TCM
TiVo ALERT
For
August
8–August 14
DAVID’S
BEST BETS:
THE
ODD COUPLE (August
9, 8:00 pm): This is an excellent film though not as great as the
television series primarily because the show is one of the five best
TV programs of all time. The film, released in 1968, about two years
before the TV show, follows the familiar storyline of divorced
sportswriter Oscar Madison (Walter Matthau) allowing longtime friend,
Felix Unger (Jack Lemmon), a photographer recently separated from his
wife, to move in with him. Oscar is a slob and Felix is a neurotic
neat-freak. The interaction between Matthau and Lemmon, which is so
good in many films, is outstanding here, second to only to 1966's The
Fortune Cookie.
The first season of the TV show is largely taken from the film,
including a number of failed attempts by Oscar to have a good time
with the Pigeon Sisters because of Felix's longing for his wife.
THE
FOUNTAINHEAD (August 11, 6:00 pm): That this movie
was ever made is a surprise, particularly by a big studio – Warner
Brothers – starring
Gary Cooper and directed by King Vidor. That Ayn Rand, the author of
the book of the same name, wrote the screenplay is a complete shock.
For those not familiar with Rand, she was a novelist who wrote about
"Objectivism," a political philosophy of individualism,
rational self-interest, not contributing to society for the greater
good, and to this day is the darling of Neo-Cons and Libertarians.
This 1949 film is based on her 1943 book, "The Fountainhead,"
and is about Howard Roark (Cooper), a brilliant architect who works
in a quarry as a laborer rather than practice his craft because he
wouldn't have complete control over the buildings he wants to design.
Interestingly, Rand agreed to write the film's screenplay only if she
had complete control over it. (She did have to change a couple of
things because of the Hays Code such making a rape scene into one of
submissive passion, and having a character commit suicide rather than
divorce as the latter was a no-no under the Code.) A fellow
architect, with inferior ability, asks Roark to design a building.
Roark agrees to even give the guy all the credit as long as the
structure is built to his exact design. However, the firm that owns
the building changes it so Roark purposely blows up the structure. He
is arrested, goes on trial and defends himself by delivering a speech
about his right to do what he wants with his building. Yeah, the
story sounds ridiculous. But it's a fascinating film that looks into
the passion and conviction of a principled man in a world with far
too few principles. Cooper and Patricia Neal, who's character becomes
his lover (and the two had a legitimate affair during the filming of
this movie), are excellent. Vidor does a great job making the film
believable enough to inform and entertain.
ED’S
BEST BETS:
THE
FAST AND THE FURIOUS (August 10, 1:00 pm): A
wonderfully fast-moving B written by Roger Corman and co-directed by
star John Ireland. Ireland plays truck driver Frank Webster, hunted
for a crime he did not commit. Cornered in a small coffee shop by a
zealous citizen who is suspicious of the stranger, Frank manages to
escape and, as he gets away, kidnaps a young woman named Connie
(Dorothy Malone), driving off in her Jaguar sports car. At first
she’s a difficult hostage, trying to escape a few times. But the
struggle soon gives way as the two fall in love. Continuing to elude
the law, they slip into a cross-border sports car race, which Frank
hopes will allow them to make it to Mexico. However, Frank gives up
his chance to escape by coming to the aid of a racer who has crashed.
Meanwhile, Connie informs the police of his plan to reach Mexico so
he might face trial and be acquitted. At the last moment, Frank also
decides it’s better to turn himself in and try to find a future
with Connie. This was the first production for the fledgling American
International company. Made for $50,000 it grossed $250,000 at the
box office. While not a big hit, the money allowed the company to
continue and it became the most influential and successful B studio
in Hollywood history.
KONGO (August
14, 9:15 am): There’s always a danger in remaking a film,
especially if it starred someone on the level of Lon Chaney, but MGM
managed to fit Walter Huston right in and never missed a beat.
Granted, West of Zanzibar was a silent and one can
do much more with sound, but still, this is Chaney we’re talking
about, and his performance still holds up well today. Kongo
tends to be overlooked by a lot of film fans, and this is
understandable as Warner Brothers almost had a stranglehold on lurid
Pre-Code films, MGM was known for gloss, and the film’s director,
William Cowen, is not exactly a household name when it comes to
directors. But give this one a chance. Huston hits every right note
as Flint, a paralyzed, deranged megalomaniac out for revenge against
his wife’s lover, who he blames for paralyzing him. There’s no
stopping his rule by degradation: he has turned the new village
doctor (Conrad Nagel) into a drug addict, and he inflicts constant
humiliations upon the woman who loves him (Lupe Velez in a fine
performance). When a woman named Ann (Virginia Bruce), whom he
believes to be the daughter of his enemy, pays a visit, he pulls out
all the stops. This is an extremely grubby film, featuring almost
every element the Hays Code would ban only a few years later: rape,
drug addiction, sadomasochism, and lots of alcoholism. Cowan directs
in the same overheated style as the silent original, and it’s a
toss-up as to which is the most depraved.
WE
DISAGREE ON ... WRITTEN ON THE WIND (August 10, 10:00 pm)
ED:
A-. At first glance, this film may seem to be no more
than a trashy, overwrought ‘50s soap opera. But that’s only if
you look on the surface. Look deeper and you’ll see one of the most
subversive indictments of 1950s American life and culture that was
ever committed to film; a perverse melodrama in which lie the seeds
of the prime-time soaps that dominated American television in the
‘80s. No American filmmaker exposed the American myths of suburban
bliss and domesticity that defined the ‘50s as masterfully as
Douglas Sirk. In an even greater irony, Sirk was born in Germany. The
film is centered around the Hadley family, who prove what can happen
when a Texan clan has too much money and power. Robert Stack is
Kyle, the drunken son. Dorothy Malone is Marylee, the sluttish
daughter. Rock Hudson is Mitch Wayne, a poor, good-hearted
family friend who falls in love with Kyle’s new, good-hearted wife,
Lucy (Lauren Bacall). Using interiors wildly over the top, and
exteriors that are obviously Sirk wanting us to look beneath the
glitter at the rot underneath, and the best way too get that point
across is not to use realism, but rather and very exaggerated
Hollywood motif. For instance, the Manhattan skyline in the opening
scenes is obviously a painted backdrop instead of a rear projection.
And when Sirk uses rear-projection, the cars we see are at least 10
years too old. The artificiality of the scenery is matched by that of
the actors, who all look like they stepped off the cover of Life
Magazine and speak in cliched pulp-romance. These are the
stock types we expect to see in a gaudy soap opera: Mitch Wayne grows
up poor on oil millionaire Jasper Hadley’s Texas ranch, raised with
Jasper's son Kyle and daughter Marylee. The adult Mitch has an
important job in the Hadley Oil Company, working long, honest days
while Kyle and Marylee have become drunken wastrels. Critic Dave
Kehr, called the film “a screaming Brechtian essay on the shared
impotence of American family and business life that draws attention
to the artificiality of the film medium, in turn commenting on the
hollowness of middle-class American life.” If you only see what’s
obvious on the surface, the film is a trashy soap opera. But if you
look beneath to the exaggerated style and the absurdly satirical
outlook, the exaggeration and the satirical humor, it’s a
subversive send-up of the ‘50s dramas (think Tennessee Williams or
Arthur Miller) that took such material seriously with a solemn
outlook. Sirk knew he was trapped, making such films. He simply
inserted subliminal messages that underlined the real message.
DAVID:
C-. This is an over-the-top, borderline silly soap-opera
film about a brother and sister (played by Robert Stack and
Dorothy Malone), who are heirs to a successful Texas oil company.
Both are hard drinkers who jump from bed to bed, somehow unhappy that
they are attractive, rich and have easy lives. I am a huge fan of
Lauren Bacall. She wasn't getting too many offers for movies
when Written on the Wind was made in 1956, which
explains why she's in it. She plays a secretary who for some unknown
reason ends up marrying Kyle Hadley (Stack). She comes across bored
in this movie. Her character, Lucy Moore Hadley, is attracted to
Mitch Wayne (Rock Hudson), a talented geologist and Kyle's best
friend. Mitch is interested in Lucy when he's not too busy dragging a
constantly-drunk Kyle out of the local bar or repeatedly rejecting
the advances of Marylee Hadley (Malone). Some scenes are ridiculous,
such as Kyle going into a rage when Lucy tells him she's pregnant.
Kyle has a low sperm count and incorrectly believes Mitch is the
father. You can't make this stuff up. This film is predictable,
repetitive and not that interesting. Also, there's no reason to care
about any of the main characters, who seem to have it all, but are
miserable. Who can possibly relate to any of them?
No comments:
Post a Comment