![]() Though he received second billing for obvious promotional reasons, Starr’s role in the film isn’t a major one Anthony and Battista get most of the screen time. It’s while tracking down Domingo that our antihero first encounters Candy, the criminal’s none-too-bright younger brother who’s busy trying to win the love of a woman. But ABKCO’s new reissue of the movie (which has been mastered from its original 35 mm negative, and will be released November 4th in DVD and digital download formats) offers folks a welcome opportunity to re-appraise the once-obscure cult film in all its restored Techniscope glory.īetrayed by his business partner, who has already sold the women to a gang led by the ruthless Domingo (Lloyd Battista) and his even more ruthless sister (Magda Konopka), Blindman follows his nifty embossed leather map of North America to Mexico, unaware that Domingo is already using the brides as bait with which to kidnap a Mexican general (Raf Baldassare). (The fact that his character bore the name of the titular heroine of Terry Southern’s satirical novel, the adaptation of which Ringo had just appeared in, was completely coincidental.)īriefly released in the US in early 1972, and not released in the UK until late 1973 in a severely censored version, Blindman had ultimately little impact on Ringo’s acting career. Klein, who was co-producing Blindman for his company ABKCO Films, thought Starr would be perfect for the part of Candy, a lovelorn outlaw whose obsession with a rancher’s daughter ultimately leads to his own demise. (Lennon famously wrote “Strawberry Fields Forever” during that film’s production.) This time, however, he was in the company of Allen Klein, the tough-talking American lawyer whose controversial tenure as the group’s manager had led directly to McCartney’s exit from the band. Five years earlier, he had visited John Lennon there while his bandmate was filming How I Won the War with Richard Lester. This wasn’t the first time Starr had been to Almeria, a city whose arid outskirts doubled as North American deserts in hundreds of European-produced Westerns, most famously Sergio Leone’s The Good, the Bad and the Ugly. Which is how, four months later, he found himself traveling to Almeria, Spain, to play a cowboy in Blindman, a Spaghetti Western directed by Ferdinando Baldi. But the ex-Beatle yearned to expand his range beyond comedic parts. In February 1971, Ringo took the role of Frank Zappa stand-in Larry the Dwarf in 200 Motels, Zappa’s surreal comedy about the life of a rock band on tour. ![]() ![]() Unsure of what else to do with himself, he continued to pursue his rather unorthodox film career, which had begun with Beatles vehicles (Walter Shenson, who produced 1964’s A Hard Day’s Night and 1965’s Help!, called him “a superb actor, an absolute natural”) and expanded to include parts in such cult films as 1968’s Candy and 1969’s The Magic Christian. In addition to releasing two solo albums ( Sentimental Journey and Beaucoups of Blues) and two non-LP international hits (“It Don’t Come Easy” and 1972’s “Back Off Boogaloo,” both produced by George Harrison), the musician spent his first two post–Fab-Four years playing drums on recording sessions for Harrison, John Lennon, Yoko Ono, Stephen Stills, Leon Russell and several other artists. Feeling lost without the family dynamic of the musical entity that had completely consumed the previous eight years of his life, he tried to distract himself from the pain by playing as much music as possible. When Paul McCartney shocked the world in April 1970 with his announcement of the Beatles’ break-up, drummer Ringo Starr added a surprise of his own by becoming (initially, at least) the most musically active member of the former Fab Four.Īs he would later recount in the lyrics of “Early 1970,” the deceptively jaunty b-side of his 1971 hit “It Don’t Come Easy,” Starr was the only Beatle who didn’t have any serious beef with any other member of the band at the time.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |