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| Images courtesy of VCI Entertainment |
American mystery writer and graphic novelist Max Allan
Collins is one of the true original visual artists having written the Road
to Perdition comic book series which lead to the Sam Mendes film from 2002
starring Tom Hanks. For a little while
he took over writing the Dick Tracy comic from creator Chester Gould and
at one point wrote for the Batman comic in 1987. And for awhile there he wrote books on the Dark
Angel series as well as the TV series CSI. A fan of movies
and in particular mystery writer Mickey Spillane with whom he became close
friends later in life, Collins’ imprint on American literature and to a larger
degree cinema is indelible. But don’t
let that fool you, he’s really not that skilled in the director’s chair or with
actors despite having directed several including Mommy and Real Time:
Siege at Lucas Street. His latest
film Blue Christmas, a chamber piece crossbreed between forties film
noir and Charles Dickens’ A Christmas Carol where a private eye is
tasked with finding out who killed his sleazy partner, is more or less a dress
rehearsal or a pitch to perhaps one day remake it on a bigger budget. Whatever the case, this is dead and soporific
on arrival.
Chicago, 1942, amid a Christmas Eve office party, our
antihero Richard Stone (Rob Merritt) is busy celebrating weaseling his way out
of the war draft much to his secretary chagrin whose brother is fighting
overseas. Just a year ago this very
night, Stone’s partner Jake Marley (Chris Causey) was murdered but he did
nothing to solve the crime, angering the undead spirit from Purgatory chained
by the ankles to warn him to solve the murder lest he wants to go to Hell. One by one, in the time-honored Dickensian
tradition, the Ghost of Christmas Past appears as Bonnie Parker from Bonnie
and Clyde, the Ghost of Christmas Present appears as a mortally wounded
soldier from the war and lastly Elvis Presley shows up as the Ghost of
Christmas Future. While a novel concept in
theory on paper, putting a noir spin on the classic A Christmas Carol,
here it works for maybe two scenes involving Jake Marley’s first appearance or
in American Idol starlet Alisabeth Von Presley’s Bonnie Parker. The rest of it is a deathly dull blue slog.
With a forgettable Christmasy synth score unbecoming of the
forties noir setting, sterile widescreen cinematography by True Noir podcast
producer Phillip W. Dingeldein mostly in heavy blues and otherwise stiff
performances from the ensemble cast minus two actors, this very digital looking
Christmas noir is a well written piece that ultimately should’ve gone to
another filmmaker. While Max Allan
Collins remarks in press notes the chamber piece setting was intentional,
seeing our private eye Richard Stone reflecting on past experiences with Bonnie
Parker with very hastily rendered digital snow and photoshopped background
plates. Not since Kirk Cameron’s Saving
Christmas have holiday themed transitional effects montages looked this poor.
While I’m well aware of Max Allan Collins’ background with
this being a long cherished project he had to postpone for decades following
the success of the Troma film Mommy, if a film has no pulse it’ll turn
pale and blue as this film. The kind of
microbudget indie that feels destined for streaming or YouTube rather than a
blu-ray disc release replete with extras and Q&As from theatrical
engagements included, Blue Christmas despite the track record of its
realisateur never finds legs or gets going, sauntering from one scene to the
next until you realize its over with.
MVD Visual and VCI Entertainment, paired up with new sublabel Indie Go!,
remains an important boutique label which has (and will again) had successful
disc releases crossing over into the mainstream marketplace. This, however, seems unlikely to get any kind
of traction.
--Andrew Kotwicki
