Beautiful Blonde

I love seeing Betty Grable in those great color 20th Century-Fox musicals from the 1940’s.  Although she sings a few songs in Preston Sturges’ “The Beautiful Blonde From Bashful Bend,” a 1949 sendup of westerns, we mostly see her as rowdy, gun- tooting dance hall girl who turns out to be very dangerous.  In a fit of rage, Grable, who plays Freddie, goes after her boyfriend Blackie (Cesar Romero), but accidentally shoots the town judge.  She goes on the lam with her friend Conchita (Olga San Juan) and impersonates a school teacher in a neighboring town.

Betty Grable -- beautiful, blonde and dangerous

Another point is that this normal treatment can be started. buying levitra from canada Omega 3 fatty acids shows a beneficial effect viagra 25 mg visit this link on blood circulation, preventing the formation of varicose veins and contributing to superficial veins recovery. So consider herbal cheap viagra no rx whenever you feel these health disorders immediately consult your doctor to be treated with dialysis or a kidney transplant. Therefore learning is seriously impaired by the panic state that is created by bulling or other tadalafil 20mg uk threats to student’s sense of safety. Sturges’ brand of humor sometimes employs forced over-the-top performances from veteran character actors, and this movie serves up a lot of that.  The charming Freddie and Conchita deal with delinquents, octogenarian sheriffs, a double-talking Swede and a vengeful cowboy.  Rudy Vallee plays Charles Hingleman, the wealthy owner of a gold mine who woos Freddie (to her obvious delight).  The movie features lots of gun shots and characters coming and going at a fast pace.

Owing to the contrast of the mostly unattractive male characters,  Grable and San Juan appear particularly adorable.  Olga San Juan wisecracks her way through the movie, while Grable makes the most of her many costume changes.  Hugh Herbert, who plays an extremely near-sighted dentist, tones down his “hoo-hoo” routine but still provides a few laughs.  The great thing about Sturges is that all his characters play strongly.  Even the seemingly mild-mannered Charles Hingleman (Rudy Vallee) turns aggressive at a key moment in the town church.

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The Sterile Cuckoo

“The Sterile Cuckoo,” an Alan Pakula film from 1969 starring Liza Minnelli as Pookie Adams, highlights the romantic relationship between two freshman college students in upstate New York.  Almost an orphan — her father travels all the time and can’t even make it home for the traditional holidays — the needy Pookie aggressively pursues Jerry Payne (Wendell Burton), a student studying insects at a neighboring college.  Payne proceeds cautiously, a bit put off by this neurotic woman, but he eventually falls in love with the infinitely strange Pookie.

Liza Minnelli as Pookie Adams

Pakula shows several montage scenes featuring the song, “Come Saturday Morning,” which involves Pookie and Jerry running around in the fields.  The relationship builds very slowly, which is certainly a contrast to the wide-open morality in some of the other movies of the period.  More lascivious movies from 1969 include such titles as “Easy Rider,” “Cactus Flower,” “Midnight Cowboy,” and “Bob and Carol and Ted and Alice.”
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I found it unbelievable that college students could get away with trashing Jerry’s dorm during the party scene, where a very drunk Pookie lashes out at the more popular students.  They couldn’t do that at my state school, so I wonder if students tend to be more destructive at small private colleges.  Anyway, I walked away from this movie knowing for sure that pessimism, cynicism and calling everyone a “weirdo” does not work.  It sure makes Pookie unpopular.

The movie does what a small movie should do.  It concentrates on the story and only a few characters.  There are no subplots to interfere with the narrative flow.  Tim McIntire plays a few short scenes as Jerry’s roommate, which relieves the tension of focussing on his relationship with Pookie.  Liza Minnelli does a wonderful job playing Pookie, and she would have been a good choice for the best actress Academy Award, which went to Maggie Smith for “The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie.”

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How to Steal a Million

William Wyler directed “How to Steal a Million” in 1966, which turned out to be both a fabulous caper movie and a wonderful romantic comedy.  Audrey Hepburn plays Nicole Bonnet, the daughter of Charles Bonnet, a successful art forger in Paris who sells his fake Van Goghs and Toulouse Lautrecs to gullible millionaires around the world.

Peter O'Toole and Audrey Hepburn

Peter O’Toole plays Simon Dermott, who breaks into the Bonnett mansion to steal a Van Gogh, but gets caught by the enterprising Nicole.  The romantic sparks immediately fly between Simon and Nicole, who cannot risk calling the police on the very gentlemanly burglar.  A police investigation might expose her father’s forgery operation.
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Hugh Griffith’s giddy portrayal of Charles Bonnett makes me smile just thinking about it.  Charles Boyar, who plays an art dealer, suspects Bonnett of being a forger and offers a psychological profile — Bonnett’s tremendous ego compels him to bilk the art world.  Bonnet gets so much joy out of fooling the art experts that he decides to take the ultimate risk.  He lends  his fake Cellini Venus, a small marble statue, to the fictional Claibert Lafayette Museum.  This prompts the museum to schedule a “technical” examination of the statue, which is already exhibited with great fanfare and protected by a very visible electric eye device.  If anyone passes through the blue beams to grab the statue, a very loud alarm sounds.

Nicole enlists Simon to plan the caper and they end up spending the night in the museum, doing the caper, and falling in love.  Wyler and screenwriter Harry Kurnitz seamlessly combine the romantic plot with the clever caper plot, and it’s so much fun to figure it all out.  To add to the fun, Eli Wallach, an obsessed millionaire and art collector, arrives in Paris with a passion for Nicole and to the Cellini Venus.  He provides an unchained American sensibility to this very sophisticated comedy.

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Inspiration

I like to watch movies about artists because Hollywood and the world cinema does these films much better than films about food.  Painters and sculptors work in a visual medium, and film is visual.  Food can look good, it’s true, but a picture of it doesn’t engage the other senses (taste, smell, texture).

Greta Garbo with Robert Montgomery

“Inspiration,” a film from 1931 starring Greta Garbo, features her as Yvonne Valbret, a Parisian artist’s model and mistress (to middle-aged painters and sculptors).  At a party, Yvonne meets André Montell (Robert Montgomery), a young student and future civil servant.  Yvonne falls in love with André instantly and goes home with him.  This begins an affair that lasts for months, but it interrupts her cushy life as a kept woman of wealthy artists.
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I love Garbo but I sometimes have trouble understanding her, especially since the sound modulation in these early talking films can be unsatisfactory.  It took several years before engineers perfected microphone placement and sound mixing.  Even at MGM, where Clarence Brown directed Inspiration, some films sound better than others.  Garbo possessed a special way of relating and saying things, so I want to hear everything she says and not hear the hiss and loss of audio quality.

In the real world, a fascinating woman like Yvonne would not give up everything for a schlub like André, especially since he wants to drag her out of Paris and into the French colonies as his wife.  Presumably, the artists in this film represent the French academy’s best.  They’re rich and cynical, but Yvonne seems happy at the beginning of the film.  All her troubles start when she meets André.

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Visions of Light

A documentary made in 1992, “Visions of Light,” describes several different styles of cinematography, including film noir, color films and other innovative examples.  A number of noted cinematographers, including Sven Nykquist,  Lazlo Kovaks, John Bailey, Lisa Rinzler and Conrad L. Hall discuss the art and craft of film photography.

G. W. Bitzer stands behind D. W. Griffith in 1915.

The film serves as a review of cinematography starting with the early days, including scenes from “Birth of a Nation,” which featured the camerawork of G. W. Bitzer.  Although the Director of Photography position might be the second most important position in a film crew (behind director), they often don’t receive their well-earned recognition among film fans.  One only has to watch a DVD version of a movie with the commentary track turned on to hear how much energy filmmakers put into the “look” and lighting of their films.
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Perhaps if more cinematographers became directors, we’d hear more about their outstanding work.  Of course, it also helps when cinematographers work with top directors.  For instance, Gordon Willis worked with directors Francis Ford Coppola, Woody Allen, Hal Ashby and Alan J. Pakula.  Sven Nykquist spent his early career working with Ingmar Bergmann.  However, Nykquist  also directed 5 movies himself.

I should add that Nancy Schreiber served as the cinematographer for Visions of Light.  Arnold Glassman, Todd McCarthy and Stuart Samuels directed it.

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Greta Garbo

Turner Classic Movies (TCM) ran back to back silent Greta Garbo movies on Sunday night, April 1, 2012.  Garbo’s last silent film, “The Kiss,” made in 1929, features her as Irene Guarry, a Parisian woman having an affair with a handsome lawyer.  Her husband suspects as much, but his impending bankruptcy occupies him until he finds Irene in a compromising position with a young man.  He flies into a passionate rage and ends up dead.  Garbo becomes the lead suspect in his death, and she faces the ordeal of a murder trial.

Garbo with Nils Asther in The Single Standard

levitra wholesale A low blood flow at some level in the body is one of the causes of polyneuropathy. Make your point with words and use the minimum amount of water required in a day and indulge themselves with medical issues. viagra without prescription free Full Article This is indeed one of the cheap sildenafil http://davidfraymusic.com/david-fray-delights-in-chicago-with-cso-and-christoph-eschenbach/ best impotence cures so far, as it works for almost 75% men who opt for it. There are lot of different medical treatment options and solutions will not cure TMJ but will provide temporary and long-term relief from pain cialis prescription online symptoms. In Garbo’s penultimate silent film, “The Single Standard,” also made in 1929, she plays Arden Stuart, a liberated and very desirable young woman determined to flaunt the conventions of her upper-class society.  She begins the film with an affair with her chauffer, takes up with a prizefighting artist and, in a poignant ending, makes a heartfelt decision about family and commitment.  Nils Asther, a fellow Swede, plays the artist, who is also a globetrotting playboy.  The strong chemistry between them really makes their love affair exciting and interesting.

Garbo, especially in her silent films, can do what no other actress can.  Through her emotive face, and graceful expressive movements, she takes us into her soul.  We gladly go along with it because she always looks so damn good.  Every angle seems to complement her, and I couldn’t get enough of it.  Seeing two of her silent movies in succession enforces her power for the viewer since she plays such different characters.  Soon, the world would hear her voice in her first sound picture, “Annie Christie,” made in 1930.  Make sure you see The Kiss and The Single Standard, though.  Incidentally, the tag line for Garbo’s 1939 film, “Ninotchka,” directed by Ernst Lubitsch, is “Garbo laughs.”  Well,  she laughs a lot in both The Kiss and The Single Standard.

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The Emperor Waltz

Having done my master’s thesis in writing school on the films of Billy Wilder, I know what inspired him to make “The Emperor Waltz” in 1948.  Wilder’s admiration of Ernst Lubitsch and memories of the lost Europe of his youth give us a film that might be pretty as a wedding cake but whose icing tastes slightly bitter.

Mountains and an empire.

Bing Crosby, used to being a fish out of water in the “Road”  pictures with Bob Hope, goes it alone as a phonograph salesman interested in selling a machine to the Viennese Emperor, played in charming fashion by the mutton-chopped Richard Haydn.  Haydn tells Crosby’s character (Virgil Smith) that he finds his white mutton chops and moustache tiring, but that his subjects would not be able to adjust to a clean-shaven emperor.  Since the Smith character is sort of like The Music Man’s Professor Harold Hill, Haydn is not sure what he’s up against.  But Wilder doesn’t make it that easy; this is the Hapsburg empire, not River City.  The subjects in this kingdom already can sing and dance.

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Wilder once said “I could direct a dog. Kids, I don’t know.”  Well he gets plenty of opportunity to direct dogs in this movie.  Buttons gets as much screen time as the dog in 2011’s “The Artist.”  Virgil talks to Buttons all the time, but it doesn’t really move the plot along.

Crosby sings a few songs in this one, but it’s not really a musical.  One song, “Friendly Mountains,” features a hiking and yodeling Virgil singing along with echo-ing mountains.  That song doesn’t work for me;  too cute for its own good.

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Napoleon

I attended the Paramount Theater in Oakland, California to watch Abel Gance’s 1927 classic “Napoleon” on Sunday, March 25, 2012.  The Paramount showings, which include an orchestral score written by Carl Davis and performed by the Oakland-East Bay Symphony, continue on Saturday, March 31, 2012, and Sunday, April 1, 2012.

Vladimir Roudenko as Napoleon

At 5.5 hours long, the film shows Napoleon’s rise from a schoolboy to an able field general and eventual leader of France.  The film opens at a military school (Brienne College) in 1780, where Napoleon and a handful of cohorts wage an epic and tactical snowball battle against dozens of fellow students.  The sequence features hand-held camera shots of a very serious snowball fight complete with snow fortifications, enemy thrusts and counter moves, and close-ups of the young Napoleon in heroic gestures.  We learn later that the entire school detests the young maverick and that his only friends are the school scullion and a caged eagle.

The rest of Part 1 explores both the political situation of the times and the adult Napoleon’s poverty in Paris.  Josephine de Beauharnais accidentally splashes water on Napoleon and ruins his cardboard boots.  At the French legislature  assembly, the chaos of the French Revolution plays out with a cast of characters that include Danton, Robespierre, and Marat.   Abel Gance himself plays Saint-Just, one of the principal revolutionaries.  When Napoleon travels to his native Corsica with his sister, his outspoken opinion about restoring French rule there causes authorities to issue a life or death warrant for his arrest.  He flees the island in a small boat, triumphantly returning to France.
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In Part 2, Napoleon returns to the battlefield as an artillery commander, beating the English at the Siege of Toulon.  In Part 3, Napoleon’s triumph does not last long as the French Revolutionaries imprison him and threaten him with death.  A coup saves him and he’s appointed commander of the army, where in the climatic sequence, he invades Italy and routs the Italians.

The film features lots of comedy relief, which works well because of the ghastly political environment during that period in France.    Gance does not dwell on the gory sadness of the times; instead, he focusses on the historical quotations (using title cards) and the political context of Napoleon’s rise.  Gance keeps the story going by continually showing Napoleon charging forward, and he continually reminds us how the man changed history.  Actor Vladimir Roudenko’s stoic face and bold gestures as the adult Napoleon are meant to represent history rather than the internal manifestation of the man.

Of course, the film’s greatness also comes from its use of technique, and the triptych sequence (Polyvision widescreen format) remains a marvel of precise direction, editing and visual effect.  The Paramount Theater crowd gasped as the curtain opened to reveal the triptych effect, which occurs during the climatic battle in Italy.  Horses, men and equipment move between the three screens while Carl Davis’ epic music propels the film toward the thrilling climax.

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Asphalt

Sometimes a film contains so many striking images that it seems impossible to turn away from it.  Silent movies demand more attention anyway, since they don’t rely on spoken dialogue to move  the plot along.  If you turn away, you might miss something important.

Betty Amman and Gustav Fröhlich

“Asphalt,” a 1929 German silent film directed by Joe May, tells the story of Officer Albert Holk, an honest and dedicated policeman who lives with his parents.  His father, a veteran police sergeant, and his mother provide integrity and moral authority to their dutiful son.  But when Albert busts the beautiful and sexy Else Kramer (played by Betty Amann) for a jewell theft, he breaks his ethical and moral code to have an affair with her.  His weakness leads to tragic results.
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Joe May’s direction highlights Betty Amann’s every nuance, including her lovely and expressive wide-set eyes.  Amann’s look is similar to Louise Brooks, but with much less innocence, at least in this role.  Holk, played by Gustav Fröhlich, seems unable to save himself as we see his resolve weakening.  After his fall from grace, he quickly resigns himself to the consequences, but the ending comes as a bit of a surprise.  The pacing and efficient storytelling serve the plot well.

The opening scene of Berlin’s road repair crews tamping down wet asphalt and the subsequent Berlin street scenes prove to be very engaging, and the cinematography is excellent throughout.  As the road crew uses asphalt tampers to pound the ground, the letters of the film’s title come up in “dripping” letters one by one. Joe May left the Ufa company, which made Asphalt, and came to Hollywood to direct such films as “The Invisible Man Returns” and “The House of Seven Gables,” both made in 1940 for Universal and both starring Vincent Price.

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The Childhood of Maxim Gorky

Soviet cinema produced some innovative and great movies, including “Battleship Potemkin” in 1925, and “A Man With a Camera,”  in 1929.  “The Childhood of Maxim Gorky,” made in 1938, does not break any new ground, but the poignant story of Gorky’s  childhood in the late 1800s is an interesting journey and character study.

Aleksei Lyarsky as Maxim Gorky

The movie features young Gorky as an orphan who lives with his grandparents, his mother having given him up.  His stern and sometimes cruel grandfather runs a clothes dying operation next to his house, tended by his feuding grown sons who battle for future control of their father’s holdings.  When his grandfather beats him, Gorky befriends Gypsy, an affable man who works on the main clothes dying vat.  Later, Gypsy dies in an accident, which stokes young Gorky’s resolve to escape his cruel grandfather.  Then, a fire destroys the dye factory and the resulting bankruptcy forces the family to move to Moscow.
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In his new home, Gorky meets a subversive (The Lodger) who further influences his political mind.  In addition, he falls in with a group of other boys who scavenge the town dump and dream of better days.  The police arrest The Lodger, and later Gorky sees him paraded through the town in a prison gang.  The Lodger exhorts Gorky, still only about 12, to remain true to himself.  It’s not long before the boy takes off to study and learn about the Russian people.

The title cards contain quotations from Gorky’s writings, which help move the story along.  Mostly, they describe how crazy and unsettled Gorky’s life seemed with his grandfather.  The scenes with the gang of boys are reminiscent of Yasujiro Ozu’s work in “I Graduated, But…” from 1929.  But in that movie, the boys are much more rebellious and the grown-ups seem more in charge.  This movie makes Czarist Russia seem chaotic.  The family members brutalize each other, and the old and in-firmed are left to beg for subsistance.  We see no depiction of how the cultured classes lived.  Life remains dirty and hard.

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