The DVD Report #17: August 28, 2007
Oscar has never been kind to films made in languages other than English. Even in the waning days of silent films when all films shown in the U.S. were released with English subtitles, masterpieces such as Carl Theodore Dreyer's The Passion of Joan of Arc and G.W. Pabst's Pandora's Box (both of which are available in Criterion Special Editions) never stood a chance. Of course it can be argued that those films were ignored not because they were foreign made but because they weren't talkies, the same fate which kept Charles Chaplin's City Lights from getting its due from the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. That argument, however, goes out the window when early talking films made in foreign languages were dubbed into English for American audiences and became hits, but were still ignored by Oscar. Rene Clair's French musicals Under the Roofs of Paris and Le Million, and his comedy A Nous la Liberté which inspired Chaplin's Modern Times, were extremely popular in the U.S. and appeared on numerous ten best lists but only A Nous la Liberté received an Oscar bid, and that was for its art direction. All three are available on Criterion DVDs. Josef von Sternberg's The Blue Angel, the influential film that introduced Marlene Dietrich to world audiences, didn't stand a chance with Oscar even though it was filmed in both German and English. It doesn't help that the English language version, which was the only version shown in the U.S. at the time, was so sanitized for puritanical American audiences that it lost its zing. The Academy, to its credit, did nominate the von Sternberg-Dietrich follow-up Hollywood film, Morocco, which accounted for Dietrich's only Oscar nomination. Both versions of The Blue Angel are included on the Kino DVD. Morocco is available as part of Universal's Marlene Dietrich Collection. Fritz Lang's M, a Criterion Special Edition DVD, was a highly popular and influential German film that brought both its director and star, Peter Lorre, to Hollywood, but the German film stood no chance with the Academy either. French films maintained their popularity with American audiences from the mid-thirties through the early forties as films made in mid-thirties French films were slowly released here. Mayerling appeared on numerous ten best lists in 1937, but failed to charm the Academy despite the fact that its star, Charles Boyer, was by then a major Hollywood star, winning his own Oscar nomination that year for Conquest. Neither Mayerling nor Conquest are available on commercial DVDs in the U.S. Finally in 1938, with World War II looming, the Academy saw fit to nominate Jean Renoir's anti-war masterpiece, Grand Illusion, another Criterion Special Edition, for Best Picture (which holds the distinction of being the first foreign film ever nominated for Best Picture - ed.). To be fair, English-language foreign films didn't fare any better with the Academy during this period. None of Alfred Hitchcock's British-made films were nominated for Oscars, not even the masterpieces The 39 Steps and The Lady Vanishes, both of which are available as Criterion Special Editions. On the other hand, Oscar loved Hollywood-produced English films such as The Citadel and Goodbye, Mr. Chips. It wasn't until after the war that foreign films reached American audiences in appreciable numbers, the Academy opening its arms widest for English-language foreign films such as Olivier's Henry V and Hamlet, Lean's Brief Encounter and Great Expectations, and Powell-Pressburger's Black Narcissus and The Red Shoes, all of which are available as Criterion Special Edition DVDs. Having overlooked Roberto Rossellini's masterworks, Open City and Paisan in 1946 and 1947 respectively, the Academy belatedly decided to bestow official recognition on Vittorio De Sica's Italian neorealist film, Shoeshine, by giving it its first Oscar for Best Foreign Film. Open City and Shoeshine are available on DVD in the U.S.; Paisan is not. Foreign films did not receive a category of their own until 1956. In the meantime, the Academy singled out a foreign film released in the U.S. for each year between 1947 and 1956 with the exception of 1953. Among the films honored during this period were De Sica's The Bicycle Thief, Akira Kurosawa's Rashomon and Rene Clement's Forbidden Games. Federico Fellini's La Strada became the first recipient of the competitive award. All these films are available as Criterion Special Edition DVDs. Under the Academy's new rules, films are submitted for consideration by country of origin and voted upon for nomination by members of a select committee. This practice has done a lot for bringing otherwise obscure films to the forefront. On the other hand, it has resulted in shutting out some highly popular films in the years when the country of origin either failed to select their most obvious choice or otherwise had too many good films to choose from. Aside from the Best Foreign Film category, the most popular foreign films have been nominated in other categories as well, including Best Picture. Foreign language films were at their peak of popularity in the U.S. in the early-to-mid-1970s when, for three straight years from 1972 through 1974, a foreign language film managed to be included in the nominations for Best Picture. Those films were Jan Troell's The Emigrants, Ingmar Bergman's Cries and Whispers and Francois Truffaut's Day for Night. In the 31 years since, only three more foreign language films have been nominated for Best Picture: Roberto Benigni's's Life Is Beautiful (1998), Ang Lee's Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon (2001) and Clint Eastwood's Letters From Iwo Jima (2006). The latter may be in a foreign language but it is very much an American film in which most of the dialogue just happens to be in Japanese. The 2006 Oscar winner for Best Foreign Film was The Lives of Others, which has just been released on DVD. The film, by first time feature director Florian Henckel von Donnersmarck, is a triumph both as historical drama and taut thriller. Set in 1984 with chilling Orwellian references, it is accurately described by the director on his commentary as a truthful story, as opposed to a true one. The detailed tactics of the Stasi (East German Secret Police) before the fall of the Berlin Wall are all based on well documented actual practices. Ulrich Muhe, the greatest actor in East Germany, and later in unified Germany as well, was himself the victim of Stasi informants that included his own wife, the mother of his only child. The actor, who died in July of stomach cancer at the age of 54, is riveting as a member of the Stasi who develops a conscience, ultimately saving the life of the playwright he is at first eager to spy upon. With references to Anna Karenina and the Pieta as well as 1984, the film's moving redemptive ending is one of the most satisfying in all of cinema. It is easily one of the three best films released in the U.S. so far this year, all of them released in their country of origin in 2006. The others are The Wind That Shakes the Barley and Black Book, both of which are available on DVD now in Region 2 and will soon be available in Region 1. Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright David Mamet (Glengarry Glen Ross) made his directorial debut with the lean and mean House of Games (1987) which has been given a spiffy new Criterion upgrade. Mamet's wife at the time, Lindsay Crouse (Places in the Heart) stars as a psychiatrist and best selling author involved with con man Joe Mantegna (TV's Joan of Arcadia). Lilia Skala (Lilies of the Field) brings her considerable charm to the role of Crouse's mentor. The film itself is a matter of taste, but it sure does look good in its new transfer. Despite a plot with holes enough to drive a truck through, Fracture, directed by Gregory Hoblit (Primal Fear) is a tense courtroom thriller with Anthony Hopkins (The Remains of the Day, Shadowlands) chewing up the scenery while Ryan Gosling (The Notebook, Half Nelson) slowly figures out what is going on. The always interesting Joseph Gordon-Levitt (Mysterious Skin, Brick) and Jeff Daniels (Fly Away Home, The Squid and the Whale) are the principal reasons for latching on to a copy of The Lookout, writer Scott Frank's (Out of Sight, The Interpreter) directorial debut. Gordon-Levitt's portrayal of the brain damaged protagonist is easily the screen's best portrayal of a "slow" character since Tom Hulce's retarded garbage collector in Dominick and Eugene. Daniels has some nice moments as his blind roommate in this tale of a bank robbery gone wrong. DVDs of TV series have become big business. They seem to serve two main purposes, providing viewers with pristine copies of their favorite shows and giving others the opportunity to catch up with shows they may have missed while watching something else without the benefit of a DVD recorder or similar device. As we get ready for the new TV season, those who spent last season watching Veronica Mars - Season 3 can find out what went down on House - Season 3. Similarly those who were glued to their sets watching Survivor - Seasons 13 & 14 can find out why their friends and neighbors were so fascinated with Ugly Betty - Season 1 and those that supported 24 - Season 6 to the bitter end can find out what was so great about Heroes - Season 1. The under-viewed Friday Night Lights - Season 1 should at last find the support it deserved all along. -Peter J. Patrick (August 28, 2007) |
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The DVD Report #16: August 21, 2007
I began going to the movies in earnest fifty years ago, the summer I was 13. Many of the films I saw in theatres in 1957, as well as many of that year's films I've since caught up with, are currently available on DVD. The year's big awards winner, and still deserving of all its honors, was David Lean's The Bridge on the River Kwai. With its brilliant score accented by the invigorating Colonel Bogey March, its mammoth art direction and set design, and its breathtaking cinematography, the film is still a pleasure to look at and listen to. Aside from a forgettable romantic subplot, the story of a clash of wills in a Japanese prisoner of war camp remains top notch entertainment. William Holden (Stalag 17, Love Is a Many-Splendored Thing) receives top billing as a soldier leading a small unit ordered to destroy the titled bridge, but it is Alec Guinness (Kind Hearts and Coronets, The Lavender Hill Mob) as the vain British colonel duped into building the bridge, and Sessue Hayakawa (Three Came Home, Hell to Eternity) as the Japanese commandant who knows exactly how to play him, who command our attention in their unforgettable duel of wits. Charles Laughton was offered the Guinness part, but turned it down because he didn't understand the character. Instead, he gave us one of his greatest performances in a role he understood well, the scowling barrister (court room defense attorney) in Agatha Christie's Witness for the Prosecution. A rare film directed by Billy Wilder (Some Like It Hot, The Apartment), that he didn't write himself, the film has more twists and turns than any other mystery ever written. Matching Laughton's (The Private Life of Henry VIII, Mutiny on the Bounty) brilliance are Marlene Dietrich (The Blue Angel, Destry Rides Again)in her best film role in years as the title character; Elsa Lanchester (Bride of Frankenstein, Rembrandt), Laughton's real-life wife, in a role written for the screen version expressly for her as a nurse keeping her eye on the ailing Laughton; and Una O'Connor (The Invisible Man, The Informer) repeating her stage triumph as the murder victim's hearing-impaired housekeeper. The one off-note is Tyrone Power (The Long Gray Line, The Eddy Duchin Story) playing against type as Dietrich's milquetoast husband accused of murdering a rich old lady for her money. Henry Fonda produced TV director Sidney Lumet's (Dog Day Afternoon, Network) first film and gave himself one of his best roles as a juror in 12 Angry Men. The film, which has since been used as the prototype jury room scene for just about every TV series out there, has Fonda as the sole holdout for a quick conviction in what appears on the surface to be a slam dunk case of murder. Layers of the prosecution's case are peeled away as are layers of various jurors' prejudices. The strong supporting cast includes Lee J. Cobb (On the Waterfront, Exodus), Jack Warden (Shampoo, The Verdict), E.G. Marshall (Interiors, Nixon) and Ed Begley (Sweet Bird of Youth, The Unsinkable Molly Brown). The darkest days of World War I are explored in Stanley Kubrick's (Dr. Strangelove, A Clockwork Orange) Kirk Douglas starrer, Paths of Glory. Douglas (The Bad and the Beautiful, Lust for Life) is outstanding as a French defense officer trying to get at the truth in the court-martial of three men who refuse to take part in a suicide mission ordered by malevolent generals George Macready (Gilda, Tora! Tora! Tora!) and Adolphe Menjou (The Front Page, Pollyanna). Based on a true story, the film was banned in France for decades. Playing against type, Burt Lancaster (From Here to Eternity, Elmer Gantry) and Tony Curtis (Houdini, Operation Petticoat) are two of the nastiest characters ever put on celluloid in the NYC noir, Alexander Mackendrick's Sweet Smell of Success. Lancaster is the egomaniacal Broadway columnist patterned after Walter Winchell and Curtis is the sleazy press agent who will do anything to curry his favor. Susan Harrison, who makes her screen debut as Lancaster's sister, came briefly out of obscurity in 2000 when her daughter, Darva Conger, courted notoriety as an instant bride on TV's Who Wants to Marry a Multi-Millionaire. Don't believe everything you see on TV is the basic message of A Face in the Crowd, directed by Elia Kazan (A Streetcar Named Desire, East of Eden), featuring Andy Griffith (TV's The Andy Griffith Show, Matlock) in a tour de force performance as an overnight TV star who becomes drunk with his newfound fame and power. Patricia Neal is equally superb as the woman who discovers him and directs his career to its logical conclusion. Walter Matthau (The Fortune Cookie, The Odd Couple) and Lee Remick (Anatomy of a Murder, Days of Wine and Roses) provide finely-etched supporting performances. Among the many fine foreign language films making their way into U.S. theatres in 1957 were Federico Fellini's Nights of Cabiria, Robert Bresson's A Man Escaped, Carl Theodor Dreyer's Ordet and Ingmar Bergman's Smiles of a Summer Night. Of these, Fellini's Cabiria proved to have the most immediate impact. Fellini's wife, Giulietta Masina, who had scored in the director's La Strada, was the chief reason for its success. Her portrayal of a prostitute looking for love, but finding only heartbreak and misery was one of the finest performances of the year in any language. Fellini's sit-up-and-take-notice images of modern Rome pre-dated those in his masterpiece, La Dolce Vita, by only a few years. Tops among romantic comedies was Leo McCarey's remake of his own Love Affair, re-titled An Affair to Remember, with Deborah Kerr, Cary Grant and Cathleen Nesbitt in the roles once played by Irene Dunne, Charles Boyer and Maria Ouspenskaya. All are fine, especially Kerr (The King and I, The Sundowners) as the cabaret singer who leaves shipboard paramour Grant (The Awful Truth, North by Northwest) waiting atop the Empire State building for reasons beyond her control. Warning: don't watch 1993's Sleepless in Seattle without having seen this first. The way most people saw films in 1957 was as part of a double bill at their local neighborhood theatre. An example of a second feature on such a bill that was even better than the main one was Fear Strikes Out, the story of Boston Red Sox pitcher Jim Piersall's nervous breakdown, directed by Robert Mulligan (To Kill a Mockingbird, Summer of '42) with a standout performance from Anthony Perkins fresh from his Oscar-nominated turn in Friendly Persuasion and several years before his signature role in Psycho. Karl Malden (On the Waterfront, Patton) is equally effective as his stern father. Rounding out my top ten list for the year is the film that Fear Strikes Out took second billing to. It was Funny Face, directed by Stanley Donen (Seven Brides for Seven Brothers, Two for the Road) with Audrey Hepburn (Roman Holiday, Sabrina) as a beatnik model in love with much-older photographer Fred Astaire (The Band Wagon, Daddy Long Legs) to the beat of glorious Gershwin music. "Eloise" author Kay Thompson all but steals the film as a fashion editor singing "Think Pink". Though beautifully-photographed and scored, both Peyton Place and Sayonara,two films I once liked a lot more, lose points for their sappy main stories which become more ho-hum with the passage of time. The mother/daughter relationship between Lana Turner and Diane Varsi in Peyton Place isn't nearly as interesting as the secondary one involving doctor Lloyd Nolan, rape victim Hope Lange and her despicable stepfather Arthur Kennedy. Nor is the main romance between Marlon Brando and Miiko Taka in Sayonara half as compelling as the secondary one between Red Buttons and Miyoshi Umeki (who each won Oscars for their performances). Other films of the year that can be found if you look hard enough include the overrated Raintree County with Elizabeth Taylor chewing up the scenery, and the underrated Tammy and the Bachelor with Debbie Reynolds charming her way into our collective hearts. Many films of 1957 remain unavailable on commercial DVDs. Your best bet for owning a copy of one of those films is to wait for it to appear on TCM or some other commercial-free television station and record it for yourself. Most conspicuous by its absence, in my opinion, is Martin Ritt's Edge of the City with John Cassavetes and Sidney Poitier in fine form as longshoreman buddies battling racial prejudice as personified by bully Jack Warden. The film's only major awards recognition at the time came from the British Film Academy which nominated it for Best Foreign Film and for Poitier's marvelous performance. Poitier also gave a strong performance in Richard Brooks' Something of Value dealing with racial prejudice in Kenya. This film co-starring Rock Hudson and Wendy Hiller had a brief VHS release in the early 80s but has been unavailable on home video ever since. Joanne Woodward won her Oscar for 1957's The Three Faces of Eve, which is available, but her more interesting film that year was the still-unavailable No Down Payment in which she played one of four desperate housewives of an earlier generation. Martin Ritt also directed this one, with a cast that also included Sheree North, Patricia Owens, Barbara Rush, Jeffrey Hunter, Tony Randall, Pat Hingle and Cameron Mitchell. Speaking of Oscars, where is The Joker Is Wild in which Frank Sinatra as disfigured singer/comedian Joe E. Lewis introduces the award-winning "All the Way"? Even Charles Vidor's lackluster direction can't hold down Frankie in what is probably his best screen performance. The film also features Jeanne Crain, Mitzi Gaynor, Beverly Garland and Eddie Albert in key roles. And where, oh where, is Wild Is the Wind? Not only has this film never been released in any home video format, it never even shows up on TV any more. Very strange for a film directed by George Cukor, most of whose films are available, featuring an Oscar-nominated title song and Oscar-nominated performances by Anthony Quinn and Anna Magnani at their peak as a widowed rancher and his sister-in-law. Anthony Franciosa, who had major roles in both Wild Is the Wind and A Face in the Crowd, won an Oscar nomination for his third film that year, the also long-missing A Hatful of Rain,in which he repeats his stage role as the alcoholic older brother of a drug addict putting his family through emotional hell. Fred Zinnemann directed a strong cast that also includes Eva Marie Saint, Don Murray and Lloyd Nolan. Exploitation of the handicapped was the theme of The Story of Esther Costello, one of Joan Crawford's better melodramatic entries. Heather Sears was nominated for a Golden Globe as the young deaf and blind girl she exploits. Joel McCrea's westerns always seemed more homespun and folksy than those of most other actors. Next to 1950's Stars in My Own, which is also conspicuously missing on DVD, the best representation of his easygoing style is The Oklahoman co-starring Barbara Hale, Gloria Talbot, Brad Dexter and Verna Felton. One of the best Christmas films ever is the beautifully-acted slice-of-life drama, All Mine to Give,with a heart-wrenching performance by the underrated Glynis Johns, ably supported by Cameron Mitchell, Rex Thompson, Patty McCormack, Ernest Truex and Hope Emerson. The crime drama, Slaughter on Tenth Avenue was about the investigation into the murder of a longshoreman by "Cockeye Cook and his two meatballs" in the words of the dying man. Richard Egan was a bit stiff in the lead, but old stalwarts Jan Sterling and Dan Duryea were terrific. She as the dead man's frightened wife. He as a slick criminal lawyer. Richard Rodgers' music, first heard in On Your Toes,is a definite asset. I originally saw this as the second feature to the remake of My Man Godfrey. It's another example of the second feature being better than the main one, though the Godfrey remake with David Niven, June Allyson, Martha Hyer, Jay Robinson and Jessie Joyce Landis is better than its reputation would lead you to think. And so it goes. Each year in film history prior has had a number of its best films released in the home video format of choice, while others languish sadly unavailable to most audiences. -Peter J. Patrick (August 21, 2007) |
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The DVD Report #15: August 14, 2007
Sherlock Holmes, Hercule Poirot, Miss Marple, Columbo and Jessica Fletcher are beloved in their own right, but no sleuth, professional or otherwise, had as long an on-screen career as Charlie Chan, whose series of films lasted from 1929 through 1949, with occasional revivals on both the big and small screens in the years since. Chan, who first appeared in Earl Derr Biggers' novels in 1925, was first seen on screen as a minor character in 1929's Behind That Curtain in which Warner Baxter (42nd Street, The Prisoner of Shark Island) stars as a ventriloquist falsely accused of murder. He doesn't actually appear as the main character until 1931's Charlie Chan Carries On, a lost film, though its storyline can be seen in both 1931's Eran Trece, the Spanish version of the film, andthe 1940 remake Charlie Chan's Murder Cruise. The series was an immediate hit due to the astute casting of urbane Warner Oland in Charlie Chan Carries On and really kicked into high gear with the addition of Keye Luke as his number one son in 1935's Charlie Chan in Paris. The chemistry between the two stars rivaled that of Laurel & Hardy and Loy & Powell, it was that palpable. The Swedish-born Oland (The Jazz Singer, Shanghai Express) was a Chinese history buff and often played Chinese characters on stage. He played the venerable Chinese detective without makeup, his Chinese appearance attributable to his grandmother who was of Mongolian descent. The Chinese-born, American-raised Luke was a commercial artist and technical advisor on Asian-themed Hollywood films before making his acting debut in 1934's The Painted Veil. Luke left the series when Sidney Toler (Blonde Venus, Double Wedding) was hired to replace the ailing Oland in 1938's Charlie Chan in Honolulu, unable to play opposite another actor in the role, and Victor Sen Young (Across the Pacific, China) was hired to play Charlie's number two son. The Toler-Young Chan films were well produced and almost as good as the Oland originals, but when Fox tired of the series in the early 1940s, Monogram picked it up and the series, though still a pleasure to have around, had lost its edge. Benson Fong (The Keys of the Kingdom, His Majesty O'Keefe) joined Toler as Chan's number three son in the Monogram produced films, but when Toler died, and Monogram replaced him with Roland Winters (So Big, Bigger Than Life), they brought back both Luke and Young, even using the two together in one film. The three "sons" appeared in the same film only once, 1955's Love Is a Many-Splendored Thing, albeit in different roles. When the 1958 Broadway musical Flower Drum Song was filmed in 1961 it was Fong who took Luke's stage role as the old Chinese father, a role quite different than those they had played as Charlie Chan's Americanized sons so many years before. All three later appeared in the 1972-1975 TV series Kung Fu in which Luke had a major role. Long sought after on DVD, MGM finally released six of the Monogram Toler-Fong Chan films in 2004 and independent DVD producer Vintage Theatre put out a set of all 42 extant Chan films in The Charlie Chan Collection in 2005, but "official" release of the Oland films was held up by rights-holder Twentieth Century-Fox until last year. Fox has now released three collections of the Oland films in restored, pristine prints. Charlie Chan Collection, Vol. 1 consists if Charlie Chan in London, Charlie Chan in Paris, Charlie Chan in Egypt, Charlie Chan in Shanghai and Eran Trece. The latter is a special feature on the Shanghai disc. The other three all contain absorbing documentaries on the Chan legacy as well as one on the real Honolulu detective who was Derr Biggers' inspiration. All of these films are still highly watchable. Charlie Chan Collection, Vol. 2 consists of Charlie Chan at the Race Track, Charlie Chan at the Circus, Charlie Chan at the Opera and Charlie Chan at the Olympics. There are extras on all the discs including an in-depth documentary on the life of Keye Luke on Race Track. Opera is the only film in which Oland ever shared above-the-title credit with another actor, one Boris Karloff. Once again, all these films are still highly watchable today, my favorite being Charlie Chan at the Olympics in which Luke is a member of the American swim team at the Berlin Olympics. The newly-released Charlie Chan Collection, Vol. 3 consists of Behind That Curtain, The Black Camel, Charlie Chan's Secret, Charlie Chan at Monte Carlo and Charlie Chan on Broadway. Behind That Curtain is presented as one of five bonuses, which also include one on the modern Charlie Chan, Dr. Henry Lee, as well as one on the last days of Warner Oland. My favorite of the five films is Charlie Chan's Secret, featuring a superlative performance by Henrietta Crosman (The Royal Family of Broadway, Pilgrimage) as an old friend Charlie is called upon to protect from relatives after her money. The 1978 version of Invasion of the Body Snatchers is if anything, even scarier than the original. It's also wittier, better photographed and features a cast that is at least the equal of the original. Directed by Philip Kaufman (The Unbearable Lightness of Being, Quills) it stars Donald Sutherland (Aurora Borealis, Reign Over Me), Brooke Adams (Days of Heaven, The Dead Zone), Jeff Goldblum (The Big Chill, Igby Goes Down), Veronica Cartright (Alien, Kinsey) and Leonard Nimoy (Star Trek III: The Search for Spock, Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country). The original's Kevin McCarthy (Mommy, Addams Family Reunion), who is still making movies at the age of 93, and director Don Siegel (Dirty Harry, Escape From Alcatraz) have small parts in the film which has been given a spiffed-up Special Edition DVD release to coincide with the fourth version of the film, its title shortened to The Invasion. Carrying on the tradition, Veronica Cartright has a supporting role in this one. The original 1956 version of Invasion of the Body Snatchers and the 1994 remake, called simply Body Snatchers, do not have newly released special editions but are still available in their original DVD release versions. The unofficial remake of Hitchcock's Rear Window, called Disturbia, has some neat twists and genuinely scary moments, but is slow in getting to where it's going. It serves mainly as a showcase for the up-and-coming Shia LeBeouf (The Greatest Game Ever Played, A Guide to Recognizing Your Saints) on his way to playing Harrison Ford's son in the fourth installment of the Indiana Jones series. A re-telling of the events covered in the 1970 film The Honeymoon Killers, told from the perspective of the detectives investigating the murders, is the premise of Lonely Hearts, a rather slow-moving film in which co-stars Jared Leto (Requiem for a Dream, Alexander) and Salma Hayek (Frida, TV's Ugly Betty) outshine leads John Travolta (Domestic Disturbance, Ladder 49) and James Gandolfini, who always seems to me to be a rather dull actor when not playing Tony Soprano in TV's The Sopranos. Shakespeare on film has become almost as commonplace as Shakespeare on stage. Over the years many artists have attempted to bring the definitive versions of the Bard's various comedies and tragedies to the screen with varying results. Warner Bros. has now released four major productions of his works, one comedy and three tragedies. Legendary stage director Max Reinhardt's Hollywood Bowl production of A Midsummer Night's Dream in 1934 led immediately to the 1935 Warner Bros. production co-directed by Reinhardt and William Dieterle (The Life of Emile Zola, The Hunchback of Notre Dame) featuring an all-star cast headed by James Cagney (The Public Enemy, Angels With Dirty Faces), Dick Powell (42nd Street, Dames), Mickey Rooney (Boys Town, Babes in Arms) and Olivia de Havilland (Captain Blood, The Adventures of Robin Hood), the latter two having been part of the sumptuous Hollywood Bowl production. The lavish film, with its delightful Ernest Korngold score, won Oscars for cinematography and editing. MGM spared no expense in its 1936 production of Romeo and Juliet, generally considered the best of the pre-Olivier Shakespeare films. Norma Shearer (The Barretts of Wimpole Street, Marie Antoinette) and Leslie Howard (The Petrified Forest, Pygmalion) may have been too old for their parts, but no one at the time was complaining. Shearer's wardrobe was inspired by Botticelli paintings. George Cukor (Dinner at Eight, The Women) not only drew inspired performances from his two stars, but the entire cast, most notably John Barrymore (Twentieth Century, Midnight) as Mercutio, Basil Rathbone (Anna Karenina, A Tale of Two Cities) as Tybalt, and Edna May Oliver (Little Women, David Copperfield) as the nurse. Interestingly, Rathbone, who won one of the film's four Oscar nominations for his performance, had recently played Romeo in an acclaimed Broadway production opposite Katherine Cornell (Stage Door Canteen). The only Shakespeare film to have won acting nominations for all four of its stars, 1965's Othello, is basically a filmed version of Britain's National Theatre production and not very cinematic. That said, it is still the best version of this oft-filmed tale. Laurence Olivier (Hamlet, Richard III) arguably gives his best screen performance in the title role, with fine support from Maggie Smith (The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie, Oh! What a Lovely War) as Desdemona, Frank Finlay (The Pianist, TV's Prime Suspect: The Final Act) as Iago, Joyce Redman (Tom Jones, TV's Victoria & Albert) as Emilia, and Derek Jacobi (Dead Again, Nanny McPhee), the only one of the five principal players not to be nominated, as Cassio. Kenneth Branagh's 1996 version of Hamlet is the first full-text filming of Shakespeare's masterpiece. Branagh (Mary Shelley's Frankenstein, Rabbit-Proof Fence) as Hamlet, Kate Winslet (Titanic, Little Children) as Ophelia, Julie Christie (Darling, Don't Look Now) as Gertrude, Derek Jacobi as Claudius, and Richard Briers (Love's Labour's Lost, Peter Pan) as Polnius are all exceptional in the leads. If there is a downside, it is the famous faces popping up in minor roles like the actors in George Sgevnes' The Greatest Story Ever Told. I, for one, could have done without Billy Crystal, Jack Lemmon, Robin Williams, Charlton Heston, et. al., but it's a minor complaint that should not detract from the splendor of Branagh's overall achievement. To coincide with the 30th anniversary of the passing of Elvis Presley, Warner Bros., Paramount and Fox are all either releasing or re-releasing their catalogues of his films. Most of Presley's films were quickly-made efforts with slight stories, lots of singing and generally-poor production values. A couple of exceptions were 1957's Jailhouse Rock and 1964's Viva Las Vegas, the former featuring Elvis at his most energetic, the latter pairing him for the first and only time with a leading lady of equal strength, rising star Ann-Margret (Pocketful of Miracles, Bye Bye Birdie). The silly Kissin' Couins, also from 1964, at least has something new to offer in the inclusion of Presley's "Smokey Mountain Boy" sequence missing in previous home video releases of the film directed by actor/singer/dancer Gene Nelson (Lullaby of Broadway, Oklahoma!). Sadly, though, the film is a low point in the careers of not only Elvis, but also those of Arthur O'Connell (Picnic, Anatomy of a Murder), Glenda Farrell (The Talk of the Town, Middle of the Night) and Jack Albertson (The Subject Was Roses, The Poseidon Adventure). Next week: a look back at the films of fifty years ago, both those available on DVD and those that aren't, but should be. -Peter J. Patrick (August 14, 2007) |
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The DVD Report #14: August 7, 2007
The story of the 300 Spartans fighting to the death against the Persian army has been told for 2500 years. The CGI effects-heavy film made from Frank Miller's (Sin City) graphic novel doesn't have anything in it likely to stay with you more than 2500 minutes (that's less than 2 days). Miller, who never lets the truth get in the way of his narrative, begins his story with two fictitious, larger-than-life events that are dramatized in the film. In the first instance, Leonidas becomes the king of Sparta by besting a wolf in keeping with the dark tone of the piece. In real life, he was born into the monarchy. In the second, Leonidas throws thirty messengers from King Xerses of Persia into a well. In real life, this occurred ten years earlier under another king. In the real Sparta, young men were honed into sleek fighting machines, but they were also schooled in the arts, and went off into battle singing. None of this, which would have brought much needed levity to the narrative, is part of either the graphic novel or the film. The film, which was directed by Zack Snyder (Dawn of the Dead), is at least visually stunning and is guaranteed to keep you awake unlike the previous film of the Battle of Thermopylae, 1962's 300 Spartans. Gerard Butler (The Phantom of the Opera) and Lena Headey (The Brothers Grimm) star. More absorbing is HBO's Rome: The Second Season, a full-bodied, bloody epic of a television series if there ever was one. Polly Walker (Patriot Games, Curtain Call), Kevin McKidd (Kingdom of Heaven, Hannibal Rising), Ray Stevenson (TV's The Return of the Native, King Arthur) and James Purefoy (A Knight's Tale, Vanity Fair) head the strong cast under various directors. Not to be outdone, that other cable TV pay network, Showtime, has released Weeds: Season Two. Normally one wouldn't expect a series with a drug pusher for a heroine to offer more than passing interest, but this series is still going strong in its third season and has been a constant source of wonder from the start. There is no better comic ensemble on TV. The always delightful Mary-Louise Parker (Fried Green Tomatoes, Saved!) is a suburban widow who makes a modest side income growing and selling marijuana while her clueless friend, the hilarious Elizabeth Perkins (About Last Night...; Finding Nemo) suffers one malady after another. Romany Malco (The 40-Year-Old Virgin, Blades of Glory), Kevin Nealon (Daddy Day Care, Grandma's Boy), Hunter Parrish (RV, Freedom Writers) and Justin Kirk (TV's Angels in America, Flannel Pajamas) are all part of the mirth. Also from TV, and released now to coincide with the big screen release of Robert Ludlum's The Bourne Ultimatum, is the first dramatization of one of the author's works, 1977's The Rhinemann Exchange. This rather dull mini-series from director Burt Kennedy (Support Your Local Sheriff, Support Your Local Gunfighter) is not the worst Ludlum adaptation let loose on the world. That distinction would be a toss-up between 1983's The Osterman Weekend and 1985's The Holcroft Covenenant, but it's not particularly good either. The best thing that can be said about this World War II suspense melodrama set in Argentina, is that is gives us a cast we'll never see together again. Stephen Collins (TV's 7th Heaven, Blood Diamond) is the hero, and the supporting cast includes Lauren Hutton (American Gigolo, 54), Jose Ferrer (Cyrano de Bergerac, The Caine Mutiny), John Huston (The Cardinal, Chinatown), Roddy McDowall (Fright Night, A Bug's Life) and Rene Auberjonois (M*A*S*H, TV's Boston Legal and Benson). Also coinciding with the release of The Bourne Ultimatum is the re-issue of star Matt Damon's The Rainmaker. Released in a bare bones DVD edition in the early days of the format, this new collector's edition comes with all kinds of bells and whistles including a documentary on the making of the film in which the actors talk about director Francis Ford Coppola's (The Godfather, Apocalypse Now) improvisational coaching. Released in 1997, The Rainmaker was Coppola's last commercial film, easily the best film made from a John Grisham novel. In addition to Damon (Good Will Hunting, The Talented Mr. Ripley), ideally cast as a novice lawyer, stand-outs include Danny De Vito (Living Out Loud, Big Fish), Claire Danes (Stage Beauty, Shopgirl), Jon Voight (Midnight Cowboy, Coming Home), Dean Stockwell (Kim, Compulsion), Danny Glover (Places in the Heart, The Color Purple), Mary Kay Place (The Big Chill, Nine Lives), Virginia Madsen (Sideways, The Astronaut Farmer) and the great Teresa Wright (Shadow of a Doubt, The Best Years of Our Lives). Coppola and De Vito provide commentary. Being given its first U.S. DVD release is a curious 1930 film called The Lottery Bride. The film, directed by the long forgotten Paul L. Stein featured Jeanette MacDonald (Love Me Tonight, San Francisco) as a woman torn between two brothers, John Garrick (Chu Chin Chow) and Robert Chisholm. Joe E. Brown (Show Boat, Some Like It Hot) and ZaSu Pitts (Greed, It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World) offer comic relief, but the comedy is as forced as the songs are forgettable. Time has been kinder to the films of Myrna Loy and William Powell. He continues to find new fans with the perennially successful My Man Godfrey, Life with Father and Mister Roberts. She continues to enthrall generations with her various incarnations from temptress in The Mask of Fu Manchu to perfect wife in The Best Years of Our Lives to alcoholic mother in From the Terrace to Henry Fonda's last co-star in TV's Summer Solstice. Together they had The Thin Man and its sequels, Libeled Lady and The Great Ziegfeld, all of which have been available on DVD for some time. Now, Warner Bros. has released a set of their other film together, calling it The Myrna Loy and William Powell Collection. The most famous film in the collection is their first collaboration, 1934's Manhattan Melodrama in which Clark Gable (It Happened One Night, The Misfits) gets top billing. It's an engrossing tale of boyhood pals who grow up on opposite sides of the law, both falling in love with the same woman. The film, which won a screenplay Oscar, is well directed by W.S. Van Dyke (Tarzan the Ape Man, Journey for Margaret) in his usual fast-paced style. It is most famous, however, as the film that lured public enemy number one, John Dillinger, to his death. Dillinger, whose favorite actress was Loy, went to see the film and emerged into the waiting arms of the F.B.I. Less memorable, but still highly watchable, is 1934's Evelyn Prentice, directed by William K. Howard (Fire Over England, Back Door to Heaven). Employing courtroom theatrics that would make Perry Mason proud, Powell is a highly successful criminal lawyer who is clueless about wife Loy's involvement with a murdered blackmailer. Complicating matters is Rosalind Russell (His Girl Friday, Auntie Mame) in her film debut as a former client with designs on Powell. Una Merkel (Destry Rides Again, The Parent Trap) as Loy's friend, Isabel Jewell (A Tale of Two Cities, The Seventh Victim) as an accused murderess and Jessie Ralph (David Copperfield, San Francisco) as a cleaning lady all have their moments. The farcical Double Wedding (1937), directed by Richard Thorpe (Ivanhoe, Knights of the Round Table) finds Powell playing a Bohemian artist at war with uptight businesswoman Loy over the future of her sister Florence Rice (At the Circus, Broadway Melody of 1940) and her fiancé John Beal (TV's Family, The Firm). Sidney Toler (Charlie Chan in the Secret Service, The Chinese Cat) is a delight as a butler-turned-sleuth, Mary Gordon (The Hound of the Baskervilles, The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes) is his wife and the cook, and the always-nice-to-see Jessie Ralph making her third appearance in a Loy-Powell film (following Evelyn Prentice and After the Thin Man) as a wealthy and wise old lady. Loy has little to do in 1940's I Love You Again, directed by W.S. Van Dyke, but the film is a showcase for Powell as an amnesiac con man. The plot is all over the place, the gags as predictable as they are silly, and the outcome obvious from the start, but some people consider this the best of the team's non-Thin Man films. I've never understood why. Featured prominently in the cast are Frank McHugh (The Roaring Twenties, Going My Way), Edmund Lowe (Dinner at Eight, Around the World in 80 Days) and Carl "Alfalfa" Switzer (The Awful Truth, The Defiant Ones). Much better in my opinion is 1941's Love Crazy, a screwball comedy directed by Jack Conway (Viva Villa!, Boom Town) in a deft style uncharacteristic of the action director. Misunderstandings, mistaken identities, pending divorces, lunatic asylums where the doctors are crazier than the patients and Powell in drag all figure in the delightful complications involving the stars also including Gail Patrick (Stage Door, My Favorite Wife), Jack Carson (A Star Is Born, Cat on a Hot Tin Roof), Florence Bates (I Remember Mama, Lullaby of Broadway), Sig Ruman (To Be or Not to Be, Stalag 17) and Vladimir Sokoloff (For Whom the Bell Tolls, Mr. Sardonicus). All this, and Powell shaves off his moustache. Next week: Fox releases The Charlie Chan Collection - Volume 3 and Warner Bros. releases The Shakespeare Collection including Max Reinhardt's fabled version of A Midsummer Night's Dream, George Cukor's version of Romeo and Juliet, Laurence Olivier's version of Othello and Kenneth Branagh's version of Hamlet. -Peter J. Patrick (August 7, 2007) |
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