.
Thursday, May 30, 2013
ON THE BEACH (1959)
HARD EIGHT (1996)
Gambling and gamboling in Vegas
In HARD EIGHT, everything is
hard: the characters, the dialogue, the lessons learned, and the string of
violent acts that lead to young man's rebirth and an old hood's atonement. A mysterious black-suited man
(Philip Baker Hall) walks into a diner and commits a seemingly random
act of kindess for a down-and-out young man (John C. Reilly) that starts with a cigarette and cup of coffee and turns out to be a priceless education on how to win in Vegas and in life. Along the way we learn the secret of what binds the
two men. Written and directed by Paul Thomas Anderson, this film is
about mentoring, love, casino life and sweet revenge. Watch for a brief
but absolutely unforgettable cameo by Philip Seymour Hoffman (another of
Anderson's regulars) as a loud-mouthed high roller. (Trivia note:
Philip Baker Hall played the trench-coated, humorously fascistic library
cop Bookman in a Seinfeld episode, and a fictionally suicidal Richard
Nixon in Robert Altman's riveting one-man film SECRET HONOR (1985).
INVADERS FROM MARS (1953)
Hey Pop, does that thing in your neck get FM?
THE FLIGHT OF THE PHOENIX (1966)
Fasten your seatbelts - it's going to be a bumpy desert
The only woman who appears (very briefly) in THE FLIGHT OF THE PHOENIX
is a mirage – but thanks to an action-packed survival-in-the-sand plot,
there isn’t much interest in dates – except the dried kind. A planeload
of men, piloted by James Stewart, crashes in the Sahara. Chances of
survival look pretty slim until one of the passengers, an arrogant young
German, announces he's an aircraft designer and can build a smaller
plane out of the wreckage. A skeptical Stewart reluctantly agrees to the
plan, and then angrily cancels it when he finds out the man actually
designs model planes! A war of egos ensues. Does the cobblecraft, dubbed
"The Phoenix," eventually rise? You bet your ashes! (Forget the 2004 remake.)THE QUIET EARTH (1985)/DAY OF THE TRIFFIDS (1963)
Two really bad ways to start the day
THE COUNTRY GIRL (1954)
Bing goes dramatic - Grace goes without makeup
The
bravado of Bing Crosby’s performance as a washed up, alcoholic
singer/actor partially offsets the dreadful miscasting of Grace Kelly as his
plain, unhappy wife, THE COUNTRY GIRL.
When veteran actor Frank Elgin (Crosby) gets a chance to make a big comeback in a new
musical but drops out during tough rehearsals to co-star again with the
bottle, wife (Kelly) gets him back on the wagon and
the boards. Thanks to her pushing, prodding, cajoling and threats, he
triumphs. Even though COUNTRY GIRL is Hollywooded up from Clifford
Odets' original play, the film is still pretty potent, owing not
only to Der Bingle's Oscar-nominated acting, but also to William Holden’s as the no-nonsense director. But oh my, the spectacle of the future Princess
Grace made down to look deadly drab, complete with thick glasses and a woolly
sweater - and then, when she falls in love with Holden, she's suddenly Graceful and glam. Got an Oscar, though!
ORDINARY PEOPLE (1980)
The family next door in silent crisis
ONE-EYED JACKS (1961)
Better smile when you call somebody that
RED PLANET (2000)
SERPICO (1973)/PRINCE OF THE CITY (1981)
In SERPICO, Al Pacino is the young officer who, to maintain his individuality, splits his passion and energy between bohemian living and good police work. Refusing to take bribes, he is ostracized by his already skeptical fellow officers. Sickened by the extent of police corruption, he goes to his superiors, but when he discovers they are ignoring his charges, he takes the potentially fatal step of breaking the blue wall of silence and going public with his exposé.
Eight years later, Pacino passed on the role of Ciello in PRINCE OF THE CITY, thinking the character too similar to Serpico. Lucky for us Treat Williams got the part of the conflicted New York cop who goes undercover for the feds in order to ferret out police corruption. At first, Ciello recklessly gets off on the danger, believing himself invincible. But as trial dates near and various screws tighten, the guilt-wracked Ciello is forced to give up his partners and friends, and the house of cards comes tumbling down. Danny Ciello is arguably the best role of Williams’ career, just as Frank Serpico was one of Pacino’s. Must-see performances, both.
HOMICIDE: LIFE ON THE STREET (1993)
This intense episode is one of the very best of many intensely fine episodes of TV's HOMICIDE: LIFE ON THE STREET
(1993-99), packing as much top-notch writing, direction and acting into
50 minutes as any critically acclaimed motion picture. Eleven-year old
Adena Watson has been brutally murdered, and Dets. Pembleton and Bayliss
have only 12 hours to get a confession out of their prime suspect, a
sly old produce vendor named Risley Tucker. Good-bad copped for hours in
the “box,” Tucker (Moses Gunn) keeps his accusers – and us – guessing
whether he's guilty or innocent, even after he's released for lack of
hard evidence. Watch for Tucker's bitter exchange with Pembleton (Andre
Braugher) accusing him of being one of the 500 ("a white nigger"), and
one with Bayliss (Kyle Secor) in which he spits, "You got your dark
side, and it terrifies you, and it frightens you. It scares you ‘cause
it's powerful and it makes you capable of doing anything. Anything.
Without it, you look in the mirror, and all you see is an am-a-toor."
In both instances, Tucker pushes exactly the right button, and it’s
great fun to watch Gunn out-gun the two. Better acting you'll never see
than Gunn's (in one of his last roles), Braugher and Secor in this
regularly repeated Sleuth cable station rerun. Tom Fontana deservedly
won Emmys for Outstanding Writing in a Drama Series (Single Episode) and
for Outstanding Writing in a Drama Series (Single Episode).
ARLINGTON ROAD (1999)
Imagine if Ozzie and Harriet were terrorists
In the three years since his FBI agent-wife's murder in a botched anti-terrorist operation, a college history professor (Jeff Bridges) has grown increasingly obsessed with subversive groups. His bitterness and paranoia momentarily ease when new neighbors (Jim Robbins, Joan Cusack) befriend him and his young son. But soon, he begins to suspect they really are terrorists and begins a pursuit for the truth that leads to a horrific revelation you won't see coming. Too-timely a topic, unfortunately.
SNEAKERS (1992)/SPY GAME (2001)
I enjoy Robert Redford's performances in two spy-cy little films made a decade apart. In the fun and fast-moving SNEAKERS,
he’s the leader of a tight team of unorthodox security specialists
(Sidney Poitier, David Strathairn, Dan Aykroyd, River Phoenix) tricked
into finding a mysterious box that can break into any encrypted computer
system in the US. And in a more serious and even faster-moving SPY GAME,
he’s a retiring CIA agent spending his last day recalling for superiors
his recruitment and training of a young spy (Brad Pitt), while secretly
working against them to free his protégé from Chinese captors. Both
movies feature good casts and dialogue.
CAPTAIN NEWMAN, M.D. (1963)
Attorney Atticus Finch Turns M.D.
Wednesday, May 29, 2013
TO HAVE AND HAVE NOT (1944)
Bogie and Bacall's first film together
SHIP OF FOOLS (1965)
Teresa Wright (1918 - 2005)
Teresa Wright was a natural and lovely talent upon whom I've had a crush my entire life. She was discovered for films by
Samuel Goldwyn and distinguished herself early on
in high-caliber, Oscar-worthy form -- the only performer ever to be nominated
for Oscars for her first three films.
Born Muriel Teresa Wright in the Harlem district of New York
City on October 27, 1918, her parents divorced when she was quite young and she
lived with various relatives in New York and New Jersey. An uncle of hers was a
stage actor. She attended the exclusive Rosehaven School in Tenafly, New
Jersey. The acting bug revealed itself when she saw the legendary Helen Hayes
perform in a production of "Victoria Regina." After performing in
school plays and graduating from Columbia High School in Maplewood, New Jersey,
she made the decision to pursue acting professionally.
Apprenticing at the Wharf Theatre in Provincetown,
Massachusetts during the summers of 1937 and 1938 in such plays as "The
Vinegar Tree" and "Susan and God", she moved to New York and
changed her name to Teresa after she discovered there was already a Muriel
Wright in Actors Equity. Her first New York play was Thornton Wilder's
"Our Town" wherein she played a small part but also understudied the
lead ingénue role of Emily. She eventually replaced Martha Scott in the lead
after the actress was escorted to Hollywood to make pictures and recreate the
Emily role on film. It was during her year-long run in "Life with
Father" that Teresa was seen by Goldwyn talent scouts, was tested, and ultimately
won the coveted role of Alexandra in the film The Little Foxes (1941). She also
accepted an MGM starlet contract on the condition that she not be forced to
endure cheesecake publicity or photos for any type of promotion and could
return to the theater at least once a year. Oscar-nominated for her work
alongside fellow cast members Bette Davis (as calculating mother Regina) and
Patricia Collinge (recreating her scene-stealing Broadway role as the flighty,
dipsomaniac Aunt Birdie), Teresa's star rose even higher with her next
pictures.
Playing the good-hearted roles of the granddaughter in the
war-era tearjerker Mrs. Miniver (1942) and baseball icon Lou Gehrig's
altruistic wife in The Pride of the Yankees (1942) opposite Gary Cooper, the
pretty newcomer won both "Best Supporting Actress" and "Best
Actress" nods respectively in the same year, ultimately taking home the
supporting trophy. Teresa's fourth huge picture in a row was Alfred Hitchcock's
psychological thriller Shadow of a Doubt (1943) and she even received
top-billing over established star Joseph Cotten who played a murdering uncle to
her suspecting niece. Wed to screenwriter Niven Busch in 1942, she had a slip
with her fifth picture Casanova Brown (1944) but bounced right back as part of
the ensemble cast in the "Best Picture" of the year The Best Years of
Our Lives (1946) portraying the assuaging daughter of Fredric March and Myrna
Loy who falls in love with damaged soldier-turned-civilian Dana Andrews.
With that film, however, her MGM contract ended. Remarkably,
she made only one movie for the studio (Mrs. Miniver) during all
that time. The rest were all loanouts. As a freelancing agent, the quality of
her films began to dramatically decline. Pictures such as Enchantment (1948),
Something to Live For (1952), California Conquest (1952), Count the Hours
(1953), Track of the Cat (1954) and Escapade in Japan (1957) pretty much came
and went. For her screenwriter husband she appeared in the above-average
western thriller Pursued (1947) and crime drama The Capture (1950). Her most
inspired films of that post-war era were The Men (1950) opposite film newcomer
Marlon Brando and the low-budgeted but intriguing The Search for Bridey Murphy
(1956) which chronicled the fascinating story of an American housewife who claimed
she lived a previous life.
The "Golden Age" of TV was her salvation during
these lean film years in which she appeared in fine form in a number of
dramatic showcases. She recreated for TV the perennial holiday classic
"The 20th Century-Fox Hour: The Miracle on 34th Street (#1.6)" (1955)
in which she played the Maureen O'Hara role opposite Macdonald Carey and Thomas
Mitchell. Divorced from Busch, the father of her two children, in 1952, Teresa
made a concentrated effort to return to the stage and found consistency in such
plays as "Salt of the Earth" (1952), "Bell, Book and
Candle" (1953), "The Country Girl" (1953), "The
Heiress" (1954), "The Rainmaker" (1955) and "The Dark at
the Top of the Stairs" (1957) opposite Pat Hingle, in which she made a
successful Broadway return. Marrying renowned playwright Robert Anderson in
1959, stage and TV continued to be her primary focuses, notably appearing under
the theater lights in her husband's emotive drama "I Never Sang for My
Father" in 1968. The couple lived on a farm in upstate New York until
their divorce in 1978.
By this time a mature actress now in her 50s, challenging
stage work came in the form of "The Effect of Gamma Rays on Man-in-the
Moon Marigolds", "Long Day's Journey Into Night",
"Morning's at Seven" and "Ah, Wilderness!" Teresa also
graced the stage alongside George C. Scott's Willy Loman (as wife Linda) in an
acclaimed presentation of "Death of a Salesman" in 1975, played a
small but pivotal role in Somewhere in Time in 1980, and then and appeared
opposite Scott again in her very last play, "On Borrowed Time" (1991).
In her final film, in 1997, she played the touching role of an elderly landlady
opposite Matt Damon in The Rainmaker.
Teresa passed away of a heart attack in 2005. She was 87.
THE LAVENDER HILL MOB (1951)
Long before Auric Goldfinger menaced James Bond and world economy, there
was Henry Holland. Goldfinger wanted to corner the world market on gold
and smelted anyone who got in his way, but Mr. Holland, a meek British bank
clerk, wants only to smuggle some gold bars from London to Paris as payback to the company who is retiring him after so many years of loyal service. And
the way he and his crony
do it - in the form of souvenir Eifle towers - is a joy to watch. If
you only know Sir Alec Guinness as Obi Wan Kenobi, you'll see why light
years before STAR WARS he was Britain's gold standard for character
acting and why this witty movie with all its plot twists (and nary one
killing!) still works today. (Trivia note: Five minutes into the film,
as Holland is about to tell his restaurant companion (and us) the story
of his adventures via flashback, a lovely young woman walks up to the
table, kisses him, says one line, and walks away, not to be seen again.
Look closely, it’s Audrey Hepburn in her film debut.)
THE LONG GOODBYE (1973)
Mix
together Robert Altman, Raymond Chandler and Elliot Gould, and you’ve
got a hip '70s reincarnation of the hardboiled P.I. born on paper in
'39, Philip Marlowe. The plot of THE LONG GOODBYE
sounds simple enough, Marlowe trying to help a friend who is accused of
murdering his wife. But oh, the twists and turns, not to mention
commentary on life in the '70s, along the way – and oh, what an
unexpected ending. Gould's a hoot as the mumbling Marlowe who at one
point tries (unsuccessfully) to trick his cat into eating a can of cheap
brand of food by switching labels. Altman's trademarks are rife: dense,
overlapping dialogue; sudden jolts in action; and quirky characters
played by such quirky character actors as Sterling Hayden, Mark Rydell
and Henry Gibson. (Trivia note: The soundtrack of the film consists of
two songs, Hooray for Hollywood and a song titled The Long Goodbye,
composed by John Williams. Each time the latter song is used it's
played in a very different arrangement and instrumentation, making it at
times almost unrecognizable.)
ROPE QUOTES
Rupert Cadell: (James Stewart): “Brandon's spoken of you.”Janet Walker (Joan Chandler): “Did he do me justice?”
Rupert, teasingly: “Do you deserve justice?”
__________
Janet: “Well, now, you don't really approve of murder, Rupert? If I may?”
Rupert, joking but deadpan: “You may... and I do. Think of the problems it would solve: unemployment, poverty, standing in line for theatre tickets. After all, murder is - or should be - an art. Not one of the 'seven lively', perhaps, but an art nevertheless. And, as such, the privilege of committing it should be reserved for those few who are really superior individuals.”
Brandon (John Dall), not joking: “...And the victims: inferior beings whose lives are unimportant anyway.”
Rupert, still having fun: “Obviously. Now, mind you, I don't hold with the extremists who feel that there should be open season for murder all year round. No, personally, I would prefer to have...'Cut a Throat Week'... or, uh, 'Strangulation Day.'"
THE BIG COMBO (1955)
Police
Lieutenant Lou Diamond (Cornell Wilde) is obsessed with bringing down
gangster and murderer Mr. Brown (Richard Conte). He’s also obsessed with
Mr. Brown’s girl toy Susan (Jean Wallace). Rough Diamond employs every
tactic at his disposal, but the calm, sadistic Mr. Brown eludes him at
every turn. The film is surprisingly violent for its day - in one very
graphic scene, Mr. Brown tortures Diamond in a way that, if described
here, would make every male reader squirm. But that was nothing new to
the films of Joseph Lewis, whose GUN CRAZY features a remarkable
real-time bank heist that's years ahead of its time and has never been
equaled. In THE BIG COMBO, John Alton did the cinetography. The entire
film is rich with textured darknesses, and the climax is dazzling,
almost experimental. Lewis matches Alton's images with a frenetic jazz
score. But perhaps most striking about this film is how modern it seems.
Admittedly, some elements are dated, but its approach to crime and
criminals seems more akin to the crime films of the ‘70s or ‘90s (like
RESERVOIR DOGS) than it does to the mainstream of '50s film noir.
A DOUBLE LIFE (1947)
Grappling with the green-eyed monster
A DOUBLE LIFE
spotlights Broadway stage actor Sir Anthony John (Ronald Coleman),
whose life and sanity are hijacked by his stage character, the insanely
jealous Othello. Directed by a theater pro (George Cukor) and written by
theater pros (Garson Kanin and Ruth Gordon), this film noir gives us a
harrowing peek behind the stage curtain. Coleman won an Oscar, and you
can see why every second he's onscreen, thanks in part to the wonderful
supporting cast. Only Edmond O'Brien seems miscast as the press agent.
O'Brien was a major noir star, but his manic acting style clashes with
Coleman's highly sophisticated one. It's the flack's love for John’s
ex-wife/leading lady drives Sir Anthony to – well, if you know
"Othello," you know the outcome. Watch for a slim, sexy and sassy
Shelley Winters at the dawn of her long film career.
D.O.A. (1950)
24 hours to find his own murderer
Told
by a doctor he's been fatally poisoned and has only a few days to live, Frank
Bigelow spends his last 24 hours - the entire movie - trying to find out
who murdered him and why. In D.O.A.,
noir superstar Edmond O'Brien plays Bigelow with his customary manic
energy. Fast-paced, suspenseful, improved not a whit by the 1988 remake.
KISS ME DEADLY (1954)
... and leave me a voicemail in about 16 years!
Some (though not I) consider KISS ME DEADLY
the ultimate American film noir. Based on Mickey Spillane's
rough-and-tumble book, it stars Ralph Meeker as the anti-social,
anti-hero P.I. Mike Hammer. Tooling along in his convertible, Ham picks
up a hysterical blonde hitchhiker dressed only in a raincoat (Cloris
Leachman). He figures she’s a nutjob, but changes his mind when they're
abducted by thugs. Hammer watches helplessly as the girl is tortured to
death, but he escapes and sets out to untangle the mystery behind the
girl's murder, crossing paths with, among others, a slimy gangster (Paul
Stewart) and a turncoat scientist (Albert Dekker). Clues lead to a
mysterious box – the "Great Whatsit," as Hammer's secretary Velda
describes it. Both the box and Velda are snatched, and Hammer discovers
the "Whatsit" contains radioactive material of awesome powers. The
apocalyptic climax leaves us unsure whether Hammer survives. But since
he’s only a hundred yards from the explosion and radiation, it’s a fair
guess he’s soon bald - or gelatin. (Trivia note: Hammer’s ‘55 office is
equipped with a cool, wall-mounted gadget that wasn’t patented and
marketed until ’71 – a telephone answering machine!)
THE BIG SLEEP (1946)
Having so ably filled Sam Spade’s gumshoes in THE MALTESE FALCON five years earlier, Bogart made a perfect Philip Marlowe in THE BIG SLEEP.
Hired by the wealthy father of two spoiled daughters - one, a haughty
Lauren Bacall; the other, a flirty woman-child who, Marlowe says tried
to sit in his lap while he was standing up – Marlowe tackles a complex
and convoluted case involving blackmail and murder. It’s fun, but all
very confusing. Even Ray Chandler, who wrote THE BIG SLEEP, is supposed
to have told the film's director, Howard Hawks, that he didn't have the
slightest idea what the story is about! One thing's sure: even though
THE BIG SLEEP might keep you awake trying to figure it out, it's worth
the tossing and turning just to see Bogart seduced, in an odd scene in a
bookstore, by a clerk (Dorothy Malone) he's met for the first time.THE
BIG SLEEP was reawakened in 1978 with Robert Mitchum as Marlowe, whom he
had played three years earlier in FAREWELL, MY LOVELY (1975), itself
originally made in 1946 with former song-and-dance man-turned
hard-boiled character actor, Dick Powell. Got all that? (Trivia note:
Powell's version, which has great acting, dialog and noir photography,
was retitled MURDER, MY SWEET because producers were afraid "Lovely" in
the title might remind audiences of Powell's earlier song-and-dance
career. It worked. Powell kept the tough guy image for the rest of his
life, even on TV.)
FROM THE TERRACE (1960)
HOLLYWOODLAND (2006)
I
was nine when I discovered that my favorite flying hero had landed on
TV, and in the eons since, little on the tube has thrilled me as much.
I’m talking of course about Superman - for my generation, the real
one, George Reeves. A decade earlier, Reeves' career had taken off when
he appeared in GONE WITH THE WIND (1939), and over the next few years
he played a variety of roles at the major studios, usually to praise
from fans and reviewers. But after he returned from WWII service, roles
shrank in number and importance, and by 1950 his career was pretty much
gone with the wind. Then in 1951, the 37-year old Reeves reluctantly
accepted the Man of Steel role in a budget film, SUPERMAN AND THE MOLE
PEOPLE (1951) and saw his career soared to great heights of success. The
movie spawned the TV series THE ADVENTURES OF SUPERMAN (1952-58), which
brought Reeves six years of small-screen fame until his shocking death
in 1958. Was it suicide or murder? That’s the question posed in HOLLYWOODLAND,
starring Adrien Brody as the second-rate dick trying to find out which,
and Ben Affleck as George Reeves/Clark Kent/Superman. Affleck doesn't
sound anything like Reeves, but decked out in wig, built-up nose and
extra poundage, he looks a lot like him in some scenes. The film meanders through
several time periods and is often confusing in its editing. But it gets
the look and feel of the Fifties right, and the performances are good –
especially Diane Lane's as Reeves’ clingy, married girlfriend. Watch for
one particularly unnerving scene when Reeves, outfitted as Superman,
talks an adoring kid fan out of shooting him with a real gun (based on a true incident). At the movie's end, we still don't know how
Reeves really died, but whatever the cause – suicide, murder or
kryptonite – his life seems to have started ending the moment he first donned the Superman costume.
CONTRABAND (1940)
Hitchcockian romp through nighttime, wartime London
Mrs.S: Did you ever try being married? That can be quite a big adventure.
Captain: [sighs] Why do women always say that? Marriage ends adventure.
Mrs.S: [copies sigh] Why do men always say that?
THE DAY AFTER (1983) / TESTAMENT (1983) / THREADS (1984)
Two films about nuclear war you don't want to watch - but should
1983 was the year of World War III – but thankfully, only on TV. In THE DAY AFTER,
destruction, illness and death in the aftermath of a nuclear war rain
down upon small-town residents in Missouri (portrayed by, among others,
Jason Robards, John Lithgow and Steve Guttenberg). One of the most
chilling images in the film – besides the flame-tailed, nuclear
warheaded missiles rocketing from silos up over houses, churches and a
baseball field – is the simple disclaimer at the end warning that the
events depicted in the film, terrible as they are, are far less severe
than would be the real thing. TESTAMENT
also deals with the effects of A-war in a small suburban town outside
San Francisco. The focus is on a widowed woman (Jane Alexander)
struggling to take care of her children. Though less graphic than THE
DAY AFTER, it too is filled with painful images and a sense of
hopelessness. Far more graphic and unsettling than either of these films
is THREADS, an unblinking look,
docudrama style, at life and much death after World War III in a small
town in Britain, started, ironically, by military action in Iran. Far
more graphically than TESTAMENT and DAY AFTER, THREADS shows us the
fallout from fallout, focusing in retching detail on oft-undiscussed
issues as corpses, sanitation, disease, government breakdown, and much
more we'd rather not watch. But unpleasant as it might be to to watch,
these movies, it’s important to do so, for these films preach to us what
mankind is capable of causing - or averting. Especially now, with
sociopathic governments waving their A-bombs in the world’s face. (Watch
for a young Kevin Costner in a small but memorable role in TESTAMENT,
and be sure to read my reviews below of two other movies about nuclear
insanity, FAIL SAFE and ON THE BEACH.)
LANTANA (2001)
Under the opening credits of LANTANA
we watch a long, slow tracking shot through a grove of tangled, thorny
lantana vines that ends on the crumpled body of a woman. The lantana is a
metaphor for the prickly, intertwined relationships we are about to
discover in this low-key Australian mystery-thriller. Its central plot
is a flashback to the disappearace of the woman, and our cinematic
journey to the resolution of that mystery and the revelations it
produces, is, like the lantana vines in the opening shot, full of twists
and turns. Engaging plot and superb acting by Anthony LaPaglia, Barbara
Hershey, Geoffrey Rush and others.
FARGO (1996)
A winter wonderland of black humor
Virtually everything about FARGO
is cold: the cold, cruel plan concocted by a sleazy, in-debt car
salesman (William H. Macy) to have his wife kidnapped for ransom; the
cold-hearted treatment by his boss/father-in-law (Harve Prenell); the
cold, senseless killings by the two not-too-bright kidnappers (Steve
Buscemi, Peter Stormare); and of course, the cold, relentless winter of
North Dakota where the tale takes place. Only the warmth of the
indomitable (and pregnant) policewoman Madge Gunderson (Frances
McDormand) and her loving, supportive relationship with husband Norm
manage to peek through the cold, ugly gray -- that, and random moments
of macabre humor, including the famous wood chipper scene.
THE ADVENTURES OF BUCKAROO BANZAI ACROSS THE 8TH DIMENSION (1984)
In all of eight dimensions you won’t find an odder sci-fi movie - or character. BUCKAROO BANZAI
(Peter Weller) is a physicist, philosopher, marshal artist, speed
freak, and rock musician. And, with the help his posse, the Hong Kong
Cavaliers, he's out ridding the world of aliens from the 8th dimension.
Co-starring an Einstein-wigged, scene-chomping John Lithgow as Lord John
Whorfin/Dr. Emilio Lizardo, Ellen Barkin as Penny Priddy, and Jeff
Goldblum (in a cowboy outfit) as New Jersey, this is one cult film not
to be missed – or taken too seriously. My favorite quote:Buckaroo Banzai: "Hey, hey, hey. Don't be mean. We don't have to be mean because, remember, no matter where you go, there you are."
SHOOT THE PIANO PLAYER (1960)
Quintessential Existential Man
A
famous classical pianist drives his wife to suicide, loses his career,
is chased by two thugs, kills his boss, rescues his kidnapped brother,
dumps his girlfriend, and winds up alone and forlorn playing silly
ditties in a bar – and that doesn’t begin to describe SHOOT THE PIANO PLAYER,
François Truffaut’s classic French New Wave mélange of drama, tragedy,
comedy, mystery, film noir, slapstick and film homage. You just gotta
love the playful dialogue and editing, the music, and all the loopy
characters, especially poor little Edouard Saroyan /Charlie Kohler, the
quintessential Existential Piano Man, played wonderfully by the “French
Sinatra,” Charles Aznavour. French New Wave cinema was all about
experimentation, and in the case of of this film, the experiment was a
total success! Be sure to watch for all the nuggets of nonsense, as when
one of the goofy hoodlums swears that if he's lying, may his own mother
drop dead - and suddenly we see a silent movie-styled clip of an old
woman clutching her heart and collapsing on the floor. Be sure to catch
this New Wave masterpiece.
THEY ALL LAUGHED (1981)
JANE WYATT (1910 - 2006)
Only
two days after I wrote in "All About Me" about my lifelong affection
for the film LOST HORIZON, the last of its cast, Jane Wyatt, passed away
at 96. She was 26 when she played Ronald Coleman’s love interest, a
woman who, thanks to the preservative powers of Shangri-la, looks about a
century younger than she actually is. The actress herself continued to
look youthful and lovely throughout her long career, which included both
movies and TV. The two roles for which she’s best remembered are
Margaret Anderson, the wise and patient mother who always knew best in
the ‘50s TV series, “Father Knows Best” – and as Amanda Grayson, Mr.
Spock's Earthling mother on Star Trek: The Original Series and Star Trek
IV: The Voyage Home. (Trivia note: Jane appeared in 207 half-hour
episodes of "Father Knows Best" from 1954 to 1960 and won three Emmys as
best actress in a dramatic series in the years 1958 to 1960.)
Groucho Speaks
"MARRY ME, EMILY, AND I'LL NEVER LOOK AT ANOTHER HORSE."
Dr. Hugo Z. Hackenbush (Groucho Marx)to Emily Upjohn (Margaret Dumont) in
A DAY AT THE RACES (1937).
"I SAW MRS. CLAYPOOL FIRST. OF COURSE, HER MOTHER REALLY SAW HER FIRST, BUT THERE'S NO POINT BRINGING THE CIVIL WAR INTO THIS."
Otis B. Driftwood (Groucho Marx) in NIGHT AT THE OPERA (1935)
MAN OF THE WEST (1958)
The white sheep in a family of black ones
James Stewart and director Anthony Mann made five classic "adult"
Westerns together in the ‘50s. But after a quarrel they never teamed
again, and the plum role of Link Jones went to Gary Cooper, another of
Mann's trademark flawed heroes, in MAN OF THE WEST.
I can't imagine better casting. A respectable husband and father with a
checkered past, Link is headed to Fort Worth (my home town!) toting the
town's savings to hire a school teacher. His train is held up by the
Dock Tobin gang, and though Link temporarily alludes them, he and his
two fellow passengers later run into the outlaws holed up in a cabin.
The unsavory quintet turn out to be his former compatriots in crime –
and not just that, his family.
From Link’s bellowing, half-mad uncle Dock (Lee J. Cobb) to his mute,
murdering cousin Trout (Dano Royal), the Tobins are the Bizarro World
opposites of Bonanza's Cartwights, and despite Dock's best efforts to
draw Link back in, the latter resists - gently at first, later with
necessary violence. The film is littered with memorable scenes and
images, as when Jones whups one of his cousins and then forces him to
strip down to his longjohns, humiliating him back for having done
similar to the woman he's taken under his wing, Billie (the splendidly
endowed Julie London); and when Trout, after being plugged by Link in
self defense, staggers along a dusty street, mortally wounded and
howling like an animal. By film's end, Link's black sheep uncle and
cousins are all dead, and as he and Billie ride toward the sunset in a
covered wagon, she declares both her love for him and resignation that
he belongs to another. As stories go, a downer; as a noir Western, a
great film, with stunning widescreen landscape photography (also a Mann
trademark) such as when Uncle Dock, standing on a peak above the gang's
camp watching for Link, is silhouetted against the sky.
Fun to see a familiar face
I love spotting familiar actors in an early screen appearance. In the first 10 minutes of HERE COMES MR. JORDON (1941), the original version of Warren Beatty’s HEAVEN CAN WAIT
(1978) about a man prematurely taken out his body by an over-zealous
angel, a young airman leans out of a heavenly airplane and delivers a
few lines of dialog. It’s Lloyd Bridges (1913-98), then 27. It was his
seventh movie - his first was in 1936.
KILLER BAIT (1949)
Money - the root of all film noir
HENRI LANGLOIS: CINEMATHEQUE (2005)
With
videos and DVDs available from so many sources nowadays, we take for
granted our ability to find and see any movie anytime from anywhere.
Thank goodness for that! And thank Henri Langlois (1914-77), who in 1936
founded the Cinémathèque Française,
a Paris-based film preservation theater and museum whose inventory grew
from 10 films to more than 60,000 films by the early '70s, thus
creating both French film heritage and a model for film preservation for
the U.S. and entire world. Operating with a minuscule budget, staff and
government support, Langlois located saved, restored, showed and
lectured on countless films that otherise would have been destroyed by
men and nature - including Marlene Dietrich's THE BLUE ANGEL. How he
did it – and was undone doing it – is the subject of the fascinating,
English-subtitled documentary HENRI LANGLOIS: CINEMATHEQUE. If you've never heard of the godfather to modern film preservation, this is an absolute must-see for cinema lovers.
THE PUBLIC ENEMY (1931)
The rise and fall of a badboy bootlegger
A mere four years after silent movies became talkies, James Cagney hit the screen in THE PUBLIC ENEMY talking
faster than the machine gun his character totes. The film traces the
short, violent career of Roaring Twenties gangster Tom Powers (Cagney),
who powers his way to the top as a bootleg kingpin only to fall face
forward, wrapped like a mummy and dead as one, in his mummy’s doorway.
Lots of great scenes, as when Cagney famously pushes a grapefruit half
into Mae Clark’s face. But it's that final one you remember - as
powerful today as it surely was 75 years ago.
LITTLE CAESAR (1930)
Grandfather of all Godfather movies
LITTLE CAESAR, the first bigtime gangster talkie,
is still considered the model for all crime movies, dated though it
looks and sounds today. In fact, watch Pacino in the GODFATHER series or
in SCARFACE (1983) and you see shades of Edward G. Robinson's
mini-monster Rico Massara alternately seething and raging and
prophetically and nicknamed Little Caesar by the gang leader whose power
Rico grabs for himself. “Grab” is the operative word in all of LC’s
dealings, and he never stops
grabbing until a policeman's machine gun puts an end to Rico. The film's
violence is tame by today’s standards, but in 1930 it must have brought
moviegoers out of their seats. (Trivia note: Director LeRoy, whose final
film was THE GREEN BERETS in 1967, filmed two versions of Rico's famous
final words: "Mother of God, is this the end of Rico?" and "Mother of
mercy, is this the end of Rico?" Although "God" comes directly from the
novel, "mercy" was used to avoid offending moviegoing churchgoers.)
THE INFORMER (1935)
Living
in 1920s Ireland, flat-broke Gypo Nolan (Victor McLaglen) is part of an
underground rebellion against the oppressive Brits. His childhood
friend, a fellow rebel wanted by the English for murder, arrives back
into town secretly. He thinks he can trust his friend Gypo, but to the
latter, the £20 reward proves too tempting. Gypo gets his friend killed
and sinks into despair and drunkenness. Meanwhile, the other Irish
rebels are searching for the informer. Gypo, spending money left and
right, is their main suspect, but they, who are his friends, don't want
to believe it. The story is simple in plot, but complex in moral and
emotional issues. What Gypo did was wrong, but we can understand his
motives. We also understand his sorry character, and we feel sympathy –
up the point. We're pretty sure how everything will end up, so all we
can do is grit our teeth and bear along with it. The acting is
remarkable. Victor McLaglen, who acted in many of Ford's films, probably
gave his best performance here (and won an Oscar for it). THE INFORMER
is one of John Ford's most expressionistic films and well worth look.
(Trivia note: The day before shooting Gypo's trial scene, Ford told
McLaglen that he wouldn't be needed the next day so he could take a
break, enjoy himself, not worry about his lines. McLaglen proceeded to
go on a bender, which the director knew he would do, and the next day
was forced to film the scene with a terrible hangover - precisely the
effect Ford wanted.)
Tuesday, May 28, 2013
Trivia
Mother Nature pays homage to Dorothy
The big scary twister in THE WIZARD OF OZ (1939) was actually a 35-foot long muslin stocking, photographed with miniatures of a Kansas farm and fields. Amazingly, on the day Judy Garland died - June 22, 1969 - a real tornado struck in Kansas.
Song plug
In a bar scene in THE BEST YEARS OF OUR LIVES (1946),
young WWII vet Homer Parrish (Harold Russell) asks his uncle Butch to
play 'Lazy River' on the piano. It's a song the actor/songwriter
portraying Butch, Hoagy Carmichael, knew well - he composed it 14 years
earlier.
A rose(bud) by any other name
CITIZEN KANE
(1941) was based partially on the life of media magnate William
Randolph Hearst, who despised what he called the blasphemous depiction
and wouldn't let the movie be advertised in any of his newspapers. One
reason for the publisher's pique: Kane's dying word, "Rosebud," is
widely reputed to have been Hearst's private name for mistress Marion
Davies' private parts.
DEAD END (1937)
MEAN STREETS, Depression era-style
DEAD END is about class, poverty and dead-ended lives and loves on New York’s East Side.
Gangster "Baby Face" Martin (Humphrey Bogart), whose freshly
plasticized face looks nothing like a baby's, returns to his concrete
roots to see his mother (Marjorie Main, in a dramatic role a far cry
from the comedic one that later made her famous – Ma Kettle). At first
she doesn’t recognize him, but when she does she curses his birth and
banishes him from her tenement building and her life. Crushed by the
rejection, Martin seeks out his childhood sweetheart (Claire Trevor),
whom he discovers is now a streetwalker. Oh, and later the cops shoot
him dead. All in all, not what you’d call a great visit. A great film,
though, directed by William Wyler and, co-starring in one of its several
subplots, good guy and gal Joel McCrea and Sylvia Sydney - plus,
lending welcome bits of comic relief, a gang in their film debut, the
Dead End Kids (later called the Bowery Boys). One of the great flicks of
the '30s, full of truths for all time. (Trivia note: DEAD END was
adapted by Lillian Hellman from a Broadway play. Wyler originally
intended to film it on location on the streets of NYC,
but producer Sam Goldwyn insisted that a set be built in the studio -
and it turned out to be one of the most convincing and elaborate ones in
film history.)
OLEANNA (1994)
THE WHISTLER (1944)
He knows many things, for he walks by night
THE WHISTLER
was the first of an eight-film series (1944-48) based on one of radio's
most popular mystery drama shows (1942-55). All but one starred Richard
Dix, who had started out in silent Westerns and is perhaps
best-remembered for DeMille's silent version of THE TEN COMMANDMENTS
(1923). Dix is not “The
Whistler," who is an unbilled narrator seen only in shadow; rather, he
plays a principal character in each story, sometimes a good guy,
sometimes not. In this first entry, he’s a despondent industrialist who,
believing his wife dead, hires a professional killer (J. Carroll Naish)
to put him out of his misery. When he learns that his wife is still
alive (or is she?), he tries to disemploy his assassin. THE WHISTLER
is a great example of how, with clever direction (William Castle) and
strong if not highly well-known players, a B-grade picture from a
poverty row studio can rise above its budgetary limitations. Don't get
me wrong. THE WHISTLER is only a few cuts above Saturday matinée fare.
But I love the economy with which the story is told, without needless
lines or scenes but with lots of great bits - for example, in his spare
time the assassin reads from a book on necrophobia (fear of death).
(Trivia notes: Each film begins with The Whistler ominously intoning: “I
am the Whistler ... and I know many things, for I walk by night." Dix
retired from acting after making the second to last movie in the
Whistler series, THE THIRTEENTH HOUR. He died two years later.)
Hat's off!
TWO RODE TOGETHER
(1962) was the last film in which James Stewart wore the brown,
sweat-stained cowboy hat he'd worn in all but one of his ‘50’s westerns
starting with WINCHESTER 73 (BROKEN ARROW was the exception). This was
Stewart's first film with John Ford, who didn’t want him to wear the
hat, pronouncing it the worst looking one he'd ever seen. The famously
crusty director finally relented – but in their next film together, THE
MAN WHO SHOT LIBERTY VALENCE, Stewart went hatless.
THE KILLING (1956)
In film noir, the best laid plans of rats and cons oft goes awry, as in Stanley Kubrick’s THE KILLING.
Fresh out of prison, Johnny Clay (Sterling Hayden) masterminds a
brilliant and complex scheme to heist $2 million from a local racetrace.
He and his cohorts make off with a duffle of bag of money, but Fate
intervenes in some nasty guises including one shrewish wife (Marie
Windsor) and her ruthless boyfriend (a pre-Dr. Ben Casey Vince Edwards);
an immutable airport regulation, and one small dog. Result: a hotel
room littered with bodies and a runway littered with fives, tens and
twenties. This is a really interesting plot, complex but thoroughly
engaging. Watch for some familiar noir faces, including Elisha Cook
(Sydney Greenstreet's wormy gunsel in THE MALTESE FALCON).
CALL NORTHSIDE 777 (1948)
Advertising
pays, even in film noir. A tiny classified notice appears in a Chicago
newspaper placed by an elderly scrubwoman. In it, she claims her son is innocent
of the murder for which he has already served years of a life sentence
and offers a reward to anyone who can help her prove it.
Smelling a human interest story, the paper’s city editor (Lee J. Cobb)
assigns ace reporter P.J. McNeal (James Stewart) to check it out. At first, the cynical reporter refuses, convinced after reading the
trial records that Frank Wiecek (Richard Conte) got what he deserved.
But as his investigation warms up, so does the reporter to the con's
plight. Eventually, McNeal finds new evidence in Wiecek's favor (though
of course not without bumps along the way), but it's all circumstantial.
But then the single piece of hard proof needed to prove Wiecek innocent
is revealed through a laborious photographic enlargement process
(considered high-tech at the time, but today easily done on a smartphone). Based on a true case and shot in semi-documentary style on
location, CALL NORTHSIDE 777 is well acted by all (especially the
stalwart Stewart) and remains engaging and suspenseful even after repeated viewings.
SHANE (1953)
Maybe the best Western of all time
SHANE is
a gun-toting stranger with a mysterious past and no future, walking in
the footprints of a long line of noir men – only in this case, he walks
in boots. Alan Ladd, who portrays him magnificently, was no stranger to
noir films, nor were other members of the cast, including Van Heflin and
Elisha Cook. This is a rip-roaring good shoot-'em-up about a war
between sod-busters and cattlemen, but it's also a tender tale of
friendship, love and sacrifice, set in the most beautiful, Wyoming
scenery you'll ever see on the silver screen and worth seeing again and
again. It also contains many of the elements that make good noir,
including a doomed anti-hero. (Does Shane die in the end? We never find out.)
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