In checking Mr. McKee's weblog, I learned that Wednesday (March 5) was Fred Williamson's 70th birthday. I didn't know that then, but perfectly enough, Wednesday night I saw a German TV show where The Hammer goes to Rome and spends a day with Franco Nero, whom he'd never met.

The premise of the series (Durch Die Nacht-- Into the Night, right?) seems to be having one performer/artist/celebrity visit the home city of another, and then film the two of them spending a night together getting acquainted. What makes this episode fun is that the two guys don't exactly hit it off, and then they're stuck with each other for seven hours in front of cameras that never stop.

It's apparent that neither knows much of anything about the other's work, other than having worked for some of the same people. (They both laugh about Menahem Golan, who can't return to the U.S. and now runs an amusement park in Israel.) This leads to lots of awkward masculine one-upsmanship, as well as a pretty pathetic fight scene reenactment-- both are pretty funny.

As you might expect, Fred is incredibly full of himself and always has to have the last word, even if it doesn't exactly make sense. (They get drunk at the end and Williamson just rambles, and it really doesn't sound much different than his non-fucked-up conversation.) What is a bit of a surprise is that Nero isn't all that bright-- much as I like him as an actor, he's a bit of a dud in real life. He also keeps whispering things to Fred that he doesn't want on film, forgetting each time that he's miked.

Cult fans will especially enjoy their meeting with mutual friend and director Enzo Castellari, as well as a cringe-inducing sequence with Barbara Bouchet. She meets them at a movie-oriented book store, but is an hour late, forcing them to just hang around. (It's possible, judging from his actions, that it was the first bookstore Fred had ever been in, and when Franco shows him a book about Fassbinder, he makes it plain he's never heard of the guy.) The segment ends with Bouchet finally realizing that not only had she and Williamson met before-- at first, she claimed they were strangers-- they actually knew each other intimately!

This series has a whole list of intriguing hookups (I'm looking forward to seeing Joe Coleman show Asia Argento his kind of town), but no other episode seems to be this cult-movie-oriented. It's (mostly) in English and has lots of good film clips and music, too.

How could a night of drinking and carousing with Franco Nero and Fred Williamson (and Barbara Bouchet!) not be amazing? Best TV show ever?

I can imagine the reasons, but does anyone know specifically why Menahem Golan cannot return to America?

Fred and Franco don't get too specific, just allusions to "too much" facing him in the States (and elsewhere) if he tried to return and do business.

I would imagine U.S. taxes might be involved . . .

By the way, both actors expressed fondness for him, even despite the fact that (as Williamson tells Nero) "he owes ME money, he owes YOU money, he owes EVERYBODY!" And they both are amused by how, whenever they talk to him (probably about money), he always starts pitching a project they could do together.