dual personalities

Tag: movies

March 6, 2012

A Lenten movie pic

by chuckofish

When my children were younger, I made an effort during Lent to program our movie watching accordingly. We had a list of movies which we watched every Lent. Some were blatantly “religious” films, like Ben Hur. Some just had a spiritual message or undercurrent. Today’s pic was in the former category.


The Robe (1953) is based on the bestseller by Lloyd C. Douglas. I have read the book and it is a good read. It posits the question and earnestly tries to answer what might have happened to the robe which belonged to Christ and over which lots were cast by the Roman soldiers who crucified him:

And they crucified him, and parted his garments, casting lots: that it might be fulfilled which was spoken by the prophet, They parted my garments among them, and upon my vesture did they cast lots. (Mathhew 27:35)

Oscar-nominated for Best Picture, the movie, which stars a young Richard Burton and Jean Simmons, is a very enjoyable adaption, mostly because it has such attractive stars. It won Oscars for set design and costumes and should have won for its lushly poignant score. It also features Victor Mature in his 2nd greatest role (his best performance being that of Doc Holliday in My Darling Clementine) as Demetrious, the Greek slave. There is a lot of scenery chewing in this movie, but no scene-stealing compares to Mature’s, especially when he accuses his master, the Roman tribune Marcellus (Burton), of being a “jungle animal” shortly after Jesus has been crucified. Richard Burton also has some great scenes, and it is early enough in his career and he is not yet so jaded that we believe him as he undergoes his spiritual transformation. I would be remiss if I did not also mention Jay Robinson as Caligula whose over-the-top depiction of the crazed emperor is truly wonderful.

The movie successfully conveys the idea that being a Christian under Caligula’s rule was seriously dangerous and there is enough daring-do and sword-fighting to keep the action moving. These early Christians are real action heroes–brave, faithful and, to use the current vernacular, extremely hot. No one looked better in a toga and armour than Richard Burton as Marcellus.

No one, that is, until Stephen Boyd.

10 Comments
February 3, 2012

Friday movie pick: some men with guns

by chuckofish

The four professionals in their iconic pose

My Friday movie pick is The Professionals (1966), written, directed and produced by Richard Brooks. In it a group of mercenaries (Burt Lancaster, Lee Marvin, Robert Ryan, and the awesome Woody Strode) accept a lucrative assignment to recover a Texas millionaire’s wife (Claudia Cardinale) from a Mexican bandit (Jack Palance). But the mission doesn’t go as expected, and little about the setup is as it initially seems.

As with a lot of movies that came out in the 1960s, my first introduction to it was hearing about it after my big brother had gone to the movie theater to see it. (I was too young for the first go-round, so I had to wait to see these movies when they finally came on TV.) My brother had gone with his best friend Randy to see The Professionals. He was probably in the 9th grade. He loved it and re-told the entire story with relish to us little dual personalities. We didn’t get all the great lines he repeated, but we got the gist of what he was describing. And the gist was that this was one humdinger of a western! I couldn’t wait to see it!

In Bless the Beasts and the Children, Glendon Swartout writes about a group of misfit boys who steal out of summer camp on horseback to see The Professionals. They love it too, for “this is the marrowbone of every American adventure story: some men with guns, going somewhere, to do something dangerous. Whether it be to scout a continent in a covered wagon, to weld the Union in a screaming Wilderness, to save the world for democracy, to vault seas and rip up jungles by the roots and sow our seed and flag and spirit, this has ever been the essence of our melodrama: some men with guns, going somewhere, to do something dangerous.”

The heroes of this movie are also misfits, and maybe that is one of the reasons they are so appealing. They also frequently express existential thoughts in between skirmishes:

J.W. Grant: Your hair was darker then.
Rico: My heart was lighter then.

and

Bill Dolworth: Maybe there’s only one revolution, since the beginning, the good guys against the bad guys. Question is, who are the good guys?

and

Bill Dolworth: The cemetery of nameless men. We buried some fine friends there.
Rico: And some fine enemies.
Bill Dolworth: That was one hell of a fine battle. Out-numbered and out-gunned and still we held that pass.
Rico: Yeah, but who cares now… or even remembers?

and

Jesus Raza: Without love, without a cause, we are… *nothing*! We stay because we believe. We leave because we are disillusioned. We come back because we are lost. We die because we are committed.

A superbly written story of honor and adventure, the film features some of Richard Brooks’ best dialogue. (He was actually nominated for an Oscar for this movie!) Here are a few of the classic lines from The Professionals:

Maria Grant: Yes?
Bill Dolworth: Just wondering… what makes you worth a hundred thousand dollars.
Maria Grant: Go to hell.
Bill Dolworth: Yes ma’am. I’m on my way.

J.W. Grant: You bastard.
Rico: Yes, Sir. In my case an accident of birth. But you, Sir, you’re a self-made man.

To me, though, this movie is much more than some clever and witty repartee. It’s about four great characters (and a terrific woman) with guns, going somewhere, to do something dangerous.

8 Comments
January 16, 2012

I remember nothing

by chuckofish

I am living in the Google years, no question of that. And there are advantages to it. When you forget something, you can whip out your iPhone and go to Google. The Senior Moment has become the Google moment, and it has a much nicer, hipper, younger, more contemporary sound doesn’t it? By handling the obligations of the search mechanism, you almost prove you can keep up.”

–Nora Ephron, I Remember Nothing

Almost. And I don’t have an iPhone. I have to be content to look things up on my laptop, so I can’t do it in restaurants or on the subway etc.

Actually the search engine I love and use the most is IMDB.com–the internet movie database. My brain used to be its own movie database, but, sadly, it is no more. I have to look things up. But thankfully there is IMDB, just in the nick of time. Sigh.

I used to be a whiz at Trivial Pursuit (the original version) and could always answer the movie questions. It was almost embarrassing at times how much I knew. But fun facts about old movies just took hold in my brain like French vocabulary or chemistry equations did not. I have no doubt that some of my friends growing up thought my interest in the movies was a tad tacky, bien sur, but that’s the way it was/is. I loved the movies themselves–it wasn’t some screaming-Beatlesmania-kind of thing. I will admit I was probably the only tenth grader in 1972 who loved Leslie Howard, who had been dead for nearly 30 years at the time. I even stayed home from school once to watch It’s Love I’m After (1937) on television. There were no DVDs back then and no telling when the chance might come again to see it, so I had to take such action! (My mother approved.)

So anyway, I had to check on IMDB to find out the name of that movie I stayed home from school to watch. Thank goodness I can handle the obligations of that particular search mechanism!

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December 21, 2011

God bless us, every one!

by chuckofish

We are closing in on December 25 and I have yet to blog about some of my very favorite Christmas movies! Isn’t that always the way? We haven’t had time to watch them either. Sigh. Well, I do want to mention our favorite version of the Charles Dickens classic, Scrooge (1951), directed by Brian Desmond Hurst. It is, in our humble opinion, by far the best interpretation and the most English.

Alistair Sim is pitch perfect as the old skinflint, Ebenezer Scrooge. He plays it so straight all the way through–never mugging or clowning his way–and then at the end, his over-the-top joy seems just right. He is wonderful and all the character parts are well-done too. We especially like Kathleen Harrison as Mrs. Dilber and Michale Hordern as Jacob Marley (scary!).

We must also note that we are terribly fond of The Muppet Christmas Carol (1992) featuring Michael Caine as old Ebenezer.

Not Michael Caine

The Muppet version is admirably respectful of the original story and the Muppets are as always hard to resist. Kermit makes a pretty cute Bob Cratchit.

Somewhere in the 12 days of Christmas there must be time for: The Bishop’s Wife (1947), A Christmas Story (1983), Home Alone (1990), It’s A Wonderful Life (1946), Edward Scissorhands (1990), Miracle on 34th Street (1947)…So many movies, so little time! (Have I forgotten anything?)

7 Comments
December 13, 2011

Hey, Bob… I just remembered what tomorrow is. Feliz Navidad.

by chuckofish

3 Godfathers (1948) directed by John Ford and starring John Wayne and a cast of Ford stalwarts is one of my very favorite Christmas movies. I always watch it with the boy, because we are the two family members who really love it. Written by Laurance Stallings and Frank S. Nugent, it is the story of three outlaws on the run who discover a dying woman and help her deliver her baby. They swear to bring the infant to safety across the desert, even at the risk of their own lives.

Frank Nugent also collaborated with Ford on such classics as Fort Apache (1948), She Wore a Yellow Ribbon (1948), The Quiet Man (1952), Mister Roberts (1955), The Searchers (1956), Two Rode Together (1961), and Donovan’s Reef (1963). So you know what you can expect: great dialogue, a light touch with some underlying darkness, memorable characters.

John Wayne was seldom better than in this movie. He is in top form. Handsome, manly, graceful, full of repressed feeling and submerged anger. We wonder throughout the movie what has made him turn to a life of lawlessness. Why has he lost his faith? He is clearly a well-brought-up “good guy”. He is more than ably supported by Harry Carey, Jr. and the Mexican film star Pedro Armendáriz as the other two godfathers. The three of them work so well together. There is genuine affection in their verbal wrangling. Mildred Natwick, a personal favorite of mine, has a great cameo part as the doomed mother.

Because it is a Ford movie, the cinematography (by Winton Hoch), especially the outside scenes, are wonderful. The scene when they are trudging across the parched desert and the Abilene Kid lies down to die should be shown to all film students. There is nothing sentimental in this scene. It is heart-breakingly real.

In this movie Ford never resorts to the broad down-homey humor he sometimes does in order to break up what he must have seen as too much tension in a film. Ward Bond is kept in check. Hank Worden too. Jane Darwell and Jack Pennick portray remarkably observed characters that stand out in a very full line-up of characters.

And you gotta love a movie where scripture is used successfully as a plot devise. At least I do.

And, yes, it is a Christmas movie. It is a story of redemption and of three wise men who follow a star and find a baby. FELIZ NAVIDAD.

10 Comments
December 5, 2011

In some ways, you’re far superior to my cocker spaniel.

by chuckofish

Well, as they say, it’s the most wonderful time of the year. And that means: Christmas movies! This month I will be blogging about my favorites. First off: White Christmas (1954) directed by one of my favorites, Michael Curtiz, and starring the most wonderful cast ever, Bing Crosby, Danny Kaye, Rosemary Clooney, and Vera-Ellen, who had to be the model for the original Barbie Doll.

In this well-written, fast-paced musical film, a successful song-and-dance team become romantically involved with a sister act and team up to save the failing Vermont inn of their former commanding general. Sentimental and G-rated, it somehow never seems dated. This has to be because of the witty script and the stellar cast, not to mention the great tunes by Irving Berlin.

I have seen this movie every year since my family had a television and my sister (and dual personality) and I knew the whole Sister Act scene by heart and frequently regaled our family with our rendition.

When my husband and I bought our first VCR in 1986, the first video we bought was White Christmas. It was so great not to have to wait and see when it would be shown on TV–and no commercials! My kids loved it too and it was a big event and the start of the Christmas season to watch it all together. One year in elementary school daughter #1 wanted to be Betty Haynes for Halloween! (I talked her out of it.)

The movie even has a reference to Smith College (which both dual personalities attended).

Bob Wallace: You don’t expect me to get serious with the kind of characters you and Rita have been throwing at me, do you?
Phil Davis: Well, there have been some nice girls, too, you know.
Bob Wallace: Oh yeah, yeah. Like that nuclear scientist we just met out in the hall.
Phil Davis: All right, they didn’t go to college. They didn’t go to Smith.
Bob Wallace: Go to Smith? She couldn’t even spell it.

What could be better than that?

After the Advent Service of Lessons and Carols, White Christmas is truly the beginning of the Christmas season.

5 Comments
November 25, 2011

A family tradition or “If they told you wolverines would make good house pets, would you believe them?”

by chuckofish

I think I have probably seen this movie at least 25 times, i.e. every year since it was released in 1987. We even let our children watch it at impressionably young ages, long before they knew what the f-word was. (Okay, a black mark on my parenting record, but they survived.) We watch it every Thanksgiving and that is why Planes, Trains and Automobiles, directed by John Hughes and starring Steve Martin and John Candy in their greatest roles, is my Friday movie pick.

It is the story of two mis-matched guys, both apparently trying to get home for Thanksgiving. Steve Martin is the uptight ad man Neal Page who becomes burdened with Del Griffith (John Candy), an “annoying blabbermouth”, as his traveling companion. Everything that can go wrong, does. In our house we know the entire script and (annoyingly to any outsider watching with us) say the lines along with the actors. Many of the lines have entered the family parlance, and just a few words can set off the recitation of a scene:

Neal: Del… Why did you kiss my ear?
Del: Why are you holding my hand?
Neal: [frowns] Where’s your other hand?
Del: Between two pillows…
Neal: Those aren’t pillows!

or

Del: You wanna hurt me? Go right ahead if it makes you feel any better. I’m an easy target. Yeah, you’re right, I talk too much. I also listen too much. I could be a cold-hearted cynic like you… but I don’t like to hurt people’s feelings. Well, you think what you want about me; I’m not changing. I like… I like me. My wife likes me. My customers like me. ‘Cause I’m the real article. What you see is what you get.

or

Gus: Del Griffith! How the hell are ya?
Del: Well, I’m still a million bucks shy of bein’ a millionaire.

or

Hotel Clerk: Do you have seventeen dollars and a good watch?
Del: No I don’t. I have uh… two dollars… and a Casio.

or

Neal: You know everything is not an anecdote. You have to discriminate. You choose things that are funny or mildly amusing or interesting. You’re a miracle! Your stories have NONE of that. They’re not even amusing ACCIDENTALLY! “Honey, I’d like you to meet Del Griffith, he’s got some amusing anecdotes for you. Oh and here’s a gun so you can blow your brains out. You’ll thank me for it.” I could tolerate any insurance seminar. For days I could sit there and listen to them go on and on with a big smile on my face. They’d say, “How can you stand it?” I’d say, “‘Cause I’ve been with Del Griffith. I can take ANYTHING.” You know what they’d say? They’d say, “I know what you mean. The shower curtain ring guy. Woah.” It’s like going on a date with a Chatty Cathy doll. I expect you have a little string on your chest, you know, that I pull out and have to snap back. Except I wouldn’t pull it out and snap it back – you would. Agh! Agh! Agh! Agh! And by the way, you know, when you’re telling these little stories? Here’s a good idea – have a POINT. It makes it SO much more interesting for the listener!

Well, I could go on and on (and I already have), so let’s just watch the movie!

8 Comments
November 11, 2011

Friday’s movie pick

by chuckofish

This Gun for Hire (1942) is the movie that catapulted fourth-billed Alan Ladd into stardom. And for good reason.

Alan Ladd is amazing in this movie. He totally steals it from the star, well-meaning Robert Preston. It is one of those movies where a contract director and a few hack writers and a handful of b-team actors on a limited budget really rise to the occasion. Of course, it is based on a novel (A Gun for Sale) by an A-team novelist, Graham Greene, and that makes a big difference. It also stars the bewitching Veronica Lake who never disappoints.

She and Ladd make a great team. She is tiny, so she doesn’t overwhelm Ladd and he, for once, seems comfortable. (Why later in his career the Hollywood powers-that-be were always teaming him with the likes of Sophia Loren, God only knows.)

Anyway, in this movie, Alan Ladd is believable as the paid killer with a sad past as an abused child and a skewed idea of honor. He is scary too, menacing and slightly psychotic. In the scene where he passes the little crippled girl with the polio braces on the stairway, you really wonder what he’ll do. Only in Shane does Ladd ever again approach what he does in This Gun for Hire. This film is a glimpse at what his career might have been.

2 Comments
November 4, 2011

“Waiter, will you serve the nuts?”

by chuckofish

“I mean, will you serve the guests the nuts?”

Ah, the divine Ms. Loy and wonderful William Powell. Have you heard that they are planning to do a re-make of The Thin Man with (no kidding) Johnny Depp? Now, I do have a soft spot for Johnny and even feel a sort of kinship with him, but, really, Nick Charles? Why can Hollywood never leave well enough alone? Re-make, shme-make, I hate re-makes!

Anyway, my Friday movie pick is any movie from the classic Thin Man series: After the Thin Man (1936), Another Thin Man (1939), Shadow of the Thin Man (1941), The Thin Man Goes Home (1945), and Song of the Thin Man (1947). All happily star William Powell and Myrna Loy as Nick and Nora. The final film even features Dean Stockwell as Nick Charles Jr.

The original Thin Man was nominated for Best Picture and Oscar nominations were given out to William Powell, director W.S. Van Dyke, and screenwriters Goodrich and Hackett for adapting Dashiell Hammett’s original story. Unfortunately The Thin Man ran up against It Happened One Night and it won nothing. And really, why wasn’t Myrna Loy nominated? Please.

And who can forget…

3 Comments
October 28, 2011

Gunfight at the O.K. Corral

by chuckofish

According to Wikipedia, “The Gunfight at the O.K. Corral was a roughly 30-second gunfight that took place at about 3:00 p.m. on Wednesday October 26, 1881 in Tombstone, Arizona Territory, Cochise County, of the United States. Frank and Tom McLaury and Billy Clanton were killed; Morgan Earp, Virgil Earp, and Doc Holliday were wounded and survived. Wyatt Earp was the only individual who came through the fight unharmed. It is generally regarded as the most famous gunfight in the history of the Old West.”

So in honor of this famous gunfight that took place 130 years ago this week, our Friday movie pick is My Darling Clementine (1946)–one of my top-10 favorite movies of all time.

Beautifully shot in black and white in Monument Valley by Joseph MacDonald and directed by John Ford, it is a subtlely nuanced western. (Oddly enough, it was one of Sam Peckinpah’s favorite westerns. Go figure.) Henry Fonda, who is not one of my favorite actors, gives his best performance ever (besides The Grapes of Wrath, also directed by John Ford). He is manly, yet sensitive, and remarkably sexy. Victor Mature is also wonderful as Doc Holliday, especially when quoting Shakespeare. Walter Brennan, who won three supporting actor Academy Awards–but surprisingly not for this picture–is menacing and scary as the abusive father, Ike Clanton. Even Linda Darnell puts in a solid performance as Chihuahua, despite the worst hairdo in movie history. Never has an actress been photographed so lovingly as Linda in her death scene. Directors nowadays no longer make the effort to make their stars look so beautiful. Pay attention when you watch this movie–it’s a great one! (My Darling Clementine was named the Best Foreign Film of 1948 by the Italian National Syndicate of Film Journalists. They got it right.)

There have been many movies made about the O.K. Corral–most of them dreadful. When I was little I was a big fan of 1957’s Gunfight at the O.K. Corral with Burt Lancaster and Kirk Douglas, directed by John Sturges and featuring a screenplay written by novelist Leon Uris–mostly because of the terrific theme song by Dimitri Tiomkin. The song holds up, but the movie does not! It is enjoyable on a certain level, when you are in the nostalgic mood for a 1950s western, but Burt Lancaster is unusually wooden in his depiction of Earp as a puritanical good guy. Kirk Douglas, on the other hand, chews the scenery in his over-the-top portrayal of Doc Holliday, but I love the scene where he attempts to beat the truth out of his girlfriend, Jo Van Fleet, and has to stop due to a coughing attack. And he gave this family a famous and oft-quoted line: “Was it Riiingo?!”

Hour of the Gun (1967) with James Garner is unwatchable. The most recent re-dos, one with Kevin Costner and one with Kurt Russell just take themselves too seriously and are pretty bad. So take my advice and stick with My Darling Clementine. Wow, is it good.

5 Comments