William Shatner as THE INTRUDER (1962)

 He claims to be from Los Angeles. He's traveling via bus to a small Southern town. He's handsome, clean cut, young and wearing a white suit. He's a White guy. He appears to be a true and charming gentleman. He checks into a local, inexpensive hotel where the kindly old lady who works the front desk casually uses a racial slur when referring to one of her employees. The man in the white suit smiles when she says what she says. Later, after a friendly breakfast with a married couple, the stranger in the white suit catches a cab and asks the driver, "You know where n****rtown is?" The driver does. The stranger is taken there. This stranger is THE INTRUDER, a racist who says his job is "social worker," but he's really in town to fan the flames of racism against school integration that's just been ordered by law. The mysterious, manipulative and morally bankrupt stranger is played with great strength by William Shatner four years before we saw him on the NBC series that made him a pop icon, STAR TREK. Nowadays, we love the way Shatner lampoons his own TV celebrity. On March 26, he and Jean Smart make their debut on a new sitcom called SENIOR MOMENT. But, back in the day, Shatner did some impressive dramatic work -- like in THE INTRUDER, a 1962 release. The year before, Shatner held his own opposite heavyweight veteran Spencer Tracy and other top stars in JUDGMENT AT NUREMBERG. Shatner had a supporting role in that film which took the Oscar for Best Actor (Maximilian Schell) and was a nominee for Best Picture. THE INTRUDER was a flop at the box office but, I feel, it rates re-appreciation today. It's a tight, intense and relevant film. I saw it a few years ago and blogged about it. However, I watched it again recently and it had even more sting because of the early January takeover of the Capitol Building in Washington, DC. Shatner delivers a fierce, memorable performance.

Why did THE INTRUDER flop at the box office? Audiences probably weren't ready to face its blunt, direct racism during those turbulent years of the Civil Rights movement. THE INTRUDER was produced and directed by Roger Corman at a time when he was very popular for giving the public entertaining and modesty budgeted horror or teen rebel flicks starring Vincent Price and introducing new talent such as Jack Nicholson, Bruce Dern and Peter Fonda.

Adam Cramer, the intruder, connives the townspeople to revolt against the court-ordered integration telling them such a legal act is not democratic. Cramer is also against freedom of the press. A local editor with a teen daughter who attends the newly-integrated school, is not personally for integration but he supports it because "it's a law." Cramer opposes him while making sexual advances to the editor's teen daughter.

Cramer warns the White townspeople against the NAACP. He tells them it's associated with Communists and Jews. When he speaks in public, his body language is reminiscent of a Mussolini or Hitler. He will incite the crowd to some KKK mob violence that leads to a fatal Black church bombing. Keep in mind this movie came out in 1962. In 1963, there would be the racist bombing of a Black church in Birmingham, Alabama that killed four little girls -- a racist American crime that would make international headlines.

 Director Roger Corman realized that bigotry, as he Rodgers & Hammerstein song in SOUTH PACIFIC lyrically states, "...has to be CAREFULLY TAUGHT." There's a scene in which an innocent Black student has been accused of raping a blonde girl who also attends his school. A crowd with a lynch mob mentality, headed by Doug Cramer, corners him on a playground. Notice that there are youngsters in that threatening crowd.

Thank you for THE INTRUDER, Roger Corman. Today, your 1961 deserves attention and discussion. It is still a relevant, intelligent piece of work with fine performances.

THE INTRUDER is on DVD. You can also see it on YouTube. The film runs about 85 minutes. Here's a clip.

Hit the Road with THE INDEPENDENTS

 This new indie feature is a musical drama with many moments of levity. It's called THE INDEPENDENTS and it's a charmer, a well-written and well-played winner. It's musical but not a big production Oscar-nominated musical like DREAMGIRLS, CHICAGO, MOULIN ROUGE! or LES MISERABLES. It's a scaled down musical like HEDWIG AND THE ANGRY INCH and the wonderful ONCE. THE INDEPENDENTS, written and directed by actor Greg Naughton, boasts about a dozen songs presented in a realistic way -- like while recording demo tapes or singing in clubs. This is basically a road movie and like most good road movies from the 1941 Preston Sturges classic, SULLIVAN'S TRAVELS to the Martin Brest 1988 comedy/action caper, MIDNIGHT RUN, road movies show that often the best friends you could ever hope to find are those you meet on your journey. THE INDEPENDENTS is no exception.

 Rich is in his modest New York City apartment, half naked, playing his guitar and singing a song he's written. It's a gentle, James Taylor-esque song. Nonetheless, the old lady pounds on the floor upstairs for him to stop. Rich is an English professor at a local college. That's his day job. But his heart is really in music. His mother calls to remind him "You're not a kid anymore." She doesn't support his musical dreams and firmly reminds him that he's close to getting his doctorate. Rich meets Greg, a sad-eyed and friendly neighbor who's heard and totally digs Rich's music that he hears coming out of his apartment. Greg is a musician too. He's invited into Rich's apartment. They play music together. They blend and instantly bond. Rich gets a booking to play at an Ohio folk music festival one weekend. It turns out that Greg wants to drive out to Ohio to see his estranged girlfriend. They hit the road in Greg's van. Greg says "Guys like us, we don't stop making music." Along the way, they pick up a long-haired, tight-lipped hitchhiker. At first, they're understandably nervous and regret their good deed. However, Brian the hitchhiker turns out to be a musician too and he likes their music. The three bond. All three want to head to the Ohio music festival with their good 3-part harmony. Brian reveals "I just gave up making friends and wound up playing the guitar." They seem to be driven by the hope that you're never too old to make your dreams come true.

Of course, their are emotional bumps along the way and an offer to play a set at a club in Los Angeles. The bumps are so major that Rich wonders if should've stayed in New York and just give in to being an English professor. All three musicians have some heartbreak they'd like to see in the rear view mirror get smaller and smaller as they go forward. Here's a trailer.

There's a funny Emerald City doorbell/THE WIZARD OF OZ moment when Rich and Brian arrive at the club in L.A. Screenwriter/director Greg Naughton plays sad-eyed Greg. Rich Price plays English professor Rich. Brian Chartrand plays hitchhiker Brian. Two Broadway musical veterans have non-musical bit roles in THE INDEPENDENTS. There's James Naughton (I LOVE MY WIFE and CITY OF ANGELS) as the ticket-writing cop and Broadway revival goddess Kelli O'Hara (SOUTH PACIFIC, THE PAJAMA GAME and THE KING AND I) as the estranged girlfriend. James Naughton is the father of THE INDEPENDENTS actor/director Greg Naughton. Kelli O'Hara is Greg's wife.

There's a sweet little tenderness to this musical. Some of us will be able to relate to the 3 musicians'

 heartaches and disappointments. I know I did. The films runs 1 hour and 35 minutes. THE INDEPENDENTS opens February 26th.

My Hollywood Request for Black Actresses

Recently, I my sister and I gleefully laughed out loud, yet again, at the comedy brilliance of Judy Holliday in BORN YESTERDAY (1950). She won the Best Actress Oscar for playing the dumb blonde girlfriend of a bully racketeer boyfriend with dark political ambitions. When she realizes that he's limiting her personal freedoms like a fascist leader, she gets smart and makes her own personal declaration of independence.

What does that have to do with Black -- and Latina -- actresses? Let me take you for a short walk down Old Hollywood Lane. Claudette Colbert won the Best Actress Oscar for Frank Capra's screwball comedy, IT HAPPENED ONE NIGHT (1934). Diane Keaton won the Best Actress Oscar for Woody Allen's classic comedy, ANNIE HALL (1977). Mira Sorvino won her Best Supporting Actress Oscar for the Woody Allen comedy, MIGHTY APHRODITE (1995). Dianne Wiest won both her Best Supporting Actress Oscars for Woody Allen comedies -- HANNAH AND HER SISTERS (1986) and BULLETS OVER BROADWAY (1995). Barbra Streisand was very funny in the first half of the musical comedy, FUNNY GIRL (1968), and took home a Best Actress Academy Award for her work.  Enter Whoopi Goldberg.

 I can only think of one Black actress who got nominated and won an Oscar for a comedy performance. That is Whoopi Goldberg who got the second of her two Oscar nominations for the comedy/fantasy/murder mystery, GHOST (1990). She played the sometime con artist who truly possesses a psychic gift and is in contact with the spirit of a murdered husband. She redeems herself by helping his grief-stricken widow.

I worked with Whoopi for two years on-air. This was when she had a weekday morning radio show out of New York City that aired nationally. She brought me into the show to do entertainment reports -- mainly reviews of new films and recommendations of classic films. So, I would go to a radio studio in Manhattan and sit thigh-to-thigh next to and perform with a show biz icon. My favorite experiences during those fun years, 2006 to 2008, were when Whoopi pulled me aside and talked to me not as star to non-star, but as two Black people trying to keep employed in the entertainment industry. She revealed to me her huge disappointment that she could not get an audition for GHOST. She told me that the producers, the same team that gave us the comedy hit, AIRPLANE! (1980), had auditioned just about every other Black actresses with a Screen Actors Guild card, but would not okay her for an audition. And she had a Best Actress Oscar nomination to her credit for THE COLOR PURPLE (1985) plus her hit one-woman 1985 Broadway comedy show produced by Mike Nichols.  She then told me that when GHOST star, Patrick Swayze, got wind of this, he took action. He told the producers to let Whoopi audition or he was dropping out of the project. She auditioned, she got the role, she won her Oscar.

Let's look at some of the roles that got Black actresses Oscar nominations:

Hattie McDaniel (Oscar winner): Maid in GONE WITH THE WIND (1939),

Ethel Waters: Retired maid in PINKY (1949)

Juanita Moore: Maid in IMITATION OF LIFE (1959)

Cicely Tyson: Poor sharecropper's wife in SOUNDER (1972)

Diahann Carroll: Poor single working NYC mother and maid in CLAUDINE (1974)

Alfre Woodard: Maid in CROSS CREEK (1984)

Whoopi Goldberg and Oprah Winfrey: Worked as maids in THE COLOR PURPLE (1985)

Halle Berry (Oscar winner): Poor single working mother in MONSTER'S BALL (2001)

Taraji P. Henson: Maid in THE CURIOUS CASE OF BENJAMIN BUTTON (2008)

Viola Davis and Octavia Spencer (Oscar winner): Maids in THE HELP (2011).

Mary J. Blige: Poor sharecropper's wife in MUDBOUND (2017).

How I'd love to see a Black actress be offered and, later, be Oscar-nominated for a sophisticated comedy role like Dianne Wiest played in HANNAH AND HER SISTERS and BULLETS OVER BROADWAY or the fabulously energetic and glamorous one Rosalind Russell gave in 1958's AUNTIE MAME (Best Actress nominee). Or like Goldie Hawn -- Best Supporting Actress Oscar winner for the 1969 comedy, CACTUS FLOWER, and Best Actress Oscar nominee for the 1980 comedy, PRIVATE BENJAMIN.

Rita Moreno said in a TCM interview that she had no good Hollywood offers for seven years after she won the Best Supporting Actress Oscar for 1961's musical drama, WEST SIDE STORY. Like many Oscar-nominated Black actresses, she had to turn to TV for steady employment. She also did Broadway work and won a Tony for her performance in the comedy, THE RITZ. She repeated her role in the 1976. Personally, I would've graced Rita Moreno with a second Oscar nomination for her daffy performance as the Puerto Rican singer and Broadway hopeful who has more ambition than talent. She works as a headliner in a deluxe gay bathhouse in New York City. Here's a clip of Rita as Googie Gomez singing for the boys in THE RITZ.

Hollywood, please start giving our Black and Latina actress some good, upscale comedy roles. Have you seen Leslie Jones in the female remake of GHOSTBUSTERS? She'll be in COMING TO AMERICA: 2. Did you see Kerry Washington as one of the funniest SATURDAY NIGHT LIVE guest hosts of 2013? Did you see Alfre Woodard exercise her comedy chops as the harried suburban L.A. wife trying to make the perfect Thanksgiving dinner in WHAT'S COOKING? (2000). Have you seen the TV sitcom performances of Yvette Nicole Brown on COMMUNITY, Tracee Ellis Ross and Jenifer Lewis on BLACK-ish? There's a lotta talent out there to consider for good film comedy roles.

Movie Dances for Washington's Birthday

 I'm a baby boomer. I grew up loving February 22nd. Why? Because it was George Washington's Birthday and that meant a day off from school. George Washington, our first American president and the man who, in his youth, replied "I cannot tell a lie" when asked if he chopped down a cherry tree. I lao loved Abraham Lincoln's birthday on February 12th. That too was a federal holiday which meant a day off from school. Today, those two days got lumped into one which we now call Presidents Day, a federal holiday. I don't like it. I wish we still honored those two presidents individually with two days off in February instead of one. How do you feel about it?   

In old Hollywood, Ray Bolger did a dance number with George Washington and Abraham Lincoln. 1952's APRIL IN PARIS, a Warner Bros. musical co-starring Doris Day, had Bolger as a Washington, DC government office worker who will, of course, fall in love with the Doris Day character. Before that, however, he had time to swing out with the presidents.

 Fred Astaire saluted Washington's Birthday with the "I Can't Tell a Lie" number in 1942's HOLIDAY INN, a Paramount musical full of old and new songs by Irving Berlin. Here's Astaire with Marjorie Reynolds. This is one of my favorite Fred Astaire dance numbers.

I hope you enjoyed this Washington's Birthday dance break. I wish we had the day off.

About DA 5 BLOODS

 Lord, have mercy. What a riveting, excellent film. Another remarkable accomplishment from filmmaker Spike Lee. Currently on Netflix, DA 5 BLOODS focuses on four Black veterans of the Vietnam war who reunite in Vietnam to find the remains of their squad leader and to find a large suitcase full of buried gold bricks. The late squad leader is the fifth blood brother. That's the plot on the surface. The foundation of DA 5 BLOODS is a tale of love. The story is built on the love of those five African American men for each other regardless of their differences and how the years have changed them. They reunite at what had once been the site of military chaos and political turbulence. Now it's a deluxe hotel.

 "After you've been in a war, you understand it never really ends," one character says. We'll see the reality of this as the search for the gold puts the veterans back in a war again in Vietnam. There's a touch of Huston's THE TREASURE OF THE SIERRA MADRE (1948) with the Delroy Lindo character, a hard-edged, self-described "broken man" who voted for Trump and wears a red MAGA cap, as a modern-day Fred C. Dobbs as played by Humphrey Bogart. Let me say this right now -- if Delroy Lindo does not get a Best Actor Oscar nomination for DA 5 BLOODS. the Hollywood Academy has lost its damn mind. It's another memorable performance from Lindo. I felt he should've been a Best Supporting Actor Oscar nominee for 1999's THE CIDER HOUSE RULES. But, Michael Caine was also excellent in it and he was nominated in that category. Caine had won the Best Supporting Actor Oscar for Woody Allen's HANNAH AND HER SISTERS (1986). However, he was not present at the awards because he was on location shooting what turned to be a major bomb of a movie. He's a beloved figure in Hollywood. He was present to accept his Oscar for THE CIDER HOUSE RULES and was moved to tears at the standing ovation he received. Caine was the sentimental favorite.

Lindo's "broken man" is fascinating to watch. He's a mixture of strength and fragility, an intimidating figure whose locked in emotions have frayed his relationship with his loving, grown son, The son journeys to Vietnam to see that his father is okay. He will see that his father's lust for the gold is -- to use a line from 1957's THE BRIDGE ON THE RIVER KWAI that is used in DA 5 BLOODS -- "Madness. Madness." His father and his father's friend has survived a controversial war, a war that Dr. Martin Luther King Jr criticized in an April 4th, 1967 sermon at Riverside Church in New York City. Many African American men were drafted into a war they didn't believe in and drafted to fight for their country at a time when Black Americans were still fighting for their civil rights.

DA 5 BLOODS stars Delroy Lindo, Clarke Peters, Isiah Whitlock Jr, Broadway's Norm Lewis and the late Chadwick Boseman as the 5 blood brothers. Boseman stars as the squad leader killed in battle and is seen in flashbacks. Jonathan Majors, seen in the HBO series LOVECRAFT COUNTRY, stars as the son. Majors has arms that look like they were sculpted by Da Vinci.

 DA 5 BLOODS runs 2 hours and 35 minutes. I did not feel long to me. There's plenty of emotional and physical action. Spike Lee delivered one of the best films of 2020.

For Benicio Del Toro Fans

 I saw this movie at a screening in New York City. I was at the screening because I'd be reviewing the movie on the live weekday morning national radio show Whoopi Goldberg had at the time. (Yes. One of the most memorable yet surreal points of my career was the two years I went to work and sat right next to an Oscar-winning show biz icon so we could both perform on-air.) The 2007 film was THINGS WE LOST IN THE FIRE directed by Danish filmmaker Susanne Bier (AFTER THE WEDDING and HBO's THE UNDOING starring Nicole Kidman and Hugh Grant). I felt THINGS WE LOST IN THE FIRE had Halle Berry's best performance following her historic Best Actress Oscar win for MONSTER'S BALL (2001). For us Benicio Del Toro fans at the screening, we felt he was in top form in Bier's film. However, a huge number of moviegoers missed this movie. Ironically, the weekend it opened nationally, Southern California was being devastated by massive wildfire. In the Los Angeles area, a major market for movies, regular programming was interrupted for live coverage of the fire. It was also a lead story in the network newscasts. Instead of going to the movies, folks in some sections of Southern California were being told to evacuate. So I want to remind Benicio Del Toro fans of this film right now.

Director Susanne Bier deals with families experiencing a sudden emotional collapse due to dramatic events. THINGS WE LOST IN THE FIRE deal with grief, recovery, love and forgiveness. Halle Berry and David Duchovny play a happily married couple with two kids. The husband has a generous, giving and compassionate heart. His longtime friend, Jerry, is a recovering drug addict. The husband was a great help to Jerry when others would have discarded him from their lives. Audrey, his wife (Berry) is one such person who would've discarded Jerry. The husband dies being a Good Samaritan. Jerry attends the funeral.

Click onto the link and watch the short theatrical trailer for the film:

https://youtu.be/8GhwdaDd_ps.

I read a couple of reviews by local, not widely-known critics who didn't think the married couple resembled a typical family. My sense was that the criticism was based in the couple being interracial. In 2007, while promoting the film, Halle Berry called the marriage "the American family of the 21st Century." Look at TV commercials today. Notice how many interracial married couples we see in some of them. Halle Berry was right.

There are times when THINGS WE LOST IN THE FIRE may seem like an above average made-for-TV movie, but stay with it. There's nothing pompous as Susanne Bier's direction. It keeps a middle-class sensibility about it. As for Halle Berry, she's very good in this, landing the kind of role that does not usually go to Black actresses. She's not a maid, she's not a housekeeper, she's not a financially-struggling single working mother living in an under-served community, she's not a poor sharecropper's wife. She's a suburban mother trying to work through grief and other complicated emotions while forming a new life after her sudden loss. I think you'll appreciate the heartfelt performances. Especially Del Toro's.

You can stream it on YouTube and Amazon Prime.

Starring Ruby Dee

 "How do you feel when you sell a man?" That's a line from a movie starring the late, great Broadway, film and TV actress, Ruby Dee. The movie is an intense racial/political drama called UPTIGHT, a remake of a classic John Ford film from 1930s Hollywood. It's also one of those rare pre-1970s film distributed by a major Hollywood studio that lists a Black woman in its screenplay credits at the open of the movie. Ruby Dee not only acted in UPTIGHT, she was one of its screenwriters. If you subscribe to Criterion Channel, you can watch this rarely-seen film now as part of the "Starring Ruby Dee" series.

 Dee doesn't have a large role in UPTIGHT. But, when she's on, she sets the screen on fire. Her performance makes you want to shout "Shame on you, Hollywood! Shame on you for not giving her the lead role opportunities you gave White actresses." Dee had sizeable movie roles in THE JACKIE ROBINSON STORY and the Joseph L. Mankiewicz 20th Century Fox drama NO WAY OUT, both released in 1950. NO WAY OUT starred Richard Widmark and Sidney Poitier. Ruby Dee and Sidney Poitier played husband and wife in the original Broadway cast of Lorraine Hansberry's groundbreaking play, A RAISIN IN THE SUN. They repeated their roles in the 1961 film adaptation. The original Broadway cast appeared in the film and the screenplay for that Columbia Pictures release was written by Lorraine Hansberry. That onscreen credit was a first for a Black woman. Look at Dee's film performance in A RAISIN IN THE SUN. It was worthy of a Best Actress Oscar nomination -- but didn't get one. Ruby Dee got her one and only Oscar nomination for 2007's AMERICAN GANGSTER. I've written several times about the fact that actresses of color such as Rita Moreno, Cicely Tyson, Diahann Carroll, Alfre Woodard and Angela Bassett down to Best Actress Oscar nominee Gabourey Sidibe (2009's PRECIOUS) achieved one Oscar nomination and then had to turn to TV for steady employment. After the Oscar nomination, Hollywood had no opportunities for them. However, White actresses such as Ann-Margret, Cher, Julia Roberts, Marisa Tomei and Jennifer Lawrence got one Oscar nomination and, afterwards, were pitched so many good script offers that they went on to get another Oscar nomination. Log onto IMDb.com and check out Ruby Dee's extensive filmography. Notice how much of her work was on television. But she came along at a time when Hollywood studios were still timid and discriminatory when it came to Black actresses                                                 

Think of how many times you saw Black woman in Hollywood films as maids and housekeepers. Then along comes Martin Ritt's classic modern-day western, HUD starring Paul Newman and Patricia Neal. Neal won a well-deserved Best Actress Oscar for playing the earthy housekeeper in HUD. However, in the novel written by Larry McMurtry that's the basis for HUD, the housekeeper was a Black woman. Just imagine if Ruby Dee had a shot at that role.

 About UPTIGHT...it's a 1968 remake of John Ford's 1935 drama, THE INFORMER. In it, an Irish rebel in 1922 squeals on his friend and then becomes hunted himself by other Irish rebels. It won Oscars for Best Actor (Victor McLaglen), Best Director, Best Screenplay and Best Music Score.

 UPTIGHT was directed by Jules Dassin. Dassin was Jewish and grew up in Harlem and the Bronx. For Hollywood, he directed the entertaining WW2 fantasy/comedy, THE CANTERVILLE GHOST starring Charles Laughton, BRUTE FORCE starring Burt Lancaster, THE NAKED CITY and THIEVES' HIGHWAY. He directed the classic French crime caper, 1955's RIFIFI. When I was a youngster, Dassin was very popular because his foreign comedy, NEVER ON SUNDAY, had charmed American moviegoers. It's a Pygmalion comedy about a popular Greek hooker with a heart of gold. Dassin starred in it opposite his second wife, Greek actress and activist, Melina Mercouri. The performance brought her an Oscar nomination for Best Actress and him a nomination for Best Director.

UPTIGHT opens with footage of the Atlanta funeral procession for the assassinated Dr. Martin Luther King. In Cleveland, a group of Black activists is angry that Dr. King's principle of non-violent protest seemed to be ineffectual. He'd been shot and killed. So had civil rights activist Medgar Evers and others. They feel the movement needs to be more muscular, more aggressive. One of the group's rebels, Johnny Wells, is sought by the cops. Johnny's friend, Tank, drinks too much. He's unemployed. He cannot take care of the kids he had with his girlfriend, Laurie (played by Ruby Dee.) His sister is angry at him for not being more focused on the revolution. Julian Mayfield plays Tank. We can see the pools of pain in his eyes and feel the dissonance in his soul. He will become an informer for money from White cops.

This film was pretty revolutionary in itself. It has two straight Black male friends verbally professing their love for each other. It has an openly gay male Black character who is a key figure. He's not a stereotyped gay character that we can laugh at. He adds a racial/political gravity to the action. Roscoe Lee Browne is a standout as that gay character.  

The under-appreciated Janet MacLachlan stars as Tank's sister. The cast includes Raymond St. Jacques and Frank Silvera. There's a solid supporting performance from another Black actress who got one Oscar nomination. Juanita Moore, Best Supporting Actress Oscar nominee for her memorable work as the troubled Black mother in IMITATION OF LIFE (1959), stars as the mother of rebel activist, Johnny Wells. Like Ruby, she is excellent in a small role.

There's good cinematography and smart direction from Jules Dassin who co-wrote the screenplay with Ruby Dee. Dee and her husband, Ossie Davis, knew Dr. King. They attended his historic 1963 March on Washington. This 1968 Paramount Pictures movie was released during the racially turbulent 1960s. In that decade, civil rights activists Medgar Evers, Malcolm X and Dr. Martin Luther King were shot and killed. We'd learn of the racist bombing murders for four little Black girls in church in Birmingham, Alabama. In 1969, Black Panther Fred Hampton would be shot and killed while unarmed and in bed. I'm sure all that gave UPTIGHT an extra racial/political urgency when it hit movie theaters. Check out the "Starring Ruby Dee" series now on Criterion Channel.