Hollywood Moves Away From Middlebrow

I saw this in the New York Times today. Here is the article. What it boils down to is that movie goers are demanding better movies or they will spend their big movie money elsewhere. Somehow they have, or are just now getting the message. Better movies or empty seats.

Racism and the Movies

I watched the movie THIRD FINGER LEFT HAND this week. It stars Melvyn Douglas and Myrna Loy. It was made in 1940, and it is a film I would recommend heartily. Heartily for the stars and the enjoyment of the movie, but more for another reason. More indeed. Following is a review of the film by another viewer:

While this comedy is about the romantic complications facing a woman executive and the artist who loves her, "Third Finger, Left Hand" provides a rarely seen dignified Black role. When first we see Sam (portrayed by veteran African American actor, Ernest Whitman) he is a train porter speaking in an 'uneducated' manner - employing the type of language structure used by script writers of the time to reinforce negative racial stereotypes. Later, however, Sam is revealed to have taken college correspondence courses for years and to be someone quite knowledgeable in matters of Law: able to quote court rulings and present effective legal arguments on behalf of his client, the artist. Ultimately, Sam is the hero of "Third Finger, Left Hand", making it possible for the protagonists' love to triumph.

I've thought about the movie now for a couple days, and my minds eye keeps coming back to Ernest Whitman's role in the movie. He was a black man with a college background in law who had a job as a porter on the railroad. That certainly could have been true, but what thrilled me was the the verbal joking back and forth between Whitman and Melvyn Douglas and the formulation of a plot to save Douglas's marriage. It's a great scene and one more at the very end when Whitman springs the surprise on another white actor Lee Bowman and joining in the laughter as an equal plotter in the movie. Corny? Maybe but this was 1940 folks. Segregation was alive and festering in the good old USA as the coming war would would illustrate, but perhaps in a small way this particular movie might have had a small nudge in the right direction.

Helen Keller and the movie

Everything about this piece of film is astounding. First is that it is based on fact. Try as I can, trying to emulate being blind and deaf from birth is an impossibility. How absolutely lost and disconnected I would be. Then having an intelligence such as Keller did and having no input, no sound, no sight. I try to but find it impossible.

I have seen the scene above many times, but I am always awestruck that it really did happen and there was a person named Helen Keller and she really did start out life as described and a great dedicated teacher was able to make a connection and opened the world to her pupil. Fantastic in fact and in the interpretation for the movie.

The actors in the movie were so very good in interpreting how it might have been.

ANGELA'S ASHES

I finally got around to watching the film, Angela's Ashes. What a very good film it is. Great is a term we apply loosely and too often, but as far as telling a story about poverty during Ireland's depression, it hits the mark. The cinematography is fantastic. It rains a lot in Ireland and you will feel waterlogged by the end of the film. The acting by Emily Watson (Angela) and Robert Carlyle (Malachy, the father) are uniformly excellent. The child actors amaze me as all child actors do, how do they get kids to act that well? Like all good actors, they make it look like they are living it and not acting.

The eldest son Frank McCourt, and family go from depression America, back to depression Ireland, and Frank succeeds in getting out and returning back to America. In a nut shell that's the plot. Frank McCourt has written the sequel to this story and titled it TIS. Of course, I will have to read it and find out the fates of the rest of the family, and what is the exact meaning of the title Angela's Ashes? I can tell you the movie is well worth picking up at the video store.

Today's New York Times has this story about a family that was as famous as you could possibly get. You mentioned the name Von Trapp and one of many songs came immediately to mind and you might start humming or whistling a tune come unbidden but familiar as a Christmas carol you've known since birth. This column will bring you up to date somewhat and if nothing else will reassure some sentimentalists among us that the Von Trapps will remain in American culture for the foreseeable future.

Two great actors, Frederick March and Burt Lancaster in the movie Seven Days In May, getting their teeth into meaty roles. Americans want their government to be open and protective of each citizens rights which are protected by the constitution and the ballot box. When the government becomes convinced that they cannot trust the peoples judgements and must take the vote out of our hands under the guise of protecting us, bad things will follow.

In a companion blog about the decade of the forties, A decade of change, I am mentioning some of my favorite films of that decade. I wanted also to mention a much later film here that I like for another reason. The film is titled, THE DEAD, written by James Joyce, a film that takes us back to a time when we were more mannerly and concerned with each others feelings. The reason is that it mesmerizes me and transports me to another time by their speech and manners. The content, although literate and wonderful as in a great poem is sometimes too intellectual for my understanding, but the feelings they emit sucks me in and I am with them until the end of the film. This film directed by John Huston (his last film before his death) has so many fine scenes from my perspective, fine because of the feeling it generates that carries me with them to the end of the film. This particular scene is a prime example of my lacking the intellect to completely understand each stanza, but emotionally it grabs me every time I look at it.

I watched a portion (22 minutes) of a God awful movie tonight. It was called Astronaut Farmer starring Billy Bob Thorton. It was the most inane, stupid waste of film and my time that I ashamedly admit I invested 22 minutes into. I can't even begin to describe what went on; I won't. It must have stayed in the theaters for a day. I wasn't expecting a great movie, just maybe a small comedy which might be pleasant. Billy Bob is someone I enjoy from time to time, but he must have been on a different planet when he got into this. Miss it.

I watched the movie THE BUCKET LIST last evening, and I am struck again by the resemblance between Jack Nicholson and Jimmy Hoffa who he portrayed some time ago.

I was looking at some new movie previews this morning and ran across this clip of a new movie called BLINDNESS. My God I hope this has a happy ending or they will have to issue sedatives as you leave the theater.

Go Ahead and Smile, I Know You Want to.


Two very funny movies in years past were: The Ma and Pa Kettle series and Mr. Blandings builds his Dream House. Here is a scene from each with the same comic actor Emory Parnell playing the foil in both.

A clip from one of the best films made about the WWII experience, THE BEST YEARS OF OUR LIVES.

Was it?

Some of the things that they saw during those times were certainly unforgettable. Unforgettable enough to make the rest of their lives an anticlimax. Could be.

My son was in the Iraq war twice, maybe someday when he is further removed from that time I'll ask him.

During a week-end in NYC, Miss Eula and I visited Tiffany's and purchased that same piece. It was the only think we could afford also.

Re-watched a 1941 movie titled: THE DEVIL AND DANIEL WEBSTER starring Edward Arnold, Walter Huston, James Craig, Ann Harding and the actress who made a very good living playing mothers in some very good movies, Jane Darwell. One of her more memorible mother roles was as Ma Joad in GRAPES OF WRATH.

I really enjoy this movie. It is a morality tale set in New England about a farmer who in a moment of despair says he would sell his soul to the devil for two cents. The devil, Huston, takes him up on it, and the rest of the movie is him enjoying the fruits of his unthinking bargain with the devil until it comes time to pay up.

A good movie in black and white with other character actors you may recognize. Simone Simon plays a woman who also has sold her soul to the devil and has been brought back from the depths to tempt James Craig in his downfall, as if he needed any help.

If I have a choice of a good colored film or a black and white film, I will always take the non-colored film. The finished product always seems more intimate and it seems to take the viewer deeper into the action. (Now that sounds really convuluted and bogus, but I know what I mean, I just can't seem to be able to spit it out). If you're a film fan I'm sure you know what I'm talking about.

Recently I viewed a recording of AFI (American Film Institutes) top 100 films of all time. Now I agreed with most of the picks. Most were just great films, and some were controversial at the time, but all were darn good. I'm not belaboring any of the picks, but I would like to add a few more rather elderly films which I think are as good now many years after their premiers as they were new.

The oldest film is METROPOLIS 1926. A really great silent film that has moments that are memorable. The picture is a look at the future where the rich live above ground and enjoy life in the sun; and the workers live below ground in their own world. One of the scenes I remember vividly is the shift change when the workers line up not unlike robots in formation and enter and exit elevators that take them to their homes and/or workplace. It is dramatic and unforgettable.

ON BORROWED TIME 1939, a film with the great actor Lionel Barrymore and a kid actor with the great name Bobs Watson who lives with his grandparents because his parents were killed in an accident. Sir Cedrick Hardwick who plays Mr. Death comes to take grandpa Lionel to heaven which would devistate Bobs the grandchild so they devise a plan to trap Mr. Death in a tree so his beloved grandpa will not have to go without him. I won't tell you anymore, but I loved the film and now have it on disk for another viewing when I'm in the mood.

THE SHOP AROUND THE CORNER 1940, another film that I think is absolutely great, stars James Stewart, Margaret Sullivan, Frank Morgan and an actor with an amusing voice William Tracy.
It takes place in a notions shop in Budapest and the main plot is about two people, Jimmy and Margaret who are lonely and are corresponding with people they have never seen. Of course they end up with each other, but it takes a while to get to that ending, and getting there is sheer joy, at least for me. The actors are great, the story is gentle, almost a fairy tale rendering. Of course Jimmy Stewart never did put on a bad performance that I can remember.

These two moments from two of America's best, where it seemed that they were thinking and talking on the same subjects in the 1950's. It seems rather prophetic about events that took place here in my country in the first decade of the twenty first century.

Along with that, Senator Hagel this week is coming to the conclusion that perhaps it is the time for a third party, a party for men and women of more independent thinking to be thought of more seriously than ever before. Here is the piece from Google video:

Great old poster for a movie that scared the bejesus out of me when I was a squirt. Speaking of movies, I watched MILDRED PIERCE on TCM the other day. I had seen it before, but did not remember it exactly. Joan Crawford was actually a good person in this one, and the rotten one was her daughter played by, of all people, ANN BLYTH, and she did a great job. She was a true stinker.

One of the things I like are stories set in the forties. This story which came out as the movie entitled, THE BEST YEARS OF OUR LIVES and it has always been a favorite of mine. So when it came out on DVD I had to have a copy. I was watching it again yesterday and happened to notice the little folder tucked inside the plastic container. Usually they contain movie star hype, but this one was loaded with information about the making of the movie that was very interesting. If you like the movie, you will like the information. If you click on the picture, it should double its size so that you can read it easily.

I watched the movie ORDINARY PEOPLE for the second time last night. It was made in 1980, but lost nothing in the passage of time. Mary Tyler Moore was just as cold, Donald Sutherland was just as whiny, and Timothy Hutton was just as great. The only new thing I missed the first time around that I caught this time is that Mary did not cry at the funeral of her son, so whatever her problem is she had it before the tragedy. Moore’s role was sure a reversal of her TV role as Mary Richards, the needy girl around the office. In this film Mary needed no one. I repeat no one. The film earned four Oscars, best picture, best director, Robert Redford, yeah that guy, and a best supporting Oscar for Timothy Hutton. Rent it and watch it again.