The people have spoken and our next screening will be High Noon!  Make arrangements to get your copy by Sunday to join in the fun.

I put together a video for this week’s write-up.  It’s pretty low-rent, but it’s the first time I’ve ever made one, so I’m pretty happy with the first effort.  Hopefully, we can improve on this effort and make the videos a bit more ambitious.  For now, here is High Noon.  The trailer is attached at the end of my portion.  Enjoy!

L-R: Actor Robert Wagner, his wife Natalie Wood (1938 - 1981) and host Frank Sinatra (in eyepatch) pose together during a surprise 21st birthday party held for Wood at Romanoff's, Hollywood, California, July 20, 1959. (Photo by Murray Garrett/Getty Images)

It was New Year’s Eve, 1958, and Peter and Pat Kennedy Lawford were celebrating at a private party at Romanoff’s in Beverly Hills, a popular spot with Hollywood stars. The Lawfords sat at the most prestigious table in the room with Frank Sinatra, Natalie Wood, and Robert Wagner. Pat was dazzled by Sinatra’s charm and basked in his attention. Sinatra was thrilled to be in the presence of the sister of the fast-rising Senator John F. Kennedy of Massachusetts.

Host Frank Sinatra (L) wears an eyepatch, laughing with actor Peter Lawford and his wife Patricia Kennedy (1924 - 2006) during a surprise 21st birthday party held for actor Natalie Wood at Romanoff's, Hollywood, California, July 20, 1959. (Photo by Murray Garrett/Getty Images)

Pat had only known Sinatra since August, when she met him at a dinner party at the home of Gary and Rocky Cooper. Since then, Sinatra had swept the Lawfords up into his orbit.

“Sinatra suddenly stood at the center of Pat’s and Peter’s lives.” [1]

Sinatra had become such a fixture in Pat’s world that, by the time she gave  birth on November 4, she decided to give new baby Victoria the middle name of Francis, in honor of her newest and dearest friend, Francis Albert Sinatra. 

The Lawfords not only saw Frank at least twice during the week, but, on many weekends - at Frank’s insistence - they made the 120-mile drive from their Santa Monica home to his Palm Springs estate. The Lawfords always kept the same bedroom at Sinatra’s Rancho Mirage compound. Frank made the Lawfords so at ease that they left some of their casual clothing in the bedroom closet.

Back at Romanoff’s, the new year was blowing in chilly and Pat was wearing a low-cut gown. As the night worn on, she and Natalie grew weary. But Sinatra didn’t want the night to end. He suggested they move the party to his place – two-and-half hours away at Rancho Mirage! Pat gasped at the dread thought. It was only a fifteen minute drive from Romanoff’s to her home!

Peter Lawford recalls the evening:

Teen idol Frank Sinatra, caricature by Al Hirschfeld

When [Sinatra] went to the gents’ room, the girls said that it was too chilly to go that night. They preferred driving in the morning, but then we said, ‘Who’s going to tell him?’ Knowing his temper, Pat out and out refused to say anything, and Natalie didn’t even want to be in the same room when he was told. Finally, R.J. [Robert Wagner] insisted that I be the one to do it, so when Frank got back to the table, I explained as gracefully as I could that we’d prefer joining him in the morning.

Well, he went absolutely nuts. ‘If that’s the way you want it, fine,’ he said, slamming his drink on the floor and storming out of the restaurant.

I rang him up the next morning and his valet…answered and whispered hello. He said that Frank was still asleep because he hadn’t gotten to bed until five a.m. Then he said, ‘Oh, Mr. Lawford. What happened last night? I better tell you that he’s pissed. Really pissed off. He went to your closet and took out all the clothes that you and your wife keep here and ripped them into shreds and then threw them into the swimming pool.’ That gives you an idea of Frank’s temper….” (2)

Evidently, Frank first tried to make a bonfire of the Lawford’s clothes.  But the fire wouldn’t get going, so, frustrated,  he tossed everything in the pool. (1)

Peter was distraught at the loss of his favorite aged blue jeans. Pat consoled him. “We’ll age another pair. Just make sure you don’t take them down to Frank’s.” (1)

(1) Leamer, Laurence. The Kennedy Women: The Saga of an American Family. New York: Random House Publishing Group, 1994.

(2) Kelley, Kitty. His Way: The Unauthorized Biography of Frank Sinatra. New York: Bantam Books, 1986.

Readers, for more Sinatra, check out: “Sinatra: From Donkey to Elephant”

I’d list Anthony Mann’s Man Of The West as one of the best Westerns of the Fifties. No question. But I’d also nail it as one of the most violent, brutal films of the decade.

So, the other day, while spending some time on Greenbriar Picture Shows, I was surprised to find that United Artists actually suggested that theaters promote this very adult Western with a coloring contest — with the “contest sheets” handed out at religious schools!

I had my eight-year-old daughter color one last night — maybe the first time a kid had taken Crayola to Coop in 50 years.

Just thought I’d pass on word that there is going to be a season of Josef von Sternberg movies at the BFI (British Film Institute) in London during December, including some exciting rarities! I’m especially intrigued by the sound of Children of Divorce (1927), a silent movie starring Gary Cooper and Clara Bow, as I’ve just seen them both in Wings, which was made the same year.

It is amazing to me to realise that this haunting and dazzling silent epic was so nearly lost forever, despite being winner of the first Oscar for best film. It had been thought that no copies of William Wellman’s early masterpiece still existed, until a print was discovered in the  Cinémathèque Française archive in Paris and quickly restored. Watching it and seeing how powerful the imagery and acting are, with great performances by Clara Bow, Richard Arlen and Charles “Buddy” Rogers, plus a memorable cameo by Gary Cooper, it makes me wonder how many other great movies have indeed been lost to us.

Charles "Buddy" Rogers, Clara Bow and Richard Arlen

Although this film does survive against all the odds, and has been shown in a few cinemas with an organ accompaniment, it hasn’t as yet been released on DVD, except as a video transfer on the “grey market” and on a Chinese DVD, which I believe has subtitles that can’t be removed. After watching it twice in a good unofficial copy, I’d love to see it fully restored. According to the article on it at Wikipedia, which includes a good clear plot summary, the original release was colour-tinted and had some scenes in an early widescreen format, as well as some prints having synchronised sound effects. A special edition DVD could try to re-create all this, and have a commentary from a film historian – I’d rush out to buy it! However, even a DVD without all those bells and whistles would be very welcome.

In the meantime, I think the movie itself is incredibly powerful, and stands up well against later aviation dramas, perhaps even outdoes them. The spectacular aviation footage and stunts are even more impressive when you remember that there were no advanced special effects such as those we have today – if a plane is seen crashing down to the ground in flames, then it was really crashing, and a pilot had to get out in a hurry. Sadly, there were injuries and even a fatality, as a good article at the Moviediva website recounts. I won’t repeat all the fascinating background  information she has put together, but just say that some of the stunt flying was done by the stars themselves and one particularly daring stunt by Wellman, who lands up hanging down headfirst in his upturned plane. However, a lot was also done by US army air corps pilots whose services were lent to the production, because it was believed it would increase understanding of their work.

Charles "Buddy" Rogers and Clara Bow

Made only nine years after the end of the First World War, the film was written by John Monk Saunders, a veteran pilot who who also wrote Howard Hawks’ classic The Dawn Patrol, filmed three years later. Saunders hadn’t actually served in France, a matter of bitter regret to him himself, but he was a flight instructor in the First World War and a member of the Lost Generation who eventually killed himself – here is a link to a fine piece about him.  Wellman himself did serve in France and was mentally and physically scarred for life – so they knew their stuff. Wellman insisted on waiting a month for the “right cloud formations”, much to the fury of the bosses at Paramount – but I think the power of the flight sequences, with all the piles of cloud glimpsed from and around the planes, shows he was right. (I can maybe experience this more as an original 1920s moviegoer would have done than most people today, since I have never flown – as yet – which may be one of the reasons why aviation movies fascinate me so much.)

The only part which doesn’t seem altogether authentic to me is the opening sequence, introducing the young Jack Powell (Rogers) as a lad in a small American town dreaming of flying, building himself a car, and joking with girl next door Mary Preston (Bow), but failing to realise that she is in love with him. Jack’s existence just seems too vague and idyllic, reminding me of the country idyll in the opening scenes of another great silent film, Henry King’s Tol’able David (1921). It’s hard to believe that anybody was ever quite this carefree! However, as in Tol’able David, the aim is to create a happy memory which will serve as a touchstone, helping to deepen the later misery – and this is certainly achieved. As in so many 1920s and 30s films, a movie which begins as near comedy will later deepen into tragedy, in this case inevitably given the subject matter.

Despite Mary’s adoration of him, Jack is in love with Sylvia Lewis (Jobyna Ralston), who, one of the inter-titles informs us, is from a city and so much more sophisticated than the local girls. Sylvia is in love with David (Arlen), and the two are first seen together, sitting in a garden swing with a roof in a long tracking shot . These swings tend to be seen as quite glamorous in Europe (in Germany they are known as Hollywood swings!) and I think the shot does give Sylvia an air of glamour and mystery from the start, by contrast with the sweet, down-to-earth Mary, who is first glimpsed standing under a pair of large white bloomers on a washing line, before blithely climbing over a garden fence! Both Jack and David seem very fresh-faced and at first I found it hard to tell the two actors apart at times – but, on the second viewing of the film, I noticed more that Jack is clearly the younger of the two, and David (“the richest boy in the town”), has something of the same sophistication as Sylvia.

Richard Arlen as David

Both men sign up to train as aviators, and one of the most powerful sequences in the film for me is the footage showing long crocodiles of men marching off to war. There is a sort of split-screen effect, with the marching men in the bottom half of the screen, and shadowy images of the fighting in France in the top half – showing what they are going to.

When Jack and David go off to train as pilots together, at first their rivalry over Sylvia means they dislike one another – but, after a boxing session turns into a full-scale fight, they make up and become inseparable. I think this idea of two men fighting and then realising the depth of their friendship may be something that recurs in Wellman’s films. There is a more tragic version in his early talkie Other Men’s Women, and I’ve seen a clip from a film he made about a boys’ school (I don’t remember the title)  where two boys are seen fighting and one of them uses exactly the same line to the other at the end of the fight as in the inter-title in Wings – “You’re game!”

Gary Cooper

However, here, the fight scene isn’t really the point – the key to Jack and David’s friendship is that they are both living in the shadow of death, which is borne out when Gary Cooper appears in a brief scene, as Cadet White. He rises sleepily from his bed, tells the others he needs to do some flying before breakfast, goes outside and is killed – leaving them looking at the outline of his body on his bed, and his toothmarks in the bar of chocolate he was chewing minutes earlier. Cooper makes an amazing impression in just a couple of minutes –the scene is said to have made him a star, and I can believe it. I’ve seen him in plenty of talkies, but somehow in a silent film his physical beauty is more stunning, and the whole way he moves, shrugging and stretching, seems far more naturalistic than the other actors in this film, good though they are. His eyes look cold and bleak as he tells the others that there is no point in carrying good luck talismans because, if you are going to die, then you are going to die. Wellman claimed in an interview that Cooper asked him to do the scene again because he picks his nose when he first wakes up – in fact he just seems to wipe his hand across his nose, but, in any case, the sleepy gesture is all part of his naturalness.

Cooper’s character dies offscreen, but there are also several powerful scenes of aerial fights, including images of men dying in the cockpit, with blood spreading across their faces – more graphic, I think, than death scenes in films made over the next couple of decades, where you often don’t see much blood.

I don’t want to just go over the whole plot, but will say that there were several twists which surprised me, although they then seemed to have a sort of dream inevitability to them. I was also impressed that, rather than just being left at home to wait, Mary is shown serving as an ambulance driver on the front –  I’d been wanting to find some First World War films which show women serving, and didn’t realise this would be one of them! There aren’t any very realistic scenes of Mary’s war work, but it is still something to see her working, and in uniform, not in the sort of designer gowns Joan Crawford, playing a nurse, wears in Hawks’ Today We Live.

In one of the most memorable sections of the whole film, Mary spots a drunken Jack, on leave from the air force, in the Folies Bergeres in Paris, and tries to win him away from a prostitute on his arm. The astonishing thing here is the way Jack sees imaginary champagne bubbles everywhere, which are somehow painted on to the screen (a “making of” featurette on the DVD I’m dreaming of could explain how!) – this is kept up for several minutes and works very well. The picture also goes out of focus several times when we see through Jack’s eyes, to give an impression of just how drunk he is. This doesn’t sound like much when I describe it, but, watching it, it feels so experimental and clever. This sequence also includes some brief nudity, when Mary is persuaded to dress up as one of the dancing girls in order to get Jack’s attention – this is notable as a pre-Code sequence, but I found the giant bubbles more surprising and off the wall.

Probably the most famous scene in the whole film, though, is David’s death scene, where he dies in Jack’s arms, as Jack kisses him and strokes his hair – this is a heartbreaking scene which really brings out the love between the two, built through all they have gone through together, and it would have spoken to all those watching who had lost their loved ones in the war, and especially to those who had lost comrades in battle. The featurette about Wellman in the new box set of his films discusses this scene as being one of the most intense expressions of love between two men on film. I think this is also a scene where silence helps, because, if we could hear Jack crying, it might all become too much and go over the edge into sentimentality – whereas, as it is, the lack of sound helps to keep the audience at a slight distance.

I’ll just add that Henry B. Walthall and Julia Swayne Gordon are great as David’s proud and stiff, but loving, parents. And, oh yes… have I mentioned that I’d like to see this movie released on DVD?

Next up I’ll be writing about Wellman’s Beggars of Life, another brilliant silent film – but it might take me a few days to get my head round that one. I’m probably the slowest blogger around, so thanks to all those who are sticking with me.

Clara Bow

The Hanging Tree

Pais: EU
Año: 1959
Género: Western
Duración: 106 min.
Dirección: Delmer DavesGuion: Wendell Mayes & Halsted Welles (Novela: Dorothy M. Johnson)
Música: Max SteinerProducción: Warner Bros.

Reparto:
Gary Cooper, Karl Malden, Maria Schell, George C. Scott, Ben Piazza, Karl Swenson.

Descripción:
Doc Frail es un extraño médico que llega a Montana con su pistola y su tosquedad. Un día tiene que atender a Elisabeth, una muchacha que, víctima del ataque de unos bandoleros, ha perdido la vista. Gracias a los cuidados de Frail, la chica consigue ver de nuevo y se enamora del médico.

Críticas:
En 1873, un médico de gran corazón pero misterioso pasado llega a ejercer a un asentamiento de buscadores de oro. Otro entretenido western de Delmer Daves filmado con la solvencia de los antiguos artesanos y que contó con la poderosa presencia de Gary Cooper.

Un western delicioso
Un médico de oscuro pasado (Gary Cooper) llega a un asentamiento minero. Allí ejerce la profesión con los vecinos y trabajadores del lugar, hasta que se encarga del cuidado de una chica extranjera (excelente Maria Schell), que viajaba con su padre en una diligencia que asaltan unos bandidos. Expuesta al sol durante tiempo después del asalto se queda temporalmente ciega, pero los cuidados delicados de este aparente tosco médico le devuelven la vista, y a él “la suya”.

Excelente película de Delmer Daves, pero donde marca tanto la dirección de actores, el guión, la música, etc. Es un conjunto bellamente presentado: creo que pocos podemos escapar al encanto del madurísimo Gary Cooper -con escenas de ternuras enormes, como cuando atiende a la niña que está falta de alimentación-, de Maria Schell -de una belleza serena y nada pretenciosa-, del siempre eficaz Karl Maldem, o de George C. Scott, que pasa casi desapercibido en cuanto a su renombre pero que hace también un excelente papel secundario. Por supuesto, la banda sonora, y sobre todo, cuando se la escucha al final, es impresionante.
–
LA SOMBRA DEL TREE ES ALARGADA
El árbol del ahorcado es una maravillosa canción hábilmente integrada tanto al inicio del film como en su desenlace y un buen western, mas convencional y no tan sicológico como otros trabajos de Daves, pero francamente interesante.

La sombra del tree es alargada y, cual espada de Damocles, se cierne sobre la película como ave de mal agüero esperando su presa. ¿Para quién está destinado el nudo corredizo? “That is the question” fundamental de una película de encuentros y desencuentros entre personajes a quienes la “gold fever” parece haber convocado en una ciudad de Montana tan sin nombre como la de la leyenda. Los buenos principios (Cooper) y las oscuras intenciones (Malden) frente a frente, con la inaceptable liberalidad femenina de por medio (Shell). Esta es, en esencia, la línea argumental de un film que retrata básicamente las hipocresías sociales y los qué dirán, bien bañadas por las arengas religioso-etílicas de los inevitables predicadores de la época (George C. Scott, genial).

Con una excelente fotografía en color y una BSO memorable de Max Steiner, estamos ante una película cuyo éxito en taquilla no fue casual, máxime si a la historia que se cuenta le añadimos el trabajo y carisma de sus actores, Gary Cooper, María Shell y, punto y aparte, para uno de los actorazos del cine universal, en la categoría conocida como de reparto, Karl Malden. Todo al servicio de un western cuya pretensión es entretener pero que no se olvida de delinear, made in Daves, caracteres y personalidades que lo mismo se hunden que emergen de las mismas aguas que arrastran las codiciadas pepitas de dorado metal.

Datos técnicos:
Tamaño:  1,56 Gb
Duracion: 01:42:36
Vídeo codec: Xvid (doble pasada)
Resolución: 640 x 480
Bitrate: 1785 Kbps.  Qf: 0.232
Audio codec: 0×2000(AC3, Dolby Laboratories, Inc) AC3
Bitrate Castellano/Inglés: 48000Hz 192 kb/s total (2 chnls)
Subtítulos : [Castellano]

Capturas:

The Cowboy and the Lady

Pais: EU
Año: 1938
Género: Western. Romance
Duración: 91 min.
Dirección: H.C. Potter
Guion: S.N. Behrman, Sonya Levien (Historia: Leo McCarey).
Música: Lionel Newman, Arthur Quenzer.
Producción: The Samuel Goldwyn Company

Reparto:

Gary Cooper, Merle Oberon, Patsy Kelly, Walter Brennan, Fuzzy Knight, Mabel Todd, Henry Kolker, Harry Davenport, Emma Dunn.

Descripción:
Gary Cooper interpreta a un cowboy rudo e implacable pero con buenos sentimientos. Aunque no tiene nada que ver con su forma de ser, acaba enamorándose de una joven adinerada, interpretada por Merle Oberon. Con su manera decidida de actuar, el cowboy, que tiene un temperamento bastante tradicional, está decidido a calmar la ligereza de la chica. Ella no soporta que nadie le diga lo que tiene que hacer. El cowboy piensa que este tipo de chicas son como los caballos salvajes, que para adiestrarlos hay que darles un margen de confianza, a la vez que atarles corto.

Críticas:
Se trata de un cuento clásico, pues mucho antes ya se había grabado un par de veces en la época muda, esta vez están Gary Cooper y Merle Oberon como protagonistas, que hacen una pareja un tanto rara, pero que desde luego cumplen con su trabajo.

Es un “homenaje” al vaquero solitario, al que de tosco tantas veces se le ha tachado, y no es algo que en la película vamos a no ver, pero se trata más de la humildad, lo vemos perfectamente en el personaje de Cooper (que le viene de maravilla el papel), un hombre de buen corazón que se deja engañar por una “doncella” que usa sus “poderes” de pertenecer a la alta sociedad.

En nuestros días para muchos esta película resultaría aburrida y simplona, para mi pertenece a una época especial en el cine, donde el oficio era arte, claro que no todo eran obras maestras, pero lo que quiero decir es que tiene un olor especial que desprendían aquellos años. Destaco la escena en la que Cooper va a visitar lo que será su “casa” e invita a sus amigos a que pasen. Por cierto, también vemos otra cara conocida, y es la de Walter Brennan, compañero en muchas de dicho actor.
La película estuvo nominada a dos oscar; a mejor música original, y mejor sonido, y ganó al final a mejor sonido.

Datos técnicos:
Tamaño:  895 Mb
Duracion:  01:26:41
Vídeo codec: Xvid (doble pasada)
Resolución: 592 x 432  Bitrate: 1238 Kbps. Qf: 0.194
Audio codec: Mp3 Cbr
Bitrate Castellano/Inglés: 48000Hz  96 kb/s (1 chnl)
Subtítulos : No trae

Capturas:

El dvd no trae subtítulos    pero estoy en ello por si fuera posible rescatarlos y sincronizarlos de una web amiga.

This hour begins with a recap of the recently concluded Game Show Congress 7 and the awards ceremonies honoring Geoff Edwards, Johnny Gilbert and the late Allen Ludden. Then midway through the hour, Ed and Frankie welcome actor Richard Anderson as they discuss his role as Oscar Goldman on The Six Million Dollar Man and The Bionic Woman and the impact and appeal of both series:

http://media.podcastingmanager.com/9/3/5/3/3/142636-133539/Media/111609tvc34_1.mp3

1943: For Whom the Bell Tolls di Sam Wood

“Grande successo hollywoodiano legato soprattutto ai due amatissimi protagonisti” (Francesco Mininni). Celeberrimo film, immancabile per un amante dei classici.

Per chi suona la campana è il dodicesimo film di Sam Wood (ex allievo di Cecil B. DeMille) a cui si devono celeberrime opere come Kitty Foyle, ragazza innamorata (il film che regalò l’Oscar a Ginger Rogers), Addio, Mr. Chips!, Un giorno alle corse e Una notte all’Opera (ambedue con i fratelli Marx).
“Nessun uomo è un’isola,
completo in se stesso;
ogni uomo è un pezzo del continente,
una parte del tutto.
Se anche solo una zolla
venisse lavata via dal mare,
l’Europa ne sarebbe diminuita,
come se le mancasse un promontorio,
come se venisse a mancare
una dimora di amici tuoi,
o la tua stessa casa.
La morte di qualsiasi uomo mi sminuisce,
perché io sono parte dell’umanità.
E dunque non chiedere mai
per chi suona la campana:
suona per te”.
E’ la celeberrima poesia di John Donne da cui Hemingway trasse ispirazione per il suo romanzo.
Il film pone in secondo piano l’aspetto esistenziale e politico del libro, privilegiando la storia d’amore tra i due protagonisti… ma essendo questi due star tra le più carismatiche che il grande schermo abbia mai avuto, come non godere dalla sua visione?
Gary Cooper aveva vinto due anni prima, con Il sergente York di Howard Hawks, l’Oscar (ne avrà un altro nel 1952 per il magnifico Mezzogiorno di fuoco): “Cooper è bellissimo e normale, dunque più completo di un Power (solo bellissimo) e di un Bogart (solo normale). Quando Cooper morì di cancro, nel 1961, il Paese, e non solo, sprofondò in un lutto personale. C’era più dolore che per la perdita di un presidente, c’era lo stesso dolore della perdita di un famigliare. E proprio Kennedy, neopresidente, disse: «è morto Coop, come faremo adesso?»” (MyMovies).
Ingrid Bergman, “volto di una intensa e pacata bellezza, occhi che sanno esprimere amore in ogni fotogramma, grande interprete sia di ruoli leggeri da commedia sia di densi personaggi drammatici, subito nota come «il più illustre regalo della Svezia a Hollywood»” (MyMovies). “Scesa dal Nord a ricordarci anche brividi mistici e sensuali che increspano i fiordi. Quasi fosse nata, come fu detto, da un sogno di Ibsen” (Il Corriere della Sera), riceverà l’Oscar l’anno dopo con Angoscia di George Cukor (il primo dei tre ricevuti) .

scheda

premi e riconoscimenti

Ball of Fire

Pais: EU
Año: 1941
Género: Comedia romántica
Duración: 112 min.
Dirección: Howard Hawks
Guion: Billy Wilder, Charles Brackett (Historia: Billy Wilder).
Música: Alfred Newman
Producción: Samuel Goldwyn Productions

Reparto:
Gary Cooper, Barbara Stanwyck, Oscar Homolka, Henry Travers, Tully Marshall, Richard Haydn, S.Z. Sakall, Audrey Mather, Dana Andrews, Dan Duryea, Ralph Peters, Kathleen Howard, Mary Field.

Descripción:
Gracias a la donación de un cuarto de millón de dólares, un grupo de profesores estrafalarios, todos solteros salvo uno que es viudo, trabajan en la elaboración de una enciclopedia del saber humano. Cuando el trabajo se encuentra ya en una fase bastante avanzada, la visita sorpresa de una bailarina de cabaret les hace replantearse su labor, pues caen en la cuenta de que viven de espaldas al mundo.

Críticas:
Magistral comedia, una de las más aclamadas de Howard Hawks. Obtuvo 4 nominaciones a los Oscar.

Producida por Samuel Goldwyn, fue dirigida por Howard Hawks. El guión se basa en el relato “From A to Z”, de Charles Brackett y Billy Wilder, inspirado en “Blancanieves y los 7 enanitos”. Se rodó en exteriores de NYC y en plató. Fue nominada a 4 Oscar (actriz, sonido, fotografía y argumento). Se estrenó el 2-XII-1941 (EEUU).

La acción tiene lugar en NYC y en Nueva Jersey a primeros de abril de 1941, a lo largo de 2 días. Narra la historia del profesor Bertram Potts (Gary Cooper), lingüista que, junto con otros 7 especialistas en otras materias, trabaja desde hace unos años en la elaboración de una enciclopedia que compendiará todo el saber del momento. Un encuentro casual con un barrendero le descubre que sus conocimientos del argot de la calle están muy desfasados, por lo que decide tomar contacto directo con él y solicitar el asesoramiento de un barrendero, un joven vendedor de periódicos y una cantante, bailarina y stripper, de cabaret.

Datos técnicos:
Tamaño: 1,43 Gb
Duracion: 01:51:35
Vídeo codec: Xvid (doble pasada)
Resolución: 640 x 464
Bitrate: 1628 Kbps. Qf: 0.219
Códec Audio: Mp3 Cbr
Bitrate Castellano/Inglés: 48000Hz 96 kbps. (1 chnl)
Subtítulos: [Castellano (Gracias a shoocat)]

Capturas:

Pôster do filme

Homem simples com valores morais firmes, Longfellow Deeds [Gary Cooper] herda uma fortuna de um tio com que não tinha contato. Os advogados vão procurá-lo em sua pequena cidade natal, Madrake Falls, onde todos o conhecem. O ritmo de vida, o modo de falar e de compreender as coisas é diferente do que os advogados da cidade grande conhecem, e por isso eles concluem que Deeds é mais do que simples, é um simplório.

Isso lhes convém porque, ao longo dos anos, uma série de decisões erradas na administração dos bens do falecido tio provocou um desfalque nas contas, que o sócio sênior pretende repor sem que o herdeiro perceba. Para conseguir isso devem manter Deeds sob controle e o levam a Nova Iorque, pensando em impressioná-lo e intimidá-lo com o glamour da nova vida de milionário.

Uma jornalista carreirista, “Babe” Bennett [Jean Arthur], descobre que Mr. Deeds sonha em salvar donzelas em perigo e vê aí a oportunidade de se infiltrar na vida do que ela chama de Cinderelo em seus artigos, enquanto finge ser uma pobre moça desempregada.

Gary Cooper e Jean Arthur

Um após o outro, personagens tentam levar vantagem sobre aquele que imaginam ser um sujeito ingênuo, desde a diretoria da ópera municipal à sua soprano, dos advogados do tio a um espertalhão falsário. Um após o outro, são colocados em seus lugares pelo sujeito simples que é muito mais esperto do que eles imaginariam ou desejariam, e um excelente juiz de caráter.

O diretor Frank Capra adaptou o livro Opera Hat, de Clarence Budington Kelland [a quem ele homenageou batizando um dos advogados de Budington] e o transformou numa espécie de conto de fadas com um bocado de crítica social, mirando advogados, a sociedade artística esnobe e a imprensa. O filme também faz apologia à reforma agrária, numa sequência de cenas com o ator John Wray que me fez chorar várias vezes.

Mas o ponto forte do filme, IMHO, é a prevalência dos valores éticos e morais que chegam a conquistar e transformar indivíduos cínicos e céticos como o relações-públicas Cornelius Cobb [Lionel Stander, que anos mais tarde entraria na lista negra de Hollywood acusado de envolvimento com o comunismo] e a própria Babe Bennett.

Longfellow Deeds e Babe Bennett

Esse foi um dos casos em que eu assisti ao remake moderno primeiro. Talvez por causa disso, talvez porque eu goste do Adam Sandler, eu não detestei o remake. A Herança de Mr. Deeds tem algumas diferenças bem grandes em relação a O Galante Mr. Deeds, tão grandes que é melhor tratar como um filme separado e não uma refilmagem.

Mas, é verdade, se eu tivesse que escolher apenas um escolheria o Frank Capra – se tivesse grana apenas para um DVD ou se passassem no mesmo horário. Daí baixaria o do Adam Sandler pela Internet.

Ficha técnica
Título original: Mr. Deeds Goes to Town
Gênero: Comédia
Duração: 01h55
Ano de lançamento: 1936
Estúdio: Columbia Pictures Corporation
Distribuidora: Columbia Pictures
Direção: Frank Capra
Roteiro: Robert Riskin, baseado em estória de Clarence Budington Kelland
Produção: Frank Capra
Música: Howard Jackson
Fotografia: Joseph Walker
Direção de arte: Stephen Goosson
Figurino: Samuel Lange
Edição: Gene Havlick

Elenco:
Gary Cooper (Longfellow Deeds)
Jean Arthur (Louise “Babe” Bennett / Mary Dawson)
George Bancroft (MacWade)
Lionel Stander (Cornelius Cobb)
Douglass Dumbrille (John Cedar)
Raymond Walburn (Walter)
H.B. Warner (Juiz May)
Ruth Donnelly (Mabel Dawson)
Walter Catlett (Morrow)
John Wray (Fazendeiro)
Russell Hicks (Dr. Malcolm)
Stanley Andrews (James Cedar)
Margaret McWade (Amy Faulkner)
Margaret Seddon (Jane Faulkner)

Serviço
Ficha no iMDB
Hotsite no TCM
Review no FilmSite
Verbete no Wikipedia
A Herança de Mr. Deeds no AdoroCinema

Mr. Deeds Goes To Town em 12 partes no Youtube, sem legenda

Parte 1

Link http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VjJLs5aHqAs

Parte 2

Link http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g8XOrMJNalM

Parte 3

Link http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0KWT1R69i8o

Parte 4

Link http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gSKDEflNZn8

Parte 5

link http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SPVJLkaUJ4o

Parte 6

Link http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T8f0AYtkheE

Parte 7

Link http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xVN6NGWjgUg

Pate 8

Link http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AseUEpagu_4

Parte 9

Link http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5G9-kAR_0iM

Parte 10

Link http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S6G6QBCf_xQ

Parte 11

Link http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AcrT9192U4E

Parte 12

Link http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5hiSx4byaU8

Tutto succede in un’ora e trenta di logorante attesa. Un matrimonio, quattro funerali, vecchie storie con prostitute che vengono a galla, un triangolo amoroso, una vendetta consumata dopo cinque anni, il tradimento di una vile comunità.

Mezzogiono di fuoco (1952) è la vita condensata in un’ora e trenta. Un’ora e trenta logorante e non di sfrenata avventura come il genere western ci ha da sempre abituato. Un’ora e trenta di attesa, di qualcosa che dovrà accadere, sempre più imminente e allo stesso tempo inarrivabile.

Il film di Fred Zinnemann lascia da parte il mito della fondazione americana, abbandonando così ogni immagine della frontiera. Non ci sono più terre promesse da conquistare, non ci sono più gli indiani cattivi da distruggere. C’è solo una sorta di desolazione, un cumulo di polvere all’interno di quel giardino che si è creato. Emerge così un rammarico, un senso di insoddisfazione per ciò che si è creato. In fondo, quello che sembra chiedersi lo sceriffo Will Kane (Gary Cooper) sembra proprio questo: ne è valsa la pena lottare per aiutare questa comunità se in cambio ne si ottiene solo diffidenza?

Sono gli anni della guerra fredda, la caccia alle streghe è già cominciata e lo sceneggiatore del film Carl Foreman stava vivendo lo stesso clima di sospetto per la sua vicinanza al comunismo. E come in America non si sparava al nemico, lo si escludeva, lo si teneva da parte per paura di essere invischiati o meglio non si collaborava con gli amici per paura, per timore o per sospetto.

Lo sceriffo Will Kane è comunque il capostipite dei personaggi che animeranno il futuro western crepuscolare. Personaggio dubbioso e indeciso, un eroe accidentale, insicuro delle proprie capacità e allo stesso tempo un personaggio crepuscolare,  non più giovane e nostalgico dei tempi andati, delle avventure passate.  Così come altrettanto forte resta l’immagine di questa giovane sposa che con freddezza uccide un uomo alle spalle perdendo la sua purezza non attraverso l’atto sessuale ma attraverso un omicidio a sangue freddo.

Capolavoro.

]]> http://lucianogalasso.wordpress.com/2009/10/28/the-magnificent-seven-continues-now-with-0-of-the-magnificent-seven/ Wed, 28 Oct 2009 19:48:44 +0000 Luciano Galasso http://lucianogalasso.wordpress.com/2009/10/28/the-magnificent-seven-continues-now-with-0-of-the-magnificent-seven/

Well.

Yesterday I began a list of my personal favorite Westerns of all time. Today, I return to finish the job – once and for all.

First, though, a quick recap. Here’s the first four entries on the list, numbered seven to four:

7. Young Guns.

The Brat Pack takes on the legend of Billy the Kid. Emilio Estevez is somehow believable as a murdering sociopath. Kiefer Sutherland continues to be awesome.

6. Silverado.

Kevin Kline and Kevin Costner team up to stop corrupt Brian Dennehy and creepy Jeff Goldblum.

Awesome.

5. Tombstone.

Kurt Russell and Val Kilmer steamroll through some of the most cringe-worthy moments in film history, seemingly through sheer force of awesomeness alone. Michael Biehn is also on hand, once again forcing us all to collectively ask: “What the hell ever happened to Michael Biehn?”

4. Unforgiven.

Clint Eastwood frowns and scowls his way towards redemption and a scheming Gene Hackman, with Morgan Freeman caught somewhere in the middle. Saul Rubinek and Richard Harris are also there for some reason.

And now…THE FINAL THREE.

Three: The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford. (2007)

This is the newest entry on the list, so I’m not sure if it’s properly reached “classic” status yet.

But give it time, friends – it will.

“The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford” was quite possibly my favorite movie of 2007. Very few people saw it. Even less seemed to like it. But I maintain that it is one of the most beautifully epic and gorgeously shot films I have ever witnessed. The movie is true artwork – every detail is carefully crafted for maximum impact. From the cinematography, to the sparse dialogue, to the acting, to the score by indie hero Nick Cave, everything is note perfect.

It’s certainly not a feel good movie, like some other, younger, gunnier films, but that’s okay. It’s not meant to be. While Jesse James certainly had his boyish fun side, his movie isn’t about him. It’s one of the few Jesse James movies out there, I’m sure, that he isn’t the main focus of.

This movie is about Robert Ford.

It’s about Ford, that “dirty little coward, who shot Mr. Howard,” and his tumultuous, sometimes bizarre relationship with James. Ford idolized James, even loved him – but not in a weird way. Just in the way that he wanted to be Jesse James.

Which, I guess is a little weird.

(But, c’mon…who wouldn’t want to be Jesse James?!?)

Casey Affleck plays Ford as a man who seems to be constantly on the verge of a complete meltdown. He has no real personality, no identity. In his mind’s eye, he IS James, or at the very least, James’ partner in crime. Unfortunately, Jesse James doesn’t really see it that way.

Now, I usually hear the same two complaints about this movie. For one, it’s too long. Well, deal with it. This is a grown-up movie for grown-ups. If you can’t sit and watch a movie for three hours without squirming or getting fussy, than too bad. This movie’s not for you. It’s long, yes, but that only adds to the build up. And I’ve never found it slow, either. Leisurely, sure. It takes it’s time to revel in the world it’s created, and the characters who inhabit it. And what interesting characters they are.

The second complaint is that, like “Titanic”, you already know the ending. All right, sure. It’s in the damn title, for Christ’s sake. But again, the movie isn’t about the murder of James…it’s about the journey leading up to the assassination. It wants to examine this frustrating relationship between two vastly different men, one an idol, the other the worshiper, that culminates in murder. The interesting part isn’t that Robert Ford shot Jesse James in the back of the head. The interesting part is why Robert Ford shot Jesse James in the back of the head. And in the movie, when James realizes his defeat, and gives up to dust off that picture, it’s beautiful, sad and heartbreaking – for both men.

Give it another look. The acting is superb all around, with Affleck at the head of the pack, and excellent supporting performances from Pitt and the always dependable Sam Rockwell. And, in a transparent attempt to make me love this movie even more, the lovely Zooey Deschanel also shows up, briefly, near the end.

So it’s also got that going for it. Which is nice.

Two: The Searchers. (1956)

Racism, family, and John Wayne all collide in this epic masterpiece by that master of epic masterpieces, John Ford.

Wayne, a staple of Westerns, stars as Ethan Edwards, a man searching for his lost nieces after they are abducted by Native Americans. Edwards, racist against the Natives even before they destroy his family, sets out to find the girls at any cost.

That cost, as we soon find out, is exorbitantly higher than the audience may initially think; Ethan’s hatred for the Comanche is so severe, that he would rather see his nieces dead then in Native hands. If he can’t save them from death, than at least he can try to save them from the tribe.

The film attempts to examine racism in the Old West, showcasing Ethan’s hatred for the “red man” against the Comanche chief’s racism against the “white man”. Both are extreme in their racism to the point of madness – the chief, Scar, will continue to kill and scalp white men, with no end in sight, in retaliation for his two son’s murders, and Ethan will willfully murder his own niece, rather than see her marry a Comanche.

It’s a dark, dense tale, that is uncommon even now – let alone in the 1950’s, when it was a given that all cowboys were good, all Indians savages.

Wayne is amazing as Edwards. Defiant, aggressive and stubborn, his character grows throughout the film, but only really finds redemption after being pushed to the brink – he only truly becomes human after giving up his own humanity.

It’s a great film – a social message beautifully shot and well acted. Certainly one of Ford’s best, which means it truly must stand tall in the genre. Highly recommended, this is one of the best in the genre.

One: High Noon. (1952)

The only thing more epically, badassingly awesome than the movie “High Noon,” is Gary Cooper, who stars in the movie “High Noon.”

This is number one is right here, folks. And it is awesome.

“High Noon” is a ridiculously awesome movie with a ridiculously awesome concept. Cooper plays Will Kane, the sheriff of a small town, now happily married and planning to retire. Then some dude Kane put away years ago vows revenge on Kane, heads back into town, grabs himself a posse, and wages war on our intrepid lawman.

No problem, right? Just round up some deputies, take these dudes by force, scrub up your badge for the next guy, and high-tail it outta town on the next stagecoach for a weekend honeymoon retreat with your wife at some five-star saloon or something.

WRONG.

The townspeople may admire Kane, but they sure as hell don’t want to step into his shoes. Frank Miller (Ian MacDonald) is one badass dude, and they want nothing to do with him. They suggest the same to Kane. Leave town. Forget Miller. Move on.

But Kane knows better. You deal with bullies by facing them down, not running away. Otherwise, they will hunt you down and haunt you for the rest of your life. So he stays in town. He pins that badge on his vest, and he throws down against Frank Miller and his gang, with no help from anyone but himself. Will Kane vs. THE WORLD. And in REAL TIME.

It’s a great movie that showcases the struggles of doing the right thing vs. doing the easy thing. It presents this argument mostly through dialogue, and characters action prior to the finale – and, in fact, the finale is the only place where any violence or action at all take place. Not your typical Western – especially Back In The Day.

Check it out to find out why I consider it to be the best Western ever made (personally speaking, of course.)

And you’ll also find out why Gary Cooper’s Will Kane is the greatest Western hero of all time.

Well.

That is the list as I see it. I’m sure there will be future lists down the road, but for now…I’m all listed out.

Oh, what the hell. Here’s the honorable mentions list. Check these out too, for a better representation of the genre as a whole:

The Magnificent Seven. (1960)

Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid. (1969)

Shane.(1953)

Rio Bravo. (1959)

The Wild Bunch. (1969)

Stagecoach. (1939)

Dances with Wolves. (1990)

And yes. I am fully aware that EVERY movie on THIS list is better than “Young Guns.”

REGULATORS!

MOUNT UP!

Uma síntese verdadeira e pungente sobre a solidão. Solidão esta representada pela percepção de que aqueles que te ajudaram a cinco anos podem simplesmente mudar de idéia quando fantasmas do passado resolvem assombrar a mesma cidade que você ajudou a apaziguar. Não somente mudar de idéia, mas também lhe aconselharem a ir embora, a salvar a sua pele antes que seja tarde demais (ou, na verdade, salvar a pele deles).

Entretanto, contrariando a todos, ele resolve ficar. Muitos de vocês podem pensar que ele tomou essa decisão pelo fato dele estar preocupado com o destino daquela cidade. Ou porque ele ainda se sente como o xerife. Ou por conta de uma lembrança antiga. Ou por todas essas razões juntas. E muitos da cidade chegaram a pensar nisso inicialmente. Mas há algo mais que sintetiza essa decisão.

Poderia dissertar muito mais sobre essa maravilha do western, contada quase que em tempo real, que magnifica o conceito de “homem solitário”, não através de palavras, tiros, brigas, mas através pura e simplesmente da imagem e do silêncio, além da inexorável sensação de passagem de tempo descrita anteriormente, intensificada ainda mais pelos vários relógios que são mostrados no decorrer dos seus enxutos e eficientes 85 minutos, além da interpretação mais-do-que-magistral de Gary Cooper, contido, transmitindo todas as emoções em gestos mínimos (como, aliás, todo o filme; especialmente nos maravilhosos 20 minutos finais).

4/4

Adney Silva

ou: Matar ou Morrer (Fred Zinnemann, 1952) – Marcelo Dillenburg – 3/4

av Johan Wopenka © 2009

DECKARKATALOGEN

En av de saker som bekymrat många i samband med deckartidskriften Jurys nedläggning är ”Deckarkatalogen”. Jurys gamla redaktion fortsätter dock med den, och den kommer att publiceras på Svenska Deckarakademins hemsida. Årets katalog är planerad att läggas ut i månadsskiftet november-december. Katalogen kommer i princip att ha samma utformning som i Jury, med undantag för att den endast listar nyutgåvor i urval: sådant som har speciellt intresse, som nya upplagor av klassiker eller andra äldre verk, reviderade nyutgåvor etc.
Redaktionen är givetvis oerhört tacksamma för alla tips, inte minst då det gäller utgåvor från pod-förlag och andra småförlag, som det är svårt att ha koll på. Bara maila bjw-forlaget@comhem.se

ÅRETS SVENSKA DECKARE

Några fakta vad det gäller utgivningen av svensk kriminallitteratur i år kan redan nu avslöjas. Det publiceras cirka 90 nya titlar, och av dessa kommer runt 35 (alltså mer än en tredjedel) från pod-förlag, egenförlag, hobbyförlag och andra förlag med starkt begränsat utgivning. Av de 90 titlarna kommer inte mindre än 40 från genredebutanter. Uppgifter om att intresset för kriminallitteratur är på väg att minska i Sverige förfaller alltså felaktig, åtminstone vad utgivningen beträffar. Lägg till ett par finlandssvenska böcker samt hittills cirka 115 översatta deckare… så handlar det om fler än 200 nya deckartitlar i år! I månadsskiftet oktober-november kommer Svenska Deckarakademin att nominera böcker till sina ”stora priser” (bästa svenska och bästa till svenska översatta deckare i år). Uppgifter kommer att läggas ut på Svenska Deckarakademins hemsida.

SORGLIGT – OCH GLÄDJANDE

Om 200 titlar låter mycket finns det ändå vissa sorgliga svagheter. En är att novellsamlingarna lyser med sin frånvaro: vad det gäller det svenskproducerade sådana finns bara en annonserad ny juldeckarantologi från Semic. En annan är bristen på facklitteratur om deckare – det kommer av allt att döma endast tre titlar. Två är BTJ Förlags 13 svenska deckardamer, samt Lars Strands “Dr W & Mr H” om Sherlock Holmes. Den tredje är en positiv överraskning: Laura Thompsons Agatha Christie – An English Mystery kommer på svenska i översättning av Ulla Trenter som Agatha Christie – ett engelskt mysterium. Det är Sandelins förlag, som nyligen döptes om till Deckarförlaget Pussel, som publicerar boken i höst – provexemplar fanns tillgängliga på bokmässan i september. Pussel har också kommit med ett par översättningar av engelska deckare, och i planerna finns nyutgåvor av Stieg Trenters romaner. Först ut är Farlig fåfänga, som också den presenterades i form av provtryck på bokmässan.

FLER PRISER TILL LARSSON

Den 15–18 augusti arrangerades årets Bouchercon i Indianapolis i USA, och man delade där också ut sina Tony Awards. Stieg Larsson kunde i sin himmel glädja sig åt att The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo fick pris som bästa debutdeckare. Dessutom fick Peter Mendelsund pris för bästa omslag för The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo. Tony-priset för bästa roman gick till The Brass Verdict av Michael Connelly. Och som bästa referensbok belönades (kanske inte helt oväntat) Anthony Boucher: A Biobibliography av Jeffrey Marks. Men det räcker inte med detta. The Mystery Readers International har delat ut sina Macavity-priser, och även här gick debutpriset till Larsson och The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo. Lite mer märkligt är ett tredje pris, nämligen Barry-priset, som delas ut av Mystery News och Deadly Pleasures. Där fick nämligen The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo pris som ”Best British Novel”, hur nu det gick till. Och som bästa roman belönades minsann The Draining Lake av Arnaldur Indridason.

IN MEMORIAM

Det verkar inte klokt, men hur man än letar i Libris kan man inte hitta en översättning av någon av Stuart M(elvin) Kaminskys böcker. Blir det någon framöver är det för sent för honom att glädja sig åt den: Kaminsky (f. 1934) avled den 9 oktober. Han smittades med hepatit B då han tjänstgjorde i de amerikanska sjukvårdstrupperna i Frankrike på 1950-talet. I mars i år blev det äntligen klart att han skulle genomgå en levertransplantation i St. Louis – men bara några dagar innan den skulle ske drabbades han av den stroke som i oktober tog hans liv. Kaminsky var en av de stora i amerikansk kriminallitteratur. Han var utnämnd till Grand Master av MWA, och han fick 1989 en Edgar för 1988 bästa roman, A Cold Red Sunrise. Han fick ta emot flera priser och hedersutmärkelse under årens lopp, inte bara för sina kriminalhistorier, utan också för bl.a. essäer och biografier om välkända filmnamn som Clint Eastwood, John Houston, Don Siegel, Gary Cooper – samt Ingmar Bergman. Och Sara Paretsky dedicerade sin första Warshawski-roman till honom … Kaminsky debuterade med Bullet for a Star (1977), den första i en 24 titlar lång lovordad romansvit om Toby Peters, som är verksam som privatdetektiv i 1940-talets Hollywood. Senare introducerade Kaminsky flera andra ”seriefigurer”, däribland den sovjetiske polismannen Rostnikov, som gjorde entré i Rostnikov’s Corpse (1981; även som Death of a Dissident 1981), och som är huvudperson i ovan nämnda A Cold Red Sunrise. Så sent som i år kom Bright Futures, den sjätte romanen i en serie om Lew Fonesca.

LYFT PÅ DEERSTALKERN

Slutligen skall nämnas en av det sena 1900-talets främsta nordiska deckarskapare: Gunnar Staalesen från norska Bergen. Den 15 oktober firade han jubileum som författare: det är nämligen precis 40 år sedan han romandebuterade med Uskyldstider. Den är dock ingen kriminalhistoria, i deckarbranschen gjorde han romanentré först 1975 med Rygg i rand, to i spann, den första delen i en trilogi om polismännen Henrik Abel ”Dumbo” Olsen och Kristian ”Maskefjes” Jensen. Två år senare kom Bukken till havresekken som introducerade Varg Veum … and the rest is history, som man säger.

MEET JOHN DOE av Frank Capra (1941)
Med Gary Cooper, Barbara Stanwyck, Edward Arnold, Walter Brennan, Spring Byington, James Gleason, Regis Toomey, Warren Hymer

SPOILERVARNING

Frank Capra torde vara den mest utpräglade må bra-filmsregissören i historien, men han är inte oproblematisk eftersom hans filmer – paradoxalt nog – är på en gång mer mångbottnade och ytligt banalare än merparten av de många sentida avläggarna och eftersom de tar i så förskräckligt, om än bara ibland. För det händer att Frank Capra är helt lysande. Som i You Can’t Take It With You och It’s a Wonderful Life. Meet John Doe, däremot, är ett klockrent exempel på när Frank Capra är på sitt allra mest sentimentaldrypande, pekoralistiska och amerikapatriotiska humör. Om än långt ifrån oproblematisk, som sagt.

Den något tafatte, tämligen klent begåvade Gary Cooper gjorde sig med sitt tjusigt grovhuggna yttre och sin tysta beslutsamhet och sin kompromisslösa integritet alldeles förträffligt i exempelvis Fred Zinnemans High Noon (förmodligen hans bästa rolltolkning), men i Meet John Doe är han hopplöst malplacerad. Han saknar all värme och han ser ut och rör sig som en staty av sig själv och därför är det mycket svårt att tro på att denne visserligen ståtlige men nästan helt okarismatiske man skulle kunna få en svallvåg av broderlig kärlek som mest av allt påminner om den bisarra sekten Promise Keepers att dra fram över hela Förenta staterna. Talen som eldar filmens massor är opersonliga och kalla som is, och det känns bara obegripligt att någon enda människa skulle lyssna på honom.

Fast även om han varit en magnetiskt fascinerande talare, skulle någon enda människa förändras i grunden och bli hjärtegod filantrop bara för att en föregiven representant för mannen på gatan i en dagstidning låter meddela att han avser att begå självmord vid midnatt på julafton i protest mot civilisationens hjärtlöshet? Skulle vi inte bara alla avskriva honom som en fullständig tokfrans? Och det med all rätta?

Inte enligt Frank Capra. För när Gary Cooper i rollen som luffaren John Willoughby får betalt för att spela en påhittad människa – John Doe – som är besviken på den moderna civilisationen och meddelar att han avser att begå självmord i protest mot den, får han hela Förenta staterna att bilda ultrafilantropiska John Doe-klubbar och i sann, amerikansk äppelpajsanda upptäcka att alla grannar man tidigare tyckt var konstiga egentligen är alldeles hyvens hyggliga prickar (de är ju vita medelklassamerikaner allihop!).

Men bilden kompliceras. På flera sätt.

Till att börja med genom att man låter Gary Cooper direkt jämföras med Förenta staternas grundare, de så kallade Founding Fathers, och senare – som om det inte vore nog – med Jesus. Därmed är dagordningen förstås uppspikad – Förenta staternas grundare står på samma piedestal som Jesus och Jesus har nått sådana herostratiska höjder av godhet och sällhet att han numera befinner sig på samma nivå som den patriotiske helylleamerikanen Gary Cooper.

Vidare låter man massrörelsen som kretsar kring John Doe mitt under brinnande världskrig bli ett slags godhetens motsvarighet till Adolf Hitlers masspsykotiska Tyskland, men med likheter av ett slag som är skrämmande snarare än förtroendeingivande. Det senare tror jag är omedvetet, men helt oavsett syftet och utfallet känns det aldrig riktigt muntert med miljoner och åter miljoner människor som likt jättelika fårskockar följer en enda, helgonförklarad ledare. Någonstans känns det förbluffande att Förenta staternas biopublik mitt under andra världskriget hyllar en film om en ledardyrkande massrörelse så till den grad att den mycket mediokra Meet John Doe kommit att bli en av filmhistoriens superklassiker.

Fast så finns ju Walter Brennan med. Ytterligare en komplikation. Han spelar sin vanliga roll, som man redan efter att ha sett honom i bara något tiotal filmer börjar misstänka i själva verket är rollen som sig själv. Men det gör han övertygande och egentligen spelar det med en så pass sympatisk person inte så stor roll att han är precis samma person i film efter film. I Meet John Doe framstår han som förnuftets röst mitt i den föregivet godhjärtade masshysterin. Som Gary Coopers luffarkompis försöker han gång på gång tala denne till rätta och få honom att överge både pengar och kändisskap och följa med tillbaka ut på landsvägarna i stället för att snärja in sig i samhällets alla måsten, men utan framgång. Det är mycket lätt att känna sympati för honom. I all synnerhet konfronterad med den sista komplikationen, nämligen maktens – den oförliknelige Edward Arnolds – cyniska försök att utnyttja alla John Doe-föreningarna för att tillskansa sig presidentposten. Man kan se det ur flera synvinklar, men lika fast som de masshysteriska medlemmarna i John Doe-föreningarna är, lika låst är i själva verket Edward Arnold i sitt maktspel. Han kan inte ta sig ur det, han sitter fast i det som i ett spindelnät.

Och finns det en möjlighet att allt detta är medvetet gjort av Frank Capra, att han gjort en ytligt sett sentimental må bra-film som under ytan i själva verket avslöjar både maktkorruptionens och masshysterins många beklämmande konsekvenser, även då den senare syftar till något gott?

För i så fall är det här en mycket bättre film än man kan tro.

Kör hårt,
Bellis

KATYN es una película que debía de ser de visión obligatoria para los jóvenes que apuntan maneras ultras...

Confiteor Dei –sueña el Duende por la noche. Me confieso ante Dios tododopoderoso de que pequé gravemente de pensamiento. Pensaba que había buenos y malos. Y que, naturalmente la guerra de los buenos no era mala. Pensaba que los indios muertos, los alemanes muertos, las gángsteres muertos, los japos muertos, los piratas del Caribe muertos, los infieles muertos, los bereberes muertos, los tártaros muertos,  los soldados de la Unión muertos y todos los malos de las películas muertos estaban bien muertos. Y que la guerra que a veces en forma de soldadito de plomo, soldadito de goma, Fort Comanche de madera, escopeta de pistones, pistola de agua, arco con flechas de ventosa y una metralleta de aire comprimido que disparaba una especie de bolas de ping pong era una guerra tan santa y legítima como la que nos contaban de Don Pelayo, de Ricardo Corazón de León y del mismísimo Santiago Matamoros.

Y el Duende confiesa, además, que jugaba a la guerra y a matar malos. Y que ni siquiera le parecía algo desagradable, porque la sangre de los tebeos de Hazañas bélicas, del Guerrero del Antifaz, de Roy Rogers o del Capitán Trueno no pringaba nada. Y en las películas de Gary Cooper, Clark Gable y Robert Taylor y Errol Flyn, que mira que mataban y moría gente en ellas, apenas se veía una mancha roja. Se peleaban a puñetazos en el Saloon porque las vacas de Mac Cormack había invadido el rancho del magnate mal encarado, y apenas les quedaba un moratón en la mejilla. Hasta que en Grupo salvaje el audaz Sam Peckimpah nos enseñó que del agujero de una bala brota un borbotón de sangre, todo eran odios inocuos, guerras incruentas, dramas ingenuos. Y, sobre todo, buenos-buenos y malos-malos.

-Pues yo andaba muy cómodo  con el maniqueísmo-confiesa el Duende a su Pepito Grillo.

Había algunas sombras sospechosas. Por ejemplo, Stalin, que aunque aparecía en las fotos de Yalta entre los buenos, lagarto lagarto. Claro, que nada al lado de lo que pinta una película polaca de André Wajda, tan valiente y políticamente incorrecta como descarnada y brutal, que se titula Katyn, y que pasa discretamente por las pantallas. Stalin lagarto lagarto, no: cocodrilo, cocodrilo.

Qué tiene que ver esta guerra con la que aplaudíamos como locos en el cine del cole los domingos por la tarde cuando nos echaban Guadalcanal, Objetivo Birmania, Fuego en la Nieve o Los diablos de las colinas de acero. Aquellas del cine en blanco en negro, de los tebeos y los cromos hacían héroes de postal de Navidad, niños belicosos que no conseguíamos odiar del todo a la guerra. Pero apunten esta letanía truculenta: La lista de Schindler, Salvad al soldado Ryan, El enemigo en puertas, El pianista, El libro negro, y ahora Katyn, donde se cuenta cómo la matanza de veinte mil oficiales polacos que hasta la caída del muro de Berlín se atribuía a los nazis fue una fechoría de papá Stalin. Todas buenísimas. Sobre todo, para confirmar uno de los pensamientos más sublimes de Groucho Marx: cuanto más conozco a la especie humana, más amo a mi perro.

Confiteor Dei –soñaba el Duende esta noche, después de haber visto la última de estas terribles películas. Me confieso de haber imaginado que le daba un beso a tornillo a Marilyn Monroe y luego le tocaba las tetas...Y Dios se le aparecía encarnado en el ángel de Qué bello es vivir, y en lugar de imponerle penitencia le daba una bolsa de chuches.

-Toma, hijo…¡Si sabrás tú lo que es malo!…

Oh Happy Monday!

The memorable speech from The Fountainhead can be enjoyed below…

The Trailer of Fountainhead:

This is a hilarious synopsis of the movie and book in 5 seconds.  For those that have little time, no time or no patience – you too can experience The Fountainhead in seconds…

I just typed ”Famous Wrong Predictions” into google…

“Drill for oil? You mean drill into the ground to try and find oil? You’re crazy.”  Opponents to Edwin L Drakes plan to drill for oil in 1849.
 
“We don’t like their sound, and guitar music is on the way out.” Decca Recording Co. rejecting the Beatles in 1962.
 
“I’m just glad it’ll be Clark Gable who’s falling on his face not Gary Cooper.”  Gary Cooper on his decision not to take the leading role in “Gone With The Wind.”
 
“Who the hell wants to hear actors talk?”  H.M. Warner on having talking in movies? Warner Brothers, 1927.
 
“So we went to Atari and said, ‘Hey, we’ve got this amazing thing, even built with some of your parts, and what do you think about funding us? Or we’ll give it to you. We just want to do it. Pay our salary, we’ll come work for you.’ And they said, ‘No.’ So then we went to Hewlett-Packard, and they said, ‘Hey, we don’t need you. You haven’t got through college yet.’”  Apple Computer Inc. founder Steve Jobs on attempts to get Atari and HP interested in his and Steve Wozniak’s personal computer.
 
“You’d better learn secretarial skills or else get married.” – Modelling agency, rejecting Marilyn Monroe in 1944.
 
“Everything that can be invented has been invented.” Charles H. Duell, Commissioner, U.S. Office of Patents, 1899.

 Does anybody actually know anything?

David Adams Richards’s God Is. reads like a series of concentric circles. The broad theme of the book is stated in the subtitle: “My Search for Faith in a Secular World.” However, Richards constructs this theme by pondering love and violence, liberty and power, sincerity and con games. This following section, highlighting these themes in the classic film High Noon (one of my favourites), captures the crux of this scattered yet worthwhile book.

There is a courageous journey as well in the movie High Noon, with Gary Cooper as sheriff who just married that very day, Amy—Grace Kelly—a Quaker woman opposed to violence. These, of course, are old morality plays—but they are plays that must be observed. The sheriff has put a man away, kept the town safe from a man who is now out and, along with his brother and two cronies, are coming to exact revenge. (These people, like the mob I referenced, never act alone.) No one stands up for Cooper or with him. The town turns coward—and some profess their indifference—by hiding and drinking in the tavern, or profess their moral superiority by going to church and praying. (This tavern and church are shown here to be one and the same.) It is interesting how all of these townspeople now turn on the sheriff and blame him, not only for his own difficulty but for the position he has put them in. The tavern and the church become the twin pillars of a false morality in the witnessing of one man’s agony.

Cooper has to fight the four men alone, and he does—with Amy finally coming to his aid and saving his life.

Nothing shows better the idea of a pretension toward goodness enabling evil. For the surface good, the surface morality is neither.

Therefore what counts must finally be recognized, and it will be sooner or later. Maybe not within the confines of a two-hour movie, or a ten-page story, but someday and for all time. It will also be known what is actual violence and what is not. Those in church were far more violent than Gary Cooper’s character that day. (pages 125-126)

Recuerdo que la actriz de teatro Tallulah Bankhead declaró durante la promoción de ‘Náufragos’ que sólo había ido a Hollywood para acostarse con Gary Cooper.

Along Came Jones is a silly little western that verges on being a spoof of the genre, but it’s worth seeing for a couple of reasons. Gary Cooper pokes fun at his stalwart image without devolving into parody, and the gender reversals in some of the action scenes are still surprising.

Cooper plays a singing cowboy (sort of), named Melody Jones. This in itself is funny, because Cooper can barely sing. He’s halfway between a hum and a grumble in the few scenes when he’s called upon to croon a ditty. Along with his crotchety old sidekick, George Fury (played by William Demarest), Jones rolls into the town of Payneville, where he’s mistaken for vicious outlaw Monte Jarrad (played by vicious little squirt Dan Duryea), because his monogrammed saddle has the same initials, “M.J.” The only problem is, it’s not a charade he can keep up very long. Although Jones is tough enough, and can dish out haymakers with the best of them, he can’t handle a gun to save his life (which, by the end of the film, he will be called upon to do more than once). It’s not just that Jones can’t shoot straight, he literally can’t get his revolver out of its holster without it flying out of his hand. At one point, the real Monte Jarrad’s girlfriend, Cherry de Longpre (played by Loretta Young), calls Jones a “butterfingered gun juggler,” and it’s an apt term of derision.

The interesting thing about this film is that Jones never gets any better at handling a gun. Yes, he eventually manages to hold it steady, but he still can’t hit the broad side of a barn. Cherry, on the other hand, is a crack shot who could give Annie Oakley a run for her money. In the climactic showdown, she becomes a distaff John Wayne in The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance (1962), and the effect is stunning. Nevertheless, Cooper never comes off as unmanly, especially since he’s willing to stand up to overwhelming odds with absolutely no shooting skills whatsoever. And he twice kisses Young in what has to be the most macho way I’ve ever seen in a movie. I don’t want to give anything away. Just see it.

Our interview with Richard Anderson continues into the second hour as the actor discusses his work with David Janssen on The Fugitive, Burt Reynolds on Dan August, John Frankenheimer in Seconds and Stanley Kubrick in Paths of Glory, as well as his encounters with Preston Sturges and Cary Grant early in his career. Then Tony Figueroa remembers Rock Hudson, Charles M. Schultz and Tom Hatten during This Week in Television History, while David Krell discusses Brandon Tartikoff’s memoir The Last Great Ride:

http://media.podcastingmanager.com/9/3/5/3/3/142636-133539/Media/111609tvc34_2.mp3

Seven films to watch while you’re laid up with the cold, H1N1, or whatever else gets you down.

NOT recommended viewing. For so many reasons.

Welcome to cold and flu season! Each years untold millions of people get the common cold, the flu, the stomach flu, and a variety of other painful and discomforting illnesses.Many sufferers cope by parking themselves on the couch and in front of the DVD player , creating some prime movie-viewing time.

Watching a favorite movie is pretty much the best way to spend a sick day. You don’t have to move around, you don’t have to think that much about the plot (since it’s your favorite, you’ve seen it before already) and you can pause the film for trips to the bathroom, kitchen, or medicine chest. For those of you who don’t have a “favorite” movie to help get you through the long, queasy recuperation hours, consider these classics. We’ve tried to include a variety of stuff, representing several genres.

Office Space - If you’re not going in to work you owe it to yourself to laugh at American office culture. Mike Judge’s (Idiocracy) comedy, in which Ron Livingston gets hypnotized into not giving a damn about anything his boss or company wants, remains the perfect way to laugh at all the healthy worker drones spending the day at their jobs. Bonus sick day activity: Drawl like office middle manager Bill Lumbergh (Gary Cole) to everyone you speak with, as in: “Hello, pharmacy? I’m gonna need you to go ahead and refill my prescription. Yeah, that’d be great.”

In The Good Old Summertime – A favorite among Judy Garland’s legions of fans, this romantic comedy/musical puts her at professional odds with fellow music shop salesman Van Johnson, even while the two fall in love as pen pals when off the clock. Proudly warm and nostalgic for its soundstage-perfect Victorian Era setting, the film features Garland as irresistable as ever and Johnson well-cast as a suitor so straight-laced he seems almost quaint by modern standards. And if store owner Mr. Oberkugen seems familiar, you probably also saw S. Z. Sakall play Carl, the maitre d’ at Rick’s Cafe Americain, in Casablanca. Bonus sick day activity: Sing along with Garland, especially during the showstopping “I Don’t Care.”

The Dirty Dozen - The epitome of classic Hollywood cinema that doesn’t ask too much of the brain, director Robert Aldrich’s fast-paced adventure stays enthralling right up until the last, disappointing final scene. Still, it’s a hell of a lot of fun to see while you’re watching it. Bonus sick day activity: Devise your own resolution to the Dozen’s raid on the Nazi castle, one that doesn’t uphold the Establishment status quo but instead lets Posey (Clint Walker) and Jefferson (Jim Brown) survive.

High Noon - Speaking of guy films, this high-water mark of the Western genre has everything a good Western should: an iconic good guy (Gary Cooper), a ferocious antagonist (Ian MacDonald) and a whole town up for grabs. Director Fred Zinnermann (From Here To Eternity) films the story in real-time, ratcheting the suspense up even further. Not for nothing, but it’s also probably got the coolest theme song of any Western ever made. Bonus sick day activity: Count off the townspeople running from outlaw Frank Miller (MacDonald) on their big clay feet; come up with your own argument to give the sheriff’s wife (Grace Kelly) that yes, sometimes violence is the answer.

Planes, Trains, and Automobiles – Especially topical this time of year, John Hughes’ masterwork tells the hilarious story of an uptight yuppie (Steve Martin, giving probably his best performance) and an uncouth shower curtain ring salesman (John Candy, definitely giving his) stuck with each other while trying to get home for Thanksgiving. The ending is amazingly touching without falling into hokum, a rare feat in most Hollywood films. Bonus sick day activity: Follow Del Griffith’s (Candy) suggestion and play pickup sticks with your butt cheeks; alternately, wash all your pillowcases.

Stripes - Ivan Reitman’s spoof of basic training and army operations works from such an episodic script you can basically watch the film in ten and fifteen minutes doses. Nevertheless, stars Bill Murray and Harold Ramis put in some sublime comic acting, bolstered by a wide ensemble cast including Candy, Judge Reinhold, Sean Young, Warren Oates and John Larroquette. Fans of the Canadian series SCTV should look for cameos by alumni Dave “Doug McKenzie” Thomas and Joe “Count Floyd” Flaherty. Bonus sick day activity: Teach yourself to march and drill the John Winger (Murray) way, by shouting Manfred Mann songs and making goofy faces.

The Lord of the Rings trilogy – Probably best if you’re going to be laid up all weekend (or for several days, anyway) the monumental LOTR saga has everything you could want from a film series – adventure, intrigue, romance, a metric ton of action – while still remaining approachable and reasonably episodic. The plotlines start to drag a bit at times, and director Peter Jackson’s (King Kong) sense of restraint gets out from under him in the third chapter. Nevertheless, taken as a whole the trilogy delivers hours and hours of riveting viewing, especially the epic Battle of Helm’s Deep. Bonus sick day activity: Take a shot of Vitamin C every time Frodo (Elijah Wood) or Legolas (Orlando Bloom) stare at something in close-up. You’ll be up and moving around in no time.

We’ll be back later this week. Take it easy and we hope you feel better.

- Michael Kabel
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