Big Al's Place: Happy Birthday

In A Nutshell

Years after his release from Alcatraz, bedeviled by hallucinations fueled by untreated, late-stage syphilis, Al Capone wanders the overgrown grounds of his Miami Beach estate, ruminating with ghosts. Tomorrow will bring his forty-eighth birthday and one week later he will be dead. Between then and now sprawls an epic life, from the wild streets of turn-of-the-century Brooklyn, to a bloody Saint Valentine’s Day that shocked the world; here is the glamorous ascent and shocking decline of America's true king of crime.

Some History

Jim VanBebber's 2004 feature, The Manson Family, was hailed as, "Crucial," by Peter Travers in Rolling Stone's four-star review. It inspired Roger Ebert to proclaim, "...it has an undeniable power and effect...it exists in a category of one film - this film." The film's successful theatrical release brought further critical acclaim and Manson then went on to thrive on home video, including as the centerpiece of Visions of Hell: The Films of Jim VanBebber, a mid-career retrospective DVD box set released in 2008.

Capone first met VanBebber at Wright State University when both men were enrolled in the Motion Pictures Production program headed up by Academy Award nominated documentary filmmakers Jim Klein and Julia Reichert. When, in junior year, the class was divided into small groups with the purpose of producing a short film, VanBebber, with partners Marcello Games and cinematographer Mike King, decided to shoot a full length feature. That film, 1988's Deadbeat at Dawn went on to earn true cult status, playing to crowds on 42nd Street and on many waning drive-in screens before landing on cable's The Movie Channel where it debuted on Joe Bob's Drive-In Theater, hosted by Joe Bob Briggs, who had singled out Deadbeat in his nationally syndicated four-star review.

With funds derived from the sale of Deadbeat, King, Games and VanBebber began their follow up production, The Manson Family, which brings us full circle

11/24/09

Happy Birthday

The Management would like to tip it's proverbial fedora to our very own big guy, James "Jimmy Boy" VanBebber who is celebrating his birthday today.

We first met Jim in the days of our youth, back in an analog era of dial telephones, drive-in movies and summer reruns. Jim was making elaborate Super-8 epics before we came across him shooting Deadbeat at Dawn alongside his full course work as a film student. Beside directing the picture, Jimbo was featured in most of it, often actually jumping off of or in to some legitimate danger. The kid was working around the clock and then some. Not that it showed. Jimmy was that guy that made you want to get involved. His fire and good heart and pure enthusiasm made the shoots for Deadbeat (and later Manson and My Sweet Satan) THE place we all wanted to be. Making movies was his absolute, defining passion back then and, in that way at least, nothing has changed. Taking a look back at the freaking world of change that's come along since then, that gives us a real warm feeling.
So happy birthday ya big palooka!