Director Michael Schultz

[Marcio**]

Director Michael Schultz directed one of the worst movies from 70's called Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band (1978) and one of the best movies from 70's called Car Wash (1976). The soundtrack of Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band is good (the movie bombed but this soundtrack sold millions). Sung by Peter Frampton, The Bee Gees and others.
The soundtrack of Car Wash is also good (considered the first disco movie). Sung by Rose Royce and The Pointer Sisters, produced by Norman Whitfield. Joel Schumacher wrote Car Wash and directed a Motown movie called The Wiz (1978). The soundtrack of The Wiz is a double album produced by Quincy Jones with many songs sung by Diana Ross as Dorothy and many songs written by Ashford & Simpson :) .[/i]

[buckaroo]

...Joel Schumacher wrote Car Wash and directed a Motown movie called The Wiz (1978)...

The Wiz was directed by Sidney Lumet

[Marcio**]

Right, Buckaroo, Al Pacino gave him an Oscar last sunday :oops:

[StevenHW]

"The Wiz" was one of the few box-office flops that Sidney Lumet worked on.

Lumet is a great director, but he specialized in hard-hitting dramas, and I think he was the wrong choice to direct the "The Wiz".

Has anyone else noticed that the Oscar show completely ignored "The Wiz" during the Lumet tribute? :D

[markydefad]

Au contraire, there was a clip of The Wiz in the Sidney Lumet tribute at the Oscars. :oops:

It was Diana & Michael on the bridge during "Ease On Down The Road"; it was brief--but I saw it.

It surprised me cause I thought they woulda left that one out for sure. :P


If ya noticed the clip of Sidney directing his latest movie, you could see that Lumet had run the gamut of starting his career directing the likes of Henry Fonda ( "Twelve Angry Men") and ending it directing the likes of Vin Diesel with hair in some courtroom opus!!!!

From the sublime to the semi-ridiculous!!! From the cream of the crop to the bottom of the barrel!!! :oops: :oops: :oops:

Oh now, hustlebaby is gonna hate me!!! :P :-?

[buckaroo]

"The Wiz" was one of the few box-office flops that Sidney Lumet worked on...

In fact, he's made quite a few 'critically acclaimed' films which basically flopped because of their subject matter:-

The Offence (1974)
Detective Sean Connery interrogates a suspected peadophile, and beats the guy up in the process :-?

Prince of the City (1981)
Cop Treat Williams rats on his corrupt fellow officers.

Garbo Talks (1984)
Say no more :roll:

Gloria (1999)
A remake of the '70s Gena Rowlands gangster flick

The Morning After (1986)
This one Buckaroo likes a lot; Lush Jane Fonda, awakens from a drunken stupor at the scene of a murder. Upon leaving, she literally bumps into that great actor Jeff Bridges who takes pity on her and decides to help her find out if she did it or not? Something that she and the viewer is unsure of until the very end. Excellent.

Running on Empty (1988)
Star vehicle for the late River Pheonix, who plays a wayward teen to parents Christine Lahti and Judd Hirsch.

But when he hit the spot...Oh boy...The Anderson Tapes, 12 Angry Men, etc.

[markydefad]

Yeah, Lumet had a lotta flops earlier in his career, too. BUT, he got great performances from actors and every actor wanted to work with him. He was based in New York and used all the wonderful NYC stage actors in his films. Didja notice a very young & handsome Christopher Walken in the clip from The Anderson Tapes shown in the clip tribute???? That was his film debut.

He hit his peak in the Seventies with the string of Serpico, Murder On the Orient Express, Dog Day Afternoon & Network. Those four elevated him to the top of the heap of U.S. film directors.

If you're in the mood (it's a filmed stage play and quite lengthy), check out his great film of Eugene O'Neill's Long Day's Journey Into Night with brilliant performances from Sir Ralph Richardson, Jason Robards, Dean Stockwell and in what may be her very best dramatic perfomance, Katharine Hepburn as the drug-addled mother, Mary Tyrone. To die for!!!!

Also Rod Steiger in The Pawnbroker and Sean Connery in The Hill. Excellent films, also.

[BrunoRepublic]

The soundtrack of Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band is good (the movie bombed but this soundtrack sold millions).

Umm, no.

The soundtrack was as big a bomb as the movie. It may have appeared to have sold millions due to the way record sales were calculated back then -- figures were based on the number of records shipped, not sold. If a record company shipped half a million copies of an album, but half of them were returned unsold by the retailers, it was still considered a gold record. Neil Bogart was notorious for using this to his advantage.

It was widely assumed that the soundtrack album to Sgt Pepper's would be a massive success, so huge quantities were shipped to the stores. But it was a total flop. Aerosmith's cover of "Come Together" is regarded as the only worthy moment on the entire thing.

There is a very amusing story related to this. Back then, there was a big problem with organized crime gangs manufacturing and distributing counterfeit records (i.e. records which were nearly identical to commercial pressings, and which found their way into regular stores). They had loaded up a truck with copies of the Sgt Pepper soundtrack and were shipping it across the country. At some point, the driver was alerted that the album was a dud, and he simply dumped his cargo at the side of the road.