How About a Double Feature? Part Two

Ivan's Childhood 

Regular readers of this blog (Gadzooks Dingleberry of Caribou, Maine) may recall that last July I posted 12 recommendations for double features. The response was whelming. I've imagined literally millions of you asking for more (while in reality thousands have asked for less). So today I am proud to offer a more modest list of ten double features to help you get through those long, lonely Autumn nights as we await Election Day. Once again I looked for interesting couplings with a common thread. I've got comedies, war pictures, Shakespeare, Western, silent, Marx Brothers and drunks. Hope you find something you like. Tell your friends and get ten percent off at your next gift shop purchase.

Ivan’s Childhood (1962) and Come and See (1985) — Young Soviet lads fight World War II. Russian cinema has created some great films about World War II which is not at all surprising given the massive impact the Nazi invasion had on the then Soviet Union. Two of the best are films whose main characters are a pre-adolescent and a teen. Ivan's Childhood, directed by my favorite Russian director, Andrei Tarkovsky, follows the exploits of Ivan, who scouts for the Soviet army in their campaign against the Nazis. He has suffered horrific personal losses and hates the German invaders with an understandable vengeance. Young Ivan is a very serious young man, self possessed and fearless. In Come and See a young teen named Alexsey joins the partisans in Belarus to fight the invading Nazi hordes. Soon after his family is slaughtered. Like Ivan, he has a special purpose. These are two extraordinary films and are masterpieces of cinematography. The beauty of many shots help illuminate the horrors of war. War is an often used subject in cinema. Sometimes battle is romanticized and the slaughter sanitized or even glamorized. Not so in these two films that evoke the true horror of war while providing completely watchable, compelling viewing experiences.

Chimes at Midnight (1965) and My Own Private Idaho (1991) — A Little Falstaff Anyone? One of William Shakespeare's most memorable characters is that of Falstaff who appeared in three of his plays (Henry IV Parts one and two and Henry V). He is mostly a comic figure, an overweight, conceited, boastful, and cowardly knight. He's also a notorious lush who can regularly be found drinking at the Boar's Head Inn with petty criminals. Not a very good influence on Prince Hal (who is later King Henry). Orson Welles wrote and directed Chimes and he is masterful in the role of Falstaff. Made in 1991, My Own Private Idaho is set in present day but based on the Shakespeare plays above mentioned. Keanu Reeves stars as the Hal-like Scott Favor. The Falstaff fill-in is called Bob Pigeon (William Richert). Idaho was written and directed by Gus van Sandt who was inspired by Chimes. Idaho also features River Phoenix in perhaps his best role. It is considered a landmark in New Queer Cinema. It's gay themes and modern settings are among the only things that differentiate it from Chimes. Both are superb films.

The Lost Weekend

The Lost Weekend (1945) and Come Back Little Sheba (1952) — Struggles with booze. In Lost Weekend, Ray Milland is an unrepentant drunk who, when given the opportunity, goes on the bender of all benders. In Come Back Little Sheba, Burt Lancaster is in recovery but despite a loving wife and being in AA, falls off the wagon. Good and hard. Both films accurately capture how the disease of alcoholism ravages the individual and those around him. Weekend is much the better of the two films showing the insidiousness of the disease and how helpless one can feel in fighting it. Sheba has its virtues too and I recommend it because of its hopeful message.

The Freshman (1925) and Horse Feathers (1932) — Rah! Rah! Rah! It's the day of the big game. Maybe your favorite team is playing right now despite the pandemic or maybe the start of their season has been delayed. In any case many people can't get enough college football with its pomp, pageantry, traditions and predilection for the unexpected. Why not combine a rollicking comedy and a favorite sport? With The Freshman you get the bespectacled and hilarious Harold Lloyd worming his way onto the college team and ultimately getting on the gridiron for the climactic moments of the big game. Lloyd plays, of course, a freshmen and he is an oft-ridiculed nebbish one at that. But you'll love his earnestness and root for him to win the girl and glory on the field. Horse Feathers features all four Marx Brothers in my second favorite of all their films. Like Lloyd they provide laughs aplenty and also insinuate themselves into the big game and of course star in the dramatic climax. Of the foursome only Zeppo is actually a student, although how he has any eligibility left given that he's been a student for a decade, is an open question. Groucho is not only not a student, he's the president of the university. Horse Feathers is a laugh fest and like The Freshman, provides succor to those who miss college football.

The Bride of Frankenstein (1935) and Gods & Monsters (1998) -- The Making of a Monster. James Whale directed the former and is a character in the latter. To me, Bride was Whale's masterpiece (and he made several excellent horror films). It is not a film that will frighten modern audiences, indeed it has high camp value, particularly in the form of Dr. Pretorious (played by the always delightful Ernest Thesiger). Boris Karloff is the monster and the scenery chewing Colin Clive is the doctor. Elsa Lanchester has a small but memorable role as the title character. Gods and Monsters explores Whale's last days and Ian McKellan is perfect as Whale. Whale takes in young gardener (Brendan Fraser) who he is smitten with. G&M is funny, touching, sentimental, heartbreaking and utterly lovable. In the course of the story, Whale watches Bride and dishes on his stars. G&M also explores the difficulties of being gay in what was then a closeted America (Whale was gay).

8 1/2 (1963) and Stardust Memories (1980) — Film director in turmoil. In 8 1/2 Marcello Mastrioni plays a director based on actual director, Federico Fellini. In Stardust, Woody Allen plays a director based on himself who is also the director of the film. They are happy men but plagued by angst and the vagaries of fame and the women they love and the women who love them. Both directors are trying to relax, Mastrioni after his latest hit, Allen after another squabble with studio executives. They hope that getting away for a bit will help, but there is no escape the trappings of fame and the myriad individuals who come with it. While 81/2 is very much an autobiographical film for Fellini, Stardust Memories is very much an homage to 8 1/2, although it certainly reflects some of Allen's own experiences. In both films there are laughs, romance, pathos and excellent cinematography.

Ed Wood

Ed Wood (1994) and The Disaster Artist (2017) — True stories of bad directors who accidentally made cult classics. Both films are based on film directors who were at the very bottom of the their fields. Ed Wood was famously, bad having made that rare film that is so bad it really is good: Plan Nine From Outer Space. Johnny Depp, in one of his best performances, plays the cross-dressing Wood. Tim Burton directed and it is far and away my favorite of his films. Martin Landau turned in an Academy Award winning performance (best supporting actor) as Bela Lugosi. The Disaster Artist chronicles the rise to "fame" of Tommy Wiseau who directed another so bad its good film, The Room. James Franco gives a bravura performance as the very weird Wiseau. Franco also directed. Both as director and actor, Franco captures the wildly eccentric main character and the wild and true story of the making of The Room. Taken together you have two films about men who gained notoriety through their ineptitude. Both are thoroughly entertaining, funny, yet at times touching.

If….(1968) and Rushmore (1968) — Iconoclastic Teens. Admittedly Mick of If.... and Max of Rushmore are very different kinds of blokes but both were unique among their peers and very much rebels of their times. Mick is cool, unconventionally handsome and a free spirit who wants to blaze his own trails. Max is a dweeb, nerdy-looking and inappropriate but wants acceptance and admiration. Mick is in a stuffy British boarding school circa the late Sixties. Max is in a stuffy American private school then a typical American high school circa the late Nineties. Both fall in love, both have a small support group and both stay true to themselves throughout and in very different ways get what they want. If... was a touchstone of the Sixties and the spirit of rebellion then personified. That is to say, it was an important film. Rushmore was less significant culturally but a important cinematically, cementing as it did the unique style of director Wes Anderson as a significant new voice in film.

The Great Escape (1963) and La Grande Illusion (1937) — Let’s get out of here. Both film features one of filmdom's coolest stars busting out of prisoner of war camps. The Great Escape is the true story of an allied blitz out of a German stalag in the middle of World War II. Steve McQueen -- who personified cool for two decades -- is one who escapes and is one of many to be re-captured. But not before a thrilling motorcycle chase. In Grand Illusion, Jean Gabin, who had a long career being cool in French films, also escapes from a German POW camp, in this case during World War I. The movies are different in tone, settings and themes (Grand Illusion also looks at classism and the waning days of European aristocracy). The Great Escape is much more of an action film and is based on actual events. It also deals more with the details of affecting an escape and the consequences to both sides. The main thing the two have in common is that they're great films with magnetic stars leading excellent casts.

Destry Rides Again (1939) and Mr. Smith Goes to Washington (1939) -- Jimmy Stewart as unlikely hero. As Destry, Jimmy Stewart is the soft-spoken story-telling sheriff who cleans up the corrupt town of Bottleneck (state unknown). As Smith, he is the naive and patriotic senator who cleans up an entire state (the identity of which is unknown). Stewart was a classic kind of American hero. Tall and gangly, intelligent but humble and seemingly non-threatening. He always got the girl and he always exposed the bad guys -- despite the odds. In both these films the cynics and wise guys laughed at him, until, that is, they celebrated him as hero. Destry is a delightful film featuring the contrasting pair of Stewart and the sultry Marlene Dietrich. Brian Donlevy is the "businessman" who runs the town and lines his pockets along the way. Mr. Smith is a cinematic classic in which the titular character (aided by the love and counsel of Jean Arthur's character) takes on the corrupt "businessman" played by Edward Arnold, who runs an entire state, profiting greatly along the way. While Destry is played mostly for laughs (which it achieves), Smith explores the darker side of Washington politics. Stewart excels in both films.