10 Films I Saw at the Stanford Theater in 2014

I saw the following 10 films from August 8 to November 1, 2014 at the Stanford Theater.

From August 1 to October 12, the Stanford had a grab bag series:  Mickey Rooney films on Mondays & Tuesdays, Silent films on Wednesday, Charlie Chan, Superman & Sherlock Holmes films on Thursdays and Fridays.  The Stanford's website and program guide stated they would play Superman serials on Thursday & Fridays but I only went once to a Thursday/Friday screening & I saw two Superman serials.  There must have been screening on other nights of the week.

Lauren Bacall passed away on August 12, 2014.  In memoriam, the Stanford screened 10 films starring Bacall from October 17 to November 2.

Charlie Chan at the Opera starring Warner Oland, Boris Karloff & Keye Luke; directed by H. Bruce Humberstone; (1936)
The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes starring Basil Rathbone, Nigel Bruce & Ida Lupino; directed by Alfred L. Werker; (1939)
Love Finds Andy Hardy starring Mickey Rourke, Judy Garland, Ann Rutherford & Lana Turner; directed by George B. Seitz; (1938)
Flying Hostess starring William Gargan; directed by Murray Roth; (1936)
Gigi starring Leslie Caron & Louis Jourdan; directed by Vincente Minneli; (1958)
The Reluctant Debutante starring Rex Harrison, Kay Kendall, John Saxon & Sandra Dee; directed by Vincente Minneli; (1958)
Dodsworth starring Walter Huston, Ruth Chatterton, Paul Lukas, Mary Astor & David Niven; directed by William Wyler; (1936)
The Devil and Daniel Webster starring Edward Arnold & Walter Huston; directed by William Dieterle; (1941)
Written on the Wind starring Rock Hudson, Lauren Bacall, Robert Stack & Dorothy Malone; directed by Douglas Sirk; (1956)
The Cobweb starring Richard Widmark & Lauren Bacall; with Charles Boyer, Gloria Grahame, Lilian Gish, Oscar Levant, Fay Wray & Susan Strasberg; directed by Vincente Minneli; (1955)
Designing Woman starring Lauren Bacall & Gregory Peck; directed by Vincente Minneli; (1957)

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The Stanford screened the 1948 Superman serial which consisted of 15 episodes.  Looking at the episode list, I realize that I saw chapters 1 & 14 at the Stanford.  Kirk Alyn played Superman & Noel Neill played Lois Lane.  I was familiar with Neill from Adventures of Superman, the George Reeves television series.  She played Lane for 5 of the 6 years the series was on the air.  I didn't see enough episodes to form an opinion except it seems odd without the George Reeves' led cast in the roles of Superman, Jimmy Olson & Perry White.

Charlie Chan at the Opera was on a double bill with The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes.  Since first seeing the films on television as a boy, I have found the Charlie Chan films to be silly.  It could be that I was subconsciously aware of the racist depiction of Chan.  I didn't realize Warner Oland and Peter Toler were white until a few years after seeing my first Charlie Chan film.  However, it was more likely that the outlandish power of deduction that Chan exhibits struck me as ridiculous even at a young age.  It didn't help that he said things like "Confucius say man who..."  Even with Boris Karloff in the cast, Charlie Chan at the Opera couldn't keep my attention.  Boris Karloff played an escaped insane asylum patient who goes to the opera house to kill his wife.  Several people end up murdered and several more have motive to murder the deceased.  Chan sees clues no one else does, lays a trap for the killer and Chan's #1 son helps by getting his Chinese American college buddies from UCLA or USC to be supernumeraries in the opera.  I can't remember too many scenes.  This was the first Chan/Sherlock double feature of the series.  After seeing it, I wasn't inclined to go to any more.

Whereas I was never a fan of the Charlie Chan films, I watched the Sherlock Holmes films with Basil Rathbone/Nigel Bruce repeatedly if not necessarily enthusiastically.  I can't articulate why I liked Holmes better than Chan.  Even today, I'll watch the Cumberbatch or Miller versions of Holmes on television.  The plot to The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes is that Moriarity is distracting Holmes by encouraging a man to take revenge on the family of the man who killed his father.  His weapon of choice is bolas!  This all done so that Moriarty can steal the Crown Jewels from the Tower of London.  A young Ida Lupino plays the damsel in distress.  I didn't dislike The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes but I wasn't engaged with it like I was at an earlier age or with the numerous other Sherlock Holmes projects.  I had considered making a few trips to the Stanford on Fridays to see Chan & Holmes but after this experience, I didn't go back.

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Love Finds Andy Hardy & Flying Hostess was a double feature.

Unlike Charlie Chan & Sherlock Holmes, I don't remember seeing an Andy Hardy film growing up.  Somewhere along the line, I either saw portions of a film or read enough about the series to understand the set up.  I chose Love Finds Andy Hardy because a 17 year old Lana Turner was in it.  That last sentence must sound borderline criminal.

In Love Finds Andy Hardy, Andy (Mickey Rooney) is juggling three girls.  As Xmas approaches, Andy has two goals - buy a new car and get a date for the Christmas Eve Dance.  His regular gal Polly Benedict (Ann Rutherford)  is going to be out of town for the dance.  Andy's pal will be out of town for a few weeks so to keep the wolves at bay, he pays Andy to take his girlfriend Cynthia (Lana Turner) out in his absence.  That works out fine because Andy needs the money for the car he bought without his father's permission.  One thing leads to another & Andy doesn't get a date for the dance...until next door neighbor Betsy Booth (Judy Garland) comes to the rescue.

Considering the country was still in the Great Depression & WWII was three years later, Andy Hardy's problems seem petty.  That's with the benefit of hindsight though.  My main complaint with the film is Mickey Rooney's frequent mugging for the camera.  He must have been encouraged to do so by the director.  Love Finds Andy Hardy portrays a simpler time that never existed in a manner that seems ridiculous today.  A young Judy Garland really had a winning screen presence.  She could convey vulnerability very well.  She was so young & fresh scrubbed.

Flying Hostess was an obscure Universal film about the rigorous training flight stewardess undergo.  If the film is accurate, in the 1930s stewardesses needed to first be RNs.  Flying Hostess follows three young ladies as they make their way through training.  One of them drops out to marry a shady character.  Another gets involved with an airline pilot and head of the flight stewardess training program.  If I recall correctly, the third one was the funny but homely one.  Foreshadowing Airplane! by 45 years, the finale involves one of the stewardesses having to land the plane because the pilot & co-pilot were incapacitated.  Flying Hostess was an enjoyable if not entirely memorable film.  Andy Devine was the most recognizable actor in the cast although I also recognized William Gargan's name from some of Elliot Lavine's film noir programs at the Roxie.

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Gigi & The Reluctant Debutante was a double bill.

While a teenager, they restored Gigi and HBO showed it.  As a teenage boy, musicals were not high on my list film genres but I liked Gigi.  A Lerner & Loewe musical directed by Vincente Minneli, great things were expected of Gigi and it delivered.  Gigi is the story of a young woman (Leslie Caron who was the second choice after Audrey Hepburn), who comes from a family of courtesan in the turn-of-the-century Paris.  Gaston (Louis Jourdan) is an old family friend and the most notorious playboy among the boulevardiers.  Still rambunctious, Gigi is quickly coming into her own and has a youthful joie de vivre that Gaston cannot resist.  Initially reluctant to live the negotiated life of a high-end mistress, Gigi eventually consents to be Gaston's mistress...until he realizes he loves her.

It's rather a sordid situation.  I couldn't help but think of the scene in Pretty Baby where Brooke Shields' virginity is auctioned off.  Essentially, Gigi's relatives are training her to be a courtesan and are prepared to engage in negotiations to get the best deal for her.  I recall this arrangement from a tour of New Orleans once.  Whenever Gigi objects to this life choice being made for her, she is upbraided for her obstinacy.  First she agrees to Gaston's terms and then he backs out & decides he wants to marry her instead.  I'm sure that made for a strong marital foundation.

By modern standards, the situation sounds barbaric.  That's overthinking the film.  Gigi is first & foremost a musical and has many memorable songs.  Maurice Chevalier as Gaston's uncle croons "Thank Heaven for Little Girls" and later sings a famous duet with Gigi's grandmother (Hermione Gingold) called "I Remember It Well."   "The Night They Invented Champagne" is also a very memorable number.  Like a young Judy Garland, Leslie Caron is vivacious and irresistible in the title role.  Chevalier steals the film with his comical scenes.

The Reluctant Debutante is a formulaic film which had its moments but I never really got into.  Sandra Dee is an American teenager who visits her father (divorced from her mother) in England.  Her father (Rex Harrison) complies with his 2nd wife's (Kay Kendall) desire to introduce the young woman to London society via debutante balls and the "coming out" season.  These events and stiff British boys bore Sandra Dee because she is really interested in John Saxon, a drummer in a band that plays at these society events.  Kendall & Angela Lansbury, on behalf of their daughters, compete for party dates and guests.  Rex Harrison was amusing as the bewildered father.  The Reluctant Debutante served to fill out the evening after Gigi but otherwise it was nothing particularly memorable.

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Dodsworth & The Devil and Daniel Webster was a double feature.

William Wyler is the most nominated director in Oscar history with 12 Best Director nominations.  I have made it goal to see all 12 films.  Counting Dodsworth (1936), I have seen four since starting this blog:  The Letter (1940), The Best Years of Our Lives (1946) & Roman Holiday (1953).  I've seen Ben-Hur (1959) several times and I seem to recall seeing it at the Castro but apparently not since 2007.  I remember seeing Wuthering Heights on TV as a teeanger.  That leaves half the films to be seen:  The Little Foxes (1941), Mrs. Miniver (1942), The Heiress (1949). Detective Story (1952), Friendly Persuasion (1957) & The Collector (1965).

Dodsworth is an excellent film.  Based on a Sinclair Lewis novel, Dodsworth is the story of Sam (Walter Huston) & Fran (Ruth Chatterton) Dodsworth.  Sam is the founder and CEO of an automobile company.  Urged by his wife Fran, Sam sells his company and takes her on a European vacation.  Fran is the doyenne of high society in their small Midwestern town but Fran sees herself as a worldly sophisticate thwarted by lifelong circumstances (chiefly her dullard husband).  On their vacation, she flirts with men, pretends to be younger than she is and ultimately dispatches Sam back home so she can have a proper extramarital affair without her pesky husband getting in the way.  Bored by the European social scene his wife finds fascinating, Sam returns home to his daughter & son-in-law.

Upon his return, Sam feels out of sorts.  For the first time in his life, he has no job, no wife and no plans.  He becomes irritable and rightly begins to suspect his wife of having an affair in Europe.  Using his business contacts to confirm the affair, Sam sets out for Europe again to put a stop to it.  When confronted, Fran initially denies the affair but when she sees it is futile, she admits to it and begs for forgiveness.  Sam takes her back but she quickly changes her mind and ask for a divorce; partly because she discovers she is a new grandmother and she feels a woman as vibrant as her is too young to be a grandmother.  Fran quickly takes up with a younger German or Austrian Baron who proposes marriage which satisfies two needs - a younger man to reflect her own self-view and the aristocratic title of Baroness.

Sam wanders Europe waiting for the divorce to become final.  He bumps into an American divorcee (Mary Astor) whom he met on the ocean liner over from America.  Sam quickly finds his bearings with his new companion who much better suited than Fran ever was.  When the Baron's mother object to the marriage based on Fran's age, Fran desperately telephones Sam to call of the divorce.  Sam initially agrees out of a sense of loyalty & self-sacrifice but as their ocean liner is about to set sail for America, he gets off the ship to be with Astor to screams of Fran.

Ruth Chatterton is tremendous in her role as the fickle & self-conscious Fran Dodsworth.  Her insecurities and misguided ambitions tear apart her marriage which is likely a better outcome for her husband.  Walter delivers the kind of performance I've seen from his in American Madness & The Shanghai Gesture.

The Devil and Daniel Webster featured strong performances by Huston & Edward Albert in the title roles, respectively.  Interestingly, Thomas Mitchell was originally cast as Daniel Webster & several scenes were filmed with him in the role before he was injured during the filming and replaced by Albert.  Simone Simon is also memorable in a small role as the beautiful associate of Mr. Scratch who helps to keep Jabez Stone on the path to damnation.  I thought Huston was a little too hammy as the devil and Albert a little too stolid as Webster but that is quibbling.  My viewing of The Devil and Daniel Webster suffered because it followed Dodsworth.

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Written on the Wind and The Cobweb were on a Lauren Bacall double feature.

Written on the Wind is the quintessential Douglas Sirk melodrama.  I have long wanted to see it.  I didn't even realize that Lauren Bacall was in the cast.  Robert Stack is Kyle Hadley, the scion of a wealthy oil family.  He is also an alcoholic...and suffers from low sperm count.  He falls in love with his level headed secretary, Lucy Moore (Bacall).  He quickly marries her despite the subtle objections of his best friend Mitch (Rock Hudson).  Lucy doesn't know what she is getting into when she arrives at the Hadley residence:  the senior Hadley provides some stability but clearly his parenting skills are lacking.  His son is an alcoholic and his daughter (Dorothy Malone) an self-destructive and loose woman who harbors not-so-secret desires towards Mitch.  The senior Hadley (Robert Keith) all but begs Mitch to marry his daughter but Mitch wisely declines; partly out of wariness of Marylee but also because he recognizes his attraction to Lucy.  In this cloistered environment the passions simmer and the jealousies come to the forefront.  Kyle suspects Mitch's true feelings; Marylee is jealous of Lucy's hold on her brother & Mitch.  Lucy increasingly aware of and reciprocating Mitch's feelings.  There is an accidental death and false accusation which ratchet up the melodrama.

Written on the Wind very much has the look & feel of a 1950 melodrama.  It seems overblown by 2014 standards but I have to admit I was entertained.

The Cobweb is an ensemble piece set in a mental institution.  Widmark is the psychiatrist who is experimenting with a kind of self-governing form of group therapy.  Bacall is the art instructor at the institution who hasn't recovered from her huband's death.  Gloria Grahame is Widmark's frustrated wife who flirts with infidelity.  Lilian Gish is the tight-fisted administrator of the facility.  Charles Boyer is the medical director of the facility who is having an affair with his secretary.  As you can imagine, there were all sorts of subplots...the most entertaining being a power struggle between Bacall, Grahame & Gish over the new curtains in the library.

Like Written on the Wind, The Cobweb uses small gestures to make melodrama out of the trivial although I suppose the plight of mental patients and state of mental healthcare is anything but trivial.  Both films remind me that entertaining films need not be major artistic statements.

Designing Woman was paired with How to Marry a Millionaire but I skipped that film.  Designing Woman is a lightweight but fun romance of opposites.  Sophisticated fashion designer Lauren Bacall falls in love with the working class newspaperman Gregory Peck.  There is some subplot about a crooked boxing promoter that puts Peck in danger but frankly, I can't remember that too well.  The most memorable part of the film was the easy screen chemistry between Bacall & Peck.  They should have made more films together.

Six from the 50s at the Stanford

In June, I saw six films at the Stanford Theater in Palo Alto.  All six were made in the 1950s.  I didn't have to look up the film release dates before writing the previous sentence.  The spring film program was titled Films from the 1950s.

Brigadoon starring Gene Kelly, Van Johnson & Cyd Charisse; directed by Vincente Minnelli; (1954)

Bus Stop starring Marilyn Monroe & Don Murray; directed by Joshua Logan; (1956)

Some Came Running starring Frank Sinatra, Dean Martin, Shirley MacLaine & Martha Hyer; directed by Vincente Minnelli; (1958)

Seven Brides for Seven Brothers starring Howard Keel & Jane Powell; with Julie Newmar; directed by Stanley Donen; (1954)

Calamity Jane starring Doris Day, Howard Keel, Allyn Ann McLerie & Philip Carey; directed by David Butler; (1953)

Roman Holiday starring Gregory Peck & Audrey Hepburn; directed by William Wyler; (1953)

Technically, Roman Holiday is part of the Stanford's summer program but I knew it was made in the 1950s.

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Musicals are typically not at the top my "To See" list.  I find them to be formulaic and times tedious; not to mention unfulfilling.  Breaking out in song and dance at the crucial moment is disappointing for a guy like me who is conditioned to expect a bang or clever rejoinder.

Brigadoon is one of these musicals I have heard about for years but have never seen.  It was playing with another Gene Kelly musical, Singin' in the Rain which I enjoyed very much.  Brigadoon also had the advantage of being a Lerner and Loewe collaboration.  Lerner & Loewe shared credit for one of my favorite musicals (Gigi).

Brigadoon was not Gigi.  The story of a Scottish village in which a century to the rest of the world passes in one day in Brigadoon.  American Gene Kelly & Van Johnson stumble into the town on that one day.   With musicals, plot is not a major selling point.  Apart from one dance number soon after Kelly & Johnson arrive, I found the musical numbers to be a hard slog.  Cyd Charisse looked beautiful and was the best part of the film.

Seven Brides for Seven Brothers (7B47B) is another of those musicals I have long heard of but have never seen.  7B47B had a raucous energy and Howard Keel & Jane Powell to interject some humor into the story.  The barn raising number was stupendous and Keel seemed inspired in his role as the eldest of the seven brothers.

Similarly Doris Day seemed to be extra enthusiastic as eponymous Calamity Jane.  Swaggering like the cock of the walk and talking like Foghorn Leghorn to boot, Day plays Calamity like a tomboy until Allyn Ann McLerie shows up and makes eyes for Calamity's calvaryman.  Keel shows up as Jane's best friend.

Of the three musicals, 7B47B was my favorite.

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My two favorite films by Jean-Luc Godard are Breathless and Contempt.  They are very different films and I would be hard pressed to pick one over the other.  The latter film features Michael Piccoli as French screenwriter adapting Homer's Ulysses for the big screen.  Fritz Lang plays himself as the director of the "film within a film."  Jack Palance plays the American producer of the film and Brigitte Bardot plays Piccoli's wife.  The contempt referenced titled could be from Palance towards Piccoli and Bardot but it could also refer to the feelings of Bardot and Piccoli towards each other.

In a memorable scene, Bardot & Piccoli argue whether he should take the job with Palance.  The argument takes place in their flat.  Bardot and then Piccoli (I think that is the order) take baths while the conversation flows from topic to topic and room to room.  Piccoli wears his hat while taking a bath and when Bardot tells him he looks ridiculous, Piccoli mentions he looks like Dean Martin in Some Came Running.  Since seeing Contempt for the first time, I have wanted to see Some Came Running to compare Martin's character to Piccoli's character in Contempt.

When I saw Some Came Running on the Stanford calendar, I knew I would have to see it.  I don't recall it being screened anywhere else in the Bay Area for the past decade or so.  I wasn't disappointed.

Some Came Running (based on a James Jones novel).  Dave Hirsh (Frank Sinatra) is US Army veteran and published author returning to his small hometown.  He was drunk the night before and doesn't getting on the bus into town.  He also doesn't remember hooking up with Ginny Moorehead (Shirley MacLaine).  If the author James Ellroy is to be believed, Ginny was a roundheel in the vernacular of the day.  Nowadays, she would just be called poor, white trash.  Looking to dump Ginny and settle some scores, Dave checks into a hotel and looks to settle the score with his older brother who sent him off to a boarding school as a boy.  I'm not quite sure what Dave's beef is with his brother but regardless it is there.

Frank Hirsh has married well and runs his wife's family business (a jewel store).  Embarrassed by Dave's behavior, Frank & his wife try to play matchmaker by pairing Dave with Gwen (Martha Hyer), a schoolteacher and daughter of a college professor.  Dave is looking for some action but Gwen is more interested in his fiction.  Not getting what he wants in the respectable part of town, Dave falls in with his pals from the wrong side of the tracks - professional gambler Bama (Dean Martin), his gal Rosalie and Ginny Moorehead who sticks around town because she is stuck on Dave.

And so it goes, Dave is pulled between the two poles.  As the film progresses, we see that the respectable people aren't really so respectable.  Frank starts an affair with his secretary.  Frank's teenage daughter runs with a fast crowd.  Gwen seems to be sexually repressed for unstated reason (I suspect the book hinted at incest).  At the other end of the spectrum, gambling, drinking and fights are the order of the day.

Disillusioned by everyone's hypocrisy, Dave is fed up and decides to ask Ginny to marry him...much to the dismay of Bama who refers to Ginny as a pig and refuses to attend the ceremony.  After the wedding ceremony, Dave & Ginny are walking hand in hand appearing as though Dave will be miserable for the rest of the marriage as Ginny is not his intellectual equal.  There has been a jilted lover/gangster stalking Ginny since the beginning.  Looking to kill Dave, he shoots but Ginny jumps in front and takes the bullet proving that the least sophisticated amongst them all was the most earnest in her love.

Some Came Running is one of those films that can't be made anymore.  The production code sapped the piss and vinegar from the story so we have to look for signs of what is really going on.  I interpreted the film to be a condemnation of suburban morals and lifestyles.  The hypocrisy of their lives hid the moral rots of their lives.  Dave recognizes this and doesn't bother with the hypocrisy but only finds the unvarnished truth is worse than the hypocrisy.  There is no escape for him except to marry a woman he doesn't love or respect.  He would have ended up as bad or worse than what he was trying escape except Ginny gave him redemption through her death.

Shirley MacLaine received an Oscar nomination for her performance.  Dean Martin's Bama was very cool - gambling, drinking himself to death and always wearing that hat.  The one time he takes it off, he gets knifed.

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Bus Stop was Marilyn Monroe's first dramatic role.  Monroe plays Chérie, a woman of questionable background who hustles drinks in a cowboy bar in Phoenix.  Beau (Don Murray) and Virgil (Arthur O'Connell) are in town for the rodeo.  I cannot recall the circumstances of Beau's life.  Virgil appears to have raised him on an Idaho ranch.  Beau owns the ranch but Virgil still serves as his advisor.  I do recall that Beau has had little to no contact with women.

Beau falls hard for Chérie despite Virgil's warning.  Chérie had hustled a few drinks from Virgil before Beau arrived.

I'll digress for a moment at this point.  When I was a boy, my father switched careers.  He became an accountant.  He sold his services to small businesses.  For reasons I do not know, he had quite a few bars as clients.  I think it had to do with the high volume of cash transactions in bars.  Anyway, I remember him telling me (or complaining) about how some of his clients had bar girls on payroll but off the books.  I didn't know what a bar girl was.  He explained that a bar owner would get a nice looking woman or two to hang out in the bar.  She would get guys to buy her drinks.  She would order whiskey but the bartender would serve her room temperature tea.  You could do the same thing with vodka and water.  Anyway, the guy would be paying full price for her drink.  A good bartender would keep track of how many "whiskeys" a bar girl had ordered and know that he could sell that quantity of real whiskey without having to record the transaction.  Essentially they could same sell the shot of whiskey twice with the revenue from the second shot completely off the books.  The bar would have to kick back some of the that revenue to the bar girl.  In the movies, the bar girl would get the guy drunk (matching him shot for shot) and then she and/or her accomplices would roll the guy for his wallet.  I don't think this happens often.  If more too many guys complains to the police about this kind of behavior, it draws unwanted attention from the police.  More common is that the bar girl is also a prostitute and makes some money off the guy the old-fashioned way.

Back to Bus Stop - despite Virgil's warning, Beau pursues Chérie relentlessly.  Chérie is from the Ozarks and Monroe lays on a thick Southern accent.  She is making her way from Arkansas to Hollywood to become a movie star and the Phoenix bar is just a way station.  Monroe memorable rendition of "That Old Black Magic" (both comical and sexy) is from Bus Stop.  Beau unilaterally decides that he and Chérie are getting married.  Chérie declines his "proposal" and attempts to skip town but Beau essentially kidnaps Chérie and drags her onto the bus back to Idaho.

Beau is quite a character  - loud, raucous, uncouth and a bully.  Actually, he has known only success on his ranch so maybe "bully" is not the right word.  Success on the ranch was measured in how fast he rope a calf or how long he can ride a bull.  Using that same mentality, he decides to snag a wife and he won't let anyone (including Chérie) stop him.  At a diner/bus stop, the other passengers realize that Chérie is being forced to go to Idaho against her will.  The bus driver (Robert Bray) steps in at Virgil's urging and fight Beau.  The bus driver resoundingly beats Beau and Virgil demands that Beau apologize to Chérie and allow her to return to Phoenix.  Humiliated by the defeat, Beau drags his feet in apologizing.  When he finally does, it leads to tender moment between the two which ends in Chérie agreeing to go to Idaho with Beau.

Bus Stop stretched the limits of credibility.  Could a character like Beau really exist?  Probably not but within the context of the film, Beau was too rambunctious.  Until the end of the film, there were no gradations or subtleties to Beau.  He was like a bull in a china shop.  I know Bus Stop was Monroe's vehicle but the film would have been better if they had toned down Murray's performance.  Monroe's Southern accent seemed more of an affectation than anything.  Chérie's backstory could have easily been set in a part of the country where her natural speaking voice (not her breathy Marilyn voice) could have been used.

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Roman Holiday is all-time classic.  It's been many years since I last saw it and I had never seen it before on the movie screen.

Audrey Hepburn plays a princess who tires of the regimented nature of her life.  She sneaks out of her country's embassy in Rome one night as an act of rebellion.  Unfortunately, she had been given a sedative before she sneaked out.  After a late night poker game, American journalist Joe Bradley (Gregory Peck) encounters her sleeping on a public bench.  Taking pity, Bradley takes her back to his place so she can sleep there.

The next day, Bradley realizes that the woman he took home the previous night is the princess who has "taken ill" according to official government announcement.  Realizing he has a big story, Bradley enlists his photojournalist friend (Eddie Albert) to photograph the princess.  Upon returning to the apartment, the princess continues to pretend she is someone else.  Realizing that she would like experience a normal life, Bradley offers to show her around town along with his buddy (Albert).  There are the iconic scenes of Hepburn & Peck on a Vespa.  

Later, the three go to a dance and get into a fight with the security personnel hired to track down the princess.  She hits someone over the head with guitar which Albert photographs and then they jump in the river to escape the police. 

Bradley has developed feelings for the princess and decides against using photos or writing the story.  Despite her reciprocal feelings towards Bradley, the princess realizes she must return to her duties.  They have an emotional farewell with neither admitting their deception to the other.

The next day, the princess (in her official capacity) has a press conference which Peck & Albert attend.    Seeing them, she realizes what has happened.  During a public exchange with considerable subtext, Bradley assures the princess her secret will remain so and the princess expresses her gratitude to Bradley.  Newly self-assured, the princess decides to meet with some of the journalists at which time Albert hands over the photos and Bradley & the princess share a meaningful glance.

When the press conference ends, Bradley lingers wondering if the princess will send for him.  Realizing this won't happen, he is the last to leave the room with the bittersweet memories of his time with the princess.

Hepburn shines in her role.  It was Roman Holiday that made her a star and won her an Academy Award.  Displaying comic abilities and an appealing vulnerability, Hepburn's star power was on full display.  I also liked that the film didn't sell out at the end and have the two leads live happily ever after.

2013 Noir City

The 2013 Noir City film festival ran from January 25 to February 3 at the Castro Theater.  I saw 17 of the 27 films on the program.  The 10 films I missed were films which I had already seen.  Of the 17 films, I had seen one (Street of Chance) before which I didn't realize until a few minutes into the film.  That means I saw 16 new films or films which had not previously seen.  I recognized the ending of Try and Get Me! which leads me to believe I have seen it before but otherwise I didn't recall any of it up to the final scenes.

Curse of the Demon starring Dana Andrews & Peggy Cummins; directed by Jacques Tourneur; (1957)
Hell Drivers starring Stanley Baker; with Peggy Cummins, Patrick McGoohan & Sean Connery; directed by Cy Endfield; (1957)
Try and Get Me! starring Frank Lovejoy & Lloyd Bridges; directed by Cy Endfield; (1950)
A House Divided starring Walter Huston, Douglass Montgomery & Helen Chandler; directed by William Wyler; (1931)
The Kiss Before the Mirror starring Frank Morgan, Nancy Carroll & Paul Lukas; directed by James Whale; (1933)
Laughter in Hell starring Pat O'Brien & Gloria Stuart; directed by Edward L. Cahn; (1933)
Native Son starring Richard Wright; directed by Pierre Chenal; (1951)
Intruder in the Dust starring by David Brian, Claude Jarman Jr. & Juano Hernandez; directed by Clarence Brown; (1949)
The Other Woman starring Hugo Haas & Cleo Moore; directed by Hugo Haas; (1954)
The Come On starring Anne Baxter & Sterling Hayden; directed by Russell Birdwell; (1956)
Man in the Dark starring Edmond O'Brien & Audrey Totter; directed by Lew Landers; (1953)
Inferno starring Robert Ryan, Rhonda Fleming & William Lundigan; directed by Roy Ward Barker; (1953)
Street of Chance starring Burgess Meredith & Claire Trevor; directed by Jack Hively; (1942)
The Chase starring Robert Cummings, Michelle Morgan, Steve Cochran & Peter Lorre; directed by Arthur Ripley; (1946)
The Window starring Bobby Driscoll; with Barbara Hale, Arthur Kennedy, Paul Stewart & Ruth Roman; directed by Ted Tetzlaff; (1949)
Mary Ryan, Detective starring Marsha Hunt; directed by Abby Berlin; (1949)
Strange Impersonation starring Brenda Marshall; directed by Anthony Mann; (1946)

Try and Get Me! is sometimes listed without the exclamation point and is also known as The Sound of Fury.

One evening, (I cannot recall which) they screened Serena Bramble's The Endless Night: A Valentine to Film Noir, a 6+ minute compilation of clips of noir legends such John Garfield, Ava Gardner, Barbara Stanwyck, etc.  Ms. Bramble has contributed short films to Noir City for three years or more.

Alan K. Rode, Film Noir Foundation Board member and director of the Arthur Lyons Film Noir Festival in Palm Springs, introduced Curse of the Demon.  Before the film, he said we were going to see the US version but after the film, Rode corrected himself and said they had screened the longer and original UK version.

Noir City seemed a little "off" this year.  I can't quite put my finger on it and it may be that 2 months have dulled my memory but the bloom is off the rose.  If memory serves me correctly, Eddie Muller hinted that Noir City has a limited life span.

In the past two months, I have also learned that Bill Arney, the Voice of Noir City and long-time resident of the apartment where Dashiell Hammett wrote The Maltese Falcon, hosts a television show called Cheese Theater.  The show consists of Arney screening public domain films with interviews and skits between segments.  It airs on Marin TV or Comcast Channel 26 at 10 PM on Saturday nights.  Cheese Theater also has a YouTube channel.

In hindsight, the best film of Noir City 2013 was one I did not see this year - Gun Crazy.  Peggy Cummins was the guest of honor this year.  Her best known work, Gun Crazy, was the opening night film.  Having seen the film before, I can attest to its quality.

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My favorite film was Intruder in the Dust on the evening billed as African-American Noir Night.  Intruder in the Dust was paired with Native Son that evening.

Based on a William Faulkner novel, Intruder in the Dust confronted prejudice and Jim Crow society. Filmed in Oxford, Mississippi, the film focuses on Lucas Beauchamp (Juano Hernandez), a proud black man accused of murdering a white man.  Young Chick Mallison (Claude Jarman, Jr.) has encountered Beauchamp and been suitably impressed by his bearing and presence.  Chick prevails on his uncle (David Brian) to defend Beauchamp.  The lawyer makes no effort to disguise his belief that his client is guilty but is honor bound to do his duty, i.e. defend his client (not just legally but from lynching).  With the help of the spinster Miss Habersham (Elizabeth Patterson), the defense gets to work proving Beauchamp's innocence with little help from Beauchamp himself.

Intruder in the Dust did not feel like noir to me because Beauchamp and his defense team were confronting racism.  Murdering for money or a femme fatale is noir, murdering for the color of the victim's skin is...something else.  I'm certain more black men were lynched than insurance salesman killing clients to be with their wives.  For all their grittiness, noir films are exaggerations of post-war reality.   Intruder in the Dust shows an ugliness that most assuredly existed and depicts events which likely could have occurred...maybe not the boy and old woman solving a murder case but Beauchamp's situation and his attorney's ambivalence seemed realistic.

Juano Hernandez is tremendous as Beauchamp.  You can't take your eyes off of him.  He's like James Earl Jones' voice come to life.  Hernandez has a screen presence which commands attention and piercing eyes.

While in high school, I remember reading two novels by African American authors as part of my American Literature class - Black Boy by Richard Wright and Go Tell It On the Mountain by James Baldwin.  Native Son was not on the curriculum.  So it was some anticipation that I watched Native Son at Noir City.  Not only was the film based on Wright's novel but it starred Wright in the lead role of Bigger Thomas.

I doubt the 40+ year old Wright was the right actor for the role of the 20 year Bigger Thomas.  In addition to the age difference, his acting was a wooden at times.  The film is propelled by the plot which is more Greek tragedy than film noir.  The drunkenness and ignorance of the daughter of his white employer put Bigger in her bedroom as her blind mother enters.  Worried that she will expose his presence in the room (thus risking his employment and possibly life), Bigger silences the younger woman by covering her mouth but inadvertently kills her.  This sets Bigger's downfall into motion as he  first disposes of the body, then shifts suspicion to the woman's boyfriend and finally becomes a fugitive as the police search for him.

Unfamiliar with the story, I was riveted by Bigger's plight.  I took particular notice that the left-leaning Socialists/Communists were depicted as naive and ineffectual.  Bigger's most dangerous enemy was white society and the fear it had instilled in African Americans.  The film painted Bigger a tad too much the victim for my tastes but it made a convincing argument that Bigger's fate was largely determined by his status in society and one false step would doom him.

I cannot fully recall Muller's introduction of the film.  As I recall, the film could not get funding in the US so it was made with an Argentinian production company with some exterior scenes filmed in Buenos Aires.  The cast was not memorable the plot overcame any shortcomings in the performances.

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The Window was very enjoyable.  It was about a boy (Bobby Driscoll) who witnesses a murder committed by his upstairs neighbors.  Because of his history of exaggerations, no one believes him when he tells his parents and the police.  That is no one but the killers who decide leaving him alive is a risk they can't afford to take.  Paul Stewart & Ruth Roman shine as the murderous couple from upstairs.

A House Divided features a memorable performance by Walter Huston as a rough and tumble fisherman who sends away for a mail order bride (Helen Chandler).  A fight with his grown son (Douglass Montgomery) leaves him paralyzed.  That's when stepmother and son begin to develop feelings for each other and all hell breaks loose.  An early talkie by William Wyler, A House Divided portends of great things from the directors.

Mary Ryan, Detective was a cut above the B movie standards which I believe it was.  Although Marsha Hunt was fine in the eponymous role, it was the bad guys and girls who were most memorable.  June Vincent, Harry Shannon, Bill Phillips & Katherine Warren round out the rogue's gallery which memorably features a turkey farm fronting a fencing operation.

Try and Get Me! is based on a famous lynching incident in San Jose in 1933.  Although Frank Lovejoy was the nominal noir protagonist, it was Lloyd Bridges' performance as the charismatic but sociopathic accomplice which remains in my memory two months later.  The finale was also memorable and featured the aforementioned lynching via a jailhouse riot amidst a fog of teargas.  I also recall the shriek Bridges let out as the mob grabbed him.

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Man in the Dark and Inferno were, incredibly, 3D films.  3D and film noir don't seem to go together. Indeed, I thought both films would have been fine as 2D and that 3D didn't add much except a few gimmicks.  Man in the Dark use the sharp object into the camera trick while a lit kerosene lantern was flung directly at the camera in Inferno.

Man in the Dark even used the tried and true amnesia plot device in a thoroughly unoriginal story.  Between the 3D, sexy Audrey Totter and serviceable performance by Edmond O'Brien, the film plods alongs.

Inferno, which was filmed in color, was much better film.  The film made great use of the vista afforded by the Mojave Desert which wasn't enhanced by the 3D treatment.  A classic love triangle where Rhonda Fleming & William Lundigan conspire to kill her husband and his business partner (Robert Ryan).  The method of murder is unique - Ryan has broken his leg in the desert.  Fleming & Lundigan send the rescue party in the wrong direction assuming Ryan will die of thirst or heat stroke.  Robert Ryan is one tough SOB and crawls, limps and hobbles his way to revenge.  I have come to the conclusion that any film with Robert Ryan is a worthwhile viewing experience.

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Hell Drivers is an entertaining vehicle for Stanley Baker.  I can't remember why but he goes undercover to bust up a corrupt trucking firm.  They haul gravel and they haul ass on narrow roads putting their own lives and other drivers' lives in danger but that isn't why Baker is infiltrating them.  What I do remember is Peggy Cummins filled out a pair of blue jeans nicely as the secretary and Patrick McGoohan was great as the #1 driver and psychopath.

Curse of the Demon was more of a horror film.  Dana Andrews is an American parapsychologist in England.  Initially skeptical of a satanic cult, Andrews gradually comes around.  Cummins is "the girl." The most memorable performance is from Niall MacGinnis as the leader of the cult.

The Come On features Anne Baxter & Sterling Hayden in swimwear.  Hayden encounters a pair of grifters (Baxter & John Hoyt) and tries to pry Baxter loose from Hoyt.  Hoyt ends up dead and a shady private dick (Jesse White) tries to blackmail the lovers.  It wasn't bad; it wasn't great; it was something in between.

The Other Woman seemed oddly familiar.  Directed by and starring Hugo Haas, the film co-stars busty blonde bombshell Cleo Moore.  Moore & Haas made seven films together; I think I have seen three of them at Noir City.  Cleo plays a movie extra who gets a shot at three line speaking part.  She flubs the lines (in a nice scene) and blames the director (Haas).  She vows revenge and eventually drugs and blackmails Haas' character.  Haas captures the crass beauty of Moore's character although the second half of the film focuses on Haas' character.  One of his better performance, Haas' character in The Other Woman allegedly represented his actual view on Hollywood and the studio system.

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Everything else was flawed enough to forget.  Abrupt endings (Laughter in Hell), cop out dream endings (The Chase & Strange Impersonation) and legally dubious endings (The Kiss Before the Mirror & Street of Chance).

My Baby, She Wrote Me a Letter

The title refers to one of my favorite songs: The Letter. I prefer the original Box Tops version over the Joe Cocker cover although Cocker's is longer and has a more muscular hook.

For me, the highlight of the recent Max Steiner series at the Castro was The Letter. Last weekend, I read in the San Francisco Chronicle that the 1940 Bette Davis version was a remake of a superior 1929 version...at least according to Mick LaSalle. The 1929 talkie starred Jeanne Eagels who was a heroin addict in real life and died in 1929. I'm sure that being hooked on smack influenced the performance which LaSalle praises. After seeing the 1940 remake, I'm very intested in seeing the Eagels' version.

LaSalle's first sentence implies a disdain of the 1940 version by labeling the film a melodrama. Melodrama is a loaded phrase which I have used to pejoratively describe films or certain aspects of films. I cannot deny that The Letter is melodramatic. However, sometimes the melodrama is so skillfully manipulative that you can't help but appreciate it. This happened quite often in the Golden Age of Hollywood and Bette Davis (as well as Joan Crawford) was frequently the woman doing the manipulating.

The Letter is all that but at some it point it transcended melodrama and achieved something greater. From my 2011 perspective, The Letter also encapsulated all the latent racism towards Asians in a mélange of camp and outright hostility. Never subtle, The Letter is brassy and audacious; kind of like Bette Davis. Released in November 1940, less than 13 months before Pearl Harbor, The Letter is breathtaking in its rampant bigotry which was likely a sentiment shared by many as hostilities grew between Japan and the US.

I was not so much offended by the content as I always watch old films with a complete tolerance for any offensive material. Rather, I was highly impressed by director William Wyler's casual depiction of racism and the way he weaved it into the plot. Having not read the source material, it is quite possible that W. Somerset Maugham wrote the racism in his play. Regardless, the content and the skill by which Wyler presented it was a revelation and highly enjoyable since I was detached from it. It was like looking for Easter eggs.

The plot of The Letter is exceedingly simple. Leslie Crosbie (Bette Davis) shoots Geoff Hammond. She chases him out the front door and shoots him repeatedly until her revolver is empty. Crosbie claims attempted rape and self-defense. Although a formality, Leslie is put on trial for murder. Her acquittal seems assured until a letter from Crosbie to the deceased turns up. The letter indicates that on the night of his demise, Hammond was invited to the Crosbie residence because Mr. Crosbie (Herbert Marshall) is away. Not only that, the letter also indicates that Leslie and Hammond were having an extramarital affair. This directly contradicts Leslie's explanations to her husband and attorney, Howard Joyce (James Stephenson).

Against his better judgment, Joyce agrees to purchase the letter from Hammond's widow. With this crucial piece of evidence suppressed, Leslie is acquitted. Later, after Mr. Crosbie is confronted with the content of letter and the cost of purchasing it, Leslie admits the entire sordid affair as well as being a murderer.

I've left out that The Letter takes place in Singapore. The Crosbies, Geoff Hammond and Howard Joyce are Caucasian. Hammond's widow is Eurasian. Joyce's unctuous assistant, who serves as the broker of the letter, is Asian.

First, let me praise Davis' performance. Only 32 when the film was released, Davis portrays an older woman who wears eyeglasses and does needlepoint when her vanity allows. It gives Leslie and Davis a decidedly dowdy appearance. There is a scene in the women's prison where Davis' performance and the cinematography of Tony Gaudio come together magnificently. Leslie goes from denying the letter to admitting to the letter/affair to convincing Joyce to buy the letter which could get him disbarred.

Davis' performance is only one arrow in director Wyler's quiver. Throughout the film, Asians are depicted as deceitful and inferior. My favorite scene is when Joyce gets into his large sedan and drives away. His assistant, Ong Chi Seng (Victor Sen Yung), also arrives in the parking lot to drive away but he momentarily disappears. When he reemerges, he is driving a small, sputtering jalopy which had been eclipsed by the larger (presumably Caucasian owned) automobiles.

However, the film hints that Singapore (and by extension all of Asia) is one giant miasma of dubious and unethical behavior...dubious and unethical behavior by Western standards but common amongst the yellow hordes. The tropical heat got to Leslie & Joyce causing them to cuckold her husband and tamper with evidence, respectively. What could they do? Hammond was under the spell of his half-Celestial wife and Joyce was being subtly manipulated by his Chinese assistant into buying the letter; all the while bathed in horizontal shadows.

The most amazing character is Hammond's widow played by Danish-American Gale Sondergaard. She looks like a cross between a dragon lady and Gloria Swanson in Sunset Boulevard. She stares inscrutably, says little (in fact she doesn't speak a word of English throughout the film) and dresses like a character from a Chinese opera. She is more Asian than any full blooded Asian in the film. Another key scene in the film is when Leslie meets the widow to exchange cash for the letter. Davis wears a ridiculous lace shroud looking like either a saint or a leper. Sondergaard wears something more appropriate for a Chinese New Year's Day parade. The scene is ridiculous and funny and compelling and tense, et al.

Paraphrasing Jules from Pulp Fiction, in the end, the locals go Middle Kingdon on Leslie's ass which I doubt was in Maugham's play. Along the way, The Letter had Bette Davis tearing it up in full Jezebel mode while matching up against a bunch of cunning and diabolical Asians. For me, The Letter was delicious retrograde entertainment.