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A Personal Note & A Premiere Weekend

Tuesday, November 5th, 2024

I try to keep politics out of these updates – having no desire to offend my “customers” (as a great writer would often call his readers), much less my personal friends and business associates – but this election is just too important. Please support Kamala Harris for President. I’d like to wake up on November 6 still in a democracy, with the rule of law respected (and fluoride in the water, since I haven’t had a cavity since 1966).

* * *

This week in our home town of Muscatine, Iowa, the Palms Theater hosted a world premiere of our new film, Death by Fruitcake. We had near full houses both nights (Friday and Saturday Nov. 1 and 2) with star Paula Sands appearing on both nights, co-star Alisabeth Von Presley on Saturday night and their co-star Rob Merritt (star of Blue Christmas!) appearing on Friday evening.

Death by Fruitcake brings the main characters of the Antiques novels to life, as created by my lovely and incredibly talented wife Barbara and her tagalong husband. Antiques Slay Belles, the latest in the novel series, is out now. Paula inhabits the uninhibited Vivian Borne and Alisabeth her long-suffering daughter Brandy. And they do an absolutely stellar job of it.

The screenings weren’t flawless. These were our first showings anywhere other than on our computers and Death by Fruitcake is primarily intended for television (streaming most likely) and physical media (Blu-ray and DVD). None of that marketing has begun, as the film is intended for a 2025 holiday release. So there were bumps, chiefly of the audio variety (softer image and audio on Friday, and still not ideal audio on Saturday). But they were eminently watchable and got a terrific reaction from both audiences, with lots of laughs and a good deal of fun at the red carpet event before and after, thanks to the efforts of producer/director of photography/editor Chad Bishop. Q and A with many cast members took place each night after the screening, and excerpts will appear on the eventual physical media.

Almost all of the cast made it to one of the two performances, so it was a star-studded night.

We are talking to the Last Picture House in Davenport and to the Collins Road Theater in Cedar Rapids about a few more advance screenings of Death by Fruitcake (stayed tuned) and the Palms in Muscatine is starting a one-week run on Friday Nov. 8 through Thursday Nov. 14. (I will likely be there on Friday for the two evening showings.)

Blue Christmas may be shown in other Fridley theaters around the state (we’re still talking) and at the Last Picture and maybe Collins Road (workin’ on it, as Bret Maverick once said). And of course the Blu-ray and DVD of Blue Christmas are available now from VCI/MVD (and can be found easily at Amazon, Barnes & Noble and numerous other on-line retailers).

For now, enjoy these photos from our wonderful weekend event with our stars and two lovely crowds at the Palms Theater in Muscatine.


Much of the cast is on hand to display the Number 2 for an infamous on-screen moment of Vivian Borne’s questionable taste during an interrogation (interview!). Front row (left to right): Producer Chad Bishop, Paula Sands, Alisabeth Von Presley, M.A.C., Barbara Collins; second row (left to right ) Tommy Ratkiewicz-Stierwalt, Tracy Pelzer-Timm, Ben Rollins, Chris Causey, Brian Linderman, Rene Mauck.

Alisabeth Von Presley (Brandy), M.A.C., Paula Sands (Vivian) on the red carpet at the Palms Theater.

Q & A with Alisabeth and Paula after the Saturday night screening.

Our gorgeous Brandy and Vivian (Alisabeth Von Presley and Paula Sands).

Source Writer/Production Manager Barbara Collins and Writer/Director M.A.C. — with Bella as Sushi!

Writer/director M.A.C. and producer/d.p./editor Chad Bishop

Star Rob Merritt and co-star Tommy Ratkiewicz-Stierwalt

Tommy and lovely co-star Cassidy Probasco

M.A.C.

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Death By Fruitcake Lives…Twice!

Tuesday, October 29th, 2024

This is a big week for us, or rather big weekend, as we’re having the premiere (aka advance screenings) of Death by Fruitcake at the Palms in Muscatine, Iowa, on Nov. 1 and Nov. 2. Start time both nights is 7 pm, and there will be a Q and A with cast and crew members after the movie.

Those of you familiar with the Antiques novels that Barb and I write as “Barbara Allan” will recognize the character names in what follows. On both nights (Nov. 1 and 2), Paula Sands – the legendary Midwest broadcaster, recently retired from Channel 6 in Davenport (KWQC) – will be on hand as part of the Q and A; she plays Vivian Borne, aka Mother. Rob Merritt, who stars in our other Christmas movie (Blue Christmas), will be here; he plays Chief of Serenity Police Tony Cassato. And Midwestern pop star Alisabeth Von Presley (of American Idol and American Song Contest fame, among much else) will be on hand Saturday night (Nov. 2).

The Friday night screening has reserved seats and is already 61% sold. Saturday night is at 38% sold. Get those tickets now (and I do apologize to regular readers of these updates/posts for showcasing this local event…but it’s a big deal to us).

Tickets are available here.

In further exciting Palms Theater news here in Muscatine, Blue Christmas is opening on Nov.8. Tickets for the run are available here.

Other Iowa theaters in the Fridley chain will be running Blue Christmas as well, and we should have more info by next week.

If all of this Christmas movie stuff confuses you, here’s the skinny: we had such good reaction early this year when we premiered Blue Christmas at the Palms in Muscatine, the Last Picture House in Davenport, and the Fleur Cinema and Café in Des Moines, we right away started thinking about doing a follow-up of sorts. When we landed a deal for VCI and MVD to bring Blue Christmas out on Blu-Ray and DVD, and to take it out to streaming services, that cinched it.

But we didn’t want to do a sequel or any similar film. And Barb and I have been frustrated by how close we’ve come to a network or streaming service sale for the Antiques/Trash ‘n’ Treasures novels that we decided our next movie would bring that series to life. I wrote a script expanding on (and somewhat loosely adapting) the novella Antiques Fruitcake in the three-novella collection, Antiques Ho Ho Homicides.

Barb liked the script, and of course had great suggestions and notes – the series has always been her baby – and we started putting Death by Fruitcake together right away. We called upon many of the cast members of our two previous productions, Mickey Spillane’s Encore for Murder (with Gary Sandy) – available on DVD from VCI and also a special feature on VCI’s Blu-ray of the revised expanded Mike Hammer’s Mickey Spillane.

Key to the project was producer/director of photography/editor Chad Bishop, who I got to know doing the edit of Encore for Murder. Chad was a producer among much else on Blue Christmas. Both it and Death by Fruitcake would not exist without his hard work and artistic inspiration.

We’ve had a bit of an unintended (if there is such a thing as an intended) collision course between Blue Christmas and Death by Fruitcake, when it became clear the release of Blue Christmas in Iowa theaters and nationally on physical media would collide with our premieres of Death by Fruitcake. Not much we could do about that but hope you good people out there can sort them out.

Death by Fruitcake will, we hope, we given a Quad Cities premiere at the Last Picture House yet this year – our star, Paula Sands, spends half of the year away in Arizona with her husband David, so we have to work around her availability for personal appearnces. The real marketing of Death by Fruitcake begins now and it’s unlikely to be streaming or on physical media till well into next year (holiday season 2025, most likely).

Blue Christmas and Death by Fruitcake, despite some shared cast members, are very different animals (albeit both being reindeer friendly). Blue Christmas, as you may already know, is a mash-up of sorts of A Christmas Carol and The Maltese Falcon, two of my favorite novels and movies (the Sim Scrooge, the Bogart Falcon).

Death by Fruitcake has been called a zany episode of Murder She Wrote or a low-budget Knives Out. And we are low budget – actually micro-budget. But my feeling is if the writing and acting are there, and the cinematography does them justice, a minuscule budget – if the script has been written toward such a budget – is beside the point.

I continue to be frustrated but mostly amused by the people who attack Blue Christmas based on its meager budget without having seen it. As the star of A Charlie Brown Christmas says, “Sigh.”

Here’s a nice write-up about the coming event from the Muscatine Chamber of Commerce.

There’s been a ton of coverage on the Net but much of it is similar, so I won’t put all the links here.

Finally, however, here’s what our local paper, the Muscatine Journal (where I once worked) has to say.

And this just in:

M.A.C.

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Movies and Me

Tuesday, October 22nd, 2024

[Bulletin: THE PALMS THEATER WEB SITE IS BACK UP! ORDER TICKETS HERE.]

For those of you in the eastern Iowa (and nearby Illinois) area who have been wanting to get advance tickets to the Nov. 1 and Nov. 2 premiere screenings at the Palms Theatre in Muscatine, you will have probably noticed that for some days now the Palms web site has been essentially down.

Tickets are available through Fandango, however.

Tickets for the Friday Nov. 1 screening at 7 pm – with stars Paula Sands and Rob Merritt on hand, as well as myself and numerous others from cast and crew – can be purchased here.

Tickets for the Saturday Nov. 2 screening at 7 pm – with stars Paula Sands and Alisabeth Von Presley on hand, as well as myself and numerous others from cast and crew – can be purchased here.

We’re sorry about the difficulties with the Palms web site, and by the time you read this those difficulties may have been remedied. But for now (on 10-21-24), the Fandango link is what you’ll want to use.

Right now these are the only screenings scheduled for this year, although the Last Picture House in Davenport has expressed a strong interest in having us.

We also will likely have limited runs of Blue Christmas at the Palms in Muscatine and other Fridley Chain theaters in Iowa, as well as at the Last Picture House…but those plans are not yet firmed up.

Blue Christmas will be out on Blu-ray and DVD on Nov. 12 from VCI and MVD. They can be ordered from Amazon here.

Barb and I, as co-authors of the long-running Antiques mystery-novel series, are thrilled with having Death By Fruitcake to demonstrate how effectively our concept can be transferred to the screen. We’ve come very close over the years, with tons of interest from networks and streamers, but it never quite happened. Which is why we decided to do it ourselves, and show how we think it should be done – specifically including breaking the fourth wall, so that Brandy and Vivian can talk directly to the audience from time to time, invoking the unconventional and (we think) fun rule-breaking style of the books.

Two releases in the Antiques/Trash ‘n’ Treasures mystery novel series are imminent.

The new one, Antiques Slay Belles, will be available on Nov. 5.

The previous one, Antiques Foe, is available in a handsome full-size trade paperback on Oct. 29.

Antiques Slay Belles by Barbara Allan
Hardcover:
E-Book: Nook Kobo Google PLay
Antiques Foe by Barbara Allan
Paperback:

We must point out that our publisher (Severn House) is British and sometimes the books are hard to find in the USA – distribution to Barnes & Noble appears limited. So please take advantage of the links above, or buy from whatever on-line bookseller you like and trust (this includes Barnes & Noble). [Target Circle has a “buy 1 get 1 50% off select books” deal active through October 26, and both Barbara Allan books (and more) are eligible. –Nate]

We’ve had good support for our efforts with both our film of Blue Christmas and Death By Fruitcake, with the naysayers being exclusively people who haven’t seen either movie yet – just are contemptuous of any film that doesn’t have a Hollywood budget and the name stars that go with it.

For Death by Fruitcake, we are fortunate to have two regional celebrities in Emmy-winning broadcaster Paula Sands and American Idol/American Songwriter Contest pop sensation Alisabeth Von Presley. Alisabeth, of course, is in Blue Christmas along with Fruitcake co-star Rob Merritt, who is by our yardstick the most successful actor in this part of the world.

I have enjoyed getting back to indie filmmaking and, if it’s not too impractical at my age, to possibly do more of it. I’ve been blessed to have a certain amount of bigtime Hollywood success in Road to Perdition and the Quarry TV series; and fairly big success with The Expert debuting in primetime on HBO and Mommy appearing in primetime on Lifetime. And both Mommy movies were video store hits back in the Blockbuster days. I’ve had things on Iowa PBS (notably Eliot Ness: An Untouchable Life) and written several independent features for others, including the Quarry-derived The Last Lullaby and the upcoming Mickey Spillane’s Saturday Night in Cap City.

My point, if there is one, is that this notion of letting budget stand in the way of telling stories is a self-imposed limitation. Sure, Blue Christmas would be “better” if I’d had multiple locations and a bunch of Hollywood acting talent. But figuring out how to tell my story with talented local actors (pro and pro-am) on a single set, and shoot it in six days, was how I was able to finally get a project done (Blue Christmas) that I’d been trying to do since 1995.

Death By Fruitcake was a matter of choosing an Antiques story that could be told using limited locations – and the novella Antiques Fruitcake in the three-novella collection Antiques Ho Ho Homicide was perfect. I knew, from having done Mickey Spillane’s Encore for Murder and Blue Christmas with non-Hollywood talent that Death By Fruitcake was possible. And for all the limitations our micro budget imposed upon us, I could not be prouder of the result.

It’s incredibly gratifying for Barb and me to see Brandy and her mother brought so fully to life by two gifted comic actresses, Alisabeth Von Presley and Paula Sands.

Some of you may have to wait till next year to see it, but I’m confident we’ll get Fruitcake out there in some form for you to partake of a slice. And look for announcements about streaming service availability of Blue Christmas soon.

Although…if you have Blu-ray, the VCI release is packed full of extra features.

Here’s some great area coverage of the Fruitcake premiere weekend.

M.A.C.

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Death By Fruitcake Premiere & Blue Christmas Blu-Ray & DVD

Tuesday, October 15th, 2024

For many of you, spread around the country (and even around the world), who are kind enough to follow these update/blog entries, this info will not be terribly relevant. But for those of you in Eastern Iowa or nearby Illinois – or are crazy enough to make a long drive – we want to make sure you know about our two-night premiere weekend showings of Death by Fruitcake.

Death by Fruitcake Premiere Poster. November 1 & 2, 7 p.m., Palms 10 Muscatine Theater

While it’s possible a screening or two will take place in Davenport and Cedar Rapids, this could be the only opportunity to see the new film in 2024. Its life as a limited theatrical release and on physical media, and streaming, will not occur until well into 2025…perhaps as long as a year from now.

These hometown screenings at the lovely Palms Theater will (as the poster art specifies) be on Friday Nov. 1 and Saturday Nov. 2 at 7 p.m. both evenings. On Friday, we will have stars Paula Sands and Rob Merritt on hand as well as other members of cast and crew, including Barb and me (and producer/editor Chad Bishop). And on Saturday, we will have Paula and co-star Alisabeth Von Presley “in the house,” again with other cast and crew members present. Both nights a Q and A will follow the screening.

The Friday night screening is reserved seating. The Saturday screening is open seating. The Palms is taking advance reservations now and you can go here to get your tickets. Publicity in the area is starting up, so if you have a desire to attend, now is not too early to act.

As you may know, Paula and Alisabeth are portraying our amateur sleuths Vivian and Brandy Borne from the long-running Antiques/Trash ‘n’ Treasures mystery-novel series written by Barb and me (as “Barbara Allan”).

Those of you who’ve seen my movie Mommy’s Day will remember seeing Paula Sands (as herself) there. Paula recently retired from Channel 6 (KWQC-TV) in Davenport after an Emmy-winning decades long run as one of the most popular talk show hosts in the Midwest with her Paula Sands Live.

And Alisabeth appeared on both American Idol and The American Songwriter Contest. She gigs not only in the Midwest but all around America and beyond, a remarkable performer who took her first starring movie role in Blue Christmas, for which she won the Best Actress “Award of Excellence” from the Iowa Motion Picture Association.

Barb and I are frankly thrilled with the way Paula and Alisabeth have brought our amateur sleuths Vivian (aka Mother) and Brandy to life. And Sushi is in it, too.

Here’s a teaser trailer.

Additionally, the Palms and likely a number of other theaters in Iowa’s Fridley chain will be showing Blue Christmas, tentatively scheduled for a week-long run beginning Nov. 8. You don’t have to live in Iowa, or commute to the state that put Barack Obama on the map, either, to see our award-winning little film. Pre-orders for the Blu-ray and DVD can be made here.

Blue Christmas Blu-Ray cover

We’re getting some nice advance coverage, including this from Inside Pulse.

And this from Andersonvision.

We also got some nice coverage from Blu-ray.com, although some of their forum members gave us some nasty snark. Apparently these self-appointed experts don’t know the difference between a $15-thousand dollar budgeted movie and a $100-million dollar budget movie.

Actually, had everyone been paid on Blue Christmas, the budget would have been at least $100,000. The same is true of Death by Fruitcake, although that budget (the real one was $25,000) would be around $250,000. Still chump change (or perhaps a day’s worth of Craft Services) on a Hollywood production.

For those of us who have been movie fans for decades, we know the difference between a movie directed by Roger Corman and a movie directed by William Wellman. Both Blue Christmas and Death by Fruitcake are micro-budget productions, but I am proud of them both. What I like about this budgetary level is that nobody screws with me or my script. It may require me to think small – Blue Christmas is shot on one set with a six-day shooting schedule, Death by Fruitcake at a single location (a community playhouse where the action takes place) on an eleven-day shooting schedule. (Both films had additional Second Unit location shooting of a day or two.)

But that’s a small sacrifice compared to the big satisfaction of doing something your own way.

If you enjoy my novels, or my comics, I hope you’ll give Blue Christmas a look on physical media (we should have news on streaming soon) and, if you can make the trip, to one of the two screenings of Death by Fruitcake on Nov. 1 and Nov. 2. I am happy with them both. I hope you will be, too.

Finally, the great website Thrilling Detective has given Richard Stone (hero) (anti-hero?) of Blue Christmas his own page.

M.A.C.

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