Under The Influence

The Four Marx Brothers in The Cocoanuts, their 1929 screen debut.

The Marx Brothers, I think it's safe to say, were my first BIG movie influence. Back in 1973, 14 years old, just bitten by the theatre bug, when KTLA channel 5 a TV station broadcast out of Los Angeles, showed The Cocoanuts, Monkey Business, Duck Soup and Horse Feathers on consecutive nights Monday thru Thursday at { I think } 1AM-2:30AM. I don't recall why I wanted to see this madcap comedy team that consisted of four actual brothers. Everyone has a favorite, but mine was Groucho. I had never seen anyone so verbally abusive and funny at the same time. A role model that I still carry with me every day.

With Eva Marie Saint in On The Waterfront, 1954

Brando. What can I say?  I've already done a couple of blog entries on some of his { lesser ? } work, but On The Waterfront was the movie that brought his genius home to my front door. I had previously seen Mutiny on the Bounty, I think, but other than that I was pretty clueless about his work. His portrayal of ham-and-egger Terry Malloy was the first that hit me deep, where I live. This movie and Brando's interpretation of Malloy still resonate with me.

Family portrait : Butch, the Kid and Etta Place

  Butch Cassidy and The Sundance Kid. Butch was the first movie character I really wanted to inhabit. He was so glib and charming { even if he didn't possess all the answers like he thought he did } that, as a ten year old, I couldn't help but fall under his spell. One of the great buddy movies of all-time.

He's a very nosy fella :  Gittes tries to avoid it, but nothing can keep him out of Chinatown.

Jack Nicholson in Chinatown. J.J. Gittes, a descendent of Bogart's Philip Marlowe, part sleuth, part wiseguy/smart ass, who deals in " matrimonial work ". Nicholson's performance here is rich, subtle and varied. It's a demanding part; the dude is in every scene. Helluva piece of work and a character that I keep in mind when I'm in over my head and haven't the foggiest notion what the hell is going on. When my life turns into a mystery, I have J.J. Gittes to help me piece it all together.

The Beatles : The end is nigh. .

 I think everyone who reads this blog knows how I feel about these guys. Best band ever. Period.

The nefarious Prof. Fate!

Jack Lemmon aka Professor Fate from Blake Edwards' The Great Race. Lemmon's dual role as Fate { " push the button Max! " } and the lightly gay Prince Friedrich Hapnick { " brandy, more brandy! " } was a perennial favorite of mine as a youth { the dual roles must have appealed to the Gemini in me }. To this day I can sit in front of the tube and revel in Lemmon's comic mastery in this, along with two more early favorites :  his amazing C.C. Baxter in The Apartment and his wonderful turn as Frank Thurlowe Pulver in Mister Roberts. Lemmon was one of Hollywood's genuinely nice guys that everyone loved, yet there must have been a dark side to him as he supposedly battled a drinking problem. Who'd thunk Jack Lemmon could have demons?

Dean as ranch hand Jett Rink : " Ain't nobody king in this country. "

 I first came under the influence of James Dean on a Sunday night watching East of Eden on a 19 inch black and white television when I was suppose to be sleeping and preparing for another week of high school. Well, I was prepping alright. Studying how to have teenage angst while, somehow, look cool doing it. I got the angst down fairly well { still do, from time to time }, but I never achieved the coolness that I always aspired to. As for Jimmy, I think his Jett Rink in George Stevens' Giant may be my favorite, but it took several years and innumerable viewings to reach this conclusion. It was a reach, a stretch of his talent; a possible precursor to what his future could have been had he not met a different fate on September 30, 1955.

Sinatra as comedian Joe E. Lewis, back when drunks were funny, The Joker is Wild, 1957

Frank. The Voice. The Chairman of the Board. Ol' Blue Eyes. Sinatra was a later influence than the rest of these guys, I came to him when I was twenty. I'd seen a couple of his movies, but it was when I got into his music that everything fell into place. After that it was just a short hop to his work in films and reading nearly everything that's been written about him. I became obsessive about not only his work, but his life as well, reading the { mostly bad } bios, along with one or two good ones { Sinatra in Hollywood by Tom Santopietro, along with Frank : The Voice by James Kaplan are the best }. Sinatra won a Supporting Actor Oscar for From Here To Eternity, which started the great comeback for him, but my three favorites are The Joker Is Wild, Pal Joey and Some Came Running. 

Dylan, hat, flowers and eye liner during the Rolling Thunder Revue days of the mid-70's

Dylan, my last great obsession. I'd never been a great fan of his music until ten years ago I became friends with a band called The Snake, The Cross and The Crown. I had no girl, time on my hands and was ready to cut loose a bit { middle age crazy }, so I spent nearly every weekend with them and every weekend was a party. No matter how slow the evening may begin by night's end { or the day's beginning }, there was sure to be interesting people of all sorts and music was always a big part of the scene. They were all Dylan fans, so I decided to take the plunge and bought { of all things } 1969's down-home family album Nashville Skyline, a work not typical of Dylan at the time, but it had an ease and kind of country-funk that I surprisingly enjoyed. At the time he made this album Dylan was fed up with his persona and decided to turn left at Albuquerque to try to throw off the fanatics. I too was fed up with certain aspects of my life and this seemed a good tonic. After that it was on to the Martin Scorsese doc No Direction Home, his great 60's work, his still-neglected 70's work { his Rolling Thunder Revue being particularly fascinating for me } and discovering that there was more to the guy than a songwriter with a twangy-nasal voice that drive some to distraction. I've been hooked ever since.