Priceless Images

Found this and many others like it, on YouTube and they are simply incredible. Cinema icons from the 40's, 50's & 60's hanging out at Rock's place at the beach on a holiday weekend, just like you or I would. Get some of these folks: Film director George Cukor yakking it up with our host Rock. Then there's Adolph Green { co-writer Singin in the Rain, Band Wagon, etc } in sailor hat and red scarf. Oh and look over there, isn't that restauranteur Mike Romanoff in the white shirt ? And look at Jason Robards, he's married to Lauren Bacall  { Betty to her friends don't cha know } in a New York Mets hat!  And here on the coast!! The gall!! Isn't that screenwriter George Axelrod in the blue shirt talking to the camera? There she is: Our girl Betty Bacall, widow of Bogie, but even at forty looking so young and full of fun! There's RJ Wagner in that nice new yellow shirt. Why his divorce from Natalie didn't set him back one bit! And there is Mrs. Thurston Howell III, our own Natalie Schafer at the height of her somewhat dubious fame.

Wow. That was my first reaction to these old 8mm films I found on YouTube. All these folk look so well scrubbed and, well, ordinary. Like my parents home movies from the same time period, only these are not only celebs, but a couple { at least } tinseltown legends. Not just your ol' Aunt Mabel or drunk Uncle Sid making a spectacle of themselves at the 4th of July barbecue. There are other videos I will be posting, including one from Memorial Day 1965 with some footage of  Producer David Selznick { Gone With The Wind }, who was to die on June 22, 1965, less than a month later. And did you get the nice routine with Bacall & Hudson? They co-starred in Written on the Wind less that ten years earlier when Rock was just coming into his own as a major star and Betty was still Mrs. Humphrey Bogart. Love the way Ms. Bacall plays to the camera: she seems just like I thought she would be: Fun and sassy, even without sound.  More coming. I love these things! Whoever posted these priceless images on YouTube, thanks!!! Priceless.

Crush of the Week - Natalie Wood

Not just of the week but my whole life, because I cannot remember when I didn't have a huge crush on the lovely Miss Wood. I guess I first fell for her charms when I was about nine or ten years old. My sister and I  stayed up late one saturday night  [ as we seemed to do a lot, back in the day ] and  watched Sex & the Single Girl on KABC channel 7  broadcast out of L.A. The movie is one of those harmless sex farces from the mid-60's that seemed extremely racy to my adolescent mind but, in retrospect, was quite innocent and harmless. Based on a self-help book by Dr Helen Gurley Brown, it was a precursor to all the self help books that have come after it: He Just Not That Into You, Women Who Run With The Wolves, Excuse Me, Your Soul Mate Is Waiting , etc,etc,etc. You know the drill. But this book, being published in 1962, was a gamechanger. These kinds of books weren't published every week like they are today. Anyway, I digress. Natalie was the total woman for me: Beautiful face, dark brown eyes, great sense of humor, wicked legs, wonderful smile and intelligent.  I still watch her movies and have several on disc, some faves being: Splendor in the Grass, Gypsy, Rebel Without a Cause, The Great Race, West Side Story and This Property is Condemned. In fact, I saw a few of her 70's stinkeroos in the theater: Last Married Couple in America, Meteor, Peeper. None very good and I don't think I've seen any of those 70's epics since.
                              

                                                       
She died tragically in 1981 and I remember that day and the disbelief I felt. She was still young, only 43. Her best movie days were seemingly behind her, she hadn't been in a hit since 1969's adult spouse swapping comedy Bob, Carol, Ted & Alice, but she had made some successful television productions  such as Cat on a Hot Tin Roof with Laurence Olivier and hubby RJ Wagner and a mini-series of From Here To Eternity in the part Deborah Kerr immortalized in the 1953  film version. She was going to appear in Anastasia in Los Angeles in 1982, but that weekend in Catalina ended what would have been her stage debut.

The top picture is from Sex and the Single Girl the other lower in on the set of Gypsy. Check out Natalie Wood's films. I especially endorse Splendor in the Grass [  Her character Deanie may be my fave of hers ] This Property is Condemned and Rebel Without a Cause. Check back next week to see another in my long line of crushes.

" I have always depended on the kindness of strangers"

Since it is an election year [ and cuz it's just plain fun ] I have decided to have a monthly poll of different topics. I am starting off with one of my current [ actually on-going ] obsessions, Thomas Lanier Williams otherwise known as Tennessee Williams. Having just revisited 1959's Suddenly, Last Summer and 1951's A Streetcar Named Desire, and in honor of the anniversary of his birth on March 26 I have decided to make him or rather some of his movie adaptations as the first poll ever here at Movie catholic. So go to your polling place here at Movie catholic and cast your vote. I have inserted a little teaser of a scene from Streetcar, above. Not to influence the voting but I think it has to stand as one of the best adaptations of Williams' work. So come on folks step up and vote, I'm curious as to the outcome. Polls close March 20th

The mourning after

So did y'all see how well I did with my predictions? Not bad, if I say so myself. As for the actual awards, no surprises from this corner except for Ms.Streep's upset. The show itself was so-so. Billy Crystal was a welcome sight [ except for his bloated, rubbery face; he didn't look like himself to me ] but has been funnier. Oh and somebody give Angelina Jolie a cheeseburger and tell her to eat it. With fries. And a shake. The woman looks skeletal!!  In fact this show handed me the fewest laughs in recent times. But the show itself was clocked at a shade over 3 hrs, not bad for these kinds of things: I have sat thru Oscar broadcasts that have lasted 3 hrs 45 minutes. Oy!! So until next year.......

My fearless Oscar forecast

Well well well. It appears to be Oscar season again, that time of year when some of the most paint-by-numbers movies will be recognized as " GREAT ". I use to watch the Oscar's and looked forward to them almost like Christmas. For us movie nuts the Oscar's is our Super Bowl, our World Series, our Stanley Cup. At least that's how I use to feel. Over the past 20-25 years I have come to believe that the awards are a reward for mediocre entertainment. Sometimes I feel the Academy has gotten it right, not always: In 2003 the Academy went for The Pianist in a big way with awards for Actor, Director, Screenplay yet they gave the award for Picture to Chicago. As John Ford said, when his 1935 Irish-based drama The Informer won for these exact same categories yet also lost for Best Picture, " I guess they liked everything but the picture." How does one explain such a thing? One cannot. Is it logical? Certainly not.

As one looks at the backlog of past winners in any of the top eight [ Pic, Actor, Actress, Supp.Actor & Actress, Director, screenplays-adapted/original ] a certain feeling of wtf more than occasionally takes precedent. 1952's Greatest Show on Earth [ which it ain't ] wins Best Picture against High Noon, The Quiet Man, Moulin Rouge, Ivanhoe. High Noon should have been the obvious winner. The biggest shock to me was that Vincente Minnelli's Bad & the Beautiful wasn't up for Picture or Director despite having 6 other noms and winning 5 awards [ Best Actor nom Kirk Douglas the only "loser"] the most of the evening! Yet the Pic winner GSOE didn't even have a screenplay nom! But wft, this was 1952 right? The cinematography for Huston's Moulin Rouge, one the the most beautifully shot films ever, wasn't even nominated in that category. Obviously the Academy didn't know shit from peanut butter. In 1948 The Red Shoes, by consensus one of the most exquisitely film movies EVER didn't get a nom for it's photography either. Yet it got nominated for Best Picture, a very rare thing for a film not from Hollywood in those days, so it is assumed that plenty of Oscar voters saw it. Or did they?

Although I must admit, Oscar sometimes despite all odds, gets it right: 1962's Lawrence of Arabia, 1945's Lost Weekend, 1954's On the Waterfront, 1960's The Apartment, 1943's Casablanca. But for every right there are at least 2 wrongs: George Chakiris over the mighty Montgomery Clift! No fucking way! Clift was an acting God and his performance in Judgement at Nuremberg not only tears your heart out but fucking stomps on it until one is gasping for mercy. Chakiris dances nicely has has an acceptable latin accent. No comparison.

Sometimes Oscar gets a tough decision: 1950's All About Eve vs. Sunset Blvd, 1951's An American In Paris vs. A Streetcar Named Desire & A Place in the Sun, 1941's How Green Was My Valley vs. Citizen Kane & The Maltese Falcon, 1940's Rebecca [ Sir Alfred's only Best Pic winner ] vs. Cukor's Philadelphia Story, Wyler's The Letter & Ford's Grapes Of Wrath and lest not forget that mammoth year 1939 when Gone With The Wind beat out at least 3 great movies: Wizard of Oz, Stagecoach and Mr Smith Goes To Washington! I would hate to see today's Oscar voters choose between these heavyweights among others that year. . Not easy choices and I would say one of these are not really greater than the other. They're all good and deserve a win or place in film history.

So should I care? I use to, but not so much anymore. I'm more philosophical these days. I will watch the Oscar show like I always have every year since 1967 or 68. But the winners and losers [ are there such things ? ] really don't mean as much to me as they use to. Great movies are great movies and will live on despite of having been neglected by Oscar. So to make a long blog entry even longer, here are my predictions for the top 8 categories. Now these are only who I think will win, not who I want or think should win. That would be a blog of a different color.

Best Picture- The Artist
Best Actress- Viola Davis, The Help
Best Actor- Jean Dujardin, The Artist
Best Supporting Actress- Octavia Spencer , The Help
Best Supporting Actor- Christopher Plummer, Beginners
Best Director- Michel Hazanavicius, The Artist
Best Original Screenplay- Woody Allen, Midnight In Paris
Best Adapted Screenplay- Alexander Payne,Nat Faxon & Jim Rash, The Descendants 


So there they are! Maybe not my personal choices but the ones I think will win. I don't think I will get 100% but I think I will get 6 of 8. Anybody think any different? If so let me know. Leave me a comment, put your own thoughts on the line. Let's see how close I come and discuss again next week after the dust settles.  I would love to hear from all my followers. Both of them:  Good evening.

How I Spent My Christmas Vacation

At the movies, of course! Where else would you find a movie dweeb with 11 days on his hands to do [almost] whatever he wants? Saw lots of them, at home and at the cinema. Some new, some old. Some I had seen before [some many times before] and some I had never seen. So here's the rundown with my ratings and forth:

In Theaters:

The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo - 8.5
A Dangerous Method - 7.5
The Artist - 8.0
Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy - 8.5
Hugo - 8.5

At home, on cable or dvd:

Tron : Legacy - 7.0 [ 2010 ]
How Do You Know ? - 6.0 [ 2010 ]
The Green Hornet - 7.5 [ 2011 ]
All Night Long - 9.0 [ 1981 ]
Tightrope - 7.5 [ 1984 ]

Of all these I was most surprised by The Green Hornet. It is a subversive action-hero movie in that it is played for laughs most of the time, with Kaito the real hero and Seth Rogen's Hornet making jokes, running from the bad guys yet taking credit for the super hero stuff that he didn't do. I found it refreshing and I laughed often while watching. The most disappointing had to be How Do You Know? With a stellar cast of Reese, Owen, Rudd [always worth watching] and the mighty Capt. Jack Nicholson, what could go wrong? And with Oscar winner James Brooks at the helm as writer/director! Well, as it turns out, a lot. This romcom started out very sluggish, the first hour being especially tough to get with. However, it did get better as it went, the second hour improving on the first, and it had a nice ending too. Tron: Legacy was somewhat of a mistake; I didn't really wanna see it, but one morning it was on and my girlfriend [a confirmed SF dweeb] and I just went with it. And found that it wasn't bad. A pleasant surprise. And Mr Bridges, a holdover from 1982's original Tron [yes Virginia, this is a sequel], is always worth watching. He has made some junk in his career, and after a 40 year career who wouldn't, but he is usually the best thing in his films, weather they are good or bad movies.

Of the new stuff I saw in theaters I guess Dragon Tattoo was the most riveting. Fincher is one of the most outstanding filmmakers working today. His films usually bend toward the dark...well hell, I'm convinced he lives in the dark! Only Benjamin Button was a somewhat light affair - and compared to the rest of his output, it was a regular fucking Disney flick. At least two scenes made me flinch, and the end of the film took about ten to twelve minutes too long [though necessary] to wrap up, it still is a wonderful addition to his already impressive canon. Cronenberg's A Dangerous Method about Freud and Jung and the patient that comes between them, is a somewhat dry and, yes, methodical, piece of filmmaking from a creator who seldom bores. Like Fincher, Cronenberg is one of the few who seems to work on challenging subjects that must be of some interest to him. Unlike his last film, 2007's Eastern Promises, Method is deliberate filmmaking, almost Eastwood-like in its pacing. Scorsese's Hugo was immensely enjoyable. Though sold as a kid's movie, it really is an adult movie about kids. And about the movies. The main plot of the film is Hugo's attempt to help the embittered toy store owner of the train depot where Hugo lives. The toy store owner is none other that George Melies, an early 20th century French filmmaker who fears his work has been forgotten and is apparently lost forever. Of course this is just honey to an old cinema-bee like me, so I was entranced. The Artist, a French-silent black & white film that takes place in old Hollywood of 1927-1932 just when talkies were taking over, should've been my favorite of the holidays and maybe a contender for an all-time favorite. But alas, such was not the case. Enjoyable and diverting as it was, I felt that The Artist's plot was tired and left wanting, a cross between Singing in the Rain and a little bit of Sunset Blvd thrown in. However, the performances, photography, musical score and audacity [a B&W, silent film: OMG] were all first-rate. And the ending was particularly enchanting as it ends as a musical with expert hoofing from the two likeable leads. My only hope is that the director next makes a all singing, all dancing picture. That film would be tremendous.

Tinker, Tailor was an excellent, yet somewhat confusing tale of espionage and the double cross. Though at times tough to follow [almost a must for all spy films], the plot is deceptive, because it is simple and basic: A mole has infiltrated British intelligence and Gary Oldman's George Smiley must weed him out. From the performances to the writing to the sets and photography, Tinker Tailor is low-key, dark and somber which fits the story and mood of the piece to a T.

So now I'm off to try to catch Fellini's directorial debut, Variety Lights, which I've got from Netflix, if I can only find the time.

Christmas wish list

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