Welcome to the 126th Edition of my long-running series where each week I
bring you ten movies that I try to make as diverse as possible and I
have been doing so for over two years now; hard to believe I know but I
love doing it. Things have been looking pretty up for me lately. I
believe I will be able to make my return to the stage by the summer.
Now, what you want to know most is what movies did I suggest for this
week so open up your queues for Netflix and Blockbuster and read on.
Royal
Wedding (1951): I start you out with a later Fred Astaire film. Stanley
Donen directed this musical written by Alan Jay Lerner. This one seems a
little unappreciated and I did not even know of it until I saw the
Talking Heads' STOP MAKING SENSE where David Byrne kind of reenacts a
scene from this movie. Fred Astaire and Jane Powell star as a brother
and sister dance team whose act ends in New York and are booked in
London at the same time as the Royal Wedding. They soon each meet
someone and fall in love which puts their act as a little less
importance. I think we can all guess where it goes from here and that
there are some great dance numbers including one where Fred is dancing
on the walls and ceiling, long before Lionel Richie was dancing on the
ceiling. One interesting note is that Judy Garland was first cast in
this film but was fired from her MGM contract.
Batman: Mystery of
the Batwoman (2003): I decided to try another Batman animated film and
this is what I found. Batman and Robin encounter a female vigilante
dressed as Batman but more ruthless and must figure out what side she is
on. Make no mistake, this was not Barbara Gordon who goes as Batgirl
because she was off to college. We have David Ogden Stiers voicing the
Penguin who is the villain at focus with a couple others. We also get to
hear the voice of Kelly Ripa. This was a pretty decent outing of
Batman.
Modern Times (1936): This is part 4 of my silent film
series. Charlie Chaplin wrote, directed and starred in his last silent
film, well for the most part a silent film, with exceptions. Much of
what Chaplin wrote was his own warped sense of humor of times that he
hated and this one about the industrial revolution was not much
different. Charlie reprises his role of the Tramp who we first see
working in a factory on an assembly line who tries to keep up with the
new machinery but struggles to no end. This scene with the conveyor belt
might have been an inspiration to the I LOVE LUCY episode where Lucy
and Ethel get a job in the chocolate factory and struggle to keep up
with the machine. After going through a lot of hell in the factory with a
lot of pretty innovative imagery, he gets fired and we see out favorite
tramp out trying to make it in society. On the other side of the film,
we see Paulette Goddard, a daughter of an unemployed father who we can
infer struggles in the modern times, stealing in order to make ends meet
and has a chance encounter with the Tramp who both fall in love after
he takes a fall for her and ends up in jail. The Tramp then finally
finds peace living a good life in prison until he is set back out in the
world but he does reunite with his love. This was kind of the start of
when Chaplin was being accused of being a communist which eventually
lead to his deportation. There is a lot that of the political statements
that I agree with here. When I say it was for the most part a silent,
there was a boss in the beginning who would talk through a speaker and
belittle the Tramp and Chaplin's famous singing near the end. There are
also some interesting drug references when he is in prison that was also
very daring in those days. This is a very significant film to watch
which was quite ahead of its time where just about anyone will be able
to relate to the Tramp in our lines of work.
Old Yeller (1957):
This is part 2 of most likely 4 which like my silent film series, this
is another unintentional series. Robert Stevenson directed this
live-action Disney film centering around a struggling family where the
father must leave for a few months to make some money making the older
son Travis in the man of the house and encounters a yellow dog which he
first hates but the younger boy soon loves the dog which makes the
mother approve of the dog which ultimately becomes old yeller. Travis
soon sees that the dog can be useful which made me question the his
motives seeing as he could only like that dog once he saw that it was a
working dog when the younger boy just loved the dog but oh well. Most of
us know the ending of this movie but I will admit I did not cry nearly
as much as I did watching LASSIE, COME HOME. This is one of the great is
the boy and his dog stories and will live on for many years.
Meet
John Doughboy (1941): This is my short film for the week which is part
of a DVD which will be featured in next week's installment. This is a
great Warner Brothers animated short where Porky the Pig introduces some
interesting WW2 wartime gags so this must have been quite rare to show
in those days.
Greystroke: The Legend of Tarzan, Lord of the Apes
(1984): Hugh Hudson directed this much different movie adaptation to
the novel written by Edgar Rice Burroughs. Christopher Lambert plays the
Lord of the Apes who encounters a man named D'Arnot, played by Ian
Holm, who recognizes his true identity of John Clayton, a member of the
Greystroke family and agrees to go to the high society where he has a
very difficult time adjusting but his grandfather, played by Ralph
Richardson, is very understanding and it is there where he meets Jane,
played by Andie MacDowell in her film debut, however her voice is dubbed
by Glenn Close. I had seen the version with Johnny Weissmuller but I
wanted to check this one out which I believe is more to the novel than
the other movies. It was interesting to see Tarzan in a more high
society when for years he has only known apes. This was also Lambert's
film debut. The part which diverts from the novel is when he is taken to
Scotland to live but it is still an interesting interpretation of the
Tarzan legend and the best version probably since the days of Johnny
Weissmuller.
Night and the City (1950): This is most likely part
one of two in a film noir series. Jules Dassin directed this adaptation
of a novel by Gerald Kersh which really hits home with me since it
centers around wrestling. Richard Widmark plays Harry Fabian, a hustler
who sees an opportunity to take over a wrestling promotion ran by a man
named Kristo, played by Herbert Lom. He soon forms a bond with Kristo's
father Gregorius, played by wrestling legend Stanislaus Zbysko, who is a
wrestler here and starts to like Harry more than his son. Things start
to go to hell for Harry when Gregorius is killed and he becomes a
target. Gene Tierney and Francis L. Sullivan also star. The highlight
for me was with Zbysko who the director really wanted for the role even
though he had no acting experience but still gave a great performance. I
knew of Zbysko through some books that I have but never knew a whole
lot about him which made me want to look into him more. This is a man
who wrestled from 1909 to the mid 20s when it was more real and had
battles with some of the biggest names like India's Great Gama.
The
Opposite of Sex (1998): Don Roos wrote and directed this film. When I
was at my dad's house I was looking for a 90s movie on On-Demand and
this is what I decided to watch which I had not seen since it first came
out. Christina Ricci stars as Dede, a 16 year old runaway who goes to
visit her gay half-brother Bill, played by Martin Donovan, and moves in
with him. She soon starts a love affair with Bill's boyfriend, played by
CHARMED alum Ivan Sergei which sets off quite a chain of events which
include a teenage pregnancy, theft and a killing. FRIENDS alum Lisa
Kudrow stars as Bill's teacher colleague who is not as level-headed as
Bill and even singer Lyle Lovett puts on a pretty good performance as
the sheriff. I really liked the narration where Christina Ricci talks to
the audience and is straight with them about how she is not the nicest
person in the world and to not really expect her to change. I really
liked Martin Donovan in this movie as the very forgiving brother. There
was also an interesting reference to John Travolta and the "religion" he
is in which was not mentioned which was before Scientology became so
talked about and later even Tom Cruise was mentioned, not about the
scientology though.
American Hardcore (2006): This was another
On-Demand selection I thought sounded quite interesting. This is a
documentary which takes a look at the 80s Hardcore Punk scene. Let me
first say that I am not an expert of this topic and I am not really a
fan of punk music but I am always interested in these types of movements
and maybe some bands were left out but I don't really know. This
seeemed to take a look at the more unknown bands at the time. These
people were more counter-culture, anti-Reagon, etc. They weren't looking
for a big career in music, they were just playing to their loyal fans
in some pretty wild places. It was interesting to see Hank Williams III
even though he did not say anything, the person he was with did but he
does perform both country and hardcore punk. I have seen two of his
concerts and he is quite interesting. I also didn't realize that Moby
had some history in this scene. Henry Rollins does a lot of commentary
as well. It is an interesting look into that strange counter-movement to
the start of the New Wave which some despised, not really me though.
Frantic
(1988): Roman Polanski directs this thriller which stars Harrison Ford
as Dr. Richard Walker. Dr. Walker and his wife are on visit to Paris
until his wife disappears. He tries to get the authorities to help him
but they won't seem to listen so he sets out to find her on his own
which leads him to a dangerous game. Not much else needs to be said here
except that it is a pretty suspenseful story with a great performance
from Harrison Ford.
Well, that is it for this week. I never got
around to a final March Movie Madness blog so I'll just announce Fred as
the winner. I want to start trying to find connections in my choices
and the only one I could find here was David Ogden Stiers and Martin
Donovan who were in the tv series THE DEAD ZONE. If you have something
else, comment on this blog and tell me what you love as well as what you
hate.
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