dual personalities

Tag: movies

November 1, 2012

What to watch

by chuckofish

Ralphie: Hey Curly, what all happens in a hurricane?
Curly: The wind blows so hard the ocean gets up on its hind legs and walks right across the land.
Toots: And singin’ this song: Rain rain, go away, little Ralphie wants to play.

I don’t know about you, but all this non-stop weather talk has put me in the mood for Key Largo (1948).

It is a humdinger of a good movie, based on a play by Maxwell Anderson, the screenplay written by Richard Brooks and John Huston. You just can’t do much better than that. It is a classic Warner Brothers production of the 1940s, featuring some of its greatest stars: Humphrey Bogart, Edward G. Robinson, Lauren Bacall, Lionel Barrymore, Claire Trevor (in her Academy Award-winning performance), and a host of character actors. The music is by Max Steiner. The full Warner Brothers treatment.

(On a personal note: I have a fondness for Warner Brothers movies, because my mother did also. When she was growing up in Worcester, Massachusetts she had a friend whose brother went to Worcester Academy where there was the Lewis J. Warner ’28 Memorial Theater. Built in 1932, it was a gift from Warner Brothers Studio President Harry Warner, who donated the building to honor the memory of his only son. Lewis died within three years of graduating from the academy. They showed Warner Brothers movies there on Saturdays and Mary would go there with her friend to see all her favorites: Errol Flynn, Bette Davis, Humphrey Bogart et al.)

Key Largo tells the story of Frank McCloud, disillusioned WWII veteran, who visits the hotel of his deceased friend’s father in the Florida Keys and falls in love with the man’s widow. When mobster Johnny Rocco arrives on the scene with his crew of henchmen just as a hurricane bears down on them, drama ensues.

I think it is my favorite Humphrey Bogart movie (except for The Petrified Forest, of course). And Claire Trevor was never better (even in Stagecoach where she was also terrific.).

What does a girl have to do for a drink around here?

Her Academy-Award winning big scene is a classic. You can imagine a lesser actress really over-playing it. She gets it just right.

I wish this clip included what happens after she sings, because it’s the best. The timing is perfect: Bogart-Robinson-Bogart. Thank you. Hats off to the director, John Huston, as well.

The special effects are not great, but who cares? You get the idea just fine. It was adapted from a play, so it has that stage-y quality. But I don’t mind. And I don’t mind the flag-waving aspects either. Not at all. They’re kind of refreshing.

9 Comments
October 26, 2012

Friday movie pick: a matter of cosmic history

by chuckofish

The other day the boy happened to mention to me that the Star Trek movies are now available on Netflix to watch instantly. He had watched Star Trek II: Wrath of Khan (1982), one of our favorites.

Later that evening when challenged with the persistent “What to watch” question, I thought, “Wrath of Khan!” (Have I mentioned how much I love Watch Instantly?)

I must say, I thoroughly enjoyed this outing of the Starship Enterprise. In reality it is the best of a very mediocre series, but we always make allowances for the campy/cheesy Star Trek franchise, because why not admit it, we love James T. Kirk as portrayed by the one and only William Shatner. It reminds me of my childhood, watching the original show with my older brother. I think even as a fourth grader I knew it was cheesy–the cardboard sets, the plaster of Paris planets, the ridiculous hair and makeup on all the busty women on the show, the pajama-like uniforms. But there were characters, real characters. They were not cardboard.

The Wrath of Khan includes all our favorite characters, played by the original (albeit aging and not very attractive) actors. It also boasts Ricardo Montalban in his best role, the Melville-quoting and Ahab-channeling Khan. The film also introduces a trim Kirstie Alley as a Vulcan. The plot is engaging: “It is the twenty-third century. Admiral James T. Kirk is feeling old; the prospect of accompanying his old ship, the Enterprise–now a Starfleet Academy training ship–on a two-week cadet cruise is not making him feel any younger. But the training cruise becomes a deadly serious mission when Khan Noonien Singh appears after years of exile–and holding the power of creation itself.” (IMDB.com)

Following up on an episode from the original series which dealt with Khan (also played by Matalban in a wig)–a product of late-20th century genetic engineering. Fifteen years later, Khan, now sporting a graying fright wig and prosthetic chest, is bent on revenge.

This is a perfect set-up for all the Star Trek bells and whistles. But unlike more current movies, it is not totally focused on computer-generated battles (although there is some of that), but rather on the thought processes of our dueling brainiacs. This is good stuff. Plus there is good dialogue, including the usual repartee between McCoy and Spock:

McCoy: Dear Lord. You think we’re intelligent enough to… suppose… what if this thing were used where life already exists?
Spock: It would destroy such life in favor of its new matrix.
McCoy: Its “new matrix”? Do you have any idea what you’re saying?
Spock: I was not attempting to evaluate its moral implications, Doctor. As a matter of cosmic history, it has always been easier to destroy than to create.
McCoy: Not anymore; now we can do both at the same time! According to myth, the Earth was created in six days. Now, watch out! Here comes Genesis! We’ll do it for you in six minutes!
Spock: Really, Dr. McCoy. You must learn to govern your passions; they will be your undoing. Logic suggests…
McCoy: Logic? My God, the man’s talking about logic; we’re talking about universal Armageddon! You green-blooded, inhuman…

And there is, of course, Khan quoting Melville:

To the last, I will grapple with thee… from Hell’s heart, I stab at thee! For hate’s sake, I spit my last breath at thee!

There is also the underlying theme of Kirk’s feeling old. Dr. McCoy chides him about it: “Damn it Jim, what the hell is the matter with you? Other people have birthdays, why are we treating yours like a funeral?” Perhaps watching this movie now with the perspective of a fifty-something-year-old, I can relate more now than ever with our hero. He is struggling and kind of sad and this makes him, I think, all the more appealing.

Anyway, Star Trek II: Wrath of Khan is my pick for a Friday funfest. I will admit that I also watched Star Trek III: The Search for Spock (1984) this week, which is pretty darn bad–but also enjoyable on a certain level. And, you know, sometimes, you are just in the mood for Star Trek and not Citizen Kane. Am I not right?

And as if I could do a blog post about this movie without including THIS:

6 Comments
October 17, 2012

Happy birthday, Marshall Mathers!

by chuckofish

Marshall Bruce Mathers III (born October 17, 1972), better known by his stage name Eminem (often stylized as EMINƎM) and by his alter ego Slim Shady, is an American rapper, record producer, songwriter, and actor. And he turns 40 today!

And, yes, I am a big fan. Surprised? You shouldn’t be. I think Em is a latter-day poet and an example to all frustrated, unhappy, unchallenged kids in bad family environments who need to express their anger and channel their emotions into a creative outlet like writing. Using their words, as teachers have been saying for years, instead of violence. He is the real deal.

I suggest we all watch 8 Mile in honor of his birthday. This is a great movie, directed by the talented Curtis Hanson in 2002. It is not just a “rap-version of Saturday Night Fever“, a movie I despise. Eminem is really good in this movie and very appealing. I also have to hand it to him for not wanting to be a movie star and for turning down all offers to make more movies.

This is not to say that I didn’t feel like Ned Flanders at a Chris Rock concert while watching this movie. And I am no fan of rap or hip-hop. No, I am not. But Eminem works hard at his craft. I can appreciate that. He bettered himself. I like to think that under the vulgarity and the bravura is a fine young man who wants to do the right thing.

Happy Birthday, Marshall!

15 Comments
October 15, 2012

Back to the salt mine

by chuckofish

Another weekend gone with the wind. I finished the Alexander McCall Smith book I have been reading–the 13th installment of the #1 Ladies Detective Agency series, The Limpopo Academy of Private Detection.

It was another slow, easy read about Precious Ramotswe and her sometimes often irritating friends.

In the end, however, McCall Smith teaches us the same lesson we have been waiting for: “The human heart, you see…is pretty much the same wherever one goes.” It is a lesson worth repeating.

I also finally watched Joss Whedon’s The Avengers. Daughter #2 had liked it very much when she saw it last summer, so I thought I would check it out. I am also an old Joss Whedon fan from the old Buffy days and also like all things Serenity. But I have to say, I wasn’t all that impressed. They are, after all, super heroes, so you don’t get a lot of character development and/or good dialogue. Yes, there was lots of CG pyrotechnics etc. Yes, the final fight in NYC was pretty darn swell. But not really my thing, you know?

The best line in the movie was from Captain America

who was responding to Scarlett Johansson’s character who had referred to Iron Man, Thor and Loki as gods:

There’s only one God, Ma’am, and I’m pretty sure He doesn’t dress like that.

The highlight of the weekend, even for this self-admittedly fair-weather fan, was definitely the Cardinals beating the Washington Nationals to advance to the National League Championship Series against the Giants. Go, Cards!

And we won game #1 against the Giants. That’s the way I like it. Uh Huh.

4 Comments
October 10, 2012

Just for the record: fun facts to know and share

by chuckofish

Interesting fact for the day: Ralph Richardson, Yul Brynner and Orson Welles all died on October 10–Richardson in 1983 and Brynner and Welles two years later in 1985. What about that?

Ralph Richardson

All three were great actors and leading men, known for their fine speaking voices (back when that was valued in the movies). Yul Brynner was arguably the only superstar. Richardson, however, was knighted in 1947, a year before Laurence Olivier!

Brynner and Welles acted in one movie together: The Battle of Neretva (1969).

Have you seen it? Neither have I.

Brynner and Welles both acted in film versions of Faulkner novels with Joanne Woodward. Welles in The Long Hot Summer (1958) playing Will Varner and Brynner in The Sound and the Fury (1959) playing Jason Compson (with hair).

All three (separately) appeared in big-scale religious movies. Welles played Saul in David and Goliath (1960). Brynner appeared as Solomon in Solomon and Sheba (1959) and as Rameses in The Ten Commandments (1956).

Richardson was especially memorable as Simeon in Jesus of Nazareth (1977).

Richardson and Welles participated in many filmed versions of an array of Shakespeare’s plays. Brynner did not. It is some consolation that Brynner at least got to play Dimitri Karamozov.

Richardson, of course, played God in Time Bandits (1981). I don’t know about you, but that is how I always picture God. A Cambridge man. Brynner played a god, or at least a pharaoh, in the aforementioned Ten Commandments. Welles famously played a megalomaniac in Citizen Kane.

And Welles was in the original Muppets Movie (1979).

Point and game to Welles?

I think not. All three made great movies and also some really bad ones. Let us remember the great ones: The Four Feathers (1939). Citizen Kane (1941). The King and I (1956). A toast to our absent friends!

3 Comments
September 26, 2012

Ride boldly ride

by chuckofish

On this day in 1979 Arthur Lee Hunnicutt, an American actor known for his portrayal of wise, grizzled, rural characters, died. A native of Gravelly, Arkansas, he frequently found himself typecast after playing the lead in Tobacco Road on Broadway.

You might remember him as Davy Crockett in The Last Command (1955) or as Butch Cassidy in Cat Ballou (1965). He earned his only Oscar nomination for playing Uncle Zeb in The Big Sky (1952).

My personal favorite role immortalized by Arthur Hunnicutt is that of Bull Harris, old Indian fighter, in El Dorado (1966). He is wonderful as the bantering deputy, supporting Sheriff Robert Mitchum and backing up John Wayne in one of my favorite movies of all time. If possible, he is even better than Walter Brennan, who played Stumpy in an earlier version of the same story, Rio Bravo.

Hunnicutt gets some of the best lines, including the classic:

Cole: Either one of you know a fast way to sober a man up?

Bull Harris: A bunch of howlin’ indians out for hair’ll do it quicker’n anything I know.

He is no ham. In fact, his is the quintessential deadpan expression. He is the genuine article. No one ever looked better in a fringed leather jacket. Even this guy:

John Simpson Hough wearing Kit Carson’s hunting coat

So a toast to the memory of Arthur Hunnicutt. Do yourself a favor and watch one of his movies! I highly recommend El Dorado which, besides Wayne and Mitchum (a stellar team) also boasts a very young James Caan.

By the way, Hunnicutt played one of the ranch hands in last Friday’s movie pick, The Furies. He only has a couple of lines and is uncredited, but he stands out. You remember him.

5 Comments
September 21, 2012

Friday movie pick

by chuckofish

Unavailable for years (and I’ve been waiting), The Furies has been added to the prestigious Criterion Collection. I gleefully ordered it through Netflix and watched it happily last week.

Directed by Anthony Mann in 1950, our story takes place in the 1870s New Mexico territory where T.C. Jeffords (Walter Huston) is a cattle baron who built his ranch, the Furies, from scratch. He borrows from banks, pays hired hands and everyone in town with his own script (“T.C.’s”), and carries on low-level warfare with the Mexican squatters. He has lots of enemies. His headstrong daughter, Vance (Barbara Stanwyk), whom he favors over his son for some unspecified reasons, assumes she’ll run the Furies someday. But, no, you guessed it, that is not how things turn out.

The wonderful Stanwyk is at her stylized best, throwing her shoulders back, arms perpetually akimbo, as the quintessential “firebrand” in her usual heinous hairstyle. Unfortunately there is no one in the film to match her sturm und drang, and the movie largely fails because of her weak co-stars. Only Gilbert Roland stands up with her (as her sexy Hispanic friend Juan Herrera) and he (spoiler alert!) gets bumped off in a terrible plot twist that always leaves me seething.

Gilbert Roland and Stanwyk

I saw this movie one afternoon on TV way back in the day and it always stayed with me. It is one of those 50s westerns with a strong female lead who we know won’t be happy until she is tamed by some dude. She says things like: “I don’t think I like being in love. It puts a bit in my mouth.” Oh well. Such a movie can still be enjoyed on some level. For instance, the cinematographer was Oscar-nominated for this black and white oater and there are sunsets and wide shots galore. But the plot of the movie, based on a novel by Niven Busch (of Duel in the Sun fame), has so much emotional gnashing of teeth and galloping back and forth on horseback that it is difficult to take any of it very seriously. (This also may explain why I liked it so much as a teenager.)

All the way through this time I kept thinking–this could be so much better! First of all, whose stupid idea was it to cast Wendell Corey as Barbara’s love interest? Sort of the poor man’s Joseph Cotton, Corey was always adequate as the 2nd lead or “other guy”, but he just doesn’t cut the mustard as the hero of this piece–especially with Gilbert Roland side-lined as our heroine’s “friend”. Please. In what universe?

Sorry. No way.

Rip Darrow (great name, right?), a saloon-owner who also wants revenge on Barbara’s father because he killed his father and stole his land, should have been played by Gregory Peck or Robert Mitchum or William Holden. C’mon.

Also Walter Huston (in his final role) careens back and forth between evil megalomaniac and good-hearted old man so much, that the viewer is not sure how to feel. I think at the end one is supposed to love the old guy, like his cowhands do. (He wrestles a bull to the ground and the cowboys sing a song about him.) But again, please. No way. I could hardly forgive Barbara for forgiving him! Barbara and her lover Wendell spend a good part of the movie wrecking revenge on her pater, but then the ending is all sugar-coated in the standard 1950s way. (Believe me, I did not forget what he did to Juan Herrera!)

Finally, I think we have to blame the director Anthony Mann, who just did not know how to make sense of all this. Yes, the plot is a bit disturbed, but I still think this could have been a lively, action-packed western. The bits with Barbara and Gilbert have potential and I liked Blanche Yurka as the Herrera mater. She does “crazy mother” very well. The Mexicans are all, of course, (except Gilbert Roland) terrible stereotypes. It is just a bit of a mish-mosh. I mean for heaven’s sake, even Dame Judith Anderson, the great stage actress, is part of the drama–Stanwyck attacks her with scissors!

Oh well–it is still my Friday pick–so much better than any new movie you could rent! I have to admit, one does get caught up in it all. Try to relax and enjoy!

9 Comments
September 19, 2012

An anniversary and a toast to ourselves*

by chuckofish

Just about a year ago my sister (and dual personality) and I began this blog. The year skied by, and 341 posts later, I feel more connected than ever before to my far-flung siblings, children, niece, nephews, and friends. It has been wonderful to read their comments and those from complete strangers.

I admit, we mostly amuse ourselves, but occasionally we hear from the wide world. We have even received comments from Pigtown*Design’s own Meg Fairfax Fielding–a rock star in the blogging world.

So here’s to another year of books, movies, estate sale finds, family reminiscences, Episcopal Church marginalia, music, poetry, Frederick Buechner, Raymond Chandler, embarrassing picture Mondays, and fat baby Fridays! And a big shout-out to our 36 (!) followers–we appreciate you all!

*Traditionally the Royal Navy toasts to “ourselves” on Wednesdays.

7 Comments
September 18, 2012

I’ll take Manhattan

by chuckofish

Daughter #1 has already blogged about my visit and done a lovely job of hitting the high points of my trip to New York City.

What a pleasure to visit one’s grown-up daughter in her terra cognita!

We checked out the Upper West Side and visited ABC where I saw the rim and the set and the desk and all that mysterious stuff. Chris Cuomo smiled at me and David Muir waved.

We went to the Metropolitan Museum of Art which I had not visited since 1978. Pretty impressive indeed. We walked through Central Park.

We went to Brooklyn…

and hit the Brooklyn Flea Market.

On Sunday morning we went to my daughter’s church, the awesome St. Bart’s on Park Avenue.

Afterwards we went to brunch with two of my daughter’s lovely college friends and my son’s best Best Man in the West Village. Then we walked to Washington Square and went to some only-in-New York stores, including The Strand which I loved and will return to some day with a list in hand. Oh yeah, and we saw Andrew Garfield and Emma Stone at the big ABC furniture store. They followed us around looking at hipster furniture, but we finally lost them in the linens department.

Every night after sitting outside for an evening cocktail we watched (in our nerdly fashion) Ghostbusters, You’ve Got Mail, and The World of Henry Orient–all New York-focused movies. We also watched Broadcast News for a little media-focused fun.

My feet will recover eventually, and I will long remember my wonderful visit with daughter #1 in NYC. And it wasn’t scary at all.

7 Comments
September 7, 2012

More good news

by chuckofish

Really. Where was I at the beginning of the month? No one told me that it’s Lauren Bacall month on TCM! Or if I knew, I promptly forgot (which happens a lot) until I was escaping from convention-land and happened upon To Have and Have Not Wednesday night. Oh happy day!

Don’t you just love Lauren Bacall?

Born Betty Joan Perske, she first became a star in To Have And Have Not in 1944 at the age of 19. What an auspicious start to a fine career! Although I had recently seen this movie, I happily watched it again the other night. Besides the sultry young Bacall and an engaging Humphrey Bogart (who clearly likes his young co-star and is putting in extra effort), this movie boasts one of the best Walter Brennan performances ever (“Was you ever bit by a dead bee?”) and Hoagy Carmichael. If that isn’t enough, the screenplay was written by Jules Furthman and (yes) William Faulkner–based on a novel by Ernest Hemingway. You can’t get much better than that. Seriously.

Our mother always liked Lauren Bacall, in large part, I think, because the actress never allowed Hollywood to do crazy things with her hair. It was (almost) always its beautiful natural color styled in a conservative, part-on-the-side pageboy–even in the 1940s! She had class. Once when I was in college a friend’s father told me I had Lauren Bacall eyes, and I was actually flattered.

Anyway, September is Lauren Bacall’s month on TCM where they will spotlight her movies every Wednesday night. Oh boy. By the way, she made two movies with John Wayne. Blood Alley (1955) will be shown on September 19 (at 12 am.–set your DVR!)

Here’s the schedule.

3 Comments