It's Time Once Again For....Movies I've Watched Lately A Few of Which I Liked Greatly

Cary Grant and Leslie Caron in Father Goose

Father Goose (1958) Nelson. I recorded this on TCM with some trepidation. I might have seen this when I was a kid but I remembered nothing about it other than it starred Cary Grant and Leslie Caron, was set during World War II on a tropical island. Would this be another of those dumb comedies from the early Sixties that were barely funny then a dull as corduroy now? Nope. What a delight! This was Grant’s penultimate film in perhaps Hollywood's most storied film career. He turned mediocre films into good ones and good ones into great ones and great ones into classics. Father Goose is no classic but by the grace of Grant it is a thoroughly entertaining one hundred and fifty-eight minutes of cinema. It’s so much fun to see the suave and debonair Grant (the man knew how to wear a suit) playing a gruff, unshaven, sloppy beach bum turned hero. Grant plays a former history professor who wants to wile away his life on his boat but the war has gotten in the way and he’s enlisted to be an observer for the army. He does this reluctantly and even more reluctantly he rescues a woman (Caron) and the seven girls she’s in charge of. The rest is predicable such as the two principals bickering constantly then falling in love. Nonetheless it’s great fun. Everything from script to supporting characters to editing is fine, but Grant is magnificent.

Didi (2024) Wang. In the theaters now. Set and filmed in Fremont, California, it is the story of fourteen-year old Taiwanese-American lad struggling with adolescence, his family, his friends and romance. It’s a fraught age for most. Sometimes “being ethnic” complicates matters. You’re straddling being a typical American boy and being a proud member of your distinct immigrant group. A different culture and a different language are at home. You walk out the door and your like apple pie. I grew up Finnish, American and Finnish-American (yes, they’re three distinct things). I could also relate to the title character because his family was not perfectly functional, adding another layer of complication to a life. Didi is not the first film to take on a young teen’s coming of age story but it is one of the better iterations of the genre. It’s honest story-telling. Young Isaac Wang — fifteen during filming — is a budding talent who, like an experienced thespian, does  a lot of acting with his eyes which are wonderfully expressive. Often raw and uncomfortable complete with drugs, profanity and scatological references aplenty. It’s set in the summer of 2008 so social media adds another element to the young man’s story. An excellent new film.

The Last Picture Show (1971) Bogdanovich. My top 100 films list is fluid. As evidence I recently moved this masterpiece from Peter Bogdanovich into the number four spot. There’s not a false note in it. There is no better telling of small town America. It is a riveting examination of the quiet lives of desperation that so many people live, have lived, will live. There are few escapes from the drudgery, the pain, the emptiness of the small rural town that supposedly composes the heartland and the values of “real Americans.” Out of high school you can get married. That’s something to do, that’s taking a kind of control over your life. That’s adding company to your misery. That the marriage has little chance of true happiness, that it’s too early, that it’s ill-conceived is not understood. You can join the military. It’s a way to escape. You’re paid, fed, housed, perhaps taught a trade or set up for college or perhaps you lose a body part or are traumatized or pay the “ultimate sacrifice.” If you’re bold you can go off to college. And maybe you won’t come back. The Last Picture show is a snapshot of a dying town. It focuses on a group of teens graduating from high school. But we meet other members of the community. They lie, they cheat, the have affairs, but they also offer wisdom and solace and protection for the young, if not for one another. Brilliant performances highlight the film including Oscar winning turns by Ben Johnson and Cloris Leachman. The star-studded cast also includes Cybill Shepard, Jeff Bridges, Timothy Bottom, Sam Bottoms, Ellen Burstyn, Club Galager and Eileen Brennan.

From The Searchers

The Searchers (1956) Ford. Another film in my top ten. John Ford’s best which is saying something in itself. As exquisitely shot as any picture ever made. Ford’s mastery as a director was never more evident. The framing of shots, notably the opening and closing of the film, are masterful. You can't tell a good story on film without someone who knows where and how to point the camera. This often entails both a great director and cinema photographer like the duo of Ingmar Bergman and Sven Nykvist or Orson Welles and Gregg Toland or Woody Allen and Gordon Willis or John Ford and Winton C. Hoch. The Searchers is more than just great film to look at. The odious John Wayne was at his best as the racist Ethan Edwards who along with his not nephew Martin (Jeffrey Hunter) pursues the kidnapped young girl Debbie (Natalie Wood). It’s a powerful story with solid performances all around and it’s one helluva fine movie to look at.

Double Wedding (1937) Thorpe. It’s easy to make a silly movie. It’s especially easy to make a silly movie that’s also just plain stupid. But making a silly movie that’s genuinely funny is a tough ask. Double Wedding manages to pull of this rare feat. Of course having William Powell and Myrna Loy — the best man/woman screen pairing from Hollywood’s Golden Age, or any age for that matter — as your stars makes the task a lot easier. Like Grant in Father Goose, Powell is playing against type. We’re once again used to a suave and sophisticated performance — with heavy dashes of wit. But here Powell as an artist and bohemian who lives in a trailer. He’s fine in the role, thank you. Loy is sterner and more serious than usual and it’s no surprise that Powell’s character pulls her out of her shell.  The plot takes twists and turns yet manages to be predictable and yet oads of fun. 

A Place in the Sun (1951) Stevens. Meh. I suppose in 1951 when it was released and for a decade or so after A Place in the Sun was seen as an important message picture (there were a lot of those in the Fifties and most didn’t age well). Montgomery Clift, the delicious Elizabeth Taylor and Shelly Winters are the stars and all turn in admirable performances. Raymond Burr — pre Perry Mason — is over the top as the prosecutor. I’d imagine most people know this story of an ambitious young man who gets his break and starts to climb the social ladder. He climbs away from the nice girl he was with (Winters) and finds a beautiful young  socialite (Taylor) that any man would salivate over. Problem is girl number one is pregnant. Is murder afoot? There’s a bit of drama to the story but the ending is a massive letdown in too many ways to recount especially as it doing so would contain major spoilers. Some people still extoll the film but I can’t imagine why. It's point --- whatever it was -- is lost on me.