Stink, Stank, Stunk

Yesterday I was going to write about why I see so few movies that I ultimately dislike. I was going to point out how smart I am for carefully choosing what movies I'm going to watch whether on DVD, at the theater or on TCM. And I was going to add that this doesn't even take into account the fact that I often watch movies I've seen before and love. Would have been really ironic if I'd written that but I never got around to it. Because you see, I saw a real stinker last night.

No Time for Comedy (1940). How can you go wrong when the movie stars Jimmy Stewart and Rosalind Russell? How about if you have a terrible script and awkward direction? For the first twenty minutes of the film Stewart played a perfectly likable bloke and for the ensuing 75 minutes he was a complete jerk. The transformation was largely unexplained. Indeed, this character and his actions were nonsensical. Meanwhile, Russell played a perfectly empty character whose motivations were also inexplicable or nonsensical. What a waste of talent.

TCM's Robert Osborne introduced the film. I love Osborne. But for the love of god he should have warned us somehow! A hand signal, a wink, anything to suggest that we were about to waste 93 minutes. The movie concerns a...oh why bother. The premise isn't all that interesting and the execution was pathetic.

Just prior to this disaster Stewart had appeared in: Mr. Smith Goes to Washington, Destry Rides Again, The Shop Around the Corner, and The Mortal Storm. Immediately after he won an Oscar for The Philadelphia Story. So it figures he had to be in one clinker among those gems. Russell does not have quite the same excuse although she had been in His Girl Friday a few pictures before.

According to Osborne the two stars dated briefly during the production of No Time For Comedy. I'm glad somebody got something out of the experience.

Oh and another thing. There was an African American who actually got to play an actress at the beginning of the movie. In the second half of the film she had mysteriously left acting and became a...brace yourself...maid!

On the Road With the Naked Spur

One of the most successful formulas for film is to have a disparate group of characters on a journey. If their trip is fraught with peril, and the travelers have conflicting agendas, all the better. This has worked wonderfully in such classic films as Stagecoach and Shanghai Express, earlier discussed on this blog. It also worked in Anthony Mann's Western, The Naked Spur (1953).

This journey is made up of:
A court marshaled reprobate officer played by Ralph Meeker;
A wise but luckless old prospector played by Millard Mitchell;
A tempestuous young beauty played by Janet Leigh (who better?);
A sociopathic killer played by Robert Ryan;
An honest but troubled farmer played magnificently by Jimmy Stewart.

Calling The Naked Spur a Western is like saying Casablanca is war picture. It is a taught psychological drama with compelling, nuanced characters. To write The Naked Spur off as a Western is to a trivialize a film of unique depth and complexity.

Stewart roams far from his home Abeline, Kansas to capture a wanted murderer in order to collect reward money. (Why he needs the money should not be revealed in advance of viewing it).

Ryan often played very convincing villains (see Clash By Night) but never better than here. He is Stewart's prey and the fact that he is captured early in the film does nothing to lessen his menace. The prospector and disgraced soldier get in on the capture and want in the reward. Leigh is Ryan's girl but her loyalty to him has its boundaries; ones that are tested by Stewart.

Jimmy Stewart's love in The Naked Spur resembles the desperate, passion of Vertigo. It is as unsentimental as the movie's violence and action. Indeed, the fight scenes in The Naked Spur are not the burlesque barroom brawl variety of traditional Westerns. These fights are clutching, grabbing kicking affairs with palpable anger.

As played by Stewart, Howard Kemp could have it no other way. This is a scarred human being who believes his redemption lies in a $5,000 reward and will go to any lengths to get it.

Ryan's Ben Vandergroat, so diabolical a fiend, presents a truly troubling challenge. Mitchell's Jesse Tate and Meeker (who in my mind left film for TV prematurely) as Roy Anderson serve both as impediments and allies. But Lina Patch as portrayed by Leigh is the real wild card. Leigh gave depth to a character who could have been shrill and transparent.

The Naked Spur is unpredictable. The beauty of the journey movie is that its cast of character are liable to take it in various directions. But more importantly, it is the journey and not the destination that make it an exceptional film.

The Naked Spur is such an exceptional film.

In technicolor and now on DVD.

Potsy Loves Sugarpuss (and vice versa)

Wow! Barbara Stanwyck and Gary Cooper star, Howard Hawks directs, Cinematography by Gregg Toland, and based on a story by Billy Wilder. Given all this you'd think 1941's Ball of Fire had to be a terrific film.

And you'd be correct.

I'm unabashed in my love and admiration for Ms. Stanwyck and this movie is one reason why. Except for perhaps The Lady Eve, she is never sexier, smarter, or more to fun to watch. This wonderful film is similarly praiseworthy as it manages to be sweet and intelligent and a genuinely funny screwball comedy.

Basic plot: eight stuffy, totally cerebral professors are in the ninth year of their project to write an encyclopedia. In discovering they know too little about modern slang, one of them, Bertram Potts (Cooper), takes to the streets to pick up the lingo. He invites some slang users to the Institute – where the eight professors live and work – to help with his research. Among the invitees is nightclub singer, Sugarpuss O'Shea (Stanwyck). She couldn't be less interested. But O'Shea is the steady of a gangster played by Dana Andrews, who's under indictment, and she suddenly needs a hide out. Guess where Sugarpuss winds up? Not surprisingly O'Shea brings life to the Institute. Surprisingly, she and Potts fall head over heels for each other.

So you have a modern version of the "Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs." You have comedy. you have romance. you have action. You have smart and snappy dialogue. You have a satisfying conclusion. You have cinematic gold.

Ball of Fire works for a very simple reason: with all the talent involved, how couldn't it? In addition to the stars, the supporting cast couldn't be better notably Allen Jenkins, Dan Duryea (in his day Duryea was money in the bank as a gangster), Oscar Homolka and Henry Travers.

Ball of Fire is worth repeated looks because its characters are so endearing and Wilder's screenplay is so typically rich. And who can ever get tired of watching Barbara Stanwyck? I can't.

I close with the following non sequitur. Ball of Fire premiered on December 2, 1941, five days before...well, you know.

Roz is wonderful. Movie is Wacky. Puzzle a Doozy.

It's a sure sign that the movie you're watching is either not very good or not to your liking if you start working on the crossword puzzle while watching it.

Such was the case for me earlier in the day when I watched My Sister Eileen. Rosalind Russell starred in this 1942 film from Paramount and was nominated for an Oscar for her portrayal of an aspiring writer from Columbus, Ohio who heads to New York with her (of course) sister Eileen, an aspiring actress. Both seek fame and fortune. Hilarity ensues with a diverse ensemble of actors showing up to add to the madcap mayhem. Even the Three Stooges make an appearance (that's class).

I suppose it says a lot about the film that I was able to follow the story, as zany as it was, without paying a whole lot of attention. According to TCM's host Robert Osborne, My Sister Eileen was a big hit in 1942. I guess compared to the news from the war zones anything would have seemed fun.

The lovely Janet Blair played Eileen. Her main task was to look pretty and this she accomplished quite..um, handsomely. Blair either was asked to do little else with her role or was not capable of doing more with it. Most of the movie is set in their below-ground-floor Greenwich Village apartment. Their landlord is played by George Tobias (perhaps best known to Baby Boomers as Abner Kravitz from TV's Bewitched). In this movie, Tobias played a Greek. He was all over the place in movies of the 1940's playing all manner of nationals including Russians and Italians. In addition to Tobias and the Stooges, a whole of host zanies pass through the apartment including a medium, a football player, an assortment of mashers, and a half dozen Portuguese sailors, naturally.

My Sister Eileen was subsequently remade in a few forms, one of which was a hit Broadway play in which Russell reprised her role.

I love Rosalind Russell. Like many of my favorites, she was very pretty yet also played very capable, very smart women. No better example exists than her performance as Hildy in His Girl Friday.

As uninteresting as I found My Sister Eileen, Russell was customarily wonderfully. The movie was not and that crossword puzzle was a doozy.

Y-M-C-A

Here is proper etiquette at your local gym (mine's the Downtown Berkeley YMCA).

When waiting to use a weight machine:

1. Do not stand too close, the person using the machine will feel crowded.
2. Do not stare at the person using the machine. She or he will feel...well, stared at, for crying out loud.
3. Do not rush on to the machine the second the person is done to show your irritation at having to wait.

When using a weight machine:

1. Between sets look about to see if someone is waiting. 
2. If someone is waiting, don't linger. Either allow them to work in, cut your work out short, or speed it up.
3. Wipe your damn sweat off when you get up. Please.

When stretching:

1. Please count in you head, not out loud.
2. Wear shoes or socks.
3. If you have to wear headphones, keep the volume down.

In the locker room:

1. Don't spread out all over the place.  This isn't your bedroom you're sharing the space.
2. Don't tunelessly whistle. If it's a song, fine.
3. Don't drip in the locker room or  you'll make the floor wet. Towel off before returning to the locker area.

In the Sauna:

1. Don't exercise in the Sauna. That's what virtually the rest of the whole damn gym is for.
2. Don't wear clothes. a towel around your waist is fine. The rest of the world is for clothes.
3. And for God's Sake, DON'T HANG YOUR WET BATHING SUIT, TOWEL OR ANY OTHER ARTICLE OF CLOTHING IN THE SAUNA. That's just disgusting, and as a Finn I find it culturally insensitive.

Thanks everyone for your cooperation. See you at the gym!

Taking the Cure

Have you ever sat down to write not knowing what you were going to write about? You just knew you needed to write something. Anything. Maybe you have feelings that need to be worked out. You can't figure out who you need to talk to – if anyone, or if talking to anyone would even help.

In my case I know that at certain times it's easy to sink into melancholy and writing can be a way to fight my way out of it. Depression, moodiness, and melancholia are luxuries of youth. As you get older you realize that time's a wastin.' My father's death a few months ago has reminded me in stark terms of mortality and the need to make the best of every second I've got.

I don't suppose that there's a higher rate of depression on July 4th than other days. It's not like Christmas or Thanksgiving or Valentine's Day, when people who are alone feel really, really alone. But anyway, here it is Independence Day and I've got the blues. Then again, I've never been very patriotic and indeed for much of my life I've been quite disappointed in this country. Its history is pretty shady, too. (I outta know, I teach U.S. History.)

Okay let's be clear on a few things. The U.S. has a racist history that includes slavery, but so do many, many other countries. The United States is a country that was stolen from native tribes by often brutal measures. Same as a lot of other countries. There is now, and often has been a huge disparity, between the richest and poorest in this country. Same as a lot of other countries. The U.S.of A. has often been overrun by greedy, corrupt self-serving politicians. Just like so many other countries. The United States has welcomed and in turn exploited and discriminated against immigrants. It's not alone in this respect either. The U.S. has trampled on its own civil liberties in times of national paranoia. Same as...well you get the picture.

The difference is that the United States is the one country that constantly boasts about how bloody great it is. We are number one!!!

One, yes, one arrogant country. Relative to a lot of other countries in the world, the U.S. is quite young (232 today). It's like a teenager in a room full of adults boasting about its supposed superiority. Shut up already, the adults must be thinking. They know that it is a rule of nature and history that what goes up must come down.

Anyway, I needed to write and I did and I feel better about myself all ready. I guess in my case "write makes right."

Nitpicker's Delight

I was at the UC Berkeley Optometry Center picking out a new pair of spectacles when I heard a little girl say to her mother, "I like these ones." The mother did not correct her child. Proving, I guess, that the apple does not fall far from the tree,  the mother instead replied, " I like those ones, too."

THOSE!!! THESE!!! THE "ONES" IS SUPERFLUOUS!!! AS YOU MAY HAVE GUESSED THIS BUGS THE HECK OUT OF ME. AND NO, I'M NOT SO UPSET I'M SHOUTING ABOUT IT, THE CAPS LOCK KEY IS STUCK.

Demagogue in Denim

Elia Kazan directed one of the great monster movies of the 1950's. It was A Face in the Crowd (1957) starring an Andy Griffith who bears little resemblance to the popular sheriff from Mayberry that he would start portraying three years later.

A Face in the Crowd tells the story of an Arkansas drifter who's discovered in jail where he is serving a sentence for public drunkenness. His folksy yet super energized guitar-playing, folk singing, aw shucks style of wisdom instantly endears him to radio audiences. He quickly goes from local radio to Memphis TV station to national audience and the ears of not only the masses but national movers and shakers as well. But behind the charm and good looks lies a beast who feeds off adulation and power, growing ever bigger and more menacing. The fate of the monster in A Face in the Crowd will be familiar to movie audiences. It comes when he is on the cusp of a possible cabinet post where his belief in controlling the masses would surely be used to devastating effect.

This is an amazing performance by Griffith. He had to be bombastic, audacious and egomanical without lapsing into farce. It was Griffith's film debut and one wonders if audiences were better off with him on TV being affable or if they'd have benefited more from him staying in films taking on a variety of personas.

A Face in the Crowd, like other monster movies, was a cautionary tale. It presaged how TV could aid and abet political cults of personality that in turn can verge on demagoguery. A Face in the Crowd belongs in the same conversation with Sidney Lumet's Network (1976) and Spike Lee's Bamboozled (2000). All are brilliant exposés on how television can pervert culture (reality shows often serve the same purpose, if unintentionally).

Patricia Neal plays the local radio show host who discovers Griffith's character, Lonesome Rhodes, and lovingly guides and follows him to the top. At first glance she may appear to be the creator of this monster, but it is clear that this creature merely feeds off a decaying culture and the minions who seek wisdom and leadership however it comes. (Says Rhodes: I'm stupid but the people are stupider and they need me to tell em what to do.)

A young Walter Matthau plays a writer who quickly sees through Rhodes and pens an exposé, "Demagogue in Denim."  He is smart, cynical and even predicts the monster's return, albeit in a weaker form. He is also aware that others will spring up to take his place. The real mad scientist is Joey DePalma, played by Anthony Franciosa, also in his film debut. DePalma is the slimy agent who's unspoken philosophy is, "anything for a buck." He does in fact state: "Illegal? Honey, nothing's illegal if they don't catch you!"

A Face in the Crowd is a revelation. Though TCM recently aired it as part of its Essentials series, it remains a vastly under appreciated film that could easily be included in any course on American history, politics or culture through film. But in my mind it's a classic... MONSTER FLICK!

Movies By the Numbers

Anyone who loves films should watch this from YouTube.

100 Movies, 100 Quotes, 100 Numbers

It's 100 movie quotes, each with a number.   The quotes count us down from 100 to one. 

It's fun to try to identify each of the 100 films used. You'll also marvel at the time and effort taken to put this together.

It reminded me of some of my favorite movies of a particular genre. See if you can guess what I'm getting at with this list:

• Suspect Zero
  
• The Big Red One
  
• Two Women
  
• Three Days of the Condor
  
• Four for Texas
  
• Slaughterhouse Five
  
• Six Degrees of Separation
  
• Seven Days in May
  
• Eight Men Out
  
• 8 1/2
  
• The Whole Nine Yards
  
• 9 1/2 Weeks
  
• 10 Items or Less
  
• Ocean's Eleven
  
• 12 Angry Men
  
• Thirteen Ghosts
  
• Fourteen Hours
  
• Fifteen Minutes
  
• Sixteen Candles
  
• Seventeen Again
  
• Hangar 18
  
• 19 Miles to Vegas
  
• Twentieth Century
  
• 21 Grams
  
• Catch 22
  
• The Number 23
  
• Twenty Four Hour Party People
  
• 25th Hour
  
• 28 Days Later
  
• Track 29
  
• Thirty Seconds Over Tokyo
  
• Naked Gun 33 1/3
  
• Miracle on 34th Street
  
• 36 Hours
  
• The 39 Steps
  
• North Dallas Forty
  
• 42nd Street
  
• Cold 45
  
• Code 46
  
• 48 Hours
  
• 49th Parallel
  
• Fifty First Dates
  
• 52 Pick Up
  
• Car 54 Where Are You?
  
• Gone in Sixty Seconds
  
• 61*
  
• Airport 75
  
• Around the World in 80 Days
  
• 100 Rifles
  
• 101 Dalmatians
  
• 200 Cigarettes
  
• 300 Spartans
  
• 400 Blows
  
• U-571
  
• Fahrenheit 911
  
• Anne of a Thousand Days
  
• A Thousand and One Nights
  
• 1492: Conquest of Paradise
  
• 1776
  
• 1900
  
• 1941
  
• The Summer of 1942
  
• 1984
  
• 2001 A Space Odyssey
  
• 10,000 BC
  
• 20,000 Leagues Beneath the Sea
  
• One Million Years BC
  
• Billion Dollar Brain
  

I'm sure I missed some. Feel free to point some out in the comments section and I'll add them.