Wednesday, March 21, 2018

New & Upcoming Classic Film Books (10)


My Summer Reading Challenge starts in just a couple of months! You have plenty of time to work on your to-be-read-list and maybe to check out some new books to include in your challenge. You'll want to stock up now so you'll have plenty to read on vacation! Need some suggestions? I’ve got you covered with a brand new list of upcoming classic film books. Publication dates range from March to July.

Are you new to my list? Here are the details. Books include biographies, memoirs, scholary texts, coffee table books and more from a variety of publishers. All publication dates are subject to change.

Links lead to Goodreads and three different shopping sites: Amazon, Barnes and Noble and Powell's. If no link is included it means that book is not available at that particular shop. Using my buy links helps support this site! Thanks!

This is a MONSTER of a list. Hope you find your next new read. Enjoy!



Modernisms, Hollywood, and the Cinema of Nicholas Ray
by Will Scheibel
SUNY Press
258 pages – Available Now



Women and Comedy in American Silent Film
by Kristen Anderson Wagner
Wayne State University
314 pages – Available Now



Romancing Performance in Classical Hollywood
by Steven Rybin
SUNY Press
282 pages – Available now



The Hollywood Blacklist and the Making of an American Classic
by Glenn Frankel
Bloomsbury USA
400 pages – Available now



edited by R. Barton Palmer, Homer B. Pettey and Steven M. Sanders
SUNY Press
342 pages – Available now



edited by Douglas McFarland and Wesley King
SUNY Press
326 pages – Available now



Bob Fosse and Dance in the American Musical
by Kevin Winkler
Oxford University Press
368 pages – March 2018



The Making of a Classic with Steve McQueen and Sam Peckinpah in the Summer of 1971
By Jeb Rosebrook with Stuart Rosebrook
BearManor Media
252 pages – March 2018



Seriality and the Outlaw Biker Film Cycle, 1966-1972
by Peter Stanfield
Rutgers University Press
236 pages – March 2018



by Mark Weinberg
Simon & Schuster
288 pages – Available now


A City’s Independence and the Birth of Celebrity Politics
by Nancie Clare
St. Martin's Press
288 pages – March 2018



The Outrageous History of Film Buffs, Collectors, Scholars, and Fanatics
by Anthony Slide
University Press of Mississippi
248 pages – March 2018



by Elizabeth Winder
Flatiron Books
304 pages – March 2018



by Frederic Claquin and Jack Woodhams
Schiffer
240 pages – March 2018




by Maggie Hennefeld
Columbia University Press
320 pages – March 2018



The Young Streisand from New York to Paris
by Bill Eppridge
Rizzoli
144 pages – April 2018



What the Responses of 1920s Critics Reveal
by Wes D. Gehring
McFarland
242 pages – April 2018




by David Clayton
The History Press
224 pages - April 2018



REISSUE
by Elsa Lanchester, foreword by Mara Wilson
Chicago Review Press
336 pages – April 2018



Elizabeth Taylor, Rock Hudson, James Dean, Edna Ferber, 
and the Making of a Legendary American Film
by Don Graham
St. Martin’s Press
336 pages – April 2018



by James Chapman
I.B. Tauris & Co Ltd
304 pages – April 2018



 Sea Sirens, Sun Goddesses, and Summer Style 1930-1970
by David Wills
Dey Street Books
224 pages – April 2018


by Sylvia D. Lynch
McFarland
277 pages – April 2018



by Paul R. Laird
Reaktion Books
216 pages – April 2018



All That’s Left to Know About the Outrageous Genius of Comedy
by Dale Sherman
Applause Theatre and Cinema Books
400 pages – April 2018



The Women Who Ran Hollywood
by J.E. Smyth
Oxford University Press
328 pages – April 2018



by Barry Keith Grant
Rutgers University Press
160 pages – April 2018



The Life of Sophie Tucker
by Lauren Rebecca Sklaroff
University of Texas Press
300 pages – April 2018



Hollywood, HUAC, and the Birth of the Blacklist
by Thomas Doherty
Columbia University Press
400 pages – April 2018



The Making of America’s Favorite Movie
Revised Edition
by Julia Antopol Hirsch
Chicago Review Press
224 pages – April 2018



Stanley Kubrick, Arthur C. Clarke, and the Making of a Masterpiece
by Michael Benson
Simon & Schuster
512 pages – April 2018



New York Jewish Intellectual
by Nathan Abrams
Rutgers University Press
340 pages – April 2018



A Photographic Celebration
by Suzanne Lander
Skyhorse Publishing
544 pages – May 2018



The Real Los Angeles Noir
by Jim Heimann
Taschen
480 pages – May 2018



by Sara Street
BFI
150 pages – May 2018



by Stephen H. Ryan and Paul J. Ryan
Rowman and Littlefield Publishers
240 pages – May 2018



Origins of the Movement
edited by Alain Silver and James Ursini
Applause Theatre and Cinema Books
300 pages – May 2018



Marilyn Monroe, The Seven Year Itch, and the Birth of an Unlikely Feminist
by Michelle Morgan
Running Press
320 pages – May 2018



by Caroline Young
Insight Editions
192 pages – May 2018



75 Candid Interviews with Golden Age Legends
by David A. Fantle and Tom Johnson
McFarland
225 pages – May 2018



by Sloan De Forest
Turner Classic Movies & Running Press
264 pages – May 2018



Renegade Westerns
Movies That Shot Down Frontier Myths
by Kevin Grant and Clark Hodgkiss
FAB Press
400 pages – May 2018



The Secret Life of Hollywood in Rome
by Caroline Young
The History Press
256 pages – May 2018



Hollywood Films in the 1960s
by Rick Worland
Wiley-Blackwell
300 pages – May 2018




by Andrea J. Kelley
Rutgers University Press
178 pages – May 2018



Hollywood Legends Series
by Lee Mandel
University Press of Mississippi
368 pages – May 2018



Stella Adler and the Male Actor
by Scott Balcerzak
Wayne State University
288 pages – June 2018



by Matthew Polly
Simon & Schuster
672 pages – June 2018



Astaire, Balanchine, Kelly, and the American Film Musical
by Beth Genne
Oxford University Press
360 pages – June 2018



The Films, the Personell, the Company
by Howard Maxford
McFarland
375 pages – June 2018



by Joseph McBride
Columbia University Press
544 pages – June 2018



REISSUE
edited by Bengt Wanselius, Paul Duncan
contributed to by Erland Josephson
Taschen
452 pages – June 2018



Life Lessons from America’s Princess
by Mary Mallory
Lyons Press
208 pages – June 2018



Eight Unorthodox Filmmakers, 1940s-2000s
by Robert Curti
McFarland
250 pages – June 2018



by Todd Fisher
William Morrow
352 pages – June 2018



The Golden Age of the MGM Musical
by Bernard F. Dick
University Press of Mississippi
312 pages – June 2018




Essays on Female Screenwriters in the Early Film Industry
by Rosanne Welch
foreword by Cari Beauchamp
McFarland
225 pages – June 2018


Hollywood Memories of the Counterculture, Antiwar, and Black Power Movements
by Kristen Hoerl
University Press of Mississippi
192 pages – July 2018



Regulating America’s Screen
by Sheri Chinen Biesen
Wallflower Press
144 pages – July 2018


edited by R. Barton Palmer and Murray Pomerance
University of Texas Press
316 pages – July 2018


The Private Life of a Public Icon
by Charles Casillo
St. Martin’s Press
368 pages – August 2018


Which book are you interested in?

Previous round-ups :

New & Upcoming Classic Film Books (1)
New & Upcoming Classic Film Books (2)
New & Upcoming Classic Film Books (3)
New & Upcoming Classic Film Books (4)
New & Upcoming Classic Film Books (5)
New & Upcoming Classic Film Books (6)
New & Upcoming Classic Film Books (7)
New & Upcoming Classic Film Books (8)
New & Upcoming Classic Film Books (9)

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Monday, March 19, 2018

Cinema Shame: The Grass is Greener (1960)



Anyone who knows me knows I love Robert Mitchum. He's my favorite actor. Bar none. So why did it take me so long to watch him in The Grass is Greener (1960)? Well I was getting around to it. It's been on my to-be-watched list for years. There aren't many Mitchum comedies so maybe I was saving this for a rainy day. When I was working on my Cinema Shame list for 2018 I decided I was finally going to sit down and watch it. Perhaps I should have kept waiting.

The Grass is Always Greener is a genteel British comedy starring four Hollywood heavyweights: Cary Grant, Deborah Kerr, Robert Mitchum and Jean Simmons. Earl Victor Rhyall (Cary Grant), his wife Lady Hilary (Deborah Kerr) and their two children live in a sprawling British estate that the Rhyalls can't afford to keep. Even their butler Trevor (Moray Watson) has little to do and offers to take a pay cut, which they refuse. To make ends meet the couple harvest mushrooms and opened their estate, with all it's antique furniture and art, as a museum open the general public. One day, an oil rich Texas millionaire, Charles Delacro (Robert Mitchum), wanders into the private part of the estate and meets Hilary. He is enchanted by her and her by him. The two begin an affair. What Hilary doesn't know is that her husband Victor is on to her but let's her travel to London to see Delacro, under other pretenses of course, hoping she'll wise up and come back to him. Hattie Durant (Jean Simmons), Victor's old flame and Hilary's London friend, gleefully gets caught up in the love triangle. She's a glamour queen, with too much time on her hands, who hopes to steal Victor away from Hilary. Will Hilary go back to her old life of growing mushrooms in a museum with her first love or will living a life of plenty with the handsome new stranger win her over?

The Grass is Greener was directed and produced by Stanley Donen. This is one of many films in the 1960s Donen worked on in Europe including Once More, with Feeling (1960), Surprise Package (1960), Charade (1963), Arabesque (1966), Two for the Road (1967), Bedazzled (1967) and Staircase (1968). Donen and Cary Grant own the company Grandon Productions which produced Indiscreet (1958) and The Grass is Greener.  After their film Indiscreet, Donen and Grant bought the rights to
the British stage play by Hugh Williams and Margaret (Vyner) Williams which premiered in 1956 and had a successful run in the West End. Stage actor Moray Watson played the part of Trevor the butler in the production and was the only actor from the original cast to appear in the film adaptation.

Grant initially turned down the role of Victor. Actor Rex Harrison came on board. When Harrison's wife Kay Kendall became ill, she died soon after, he had to drop out and Grant stepped in. According to Grant biographer Marc Eliot, Grant insisted the movie be shot in London so he could spend time in his home country. Deborah Kerr had been avoiding the cool English lady roles but wanted to appear again with Grant, Mitchum and Simmons. Mitchum had been in London filming The Sundowners, along with Kerr, and stuck around to make this movie.

The cast members were quite familiar with each other. In addition to The Sundowners, Mitchum and Kerr appeared together in Heaven Knows, Mr. Allison (1957). Simmons and Mitchum appeared in She Couldn't Say No (1952) and Angel Face (1953). Simmons and Kerr were in Black Narcissus (1947) and Young Bess (1953). Kerr and Grant were in Dream Wife (1953) and An Affair to Remember (1957). For Grant and Mitchum, however, this was their only film together. Off screen they were polar opposites which worked for their on screen personalities. But inevitably they clashed on set. Grant worried that Mitchum's coolness made him look uptight and Mitchum worried that Grant's dialogue heavy role made him look like a man of too few words. Which it did on both counts. Mitchum biographer Lee Server points out that Grant and Mitchum were served poorly by the material. The same could be said for Kerr and Simmons. In his interview with Stanley Donen, author Marc Eliot remarked "Donen remembers the film as a milestone of sorts, marking the end of a certain type of sophisticated British comedy, before the antic humor of Peter Sellers arrived and dominated the English cinematic 1960s.

The cast and crew were made up of some of the most talented names of the era. There was original music by Noel Coward. Simmons wardrobe was designed by Christian Dior (and Kerr's by Hardy Amies). Moray Watson struck me as familiar but I couldn't quite pinpoint him. When I looked him up I was pleased to see that he also played one of my favorite characters, the Brigadier, in the British mini-series The Darling Buds of May.





Unfortunately, The Grass is Greener was a bore. Not even the amazing cast, beautiful sets, a mid-century aesthetic I so adore and Simmons' gorgeous Dior wardrobe could have saved this for me. The allure of having not seen the movie all these years outweighed any pleasure I experienced actually watching it.  Perhaps for me the grass seemed greener on the other side when it really wasn't. The movie wasn't a complete loss though. Staring at Robert Mitchum didn't hurt (and yes I'd pick him over Cary Grant any day). Any scene with Simmons was a delight because she added much needed levity to the story. Also the duel scene was quite fun, even if it was because Grant, Mitchum and Watson wore thick-rimmed glasses, a style of the era I'm obsessed with.



The Grass is Greener (1960) is the second of eight films that I am watching for the 2018 Cinema Shame challenge. Check out my original list and stay tuned for more reviews! Special thanks to my good friend Frank who loaned me his Olive Films Blu-Ray copy of The Grass is Greener.
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Friday, March 16, 2018

Intermezzo: A Love Story (1939)



1939 was a good year for David O. Selznick. While in the midst of working on what would become recognized as one of the greatest movies of all time, Gone with the Wind, Selznick was also making strides at his studio Selznick International Pictures. He had his talent scout Katharine Brown (aka Kay B. Barrett) constantly on the lookout for new faces. A young elevator operator in New York City mentioned the Swedish film Intermezzo (1936) to Brown. She watched it in a small art house theatre and then immediately had the film sent to Selznick in Hollywood. Selznick was sold and he invited Bergman to Hollywood to remake the movie in English and to sign a contract with his studio. In her 1973 interview with British TV host Parkinson, Ingrid Bergman said, "I owe my career in America to the elevator boy." Bergman was immediately groomed for stardom. She had to work on her English, they had to figure out what to do with her figure (a curvaceous 5'10 actress was not the norm), and her name. She had already made a career for herself in Europe with her real name and didn't want to let it go. Her name was hers and it was here to stay. Selznick and his team had to concede. It was fortuitous for everyone involved that they had come to this agreement because Bergman was now on a trajectory to become one of the biggest stars in Hollywood.

Merriam-Webster definition of intermezzo:
1: a short light entr'acte
2 a : a movement coming between the major sections of an extended musical work
b : a short independent instrumental composition
3 : a usually brief interlude or diversion

Intermezzo: A Love Story (1939) stars Leslie Howard as Holger Brandt, a celebrated composer and violinist who has just finished his tour with retiring pianist Thomas Stenborg (John Halliday). After many months away from home, he finally returns to his devoted wife Margit (Edna Best), his son Eric (Douglas Scott) and his daughter Ann Marie (Ann E. Todd). Ann Marie is following in her father's footsteps and has taken up classical music. She's been taking piano lessons from Anita Hoffman (Ingrid Bergman). Holger pays Anita no mind until he witnesses her incredible talent at the piano. Their mutual passion for music intertwines with their feelings for each other. Anita becomes Holger's new accompanist and the two leave everything behind them to live a new life of romantic bliss. However the past begins to creep up on them. And there is Holger's family to think of, especially little Ann Marie who keeps hoping her father will come home soon. Holger and Anita must decide whether their love will be forever or if it'll just be a brief intermezzo.


Leslie Howard and Ingrid Bergman in Intermezzo

"I haven't any right to be happy the way I'm happy with you... I'm fighting to be sensible." - Anita
"Love isn't sensible." - Holger

The film was directed by Gregory Ratoff whom Selznick borrowed from 20th Century Fox. William Wyler was going to be the director but had to drop out due to a delay in production and other commitments. It was a huge hit and launched Bergman's career into the stratosphere. A few years later she'd star in another film, you might have heard of it, Casablanca (1942). 1939 was a good year for Leslie Howard too. He also starred in Gone With the Wind and Intermezzo was his film producing debut. Selznick made Intermezzo for $4.8 million and it went on to make $153.8 million at the box office. It was nominated for two Oscars, Gregg Toland for Best Cinematography, Black-and-White and Louis Forbes for Best Music, Scoring.

Ann E. Todd and Ingrid Bergman in Intermezzo

The story of Intermezzo had parallels to the lives of some of it's stars. Child actress Ann E. Todd, who plays the Holger's classical music loving daughter Ann Marie, was the daughter of musicians, notable Burrill Phillips, a composer and pianist. She was raised by her grandparents and encouraged to become an actress. It wasn't her calling through and after she gave up acting in the early 1950s she pursued her interest in classical music. She got a masters degree in music history and became a college professor in San Francisco. Star Leslie Howard had his own intermezzo with Hollywood secretary Violette Cunnington. The two had an extramarital affair. She passed away of sepsis at the age of 32 just months before Howard perished in a plane crash during WWII. Howard left one of his houses to Cunnington in his will which hadn't been updated after she had passed. Ingrid Bergman suffered a huge scandal when she left her husband Petter Lindstrom for director Roberto Rossellini. The affair made her persona non grata in Hollywood for years until she returned in 1956.

When I watched this film years ago, I was surprised how this made it through in the era of the Hays Code. According to the AFI "materials contained in the MPAA/PCA disclose that Joseph Breen insisted that 'Anita' be punished for her adultery." That seems to suggest something different than what actually happens in the story. Intermezzo is an ultimately heartbreaking film that doesn't leave you completely destroyed. You know what has to happen but you still find yourself enjoying the journey.




Intermezzo: A Love Story (1939) is available on DVD and Blu-Ray from Kino Lorber. The disc includes audio commentary from Film Historian Kat Ellinger and a few trailers.

Thank you to Kino Lorber for sending me the Intermezzo Blu-Ray for review!

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Wednesday, March 14, 2018

Paul Newman is Harper

Paul Newman as Lew Harper in Harper (1966)

"I don't think Paul Newman really thinks he is Paul Newman in his head." William Goldman

Harper (1966)

 Paul Newman needed something to get him out of his funk. He was in the midst of a box office drought and the movie he was currently working on was turning out to be a disaster. The year was 1965 and Newman was filming Lady L (1965) in Paris. Newman's part was seriously lacking and he wasn't getting on with his director Peter Ustinov or his leading lady Sophia Loren. Meanwhile, producer Elliot Kastner had a part that seemed perfect for Newman. He flew to Paris to present Newman the script. Newman liked it and was on board with the project. Then Kastner hit a bit of a snag. His director wanted to make some changes that would change what Newman liked about the script. Newman was far too valuable to the project and the director simply was not. So Kastner fired him and hired Jack Smight to take over.

William Goldman, a novelist who was new to the movie business, wrote said script. Goldman met Kastner when the producer optioned his novel Boys and Girls Together. Goldman suggested to Kastner they should make a movie out of Ross Macdonald's detective story The Moving Target, originally published in 1949. Macdonald's book was the first in a series of novels following the adventures of private investigator Lew Archer. The series was so popular that by 1965 he had already published 12 installments. In his lifetime Macdonald wrote 18 Lew Archer mysteries, ranging in publication from 1949 to 1976, and a handful of short story collections. For the role of Lew Archer, the first actor that came to mind was Frank Sinatra. But he turned down the part. Next on the list Paul Newman who seemed an even better fit than Sinatra. Newman would be perfect for the part especially when the 1949 novel was updated with a cool swinging 1960s sensibility. Writer Goldman was new and willing to please. And this came in handy for Kastner when Newman had one big change he wanted to make to his character.

Newman really needed this project to revive his career. He had just turned 40 and knew if he didn't turn things around his career could go south quickly. The letter H had been lucky for Newman. Both
The Hustler (1961) and Hud (1963) served him well and he had to keep that moment going. And that meant Lew Archer had to become Lew Harper. With the name change, Newman could make this character his own. Newman might not have been right for Lew Archer but Lew Harper would fit him like a glove. Newman embodied the charismatic anti-hero, a character type he had done well with before and after. By the mid 1960s, after countless James Bond spin-offs, the film industry was suffering from spy movie fatigue. Going back to the tried and true private eye detective story was a sound decision. But Newman had to make one big concession to take on the role. Back in 1959, Newman butted heads with Jack Warner and acrimoniously parted ways with Warner Bros. Newman wanted the role  of Harper badly enough that he conceded to go back to his old studio. A big pay day ($500k or $750k against 10 percent gross, depending on the source) made the decision easier to swallow. According to biographer Shawn Levy, Newman once told a reporter "A feud should live a full and colorful life and then it should die a natural death and be forgotten."

The movie was simply called Harper (1966) and production ran from June to August 1965. As further insurance for the movie's success, actress Lauren Bacall was hired to play the role of Mrs. Sampson, the rich housewife who hires Lew Harper to find her missing husband. Her presence in the film connects it to the bygone era of classic detective novels and movies. Especially Raymond Chandler's The Big Sleep, in which she starred with husband Humphrey Bogart in the movie adaptation. Also in the cast of Harper was Julie Harris who played the drug addicted lounge pianist, Pamela Tiffin, Mrs. Sampson's beautiful and manipulative step-daughter, Arthur Hill, Harper's friend and the Sampson family lawyer, Robert Wagner, the family's personal airplane pilot and Shelley Winters, the aging movie star. Janet Leigh played Harper's soon-to-be ex-wife, a character not in the original novel but would add some romantic angst to the plot and more star power to the movie.

Even with all the big names on board, this was Paul Newman's film. Newman honed the Harper character in such a way that according to writer Christine Becker he "reaffirmed his rebel cool status." He modeled some of the mannerisms after Robert F. Kennedy. According to Newman biographer Shawn Levy, Kennedy "had a habit of standing beside people and looking away from them with his head titled when listening to them. It was a weird sort of engaged non-engagement and it fit the character beautifully."

Harper (1966) was a big hit with audiences and Warner Bros. turned a nice profit with their $2 million movie. According to another Newman biographer, Marian Edelman,  "the public loved Harper, and it put Paul Newman back on the top-10 list of box-office stars of the year." The critics were more hesitant about the movie's value but it didn't matter. Newman was back on top. Warner Bros. capitalized on Newman using taglines and slogans like "Paul Newman is Harper", "Excitement clings to him like a dame" and "Girls go for Harper." Perhaps Frank Sinatra, seeing the success of Newman in Harper, changed his mind about making a detective movie. He would go on to play private eye in Tony Rome (1967) and A Lady in Cement (1968).

Harper also did wonders for screenwriter William Goldman's career. According to Lawrence J. Quirk, "Goldman came through and the success of Harper put him on the map." And by the time Harper was released, Ross Macdonald had published book #13 in the Lew Archer series, Black Money, which got a boost from the film. This made up for the mere $12,500 he received from the film.

After Harper, Newman went on to more successes with Alfred Hitchcock's Torn Curtain (1966), Cool Hand Luke (1967) and another H film Hombre (1967). Kastner and Goldman had plans to follow up Harper with another story in the Lew Archer/Harper saga. Unfortunately it never materialized. Newman wouldn't revisit the character of Lew Harper until almost a decade later.




"Harper is a simplified version of Paul Newman you might say. He's a man of action with a certain flare, a certain self-conscious dramatic sense of what he's doing." - Ross MacDonald

The Drowning Pool (1975)

In 1969, Paul Newman joined forces with Barbra Streisand and Sidney Poitier to start the independent production company First Artists. This new project would allow these big stars more control over their movies. Actors like Steve McQueen and Dustin Hoffman joined later. First Artists films were distributed by Warner Bros. So when the character of Lew Harper came back into Newman's life it meant he had even more say in how things would pan out.

Producer Lawrence Turman had missed out on an opportunity to work on Harper and when the occasion arose to revisit it he wouldn't pass it up. Turman and fellow producer David Foster optioned the rights to Macdonald's second Lew Archer novel The Drowning Pool, which was published in 1950. This time around Macdonald would get a better pay day than he did with harper. He made $100k plus 5 perfect of the net profits. But there were lots of changes to Macdonald's novel to be made. Newman's wife, celebrated actress Joanne Woodward, would co-star in the film and she suggested the story's setting be changed from Southern California to New Orleans. Louisiana was Woodward's old stomping grounds and it would add an exotic, southern element to the film. The screenplay went through three different writers: Tracy Keenan Wynn, Lorenzo Semple Jr. and Walter Hill (William Goldman was no longer interested). The end result was something quite different from the original concept.

According Lawrence J. Quirk, "Newman insisted Stuart Rosenberg, who needed the work, be given the picture." With Rosenberg on board as director, production for The Drowning Pool began in the fall of 1974. The filming was done on location in Lafayette and New Orleans, Louisiana. Newman's Harper travels from LA to New Orleans to help an old client Iris (Joanne Woodward), a frustrated rich housewife who enlists Harper to find out who is blackmailing her. The cast includes Anthony Franciosa as the shady copy Broussard, Murray Hamilton as the psychopath business owner Kilbourne, Gail Strickland as Kilbourne's wife and Melanie Griffith as Iris' precocious and manipulative teenage daughter. The story line and characters are similar to the first story but there is much more at risk for Harper in this film. The "drowning pool" refers to a climactic scene when Paul Newman and Gail Strickland are trapped in a hydrotherapy room of an abandoned asylum. They try to flood the room to escape through the roof. Newman had a blast making The Drowning Pool. According to Shawn Levy, Newman said "I simply adore the character because it will accommodate any kind of actor's invention... It's just lovely to get up in the morning, it's great to go to work, because you know you're going to have a lot of fun that day."

The Drowning Pool was released that summer of 1975. Earlier that same year a short-lived TV show called Archer, based on the Macdonald books and starring Brian Keith as Lew Archer ran from January to March. Unfortunately both the show and the new movie were doomed. The Drowning Pool was a bomb with critics and a box office failure. Why did it tank? There could be several reasons. Perhaps they waited too long between movies and audiences just didn't care about Harper anymore. Maybe Newman had aged out of his character? When you compare the two movies, The Drowning Pool plods along while Harper's pacing has a lot more momentum. Harper is hip and The Drowning Pool takes itself too seriously. While, the second film doesn't capture the magic of the first Newman fans will find much to enjoy from both performances.





Harper (1966) and The Drowning Pool (1975) are now available on Blu-Ray from the Warner Archive Collection. These Blu-Ray editions are pristine. They looked like they were filmed yesterday and not several decades ago. The Drowning Pool Blu-Ray comes with a fun featurette called Harper Days Are Here Again showing the behind-the-scenes of shooting with some clips from the film.

 Warner Archive Wednesday - On (random) Wednesdays, I feature titles from the Warner Archive Collection. Thank you to Warner Archive for sending me copies of Harper (1966) and The Drowning Pool (1975) on Blu-Ray!
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Monday, March 12, 2018

5 Questions with Ben Mankiewicz on FilmStruck's new TCM Select


https://www.filmstruck.com


If you haven't already signed up for TCM's streaming service FilmStruck now is the best time. FilmStruck, in collaboration with Warner Bros. Digital, will be adding hundreds of classic movies to the service. And to celebrate beloved movies from the Golden Age of Hollywood, TCM Select will offer streaming classics with bonus content.

Since FilmStruck first launched it's been the go-to service for arthouse, foreign and independent cinema and now that they are boosting their service with classic movies will make this a one stop shop for the ultimate movie fan. This will mean that Warner Bros.'s Warner Archive Instant streaming service will be sunsetting in April. Many of those titles will be transferring over to FilmStruck. And I hope some of the quirkier and more obscure titles available on Warner Archive Instant will make it over to FilmStruck too.

Want to know more about what FilmStruck and TCM Select have to offer? I had the pleasure of asking TCM host Ben Mankiewicz some questions about the newly expanded service.






 Raquel Stecher: What makes FilmStruck stand out as a streaming service? 

Ben Mankiewicz: FilmStruck is the only streaming service for serious movie fans. From the Criterion Collection to foreign films to arthouse films to cult films, and now to the best movies from Hollywood’s Golden Age, there is no comparable service. Netflix, Amazon and Hulu all have a role to play as we go forward and reinvent how we watch something, but if you are a true movie lover there’s only one service you need and it’s FilmStruck. It’s not close.

Stecher: What role will you be playing with FilmStruck’s TCM Select and what kind of bonus content can we expect? 

Mankiewicz: I’ll be shooting introductions for the TCM Select movies that appear on FilmStruck and we’ll have a rotating library of roughly 600 movies. We’ll be curating them similarly to the job we do here on Turner Classic Movies, by putting them in their proper cinematic and Hollywood context.

Stecher:  If you curated a new FilmStruck collection, what would be the theme and what would some of the movies include? 

Mankiewicz: I’d do a noir collection and then I’d call Eddie Muller and tell him to curate it. Otherwise I’d curate a collection of movies about journalism and the media, from The Front Page through Spotlight and The Post, which we have no chance of getting on FilmStruck right now since I think one is still in theaters. I’d include The Front Page, His Girl Friday, Citizen Kane, Ace in the Hole, A Face in the Crowd, Sweet Smell of Success, All the President’s Men, Absence of Malice, and the movies of today as soon as we can get them.

Stecher: What are some of the TCM Select films that you personally recommend subscribers watch? 

Mankiewicz: What are some of the TCM Select films that you personally recommend subscribers watch? Night in the City, Jules Dassin’s last movie before he was blacklisted. Sweet Smell of Success, as good of a movie as there is about the ugly side of publicists and the media. Really, there’s not a movie on TCM Select that I wouldn’t put the full force of a recommendation behind.

Stecher: Why do you think TCM has such devoted fans and what do you hope they will get out of FilmStruck? 

 Mankiewicz: Every actor, every host, every athlete has said that they have the best fans in the world, but here’s the truth, and I mean this, TCM has the most dedicated and attentive fans in the history of this business. Since we took on the mantle to protect and present classic Hollywood films, our fans have said, ‘Okay fine, but in that case you best do it right.’ So they don’t just watch us, they watch over us to make sure we don’t make a mistake. We’ve been true to our core mission at TCM and we will continue with that core mission as we expand into FilmStruck with TCM Select, and if we make a mistake, we’re certain our fans will let us know and that’s a blessing.


Many thanks to Ben Mankiewicz of TCM for taking the time to answer my questions.




For those of you interested in subscribing to FilmStruck and getting the TCM Select titles, here is the pricing breakdown and available devices. They offer a 14 day free trial so you can test it out before you commit.

FilmStruck – $6.99/month - arthouse, foreign and cult films, plus TCM Select, an exclusive rotating collection of the most iconic movies from the Golden Age of Hollywood, supplemented with hosted introductions, rare archival TCM content and bonus materials.

FilmStruck + The Criterion Channel – $10.99/month - offering everything in the FilmStruck subscription plus unlimited access to Criterion’s entire streaming library of films and special features, along with channel-exclusive original programming such as filmmaker profiles, master classes, and curated series by celebrated guests from the film world and beyond.

Annual Subscription - $99/year for FilmStruck + The Criterion Channel (a $30 annual savings) . (I have this one!)

Devices -  Roku, Google Chromecast, Apple TV 4th generation devices, Amazon Fire TV, web, iOS and Android devices. FilmStruck can be accessed via the Apple App store, as well as online and via Google Play for Android users.


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Wednesday, March 7, 2018

Goodbye Again (1933)


Goodbye Again (1933)


Author Kenneth Bixby (Warren William) is one hot ticket. His sensational novels are titillating lady readers all over the country. Bixby and his secretary Anne (Joan Blondell) are on a nation wide book tour and have made a pit stop in Cleveland. Anne, who is a secretary by name but is practically his wife in all other respects, tends to Bixby's hectic schedule, his meals, his growing scrapbook and the multitude of calls for lectures and bookstore visits. But Bixby is more interested in attending prize fights than he is giving short informal talks or autographs to his adoring fans. And a possible distraction for this perennial playboy is just around the corner. Housewife Julie (Genevieve Tobin) is bored with her life and her mild mannered husband Harvey (Hugh Hubert). Her obsession with Bixby, with whom she once had a fling, has turned her into a crazed fan. Julie is convinced she's the inspiration for all his passionate novels. Julie and Bixby have an affair while Julie's uptight sister Elizabeth (Helen Chandler) and brother-in-law Arthur (Wallace Ford) try to separate them to save Julie's marriage. Caught in the middle is the long suffering Anne who sees her beloved Bixby slipping away from her and Bixby who wants nothing to do with outrageous situation. Can sensible Anne get Bixby out of this jam?


Goodbye Again (1933)

Joan Blondell in Goodbye Again (1933)

Goodbye Again (1933)


Goodbye Again (1933) is a ridiculous movie that has to be seen to be believed. This film is full of outrageous antics, zippy one-liners and a love triangle so twisted it will make your head spin. When does this guy have time to write his books? It's amazing how much comedy they tried to fit in only 66 minutes. And like many Pre-Codes, Goodbye Again is infused with sexual innuendos and scenarios. Bixby and Julie have a full on affair and Anne practically lives with Bixby while they're on the road. At one point Bixby pretends to have a son and he claims that he's not married, just "bohemian". Based on a successful play by Allan Scott and George Haight, Goodbye Again was directed by Michael Curtiz for First National picture after they had merged with Warner Bros.


Goodbye Again (1933)

Goodbye Again (1933)


Warren William and Joan Blondell were two of the most dynamic on screen personalities in the Pre-Code era. This is one of five feature films they appeared in together. The others were Three on a Match (1932), Gold Diggers of 1933, Smarty (1934) and Stage Struck (1936). William and Blondell are the two biggest reasons to watch this film. William fits the bill as the remorseful playboy and Blondell is at her best as the wise-cracking and sensible dame. Tobin was a bit too over-the-top for my taste but it's what her character called for. And there wasn't nearly enough for Hugh Hubert to do.

You have to be in the mood for a zany whackadoodle film to appreciate Goodbye Again. This short screwball comedy moves so quickly that you'll have to watch it a second time to catch what you missed. In Alan K. Rode's book Michael Curtiz: A Life, he says 

"Blondell was never better than in this film. She serves up smart-aleck palaver to William, who volleys it right back... Variety got it exactly right, 'Perfect for audiences of quick wit, but too slick for others.' Fortunately, there were enough clever theatergoers who appreciated this amusing picture."




Goodbye Again (1933) is available on DVD-MOD from the Warner Archive Collection and can be purchased at the WB Shop. You can hear George Feltenstein, Matt Patterson and D.W. Ferranti discuss this movie on the Warner Archive podcast. This movie makes its home video debut with this DVD release.

Warner Archive Wednesday - On (random) Wednesdays, I review one title from the Warner Archive Collection. Thank you to Warner Archive for sending me a copy of Goodbye Again (1933) to review!
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Monday, March 5, 2018

Hank & Jim by Scott Eyman

Hank & Jim
The Fifty-Year Friendship of Henry Fonda and James Stewart
by Scott Eyman
Hardcover ISBN: 9781501102172
Simon & Schuster
October 20017

Amazon — Barnes and Noble — Powells

Their friendship was an oxymoron. They were polar opposites and they were two peas in a pod. Actors Henry Fonda and James Stewart couldn't have been more different from each other or more the same. Fonda was a liberal and Stewart a conservative. They didn't agree on politics, morality or relationships. But their mutual respect for each other meant they agreed to disagree. They shared a deep love for acting even if they both approached their careers very differently. When fame reared it's ugly head, they both understood that the key to keeping their sanity was to not bring work home with them. When Hank and Jim were together the conversation was never about work and sometimes it was about nothing at all. They both appreciated silence and could just be together without saying much. They met before they became major stars and stayed friends through their successes and trials and tribulations. Other people came and went but their friendship lasted until the bitter end.

Historian Scott Eyman's Hank & Jim explores one of the most enduring and fascinating Hollywood friendships in film history. The narrative follows the parallel lives of two movie legends from their salad days during the Great Depression, to their transition to Hollywood and the many movies and theatre productions to come. It also explores Fonda's five marriages and his relationship with his son Peter and daughter Jane as well as Stewart's marriage to Gloria and raising their two sets of twins. In between it all was Margaret Sullavan, the vibrant yet troubled actress whom enchanted Fonda (she became his first wife) and Stewart (he longed for her but she was always out of reach). The book also details their WWII years when Fonda served in the Navy and Stewart in the Army Air Corps.

This book could have easily been called Hank & Jim & Friends because there is a lot of information about Fonda and Stewart's friendships with other key figures including Burgess Meredith, Gary Cooper, James Garner, John Swope, Joshua Logan, and especially Leland Hayward. But overall this book paints a portrait of two men who had two distinctly different careers as actors, even when they worked as University Players or in the several films they worked on together. Eyman discusses their many films and, especially is the case with Fonda, their many Broadway and off-Broadway productions. None of their films are discussed too in-depth so that they could all be highlighted as they occur in the timeline of Fonda and Stewart's respective careers.






The biggest takeaway from reading Hank & Jim was how Fonda and Stewart understood and respected each other. This was the foundation of their friendship. It's the reason why it lasted so long and why it was so special.

This book is incredibly well-organized. It flips back and forth between Fonda and Stewart following their lives and careers in tandem. Even with all the switching, the transitions were so smooth that I never felt lost. It's clear that Eyman did a thorough job at researching this book. He interviewed Shirlee Fonda, Brooke Hayward, Kelly Stewart and others who knew both principal figures well including Robert Wagner, Norman Lloyd and more. Peter and Jane Fonda are heavily quoted. Eyman credits the late Robert Osborne in being instrumental in the genesis of the book.

While I usually love Eyman's books, I never quite found Hank & Jim all that engrossing. I struggled to finish this one in a way that I haven't with other dual biographies. I have heard from other classic film enthusiasts who read and loved this book. I've also heard from at least one other person who shared my same reaction. The preface and epilogue are brilliantly written and I would definitely go back to the book to re-read those. I just wasn't as captivated by the meat of the book. With that said, if you have a keen interest in both figures, I would highly recommend giving this book a try.

Hank & Jim by Scott Eyman is a well-researched and thorough look at an enduring friendship of two major Hollywood legends.

Thank you to Simon & Schuster for sending me a copy of Hank & Jim to review!

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Wednesday, February 28, 2018

I Like Your Nerve (1931)

I Like Your Nerve (1931) title card


"Why must you always be so unsociable in motor cars?"

Rich people behaving badly always makes for good comedy. The Pre-Code I Like Your Nerve (1931) stars Douglas Fairbanks Jr. as Larry O'Brien, an American causing mayhem in Central America. He gets booted out by the local authorities but decides to stay when he spies the beautiful young Diane Forsythe (Loretta Young). They have a brief meet-cute moment before she's off. Once he finds out she's American and not a local, he sets his sights on her. Diane likes the look of Larry, and his nerve!, but she's already spoken for. Her step-father Areal Pacheco (Henry Kolker), is the Minister of Finance for the unnamed Central American country, he's set her up with middle-aged businessman Clive Lattimer (Edmund Breon). Pacheco has been dipping into government funds and Lattimer's $200k would help him avoid the fate of the previous Ministers of Finance which have all been killed for their corruption. Meanwhile, up-to-no-good Larry gets bailed out of jail by his "eternal bachelor" friend Archie Lester (Claud Allister) and sets off to break up Diane and her fiancee. Can he win Diane's affections and save her step-father from the firing squad? Not without some hilarious antics and trickery.


Douglas Fairbanks Jr. in I Like Your Nerve (1931)

Loretta Young in I Like Your Nerve (1931)

Douglas Fairbanks Jr. in I Like Your Nerve (1931)


Loretta Young in I Like Your Nerve (1931)


I Like Your Nerve was directed by William C. McGann for First National Pictures. That studio had been absorbed by Warner Bros. but was still making pictures under that name. McGann had a career directing B pictures and went on to work as a cinematographer and special effects technician. The story is based on an original idea by Roland Pertwee and adapted by Houston Branch. Boris Karloff is in the film but has a dreadfully small and rather useless role as Luigi, the butler for the Pacheco mansion.

I love really early talkies and can forgive some of the clunkiness of the final product. The film industry was still trying to work out the kinks of their transition from silents to talkies. Some people are turned off by this by I find it quite charming. I was even amused by the choice of music which often times didn't even match what was going on in the story.

Technically I Like Your Nerve is not complete. According to the AFI:

"Contemporary reviews describe an opening scene that was not in the viewed film. In this scene, Douglas Fairbanks Jr. is a spectacled bookworm with a straight-laced mother who goes to the tropics when a fortune-teller advises him to travel to Central America."

This may explain why the beginning of the film seems so abrupt. However, it also feels out of character for Larry who is more playboy than bookworm. Unless the fortune-teller encounter somehow transformed him.

I Like Your Nerve is more silly comedy than racy Pre-Code. The stars Loretta Young and Douglas Fairbanks Jr. are delightful in this frothy, cheesy romp. I generally don't care for Loretta Young except for in her early films. Cars play an important role in the film. They are harbingers of chaos but also a means for the couple to be together. I love vintage cars and enjoyed watching these early models zipping through different scenes.

The film is only 62 minutes long and if you want a palate cleanser after a long or difficult movie, this would be a good fit. It's a bit backwards, a bit sexist and the Central American setting (why couldn't they have picked a country?) is more a plot device than anything substantial. It's just a fun movie that you shouldn't take too seriously.




I Like Your Nerve (1931) is available on DVD-MOD from the Warner Archive Collection. You can listen to George Feltenstein, D.W. Ferranti and Matt Patterson of WAC discuss this film on their podcast. D.W. calls this film "bonkers" and Matt calls Fairbanks Jr. "anarchy in an automobile". Both are statements I heartily agree with.
Warner Archive Wednesday - On (random) Wednesdays, I review one title from the Warner Archive Collection. Thank you to Warner Archive for sending me a copy of I Like Your Nerve (1931) to review!
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Thursday, February 22, 2018

My TCM Swag


Today on my YouTube channel I'm sharing my favorite TCM swag. These are TCM branded items that I've collected over the years.

A few years ago I shared two posts about my favorite items in my classic film collection. Not only movies themselves but lots of other stuff too. Some of the TCM items I mention in the video are also in these posts.

Coolest Classic Film Stuff I Own Part One
Coolest Classic Film Stuff I Own Part Two

The item featured in the image above is TCM's Noir Alley Gardenia & Lily Candle. In the video I do a fun unboxing.

I hope you enjoy!



What's your favorite TCM branded item in your collection?

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