Shepherd), no doubt due to blasphemous statements she made during her life. He soon meets and marries a woman named Rowena (Shepherd). But their marriage is not exactly happy, as they both feel Ligeia’s presence, which seems to always coincide with the appearance of a mysterious black cat. Rowena has several nerve-wracking encounters with the feline. The film ends when Fell faces his fears head-on by fighting the cat while his home crashes down around them in flames. As Rowena escapes with the help of her former flame Christopher Gough (John Westbrook), the cat reverts to its true form as Ligeia, and she and Fell die. While the sunglasses Price wears in this movie aren’t exactly flattering (this is explained as being due to Fell’s intolerance of sunlight), the movie itself is a nice, atmospheric end to this series. Shepherd is cleverly cast as both Fell’s current and former spouses. One could say the success of Corman’s Poe films made them the American answer to Hammer films, in the same way that the Monkees are viewed as the American answer to the Beatles. I think it’s safe to say that these remain the most famous of all the film adaptations of Poe’s works. While The Tomb of Ligeia was the last Poe film directed by Corman, AIP wasn’t through with Poe by any means. As the 1960s continued, the studio would make and market other films based on Poe’s works, although they were usually in name only. One such film was the brilliant 1968 shocker Witchfinder General, which starred Price as real-life witch hunter Matthew Hopkins. It was later released in American cinemas under the title The Conqueror Worm, which was the name of a Poe poem. Price was even brought in to read the short poem in its entirety for the film’s ending. The good news is that while I’m happy the film was restored to its original form when it came to DVD in the US, those changes didn’t diminish the film’s power. As for Corman, he’s kept on directing and producing in the decades following the Poe films (as I write this, my colleague Thomas Stockel is currently recapping the Corman-produced Battle Beyond the Stars). At the age of 94, his smart business sense allows his filmmaking career to keep going even with such game-changing techniques as home video and streaming. Corman would happily be acknowledged by Hollywood when he was awarded a lifetime achievement Oscar in 2009.

the Edgar Allan Poe films-Part I

This is a look at Roger Corman's classic film series.

Roger Corman has always been regarded as the filmmaker who, if he didn’t invent the B-movie, certainly perfected it. During the course of his decades-spanning career, Corman has produced, directed, written, and acted in numerous films across multiple genres. He became noted (some would say infamous) for the efficient way he used finances to get his movies made. Corman is also noted for helping now-legendary actors and directors get their start in filmmaking, including Francis Ford Coppola, Martin Scorsese, Jonathan Demme, Jack Nicholson, William Shatner, and Sylvester Stallone. These protégés would often thank him for his support, usually by giving him bit parts in movies such as The Godfather Part II and The Silence of the Lambs. While some have called Corman penny-pinching in his methods, more often than not, the films that resulted became beloved cult hits, ranging from comedies like Rock ‘N Roll High School to horror films like Piranha and the Slumber Party Massacre series. However, if I had to pick Corman’s crowning achievement, it would be the films he made based on the works of Edgar Allan Poe. Corman instantly became a fan of Poe when he read his works as a child and wanted to make films of his works when the time was right. That time came with the start of the 1960s. While there had been film adaptations of Poe’s work before that, Corman was determined to adapt them as never before. This is evident in his wise decision to spend a bit more money than usual in order to ensure that these films would do justice to Poe. This would include shooting the movies in color, which Corman convinced his distributor American International Pictures to go along with. The finishing touch was casting Vincent Price as the star, as Price had become a beloved horror icon the previous decade with such classics as House of Wax and House on Haunted Hill and would ensure that horror fans would give these films a look. There were a total of eight films in the Poe-Corman series, and I’ll look at each one in order of release. House of Usher (1960)

The film, also known as The Fall of the House of Usher, adapted by the great Richard Matheson, centers on a man named Philip Winthrop (Mark Damon) who travels to the title residence to visit his fiancée Madeline (Myrna Fahey). But her hyper-sensitive brother Roderick (Price) insists that Madeline must remain in the Usher mansion because the family, according to him, is cursed and Madeline leaving would bring evil upon everyone. But Philip is persistent and he and Madeline soon reunite with plans to run away together. But Madeline, after vehemently defying her brother, falls ill and apparently dies. But after her burial, Philip realizes Madeline is still alive thanks to a tip from Roderick’s butler. Philip searches the manor for Madeline after finding her coffin empty. He sees her, and having been driven to insanity, he attacks Roderick, eventually causing the manor to collapse, with Philip barely escaping. This film got Corman’s Poe series off to a nice start with Price, as usual, relishing his role. The unexpectedly downbeat ending would also do Poe proud. The Pit and the Pendulum (1961)

The success of House of Usher prompted AIP to demand Corman rush out a second Poe flick, and Corman was all too happy to oblige. This second entry, which brought back Price and Matheson as well as art director Daniel Haller and composer Les Baxter, is probably the most famous entry in this series, with the moment where Price handles the titular pendulum quickly becoming memorable. In the 16th Century, English patriot Francis Barnard (John Kerr) visits the castle of his brother-in-law Nicholas (Price) to look into the death of his sister Elizabeth (Barbara Steele). Nicholas and his sister Catherine (Luana Anders) tell Francis that Elizabeth died of a blood disorder, although they don’t give much detail about it. But Francis’s determination to find out the truth eventually leads to him realizing that Nicholas has been driven insane, and he begins to act like and eventually become his murderous father Sebastian, who killed Nicholas and Catherine’s mother when Nicholas was a boy. There’s also a clever plot twist involving Elizabeth, which leads to the great climax with Nicholas bringing the pendulum down on Francis. The Premature Burial (1962)

This is the only entry in the series to not star Vincent Price, though ironically, due to studio contract negotiations, Price ended up becoming available after filming began. British aristocrat Guy Carrell (Ray Milland) has an obsessive fear of being buried alive. This begins to get on the nerves of his fiancée Emily (Hazel Court), but she remains devoted to him after Guy explains his fear is due to a traumatic childhood incident involving his father, though Guy’s sister Kate (Heather Angel) dismisses the story. Guy eventually builds himself an elaborate tomb with safeguards in the event that he’s buried alive (that’s what I call planning ahead). Not surprisingly, Emily threatens to leave Guy if he doesn’t straighten up. Guy does, but in another ironic twist worthy of Poe, he suffers a heart attack and is presumed dead. This leads to the film’s nerve-wracking ending, although some may say it’s a bit derivative of the previous two movies. Still, this film is as enjoyable as the other two Poe pictures, and while I’m sure Price would’ve been great in the lead, Milland definitely does his best with the role. Tales of Terror (1962)

One could say that Price more than made up for his absence in The Premature Burial with this installment, as it’s actually a three-part anthology with Price appearing in all three segments. The first segment, titled “Morella”, concerns a woman named Lenora (Maggie Pierce) who visits her depressed, drunk father (Price). But he lashes out at Lenora, blaming her for the death of his wife Morella (Leona Gage) in childbirth. Lenora is further alarmed when she finds her mom’s corpse in one of the beds. But her dad becomes a bit kinder when Lenora tells him she’s ill. Alas, the spirt of Morella saves the illness the trouble when she appears one night to kill Lenora. This causes Morella’s body to be restored to its beautiful, living self. Her husband’s horrified reaction causes his resurrected wife to strangle him as the house goes down in flames. The second segment, “The Black Cat”, combines elements of the Poe stories “The Black Cat” and “The Cask of Amontillado”. A bitter man named Herringbone (Peter Lorre) can’t stand his wife Annabelle (Joyce Jameson) and cares even less about her black cat. He goes to a wine tasting one night and matches wits with a man named Luchresi (Price). Herringbone becomes drunk so Luchresi helps him home, where he meets Annabelle. The two soon begin an affair, prompting Herringbone to later seal them both up alive behind a brick wall in his basement. But Herringbone is caught when police arrive to question him and discover his crime thanks to the cat, who alerts them by scratching on the wall; it turns out Herringbone unknowingly sealed the cat inside, too. The last segment, “The Facts in the Case of M. Valdemar”, centers on the title character (Price), who asks a hypnotist (Basil Rathbone) to put him in trances to relieve the pain from his terminal illness. While in one of these trances, Valdemar asks the hypnotist to kill him to end his suffering, but the hypnotist refuses. Months later, with Valdemar bedridden, the hypnotist forcefully tries to wed Valdemar’s wife Helene (Debra Paget). He assaults her when she refuses, which is when Valdemar rises and kills the hypnotist, although Helene escapes thanks to her husband’s physician (David Frankham). I must also point out that 1962, the same year the third and fourth Poe pictures came out, also saw the release of Corman’s most underrated film, The Intruder. That story centers on a racist (William Shatner) who attempts to stop integration in a southern town. But the film, due to its subject matter, had difficulty finding distribution and ended up losing money for Corman. Given the civil rights movement of the time, it’s not surprising that some people kept a project like this at arm’s length. Indeed, Corman, Shatner, and the rest of the crew reportedly received death threats from the Ku Klux Klan while the movie was being filmed in Missouri. But the final film was praised in some quarters, which in turn proved that Corman was willing to take on more thought-provoking material. Likewise, the devotion he simultaneously was giving the Poe pictures showed that he was capable of making pictures that couldn’t be pigeonholed as low budget schlock. As his protégé Martin Scorsese said, “With the Poe pictures, suddenly there was a personality emerging from the Corman factory.” This personality would keep getting stronger with the subsequent entries in the Poe series, which I’ll look at in part two.

Interview with Deborah Voorhees

This is my third interview with the beautiful Deborah Voorhees.

This week, I had the pleasure of chatting once again with actress/writer/director/editor Deborah Voorhees (read our previous interview here). Her latest upcoming work, entitled 13 Fanboy, centers on a deranged Friday the 13th fan who targets actresses who have appeared in the franchise. The film stars Dee Wallace, along with several people who appeared in the Friday films, such as Kane Hodder and C.J. Graham, both of whom played Jason in different entries in the series.

Deborah, what gave you the idea for 13 Fanboy? My producer partner was curious about horror conventions because he hadn’t been to one and was wondering what horror fans are like. I said that they are like big kids who dress up and play Halloween. They are a lot of fun. They are really into SFX. That sort of thing excites them. He asked if had a bad experience. I said no but I had a few weird things happen. For instance, I had a weird message on Facebook Messenger from someone commenting, “Wouldn’t it be cool if you died in real life like in Friday the 13th.” I didn’t respond and blocked him. Another text message bothered me more because it was a text to my phone. This guy said he was watching me in my office at night. He said he knew me from Friday the 13th and meant me harm. I blocked both of those people and didn’t hear back from them. It may have been a joke, but it’s not very funny. My producing partner said, “That’s our story. That’s our script.” I said, “Hell no!” However, after a few days, I realized that this is something that can scare people. We spent the next 90 days passing out the full plot, so I had a 30-page outline from beginning to end of everything that would happen. Then I fleshed the 90-something page script out.

13 Fanboy has a great cast. Among them is Dee Wallace, who I’ve always known as the mother from E.T. What’s it like directing her? It was fantastic. She’s an incredibly talented actress. Every scene she’s in, she works the camera. Even when the scene is over, she stayed in character until I call cut, which I love. I give it a few seconds before calling cut just to see what happens. You never know when you’ll get something special. She’s amazingly nuanced in her performances, which I really appreciate. There was never a moment when you thought she wasn’t the character she was playing. She’s an amazingly kind person. I was impressed with her.

The film also has other alumni from the Friday the 13th. Was it surreal directing them in a project like this? It was like having a huge family reunion with people you are related to but don’t always know personally.

Post-production on the film is currently underway. I’m happy to hear that the pandemic isn’t disrupting things on that front. It hasn’t done too much. It is mostly distribution that is trickier with COVID, since theaters aren’t open right now. We are looking at a theatrical release, so we have to figure out what to do.

In the past, you’ve cited Alfred Hitchcock as one of your favorite filmmakers and you’ve obviously made an impact in the horror genre yourself. What’s it like directing terrifying scenes rather than acting in them? It’s quite a lot of fun. The camera becomes an agent of sleight of hand like a magic show. The camera captures images and clips that turn something perfectly safe into something that looks violent and scary. It’s a lot of fun to see it all come together once the visual edits, sound effects, and music are in place.

Is there anything you can tells us about your future projects? I do want to do a sequel to this. I also want to do a ghost story. I’ve always liked ghost stories.

Jaws knockoffs

Jaws turns 45 this year, so this article looks at films which were inspired by that classic movie.

On social media in recent months, some have compared the narratives of a few classic horror films such as Night of the Living Dead and Jaws to the coronavirus pandemic that the world is currently going through. But the purpose of this article is to point out the impact the latter film, which turns 45 this year, has had on Hollywood since its release. Many, including yours truly, have already written about how the great success of Spielberg’s film began the big studios’ practice of putting out big-budget films during the summer. For obvious reasons, 2020 has become an exception to that.

But Jaws, like Psycho before it and Halloween after it, quickly spawned a number of imitators with the same “nature strikes back at humanity” theme. Here now is a brief look at five such films which stood out for me.

Grizzly (1976)

The title alone made comparisons to Jaws inevitable, even though this movie was already in production when Jaws hit theaters. Instead of a beach community, the film is set in a national park (filmed in Georgia) whose head ranger (Christopher George) soon learns that a huge grizzly bear is killing people throughout the park. The rest of the film’s narrative is basically the same as Jaws, with George in Roy Scheider’s role and Andrew Prine and Richard Jaeckel playing the Richard Dreyfuss and Robert Shaw roles respectively.

But the film has a nice atmosphere to it and the moments where the beast strikes certainly make the viewer jump. Also, the production deserves credit for managing to get an actual Kodiak (named Teddy, who was the biggest bear in captivity at the time) to play the title creature. Jaws drew attention for the countless issues the mechanical shark was giving that production. But getting a large, real bear (claws and all) to act was quite the accomplishment as well.

The initial poor reviews the film received didn’t stop it from becoming successful and developing its own following over the decades.

Orca (1977)

This is probably the most infamous of the films Jaws inspired. Heck, the title (which is Latin for killer whale) was even the name of Quint’s boat in Jaws. Its producer, Dino De Laurentiis, made it clear that he wanted this film to outshine Jaws early on in the film, when its killer whale kills a great white shark. But the moment everyone remembers is when the title creature rips off the leg of a girl played by Bo Derek. And it did end up predating Jaws 3-D with its storyline of a sea monster getting revenge on those who killed its loved one.

Otherwise, the film plays out basically the way you would expect, wasting a nice cast, including Richard Harris and Keenan Wynn in the process. Although Harris certainly gave it his all, even insisting on performing his own stunts, and reportedly nearly killing himself in the process.

Piranha (1978)

Like De Laurentiis, Piranha producer Roger Corman was eager to jump on the Jaws bandwagon. In the Corman retrospective Crab Monsters, Teenage Cavemen, and Candy Strip Nurses, Corman was quoted as saying that he needed to shift gears once Jaws was released, as its success quickly prompted the studios to focus their energy on pictures that would basically outdo the kinds that he had been by that point been building his empire on.

Fortunately, unlike Orca, Piranha is actually both fun and scary. A bumbling investigator (Heather Menzies) goes to a mountain area attempting to locate two missing people. With the reluctant help of a mountain man (Bradford Dillman), she learns that the couple’s last stop was at a military base, where she unwittingly releases a school of genetically engineered piranha into the area’s river, which itself leads to a summer camp full of kids. The super-frantic scientist who created them (Kevin McCarthy) informs them that the creatures were initially meant to bring the Vietnam War to a quicker end before the government abandoned the idea.

Although we see a Jaws video game at the beginning of the film, Piranha focuses on its own story, allowing the audience to accept it on its own terms. Considering that CGI still didn’t exist in 1978, the title creatures, co-created by the legendary Phil Tippett, look quite scary. Also memorable are the bizarre creatures we briefly see in McCarthy’s lab before all hell breaks loose. The cast is fun to watch too, and like Orca, one of the victims is played by Keenan Wynn. This poor guy just can’t catch a break! The ending is rather haunting as well.

This film became such a classic that it got an awful sequel in 1981, Piranha II: The Spawning (James Cameron’s directorial debut) and was remade twice, in 1995 and 2010.

Cujo (1983)

The same year the dismal Piranha II: The Spawning was released, Stephen King’s novel Cujo hit bookshelves. At the time, pretty much every book King was putting out was made into a movie shortly afterward, so it’s not surprising that the film adaptation of Cujo came just two years later.

A woman (Dee Wallace) in an unhappy marriage takes her car to the rural home of mechanic for repairs. Once she and her family arrive, they realize that the only one there is the title St. Bernard, who’s been driven insane thanks to rabies he contracted from a bat at the beginning of the movie. While Spielberg’s film may not have been on the minds of King or director Lewis Teague, Cujo‘s attack scenes are every bit as intense as those in Jaws. The viewer’s heart certainly keeps pounding as Wallace and her son (Danny Pintauro) find themselves trapped in their small car with a bloodthirsty animal just waiting to pounce on them the instant they set one foot out.

Teague previously directed the film Alligator, which came out three years earlier, and was written by Piranha scribe John Sayles. While that film was entertaining, I consider Cujo superior. This may be because more than any of the other films listed here, I’ve always considered Cujo a tragedy. Cujo, while sweet looking at the beginning of the film, slowly gets a more horrific, monstrous appearance as the film goes on. The result is an onscreen transformation that’s both heartbreaking and astonishing. If any animal deserved an Oscar for acting, it’s the four St. Bernards who played Cujo.

To me, the story is also a good reminder of the importance of owners getting their pets their rabies shots.

The Meg (2018)

This is the most recent film to draw comparisons to Jaws. Based on the book by Steve Alten, the movie centers on a rescue expedition to the bottom of the Pacific Ocean that’s interrupted by the appearance of a 75 foot-long megalodon shark. Obviously, the special effects are more elaborate in this film than in the others described above. Though truthfully, the coolest images in the film were those of the underwater laboratory from which our protagonists carry out their mission. The lab, like the Sea World depicted in Jaws 3-D, even has a lot of glass windows allowing us to see the title creature kill humpback whales.

While none of the cast stands out, they’re all pleasant and go though the motions without becoming irritating, which for pictures like this, is quite an achievement in itself. Hence, The Meg is fun, while not exactly bringing anything new to the table. This is no doubt why it made enough money for discussions of a sequel.

Star Trek: Voyager- "Q2"

The less than satisfying end to the Q saga.

We have now come to the final installment of…

The Rise and Fall of Q

…and boy, does it suck!

This episode aired in the latter half of Voyager‘s final season. By this point, the show had already given up on its premise and decided to become a strict adventure show. On top of that, they ended up ruining the Borg through overuse and cliche-ridden dramatics.

So, I suppose it’s not surprising that Q would end up meeting a similar fate at the show’s hands.

The show begins with Icheb, one of the Borg children previously discovered by the crew in the episode “Collective”. He would go on to become a recurring character while the other Borg kids were dumped off at a nearby planet because they were smart enough to get off Voyager while the getting was good. Icheb is in Janeway’s ready room preparing for his career in Starfleet by giving her an oral report about James T. Kirk’s exploits, and in the process reminding us of a better show we could be watching. She gives Icheb high marks thanks to his presentation which ends up going well over the planned 20 minute mark.

After he leaves, Janeway is startled by a kid (Keegan de Lancie, real-life son of John de Lancie) dressed in a Starfleet uniform and saying that Icheb’s report was boring. Janeway unsuccessfully calls for security before Q pops up and introduces the kid as his son, who I will refer to as Qunior because, like his mom, this kid annoys me. After the title sequence, Q tells Janeway that he’s dropping Qunior off on the ship for a few days in order for him to get experience with humanity. Q departs before Janeway can object. She attempts to tell Qunior that there are some ground rules, but he scoffs at that and vanishes.

Janeway goes to the bridge, where Qunior shows up and says that everything is monotonous on this ship. No argument there. He vanishes again when Janeway shoots down his ideas for blowing up omega molecules or fighting Species 8472 (I guess that’s that species’ name, even though you would think it was simply the designation the Borg gave it). Torres calls Janeway to Engineering, where Qunior has basically turned it into the Mos Eisley cantina. He sends Janeway, Torres, Tuvok, and Chakotay away when they object. Tuvok simply suggests ignoring Qunior so that with any luck, he may go away permanently.

The lack of Han Solo shooting Greedo must’ve caused Qunior to give up on his party, because we next see him in the cargo bay, where he quickly removes Seven of Nine’s clothing. While he clearly admires the view, Seven herself is undeterred and continues her work, which is basically pushing buttons constantly. He leaves again after putting her clothes back on.

Janeway goes to the mess hall, and in the only funny moment in this episode, the replicator tells her to get her own damn coffee. Neelix suggests he try to talk to Qunior. This is why what happens next, while satisfying, is not at all surprising. After Neelix suggests Qunior stop getting neighboring planets into fights, Neelix getting his jaw fused and his vocal cords removed.

Qunior next summons Janeway to the bridge. She finds the ship being chased by three Borg ships. The ship is captured and the Borg beam over. Janeway is about to get Borgified when Q shows up and ends everything. He chastises his son before Janeway’s anger prompts Q to whisk himself and the captain to her ready room.

Q explains that Qunior has been doing bad things such as “tampering with primordial gene pools” and “punching holes in the fabric of space time”. Janeway asks what Suzie Q has been doing during all this and he says she’s disowned her son (good for her!). As a result, Q feels a lot of pressure because he’s the first parent in the Q Continuum, further illustrating that Amanda Rogers is persona non grata.

Janeway points out that Qunior needs to be parented, and Q needs to set an example for him. He gives Janeway a quick lip lock, as sex was out of the question long ago, and happily departs.

Presuming that everything’s fine now, Janeway bathes in her ready room and is startled when Q pops up in the tub with her. He tells her that despite being gone for less than 10 minutes, years of Q time have gone by. During this time, Qunior threw a fit when the old man tried to lay down the law. Janeway tells Q that he has to show Qunior that his bad acts have consequences. Another ugh moment comes when Q kisses her foot as thanks and departs.

The two are next in Sickbay, with Q holding a green petri dish. He snaps his fingers and Qunior pops out, dismayed that he was trapped in that dish as an amoeba. Q tells him that he’ll be an amoeba permanently if he doesn’t straighten out in a week. As added incentive, Qunior gets his powers taken away and Janeway is drafted into watching him. After Q departs, Qunior tries to leave the ship, but Janeway calls security to stop him. She gives him quarters and tells him to prepare for the training she has planned for him.

The next day, Tuvok takes Qunior to the cargo bay, where Seven and Icheb are set to teach him about spatial causality. Qunior cuts to the chase by asking to see Seven in the buff again. Chakotay later takes him to the holodeck. A program is running in which various aliens are debating the mining rites to a planet. Qunior’s task is to resolve the issue before it leads to war. He tells Chakotay that he can do it by himself and Chakotay agrees to let him do so. He assumes that Qunior will soon be begging for help, but he returns and finds the aliens in agreement.

Qunior is later in the mess hall, where Neelix gets even with him by keeping his big mouth talking. Icheb arrives to say hello and Qunior turns down his invite to hang out, because Janeway wants him to write an essay on the Q. Icheb gives him ideas for the essay, and Qunior asks him to write those ideas down. Later on in her ready room, Janeway calls the essay impressive but figures out that Icheb wrote it. She also says that Qunior rigged the holodeck to make resolving that dispute easier. Janeway tells him to go to his room. But Qunior pleads with her since he doesn’t want to be an amoeba. If there’s one thing Janeway loves, it’s the stroking of her own ego, which is why she gives him another chance.

Her subsequent log entry states that Qunior seems to be improving. He even writes another essay to make up for the last one. After Qunior and Icheb take shuttle piloting lessons from Paris, Q shows up to see how things are turning out. Janeway has Qunior read his essay to his father, but Q is less than impressed. After Qunior leaves dejected, Janeway tells Q to cut his son some slack. But Q says that his son needs to prove he’s up to the standards of the Q. So why the hell did he dump Qunior on a shipload of people who aren’t Q?

Janeway goes to Qunior’s quarters and tries to cheer him up by saying that she’ll ask the Continuum to allow him to remain human and on Voyager if they don’t accept him. But Qunior says he wants to be like his dad. Given that his choices are Q or Voyager, can anyone blame him for choosing the former? This may be why Qunior decides to toss aside the good will he’s been earning by tricking Icheb into getting on the Delta Flyer with him. Qunior blasts through the shuttle doors, and using some technobabble bullshit that will never come up again, whips up a portal that takes them to another part of the galaxy.

As Icheb weakly protests, Qunior ends up provoking an alien ship. The captain demands they surrender. When Qunior doesn’t comply, the captain fires on them, injuring Icheb in the process.

Qunior quickly returns to Voyager and gets Icheb to Sickbay. The Doctor says that, for some reason, he can’t help Icheb unless he knows more about the weapon that injured him. Q pops up, and Qunior lies for a while but then admits to stealing the Flyer and asks his dad to save Icheb. But Q declines, reiterating Janeway’s comments that Qunior must realize there are consequences to his actions.

Janeway talks Qunior into going back with her to learn more info from the alien he provoked. He does so, but the alien captain demands that Janeway surrender herself, because his customs say that adults are held accountable for actions of the children they supervise. But Qunior says that he alone will take full responsibility. The alien laughs with approval and reveals himself to be Q. Appearing on the Flyer, he tells them that it was all a test that Qunior passed and that Icheb will be fine.

Q, Qunior, and Janeway return to Voyager where they appear before a trio of Q dressed, for some reason, as those 21st Century judges we saw in “Encounter at Farpoint”.

They announce that Qunior will not be turned into an amoeba. But because he still risked Icheb’s life, Qunior will remain human. They depart, soon followed by Q, who says he’ll be demanding an appeal.

Qunior soon appears in Janeway’s ready room asking her if he can continue his training. But Q appears, saying that he changed the Continuum’s mind and Qunior has his powers again. Qunior whips up a bunch of flowers to thank Janeway. Q tells him he’ll meet him shortly at some planet, after he has a moment with Janeway. Q tells her that he threatened to leave the Continuum if Qunior didn’t get his powers back, and they agreed on the condition that Q will permanently keep an eye on him.

But Q thanks Janeway by giving her info on a way she can shave a few years off their trip to home. This is when she asks what she should’ve asked in “The Q and the Grey”: why not take the ship all the way back to Earth? But Q says that he’d be setting the wrong example for Qunior by doing all that work for them. I’m so sure that the crewmembers who die over the course of the rest of this season completely understand that sentiment.

Like “The Q and the Grey”, this episode is an unfunny mess. Even worse is that we have yet to see De Lancie play Q again. The actor is still with us, so he could conceivably pop up on Discovery, or more fittingly, Picard. But this doesn’t change the fact that the Q saga came to an abrupt, unsatisfying end.

The Next Generation saw the possibilities a character like Q presented and ran with them. This is a reason why his appearance on Deep Space Nine was entertaining. As the audience got to know the character more, one could say he emerged as an explorer of sorts, curious (if doubtful) to see what humanity was capable of. This explains the relationship he ends up forming with Picard, an explorer himself. The result were episodes that were watchable, with some achieving greatness. These ranged from dramatically fascinating (“Q Who”, “Tapestry”, “All Good Things…”) to harmless fluff (“Qpid” and “Q-less”).

But Voyager, despite the good ideas presented in “Death Wish”, would proceed to turn Q into just another alien indistinguishable from the others the crew encountered. This is why, like TNG itself, I continue to view “All Good Things…” as the true send off for Q.