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Great article about Sonny Liston: "Sonny Liston: The Mysterious Death that Haunts Boxing" on bbc.com -
This week, I've seen Tippie Hedren in two Alfred Hitchcock films: "The Birds" (1963) and "Marnie" (1964). Hedren has very much of a "style," in that she plays a matronly young woman in these movies, seeming older than her youth and beauty would imply. There's something about her very un-Audrey Hepburn-like in that she doesn't radiate vigor, or steal scenes by her mere presence. Honestly, I don't love her acting, either, although she got through both of these roles without any catastrophic flaws. Is anyone else here a Hedren fan? And if so, what did you like that you saw her in?
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With all these tags about Frank Gifford, you'd think I'd be writing about his football career, but only tangentially: Gifford was a commentator on ABC's Monday Night Football for 27 years, and (get ready for a 180-degree turn) it's largely due to him that the world was informed of John Lennon's assassination as soon as it was.
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I've never seen "All Quiet on the Western Front," and since I've also never seen the 1929 version of "Broadway Melody" (and don't know how to find it), this will be the oldest "talkie" I've ever seen to win the Best Picture Award. I'm also eager to see a movie about WWI, especially from a German perspective - could this be an early version of "Das Boot?" As I start this movie, I'm realizing it's pre-Hitler (sort of), and that alone gives me the creeps. I can tell from the first scene, in the classroom, that this is going to be a really good movie - in just two short years, they really learned how to use sound to their cinematographic advantage - already, even just ten minutes into the film, the young boys have garnered my sympathy - no difference here between German and American high-school kids; they're just kids - bright-eyed kids who succumb to authority figures and peer pressure. It was a fascinating moment to see Himmelstoß, the former lowly postal carrier, instantly becoming a sado-nut drill leader, turning on the boys he was formerly friends with - boy does this foreshadow Hitler for me ... put a uniform on certain average schmoes, and they become Supermen in their own minds. The new soldiers' revenge scene on Himmelstoß was most satisfying to watch. I'm just now realizing "Wings", the first film to win Best Picture, was also WWI-themed - that makes 2 of the first 3 (I'm assuming "Broadway Melody" isn't going to be quite so bellicose). Boy, the extended bunker scene (the one where they kill the rats) is amazing - the cinematography in this film is just terrific, and I cannot believe it was made in 1930 - the industry really learned a lot from the silent age, but the techniques were completely different, and for them to have learned how to use sound to their advantage in just a couple years - to *this* degree - is remarkable. At this point, the film is only one-third over! I'm also reminded that in our History Forum, there's a pretty good thread on World War I - it's worth a skim if you haven't seen it before. After the bunker scene, when the German soldiers head outside to the trench, the wide-angled scene of advancing allied infantrymen look so much like the little plastic soldiers I played with a a child - these poor boys really *were* just numbers - not individuals - on both sides. There's absolutely a correlation between this scene and the one shortly before it, when the German soldiers were killing rats by the dozens - both the rats and the allied soldiers were just being hopelessly massacred in numbers too great to count. I hope you all don't mind that I'm writing in such a choppy, almost random, format - I'm typing as ideas hit me, and writing a well-organized, long-form review just isn't in my blood. This is what I do best - brainstorming in short form - in hopes that something will grab someone, and we can start a conversation about a point or two. So I continue ... (I love this movie so far, in case you can't tell) ... Like "The Thin Man," this is another Pre-Code film, and there are some amazingly shocking scenes you just don't see after the code began being rigorously enforced on Jul 1, 1934 - for example, a young German soldier went to the bathroom in his pants upon hearing the first shell explode (it wasn't graphic, but it was obvious), and when the allied troops were storming the German trench, there was one scene when a grenade was thrown at them, and after the explosion, all you saw was a pair of severed hands, clutching onto the barbed wire fence - it was intensely graphic considering this was 1930. When the allies - what was left of them - made it into the trench, and hand-to-hand combat commenced, all I could think of was that these men, killing each other, could just as easily have been having a beer together in a tavern, as friends. This is all so stupid (not the film, but the whole damned concept of war) - I know, I know, I sound like a bleeding-heart softy, which means the film is working exactly as it set out to do. I'm very much into this movie, and seeing these people being mowed down in such massive numbers is just incredible to behold, even in a movie - I'm not sure I've ever seen so many people killed in such a short amount of time in a film (I'm not talking about doomsday scenarios like "Knowing," but rather people being slaughtered as individuals). Eight minutes might not seem like a long time, but during this one scene, it was an eternity - the producers certainly didn't skimp on the action. I'm now halfway through this 133-minute film (the non-restored version is 152 minutes, which is interesting), and the boots taken from Franz Kemmerich after he passes have played a disproportionately large role so far - something is going to happen involving them. When Himmelstoß (the drill sergeant) bursts into the bunker, demanding immediate attention and respect, and gets nothing but howls and sarcastic comments, it is poetic justice, and reminds me somewhat of Platoon, although I'm not quite sure why. Perhaps it's the first time the young soldiers displayed a "to hell with this" attitude now that they've seen and tasted death up close. I haven't watched the scene yet, but I'm pretty sure Himmelstoß won't be getting his way this time around. (And sure enough, later in the film, poetic justice is executed.) Goof: When the Germans advanced through heavy fire, then noticed a moment of silence, and decided to counter-attack, they ran through a churchyard (and what I believe to have been a cemetery) which had just been devastated by mortar fire, but the scene that shows them running through it features a pre-devastated churchyard. Oops! That's more than a goof; that's somewhat moronic - what possible reason could there have been for this? "All Quiet on the Western Front" cost a *whopping* $1.25 million to make, and the funds were committed just after the depression began. That, my friends, is cojones. (It grossed $1.5 million, and perhaps just as importantly, won the Academy Award for Best Picture, so the sizable gamble paid off handsomely - I wonder if this was the most expensive movie ever made as of 1930.) The scene in the trench with the dying Frenchman was one of the greatest scenes in the film - the Frenchman (Raymond Griffith) played his role *perfectly*, with the one tiny exception of a half-blink at one moment, which nobody would notice unless they were looking for it. It's so fitting that he died with a look of serenity on his face. Amazon X-Ray said he was noticeably breathing, but I didn't really see it. The Dying Room creeped me out. Lew Ayres (the star who played Paul Baí¼mer, who came back from The Dying Room), was married to Ginger Rogers from 1934-1940 - his 2nd marriage of 3; her 2nd of 5. I loved the scene when Paul was out on furlough, and he was in a tavern drinking with some older men who sounded like typical G-men, telling Paul how to win the war, and that 'he doesn't know what he's doing,' and that 'they can see the big picture.' Some things in life are a constant, I guess. Lew Ayres became a conscientious objector in real life - partially because of his role in this film - and was blacklisted by Hollywood in the 1940s because of it. Interestingly, he's buried next to Frank Zappa at Westwood Village Memorial Park Cemetery in Los Angeles. The schoolroom scene, which echoed the beginning of the movie, was not only structurally important to the film, but just a joy to watch as well, although I can't help thinking they could have made that scene even more powerful than they did. Paul clearly still shows a modicum of respect for his old professor, not really wanting to humiliate him in front of his students. Here's a little factoid that I didn't know, and you might not either: from 1928-1931, International Sound Versions of "talkies" were made, replacing dialogue with music and subtitles in various foreign languages, so the movie could be seen around the world. Although this might seem similar to how things are done now, the alternative to this was to actually re-shoot the entire film as a Foreign Language Version (for example, "Dracula" was re-shot with new actors speaking Spanish). Needless to say, Foreign Language Versions were reserved for the high-budget blockbusters of the day. The ending of "All Quiet on the Western Front" was fantastic. If anyone knows of any WWI-specific films (this fits more into the general "War is Hell" category) - films that go into detail about historical events - I would be interested in knowing what you think. That said, I'll probably end up watching a documentary for this. Having glanced at the SparkNotes for the book, I can see that the movie deviates some, but not so much that you won't get something out of reading the study guide. Anyway, this is surely one of the greatest movies in history, especially when you consider the topic, the scope, the time period (twelve years after the war ended), and everything about the film.
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Helen Merrill is one of my favorite singers. I think she's probably my very favorite jazz singer who isn't or wasn't black, which actually puts her in some pretty rarefied company. Here she is singing " " on her first album, Helen Merrill, in 1954, with the brilliant trumpeter Clifford Brown, who had a career of about fifteen minutes before being killed in an automobile accident, which also claimed the life of jazz pianist Richie Powell, brother of the legendary Bud Powell. What a sad loss. Brownie didn't even have a chance to get fucked up on heroin like most of his contemporaries. And here's Helen Merrill in the title track of what I guess is my favorite album of hers, , from 1992. That's the brilliant Wayne Shorter blowing. -
Dakota Staton was a jazz/pop diva who never made it really big, but was important within her orbit. "The Late, Late Show" in 1957 was her first and biggest success, but she recorded lots of wonderful stuff afterwards, such as the remarkable album "Madame Foo-Foo" with the terrific Hammond organ player Groove Holmes in 1972, featuring the song "Deep in a Dream". I used to have almost all her stuff on vinyl, but that's all gone now. Sigh.
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I am sure that there are as many if not more folk for whom Sweeney Todd is a movie with Johnny Depp where the blood is interrupted by singing that grates on the ear of every Sondheim fanatic I know. If you have never seen the musical performed by Broadway caliber singers... here are a couple of links.... Here is a fabulous one with a very macabre take... John Doyle is known for productions where the actors play the music. it leads to some really challenging/interesting staging... this is part of the most complete playlist I could find for the production. And the best "Straightforward" production i know of... Again the fabulous Patty Lupone and Michael Cerveris. We saw this production twice on Broadway, the third preview sitting in the front row {when Patty offers a "sweetie" she handed me the roll of life savers!} when it was so tightly staged that the audience didn't have time to breathe or react in the second act. When the curtain fell that day there was literrally a stunned silence for at least a mnute before wild applause. One of the greatest feats of theater I have ever witnessed. But the second time, at the end of previews was staged with a lot more air and is very similar to this performance. While still stunning, the first preview we saw was actually a little more amazing. Perhaps the best versions we ever saw were at the New York City Opera on consecutive nights where we saw Timothy Nolen and then Mark Delevan as Sweeney. We actually got to meet Sondheim at one of the performances. He is on record as saying that Timothy Nolen is his favorite Sweeney and that Delevan had the best voice. Delevan is an operatic Baratone and Tim Nolen is a Broadway singer/opera singer. He plays Judge Turpin in the second link. We also saw Bryn Terfel sing Sweeney and our favorite: Brian Stokes Mitchell. If you don't have time for a whole musical, here is an amazing clip with Michael Cerveris and George Hearn. -
Thank you for posting that. I never saw that cartoon before, and it made me supernaturally happy to watch it. I don't think I've grinned so much since 2012. To return the favor, here's what is probably my favorite animated cartoon of all time, "Sinkin' in the Bathtub", released as a Looney Tune in 1930, when they were making it up as they went along.
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Sorry if already posted, but an old friend passed away in August. I knew Richard back in the '80s when he still owned F. Scott's, The Tombs and 1789. He told me at the time that he sold the restaurants to Clyde's (in 1986) because someone mentioned to him in passing that the liability for restaurant customers getting drunk and driving was on the rise, so he decided to sell and seek another way to spend his time. His vast collection of prints, which were stored in flat files in the basement of his beautiful Georgetown townhouse (at that time) were what fueled his next career move -- decorating restaurants. You'll see some of his prints on the walls of the various Clyde's restaurants....like the hunting scene on the back wall in Reston, and the Georgetown Crew prints in the bar at Reston. Details like the lighting of the prints in most of the Clyde's restaurants, or the silver plated screws that bolt down the boat-tie cleats at Clyde's Mark Center, are all Richard's doing. I have a few of his baseball prints hanging in my baseball room. We stopped seeing each other a few years ago after my divorce -- his wife and my ex were very close, so I lost Richard in the divorce. He will be missed.
