Does winning an acting Oscar change the career of the
recipient? The answer is yes and also no. Take Brad Pitt, who won Best Supporting
Actor last year for ONCE UPON A TIME IN HOLLYWOOD(2019). He’s a veteran
superstar with over three decades in Hollywood. So, the award is more icing on
the cake for his career. But that wasn’t the case when he earned his first
nomination for Terry Gilliam’s 12 MONKEYS(‘95). Pitt was on a hot
streak since gaining attention for his roles in THELMA & LOUISE (‘91), A
RIVER RUNS THROUGH IT (‘92), INTERVIEW WITH THE VAMPIRE (‘94) and LEGENDS OF
THE FALL (‘94), and his first Oscar nominations gave his career an even bigger
boost.
Similar to Pitt, many young actors discovered their stock in
Hollywood with Oscar gold, but nominations and wins have effected various
stars’ careers in different ways. Here’s a look at various Oscar winners and
how the award affected their careers.
Martin Landau
The Oscar has changed the career trajectory of many veteran
actors. Martin Landau was making such TV movies The Harlem Globetrotters on
Gilligan’s Island (’81) that just squandered his talents. But that all
changed when he earned his first Oscar nomination for Francis Ford Coppola’s TUCKER:
THE MAN AND HIS DREAM (’88), followed by a second for Woody Allen’s CRIMES&
MISDEMEANORS (’89), eventually winning for his poignant performance as Bela
Lugosi in Tim Burton’s ED WOOD(’94).
Ironically, Landau told me in a 2010 L.A. Times
interview he didn’t think he could play the Dracula star. “It’s a Hungarian
morphine addict, alcoholic who has mood swings,” he remembered telling Burton.
“That would be hard enough, but it has to be Bela Lugosi! I said I don’t know
if I can do this, but let’s do some tests.”
Makeup artist Rick Baker transformed Landau into the elderly
frail actor. Burton, he recalled, looked at the tests and thought he was 50%
Lugosi. Landau believed he captured the icon in fleeting moments. “I said if I
can do it 10% of the time, I can do it 100% of the time. They have to accept me
as Lugosi in the first five minutes or we don’t have a film. It was not an
impersonation for me. He had to be a human being.”
Melvyn Douglas
Similarly, Melvyn Douglas, who was best known for his
comedic roles in the 1930s and ‘40s in such films as NINOTCHKA (’39), had seen
his career slow in the 1950s because of his liberal political leanings. But he
came back to the forefront in 1960 after winning a Tony Award for Gore Vidal’s THE
BEST MAN, and then receiving his first of two supporting actor Oscars for his
turn as Paul Newman’s hard-working Texas rancher father in Martin Ritt’s HUD(’63). Seven years later, he received a Best Actor nomination as Gene
Hackman’s father in I NEVER SANG FOR MY FATHER (’70), ultimately winning
his second Oscar as the president of the United States in Hal Ashby’s BEINGTHERE
(’79).
Luise Rainer
The German stage actress was signed to an MGM contract in
the mid-30s. But the free-spirited Rainer, who considered herself an actress
and not a movie star, was always at logger heads with studio head Louis B.
Mayer. She told me in a 2011 L.A. Times interview, Mayer “couldn’t make
me out. You know it was a little bit difficult for him. I wasn’t the type that
he was used to. So, the poor man didn’t know what to do with me. For my first
film, ESCAPADE [‘35], William Powell said [to him] you got to star that girl…My
first film made me a star.”
Rainer won Best Actress as famed performer Anna Held in THE
GREAT ZIEGFELD (’36) and as a Chinese peasant in THE GOOD EARTH (’37). All but
one of her subsequent films didn’t do well at the box office and she left
Hollywood. She made one film, HOSTAGES (’43), guest starred on some TV series
including a voyage on The Love Boat and had a small part in indie film THEGAMBLER (’97).
Art Carney
One of the greatest comedic actors, Carney came to fame in
the Honeymooners sketches on The Jackie Gleason Show and The
Honeymooners series as Ralph Kramden’s (Gleason) best pal, the clueless
sewer worker Ed Norton. He won five Emmys for his work with Gleason. Carney
also originated the role of neatnik Felix Ungar opposite Walter Matthau’s Oscar
Madison in the 1965 Broadway production of Neil Simon’s The Odd Couple.
Well-known that he had a drinking problem, Carney wasn’t
working that much in film or TV in the late 1960s and early 1970s. In fact, he
tried to convince Paul Mazursky he wasn’t right for the filmmaker’s heartfelt
dramedy HARRY & TONTO (’74) about a curmudgeonly old New Yorker who travels
with his cat across country after he loses his apartment. Mazursky told me in a
2011 L.A. Times interview that no one wanted the part. James Cagney,
Laurence Olivier, Cary Grant and even Danny Kaye were among those who turned
him down.
He had seen Carney on Broadway in 1957 in a dramatic role in
The Rope Dancers. “Of course, I
had seen him in The Honeymooners. He didn’t want to do it,” noted
Mazursky. “He said ‘I’m 59 years old and you want this guy to be in his 70s.’ I
said, ‘Art, this is the first time I met you and you look like you are in your
70s – you’re balding, you wear a hearing aid and you have a bum leg.’ He told
me, ‘You don’t want me, I’m an alcoholic.’ He had one bad night then nothing
else. He had been out on a binge and he showed up on location in Chicago in a
taxi in the morning loaded. I took him up to his room, put him in the shower
and made him a pot of coffee. He was easy to direct.”
Carney won both the Golden Globe and the Academy Award for
his turn, beating out the likes of Jack Nicholson for CHINATOWN and Al Pacino
for THE GODFATHER PART II. And he did some of his best work post-Harry
including as an aging Los Angeles private detective in the charming THE
LATE SHOW (’77) and as a senior who teams up with his buddies (George Burns and
Lee Strasberg) to rob a bank in GOING IN STYLE (’79). He earned his sixth Emmy for
the TV movie Terrible Joe Moran (’84), which was James Cagney’s last
film. Carney’s final film was the 1993
Arnold Schwarzenegger disaster LAST ACTION HERO. “I’m outta here” was the last
line Carney ever uttered on film.
We all have our favorite Oscar winners that we love to watch
over and over again. But there are numerous Oscar winners and nominees that
have gained new life thanks to TCM, HBO Max and DVD that are definitely worth
revisiting. Here are some of my favorites:
RANDOM HARVEST
I interviewed the legendary funny man Carl Reiner a few
months before his death and the conversation drifted to RANDOM HARVEST (’42)
and how much he loved the romance. Robert Redford is also a fan. In the 1990s, he
was planning on doing a remake, and in 2014, it was announced that Julian
Fellowes (Downton Abbey) was hired to pen a remake. The handsome MGM
production based on James Hilton’s bestseller starring Ronald Colman and Greer
Garson was a huge hit that year and was nominated for seven Oscars including Best
Film, Actor for Colman, Actress in a Supporting Role for Susan Peters and Director
Mervyn LeRoy.
Both Colman and Garson had great success in other Hilton
adaptations – Colman starred in LOST HORIZON (’37) and Garson made her U.S.
film debut and earned her first Best Actress Oscar nomination in GOODBYE, MR.
CHIPS (’39). RANDOM HARVEST is often overlooked by the other big MGM film
released in 1942, William Wyler’s MRS. MINIVER. Not only was the stirring drama
about a British family attempting to survive the years of World War II a
blockbuster at the box office, but it also won a striking eight Oscars.
But I think RANDOM HARVEST is the more engaging film. It’s
hard not to fall in love with this romantic tale with Colman at his most dreamy
as a shell-shocked amnesiac veteran of World War I (Colman was wounded in the
global conflict) named Smith who falls in love and marries a loving young
entertainer (Garson). But Smithy, as Garson’s Paula calls him, is hit by a car
on his way to a job interview and wakes up with no memory of the past three
years but does remember who he really is – an aristocrat by the name of Charles
Rainier.
Will true love reunite these two? The sigh level is very
high with RANDOM HARVEST and this love story has a very strong place in my
heart.
NONE BUT THE LONELY HEART
I’ve had more than a few people ask me why I like NONE BUT
THE LONELY HEART (’44) so much. It’s depressing, they say. It’s downbeat, they
say. But I think it’s a chance to see Cary Grant in a rare break out of his
“Cary Grant” suave, sophisticated image. Adapted and directed by Clifford Odets
from the novel by Richard Llewellyn (How Green Was My Valley), NONE BUT
THE LONELY HEART casts Grant as Ernie Mott, a Cockney drifter who returns home
to his Ma (Ethel Barrymore). When he
learns that she’s dying of cancer, Ernie stays to help run her second-hand shop.
But Ernie can’t stay out of trouble, joining forces with a gangster stealing
cars and pursuing the mobster’s wife (June Duprez).
Meanwhile, his neighbor Aggie (Jane Wyatt) is madly in love
with him and tries to save Ernie from a life of crime. The film was generally
warmly received, earning four Oscar nominations and winning supporting actress
for Barrymore. She shot her scenes during her two-week vacation from her
Broadway triumph The Corn Is Green, and the Academy Award transformed the
Broadway star into a much-in-demand film actress. She would go on to earn three
more Oscar nominations.
Grant, who had earned his first Oscar nomination three years
earlier for PENNY SERENADE (‘41), didn’t attend the Academy Awards where
Bing Crosby won best actor for GOING MY WAY. Grant never earned another Oscar nomination,
but received an Oscar honorary in 1970.
NIGHT MUST FALL
Handsome and charismatic Robert Montgomery was one of MGM’s
top leading men in the 1930s, best known for his work in comedies including PRIVATE
LIVES (’31) and FORSAKING ALL OTHERS (’34). Though he did an occasional
dramatic part, nothing really stretched him as an actor until NIGHT MUST FALL (’37).
Montgomery had long been bugging MGM head Louis B. Mayer for better roles. He supposedly
allowed Montgomery to do NIGHT MUST FALL because the studio head thought the
actor would be embarrassed when the movie failed. Montgomery later said, “they
okayed me playing in it because they thought the fan reaction in such a role
would humiliate me.” He went so far as to help subsidize the film’s production
budget.
Based on the play by Emlyn Williams which ran on Broadway in
1936, NIGHT MUST FALL finds Montgomery playing Danny, a serial killer who just
happens to have a trophy from his latest victim—her head—in a hatbox. Danny
charms his way into the heart and home of a wealthy elderly woman (Dame May
Whitty, reprising her London stage role). Rosalind Russell, who made five films
with Montgomery, plays the elderly woman’s niece who has her suspicions about
Danny but can’t convince her aunt that she’s in danger. Both Montgomery and
Whitty earned Oscar nominations.
Though Montgomery returned to the comedy genre after NIGHT
MUST FALL, he began directing films such as LADY IN THE LAKE (’46) and
found great success in TV in the 1950s with the anthology series Robert
Montgomery Presents, which often featured his daughter Elizabeth.
THE NAKED SPUR
Jimmy Stewart’s image took a 180 degree turn in the 1950s
thanks to Alfred Hitchcock with REAR WINDOW (’54) and VERTIGO (’58), but most notably
in the five Westerns he made with Anthony Mann. Far from the boy-next-door
character he played pre-World War II, Stewart was transformed into conflicted,
troubled men – anti-heroes who often could be as villainous as the bad guys who
peppered these sagebrush sagas. (Mann also directed Stewart in three
non-Westerns).
THE NAKED SPUR (’53), which earned a screenplay Oscar
nomination for Sam Rolfe and Harold Jack Bloom, is my favorite of their
collaborations. Stewart really digs deep into the character of Civil War
veteran turned bounty hunter, Howard Kemp. He’s angry and bitter having lost
his land during his conflict. Kemp hopes he can get his land back by working as
a bounty hunter. And he’s doggedly determined to get outlaw Ben Vandergroat (a
fabulously vile Robert Ryan). Along the way, he encounters two men (Millard
Mitchell and Ralph Meeker) who join him on his journey. And when he finds
Vandergroat, he also discovers he has a young woman (Janet Leigh) with him. Intelligent,
often disturbing and brilliantly acted, THE NAKED SPUR is an exceptional exploration
of the dark side of humanity.
In this year’s 31 Days of Oscar
lineup (also available on WatchTCM), among all of the classics we’ve watched and rewatched many times, there
is one movie that may at first glance appear to be slightly out of place: the
Laurel and Hardy film
BLOCK-HEADS (’38). Although it is
not as well known or acclaimed, I believe that it is every bit as good as most
of the other Oscar-nominated films being shown this month.
In
BLOCK-HEADS, Laurel and Hardy
portray, as the title suggests, two not-so-bright fellows. The film opens with
footage of World War I and we meet Stan and Ollie, two soldiers in the
trenches. While the rest of the company goes into battle, Stan is ordered to
stay back and guard the trench. In a delightfully dark turn of events, the
other soldiers never return, news of the eventual armistice never reaches Stan and he dutifully guards the trench… for 21 years. The year is now 1938, and
Stan has been subsisting solely on cans of beans. We even see a humongous
mountain of 21 years’ worth of bean cans; it is a haunting image. He is
discovered and returned to society, and when Ollie sees his friend’s photograph
in the paper he decides to invite him over for dinner. Mayhem, needless to say,
ensues.
I first saw this film a few months ago and it was one of my
most delightful movie-watching experiences in recent memory. I hadn’t laughed
so hard at a movie in a long time. With a running length of just 57 minutes,
it’s densely packed with great gags which I won’t attempt to describe here.
I’ll just say that my personal favorite gag is the one involving a football and
leave it at that.
BLOCK-HEADS was nominated for Best Original Score. Marvin Hatley’s score is certainly
good (even if it was often difficult to hear over the sound of my uproarious
laughter), but it does seem a bit odd that it’s all that
BLOCK-HEADS
was nominated
for, since it’s just about the last thing you think about when you finish
watching this movie. You’re thinking about the hilarious performances by Laurel
and Hardy – their gestures and facial expressions
–
the way Hardy
reflexively touches his hat and the way Laurel sways side to side when he’s
standing around, not really knowing what to do with himself. Or maybe you’re
thinking about the script with its brilliant setups and payoffs. But the
actors, writers and directors of movies like
BLOCK-HEADS
would rarely
find themselves nominated for awards.
The film’s director, John G. Blystone, was never nominated
for an Oscar. Neither were any of the film’s five writers. Laurel received an
honorary Oscar in 1961, but apart from that, Laurel and Hardy themselves were
never nominated for anything, even though their performances have aged
remarkably well. As for their films,BLOCK-HEADS
and WAY OUT WEST (’37) earned Best Original Score nominations, while THE MUSIC BOX (’32) won and TIT FOR TAT (’35) was nominated for
Best Live Action Short Subject, Comedy. Tellingly, their work was mainly
recognized when competing in a category specifically devoted to comedy, which
was discontinued in 1937. Although today Laurel and Hardy are beloved icons and
many classic film lovers will agree that their films have stood the test of
time, those movies simply weren’t seen as worthy of much recognition when they
were first released, except in peripheral categories. (I find it amusing that,
although
BLOCK-HEADS
had no realistic chance of getting a Best Picture
nomination at the 11th Oscars, it currently has a better IMDB rating than 6 of
the 10 movies that were nominated instead.)
Comedies, particularly “lowbrow” comedies such as Laurel and
Hardy’s slapstick-heavy movies, are seldom honored by the Oscars. The films of
classic comedians such as Abbott and Costello, the Marx Brothers, Olsen and
Johnson and W.C. Fields were regularly ignored. And this trend persists to the
present day, perhaps to an even greater extent than in the 1930s. Best Picture
nominees are notoriously drama-dominated, and the comedies that do get
nominated are nearly always “comedy-dramas” like JOJO RABBIT (2019) which have an underlying seriousness at their
core. Silliness for its own sake consistently goes unrewarded, whether it’s
from Melissa McCarthy, Jack Black, Will Ferrell or Tyler Perry. Whether or not
you think today’s comedians are comparable to those of the ‘30s and ‘40s, it is
interesting to consider that Laurel and Hardy may have been viewed in their
time the same way that critics receive an Adam Sandler comedy today, only for
them to become respected decades later.
Great slapstick is really quite beautiful. Its humor is
ageless and universal, striking some indescribable chord in our collective
human psyche. What is it about Oliver Hardy slipping and falling on a rolling
pin that makes us laugh? I’m not sure, but it’s hard to deny that slapstick has
a mysterious power. Silliness deserves respect, especially when it is executed
as exquisitely as in films like
BLOCK-HEADS.
According to actress Nancy Olson, before filming on the set of
SUNSET BLVD. (‘50) in Norma Desmond’s mansion, the cameraman would rub his
hands together crushing stone which created dust, then blew the dust on the
camera lens, an effect, which encapsulated the ambiance of stagnant corners
haunted with memories of the past. One of the most difficult tasks to
execute in a retrospective period piece is to precisely immerse an audience. It
takes more than vintage vehicles and costumes to fully capture the aura of an
era.
Reverting to centuries ago seems an easier feat than reflecting
the later years of the 20th century, perhaps because many of us can still
attest to it. With most modern-day period pieces, what should be exceptional
based on the subject matter alone, unfortunately resembles a costume party. A
few feel-good films that readily accomplished this feat of transporting their
audience include DAZED AND CONFUSED (‘93), THE SANDLOT (‘93), DETROIT ROCK CITY
(‘99) and ROLL BOUNCE (2005). Although some of these films may not be
hugely popular, each power-up their
flux capacitor, fill the tank with plutonium and hurdle their
audiences back in time.
We don’t know what director/producer/screenwriter and Academy
Award-winning Cameron Crowe sprinkled on his camera lens for ALMOST FAMOUS (2000,
the film takes place in the ‘70s so take your pick). Still, the film, which
celebrated its 20th anniversary in 2020, beams with the spirit of black lights,
velvet posters, Don Kirschner’s Rock Concert and The Midnight Special
performances. It would only stand to reason, as Crowe is an avid fan of classic
film director Billy Wilder, director of SUNSET
BLVD.
Based on Crowe’s true-life experience as a teenage reporter for Rolling
Stone magazine, ALMOST FAMOUS mirrored classic film by layering the correct
actors, costumes, dialogue, sets and of course an exacting soundtrack. For
those of us mature enough to recall the ingrained crackle of a needle against
vinyl and the scraping of a lead pencil against paper (all of us know that
sound), from the opening credits, Crowe utilizes simple auditory cues and
visuals powerful enough to immediately engross his audience until the film’s
end.
In his first feature film role, the innocence of Patrick Fugit’s
portrayal is perfectly and adorably awkward. When Lester Bangs (Philip Seymour
Hoffman) urges William (Fugit) “to be honest and unmerciful,” the look on
William’s face reveals a naive boy who is about to be eaten alive.
Although not their first roles, the enchanting Kate
Hudson and the fresh-faced Zooey Deschanel both shine in their breakout roles,
with each demonstrating exceptional performances. And, if you ever had a doubt
of which Philip Seymour Hoffman performance to watch, this may be it, or
perhaps, every Philip Seymour Hoffman performance is the one to watch.
Truly, every performance in the film is exceptional. With almost
half the cast being newcomers, in theory ALMOST FAMOUS should not have worked
as seamlessly as it did, but according to Hudson during a recent ALMOST FAMOUS
reunion, its synergy was the result of “…a magical group of people.”
Conjuring indelible memories by adeptly fusing scenes with music,
ALMOST FAMOUS leaves a lasting impression on the psyche which had to be a
painstaking process since creating such powerful associations means there can
only be one exacting fit. If you’ve seen the film, I’d wager that every time
you hear Elton John’s “Tiny Dancer,” you recall a sunlit tour bus driving
through cornfields with the occupants joining together in an impromptu
sing-along, lending an entirely new appreciation for an old song, or if you
happen to hear Brenton Wood’s “The Oogum Boogum Song” you recollect William
dwarfed by boys supposedly his own age in the throes of puberty grooming
themselves in a mirror. When Simon & Garfunkel’s “America” plays, we
witness the exact moment a young boy converges with his future while running
his fingers over newly discovered album covers as if taking them in by osmosis.
On the surface, ALMOST FAMOUS is about the once-in-a-lifetime
adventure of a teenage journalist, but according to Crowe, and quite
apparently, it’s an endearing love letter to music. You certainly don’t need to
be a fan of ‘70s rock to enjoy ALMOST FAMOUS, you simply need to be a music fan
period. Like revisiting an old time
capsule, it’s is a film where you can easily lose yourself and even though the
majority of us haven’t toured with a rock’n’roll band during the ‘70s, ALMOST
FAMOUS captures its journey so succinctly, hitting every note that it’s
difficult to convince yourself you weren’t actually there. Billy Wilder would approve.
Being a child
star may sound like a dream come true. But when Jackie Cooper became an adult,
he quickly saw everything that he missed out on. “I don’t think our success as
child actors is ever an advantage. It’s actually against us,” Cooper said in an
interview. Starting out as an actor at age 7 in 1929, Jackie Cooper was a star
by 1931 after the release of SKIPPY (’31). SKIPPY not only solidified Cooper as
a star, but also proved he could tug at heartstrings when he turned on the
tears. The role earned him an Oscar nomination and the distinction of being the
youngest actor to do so until 1979.
With blonde
hair, chubby cheeks and a pout, Cooper was dubbed “America’s Boy.” And though
his characters seemed like the all-American child of the 1930s, Cooper’s home
life was anything but. When he was two years old, his father John Cooper went
out for a pack of cigarettes and never returned home. His mother Mabel became
the financial supporter, traveling as an entertainer, while Cooper’s
grandmother, Nonnie, took care of him. Cooper was not fond of Nonnie, according
to his autobiography, but she is the reason he began acting. Because they were
poor and Mabel was the only source of income, Nonnie and Cooper would seek work
as movie extras — receiving $2 and a boxed lunch per day.
When Cooper
became a successful child actor, money was no longer an issue at home. But he
was under tremendous pressure. “The pressure to get the scene right, to learn
the words, to act this way or that way, to smile or cry or look scared for the
cameraman, to do a nice interview. The responsibility to work correctly for the
director who tells you that if you don’t do a good job, he may get fired and he
has three little babies at home who need to be fed,” Cooper wrote in his
autobiography. He was often told to “be nice” and when Nonnie was on set, she
held over him that his mother was ill. However, as a child, Cooper thought he
was happy. It was as an adult that he described himself as a “child who grows
up empty and doesn’t realize it until it’s too late.”
“Later people tried
to rationalize to me that I had gained more than I had lost by being a child
star … But no amount of rationalization, no excuses, can make up for what a kid
loses — what I lost — when a normal childhood is abandoned for an early movie
career,” Cooper wrote.
Cooper also
didn’t have basic life skills, which he soon realized after Mabel died when he
was 19. While he had money and career experience, he had no friends, didn’t
receive an adequate education and had trouble reading as an adult because he
wasn’t properly trained. But most of all, Cooper was given no advice on money
or finances. “Child stars aren’t taught anything about money, and that is one
of the unsung tragedies of the child star trade,” Cooper wrote in his
autobiography. As a child, Cooper was given an allowance by his mother, and
after Mabel died, Cooper’s uncle, director Norman Taurog, handled Cooper’s
finances — even after he was married and while he fought in World War II. Cooper
was given a checkbook and never knew the balance of his account.
Cooper said the
war made him grow up, and he credited his last wife, Barbara, for giving him
life experiences he never had before he met her. As an adult, Cooper continued
to act and also direct. Because of his own experiences, Cooper didn’t like to
work with children. “They should be
roughhousing,” he said. “They should not be made to drain themselves.”
Julian Duvivier’s PÉPÉ LE MOKO is one of the most
influential films of the 20th century. Not only is the 1937 French romantic
crime drama starring the legendary Jean Gabin, a precursor of the Hollywood
film noir, the classic inspired such filmmakers as Michael Curtiz (Casablanca,
‘42), Carol Reed (The Third Man, ‘49) and even Jean-Pierre Melville (Bob
le Flambeur, ‘56). PÉPÉ was such an international hit, producer Walter Wanger
quickly released a near shot-by-shot remake in 1938, Algiers, directed
by John Cromwell and starring Charles Boyer as Pepe and Hedy Lamarr in her
first American role. That film earned four Oscar nominations, including Best Actor
for Boyer and Best Supporting Actor for Gene Lockhart.
And lest we forget, the original and the remake also
influenced animator Chuck Jones’ now pariah of a character, Pepe Le Pew, and a
dreadful musical version Casbah (’48) with Tony Martin and Yvonne De
Carlo.
PÉPÉ is also a prime example of the poetic realism style of
French filmmaking popular in the late 1930s. Besides Duvivier, other directors known
for this lyrical style include Jean Vigo, Marcel Carne and Jean Renoir. The
male anti-hero characters who populated these films were doomed from the outset;
they lived on the outskirts of society, as in Renoir’s The LowerDepths
(’36); were members of the working class; or were criminals, as in the case of
Pepe. These characters tragically think when they fall in love, they will break
out of their cursed existence. But women
cause their emotional downfall, and romance usually ends in the death of the character.
Pépé is a powerful, charismatic master thief who is
respected and feared in the Algerian district known as the Casbah. He rules
over the crooked, mazelike area where he plans his latest heists. But he is also
trapped there. He dreams of returning to Paris but knows that will never
happen. The police are in wait at the edge of the city if he dares try to
escape. Also lurking around him is the sleazy and manipulative Inspector
Slimane (Lucas Gridoux). As soon as he meets a beautiful Parisienne woman Gaby
(Mireille Balin), the mistress of a much older wealthy Frenchman, you know Pépé
is doomed.
PÉPÉ LE MOKO wouldn’t have been the enduring masterpiece it
is without Gabin, the Everyman superstar of French cinema. Film noir superstars
from Humphrey Bogart to Dana Andrews to Robert Ryan owe a lot of their
anti-hero personae to Gabin. The legendary film critic Andre Bazin once
described him as “the tragic hero of contemporary cinema.”
He was also one of the best dressed – no rumbled fedoras or ill-fitting
suits. Just check out those well-tailored suits, snappy shoes and ties Pépé wears.
In his 2002 New York Times critical essay on the film, critic Elvis
Mitchell wrote Gabin’s “expressive and sorrowful pudding of a face immediately
gave a picture a soul. Gabin was the tropical opposite to the waxy screen idols
whose sleek good looks often suggested the hood ornament of a Hispano-Suiza.” And
in the case of PÉPÉ, “Gabin’s wary cool is the heart of this movie.”
Because Wanger didn’t want any competition with his remake, PÉPÉ
LE MOKO wasn’t shown in the U.S until 1941. The New York Times’ Bosley
Crowther described the film as an “incomparable advantage over the
Hollywood-made imitation: it is raw edged, realistic and utterly frank exposition
of a basically evil story …” Adding that Gabin’s “tough, unsentimental
performance of the title role is much more credible and revealing than Charles Boyer’s
sad-eyed mooning as Pepe in Algiers.”
Gabin, who was a song and dance man before he made films, was
probably the biggest star in France when he made PÉPÉ LE MOKO and Renoir’s Grand
Illusion, which was also released in 1937. He was sexy, tough and tender.
He didn’t need dialogue to express his emotions, he literally wore his heart on
his face. There’s an incredible scene near the end of PÉPÉ where he is
determined to stop Gaby from leaving on a ship. He’s like a madman making his
wave through the maze of the Casbah, and Duvivier’s herky-jerky back projection
of the streets reflects his tormented emotional state.
“Director Jean Renoir used to say that the range of feelings
Jean Gabin can show and express are limitless,” said Charles Zigman, author of
the Gabin biography, Coolest Movie Star, in a 2008 L.A. Times
interview. “The difference with other actors is he feels the feelings of his
character. … He is the consummate Everyman. When you start watching his movies
what you notice immediately is that he’s likeable. You feel like you have known
him for a long time. He’s very real. He’s not putting on airs.”
Wanger initially wanted Gabin to reprise his Pépé for Algiers,
but the notoriously difficult actor turned him down. Gabin did come to
Hollywood in the early 1940s, making two disappointing films, Moontide
(1942) and The Imposter (1944), and more headlines for his high-profile
romance with Marlene Dietrich. He returned to France and joined Charles De
Gaulle’s Free French Forces as a tank commander, winning medals for his bravery
in Europe and North Africa.
But his absence from the screen didn’t make the moviegoers hearts
grow fonder for Gabin. In fact, when he returned to acting grayer and more corpulent,
he discovered he had been forgotten. He made several expensive films, including
the dreadful Martin Roumagnac (‘46) with Dietrich and the Oscar-winning The
Walls of Malapaga (’49), but even the latter film didn’t get him out of his
slump.
But luck changed when he turned 50, starring as an aging
gangster in Jacques Becker’s terrific noir, Touchez pas au grisbi (’54),
for which he won the Volpi Cup at the Venice Film Festival. And the following
year, he reunited with Renoir for the delightful Technicolor hit French Cancan.
And he never stopped working. In fact, his last film, Holy Year (‘76), was
released the year he died. Beloved by his legions of fans, Gabin had a true
hero’s funeral with full military honors. And his ashes were scattered into the
sea from a naval ship.
Not many child stars go on to enjoy long, successful careers
in show business – and fewer still have earned a prestigious Academy Award nomination
before they turned 18. Patty McCormack has achieved both. The actress, who made
her first film appearance in 1951 and went on to star in THE BAD SEED (’56, for which she received an Oscar
nomination for Best Supporting Actress as the murderous Rhoda at age 11); THE
ADVENTURES OF HUCKLEBERRY FINN (’60) and THE YOUNG RUNAWAYS (’68),
continues to work in Hollywood and shows no indication of slowing down.
I had the pleasure of speaking with McCormack
recently about some of these titles and more, including the delightful film
KATHY O’ (‘58) in which she plays a famous child star – an apt springboard for
a discussion about growing up on screen and transitioning into more mature
roles over her incredibly long, accomplished career.
(This interview has been edited for length and
clarity.)
I was watching KATHY O’ last night, and I really
enjoyed it. In that movie they talk about your blonde pigtail braids as a
trademark, and I realized it kind of was; you had that hairstyle in THE BAD
SEED and ALL MINE TO GIVE (’57), too. Do you know how that style came about, or
was it something you did that caught on?
Patty McCormack: It seems to be! I believe I even had them early
on in Mama, which was an old live TV show that was a weekly event. I
don’t know how that [trademark] happened. I think it just happened because of THE
BAD SEED – I think it was the hairdo that I went in with or they just decided on.
When you see the original artwork on William March’s book, there’s a very long
face drawing of Rhoda, his Rhoda, and there were braids in it. I don’t know if
they were looped or what, but that could have been it – or I honestly don’t
remember if it was chosen by my mom because it was easy, but it stuck!
I loved KATHY O’ because I got to live the dream.
I loved the notion of them cutting my hair off – except it was a wig that they
cut. After a while it felt like I didn’t want to look like an older person with
braids – you have to get rid of them eventually. As soon as I could, I wanted
hair that was like, in that era, a page boy or something like that, where it
landed on your shoulder. But I carried that long hair for a long time. And then
you know how you revert back to certain hairdos years later?
They come back in style.
PM: Yes, they come back, but now I have shortish
hair, and I’m growing it one length. So I got over the braids – just in the
nick of time!
Circling back to Rhoda, you originated the role
on Broadway before the film version, so you obviously had a lot of practice and
familiarity with the part before you took it to the screen. Since she’s such a
chilling character, how did you get into that mindset at age nine, especially
when you had to play the part multiple times a week?
PM: I always go back to the source, and the source
was the director, Reginald Denham. He was
so good with directing me. He made it
fun, because I learned when I’d get an audience reaction on a face I’d make or
something, I’d look forward to doing that again – you know, that kind of joy.
He made it so clear and simple, and his point of
view was that Rhoda was always right. I know I’ve said this before, but it’s
the truth. No matter what anybody says, Rhoda is correct, and anything she
wants, she feels entitled to – not using that word ‘entitled’ – but I really
wasn’t thinking of myself as a bad person, or especially not a murderer. I just
thought it was their fault, which is classic, I guess. I had to kill him [the
little boy] because he was so mean. So I think that was how I learned to be
that character. I was aware of the murders – people were dead because of me,
that I knew – but somehow it wasn’t disturbing to my mind. If you take a look
at it knowing that, you see it. I’m not coming from some sort of evil place, I
don’t think.
You were nominated for an Oscar for THE BAD SEED, which is
amazing; it’s a true testament to your talents, of course, but it’s also such a
big accolade to have at such a young age. Do you remember there being any pressure
on you for your next role?
PM: Well, the role was so odd for a kid to be so
noticed, in that era anyway. I can’t think of any jobs I didn’t get after that that
somebody else got, you know? What happened, though, was that each year I grew, and
so I just experienced the typical kid actor dilemma which is going from
category to category and establishing yourself in that category and learning
how to be in that category. I did do something on Playhouse 90 – I did a
few PLAYHOUSE 90s back then – and I did a lot of television –
You played Helen Keller [in the original 1957 Playhouse 90
teleplay “The Miracle Worker”].
PM: That’s what I was going to say! That was after
THE BAD SEED. But mostly, as far as movies went, there was KATHY O’ and a few
here and there and at different levels of development. I was always aware that
it had been a while since I worked, that I felt, but I didn’t think business, like
“What will I follow up that with?” I didn’t have that kind of mentality, and I
really don’t think my mother did either, so it just sort of went the way it
went.
As you mentioned too, you were still growing up. So, you’re a
child, then a teenager, then young adult. You probably wouldn’t be thinking
about the business part of it.
PM: No, it’s so strange. It’s not an easy transition,
and as you know famous people go through really hard things. You don’t get to
sit and relax in a certain mode for too long because before you know it you’re
in the next one. And then you go through your ‘ugly period’ in front of
everybody, which is horrible.
The movie that you mentioned TCM is going to air,
THE ADVENTURES OF HUCKLEBERRY FINN, when I see the headshots from that I just think,
“Aw, I looked uncomfortable!” I could see it even in my body. I felt like I was
at the awkward time – you know, part of me was getting bigger, developing – and
that hairdo they gave me didn’t help; it was still the braids but wrapped up.
“Bugsy
Malone is like nothing else,” Roger
Ebert wrote in his 1976 three-and-a-half-star review. “It’s an original, a
charming one.”
Alan Parker’s directorial
debut, a one-of-a-kind gangster musical acted out by children (including Scott
Baio in the title role and a then-13-year-old Jodie Foster as a sassy nightclub
chanteuse), was an early career triumph for Paul Williams. Williams is everything that he
wanted to be: an actor, an Oscar-winning songwriter of era-defining hits and
composer of iconic movie scores. He’s something else, too: sober. Earlier this
month he celebrated just over 30 years of sobriety. “When I got sober, the
career I thought I had been gone for 10 years,” he says. “I feel like
Lazarus; I’m 80-years-old, and I feel like a tired 34.”
But he’s
ebullient talking about BUGSY MALONE, a cult favorite in the United States, but
in its native England, it is something of a viewing rite of passage for
children, thanks in part to a 1980s stage adaptation by Micky Dolenz. The film
itself won four BAFTAs, including Best Screenplay and Best Newcomer and Best
Supporting Actress for Foster. Williams was nominated for two Golden Globes,
including Original Score and Original Song.
He has
completed a new musical, Fortunate Sons, about how the Vietnam War draft
lottery affects two households. His last major acting role was as ex-lawyer and
informant JT on two seasons of the Amazon series, Goliath. “I’ve
always said I’m a pretty good songwriter for an out-of-work actor,” he jokes.
“Acting is where I got my start.”
Where in the process did you get involved with Bugsy
Malone?
Paul Williams: BUGSY MALONE began as a bedtime story
Alan made up for his kids. Every night he put his kids to bed, they said, ‘Tell
us more about Bugsy tomorrow night, dad.’ So maybe the answer to that question
is that the headwaters of BUGSY MALONE is Alan’s love for his children and his
great love for the traditional American gangster film. He found a place where
those two things would meet in a way that was really unique.
How did Bugsy Malone come to you?
PW: Alan Parker liked my songs, but I don’t know
where he got the idea to approach me. It was around the time of A STAR IS BORN (for
which he co-wrote the Oscar-winning song “Evergreen” with Barbra Streisand). He
sent me a batch of beautiful color drawings of the cars, the splurge guns and the
sets. Then he sent me the script, and I loved it. I was playing Vegas a lot and
when I agreed to do it, he came over to talk to me. I was opening for Liza Minnelli
or Olivia Newton John, I don’t remember who. Alan and I sat down at a deli,
drank coffee and I was just singing bits and pieces of songs that I thought
would be good ideas. I thought we needed to open with a song about Bugsy. It
poured out of me. When the marriage is right, that seems to happen with me.
What was your own connection to American gangster movies?
Were you a fan?
PW: Oh, my god, I was a huge Humphrey Bogart fan. One
of the great times that I ever had was doing THE CHEAP DETECTIVE, because I was
playing Elisha Cook’s role from THE MALTESE FALCON. As a little boy, I knew his
name before I knew Santa Claus. I remember when I first came back to Hollywood
to try and make it as an actor, one of the first things that happened was I
walked into a drug store just as (character actor) Royal Dano was walking out.
You’ve seen him in a hundred movies. I said, ‘Hiya, Mr. Dano,’ and he snapped
his head around and said, ‘Hello, young man.’ I told that story on Carson, and
I got a letter from Royal Dano. He said, ‘Although I don’t remember meeting
you, it seems to me you were thinner then.’ I love that.
How did you approach writing the songs, because they are
songs being lip-synced by children, but they are not children’s songs.
PW: The script is the Bible. The two basic tasks a
songwriter have are to move the story ahead and to display the inner life of
the characters. Alan Parker was similar to Jim Henson in that the rule of
writing was to not write down to kids, but to write accurately for character
and story. The characters Alan wrote were so strong; they are archetypes of the
great Warner Bros. characters. Bugsy was John Garfield meets Humphrey Bogart.
Where did the idea come from to have the child actors
lip-sync to adult voices?
PW: They got kids that could act, they got kids that
could dance, but the songs had intricate rhythms and to find kids who could
sing them was a challenge. I thought that if the automobiles are these weird
little hybrids that make the sound of an engine but are being pedaled, and the
guns shoot cream, then why couldn’t the kids sing with adult voices? It would
have the feel of an animated film. It solved the whole problem. The one regret
I will have my entire life is that I put another (singing) voice in Jodie
Foster’s mouth; one of the great actors in American film history. That’s a terrible legacy (laughs). I did that
with (the character) Beef in PHANTOM OF THE PARADISE. I used a guy named Ray
Kennedy who had a great beefy voice, but when I heard Gerritt Graham sing
later, I thought maybe I should have given him a shot.
This was before your collaboration with Jim Henson and
the Muppets. Was Bugsy Malone a project you personally wanted to take on as
something your own children could see?
PW: Bugsy Malone is the one motion picture I’ve
written songs for that I’ve seen more than anything that I ever worked on, and
there’s a simple reason for it. When my wife and I broke up, I would spend the
weekend with my kids and I would plunk them down in front of the TV with pizza
and, god bless them, they must have seen BUGSY MALONE for years. Eventually, I
learned how to talk to my kids and be a sober real dad, but my kids just love BUGSY.
The closing number, “You Give a Little Love,” is Bugsy
Malone’s legacy song, much like “The Rainbow Connection” is for The Muppet
Movie. It was even used in a Coca-Cola Super Bowl commercial.
PW: That song is pretty much my philosophy. I
absolutely believe it. My entire life has proven to me that there is something
about the elegance of kindness that has always had a solid return. The core
philosophy of BUGSY MALONE is, ‘We could have been anything that we wanted to
be/and it’s not too late to change.’
In America, Bugsy Malone received good reviews and is a
cult favorite. But it’s huge in England. Why do you think it was so embraced
there?
PW: We took it to the stage in the 1980s. Every kid
in England, Wales and Ireland, but especially in Great Britain, grew up seeing BUGSY
MALONE. It’s like GREASEin this country. Edgar Wright did BUGSY as a
kid, which led me to a role in BABY DRIVER.
Where do you rank Bugsy Malone in the Paul Williams
canon?
PW: It is probably the best opportunity I ever had in
this life to preach a little kindness. It’s probably the best opportunity I’ve
ever been given to express the possibilities and probabilities that we could be
anything we want to be. I was the runt of the litter from the Midwest; this
little dude who didn’t fit into any world. I just absolutely loved music and
movies and without thinking twice, I thought, ‘I’m going to do that.’ I hope BUGSY
MALONE inspires that for anyone looking up at the screen and is attracted to
the possibilities of telling the truth about themselves in a way that helps
someone else.
Bugsy Malone is but one chapter in an incredible life and
career. Have you given any thought to writing your autobiography?
PW: You know what? In recovery we call it an
inventory (laughs). I think I’m at a place in my life where I feel like a
beginner, like I’m just getting started. I know how idiotic that sounds at 80,
but I want three digits on my driver’s license, and I think the one thing that
gives me a shot at that is that I love being busy and doing the things that
matter most to me, and that’s trying to tell the truth in a way that helps
someone else.
In 2012, Robert Osborne interviewed a spry
90-year-old, Doris Day. He, of course, asked all the correct questions a true
Day fan would be curious about: when she realized she could sing, how her
career in film began and did she consider her serendipitous life to be
destiny. A vibrant and gracious Day revealed that she wasn’t nervous when
it came to performing, and if you have seen her first film ROMANCE ON THE HIGH
SEAS (‘48), her organic ease fits like the exact correct puzzle piece.
Although she passed almost two years ago, fans
the world over still celebrate her iconic status. One of those fans is a public
speaker on all things Doris, author of Day at a Time: An Indiana Girl’s
Sentimental Journey to Doris Day’s Hollywood and Beyond, Mary Anne Barothy.
Her fortune ironically played out like a classic Hollywood script, much like
the beginnings of Day’s career. A devotee of Day since childhood, threads of
fate connected and Barothy would find herself rubbing shoulders with
Hollywood’s elite, astonishingly becoming Day’s live-in secretary, maintaining
an active friendship from 1967-1974.
What was a typical day with Doris like?
Mary Anne Barothy:I
lived with Doris in her Beverly Hills home after her TV show [The Doris Day
Show] filming ended - December 1972 and ran through June of 1973 on
CBS. Her bedroom was just opposite mine in the back. Mine was the
front bedroom. She slept with seven of her dogs, and I slept with the
other four –
Bobo, Charlie, Rudy and Schatzie. She would
get up and come into the kitchen where I often fixed her breakfast. Doris loved
her dogs and spent time playing with them both indoors and out. Many days
she would get ready and bike down to Nate ‘N Al’s Deli for a late breakfast and
many times would meet someone, or we would go together for breakfast. Doris
loved her fans, and she was very good about answering her fan mail.
As you know, her passion was animal welfare and
she kept up with Actors & Others for Animals and frequently attended board meetings. I
went with her and was also a proud member of Actors & Others for
Animals. In the summer she would swim in her pool on occasion. She would
call friends and once in a while meet someone for lunch or dinner. After
dinner, sometimes we would sit in one section of her living room and watch the
news. Doris was very down to earth; as I said, she was like a big sister to
me. To me, this was an incredible dream come true! It is still hard
to believe that I had this awesome opportunity to spend precious time with my
idol, Doris Day!
The designer Irene dressed her in high fashion. Did she have a favorite
costume/gown?
MB: She never spoke about that, but she looked good in a bathrobe.
She just had a way of radiating, looking beautiful no matter what she had on.
She always said CALAMITY JANE [‘53] was her favorite movie because she was kind
of a tomboy. She never came across that way except for in movies, but she liked
to be comfortable. She would ride her bike with shorts on and look very casual
and comfortable. I always told her she could put on a paper bag and look
good!
Now that she’s passed, what would she want the
world to know about her if anything?
MB: She was a down to earth person and I think some people think
celebrity is high and mighty because they are in the movies, and I’d say a
religious person without talking about church all the time. She had a passion
for animal welfare and that was very important to her and she’d been that way
apparently since she was a young person. She just enjoyed life and her
friends. She wasn’t one for “I’ve got to be seen here and I’ve got to do
this.” Her work was her work, she’d go to the studio to do what she had to do
and that was it.
Your book recounts so many extraordinary memories including that of a
conversation with Elvis. If you had to choose one pinch-me moment, what would
it be?
MB: When Doris called me and asked me to come work with her. The
Christmas she invited me to stay. The fact that she trusted me was so special.
What was it like waking up in your idol’s home
walking outside of your room and thinking I live here now?
MB: It was surreal because I wasn’t just staying a night or two, I’m
staying here to the fact that I changed my address over. It was all like a
movie. Here I am, actually living with her! It was meant to be. She was like a
big sister. She made me feel welcome.
Do you have any memorabilia?
MB: I have some clothes she gave me. My favorite one is the hat
she wore when she met me. She gave it to me and then another hat from a movie,
a skirt, and top from THE GLASS BOTTOM BOAT [1966]. She gave me a ring and an
autographed Christian Science book, and that is special. I’ve got many letters
and cards she gave me over the years. (Barothy reads a card) “Thanks for
doing your own Christmas shopping. I love you Mairzy Doats, you’re the best
there is! Always, your friend Clara.” And on the other side, it says, “Merry
Christmas from the kids too!” – the dogs. “Mairzy Doats,”
she’d sing that once in a while. I’ve saved a lot of these things. Of course,
when I do my talks, I use copies.
What was Beverly Hills like then?
MB: To me, Beverly Hills, when I lived with Doris Day in her home,
was a much more relaxed city, almost
small townish. Doris could ride her bike from her home four blocks down to
either Bailey’s Bakery or the classic Beverly Hills deli, Nate N 'Al’s on
Beverly Drive. No paparazzi – that would never happen today. I would see Barbara Stanwyck and
Fred Astaire at the Beverly Hills Post Office, saw Rosalind Russell at Ralph’s
grocery, and would see Loretta Young at Good Shepherd Catholic Church. People
appeared to live pretty normal lives. Beverly Hills was a welcoming
community and a fun place to be, especially since I was living with Doris in
her home.
What would Doris think of the world today?
MB:I think Doris would be concerned about the direction we seem to be
going in. Doris was a very religious person without going to church. I learned
a lot from her. With people being out of work these days, I think Doris
would be very concerned about the welfare of dogs and cats and all animals. As
you know, she was a strong animal advocate and was one of the founders of
Actors & Others for Animals. When she moved to Carmel, California, she
started her own foundation, The Doris Day Animal Foundation, and animal welfare
was her number one priority.
Looking back, does it seem like this all really
happened to you?
MB: Yeah, it kinda seems surreal, and friends that are big Doris
fans, just say, how did that happen? I just followed my dream and that is why
when I give talks, I tell people to follow your dream, don’t say oh I could
have or I should have; if you really believe in something go for it. All I can
say it was meant to be. I drove my parents crazy and drove my teachers crazy,
but I got what I wanted. I never would have dreamed that all of this would
happen. I mean talk about a dream come true…unreal! “It really happened, I’m
not making it up, I’ve got pictures to prove it!”
What are your plans for the future?
MB: I look forward to getting
back on the road again to share my “Dream Story With Doris Day” presentations.
Due to the pandemic last year, I was not able to do them as people were in lock
down. Now, things are opening up and I am doing Zoom but really prefer the
in-person talks where I share many photos I’ve taken of Doris over the years,
as well as scripts and other Doris Day memorabilia. It’s a fun “sentimental journey.” People
can contact me through my website.
To hear Richard Benjamin tell it, MY FAVORITE YEAR was a charmed production. For his first film as
a director, he had been looking for a comedy (“I’m just kind of bent that way,”
he jokes) and the stars aligned to bring him a script that, he says, was
everything he knew. He had Mel Brooks as the film’s guardian angel. He had a
bona-fide movie star that his wife, Paula Prentiss, recommended after another
actor regretfully declined the film’s plum role. And he heeded Carl Reiner, who
gave him succinct advice about making a comedy: “Get funny people.”
Which he did. The film is character actor heaven, with
Joseph Bologna, Anne de Salvo, Selma Diamond, Adolph Green, Basil Hoffman, Lainie
Kazan and Bill Macy.
MY FAVORITE YEAR is set in the mid-1950s when television was
live and comedy was king. Mark Linn-Baker stars as Benjy Stone, a young comedy
writer on a variety show reminiscent of Your Show of Shows, where he
ardently pursues the show’s not-amused production assistant (Jessica Harper). During
one life-changing week, he is assigned to chaperone the show’s guest star, his
idol, former swashbuckling screen hero, Alan Swann (Peter O’Toole in an
Oscar-nominated performance), who has a penchant for drink, womanizing and
otherwise behaving badly.
Benjamin spoke with TCM about casting O’Toole, trying to pin
down Mel Brooks and why you should never end a comedy in a graveyard.
To quote Alan Swann’s great line, dying is
easy, comedy is hard. With MY FAVORITE YEAR, you make it look so easy. How did the
project come to you?
Paula and I were in New York. My agent, David Gersh, sent
the script by Norman [Steinberg] and Dennis [Palumbo, credited as co-writer due to the Screen
Writers Guild arbitration]. I remember reading it in the hotel room and
as I finished, I said, ‘This is everything I know.’ I was in high school when Your
Show of Shows was on. I would get on the phone with my friend Shelley
Berger, who I am still close to, and we would do all these routines they had
done on the show on Saturday night. I grew up loving Errol Flynn and those
swashbuckling movies. I had also worked at 30 Rockefeller Plaza [the film’s
setting] as an NBC page and guide, and I knew every inch of that place. [The
script] was right up my alley, as they say.
Brooksfilms produced the film, and Mel Brooks was a
writer on Your Show of Shows. Did he serve
as the film’s guardian angel or offer any input?
Guardian angel’s good. He kept saying he would give Norman
and I two full days to sit down and go over the script to see if we could make
it even funnier. The truth of the matter is that the script didn’t need much of
anything, but he promised that. Trying to get Mel to stop moving is a feat. We
went to his house, and he invited us in and then said he was going out. He said
he had to walk the dog. Then he comes back, and he said he had to go, that
there was a crisis at Fox. I said, ‘No there’s not,’ and he said, ‘Well, there
could be.’ So, what he ended up giving us was two hours, but it was a great two
hours. And the next thing you know, he was gone.
But Norman and I came up with one of the best jokes in the
movie while we were standing in his driveway watching him drive away. It’s the
one where Swann falls off the roof and plummets past the two elitist guys. And
one says, ‘I think Alan Swann’s beneath us,’ and the other guy says, ‘Of course
he’s beneath us, he’s an actor.’
I cannot imagine anyone but Peter O’Toole as Alan Swann.
Was he the first choice?
Albert Finney had been offered the role, but he had not
committed. He was up in Sausalito making SHOOT THE MOON [’82]. They told me I
had to go up there and convince him to do the film; otherwise they couldn’t
make the movie. The list of people M-G-M would go with was very short, because who
are you going to believe with a sword in their hands? So, I’m on this mission,
because if he says yes, I’m going to get to make a movie. We arranged to have
lunch together. He’s completely charming. I get ready to ask the question – which
could change my life, by the way: ‘Will you do it?’ He said, ‘Well…,’ and I
could tell it was going to be a no. He thought the script was really good, but he
had done two or three movies in a row and he said he wanted to get back to the
theater. Then he said to me, ‘Why don’t you get O’Toole?’ He said, ‘We do this
all the time. I turn something down, he does it, he turns something down, I do
it.’ When I got back home, Paula who had made WHAT’S NEW PUSSYCAT? [’65] with Peter,
said, ‘Get Peter. He is perfect for this.’ Finney said it, Paula said it. And I
asked [co-producer] Michael Gruskoff if M-G-M would make the film with O’Toole,
and Michael said yes.
What was the meeting with Peter like?
(Laughs) That meeting! That meeting was quite
something. First of all, we couldn’t find him. We could tell we had the right
person because the behavior was just like the character. He had a farm in
Ireland with no phone. You had to call this pub to get a message to him. I
called the pub and they said Peter wasn’t there. His agent didn’t know where he
was. I called his manager and said, ‘We’re trying to find your client.’ He
said, ‘He’s at the Beverly Wilshire Hotel. He’s been here for a week.’
So, I’m actually talking to Peter O’Toole, and he said he
had heard about the project and to send him a script and we would get together
the next day. I go over and there he is in a beautiful suite wearing a smoking
jacket; he is the character. He said, ‘Here’s the thing…’ and I thought, ‘Here
we go again.’ He said he liked it very much, but he hadn’t read the last ten pages
and to please indulge him and he would call tomorrow. The next day, on the dot,
he called and he said to turn to the last page of the script.
Now, in the original script, there’s a scene which I shot
that would have played after what’s in the movie. It took place in a Hollywood
cemetery, and Benjy is walking past the gravestones. He says in voiceover that
Alan Swann made him promise he would do something on his birthday every year. Alan
has passed away, and Benjy comes to his grave, kneels down and pours a bottle
of Courvoisier over the tombstone. That’s what’s on
the last page. Peter asked me to read the date that was on the tombstone. It
was Aug. 2. He said, ‘Aug. 2 is my birthday; did you know that?’ I asked Norman
if he knew that, and Norman said no, he had made it up. And Peter says,
‘Therefore, I must do the film.’
What happened to that scene?
I was terribly reluctant to take that out because Peter did the
movie because of it. But people at M-G-M said I couldn’t end a comedy in a
cemetery. We had two audience screenings, one with that ending and one without
it. In the screening with it, the audience enjoyed the picture, but the scene put
a pall over things. Then we had the screening without it and the audience was
very enthusiastic and very up as they came out.
How did you find Mark Linn-Baker?
Our casting director Ellen Chenoweth said the first person to
get was Mark Linn-Baker. Mark came in and read and was terrific. I said, ‘This
is my first movie, I can’t cast the first person who walks in here.’ I saw
maybe 25 to 35 more—some really good people—but she was right, so after all of
that, I said to get him.
Peter and Mark had great chemistry.
They seemed to hit it off right away, but later, back in
L.A. after we shot the long scene on the roof, which played like a mini-farce,
Peter came up to me and said, ‘I like the lad, you cast him well.’
Was Peter game for the physical stunts?
I couldn’t stop him from doing them! The bathroom scene
required him to fall headfirst into the wall. I came to him before we shot and
I said, ‘The camera is so close, I can’t pad this wall.’ He said, ‘I was
brought up in music hall. I can do this all day. Don’t concern yourself.’
Director Howard Hawks once said that a good movie was
three or four good scenes and no bad scenes. I lose count watching MY FAVORITE
YEAR of how many great scenes there are in it. Between those driven by comic
banter, the TV sketches, the physical comedy scenes, the quieter romantic
scenes and even the dramatic confrontations, did you have a favorite type to
direct?
I can’t say there was a favorite. It’s all of a piece. I will
tell you that one of the scenes I like is in the Stork Club and getting to do
something that reminded me of all these kinds of wonderful comic movies I loved
growing up. I do remember that one of the first things we shot was the scene in
Central Park where Alan Swann mounts the horse. It just seemed to lack energy. And
I was thinking, ‘I have to go tell Peter O’Toole that he has to pick up the
pace and it has to be lighter.’ I went up to him and said, ‘It’s good, but…’
and before I could finish, he said, ‘You want it faster and funnier.’ I said,
‘You’ve got it,’ and he said, ‘And you shall have it.’ And I thought, ‘This
directing thing is not so hard.’ (laughs)
Were there directors you worked with as an actor who
particularly inspired you when you became a director? For example, you worked
with one of the best, Mike Nichols.
Mike, yes. He directed me in the national company of Barefoot
in the Park and [the film] CATCH-22 [’70]. Mike’s thing was he’d come up
to you very quietly and say, ‘Just like in real life.’ That was his main thing.
It meant that there should be no ‘acting’ here; your character responds to
situations as they would in life. It’s like what [critic] Walter Kerr once said
about Neil Simon’s jokes: They have the truth in them. This is what funny
people know: You can’t try to get a laugh, because you won’t get it.
At one point, Alan Swann says that doing the TV show was
the most fun and the hardest work since the world was young. Was that what
making MY FAVORITE YEAR was like for you?
It was the most fun, there’s no question of that. It was a
magical experience because of the screenplay and everyone involved. Everyone’s
game came up because of Peter. You don’t need many takes with him, that’s for
sure. But how all of this came about and got to the point where I would be
offered this, and what has to happen in your life to come to that moment – you
can’t make it up. And when that moment comes, you’re hopefully ready. I was
really fortunate.
Born in Hollywood to a show business family, it seemed like Dean
Stockwell was destined to become a movie star, but Stockwell stumbled into the
industry simply by chance. In 1942, his mother Elizabeth “Betty” Stockwell, a
vaudeville performer, and his father Harry, a stage singer best known for being
the voice of the Prince in SNOW WHITE AND THE SEVEN DWARFS (’37), heard of a
casting call for children. Dean and his older brother Guy auditioned for roles
in a stage performance of The Innocent Voyage. Though only landing a
small part with just two lines, it was all that was needed to catch the eye of
an MGM talent scout. Before he knew it, the nine-year-old Stockwell had a seven-year
contract with the studio. He was exactly what they were looking for. With his
mop of curly hair and prominent pout, he gave off just the right combination of
innocence and petulance that would make him a perfect fit to play orphans and
spoiled rich kids in a variety of MGM productions.
Dean Stockwell was off to a roaring start with plum roles in big
productions like ANCHOR’S AWEIGH (’45), THE GREEN YEARS (’46), GENTLEMAN’S
AGREEMENT (’47) and SONG OF THE THIN MAN (’47). He held his own with big stars
like Gregory Peck, Gene Kelly, William Powell, Myrna Loy, Greer Garson, Robert
Ryan and Lionel Barrymore and other child stars Peggy Ann Garner, Darryl
Hickman and Margaret O’Brien.
He was an incredible asset to MGM. Stockwell could be counted on
to cry in front of the camera, sometimes coaxed by a director who encouraged
him to imagine a dying pet. Even with that, Stockwell developed a reputation as
an intelligent and sensitive young boy who needed little rehearsal and minimal
direction. They called him “One-Take Stockwell.” In interviews years later, he
recalled “I had photographic memory when I was a kid. I still can memorize
lines very easily.” Stockwell was a natural and the parts just kept coming.
When he wasn’t working for MGM on films, his home studio would loan him out to
RKO, 20th Century-Fox and Universal.
But Being a child actor took a toll on Stockwell. The studio
system could be cruel to child stars and Stockwell often bore the brunt of it.
In an interview Stockwell said, “[as a] child star… I didn’t have much privacy
and I was working all the time. I couldn’t be where I wanted to be; I couldn’t
play; so I needed to find anonymity, to just disappear.” He often worked 10-hour
days six days a week, which included 3 hours of learning in the Little Red
Schoolhouse on the MGM lot. He had to keep going for two reasons: 1.) his
ironclad contract with MGM and 2.) a family to support, now that Betty was
raising Dean and his brother as a single mom. Stockwell desperately wanted to
be an average kid. He loved playing sports, dreamed of going to public school
and loved spending time with his dogs, Thug and Thief. On the set of STARS IN
MY CROWN (’50), he even declared to producer William Wright “I wish you’d fire
me, so I wouldn’t have to work!”
During his seven-year contract with MGM, he made nearly 20 films
for his home studio and others while on loan out. For the most part, Stockwell was
miserable working as a child actor but there were two productions that he particularly
loved. One was the anti-war drama THE BOY WITH THE GREEN HAIR (‘48) produced by
RKO. In it, he plays a war orphan whose hair suddenly turns green, making him
stand out from the locals. Stockwell identified with his character’s desire to
fit in and the film’s pacifist message. When Howard Hughes tried to get him to
deliver a pro-war statement, Stockwell stood up to the studio tycoon and
refused. A few years later, he starred alongside Errol Flynn in KIM (’51), an
adaptation of Rudyard Kipling’s classic story. Flynn became a father figure of
sorts to young Stockwell and the two got on like a house on fire.
As Dean got older, he entered into what he called the “awkward
age.” He later said, “[MGM] couldn’t see how they were going to cast me now
that I was turning 17. So they let me out of it and I just took off.” Dean
finished high school, attended UC Berkeley and dropped out before finishing his
first year. He didn’t know what he wanted but he did know he no longer wanted
to be Dean Stockwell the child star. He donned a new identity, Rudy Stocker,
and lived in anonymity as a day laborer. He made his way back to acting after a
few years. Had it not been for his escape from Hollywood, a time period Stockwell
referred to as “an education in living”, as well as the support of his mother, he
might have gone down the wrong path as other child actors have done. Instead
Dean Stockwell made an excellent comeback in the Leopold and Lobb inspired
murder drama COMPULSION (’59). Reflecting on his past, Stockwell said “I have
to know if people want me – for myself.” He would make several comebacks
throughout his acting career and he learned an important lesson from his days
as a child actor: be true to yourself.
Her title may have been executive secretary to MGM studio
head Louis B. Mayer, but she “wields a scepter of power second only to that of
her employer,” journalist Sheila Graham wrote in 1937. Indeed, Ida Koverman was
one of the most powerful women in Hollywood during the 1930s and 1940s, but
you’ve probably never heard her name. As a former Hollywood assistant myself,
I’m paying homage this International Women’s Day to a woman who “rarely
operated in the shadows, even if history has pushed her there,” as Jacqueline
R. Braitman declared in She Damn Near Ran
the Studio: The Extraordinary Lives of Ida R. Koverman.
Born in Ohio in 1876, Koverman grew up with a passion for
the arts and taught herself basic business principles in her early jobs. After becoming
a wanted woman in 1909 for initially failing to appear as a witness in a bizarre
bribery case, she entered an apparent marriage of convenience to distance
herself from her past and used her new surname to start over on her own in New
York. There, Koverman became involved with a plethora of female-focused
community initiatives and established Brooklyn’s Women’s Athletic Club.
By the early 1920s, Koverman moved out west and rooted herself
in the political landscape of Southern California. The enterprising woman leveraged
her ambition, loyalty and aptitude to become executive secretary for the
presidential campaigns of Calvin Coolidge in 1924 and Herbert Hoover in 1928. By
the decade’s end, Koverman constructed a far-reaching partisan network and established
herself as an esteemed political operative within the Republican Party.
Mayer had political ambitions too, which is how he and
Koverman met in the mid-1920s. It was she who played matchmaker – as she did
with many – to facilitate his involvement in various Republican organizations. As
Mayer must have noticed, Koverman’s strength for prioritizing a high workload, negotiating
with big personalities, building relationships and harnessing public support made
her a natural for the film industry.
According to Braitman, after Hoover’s inauguration, Mayer furnished
Koverman with a desk and “told her to make a job for herself.” She did, and
she’d remain with MGM until her death in 1954. Though she undertook typical
assistant duties, Koverman also operated as an executive – one of the most
powerful at MGM. She supervised Mayer’s schedule with daunting yet considerate
authority as the “last and toughest obstacle” before visitors entered his
office and did the same facilitating for other departments if needed. Koverman
also served as Mayer’s advisor in the political arena; in fact, many
publications touted her as his personal political expert. Thus, on any given
day, she could secure a star’s Hollywood Bowl parking pass one moment and strategize
with a Senator’s publicity director the next, according to the Christian Science Monitor in 1950.
Koverman became Mayer’s confidante, and he greatly respected
and trusted her judgement and aptitude for identifying audience taste. She
could (and did) take over when he was away from MGM, and her versatility proved
crucial to studio operations; for instance, she fostered a family-like culture and
highlighted employee accomplishments by establishing The MGM News in 1936, and
her far-reaching connections made her indispensable in lobbying for MGM’s
interests when she spotted proposed state legislation that could affect
business. As noted in Variety’s 1942
article “The Women Who Run the Men,” “… there’s very little taking place on the
lot that she hasn’t exerted some influence… and with the carte blanche she
enjoys in the matter of executive decisions, she has a lot of pretty important
gents tiptoeing around her with devout response.”
When it came to talent, Koverman possessed a knack for discovering
and nurturing actors and musicians. Indeed, it was Koverman who saw the
potential in Robert Taylor, promoted Clark Gable’s sex appeal and proved
instrumental in Judy Garland’s discovery. Add to that list Lena Horne, Nelson
Eddy, Deanna Durbin, Mario Lanza and others – the number of performers Koverman
recruited and mentored is enormous. Her eminent position also meant balancing support
for the actor offscreen with MGM’s expectations onscreen. In Garland’s case, when
Koverman disagreed with Mayer’s dietary regimen for the juvenile star, she secretly
directed the MGM commissary to be less draconian with Garland’s meals.
Koverman continued her cultural and political involvement at
MGM, becoming director of the Screen Women’s Press Club and taking on various
other community leadership roles. She also remained vocal in her beliefs,
including her anti-communist rhetoric and support of the Moral Rearmament
movement, which promoted spiritual uplift within movies. After almost 20 years
with MGM, Koverman earned a promotion to head of public relations in the late
1940s, and the Los Angeles Times recognized
her career achievements by selecting her as a Woman of the Year in 1950.
Koverman operated efficiently and openly behind the scenes, successfully
executing her extensive duties while enabling the interests of high-powered
people and growing her own influence. Gossip columnist Hedda Hopper observed
that Koverman’s “special positions of power gave her a phenomenal chance to do
good.” Indeed, Koverman told Hopper, “If you can’t help somebody, what are you
put here on earth for?” Perhaps Koverman’s greatest impact was through the
lives she touched, personally and professionally.
All month long in March, TCM will be taking a look at a
number of beloved classic films that have stood the test of time, but when viewed by contemporary
standards, certain aspects of these films are troubling and problematic. During TCM’s Reframed: Classics in the Rearview Mirror
programming, all five TCM hosts will appear on the network to discuss these
issues, their historical and cultural context and how we can keep the legacy of
great films alive for future generations.
Also joining in on this conversation are four TCM writers
who were open enough to share their thoughts on their love of classic movies
and watching troubling images of the past. Special thanks to Theresa Brown,
Constance Cherise, Susan King and Kim Luperi for taking part in this
conversation. Continue the conversation over on TCM’s Twitter.
What do you say to people who don’t like classics because
they’re racist and sexist?
KL: There are
positive representations in classic Hollywood that I think would blow some
peoples’ minds. I always love introducing people to new titles that challenge
expectations.
That said, anyone who broadly slaps a sexist or racist label
on a large part of the medium’s history does a disservice to cinema and
themselves. That mindset keeps them ignorant not only of some excellent movies
and groundbreaking innovation but history itself.
I think people need to remember that movies are a product of
their time and they can reflect the society they were made into a variety of
degrees - good, bad, politically, culturally, socially. That’s not to excuse
racism or sexism; it needs to be recognized and called out as such for us to
contend with it today. But it’s important for people who say they don’t like
classics for those reasons to understand the historical context. In particular,
we need to acknowledge that society has evolved - and what was deemed socially
acceptable at times has, too, even if sexism and racism are always wrong - and
we are applying a modern lens to these films that come with the benefit of
decades worth of activism, growth and education.
SK: I totally agree K.L. For years I
have been encouraging people to watch vintage movies who keep proclaiming they
don’t like black-and-white films or silent films. For every Birth of a
Nation (1915) there are beautiful dramas, wonderful comedies and delicious
mysteries and film noirs.
These films that have racist and sexist elements shouldn’t
be collectively swept under the rug, because as K.L. stated they shine a light
on what society was like – both good and bad.
CC: First off,
fellow writers may I say, I think your work is amazing. I’m continually
learning from the talent that is here, and I am humbled to be a part of this
particular company. Similar to the prior answers, for every racist/sexist film
the opposite exists. Personally, classic musicals attracted me due to their
visual assault, creativity and their unmistakable triple-threat performances.
While we cannot ignore racist stereotypes and sexism, there are films that
simply are “fantasies of art.” There is also a review of evolution.
In 20 years, what we now deem as acceptable behavior/conversation will be
thought of as outdated and will also require being put into “historical
context." What we collectively said/thought/did 20 years ago, we are
currently either re-adjusting or reckoning with now, and that is a truth of
life that will never change. We will always evolve.
TB: I would say to them they should consider the times
the movie was made in. It was a whole different mindset back then.
Are there movies that you love but are hesitant to recommend
to others because of problematic elements in them? If so, which movies?
TB: Yes, there are movies I’m hesitant to recommend. The
big one, off the top of my head, would be Gone With the Wind (1939). The
whole slavery thing is a bit of a sticky wicket for people, especially Black
folks. Me, I love the movie. It is truly a monumental feat of filmmaking for
1939. I’m not saying I’m happy with the depiction of African Americans in that
film. I recognize the issues. But when I look at a classic film, I suppose I
find I have to compartmentalize things. I tend to gravitate on the humanity of
a character I can relate to.
KL: Synthetic
Sin (1929), a long thought lost film,
was found in the 2010s, and I saw it at Cinecon a few years ago. As a Colleen
Moore fan, I thoroughly enjoyed most of it, but it contains a scene of her
performing in blackface that doesn’t add anything to the plot. That decision
brings the movie down in my memory, which is why I have trouble recommending
it.
Also Smarty (1934), starring Warren William and Joan
Blondell, is another movie I don’t recommend because it’s basically about
spousal abuse played for comedy, and it did not age well for that reason.
SK:Breakfast
at Tiffany’s (1961): Audrey Hepburn is my favorite actress and I love her Oscar-nominated
performance as Holly. I adore Orangy as Cat, as well as George Peppard and
Buddy Ebsen, who is wonderfully endearing. And of course, “Moon River” makes me
cry whenever I hear it. But then I cringe and am practically nauseous every
time Mickey Rooney pops up on screen with his disgusting stereotypical
performance as Holly’s Japanese landlord Mr. Yunioshi. What was director Blake
Edwards thinking casting him in this part? Perhaps because he’s such a
caricature no Japanese actor wanted to play him, so he cast Rooney with whom he
had worked within the 1950s.
CC: I cannot
necessarily state that I am in "love,” but, a film that comes to mind
would be Anna and the King of Siam (1946). It is an absolutely
beautiful visual film. However, Rex Harrison as King Mongkut requires some
explanation.
Holiday Inn
(1942), and the Abraham number…why??? Might I also add, there were many
jaw-dropping, racist cartoons.
How did you learn to deal with the negative images of the past?
KL: I often look
at it as a learning experience. Negative images can provoke much-needed
conversation (internally or with others) and for me, they often prompt my
education in an area that I wasn’t well versed in. For instance, blackface is
featured in some classic films, and its history is something I never knew much
about. That said, seeing its use in movies prompted me to do some research,
which led me first to TCM’s short documentary about blackface and Hollywood. I
love how TCM strives to provide context and seeks to educate viewers on
uncomfortable, contentious subjects so we can appreciate classic films while
still acknowledging and understanding the history and the harmful stereotypes
some perpetuated.
SK: It’s also
been a learning experience for me. Though I started watching movies as a little
girl in the late 1950s, thanks to TCM and Warner Archive I realized that a lot
of films were taken out of circulation because of racist elements. TCM has not
only screened a lot of these films but they have accompanied the movies with
conversations exploring the stereotypes in the films.
CC: As a Black
woman, negative images of the past continue to be a lesson on how Blacks, as
well as other minorities, were seen (and in some cases still are seen)
through an accepted mainstream American lens. On one hand, it’s true, during
the depiction of these films the majority of Black Americans were truly
relegated to servant roles, so it stands to reason that depictions of Black
America would be within the same vein. What is triggering to me, are
demeaning roles, and the constant exaggeration of the slow-minded stereotype,
blackface. When you look at the glass ceiling that minority performers faced from
those in power, the need for suppression and domination is transparent because
art can be a powerful agent of change. I dealt with the negative images of the
past by knowing and understanding that the depiction being given to me was
someone else’s narrative, of who they thought I was, not who I actually
am.
TB: I’m not sure HOW I learned to deal with negative
images. Again, I think it might go back to me compartmentalizing.
I don’t know if this is right or wrong…but I’ve always found myself identifying
with the leads and their struggles. As a human being, I can certainly identify
with losing a romantic partner, money troubles, losing a job…no matter the
ethnicity.
In what ways have we evolved from the movies of the classic era?
KL: I think we
are more socially and culturally conscious now when it comes to stories,
diversity and representation on screen and behind the scenes, which is a step
forward. That said, while there’s been growth, there’s still much work to be
done.
SK: I
think this year’s crop of awards contenders show how things have evolved with Da
5 Bloods, Soul, One Night in Miami, Minari, Ma
Rainey’sBlack Bottom, The United States Vs. Billie Holiday, Judas
and the BlackMessiah and MLK/FBI.
But we still have a long way to go. I’d love to see more
Native American representation in feature films; more Asian-American and Latino
stories.
CC: There are
minority artists, writers, producers, directors, actors with the increasing
capacity to create through their own authentic voice, thereby affecting the
world, and a measurable amount of them are women! Generally speaking,
filmmakers (usually male) have held the voice of the minority narrative as well
as the female narrative. I agree with both writers above in the thought that it
is progress, and I also agree, more stories of diversified races are needed.
TB: One important way we’ve evolved from the movies made
in the classic era by being more inclusive in casting.
Are there any deal-breakers for you when watching a movie,
regardless of the era, that make it hard to watch?
KL: Physical
violence in romantic relationships that’s played as comedy is pretty much a
dealbreaker for me. I mentioned above that I don’t recommend Smarty (1934)
to people, because when I finally watched it recently, it. was. tough. The way
their abuse was painted as part of their relationship just didn’t sit well with
me.
SK: Extreme
racist elements and just as KL states physical violence.
Regarding extreme racist elements, D.W. Griffith’s Birth
of a Nation (1915) is just too horrific to watch. I was sickened when I saw
it when I was in grad school at USC 44 years ago and it’s only gotten worse.
And then there’s also Wonder Bar (1934), the pre-code Al Jolson movie
that features the Busby Berkeley black minstrel number “Goin’ to Heaven on a
Mule.” Disgusting.
I also agree with KL about physical violence in comedies and
even dramas. I recently revisited Private Lives (1931) with Norma
Shearer and Robert Montgomery based on Noel Coward’s hit play. I have fond
memories of seeing Maggie Smith in person in the play when I was 20 in the play
and less than fond memories of watching Joan Collins destroying Coward’s bon
mots.
But watching the movie again, you realized just how
physically violent Amanda and Elyot’s relationship is-they are always talking
about committing physical violence-”we were like two violent acids bubbling
about in a nasty little matrimonial battle”; “certain women should be struck
regularly, like gongs”-or constantly screaming and throwing things.
There is nothing funny or romantic about this.
KL: I try to
put Birth of a Nation out of my mind, but S.K. did remind me of it
again, and movies featuring extreme racism at their core like that are also
dealbreakers; I totally agree with her assessment. I understand the
technological achievements, but I think in the long run, especially in how it
helped revive the KKK, the social harm that film brought about outdoes its
cinematic innovations.
CC: Like S.K., Wonder
Bar immediately came to mind. Excessive acts of violence, such as in the
film Natural Born Killers (1994). I walked out of the theatre while the
film was still playing. I expected violence, but the gratuitousness was just
too much for me. I also have an issue with physical abuse, towards women and
children. This is not to say I would not feel the same way about a man. However,
when males are involved, it tends to be a fight, an exchange of physical
energy, generally speaking, when we see physical abuse it is perpetuated
towards women and children.
TB: I have a couple of moments that pinch my heart when I
watch a movie. It doesn’t mean I won’t watch the movie. It just means I roll my
eyes…verrrrry hard.
-Blackface…that’s
a little rough; especially when the time period OF the movie is the ‘30s or ‘40s
film.
-Not giving the
Black actors a real name to be called by in the film (Snowflake…Belvedere…Lightnin’).
I mean, can’t they have a regular name like Debbie or Bob?
-When the actor
can’t do the simplest of tasks, i.e. Butterfly McQueen answering the phone in Mildred
Pierce (1945) and not knowing which end to speak into. What up with that?
Are there elements they got right that we still haven’t
caught up to?
KL: I don’t know
if the pre-Code era got sex right (and sensationalism was definitely something
studios were going for) but in some ways, I feel that subject was treated as
somewhat more accepted and natural back then. Of course, what was shown
onscreen in the classic era was nowhere near the extent it is today, but the
way the Production Code put a lid on sex (in addition to many other factors)
once again made it into more of a taboo topic than it is or should be.
One thing I particularly hate in modern movies is gratuitous
violence, and it perplexes and angers me how America weighs violence vs. sex in
general through the modern ratings system: films are more likely to get a pass
with violence, mostly landing in PG-13 territory and thus making them more
socially acceptable, while sex, something natural, is shunned with strictly R
ratings. Obviously, there are limits for both, but I think the general thinking
there is backwards today.
CC: The
elegance, the sophistication, the precision, the dialogue, the intelligence,
the wit. The fashion! The layering of craftsmanship. We aren’t fans of these
films for fleeting reasons, we are fans because of their timeless qualities.
I’m going to sound like a sentimental sap here, ladies get
ready. I think they got the institution of family right. Yes, I do lean towards
MGM films, so I am coloring my opinion from that perspective. Even if a person
hasn’t experienced what would have been considered a “traditional
family” there is something to be said about witnessing that example.
Perhaps not so much of a father and a mother, but to witness a balanced,
functioning, loving relationship. What it “looks like” when a
father/mother/brother/sister etc. genuinely loves another family member.
I was part of the latch-key generation, and although my
parents remained together, many of my friends’ parents were divorced. Most
won’t admit it, but by the reaction to the documentary [Won’t You Be My
Neighbor?, 2018], the bulk of them went home, sat in front of the TV and
watched Mr. Rogers tell them how special they were because their parents
certainly were not. We don’t know what can “be” unless we see it.