Movie Time Rewind: Gone With the Wind

Hey all,

*edit* This review got REALLY long, sorry if I got carried away*

I thought today would be a great opportunity to do another Rewind column, one to keep the streak alive or posting 30 times this month, but mainly because I really want to talk about the film of the moth (or of last month), 1939's cinematic masterpiece, Gone With the Wind. I watched a wonderfully fascinating documentary on the film entitled The Making of a Legend: Gone With the Wind, which really rekindled my passion for the film and for the performances. Way way back when I first started this column I wrote a Rewind piece on Hollywood's Greatest Year, 1939, a year that saw the release of more historically memorable (and truly great) films than any other. The year 1939 is considered Hollywood's banner year, with the release of a score of films like Mr. Smith Goes to Washington, The Wizard of Oz, Gunga Din, and Stagecoach among others. You can read the overview here

The story of Gone With the Wind is about Scarlett O'Hara, a southern belle growing up on a wealthy plantation named Tara. It starts off on the eve of the American Civil War with Scarlett secretly pining for southern aristocrat Ashley Wilkes, despite her knowledge that he is to be secretly wed to his cousin, Melanie Hamilton. After she confesses her feelings to him, Ashley tells her that he feels the same, but he is still going to marry Melanie. The exchange is overheard by Rhett Butler, disowned from his family and un-popular for his stance that in a war of the states, the South doesn't have the resources of the North and would lose. When war is announced, Scarlett agrees to marry Rand, a member of the Hamilton household, ostensibly to make Ashley jealous and to stay close to him.

During the war Scarlett is quickly widowed and moves into the Hamilton house to stay with Melanie to cheer her up, despite her true intentions, which were to wait for Ashley's return. She runs in Rhett again, now a Confederate hero, who announces his plans to win her over, which she adamantly refuses. She does steal a kiss from Ashley though, furthering her resolve to win him over despite his claims that he will never follow up on his feelings. As the war progresses, Scarlett and Melanie try to help the wounded soldiers, until the city is besieged by the Union Army. Scarlett helps Malanie deliver her baby during a difficult pregnancy though and manages to compel Rhett to steal them out of the city and to return them back to her home, Tara. Rhett guides them out of the burning city and the two share a passionate kiss before he returns to the war. Scarlett is left to discover her hometown nearly destroyed, though Tara still stands. Her father is stricken mad with grief over his wife's death, and Scarlett steals, herself, vowing never to be hungry again.

As the war draws to a close, Scarett is forced to become the family's source of income. She fashions a grand dress from her mothers curtains (a famous scene) and turns to Rhett, whom she believes is still rich. Discovering that he is broke and in jail, she instead turns to stealing her sister's fiance, Frank Miller, and through her own efforts, turns grows his business profitably during the re-building of Atlanta, by agreeing to work with Yankee contractors. She even manages to convince Ashley to run her sawmill by plying on his (and Melanie's) sympathies to keep him close. Sadly, Frank is killed after Scarlett is attacked and after another refusal from Ashley, Scarlett marries a newly fortuned Rhett.

Rhett vows to build Scarlett a new mansion in Atlanta and to rebuild Tara and the two have a daughter together. Rhett does everything in his power to win over the cold Scarlett and to ingratiate himself back into society, though Scarlett pulls farther away and tells him that they will not have another child and that they should sleep in separate rooms. Rhett tries to ignore his feelings of jealousy and after a night of drinking, announces that this is a night she won't ever forget and takes her to bed. The next morning, sober and disgraced, he apologizes and offers her a divorce, which she refuses. He leaves with his daughter in anger, but returns to find Scarlett pregnant with his child, though she doesn't want to have it. After an argument, she falls down some stairs and suffers a miscarriage. Rhett is racked with guilt and anger, which is compiled by the additional tragedy of the death of thier daughter and of Melanie, during a second pregnancy. With Melanie dead, Ashley is distraught and collapses, torn apart by grief. It's only then does she realize that she never really did love Ashley, that she loved Rhett. But by then, Rhett didn't care, walking out of her life for good, leaving Scarlett sobbing on the stairs, unsure of what to do next.

There are so many facets of this film that are fascinating, not the least of which are the trials an tribulations that were involved in getting the picture made. Gone With the Wind is a film based on a novel by first time author Margaret Mitchell, a girl raised in the south of Atlanta and who had been brought up being told stories of the devastation of the South during the Civil War by her mother. She was told about the splendor of the the Southern elite classes and the brutal falls from grace that many suffered during the war and their failure to recover afterward. As Mitchell grew older though, she very much immersed herself in popular culture. She defied modern convention at the time by becoming a reporter for the Atlanta Journal under the pen name Peggy Mitchell and writing a weekly column. It was during a period in 1926 when she broke an ankle that she first started the 10 year on and off project that would become the only book she would ever write, Gone With the Wind, based off the old stories her mother had shared. During a time where America was still in teh grips of the Great Depression and trying to ignore the growing perils around them in the world, Gone With the Wind gripped the country. The novel would go on to sell over 30 million copies and merit Mitchell with a Pulitzer Prize.

Film producer David O. Selznick had been a hot shot executive at arguably the biggest studio of the late 1930's and would present itself as THE major studio into the next decade. Selznick, though, wanted to be his own boss and make his own pictures. He had married Louis B. Mayer's daughter and using the connections he had made while at MGM, launched his own film studio on the old RKO lot, Selznick International Pictures. He produced some of the late 1930's better films, The Prisoner of Zenda, the original A Star is Born (which would be remade multiple times) and The Garden of Allah, all independently. Selznick was a perfectionist and wanted the best of everything put into one of his productions. He was even the first U.S. producer to bring Alfred Hitchcock to America, with Hitch's first American (and Oscar winning) film Rebecca the year after Gone With the Wind.

Selznick purchased the rights to Gone With the Wind from Mitchell the same week as the book was released after much consideration for the then unheard of sum of $50,000 in 1936. What began next was one of the longest pre-production tenures of a film in cinema history. Selznick turned to one of the premier freelance scriptwriters of the time, Sydney Howard, who was tasked with the herculean effort of trimming the novel down to a manageable film length. The nation was obsessed with Gone With the Wind, and the screenplay had to satisfy the expectant public. He worked on the piece for months, turning in a treatment in September that would have been nearly 6 hours long, and finishing the first draft in December of 1936. The script would go through numerous revisions over the 3 year production on the film, and despite the fact that only Sydney Howard is credited with the script, at least 5 other writers took turns at the script including Ben Hecht (another favored writer of Selznick) as well as Selznick himself, who reportedly once took a vacation in 1937 and took the script with him, in 4 suitcases. At one time Selznick, Hecht, and another writer, locked themselves in a room for 7 days and churned out another version of the script. Most believe that Howard was credited with the screenplay in the end for two reasons. One, the final script (which was never actually compiled as the scenes were often re-written the night before the shoot) most closely resembled his draft. The second reason was Howard's untimely death in 1939 after an accident on his far and it was considered a posthumous gesture of gratitude.

Selznick was an independent studio and one of his greatest concerns was the mounting costs of the picture. After a year of work on the piece and hundreds of thousands of dollars spent, he didn't have a script or a cast yet. Teaming with his close personal friend and Selznick Picture favorite, George Cukor, the two launched casting sessions while the picture was still being written. The casting of Scarlett was a national phenomenon, gripping the country in a frenzy. Nearly every leading lady of the day was interviewed and screen testes, from Katherine Hepburn and Tallulah Bankhead to Betty Davis. During 1938 a few clear front runners presented themselves, Joan Bennett, Jean Arthur, and Paulette Goddard. Goddard was the favorite early on though all three were still in contention in December of '38. A dark horse candidate had presented herself though a few months before, that of Vivian Leigh. Goddard had been in pictures for nearly a decade and had made a huge impact with Charlie Chaplin in his masterpiece, Modern Times. Leigh had starred in little of merit, but had come to America after leaving her husband and child to run off with acting great Laurence Olivier.

Even before the picture had been cast, Selznick needed to make room for the sets to be built. In order to clear enough lot space, Selznick decided to burn down all the structures on the backlot and use the footage for the burning of Atlanta sequence in the film. In truth, during the film, the burning structures of Atlanta are sets from The Prisoner of Zenda, The Garden Of Allah, even the great gates of 1933's King Kong are pulled down around them. Trick photography and stunt doubles were used during the filming that night to capture the scene, along with every Technicolor Film Camera in existence. Selznick invited many people to the filming to watch, including his brother Myron Selznick, one of Hollywood's first agents. The legend goes, Myron brought Vivian Leigh with him to the burning, and introduced her to David with the line, "Hey Genius, Meet your Scarlett."

Vivian Leigh had been acting for several years and went through a her screen tests, showing a range and talent that had not been as apparent in her earlier works and quickly won the part, officially getting it on Christmas Day 1938. Casting Rhett on teh other hand was a different matter. The entire populace of America knew exactly who should be Rhett Butler, the King of Hollywood himself, Clark Gable. Gable was under contract to MGM and in order for Selznick to get him to play the part, David had to cut a very lucrative deal with MGM. They would get distribution rights to teh film and 50% of the gross, in exchange Selznick would get $1.25 million in cash to make the picture and Gable. Gable wanted nothing to do with the picture, having made a period drama in 1937 which had flopped and Gable did NOT want to be embarrassed. Louis B. Mayer sweetened the deal by offering Gable $50,000 extra to essentially pay off his current wife so he could divorce her quietly and marry Carole Lombarde.

The other two principal actors also came with a price. Ashley Wilkes was played by Leslie Howard. Howard didn't want the role as he thought himself to old at 46. Despite his reluctance, he was really the only actor who had any command of the role in Selznick's eyes. Howard's dream though was to be a producer. To get him to commit to the role, Selznick offered him a producer's role in what would turn out to be Ingrid Bergman's breakout role, Intermezzo: A Love Story. Howard took the role and never complained throughout the process, though he never learned anyone else lines or read the novel his performance was based on, He gave exactly what he promised he would give. Olivia de Havilland desperately wanted the role of Melanie. She was under contract though but had once been a part of a packaged deal from Warner Brothers with Errol Flynn to be the film's lead when they were vying for the deal that MGM eventually got. Selznick auctioned many actresses, but it to de Havilland's personal plea to WB studio head Jack Warner's wife for her to get clearance to take the part.

Principal photography finally began in January of 1939. Selznick, while very involved with pre-production and casting for most of his pictures, usually didn't spend that much time on the set. For Gone With the Wind, he was on set daily. He and director Cukor argued over scenes and styles of the film, reshooting scenes constantly. Cukor was very much known for his ability to coach and direct women and Vivian Leigh loved working with him. They both had the same vision of Leigh, fiery, resolute, compassionate, tough. Clark Gable hated Cukor. He thought he was soft and didn't feel like he could trust the director to ensure that his performance in this "woman's film" didn't make him seem weak. Eventually the conflict on set grew so tense that Cukor walked off the set and Selznick told him not to come back. Surprisingly the two remained close friends. Shooting was halted for 17 days while Selznik worked on the script and arranged with MGM to get veteran director Victor Fleming. Fleming has replaced Cukor on The Wizard of Oz month's earlier and was pulled off the last few days of shooting their to take over the floundering set. Fleming took one look at the script and called it a mess and restored much of the Sydney Howard's version, who had taken another revision before his death.

Gable and Fleming got along famously and Fleming ran a tough set. Leigh, whom at one point adored the idea of filming this movie, did not get along with either. Her and de Havilland would often go see Cukor on the weekend who continued to coach the women on the film secretly. Despite this, or maybe even because of, Leigh would often ask to shoot longer and later, anything to accelerate the filming of the picture, one to get away from Fleming, and two, to return to her love Laurence Olivier, whom she was not allowed to see during filming. Selznick wanted his star to be "pure" and didn't want images of the two taken together.

Still filming on the movie stretched on, with Selznick insisting on re-writes and both he and Fleming pushing themselves physically with stimulants. Tensions stayed raw on everyone's accounts (except reportedly Leslie Howard) and even Fleming walked off the set for 2 weeks, replaced by Sam Wood. Allegedly Fleming left due to exhaustion, but most people believe it was punishment for Selznick's overbearing ways. he eventually returned and filming completed after 125 days.

Editing and effects works began immediately, a situation proven even more difficult with the fact that there was no real shooting script, Selznick having re-written the film so many times the only real copy was in his head. He and the film editors would lock themselves in the editing bays for days at a time, working 22 hours straight often, in order to get the film ready for its release. Many new techniques in special effects were also create on this picture. Much of the scenic shots and every ceiling was a matte painting or painted on glass and seamlessly added to the film. Even the music was done in a rush as Selznick wanted composer Max Steiner and waited until well after filming was completed to engage him on the picture. Steiner was contractually bound to another project at the time. The score was so far behind that when they previewed the first cut of the film in November of 1939, they used the score from the Prisoner of Zenda as enough music had not yet been written to accompany the picture.

Gone with the Wind debuted in Atlanta in December of 1939 and was an instant smash. The film went on to garner 13 (of the then available 17) Oscar nominations that year, winning 10 including best picture, best actress (for Leigh) best supporting actress (Hattie McDaniel who played Mammy the caretaker and was also the first Black actress to be nominated for the award, let alone win.) It also won best screenplay for Howard and for technical achievement in film making. Even Selznick was award for his efforts in film making as a whole. At the time, Gone With the Wind cost nearly 3 million dollars to make, marking it was one of the most expensive films of all time, though it would make it back at the box office. When adjusted for inflation, it remains the highest grossing film of all time, a huge task given it 3 plus hour running time.

Gone WIth the Wind carried a legacy as one of the greatest films of all times, even at the time of it's release. The scale and grandeur was unparalleled and the film's reputation certainly preceded itself. It made Vivian Leigh a star and gave her teh first of two Oscars. Despite being one of Gable's least favorite films, it remains a picture of his legacy. Hell, the legacy of Gone With the Wind would over shadow everything David O. Selznick would do for the rest of his life. Despite his success with films like Rebbecca, Spellbound, and a Duel in the Sun, nothing would ever quite measure up to Gone With the Wind. It cast a shadow on his career as both the pinnacle of his achievement, but the pinnacle of achievement at the zenith of Hollywood's golden age. Eventually Selznick sold the rights away to the film, where they eventually were picked up by MGM. Selznick was known to take gambles on a picture, as evidenced with this one, and it was only a matter of time before his gambling caught up with him. He sold his rights for $400,000 in the early 1940's. in order to keep his studio afloat.

Personally, while not my favorite film of all time, I do mark it as the greatest piece of film making I have ever seen. Every performance is powerful. Leigh literally alights the screen with her passion and the scope of the picture never fails to awe me. If you have never seen this masterpiece, do yourself a favor, and watch it. This is what a film can mean. This is really what a film can be. Gone With the Wind, from Selznick International Pictures.

End of Line.
Gerrad!

Movie Time: Rewind: Woman of the Year

Hey all,

Every month (okay, okay I missed some time but I'm working on it!) I like to turn on the Wayback Machine and do a movie review of a film made before the year I was born, 1976. The last few columns have been about some of the great female actresses of Hollywood's Golden Age, and I thought for this column I should turn the spotlight on the actress many people would have considered the Queen of the Silver Screen of the Era, Katherine Hepburn. The film I picked to highlight was the first film she made with her most famous leading man, Spencer Tracy, called Woman of the Year.

Hepburn was a Hollywood maverick in the 1930's, an established box office draw in the early parts of the 1930's had already netted her two Oscar nods (she would net 12 total nominations with 4 wins over her career!), with one victory in 1933 for the film Morning Glory. She came from a wealthy and aristocratic family and often imbued her roles with the same sense of culture and breeding. Despite her upbringing though, she was very progressive in her personal beliefs and was very active physically. She was often a trendsetter for female empowerment,expressing her own opinions even when it wasn't a popular one and had a very prickly relationship with her fans and with the media, who could find her arrogant and off putting. This attitude eventually led to her problems in the latter part of the decade as the negative press led to a series of theatrical flops and the label of "box office poison." After severing with her former studio, RKO, Hepburn signed with MGM. She relaunched her career with the hot film Philadelphia Story with co-stars Cary Grant and Jimmy Stewart, landing herself another Oscar nod in the process. Signing with MGM also eventually led her to her partnership with Tracy, both professionally and personally.

Spencer Tracy was also a huge hit in the 1930's under contract with MGM. He had won back to back Oscars in 1937 and 1938 for Captains Courageous and Boys Town. Whereas Hepburn excelled in her own style, Tracy was known for his diversify and range. From prickly grumps to tormented souls, to love struck fools, Tracy excelled in any theatrical medium. Both he and Hepburn had long wanted to make a film together and when the chance arrived to make Woman of the Year, the chemistry between the two was so palpable, they started a secret off screen romance that lasted for over 2 decades until Tracy's death in 1967. This film also launched one of the most lauded acting duo's of all time, Hepburn and Tracy. The pair would go on to star in 9 films all together, the first of which was this months Rewind pick.

Released in 1942, the films stars Hepburn as Tess Harding and Tracy as Sam Craig. Both are journalists at a New York newspaper, Hepburn is the daughter of a diplomat and immersed in international political affairs and has studied abroad. Tracy is a blue collar sportswriter who has worked his way up in the paper. The two begin to clash in their respective columns, specifically over baseball, but as Tracy educates Hepburn on the rules of baseball, a romance blossoms, which quickly leads to an engagement and marriage, despite their wildly different backgrounds. They quickly find a disagreement in the marriage though over having children. Tracy is ecstatic at the concept of having a biological child, and is crestfallen when he discovers that Hepburn isn't pregnant, but rather has adopted a young Greek orphan, who Tracy can't communicate with due to the language barrier..

On the night that Hepburn is to be awarded the prestigious Woman of the Year award, the couple has an argument. Hepburn wants Tracy to accompany her to the dinner and she insensitively insists that the bellboy can look in on the young orphan in their care. Tracy decides to stay with the boy, mortifying Hepburn who is afraid of what people will say when her husband doesn't attend the event with her. She leaves for the banquet, and Tracy decides to return the boy to the orphanage and walks out on the marriage.

The couple are estranged until Hepburn's father and her aunt (who had raised her) announce they are getting married after years of ignoring their feelings and making the same mistakes. The words at the ceremony ring true to Hepburn and she returns to Tracy's home in a last ditch effort to prove that she can be good wife, and a good journalist, at the same time.

On the surface Woman of the Year is very much a romantic comedy that has been told many times over. Star crossed lovers from different worlds meet and fall in love, have hardships, and reconcile. It's not so much the story that matters, but the chemistry. Hepburn and Tracy have a dynamic rapport between them, and the story of Woman of the Year has an echo even in their real life romance. Tracy was a devout Catholic and believed that divorce was not an option, despite being estranged from his wife. Though just like in the film, both Tracy and Hepburn came from completely different walks of life, Hepburn's blue-blooded aristocratic upbringing, Tracy very much the blue collar workman. Despite their different backgrounds though, Woman of the Year launched a 20 year romance that both a known relationship in Hollywood and teh media, yet never commented on by either actor due to Tracy's beliefs. Even at Tracy's funeral in 1967, Hepburn did not attend out of respect for his family. It was a strange and dynamic relationship, but the love each actor had for each other could be felt through the screen.

Woman of the Year is but one of nine pictures the duo made together. Some would argue that the pair made better films, like Guess Who's Coming to Dinner, or Adam's Rib, but I'd argue that none was more important. Tracy brought Hepburn down to Earth, and Hepburn made Tracy bigger than life. The two fed off each other in such a way that each film that made was better because of the sum of the parts, they had the ability to elevate a script beyond the standard trappings of convention and find a deeper chemistry. Woman of the Year is a wonderful light romantic comedy powered by two incredible performances. It's the film that proved Hepburn was still a viable box office threat by giving her a third Oscar nod, and its a film that continued to build on Tracy's reputation as an actor who could hold his own in any circumstance, even against the formidable Katherine Hepburn.

Woman of the Year is fun, light, and deeply enjoyable. I encourage you to check it out sometime, either on TCM or via a rental. It's a classic romantic comedy by two actors just coming into the prime of their game. Hepburn is light and serious, straddling a line of aristocrat and fool, deeply in love, yet unsure of how to really be in love. Tracy is a mixture of exacerbated romantic and realist, also deeply in love, but unsure of how to stay married to such a strong willed woman. It's the very definition of compromise, and the very definition of romance. The film is very much a blend of light hearted fun and quality script writing and acting. It's a thoroughly enjoyable picture, check it out. Woman of the Year, with Katherine Hepburn and Spencer Tracy, from MGM in 1942 and one of the studios biggest box office success. It indelibly holds up today and I hope you enjoy it as much as I did.

End of Line.
Gerrad!

Movie Time: Rewind: Charade

Hey all,

As promised here is this month's installment of the Rewind, where we look at great films of yesteryear, particularly ones made before the year of my birth, 1976. The last two months I have spotlighted two of my very favorite actresses, Eleanor Powell and Ginger Rogers. For this month I'm continuing the trend and adding another of Hollywood's greatest leading ladies (and another personal favorite), Audrey Hepburn. I highlighted Audrey in a film some time back and honestly I am a bit surprised I haven't picked more of her films to look at. Audrey was for my money, the last of the great actresses from the studio system.

By the 1950's, Hollywood's Golden Age was in its twilight, though the early and mid 1950's still held some measure of the Hollywood muscle of old. While most of the studio's major stars were aging, Gary Cooper, Clark Gable, James Stewart, there was an entirely new crop of leading ladies, like Marilyn Monroe, Grace Kelley, and the indemmable Audrey Hepburn. She burst on the scene in the early 1950's with her Oscar winning turn in Roman Holiday, and was a bona fide box office smash with pictures like Breakfast at Tiffanys when she teamed up with another of Hollywood's greatest stars, Cary Grant, to make Charade, this month's feature.

the film starts of as Regina (Audrey Hepburn) meets a charming stranger while on a skiing vacation. The stranger, Peter Joshua (played by Cary Grant) is dashing and handsome and re-firms Regina's belief to ask her husband for a divorce. When she returns home to Paris to ask him for one, she finds her apartment empty and the police inform her that her husband had been murdered. At his funeral she noticed several peculiar people inspecting her husbands corpse for signs of life. She quickly learns why though, as a CIA official (played by Walter Matthau) informs her that her husband was part of a secret mission in World War 2 to deliver $250,000 to the French Resistance, but he and his team hid the money instead. His team was made up by the same people who were inspecting her husbands corpse. The CIA believes that Regina has the money, even if she doesn't know where it is.

Regina runs into Peter Joshua again though in Paris and he agrees to help her, unabashedly admitting that he too is looking for the money, but wants to keep Regina safe as her husbands former team is also tracking her. Unbeknown to Regina though, Joshua is also working for them under an assumed name though none of the men trust each other. The plot really begins to twist as Grant's character changed identities again and members of her husbands former team end up dead. Regina is attracted to Grant's character, even though she doesn't know what side he is playing, though her role as damsel in distress is twisted as she becomes the one perusing Peter romantically. In the end it's a race to find the truth, of the characters identity, of the characters intentions, and for the money before it's to late.

Charade was directed by Stanley Donen in 1963 and marked a passing for both Donen and Cary Grant in a lot of ways. Donen was considered a bit of a Wonderkind in the 1950's teaming up with Gene Kelley and later on his own, to direct some of the biggest musicals of the decade. Films like An American in Paris and Singin' in the Rain with Kelly, Seven Brides for Seven Brothers, and Funny Face with Fred Astaire and Audrey Hepburn. As the musical faded in popularity at the dawn of the 1960's, Donen turned to light hearted drama and suspense and nothing epitomized that better than Charade. Cary Grant meanwhile was nearing 60 and was beginning to doubt his ability to be convincing as a romantic leading men in films. He had first turned down this film as he didn't want to be the romantic aggressor to a woman nearly 25 years his junior. He only came on board after screenwriter Peter Stone (who along with Donen was desperate to get Grant for the part) re-wrote sections of the film overnight to turn Audrey to the sexual aggressor.

Both Donen and Grant would go onto to make additional films finding moderate success. Donen would team with Audrey again in Two for the Road and find success with Gregory Peck and Sofia Loren in Arabesque, a film designed as an un-official sequel to Charade originally. Grant would make just two more films before retiring from film completely, the film Father Goose, a light comedy, and Walk, Don't Run. truth be told, Charade was Grant's last great film and despite the moderate success Donen had, it was his last true classic. It was also in a sense, one of the last really great studio films, as by the mid to late 1960's, the studio system was all but dismantled and given way to freelance work. (I know that Grant and Hepburn were freelance during this film too, but the whole style and scope of the film is still very much in that method).

Let's also not forget Audrey. At this point in the film, Audrey is the number one female box office draw in the country as many of her contemporaries had retired or moved on. Grace Kelly had become Princess of Monaco, Marilyn Monroe had died. Audrey was at her peak. She had just finished filing Breakfast at Tiffanys the year before and was just a year away from her biggest hit in My Fair Lady. I think one of the things that was so great about Audrey is that she played so well with so many of Hollywood's greatest actors. William Holden, Humphrey Bogart, Fred Astaire, Gary Cooper and here with Cary Grant, she made the age differences between her and these actors a non factor. She could play innocent, dark and mysterious, comedic, whatever the role and her leading man needed. Her biggest assets I think was her ability to bridge the gap between the generations in film. The 1950's and 1960's were two vastly different decades in terms of movie-making and audience expectations. So much of the 50's were about that "Leave it to Beaver" attitude, about women wanting a family and marriage and being proper. Audrey could walk that line and help bring woman's roles to a forefront, playing characters of looser moral backgrounds but still maintain her feminine edge. It's especially evident as she progresses films in the 60's, with her afternoon dalliances with Gary Cooper in Love in the Afternoon, or her party girl mentality in Breakfast at Tiffanys, or as the sexual predator right here in Charade. She manages to play these roles very dignified, doing what many would call un-dignified actions for the time and place.

Back to the film itself. the film is very Hitchcockian in nature, built around suspense with a plot full of twists and turns. Duplicity is the nature of every character and you never know who you can quite trust. The film even uses the Hitchcock staple MaGuffin, a word used to describe one small point about witch the whole plot is hinged, a device that Hitch used in almost all of his films, in this case, the missing $250,000. It's been called the greatest Hitchcock film Hitchcock never made. A large part of that is due to director Donen, whose camera work and shooting style were taken to new heights in this film. Even Hitch's panache for scenic locations is used, with the filming of this picture occurring in Paris. Audrey was also filming (nearly back to back) Paris, When it Sizzles with William Holden at the time. Donen really captures Paris beautifully. Also writer Peter Stone's fantastic script keeps the film turning at every angle, right up until the incredible twist ending, of which even Hitch could be proud.

I should also point out the quality of the supporting cast involved. Walter Matthau as a CIA agent, James Coburn and George Kennedy (most notably of the Naked Gun films) as members of Audrey's husbands WW2 team. Coburn is great in his role as the films heavy, and Kennedy shows a range as well that is often not associated with the films he makes in later years. All the actors have a really fun rapport with each other, from the flirtatious banter between Grant and Hepburn, to the trickery between the group of thieves, each actor really finds some substance in his role.

Charade is a film that captures so much of what made Hollywood great for so long. It's fun, light, and exciting, and bridges the generational gap for Hollywood. It features two of Hollywood's biggest stars of all time in a terrific performance. I've certainly shown Cary Grant films my fair share of love over the course of these posts, with North by Northwest and His Girl Friday, and Charade is certainly a welcome addition to those films. Audrey is a star in her own right and while Charade may not be her most famous role, it's easily the role that made me realize just how powerful her on screen presence could be. In a world today where stars are teamed together in films based on name alone, its so refreshing to see a film made with the biggest stars of their day that doesn't sell you on anything but the quality of the film. Another bit of trivia about this film is that it is actually in the public domain thanks to an error in copy writing, so it should be even easier to watch. be sure to check out Universal Pictures classic Charade, a fun mystery starring two of the most charismatic actors of all time. It's classic cinema at it's finest.

End of Line.
Gerrad!

Movie Time: Rewind: Kitty Foyle: The Natural History of a Woman

Hey all,

I'm back after a bit of a break this month with another chapter of the Movie Rewind, where I review a great film from Hollywood's history. I had a lot of fun last month reviewing Broadway Melody with Eleanor Powell, so I thought I would continue the trend by reviewing a film by another one of my favorite actresses, Ginger Rogers. The film is 1940's Kitty Foyle: The Natural History of a Woman, the film for which she won the Oscar for Best Actress.

RKO Films, the studio that made Kitty Foyle, was never considered one of the richest studios, like MGM and Paramount, but they compensated for that by having having a diverse production slate of films and had an impressive stable of stars in the 1930's, though MGM would corner that market by the onset of the 1940's and as RKO had financial troubles. RKO had many of the most notable stars under it's banner in the 30's, giving actors and actresses like Cary Grant, Katherine Hepburn, Irene Dunne, Fred Astaire, and of course Ginger Rogers. Ginger had teamed up with Fred Astaire throughout much of the mid to late 30's, their pairing being finally profitable for the studio, making 8 films between 1934 and 1939. In fact, they were RKO's number one draw and the only stars to top the list of box office performers while at RKO. By 1939 though, the duo wanted to branch out. Astaire wanted to make his on name and Ginger was eager to stretch her acting chops, having started out on the stage as a serious actress before going into musicals. The to still had a deep affection for each other as Astaire went to MGM to team with Eleanor Powell in the sequel to Broadway Melody, Ginger set her eyes on Kitty Foyle.

The film is a the story of a working class woman set in the early 1930's. Kitty Foyle (Rogers) works as secretary to a wealthy Philadelphia socialite named Wynnewood Statfford VI (Dennis Morgan), helping him in his attempt to succeed in establishing a magazine during the Depression. They fall in love, and she always believes he will ask her to marry him once the magazine is a success. The magazine fails unfortunately and Wyn is forced to return to his parents for employment. Kitty is left behind and decides to leave for New York to take a new job working in a department store. While in New York she meets Dr. Mark Eisen (James Craig) who loves her, but Wyn Stafford shows up and asks Kitty to marry him. She initially refuses citing the differences in their social backgrounds. She feels that Philadelphia socialites would never accept her. Many of these beliefs are echoed by her father, who cautions her against reaching above her station in life. Wyn agrees to leave behind Philadelphia and move to New York, so that they can be together. They are married in New York and weeks later they go to Philadelphia to let family know about the marriage. The family is overbearing and obnoxious to Kitty, leaving her feeling ostracized and unworthy. She leaves, and eventually divorces Wyn, believing her father to have been right all along. Kitty finds out afterward though that she is pregnant with Wyn's baby. Kitty steels herself and decides to have the baby anyway, bucking conventional wisdom (at the time) about single motherhood. Sadly though the baby is delivered still-born. Meanwhile Wyn marries a rich socialite as his parents insistence, and by chance, Kitty meets his wife and son. This is difficult for her because she still loves Wyn. She observes the life that Wyn is leading but re-connects with Mark Eisen, the young doctor who was in love with her. Eventually Mark proposes and Kitty is finally forced to reevaluate her life and decisions. In the end, Kitty has to choose between money or love, and in so, she is finally able to let Wyn go and be happy.

Kitty Foyle was a huge film for both RKO and Ginger Rogers at the time.It was RKO's highest grossing film of the year and proved Rogers could be a bankable star without Fred Astaire. It also did a lot to change many people's view of Rogers. Because of Kitty Foyle, Rogers diversity made her a valuable commodity. As many of the 1930's biggest stars, like Irene Dunne, Eleanor Powell, Claudette Colbert, and Greta Garbo waned in the 40's, Rogers continued to star in pictures. She seemed to have a knack for picking the right range of roles for her, from musical to comedy, to romance, to drama, and excelled in the industry after many of her contemporaries were left behind.

Kitty Foyle's message at the time was quite forward in it's thinking. Lauding a lead actress at a major studio to star in a film that promoted many principals that at the time were not considered common. Principals like single motherhood and female independence. Rogers though really raised the bar in her role, showing her depth and range and despite some of the elements on the film not holding up as well, particular elements like the belief that a woman can only rise so high, Rogers is stellar in her role. Next to her performance in Top Hat, this is my all time favorite Rogers role and the role that I really credit for helping me break the conventions of the stereotype that I had of her as well. The same stereotype that I envision that she so desperately wanted to prove that she could break. Ginger Rogers was establishing a new role, revealing in female empowerment, and embracing the changing culture of the time. A culture where many of America's women were entering the workplace to man the factories while the country was at war.

The film itself though, is based on Christopher Morley's 1939 novel, Story of an American Girl and it of itself is very different than the screen version. Adapted by famed screenwriter Dalton Trumbo (one of the Hollywood 10 who would later be blacklisted as Communist sympathizers) he is credited for having glamorized much of the traditionally more risque moments of the book. In the novel, Kitty originally has an abortion instead of a mis-carriage and Trumbo toned downed some of the explicit sexuality within to make it more palatable to the Motion Picture Association's rating system. The book's explicit nature was so profound that Rogers initially turned it down, only changing her mind after reading the screenplay. The film itself ends on a far more upbeat tone then the book, painting a picture for a more hopeful future, giving it a more traditional Hollywood ending. Still, Trumbo's work won him his first Oscar for screenwriting and helped establish himself as one of the pre-eminate writers in film throughout the 1940's, and even throughout the following three decades despite having to write under a pseudonym or use a front to get his work published from the Blacklisting.

Though some of the other performances in the film don't hold up as well as Rogers and many of the ideas and thoughts within may seem dated, in viewing the film as a product of the time you can see what a daring motion picture that it is, despite glamorizing some of the toils of the working woman's oppressive daily grind. As a film it helped to establish Rogers as more than just a dancer and comedienne, it made her a star in her own right. In terms of he greatest actresses of all time, I really think Ginger Rogers is vastly under-rated, trapped in the stereotype of her teaming with Fred Astaire. I firmly believe her to be the most diverse actress of her generation, excelling in all fields and genre's of film. Perhaps matched only in terms of diversity with the great Audrey Hepburn. Still Ginger is one of my favorite stars, if you've never seen the film treat yourself o a very surprising tale along with a very powerful performance from the one and only Ginger Rogers. Kitty Foyle: The Natural History of a Woman.

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Gerrad!

Movie Time: Rewind: Broadway Melody of 1936

Hey all,

Time to turn on the Way Back machine and look at another great film of yesteryear. The last few months I have really come to appreciate a new actress I have yet to highlight in the column, Eleanor Powell. The early 1930's were a wide open field in Hollywood. Audiences went to pictures in droves as an escape from the oppressing poverty of the Great Depression and the high days of radio were still a little ways off, let alone the on-set of television. Studios churned out pictures at an incredibly fast rate and many studios were trying to find out their identity. One studio that was in trouble in the early 30's was MGM.

By 1939, MGM would be the unparalleled titan of movie making, but early in the 30's they were still having trouble with their identity. The lady that really helped establish that was Eleanor Powell. Eleanor had been a dance prodigy since she was 11 years old and was a huge smash on Broadway with her electric dancing skills, particularly her tap dancing. She was called the "Queen of Taps", a moniker even Fred Astaire bowed to, citing her as the only person who ever intimidated him to dance with. Eleanor had several bit parts in films, but her performance in Broadway Melody of 1936 not only put her on the map, but MGM as well. The success of her films from 1935 to 1940 is one of the driving forces that established MGM as the home of the musical, and saved the company from bankruptcy.

Broadway Melody of 1936 was technically a sequel to the original Broadway Melody, one of the first talkie musicals in 1929, though it owes nothing to the first film in terms of story or characters. The film stars Powell as Irene, a young dancer who still has a crush on her high school sweetheart(Robert Taylor), who is now a big shot producer. She badly wants a part in his new act, but he is to busy romancing the financier of his play, a wealthy widow played by June Knight who is backing the play so she can have the part. When a newspaper reporter (Jack Benny) dreams up a famous French Dancer in his gossip column as a means to sell more papers, Powell begins impersonating the dancer to get the part. She is determined to show Taylor that she is good enough to survive on Broadway. Taylor wants the exposure Powell (as the French Dancer) will bring to his play, but doesn't know it is his former flame. In the end, Taylor and Benny have to decide what kind of choices they will have to make, and who they love.

This picture was Powell's first for MGM and her first as a lead actress. They surrounded her with some of there best talents, actors like Benny, Taylor, as well as marking this as the film debut of one Buddy Ebsen, the man who would later play Uncle Jed in the Beverly Hillbillies, though who cut his teeth as a song and dance man in many of MGM musicals throughout Hollywood's Golden Years. The real triumph of the film is the climax, a hugely elaborate piece set in a nightclub that is designed as a vehicle for each dancer. Ebsen, and his sister Vilma, dance, June Knight dances, and Eleanor Powell closes out the show to the song Broadway Rhythm in a doorbuster of a performance.

Broadway Rhythm was written by the great songwriter Arthur Freed, and culminate sin a number by Powell clad in a tuxedo tap dancing surrounded by trumpet players. Powell uses the entirety of the set

Powell was a trained ballet dancer who learned tap late after getting beat out for a lot of jobs by her lack of tap skills. She learned to tap with sandbags tied to her waist to keep her feet close to the ground and to dampen the more balletic style of her dance. When she does tap, she is amazing. Her machine gun style of tapping was unequaled and combined with the elegance of her balletic skills, she was un-comparable. What really amazed me was her skills at twirls and pirouettes, the flexibility combined with her long legs made her a dancer totally unlike anything movie goers had ever seen. I am an un-abashed fan of the classic Hollywood musical and the grandiose scope at which they operated. I can count only a few occurrences where I have been awestruck by a performance. Fred Astaire version of Puttin' On the Ritz. Gene Kelley and Don O'Conner in Singin' in the Rain. Powell floored me nearly every time I watched her. I picked Broadway Melody of 1936 because its the film that meant the most to her. Its the film that opened my eyes to the true genius that was her dance. I'm still searching for a copy of what I perceive to be her greatest performance, in the Red Skelton comedy I Dood it, where she does a Cow Rope dance that I would call impossible if I hadn't seen it performed.

Unfortunately after her stellar team up with Fred Astaire in Broadway Melody of 1940, Powell's career slowed down. Her production numbers had come under criticism for their ever increasing size and scope and after a surgery, she made only a few more films. All in all Powell's film career was brief, making less than 15 pictures. Less than that as the star. There were a few things about her career I never understood, specifically why studio's dubbed her voice in many of her films, despite the stellar voice she displayed on the songs they let her sing. It was a fallacy that Cyd Charisse, by many considered her successor, also suffered. I also didn't understand why MGM didn't team her up with other great dancers of her time. So many of her performances are wonderful tour-de-forces of her solo capability as a dancer. Plans to team her with Gene Kelly fell through on a sequel to her Broadway Melody series and once again in 1942 with dancer Dan Dailey in For Me and My Gal. Part of it I think were the others actors intimidation at her prowess, the other I think was her marriage to actor Glenn Ford in 1943. She made a few pictures after her marriage, including Sensations of 1945, largely overshadowed by also being the late W.C. Fields final film as well as a final team up with MGM in The Duchess of Idaho in 1950. Musicals had faded, given way to television to the most part by the late 50's and Powell did as well, along with her faith, hosting a Sunday morning television show for youths as an ordained minister. She did have a wonderful resurgence on the nightclub scene in the 1960's, singing and dancing well into her middle age.

Eleanor Powell is simply an amazing dancer. Even now I can watch one of her numbers and wonder how anyone could even compare to her. Ginger Rogers, her biggest contemporary at the time, was an actress who could dance. Eleanor was a dancer who could act. Not to take away from either girl, as each are performers who I hold a high regard for. Eleanor was simply on another level. Broadway Melody of 1936 is an amazing display of dancing skill, the first step of a series of films that showcase just how great she was. Broadway Melody of 1938 and 1940 continues that trend, the 1940 version especially with her dance numbers with Fred Astaire. Unfortunately many of her films are not on DVD yet and are quite difficult to find copies of. Still, I cannot recommend enough the caliber of performance she gives in each piece. Rehearsing until her feet bleed, striving for perfection. Powell's fresh look and dazzling smile always felt real in her performance, never a matter of having to smile for the scene, the woman loved dancing. She was once quoted as having said that she would rather dance than eat. I'm amazed at her continued ability to carry a dance number by herself, so many times and it's tragic that she didn't make more pictures.

Few could match the success or ability of Powell those first few years. I always thought it fitting that her final great film came out in Hollywood's Golden year, 1939, teaming with Fred Astaire. She made many good films after that, and even, in my opinion, had her best dance number. But without Eleanor, Hollywood would have been a far different place. Her contributions, so often downplayed when compared to the continued notoriety of Rogers, Astaire, and Kelly, should not be forgotten. Please check out 1935's Broadway Melody of 1936, from MGM. Eleanor Powell ha joined an elite list of actresses for me, joining the company of some of the all time greats, Ginger Rodgers, Grace Kelley, and Audrey Hepburn, as an actress who changed the way I look at motion pictures. Eleanor Powell was really the Queen of Taps, I'm in awe even now.

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Gerrad!

Movie Time: Rewind: Young Frankenstein

Hey all!

Time to turn back the clocks and look at another old school movie review, looking at great films made before the year 1976. In my Word Balloon column earlier this month I highlighted a comedy book and I thought I would continue the trend in this column and look at another great comedy. While I have highlighted several comedies over the last few years of this column, most have been from the 1930's. This time we are gonna flash forward out of Hollywood's golden years and into the early 1970's. This was a time of upheaval and change for studios, still trying to recover from the loss of the studio systems in the 60's, films, film makers, and audiences tastes were changing, making it a fun and fertile time for new styles and new choices. One writer and director, who had already had some previous success with projects like The Producers and Get Smart, had a banner year for comedies in 1974. The writer and director was Mel Brooks.

Brooks had been in the business for a while, but never before or since, has one person had a bigger impact on a genre of cinema in a single year than Brooks. In the same year he helped to create two of the most well received comedies of all time, the politically un-correct and hilarious Blazing Saddles and our film choice, the sublime comedy homage to the Universal horror pictures of the 30's. Young Frankenstein. Young Frankenstein starred one of the 1970's biggest comedians, Gene Wilder, along with a superb comedic supporting cast of Peter Boyle, Madelin Khan, Marty Feldman, and Teri Garr. I also thought this a fitting tie, as just a few months ago I highlighted the foundation of this movie, 1931's Frankenstein.

The premise of the film is pretty simple and fairly close to the plot of the original Frankenstein. Gene Wilder plays Frederick von Frankenstein, the grandson of the original Victor von Frankenstein, a young neurosurgeon who has spent his life trying to live down his family legacy. When he inherits the family castle, he travels to the old country to review it along with his tightly wound fiancee, Elizabeth (Madelin Khan). At the castle he finds the descendant of his grandfather's lab partner, Igor (Marty Feldman), a comely new lab assistant Inga (Teri Garr) and house mistress Frau Blucher (Cloris Leachman). Believing his grandfathers work to be impossible, he stumbles across a series of old journals and his grandfathers secret lab and comes to believe that it may be possible to re-animate the dead.

Frederick and Igor then steal a body from the grave yard and repeat the re-animation process, despite Igor taking the wrong brain from a local brain repository. They successfully bring the creature back to life (played by Peter Boyle) but he is wild and crazy. They manage to sedate him but the townspeople grow increasingly uncomfortable with the alleged experiments that Frederick is performing. Frau Blucher ends up freeing the creature and its roams the country side, meeting a blind hermit and a young gild before Frederick re-captures him through flattery. he attempts to train and civilize the beast, and even puts on a show for the townspeople to show the creature is harmless, unfortunately he is scared by a light exploding and goes on a rampage. He is captured and tormented but manages to escape, running into Elizabeth along the way. He ravishes her and she is taken back by his endowment and stamina. Frederick, desperate to correct his mistake, lures the creature back to the castle and transfers some of his intellect to the creature to stabilize his mind before the townspeople overrun and kill them both. In the end, the monster and Elizabeth fall in love, and Frederick and Inga find that intellect wasn't the only thing that was transferred between the two, much to Inga's delight.

Originally this film was pitched as a collaborative effort between Gene Wilder, Marty Feldman, and Peter Boyle by their mutual agent. Their agent also brought aboard Mel Brooks, having just finished working with him on the blockbuster hit Blazing Saddles. Brooks came aboard on the pretense that he could help co-write the feature with Wilder and an instant comedy classic was born. Gene Wilder and Mel made the best pictures of their career and while Blazing Saddles may be the higher earner, I think Young Frankenstein had the better staying power and better performances. Wilder himself blends the perfect bit of comedian and manic mad genius, going from a fairly mild mannered scientist to a true mad scientist through the course of the film. He has such a great sense of timing and delivery and the lines are crisp and sharp and still hold up over 35 years later.

Peter Boyle, while not speaking much, brings a real physical style of comedy to the film as the clumsy monster. Up until his turn as Ray Romano's father on Everybody Loves Raymond this was his most merited role. Still he really makes the role his own, having great on screen chemistry with Madelin Khan and Gene Wilder. I think the other stand out in the film is Teri Garr, who really takes what could easily be a stereotypical blond bimbo role and makes it something uniquely funny and sexy. As for Marty Feldman, with his boggled out eyes and leers, it's almost as if he was born to play the role of Igor. Watch throughout the film as the hump on his back changes places during scenes. He did this at first on his own, no one catching until they were well into filming and they thought it was so funny that they worked it into the film itself.

This film is often called Brooks love letter to monster movies, while it teases and pokes fun at the foibles of monster films, it never does so maliciously. It very much tries to capture the flavor that these early films brought to life, even going so far as to track down the original lab equipment from the 1931 version of Frankenstein to equip the lab and give it a greater sense of authenticity. Even Brooks insistence that the film be shot in black and white is part of the charm. He was so set on keeping the authenticity of black and white that they left the original home studio, Columbia, to take the picture to 20th Century Fox who would produce it the way Wilder and Brooks wanted.

Another great element of the film are the great bits of homage that extend beyond the horror vein. I still laugh every time I watch the great Fred Astaire homage off Wilder and Peter Boyle dancing to "Putting on the Ritz" and Boyle warbly cries out the strangled chorus. Classic comedy at its finest. You can also see clear dedications to some of the other great comedians of the 1930's, specifically Marty Feldman as he channels Groucho Marx's delivery and jokes in several scenes. Brooks even got one of the biggest actors of the 1970's, Gene Hackman, to cameo in the role of the Blind Man that the monster stumbles across. Hackman was a huge actor at the time, fresh off a huge Oscar winning turn in The French Connection just a year earlier. It just shows how much fun the cast and crew were having.

Comedy is one of the hardest mediums to do. So much of a comedy can become dated and loose its humor. It's increasingly rare to find a film that can retain the elements that made it funny 35 years after it came out. Young Frankenstein does just that, made my people who loved what they were doing. The core cast and director had so much fun making the picture, the even wrote extra scenes to film at the end of the movie simply to be able to work together a little bit more, for a little bit longer. It's a film that indelibly holds up to the testament of time, working both as an homage to the great horror films of the 30's and as a comedy. So much of Blazing Saddles comedy was about the time the film was made, despite being Brooks' comedic love letter to the western, it relied heavily on humor about things like racism, segregation, and the troubling issues of the early 70's. To me, Young Frankenstein is more a pure comedy. If you have never seen it, check it out, it's easily the best work of Mel Brooks career, and you'll laugh too.

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Gerrad!

Movie Time: Rewind: The Public Enemy

Hey all!

As promised this month it's time to spotlight a new actor in the column, the great James Cagney. Cagney worked for The Warner Brothers studio starting in the early 1930's usually playing a tough street kid who works his way up the criminal empire. Each studio had it's go to formula in the early days of Hollywood, Warners with gangster pictures, MGM with the musical, RKO and comedies, each studio tried to make a diverse range of pictures, but they also excelled in their specific category. The Warners Studio sold it's film to the working class American. While many studio's made films to take peoples minds off the Great Depression, Warner Bros. embraced the common man, flooding the market with pictures of gangsters and highlighting the criminal element, offering an escapism that people could relate to.

James Cagney himself grew up in Vaudeville and started out as a song and dance man, an image downplayed during his early years with the Warners studio. He had been working the theater circuit since 1919 and had acted in silent pictures in the mid 1920's. It was his run in the theater that had brought himself to the attention of the Warner Studio and ultimately got him his first contract, a three week deal that eventually ended up a 7 year commitment. Signed to a deal in 1930, Cagney worked in several pictures, often at breakneck speeds and often in films that played up to the tough guy image that studio head Jack Warner pushed on him. It was Cagney's seventh film with the studio that launched his career though, 1931's The Public Enemy directed by William Wellman, and co-starring the great Jean Harlow and Joan Blondell.

The Public Enemy starts out at the onset of the Prohibition, liquor and beer are outlawed and therein lies a huge opportunity for money to be made. Cagney plays Tom Powers, a young boy from humble beginnings who starts to work his way up the criminal ladder with his best friend, Matt Doyle (Edward Woods). they start out small, working for a local fence, stealing and shoplifting, but eventually work their way to more heinous crimes, including killing a police officer during a botched robbery attempt. Eventually they start working for a bootlegger named Paddy O'Brien (Robert Emmett O'Connor) and go from being apprentices to leading gangsters in the organization. Cagney sets himself apart from the rest of the pack by being tougher and more ruthless than his counterparts.

The duo enjoy the trappings of their lucrative lifestyles, wearing fancy suits, driving expensive cars, and dating beautiful women. This lifestyle doesn't sit well with Cagney's brother, played by Donald Cook, who is a shell shocked war veteran and wants their mother and family to have nothing to do with Cagney's blood money. Eventually though Cagney's greed and arrogance catch up to him, inciting a gang war that would cost him everything, and proving that crime doesn't pay.

There is so much about this movie that is iconic. At the time this film was made, it was using more state of the art recording equipment for sound and allowed for actors to really inflect tone and diction, giving the audience Cagney's machine gun-like speech patterns a whole new level of authenticity that movie goers hadn't yet seen on the silver screen. There is also the climatic ending, where Cagney "gets his". The scene sets the tone for not only Cagney's career, but for the genre itself for nearly the next two decades. It's brutal and honest and unflinching, just like Cagney. Perhaps the most important scene though is a sequence between Cagney and actress Mae Clark, in which during a fight Cagney loses his temper and shoves a grapefruit in her face. It really changed the way audiences looked at leading men in pictures from that point. No longer was the hero necessarily the guy in the white hat, it added shades of gray. The hero could be as flawed and hateful as the men he was fighting, bringing a new dimension to acting and creating the early anti-hero, an ache type that Cagney would never be quite able to shake in his career.

Cagney made several gangster movies during his first decade with the Warners, with the Public Enemy being his first starring vehicle. Films like Angels With Dirty Faces, Taxi!, The Roaring Twenties, and White Heat, leaving an indelible mark on cinema as our first tough guy. Cagney tried very hard to break out of those tough guy roles, making films such as Footlight Parade and Yankee Doodle Dandy, which highlighted his skills as a dancer. Sadly audiences craved the tough guy Cagney, never really allowing him to break free of the stereotype for too long.

Still, James Cagney remains to this day the poster child for the tough guy, playing the hard nosed criminal that is merciless and unforgiving, yet still finding that edge of pathos in even the most remorseless of killers that binds him to the audience in such a way as to root for him. The Public Enemy is Cagney's first really great film, the first in a career that would last nearly 50 years in show business. Take the time to check out Cagney's work, I know I was impressed. James Cagney in the Public Enemy, you won't be sorry you watched.


End of Line,
Gerrad!

Movie Time: Rewind: Holiday Inn

Hey all,

I'm back for a bit of belated posting, focusing on a Christmas edition of The Rewind, where I look at some of the great films made before the year of my birth, 1976. I've had a few new readers on the site thanks to joining Twitter so I thought I would take a few moments to talk about why I love old movies. I think at a certain point in your life you just want to watch quality films. So many movies today are all effects and glamour and action and the emphasis on story is almost lost. Most of the highly anticipated films of today are not particularly good movies, trading in quality of scripts for bigger budgets and special effects, never realizing that the most important quality of a film isn't just in how much money it makes, but how good the film is itself. Audiences can see through bad movies. For me, that is where the classic film comes in. Actors like Cary Grant, Steve McQueen, and Grace Kelley; directors like Hitchcock, Kapra, and John Ford made such a wide array of films and for the most part, they are well acted an scripted films made during a time when cinema was the entertainment of the masses. Each month in The Rewind, I post a particular movie highlighting either an actor or director or the films impact and why I think you should watch it. I know classic films are not for everyone, but there are some truly classic films out there that entire generations have never seen, and hopefully this can open an eye or two.

For this month, since its Christmas, I thought I would take a look at another perennial Christmas classic, Holiday Inn. Released in 1942 by Paramount Pictures the film starred Bing Crosby and Fred Astaire and two members of a song and dance team. Crosby is set to retire from the act with his fiancee, Lila (Virginia Dale) and move to his Connecticut farm. Lila decides that she isn't ready to retire and that she has fallen in love with Astaire. They are going to continue the show, and crestfallen, Crosby moves north. A year later Crosby has hit a rough patch, with life on the farm not being what he dreamed it would be. He dreams up an idea of creating an Inn that will only be open holidays and will feature elaborate show themes based on each holiday. Re-connecting with Astaire at a nightclub, he meets Linda Mason (Marjorie Reynolds) who is convinced that he is a big shot talent scout. After a mix up with Astaire, who gave her the ticket and the perception of Crosby, she goes to the Inn, where both she and Crosby discover they they stretched the truth about who they are.

Eventually Linda decides to join Crosby in the act and help open the inn. Meanwhile Lila dumps Astaire for a rich Texan and distraught, he goes to the inn as well, soon falling in love with Linda after an amazing drunken dance sequence. The next morning his memory is fuzzy and he can't remember who he danced with, but his agent has him convinced he has found the perfect partner. As each holiday roles around, Astaire gets closer to finding out the truth of who he danced with, while Crosby tries to keep them apart, from sabotaging dance numbers to deliberately keeping Linda from the Inn. In the end, Astaire invites Linda to Hollywood to film a movie version of Holiday Inn, which she accepts, mostly because Crosby never told her how he felt about her. As Crosby mopes throughout Thankgiving, he comes to realize that he loves Linda and wants her in his life. The ending is then a reversal of the beginning of the movie, with Crosby stealing Astaire's girl.

The plot of the movie is a lot like many other romantic light hearted musicals made during the golden years of the musical, light and shallow. What makes this movie such a classic is the films score and musical numbers. All of the songs were written by the great composer Irving Berlin, and with the exception of Easter Parade, were all written especially for this film. It introduced two all time classic Christmas songs, including "Happy Holidays" and the number one best selling Christmas Single of all time, "White Christmas." This is the film that established what is for many people, the ultimate voice of Christmas in Bing Crosby. He is so identifiable singing this song that even after almost 70 years, his version of "White Christmas" still remains the gold standard. Holiday Inn boasts 4 Oscar winning songs, all sung by Bing Crosby, and the impact of "White Christmas" was so profound, that in 1954 Crosby would go onto re-make a very similar version of Holiday Inn, called White Christmas with Danny Kaye.

The movie doesn't stop with just Crosby's vocals though, you still have Fred Astaire in his dancing prime. He dances several numbers, including his unforgettable drunk dance with Marjorie Reynolds, as well as a minuet/jazz combo that is quite good. I think it is his Fourth of July firecracker dance though that really sets him apart in the film. Using small fireworks, he literally explodes across the floor in a beautifully choreographed dance. Fred also actually had several drinks during the drunk dance to add some believability to the performance. Astaire and Crosby are two of the biggest musical stars of the 1940's, and having them together in this film is another bonus of this holiday classic.

Mind you there are some flaws in the film. The Abraham Lincoln number set during Abe's birthday comes off as especially dated, with Crosby singing a number in black face. While an accepted act at the time, today's viewer will see it as an especially uncomfortable look at a tie in American history where prejudice was still overlooked.. Some versions of the film have edited that number out of viewings, especially the AMC channel, though if you can catch it on TCM you can see the whole piece.

Holiday Inn may not have the same Christmas weight of It's a Wonderful Life (which I reviewed last year) or A Christmas Carol (which I nearly did this year) but it does have a very important place in history. No other movie can boast a greater repository of holiday songs, Christmas or otherwise. Fred Astaire dancing, Crosby's vocals, all in the warm-hearted package that you all want from a Christmas movie make this a percent holiday film for everyone to enjoy. If you want to check out Holiday Inn, AMC is running an edited version of the film throughout Christmas Eve, so take some time out to watch a great Christmas treat.

Thanks for reading, next month's Rewind will take us into the action genre with the spotlight on James Cagney.

End of Line.
Gerrad!

Movie Time: Rewind : Frankenstein

Hey all,

So with it being Halloween (okay, sorry I was a little lat eon posting this) I thought I would take a look at one of my favorite Halloween movies, 1931's Frankenstein, by James Whale and starring one of the kings of monster movies, the indelible Boris Karloff. Next to Dracula, Frankenstein may be the most universally recognized monster ever put on film. I should point out that the only reason I went with Frankenstein this year over that film is that last Halloween I put the spotlight on Dracula's director Ted Browning with his film Freaks.

Universal Picture established the horror genre throughout the 1930's and into the early 1940's with it's stable of great horror icons, like Karloff, Bela Lugosi, Lon Chaney, and his son, Lon Chaney, Jr. Teaming these actors with their collection of great movie monster properties, like Dracula, Frankenstein, The Invisible Man, The Wolf-Man, the Creature from the Black Lagoon, and so on, Universal was the pre-emanate studio for horror. What I loved about Frankenstein, and the other early 1930's films produced is that they are all pre-Hayes Code films, meaning made before they instituted the motion picture rating system. These films tend to be very sensational (for the time) and exploitative, the likes that won't be seen again until the independent film rush of the late 50's and early 1960's.

Let's dive deeper in to the story of Frankenstein, I think a tale we all know very well. Scientist Victor Frankenstein discovers the ability to re-animate dead tissue and decides to create life. Using a body salvaged from several different corpses, the doctor and his assistant (named Fritz in this film, though displaying all the qualities of the character of Igor that will eventually become ubiquitous with the film) they discover they still need a brain. Fritz is sent t get the brain of a former colleague of the doctor's brain who has passed on, but he damages the brain and takes a different one. Using the doctor's technology the duo re-animate the monster in one of the screens most famous scenes. Unfortunately they realize they have created a monster, and lock the beast away. Fritz mercilessly teases the creature, until he revolts and escapes, finding a young girl on the edge of a lake, whom he bonds with, then kills in the lake. Dr. Frankenstein tries to move on with his life and find happiness in marriage, only to discover that his monster still hunts for him. Frankenstein leads the angry mob of townsfolk after the monster, culminating in a final battle an an old mill.

Like I said, a story we all know very well. First off you have to look at the hype surrounding the film. The studio didn't release any photos of the monster and many people speculated that Universals biggest star, Lugosi, was set to play the monster. Frankenstein became the signature role for Karloff, which really launched him into continued success for Universal throughout his career. The make up and effects at the time were cutting edge, and I really think the make up still hold up on Karloff today. Designed by Jack Pierce, with input by director James Whale, they created the signature flat head and neck bolts that is now synonymous with the character. Pierce would also design Lon Chaney's Wolf Man make-up, as well as Karloff again in The Mummy. Legend has it that it was after the make-up tests, which where found to be disastrous, that Lugosi was removed from the project, opening it up for Karloff.

The impact of director James Whale can't be denied either. Whale directed several hits in the early 1930's, becoming one of Universals go to guys for horror. He made not only Frankenstein, but the sequel Bride of Frankenstein, The Invisible Man, The Man in the Iron Mask, The Old Dark House (which launched the haunted House genre of films) and a very off cast success for him, the musical Show Boat. While many consider Whale's sequel, Bride of Frankenstein his masterpiece (and most successful picture) I love the original. Unfortunately by the late 1930's and into the early 40's, Whale's career stalled, being relegated to a string of unsuccessful B pictures before retiring from film all together. You can really find a lot of Whale's personal life in his films, persecution, fear, and pain. Even loneliness and abandonment, issues he struggled with in life. Whale was a homosexual, forced to keep his orientation a secret, many believed that this was a contributing factor to his suicide in the 1950's. A movie starring Ian McKellan as Whale with Brendan Fraser called Gods and Monsters tells the tale of Whale's final days.

Whale changed a lot of the books original plot to fit his vision of the film. There are elements from author Mary Shelley's book that are skipped or truncated to fit into the film. Really I think Whale was boiling the film down to the base elements, using things from his own life to create a movie that wasn't trapped by the Victorian language and make it something that audiences could relate to. Shelley's beast teaches himself to read and rationalize his violent behavior by the treatment he has received. In this version the "bad brain" is the factor that makes the creature a monster. I also think that creating this silent and imposing creature really added to the mytholgy that Whale was looking for. For my money, Karloff is far more menacing barely speaking than delivering speeches.

This film, along with Dracula, really launched Universals success throughout the Depression. It helped to create a genre of films that are still prevalent today. Horror is not one of my favorite genres, but anytime any of the great classic horror films comes up, I watch them. Frankenstein is one of the best films sof its time, a classic that withstands the years because it's theme is something we all can relate to. My Halloween pick this year is Universals Frankenstein from 1931, by director James Whale and starring Boris Karloff. If you have not seen it, you are missing out.


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Gerrad!

Movie Time: Rewind: Jaws

Hey all,

For this month's edition of the Rewind we go back to the last year of eligibility for this column, 1975. A year that gave us perhaps the first true summer blockbuster and the film that launched maybe the most important director of the past three decades, Steven Spielberg. That movie, of course, is Jaws starring Roy Scheider, Richard Dreyfuss, Robert Shaw, and Lorraine Gary.

Jaws is a film a lot of people HAVE probably seen, so I won't spend a great deal of time on the plot of the film. Suffice it to say that it is set in the resort town of Amnity Island and concerns itself with the local police chief Martin Brody (Scheider) trying to protect it's citizens from a bloodthirsty great white shark. He tries to close the beach but is overruled by the city council in an effort to keep the profits rolling into the town from the tourist trade. After several attacks by the great white, Brody enlists the help of a marine biologist named Matt Hooper (Dreyfuss) and a shark hunter Quint (Shaw) in an effort to hunt down the beast and kill it. Lorraine Gary plays Brody's wife Ellen.

Jaws was an important picture in many ways and laid the groundwork for a very common practice for movie studios today, summer blockbusters. It is often described as one of the first "High Concept" pictures, something that could be made as a single film, but with potential for additional films. It is at least the first modern one if you don't count the serial reels from the 30's and 40's. Jaws also tested so well with advance audiences it was released on more screens than any film in history to that point, something that studios would build on in '76 with The Omen and especially in '77 with Star Wars. Based on this success, Jaws became the first film to be released nationwide on hundreds of screens coupled simultaneously with a huge marketing campaign, a then unheard of practice. It became a "tent pole" film for studios to release around and established the summer as the time to do it. Jaws was a gigantic blockbuster for the studio and the leader to modern day film practices.

This film was also Steven Spielberg's second film, having directed The Sugarland Express for producers Richard Zanuck and David Brown, who were also producing this film. Based on the novel by writer Peter Benchley, who cameos in the movie as a reporter, Benchley also wrote the first three drafts of the film before bowing out, establishing much of the films feel. Spielberg did cut several elements from the book, wanting to focus on the three mens struggle against the whale and the camaraderie that comes from that struggle.

Jaws, for all intents and purposes, was plagued with delays and shooting difficulties, even earning it the nickname "Flaws" during production. Plagued with script problems after Benchley left and technical difficulties, it was a highly stressful shoot. Three mechanical sharks (nicknamed Bruce) were created for the film and after construction, they were flown to the location shoot in Martha's Vineyard. Unfortunately they had never been tested in water and didn't float or work right. Shooting at sea also held several complications with unwanted sea vessels wandering into the shoot, weather problems, even problems with the sea worthiness of Quint's boat, The Orca, which began to sink once the actors boarded it.

Still the production difficulties provided Spielberg time to tighten up the script, making it much more Hitchcockian in spirit, turning it into a tense and deadly thriller. He really lays on the taunt suspense by not even showing the shark for the first hour of the movie, making "Bruce's" first showing that much more scream worthy. Even so most of the cast and crew were tired of the production and tension was high as the film drew to a close.

All of that was forgotten as Jaws was released to the pubic in July of 1975. It went on to shatter box office records and become the first film to gross 100 million dollars at the box office. World wide it made over $470 million and is one of the first films to truly have sequels in the modern era, though Benchley and Spielberg would not be a part of them. The film helped establish Dreyfuss as an up and comer in the industry (he would go on to team with Spielberg in Close Encounters of the Third Kind) and helped make Scheider a leading man. Robert Shaw, an industry veteran, was a notorious drunk during film making and difficult to work with, though his turn as Quint may have been his most memorable performance thanks to his monologue about being in the water at the sinking of the USS Indianapolis, easily one of the highlight performances of the film.

For Spielberg, this film launched his career and he obviously went on to become one of the most important directors in history. Without Jaws, films like Close Encounters, Raiders of the Lost Ark, ET, Schindler's List, Saving Private Ryan, are not possibilities. It was his vision and dedication to making the picture that works, without him Jaws wouldn't be the movie that it is today. it should also be mentioned here that Spielberg's long time composer, John Williams, worked with him on the film (both having been together for Sugarland Express) and his score also went a long way in establishing the mood and tension on the film. Williams famous score only highlighted the terror and suspense of the unseen shark, and created a sound universally recognized as something of dread and foreboding. It was Jaws that established him as the premier composer in Hollywood as well, allowing him to work on scores for such movies as the Superman franchise, the Star Wars films, Indiana Jones, even Harry Potter. His contributions are just as important.

The films impact over the years cannot be ignored, influencing filmmakers from Ridley Scott (who pitched his 1979 horror/thriller Alien as Jaws in space) to JJ Abrams (who shot 2008 Cloverfield much in the same vein as Jaws; not showing the monster until the end; only in flashes). Despite the release of several lackluster sequels, the original Jaws is still a much beloved classic. A movie who's impact and resonance still holds after nearly 35 years. This is in fact my room mates favorite film of all time, and with his birthday this month, this column was dedicated to him and his love of great classic films. If you haven't seen Jaws you are in for a treat, if you have, blow the dust off the copy and treat yourself to a truly classic film by one of the masters.

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Gerrad!

Movie Time: Rewind: The Adventures of Robin Hood

Hey all!

Sorry again for the interruption in regularly scheduled posting, but what can I say, work has beat me around this week. Anyway, enough of the complaints and back to action in general. Whenever I think about great movies of the past to highlight, I try to keep things new and fresh, which isn't always possible. Like any movie, regardless of the year, you like who you like and what you like, and many times it filters back to the same people. After two years of columns, it may be very easy to pick out great films you love, it IS a bit harder to pick out actors, directors, or even genres you haven't tackled before.

Luckily I watched the end of a great movie I watched some time back and it prompted me to this months pick, 1938's The Adventures of Robin Hood. The film, distributed from Warner Bros. and directed by Michael Curtiz (known for his tight moving scripts and penchant ability for fast paced epic action) starred Errol Flynn in arguably the biggest film of his career. Flynn was only 29 at the time of this film, but had already starred in films like Mutiny on the Bounty and Captain Blood, swashbuckling epics of renown. It was Robin Hood though that cemented Flynn as Hollywood's leading heart throb and playboy.

Co-starring his long time screen partner the great Olivia de Havilland, The Adventures of Robin Hood is loosely based on the myths of Sherwood Forest and Robin Hood, robbing the rich and rewarding the poor, in the face of the crooked Prince John and courting the beautiful maid Marion. The film starts out with Robin returning from a hunt to find the wicked Prince John (the great Claude Rains) assuming power of the throne, as the rightful King is a prisoner of war from the Crusades. John, aided by Sir Guy of Gisborn (Basil Rathbone) and the Sheriff of Nottingham (Melvin Cooper) begin raising taxes and oppressing the people. Robin, loyal to the rightful King, speaks out against the Prince, who vows to stop Robin and chases him into the the surrounding forests of Sherwood. There Robin gathers support for his cause with the likes of Will Scarlett and Little John and the rest of his Merry Men, terrorizing the rich and helping the poor, all the while trying to court Maid Marion. He eludes John's plot to capture him at an archery contest where the prize is a golden arrow presented by Maid Marion. After evading capture, Robin tricks his way into the castle and confronts Guy and Prince John, defeating them and freeing Marion from her cell, intimately restoring King Richard to the crown and marrying his lady love.

The story is something everyone knows, and a big part of the reason for that is this movie. The basis for nearly every Robin Hood tale told since, from Kevin Costner's Prince of Thieves, to Disney's animated Robin Hood. Warner Bros. version was the most expensive movie they had made up until that point in their film making history at nearly two million dollars at films end. Originally set to star Warner top draw, James Cagney (who walked out on his contract due to dis-satisfaction with the studio), it was shelved for three years until heavy pressure from the Haynes office concerning the exploitation and violence of Warner's gangster movies led them to dust it off and make the film, figuring that a historical epic couldn't get them in any trouble.

They had brought in director William Keighly first, due to his expertise in the use of Technicolor in films (in fact, all 12 Technicolor cameras in existence at the time where in use on this movie) but was replaced by Curtiz after producers felt his action scenes were not impactful enough. This was one of 12 films that Curtiz and Flynn would make together, despite the fact that neither man liked each other and tensions would also mount high on the set. It is also one of 8 films that Flynn would make with Olivia de Havilland. Considered one of the 30's best film couples, along with Astaire and Rogers, the two would make a string of financially successful films together.

Flynn himself, already a rising star at Warner Bros. exploded after this film, identifying him as a swashbuckling ladies man of action, a role he would play both on and off the screen. Flynn lived hard and played hard and was a notorious drinker, smoker and womanizer, even being brought to trial on now less than 3 rape charges, all of which where refuted. Flynn relished his role as playboy and bon vivante and lived life to the fullest extent. His dashing ways and mis-spent youth unfortunately also drove him to an early grave. A bout with malaria in his youth had weakened his heart, making him ineligible to serve in WW2, and combined with the drinking and smoking, as well as a nasty bout of food poisoning in early 1959, led to a heart attack and pre-mature death at the age of 50.

To return to the film though, it is shot in beautiful Technicolor and is really the gold standard of great swashbuckling films, sword fighting and dashing heroic leads. Some of it may seem cliche nowadays, but the fact that this film is the basis for those cliches that make it so timeless. What attracts me to the film is that it os really the essence of fun at the movies. A great popcorn film that provides adventure and excitement, and it stars one of Hollywood's most charismatic actors in his prime. If you haven't seen Warner Bros. 1938 film The Adventures of Robin Hood, check it out, you are in for a real treat.

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Gerrad!

Movie Time: Rewind: Country Girl

Hey all,

Time for this month's edition of the Rewind (as the one from earlier made up for spacing it last month.) I have covered an awful lot of movies and actors over the past few years and it is difficult to find new actors or actresses to spotlight. Especially considering how I watch movies. I tend to watch an actor or director and try to watch every film they have done, when I start to get sparse on that one, I move to another. While there are many great Spencer Tracy films, I haven't gotten to him yet so I run back into the great films that I have already seen. This month I thought we would look at a movie that shines the spotlight on a new actor, as well as 2 other actors who have made several appearances on the Rewind, 1954's Country Girl from Paramount Pictures.

Directed and adapted for the screen by George Seaton, it starred Bing Crosby as a washed up/has-been actor named Frank Elgin, once one of the biggest musical draws in the country, only to have succumbed to the effects of alcoholism. Co-starring Grace Kelley as his wife Georgia, she is the long suffering woman trapped in a one sided marriage to keep Frank alive and in work. When producer Bernie Dodd (the great William Holden) offers Frank a final chance at glory in a musical he is producing, its up to Georgina to keep Frank sober enough, through any means necessary, to keep working and keep that final chance at glory alive.

Underneath the hard and bitter shell of Kelly's character is a woman of passion, trapped by the responsibilities of marriage. Dodd's grows from hating the controlling and cold demeanor of Georgina to finding a soft and passionate center. The strained love triangle is nearly torturous as Kelly tries to keep the booze addled Crosby working, and Holden is torn by his dedication to Crosby as an actor and to the picture, and the burning desires he feels for Crosby's wife.

The Country Girl is a powerful movie, especially looking at the lead actor in Bing Crosby. Mostly known for light-hearted romantic singing fair, his dark turn as an aging alcoholic singer is a dramatic and unexpected turn from Crosby. It was the first time in a movie I really saw him act or emote, it was intense. So many of his films were comedies or musicals, to watch him play this role on the surface, the role he had been playing in film and radio for years, seems natural. Its that other level, the one below, where he shows off just what kind of range he had.

Grace Kelly is impeccable as always. Here she is at the height of her popularity, rivaled only by Audrey Hepburn as the biggest female star on the planet. Her performance as the tortured and lonely wife won her an Oscar that year, beating out what many people thought was a sure fire win for Judy Garland in A Star is Born. Kelly had a nearly unrivaled run in the the mid 50's, filming five films in 1954 alone. She had found early success with Gary Cooper in High Noon, but in '54 she filmed Dial M for Murder and Rear Window with Hitchcock, Green Fire with Stewart Granger, The Bridges at Toko-Ri with William Holden but it was Country Girl gave her her only Oscar. She made only 3 more films after 1954, before retiring from movies completely in the late 50's to marry the Prince of Monaco.

William Holden on the other hand was on the rise in the 50's. He had starred previously with Kelly in the Bridges at Toko-Ri, about a pilot on a suicide mission in World War 2, and was a natural fit as the fiery and bombastic Dodds. Holden and Kelly really captured the smoldering tension that lie underneath their characters in the film. Holden, angry and incensed by Kelly's character, whom he sees as the reason for Crosby's disillusionment and fear. Her domineering and shrewish ways, controlling and forcing Crosby to do what must be done, yet eventually seeing the truth beneath Crosby's facade, at the deeply flawed and troubled person that she has been holding together. The burning passion that waits beneath the surface for these two, and the stark reality of the effects of alcoholism and misogyny on a marriage.

Truthfully, these were stark and hard topics for a film in the 1950's. Where so much of Americana and sensibility was about the American way of life, this film dared to lay a truth to the dark effects of relationships and the dangers of addiction and failure. Crosby really found a level of acting he hadn't ever displayed before, showing us that beneath the smiling facade could lay an actor of depth. I have watched several Crosby films since this one, and never have I seen the same commitment or pathos in his performance. Kelly is steel and sex in the role, hardened until Holden cracks her shell, coaxing two tremendous performances out of each actor.

All three of these actors made a lot of films, and while this may not be my favorite Holden film (the Wild Bunch) or my favorite Kelly film (Rear Window) {both already covered in previous Rewinds!!} it is my favorite Bing Crosby film, and easily rates among the better pictures that you can watch. Check out The Country Girl, from Paramount Pictures and remind yourself why movies are great.

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Gerrad!