Tag Archives: movies

Apr 28

Saturday night special

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For some years now, Turner Classic Movies has had a Saturday-night showcase of all-time great movies called “The Essentials.” Originally, it was hosted by well-known film directors: Rob Reiner, then Sydney Pollack (who was terrific), then Peter Bogdanovich. Then, TCM decided to go to a two-host format, with Robert Osborne, who already hosts all of their other prime-time movies, plus a co-host. The first such co-host was film critic Molly Haskell, who was knowledgeable but who had all the on-air personality of a test pattern. After her came Carrie Fisher, a wonderful improvement who had terrific chemistry with Osborne. Then came Rose McGowan, who was so forgettable that I had her confused with a different actress until I looked it up just now. Then came Alec Baldwin, who was popular enough to be kept on for three seasons. He’s recently been replaced by Drew Barrymore. Tonight, watching “The Third Man,” is actually the first chance I’ve gotten to tune in since she started (I did catch part of the closing remarks for some movie a few weeks ago). Barrymore seems like a great choice – actress, director, producer and descendant of Hollywood royalty.

In her opening remarks about “The Third Man,” Osborne teased her about not being convinced as he about “The Third Man” being essential. She doesn’t like what she feels is the lack of chemistry between Joseph Cotten and Alida Valli. Osborne pointed out that there’s not supposed to be chemistry so much as unrequited love – Cotten adores Valli’s character but she is still grieving for another.  Anyway, the more Drew talked about other aspects of the movie, the more excited she sounded about it – as Osborne teasingly pointed out.

Meanwhile, Alec Baldwin recently interviewed Osborne for his excellent podcast. It’s a fun interview, in which Osborne talks about the role Lucille Ball played in his career – hiring him as a young actor, but later suggesting that he might have more of a career as a writer than an actor.

Apr 01

A Princess of Mars

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As I posted on Facebook the other day, I’d been looking for some cheap Kindle reading material and decided to download some of the Edgar Rice Burroughs novels about Barsoom, the source material for the current movie “John Carter.” The movie has become notorious as a flop – it was hugely expensive and would have had to become a huge hit in order to be considered successful, and it hasn’t been. But at least one of my friends commented on the Facebook post that she and her daughter enjoyed the movie (“Not our fave, but fun.”).

It’s been a crazy weekend – my father was in a wreck on Saturday; he’s bruised, has a gash on his arm, but otherwise OK. But I’ve gotten to make some progress tonight on A Princess of Mars, the origin story and primary source for “John Carter.” The story was first published in 1912. So far, I’m thoroughly enjoying it. It’s definitely better than The Mysterious Island, another proto-science fiction classic and the last Kindle public domain classic literature freebie I blogged about.

Burroughs, of course, was much better known for creating Tarzan, but some have said his Barsoom books have actually been more influential, establishing characters and situations which would be reused and expanded upon by later generations of fantasy writers.

The movie is still showing in Tullahoma, but I don’t want to see it until I’ve finished the book, and maybe not until I’ve finished all three or four of the Barsoom books I’ve downloaded. So I may just have to wait and watch it on DVD. I don’t want to spend the extra money on 3D anyway.

I like the fact that Amazon offers free public domain classic literature for the Kindle. I’m still waiting for a can’t miss deal on a non-fiction book, or a couple of books for which I’m on the waiting list at the library’s e-book site. But for now, John Carter and his adventures are childish fun.
Mar 06

Brothers, partners, strangers

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I have wanted to see “The Boys: The Sherman Brothers’ Story” ever since it was announced several years ago. I was thinking about it just last weekend – before I heard about the death of Robert Sherman.

To recap: Richard and Robert Sherman wrote about 10 times their share of unforgettable songs, many of which are wedged into your cerebral cortex at this very instant. Their output includes their tenure as staff songwriters for the Walt Disney Company, and I think they were the only ones to hold that title. Just think about the songs from “Mary Poppins” plus the “Winnie The Pooh” song plus the “Tigger” song plus the songs from “The Jungle Book” plus “It’s A Small World After All.” Their non-Disney product included “Chitty Chitty Bang Bang,” music from the animated “Charlotte’s Web,” one of the Charlie Brown feature films, and the Ringo Starr hit “You’re Sixteen (You’re Beautiful and You’re Mine).”

But the story gets more interesting – for much of that storied career, the brothers were estranged from each other – professional collaborators and nothing else. When a stage version of “Mary Poppins” premiered a few years ago in London, one of Richard’s kids started talking to one of Robert’s kids, and the two cousins – who barely knew each other – came up with the idea for the documentary. They were able to get the backing of Ben Stiller as an executive producer, and the blessing of Disney, which distributed the documentary. (Without the ability to license Disney clips, it would have been a pretty short documentary.)

The documentary is available from Amazon, both as a DVD and as a digital download, but I kept looking for it to turn up on regular TV. I may have to go ahead and rent it from Amazon.
Jan 11

The Secret Life of a classic short story

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I read an entertainment column this week in which the columnist had to explain to a reader the origin of the name “Walter Mitty” for a daydreamer. The name, of course, came from something near and dear to my heart: the short story “The Secret Life of Walter Mitty,” by one of America’s greatest humorists, James Thurber.

I have always wanted to give a reading of several Thurber pieces, and I’ve actually practiced how I’d do some of the different voices and characters in “Mitty.” It’s one of my favorites.

Anyway, the story was made into a movie starring Danny Kaye, which – according to everything I’ve ever read – Thurber loathed. IMDb reports that Thurber offered Samuel Goldwyn $10,000 not to make the movie. Also according to IMDb, Thurber imagined his friend Robert Benchley when writing the story and thought Danny Kaye all wrong for the part.

Well, I found out from the entertainment column that the movie is going to be remade, with Ben Stiller both starring and directing. I’m guessing Thurber would like this version even less.
Jan 10

Jazz doesn’t resolve

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There are some books I read, and get very excited about, but they don’t necessarily stick with me.

“Blue Like Jazz” has stuck with me. After reading it, I suggested it as curriculum for the Sunday School class I was attending at the time. I wasn’t sure what the reaction would be to it – it’s quite frank, and even includes a little bit of profanity – but I think it was well-received, despite my lack of abilities as a teacher.

The book, published with the subtitle “Nonreligious thoughts on Christian spirituality,” is a memoir – not a linear sort of memoir, but something more poetic – by Donald Miller, focused on his experiences at Reed College in Oregon. Reed is one of the most intellectual universities in the nation, and also one of the most hostile towards religion. Miller went into that environment as a Christian, but also as someone troubled by the fundamentalist version of Christianity in which he was raised. He ends up finding a circle of friends, who are at various stages in their approach to Christianity. They end up recognizing their own failures and shortcomings, and the ways in which they hinder dicsussion about faith with the already-hostile student body at Reed.

The first thing I read from the book was an excerpt published in “Christianity Today” in which Don and his friends participate in the school’s over-the-top festival of debauchery, Ren Fayre by building a confession booth – and doing something quite different with it than anyone would have expected.

It’s a beautifully-written book, and one that stays with you for some time.

I was a little skeptical – and in some ways, I still am – when I heard it was going to be turned into a movie. The movie is being directed by Steve Taylor, who in an earlier life (when I was at college) was one of my favorite singer-songwriters. He later went on to found the crossover band Chagall Guevara before becoming a record company executive, responsible for making Sixpence None The Richer a success.

Along the way, he directed music videos, both his own and for Sixpence. And eventually, he wanted to try his hand at a feature film.

I still have never seen Steve’s first movie, “The Second Chance,” even though I was present for the filming of one scene. I gather, from some things I’ve heard, that it was a little more mundane than I would have expected from Taylor, who delighted in the sharp and satirical as a recording artist.

But when I heard Steve was trying to film “Blue Like Jazz,” I was intrigued. The film was about to go into production when it suffered budget troubles, and a widely-publicized Kickstarter campaign raised more than enough to finish it, and demonstrated just how much the book had meant to so many. I should have given something myself, but money was tight at the time and I really didn’t have it to spare. Actually, that last sentence sounds a lot like an argument Donald has with his pastor in a chapter late in the book.

Well, the money was raised, the movie was completed, and there’s now a teaser trailer:

I think it looks promising, although there are a couple of line readings in the trailer that are a little clunky. I really, really don’t want this to be a typical “Christian movie.” I really, really want this to convey the complexity and nuance that make the book so wonderful.

Dec 17

The Man Who Came To Dinner

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Julio Francesconi, a charming older gentleman who writes beautiful short stories that he allows us to publish in the Times-Gazette, dropped his Christmas story by the paper a week or so ago, and while we were chatting he noted that I was in plays sometime and suggested that I ought to play the lead in “The Man Who Came To Dinner” some time. That led to a conversation last week with a couple of my college-age castmates in “It’s A Wonderful Life” who’d never heard of the play or the wonderful movie adaptation.

Then, tonight, I discovered that the 1942 movie will play tomorrow night, Sunday, on Turner Classic Movies. It’s hilarious fun, starring Monty Wooley in the lead role, which he originated on Broadway. It also includes Jimmy Durante and a rare comedy performance from Bette Davis.

Alexander Woolcott, a member of the Algonquin Round Table, was a critic and radio host. He was a house guest of playwright Moss Hart, and generally took over the house, was pompous and demanding to the point of absurdity, and even wrote an insulting remark in the guest book before leaving. Hart was laughing about the incident with his collaborator George S. Kaufman, causing Kaufman to joke that it could have been worse – Woolcott could have broken his leg and been forced to stay longer.

The two men looked at each other and realized they had just started writing their next play.

“The Man Who Came To Dinner” is about Sheridan Whiteside (Wooley), a columnist and radio commentator making a speaking engagement in a small town. But he slips and falls on the ice, breaking a leg. He’s wheelchair-bound and the doctor won’t let him travel, so he is forced to stay with a local couple, who had intended only to have him over for dinner before the lecture. Whiteside is demanding, insulting, egotistical and obnoxious, the houseguest from hell in all sorts of comical ways (one of which involves live penguins). His long-suffering secretary Maggie (Davis, in the movie version) is at least used to putting up with him. But when Maggie starts falling for the local newspaper editor, a would-be playwright (Richard Travis), Whiteside is scared of losing her and schemes to break up the lovers by tantalizing the playwright with a visit from a glamorous and well-known actress (Ann Sheridan) who just might be interested in starring in the newspaperman’s play.

Also visiting Whiteside is his friend Banjo (Jimmy Durante), a character based on the madcap off-screen personality of another Algonquin Round Table member, Harpo Marx.

The movie is hysterically funny, and well worth DVRing. I’ve also seen a  TV broadcast of the 2000 Broadway revival of the play which starred Nathan Lane and Jean Smart, and that was quite good as well. Both are available on DVD.

Woolcott and Marx ended up starring as their alter egos in a West Coast production of the play. That would have been interesting.

Nov 25

It’s time to get things started on The Muppet Show tonight …

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I was over at my father’s house this evening, and so my tersely-worded Facebook review of “The Muppets” was posted via cell phone:

Muppets FTW. Exceeded my high expectations.

I probably don’t need to say much else, but I wanted to anyway. My father, my brother and sister-in-law from North Carolina, their two children and I went to see the movie this afternoon in Tullahoma, and I could not have been more pleased. It was entertaining, respectful of the franchise and yet imbuing it with a fresh new energy. Like the reboot of “Star Trek” a couple of years ago, it was intended to be accessible to newcomers while rewarding to old fans, and like “Star Trek” it succeeded wildly on both counts. I have no idea to what Frank Oz might be referring when he implied it was disrespectful to the characters or canon. This was no more a departure from previous Muppet projects than some of those projects were from each other.

Most important of all, it was just good fun. My nephew, who sat next to me in the theater, told me he knew I found it funny because I laughed at it so much. Absolutely. He and his five-year-old sister loved it too.

Anyway, it was hard not to feel a tingle of excitement when they recreated the opening credits of “The Muppet Show” for the big screen.

I don’t want to give too much away, but there were fun celebrity cameos. I’ll spoil just one, and it’s one you have to look quickly for anyway: When Kermit tries to get the old gang back together, Fozzie is performing in Reno, Nevada, as the only authentic part of a seedy Muppet tribute band, the “Moopets.” I had to laugh when I recognized that the drummer, dressed to look like Animal, was Dave Grohl of Nirvana and the Foo Fighters. (Speaking of Nirvana, there’s a performance of “Smells Like Teen Spirit” later in the movie that has to be heard to be appreciated.)

Kudos to Jason Segel for what was obviously a labor of love as producer, co-writer and co-star. Amy Adams is wonderful, too, and Chris Cooper is fine and funny as the scenery-chewing villain (including a somewhat-unexpected musical number).

Also, if you’re a Pixar fan, be sure and see “The Muppets” in the theater because there’s a “Toy Story” short subject before the movie – a nice play on the relationship between real toys and the little toys that come as premiums in fast food children’s meals.

Nov 12

Noises Off

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The last time my out-of-state brother and sister-in-law came in for a visit, Mike loaned me their DVD of “Noises Off.” I’ve never seen either the play or the movie; I’ve had several community theater castmates talk about a production they did a few years back in Tullahoma.

Anyway, I hadn’t gotten around to watching the DVD until tonight. It’s wonderful. The 1992 movie got some poor reviews – Siskel and Ebert both gave it thumbs down – but I found it hilarious. And what a cast! Michael Caine, Carol Burnett, Christopher Reeve, John Ritter, Marilu Henner, Mark Linn-Baker, Julie Hagerty, Nicolette Sheridan and Denholm Elliott (Indy’s boss Marcus from “Raiders of the Lost Ark” and “Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade”).

The movie, like the play, is the behind-the-scenes tale of the first American stage production of a teasingly-bawdy British farce. (Sheridan spends much of the play-within-a-play, and thus much of the movie, in her underwear.) We see how the various jealousies, conflicts and alliances among the cast members wreak havoc on the production – and since the play-within-a-play/movie is a farce, dependent on exact timing and the placement of various props, havoc is easily wreaked.

For the first third of the movie, we see the action on-stage, at a disastrous dress rehearsal which is interrupted periodically by the exasperated and increasingly-sarcastic director (Caine).  We’re introduced to the play-within-a-play and understand some of the transitions that have to be made and how things would fall apart if they didn’t happen smoothly.

The middle third of the movie takes place during a production on the road in Miami, and in this case we see all the action from backstage – as various jealousies and misunderstandings have the cast feuding. Since talking isn’t allowed backstage, much of this is mimed, as we hear the muffled onstage dialogue in the distance. This middle third is brilliantly staged and blocked physical comedy, with cast members weaving and bobbing around. There’s some wonderful business with a liquor bottle which the cast is trying to keep away from Elliott’s character, a British actor past his prime and with a weakness for alcohol.

Then, the last third of the movie takes place during a later production, in Cleveland. We move back in front of the stage. Cast relationships have gone even further downhill, with hilariously-catastrophic results onstage.

Of course, one of the reasons that my brother likes the play, and that he knew I would like it, is that we’ve both done community theater. Maybe it wouldn’t be quite as funny if you don’t have that background. But give it a chance anyway.

It’s sad to watch the movie now and think that neither Reeve nor Ritter is with us. Also, it was Elliott’s last film; he died in 1992, the year it was released, which is why he wasn’t in the last Indiana Jones film.

Nov 11

Theater of the mind (brought to you by Lady Esther cosmetics)

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As I explained yesterday, I’m going to appear in a play which tells the story of “It’s A Wonderful Life” as it would be presented on old-time radio. Actually, movies and radio scratched each others’ backs during the golden age. If you’ve ever read the trivia pages for old movies on the Internet Movie Database, you’ll note that many of them were turned into radio plays, using the top two or three stars from the original movie, surrounded (I presume) by the type of versatile radio utility players we’ll be channeling on stage.

IMDb says that there were, in fact, two such adaptations of “It’s A Wonderful Life,” both broadcast in 1947, not long after the movie was in theaters.

I was looking up old radio shows online – there are plenty, at sites like The Internet Archive, RadioLovers.com and the Old Time Radio Network. I haven’t found “It’s a Wonderful Life” yet, but I’m right now listening to another Jimmy Stewart classic: “The Philadelphia Story”, in a 1947 Screen Guild Theater adaptation with Stewart, Katharine Hepburn and Cary Grant in their original roles. The story is quite condensed – into a 30-minute radio show! — which works just fine for the audio format, although it requires some clunky exposition, both as dialogue and from the announcer at the beginning of each act. This seems to have been produced in front of a live audience. It’s one of three different radio adaptations mentioned by IMDb; the other two were 60 minutes in length, one with Ruth Hussey and Virginia Weidler in addition to Stewart, Grant and Hepburn, the other with only Stewart from the original cast.

In those days, of course, once a movie left the theater it was gone – the very biggest hits might possibly be rereleased, but everything else disappeared into the vaults once it ended its original run. There were no TV broadcasts, no DVDs, no way to re-view something you’d enjoyed seeing on the big screen, or catch up with something you’d missed. So these radio adaptations were, in their day, a nice bit of instant nostalgia, as well as a way for stars to promote themselves and their upcoming projects. The Screen Guild Theater adaptation of “The Philadelphia Story” ended with mentions of where you could see each of its three stars in current screen projects: Stewart’s current project at the time was … wait for it … “It’s A Wonderful Life.”

I have, on cassette tapes, the adaptation of the original 1977 “Star Wars” movie which was done for the BBC with Mark Hammill and Anthony Daniels reprising their film roles. The BBC approached George Lucas for permission and he agreed, but only if his alma mater USC was involved in the production. This was done as a serial, and actually includes scenes which were cut from the movie, emphasizing young Luke Skywalker’s admiration for, and later reunion with, Biggs, a neighbor on Tattooine who joins the rebel alliance. I haven’t listened to it since I originally bought it (I also heard it on public radio when it first aired in the 1970s, perhaps the first public radio I ever listened to). I need to break it out and give it a listen.