Showing posts with label IOU. Show all posts
Showing posts with label IOU. Show all posts

Monday, January 28, 2013

Love With the Proper Stranger (1963)


Love with the Proper Stranger (1963) is a darling film. Natalie Wood and Steve McQueen star as Angie and Rocky two Italian-Americans living in New York City who are in a bit of a quandary. Their recent passionate rendezvous has resulted in an unwanted pregnancy. Angie, a Macy's shop girl, searches for Rocky, a jazz musician, to tell him the news. He barely even remembers her but now they are inextricably linked with the growing consequence of their previous actions. Angie and Rocky plan to seek an abortionist but decide against it when it comes to the actual event. What do they do now? Get married? Move on?

This film is really two stories. First it's the story of Angie and Rocky seeking an abortion. The second is their complicated love story. Despite the heavy and controversial subject of abortion, which at the time was still illegal, this is a very sweet and gentle story about two young people in the city finding themselves thrown together in an interesting story.

I very much enjoyed the performances of Natalie Wood and Steve McQueen. Wood was a lot more subtle in her role as Angie as she had been in some other films of hers I've seen. Seeing this side of Natalie Wood was a lot more palatable for me that's for sure! Out of the two, Steve McQueen's character Rocky was my favorite. It's very easy to develop a little crush on Rocky when you watch him become protective and caring of Angie.

Tom Bosley has a supporting role (his movie debut!) as Anthony Columbo, the restauranteur boyfriend of Angie that her mom and brothers picked out for her. I really adored his character. He genuinely cares for Angie and I loved the opposing scenes in which he finds himself being very clumsy when visiting Angie's family and Angie finds herself being very clumsy when she visits Anthony's family.

Love with the Proper Stranger (1963) is just the sort of quiet movie I really enjoy. It doesn't have some big message, it's not trying to fulfill some grandiose purpose and it's not trying to be something huge. It's just a simple human story that makes you feel and makes you think all while entertaining you.
 
I would vote for this film to NOT be a part of any discussion of abortion. I think it's just a love story and it should be left at that. It's from a different time and circumstances were different so it's really not an appropriate film to use in the modern day debate on abortion. Also, do not think this is an abortion movie because it's not. It's a love story!

This film is not available on DVD. It's a Paramount film and most of us know how difficult it is to get our hands on some of the films from that studio! Maybe Love with the Proper Stranger is part of the 600 Paramount films Warner Bros. acquired distribution rights for (see that news here). For now, it can be occasionally seen on Turner Classic Movies.

A BIG THANK YOU to Paul from Art, Movies, Wood and Whatnot who sent me a recording of this movie from a TCM broadcast. I am forever indebted to him for so graciously sending me this film! Thank you!




An aside:
To those of you who are bakers, I did find a goof in the scene in which Anthony is baking a cake. He takes the cake out of the oven and Angie helps loosen it from the bundt pan. At one point she burns her hand. She runs her hands under cold water but Anthony's mother slaps butter on her hand. Funny thing is that the cold water would have helped her infinitely more so than the butter! The cold water helps stop the burning. Once you burn yourself, your flesh continues to burn until it cools down. Anyways, a few moments later, Anthony brings out a perfectly frosted cake to serve to Angie, his mom and his sisters. Earlier in the scene I proclaimed to Carlos " I hope he's not thinking of frosting that cake while it's hot!". In timing, he would have had to frost a hot cake in order to have brought it out so quickly. Any baker knows that a cake needs time to cool before frosting. Otherwise the frosting will melt and you'll end up with a gloopy glaze rather than smooth frosting!

Saturday, June 11, 2011

IOU: Buster Keaton: A Hard Act to Follow (1987)

Who I Owe: I met illustrator/author Matt Phelan recently at Book Expo. The company I work for publishes some of his books for children. Phelan told me that he was currently working on a graphic novel for younger kids on the childhood of Buster Keaton (see a preview of the artwork for the book here). I got really excited because I love Buster Keaton! We chatted about Keaton for a while and he told me about this great documentary on the life of Keaton called Buster Keaton: A Hard Act to Follow. He mentioned that it was available on YouTube and I promised that I would watch it. And so I did! Thanks Matt Phelan for the recommendation and I'm so excited for your book to come out!

Review: Buster Keaton: A Hard Act to Follow was a 3 part British TV Mini-Series about the life and career of the great physical comedian of the silent film era. Watching the documentary and I realize how much I appreciate contemporary documentaries and how they clearly indicate who it is that is being interviewed. It took me a while to understand that it was Eleanor Keaton, Keaton's third and last wife, speaking!

The show follows Keaton's life and career from the very beginning to the bitter end. It starts in those early days in Vaudeville, when he got the name Buster after falling down some stairs, an event witnessed by the great Harry Houdini who then proclaimed that that was quite a Buster! We see the rise, the very bad fall and then the subsequent slow rise again.

I learned many things about Keaton. He had impeccable timing, a fearlessness that made for incredible shots, a talent for subtlety and a genius for comedy. Keaton was really an actor destined for the silent screen and talkies did him very few favors. He took to alcohol which almost killed him and even with all his success he still had many money problems. However, he still had a wonderful career, fame and recognition that lasted a lot longer than he expected and a long and fruitful life. That's a lot more than many of us get. It was great to watch the documentary and to see how spectacular his stunts really were. Put into context of how dangerous and groundbreaking they were makes you really appreciate Keaton's work. Keaton never complained about injuries! He had a high threshold for pain. Seeing snippets of many of Keaton's films made me want to watch more. And it made a new Keaton fan out of Carlos too!

I created a playlist of all the 10 minute YouTube segments of the documentary. You can watch it here. I'd love to hear what you think. And many thanks to Matt Phelan for recommending this to me!


Friday, June 10, 2011

IOU: The Grub-Stake (1923)




Who I owe: Poet and Musician John "Jack" Hayes from Robert Frost's Banjo and I met March of last year. We had breakfast in Concord, MA and during breakfast John told me about a silent film that he and Eberle composed and performed the music for. The movie was The Grub-Stake (1923). He also told me a lot about Nell Shipman and sent me a copy of The Nell Shipman Collection Volume 3 which contained The Grub-Stake. I had the film in my to-watch stack for too long. Way too long. Now I'm making amends and discovering how wonderful Nell Shipman, the movie and the music all were. Thanks John!

In John's Words:  Eberle Umbach and I composed the music to Nell Shipman’s “The Grub-Stake” in 2005-2006, following our first silent film score, for Shipman’s “Back to God’s Country,” which we composed in 2004-2005. The late Tom Trusky, director of the Idaho Film Collection, commissioned our score for the release of Shipman’s complete existing works in a DVD collection. Mr Trusky was a wonderful man, a Shipman scholar and largely responsible for the re-discovery of her work, and he was very kind and supportive of our music.

The score uses 18 instruments, from the very familiar, like the guitar and the flute, to the more obscure, like the zither, melodica, slide whistle and marimba, as well as variations on common instruments, such as the tenor guitar, toy piano and the plectrum banjo. Eberle and I wrote the score so that it could be performed live as written, so there were a lot of instrument switches! But at least one of us keeps a steady background of music going throughout the entire film, and we play as a duo the majority of the time.


We incorporated a number of different musical genres in the score—from ragtime to bossa nova, and with a number of other musical gestures in between. Eberle in particular strove to capture an old-time Americana feel in much of the music. When we scored and performed these silent films, we did so under the name of the Bijou Orchestrette.

Review: First of all, let's talk about Nell Shipman. Wow. What a woman. Hailing from Canada, Nell Shipman was a one-woman movie making machine. She founded the Shipman Curwood Producing Company as well as the Nell Shipman Productions. Nell Shipman wrote, acted, directed, produced, marketing, funded and cast her acting crew. And this is in the 1910s and 1920s! Early film history has a severe deficit of female directors. So for Nell Shipman to be able to do what she did is amazing. She was independent, a business woman and creative to boot. Also, she shot a lot of her films on location, in the wild and did a lot of "stunts" herself. She was also an animal trainer and used some of her animals in The Grub-Stake. Wow! I'm so impressed by her. I'm also hypnotized by Nell. She wasn't a gorgeous woman but she has a very inviting face and a curvaceous figure. I couldn't help but be mesmerized by her on screen.

The Grub-Stake (1923) was one of Shipman's biggest pictures. With a $180,000 budget, she shot the film on location in Washington State and Idaho (even though the plot mostly takes place in Alaska). Unfortunately, the distributor of the film went under so the film never made it out to theaters. And it also bankrupted Nell Shipman's production company. She couldn't take care of her animals financially after that either and had to send them to the San Diego Zoo. A sad ending to a good project.

The film follows the story of Faith Diggs, a small town girl whose father is in poor health. She takes on odd jobs (and even sells her to make ends meet and to help her dad out but it isn't enough. So Faith grub-stakes an older businessman. What does the term grub-stake mean?



Basically, she promises to work for the man, and then accepts his proposal of marriage, in exchange for his help. The man brings Faith and her father to Alaska. But turns out the man has sold Faith to a brothel! And he's already married! What's a girl to do? She escapes with a friend, her father and a bunch of sled dogs and finds refuge in the wilds of the Klondike. She gets separated from her father for a while, befriending some bears and other wild animals. And the drama continues as she falls in love with another man and her "husband" sends out a bounty hunter for her (and the dogs she stole). The film moves at a steady pace but doesn't have that many dull moments. Nell Shipman really milked the ending though, which could have been much shorter than it was.

I think John and Eberle did a wonderful job with the music. The different instruments suited the plot which was very varied itself. I loved the American folk feel to it and it's pretty cool that a film from Idaho has music played by residents of that state! I'm sure composing music for a silent film is no easy task so kudos to John and Eberle for doing such a fantastic job giving sound to such a vibrant film.





Thursday, June 9, 2011

IOU: Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? (1966)


Who I Owe: My good friend Kevin gave me a copy of Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? (1966) eons ago. It was so long ago I don't remember why he gave it to me. It could be for various reasons. He got a newer enhanced version of the DVD and passed down his older version to me (I've gotten several really great films this way!). I created a boxed set of films that tested the Hays Code/Production Code back in grad school. This film was very influential in bringing down the code in the 1960s which was then replaced with a rating system. It's a depressing film and boy does Kevin like depressing films. I apologize to Kevin for being so late to the game in watching this one!

Review: Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? (1966) (TCM link) is based on Edward Albee's play by the same name. It's the only film to have been nominated for every single Oscar category in the Academy Awards (although now with so many categories, that will be impossible to achieve again). It won 5 including Best Actress (Elizabeth Taylor) and Best Cinematography (Haskell Wexler). It's the 4th out of the 11 films real-life couple Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Burton made together. It also co-stars Sandy Dennis (who miscarried during the filming) and George Segal. Elizabeth Taylor gained 30 pounds for the role and looks noticeably different with special makeup and some gray hairs. Oh and the swears! Everything from "god damn you" to "bitch" is used. My favorite phrases include "angel boobs", "monkey nipples" and "hump the hostess".

Elizabeth Taylor plays Martha, the daughter of the president of a Northampton, MA college and wife to History professor George (Richard Burton). They like to play very emotionally abusive games with each other and shouting matches are regular conversations from them. They have Biology professor Nick (George Segal) and his demure wife Honey (Sandy Dennis) over for drinks. With the liquour flowing, the mind games start and they get worse as the film goes on. Then there is the question of Martha and George's son. Where is he?

My reaction? This film is fucked up. Twisted. Demented. It messes with your brain. It's angry and loud. It's uncomfortable to watch yet the cinematography will hypnotize you. Each actor delivers wonderful performances, the dialogue is cutting and frank, there are no subtelties here. It's all shoved right into your face. Even though I own it now, I think I will put this film away until I forget the details. So I can pick it up again and be newly traumatized. So Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? I am!




Wednesday, June 8, 2011

IOU: Madam Satan (1930)





Person I owe: Jonas of All Talking! All Singing! All Dancing!. I owe Jonas more than just this movie. I owe him a lot. He has sent me lots of great early talkies and silent films (more early talkies because that's his specialty). It's been hard to find the time to watch all those wonderful treasures. Jonas sent me a copy of Madam Satan (1930) long before Warner Archive made it available on DVD. And I'm ashamed that I only got to it now. What a fantastic film. Thank you Jonas!

Review: Madam Satan (1930) is one of the most entertaining Pre-Code movies I have ever seen.  It's both fun and bizarre. It stars Kay Johnson as Angela Brooks, the wife of Bob Brooks (Reginald Denny). Bob and his best friend Jimmy (Roland Young) go out regularly to paint the town red. Bob thinks that Angela is just blah now that she's his wife. And it turns out Bob is cheating on Angela with an entertainer named Trixie (Lillian Roth). While the two guys try to hide the affair in various ineffective ways, Angela is on to their schemes and wants to see what is going on for herself. It seems like Trixie's got her feline claws in deep with Bob and we think that Angela's lost him forever. That is, until Angela declares war!  The first 50 minutes of the film deal with the situation between the four characters. The other 1 hour and 10 minutes consists of a wild trip on a Zeppelin complete with a futuristic operetta (as Jonas calls it), crazy costumes that would shock and entice Lady Gaga and a grand finale that only a director like Cecil B. Demille could deliver.

This movie is so much fun to watch. The social drama at the beginning is full of fun jokes and physical humor. But once you hit that 50 minute mark, you are wowed by all the crazy Zeppelin shenanigans. You'll find yourself with your jaw to the floor, one hand on your head and one hand over  your mouth. It's that crazy. Like so many Pre-Codes, this film is full of sexual innuendos and experimentations of all sorts. What makes this film different to me is that I love the message. There are many Pre-Codes in which the ending completely undoes the original boundary-pushing message. In Madam Satan, we learn that men should appreciate their women. Because love, caring and intelligence don't have to stifle the carnal pleasures of a romantic relationship. And floozies don't always win in the end. I feel like in this day and time floozies seem to win because of their aggressiveness and charm. What ever happened to the value of self-respect? You want to be like Angela and NOT Trixie. And I like that message. Yes I do indeed.

If you haven't seen this movie, WATCH IT NOW! Don't wait as long as I did. Order a copy for yourself and several for your friends. If my review doesn't convince you, here are some screen caps for your viewing pleasure.


Angela is trapped like that cagged bird.


What do two drunk men do? Take a shower in their suits in the middle of a bedroom. Yeah.


Lillian Roth is the villain but her smile is too infectious for you to complete hate her.


Roland Young has some great expressions of confusion and fear in the film.


You are invited!


Zeppelin!


Lady Gaga would totally rip this off for one of her music videos.



One of the many WTF moments.




At this point I was jumping up and down in my seat cheering. Go Madam Satan!

Tuesday, June 7, 2011

IOU: Charlie Chan at the Opera (1936)

Person I Owe: Frank. Frank is a good friend of mine, a co-worker and an enthusiast of many many things including Charlie Chan films. I let him borrow my Charlie Chan boxed set and in exchange he let me borrow Charlie Chan at the Opera (1936) and a couple other films too. Now that was a long time ago, so I need to get this back to him. Because we work together, I have at least 5 opportunities each week to exchange DVDs with Frank. It's very nice and we exchange books as well. It's great sharing with friends, especially friends with such great taste in movies and books!

Review: Charlie Chan at the Opera (1936 or 1937) is the most famous of all the Charlie Chan films. Why? Because it stars Warner Oland, whom many Charlie Chan enthusiasts deem the best of the six or so actors who played Charlie Chan. Co-starring in the film is Boris Karloff, the biggest name ever to appear in a Charlie Chan film. This one hour drama is fun to watch as Karloff creeps everyone out and Oland/Chan outwits everyone with his proverbs and serious detective skills. I want to point out that William Demarest, a very good character actor who appeared in many films during the 1930s including a few with Humphrey Bogart, plays a dimwitted cop. My favorite line of the film is uttered by his character: (to Chan) "You are like chop suey! Mysterious but still a swell dish."

Karloff plays opera star Gravelle (::snickers::) who escapes from an insane asylum. He seeks revenge against the other opera stars, including his previous lover Madame Lili Rochelle, with whom he had a child Kitty Gravelle. First Charlie Chan is put on the case to help the police find Gravelle but then when murders start happening at the opera house, Chan is determined to find the killer.

This is a great film to introduce to someone who is new to the Charlie Chan movies. Some folks are sensitive to the stereotyping in the film. I tell them that even though Charlie Chan can be a bit of a caricature his character is always smarter than everyone else. Now if he could only be a bit nicer to his son! Thank you Frank for letting me borrow this film!





Monday, June 6, 2011

IOU: No, My Darling Daughter (1961)

Person I Owe: Casey of Noir Girl. Casey reviewed this film a couple of years ago (see the review here) and recommended the film to me. She burned me a copy and sent it to me in the mail. I've always meant to watch it but Netflix and other things always got in the way. Once you own a movie, it's easy to take advantage of the fact that it's always there.

Review: No, My Darling Daughter (1961) is a British Comedy directed by Ralph Thomas and starring Juliet Mills, Michael Redgrave, James Westmoreland and Michael Craig. Tansy (Mills) is the daughter of a wealthy and overbearing father Sir Carr (Redgrave). He's got a lot of plans for his daughter but free-spirited Tansy has other things in mind. Thomas (Michael Clay), General Barclay's grandson and Sir Carr's grandson, works for Carr's company but also has other plans. Thomas and Tansy seem like two free spirits destined for each other until an American youngster, Cornelius (James Westmoreland), starts to woo Tansy with his adventurousness and naivete about British life. Carr's got plans, Tansy's got plans, Thomas has plans, General Barclay's got plans, Cornelius makes plans eventually but as we all know even the best made plans don't always turn out how we expect.

This is a very light-hearted British comedy. As Casey says in her review, it'll keep you guessing until the very end. And yes Tansy is such a strange name. I kept wanting to call her something else. If you enjoy British films from the 1960s, and I know a lot of you do, this one will be sure to entertain you. It's also void of all of the more taboo elements of other films from this era. It's fresh and wholesome and just fun to watch. I'm not much for early British cinema and while this is not a new favorite, I enjoyed it nonetheless and would recommend it to other folks who like fun films like these.

Sunday, June 5, 2011

IOU: Hot Enough for June (1964)

Person I Owe: Kate Gabrielle of Scathingly Brilliant and Discovering Dirk Bogarde. It's no secret that Kate Gabrielle is a huge Dirk Bogarde fan. She really wants to get as many people on the Dirk Bogarde bandwagon because she believes in him that much. She sent me a burnt copy of Hot Enough for June (1964) a long time ago in hopes that I would watch it even if I were to throw it away later. I watched it and I am keeping it. Thanks Kate!


Review: Dirk Bogarde plays Nicholas Whistler, an unemployed writer who has just been placed in a job at a glass manufacturing company. But this company is not really what it seems to be. In fact, it's really a spy agency. They hired Nicholas solely on the fact that he speaks some Czech and they need a decoy to pick up a secret message in Czechoslovakia. Nicholas, reluctant to take the job but happy for the pay, gets sent on a business trip to Czechoslovakia (hey this is 1964 remember!). He has to use the code phrase "Hot Enough for June" and await a certain reply in order to find the person who was to pick up the message. Nicholas meets Vlasta Simoneva (Sylva Koscina) who pretends to be his driver but happens to be a Czech spy. Nicholas gets into deep, deep trouble when he falls in love with Vlasta and tries to escape the country with that important message.

At first the film started out a bit slow. I thought, oh geez, is this going to be a boring British film about a writer making ends meet. But when the spy element of the story started, which was pretty early in the film, and they introduced the lovable Robert Morley, I knew this was the film for me. Hot Enough for June (aka Agent 8-3/4) is a wonderful British spy caper that keeps audiences at the edge of their seats.




"It is nice to know that we are not all going to be murdered in our beds." - Colonel Cunliffe



They make a gorgeous couple don't they?


1960s films are full of shots like these. Gratuitously sexual. I laughed out loud when I saw this!

Saturday, June 4, 2011

IOU



I owe you. No really, I do. Chances are you have either lent me a movie, given me a movie or suggested a movie to me and I've neglected your advice and help. So, you know what? Now is the time to make up for that. Next week is IOU week. Each day I'll review a film I owe someone a viewing of. That's seven IOUs. It won't make up for everything but at least it's a start.

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