Vincente Minnelli's War

Opening credit after Garland and Walker's names. This is an image that has remained in my mind for at least 38 years.

      No one could ever confuse Vincente Minnelli with John Ford, Sam Fuller, John Huston, William Wellman or any other rugged, rough and tumble filmmaker. Minnelli's films featured gentler, kinder, more conflicted - even tormented - personalities : artists { Gene Kelly in An American in Paris, Kirk Douglas in Lust For Life and Two Weeks in Another Town, Frank Sinatra in Some Came Running, to name a few }, lost young men and women { John Kerr in Tea and Sympathy and The Cobweb, George Hamilton in Home From The Hill, Jennifer Jones as Madame Bovary and others }, people trying to discover their own nature, and then be true to it, however difficult that may be. Quickly scanning his oeuvre the musicals he is best remembered for obviously stand out, for Minnelli made some of the best ever : Meet Me in St.Louis, An American in Paris, The Band Wagon, Gigi; Minnelli's musicals are second to none. Along with Busby Berkeley, Minnelli could be called - and I'm sure he has been - the Grandfather of the genre. However a closer look reveals a varied group of films, perhaps more diverse than expected. Domestic family comedies such as Father of the Bride, The Long, Long Trailer, The Courtship of Eddie's Father, dramatic outings like Undercurrent, The Bad & The Beautiful, The Sandpiper. Among his films are two that have the effects of war front and center : 1962's epic The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse and 1945's romantic The Clock. If William Wyler's Oscar winning 1946 Best Years of Our Lives is the quintessential film about the effects of veterans coming home to a different America than the one they left, then Minnelli's 1945 film The Clock is the epitome of the war time romance.

The farewell scene in Penn Station, the exact place they first met 48 hours ago. A great still from The Clock.

    Robert Walker plays a soldier on 48 hour leave in New York City who "meets cute" with secretary Judy Garland. Walker plays Joe Allen a green-as-grass soldier from a small town in Indiana, Judy is Alice Mayberry, secretary in one of those impersonal New York City skyscrapers. If Judy has a movie soul-sister, think Hope Lange in 1959's The Best of Everything. They meet when Alice accidentally trips over Joe's feet in Penn Station and breaks the heel of her shoe. Joe, not only lonely but ever the gentleman, helps Alice find a repair shop to fix her shoe and proceeds to ingratiate himself. They end up spending the remainder of Joe's leave together, fall in love and get married.  From this story director Minnelli fashions a romance that is both simple and profound. Minnelli - himself from a small town in Ohio - threw all his love and remembrances, all his experience from his early days in the Big Apple as a Broadway director in the 30's, into recreating New York on the MGM backlot in Culver City. The sights, the people, the noise, the excitement, the overwhelming feeling of being out of one's comfort zone, this is all brought to us from the opening moments of the film when Joe steps off the train at Penn Station. Lost, confused, lonely, intimidated by the sheer size of the place, Walker's sensitive Joe Allen is an early Minnelli lost boy.  

The " meet cute " scene, when the two stars come together for the first time in Minnelli's The Clock.

     All this, and more, happens within a 48 hour time span in a movie than runs 90 minutes. In those 90 minutes Garland and Walker, both fragile and damaged souls in real life, give wonderfully honest performances. Walker's naive Joe Allen is a soldier many could recognize either in themselves or in their sons, boyfriends and brothers. Garland as Alice Mayberry's working girl was one of millions of women who were picking up the slack all over the country, and were surprised they liked it, as the men and boys of America went off to make the world safe for democracy. For Judy it was a long way from the world producer Arthur Freed and Minnelli had charted for her previous films, all musicals.  For the first time we got to see Judy as a straight dramatic actress playing an everyday regular person, not a show biz chanteuse making time with Gene Kelly or Mickey Rooney. No song for her to sing, not even a theme song over the credits. Judy was still the girl next door to millions of servicemen; thanks to Minnelli that girl was beginning to grow into a enchanting young woman { I don't think Garland ever looked lovelier on screen than when she was in the hands of Minnelli, they were to marry shortly after production on The Clock wrapped up } and it was he who helped her achieve that transition, having guided her first in 1944's Meet Me in St.Louis.

     The overall emotional effect of The Clock is done without a gunshot or dead body in sight, yet the realities of the war are always close at hand, lending the movie an urgency and anxiety that many were feeling in those years. In today's cynically moribund marketplace of film The Clock wouldn't play very well, with the comic book mentality of many movies that come off the studio assembly line, but for the most part The Clock has a remarkably restrained believability that works. I first saw this as teenager in the 70's, being home sick from school, on Ben Hunter's Matinee Movie, a mid-day break on what was then KTTV Channel 11 out of Los Angeles, from the soap opera's and game shows that flooded the airwaves in those pre-cable days, and I still like to dust it off every year or so for a viewing. Long after others films have faded from my memory The Clock still works it's magic.

         By 1960 MetroGoldwynMayer, despite the success of Ben-Hur { 11 Oscars, box office record breaker }, was still a company with financial trouble. With big Ben's enormous success, the powers that be decided remakes of great films from the studio's past was the way to stay solvent with cash and Oscars. Thenceforth Leo The Lion thrust upon the public a 1960 remake from 1931's Oscar-winning Cimarron with Glenn Ford and directed by western auteur Anthony Mann. What was suppose to be a cash cow was instead a dead duck. Critics blasted it and the public stayed away in droves { it lost nearly $2 million of 1960 dollars, }  The know-it-alls in Culver City had earmarked a redeux of the movie that made Valentino a star forty years previous, the WWI epic Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse for their big 1961 movie-of-the-year.

Old school poster art to promote the film.

      Most, if not all, film historians feel this remake was a bad idea from the get-go. I'm not so sure, for Minnelli's take on the subject has some beautiful moments. The story was updated from WWI to WWII and if Minnelli had his way the leads would have been young, sexy French actor Alain Delon { 25 in 1960 }, not stodgy middle aged Glenn Ford { 44 in 1960 } and Romy Schneider.  But Schneider passed and with a budget of $7 million { over $50 million in today's inflated dollars, still a sizable chunk of change, pre-advertising and distribution costs } the bosses at Metro, having vetoed Delon as an unproven box office commodity, insisted that a proven star with clout at the box office was necessary. Having just signed Ford to a big fat, star-friendly contract, and also the star of the aforementioned box office loser Cimarron, which had yet to be released, Metro decided they should get their monies worth and { mis } cast Ford as the Argentinian playboy/artist Julio. Playing the love interest opposite Ford  Minnelli cast Ingmar Bergman favorite, Swedish star Ingrid Thulin, then about 34. Having compromised on his lead actors Minnelli decided on a diverse cast of supporting players : some old timers like former heartthrob, Frenchman Charles Boyer, Casablanca's Paul Heinreid and Oscar winner Paul Lukas, but also newcomers like Karl Boehm fresh from Michael Powell's disturbing Peeping Tom, and MGM contract player Yvette Mimieux, plus dependable character actor Lee J. Cobb.

Vincente and his beloved camera crane.

      With a somewhat eclectic and international band of players, after interior filming on the stages in Culver City, Minnelli took his cast and crew to Europe, France specifically, for exteriors that are lovingly captured on film. When the film was completed the studio had a two and a half hour drama of love and sacrifice. Some colorized stock footage of the fall of France with bombs dropping all around, sirens signaling an air raid and talk of the blackout, with its shuttered windows and dark draped restaurants give the viewer a short hand sense of what was going down all around our main characters, but the thrust of the film stayed with Julio and his adulterous affair with the married Marguerite. 

Glenn Ford and the lovely Ingrid Thulin as the illicit lovers sitting on a Minnelli red cushion. Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse, 1962.

          When all was said and done, the film's final tally was $7.5 million{ $58 million adjusted for inflation } and the MGM exec's held their breath, hoping lightning would strike twice with their most recent remake. Premiering the picture in Washington D.C. on February 7, 1962, the film was roundly blasted by American critics as ridiculous, unnecessary and unrealistic and what author Stephen Harvey called " it's era's prime candidate for the Heaven's Gate sweepstakes"  { I would defer that dubious honor to another, greater MGM fiasco 1962's Mutiny On The Bounty or Fox's Cleopatra a year later } It may be all those things, but it is also a visual feast { what Minnelli production isn't }, with photography by the legendary Milton Krasner, a nearly 40 year veteran of the cinematic wars with a great eye for composition { All About Eve, A Double Life, Scarlet Street, his Oscar-winner Three Coins in the Fountain and many, many more }, a brilliant musical score byAndre Previn that evokes the passion and upheaval the two lovers are feeling, Tony Duquette's design of the mythical Four Horsemen is stunning, with elegant costumes by Walter Plunkett, Orry-Kelly, etc; in other words, no dollar was spared to bring the best to the screen. So what went wrong? If I were to pinpoint the weaknesses I would have to say Ford and the script. Maybe it's not so much the screenplay, but the story. The original Four Horsemen was essentially a star vehicle that was shaped for Valentino and made him the heartthrob of the silent era, with his smoldering tango the highlight of the 1921 original. By 1960 the idea of a Latin lover was obviously out of touch with the Rock N' Roll Eisenhower years. Updating the film from WWI to WWII didn't help much; when the first Four Horsemen saw light WWI had just finished and was fresh in everyone's mind, so it had an immediacy. The update to WWII came over fifteen years after that great conflict had ended, the world, as it must, had moved on. In other words, the picture seemed old fashioned.

Charles Boyer with Glenn Ford as father and son. Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse, 1962.

      Glenn Ford as Julio was too old, too American, too stiff for the part of a devil-may-care rich boy from South America, who just wants to have fun and bed down with as  many women as he can, but inadvertently gets involved with the French resistance. A fine actor in the right part { Blackboard Jungle, Gilda, The Big Heat } Ford, try though he does, is simply out of his element. Thulin is an other matter. I find her most alluring, however her portrayal of the unfaithful wife of Paul Heinreid's Etienne, is impossible judge properly because the boys at Metro decided her Swedish accent too think and unintelligible, so they hired Angela Lansbury to dub over her every line. Why would a studio hire a foreign actor and later decide she couldn't be understood?  Had they never spoke to he ?  How about a verbal screen test to she how her voice would sound in English? To my way of thinking, that's bad management on the part of Metro. Lee J.Cobb's patriarch Madariaga is thickly sliced ham as only Cobb was capable of { witness also his work in The Brothers Karamazov, for which he was rewarded with an Oscar nom for Supporting Actor of 1958, or his screen debut in Golden Boy as William Holden father }. Whether these issues were brought to Minnelli's attention during filming is impossible to say, other than the script problems and the casting of Ford, Minnelli - always a good company man - was mum on the subject. I enjoy the film despite it's flaws and like it on it's own terms. Is it a classic, no. But a film hat has so much to offer should never be dismissed out of hand. I can understand, to a certain degree, the critics carping at the film's credibility gap, but let's not kid ourselves; we are in Minnelli-land. What did they expect?  Minnelli's a director who always, even in his most basic films, found beauty everywhere and filmed it accordingly. It's possible Four Horsemen would have been more effective as a lower budget, filmed in gritty black and white, with a Cinema verite or neo-realistic style . Critics expecting a Rossellini or DeSica, should have reviewed Open City or The Bicycle Thief. 

Lee J Cobb as the patriarch Madariaga, Glenn Ford as his grandson. Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse, 1962.

       Four Horsemen would fail at the box office, too. Losing over $5.8 million { over $40 million today } the film would rapidly expedite Minnelli's fall from grace. When production on the film began in 1961, Minnelli was only two years past winning his only Oscar for directing Gigi, more recently he guided Judy Holliday and Dean Martin thru the musical Bells Are Ringing, more success would follow in Home From The Hill with Robert Mitchum in one of those big melodramas Minnelli did so well. After the Four Horsemen debacle Minnelli would encounter trouble and more resistance than usual with his next project Two Weeks in Another Town, being re-edited without his say of the cuts involved; follow by an underrated, charming, yet at times dark exploration of childhood, The Courtship of Eddie's Father, with a more appropriately cast Glenn Ford alongside scene stealer Ronny Howard; 1964's sex-changing comedy Goodbye, Charlie, and his last big hit 1965's The Sandpiper, although that movie was crunched by critics, it made a bucket full of cash thanks to the film's two stars, Richard Burton and Elizabeth Taylor, then at the peak of their notorious reputation. Minnelli was high up on Warner Brothers list of directors for My Fair Lady, and he wanted to do it, but his asking price was too high, so Jack Warner went with the more cost-friendly George Cukor. Cukor's version is grand, lush entertainment, if visually static. Minnelli's cinema had a tendency for fluid, swooping camera movements. Along with Max Ophuls and Michael Curtiz, Minnelli is one of the cinema's masters of the moving camera, his take on the Lerner and Loewe musical would've been fascinating viewing; it makes the mouth water as a great never-was of film. As the 1960's wore on more filmmakers from the classic period of 1930-1960 found themselves increasingly out of work or with long periods between assignments. The list of great directors who gave up on film making yet lived on for many years is impressive : Raoul Walsh, King Vidor, William Wellman, Rouben Mamoulian, Frank Capra, William Wyler, Leo McCarey. These men just stopped making films by 1970, yet all, except for McCarey, lived on for at least ten or more years in retirement, for one reason or another. Then there was another group, a little younger than those movie pioneers, who found it harder and harder to get a film made in the free-for-all, catch-as-catch-can world of independent film production that Hollywood had recently embraced : Joseph Mankiewicz, Cukor, Billy Wilder, Howard Hawks, George Stevens, Elia Kazan, these and a few others had long periods between films as some projects would come together, get delayed or be swept away when a new regime would take over what would become a revolving door of new studio executives. Add Minnelli to the list of these latter filmmakers. From 1965, when he finished The Sandpiper, to his death in 1986, Minnelli would helm only two more films, On A Clear Day You Can See Forever in 1970 was to be his final musical and 1976's A Matter of Time which, despite daughter Liza starring, is not a musical. On A Clear Day didn't do well, though it's worth seeing and entertaining enough, but A Matter of Time was an utter disaster, with the cutting being taken out of his hands by Samuel Z. Arkoff, the film's producer, and when shown in theaters proved a box office dud. Such a sad exit for one of the great stylists of the movies. Minnelli's real war was in fought on the soundstages, cutting rooms and inner sanctums of the studio bosses, fighting to get the image from his head up to the screen. In that war Vincente Minnelli won more battles than he lost, and we all benefited from his vision.

  

The Beatles Break Up

      On April 10,1970 newspapers across the world carried a headline that was hard to fathom : "Paul Quits The Beatles." The news rocked the world like an atom bomb. And like a bomb, it left many strewn in it's wake. How could it be? What caused it? It must be Yoko Ono, many people believed. In all honesty, it was a combination of factors dating back to at least 1966. That was the year of " The Beatles are bigger that Jesus ", those infamous remarks by John Lennon that turned a lot of America and the entire southern Bible-belt against the group. 1966 would be the last time the group would perform in an organized tour. In 1967 their manager Brian Epstein died of a drug overdose { whether deliberate or accidental has never been convincingly determined. } 1968 brought more bad news : John's divorce from wife Cynthia and the advent of Yoko Ono. Also Ringo briefly walked during the "White Album" sessions, with Paul manning the drums in his absence. Their assuming of the business matters of their new record label Apple Corp, best left to professionals, also had an impact. 1969 brought more changes with a cast that included new manager Allen Klein { bad } and old friend and keyboardist Billy Preston { good } the second member to briefly leave during the Let It Be documentary they were filming, only to be coaxed back, and John announcing {privately to the other Beatles} in September, that not only was he leaving the group, but that he was Jesus Christ. After a few years like that the group's dynamic was all but wasted. Paul, who had assumed the motivational role of idea man - " come on lads, we gotta do something, let's try this " -  had become a frightened, angry and depressed man, pouring his feelings into songs like Let It Be, The Long and Winding Road, You Never Give Me Your Money, etc. Paul was frightened because of John's sudden re-emergence from his epic acid intake of 1966-1967 - like a patient coming out of a two year coma -
suddenly offering biting comments on all and everything around him, much like the John of old who had been AWOL the previous two years. This, along with Yoko's influence over him, pretty much rendered Paul and the others useless in John's eyes.  Paul's anger stemmed from him not being listened to nor taken very seriously by the others when he would offer a new idea for the group to work on { for better or worse McCartney initiated the Magical Mystery Tour BBC film, and the Let It Be film and concert - originally  titled Get Back, in an effort to get back to their roots musically and personally after the White Album sessions - which never properly took flight due to the apathy of the other three }. Without Paul's cajoling, it's quite possible the band would have broken up after Epstein's death in August 1967. Finally, Paul was depressed because he, at this point, was the only one trying to advance the group. He had given his all to The Beatles, to keep the band together, only to be ridiculed by his best mates, who he was on the verge of losing, two of whom he had known since the tender age of 15. So on April 10, 1970 it was Paul McCartney's turn to defect. The big difference between Paul's departure and John, George or Ringo's is Paul went public.

      Feeling under-appreciated, Paul had just completed his first solo album McCartney, that he had been working on from late 1969 to early 1970, between bouts of depression. It was his baby and he wanted to release it on April 17th. The other three felt it would compete with the Let It Be soundtrack album { a record no one in the group particularly cared for }, recorded in January 1969, but not scheduled to see the light of day until May 1970. Up to now Ringo had made a solo album and John had made several albums and singles {Give Peace A Chance, Cold Turkey}. George's maiden solo effort, All Things Must Pass, wouldn't come along until November 1970. The others Beatles were really pissed off at Paul for his grand gesture, John especially. In the fierce competition between the two, Paul's walking out was the single stroke that John couldn't abide. John had started the group and felt, probably rightly, that he should be the one to end it. Paul's leaving was the one thing John couldn't control and it stole his thunder. So with on fell swoop, The Beatles were no more. In a way, Paul may have done us a big favor; the band couldn't have gone on forever, and it is quite possible the magical quality of their music may have faded as the 60's gave way to the 70's and beyond.

       For the record, McCartney was pretty much blasted by the critics of the day for it's low-key approach and it's several half baked songs. His former mates also checked in with some comments. George said he liked Paul's now-classic Maybe I'm Amazed, but felt the rest of the album was lacking. John was even more direct calling the solo effort " rubbish ". Because of Paul's announcement of the break up of the world's biggest band, he took a lot of hits and backhanded swipes from press and public alike, however the album went to #1 for three weeks on Billboards Top 200 ; it would eventually go double platinum. I have always liked the record, even while acknowledging it's shortcomings. If you haven't listened to it for awhile pop it in the queue of your iPhone, it contains many pleasures, some of which may have been overlooked in 1970 and forgotten with the passing of the years.

The Mickster Is Gone

Mickey doing what he did well, keeping Judy loose and happy. This is between takes on Babes On Broadway, 1941

       Joseph Yule, Jr, better known as Mickey Rooney, died yesterday April 6 at the age of 93. Rooney had an oversized talent, that was able to bust out of the room at anytime. His movies with Judy Garland and their friendship are a part of Judy-Lore. Rooney was supposedly a highly sex young buck. Lana Turner called him "Andy Hard-on" . In 1939/1940 he had a torrid affair with the Queen of the Lot, Norma Shearer. It ended when studio boss Louis B.Mayer caught wind of Andy Hardy bedding down with Marie Antoinette he told the Mickster to find a different home for his pecker, Rooney sniffed around the studio girls and came away with Ava Gardner, the just a struggling starlet and all of 19 at the time.

The sultry Ava Gardner, 3 years after she and the Mickster divorced. Looking like one of the most dangerous women ever. 1946's The Killers. 

       At one time Mickey Rooney was #1 box office star in the movies {1939-1941} when that kind of accomplishment really meant something { my kids would always say he was the biggest star in the world when America was still 13 colonies}. For me, there are very few of his movies that stand out, but one of them is my favorite Rooney film, 1943's The Human Comedy. Another would have to be The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, a movie I saw several times as a youth. I haven't seen it for awhile, and it probably doesn't hold up, but it's my fave version of the Twain novel. Another fun one is Young Tom Edison from 1940. For my money the best Mickey/Judy musical is the Gershwins' Girl Crazy. Not always the subtlest of actors his portrayal of Larry Hart in 1949's Words & Music nearly sinks it { the script was the major offender, thank god for the musical numbers }.

With the great Frank Morgan in the sentimental The Human Comedy from 1943. Rooney would receive an Oscar nom for Best Actor.

     
      He was Oscared, not once but twice and both were honorary awards and more than 40 years apart.Rooney was one of those all-round talents { like Sammy Davis,Jr } that was so extraordinary I feel we experienced only a fraction of what he could do : sing, dance, act, clown, Mickey could, and did, do it all, both professionally and personally. And anyone who was upclose and very personal with both Norma AND Ava earns instant respect points. Godspeed.

A Happy Birthday to "The Quiet One", George Harrison

Having a rockin' good time with A Hard Day's Night

   Nicknamed " The Quiet Beatle", this never failed to amuse George { at one point he said " If I was quiet, the others must have been REALLY LOUD ", or words to that effect }. His voice was always heard within the group, though the other three may not have taken such a voice all that seriously. It is true that George, only 20 when they played America in 1964,  had to fight to get his thoughts and ideas taken with any serious consideration, especially in those early days of extra large, world-crazed fame. As the group progressed and George got a bit older, dropped acid, and became more mature, he held considerable influence over his bandmates. His introduction of the sitar to pop music on John's Norwegian Wood was a subtle direction the group would go both musically { more inward, fewer love songs } and personally. George, becoming involved in Eastern religion and philosophy, introduced the group to The Maharishi Mahesh Yogi in 1967. John, Paul and Ringo, by this time completely over the whole Beatlemania thing, were receptive to alternate lifestyles and philosophies. This is basically why John indulged in so much acid in the mid-60's, not just for the rush { there was that, of course } but what you can learn or take from that rush. Religion was another rush for the group. But to Harrison it was more and he would be the only Beatle to remain interested and active in the mysticism and culture of India. 

While his sitar gently weeps.

     Early on I noticed a cynicism or bitterness in George's songs, those few he wrote that actually made it to their albums :  Don't Bother Me, Think For Yourself, Taxman, even the classic While My Guitar Gently Weeps has some pointed lyrics on the waste and indulgence of someone George may be fond of, but whom he is not shy of criticizing { that person may even be himself }. During the Let It Be sessions George walked out on the group for what most folks { wrongly, as it turns out } thought was a disagreement with Paul McCartney, which is captured on film in Let It Be. What is less well known is that Harrison also had it out with John later the same day and that's when he walked, telling them " See ya round the clubs" as an exit line. John's reaction was to incorporate Eric Clapton in George's place, but Harrison came back before Clapton was so much as approached. Before he would commit to come back to the group George made a demand : he would under no circumstances play in a big coliseum or amphitheater when the group was to give their big concert to close the film. Hence, we got the rooftop concert on January 30, 1969, the last time the group would perform live, rather than a proper big-time sendoff. George also brought along keyboardist Billy Preston not only to help musically but also to act as a sort of personal "emollient", to quote George Martin's phrase. Everyone liked Preston and he brought out the best in the other three, leaving petty bullshit behind.

An unusually happy George during the hell of Let It Be

George Harrison's greatest period as a songwriter was from 1968 to about 1973 or 74. He was the first to jump start his solo career with the triple album set All Things Must Pass and the hugely influential Concert For Bangladesh in 1970 and 1971. Living in the Material World in 1973 was another big hit album but it's follow up 1974's Dark Horse was badly received as was the concert tour to promote the album. It was the first tour of America for any of The Beatles since the bitter break up of the group in 1970. After that Harrison's career was earth bound and rarely soared again, although his big comeback in 1987 with Cloud Nine and his part in the mega-group The Traveling Wilburys around the same time brought him back into the spotlight after years in the shadows. Harrison also co-founded Handmade Films, a production company best known for it's Monty Python association but also responsible for such films as The Long Good Friday, Mona Lisa and Time Bandits. George also had a interest in cars and auto racing. Another little known fact : in the early 70's, while still married to Pattie Boyd, Harrison and Ringo's first wife Maureen had an affair. His friendship with Ringo survived.

 

   On November 29, 2001 George left this world far too early at the age of 58. In those 58 years Harrison managed to affect people worldwide not only with his music, which is his most formidable gift to us, but also through his interest in all things Hindu and help making it known to the Western world. Rolling Stone founder and editor Jann Werner said that George's talent as " a guitarist who was never showy but who had an innate, eloquent melodic sense. He played exquisitely in the service of the song. "  A toast to George, "the Quiet One". Hare Krishna. 


                   Sources : Wikipedia page on George Harrison
                                   Revolution in the Head by Ian MacDonald
                                   You Never Give Me Your Money by Peter Doggett
                                   The Beatles Anthology                                                                                                        Photos taken from the internet, at random

Crush of the Week - Jean Seberg in Bonjour Tristesse

A smoking Seberg in Paris. Circa 1960.

    I'll be the first to admit it: sometime I am late catching on to certain films, directors and performers that should have captivated me the first time around. I may see a brief glimpse of a performer's filmography and casually dismiss them or view half a movie, with near indifference { always a bad thing when watching a movie }, until I inevitably leave the room. Or worse yet, ones I had been resisting due to lack of interest, laziness, stubborn ignorance - call it what you may - until I did indeed see them.  Such was the case with Jean Seberg.

What are you lookin' at?

    I had seen her in Airport eons ago on the ABC Sunday Night Movie back in the 70's and her found blonde beauty intriguing, though her performance and screen presence didn't bowl me over. I wondered why I hadn't seen or heard of her before. Curious, I got out one of my film reference books to look up her filmography only to find Jean didn't make a lot of films and when she did they were mostly European productions, consequently a fair portion of her output was hard to see when those films first saw the light of day; today some still are. I noticed she was in the big musical flop Paint Your Wagon in 1969 and something called Macho Callahan, a movie that tried to make a film star of David { The Fugitive TV show } Jansen, that also didn't fare well with the critics and public. Seems Jean would often shuttle from the U.S. and France, the latter being the country that had embraced and recognized her talent, while the American critics found it lacking. Currently, I have seen just a smattering of her work. Some I have on disc yet have not viewed include 1966's A Fine Madness, a quirky comedy with Sean Connery and Joanne Woodward and 1964's Lilith directed by Robert { The Hustler } Rossen , co-starring Warren Beatty. Her real claim to fame was to be for her appearance in Jean-Luc Godard's New Wave classic 1960's Breathless, in which Seberg played the girlfriend of criminal Jean Paul Belmondo. Jean eventually had a sad, bitter end to her life. She died in 1979, officially a suicide, yet questions of foul play have never subsided. { For further details on her life and death, I recommend starting at her Wikipedia page }

Seberg, captured in the photographer's lens, 1957. Bonjour Tristesse

     Jean Seberg was a small town girl from Marshalltown, Iowa when, in 1956, she was plucked by Otto Preminger to star in his adaptation of George Bernard Shaw's Saint Joan based on Shaw's play in which Jean, just 18, would play the title role. With a script by none other than Graham { The Fallen Idol ; The Third Man } Greene, Jean chosen from over 18,000 young women, was to be taken to England for filming with a stellar cast that included Richard Widmark, John Gielgud, Richard Todd and the magnificent Anton Walbrook. Quite a pedigree. The shoot was as difficult for Jean as possible. Preminger, never known on set for his soft touch, screamed, bullied and berated her constantly. During the dangerous Joan-at-the-stake moment, filmed during the last week of production, the fire got out of control. Thankfully an alert crew member reacted quickly and extinguished the flames. Jean offered to continue the filming but Preminger said no and dismissed the company for the day. For the rest of her life Seberg would have the scars on her stomach from where the fire had scorched her.

A frightening picture of Jean surrounded by fire, cast and crew. 1957, Saint Joan

    Preminger, who had Jean under personal contract, assigned her the role of Cecile in his adaptation of Francoise Sagan's overnight book sensation Bonjour Tristesse { the title translates to Hello Sadness }.Sagan's novella  {she was only 19 at the time of publication}, was translated into  twenty languages, was a big success, Preminger's film adaptation was not well received, with much criticism laid at Seberg's feet for her portrayal of the female protagonist. However, the role, and her presence in it, led to her being cast in Jean-Luc Godard's Breathless, one of the first of the " La Nouvelle Vague" or"New Wave" of French filmmakers that would take America and the world by storm in the coming decade { the New Wave was to film what The Beatles were to music. }

Cellar-dweller Jean, from Bonjour Tristesse

    Bonjour Tristesse, excellently embodies the spirit of a teenage girl who is so threatened by the possibility of her widowed father Raymond { a happy-go-lucky David Niven } falling in love with Anne { Deborah Kerr } that she will concoct a scathing and ultimately successful plan to remove Anne from her father's life as well as Cecile's, with tragic results. The film was tepidly received when released, however, time has been kind to it and the film currently holds a 85% rating on Rotten Tomatoes and a 70% ranking on IMDB, with Seberg being singled out as particularly effective. Guess it goes to show how some things get better with age. Seen with fresh eyes, all the Seberg and Saint Joan hype now forgotten, Bonjour Tristesse appears modern and vibrant. The opening sequences are filmed in black and white, traditionally reserved for flashbacks but here giving the viewer a melancholy feeling that feeds the story perfectly. Perversely, the past flashback portions are filmed in color. Yet this makes perfect sense when taken from Cecile and Raymond's POV. The present is all  going-through-the-motions and a strain, while the past, however recent, is all technicolor and wide screen, with beautiful vistas as far as the eye. In these scenes each moment is to be savored and anything is possible. Vacationing in the south of France with Raymond's girl-toy of the moment Elsa { a joyous, all but scene-stealing, vivacious turn by Mylene Demongeot}, incest between father and daughter is also implied, as Seberg and Niven seem uncommonly close. 

Jean's delicate beauty shines best in Bonjour Tristesse

    Throughout the film Seberg brings a gamine quality to Cecile that is precious and hard to resist. Whether plotting against Deborah Kerr's Anne, flirting and losing her virginity to Geoffrey Horne or {not so ? } innocently playing Daddy's girl to Niven, Jean Seberg is never less than captivating. All my moviegoing life I had never given into the allure of the androgynous type before, mostly because androgyny for women meant trying to pass as a man a la Julie Andrews in Victor/Victoria, Katharine Hepburn in 1935's very diverting Sylvia Scarlett or the now-you-see-her-now-you-don't quality of Keira Knightly of the Pirates of the Carribean movies. Seberg brought a half-way sexuality not seen since the days of Marlene Dietrich dressing in drag in Morocco and it's ilk. The early B&W scenes show Jean/Cecile as a very sophisticated young woman -almost an Audrey Hepburn as Sabrina quality- who seems unusually detached from those around her, even Papa Niven/Raymond. As the movie unfolds the color flashback scenes show Jean/Cecile still a bit awkward, with a youthfulness that is in marked contrast to the B&W scenes. Watching this movie I could appreciate the growth of character Jean gives Cecile, never an easy task for an actor. By movie's end, Cecile is completely lost. Lacking anything better, Cecile and Raymond continue their endlessly futile lives. 

     Anyone wishing to view Bonjour Tristesse can do so, the film is available on DVD and Blu-Ray, the film also shows up - uncut and letterboxed - from time to time on TCM.  Highly recommended and good intro to Jean Seberg's work. I have been hooked on her ever since and plan to delve more into her life and work. I understand there are two good works about Jean I have not yet seen or read, they would be the 1995 film From the Journals of Jean Seberg and the book Played Out by David Richards, both are regarded as excellent sources of all things Jean.

Sources :  Wikipedia page on Jean Seberg
                 The World and It's Double: The Life & Work of Otto Preminger by Chris Fujiwara
                 IMDB
                 Rotten Tomatoes
                 Turner Classic Movies
                  All images were pulled from the internet at random.

John, Paul, George, Ringo and Me

A pretty apt description

Note : Although this has been strictly a blog about movies, I will take the opportunity to write about the FabFour in the coming year, starting with this initial entry. These will cover the group through the good times and bad times they shared, not just with each other but with the world at large and how they challenged and changed the world we live in, from our sense of fashion, music, religion and cultural, but moreover, how they changed me - forever.

The arrival in New York City. They couldn't believe the brouhaha was for them.

    In 1964 America was hurting. Having lost their young President to an assassin's bullet, America - nearly three months later - was still in a state of shock and disbelief, licking it's wounds and trying to recover from it's national car crash. America needed an antidote and maybe that is why we took to their irreverent humor and the raucousness of their music so much. On Sunday night, February 9,1964, America got it's first glimpse of what had been happening in the British music scene for nearly two years. That's right, two years a hit in England before the U S of A finally caught on to the big brouhaha that had been building to a fever pitch across The Pond. In the mid-fifties America had Elvis Presley burst upon the scene followed quickly by Buddy Holly, Jerry Lee Lewis, Chuck Berry, Fats Domino. They were the ones who brought Rock n' Roll to the Hit Parade, but by 1964 Elvis had been tamed and was turning out bland family fare movies, Buddy Holly had died in a plane crash { that also claimed Richie Valens } and the rest had been phased out, pushed aside by the record companies who, by 1963, offered up pop ditties like Dominique by The Singing Nun { I know, the mind spins at such a concept }, Sugar Shack performed by Jimmy Golmer and the Fireballs, Steve Lawrence with Go Away Little Girl and in early 1964 Bobby Vinton and his numero ono song There! I've Said It Again { a title that sounds similar to Brittany Spears' Oops! ... I Did It Again }. In other words, Rock n' Roll had drifted far from where Elvis and his brethren had been almost ten years previous. But all that was about to change. Rock n' Roll was about to get fun again, and eventually, a little { and then a lot } more wild.

Can you imagine being there ?

    We forget that they were not quite men. These were college age kids, barely out of high school, conquering the world. John and Ringo were only 23, George not yet 21, when they came to America to perform on the biggest variety show {"shoe"?}  in all of show biz. They were familiar in Europe, having schlepped across Great Britain, Germany and France. After appearing on The Ed Sullivan Show, they would to go to be familiar around the world. John, Paul, George and Ringo would be as well known and welcome as a favorite family member, although a little wild and more than a touch irreverent and supremely talented. For the first time since Elvis, girls { and no doubt some boys } screamed with delight as they performed on the world's stage. From Portland, Maine { or Portland, Oregon } to Timbuktu or Cucamonga and back again, we all followed their exploits. Setting attendance records, album sales records, number one hit record records. The Beatles conquered the world like only a handful of mortals have: Elvis for sure, Sinatra yeah, Michael Jackson too. Justin Bieber is famous worldwide yet how many folks, picked at random, could name or sing one of his songs? With The Beatles, even seniors knew what "yeah,yeah,yeah" meant. I venture to say no one brought the throng together quite like the mop tops from Liverpool. The Beatles made being British cool and without them to lead the way who's to say when The Rolling Stones, with their unique brand of bad boy attitude and hard driving, blues-rock music, would have made it to American shores?  The Beatles paved the way for the British Invasion that took over the radio waves of the mid-sixties { remember The Dave Clark Five, Herman's Hermit's, Gerry & The Pacemakers, etc} .These are facts that cannot be ignored. They became a part our nation's consciousness. Their songs are a part of our DNA, weather one chooses to acknowledge them or not, one could not { still can't } ignore them. But for one chubby, crew-hair cut boy from the middle of the country, they brought so much more. 

The first album to hit America, an iconic image.

    I suppose The Beatles were the first performers I wanted be. Not quite five years of age in February 1964, I can't remember a time when the group and their songs were not a strong part of my life. They went with me as my family moved from Santa Paula to Santa Barbara to Santa Maria and back to Santa Barbara again, all in a matter of three years. They have been with me on the bittersweet day of my high school graduation, the day I got married, the amazingly surreal day I became a Father, that dark day I was told to leave my home and got divorced, and the joyous life affirming day I became a Grandfather, when everything came full circle. I've always thought of them as my best friends. My faves growing up were John and Paul, natch. Makes sense, I guess. Lennon & McCartney, the great songwriting partnership of the age, raising their voices in perfect harmony.  Even at my tender age I was aware of the myth-making of those two guys. Only I didn't know it was a myth. John and Paul were a fact ! They were the two who wrote the songs coming from everyone's radio's and they were the two on everyone's list of greats. I have an older sister who loved the group far greater than I did at the time. We would put on the records, and when Mom or Dad were gone we'd get out the tennis rackets, pretend they were our guitars and lip-synch to the songs on the stereo that was as big as a piece of furniture. Of course Sister, being older, would take all the best songs and leave me with the George or Ringo leftovers like Honey Don't or Everybody's Trying To Be My Baby. She rarely let me in the spotlight of our own creation. But that didn't stop me. I would go to my own room and mouth the songs she would never let me and I was the star of my own show. You must understand the powerful imagination behind all this. Anyone who imitates The Fabs with a crew-haircut has got to have a pretty well-developed fantasy life.

I didn't know it at the time, but the U.S versions of every Beatles album, until Sgt.Pepper, was altered from the British originals to create more albums, and therefore, more $$$$.

    From The Ed Sullivan Show the group went on and on. The evening news would follow them from city to city, country to country. They were big news and they made us feel good and forget our countries numerous problems, if only for a while.Then they were in a movie, which everyone knew was a quickie rip-off to make a fast buck on a fad that couldn't possibly last more than a few more months, or maybe, at best a year. Then A Hard Day's Night saw the light of day in movie palaces. People were somewhat shocked; it was good, some said great. The script was witty, the direction clever and fresh. The Beatles seemed to have an ease and natural presence on screen, seems they would be fun to have a pint with. John's biting sarcasm, Paul's cuteness, George's dead pan, and Ringo's everyman, the ordinary bloke, with his hangdog expression;  the luckiest man in show biz. And maybe the nicest. Now we know these were not the real men, bur the reel ones, simple variations on a theme, but it gave each one a separate identity, even if it was a bogus one, that would serve them well in the years ahead as individuals. This was important because when the group first hit the American shores, to some eyes, one seemed almost imperceptible from the other. They all dressed alike, talked alike, and with their bushy full head of hair, looked alike. 

        At first there were some dissenters. Most of the media thought they were at best amusing, at worst an offensive joke, bordering on lunacy. Music journalism was basically non-existent, and what there was of it wasn't taken seriously, most of it being of the TigerBeat variety, appealing mostly to teen and pre-teen girls. No one expected their level of fame to last, maybe a year or two. That they have outlasted such fame and fanfare is due to the amazing legacy they have left us with; the rich tapestry of music, images and words that have survived the group's own self destruction. However, the "older generation" { those over 30 and not to be trusted }, or most of them, didn't "get" The Beatles. To the over-30 crowd who grew up with Patti Page, Frank Sinatra, Nat King Cole, Rosemary Clooney and the like, rock n' roll was an affront to their ears. Remember this scene?

Maximilian Schell 1930-2014

As defense attorney Herr Rolfe in 1961's Judgement at Nuremberg. The film brought Schell an Oscar for Best Actor and everlasting immortality.

    Oscar winning actor Maximilan Schell passed on Feburary 1, 2014 at the age of 83 of a "sudden and serious illness."  Mr.Schell's film career was jump-started with his role as Marlon Brando's by-the-book commanding officer in 1958's The Young Lions. His next film got him an Academy Award for Best Actor, 1961's Judgement in Nuremberg. The film, an adaptation of  a Playhouse 90 teleplay,  saw Schell reprising his role as defense attorney Hans Rolfe who is hired to defend accused Nazi, Dr. Ernst Janning played by Burt Lancaster in the role previously offered to Laurence Olivier. Schell is nothing short of excellent in the film, though I have always been more entranced by Montgomery Clift's incredibly affecting turn as a simple minded witness who had been sterilized years earlier on the orders of Dr.Janning, and by Spencer Tracy's easy authority as Judge Dan Haywood, the film's conscious.

First break in Hollywood  : The anti-war film The Young Lions, based on the huge best seller by Irwin Shaw.

    Schell's film career had an up and down quality to it. The 1960's and 1970's found him most active in both Hollywood and European productions, some of the more notable being 1964's heist flick Topkapi  opposite Melina Mercouri, Sidney Lumet's integral spy-thriller The Deadly Affair, The Odessa File from 1974, another Oscar nominated performance in The Man in the Glass Booth, the Disney sci-fi flop The Black Hole, Fred Zinnemann's Julia in a brief, yet affecting performance as Lillian Hellman's {Jane Fonda} contact in Nazi Germany { another Oscar Nom, this time in the Supporting category } and a Nazi officer in the mega-budgeted-all-star war film A Bridge Too Far. After these high profile films Schell, who also had begun a career as an independent filmmaker, made fewer appearance's on the big screen, in fact Schell would record only six film or television perfs in the 1980's with one of his major successes as Peter in the TV-movie Peter The Great which won an Emmy as Outstanding Mini series in 1986.

The affecting, if possibly fictitious, Julia. The last great film by Fred Zinnemann and the film debut of one Mary Louise Streep.

    1984 brought the release of Marlene, a documentary on the life and career of the legendary Marlene Dietrich. The film, made under great duress as the subject at the last minute decided she didn't want to be filmed, was a major success for Schell and was nominated for an Oscar for Best Documentary. I think it one of the best doc's I have ever seen about a performer's life and how that performer tries to keep her career and life under her own control despite evidence to the contrary { the usual lies about birthdate, but also re-imagining the past as Dietrich wishes it to be remembered }.
The film presents a cranky Dietrich, at one point becoming exasperated by Schell's continuous questioning of her past, telling him he should " go back to Mama Schell and learn some manners".     
The film also is a sad representation of a icon who believes no one will care about her life in film and that it was all  "schmaltz". The film has recently been released on Blu-Ray, which I may seek out as my old VHS copy is of poor quality.

Great documentary of a great subject : The Magnificent Marlene Dietrich. I have this poster which I have hung in my apt from time to time. When they were little my sons never liked this poster. This one, and the Napoleon poster I had from the video release of the Able Gance silent classic, always freaked them out.

The 1990's brought some him some hullabaloo in film like his reunion with Brando in The Freshman { as the strange Larry London } and Deep Impact, a not bad disaster flick as Tea Leoni's dad and John Carpenter's 1998's pain-in-the-neck Vampires. Schell's last film was 2008's The Brothers Bloom. His sister is the actress Maria Schell. Per his Wikipedia page, Maximilian was married twice with no children listed. Godspeed, Max.