Christmas wish list

Ok so I know alot of movies suck this time of year but not nearly as much as the one's that get major play dates during the summertime.I could give a rat's-ass about Sheerluck 2 or Impossible 4 or Alvins skunks. I saw 2/3 of Girl With The Dragon Tattoo last night. It really had me going, was about 2 hrs into the movie when the bloody film broke and we had to call it a night. F@@k I was pissed. But the theater did give us our money back AND 2 passes for other movies.So that was ok. I will have to go back for the Dragon Tattoo cause I really liked what I saw, tho it was a highly disturbing film [ rapes, dead cats, etc ] So the movies I want to see, which haven't even reached my neck of the woods or just haven't been released yet are: Cronenberg's A Dangerous Method, Shame, Von Trier's Melancholia, The Artist, Payne's The Descendants, Scorsese's Hugo [ which along with the Payne film is in town ] Polanski's Carnage, Tinker, Tailor, Soldier,Spy. Most of these  are not fun films or easy to take but when it comes to film I like a challenge more often that not. Adventures of RinTinTin or whatever the f@@k it is called or WhoreHorse. Are these things people want to see? Why is it that American film goers [ I know I am making generalizations here but check the latest box office figures ] only go see shit? Why was that crap that Hugh Jackman was in a couple months ago a hit at the B.O? It's depressing and the dumbing down keeps getting worse every year. Nicolas Cage in Ghost Warrior 2. Christ, I didn't know the first one was such a hit it warranted a sequel. Why do another?? This has been a rant by a disgruntled moviegoer who loves movies but can't get worked up over the latest CGI-fest. So my wish this Christmas is this:  please Hollywood, stop the madness!

Happy Birthday, Barbarella

Jane Fonda turns....... wait for it..............74 years [ ! ] young tomorrow. She is an incredible woman who has had a fascinating life. An almost chameleon-like performer who has gone from sex kitten, Vietnam war protestor [ something her critics won't let go of ] serious, Oscar winning [ twice ] actress, exercise queen, trophy wife, author, well I think you get the picture. She is someone that cannot be pigeon-holed. And her recent cosmetic work is amazing. The only senior I can think of who looks as good would be Sophia [ 3 years Jane's senior ]. So Happy Birthday, Barbarella! I think you're amazing!!!!

P.S I would have tried to find something from YouTube that was more er, appropriate, but what the hell.

30 Years Ago in Hollywood History: Lousy Fade Out

On Nov 16,1981 actor William Holden's body was found in a Santa Monica apartment building. He apparently had been having one of his bouts with the bottle, tripped on a throw rug, and hit his forehead on the corner of a nightstand. It is estimated that he was conscious for about half an hour, blotting the blood with towels, before he passed out and bled to death. His body was discovered several days later.

Holden was on my radar screen in 1981 mainly because he had just appeared in Blake Edwards' S.O.B, a satire on Hollywood. I saw it at least 3 times when it was released in the summer of '81. I was taken with the whole film: it's manic swings from humor to tragedy, Hollywood double-crosses, orgies, drug intake, quack doctors, cunning agents, ego driven actors, etc. All done with a master's finesse, which Edwards surely was. But in the swirl of all this hedonistic activity was Holden's seen-it-all-but-still-come-through-it-with-humanity-intact veteran movie director, Culley. He is a island of calm and integrity in a town that has little or no use for either. So when I read that Holden had been found dead and alone in his apartment I was fascinated.

I, of course, had heard all about decadent Hollywood. I had read Hollywood Babylon, Kenneth Anger's incredible telling of legends doing bad things with drink, drugs, or each other, and David Niven's Bring on the Empty Horses, his sometimes factual, sometimes fanciful telling of celebs from the "Golden Age" of tinseltown. I knew of Marilyn Monroe's death, Fatty Arbuckle's rape of a young woman at a San Fransisco party (apparently false), and so on and so on. But Holden's death caught me short. This was "Golden Boy." An Oscar winner from the 50's, one of the town's most reliable stalwarts, an Eisenhower Republican, Mr Nice Guy. Dead from being too drunk to know better. Illusion and reality really met head on here. What Holden was perceived to be and what he was, were two different things.

According to all Bob Thomas' bio Golden Boy, Holden played around on his beautiful wife to whom he was married for 30 years, for the last 10 at least they didn't even live together. He allegedly had affairs with Shelley Winters, Grace Kelly, Capucine, and Audrey Hepburn. It was Hepburn whom he wanted to marry according to Thomas' bio. But he and his wife didn't wants any more children (they had two sons), so he had a vasectomy. Audrey, being quite young at the time, wanted a family. The affair wound down after they made Sabrina in 1954.

Making a living as an actor and being an introvert, Holden drank to relax, to loosen up in front of the cameras. Holden would carouse with the hard drinking RKO/Paramount crowd: John Wayne, Bob Mitchum, Glenn Ford, Broderick Crawford. Boozing with buddies instead of playing house with the wife and kids. Eventually drink started to control his life and affect his work. Hangovers on set, listless performances, a wife who, when he won his Oscar for Stalag 17 said "Bill, you know you didn't win for this, you won because they didn't give it to you for Sunset Blvd." Nice soul-mate. So Holden drank to keep the demons at bay. Yet those very demons he tried so hard to lose ended up killing him.

I always liked Holden, had seen him in Sunset Blvd (to me his best performance), Network, Sabrina, Bridge on the River Kwai, Picnic, and others. He always seemed in control of any situation and rock steady. Little did I know a drink was needed to steady that hand and put confidence and conviction in that voice. He was a man who did not age gracefully. Pain and regret were etched into that face. No plastic surgery for him. I think he was proud of every line. Every wrinkle told a story. I still like William Holden. Maybe more after his death. And maybe for the way he died, tragic though it was. I now see his movies with a different perspective on the man and what may have been going on inside him. It helps explain how he could understand and bring humanity to roles like Joe Gillis in Sunset Blvd, a user and taker who gets took and used back. I like Bill Holden, because of the weakness he tried to hide. As Billy Wilder said on hearing of his friend and collaborators death, "What a lousy fade out for a great guy."

My Top Ten: The Final Four

On The Town-1949-Directors: Gene Kelly & Stanley Donen

If one looks at the first 6 of my top ten, you will see one musical. Well, fasten your seat belts because more are on the way! I love musicals. I didn't always. I remember a time my mom was getting ready to watch a thing called Showboat, which my eleven or twelve year old mind had never heard of. But I was willing to give it a go. About twenty minutes into it I had to excuse myself. BORING! Oh my lord, I figured if one looked up boring in the dictionary, this movie would be the definition.

Times change. People change. As I entered my teenage years [ you know, those years when one knows it all ], I started to act in plays in school. And, of course, musicals were performed in school once a year, usually in the spring. Now I performed in a few of these little epics: The Apple Tree, Guys & Dolls, The Fantasticks, etc. I grew to have an appreciation for this genre. Musicals aren't as easy as they may appear to be. A lot of work and sweat and effort go into making a song and dance effortless. I began to see behind the facade. Not that all musicals are great, good, or wonderful. Far from it. But the best of them are sublime.

So aside from The Wizard of Oz and The Beatles' efforts, I didn't have much use for musicals. A couple of odd ones, like 1954's A Star is Born made inroads on my conscious mind. Gypsy was also an early favorite. But other than that, not much. Then in 1979, shortly after the purchase of my first VCR, PBS, channel 28 out of Los Angeles, broadcast 7 or 8 musicals during the summer, a different film every Thursday and repeated the following Sunday. What a life changer for me. The first movie selected that wonderful summer was On The Town, starring Gene Kelly & Frank Sinatra. I don't think I had ever seen either in a movie before. Well, this movie grabbed me, shook me loose, and woke me up to the fun and exuberance of Hollywood musicals. The minute those two sailors and their buddy Ozzie (Jules Munchin) leave the deck of the ship that has docked in New York City and start to sing "New York, New York" (not the one made famous by Ol Blue Eyes decades later), I was hooked. This story is about three sailors on a 24 hour pass, and all they really want to do is get laid. They meet three young, willing and able ladies who are after love and adventure as much as they are. To a twenty year old male, this was one thing I could relate to.

This movie taught me that musicals need not be stuffy. It has a breakneck pace, energetic dance numbers ("Prehistoric Man ") and sing-able tunes ("Let's Go to My Place "). This was also one of the first musicals to go on-location. Kelly & Donen convinced MGM that the only way to make the film authentic was to shoot on-location in the Big Apple. MGM said ok, but only two weeks. Those two weeks were spent on the opening number that took them all around the city. Another precedent was sent by having Kelly & Donen direct this film themselves. Gene Kelly was and is one of the most important figures in the world of film musicals and to have a actor-hoofer direct a film was audacious. Unless one's name was Orson Welles, actor's didn't direct. Certainly they didn't direct a film that they were in. And what was the result of all this effort? A smash hit that made millions for MGM when the company needed it most (1948 being an especially hard year profit-wise). The success of On the Town made it possible for An American in Paris to be made 1951, and Singin' In The Rain in 1952. I have introduced it to a select few over the years, two such are my niece Susannah and my good friend Alan. Susannah has a long and fertile love of musicals, and I like to think it started here. Alan is my constant buddy. Where and whenever we get together if I say "Where shall we go?" he, without pause, will sing, "Let's Go To My Place." Even if his place is out of town.

On The Waterfront-1954-Director: Elia Kazan

This is the movie that convinced me Marlon Brando is the greatest film actor ever placed before a camera.

I saw it on the old channel 11, KTTV out of Los Angeles , on a spring weekend in 1975. Every weekend that channel had a program called "Festival of Classics." They would show one film twice on Saturday and twice more on Sunday at four and eleven PM. I was so enthralled by this film I recorded it on audio, as I didn't have a VCR back then. In fact VCR's were kind of a sci-fi invention not known by the general public at that time.

The story concerns Terry Malloy (Brando) who must come to grips with his conscious when he unknowingly sets up a man to be murdered for informing on the mob, which controls the waterfront docks in the New York/New Jersey area. To make matters worse, he falls in love with the murdered man's sister, Edie Doyle, played by Eva Marie Saint. His brother Charley, played by Rod Steiger, is the mob's lawyer. Terry is a former boxer who, as we find out as the plot unfolds, had to take a "dive" in the ring so that the mob could collect a vast sum of money on the other boxer. Terry is a man who has untapped warmth and potential for tenderness. Edie's love and guidance shows him that life on the waterfront is corrupt and keeping silent about something he knows is wrong is, in itself, wrong. The story is about the redemption of Terry Malloy's soul.

The movie from beginning to end belongs to Brando. His confusion about his feelings for Edie, the betrayal of his "friends", the realization of his brother's betrayal, is poignantly portrayed. It is also the beginning of Kazan finding his way as a filmmaker. A respected and admired Broadway director (Death of a Salesman, A Streetcar Named Desire, etc) Kazan, in his own mind, wasn't a bonafide filmmaker yet. In his autobiography he writes about being "out of it" when it came to the planning of his films. "Waterfront" changed that. It was a very personal story for him. Kazan had cooperated with the House of Un-American Activities Committee (HUAC) and named friends as communists. Kazan, like Terry in the film, informed on people in knew. In the words of mob boss Johnny Friendly (Lee J. Cobb) he "ratted" ("You ratted on us, Terry!") on them. Kazan was also ostracized by many in the theatre and film world. As recently as 1999, when Kazan was given a Lifetime Achievement Award by the Academy of Motion Pictures Arts & Science, there were as many boos as applause. Some wounds never heal.

When Brando first saw this film in rough cut, he fled the screening room without a word. He felt that he was "in & out" of character and didn't think it was one of his better portrayals. Time and several awards later have proven otherwise. It is considered one of his finest. In his first six films Brando racked up an impressive four Best Actor Nominations from the Academy. "Waterfront" itself won eight out of twelve nominations, including Best Picture, Director, Screenplay and Supporting Actress for Eva Marie Saint in her screen debut.

For me, the personal identification comes from Terry being treated as a bum a second class citizen among people not worthy to walk in his shadow of speak his name. Of course this is the film with the famous taxi cab scene above, but "Waterfront" abounds with great scenes: Terry and Edie's first encounter in the park when the mob breaks up a meeting at the local Catholic church, Terry and Edie's first "date" in a saloon with Terry buying Edie her first ever alcoholic beverage, Terry's confessional conversations with Father Barry (Karl Malden), the parish priest, and the finale with Terry beaten to a bloody pulp by Friendly and his henchmen.

A Star is Born -1954 - Director : George Cukor

Ok, I know, I just posted a blurb a few days ago on the anniversary of the opening of this movie. But it's still a fave and one I cannot ignore. I first saw this with my sister, my memory tells me it was a New Year's Eve showing. It was about 1970 or 1971, which means we were way too young to go out that night. But I believe my parents did, which was why we had our way with the TV that night. I'm sure it was sister's idea to watch this, her being a few years older and far more sophisticated than I in her choice of movies, at that time. It being a long movie, I think we were still up when the folks got home sometime after midnight.

There are so many goodies in this movie, I can hardly fit them all in: The performances by Mason & Garland are really special. Judy's is well-remembered to this day, but Mason's, less showy but always spot on, is more subtle. Some of these scenes are heartbreaking - almost all involve Mason's character Norman Maine's fading alcoholic screen idol. The scene after the preview of Garland's first movie, when it is obvious she will make it as a star in the movies (all with the help of Maine), Garland's Vicki Lester tells Norman how she feels about, telling him how much she cares for him. But Norman, knowing of his life and how dead he feels inside, tells her it's too late. It's a wrenching scene:

Norman : It's too late, I tell you.

Vicki: No it's not, not for me.

Norman : It is, I tell you! I destroy everything I touch! Forget about me; I'm a bad lot. You've come too late.

But of course he doesn't listen to himself and falls in love with her anyway. Another great scene is Judy's as she tells her boss and friend Oliver Niles about Norman's failed effort to stop drinking and how he tries so hard, how he fails to stop, and how she feels a failure for their love not being enough to get him to stop. And Norman's suicide in the Pacific Ocean, one of the most touching and romantic gestures ever put on film. Put that together with the music, camerawork, set design, script, etc and what one has is a powerful movie experience.

The movie also captures a Hollywood in transition. The 1950's may have been "I Like Ike," apple pie, and The Mickey Mouse Club, but in tinseltown major upheavals were taking place: Wide Screens, stereophonic sound, witch hunts (a hold over from the late '40s), TV and a fickle public. The film was originally to be filmed in the standard 1.66, ratio but with the success of Fox's The Robe in 1953 (filmed in CinemaScope), Jack Warner, head of the studio that bears his last name, reconsidered the process and had director Cukor start from scratch in the widescreen process after about 10 days worth of filming. This along with the usual delays and anxieties of Garland pushed the budget further up from it's original 3 million. The final tally on the budget is in the neighborhood of 6 million.

The film was put together by Judy and her then husband Sid Luft (she had 5 total, Luft coming in 3rd), so there was no doubt who would play the female lead, but the leading man's role was hotly contested by some and, according to Ron Haver's book on the making of the film, many were considered: Laurence Olivier topped Garland's list. Number 2 was newcomer Richard Burton, who had just made a splash in The Robe a year earlier. Also Tyrone Power, Cary Grant, James Stewart, Glenn Ford, Stewart Granger, Gregory Peck and Ray Milland. Of all the listed names, Cary Grant's was the one that delighted everyone. Jack Warner considered Humphrey Bogart. Frank Sinatra was very interested and put forth his services to Garland and Luft. But Bogie was a bit old for it, and Warner didn't think Frankie had the acting chops (his comeback in From Here To Eternity still hadn't seen the light of day). So James Mason won the part, by default so to speak, but it was a great choice.

The Wizard of Oz -1939 Director: Victor Fleming

Yep. You knew it was coming, right? This was my favorite movie pre-Butch Cassidy. As a little boy I LOVED this movie. Watched it every year on commercial TV, which means with commercials. And on a B&W television. This means that when Dorothy lands in Oz and steps out of her house, it wasn't in color like it is now. It was still B&W for me until a few years later with the family purchase of a color TV.

Amazing thing about this film is that it still can affect me today. If I haven't seen it for a while I can get caught up in the plot and characters still. "Over The Rainbow" still chokes me up. Who doesn't want a place where you can go and hide and be happy, beyond the moon beyond the stars. I guess some (most?) of the FX look dated to the modern eye, but realizing how they did those affects and how primitive the circumstances, they are still pretty special and a barometer for today's more sophisticated green screens. The music, despite the cliched "Off to See the Wizard" and "Follow the Yellowbrick Road," still live within everyone who has seen it. The film has pathos, humor, spectacle, suspense, horror, philosophy and heart. A lot of heart. One of my favorite movie lines of all-time is: "Remember, my sentimental friend, that a heart is not judged by how much you love, but by how much you are loved by others."

This is a movie beyond great. It is in our blood, our genes, our DNA. It is beyond judging. Even if one doesn't like this film one cannot deny it's power, not only over children, but the affect it has on those children as they reach adulthood and don't even recognize that everyone they meet down life's path will some way or other resemble Dorothy, the Scarecrow, the Tin Man, the Lion and the Great & Powerful Wizard of Oz.

56 Years ago in Hollywood history: James Dean meets tragic end

      9/30/1955

James Dean met death head on while driving to Salinas,California for a car race that he was to participate in on this day. The great thing about Dean is that no matter your age one can relate to the characters and his portrayal of them. Growing up I liked East of Eden the best but have grown to have a greater appreciation for his Jett Rink in George Stevens' Giant. I believe it was a little more of a reach, a stretch of his ability and talent. He ages from a 20-something ranch hand to a 50-something oil baron all in the course of 3-plus hours. The reason I chose this song is because of the reference to his name and I always think of him when I hear it. It seems to fit his restless, youthful, always searching spirit. If he had lived he probably couldn't have fulfilled his potential as an actor. But who knows? He could have wound but similar to Marlon Brando, a burn out. Or possibly he would have had a career like Paul Newman, respected and admired for his personal and private life. Who knows ? RIP Jimmy, we are lucky to have your performances to live on and inspire us. You will remain, forever young. Godspeed.

57 years ago in Hollywood history : A Star Is Born

Forget about any other version of this story you may have seen, this is the version! On September 29,1954 " A Star is Born " Directed by George Cukor and starring Judy Garland and James Mason had it's world premiere at the Pantages Theater in Hollywood. It was a huge affair with all the stars there are in the heavens in attendance: Clark Gable, Bogart & Bacall, Sinatra, Elizabeth Taylor, in the background James Dean, Gary Cooper, Joan Crawford and on and on and on. All broadcast on that new fangled contraption called television. It was a movie that ended up costing Warner Brothers studio nearly 6 million dollars, at the time the most expensive movie they ever made [  $49 million in 2011 dollars ] It went on to receive 6 Oscar nominations and become one of the most beloved films of all-time. But it was not successful at the box office on it's initial release. A film would have to make twice what it earned to break even. " A Star is Born " made only 6 million  by September 1955, which means it lost about 5- 6 million on it's original release. And it won no Oscars. The great torch song " The Man Who Got Away " lost best song. And  Judy Garland lost for Best Actress. As Groucho Marx said about Judy's loss  " This is the greatest robbery since Brinks ".  And the film originally ran for 3 hours but the exhibitor's were losing money because of the long running time so, Warners, under pressure, cut approx 27 minutes out of the film. This footage was restored in 1983 by preservationist Ron Haver in 1983. A dramatic musical " A Star is Born " is one of the greatest achievements in the history of the cinema. A tragic love story, a Hollywood success story a comedic story and a story full of pathos, it is one of my all-time favorites. I have seen Hollywood thru the eyes of this movie ever since. If you have seen it before, relive the splendor, if you haven't seen it  how I envy you as you discover for the first time a  true treasure of the cinema. This is what movie watching and great moviemaking is all about!!                                                                                                                                                                             

My Top Ten Part II

Chinatown-1974-Director: Roman Polanski

I first saw it at the old Granada theater in Santa Barbara in 1975, a full year after it opened - it was on the second half of a double bill with a now forgotten private-eye flick called Peeper with Micheal Caine and Natalie Wood. Well, Chinatown really twisted my head around. I didn't know film noir from any other type of film - all I knew was: It was a mystery, private eye Bogart-Maltese Falcon type of thing. Boy was I wrong. As good as Maltese Falcon is, this movie leaves it in the dust. The plot twists, the dialogue, the characters, the deception and darkness that permeated this film is astounding. It may be my favorite movie of all-time. It was also the first movie I ever bought when I owned my first VCR - waaaaaay back in 1979.

Jack Nicholson has never been better, and that's saying something when one looks at his filmography. The man is in every scene and we see - no, experience - the film through his eyes. We don't know anymore about the mystery of Chinatown than he does. Faye Dunaway, all tics and twitches, is marvelous, if not quite the perfect femme fatale. John Huston is the embodiment of evil, with that voice that drips honey crossed with smoke. Many great scenes from the "nosy fellow kitty cat," scene to "my sister, my daughter," to "forget it Jake, it's Chinatown," the film is absolutely essential viewing for anyone, whether they are a film maniac like me, or a casual viewer like most. And just one spoiler here about the end: Screenwriter Robert Towne didn't want Dunaway's character to die at the end. But Polanski, who knows a thing or two about the human [or inhuman] condition insisted that she must die. That ending fits perfectly in the universe of noir. Noir is French for black, and that means no happy endings, not even a hint of one. This is the one thing that separates it from another worthy noir, the much later L.A Confidential, which opted for a somewhat uplifting finish, the only thing that mars (though doesn't ruin) that 1997 film.

Chinatown is a metaphor for the mysteries of life,when we try to do everything in our power to right the wrongs, only to see evil triumph in the end. Chinatown is the dark soul of film noir.

A Hard Day's Night-1964- Director: Richard Lester

Well, what can I say? The Beatles right? This movie set the personas which to this day somewhat cling to them. John the witty smart-ass, Paul the cute one, George somewhat serious and caustic, and Ringo loveable and vulnerable. As Andrew Sarris said, this is the Citizen Kane of Rock N Roll movies. With great songs, style, sass, and youthful enery to burn, this film showed the world that the Fab Four could do more than shake their heads and sing yeah-yeah-yeah. Some critics compared them to the Marx Bros [why? Because there were four of them?]. The Can't Buy Me Love sequence is like something out of a silent film comedy, or a kind of new wave Busby Berkeley dance spectacular.

I think I first saw it at a drive-in in Santa Paula with my sister and parents. My dad and sister being big Beatles fans certainly influenced my liking them. Which one did I like the best [we all had our faves]? To my young mind, I liked John best at the time. He was the funniest one and a young boy is always drawn to humor. As time has gone by I can certainly appreciate them all as individuals, something that wasn't so easy in the early days of 1964-65. I always thought it would be so cool to be a Beatle. No one was more hip, no one more talented than these four Liverpool lads who made England and the world swing like it never did before. And to have all those girls screaming for you! What boy doesn't have fantasies of girls going bonkers over you? They screamed and twisted and shouted like never before and I dare say since. If I ever need to cheer up this movie does it. Every time. A raucous, wonderful, nostalgia-filled time capsule.

It's A Wonderful Life- 1946 - Director: Frank Capra

An accidental discovery. One evening on New Year's Eve in 1976 about eleven at night I was looking for something to watch on tv. In those days the channels ran from 2 to 13 with channel 8 the Spanish station with bullfights and channel 10 the PBS station that this 17 year old boy never cared much about. But on this night, alone at home, I found Jimmy Stewart serenading Donna Reed and wondered what land I had stumbled into. So I watched and watched. I didn't know what this movie was. It wasn't the Christmas tradition it has become. It's A Wonderful Life was a somewhat lost, neglected film at the time. A public domain orphan that no one wanted. But I wanted it.

I loved this movie the first time I wandered into it way back in 1976 [or was it 1975?]. This movie is mania - with all the highs, lows, optimism and suicide that real life can sometimes bring. I related to Stewart's character George Bailey like I have all the male leads in this top ten. But somehow George Bailey cut deeper for me. Somehow I knew I would never get to do what I really wanted to do with my life. How did George know? More to the point how did Frank Capra know? How could a movie made in 1946 reflect a life I had not even lived yet?

I know this may sound silly or mad even. But my life and George Bailey's is somewhat inner-connected. You see, George Bailey is a dreamer. He wants to leave the small town and see the big city and live the big adventures he has read about. He wants to have affairs with beautiful, dangerous women and help build big cities and see the world. And he never does. He falls in love. He takes over the family business. He raises a family. And all the time the bitterness of not living his dream eats at him. He is responsible when he would rather be devil may care. He helps people, but feels he has failed in life. Then with money missing that should have been deposited by his uncle, he takes responsibility again. On the brink of bankruptcy he goes home and takes it out on the people he most loves. His family. Leaving home, fearing he has lost them, he contemplates ending it all. Suicide.

Of course he doesn't succeed; this being a movie, he is saved by his "Guardian Angel," Clarence, who shows him what his life would be like if he had never been born. Pretty heavy stuff.

It still resonates with me to this day. I have lost a business. I have had to declare bankruptcy. I got divorced and thought I would lose my family. I have despaired and wanted to never have been born. All these things run through me whenever I watch this movie, it strikes a nerve as perhaps no other movie does. My kids won't watch this with me because I spew tears like Niagara Falls every time I watch it.

Nowadays It's A Wonderful Life is a big Christmas tradition. But it's not a holiday movie at all. This film can be seen and enjoyed at anytime of year, during any season, because the lessons it teaches us and the themes it touches on are timeless and immortal: No one is a failure who has friends, and, I may add, family.

Goodbye, Marilyn

49 years ago. August 5th, 1962 Marilyn found dead. Murder? Suicide? Will we ever really know?
I have been to the house where she died. It was so...quiet. Peaceful almost and a bit spooky.
Not a HUGE fan but I liked her in several of her films and she was certainly a icon and symbol of sex and classic Hollywood. The video above is from " Gentlemen Prefer Blondes "  Also recommend " Seven Year Itch " , " Some Like It Hot " and  " The Misfits ". R.I.P.

My Top Ten: The First Three

Top ten films are personal. They could be something you saw as a child, as a teen or an adult. A film when first seen can create a powerful impression on one that lingers long after the movie is finished. For me, I consider my top ten to maybe not be the "Best Films of All-Time," necessarily, but they are good, and when I saw them I was in such a place that they left a lasting impression on my psyche. These are films I can view again and again. They're movies that defy criticism. So here they are. I will present them alphabetically, as it is impossible for me to pick one favorite, and besides, that may change from one day to the next. Not only the ranking, but the films included in my top ten may even alter from time to time. But these ten are the core favorites and that never changes. These are the first three; coming soon, the next three, followed by the final four.

The Apartment - 1960- Director: Billy Wilder.
I first saw this on TV around 1975 on Channel 5 out of L.A. I watched it because it had Jack Lemmon, and I knew that he had just won an Oscar for Best Actor recently, and I wanted to check out some more of his work. I think this may be his best. Jack Lemmon aside, the rest of the cast is nothing short of delightful: Shirley MacLaine as the girl he loves but cannot tell; Fred MacMurray as Mr Sheldrake, his slimy opprotunistic boss; Ray Walston [ Uncle Martin from My Favorite Martian a fave '60s TV show ] as co worker Joe Dobisch; Jack Kruschen as neighbor and conscience Doc. But the real star of the film is Billy Wilder: His writing, with partner I.A.L. Diamond, and direction is pitch perfect: Tough, funny, cynical and touching, without ever being maudlin.


Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid - 1969 - Director: George Roy Hill
One of the first movies I saw in a theater that really hit me. Packed a wallop! When I left the theater, I didn't want to be Paul Newman - I wanted to be Butch. He was a fellow my eleven year old mind could grasp. Always trying to come up with a new scheme, doesn't have a steady girl, not flashy with a gun, and not quite as bright as he thinks he is, either. Redford's Sundance is the flashy, blonde-haired, quick-draw ladies man. A good friend to Butch, but I could never see myself in him. Then there is Katherine Ross who is just there. A worthless part in many ways, but she brings the sex, which certainly made this boy sit up a little higher in his seat, wanting to get a better view. After I got home, my dad said to me, "I suppose you're gonna be Butch from now on." I was embarrassed. I thought I hid it so well, but he was on to me.

Casablanca - 1943 - Director: Michael Curtiz
Has there ever been a more economical script written? Characters are explained better in two or three sentences than several pages that other movies would need. Best short-hand writing ever. And that classic love story: Rick in love with Ilsa, who is married to Victor. A classic triangle, yet we don't hate any of the three. We would like to see Rick win Ilsa back, but not because we hate Victor, or because he treats her badly. We want Rick to have her because Rick is our hero, even if he's not really heroic until the final reel. He is out for himself - as he says many times "I stick my neck out for nobody," but in the end he does - and he does it not for the cause, but for her. He lets her go on that plane with Victor because he knows it's right, even though all he feels for Ilsa tells him not to. That is the heroic gesture in Casablanca: Selfless love. Loving someone enough to let them go. Of course there is more much more going on in the movie: Claude Rains' rakish Capt.Renault [how that man NEVER won an Oscar after four nominations is one of the Academy's great failures]; Conrad Veidt as Major Strasser, chief Nazi; Sydney Greenstreet as Ferrari, Rick's business rival; and the very great Peter Lorre in what is essentially a cameo as Ugarte who possesses the "letters of transit" that the plot revolves around - and it's all blended magically together by Micheal Curtiz's swooping camera and breakneck pacing. If you've never seen it, see it. If you have already, see it again - you won't regret it.

Brando's Magnificent Failure

    In 1961 Paramount Pictures released One-Eyed Jacks, a western starring and directed by Marlon Brando. A film of great beauty, bitterness, and explosive violence, it received mixed notices from critics at the time. Budgeted at $1.8 million, it eventually cost around $6 million due to Brando's perfectionism. One story has it that while filming on location in Monterey, California, Brando insisted on holding up filming until the perfect wave could be captured from the Pacific Ocean. These are the things that will drive a producer and studio not only up a wall, but wonder why that wall was built in the first place.

    The production began life at Brando's own production company, Pennebaker, named for his late mother's maiden name. Originally a young upstart named Stanley Kubrick, fresh off his WWI anti-war flick Paths of Glory, was inked to direct, but conflicts over casting during script conferences at Brando's home high atop Mullholland Drive, drove Stanley away to accept another troubled picture, Spartacus which star and producer {do you see a trend?} Kirk Douglas was filming in the nearby hills at Universal. One of the conflicts was over who should play the character of Dad Longworth, partner and father-figure to Brando's Rio {nicknamed Kid} in the movie. Kubrick wanted Spencer Tracy {imagine that potential screen team !}, while Brando wanted his friend and former co-star Karl Malden. Well it was Marlon's company so Marlon won and Stanley walked.

    So without a director and time - which, as they say, is money - running out, Brando took over as director himself. Before this Brando had shown no signs of wanting to helm a film other than pretty much directing himself in his last several performances. Fact is, except for Elia Kazan and maybe Joe Mankiewicz, he pretty much held Hollywood directors in contempt as little more that traffic cops. He had trouble with either his director or co-star or both in almost every film he had made since 1954's On The Waterfront. In 1954's Desiree, he played a puffed up Napoleon - with Claude Rains' accent - and had conflicts with director Henry Koster, who was more at home in the far away land of Deanna Durbin musicals. On the set of Guys & Dolls, Brando famously clashed with another titanic "my way or the highway" guy, Frank Sinatra. On Sayonara he questioned director Joshua Logan until he was nearly sent back running to the asylum (Logan had spent some time in a home for mental health years earlier). 1958's Young Lions had Brando in pretty much open conflict with Montgomery {there is only one Christ on this film!} Clift while filming that World War 2 epic.

    It must have been the story of One-Eyed Jacks that intrigued Brando, as it deals with the conflict of Dad's character with the Kid's, who start out as outlaws together and end up as bitter rivals as a result of Malden leaving Brando on top a mountain ridge to face the music after they are chased by the law for robbing banks. Brando's Kid does time in a Mexican jail, escapes, and goes looking for the man who left him high and dry. When he gets to where Malden had been hiding for several years, he finds that Dad is sheriff of a small northern California town. He has married a Mexican woman with a young daughter by a previous marriage, but Brando's Kid not only wants his revenge on Malden's Dad, he wants the young step-daughter as well. It is no secret that Brando had little use for his own father, a bullying sort, when young Bud {as Brando was known to family and friends} was in his wonder years in the midwest. In Last Tango In Paris there is a moment when Maria Schnieder's Jeanne asks him why he doesn't go back to America, and Brando recalls bad family relations. Or as his character Paul says "I can't remember many good things." Neither could Bud Brando in real or reel life.

    One of One-Eyed Jacks' { the title deals with man's duplicity } virtues is it's expert casting of supporting parts. Ben Johnson, one of John Ford's stable of cowpokes, is excellent as Bob Amory, Slim Pickens is wonderfully slimy as Dad's deputy, Lon. And a nasty bit by Timothy Carey as a bad drunk tormenting a saloon girl. The movie is full of interesting set pieces: Brando waiting on that mountain for Malden with the sand storm blowing is an amazing bit of imagery; the scene where The Kid, being taken prisoner by Dad, spits in his face and Dad decides to make him an example by not only whipping him in front of the whole town, but by crushing his shooting hand with a rifle butt.

    When filming was finally finished 6 months late and some $4-5 million over budget, Brando's cut was four hours and forty two minutes. Unable to cut further, Brando walked away from the cutting and Paramount took over and released the film at two hours and twenty one minutes in March 1961. As producer Frank Rosenberg said "It wasn't a movie, it was a way of life." By that time Brando's The Fugitive Kind {filmed after, but released before One-Eyed Jacks} had flopped. It would be Brando's first. Jacks would be his second financial failure in a row with Mutiny on the Bounty looming next. In fact, Brando would go from flop to flop all through the '60s, and it was not until a little movie called The Godfather that Brando would bring him back from bankable oblivion and return him to Oscar glory. The photography by Charles Lang, Jr was Oscar nominated and is truly stunning. The bad thing about any print one see's of this film {it is in the public domain} is that it doesn't do the cinematography justice. It may be the most beautiful western this side of Shane. The music score by Hugo Friedhofer is first rate with nice motifs for individual characters and a touch of authenticity in it's flavor. And Bud the director was nominated for a Directors' Guild award. This I find may be the most remarkable thing about this damned, neglected western. That other directors would recognize the fine work this method actor, who at various times had driven their own to distraction, had accomplished. It didn't recover it's costs. Brando never attempted directing again.

Getting the Big Picture

First off let me say: THIS IS NOT A RELIGIOUS FILM BLOG! Sorry if I yelled, but sometimes I get caught up in the moment. What this is though is a movie/film blog about my passion: The cinema, movies, film - whatever you wanna call it. Like most Americans I grew up on the movies. As a boy I watched "The Wizard of Oz," and it was the first movie I fell in love with. Watched it every year on TV. Back then my family didn't have a color TV, so my first experience with it was all B&W - with commercials! I didn't care, I didn't know any better.

As I got older my movie interests grew. The "Planet of the Apes" movies, whiched I saw in theaters during their first runs, were a must-see every year. Staying up late on school nights to watch Marx Brothers movies [sometimes with all 4 brothers, but never Karl] on "Movies 'Til Dawn" off L.A.'s Channel Five while the folks thought I was asleep. And of course the first time I dated a girl I took her to the movies. Then on to the films of Scorsese, Cukor, Coppola, Peckinpah, Blake Edwards, George Stevens, Lean, Hitchcock, Kazan, Fellini, Hawks and on and on and on.

Yet somehow just watching movies weren't enough. I needed to know about the people who made them, in front and behind the camera. I needed to know how they were made. So I bought a couple of movie books at the local B. Dalton bookstore in the only shopping mall our city had to offer. One was on cinema history, and the other two were on actors Gary Cooper and Cary Grant. Why I picked out these two, I'm not sure. I know I had seen Cooper in "Pride of the Yankees," but I don't think I had seen a Grant film at that time. The books were part of a series called "The Pyramid Illustrated History of the Movies" - they were a whole series of books covering the careers of various classic movie stars. I devoured these books, just soaked them up - almost wore them out. That was 1973, and I still have them. And I bought more. And more. The Citadel "Films of..." series was another favorite: Books on Crawford, Astaire, Brando, Tracy, Hepburn, - I think you can tell where this is headed.

Francois Truffant said movie-lovers are sick people. I tend to agree with that. We huddle in the dark with a single stream of light projecting about our heads or glowing from our TV. When we get caught up, really caught up and surrenders to what we're watching, there is no going back. It's a disease that grows like a cancer: from watching movies in a theater, to buying books or memorabilia, to driving to Hollywood to see the sights, to the recording of movies on TV, to purchasing them on tape and, later, on DVD or Blu-Ray.

I love all types of films: from John Ford westerns and the Vincente Minnelli musicals, from last year's "Black Swan" to "War of the Worlds." Comedies and musicals, action movies and foreign films, chick-flicks and film noir and the latest popcorn-delights at the multiplex. I only see about 12 movies a year in a theater these days - time and finances play a big part, but so does content, and I think most movies today are pretty feeble. Especially the ones bally-hooed by the big studios every summer - all noise and green screen, with empty scripts and thoughtless dialogue. It's eye-candy with a hollow center. So if you plan to check in to see my thoughts on "Transformers 3," or "Thor," or "Pirates 4" or god knows what else - I am sorry, but you are better off looking elsewhere.

But don't get me wrong - I like some of them. "Borat" had me screaming with laughter, almost literally rolling on the floor [just ask my kids], JJ Abrams' recent reboot of "Star Trek" - a clever update on a franchise I had long given up for dead. And I am looking forward to "Super 8" on June 10 for some Abrams-meets-Spielberg fun. So I am not a complete snob. In the coming months [years ?] I will write up sketches, essays, reviews, and career profiles on actors, directors, and films; a smattering of takes on musicians, books, and television. But my main focus will be movies, as it's been much of my life.

Anyway, welcome aboard and if this sounds like your idea of fun, well, then you are my kind of person. Share your thoughts. Tell me what you like, and what you don't. Who knows - maybe we'll even learn a little something about life beyond the multiplex.