Frank Pierson had a long career behind the scenes in Hollywood, writing, directing and producing. Most of his work was in TV, but he was also skilled at adapting books to the big screen. He was associated with Have Gun - Will Travel, one of TV's best ever westerns, and Nichols, which ran one season and starred James Garner; and The Good Wife and Mad Men. He directed many TV movies and shows but only one theatrical release, The Looking Glass War (1970), based on the novel by John Le Carre, for which he also wrote the screenplay. His most impressive credits, in my view, are his adaptation of the interesting although flawed The Anderson Tapes (1971), from the novel by Lawrence Sanders, starring Sean Connery; and two classics: Dog Day Afternoon (1975), based on a magazine article by P.F. Kluge and Thomas Moore, and book by Leslie Waller, which won Pierson his only Oscar, and which ran last night on Movies! and still holds up all these years later; and Cool Hand Luke (1967), from the novel by Donn Pearce. Here's a quote attributed to him about the famous line from the latter: "What we've got here is failure to communicate." "The phrase just sort of appeared on the page. I looked at it and thought, 'Now that's interesting.' Then I thought, 'These words are going to be spoken by an actor who is playing a real redneck character who probably never went beyond high school,' and it has a faintly academic feel to it, that line. I thought, 'People are going to question it.'" I don't know if it was ever questioned, but if has often been repeated, including by yours truly, and probably still is, although less frequently than in the past. The great Strother Martin had the privilege of uttering it in the film. Guns n Roses used it in a song, Civil War. Pierson passed away in 2012 at 87. Kudos. Here's Martin, who died in 1980 at just 61, in his most famous role:
My thanks to the fortyish Asian woman who bought Click Art, a CD devoted to creative fonts. She spoke no English. She asked: "Cuanto vale?" Puzzled, unsure if I'd heard correctly, I said: "Usted habla Espanol?" She said: "Colombia," which I assume was where she lived for a while. I asked if she were Filipino. She said: "Cheeneh." That was a fun exchange... My thanks also to John, who purchased Flush by Carl Hiaasen, and Once a Thief (1991), directed by John Woo and starring Chow Yun Fat. He reared back when he saw the Brokeback Mountain (2005) DVD, claiming he guarded his butt religiously during a three-year prison stretch. Upon his release, his friends threw him a party at a motel. As he was going at it with a hooker, another violated him with a finger - and he freaked. When I asked how he was doing, he said he's been binging. As he was leaving, he said he was on his way to buy alcohol. Good luck, sir.
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