Shaun Berk's 10 Movie Recommendations- 194th Edition

Welcome to the 194th Edition. BIG RIVER has gone very well and it is sad to see it come to an end so hopefully I'll be able to return to the theater world soon. I have two selections from the Random Myspace Profile selection. Next week will likely have two but that is subject to change.

The Barbarian Invasions (2003): Denys Arcand wrote and directed this French-Canadian film. This movie centers around a dying man named Remy who must face up to all his mistakes. Sebastien is his estranged son who is asked to return to his home to be with his father in his last days seeing family, old friends, and old flames. He reluctantly accepts and slowly reforms a relationship with his father trying to make his last days as eventful as possible. This was a great foreign film centering around regret and forgiveness. This is a sequal to THE DECLINE OF THE WESTERN CIVILIZATION and I have not seen that movie.

The Sandlot (1993): The Facebook friend I chose for this week is Sarah who I was in a couple classes with at Ball State. This is a pretty good coming-of-age story centering around Scotty Smalls, played by Tom Guiry, who is a shy new kid in town. He then joins a group of kids who play baseball all day. When the gang needs a new baseball, he gets his stepdad's ball which is signed by the real Babe Ruth. His ignorance of the baseball legend makes him actually hit the ball over the fence that contains "The Beast" where him and his new friends do everything possible to retrieve the ball leading to some pretty funny situations. This is a good movie for the family to watch which takes place around the 50s I believe. Karen Allen appears as Scotty's mother so that really added it for me. Karen Allen is one of those I can always watch. Other actors include Denis Leary, James Earl Jones, Arliss Howard, Art LaFleur and Marley Shelton plus many others.

Up the River (1930): This is part of the Random Myspace Profile selection and for this one I chose the tribute page for Humphrey Bogart and when I get these pages I like to take a look at the more unknown work so when I saw that this is early Bogart, Spencer Tracy and director John Ford, I jumped at this one. Bogart plays model prisoner Steve who marries fellow inmate Judy, played by Claire Luce, when getting paroled. While wanting to put his criminal past behind, he finds that it is not easy when threatened with blackmail. Two veteran criminals Saint Louis, played by Spencer Tracy, and Dannemora Dan, played by Warren Hymer, get wind of this, escape from prison to save Steve. This is by no means going to go down in the classics of Bogart, Tracy, or Ford but it is worth a watch to see these people in action before they became big. It is interesting in here how it seems to paint prison into a pretty fun picture. The prison has an inter-prison baseball league where they go against other prison teams. They also have a talent show for the inmates to put on for an audience of fellow inmates. Most were singing and dancing but Spencer Tracy actually did the knife throwing talent and used real knives. The warden had a seven year old daughter who just hung out with prisoners with no problem or supervision. If this movie had been more popular at the time people might have actually started committing crimes watching how nice the prison seems to be. If that is prison life, I might actually be willing to go. This is the only movie where Bogart and Tracy actually are in together even though they were friends in real-life but could never agree on who gets top billing in the peaks of their careers. The print was very bad and there was even a disclaimer saying that this was salvaged as much as it could be but it is still worth a watch. Look close for Ward Bond who would go on to work a lot with John Ford and might rank pretty high for the number of movies to have been in.

Harvey (1950): Henry Koster directed this film based on the play by Mary Chase. I must also say that this ranks very high on my list of favorites, especially that era. James Stewart is the mild-mannered Elwood P. Dowd whose best friend is a 6'3 rabbit that only he can see which is of the title name. Elwood's sister and niece do what they can to get him committed to an asylum but the sister accidentally gets herself committed leading into many funny situations. Josephine Hull is great as his sister. I just enjoyed every minute of this movie and could appreciate that Elwood has such a loyal friend no matter what the form. I would love to have a martini sometime with Elwood and Harvey. This did actually make me think a lot of the film LARS AND THE REAL GIRL which I was actually analyzing similarities. Take that for what you will.

Jigsaw (1949): No, this has nothing to do with the SAW films. Franchot Tone stars as Assistant District Attorney Howard Malloy who is investigating what is believed to be a suicide of a printing shop owner. Malloy suspects more and stumbles upon an extremist political group called the Crusaders. He then gets too close to things when he forms a relationship with a nightclub singer. This was a film noir b-movie that entertains. Marlene Dietrich, Henry Fonda, Burgess Meredith, and John Garfield have cameos. They must have been friends with someone or paid a lot to makie these very small appearances since these were appearances before they became famous.

Dog Years (2005): This is my short film for the week which I found on IFC. This is taken from the point of view from a dog who has lived a pretty long life. The narration comes from the dog explaining the good times and bad. It is very clever in narration and the idea of having this story from the dog's point of view, but the print is not the greatest though.

Show Boat (1936): James Whale directed this adaptation of the Kern/Hammerstein musical. This musical centers around a family who runs a show boat. Irene Dunne is the daughter Magnolia whose mom does not want her to take part in a show. Things happen though when the star Julie turns out to have "negro" blood and married to a white man thus breaking a state law and are driven out. Magnolia then gets the lead and a charismatic man named Gaylord stumbles in and is asked to take over as the lead. Allan Jones stars as Gaylord. This movie actually shows this family through the years struggling through the good and bad. Paul Robeson plays one of the servants and had the very memorable music number OLD MAN RIVER which might be one of the best musical numbers in movie history. Hattie McDaniel also co-stars as Queenie. The music and performances make this very much worth watching. James Whale cites this as his favorite that he directed and he is known for FRANKENSTEIN and THE BRIDE OF FRANKENSTEIN.

Phantom of the Paradise (1974): This is a selection from the Random Myspace Profile selection process and for this one I chose Silicon 2007. Brian De Palma wrote and directed this cheesy variation of PHANTOM OF THE OPERA. We start with composer Winslow Leach, played by William Finley, who is writing a rock opera and makes the wrong decision of getting his music to the Swan, played by Paul Williams, and in the process of everything that happens becomes disfigured and loses everything. He then sells his soul to the Swan to get his music performed by Phoenix, played by Jessica Harper which is based on the Christine character in the Phantom story. When the Swan double crosses Leach and hires a band called Beef provoking Leach to get his revenge. This is so nice and bizarre. Paul Williams wrote the music for this show and has some pretty good stuff like FAUST. Listen for TWILIGHT ZONE host Rod Serling in the opening narration. I see that there is apparently a remake. I'm not totally against remakes but I just don't know if this one can really work.

Transsiberian (2008): I had not heard of this but through a careful selection process of newer movies at the library I decided upon this and really liked it. CHEERS alum Woody Harrelson and Emily Mortimer play an American couple who are on a train ride from China to Moscow and encounter a mysterious couple, the man from Mexico and the woman a young American. When things happen, deceit and murder happen making the KGB agent played by Ben Kingsley very close on their trail. This is something that really has to be followed but I was drawn in the whole way. Harrelson and Mortimer were great in their roles and get far more than they bargain for on this trip.

We're Back! A Dinosaur's Story (1993): This is my tribute to Walter Kronkite who actually provided the voice of Captain Neweyes in this mostly kid's movie. In this blog, I try to accommodate to each demographic and this is a pretty harmless movie for kids and for parents to watch with the kids. John Goodman provides the voice for the main Tyrannosaurus Rex who along with friends are turned nice by Brain Grain cereal. A cereal invented by Neweyes who travels back in time to turn them nice and sends them out to our world to talk to children about their experiences. However, they must be careful of Neweyes' evil brother. Yes, the plot is rather absurd and maybe Spielberg executive produced this to give the younger children a dinosaur movie for that year. That is the same year he did JURASSIC PARK. There is an interesting group of people for the voices which include as mentioned John Goodman, news anchor Walter Kronkite, as well as CHEERS alum Rhea Perlman, cook Julia Child, comedian Martin Short, late night host Jay Leno and SIMPSONS alum Yeardley Smith. If you're a bunch of college guys, or even girls, trying to find a great movie to watch, this might not be the right selection but as a family this will be a fun one to watch.

Well, that is it for this week. It's interesting the number of high profile actors I have featured that have pretty unknown roles. Please tell me what you like and what you don't like and stay tuned for the 195th Edition which so far includes Robert De Niro,

FUN LITTLE FACTS

James Earl Jones (Sandlot) portrays Paul Robeson (Show Boat) in a one man theatrical production in 1976

Art LaFleur plays Babe Ruth in a dream sequence in this week's feature THE SANDLOT. John Goodman (We're Back) plays the part in the 1992 film THE BABE.

Spencer Tracy (Up the River) played Thomas Edison in the 1940 film EDISON, THE MAN. Burgess Meredith (Jigsaw uncredited) played the part in the 1954 episode of GENERAL ELECTRIC THEATER called EDISON, THE MAN.

Spencer Tracy (Up the River) was offered the role of The Penguin in the 1966 sitcom BATMAN but turned it down and ultimately went to Burgess Meredith (Jigsaw uncredited). Tracy said he would take the role if he could kill Batman.

EARP FRANCHISE
-Ward Bond (Up the River uncredited) played Morgan Earp in the 1946 film MY DARLING CLEMENTINE
-James Stewart (Harvey) played Wyatt Earp in the 1964 film CHEYENNE AUTUMN
-Henry Fonda (Jigsaw uncredited) plays Wyatt Earp in the 1946 film MY DARLING CLEMENTINE

Ward Bond (Up the River uncredited) and James Stewart (Harvey) both live in the small town of Bedford Falls in the 1946 film IT'S A WONDERFUL LIFE. One of my favorites.

James Stewart (Harvey) and Henry Fonda (Jigsaw uncredited) were good friends.

James Stewart (Harvey) and Irene Dunne (Show Boat) were friends.

Franchot Tone (Jigsaw) played the part of Mark Twain in the 1960 episode of PLAYHOUSE 90 called THE SHAPE OF THE RIVER. My Facebook friend Gary played the part in our recent production of the musical BIG RIVER

Franchot Tone (Jigsaw) played Frank James in the 1958 film BITTER HERITAGE. Henry Fonda (Jigsaw uncredited) played the part in the 1939 film JESSE JAMES and and in the 1940 film THE RETURN OF FRANK JAMES

Henry Fonda (Jigsaw uncredited) played Tom Joad the 1940 film THE GRAPES OF WRATH. My facebook friend Ryan played the part in the Muncie Civic Theater production.

Burgess Meredith (Jigsaw uncredited) played The Penguin in the 60s sitcom BATMAN. Paul Williams (Phantom of the Paradise) provided the voice in some of the episodes of the cartoon series.

Jessica Harper (Phantom of the Paradise) played the part of Janet Majors in the 1981 film SHOCK TREATMENT. My facebook friend Amanda played the part in the most recent Muncie Civic Theater production of THE ROCKY HORROR PICTURE SHOW.

Woody Harrelson (Transsiberian) played Woody Boyd in the sitcom CHEERS. Rhea Perlman (We're Back) played Carla Tortelli in the same show.

John Goodman (We're Back) played Pap, Huck Finn's father, in the 1985 Broadway musical BIG RIVER. My facebook friend Tom plays the part in our production of the show.