Category Called Comedy #10

 

CCC: Dean/Jerry/Irma/Monkey, Opera Objections, and Fairbanks Faces Away

WHEN MARTIN-LEWIS HEAT WAS ON --- This no doubt opined by others before … I’m thinking Jerry needed Dean more than Dean ever needed Jerry. Might Martin have been better leaving Lewis, let’s say five years sooner, to stake his own singing and romance place in films, clubs, television? Doing so, that is, before becoming so entrenched in a public’s team expectation? Seeing this Lewis-centered trade ad for My Friend Irma Goes West prodded me to at last unpeel Paramount’s DVD. Remember sticky labels, “security” measures to keep us from stealing these off presumed store shelves? Hardly seemed worth the guff once adhesion was finally got off, My Friend Irma Goes West ninety-minute hell to follow. My thumb numbed from fast-forwarding Jerry in extended antics with a monkey, Jerry frankly doing anything. How to cope with two rib-tickle pairs tag teaming? Friend Irma surely was more so on home radio, here embodied by Marie Wilson as frightfully stupid, a distaff Lewis where we hardly need one of the sort. Laughter came of 1950 source quite alien to what amuses now, and I must inquire what becomes of Jerry Lewis standing once his original fan base finally shuffles off in toto. To think he preserved everything to document a long career. Do scholars consult it? Lewis could be clever --- I don’t blame those who laughed then --- but a little of him goes a long etcetra, and again, Martin seems the better overall bargain. This trade ad sorts out priorities for the time, Dean in an upper corner and nowhere else, Jerry mugging with Para merchandiser captions to instruct us when, if not why, to laugh. Lewis hosted the trailer, which interestingly had John Lund first in official billing, Corinne Calvet pushed prominently. Read her book for realities of being Wallis-owned. Was the producer asked if he thought the team was funny? Wallis would surely have asked back what makes that a relevant question?, his a first yok team since Abbott and Costello to phenomenally click, and ask yourself how long they might have sustained had not break come in 1956. My Friend Irma Goes West was years out of circulation before the DVD came. It streams at present with a High-Def option, but is not available on Blu-Ray. Occurs to me that Kino lately leased a post-49 Paramount group that did not include any Martin-Lewis, commentary perhaps in itself.

NO MORE MARX AND WE MEAN IT! --- Is it fair to expect a thing that seemed funny in 1935 to be similarly so in 1949, let alone in 2025? A Night at the Opera was profitable for its first release, if somewhat barely so. MGM figured to try again with a reissue, years enough later to wonder how many could care about the Marx Brothers, them less active by 1949 and scattered for most part to separate careers, Love Happy of that year less a team venture than Chico-Harpo with Groucho a cameo afterthought. Opera receipts this time showed $746K gain after cost of new prints and publicity, the Marxes as before appealing to some regions and audiences more than others. Did Wickes, Arkansas with its “small town and rural patronage” represent majority of then-modern sentiment? If so, the Brothers may just as well have retired as a team. Manager C.O. Taylor was on no payroll other than A&T Theatre’s circuit, and they obviously kept no leash on him, the whole point of exhibitor comments being freedom to speak minds, truth to power that was distributors big and small. Where we want honesty of expression, here was where to find it. “Talked into buying” A Night at the Opera, Mr. Taylor speaks for himself plus “other exhibitors … not doing any business” with the aged comedy. Most damning was when even kids “came out holding their noses.” Has anyone reading this ever observed “walkouts by the droves” from A Night at the Opera, taking oath of “no more Marx Bros. for us”? Tastes change I know, the Brothers fluctuating like any act, old or new, from year to year. So given an audience acid test today, would A Night at the Opera stand or fall? Status once conferred might always be challenged --- remember when Woody Allen seemed unassailable? A Night at the Opera is hard to evaluate without an audience, us to observe for ourselves if they would or would not hold noses.

NEVER MIND MY CLOSE-UP --- There is a particular technique to acting called “backting.” Sheila O’Malley describes it skillfully at her site. Simple put, it is a player conveying emotion while turned away from us, idea to put across drama somehow other than head on. We see this lots without noticing, in life as well as film. Accurate read can be got from other characters looking at your object of interest, his expression key to how an onlooker, them on screen, or us watching, will feel. To snatch meaning from something other than your face is acting done well, but it needs close observe to appreciate. I was years exposed to 1930’s Reaching for the Moon before realizing what magic Douglas Fairbanks caught in bottle that was simplest exchange near a start of the show. Doug is a Depression-era self-made millionaire speculator, his Wall Street success being celebrated at a dinner in his honor. Being late but unconscious of same, Doug breezes in and interrupts a windy speaker, the old man offended enough by the interruption to take up his briefcase and head exit-way. Realizing he has hurt his guest’s feelings, Fairbanks rushes to explain and apologize. Their exchange has the man facing Doug, and Doug in at most quarter profile, yet we “see” Doug clear as if he were close-up, part because we imagine just how Douglas Fairbanks himself might react to a circumstance like this.

In fact, his “Larry Day” clears this social hurdle very much the same as Fairbanks himself undoubtedly would in a similar situation. Knowing Doug as audiences did in 1930 was to understand how he’d react where caught in a social Waterloo, but being Douglas Fairbanks, he’ll finesse it. How he does so is insight to the actor-entrepreneur’s own style at calming an impasse. See Doug tilt his head to the right as sheepish entreaty, “please forgive” from a boy/man whose exuberance this time went too far. Imagine times Doug got in such a pickle at United Artists board meetings or his “don’t spank” whenever Mary caught him in the jam jar. Ever used the Fairbanks head-tilt to defuse an awkward moment? Looks to me sure-fire, but would it come so easy to the rest of us as it clearly did to Doug? Much here has to do with personality, “Doug just being Doug,” so sure, we’ll forgive him. Here was splendid application of star persona brought to bear on performance where scenes play ultra-shorthand because we know how the man we’ve paid to see will react to any given crisis. Fascinating is Fairbanks himself as far more complex, no complicated, than breezy figures he enacted. Given to periods of depression, sometimes extended, Fairbanks regularly had to pull himself together so Doug could reliably be Doug again, this to settle any question of how capable an “actor” he was. Reaching for the Moon is long since PD, so is all over You Tube.

Stills That Speak #9

STS: Bandstands on Newsstands and Maverick Maker Meets Mainstream Oldies

SWING PLUS CROONER CRUSHES --- Who dreamed Big Bands would fade after the war? I’m told costs were culpable. Think of travel, on buses yet, a peak that was wartime not again to be reached. Crooners survived, since as Max DeWinter said, he travels fastest who travels alone. Above “Band Leaders” magazine showed up amidst a pile. To be a band leader at summit was to be a star, as in Star equal to those Hollywood incubated. Betty Grable was happier scoring Harry James than any male thesp she'd had, Harry James definite upgrade on George Raft. Note glam Betty Hutton on the color cover. Hers seemed a talent to go on forever, but Betty, like ration coupons, had an expiration date. So did Betty Grable for that matter. She sixties-showed up in Charlotte to do summer stock, and I thought even then how mighty doth fall. Crooners unless they were Frank or Bing also had latter day rocks to break. And think of ancients singing in stadiums today, rockers from when fanship was unborn or barely so. Miraculous is their music leading charts still, nothing current able to approach popularity of 70-80’s, even some 90’s, music. All vets need do is stay alive, show up, and collect. I look at names back of my birth and wonder what became of some, or who heck were they to begin with? Yes, there was Dick Haymes and Perry Como as illustrated below, known to me because Haymes made movies and Perry lasted long enough to enrich TV. But what of Sunny Skyler and Jerry Wayne? Break please while I investigate both. OK … I just looked and listened at/to Sunny Skyler trilling Don’t Cry to accompany of Vincent Lopez and men. Sunny sings of whippoorwills and saying adieu to love. Did swooning fans hope to end up with husbands like this?

Current Feud Among Fans? I'd Say They Were Happy to Embrace Both

The soundie with Lopez was about all I found of Sunny Skyler at You Tube, but there is a Wikipedia page where I learned of his multi-talents, plus he wrote a tune called “A Little Bit South of North Carolina,” heard just now and for first ever time at YT, and rendered by Dean Martin, both recorded and on his NBC variety show. Here was a Jolson sort of number that Dean puts over in Jolson style, and we figure Sunny got a check for this plus sea of songs he also wrote (many remain jazz standards, says Wiki). Sunny retired from performing in 1952 after tide went out for big bands, stayed active with composing and music publishing, lived to ninety-five, died appropriately in Las Vegas. Jerry Wayne wrung undoubted tears at least for his primary hit, “You Can’t Be True, Dear,” which was Billboard’s Number Six pick for 1948, several renditions at You Tube. One I heard was a 1950 recording with Ken Griffin doing organ accompany, Jerry whistling to augment his voice, another Jolson borrow. Interesting how Al influenced others well after peak was passed, in fact well after his death in ’50. So who were the most impactful singers of the twentieth century? I’m going to say Jolson, Crosby, Judy Garland, Sinatra, and Elvis. Have I forgotten any? From my picks it’s interesting to observe how each got along with others. Elvis missed Jolson as they did not share performing years, though Presley was an admirer of Al’s music. Everybody to Jolson’s mind was competition, but he hit it off with Crosby per many shared appearances on radio. Did Sinatra ever sing with Jolson? Or Judy with Jolson? Not even sure they met, but hope so. Sinatra and Crosby got along, worked often together. Garland on several occasions sang with Crosby. He hosted her on his radio program after MGM let her go and she needed confidence Bing helped supply. I doubt Crosby felt Frank overlapped his turf, as there was plentiful room for both. Did Bing get together with Elvis? I know Sinatra invited the King for a post-Army Welcome Home special, where they duoed (“not a standard word in the English language,” says AI source, but I’m using it anyway).

Just Drop Me Off Here, says Greenbriar, and Let the Rest of 1957-9 Pass By

VINTAGE SHADOWS HAUNT REBEL SHADOWS --- Famously crowd-financed independent feature by John Cassavetes started in 1957, tweaked even past initial showings in 1959, a primer for all thereafter who’d seek to make a movie out of seeming nothing. How it happened is stuff of legend. More people want to know about that than to see the finished work. There is Village vibe and Bohemian air to “stolen” shots of Gotham when it still was at least somewhat safe to dwell in. We keep wanting Jack Kerouac to chance by, even J.J. Hunsecker should fiction intersect with reality. Cassavetes had been around as an actor and done Hollywood mainstream even as his heart was elsewhere, that is, beating heart of ultra-self-expression he’d devote most of a career to. Shadows is said to have cost $40,000, money cadged from friends and acting colleagues. Press and critics were a big help once screenings started. Everyone gung-hoed for a US art film to rival Europeans who it seemed had territory to themselves too long. There is enough analysis of Shadows at You Tube to spend a whole day watching. Criterion has a Blu-Ray with loads of extras. Accounts and post end title tells us that Shadows was fruit of improvisation, which to extent looks true, mostly because we’d like it to be true, but evidence suggests there was writing plus reshooting plus recasting, re-recording of dialogue, ongoing effort to make finished product presentable. Cassavetes in the end wanted his film to make sense. Response to Shadows showed his instincts were right.

Condemned Men Don't Have to Drill, Said Future Franco, but He'd Run Shadows Set Like a Vet D.I.

My fave parts are strolling down streets, past stores lit for night, and best of all theatres like Christmas trees, marquees of sort we’ll not see again. And so many. There are host houses for The Ten Commandments, Ten Thousand Bedrooms, Top Secret Affair, The Night Heaven Fell, plus posters to background character conversations, notable of these being for A Night to Remember. Best of show worlds on revue, most welcome a “Liberty Theatre” reviving “2 Errol Flynn Adventures,” Desperate Journey and Edge of Darkness, both barely fifteen years old, if that, each belonging to time and technique long past and not ever coming back. These were Warner pictures from 1942 and ’43 respectively, out for a last theatrical stroll now that both and hundreds more were available for TV broadcast. “Dominant Pictures” was the sub-distributor for United Artists that pushed WB oldies toward whatever revenue could be squeezed from relics before surrender to home tubes. New prints were made. They had to be for Desperate Journey and Edge of Darkness being nitrate otherwise, neither having had an official reissue on safety stock from Warners. Independent exchange owner Harry Kerr of Charlotte told me years ago that Dominant sent down twenty or so features for him to book through as many theatres and drive-ins as he could scratch up. Don’t know about up north, but NC venues held fast at $20 or less (said Harry) for booking of most oldies, especially where they were black-and-white and all the more obsolete. Some were used frankly for chasers. An exhibitor acquaintance in Hickory used to clear his nightly porn movies by putting on odd reels of Sergeant York or Treasure of the Sierra Madre. I saw same 35mm after Moon Mullins scored both and image quality was incredible. If somehow it were possible to visit Shadows' world, I'd beeline to their Liberty for Desperate Journey and Edge of Darkness, maybe afterward checking out beatniks, itinerant filmmakers, and what not on busy avenues. Maybe a drop-in to sad remnant of the Rialto running Girls, Inc. and possibly random reels of The Maltese Falcon to empty the joint for closing or clean-up.

Of Transitions and More Transitions

 

Three Blind Mice from Dr. No, Me the Fourth Blind Mouse Till 5/27/2000

The Night Film Ended

I touched before on what happened twenty-five years ago at a Columbus show. At left is what reminded me, a flyer to promote their Chaplin Festival for those weary of dealer rooms and screenings downstairs. Couple of us stepped in momentarily to see how their print of City Lights looked. Note I said “print” because film was what shows dealt circa 2000, or so we assumed. City Lights, once eyes adjusted, was stunning, at least in comparison with 16mm seen before, me blurting Whose print is this? as though maybe it had been snatched off Chaplin’s Swiss shelves. A tabletop projector no bigger than a breadbox spoke truth to presumptions I’d had since first threading 8mm. Here all of a sudden was the future, and it was digital. Nobody’s City Lights, no matter where from, could look so good as this. My friend and I exchanged a glance, him a film dealer of long standing … not sure which said “It’s over” first, probably we did in unison. Ever see long-standing way of life dashed upon rocks of reality? Mine was that evening, goal going forward but to dispose of what thirty-five years had accumulated, or see it perish upon analog’s pyre. Should I have seen this coming? There'd been signs a perceptive mind might note (not mine, obviously). I had lately leaped upon a Big Reel ad where Dr. No and From Russia with Love were offered on 16mm and IB Technicolor at prices way lower than any seventies/eighties collector could expect. The seller admitted that no way would he have parted with these before, but laser discs worked plenty OK, and it was but matter of time before both Bonds would be available on that new and promising DVD format. I didn’t argue his points, preferring the films over debating their obvious-to-me superiority. So who made the wiser call? I’d say my seller. He took my money and let me have his horse-collars. I should have read the tea leaves, my gets got far too easily.

Here I Am in 1999 Telling Eugene Morgan That Digital Had No Business to Be Invented.

May 27, 2000 was when I became Georgie Minifer among a company of Eugene Morgans. They understood what my notion of filmic purity was not prepared to grasp. Talking points (mine): Technicolor could never be faithfully duplicated on disc … my original 1957 Kodak print of The Mummy, among first generated for television, cannot be approached, let alone surpassed, for depth and clarity … just let Disney try and make their Silly Symphony DVD’s look good as my IB’s. Georgie summed up my posture when he said Get a horse!, attitude more a product of sentiment than recognition of times having changed. Had years at seek and struggle come to this? Every quarry I chased now laughed back at me. The Mummy for instance. It sat years in the basement of a to-say-the-least eccentric collector in Philadelphia. Why would I otherwise travel to Philadelphia? Mike lived in a houseful of clocks, curtains all drawn, no shaft of sunlight to be had. I got my Mummy plus others that after 2000 would spell so what? The thrill was in the getting and knowing mine was possibly the cleanest 1957 print of The Mummy in Christendom. Again, so what? It would be worth asking who owns it at present, or if The Mummy over intervening twenty-five years crumbled to vinegared dust not unlike Imhotep himself. Arguing fails where logic no longer backs you up. And yet my ’57 Mummy side-by-side with even Universal’s 4K might reveal values unsuspected by modern, let alone way-back, viewership. It’s easy to say Here’s the Best when what was best before is beyond reach of comparison, my Mummy unique for what I endured to get him. Off this tack already, or I’m liable to go in search of the long-gone relic.

Nuts to Your Digital Reclaim ... My 1948 Kodak Scram! on 16mm Will Always Look Better.

There were many points of collecting pride, among them quest for the definitive print of a favorite subject, this back of my Mummy hunt, but also of Laurel-Hardy comedies initially got from Blackhawk Films and satisfactory till eyes fell upon 16mm generated during the late forties when the two-reelers were printed for non-theatrical rental purpose and to fill syndicated TV packages. Never could Blackhawk approach beauty of these. We’ve all seen Scram!, but never like I saw Scram! on 1948 stock, there being an edge code above the sprocket holes to confirm the printing date. You had to be a way out-there Laurel and Hardy enthusiast for any of this to make a difference, pride of ownership enjoyed largely by oneself and equally dedicated collectors who might venture by. My 1948 Laurel-Hardys had integrity, you see, even if few beyond myself divined it, a same way for any (extreme) collector, I suppose. Picture someone … someone you otherwise like and respect … running up excitedly to show off his 1913 Buffalo head nickel. Think hard before you react. His/her self-worth may hang in the balance (her? Doubt it, as we may assume women had better things to do than chase after Buffalo nickels). Why do you do this film thing? was a question pointed often at me, so much that I began to wonder myself. A family reunion, thirty at least years back, saw me invited to explain why I collected movies and what-not, accent on what-not. Others stood up to tell of their hobbies, all healthy, recognizable pursuits. Perhaps it was mood of the moment that made me meditate on why indeed did I invest so much of life so far in things so fleeting. Did I already sense a design for living soon to evaporate? Fact a mere handful of men were alive even then to repair 16mm projectors was incentive to bail, too many of us willfully blind to note it. Not quitting then was to put off the inevitable, but were we premature to give up ghost that film collecting had become?

The Only Chilly Willy I'll Watch Is the One Directed by Tex Avery ... Am I Missing Out on Good Things?

It appears, to utter surprise, that collecting 8, 16, even 35mm, is still a thing. Was I amiss to sell out? Check eBay for breathtaking prices realized, for instance these on 16mm: Thunderball ($2,000), three Hitchcocks, Dial M for Murder ($2,263), To Catch a Thief ($2,179), and North by Northwest ($1,375.00). All of foregoing were IB Technicolor prints, final bids frankly more than one would have been obliged to pay during peak years of enthusiasm. When an IB Chilly Willy cartoon from the early sixties gets $100, you know collecting survives with a vengeance. Thinking surely 8mm was a spent format, I looked for listings and found these: The Bride of Frankenstein, 400 feet with magnetic sound, $95.00, Abbott and Costello Meet Frankenstein, same, $125.00. Castle horror reels command the best money, it seems. Blackhawk prints go cheaper overall, but no matter constant availability of Chaplin, Keaton, Laurel-Hardy, they always go to somebody, this a sure indication that film is far from finished. Much comes down to modern infatuation with analog, embracing obsolete formats because they are obsolete. To rescue spent history is to ennoble the rescuer, asserting oneself against grain that is digital, celebrating grain inherent to film stock instead, doing for celluloid what listeners do for turntables. Does vinyl continue to outsell CDs? I heard recently it does. Protection of film has become messianic for many. Filmmakers have brought back Vistavision, Quentin Tarantino shot a feature on 70mm, then bought a revival house where he swore only celluloid would be presented. Are there old-timers enough to keep equipment in repair? Such machinery is far too fussy for me to cope with again, my memory lane well short of place where sprockets, loops, and antiquated amps hold sway.

You Figure Surely Cartoon Collectors Prefer Blu-Ray, Yet This Laser Disc Box Lately Sold for $450

Presentation became a critical concern once technology showed what was possible.  Seems quaint our having once sat before awful TV transmission of favorite movies bowdlerized by commercials, visuals barely better than not seeing the films at all. Video cassettes were first of stair-steps a buying public climbed toward perfection we take for granted. A lot popped corks when VHS first made movies legally available, and even better, uninterrupted. Laser disc took quality to higher levels, but these had to be turned over halfway through features and were pricey besides, LD best suited to connoisseurs who wouldn’t mind outlay and inconvenience. Fast as progress came, it was certain something even better would push laser out, ground given to satellite television and improved cable service supplying classic films shown straight through, plus titles seen after years of being inaccessible. DVD to this seemed an anticlimax, and like laser, would surrender to even better Blu-Ray. Streaming in 4K meanwhile makes discs not similarly 4K less consequential (but wait, I'm increasingly seeing 4K efforts in terms of emperors possibly without clothes, subject maybe for a future column). Obscure titles stay in yard that is physical media, a boon especially for a specialized market preferring an "Ultra" High-Def Caligari or upcoming Beau Geste where we get the keepsake disc plus extras and a program booklet. Closest to total immersion is lately wrought in Vegas where one hundred million and a staff of thousands raised a “Sphere” seating 18,600 to experience The Wizard of Oz projected upon a 516-foot-wide screen, admission average $200. Word is they are banking two million a day off a project that took five years to realize. I sound perhaps like a press rep, for I come not to bury this Caesar, but to praise his conquest. Purists please note: This attraction has nothing to do with a faithful transmission of The Wizard of Oz, nor is it meant to, Oz instead a physical space where Vegas tourism may capture magic having otherwise left the fabled town (costs up, attendance down, says analysts). A thing costing $2.3 billion to conceive, then build, must surely need time to break even, and we could wonder how much rake-off Warner Bros. is getting. My brain but barely computes at levels like this.

Why Not Do a Sherlock, Jr., Step Into this Vast Landscape, and Stay There Forever After

You Tube has numerous previews, reviews, captures off the enormous round, indoors and out. First thing we note from clips is that Sphere entirely replaced Oz music, for simple reason you can’t make ancient recording sound right in a pavilion overwhelming as this. Also they trimmed Wizard from 102 minutes down to 75, shades of CBS in gone days, though that network never dreamed of cuts this deep. You cannot enter such a circus with expectation of artistic fidelity. What’s wanted is novelty and sensation, as everyone has seen the movie to death and for $200 has a right to expect something fresh from it. I’ll not visit this Oz unless the Sphere lands locally (how about where our bowling alley burned down a few years back? --- but no, not enough room). Reality as created for Oz includes debris flying out and into the audience during the twister, apples falling upon viewers when the tree begins tossing them, for all I know a live cow landing in our laps when Dorothy spots it through her window. Historic precedent for this sort of experience would include IMAX, Cinerama long before that, Grandeur and Magnafilm when talkies barely were upon us, Sphere surpassing all for wrap-around effect akin to 360-degree spectacles staged by Disney parks, which by the way, what became of those? Research indicated that The Wizard of Oz was the most watched movie ever made. True? Anyway, it was thought a soundest commercial choice. Could Oz play the Sphere for years, or will another subject eventually take its place? What then will they do for an encore? Could any other library classic qualify? Surely nothing black-and-white. If 75 minutes is viewer limit for Oz, then forget a Ben-Hur, 2001, other outsize spectaculars. Managers must be floating possibilities … some 80’s action or sci-fi? The Titanic remake (much too long I should think, but why not start with the iceberg and cull your 75 minutes off that?). Looks like we’re all done with reverence should this model sustain, but so what … movies were always monkeyed with to suit circumstance, and if anyone wants to see The Wizard of Oz presented complete and in fact enhanced to visual brilliance it never knew before, then go get the 4K or stream it tonight off Amazon and bask in sacred glow sans guilt.

Ads and Oddities #10

 

Ad/Odds: Rudy Remembered, 3-D Early Arrives, and Cleveland Gets Showboat

VALENTINO FOR ALWAYS? --- They promised we’d treasure Rudolph Valentino forever, part-true for at least me and lots reading, but 1926 was then, as in near a century, and I’m wondering what successors were bred off mobs stood hours to get in Campbell’s NY parlor for glimpse of Rudy at rest. This was what gripped me tightest of Irving Schulman’s Valentino bio in 1967. And to think many of those waiting were still with us at the time, while of Rudy wives, Natascha Rambova had but lately passed (1966), and Jean Acker would stay eleven more years, till 1978. Re mass of humanity lining approach to Campbell’s, this being August, and likely hot. So many had to be passed through, and fast. Did even epic mourner Pola Negri get a bum’s rush? If Valentino had such massive following as suggested here, why did The Eagle underperform? He was on the right track for putting humor in his latter films. Tearful line was understood to be mostly women. I’ll assume men present were to escort wives, sisters, mothers even (but try keeping Kenneth Anger away, him born but months after the event). I’ve never waited so long for anything as did these folks. New Yorkers had patience though, for look at lines routinely stood outside Radio City Music Hall, lots knowing admission would be for the show before the one they were lured for. Will movies or stars appearing in them ever command such fealty again? Speaking of distractions along cortege way, observe up-the-street Capitol Theatre, its attraction Buster Keaton in Battling Butler. Were I a standee on that sweltering street, this would tempt me. Why not duck in for a show, especially a Buster show. Not like that choking crowd is going anywhere for a next few hours, and it’s presumably cooler inside. But was it? Did the Capitol have air conditioning in 1926? Fans blowing over ice perhaps to supply “refrigerated air”? Shade alone would make things cooler inside, but keep in mind vacuum sealing crowd you’d be among and rethink it. Looks like I’m well along a time-drift back.

Rudy montages here are again fruit of collector scrapbooks dated back to the idol’s life, then death. I like ripped and raw quality of fan-kept treasure. You took what images were found, be it magazines, newspapers, flyers from theatres. Nothing you’d buy or find was sacred, nor to be kept intact. A Photoplay cover of Valentino was fair game for scissors, job to remove print referring to other subjects so as not to deface your creation with players sub to Rudy. Post-death captioning was rife with we-knew-all-alongs. Plenty claimed clairvoyance after fact of his passing was known. Yes, it was “abetted by overwork,” stills of the Sheik reflecting “terrific strain,” but was there any industry toiler not overworked? The Sheik was where “the silver sheet became the burning sands of Rudy’s greatest triumph,” a straight line and to be admired for being that. Soon enough the late and Latin lover would be camped up by clips of “old-time movie” sort for shorts, needled by irony that was Paramount’s re-selling of The Sheik in 1938, then independents doing as much for The Eagle and Son of the Sheik, the three noteworthy for being among few occasions for silent features to be relevant, if left-handedly so. For that matter, we’d enjoy better his final two if only prints were up to snuff like pristine silent survivors Wings, The Big Parade, limited others. Look how close the scrapbook keeper clips round text. Specimen I show were not yet pasted in albums, being removed from original context, trimmed accordingly, and made ready for book placement, which for whatever reason, did not happen. It was for me to gather up slivers to lay upon scan glass and do my own conception of updated tribute. The caricature of Valentino stood out for being an only such I came across. Was he too much revered to be object of even mild kidding during a brief lifetime? “Cinema-goers … always will revere his romantic memory” says caption, and so I ask, how long did reverence last? The lady in black who stood anniversary vigil at his grave kept coming for decades after 1926, and lest I’m in error, there are still ceremonies in recognition of August 23.

AUDIOSCOPIKS, WHATEVER THEY ARE --- Is half-arse 3-D better than none? Probably no, and I’ve corneal scars to prove it, squint through seventies-eighties effort to convey depth, but too seldom getting it right, or even tolerable. A collector in New York found elements of a Metro “Audioscopik” short and had prints made on red/green stock, plus glasses, for others of us to acquire and enjoy. I ran mine to no little disappointment of most, concluding remark like a chorus, No wonder 3-D died! Who needed stereo views in 1935 outside Grandma’s parlor? There were evidently three Audioscopiks made, the third being one I had, Murder in 3-D (1941), being novel for having a Frankenstein monster designed after model that was Karloff at Universal. Did Leo ask permission? I’m guessing not, cause why would Uni allow a rival to exploit their patented creation? The short itself was entertaining and some of depth effects worked, so all was not lost. It was more/less like flipping through a 60’s comic book or magazine sold with same red/green specs. Remarkable how fast boredom came of those, same now as when I was ten and giving from twelve to thirty-five cents for them. One could ask why Warners hasn’t issued the Audioscopiks on disc, or have they? Were there more than mere three it might work as a set, but how to justify a Blu-ray release, with glasses, for less than thirty minutes of content? Besides, Universal might suddenly awaken to long-ago poach, block release, and launch a million(s) dollar infringement claim. I like how this trade ad anticipates “the next step in box-office history,” if two decades early doing so, no denying Bwana Devil made its own history in 1952 with others to follow. How many more 3-D epochs might we expect? I still burn for TV manufacturers quitting sale of depth sets. What for --- perceived lack of interest? Just wait till 3-D makes yet another comeback …

WHERE THE PLAY’S THE THING --- Ponder please the meaning of truly hard work or define it shorthand by pondering this 1933 Cleveland ad for Showboat road landing on tab terms for what Broadway would still call hinterland play, though no way you’d discount Helen Morgan (above with Irene Dunne) headlining “110 artists including 75 Glorified Ziegfeld Girls.” Picture houses situated well enough, and owned by sufficiently monolithic interests (like Loew’s here), could front a show that for “popular prices” offered entertainment beyond any rival’s capacity. What was Broadway then but feeder to wider patronage that never saw dark of Gotham legit and frankly did not need to so long as companies could be assembled and sent trainward like vaudeville of old. Trouping on Main Stem stage was never like this, Showboat oarsfolk expected to perform four shows on the same day as Cleveland arrival, first of bows not till 2:00, so imagine exhaustion by the time quitting bells rang. Vets of vaude could rise to worse circumstance, but this wasn’t a couple song numbers or skit, Showboat even if shortened a real commitment, the more so with all and sundry compressed. Patrons knew and expected highlights of the musical, and woe betide if favorite moments went missing. I’d assume much of drama was sacrificed to revue aspect of comedy and above all, music. Showboat if anything was spectacular bonus to the featured movie ordinarily traded for price of admission, though I suspect Hot Pepper was more/less a chaser, considering junior placement on the State’s ad and excitement surrounding Showboat. Here was where management, certainly Loew’s booker, would insist on flat rental, Showboat an expensive proposition and whatever percentage was paid going to the play’s ownership. Who knows but what Showboat pleased better on ninety or so minute basis, scheduled times as announced in the ad a little over three hours apart, with Hot Pepper running 76 minutes for total to rest comfortably within time allowed. Factoring a newsreel, shorts, overtures, etc. would be added, these flexible, even disposable due to specialness of Showboat.

Parkland Picks with Popcorn #8

 

Pop Goes: Three Men in White, The Spider, and The Las Vegas Story

THREE MEN IN WHITE (1944) --- Three Men in White stood for what Metro meant to accomplish with all their product … “a solid guarantee of good entertainment for the whole family,” good in italics for assurance that yes, here “drama is keen, exciting … but this is not heavy nor serious drama.” Might such be credo for all Leo did, all of what Hollywood ideally did? “The lightest fastest, funniest, most bubbling story … Dr. Gillespie has ever become involved in.” I belabor these quotes from trade publication The Lion’s Share to show what amusement, particularly wartime amusement, was meant to accomplish. The Gillespies like all series, certainly those from MGM like Andy Hardy, Maisie, the Thin Man, Tarzan … were soft upholstery, predictable in ways radio “drama” was and television in a future would be. Gillespies revolved around medicine, all afflictions addressed and cured within ninety minutes, no suffering acute or unfixable. I don’t recall anyone perishing at Blair Hospital, would note tragic end for Laraine Day as Dr. Kildare’s wife-to-be, which surely was disorienting as would be Lew Ayres’ exit from the series soon after. Lionel Barrymore’s function was to console as well as amuse, a voice to assure that illness, indeed war, would pass. He will mentor the young, resolve their doubts, counsel their romances, Gillespie a guiding light through uncertain times. Here too was era of doctors driven by instinct rather than corporate and insurance carrier protocol. I don’t know when trusted and veteran faces were more vital to films. Barrymore broadcasted from firesides not unlike what Roosevelt spoke from, as would Charles Laughton, latter on marathon duty to sell bonds as were others a public knew and trusted in many instance since youth. A dose of Lionel Barrymore as Gillespie was tonic sure as what real medicos offered. At Blair Hospital, every malady had its cure.

Blair’s was revolving door for Metro stars in making. Much learning of craft went on here. Van Johnson had been in a dreadful car crash that nearly took the top of his head off but came back to studio applause and what sage Lionel called fresh-won skills as an actor, him knowing wisdom forged from hardship. Young players finding their wings, as here with Johnson and newcomer support Ava Gardner, was ongoing to the series, auditioning for us who would judge star potential. Fans could/did determine careers, no personality force-fed, at least not for long. Marilyn Maxwell for Three Men in White suggested another Lana Turner, that not to be, so Marilyn drifted eventually away, as must all whose dream goes unfulfilled. There were numerous of these in/out of MGM, post-career the fruit of whatever momentum they accumulated while there, Maxwell, James Craig, Tom Drake, all instance of this. 1957’s The Cyclops has latter two clinging to residue of polish applied at Metro. We could wonder why Van Johnson and not James Craig, but what was stardom other than an intangible, chance-driven process? Van courts Marilyn Maxwell by constantly ducking her advances, his “Aye, Yai, Yai” at her persistence itself too persistent. Was this calculated to increase Johnson’s femme following? It escapes me how, assuming that was intent. For the record, “Aye, Yai, Yai” was an expression akin to “oh boy” denoting excitement, frustration, or attraction. I don’t envision it coming back to vogue any time soon. Three Men in White after two Gillespie chapters to build suspense reveals who Barrymore’s new assistant will be, Van Johnson or Keye Luke, both youngsters having established following, Luke especial when he draws a chart to demonstrate a medical problem for Dr. Gillespie and we get glimpse of art background Keye Luke came from prior to acting. Three Men in White is available from Warner Archive in a set with other Gillespies.

THE SPIDER (1958) --- Misses greatness achieved by Tarantula, which sort of ruined us for giant spiders after 1955. Bert I. Gordon was brain behind this, him congenial with AIP worldview and a cut-rate master of special effects that really looked cut-rate, part after all of Bert’s charm. Here’s a secret of why sci-fi appealed to teens: So many used them for ID figures, sighting aliens or monsters and being doubted by grown-ups until threats become real and adults realize they were wrong not to take the word of their offspring. Note that at AIP at least it was often youth that routed other-worldlies, so maybe we should give them a better listen next time. The Spider at 73 minutes gets right on with scares, the monster attacking within moments of the title. AIP doubled this with The Brain Eaters, the two near point where Jim Nicholson realized black-and-white pairs were on ways out and said so to an exhibitor conclave. The Spider did AIP’s best B/W sci-fi business since The Day the World Ended, a surprising $374K in tills. There was speculation that AI’s Spider fed off sensation of Fox’s Fly, both infesting summer 1958 theatres. Some of The Spider was shot at Bronson Caves where monsters dwelt before. What a convenient filming site this proved to be. Atmosphere was supplied also by Carlsbad Caverns National Park in New Mexico, a special credit to that effect, but close inspection, in fact it needn't even be close, reveals still images of the caverns were used with actors superimposed in front of them, more instance of Bert Gordon movie magic. I like how the giant spider is parked in a high school gym where kids rehearse their rock and roll band before the creature awakens and frightens them out. The Spider stayed available to theatres for years past ‘58 release, even after TV got it in 1964-65, being a title I’d see listed often at drive-ins and kiddie shows in Winston-Salem, for which I was years later told by an exhibitor there that rental for AIP oldies hovered usually around fifteen to twenty dollars. Seems hardly enough to cover expense of delivery.

THE LAS VEGAS STORY (1952) --- Of quaint era when Vegas was still a small town easily managed by a sheriff like Jay C. Flippen and deputy Victor Mature, this being casinos case where “outside interests” maintained rigorous law/order all their own. Later treatments like Bugsy and Casino explained those truths and we can wonder if tourists, gamblers, civilians, were safer on streets in Las Vegas than in other busy burgs of the time. Was this unique instance of law enforcement by private, as in very private, enterprise? I need to read more about history of the town, and whether it is so transformed now as surface suggests. Does it remain “Disneyfied” now that the Disney model itself has collapsed? The Las Vegas Story is reshuffle off His Kind of Woman deck, Mature rather than Mitchum, Jane Russell back, Vincent Price her husband now rather than paramour. Howard Hughes liked familiars. He especially enjoyed Price in all of works, putting him again to menace Mature in two years' later Dangerous Mission! (not me but the title with an exclamation mark) I enjoy Hughes’ cracked mindset and each familiar aspect of The Las Vegas Story, at least here was break from Mexico as a location, question being what ownership interests did Hughes have in Vegas? I know later he lived there in secrecy at a hotel he owned. Did HH enter casinos in disguise and mingle among guests? Probably not as he was so paranoid about germs. There seems little evidence of Hughes tampering with The Las Vegas Story after director Robert Stevenson completed it, this not to be confirmed what with RKO records locked up and inaccessible. Victor Mature was, with Mitchum, a most reliable leading man the company had. What with casting of both, they could have, probably did, swap parts right up to moment of shooting on one or other of respective vehicles. It was types they played that merged, pleasingly so for my watching, as who’s around now of Mitchum-Mature stripe? Final inquiry: Would Terry Moore have dared claim previous marriage to Hughes had he still been alive? I get a feeling he could be a dangerous guy if seriously crossed, a sort of real-life Blofeld where circumstance called for Blofeld solution to problems.

Film Noir #32

 

Noir: Crime in the Streets, The Crimson Kimono, and Criss Cross

CRIME IN THE STREETS (1956) --- Again a thesis movie, amusement sacrificed on the altar of preachment. The Dead End Kids did these better, and had Bogart or Jim Cagney for grown-ups to ID with. Reginald Rose wrote Crime in the Streets for television. Maybe it got by easier there just for being shorter, and besides, big heads shouting at home jangled nerves less than bigger ones doing so from theatre screens. Director Don Siegel checked baggage Rose delivered and made necessary trims, Crime in the Streets a movie after all rather than lecture off a ten-inch lectern. Rose objected, but Siegel was boss, thus a film we may assume was improvement upon the tube version. All was built and executed at rented Goldwyn facilities but for a rumble opening shot outdoors, also at Goldwyn. Allied Artists would release during a youth problem cycle forged upon hit momentum of Rebel Without a Cause and Blackboard Jungle. Rock and roll could ease burden of less earnest treatment, but Crime in the Streets was earnest, and so used Franz Waxman to score rather than relying on disassociated platters. John Cassavetes had his debut here, magnetic from a screen start even though playing an utter crumb of a wayward kid “born to be hung” as they used to say of J.D.’s from eras back to Billy the Kid. Much of Cassavetes can’t help being funny now, Don’t touch me! Don’t ever touch me! repeated enough to qualify for anyone’s nightclub impression. Being set bound for whole of the show plays less well than what worked for Dead End in 1937, but Crime in the Streets was a trim craft and there probably wasn’t money to enable street shooting. Among support is Sal Mineo in early incarnation of tortured boy, named “Baby” here, his eyes twin pools of suffering. Mineo was plenty good but suffered himself for too brief a shelf life, suddenly not wanted anymore (so he would recall) even after critic acclaim and Academy nomination for work done in the early sixties. A first truth taught to virtually all actors was life never being fair. Should juvenile drama be labeled noir? Perhaps not, but Warners put Crime in the Streets into one of their DVD grab bags, so I’ll play along.

THE CRIMSON KIMONO (1959) --- Samuel Fuller sometimes fired off a pistol rather than yell Cut on location. For young males intent on a career directing, from where came higher endorsement? Fuller lived the maverick life of making movies in all forward and back sense … writing, producing, megging, doing on-camera trailers as “Sam” of uncompromising breed that was largely gone even as he soldiered on. I don’t wonder he had devoted following among starter-outs in the 80’s, into 90’s, right till Fuller passed in 1997, his typewriter clacking to the finish. He was accessible and adored. Documentaries have been made on his life and career. His films are considered a best of their sort, which was mostly war, crime, bizarre topics, especially by the sixties when he went way off walls with things like The Naked Kiss and one that played our Liberty late show only, Shock Corridor, which I really wanted to go see for thinking it was a horror film, which it kind of was but not in the way I might enjoy in 1963. Just as well parents forbade my late attendance (single unspool at 9:30 PM, then back on the Charlotte Observer newspaper delivery truck where all prints went in/out of our town, more than appropriate mode of ingress/egress for Sam Fuller reels). The Crimson Kimono was sold on trashy terms, Columbia posters never attractive whatever content, but these made much of pairing between Victoria Shaw and James Shigeta, exploitative as in wait till you see them kiss, but Fuller didn’t mean his story to be received that way, had no say in any case, for what director could influence selling apart from Hitchcock, DeMille, precious few others? Forbidden love engages Fuller maybe more than the murder hunt Shigeta and detective partner Glenn Corbett engage.

Victim is a strip dancer called “Sugar Torch,” so merchandising could go all types of sleazy direction, The Crimson Kimono better bound for lower placement on bills and early forfeit to television. Its discovery by Fuller fanbase and noir listers amounts to rescue and assurance that what began as minor product should thrive forever on auteur and cult shelves. There was no denying such status for Fuller, as no word of his writing reflected other than a singular vision of life and people. Having been on newspapers from age 12 and experienced worst of the war, Fuller had nervous energy to write all night and direct all day, provided they'd let him, which too often was not the case, would-be projects fallen by the boards for not enough financial or moral support. Of course, that’s the story for most filmmakers, especially independents like Fuller, but there were periods when he was backed, notably in the fifties when Zanuck lent a continuing hand and enabled Fuller to make one fine film after another. Wish it could have lasted, but nothing does in an industry rocked by constant change. As Zanuck went from Fox, so went Fuller. The ninety-ten rule that applies to life goes especially here (as in ninety percent of what you want, you won’t get). What I noted about The Crimson Kimono this time was how sharply edited it was, plus dialogue eccentric as ever, terrific atmosphere shot around L.A.’s “Little Tokyo,” Fuller detailing Japanese culture as practiced stateside. There is emphasis on martial arts, so much so that I wish he could have revisited the theme in the seventies when a cycle of such pictures became popular. The fact Fuller films are unpredictable is what makes them easy to revisit. Even if you recall the essential story, details are what grab for repeat rides. There are You Tubes where Fuller’s daughter guides us through her father’s work room, still maintained and all his effects there. Families are what keep many great names alive, and it’s good Samantha Fuller is here to do that job. The Crimson Kimono can be had on Blu-Ray from Twilight Time with good extras.

CRISS CROSS (1949) --- Among grimmest of born loser noirs, Criss Cross is snappy but doesn't amuse, is actionful, but in disquieting ways. Noirs were about serious business but are more fun for increasing distance between our time and theirs. Criss Cross is an exception for pitiless reveal of hard lucks who come to messy finish, no mercy for the doomed nor us with one of the darkest fades ever in noir. Criss Cross had been set for Mark Hellinger's next after the producer's sensational triad for Universal release, The Killers, Naked City, and Brute Force, but Hellinger died suddenly, and properties in development, including Criss Cross, were sold by the estate. Packaging included the story plus services of Burt Lancaster, who had been pledged to Hellinger and did two for the producer. Direction was again with Robert Siodmak, he having come up Universal ranks earlier in the decade. Criss Cross status maintains mostly because he guided it, The Killers' pattern of a caper gone wrong more/less repeated, here an armored car robbery, it understood that these never succeed unless there's an inside man, which made me wonder if that's true for real life. If so, there was a lot of wasted effort on part of criminality in future noirs where armored stick-ups were tried and failed. Universal taking over the property and doing it in-house meant they could further develop Yvonne DeCarlo, an exotic second to faded Maria Montez, and till Criss Cross a saloon or desert wanderer with Rod Cameron or Tony Martin for consorts. She's the fatale here, but with shadings; we figure this girl wouldn't be altogether bad given plenty of cash and a less moody partner than Lancaster, who by 1949 had got monotonous as continual guy behind eight balls. He really needed rescue of The Flame and The Arrow that would come a following year.