Rise of the slumbering blogger: Catching up filmically

Saturday I cleaned up real cobwebs at my house. Today I clean off virtual cobwebs on this blog. Many distractions have set in that put me out of the swing of things. Now it's time to get back into the swing of things and not look back - except for this update on the big-screen movies I've seen since I've last posted. And I'm including films I've seen in the classic series in Dayton and Columbus.


One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest A+
One of three movies to win the top five Oscars of Picture, Director, Actor, Actress, Screenplay. The writing of this film becomes all the more impressive once you realize the book was written from the point of view of the Chief

Winnie the Pooh B
Sweet, gentle fun - a very pleasant throwback to the Disney movies of old, with this entry being animated by the A-crew at the Mouse House. It rarely manages to be more than pleasant, but that seems appropriate for such an assuming character as Pooh. Eeyore (voiced by Pixar's Bud Luckey) provides most of the laughs.







Cowboys and Aliens C+


Indiana Jones and James Bond in the same movie. How can it miss? By being saddled with a confused script that manages to be overwrought and half-baked at the same time. It's fairly decent as a Western, but the more aliens there are, the more unfocused it gets. Very disappointing.

Beginners A
With its often whimsical tone and its scattered chronology, this picture could have gone wrong in all sorts of ways but holds steady, thanks mostly to strong performances by Ewan McGregor, Christopher Plummer and Melanie Laurent in a story about a man struggling to come to grips with his father coming out of the closet late in life. It's especially nice to see Laurent get a good vehicle after her breakout in Inglourious Basterds.

The Adventures of Robin Hood A+
You simply cannot fully appreciate this movie until you've seen it on the big screen with a crowd applauding Errol Flynn's every swashbuckle.

Crazy Stupid Love B+
A terrific cast including Steve Carell, Julianne Moore, Marisa Tomei and Ryan Gosling and Emma Stone powers this episodic ensemble piece about love lost and found in unlikely places. The performances help overcome some slightly ungainly writing, especially an icky subplot about a teenage girl's crush on a 40-something.

The Wizard of Oz A+
Once again, you simply cannot fully appreciate this movie unless you've seen on it on a big screen in a packed house with Technicolors that are practically blinding.

Rise of the Planet of the Apes A-
 What seemed like a misguided idea for a reboot has turned into the summer's most pleasant surprise. Special effects movies often fail because the effects are more interesting than the humans, but in this context, it's actually quite appropriate.  Terrific motion capture work by Andy Serkis (AKA Gollum AKA King Kong) and smartly choreographed action sequences make this trump not only the Tim Burton remake, but even the 1968 original as well.

Thoughts in shuffle mode - Stewart, Cooper, Powell, GIlliam ...

Well, geez - I almost missed my mark to keep up blog posting at least twice a week. I better get in my licks now before Middletown's hot air balloon festival subsumes my existence.

The other day I mentioned seeing Born to Dance with Jimmy Stewart. Most people know this as the movie in which Jimmy Stewart sings! (That sentence demanded an exclamation point.)



It's a charming little programmer. Not a "great" movie by any means, but Jimmy is charmingly awkward. And I would like to have $1 for every time Eleanor taps, please.



I also watched Wings last week. No, even though this is me writing, I'm not talking about that band Paul McCartney was in after the Beatles. I'm talking about the very first movie to win the Best Picture Oscar. It doesn't have much of a reputation - many consider it clunky and creaky. It IS dated and overlong, to be sure, but I was surprised at how much I liked it. Sure, Sunrise from the same year was the better choice, but Wings has a lot to recommend it. William Wellman is the director, so it looks great - and the aerial photography is astounding. The performances are solid, and it's easy to see why Clara Bow was an "it" girl.  It's also a kick to see Gary Cooper in a very early (and very short) role. He had magnetism even then.

I've also been reading the book The Battle of Brazil, about the making of Terry Gilliam's Brazil, and it made me order a new copy of that film. I have the old deluxe Criterion laserdisc set, but alack, those don't play too well on hi-def TVs - so I ordered a used copy of the Criterion DVD set. More on that later.

I knew the story about the wrangling and mangling around the film, but the book is an illuminating read nonetheless. I particularly loved this quote from Gilliam, talking about studio suits

"You listen to these people, and you just have to shake your head. They are so goddamned sure they know what they're talking about, and all they are ever doing is guessing. They invent their own research, then depend on it as if it were science. They have no respect for the intelligence of their audience. Then when they succeed, they break their ass trying to tell you how brilliant they were in doing it."

Seems like little has changed in 30 years ,,,

Focusing features - back to the diary

Some time back on this blog I had decided to adopt more of a diary-like format to get me to write in it more often.

As too often happens with me, the best laid plans fell flat. Granted, I've been through a lot of trauma this year, including having a tree fall through my house, but I hate that I haven't written here very much and that my audience has dwindled as a result. 

So I'm going to try again to re-spark this. Can't make any promises it'll stick. I guess I'd like to try to post at least twice a week. I seem to work better if I set myself goals and deadlines.

Haven't seen anything new theatrically since I saw Cars 2, and the rest of the current crop doesn't impress me. I do not voluntarily give Michael Bay my money, so I'm skipping Transformers Trois. The reviews for Tom Hanks' Larry Crowne make it look eminently skippable. The jury's still out on Horrible Bosses, and I need to see Zookeeper like I need to be stampeded by an elephant. 

So that leaves me to discuss the classics. The summer classic movie series has started around here. Saw Hitchcock's Frenzy last week. and I still think that's Hitch's best picture of his troubled post-Birds period. Some may argue that it's hard to get into because the "wrong man" (Jon Finch) is a particular prick, but I think that makes the picture novel and daring. Sadly, Athena Massey, who played Finch's sort-of love interest, only died this past weekend.

Fun trivia: the editor of the movie, John Jympson, and the cinematographer, Gil Taylor, performed the same duties on A Hard Day's Night. This is what you notice when you're a credits geek like me. 

This past weekend I saw West Side Story. Still a great picture, and Natalie Wood is still miscast, but the fact that Natalie doesn't look the least bit Hispanic isn't what bothers me. It's the same problem I have with My Fair Lady - the face and the voice simply don't match. 

Of course, the same voice in both cases is the ubiquitous Marni Nixon, who also dubbed Deborah Kerr in The King and I, and sang the high, operatic notes of "Diamonds are a Girl's Best Friend" in Gentlemen Prefer Blondes. (Marilyn handled the rest.) 

Marni was the epitome of  a session musician - the player who is technically proficient but has very little personality. And a friend of mine made a very good point. Why is it that females so commonly get dubbed, yet it doesn't happen as often with men? 

Case in point: Jimmy Stewart warbled his way through a movie I watched this weekend, Born to Dance. Jimmy readily admitted he didn't have a very good singing voice, yet according to Robert Osborne of TCM, the MGM brass thought that a "professional" voice would have sounded phony. 

Oh really? Well, that didn't stop them from dubbing Ava Gardner in the 1950s Show Boat, even though she had a perfectly capable singing voice, as That's Entertainment 3 revealed. For that matter, Audrey Hepburn sang pretty well in Funny Face, although I understand she didn't have the operatic tone needed to pull off the Lerner and Lowe numbers of My Fair Lady. 

Still. with all this replacement going on, why was Brando permitted to sing as flat as a board in the film version of Guys and Dolls? And why in God's name did they let Lee Marvin grunt his way through Paint Your Wagon? Hell, at least Clint Eastwood could carry a tune, which is more than can be said for Pierce Brosnan in Mamma Mia.

These are rhetorical questions, of course, but I think we know the answer...

Classic Takes: Blue Skies/The Lion in Winter/TCM books

January 8, 2011

Blue Skies (1946, Stuart Heiser): Watched this in hi-def from TCM because I was curious about what is probably the least well known of the three Astaire/Crosby team-ups. It's not a patch on the prior classic, Holiday Inn, but it's actually better than the overrated and better known White Christmas, cheifly because of two great musical numbers. In "Puttin' on the Ritz," Astaire dances with multiple images of himself, while Astaire and Crosby team up wonderfully in "A Couple of Song and Dance Men," which is a hilarious take on the fact that Fred was a great dancer and Bing had two left feet. GRADE: B

The Lion in Winter (1968, Anthony Harvey) : This semi-sequel to 1964's Beckett, in which Peter O'Toole also played King Henry II, gets most of its juice from watching O'Toole and the great Kate duke it out in a war of wits. However, it also has a number of smaller pleasures, such as a fine film debut from a commanding Anthony Hopkins, and a surprisingly vivid take on French King Phillip II, played by a very young James Bond - er, Timothy Dalton. GRADE: A

TCM Books 

Having received the Turner Classic Movies book Leading Ladies as a Christmas present, I also purchased the companion books, Leading Men and Leading Couples. I'll post in more detail later about the folks included/excluded, but I have to say right off the bat that TCM made a rare grave error by leaving Shirley Temple out of Leading Ladies. No, her acting career didn't amount to much after she hit puberty, but simply put, she was THE biggest movie star of the 1930s, of any gender or height. When Entertainment Weekly put together a similar list that also included contemporary stars, they put Temple in, as they jolly well should have. With all due respect to the ladies I'm about to name, Temple deserves a place in the book over Susan Hayward or Ann Sheridan.  Shame.

Still, the books are a very fun read, most especially Leading Couples. They give vital stats for each couple, as well as key quotes. This comes into play very nicely indeed when the couple is Fay Wray and King Kong.

Fay Wray 

BORN 

Vina Fay Wray 

September 15, 1907

Cardston, Alberta Canada

DIED 

August 8, 2004

New York, New York

Natural causes.

STAR SIGN 

Virgo

HEIGHT

5' 3"

HUSBANDS and CHILDREN

Writer John Mark Saunders

(1928-1938) divorced.

Daughter Susan Carey

Writer Robert Riskin (who wrote most of Capra's great screenplays) 

(1942-1955) his death

Son Robert Jr. 

Daughter Victoria

Brain surgeon Sanfard Rothenberg

(1971-1991) his death

King Kong

BORN 

Kong (Megaprimatus Kong)

August 1927

Skull Island

DIED

March 7, 1933

New York, New York

Bullet wounds and a fall

STAR SIGN

Leo

HEIGHT

18'-24' (depending on the shot)

WIFE and CHILD

Unknown mate

Son

KEY QUOTE

Kong: GRAWWWWRRRR!

Wray: AAAAAAAAAAHH!

Sentiment? In It's a Wonderful Life? Pshaw!

Many people dismiss It's a Wonderful Life, calling it sappy and sentimental - to which I can only say:

Oh, really? Haven't watched the film lately, have you?

I HAVE watched the film lately. Saw it on the big screen the other day at the Salvation Army Kroc Center in Dayton, where I am now a member. And I've got news for all the naysayers. It's a Wonderful Life is scarcely sentimental at all. Point of fact, it's the darkest and most foreboding picture Frank Capra ever made.

Don't believe me? You're probably thinking of all the happy scenes in the movie, such as George Bailey twice proclaiming "I wish I had a million dollars! Hot dog!" Or the scene where the guy falls over in the chair at Clarence's proclamations that he's an angel. Or the scene where George lassos the moon.

But consider:

*About 15 minutes into the movie, the druggist is beating George on his bad ear, making it visibly bleed.

*George is a great guy, but when you get down to it, he grouses an awful lot about how podunk Bedford Falls is when it looks like a perfectly lovely little burg.

*George reveals  his feelings for Mary in what has to be one of angriest, most violent declarations of love ever put on film. He shakes her - hard - and yells at her. There's a Hallmark moment for you.

*The vision of Pottersville is truly nightmarish, and the pacing in those scenes is relentless. Capra doesn't let up on George, making him not only hit bottom, butt bursting through the bottom of the barrel. Jimmy Stewart's acting in these scenes is not THAT far removed from his anguished portrayal of Scottie Ferguson in Vertigo. It's why I chose the film still I did, rather than the image from the end most people use.

*Heck, even the George lassos the moon scene is rather lascivious, since it does have a naked chick in it -albeit within the realms of 1946's good taste.

But there are other, real-life considerations many people don't realize. Capra and Stewart made that film after serving during World War II. Capra saw many atrocities as a documentarian, and Stewart was one of the few Hollywood stars who DID see combat, piloting several air raid missions.

I believe their experiences are reflected in It's a Wonderful Life - and are a large part of why that film endures. Light is more effective when it has darkness to fight.  The reason the cheery scenes stand out so well is because they counterbalance all that despair.

My colleague Hannah Poturalski wrote about the movie too, noting

What I liked most about the film was being able to identify with the characters. With George Bailey I could really identify. He was a family man even from an early age and genuinely cared for people. It was because of this that he gave up his dreams for the good of the town. George seemed to be racing through life and didn’t take time to breathe and enjoy what he had.

Yes, at times things get a little sticky, especially toward the beginning, what with the talking stars and the moon that looks a Crunch Berry. But the movie earns those scenes.  It damn well deserves its angels' wings. As Ty Burr says in his book The Best Old Movies for Families, "Call it sappy if you like - but it's a movie made by people who have seen things they'd give anything to forget."

Keep that in mind and watch it again.  It only enriches one of the best films ever made.

A few words on Jean Arthur/The Devil and Miss Jones

Jean Arthur rarely ranks among the very greatest stars of all time. That's both unfair - and kind of fitting.

It's unfair because Arthur had an irresistible charm, and what made it so irresistible was that she wasn't really trying to lay on the charm, like, say, Marilyn Monroe - she just naturally was. And yet her not falling into most greatest stars lists is appropriate, because she had a way about her that was different from other great players. She didn't have the effervescence of Audrey Hepburn or the snap of the other Hepburn, Kate - but her characters combined a shield of sass that masked a core of romanticism. That made her fascinating.

I've seen quite a few of her pictures (as they called them back in her day), and many of them are flat-out classics. Even if they're not, they're at the least very good, partly because she's in them. Such is the case with The Devil and Miss Jones (1941, Sam Wood) which I watched last night. Charles Coburn stars as an uber-wealthy department store owner who poses as a lowly employee to thwart unionizers  - and one of those employees is Arthur.

The movie loses focus whenever it concentrates on anyone besides Coburn and Arthur, especially toward the end, but on the whole, it's great fun and well worth seeing. Jean Arthur always is.

GRADE: B+

The Jean Arthur films I've seen:

Mr. Deeds Goes to Town
You Can't Take it With You
Only Angels Have Wings
Mr. Smith Goes to Washington
The Talk of the Town
A Foreign Affair
Shane

PS - Whatever you do, don't mix this up with The Devil IN Miss Jones. 'Nuff said.

Big ol' review catch-up

It's time to play catch-up with all the movies I've seen lately but not reviewed. And it's also time to make a fall resolution: to begin reviewing films as I watch them to generate more posts here and bring things back to life a bit.

On the Big Screen

I Am Love: I had heard many good things about this film, from Tilda Swinton's fine performances to the lush cinematography. Both are indeed pluses, but Luca Guadagnino's overly showy direction kept pushing me away from the story, making the film a near miss. GRADE: C+

The Kids are All Right: Outstanding performances from all five principals (Annette Bening, Julianne Moore, Mark Ruffalo, Mia Wasikowska and Josh Hutcherson) combine with a canny, observant script to make this the indie film of the year. Attention, Academy: This is an EXCELLENT occasion to get Julianne Moore her Oscar. GRADE: A

Please Give: Nicole Holofcener's film about New Yorkers around an irascible old woman has many knowing moments and an excellent cast. but the screenplay is ambitious to a fault. Holofcener tries to cover so much ground, she doesn't find a shape for everything she has to say - but it connects often enough to work. GRADE: B

Restrepo:  This documentary about U.S. troops stationed at a particularlly deadly outpost in Afghanistan captures very well the mix of emotions involved in enduring such a place. I only wish it had devoted a little more time delving into the personalities of the individual soldiers. I would have liked to have known them better.GRADE: B+

Piranha: This goofy, lurid remake offers up a surprising number of genuine scares - and I would rate it even higher even if it didn't go for the sick gross-out gag a few times too often. This was shot in 3D, but I saw it flat at a drive-in, and I would say that I missed something - except I'm rather glad that a bloody dismembered penis didn't break the fourth wall. GRADE: B

Solitary Man: Note to filmmakers: When you make a movie about a completely irredeemable prick, you have to give the audience something to latch onto in the script or the direction. This movie fails to do that. A strong cast tries their best, but when I don't care if a terminally ill man lives or dies, something has failed to connect. GRADE: C-

Winter's Bone: Jennifer Lawrence's sensational performance as a young girl searching for her meth-head father has caused some people to mistake a very good film for a great one. The filmmaking is a bit too dry and ponderous, but Lawrence is a wonder. GRADE: B+

On the Small Screen

Following: Prototypical Christopher Nolan, which is to say that even in his early career, working in black and white with a shoestring budget, he was bending minds like no one else. I'd actually like to see him scale back and do something  more low-key again. GRADE: A

Hush ... Hush, Sweet Charlotte: This high-camp follow-up to Whatever Happened to Baby Jane, also starring Bette Davis and directed by Robert Aldrich, plays like a decent sequel - it's not as good as the original, but it's delerious enough to be effective. It's especially fun to see Olivia de Havilland chewing scenery. And gee, poor Bruce Dern - between this and Marnie, it appears his early career was devoted to being bloodily dispatched. GRADE: B

The Old Man and the Sea: The filming of Ernest Hemingway's classic novel unsurprisingly gets most of its power from Spencer Tracy's performance, but it tries too hard to maintain Heminway's prose in distrracting voice over narration. That narration breaks Billy Wilder's writing rule: When using voice-over narration, don't tell the audience what they already see. GRADE: B

Wild Boys of the Road: This is one of many very fine movies I discovered via  Martin Scorsese's Personal Journey Through American Movies. Directed by William Wellman, the film plays like a junior version of the seminal I Am a Fugitive From a Chain Gang. The story structure is a bit repetitive (kids get in trouble, escape, kids get in trouble, escape), but it packs a punch nonetheless. GRADE: B+

The sound of darning your socks and a split personality is the same!

Having just returned from Psycho, I thought I would share another fun personal connection it has - with the Beatles.

Now, Psycho came out a full two years before the Beatles released their first record. But it had a marked effect on at least one of their best-known songs.

Here is the title sequence of Psycho, with probably the most influential film score of all time - and criminally, composer Bernard Herrmann wasn't even nominated for an Oscar - nor were any of his other scores. But take a listen.



Now take a gander at this - this is the Beatles' Eleanor Rigby, from 1966 - but it's the strings only, as arranged by George Martin.



Draw your own conclusions.

The day I met Janet Leigh/Marion Crane/Marie Samuels

I have a very personal connection to Alfred Hitchcock's Psycho, which I will see this weekend at the Hot Times Cool Films series at the Victoria Theatre. I greatly identify with part of the movie.

No, no, no, not THAT part of it. But I am very lucky to be able to say I had the great honor of meeting Janet Leigh, who shocked the world by **SPOILER ALERT** dying before Psycho was even half over.

What follows is the column I wrote for the Middletown Journal, shortly after she passed away in 2004.


I was especially saddened to hear of Janet Leigh’s death Sunday, not only because she was a great actress, but because she was a great person, too.

Believe me, I know. I had the great pleasure of meeting her in 1995, when she came to the Neon Movies in Dayton to introduce screenings of three of her most famous films, “The Manchurian Candidate,” “Touch of Evil” and, of course, “Psycho.”

Many actresses would bristle if their most famous line was “AAAAAAAHHHHH!” But not Janet. She knew full well that shower scene was her ticket to immortality, and she wore it like a badge of honor.

Janet held Alfred Hitchcock in such high regard that even though most people who worked with the Master of Suspense called him “Hitch,” she insisted on referring to him as “Mister Hitchcock.” She delighted in telling people that decades after she spent a week filming that scene, she would only take baths.

And it was her most famous film that inspired an act of generosity I will never forget.

The theater manager had wanted to book a 35-millimeter print of “Psycho,” but Universal’s distribution people were only willing to give the theater a 16-millimeter print that wouldn’t even fill up the movie screen.

The manager didn’t want to use Janet as any kind of “trump card,” but he felt he owed her an explanation as to why she’d be introducing a 16-millimeter print of her best-known movie.

“Is that right?” Janet said upon learning of the dilemma. “Let me see if I can’t talk to someone about that.”

That she did. Boy, did she ever.

She contacted Lew Wasserman, one of the old super executives of Hollywood who was a god at Universal. If Wasserman asked for something, you delivered.

So Universal delivered to us the master print of “Psycho” — the one used to strike other prints, the one the president gets if he wants to see it. So not only did we get our 35-millimeter print, we got to see “Psycho” in the best possible way, with no scratches and with Janet Leigh gracing us with her presence.

I exchanged a few pleasantries with Janet, posed for a photo with her and asked her to sign a copy of a Hitchcock book I had. She spelled my name wrong — “Erik” — but a guy can’t and didn’t complain in the face of the immense favor she did us. Just being in the same room with someone who worked with Hitchcock, Orson Welles, James Stewart and Judy Garland, among many others, was reward enough.

Thank you, Janet. Hope you’re enjoying a warm bath up there.

How a movie buff spends the 4th of July

Over the long holiday weekend I watched a quartet of movies, some of which were very appropriate Independence Day viewing, and one of which was more than a little ironic Independence Day viewing,.

American Madness: I finally caught up with this early Frank Capra picture, the only one I hadn't seen from a DVD box set containing many of the director's gems. It stars Walter Huston as a scrupulously honest bank president who is overwhelmed when the bank is robbed and customers jam the lobby trying to withdraw their money. It's a very underrated little gem, which packs quite a lot of power into 76 lean minutes. One can see prototypes of Capra themes, including some very strong foreshadowing of It's a Wonderful Life. GRADE: A

Sidenote: The DVD box set contains an outstanding feature-length documentary called Frank Capra's American Dream, with interviews ranging from Martin Scorsese to Robert Altman to Oliver Stone. And it's hosted and narrated by the director whose work most strongly resembles Capra, Ron Howard. Well worth seeking out.

The Music Man: The movie musical started to fall out of fashion in the 60s, but this particular entry is one of the best of a decade that presented one bloated epic after another. It feels a little long at times, but Robert Preston's Energizer-bunny performance as Harold Hill more than makes up for any lulls. He's an absolute wonder; it's a crime he wasn't Oscar nominated. Meredith Wilson's songs must cram in more syllables per minute than any other legendary Broadway show. Ye gods! Fun movie geek trivia - the cinematographer was Robert Burks, who shot many of Hitchcock's best-known works, including Vertigo and To Catch a Thief. In fact, the movie he shot immediately after this one was The Birds. How's THAT for a segue? GRADE: A 

Only Angels Have Wings: Slightly lesser Howard Hawks, which is to say it's really quite good if not quite excellent. The story, which details the trials of a ragtag group of pilots who fly dangerous missions, veers too often from its best asset: the romance between Cary Grant and Jean Arthur, who was adorable in every movie she made. Even so, it benefits from outstanding aerial photography and a great ensemble. It's a bracine reminder none of us will ever be as fortunate as Grant, who gets to romance both Arthur and Rita Hayworth. Great problem to have. GRADE: B+


Reds: File under Fourth of July viewing, Ironic. Warren Beatty's 1981 epic about John Reed and Louise Bryant being swept up in the Russian Revolution, is ambitious to a fault. While the actor/co-writer/director's passion is undeniable, he bites off more than he can chew, trying to David Lean, Elia Kazan and Woody Allen all at once. The sprawling epic loses focus and momentum too often, but it has individual moments that are very powerful, and his tactic of interviewing real-life witnesses, and interspersing them throughout the film. was a masterstroke. As I have said before, I would much rather watch a film that tries too hard, than one that does not try hard enough. GRADE: B+

Disney, Buster, Davis and Crawford - together at last!

I had quite  a variety of retro moviegoing experiences this weekend, veering from two silent Buster Keaton comedies to the Grand Guignol/Grand Dame camp of Whatever Happened to Baby Jane to the fall and rise of the Mouse House.

It all started Friday night at Columbus' classic movie series at the grand Ohio Theatre. First up was a double feature of Keaton's Sherlock Jr. and Seven Chances.

I've always been more of a Chaplin man than a Keaton man, but there is simply no denying Keaton's inventive genius. Sherlock Jr., in which Buster plays a wanna-be detective and movie projectionist who literally stumbles into one of the movies at his theater. It's still absolutely dazzling 86 (!) years later - not to mention hilarious. You can even watch all 45 minutes of it here if you like.



Seven Chances isn't quite as good, since it's a little slower, but it's still extremely entertaining, particularly at the climax when an avalanche of rocks AND an avalanche of would-be brides threaten to overtake him.




Enhancing all of this was live organ accompaniment by the uber-talented Clark Wilson, who would make amusing musical choices (such as "We're in the Money" during the reading of a will) and even sound effects like a car horn. If you can ever go to a silent film with live musical accompaniment, DO IT - there's really nothing quite like it.

Sherlock Jr. A+/Seven Chances A-

After that, I stayed on to see the late show of Whatever Happened to Baby Jane, the Joan Crawford vs. Bette Davis bitchfest (or at least the one that made it to the screen). To give you some idea of just how nasty  it is, consider this: Crawford is the NICE one. Davis makes even Faye Dunaway's  caricature of Crawford in Mommie Dearest seem like Minnie Mouse by comparison.

I'd stop well short of calling it a great movie - there are too many "Why doesn't she just ..." moments for that. Still, I can see why it has its reputation as kind of a camp classic, and it is perversely enjoyable to see these two rumble. Now I think I'll put Hush ... Hush Sweet Charlotte (with Davis and Olivia de Havila, also directed by Robert Aldrich) in my Netflix queue.

Whatever Happened to Baby Jane: B+

Finally, I returned to Columbus the next day to see the documentary Waking Sleeping Beauty. This tells the story of Disney animation, from its low point in 1985 when The Black Cauldron was outgrossed by The Care Bears Movie, to the high commercial point of The Lion King in 1994. Being the Disney buff that I am, I only wished this were even longer with even more detail, but it does an excellent and even-handed job of telling this story fraught with wonder and drama. The archival footage, particularly relating to The Little Mermaid, is wonderful. It plays at the Landmark Gateway theater in Columbus through the July 4 weekend.  GRADE: A


Speaking of Disney, yes, I have seen Toy Story 3, but I want to wait to review it until I get another look at it. It takes some surprising turns (I think it plays better if you know going in that it's actually rather dark), but it's pretty much as wonderful as everyone says it is. Coming soon, to a movie blog near you ...

The classic movie series closer to home - Victoria!

The Ultra Cool Film Series in Dayton has unveiled its lineup of classic films for the summer, and as ever, the lineup is quite good, with one particular eyebrow-raiser.

The Music Man, July 2-4: This is playing Columbus' classic series too, and I already cracked the obvious Beatle joke in my post about it. So this time I shall merely say it will be fun to see a musical whose set I toured, on the Warner Bros.' lot in Burbank several years ago.

Psycho, July 9-11: The first time Victoria played this years ago, it was one of the few films that didn't get applause at the end. I like to think that's because it still creeps people out.

Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, July 16-18: Very fun film, although I think it's a touch overrated. The best thing about it, aside from the two leads, is the terrific cinematography by Conrad L. Hall, who also shot American Beauty and In Cold Blood, among many others.

Cat on a Hot Tin Roof, July 23-25:  So it seems Victoria is on a Paul Newman kick. I saw this for the first time recently and liked it quite a lot. It's no Streetcar Named Desire, but it's still fine.

My Fair Lady, July 30-31, Aug. 1: Not seeing it in Columbus. Not seeing it in Dayton. Unless I need a plush place to take a nap.

Animal House, Aug. 6-8.: I find this booking terribly funny for two reasons. First, I'm sure it's a complete coincidence and all, but the timing is more than a little ironic, what the news of the Miami University sororities lately. And this may be the first time in many years that this theater has played a film that has the word "tits" in it. I say "may be" because Victoria used to play cult films in the 70s.

Raiders of the Lost Ark Aug. 13, Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom Aug. 14, Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade Aug. 15: So it seems that Victoria is on a Karen Allen kick. She was in Animal House and of course, she is in Raiders too.

Casablanca: Aug. 20-22: "I've often speculated why you don't return to America. Did you abscond with the church funds? Run off with a senator's wife? I like to think you killed a man. It's the Romantic in me." Bogie and Ingrid Bergman are great, but Claude Rains has all the funniest lines. 


Fiddler on the Roof, Aug. 27-29: Oscar trivia time: John Williams' first win was NOT for a Steven Spielberg film, but for his adaptation of this score.

How I love to spend my summers - with classic movies!

Columbus just announced its summer classic movie series. Here are my takes on their (mostly) wonderful slate. Never mind the sun - here is where I will be spending much of my summer.

Note: For any Ohio friends who are reading this, the weekday screenings are tough for me to make, but weekends usually work, Dayton's series is due to be announced in May. 

Rear Window (1954) Friday, June 4, 7:30 pm Sunday, June 6, 2 pm & 7:30 pm  James Stewart, Grace Kelly, Raymond Burr Seen it several times. After all, it is my second-favorite Hitch, next to Vertigo.

It Happened One Night (1934) Wednesday & Thursday, June 9 & 10, 7:30 pm daily Clark Gable, Claudette Colbert, Walter Connolly You know most of the cliches that run rampant in most rom-coms? This film invented most of them - and did them better.

FRIGHT NITE DOUBLE FEATURE! Friday, June 11, 7:30 pm SERIES PREMIERE! Frankenstein (1931) Boris Karloff, Colin Clive, Mae Clarke SERIES PREMIERE! The Wolf Man (1941) Lon Chaney, Jr., Claude Rains, Bela Lugosi What a fun double! Frankenstein deserves its reputation. Can't speak to The Wolf Man, but it's gotta be better than this year's movie.

Singin’ in the Rain (1952) Saturday, June 12, 7:30 pm Sunday, June 13, 2 pm & 7:30 pm Gene Kelly, Debbie Reynolds, Donald O’Connor Perhaps the greatest example of the Golden Age of MGM musicals, this delightful, tune-filled comedy spoofs the chaos in Hollywood during  the transition from silent to sound movies. Musical gems include “Good Morning,” “Broadway Melody,” “Make ‘Em Laugh,” and of course, title tune “Singin’ in the Rain.” To quote Jiminy Cricket: PERHAPS??!??!?!

SERIES PREMIERE! Rio Bravo (1959) Wednesday & Thursday, June 16 & 17, 7:30 pm daily John Wayne, Dean Martin, Ricky Nelson, Angie Dickinson, Walter Brennan Very fine film, but I prefer the movie this was a response to: High Noon, my favorite Western of all time. Wayne and Howard Hawks just span in their graves.

SERIES PREMIERE / CHICK FLICK FRIDAY! Pretty Woman (1990) Rated R Friday, June 18, 7:30 pm Richard Gere, Julia Roberts, Jason Alexander So movies from the 90s are in the series now, huh? Pass the Geritol.

Cartoon Capers Saturday, June 19, 10 am

Some Like It Hot (1959) Saturday, June 19, 7:30 pm Sunday, June 20, 2 pm & 7:30 pm Marilyn Monroe, Tony Curtis, Jack Lemmon Make 'em roar, make em scream, take a fall, butt a wall, split a seam ... oh, wrong movie. Well, maybe not.

SERIES PERMIERE! The Goonies (1985) Wednesday, June 23, 7:30 pm Lots of fun, but it's one of those films that gets overrated by people wearing the rose-colored glasses of nostalgia. I always preferred Gremlins.

SILENT FILM / BUSTER KEATON DOUBLE FEATURE! Thursday & Friday, June 24 & 25, 7:30 pm daily Both films will be accompanied live by Clark Wilson on the Ohio Theatre’s prized “Mighty Morton” organ! SERIES PREMIERE! Sherlock Jr. (1924) Buster Keaton, Kathryn McGuire SERIES PREMIERE! Seven Chances (1925) I had the great pleasure of hearing Clark WIlson provide accompaniment to Metropolis; the experience was mind-blowing. I've always wanted an excuse to see a silent comedy. Now I have two.

SERIES PREMIERE / LATE NITE FRIDAY! Whatever Happened to Baby Jane? (1962) Friday, June 25, 11 pm Bette Davis, Joan Crawford, Victor Buono This would make a heck of a triple after the Keaton films, no?

Carousel (1956) Saturday, June 26, 7:30 pm Sunday, June 27, 2 pm & 7:30 pm Not a great movie, but I have a soft spot for it because my friend Angie played a lovely Julie Jordan.

My Man Godfrey (1936) Wednesday & Thursday, June 30 & July 1, 7:30 pm daily William Powell, Carole Lombard Touted as the funniest comedy of its decade! Of the decade? Well, no, that's Bringing Up Baby. But this is almost as funny.

All About Eve (1950) Wednesday & Thursday, July 7 & 8, 7:30 pm daily Bette Davis, Marilyn Monroe, Anne Baxter, George Sanders, Celeste Holm If only this didn't play during the week so I had a better chance of seeing it with a dear friend whose birthday  had a lot to do with this movie last year ;) Inside references aside, this is one of the best films ever made for the sheer power of the dialogue. It sparkles ... and burns.

SERIES PREMIERE / CHICK FLICK FRIDAY! How Stella Got Her Groove Back (1998) Rated R Friday, July 9, 7:30 pm Angela Bassett, Taye Diggs, Whoopi Goldberg How Eric Politely Declined.

The Music Man (1962) Saturday, July 10, 7:30 pm Sunday, July 11, 2 pm & 7:30 pm Robert Preston, Shirley Jones, Buddy Hackett, Ron Howard Double your trouble, which starts with T and that rhymes with P and that stands for ... Paul!

Strangers on a Train (1951) Wednesday-Friday, July 14-16, 7:30 pm daily Farley Granger, Ruth Roman, Robert Walker “ Never were a merry-go-round or a tennis game so chilling.

Cartoon Capers Saturday, July 17, 10 am

SERIES PREMIERE! Patton (1970) Saturday, July 17, 7:30 pm Sunday, July 18, 2 pm & 7:30 pm George C. Scott, Karl Malden George C. Scott and Bugs Bunny - together at last!!

Double Indemnity (1944) Wednesday-Friday, July 21-23, 7:30 pm daily Greatest noir ever? You better believe it, baby.

SERIES PREMIERE / LATE NITE FRIDAY! The Omen (1976) RATED R Friday, July 23, 11 pm Gregory Peck, Lee Remick, Harvey Stephens More slightly overrated Richard Donner. Personally I think it'd be fun to mash up this and The Goonies.

My Fair Lady (1964) Saturday, July 24, 7:30 pm Sunday, July 25, 2 pm Audrey Hepburn, Rex Harrison, Stanley Holloway I could have yawned all night.