The Opportunists is dominated by the weird fascination Christopher Walken exerts as a New York safecracker trying to go straight, but it also gives Cyndi Lauper — where's she been? — a chance to show acting chops maybe you didn't know she had. Perhaps you're still holding Vibes against her. That vile 1988 comedy certainly stalled the singer's film career. Lauper's role isn't much in this modestly made and modestly charming caper flick from writer-director Myles Connell. She plays Sally, a bar owner who loves Vic (Walken) and tries to keep him from getting involved in a heist organized by Michael (the excellent Peter McDonald), a visitor from Ireland who claims to be Vic's cousin. The real fun comes in watching Lauper spar with Walken and hold her own nicely, thank you.

“All Along the Watchtower”

Jimi Hendrix got hold of Bob Dylan's early John Wesley Harding tapes and in late 1967 recorded a version of "All Along the Watchtower" with the Experience in London. Dissatisfied with that first development, Hendrix brought those tapes with him to New York in early 1968 when he began work on Electric Ladyland. Eddie Kramer, Hendrix's engineer at the time, told Rolling Stone that Hendrix "was still looked upon by his basically white audience as the mammoth black guitar hero. There was a constant fight within him to expand himself." Hendrix's successful take on Dylan's work has long been recognized by the songwriter. "I liked Jimi Hendrix's record of this and ever since he died I've been doing it that way," Dylan wrote in the liner notes to his Biograph box set. "Strange how when I sing it, I always feel it's a tribute to him in some kind of way."