tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-39842059356250850472024-03-21T17:37:11.417-07:00Movie catholic (a.k.a., Nick's Movie Blog)Nick Pattersonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09555378788567081907noreply@blogger.comBlogger135125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3984205935625085047.post-57269004983200633352020-03-30T19:57:00.001-07:002020-03-30T19:57:08.881-07:00The Confessional: Martin Scorsese's "New York, New York"<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1440" data-original-width="960" height="400" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-a-HHmirYedQ/XmU9J_EPUwI/AAAAAAAAF3c/0xIYkQfr_FQNmZWhf5ir0tA1AXE0_qkxwCLcBGAsYHQ/s400/NY%2BNY%2BHershfeld.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;" width="265" /></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Al Hirschfeld's wonderful caricatures for the movie</td></tr>
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By any measure Martin Scorsese's <i>New York, New York</i> is not considered anywhere near the upper echelon of <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Martin_Scorsese_filmography" target="_blank">his filmography</a>. That distinction is reserved for <i>Raging Bull, Goodfellas, </i>and <i>Taxi Driver,</i> among a few others. Books about Scorsese's films generally mark <i>New York, New York</i> an honorable failure, which it was, critically and financially, upon release in June 1977. By all accounts it was--and perhaps remains--a painful experience for its director to revisit. Interviews as well as Scorsese's commentary on the movie portrays it as too sensitive a subject for him to fully explore. Too personal? Possibly. The comments he makes on the <i>New York, New York</i><b> </b>DVD seem especially perfunctory. Marty doesn't say a word about the personal difficulties he had making it. And by many accounts, the production was painful for most involved. As the movie's costume designer, Theadora Van Runkle, says, "People still sit around and tell horror stories about working on <i>New
York, New York" </i>(for example, she states that the crew “were treated like peasants”). <br />
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Scorsese's problems included an unfinished script that required some scenes to be written just hours before filming them; a severe addition to cocaine; and an extramarital affair with <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Liza_Minnelli" target="_blank">Liza Minnelli, the leading lady</a>. Budgeted at $7 million, the production ended up with a price tag of $12 million as the film shoot scheduled for 14 weeks ran to 22 weeks. The first cut of the film ran four and a half hours. <br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Stars Liza Minnelli and Robert De Niro with director, Martin Scorsese, <br />
during the production of <i>New York, New York</i></td></tr>
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<a href="http://www.tcm.turner.com/tcmdb/title/18968/New-York-New-York/articles.html" target="_blank">Attempting to add the patina of classic Hollywood's best films, <i>New York, New York</i></a>, was filmed at the fabled MGM Studios in Culver City, California, where Liza Minnelli's parents, the legendary acting and singing star, Judy Garland, and film director, Vincente Minnelli, worked for much of their careers. Liza even had her mother's old dressing room as well as a visit from her father during filming in June 1976, which undoubtedly thrilled a cinephile like Scorsese. <br />
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I always wanted to hear from Scorsese or Minnelli themselves about what it was like to make a film on that lot. By 1976, MGM Studios Lot #3, which included the <i>Meet Me in St. Louis</i><b> </b>set, the western set, and the massive lake from <i>Show Boat</i><b><i>,</i></b> had already been sold and destroyed for condos; however, Lot #2, already sold and planned for destruction as well, was still there with its decaying sets--the mansion from <i>The Philadelphia Story</i>; Copperfield Court; the girl's school set used in films like <i>Tea & Sympathy</i>; Verona Square used in <i>Romeo & Juliet</i>, the Grand Central Station set, and the New York City streets sets. Did any filming go on there? There is a train station scene and many shots of New York streets in the movie that were obviously studio creations. Were they backlot sets cleaned up and used, or were they sets recreated on MGM sound stages? Scorsese was high, but it was likely from the scent of real Hollywood history as much as from cocaine. Both he and Liza knew the studio they were working in--with so much film history--may not be there much longer. Did Marty ever wander those studio streets and think to himself, this looks like the set from <i>Madame Bovary</i>, or, maybe Fred Astaire danced right here? I've read books on MGM studios, Scorsese, <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_De_Niro" target="_blank">Robert De Niro</a>, and interviews with Liza Minnelli, but none ever mentions those sets nor what it felt like to be there. According to the book, <u>MGM: Hollywood's Greatest Backlot</u><b>, </b>Stage 5 and Stage 6 on Lot #1 still had the permanent "theater set" which had been used for the best-known musicals in the 1940s and 1950s. <i>New York, New York</i> was one of the last, if not <i>the</i> last movie, to shoot on that set.<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><img border="0" data-original-height="581" data-original-width="850" height="273" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-Ek6PmRTTcco/XmVULEs4hgI/AAAAAAAAF30/U3hg4u0b4Uk6MGrL8p0755nhuc75Ww1MQCLcBGAsYHQ/s400/NYNYL%2526VMinnelliScorsese.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;" width="400" /></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Liza Minnelli's father, film director, Vincente Minnelli--<br />
a hero of Scorsese's--visits the <i>New York, New York</i> set, June 1976</td></tr>
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By the time of the film's premiere in June 1977, Hollywood had been transformed. May 25, 1977, saw the release of <i>Star Wars</i>, George Lucas's era-smashing, box office mega-hit. The trend towards the blockbuster had been coming for some time: Warner's <i>The Exorcist</i> in 1973 was one of the first to use a saturation approach to booking theater screens. 1975 saw <i>Jaws </i>devour every single movie and become the new all-time box office champion when it was put into over 400 theaters at once, an unprecedented move at the time. What was new wasn't how much money these films raked in but how fast they did it. At the time some films could play in movie houses for months or even over a year. For instance, <i>Chinatown </i>opened June 1974 in what was known as "platform" booking, which is gradually rolling out a film before going into wider release around the country. This approach would likely have been the best strategy for <i>New York, New York</i>. But with the blockbuster scenario in play, movies like <i>New York, New York</i> were doomed. More than the space opera stylings and action pace of Lucas's epic, it was the marketing of films in the Seventies that changed movies forever. Thus <i>New York, New York</i> bombed at the country's theaters, bringing in roughly $16 million and losing a bundle.<br />
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Scorsese seemed to be in a state of limbo after the drubbing <i>New York, New York</i> received, although he did manage to film the documentary, <i>The Last Waltz </i>immediately after the <i>New York, New York</i> shoot wrapped. Still living on the
west coast, Scorsese was partying hard, stretching himself thin with
both professional and personal activity. Mounting stress landed
him in the hospital with exhaustion. According to Scorsese, he nearly
died.<br />
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After the back-to-back fiascos of Stanley Donen's <i>Lucky Lady</i> in 1975 and <i>A Matter of Time</i><b> </b>for her father in 1976, the damage <i>New York, New York</i> did to Liza Minnelli's movie career was devastating. Though she was still thriving on stage and in concerts, the movies would be off limits to Minnelli for the next four years when she returned in<i> Arthur</i>, playing third lead behind Dudley Moore and John Gielgud.<br />
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Only Robert De Niro suffered no ill effects after the release of <i>New York, New York</i>. His career rebounded nicely with <i>The Deer Hunter</i> in 1978, and in 1980, Scorsese and De Niro would team for the fourth time to make <i>Raging Bull</i>, which by any measure is a fine achievement, likely their best and certainly their most critically well regarded. <br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Jimmy (Robert De Niro) and Francine's (Liza Minnelli) <br />
emotional tug of war is the heart of the film</td></tr>
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Going through many edits, <i>New York, New York</i>'s original cut was four and a half hours before it was cut down to about three and a quarter hours, and finally clocking in at two hours, thirty-five minutes at the time of its release<i> </i>(though it was cut again to two hours, sixteen minutes after its poor financial showing). Critics could admire the movie without becoming emotionally involved. In his book <u>The Hollywood Musicals</u>, Ted Sennett calls the film "easily the gloomiest musical in some time." At awards time, <i>New York, New York</i> did both well and poorly, befitting its own uncertainty about whether it was musical, drama, comedy, none of these or all. Garnering four Golden Globe nominations for the film, for the title song, John Kander and Fred Ebb's <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ge7NiJuSpac" target="_blank">"(Theme from) New York, New York,"</a> and for Minnelli and De Niro, none won. Hoping to build on any momentum those nominations got, the studio was hoping for attention come Oscar time.<b> </b>However, the movie did not receive one nod from the Academy, which indicates what the Hollywood community thought of the film as a whole. With post-theatrical release videotape, discs, and streaming still far off, the film was locked away in a film vault. <br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-u2d89mLqNNg/Xm1JIHDHUMI/AAAAAAAAF4c/jvfWEBASxkApGpX9NFr3hpfARWcVXMWCQCLcBGAsYHQ/s1600/nynymartylizaedit.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="621" data-original-width="786" height="316" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-u2d89mLqNNg/Xm1JIHDHUMI/AAAAAAAAF4c/jvfWEBASxkApGpX9NFr3hpfARWcVXMWCQCLcBGAsYHQ/s400/nynymartylizaedit.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Scorsese and Minnelli in the editing room</td></tr>
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In the aftermath of the its failure, <i>New York, New York</i> was lumped with Peter Bogdanovich's 1975 Cole Porter musical <i>At Long Last Love</i>; William Friedkin's <i>Sorcerer </i>(also from 1977); and future duds like Steven Spielberg's <i>1941</i>, Francis Ford Coppola's<b> </b><i>One From the Heart, </i>Robert Altman's <i>Popeye</i>, all mega budgeted box office and critical losers. Some of these filmmakers' careers never really recovered from these films. Bogdanovich and Friedkin struggled for years and never quite got their mojo back for more than a cinematic moment, though Altman and Coppola did experience quite a bit of success after these losses, as did (ahem) Spielberg.<br />
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I think what disappointed moviegoers was the tone of <i>New York, New York</i>. The advertisements and the film's trailer tried to play up the nostalgia angle, but the movie only somewhat played to nostalgia. Along the way, it also injected realistic situations and characters into our idea of classic Hollywood and the world that fostered it. I think people wanted a good, old-fashioned movie, but they probably should've known the creator of <i>Taxi Driver </i>wasn't going to give us <i>Grease</i>. If <i>New York, New York </i>has a film relation, it would be George Cukor's 1954 re-make of <i>A Star Is Born</i>.<br />
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My view of <i>New York, New York</i> has always been positive. From when I first saw it in June 1977, I was a fan. I was initially drawn to the stars, who are both amazing, and the film's incredible music. I understand how many feel De Niro's Jimmy Doyle is a jerk, and he is. But the movie doesn't present him as a cartoon villain any more than Minnelli's Francine Evans as a relentless nag. Both are young, working towards their individual success. Francine is as ambitious as Jimmy, but she handles it differently. And it's the ambition that breaks them up (though Jimmy's affairs probably don't help), and the movie underscores the importance of their breakup: Both finally succeed as Jimmy opens a popular jazz club and Francine becomes an acting and singing star.<br />
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I have many favorite scenes: The opening, set at the famed Rainbow Room where Jimmy and Francine meet in the first bit of comedy that characterizes the film's early scenes; the captivating first song the two leads share, <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IEeXXRxaZJs" target="_blank">"You've Brought a New Kind of Love to Me"</a>; when De Niro breaks up the club his old band is performing at; Minnelli's musical numbers (her voice is never better); Diahnne Abbott's sultry rendition of Fats Waller's "Honeysuckle Rose"; the biggest emotional scene of the movie when Jimmy and Francine have a terrible argument that essentially leads to Francine going into labor with their son; Francine's triumphant return to New York featuring her performance of the title song; and, finally, the film's quiet, bittersweet finish.<br />
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<i>New York, New York</i> is a movie I've always had a lot of affection for. It's one of those movies where I just cannot understand
why my friends don't see what I see in it. Or why they haven't ever seen it. While I admit it has its faults (it's a bit too long;
De Niro's character, which Ted Sennett calls "harsh and unpleasant," becomes more so as the film progresses; the editing is choppy, especially in the last thirty or so minutes where time jumps forward abruptly), for me the
pluses far outweigh the minuses. Boris Levin's production design and <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/L%C3%A1szl%C3%B3_Kov%C3%A1cs_(cinematographer)" target="_blank">Laszlo Kovacs</a> camera work is a visual feast, as are <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Theadora_Van_Runkle" target="_blank">Theadora Van Runkle</a>'s brilliant costumes, and the glorious music, consisting of both standards--"The Man I Love," "Blue Moon," "Opus One," "Just You, Just Me"--and the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kander_and_Ebb" target="_blank">Kander and Ebb</a> originals.<br />
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Amazingly, <i>New York, New York</i> got second life when the movie was re-released in 1981 with the deleted scenes restored. The critical community sat up and reappraised the film, with some calling the restored version a masterpiece. As a full-fledged fan of the movie, I could not have agreed more.<br />
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<u>Sources</u><br />
<i>New York, New York </i>(Blu-Ray)<br />
<u>Easy Riders, Raging Bulls</u> by Peter Biskind<br />
<u>Martin Scorsese</u> by Les Keyser<br />
<u>Martin Scorsese, Close Up</u> by Andy Dougan<br />
<u>MGM: Hollywood's Greatest Backlot</u> by Steven Bingen, Stephen X. Sylvester, and Michael Troyan<br />
<u>The Hollywood Musical</u> by Clive Hirschhorn<br />
<u>The Big Goodbye: Chinatown and the Last Years of Hollywood</u> by Sam Wasson<br />
Wikipedia<br />
YouTube<br />
Scorsesefilms.com: Behind the Screen-Minnelli on New York, New York <br />
Images from the Web Nick Pattersonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09555378788567081907noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3984205935625085047.post-14981983090687760132020-02-05T23:13:00.002-08:002020-02-11T20:33:26.145-08:00Kirk Douglas, 1916-2020Hollywood legend Kirk Douglas has passed away at age 103. A favorite of mine; especially liked his pre-1962 output. Possibly more to come. Godspeed<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">With Cyd Charisse in <b>Two Weeks In Another Town</b>, 1962 </td></tr>
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<br />Nick Pattersonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09555378788567081907noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3984205935625085047.post-43859370186103914332020-02-01T12:40:00.001-08:002020-02-01T12:50:06.575-08:00Clark Gable's Post War Blues, 1945-1951<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">As that scalawag, Rhett Butler his best remembered role. His charisma in this film is still overwhelming. <b>Gone With The Wind</b>, 1939</td></tr>
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Last year marked the 80th anniversary of one of Hollywood's most entertaining and enduring epics [and in recent years one of it's more controversial], <b>Gone With The Wind</b>. It's a landmark achievement, the culmination of everything the studios moguls set out to do: entertain on a lavish scale, telling a compelling story with fascinating characters, portrayed by the most engaging personalities of their day. For many of the principal players involved in it's making, after <b>GWTW</b> their was no where else to go but down. This certainly is what happened to Gable as the 1940's wore on.<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Gable about 1950, relaxing at home. </td></tr>
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When it comes to classic era Hollywood movie stars Gable has got to be ranked up with the best. Born on February 1, 1901 [Happy Birthday!] in a small Ohio town, Gable's film career spanned thirty years spread over sixty-six movies. In only his seventh feature, 1931's <b>A Free Soul</b>, Gable played rough with the film's star Norma Shearer who couldn't get enough of his he-man treatment. Neither could the American Movie Goer during the Great Depression and the years just prior to United States entry into World War II [1941-1945]. Clark Gable's first twelve years are rightly considered his best with such bonafide classics as <b>Red Dust</b>, <b>It Happened One Night</b> [his Oscar winner], <b>China Seas</b>, <b>Mutiny On The Bounty</b>, <b>San Francisco</b>, <b>Test Pilot</b>, <b>Boom Town</b>, <b>Honky Tonk </b>and the most popular film of all-time, <b>Gone With The Wind</b>. In these years Gable won one Oscar for 1934's <b>It Happened One Night </b>and was nominated for two others, 1935's <b>Mutiny on the Bounty </b>and <b>GWTW</b>.<b> </b> He was in Quigley Publication's Top Ten Box Office Poll every year from 1932 to 1943. That streak was broken only due to his enlistment in World War II at the request of his recently deceased wife, actress Carole Lombard. Gable was the country's ideal image of the male incarnate: down-to-earth, honest, rugged, fair, humorous, and--need I say?--sexy. Gable was crowned the King of Hollywood due to all these successes not only at the box office, but with most critics. However, after 1942 when Carole Lombard died in a plane crash after flying cross county to promote the sale of war bonds, Gable was a changed man. The films he made in the immediate post war period reflected this change in the man and actor. Gable's post World War II period was generally popular with the public, yet critics--then and now--tend to denigrate Gable's efforts in this period of re-entry to his precarious life. The country that missed him the past three years had changed, grown darker. Clark was undergoing a very real, personal crisis himself. That of a desperate, bitter, guilt-ridden, sad and lonely, alcoholic widower; uncertain of his future, thinking acting was for sissies. <br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Post war blues: Contrary to legend the movie was popular, but Gable and his co-star didn't exactly set the world a-fire. </td></tr>
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For his first movie to be released since 1942's <b>Somewhere You'll Find Me</b>, Gable's home studio of MGM and it's honcho, LB Mayer, spared no expense to make <b>Adventure</b> nothing less than spectacular. Some of these assets paid off, other's did not. On the plus side is <b>"Gable's Back, and Garson's Got Him!". </b>That famous bit of publicity--which now-Major Gable abhorred--was enough to light the fan base fire, for his co-star would be none other than Miss Greer Garson, Oscar winner for 1942's <b>Mrs. Miniver</b>. However, both on and off screen Gable and Garson were like oil and water, they just didn't mix well. The vivacious Joan Blondell, here in a supporting role, entering her most alluring phase in the movies [<b>Cry 'Havoc'</b>, <b>A Tree Grows in Brooklyn</b>, <b>Nightmare Alley</b>], seems a better fit with Gable's gruff merchant marine than Mrs. Miniver's prim manner.<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Gable and Blondell were a natural fit, while Miss Garson stews. <b>Adventure</b>, 1945</td></tr>
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Another minus, no doubt intended as a big asset for Gable's return to the screen, would be Victor Fleming--who guided Clark through his image making rubber plantation owner impersonation in <b>Red Dust</b> and the second of three Gable/Spencer Tracy buddy-movies, <b>Test Pilot</b>. To Clark's way of thinking, the filming of <b>GWTW</b> was a disaster on scale with the real Titanic. Fleming took the reins of <b>GWTW</b> and saved it from sure disaster after Gable went to producer [and <b>GWTW</b>'s true auteur] David Selznick demanding the replacement of George Cukor [who'd been on the film since Selznick purchased the rights back in 1936] as film's director. Gable told Selznick that Fleming was the only man who could save this picture before it hit that cinematic iceberg. Why Gable wanted Cukor off the film has never been properly explained, though theories abound. What's important is that Fleming, a he-man type who it is believed Gable based his screen persona after, had seemed to acquire a kind of PTSD spiritual crisis, epiphany, awakening or whatever. Call it what you will, Fleming's films took a different route after 1941's <b>Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde</b> the film that Fleming collaborated on with Spencer Tracy as the good doctor and his brutal alter ego. Before <b>Adventure</b>, Fleming had made another movie with Tracy<b> A Guy Named Joe</b>. That 1943 wartime fantasy about the dead always being around and on the lookout for us mortals, to insure our happy ending [remade by Steven Spielberg in 1989 as <b>Always<i>, </i></b>with Richard Dreyfuss in the Tracy role, only they fight fires instead of <b>WWII</b>]] This same malaise affected the plot of <b>Adventure</b>. The tone of the film feels more religious than a Cecil B. DeMille spectacle with a kind of spiritual tone, or as Michael Sragow puts it in his biography of Fleming,"There's a shipwreck; plenty of chatter about God, the final judgement and the immortal soul". All this misty-eyed, soul searching did nothing for Gable's career and the film has gone down in history as a flop with only it's ad tag line, 'Gable's Back and Garson's Got him!', supposedly the tangiest bit from a bad brew--but the film was popular and landed in Variety's Top 25 Box Office Hits, with Gable returning to the ranks of Top Box Office draw's in 1947, 1948, 1949. <b>Adventure</b> made money so his bosses were happy, for the moment. So Clark went back to the dating and flirting and smoking and drinking. And drinking. And drinking. <br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Trying for the old charm. The year is 1947, the movie is a hit, with Gable back in the box office top ten. </td></tr>
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<b> The Hucksters</b> was Gable's next big picture. Based on a bestselling book by Fredric Wakeman, Sr; Directed by Gable favorite, Jack Conway, <b>The Hucksters</b> deals with Madison Avenue executive's--the <b>Mad Men</b> crowd and one can see it's origins here. <b>The Hucksters</b> is a nice cut above Gable's previous effort, having the distinction of it being Deborah Kerr's American film debut. Gable is still a rouge but that quality--previously front and center in his movies--is more implied than directly dealt with. Going all the way back to 1931's star making turn in the Norma Shearer sexy, pre-code <b>A Free Soul</b>, Gable as predator had been fairly well established with The King rubbing elbows with the likes of Myrna Loy, Jean Harlow, Jeanette MacDonald, Claudette Colbert, Lana Turner and Joan Crawford. Gable's lust interest for this new film would be British import, Deborah Kerr ["rhymes with STAR", so says MGM's publicity] who had distinguished her self in such hits as <b>The Life and Death of Col. Blimp</b>, <b>I See a Dark Stranger</b>, and most notably for her other 1947 release the intoxicating, <b>Black Narcissus</b>. In <b>Hucksters</b> Kerr appears as a widow with children, and Gable the bull in the china shop. Though this time around Gable appears ever the gent, nothing resembling the aggressive he-man who went after Harlow and Crawford with the appetite of a man who hasn't eaten in three days. The ads for the film have Gable's head shot looming over most of the poster, but it's a Gable from five or more years back, while more contemporary shots are smaller, in the background. Whatever it's drawbacks <b>The Hucksters</b> was huge box office, a bellwether hit. The film landed in Variety's Top Box Office Films at number 12. For Gable professionally the film landed on the plus side of the ledger. Whether <b>The Hucksters</b> measures up as good a film as one of Gable's best pre-war efforts is a debatable point, but it's one of the most enjoyable films he made in this period.<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Screen capture from <b>Homecoming</b> which reunited Gable with gal pal, Lana Turner. Ray Collins is on the far right looking morose. </td></tr>
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1948 brought other themes, other concerns, other problems. <b>Homecoming</b> was one of those concerns. Reuniting Gable with Lana Turner for a third time, the first being 1941's sassy <b>Honky Tonk</b>, a western with nothing on it's mind but sex in general and sex between the two leads specifically. The duo's second feature was the film Gable made just before turning his back on his silver screen fame--at least temporarily--<b>Somewhere I'll Find You. </b>This latest is different from the first two in that both partners are not the same people they were six years ago when they made their previous effort. Both had matured, endured hardships, forged ahead. Weaknesses played a part. For Turner it was men and drink; Gable's issues were women and drink. <b>Homecoming </b>is one of several Gable post-war efforts continually derided by critics. After 1946's Oscar winning Best Picture <b>The Best Years of Our Lives</b> film fans were ready for some more "adult" fare than the majors offered just two or three years prior. <b>Homecoming</b> offered fans a melancholy frame of mind. The first time I saw this film on TCM it was in the wee hours--I heartily recommend a screening just before dawn, on a cold, gray winter's morning because that fits this mood piece, with it's murky, muted imagery perfectly. <b>Homecoming</b> gives us a different Gable, a rather insincere, cold, self centered, status-quo conscious society doctor living a charmed life in New York City, with a charming wife [Anne Baxter], with country club living for good measure. Dr. Gable's good friend, played by John Hodiak [fun fact: he was married to Anne Baxter in real life], is a do-gooder out to right the wrongs, a liberal that the staunch Gable likes, but has little time for and treats rather condescendingly. Hodiak, also a doctor, is working with the poor and needy, something Gable doesn't understand. Before one can say "where is Lana?', she pops up once the war breaks and Gable goes overseas to Europe as a medic. On the ship out Turner--who plays a nurse--meets Gable and they clash like a wave of symbols. On the ship's deck Turner has been listening in on Gable's conversation with Ray Collins about the war. Turner disagrees with the smug Gable attitude and tells him so. As a kind of meet cute, this exchange is partially satisfying because of the injection of life that Lana Turner offers the film and her scenes with Gable are still effective. One can sense a form of camaraderie and warmth between the two. This being their third of four they would make <b>Homecoming </b>may be the best movie they shared. I suppose most folks would offer up their first, <b>Honky Tonk</b>. Although I have fond memories of the first time I watched it, having viewed <b>Honky Tonk</b> again some years back I have to say it's not terribly good cinema or even good storytelling. It rambles a bit. But there is no denying Gable and Turner's immediate chemistry. Magical! It's why the movies were invented and why people still like to see them. In <b>Homecoming </b>after this exchange between our leading players we find she is assigned to Dr. Gable and needless to say--but I will anyway--romance ensues. <b>Homecoming</b> was another box office winner for Gable and he looked to repeat that success with his next feature. <br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Casino owner Gable tries his best Bogart in 1949's <b>Any Number Can Play</b>.</td></tr>
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<b> Command Decision </b>was based on a big Broadway hit. Gable play Brigadier General K.C. Dennis a flight commander who is forced to send his men on nearly suicidal missions over Germany. One of Gable's post war efforts I've never seen, it was one of the most popular film's of the year. Some critics of the day pointed out that Gable wasn't a good fit for the part; it was out of his range as an actor. Post war Gable could be strangely uncomfortable in front of a camera. Beset with sadness, it's something practically everyone who knew or saw and worked with him day in, day out for years would comment on. Clark just wasn't the same Clark, his spark had gone. 1949 found Gable still trying to find the right combination of part, script, and situation to stimulate the old charm. Another of Gable's popular-at-the-time, not-well-thought-of-now efforts is <b>Any Number Can Play</b> in which he plays Charley King, a casino owner in a small middle-American hamlet. That Gable runs such an establishment means the local hoi polloi don't cotton to him or his family, though everybody seems to stop or have stopped by Charley's at one time or other. Director Mervyn LeRoy--from the movie's start--tries hard to establish Gable's Charley as some kind of man of mystery. The casino's employee's are a-buzz because the boss man isn't at the club yet and it's a Saturday--a big business night--and Charley hasn't missed a night ever since he took over the joint some fifteen years ago. Things are not all sunshine and roses for Charley on the home front, either. His only child, Darryl Hickman, is ashamed of ol' pop precisely because of the way he earns his living, though it provides a comfortable lifestyle for the family. Living with Charley is his neglected-suffering-from-loneliness wife, Alexis Smith; her sister, Audrey Totter [wasted in this throwaway part] and her husband, Wendell Corey, who happens to also work at the casino as a dealer. No one appears happy or even grateful, with Gable also suffering from health issues regarding his heart. Gable plays all this off in his usual rugged fashion. When his doctor, Leon Ames of <b>Meet Me in St. Louis</b> fame, chastises Gable, while taking a cigarette out of his mouth, urging him to slow down, that moderation is the key to a long, healthy life. To which Gable bitterly replies, "In other words, if I quit living I'll live". Produced by Arthur Freed in one of his non-musical moments, <b>Any Number Can Play</b> was another success with the public while critics of the day seemed to be bored with the new Gable. I've always had a fondness for the film, especially the first half when director LeRoy tries to create a mood and feel for Charley and his environment. The movie has a plethora of fine character actors--most of them wasted in their roles, like Frank Morgan and the always compelling Mary Astor, the later seen much too briefly as a kind of wanna-be flame of Charley's. A telling indication of the malaise affecting Gable's screen persona is when a young woman of questionable morals tries to flirt with one of his suckers [aka customers], proud, heroic Gable shows her the door. The old Gable would have given her a job to brighten up the drab surroundings, or at least looked her over once or twice before 86ing her out the door and out of the movie.<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Lobby card from 1950's <b>Key To The City</b></td></tr>
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All this good, clean living was up for grabs as the 1940's became the 1950's. Times in the film colony were beginning to change more rapidly than ever. Besides the obvious cracks showing in the studio system--wide screen, stereophonic sound and technicolor--some not technically new, but more common than before--made their presence felt. Change wasn't just on the technical side of the cameras : Gary Cooper, Tyrone Power, Robert Taylor, James Cagney and others felt the onslaught from the new kids on the block such as Montgomery Clift, Burt Lancaster, Kirk Douglas, William Holden, and the soon to emerge, Marlon Brando. Gable too, felt them all vying for the King's crown, therefore it was decided to lighten up the proceedings with a romantic comedy, his first since the pre-war days.<b><br /></b><br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Talk about awkward! Gable gives Loretta Young the once over while Frank Morgan does his Wizard bit in the background. I wonder what this movie was like to film. Such baggage!! </td></tr>
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For a lighthearted romp <b>Key To The City</b> had to be tough to make for the two leads, Gable and Loretta Young. Seems these two had a history that went back about fifteen years when they--the 34 year old Gable married to a woman seventeen years Clark's senior, Ria Gable [wife number two] and the 22 year old, single Ms. Young--met, worked, clashed and--conceived--while on location for 1935's <b>Call of the Wild</b>. Young subsequently gave birth to a daughter, Judy Lewis born in November 1935. Ms. Lewis would go on, many years later, to write a book about the discovery of who her real father was. Clark and Judy met for the first time while this movie was shot, though she had no idea Gable was her real father at that time. In the ensuing years it has been alleged that Gable and Young did not fall in love on that desolate location but that Gable raped Ms. Young. Whatever the true story it was certainly cause for a Xanax break. This being the case I was pleasantly surprised by the charm of <b>Key To The City</b>. Though it's not witty by any means, it possesses an energy, with splendid character turns by Lewis Stone, Raymond Walburn, James Gleason, Marilyn Maxwell and in his final film, Frank Morgan. <b>Key To The City</b> takes place in San Fransisco and the movie does a reasonable job of offering a smidge of location work to help with atmosphere.The script isn't another <b>My Man Godfrey </b>or<b> The Philadelphia Story</b> but it is a pleasant way to spend 90 minutes or so. Although Gable's reputation could have welcomed a return to the days when he was one of the reigning interpreter's of that fabled genre, the screwball comedy, <b>Key To The City</b>--pleasant as it is--warrants but a footnote in Gable's cinematic career, but taken from another perspective the making of this movie must have been traumatic to at least one--if not both--parties.<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Gable with co-star Barbara Stanwyck and others making it clear what they think of us. </td></tr>
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More lighthearted romance was concocted for <b>To Please A Lady</b>. A bad title for a movie about race car driving, the movie, directed by MGM veteran and Great Garbo favorite Clarence Brown gives us Gable with Barbara Stanwyck almost twenty years on from when they were first starting out in movies in 1931's pre-code favorite, <b>Night Nurse. To Please A Lady</b> didn't break any box office records, so MGM went back to the drawing board with one of their biggest assets in a mid-life crisis career slump. The studio kept trying for the old Gable charm of the pre-war days, but that ship had sailed as his last two films proved. In addition, Gable wasn't aging well. The smoking, drinking and late night parties with every woman on the planet didn't help. So MGM put him in uniform. That worked, but up to a point. Then came the Bogart bit in <b>Any Number Can Play</b>, but that was an awkward fit. Therefore, the studio decided to risk it all, run the table and star Gable in a Technicolor action film.<b> Across The Wide Missouri</b> may be Gable's best film from this period. Unfortunately it's also the most overlooked, which is too bad for the movie has much to recommend it.<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">MGM was still selling a Gable who looks a good ten years younger than his real self in this poster. </td></tr>
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Filmed on location in the Rockies by veteran helmer William Wellman [<b>Wings</b>; <b>The Public Enemy</b>; <b>A Star is Born</b>;<b> The Ox-Box Incident</b>; and more recently 1949's <b>Battleground</b> which would net Wellman an Oscar nomination as Best Director] in beautiful Technicolor. Wellman was also the director when Gable and previous co-star Loretta Young made 1935's <b>Call of the Wild</b>. Again, Gable's past was catching up with him. The location was fairly rugged, which both Clark and his director enjoyed. One person for whom the location was not a pleasure was Clark's new wife. After dating dozen's--maybe hundreds--of friends, starlets, socialites, waitresses and more, Clark decided to settle down. His bride was Lady Sylvia Ashley the widow of Douglas Fairbanks, Sr and former wife of Anthony Ashley-Copper aka Lord Ashley. Sylvia was a vibrant blonde who, some said, resembled Carole Lombard. If so, it must have been purely superficial as most reports paint her as not Clark's type of woman at all. Not the good sport who would go fishing at the drop of a hat, yet could dazzle the crowds at Ciro's or a dinner party. Sylvia on location in Colorado was not a good idea. It seemed to accentuate the differences between the couple and a year later the would divorce after just three years of wedded bliss. As for the movie, <b>Across The Wide Missouri</b> is a leisurely paced character study disguised as an action movie. Gorgeous cinematography, a stellar supporting cast [complete with Ricardo Montalban as an Native American], the movie deserves to be re-discovered. <br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">With Marilyn during a break on <b>The Misfits</b>, 1960. </td></tr>
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Clark Gable would go on to make 13 more movies four of which would be his last ever for <b>MGM</b>. In 1954 Gable and the studio parted ways. For the first time since 1931 Gable had no certain employment. Naturally he wasn't idle for long, 1955 would see Clark free lancing bouncing from studio to studio, location to location, pay check to paycheck. before dying from a heart attack in November 1960 at age 59 having just wrapping up <b>The Misfits</b> some ten days prior. <b>The Misfits </b>would also be the final film of his co-star, Marilyn Monroe. He married again, this time happily to Kay Spreckels, who he had known since the early days after WWII. Then came the news that the Gables were expecting a baby. Big news in Tinseltown. Gable would finally--as far as John Q. Public were concerned--become a father. But Clark wouldn't live to see his son, John Clark Gable. The years of drinking, smoking, stress--and never think being a star is not without it's high levels of anxiety--and years of just not giving a damn had done it's damage. Wrapping <b>The Misfits</b> on November 4 1960 the next day Clark Gable had a heart attack. He hung on until November 16 when another attack took the King of Hollywood. Through the years Gable has been sketched in many colors. Was he a gigolo for gay film directors in the 1920's when young Clark was struggling to get a leg up in the rat race of movies? Or was he the opportunist who latched onto his first two wives, both years older than Clark, for all they could provide him at he moment? Wife number one, Josephine Dillon, groomed him, but lost him as his theatrical career really started taking off. Wife number two, socialite Ria Langham with two children from a previous marriage, provided Clark with money for the first time, but true love eluded him. By the time he met Carole Lombard who was not only beautiful but funny as hell and cussed like a truck driver, Clark was more than ready to fall. Or was he the hit and run driver, the rapist, the rogue male who could never fit into the me too generation? My favorite portrait of Gable is by Edward Winter in the television movie <b>The Scarlett O'Hara War</b>. Made in 1980, based on a book called <b>Moviloa </b>by Garson Kanin it was a very entertaining take on the search for Scarlett and the chaos and humor it created. Gable is mostly on the periphery of the main story but as written by William Hanley and played by Mr. Winter, Gable was a not too bright but decent enough fellow who didn't recognize Margaret Mitchell's name when given a signed copy of <b>Gone With The Wind</b>. <br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">With new bride, Carole Lombard. This picture seems the definition of a happy couple</td></tr>
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Those last 13 movies are a define mixed bag. Most are pretty poor, but a couple shine through but not enough to make Clark's 1950's output any better than the post war 1940's were for The King. Only 59 when he passed away where Gable would have gone career wise is hard to fathom. He was penciled in for Minnelli's <b>Home From The Hill,</b> with Robert Mitchum stepping in after Gable's passing. After that nothing concrete was lined up and when one looks at the most popular stars [Paul Newman, Steve McQueen, Dustin Hoffman and others] and prestigious and popular films [<b>Blow Up</b>, <b>Dr. Strangelove</b>, <b>the James Bond phenom</b>,<b> Bonnie and Clyde</b>, <b>The Graduate</b>, <b>Butch Cassidy and The Sundance Kid, </b>etc] from that decade it would be hard pressed to find a role Gable could fill and not seem like he was an alien from another world. <br />
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<br />
Sources :<br />
Books-- Long Live The King by Lyn Tornabene<br />
Reel Facts : The Movie Book of Records by Cobbett Steinberg<br />
Victor Fleming, An American Movie Master by Michael Sragow<br />
Clark Gable, The Pyramid Illustrated History of The Movies by Rene Jordan<br />
The MGM Story by John Douglas Eames<br />
Internet--Wikipedia page on Gable and his films<br />
Movies-- Courtesy of Turner Classic Movies <br />
Images-- Courtesy of the internet Nick Pattersonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09555378788567081907noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3984205935625085047.post-55394567315219927412019-09-29T14:03:00.000-07:002019-09-29T14:03:45.186-07:00The Confessional: The Chase {1966}<i><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=plmBOSpRGiw" target="_blank">The Chase</a> </i>is one of those films nearly everyone loves to hate. Ridiculed upon its release in spring 1966, the film has been portrayed as a wild look inside a small Texas town on what seems like a typical Saturday night--a fancy dress-up party for the chief industrialist; the drunken near-orgies of the middle age, middle class crowd; secret and not-so-secret affairs of the body and the heart; beatings, misogyny, and racism. Just an average night. The thing that throws the town even further into chaos is the return of one Bubber Reeves (Robert Redford), newly escaped from prison and making his way back to his home town. <br />
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On paper the film seemed a sure-fire hit. The story originated as a book and play by Horton Foote. Oscar-winning producer Sam Spiegel (<i>The African Queen</i>;<i> On the Waterfront</i>;<i> Suddenly, Last Summer</i>;<i> Lawrence of Arabia</i>) bought the rights and hired playwright Lillian Hellman to adapt it. Marlon Brando was attached to the project practically from its inception. Brando was in the middle of his generally woeful 1960s period and had signed on for the cut rate of $750,000 (down from the $1 million he received for <i>The Fugitive Kind</i>, Sidney Lumet's 1960 adaptation of Tennessee Williams' <i>Orpheus Descending</i>). <a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0060232/" target="_blank"><i>The Chase</i> cast</a> was diverse, filled with a solid line-up of character actors--E.G. Marshall, Robert Duvall, Janice Rule, Henry Hull, Bruce Cabot, Miriam Hopkins--and young up-and-comers, including Jane Fonda, James Fox, and Robert Redford.<br />
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To direct, Spiegel considered some of the biggest names in the business: William Wyler; David Lean, an odd choice, given the material; Elia Kazan, likely due to the casting of Brando; and Fred Zinnemann. Joseph L. Mankiewicz was lined up but wanted Bubber and his wife, Anna, to be black, and Spiegel wouldn't comply. Ultimately, Arthur Penn was given the director's chair. Penn was a good choice. He had had tremendous success with actors (Anne Bancroft and Patty Duke won Oscars for Penn's <i>The Miracle Worker</i>, released in 1962), yet he was still considered a newcomer to the Hollywood establishment. Penn had just completed a rather avant-garde film, <i>Mickey One</i>, with Warren Beatty which failed miserably at the box office and befuddled much of the critical community. Further, in Hollywood, New Yorker Penn was committing the ultimate betrayal--he wouldn't move to the west coast permanently and didn't play by the town's rules. Nevertheless, he hoped <i>The Chase</i><b> </b>would cement his position as an A-list director.<br />
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Screenwriter Lillian Hellman had worked on Broadway with Penn on the hit <i>Toys in the Attic</i>. "We were pretty good friends," says Penn. At this point, though, according to the director, "Lillian was pretty annoying and not really functioning very well." Fortunately, during pre-production, Penn enjoyed Spiegel's company, finding the producer elegant and cultured, and his suggestions on the screenplay helpful: "Sam was pretty good on construction."<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Robert Duvall's Edwin Stewart meekly watches wife Emily (Janice Rule)<br />
enjoy a motorcycle while playing to the camera in <i>The Chase</i></td></tr>
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But the screenplay seemed to be the main source of the production's problems. It's also what most critics pointed to as the most weakest aspect of the film. Ivan Moffat (<i>A Place in the Sun, Giant, Bhowani Junction</i>) and even Horton Foote were brought in to improve the story and dialogue, but the movie seemed to be stuck in <i>Peyton Place</i> mode.<b> </b>According to Penn, once filming began, Spiegel was nowhere to be found, though his minions were delivering scene rewrites to the set on a near-daily basis. "Once the film started shooting, there was no exchange between us," Penn stated. Then things went from bad to worse when Spiegel took control in the editing room. Panned by critics except for some in Europe, <i>The Chase</i> had cost $5.6 million. It did not make its money back in initial release.<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Director Arthur Penn points out a thing or two to his star, Marlon Brando<br />
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I can't quite recall when I first saw <i>The Chase</i>, but I know I was in high school, that terrifically impressionable time. I was taken with it immediately in spite of its soapy elements. If it wasn't for my interest in Marlon Brando at that time, it probably would have taken longer for <i>The Chase</i><b> </b>to appear on my radar. But as a teenager, I was determined to see all of Brando's films when they showed on television<b>. </b><i>The Chase</i> was one of the earlier ones, along with <i>The Men</i>, <i>Mutiny on the Bounty</i>, <i>The Wild One</i>, and <i>Guys and Dolls</i>. In <i>The Chase</i>, his Sheriff Calder is low-key, making the nightly rounds of the small Texas town (actually the Warner's backlot in Burbank, California), trying to keep a lid on its citizens' overheated emotions and find escaped convict Bubber before an angry mob does. As mentioned, Robert Redford is Bubber Reeves, the escapee everyone in town is frightened of, fascinated by, or both. Jane Fonda plays Anna, Bubber's wife, who is having an affair with Bubber's best friend, Jake Rogers (James Fox), son of town tycoon, Val Rogers (E.G. Marshall).<br />
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Other folks in town include sexy Janice Rule as Emily Stewart, wife of a schlubby Edwin Stewart, played by Robert Duvall; Richard Bradford as town bully Damon Fuller, who is having one of those affairs of the body with Emily Stewart; Henry Hull as a racist landlord; Miriam Hopkins as Bubber's mother; and so on. From just this bit of character detail, you get a fair sense of the soapy, <i>Peyton Place-</i>style elements. As the critics opined, the plot is the main flaw in the film. It's overheated <i>and</i> overly simplistic. The characters are not well written, though there is some good dialogue, mostly spoken by Brando's Calder. A spot-on Clifton James, marvelously doing his good ol' boy routine says to Calder, "The taxes in this town pay your salary to protect the place," to which Brando shoots back, "Well, if anything happens to you, Lem, we'll give you a refund." Lusty Emily's outlook: "Shoot a man for sleeping with someone's wife? That's silly. Half the town'd be wiped out." <b> </b><br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Jane Fonda, torn between two lovers in <i>The Chase</i>: James Fox on the left<br />
and an impossibly young Robert Redford on the right<br />
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<i>The Chase</i> has situations that still resonate, including the blatant racism of the town's whites towards all its people of color; the limitations of small-town life; and the unhappy marriages (only Calder and his wife, played by Angie Dickinson, appear to be happily married). The infidelity, anger, drunkenness, and violence still strike a nerve more than fifty years on. One of the film's most brutal--startlingly brutal even today--scenes is when Sheriff Calder is beaten by some of the townspeople, waiting for Bubber's return. That <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B5ao3N4OFuE" target="_blank">violence peaks (spoilers ahead)</a> with the murder of Bubber, and it looks deliberately staged to evoke the shooting of Lee Harvey Oswald. While I don't know what audiences of the day thought, today the exploitative style of the scene leaves a bad taste in your mouth. Yet the film is strangely prescient--Trump's MAGA, fifty years before it happened.<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Richard Bradford and Janice Rule continue their acquaintance in <i>The Chase</i><br />
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The Internet Movie Database gives <i>The Chase</i><b> </b>a middling rating, but that's based on only six critics. If you give into it, though, <i><a href="http://www.tcm.turner.com/tcmdb/title/19800/The-Chase/articles.html" target="_blank">The Chase</a></i> provides many pleasures, in spite of its obvious faults. Funny that a movie that was a joke in 1966 feels so relevant today.<br />
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<u>Sources</u><br />
<br />
Books-<br />
Sam Spiegel by Natasha Fraser-Cavassoni<br />
Films of Marlon Brando by Tony Thomas<br />
Internet-<br />
IMDB<br />
Rotten Tomatoes<br />
Wikipedia<br />
Disc- <br />
Blu Ray courtesy of Twilight Time <br />
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Nick Pattersonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09555378788567081907noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3984205935625085047.post-30521947681040499202019-09-08T19:56:00.002-07:002019-09-08T19:56:45.517-07:00The Mystery of "One-Take Woody" Van DykeOne of the things I enjoy most about classic cinema is its total artificiality. The majority--like, 90% or more--of the Hollywood films from the 1920s to 1950s were photographed within the boundaries of Hollywood and its neighboring suburbs. Just going to Lone Pine, California, to film 1939's<b> </b><i>Gunga Din</i> (set in India) was a huge deal in its day. Watching these films gives me a real sense of the craftsmanship and creativity used to overcome obstacles that today would seem ridiculously mundane--a non-issue. With a filmography that stretches from the dawn of Hollywood's silent days as assistant director to luminaries like D.W. Griffith to just after the outbreak of World War II with his last film, <i>Journey for Margaret</i>, Woodbridge Strong (a.k.a., W.S.; a.k.a, Woody) Van Dyke II holds a unique place as one of the most overlooked, underappreciated directors you likely have never heard of in the pantheon of classic Hollywood filmmakers. Van Dyke also holds the distinction of going off on long location film shoots thirty or forty years before it became a common cinematic practice. <br />
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-AwLYLNzGYjw/XSuQi7xPG_I/AAAAAAAAFoQ/x-zBe91aIdwW4rBCYo-WTKJBFUW3FL6ZACLcBGAs/s1600/ws_van_dyke.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="350" data-original-width="280" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-AwLYLNzGYjw/XSuQi7xPG_I/AAAAAAAAFoQ/x-zBe91aIdwW4rBCYo-WTKJBFUW3FL6ZACLcBGAs/s1600/ws_van_dyke.jpg" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Woodbridge Strong Van Dyke II a.k.a., <br />
"One-Take Woody" Van Dyke</td></tr>
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Van Dyke's movies ranged from semi-documentaries like <i>Eskimo </i>(1933), which had a film cast and crew shooting in the Arctic to the exotic, erotic <i>White Shadows in the South Seas</i><b> </b>(1928), filmed on location in Tahiti; the African safari adventure epic, <i>Trader Horn</i>, filmed at least partly in Africa; pre-code classics, <i>Tarzan, the Ape Man</i><b> </b>(1932) and <i>Night Court</i>; the early disaster epic<b>, </b><i>San Francisco</i> (1936); Norma Shearer's comeback vehicle, the lavish <i>Marie Antoinette</i><b> </b>(1938); and five Jeanette MacDonald and Nelson Eddy popular operettas, including <i>Naughty Marietta</i> and <i>Rose Marie</i><b> </b>(1935 and 1936, respectively). If Van Dyke is remembered at all today, it's mostly for his screwball comedies, particularly the films he made with William Powell and Myrna Loy<i>--The Thin Man</i><b> </b>(1934), its first three sequels, and <i>I Love You Again</i><b> </b>(1940). Other screwball offerings by Van Dyke are <i>Forsaking All Others</i><b> </b>(1934) and the woefully underrated <i>It's a Wonderful World</i> (1939) with Claudette Colbert and Jimmy Stewart. Woody even directed an episode in the Andy Hardy series. All of this is to say, that the guy could direct <i>anything </i>and was truly one of <a href="https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0886754/?ref_=fn_al_nm_1#director" target="_blank">Golden Era's most productive directors, helming over sixty movies in less than twenty-five years</a>.<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><img border="0" data-original-height="563" data-original-width="1000" height="225" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-q4tPwv3qM5Q/XTNyPmhIb9I/AAAAAAAAFog/npZKnGUgBkgJBwN2uLAINzJHjuxhDo_fgCLcBGAs/s400/thin-man1.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;" width="400" /></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Comedy team supreme William Powell and Myrna Loy as <br />
Nick and Nora Charles in 1934's <i>The Thin Man</i></td></tr>
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Of course the best known of Van Dyke's films has to be <a href="http://www.tcm.com/tcmdb/title/2737/The-Thin-Man/articles.html" target="_blank"><i>The Thin Man</i></a> and its sequels. Based on the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Thin_Man" target="_blank">book by ace mystery scribe Dashiell Hammett</a>, the film is probably my favorite Van Dyke, and one I can watch anytime. It's even admired by friends of mine who don't particularly like classic movies. It contains nearly everything a good screwball comedy should: a classic leading man--William Powell playing the suave and hilarious Nick Charles--quick with the one liners and even quicker with a martini shaker--and a beautiful leading lady in Myrna Loy as Nick's wise-cracking wife, Nora, who tries to keep up with Nick drink for drink and can give out with the one liners as good as he can. <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2Tj5QAv7xkc" target="_blank">The cast, the writing, the mise-en-scène create the perfect cocktail of sophisticated comedy.</a> <i>The Thin Man</i> is also a mystery with a murder plot and numerous suspects. But what really matters is the interplay between the two leads (<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h1h2XxnoC68" target="_blank">Powell and Loy make marriage look fun</a>), both experts in light comedy. Filmed in a speedy eighteen days, it was one of the first in a long line of what became known as "screwball" comedies. Along with such classics as Howard Hawks' <i>Twentieth Century</i>, Frank Capra's Best Picture Oscar winner,<b> </b><i>It Happened One Night, The Thin Man</i> helped define the genre that flourished during the Great Depression.<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-e9CD2Rc9zME/XTN5frhad_I/AAAAAAAAFo0/wszo8nxvRLcU6sjMrycXRTg6yvwaorFVgCLcBGAs/s1600/thinmanmain-768x512.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="512" data-original-width="768" height="266" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-e9CD2Rc9zME/XTN5frhad_I/AAAAAAAAFo0/wszo8nxvRLcU6sjMrycXRTg6yvwaorFVgCLcBGAs/s400/thinmanmain-768x512.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Cheers! Nick and Nora indulge one of their favorite vices in <i>The Thin Man</i></td></tr>
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Van Dyke himself was married in 1909 to Zina Ashford, about whom little is known (Wikipedia says she was an actress). Robert C. Cannom's book, <i>Van Dyke and the Mythical City Hollywood</i><b>, </b>the only bio written on Van Dyke, states that they met when Van Dyke was working in a lumber camp in Ashford, Washington, a town named after Zina's father, but makes no mention of her acting career. They separated around 1919 but didn't divorce until 1935. Cannom's book doesn't say when the divorce took place, but in 1935 Woody married Ruth Mannix, the niece of MGM studio's general manager and fixer, Eddie Mannix. Ruth and Woody eventually had three children before his death in 1943. Very little beyond generalities is known of Van Dyke's private life. Reportedly he was a devout follower of Christian Science, best known in Hollywood as the faith of Jean Harlow and her mother, and was <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jean_Harlow#Death" target="_blank">the rumored reason for Harlow's death in 1937</a>.<br />
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So little has been written about Van Dyke that even his working methods are a bit of a mystery. Signed by MGM in 1926, Woody was well known for getting the best from his cast while shooting fast<i><b> </b></i>and loose. The eighteen days it took to complete <i>The Thin Man</i> wasn't an exception; rather, more than likely, it was the rule on a Van Dyke set. Believing "everything must be done casually," 1939's <i>It's a Wonderful World</i> must have set a world speed record with its twelve-day shoot. Don't think that Van Dyke's speed-of-sound filming technique sacrificed quality, either. <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-X95vzmtQsM" target="_blank"><i>It's a Wonderful World</i></a><b> </b>is one of the forgotten gems of screwball comedy. In addition to speed, Van Dyke had a way with performers. William Powell, Myrna Loy, Robert Montgomery, Joan Crawford, and others give some of their least affected performances in Van Dyke's films. Even Jeanette MacDonald and Nelson Eddy were charming when working with "One-Take Woody," the nickname he'd acquired due to his ability to bring in a movie on schedule and under budget. This talent also endeared him to his boss Louis B. Mayer, the head of Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer studios.<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Van Dyke with star Norma Shearer as Marie Antoinette</td></tr>
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1938's <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UsQAmrFRXUQ" target="_blank"><i>Marie Antoinette</i></a>, which starred Norma Shearer in her first movie after husband and MGM
production chief Irving Thalberg's untimely death in 1936 at the age of
37, is a film unlike any other in Van Dyke's filmography. According to Gavin Lambert, original director Sidney Franklin wanted to film in color with a ninety-day schedule. Feeling this extravagant, producer Hunt Stromberg went to MGM studio boss Louis B. Mayer and requested a change of director. Mayer was worried that a methodical director like Franklin could drive up an already costly production, and suggested Van Dyke, well known not only for his speed but also his versatility. He was a last-minute replacement. Three days before shooting began Mayer informed Shearer that Van Dyke was the film's new director. The set was, at times, quite a tense atmosphere as differences arose between director and star. At one point, Norma demanded a second take; Van Dyke refused. Norma left the set. Uninterested in a stand-off, Van Dyke did too. He went home, poured a drink, and took his phone off the hook.<br />
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<a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-iA7rFfLsWhc/XW8ppo7mVMI/AAAAAAAAFqQ/WbCw5T8SMVwxmY3-yzrHERF1fq2uho6cwCLcBGAs/s1600/marieantoinettegif.gif" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="302" data-original-width="400" height="241" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-iA7rFfLsWhc/XW8ppo7mVMI/AAAAAAAAFqQ/WbCw5T8SMVwxmY3-yzrHERF1fq2uho6cwCLcBGAs/s320/marieantoinettegif.gif" width="320" /></a></div>
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The next day, according to Lambert, "Norma listened without complaint to Van Dyke's instructions for the next shot. She nodded, walked proudly toward her mark--then caught her foot in the hoops of her crinoline, overbalanced, and fell flat on the floor of Versailles. A taut, embarrassed silence followed. It was broken by the Queen [Shearer], who kicked her legs in the air and laughed. Everyone joined in, and Van Dyke decided Norma was 'the sweetest damn woman in Hollywood.'" From that point forward, Norma thought Van Dyke was all right too, and they worked well together. Similarly, Van Dyke had his share of run-ins with Jeanette MacDonald on the films they made together. One way or other, though, they always made up and carried on. "We just seemed to think alike," she said.<br />
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><img border="0" data-original-height="411" data-original-width="564" height="290" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-HZwjgFTLlXM/XXP_9ug83tI/AAAAAAAAFqc/NnGrWL6ivJsYv5qsxaF866frnYqolJ_mgCLcBGAs/s400/Woody-and-Ruth-Van-Dyke-Jeanette-MacDonald-and-Nelson-Eddy-on-the-set-of-Rose-Marie.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;" width="400" /></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Van Dyke, his wife Ruth, Jeanette MacDonald,<br />
and Nelson Eddy during the making of <i>Rose Marie</i></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
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An odd thing about the success Van Dyke had with the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jeanette_MacDonald" target="_blank">Jeanette MacDonald</a> and <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nelson_Eddy" target="_blank">Nelson Eddy</a> films is that he wasn't at all musical. But I guess that goes to show one doesn't have to be to make a good musical. While my taste in musicals leans more to the Judy Garland-Gene Kelly or Fred Astaire-Ginger Rogers pairings in which dancing is just important as singing, the movies Woody made with MacDonald and Eddy are pretty entertaining. I find Ms. MacDonald quite fetching. Van Dyke also worked with MacDonald on what may be his best achievement--the 1936 blockbuster, <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eNfwV_YF1Aw" target="_blank"><i>San Francisco</i></a>. Along with Clark Gable and Spencer Tracy in the first of that pair's three films together (see also <i>Test Pilot</i> and <i>Boom Town</i>), <a href="http://www.tcm.com/tcmdb/title/3173/San-Francisco/articles.html" target="_blank"><i>San Francisco</i></a> is the grandad of disaster epics, with the earthquake of 1906 serving as the centerpiece of the movie. The movie is still impressive today and was MGM's biggest moneymaker ($2.2 million dollars in profit, or $26 million in 2019 dollars) until <i>Gone With the Wind</i> surpassed it.<br />
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-aelrkOjui4M/XXQCgYzYGAI/AAAAAAAAFqs/cd1Xl0SEdEYXeB5brRcGVshyJ7O87P3MACEwYBhgL/s1600/Van-Dyke-with-Myrna-Loy-William-Powell-on-the-set-of-AFTER-THE-THIN-MAN-36.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="300" data-original-width="600" height="200" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-aelrkOjui4M/XXQCgYzYGAI/AAAAAAAAFqs/cd1Xl0SEdEYXeB5brRcGVshyJ7O87P3MACEwYBhgL/s400/Van-Dyke-with-Myrna-Loy-William-Powell-on-the-set-of-AFTER-THE-THIN-MAN-36.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Myrna Loy, Van Dyke, unidentified woman, <br />
and William Powell on the set of 1936's <i>After The Thin Man</i></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
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Van Dyke's career continued into the 1940s. With the United States finally entering World War II in late 1941, Woody found himself in uniform, convincing MGM stars Clark Gable, James Stewart, and Robert Taylor to become active in the war effort as well. Van Dyke himself was too old to become actively involved in the war, but that's not what prevented him from seeing action as contemporaries John Ford, Frank Capra, and others did. In 1942 while undergoing his physical examination for active duty, Van Dyke discovered he not only had a weak heart--no doubt due to excessive smoking and drinking--but he also had cancer. Being a Christian Scientist, Van Dyke rejected most forms of medical treatment and care during this time. Despite this setback, Van Dyke remained as busy as ever at MGM, making four features in 1942. The last<i>, <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0Svy-JcXjlk" target="_blank">Journey for Margaret</a></i>, unleashed the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Margaret_O%27Brien#Life_and_career" target="_blank">incredible child star Margaret O'Brien</a> on moviegoers and was one of Metro's biggest hits of the year.<br />
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On February 4, 1943, Van Dyke summoned to his house MGM boss Louis B. Mayer along with Howard Strickling, the studio's head of publicity. Mayer told Van Dyke that the studio had any number of films lined up for him when he felt well enough to return. Later, Van Dyke contacted some old friends from the silent days to come over for a round or two of drinks, one last hurrah. According to Robert Cannom's book, Van Dyke called his wife, Ruth, who was at their ranch home, and asked how the children were (they had three by this time, two boys and a girl), then called his mother to assure her he was doing fine. Then he died. This is the mystery. Neither Cannom's book explains how Van Dyke died; nor does Alicia Mayer, Louis B. Mayer's great grandniece, in her blog about Hollywood and it's history; nor do many other books about the stars Van Dyke worked with. Charles Higham, never one to shy from scandal, in his book on Louis B Mayer, <i>Merchant of Dreams</i>, says only that Van Dyke died due to his bad heart and liver. Edward Baron Turk's book about Jeanette MacDonald, <i>Hollywood Diva</i>, states Van Dyke died in his sleep. Only Sharon Rich in her book about MacDonald and Eddy, <i>Sweethearts</i>, says that Van Dyke killed himself with sleeping pills. Why the mystery? Reportedly the suicide angle wasn't mentioned to save the family further grief or scandal. If so, it has to be the one under reported death in Hollywood history. I imagine that folks figured his illness killed him.<br />
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W.S. Van Dyke II was one-of-a-kind, and movies and the Hollywood community sorely missed him after he was gone. He made some of the most entertaining movies I've seen, and I re-visit them all the time. Some of my favorites include <i>The Thin Man, After The Thin Man, San Francisco, White Shadows in the South Seas, Forsaking All Others, Marie Antoinette</i><b> </b>and <i>It's a Wonderful World.</i><br />
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<a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/--er2L0_Ie7s/XXQf2MGsJBI/AAAAAAAAFq4/w4uBvm2Z13kOqqCqK-25_ih-TYl4b0mLQCLcBGAs/s1600/Vandyketheend.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="782" data-original-width="1024" height="305" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/--er2L0_Ie7s/XXQf2MGsJBI/AAAAAAAAFq4/w4uBvm2Z13kOqqCqK-25_ih-TYl4b0mLQCLcBGAs/s400/Vandyketheend.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
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<br />
Sources:<br />
Books:<br />
Claudette Colbert, the Pyramid Illustrated History of the Movies by William K. Everson <br />
Hollywood Diva by Edward Baron Turk<br />
Sweethearts by Sharon Rich<br />
Norma Shearer by Gavin Lambert<br />
Van Dyke and the Mythical City of Hollywood by Robert C. Cannom<br />
Merchant of Dreams by Charles Higham<br />
Mayer and Thalberg by Samuel Marx<br />
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Films: Turner Classic Movies<br />
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Internet: Wikipedia<br />
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Photos: Google Images<br />
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Nick Pattersonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09555378788567081907noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3984205935625085047.post-72140001728139918722018-05-07T18:46:00.001-07:002018-05-07T18:46:49.627-07:00Sentimental Journey: Orson Welles' "The Magnificent Ambersons"<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-zqDKk0eSa1k/WpNsKNmfIpI/AAAAAAAAFck/SnR1muLuZRUpLEKuH8gFBVUyRXs28LaJACLcBGAs/s1600/Ambersons-House.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="720" data-original-width="988" height="233" src="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-zqDKk0eSa1k/WpNsKNmfIpI/AAAAAAAAFck/SnR1muLuZRUpLEKuH8gFBVUyRXs28LaJACLcBGAs/s320/Ambersons-House.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Wonderful opening narration married to sublime images. </td></tr>
</tbody></table>
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Among cinephiles, that crazy, obsessed handful of barely human species for whom movies--no, <i>cinema</i>--is all,<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Orson_Welles_filmography" target="_blank"> the career of Orson Welles</a> is a puzzle and a paradox, an oeuvre maddeningly incomplete. Welles' first film, the exquisite and audacious--yet far from perfect--masterpiece, <i><a href="http://www.tcm.com/tcmdb/title/89/Citizen-Kane/articles.html#00" target="_blank">Citizen Kane</a>, </i>has been acknowledged as one of the greatest films of the Twentieth Century. Great and influential as that movie is, however, the remainder of the director's work suffered from interference from studio bosses, Welles' own bad judgement and bad luck. Until 1942, Welles had the best luck of almost any creature to walk the earth--or at least the studio lots of Hollywood. After that and through to his death in 1985, Welles suffered some of the worst luck of those same creatures.<br />
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The bad luck began with Welles' second feature at RKO Studios, <a href="http://www.tcm.com/tcmdb/title/683/The-Magnificent-Ambersons/articles.html#06" target="_blank"><i>The Magnificent Ambersons</i></a>, a film that may be his most personal. Evidently, <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Magnificent_Ambersons" target="_blank"><i>Ambersons' </i>author Booth Tarkington</a> knew, or at least had met Orson's inventor father, Richard Welles, and Orson, for the rest of his life, insisted the character of Eugene Morgan (played by Joseph Cotton in the film), whose invention and design of the automobile brings about the death of the Nineteenth Century in a small Indiana town, was based on his own father. Whether true or not, the important thing is that Welles believed it.<br />
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Welles' own life paralleled the story's main character, George Amberson Minafer (Tim Holt). Welles' first name was George, and he was called Georgie by his mother just as Isabel Minafer (Dolores Costello), George's mother, refers to him in the film. Like George, Welles was spoiled as a child and dreaded by his fellow classmates in school, much as <i>Ambersons</i> protagonist is despised by the townsfolk who cannot wait for the rich, spoiled brat to get his comeuppance. It is these comparisons that may have prevented Welles from taking on the role of George, a part he clearly understood but which may have been too close to him personally. <i>Ambersons </i>was the only production of Mercury Productions in which Welles would not play a substantial part. <br />
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<span id="goog_1445762979"></span><a href="https://draft.blogger.com/"></a><span id="goog_1445762980"></span><img border="0" data-original-height="734" data-original-width="939" height="250" src="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-PEojKGPbm8A/WpNxrd7-4GI/AAAAAAAAFc0/ZuiyjiBHVXAJyiTfvUKReGgGXbeqoLVdwCLcBGAs/s320/magnificentambersons.jpg" width="320" /></div>
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A little backstory: Orson Welles' <i>Citizen Kane</i> opened in May 1941 to critical acclaim and public indifference. RKO Studios, which had courted Welles, wanted his second feature to be more commercial and less controversial. Welles was happy to give the studio masterworks, but they would not bring RKO what it craved more than artistic respect--financial solvency (RKO was a company seemingly always on the brink of monetary ruin). <i>Kane</i> wasn't particularly costly (final cost was $800,000), but considering all the hoopla and controversy the film caused related to its subject, newspaper magnate William Randolph Hearst, RKO was hoping it would see a substantial profit from its investment. That did not come to pass. Consequently, with his second feature Welles was pressured by the studio boss, George Schaefer, to agree to film a more acceptable subject. RKO's agreement with the filmmaker did not include the all-important right to final cut, a clause that served as the agreement's most significant change as well as the single biggest factor in Welles' trouble with the studio's management during <i>The Magnificent Ambersons’ </i>production.<br />
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-3tHrkdzhjyk/WpOCB0u--lI/AAAAAAAAFdE/LK0tIA2oAkUFgsMLQvGfgOVusSBS4LB0gCLcBGAs/s1600/Ambersons-Welles-Cortez.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="847" data-original-width="1050" height="257" src="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-3tHrkdzhjyk/WpOCB0u--lI/AAAAAAAAFdE/LK0tIA2oAkUFgsMLQvGfgOVusSBS4LB0gCLcBGAs/s320/Ambersons-Welles-Cortez.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Welles with his photographer, Stanley Cortez.</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
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The film's theme--the reason Welles was so drawn to the material--was that of progress squashing, stomping, and rolling over a more tranquil, slower, more civilized period of American history. The film lays out its intention from the opening scene with narrator Welles immediately establishing the film as a nostalgia piece: " The magnificence of the Ambersons began in 1873..." Welles once said that he was against his modern age, that progress could be taken as not progress at all, but a step back in civilization, which is precisely what <i>Ambersons </i>sets out to prove. Using the automobile as a device of destruction, Welles' shows how its invention brutally left behind the Nineteenth Century with its traditions of fancy dress balls, sleigh rides, and serenades. The Ambersons serve an illustration of the Nineteenth Century denizens who paid the price for progress.<br />
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<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L10d2rH2i10" target="_blank"><i>The Magnificent Ambersons</i></a> deals with the personal relationships of six main characters: Eugene Morgan (<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joseph_Cotten" target="_blank">Joseph Cotton</a>), a widower, whose love for Isabel Amberson (Dolores Costello) sets the plot in motion. Early in the story, Iabel jilts Eugene and marries Wilbur Minafer whose only child, the spoiled George (Tim Holt), is a catalyst for the family's downfall. George's adverse reaction to Eugene's attentions to his mother after Wilbur dies that is the heart of the story. George's Aunt Fanny (<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Agnes_Moorehead" target="_blank">Agnes Moorehead</a>), Wilbur's spinster sister, also longs for Eugene. Lastly, there is Lucy (Anne Baxter) Eugene's only child, who George loves but cannot have him, and Jack Amberson (Ray Collins), Isabel's older brother and the most likable person in the film (and my favorite).<br />
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-Hxn5EUbkcUk/Wpr9vfJmBrI/AAAAAAAAFdk/LSiivgl-Bi8H2jDd2XVHjeMGiqHEum4RgCLcBGAs/s1600/Magnificient%2BAmbersons%2BDepot.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="544" data-original-width="779" height="223" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-Hxn5EUbkcUk/Wpr9vfJmBrI/AAAAAAAAFdk/LSiivgl-Bi8H2jDd2XVHjeMGiqHEum4RgCLcBGAs/s320/Magnificient%2BAmbersons%2BDepot.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">My favorite scene in <i>Magnificent Ambersons</i> : Jack's goodbye to George in the new train station</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
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Filming on <i>Ambersons</i> began in late October 1941, some five months after <i>Citizen Kane's</i> premiere, and lasted three months, wrapping in late January 1942. (By this time Welles had been approached by the U.S.State Department and Nelson Rockefeller to film <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carnival#Rio_de_Janeiro" target="_blank">Carnival in Brazil</a> as part of an effort to boost friendly relations with South America as part of the United States' Good Neighbor Policy. After the United States had joined World War II after the bombing of Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941, South America was seen as a country particularly vulnerable to Nazi take over.) World War II proved a significant factor in RKO's decision making once filming on <i>Ambersons </i>was completed and unsuccessful previews were under way. <br />
<br />
Filming began with high hopes and spirits soaring. Yet, according to Robert L. Carringer's definitive study on the film, <i>The Magnificent Ambersons: A Reconstruction</i>, as the filming of the scenes related to George's decidedly Oedipal relationship with his mother approached, Welles grew "increasingly moody and irritable." Welles had an intense relationship with his mother before she died when he was nine. It was at this moment that Nelson Rockefeller approached RKO and Welles with the South America project. According to Carringer, Welles accepted enthusiastically, both for the project and to distance himself from <i>Ambersons</i>. In February 1942, Welles headed down to Rio. While he was in South America, Orson Welles' luck took a permanent turn for the worse.<br />
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/--fbdOyxsJEM/WqRKdd5n2WI/AAAAAAAAFd4/Jo5Yxk4ABZ4zKI7YYqwIlbYijR3CpiQ3QCLcBGAs/s1600/MagificentAmersonswelles.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="963" data-original-width="1024" height="300" src="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/--fbdOyxsJEM/WqRKdd5n2WI/AAAAAAAAFd4/Jo5Yxk4ABZ4zKI7YYqwIlbYijR3CpiQ3QCLcBGAs/s320/MagificentAmersonswelles.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Orson rides again!</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
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According to Welles, RKO was "to send a moviola (a machine used to edit film) and cutters (editors) to Rio. Never happened." Welles was in communication with his chief cutter, Robert Wise, who he had also worked with on <i>Citizen Kane</i>. Along with Jack Moss, Welles business manager, Wise was essentially given control of the film with Orson, of course, dictating his instructions via telegraph and sketchy phone connections. Eyeing an Easter opening in April, RKO decided to have hold a preview for the film in Pomona, California, an agricultural town east of Los Angeles in the San Bernardino Valley, on March 17, 1942. <i>Ambersons</i> running time for that preview was 131 minutes. The main feature playing that night was a musical called <i>The Fleet's In</i> starring Dorothy Lamour, Betty Hutton, Eddie Bracken, and William Holden. The audience seems to have been made up mostly of youngsters seeking a good time, and they enjoyed the main feature. Then came <i>Ambersons</i>, which the audience nearly jeered <i>Ambersons </i>off the screen with walkouts aplenty. The preview cards the patrons filled out only confirmed the worst for Schaefer and the New York money men: Welles' brooding, complex, film was not what the good people of Pomona--or possibly anyone, anywhere--had bargained for. "More Chekhov than Tarkington," as Joseph Cotton wrote in a memo to Welles. Did Welles know what he had? Not being present to gauge the previews certainly didn't help matters. The next day RKO's executives were planning ways to cut the film to a more reasonable length, with whole scenes and character motivations left on the cutting room floor. Another preview was held in more hospitable Pasadena, California. The film was shorter--roughly 117 minutes, per studio documents--with cuts instructed by Welles when informed of the Pomona disaster.<br />
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-qTTk8QvT0d4/WqSJKVTVd8I/AAAAAAAAFeI/Q0URxo0DNgwrU1NAni_6TrILbhrsVB17gCLcBGAs/s1600/magnificent-ambersons-4.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="591" data-original-width="810" height="233" src="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-qTTk8QvT0d4/WqSJKVTVd8I/AAAAAAAAFeI/Q0URxo0DNgwrU1NAni_6TrILbhrsVB17gCLcBGAs/s320/magnificent-ambersons-4.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Eugene and Isabel dance in the Ambersons mansion</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
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<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/RKO_Pictures" target="_blank">RKO </a>figured that with so much being cut extensive retakes would be needed. With Welles still in South America, editor Wise and assistant director Freddie Fleck re-shot some scenes mostly for the second half of the film. Additionally, previews were held in Inglewood, Pasadena, and Long Beach in April and May to a better, though still muted, response. At least we put "together a version that people would sit through and not walk out on," was the mindset of Wise, Fleck, Welles business manager Jack Moss, and others. The powers at RKO decided that it had the best version and released <i>The Magnificent Ambersons</i> in July 1942, playing on a double bill with a concoction named <i>Mexican Spitfire Has a Baby. </i><br />
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Orson Welles' fans often speak of <i>The Magnificent Ambersons</i> with reverence or solemness. With bravura direction, Welles reached a level of maturity, and, at times, a subtlety beyond his 26 years. <i>Ambersons</i> is nearly an old man's<b> </b>film, which is something I like best about the film. The film has sentimentality in the best sense of the word, for Welles was one of cinema's poets of lost worlds and past regrets in a society waiting for no one. As with his other, best known films, Welles presents <i>Ambersons </i>starkly, with truth and honest human emotion that downplay the gooey aspects that many directors cannot avoid, conveying a power and force that is often surprising.<br />
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-snZnmgbfyqU/WuvaKdvqZmI/AAAAAAAAFe4/B5Vc3NtDBhc5mOX7eQxQyGognCmzr6pKQCLcBGAs/s1600/MagificentAmersonswelles-and-holt-bts.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="552" data-original-width="703" height="251" src="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-snZnmgbfyqU/WuvaKdvqZmI/AAAAAAAAFe4/B5Vc3NtDBhc5mOX7eQxQyGognCmzr6pKQCLcBGAs/s320/MagificentAmersonswelles-and-holt-bts.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Welles, on set with Tim Holt</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
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The fate that befell Orson Welles' <i>The Magnificent Ambersons </i>was as sad as the fate that befell its titular family. The story of a proud family teetering on the precipice of disaster was a prelude to the rest of Welles' life both professional and personal. If in 1942 Orson Welles was American cinema's Napoleon trying to conquer every aspect of theatricals, whether that be stage, motion pictures, or radio<i>, </i>then <i>The Magnificent Ambersons</i> was his Waterloo. <br />
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<u>Sources</u><br />
Books: <i>The Magnifient Ambersons: A Reconstruction</i> by Robert L. Carringer<br />
<i> The Great Movies </i>by William Bayer<br />
<i> This Is Orson Welles</i> by Orson Welles and Peter Bogdanovich, edited by Jonathan Rosenbaum<br />
<i> Orson Welles, Volume Two: Hello Americans</i> by Simon Callow<br />
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Photos: Web images <br />
Nick Pattersonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09555378788567081907noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3984205935625085047.post-30988224458167895252018-03-11T11:55:00.001-07:002018-03-11T11:55:49.430-07:00Underrated Gem: Herbert Ross' Goodbye, Mr. Chips<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">
When I think of musical films from 1960 to 1972, some have been praised to the sky and back--some deservedly so (<i>Cabaret</i>), some less so (<i>The Sound of Music</i>). Other, however, are forgotten not quite so deservedly. Some of these movies are written off as prime examples of what was wrong with Hollywood in the 1960s. To many, Tinseltown was out of step and out of fashion with the tenor of the time--the Vietnam War and its related protests, assassinations, race riots, civil rights movements, free speech, and the general anti-establishment vibe of many young people. </div>
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In spite of all this cultural upheaval, Hollywood was still turning out limp Doris Day romantic comedies, ordinary westerns, and flat dramas that audiences were no longer interested in seeing. Every once in a while, however, the studios managed to extract a diamond from the increasingly dusty coalmine of old Hollywood One such understated, underrated gem is 1969's musical remake of the <a href="http://www.tcm.com/tcmdb/title/76737/Goodbye-Mr-Chips/articles.html" target="_blank">1939 Robert Donat-Greer Garson classic, <i>Goodbye, Mr. Chips</i></a>. </div>
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<img border="0" data-original-height="915" data-original-width="501" height="640" src="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-MTK1Rg5J0fA/WbV73NRy7-I/AAAAAAAAFWo/nTe4qf3O_LgyzMfEYQrdYY7HYxZsv_3igCEwYBhgL/s640/Chips%2B%2528ita%2529.jpg" width="348" /></div>
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Based on that popular, Oscar-winning 1939 film (that I find dull and extremely difficult to watch from start to finish) and <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Goodbye,_Mr._Chips" target="_blank">adapted from James Hilton's novel</a>, the 1969 version of <i>Chips</i> was a long time in the making. It started around 1962 with film composer, Andre Previn, approaching MGM studio heads with an idea of transforming one of the studio's beloved classics into a musical. Metro gave Previn the green light, though musicals of the early Sixties were risky. Despite a recent slew of successfully filmed Broadway adaptations, including <i>West Side Story</i>, <i>The Music Man, </i>and <i>Gypsy</i>, there were just as many flops or disappointments (<i>Porgy and Bess</i>; <i>Can-Can</i>; <i>Flower Drum Song</i>) to offset them. At the time, if audiences named the best known musical movie actor, it probably was Elvis Presley.<br />
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With the release of Warner Brothers' mega-budgeted <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C0xhzA78u4Q" target="_blank"><i>My Fair Lady</i></a> in 1964--an enormous money maker ($34 million rentals, $72 million gross) that won eight Oscars--a musical onslaught that properly caught fire with the unforeseen bonanza of Rodgers & Hammerstein's <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lEcKXr3mJ_o" target="_blank"><i>The Sound of Music </i></a>began. <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Sound_of_Music_(film)" target="_blank"><i>The Sound of Music</i> (1965)</a> became an absolute phenomenon, supplanting <i>Gone with the Wind</i>'s twenty-six year run as the most financially successful movie ever made. At this point every studio in town was searching for the next <i>Sound of Music</i>. Columbia came up with the big hit, <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s-dTjFKygao" target="_blank"><i>Funny Girl </i>(1968)</a>, which unleashed Barbra Streisand on the world, and Columbia had another big winner with<i> <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F3JHZZG47gc" target="_blank">Oliver!</a> </i>(1968's Oscar winner for Best Picture), a musical based on Charles Dickens' <i>Oliver Twist</i>. On tap across the valley at Universal was a splashy Ross Hunter extravaganza that was very popular, <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jCug0golA6c&t=5s" target="_blank"><i>Thoroughly Modern Millie</i></a>, with (again) Julie Andrews as a 1920's flapper.<br />
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In this mad scramble for musical success, however, more than a few duds were released. Fox, which should have known better, tried topping the success of <i>Sound of Music</i> with some ultra-budgeted failures like <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Sknp5fY72go" target="_blank"><i>Star!</i></a>, the film that reunited Julie Andrews with her <i>Sound of Music </i>director, Robert Wise; <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VW_Jzub27_g" target="_blank"><i>Doctor Dolittle</i></a>, with Rex Harrison as the title character who talked to the animals; and the biggest of them all, a $24 million production of <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8Dm4GhaYj84" target="_blank"><i>Hello, Dolly!</i></a>, with a miscast Streisand, far too young for the role of matchmaker Dolly Levi, in an exceedingly lavish production. <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9bUIvGVbD0E" target="_blank"><i>Sweet Charity</i></a>, with Bob Fosse getting his big-time break as choreographer and film director after years working on Broadway and as an actor in small roles in film, was nevertheless a box office failure with just $8 million return on a $20 million budget. Warners struck out with the inflated <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hzaeisqxtvQ" target="_blank"><i>Camelot</i> </a>and an interesting attempt at <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ziNmd7g7__A" target="_blank"><i>Finian's Rainbow</i></a> made by an up-and-coming Francis Ford Coppola, starring Fred Astaire in his first film musical since 1957's <i>Silk Stockings</i>. Similarly, Paramount came up with a trio of not uninteresting financial losers: Lerner and Loewe's <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lBYlM3R9ExA" target="_blank"><i>Paint Your Wagon</i></a>; Blake Edwards'<i> <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=28WmoT1lHaU" target="_blank">Darling Lili</a> </i>starring his wife, Julie Andrews, and Rock Hudson; and <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wb0KLj9rnww" target="_blank"><i>On a Clear Day You Can See Forever</i></a>, with Vincente Minnelli directing the ubiquitous Barbra Streisand through the rigors of time travel and ESP.<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1600" data-original-width="1051" height="640" src="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-ldRvFPWsxg0/WbWPchEndxI/AAAAAAAAFW8/BoY6BFjjkFsh4Bzgg_4J4cSDMSr-ImaewCLcBGAs/s640/chipsaltposter.jpg" width="420" /></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Together again : Rex and Julie, the reunion that almost was </td></tr>
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With all that activity going on around town, MGM's slate for its latest musical was remarkably low key. When first announced in late 1964, <i>Goodbye, Mr. Chips</i>' original plan was to have Vincente Minnelli directing the musical, with music and lyrics by <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Andr%C3%A9_Previn" target="_blank">Andre</a> and <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dory_Previn" target="_blank">Dory Previn</a>, and playwright <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Terence_Rattigan" target="_blank">Terence Rattigan</a> taking on the adaptation and making it relevant to a contemporary Sixties audience. Former agent, the ambitious Arthur P. Jacobs, produced, a task he also performed at Fox with <i>Dolittle</i>. MGM was trying hard for a reunion of Rex Harrison and Julie Andrews, the co-stars of <i>My Fair Lady</i> on Broadway, as Chipping and his young vivacious wife, Katherine. Harrison was announced as the lead in January 1965.Then just as suddenly Harrison was out. Richard Burton then became the role's front runner. Then Burton was out, too. Andrews, by this time, had cooled on the idea of playing second fiddle to either Harrison or Burton. Sophia Loren let MGM know she was interested. Also up for the part of Mrs. Chipping was Samantha Eggar and Audrey Hepburn. Meanwhile, Minnelli was replaced by Gower Champion, who, in turn, bowed out. Finally, <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Herbert_Ross" target="_blank">Herbert Ross</a>, choreographer on<i> Funny Girl </i>and <i>Doctor Dolittle</i> was named to the director's chair. When Peter O'Toole, lured by the Rattigan script, signed on to play Chipping, with <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Petula_Clark" target="_blank">pop singer Petula Clark</a>, fresh from <i>Finian's Rainbow</i>, to play Katherine, <i>Goodbye, Mr. Chips</i> was ready to begin filming at last.<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><img border="0" data-original-height="374" data-original-width="600" src="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-SOdtNpICPmM/WcaEUYuxv8I/AAAAAAAAFXc/pW_8-7LeTyQq0dIBcYZYGTJV_PHgIVQLQCLcBGAs/s1600/chipso%2527toole2.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;" /></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Make no mistake: <i>Chips</i> is O'Toole's movie </td></tr>
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With a budget of $9 million, the musical <i>Chips, </i>although pricey, pales in comparison to other <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roadshow_theatrical_release" target="_blank">roadshow</a> production costs like <i>Paint Your Wagon </i>($20 million), <i>Hello, Dolly!</i> ($24 million), <i>Darling Lili </i>($25 million), and <i>Star!</i> ($14 million). The production was an exquisitely crafted work that was underappreciated upon release in 1969. And that neglected attitude persists to this day. Critics trashed the film, calling <i>Goodbye, Mr. Chips</i> a travesty to the memory of the original {Clive Hirschhorn in his book, <i>The Hollywood Musical </i>called O'Toole's performance "unconvincing and unappealing"}. Critics particularly took issue with the updates made to the story: While the original took place from the 1870s to the early 1930s, the remake spanned the 1920s to the 1960s. The story of Chipping's wife Katherine was another point of departure, with her character changing from a suffragette who dies in child birth to a musical comedy star of the London stage who (spoilers!) is killed during a World War II air raid. Then there was the problem of O'Toole's inability to sing the musical score of <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leslie_Bricusse" target="_blank">Leslie Bricusse</a>. O'Toole wisely plays his musical moments with a talk/sing style that works at least as well as Rex Harrison's in <i>My Fair Lady</i>. Petula Clark is given the tough job of keeping Katherine modern and vivacious to contemporary audiences, yet touching enough for us to see what Chipping sees in her. That she didn't go on to have a successful movie career says more about Petula Clark being at the wrong place at the wrong time than it does about her talent, which is considerable. She would have to be to keep up with her co-star. <br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-mJYLC_ZziLA/WgUzVQfmrGI/AAAAAAAAFYc/9V5xnVd1_PIjZD-QZb3ApqfRnTL0iT4fQCLcBGAs/s1600/chipsmossbank2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="469" data-original-width="555" height="337" src="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-mJYLC_ZziLA/WgUzVQfmrGI/AAAAAAAAFYc/9V5xnVd1_PIjZD-QZb3ApqfRnTL0iT4fQCLcBGAs/s400/chipsmossbank2.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Peter O'Toole here with real-life wife, Sian Phillips, as the outrageously flamboyant Ursula Mossbank, though I swear she's Tallulah Bankhead. Phillips steals every scene in which she appears. </td></tr>
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After the larger-than-life characters he had portrayed since 1962's <i>Lawrence of Arabia, </i>here O'Toole seems to relish the ordinariness of Chipping's orderly life. When Chipping meets Clark's music hall performer, he doesn't know what to do; rather, Katherine makes the first move, inviting Chipping to a party and demonstrating what different worlds each comes from. It also demonstrates that those differences are what will also hold them together later in the story. Few aspects of <i>Goodbye, Mr. Chips</i> indicate that this is Herbert Ross's directorial debut. The film wasn't an easy shoot, and the director pulls it off with the style and ease of a veteran helmer. Ross was clearly born to be a film director, and <i>Chips</i> set him on the path to other first rate entertainments, including <i>Funny Lady,</i> <i>The Last of Sheila, The Goodbye Girl</i>, and <i>The Turning Point</i>. And that is only some of his output from the Seventies.<br />
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<img border="0" data-original-height="720" data-original-width="1280" height="225" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-oCgEv62k9cQ/WhtgaKajmQI/AAAAAAAAFZA/P8F0VmcMGUwsnnYIPJI6S0ziEwJ5zafrwCLcBGAs/s400/chipso%2527toole3.jpg" width="400" /></div>
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It isn't surprising that this remake of <i>Goodbye, Mr. Chips</i> wasn't a hit with the public or the critics. In movies, 1969 was possibly the peak for youth culture, with releases like <i>Easy Rider</i> and <i>Woodstock</i> competing successfully against more traditional fare. O'Toole's Oscar nomination for Best Actor is seen as something of a miracle, yet it is much deserved. He won the Golden Globe for Best Actor in a Comedy or Musical. Unfortunately, nearly all the rest of the movie was forgotten come awards time, with the lone exception being the film's musical score. That Sian Phillips was over looked was especially disappointing. These days the film has its share of champions (including myself): IMDb has a 7 rating of 10, and Rotten Tomatoes ranks the film as "Fresh" with a 70%.<br />
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Sources<br />
Books: <i>Road-Show: The Fall of Musicals in the 1960s</i> by Matthew Kennedy<br />
<i>The MGM Story</i> by John Douglas Eames<br />
<i>The Hollywood Musicals</i> by Clive Hirschhorn<br />
<i>Peter O'Toole: The Definitive Biography</i> by Robert Sellers<br />
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Internet: IMDb<br />
Wikipedia<br />
Rotten Tomatoes <br />
Production photos <br />
Video : Turner Classic Movies <br />
<i></i>Nick Pattersonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09555378788567081907noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3984205935625085047.post-80110983574858720272017-09-04T08:08:00.000-07:002017-09-04T08:08:26.927-07:00The Confessional: Mutiny on the Bounty (1962)<br />
Forgive me fellow film buffs, I'm a sinner. In movies many people fail to appreciate, I find my guiltiest pleasures. MGM's 1962 remake of its Oscar-winning 1935 success, <i>Mutiny on the Bounty</i>, has gone down in movie history as one of the most notorious productions of 1960's cinema. Alongside 20th Century-Fox's true disaster, <i>Cleopatra</i>, <i>Bounty's</i> primary claim to fame is as one of the films that killed Hollywood; picked the pocketbook of Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer; ended the career of an Oscar-winning veteran director; and stuck a dagger so deep in the heart of its star's image and prestige that it took a decade for his reputation to recover.<br />
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MGM's 1959 remake of <i>Ben-Hur </i>was the real culprit. That film was such a colossal hit, both financially and critically--it won an amazing eleven Oscars, including Best Picture--that its producers put into play a slew of remakes of the company's past hits: <i>Cimarron</i>, <i>Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse</i>, and <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RB9ce3RVRn4" target="_blank"><i>Mutiny on the Bounty</i></a>. All of these films were costly and ran into budget problems. <i>Bounty</i> was, without a doubt, the most beloved of the bunch, mostly because Clark Gable, who played Fletcher Christian, the lead, in the 1935 original version, had passed away in early 1960, approximately the same time that Marlon Brando agreed to play the role in the remake. Famed British director <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carol_Reed" target="_blank">Carol Reed</a> (<i>The Third Man</i>, <i>Fallen Idol</i>, <i>Odd Man Out</i>) was tapped to helm the massive production. Noted thespians <a href="http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0002145/?ref_=fn_al_nm_1" target="_blank">Trevor Howard</a> as by-the-book Captain Bligh, <a href="http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0001321/?ref_=fn_al_nm_1" target="_blank">Richard Harris</a>, and <a href="http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0341518/?ref_=nv_sr_1" target="_blank">Hugh Griffith</a> also signed on.<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1600" data-original-width="1200" height="400" src="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-RbMDgWoOM1M/WZe8YEHXKXI/AAAAAAAAFVQ/rEt3_eZMW2wT7CsPxNA6-VCiPagEcF3-gCLcBGAs/s400/mutinyBounty-twin-props.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;" width="300" /></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The recreation of HMS <i>Bounty</i></td></tr>
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From the beginning, <a href="http://www.tcm.com/tcmdb/title/12737/Mutiny-on-the-Bounty/articles.html" target="_blank">the remake of <i>Mutiny on the Bounty</i></a> was beset with problems. Filming was scheduled to begin in Tahiti on October 15, 1960; however, the full-scale replica of the HMS <i>Bounty</i> was not ready in time, and the script by <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eric_Ambler" target="_blank">famed writer Eric Ambler</a> was a mess that pleased no one. Ambler eventually quit and was replaced by veteran screenwriter, <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charles_Lederer" target="_blank">Charles Lederer</a>. Filming finally began in December, but by then the monsoon season had begun, so the entire company packed up and returned to the MGM studios in Culver City, California, to shoot interiors. Around this time, Carol Reed decided this <i>Bounty </i>was doomed to sink and, unlike a real captain, refused to go down with the ship, resigning as the film's director. He was replaced by the Oscar-winning <a href="http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0587277/?ref_=fn_al_nm_1" target="_blank">Lewis Milestone</a><i> </i>(<i>All Quiet on the Western Front</i>), and the <i>Bounty </i>was set to sail again.<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-o6fzxcRmoXs/WZfBsmNuNRI/AAAAAAAAFVg/ALHEtGBGzPIpid0EaOF7BlGQOtvcZatYQCLcBGAs/s1600/Mutiny-on-the-Bounty-05.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="650" data-original-width="1475" height="176" src="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-o6fzxcRmoXs/WZfBsmNuNRI/AAAAAAAAFVg/ALHEtGBGzPIpid0EaOF7BlGQOtvcZatYQCLcBGAs/s400/Mutiny-on-the-Bounty-05.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">One of the film's impressive action sequences</td></tr>
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Interiors' filming began at MGM Studios in February 1961 with the company returning to Tahiti for location shooting in late March. Filming dragged on for months, with final scenes shot in October, nearly a full year after initial filming began. Problems with the script were the main concern, although many in the company pointed the finger at Brando and his unprofessional behavior as the real source of delays in filming. Reportedly, <i>Bounty's </i>lead did not get along with director Milestone (Milestone evidently told MGM studio chief Sol Siegel, "This guy Brando is going to ruin you"). According to Milestone's estimate, Brando's behavior cost the film $6 million beyond budget.<br />
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Brando was never really satisfied with the script, which was rewritten daily; the actor was more intrigued by the Pitcairn Island section of the film than the actual mutiny (<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ben_Hecht" target="_blank">veteran writer Ben Hecht</a> was drafted for this section of the film). Off screen, Brando had an affair with Tarita Teriipia, the local Polyensian restaurant dishwasher selected to portray Maimiti, Fletcher Christian's love interest. The two married in August 1962 after Teriipia became pregnant. Along with his new wife, Brando also fell in love with Tahiti. He eventually purchased a cluster of islands near the film's location. Co-stars Trevor Howard and Richard Harris accused Brando of chronic lateness to the set, and his habit of changing his interpretation of Christian from scene to scene perplexed and irritated the other actors.<br />
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Upon completion, the film took the much of 1962 to edit, shape, and market in preparation for its premiere in November. Brando showed up at the film's premiere but left in a huff when his British accent was jeered by the audience. Reviews were pretty scathing, with critics saving most of their vitriol for Brando. While they admired the spectacle of the film, most reviewers felt Brando's unorthodox portrayal--the antithesis of Gable's robust, manly take on Christian--was an embarrassment. Brando tended to see Christian as a foppish--almost effeminate--character, which left audiences and critics bewildered.<br />
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Feeling sabotaged by Brando, MGM held him responsible for the movie's enormous cost overruns (final cost was $19 million ... on a $9 million budget). With Elizabeth Taylor's <i>Cleopatra</i> breaking the Fox studios, even casual moviegoers of the day were fed up with stories of overindulged stars. Brando's reputation had taken a big hit with the cost overruns on his directorial debut, <i>One-Eyed Jacks</i>, the year before (original budget $1.8 million, final cost $6 million), and to some he was an easy target to blame for the cost overruns. Although <i>Mutiny on the Bounty</i> nabbed six Oscar nominations, including one for Best Picture, the movie, which grossed $13.6 million (more than $100 million in 2017 dollars), left the studio with roughly half that much. That huge final cost nearly sunk MGM. The studio reported a loss of $17 million the following year (though it was ultimately bailed out in 1965 with the enormous success of <i>Dr. Zhivago</i>).<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><img border="0" data-original-height="296" data-original-width="830" height="142" src="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/--6OjeKdXIsQ/WZfLGXkbDjI/AAAAAAAAFVw/i6QGpqIoKRI51OYu7qWlPHbtVXFaCjbmACLcBGAs/s400/mutinybounty%2Bcrrew.png" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;" width="400" /></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">"You remarkable pig!"<br />
Fletcher Christian takes command of the HMS <i>Bounty</i></td></tr>
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My first encounter with <i>Mutiny on the Bounty</i> was an afternoon showing([s]--the movie showed over two days) complete with commercials and pan-and-scan on a 19-inch black and white TV. Despite these drawbacks--some of which I didn't realize at the time--I was enthralled by the movie, especially Brando's unique interpretation of Fletcher Christian. This seems to be the first of several movies (<i>The Missouri Breaks</i>, <i>The Formula</i>, <i>Island of Dr. Moreau</i> to name a few) in which the Method actor went over the top with a performance. In <i>Bounty</i>, while it's true that his British accent comes and goes at times, his performance is a real star turn. Whether battling Bligh, calming the crew, or enjoying Maimiti, for me, the performance is one of Brando's most entertaining. In spite of his entertaining style, however, Brando's reputation as an actor and as a bankable star took a serious hit with <i>Bounty</i>'s poor box office and critical drubbing. It was the start of a long, brutal decade of flops (some of them quite good and still undervalued) for the one time red-hot star until 1972's <i>The Godfather</i> put Brando back in the good graces of the Hollywood establishment. Not that he cared. After more than twenty years as a film star, Brando recognized the shallowness of such public displays of affection, as <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2QUacU0I4yU" target="_blank">his refusal to accept his Best Actor Oscar in 1973</a> showed.<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Holding off the <i>Bounty </i>crew's desire for revenge,<br />
Christian assures Bligh there will be no more bloodshed aboard ship. </td></tr>
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In spite of its enduring reputation as a disaster, <i>Mutiny on the Bounty</i> is an extremely enjoyable film. It has scope in its filming and tension in its telling. I imagine that contemporary critics were commenting as much on the behind-the-scenes gossip as on the actual film. Robert Surtees' photography magnificently captures the <i>Bounty</i>'s voyage to Tahiti while also framing the dramatic sequences superbly. Bronislaw Kaper provides a majestic film score, while the physical production, including the full scale recreation of the HMS <i>Bounty, </i>is first rate. The script and dialogue are fresh and memorable (Christian to Bligh: "You remarkable pig! You can thank whatever pig god you pray to you haven't turned me into a murderer") and at times witty, and Trevor Howard's Bligh is a worthy adversary. Surprisingly for a film with a three-hour running time that had more than one director, the movie doesn't feel long or sluggish, especially when compared to other epics of the day (<i>Cleopatra</i>, <i>The Alamo</i>, <i>Fall of the Roman Empire</i>). As an historical document I'm sure this version of <i>Bounty</i>, as well as the other two (the <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aFalJyGNGmE" target="_blank">1935 original starring Gable</a> and <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cEaxoITrpWU" target="_blank">one from 1984, starring Mel Gibson as Christian and Anthony Hopkins as Bligh</a> are just as good) are lacking in actual fact. Like most films that depict <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mutiny_on_the_Bounty" target="_blank">an historical event</a>, dramatic license is inevitable. Today, more than fifty-plus years after its premiere, <i>Mutiny on the Bounty </i>seems impressively well made and very entertaining. Don't believe the naysayers who compare it unfavorably with either the 1935 or the 1984 version; this <i>Bounty</i> sails on as one of my favorite guilty pleasures. <br />
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Sources: IMDb<br />
Wikipedia<br />
<i>The Films of Marlon Brando</i> by Tony Thomas<br />
<i>Senses of Cinema</i><br />
Images from the InternetNick Pattersonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09555378788567081907noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3984205935625085047.post-81339800282967128502017-08-18T20:32:00.003-07:002017-08-18T20:32:33.105-07:00Blacklisted Westerns: Johnny Guitar and High Noon2017 marks the 70th anniversary of the infamous <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/House_Un-American_Activities_Committee" target="_blank">House Un-American Activities Committee (HUAC)</a>, which was the mechanism for <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hollywood_blacklist" target="_blank">Washington's investigation into Communism and its influence on the Hollywood and the movies</a>. Two of the most famous films made during the era were <i>High Noon </i>and <i>Johnny Guitar. </i>While <i>High Noon </i>was an instant hit both critically and financially, <i>Johnny Guitar</i> was not, though it has acquired a cult following through the years.<br />
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Unleashed on movie theaters across America in 1954, <i><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ACgSyxdV9vE" target="_blank">Johnny Guitar</a></i> is not only a blacklisted movie but also a feminist western, giving it a unique place in cinema history. Directed by cult favorite Nicholas Ray for B-movie studio Republic Pictures, <i>Johnny Guitar</i> is unlike any other western. In spite of its title, <i>Johnny Guitar</i> is dominated by its two female leads played by Mercedes McCambridge and Joan Crawford. And that's only the beginning of the gender role swapping that occurs throughout the story. Sterling Hayden, playing the title character and, ostensibly, the male lead, pines for Crawford's character, Vienna. Then there is McCambridge's Emma. Emma is angry and on edge from her first appearance, bitter over The Dancin' Kid's (played by Scott Brady) attraction to Vienna. Adding to the mix is Turkey, the youngest member of The Dancin' Kid's gang, who seeks Vienna's approval, if not more. These two women dominate the action and the men involved in it. Critics have suggested that Emma and Vienna may have had a lesbian affair prior to the movie's action and that Emma is jealous of Vienna's relationship with The Dancin' Kid because she wants Vienna for herself. Heaven knows what audiences made of it at the time.<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Sterling Hayden as the title character</td></tr>
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<i> </i>According to Wikipedia, Crawford and Ray had a production deal set up at Paramount for a project called <i>Lisbon</i>, which was rejected by the studio as too expensive. Crawford then took it to Republic Pictures and brought Ray along as associate producer. At the time, Republic was the biggest and best B-movie studio in town and had been trying to crack the A-list with films like its recent hit, John Ford's <i>The Quiet Man</i>. Republic Pictures specialized in westerns, and Crawford's package seemed ideal to Republic's chief, Herbert J. Yates. Besides the female slant on a traditionally male genre, what also makes <i>Johnny Guitar </i>notable is how the storyline about a group of powerful people--mostly men--that works to force Crawford's Vienna out of her successful business (a casino) parallels the tactics of Senator Joseph McCarthy and his House Un-American Activities Committee.<br />
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<i><a href="http://www.tcm.com/tcmdb/title/79838/Johnny-Guitar/articles.html#00" target="_blank">Johnny Guitar</a></i> released to middling critical and financial success. The film did garner, however, a cult following, especially with French critics of the day. Jean Luc Godard praised it, and Francois Truffaut admiringly called <i>Johnny Guitar </i>a "phony western." As for me, I also find a lot to admire in the movie. From its wonderfully descriptive dialog to Victor Young's magnificently emotional score and Harry Stradling's atmospheric, evocative color photography--the sandstorm near the movie's start is particularly memorable--I find <i>Johnny Guitar</i> original and entertaining. It is a unique "western" that looks better and better as the years pass.<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The cast gathers</td></tr>
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<i><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gh-vOc-gwZs" target="_blank">High Noon</a> </i>was an entirely different gunfight. Written by <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carl_Foreman" target="_blank">Carl Foreman</a>, directed by <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fred_Zinneman" target="_blank">Fred Zinnemann</a>, and produced on a shoestring budget of approximately $750,000 (about $7 million in 2017 dollars) by independent filmmaker <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stanley_Kramer" target="_blank">Stanley Kramer</a> (<i>Champion</i>, <i>The Men</i>, <i>The Wild One</i>, <i>The Defiant Ones</i>), the film is considered an allegory of the blacklist. These three filmmakers, liberals all, were tested by the pressures of the blacklist, with Foreman moving to England in the middle of <i>High Noon</i>'s production due to his HUAC testimony. Interestingly, the movie's star, Gary Cooper, who was a conservative and had testified in 1947 as a friendly witness, got along with his left-leaning colleagues, something his friends John Wayne and Howard Hawks couldn't abide.<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The director with his leading man</td></tr>
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<i><a href="http://www.tcm.com/tcmdb/title/24083/High-Noon/articles.html#00" target="_blank">High Noon</a></i> is a more traditional western than <i>Johnny Guitar</i>, yet some see <i>High Noon</i> as less a western and more a message, or "social problem," movie. Some also view the movie as a suspense film in a western setting, which is a pretty apt description. The fact that <i>High Noon</i> can be classified as something other than a strict western is one thing detractors hold against it. Until the gunfight at the climax of the picture, <i>High Noon </i>also doesn't adhere to the conventional situations of the genre: no cattle drive or barroom brawl or pictureque landscape with wagon trains. Except for a brief segment in which Cooper's Marshal Will Kane attempts to leave town with his bride, Amy (Grace Kelly in her second feature), the entire movie takes place in the confined space of the town, Hadleyville.<br />
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<i>High Noon </i>pushed boundaries in other ways too. The community that Will Kane protects are basically cowards. Seeking help to back him up in his inevitable confrontation with Frank Miller and his gang, Cooper goes practically door to door asking his so-called friends for help only to be turned away. Even the church congregation turns on him. Will Kane's experience paralleled what many left-leaning actors, directors, and screenwriters faced during this era of fear and paranoia in Hollywood. People subpoenaed to testify before HUAC found themselves shunned by colleagues and friends, and blacklisted by the major film studios, making it impossible to find work if they didn't cooperate with HUAC. When Foreman was called to testify, he admitted he had been a member of the Communist Party until just after World War II. Because he refused to offer names of other Communist Party members, however, Foreman was blacklisted and could no longer find work in Hollywood.<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Man alone: The iconic image </td><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><br /></td></tr>
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When the Oscar nominations were announced early in 1953,<i> High Noon</i> led the way with seven nominations (alongside <i>Moulin Rouge</i> and<i> The Quiet Man</i>), including a nod for Best Picture, Best Actor, for which Gary Cooper won, Best Director, and Best Screenplay. The film took home three statues for Song, Score, and Editing.<br />
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The fallout from the success of <i>High Noon </i>was catastrophic for the filmmakers' personal relationships and challenging, at best, for their professional careers. Stanley Kramer and Carl Foreman's friendship and partnership ended when Foreman's associate producer credit was withdrawn from the film, and Kramer tried to get Foreman removed from the production. While Zinnemann, Cooper, and others came to Foreman's aid, the screenwriter eventually fled to England to seek work. After completing <i>High Noon</i>, the last picture of his United Artists deal, Kramer headed to Columbia, where he had a signed a lucrative contract. While he had some success with <i>The Caine Mutiny</i> and <i>The Wild One</i>, the Columbia contract did not bring the bounty of commercial or critical successes the studio hoped for. By 1955, Kramer was back with United Artists, though as a director rather than a producer. Fred Zinnemann won an Oscar for his direction of another classic,<i> From Here to Eternity</i>, the year after <i>High Noon</i>'s release, starting a remarkable run of movies that lasted well into the 1970s. Gary Cooper emerged from <i>High Noon</i> bigger than ever. Cooper appeared and remained on the Top Ten Box Office Stars list until 1957, four years before his death from cancer at the age of 60 in 1961.<br />
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Carl Foreman survived, although his career was permanently damaged by the 1950s' Hollywood blacklist. In Europe, he wrote a few screenplays using an alias, including the colossal hit, <i>The Bridge on the River Kwai</i>. Because he was still on the blacklist, his name, along with co-writer and fellow blacklist victim, Michael Wilson, was not used. The author of the book on which the screenplay was based, Pierre Boulle, received sole authorship on the film, which won an Oscar for its screenplay.<br />
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Carl Foreman eventually broke free of the blacklist, forming his own production company, and writing and producing the classic World War II action film,<i> The Guns of Navarone</i>, in 1961. His company also made <i>Born Free</i>, a big financial hit, in 1966. His last credit was for the script of 1980's disaster film, <i>When Time Ran Out, </i>a dismal failure. Both Foreman and Michael Wilson's names were posthumously reinstated to the film of <i>The Bridge on the River Kwai</i> and the Best Screenplay Oscar in 1984, the same year Foreman died of cancer at the age of 69.<br />
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Sources: Wikipedia<br />
<i>Stanley Kramer Film Maker</i> by Donald Spoto<br />
<i>Reel Facts</i> by Cobbett Steinberg<br />
IMDb<br />
High Noon and Johnny Guitar DVD {Olive Films}<br />
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Edited by Susannah Northart<br />
Written by Nick PattersonNick Pattersonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09555378788567081907noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3984205935625085047.post-32468901178722570872017-07-30T08:26:00.001-07:002017-07-30T08:29:24.794-07:00The Confessional: Sex and the Single Girl<i>Confession is one of the best known sacraments of the Catholic Church. Though this is not a religious blog, per se, movies are certainly my religion of choice. Therefore, I have decided to embark on a new series to be used as often the mood strikes me. In The Confessional, I will discuss certain movies that I have come to embrace for strictly personal reasons. These movies are my guilty pleasures--ones I find entertaining, enlightening, and/or just plain fun that critics, scholars, and historians have neglected, forgotten, or perhaps never even seen. I hope you will allow me this indulgence. </i><br />
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One of my first great memories of watching movies on television is the night my older sister and I stayed up late on a Saturday to watch Natalie Wood and Tony Curtis in the comedy, <i>Sex and the Single Girl</i>. We laughed and laughed at <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QwQk-gwO4Uo&t=85s&spfreload=10" target="_blank">Henry Fonda and Lauren Bacall's funny dance</a> (they were doing the Twist) in which nothing but their arms seemed to move; Larry Storch's bewildered CHP ("My motorcycle. My motorcycle!"); Rudy, Mel Ferrer's exasperating, shallow, wannabe gigolo co-worker of Wood's Dr. Helen Gurley Brown ("Oh, shut up, Rudy!"), and a myriad of other scene stealers. Coming home from a night out, my parents couldn't figure out what my sister and I found so amusing.<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><span style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CKg83J-wP4Y&t=30s" target="_blank"><img border="0" data-original-height="456" data-original-width="580" height="251" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-QfT4e00bVAY/WW2BRegJQzI/AAAAAAAAFSc/dfvJYaF9JcgWB5KWMbkKV5uaILgbJJmiQCLcBGAs/s320/sex-and-the-single-girl-movie-poster-1965-1020226950.jpg" width="320" /></a></span></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CKg83J-wP4Y&t=30s" target="_blank">Poster art for the film</a></td></tr>
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If I remember correctly, I saw the movie for the first time in the late 1960s when it was just a few years old. I'm sure it was my sister's idea to watch the movie; at ten, I was far too young to appreciate the finer points of pretty much any movie. Not that <i>SatSG</i> has finer points. The movie was a kind of mid-Sixties screwball comedy disguised as a sex romp before the sexual revolution took place. By today's standards, it<i> </i>is more than a little bit innocent (or, you know, retrograde) in its attitude toward its titular subjects.<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-I1__1C7rFj8/WW2Ceejkn6I/AAAAAAAAFSk/oINLTNaeHuQ6RWUPmNAz8m4ehaqjjqfzQCLcBGAs/s1600/Sex-and-the-Single-Girl-withtcurtis.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="722" data-original-width="1269" height="182" src="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-I1__1C7rFj8/WW2Ceejkn6I/AAAAAAAAFSk/oINLTNaeHuQ6RWUPmNAz8m4ehaqjjqfzQCLcBGAs/s320/Sex-and-the-Single-Girl-withtcurtis.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">After supposedly saving his life, Natalie Wood's Helen Brown brings Curtis' Bob Weston<br />
back to her place to dry off in one of the film's sexiest scenes. </td></tr>
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A little background: <i><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sex_and_the_Single_Girl" target="_blank">Sex and the Single Girl</a></i> was a non-fiction, self-help book written by Helen Gurley Brown. Originally published in 1962, the book attempted to aid single girls who wish to explore the world, including being single, having a career, and sex without marriage. Brown's book tried to show single women that a life alternative to the standard one of love and marriage might be both possible <i>and</i> preferable.<br />
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<i>Sex and the Single Girl</i>, the book, was a bestseller, but when Warner Brothers acquired the film rights, the studio had no idea how to adapt it for the screen. Ultimately, Warners kept only the book's title and its author's name for the main character. The rest of it went in the trash can. The studio had to make something (fictional--a documentary wasn't even considered) out of nothing, so why not a sex farce? Push convention as far as the early 1960s would allow, mix the ingredients, throw it against the wall, and see what stuck.<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Bob Weston, playboy extraordinaire, listens as his next door neighbor,<br />
Frank Broderick (Henry Fonda), pours out his marital grief. </td><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"></td></tr>
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What stuck was a sexy, occasionally raunchy, chauvinistic time capsule that was popular enough with audiences to land the film on <i>Variety's </i>list of the top twenty highest grossing movies of 1964. Though not popular today--seldom even remembered--<i><a href="http://www.tcm.com/tcmdb/title/16095/Sex-and-the-Single-Girl/articles.html" target="_blank">Sex and the Single Girl</a></i> does, indeed, transport me to a time when women in movies were still called girls (which never fails to knock me sideways), and the old (wink, wink) it's-ok-for-men-to-fool-around-but-women-cannot-even-look-at-a-man double standard still applied. The early-to-mid Sixties were rife with these kind of films, usually brought to America's movie screens with Doris Day, Rock Hudson, Sandra Dee, Cary Grant, Jack Lemmon, and Debbie Reynolds, among others. Some had a genuine wit or point of view (<i>Some Like It Hot, The Apartment) </i>or were disguised as something other than they were (<i>How to Murder Your Wife</i>, <i>Breakfast at Tiffany's</i>), yet they all amounted to the same thing: the virgin will not become a nun ... or stay single.<br />
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In spite of its deep roots in traditional boy-meets-girl storytelling, <i>Sex and the Single Girl</i> was ahead of its time in some respects. After all, <i>Sex and the City</i> basically navigated the same terrain thirty-plus years later, albeit with a more contemporary (i.e., liberated) perspective. Appreciation of <i>Sex and the Single Girl</i> may depend on the viewer's frame of mind. When I first saw it, the storyline of a hack journalist setting out to expose the virginity of a sex therapist was titillating to me in the extreme. No matter how tame it looks today, there is <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fA1NndWseyo" target="_blank">a pretty frisky scene</a> in the film in which Wood and Curtis turn down the lights while clothed only in revealing robes. <i>Racy!</i><br />
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The movie plays out a veritable potpourri of mid-Sixties angst and cultural cliches. Tony Curtis's playboy character, Bob Weston, writes for <i>STOP</i>, a "filthy rag" of a magazine run almost exclusively by white, middle-aged-to-old men (fact is, Curtis seems the youngest, and he was nearly forty at the time). The clinic where Natalie Wood's Dr. Helen Gurley Brown works is as sexist as the <i>STOP</i> staff. And Bob's neighbors, Frank and Sylvia Broderick (he's a sad sack; she's a shrew), hilariously played by Henry Fonda and Lauren Bacall, are crazy for each other yet do nothing but fight.<b> </b>When I watch the movie now, it's hard not to believe in that notion of the early Sixties as a more innocent time. I take joy in its extremely simple pleasures--broad comic farce played by an expert cast, the suggestion that a naked back is as sexy as a naked front, and a resolution in which they all live happily ever after.<br />
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If only life could be like this. <sigh>Nick Pattersonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09555378788567081907noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3984205935625085047.post-65637955692531442002017-07-16T20:06:00.001-07:002017-07-16T20:06:58.080-07:00Crush of the Week: Carroll BakerShe turned 86 on May 28, 2017. That sounds awfully old for an actress whose film persona oozed sex. But however brief her reign, <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carroll_Baker" target="_blank">Carroll Baker</a> was the mid-Sixties answer to the vacuum left by Marilyn Monroe's death. <br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-DLyAx6MEY44/Vz6B__uloPI/AAAAAAAAEvA/O9OT8HyEOwI1MxGz2_3oVHhbxsdwJjQcACLcB/s1600/Carroll-Baker-1965%2BHarlow.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="170" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-DLyAx6MEY44/Vz6B__uloPI/AAAAAAAAEvA/O9OT8HyEOwI1MxGz2_3oVHhbxsdwJjQcACLcB/s400/Carroll-Baker-1965%2BHarlow.JPG" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Baker as Jean Harlow in the 1965 film <i>Harlow</i>:<br />
The film pretty much ended her career in Hollywood.</td></tr>
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Before her career went the route of sex, cheesecake, and Playboy photo shoots, playing Jean Harlow wannabes in movies like <i>The Carpetbaggers</i> and a version of the real Harlow in the 1965 film of the same name, Carroll Baker was a talented actress. A product of New York's <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Actors_Studio" target="_blank">Actor's Studio</a>, Baker's film debut came in an Esther Williams movie called <i>Easy to Love</i> in 1953. 1956 was Baker's breakout year with two films both regarded as classics: George Stevens' sprawling rendering of Edna Ferber's epic novel of Texas oil and cattle, <i>Giant, </i>and Elia Kazan's take on Tennessee Williams' seamy, steamy <i>Baby Doll</i>, with Ms. Baker in the title role as Karl Malden's child bride.<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Amazing billboard at New York City's Astor Theater<br />
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<i><a href="https://youtu.be/elMP6PqGBo0" target="_blank">Giant</a></i> was one of 1956's most anticipated movies after the recent death of its star, James Dean. <i><a href="http://www.tcm.com/tcmdb/title/76242/Giant/articles.html" target="_blank">Giant</a></i> is a huge film, sprawling and not quite certain of whether it wants to be a love story or a social drama about class distinction and racial equality. Baker plays Luz Benedict II, the oldest daughter of Bick and Leslie Benedict as played by Rock Hudson and Elizabeth Taylor (her brother is played by future biker and wild man, Dennis Hopper. Some family!). Baker's Luz falls hard for Dean's Jett Rink, an all-around scoundrel, whose real love for Taylor's Leslie is unrequited. A scene between Baker and Dean--a favorite of mine--takes place in his new hotel shortly before its grand opening. Dean's Jett--by now an alcoholic mess--proposes marriage, which Baker's Luz gently talks him out of.<br />
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Carroll Baker's other film that year--the one that sealed her cinematic fate--was Kazan's <i><a href="https://youtu.be/y5EXUkcLejY" target="_blank">Baby Doll</a></i>. Based on Tennessee Williams' play <i>27 Wagons Full of Cotton</i>, <i><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Baby_Doll" target="_blank">Baby Doll</a> </i>was condemned upon release by the Catholic Church. The film is a comically absurd yet extremely suggestive study of misogyny and greed. From scene one, Baker nearly dominates the screen as Baby Doll, more than keeping pace with the masterful work of her co-stars, Eli Wallach and Karl Malden. Malden--always good--brings the ignorance and lust of Baby Doll's husband, Archie, front and center.<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Carroll Baker in the nightie that gave birth to the term "Baby Doll."<br />
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Carroll Baker does an terrific job as the flirtatious yet virginal Baby Doll. Whether parading around in her short,"babydoll" nightgown or eating an ice cream cone in the back seat of a convertible, Baby Doll appears aware of her sexuality, yet maintains an innocence as she remains ignorant of the lust she generates in the entire male population of her Mississippi town. The eroticism of Baker's scenes with Archie's rival, Silva Vacarro (Eli Wallach), is intense even sixty-plus years removed. It's a wonder the film got made at all. <i>Baby Doll </i>was <i>the</i> scandalous movie of its day, though still classy enough to gain four Oscar nominations: Carroll Baker for Best Actress, Mildred Dunnock for Best Supporting Actress (as Aunt Rose Comfort), Tennessee Williams for Best Screenplay, and Boris Kaufman for his magnificent cinematography.<br />
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Under contract to Warner Bros., after <i>Baby Doll</i> Baker declined the part of Diana Barrymore in <i>Too Much, Too Soon</i> and went on suspension, missing out on MGM's version of <i>The Brothers Karamazov. </i>The Warner's contract also prevented Baker from making MGM's <i>Cat on a Hot Tin Roof</i> and <i>The Three Faces of Eve</i> at Fox<i>. </i>Clearly her contract was holding her back.<br />
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When the suspension was lifted Baker made <i><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rY7PSt91TKI" target="_blank">The Big Country</a></i>. Directed by William Wyler, this 1958 western is often overlooked when great films of that genre are discussed, but the film is a good one and a big one. Starring Gregory Peck, Jean Simmons, Charlton Heston, and Burl Ives in a Best Supporting Actor Oscar-winning role, it did well at the box office. Baker is good as Patricia Terrill, a woman completely different from Baby Doll.<br />
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Owing Warner's one more film on her contract, after <i>The Big Country</i>, Baker played in <i>The Miracle</i>. Then she moved across town to Paramount for a comedy with the "King," Clark Gable, <i>But Not For Me</i>, an enjoyable film, after which she found herself in a film as controversial as <i>Baby Doll</i>.<br />
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<a href="http://www.tcm.com/tcmdb/title/17773/Something-Wild/articles.html" target="_blank">1961's <i>Something Wild</i></a> was directed by Baker's then-husband, Jack Garfein. Financed by Baker and Garfein, <i>Something Wild</i> was meant to prove to Hollywood that Garfein was a top flight filmmaker and get Baker's career as a serious actress back on the track. Unfortunately, it nearly ruined it.<br />
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<i>Something Wild</i> tells the story of Mary Ann (Baker), a college student who is brutally raped one night while walking home from school, and the effect the rape has on her psyche. Traumatized, a suicidal Mary Ann is stopped from jumping off a bridge by Mike (Ralph Meeker), a lonely auto mechanic. Sympathetic, he takes her back to his small apartment, tells her to stay until she feels ready to go home, and leaves. He comes back several hours later, drunk, and makes stumbling advances, grabbing her. Fighting back she kicks him and hits him in the face, but he will not let her leave. Mike asks her to marry him, but she refuses. Though Mary Ann manages to escape one day when Mike leaves the door unlocked, after wandering the city and sleeping in Central Park, she returns to Mike.<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><img border="0" height="311" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-uOLIkNni5Nc/V0FKnRH4pyI/AAAAAAAAEw8/cdBdOPhJJTgZZ4-syF-nLDcGn3w_dY3owCLcB/s400/carroll-bakerBath.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;" width="400" /></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Baker as a rape victim in the independently made <i>Something Wild</i>, 1961</td></tr>
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The film got mixed notices from critics and a cold shoulder from filmgoers. <i>Something Wild</i> was ignored for years before a small cult surged around the film, started by bloggers like me. Seen today the film plays ambiguously. Its tone is mysterious, and its subject is disturbing even by today's standards. Its technical work anticipates the ground-breaking work to come later in the Sixties and into the Seventies with much location work in New York City. But the film's failure pushed Baker back to Hollywood with its mega-watt stars and big budget features. <br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><br />
<a href="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-QcQsVZq7R90/V1ycQIOLN2I/AAAAAAAAEyY/rP9GAJAfmGkVv7zlCZPakMZhEUjzdSoYACLcB/s1600/HowWestWonRiversBaja.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="140" src="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-QcQsVZq7R90/V1ycQIOLN2I/AAAAAAAAEyY/rP9GAJAfmGkVv7zlCZPakMZhEUjzdSoYACLcB/s400/HowWestWonRiversBaja.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Baker, Debbie Reynolds, Karl Malden, and Agnes Moorhead<br />
in the epic <i>How The West Was Won</i>, 1962</td></tr>
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First up was 1962's <i><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gW9o2nR11DM" target="_blank">How The West Was Won</a></i>. Filmed in Cinerama and top lined with heavy hitting stars like John Wayne, James Stewart, Henry Fonda, Gregory Peck, Debbie Reynolds, and Richard Widmark, <i>HTWWW</i> is an entertaining (yet not always accurate) ride through the history of the American West. The film is broken up into five sections: The Rivers, 1839; The Plains, 1851; The Civil War, 1861-1865; The Railroad, 1868; and The Outlaws, 1889. More important for Baker was the movie's huge box office, making nearly $50 million worldwide and giving her the biggest success since her <i>Giant </i>days. Next came the movie, which I will forever associate with Ms. Baker, <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4lpS-QF6h2Q&spfreload=10" target="_blank">1964's frolic, <i>The Carpetbaggers</i></a>.<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-EJariTwFzpA/V1-MAPuR7tI/AAAAAAAAEys/_-qDhOm2Efwjc7K8n0TwSpM21gQkQaE1gCLcB/s1600/CarrollBakerCarpetbaggers.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-EJariTwFzpA/V1-MAPuR7tI/AAAAAAAAEys/_-qDhOm2Efwjc7K8n0TwSpM21gQkQaE1gCLcB/s400/CarrollBakerCarpetbaggers.jpg" width="391" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The chandelier scene from 1964's <i>The Carpetbaggers</i></td></tr>
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In 1964, I was five years old. In my young brain, Carroll Baker was (suddenly) the naughtiest woman I had ever seen. And it is with this film that her sex symbol status is reinforced, though the Carroll Baker of 1964 was not the same woman as Carroll Baker of 1956. She had matured into an even more beautiful woman. I don't know when <i>The Carpetbaggers</i> was first shown on network television, but when it did, I was watching it in our family room, probably sitting on the shag carpet, eating popcorn, and wondering what it was all about. I didn't know a a thing about Alan Ladd, who played Nevada Smith a.k.a., Max Sand, or George Peppard who played Jonas Cord (based--very loosely--on Howard Hughes), but I sure as hell thought I knew what Ms. Baker as Rina Marlowe (supposedly based on Jean Harlow) was up to when she was scantily clad on top of the chandelier or rolling around on a bed telling Peppard to "love me, Jonas, love me!"<br />
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<i><a href="http://www.tcm.com/tcmdb/title/4478/The-Carpetbaggers/articles.html" target="_blank">The Carpetbaggers</a> </i>was the biggest financial success of 1964 ($28 million gross in US) and became one of those bad-movies-I-love, a camp classic alongside 1967's so-bad-it's-good <i>Valley of the Dolls</i>. The result of all this box office gold was a boon to Ms. Baker's career as an international sex symbol. After the death of Marilyn Monroe in 1962, audiences and press were on the lookout for the next blonde bombshell, and Baker was the first flavor of the month to appear. Unleashed on the American public in the spring of 1964, the film pushed the censors of the day about as far as they could go, including a brief nude scene with Ms. Baker.<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-QkMwNZ6rlHk/WVl14fLPIaI/AAAAAAAAFQw/tUUqz400Kr8SxU8JOxDZZ7E7BSCobGV8QCLcBGAs/s1600/carrollbakercheyennea2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="254" data-original-width="550" height="183" src="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-QkMwNZ6rlHk/WVl14fLPIaI/AAAAAAAAFQw/tUUqz400Kr8SxU8JOxDZZ7E7BSCobGV8QCLcBGAs/s400/carrollbakercheyennea2.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Baker embraces a young Indian girl in John Ford's swan song to<br />
the American West, <i>Cheyenne Autumn</i>. Dolores Del Rio is on the left.</td></tr>
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John Ford's <i>Cheyenne Autumn </i>was the great director's swan song to the western form he loved so much, and also served as his tribute to the American Indian, which he has been accused of misrepresenting in previous films. Based on actual events, the film about 300 starved and weary Cheyennes trek from their reservation in Oklahoma territory back to their home in Wyoming takes Baker, who plays a Quaker school teacher, about as far from the sleazy world of Harold Robbins as possible. Baker's subsequent films were <i>The Greatest Story Ever Told</i>, George Stevens' ponderous take on the life of Christ, in which she had a cameo; <i>Sylvia</i>, a drama with Peter Lawford, Aldo Ray, Joanne Dru, and Edmund O'Brien with Baker as a scheming prostitute; the entertaining yet hard to find <i>Mister Moses</i> with the always watchable Robert Mitchum as a con man trying to convince an African tribe to relocate for their own safety; and <i><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0EuL9aCRAPs" target="_blank">Harlow</a></i>, a biopic very loosely based on <a href="http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/11347918-harlow" target="_blank">a book about the first blonde bombshell</a>, Jean Harlow. A movie that blatantly disregarded the facts, <i>Harlow</i> is true trash, albeit with a good cast (Red Buttons, Peter Lawford, Angela Lansbury, Martin Balsam), that brought Baker back to the land of <i>The Carpetbaggers</i> (i.e., sex, sin, and scandal). This time out, however, the film did poor business.<br />
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This post-<i>Carpetbaggers</i> flurry of failures effectively ended Baker's career in Hollywood. In the late Sixties, Baker relocated to Italy where she made a slew of thrillers with names like <i>Orgasmo</i>; <i>The Sweet Body of Deborah</i>; <i>So Sweet ... So Perverse</i>; and<i> Her Harem</i>. In June 1969, <i>The New York Times</i> published the article titled, "Whatever Happened to Baby Doll?," which sums up what audiences in America were wondering. Her European stay, which lasted about ten years, did bring financial stability for the actress, whose films were successful there but got limited bookings in the States. In 1977, Baker returned stateside in <i>Andy Warhol's Bad </i>as the owner of a beauty shop who makes extra money by operating a murder-for-hire side business.<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-RX5NTaKdkGk/WVmMIqjFcdI/AAAAAAAAFRM/UAZNofE4C6w2yBOB9rgbu6M0WY68etN4wCLcBGAs/s1600/carrollbakersweetbody.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="357" data-original-width="701" height="162" src="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-RX5NTaKdkGk/WVmMIqjFcdI/AAAAAAAAFRM/UAZNofE4C6w2yBOB9rgbu6M0WY68etN4wCLcBGAs/s320/carrollbakersweetbody.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Baker in 1969's <i>The Sweet Body of Deborah</i>, one of her many European films<br />
that got limited playing in American theaters </td></tr>
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Back in the US, Baker made the low budget <i>The Sky is Falling</i>, reuniting with her <i>Giant </i>co-star, Dennis Hopper<i>,</i> who was also in the career doldrums. Baker also appeared in stage productions of <i>Bell, Book and Candle; </i>W. Somerset Maugham's <i>Rain</i>; and <i>Lucy Crown</i>, which was based on a story by Irwin Shaw. Divorced from Jack Garfein in 1969, Baker married for a third time in 1978 to British actor, Donald Burton. During the 1980s Baker began her long career as a character actress in films, including <i>The Watcher in the Woods</i> opposite Bette Davis; Bob Fosse's last film,<i> </i>1983's <i>Star 80</i>, about the brief, tragic life of Playboy centerfold and budding actress Dorothy Stratten; <i>Ironweed </i>with Jack Nicholson and Meryl Streep; and <i>Kindergarten Cop</i>, a big money-spinner starring former bodybuilder and future California governor, Arnold Schwarzenegger. Baker remained busy in television as well, appearing in <i>Murder, She Wrote </i>and <i>L.A. Law</i>, among other series. Her final film was 2000's <i>Another Woman's Husband</i>. I haven't seen much of her post-Sixties work, but I will always be grateful to Carroll Baker's Rina Marlowe, a performance that taught me what sex symbols are all about.<br />
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Sources : IMDB<br />
Wikipedia<br />
Baby Doll : An Autobiography by Carroll Baker <br />
Images courtesy of the Internet<br />
Baby, I Don't Care by Lee Server<br />
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Nick Pattersonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09555378788567081907noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3984205935625085047.post-74599716290274924602017-07-03T19:45:00.001-07:002017-07-03T20:01:48.063-07:00Hollywood's Endless BummerOk, so, this is a letter of complaint. In my long, long history of movie-going, I don't think I've seen the likes of the box office--much less creative--returns from the summer's "blockbusters" since ... well, actually I can't think of a worse time to be an avid moviegoer.<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Another in an unending number of <i>Alien</i> sequels</td></tr>
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Hollywood, running itself into the ground out of an intense fear of failure, is giving us tent pole sequels and pre-fab titles like <i>Baywatch</i>, which was neither an extraordinary--or even mediocre--television show. <i>Baywatch</i> the movie has suffered a worse fate. It was dead on arrival, one of 2017 summer movie season's many casualties. I have to ask the question: Who the f*** are running these studios? Why oh why can't these Hollywood movie conglomerates remove their heads from their backsides and come up with something worthwhile? Remakes, retreads, reboots, sequels, prequels, and rip-offs dominate and strangle our cinema screens. Turning back the clock seems to be the go-to action rather than actual creativity. <br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Does this poster really make you want to see this movie?</td></tr>
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There are many, many, many things wrong with Hollywood and its movies today, and one of the biggest flaws is the advertising. I mean, the Baywatch movie was DOA anyway, but its poster doesn't do it any favors. Other movies this season include a reboot of <i>The Mummy</i> franchise, Universal Pictures' effort to relaunch its classic horror icon. When I heard about this project, I questioned its validity. I mean, why make another <i>Mummy</i> movie? I understand that Universal has a strategy to remake its classic monster movies, bringing them up to date with the best CGI money can buy and signing a big, big star.<b> </b>With that combo who needs a original script? Well, I guess John Q. Public decided he did. <i>The Mummy</i> was budgeted at $125 million. As of this past weekend the film's has grossed about $75 million in the USA. Not exactly overwhelming box offices numbers.<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-Z4BHqzQ7JLA/WVRoxHBPJlI/AAAAAAAAFQA/HjHFmXQ9zT0ouX_VYCY7YmGcQaz7iDWigCLcBGAs/s1600/MummyKarloffcloseup.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="572" data-original-width="746" height="245" src="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-Z4BHqzQ7JLA/WVRoxHBPJlI/AAAAAAAAFQA/HjHFmXQ9zT0ouX_VYCY7YmGcQaz7iDWigCLcBGAs/s320/MummyKarloffcloseup.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Screen capture from the original 1932 version of <i>The Mummy</i></td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-LEpmb0WV94Y/WVRqDu_peaI/AAAAAAAAFQM/LC9tVfM2qGos4KUiaXqFh0ea9_PtYY6CgCLcBGAs/s1600/shit3.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="403" data-original-width="535" height="241" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-LEpmb0WV94Y/WVRqDu_peaI/AAAAAAAAFQM/LC9tVfM2qGos4KUiaXqFh0ea9_PtYY6CgCLcBGAs/s320/shit3.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Poster for <i>The Mummy, </i>2017<br />
Compare this with the previous picture and tell me which one looks creepier.</td></tr>
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All of this isn't new. Many critics have voiced this opinion before: Hollywood is creatively barren, especially when it comes to the summer movie season. There was a time when summer movie fare wasn't all sequels, comic books, and special effects. But something happened in the past twenty or thirty years. Success is one of the curses of the film business: Hollywood always thinks it can create, capture, seal, and maintain lighting in a bottle. But Hollywood is most exciting when a movie that no one thought would amount to much defies the odds and becomes a huge hit. <i>Star Wars</i> did it. So did <i>Jaws</i>. <i>Home Alone </i>is another example. <i>The Matrix </i>was unleashed without its own studio knowing the impact it would make. Like them or loathe them, these movies became box office record breakers, and they were all surprise hits. Even James Cameron's <i>Titanic</i> was predicted to flop due to its enormous cost. Yet the film became a phenomenon that millions went to see over and over again. And that leads me to another gripe I have with Hollywood: tracking box office returns.<br />
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Websites such as Box Office Mojo as well as more traditional sites like Variety report on the weekly returns of Hollywood's latest movie releases. However, these organizations routinely post results on a movie's gross intake. That is misleading. True box office success is the return on investment to the studio producing a movie. In other words, box office success is not about grosses but about rentals, and they account for about half a film's box office intake. Rentals are what the studios get back after theaters take their share. Gross doesn't mean anything. When <i>The Godfather</i> became an all-time box office success, it was a movie's rentals that was the standard, and that figure was approximately $100 million (around 500 million in 2017 dollars) in 1972-73. And that was only in North America. How many films today can make that claim? Today's movies--especially summer movies--are like television reruns. <i>Alien: Convenant</i>; <i>Spider-Man: Homecoming</i>; <i>The Mummy</i>; <i>Pirates of the Carribean: Dead Men Tell No Tales</i>; <i>Transformers: The Last Knight</i>; <i>Cars 3</i>; <i>Despicable Me 3</i>; and on and on. Of course, there are a few<b> </b>adult<b>-</b>themed films out there (<i>My Cousin Rachel</i> and <i>The Beguiled</i>, for example), but these movies are pushed so far under the radar that it's difficult even to find them in smaller markets. High quality as they may be, these movies get almost no publicity and are not tracked by programs like <i>Entertainment Tonight</i> due to their small theatrical roll out (around 750 screens versus 2,000-3,000 screens for the upcoming <i>Spider-Man </i>release). Consequently, the public is not aware these films are even out there.<br />
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With all this said, it's not just the major film studios that catch the brunt of my disdain. A good portion of it must go to today's movie-going public. People don't want to see something good--something that moves them, makes them laugh or cry. What was the last romantic comedy--once a staple of filmmaking--you saw? Was it any good? I cannot remember one. To me, it seems folks don't want to be surprised by the emotions a good movie may generate. It's like a mantra: give us the familiar s*** that we have seen over and over again. Reruns. <br />
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Any era in which The Rock is the country's number one box office draw is in trouble. Can anyone remember a line of dialogue from any movie of the past five years? Nothing like, "We're gonna need a bigger boat" or "Go ahead, make my day" or "I'm gonna make him an offer he can't refuse" or "Forget it, Jake. It's Chinatown." No? Me neither. Now I hear Paramount is moving forward with a sequel to (cue sarcasm) that all-time great movie, <i>Top Gun</i>. Is this what America and countries around the globe want? This latest example of Hollywood's creative bankruptcy is due to explode (like a bomb?) into your local cinemas in July 2019. Gee, I can hardly wait.<br />
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<b> </b>Nick Pattersonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09555378788567081907noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3984205935625085047.post-84032835863344031962017-03-19T17:54:00.000-07:002017-03-20T21:07:59.591-07:00"Tell Mama..... Tell Mama All": The Doomed Love of George Stevens' A Place in the Sun<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<img border="0" height="283" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-Rdbpf5P6CIc/WMikdD8R8cI/AAAAAAAAFLA/zjeFLneUCV8DnmUFacA_stFkKQb1Y96ogCLcB/s400/placeinthesunposter2.jpg" width="400" /></div>
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Greatness is a slippery slope, especially when it comes to film. Movies that are praised upon first release can seem static and dated ten years on. That is often why films that win the Academy Award for Best Picture are often seen as poor choices later while other, less praised films are deemed more significant later on. Then there are films that are praised for their craftsmanship, emotional impact, and artistic value from their inception, and whose reputation continues to grow. Successful films often capture lightning in a bottle. In 1951, director George Stevens made <i><a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0043924/?ref_=nv_sr_1" target="_blank">A Place in the Sun</a>, </i>a film that caught the post-World War II malaise, desire, ambition, and desperation better than any film of its time. <br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-L4JrtGoKtyg/WMOb2Vq6WFI/AAAAAAAAFKA/Rny0WVDSBWQaFlDU7cussWfaAcmti_shQCLcB/s1600/placeinthesun2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="292" src="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-L4JrtGoKtyg/WMOb2Vq6WFI/AAAAAAAAFKA/Rny0WVDSBWQaFlDU7cussWfaAcmti_shQCLcB/s400/placeinthesun2.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">"Don't do anything hasty." <br />
Angela's father gives his advice to his daughter and her lover.</td></tr>
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Based on the novel <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/An_American_Tragedy" target="_blank"><i>An American Tragedy</i> by Theodore Dreiser</a>, <i>A Place in the Sun</i> tells of George Eastman (Montgomery Clift), a working-class young man whose mother is dedicated to mission work for the poor and homeless. George, hard working but ambitious, hitchhikes from Chicago to go to work for his rich uncle, Charles Eastman, in his swimsuit factory. It's there George meets a lonely soul, the plain-looking Alice Tripp (Shelley Winters). The two begin to date--against company policy. During a plant inspection, Charles sees George toiling on the assembly line and decides to kick him up a rung in the factory. Invited to a party his uncle is throwing, George meets and is immediately smitten with Eastman family friend and socialite, Angela Vickers (Elizabeth Taylor). But complications arise when Alice discovers that she's pregnant with George's child. George, not wanting to lose Angela, wants to do right by Alice but wishes she'd just go away. Tragedy ensues.<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-o2hMLFRp5_A/WMSKPr8mTkI/AAAAAAAAFKY/jOC-REREKRwmQLUt6loUlk9zDpSQzUhegCLcB/s1600/Place-in-the-Sunalicet.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="232" src="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-o2hMLFRp5_A/WMSKPr8mTkI/AAAAAAAAFKY/jOC-REREKRwmQLUt6loUlk9zDpSQzUhegCLcB/s320/Place-in-the-Sunalicet.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The lonely people: George and Alice, before he meets Angela. </td></tr>
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The Paramount Pictures' release was critically praised from the moment it hit America's screens in August 1951, and when <a href="https://www.oscars.org/oscars/ceremonies/1952" target="_blank">the Academy of Motion Pictures Arts and Sciences announced its nominees</a>, <i>A Place in the Sun</i> received nine nominations, second only to Elia Kazan's <i>A Streetcar Named Desire</i>. Among its nominations were Clift for Best Actor, Winters for Best Actress, Stevens for Direction, Michael Wilson and Harry Brown for Screenplay, and the film for Best Picture. <i>Place</i> won in six of its nominated categories, losing Actor to Humphrey Bogart in <i>The African Queen</i> and Actress to Vivien Leigh in <i>Streetcar</i>. The biggest surprise of Oscar night 1952, however, was <i>An American in Paris</i>' win for Best Picture. Experts picked either <i>Place </i>or <i>Streetcar</i> to take the top prize, but Oscar had other plans. Obviously the 1951 films were a superior group, and tough choices had to be made, but I think Oscar fumbled when the Best Picture award was handed out. Much as I enjoy and admire Vincente Minnelli's musical, <i>A Place in the Sun </i>or <i>A Streetcar Named Desire</i> should have won. Only seven times in 89 years has a film won for screenwriting and direction while losing Best Picture as <i>A Place in the Sun </i>did (including, most recently, in 2002 when <i>The Pianist</i> took Screenplay and Director while <i>Chicago</i> won Picture).<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><img border="0" height="295" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-rqxTit8tEdY/WMSWD5XHKkI/AAAAAAAAFKo/Ss1nvmQxEokqfXJlifVYdKKKfAcdhMAvQCLcB/s400/place-in-the-sun-etaylorseductive.png" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;" width="400" /></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The beauty of a young Elizabeth Taylor: <br />
"Being exclusive? Being aloof? Being blue?"</td></tr>
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Despite the questionable results at the Academy Awards, <i>A Place in the Sun</i> is widely acknowledged as a superior film and is still remembered for the doomed love played out by Montgomery Clift and Elizabeth Taylor. Their scenes crackle with sexual energy and romantic longing. Hyperbole aside, they may be the most romantic couple in cinema history. Like many great movie romances, George and Angela are not together at the film's conclusion, which is significant. Think of all the great love stories in film history--Scarlett and Rhett in <i>Gone With the Wind</i>, Rick and Ilsa in <i>Casablanca</i>, Norman Maine and Vicki Lester from <i>A Star is Born</i>, Tony and Maria in <i>West Side Story</i>, Hubbell and Katie in <i>The Way We Were</i>. It's the tragic love, the doomed love that lives on in our collective memory. The couples that stay together tend to skew comedic: Nick and Nora Charles, innumerable Tracy and Hepburn pairings. Romantic comedy ends happily; romantic drama ends, if not tragic, at least sad. And the most tragic movie love of all may be George and Angela. <br />
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Before World War II, <i>A Place in the Sun's </i><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/George_Stevens#Filmography" target="_blank">director George Stevens</a> was known as an expert in light comedy. Such films as his Oscar-nominated 1943<i> </i>war-time laugh-fest, <i>The More The Merrier</i>; 1938's screwball classic, <i>Vivacious Lady</i>; the rousing adventure, <i>Gunga Din</i>; and possibly his best known pre-war hit<i>, </i>1942's <i>Woman of the Year</i>, the film that first brought Spencer Tracy and Katharine Hepburn together. When the U.S. entered the war, Stevens was just one of the movies' greats who left a thriving career behind, joining the U.S. Army Signal Corps in 1943. What Stevens witnessed while in Europe changed his life and his art forever. Stevens was one of the first to view the horrors of the Nazi concentration camp, Dachau. The pure evil Stevens saw altered his worldview and, consequently, the movies he made. Stevens, always a somewhat stoic character, became silent after the war, according to his fellow director, soldier, and friend, Frank Capra. His wife, Yvonne, said the same thing, adding that upon his return from the war, Stevens played golf, all day, for seven months. Stevens wasn't sure he would or could make another movie again; didn't know if he had a future in Hollywood. After re-gaining some enthusiasm with his adaptation of Broadway hit <i>I Remember Mama</i>, Stevens found the story he'd been looking for, one that reflected his somber, sullen view of post-war America: <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chester_Gillette" target="_blank">Dreiser's <i>An American Tragedy</i>, published in 1925 and based on a real incident in 1908</a>.<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-nA78Fo6RAOI/WMns5ltEB_I/AAAAAAAAFLg/NyE5Fs8O2-wrp1XmeD97-FjK4twOKVWlwCLcB/s1600/place-in-the-sun-theredlist.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="306" src="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-nA78Fo6RAOI/WMns5ltEB_I/AAAAAAAAFLg/NyE5Fs8O2-wrp1XmeD97-FjK4twOKVWlwCLcB/s400/place-in-the-sun-theredlist.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">George Stevens directing his two stars. </td></tr>
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As the script evolved, Stevens slowly made the the film a romantic tale of false hopes and doomed love. According to Marilyn Ann Moss's fine biography of the director, Stevens skewed the story in George Eastman's favor by turning Shelley Winters' Alice into a shrew and and molding Taylor's Angela into a girl of fantastical beauty and romantic affection. Further empathy for George was generated via casting of Raymond Burr, then well-known for playing villains (and years away from his long-running gig as television's top lawyer Perry Mason), as the District Attorney eager to convict George of Alice's murder. With these elements plus Montgomery Clift's creation of a man whose life is being pulled out from under him, audiences are hard pressed not to be caught up in the romantic, tragic drama. <br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-GwRTHsKOXFk/WMtNMlELTnI/AAAAAAAAFLw/i7h5-2ehL00Q-Xm42JnvK5IXXWPYiEJ3QCLcB/s1600/placeinthesun.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="266" src="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-GwRTHsKOXFk/WMtNMlELTnI/AAAAAAAAFLw/i7h5-2ehL00Q-Xm42JnvK5IXXWPYiEJ3QCLcB/s400/placeinthesun.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">One of the many scenes in which Elizabeth Taylor's<br />
nurturing Angela holds Montgomery Clift's George in her arms.</td></tr>
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The story goes that night before the famous love scene was filmed--the one that confirms George and Angela's passionate devotion--Stevens was up until two in the morning rewriting to give the scene the vitality it needed. Stevens knew it would be the centerpiece of the movie. If this scene didn't work, the movie would fall apart, so it had to be extraordinary. When Taylor saw the new pages the next morning, she balked, thinking the lines ludicrous. "Excuse me, but what the hell is this?" she demanded. Stevens later recalled Taylor's outrage, stating she was "jumping into a sophistication beyond her years" (Taylor was only seventeen when filming began in 1949). The scene itself is one of American cinema's finest examples of passion. Stevens smothering close-ups of the lovers makes the audience a voyeur, inappropriately invading the privacy of their unexpected, frantic, intoxicating romance. "Are they watching us?" Taylor says suddenly as she turns toward the camera--nearly looking directly at it--before she practically pushes Clift onto the veranda and into their private moment. Both actors are marvelous in the scene, but Taylor especially owns it with the "[t]ell mama" line as well as her flirtation when telling Clift that they can have the whole summer together. Clift balks. Taylor says she could come and get him. Then she gives him a slight seductive smile and says, "You'll be my pick-up." It's an extraordinary moment.<br />
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As for Clift, it may be his best performance on screen, a list that includes four or five of the best performances ever captured on film. Clift's George Eastman is all hesitation and hunched uncertainty, a portrayal that seems like one of cinema's most blank<b> </b>of all time. Here is a man who is uncertain in everything he does. Witness his silence when riding in Taylor's car as she escorts him to the party at which they'll proclaim their great love for each other. It's only when Taylor coaxes it out of him that Clift can finally tell her how he feels about her. His emotion is like an overflowing river. This private love of two people is what I feel the film gets right. No one else can describe what two people--these two people--feel for each other. This is what still speaks to audiences. That sense of passion, of finding the one you love most in all the world, the feeling that you can never live without that person is what <i>A Place in the Sun</i> captures perfectly. <br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-roR6f_-HRhI/WMtUvcHL2jI/AAAAAAAAFME/9j8FRxGpJXUaSCUQQqvW1oal53VuYMcuQCLcB/s1600/placeinthesunboat.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="300" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-roR6f_-HRhI/WMtUvcHL2jI/AAAAAAAAFME/9j8FRxGpJXUaSCUQQqvW1oal53VuYMcuQCLcB/s400/placeinthesunboat.png" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">George in the boat with Alice, wishing her dead. </td></tr>
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As for the actual crime in the film, it's shot far away. As the boat overturns, the camera cuts back to a long shot, with only the sound of the loons on the lake encroaching on the silence. The audience is left to draw its own conclusions as to whether George actually killed Alice or only had his wish fulfilled by accident. Certainly George wishes Alice would disappear so that he can be with Angela and live his dream life, but does wish fulfillment make him a murderer? This is the great moral dilemma of the film. One of the beauties of <i>A Place in the Sun</i> is that the film allows us to draw our own conclusions. As for me, I think George is innocent of Alice's murder, and I don't blame him for wishing her dead. George has found his place in the sun, though it came at the greatest human cost--both Alice's life and his own. I don't think George really minded about his own life, though. If he couldn't have Angela and the love he dreamed of, he would rather be dead.<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-x2QnSPiwvQw/WM4XAb9YFcI/AAAAAAAAFMU/MhjQ31heVKkoYZXeQpvNv6BoKa0ar6jwgCLcB/s1600/place-in-the-sun-hysteria.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-x2QnSPiwvQw/WM4XAb9YFcI/AAAAAAAAFMU/MhjQ31heVKkoYZXeQpvNv6BoKa0ar6jwgCLcB/s1600/place-in-the-sun-hysteria.jpg" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Passion.</td></tr>
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Sources: <i>Giant: George Stevens, A Life on Film</i> by Marilyn Ann Moss<br />
<i>Montgomery Clift: Beautiful Loser</i> by Barney Hoskyns<br />
<i>Montgomery Clift: A Biography</i> by Patricia BosworthNick Pattersonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09555378788567081907noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3984205935625085047.post-3386675168190653362016-11-26T23:59:00.001-08:002016-11-27T20:40:42.584-08:00Underrated Gem: Humoresque<div style="text-align: center;">
"All my life I wanted to do the right thing. But it never worked out. I'm outside always looking in, feeling all the time I'm far away from home, and where home is I don't know. I can't get back to the simple, happy kid I use to be." <i> </i></div>
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<i>--</i>John Garfield's opening scene from <i>Humoresque</i> </div>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">A devastated John Garfield after Joan Crawford's death:<br />
<i> </i>the opening scene of <i>Humoresque, </i>1946</td></tr>
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In the early 1990s, I became infatuated with Oscar Levant. I'm not sure why, but I assume his wisecracking movie roles, especially in <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9FqrsDC5wMI" target="_blank">1946's <i>Humoresque</i></a>, had a lot to do with it. This Warner Brothers movie--a kind of rip-off of Clifford Odets' (who co-wrote this film)<i> Golden Boy</i>--won me over the first time I saw it many, many years ago. The soapy film starred Joan Crawford as an alcoholic, married, society dame (as co-star, John Garfield's character refers to her) who has a fondness for--as Garfield's cynical sidekick Oscar Levant so aptly puts it--"<i>la vie boheme</i>." Joan Crawford, who had been released by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (MGM) studios in 1943 after nearly twenty years, was considered somewhat washed up in Hollywood by the mid-Forties but made a huge comeback in 1945 with <i>Mildred Pierce</i>, grossing millions for Warners and nabbing an Oscar for Best Actress of 1945. <i>Humoresque</i> was her follow up to that classic film.<br />
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John Garfield--second billed--was also hitting a career peak after the 1945 film<i>, Pride of the Marines </i>(another underrated gem), and the <i>noir</i> scorcher, <i>The Postman Always Rings Twice</i>, opposite Lana Turner. Here, Garfield plays Paul Boray, a Lower East Side kid with a talent for the fiddle. (The violin playing was dubbed by the great <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bpnKaX5hdeU" target="_blank">Isaac Stern, who also served as Garfield's hand double</a>. The effect, still impressive some seventy years later, was achieved in the film by cutting the sleeves of Garfield's coat and shirt, allowing Stern's hands to substitute Garfield's.) <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oscar_Levant" target="_blank">Oscar Levant</a> plays Garfield's piano-playing friend (i.e., second banana) who gets the film's best lines. It's Oscar Levant playing Oscar Levant, which means a little piano and a lot of observation about life and love. Cutting remarks from the sidelines include, "It's not what you are, it's what you don't become that hurts." And,"I didn't make the world, I barely live in it." Levant's film career was just taking off at this point, despite his appearance in seven previous films. His most prominent role to date was the George Gershwin biopic, <i>Rhapsody in Blue</i>, released just a year before <i>Humoresque</i>, with Levant playing himself (he always played a variation on his own personality in his films, but in <i>Rhapsody</i> he was billed as Oscar Levant playing "Oscar Levant"). <br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-4sKseatZ6yQ/WCvQZIe0F-I/AAAAAAAAFBA/n4WZoNO_hTwhJzDpqOPM5NxwY3N5NAYmQCLcB/s1600/humoresque3.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="249" src="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-4sKseatZ6yQ/WCvQZIe0F-I/AAAAAAAAFBA/n4WZoNO_hTwhJzDpqOPM5NxwY3N5NAYmQCLcB/s320/humoresque3.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The three performers with the most screen time in the film<i><br /></i></td></tr>
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The film begins with Paul Boray as a child of eight years or so played by Bobby Blake, aka, <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_Blake_(actor)" target="_blank">Robert Blake</a> (yeah, <a href="http://www.nydailynews.com/news/crime/baretta-beats-rap-blake-acquitted-wife-slay-article-1.567619" target="_blank"><i>that</i> Robert Blake</a>) In <i>Humoresque</i>, he is quite affecting as a boy his parents don't really understand, especially his Papa (J. Carroll Naish). Momma (Ruth Nelson) gets him a bit more, but she is also a controlling type who who thinks no woman is good enough for her boy. Time goes by in one of those time-lapse montage Warners did to perfection in the Forties, and before you know it, little Paul Boray is a fully grown John Garfield, still practicing his violin while living at home. Fed up with a family that perceives him as a freeloader, Paul seeks out his piano-playing friend, Sid Jeffers (Oscar Levant), for advice on how to get ahead playing violin.<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-TbgUJwyCPQQ/WDpEfhORfLI/AAAAAAAAFDg/gLSTLMaPGpkooSa-7muWzSOlu2HySi46gCLcB/s1600/Humoresque-1946-21.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-TbgUJwyCPQQ/WDpEfhORfLI/AAAAAAAAFDg/gLSTLMaPGpkooSa-7muWzSOlu2HySi46gCLcB/s320/Humoresque-1946-21.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">A young Robert Blake with Oscar Levant, <i>Humoresque</i>, 1946</td></tr>
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Sid suggests going to the the home of Victor and Helen Wright. The Wrights are always hosting a party, and, as Sid tells Paul, he has been invited to a few for laughs: "I laugh at them or they laugh at me. I forget which." It's here--nearly 30 minutes into the film--that leading lady Joan Crawford appears. Crawford, playing Helen Wright, a married, neurotic, self-destructive society dame who drinks too much and likes to help struggling young artists, takes one look at Garfield's Paul playing his violin and is a goner ... though not before blowing cigarette smoke in his face as he is playing. Paul, however, is more than up for the challenge, playing <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oU_7wMEgUEA" target="_blank">Rimsky-Korsakov's "Flight of the Bumblebee"</a> after telling Helen that "New York is full of all kinds of animals. Not all of them are human." From this fateful introduction, we know they will fall in love. Tragic love. Besides Paul's complex relationship with Helen, he has a pseudo romance with childhood friend and fellow musician, Gina, played by Joan Chandler. (It's Gina who Momma feels is the right woman for her Paul, not that lush, Helen Wright.)<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u2ZALfasGjQ" target="_blank"><img border="0" src="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-DWgD2s78LMw/WDpL1oYIHjI/AAAAAAAAFDw/IRweNFUXlK0RWZckI3q0MvhTZPdSBRU1wCLcB/s1600/humoresquetumbler.gif" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">In case I failed to mention it, <i>Humoresque</i> is the kind of movie where<br />
the characters throw perfectly good cocktails against walls. </td><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><br /></td></tr>
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As their relationship deepens, Helen helps the talented Paul get an agent, and, as his fame in the rarefied world of classical music increases, a penthouse suite overlooking the East River. Despite all this success the couple's relationship is stormy at best. While listening to Wagner's <i>Tristan und Isolde</i> on the radio, the fragile, distraught Helen kills herself by walking into the Atlantic Ocean--a highly dramatic finish. It's in moments like this that the film simultaneously embraces and transcends its melodramatic, over-the-top qualities. These are also the moments that the film's detractors hold against it. For me, though, the tragic, nearly operatic melodrama is why I love the film so much. The cinema just doesn't make films as unapologetically romantic as <i>Humoresque </i>any more, and that's a real shame.<br />
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Made for two million dollars, <a href="http://www.tcm.com/tcmdb/title/619/Humoresque/articles.html" target="_blank"><i>Humoresque</i></a> is an impeccably crafted film. From its editing by studio favorite Rudi Fehr, the art direction of Hugh Reiticker, Joan Crawford's wardrobe by Adrian, the brilliant cinematography of Ernest Haller, the incredible work of Franz Waxman's music score, and Leo B. Forbstein's orchestration of the classic works of Wagner, Bizet, Divorak among others, the film stands as a time capsule of craftsmanship that has been lost in the shuffle of other, better known, films. <i>Humoresque</i> may contain Crawford's best performance--maybe even better than her Oscar-winning role in <i>Mildred Pierce</i>. Helen Wright is certainly a more complex role than Mildred, and Crawford hits all the right notes as a tragic woman for whom long-term happiness is an illusion. As for my buddy Oscar, I feel that this movie contains his best impersonation of himself, better than <i>Rhapsody in Blue</i>. Some may grow weary of his constant cynicism, but in this ultra-romantic setting, it's a relief--a bit of reality in this unrealistic-yet-touchingly-romantic fable of impossible love.<br />
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Sources: <i>The Films of John Garfield</i> by Howard Gelman<br />
<i>The Films of Joan Crawford</i> by Lawrence J. Quirk<br />
<i>John Garfield, The Illustrated History of the Movies</i> by George Morris<br />
<i>Joan Crawford, The Illustrated History of the Movies</i> by Stephen Harvey<br />
Wikipedia Page on <i>Humoresque</i>Nick Pattersonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09555378788567081907noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3984205935625085047.post-72869020762299264242016-11-19T20:59:00.000-08:002016-11-19T20:59:01.023-08:00Underrated Gem: Daughters Courageous Director <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Michael_Curtiz_filmography" target="_blank">Michael Curtiz's filmography</a> is so wide-ranging and accomplished, it is difficult not to perceive him as one of Hollywood's under-appreciated craftsman. Born Mihaly Kertesz in Budapest in 1888, Curtiz came to Hollywood in the summer of 1926 after signing a contract with Warner Brothers. He stayed at Warners for 28 years and made over 80 films for the company, including the classics <i>Casablanca</i> (for which he received a Best Director Oscar), <i>Adventures of Robin Hood</i>, <i>Angels With Dirty Faces</i>, <i>Mildred Pierce</i>, <i>Yankee Doodle Dandy</i>, <i>Captain Blood</i>, and <i>The Sea Hawk</i>. 1938, one of his best years, saw the release of <i>Robin Hood</i> and <i>Angels With Dirty Faces</i> as well as an adaptation of the Fannie Hurst book,<i> <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ClsfBZhViU0" target="_blank">Four Daughters</a></i>. Starring <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lane_Sisters" target="_blank">the Lane sisters--Priscilla, Rosemary, and Lola</a>--and Gale Page as the daughters, along Claude Rains and May Robson, the film was highly successful in its day and is chiefly remembered as the film that brought <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Garfield" target="_blank">John Garfield</a> to film audiences in the secondary-yet-pivotal role of Mickey Borden, the hard-luck, cynical city kid who finds himself in the midst of an all-American family. Garfield was nothing short of sensational and received a Best Supporting Actor Oscar nomination for his work. The film was such a smash that Warners wanted a sequel. But there was a problem: In the original film Garfield died. How do you bring back a film's most popular character if he's dead?<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Lobby card for thee film featuring Claude Rains with the Lane sisters and Gale Page</td></tr>
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What the film's writers, Philip and Julius Epstein, came up with was a story that had all the same actors playing essentially the same parts in a different setting and plot. That film, <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B7Yv5myjj2Q" target="_blank"><i>Daughters Courageous</i> (1939)</a>, worked beautifully. In fact, I think <i>Daughters Courageous </i>is a far better film than <i>Four Daughters</i>, and it surprises me that more people don't know of it. Claude Rains appears again as the father, though this time he plays a rascal who left his wife (<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fay_Bainter" target="_blank">Fay Bainter</a>) and four daughters (the three Lane sisters plus <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gale_Page" target="_blank">Gale Page</a>) twenty years ago, returning just as his wife has him declared legally dead so she can marry a well-off banker (Donald Crisp). Also returning are May Robson--now Fay Bainter's housekeeper instead of the girls' grandmother--and Jeffrey Lynn as a stage scenarist. And then there is John Garfield. Billed first in the credits this time (he was sixth in <i>Four Daughters</i>), Garfield plays Gabriel Lopez, a lazy, comically cynical, no-good-nik who falls so hard for Buff (Priscilla Lane) that he willingly goes to work for his father and proposes marriage to her. <br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><img border="0" height="265" src="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-LY3X8ikjlB8/WA1a2443TpI/AAAAAAAAE_4/wyrGqNsWGxs39QceCjzwKOoafG3vxtsBgCLcB/s400/daughters%2Bcourageous1.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;" width="400" /></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Priscilla Lane's Buff has never met anyone quite like John Garfield's Gabriel Lopez</td></tr>
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<i>Daughters Courageous </i>is as solidly performed, wittily scripted, and ably directed as nearly any film circa <a href="http://articles.latimes.com/1989-01-01/entertainment/ca-223_1_greatest-year" target="_blank">1939, the year widely regarded as the best in Hollywood history</a>. A viable argument could be made that if the film had been released in any other year it would be better known to today's audiences. Part of what makes <i>Daughters Courageous </i>so much fun and entertaining is watching the scenes that pair Garfield and <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Claude_Rains" target="_blank">Claude Rains</a> as the girls' absent father, Jim. Their characters are two sides of the same coin, with young Gabriel wanting to whisk Buff off to a life of wanderlust and
adventure, and aging Jim, tired after years of
wanderlust, wanting nothing more than to come back to the hearth and home of the family he left behind long ago. The scene when Garfield comes calling for Buff (only to find she's gone out with the reliable Jeffrey Lynn) and stumbles upon Rains is one of the best in all 1930's Hollywood cinema, with Garfield seeing through Rains' stories and Rains seeing his younger self in Garfield's dreamer.<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">One of the thing's love will make a man do, like serenading a girl with a accordion </td></tr>
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The film's most touching scenes are between Bainter's Nan and Rains' Jim Masters. There is genuine pathos when Jim, having ingratiating himself with his daughters, tells Nan how much the time since his return has meant to him and pleads, "Don't send me away. Don't send me back. I want to stay. I love you, Nan. I want my family back." But it's too little too late. Nan, though obviously still in love with Jim, tells him he must leave because, eventually, he will get the urge to go, and that will be devastating to the family. Nan is also thinking of Buff. She fears her daughter's attraction to Gabriel is due in large part to Jim's presence, and she doesn't want to see her daughter heartbroken. In the final scene Jim and Gabriel leave town as Nan marries Donald Crisp's steady, solid-yet-dull businessman.<br />
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All this family angst may seem a bit too much like a soap opera to all but the sob sisters, but if that's the case, I'll sob along. I love this movie and have for nearly forty years. <i>Daughters Courageous</i> is a film that is not afraid to wear its sentimentality on its cinematic sleeve, front and center. I think that its emotion is one of the film's finest qualities. From its first-rate script to its fine photography by the esteemed James Wong Howe, and the sincerity and believability the entire cast brings to the performances, this film rates among the best of its genre, the best of its time. With it, Michael Curtiz, who had a reputation as a taskmaster behind the camera, proved that he understood the human condition and also had a versatility few film directors truly excelled at.<i> Daughters Courageous </i>is not just an underrated gem; it is a forgotten one. I believe that anyone who watches cannot help but be affected by its story, its performances, and most of all, its heart.<br />
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Sources: <i>The Films of John Garfield</i> by Howard Gelman<br />
Wikipedia<br />
IMDBNick Pattersonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09555378788567081907noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3984205935625085047.post-54083682171868231582016-10-23T17:40:00.000-07:002016-10-23T17:40:48.156-07:00The Professionals: Richard Quine<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Richard Quine, between stars Jack Lemmon and Kim Novak,<br />
rehearsing a scene from his 1962 film, <i>The Notorious Landlady</i>.</td><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><br /></td></tr>
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<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richard_Quine" target="_blank">Richard Quine</a> has intrigued me for years. Long before I knew who he was, this film director held sway over me, thanks to his 1964 farce, <i>Sex and the Single Girl</i>, a film I have enjoyed since the late Sixties when it made an appearance on late-night television. Son of an actor, Quine was born in Detroit, Michigan, on November 12, 1920. Six years later his family relocated to Los Angeles, and Quine began work as a child actor on radio. He made his film debut in <i>Cavalcade</i>, which won the Best Picture Oscar of 1933, but left Los Angeles for New York City and Broadway a few years later, making his debut on The Great White Way in the 1939 musical <i>Very Warm for May</i>. The next year Quine was cast in the comedy<i> <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/My_Sister_Eileen_(play)" target="_blank">My Sister Eileen</a>, </i>starring Shirley Booth. The show was a huge success, and it led Quine back to Hollywood when Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer cast him in one of their "kids" musicals, <i>Babes on Broadway</i>, with Mickey Rooney and Judy Garland, in 1941. At MGM, Quine met a promising actress also working at the studio named Susan Peters. The two married in 1943.<br />
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December 1941 brought the United States' entry into World War II, and Quine began his service in the US Coast Guard. After the war, MGM dropped his acting contract and, he began to consider a life behind the camera instead of in front of it. It was also around this time that tragedy struck his wife, <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Susan_Peters" target="_blank">Susan Peters</a>. <br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-vg2NeXU5SWM/VtMbQ8C8xVI/AAAAAAAAEkQ/uz7t670ESBE/s1600/quinepeteresweddingday.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-vg2NeXU5SWM/VtMbQ8C8xVI/AAAAAAAAEkQ/uz7t670ESBE/s320/quinepeteresweddingday.jpg" width="252" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Richard Quine and Susan Peters on their wedding day.<br />
The marriage and their relationship would end after a tragic accident. </td></tr>
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Susan Peters had earned a Best Supporting Actress nomination for <i>Random Harvest--</i>her first substantive role--and her career at MGM was off to a promising start. On New Year's Day 1945, however, Quine and Peters were duck hunting when a rifle accidentally discharged, and Peters was shot. The bullet lodged in her spinal cord, and she was paralyzed for the rest of her life. The couple tried to make the best of it: In 1946 they adopted a boy, but ultimately they separated, with Peters charging Quine with cruelty, saying he would not speak to her for days at a time. They divorced in 1948, and Peters died in 1952 from complications stemming from her paralysis as well as depression. At this time in his career, Quine met an aspiring writer, Blake Edwards. The two met on Quine's first directorial effort, 1948's <a href="http://www.tcm.com/tcmdb/title/81124/Leather-Gloves/full-synopsis.html" target="_blank"><i>Leather Gloves</i></a>, when Edwards was a struggling actor cast in the film.They would subsequently collaborate on seven films written by Edwards or co-written by the pair, including Edwards' 1955 directorial debut, <i>Bring Your Smile Along. </i><br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Blake Edwards, with cigar, in the 1960s </td></tr>
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Richard Quine's career progressed steadily throughout the 1950s. Highlights included the <i>noir </i>drama, <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mYUO8T8oQrs" target="_blank"><i>Pushover</i> (1954)</a>, his first with muse Kim Novak; the <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3ItaESaGWMk" target="_blank">musical remake of <i>My Sister Eileen</i> (1955)</a>; and a pair of Judy Holiday vehicles, <i>The Solid Gold Cadillac </i>and <i>Full of Life</i> (both 1956). These were all solid box office winners produced with small budgets. 1957 saw a real breakout winner, military service comedy, <i>Operation Mad Ball</i>. Starring Jack Lemmon in the second of six collaborations with Quine<i> </i>(<i>My Sister Eileen </i>was the first), <i>Operation Mad Ball</i> pushed the comedic boundaries to the late Fifties' limit. The film was such a surprise hit that Columbia Pictures' Harry Cohn entrusted Quine with the adaptation of the Broadway hit, <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nDBbmP2TctE" target="_blank"><i>Bell, Book and Candle</i></a>. Starring Kim Novak and James Stewart fresh off Hitchcock's box office disappointment<i>, Vertigo</i>, with Lemmon in a secondary role, <i>BB&C</i> was a substantial hit for Columbia. With Novak more relaxed and natural under Quine's guidance the studio again paired the director and star for the sudsy, underrated<i> <a href="http://www.tcm.com/tcmdb/title/3863/Strangers-When-We-Meet/articles.html" target="_blank">Strangers When We Meet</a>. </i>If Richard Quine is remembered for anything in cinema history it should be for the natural, relaxed sexiness he coaxed out of Kim Novak on screen, something most of her other directors didn't seem capable of. <br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Quine with star and muse, Kim Novak </td></tr>
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Quine's next project was based on a best-selling novel and Broadway play,<i> The World of Suzie Wong</i>. <a href="http://moviecatholic.blogspot.com/2016/10/golden-holden-conclusion.html" target="_blank">Starring William Holden and newcomer Nancy Kwan, </a><i><a href="http://moviecatholic.blogspot.com/2016/10/golden-holden-conclusion.html" target="_blank">Suzie Wong</a></i> told the provocative story of architect Holden who chucks everything to go earn his living as an artist in Hong Kong. There he meets prostitute Suzie Wong. Attracted to her yet disturbed by her life, Holden and Kwan's Suzie fall in love, which raise complications to be overcome. The film was a big hit--number six at the nation's theaters.<i> </i><br />
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In 1962, Novak and Lemmon reunited--with Fred Astaire, no less--in Quine's quirky, Hitchcockian, romantic comedy, <i>The Notorious Landlady</i>, about an American, played by Lemmon, who works at the American embassy in London. Novak plays his landlady, who is suspected of killing her husband. While she is put on trial, she is released for lack of evidence (no corpse), so suspicions remain. Meanwhile, Lemmon and Novak fall in love. Response to the film was somewhat lackluster, and the release of <i>The Notorious Landlady</i> also saw the end of the Quine-Novak romance, which appeared to have run its course. <br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Quine with third wife, entertainer Fran Jeffries</td></tr>
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Quine moved on. In 1964, he directed two more romantic comedies: <i>Paris When It Sizzles</i>, a critical bomb starring William Holden and Audrey Hepburn; and <i>Sex and the Single Girl</i> with a stellar cast of Natalie Wood, Tony Curtis, Henry Fonda, Lauren Bacall, Mel Ferrer (Mr. Audrey Hepburn at the time), and Quine's future wife, <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oOLs0qYB-uI" target="_blank">Fran Jeffries</a><i>. </i><br />
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<i><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CKg83J-wP4Y" target="_blank">Sex and the Single Girl</a>--</i>an entirely fictional comedy based on the groundbreaking nonfiction book of the same name by Helen Gurley Brown--is one of my all-time guilty pleasures. Everything about this movie continues to bring joy to my inner pubescent boy: Natalie Wood's innocently sexy role as psychologist, Dr. Helen Gurley Brown; Tony Curtis's shameless playboy-cum-magazine writer, Bob Weston; Fonda and Bacall's constantly bickering-yet-obsessed couple, Frank and Sylvia Broderick; and Mel Ferrer's obnoxious clinic colleague, Rudy ("Oh, shut up, Rudy!"). <i>Sex and the Single Girl </i>offered about all the sex and innuendo this grade-school boy could hope for when I first saw it in the late Sixties. A precursor to an endless list of imitators, including <i>Sex and the City, </i>the film's plot concerns psychologist Helen Gurley Brown whose book, <a href="http://www.tcm.com/tcmdb/title/16095/Sex-and-the-Single-Girl/articles.html" target="_blank"><i>Sex and the Single Girl</i></a>, causes a scandal at her clinic and how Curtis tries to expose Helen as a fake (that is, a virgin), while at the same time falling in love with her (who wouldn't?). Quine, by now an old hand at such stuff, crams in some slapstick (Curtis's Bob, pretending to be Fonda's Frank, threatens suicide, falls off a pier and into the ocean, taking Helen, who has arrived to save him, into the water with him; the entire cast, including a beleaguered and/or unbalanced highway patrolman, played by Larry Storch, on a madcap chase through Los Angeles to the airport) as well as an inside joke regarding Curtis's resemblance to Jack Lemmon from that movie in which he dresses as a woman (1959's <i>Some Like It Hot</i>) as Curtis, after taking his suicidal ocean dive goes back to Helen's apartment to dry off and wears her robe (the movie's friskiest scene).<br />
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Richard Quine and Jack Lemmon worked together for the last time on 1965's <a href="http://www.tcm.com/tcmdb/title/17593/How-To-Murder-Your-Wife/articles.html" target="_blank"><i>How to Murder Your Wife</i></a>. This time capsule of a comedy has the quintessential bachelor mentality of its day (i.e., chauvinist by modern standards), yet at the time it was popular enough to land number eleven of the <i>Top Twenty Box Office Hits of 1965</i>. It was also the last substantial hit of Quine's career. Later that year, Quine made an off-beat, risky venture, <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Synanon_(film)" target="_blank"><i>Synanon</i></a>. Based on an actual rehab house of the same name, the film (which I haven't seen), released by Columbia Pictures, seems a curiosity in Quine's career.<br />
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1967 brought the director his last two real high-profile ventures. <i><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ujm7NsMOvrI" target="_blank">Hotel</a>,</i> based on a best-selling novel by Arthur <i>(Airport</i>) Hailey, boasted an all-star cast that included Rod Taylor, Karl Malden, Melvyn Douglas, Merle Oberon, Richard Conte, and Michael Rennie. Not a great success at the box office--it broke even--the film did lead to a semi-successful Aaron Spelling-produced television series in the 1980s, starring James Brolin and Connie Sellecca. The other film Quine directed that year was the adaptation of the groundbreaking off-Broadway play <i>Oh Dad, Poor Dad, Mamma's Hung You in the Closet and I'm Feeling So Sad. </i>With a cast that included Rosalind Russell, Barbara Harris, Robert Morse, Hugh Griffith,<i> </i>and Jonathan Winters, this film version did not live up to the stage version's expectations. The next couple of years found Quine involved in the less-than-stellar productions, <i>A Talent for Loving </i> and <i>The Moonshine War</i>, both starring Richard Widmark, who was also at a low point in his career. The films quickly disappeared. It was around this time-1970-that the director's marriage to Fran Jeffries ended, and Quine, with limited film prospects, took several television jobs. From 1972 to 1974, he directed three episodes of the popular Peter Falk series, <i>Columbo</i>, along with other shows. In 1974, Quine directed his first film in four years with the mystery thriller, <i>W</i>, starring supermodel Twiggy. The film came and went with barely a trace.<br />
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In 1979, Quine directed his last credited feature, <i><a href="http://www.tcm.com/tcmdb/title/87184/Prisoner-of-Zenda-The/" target="_blank">The Prisoner of Zenda</a>, </i>starring Peter Sellers. Two other, better productions preceded Quine's version of <i>Zenda</i>. Despite the presence of Sellers, the film didn't amount to much at the box office, and though it was nice to see Quine's name associated with an A-picture again, it was soon forgotten. Quine started on Sellers' next project, <i>The Fiendish Plot of Fu Manchu</i>, but he was fired while the film was in pre-production. It was the last project Richard Quine was associated with. Depressed and angry with an industry that hadn't allowed him to direct a quality film in nearly a decade, Quine died of a self-inflicted gunshot wound in June 1989. He was 68 years old.<br />
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Sources: Wikipedia<br />
<i>Kim Novak on Camera</i> by Larry Kleno<br />
<i> Jack Lemmon, The Pyramid Illustrated History of the Movies</i> by Will Holtzman<br />
<i>Kirk Douglas, The Pyramid Illustrated History of the Movies</i> by Joseph McBride<br />
<i>Golden Boy: The Untold Story of William Holden</i> by Bob Thomas <br />
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Nick Pattersonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09555378788567081907noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3984205935625085047.post-54876412045993339152016-10-09T20:14:00.004-07:002016-10-09T20:16:39.542-07:00Golden Holden, The ConclusionIn August 1959, William Holden, his wife Ardis, and their three children boarded a flight for Europe. Holden never looked back. He was joining a group of Hollywood stars who had discovered the tax break that came with living abroad for a portion of the year. When his business manager suggested Switzerland, Holden jumped at the chance: "Great! I'll start looking for a house." Holden had been ready to leave Hollywood behind for a while. He'd been traveling about 100,000 miles each year, and had seen and experienced much of the world. Now Holden could see even more--and profit from it. Holden drew ire from critics who viewed him only an opportunistic movie star, but he didn't care. As biographer Bob Thomas put it, Holden considered himself a citizen of the world.<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">In 1960's <i>The World of Suzie Wong</i>, Holden's artist falls for Nancy Kwan's prostitute.</td></tr>
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Bill Holden's first film after the decision to move to Europe was <i><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jnepiAcqb_g" target="_blank">The World of Suzie Wong</a></i>. Directed by the underrated Richard Quine, <i>Suzie Wong</i> tells the story of an American artist who settles in one of the seamier parts of Hong Kong. The hotel he lives in operates as a kind of flop house for prostitutes, of which Suzie Wong is one of the most popular. Holden played Robert Lomax, an artist who falls in love with Suzie, though complications arise before the traditional happy ending. Despite the film's unbelievable plot, <i>Suzie Wong</i> was a hit with stateside audiences to the tune of over $7 million 1960 dollars, making the film number seven on <i>Variety</i>'s yearly box office champions. It was to be Holden's last bona fide success for several years.<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Holden as the screenwriter in Richard Quine's<i> Paris When It Sizzles</i>, 1964.</td></tr>
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Holden had no films in circulation in 1961, but 1962 saw the release of three films in which he appeared: Leo McCarey's <i>Satan Never Sleeps</i>, George Seaton's <i>The Counterfeit Traitor--</i>by consensus the best of the three--and <i>The Lion</i>, directed by Jack Cardiff<i>. </i>None of these was a success, but <i>The Lion</i> introduced Holden to one of the great loves of his life, the French actress Capucine. (Born Germaine Lefebvre in 1935 France, <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Capucine" target="_blank">Capucine</a> was a top-line model before her film career. After moving to New York, she was scouted by the Charles Feldman Agency, eventually appearing in a succession of films, including <i>North to Alaska</i> opposite John Wayne and <i>Walk on the Wild Side</i>, a less-than-faithful adaptation of the book by Nelson Algren.) After completing work on <i><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BDK1DfAE_Dc" target="_blank">The Lion</a></i>, Holden embarked on a massive drinking spree, the effects of which he was still feeling when he found himself face-to-face with former love Audrey Hepburn.<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Two stars with a back story on what appears to be a trying day<br />
on set during <i>Paris When It Sizzles</i></td></tr>
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To say William Holden was not psychologically or physically prepared to take on such a challenge is a massive understatement, for Holden was in one of the worst places in his life--on the outs with Ardis and involved with Capucine. To be thrown into a situation with a lover he had never really got over was more than Holden could take. His alcohol intake was so great during <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=arz6IfPTGsM" target="_blank"><i>Paris When It Sizzles</i> </a>that the production was close to shutting down when director Quine persuaded Holden to dry out for eight days at a hospital that specialized in alcoholics. Desperate to keep filming, Quine recruited friend Tony Curtis to fill in with some last-minute scenes. Filmed in the summer of 1962, <i>Paris When It Sizzles</i> was not released until 1964 when it bombed, becoming Holden's fourth money loser in a row.<br />
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Holden's next four films fared no better than <i>Paris When It Sizzles</i>, and by 1968 when <i>Variety</i> compiled a list of stars whose high salaries didn't warrant their bankability at the box office, Holden's name appeared alongside former heavyweights like Tony Curtis, Marlon Brando, and Yul Brynner. On top of professional embarrassment, in 1966 while in Italy, Holden was involved in a two-car accident that killed the driver of the other vehicle. Most observers assumed Holden would get off with a fine, but the verdict found Holden guilty of manslaughter with a sentence of eight months in prison. The sentence was suspended, and he settled with the other vehicle's widow for $80,000. Holden's reckless lifestyle--one largely kept secret from his public--had finally caught up with him. Not quite 50 years of age, William Holden had reached a personal and professional nadir.<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The comeback in <i>The Wild Bunch</i></td></tr>
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By the late Sixties, Holden's affair with Capucine had run its course. Ardis and he finally divorced in July 1971 after nearly thirty years of marriage. But, as fate would have it, Holden was actually on course to career resurrection. Sought out by the notorious hell raiser, director <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sam_Peckinpah" target="_blank">Sam Peckinpah</a>, Holden was cast in <i><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jwE3TfJUB48" target="_blank">The Wild Bunch</a></i>. Bloody and controversial, <i>The Wild Bunch</i> set the gold standard for movie westerns much like John Ford's <i>Stagecoach</i> did thirty years earlier. Not a huge box office winner, <i>The Wild Bunch </i>was a <i>succès de scandale</i> due to its bloody excess and slow-motion depiction of violence. Even critics who deplored the film, however, had to give Holden credit for his most committed work on film in ages.<br />
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For the next few years Holden worked on interesting, but not particularly successful, films like <i>The Revengers</i>, a run-of-the-mill western; Blake Edwards'<i> <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=husSXpn4CEE" target="_blank">The Wild Rovers</a>,</i> another western and still-underrated film in which Holden gives a poignant portrait of a man who has outlived his time; Clint Eastwood's <i>Breezy;</i> and big box office winner, <i>The Towering Inferno. </i>Holden recognized <i>Inferno</i> as a bit of nonsense but "disaster" films were popular at the time (<i>Inferno</i> would be the second biggest hit of the season behind <i>Jaws</i>). And appearing alongside the stellar cast of Paul Newman, Steve McQueen, Faye Dunaway, Fred Astaire, and Jennifer Jones among others did nothing to hurt his reputation.<br />
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1974 was to be a good year for William Holden. Along with the success of <i>The Towering Inferno</i>, he won an Emmy for Best Actor for a television adaptation of Joseph Wambaugh's <i>The Blue Knight</i>. Next up for Holden was a role he was not initially considered for: 1976's ever-prescient <i>Network</i>. Starring with Faye Dunaway, Robert Duvall, and a scene-stealing Peter Finch, Holden once again reminded film audiences why he was still a top screen presence. In the role of Max Schumacher--a part first offered to Jack Lemmon--Holden gave his best performance in twenty years, as an aging television executive in charge of a failing network's news division and a failing marriage.<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">His best work in over twenty years:<br />
Sidney Lumet's <i>Network </i>which netted Holden his first Best Actor nomination in 23 years.</td></tr>
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<i><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qnGgsJ26dao" target="_blank">Network</a></i> is a great film in a year of great films--<i>All The President's Men, Taxi Driver, The Omen, Seven Beauties, Carrie, The Bad News Bears, Silent Movie, 1900, The Outlaw Josey Wales, The Shootist, Robin and Marian, Obsession</i>,<i> </i>and the year's best picture Oscar winner, <i>Rocky</i>. In <i>Network</i> Holden did possibly his best work ever, yet his performance was basically overlooked. While it's true that he was Oscar-nominated, most of the press went to Finch for his "mad prophet of the airwaves" and Dunaway for her heart-of-stone network programmer. In this sea of loud performances, Holden had the role of a man at a crossroads in his life, fighting age, trying to help his friend Finch, and falling for the tough-as-nails Dunaway. Holden underplays as only he could and reveals a side he grappled with in real life--the unfaithful husband, successful on the outside, lost on the inside and deeply dissatisfied, looking for fulfillment in the arms of another (younger) woman. Oscar voters rewarded Finch, Dunaway, and <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rhgsfn7CtDw" target="_blank">Beatrice Straight (as Holden's wife)</a>. Holden went home empty-handed but with a renewed sense of pride and recognition from the industry that had nearly forgotten him. Life imitated art as he also found love in the arms of a woman much younger than he, actress Stefanie Powers. The two were together nearly ten years before Holden's alcoholism drove too deep a wedge between them. <br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">With Marthe Keller in the underrated <i>Fedora</i>, director Billy Wilder's take on the price of movie fame</td></tr>
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After <i>Network</i>, Holden worked regularly in mostly forgettable movies like <i>Damien: Omen II</i>; <i>When Time Ran Out</i>, another Irwin Allen disaster picture with a stellar cast; and <i>Escape to Athena</i>. A couple that stand out is in the underrated, under-seen <i><a href="http://moviecatholic.blogspot.com/2014/12/underrated-gem-billy-wilders-fedora.html" target="_blank">Fedora</a></i>, in which Holden reunited with Billy Wilder, and his swan song, <a href="http://moviecatholic.blogspot.com/2016/01/blake-edwards-sob-and-year-1981.html" target="_blank">Blake Edwards' <i>S.O.B</i>.</a> Holden plays a filmmaker in both--a producer in <i>Fedora</i>, a close descendant of <i>Sunset Boulevard</i>'s<i> </i>Joe Gillis (i.e., a down-on-his-luck, cynical yet hopeful), and a director in <i>S.O.B. </i>In <i>Fedora</i>, Holden gave his last great performance, and it would have been a fitting swan song. But his final farewell belonged to Blake Edwards' <i>S.O.B.</i> in which Holden played a film director subservient to his producer pal played by Richard Mulligan. Whereas <i>Fedora </i>was a bittersweet valentine, <i>S.O.B.</i> is strictly bitter. Edwards' Hollywood is quite different from Wilder's. <i>Fedora</i> is a throwback to when film stars had a real aura--even if that aura was maintained in the medical clinics of Europe--and how a persona can suck the life right out of them. On the other hand, <i>S.O.B. </i>is--hilariously--all orgies, pot smoking, corpse stealing, and revenge getting. Through all the madness and wild agendas <i>S.O.B.</i> shows us, Holden's character Cully, a seen-it-done-it-all, could have been Holden himself. By this time--1981--Holden had seen any- and everything Hollywood and the world had to offer. No longer out to prove himself, Cully, like Holden, just wants to survive, live and let live. For Cully life is too short to get caught up in studio politics and intrigues. As another of the film's characters aptly puts it, "He's probably shacked up with a couple of broads and a bottle of Jack Daniels. What the hell does he care." Sad thing is that after <i>S.O.B.</i> premiered in July 1981, that's essentially what Holden did.<br />
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But it wasn't a bottle of Jack Daniels, it was a bottle (or two) of vodka and a few beers. And he didn't have "a couple of broads" with him. He was alone. Doing what he must have done hundreds of times: breaking the sound barrier, drinking himself into a stupor before collapsing into bed. Only this time William Holden didn't make it to bed. Completely trashed, Holden tripped on a throw rug and hit his head on the edge of the nightstand. Not realizing the seriousness of his wound, Holden tried to stop the bleeding with several tissues before passing out and dying from loss of blood. Loner that he was, it was several days before his body was discovered. Billy Wilder reflected, "I really loved Bill, but it turned out I didn't know him.... To be killed by a bottle of vodka and a night table--what a lousy fadeout for a great guy." It's an assessment that's hard to argue with, though looking at his life, it's an entirely apt end. Bill Holden, international film star, rich beyond anyone's wildest dreams, lover to some of the worlds most desirable women, died alone and drunk. It's who Bill Holden really was, feeling himself unworthy of the accolades and fame, still the frightened beginner that Barbara Stanwyck mentored on the <i>Golden Boy </i>set way back in 1939 when he was close to being fired. Despite all he had done and the worldwide recognition he had gained, William Holden was, at heart, still that terrified youngster, vulnerable, and insecure. Ironically, it is these characteristics that made him such a good film actor, always underplaying a scene, always believable, careful not to push a scene too hard for fear it would spill into overacting. Holden was like Spencer Tracy or Robert Mitchum or Gary Cooper in that you couldn't see him acting. He was just being<b>. </b>Embodying, breathing, reacting,<b> </b><i>being </i>the person he was pretending to be. Any performer worth his salt will tell you that is the hardest thing to do. And Bill Holden did it better than anyone. <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fU4C1oWHpWA" target="_blank">His life may have had a tragic end, yet he left us the gift of his talent and the legacy of his films.</a> He did not die in vain. <br />
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Sources: See blog post Golden Holden, The Rise<br />
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<br />Nick Pattersonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09555378788567081907noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3984205935625085047.post-24127622419787361732016-09-05T20:33:00.000-07:002016-09-05T20:33:15.063-07:00Underrated Gem: InsertsIt's fair to say most folks--even my fellow film fanatics--have never heard of the film, <i>Inserts</i>, much less seen it. Starring an up-and-coming Richard Dreyfuss as "Boy Wonder," and supported by a stellar cast, <i>Inserts</i> plays out on a one-room set, bringing into focus the movieland setting. Rated X upon release, <i>Inserts</i> was rechristened with a less titillating, more establishment NC-17 in that rating's mid-1990's heyday. The strong rating is a result not only of the film's bounteous nudity but also its racy subject matter. <i>Inserts</i> is undoubtedly a product of its (1970s) time. Indeed, I cannot think of a single Hollywood distribution outfit that would back this movie today.<br />
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While it's not a classic (assuredly it is not), <i>Inserts</i> does bring an interesting attitude to the table. The setting is Hollywood circa 1930, a town in transition. Silent film is dead, and everyone save Chaplin has gone crazy for the talkies. Dreyfuss plays a washed-up film director who we know only as "Boy Wonder," once brilliant, now alcoholic, moping about his rundown palazzo in his bathrobe with a bottle of booze in one hand and a movie camera in the other, making "nudies," starring Helene (Veronica Cartwright), a heroin-addicted forgotten silent film star (a "ghost story," in the film's parlance). Joining them is Rex (Stephen Davies). Nicknamed "The Wonder Dog" due to his limited mental capacity, Rex, whose full time job is working for a mortician, is still naive enough to think a studio executive he is scheduled to meet at his hotel room will put him on the studio payroll with no strings attached.</div>
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One particular morning, after getting the first scene of the day "in the can," producer Big Mac (Bob Hoskins) arrives with Helene's fix of heroin and his girlfriend, a wannabe actress named Cathy Cake (Jessica Harper). Cathy knows Boy Wonder's work from the silents, and wants to meet him and see the filming of a stag film. Unfortunately for her, Big Mac and Cathy's arrival coincides with Helene's heroin overdose. When Rex refuses to have sex with Helene's corpse, Cathy agrees to serve as Helene's body double and film the titular inserts. While Rex and Big Mac dispose of Helene's body, Boy Wonder and Cathy begin filming and forming a bond.</div>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Richard Dreyfuss as Boy Wonder, a washed up, alcoholic silent filmmaker<br />
coming to grips with his lot in life</td></tr>
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Although some books had been published about Hollywood's dark underbelly--most prominently, <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hollywood_Babylon" target="_blank">Kenneth Anger's <i>Hollywood Babylon</i></a>--by the mid-1970s, any time the major studios considered Hollywood's Golden Age, the films, including <i><a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0075409/?ref_=fn_al_tt_1" target="_blank">W.C. Fields and Me</a></i>, <i><a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0074562/?ref_=fn_al_tt_1" target="_blank">Gable and Lombard</a></i>,<i> <a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0074964/?ref_=fn_al_tt_1" target="_blank">Nickelodeon</a></i> and <i><a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0075436/?ref_=fn_al_tt_1" target="_blank">Won Ton Ton, The Dog Who Saved Hollywood</a> </i>(interestingly, along with <i>Inserts</i>, all released in 1976), tended to depict the more mainstream elements of that earlier time. Not that these films found their audience (they didn't, some deservedly so), but mainstream moviegoers, me included, still wanted to believe wholly in the facade of that so-called Golden Age. <i>Inserts</i> was one of the first films to focus on the less-than-golden parts of that Hollywood heyday. And focus it did. The film included full-frontal nudity and four-letter words that had seldom, if ever, been spoken in a mainstream film before. </div>
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First-time director John Byrum, who also wrote the script, is dealing with difficult material here. Even Hitchcock found it challenging to film a movie on one set, trying twice before succeeded with 1954's <i>Rear Window,</i> and it goes without saying Byrum is no Hitch. But the film does have its fascinating moments, particularly when it references early Hollywood, including dialogue concerning <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jack_Pickford" target="_blank">Jack Pickford</a> (Mary's brother, death by drugs), <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wallace_Reid" target="_blank">Wallace Reid</a> (more death by drugs), <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Erich_von_Stroheim" target="_blank">Erich von Stroheim</a> (a victim of his own directorial excess) and "that new kid at Pathe" (Clark Gable), who is desperate to meet Boy Wonder. With clever references to old Hollywood and contemporary references to 1970s' popular culture (Big Mac wants to make it rich in hamburger chains [get it?]), how could this film not succeed? Who knows? But it didn't. No one went to see it, and most critics shrugged it off. But that doesn't mean there is not some cinematic gold to be mined from this off-beat, wildly eccentric vehicle.<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Left to right: Jessica Harper's Cathy Cake, Bob Hoskins' Big Mac, and<br />
Stephen Davies' Rex cannot believe what Boy Wonder (Richard Dreyfuss) is suggesting. </td></tr>
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The cast is first rate and is the best reason to see the film. Veronica Cartwright's Helene is a heartbreaking mix of Marie Prevost, Mabel Normand, and all those no-name early film starlets who came to Hollywood to make it big, only to fall short for a variety of reasons--lack of drive, talent, luck. Helene is too sensitive and too impractical to survive in hard-hearted Hollywood. <a href="http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0001021/?nmdp=1&ref_=nm_ql_5#filmography" target="_blank">Cartwright--always underrated</a>--gives heart to Helene's (lack of) status. Stephen Davies' Rex, "The Wonder Dog," is a basically good-natured, simple guy who should have stayed back in Iowa or wherever he came from. Bob Hoskins' pre-<i>Roger Rabbit, Cotton Club</i>, and <i>Super Mario Bros</i> (remember that one?!) is perfectly cast. I'm a sucker for all the American tough guys he played. Cult favorite (<i>Phantom of the Paradise</i>, <i>Pennies From Heaven</i>) Jessica Harper as Cathy Cake seems a tough case at first glance, with little, if any, empathy for what she witnesses at Boy Wonder's palazzo; however, as her character transitions from passive bystander to active participant (eventually--in a neat twist--directing Dreyfuss's director to allow his "rope to rise"), Harper gives depth to Cathy Cake's ambition. I've had a crush on Miss Harper ever since I first saw her in the 1974 Brian DePalma film <i>Phantom of the Paradise</i>. With her big eyes, pale complexion, and willowy frame, she fits perfectly into the Hollywood Byrum strives to recreate. Then there is Richard Dreyfuss. I love nearly everything the guy has done, up to and including his short-lived, underrated 2001 television show, <i>The Education of Max Bickford</i>. As Boy Wonder, Dreyfuss brings his usual characteristics to the table--a nervous, quirky, energetic, Jewish personality--here combined with a heartbreaking pathos I find effective and engaging. </div>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Cathy Cake (Jessica Harper<span style="font-size: small; text-align: start;">)</span>, embraces the idea of doing "inserts" of the dead Harlene<br />
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Nearly half of <i>Insert</i>'s running time consists of a tete-a-tete between Boy Wonder and Cathy Cake in which roles reverse, and Miss Cake directs Boy Wonder, getting his "rope to rise" by using the same techniques on him that he has used on his actors. Here Boy Wonder, a master cynic who is nevertheless drawn to Miss Cake's seemingly innocent yet curious inquiries into how these nudies are made, finally meets his match. She draws him out, seduces him, and brings out the vulnerable side that he would never admit to having. <br />
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When <i>Inserts </i>opened in early 1976, it received mostly scathing reviews and barely made a nickel at the box office. While not a feel-good movie--at times it seems deliberately offensive--<i>Inserts</i> gave, and continues to give, some movie lovers a jaundiced view of Hollywood's Golden Age that is a world away from the glamour usually presented in films about that era. The film has a lot of humor, mostly supplied by Dreyfuss, but it is cynical, dark, and ironic. This cynicism combined with the setting is a major reason I am drawn to it. Forgotten and neglected until very recently (<a href="http://www.twilighttimemovies.com/all-titles" target="_blank">Twilight Time</a> released a Blu-ray in June 2016), <i>Inserts</i> will not appeal to the casual movie viewer. If your idea of a good movie is the latest superhero blockbuster, <i>Inserts </i>probably won't hold your interest. But if you enjoy an off-beat, dark humored, tough yet vulnerable, and well-acted film, you could do a lot worse than to open up and let <i>Inserts </i>invade your cinematic soul. <br />
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Sources<br />
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<li>IMDB</li>
<li>Wikipedia</li>
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<br />Nick Pattersonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09555378788567081907noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3984205935625085047.post-6724078520533993572016-08-16T14:30:00.003-07:002016-08-16T22:08:34.010-07:00The Void or, "Did I tell you I am feeling unwell?" For decades, going to the movies has been one of my greatest pleasures. Beginning when I was 15 years old, I would go to the cinema every week, sometimes more. Wonderful films unspooled at local movie houses. I remember going to see my first R-rated movie, the scandalous Warren Beatty film, <i>Shampoo</i>, in 1975. I was not quite 16. Movies captured my imagination from a young age, as they do for most people. But few go deeper into the making--art, craft, personalities, and critiques--of movies than I. Obviously critics have, along with the opinion-sharing, 21st century phenomenon known as bloggers (ahem). There are tens of thousands like-minded folks who blog about film. Some are the fan-boy comic book type who love best when the latest superhero or sci-fi extravaganza hits the nation's cineplexes. Others comment only on a particular film or series of films, like <i>Star Wars </i>or <i>Planet of the Apes</i>. Some fixate on the work of one director like a Stanley Kubrick or Michael Bay (really?). As for me, I dwell primarily in the land of classic Hollywood cinema. I still go to the movies about 10-15 times a year, depending on my interest in a film's story; who is starring and directing it; whether I can find the time to go; and how long that film is playing in my town.<br />
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Lately, that has been more difficult to find. You see, I have been feeling unwell. <br />
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I came of age in the 1970s. I am biased, and my recollection is heavy with nostalgia, but the way I remember it, that was a time when <i>movies meant something</i>. Seventies' cinema was about content and meaning and thought. I remember walking away from films and wanting to talk about them, mull them over, discuss them at length with the people I knew who had seen them. Movies mattered to their audiences, to their creators, to me. They were more than just visceral thrills. Today, I feel like most movies--most Hollywood big-budget movies that get major studio promotion and exposure anyway--don't stand for anything. Back in the day, a summer season of films meant many things to many people. In 1975--41 years ago, when dinosaurs roamed the earth--theaters around the nation offered escapist fare like <i>Return of the Pink Panther</i>, <i>Freebie and the Bean</i>, James Bond's latest,<i> The Man With the Golden Gun</i>, <i>Mandingo</i>, and of course, <i>Jaws. </i>Simultaneously, however, the summer also included late spring releases like the Mike Nichols-Warren Beatty-Jack Nicholson bomb, <i>The Fortune</i>;<i> </i>John Schlesinger's adaptation of Nathaniel West's Hollywood novel, <i>The Day of the Locust</i>; Woody Allen's <i>Love and Death </i>(when he still knew how to be silly); Robert Altman's classic, <i>Nashville</i>; and Robert Mitchum starring as Raymond Chandler's famed sleuth, Philip Marlowe, in <i>Farewell, My Lovely</i>. In other words, an abundance of choices was available to movie audiences: some good, some bad, some mindless, some not, but variety, nonetheless, came from the big studios. But all that has changed now.<br />
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Did I mention that I feel unwell?<br />
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The Hollywood system is broken. It has been for some time and doesn't seem to be getting any better. Well-constructed yet entertaining products with a serious, thoughtful slant only come out at certain times of year. From late September to Christmas Day, movies that don't rely on the popcorn munching, soda gulping crowd are more likely to be released to a public that either no longer goes to the movies or don't care about more serious fare. Worse than that, however, is the fact that the studios are unwilling to make movies outside the most mainstream for fear of losing money. Not that this is new. As far back as the Depression, Hollywood studios were against making movies that might play over their audiences' heads. In Elia Kazan's 1976 film, <i>The Last Tycoon</i>, an adaptation of F. Scott Fitzgerald's unfinished novel, the lead character, Monroe Stahr is the production head of a major Hollywood studio. He tells his fellow executives, including his boss, studio chief Pat Brady, that the $2 million production of a high-brow film may lose money with the unhappy ending he is proposing to remain true to its story, prompting every suit at the table to look at each other in disbelief. "What is he thinking?! Times are tough! The country is in a depression, Monroe!" Stahr replies, "We've been playing it safe here for two years. I'm going to make this movie, with its unhappy ending. It's about time we took a chance and made a film that may lose money. Write it off as good will." Needless to say, this idealism is seldom found outside of fictional Hollywood. <br />
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Don't get me wrong. Bad movies, dumb movies, silly ones have always existed. Hollywood has reveled in its bloated epics for decades. The 1950s saw a big increase of inflated spectaculars, but I'm not convinced that such a film was ever accepted as the norm--what to expect in entertainment--until the last thirty-to-forty years of increasingly big-budget entertainment. Today, the people who flock to these mindless, unfeeling, witless spectacles do not know any better. American movie audiences have been spoonfed these tiresome excuses for entertainment for the generations now, leading audiences to expect it. And now they're asking for more, resulting in <i>Suicide Squad</i>, <i>Batman Vs. Superman</i>, <i>Iron Man 1, 2, 3</i>,<i> </i>reboots of <i>Star Trek</i> and <i>Star Wars</i>, <i>Tarzan </i>and now I hear,<i> </i>a <i>Harry Potter </i>prequel. Why? No simple answer exists. Franchise movies are cash cows for the major studios (although recently some of these movies have not been profitable due to excessive budgets) with built-in audiences for their instantly recognizable characters. For these movies, too often a coherent screenplay is optional--the least of concerns.<br />
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Did I forget to mention I have been feeling unwell?<br />
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With Labor Day just around to corner, I hope to be on the mend soon. A few, upcoming films seem entertaining, challenging, even fun. <i>Hell and High Water</i> just opened and looks to be a serious--and seriously violent--film that harks back to the days of Sam Peckinpah. <i>Sully</i>, with Tom Hanks, has potential<i> </i>as does Oliver Stone's <i>Snowden</i>;<i> </i>Warren Beatty's <i>Rules Don't Apply; </i><i>Allied</i>, Robert Zemeckis' romantic thriller starring Brad Pitt and Marion Cotillard; and <i>La La Land</i>, which looks like it will transport its audience to that magical world of romance, grace, and beauty that musicals so often do. After all this, I still have faith. I look forward to attending this movie catholic's place of worship, sitting in the dark with my fellow congregants, and hoping to be healed of the malady that has taken hold of me. Because when one or more of these ambitious, vital films fail to find its audience, it makes it tougher for other movies with a unique perspective to see the light of day and make movie-going the memorable and thrilling experience it still has the chance to be. Nick Pattersonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09555378788567081907noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3984205935625085047.post-6416373267171270062016-07-24T19:24:00.003-07:002016-07-24T19:25:11.593-07:00Golden Holden, Part One: The RiseWilliam Holden was a star of the first rank for over forty years. From his screen debut in 1939's <i>Golden Boy</i> to his last in 1981's <i>S.O.B.</i>, Holden personified the solid, steady American male. He hit his peak as a box office name in the 1950s, appearing six times on <a href="http://www.reelclassics.com/Articles/General/quigleytop10-article.htm" target="_blank">Quigley Publication's Annual Top Ten</a> and topping the list in 1956. By the time of his death, however, few would have predicted such a sad and lonely demise.<br />
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Born on April 17, 1918, William Holden, after early success in <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CuE4nHiXTf0" target="_blank">1939's <i>Golden Boy</i></a> and <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Our_Town_(1940_film)" target="_blank">1940's <i>Our Town</i></a>, spent most of the 1940s in routine films. In 1943--after eleven features of dwindling quality-- Holden enlisted in the United States Army. Upon his return to Hollywood, Holden found the going rough for a returning G.I. whose best work was nearly eight years earlier. His first film back was a routine western, <i>Blaze of Noon</i>, in 1947<i>. </i>While he stayed busy in post-war Hollywood, Holden made little impression on it, commenting later that in these films--another eleven from 1947 to 1950--he played "Smiling Jim," the clean-cut guy with a nice smile and no substance. As often happens in the movie business, though, along came a role that changed his career and his life in a film he wasn't even originally considered for: Billy Wilder's <i><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HduXGYkoc_w&list=PLZbXA4lyCtqoH1PsAoK7rBvz1-btDmTHj" target="_blank">Sunset Boulevard</a>. </i><br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Holden as screenwriter Joe Gillis, floating through <i>Sunset Boulevard</i>.<br />
"The poor dope. He always wanted a pool."</td><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><br /></td><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><br /></td></tr>
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Montgomery Clift was director Billy Wilder's first choice to play the down-on-his-luck screenwriter, Joe Gillis, in <i><a href="http://www.tcm.com/tcmdb/title/4254/Sunset-Blvd-/articles.html" target="_blank">Sunset Boulevard</a></i>. The sensitive and troubled Clift backed out at the last minute, however, leaving Wilder without a leading man. The director considered several others for the part of Gillis without actually approaching any of them for the part--Fred MacMurray, Gene Kelly, Marlon Brando. One by one, Wilder crossed them off his list. William Holden, under contract to Paramount where the film was made, was a name that intrigued Wilder. In spite of Holden's previous bland performances, he was attractive and appealing, and he looked like he could be a writer, or so Wilder thought. Wilder met with Holden and gave him the role. (He continued to struggle with the casting of an actress for the film's female lead character, Norma Desmond. Wilder saw everyone from Mary Pickford to Mae West [can you imagine?], yet none of them would commit. Eventually Gloria Swanson proved perfect casting as the aging silent screen star. )<br />
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To call <i>Sunset Boulevard</i> a game changer in Holden's career is an understatement. Fact is, without that great film, Holden probably wouldn't have had much of a film career. But due to that film, he was subsequently presented with many more opportunities. His performance in <i>Sunset Boulevard</i> is one of the two or three best he ever gave. Holden was nominated for a Best Actor Oscar--one of eleven the film captured--but lost to Jose Ferrer in <i>Cyrano de Bergerac. </i>In my opinion, Holden was robbed on March 29, 1951, when Academy voters bowed to the high-toned <i>Cyrano</i>. No matter, though. Holden's Oscar loss was cinema's gain.<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-n4cyVHWUX6I/V4XBCVWn1_I/AAAAAAAAEz8/w6Pik3o6UJ0ht7jB2sHzZ0uK-oFiHv7eQCLcB/s1600/holdenolson.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-n4cyVHWUX6I/V4XBCVWn1_I/AAAAAAAAEz8/w6Pik3o6UJ0ht7jB2sHzZ0uK-oFiHv7eQCLcB/s1600/holdenolson.jpg" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Nancy Olson as Betty Schaefer with our boy, Bill, as Joe Gillis.<br />
"Who wants true? Who wants moving?"</td></tr>
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The tide was finally turning on Holden's screen career. Later in 1950, Holden appeared in another success, George Cukor's classic adaptation of Garson Kanin's Broadway stage comedy,<i> <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qM2UmhndoOY" target="_blank">Born Yesterday</a></i>. He kept busy the next couple of years in solid-yet-unmemorable, bread-and-butter pictures, but in 1953, Holden had major success with two features--Otto Preminger's scandalous-for-its-time sex comedy, <i>The Moon is Blue</i>, and the big one, Billy Wilder's<i> <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PQh3qoGYVTg" target="_blank">Stalag 17</a></i>. Wilder's comedy about a group of Americans in a Nazi POW camp was originally a successful Broadway play. In the film version, Holden plays Sergeant J.J. Sefton, a cynical, isolated G.I. con man who only looks out for himself. When a spy is suspected of giving the German's information on an escape plan, Sefton is the natural suspect and must find the real spy to prove his innocence to his fellow prisoners. When Wilder approached him for the film Holden was intrigued but skeptical. Ultimately, however, Holden trusted Wilder's instinct and valued his talent as writer and director, and took the role. The film was a kind of precursor to the 1960s television comedy, <i>Hogan's Heroes, </i>with some buffoonish comedy stuck in between a genuinely serious theme. Released in July 1953, <i><a href="http://www.tcm.com/tcmdb/title/4237/Stalag-17/articles.html" target="_blank">Stalag 17</a></i> was a popular and critical success, and in early 1954, Holden was up for an Oscar again. Competition was tough. Montgomery Clift and Burt Lancaster were also nominated for 1953's big winner in the Oscar sweepstakes, <i>From Here to Eternity</i>. Also nominated was a Shakespearian Marlon Brando in <i>Julius Caesar </i>and newcomer Richard Burton in the Cinemascope extravaganza, <i>The Robe</i>. Unlike the 1951 ceremony, this time Holden prevailed. Professionally, he was on top of the world, and his biggest financial successes were still in front of him.<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">As Sefton, his Oscar winning role in <i>Stalag 17</i></td></tr>
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1954, the year Holden won his Oscar was also another huge one for him on screen as he appeared in five high-profile films (a testament to the efficiency of filmmaking in the mid-20th Century, this could never happen today) with three of them landing on Variety's Top Twenty Moneymaking films. The films varied in subject and content, including the comedy, <i>Forever Female; </i>the western, <i>Escape From Fort Bravo</i>; and the all-star drama, <i>Executive Suite</i>. But the two that stand out for me are <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=scIgMmjlj84" target="_blank"><i>The Country Girl</i> </a>and <i><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AOZuxReeNTk" target="_blank">Sabrina</a>. </i>In these two movies, Holden did not play the lead, yet he contributed his distinctive presence.<br />
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Released in the fall, <i><a href="http://www.tcm.com/tcmdb/title/16295/Sabrina/articles.html" target="_blank">Sabrina</a>,</i> with Audrey Hepburn in the title role, is undoubtedly the best remembered of the two. Humphrey Bogart--stepping away from his usual tough guy roles--plays Linus Larrabee, a Wall Street whiz to Holden's playboy younger brother, David. Directed for the third time by the expert Billy Wilder, Holden has less to do in the film as it progresses, though he plays the integral role of bringing together Linus and Sabrina. Some feel Bogart was miscast in this Cinderella-like, romance, but I feel that the craggy Bogart is believable as the all-work, no-play executive who finally falls under Sabrina's spell. As David, Holden is winning as the ever-smiling, carefree brother. Of course, <i>Sabrina </i>is one of Hepburn's signature roles along with <i>Roman Holiday</i> and <i>Breakfast at Tiffany's</i>. The film scored a slew of Oscar nominations and a bucketful of box office gold for Paramount Studios.<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-HZ8QvfbtlIM/V4pt8Nld-uI/AAAAAAAAE0c/EBAHYmbxpYInZFsRw3Y0hffH5lzlbaMHgCLcB/s1600/holdenhepburnwildersabrina.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="396" src="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-HZ8QvfbtlIM/V4pt8Nld-uI/AAAAAAAAE0c/EBAHYmbxpYInZFsRw3Y0hffH5lzlbaMHgCLcB/s400/holdenhepburnwildersabrina.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Lunch time on the Paramount lot with Holden, Hepburn, Wilder,<br />
and unknown man on the left. </td></tr>
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<i><a href="http://www.tcm.com/tcmdb/title/4500/The-Country-Girl/articles.html" target="_blank">The Country Girl</a></i> stars Holden along with Bing Crosby and Grace Kelly as an alcoholic, out-of-work former Broadway musical star and his dowdy wife (played by Crosby and Kelly, respectively), and details what happens when Crosby's Frank Elgin is offered a plum comeback role by director Bernie Dodd, played by Holden. Based on a play by <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Clifford_Odets" target="_blank">Clifford Odets</a> (the same playwright who wrote the original material behind Holden's first success, <i>Golden Boy</i>), the film was a stretch for Crosby and Kelly, and they both received Oscar nominations. In all these 1954 releases, Holden is in very good company--at times even overshadowed, though all of them would be poorer without him. Interestingly, as big a star as he was at the time, Holden only received top billing in two of these five 1954 releases. Nevertheless, his name was a draw: in 1954 Holden appeared at number six on the Quigley Box Office Top Ten list for the first time.<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Holden with wife, Ardis (a.k.a., actress Brenda Marshall) on Oscar night, 1954</td></tr>
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Through the early years of his career, William Holden's private life was as busy as his public one. He married Ardis Ankerson, an actress, in 1942. Together the couple had two sons, Peter and Scott. Though she made eighteen features under the professional name, Brenda Marshall, including <a href="http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0550782/mediaviewer/rm4030891008" target="_blank">the Errol Flynn adventure, <i>The Sea Hawk</i>, in 1940</a>, Ardis essentially retired after 1943 to devote full time to marriage and family. The couple had a variety of friends, including actors Glenn Ford and Broderick Crawford, and portrait painter Paul Clemens. They were present at the wedding of Ronald Reagan and Nancy Davis in 1952 where Holden, a good friend of Reagan's, served as best man. At the studio Holden enjoyed the company of his fellow actors like Dean Martin, whose sense of humor he especially enjoyed.<br />
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Holden likened his life as an actor to that of a successful businessman. He was on the Screen Actor's Guild Board of Directors; he was a member of the Parks and Recreation Commission; and he attended PTA meetings whenever possible at his children's schools. But as his fame grew, his marriage started to fray. Things got so bad at the Holden residence that he bought scuba gear, so he could sit at the bottom of the pool when things became too tense with Ardis. His fondness for large quantities of liquor (few would argue that he was an alcoholic) and his numerous affairs (Grace Kelly, Capucine, Audrey Hepburn) contributed most significantly to the end of his nearly thirty-year marriage in 1971. Also, it is apparent Holden had a real wild side that he tried to suppress. He loved fast sports cars and motorcycles. Eventually, many of these dangerous and bad habits would catch up to him.<br />
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1955 continued a hot streak of hit films for Holden: the big, timely Korean War film, <i>The Bridges at Toko-Ri</i>, with Grace Kelly again and Fredric March; a big, romantic, interracial love story, <i>Love Is a Many-Splendored Thing</i> with Jennifer Jones; and a big, all-star version of William Inge's stage success,<i> Picnic</i>, with Kim Novak, Rosalind Russell, Cliff Robertson, Betty Field, and Arthur O'Connell. These were all box office winners. By 1957, Holden was looking for ways to get out of the house more and with location work in far away countries becoming more frequent by movie companies looking to capitalize on the popularity of new widescreen technology, he spent more and more time outside the U.S. Holden found that he enjoyed seeing other parts of the world and living like a bachelor since Ardis usually stayed behind with their children. David Lean's epic World War II film, <i><a href="http://www.tcm.com/tcmdb/title/69690/The-Bridge-on-the-River-Kwai/articles.html" target="_blank">Bridge on the River Kwai</a>, </i>offered him such an opportunity. The film's theme, "war is madness," is well played out on location in Ceylon with Alec Guinness in his Oscar-winning role of Colonel Nicholson, a rigid, by-the-book, prisoner of war of the Japanese. In charge of the POW camp is Colonel Saito played with gusto by famed Japanese actor Sessue Hayakawa, who has ordered the prisoners to build a bridge over the Kwai River. Holden plays an American named Shears, who escapes from Saito's prison camp, reaches a base hospital, and declares himself a coward in an attempt to be dishonorably discharged. However, Shears is talked into going back to the Saito's prison war camp to blow up the bridge Colonel Nicholson is building. A huge hit in its day, netting more than 18 million in 1957 dollars in its first year alone, <i>Kwai</i> holds up as an excellent anti-war statement and first-rate entertainment. Holden's percentage of the box office gross deal also ensured that he never had to worry about money again. From the <i>Kwai </i>location, Holden was off to London for <i>The Key</i>, a film in which co-starred with new international sex symbol, Sophia Loren, and British actor, Trevor Howard.<br />
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Holden's next film, the Civil War action picture, <i>The Horse Soldiers</i>, paired him with John Wayne for director John Ford. The film was not exceptional, with no one claiming it as the shining hour of anyone involved, but it was popular--number 14 on Variety's 1959 Moneymaking List--and the stars each received $750,000 plus a percentage of the gross. It was one of the biggest deals Hollywood had yet to offer any star, with the deal--an early version of "the package,"in which an agent or agency puts some of its biggest names in one film--more significant that the finished product.<br />
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<i>(Stay tuned for the next part of this look back at William Holden's career, which will pick up with Holden's ups and downs in the 1960s and beyond.)</i><br />
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<b>Sources</b><br />
Books: <i>Golden Boy: The Untold Story of William Holden</i> by Bob Thomas<br />
<i>William Holden, The Pyramid Illustrated History of the Movies</i> by Will Holtzman<br />
<i>The Films of William Holden</i> by Lawrence J. Quirk<br />
<i>Reel Facts - The Movie Book of Records</i> by Cobbett Steinberg<br />
Internet: Wikipedia<br />
All photographsNick Pattersonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09555378788567081907noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3984205935625085047.post-6239381332967211012016-06-12T16:42:00.002-07:002016-06-12T16:42:32.910-07:00Essential William Wyler: 1940's The Letter <div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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Film director <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Wyler" target="_blank">William Wyler</a> may be the least appreciated auteur from the Golden Age of Hollywood. Despite repeated honors from the Academy, including three Best Director Oscars for <i>Mrs. Miniver</i> in 1942<i>, </i><i>The Best Years of Our Lives</i> in 1946, and <i>Ben-Hur</i>, 1959's epic to end all epics, Wyler's reputation has suffered since his retirement in 1970. While these three films alone should solidify Wyler's star in the cinema firmament, film history and its gatewatchers occasionally do not give the greats their due. While the reputations of Nicholas Ray, Howard Hawks, Alfred Hitchcock, Sam Fuller, and even Budd Boetticher have improved over the last forty or fifty years, Wyler's has not. William Wyler's best defense in the face of a lessened reputation, however, is--as Andrew Sarris said of director George Cukor--his filmography. From 1936 to 1965, Wyler's films equaled the best of his generation: <i>Dodsworth </i>and <i>These Three</i>, <i>Dead End</i>, <i>Jezebel</i>, <i>Wuthering Heights</i>, <i>The Little Foxes</i>, and <i>The Heiress</i> constitute an incredible run of good-to-great cinema--and this list only covers 1936 to 1949.<br />
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For me, Wyler is an amazing director, seemingly without a personal style. His films did not distract with arty camera angles and unique editing styles; rather, he set himself apart by maintaining a visual style that did not call attention to itself. Wyler favored long takes, usually in medium or two shot, sometimes employing the "deep focus" technique favored by his favorite cinematographer (and one of Hollywood's best), <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gregg_Toland" target="_blank">Gregg Toland</a>, with occasional closeups to emphasize a dramatic moment or important bit of information. Wyler's reluctance to move the camera became his own visual style. This is one of the reasons <i>The Letter</i> with Bette Davis may be my favorite of the director and star's three collaborations. For me, <i>The Letter</i> stands side-by-side with <i>Dodsworth</i> (1936), Wyler's impressively mature adaptation of the Sinclair Lewis novel, and <i>The Best Years of Our Lives</i>, the classic Best Picture Oscar winner from 1946 as the best of Wyler's work.<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DsLf-AXyeT8" target="_blank"><img alt="The Letter" border="0" src="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-F_Afvyc-HfE/V0o05ZR82gI/AAAAAAAAExM/Mm7GYIkjikouczKaQ-O7QTPFHpKaWeeXgCKgB/s1600/theletterposter.gif" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;" /></a></td></tr>
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<i>The Letter</i> fascinates me. Made and released in 1940, the film is a remake of <a href="http://www.tcm.com/tcmdb/title/81288/The-Letter/articles.html" target="_blank">a 1929 goodie, starring the legendary Jeanne Eagles in the lead role</a> (played by Davis in the remake). Like the remake, the original film also starred Herbert Marshall, albeit in the role of Leslie Crosbie's lover/victim, who is never actually seen in Wyler's remake except in shadow as he is shot by Davis' Leslie. Wyler's version is about as lurid as a major Hollywood studio like Warner Brothers could get away with in 1940 as the plot unfolds to include the marriage of a European man and an Asian woman, the depiction of a kind of opium den in a Chinatown shop, and the victim's widow--the aforementioned Asian woman (<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gale_Sondergaard" target="_blank">Gale Sondergaard</a>, playing the widow of the murdered man as a silent, intense,
honorable, passionate, wronged woman in what, for me, is one of the most appealing aspects of the film)--hell bent on gaining revenge for her husband's death. (The letter of the title implicates Leslie as the lover of the man she killed. The price to buy the letter is $10,000, all the money her husband has in savings. The letter is obtained, Leslie is found not guilty, yet her marriage is destroyed. In the film's final scene, the victim's widow takes her revenge on Leslie.) <br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The great Gale Sondergaard as the widow and owner of <i>The Letter</i> </td></tr>
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This is all highly melodramatic stuff and not easy to pull off, but William Wyler and his production team were up to the challenge and delivered one of cinema's most operatic films. Max Steiner's over-the-top musical score is delicious in its grandeur and contributes greatly to the heightened dramatics. All the players are exceptional with Bette Davis as the stand-out performer. Bette Davis was at the peak of her reign as queen of Warner Brothers when the film was made in spring of 1940. With recent hits including <i>Dark Victory</i>; <i>The Old Maid</i>; the costume epic <i>Juarez</i>; and <i>Jezebel</i>, which was Jack Warner's gift to Davis after she lost the role of Scarlett O'Hara in <i>Gone With the Wind</i>, and also directed by Wyler. Davis had wanted to work with Wyler again (the two had an affair during <i>Jezebel</i>, but Wyler had since married) and sought him out as director. Though Wyler was under contract to Sam Goldwyn, one of Hollywood's main independent producers, Warners and Goldwyn worked out a deal for <i>The Letter,</i> and Wyler came to work in May 1940. <br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">This scene caused a big rift in the film's production between Davis and Wyler.</td></tr>
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Filming went relatively smoothly until Wyler and Davis clashed over the key line of dialogue. "With all my heart, I still love the man I killed!" Leslie tells her cuckolded husband, Robert (Herbert Marshall). Wyler wanted Davis to say the words while she looked Marshall in the eye. Davis thought she should turn away in shame. "If you try to soften the blow, you shouldn't say it at all," Wyler told her. At an impasse, Davis walked off the set. But of course she came back and "did it his way." For the rest of her life Davis thought her way was right, but she lost, she said "to an artist." <i>The Letter</i> was released in November 1940 to great acclaim and solid box office, and, in early 1941, seven Oscar nominations, including Best Picture, Best Actress for Bette Davis, and Best Director for William Wyler. Ultimately, however, the film won nothing but the admiration of the movie-going public. <br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The ever-present moon</td></tr>
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As I said, <i>The Letter</i> fascinates me. Wyler was not known for his striking camera and lighting. <i>The Letter</i> refutes any notion that his camera and lighting styles were pedestrian. The opening is a tracking shot outside the Crosbie house where their rubber plantation workers sleep. As the camera passes the tired men in hammocks, the oppressive the heat and humidity is palpable. Wyler's camera tracks to the end of hammocks when the silence is broken by gunshots. Even more visually impressive is the moon as it makes its ominous presence felt not only in the sky but through window blinds, generating shadows that remind us of the prison bars. No one--not even Wyler--knew what he wanted in a scene until he saw it. That instinct for what is right and true in a scene was Wyler's gift. His friend and fellow director John Huston wondered "where Willy got it." Perhaps <i>The Letter </i>screenwriter Howard Koch said it best: While wrestling with the front office--something that happened more and more over Wyler's meticulous filming method as his career progressed--the director, perhaps unable or unwilling to please the money men, "pleased himself." Luckily, it pleased us too.<br />
<br />
<br />
Sources<br />
<br />
Books: <i>A Talent for Trouble</i> by Jan Herman<br />
<i>Bette Davis, The Pyramid Illustrated History of the Movies </i>by Jerry Vermilye <br />
Internet: IMDB<br />
Wikipedia<br />
Turner Classic Movies<br />
YouTubeNick Pattersonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09555378788567081907noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3984205935625085047.post-52945352991350363002016-06-12T00:16:00.000-07:002016-06-12T00:23:09.585-07:00Astaire! I seem to be in a musical frame of mind. This is not unusual, though I haven't been on a real all singing/all dancing/all talkie binge for a while. My previous post was on Cukor's semi-musical refashioning of those 1932 and 1937 chestnuts, <i><a href="http://moviecatholic.blogspot.com/2016/05/the-film-that-got-away-george-cukors.html" target="_blank">A Star Is Born</a></i>. Then I stumbled across this bit of info: May10th was Fred Astaire's birthday.<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-E2ZRyPnz9eM/Vy4llVMHYwI/AAAAAAAAErs/2RMoZwi15kUit-rJl1_M7rzxSS10JscSQCLcB/s400/astaire-1.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;" width="314" /></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The Man, himself</td></tr>
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Fred Astaire, I found, is an acquired taste. His air is perceived as too rarefied and his persona too dandified (though that used to be called elegant). Hollywood's other male dancer extraordinaire--and Astaire's only rival--Gene Kelly, had a more muscular, "masculine" style. And despite some lovely female co-stars, Kelly's best musical numbers were usually either solo (think <i>Singin' in the Rain's</i> title song and dance, and <i>The Pirate</i>, in which his best work is partnerless) or with another male dancer (Frank Sinatra in <i>Anchors Aweigh</i> and <i>Take Me Out to the Ballgame,</i> for example, or Donald O'Connor in <i>Singin' in the Rain</i>). Kelly's personality was more working class--down to earth with a bit of sexual rakishness and shanty Irishness. By comparison, the jaunty Astaire is thinner, smoother, and more sophisticated, though no less fun. For a kid from Omaha, Nebraska, Astaire had the uncanny ability to project a remarkable amount of sophistication and more than a little <i>joie de vivre</i>. Astaire is also famous for making his dance partners, usually exceptional, look even better. His first co-star was Joan Crawford of all people, seldom remembered for her great dancing roles.<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-bECvYxVscXE/Vy4zTX_zARI/AAAAAAAAEr8/1381uhDaLpM1s2o-XZ2XwpcWOxszArCMwCLcB/s400/astairedancinglady.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;" width="311" /></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Going Bavarian with costar Joan Crawford,<br />
here's Fred in his film debut, MGM's <i>Dancing Lady </i>(1933).</td></tr>
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"Can't act. Slightly bald, also dances." This succinct description was the reaction to Astaire's MGM screen test. If ever a performer evaluation was an understatement, this is it! In Fred's screen debut, after more than twenty years of performing onstage with his sister Adele, he had a supporting role (billed sixth) in 1933's <i><a href="http://www.tcm.com/tcmdb/title/101/Dancing-Lady/articles.html#00" target="_blank">Dancing Lady</a></i>, a fun, yet undistinguished movie. From there, he was swept away in <i>Flying Down to Rio</i>, pairing him for the first time with the talented, young yet experienced song-and-dance veteran, <a href="http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0001677/?ref_=nv_sr_1" target="_blank">Ginger Rogers</a>. Brought together by chance, the duo's show-stopping dance number <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qWb90-afKHw" target="_blank">"The Carioca,"</a> ensured they would be paired again soon. The next year, Astaire and Rogers appeared--this time as the leads--in <i>The Gay Divorcee</i>, which was based on one of Astaire's Broadway successes.<br />
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Together, Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers made a total of ten musicals together, all but one for RKO; all but one in glorious black and white (the one at MGM was in "glorious" technicolor, natch); and all but one made during the tough years of the Depression. Their last film together, <i>The Barkleys of Broadway,</i> made in 1949 for MGM,<i> </i>came ten years after their previous pairing, <i>The Story of Vernon and Irene Castle</i>. The <i>Castle</i> film is the one Fred & Ginger movie I still haven't seen.<br />
<br />
Since it's impossible to pick just one, I offer two of my favorites: 1935's <i><a href="http://www.tcm.com/tcmdb/title/2293/Top-Hat/articles.html" target="_blank">Top Hat</a>--</i>generally considered their best<i>--</i>with <i>Swing Time</i> (1936) a close second. (Unfortunately, <i>Swing Time</i> contains a number called "Bojangles of Harlem." Meant to be a tribute to dancer Bill Robinson, with Fred in blackface, it's mostly embarrassing.) By the end of the decade, Astaire and Rogers were two of Tinseltown's biggest stars. Together they were a peerless team that danced love, romance, and dreams. The films they made were all love stories: boy meets girl; boy falls in love; girl is hard to get; boy gets girl. Simple but classic.<br />
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While a team, Rogers made six other movies; Fred only one--1937's<i> A Damsel in Distress</i> alongside non-dancer Joan Fontaine. After <i>Shall We Dance</i> in 1937, the last two films the dance team made for RKO were a pale reminder of the past successes as audiences began to find younger performers like Judy Garland and Mickey Rooney more appealing. Against considerable competition, Rogers went on to win 1940's Best Actress Oscar for <i>Kitty Foyle</i>. She remained a solid box office attraction throughout the 1940s. But Fred Astaire's future without Ginger Rogers was far from certain. <br />
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After those early years with RKO, Astaire was never tied down to one studio again. Like Ginger, Fred was lucky with his first film after their split. With <i>Broadway Melody of 1940</i>, Astaire was teamed with the movies' number one tap dancer, Eleanor Powell. Their take on Cole Porter's "Being the Beguine" is about as good as tap gets.<br />
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Fred's next film, <i>Second Chorus</i>, was described as "dismal" by film scholar Stephen Harvey. And without a doubt, the pairing of Astaire with the non-musical Paulette Goddard is puzzling even if it is unique. From here Fred partnered Rita Hayworth in two very popular musicals, <i>You'll Never Get Rich</i> (1941) and <i>You Were Never Lovelier </i>(1942). Hayworth, at the peak of her beauty and well on her way to becoming the movies' "Love Goddess," was one of Fred's best partners, <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WUhhKELUxB0" target="_blank">matching him step for step</a>.<i> </i>Between the two movies with Hayworth, Astaire made a Christmas season favorite, <i>Holiday Inn</i>, with Der Bingle, Bing Crosby. After this initial burst of mostly good films, Astaire's output seemed to have some missing element, whether a lack of good songs or off-beat casting. Still, Astaire's films always had at least one good moment in which song blended with dance to create a memorable viewing experience. <i>The Sky's the Limit</i> from 1943 is a good example, with memorable songs like "My Shining Hour" and "One For My Baby (and One More for the Road)."<br />
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1946's <i>Ziegfeld Follies</i> was a milestone in Fred's career--his first encounter with the legendary <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arthur_Freed#Life_and_career" target="_blank">Freed Unit at MGM</a>. That was the name of producer Arthur (<i>The</i> <i>Wizard of Oz</i>, <i>Meet Me in St. Louis</i>, <i>Gigi</i> just to name a few) Freed's collection of highly talented (mostly) young people, many of whom came from Broadway. It was only a matter of time before the best musical producer in the movies met the best dancer in the movies. Their first collaborations, however, left some folks scratching their heads wondering what all this cinematic, technicolor dreamscape was about. Florenz Ziegfeld was Broadway's premier of musical extravaganzas, and Hollywood--MGM in particular--had a fascination with him. The company had used the Ziegfeld name in their 1936 Best Picture Oscar-winning <i><a href="http://www.tcm.com/tcmdb/title/186/The-Great-Ziegfeld/articles.html#00" target="_blank">The Great Ziegfeld</a>,</i> a bio of the man's life.<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-Xo5FqcRR4Pc/Vy5hE-w6f3I/AAAAAAAAEs4/UdUKFb2QIZEShbQsSASD9AMuW1LrhWMRgCLcB/s400/Ziegfeld%2BFollies%2B%25281945%2529%2B4.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;" width="321" /></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lMKbGRCbsaw" target="_blank">With another master of dance, Gene Kelly, in <i>Ziegfeld Follies </i>(1946)</a></td></tr>
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MGM's own version of the <i>Ziegfeld Follies</i> is a gaudy, tuneful, outrageous, tedious, funny, stupid, colorful, one-of-a-kind confection that took years to complete with a score of directors, writers, and performers. By the time the movie hit the screens in the spring of 1946, much had been left on the cinematic scrap heap.<br />
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Filming started in March of 1944 with a budget of $3 million, an enormous amount for a time when movie tickets cost 35 cents. Movie attendance was approaching an all-time high ninety million patrons per week. Starring Judy Garland, Gene Kelly, Lena Horne, Esther Williams, Kathryn Grayson, Fanny Brice, and many others, Astaire was the film's de facto lead, sharing time in four musical vignettes one with Gene Kelly, two with Lucille Bremer, and the opening number with <a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjFnI2_pizeZuY1t0tDC3dxmnASlVI8MxgxNEfZhXwjfsuNlG5p61XzHMML6k9v0k6aacowt0LgwZube9SLNEc9MeZV_oEt_McVzumxr_NKLQ09uDgKZxJhORrfqwzJLKNV2uu38PPgND2D/s1600/Ziegfeld+follies+1.jpg" target="_blank">Lucille Ball and various women dressed in cat suits</a> (the film is nothing if not flamboyant). Astaire has four numbers, including "Limehouse Blues" with Lucille Bremer and "The Babbitt and the Bromide" with Gene Kelly, combining song with great dancing.<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><img border="0" src="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-jKKo6AVN-hw/Vy9tmlB9OwI/AAAAAAAAEtM/hHMcuUei2FU33d4DAdqShWD4jZ2KqhjxgCKgB/s1600/zfduquette.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;" /></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Tony Duquette's amazing design for the "This Heart of Mine" sequence in <i>Ziegfeld Follies </i>(1946)</td></tr>
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<i>Follies</i> was mostly directed by <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vincente_Minnelli#Filmography" target="_blank">Vincente Minnelli</a>, a fresh talent hot off the success of <i>Meet Me in St. Louis</i>. Astaire's next hot-house concoction, <i>Yolanda and The Thief</i>, was Minnelli's and Freed's as well. <i>Yolanda</i> is a fairy tale with its eccentric characters (Bremer's flamboyant aunt, Mildred Natwick, is all dither and fuss), Dali-esque dream sequences, and elements of fantasy (Leon Ames' mysterious Mr. Candle). The film alienated fans when it was released, and is still regarded as a curious, bizarre, failed project. Many considered the film a vanity production to show off Freed's lover, the lovely and talented Lucille Bremer. Its failure, blamed on her, was a hit her career never recovered from. However, the film does have many virtues, including its leading lady, production design, costumes, choreography, and vibrant technicolor. The number, "Coffee Time," still entertains.<br />
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-5Qs32ggCg9w/Vy97DKgDL4I/AAAAAAAAEtY/MA8-kdrKiVcfGv_XF24k-Lra_LUP3eTFwCLcB/s1600/yolanda-and-the-thief-dali.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="301" src="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-5Qs32ggCg9w/Vy97DKgDL4I/AAAAAAAAEtY/MA8-kdrKiVcfGv_XF24k-Lra_LUP3eTFwCLcB/s400/yolanda-and-the-thief-dali.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Astaire and Lucille Bremer in the Dali-esque dream sequence<br />
from Vincente Minnelli's <i>Yolanda and The Thief</i>.<br />
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After this less-than-auspicious start to the Freed-Astaire working relationship, Astaire quickly tapped his way to Paramount Studios and a reunion with Bing Crosby for the colorful, entertaining <i>Blue Skies</i>. Featuring the songs of Irving Berlin, <i>Blue Skies</i> tells of Bing and Fred rivalry for the affections of leading lady Joan Caulfield. Despite its tired plot, Astaire and Crosby do what they did best: entertain us. Fred's "Puttin' on the Ritz" routine is especially memorable. The film was profitable, one of the biggest of 1946.<br />
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At this point that Fred Astaire decided to hang up his dancing shoes. A chronic worrier, Astaire thought he had gone stale, and that newer film fans found him passe. Then fate intervened. Over at MGM, Gene Kelly and Judy Garland planned to team up for the third time in <i>Easter Parade</i>, a Freed Unit presentation with Minnelli as director. Several things changed this talent line-up. First up was Minnelli. As Garland's husband, Vincente Minnelli had guided her from the young girl in her Mickey Rooney collaborations to the lovely young woman in the three films they made together between 1944 and 1946. At this point Garland's personal demons began to emerge in a frightening way. MGM's Louis B. Mayer figured the studio would get more from Garland if her husband weren't around, so Charles Walters replaced Minnelli on the <i>Easter Parade</i> production. Then, on the eve of production, Gene Kelly broke an ankle playing baseball. Freed made a frantic call to Astaire. Would he replace Kelly? With Kelly's blessing, Astaire agreed. <i><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KKr9S2UNFAU" target="_blank">Easter Parade</a></i> was an instant classic upon its 1948 release. Using the Irving Berlin song catalogue, Garland and Astaire made a great team. With support from Peter Lawford and, especially, Ann Miller, <i>Easter Parade </i>has become a perennial holiday favorite of generations (I once knew a girl who said it was her favorite film). <i>Easter Parade</i> also gave Astaire's career a new lease. Garland and Astaire were set to team up a second time on 1949's <i>The Barkleys of Broadway</i>, but Judy's fragile health forced her bow out, which sparked Freed's idea of reuniting Astaire with Ginger Rogers after a ten-year hiatus. It proved a popular decision.<br />
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-sEPxsIDCGvk/Vy-JTeCiz8I/AAAAAAAAEto/ZuiIusAF_d4F2mtzqT96gJH94kh04gGkACLcB/s1600/AstaireJudy.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="298" src="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-sEPxsIDCGvk/Vy-JTeCiz8I/AAAAAAAAEto/ZuiIusAF_d4F2mtzqT96gJH94kh04gGkACLcB/s400/AstaireJudy.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sQdzrJUb-yE" target="_blank">"We're a couple of swells...."</a> With Judy in the classic routine that Garland later adapted<br />
for her stage show. From 1948's <i>Easter Parade</i>.</td></tr>
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With these two musicals, Astaire headed into the 1950s with a revitalized film career, even as the musical genre peaked--early Fifties musicals included <i>An American in Paris</i>, <i>Singin' in the Rain</i>, <i>Kiss Me, Kate</i>, and <i>The Band Wagon</i>--and diminished. Successful musicals from the mid-Fifties forward were big (at times bloated), slow-moving adaptations of major Broadway hits. It was in this atmosphere that Astaire agreed to get aboard <i>The Band Wagon</i>, my favorite Fred Astaire movie.<br />
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-QuZ1Mi91ccA/VzdtiiuPEjI/AAAAAAAAEt8/n8jfyhHvmSEztHzkXNCZ1uH8uI9FHRGbgCLcB/s1600/GIRL%2BHUNT%2B4.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="298" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-QuZ1Mi91ccA/VzdtiiuPEjI/AAAAAAAAEt8/n8jfyhHvmSEztHzkXNCZ1uH8uI9FHRGbgCLcB/s400/GIRL%2BHUNT%2B4.png" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">In Vincente Minnelli's <i>The Band Wagon </i>(1953),<br />
here's Astaire with the best dance partner he ever had, Cyd Charisse<br />
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Directed once again by Vincente Minnelli, 1953's <i><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RYSg5o-N0aI" target="_blank">The Band Wagon</a> </i>is not just a simple story--its characters near cliches, the dialogue ordinary. The physical production; the tuneful, classic songs by Arthur Schwartz and Howard Dietz; the great choreography by Broadway's Michael Kidd; and scene-stealing turns by an irrepressible Nanette Fabray, Oscar Levant and his neuroses, and Jack Buchanan as the egomaniacal director all combine to create one of the last great movie musicals. Partnered for the first time with the sublime Cyd Charisse, Astaire is at the top of his game. From the "Dancing in the Dark" number to the film's ultimate musical-in-a-musical number, "The Girl Hunt Ballet," the pair are entirely attuned each other. Not since Ginger Rogers had a dance partner of Astaire's worked so perfectly.<br />
<br />
1953 was Astaire's twentieth year in film, and at age 54 he contemplated retirement--again. The movies' premier song-and-dance man nearly hung it up, feeling he had gone stale. His <i>Band Wagon</i> character, Tony Hunter, has a clear connection to Astaire: old hoofer from
Hollywood in a career slump, goes east to try and revive it, and finds
love in the process. It's true Fred ended the 1940s on an upswing, but the 1950s found him in more pedestrian ventures.<br />
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-L35ZnMJN3kk/VzeVG_QVgII/AAAAAAAAEuM/7ZafS_WYQS4bbEUAFtxOYmLz9axhUJrrwCLcB/s1600/cyd%2Bsilk%2Bstockings.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="165" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-L35ZnMJN3kk/VzeVG_QVgII/AAAAAAAAEuM/7ZafS_WYQS4bbEUAFtxOYmLz9axhUJrrwCLcB/s400/cyd%2Bsilk%2Bstockings.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Dancing to the great song "All of You" by Cole Porter.<br />
Charisse and Astaire do it one more time in 1957's <i>Silk Stockings</i>.</td></tr>
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In 1954, Astaire's wife, Phyllis, died of cancer. He returned to Hollywood for Fox's <i>Daddy Long Legs</i> in 1955 and then made his last two musicals in a one-two punch: Paramount's <i>Funny Face</i> with Audrey Hepburn and MGM's <i>Silk Stockings</i>, a showcase for Cole Porter's songs, that reunited him with Cyd Charisse. Astaire, the male lead in both movies, is nearly upstaged by his female co-stars. The stories are about the women, and the films belong to them. While both films were warmly received by critics, audiences favored <i>Silk Stockings </i>over the stylish <i>Funny Face</i>. Except for his turn in Francis Ford Coppola's version of <i>Finian's Rainbow</i> in 1968, Fred Astaire never made another musical on the big screen. With his wife gone, his two children grown, and his song-and-dance-man years pretty much behind him, Astaire looked for new challenges. He found it in his next film.<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-fJi6zrsJkWA/VzfBO990vzI/AAAAAAAAEuc/I8RVZRvujc4t_GCNnxrGV_J7nIcrtRYNQCLcB/s1600/on-the-beach-poster.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="315" src="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-fJi6zrsJkWA/VzfBO990vzI/AAAAAAAAEuc/I8RVZRvujc4t_GCNnxrGV_J7nIcrtRYNQCLcB/s400/on-the-beach-poster.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">It's the end of the world as they know it....<br />
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Stanley Kramer's films are well known for their social awareness. The director--who began as a producer--was known for his tackling difficult subjects like 1925's Scopes "Monkey" Trial in the film <i>Inherit the Wind</i> (1960); racism and bigotry in <i>The Defiant Ones</i> (1958); Nazi war criminals in <i>Judgment at Nuremberg</i> (1961); and, with <i><a href="http://www.tcm.com/tcmdb/title/17688/On-the-Beach/articles.html#00" target="_blank">On the Beach</a>, </i>nuclear destruction of Earth. Without naming who exactly is at fault, the film takes place in Australia and deals with the last known survivors. Though the film suffers from some very poor Australian accents (apart from Gregory Peck's Commander Dwight Lionel Towers, all the characters--played by American actors--are meant to be Australians), <i>On the Beach</i> rewards patient audiences with good performances, including Astaire's as a scientist who helped make the bomb during World War II and is grappling with his role in the devastating event. When released, <i>On the Beach</i> was extremely timely, though a slight disappointment on release late in 1959. Astaire's dramatic turn brought some acclaim but no Oscar gold.<br />
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-lNXxCTIFTgA/VzfJEPs-jBI/AAAAAAAAEus/jB7nTqYxMMsAbx5yR3xHsg9d5ryOel6GgCLcB/s400/Astaire-and-Gene-Kellyrecordingstudio.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;" width="400" /></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">At a rehearsal hall with Gene Kelly (early Fifties-ish)</td></tr>
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Fred was 60 now. Time was getting short, but he still had some dance steps. When movies were no longer an option for musical performances, Astaire moved on to television. With Barrie Chase, a collaborator more than thirty years his junior, <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vjHUj0F4djk" target="_blank">Astaire made four television variety specials</a> between 1958 and 1968. Astaire adapted rather well to television, as his co-starring role as Robert Wagner's gentleman-thief father in the popular suspense/comedy show, <i>It Takes a Thief</i>, shows.<br />
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Movies were still a part of his life as well. In 1974, Astaire starred in two very different movies. The mega budget <i><a href="http://www.tcm.com/tcmdb/title/416013/The-Towering-Inferno/articles.html#00" target="_blank">The Towering Inferno</a></i> included Fred along with the all-star cast of Steve McQueen, Paul Newman, Faye Dunaway, William Holden, Jennifer Jones, Robert Wagner, Richard Chamberlain, and O.J. Simpson. <i>The Towering Inferno</i> was a box office blockbuster, gaining several Oscar nominations, including a Best Supporting Actor nomination to Astaire for his performance as a shady yet gentlemanly con man who falls in love with Jennifer Jones. It was the lone Oscar nomination of his forty-year film career, and Fred was undoubtedly the sentimental favorite. I remember watching that Oscar show and being pretty surprised when the winner was Robert DeNiro for <i>The Godfather, Part II</i>. (It was one time when the Academy got it right. DeNiro's work in <i>Part II</i> is nothing short of amazing.) Astaire's work in <i>Inferno </i>was good but not Oscar-worthy. No surprises; not even a real good last scene.<br />
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Fred's other 1974 movie was the classic showbiz documentary, <i><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ywKvXIR-z0I" target="_blank">That's Entertainment!</a></i>, a film so popular it spawned sequels in 1976 (again with Fred) and 1993. <i>That's Entertainment!</i> was instrumental in the creation of the great nostalgia wave of the early-to-mid 1970s. Fred Astaire's farewell to film was the well-regarded horror film from 1981, <i>Ghost Story</i>, in which he starred with Douglas Fairbanks, Jr., Melvyn Douglas, and John Houseman.<br />
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In 1950, Ginger Rogers presented Astaire with an Oscar for lifetime achievement. It's nice to know Fred wasn't empty handed when it came to Oscar. <br />
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<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pytgXyEgyh4&list=PLYFfDN07IHQjX3JLsdaDzB2CypAp6p9O1&index=5" target="_blank">Fred Astaire received the American Film Institute Lifetime Achievement Award in 1981.</a> At the time, Astaire was only the ninth film legend awarded the honor. He was also the first recipient of The Kennedy Center Honors in 1978. In 1980, Fred--a widower since his wife's death in the mid-Fifties--married horse race jockey, Robyn Smith. The marriage lasted until his death in June 1988 when he was 89.<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-70DWxOxGn-c/Vz_0sx3_LrI/AAAAAAAAEvo/zegWcbdDLlE7l_7evmKiEemhgcqseL6UACLcB/s400/FredGinger.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;" width="321" /></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The immortal team: dancing love, dancing magic, and dancing dreams</td></tr>
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Fred Astaire was unique to the movies, and he still is. It seems that style and grace are not really a part of our world anymore. Seen through contemporary eyes, Astaire's demeanor and old-fashioned manners and charm are out of touch in an American society that prizes boorishness. Astaire is from a time when movies--all movies, not just love stories--were romantic. Fred Astaire and the films of his generation laid the groundwork that subsequent generations have been trying to recreate for fifty years. As Gene Kelly said at an AFI dinner in his honor (to paraphrase) up there on the screen you dance dreams, you dance joy, and you dance love. Today's films are technically superior, yet they are often cold and lack emotion. Movies used to have song, joy, magic, and love. Now it seems all they offer are green screen-generated special effects. We shouldn't leave a theater feeling empty. In his day, Fred Astaire wouldn't have let us. <br />
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Sources<br />
Books: <i>Fred Astaire, Pyramid Illustrated History of the Movies</i> by Stephen Harvey<br />
<i>Ginger Rogers, Pyramid Illustrated History of the Movies</i> by Patrick McGilligan<br />
<i>Joan Crawford, Pyramid Illustrated History of the Movies</i> by Stephen Harvey<br />
<i>Rita Hayworth, Pyramid Illustrated History of the Movies</i> by Gerald Peary<br />
<i>Starring Fred Astaire </i>by Stanley Green and Burt Goldblatt <br />
Internet: IMDB<br />
Wikipedia<br />
Images of Astaire <br />
YouTubeNick Pattersonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09555378788567081907noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3984205935625085047.post-45306636665706491732016-05-08T08:06:00.001-07:002016-05-08T08:06:25.862-07:00The Film That Got Away: George Cukor's A Star Is Born (1954)<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-3SnwNduGWLU/VyLU2IquoEI/AAAAAAAAEo4/gILiRuiX-Rkj5l_4ez8VST5wFrBYul71gCLcB/s1600/Star-Is-Born.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="183" src="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-3SnwNduGWLU/VyLU2IquoEI/AAAAAAAAEo4/gILiRuiX-Rkj5l_4ez8VST5wFrBYul71gCLcB/s400/Star-Is-Born.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
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In his time, <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/George_Cukor" target="_blank">George Cukor</a> was one of cinema's best, unsung craftsman. Specializing in comedy, Cukor's skill with a dramatic story was somewhat overlooked. But the best of Cukor's comedies have dramatic undercurrents and characters. Consider Lew Ayres' Ned, the alcoholic brother of free spirit--and family black sheep--Katharine Hepburn in <i>Holiday</i>; or the relationship entanglements of <i>The Philadelphia Story</i>'s main characters<i>. </i>A brief list of Cukor's serious films reveal some of the best dramas of classic cinema: the 1933 version <i>Little Women</i>, also starring Katharine Hepburn; the 1936 adaptation of <i>Romeo and Juliet; </i>1944's <i>Gaslight</i>; 1947's <i>A Double Life, </i>which included<i> </i>an Oscar-winning turn by Ronald Colman.<br />
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Early in his career Cukor directed a drama at RKO Studios for studio chief David O. Selznick that told the soon-to-be-classic Hollywood story of Mary Evans, a young woman desperate to break into the movies. One night at her waitressing job, she waits on big-time film director, Max Carey. The two become friends, and the young woman is put through a crash course on Movie Stardom 101 circa 1932. She experiences a lot of life, marrying, having a baby, separating and reconciling with her husband, all while best friend Max, who has a massive drinking problem, becomes increasingly disenchanted with his life in the limelight. Max takes drastic measures after she posts his bail (on an Oscar night when she's collected the Best Actress award, no less) when he's jailed on a drunk driving charge. The film, called <i><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K9UBH4r0sG4" target="_blank">What Price Hollywood?</a></i> served as an outline for three versions of the story that followed. That story was <i>A Star </i><i>Is</i><i> Born</i>.<br />
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-8w_RLceJXec/VyLc_V4L5zI/AAAAAAAAEpI/IGvolynLXKMzSgEp1Pd1tlNjnN2ILpDBQCLcB/s1600/starisborn1937title.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-8w_RLceJXec/VyLc_V4L5zI/AAAAAAAAEpI/IGvolynLXKMzSgEp1Pd1tlNjnN2ILpDBQCLcB/s320/starisborn1937title.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Title card from the 1937 version<br />
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Produced independently by David Selznick, the first "official" version of the story, <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UsAhVTShKbA" target="_blank">1937's <i>A Star Is Born</i></a>, laid the ground work for the two versions that followed, changing a few things from <i>What Price Hollywood?. </i>One was the elimination of the 1932 movie's main character, film director Max Carey. Max's more compelling characteristics--drinking, boredom, humor, ennui--were made facets of the new male lead character, dashing matinee idol actor, Norman Maine. Mary Evans, the young woman from the 1932 story became wide-eyed, innocent Vicki Lester from the Midwest. Through various plot twists, Norman Maine and Vicki Lester meet and fall in love, with Vicki's new film career blossoming while Norman's is dying on the cinematic vine, thus increasing his affection for body- and mind-numbing substances. The ending, similar to <i>What Price</i>, is tragic. A huge hit in its day, the 1937 <i>Star </i><i>Is </i><i>Born </i>played the wife-on-way-up female character against the I-was-good-once-and-I-love-you-but-now-I'm-too-pissed-to-care male angst.<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><img border="0" height="281" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/--ucjSaZ5dKc/VyLgYL-OKLI/AAAAAAAAEpU/xx68MNqDEyEe24lnIwvVQ3TeAPZf3_F3QCLcB/s400/star-is-born-1954-germanposter02.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;" width="400" /></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">German poster art for 1954's <i>A Star Is Born</i><br />
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The <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ABGd0iiRXKU" target="_blank">1954 take on <i>A Star Is Born</i></a> put the "big" in big screen entertainment. Using the new widescreen process called CinemaScope, this version included musical numbers, tailor made for its star, Judy Garland. And it was Garland and her new production company (run by her third husband, Sid Luft) that served as the impetus for putting this version of the story in front of the cameras.<br />
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While no doubt existed about who would play the female lead, early on the very important male lead was offered to several legendary actors, including some fascinating possibilities like Humphrey Bogart, Frank Sinatra, and Cary Grant. Grant--Cukor's first choice--read at the director's home, and Cukor claimed that the reading was nothing short of outstanding; however, Grant steadfastly said no. Cukor, according to Ronald Haver's book on the film's production, wasn't surprised. Grant, he knew, would never "expose himself" on screen like that. Eventually, Cary Grant-esque British actor, James Mason, was awarded the difficult job of giving Norman Maine another chance in Hollywood. Frederic March played Maine as a sort of happy drunk in the 1937 version of the story. Mason's take on the character would be much darker, with a rough, masochistic edge.<br />
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James Mason played Norman with a fascinating quality of danger. This Norman Maine is devotedly self destructive, charming yet angry. Minutes after his introduction, he is blind drunk at a very public event, pushing a member of the press through a mirror. As good as Fredric March's Maine is, Mason is so much the better, adding more subtlety and incredible sensitivity. The contrast between the two actors is never more evident that in the scene where the studio boss (played in this version by Charles Bickford) visits Norman in an alcoholic sanitarium. 1937's version plays the scene somewhat light; 1954's is much more somber with the humor of the scene emerging slowly, dryly, sardonically.<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-MTDHnRDOXt8/VyLxHkLwDYI/AAAAAAAAEpk/VW4Vlr4vpI0LxP6PTS1sB2cYuhcIzGkggCLcB/s1600/star-judysgoneto.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="161" src="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-MTDHnRDOXt8/VyLxHkLwDYI/AAAAAAAAEpk/VW4Vlr4vpI0LxP6PTS1sB2cYuhcIzGkggCLcB/s400/star-judysgoneto.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Garland-larger than life-lamenting the man that got away.<br />
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Judy's Esther Blodgett ("Vicki Lester" is her studio-imposed name, a nice echo of Frances Gumm, who came to Hollywood and became "Judy Garland") is also different from the earlier version. Garland's Esther is no wide-eyed innocent fresh in town from Minnesota. Though not jaded like Norman Maine, this Esther is singing with a band that travels the country. Indeed, with Garland as one of the leads, a musical element was inevitable. Seven musical numbers made the final cut for the film, including a new song by peerless songwriters Ira Gershwin and Harold Arlen, <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ooeuybwJAsE" target="_blank">"The Man That Got Away,"</a> which was nominated for a Best Song Oscar (somehow losing to the theme from <i>Three Coins in the Fountain</i>) and went on to be a classic.<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-jjcZgNwKiHU/VyV91HSvMaI/AAAAAAAAEqQ/zQB_VooSq2Q_qvthx4vccGjTVNDzSza8wCLcB/s1600/star_is_born2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="158" src="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-jjcZgNwKiHU/VyV91HSvMaI/AAAAAAAAEqQ/zQB_VooSq2Q_qvthx4vccGjTVNDzSza8wCLcB/s400/star_is_born2.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><div style="text-align: center;">
The lovely Lola Lavery at the Shrine Auditorium. </div>
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That's studio chief Oliver Niles <span style="font-size: small;">(</span>Charles Bickford) on the left.</div>
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Throughout 1954's <i>A Star Is Born</i>, George Cukor's touch is evident. Attuned to his actors, Cukor's guidance of the cast, particularly the two leads, yields some of the best performances of any of his films. A more surprising aspect of the film is the visual scheme. Prior to <i>A Star is Born, </i>Cukor's visual sense was secondary to the performances. This film changed that. In this, his first widescreen feature, Cukor hired visual and color consultants, Gene Allen and George Hoyningen Huene who became important collaborators on almost all of Cukor's subsequent color films. <br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-aanlZYSGnHQ/VyWBumpbRoI/AAAAAAAAEqc/HktaK3y-_6sGSAnul69C7aT3S4HUmPS0QCLcB/s1600/starisborn-masonbeach.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="158" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-aanlZYSGnHQ/VyWBumpbRoI/AAAAAAAAEqc/HktaK3y-_6sGSAnul69C7aT3S4HUmPS0QCLcB/s400/starisborn-masonbeach.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Norman, listening to Esther singing, makes the big decision to go for a swim.</td></tr>
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After nine months of on/off production and a price tag of $5 million (about 45 million in 2015 dollars), <i>A Star </i><i>Is</i><i> Born</i>'s<i> </i>premiere was set for September 29, 1954, at the Pantages Theatre in Hollywood. It was a truly spectacular event, attended by Frank Sinatra, Humphrey Bogart and Lauren Bacall, Lucille Ball and Desi Arnaz, Joan Crawford, Groucho Marx, and Clark Gable, as well as a young actor as yet unknown to movie audiences named James Dean. Co-star <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sjlYbxfdvXE" target="_blank">Jack Carson emceed</a> until a late George Jessel took over the proceedings. Studio chief Jack Warner paid the bills for it all, including a to-die-for post-premiere party at the Cocoanut Grove. Garland and Carson were the only cast members in attendance that night (fascinating footage of the premiere and the post-premiere party is available on the film's DVD and blu-ray discs as well as YouTube). James Mason was a no-show due to his dislike of "that premiere nonsense." Director Cukor was off on location in India, filming <i>Bhowani Junction</i> with Ava Gardner. The New York opening was reportedly even more spectacular.<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-Q274hPje3tk/VyY49kyaMfI/AAAAAAAAEqs/5SpzxFfcQXcEfE4gI57xRky0KOBmCJ0QwCLcB/s400/starisbornbacall-sinatra-judy-bogart.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;" width="313" /></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Frank, Betty Bacall, Judy, and Bogie announce their arrival at<br />
the fabled Cocoanut Grove after party.</td></tr>
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<a href="http://www.nytimes.com/movie/review?res=9F06E5D7103FE33BBC4A52DFB667838F649EDE&partner=Rotten%2520Tomatoes" target="_blank">The reviews were good</a>, especially for the two leads. Mason and Garland both landed Oscar nominations, two of six the movie received. Also nominated were the film's art direction, costume design, song, and musical score. While none took home the award, Judy was the front runner going into the ceremony. About to give birth to her third child, Joey, Garland was in the hospital. News crews were all set up, anticipating a Garland victory. When presenter William Holden opened the envelope and named Grace Kelly Best Actress, the news crew quietly left. Groucho Marx called Kelly's victory "the greatest robbery since Brink's." (In light of the justified praise for Garland's performance, James Mason's terrific portrayal of the lost Norman Maine tends to go overlooked. It shouldn't.)<br />
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In spite of the positive attention, the film had a kind of jinx on it from the beginning of production through theatrical bookings. Audiences were initially enthusiastic and business brisk. But due to its 182-minute length, exhibitors had the same complaint--theaters couldn't fit as many showings into a day as they could with more standard length movies. The decision makers at Warner Bros. decided "excess" footage had to be scrapped, resulting in a 154-minute version that most folks, like me, saw on television for many years after the film's release. The cuts broke Cukor's heart.<br />
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If memory serves I first saw this fable of Hollywood on KHJ-TV Channel 9, an independent TV station from Los Angeles, about 95 miles south of my hometown. It was New Year's Eve--no school the next day--and my folks were out for the holiday, so my older sister, Debbi, and I watched this chestnut of a film. I'm not certain of the year, but I think it was 1971, which means that I was 12 and Debbi 15. That sounds about right. (I cannot say enough about my older sister and the culture she introduced me to at a young age. Maybe one day I'll devote an entire entry to that special person.)<br />
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The 154-minute version was the only one projected until Ronald Haver--film curator at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art--did his best Philip Marlowe and dug deep in the Warner Bros. film and music archives, turning up footage not seen since 1954. Haver eventually discovered enough footage of the film to justify funding the recovery, restoration, and rediscovery of this transfixing film. Ultimately, the restoration lacked only about six minutes of missing visual information. Since Haver recovered the film's entire soundtrack, those visuals were replaced with existing still photos from the missing scenes with the recorded dialog played over the stills. Upon release of the completed restoration, I believed the 182-minute version to be a blessing handed down from the cinematic gods. Time and consideration, however, has allowed me a little more objectivity, and I can't say that I'm as sold on the complete film as I used to be. The film never ceases to entertain and move me, though. It remains an all-time favorite.<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-RRNm6gXnHqA/Vya-geJhZII/AAAAAAAAEq8/fB7osfZKzGgWcUhi29wfkEBW2bJFL_sJACLcB/s400/starisborngarlanddietrich.png" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;" width="305" /></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Another photo op at the post-premiere party.<br />
This time Marlene Dietrich snuggles up to star of the night, Judy Garland. </td></tr>
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I woke the day after I saw <i>A Star Is Born</i> for the first time and read that Peter Duell, the star of the television western, <i>Alias Smith and Jones,</i> had supposedly killed himself with a gun the night before. This news, on top of the tragic movie I had seen just the previous night, jolted me out of my 12-year-old world. I began to wonder if movies--and Hollywood by extension--had a special, hidden portal, one that not all can access, even when it's right in front of them. I fell for the myth of Tinseltown, suddenly and abruptly. From then on, movies were a major part of my life. Within two years I was taking baby steps into the wonderful, mysterious, unique, specialized, informal, obsessive world of a cinephile. Westerns, <i>noir</i>, musicals, screwball comedies, Broadway adaptations, action, adventure, silents, grind house, classics. The year doesn't matter. It doesn't matter if a movie is five years old or fifty years old; if you've never seen it, it's new. <i>A Star is Born </i>is one of the first movies that introduced me to this obsession. Since then I have watched the movie more times than I can count, mostly on television and once, in the early Eighties, on the big screen in a double bill with <i>South Pacific</i>. Though it was pre-restoration, it looked fine to me in the friendly confines of the Arlington Theatre. (Note that <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MZ2lgbexOBI" target="_blank">1976 saw remake number two</a>, starring Barbra Streisand and Kris Kristofferson. The music was well received, and Streisand herself would share the Best Song Oscar with Paul Williams, but the film was a shallow rendering of the classic story.)<br />
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Upon its 1983 restoration, <i>A Star Is Born</i> had roadshow-like showings in theaters around the country. Unfortunately, George Cukor never saw the result of Ronald Haver's hard work. The night before Haver was to show Cukor the restored version, the director died in his sleep. He was 83. In recent years <a href="http://www.tcm.com/tcmdb/title/12836/A-Star-Is-Born/notes.html" target="_blank">another remake</a>, rumored to be starring Beyonce, has been in the works, though no definitive start date has been named. Honestly, I hope the film never gets made. <i>A Star is Born</i> will always occupy a large place in my cinematic heart, ticking at 24 beats per second.<br />
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Sources:<br />
<i>A Star Is Born: The making of the 1954 movie and it's 1983 restoration</i> by Ronald Haver<br />
IMDB<br />
Wikipedia Pages: A Star Is Born, George Cukor<br />
<i>A Star Is Born</i> (DVD, Warner Bros., 2000) <br />
Nick Pattersonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09555378788567081907noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3984205935625085047.post-6678229904863891592016-02-21T17:47:00.000-08:002016-02-21T17:47:31.420-08:00Short Takes: Star Wars: The Force Awakens and Hail, Caesar! <div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<i>Star Wars: The Force Awakens</i><br />
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I have to say up front that I didn't expect to enjoy the J.J. Abrams re-boot of the legendary <i>Star Wars </i>franchise. Although I have seen <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Star_Wars#Theatrical_films" target="_blank">every <i>Star Wars</i> movie</a> on the big screen in original release, I was never a true fan of the films. My favorite is still <i>The Empire Strikes Back</i>. Since that film I have found each successive chapter a bit weak. I even thought <i>Return of the Jedi</i> was disappointing (like many others, too many cuddly creatures made it seem too much like a Muppet movie to me), and forget about the most recent three. In fact, I think I fell asleep during the <i>Attack of the Clones.</i> The latest entry, however, kept me thoroughly riveted from start to finish. I left the theater believing that the best thing that happened to the franchise is that is got taken from of the clutches of Darth Vader ... uh, George Lucas.<br />
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The biggest asset Abrams made was to bring back the original characters: Luke Skywalker, Princess--now General--Leia Organa, and, last but far from least, Han Solo along with faithful sidekicks, Chewbacca, C3PO, and R2D2. Of all these, Harrison Ford's Han Solo nearly steals the film, much like he did the first three movies, but for a different reason. Ford brings a world weary been-there-done-that quality that he didn't have in the original trilogy. It also helps that he has the best lines.<br />
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Carrie Fisher--<a href="http://www.toledoblade.com/image/2014/08/18/800x_b1_cCM_z_ca619,130,1888,1973/People-Debbie-Reynolds.jpg" target="_blank">looking more like her mom, Debbie Reynolds,</a> than ever--is ok as General Leia, though, I unfortunately found her head, with its piled up hairstyle, to resemble E.T. As for Luke--I don't think I'm spoiling anything since the whole world saw the movie before I did--he doesn't show until the end, thereby setting him up as a major player in the next installment.<br />
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The other major players--new to the show--are Oscar Isaac as Poe Dameron; John Boyega as Finn; Daisy Ridley as Rey; and Adam Driver as the villain-with-a-big-secret, Kylo Ren. It's a credit to Abrams and screenwriters Lawrence Kasdan and Michael Arndt that I enjoyed meeting these new characters almost as much as I did catching up with the older ones.<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-6Cq1LfJMC08/VsDbMg9voqI/AAAAAAAAEiY/qDWKHjUd_RU/s1600/forceawakensjordandesertdestroyerv1_dc.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="214" src="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-6Cq1LfJMC08/VsDbMg9voqI/AAAAAAAAEiY/qDWKHjUd_RU/s320/forceawakensjordandesertdestroyerv1_dc.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">This matte painting is a great example of the art work in the new Star Wars film.</td></tr>
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<a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt2488496/?ref_=nv_sr_1" target="_blank"><i>Star Wars: The Force Awakens</i></a> lived up to the hype, something few films achieve. After nearly forty years, it appears the Force really is still with us. The original <i>Star Wars</i> changed movie-going--and movies--forever, arguably not all in good ways, but <i>The Force Awakens</i> is well on its way to being one of the most successful films of all time. Sometimes the more things change, the more they stay the same.<br />
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<i>Hail, Caesar! </i><br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Featured players in <i>Hail, Caesar!</i>: George Clooney, Channing Tatum, Scarlett Johansson, Josh Brolin </td></tr>
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Joel and Ethan Coen have been creating their unique film universe for more than thirty years. Beginning with the low budget, neo-noir, <i><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blood_Simple" target="_blank">Blood Simple</a>,</i> the siblings have consistently balanced drama and comedy, sometimes simultaneously. <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fargo_%28film%29" target="_blank"><i>Fargo</i></a> remains the best example of the Coen Brothers' style, blending gruesome blood-letting and wacky, semi-comedic characters, though it is closely followed by their biggest cult film, <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Big_Lebowski" target="_blank"><i>The Big Lebowski</i></a>. Though less successful in its original release that <i>Fargo</i>, <i>Lebowski</i>, a reworking of the classic noir <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Big_Sleep" target="_blank"><i>The Big Sleep</i></a>, is a prime example of Coenesque cinema with its detailed plots, dark humor, and quirky characters.<br />
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<a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0475290/?ref_=nv_sr_1" target="_blank"><i>Hail, Caesar!</i></a>, the Coen's latest--and their tenth film in eighteen years--is a peek into the studio system of 1950s Hollywood, a time when the town was starting to feel the effects of television but hadn't yet lost its grip on the movie-going public. Like 1950's Tinseltown, in the world of <i>Hail, Caesar!</i>, image is all, gossip columns rule, and Communists are a clear and present danger. The film's central figure is Eddie Mannix (Josh Brolin), chief troubleshooter for the fictional Capitol Pictures. Mannix's main concern is the disappearance of leading man, Baird Whitlock, (George Clooney), who is making the biblical epic, <i>Hail, Caesar, A Tale of the Christ</i>, and has been kidnapped by a collective group of <a href="http://www.history.com/topics/cold-war/red-scare" target="_blank">Communist</a> screenwriters. Along the way we meet assorted Hollywood types, including Esther Williams-like aquatic star, DeeAnna Moran (Scarlett Johansson); twin gossip columnists, Thora and Thessaly Thacker (Tilda Swinton in a dual role); singing cowboy star, Hobie Doyle (Alden Ehrenreich); singing and dancing star, Bert Gurney (Channing Tatum); and sophisticated film director, Laurence Laurentz (Ralph Fiennes).<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">In one of the films funniest scenes, cowboy star, Hobie Doyle (Alden Ehrenreich),<br />
tries to perfect a line reading from sophisticated director, Laurence Laurentz (Ralph Fiennes).</td></tr>
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Due to its classic Hollywood setting, <i>Hail, Caesar!</i> most closely resembles the Coen's 1991 ode to pre-war Hollywood, <i><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Barton_Fink" target="_blank">Barton Fink</a>. </i>Though not as dark as that earlier film, <i>Hail, Caesar!</i> is a bittersweet valentine to a long-gone Hollywood, and it's clear from several of the brothers films--<i>Lebowski, </i><i>O Brother, Where Art Thou</i>, <i>Blood Simple</i>, <i>The Hudsucker Proxy</i>--that the Coens have a love and appreciation of classic film and Hollywood history. What makes the movie fascinating for film buffs like me is <a href="http://www.slate.com/blogs/browbeat/2016/02/08/hail_caesar_s_real_life_inspirations_broken_down_star_by_star_and_movie.html" target="_blank">where fact ends and dramatic license begins</a>. For example, Clooney's Whitlock is a take on Charlton Heston by way of Robert Taylor; Brolin's Mannix is based on the real-life Eddie Mannix, an MGM studio executive from the 1920s until the early 1960s, though without the threat of violence the real-life Mannix carried with him; and DeeAnna Moran's film-within-a-film is a clear take-off of the aquatic spectacle Esther Williams made so popular, yet Moran is nothing like the real-life Williams.<br />
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The film is an ensemble piece, but I want to single out a couple of standouts. Ralph Fiennes as director, Laurence Laurentz, is terrific in little more than a cameo; Alden Ehrenreich as Hobie Doyle is the epitome of an innocent cowboy star in way over his head when he's brought in to make a drawing room comedy; and best of all, Channing Tatum as the singing and dancing Gene Kelly-type was the biggest surprise of the film for me. His <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AOFwpLIBM8c" target="_blank">song and dance interlude</a>, which stops the show, must have been included by the Coens simply because they enjoyed the set piece so much. Mr. Tatum astounded me as well. In my opinion, he is one of today's few stars who not only could have survived in the studio system but actually could have flourished in it.<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-OVUHteXjXAM/Vsn0B9XqgvI/AAAAAAAAEjs/BlISqb2TnJc/s1600/hail-caesar.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="180" src="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-OVUHteXjXAM/Vsn0B9XqgvI/AAAAAAAAEjs/BlISqb2TnJc/s320/hail-caesar.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Studio fixer, Eddie Mannix (Josh Brolin) counsels bathing beauty, <br />
DeeAnna Moran (Scarlett Johansson).</td></tr>
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<i>Hail, Caesar! </i>may leave moviegoers unfamiliar with Hollywood history scratching their heads, wondering what all the fuss is about. But for students of the classic Hollywood studio system, it's refreshing to see a plot-driven film with fun, eccentric characters and juicy dialogue released into the mainstream without all the explosives and comic book mentality so often found in today's multiplexes. <i>Hail, Caesar!, </i>like 1994's <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Hudsucker_Proxy" target="_blank"><i>The Hudsucker Proxy</i></a>, reminds me of a screwball Preston Sturges film.<br />
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<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Auteur_theory" target="_blank">Auteurism</a> has essentially disappeared from American cinema since its glory days in the 1960s and 1970s. Today, with film critics disappearing from major news publications and audience interest focused so much on franchise films, Hollywood just doesn't seem to have room for the unique, individual style of an auteur. With the exception of Martin Scorsese, Michael Mann, Wes Anderson, and David Fincher, most directors today are staying afloat via blockbuster-style movies. The Coen Brothers are one of the last of their kind--genuine auteurs concerned with their own world, themes, and obsessions. <i>Hail, Caesar! </i>may not be a perfect example of the particular brand of cinematic drug they push, but in this day and age it is nevertheless a welcome, refreshing high. <br />
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Nick Pattersonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09555378788567081907noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3984205935625085047.post-6245232878958194922016-01-31T13:30:00.001-08:002016-01-31T13:30:53.578-08:00Underrated Gem: Freud (The Secret Passion)In 1962, director John Huston's <i>Freud </i>(a.k.a, <i><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JjejKunGmKM" target="_blank">The Secret Passion</a></i>) was released by Universal Pictures to near universal disdain. Starring Montgomery Clift in one of his last movie roles, <i>Freud</i> began life as a screenplay by French writer, Jean-Paul Sartre. However, Sartre left the project after failing to please Huston with his script revisions. (At one point Huston requested that Sartre pare down his script, which would run over five hours; Sartre delivered a revision that would require eight hours of screen time). Final writing credit went to Charles Kaufman for the story and Wolfgang Reinhardt--also the film's producer--for the screenplay. Huston himself put in time on the rewrites though he took no credit.<br />
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Filmed on location in Germany, <i>Freud,</i> which unfolds much like a mystery, deals with the psychoanalyst in an <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sigmund_Freud#Early_work" target="_blank">early point in his career</a>, from 1885 to 1890. Along with his mentor, Josef Breuer (Larry Parks), Freud uses hypnosis to peel away the layer that lies beneath his patients' psychosis and begins to develop the ideas that would contribute to his best-known theory, the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oedipus_complex" target="_blank">Oedipus complex</a>. After establishing Freud as a pioneer who is nevertheless perceived as a quack by his colleagues, the film establishes his hypnotherapy technique. One of his patients is Carl Von Schlossen (David McCallum), a young man who has tried to kill his father. When Freud puts the young man into a hypnotic trance, he discovers that Carl's father raped his mother, and that Carl is sexually attracted to her (so much so that Carl kisses a mannequin that he imagines is his mother). Freud, who nurses something of a mother fixation himself, is frightened enough by this revelation that he locks young Carl in his room and abstains for a time the practice of psychoanalysis. Eventually, Breuer visits Freud and persuades him to help with a particularly difficult case. His patient's name is Cecily Koertner (played by Susannah York), a young woman whose initial problems include a refusal to drink water and horrible nightmares. Freud quickly discovers, however, that these symptoms are the tip of the iceberg. Cecily is also sexually repressed, and she has fixated on her father.<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Freud, in a dream sequence, confronts his fears<br />
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<i>Freud</i> is not an easily accessible film. There is no Region 1 DVD or Blu-Ray, and the movie never shows up on the schedules of cable movie channels. Even Turner Classic Movies (TCM) hasn't shown it. Way back in the early 1990s, AMC--when it was still American Movie Classics--broadcast it, and I recorded it onto videotape. Since then I have transferred it to disc, and even though the picture quality is poor, I am glad to have a copy--any copy--to view. </div>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">A nice collage from the film<br />
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Beyond its script issue, <i>Freud</i> had a troubled production. Huston--who'd worked with Montgomery Clift the year before on <i>The Misfits</i>--had nothing but trouble with his his star--and vice versa. In addition to his increasing drug and alcohol intake, Clift was suffering from cataracts, which obviously impaired his vision. <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Montgomery_Clift#Post-accident_career" target="_blank">At this point in his career, Clift</a> was also experiencing difficulty with memorizing his lines. Unfortunately, Huston, who was never one to coddle, went after Clift, trying to bully a performance out of the increasingly insecure actor. Consequently, the film production became divided into two camps--one pro-Clift and one pro-Huston. Susannah York was especially vocal about Huston's nasty treatment of his troubled lead actor. Huston, carrying more power as director, had more allies, though the actors generally sided with Clift. Upon release, Huston's film wasn't popular and didn't play in the theaters for long, though it did appear on some ten best lists. Today, the movie has a 7.3 rating on IMDB and a 71% on Rotten Tomatoes (though that's based on only six reviews). </div>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Freud (Montgomery Clift) and Breuer (Larry Parks) working side by side. </td></tr>
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Montgomery Clift gives, in my opinion, a stellar performance as Freud. The film benefits from Clift's tortured, alienated persona, which helps convey Freud's anxiety and lack of confidence. In Clift's deft hands, the uncertain quality he brings to the role makes him relatable and sympathetic. <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Larry_Parks" target="_blank">Larry Parks</a>, a gifted actor who was not seen on screen for nearly ten years due to the Hollywood blacklist of the 1940s and 1950s, is equally effective as Joseph Breuer. And the demanding role of Cecily is skillfully played by <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Susannah_York" target="_blank">Susannah York</a> in what was only her fourth film. Her effort was rewarded with a Golden Globe nomination as Best Actress in a Drama. The film similarly garnered nominations for Best Picture-Drama, Best Director, and Best Supporting Actress for <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Susan_Kohner" target="_blank">Susan Kohner</a>'s performance as Freud's wife, Martha. <i>Freud</i> also received Oscar nominations for Best Original Screenplay and Best Original Score but lost both to <i>Divorce, Italian Style</i> and <i>Lawrence of Arabia,</i> respectively. </div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-8nkk-FT22HI/Vq0rHMC-HSI/AAAAAAAAEhE/pbM6Pn4oZFc/s1600/freudyork.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="300" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-8nkk-FT22HI/Vq0rHMC-HSI/AAAAAAAAEhE/pbM6Pn4oZFc/s400/freudyork.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
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The beautiful Susannah York as Cecily Koertner, </div>
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Dr. Freud's most demanding patient.</div>
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John Huston is one of cinema's most celebrated figures with films like <i>The Maltese Falcon</i>, <i>The Treasure of the Sierra Madre</i>, <i>The Asphalt Jungle</i>, <i>The African Queen</i>, <i>Moby Dick</i>, <i>The Misfits</i>, <i>The Man Who Would Be King</i>, and <i>Prizzi's Honor</i> to his credit. However Huston, whose <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Huston#Screenwriter_and_director" target="_blank">directing career lasted nearly fifty years and almost forty films</a>, has many "failures" whose reputation could stand re-evaluation. <i>Freud</i> would definitely benefit from such a re-evaluation and might even stand at the top of such a list. I, personally, am proud to have discovered it way back in the 1970s when, remarkably, it was more accessible than it is today. <i>Freud</i> isn't perfect--at nearly two hours and twenty minutes, it could be labeled a trifle long; and its black and white photography may be off-putting to a younger audience raised on color--but its virtues, including good writing, sensitive performances, and an excellent score by Jerry Goldsmith are well worth its length. If you ever get a chance to view this forgotten film, I'd definitely recommend you do. I wish Universal Pictures would issue this movie on disc--even a bare bones on-demand one--as it is a worthy title, lost in a sea of underrated gems. </div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-INekYVxZwI0/Vq06UNFL0VI/AAAAAAAAEhY/VGR2lKTXjaQ/s1600/FreudDreamMama.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="320" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-INekYVxZwI0/Vq06UNFL0VI/AAAAAAAAEhY/VGR2lKTXjaQ/s400/FreudDreamMama.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Freud's mother (Rosalie Crutchley) as she appears to him<br />
in one of film's several dream sequences.<br />
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Sources: </div>
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Rotten Tomatoes</div>
Nick Pattersonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09555378788567081907noreply@blogger.com0