Hotel Room was a short-lived anthology series airing on HBO, intended as a more sophisticated Tales from the Crypt with a noir bent, that failed to connect with audiences and was cancelled after the airing of only three episodes, two of which were directed by Lynch.
Lynch co-created the series with Monty Montgomery, aka the Cowboy from Mulholland Drive, Angelo Badalamenti is ever present on the soundtrack and the Lynch episodes utilised scripts from Wild At Heart novelist Barry Gifford, so there are definite elements of early and later triumph, but the project as a whole doesn’t gel quite so successfully. Each story focuses on the room 603 in the NYC based Railroad Hotel, the anthology format sees a rotating cast, however the bellhop and maid remain the same, despite the episodes taking place in differing decades.
Tricks, directed by Lynch, features Harry Dean Stanton as Moe, a world weary (whenever isn’t he world weary?) punter, taking Escort Darlene (Glenn’s Headly) back to room 603 so his white knight can explore her dark forrest (actual dialogue lol). When his overbearing friend Lou (Freddie Jones) shows up, things go off the rails - but are Lou and Moe actually one and the same? Two schisms of the one personality? A trope Gifford and Lynch would later explore in Lost Highway.
The middle (and weakest) segment Getting rid of Robert, directed by James Signorelli, sees Sasha (Deborah Unger) and her gal pals Tina (Chelsea Field) and Diane (a pre-Benson Mariska Hargitay) plotting to dump Sasha’s beau Robert (Griffin Dunne). It’s got plenty of sass with not a lot of wit, and doesn’t present an overall favourable view of independent women.
The final piece is Blackout, with Crispin Glover and Alicia Witt as a couple holed up in Room 603 during a black out, with the ever present spectre of Witt’s grief fuelled psychosis. This feels evocative of the later Rabbits, where characters appear to be conversing on two entirely separate planes, and a faint locomotive whistle on the soundtrack. My recollection of this, having watch it only the once many years ago, was that the characters were Amish and that there was a scene where they ride in a horse drawn carriage - neither of which happened 😆
I like to remember things my own way, not exactly the way they happened
Hotel Room was a short-lived anthology series airing on HBO, intended as a more sophisticated Tales from the Crypt with a noir bent, that failed to connect with audiences and was cancelled after the airing of only three episodes, two of which were directed by Lynch.
Lynch co-created the series with Monty Montgomery, aka the Cowboy from Mulholland Drive, Angelo Badalamenti is ever present on the soundtrack and the Lynch episodes utilised scripts from Wild At Heart novelist Barry Gifford, so there are definite elements of early and later triumph, but the project as a whole doesn’t gel quite so successfully. Each story focuses on the room 603 in the NYC based Railroad Hotel, the anthology format sees a rotating cast, however the bellhop and maid remain the same, despite the episodes taking place in differing decades.
Tricks, directed by Lynch, features Harry Dean Stanton as Moe, a world weary (whenever isn’t he world weary?) punter, taking Escort Darlene (Glenn’s Headly) back to room 603 so his white knight can explore her dark forrest (actual dialogue lol). When his overbearing friend Lou (Freddie Jones) shows up, things go off the rails - but are Lou and Moe actually one and the same? Two schisms of the one personality? A trope Gifford and Lynch would later explore in Lost Highway.
The middle (and weakest) segment Getting rid of Robert, directed by James Signorelli, sees Sasha (Deborah Unger) and her gal pals Tina (Chelsea Field) and Diane (a pre-Benson Mariska Hargitay) plotting to dump Sasha’s beau Robert (Griffin Dunne). It’s got plenty of sass with not a lot of wit, and doesn’t present an overall favourable view of independent women.
The final piece is Blackout, with Crispin Glover and Alicia Witt as a couple holed up in Room 603 during a black out, with the ever present spectre of Witt’s grief fuelled psychosis. This feels evocative of the later Rabbits, where characters appear to be conversing on two entirely separate planes, and a faint locomotive whistle on the soundtrack. My recollection of this, having watch it only the once many years ago, was that the characters were Amish and that there was a scene where they ride in a horse drawn carriage - neither of which happened 😆
I like to remember things my own way, not exactly the way they happened
