Sunrise (1927) at the Coolidge Corner Theatre

Last evening, Kevin and I attended a special screening of Sunrise (1927). It was part of the Coolidge Corner Theater's ongoing series, The Sounds of Silents. If you recall, back in October I had seen Steamboat Bill Jr. (1928) at the theater with live musical accompaniment.

While I loved that experience, it does not top the amazing, astounding, knock-me-off-my-seat experience I had watching Sunrise (1927) on the big screen. Here are some details about the music that accompanied the movie.

• Berklee College of Music
• Course Semester Project
• 8 students composers, each composes musical score for one reel and conduct the musicians during that reel while it's playing.
• 10 member orchestra complete with violin, cello, flute, trumpet, percussion, etc.
• Next up: It (1927) with Clara Bow in May 2011, will be composed and performed in the same manner.

F.W. Murnau's Sunrise: A Song of Two Humans (1927) is at it's core a love story. We start off at the lowest point, The Man (George O'Brien) is cheating on The Wife (Janet Gaynor) with The Woman from the City (Margaret Livingston). They don't have real names because their story is univseral. It's a case of disillusionment, the madonna/whore complex, and the battle between lust and love. The Woman from the City, who smokes like a chimney and wears polished pumps seduces The Man and convinces him to kill The Wife and sell the farm so they can move to the city together. The Man, blinded by lust, plots to do this but he can't bring himself to kill The Wife who is the epitome of love and innocence. The Wife escapes into the city with The Man following her and they accidentally embark on an adventure that has them falling in love with each other all over again. This movie touches me deeply. It made me appreciate the love I have and made me realize to not take it for granted. I went home from the experience with a heart bursting with love.

The music was fantastic. The students did such a superb job composing, conducting and performing the number. I enjoyed small details like the trumpet playing to represent a dog barking, a flute playing to represent whistling and bells playing to represent fireworks. It's details like those that I love. Unlike my previous experiences with experimental music and classic film, this music was your standard classic fare. And you know what, I loved it? At times, I found my foot tapping to the beat and at other times my heart started to race when the music built up momentum to reflect the rising conflict that was happening on screen. At the end, the musicians and composers got a standing ovation. I clapped so hard my hands hurt and my eyes began to fill up with tears. It was one of the most fantastic experiences of my life. Kudos to the Berklee College of Music for such an amazing night. You did justice to the masterpiece that is Murnau's Sunrise (1927).

There is a reason why Janet Leigh's sweater was so tight...

Holiday Affair (1949)

Janet Leigh's film career began when retired actress Norma Shearer saw a photograph of the young Leigh dressed in ski-wear. Shearer was so impressed with the picture that she used what persuasive powers she had left with MGM and helped get Leigh a contract. Some years later, MGM loaned Janet Leigh out to RKO for a three picture deal. This arrangement made Leigh uncomfortable considering her previous dealings with RKO owner Howard Hughes. We all know Hughes was a notorious womanizer who set his sights on many actresses with a ferocity that would terrify your average woman.  Hughes was as impressed Leigh's beauty as Shearer was but in a totally different way. He arranged for a date with Leigh, whisking her off to a surprise rendezvous in Las Vegas (he flew of course). She was terrified of his aggressiveness and was turned off by his power and his age.  So you can imagine how terrified she was when she learned that MGM practically sold her off to RKO for three movies without her permission or asking for her opinion. 

In July of 1949, Leigh started filming the movie Holiday Affair (1949) with Robert Mitchum. Hughes put as much sex into his films as possible and he loved to complicate plots at whatever cost necessary to get the final product he wanted. But Holiday Affair was a bit tricky. It's a sweet film: a romance, a family movie and a Christmas film all in one. Janet Leigh plays Connie Ennis, a widower and single mother who works as a secret shopper for a department store. She meets Steve Mason (Robert Mitchum), a toy department clerk at a competitor's store, when she accidentally gets him fired. Mason and Ennis hit it off platonically and romantically but there are obstacles in the way, notably the memory of her deceased husband and her lawyer boyfriend. However, her son Timmy is the catalyst that keeps Connie moving in the right direction even when she's very reluctant to leave her past in the past.

Frankly, Howard Hughes was kind of bored by the idea of this film. No sex, no violence, no exotic locales, no intrigue, no malleable plot, no nothing. He knew the film would mean instant money in the bank because of the stars, the plot and the holiday hook. So he left it well enough alone which is why this film is one of the least convoluted productions from the RKO library during that time period. However, he did leave his mark by means of one very very tight sweater.  In Lee Server's Robert Mitchum biography Baby I Don't Care, he states "[Hughes] had them make Janet Leigh wear a shoulder-length fall [for hair] and in one scene a sweater so tight it made her breasts stand out like traffic cones." It was Hughes way of getting back at Leigh for her for rejecting his advances as well as injecting some sex into a pretty much sexless film. 

Key Largo (1948)

Key Largo (1948) is a fine film indeed because of it's acute attention to detail. It's character and plot development are straight on. We learn so much from so little. Let's take a look at some details that really stand out:

• Dual storms - There is a hurricane outside and an equally dangerous storm brewing inside the hotel. This duality increases the tension and makes for great suspense.
• Ridiculous Johnny Rocco (Edward G. Robinson) - He's in the midst of unforgiving tropical heat, spends his days in a tub of cold water with a fan oscillating next to him. Yet he'll still don a full-on robe complete with pocket square, scarf and lit up cigar even though it's the most ridiculous ensemble to wear in such heat. He also refuses to bring in his boat during the hurricane and eventually loses it. To top it all off he brings his drunk girlfriend Gaye (Claire Trevor) who foils his plans every which way she can. For such a smart conniving gangster, Rocco becomes a complete idiot in Key Largo and that says something about his future.
• Conflicted Frank McCloud (Bogie) - He survived WWII through his cowardice. He doesn't know whether he's coming or going or whether he should be brave and take action or whether he should just let things happen as they will. You can see the conflict in his eyes. The desire to be a better person but the debilitating fear that grips him.
• Native Americans - Perhaps this is a John Huston touch. The camera focuses at one point on a group of Native Americans and Nora Temple (Lauren Bacall) spends a considerable amount of screen time introducing us to a 100+ year old woman. The camera adores her wrinkled constitution focusing on it so closely that her face takes up the whole screen. It humanizes the story in many ways.
• Lionel Barrymore in a wheelchair - How can this not tug on your heartstrings? If you are familiar with Barrymore's earlier work, you'll understand that it's difficult to watch him in this state towards the end of his career. It's not just the character in the wheelchair it's the actor too.
• Lush versus Widow - Juxtaposition of two opposing female characters adds a lot to the story. It makes us understand each of the two characters and their interactions with both Rocco and McCloud help us understand those male characters too.
• Uncomfortable - Those goons at the beginning of the picture made me terribly uncomfortable. They made the other characters uncomfortable too. The way they spoke, their restlessness and their short fuses made me scared of what was to come. It was tension before the real tension even started.

You can see this film in many ways. As a Bogie film. As a Bogie-Bacall film. As a Bogie-Robinson film. Or even as a Bogie-Trevor film. But what anchors the film is Bogie himself. He's what all the plot points depend on even when he seems to be lurking in the background. In the end, this is really a Bogie film.