Nancy Allen, July 17, 1987

Nancy Allen in "Robocop"

By DONALD PORTER
Standard-Examiner staff

When movie actors -- even successful ones -- take two years off work, they can't usually be too picky with roles on their return. Often, they are relegated to playing supporting characters in offbeat pictures until word gets around that they're back in circulation.

Nancy Allen, who took a couple years off recently, isn't a very good example of that out-of-sight-out-of-mind syndrome. The star of such films as "Dressed to Kill" and "Blow Out" has made a career out of playing in quirky and, sometimes, downright goofy movies. Her latest -- "Robocop" -- is no exception. Many national critics are doing back flips in praise of the uproariously funny and exceedingly violent motion picture, in which Allen plays a tough street cop who comes to the aid of a half-man, half-robot cop with an identity crisis.

"I love this movie," Allen said during a telephone interview from Denver. "It turned out even beyond my expectations of it. When I first read the script, I thought, 'Oh, my God, I've never read or seen anything like this before.' For me, it was a real page-turner and I thought this could be a terrific picture."

Van Summerill, Oct. 2, 1987

Van Summerill, 1987

By DONALD PORTER
Standard-Examiner staff

Moviegoers can be divided into two groups: those who enjoy movies, and those who love movies. Then there's Van Summerill, whose regard for movies transcends even love. For him, it's a passion, an obsession.

Walk into the living room of Summerill's modest home, and the pictures on the walls give an early hint of this devotion. Hanging behind a love seat are movie posters and placards trumpeting various movie theaters like Radio City Music Hall. And if that isn't enough to tip you off, he's wearing a tan T-shirt with a blue Paramount Pictures logo stenciled on the front.

Still, even that isn't adequate preparation for what's downstairs. At the bottom of the stairs and to the right there's a concession stand, a restroom and more movie posters on the walls. And straight ahead, through a draped doorway, is a movie theater.

Richard Lester, Jan. 26, 1990

Richard Lester

By DONALD PORTER
Standard-Examiner
PARK CITY - Richard Lester has been directing feature films since 1961, including "A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum," "Robin and Marian," "The Three Musketeers" and two "Superman" films. But it seems like the only movies people ever want to talk about are two he made in the mid-'60s starring The Beatles: "A Hard Day's Night" and "Help!"

So Lester has learned to be philosophical about having achieved his most popular success so early in his career.

"They were wonderful times," he explained to a group of filmmakers, actors, journalists and fans at the Sundance United States Film Festival last Saturday. "I had three years at the center of the universe. … It was a privilege."

Lester was in Park City for a birthday tribute, and a screening that evening of "A Hard Day's Night." His quick trip to Utah came in the middle of making another film that will document Paul McCartney's current world tour. It seems he just can't shake the Beatle connection.

Clint Eastwood, Jan 25, 1990

By DONALD PORTER
Standard-Examiner

PARK CITY -- It was impossible not to notice Clint Eastwood when he entered the room. Sure, he's a head taller than most people and, obviously, his face is one of the most recognized on the plane. But that doesn't explain it. Not exactly.

There's just an indefinable something about him that won't permit otherwise rational people to let him pass unnoticed. But he wasn't at the Sundance United States Film Festival to talk about himself or to promote a new film. Rather, the topic of discussion -- for a scant 15 minutes, anyway -- was the man who gave Eastwood his star in the Hollywood firmament: the late Sergio Leone, who died last year after suffering a heart attack.

"It was an odd year for me, my life in '63," Eastwood recalled as he sat before an audience of journalists and other assorted gawkers in the Yarrow Hotel. "I had an offer to go to Rome and make an Italian-German-Spanish co-production with an Italian director whom no one had ever heard of."

"Outtakes" movie column/"Tremors" review, Jan. 26, 1990

When I was growing up in Wyoming, the cool thing to do on Friday nights was to go to Jimmy Royal's house, stay up real late and watch "Nightmare Theater" on one of the Salt Lake channels. I remember, vividly, that the logo dripped what looked like blood, and the announcer's voice was creepy enough to give me chills.

The movies on "Nightmare Theater" were rarely well-made, but they were always good. This is not a contradiction when you're 10 or 11 years old, up way past your bedtime and eating your way through the refrigerator. As I recall, there was usually a double feature, and we especially liked anything with Vincent Price, vampires or nearly bare female breasts. "Nightmare Theater" must have shown a lot of Roger Corman movies, because we saw many more scantily clad women than Price or blood-sucking bats -- combined.

I got to thinking about those old movies after seeing "Tremors," a new Universal creature feature that opened last weekend. It's a lot like the monster movies that were made by the studio in the '30s, '40s and '50s. Back then, you saw the monsters in the movies -- much of the time in broad daylight. Sure, it might have been only a spider or praying mantis blown up to look 20 times the size of a Cadillac, but the monster was right there in front of you -- a force to be seen and reckoned with.

"Outtakes" movie column, Jan. 19, 1990 -- Alberto Garcia, film programmer for the 1990 Sundance United States Film Festival

The 1990 festival's poster

It was customary for me to do stories in advance of each year's edition of the Sundance United States Film Festival. (Notice the name still retained remnants of the Utah/U.S. Film Festival.) I interviewed Alberto Garcia in an upper-floor, makeshift warehouse office in northwestern Salt Lake City a week or two before the festival began.

SALT LAKE CITY -- Some might say Alberto Garcia has a dream job. Beginning this year, he's been given the monumental task of selecting the competition films at the 1990 Sundance United States Film Festival. He's the man who has the final say on which films will play, and which ones won't.

Given this level of responsibility, you assume that the man who programs the festival -- who selects all the dramatic and documentary films to compete in 1990 -- would be, shall we say, older.

Then Garcia enters the room to be interviewed, and all preconceived notions go rocketing out the window. All of 23 years old, ponytail falling down his back, black T-shirt and jeans, he looks like a student volunteer, not one of the people running the show.

Mark Harmon, 1995

By DONALD PORTER
Standard-Examiner staff

PASADENA, Calif. -- ABC is serving up a pretty rare animal: "Charlie Grace." The Mark Harmon vehicle is unusual because private-eye dramas are long since out of favor. No more "Magnum, P.l." No more "Rockford Files." About the closest you come is "Murder, She Wrote" -- and it's not really playing in the same game.

"Charlie Grace," according to executive producer Robert Singer, is an homage to earlier private detectives -- the types hatched by the minds of authors Raymond Chandler and Dashiell Hammett.

"One thing we tried to do with this show," Singer said at the Summer Press Tour, "is just bring it into the ’90s, but give it an element of an earlier time. … And that's almost a mythic L.A. And it's something that (the character Charlie Grace) wishes L.A. could be. While he loves L.A., he realizes all the problems with it, and would like a simpler time."

For star Mark Harmon, who worked with Singer previously on the series "Reasonable Doubts" and the feature film "Let's Get Harry," "Charlie Grace" allows the actor to play a character not too far removed from his own experience: He lives in L.A., was born there and has consciously chosen to make the city his home. As such, he has more affection for the city, and views it more positively and less critically.