dencar_1 Reviews

The Lineup (1954–1960)

What I remember most

[22 April 2009]

April, 2009

What I remember most about THE LINEUP is the final roll of credits. You'd see a slow dramatic panorama of San Francisco at that time, mid 1950's, as the theme song pounded over the view. At that time Coit Tower was the tallest point in the skyline. Then you'd hear the voice over express thanks to San Francisco Chief of Police, think it was Tom Cahill at that time--but I also recall that it may have been Patrick Duffy in the earlier days of the series.

My father had a jewelry store on Columbus Ave. in North Beach and the shop flashed by once in a scene from an episode.

Yes, the '49 Ford coming up the street in the opening sequence with Tom Tully driving and Warner Anderson looking out. And that theme song again.

I just watched a part of an episode on You Tube from 1958. But nothing comes up if you type in the series title: But you will get it by typing in "1957 Dodge and 1957 Plymouth." It features Richard Jeckel, Jr., as a kid; and a very young Eli Walach. Good chase scene that shows the Embarcadero under construction; Sutros near Playland; and shots of the bridge.

Dennis Caracciolo April, 2009

Splendor in the Grass (1961)

A Truly Splendid Thing

[19 February 2008]

On the surface, SPLENDOR IN THE GRASS, screenplay by William Inge (COME BACK LITTLE SHEBA, PICNIC), is a powerfully explicit depiction of adolescent concupiscence. Straining against the limits of 1961 censors, this Elia Kazan directed tale of two passionate 1920's teens--Deane Lloomis (Natalie Wood) and Bud Stamper (Warren Beatty)--should never be mistaken for a Mid-West, jazz age period piece. It is one of INGE'S most powerful offerings and if it were possible, might even be considered required viewing for just about every young person.

The story is a poignant exploration of the destructive idealism of young love that tangles with the corruption of Victorian sexual repression. The deception and pain that unfolds in the lives of the two main characters serve as the path for the growth and wisdom that ultimately rewards us all and renders this an unforgettable cinematic experience.

Deanie and Bud are the quintessentially envied teen couple living in middle class Kansas. Passion engulfs their relationship and is held in check by Deanie's struggle to be a 'good girl' and Bud's war against his own libido. As Deane obsesses more and more upon Bud and drowns in the relationship, Bud's frustration drives him to find answers from his obtuse father and his equally obtuse family physician, too embarrassed about the topic of sex to even discuss Bud's concerns.

The parents on both sides twist the heads of their children in the same way they themselves had been twisted as youths. Mr. Stamper (Pat Hingle) turns in a yeoman's performance as Bud's block-headed, domineering father choking off his son's future with Deanie. He convinces Bud she's a tramp and pushes him toward university life which he neither wants nor is capable of handling. Deanie's mother (Andrey Christie) drills Victorian hogwash into her daughter's head convincing her that women must submit to men for procreation only. In the background resides Mr. Loomis (Del Stewart), a non-entity turning a blind eye to the clap-trap his wife feeds his daughter. And Mrs. Stamper (Joanna Roos) is nothing more than a cardboard cut-out taking up space as Bud's mother.

It is only Bud's reckless sister Ginny (Barbara Loden) who provides the script's singular rebellion against the fear and destructive lies of Mr. Stamper. But she is only capable of finding her freedom through promiscuity shaming the father whose love she desperately craves on her way toward oblivion.

Long after the couple have gone their separate paths, Deanie decides to see Bud one last time. When Mrs. Loomis lies to her about his whereabouts, it is Mr. Loomis who finally sheds his empty persona and steps up to the plate providing one of the film's most touching moments.

It is Deanie's closure with Bud that strikes the film's mightiest blow. For it encapsulates a great deal of what we all experience in youth and later come to realize about first love. Yet the path that INGE wisely chose to get us there leads to the final Wordsorth allusion and crowns the entire experience with pain and beauty. For the lines that Deanie had ignored in high school English class now resound powerfully as her epiphany unfolds. What Deanie Loomis learns in the end is what we all learn.

SPLENDOR has not aged one bit at all after nearly 50 years. It is as poignant as the day it hit the screens in October, 1961. And that is because Inge's script is not stifled by the era's simplistic values or character stereotypes; for the tale told is universal. And universality, as William Inge knew so very well, is the paramount trait of all superior literature, isn't it?

TRIVIA: William Inge was born in Independence, Kansas in 1913...Inge's mother ran a boarding house and Inge watched 3 lonely spinsters which later inspired him when he wrote PICNIC IN 1953...INGE'S other best plays are COME BACK LITTLE SHEBA (1950), BUS STOP (1955), THE DARK AT THE TOP OF THE STAIRS (1957)--all of which were made into movies...PICNIC won the Pulitzer Prize in 1953. It was also the Broadway debut of Paul Newman...SPLENDOR IN THE GRASS debuted on Oct. 10, 1961. It was Warren Beatty's first film....Beatty is the younger brother of actress Shirley McLaine...SPLENDOR was filmed mostly in New York...William Inge taught playwriting at the University of California Irvine campus in the early 1970's...Believing he could no longer write well, William Inge committed suicide in 1973 from carbon monoxide poisoning.

Dennis Caracciolo

Bullitt (1968)

One Of The Best Cop Movies Ever

[19 February 2006]

Director Peter Yates' superbly understated 1968 cop thriller BULLITT, filmed entirely amidst San Francisco local color--perhaps the best "natural" city on the map for one of Hollywood's most memorable chase sequences--is a polished and enduring detective film that has, by now, probably reached cult classic stardom. Yates accomplished what every director dreams of--landing a lead actor who is a natural for the script character he is to portray: implacable, detached, obsessed with getting his man. In fact, Yates crafts McQueen's performance so handily that at some points not a few may wonder if Steve McQueen is Bullitt or if Bullitt is Steve McQueen. Even Bullitt's girlfriend Cathy, the luscious Jacqueline Bisset, cannot reach her man through the iron-clad outer wall that separates her from him.

The Alan Trustman script of a Chicago organization man on the lamb from the Mafia in San Francisco is tautly written and contains a perfect twist ending vindicating Bullitt's trickery that has thwarted both the organization hit men and his own police superiors. The now legendary car chase stands out as the film's signal moment as Bullitt turns the tables on his pursuers and ends up destroying them. The relationship with Bisset is not deeply outlined, but we get all we need as the two are cast in very creditable juxtaposition: Bisset's softness against McQueen's grisly criminal world.

Robert Vaugn is well chosen as the career-minded Senator Walter Chalmers, Bullitt's antagonist. The detective wants no part of Chalmer's single-minded interest in keeping his organization witness alive so that he will be able to testify before a committee crime hearing which will win Chalmers political stars. Simon Oakland fits the bill perfectly as the blustery Captain Sam Bennett, Frank Bullitt's boss who keeps allowing Bullitt just enough slack to tie up all his loose ends. Norman Fell is also well cast as Captain Baker, Chalmer's "man" on the force who wants to cash in on Chalmers' political influence and who tries unsuccessfully to scissor Bullitt from the case. As for Don Gordon, Bullitt's partner, Delgetti, he's little more than Bullitt's overcoat.

Not much that is San Francisco was missed in the film: Nob Hill, Grace Cathedral, the Mark Hopkins Hotel, North Beach (Enrico's coffee and, if you look closely behind Bullitt as he talks to a tipster about Ross, photos of topless stars at the old Galaxy nightclub), the Embarcadero, San Francisco Internaitonal Airport, and even scenes north of the city on the peninsula along Hiway 101 near Candlestick Point.

As a cop film--and as a San Francisco period piece from the late 1960's--BULLITT simply has it all.

Trivia: The final airport chase on foot in which McQueen lies on the ground covering his ears under a taxiing 707 was performed by McQueen at his own insistence--to the consternation of Warner Bros executives who worried about insurance liability issues...The ladies' "tea scene" at the beginning where Bullitt meets Senator Chalmers (Robert Vaughn) was filmed at the historical Spreckles Mansion...One of the early sccenes has McQueen meeting Jackie Bisset and friends at a restaurant. It's the old Coffee Cantatta on Union Street...If one knows San Francisco and cares to note all the street signs and intersections that flash by during the infamous chase sequence, he'll quickly see one unlikely turn, cut, and disconnection after another...Note Robert Duvall in his small role as the cab driver...Did you note uncredited Suzanne Summers in a crowd scene? Look carefully...Ironically, it would be Summers who would later star on TV's THREE'S COMPANY with a much more svelte and comical Norman Fell (Captain Baker) who would play Stanley Roper, Summers' landlord in the sitcom...The scene along Hiway 101 where Bullitt finds Dorothy Rennick strangled was filmed at the old Hyatt Hotel along the Bayshore, though it's referred to as THE THUNDERBIRD HOTEL....In 1968 when BULLITT began filming, Robert Vaughn had just turned in his intelligence credentials as Napolean Solo in THE MAN FROM U.N.C.L.E. which ran from 1964--1968...Captain Baker wasn't the only cop Fell played in his career. He was also Detective Grogan, the cop investigating the death of Jimmy Durante in the opening scenes of Stanley Kramer's epic 1964 comedy IT'S A MAD, MAD, MAD, MAD WORLD...

Dennis Caracciolo

Daddy Long Legs (1955)

Superbly Romantic

[2 January 2006]

Most would probably cast their votes for THE BANDWAGON, EASTER PARADE, or any number of other Ginger Rogers-Fred Astaire team-up's as the most stellar of Fred Astaire's efforts. Yet DADDY LONG LEGS is perhaps the most beguiling of the Astaire musicals and quite possibly captures the purest romantic sensibility of them all. However, few admirers of the legendary dancer ever seem to cite this wonderful motion picture as being among the most shimmering of the Astaire nuggets--and it remains a mystery why that is so.

Directed by Jean Negulesco, the film is the Cinderella story of a wealthy New York playboy, Jervis Pendleton (Astaire), who stumbles upon a beautiful young orphaned girl, Julie Andre, (Leslie Caron) while on a trip to France. He decides to bring her to America and sponsor her college education while keeping his identify unknown. From the beginning, Caron idealizes the benefactor she never sees and identifies him as her "Daddy Long Legs." Writing hundreds of letters to him in an attempt to establish a relationship, she receives only the depersonalized anonymity of continuing financial aid. Eventually, the two do come face to face at a college prom through Astaire's niece, Linda (Terry Moore), who is a classmate of Caron. But Caron still has no idea that Astaire and "Daddy Long Legs" are one in the same. Of course, Astaire falls for Caron after the couple spend a whirlwind night on the town, but then severs all connection to her after Ambassador Williamson (Larry Keating)lectures him on the public scandal of his being a Sugar Daddy.

The musical numbers, choreographed by Astaire, are fresh, colorful, and romantically vibrant. The dance ballet inspired by the music of "Dream" --in which Caron fantasizes over the identify of her "Daddy Long Legs"-- shifts through a series of tempo, costume, and musical changes and is inescapably reminiscent of the Gene Kelly-Leslie Caron 20 minute masterpiece in AN American IN Paris. In the night on the town number, after meeting at Linda's college prom, they swing through Johnny Mercer's Acadamy Award nominated SOMETHIN'S GOTTA GIVE. It is the turning point when the two realize they are falling in love, though Caron is still not aware that Astaire is her benefactor. Not to be missed is Astaire's performance of "Slew Foot" with Caron at the prom where Jervis Pendleton shows the younger set a thing or two about what a man over 50 can do on a dance floor. It's one of the most entertaining sequences in the film and contains some very funny moments.

The veteran supporting cast works wonderfully well: Terry Moore as Pendleton's niece, Fred Clarke as Griggs, Pendleton's assistant, and Larry Keating as Ambassador Williamson. But it is the sympathetic Thelma Ritter who shines as Pendleton's secretary Alicia. She is the one who has been reading and filing all the Julie Andre letters for years until she takes it upon herself to be the only friend at Caron's graduation and instigates the pivotal meeting between Pendleton and Andre at Astaire's Park Avenue office. It is there that Pendleton's identity is unmasked and Andre discovers that Astaire is, after all, her "Daddy Long Legs."

DADDY LONG LEGS may not usually be thought of as reigning near the top of Fred Astaire's films, but it surely must be included among his best musicals. The Phoebe Ephron script of a May-September romance is fresh and colorful; the musical numbers are beautifully and artfully choreographed; and the 1950's Technicolor cinematography memorably filmed.

Trivia: Fred Astire was 56 years old when he made the film; Caron was 24...DADDY LONG LEGS was not one of Astaire's MGM musicals; it was released by 20th CENTURY FOX...Both Fred Clarke and Larry Keating played Harry Morton, next door neighbor to George Burns and Gracie Allen on the BURNS AND ALLEN show of the 1950's. Clarke came first beginning in 1951, then in 1953, George Burns actually announced the cast change in the middle of an episode as Clarke exited and Keating stepped in and took his place!...Leslie Caron never wanted to be in movies, but when Gene Kelley offered her a part in the MGM legendary musical AN American IN Paris in 1950, she gave in to her mother's demands and flew to Hollywood...Johnny Mercer was nominated in 1955 for best original song for SOMETHIN'S GOTTA GIVE. However, the winner that year proved to be LOVE IS A MANY SPLENDORED THING...Mitzi Gaynor was the studio's choice for the Julie Andre role, but Astaire held out for Leslie Caron--probably after being dazzled by her performance in AN American In Paris with Gene Kelly, which won the Oscar for Best Picture of the Year, 1951...It was during the filming of DADDY LONG LEGS that Fred Astaire's wife died. At various times he retreated to his trailer emotionally overcome. Some have said that in certain scenes Astaire to have "red eyes."...

Dennis Caracciolo

The Thing from Another World (1951)

The Thing (From Another World)

[16 October 2005]

One of the finest of all 1950's science fiction films, THE THING, based on John W. Campbell's 1930's short story, WHO GOES THERE, stands as a classic in the genre of science fiction horror. Moreover, it was a film that set the formula trend for most of the era's science fiction---the enmity between science opting for "research" and the military imposing a final solution "through hardware"--a motif that created the road map for countless horror movies to come.

Considering all this, one must weigh the ominous backdrop of the Cold War at the time these movies were made---and the very grim shadow of suspicion cast upon anything "alien." Much has been written about the politics of the "adolescent monster movie culture of the 1950's." But real world conditions lent their psychological fears to even science fiction horror. It is seen most obviously in movies like INVASION OF THE BODY SNATCHERS (1956) where an alien terror takes over human bodies; INVASION USA (1952); and surfaces even in a little boy's dream in INVADERS FROM MARS (1953). The fear and threat of Communism beginning in the late 1940's simply cannot be dismissed as an underlying paranoia in even the seemingly disconnected horror films of that time.

Kenneth Toby gives perhaps his best screen performance as the chain-smoking, no-nonsense Captain Pat Hendry stationed in a remote military, arctic outpost. An unidentified craft lands in the polar wilderness and the men dig out a creature frozen in a block of ice. The conflict between Hendry and the research-driven Dr. Carrington increases throughout the film until the men clash head-on. For Carrington's thick-headed dedication to study the alien invader subordinates his duty to obey orders for the sake of the compound's security. This pits Hendry's need to lock-down the compound against the good doctor's obsession to "understand" the being that has come to earth. Tension builds until Hendry finally "confines" Carrington to his quarters. The men are left to devise a means for their own survival and ultimately annihilate the monster.

THE THING is, however, not merely another 1950's "monster movie." It is a finely crafted script, continually understated, and a clinic for aspiring writers who could take lessons from the terse dialoge that threads its way chillingly through the action. Once the creature thaws out of the ice and begins terrorizing the compound, dramatic tension, anxiety, and paranoia rise to a perfectly terrifying conclusion. Not hard to see why audiences in 1951 were frozen in their seats by the unseen presence set against the stark black and white cinematography of an isolated polar landscape offering no escape.

Even more interesting, "the thing" is never clearly seen until a glimpse near the end when it walks straight into the clutches of the trap set by the men. This is a departure of most all '50's horror; for what sold tickets in those days was the monster's explicit revelation, usually near the climax, and a sort of pay-off when its ghastly physical features were disclosed. In fact, studios like American INTERNATIONAL played a sort of one-upsmanship attempting to out-do one another when it came to unseemly alien horrors. The dripping mouths of tarantulas (TARANTULA), the stark white eyes of a Martian (NOT OF THIS EARTH), the swirling, octopus-like unspeakable mass hiding in a cave (IT CAME FROM OUTER SPACE)--all went one-on-one with each other vying for terror and a market share. Today many of the old studio posters that depicted these imaginative monsters are considered part of a cottage industry art form--worth a great deal of money for those lucky enough to acquire the original lobby collectibles.

The final scene in THE THING must be mentioned. It is a memorable one among Sci-Fic films. Radio contact with the outside world had been lost and it isn't until after the threat is extinguished that the base establishes communication. As the men in the compound gather around, a radio reporter files the story of the terror back to a listening civilization. He warns everyone "to watch the skies" --a sequence reminiscent of the final moments of INVASION OF THE BODY SNATCHERS when Kevin McCarthy screams, "You're Next! You're Next!" Yet it does not come off as adolescent; in fact, it works well as an effectively chilling denouement to an intelligently written and produced science fiction film.

THE THING is a requirement for anyone who needs a sampling of 1950's science fiction. Who could give it anything less than four stars for its standing in the genre?

Dennis Caracciolo

An American in Paris (1951)

Musical Comedy's Crown Jewel

[25 May 2005]

An American In Paris is not only the crown jewel of the MGM musical pantheon--it is quite simply the greatest musical ever filmed! The music of George Gershwin is staged and performed so magnificently and memorably that it is hard to imagine a greater production unit who could bring such majesty to the screen. So many famous stories surround the filming of an An American In Paris that most of them now are legend. From studio boss Dore Shary's uncertainty over the financing of the project to the groundbreaking final ballet running an unprecedented 18 minutes, An American In Paris remains the most incomparable musical of the 20th Century.

The MGM troupe of actors, producers, directors, and choreographers known as the "Fried Unit" (named after producer Arthur Freid) reached their zenith when An American In Paris was made. Yet how ironic that the musical was produced after studio mogul Louis B. Mayer had been axed by Loew's executives and replaced by Dory Shary in 1951. For Mayer's tastes fell heavily upon musicals while Shary preferred the stark realism of his first studio offerings: THE ASPHALT JUNGLE and BATTLEGROUND. It was Gene Kelly himself who went to Shary and pleaded with him to go forward with production. Though Shary said he understood little of what Kelly and choreographer Stanley Donan were talking about, he nevertheless gave the green light.

Kelly's selection and personal mentoring of the dazzling Leslie Caron was a stroke of genius. Caron had been an 18 yr. old ballerina in France and resisted coming to Hollywood to make any movie. But bowing to her mother's influence, Caron did come to America and was cast in the role of Lisa Bourvier, the appealing young French woman engaged to Georges Guetary, who, at the time the film was made, was a musical performer at the Follies Bergier. And how lucky we are that she was cast. She falls for Kelly immediately, an ex-GI living in post-war Paris who takes up painting and is supported by his rich mistress (Nina Foch). The on-screen chemistry between Kelly and Caron is electric from start to finish. And their dance of Gershwin's Our Love Is Here To Stay, performed in the Parisian moonlight, is one of the most unforgettable of musical moments.

Nina Foch is sharply effective as Kelly's acerbic lover who finances his artistic endeavors while keeping him in check. And Oscar Levant? Who better to wash over the piano keyboard playing the music of George Gershwin than the man who knew him best and who once performed Concerto in F so well that some said he did it better than Gershwin himself. Guetary was a splendid choice as Caron's fiancé who "sees the light" near the end and realizes that Caron can never be his. As for Vincente Minelli's direction: the final ballet stands as his masterpiece and has been cemented into Hollywood history forever.

Of course, Kelly shoots through the film like a meteor. From his wonderful interaction with the children in I GOT RHYTHM to the stunning finale where he switches moods, tempos, and costumes to fit the changing rhythms of Gershwin's immortal symphony, it is simply Kelly's most memorable performance. You can enjoy the wonderful soft shoe in SINGIN' IN THE RAIN, the deft newspaper dance in SUMMER STOCK, or shake your head at the roller skates number in IT'S ALWAYS FAIR WEATHER, but even those fantastic efforts pale in comparison to the finale of An American In Paris. Ironic that the entire ballet occurs in Kelly's mind as a dream fantasy--for who knows how long it may have been Kelly's dream to team the music of George Gershwin with the backdrop of Paris and the artistic images of Loutrec.

Everyone should be treated at one time or another to An American In Paris. And if the opportunity arises, it must be seen on the screen, not television. Like CITIZEN KANE or THE WIZARD OF OZ, it towers as one of filmdom's grandest experiences---and qualifies easily for inclusion in the top 10 of Hollywood's highest artistic achievements.

Trivia: Only two movie musicals won the Academy Award for Best Picture of the Year in the 1950's: An American In Paris and GIGI-- both MGM productions and both orchestrated within the 'Fried Unit.'...Leslie Caron has said she wanted nothing to do with Hollywood when she was contacted to make a screen test at the age of 18. But her mother finally persuaded her to go to America and be cast in the film...Movie censors were very concerned about Caron's "dance with a chair" that was seen to be too suggestive. Caron has said: "What could you possibly do with a chair?"....Gene Kelly researched not only the art and images of Toulouse Loutrec for the final ballet, but the life of Chocolate--the African dancer who Loutrec painted at the Follies Begier whom Kelly brings to life in the ballet...Many have said that Oscar Levant's fantasy sequence where he plays Concerto In F, then conducts the orchestra, and finally applauds his own efforts wildly from the audience when it's over, was representative of his hunger for the approval he felt escaped him all his musical career...In Levant's autobiography one of the chapters is titled: "My Autobiography Or: The Life Of George Gershwin."....The sidewalk café scene in which Levant brings his coffee cup up to his mouth and smashes his cigarette after he realizes both Kelly and Guetary are in love with the same woman, was completely spontaneous...In 1974 THAT'S ENTERTAINMENT, an anthology of MGM musical greatness, was produced by Jack Haily, Jr. as a wave of musical nostalgia swept over the entertainment world. The climax and final portion of the film, introduced by Frank Sinatra, was a tribute to AN American IN Paris with excerpts from the ballet finale. Standing in front of the Thallberg Building, Sinatra begins by saying, "We've saved the best for last..."...

Dennis Caracciolo

Patton (1970)

Patton Fought Windmills Too

[19 May 2005]

PATTON is a rich and in ways warm depiction of the WW II life of George Patton that remains loyal to his driving compulsion for victory in war and his uncompromising values toward honor as the mainstay of the battlefield. But what makes the film the great one it is is the focus upon the man's character---for this was no stereotypical war monger who needed to be satirized. George Patton was at heart a complex romantic--about warfare, about history, and about the honor of men dying in battle. He quoted Fredrick the Great, Alcebiades, and possessed a nonpareil understanding of military history.

Who but George C. Scott could have approached this role so powerfully? It is reputed that John Wayne wanted the part badly, but the requirements necessary to portray Old Blood And Guts went far beyond what Wayne represented. Producers wisely realized this in casting Scott and they got even more than they bargained for. And if it wasn't the greatest performance of any military biography in movie history, it certainly ranks in the top three or four.

Watching the movie MacArthur recently, the 1970's film starring Gregory Peck in the title role, I was struck once again by what always seems to be the antagonist of high military command---the politician. In MacArthur's case it centered on the decrees from above to stop short of planned engagements in the Phillipines and in Korea. In Patton's case it was the British one-upsmanship that stuck in his craw that Ike (General Dwight D. Eisenhower) allowed and even fashioned. Moreover, it was also the muzzle that the Supreme Allied Commander kept putting over Patton's mouth after his off-handed remarks mushroomed in the press. Unquestionably, Patton was a loose canon and Ike spent not a little energy dealing with out of control tank commander who could not have cared less about politics. But the personal frustration of political correctness was unpalatable to Patton. After the travail of warfare itself, it becomes one of the movie's central points.

Few remember or know how badly the U.S. had been bloodied in North Africa until Patton arrived. Even fewer understand the nadir to which allied forces had sunk before we took back the upper hand in places like Africa and later in the campaigns that Patton cut across Europe. The general certainly was not responsible for the turnaround alone, but his unprecedented tank conquests became a juggernaut that did as much to win the war as anything MacArthur or Nimitz did in the Pacific. But that is where the similarities end. For unlike MacArthur who allowed his name to be placed in nomination for President, Patton had no political designs. When the war was over, his service was over.

One of the movies most memorable moments is, of course, the "hospital slapping incident" in which the general humiliates a soldier with a bad case of nerves. It certainly did happen and Scott executes it powerfully---we see the veins bulging from his neck as he reaches for his six shooter and states that he will not "subsidize cowardice!" And we see Patton's utter frustration when Ike orders him to apologize. It must have been the supreme act of forbearance for Patton to comply.

General George Patton was one of the last of his kind. Unlike today's commanders who must juggle the horrors of military verities with political correctness, Patton knew only one thing: drive on, drive on to victory. And for those who think he was mentally off-balance or just plain crazy, it needs to be stated that leaders such as Patton were the antitdote for what the free world faced from 1941--1945.

The movie's final scene is a brilliant testimony to all that Patton must have learned by the time he was through. The war is over and the general has completed his service. He walks his dog alone out on the plains and thinks of ancient warriors who knew "that all glory was fleeting." A windmill is significantly cast in the scene. The allusion to Cervantes' Don Qixote is unmistakable--for George Patton, like Don Quixote, fought windmills, too.

Dennis Caracciolo

Double Indemnity (1944)

Film Noir Masterpiece

[17 May 2005]

The premier "film noir" entrée, DOUBLE INDEMNITY stands as the model for the genre. Told entirely in flashback, it is the grim, yet seductive story of a life insurance agent who falls for a treacherously sultry married woman plotting to do her husband in for the payoff. DOUBLE INDEMNITY is nothing less than a requirement for anyone who asks, "What is film noir?" For all the ingredients are present: the cold-hearted criminal plot, the adulterous romance, the step-by-step implementing of the deed, the anxiety-ridden moments as a steadfast mind zeroes in on the guilty parties, and the inevitability of the final justice---all filmed in grim black and white.

Did Fred MacMurray ever have a greater moment in his acting career playing Walter Neff, the Los Angeles insurance agent knocked out by a bored housewife who ropes him into her diabolical web? Did Barbara Stanwyck ever really overcome the powerful persona of Mrs. Dietrichson, the calculating murderess standing at the top of the stairs in a bath towel? And could there have been a better screen writer for DOUBLE INDEMNITY than the assiduous Raymond Chandler (THE BIG SLEEP, FAREWELL, MY LOVELY, THE LONG GOODBYE), who remains the unequaled master of the Los Angeles detective genre?

Not to be outdone, Edward G. Robinson turns in a yeoman's performance as Keyes, MacMurray's boss. Keyes is a walking encyclopedia of fraudulent insurance claims and is nearly infallible in his ability to sniff out the rotten stench of not-so-accidental death. In one memorable scene, Keyes reduces his own superior to pulp as he lectures him that "no one ever committed suicide by throwing themselves off a train moving at 5 miles per hour." He cites the statistics of death by poisoning, drowning, lightning strikes, and electrocution straight off the top of his head. At what point Keyes becomes suspicious of Neff is never quite clear; but he is certainly suspicious of Stanwyck from the start--and Neff had taken Stanwyck's life insurance policy just before her husband supposedly went off the caboose.

One certain proof that a detective drama is succeeding is the identification the audience has with the villains. A cold-blooded murder has been committed, yet we somehow squirm nervously for the perpetrators hoping their plot succeeds. The epitome of this identification occurs in the scene after Neff impersonates Dietrichson on the train. MacMurray races back to the car where Stanwyck awaits and the car engine stalls. He tries to turn it over again and again. We actually want the car to start!

The only soft spot that exists in this sensationally crafted Ramond Chandler script is MacMurray's character transformation. He simply evolves from cavalier life insurance salesman to murderer far too soon after falling for Stanwyck. Moreover, Neff's seemingly air-tight plot to erase Dietrichson materializes a bit too quickly and precisely in his mind.

What is central is that in the end it isn't Neff's boss Keyes who throws the light on the murder--it's the adulterous relationship between MacMurray and Stanwyck itself. No one other than the plotters themselves was needed to undo the evil, for the villainous collaboration contained the seeds for its own destruction. In the end, the lovers turn on one another and the twisted relationship destroys both of them.

DOUBLE INDEMNITY is simply one of Hollywood's movie detective classics. And anyone who fails to include DOUBLE INDEMNITY in an all-time list of greats knows very little about films.

Dennis Caracciolo

The Thin Man (1957–1959)

Part Of A Bigger Picture

[10 May 2005]

Not everyone realizes that THE THIN MAN television series from 1957 starring Peter Lawford and Phyllis Kirk is a part of the tragic story representing the final chapter of a legendary studio. For years MGM studio boss Louis B. Mayer believed television to be a passing fancy and said it would never last. He refused to acknowledge the medium was a permanent phenomenon and the wave of the future. He never recognized it for what it was and for what it would eventually mean to the entertainment industry.

The movie studio system was beginning to dissolve by the mid 1950's and musicals, MGM's signature product, was on its last legs, too. As television gained ground against movies, Mayer remained in complete denial about the medium. He ridiculed it and said it would never last. Even after Mayer was replaced by Dore Schary in the early 1950's who brought in a completely different view of picture making, television wasn't part of the equation. MGM did launch THE MGM PARADE, a weekly television variety show hosted by George Murphey, but it was a bleak attempt to recycle the studio glory days and shriveled up quickly. THE THIN MAN series in 1957 was a weak attempt to gain a foothold in television by flipping pages from the William Powell--Myrna Loy 1930's photo album. But MGM failed to create anything fresh for the new medium and the studio's efforts were too little, too late.

As a show, THE THIN MAN was a perky, but superficial recreation of the Powell--Loy classic. Though Lawford, Kirk, and Asta were pleasant, the show flopped. In contrast to all of the aforementioned, consider what WARNER BROTHERS was doing at that same time: recognizing the impact of getting into every living room in America by producing television shows. For WARNER BROTHERS wisely began churning out a cavalcade of productions--particularly westerns and detective shows that capitalized on the era's programming trends. MAVERICK, SUGARFOOT, LARAMIE, 77 SUNSET STRIP, HAWAIIAN EYE, SURFSIDE SIX, BOURBON STREET BEAT, CHEYENNE, COLT .45--all were WARNER BROTHERS productions. The corporate market share must have been staggering. The successes of those shows bolstered WARNER BROS. for years.

By the late 1960's, MGM was caught in the winds of change. The final nail in the coffin occurred when congress decreed that studios could no longer own movie theatres. Las Vegas Hotel magnate Kirk Kerkorian purchased MGM primarily for its trademark name and Culver City real estate. He later issued a statement that the studio was now a relatively insignificant producer of motion pictures. MGM tore down its legendary back lots and sold the land. Then it auctioned off many collectibles from its vast studio archives. Since then MGM has been bought and sold by so many people there is not enough space here to list either the names or corporate intrigue (even Ted Turner took over and couldn't make a go of it).

THE THIN MAN wasn't just another innocuous 1950's television series that bombed. It is a deceivingly important piece of the story of a great studio beginning a slow descent into oblivion. By failing to recognize that one either adapts to change or becomes extinct, MGM made a catastrophic miscalculation. This is not to say that failure to produce television shows was the primary reason for a great studio's collapse, for other important issues were most assuredly at play. But THE THIN MAN represented just one example of a once great studio falsely believing that sitting on the laurels of past successes holds the key to future survivability.

Dennis Caracciolo

77 Sunset Strip (1958–1964)

Coolest Of The Cool!

[8 May 2005]

77 SUNSET STRIP was so cool that the breeze from the show could air condition your living room every Friday night from 1958--1964. This series had it all: two cool private detectives, gumshoe intrigue against the backdrop of Hollywood environs, a bee-bop-speaking parking lot attendant who became an overnight teen sensation, and not to be forgotten---one of the sexiest musical scores ever.

Whether 77 SUNSET STRIP was the best all-around private-eye series on television might be debatable, but what can't be debated is the hipness the series delivered to its loyal fans once a week. The formula wasn't rocket science: a damsel in distress who turned out to be fashioning grand larceny, a ten-cents-a-dance ballroom where a maniac slipped beautiful girls a mickey, a run-a-way beauty with a millionaire grandpa.

Effrem Zimbalist, Jr. (Stuart Baily) and Roger Smith (Jeff Spencer) were the two suave PI's who ran the Sunset Strip detective agency. Zimbalist was the more cerebral of the pair; Smith was the unabashed playboy who never saw a pair of shapely legs he didn't like. Then, to top it off, Ed "Kookie" Byrnes stunned Warner Brothers executives when he became a teen sensation as the hip parking lot attendant who combed his locks and called everybody "Daddy-O." When Byrnes recorded KOOKIE, LEND ME YOUR COMB with Connie Stevens, his place among teen-heart-throbs was cinched. In fact, his fame catapulted the ratings so dramatically, he was finally promoted to private investigator with his own office. There was the sexy French receptionist Suzzanne (Jackqueline Beer) and Roscoe (Louis Quinn), the part-time gopher and race track addict who supplied comic relief. And if all this wasn't enough, just across the parking lot there was swinging Dino's-- Dean Martin's real life watering hole where the Frankie Ortega jazz trio pounded out tunes like "I Get A Kick Out Of You."

Sadly, in the final years of the series, Roger Smith developed brain disease and was replaced by Richard Long. SUNSET STRIP was never the same after that. Moreover, it didn't seem right to see a suddenly mature "Kookie" sitting at a desk in a three-piece suit replaced by Robert Logan who was now parking the cars. The show went off the air in 1964 after seven seasons.

While many of the episodes are available on tape and DVD, it is hard to understand why 77 SUNSET STRIP is not shown more often on nostalgic television. For it's fan base remains solid and it is one of the most watchable of the older detective shows. PETER GUNN, RICHARD DIAMOND, and BOURBON STREET BEAT may have been solid competitors, but if you place them side by side, it's not really a contest. Has any other show ever compared to the cool temperatures of 77 SUNSET STRIP? As Kookie would say: "It's really the ginchiest..."

Trivia: It is rather remarkable to consider the impressive pantheon of Warner Brothers successful television series in the 1950's: MAVERICK, CHEYENNE, SUGARFOOT, HAWAIIAN EYE, SURFSIDE SIX, BOURBON STREET BEAT, COLT 45, LARAMIE--all had strong ratings in the 1950's and early 1960's....Moreover, it has often been said that when it came to the movies, WARNER BROTHERS owned the detective genre (Cagney, Bogart, Robinson); and MGM owned fantasy (Astaire, Kelly, Garland). Apparently, this was also true of television where WARNER BROTHERS invested heavily in westerns and detective shows....After Roger Smith developed a brain disorder and left the show, he later developed MLS! But he appears to be doing well today. He married actress Ann Margaret many years ago and when he retired from acting, managed her career...Effrem Zimbalist, Jr. went on to play Inspector Erskine in THE F.B.I. series in the early 1970's...Jacqueline Beer, who played the sexy 77 SUNSET STRIP office receptionist, was Miss France, 1954, and married explorer Thor Hyerdahl...As for Kookie (Ed Byrnes): his late '50's recording of KOOKIE, LEND ME YOUR COMB with Connie Stevens resulted in some 15,000 fan letters a week to Warner Bros....During the height of the series, Byrnes had a serious studio contract dispute with Warner Bros. who refused to allow the actor to do outside films such as Rio Bravo with John Wayne. But the dispute was settled and Byrnes re-appeared in the series as an investigator, not a parking lot attendant. Ratings, however, nosedived and it wasn't long before the series tanked....Byrnes also had a rather severe bout with drug addiction which he describes in an autobiography...Dino's nightclub, just across the parking lot from 77 SUNSET STRIP, was very real and was owned by Dean Martin for years...But there was never really a marquee reading 77 SUNSET STRIP in the way the series portrayed: the interior shots were all filmed at WARNER BROTHERS. In fact, if you pass by 8524 Sunset Blvd. today and look in front of the doorway of the building there now, you'll see a plaque stating that it was once the site for 77 SUNSET STRIP, filmed from 1958--1964....

Dennis Caracciolo

Marjorie Morningstar (1958)

The Film That Made Natalie

[29 April 2005]

This is one of those movies to see over and over for certain memorable scenes, the hauntingly beautiful piece, A VERY SPECIAL LOVE, and for the novelty of watching Gene Kelly in a strictly dramatic role. But as for the treatment the film gives to the Herman Wouk novel, MARJORIE MORNINGSTAR experiences the usual celluloid plastic surgery and comes out an approximation of the 1950's best seller. For central to Wouk's fiction is the New York Jewish community and its effect on a young woman struggling with her own sexual identity. In short, what we get in the film is Natalie Wood, nascent and alluring, but resembling more a Beverly Hills rich girl than a Jewish American Princess.

MORNINGSTAR is undoubtedly Natalie Wood's maiden flight as a leading lady. REBEL WITHOUT A CAUSE may have brought her to the public's attention, but MORNINGSTAR was the movie that launched her as a star and sent her career skyrocketing. The obvious parallel between the coming of age of Marjorie in the film and Natalie Wood as a leading lady cannot be ignored.

Noel Airman (Gene Kelly) is a shiftless romantic forever working on his musical PRINCESS JONES. He's more or less a drifter and supports himself in summertime by working as a dramatic director at a Jewish summertime resort in the Adirondacks where young girls are drawn to him like moths. It is there that he meets a very young and impressionable Marjorie. Her obsession with him begins immediately and the more irresponsible Airman behaves, the more deeply she is drawn into him. The Marjorie--Noel relationship is the movie's centerpiece as Marjorie simply refuses to see Airman as a deadbeat and supports his pipe dreams about a Broadway production. She even influences her best friend (Carolyn Jones) to get her boyfriend, well-connected Jesse White, to put financial backing together to produce Airman's play. The production flops, of course, because it's so romantically saccharine and Kelly finally realizes he's going nowhere. Taking to drink, he escapes to Europe and heartbroken Marjorie goes off after him.

Natalie Wood's performance as Marjorie Morningstar is superior and is performed with the same passion characteristic of almost every role she ever tackled. However, Kelly's performance as Noel Airman is, for the most part, superficial. It wasn't his first dramatic role by a long shot, for Kelly was always a fine actor in his own right and showed his talents in many of his musicals such as COVER GIRL and AN American IN Paris, but MARJORIE MORNINGSTAR was his first non-dancing dramatic effort.

Most of the others in the cast, with the exception of Carolyn Jones, Marjorie's common-sense best friend, come off as stereotypes. Ed Wynn hovers around Wood as the wise Uncle Sampson sprinkling common sense over Marjorie's romantic dizziness. Claire Trevor and Everette Sloan are Marjorie's uppity, bigoted Jewish parents who will tolerate nothing less than a wealthy husband for their daughter. Marty Balsam is a complete figurine playing Marjorie's wimpy suitor. But the most obtuse character in the film is Wally (Mary Milner), the struggling playwright who's been in love with Marjorie forever. Milner is portrayed as a Marjorie's shoulder to lean on lurking behind the scenes for years. Then in the bat of an eye, he's suddenly transformed into a successful Broadway playwright! The transition is laughable.

In the end, Marjorie matures and finally seees Noel as a self-destructive dreamer. She visits the old summer camp on the Adirondacks for one last time and looks on as Noel draws impressionable young girls into his web all over again. The sequence itself is very effective; however, the movie's very last scene in which Marjorie boards a bus and discovers a smiling Wally behind her in the rear view mirror now ready to step into her life big time is a bit much.

MORNINGSTAR works if you don't want to hold the script up to the light and just enjoy Wood and Kelly in a film. The theme song, A VERY SPECIAL LOVE, casts the appropriate mood over the summer camp atmosphere and, if nothing else, strikes a cord in all of us who ever had a nostalgic vacation romance.

Dennis Caracciolo.

The Godfather Part II (1974)

A Superior Sequel

[21 April 2005]

GODFATHER II simply destroys the myth that most sequels to major films are usually inferior products and rather bad ideas. The film easily ranks as one of the finest sequels in movie history and, in fact, may be preferred by audiences to the original! While GODFATHER I is unquestionably a classic film and makes virtually every critic's all-time top 10 movie list, GODFATHER II stands right beside it combining the three mighty elements of movie making: engrossing script, brilliant direction, and powerful performances from every actor who steps in front of the camera.

The sequel simply has so many watchable and engrossing scenes in the Corleone family saga that audiences never seem to tire of them even after viewing them over and over for years. The opening sequence at the Corleone First Communion celebration along the blue waters of Lake Tahoe is a fresh and welcome juxtaposition to the grim, New York Depression years of GODFATHER I. The story moves intriguingly along as the confrontation between Michael Corleone and Nevada Senator Geary serve as the impetus for the family's new business interests: establishing a foothold in the Las Vegas hotel empire. Geary refuses to assist Corleone's attempt to acquire a liquor license; Michael's sister Connie (Talia Shire) asking for money so she can marry her beau Merle (Troy Donahue); the shift to Las Vegas where weak Fredo's buddy-buddy relationship with Hyman Roth (Lee Strassberg) seals his doom; the attempted Michael Corleone assassination attempt at the compound; senate racketeering hearings; the brilliant performance of acting maestro Lee Strasberg as Corleone antagonist Hyman Roth; the bitterly unforgiving retribution Michael delivers to his brother Freddo and wife Kay (Diane Keaton); and, of course, the entire flashback to the early Vito Corleone days in early 1900's New York where we witness Michael Corleone relieving the Italian community of the "The Black Hand" and thereby establishing the roots of the family syndicate.

Not to be overlooked, is the memorable performance of gravel-voiced Frank Pentangeli (Michael V. Gazzo) who plays one of the Corleone's most loyal lieutenants. Pentangeli's wrath over not being able to wipe out the competing Rosario Brothes spills over to his betrayal of the Corleone's which ultimately seals his own doom. After being placed in the Witness Protection Program and delivering a deposition, Pentangeli sits at the senate committee table ready to sing--until he glimpses the sudden appearance of his brother from Italy being escorted into the courtroom ominously by Michael. Pentangeli reverses himself and refuses to incriminate Corleone.

If there's a lesson that comes through just about every frame of all three GODFATHER films, it's that trusted disciples almost always become a Judas. Virtually every loyal Corleone lieutenant, it seems, eventually betrays the family and is doomed to be crushed under the Michael Corleone boot. Even poor Abe Vigoda goes over to the competition and ends up taken for a ride.

What comes through most effectively in the Corleone character--as it must come through--is Al Pacino's portrayal of the Godfather's iron fist and harsh retribution. Pacino's performance as the Don is a masterpiece in film history for its brilliant economy and understatement. Everything that needs to be stated or conveyed is done so with either a few sentences, harsh glare, or nod. Corleone's single, and most memorable verbal outburst, comes at his wife when she reveals she aborted the child he wanted. The vengeance Corleone exacts against those he feels betrayed him are conveyed with a sense of unswerving and inevitable doom: for when one double-crosses a Corleone, one pays the ultimate price.

Al Pacino's performance as Micahel Corleone is movie legend. And GODFATHER II should make everyone must-see list, especially those who were enthralled by GODFATHER I and the tale of the Corleone's.

Trivia: A woman I currently work with appears briefly in the Lake Tahoe celebration scene at the beginning of the film. She said she was vacationing near Homewood (east Lake Tahoe) during the filming of GODFATHER II when Coppola pulled her and many other extras off the street saying he needed "a lot of people." She received nothing for appearing.....Troy Donahue made a cameo as Connie's beau in GODFATHER II playing Merle--which was Donahue's first real name...

Dennis Caracciolo

Fear Strikes Out (1957)

One Compulsive Dad

[20 April 2005]

FEAR STRIKES OUT has to be the classic compulsive "sports Dad" movie. I think every father with a son in sports should be required to see this film--especially after what we've seen recently with regard to parents in fist fights at their sons' Little League games. If ever there was an overbearing, driving patriarchal figure trying to live out his past inadequacies through his son in sports, Jimmy Piersall's father was he. In fact, I watch this movie not so much for the Jimmy Piersall story so much as to see Karl Malden's portrayal of John Piersall! Of course, we don't know how much is embellished, but if Mr. Piersall was even half of what is depicted in this movie, it is little wonder that Jimmy Piersall once hit a home run and ran around the bases backwards...

Could anyone play a more iron-fisted character than Karl Malden? Watch PARRISH (1963) or BOMBERS B-52 sometime to see the equal of Piersall's Dad in FEAR STRIKES OUT. And Piersall's mother? Again, no one knows how accurate the depiction is, but she is a ghost presence and if that is true, it's just another nail in Piersall's psychological coffin.

Even watching this movie as a kid, I was uncomfortable seeing Piersall pounded cruelly again and again by his Dad to do better, to go higher, to do more. Once he's romanced by The Boston Red Sox, Mr. Piersall becomes Jimmy's indispensable "advisor." All of this grows until Jimmy can do nothing without consulting Dad. The result is his father's eternal presence between his ears and the classic breakdown scene at the park when Piersall climbs the fence, an unforgettable moment, especially if you see this as an adolescent.

Reviews concerning Anthony Perkins'lack of athletic ability always come up when this movie is discussed. Actually, this was characteristic of most sports movie bio's back in the 1940's and 1950's. Watch William Bendix as Babe Ruth, Ronald Reagan as Grover Cleveland Alexander, or Dan Daily as Dizzy Dean. Routine throwing and catching resembles something you used to see a "nerd" do at school recess. And this movie quirk wasn't present in baseball films only.

I've always wondered just who this movie is about: Jimmy Piersall or his father? The scene in which the psychiatrist confronts Mr. Piersall at the sanitarium is painful and very sad. I've also always wondered just what Piersall's thoughts must have been when this movie hit the screens: for his was still active in the major leagues. How many teams did Jimmy Piersall play for? How many fist fights? And his announcing career? Full of controversy. Maybe it would have all happened without John Piersall, but it is doubtful. Next time a boy wishes his father was more into sports, remind him of John Piersall.

Exhibit 'A' for all fathers living vicariously through the sports achievements of their sons.

Dennis Caracciolo

It's a Mad Mad Mad Mad World (1963)

It Was A Wonderful World Then

[19 April 2005]

When IT'S A MAD WORLD opened in December, 1963, it was a completely different comedy universe than it is today and this must be taken into account when seeing this film. The movie-going public couldn't wait to see all of the era's comedians (as well as some of comedy's stars of yesteryear) under the umbrella of one epic production. Under the direction of Stanley Kramer, MAD WORLD was not only marketed as the greatest comedy ever put on film, it was a mini-marathon requiring an intermission in the middle as Sid Caesar and Edie Adams are about to blow themselves out of the basement of a hardware store.

There is no question that much of the humor in MAD WORLD is dated. Physical comedy in 1963 was still pretty much dependent upon the sort of vaudeville slapstick that ruled in the 1940's and 1950's. The careers of the giants--Milton Berle, Phil Silvers, Sid Caesar, and Mickey Rooney--were built upon this trademark humor when a pie in the face or a caravan wild goose chase could still command belly laughs. For that is exactly what MAD WORLD is---a wild goose chase in the grand Keystone Kops tradition--except that in MAD WORLD the mayhem winds through southern California environs.

Watching MAD WORLD recently, I found the service station destruction scene still hilarious and possibly the movie's highlight. Jonathan Winters, who always stood apart from the rest of the comedy world as something very special, unleashes a grand mal as he goes after Phil Silvers for duping him. Arnold Stang and Marvin Kaplan are a riot as the wimp station attendants who try to stop him. The resulting mayhem is the complete annihilation of the building piece by piece. I think the entire segment still holds up.

Would you believe Ethel Merman as Milton Berle's mother-in-law? Merman succeeds in being the movie's stereo-typical shrew and number one annoyance. Except for Merman, though, the women in the movie are pretty much props to hold up their men. Edie Adams, Dorothy Provine, Madeline Rhue, and even luscious Barry Chase, Dick Shawn's bikini-clad girlfriend, are little more than sexy figurines. Other than Merman's character and a very funny moment in which Carol Burnette crosses herself as Ben Blue takes off in a crop duster, the females are not really central to the film's comedy. This is undoubtedly due to the secondary role women played in the comedy world in 1963. Lucille Ball, the 1950's and 1960's comedy queen, ruled the empire and other performing women comedians were scarce. Mary Tyler Moore was just launching in the DICK VAN DYKE SHOW in 1963 and other females were too new and usually relegated to stand up: Phyllis Diller, Totie Fields, Joan Rivers, and Ann Mira.

Spencer Tracy was a great choice as the police captain dreaming of the Mexican border and harboring plans to take the money himself and throw everyone, including his nagging wife and superiors, overboard. There is one very funny, subtle moment, just before the "Big W" is discovered, when Phil Silvers bumps into Tracy amongst the mayhem at the park. Both legends come face to face and stare at one another oddly for a prolonged moment of silence.

As for the effect of so many stars appearing at various points throughout the movie just for the sake of a cameo: the device may fall a bit flat at times, but it's part of the movie's fun. Jerry Lewis, Jack Benny, Ben Blue, Carol Burnett, Carl Reiner, and even Buster Keaton and the Three Stooges appear in MAD WORLD for a just a few moments. Usually, the effect is often an annoying contrivance, but audiences in 1963 simply viewed it as an on-going surprise package and part of the charm of getting so much talent into one production.

The movie's climax--all the stars hanging on for life on an out-of-control fire engine ladder--may not be as back-slapping funny as it was in 1963, but it is still wonderfully entertaining. And the very last scene in the hospital room when Ethel Merman gets her comeuppance is a tip of the cap to the oldest comedy gag in movie history.

MAD WORLD is recommended today if for no other reason than to witness an era's great comedians all coming together like never before and seeing them as they looked in their prime...

Trivia: How well I remember my excitement attending the premiere of IT'S A MAD WORLD in San Francisco the week of December, 1963. The opening chase scene in which the police are speeding after Jimmy Durante who plunges off a cliff in a '58 Ford seemed spectacular and exciting...You almost wanted to applaud as all of the great comedians appeared one by one including Jonathan Winters, my personal favorite...There should have been a film all it's own titled THE FILMING OF IT'S A MAD, MAD, MAD, MAD WORLD. I have heard that the off-camera antics of all these great talents could fill a book....Who among the lead characters is still living? Unofficially, as of this writing, Jonathan Winters, Mickey Rooney, Sid Caesar, Dorothy Provine, and Edie Adams come immediately to mind....In minor roles, Jerry Lewis, Barrie Chase, Carl Reiner, Peter Falk, Carol Burnett, Don Knotts, Madeline Rhue...I'm sure there are others...

Dennis Caracciolo

A Night at the Opera (1935)

Marx Bros. Masterpiece

[6 April 2005]

Though some claim that either HORSE FEATHERS OR DUCK SOUP was the greatest Marx Brothers opus, A NIGHT AT THE OPERA has to be Marxdom's signature film. The witticisms and riotous madcap from playwright George Kaufman (THE MAN WHO CAME TO DINNER; YOU CAN'T TAKE IT WITH YOU) is evident everywhere in the some of the team's finest composition of wit and physical comedy.

After taking over MGM studios in the 1930's, big-wig Irving Thallberg pulled the Marx Bros. aside and told them, "You know, you guys are missing only one thing in your pictures: you never help anybody." After OPERA, the Marx Brothers' scripts always revolved around either an attempt to get a romantic couple together or became an effort to save an institution from going under, i.e., THE BIG STORE; A DAY AT THE RACES; HORSE FEATHERS; THE BIG CIRCUS.

Margaret Dumont is established once and for all as Groucho's perfect romantic staple and a Marx Bros. movie just doesn't seem right without her. Sig Rumond appears to have been created in a Marx Brothers comedy factory and serves sensationally as the urbane Marx antagonist vying for Dumont's favors, though upended time and time again by Groucho. A young Kitty Carlisle and Allen Jones provide the romance and music--though many audiences never realize how fine an operatic voice Carlisle had in those days.

So many hilarious and classic routines fill A NIGHT AT THE OPERA that the movie offers itself as a study in Komedy 101: the unforgettable "contract" bit between Chico and Groucho (Chico can't read). As they try to sign an agreement about the rights to manage singer Allen Jones, they tear clause after clause off the paper until Chico finally asks: "What's this?" "Oh," replies Groucho, "that's just a sanity clause." Chico bursts out laughing. "Oh, you canna' fool me; there ain't' no sanity Klaus!..." The crowded state room scene where Groucho, Chico, and Hapro stow-away in a tiny cubicle and the shoebox crams with more and more people until Mrs. Claypool (Dumont) opens the door and everyone spills out...The hotel scene where Detective Henderson tries to nail the brothers for stowing-away and everyone races back and forth between suites, furniture is switched, and Henderson is left wondering if he's nuts...

But it is the film's finale during a live performance at the New York opera house that is perhaps the comedy team's grandest movie climax. The police, still after Harpo for stowing away, try to arrest him during a live performance. He breaks through the theater's backstage, swings over the proscenium like a trapeze artist, and, at one point, tears off the dress of one of the singers. "Well, now we're finally getting somewhere!" Groucho opines from the audience.

What a shame A NIGHT AT THE OPERA is not on television more often. Young people should be treated to comedy as it once was when laughter depended upon uproarious wit and a brand of physical comedy perfected by comedians through years of refining their craft in vaudeville.

A NIGHT AT THE OPERA is nothing less than an American comedy classic.

Trivia: Maragaret Dumont appeared with Groucho on THE Hollywood PALACE television show in 1965 and the couple did a brief repartee from GROUCHO's famous Captain Spaulding routine. The next day Dumont passed away...Her last film was in 1964 in the star-studded WHAT A WAY TO GO...Always playing a haughty spinstress with money, Dumont was, in fact, a millionairess in real life and commuted between Hollywood and London....Few realize what a fine operatic singer Kitty Carlisle was in the 1930's. In the 1950's and '60's she was a regular panelist on television quiz shows such as I'VE GOT A SECRET...She was also married to playwright Moss Hart who collaborated with George Kaufman on YOU CAN'T TAKE IT WITH YOU, THE MAN WHO CAME TO DINNER, and many other plays. YOU CAN'T won the Pulitzer Prize...Allen Jones was the father of popular singer Jack Jones...Groucho said that it was while hanging out of an airplane in A NIGHT IN CASABLANCA (1946) that he finally realized the brothers had pretty much reached the end of the line in movies...The last picture in which all three brothers appeared was THE STORY OF MANKIND in 1957. Groucho played the part of Sir Isaac Newton...Groucho wrote many books: MEMOIRS OF A MANGY LOVER and LETTERS FROM GROUCHO...Harpo Marx also wrote his own autobiography: HARPO SPEAKS--a fine expose of the brothers' early years and the many stage shows they did perfecting their mayhem...When the stock market crashed in 1929, Groucho lost every dime he had: about $250,000...In the 1950's Groucho hosted his own television quiz show,YOU BET YOUR LIFE and both Harpo and Chico made surprise appearances...Chico was a lifetime gambler and would bet on anything...MINNIE'S BOYS, a stage play about the influence of Marx mother Minnie, was pretty much a flop in the 1970's...One of the all-time great quotations about the Marx Brothers came from playwright George Kaufman who, after watching the comedy team tear apart his script on stage in the early years, observed: "I could have sworn I just heard one of the original lines from the play."...Groucho was self-conscious about his lack of formal education and once had the chance to meet poet T.S. Eliot. He read many of Eliot's works and boned up on literature. When the two men did finally meet, all Eliot wanted to talk about was A NIGHT AT THE OPERA...One of Groucho's final performances just before he died was at Carnegie Hall in New York and it was a smashing success. He was accompanied by pianist Marvin Hamlisch...Film critic James Agee once said that the worst thing the Marx Brothers ever did was still better than everybody else...

Dennis Caracciolo

Separate Tables (1958)

A Masterpiece Of Loneliness

[4 April 2005]

I make it a point to watch SEPARATE TABLES at least once a year. It is a masterpiece of an intimate portrait of lonely people who reside at an English seaside hotel and how their lives are crisscrossed by destructive cruelty when they pretend to be what they are not.

David Niven won the Acadamy Award--and rightfully so--for his portrayal of the lonely Major Pollack who embellishes his military past in an attempt to garner the adulation of the overly protected and withdrawn Sybil played superbly by Deborah Kerr. Gladys Cooper turns in a powerful performance as Sybil's mother, the hotel's matriarch and controlling force. Obsessed with stifling her daughter's independence, she refuses to allow Sybil any freedoms and snuffs out every one of her attempts to gain her own life. It is out of this twisted control that she poisons her daughter's respect and friendship with Pollack by attempting to destroy his reputation.

The romance between Burt Lancaster and ex-lover Rita Hayworth weaves through the story as an excellent subplot. When Hayworth, a glamorous but lonely cover girl, shows up unexpectedly to get Lancaster, the pair thrash out their past failed relationship. The only negatives are Rod Taylor and his fiancée who are pretty much an afterthought in the film and do little more than provide a scandalous intermission for the Niven--Cooper confrontation. And Wendy Hiller, The manager and owner of the hotel, towers as the one character who stands up to Cooper and her poisoning of Niven. When Lancaster passes her up for Hayworth, she accepts it with dignity and character.

It is, however, the final scene in which Niven enters the breakfast room after being shamed by Cooper's calumny that serves as the film's shimmering jewel. Kerr acknowledges Niven, the others follow suit and reocognize Pollack humanely, and you practically hear the audience applaud when Sybil stands up to her twisted mother. It is the supreme moment; for the characters have established a humane connection among "separate tables." What a powerful finale as the camera draws back through the breakfast room window, the theme song tugs at your heart, and the guests resume their lonely lives.

SEPARATE TABLES is a powerful drama and a fantastic study of the pain that springs from human alienation and distrust.

Dennis Caracciolo

The Parallax View (1974)

Not Dated At All

[29 March 2005]

Not only is PARALLAX VIEW not dated, it remains a sleeper of a film and an eye-opening study of how an innocent person hovering at the edge of a conspiracy investigation is attracted, manipulated, and finally shoved in as the patsy for the murder of a Presidential candidate.

The John F. Kennedy assassination always surfaces whenever PARALLAX is seen or discussed. And for good reason: that horrible moment in history was only 11 years in our memories when this movie was released. It was about that same time EXECUTIVE ACTION hit the screens (financed by Mark Lane, author RUSH TO JUDGEMENT). But ACTION was a hollow script targeting an ambiguous coterie of CIA--Texas oil millionaires as the plotters crafting the JFK killing--which had been Lane's agenda from the day he offered to "defend" Lee Harvey Oswald.

PARALLAX is a tale in which a newspaper reporter, Warren Beatty, drives into an investigation of the assassination of a U.S. senator in Seattle after the suspicious death of a woman reporter (Paula Prentiss). He discovers a "corporation" he believes is associated with the assassination and tries to uncover its identity by posing as a borderline, anti-social personality in the hopes of flushing out the people involved. He is pegged, tested, and finally given an assignment. Thinking he has reached the heart of the conspiracy, Beatty is, in fact, really digging his own grave.

The strong suit of PARALLAX is that it never identifies just who is at the top of the mysterious corporation which seeks out disturbed, loner-types to draw in and manipulate. But unlike ACTION, PARALLAX makes it intriguing. It is here the film strengthens the plot's believability shrewdly rather than turn off the audience by naming a specific group not thought to be credible. The film shows how one is drawn into a plot and led into the "assassin's nest," how his fingerprints are placed on a murder weapon, and how he's dropped naked and vulnerable as the police move in moments after the victim is murdered.

Hume Cronyn is well cast as Beatty's skeptical, but supportive, newspaper editor. William Daniels turns in the movie's best performance as the terrified witness in hiding who knows too much and realizes his days are numbered. Paula Prentiss has what amounts to a cameo role in the film, but her performance as the horrified reporter is convincing. And Beatty? His best moments come when he tries to convince the "corporation" that he is a troubled personality and ready to be manipulated.

PARALLAX is close to, but not in any way the equal of Richard Condon's classic conspiracy THE MANCHURIAN CANDIDATE, a movie that stands to this day as possibly the best in its genre. PARALLAX is, nonetheless, very much worth seeing. It is provocative and will surely lead one to question the guilt of real life assassins and, for many skeptics, what might just be the fairy tales we've been told to explain the assassinations of our time.

And who could fail to compare the commission's ultimate findings in the movie's final scene to another infamous commission conclusion from 1964?

Dennis Caracciolo

Sunday in New York (1963)

Just An Old Style Sex Farce

[26 March 2005]

A light romantic farce that must be viewed while keeping in mind that this sort of film was on the cusp (1963) of the sexual revolution when hiding mistresses under beds and discovering old boyfriends in closets preceded explicit sexuality. The cast is great to look at especially Fonda who made this movie while still in the midst of her Roger-Vadim- sex-kitten phase (BARBARELLA, TALL STORY, BAREFOOT IN THE PARK) long before KLUTE and well before she climbed on top of a North Vietnamese tank and romanced the Communists.

Fonda is in town to visit her brother Adam (Cliff Robertson) and connects, instead, with Rod Taylor (THE BIRDS, HOTEL, THE TIME MACHINE). You can almost feel the heat between Fonda and Taylor as they dawdle and foreplay around, under, and through Robertson's apartment in a game of adolescent sexual cat and mouse. In one scene, Taylor sleeps on the couch and Fonda is upstairs in bed as they both toss and turn anxiously in separate rooms reminiscent of a Doris Day-Rock Hudson-PILLOW TALK-silly-rama. Robert Culp looks uncomfortable bouncing in uninvited as an airline pilot; but, then, Robert Culp usually looked uncomfortable in most of his films, didn't he? Cliff Robertson is way too clownish in this one, never develops a mature character, and Jim Backus acts as if he can't wait to dog paddle back to GILLIGAN'S ISLAND.

The musical score for Sunday was by pianist Peter Nero (NEW PIANO IN TOWN, FOR THE NERO MINDED, THE COLORFUL PETER NERO, etc.) whose unique blend of jazz and classical styles sold millions of albums. In fact, Nero has a cameo appearance in a nightclub in Sunday (in 1963 he was at the peak of his career when he began turning out albums off an endless assembly line, and appearing on THE TONIGHT SHOW and in nightclubs). The title song, Sunday IN NEW YORK, is a bouncy, upbeat tune that made the charts back then, and MORE IN LOVE is perhaps Nero's most beautiful composition. The film's music is very much worth listening to just on its own merit.

Sunday IN NEW YORK is one of the last of its kind--an innocent, somewhat urbane romantic comedy where the sparks fly from innuendo and double entendre. It does have a few genuinely funny moments--if you can overlook the pre sexual revolution cupidity. Moreover, Sunday is worth seeing just to catch a glimpse of Fonda years before her Tom-Haydin-anti-war days when she was still a Roger-Vadim-produced cupie doll and the centerpiece of many a man's fantasies.

Dennis Caracciolo

Where the Boys Are (1960)

Dated But Swell

[24 March 2005]

WHERE THE BOYS ARE is very much worth seeing, although extremely dated and a movie that would probably make today's 18 year-old laugh out loud at the innocent boy-meets-girl shenanigans of kids in an era before string bikinis and drunken riots in Fort Lauderdale.

Delores Hart is the crown jewel in this, the very first, "beach movie" that launched a whole summertime surf-romance culture of sand and two- piece swimsuits that, just a few years later, spawned Annette Funicello and Frankie Avalon in their BEACH BLANKET money-makers.

Hart is the embodiment of the girl next door with a face that could melt granite as she, Connie Francis, Yvette Mimeaux, and Paula Prentiss drive down to Fort Lauderdale during spring break in search of boys. They hook up with Frank Gorshin, Jim Hutton, and rich boy George Hamilton. The antics that ensue are so saccharine you could pour them over ice cream as a substitute for chocolate syrup.

It is the Hart-Hamilton romance that is the focal point as Hamilton tries unsuccessfully to seduce Hart on his father's yacht. Near the end, Hart thinks he has dumped her when he fails to show. A disconsolate Hart is left alone on the beach and wonders if she'll ever meet Mr. Right. The final scene between Hart and Hamilton offers a touching romantic twist and caps the whole thing nicely. Of course, the movie's theme song, WHERE THE BOYS ARE, would become Connie Francis'signature piece in years to come.

WHERE THE BOYS ARE is certainly dated, but its depiction of a benign teen culture shows us the world of summertime youth before mores,language, and music took a radical turn toward sex, drugs, and rock and roll.

TRIVIA: Anyone who doubts the existence of real, religious vocation should study the life of Delores Hart. She had made about 8-10 movies including two with Elvis--KING CREOLE and LOVING YOU. Then making the whopping sum of about $50,000 a picture, she was being groomed as the next Grace Kelley when she announced, in 1964, she was entering a convent to become a Catholic nun! Studio producers were beside themselves and most of Hollywood reacted with skepticism thinking it was a publicity stunt. She was, in fact, engaged at that time and her fiancée was heartbroken. But she entered a convent in Bethlehem, Conn. and remains there to this day as Mother Delores!...About 2-3 yrs. ago Hart was interviewed on 20--20 and disclosed she had a rare and painful nervous disorder that limits her movements. But her spirits were high and she spoke easily of the old Hollywood days, hiding nothing, even describing Presley as sensitive and a great guy...Yvette Mimeaux would marry MGM dance choreography Stanley Donan in the 1970's...Paula Prentiss would marry actor Richard Benjamin (GOODBYE COLUMBUS)...And Connie Francis? This is a life story waiting to be produced on the screen. For anyone interested in the real life tragedy of Connie Francis, read WHO'S SORRY NOW.....

Dennis Caracciolo

The Phil Silvers Show (1955–1959)

This Show Will Always Be Rich

[24 March 2005]

It is my opinion that THE PHILS SILVERS SHOW (aka YOU'LL NEVER GET RICH) remains the single most underrated sitcom in television history and that Phil Silvers remains the most underrated comedian in that medium. This is really saying something because the series has indeed received great acclaim over the years. Even so, Silvers is just not given his proper due for creating the Bilko character. As for the jewels in the supporting cast--they are simply terrific in this Nat Hiken creation that surely stands shoulder to shoulder with Jackie Gleason's THE HONEYMOONERS as perhaps the greatest sitcom ever on television.

Silvers did not just play Ernie Bilko--he WAS Ernie Bilko! The character of the scheme-driven, gambling-addicted army sergeant forever duping the lovable Col. Hall (Paul Ford) while manipulating his platoon for his personal aggrandizement, is so fast-paced, fresh, and funny that one wonders if BILKO ought not be a stage play.

The supporting cast--can you name a greater one? Buried among Sgt. Bilko's seemingly nondescript platoon lackeys is Herbie Faye. Faye was a friend of Silvers and a walking encyclopedia of burlesque gags and sketches years before BILKO was an idea; he knew every trick of the comedy trade and taught many of them to Silvers. And Doberman (Maurice Gosselton), the baby-faced, childlike man who is a classic as Bilko's all-around simpleton and dupe, is in a category all his own.

Harvey Lembeck and Allan Melvin play Bilko's two platoon confidantes; there is Joey Ross (CAR 54 WHERE ARE YOU?) as Sgt. Ritzik, a fine comedian in his own right who just cannot seem to ever get one over on Bilko; and Elizabeth Frazer pops up now and then as Ernie's girlfriend. As for Paul Ford? Was there ever a better foil for the top banana than Colonel Hall? One has to consider Ralph Cramden's Ed Norton (Art Carney) or Eve Arden's Mr. Conklin (Gale Gordon), to come up with one that works as well. Hall is just perfect as the base commander who unwittingly plays into Sgt. Bilko's hands time and time again. What a riot to watch the colonel melt under Bilko's patronizing devotion for Hall only to see the colonel walk straight into Ernie Bilko's net.

But it is Phil Silvers, his facial expressions, his bugle-call barking of orders, his complete manipulation of everyone on the base, and his wild schemes to make money that never seem to get old no matter how much you watch the episodes on video.

Why isn't THE PHIL SILVERS SHOW on TV LAND or the other nostalgia stations? Even the younger set who never saw the show will undoubtedly like it. And those of us who grew up in the 1950's watching it will love it all over again.

Trivia: Phil Silvers appeared in a number of films, including musicals such as COVER GIRL and SUMMER STOCK starring Gene Kelly...He did a lot of work after BILKO (probably best known for his role in THE BEVERLY HILLBILLIES and for his work in IT'S A MAD, MAD, MAD, MAD WORLD), but he never even remotely approached the greatness of BILKO...Silvers was an addictive gambler and found himself in the midst of a Beverly Hills Fryer's Club card scandal in the 1960's...Silvers appeared in the film version of A FUNNY THING HAPPENED ON MY WAY TO THE FORUM in the 1960's with Zero Mostel, though severely bothered by cataracts...He was also hydrophobic and his daughter Laurie tells the touching story of her dad fighting his terror of water in the backyard pool at night trying to overcome his fears so he could swim in the pool with his four young girls...

Dennis Caracciolo

The Bob Cummings Show (1955–1959)

Love That Show!

[24 March 2005]

This is simply one of TV's all-time funniest sitcoms. Bob Cummings may have done well in DIAL M FOR MURDER and many leading man roles throughout his career, but THE BOB CUMMINGS SHOW (also known as LOVE THAT BOB) proves his forte was decidedly comedy.

Cummings is a gem as the playboy Beverly Hills photographer with a bevy of models and beauties swarming in, over, and through his photographic studio. Yet he always seems to be foiled whenever he tries to nail one of them down for lovemaking. Ann B. Davis (later the housekeeper in THE BRADY BUNCH)is his hilarious secretary secretly pining for Bob who nixes his love schemes one way or another whenever she has a chance. And Dwayne Hickman (later DOBBIE GILLIS) is great as the hormone-driven teenager vying for a piece of his Uncle Bob's action. The only sensible one in the group is Rosemary DeCamp, Bob's sister, with whom he lives, who does her best to raise Hickman with some degree of morality in the midst of her brother's sexploitations.

Nancy Kulp simply must be mentioned. Though she later skyrocketed in THE BEVERLY HILLBILLIES, she is a riot as the birdwatching, nerdy Pamela Livingstone, the bean-pole with a crush on Bob. She popped up in many episodes throughout the series and it was always hilarious to watch Cummings jump through hoops to escape her romantic advances.

If you have never seen THE BOB CUMMINGS SHOW, you simply must. It won't disappoint in the laugh department. And it's fun to watch if you'd like to see the kind of wholesome sex farce TV could produce in the late 1950's that was neither explicit nor offensive.

Trivia: Nancy Kulp spent her life savings running for political office in Pennsylvania in the '90's...Rosemary DeCamp played the wife of Georeg M. Cohan (James Cagney) in the movie YANKEE DOODLE DANDY in the 1940's...Darrell Hickman is the brother of Dwayne Hickman, who made several teen beach movies in the early 1960's...Bob Cummings was very much into healthy living, eating, and exercising which is probably why he looked 35 when he was 60...King Donovan, one of Bob's friends who shows up intermittently throughout the series, appeared in the cult classic INVASION OF THE BODY SNATCHERS with Kevin McCarthy in the early '50's...Joy Lansing, one of the bevy of beauties who frequented Bob's studio had been a major model and did quite a lot of television...

Dennis Caracciolo

Seven Days in May (1964)

Vintage Rod Serling

[22 March 2005]

After REQUIEM FOR A HEAVYWEIGHT, the screenplay for SEVEN DAYS IN MAY might be Rod Serling's finest effort. The drama of an attempted military takeover of the United States government, SEVEN DAYS is one of Serling's most tautly written scripts and was one he himself favored. It was wisely filmed in black and white with virtually no obligatory special effects--all of which works terrifically as the drama is structured on character and plot, not military pyrotechnics, Serling's usual formula for success.

While working at the Pentagon, Kirk Douglas (Colonel Jiggs Casey) accidentally uncovers a plot to stage a coup of the government masterminded by Gen. Matoon Scott (Burt Lancaster). He dutifully reports his discovery to the President (Fredrich March) who receives the news with skepticism, though he investigates and later finds it to be true. He assigs his old workhorse pals Marty Balsam and Edmund O'Brien to dig in and get to the bottom of matters which they do uncovering the players in the plot, some military, some not.

Ellie (Ava Gardner) is excellent as Lancaster's current girlfriend and the former lover of Douglas for whom she still pines. But Douglas must "use" her to acquire personal letters in her possession written by Lancaster which Douglas gives to the President in case he were to need them against the generals' denial of involvement. Interestingly, the President never uses the letters against Lancaster because of their highly personal and sensitive nature. Undoubtedly, Serling is showing us the liberal President is an honorable and decent man whose ideals, quite obviously, mirror Serling's politics.

Steely Edmund O'Brien is his usual reliable self as the President's right-hand man who gets thrown into the tank on a remote military base while investigating the conspiracy. John Houseman makes a cameo appearance as a conspiring naval admiral who is confronted with the irrefutable evidence and signs a confession.

The poignant confrontation between March and Lancaster in the oval office is perhaps the movie's finest scene. The President discloses his knowledge of the plot and Generall Scott not only admits to it, he unleashes his complete disgust at the President's liberal policies which he believes to be sending the country down the drain. It is a superb exchange over the constitution, its' integrity, and how a republic must abide by its precepts in order to survive. In all, vintage Rod Serling. After the general leaves, March reflects that it wasn't "any single man," that caused the attempt to take control of the government, but rather "an age" meaning the anxiety of the "nuclear age." Those who watched the Twilight Zone will recall numerous episodes about the insanity of the atomic era and the ramifications of turning weapons of mass destruction over to machines and systems. It was a theme that Serling often repeated.

Not to be outdone is the brief, but pointed confrontation between Lancaster and Douglas after the plot has been dismissed by the President. Scott knows that it was Jiggs who informed the President of the coup. He orders him to answer the question: "Do you know who Judas was?" "Yes," answers Douglas. "He was a man I admired until he disgraced his uniform."

SEVEN DAYS IN MAY is a drama that one should study if he has even a slight interest in the work of Rod Serling. It is also a minor masterpiece of terse, point-counterpoint dialogue and worth studying if one has even the least interest in writing.

Trivia: If ever there was a man who killed himself with a four-pack-a-day habit who worked himself to death, it was Serling. Serling once called success the "bitch goddess."...One quotable from Serling referring to his writing work life when he was turning out scripts like factory sausages: "My diet consisted of coffee and fingernails."...Serling also wrote the screenplay for PLANET OF THE APES...I saw Rod Serling speak at Chabot College in Hayward, Ca., in 1969. He made clear his disdain for the current cinema darling at that time: EASY RIDER. Also, he admitted his worst effort was ASSAULT ON A QUEEN, the sleeping tablet of a film starring Frank Sinatra....But when asked his favorite screenplay, he said, SEVEN DAYS IN MAY.

--Dennis Caracciolo

The Long, Hot Summer (1958)

Under The Orson Wells' Sun

[18 March 2005]

This southern, William Faulkner tale relies heavily on so many south of the Mason-Dixon line clichés and atmospherics that one almost has to laugh out loud at most of them. Yet it is still enjoyable to watch Orson Wells as Will Varner, the perspiring, cigar chomping Mississippi kingpin desperate to have a grandson before he dies--at whatever the cost. Wells blusters and bulls his way through the entire movie disgusted with his wimpish son Jody played convincingly by Tony Franciosa. Varner watches disconsolately as Jody spends his time chasing his wife Lee Remick around the house instead of settling down and making babies and taking control of his marriage. Lee Remick, for all her talents, is little more than a sexpot curio for Franciosa. As for Joann Woodward, Varner's unmarried, strong-willed daughter Clara, she is determined not to settle for second-best with long-time beau Richard Anderson who's wealthy, available, and a MaMa's boy. Both of Varner's offspring are grave disappointments to the wealthy patriarch who knows time is running out on him as his two childless children waste their days on the Mississippi plantation.

LONG HOT SUMMER is actually based on a classic Faulkner short story, BARN BURNING, the tale of a pyromaniac whose son runs off and gets blamed for setting fires in other towns. Newman is excellent as Ben Quick, the drifter who stumbles into the Will Varner universe and stays there once he gets a load of Joann Woodward. And Angela Landsbury as Varner's companion, Minnie? It is possibly Landsbury's most wooden role since her forgettable 1940's musical days. She pales without substance under the colossal Orson Wells sun. For Wells mushrooms larger than life in every scene he's in latching on to Newman as a viable candidate for his daughter who'll give him a grandson. The younger Varner explodes in fury and jealousy and tries to kill his father and frame Ben Quick--before coming to his senses.

One of the best scenes in the movie is when Newman convinces Franciosa that a treasure is hidden on the plantation. Franciosa, overcome with excitement that it might just be the trick to secure his father's approval, digs furiously six feet down, finds a bag of old coins, and rushes them to Varner only to have his father laugh in his face and tell him they are worthless old pieces of fool's gold.

Always a pleasure to watch Newman and Woodward together, LONG HOT SUMMER was supposedly the first movie the couple made after they were married. Which they still are---a Hollywood novelty for sure.

Trivia: LONG HOT SUMMER contains many filmed errors that made the final cut. Some of Orson Wells' scenes are hilarious to watch for the great actor's robust, absolutely incomprehensible southern drawl. Watch, listen carefully, and you'll roar!

Dennis Caracciolo

Fail Safe (1964)

Apocalyptic Anxiety

[16 March 2005]

Watching FAIL SAFE the other day after years of not having seen it, I was reminded of the apocalyptic anxiety that gripped me when I read the novel in 1964 as a senior in high school at the height of the Cold War. It is a rare movie treatment that remains loyal to the original novel, in this case Eugene Burdick's tersely written 1961 best seller. Wisely filmed in black and white (could you imagine FAIL SAFE in color?), FAIL SAFE remains a bit dated with "war room" procedures and orchestration that are probably primitive compared to present day defense systems. However, the movie was nothing less than a dramatic education for everyone in the 1960's when we first awoke to how the world was suddenly at the mercy of advanced computerized war systems. Armegeddon brought about by a mistake in technology is not a pretty subject to ponder, but we had to know.

I have always felt that Henry Fonda as the President was not the wisest choice. He exudes a rather detached, mechanical persona in his role in the film and remains devoid of a single, emotional outburst--especially considering his final decision which, in the novel, is a chapter titled "The Sacrifice of Abraham." In fact, there is far more "emotion" from the war room generals than from Fonda as President. On the other hand, Walter Matheau is perfectly cast as the calculating Defense Dept. consultant who thinks we have no choice but to deliver an all-out attack on Russia before they interpret the approaching American vindicators as a planned attack upon them. The opening scene in which Matheau slaps a beautiful woman across the face in his convertible is, I suppose, a clue to Burdick's distaste for the "think tank eggheads" who sat around and wrote papers on the pros and cons of preemptive first strike strategies. A young Larry Hagman is extremely convincing as the President's interpretor translating the Russian premier's words to Fonda on the "red phone."

Stock footage aside, the fighter sequences are realistic and inject a grimly surrealistic mood into the picture resulting from the error-laden signals that have given the pilots the go-ahead for all-out war. The scenes in which the pilots realize their orders are not a drill are chilling and produce a palpable fear making the viewer imagine what it takes to conduct such a mission when the dreaded orders come. One of the best scenes is the wife of the pilot heading straight for Moscow screaming to her husband to turn the plane around and come home. That is not dramatic license. Pilots were instructed that the enemy could impersonate their wives' voices and even the President's voices!

But it is the President's final decision which, in the novel, is titled THE SACRIFICE OF ABRAHAM that towers as one of the most unexpected and sobering movie climaxes ever.

Trivia: Years ago I heard that Burdick, a Cal, Berkeley, professor, wrote the novel while holed up at Aptos Beach, Ca., near Santa Cruz....I remember re-reading the novel in the late 1970's and amazed to find the name 'Henry Kissenger' in the early part of the book when Harvard University military strategists were cited. This is somewhat startling because the novel was written in 1961 long before Kissenger became the mammoth political identity in the Nixon Administration.

Dennis Caracciolo

The Pleasure of His Company (1961)

The Pure Pleasure Of Their Company

[16 March 2005]

I have probably seen this movie 40 or 50 times since video has been in existence, and I have yet to tire of watching Mr. Class, Fred Astaire, weave his way through this Cornelia Otis Skinner/Samuel Taylor gem of a light comedy that engages you from start to finish.

Everything about this production from the opening credits appearing over what could be the finest still photography of San Francisco ever put on the screen to the ensemble of endearing characters to the heart-warming musical themes, fashion PLEASURE OF HIS COMPANY into a film that after forty years still spins an enduring tale of a long, lost playboy father turning up unexpectedly to attend his daughter's wedding.

Lili Palmer is a perfect fit as Astaire's spicy, estranged wife who may have never quite doused the flames for her ex; Debbie Reynolds is a natural as the naiive daughter pining for the real father she never had; Gary Merrill offers a rather patient detachment from most all of Astaire's antics as his current wife nearly loses her heart all over again to her ex-husband's charm. Charley Ruggles is the aloof, wise grandfather, who seems to be amused by Astaire's manipulations and really has little to do or say until uttering a few choice observations near the end. Tab Hunter turns in a surprisingly solid performance as Reynolds' rancher-fiancée--especially when considering that in 1961 Hunter was still pretty much stuck in his "teen idol" phase.

The fun of this movie, before it turns to sad lessons of regret, lies in catching the dialogue repartee and the meddling contrivances of Astaire. For some of the exchanges between Astaire and Palmer on second marriage and "dull, domestic life," get a solid side swipe by playboy Biddiford Poole, before he himself gets the final comeuppance. In all, the treatment of a long-lost dashing second husband appearing without warning for his daughter's wedding who throws a monkey wrench into the settled lives of well-to-do San Franciscans is, in many ways, wonderfully witty.

THE PLEASURE OF HIS COMPANY simply does not age. It is one of those enduring pieces that weaves its own charming spell from Astaire's bon-vi-vant arrival at SFO to his grim realization before leaving again: "I've missed the boat in oh-so-many ways." THE PLEASURE OF HIS COMPANY is a light-hearted comedy with a solid message about regret that hits home for many. But lest Astaire become too much an object of sympathy, he has the last laugh on Palmer and Merrill that caps the film with just the right touch at the end.

Trivia: Cyril Ritchard starrred in the original Broadway production, but Astaire, who had just about retired in '58 after the death of his wife, was cast as Biddiford Poole....Delores Hart was originally cast as Jessica, his daughter in the stage play. After making a number of films and earning about $50,000 a picture, Hart stunned Hollywood in 1964 and announced she was entering a convent. She became a nun and remains one to this day...Gary Merrill, who plays Palmer's second husband, also played the husband of Bette Davis in the film classic ALL ABOUT EVE...The exterior of the Dougherty home where some of the action is shot was, in fact, the Spreckle's Mansion, a San Francisco landmark....Tab Hunter was about at the end of his teen idol days when he made this film. He had recorded "First Love" which was a top 40 hit in the late '50's....

Dennis Caracciolo